(TattSi walked to centre stage, lit a candle, and turned to the mic)
“Hi everyone, I’m TattSi, and I’m from the Humanist Society.
I just want to reassure Mao that while you knew Rev Yap only for a short while, you still beat me in that department. I never met Rev Yap, and only knew him for less than a year, on Internet, on Facebook.
The Humanist Music Day event was a half a year ago, though the ripples are still radially expanding to touch distant hearts . We will pick up where we left off, writing about the musicians who performed that Saturday afternoon.
President Tatt Si wrote this column for theonlinecitizen (TOC) on Oct 13, 2017, where he talked about the difficulties faced by the non-religious in expressing their views in Singapore and other issues they face.
Link to TOC: https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2017/10/13/narrow-path-walked-by-the-non-religious-just-got-narrower/
HumanistSG’s second event with People’s Association was another resounding success. A total of 40 people turned up for an event that was supposed to be for 30 people based on the size of the venue. It was also the first time that HumanistSG got to work with the Galaxy Astronomy Club, led by Dylan.
Our President, Tatt Si, wrote a letter in response to former civil servant Lim Siong Guan’s speech on Lessons for S’pore on the rise and fall of empires. (IPS version here)
URL to our letter: http://www.todayonline.com/voices/religious-or-not-sporeans-morality-growing
I refer to the article “Lessons for S’pore on the rise and fall of empires” (Sept 13).
In it, former top civil servant Lim Siong Guan discusses Singapore’s future in reference to Sir John Glubb’s essay, The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival, which analyses the rise and fall of great nations.
Mr Lim cites Glubb’s remarks about the “weakening of religion” and proceeds to note that Singapore’s non-religious population is increasing, implying that this is a possible sign of the Age of Decadence.
I have some points to make. First, our morality has roots in our ability to empathise with others. This quality of empathy is, in turn, a result of natural selection, behavioural evolution, education and literacy.
Mr Lim should not be surprised that ethics change as society progresses. For example, humanity no longer finds concepts such as slavery, racial segregation or religious genocide tenable.
Second, non-religious Singaporeans continue to do good.
At the Humanist Society, we have helped the needy, taken care of our environment and raised funds for aid organisations, all without supernatural motivations.
We believe that humans are responsible for giving meaning to and shaping their own lives and, in doing so, building a better world. Many within our non-religious community have found ways of living moral, productive and meaningful lives.
There should not be any insinuation about their lack of a belief system, and they should not be seen as pre-believers, either to be proselytised to or ridiculed.
Lastly, intellectual debates are vital because they expose our biases, blind spots and irrationality. One feature of a resilient country is its ability to ask difficult questions about itself and adapt to changing circumstances.
During Singapore’s formative years, questions about merger and independence, communism and capitalism, national identity and cultural identities were raised.
Though we have been successful in walking the path we did, we should not think that to be the only path. Glubb’s essay, published in 1978, should be tempered by the present social and geopolitical dynamics.
We look forward to Mr Lim’s next two lectures.
Last month, the Taiwanese authorities became the first government in Asia to recognise a Pastafarian organisation. Called the Humanistic Pastafarianism in Taiwan (台灣人文煮意麵團), the group has attracted about 30 sign-ups and has more than 2,000 fans on Facebook. The Humanist Society (Singapore) talks to one of its representatives, Kevin Feng (酆景文), to find out more. [Read more…]
We are often told, you don’t judge a book by its cover, a reminder that we should not form an opinion of someone by what’s seen on the surface. [Read more…]
SG Narratives held a conversation between Latiff and Hakeem, a Muslim and ex-Muslim respectively. You can watch the conversation in the video above. Both Latiff and Hakeem talked about the definition of God and describing the Islamic faith to someone who has never heard of Islam. Hakeem also asked Latiff what scared him most about being a Muslim.
This is our official response to the backlash against the Atheist Republic in Malaysia, first shared on our Facebook page on August 14, 2017. Please read and share.
Bryan was a devoted metalhead long before learning to play music. Picking up the guitar casually at age 17, he dabbled in classical music as part of an ensemble (while unsuccessfully trying to play Malmsteen licks) until joining one of Singapore’s premiere death metal acts – Oshiego (www.facebook.com/Oshiego). There, he was schooled again and again in the art of aggressive yet precise riffing, the hallmark of any heavy metal band worth their salt.
