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Editor: Joyce Bates

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P. O. Box 1744

Greenville, SC 29602

 

 

August, 2010

The Voice of Sanity

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE UPSTATE S.C. SECULAR HUMANISTS

                 Visit our web-site for current and back-issues at: www.uscshgvl@yahoo.com

                                      e-mail:  secularhmnst@aol.com   

 

                                                        CALENDAR 

The August Brunch will be held on August 14th, 10:30 a.m. at Denny's restaurant, 2521 Wade Hampton Blvd., Greenville/Taylors, SC. Hope to see all of you. 

Our annual picnic (held indoors for the past several years due to the heat) will be on August 22nd at the Home of Joe and Elaine Norwood, 16 Oakleaf Road, Greenville. Time: 1:30 p.m.  

This will be strictly a "pot luck" dinner. Please bring any dish that you might take to a picnic. The host will furnish a main dish. 

What? Annual picnic

Date? August 22nd.

Where? Joe/Elaine Norwoods, 16 Oakleaf Road, Greenville.

Time?  1:30 p.m.

 

        WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE? 

 

We’ve all been there! We’ve all heard the stories of religions! Some are sucked in by it and others are left to question and settle on decisions they make. Often doubts arise. We question the sanity of the superstitious. I have met numerous people who seems confident in where they are in their belief. Others are still hanging on to the indoctrination of their previous life. Stephen Hawking ask the eternal question, “Why are we here?” Ponder that for a moment. A spot in the universe with not-so-intelligent-life. Surely in the vastness of space there is “another earth” which can support life. Did Jesus go there and die again and then to another and die again, etc. Surely intelligent life elsewhere does not need a savior. Do they have their own Bible or do they have the King James Version with the “same truth” as the KJV of earth?

Why ARE we here? Can any factual, proven data answer this question? Probably not. Some things we do know: We are here. We are alive and move about. We must eat to live and like all animals we reproduce. As surely as we are here, we all must and will die. Our visit here is brief and then we are no more. A new generation replaces the old and so is man’s state on planet earth. 

Every human has some degree of belief. That belief does not have to be centered in one of man’s gods. Belief does not have to be in any of the myths of  antiquity or in concocted superstitions.  Humanists (generally) believe in other human beings, friends, family, leaders, associates, relatives and a host of others with whom we come in contact with. Belief in these can be fragile and at times can be totally destroyed. 

You alone know what you believe and sometimes you do not know why you believe it. To some point, the belief was proven to you to be trust worthy. 

So, what do you believe, when you don’t know what to believe? You rely on the intelligence which you have developed in study, reading, listening and intuition. The brain sorts out those things that intelligence tells you are not believable. You go from there. 

Many of us have long since, ruled out a belief in the supernatural as to deities and unproven dogmas. Once examined, it all falls apart and becomes unintelligible. The brain cannot process the unintelligible except to discount it as rubbish. What do we replace disbelief in gods with? All of life is mysterious from birth to living in a body of chemicals and water all held together with a liquid called blood. We believe in ourselves and each other to do the right thing in matters of human associations. 

Those who may believe in a god who sits up in the clouds and is watching over the affairs of man, will continue to do so until they begin to think. What do “Christians” believe when they don’t know what to believe? They believe in belief and belief in belief has no substance. 

What do Humanists believe when they do not know what to believe. First, believe in ourselves. Second, we believe in the proven. Third, we must accept reality at its core since we can not change nor alter reality. Speculation thrives with questions. Reality is fixed. That is what I believe. 

Lee Deitz

 

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MEN WHO SIGNED                                                 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE?                    

 

Sherry Wells forwarded this clip she had discovered on the Internet.

The first part is as it arrived in the email. The individual histories have been fact checked.

 

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost sons that were serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists; Eleven were merchants; nine were farmers and large plantation owners.

 

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, did not sign the Declaration at the formal signing. Although he was present to cast his vote at the Congress he had to leave in order to aid Washington’s troops at Perth-Amboy. He died a pauper due to unfortunate commercial speculation after the war.

 

Thomas McKean was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family five times in three months. Then he had to move them again because of problems with the Indians. He served in the Congress without pay.

 

The original article stated that Thomas Nelson, Jr. urged General Washington to open fire on his home when he saw Cornwallis had taken it over as a headquarters in Yorktown.  Although this is not true and Nelson’s home was actually in Virginia, he may have been among the most important people to influence the course of the war in spite of his chronic illnesses. He was the first to suggest that Virginia establish a military force. He was made brigadier general of the American forces and was able to finance many military operations. Actually, his wealth kept the military financially together until after the final battle of the war in Yorktown. 

 

Francis Lewis’s wife died in prison after being captured by the British and his home and properties destroyed.

 

It is not a myth that John Hart lived in forests and caves trying to elude the British and Hessians during part of the Revolution. He signed the declaration on July 4th, and was elected as speaker to the newly formed New Jersey State Assembly on August 13th. In October of the same year his wife died and, because of this, the Assembly adjourned until November 13th.   On the very day he was due to return he had to go into hiding because the British force invaded New Jersey.  He eventually returned to a reconvening NJ Assembly, but because of the war and a glut of land on the market, his land was sold for practically nothing.

 

The British demolished Francis Lewis’s home and properties on Long Island. His wife spent several months as a prisoner and although she was returned to the American side in a prisoner exchange, she died shortly after.

 

Although the buildings in Arthur Middleton’s plantation were spared, everything else was either taken or destroyed by the enemy. His family escaped, but he was taken prisoner during fighting in Charleston and was imprisoned at St. Augustine, Florida, where he remained until prisoners were exchanged in 1781 at the end of the war.

 

Button Gwinnett served in the Georgia State Congress for while after signing the Declaration. When he was elected head of the military Georgia Safety Council he lead a military operation to British East Florida in order to secure Georgia’s southern border. This operation was a failure and Gwinnett was challenged to a duel over suspected misconduct. He died of his wounds shortly after.         JB

 

                                     TV EVANGELISTS

While wasting time on my TV, I got advice that’s just for me;

A method to ensure that I; would get to heaven when I die.

Such luck, said I, to find this out, before I suffered fear and doubt;

All that I’d need would be to send, this guy a fifty buck stipend.

Make it a hundred, don’t be cheap, and earn a place at Jesus’ feet.

He said “five hundred can provide, your seat a God’s almighty side.”

It seems the Lord needs company, since angels few of us will be;

Salvations’ kept for those alone, who throw evangelists a bone.

So Benny told me God’s agreed, trips heavenward are guaranteed

If I but liquidate my home, and pledge it via telephone.

I found it odd that God would need, to satisfy our Benny’s greed;

So I decided I would pass, and let old Benny kiss my ass.

I much prefer a cooking show, to watching bible thumpers crow;

So pass the popcorn, chips, and coke, daytime TV’s not bad, just broke.

(Poem by K. Axel Brauch on the internet.)