HUUmanists mailing list

[Alex]

"A forum for friends of religious humanism" <[e-mail]> is the mailing list of HUUmanists (UU Religious Humanists).  It has some great posts.  Here is a collection.

[Alex]

A week ago Doug Muder provided us a link to his sermon on spirituality and
humanism:

http://freeandresponsible.blogspot.com/2010/08/spirituality-and-humanist.html

Here is an essay by Chris Mooney in a September issue of USA today that addresses the utility of a spirituality concept from a nonmilitant atheist perspective (he has been mentored by Paul Kurtz).  He comments on some "new atheist" comments that flirt with spirituality.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-09-13-column13_ST_N.htm

He describes something that I can believe help coalition building rather than fences.

"Across the Western world - including the United States - traditional religion is in decline, even as there has been a surge of interest in "spirituality." What's more, the latter concept is increasingly being redefined in our culture so that it refers to something very much separable from, and potentially broader than, religious faith. Nowadays, unlike in prior centuries, spirituality and religion are no longer thought to exist in a one-to-one relationship. This is a fundamental change, and it strongly undermines the old conflict story about science and religion. For once you start talking about science and spirituality, the dynamic shifts dramatically."

Go read it.

Carol Everly Floyd
coordinator, Humanist Discussion Group, ALUUC
Oct 15, 2010



http://freeandresponsible.blogspot.com/2010/08/spirituality-and-humanist.html

Thanks for sharing ths, I really enjoyed it! I've never thought of spirituality in this exact way before.

I have, however, thought of it in similar terms. My family started attending a UU congregation when I as 12. Before that, I hadn't been religious. During the few times in the next 2 years that I sat through sermons (rather than attending the junior high youth group), I felt what you seem to describe as spirituality. A feeling of deep emotional connectedness to the others in the sanctuary, to nature, to the world, to the universe. I described that feeling as "god," or, more specifically, as a spirit connecting us all. And I assumed that's what others meant when they said god, even though they didn't exactly describe god in that way.

However, since that time, I've realized that it's not a god or spirit, but an emotion. I think religion and spirituality is a way for people to describe that feeling of deep connectedness that they can get when they pray, worship, etc. It's not spirituality, so much as it is an emotion.

What do others think?

Laura L
Oct 16, 2010



I, too, would call our feeling of connectedness or empathy an emotion, one that we have evolved and which has helped humanity to survive.  Most people understand the word "emotion" without a connection to supernaturalism, whereas the word "spirituality" has supernatural connotations for many people.

Doug Long
Oct 16, 2010

[Alex]

In Brazil, Atheist Billboards Get Right to the Point

"Faith gives no answers. It only impedes questions."

That's a good statement, because it is provocative, concise and clear. Most important of all, it uses words every one of which has a well-defined meaning understood by both parties to a dialogue.

Billboard statements "about gods" are pointless, because they all proceed on a false assumption: the underlying assumption that there is potentially something to talk about.

Faith is an attitude, manifested in human behavior. This behavior is unquestionably real. It can be observed and calibrated and measured. It is demonstrably exercised in human beings.

Whether or not mermaids, unicorns and gods exist are metaphysical question with no necessary connection to ethics.You can safely ignore discussions that involve them.

But faith is found in human beings, not in angels and the tooth fairy so far as we know, so in pursuit of understanding of ethics and the moral content of human actions then we do well to ask if faith was involved and how.

It is ethics, not metaphysics, which has traditionally occupied the study of Humanism. That is a fruitful avenue for investigation. The Humanists wisely set aside the metaphysical questions not answerable from observable human experience.

The billboards today that veer off towards metaphysical speculation - the existence of some supernatural entity - are a distraction and they misrepresent the Humanist mission. But a billboard that challenges faith can be productive of thought with consequences.

Billboards that bring in the undefined term "God" distract from the mission of Humanism, but to question the value of faith is potentially fruitful and can open the way to informative discussions.

Francis Mortyn
___________________________________
Humanists mailing list
[e-mail]
http://lists.uua.org/mailman/listinfo/humanists

[Alex]

More good Brazilian atheist billboards here:

http://richarddawkins.net/articles/642420-these-atheist-billboards-in-brazil-get-right-to-the-point

[Alex]

"The Christian Taliban at work."
--Robert Nordlander to [e-mail]


Two books pulled from Republic school library shelves
July 27, 2011
http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011107260366

...Wesley Scroggins, a Republic resident, challenged the use of the books and lesson plans in Republic schools, arguing they teach principles contrary to the Bible. ...


                                       Wesley Scroggins


Kaufman: Banning of books in Republic lessens ideas
Daniel A. Kaufman, professor of philosophy at Missouri State University
http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011108050305

...When the book in question is an American classic, like Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, book-banning creates a discontinuity with our own heritage and traditions, and most importantly with distinctively American mores and values that our canon of literature plays such an important role in developing.

Sadly, what we have just described is not hypothetical. The Republic School District has just banned Slaughterhouse-Five, as well as another contemporary novel, by Sarah Oakley (Twenty Boy Summer). As a result, Republic students will be denied the opportunity to read a book that the Modern Library has deemed one of the last century's 100 greatest English-language novels. They will be denied the opportunity to participate fully in the literary heritage of the United States...


Yielding to censorship: Mo. school board bans books that are 'contrary to the Bible'
Rob Boston
http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2011/08/03/yielding-to-censorship-mo-school-board-bans-books-that-are-%E2%80%98contrary-to-the-bible%E2%80%99/

Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five is considered a modern classic...it sure made me think, which, in my view, is what a good novel should do.

Funny thing about that thinking – some people see it as dangerous. And a few of those people sit on the school board in Republic, Mo. ...

...Actually, what's unfortunate it that the school board didn't stand up for
church-state separation and the freedom to learn. And it's unfortunate that the education of students at Republic High School is being held hostage by such narrow-minded people.

It might also be unconstitutional. ...



Alex's comment:  
美國：文學名著被禁，理由竟是「違反聖經」！
還有比這更瘋狂的嗎？一本被譽為二十世紀最偉大的一百本英語小說之一的美國經典名著在美國一校區被禁，必須從各學校圖書館下架，理由竟然是「違反《聖經》」！美國人真蠢，自毀文學遺產之承傳。作為美國立國精神和憲法原則的「政教分離」掉到那裡去了？（題外話：該書作者是一名UU）

[Alex]

Charlie Chaplin's great Humanist speech from 1940
http://www.nikolasschiller.com/blog/index.php/archives/2009/08/10/3574/

Michael Werner to A forum for friends of religious humanism <[e-mail]>
Sep 25, 2011



Alex's comment:    Salute!  偉大的人文主義演說！

[XOX]

Banned books week

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm

Sept 24- Oct 1

[Alex]

From Paul Tillich's monumental Systematic Theology, Volume 1, Part 2, II: "The Reality of God," [Sec.B] "The Actuality of God":

The question of the existence of God can be neither asked nor answered.

If asked, it is a question about that which by its very nature is above existence, and therefore the answer - whether negative or affirmative - implicitly denies the nature of God.

It is as atheistic to affirm the existence of God as it is to deny it.  God is being itself, not a being.

Francis Mortyn
Oct 24, 2011

[Alex]

This seems to be a quiet list as far as UU Huumanist postings go.  So I thought I'd add this one for what it's worth.

Sunday our minister [Rev. Lydia Ferrante-Roseberry] will be preaching on Humanism and how it has contributed to UUism over the years.  She'll be relying to some extent on Rev. William Murry's latest book Becoming More Fully Human.

In a follow-up mode, I'll be leading an Adult RE 2-hour discussion of the book twice in late February.  My hope is to move us past the definitions and get on with the second half of the book title "Religious Humanism As A Way Of Life."  Early registration lists 11 participants out of our 250 or so member congregation.

The past couple of years I've offered a 6-week course on Humanism that brought out about 30 folks.

Is anyone else out there doing similar work within their congregations?

Take a look at Peter Morales' latest idea (Congregations and Beyond) for how UUism might move ahead and consider whether Humanism might be one of those sub-groups that he suggests could attract some of the 3/4 population of UUs who don't belong to a congregation. Might HUUmanists be the ones to pull together some leadership along these lines?

Dave Leonard
[e-mail]
Boulder Valley UU Fellowship, Lafayette, CO.
Jan 27, 2012

--------------
Whether they are organized, cohesive or disgruntled,
the unaffiliated are the fastest-growing religious category in America.
Nonaffiliation is not un-American. Increasingly, it is America.
Eventually, our politics will have to catch up.
--Charles M. Blow, NYT

[Alex]

Some Further Thoughts on UU and Humanism
Charles Vail
6 Feb 2012

Not unlike a lot of other people who are nontheists, I too have had difficulty with religious language specifically that language more or less claimed by theists. Over time I have been able to find ways to understand and constructively use the so-called theological virtues -- faith, hope and charity -- sometime later other religious emotions like enchantment, reverence, and humility -- even in one case rapture. But I always have had difficulty seeing my way clear to a nontheist interpretation of spiritual.

Only quite recently, I began to reconsider how I might use the word "spiritual," where the spirit "is the nonphysical part of a person that is the seat of emotions and character; the soul." Setting aside the human soul (as well as all other matters supernatural), one is left with the seat of emotions and character. I began to focus in on spiritual in terms of a spirited person, one described as being "full of energy, enthusiasm, and determination" or "having a specified character, outlook on life, or mood."

Humans are self-aware beings. Self-awareness is one of traits (the other traits being intentionality and sociability) that characterize human nature. Also, the virtues are those dispositions to act that in general and across the long term allow us to succeed as human beings. So, to succeed at being self-aware we need to be perceptive (to use our senses to experience the world around us) and reflective (to think about, comprehend, and understand what we experience) with some degree of constructive emotional engagement.

I've been searching for a way to describe this constructive emotional engagement, something that conveys one being attracted to life (including what one has experienced and come to know) and as a consequence being moved to act. Words like passionate or ardent suggest a strength of feeling that may at times be so strong as to overwhelm one, resulting in a "loss of rationality or a wasteful diffusion or misdirection of emotion." My choice, therefore, is fervency, which implies "a quality of fire [as does ardency], but it suggests a fire that glows rather than one that bursts into flame. Hence it implies strength and depth of feeling, it more often suggests steadiness than vehemence...[an] inward quiet...free of turbulence."

I want to describe what is spiritual as a set of emotions affecting the human spirit – emotions that will engage us with just such fervency and that will produce an energetic, enthusiastic, and determined outlook on life. One definition of spiritual is "of or relating to religion or religious belief" and the aforementioned emotions will include what commonly are considered religious emotions – faith, hope, and charity as well as enchantment, reverence, and humility (with an understanding that all can be solidly grounded in a thoroughly naturalistic and this-worldly humanism). I imagine that this approach can be the glory of a religious humanism – where individuals are bound together by common beliefs and practices – where one and all fervently are attracted to life and thus are moved to act.

And as for an example of the common beliefs and practices that bind us together (written in 1630): "We must entertain each other in brotherly affection; we must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities for the supply of others’ necessities; we must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other, make others' conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together; as always having before our eyes our commission and our community in the work, our community as members of the same body." (Winthrop 1982, 83)

Winthrop, John. 1982. A Model of Christian Charity. In The American Puritans: Their Prose and Poetry. ed. Perry Miller. New York, New York: Columbia University Press.

I have to say the foregoing is the intellectual equivalent of a blindfolded person stumbling around in a cluttered room. So any suggestions, comments, etc., gratefully accepted.

All my best,

Charlie Vail
to
HUUmanists-mem mailing list
[e-mail]
http://lists.uua.org/mailman/listinfo/huumanists-mem



Alex's comment:  Fervency.  一團火。

[Alex]

Definition of Humanism

Carl [who asked "what is Humanism?"], for information and perspective on Humanism, I would go to Bill Murry's books, beginning with A Faith for All Seasons, then Reason and Reverence, and most recently, Becoming More Fully Human.  Included in these books are all three manifestos as well as information about all types of Humanism.  I'll quote and paraphrase liberally from those....

He first gives us a working definition of humanism by describing the non-theistic religious humanism articulated in the Humanist Manifesto 1 in 1933:  "It rejected the idea of a supernatural deity, held that the natural universe is all there is, and regarded human beings as part of nature.  Affirming the intrinsic value of all human beings, it maintained the realization of human potential in the here and now as the goal of human life and social justice as necessary to achieve that goal."  Murry goes on to talk about the additions of later manifestos, particularly with regard to concern for the environment and the interconnections of all life (as mentioned in the UU's 7th principle and the web of life).

Murry further notes that the later manifestos also introduced the concept of secular humanism, which clearly focuses on reason and science, but without the caring community and attention to spiritual needs and compassion that make religious humanism so compelling.  Here's a last quote from R & R that describes Murry's vision of a new religious humanism, "Religious humanism is a life stance that exults in being alive in this unimaginably vast and breathtakingly beautiful universe and that finds joy and satisfaction in contributing to human betterment.  Without a creed but with an emphasis on reason, compassion, community, nature, and social responsibility, it is a way of living that answers the religious and spiritual needs of people today."

Pat Mohr to <[e-mail]>
8 Feb 2012

[Alex]

The variety of UU congregations

In this discussion about what brings and holds people into church communities I think we have to be careful to separate our loftiest goals and identification biases, from reality.  One of the best scientific ways to finds out is to simply to ask people.  Every survey I have seen for either the UUA or individual congregations the response comes back overwhelmingly that the main reason is to be with like minded people - not a huge range of beliefs.  It isn't social action as well.  I would argue that is a learned community standard.  As we all know, community is what holds people in a congregation.  The midlifers, like my daughter, generally join for their children and if they do stay, it is for the community they become part of.  The real reason the growth rate of the mega churches has slowed is that ALL churches are slowing, but the mega churches still are growing at least in a declining religious market.  Secularization is winning.  We will be "Europe" eventually.  See the study below:

A GENERATION IN TRANSITION
Religion, Values, and Politics
among College-Age Millennials
Findings from the 2012 Millennial Values Survey
http://repository.berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/120419BC-PRRIMillennialValuesSurveyReport.pdf

It also confirms what I have said before.  With the Millenials, the LGBT issue has been culturally won as well as abortion and secularization as well.  The momentum is clearly with us and as time goes on the demographics should only improve unless a major social event happens.

Michael Werner
2 May 2012



Alex's comment:  UUHK shall keep this very important message in mind: What holds people together in a UU congregation are like-minded people, not diversity nor social action!  So what is the "mind" or philosophy which could hold people of diverse faiths, theists and atheists alike, together?  Sort of a common denominator among world (theistic and non-theistic) religions.  Religious Humanism can be such a philosophy.  UUHK shall aim at building a congregation of Religious Humanism, not simply a mixture of diverse faiths.  It is not enough to say that "we are an inclusive liberal religious community welcoming people of all faiths, such as Atheists, Buddhists, and Christians, etc".  What is important is to state clearly what holds us together, and that is often Religious Humanism in the case of UU congregations.

[Alex]

To help clarify what we stand for, the Board and officers of HUUmanists Association have recently composed the following statement of our Mission, Core Values, and Aspirations.


The Humanist Unitarian Universalist (HUUmanists) Association

MISSION

The Humanist Unitarian Universalist (HUUmanists) Association is committed to Humanist principles of reason, compassion, and human fulfillment enumerated in the Humanist Manifestos and in the seven Principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association.  We seek (1) to promote a broad acceptance of Humanism in our society, particularly throughout the Unitarian Universalist Association and its congregations, and (2) to provide an active interface between Unitarian Universalists and the secular community.

CORE VALUES and ASPIRATIONS

We are Naturalists:  Although we do not consider Humanism to be a “religion” within the wide-spread use of the term to denote beliefs and practices resting on some hypothetical supernatural entity, we are “religious” in that we share with most Unitarian Universalists the natural human desires for a beloved and accepting community; a purpose greater than ourselves; rituals and practices that resonate with our common humanity and shared mortality; and opportunities to work with other tough-minded, warm-hearted people to do good in the world and to help one another attain the greatest possible fulfillment in life.  For these reasons most of us are members or friends of Unitarian Universalist congregations.

Facts not Faith:  We approach the natural world with profound humility and a deep sense of wonder, recognizing that the Human branch has only recently emerged on the ancient evolutionary tree.  We turn to established facts, not unsubstantiated faith, in our approach to reality.  We have a confirmed confidence in the collaborative methods of scientific inquiry, and in the accelerating accumulation of interconnected knowledge about our natural world and ourselves, which those methods continuously make possible.  We are committed to pursuing fact-based initiatives that will help sustain the planet, our environment, and humanity itself for the greatest number of future generations.

Free and Responsible Thought: We serve as the principal stewards of the Humanist heritage at the core of Unitarian Universalism, affirming our commitment to the values flowing from its rich history of free and responsible thought.  We are “secular” in the sense of being this-worldly, acknowledging only this life in this universe.  We actively foster, support, and publicize local secular and Humanist communities and enthusiastically encourage Unitarian Universalists everywhere to support their efforts; and we promise to work with both the secular and religious communities to end discrimination against non-theists.  In turn, we encourage non-theists of all stripes, within Unitarian Universalism and beyond, to “come out” regarding their non-theism.  We further believe that preserving the secular character of our democracy—maintaining the wall of separation between church and state—is a moral imperative.  Working closely with other secular and religious organizations, we will endeavor to mobilize the entire Unitarian Universalist community in defense of this cause.

Living with Joy and Love:  We espouse an “embodied” Humanism that celebrates the joy of lived experience and the importance of love in human relationships.  We value experience tempered with reason, knowing that we are hard-wired for empathy and compassion.  Learning to lead an ethical, Humanist life is both a moral and a biological imperative.  We also know that our lived experience as humans is deeply enriched by beauty, and that encouraging, experiencing, and participating in the arts and humanities help us all to celebrate our conviction that being alive is miracle enough.


I hope you'll agree that our aim is not to bash organized religion but rather to enthusiastically defend a religious perspective that is evolving from traditional religions, which retains the sense of beloved community but is freed from the burdens of supernatural assumptions.

Best,
John B. Hooper
President, HUUmanists Association
Humanist Unitarian Universalist
http://huumanists.org
[e-mail]
22 May 2013