fusclimate Mailing List: Fwd: Suggested reading

[Robert Tapp (tappx001]

Since living in 2 cities keeps me from many meetings, and since SJC will only 
be meeting quarterly, let me chime in in writing. My concern is to be sure that 
our positions and statements reflect our religious humanism -- with its strong 
emphasis on GOOD science.

In 2002 Ecohumanism was published by Prometheus Books, volume 15 of The 
Humanist Institute's Humanism Today. Members of FUS contributed 6 of the 18 
chapters. We had been working on our papers for the previous year and the 
discussions at that annual meeting of the Institute's Adjunct Faculty led to 
much rethinking and many revisions for the volume.

Of course we all rejected the science-denial of conservatives. But we were also 
concerned that humanists avoid new-agey woo woo. Taking Darwin and evolution 
seriously moved us beyond "reverence for nature" and sentimentalities about 
gentle Mother Nature. In others ways, some were then speaking of a Deep Ecology 
-- also critiqued by these humanists.

I hope that this science-humanist orientation can continue in the work of our 
group. There are copies of the book in our bookstore and library, and I'm 
attaching my own preface and chapter as a contribution to our discussions.

Bob

p.s. Volumes 1-13 of Humanism Today are online; volumes 14-17 were hardback 
books and only tables of content are posted.