February 2013 – Sumogirl Blog

Why I do Humanist Outreach

Humanism is important. People need to know that they have an alternative. And no, just promoting atheism isn’t enough.

I do what I do because I think Humanism is important. I think it can help not only transform the world, but that it can transform people’s lives And not in a pie in the sky kumbayah sort of way, but in very practical pragmatic ways.

Humanism is a philosophy of life. It is an approach. That’s all it is. It is a way of choosing to see the world and an active reminder to ourselves that we should and can be better. Are the assumptions Humanists make about the ultimate nature of reality true? Honestly, it doesn’t even matter. Our focus is to every day try to improve ourselves and who we are with what we have to work with here and now. And we choose this approach because quite honestly, there aren’t any other good alternatives.

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Mental Health and Social Responsibility

We need to normalize mental health care by recognizing that we all are vulnerable and we all need help from time to time.

Don’t set your boundaries up so high that you lose your connection to others.

Your Morals Blog had an essay titled “How to Prevent Mental Illness: Help others with their stressful life events” (see essay here: http://www.yourmorals.org/blog/2012/12/how-to-prevent-mental-illness-help-others-with-their-stressful-life-events/ It was written by Ravi Iyer.

In the essay Iyer’s talks about myths about mental health and how and why we might help people who are suffering and why society might benefit and how we might benefit as well.

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Compassionate Conflict Resolution

In the world of business conflict is inevitable. How we resolve these conflicts determines our success. Most of the problems we encounter in life involve conflicts with other people. Here are 4 ways to approach conflict resolution compassionately.

it takes strength of character to admit when you are wrong

Knowing how to effectively, professionally and compassionately resolve conflicts is an essential life skill. While it is obviously better to not have these conflicts escalate to the point where mediation is needed, that isn’t always realistic. Here is the advice I give to people dealing with conflicts and disagreements.

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Humanism and Resiliency

Why our heros inspire us to be the best that we can be and why that’s a good thing.

Who is Your Hero?

I was fortunate enough to be included in the latest edition of Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism journal. Thanks John for including me, I truly am not worthy considering the quality of the articles in the journal. One of them was from a man named Joachim Duyndam and his essay is titled “Humanism, Resilience, and the Hermenuetics of Exemplary Figures.”

And yes, that is a mouthful. However, working my way through it I thought he had something very important to say about what Humanism is and how we as Humanists can use it. It has to do with resiliency. Now, there is no good way to cut to the chase on this, so I am going to provide a summary of his arguments.

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Wars are all about bullying

There is nothing noble about war.

Don't glorify violence to end violence

I have a 7 year old son. He is precocious and we talk about a lot of interesting things. He was asking me about war the other day and why people fight. As I struggled to explain to him why these things happen, I had an epiphany. Wars are about bullying.

When you think about it, there is no good reason for war. Wars occur because people want to get their way so badly and want to impose their will on others so badly or are so afraid that they are going to be hurt that they are willing to take up arms and kill other people to get their way and to alleviate their fears. There is nothing noble about that.

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Doubt vs. Certitude

Why facing reality with doubt is better than religious certitude.

Religious Certitude is Dangerous

I got a tweet from Shirley Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church the other day. It was about bullying. My point was that you don’t have to suffer at the hands of a bully. You can do something to get it to stop. You just need to learn what to do and how to do it. Her response was that the only thing that ever works is to obey God.

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Humanism in Marriage

How do Humanists approach the important business of being married?

I can’t speak for all Humanists, I can only speak for me and my spouse, who is also a self-professed Humanist. We approach our marriage realistically. It is about love, but it is also a pragmatic partnership. I don’t expect my husband to be a super hero, perfect all the time. My real hope is that he will tolerate my weirdness and quirks and occasional ill-temper well enough to stick with me through thick and thin. Because I really do like him.

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