NEXT MEETING:

September 8, 2010

Gary Bauslaugh will speak on "Robert Latimer: A Study of Justice and Mercy."

Everyone welcome

Your comments and questions are always encouraged!

Join us at at The Cross Cultural Learner Centre, 505 Dundas St. in London (Ontario) at 7:30 p.m. Please enter off the parking lot at the back. All welcome. Donation of $2 at the door.

FUTURE MEETINGS:

October 13, 2010
Topic TBA

Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance affirming that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality.

Declaration of Humanist Principles:

(1) Humanism aims at the full development of every human being.

(2) Humanists uphold the broadest application of democratic principles in all human relationships.

(3) Humanists advocate the use of the scientific method, both as a guide to distinguish fact from fiction and to help develop beneficial and creative uses of science and technology.

(4) Humanists affirm the dignity of every person and the right of the individual to maximum possible freedom compatible with the rights of others.

(5) Humanists acknowledge human interdependence, the need for mutual respect and the kinship of all humanity.

(6) Humanists call for the continued improvement of society so that no one may be deprived of the basic necessities of life, and for institutions and conditions to provide every person with opportunities for developing their full potential.

(7) Humanists support the development and extension of fundamental human freedoms, as expressed in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and supplemented by UN International Covenants comprising the United Nations Bill of Human Rights.

(8) Humanists advocate peaceful resolution of conflicts between individuals, groups, and nations.

(9) The humanist ethic encourages development of the positive potentialities in human nature, and approves conduct based on a sense of responsibility to oneself and to all other persons.

(10) A fundamental principle of humanism is the rejection of beliefs held in absence of verifiable evidence, such as beliefs based solely on dogma, revelation, mysticism or appeals to the supernatural.

(11) Humanists affirm that individual and social problems can only be resolved by means of human reason, intelligent effort, critical thinking joined with compassion and a spirit of empathy for all living beings.

(12) Humanists affirm that human beings are completely a part of nature, and that our survival is dependent upon a healthy planet which provides us and all other forms of life with a life-supporting environment.

The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment is published quarterly in February, May, August and November.

Quotations

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
G.B. Shaw from "Man and Superman"

Thomas Edison wrote: "I cannot believe in the immortality of the soul...No, all this talk of an existence for us, as individuals, beyond the grave is wrong. It is born out of our tenacity of life - our desire to go on living - our dread of coming to an end."
New York Times 1910

In 1846, Emily Bronte wrote: "Vain are a thousand creeds that move men's hearts, unutterably vain, worthless as wither'd weeds."

Sigmund Freud wrote in a letter to a friend: "Neither in my private life nor in my writings, have I ever made a secret of being an out-and-out unbeliever."

Albert Einstein wrote: "I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own - a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear of ridiculous egotism."
New York Times 1930

In a 1930 speech in Toronto, Clarence Darrow said: "I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose."

Bertrand Russell wrote in 1930: "My own view of religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race."

Thomas Paine wrote in The Age of Reason: "All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

We have More Quotations.