Archives for March 2016

SIX-SIX: Keeping the faith with the faithless

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SIX-SIX News, an independent media outlet in Singapore, wrote a feature about the rising number of non-religious Singapore residents. They interviewed one of our members, Pearl Lin, as well as Leftwrite Center member Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib with regards to relations between the religious and non-religious. Read more here:

http://www.six-six.com/article/keeping-the-faith-with-the-faithless-atheistic-agnostic

An excerpt from the article:

The choice between identifying as an atheist and an agnostic can be a fraught one. Pearl Lin says that for a long time she was on the fence, but counts herself as an agnostic. She considers herself first and foremost, though, as a humanist.

“It’s basically believing in the basic goodness of people,” she explains. The 22-year-old student is an executive committee member of the Humanist Society (Singapore). The organisation has been around since 2010 and currently has around 150 members who are atheists, agnostics, freethinkers and humanists.

The ‘humanist’ tag is more palatable than the ‘atheist’ one, it would seem. “It sounds a little less aggressive. If you say you are an atheist, people have this preconceived notion of what an atheist is. People just think you are completely against religion and so I think they are more comfortable with our identifying as humanists because a lot of people are not sure what it is. 

“And from there you can kind of educate them on the meaning and tell them that basically we’re just a bunch of people who believe in reason and science, and also that we do not need organised religion to tell us what is right or wrong.”

ST: Youth in Singapore shunning religion

The Straits Times has published a feature on the rising number of non-religious youth in Singapore, quoting several academics, religious leaders and one of our members. Our organisation was also mentioned for our efforts at interfaith dialogues as a voice for the non-religious, which tend to be “excluded and forgotten”.

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/youth-in-singapore-shunning-religion

Points brought up by academics and religious leaders:

  • The rise in is in tandem with an increasingly educated, and more common for individuals who grew up in families where religion was already nominally practised.
  • Traditional religions have also been slow to engage young people and help them appreciate their faith.
    Change in attitudes among the young, who have become more independent in their thinking.
  • Exposure to range of ideologies, which results in a spectrum of views within the non-religious category.
  • Relative stability of a country also means there is less concern about the future because the present is “non-threatening”. Less incentive to look to religion for divine intervention or for security.
  • Multi- religious make-up of Singapore and the open-door policy of religious institutions here facilitate “shopping” for a religion.
  • Some young people could also be identifying more with liberal ideologies that clash with religious teachings on topics such as homosexuality.
  • High-profile failures of institutional religions to uphold their credibility as a moral voice, which may also have turned some people away from religion.

TODAY: More studies needed on non-religious demographic

Following the release of General Household Survey 2015 report that showed more Singapore residents not identifying themselves with any religion, we have written a letter to TODAY Voices responding to academics’ views that non-religious residents could still be religious, and at the same time calling for more studies on the non-religious demographic.

Here’s the letter published on TODAY: http://www.todayonline.com/voices/more-studies-needed-non-religious-demographic

If URL is not working, you may refer to our unedited letter:

More studies needed on non-religious demographic

The Humanist Society (Singapore) read with interest the article published in TODAY on 9 March (“More S’pore residents not identifying themselves with any religion: General Household Survey 2015”).

The findings of the General Household Survey 2015 report revealed that more Singapore residents are not identifying themselves with any religion, compared with the situation six years ago.

We note that two academics, Mathew Mathews and Tan Ern Ser, offered some views regarding this shift in the numbers. Dr Mathews suggested that Singapore residents may still hold religious views while lacking a formal religious affiliation. Dr Tan speculated that among “religionists”, they may move towards fundamentalism as a response to secularisation.

The HSS would like to add our perspective to this discussion. This development definitely warrants greater in-depth research into the reasoning of the demographic which professed to be “non-religious”. Drawing from our experience, the HSS is comprised of over 100 members, the vast majority of whom have no religious affiliations and no religious beliefs. Our members instead aim to live our lives according to secular values such as compassion, rationality and reason.

As regards the increasing secularisation in Singapore and elsewhere, this can only be a positive trend. As the HSS has often pointed out, secularism is the only model that can work for a culturally diverse country such as Singapore. A country which safeguards its secular public space, is the best form of society for people with all faiths and none, to gather and contribute for the greater good of the country. In contrast, it is a common occurrence that religious fundamentalism is a sad symptom of negative socio-economic circumstances or political conflict. One need only look to the examples of various countries – Boko Haram in Nigeria, the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda and most recently ISIS/ DAESH in the Middle East.

The HSS calls for more academic research to be conducted on the “non-religious” population to better interpret this trend. There is a growing body of academic literature in the US and Europe on the psychology, sociology and morality of non-religious people. Research has shown that the lack of religiosity does not weaken empathy or cause unhappiness; in some cases quite the opposite.

Zheng Huifen

Vice President

Humanist Society (Singapore)

A Glimpse into the Life of an MSF Field Worker

Dr. Marlene Lee from MSF

Dr. Marlene Lee from MSF

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (English: Doctors Without Borders), is an international humanitarian-aid non-governmental organization (NGO) and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. MSF provides much needed medical care and humanitarian assistance in war-torn areas and developing countries.

In the past few years, MSF has been one of HSS’ charities of choice. We donated the proceeds of book sales to MSF’s offices in Hong Kong. HSS would like to share more about MSF and their fantastic work in the following article, featuring MSF field worker Dr Marlene Lee.

 

[Read more…]

Media coverage for pastafarian strainer interview

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Our interview with Dan Tang (above) and how he exercised his right to wear a strainer (religious pastafarian headgear) for his driving license photo has gone viral.

It has been reported in AsiaOne, Mothership, Coconuts Singapore, and Cleo. We were also included in a Sunday Times column, Trumped-up surname and strains of pasta-mania, on March 6, 2016.

Some screenshots:

asiaone report

 

mothership

coconutas

 

 

Statement: On the secular world and immorality

STATEMENT FROM THE HUMANIST SOCIETY (SINGAPORE)

The Humanist Society (Singapore) refers to the concerns expressed by various church leaders regarding the American pop singer Madonna and her upcoming Singapore concert.

Church leaders were quoted as equating “the secular world”  with immoral values. Archbishop William Goh stated that Catholics have a “moral obligation not to support those who denigrate and insult religions, including anti-Christian and immoral values promoted by the secular world”. These comments were supported by some other Church leaders, including Pastor Lawrence Khong of the Faith Community Baptist Church. [Read more…]

Darwin Day 2016

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By Cheng Chee Hoew

On the morning of 20 February 2016, Humanist Society (Singapore) celebrated the anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth with a trip to the Singapore Zoological Gardens. [Read more…]