Monthly Archives: September 2007

An Interview with Lori Lipman Brown

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Celebrating Her Second Anniversary As Director of the Secular Coalition for America Lori Lipman Brown is a former Nevada State Senator, private practice lawyer and law professor. Her legislative record in the arenas of public education, mental health care and the repeal of consensual sex crimes resulted in her being named Civil Libertarian of the Year by the Southern Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and Legislator of the Year by the Nevada chapter of the National Association … Read on…

Candide Gets A Puppy

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Eight years had passed since Voltaire abandoned Candide, his wife, the once-lovely Miss Cunégonde, and their companions on a small farm not too distant from Constantinople to “cultivate the garden.” Miss Cunégonde had grown less attractive in countenance and temperament, and Dr. Pangloss, as hard as he tried, could not free himself of the philosophical pursuit of the nature of good and evil and the best of all possible worlds. Old Martin, the philosophical Mr. Hyde to Pangloss’ Dr. Jekyll, … Read on…

Elements of Atheism

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So what is this atheism that upsets so many people, East and West? It is really just the refusal to believe in God because of the absence of sufficient reasons. It is a non-belief, not something believed to be the case. Thus there can be atheists with a great variety of different outlooks on innumerable topics. They are all united on just one pretty minimalist proposition—”I do not believe in God.”    Very little follows from this as far as … Read on…

An Interview with Jim Haught

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James A. Haught was born in 1932 in a small West Virginia farm town that had no electricity or paved streets.  He graduated from a rural high school that had 13 students in the senior class.  He came to Charleston, worked as a delivery boy, then became a teen-age apprentice printer at the Charleston Daily Mail in 1951.  Developing a yen to be a reporter, he volunteered to work without pay in the Daily Mail newsroom on his days off, … Read on…

An American Theocracy?

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I am a humanist. I don’t believe in an anthropomorphic divine presence that created or controls my life. I believe that I can live my life ethically and morally without any ‘divine’ guidance. Like religionists, (and to quote from dissenting Judge Fernandez in the 9th Circuit’s Pledge of Allegiance case) I also feel ‘awe at the immenseness of the universe and our own small place within it, as well as the wonder we must feel at the good fortune of … Read on…

On High Trilogy

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Afternoon Flight I’m sorry I’ll miss the meeting. But I’ve heard the wind, I’ve seen the clouds And I’m going to the sky. I’m trading in drudgery’s demands For a sleek plane that heeds my commands. Where cumulus boil and cirrus flee. Where sun turns rain into diamonds across my canopy. In the infinite expanse of cerulean blue, Move over, god, I’ve serious work to do. Pitching and rolling and dancing the afternoon away.

A Humanist Hymn

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As the sun sets, my twenty mile pilgrimage begins, out to the sanctity of dark skies, away from city lights. My favorite music prepares my mind as I pass the last yellow blinking light at a tiny community’s crossroad. To my right the last vestige of warm orange color is on the horizon, above it the atmosphere is deep blue; still visibly colored but translucent, blending to starlit black overhead. The ceiling of my sanctuary is studded with stars, my … Read on…

Retort To The Irrationalist

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Puzzling, it’s really puzzling. The backwardness of the self-limiting mind is what I’m referring to. I have a friend who, while disparaging me for not “opening my mind” to the paranormal realms, considers my science learning to be dull and dry. Another friend thinks that he can enjoy a sunset better than I by not cluttering up his mind with technical facts. He thinks my knowledge reduces my ability to engage in transcendence! They used to fool me. Try as … Read on…

A Visit With Mother

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  The ocean is a high contact sport. Expect to wrestle a wave. Expect to be tackled, lifted up, tossed aside. Waves sprint and jockey each other to the shore. Cresting, they swap twelve-foot high fives. Boys play tag with icy waves. Their cries of surprise compete with seagulls. A toddler in pink totters toward starlings holding their convention on the sand. Her face beams as she waves to each bird.