Friday 31 August 2007

A new perspective

I'll bet everyone who starts a new blog feels like, at last, their under-represented perspective will have a presence on the web.

Well, me too.

This is a humanist blog from a non-American perspective.

What's special about that?

Well, Hemant Mehta's excellent Friendly Atheist blog gives a positive humanist perspective - ie, it's not all about what's wrong with religion.

But he is American, so much of what concerns him centres on the American crisis of the religious takeover of the officially secular government. While interesting, that does not bear on my life so much as, for example, my home country allowing same-sex marriage (yay Canada!), or my current country of residence continuing to run one of its two legislative houses democracy-free (no elections in the UK House of Lords) - complete with a cadre of bishops from the established church.

I want to present a slightly more international perspective. But honestly, news about the humanist "cause" isn't the most important thing in my life as a humanist. Humanism is a way to guide my daily life in a more sensible way than I otherwise would. I hope to convey some of that in this blog.

4 comments:

  1. Well, hello! I came here through the Friendly Atheist site, where I'm a frequent reader and infrequent commenter. But I'll try to do both here--sounds like you have the beginnings of a very interesting blog!
    (Now I'm just wondering what "Friendly-something" I'd be, since Humanist is now taken. Bright, maybe?)

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  2. Greetings. I too am visiting via Hemant's blog. I'm a humanist, though like you only recently identifying as one.

    Congratulations on the imminent arrival of your child! I, too, am expecting my first child any minute now. (She's four days past due and we are eager to meet her!)

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  3. Hi Tim,
    Congratulations on the blog! Never underestimate the power of the Internet "Force". This is great timing since I will be able to hear from you while I am in France. I shall link to your blog from our website at the EdiUni Humanist Society.
    Here is a question though: Isn't "Friendly Humanist" a redundancy?
    As we have discussed before I am quite interested in the sociology of Humanists. Alcohol intake is just one variable (interesting as it is). We shall see how many students join our group this Fall and maybe run a short survey among our membership (privacy first, of course) to find out "Average Humanist".
    I think you are the most suitable person to run a "Friendly Humanist blog".
    Best of luck,
    Roger

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  4. Thanks for the comments! It's very reassuring to already have readers posting comments.

    Susan, I'll bet Hemant would be flattered if we really take off with the Friendly-something theme (as long as we pay him appropriate homage).

    Kathryn, good luck with the birth. We just learned that baby has turned head-down, right on schedule. Very reassuring. Also, my wife and I just loved that music video next to your swimsuit modelling photo on your blog. Awesome.

    Roger, I'll try to post fairly regularly, so you can follow events. And no, I wouldn't say "Friendly Humanist" is a redundancy. Richard Dawkins is a generally friendly guy, but he's still a humanist even when he's being scathing and decidedly unfriendly towards lazy thinking.

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