Friday, October 1, 2010

Why I started this blog

Hey readers,

I have blogged before, and found that nobody read what I was saying. It was more like an online diary. I am going to do my best to always have useful things to say, and try to pander around to get people to follow me on their RSS. I don't always promise to be useful, but I try to be funny. Lately, I am very interested in Secular Humanism and furthering its position in the world. Because it is a position of reason and logic, it appeals to me, and can appeal to a wide variety of others who are sort of "on the fence" with religion and God, and are saying to themselves, "There has to be more to it!" (More than God? I know! Funny.)

Lately, on facebook, a relative told me to read this article: http://allanturner.com/secular.html. Now, I knew him already to be a very very dedicated Christian. He was constantly posting on boards like "Does God exist?" and "Christians vs. Atheists" and such. I started reading this... at first, I was impressed at how factual it was (especially while using biblical chapter/verse references). When it later said, "Man, in his arrogant pride, does not want to do what God wants him to do. As a result, man attempts to suppress the truth about God in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). Why? Because if man can be persuaded to believe the lie that there is no Sovereign God who lives in eternity, then he can be comfortable involving himself in all sorts of uncleanness and ungodliness (Romans 1:19-25). Secularism, of course, is the perfect vehicle for such unbelief," it was only then that I realized how truly funny this website rant would be.

I was first angered that, again, like religion always does, it masks opinions and beliefs as facts. An uneducated person may read this and their scientific mind will say, "These facts check out," or "This seems very factual and not skewed towards either belief," when in fact, it's designed to trick you into thinking it is, IMHO.

While secularism IS a vehicle for narcissism, it's only for HUMANISTIC narcissism in the sense that HUMANS are number one, and it's "all for humanity." And while secularism IS also a vehicle for hedonism, it's only in the sense that because we know there is nothing non-worldly about our bodies here and our consciousness on earth, we have to just enjoy our time while we're here. However, this page neglects to mention that along with hedonism, a secular humanist believes that hedonism is fine, but only to the extent that you are not harming another individual or the environment.

He said it was an interesting read, and this was my reply on Facebook:
"
I have no problem agreeing to disagree with anyone else's beliefs, and I won't tell anyone what to believe or not to. The read was interesting, indeed. I dislike how it started very factual, and then got very opinionated. It was deceiving i...n that regard. Also, it combined secularism and humanism at times when it wanted to suit its purposes, and pulled them apart when it wanted to say secularism was bad. I am a secularist because I am a humanist first, for the same reason I am an atheist because I am a humanist first. Jesus was also a humanist, and his teachings reflect that. If more people adopted his teachings and lived by them, this world would be a greater place to live. I feel more inclined to act in a way that is aligned with humanistic values if I adopt a secular mentality to go with it. Others work the other way around. Whichever way a person chooses, as long as their end goal is not hurting others and making the world a better place, they are on the right path!"

... A truly secular humanistic response, if I do say so myself.

Hope you enjoyed reading, I will post more random thoughts whenever I have them.

2 comments:

  1. It would be interesting to see what the writer of the article, so opposed to the separation of church and state, would say if it were another religion in charge.

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  2. Hey Naomi, to respond to your comment, I just need to know what article you're referring to. My blog or the Allan Turner website?

    If it is referring to me, I would just like to say that there are facets of some religions that certainly jive with my way of thinking, but for the most part, I don't think any religion should be "in charge" of the country. It's just not fair. In fact, I don't think ANY money should be put towards any religion or religious education anywhere. Imagine if all those funds were put into scientific research, space exploration and colonization, alternative fuels, solar technology, reclimatization technologies, the list goes on!

    Perhaps this deep seeded anger that I posess comes from the fact that I was forced to take 4 courses of "Christian Ethics" in my Catholic High School. That was four courses that could have been Economics, Entrepreneurship, Biology 20, and Law. You know, courses that would have actually HELPED me in the "real world", so to speak. But I digress, they made me who I am today, methinks.

    Thanks for reading and thanks for your comment!

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