Ladislav Hubenak

Secular Humanism in Slovakia

Ladislav Hubenek describes the many difficulties that have faced humanists in Slovakia i

ON THE UN's fiftieth anniversary one can begin by trying to sum up how the world is going as a scene of interdependence. I do so for two reasons. First because Geneva is not only a neutral city, poised near the theoretical centre of gravity of the earth's inhabited land surface - the home of ultimate sub-atomic physical research (CERN), the International Red Cross, the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees and its Organizations for World Health, Weather, Labour, Trade, Patents, Centres for Human Rights, Disarmament, Social Research, Environment and Sustainable Development, UN Volunteers and much else; but it remains the world's main deliberative and conference centre for these and innumerable other international concerns, including even the World Council of Churches.

Irish Divorce

Prior to a referendum in Ireland on divorce --which resulted in a very narrow majority in favour of divorce - the President of the Association of Irish Humanists, issued a statement on 'Divorce and the Common Good: A Fair Society is a More Moral Society'.

It stated: 'The opponents of divorce are basing their campaign on promotion of a theological concept of the 'common good' of society and in so doing they have indeed picked up on the key issue we face.

ECONOMIC chaos, political instability, and the legacy of communist organisation face humanist groups in Eastern Europe. They face the painful process of creating a free market system and also the need to remove the association of 'communism' with the word 'atheism'.

FRIDAY the 13th of October was a lucky day for the Center for Inquiry - the new headquarters of the Committee for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH) and the Council for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) in Amherst, New York.

Editorial

Religious Assasination

Yitzhak Rabin, although a secular leader, quoted Ecclesiastes, that most secular of Biblical books, on the occasion of the signing of the agreement between Palestinians and Jews: ‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace.’ And, alas, a time of assassination.

Yigal Amir, the twenty-five-year-old student of religion said after he had shot the Prime minister that God had told him to do it.