Are there any lessons a Western humanist might learn from experiencing other cultures in other countries around the world? Tom Cooke thinks so. Maybe you do to? Tom, past president of the Central Ontario Humanist Association, has recently returned from Thailand. On Wednesday, April 29 at the COHA meeting he will present a humanist perspective on Thai culture, politics and religion. His presentation will include a slide show.

Are there are better ways to appreciate and celebrate life than the Western world would have us believe?

Others who have also had their eyes opened and minds broadened by their world travels are encouraged to comment on Tom’s observations and to contribute insights from their own experiences.

We are back from winter vacations and anxious to see you again at the April 29 meeting — Zehrs Community Room, Big Bay Point Rd. and #11 at 7pm. Coffee will be available for donations of $2. Admission is free for your first three visits.

And of course those who would like to meet that day for dinner at our usual Swiss Chalet — 85 Barrie View Drive — see you there at 5pm.

I am pleased to report that yesterday’s edition of the Barrie Examiner (Saturday April 19, 2009) featured an article which interviewed myself on the topic of Humanism in the Life section. Sadly, the article itself focused on the atheist bus-ad campaign featured in last months topic and not a deeper exploration of Humanism itself. News articles need specific angles, and the bus ad controversy was the angle Bruce Cameron took.

I would like to thank Bruce Cameron and the Barrie Examiner for printing this story and asking the Central Ontario Humanist Association for an interview. The Barrie Examiner has now posted this article on their website, you can see the scanned version as it is currently available for download on our website. (If it looks to small in your browser, you may have to click it to make it larger.)  But the full text of the article is available below.

Do you have feedback about the article? Please email me at sha…@cohumanists.ca as I’d love to hear your response.

SOCIETY: Barrie humanist says campaign has been ‘too forceful’

Debate over bus ads keeps on rolling

By BRUCE CAMERON

“There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life,” is the hot button wording now seen on bus and subway ads in cities around the globe, including larger Canadian centres such as Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary.It’s the atheistic response first seen on London, England, buses in January of this year to an ad on a bus that warned of “eternal lakes of fire” for all non-believers.

Humanists (atheists, agnostics, sceptics, freethinkers) in that city replied with the cheeky ad quoted above, but there’s one Barrie atheist who doesn’t necessarily approve of it.

“I believe it was perhaps being a little forceful,” said Shawn Conroy, vice-president of the Barrie-based Central Ontario Humanist Association.

Conroy said humanists have always tended to speak with an independent voice, especially in pre-Internet days, when trying to get them to agree on something “was like herding cats.”

He much prefers the wording on a billboard ad seen recently in the U. S. Its message: “Don’t believe in God? You’re not alone.”

“It (ad) had the advantage of only expressing that opinion and not making a judgement on anyone else. It was consciousness-raising for people who are believers and maybe don’t know that atheists are here, and to get them comfortable with the idea that atheists are just like everyone else,” Conroy said.

“For atheists, it let them know that their fellow atheists were here and did it in the most inoffensive way possible.”

The ad sparked heated reaction, especially in the American South, home of the Bible Belt. Conroy said a number of the billboards had to be taken down because religious folks complained that it “denigrated their faith.”

“I think it’s part of the problem, the fact that they think even a dissenting opinion denigrates their faith. As a humanist, I’m saying we need to have this conversation,” Conroy said.

For Rev. Dennis Posno, who for the past 13 years has lived his vocation at Collier Street United Church in Barrie, he remains philosophical over the debate regarding the ad.

“I recall a quote from Voltaire during the French Revolution,” he said.

“There was someone who was expressing a point a view with whom he took exception, but he said, ‘Although I disagree with what you said, I will defend to the death your right to say it.’”

But as for matters spiritual, the similarities between the two come to a fairly quick end.

The Central Ontario Humanist Association’s pamphlet says, in part, “COHA is a non-profit group of Humanists and Humanist-friendly people including, but not limited to, atheists, agnostics, non-atheists, skeptics and freethinkers. Despite our non-religious nature, we are humbled by the universe’s majesty, in awe of life, and inspired to live ethically.”

As for the show-stopping evidence of a deity, or miracles, Conroy leans on logic.

“I don’t believe in any miracles,” he said. “I do believe that sometimes unexplainable things happen. And I believe that a long time ago, lots of stuff was unexplainable. Now, we’ve managed to explain more of it and I think that’s one of the beautiful things about the process of science.”

According to Posno, there most definitely is a God, the very one who created things like the majesty of the universe, but a simple belief in the existence of a ‘Higher Power’ has to take a backseat to the idea of faith.

“Life pushes us to ask different question, but in many instances, the questions are as important as the answers,” he said. “I can’t prove to you the existence of God, I can only say to you, I know for me and my heart, that there is more.”

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• Humanism, Having Its Ultimate Faith In Humankind, Believes That Human Beings Possess The Power Or Potentiality Of Solving Their Own Problems, Through Reliance Primarily Upon Reason And Scientific Method Applied With Courage And Vision.
• Humanism Believes In An Ethics Or Morality That Grounds All Human Values In Earthly Experiences And Relationships; One That Holds As Its Highest Goal This-Worldly Happiness, Freedom, And Progress (Economic, Cultural, And Ethical) Of All Humankind, Irrespective Of Nation, Race, Or Religion.
  SOURCE: The Philosophy Of Humanism By Corliss Lamont