Leo Igwe sent me the link to a heartening article about the global energization of atheism.
At the World Humanist Congress in Oslo in August, delegates from India,
Uganda, Nigeria, Argentina and Brazil — all countries where belief in a supreme deity or deities has a strong hold — reported mounting interest in their philosophy.Like their counterparts in Europe and North America, they argue that morality
is based in human nature and does not need a father-figure god to back it up
with punishment in an afterlife, in which they do not believe.“There are more godless groups in the world than ever before,” Sonja
Eggerickx, a Belgian schools inspector who is president of the International
Humanist and Ethical Union, told the Congress.
We can talk to each other more easily than ever before. (Of course, so can Dominionists…)
U.S. delegates, including a serving army major who has just established an
organisation for atheists in the military, spoke of a surge of rejection of
religion in all its forms among young Americans — a point some recent opinion
surveys back up.In Manchester in May, British Humanists — one of the world’s oldest
groupings — were told of a sharp rise in humanist birth, marriage and death
ceremonies, and strong growth in their association’s four-year-old student
wing.In Ireland, a country where the influence of the Catholic Church was for decades dominant in
all areas of life including politics and government decision-making, an optimistic national humanist association met in Carlingford in late August.…
In Nigeria, where the openly non-religious face Christian preacher-inspired
public opprobrium as “immoral reprobates” or “Satanists” and in the Islamic
north are treated as apostates, the humanist movement held its Congress in Abuja
in September.
Leo’s talk at that Congress is at the ur-B&W.
Huzzah!
Did i tell you about the newly formed and fast growing Singapore Humanist Society?
http://www.humanist.org.sg/index.php
Very active and fast growing and has had quite a lot of attention in the local media. Full of bushytailed and brighteyed young people.Brings hope to the heart. And I am not even a member and neither have I attended a single of their numerous meetups (I was invited to join them in setting up the society a couple of years back but was too busy). Must get over my laziness and fill out a membership form. I am really very, very thankful for their existence.
FYI, Julian Baggini is in town and the SHS is hosting him for a talk next week.
The Singapore census recorded that 15% of the population is made up of self-declared non-believers. We have another 15% that is Muslim (very moderate given the regional turmoil) and a growing 15% of christians – the most wealthy and influential lot and now increasingly seen as troublemakers by the rest of the population. This is due to the inroads made by American style dominionists and other nasty fundamentalist evangelical types.There have been unpleasant incidents in recent years involving this lot. No one likes them, least of all the buddhists and taoists who still form the majority of the population.
Want to understand why there are godless groups? When an individual knows God in a personal way through His Holy Spirit they have earned through following His written instruction, they have absolutely nothing to do with all the man made religions with their own doctrines and traditions worldwide, nor things of this world. Therefore I can tell you this is a Godless world by God’s own words because the only god is Satan who is the god of this world until the return of Christ to remove him from the throne he has been on for 6000 years and prior to man. The link shows my efforts to know God.
http://www.booksie.com/religion_and_spirituality/short_story/timesoftrouble/the-beginning-of-the-end-has-arrived-as-in-sealed
“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. {Revelation 12:9
“The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. {Psalms 14:2-3}
“It is these things that we talk about, not using the expressions of the human intellect but those which the Holy Spirit teaches us, explaining things to those who are spiritual.
“But the unspiritual man simply cannot accept the matters which the Spirit deals with—they just don’t make sense to him, for, after all, you must be spiritual to see spiritual things. The spiritual man, on the other hand, has an insight into the meaning of everything, though his insight may baffle the man of the world. This is because the former is sharing in God’s wisdom, and ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?’ Incredible as it may sound, we who are spiritual have the very thoughts of Christ! {1 Corinthians 2:13-16}
When a person believes every word of God, they become totally separated from this world.