The Accidental Atheist: From Hippie to Humanist in Half a Century

[dcsmart]

Two great articles from The Humanist:


1) "it has never been about God for politicians. It has been about power. It has never been about peace on Earth. It has been about profit in your pocket."

http://www.thehumanist.org/humanist/08_nov_dec/Stark.html

this one is about Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) and his "outing" as a Humanist.


2) "Defending humanist values and secular democracy in public settings has very little to do with courage and everything to do with self-respect and the gut instinct that we allow unreason to control public decision-making only at our own risk and peril. As Voltaire shrewdly put it, “Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

http://www.thehumanist.org/humanist/08_nov_dec/Raskin.html

this one is about Maryland State Senator Jamie Raskin
The title is: One Nation Under the Constitution: Reason, Politics, and Morality in the New Century
which makes it clear what the article is about

Both are great reads and speak volumes to the need for separation of church and state and secular politics: "In Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), the Supreme Court said that a law fails the establishment clause if it doesn’t have a primarily secular purpose, if it doesn’t have a primarily secular effect, or if it excessively tangles church and state. If it fails any one of these prongs, the law is unconstitutional." from the article

FUN reading for a, hopefully progressive and democratic, new year.

EDITOR
PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRACY
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