On Saturday, December 5, 2020, admirers gathered via the video chat service Zoom to celebrate the 88th birthday of Indian humanist, lawyer and social worker Dr. Krishnasamy Veeramani. (Veeramani was actually born on December 2, 1933.) Dr. Veeramani was a follower and admirer of the great Indian reformer and atheist Periyar E.V. Ramasamy, commonly known simply as Periyar. He started the Self-respect movement in India and is regarded as the Father of the Dravidian movement.
In the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, only 60% of adults voted. Most voters appear to be perplexed as to why so many adults do not go to the polls. However, as young people used to say in the 1990s, “if you don’t know, you better ask somebody.” It really is that simple. Yet, for many voters, the question is rhetorical.
Perhaps the first lesson for young students being introduced to science should be that much of what they will learn will not necessarily be in accordance with their common sense. Most people with no experience in science observe the natural world and believe that everything they experience must have an easy, reasonable explanation. However, such is often not the case.
Humanists do not believe in sin. We acknowledge power relations and understand that many people will abuse their power for various reasons. We believe that human-centered action must be coupled with human-centered thought in confronting the problem. Rather than law and order, we are concerned with challenging the powers that be.
The so-called “Sermon on the Mount” is widely regarded as Christianity’s most important moral message. It is Jesus at his moral best. Even many atheists are highly impressed with the sermon, as well they should be.
However, there are still problems with it, and there is not a single word in it that even hints at omnibenevolence, moral perfection or divine wisdom. After all is said and done, it is, for the most part, a great message from a fallible human being.
Christians assert that the Bible is the Word of God. Yet many of them try their best to distance themselves from the First, or “Old’ Testament. They seem to believe that the Old Testament was overruled by the Second or “New” Testament, even though they still claim that Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament teachings. Blatant contradictions are not unusual for theists. However, this one is especially problematic and irrational.
COVID-19 and the fears it has generated have resulted in a tsunami of irrationality, ignorance, paranoia, conspiracy theories and danger. Perhaps the biggest danger is posed by religious fanatics who actually believe they can pray sickness away. They still do not have even a simple understanding of germ theory. They still believe in laying on of (washed or unwashed) hands and driving out evil spirits from the body.
Conservative Christians relentlessly brag about how much more they give to charity than other religious and secular groups. For purposes of this article, I am not primarily concerned with the findings that show that most of that charity does not find its way to the intended targets. Let’s say for the sake of argument that all of the money goes to the intended recipients.
Conservative Christians are especially generous around Thanksgiving and Christmas. No surprise there. What better way to call attention to your faith than to give money during two of the most popular holidays in the U.S.? Sadly, though, after the holidays are over, conservative Christian giving goes way down and the causes they support fall from the proverbial radar.
Charity is important and it makes the world a better place. I have given to charity throughout most of my life and will continue to do so. But like religious progressives, I understand that charity is simply not enough.
Christians are easily impressed by the supposed prophecies of the Bible. They maintain that what makes biblical prophecies unique is that none have failed, and those that have not been fulfilled yet, will be one day. For those reasons, we know that the Bible is inspired by an all-knowing God. However, many of these prophecies have failed. For example, in Isaiah 17:1, the prophet boldly claimed that the destruction of Syria’s capital, Damascus, would soon occur. However, to this day, Damascus still exists.
The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones. – William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
The aforementioned quotation is not necessarily true. On the contrary, when people blindly embrace their heroines and heroes, the good lives after them and the evil is interred with their bones.
Throughout history, religious people have literally demonized groups of people other than their own. I started thinking deeply about this topic after considering the (former?) views of the Nation of Islam (NOI.) The NOI was founded on July 4, 1930. At least until the 1970s, they had preached that White people belonged to, in the words of Malcolm X when he was still a major leader in the group, “a filthy race of devils.”
However, at least since the 1980s, the NOI has backed away from such talk, at least in public. Still, if pressed on the issue, they will say that considering White people’s uniquely bad treatment of non-White people, they have behaved like devils, and the description is accurate.
However, as cruel and bizarre as these beliefs are, they are not why Jones has been barred from so many social media outlets. He was barred because these non-governmental businesses have standards against hate speech, which Jones repeatedly violated. The pressure from anti-bigots had become so great that the social media giants had to react.
“. . . there would be no lynching if it did not start in the schoolroom.” – Carter G. Woodson
In 1933, the historian Carter G. Woodson wrote the classic The Mis-Education of the Negro. Woodson contended that Blacks had been “trained and not educated.” He thoroughly discussed the mis-education of Blacks in religion, politics, schools, institutions of higher learning, and so on.
How could anyone with just a modicum of basic decency and humanity not see how cruel it is to assign millions of souls to eternal torment simply for not having even heard of Jesus Christ? It is not bad enough that Africans have to suffer in this world. No, indeed. God cannot be appeased and many Christians cannot be truly happy unless non-Christians also suffer forever in the next world. Only then can self-righteous Christians feel especially good about themselves. Ironically, this belief is about ego stroking among Christians that believe themselves to be remarkably humble. As someone once remarked, paradoxically, “they are proud that they are not proud.”
First, I promote non-theism because I am deeply passionate about it, and because it matters. It matters that throughout the history of human civilization, most people have believed strongly in a Being for whom there appears to be no strong evidence whatsoever. Many theists are easy to lead astray, to manipulate, to oppress and to enslave. Many others do a great deal of harm in the name of God. Therefore, I am intellectually and morally obligated to stand uncompromisingly opposed to theism. I could not in good conscience run away from such a duty.
On August 10, 2018, the humanist world lost a great humanist activist in Uganda. Deo Ssekitoleko died under mysterious circumstances. According to his post mortem, his neck was broken during strangulation. At the time of this writing, there is not much more reliable information than that to go on. Deo founded the Uganda Humanist Association (UHASSO.) Many humanists regarded him as the most important humanist activist, organizer and leader in East Africa.
In his excellent book, The Ethnic Myth, scholar Stephen Steinberg demonstrated that throughout history, poor and working-class Whites in the U.S. often kicked their best interests to the curb if it meant maintaining their status above Black people. Indeed, White supremacy is largely about identity and psychology. Some of President Donald Trump’s most loyal supporters are poor, White, uneducated paranoid conspiracy theorists. They believe that making America great again largely means bringing a White man back to the White House. (Even a White billionaire.)
