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Friday, December 31, 2021

The Humanist's Prayer

 The Humanist's Prayer


Oh Lord, give me the strength of will 

To swallow all the vapid swill 

of those who beat their chests and claim 

That they alone speak in Your Name.


Give me the strength to tolerate 

The blindness, bigotry and hate 

The murder, bullying and rage 

They say came from a Bible page.


Oh Lord, when I must hear them preach

The violence they say You teach 

Give me the strength to turn my head

And wish them well, instead of dead...


Give me the strength to stay my wrath 

To walk upon a higher path 

To be superior to fools 

Who drag You into public schools.


Oh Lord, I know it gives You pain 

To waste a treasure like a brain 

Of human compass, human girth 

On those who cannot see its worth...


But still, I pray that there's a hope 

That even the most dauntless dope 

Will someday see the ghastly blight 

His "faith" must be, to block Your light.


The fact is, it's a tragic loss 

When folks are beaten with a cross. 

And nothing makes the angels weep 

Like seeing men behave like sheep...


With all their sick, self-righteous ire 

And blathering about Hell's fire 

They only drive us from You, Lord, 

And make us bitter, tired and bored.


Dear God, please make them stay at home 

And leave the rest of us alone. 

Teach them to love their human kin 

Instead of counting every sin!


Of course, I know You'll heed this prayer, 

That humanists say everywhere. 

In this one irony we trust: 

That Jesus Christ was one of us.


Ⓒ2001 Arinn Dembo, All Rights Reserved.

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Soul Searching: From Roman Catholic to Secular Humanist


(Published by The Humane Society of the United States)
By Kevin Saldanha, DVM, BVSc&AH, MVSc Mississauga, Ontario
I have been a companion animal veterinarian for more than 20 years and a practicing Roman Catholic for most of my life until about five years ago.
My journey away from Catholicism and organized religion to atheism and now secular humanism was via a dietary change to vegetarianism coinciding with a quest to understand the after-lives of animals. It was through a discussion about having a 'Blessing of the Pets' at our local church that I started questioning my concept of 'soul' and how that applied to animals.
The parish priest was reluctant to allow a "St. Francis of Assisi" type blessing because of an incident at another church where a pet owner wanted her poodle to partake in the Eucharist and receive Holy Communion after the blessing. After acknowledging that it was inappropriate, I suggested that only a very passionate pet owner would want the similar blessings of communion for her closest companion.
He argued that the dog could not have benefited in any tangible way because it did not have a 'human' soul. A discussion ensued as to the difference of animal and human souls which left me more confused than before. Until that time, I had never questioned that animals had a similar after-life to humans, where we would all meet up once again, being whole and healthy as described in the comforting poem 'The Rainbow Bridge'
A few months before this conversation, I had chosen to follow a vegetarian diet while trying to follow a healthier lifestyle. Until then, I had not considered the after-lives of animals we breed, nurture and slaughter for food. Through my professional training, I learned humane animal husbandry techniques, but I never made the connection between the pets we treat with such love and compassion and the food on my plate.
I started becoming aware of the inconsistency of my attitudes towards different classes of animals based on their utility for humans. Two books which were instrumental in changing my attitude were 'Diet for a Small Planet' by Frances Moore Lappe and 'The Pig who Sang to the Moon' by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson.
While I had effectively compartmentalized my knowledge of evolution from my religious beliefs, I was now beginning to feel the need to reconcile the two and felt that there could only be one truth. Which was it? That all animals, including the ultimate primate, Homo sapiens, had souls which then made the assumption that all had equally significant afterlives, or that none did.
Two books by animal rights activist and lawyer, Steven M. Wise—"Rattling the Cage" and "Drawing the Line"—blurred the line on sentience and intelligence in primates and other species respectively. When exactly, during evolution or gestation, did the eternal human soul get infused into our bodies?
As that concept began to unravel, so did many others of the faith of my baptism, leaving me bewildered and lonely. I knew that I wasn't the only one to come up with this conundrum and went online to find like minded individuals. I had to bypass the angry atheist and Internet infidel sites, finally landing on the secular humanists, who put reason and intent to our lives without need for a supernatural deity.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Support the new orphanage in Kasese

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE GOFUNDME PAGE


BiZoHa Orphanage - Rwenzori, Uganda
OAKLAND, CACOMMUNITY
$1,030 of $4,605
Raised by 16 people in 7 hours
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Created February 24, 2015
Hank Pellissier

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

End of Faith by Sam Harris

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of ReasonThe End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Mainly focusing on the monotheistic faiths, Sam makes a compelling case for letting go of irrational beliefs in favour of rational ones.

However, it appears that (faith in) religion is evolving to a gentler, kinder sort and as long as it learns to incorporate the current state of knowledge (generally of the scientific kind rather than divinely inspired) it will continue to be a force for good in the world. We are already seeing some of the more liberal flavours of Christianity accept LGBT orientations as biological while others continue to accord them the death penalty. Guess which ones will survive?



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