Another take on atheist "mega-church" concept

Here's a column from the Guardian which takes a decidedly skeptical view of the so-called "atheist mega-church" movement.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/15/atheism-contrary-to-mega-churches

Atheist "megachurches"?

I'm not sure that the attendance of 400 cited in this article qualifies as a megachurch but perhaps in comparison to HSGP, it is.  

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/10/atheist-mega-churches/3489967/

Do we need to have sermons, inspirational music, quiet reflection at HSGP Sundays?  My guess is that the answer is NO.  We might think, however, about whether HSGP could attract more attendance with changes that are acceptable to us all.

The Animated Life of Alfred Russel Wallace from the NY Times

In his discussion on Darwin, our recent Sunday Speaker Dr. James Richardson mentioned Alfred Russel Wallace who also "discovered" natural selection.  This animated Op-Doc from the New York Times provides a light-hearted view of Russel on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of his death on November 7.


The Animated Life of Alfred Russel Wallace

Article from The Economist on How Science Goes Wrong

One of the foundations of Humanism is a belief in science and the scientific process.  Here's a provocative article from The Economist on how this belief may be betrayed in today's scientific environment.


The Economist - How Science Goes Wrong

Humanist Minute from the 10/20/13 meeting

HSGP member Henry Geist offered the following for the Sunday Humanist Minute on October 20, 2013.  This bears thinking about for more than a minute.

From:  Ethics for a Finite World   by   Herschel Elliott

 

The Inability of Personal Ethics to Address the Physical Causes of Human Ills.

 

Personal ethics errs in that its categorical moral laws incorporate incentives that only increase human need. Frequently cited examples, again, are apropos.

 

The obligation of personal ethics to give philanthropic aid to all in need entails counterproductive incentives. The only thing that poor nations have to do in order to receive more aid is to generate more need. Thus, nations with dense populations, high birthrates, and ravaged environments can expect mankind to supply them with the foods and funds they need to relieve their plight.

 

The pragmatic effect of such aid is to subsidize the status quo. It supports the continued growth of the needy population. It stimulates the further destructive exploitation of their degraded environments. Inevitably, the expanding human population and the increased exploitation of the damaged environment cause more people to suffer. Unconditional aid only exacerbates the woes it was intended to redress. The categorical commandments of personal ethics cannot be modified to take account of the fact that the behavior required by personal ethics affects what happens in the world: it can cause hardship and disaster rather than the expected benefit. 

Another sad ethical lapse

We reported a while ago about former Methodist minister turned non-believer Theresa MacBain being hired by the Humanist Community at Harvard.  Here's a sad follow-up to that story.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/us/minister-admits-overstating-her-credentials.html?ref=us

Teresa MacBain's new job at the Harvard Humanist Community Project

From the NY Times -- what former Methodist minister Teresa MacBain is doing now


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/21/us/after-a-crisis-of-faith-finding-a-new-secular-mission.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fnational%2Findex.jsonp