Book Review: Pyramids!

Ok – so I don’t normally do book reviews, but… this is a good book.  Pyramids! By Avery Hart and Paul Mantell is an activity book for children. The activities are really cool and fun to do. But the reason I wanted to write about it is because; some of the activities are philosophical in nature. Not only that, but they are most definitely Humanistic in Nature. On almost every page, there is an activity titled: Think About it. Right off the bat a book that focuses on making children think about differences is pretty cool. But what it asks kids to think about is what makes this book special.

My First Column!

I am now a freelance columnist for the Bradenton Herald and I write a monthly column about Humanism for them. It replaces their regular Faith Matters feature once a month which is nice because Humanism is so rarely represented in our local papers. Anyway – here is a link to my first column. Feel free to leave a comment or recommend this column to others.

http://www.bradenton.com/2010/07/17/2439036/humanist-columnists-personal-motto.html#none

Humanism and Democracy

As we just celebrated our nation’s independence, I thought I would devote my column to the link between Humanism and Democracy.  We Humanists love Democracy.  This is because Humanism is the philosophic foundation on which all democracies are built.  You simply don’t give power to the people unless you believe that people are basically good and can manage their own affairs. This is the fundamental starting point of the Humanist philosophy.

If, on the other hand, you believe people are basically evil and need to be controlled, you tend to set up governments to control them such as dictatorships, monarchies, and various forms of theocracy. From a Humanist perspective democracy is the best form of government as it provides the best guarantee of individual freedom.

About the video:

This program is designed to help clarify one of the most influential and consequently most maligned philosophies of our time.  Humanism has arisen in every culture and in every time and yet very few people know what it is and why it has been so influential.

Written by Jennifer Hancock this Introduction to Humanism DVD is broken into 6 sections covering:

This video serves as a good resource for individuals looking to learn more about the philosophy and for groups looking to provide an introduction to the philosophy for their newer members.

Total viewing time: 41 minutes

Buy An Introduction to Humanism on DVD Now!!!

On Sale for $12.38

The Humanism of Adam Savage

Adam Savage is one of the hosts of MythBusters.  He is apparently a Humanist and was at the Harvard Humanists the other day giving a talk. What I enjoy about his discussion of Humanism is that it isn’t about religion.  It is about being a human.

He said, “I think one of the defining moments of adulthood is the realization that nobody's going to take care of you. That you have to do the heavy lifting while you're here. And when you don't, well, you suffer the consequences.” “While nobody's going to take care of us, it's incumbent upon us to take care of those around us. That's community.”

That is such a wonderful statement of personal responsibility from a Humanist perspective.

The entire talk can be read here.

Neo-Humanism?

3/27/10

So Paul Kurtz – not my favorite guy – has issued a Neo-Humanist statement.  It’s typical Paul – rather verbose with lots of words that are difficult to pronounce.  He is after all the guy that coined the term eupraxophy and expected everyone to embrace it and start using it in daily speech.  But my overall gut reaction to his statement is that he must be pissed off about the success of the New Humanist movement as envisioned by Greg Epstein at Harvard. 

Hitchens on the 10 Commandments

We Humanists and liberals tend to have a love/hate relationship with Hitchens. I happen to love him (see my other article on him to understand why). His latest video from Vanity Fair is a classic example of why, despite how angry we get at him, we keep coming back. And it is why I love Hitchens. Enjoy