Paul Kurtz at centerforinquiry: Affirmations of the New Skepticism

[rdkls]

Inspiring credo. Well done for hosting Kurt. Only recently found out about Kurtz, like his ideas. Hadn't considered as you mention REPLACING religion, but you're right it does have to happen, some more to think about.

And great comments from you other guys.

All the best.

[kurtilein3]

humanism appears to be growing and evolving quickly, so maybe this will be the solution. in germany they are opening humanist schools and kindergardens right now, and they are also getting more and more involved in political issues.

[rdkls]

Wow incredible, I had no idea. Do you all still have to pay the "church tax" as part of your taxes? I remember when I was over there, it was automatically just a normal part of tax. My excellent girlfriend at the time complained because she knew I was atheist, her father was more "that's the way it works", and to be honest I didn't mind.

[kurtilein3]

you have to be a member of the protestant church of germany or of the catholic church, those are the ones that still have the right to collect taxes in germany. but becoming a paying member is easy... maybe they found something in some records about you, or you gave the wrong answer when filling out a form ;) but you can just make a statement to the government that you left the church and then you dont pay these taxes anymore.

independent of that, churches do get some tax money.

[kurtilein3]

ill send you a link to the biggest german humanist news website, in a PM.

[devadanderbeef]

Outstanding video. Only problem is, asking theists to believe our non-belief is asking them (in many cases) to go against what generations before them have believed in and stood for. They take it as, ''You're calling my family liars or fools?'' For many people, "What's good enough for my father is good enough for me." Equals ignorance breeds ignorance,

hate breeds hate, etc. Unless one person dares defies tradition. Often labeled "Black sheep'' Mostly every family has one. Keep it up kurtilein3

[Paolo4Tube]

Well said!

[danielnz1]

Carl Sagan wrote: Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world really works. Seems to me and a rising percentage of Humanity, this may only come about positively, if we're basically, rational secular liberal humanist, and in being so, 21st century civilized.

[VeritasVoce]

Abandoning religious beliefs requires an uncommon act of courage. Accurately answering questions is only a small part of it. People in any belief system accept ignorance in many areas, and what answers they have only need to give roughly passable explanations. Offer people a sense of meaning and belonging, and they might listen. Giving answers gets you nowhere.

[kurtilein3]

veritasvoce:

thats easy to do. those questions about meaning and belonging can be accurately answered. ignorance does not need to be accepted, and shouldnt be accepted, at least not as an excuse or justification for anything. real-life meetings for the "belonging" part already exist or can be organized. the bit about meaning is also trivial, just pick one of those: humanism, or ubuntu, or some kind of buddhism without all the supernatural stuff.

[kurtilein3]

... continued

basically, you only need a good scientific education, you should know the basics of all the natural sciences and the philosophy of science. and then, i would go for modern humanism when it comes to all the meaning and belonging stuff. when it comes to how societies should be organized, the universal declaration of human rights would be the minimum. there are some very good ethical systems that could be used. oh, and... i have the secret of happiness.

[VeritasVoce]

Those philosophies will never have the broad appeal of the major religions until they can say with certainty that they are the exclusive source of truth. It can be very exhilarating to take sole responsibility for the state of your character but it's not something most people are capable of. I wouldn't say that it's anyone's job to take the sheep into his charge, but it seems to be the natural state of things.

[kurtilein3]

"Those philosophies will never have the broad appeal of the major religions until they can say with certainty that they are the exclusive source of truth." this is why the content of this video, this new skepticism applying concepts that are also being used in the scientific method, is the foundation and needs to be at the center. once you get rid of this idea of absolute certainty, its all very easy, and you can have the warm fuzzy "spiritual" feelings again, this time intellectually honest.

[mattblackcat]

Sounds perfectly reasonable

[kurtilein3]

mattblackcat:

if we want to change our strategy from just deconstructing religion and getting people out of religion, and instead want to try to replace the religious worldview with something different, then this is what we need. thats why i re-uploaded it, it could be the foundation of a worldview that can be used to fill the gaps and answer the questions that people that recently left their religion might have.

[mattblackcat]

I was in agreement Kurt, my reply was a deliberate understatement.

[kurtilein3]

yes, i just wanted to point that out because at the time you watched it, youtube messed up the video description.