I was never truly in any religion. I never really believed. But back then I didn’t even know what an atheist is.
My parents are Chinese and worship the traditional Chinese pantheon of gods. They weren’t particularly religious but they are superstitious. So, in effect, my brother and I weren’t particularly religious as well. The whole god idea never quite got to the both of us.
A frequent and unusual question that believers tend to bring up when “proving” god is on the origins of life.
Frankly, I think this sort of questions is kinda redundant when discussing the existence of god. I’ll explain… [Read more…]
Graphics by Blossom Wen
Life is not a bed of roses, and we all know that too well. In the face of life’s troubles, people have different ways of coping. Some justify their pain with the money earned, some are driven solely by passion, while many others find solace in religious traditions. Common questions posed to humanists are: What do we believe in and how do we stay strong in the presence of adversity? How do we keep going despite the absence of supernatural beliefs? [Read more…]
Logical and rational discourse can be potentially offensive to people who believe wholeheartedly in certain traditions and paradigms even in the absence of evidence. In worst case scenarios, the offended party could possibly call for state intervention (Sedition Act and S298 etc) against humanists engaging in such discourse. To discuss this problem, we held at event titled Humanist Cafe: Sharing your worldview on Nov 24, 2012, to gather ideas on how humanists could go about sharing the rational worldview with the potentially offended. [Read more…]
Below is the speech delivered by Mr Alex Au for the event on 23 June 2012 when he was honoured by the Humanist Society (Singapore) with the Humanist of the Year award. He was asked for something touching on “gay-rights issues/humanism/religiosity”. [Read more…]
By Dan Tang
On Sunday, 12 Feb 2012, the Humanist Society (Singapore) celebrated Darwin Day 2012 at Onepeople.sg. That day was also extraordinarily special as for the very first time, our friends in Malaysia joined us to commemorate Darwin’s 203th birthday together along with two invited distinguished speakers. Altogether, around approximately 80 people turned up for this event. [Read more…]
By Dan Tang
On Sunday, 12 Feb 2012, the Humanist Society (Singapore) celebrated Darwin Day 2012 at Onepeople.sg. That day was also extraordinarily special as for the very first time, our friends in Malaysia joined us to commemorate Darwin’s 203th birthday together along with two invited distinguished speakers. Altogether, around approximately 80 people turned up for this event. [Read more…]
Did you know that there is a Singapore Humanism Meetup Book Club in the Singapore Humanist Meetup circle? It started out in 2010 when Ryan started the first Singapore Humanism Meetup Book Club on 14-September-2010 reading “Good Without God” by Grey Epstein.
A Singapore Humanism Meetup Book Club event is an informal gathering of SHM members who are interested to discussing about a book suggested by the Singapore Humanism Meetup book club coordinators. Book genre can range from Humanist Literature, Philosophy, Science, Logical Thinking, humanist related fiction and many more. Each session is about 1.5 to 2 hours, and participants are usually limited to not more then 15 people to ease discussion.
The most recent one was held on 22-Jan-2011 and saw 8 participant from all walks of life, background and age group gathered together in a member’s home to discuss and debate about the book: The End of Faith by Sam Harris. Although initially scheduled for a 2 hour session, members talked long beyond 3 hours! There was not a single moment of boredom though out as the topic discussed where highly entertaining, highly amusing, and addictively engaging. But more importantly, it helps them think about the questions that most humanist encounter in their life, and to exchange and learn new perspective of how other humanist see the world.
Just a recap of what was discussed
To date, the SHM Book Club has successfully conducted 3 reading meetup:
In conjunction with Darwin’s Day falling on February 12, Singapore Humanism Meetup book club meetup #004 will be held on 26-Feb-2011 (Saturday) from 3pm – 5pm reading The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, or Darwin: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
The Origin of Species is also available as an ebook on Gutenberg. Stanza and other iPhone and Android eBook apps would have it for free.http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2009
Greetings!
It has been an amazing year for the Humanist Society (Singapore).
We have come a long way since we were gazetted as a society in October 2010. From the original founding 13, we have grown to more than 140 members. We have also organized some significant events such as the Winter Solstice, Darwin Day and the Humanist of the Year Award. Apart from these major events we have also successfully managed many smaller events such as Barbeque Night at the east coast, Evening at the Agora and Stargazing at Pulau Semakau. [Read more…]
This is a speech given by Catherine Lim upon receiving the Humanist of the Year Award 2011. Catherine is a well-known Singapore author who has published several books and political commentaries. The transcript is also published on her website and it describes her journey to become a humanist. [Read more…]
