Windsor Humanist Society - Our Group Concerns

"All great truths begin as blasphemies."
George Bernard Shaw

"The idea of a good society is something you do not need a religion and eternal punishment to buttress; you need a religion if you are terrified of death."
Gore Vidal

"Skepticism is the highest duty and blind faith the one unpardonable sin."
Thomas Huxley

"If we go back to the beginning, we shall always find that ignorance and fear have created gods."
Baron d’ Holbach

"It is, I think, an error to believe that there is any need of religion to make life seem worth living."
Sinclair Lewis

"We have lost religion, but we have gained humanism. The ideal now is to liberate and to help emancipate mankind, with the result that man becomes really an absolute for man."
Jean-Paul Sartre

"If there is a God, he is a malign thug."
Mark Twain

"There is in every village a torch - the teacher; and an extinguisher - the clergyman."
Victor Hugo

"There is joy in rationality, happiness in clarity of mind. Freethought is thrilling and fulfilling--absolutely essential to mental health and happiness."
Dan Barker

"What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak."
George Santayana

"One wonders why God would choose a Bible to reveal himself thousands of years before the invention of the printing press and at a time when few people could read."
C. W. Dalton

"Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science?"
Carl Sagan

Our Group's Concerns

The continued public funding in our province of non-secular (faith-based) educational institutions. The continued infringement of sectarian ideologies and practices into publicly-funded institutions (especially under the guise of "human rights" issues).

Humanist Canada's

(here)

The Windsor Humanist Society strongly supports the efforts of The One School System Network who seeks the establishment of a single secular school system for each official language & the elimination of costly duplication in the Ontario school system in order to minimize infrastructure costs and to maximize opportunities for student development. The One School System Network's website (here).

The effects of poverty across our planet.

Kiva's logo The Windsor Humanist Society is attempting to assist those sharing our planet - and who may be less-gifted financially than we are - by making "peer-to-peer Microcredit loans" via Kiva - so they might be better able to lift themselves out of poverty with the dignity all human beings deserve.
Visit our Kiva web page here and read about our "entrepreneur-partners" who continually renew our confidence & our joy with this world we all share, through their actions and their human spirit.

Human rights across our planet.

Members of The Windsor Humanist Society share a similar philosophy to the AVAAZ organization - a group taking action to ensure that the views and values of all human beings in our world, play significant roles in shaping global decisions -- not just 'political élites' and unaccountable corporations -- especially during this epoch when globalization shouts out for a vision having a more human face.

Members of AVAAZ are currently taking action for their vision of a more just & peaceful world, addressing the results of recent elections in Kenya. Allegations of vote-tampering have left On The Streets an environment of violence ripe for yet another genocidal nightmare. The Windsor Humanist Society is taking action along with AVAAZ by encouraging our own membership and other Canadians to send a message to our Minister of Foreign Affairs (name and email here), encouraging him to withhold recognition of the new Kenyan president until the election results have been independently reviewed. Click here for more information and/or to participate.

Proposed Topics For Upcoming Meetings

These are the topics that some members came up with for as suggestions for upcoming meetings. We'd appreciate your input into this process. With any of the topics, if you know of someone who could talk to these issues, please let us know.

Was there an historical Jesus?
Is economic growth sustainable ?
Is ethanol an answer to global warming?
Should prostitution be legalized?
Why health care should stay public.
Why should religious schools not be funded?
What should Canada's role be in Afghanistan?
How US debt threatens our economic well being.
Are we hardwired to seek religion?
GMO's, Terminator seeds -- Should they be banned?
Do people need models?
Does radical Islam have a case against the west?
Do we have real democracy?
The threat posed by invasive plants and organisms.
Solutions to the border mess.
Population: a) is there a population crisis? b) How many immigrants should Canada take in?
Does religion "poison everything" as Christopher Hitchens says?
As humanists, what should we do when religionists try to bring religion into the public square.
As a group, what can humanists do to raise our profile in Windsor and Canada
Should Canada sell our water to the USA?
What happens to a humanist when s/he dies?
How does a humanist respond when a public appeal for prayers from the community is requested? (i.e. in media reports of accidents, severe illness, or death - family members request prayers from public).

Suggest additional topics here.