Platform Video: What is HumanLight?

The following ECS/Bergen Platform address was delivered on Sunday, November 29, 2009, by Patrick Colucci (introduced by Susan Lesh):

What is HumanLight? from Ethical Culture Society Bergen on Vimeo.

[The video referenced in this video can be viewed at humanlight.org.]

Everything You always wanted to know about HumanLight, the Humanist Winter Holiday, but Were Afraid to Ask

Ok, so maybe you were not afraid to ask really, but just haven't thought about HumanLight much before, or have never even heard of it? Here's your chance to learn all about the winter holiday designed to promote humanism and celebrate humanist values. Patrick Colucci has been involved with promoting and publicizing HumanLight since it's earliest inception, so he can probably answer any questions you might have. (If he can't answer something, he'll make up a reasonable-sounding guess....we humanists do always try to be reason-based, afterall!)

Patrick Colucci is vice-chair of the HumanLight Committee (www.humanlight.org) and a member of the New Jersey Humanist Network (www.njhn.org) and the American Humanist Association. Based in New Jersey, he's a long-time activist in the movements for Humanism and for peace and social justice.

Ethical Culture Offers Perspective During this Thanksgiving Season

The Sunday platform this week at the Ethical Culture Society offered a sobering perspective as we head into the upcoming Thanksgiving season. As a way of helping the Sunday School children understand the realities of world hunger, adults too, were privy to the reminder that we are very lucky indeed. I can't imagine the horror I would feel if I had to watch helplessly as my children starve. Amoung the many stories of struggles and resilliance we heard, those were the ones that stuck in my mind.

This week I will say a quiet thanks to the bounty in our community but I will also be mindful of the continued work that needs to be done for those who are not so lucky.

Man is the Measure of all Things

This week I attended the 'Introduction to Humanism and Ethical Culture' course conducted by Dr. Joseph Chuman at the Ethical Culture Society in Teaneck.

I was reminded of a course I took many years ago in college, 'Old Testament Literature.' I remember then, the amazement I experienced when I became aware of the pervasiveness of Judeo-Christian themes in our modern lives. I felt the same shock when I started to understand better the history of Humanism and it's impact on our modern organizations both in human thought, spirit and institutions through the ages.

When the ancient Greeks first came to the task of designing an educational program with the goal of enhancing the humanity in the educated individual, a massive shift in philosophy was taking place. The focus was no longer on the deities but on man, for the good of men, by making the most of his mind and unleashing his creativity.

However, it was also made clear that the humanities were not designed to deny the existence of god, only to shift the thinking of he/she/it from the foreground to the background. Since my views on god are currently ambivalent, this is a welcome insight. I don't have to decide. In humanism, "man is the measure of all things;" a statement by an ancient Greek philosopher and shared nicely in both Greek and English by Dr. Chuman.

I'm looking forward to part II of this course which will focus on Ethical Culture, it's birth and it's expression of humanistic ideals.

Platform Video: Now You Can Choose! Issues in Sex Selection

The following ECS/Bergen Platform address was delivered on Sunday, November 15, 2009, by Barbara Katz Rothman (introduced by Janet Glass):

Barbara Katz Rothman: Now You Can Choose! Issues in Sex Selection (11/15/2009) from Ethical Culture Society Bergen on Vimeo.

In the last thirty years we have seen the slow emergence and acceptance of something new under the sun: known fetal sex. Women now know the sex of the fetus they carry; and with selective abortion, selective implantation, or newly developing technologies, they can actually choose the sex of the baby they will bear. How does this change women's experiences of pregnancy? What are the consequences of sex selection for the families involved, and for the rest of the world? Looking beyond the well-known sex imbalances that occur 'out there,' what is happening in American society as fetal sex becomes increasingly one more consumer option?

Barbara Katz Rothman, Professor of Sociology at the City University of New York, is on the Faculty of the Health and Society Program of the Charité -Universitätsmedizin in Berlin, and has served as a Visiting Professor at the Universitat Osnabrueck in Germany, a Fulbright Professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and a Leverhulme Professor at Plymouth University in the United Kingdom. She is the recipient of the Jessie Bernard Award of the American Sociological Associat ion, has been named a “Mother of Bioethics” by the Women’s Bioethics Network, and has received the Mentoring Award from Sociologists for Women in Society and the Lee Founders Award of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. She is editor of BIOETHICAL ISSUES, SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES and THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CHILDBEARING: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES. Her books, translated into German, Japanese and Finnish, include IN LABOR, LABORING ON (with Wendy Simonds), THE TENTATIVE PREGNANCY, RECREATING MOTHERHOOD, THE BOOK OF LIFE, and WEAVING A FAMILY.

Austin Dacey: Pyschology Today

Austin Dacey, who addressed the Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County on March 8, 2009, now has a blog on Psychology Today. His first blog entry is here.

Platform Video: The Right to Blaspheme

The following ECS/Bergen Platform address was delivered on Sunday, November 8, 2009, by Matt Cherry (introduced by Ken Karp):

Matt Cherry: The Right to Blaspheme from Ethical Culture Society Bergen on Vimeo.

Why does an atheist work at the UN to defend the human right to freedom of religion or belief and does this right protect humanists and atheists? Cherry will also highlight IHEU's current campaign against efforts to have the UN outlaw "defamation of religion" which would amount to a global blasphemy law.

Matt Cherry is IHEU International Representative and leads the IHEU delegation to the United Nations headquarters in New York. He has served two terms as president of the UN NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief, where he is now vice president. Over the past two decades Matt Cherry has played a leading role in humanist groups in Britain, the Netherlands, and the USA, including five years as executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism and eight years as executive director of the Institute for Humanist Studies. He has co-authored books on secular parenting and humanism in business.

Help for that Elevator Speech

One of the biggest challenges I often have is explaining to others what my 'religion' is. Even though I personally don't think of Humanism as a religion per se, many others do and anyway, it is an accurate reflection of my world view when it comes to the question 'what do you believe?"

As Dr. Chuman the leader of ECS of BC often states, it's not that we are non-believers, Humanists have many beliefs and values. It is however, not as well immediately understood as saying 'I am Jewish' or 'I am a Christian.' Dale McGowen in the recent workshop Parenting Beyond Belief at the Ethical Culture Society suggested as a way of interfacing with a religious world one should have and practice an 'elevator speech.' An 'elevator speech' is a quick an efficient way of representing ourself so as not to be left stumbling for the explanation.

In November I'll be participating in a two night Adult Education program, "Introduction to Humanism and Ethical Culture." I hope to understand more comprehensively the tradition of Ethical Culture and secular humanism so that I can really have a slamming 'elevator speech!' Check it out on the ethicalfocus.org website. Learn what it means to call yourself a humanist!

Platform Video: Idealism, Pragmatism and Politics

The following ECS/Bergen Platform address was delivered on Sunday, November 1, 2009, by Dr. Joseph Chuman (introduced by Ed Gross):

Idealism, Pragmatism and Politics from Ethical Culture Society Bergen on Vimeo.

President Obama is a pragmatist “in the colloquial meaning of the word,” says Dr. Chuman. “There are certainly benefits to being a pragmatist. But as a product of a more idealistic age, I can’t help but wonder whether something is lost as well.” Joe will explore these issues further in his Platform address.

Dr. Joseph Chuman, Leader of the Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County.