Posted on April 16, 2014 by David
Last night at the Discussion Group Meeting of the Concord Area Humanists, the subject of justice came up and it was apparent that most people in this group were not aware of an alternative justice system called Restorative Justice. So I thought I would present a very basic tutorial. Read more about Humanism and Restorative Justice »
Posted on March 30, 2014 by David
As Humanists, it should go without saying that we should be concerned about Human Rights. The first thing necessary about “being concerned” is objective viewpoints. The media often presents us viewpoints about Human Rights in Russia, or Cuba, or China. And while many of these Human Rights articles give us viewpoints, often they are not objective but are subjective. But seldom does the media give us viewpoints on Human Rights regarding the United States. (I want to say “never”, but I never say “never”.) Read more about Humanism and Human Rights and the US »
Posted on March 24, 2014 by David
As some of you may know, I define Humanism as encompassing “all that it means to be human”. This, of course, includes science, but it also includes the non-rational mind of the creative, the social, the psychological, and all of those subjects that the universities include in their “Humanities” subjects like art, literature, history, etc. (Humanism is soooo much more than pro-science and anti-religion.) And it also includes all of the efforts included in the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). As such, I subs Read more about Humanities and Humanism »
Posted on March 10, 2014 by David
A few nights ago, those of us at Concord Area Humanists had a speaker, Tom Clark, discuss free will and determinism (among other topics of Naturalism). I’m not going to say that I followed everything he said, but I wanted to present my theoretical model that I have created which allows me to accept both free will and determinism without any distortions to my worldview. Read more about Free Will and Determinism »
Posted on March 3, 2014 by David
“Enough is Enough” by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill
(Book Review by David Kimball) Read more about "Enough is Enough" Book Review »
Posted on February 25, 2014 by David
Remember, “If you ask the wrong questions, you never have to worry about the answers.” This is one of those unanswerable questions because there are so many definitions of “worship” that there is no definition for “worship”. The Old Testament Jews had many prophets (Major and Minor Prophets) but they didn’t “worship” any of them. The New Testament tells of John the Baptist as a prophet, but he was not worshipped. Jesus was worshipped as being both a man and a god even though he never wrote anything. However the Muslims treat Jesus as a prophet and not to be wor Read more about Do We Humanists “Worship” Darwin? »
Posted on February 13, 2014 by David
This week, there was a debate of Biblical proportions. Actually the debate wasn't as grandiose as the controversy surrounding the question, “Should Bill Nye participate in a debate with Ken Ham?” (Also known as the “Ham on Nye” debate.) Since the debate has already happened, that question is moot. Read more about A Humanist’s View of the Debate of Ham on Nye »
Posted on February 8, 2014 by David
First, a definition of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) from the NGO.org site: “A non-governmental organization (NGO) is any non-profit, voluntary citizens' group which is organized on a local, national or international level. Task-oriented and driven by people with a common interest, NGOs perform a variety of service and humanitarian functions, bring citizen concerns to Governments, advocate and monitor policies and encourage political participation through provision of information. Read more about Humanitarian NGOs are Grassroots Organizations »
Posted on February 3, 2014 by David
Many of us have an image of shamans as people, usually in a pre-literate society, who would have an apparent resource pool of knowledge and/or wisdom to be shared with the rest of the immediate tribe, culture, or society. These might be the Native American medicine men, or the shamans of Northern Europe before the periods of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. They might be called on to know the use of certain medicinal herbs and vegetation, or they might be considered the bridge between the regular society and the supernatural world that was not known to the ordinary members Read more about Modern Day Shamans »
Posted on January 28, 2014 by David
Tonight, Tue Jan 28, 2014, the Concord Area Humanists had their Small Discussion Group at the Concord Library. The goal at the meeting was to rank several issues for future discussions. Although there was much discussion on many topics, I’m not sure that it led to any ranking. Read more about Industry and Climate Change »