One of the recurring questions I get asked is about how Humanism handles the problem of evil. The fact that Humanism doesn’t have an “evil” problem doesn’t stop people from asking this question. Anyway – here are my thoughts to help newbies understand why Humanists don’t worry about evil much.
Continue reading “Humanism, the Problem of Evil, and other Religious Baggage”
I am a Humanist. So I reject supernaturalism. Yet, I’m on the advisory board for the Spiritual Naturalist Society.
Spirituality, in a secular sense, is the spirit in which you approach life. In this sense, it’s critical you attend to your spiritual life because it is actually attending to your motivational needs. How you motivate yourself. Why you motivate yourself. This is the realm of philosophy. Some people attend to this need with religious philosophy. Others with secular philosophy. I attend to this need with the Humanist philosophy specifically.
The relationship between Humanism and Human Rights and a growing movement within Islam.
One of the most interesting aspects of my job is fielding queries from scholars and students looking for help on their projects that involve Humanism.
I received on such query from an Egyptian scholar who was looking for information to help him on a book he is working on, relating human rights, Humanism from an Islamic perspective.
Because there is so much fear about Islam in the US, fear that is based on a lot of ignorance and misinformation, I wanted to share with you , what I shared with this scholar so that you will have a better understanding of not only why Humanism is essential to any conversation about Human Rights, but also about why Humanism is relevant to this conversation regardless of the starting point, or in this case, the starting religion.
Musing about our bodies and our minds from a Humanist perspective.
Brainpickings has a great article about stress, orgasm and how the brain and vagina conspire in consciousness. And I wanted to share the article here (http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/09/23/naomi-wolf-vagina/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+brainpickings%2Frss+%28Brain+Pickings%29) because, well, it’s geeky and it’s cool and it’s important and dammit, I’m a woman and this matters.
Why my apprenticeship as an animal trainer qualifies me to teach operant conditioning as a solution to the problem of bullying.
This may come as a shock to a lot of people, but not everyone likes me. There are definitely people I’ve pissed off. Not intentionally mind you, but it happens. Sometimes you just have to do what you think is right. One of the many people I’ve pissed off through the years has taken it upon themselves to discredit my credentials as it relates to teaching of bullying elimination.
I normally don’t feel compelled to defend myself from attacks from people like this, because it won’t change or impact my strained relationship with them, and outside a small circle of friends, they have very little influence anyway. Plus, I think my work speaks for itself.
However, I do think it is worthwhile answering their particular critiques regarding the bullying elimination training I provide because by doing so, I can better explain what it is, exactly, I teach, why I teach it and why this particular approach to the problem of bullying matters and why you should learn it.
Let’s start with the approach.
Continue reading “Bullying, Operant Condition and Apprenticeship”
