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Humanist Bulletin, Spring Issue

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Fred Edwords

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Mar 28, 1997, 3:00:00 AM3/28/97

| THE / / ____ ___ ___ . ___ __/_
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| | =========================================
| ____ | Spring 1997 Vol. 4 - No. 2
| / \ | =========================================
| / \ | A quarterly report of humanist events and
|/ \| news, prepared for public distribution by
| | the American Humanist Association (A.H.A)

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

A View from the Mountain: The Future of Humanism

That's the theme of this year's 56th Annual Conference of the
American Humanist Association. It will host Alice Walker, world
renowned author of _The Color Purple_ and _Possessing the Secret
of Joy_; she will receive the 1997 Humanist of the Year Award.
Also featured will be composer-conductor Lou Harrison, population
activist Dottie Lamm, family crisis counselor Hank Giarretto,
humanist activist Joe Bernard and -- doing his famous
impersonation of Robert G. Ingersoll -- Roger Greeley. Musical
entertainment will be provided by freethought singer Dan Barker.
The conference will take place April 18-20, 1997, at the Red
Lion Hotel--Denver, 3203 Quebec St., Denver, CO 80207. It will
feature award banquets, workshops, videos, and business meetings
of the AHA, followed by a postconference tour of beautiful
Colorado. One track of workshops will be specially geared to the
needs of humanist counselors and celebrants.
The conference gets underway Friday morning with a free,
three-hour American Humanist Seminar by Betty Lea Brout:
"SpeakRight: How to Take the Fear Out of the Fear of Public
Speaking." That afternoon will feature business meetings of
various AHA divisions as well as the annual membership meeting.
On Saturday, workshops will include M.J. Hardman on "Language and
Violence," Paula Rochelle and Ben Wade on "A Practical Approach to
the Theory and Creation of Naturalistic Celebrations," Louise A.
Bennett on "The Issues of Same-Sex Marriage," Teri Mandell on
"Raising Humanist Children," Robert M. Zubrin on "Mars Direct:
Humans to the Red Planet within a Decade," Meg Bowman on "How We
Classify Ourselves," Jeff Lowder on "Humanism in Cyberspace,"
Margaret Downey on "Does a Hero Lie in You," Peggy Lamm on "Whose
Death Is It Anyway?", and Annie Laurie Gaylor on "No Gods, No
Masters: Women without Superstition." There will also be a Sunday
morning session by Bill Baird on "Standing Up for Your Right to
Privacy."
Full conference registration (excluding meals and tour) is
$95 single and $135 couple for AHA members, $105 single and $145
couple for nonmembers. The three-banquet meal package is $99 per
person. To register, or receive more information, contact the AHA
Humanist Conference, P.O. Box 1188, Amherst, NY 14226-7188, (800)
743-6646, (716) 839-5080. To arrange your lodging, phone the Red
Lion at (303) 321-3333 to reserve your room. Be sure to mention
"Humanist Conference" to secure a conference-related discount.

Religious Right Attacks American Airlines

In March, four religious right groups -- the American Family
Association, Concerned Women for America, Coral Ridge Ministries,
and the Family Research Council -- jointly attacked American
Airlines because, in the words of Beverly LaHaye, "American's
sponsorship of homosexual 'pride' events constitutes an open
endorsement of promiscuous homosexuality." The result has been a
deluge of hostile telephone calls and e-mail messages to the
airline demanding that it terminate its gay-friendly policies.
And, indeed, American Airlines is a major supporter of such
organizations as the AIDS Action Foundation, the Gay and Lesbian
Victory Fund, the Human Rights Campaign, and other national
bodies, as well as many local gay and lesbian groups. It is also
the first airline to adopt a written non-discrimination policy
covering sexual orientation in its employment practices and it has
engaged in marketing and sales outreach to gay and lesbian
travelers.
So, if you wish to support enlightened business policies and
counter this assault by the religious right, phone the Dallas
switchboard at 1-817-963-1234, then hit "0" and request that the
operator direct your comment to American's executive offices. The
e-mail address for comments is webm...@amrcorp.com. If you are
an American Airlines frequent flyer, be sure to mention that fact.

A "Kinder, Gentler" Christian Coalition?

The latest scheme of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition is
fooling no one. Early this year, Ralph Reed launched the group's
new "Samaritan Project," a supposedly "compassionate, faith-based
agenda to combat poverty and restore hope." But it's just the
same old selfish and mean-spirited wolf in egalitarian clothing.
The plan calls for the usual religious school vouchers -- now
re-christened as "Hope and Opportunity Scholarships" aimed at
students of "impoverished, violent or drug-ridden school
districts." It also offers "faith solutions" to social ills: that
is, tax dollars to religious groups so they can deal with urban
problems (but without those pesky government safeguards against
preaching sectarian views). The effort is little more than a
thinly-veiled plan to woo more African Americans into the
Republican party (since only 5 percent of African Americans voted
for Bob Dole last year).
The current larger goal of the Christian Coalition is, by the
year 2000, to be training as many as 50,000 local conservative
activists per year and establish "a Christian Coalition chapter in
each of America's three thousand counties and a neighborhood
coordinator in all of the nation's 175,000 precincts." And one
way they are persuing this goal is through the Internet. Ralph
Reed declares, "Conservatives are promoting the possibilities of
cyberspace with the fervor of a tent revivalist."
But they aren't trying to do it all alone. They are building
alliances and a cooperative communications network that includes
James Dobson's Focus on the Family, evangelist Marlin Maddoux of
the USA Radio Network, conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, the
Promise Keepers, the Campaign for Working Families, the Institute
on Religion and Democracy, the Institute for Creation Research,
and many others.
And they are getting bolder. Remember Robert Bork, failed
nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court? Well, his latest book,
_Slouching Toward Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and the American
Decline_, not only blames America's ills on the usual list of
suspects (humanists, liberals, feminists, hedonists,
intellectuals, scientists, teachers, students, dissidents,
minorities, immigrants, the media, the entertainment industry),
but it attacks freedom of speech and other civil liberties as
essentially un-American, favors censorship, and finds the pursuit
of happiness to be a recipe for cultural decline!
His readers, and other followers of the religious right,
could do with a little instruction from the framers of our
constitution.

During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment
of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits?
More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the
clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both,
superstition, bigotry and persecution.
-- James Madison

In this enlightened age and in this land of equal liberty it
is our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit
the protection of the laws, nor deprive him of the right of
attaining and holding the highest offices that are now in the
United States.
-- George Washington

Edd Doerr Reelected as AHA President

In the American Humanist Association, the board of directors is
elected by the rank-and-file members and then the officers are
elected by the board. On March 27, the board completed its
balloting for president and Edd Doerr was chosen to serve
another two-year term. Edd is executive director of Americans
for Religious Liberty, a regular church-state columnist in _The
Humanist_, and the AHA's liaison with a number of human rights
organizations in Washington, D.C.

Humanist Summer Camps for Kids

Camp Quest:

Following a successful 1996 inauguration, Camp Quest will open for
its second season this summer so that humanist children, ages
8-12, can experience a week-long program of fun, exploration, and
companionship. Running from Sunday afternoon, August 10, through
Saturday morning, August 16, the camp will feature not only the
traditional outdoor experiences of swimming, hiking, horseback
riding, campfires, story telling, cookouts, and a hayride; but
also workshops in biology, ecology, and astronomy. All programs
are consistent with humanist traditions, values, and ethics. The
camp is fully staffed with trained and licensed counselors,
lifeguards, medical staff, and food service personnel.
Experienced scientists, artists, and craftspeople will direct many
of the programs. The children will stay in clean, well equipped
cabins.
The location is the Bullittsburg Camp in Burlington,
Kentucky -- in the wooded, rolling hills of the Ohio River Valley
-- just fifteen minutes from the Greater Cincinnati Airport. The
full cost per child is $255 and the deadline for registration is
May 1, 1997, or until filled. Transportation will be available
from the Greater Cincinnati Airport and the downtown Cincinnati
area.
For information and registration materials, write to Camp
Quest, c/o Vern Uchtman, P.O. Box 8128, Cincinnati, OH 45208;
phone 1-606-441-5875; or e-mail vauc...@aol.com.

Encampment for Citizenship:

The Encampment for Citizenship of the American Ethical Union is a
half-century-old humanist summer camp for youth, ages 16-19. The
six-week program runs from June 28 to August 6 and provides a
multicultural experiential program in which participants set up
their own community government, join research teams, participate
in social issue workshops, and go on field trips. Encampers learn
to think critically about social and political issues, learn
tolerance, and are encouraged to stand up for their own rights and
those of others. Eleanor Roosevelt praised the Encampment for
Citizenship for preparing young people "for thinking in terms of
all people and not in terms of a selected few," training them "to
be good citizens with an ability to think with an open mind."
The location is the Fellowship Farm, located 45 miles
northwest of Philadelphia near Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The full
cost per person is $2,900 and the deadline for registration is May
1, 1997, or until filled. No transportation to the camp is
available.
For information and registration materials, write to
Elizabeth Terry, Encampment for Citizenship, 35 South 4th St., 3rd
Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19106-2703; phone toll free
1-888-332-5097; or check the Encampment web site at
http://members.aol.com/encamper/efc/

Alternatives to Alcoholics-Anonymous Style Recovery Programs

Drinkwise
University of Michigan Medical Center
527 East Liberty, Suite 209
Ann Arbor MI 48104-2242
1-313-747-9473
1-800-222-5145

Moderation Management
P.O. Box 6005
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-6005
1-810-788-8040
kish...@ic.net
http://comnet.org/mm/

Rational Recovery Systems, Inc.
P.O. Box 800
Lotus, CA 95651
1-916-621-2667
r...@rational.org
http://www.rational.org/recovery

Secular Organizations for Sobriety
5521 Grosvenor Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90066
1-310-821-8430
so...@loop.com
http://www.codesh.org/sos

Self Management And Recovery Training (SMART)
24000 Merchantile Road, Suite 11
Beachwood, OH 44122
1-216-292-0220
srm...@aol.com
http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/mike888/

Women for Sobriety/Men for Sobriety
P.O. Box 618
Quakertown, PA 18951-0618
1-215-536-8026
wfsob...@aol.com
http://www.mediapulse.com/wfs/

The Golden Rule

If anyone should tell you that, without the benefit of Christian
teaching, we would all lack the Golden Rule, share with them the
following:

Do not to your neighbor what you would take ill from him.
-- Pittacus, 650 BCE

Do unto another what you would have him do unto you, and do
not do unto another what you would not have him do unto you.
Thou needest this law alone. It is the foundation of all the
rest.
-- Confucius, 500 BCE

Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing.
-- Thales, 464 BCE

What you wish your neighbors to be to you, such be also to
them.
-- Sextus, a Pythagorean, 406 BCE

We should conduct ourselves toward others as we would have
them act toward us.
-- Aristotle, 385 BCE

Cherish reciprocal benevolence, which will make you as
anxious for another's welfare as your own.
-- Aristippus of Cyrene, 365 BCE

Act toward others as you desire them to act toward you.
-- Isocrates, 338 BCE

Do not do to others what you would not like others to do to
you.
-- Hillel, 50 BCE

Then, some time later . . .

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do
to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the
prophets.
-- Jesus of Nazareth, circa 30 CE

Common Sense about Theology

Though the ninteenth century prose style of the text that follows
isn't as easy to read as most writings of today, the arguments
themselves are quite clear. Here, the Enlightenment atheist Baron
d'Holbach provides a basic understanding of why skeptics of
religion think as they do: they aren't asserting their own will in
preference to that of God, they are simply acknowledging an
inability to make sense of the whole god idea as propounded by
theologians. The simple common sense behind Paul Henri Holbach's
brief and sweeping observations on theology can, in fact, leave
one dumbfounded as to how any perceptive individual can maintain a
system of theistic belief at all.

----------------------------------------------

I.-APOLOGUE.

There is a vast empire governed by a monarch, whose conduct does
but confound the minds of his subjects. He desires to be known,
loved, respected, and obeyed, but he never shows himself;
everything tends to make uncertain the notions which we are able
to form about him. The people subjected to his power have only
such ideas of the character and the laws of their invisible
sovereign as his ministers give them; these suit, however, because
they themselves have no idea of their master, for his ways are
impenetrable, and his views and his qualities are totally
incomprehensible, moreover, his ministers disagree among
themselves in regard to the orders which they pretend emanated
from the sovereign whose organs they claim to be; they announce
them diversely in each province of the empire; they discredit and
treat each other as impostors and liars; the decrees and
ordinances which they promulgate are obscure; they are enigmas,
made not to be understood or divined by the subjects for whose
instruction they were intended. The laws of the invisible monarch
need interpreters, but those who explain them are always
quarreling among themselves about the true way of understanding
them; more than this, they do not agree among themselves; all
which they relate of their hidden prince is but a tissue of
contradictions, scarcely a single word that is not contradicted at
once. He is called supremely good, nevertheless not a person but
complains of his decrees. He is supposed to be infinitely wise,
and in his administration everything seems contrary to reason and
good sense. They boast of his justice, and the best of his
subjects are generally the least favored. We are assured that he
sees everything, yet his presence remedies nothing. It is said
that he is the friend of order, and everything in his universe is
in a state of confusion and disorder; all is created by him, yet
events rarely happen according to his projects. He foresees
everything, but his foresight prevents nothing. He is impatient if
any offend him; at the same time he puts every one in the way of
offending him. His knowledge is admired in the perfection of his
works, but his works are full of imperfections, and of little
permanence. He is continually occupied in creating and destroying
then repairing what he has done, never appearing to be satisfied
with his work. In all his enterprises he seeks but his own glory,
but he does not succeed in being glorified. He works but for the
good of his subjects, and most of them lack the necessities of
life. Those whom he seems to favor are generally those who are the
least satisfied with their fate; we see them all continually
revolting against a master whose greatness they admire, whose
wisdom they extol, whose goodness they worship, and whose justice
they fear, revering orders which they never follow. This empire is
the world; its monarch is God; His ministers are the priests;
their subjects are men.

II.-WHAT IS THEOLOGY?

There is a science which has for its object only incomprehensible
things. Unlike all others, it occupies itself but with things
unseen. Hobbes calls it "the kingdom of darkness." In this land
all obey laws opposed to those which men acknowledge in the world
they inhabit. In this marvelous region light is but darkness,
evidence becomes doubtful or false, the impossible becomes
credible, reason is an unfaithful guide, and common sense changed
into delirium. This science is named Theology, and this Theology
is a continual insult to human reason.

----------------------------------------------

The above text was first published in 1791 by Baron d'Holbach as
part of a digest of his philosophy, as influenced by the famous
seventeenth century apostate cleric, Jean Meslier. Holbach
entitled this digest, _Le bon sens du cure' Meslier_. Translated
into English from the original French in the early 1800s, it was
retitled _Common Sense_ and credited to Meslier himself.

The Value of Skepticism

During the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, one
morning's executions began with three men: a rabbi, a Catholic
priest, and a rationalist skeptic.
The rabbi was marched up onto the platform first. There,
facing the guillotine, he was asked if he had any last words. And
the rabbi cried out, "I believe in the one and only true God, and
He shall save me." The executioner then positioned the rabbi
below the blade, set the block above his neck, and pulled the cord
to set the terrible instrument in motion. The heavy cleaver
plunged downward, searing the air. But then, abruptly, it stopped
with a crack just a few inches above the would-be victim's neck.
To which the rabbi said, "I told you so."
"It's a miracle!" gasped the crowd. And the executioner
had to agree, letting the rabbi go.
Next in line was the priest. Asked for his final words, he
declared, "I believe in Jesus Christ -- the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost -- who will rescue me in my hour of need." The executioner
then positioned this man beneath the blade. And he pulled the
cord. Again the blade flew downward -- thump! creak! -- stopping
just short of its mark once more.
"Another miracle!" sighed the disappointed crowd. And the
executioner for the second time had no choice but to let the
condemned go free.
Now it was the skeptic's turn. "What final words have _you_
to say?" he was asked. But the skeptic didn't hear. Staring
intently at the ominous engine of death, he seemed lost. Not
until the executioner poked him in the ribs and the question was
asked again did he reply. "Oh, I see your problem," the skeptic
said pointing. "You've got a blockage in the gear assembly, right
there!"

For More Information on Humanism and the AHA

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

THIS BULLETIN PUBLISHED BY:

The American Humanist Association
7 Harwood Drive, P.O. Box 1188
Amherst, NY 14226-7188 USA

Phone: 1-716-839-5080
Toll-free: 1-800-743-6646
E-mail: ap...@freenet.buffalo.edu

WHERE TO FIND UPDATES OF THIS BULLETIN:

The AHA WWW site (also FTP/Gopher)
http://www.infidels.org/org/aha

The Humanist BBS
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(300-14400 BPS: 8,N,1)

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