Hello Humanists! Welcome to Humanist Symposium #23. Thank you, Adam Lee, for the opportunity to host this edition. I never know how to get started on hosting a carnival and how to theme everything together, but while reading all the posts for this edition of the Humanist Symposium I was struck with an idea that I consider to be great. I am going to use this as an opportunity to share some of my favorite works of art with everyone. The main focus will be on films, but I will also include some music and literature. So this is what I have done. For each post I have selected a work of art that I think readers may enjoy. If you use Netflix, all of these films are available to you at the click of a button. Otherwise, you can find them at Amazon, etc. Blockbuster may not have them. The music is readily available everywhere. The literature should be too. So without further delay, here is the 23rd Edition of Humanist Symposium.

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First, for those who only have about 10 minutes right now and want to come back for more later, here is a series of posts that you can read very quickly and your day will be better for it!

Phil for Humanity presents Grow, Plateau, and Go << Phil for Humanity posted at Phil for Humanity. This is a short post that is inspirational. If you enjoy this post, I think you’ll also enjoy the film Office Space.

Andrew Bernardin presents Cellular Magnificence posted at The Evolving Mind. This is a wonderful piece about connecting with Nature. If you enjoy this post, you will also very likely enjoy the film Baraka.

Gautami Tripathy presents Liberate Yourself posted at Rooted. It’s another inspirational piece and I think that anyone who loves this post should run out and buy Eric Gansworth’s newest book of poetry, A Half-Life of Cardio-Pulmonary Function.

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Now for those with more time to delve into this edition, here are some longer posts.

I need to introduce this next piece with a bit of opinion as well, so please bare with me.

Aerik Knapp-Loomis presents Teleology and Abortion: Must Women Provide their Uterus to the Fetus? posted at About.com Agnosticism / Atheism. While I think there is solid reasoning in this piece, I don’t think it is fully developed. The basic argument is that one being does not have the right to use another’s organs. However, pregnancy is nothing like a liver or kidney transplant and such comparisons are misleading. If you take the kidney or liver of one person to give it to another, the first person no longer has that organ. Such is not the case with pregnancy. This is not to dismiss the points made in this post, but to offer a more complex view of abortion. If you are interested in my full argument on abortion, see this post. Also, it should be noted that I agree that “Nature” is not a foundation for morality. Here is a quick excerpt from the Teleology and Abortion post:

Premise: A woman’s womb exists for the use of fetuses generally.
Conclusion: Therefore, some specific fetus has a moral right to use that womb — one which, presumably, is strong enough for the government to protect by making it a criminal act for the women to abort the fetus.

If successful, this argument does what others fail to come even close to doing: create a distinction between forcing women to provide their organs and body for others’ use and people generally being forced to provide their organs and body for others’ use. After all, my kidneys and blood don’t exist for others to use, so from a teleological perspective they can’t have any moral or legal claim on them and therefore there is no basis for the government to force me to provide them for others to use.

If you enjoyed this last post, you may well also enjoy the film Rosemary’s Baby.

I must reveal a bias. This next post is my favorite in this edition. Greta Christina presents Greta Christina’s Blog: Serendipity, Synchronicity, and Signs from the Universe: “Everything happens for a reason,” Part 2 posted at Greta Christina’s Blog. The post is best summed up this way:

How to view apparent mystical eerie coincidences with a humanist perspective… not as signs from the universe, but as clues about ourselves. (P.S. I can’t remember if I submitted this to this carnival already or not. If I did, and this is a duplication, please accept my apologies for the inconvenience.)

And surely if you enjoyed this post by Greta then you will most assuredly enjoy the film Cleo From 5 to 7.

Next, LSG presents Atheist=Hell? posted at So I Married an Atheist. This is a short, but interesting post about atheism and morality. Surely atheists are not immoral people on account of our atheism. And Morality Is Not Objective. So What? If you enjoyed the post on So I Married an Atheist, you may well also enjoy the Ingmar Bergman film, Winter Light.

vjack presents Identity and Outrage: Implications for Understanding Christians posted at Atheist Revolution. This is yet another great post from Atheist Revolution and well worth the read. I was very inspired by his Dylan photo, too, which is largely what led me to this recommendation: Bob Dylan’s Bringin’ It All Back Home and in particular the song, “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” which features the stanza:

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It’s easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.

Zach Alexander presents Greg Graffin of Bad Religion – at church posted at Mind on Fire. I have no recommendations with this post, since I think it stands as a recommendation of Bad Religion on its own.

GrrlScientist presents Living the Thinking Life (The Evolution of an Atheist) posted at Living the Scientific Life. Best summed up here:

I was regularly lied to from the day I was born, although it took me awhile to realize it. What was this lie? I was told there was a god who both cared about me and wanted me to fear him, or else he would strike me dead with a Lightning Bolt from the Heavens. Because I was a small child who was inexperienced in the ways of the world, I believed this lie. At first.

If you enjoyed this post and the writer’s path to atheism, you will definitely love the novel, “The Pillar of Salt,” by Albert Memmi.

Words That Sing joins us with Expectations. When you finish “Expectations” be sure to rent or buy the Ingmar Bergman masterpiece, “The Silence.”

And last, but definitely not least…

Daylight Atheism joins this editions with a great post, “The Contributions of Freethinkers: Albert Einstein.” If you enjoy this post, you’ll likely enjoy the film “Dr. Strangelove.” And of course I know you’ll love the Dylan song, “Talkin’ World War III Blues.” The lyrics are as follows:

Some time ago a crazy dream came to me,
I dreamt I was walkin’ into World War Three,
I went to the doctor the very next day
To see what kinda words he could say.
He said it was a bad dream.
I wouldn’t worry ’bout it none, though,
They were my own dreams and they’re only in my head.

I said, “Hold it, Doc, a World War passed through my brain.”
He said, “Nurse, get your pad, this boy’s insane,”
He grabbed my arm, I said “Ouch!”
As I landed on the psychiatric couch,
He said, “Tell me about it.”

Well, the whole thing started at 3 o’clock fast,
It was all over by quarter past.
I was down in the sewer with some little lover
When I peeked out from a manhole cover
Wondering who turned the lights on.

Well, I got up and walked around
And up and down the lonesome town.
I stood a-wondering which way to go,
I lit a cigarette on a parking meter
And walked on down the road.
It was a normal day.

Well, I rung the fallout shelter bell
And I leaned my head and I gave a yell,
“Give me a string bean, I’m a hungry man.”
A shotgun fired and away I ran.
I don’t blame them too much though,
I know I look funny.

Down at the corner by a hot-dog stand
I seen a man, I said, “Howdy friend,
I guess there’s just us two.”
He screamed a bit and away he flew.
Thought I was a Communist.

Well, I spied a girl and before she could leave,
“Let’s go and play Adam and Eve.”
I took her by the hand and my heart it was thumpin’
When she said, “Hey man, you crazy or sumpin’,
You see what happened last time they started.”

Well, I seen a Cadillac window uptown
And there was nobody aroun’,
I got into the driver’s seat
And I drove 42nd Street
In my Cadillac.
Good car to drive after a war.

Well, I remember seein’ some ad,
So I turned on my Conelrad.
But I didn’t pay my Con Ed bill,
So the radio didn’t work so well.
Turned on my player-
It was Rock-A-Day, Johnny singin’,
“Tell Your Ma, Tell Your Pa,
Our Loves Are Gonna Grow Ooh-wah, Ooh-wah.”

I was feelin’ kinda lonesome and blue,
I needed somebody to talk to.
So I called up the operator of time
Just to hear a voice of some kind.
“When you hear the beep
It will be three o’clock,”
She said that for over an hour
And I hung it up.

Well, the doctor interrupted me just about then,
Sayin, “Hey I’ve been havin’ the same old dreams,
But mine was a little different you see.
I dreamt that the only person left after the war was me.
I didn’t see you around.”

Well, now time passed and now it seems
Everybody’s having them dreams.
Everybody sees themselves walkin’ around with no one else.
Half of the people can be part right all of the time,
Some of the people can be all right part of the time.
But all the people can’t be all right all the time
I think Abraham Lincoln said that.
“I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours,”
I said that.

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Well, that’s it for this edition of the Humanist Symposium. I hope you enjoyed this edition and I hope you take some of my recommendations for films, literature and music to experience!

Mark your calendar! The next Humanist Symposium will be at The Uncredible Hallq on August 24th!

Here's my guess. If the economy goes up, Obama's rating will too. If the economy goes down, so will Obama's rating. Now let's watch it right here. It may not happen immediately, but it will usually follow.

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