Letters to the Editor

For HumanistNetworkNews.org
Jan. 13, 2010

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Watch the language!

If there is one thing I appreciate, it is the level of intelligence reflected in people's thinking at the American Humanist Association.  But I'm wondering if it's not intimidating to those of us who don't hit the books much. Can intricate ideas be expressed in everyday language so as to have a more inclusive or broader appeal? Some of us have a hard time with words, in general. 

A dear friend of mine says that each time I give up a quarter, I can hear the eagle squawking.  I haven't paid you guys a penny, but you've been very generous to me by way of your newsletters. Thank you again!
–Billy, B., Ajo, Ariz.

I strongly believe that religion does not belong in the public arena–and that includes politics. It belongs in the home or inside one's house of worship.

Religion is a patriarchal institution. At one time, goddesses ruled. Then along came the Romans and later Christianity. It's been downhill ever since. Religions worldwide have and still do "rule" women, whether in the Middle East or Asian countries. Women get punished simply because they are women. But women are not meant to be servants or child-bearing vessels or to be chattel.

I became an independent thinker in the ‘80s and never looked back. I've had debates with people who possess religious beliefs; theirs is an ideological mentality based on faith in something that doesn't exist nor can be seen.

I can't honestly say I respect a person believing in something that doesn't exist–God.

–Carol Harrison , Ontario, Canada

(Re: Best of Doug Thomas: Two Degrees of Separation, Humanist Network News, Dec. 30, 2009)

What we're not being told about global warming is that it is only one theory among many that try to explain what is happening. Others, just as valid, seem to point us to a natural 100,000 year cycle, which varies between 80,000 and 120,000 years. Far too little is known about ancient occurrences to be certain human activities are the sole cause of any change, or even a fraction of what would happen anyway. As only one example among many other such articles, may I point out  http://www.livescience.com/environment/050330_earth_tilt.html   this article? 

–F. Bacon, Michigan