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Humanist Society (Singapore) Internship

13 June 2016 by humanist

We are looking for a student intern to deepen our connection with our volunteer base and to formulate our social media programme calendar. This intern will report to the Vice-President of the Humanist Society (Singapore). The internship will last 4 to 6 weeks during June / July 2016. The dates and duration are negotiable for the right candidate. Applications close on June 23, 2016.

Job scope

The intern will help engage the Society’s existing volunteer list to garner their area of interest in volunteering. This will require emailing and/or calling the interested persons to get more information from them. The intern will match interested volunteers to various aspects of the Society’s work, including our events, social media, web development, and public policy/ outreach committees.

Separately, the intern will also do research into a suitable year-long social media posting programme for the Society. This involves looking at significant dates of interest to the humanistic/ atheistic / scientific communities, so that we can do regular posts on significant events. The intern can also search for great articles and videos released in the past.

Qualities needed:

Articulate on email and over the phone
Proficient with Microsoft Word
Genuine interest in and curiosity about humanism and its values

You don’t have to be an existing member of the Humanist Society (Singapore), or even consider yourself a humanist. All we ask is that you (mostly!) agree with our basic values, stated here: https://humanist.org.sg/humanism/about-humanism/

Due to the confines of the role, we’re only accepting applications from students currently in Singapore.

What you’ll receive

A weekly stipend of $80
Mentoring by the Vice-President and other veteran volunteers who are at various stages of their life and career
The opportunity to be our first ever intern!

How to apply:

Write to info@humanist.org.sg, with the subject “HSS Internship”
Provide your details (name, contact number, school name and programme etc)
Provide a short statement stating why you think you’ll be a good fit for the role.

Announcements, Blog

What to make of Amos Yee and his arrest

11 June 2016 by humanist

This is a commentary by the Humanist Society (Singapore) addressed to both supporters and critics of Amos’ arrest.

The arrest of Amos Yee on charges of wounding religious feelings has caused much debate over the freedom of expression in Singapore. The 17-year-old is known for creating and posting online videos mocking Christianity and Islam, using religious symbols such as the crucifix, Bible and Koran in his latest videos. The arrests arise from Singaporeans filing police reports against Amos. He is now charged with various offences, including Section 298a of the Penal Code for the alleged offence of wounding religious or racial feelings with deliberate intent.

[Read more…]

Announcements, Blog

LoveSingapore’s troubling Wear White message

24 May 2016 by Dan Thio

This statement was first published on 23 May 2016 as a note on our Facebook page. It was picked by Independent.sg and TODAY on the same day.

LoveSingapore’s Wear White message is troubling in a multi-cultural, diverse Singapore

On May 19, the LoveSingapore Christian network released a Facebook post launching the Wear White movement for 2016, calling on churches in its network to wear white. While the Wear White movement was founded two years ago by a Muslim religious teacher as a counter-movement to Pink Dot, LoveSingapore, as a Christian group, appears to be taking the lead this year. This year, the Wear White movement is scheduled on the same weekend (June 4-5) as Pink Dot, which will be held on June 4 at the Speakers’ Corner. [Read more…]

Videos: Religion and Atheism: A Conversation (Round 2)

21 May 2016 by humanist

The second tranche (of three) of videos where our president had a conversation with Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib from LeftWrite Center.

Round 2 starts with short responses from the speakers to audience’s questions and comments. Watch it here:

Round 2 : Answers to Round 1 Questions & Comments
Speaker : Tan Tatt Si (HSS President), Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib (Co-Founder, Leftwrite Center)

What should atheists do to help create common space in Singapore ?
Speaker : Tan Tatt Si (HSS President)

What should religions do to help create common space in Singapore ?
Speaker : Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib (Co-Founder, Leftwrite Center)

This was followed by the Round 2 QnA :

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

Blog, Press

Yahoo: Singaporeans who believe in life without God

13 May 2016 by humanist
Nurul Azliah from Yahoo News Singapore visited us at one of our Humanist Cafe networking events and spoke to people who has given up their religious faith. Nurul interviewed an ex-catholic who tried to find a church who could accept his homosexuality, but eventually lost his faith. She also spoke to an atheist who grew up in a religious cult in Indonesia, a social worker who believes that there is no need for God in his life to be a righteous person, and a logistics executive, who argued that people should look beyond religion to understand more about the world around them.

Read more here:

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/singaporeans-who-believe-in-life-without-god-041548137.html

Press

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

19 April 2016 by humanist
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 humanist

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 humanist
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 humanist

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 humanist
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