Many Humanists and Atheists are increasingly trying to put our actions where are words are. We say we can be good without god, and now we’re ready to prove it.
The Edmonton Atheists have been on the ball with this, organizing an annual highway litter cleanup.
I just came across another great project that I may try to get involved in next year – the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, which starts tomorrow and runs for a week at beaches across the country (and yes, we do have beaches in Canada).
The entire process looks pretty simple, just register yourself as a coordinator, and then go pick up garbage.
There’s already a number of religious, community, and government groups involved. Why not atheists?
Of course, there’s many other possible projects we can get involved in – the BC Humanists are supporting an anti-bullying day in December (which coincides with a Solstice party we were already having). The Harvard Humanists also made 9110 meals for 9-11.
The federal NDP just wrapped up their 50th anniversary convention in Vancouver last weekend, celebrating their historic achievement of 103 seats in the last election, the most ever won by a “socialist” party (they were thinking about removing this term from their constitution, but decided it needed more committee work) in Canada, although not enough to prevent a Harper majority.
At this convention, members of the NDP’s Faith and Social Justice committee got together and decided they’d start promoting themselves more, starting with this video that tries to establish the Religious Left in Canada as an alternate voice to the typical right-wing Christian nationalists.
I still don’t think I can support the religious left.
On the positive side, their good allies against regressive policies pushed by more conservative religious. They generally support things that I agree with like drug policy, gay marriage and women’s choice.
However, they’re still wrong.
The blind-spot in their critical thinking abilities that allows them to have faith without evidence leaves room for other erroneous and irrational thinking. So I can’t trust them to always arrive at the same conclusions as I would.
Belief in God necessitates moral absolutism, since their higher power has arbitrary control over what’s good and bad. Just because the religious left tends to be more progressive in what’s good, doesn’t mean that those positions were arrived at rationally.
For example, in the current appeals case regarding Ontario’s prostitution laws, do those who identify as the religious left arrive at their conclusions in the case through reasoning based on harm reduction and evidence from other nation’s policies, or will they follow more liberally-interpreted Biblical principles? Similarly, can I rely on those who believe life is sacred to support a woman’s right to abortion services – many Catholics in the Liberal Party were members of the unofficial “Pro-Life” caucus and routinely voted anti-choice. Will the religious left support ending funding to Catholic schools in Ontario, Alberta, and Saskatchewan and private religious schools in Alberta and BC?
And if they use reason and evidence to reach their conclusions, why refer to them as religious or faith-based? Why not call it the “Reason and Social Justice” committee?
While I can appreciate those who end up with similar conclusions and politics as myself, I do think that the process of reaching those conclusions matters.
They say even a broken clock is right twice a day, but it’s still worth pointing out when religions get something right, even if it’s not for the reasons I believe in.
Nearly 50 religious groups have signed onto a letter urging the U.S. government to kibosh a major oil sands pipeline proposal.
“As a people of faith, we are in awe of Earth’s goodness and its ability to provide life for all of God’s creation,” reads the letter, posted to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “We urge you not to permit TransCanada the opportunity to build the Keystone XL Pipeline.”
Argue all you want about the specifics of this pipeline, but we clearly need to wean ourselves off of non-renewable fossil fuels. Letters like this strike to remind me how far atheist and humanist groups still have to go to actually walk the walk when we say we don’t need religion to be good.
Occasionally Humanist Perspectives (published by Humanist Canada) and other magazines will feature pleas to environmental and social justice causes, yet It is rare to hear of the major organizations doing much more than marching in Pride Parades (an important activity). Some student groups do deserve credit for outreach, including the groups that organized clean-ups in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Of course, I’m willing to be proven wrong: what examples can you cite of atheist groups stepping up to make this world a better place (i.e. not just by removing the influence of religion)?