BOOK REVIEW: Why Evolution is True

by Jerry A. Coyne Well, I am not science-inclined, but I have always felt woefully uneducated in the topic of evolution. It is such a hot topic in education and religion, I felt I owed it to myself to get the facts. Fortunately, this book is very easy to understand for the “non-science” types. Plus, right on the back cover are glowing recommendations from three of my favorite authors, Dawkins, Hitchens, and Pinker. That was enough to convince me to […]

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Would a Secular Majority Make a Better America?

NOSHA’s president, Harry Greenberger, made this presentation to the Lakeview Community Unitarian Church here in New Orleans in November and we wanted to let everyone who couldn’t be there that day read what he had to say on this important topic. ****************************** Would a Secular Majority Make a Better America? By Harry Greenberger All recent U. S. surveys have shown that non-believers and non-church-goers are rapidly increasing in numbers, yet are still below 20% of our adult population. When I […]

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BOOK REVIEW: C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy

by Jeff Sharlet This book is fascinating and a fast read. I finished it in four days. The book is divided into six chapters, each focusing on a different goal of “The Family,” the group of fundamentalist U.S. Senators and Representatives, and others, who meet in a house on C Street in Arlington, Virgina, to study the Bible and talk about how to influence domestic and international politics with “the teachings of Jesus.” The chapter on the proselytization of Africa […]

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BOOK REVIEW: Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment

by Phil Zuckerman Is it possible to live a good, moral life and not be religious? Of course, it is, claims the author of this book! Phil Zuckerman spent a year living in Denmark with jaunts over to nearby Sweden to interview hundreds of Scandinavians about their religious beliefs. What he discovered first and foremost is that the Scandinavians view religion as a private matter. What one personally believes about god and religion has absolutely no impact on other people’s […]

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BOOK REVIEW: The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

by Sam Harris All in all, I enjoyed this book. Some parts got very philosophical, so I really had to slow down, sometimes re-reading a paragraph, or even a page or two! The best chapter in the book is “What’s Wrong With Islam?” The chapter went into great depth trying to explain the history of Islam and what it’s trying to achieve in this 21st century. It helped me better understand the clash between Islam and the modern world. The […]

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The F Word

It seems that we should keep this list tucked back in our memory. Don’t know much about fascism…well, let’s help you out a little. The 14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism(From Free Inquiry, Spring 2003)Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found fourteen defining characteristics common to each: 1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism – Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, […]

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Ways to support the goals of NOSHA and secular humanism in our community

Ways to Support the Goals of NOSHA! 1) Be a good person that you are and also be open about your atheism to others. * When appropriate, wear symbols that identify your beliefs. For example, the atheist “A,” or other images from the Freethought movement are available. You can also buy items with the NOSHA logo. * If someone asks you which church you attend, don’t become defensive or shy. Just matter-of-factly say that you don’t go to church, because […]

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Celebrate National Day of Reason 2010!

We’ll have a special happy hour in May to commemorate “National Day of Reason.” Instead of our regular Wednesday gathering, we’re moving it one day to Thursday this month so we can recognize one of our major secular days of the year. The purpose of the National Day of Reason is to celebrate reason—a concept all Americans can support—and to raise public awareness about the persistent threat to religious liberty posed by government intrusion into the private sphere of worship. […]

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Cultivate Your Garden….by Michael Shermer

Cultivate Your GardenHow a lack of control leads to superstition and what can be done about it (published February 2010 in Scientific American) Imagine a time in your life when you felt out of control—anything from getting lost to losing a job. Now look at the Figure 1 on this page. What do you see? Such a scenario was presented to subjects in a 2008 experiment by Jennifer Whitson of the University of Texas at Austin and her colleague Adam […]

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Learning more about Easter….

Active NOSHA member, Robert Carver, got his letter published in the Houma newspaper and it has caused a stir IF you are NOSHA Google Group member. Decide for yourself! Easter practices based in paganism I read the stories in the paper about Good Friday with interest especially the one about the reenactment in Dulac. The faithful in these reenactments are fascinating since they are commemorating a mythical event as if it were a historical fact. Easter was celebrated long before […]

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