It seems I cannot get out of issues dealing with religion; there are just too many juicy ones around.
A very interesting one is about the American Humanist Association and their decision to buy an ad ($40,000) that will appear on buses serving Washington, DC throughout the holiday season. The ads will say:
“WHY BELIEVE IN GOD? JUST BE GOOD FOR GOODNESS SAKE”.
I find the statement pure genius. I belong to a number of “humanist” associations who promote a “progressive philosophy of life that, without theism, affirms our responsibility to lead ethical lives of value to self and humanity”.
This organization is made up of agnostics, atheists and other types on non-theists or people with no religion in their lives. These people firmly believe that you don’t need religion to be a good citizen of society and earth in general.
The idea behind the ad is not to argue that god does not exist, especially at a time where millions celebrate the birth of god. The idea is to address the non-religious folk during Christmas and urge them to do good works during the Winter Solstice celebration for no other reason than it is the right thing to do if you care about humanity in general; this in contrast to religious people who are threatened with eternal damnation if they don’t do good things or behave kindly towards their brothers and sisters.
The Humanists as opposed to religious people believe that mankind is inherently good and behaves ethically and morally due because that is the logical thing to do if one values their lives and the lives of other humans.
Attacks on these ads appeared immediately. The Christian Right stated that how do we know what is good if we do not believe in god. God through the Bible tells us what is good or bad and right and wrong. If everyone is free to define what is good or not, the world would be a crazy place.
The argument that the Bible tells us how to behave and without those instructions, we would be in chaos is total bullshit. Students of Christianity point to passages in the Bible that command you to kill your children if they are disrespectful to you, one among many similar absurdities found in the holy bible.
You cannot tell me that without the Bible people would think that murdering someone is good, or stealing from someone is proper behavior, etc; that just does not compute!
Anyway, I am glad others challenge prevailing superstitions and stimulate thinking and hopefully, discussion about this subject, if that is at all possible. I find that people are not open to critical thinking about religion and the human race but I salute the Humanists for at least trying.
A very interesting one is about the American Humanist Association and their decision to buy an ad ($40,000) that will appear on buses serving Washington, DC throughout the holiday season. The ads will say:
“WHY BELIEVE IN GOD? JUST BE GOOD FOR GOODNESS SAKE”.
I find the statement pure genius. I belong to a number of “humanist” associations who promote a “progressive philosophy of life that, without theism, affirms our responsibility to lead ethical lives of value to self and humanity”.
This organization is made up of agnostics, atheists and other types on non-theists or people with no religion in their lives. These people firmly believe that you don’t need religion to be a good citizen of society and earth in general.
The idea behind the ad is not to argue that god does not exist, especially at a time where millions celebrate the birth of god. The idea is to address the non-religious folk during Christmas and urge them to do good works during the Winter Solstice celebration for no other reason than it is the right thing to do if you care about humanity in general; this in contrast to religious people who are threatened with eternal damnation if they don’t do good things or behave kindly towards their brothers and sisters.
The Humanists as opposed to religious people believe that mankind is inherently good and behaves ethically and morally due because that is the logical thing to do if one values their lives and the lives of other humans.
Attacks on these ads appeared immediately. The Christian Right stated that how do we know what is good if we do not believe in god. God through the Bible tells us what is good or bad and right and wrong. If everyone is free to define what is good or not, the world would be a crazy place.
The argument that the Bible tells us how to behave and without those instructions, we would be in chaos is total bullshit. Students of Christianity point to passages in the Bible that command you to kill your children if they are disrespectful to you, one among many similar absurdities found in the holy bible.
You cannot tell me that without the Bible people would think that murdering someone is good, or stealing from someone is proper behavior, etc; that just does not compute!
Anyway, I am glad others challenge prevailing superstitions and stimulate thinking and hopefully, discussion about this subject, if that is at all possible. I find that people are not open to critical thinking about religion and the human race but I salute the Humanists for at least trying.
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