Freethinkers on the Ballot

Humanists, Atheists Drive For Wider Global Impact - Reuters 10/11/11

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Great article describing the groundswell movement of atheist, humanist and freethought organizations around the globe. When so much of our societal disfunction can be traced to religious foundations, it is wonderful to see these groups growing in number as people start to realize what is actually happening in the world. There are some scary stories to tell, from apostasy in middle eastern countries to child sacrifice in africa to child molestation around the world to the israel/palestine issue, to the evangelical seven mountain issue here in the U.S., to death threats for cartoons, to 9-11, it has gotten completely out of control. It is great to see some people over in Switzerland with the guts to get into the political arena for the first time as a non-religious option for voters. What I would give to see that here! It is a good start and hopefully something that will come to pass around the world in due time.

"We decided we had to stand up and tell our politicians that it's time they recognised that there are a lot of non-religious people in their electorate," says 42-year-old Andreas Kyriacou, who heads the list.

"We, and probably a lot of Swiss people who have never thought about humanism or atheism, are tired of the influence the churches and religion still exert in this country," he said in an interview with Reuters.

"There is a group for Bible study in our parliament, but no cross-party humanist group, though we know many of the deputies are non-believers," he says. "On right and left, they prefer to keep their heads down."

And Kyriacou points to the failure of politicians to take a stand on social issues like assisted suicide and abortion, where the Catholic church in particular has strong views, and on the powerful place of religion in education in parts of the country.

His stance -- as measured by comments at other conferences around Europe over the summer -- reflects growing determination among humanists and atheists on all five continents to make themselves more visible and their influence felt.

Here is a link to an article talking about child sacrifice still happening in Africa... scary:

Where Child Sacrifice is a Business - BBC News 10/11/11

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Collective Human Well-Being

The Bible: History or Myth?

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Interesting piece here talking about how people read the bible, as historical fact and edict from god as written or as ancient mythology that can provide some comfort to people who long for existence beyond this life as well as some stories for how to treat others and live a pious life. The author makes many great points detailing how it cannot be possible to interpret the bible literally, there are just too many issues. But once you make that first step into not believing the bible is the literal word of god, the whole christian faith breaks down. It is imperative as a christian to believe that Jesus is the son of god and that his "miracles" indeed happened or there is no point. Either he was divinely begotten to a virgin, crucified and resurrected from the dead or he was not. If he was, then the bible should be read literally and we should grapple with the inconsistencies, contradictions and lack of evidence as it is written. If he was not, then there is no point to the scripture in my point of view. There are just as many sinister, evil passages as there are ones of hope and inspiration. There are plenty of other books that can help people find direction and purpose in their lives without screwing up the world for the rest of us who are happy just being. The people who read the bible literally are the ones preventing the human race from reaching its full potential in this universe. The people who don't take it literally but still call themselves christians are enabling the literalists and giving credence to their point of view by allowing it to still pervade our public discourse and influence politics, education, research and a wide range of social and scientific issues. We need more (secular) humanists in this world. As per Wikipedia, secular humanism is an ideology which espouses reason, ethics and justice whilst specifically rejecting supernatural and religious dogma as a basis of morality and decision making. People who are more concerned with collective human well-being as opposed to people who are only concerned with the well-being of the members of their particular religion over the well-being of others...