The Humanist Association of Orange County is a chapter of the American Humanist Association.
Please visit our website at http://www.ochumanists.org

HAOC Board
President: Pete Anderson
Vice President: Dave Silva
Treasurer:.Harry Becker
Secretary: Jerry Parks
Member at large: Benito Franqui 

February meeting

Charles Rulon, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Biology and Life Sciences at Long Beach City College, spoke about “Evolution, Civilization, and Extinction”.  

Dr. Rulon presented some sobering statistics which show that the odds are heavily against the survival of our civilization - or even our species!: 
· Life scientists have found out that during the history of life on planet Earth, species extinctions are the rule, and parasites are the rule.
· There have been plenty of design errors: e.g. appendixes, male nipples, nerve connections in front of rather than  behind the retina in the human eye.
· Irrationality is the rule - people are more willing to kill themselves than to learn the multiplication table!
· Christian Fundamentalists pretend to support Israel in the hope of bringing about Armageddon by pushing Israel - at the same time believing that the Jews will not be raptured unless they convert to Christianity.
· Scientists ( e.g. Eugenie Scott ) must be careful when they state their beliefs.
· The collapse of the Soviet Union has created a black market of WMD components and technology.  
· The development of biological weapons is now accessible to college students.
· Threats to the Earth environment: meteorites, volcanic eruptions, ice ages, maybe even black holes.  

Afterthoughts About the February Meeting
by Benito Franqui

I have no reason to doubt that humanity’s present prospects are indeed as grim as Dr. Rulon paints them.

However, the very same science and reason which inform us about our relative insignificance and that of the planet which we inhabit has also revealed the staggering vastness and complexity of the cosmos.

It is certainly possible that forms of life wise enough to avoid self-destructing, and maybe even able to ward off some natural catastrophes such as asteroid collisions, may evolve some day elsewhere in the universe.

So I am interested in learning as much as possible about how we got into our present predicament, just in case that this knowledge - in ways not presently  recognized by science  -  proves to be useful.

In any case, I find it a fascinating story which does not need to be depressing at all. At least, not yet!

March Meeting
A BRIEF HISTORY OF UTILITARIANISM
By Dave Silva

     Most Humanists believe in utilitarianism or something close to it.  The reason for this is that utilitarian principles are simple, universal and are based on human need.  In my presentation I will give an historic overview of utilitarianism; from Epicurus to Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, to modern views and variations.  
     We will discuss how utilitarianism compares with other ethical systems; such as "The Ten Commandments" the Golden Rule, objectivism and pragmatism.  Also, we will explore what the future of utilitarian values might be for humanity. 

“Inland Freethinkers” Meeting
by Benito Franqui

On March 3 I attended the general meeting of the “Inland Freethinkers” in downtown Riverside.

The main presentation was about the development of logical and moral reasoning according to the theories of Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg.

Several attendees reviewed what they considered to be the “Worst Movie of 2004" ( need I say any more?  ) and described their participation in a protest against the blatant anti-Semitism portrayed in that movie.

Overall, I got the impression that IF is now a well-focused group that knows where it wants to go and is well aware of the possible pitfalls involved in getting a group of freethinkers to cooperate towards a common goal. 

Rising Above Our Primitive Beliefs
( from http://www.inlandfreethinkers.com )

We have all thought about how extraordinary the world is, how the animals and plants live in complex relationships with each other and the environments they are part of. Do you, as many people do, believe that the universe is so remarkable that a creator must have started it all?

Have you also thought about where a creator would come from or why people believe in so many different creators and the religions established to worship them? The Christian God, Allah, Buddha, Yahweh, Brahma, and the Great Spirit come to mind.

Have you considered that most people believe in a religion simply because they were raised that way, and they are absolutely convinced that theirs is the only "true" religion? Have you asked why so many wars and conflicts have occurred and why so many people have been persecuted in the name of some religion?

It is odd that some religious groups embrace technology, medicine, and science but often reject discoveries that conflict with their rigid beliefs and established dogma. And why, with the inquisitive minds we have, is questioning authority, tradition, and faith often considered an evil act, even worthy of punishment? Most important, how can one really know which religion, sacred book, or supernatural belief is right? Is it possible that none are right?

If everyone lived a life based on reality and reason rather than unquestioned faith, would the world degenerate into moral and social chaos, or is the natural course of rational thought one of justice, progress and peace?

History shows time and again that rigid, unquestioned beliefs often lead to oppression and destruction. Although touted as the key to comfort and hope, blind faith can harbor the building blocks of fear, intolerance, repression and injustice. Somewhat like a drug, blind faith can be addictive, produce pushers, create highs and generate profits.

Religion has been used as a divisive agent in the quest for power and control. Minds have been darkened, wars have been justified, medical and scientific discoveries rejected or postponed, and curiosity and exploration have been suppressed by religion. The lazy acceptance of dogma dulls our senses and independence. If one truly believes he has found the path to salvation then he should surely place that above family, friends, community, and nation.

Believers often convert, shun, or condemn nonbelievers. Some religions seem eager to torture eternally for acting reasonably or reward eternally for groveling submissively. Some also continue to chip away at th important separation of church and state and impose repression and prejudice when this world needs to unite and be free.

After thousands of years of conflict and superstition, it is time to rethink beliefs based on ancient traditions and the supernatural; beliefs that were simply attempts to explain or control a complex frightening world using legends and story instead of facts and reality.

Science does not accept something as true unless it can be tested and proven by factual evidence. Even then, if better evidence appears, science is open to a new or modified explanation. In contrast, religious faith demands unquestioned belief in something simply because someone or some book tells you to believe it.

As a rational person, you no doubt have considered many of these things, and you know the path of reason is open. Finding the courage and strength to rethink our beliefs can be difficult. Deriving comfort and hope from all that is real around us can be challenging. It just takes some thought and desire.

The time has come for you and all thoughtful people living in this complex world to rise above primitive ancient teaching and legends.

Open your mind to the universe and embrace the wonders of reality, art, and nature that knowledge and rational thought unveil:

· the joy of being able to derive wisdom from the culture and views of others,

· the contentment of respecting all people as equal members of society with rights, justice, and choice,

· the true nature of the universe that science continues to unfold before us,

· the strength of losing one's fear of a vengeful god,

· the ability to see beyond destructive superstition,

· and the satisfaction of tackling problems armed with facts to arrive at fair and reasonable solutions for all.

The choice is yours:
to accept ancient tales, jealous gods and evil demons or to be part of the natural universe ruled by reality and thoughts ruled by reason. How? You may have already taken the first step by doing one simple thing... by asking questions.

Freethinkers around the world welcome you!

How I Lost My Super God
( From http://www.bobminick.com/read.asp?aid=187 )

Allow me again to be personal. I could not wait to get out of the service in the fall of 1946. On the trip from New Jersey back to the Ozarks, we saw a big tent meeting going on along side the road in the Appalachian Mountains. We stopped to hear the preaching and the singing. I just could not wait to get back in the thick of all this--to save the world for Jesus.
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I embarked on the road to get myself ordained by the Assemblies of God (the largest Pentecostal denomination). I took the GED (I had only finished the eighth grade) and enrolled in college at John Brown University (JBU), at Siloam Springs, Arkansas, in the year of our Lord in 1948.
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We went directly to New Testament Greek--101 class.
The Professor was waiting for us. After he had quieted us down, he asked a simple question . "Have any of you ever read a book entitled, 'I Have Been Robbed?'" I do not remember the author of the book. Of course none of us ever had and we had no idea what he was talking about. The question did not sound right--I recall flinching as if I had been slapped.
He quietly continued. He had our full attention. "Imagine," he said, "worshipping a God who stole land form one people and gave it to another, not once, but twice. Imagine a God who made a perfectly barbaric people--a clearly barbaric people by their own account of themselves in the Old Testament--made them his chosen people--to bless; while he cursed the remainder of humankind. Now imagine a God who has now brought the descendants of these same chosen people--the Jews--back to this land so that they can be slaughtered by God's new chosen people--the Christians--and their Jesus. How can one ever trust such a God as that? How can anyone believe such a thing? To believe this we have to ignore, the Sermon on the Mount, The Beatitudes, faith, hope and charity. To believe this we have to deny justice for all. We have to deny freedom and rob God of mercy and goodness. To believe this we have to rob ourselves of a personal God who is good by any standard of morality.
"And, of course, it will never happen--that is the good news! The bad news is folks, such as today's speaker, who hold the view that it will happen, will continue to engage in self-fulfilling prophecy until Armageddon, or something very similar to it does happen, not ushering in a millennium of peace but a millennium of utter darkness. Remember, Hitler too, spoke often of a Third Reich that would last a thousand years--a millennium of peace.
"We have just watched the Jews unwillingly play a pivotal roll in one apocalyptic holocaust--Hitler's version of the Final Solution. Now our, the Christian's "Final Solution" to the Jewish question is to do them one better at Armageddon--have Jesus and his followers, slaughter all but the 144,000 Jews who accept Christ as their personal savior.
"You have been robbed, my young friends.
"There are three, maybe four, basic Christian beliefs about Eschatology--the so-called last days. There is Pre-Millennialism, Post-Millennialism, and AMillennialism. There is also a belief called 'Reconstructionism'. Your speaker today is a Pre-Millennialist. This is a hate-filled belief. The others see the world, through Christian influence, getting gradually better and better ushering in a golden age of a thousand years of peace, followed by a return of a peaceful Christ--maybe. This way can be full of hope and love for all of humanity. The Pre Millennium way is a road to war, destruction, and hate. It is Pre-Millennium Christians who have worked to establish Israel. If Israel is to play any role in the return of Jesus it will be nothing like what you were told."
I was dumb-founded.
One of the more aggressive students held up his hand and began to say, "But the Bible says…"
The Professor interrupted, "How could you possibly know what the Bible says when even the best of Bible scholars disagree--they don't know? How could you know? You are in a beginning class in New Testament Greek and your teacher does not know anymore about what God plans for the future than you do--or anyone does? If God is God, He is good. No good God is planning the horrendous events your speaker outlined. There is no Jesus who is going to kill, in cold blood, one third of humanity at Armageddon. Israel is a nation because man made it happen. God had nothing to do with it. It is the result of self-fulfilling prophecy. Israel was made a state at the edge of the sword--a sword wielded by human hands. You will find out, as you become pastors and evangelist that beliefs about the last days have always caused more church trouble than any other one doctrine. Now it is, and will cause political trouble as well. Pre-Millennialism if carried to its logical conclusion will destroy the world.
"It will not work. As Pre-Millennialism becomes a part of the political agenda with nation states endorsing its concept it will ultimately bring about disaster. There is far too much God in the Middle East already. Christians coming in with their agendas is too much.
" If Jews, Christians, and Muslims, all worship the same God, and they all do; what happens when any one of those groups lays claim to being the chosen people? The people of the world, Christians, Jews, Muslims--all the people must find a way to live together in peace. Pre-Millennialism as a religious belief causes church trouble. Pre-Millenialism and Zionism as political dogmas raises the specter of hate beyond comprehension. Class dismissed."
It was like the night I wrestled with the demon of my own Aryan racial superiority. That lesson had taught me that all humans were created equal. I should have known that from reading the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. I should have known it from my own observations.
Now I wrestled with the notion that I, as a Christian was some way chosen of God; simply because I believed in Jesus, and, that alone made me worthy of special treatment from God--we were now the teacher's pet as it were. God--what a God, would bless us!
God had chosen us--not the Jews this time--but us--we Christians. True, the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, had allegedly given the Promised Land back to the Jews as promised. Nevertheless, the Jews were being used for our purpose. In this process, they were expendable--cannon fodder as it were. They were merely preparing a "landing pad" making it possible for Jesus and we, his followers, to return and slaughter all but 144,000 of the Jews we are helping return to Israel. "Pity the people whose god is Jehovah."
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Ultimately belief in any god washed away on the shore of unbelief. Enough doubts were raised at the time resulting in my changing my major from Bible to Education. I was a no-show at my own ordination service. The big tent and all that it portended seemed like a bad dream. Though I tried for some time thereafter to believe in the Professor's good God concept--a concept not believed by the Assemblies of God, I ultimately failed. No Assemblies of God preacher has ever gotten into trouble for preaching that God is bad--that he sends people to hell. Preachers have gotten into trouble for preaching that God is good--that ultimately all will be saved. Even the professor's good God would not work for me.
To this day, I do not know whether there is a god or not. I just know that if there is a god, he she or it does not resemble the God of Abraham in any way.

Quotes

"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise."  
-  James Madison

Our most precious gift
By Frank Farsad 

“Because reason is our most precious gift from God, we should do nothing to reduce its status or degrade it. Because reason should govern our conduct, we should allow nothing to govern it. Because reason is the sovereign over all human facilities, it should not be made subject to any other faculty.”
-Razi, “Kitab al-Muluki” (866-930 A.D.) 

      Razi,known better as Mohammed Ibn Zakariya Al-Razi, was born in Rey, Persia- a city south of present Iranian capital city of Tehran.
Razi (pronounced Rozzy) was a prolific author of numerous treatises on medicine that were translated in Europe as reference textbooks in medicine. In addition to medicine, his chosen field, he also studied mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, and philosophy.
      In the context of religious views, this seems to create a serious dilemma. Religions, without exception, call for total obedience expressed as faith and an abdication of one’s “God given” intellectual curiosity and reason. Is it possible that Razi was a closet free-thinker? 

On the Light Side

As certain politicians work diligently to prevent marriage between  two people of the same sex, others have been busy drafting a  Constitutional Amendment codifying all marriages entirely on biblical principles ( After all, God wouldn't want us to "pick and  choose" which of the Scriptures we elevate to civil law and which we  choose to ignore.):
 
Draft of a Constitutional Amendment to Defend Biblical Marriage

· Marriage in the United States of America shall consist of a union  between one man and one or more women. (Gen 29:17-28; II Sam 3:2-5.)

· Marriage shall not impede a man's right to take concubines in   addition to his wife or wives. (II Sam 5:13; I Kings 11:3; II Chron 11:21)

· A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a   virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be executed. (Deut  22:13-21)

· Marriage of a believer and a non-believer shall be forbidden. (Gen 24:3; Num 25:1-9; Ezra 9:12; Neh 10:30, 2Cor 6:14)

· Since marriage is for life, neither the US Constitution nor any state law shall permit divorce. (Deut 22:19; Mark 10:9-12)

· If a married man dies without children, his brother must marry the widow. If the brother refuses to marry the widow, or deliberately does not give her children, he shall pay a fine of one shoe and be otherwise punished in a manner to be determined by law. (Gen. 38:6-10; Deut 25:5-10)

· In lieu of marriage (if there are no acceptable men to be found), a woman shall get her father drunk and have sex with him. (Gen 19:31-36)

I hope this helps to clarify the finer details of the Government's  righteous struggle against the infidels and heathens among us.

Board Election

Present nominees are as follows:

for President……………….....Pete Anderson
for Vice president…………….Dave Silva
for Secretary………………….Jerry Parks
for Treasurer………………….Harry Becker
for Members at Large (2)……Carl Mariz,  Benito Franqui

Any additional nominations should be submitted to:
Juan Bernal   
jbernal41@hotmail.com  
714-836-7448

The election will be held during the May general meeting.

 Cartoon of the Month

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NEXT MEETING :
On Sunday, March 21, at 1:30 P.M., at the Irvine Ranch Water District building located at 15600 Sand Canyon Ave. in Irvine.

NOTICE :
The Irvine Ranch Water District neither supports nor endorses the causes and activities or organizations which use the District’s meeting rooms, which are made available as a public service.

HAOC
2609 Fernside St.
Orange, CA 92865
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