The Humanist Advocate

Thou Shalt Ignore Stupidity

If we only could, right? The Louisiana legislature passed a bill this month that will allow a monument of the Ten Commandments to be placed on the capitol grounds in Baton Rouge. This falls under the guise that such a “serious” presentation will be in reference to the historical significance of this per the First Amendment or other such nonsense. You see, there are people who believe that without the Ten Commandments we may not have been able to come up with the laws we…

BOOK REVIEW: Are We Living in the End Times?

by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins Are We Living in the End Times? by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins is a comparatively light and readable introduction to “typical” End Times exegesis, if by “typical” one understands the Protestant, fundamentalist, and pre-millennial approach. At 370 pages it might appear lengthy, but the material is not at all dense, and is vastly more condensed than the thousands of pages these same authors have produced in their fictionalized version of the…

The Whole Enchilada

It’s pretty clear that secular, progressive citizens of Louisiana will not have any “wins” this year. What am I talking about, you ask? Here’s the big four bruises, so far, for this year: CREATIONISM: The repeal of the Louisiana Science Education Act did not make it out of committee despite Baton Rouge high school graduate Zach Kopplin’s most valiant efforts and the support he generated from forty Nobel Laureates. Here’s one example of the blow back our state can expect: “The…

To Mock or Not to Mock…

That is the question. And it seems to be a question of the minds of people who were concerned that our “Left Behind” activities would send the wrong message to the public about NOSHA and what we stand for. Are we mocking people and how does that promote respect and harmony? It’s a valid question even if you don’t feel we are doing anything to be ashamed of. (Which we aren’t IMHO.) A friend of mine, Jim, wrote a very…

Share The Good and The Bad

Good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. Most of us chalk it up to chance and luck. But one of the annoying comments that will come up every once in a while is the charge that because non-believers, atheists, secular humanists and others “of our ilk” don’t believe in magic, we must not know what it means to have traditions and share in the community at large. I know it’s part of psychology to distance ourselves from…

BOOK REVIEW: The Remarkable Birth of Planet Earth

by Henry M. Morris Henry M. Morris (d. 2006) is well known to creationists and creationist-debaters as a founding member of the Institute for Creation Research and as an author and co-author of books that are still heavily cited by creationists, most notably The Genesis Flood (1961) and the Troubled Waters of Evolution (1982). I was recently prompted to read one of his more obscure books, The Remarkable Birth of Planet Earth (1972), which Morris styled as “a brief summary…

BOOK REVIEW: Bright Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America

by Barbara Ehrenreich “Optimism is the opium of the people.” Milan Kundera, “The Joke” These words, written in an atmosphere of repression in Kundera’s 1960s Yugoslavia, illustrate the central point of Barbara Ehrenreich’s 2010 book Bright Sided: that positivity can be just as, if not more dangerous, than negativity. Specifically, she takes the reader on a journey into the positive thinking movement, from its beginnings in the 19th century in response to the dour “you’re evil and gonna burn” stance…

BOOK REVIEW: The Quotable Atheist: Ammunition for Non-Believers, Political Junkies, Gadflies, and Those Generally Hell-Bound

BOOK REVIEW: The Quotable Atheist: Ammunition for Non-Believers, Political Junkies, Gadflies, and Those Generally Hell-Bound

by Jack Huberman This book is awesome, and you will be highly enlightened by what thinkers of today and in the past have said regarding religion/God/science, etc. WARNING: This book is only for the open-minded! Here is one of many of the gems I found in this book of 333 pages and over 1,200 quotes! You don’t think religion is dangerous? Consider this: “Every fatih has its share of literalists … But only within Islam is literalism fast becoming mainstream….

Saying Goodbye To Our NOSHA Friends

In the past month, two members of our community died only a few weeks apart and we should take a moment to remember them fondly. First, there was Tina Lovine Missildine from Marrero, age 48, who died on January 21. Tina had attended our first NOSHA banquet in 2009 with Percy Prestenbach and had been a long time member. Next there was Scott Major who died on February 3 after a brief illness. Many of you met Scott (who also attended our first NOSHA banquet with his…

The Next Thirty Years?

In October 2010, I attended my first ever major non-believers conference, “Setting the Agenda: Secular Humanism’s Next 30 Years,” which was sponsored as a subscribers’ conference for the magazine, Free Inquiry. Since I’ve been a subscriber for at least 15 years, this seemed like a good fit for me. I was eager because there was a remarkable list of secular celebrities on the program and it was touted as a definitive event. To give you one humorous glimpse into the…

1 … 21 22 23 … 27