Like Christianity, per se, Secular Humanism is not a monolithic belief system. Secular Humanism is a term recognized by both the humanists themselves and by their critics. This is largely due to the use of the term secular. The advocates regard the secularity of their humanism as a positive attribute, while their critics regard it as a serious limitation, even a negative attribute. Furthermore, the term secularism was introduced by one of the pioneers of the movement. For details of the history, see Wikipedia's article, Secular Humanism.

The last thing Old Scratch (I like to call The Evil One "Old Scratch" because he's always scratching away at the scabs on our consciences, or scratching away at our satisfaction with our relationships to make us jealous, resentful, etc., etc., etc.) wants anyone to do is to turn over a new leaf in the book of life and learn something new about themselves, something that can help them in the next stage of growth.

Recent questions posed by the drive-by media to Republican hopefuls drew the ire of the candidates themselves, much to the delight of the audience who think many in the media are lower than primordial slime and only slightly above on-the-take members of Congress.

Tchaikovsky would have been delighted.

Our sun is an average star. It is expected to burn (via hydrogen fusion reactions) for another few billion years before going nova.

VATICAN CITY, 30 DEC 2011 (VIS) - Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for January 2012 is: "That the victims of natural disasters may receive the spiritual and material comfort they need to rebuild their lives".

His mission intention is: "That the dedication of Christians to peace may bear witness to the name of Christ before all men and women of good will".

BXVI-PRAYER INTENTIONS/VIS 20111230 (70)
Published by VISarchive 02 - Friday, December 30, 2011

 

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We have become a nation of wimps.

We're like the little boy or girl in school who's getting picked on and runs to mommy and daddy for comfort.

Except in this case, "mommy and daddy" is big government. So, what are we afraid of? Who's picking on us?

We come to church on Christmas to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who is the definitive sign of God's love and plans for humanity. We celebrate that event with carols and with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in which we share sacramentally in the vigil and the sacrifice of Calvary.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was supposed to guarantee that the financial statements of major corporations would be accurate so that investors and creditors would not have unpleasant surprises. The recent collapse of MF Global and the sad testimony of its politically connected CEO, former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine before the Senate Agriculture Committee should wake people up to just how useless Sarbanes-Oxley actually is in preventing the worst abuses.

Before I go deep into this topic, I need to give a nod to C. S. Lewis for his book, Miracles, in which he deals with this problem from a fairly comprehensive perspective. I also give a nod to John C. Polkinghorne, who presents a somewhat different perspective from Lewis' supernatural intervention idea in his books, particularly in Belief in God in an Age of Science. (See, especially, Chapter 3, "Does God Act in the Physical World?")