Journal of Secular Humanism - UO

09/10/2015

The online magazine, Journal of Secular Humanism, has just released its first issue. Check it out and tell us what you think! Criticisms are also welcome, because we want to make our online magazine the best that it can be. http://journalofsecularhumanism.com/

THE ARTICLES How Does Sexism Affect Women's Private Lives in Saudi Arabia Feminism has made enormous strides in western countries in particular, but the situation for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia remains grim and shows little sign of changing for the better. I was born in the conservative city of…

08/28/2015

New blog https://jonathanruano.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/a-skeptics-view-on-the-politically-correct-definition-of-bigotry/

In the 1980s, the definition of bigotry was straightforward. Bigotry meant dehumanizing another human being on the basis of race, class, ethnicity, religion, culture, gender, or s*xual orientation....

07/05/2015

We have decided to set up a new magazine dedicated to discussing issues connected to secularism. Access to the articles is free. https://www.facebook.com/journalofsecularhumanism

The Journal of Secularism seeks to represent the diverse voices in support of secularism and impleme

06/01/2015

"If current trends continue, by 2050 …

The number of Muslims will nearly equal the number of Christians around the world.

Atheists, agnostics and other people who do not affiliate with any religion – though increasing in countries such as the United States and France – will make up a declining share of the world’s total population.

The global Buddhist population will be about the same size it was in 2010, while the Hindu and Jewish populations will be larger than they are today.
In Europe, Muslims will make up 10% of the overall population.

India will retain a Hindu majority but also will have the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, surpassing Indonesia.

In the United States, Christians will decline from more than three-quarters of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050, and Judaism will no longer be the largest non-Christian religion. Muslims will be more numerous in the U.S. than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of religion.

Four out of every 10 Christians in the world will live in sub-Saharan Africa."

As of 2010, nearly a third of the world's population identified as Christian. But if demographic trends persist, Islam will close the gap by the middle of the 21st century.

05/18/2015

"A 33-year-old banker named Ananta Bijoy Das was hacked to death by four men wielding machetes as he walked to work. He had been a contributor to Mukto-Mona, or Free Mind, a blog for free-thinking secularists, atheists and those opposed to Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh. Mr. Das, a month earlier, had applied for a visa to visit Sweden. He wanted to attend a press freedom event being held by PEN Sweden, a branch of the free speech organization. The Swedish embassy in Dhaka turned him down, reportedly thinking he might not want to return to Bangladesh.

"And now he is dead.

"The founder of Mukto-Mona, the Bangladeshi-born U.S. writer and author Avijit Roy, was slashed to death in Dhaka in February – an attack that also wounded his wife. In March, Washiqur Rahman, another secular blogger who critiqued Islamic fundamentalism, was likewise killed."

In nominally secular states, not having a religious affiliation may be the most dangerous and loneliest

05/17/2015

"Conservative Protestants (Baptists, Pentecostals, and others), who make up 12.1 per cent of the population, score highest: an average of 45 per cent across these denominations agree that pops should be tops.

"The 14.5 per cent of Canadians who are mainline Protestants (Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and members of the United Church) are at the other end of the spectrum: at 17 per cent agreement, they are the least likely to believe in patriarchal authority, roughly tied with those claiming no religion (18 per cent). Catholics (39 per cent of Canadians) are not far off, at 21 per cent agreement.

"If conservative Protestants and mainline Protestants mark the high and low ends of the patriarchy spectrum, non-Christians (8.8 per cent of Canadians) are in the middle. On average, 30 per cent of these Canadians believe father must be master. For Jews, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Hindus, our sample is too small to analyze. Muslims, who now make up 3.2 per cent of the population, score high on deference to Dad (58 per cent) but they haven’t cornered the market on patriarchy: Canadian-born Muslims are outscored slightly by foreign-born conservative Protestants."

Those who wish to oppose social change are often fuelled by religious conviction

05/17/2015

Ayaan Hirsi Ali has a message for Western governments – Canada’s included – that think they will curb extremist terrorism by tightening legal limits on expression: You are only making the problem worse.

“I’m a free-speech fundamentalist. There should be no censorship,” says the Somali-born anti-Islam campaigner. “You want things out in the open so you know what you’re fighting against. All these hate-speech laws are counterproductive.

“You’re creating the conditions for getting more lone wolves, because there will be less chatter to follow them. … More and more lone wolves will succeed in their homicidal actions. Instead of censorship, let’s challenge the ideas of the extremists.”

Controversial author has a message for Western governments – Canada’s included – that think they will curb extremist terrorism by tightening legal limits on expression: You are only making the problem worse.

05/13/2015

Here is a really interesting trend in the United States: growing religious support for same-s*x marriage. My main focus has been on Islam in particular and the changes -- good and bad -- happening within that faith. Well there is some good news: 42% of American Muslims support same-s*x marriage. Yes, I was surprised too, even though I considered most American Muslims to be moderate or conservative rather than Islamist or Jihadist. What this poll shows is that the Muslim community is not monolithic. There are reformist elements within it, which are growing in strength in the U.S. So the question becomes how does the international community empower the reform-minded Muslims worldwide in order to accelerate the positive changes (which are evident in the American branch of this faith)? http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/27/living/poll-religion-gay-marriage/index.html

05/10/2015

"Scientology first became a religion in 1956, but was stripped of its tax-exempt status in 1967. Then began a legal battle that lasted for 26 years. The Supreme Court finally ruled for the IRS against the Church in 1991, but rather than relying on the verdict of the highest court in the land, the IRS caved two years later, granting tax-exempt status. During this period, over 2400 Freedom of Information Act Requests and 200 lawsuits were filed on behalf of Scientologists against the IRS; Gibney also notes that individual IRS agents and accountants were investigated and intimidated by private investigators."

The tax-exempt status of the abusive extortion racket should be revoked once and for all.

05/08/2015

"And how does their vilification of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an organization that represents 80 percent of American nuns, square with women’s equality? In 2012 the group was denounced by the Vatican and put under the control of three bishops charged with cleansing it of its “radical feminist” inclinations, including more attention to the poor than to s*xual mores.

"But the church’s refusal to follow some other Christian denominations and ordain women undermines any progress toward equality that it trumpets or tries. Sexism is embedded in its structure, its flow chart."

No matter the pope’s words, his church remains a patriarchy.

05/06/2015

https://jonathanruano.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/ontarios-new-s*x-ed-curriculum-and-islamophobia/

Today I was making porridge, when all of a sudden I am reading on my facebook feed about a lot of angry religious people – mostly Muslims – who are protesting against the Ontario government’s new s...

05/06/2015

You have to give credit where credit is due. It's still the case that the Muslim mainstream sees homos*xuality and lesbianism as sinful, even though many holding this view would still say that homos*xuals and le****ns are good human beings. But Ottawa's Muslim community is slowly becoming more liberal on this issue and this trend is one that I applaud. This is what we want. Sure, we will never agree on God's existence or Islam, but we are finding ground with a growing minority of Muslims on an issue that is close to our hearts: gay rights (and for that matter s*x-ed education generally). http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-tuesday-edition-1.3061865/ontario-parents-in-support-of-s*x-ed-speak-up-1.3062498

Ontario's new s*x ed curriculum has polarized parents. Last night we spoke to a woman who kept her daughter home from school as part of a protest against the curriculum. Thousands of parents in Ontario did the same. But now, some parents are speaking up in support of curriculum, which will be introd…