Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Speaking about Humanism

Today I visited Eagle's Trace retirement community, where I was invited to speak about Humanism. They have a group that discusses religion and religious issues. They had discussed Christianity, Judaism, and other beliefs in the past but some of the members were Humanists and requested the topic be addressed. Everyone was very friendly and it was a great experience. After I finished a cursory overview of Humanism, we spent most of the time in question & answer. Some I could tell were very amenable to the ideas in Humanism and some gave me more challenging questions, which are good to hear too. I even ran into a friend I originally met through my local Humanist organizations, who is living there now. We also discussed a number of other philosophies I brought up because I feel they help to 'round out' and fill in a lot of life guidance for naturalists such as Humanists. There was at least one woman in the group who was very excited by ideas of interconnectedness. Another woman I met is a Christian humanist who has a very liberal take on Christianity. I don't know if she was a naturalist per se, but would certainly share a lot of perspectives on compassion and other ethics with me and other Humanists, I'm sure. I'm grateful to Mary Kate Kell, who invited me, and to everyone else for having me.

On a side note, I've recently discovered a wonderful article at the Huffington Post: Beyond the Theism/Atheism Divide: A Plea for Humility.


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