In-Sight Publishing

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/14

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Any family background in humanism?

Nabina Maharjan: Most of my family members are Hindu and Buddhist. But at one point, they went beyond religion. I could say they made decisions towards something like humanism. There are lots of non-believer beliefs that family members in my generation ignore.

Jacobsen: What was the moment of humanist awakening for you?

Maharjan: Nepal is also known as religious country. My family also religious and in our community, religious activities teaches from childhood. Whether its worship a concept of God or goddess or believing in it. I was also religious during my childhood days. After my higher education, I started working. During my working time I met many people, I try to being socialize. When I was thinking about life and during social activities, I use my logic. Most of time, I feel awkward and uncomfortable being doing religious work or such unbelief matters. I feel that I am attracting people to show what I am doing, which I do not like. I always try to find an answer behind ‘No’. Which made my family and other irritate, I believe in every No there is an answer.

Later I am involved in Society for Humanism (SOCH) Nepal. I read about humanism, its principles and philosophy. It is very new and hot cake for me at that time. Slowly I realise internally all those feeling that I have is called humanism and somewhere I have humanism. Specially headed in mind the word Human and we all human are equal .Where I don’t have to be a Human Right activist, any humanitarian and any social workers because it’s all in Humanism. If I said about inspired in Humanism, its scientific and critical thinking, its value and philosophies.

Jacobsen: As the secretary/youth advisor for the Society for Humanism Nepal, what tasks and responsibilities come with this position? How do you build a support base?

Maharjan: Since the establishment of SOCH Nepal, I was there and coordinating activities of SOCH. Being involved in SOCH and boosting the SOCH mission, vision and goals, I never realise my designation to work. I feel like it’s my organization, that showed me the way of living and clear my vision. If I really need to talk about being the secretary, my tasks and responsibilities are calling meeting, taking minutes, and updating all of the activities happening in SOCH.

Since the establish time in SOCH, I have lots of familiarity with the activities, and I believe in change and opportunities. As a youth advisor, I guide the youth team in how to work in teams and conduct programs so they can directly become involved in activities and then groom their capacity to performance for the next leader. I, personally, do not interfere in their coordination, but needing supervision then I will be there.

Jacobsen: What is the current state of humanism with Nepal? What is its brief history there too?

Maharjan: The term Humanism is relatively new in Nepal — though many atheists and secular minded people campaigned for secular Nepal. Nepal remained the world’s only one Hindu country for decades. The 2007 constitution of Nepal declared Nepal a secular country. Although, the Nepali constitution clearly mentions provision of preserving old time religion, which is Hinduism. Nepal is the country where Buddha was born. Buddha probably was the first person to speak against superstition and religious dogmas in the East. His idea of secularism has flourished throughout the world. A famous education reformist Mr. Jaya Prithivi Singh promoted the idea of Humanism in Nepal during the 1919s. He has written dozens of books on Humanism and travelled to various countries to spread the idea. There was no organized Humanist movement till the late 1920s. An organization called Humanist Association of Nepal was formed during 1980s. However, it could not survive due to various reasons. Later, the Society for Humanism (SOCH) Nepal was formed in 2005, which became only one leading Humanist organization in Nepal. Thousands of members are associated to SOCH Nepal, which is also the member of IHEU.

Jacobsen: Are youth or elders in the society more involved in humanism? What are the activities, educational initiative, and social and political projects related to humanism available to youth in Nepal?

Maharjan: We do not have any exact record of youths’ or elders’ involvement in humanism, but during the program and discussion when we meet peoples they have the feeling of humanism. Elders have the concept of humanism, and followers too, and belief in the concept of humanism.

If we talk about in more recent times, more youths that I have seen are humanists because they are not ready to have belief in the concept of God, and those unseen things. They use their logic to question and the belief in science as much as we had interacted in colleges and groups. Yes, they have confusion on humanism, but somewhere they are humanists as I realise — and SOCH has made clear to them.

There are no educational initiatives, and social and political projects, related to humanism available to youth in Nepal done by the Government.

Regarding the activities, SOCH is one organization that is working in Nepal to promote humanism, its philosophy and values in society. We are regularly doing our youth discussion/seminars and youth talks on humanism, scientific & critical thinking in different colleges and schools. We are practicing in school to teach scientific and critical thinking, and run one class on humanism too. SOCH targeted to youth because they are change maker and tomorrow’s leaders.

Jacobsen: What are some of the main threats to the free practice of humanism in Nepal?

Maharjan: Although, Nepal is a secular country now, right wing Hindu group are well-organized and practicing extreme radicalism. On other hand, Christians are proselytizing Nepali society getting benefit of secular constitution. Hindu and Christian groups are confronting day by day. Meantime, Humanists have become the enemy of both radicles due to its secular values based on science and atheism.

Radical Hindu are the biggest threat in Nepali society because they are more organized after the declaration of secular state. Humanist activists are threatened and attacked by radical Hindu group many times in Nepal.

Jacobsen: What are your short- and long-term goals for humanism in Nepal?

Maharjan: SOCH Nepal short and long-term goals are to promote a scientific way of life, good governance, democracy and justice with humanist values, to promote humanistic and ethical practices and to raise awareness about individual human obligation.

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time, Nabina.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/13

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: As an associate professor and affiliate faculty in multiple departments, what is the situation for free thought in Nigeria?

Adeyemi Ademowo Johnson: Freethought is still unpopular in Nigeria; although there are so many youngsters who doubt their beliefs, they have not muster sufficient courage to openly express their admiration for freethought and desire to treat religion with caution.

Jacobsen: Do you have more hope for the younger generations?

Johnson: Yes! I definitely believe that the younger generation will realize that it is foolish to kill in the name of any faith or any God and that all we have are one another as humans.

Jacobsen: While teaching and designing programs for the sociology department at Afe Babalola University, do you incorporate aspects of critical thinking into the curricula?

Johnson: Yes! The University where I teach, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, prioritizes entrepreneurial skills development; this makes it imperative for many of the students to offer courses in critical thinking and creative thinking. I, for instance, developed and teach a course: Sociology of Creativity and Innovation. Critical Thinking is an integral part of the course. There are other courses that encourage critical thinking to satisfy its outlines.

Jacobsen: What do you consider the more pertinent topics in sociological discussion within Nigerian society?

Johnson: There are two of them: religion and active citizenship. In religion, indoctrination of the young ones, Boko Haram recruitment of children/women as suicide bombers and the brazen display of wealth by Pentecostal pastors are issues that have dominated academic discourses. The importance of citizens in democratic governance and their attitudes towards tackling corruption are other issues. These are issues at the heart of sociological discourses from diverse angles.

Jacobsen: Does religion have sway over the political environment of the country?

Johnson: Religion and religious leaders have a place in our political landscape. Aspirants lay claims to being ordained or ‘called’ by God to contest for elections to get favours; they also attend big Pentecostal revivals and crusades to show their loyalty to and believe in religion. Humanists are rarely taken serious and sometimes demonized when they should interest in politics or to contest.

Jacobsen: As you work for the Humanist Association for Peace and Social Tolerance Advancement (HAPSTA) , what are your tasks and responsibilities?

Johnson: Humanist Association for Peace and Social Tolerance Advancement (HAPSTA) is the first Humanist association to be registered formally by the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission. I am one of the driving forces that worked relentlessly for this as the President. I later became the Projects Director in charge of HAPSTA life changing projects like ‘Humanist Against WitchKilling in Africa’, Stigmatized Children Rights Project (SCRIP), Omuo Humanist Against WitchKilling and Stigmatization’, Humanist Anti-Indoctrination Project (HApI) and Youth Leadership and Tolerance Training Project. I work to manage and raise funds for these projects which have been funded in the past by HAMU, Norway; Swedish Humanist Aid, Africa Unite Against Child Abuse (AFRUCA, UK). I also coordinate the international links for the organisation. As a member of HAPSTA Board of Trustees, I represent it at fora and work with others to coordinate its activities.

Jacobsen: How does HAPSTA advance the humanist movement in Nigeria? 

Johnson: Yes! Through our activities targeted at fulfilling our objectives. Our objectives as an organisation include:

*spreading the ideals of humanism, peace culture, social tolerance and peace education
* fighting against superstition and superstitious beliefs that violate dignity of the human person, indoctrination that promote hate and violence, and policies capable of promoting disunity and social intolerance
* advocating and campaigning for Humanity’s freedom from being persecuted for their opinions, beliefs, sexual orientation and values, to prevent disenchantment that may result in violent conflict.
* promoting the development of ethical, peaceful and social tolerance conscious youths, through the promotion of peace education

Apart from representing and supporting our members and networks, HAPSTA also support human cause through the following projects:

1. SCRIP – Stigmatized Children Rights Project (which campaign against child-witch labeling and killing in many states across Nigeria
2. ARK-C: Anti-Ritual Killing Campaign (which works to dissuade people from thinking that human parts, including those of Albinos, hunchback, etc can be used for charms, money-making, among others)
3. CAJUJ: Campaign Against Jungle Justice (a very common phenomenon in Nigeria and other parts of the world, Jungle Justice is against the tenets of human rights and many innocent people have lost their lives through this miscarriage of justice)
4. SEMSUP: Sexual Minorities Support Project (which support the LGBTI community in Nigeria and around Africa)
5. HASTEP: Humanist and Social Tolerance Education Project
6. SCHCEP: Street Children Care and Empowerment Programme

Jacobsen: Who is a personal hero or exemplary for you regarding the humanist movement?

Johnson: Levi Fragell!

Jacobsen: How can individuals within the country or in neighboring nations of the African Diaspora help out with the humanist and irreligious movement in Nigeria?

Johnson: Support and participate in our activities.

Jacobsen: How can anyone else help regarding donations, remote skills assistance, advertisement and exposure, and so on?

Johnson: Let me start by appreciating the Norwegian Humanist Association and the Swedish Humanists, they have really supported financially and human capital development in the past years. Other well-established groups can get in touch with us for supports: funding of our ‘Anti-Indoctrination’ Campaign handbills; annual social tolerance leadership training for youths, invitation to attend humanist programmes; support for website hosting, etc. We would really appreciate supports that would strengthens the group more.

Jacobsen: Any final feelings or thoughts?

Johnson: Having been a humanist for about 18 years; a university teacher for over a decade and worked with a lots of children and women stigmatized as witches, I am convinced that the world needs humanism and critical thinking. Hence, I would be happy to work with any Humanist Foundation and initiatives that will promote its humanist ideals in Africa and other continents.

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time, Yemi.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/12

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What was like with the Jehovah’s Witnesses in early life?

Tim Klapproth: being a third generation witness I knew nothing else so it’s hard to express. The school was tough. I was bullied throughout and was fearful of ‘worldly’ kids. Christmas and birthdays were awful and I was always promised that we would have present days to ‘make up for it’ but this only happened twice. I felt that I was missing out on something that had zero scriptural foundation. The pressure from the family to study, preach and grow spiritually was intense and this led me to lead a double life as I became a teenager. I was insular, intense, and secretive. I married the first girl who smiled at me and was divorced by 30 with three children.

Jacobsen: What seems like some of the pivotal moments in that early development regarding the Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Klapproth: The decision to be baptized when I was 15. I did not have any comprehension of what a dedication is and that it means losing my whole social circle if I ‘lose faith’. My ability to make decisions that were measured and backed by reason was not formed until my thirties.

I also was shaken by the way my congregation friends were treated by their own parents when we were often found breaking the rules. My father as a city overseer and a great and sought-after speaker was very strict with me.

Whereas all my friends’ fathers just shrugged and said boys will be boys. This strict attitude extended as far as requiring me to read the lyrics and almost present my case, should I want to buy an album or CD. My dad rejected most of my choices.

I was also expected to leave school and pioneer. I ‘went along’ with all these things. The power over me was incredible in that it was so controlling yet I was not aware of it. A silent pressure, steering me towards a goal that I’d not wished for myself.

Jacobsen: What were the main parts of the JW faith that made you think, “I cannot believe this. It is illogical, without evidence, and beyond doubt false as a faith”?

Klapproth: The creation account. However, until my late twenties, I was proud of my counter argument against evolution. I’d done my research (within the constraints of Watchtower publications of course) and felt very confident on this topic.

When I later heard Prof Richard Dawkins rail against the mid-quote of the Watchtower and subsequently the ACTUAL explanation of the theory (and what the word theory meant…) a light was flicked on in my brain and in many ways, I had all I needed to leave the cult.

It was based on lies, spread by many well-meaning people and lead mainly by power hungry small minded weak men.

Jacobsen: What are common signs that one has psychologically and emotionally left the faith?

Klapproth: It’s a huge step. You risk losing everyone you’ve known. To take that step is not done lightly however in my case, once I had cut ties; I felt freer than I can express.

In my case, I studied Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, and Harris which reaffirmed that God is a man-made concept and that religion is man’s way of exerting power over the flock. The psychological effect on me was palpable.

Although I did go off the rails a little, trying all the things I’d missed earlier in life, I was happier than I’d ever been. However, when I turned forty things started to change. I became fixated on my past and with disproving to my parents that their faith was based on nonsense.

This was only curbed when I had to counsel in 2017. Since that time though my father has died and I feel that I didn’t finish our conversation.

Jacobsen: What are some peculiar experiences of those once deeply within the Jehovah’s Witnesses who have left them – stories only ex-JWs know?

Klapproth: I’m probably not the only person to share the ridiculous process of ‘only men can lead’. I was leading all of the daily meetings for field service at fifteen, ahead of a whole team of experienced women who had been handling the meetings alone for years.

I had no clue how to lead, how to work the map effectively or how to pray and inspire. I also am surprised to see that friends of mine I grew up with and lead a double life like me are still in the religion.

In many cases they acted and behaved far worse than I. We drank, swore, tried to pick up girls (never successful in my case) and sneaked into nightclubs and concerts that we’d never be allowed to attend.

Threw wild parties, misbehaved and ridiculed the society and elders. Then I hear that they’re now an elder. They didn’t have and unless they have had a road to Damascus experience, still don’t have a spiritual bone in their body!

Finally, the silly process of ‘counting time’. I spent almost two years (of my 12 years) pioneering without knocking on a single door. I worked along with my best friend and we just mimed the door knock.

A total and utter waste of our time. I habitually lie about the time is spent in the ministry. Missing my time target by a country mile each year. One of the triggers that prompted me to ask what I was doing with my life was this very fact.

I was in my late twenties, married to a violent woman who made me miserable (she was a victim of child abuse that was covered up by her parents and ‘left to Jehovah…’ this leads her to be extremely violent and a man hater) I was poor due to part-time work and wasting my life.

Jacobsen: Any final thoughts or feelings in conclusion? 

Klapproth: I left the JW’s without being shunned by my family. The circuit overseer I met with said that he could see I did not identify or claim to be a JW and that my only spiritual influence was that of my family.

Retaining my relationship with them might mean that I would be tempted back and so he let me fade. That said, I did lose all my friends and I’m excluded from family weddings etc., but I have retained a relationship of sorts since 2000.

I’m struggling with my conscience now though. I want to challenge my family about the two witness rule regarding child abuse. Not that I want them to leave as such but they live their family.

They are at the heart of the congregation and would be horrified to think what is actually happening. I’d like them to be able to hear the actual truth and then challenge the organization from within.

JW’s are mostly not bad people. They simply follow the lead set and do not think critically.

Jacobsen: Also, your email signature is the following:

“To do is to be” – Nietzsche 

“To be is to do” – Kant

“Do be do be do” – Sinatra

Why?

Klapproth:  It’s just a funny quote. It’s not good to take things too seriously…

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Tim.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/12

The World Sikh Organization (WSO) of Canada continues its activism with the ongoing smearing of the Sikh community at large.

Note, this does not amount to Sikhophobia. Rather, it comes to anti-Sikh bigotry, individuals with religious beliefs not religion.

There have hundreds of articles in the media over three weeks, or more, tarring an entire community as radicals with rising extremism.

Some have stood to protect their image. The WSO has worked hard to keep a positive image in spite of the accusations against the Canadian Sikh community.

The Sikh community of Canada, much of it, according to the WSO, argues against the human rights violations in India, but protest this in a peaceful manner.

As the WSO said in an email that I received, “We are proud Canadians who believe in the rule of law, freedom of expressions, and upholding freedom of religion.”

Sikhs, fellow Canadians, need a strong, supportive voice in the light of the controversial motion, which does not need too much detailing as it has been in the news.

The motion if advanced in a firm way would greatly harm the image of Sikhs potentially leading to increased hate crimes against individual Sikhs, as happens with those following the Islamic and Jewish faiths in Canada, as shown in high numbers of anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic hate crimes in this country.

Sikhs have been reaching out to their local representatives. We can reach out too.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/11

“VANCOUVER — Jaspreet Bal was eating lunch with friends in rural Ontario when she says a “kind, well-intentioned” white man approached them to chat. He asked about her background, and she replied she was Sikh.

“Oh yeah, Air India,” he said, recognition flashing in his eyes.

Bal was born in 1985, the same year that Sikh militants bombed Air India Flight 182, killing all 329 on board. It was, apparently, the man’s only point of reference for her religion.”

Source: https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/frustrating-sikh-canadians-dismayed-by-extremism-talk-1.3838001.

“Are Canadians embracing religion less than previous generations? Sociologist Reginald Bibby,  author of Resilient Gods, would say no.

“Right now, it’s popular to say younger millennials are highly secularized compared to past generations,” he says. “But when you look at the data since the 1980s, while there has been a slight increase in those who don’t value religion, there is stability in the segment of people who do value religion. People variously reject, embrace or take a middle position on religion.”

Bibby has conducted national surveys on religion in Canada every five years since 1975, producing data from thousands of Canadians and tracking trends over time.”

Source: http://ucalgary.ca/utoday/issue/2018-03-12/speaker-asks-how-resilient-are-our-gods.

“CRANBROOK, B.C. — A judge has rejected a challenge of Canada’s polygamy laws that was launched after two men were found guilty of the offence in British Columbia.

Winston Blackmore and James Oler were found guilty in B.C. Supreme Court last July of having multiple wives, but a lawyer for Blackmore argued the law infringes on the charter right to freedom of religion and expression.

Justice Sheri Ann Donegan dismissed all arguments Friday that the charges should be stayed, including a claim that the prosecution was an abuse of process.”

Source: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/03/09/bc-judge-to-deliver-ruling-in-constitutional-challenge-of-canadian-polygamy-laws.html.

“Pakistani Canadian Daood Hamdani is a pioneer in the study of Muslims in Canada. A retired statistician, his most recent publication, “Canadian Muslims: A Statistical Review“, has been used to highlight key statistics about Muslim demographics in Canada, including the ridings with the largest Muslim populations in the lead up to the 2015 Federal Election.

Daood Hamdani was born in Ferozpur, British India in 1939. His family immigrated to the new nation of Pakistan in 1947 where he grew up in the small town of Jhang in the province of Punjab. He grew up surrounded by the religious diversity of the region, attending schools run by Christians, following Islamic Studies from both Shia and Sunni teachers, and having meetings of his debate team at the Ahmadiyya community centre. Hamdani is proud to say he graduated from Jhang Government College, the same college that produced Pakistan’s first Nobel Prize winner – Professor Abdus Salam. After graduating, Hamdani moved to Lahore to attend the Forman Christian College.

His area of study was economics and he moved to the United States on a scholarship from Vanderbilt University. After graduation, he shifted to St. Johns, Newfoundland in 1965 and started work as a research fellow at Memorial University. His area of study had him travel all across Newfoundland to study the geographical and occupational mobility of the labour force. He then shifted to Queens University in Kingston and looked at inter-provincial migration in Canada and its impact on the Canadian economy. Eventually, his career had him travel to the University of Toronto where he worked as a teaching assistant. He jokes that he was responsible for “teaching basic courses that new people are given that senior people don’t want to teach.””

Source: https://muslimlink.ca/community/daood-hamdani-exploring-muslim-canadian-history-and-demographics.

“In an appeal for equality and inclusivity, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) has recently reiterated calls for the Ontario government to abolish the province’s Catholic schools and move toward one secular school system for each official language.

This is what Quebec did in 1997. Make no mistake, though, it isn’t one harmonious system for all. It’s still two separate school systems.

Separating children by religion is deemed by the ETFO to be an anachronism and an assault on inclusivity in Ontario’s diverse 21st century society. Curiously, separating them by language is not.”

Source: https://theconversation.com/why-canada-divides-children-into-separate-schools-92674.

“It’s the day of the Doug.

The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party rejected the options of bland moderation or a famous name, and instead chose in Doug Ford the brother of the most notorious municipal politician in Canadian history, and a man who has turned bluster and hyperbole into art forms. A blowhard he may be, but one would be acutely foolish not to take him very seriously indeed.

One of the probing questions being asked right now is what Ford does with the socially conservative and right-wing Christian support he received during the leadership election. Candidate Tanya Granic Allen was never going to win the race, but her votes were crucial in Ford’s triumph, and when he made his victory speech, there was the anti-sex-ed campaigner standing right behind him. If nothing else, the woman who told us that children failed at school math because they spent all of their time learning about anal sex knew how to milk a media opportunity and get in front of the camera. Witness her bringing out water to journalists during the count, because apparently there was absolutely none available in the entire hotel!”

Source: https://ipolitics.ca/2018/03/11/have-ontarios-socons-found-their-saviour-in-doug-ford/.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/11

Scott Jacobsen: To begin, do you have any prefaces to the conversation today?

George Ongere: When I was growing, my mother believed something was wrong with me. I was the only child in the family who could not succeed in cramming the catechism to graduate and eat the sacrament.

She even made efforts to make the content of the book rhyme with a song to make it easy for me but it did not go well. My young brothers did well and mastered her catechism song and got all the content.

What surprised her is that even though I could not cram the creed, I was a bright student in school! In that way, she failed to understand what was happening to me. I also could not explain, but I think it was the scepticism I had adopted after interacting with my grandfather as you will learn in the interview.

All my family members, including my father who was not fond of the church, graduated to eat the sacrament; I was the only one who dropped out of the session. Along these lines, the question is, did my skepticism start right from my childhood?

As you will find, I was fortunate to have a grandfather who was skeptical of Christian religion, a father who was a Christian but was not a fond of going to church frequently, and a mother who was a staunch Christian who wanted her children to follow the way of God; — that combination provided room for growth of a skeptical young person like me.

There was no pressure to have me full indoctrinated into religion. Even though I grew as catholic child, where I was taken to a Sunday school, then to a primary school where we could worship and pray in the assembly, and finally to an Anglican sponsored high school, I still found my way into humanism.

From my experience, as I demonstrate in the below engagement, reading widely, and having an open mind is the key to rationality and scepticism.

Jacobsen: Do you have a family background in skepticism and secular humanism?

Ongere: My family did not have any person subscribed to Secular humanism or scepticism, but the divergence of religious beliefs within the extended family helped me develop my skepticism at a younger age.

My grandfather was a traditional person and when he witnessed the way Christianity came to Africa and displaced African religious beliefs during his youth, he vowed to remain a pagan. In this context, it meant he did not follow the Christian religion but adhered to selected African traditional beliefs.

As a child, when I asked him why he did not pray, he would tell me about the traditional concepts of African gods leaving me confused at that age. The puzzlement came since my mother was a staunch Christian who made sure we attended the Sunday school, while at the same time, grandfather stole me away and fed me with the traditional concept of god.

It only confused me further and that is how I started getting inkling that not everyone was afraid of the God we were told in the Sunday school could strike dead disobedient people using thunder.

Moreover, even though my mother was a true Catholic believer, my father, though a catholic, was not fond of going to church every Sunday. My mother used to call him in our Luo mother tongue language “Jakafiri”.

Jakafiri can also be interpreted as pagan. Though, in this context, my father believed in the teachings of Christianity but did not adhere to the rules like everyday prayers and going to church regularly.

Every Sunday, as we attended the Sunday mass, my father remained at home pretending to be attending some business functions. The only times I saw him in the church was during Christmas festive season and during Easter.

To sum up, I did not have many pressures from all sides, like most families do, to adhere to religion. In Africa, most children have pressure right from the grandparents, mother and father to adhere to one religion.

I was fortunate since only my mother placed pressures that were absorbed by the traditional grandfather and my father; they did not pressure me to go through the process of eating the sacrament when all the other siblings were doing it.

Jacobsen: When did you have your first inklings of skepticism and secular humanism in personal life?

Ongere: As a young person addicted to reading all types of novels in late primary, high school and college, I met characters in the books who claimed they did not believe in gods, God, and any supernatural entities.

This was strange to me at the time because it was rare in the rural to find a person declaring a disbelief in gods or God; I did not even know the term “Atheism”. Even though my grandfather did not believe in Christianity, he still believed in the supernatural world like the ancestor’s power.

Growing in the interior rural village during my primary and high school years, the only medium that could give me entertainment was the storybooks since there was no electricity to get fun from other mediums like the Television. As such, I could put my hands on any book that promised entertainment. I would go to local libraries and read anything that looked like a novel.

Moreover, I had a cousin who was doing philosophy at the University and at one point when I was still in high school; I stumbled upon his course book on the philosophy of religion. I read about Sigmund Freud and Nietzsche. Their ideas puzzled me and this is where I gained interest in philosophy.

After completing my high school and was in early years at the University, I got engaged with the University of Nairobi Philosophy club. Here, I met the students who attended the first Humanist Conference organized in East Africa in 2004 by Uganda Humanist Association led by Deo Ssessitoleko. I received the first humanist materials.

It is where I got to learn about humanist ideals. Excited with the knowledge I got from the magazines from CFI, IHEU, and other humanists organizations, I declared myself a humanist.

Jacobsen: What was the reaction of friends and family?

Ongere: The first time I told my friends and family members that I was a humanist and an Atheist, they had different reactions.

My family did not take this as a surprise; they had suspected I could end up in something close to that because of my childhood skepticism since I was the only member of the family who avoided taking the sacrament and was not even bothered by it. However, some of my extended relatives related this to devil worshiping.

Since they are not exposed to different ideologies, they only know that anyone who does not believe in a god or God must be a devil worshipper, just the way Nigerian movies give Africans the picture that people who do not adhere to the religion are in affiliation with the devil.

They looked at me with curiosity and spread the rumors in the village. However, my generosities in the village, where I sponsor children to school have puzzled them and the perception is changing.

I had different categories of friends by the time I announced my Atheism. I had religious, skeptics and rational friends. I had the problem with religious friends and to make it worse, I was also dating a religious lady at the time. They did not want to associate with me and they advised my girlfriend to abandon me. She did, but that did not deter me from pursuing my new found life stance.

My skeptic and rational friends praised my steps and they were happy about it. I was the first person to establish a humanist office where Kenyans could get Humanist materials and rational books that were difficult to get in most libraries.

CFI sent me important materials that could be easily read and understood by first timers into humanism and skepticism. A good number of Kenyans who have declared themselves as Atheists and humanist in Kenya got the inspiration from my work with the campus groups and CFI Office in Nairobi.

Jacobsen: You’ve written a number of articles for The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. What is the importance of major skeptical organizations such as The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and the Center for Inquiry?

Ongere: CSI and CFI have supported all my projects in Kenya. By publishing my articles, they have made my activities visible to many people who have continuously supported my endeavors. When I joined CFI in 2007, my dream was to be published in their reputable sites.

I knew that as a young person, still unable to write to the standards of the scholars I read in the sites, I had to go through self-study and read widely. I started writing my skeptical and rational ideas freely and sent them to Norm Allen Jr., who was the director transnational programs at the time, intended to be published in the African American Humanism Newsletter, the AHH Examiner.

When I finally wrote the article How Can the Concept of Humanism Solve Witchcraft belief, Norm informed me that Barry Karr, the Executive Director of CSI, was interested in publishing it. When finally the article appeared on the site, it was my breakthrough and it encouraged me to write further.

Having my article published in the two sites has made many learning institutions to trust my activities and collaborate with me; the reason I am able to mobile University and college students to attend my activities.

Secondly, most people in Africa have no access to humanist and skeptical hard copy literature. Even in most libraries in Africa, finding journals or scholarly resources that promote humanist or Atheist ideas are rare.

CFI and CSI have helped to fill this gap by sending reading materials to most humanists in different parts of Africa. Anytime I need reading materials to send to any group across Africa, I simply request the organization and they respond immediately by sending a package of books and magazines.

Most importantly, ever since I started CFI/ Kenya, the two organizations have supported all the programs financially and that is why we are able to sustain the humanist orphans and the On Campus activities.

Jacobsen: How did you first come across Center for Inquiry in Kenya?

Ongere: I first came across CFI by interacting with the philosophy group at the University of Nairobi. A good number of the members were sponsored by IHEU to attend the first humanist conference in Uganda in the year 2004. Here they met the then Transnational Co-directors, Norm Allen Jr. and Bill Cooke. They came back with reading materials like Skeptical Inquirer and Free Inquiry. I read them and became much interested in the ideology.

The visit of Norm Allen Jr. to Kenya in 2006 also made me get first-hand information about CFI. By then, Boaz Adhengo was the contact person. Adhengo approached me to mobilize University students to meet Norm and after attending the meeting, Norm read some of my collected articles and gave me his contacts.

I started interacting with him and in 2007; he approached me to be the director CFI Kenya to replace Adhengo. That is how I became the CFI director.

Becoming the director of CFI is one of the best opportunities I have ever had. It made me know many influential people in Africa like Leo Igwe of Nigeria, Deo Ssesitoleko and Betty Nassaka of Uganda. I traveled to Uganda through sponsorship of CFI and they also paid travel expenses for Leo, Betty, and Deo to visit my office in Kenya. Without the organization, I would not have got such connections.

Jacobsen: What did you see as the major need for science, skepticism, and secular humanism in Kenya at the time? How did this inspire you to form and run CFI-Kenya as a branch of Center for Inquiry in Kenya?

Ongere: Science, rationalism, and skepticism is needed in Africa more than any part of the world. Irrationality that is prevalent on the continent has led to major human rights crises.

One of the examples in Kenya that featured in the international scene is the burning of old men and women alive, in the rural parts of Kisii in 2009 when they were suspected to be witches. The graphic video of old women and men burnt alive till death still haunts many people. Up to the current moment, old men and women are still targeted in witch hunts.

Moreover, Albinos are still at risk in Kenya and Tanzania because most society believes that their body parts can make their business successful when put within the business premises while fishermen believe that their hair attracts the huge mass of fish. Science and reason needed to respond to such unreason.

In West Africa, like Nigeria and Congo, children have since time immemorial been accused of witchcraft and become abandoned.

Majority of the children are left to roam the street to become street children, some are hacked to death and fed poison. Close scrutinising reveal that parents who are incapable of raising children or look after distant relatives use witchcraft as a scapegoat and run away from responsibility.

The most vulnerable children are orphans whose parents have died, those born with HIV/ AIDS, and those with disabilities. Abandoning children to fake bleak future is gagging the future generation and only through reason that they can be saved.

Moreover, religious institutions are not helping in any way. With many obstacles that African people face due to unreason, religious bodies have not tried to help but to immerse people deep into unreason. Currently, Africa still has a big challenge: HIV/ AIDS. Every year, about millions of people, get infected.

Instead of approaching the issue with logic, churches and other religious wings have advised people to seek religious healings instead of taking the Anti-Retroviral Drugs. The approach has caused many deaths and this leaves you to wonder if an all knowing, all present God celebrates the wiping of mass population of Africans!

The above problem statements made me search for an organization that could respond. Before I got CFI connections, I was a youth volunteer at an organization called Kumekucha. Kumekucha is a Swahili word meaning sunrise. The organization promised to liberate youths from the dogmas of the society.

However, the organization did not give much to the youths. In this direction, when I was introduced to CFI, I believed it was the organization to respond to the problems Africans faced and it had the capabilities to take action to the irrationality in Africa. That is how I started running CFI Kenya!

Jacobsen: What has been the plight of children in Kenya? How has a humanist message improved their and their families’ livelihoods?

Ongere: Currently, it is estimated that there are about 300, 000 street children in Kenya. Increasing poverty and deaths of parents due to HIV/ AIDS are the major causes for the children to scavenge the street to look for ways of survival.

In many cases, fathers who are not able to support their families leave behind mothers in the rural with even more than six children. Staying hungry and unable to go to school, most of the children migrate to the streets to try and find ways of survival.

In my article, The Plight of Children in Africa and our Humanist Efforts, I address the issues that children face in Africa. Even though declaring children as witches are not widely practiced in Kenya, I am afraid that with the current inflation and rise of prices in essential commodities, Kenyans will look for ways of avoiding supporting orphan children whose parents were wiped by HIV/ AIDS.

The only way they can do this is by adopting the Nigeria and Congo style where such children are declared to be witches. Declaring a child to be a witch is the easiest way relatives avoid the burden of protecting vulnerable children who have lost their parents.

Killing children because they are a burden is hurting and that is why the humanist message is important. The spread of HIV/ AIDS in Kenya is rising and soon many children will be left without parents and it means many distant relatives will start using witchcraft as a scapegoat.

CFI Kenya’s program The Humanist Orphans Project is a strong humanist message responding to the plight of children. Demonstrating to the society that orphaned children are harmless members of the society is core and that when given education can become potential members of the society is important.

As such, the dedications of CFI Transnational to help the children is one of the social justice stories that should be told across to inspire other African groups to join hands to save the future generation.

Jacobsen: Reflecting on the 2014 article on the agenda of African humanism, in 2017 now, what is the state of humanism in Africa? What is the agenda, in brief?

Ongere: As I wrote in the article, humanism in Africa has undergone different phases. The first phase, which was explained by reputable scholars in Africa like Es’kia Mphahlele (1919–2008) was a kind of humanism that needed to give Africans hopes by trying to reconstruct their history from that which was given by the western scholarship.

From that phase, came Ubuntu, which even though gave good promises but still had hidden agendas of promoting religion.

With the changes in technology, where people across the world have access to information due to the internet, African humanism is adopting another face.

Whereas the forefathers of African humanism focused on reconstructing the African face in the international world, the current young generation is responding to the irrational beliefs that have held the masses captive. They believe the only way for Africans to be free is to delete the dogmas of religion and embrace, science, critical thinking, and rationalism.

In Kenya for example, the Atheist movement have raised many contentious issues. First, they have demanded religious educations to be removed out of the curriculum since it is one of the avenues children are indoctrinated. They have also challenged faith healers who use tricks to steal from the public.

It demonstrates that African humanist is catching up with the agendas that global humanists’ movements are seeking and this is very important because it gives room for many Atheists and people who are not easily accepted in the society, like gays and Lesbians to come out of the closet.

With such developments, it demonstrates the Atheist movement is making progress in Kenya.

Jacobsen: How can humanism support the least among us?

Ongere: Humanism as a life stance compels many African humanists to work for Social justice. When I went to Uganda in 2009 together with Norm Allen Jnr., I witnessed how Uganda Humanists Effort to save Women (UHESWO) was liberating prostitutes and giving them financial empowerment.

They took them away from the streets and taught them income generating skills like tailoring and salon work. Most of the women eventually left the streets and became employed in salons and others got sewing machines to become tailors.

I also met Deo Ssessitoleko who had a humanist school that was sponsoring vulnerable children. I was inspired by the works of Ugandan humanists and believed humanism in Africa was capable of helping the less fortunate amongst us.

In 2011, I conceived the idea of starting the Humanist Orphans Kenya. I witnessed the plight of children the rural areas during the Anti-Superstitious campaign. Many children lost their parents due to HIV/ AIDS scourge when religious institutions started healing campaigns advising them to abandon taking Anti-Retroviral drugs.

With many children left behind, we believed that our humanists’ endeavors would try to solve the situation. In this way, we selected 11 children who were vulnerable and gave them essentials of life like education, basic needs, and empowerment.

In this way, I believed that if African humanists can embrace social justice, then we will be a good example just the way Ugandan humanists have demonstrated through their projects.

Jacobsen: What are your lifetime hopes for humanism, skepticism, and secularism in Kenya, and Africa?

Ongere: I am happy that the young generation in Kenya today can easily declare their Atheism without fear. This was something I had hoped for. Kenya is not a very much radical country like many African countries where religious fundamentalism is core.

When I started running CFI, I had hoped that a time would come when young people would come out of the closet and declare their unbelief. At the time, the internet was still expensive for the fact that people could not browse through their cell phones but to go to the cyber cafes that charged expensively.

However, when cell phones were introduced, we had a revolution in humanism where youths had access to many reading materials. It became easy to engage the youth and direct them to important sites.

My hopes for humanism are that as youths become radicalized to abandon religion, they should focus on the gaps that humanism can fill in Kenya and Africa. I have always wished that humanism should not be another avenue of colonization just like religion.

In my much engagement with youths who have abandoned religions, a good number of them do not understand the cause; they only think becoming a humanist is linked with intellectualism and fashionable.

To me, being a humanist is to respond to the many unreasons in Africa and trying to help the situation through advocacy and social justice.

Jacobsen: Any closing thoughts or feelings based on the discussion today?

Ongere: Thanks for having me in the interview today. In sub-Saharan Africa, spreading humanism is still an obstacle. Many Africans still feel vulnerable when religion is deleted away from them.

The Bible promises them life after death and they believe they are the children of God because of the obstacles they undergo. They believe they will be rewarded in heaven and hegemonic nations that have conditioned them will be punished in hell.

What African humanists need to do is to empower Africans. Critical thinking is one of the areas that need to be explored. Being that African forefathers were superstitious, it is not inherent to be superstitious in the current global world. There needs to be a change in mind and thinking. Humanism promises this kind of change for Africans to abandon the blind faith and focus on the realities life.

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time, George.

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Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/10

Melissa Krawczyk is an atheist, skeptic, and secular humanist by worldview and science mom, Arabic speaker in training, and author-to-be by professions, and has worked in a variety of domains including materials and engineering science, ergonomics consulting, and skincare. Here we talk about her work, views, and upcoming-unfinished book.

*Note: This interview was conducted on Friday, August 4th, 2017.*

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You grew up in an Evangelical home on the east coast of the United States up to 2000. After 2000, you moved to California. What was life like in an Evangelical “born again” home?

Melissa Krawczyk: Until I was about 15, I grew up outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was a great home. I had a great family. We went to church a lot, but not excessively. Most of my friends were probably from church, and I had friends at school as well. We went to church every week. Sometimes, we had Bible studies. In the Summer we spent at least a week or two at Vacation Bible School. Some of those are my best memories. My parents were very loving and friendly people.

We had restrictions like not listening to music. We described it as only being able to listen to elevator music, so if you’d walk into a major building downtown and you heard it in the elevator, that’s about all we could listen to. So, no pop music. We didn’t get to watch many movies. We did get to watch televistion, but it had to be pretty bland, and generic. Nothing offensive.

I didn’t see a PG-13 movie until I was actually 13. My mom would let me go to dances, but we couldn’t tell my grandparents. It was restrictive, but it didn’t feel that restrictive as a child. There were just things we didn’t do that other friends got to. But I had a lot of friends and we had a lot of fun at church.

I don’t think I really realized that there was anything different from anyone else. It was just the way it was. It was a happy home life.  I will say that I became much more fundamentalist and Evangelical myself as I grew older – late in high school and college. More so than my parents. My own views diverged greatly as time went on.

Jacobsen: What were the views of the young earth creationist family members when no one else was watching?

Krawczyk: I don’t think any of us ever, ever thought of ourselves as young earth creationists. It was just the way it was for us. God created the Earth and everything in it in six, literal, 24-hour days, with a day to rest called the Sabbath. Adam and Eve were real people created by God and imbued with souls. They lived in this magical garden where there was no death. Everything was happy.

Dinosaurs, as far as I was aware, lived at the same time as people. There were references in the Bible that I was told referred to dinosaurs as “leviathans” or creatures with legs like Cyprus trees. They were big things. We were told that these were the dinosaurs. They lived alongside people. I never had any concept of how old the Earth was according to modern, real science. A couple thousand years seemed plenty old to me.

There were two original people. When Eve was tempted by Satan in the form of a snake in the Garden of Eden to eat an apple, she shared it with Adam. They were kicked out and everything perfect went bad. Therefore, we had original sin from that day forward. Basically, that mistake cost all of us ever after. When we are born, we are separated from God because of that sin by that first man and woman.

I think the most important features were that God created the Earth and everything in it. He created man and woman as they are today. There was no evolution at all. Everything was created as individual species. There was no change from one thing to another. I remember hearing things like “Well, we’re not descended from monkeys.” I don’t remember talking to my parents too much about it. I remember in school, the few times we started to talk in science about something that might touch on evolution, I remember them saying something like, “Just learn what you need to learn at school, we’ll tell you the real truth at home.”

They didn’t make waves. They went stealth, under the radar. This is the right thing, anyone who teaches you otherwise is deceived.  Sometimes people would say that scientists were being used by the Devil. That wasn’t very common, and I can’t say that I heard that from my own parents.

It was literal, 24-hour days. Humans appeared as they are. Even was created from Adams rib to be a helper, which subsequently meant that – I don’t if if the word subservient ever came up, but man was the head of the household.  Those things all go together.

Jacobsen: When did the young earth creationist view become untenable for you?

Krawczyk: I never really ran into anyone who questioned that until I was in college. Even then not a whole lot, because most of my friends were Christian from the Rensselaer Christian Association. I do remember, probably towards my senior year or even my first year in grad school, reading some books that were trying to reconcile the age of the Earth according to science with some of the creationist accounts in the Bible. I don’t remember finding anything convincing, but I do remember reading a few books. I am surprised I found anything at the time, because they would have been in the Christian bookstore. We didn’t really have the Internet resources yet, so it was a bit hard to find information. It was still tenable to me, even though I got to a point by the time I graduated as an undergrad where I didn’t think it was a big deal if another Christian thought an old earth was possible. As long as they believed that God created everything or had a significant hand in moving it along, I wasn’t so attached to the age of the Earth. It wasn’t not a core belief.

It wasn’t until a couple years after I graduated, that I was really encouraged to question things by my boyfriend at the time, who is now my husband. He would point something out as we were walking: “Look at that spider. Isn’t it amazing that spiders evolved to do these amazing webs.” He would tell me some scientific information and I would say, “It is an amazing example of God’s beautiful design work.” [Laughing] He would look at me. He couldn’t believe that I really thought those things and he would ask me questions. We would argue back and forth about it. Eventually it got to the point when I realized that I didn’t really understand enough of what evolutionary theory was to combat it. So I decided to start reading. [Laughing] You know what happens when you read… You learn things, [Laughing]!

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Krawczyk: Let me go back a bit, I think this was my year of grad school at RPI. The church I was involved in there was a Baptist church and they were the most strict, and most fundamentalist church I had ever been to and I was really involved with that church my whole time at school.  They had an outreach program, where they would reach out to the new engineering students at RPI. They would suck us in, bring us to church, take care of us, feed us, love us. They were wonderful people. They were loving people, who were really happy to make us feel like we had a home away from home. One of the things that I do remember is going to an intensive course in  young Earth creationist science. I think the guy whose material we used was Kent Hovind. Looking back now, there were some very fantabulous ideas about how the great flood came about, with a canopy of water over the Earth, how they fed all of the animals on the ark, etc.

I had gotten a full indoctrination on some of these theories of “creation science.” I felt confident that this was really what happened. My pastor was telling me, and he’d studied, so clearly this was it. I don’t think I ever thought to question anything or look at any source materials.

It wasn’t until a few years after I graduated when my boyfriend was questioning me. I got frustrated that I couldn’t win the argument, so I started reading more books, and I started learning about what evolutionary theory was. I realized I didn’t know anything about it. The little snippets I got growing up were that we are not descended from monkeys. Well, no! That is not what evolutionary theory says. It doesn’t say we’re descended from monkeys. I learned about natural selection and about common ancestry and things I had never heard before. It was until I found a book called Finding Darwin’s God by Kenneth Miller who I believe was either a microbiologist, or a cell biologist, but also a practicing Catholic, which, by that point I had decided did fall into the realm of Christianity.

Reading his book – and I read it twice, though I couldn’t recall much of it right now – but he gave me permission to allow myself to think about the science as potentially true and yet not have to discard my belief in God. It had been framed as a choice like that to me for years. You either believe it all, or you’re not a real Christian.

Jacobsen: I believe there is a term for that called False Dichotomy.

Krawczyk: Yes! Reading his book was a big turning point for me. It allowed me to look at the science and learn. I still believed in God. Miller gave something that was a potentially plausible way for both to be true – for me to continue believing and not have to turn my back on everything, but still advance with science.

I was an engineer. I was in materials science and engineering. I wanted to be an astronaut. I was not anti-science. I just had this big section of things that I was not allowed to touch. I didn’t let myself analyze it. You are not encouraged to question these ideas as a child. It just is. It just is the way it is. I’d say about 15 years ago was when I really accepted evolution, but I was still a believer.

Jacobsen: What were your rationalizations for being a good Christian?

Krawczyk: We were taught from a very young age to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your soul.” God is the person you love above all other people.

We were created to worship Him and to love Him. So, my rationalization for trying to be a good Christian was to show God that I loved Him. I wanted to do what was right. God was right. Anything that he said was right. Whatever commandments were in the Bible – those were right.

Showing your love for God was obedience to his commands. The Bible was literally true. I wanted to please him. I wanted to show that I was a good person. I wanted to go to Heaven.

Even though we were told that once you accept Jesus Christ into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior, and have a relationship with Him, that you were saved, and that you’d be together with God in Heaven, there was also definitely fear. Fear that I wasn’t really good enough. Fear that I wasn’t really saved, that I hadn’t done it right. I’ve met a lot of other Christians who came from similar backgrounds who always worried that when they asked Jesus into their heart to save them from their sins, to wash away their sins. That we didn’t do it right. That quite a few of us found ourselves doing it again. That saying the sinner’s prayer – Lord forgive me, I accept Jesus into my heart – still left fear in the background.

Mostly, I was doing what I thought I was supposed to do. I believed there was an omniscient, omnipotent Creator who was up up there watching everything I did and I wanted to please Him. He was our Father; our Father in heaven. You want approval from your parents.

There was one other thing that made me want to try to be a good Christian. In high school, I wasn’t terribly good. I fell away from the things that we were supposed to doing, like most teenagers, you get involved with relationships and I was a bit promiscuous, that sort of thing. When I got to college, that was my chance to really get it right. I was going to do everything right. That became a strong driver for me. That is when I became really, really rigid and much more fundamentalist than I was growing up.

Jacobsen: When did you fall in love after graduate school? And how, was the time simply ripe?

Krawczyk: It was shortly after I had mutually broken off an engagement with a guy in Scotland. I was determined to date no one, but I met Tom through a mutual friend. He was a great guy and I really liked him. He called me and wanted to take me out after we met at a party. The biggest problem was that he was not a Christian, not a believer. That was a huge problem, even though I liked him. That was unacceptable. You are taught not to be yoked with non-believers, because you will pull in different directions and you’ll go in the wrong direction. You are only supposed to marry another believer, and really only be close friends with other believers. He had grown up without any religion at all.

His parents left Catholicism when they were teenagers. He was sort of a blank slate. He was willing to come to church with me. He came to Bible studies, he came to youth group meetings. He did all of these things. I figured that he was very interested and that if he was not a believer then, that he probably would be soon, so it was probably okay to date him. Once I told myself that, it was very fast. I just met the right guy. He was a great guy. It was pretty quick. It was a problem, though.

Jacobsen: Is that a common theme in interbelief partnerships or potential partnerships?

Krawczyk: I think it is a problem for a lot of people. It is a difficulty at least. It depends on how rigid your own beliefs are, how strong your own beliefs are, what type of background you came up in. There’s a lot of negotiation. For Tom and I, it wasn’t very difficult. He came to church but didn’t believe any of the stuff. As long as I didn’t try to make him believe anything, he was fine, he was supportive. He didn’t try to change my mind on anything. In this case, it was an overall easy situation. I was by far the most devout person he had ever met in his life. But I think it becomes more of an issue for a lot of people when you end up having children. We have two. Once we had our first child, it became more difficult because we had to navigate what things we would be teaching to our child.

Jacobsen: On the day after Christmas in 2010, you bought the book by Dan Barker entitled Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America’s Leading Atheists. Did this trigger a transformation for you?

Krawczyk: Absolutely. I have no idea how I heard about his book. Absolutely none. I don’t know if I heard about it on a radio show or heard it being bashed or promoted. I have no idea. This is a plug for e-readers, because if I did not have a way to anonymously purchase that book, I would have never bought it. Kindle was a win. I had already had a number of friends encouraging me over the last 5 or 6 years, or even longer, to consider reading books and writing by people who did not believe, just to expand my understanding of other people. One of my friends was an atheist, but she didn’t really call herself an atheist. Her family background was Hindu, but she did not believe in God. However I heard of this book, I think it intrigued me that he was an ex-Evangelical preacher and songwriter. It completely stunned me that someone could claim that they had left and become an atheist.

I read that book. As I read it, he went through the arguments, stages in faith, various small crises as he was going through faith. I identified so much with them, because I’d heard all of the same arguments and questions and answers. I call them “Sunday school answers.”

By the end of it, I remember putting it down and sitting there quietly and saying out loud, “Everything I have ever believed is a lie.” It was crushing and dark. It had systematically destroyed every argument that I had to support my faith. I did not know what to do. I didn’t tell anybody that I read that book. I didn’t tell my husband. It was a depressing Christmas vacation.

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Krawczyk: [Laughing] It was about celebrating the birth of Jesus and I was thinking, “All of it might be wrong.” It was really, very stressful. I don’t remember how long after, but not long after I thought, “Well, this is one person’s experience. I need to do some research.

I have to figure out if this is actually true or just one person?” So, I got online. Fortunately, we did have the internet at that point. I found a blogger named Rachel Held Evans who had written a book called Evolving in Monkey Town. She had grown up in an environment similar to mine in terms of the teaching that she’d received. She is pretty liberal. She had a blog that had all sorts of people and had things like “Ask A Lutheran,” “Ask A Jehovah’s Witness,” “Ask A Mormon,” and so on. I do not know if she did those particular groups, but at one point, she had “Ask An Atheist.” I thought that was interesting. It was the first time I realized it was okay to ask questions. Other people asked questions and I was not the only one asking questions about what I believed.

It was shocking to see the variety and depth of what people in the world believed. I had been exposed to other religions from friends – Buddhism and Hinduism – but vaguely. This was the first time I realized how many different types of Christians there are and beliefs.

Dan’s book started me on a path of reading and trying to understand, and learning, and asking questions a looking outside my own head for the first time ever. That was seven years ago or so. But I still believed for probably another four years.

Jacobsen: What is a positive of religion to you?

Krawczyk: Community. That is the one thing I remember from my childhood – always having people around who would care about you. It was like a big extended family. People you would probably get along with. If someone said they were a Christian, you knew they are probably very moral and good people [Laughing]. Those seemed like positives to me. Now I realize it’s a little more complex than that. But definitely community. Belief gave me a sense of strength. With God, I felt I always had a friend, I always had someone to talk to, I had someone to help me through hard times. I had someone to help me be a better person. I found a lot of strength in that for many years.

Jacobsen: Within what is called the atheist movement now, of course, it is a number of sub-movements. Some of which do not even talk to each other.

Krawczyk: [Laughing] That’s true.

Jacobsen: What are points of critique if you were taking a neutral outsider’s view that the movements, plural, should take into account to become more effective? Also, what should be the next step for them?

Krawczyk: I like to think of it as the atheist community rather than a movement. I know there are various movements within it. Some of them really seem to be at odds. A critique from the outside – I have come from the outside very recently – it has only been about ten months since I discovered that there was an atheist movement or an atheist community.

So coming from the outside – it looks like we eat our own [Laughing]. There seems to be such a drive to make everybody the same. That reminds me of religion, sometimes. We are trying to be consistent in our aims, what we do, what we should do, what we should work towards, how we should do it, how we should think about different things.

But the only thing we necessarily have in common with another atheist is not believing in a God. Aside from that, you know nothing about someone else until you ask them. What are your values, what are your interests, what are your aims, your goals. My friend Armin Navabi, of Atheist Republic and I have talked about this before and I believe we agree pretty well in this area. There is room for everybody. There is room for all sorts of different aims within the atheist community or movement. I would like to encourage – and I’m working toward this – is not to build bridges that stand over time between different groups, but maybe build temporary bridges like those little military bridges that you put in when the river washes them out.

Jacobsen: Engineers build bridges. That is true.

Krawczyk: [Laughing] But build relationships, that allow people – who may disagree within the atheist community, that may disagree strongly on approaches or how to do something, or what we should be working for – that would allow us to work together to solve common problems, make common goals.

From the outside, there seems to be a lot of bickering and fighting. I don’t think it appeals to a lot of people, even to some of us within it. I would like us to band together when necessary and do our own thing when not necessary. Does that make sense?

Jacobsen: Were you truly afraid of being seen as an “evil atheist, an apostate, a blasphemer, someone without morals”?

Krawczyk: Yes, I absolutely was. I am not sure I ever heard the term atheist when I was growing up. But I knew the one thing that could send you to Hell, was to turn your back on and deny the existence of God. Even when I realized I didn’t believe in God anymore, I realized that my friends and my family and anyone else who believed that, would think that I was doing the most horrible thing and that I was an awful person for it.

So, that is where the blasphemy comes in. As far as having no morals, my mom said, recently, that she never taught me this. She never taught me that people who weren’t believers had no morals. A lot of Christians believe that every person has the capacity to be good, but that is a gift from God. But a lot of others, including myself, believed that if you had not accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour, if you didn’t have God in your life, that you had no ability to be moral morals and you had no moral compass. Your morals come from the Bible and indwelling of the Holy Spirit and being born again.

The idea that I would tell my family and my friends that I didn’t believe and didn’t have this. They would think that I was potentially an evil person. I would say that the most common question I have gotten since I publicly began telling people that I am an atheist is “Well, where do your moral come from?”

Sometimes people are curious and really asking but cannot comprehend how it can be possible. And you can sense that other people are saying it as “I’ve gotcha here! You are really not moral. You only think you are.” I was afraid. I was definitely afraid. The other biggest aspect that kept me from telling people at first is that I didn’t want to make my family sad. One of the things about being a Christian is that you believe that once you are saved and you’re connected with God and your sins are forgiven, that once you die, you will go to heaven all of your family will be there. Everybody you love. All of the other believers will be there.

To tell my family that I do not believe, to them, is me committing blasphemy, which means I will be in Hell. That’s a really big amount of pain to put on someone else. That kept me from talking about it for a long time.

Jacobsen: How should people come out? When should they be quiet and strategic?

Krawczyk: That is a tough question because there are so many situations people can be in and so many types of religions and so many family situations, family dynamics, social dynamics, and so on. I do not think there is a single answer to that question.

I’ll start with when you should you be quieter, and more cautious – if you are coming out of Islam. I have developed quite a few friendships with ex-Muslims. Some of my friends have been physically threatened with death or actually injured for leaving Islam because the social penalty, in many places especially in Muslim-majority countries, can be death. There are 13 countries where you can receive the death penalty for being an apostate, which is renouncing Islam. You can imagine that there are places where even if it is not illegal that you can have vigilante “justice” in a way, where people can be in real danger. That is not as common in the US, or Canada, or the UK, but it definitely happens and more in the UK. That is an extreme situation, where you have to be very cautious. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have safe place to go, and protection and your own financial resources.

If you are in a place like I am – I’m in Southern California, pretty liberal place. I have lots of friends and support. It’s not unsafe for me to come out. I don’t know. It is a hard question.  You have to be ready to be yourself and be able to defend your decision to not be quiet about it.

One of my family members asked me, “If you knew this was going to hurt your family. Why didn’t you just keep it a secret?” I thought, “Why should I?” I asked, “Why should I keep this a secret when it is so important and affects the way I think about most things? Why should I have to hide this?”

If you are ready to deal with some flack in order to be yourself, that is when you should come out. That’s why you come out. The more people who come out and are open and honest about being secular, being atheist, and ot having a belief in God, the easier it is for everybody else.

Right now, there is a perception that we are bad people. Really, there are a lot more of us than people think. A lot of us are uncomfortable; some people don’t want to bother talking about it. Others don’t think it’s important to talk about. Others are just fearful of consequences, like I was. A little under two and half years, I was afraid of losing friends. I was afraid of losing business. You are immediately afraid of being tarred as an amoral person right off the bat – you can’t possibly be good person. That is a big burden to carry.

Jacobsen: Does this speak to a tacit theocratic tendency in America?

Krawczyk: I think so. [Laughing] I’m not even sure it’s tacit.

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Krawczyk: It’s very common. Religious people are better than non-religious people in the common thinking, at least among believers – even of various faiths. I often think it would have been easier on family and friends if I had switched faiths rather than left completely because then I would still believe in God.

Now, I have crossed that line. It’s much harder for people to accept. We hear about America being a Christian nation – the U.S. being a Christian nation – and thinking our laws should reflect Christianity. So, there is a tendency for some people to want the U.S. to be a theocracy, for sure.

Jacobsen: You began to be known as your real self online. Was this scary?

Krawczyk: It was terrifying. It was only ten months ago. I became an atheist three years ago, but aside from telling a few people as I met them – as I met new friends I tested the waters by telling people. I did not post anything online that indicated I wasn’t a believer.

Maybe, things that made me look like a much more liberal Christian than I had ever been before. In the end of October 2016, my husband and I attended CSICon. It was for the Center for Skeptical Inquiry, which is a branch of the Center for Inquiry. It was a conference for scientific skepticism. There is a high crossover between that community and the atheist community.

When we walked in, there was a photo booth for an organization called Openly Secular. Their aim is to promote people being open about being secular, non-religious, or atheist so that it becomes normalized, to reduce discrimination.

I took a deep breath and I dragged my husband over and we took a picture of ourselves in that frame and then one just of myself. I posted it on Instagram before lost my nerve. I was terrified. That was the first time I was ever going to say anything online that said I was not a believer. I was posted it and I kept checking it and I didn’t get a bunch of nasty comments. I got a bunch of likes. That was a big relief.

A couple of weeks later, it was Openly Secular Day. I changed that to my profile picture. I was shaking like a leaf to put that as my profile picture, on Facebook, to have my hundreds of friends and family members see that I was saying that I was openly secular.

It was absolutely terrifying. But I started getting likes. I saw a number of friends I already had were also secular. It was amazing. But, it was scary. I also started getting messages from people I hadn’t talked to in years, and some family members, asking me to consider Pascal’s Wager and sharing Bible verses that I have known very well my whole life.

They were worried about me and wanting to bring me back. It opened me up to a lot of criticism. It was very scary.

Jacobsen: Dr. Dawkins encouraged you to write a book about your transition and experiences. What was the result?

Krawczyk: I met Richard at that same conference – CSICon 2016. We started talking after I introduced myself and he was intrigued by the fact that I had been a young Earth creationist – that I had absolutely despised him and had been taught to despise him. Not by my parents. I don’t remember anything from them, but through various apologetics and defending your faith classes that I’d been too.

For most of my life, since I’d heard of him, he was an awful, evil figure. He was just a horrible man.  An arrogant, horrible person who was trying to destroy everything I believed in, so by the time I actually read his book, The God Delusion… [Laughing]

Jacobsen: [Laughing] We have all experienced that bullying of either being told that some famous person who doesn’t believe is as such, or if they don’t target the famous person, they target you.

Krawczyk: Exactly.  So, I had thought he was a horrible, horrible person. But I’d actually booked tickets to that conference to thank him for writing The God Delusion. Because when I read that, about 4 years after I read Dan Barker’s book, I got about two thirds of the way through that and realized that I was an atheist. I had already left those other beliefs behind and had gotten to the point where pretty much everything he said totally made sense. I had still, just prior to that, thought he was an arrogant jerk. [Laughing]. My husband reminds me of that now. My husband had said, “Why don’t you read something he wrote rather than basing your opinions on stuff you’ve heard over the years? Just read something.” So, I picked The God Delusion and that changed my life. Suddenly it gave me a name. I knew what I was. I knew what category I fell into and I wasn’t the only one.

We kept in touch after the conference. I was in the process of telling family members that I was an atheist. He wanted to know how that went. We were corresponding and I was letting him know how it went with each person. At one point, a cousin on my husband’s side completely cut me off on Facebook. He said he absolutely could not be friends, or in touch with me at all. He wasn’t going to interact with me, or my family anymore, because he couldn’t respect anyone who didn’t believe in God. I was just devastated. I knew this was a possible risk, but I had known him for 18 years. I thought, “How can someone’s opinion change so suddenly when they know me. They know who I am?” I was really upset. I wrote to Richard and told him what happened. I got a response back, which I sadly, can’t find anymore, but basically said he was filled with fury about how religion can poison families. Then, shortly after, I got a message that said that I needed to write a book. I thought, “No. I’m not writing a book” But my husband said, “Richard Dawkins just suggested that you write a book. I think you should look into this.” [laughing]

I talked to Richard about it. He encouraged me to write my own story – it was unusual to come out of being a young Earth creationist and rather fundamentalist – and to tell the stories of other people. What has come out of that so far, is that I’m working on a book. The working title is Losing Your Life to Save It, and the idea is based on a Bible verse. That people have to sometimes lose everything that they care about in their lives – even risking their lives – to just be themselves, to be who you are and open about it, and to just be.

Richard said from the start that he would write the forward to the book and wanted to help by advising me. That is where it is now. I am gathering stories and will soon be putting out a survey to gather many more. I have at least 1,300 people waiting to fill out my next survey to talk about their experiences in various types of relationships and what life has been like, living as an atheist in the US and UK specifically. That is where we are at the moment. I’m writing a book!

Jacobsen: You have been involved with the publicizing and latter-planning for the LogiCal-LA conference, which is for the support of scientific skepticism. What is it? Any highlights that you would like to point out about it?

Krawczyk: Yes, it’s a new conference. It started last year in January. Bruce Gleason of the Orange County Freethought Alliance is the organizer. He runs the conference. Last year, we had a nice group. We had Sean Carroll, the physicist, as the keynote speaker. We had a lot of different great scientists from around the country and local in California. We are trying to support critical thinking, science education, and rational thought.

Los Angeles is a popular area where people live and visit, but we don’t really have anything that happens right there in that area. We are trying to gather some great minds and people who are interested in science and learning and thinking. We are trying to promote rational thought and critical thinking in the country. We really think it is lacking at this point and could use a boost.

Jacobsen: What are your next steps after the organizing and book?

Krawczyk: The book will probably take another year or two. I would like to continue helping with LogiCal-LA. I want to learn… I attended the International Conference for Freedom of Expression. Maryam Namazie’s conference in London – in July. I have been learning about the plight of ex-Muslims around the world. I’ve studied Arabic on and off for about 12 years and I have a BA in Arabic Language and Culture. I am particularly interested in people leaving Islam. I am interested in Arabic cultures and have a lot of Muslim friends.

I’m not sure exactly where I want to go, but I want to support secularism and the separation of church and state in this country. I want to help in any way that I can in normalizing atheism to the point where no one has to be afraid I like I was. No one had to be afraid to come out and say what they believe. I want people to understand, whether religious or non-religious, that families don’t have to be torn apart because of differences in belief.

We all can get along. We can all be. I’m not sure as to what the efforts will be, they are all going to be in support of those ideals. A lot of the work for the next couple of years will be going into this book. Like I said before, I’m in a position where I’m unlikely to have any real problem being out – out loud and proud about being an atheist. But a lot of people in the world are not in that situation I really want people to know that there is discrimination and it is very hard for people, even in the United States, Canada, and the UK, and it shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t have to be this way.

Jacobsen: Thank you for very much for your time, Melissa.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/09

Anouar Majid is the Founder and Editor for Tingis Magazine. Majid has authored several books on Islam and the West, and has been on Bill Moyers Journal and Al Jazeera television. He is the Founding Director of the Center for Global Humanities. Here we talk about Islam and the West.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: We have done an interview for Canadian Atheist. We have one, forthcoming in Conatus News as well.  We talked about another series focused on the “grand theme” of Islam and the West, which is, of course, an area you have published a great deal in.

I would hope for this to remain conversational, as a dialogue, where I aim to learn from you. To begin, what demographics can provide an image of Islam around the world and the United States?

Anouar Majid: The number of Muslims around the world is fast approaching the 2 billion mark. (I think it is now above 1.8 billion.) Like Christianity, Islam is everywhere, on all continents, and in most countries.

Jacobsen: What core beliefs define a Muslim and a non-Muslim? What core do beliefs define someone from the West, a westerner? 

Majid: Muslims believe in one God (called Allah in Arabic) who created everything and to whom we are accountable after death. To be good in the eyes of Allah, one must have absolute faith in him and his prophet Mohammed, pray at least five times a day, fast at least one month a year, give at least 10 percent of one’s wealth to charity, and go on pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once in a lifetime, if possible.

There is another sub-set of obligations, but the aforementioned are known as the pillars of the religion. A Westerner, in this sense, is not the opposite of a Muslim, since she can be secular or religious. In fact, millions of Muslims are Westerners, in the sense that they live and are citizens of Western nations.

Generally speaking, though, we use the term in the sense that it includes a set of ideas that originated in Western Europe, including belief in secular government, human rights, rule of law, democracy, freedom of speech, and other traits.

Jacobsen: Where do these belief sets tend to conflict? 

Majid: In Islam, all power belongs to Allah, and the role of Muslims is to execute Allah’s wishes. Muslims are servants of Allah and, as such, cannot legislate on their own. Everything, according to devout Muslims, has been prescribed in the Koran and the Hadith (compilations of sayings and deeds attributed to the prophet Mohammed).

In principle, notions like “democracy” or “republic” do not exist in Islamic political thought. Sovereignty belongs to Allah only, not to nations or individuals. Nowadays, Muslims use the concept known as “shura” (advisors or consultants) as an example of how Islam makes room for democracy, but being an advisor to a caliph is not quite like voting for candidates running for office on a socialist platform, for instance.

Also, nations like Saudi Arabia do not believe in a human-made constitution, believing, as most Muslims do, that the Koran is sufficient in that regard.

Jacobsen: How does this conflict, in general terms and keeping in mind the demographic question at the outset, play out in American culture? Sometimes, as described in “Muslims in the West: Chronicle of a Crisis Foretold,” this can lead to lethal outcomes based on internal conflicts, in the individual. 

Majid: I am glad you mention that article. The clash of cultures, if not of civilizations, is quite real, although it is not fashionable to say this in polite circles. People who grow up as devout Muslims in Muslim-majority nations have a hard time assimilating into Western secular societies, even though most Muslims covet the West’s education, products, and even freedoms.

From a strictly cultural point of view, though, there is no doubt that a real conflict exists between Islam and the West. There are other aggravating (or attenuating) factors, but this is not our focus here.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Anouar. 

References

Jacobsen, S.D. (2017, December 28). Interview with Anouar Majid – Founding Director, Center for Global Humanities. Retrieved from https://www.canadianatheist.com/2017/12/majid/.

Majid, A. (2016, January 10). Muslims in the West: Chronicle of a Crisis Foretold. Retrieved from http://www.tingismagazine.com/opinion/muslims_in_the_west_chronicle_of_a_crisis_foretold.html.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/09

Scott is the Founder of Skeptic Meditations. He speaks from experience in entering and leaving Self-Realization Monastic Order, a hindu-inspired ashram headquartered in Los Angeles and founded by famous Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda. Here we talk about meditation beliefs, and Westerners who are Post-Christian and consider themselves atheist or spiritual but not religious.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You were part of a community with many cult-like aspects devoted to meditative techniques and a monk lifestyle. What was it? How did you become wrapped up in it?

Scott from SkepticMeditations.com: I was an ordained monk for 14 years in Self-Realization Fellowship Order, founded in 1920 by famous Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda. It is essentially a Hindu-inspired religion with heavy blend of Christianity.

I got involved while in college I considered myself a mystical musician. Basically, I saw myself as a creative-music type, played guitar, sang, wrote music, and played in punk rock bands, sang in Choirs.

I was looking for ways to be more creative, more intuitive. To tap into the hidden, unknown creative powers within myself. At a party, when the band took a break I spoke to my buddies Uncle who was a Yoga Meditator. He recommended I read Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda.

Long story short: I read the Autobiography and had a “come to Yogananda” experience. At the time I felt that everything I wanted–mystical union with my soul, God, and Creative Cosmic Om–was to be found in following Yogananda’s teachings, which were articulated by his organization Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF).

Within 12 to 18 months I gave up everything–college, business/job, friends, family–not involved with the SRF and ran away from home  to live at SRF Hidden Valley Ashram. My aim was to see if I could dedicate my life as an SRF monk. I intended to be a monk for the rest of my life.

I worked my way up the spiritual-monastic food chain of SRF Order. For 18 months, I was a postulant (bootcamp for new monks) at Encinitas Ashram north of San Diego, California. Then I transferred to the SRF Mother Center, the International Headquarters, on top of Mt. Washington, in Northeast Los Angeles between Glendale and Pasadena, California.

At the SRF Mother Center ashram within two years I took Novitiate vows and three years later took Brahmachari vows. Each vow tier was meant to dedicate the monk’s life more fully to loyalty, obedience, celibacy, and simplicity to God, guru, and the SRF. Looking back it all seems like a bad dream. It turned out after several years it was a nightmare to be a monk.

Jacobsen: How did you get out of it, following from the previous question?

Scott: As life gets, it was complicated. After a decade and a half of struggling to make the monk life work I realized the monastery wasn’t the right place for me. What I needed was to grow, try new things.

In secret I would “sneak” out of the ashram under some pretense to buy and read books on escaping religious cults, to visit a life coach and talk over my challenges with a certified psychologist.

Over a period of 1-2 years I gradually got up the courage to leave the Order, the ashram. But how? I needed money, a place to stay, car, job, virtually everything. I renounced everything to be a monk and now I had to find a way to survive in the world outside.

(Incidentally, fear of making it out in the world is extreme in the SRF Order as it is in all high-control groups. The longer members stay the harder it is to leave on practical grounds. Where will you go? What kind of work can you get? How will people see you since you’ve lived under a rock, in a closed Hindu-meditation cult. These and more wild thoughts raced through the heads of monks who entertained escaping the clutches of the ashram Order.)

Fortunately for me, I cobbled together enough cash to buy myself a car, to rent an apartment in nearby Glendale, and to cover my basic living expenses for several months so I could get a toehold out in the world on my own.

Also, I had moral and psychological support from my family and key friends. (SRF treated former monastics as pariahs, as traitors, or so couldn’t rely on SRF…]

Jacobsen: Now, with this foundation, the “I have been there” framework for this series. I want to delve into a variety of topics. For a first one, which was your idea in correspondence, the idea of post-Christian spirituality. What is it? Why is it a relevant, timely, and intriguing topic to you?

Scott: What I mean my post-Christian spirituality I’m referring to the underlying puritan ideals of the West: purity of mind and heart which turns to stilling thought, emptying mind, or no thought as somehow special or sacred.

In the process of secularization, prayer, contemplation, or meditation turns from religious to mind cure. Meditation is somehow secular form of magical “healing”. Meditation is supposed to be beneficial to everyone, to be enlightening, to free practitioners from suffering.

Thinking God’s thoughts becomes thinking “right” thoughts, enlightened thoughts, or no thoughts. That is stilling the mind. Mastering thought. Meditation is actually a subtle version of religion, with a system of enlightenment and an elite with authority.

The system of enlightenment is based on a subtle form of religious thinking. This is why I called it post-Christian or Western secular spirituality.

Good question. Post-Western Christianity is probably not the best way to say what I meant. I’m talking about Westerner’s interest in Eastern spirituality and meditation. Those who are in PEW surveys when people are asked their religion they call themselves “Nones” or spiritual but not religious.

The spiritual but not religious and even many people who identify as atheists who cringe at the term “spiritual” sometimes harbor magical beliefs in things like meditation practices. So this magical thinking about meditation practices, like Buddhist-inspired mindfulness, creeps in.

It goes like this: There’s something deep, magical, and mystical behind the darkness of closed eyes. The Yogis and Eastern Enlightened Masters were onto something. “Science” is proving that meditation cures depression which is not actually the case when we carefully examine the studies of meditation we find that at best meditation practice has a moderate benefit if any compared to other methods of relaxation, exercise, or drugs.

My blog, skepticmeditations, rants about what I call these hidden sides of meditation, regardless whether we call meditation practice secular or not.

Jacobsen: These explorations post-Western Christianity can lead to many areas including meditation, yoga, Buddhism/Hinduism, the New Age philosophy, and Eastern cosmology. What are some cognitive-behavioural traps from the post-Western Christianity explorer’s side?

Scott: Haha. Lots of booby traps. We will never escape them all. But we can gradually, hopefully avoid falling into them endlessly. Each person has to untangle the cognitive traps themselves. It’s a lifelong process of discovery and exploration.

Some may overcome of the obvious traps of Christianity, the Catholic or Protestant doctrines and rituals. Realize that the communion wafer is not the body of Christ but is a cracker and so on.

That probably there is no God, at least not the kind of Divine Intelligence that culturally we are led to believe. But underlying our cultural indoctrination is a system, a framework for Protestant puritan ideals or enlightened masters or authorities and so on. We are products of the culture of the West.

Calling ourselves atheist or secular means we might be post-Christian but still have much of the subtle Christian-Western puritan worldviews. Even simple notions like “Work hard and you will succeed”. “Control your thoughts and control your destiny”, and so on. These are sublter versions of God beliefs or based in religious worldviews.

Jacobsen: What are some of the traps from those who wish to bring those post-Western Christianity explorers into their particular fold?

Scott:The scientific research into the benefits of meditation are inconclusive. We don’t yet have enough good data. Yet, many people scan and read only the headline that says meditation is beneficial for everybody.

So this kind of surface exploration of claims, like we’ve seen now with so-called fake news, should cause us to pause. It takes time and effort to dive deep into a topic like religion, meditation, or atheism.

Whatever, these are just labels. I think we should not take headlines and labels too seriously without first doing our homework and diving deep into the underlying premises and assumptions.

Jacobsen: Any final thoughts or feelings in conclusion?

Scott: Well, I appreciate the opportunity to talk with you today. I enjoyed your questions and grappling with how to respond. I really like your conversational and interview style. I think back and forth dialogue is one of the best ways to try to understand ourselves and others. Thanks.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Scott.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/08

Canada seems poised for a proper celebratory day, today March 8, for International Women’s Day. Of course, this allies with two other days: Women’s Equality Day, and Women’s History Month.

These mark important celebrations for women throughout the world with a recognized day. Canada remains an important proponent of the rights of women in the legal context and privileges in the socio-cultural environment.

There appear a number of women of prominence or modest achievement in the world – “Hypatia of Alexandria, Elizabeth Anscombe, Hannah Arendt, Margaret Atwood, Simone de Beauvoir, Hildegard von Bingen, Marie Curie, Lady Anne Conway, Sarah Margaret Fuller… and innumerable others” and many of whom I do not know the full biographies – and, indeed, in Canada (Jacobsen, 2018).

In recognition of Canadian women’s achievements, often overlooked, we find the 2018 recognition from the substantive to the trivial. On the ledger of the more substantive, we find the boost in pro-women initiatives at the level of the federal government (O’Malley, 2018).

Also, the symbolic importance of a change in the ten dollar bill image with a printing of Viola Desmond, which is signal a representation of a woman of achievement in Canadian history on a Bank of Canada note (Bank of Canada, 2018).

Finance Minister Bill Morneau stated, “Two years ago today—on International Women’s Day—Prime Minister Trudeau and I announced that the time had come for a Canadian woman to be represented on Canada’s bank notes. Since then, thanks in large part through her sister Wanda, more and more Canadians have come to know Viola Desmond’s remarkable personal story of courage and dignity. Her story serves as inspiration to all Canadians and acts as a powerful reminder of how one person’s actions can help trigger change across generations” (Ibid.).

On the moderate, middle-part of the ledge, we find a change to the Barbie line of products (Batha & Taylor, 2018). Also, the hashtag #MyFeminism is a decent symbolic gesture in more modern media, social media, too (Status of Women Canada, 2018). Then into the trivial side, as Abedi hints at in the title and so on, we have the upside-down McDonald’s “M” into a “W” standing for “Women” instead of “McDonald’s” (Abedi, 2018).

Overall, it seems okay as a celebration of the day for women around the world in Canada, but, as the cliché goes, there is (always) more to be done.

References

Abedi, M. (2018, March 8). McDonald’s flips arches to honour International Women’s Day — but it backfires. Retrieved from https://globalnews.ca/news/4070137/mcdonalds-international-womens-day-flipped-arches/.

Bank of Canada. (2018, March 8). New $10 bank note featuring Viola Desmond unveiled on International Women’s Day. Retrieved from https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2018/03/new-10-bank-note-featuring-viola-desmond-unveiled/.

Batha, E. & Taylor, L. (2018, March 8). How the world is celebrating International Women’s Day. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/barbie-flashmob-womens-day-1.4567692.

Jacobsen, S. D. (2018, March 8). Rick G. Rosner: Giga Society, Member; Mega Society, Member & ex-Editor (1991-97); and Writer (Part Ten). Retrieved from https://in-sightjournal.com/2014/12/15/ick-g-rosner-giga-society-member-mega-society-member-ex-editor-1990-96-and-writer-part-ten/.

O’Malley, K. (2018, March 8). Team Trudeau to mark International Women’s Day by boosting pro-woman budget initiatives. Retrieved from https://ipolitics.ca/2018/03/08/team-trudeau-mark-international-womens-day-boosting-pro-woman-budget-initiatives/.

Status of Women Canada. (2018, March 8). Government of Canada celebrates International Women’s Day 2018 – #MyFeminism. Retrieved from https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/government-of-canada-celebrates-international-womens-day-2018—myfeminism-676251983.html.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/08

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What was early development life for you – geography, culture, language, and religion if any?

Damon Conlan: I grew up in England, in the West Midlands. I was lucky in that no one was particularly religious in my immediate family, other than to be culturally Christian; the only time they would end up in a church was usually for a wedding, a christening, or a funeral.

Even Santa Claus was not thrust upon me with too much gusto, and I was left to my own devices to figure out whether or not all these myths had any validity.

The primary school I attended (when I was 5 until 11), in the last few years I was there, rebranded as a Church of England school; I think my initial objection to the new name was based primarily on its linguistic aesthetics.

Alongside the occasional sermon at assembly when the vicar turned up, the mandatory collective worship that took the form of a prayer, and hymns decrying how great God was, that was my first exposure to the concept of religious imposition into an otherwise secular space.

Jacobsen: As a magician, how does this inform your own view on our ability to be easily deceived – as James Randi says, “You too can be fooled!?”

Conlan: I have always found magic to be a fine bedfellow of skepticism, science, and reason. In its purest form, it presents a paradox: a coin cannot vanish from within a closed fist, and yet the magician’s hand is now empty. To be convinced of a lie whilst being fully aware you are being lied to is an incredibly useful learning tool. The inherent irony of magic provides us with a constant reminder that we can be misled.

Whenever I perform, that is always the subtext in my head. The easiest path to deception is to assume that you cannot be deceived; once you cease to question something, you censor yourself from discovering new truths.

As James Randi would say, magicians are honest liars, and I like to think that they serve to inoculate the populace from contracting faith by reminding them that they too can be fooled.

Jacobsen: What is your own view on religion and the progressive politics, i.e., their relationship and compatibility?

Conlan: I do not think it is any great revelation that the less someone takes a religious tome seriously, the less likely they are to abide by its rules and ideas. And there are plenty of them, from the beguilingly benign to the acutely wicked. Faith, the willing suspension of critical thinking, ultimately poisons the well.

Apply that to anything outside of religion and you can end up being convinced of anything, confine it to religion and you can be made to do anything; it is hard to talk someone out of something that they think God wants them to do.

To quote Steven Weinberg, “With or without [religion] you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”

If a religion insists on not having its ideas scrutinised, which often betrays much, then it follows the traditional pattern of being dragged, kicking, and screaming, into the future. Questioning, open discourse, the battle of ideas: these are the things that should be at the forefront if we want any kind of societal progress, and religion has always been the antithesis of those things.

Jacobsen: Safe spaces, trigger warnings, and so on, are new phenomena. How do these conflict with the ideals of an academic environment?

Conlan: A university, a place exactly designed for the battle of ideas, should not be a place than overprotects or infantilizes. You only short-change students if you seek to inoculate them from the ideas that might offend.

Ideas need to be readily and freely discussed because free speech, in actuality, is the way in which we unshackle ourselves of bad ideas, maintain plurality, and protect the minority voice.

How do you know if an idea stands up to scrutiny unless it has been scrutinised? Why wouldn’t we want students to develop good arguments for the ideas they hold, and develop effective critical thinking?

I am always reminded of the “be careful what you wish for” trope; the perils of the literal genie. A benign request for something positive, when carried out thoughtlessly, can wreak havoc on the wisher. What we see more and more of, and not just on campuses, is the pursuit of a kind of puritanism. This new religion demands you to think and behave according to a strict set of dogmas not just in the present, but also in the past and the future, lest you be ostracised from the in-group.

The Christian notion of being “created sick and commanded to be well,” to quote Christopher Hitchens paraphrasing Fulke Greville, finds a pseudo-religious home. This is not the pursuit of amelioration, but a totalitarian exercise in creating a utopic society.

The intolerance towards anyone who does not comply with the in-group is a symptom of our tribalistic human nature, and one which we must out-grow. This is why free speech is so important, as true progress is only achieved if we properly confront the ideas we dislike, and fully scrutinise our own.

Jacobsen: What do you recommend for those interested in either magic or writing about the issues around free speech if those are topics that interest you?

Conlan: For those interested in magic, I would probably start by recommending a visit to your local (or virtual) magic shop or joining a local magic club. If you are interested in free speech, I would start typing immediately.

Jacobsen: Any final thoughts or feelings in conclusion?

Conlan: It is been a pleasure to have been interviewed for Canadian Atheist.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Damon.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/08

There was a recent conversation entitled “Is Christianity or Secular Humanism a better foundation for human rights?: A conversation Between a Christian and a Secular Humanist.”

Steve Kim was the moderator of the conversation. Kim earned “a diploma in Worship Arts and a BA in Biblical Studies from Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, BC. He has completed a master’s degree in Christian Apologetics through Biola University.”

Dr. Andy Bannister was the Christian side of the conversation. Bannister is the “Director of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity and an Adjunct Speaker for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries” and holds a “PhD in Islamic studies.”

Ian Bushfield was the Secular Humanist side of the conversation. Bushfield is the “Executive Director of the British Columbia Humanist Association” and “also the co-host of the PolitiCoast podcast.”

The dialogue covered a wide variety of subject matter including human rights, ontology, the Third Reich, the Silver Rule and the Golden Rule, varieties of societies around the world and across time, the source of morality, the binding nature of human rights, Down Syndrome, Canadian culture and Western civilization, reflections on Friedrich Nietzsche, good and evil in relation to human rights, metaphysical beliefs around morality, empowering people as part of ethics, relativism, rational discussions, and many others, especially entertaining and enjoyable because it was framed as and turned out as a “conversation” rather adversarial as a debate – and was covered in a humorous and respectful light. Kudos to Kim, Bannister, and Bushfield! Take a peak: 

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/07

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You are a former missionary an church planter. What were moments for the crisis of faith or something akin to it? Were these singular momentous deluges or slow drips of doubt upon which you built an ocean to sail your non-religious boat?

EJ Hill: I was a very dedicated believer, until the moment I realized that there were errors in the Bible, that no-one denied. What these folks seem to miss, however, is that the God of the Bible promised to protect His Word against corruption, meaning that he either lied or failed. That, along with the fact that we do not have an original copy of the ‘original Bible’ led to a ‘singular momentous deluge of doubt’ that left me devastated and depressed for months.

Jacobsen: How does the religious and skeptical environment compare in North America and South Africa (your place of residence)?

Hill: Well, I have never had the opportunity to travel to North America, but I do have a couple of online friends and follow a number of atheistic websites from there. It would seem like non-believers in North America has way more support in the sense of support groups, magazines, fraternities, and a number of celebrity intellectuals to champion their cause – Neil deGrasse Tyson, James Randi, Penn Jillette, and until recently Christopher Hitchens. While, here in sunny South Africa we have very little of that. But we are working on it, and we also benefitting from what is happening in North America.

Jacobsen: If you could take some of the big preacher names such as the late Billy Graham, Rick Warren, T.D. Jakes, Matt Chandler, Mark Driscoll, Francis Chan, Tim Keller, Dr. Ed Young, Sr., Craig Groeschel, Chris Hodges, Joel Osteen, and others, what tends to describe their approach in bringing people into their fold?

Hill: As a former Reformed Evangelical Christian Minister I had very little time for most of these guys, including Benny Hinn, Jesse duPlantis, Jerry Savelle, Kenneth Copeland, and Kenneth Hagin.

As far as I was concerned, Billy Graham was an ecumenical hypocrite, who watered down the gospel to accommodate as many people as he could via an appeal to emotion. Rick Warren promised God’s “blessings” to everyone, and that based on a flawed interpretation of the prayer of Jabez. T.D. Jakes is a typical prosperity preacher who fleeces his simple-minded flock with promises of wealth and prosperity. I initially liked Mark Driscoll, because of the somewhat reformed evangelical nature of his ministry, but I did not approve of his arrogant leadership style. He seems to be employing the “cowboy approach” to bringing men, in particular, into the fold with gimmicks like mixed martial arts, sex talks, etc. Joel Osteen is yet another prosperity preacher, promising his flock wealth and prosperity for a quick buck. I know too little about Matt Chandler, Francis Chan, Tim Keller, Dr. Ed Young, Sr., Craig Groeschel, or Chris Hodges, to comment on them.

Jacobsen: What seems like the 10-year future of the ex-pastor community in terms of becoming public, telling their stories, and becoming accepted members of mainstream society rather than fringe?

Hill: By “ex-pastor community” I assume you referring to The Clergy Project, which will have a bright future, if they could manage to work out some organizational technicalities. If not, they will become nothing more than a mailing list, most of the members being swallowed by local atheistic groupings, where they will provide invaluable consultation.

Jacobsen: Any final thoughts or feelings in conclusion?

Hill: To my atheistic friend. Please double-check what you say. If you do not know what you are talking about – consult. But, whatever you do, do not spread misinformation. Most of those “bible contradictions” I see thrown around the Internet, are not contradictions by a long shot. The only reason why you think they are, is because you lack understanding. These types of flawed attacks on Christianity only serves to strengthen believers in their belief, that the Bible is inerrant, and atheists do not know what they are talking about. Do everyone a favour, and do not speak on a subject, until you earned the right to do so, having done your research. And, no, reading a single article or book does NOT constitute research.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/06

Out of the long history of the rejection of the traditional religious moral frameworks, practices, rituals, and beliefs about the fundamental constituents of the world, humanism bubbled to the surface in pockets in the world’s history, whether schools associated with Charvaka or Lokayata materialist school in India and Mengzi or Mencius in China, or thinkers of the Greco-Roman orientation (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica; Stefon et al, 2016; Humanists UK, 2018).

Even with these formations in various parts of the world with different histories and peoples, humanism arises as a tendency in human thought across time more than a formal school of thought, with exceptions to some uncommon instances in the ancient world.

Of course, these “tendencies of thought” arose as rich and accepted, and flourishing, formal schools of thought in the Rennaissance Era, with approximations of their modern form, during the 13th and 14th centuries in Northern Italy with a geographic transition into England and continental Europe (Grudin, 2017).

Given its assertions about the nature of the world — an emphasis on empirical investigation for imprecise, but ever-improving, reels of the material world, the focus on the natural world discovered by natural means or naturalism, reason and compassion allied with scientific investigation for decision-making with relevance to human beings and their happiness, and so on and so forth, these tend towards opposition with the dominant schools of thought seen in mainstream faiths across the world because of perpendicular, in content and purpose, assertions about the universe (Papineau, 2016; American Humanist Association, 2003; Harvard Divinity School, 2018).

The emphasis on, though not exclusionary utilization of, faith or “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see,” the discovery and comprehension of the world through revelation in order to prepare for the hereafter in some form, and care, compassion, and often good works (if not by grace) geared to the wellbeing of immaterial souls (The Bible, 2018; The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, 2017).

Granted, Encyclopedia Britannica orients humanism within the religion palette, but with an addendum about its own emphasis on human community and the natural world and not on the sacred and a potential afterlife.

In short, another form of religious belief focused on the here-and-now rather than the unforeseen and hoped-for there-and-then (The Bible, 2018). Formal religious practices tend to require assiduous effort, especially if of the self-flagellate kinds.

Given current trends within Canada, and by these standards, most Canadians with religious traditions, heritage, and practice do not meet this criteria for formal religious practitioners: religious by title (Press, 2013; Clark, 2003; Slater et al, 2015).

However, if the belief and epistemology, in its standard representation of trust in a higher power than oneself, then it amounts to hazy-lazy as a life trail.

To investigate, to prod and probe, to question, to doubt about everything, this takes time, effort, and another path in life less fuzzy and with fewer lazy moments than its traditional and dominant counterpart.

To construct a community in this manner brings about the common wisdom, which contain some modicum of truth values in its fundamental presuppositions, the unbelievers and infidel types, to play on the conceptual maps of the formal religious, in the construction efforts towards a communal environment of some form can feel as if “herding cats.”

How almost completely true, how pitiable, yet how hopeful and triumphal, the assumption amounts to at least two or more people trying in spite of the common pessimism and tiresome intellectual meanderings around the creation of said community.

That community of human beings in search of meaning, relationships, a common language and culture, music and art, and some place to build a foundational sense of family and sense of mutual respect and individual dignity in the pursuit of one’s livelihood: humanists.

In a Christian country, in Canada, via interpretation of the numbers throughout its history right into the present, many of the individuals with rejection of God with a formal atheism, often in the Abrahamic tradition, will move into the religiously unaffiliated categorization, but this amounts to a rejection of God or gods and the affirmation of their non-existence as well, in general (Press, 2013; Clark, 2003; Slater et al, 2015).

One of these groups of people equate to the humanists. Not only the standard denial found in atheism or the standard position of unknowing known as agnosticism; not only those related but distinct positions, humanism provides an affirmation of life values with an implied axiological status or set of values about life, epistemology or means through which to know the world, ontology or considerations about the foundational nature of being, ethic or how we should behave in accordance with and to one another, even a young aesthetic with the slow development of an art and culture with some writings and music and visual presentations meant to evoke emotions or strike thoughts.

Many in Canada grow without a faith or transition into none, the Nones, and then find a secular religion in its benign interpretation in humanism. It may seem like a big switch, but probably does not amount to much for many. In other words, to get a new lease on life, all you need to do is change your point of view a bit; and we are never too old for that. Plus, it comes with a community, but it remains acknowledged as a hard road to earn it.

References

American Humanist Association. (2003). Humanism and Its Aspirations: Humanist Manifesto III, a Successor to the Humanist Manifesto of 1933. Retrieved from https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/manifesto3/.

Clark, W. (2003). Pockets of Belief: Religious attendance patterns in Canada. Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2002004/article/6493-eng.pdf?contentType=application%2Fpdf.

Grudin, R. (2017, November 22). Humanism. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/humanism.

Harvard Divinity School. (2018). Humanist Manifestos. Retrieved from https://rlp.hds.harvard.edu/humanism/humanist-manifestos.

Humanists UK. (2018). The Ancient World. Retrieved from https://humanism.org.uk/humanism/the-humanist-tradition/the-ancient-world/.

Papineau, D. (2016). Naturalism. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/naturalism/.

Press, J. (2013, May 8). Religion in Canada, a breakdown. Retrieved from http://www.canada.com/life/Religion+Canada+breakdown/8354112/story.html.

Slater, P., Coward, H., Chagnon, R., & Baird, D. (2015, March 5). Religion. Retrieved from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/religion/.

Statistics Canada. (2008, November 21). Canadians attend weekly religious services less than 20 years ago. Retrieved from https://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-630-x/2008001/article/10650-eng.htm.

Stefon, M., et al. (2016, July 6). Mencius. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mencius-Chinese-philosopher.

The Bible (NIV). (2018). Hebrews 11:1. Retrieved from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+11%3A1&version=NIV.

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. (2017, June 16). Charvaka. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Charvaka.

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. (2017, April 28). Religion. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/religion.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.