Humanist Network
This is what it think of it...
Freethinkers
A freethinker is a person who arrives at conclusions, especially in religious matters, by reason and not by authority (p. 474 Atheism: A Philosophical Justification Michael Martin, Temple University Press)
And what kind of reason is he talking about?
According to Mr. Arthur San Pedro (founder of The Enlightenment League and Moral Society, Inc. - ELMS) Reason that is principled by ‘critical thought’ and ‘ideals of objective verification’.
Hate based reasoning is not a freethinkers method. I even say that hate based reasoning is base in authority - The authority of pre-conditioned biases and judgments. If you cannot write a simple objective observation then you don’t have any right to call yourself a freethinker!
Humanism
Humanism is simply put as an outcome of a rejection of the belief in supernatural revelation. But rejection of supernatural revelation doesn’t mean contempt. Humanists criticized religious claims base on reason not insults.
Humanism doesn’t mean contempt to god-believers. John Dewey suggested that God can be redefined in a naturalistic terms. That is humanism. According to Archibald MacLeish, “God was the manifestation of the human capacity for empathy and altruism. Human love, created God.” If that’s the case, then humanism create the very thing that some Filipino "atheists" and "seculasr humanism" despise – Human love.
Promoting Humanism in the Philippines
To promote humanism here in the Philippines, a genuine humanist group must focus on problems base on the issues that were tackled by the Humanist Manifesto of 1973, 1980 and 1988 not on church-bashing. Its aims are for the ethical, scientific and philosophical improvement of the Philippines.
Here are the important issues:
1. Education and Literacy
2. Population Growth
3. Unemployment
4. Poverty
5. Corruption
6. Pollution and the natural resources
Speaking of religious concern, instead of religion hating and church bashing, Filipino humanist must focus on issues regarding the unrealistic spiritual attitude brought by religious fundamentalism which only encourage an unrealistic and escapist approach in dealing with social problems. There is also the problem of the separation of church and state and the problem in the issue of birth control and responsible parenthood.
In matters of philosophy, there is the threat of ideologies that attack the objectivity of science and belittle human rights and democracy. These philosophies are counter-productive and promote defeatism.
A freethinker is a person who arrives at conclusions, especially in religious matters, by reason and not by authority (p. 474 Atheism: A Philosophical Justification Michael Martin, Temple University Press)
And what kind of reason is he talking about?
According to Mr. Arthur San Pedro (founder of The Enlightenment League and Moral Society, Inc. - ELMS) Reason that is principled by ‘critical thought’ and ‘ideals of objective verification’.
Hate based reasoning is not a freethinkers method. I even say that hate based reasoning is base in authority - The authority of pre-conditioned biases and judgments. If you cannot write a simple objective observation then you don’t have any right to call yourself a freethinker!
Humanism
Humanism is simply put as an outcome of a rejection of the belief in supernatural revelation. But rejection of supernatural revelation doesn’t mean contempt. Humanists criticized religious claims base on reason not insults.
Humanism doesn’t mean contempt to god-believers. John Dewey suggested that God can be redefined in a naturalistic terms. That is humanism. According to Archibald MacLeish, “God was the manifestation of the human capacity for empathy and altruism. Human love, created God.” If that’s the case, then humanism create the very thing that some Filipino "atheists" and "seculasr humanism" despise – Human love.
Promoting Humanism in the Philippines
To promote humanism here in the Philippines, a genuine humanist group must focus on problems base on the issues that were tackled by the Humanist Manifesto of 1973, 1980 and 1988 not on church-bashing. Its aims are for the ethical, scientific and philosophical improvement of the Philippines.
Here are the important issues:
1. Education and Literacy
2. Population Growth
3. Unemployment
4. Poverty
5. Corruption
6. Pollution and the natural resources
Speaking of religious concern, instead of religion hating and church bashing, Filipino humanist must focus on issues regarding the unrealistic spiritual attitude brought by religious fundamentalism which only encourage an unrealistic and escapist approach in dealing with social problems. There is also the problem of the separation of church and state and the problem in the issue of birth control and responsible parenthood.
In matters of philosophy, there is the threat of ideologies that attack the objectivity of science and belittle human rights and democracy. These philosophies are counter-productive and promote defeatism.
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