Atlanta Unitarian

Today I was reading through some definitions of "Humanism" online, and I found them strangely hollow. Of course, there are many different kinds of humanists, including religious humanists and secular humanists. But I found it strange that within the definition of humanism there was no reference to anything spiritual. The definitions had a tilt that focused on what is this-worldly, and more specifically, things that are observable and objective. I found in the definition a strange focus on action that somewhat puzzles me. I started thinking about what spirituality is, and what it is not, and how I would define it. Spirituality is not the same as believing in the supernatural. There need not be a belief in God, or angels, or an eternal soul. But a spiritual orientation does imply the belief that there are human experiences that cannot be reduced to physical explanations. Human experiences must be interpreted as they are experienced, subjectively and holistically, in orde...

I have recent completed and strongly recommend Peter Beinart's book The Good Fight . This book is particularly useful for liberals who belief that Islamic terrorism is a serious world threat but have been alienated by the Bush administration's tactics on its "war on terror." Beinart convincing puts forth a number of related thesis, and ties them together with a strong narrative history and a thorough exploration of the relationship between complex foreign policy issues: 1) Islamic terrorism and its related ideologies represents a new kind of totalitarian threat that must be aggressively addressed through the application of American power. American power can be used for good in the world, when it is applied with appropriate humility and circumspection. 2) Liberals are most likely to win elections when their domestic vision is tied with a vision of America's role in the world 3) Liberals have a successful history of combatting totalitarian movements upon which t...