So I know that today is supposed to be all about eggs and chocolate bunnies, but I didn't ask for this annoying bit of propaganda to get dropped into my inbox by Harvard University. While the above image is from the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard homepage which refreshes each time you visit with another intellectual luminary claiming to be one of the "new humanists," you can peruse their positions in pdf format from here. Here's a snippet from their flyer announcing an upcoming humanist synod: Won't You Join Us? Refusing to identify with either religious fundamentalism or anti-religious fundamentalism, you've felt outside the sweep and influence of the religious majority. Why not be a force, which if organized into a community of concerned humanists, could help to change our world?Can the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard really be this naive? Do they honestly believe that it's merely the religious fundies, so self righteously secure in their xenophobic worldview, who are the sole religious demographic anxious to deprive me the right to same-sex marriage and all of its federally recognized benefits? Forget marriage, do they mean to imply that the vast, broad middle of American religious are fine with public displays of same-sex affection? Please, I still get sneers and I practically live in the global epicenter of queerdom in San Francisco's Castro.
Whatever else an elite cadre of Harvard humanists wants to "believe," a gathering of well-wishing intellectuals for a grandiose kumbaya moment isn't going to sway deeply entrenched religious convictions. And to borrow a nifty sobriquet from PZ Myers, this uppity athiest doesn't feel "outside the sweep and influence" of any majority. Samuel Adams, one of our nations Founding Fathers and great home brewers said it best:
It doesn't require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires to people's minds.
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