«
»

Atheists Need to Improve Awareness of Good Deeds

Thanks to Ned from the local atheist meet up I saw an article that asserts Atheism’s moral philosophy not consistent with Baylor’s mission, or so says Dr. Roger Olson, a professor of theology in George W. Truett Theological Seminary.

Here is his message in a nut shell:

Christians should be the last people to persecute anyone—including atheists. But that doesn’t mean Christians have to accommodate atheism as they tolerate and love atheists.

So far, at least, atheists haven’t demonstrated their concern for others in any organized way.

Except when the AHA and other atheist organizations collected donations from atheists to support disaster relief after the Tsunami struck and after Hurrican Katrina. Nor do we organize to email or write our congressional representatives against laws we disagree with especially laws that take civil liberties away from us and our fellow citizens. There is Camp Quest for secular kids and we also have Humanist Celebrants who provide Humanist, nonreligious, and interreligious weddings, memorials, baby naming, and other life-cycle ceremonies. I think atheists have done as good a job as any group at working to protect their fellow citizens in an organized way.

I only hope we continue to move in the same spirit of cooperation that we have been moving lately because then the nation will be even more aware of the moral and dignified character of their atheist neighbors. Perhaps at that point we can hope to overcome some of the fear that Dr. Olsen so obviously feels towards us and that many others seem to share. I look forward to a day that we don’t need to drag our good works out to prove our morality but I can testify with the best of them if that is what we need to do.

Share|
This entry was posted by Lisa on October 18, 2007 at 4:18 pm and is filed under General. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
  • Francis

    This is incorrect and possibly even insulting towards Humanism:
    .
    “Except when the AHA and other atheist organizations …”
    .
    It implies that AHA is a member of a class called atheist organizations.
    .
    The AHA is not an atheist organization.
    .
    The AHA has never been an atheist organization.
    .
    AHA stands for Humanism, and always has.
    .
    Humanism does not fall into a category based on any god-belief. Baylor U. does, because Baylor is committed to trinitarian Christianity. FFRF does, because it is committed to opposing organized religion. The AHA is not committed to either of these positions, nor is it committed to atheism.
    .
    Humanism is not occupied with metaphysical speculations about the existence or non-existence of things. Humanism is occupied with ethics. The knowledge of right and wrong.
    .
    Believers and disbelievers in various dogmas such as dogmas about gods are welcome to their views but these are not Humanism.
    .
    Humanism is an ethical process through which we can move above and beyond the dogmatic assertions of past religions, OR THEIR MERE NEGATION.
    .
    Who says so? The AHA said so, in 1973. Read Humanist Manifesto 2.
    .
    Is there any mention at all, in any of the three Manifestos, of atheism? Huh? Read them and see.
    .
    .

  • Lisa

    I suppose I should have said Atheist, Freethought, Humanist, and Skeptic organizations a group of which the AHA would fall into. I used atheist as the shorthand because that was in my head. Because of the recent debate about Sam Harris’ suggestion that we not use that word.

    I’m actually more interested in hearing about what other organizations have done or how we publicize our own good deeds better so that our morality as Atheist, Freethought, Humanist, and Skeptics isn’t called into question so freely.

  • Francis

    Sam Harris? *snort*. His objection to “atheist” is based its questions of social acceptability. As if public relations is the problem.

    Ellen Johnson is stuck with the necessity to defend the word because her organization was saddled with it from its birth. She deserves sympathy, not support.

    Where do Humanists stand? If they are wise they will stand aside from the whole brouhaha. It’s not our war.

    Humanism is not a derivative of theist religion nor of a rejection of same. Humanism stands on its own feet as a new religious worldview that derives ethics without supernatural referents.

    Humanism’s foremost theoretician so far may well be Julian Huxley, and his papers in periodicals such as Hibbert Journal, and his books such as “The Humanist Frame,” make clear his view of Humanism: the foundation for an alternative to replace existing religions.

    It’s a diversion and a misuse of resources to get involved in discussing or debating the wastelands we have left behind. When you’re en route to the promised land it isn’t smart to pine for Egypt – nor to be occupied with condemning it. Humanism looks to the future, and asserts that this century can be, should be and will be the humanistic century. Read the 1973 Manifesto!

    Organized Humanism was born out of the shared wisdom of those who gathered at the University of Chicago School of Religion around 1928. They knew they were creating something new and worthwhile. And their Humanism is very American, not built on campfire tales of desert nomads in the Bronze Age.

    Huxley spearheaded the founding of the IHEU in 1952, and Humanists today can take pleasure in the universality of worldwide Humanism. Since Humanism has never split as Christianity split in 1054, Humanism is today truly universal – i.e. catholic, more cathloic indeed than the Christian entity that pretentiously calls itself by that word.

    Humanism has clear distinct identity, standing apart from theism, atheism and everything else. Therefore we do well to avoid being lumped in with any of them. We can only lose by doing so. Humanism is distinct from them all.

    So let Humanists now follow the recommendation of the IHEU and identify Humanism with a capital H and no adjective. It has earned it and it’s worth it.

  • Francis

    Lisa posts:
    “I

  • Lisa

    I sure a lot of groups have been doing good works and not getting attention. But I would even bet that some of the Atheist groups etc that you Francis don’t seem to care much for have done good works as well. You see that is sort of the point. We don’t have to scratch any of us too deep to see the good work we do. With or without religion.

  • Francis

    Of course atheists, Mormons, Baptists and other non-Humanist groups do good work. However this list is not sponsored by atheists, Mormons or Baptists. This is a Humanist organization’s list, not an atheist, Mormon or Baptist list. However, let’s give credit to all persons of all faiths who rally to fulfill needs of their fellow human beings in a crisis.

    In San Diego right now there are a half million refugees from the disastrous wildfires. Hundreds of homes are being destroyed. Remarkable offers of help are forthcoming from many organizations of many faiths.

    A member of the Brights has today set up a free information-sharing website to serve victims of the fire so that information about relief and insurance issues and so on can be shared.

    The Mormons, to their great credit, sent a fleet of trucks from Utah loaded with tons of food and other necessities to the stricken community yesterday. We Humanists are not asked to approve of their religion but when they act like Humanists and are moved by compassion to act generously let us praise their response.

    A leader in the local Humanist community, Susi Reed, is one of the persons living in the endangered areas, and has had to leave her home. However, at least Susi left voluntarily. There are hundreds of thousands of refugees who have been ordered by police to abandon their homes.

    This policy of compelled evacuation is draconian but the fact is it is working. When a region is cleared of people the fire crews can move in and work without needing to perform rescue operations. Last time we suffered a bad wildfire, fourteen persons died. This fire, much worse, has taken only one life.

    And good works are being done by all groups.

  • Lisa

    Actually some good works are done by individuals and not all individuall are part of groups unless you need to argue that being human or alive is being part of a group.

    But basically you make the point quite well, when people organize they generally do so to achieve what they think is for moral reasons. So they get together to do good.

    My point was that groups like Atheist Alliance Intl., Freedom from Religion Foundation, American Atheist, the Institute for Humanist Studies and the Humanist Institute as well as the Secular Coalition without even attempting to name all of the Atheist, Freethought, Humanist, and Skeptic works that are being done by those types of groups and I’d like to hear more about their works.

    Although it wasn’t necessarily was I was getting at some of these groups work with religious groups and some don’t. But it would be wonderful if we could see more cooperation either between Atheist, Freethought, Humanist, and Skeptic groups or between Atheist, Freethought, Humanist, and Skeptic and religious groups.

  • Francis

    Lisa: ” … it would be wonderful if we could see more cooperation either between Atheist, Freethought, Humanist, and Skeptic groups … ”

    Why?

  • Lisa

    Well, one such collaboration brought us The Secular Coalition of America which has done a great deal both politically and in terms of public outreach in raising awareness of our issues. Groups working together created the very successful conference for the 30th anniversary of the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard and although it was the Atheist Alliance Internationals conference, WASH and others were volunteering and there was cooperation amoung many groups in attendance.

    As Lori Lipman Brown said in her post Does size matter? when it comes to clout in Congress, and in society

  • Francis

    What’s this?

    ” …

  • Lisa

    Well Francis I’d like to say “You go, Girl” but I don’t wish to offend you but I hope you understand and appreciate the sentiment.

  • Francis

    You know, I have been wondering about all this frantic quest to be “non-theists” or “atheists” or whatever. and I think maybe I have figured it out.

    So many good and decent people are struggling with their childhood indoctrination. They really think they need to be atheists in order to shake off the superstitions of theism.

    Maybe I’m exceptional. Maybe I’m just lucky. Maybe the gods smiled upon me (okay, let’s drop that one.)

    I don’t think I was ever a theist. Oh sure, I probably went through all the motions and lip service demanded of me as a kid. But no alleged “God” was ever real to me.

    And since I was never a theist, what sense would it make to claim to deny what I never believed?

    But lots of people are passionate about being atheists. Funny thing but they don’t seem to need to get exercised about the need to deny Zeus, Krishna or L. Ron Hubbard. Why?

    It’s because they are not yet free from their childhood indoctrination. They have to keep fighting the theist crap in their heads. I don’t, thank – oops, almost said it.

    I think when you really kill off that Yahweh, Jesus and Mary in your mind you will be able to say, not “He doesn’t exist, oh no no no” but – “Who cares? It’s a meaningless non-issue” and move on.

    And don’t give me that stuff about how many fundies vote. They are a political issue, not a theological issue. They just use poor old Jesus as their excuse to be the jerks they are, and if he returns to Earth soon he will be mightily pissed off at them for it.

  • Martin White

    Gee, Francis, for someone trying never to talk about religion, to never think about it, to move on, on – you seem to refer to it quite a bit, and even have that Jesus figure coming back to earth at the end. To become an atheist is a remarkable achievement for humans steeped in ubiquitous religious indoctrination, that is intensely powerful in its majority Christian incarnation in this country. Religion theism is the elephant in the room of ethics, both in history and now, and to try to ignore the elephant is damn hard to do. Funny, you still, after all the cantankerousness, still sound like an atheist to me.

  • Francis

    I don’t think it is any big deal to become free of theistic superstition. It is just cleaning the garbage out of your mind and getting back to the healthy state you were born in – a free human being open to learn.

    I suspect that atheists who make a big deal of being atheists are in the same bag as theists who make a big deal of being theists. They are flip sides of the same coin. Neither is yet free enough to ditch all that stuff.

    When you encounter an anti-gay who makes a big production of opposing homosexual rights, you can often see a person whose own homosexuality is bubbling under the surface. Maybe that’s the way it is with vociferous atheists – they are bottling up their own hidden fear that maybe, just maybe, there really is that awful God that gives them nightmares.

  • Martin White

    1. If not such a big deal, why don’t more of our fellow Americans do so?
    2. No, vociferous atheists are not “flip side of the same coin.” That’s absolute balderdash. If you see Michel Onfray as the flip side of one of your precious fundies, like the Washington evangelical Ted something or other who is the guru of Hillary Clinton, Sam Brownback, Al Gore, and all the other Washington power-mad dolts, then you have forfeited all pretense to use of intellectual judgment. I have heard this utterly specious alignment before, mostly from religious schemers trying to equate Richard Dawkins with the lunatic Rick Warren types, and it is just absurd. One is one, one is the other. As for the psychological speculation about the motivation of said vociferous atheists, who seem to be the only ones who had fun in last year’s culture war, that may pass muster in the pseudo-therapy charlatan wing of public debate, but you should rest assured that those pesky brave atheists actually do recognize that the wonderful human brain gives us powerful nightmares, but it has yet to produce a living God, at least one that would help with the bills.

  • Francis

    “1. If not such a big deal, why don

  • mjosef

    Okay, your turf, you get the last word. I know of no atheists who posit “only one theos,” whatever that is. Perhaps I do not know too many of them, perhaps I am not paying sufficient attention. Can you tell me where I can find the bulk order for theoses – theoses.com? Will they help me clean around the house? Can they improve my sex life?
    All right, when you go quoting marriage counselors, you did lose me. Love is love, hate is hate, and everybody should know the difference – I want my hundred bucks per hour back.