Response to Dale Baich Death Penalty Presentation

On April 21, 2013, the HSGP membership heard a presentation by Dale Baich titled "The Death Penalty:  Past, Present and Future".  A summary of the presentation can be viewed on our website HSGP.org by selecting the "Past Events" tab near the top of the page. 

The presentation contained graphic descriptions of executions.  In response to these descriptions, member Susan Grunbaum submitted the following comments:

It is my understanding that the center of Mr. Baich's lecture on April 21 was to stir sympathy for the abolishing of capital punishment. While I have no argument with this position, I do feel the need to speak up openly regarding his one-sided remarks.

The macabre descriptions of botched executions did bring about the intended emotional impact that was clearly intended. The sympathy with which Mr. Baich delivered the most carefully chosen scenarios of executions stirred emotions in all of us, I'm sure. Quotes such as "head decapitated at one hanging", "I feel a little pain....it stings", using "invasive procedures" to open the femoral artery,  having to "clean up blood from the floor after the procedure", "first sedated, then convulsing until death", are indeed potent visuals. These descriptions left me stunned and unable to think clearly for about 20 minutes, long past the Q & A period. With a bit of time and separation from the source, I  would like to state my opinion on Mr. Baich's remarks.

In fairness, he did say that these people were found guilty of "heinous, cruel and depraved acts". What he left out was the much more powerful story of the victims. I'm wondering just what heinous, cruel and depraved acts the victims endured at the hands of these murderers? I'm wondering if any were decapitated, as quickly and as humanely as they? I'm wondering if any cried out saying "I feel a little pain....its stings"? I think their victim's cries of desperation and agony at the hands of these depraved individuals were significantly different than the circumstances at the procedures of death the State afforded these criminals! I'm wondering what effects the victims' children, parents and siblings must now live with for the rest of their lives? I doubt that any would describe their pain and enduring loss as "a sting".

I wonder how potent his argument would have been had he described in equally gruesome details the crimes that these offenders committed? Passionate and one-sided arguments are not what's needed to sway people's thinking and votes. Arguments must be made for cost containment and ways to curb violence.

Bruce Ratcliff: "How I Became a Humanist"

I was raised on a farm in central Iowa. My parents were both from strong, fundamental, and active Protestant traditions in which they believed wholeheartedly. Family life for me was a very loving environment, but it was also entwined with religious activity. We had prayer at every meal, daily devotions, bedtime prayers plus at least two religious radio programs daily. Every Sunday we attend Sunday School, Morning and Evening Services, and Youth Group. In addition to all this we attended Billy Graham films, participated in or attended “gospel sings,” went to Revival Meetings, and attended evangelical (“soul-winning”) summer youth camps. The first “crack” in my religious shell occurred in my early teens when I began to notice that neither my prayers (nor anyone else’s) seemed to reach any Higher Being or get any real results. I began to think that anyone who believed in prayer was either fooling themselves or trying to impress others.

I graduated from my one-room country schoolhouse after the 8th grade. Fortunately, I was bussed to a High School in a college town nearby. My biology teacher was great and taught evolution without apology. From that point forward I accepted evolution without question although I had to rationalize to make it fit my Bible-believing Christianity. I later attended an out-of-state university where I hoped to become a bit more worldly. But, I soon discovered that my lack of other social skills limited me mostly to Christian groups and so I was pulled back into that lifestyle. In college I started directing church choirs on a professional basis. As a senior I became President of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship—a somewhat more moderate “evangelical” group. I also married a Baptist girl that I had met in one of my church choirs.

Through the following 40 some years I played the mainline moderate Christian role. I continued as a part-time minister of music and/or choir director. I think I would now label myself then as a “Smorgasbord Christian” or a “Christian Agnostic” i.e., taking the parts I liked and setting the other stuff in a drawer. During this period I heard a couple thousand sermons and thousands of Bible readings. Finally, the “game” became harder and harder to play because there was no internal belief left in me. I had to fess up to being intellectually dishonest. I resigned my church membership in 2008 and became a member of the Humanist Society in 2009. Becoming a non-theist takes a lot of social courage when you come from a background such as mine. Actually, I don’t think my stance in adult life was all that unique. I dare say that there are thousands of intelligent, agnostic Christians out there who find their current social settings just too comfortable to leave. Hopefully, the non-theist community can “get the word out” as we gain in numbers across the country. Agnostic Christians need an alternative community in order to make the bold move to non-theism. Here’s hoping!

Gary Deatsman: "How I Became a Humanist"

When I was 8 or 9 years old I was occasionally sent to Methodist Sunday School where I soon learned to associate the kindly, loving Jesus with milk and cookies. Eventually I had questions.  How could Noah possibly have gathered up animals from all over the earth and crammed them into the ark?  Also, if, as my teacher said, everything came from God, where did God come from?  The teacher could not answer.  

I decided to take my questions to my grandmother, whose grandchildren all called Nana.  I knew that she and my grandfather attended church regularly.  I was sure that wisdom came with age and that she could explain all.  I unburdened myself to her, and I still remember her response:

“Don’t worry about that, child.  Intelligent people aren’t religious. I’m an atheist.  I don’t believe in God.”

“But Nana,” I said, “you go to church.”

“That’s just for social advantages.  We don’t really believe any of it.”

I didn’t become an atheist myself at that time, but I was aware that some people I loved were nonbelievers.  I was really troubled when we school kids suddenly had to start saying “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.  This seemed to imply that Nana wasn’t a good American.  Nonsense!  She was a Republican!
Later, as a Boy Scout, I was uncomfortable pledging to do my duty to God and my country.  I thought this wasn’t fair to scouts who might be atheists.  I eventually settled into agnosticism, but remained disturbed by discrimination against nonbelievers.

Before retiring I taught mathematics at a Catholic high school.  They had no problem with my lack of faith, and made no attempt to convert me.  As I got to know my Catholic colleagues, including priests and nuns, I was impressed with their very liberal theology.

My duties included escorting students to mass.  I responded emotionally to the beauty of this carefully crafted ceremony.  (Perhaps I was inwardly salivating for milk and cookies.)  I took instruction and studied the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  All of my questions were answered and I resolved to end my agnostic fence sitting and make one last try at religion. I joined the Church and for two years I was the best Catholic I could be.

One of my biggest obstacles to faith had always been the presence of misery in a world controlled by an all powerful and loving God.  The Catholic answer which satisfied me was that for some mysterious reason God cannot or will not usually intervene to prevent catastrophes.  However, He inspires humans to mitigate their effects.  We are obligated to help the misfortunate, work for peace and justice, and use science to fight disease and predict and protect from natural disasters, etc. , and in general to be the agents of God’s love on earth.  I was deeply moved by this parable:  A man died and met God.  He asked, “The world is filled with suffering.  Why don’t you do anything about it?”  God answered,  “I did.  I sent you to help.  What have you done?”

In time, however, I began to observe a lack of divine love in some of God’s representatives, the priests.  The priest principal of our school eventually showed himself to be a bully, unethical, a thief, and a liar.  Another priest I knew was caught with child pornography on his computer.  I saw more and more examples of poor behavior by Catholics, some directed at me with traumatic effect.  Despite the many good Catholics I had known, the existence of bad ones I knew personally, the many reported in the media, and the vast multitudes recorded throughout history convinced me that not only is there no god inspiring us to do good, there is no god even able to inspire many of his closest followers to behave decently.

I soon rejected all religion.  (I am grateful to the Catholic Church for enabling me to be comfortable as an atheist.)  I started reading Free Inquiry and decided that I am a Secular Humanist.  When my wife and I retired to the Valley we found HSGP on the internet and joined up.

What a Difference a Year Makes!

We are closing in on a year since we moved into our new Community Center in Mesa. Here’s what our meeting room looked like one year ago today. Note the decorative ductwork hanging down from the ceiling and the lovely concrete floors!

This is what our meeting room looks like today. Gorgeous and welcoming!

We’re winding up the year with some very special events that you won’t want to miss.

First, on Sunday, November 6th, we will be dedicating our Robert G. Ingersoll library. This will be a special commemoration of the Great Agnostic with a sharing of his eloquent writings and a ribbon cutting. Hal and Doreen Saferstein, whose stunningly generous donations to HSGP made our Humanist Community Center possible, chose to name our library after their hero rather than themselves. Please take this opportunity to share with Hal and Doreen your deep appreciation for their gift.

Next, on Sunday, December 4th, HSGP and FFRF-VSUN are jointly sponsoring an award-winning journalist, Ted Cox. He will talk about his undercover infiltration of a Christian gay-to-straight conversion program. Ted’s talk is provocatively titled, “What I Learned at Straight Camp.” This will be a standing-room only event so arrive early and join us for a light nosh before Ted’s talk. Doors open at 8:30 am and Ted’s talk begins at 9:30 am.


Finally, on Sunday, December 18th from noon to 4 pm, we are holding our annual Solstice Celebration! Are you one of those rare Humanists who love to eat and have fun? (Tongue firmly planted in cheek.) Need gifts for holiday giving? This is the place to be! In addition to our usual potluck buffet, you can join a poker game, shop at our marketplace and tag sale, take a chance on winning one of our special gift baskets, or learn all about the history of holidays. Our 2012 Board of Directors will be sworn in and you’ll learn who the Helen Goldsmith award winners are for 2011. BYOB and a dish to share. Partay!


For more information about all of our events go to www.hsgp.org.

Freethinkers Share Food and Fun

 The second Freethinkers potluck lunch, held September 18th, was a rip-roaring success, attracting attendance that doubled that of the inaugural event.  The quality and variety of the potluck offerings attested to the imagination and creativity that we would expect from Freethinkers. 

Judging by the noise level, great discussions were being held at all of the tables, on topics ranging from vegan activism through the current state of politics to, of course, what distinguishes Humanism from garden-variety atheism.

 

LuAnn had come with her 14-year-old daughter to the initial potluck as their first HSGP event. LuAnn has “always been more of a scientist” and was “looking for a community to replace church”. She left the Lutheran Church years ago and was envious of friends who still had their church community.  We’re happy to note that LuAnn decided to join our HSGP community and attended Sunday’s event as a new member.  

The potluck was followed by a screening of Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Attendance for the joint event totaled 52 freethinkers. In addition to HSGP members, the event was advertised to the Phoenix Atheists Meetup Group and Phoenix Skepticsin the Pub.

Contributed by Linda Wendler, John Sadowsky, Shelley Newman.

Jake DaSilva: How I became a Humanist...

...since I wasn't always.

When I was a little kid I noticed that my dad did not ever go to church or talk about being religious. Simultaneously my mother would force my sister and me to go to church and special classes on the weekend to learn about Catholicism. I hated to go to church. It was boring and I felt like my life was literally being stolen from me. I also thought it was unsanitary to drink wine after all those other people. I also did not like wine.

Once, when I asked my mom about germs on the communal wineglass she said, “don’t worry. God will clean it.”

Whoa.

My dad was a voracious science fiction reader and science-buff. So I would often read over the short articles in his Science News magazine. And while they were over my head, I started to realize how ridiculous the nonsense I was being taught about the bible was.

This made me a skeptic, but it did not turn me into a full-tilt atheist – let alone a Secular Humanist.

I started asking questions in my Catholic classes. And the nuns were none-too-pleased about it. They would tell me how God did not want women to have abortions. I asked why and they told me God loves life and that one of those aborted “babies” could have grown up to cure cancer.

I returned the volley with this: “If God likes life so much then why doesn’t he just give me the cure. I’d be happy to give it to everyone.”

Eventually, nuns and creepy priests-in-training who taught those classes took to inviting me to leave when I would question too often. Flattered by their invitations I would often walk out unceremoniously and stand in the snowy cold of Ohio winter rather than listen to their craziness.

Around this time, in my early adolescence, my skepticism about religion led me to disavow God. Looking back on it, it was rather thrilling. And it came down to this: My dad shared a refrain with me that still sticks with me today: “Religion is a crutch for the weak-minded.” I don’t know where he got that, I only know it re-sculpted my mind and I knew then that my dad did not believe.

When it came time to be “confirmed” I told my mom that I was just going to go through the motions and lie to the priest about believing in God. I told her I did not believe in God anymore. My dad watched this whole thing closely, and merely suggested that I play along with the ludicrous ritual to keep from making waves.

For me, as a working-class kid in semi-rural Ohio, the wonders of science came mostly in the form of Nova documentaries on PBS or my father’s aforementioned Science News magazines. So, these did little to really push me over the edge into atheism. What did it for me was misery, sadness, poverty, wars, famine, disease, the cruelty in everyday life, death, pain, etc.

I just could not understand why an all-powerful god would allow this when he could just make the whole place a paradise. So, for a brief moment, I was like: “This God guy is a total asshole. I hope he sends me to hell. I’ll help Lucifer raise hell!”

But then I just started to think that the chaos I saw throughout my community and on TV throughout the world was just that – chaos. No God governed us. We governed ourselves, for good or bad, in a bicameral congress with Nature.

And all the science I learned from then on only reinforced my atheism.

And one day, when I was 16 and a hardcore atheist, I was in an argument with my superstitious Catholic mother about going to Catholic classes on weekends. The argument was heated. When my dad finally got in the middle of it he said, “Leave the boy be! He doesn’t need to go to those classes anymore. He is old enough to make his own choices. And it looks like he made his choice about religion.”

It was an amazingly liberating moment. No more church. No more Catholic classes. No more creepy priests and nuns. I was freed from religion.

Through college and grad school I dabbled in Atheist related activism, nothing too big. And what I noticed was that atheism lacks a set of values. So, I felt a void.

Ironically, my highly religious mother got me into reading Kurt Vonnegut. I tore through all his works. When I began reading about Vonnegut I found out that he was a secular humanist. And then I read about humanism and I joined the national organization for humanists – the AmericanHumanist Association – when I was in grad school.

The void of values I found in atheism was filled by the philosophy of secular humanism. Now I am both an atheist and a secular humanist. And I am proud to be a dues-paying member of the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix.

Peter Hand: "How I Became a Humanist"

I grew up with parents who were not very religious.  My Father was a survivor of one of the great US Concentration Camps of the Depression: St. John's Orphanage in Brooklyn, New York.  My mother was a "light" Methodist, who rarely went to church.  When I was about 10, my mother won an apparent battle with my father and sent my brother and I to Sunday School at the local Methodist Church where we lived, in Simsbury, Connecticut.  It was a pleasant experience full of story telling, punch and cookies. 

By the time I was 12, we were offered the opportunity to memorize the 23rd Psalm and for this, we would get a Bible with our name embossed on the cover.  It seemed like a good deal to me.  Not that I would ever read the thing, because even at that age, I thought the language in the "modern" King James bible was so completely archaic, that it wasn't easy at all to understand, and required that you read a passage eight or nine times just to figure out what they were talking about.  Ramping up to the recital of the bible, a new requirement popped up: We were encouraged to accept Jesus as our savior.  I discussed this at length with my Sunday school teacher, much to her dismay, without ever coming to an understanding of just what that meant.  I knew I wasn't a sinner.  I was a good kid.  If God couldn't see that, he wasn't very interested or astute. And it made no sense that saying I accepted Jesus as my savior would make the difference between God accepting me or not. 

After completely exhausting my Sunday school teacher, I got up the nerve to ask our Minister, Mr. Amrein.  Now, I was a very small kid. Even today, I am only about 5'5", although, I am very broad and muscular, so I don't look small, but back then, I was tiny.  Mr. Amrein was well over 6' and very intimidating to me, despite the fact that he was a really nice guy.  I caught him in the hall outside my Sunday school room and asked him for a moment of his time.  I told him that I very much wanted to accept Jesus as my savior, but was completely at a lost as to how to do it and why it is at all necessary.  The same arguments that had stumped my teacher, confounded Minister Amrein.  He didn't last nearly as long, of course, and after 5 minutes, he sent me back to my Sunday school teacher for any further assistance.  I began to think to myself "This is a hoax! No one really knows!  They all just fake it and say they're part of this club!"  I began to dismiss the whole thing right then and there.

I went on to recite the psalm and get the bible.  But Minister Amrein and my Sunday school teacher told me that there were no answers here, and that the whole thing was a sham.  Part of this was because the myths and stories they told me, that were supposedly "true", were outrageous, even to an 11 year old with a very active imagination.  Shortly after receiving my bible, my parents sat my brother and me down and asked if we wanted to continue going to church.  Our alternative activity was to have extra time to complete our chores or watch TV.  DONE! My brother and I didn't even hesitate!  For a year, we were church free.

The following year, I went to the local Unitarian Church with a friend and really thought I had found my home.  The lay teachers in the religious education program there taught us about the Hopi, the Navajo, the Christians, Jews, Baha'i, Muslims, you name it! It was fascinating.  And the best part was the thing they told us with every story: Take the part of this story that is true to you and make it part of your story.  You don't need to believe in anything in particular to be a good person, this is just information that shows you how history has presented certain behaviors to guide you.  If you disagree, do something different!

About 35 years later, after being president of a Unitarian church and very involved at times over the years, I decided to leave.   The UUA's message of "All religion has something to offer" was something I wasn't sure I believed and I had heard all of the sermons based on the bible that I ever wanted to hear.  In my time as President of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bartlesville (OK), I even counselled a visiting minister to go easy on the mix of bible-related stories because the group there was mostly atheists and not interested in that type of thing.  After one sermon, where she related stories from the bible, the pews were full at first, but by the end of the first half, 90% of the group had left or gotten a jump on coffee hour.

When I moved from Oklahoma, I ran into church after church of Unitarian communities that were Bible-rich.  I stopped going altogether.  I had identified myself as a secular humanist for many years at that point and was just going to have to content myself with using my Sundays to catch up on my chores and watch cartoons.  I have written a web site with a presentation called "A Discussion about God" to help people understand my beliefs further.  It's http://www.secularspirit.com.