Videos: Religion and Atheism: A Conversation (Round 1)

19 April 2016 by

On March 18, 2016, our President Tatt Si had a cordial discussion with Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib from Leftwrite Center about what religious people and atheists think of each other, and how religion-atheism relations can be managed in the public sphere. The event was moderated by interfaith facilitator Farid Hamid with Dr Hoon Chang Yau from SMU giving the keynote speech.

This was followed by the two speeches between Tatt Si and Imran. Watch it here:

What do those with religion think of atheism ?
Speaker : Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib (Co-Founder, Leftwrite Center)

In his speech, Imran called on atheist friends to be “generous with religion and to avoid generalisation”. Speaking in his own capacity as a person of faith and not a representative of all muslims, Imran said spent the first 10 minutes defining religion and the atheism. He also felt that religion exists as a separate category from science. While science provides explanation, religion provides meaning in life.

What does an atheist think of religion ?
Speaker : Tan Tatt Si (President, Humanist Society Singapore)

Tatt si acknowledged that religious people are moral and is grateful that religions have contributed greatly to cultural development. For example, Muslims have helped to take mankind out of the dark ages. However, he felt that religion have caused conflicts along tribal lines. He also found that stories of creation and calamity are copies of each other, and that religions provide answers that cannot be questioned.

This was followed by the QnA:

Note: More speeches will be released in the following weeks. Stay tuned!

Blog, Press

A short introduction to humanism

4 April 2016 by

We are in the midst of producing videos to explain humanism to the Singapore public, as well as introduce some of the work done by the Humanist Society. Last year, we formed a five-person film crew to draft scripts, pool camera equipment and provide post-production editing. This video is produced in December with the help of That Moment photography studio and released on March 2016. 

In this video, our founder Paul Tobin explains what is humanism. It is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality.

Find out even more about the society in this video!

Announcements, Blog

Open letter to Lawrence Khong

1 April 2016 by

Dear Mr Khong,

We at the Humanist Society (Singapore) are writing to express our interest in and amusement with your April series of sermons.  Following your support for the Catholic Church in condemning Madonna’s concert as “immoral values promoted by the secular world”, we in the “secular world” find ourselves again at your ire.  We are pleased that we have joined the illustrious ranks of American pop singer Madonna in attracting your ire.

We recognise that as Singapore is a firmly secular society, and promotes freedom of religious expression and multi-cultural harmony, you and your church are completely free to express your views. In this spirit of free expression and interfaith exchange, our Society would be very pleased if you would include our speakers at your talks : “The Deception of Darwinism” & “No God, No Good or Bad”.

As you may be aware, the Humanist Society (Singapore) is a society which promotes, among other things, living a rational life and embracing scientific enquiry. Among our members are several science researchers, science educators and other persons with a passion for science and nature. We believe our members would have much to contribute to a discussion about Darwinism and evolution.

“The Deception of Darwinism” – we have at least four representatives, a biologist, an anthropologist (likely from NUS Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum), a medical doctor and a general scientist who would be greatly interested in deliberating with your speakers. We have celebrated Darwin Day for the past six years to highlight the importance and wonder of the science and nature, and we are well familiar with the internationally accepted work of Darwin in explaining science. Imagine, modern medicine and antibiotics developed based on Darwin’s theory of evolution and has saved countless lives – that is a real feat for Charles Darwin’s work!

“No God, No Good or Bad” – our founding President Paul Tobin is well qualified to speak on this, as the author of the celebrated book “The Rejection of Pascal’s Wager: A Skeptic’s Guide to Christianity“. Paul is well versed with the Bible; his thoughtful analysis of the Bible’s many contradictions will surely add a different flavour to your sessions.

We were also contemplating to attend “The Stars reveal the Truth”, but prefer to be earthbound, as all good humanists know that there is only one life on this Earth and we should make the very best of it.

As a token of our appreciation, and to facilitate Interfaith dialogue, our Society will reserve five places for the Faith Community Baptist Church congregation in our upcoming World Humanist Day (a paying event) conference in June.

At World Humanist Day, we celebrate the values of humanism: of upholding the dignity and value of each human being, of respecting the choices of the individual. We celebrate that we have but one brief life on this planet Earth, which we live to the fullest and the best, backed with reason and science, and compassion for ourselves and our fellow beings. We are sure these are values which resonate strongly with you and your congregation, and we do hope to see you there.

Executive Committee
Humanist Society (Singapore)

Announcements, Blog

SIX-SIX: Keeping the faith with the faithless

29 March 2016 by

Untitled

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.”

Press

ST: Youth in Singapore shunning religion

21 March 2016 by

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.
Press

TODAY: More studies needed on non-religious demographic

11 March 2016 by

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)

Press

Media coverage for pastafarian strainer interview

2 March 2016 by

20160306204029

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

 

 

Press

Statement: On the secular world and immorality

2 March 2016 by

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…]

Announcements, Blog

Annual General Meeting 2016

23 February 2016 by

Date
06/03/2016

Time
6.30 pm – 8:00 pm

Location
Function room (Next to Swimming Pool),
Cashew Park Condominium,
50 Cashew Road 679633

The Humanist Society (Singapore) invites all our members, fellow humanists and supporters to our  Annual General Meeting (AGM).
If you want to find out more about HSS and our activities, our past events in 2015 and our future plans for 2016 and beyond, do join us on 6 March 2016 at 6.30pm.
We will also be electing several key appointment holders for 2016 (see below) and we would certainly appreciate your support.
AGENDA:
a) Introduction by President
b) Events and Activities in 2015/16
c) Press and media coverage in 2015/16
d) Auditor and Treasurer’s report
e) Constitutional ammendments
f ) Election of New committee members
      -President
        Nominees: Tan Tatt Si
      -Treasurer
        Nominees: Zheng Huifen
      -Assistant Secretary
        Nominees: Cheng Chee Hoew
      -Ordinary Committee Member
        Nominees: Dan Dan Thio
                                Chan Yue Kong
To attend the AGM, you must be a member of HSS. You can sign up on the day of the AGM or renew your membership to attend the AGM. RSVP via this Google Form: http://goo.gl/forms/97vznoMgvM
For members who wish to vote for committee members, but are unable to attend the AGM, please e-mail secretary@humanist.org.sg to request to vote by proxy. We will forward details concerning the nominees and further information about proxy voting to you by further e-mail.
Announcements

Nomination for Executive Committee 2016/2017

5 January 2016 by

Dear members,

We are calling for our Annual General Meeting for 2016. We would like to invite our members to be a part of the Executive Committee.
The positions in the Executive Committee for the year 2016 are as follows.

1)President: Open to members of the society for a minimum of 1 year and must be a Singaporean citzen / permanent resident

2) Treasurer: Open to members of the society for a minimum of 1 year and must be a Singaporean citizen / permanent resident

3) Assistant Secretary: Open to members of the society for a minimum of 6 months and must be a Singaporean citizen / permanent resident

4) Committee Member: Open to members of the society for a minimum of 6 months

The length of term for all offices is 2 years.

For a description of the roles and responsibilities of the above roles are outlined in The Society’s Constitution, which can be accessed at https://humanist.org.sg/about/our-constitution/

Members are free to nominate themselves or another member of the society.
Nominations must be seconded by another member of the society.
Please submit the following details for the nominee, the member recommending the nominee, if not the same individual , and the member seconding the nomination

1) Name
2) IC number (for Singaporean citizens / permanent resident)
3) E-mail
4) Contact number

Please submit the details to secretary@humanist.org.sg by the 13th of January 2016. Any submissions after 00 00 hrs on said date will not be applicable.

Please feel free to contact us at secretary@humanist.org if you have any further queries concerning the nomination process.

Announcements
« Previous Page
Next Page »