Well, but a bookshop wouldn't go amiss.

[slemslempike]

I was looking at the website for the British Humanist Association (trying to work out what humanism is, after thinking about a post thatlsugaralmond made), and found this part of their quiz hilarious:

5 When I look at a beautiful view I think that …
A) it must have been designed by God.
B) it would be a nice place for a motorway.
C) this is what life is all about - I feel good.
D) we ought to do everything possible to protect this for future generations.

My general reaction to beautiful views is "oh, that's nice", so I'm probably up there with the unsustainable-transport-planners in many people's eyes. I don't tend to be moved by scenery, although hedgerows do bring out an occasional patriotic murmur. I'm thinking that the BHA is not the place for me, based on that.

Today I finshed The Archaeology of Knowledge. The main outcome of this is that I can now say that I've read The Archaeology of Knowledge, as long as it's in a situation where there will be absolutely NO follow-up questions. Tomorrow will be spent going through the spark notes guide to work out what it actually means. I made an icon from the phdcomic feed, because it seems that it's going to become useful very soon , and I thought that if I needed to make a post and illustrate it with an icon of despair, it would only be exacerbated if I had to make the icon as well. It was mostly in Photoshop, but I couldn't work out how to do a border, so I saved it and then did the border in Paint.

This time next month I'll be in Africa.

Comments

[lsugaralmond.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit hazy on the differences between atheism and humanism to be honest, but the reason I decided to go with atheism is largely down to this text, which was originally used in testimony in a court case in the United States in 1959 about compulsory school prayer:

An atheist loves himself and his fellow man instead of a god. An atheist thinks that heaven is something for which we should work for now — here on earth — for all men together to enjoy. An atheist accepts that he can get no help through prayer but that he must find in himself the inner conviction and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, subdue and enjoy it. An atheist thinks that only in knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man can he find the understanding that will help to a life of fulfillment.

Therefore, he seeks to know himself and his fellow man rather than to 'know' a god. An atheist knows that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An atheist knows that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death.

He wants disease conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated. He wants man to understand and love man. He wants an ethical way of life. He knows that we cannot rely on a god nor channel action into prayer nor hope for an end of troubles in a hereafter. He knows that we are our brothers' keepers in that we are, first, keepers of our lives; that we are responsible persons, that the job is here and the time is now.

That about sums up my thinking on the subject. So atheist I am.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, that text reads a lot like humanism to me - with the focus on ethics. Because I don't think that being an atheist does mean that I want disease conquered, or that not being an atheist would mean that I was all about the spreading. And I'm not an atheist because I want the world to be a better place. I do want the world to be a better place, and I'd like it if that "better" was defined on non-religious grounds, which seems more like secular than humanist. It's so confusing! I guess I'm secure with atheism, but hazy on the differences between humanism and secularism.