All posts tagged humanism

Is naturalist spirituality an oxymoron?

January 6, 2009

(Note: If you’re wondering how this weekend’s retreat went, I’m working on a report – this post is kind of a warm-up. In the meantime, read Rik’s reflections on it.)

Is naturalist or humanist spirituality an oxymoron?

Tom Flynn seems to think so. And since he happens to be the new director of the Council for Secular Humanism, his opinion is of some moment.

In the latest edition of the Council’s “Secular Humanism Online News”, responding to an article on secularism in The American Spectator, he writes:

[Christopher] Orlet seems to find sincere, full-bore irreligiosity – the absence of any sense of a supra-natural aspect to life – almost incomprehensible, something there’s barely even a label for. Actually there are a couple of perfectly good labels for people who abstain from religion and spirituality. I’ve used one already: “scientific naturalist.” For another, I look no farther than my business card: “secular humanist.”

The way I read this passage, it seems he is equating “full-bore irreligiosity” with “[abstention] from religion and spirituality,” thereby suggesting spirituality is necessarily religious, or at least supernaturalistic.

But is it?

This is rather like the question of whether you can be a religious atheist. Both “religion” and “spirituality” are associated with supernaturalism, and yet both have their godless proponents who want to see the terms reclaimed – for example, Felix Adler (founder of the religion Ethical Culture) and André Comte-Sponville (author of The Little Atheist Book of Spirituality).

I disagree with the first quest. It seems quixotic to say the least, and I’m not sure the word “religion” is worth reclaiming even if it were possible – it has negative connotations even for many religious people. But I agree with the second.

Because “spirituality” seems like a truly useful collective term for one’s emotional, social, ethical, and even cognitive functioning as subjectively experienced. At the retreat on nontheism among Quakers this weekend, the most common description of spirituality was “connection” – feeling connected to other people and to the natural environment, along with being attentive to the present moment. I see nothing objectively mysterious or supernatural about any of these things, as mysterious as they might feel subjectively.

* *

And yet – one should use the word sparingly.

To quote James Riemermann again, writing on a different but related subject, “the word feels so terribly imprecise, and I can almost always find better ways to express myself.” If you’re about to say “spiritual” but you really just mean “ethical” or “emotional,” why not be specific?

Nontheism among Friends (Quakers), January 2-4

December 16, 2008

After New Year’s, Robin Alpern and I will be co-facilitating a retreat on Nontheism among Friends at Powell House near Albany.

(The link by the way goes to the Facebook event page.)

The full flyer text below the cut:

As early as 1976, the Friends General Conference Gathering hosted a well-attended Workshop for Nontheistic Friends. In the decades since, Friends have become increasingly aware of the theological diversity of our Religious Society. Through experience and statistical studies, we have learned a large proportion of our members and attenders are somewhere on a spectrum that includes postchristians, agnostics, atheists, secularists, humanists.

How can we be nontheists and Quakers too?

If our Quaker life is not centered on belief in God, what is our center?

What are our challenges?

How can theists and nontheists enrich each other while holding views that differ?

(continue reading…)

Center for Inquiry needs help

December 15, 2008

My favorite thinktank is in financial trouble! Just got the following email from Paul Kurtz:

Dear Friend:
The Center’s vision stands threatened by today’s worldwide financial crisis. The crisis has struck hard at the Center for Inquiry and its affiliate organizations — including the publishers of Free Inquiry and Skeptical Inquirer magazines. That is why I am appealing to you, dear friend, to help us overcome the grave fiscal crunch that the Center for Inquiry and its affiliates now face.

What do I mean by “grave”? I have completed a careful review of our finances. If we fail to raise an additional $865,000 by the end of the year, the Center for Inquiry and its affiliates will be compelled to enact harrowing cutbacks…cutbacks that will spare nothing, not even core operations. The Center for Inquiry has always depended on the support of readers and friends like you. With your generous support we have thrived; by that means we will survive our present adversity. We will survive — and so much more. But only if you help!

We believe that the Center for Inquiry has a vital role to play in our contemporary civilization. All too often we find ourselves the lone voice of rationality, surrounded by a discordant cacophony of faiths and irrational beliefs. We strive to promote scientific methodology and science education. We have a positive and affirmative message. President-elect Obama has said “all things are possible,” and we agree. We believe that human beings can and should strive to achieve the goals they consider worthy, no matter how difficult these may seem. This attitude that “all things are possible” is exemplified in the Center for Inquiry’s ambitious agenda: to defend reason, science, and freedom of inquiry even as we create new secular institutions as alternatives to the ancient religions.

Consider that the global community may actually be more receptive to secularism today than ever in history. Today’s economic predicament could not have struck at a more challenging time — or at a time when our ideals face so bright a potential.

Yes, “all things are possible,” but not without the financial resources to fund them. The vital work of the Center for Inquiry and its affiliates cannot be sustained without your support. Your generosity, in concert with that of other readers and friends, can prevent an intolerable outcome.

Please take a moment to watch this video to see what other secular scholars are saying about the Center for Inquiry and to remind yourself why our work here is so important.

On behalf of the entire staff of the Center for Inquiry and our associates and volunteers worldwide, I invite you to make your most generous possible contribution. Please, may we hear from you very, very soon?

Very sincerely yours,

Paul Kurtz
Founder and Chair
The Center for Inquiry

P.S. All contributions are fully tax exempt as provided by law.

To make a donation by phone please call 1-800-818-7071, or click here to download a pledge form and fax the completed form to (716) 636-1733.

These are the guys who put out the fantastic podcast Point of Inquiry. I’ve been thinking of joining them for awhile, and perhaps I will now… after some budgeting of my own.

Humanist Small Group turns 10

June 29, 2008

OK, not ten years, but the Humanist Small Group had its tenth meeting today, again at Andala in Cambridge near Central. Breaking from past tradition (appropriately no doubt), we read a text in advance — Sartre’s Existentialism is a Humanism — and mostly talked about the issues it raised: freedom of choice vs. determinism, morality without God, and whether human beings have an essence.

Towards the end one of the new participants “came out” as a Christian, which was nice, during a stretch of discussion of whether a religious person can fully experience ethical quandaries if they are distracted by irrelevant considerations from sacred texts or theology. Even before that revelation, there seemed to be general agreement that religious people would be welcome to come to our meetings if they were interested.

The group is hoping to expand, although if it becomes much larger it may need to divide to retain its “Small” and intimate character. The facilitator just launched a blog to publicize the group’s activities at humanistsoffline.org; if you’re interested in coming, stay tuned there, though it likely will be on July 13 at 12:30 at Andala again.

(While we’re on websites, group members also post about general humanist topics at humanismonline.org. I might start doing so there soon.)

A point about the reading under the cut: I was surprised how many people took Sartre to task for saying human beings did not have an essence. (continue reading…)

Quaker nontheism, membership, and the recent YAF conference

June 20, 2008

The interest group on nontheistic Quakerism I facilitated at the aforementioned young adult Quaker conference went rather well – a report may be coming on the Nontheist Friends website. (I posted one to the email list, but would want to edit it down a bit.)

Both the interest group and the conference generally changed something for me, and I find a new sense of commitment to the Quaker experiment.

I first started attending Quaker meetings back in 2002 at North Shore Friends Meeting in Beverly, Mass., and officially became a member a few years later. I’ve been living in the city for two years now, and in the past few weeks finally decided I really really felt right about transferring membership to Friends Meeting at Cambridge. I just sent North Shore a long letter of transfer, which is found under the cut.

(continue reading…)

Non-religious identification survey

June 17, 2008

How do nonreligious people identify themselves? Most religious surveys don’t look very closely at the nonreligious — the last Pew survey didn’t include the term “humanist,” for example. Personally, I like humanist, atheist or “nothing”, depending on the context.

So it’s good that a non-religious identification survey is being conducted by Dr. Luke Galen of Grand Valley State University. It aims to be

the first ever rigorous survey instrument designed specifically to gather demographic and attitudinal information exclusively about America’s non-religious community. Past surveys have been based on religious individuals, with the non-religious being little more than an afterthought. Professor Galen will begin data analysis soon, and later in 2008, he will give [Center for Inquiry Michigan] a special presentation to us on the results of the survey.

I got an invite through CFI and posted it somewhere for others, before realizing it was a unique URL meant for a single participant. (Oops.) The invite suggested the participant pool is restricted to members of atheist/etc. organizations (including members of their email lists, apparently), but if you really want to take it, try emailing survey@cfimichigan.org.

Young Quaker conference at Earlham

May 13, 2008

Later this month, May 23-26, a young adult Friends (YAF) conference is taking place at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. I’m going, and will be leading an interest group on theistic and nontheistic Quakerism in dialogue, if the organizers approve it.

Registration closes this week, so if you’re interested in going, hurry up!

Still mulling over what place (a) Quakerism, (b) humanism, and (c) just being a regular Joe each have in my life, but I feel a resolution (for the medium term anyway) coming soon.

Greg Graffin post is up

May 9, 2008

At Mind on Fire here.

“The stuff that really brings people together, and makes us happy to live together, originates from a caring and thoughtful mind that’s been exposed to many streams of education.”

That was the key point I took away from a presentation — talk, acoustic concert, and Q&A — by Greg Graffin, frontman and co-songwriter for the seminal punk band Bad Religion, who was honored with an award the Saturday before last at Harvard’s Memorial Church. (more…)

Posts on Mind on Fire

April 27, 2008

So in addition to the Leaving the Garden post, I’ll be covering for John the next few weeks at Mind on Fire by posting the next few Wednesdays.

Pending conversations with John, this Wednesday I’m planning to post about Greg Graffin’s talk and acoustic concert last night at the reception of the “Rushdie Award” given to him by Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy.

And next week I may post about an event at my college this week: a retrospective about a perfect storm of LGBT activism that took place on campus a year ago. Unless something else turns up between now and then.

(Now that I’ve gotten audio working again on my computer (h/t Elisa!) I hope to have more to post about music soon…)

Humanist Small Group notes

April 17, 2008

For a couple months now, a little group of people have been meeting biweekly under the name Humanist Small Group. It was started by a classicist and teaching fellow (I believe is his position) at Harvard who wanted regular fellowship with like-minded folks, more than was facilitated by the social events the Harvard humanist community hosts once a month or so.

Rick Heller has chronicled the last two meetings, the latter of which was this Saturday. As you can see, we covered a lot of standard ground, and more unexpectedly virtue ethics came up at a few points. As it did earlier this month when I stopped by the University of Chicago and sat in on a seminar by Deirdre McCloskey on virtue ethics, Christianity and capitalism. (Guess there’s more than one way to do it.)

I find all humanist/etc. groups to be fraught with theoretical difficulties. For example: Is any group labeled “humanist” a protest group against religion? If not, why does it exist? If so (and surely it is, if only to a very small degree), to what degree should religion and irreligion be a focus of conversation? But refreshingly, these have not seriously affected the actual meetings, and perhaps exist merely in my head.

A related issue that did come up, at the end, was the suggestion that the “humanist movement,” being full of individualistic, highly opinionated people, may never become unified and cohesive enough to be a real force in society. I made the suggestion that, perhaps, but perhaps there is room for more specialized groups within the wider movement. And of course there is Sam Harris’s suggestion that there be no movement at all.