Why I Love Hitchens

12/17/11 - Christopher Hitchens has died - I am placing this article on my front page in his memory and in honor of the impact he has had on my thinking. You will be missed Hitch.

10/14/08

My father sent me a copy of Christopher Hitchens' endorsement of Obama yesterday.  The headline of my father’s email was “another conservative endorses Obama.”  I was surprised to find out it was Hitchens because he isn’t a conservative.  He is a liberal contrarian in the classic sense.  The difference is important and why I love reading Hitchens’ work.

Humanizing Religion

I’ve been thinking about the Sept 11th memorials today and I’ve come to realize, I don’t like them. Not because I don’t understand the need for them. But because I simply don’t want to remember how I felt that day. It was horrible.  And that got me thinking. What would be a better response?  As a Humanist, my inclination is to look to the future. What can we do better going forward?

The answer, I think, is to Humanize religion. I am not naive enough to think that the problem of radicalized religion is ever going to go away. Religious belief is here with us to stay and as long as it is, there will be people who take it way too literally and who will use it to justify their angry and hate filled ideas. All religions suffer from this problem. No group is immune to it. And as my dad always says, no group corners the market in stupidity. It’s a problem that we would have to deal with religion or without. 

Why Republican Rejection of Evolution Matters

Yesterday, Richard Dawkins published an article at the Washington Post about why it matters that Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry rejects evolution. He said that Rick Perry’s rejection of evolution not only shows that he is an “ignoramus” but that asking politicians the evolution question is a good litmus test to find out whether they have basic reasoning skills or not.

I agree. This is not simply a matter of personal beliefs that will not affect their performance as president. It turns out there are several reasons why someone might reject evolution and none of them reflect well on the individual in question.
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The Humanist Approach to Happiness: Practical Wisdom

Written by Jennifer Hancock

Buy the Book Now!

Buy the Humanist Approach to Happiness Now

The Humanist approach to Happiness is a book that basically says – here are personal ethics, here is why they are important, and here is how you can apply them to your daily life and why doing so will help you live a happier more productive life.  It isn’t a philosophy book so much as a book about the pragmatic reasons for being an ethical, compassionate and responsible person.