This is the weekly summary of the Humanist Network News (HNN). The Humanist Network News (HNN) is published every Wednesday via e-mail and on the Institute for Humanist Studies (IHS) Web site. This diary is a slightly reformatted copy of the weekly email they send me, which I post here every Thursday (Yes, I have permission from the IHS). (CP @ MLW, BT, SP)
December 7, 2005
Humanist Network News
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- Got secular holiday traditions? Call HNN listener line
- Humanist holiday gift ideas
- Atheists making Falwell’s (X-mas) dreams come true
- Is phony X-mas controversy rousing real discrimination?
- Rationally Speaking: How to change a mind
- Human Rights Day–How About Sex?
- Celibate from…?
- Book Review: A Matter of Opinion
- Film Review: Walk the Line
- Sweet Reason, how can I get along with nosy believers?
- Letters to the Editor
- Cathartic Comics
- Humanist Humor
- Poll of the Week
Summaries, links and MY TAKE across the break.
1. Got secular holiday traditions? Call HNN listener line
Call the HNN comment line (206-339-4168) to share your secular holiday traditions. Select voice recordings will be included in the next audio HNN. MORE
MY TAKE: I was raised Catholic, so I was raised celebrating Christmas. My wife’s family is kind of a non-denominational Christian lot, so she, too, has always celebrated Christmas. Even though my wife and I are secular humanists, we still celebrate a secular Christmas. We usually get a tree, hang stockings, put up lights, do gift exchanges, attend parties (including a Wiccan friend’s Solstice party), and even sing carols.
2. Humanist holiday gift ideas
Still looking for the perfect gift for your freethinking friend, family member or significant other? Here are some ideas. MORE
MY TAKE: My wife and I get seem to get a new Darwin Fish from evolvefish.com every year, and after a few months it gets ripped off our car. Kind of rude.
3. Atheists making Falwell’s (X-mas) dreams come true
An atheist group has actually declared “war on Christmas.” MORE
MY TAKE: Idiotas! These are the kind of people that give the rest of us atheists a bad name.
4. Is phony X-mas controversy rousing real discrimination?
Tim Gordinier, IHS public policy director, takes a look at Bill O’Reilly’s “war on Christmas” hype. MORE
MY TAKE: Another well reasoned argument by Gordinier. He never disappoints. I did a parody piece on the “war on Christmas” at Booman Tribune last Sunday: Help Put The Cross Back In Crossing.
5. Rationally Speaking: How to change a mind
Rationally Speaking blogger Massimo Pigliucci muses on Changing Minds, a book by Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner that deals with the human willingness (or unwillingness) to change our minds. MORE
MY TAKE: Sounds like a book the Democratic leadership needs to read.
6. Human Rights Day–How About Sex?
December 12 is International Human Rights Day. And along with many other noble statements in support of human rights, Sexual Intelligence publisher Marty Klein wants to hear a few statements in support of sexual rights. MORE
MY TAKE: This is one of the most succinct and well worded arguments I have heard: “…the expression of consensual sexuality is a fundamental human right — and that every one of us deserves that right without government interference or social hysteria.”
7. Celibate from…?
Canadian columnist Doug Thomas examines the Catholic Church’s celibacy rules. MORE
MY TAKE: When will the Roman Catholic Church simply let priests (and nuns) marry? Many other denominations do. Most of the Apostles were married. As Dan Brown has pointed out, there is not even definitive proof that Jesus himself was not married. Originally, the ban on priestly marriage was an effort by the church to prevent church money and property from being passed to a priest’s family as an inheritance. Is that really a concern today? I don’t think so.
8. Book Review: A Matter of Opinion
David A. Niose reviews A Matter of Opinion, by Victor S. Navasky of The Nation. MORE
MY TAKE: Navasky is the publisher emeritus of “The Nation”, so the book is part personal memoir, part history of “The Nation”. The reviewer says that the book should appeal to liberals, but is also quite flawed. I probably wont read it.
9. Film Review: Walk the Line
Carolyn Braunius reviews Walk the Line, a film about Johnny Cash. MORE
10. Sweet Reason, how can I get along with nosy believers?
A freethinking divorcee in the Bible Belt, who prefers that beliefs about religion be kept personal, needs help avoiding nosy folks who think church is the place to meet a special someone. MORE
11. Letters to the Editor
We have tons on letters on O’Reilly, the recent audio HNN, God would be an atheist, student displays of religion and much MORE
12. Cathartic Comics
…an assortment of cartoons and comic strips about humanism, atheism, religion, science and freethought. READ THEM
13. Humanist Humor
Want to hear another Internet creation myth? GET THE JOKE
14. Poll of the Week
Should the U.S. government continue to recognize Christmas as a federal holiday? CAST YOUR VOTE
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The IHS promotes nonreligious perspectives on social, political, and ethical issues and serves as a resource for and about the humanist community. Questions, comments, concerns, got a better joke or a story? Send a letter to the editor.
If anything here interests you, or if you are one of those people who doesn’t “get” humanism, you may also be interested in my diary on what secular humanism is and what it is like to be a secular humanist in today’s political climate: I Am The Boogeyman.