Militant Humanism On The Move…
HUMANISTS have launched a legal challenge to give pupils the right to opt out of religious observance in Scottish schools.
The Humanist Society Scotland (HSS) is to seek a judicial review at the Court of Session in Edinburgh after the Scottish Government rejected calls for a change to the current rules which permit only parents to opt out on their children’s behalf. The move follows a recent review by the United Nations Children’s Rights Committee which recommended the parental right to opt out of religious observance should be extended to young people.
Click here to read report in full in Herald Scotland
Comment:
It’s really comical to think that humanists are spending a stack of money to remove religion from the lives of young people, when the Scottish Bishops and Catholic education “experts” are making a very good job of it themselves. You have to laugh.
However, two matters spring to mind on reading the above Herald report. Firstly, whatever happened to tolerance and diversity? Are parents who don’t want their children indoctrinated with LGBT propaganda to have the same right to opt out, as that proposed for religious observance by the Anything-But-Religion-Goes Brigade? Secondly, I object to the term “humanism” – it’s male dominated. Why, in the 21st century, is the term not modified to something like “huWOMANism?” Are “huWOMENists” less important than huMANists?
To what, I ask myself, is the world coming? Your thoughts welcome…
Comments (37)
I just reviewed two anti-Darwinian books about language (Tom Wolfe) and evolution (Michael Denton). I’m hoping you will like them:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R34713ICFMBFML/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B01922I12U
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3S2AY6O40CFCD/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B01ALUPS6E
David Roemer,
I hope some of the humanists calling for an end to religion in schools read your reviews. Someone needs to show Darwinism up for the nonsense it is.
Well there’s one thing about The Humanists and it is that they don’t come cheap. A funeral of a man I attended which I was told the service was just to be held in the Crematorium Chapel of rest ( now that’s a joke) . Anyhow this guy gets up to talk about the deceased and he started when he was in nappies right up to his death. After the service ( which I just thought was a Protesetant one without a Minister) I went up to the man who gave the talk about the deceased which lasted about 40 minutes. So I said to him ” you and George must have been really close lifelong friends ” which he replied ” I didn’t know him am a Humanist Speaker ” As it was the first of these I had been to I was a bit bemused. Later on I was told The Humanist Speaker had charged £ 120 -. I then approached him and asked him if he had any vacancies. Of course the last sentence is a joke but if they charge that for a we speech , they must be rich.
I went to a humanist funeral a few years ago. I didn’t want to go, but it was a friend of my mother and I only really went to accompany her. It was utterly depressing. The funeral was run by a female ‘celebrant’ (I think that is the term they used). Although the event was billed as humanist, we were asked to pray the ‘Our Father’ at one point (it was even printed in the funeral leaflet), which somewhat smacked of ‘hedging your bets’ a bit.
That’s a we bit like Elvis. He used to have both a Cruxifix and a Star of David around his neck. When someone asked him why he said he didn’t want to lose out on a Technicality.
Humanists are certainly not cheap. I know of a couple who had a Humanist wedding and they had to join the Humanist Society before the celebrant would perform the ceremony, all told it cost them £1800.
I;m very surprised at the Our Father because the funeral of the father of a colleague of mine was performed by a Humanist. When the celebrant visited the family to make arrangements my colleague said he wanted to read a poem but was firmly told he couldn’t because there was a mention of God and “that isn’t allowed.”.
Vianney,
These humanists don’t know whether they’re on foot or on horseback.
I know a couple who went to a Humanist funeral (of an Irish Catholic man!) and the wife had asked the parish priest to take the service – LOL! He refused but he did attend the service,which I thought was all wrong.
Laura, one of my neighbours went to a Humanist funeral and summed it up very well. He said “there were nae prayers, nae hymns and nae hope.” Says it all really.
“nae prayers, nae hymns and nae hope”
LOL! That’s about it, really!
I always laugh at the idea of everyone trying to be nice about the deceased if he was someone really unpleasant! At least at (traditional) Catholic funerals we are reminded to pray for the dead because they were not saints in this life!
I know what you mean Editor. Nearly every week my free local paper carries a letter from the ‘chairhuman’ (is that what you would call him?) of the local humanist association. He always seems very exercised about the issue of faith schools, and Catholic schools in particular – especially since one has recently opened in the area. The irony is that where Catholic schools are concerned, he has absolutely no need to be concerned, as most of them seem to churn out pupils whose beliefs would pretty much coincide with his. He might like to pay closer attention to other types of faith schools though . . .
I had to laugh at the last sentence of the Herald article: “According to the 2011 Census Scotland is moving away from Christianity. Figures showed 54 per cent of residents saw themselves as Christian – down 11 per cent on 2001.”
Apparently the optimistic Abp. Tartaglia doesn’t bother to look at the Census…
Meanwhile, shouldn’t this HSS group be calling themselves “atheists”?
RCA Victor,
Humanists or Atheists – is there any difference really? They both spend their lives saying what they don’t believe in, instead of giving us some proof of what they do believe. The only thing they say is that they don’t believe in God but they never offer any proof.
Oops! Meant to say they never offer any proof that there is no God!
Nicky,
Yes, they demand proof of us that God exists, but they cannot prove that He doesn’t exist – so the burden is on them, and they cannot shake it off except with false arguments.
Let’s not beat about the bush here . This is coming down from The Scottish Parliament. That den of iniquity is filled with Anti Catholicism especially with Mr Patrick ( I want to shut Catholic Schools) Harvie. God forgive me but what a supposed little snake that wee guy comes across as . Can anyone tell me why he wants to shut just Catholic Schools. As he is the so called leader of The Green Party and do Catholic Schools burn more energy than other schools
Faith of our Fathers,
“do Catholic Schools burn more energy than other schools” LOL! No, but Patrick Harvie thinks they are teaching the Catholic religion, as he’s not really understood the situation.
Patrick Harvie is a hardline homosexual who pushes the LGBT agenda so it’s no surprise that he is against Catholic schools, as he thinks they are the real thing, which we know they’re not.
FOOF
I always think he (Harvie) looks like a screwmouse
A screwmoose wi’ a screw loose.
I’ve just read the whole Herald article and most of the comments underneath and they are painful to read. There is such a hatred of the Catholic Church there, fuelled by stories of bad experiences in Catholic schools, it really is heart-breaking to read.
I know the Herald is anti-Catholic so comments from people like us will never get published, but what can be done to correct the impression out there of an evil Catholic Church?
Josephine first and foremost we don’t buy The Herald which am sure you don’t anyhow. Then we just get on with it . We all know Christ said if they persecuted me they will persecute you. I don’t know what age group your in but ( sorry Ed ) your round about the same age as me and will remember. Even in the 60s when going for a job first of all you were asked what school you went to . The Steelworks which were then Nationalised took in 400 apprentices a year in Scotland–NONE–of them were Catholics. I started as an App and turned up on the first day as green as they come right from the sticks to work in Glasgow. The tradesman I was sent to supposedly learn my trade asked how I got the job . I of course went on a spiel of seeing it in the paper writing to the firm getting an interview ” no he said that’s not what I mean it’s your name ” . I was only 15 didn’t no anything about bigotry but boy I was soon to learn his parting shot that -MY FIRST DAY-as an Apprentice was ” if I was you I’d pack it in ” great encouragement for a boy of 15 . I know that forby the alien attack we’re doing a selve destruct job as well but I always think of the Bible passage when Abraham bargains with God about Sodom and Gomorrah when he gets it down from 50 just men to 5 . I hope we’ve a long way to go just yet . By the way I didn’t get my apprenticeship through Steelworks.
Faith of our Fathers,
I remember one such instance of prejudice at a job interview when I was a girl (what a memory!) but I have to say that, in the main, my religion has actually helped, more than hindered me, in my professional life. Except, I have to add, in the Catholic education sector, where it was a definite disadvantage!
Ach, don’t sweat it Josephine. The Herald is a rag in decline. it used to be a bastion of protestantism and would give the Church a shoeing accordingly. Now its a bastion of secularism and so still attacks the Church. With the Herald angle ever changing, and Christs staying the same, its very clear who is in the right 😉
(To be honest, the Herald would print literally anything, if they thought it would give their nose-diving circulation figures a boost).
Gabriel
They’ll hardly be saying much about the 5-1 thrashing but plenty about the 7-0.
That sums up that bigoted rag.
They, like the Daily Retard, are on their way out and thank God for that
Sorry for my absence, folks; I’ve been having another one of those days, compounded by the fact that I made the big mistake of posting a comment on the One Peter Five blog forgetting that the pesky Disquis system keeps emailing me replies, which are driving me nuts. I’ve done my best to communicate with them politely, but I’ve now withdrawn for the foreseeable future. The standard and quality of debate over there makes me glad to be back home here, folks, so congrats to one and all for being able to discuss and debate without, in the main, any rudeness or nastiness. Yes, and that applies even to you, RCA Victor. Even to thee 😀
Anyway, I caught sight of the Herald front page headline about the humanists when I was out this morning, and I couldn’t believe that this daft legal challenge by a bunch of atheists has made the front page of what is supposed to be a quality newspaper. Yeah right. Since I’d sooner take a walk down Argyle Street after the pubs close on a Saturday night that pay the price of that rag, I waited until I got home to check it out online and voila! Here we are…
They must be raking in the cash from those humanist funerals if they are able to afford the legal action, not to mention the risk of losing their hard won reputation as a group of tolerant, diversity driven liberals who are not, really, intent on creating a demon-ocracy… (“democracy” – get it?) 😀
I see nobody has answered my question about what can be done to correct the impression that the Catholic Church is evil. Nobody seems to be doing anything about it – the bishops just accept it and even the Catholics on the Herald blog don’t really try to counter the image of an evil Church, just say that wasn’t their experience at school.
I’d like to see some attempt at challenging the allegations that the Church is evil – after all the humanist or atheist governments of the world don’t exactly have a great record on human rights!
Josephine,
i did actually think momentarily of signing up again to the Herald blog to correct some of those nasty comments about the Church but I remembered that the reason I stopped blogging there was precisely because I’d wasted goodness knows how many hours composing comments that were never published, and always I was saying what nobody else said in defence of Catholic teaching on whatever topic was under discussion, so it was a clear policy of promoting anti-Catholic bigotry. In the end, I decided to opt out and I’ve never bought a copy of the Herald since or commented on their blog. Only a handful of the many comments I submitted were ever published.
I don’t give up easily, so be assured, it was serious censorship. Here, on this blog, I’ve had people stop blogging either temporary or permanently because they’ve had a disagreement with me or some other such childish nonsense. They are fair weather friends – don’t need them, don’t miss them. But nobody has ever stopped blogging here because their views were censored. Nasty bloggers are placed in moderation for a “cooling off” period and then restored to grace, so to speak 😀 So, I’m afraid I’m not impressed with the Herald at all and I’ve no intention whatsoever of trying to convince them that the Church is not evil. They know perfectly well that it’s not evil – that’s their propaganda piece, so I recommend you don’t worry about it. Intelligent readers know perfectly well that the Herald is anti-Catholic. They either like that because they’re bigots themselves or they tolerate it because they don’t want to seem lower class by being caught reading or quoting the Daily Record! 😀
Still, feel free to sign up yourself and contribute to the Herald blog, but be warned – they do not allow usernames. Users must use their own real names.
Josephine,
This morning I was meditating on a similar question, but in a much larger context: how can we fight the enemies of Christ?
I could only come up with a preliminary answer:
1. Make sure we are in a state of grace.
2. Dispose ourselves to be worthy instruments of God, by frequenting the sacraments, prayer, penance, mortification, good works and spiritual reading.
3. Place ourselves at His disposal.
Interesting that Our Lord allowed His enemies to win a battle (His Passion and Death), so that He could win the war…
Oh OK, Editor, here’s #4:
4. Blog on Catholic Truth!! 🙂
RCA Victor,
I was just about to reply to say you forgot to add to “frequenting the sacraments…” (at no. 2) “frequenting the Catholic Truth blog!
You got there in the end, albeit the VERY end!
Editor,
The last shall be first….
The conclusion of Fr. Malachi Martin’s The Jesuits refers to the “Humanist Manifesto,” so I thought I’d look it up. Turns out there are 3 versions of it: 1933, 1973 and 2003 (apparently they prefer years ending in 3…). Here is the link to 1933 (“Humanist I”):
http://americanhumanist.org/Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_I
I noted several things about this:
1. It calls for a new formulation of religion, and then proceeds to deny the existence of God, the worship of Whom is the purpose and essence of religion. (#1) Religion, according to them, is all about man, the center of the universe.
2. It affirms the false theory of evolution. (#2)
3. It deifies “science” – that is, the modern version of science, which examines only phenomena registered upon the five senses. (#5)
4. It reduces religion to “religious emotion.” (#9)
5. It affirms socialism as the solution to capitalism (#14)
A scan of the signatories to this document (at the bottom) is also very revealing (in fact, I’m sure Pope Francis wishes he had been around in 1933 so he could have signed it as well!). Finally, after reading #15 about their affirmation of life, I wonder how they justify abortion….
RCA Victor,
Would you recommend “The Jesuits” by Malachi Martin? I keep coming across reference to it, but I’ve never read it. What sayest thou? Is it worth a gal taking time from her detective story reading schedule?
Editor,
MM is no Columbo, but I would highly recommend that book, esp. if you want to understand Pope Francis – who, as it turns out, is nothing more than a 1960s-70s Latin American Jesuit redux (i.e. a Marxist, disguised in Liberation Theology gibberish). The ridiculous things that regularly come out of Francis’ mouth are practically verbatim from the era of Pedro Arrupe, SJ, their Superior General in that era. And MM goes into great detail about how the traditional charism of the Society of Jesus was thrown out the aggiornamento window and replaced by completely earthly solutions to earthly problem.
Apparently MM was a liberal early in his career, as secretary to Cardinal Bea, thus involved in the Jewish input into VII, and wrote some articles under a pseudonym (Xavier Rhynne, I think) about VII while it was in progress, but he definitely saw the light later, judging from his books. I remember reading one of his earlier books, “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Church,” on the flight to Scotland when I came out there in 2008 to find out the population of Glasgow :). I could tell it was written from a liberal viewpoint.
Last year, however, I got kicked out of a traditionalist (SSPX laity, no less) Facebook group for quoting him – the moderator claimed he was a charlatan, I defended him, and that was the end of me (also of my participation in FB groups!). One of our former bloggers, who used to be on my mailing list, was apparently friends with MM’s literary agent, and claimed he was the real thing.
I think that the Jesuits tried to destroy his reputation after the publication of his book about them, including that he was living in sin with his maid. Typical! Anyway, he was definitely a mysterious figure – some even claimed that Paul VI secretly made him a bishop.
WOW, RCA. I must put The Jesuits on my list of required reading. No Columbo, you say? Well sounds like he’s given Sherlock Holmes a run for his money so I’ll read MM’s The Jesuits asap, now that I have, on this very day, finished reading The Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton .
Thank you Margaret USA for pushing my “shame” button for not having read it – a very good read on every level, although I have to admit that I could see the end coming, so to speak. Sunday’s identity didn’t really come as much of a surprise to me. It’s quite a burden, this being a genius. Still, one gets by… 😀
I dont think its unreasonable in non-denom schools to allow opt-outs for senior pupils, given its only token protestantism anyway, but it’s a different story in a Catholic school.
In the former, religion is a vague, minor add-on, maintained chiefly to make the dying Church of Scotland feel important and relevant. The latter is a particular type of schooling, which families choose in line with their human rights to an education in line with their values/beliefs. (The many deficiencies with modern Catholic schools notwithstanding).
The humanists and doppleganger scottish secular society have various problems with their arguments. It never boils down to much more than “I don’t like this and I think I am important”. Parents in non-denom schools have long had the option to opt their children out of anything to do with religion of any kind. Families don’t need any more than this, yet the humanist / secular types continue to dance around the subject, flogging its dead body in an effort to whip up a debate.
I have the strong impression, given social trends in Scotland, that most families using non-denom schools are ambivalent about religious content. They aren’t very interested but neither are they resentful or threatened by it. Perhaps it’s a vague sense of tradition, or a sense of identity – which will die out soon enough.
Many wholly non-religious people still (for whatever reason) like to baptise their children or marry in a church building (as per 99.9% of ceremonies at the Church of Scotland I have attended). Yet the children exposed to this religious content do not go on to become zealous presbyterians (or whatever) and so the secular argument is self-defeating. They moan about supposed indoctrination which is demonstrably not happening.
As faith is a central part of a Catholic school, no opt-outs should be available here (except for parents who only wish their children to attend traditional masses, which is an internal matter anyway). If young persons feel they are atheists, they then should go to a non-religious school, in line with their rights.
Ultimately these humanist / secular arguments are mostly about trying to deny others choices, than making choices for themselves. This is why they achieve such little traction.
The Church is quite right to suggest that humanists set up their own schools, instead of moaning about the existing provisions. This cleverly exposes the humanists as the paper tiger they are. They are a small unrepresentative body, which could never manage to set-up a schooling system.
They make money from of selling meaningless banal ceremonies which people get to make up themselves. Fair enough – but then they insist people join their organisation for a period to allow this, and then use these joiners to claim influence, which is duplicitous. Their membership is mostly transient as a result of this. As with most anti-religious organisations, there is a strong homosexual presence among them.
The Scottish Secular Society is also a joke. Most of its personalities are non-Scots and/or people who live abroad. For example:
Garry Otton – a poor mans Peter Tatchell, he is English, an incomer to Scotland
Robert Canning – English, an incomer to Scotland
Megan Crawford – American, an incomer to Scotland
Mark Gordon – from Inverclyde, but lives and works in Switzerland (yet is regularly in the Herald telling lies about how his taxes fund Scottish faith schools).
Caroline Lynch – lives and works in the Netherlands, origin unknown
Spencer Fildes – is from Fife and as far as I can see is (one of ) the only credible member(s) in that regard
The arrogance of the incomers, in particular, reminds me of how muslims take advantage of hospitality to emigrate to other countries. Then they start demanding the place changes to be more to their liking, once they get there. Garry Otton and Co could always go back to where they came from, if Scotland isn’t to their liking. (I’m not anti-immigration in general, but don’t like bolshy people coming here to tell us our business).
It is interesting how the worst of secularism is the direct analogue to the worst of islam. In france recently, secular police removed a muslim lady from a beach because they felt she was dressed too modestly. This is the parallel of the Saudi religious police, who arrest women they feel are dressed too immodestly.
Gabriel Syme,
In fact, a fair bit of my teaching career has been in non-denominational schools and I have been pleasantly surprised at the interest among pupils, including senior pupils. Oops, my phone is ringing. More later…
Gabriel Syme,
Just a quick addition to my post late last night.
As I was saying when my phone rang, I was always pleasantly surprised at the interest shown by pupils and senior students in non-denominational schools. I don’t meant that they were champing at the bit to get into class, but there was not the same level of “I don’t need RE” that I found in the Catholic sector, stoked, I’m sorry to say, by a negative attitude from other staff.
I think the reason for the interest in ND schools is probably due to the fact that most of them have no religious input in their lives at all, apart from RE lessons (and news of ISIS attacks in TV news bulletins!)
In a Catholic school there is likely to be some sort of experience, if only parent(s) claiming to be Catholic or Protestant and some element of religion within their lives – there’s been a downplay of religious icons and prayers in many, if not all Catholic schools, but now and then there will be something “Catholic” mentioned or some lip service paid to the Faith. In ND schools, there is nothing, in my experience, apart from RE lessons. I’ve never once known a clergyman – Catholic or Protestant – to visit a ND school. Perhaps, I’m not sure, this religious deprivation, has something to do with the interest of pupils in ND schools, in my experience, and in the experience of colleagues. It’s not that unusual, as far as I know. They probably wouldn’t say RE was their favourite subject, but they’re not campaigning for an end to compulsory RE. I’ve only known of one such campaign and that was in a Catholic sixth form college, reported in the local newspaper.
I didn’t know that Garry Otton was English – I met him once and he has written about me in less than flattering terms. I was flattered 😀
Could everyone please sign this petition against the Humanists legal case
http://www.citizengo.org/en/ed/37100-resist-humanist-society-scotland-attempts-undermine-teaching-authority-parents?
The Humanists are at it again.
There seems to be some confusion over whether these pupils are being punished for not attending Mass, or for truanting a “service” for two deceased staff members.
I doubt that any “service” would take all afternoon, so I’m guessing the pupils were truanting, end of. Not all very clear, though – but what IS clear is that the self-styled Humanists are keeping a close eye on what goes on in “Catholic” schools.
For what it’s worth, I have always objected to the “Mass culture” in Catholic schools were Masses were organised at the drop of a hat for all sorts of “celebrations” or, in this case, “memorials”. It can give the impression that the Mass is a kind of “service” – a cut above a simple school assembly – to mark all sorts of occasions. I didn’t like that when I was in schools myself, and I don’t like it now – the Scotsman report on this latest Humanist attack is evidence of how the Mass can be used by the Church’s enemies, from within and without. A Mass for the repose of the souls of the two (presumably Catholic) deceased members of staff should have been held in the local church with all who wished to attend, invited to do so.
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