Attention secular humanists: Criticizing religion and other dogmas is important, but at the base of any humanistic philosophy are human beings. And as I write this, hundreds of millions of people are afflicted by and dying from hunger and disease. This can change, though.
The video was inspired by the work of moral philosopher Peter Singer, and particularly by his most recent book The Life You Can Save. At the book’s website, you can take a pledge (as urged in the video) to help end global poverty. If you call yourself a humanist, I hope you take the pledge.
The sorry fact is that many of us won’t actually bother to donate. I may be among the hypocrites, we’ll see. But others’ inaction is no excuse for our own.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) SHAFT will be on the TSC patio selling baked goods from 10:00 AM to 2:30 PM. This event was very successful last year, and I hope it continues to be a SHAFT tradition in the future.
All proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders. So please stop by, enjoy a treat, and contribute to a good cause!
And if you would like to make some stuff for the table (cookies, brownies, etc.), it would be greatly appreciated. Just remember that all goods must be individually wrapped.
Natural disasters like the recent Haiti earthquake make God’s apparent absence all the more conspicuous. Where was God? Why would a loving God allow such immense suffering?
Today, on the Christian Broadcasting Network, televangelist Pat Robertson volunteered an answer. He claims that Haiti has long since been under a curse, having sworn a “pact to the Devil” in return for independence from French colonial rule. The earthquake, then, is just the latest visitation of that curse upon Haiti.
Robertson has also blamed Katrina on abortion and 9/11 on the increasing secularization of America.
I think these statements are disgusting and callous—a total slap in the face to the victims of said tragedies. I wonder, though, how many Americans are sympathetic to Robertson’s explanations. Those who believe in the Bible and/or the Book of Mormon literally certainly couldn’t deny that God has at times manifest his wrath in natural disasters. Untold millions are killed by the God of these books through global floods, earthquakes, plagues, etc. It was once even a popular Mormon belief that people in disaster-prone areas did something in their pre-mortal life to merit the disasters. Consider this brief excerpt from Apostle Mark E. Petersen’s 1954 address at Brigham Young University:
Can we account in any other way for the birth of some of the children of God in darkest Africa, or in flood-ridden China, or among the starving hordes of India, while some of the rest of us are born here in the United States? We cannot escape the conclusion that because of performance in our pre-existence some of us are born as Chinese, some as Japanese, some as Latter-day Saints. There are rewards and punishments, fully in harmony with His established policy in dealing with sinners and saints, rewarding all according to their deeds…
A question to the theist readers of this blog: What role does God play in natural disasters, if any? And if God doesn’t cause these disasters, why doesn’t he at least prevent them?
I’m curious how believers reconcile the suffering in the world with their notions of God. The problem of suffering ought to be the source of many sleepless nights for theists, in my opinion.
But while your theodices will be of interest to me, the people of Haiti need something more right now. To anyone reading this, please make a donation to any (or all) of the following organizations:
Or do what I did—donate $10 automatically via text message to the Red Cross by texting “HAITI” to 90999. Texters will then be billed for the donation on their next cell phone bill.
If you know of other organizations that I should include in my list, please let me know.
