Secular Humanism

The paper discusses the major characteristics of modernity and post-modernity presented in Passion of the Western Mind by contemporary depth psychologist and philosopher Richard Tarnas. The essay, created for a course taught by Dominican theologian Fr. Edward Krasevac on the nature and history of Western thought, summarizes Tarnas's view of the larger cultural and historical contexts in which the dominant epistemologies and perspectives of modernity and post-modernity evolved and serves as a basic introduction to some of the distinctive features of modern and post-modern philosophical criticism.

This paper examines transhuman technologies that seek to eradicate disability - primarily prostheses and implants. While most would agree that disability denies individuals the same quality of life as those deemed “abled,” this eradication ultimately relies upon secular humanist notions of the perfect human. Transhuman technologies hold obvious implications for the human body, however they also hold implications for what it means to be an acceptable body; ultimately these technologies aim to create the perfect human by eradicating the disabled Other. This paper uses these notions to question concepts of “hierarchies of life,” at which disabled individuals are most commonly moved towards the bottom, or at the very least considered nonhuman. This article seeks to provide alternative theory to the eradication of disability, which states that these individuals may not have the same mode of existence, but that their mode/s are just as valid as those lived by “abled” individuals through an examination of Braille

In order to better cope with the pressures and stresses of the current day, modern psychology is anxiously seeking to find new therapies to address the increasing disorders within the human psyche. In the process new fields of research, such as humanistic and transpersonal psychology, curiously appear to borrow more and more from the wisdom of the ages. This volume, containing eighteen articles by noteworthy expositors of the perennial philosophy such as Huston Smith, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Frithjof Schuon, presents the spiritual psychology of the wisdom traditions as a much-needed antidote to the current impasse in modern psychology.

Some Endorsements for Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy:

“[Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy] is more than an anthology. It is a wisely crafted collection of classic and contemporary scholarship noting that what many are seeking is what has always been, a perennial philosophy, that remains foundational. As one of the authors, Tage Lindbom, properly notes, ‘Secularization is a fish in troubled waters.’ This book claims the waters and is essential reading for all those who may have forgotten or are simply ignorant of the rich foundation provided by the perennial philosophy.”
—Ralph W. Hood, Professor of Psychology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, past president of the Psychology of Religion division of the American Psychological Association, co-founder of The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion and co-author of The Psychology of Religion

“A necessary and bracing critique of the assumptions and limitations of contemporary Western psychology, this generous volume is also a passionate call and learned guide towards a truer perspective that embraces man's spiritual nature.”
—Gabor Maté, M.D., and author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

“Knowing the nature of the mind is perhaps the most difficult undertaking, especially in today’s world. To comprehend the nature of mind one needs to turn to the domain of religion and spirituality. Yet the truth of the mind and its complexity cannot explicitly be defined in words. Inner or transcendent wisdom sees the mind’s own nature without the duality of the seer. Suchness (tathatā) of mind is only experiential and not expressible. The words used to describe thought are themselves a product of thought, which is conditioned and limited. Thus, differences and contradictions are unavoidable. Therefore, a comparative study of different viewpoints and commentaries is immensely important to awaken the inner intelligence to see the mind as it is. Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy: Studies in Comparative Religion edited by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos is an outstanding effort in this direction.”
—Samdhong Rinpoche, former Prime Minister (Kalon Tripa) of the Tibetan Government-in-exile, author of Uncompromising Truth for a Compromised World: Tibetan Buddhism and Today’s World

“The rise of psychology has impacted the study and practice of spirituality, the experiences and attitudes relevant to ultimate human values that transcend ordinary behavior. Each chapter of this remarkable book demonstrates this interaction in a unique and provocative way. But rather than using psychology to reduce and ‘psychologize’ spiritual topics, its authors demonstrate how directives from the spiritual traditions can enhance and even illuminate the enduring importance of psychology in the 21st century.”
—Stanley Krippner, Saybrook University, co-author of Spiritual Dimensions of Healing

“The work at hand is a thinking and debating man’s delight. If you have any interest at all in attempting to include an educated and enlightened view of man’s higher functions in your purview of the world, you will learn from and enjoy this collection of essays. If you already have some knowledge in this area, brace yourself: you may see some of your favorites sharply criticized. A thought-provoking work.”
—Bruce W. Scotton, University of California, San Francisco, co-editor of Textbook of Transpersonal Psychiatry and Psychology

“This book, superbly edited by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos, is a masterful critique of the field of psychology and its loss of the sacred ground in which it once was rooted. It offers depth psychologists an opportunity to contemplate timeless truths echoed through the centuries by perennial philosophers who have always claimed psyche is subordinate to Spirit. Although ignored in depth psychology’s early years due to prejudice and lack of understanding, this is a message today’s psychotherapists must take seriously. Human beings need a deeper and wider transpersonal vision of who and what we are, which the saints and sages of the world’s spiritual traditions have always pointed to. In psychotherapy with a therapist committed to such a vision, patients penetrate into their unconscious depths and not infrequently awaken to the Ground of all Being. Their suffering itself occurred because they had turned away from Spirit. Above all, this volume passionately calls upon depth psychology to remember its origin in the perennial wisdom at the core of the great religions. There is something of a polemic in these pages. It deserves to be considered by depth psychologists of all persuasions.”
—Bryan Wittine, Transpersonal psychologist and Jungian psychoanalyst

“This anthology from Samuel Bendeck Sotillos is a must reference for anyone who is interested in psychology and its relationship to spirituality, and in developing an inclusive dialogue between disciplines that favor an integral outlook on the person and his or her potential. Selections in this anthology will inspire us to reexamine the metaphysical underpinnings of psychology, and remind us how important it is to rise above science’s attempt to reduce the human being to an epistemic object.”
—Sangeetha Menon, National Institute of Advanced Studies (Bangalore, India), Board Member of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA), author of The Beyond Experience: Consciousness in Bhagavad Gita

“This anthology has some of the most discerning essays and reviews on spirituality and psychology, which provide much-needed care and caution to all those engaged in bringing them together or who wish to do so in future. Therefore, it is a must-read for all those who teach, research, consult, or study in such frontier areas as transpersonal psychology, states of consciousness, mind-body relation, holistic health, Indian psychology, and so on. It will be an invaluable textbook for courses in these and other related areas. I congratulate the editor of the book.”
—Kiran Kumar K. Salagame, University of Mysore (India), Board Member of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA), author of The Psychology of Meditation: A Contextual Approach

“One of the finest collections of essays on the Perennial Philosophy—a must-read for all psychologists who are engaged with spirituality and transpersonal psychology. The essays which critique modern psychology (including transpersonal psychology, and the framework of Carl Jung), in the light of the Perennial Philosophy are a revelation and make compelling reading. The book serves as a corrective to the excesses of modern psychology, and to this end Sotillos has done a commendable job. I for one will include the book in some of the graduate courses that I teach.”
—Suneet Varma, University of Delhi, co-editor of Foundations of Indian Psychology

“To its credit modern science by-and-large is becoming more cognizant of the essential connection between spirituality and psychological health and well-being and most of all its positive implications within the field of psychology. While there is ample data to document this in a plethora of academic journals and books, this new book Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy adds a novel contribution to the dialogue between psychology and spirituality, which captures many nuances that for the most part go unnoticed within these discussions, and last but not least, it provides a keen eye of discernment to understand this intricate relationship on a deeper level that is crucially needed. This work will be a valuable asset to students and long term mental health practitioners and professors alike who seek to better understand the relationship between psychology and spirituality.”
—Harold G. Koenig, Duke University, Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, co-author of The Handbook of Religion and Health

Il saggio intende dimostrare che, subito dopo la pubblicazione, da parte di Alberico Gentili, dei De iuris interpretibus Dialogi sex (1582) e delle Lectiones et Epistolae (1583-1584) i rapporti fra Jean Hotman e il giurista di San Ginesio divennero molto difficili e burrascosi. Lo dimostrano alcune epistole scritte da Hotman ad autorevoli giuristi (ad es. Bodin), e ad alcuni umanisti (Bergmann, Payne, Cuffe, Th. Savile) contenenti critiche molto dure e severe ai Dialogi gentiliani. Malgrado ciò, e malgrado le opposizioni dei puritani, Gentili riuscirà ad ottenere la cattedra di Civil Law a Oxford.Il saggio contiene anche notizie circa il tentativo compiuto, dal Gentili, di ottenere un insegnamento a Tubinga nel 1580.

To Avoid misunderstanding, I should note at once that my point of view is here not that of the mere logic of ideas and doctrines, but that of the concrete logic of the events of history.
From the first point of view, that of the mere logic of ideas and doctrines, it is evident that there are many possible positions other than the “pure” positions which I shall examine. One might ask theoretically and in the abstract, what value these various positions have. That is not what I plan to do. In a word, my point of view is that of the philosophy of culture, and not that of metaphysics.

Questo studio si occupa di un argomento ben delimitato: grosso modo, il Regno di Napoli nella seconda metà del XV secolo. Tuttavia, esso aspira anche a fornire un saggio del più generale pensiero politico italiano in quella fase cruciale tra basso Medioevo e prima Età moderna, quando si forgiò una peculiare dottrina dello Stato – organico, centralizzato e ispirato a criteri di razionalità e armonia – animata dalla partecipazione e l’ispirazione di quella straordinaria avanguardia intellettuale che in Italia si chiamò Umanesimo, nel “secolo lungo” che va da Petrarca a Erasmo. Nel corso di sei, densi capitoli in equilibrio tra storia intellettuale e dottrina politica, il volume mette in luce la parabola della proposta politica umanistica, proiettando l’immagine di una Napoli in prima fila nelle trasformazioni del suo tempo, una revisione storiografica che contribuisce a restituire alla capitale il ruolo storico che troppo spesso la critica le ha negato.

The relationship between liberal Protestantism and the rise of secular humanism is "connected by a thousand threads, " to paraphrase a line from the work of enlightenment historian Peter Gay. The volume under review, by Stephen Weldon, Professor of the History of Science at the University of Oklahoma, has published a fascinating tale of how prominent liberal Protestant intellectuals-"cultural Protestants, " as theologian Karl Barth once called them-developed and supported, wittingly or unwittingly, the rise of secular humanism. "American humanism, " he writes, "had originated in the early twentieth century as a form of liberal religion, established by Unitarian ministers who had abandoned what they considered unfounded myths and superstitions-including the idea of God" (1). Unsurprisingly, the "conflict thesis, " the idea that science and religion are enemies, is part and parcel of the humanist story. But of course the story is complicated. Indeed, as I have argued in my own work, the alleged co-founders of the "conflict thesis, " John W. Draper and Andrew D. White, were both liberal Protestants who wished to reconcile their faith with modernity. In this sense, secular humanism's battle with orthodox Christianity was simply the outgrowth of liberal religious thought. "Science" or the "scientific spirit, " in short, became a weapon for a much larger argument. As Weldon writes, "liberals and progressives have often looked to science for solutions to human problems, but they have also turned to it to justify their ideas about mankind, their social ideals, and even their politics" (3). Although Weldon does not include Draper and White in any part of his story, many if not most of the authors and thinkers he examines were in fact greatly influenced by their respective narratives. Weldon divides his book into three parts. The first examines the birth of humanism, which was, as already noted, dominated by theologically liberal ministers and philosophers, including William Ellery Channing, Francis Ellingwood Abbot, George Burman Foster, Curtis Reese, and Roy Wood Sellars, among many others. Weldon traces these origins to the German "mediating theologians" and

In questo saggio, scritto nel 2011, mi servo del fenomeno del camminare come chiave d'accesso per riflettere sul destino della religione nell'epoca della secolarizzazione. La riflessione è esplorativa, ma è piena di spunti che ho approfondito in lavori successivi.

Attached: Introduction, Notes on Contributors.
This collection of articles is a thoughtful examination of the history, function and place of emerging rituals. The discussion goes beyond academic assessment and acknowledgement of the absence of meaningful ritual to focus on the different ways people are responding to the call for ‘new rituals’. It recognises the extent to which sincere ritualisation is essential to the physical, psychological and spiritual health of individuals, family groups, organisations and even society as a whole.
Contributors: 13 authors, 15 transdisciplinary fields:

- Ellen Dissanayake, hon. PhD, an independent scholar focusing on 'the anthropological exploration of art and culture’. Seattle, Washington, USA
- Matthieu Smyth, PhD, Ritual Anthropologist, Professor at the University of Strasbourg.
- Robert C. Scaer, M.D., Neurologist, Psychologist, currently retired from clinical medical practice. Louisville, Colorado, USA.
- Jeltje Gordon-Lennox, M.Div, Psychotherapist and Celebrant Trainer, Ashoka Association, Geneva, Switzerland.
- Andrés Allemand Smaller, journalist and secular celebrant in Geneva, Switzerland.
- Christine Behrend, marketing and consumer behaviour researcher and a secular celebrant in Pully, Switzerland.
- Isabel Russo, Head of Ceremonies at The British Humanist Association, London, UK.
- Michael Picucci, PhD, Psychologist, licensed psychotherapist, New York City, USA.
- Joanna Wojtkowiak, PhD, Cultural psychologist, Assistant professor at the University of Humanistic Studies, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
- Lindy Mechefske, journalist and food-writer in Kingston, Canada.
- Irene Stengs, PhD, Cultural Anthropologist, Senior Researcher Fellow at the Meertens Instituut, Co-editor of Anthropological Journal Etnofoor, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- Gianpiero Vincenzo, MA, sociologist, islamist, art critic and novelist; Professor of sociology at the Fine Arts Academy of Catania in Sicily, Italy.
- Jacqueline Millner, PhD, is Associate Dean Research, Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney
- Ida van der Lee, ritual artist, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Publication date: early 2017

Transgenderism is a religious belief (ideology) and enforcement of it by the State violates the First Amendment.
The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.
The attempt to force a transgender ideology upon schools and governments is a violation of the First Amendment in three ways. 
First, it is an attempt to establish a religion. Transgenderism is a belief that is not upheld by science. A person claims to be transgender by identification, which is a mental or emotional attachment to an idea. The person who claims to be a female, but is in fact a male, is denying the scientific fact of biology, genetics and DNA. Whatever they may “feel,” it does not make it a fact or true.
Second, the attempt to force others to conform to some complex forms of “politically correct” speech, is a violation of the second clause by prohibiting the free exercise of religion, as well as third, suppressing the freedom of speech by refusing to allow people to speak correctly of scientific facts, but forces them to verbally uphold an ideology or religion.

Woody Allen's uneasy relationship with organized religions, as represented in his entire work, has often drawn accusations of atheism and ethnic self-hatred, just as his personal behavior, as represented in the media, has stirred a series of allegations of immorality. However, Woody Allen's exploration of religion, faith, and morality is far more complex and epitomizes the experience of modern man, living in a disenchanted universe. While most scholars focused on discussing the provocative debates over faith and religion in Woody Allen's films, the main purpose of this paper is to investigate what underlies Woody Allen's obsessive preoccupation with the existence of divinity, as expressed in that part of his work which received little critical attention, namely his short fiction. The purpose of such an analysis is not to clear Woody Allen's vexed reputation, but to understand the relevance of his individual ideology for the religious and moral conundrums of modern man. The corpus selected for this analysis consists of a series of relevant short stories and essays published in the 1991 edition of The Complete Prose of Woody Allen, a volume which gathers the texts published in three other short story collections.

"The author believes the concept of a transcendent entity as the source of morality and ultimate justice, is an essential foundation of rational human life and functioning. Without a transcendent authority or standard, the numerous pursuits and values of humans are merely peculiar delusions characteristic of the human species.

The unique value of humans above other life forms is so fundamental to morality and society, yet while not a scientific principle, this concept depends solely upon a transcendent declaration. Without this, there can be no objective morality, no objective human value, and no objective meaning of human life. Keeran maintains it is reasonable to conclude that something greater than human intelligence and creativity, has contributed to those unique qualities observed in humankind.

Another related line of reasoning is that because human intelligence is the origin of human technology and creativity, then one can conclude that the advanced non-human technology observed in the universe, is the result of advanced non-human intelligence.

1. Do humans have souls?
2. Is there is an afterlife?
3. Do humans have greater intrinsic value than other life forms?
4. Does free moral choice exist in humans apart from genetic or instinctual factors?
5. Does sexuality have moral limitations beyond mutual consent?
6. Does a child in the womb possess as much intrinsic value as a child outside the womb?
7. Is there accountability after death?
8. Is there objective meaning to human life?

These are some of the questions raised in "The Richard Dawkins Delusion." Whether or not you believe there is a god, this book will challenge you to think a little deeper than you have before. While holding a firm belief in the existence of an intelligent personal Creator God, the author encourages the reader to explore the literature in search of truth."

This paper investigates the transformative power of journeying and writing as elements of atheist pilgrimage in You Shall Know Our Velocity! and Everything is Illuminated. In both novels, the characters embark upon individually meaningful journeys and intend to publish written accounts of their experiences. The experimental nature of the novels allows the authors to depict the creative process of writing as more than just a crystallization of the journey already experienced: it is a continuation and a completion of the transformative process begun in the physical travel. In addition to the mirroring between content and form, the pilgrimages are paralleled by each novel's publication history. From the original excerpts of the novels published in The New Yorker to the final versions, the texts themselves undergo journeys that are an important part of understanding the pilgrimages in each. Furthermore, both novels share the unique trait of depicting not just pilgrimage but, as the paper will argue, atheist pilgrimage. This is a new term, in anthropology and in literature, and the paper will discuss what the concept of atheist pilgrimage means for both fields. Finally, the paper will investigate Burning Man as a practical example of atheist pilgrimage that resonates with both the theoretical and literary concepts analyzed.

Antologia filosofica sull'ateismo - dalla quarta di copertina:

"La filosofia è noiosa, ripetono gli studenti costretti a studiarla. Per molti di loro la filosofia è un insieme di risposte incomprensibili a domande incomprensibili, teologia che cerca di darsi un tono, roba da intellettuali insomma. Lo sappiamo tutti, anche se non abbiamo il coraggio di ammetterlo: quegli studenti hanno ragione.

È per loro, e per tutti coloro che la pensano come loro, che Giovanni Gaetani ha scritto questo libro. Vuole convincerli che la filosofia può essere piacevole, ironica, a tratti addirittura divertente, e che può aiutarci a guardare il mondo senza ricorrere a Dio, in maniera disincantata ma non per questo meno entusiasta e appassionata.

Come se Dio fosse antani è un percorso in cinque tappe intorno ai temi prediletti dall’ateismo filosofico, dall’inesistenza di dio all’etica umanista. Ed è scritto in modo chiaro e “commestibile”, senza supercazzole, perché l’autore ha cercato di mettersi in tutto e per tutto dalla parte del lettore. Anche chi odia la filosofia dovrà rivedere le proprie convinzioni.

Provare per (non) credere."

Existentialism is a concern about the foundation of meaning, morals, and purpose. Existentialisms arise when some foundation for these elements of being is under assault. In the past, first-wave existentialism concerned the increasingly apparent inability of religion, and religious tradition, to provide such a foundation, as typified in the writings of Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, and Nietzsche. Second-wave existentialism, personified philosophically by Sartre, Camus, and de Beauvoir, developed in response to the inability of the polity to serve as such a foundation. There is a third-wave existentialism, a new existentialism, developing in response to advances in the neurosciences that threaten the last vestiges of an immaterial soul or self. With the increasing explanatory and therapeutic power of neuroscience, the mind no longer stands apart from the world to serve as a foundation of meaning. This produces foundational anxiety.

This collection explores the anxiety caused by this third-wave existentialism and the possibility of resolving it through utilizing only naturalistic resources, including those in the natural sciences. It brings together some of the world’s leading neuroscientists, philosophers, psychologists, cognitive scientists, and legal scholars to tackle our neuroexistentialist predicament and explore what the mind sciences can tell us about morality, love, emotion, autonomy, consciousness, selfhood, free will, moral responsibility, law, the nature of criminal punishment, meaning in life, and purpose.

The collection begins with an introduction to neuroexistentialism by Owen Flanagan and Gregg D. Caruso. This chapter sets the stage for the chapters to follow. It explains what neuroexistentialism is and how it is related to, but differs from, the first two waves of existentialism. Eighteen original chapters divided into four sections follow the introduction.
There are contributions by Sean M. Carroll, Gregg D. Caruso, Patricia Smith Churchland, Farah Focquaert, Shaun Gallagher, Michael S. Gazzaniga, Walter Glannon, Andrea L. Glenn, Daniel Goya-Tocchetto, Valerie Hardcastle, Paul Henne, Neil Levy, Ben Morgan, Stephen J. Morse, Thomas Nadelhoffer, Eddy Nahmias, Derk Pereboom, Jesse Prinz, Amanda Pustilnik, Adrian Raine, Naomi Rokotnitz, Edmund Rolls, Maureen Sie, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Peter U. Tse, and Jennifer Cole Wright.

Paper deals with the historical story of the advent of Christianity. Examines what Christianity had to offer Rome during its war with the Jews (placation of slaves & the poor, promise of life after death & "reward", making soldiers unafraid to die, "comforting" dead soldier's family, etc.).

Paper exposes and details the usage of rhetoric & propaganda. Knowing this also exposes the purposes and motives involved in the creation of such texts. Which, in turn, leads us to information about the true authorship of these texts. Emphasis is upon the importance of recognizing literary devices.

This article rethinks the problem of religious (in)tolerance by analyzing the 2015 deportation of three " Hindu priests " from a Caribbean nation for the practice of obeah. Defined popularly as " witchcraft " or " African tradition, " obeah was first criminalized as the alleged inspiration for the largest slave uprising of the eighteenth century British Caribbean. I argue that the recent deportations in a nation that constitutionally enshrines freedom of conscience foregrounds some of the foundational limits of liberal secularism. I trace a genealogy of liberalism to critique the secular ideal of the " freedom from difference. " I suggest that attempts to invoke " spirituality " as a more inclusive idiom for denigrated forms of " not-religion " such as obeah extend rather than eliminate these limits of liberal secularism. I close by drawing some parallels with anti-Muslim nationalism in the U.S. and suggest some ways of thinking about a trinary formation of religion, not-religion, and secular power in modern nation-states.

I propose we discuss pluralistic humanism as an alternative to both atheism and traditional theism in an e ort to establish a democratic faith to which we, despite our di erences, can bind ourselves. I draw on the thought of American pragmatists (James, Dewey, Rorty, and Kitcher) to articulate a con- structive criticism of new atheists (Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, and Hitchens).  is criticism primarily focuses on the unacknowledged a nities between religion and scienti c atheism—namely, a naive realism and a conversion experience—with the hope of using such common ground as a starting point for not only shared experience but for self-examination. I conclude with the proposal that we take up a Deweyan conception of democracy as a common faith aimed at e ecting religious or spiritual experiences despite the tradi- tional oppression of institutional religion.

Philip Larkin's poetry is deceptive. It gives the impression of stark simplicity. Beneath this, however lies a skilful talent for conciseness and for an exposition of a terse reality that disturbs and stimulates the mind. His inspiration is found in a train journey, two horses grazing in a remote meadow and a photograph album of a coveted female. These do not seem to be suitable starting points for a humanist manifesto. On the other hand, his humanism seems to be ambiguous since he appears rather condescending towards some unpretentious social strata. Yet, in his poetry, he gradually identifies with these simple creatures and sometimes becomes one of them. One important aspect of his poetry is his minimalistic prosaic content that resists metaphor, ornamentation and reference to myth, and focuses on the reality of life. He acknowledges both by implication and by statement that life is all we have and that there is no beyond. In acknowledging this reality, the form of humanism that he approaches most closely, as I shall contend below, is secular humanism. Secular humanism has found a working model based on doubt rather than dogma, global democracy rather than imperialist domination and secular happiness rather than an incomprehensible divine purpose. This implies a respect for all living things, especially humans, with no prejudice related to sex, ethnicity or culture and without any reliance on belief in supernatural entities.

Call for papers

The Non-Religious and the State: Choices and Frameworks for Seculars from the Age of Revolution to the Current Day

Les non-croyants face à l’Etat. Options et cadres définis pour les laïques, de l’époque des révolutions à nos jours.

Lo no-religioso y el estado. Opciones y estructuras desde la era de la revolución hasta nuestros días

The Secular Studies Association Brussels (SSAB) invites submissions for its inaugural conference to be held in the Fall of 2022 (21 & 22 Octobre). The Institute and its partners welcome abstracts for individual papers, panels, roundtables and other options. The conference is open to a variety of disciplines as papers are welcomed with, but not limited to, a historical, legal, sociological or political science approach. Generally speaking, research will be presented in English, but this call is open to other languages as well, i.e. French and Spanish.
Contributions may cover any organizations, networks or committed individuals that have existed within a specific context (national, regional, local) since the era of the revolutions. Apart from simply presenting a factual legal status, we further aim to understand the strategies made by freethinkers, rationalists, secularists, humanists and the ‘nones’ of today in order to function within the public sphere.
Please read the uploaded document for further details.
Our webpage: https://ssab.research.vub.be/non-religious_the_state

Paper demonstrating the origin of Popes (or Bishops of Rome) from the Calpurnius Piso family, giving the actual identities of the first 10 Popes. 18 pages.

This paper also makes the case for the mention of Christ in the works of Flavius Josephus as being original to that work and points out the need for change in the study of ancient history.

Belgian secularists were at the centre of the freethinker’s international during the Belle Epoque. In contrast, Belgian Freemasons did not succeed to be the nexus of international Freemasonry, although the Belgian leaders of the freethinkers’ international were almost all freemasons. The strength of its militant secularism, both within and outside freemasonry, gave Belgium a prominent role in the International Federation of Freethinkers, but it did not facilitate any aspiration to a similar position in a denominationally multiform Masonic field. Towards the end of the period, the central position of the Belgians in the freethinkers’ movement became less self-evident, notably because of its vigorous refusal of reconciliation with German seculars. Whatever the differences, Belgian freethinkers and freemasons were both able to act as intermediaries for ideas and information in transit, whether through an organizational modus or through individual brokers.

Neohumanism is a socio-spiritual world-view characterized by love for the Supreme. In the early stages of developing such spiritual devotion, the adoption of Neohumanistic principles – that is, abjuring all prejudices against other races, groups, religions, and less-evolved creatures – will safeguard and enhance the development of that devotion. And once a person comes to feel devotion for the Supreme, that devotion or love will ultimately overflow onto all objects created by the Supreme. One will come spontaneously to love all beings and objects as one loves the Supreme, free from any discrimination. Devotion expands one’s world-view, and the more expansive the world-view, the more one finds the ecstasy and peace of devotion. In the course of creating a Neohumanistic society, one will have to use all one’s rational faculties and all the resources of information at one’s command. One will have to take a courageous and also a very hard-headed approach in identifying and combatting forces of selfishness and vested interest. In The Liberation of Intellect: Neohumanism, Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar has laid the foundations of this sublime yet uncompromising philosophy and thoroughly practical approach. P. R. Sarkar, (1921-1990), was a spiritual guru (also known as Shrii Shrii Anandamurti) in the tradition of Shiva and Krishna, who propounded Neohumanism and founded the socio-spiritual movement Ananda Marga (“the Path of Bliss”).  –  Richard Gauthier, Department of Chemistry and Physics, Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, California, USA, May 7, 2021.

The Nigerian playwright, public intellectual, and humanist Wole Soyinka once announced, "Violence appears to be the one constant in the histories of all the major religions of the world-a primitive aggressiveness, violence." The objective of this essay is to study Soyinka's response to violence and terror fueled by religious imperialism, fanaticism, and religious conviction. While religion in general plays a central role in Soyinka's creative writings, scholars have given limited attention to his engagement with faith in his non-fiction productions. Consequently, there exists both an intellectual and literary gap to bridge Soyinka's religious ideas expressed in his fictions and those he enunciated in his other writing. This essay is an attempt to fill the intellectual void.

One of the most important things that I had realized about the work that I was doing in the field of ancient studies, is that if others are going to ever be able to get to the point where they can understand what only a few of us had been capable of understanding, so as to make the same findings and discoveries that we have, and verifying it, they were going to have to know how we were able to uncover the use of alias names and pen names used by ancient authors. It is not easy, but it can be learned and can be done.

For some time now I have been busy trying to tell the world the truth about religion. I have even said that the people responsible for the world's more pervasive religions were my own royal ancestors. And this is true. I have tried to inform as many people as I can to what they did and why they did it, and to help people to understand this step-by-step. It is my responsibility to do my best to undo the harm that my ancestors did to the world. And so, there is no choice for me but to continue until everyone is informed of this and finally accepts the truth about religion. This is not the easiest thing for me to say or talk about, but it is true that some of my ancestors were indeed psychopaths. Also, there are some of my relatives who know that I have been telling the world about this, but who would rather I not do so. I know the damage that the lies and twisted ideologies have caused and will continue to cause if left unchecked. This is now about the survival of the human race and our planet. The result of what my ancestors did is that the world is now a place in which psychopaths run free, occupy positions of authority and remain in a position to control and manipulate the populace. And if humanity is to survive, it cannot continue to be left in the hands of psychopaths. My royal ancestors had already known how to rule and control the masses when they began to create the three main religions of the world. This is because they had been ruling over dynasties even before dynasties were formally known as such. And that was long before the person known to the world as 'Adam' had existed. Those earliest 'dynasties' are called by archaeologists by the term "proto-dynasties". These ancestors of mine established the first dynasty in Egypt. It wasn't until the 12th dynasty that the pharaoh Amenemhept I (aka Adam-en-em-hept I, etc.) began to create the religion that would later become known as Judaism. He was the founder of the 12th dynasty, but he was also creating another dynasty parallel to that one which was known to his family and descendants as the "biblical dynasty". This pharaoh had envisioned the way that he wanted his religion to be and left instructions for its further creation and establishment to his descendants. He had created the first part of the story of Genesis and borrowed from some from already known religions for some of the other portions of his religion.* This religion, was only a part of what he had envisioned to do. He needed to continue to rule over Egypt and so, he had assistance from his sons to create his then new religion-a monotheistic religion. In it, he, the pharaoh was the god and played the part of God. He also played the part of Adam. He, like many of the ancient rulers played around with words. He placed 'Adam' in a wonderful place which was called the "garden of Eden". It was a play on the letters that were used, it was actually, the "garden of Aten". That, was a royal garden belonging to the pharaoh himself. And the name 'Adam' was already a name by which this pharaoh was known. Other information about this pharaoh and the story of Genesis and others will be made known; but at this time, I am giving an overview of what these ancient royals did. The Pharaoh's son Seth stayed with him in Egypt and ruled there with him and then also after he died. Another of his sons, known as 'Cain' went to another land to establish followers for the new religion with his brother's son Enosh. Cain had a son of his own whom he named after his brother's son who was helping him, Enoch. And Seth while ruling in Egypt was known as Sesostris, his Egyptian name. His son Enosh, had a son, and he named him after his uncle, calling him Kenan (Cainan). It was Cain and his descendants who established the people known as Cainanites. In the line of descent from Adam, Seth's wife is unnamed. But knowing that Seth as actually the Pharaoh Sesostris I, we then know that his wife was his sister or half-sister Neferu III. But to have given her name in the Bible would have

Our lack of awareness of Being results in bewildering experience. The intrinsic inner radiance, the inner light of Being arises out of primordial luminous spaciousness, the unbound openness of unbound pure potentiality. When this primordial ground of Being is veiled and obscured by the lack of experiential awareness, we can be locked into dualistic experiences, and consequently the non-dual nature of the field of Being is experientially foreclosed. The sense of indivisibility of all phenomena and awareness is experientially foreclosed. The capacity to see into, feel into and see through the lucidity of phenomena as the very field of Being becomes foreclosed and densified. We then live contained in mind alone. There is no experience of the field of Being. Without the field of Being we easily become things and objects both to our self and to others.

The Seventeen Contradictions is an x-ray of tensions, trends and tendencies in capital and capitalism that empowers us to look forward. Taking the still ongoing 2008 economic crisis as a starting point, Harvey investigates how the capitalist economy that produces such crises is embedded in contradictions. Seventeen of these are discussed throughout the book.

Throughout the nineteenth century, Maskilic journals increased their publication of anti-Hasidic satires. From the eighteen-sixties onward, this literature came primarily as a response to the revival in the publishing of Hasidic hagiography and to the spread of Hasidism into new territory. To this point, no complete review or even general survey has been performed on this extensive polemical literature, despite the fact that it has much to teach us about Hasidism and the Haskalah in those years. We are not speaking of an insignificant bibliographical lacuna, but of a disregard for an entire field of research which would shed light not only on a forgotten chapter of modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature but also on an important chapter in the relationships between Maskilim and Hasidim in that period and the genesis and development of the different streams of Hasidism. This Maskilic literature intended to do more than eradicate Hasidism; it aimed to strengthen the self-consciousness of the individual Maskilim who found themselves alone in Hasidic territory. Paradoxically, the literature documented the very movement it intended to eradicate from the world. The distorted reflection displayed in the anti-Hasidic literature does more than present a caricature of its subject -- it conceals hitherto unknown elements about the nature and development of the Hasidic movement. The present article deals with one such case, a satire on Bratslav Hasidism from 1863, which has at its core a Maskilic satirical text written by Yehiel Meller on pilgrimage to the grave of R. Nahman of Bratslav in Uman.





כתבי עת של משכילים לאורך המאה התשע עשרה הרבו לפרסם סאטירות בגנותה של החסידות. משנות הששים ואילך באה ספרות זו בעיקר כתגובה להתעוררות הדפסת ספרות השבחים החסידית ולהתפשטות החסידות במרחבים חדשים. לא קיימת עד עתה סקירה שלימה, ואף לא מיפוי כללי, של אותה ספרות פולמוסית ענפה, על אף שיש בה ללמד הרבה על דרכי החסידות וההשכלה באותן שנים.  לא מדובר רק בחסרון ביבליוגרפי שאין לו משמעות, אלא בהתעלמות משדה מחקר רב עניין שעשוי להאיר לא רק על פרק נשכח בספרות עברית ויידיש החדשה אלא גם על פרק חשוב ביחסים בין משכילים לחסידים באותה תקופה, ועל דרכי צמיחתם, פיצולם והתפתחותם של זרמים שונים בחסידות. הייתה זו ספרות שיותר מאשר נועדה לבער את החסידות נועדה לחזק את תודעתם העצמית של המשכילים הבודדים במרחבים החסידיים; ספרות שבאופן פרדוקסלי תיעדה תנועה אותה חפצו לבער מן העולם. הבבואה המעוותת בה התהדרה הסאטירה האנטי חסידית לא רק הציגה דימוי – אלא טומנת בחובה הצבעה על אלמנטים חדשים ועל התפתחויות בחסידות. במקרה אחד ממין זה הנוגע לחסידות ברסלב בשנות השישים של המאה התשע עשרה עוסק המאמר. שלפנינו - שעיקרו מהדורה של טקסט משכילי שכתב יחיאל מלר - בשנת 1863 - על העלייה לקבר ר' נחמן מברסלב באומן
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Préface par le psychiatre Christophe Fauré
En Occident, plus du tiers des cérémonies funèbres sont organisées sans l'intervention d'institutions religieuses, et les prévisions montrent que le phénomène est en expansion. Pourtant, les bricolages souvent mis sur pied dans l'urgence lors d'un décès laissent parfois un goût d'inachevé quand ce n'est pas un malaise lié au stress de l'improvisation. Ce manuel souhaite aider les proches d'un défunt à organiser des funérailles à la carte en présentant toute une série de mesures simples à mettre en place. Comment s'y prendre ? Où trouver textes, musiques et objets symboliques ? Dans une première partie, l'auteure aborde toutes les étapes d'une cérémonie personalisée en s'appuyant sur sa longue expérience de célébrante non institutionnelle. Puis elle aborde des situations délicates, cérémonies pour jeunes décédés, pour suicidés, en cas de mort violente ou quand le corps du défunt est introuvable. Dans une troisième partie, elle présente les rites et les cérémonies des principales religions existantes, avant de proposer un florilège de textes d'écrivains, de penseurs ou d'anonymes pour leur utilisation sur un faire-part, lors d'une célébration ou pour des condoléances. Théologienne et psychothérapeute d'origine néerlandaise, Jeltje Gordon-Lennox a travaillé au Comité international de la Croix-Rouge et comme pasteure à l'Eglise protestante de Genève avant de fonder à Genève Ashoka (www.ashoka.ch), association vouée à l'organisation de cérémonies sur mesure (naissances, mariages, services funèbres). Elle a déjà publié Mariages. Cérémonies sur mesure (Labor et Fides, 2008).

Mijn collega filosoof Dries vertelde over zijn zoontje dat op een Katholieke basisschool zit. De school wil de kinderen levensbeschouwelijk breed oriënteren. In de discussie over de leskisten 'wereldreligies' ontbreekt de leskist 'humanisme' als niet-religieuze levensbeschouwelijke oriëntatie. Dries pleit voor zo'n leskist 'humanisme'… Denk er even over na: wat gebeurt hier?