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Humanists and atheists from East and West meet in Paris next week to forge a common platform against what they see as a growing threat from religions and religious politicians to secular states across the globe.
Their gathering, the World Humanist Congress, is timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the French Law on the Separation of Religion and State, a key document which set France alongside the United States as a bulwark of secularism.
“With US society sliding towards theocracy, and religious belief – even fundamentalism – on the rise in every continent we have to take a stand,” says Roy Brown, President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU).
The IHEU, which is organising the Congress together with the French freethinkers’ body Libre Pensee, is a global umbrella organisation for humanists, secularists and atheists and has 95 member organisations in 35 countries…
"European humanists, delighted at success in their campaign to keep any reference to a deity out of the troubled European Union constitution, were shaken at what many call the ‘media madness’ over the death of Pope John Paul II.
In protests to newspapers and broadcasting bodies, they argued that the saturation coverage of his funeral – and the inauguration of his successor – amounted to free advertising for Catholicism at the expense of rational thought.
Humanists note that his successor, Pope Benedict, has declared the Enlightenment “one of the greatest evils to have befallen mankind” and vowed to fight secularism.
Across the Atlantic, US humanists and atheists see Christian fundamentalists backing ‘born-again’ President George W. Bush extending their influence into the schools, science laboratories and even into famed museums.
They argue this is a threat to social harmony, setting the religious not only against non-believers but also against each other. “Surely we are on the brink of religious factionalism,” wrote Paul Kurtz, editor of the journal Free Inquiry. …
stuff.co.nz/stuff/0%2C2106%2C3332209a12%2C00.html
Their gathering, the World Humanist Congress, is timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the French Law on the Separation of Religion and State, a key document which set France alongside the United States as a bulwark of secularism.
“With US society sliding towards theocracy, and religious belief – even fundamentalism – on the rise in every continent we have to take a stand,” says Roy Brown, President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU).
The IHEU, which is organising the Congress together with the French freethinkers’ body Libre Pensee, is a global umbrella organisation for humanists, secularists and atheists and has 95 member organisations in 35 countries…
"European humanists, delighted at success in their campaign to keep any reference to a deity out of the troubled European Union constitution, were shaken at what many call the ‘media madness’ over the death of Pope John Paul II.
In protests to newspapers and broadcasting bodies, they argued that the saturation coverage of his funeral – and the inauguration of his successor – amounted to free advertising for Catholicism at the expense of rational thought.
Humanists note that his successor, Pope Benedict, has declared the Enlightenment “one of the greatest evils to have befallen mankind” and vowed to fight secularism.
Across the Atlantic, US humanists and atheists see Christian fundamentalists backing ‘born-again’ President George W. Bush extending their influence into the schools, science laboratories and even into famed museums.
They argue this is a threat to social harmony, setting the religious not only against non-believers but also against each other. “Surely we are on the brink of religious factionalism,” wrote Paul Kurtz, editor of the journal Free Inquiry. …
stuff.co.nz/stuff/0%2C2106%2C3332209a12%2C00.html
We thank the media for exercising its responsibility in this regard, and to the humanists I’ll put on my sandbox 101 hat and say, "nah, nah. Turns out you don’t completely control the media, do you? Your political correctness just can’t seem to make a dent in the eagerness for people to watch the glorious and wonderful traditions of the Catholic Church.
