Secularists Seek Higher Global Profile

As reported by Reuters, secularists, domestically and abroad, are doing all they can to increase their strength in what could be called the international culture war:

By Robert Evans
GENEVA (Reuters) - Humanist and atheist groups around the world are looking to boost their profile in 2005 to counter religious fundamentalism and efforts by some Western leaders to relaunch faith as a keystone of national life.

Under pressure from the rise of militant Islam, Vatican activism in the European Union and the re-election of a "born-again" Christian to the White House, they feel they must resist to ensure the ideas of secularism survive and spread.

"In the face of the religious onslaught on Humanist values, we have to speak out and get our message over," says Roy Brown, Swiss-based president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) which links groups totaling millions of members.
Two central events will be a World Atheist Conference at Vijayawada in India in early January and the IHEU's World Congress in July at the Paris headquarters of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

"We must work hard to combat the encroachment of religion on public policy and on the rights of non-believers everywhere," said IHEU executive director Babu Gogineni.

Atheists, who see no evidence for the existence of a deity, and Humanists, who are mainly atheists but include some believers, share that core concern: to keep religion out of politics and limit it to the private sphere.

They draw their inspiration from freethinkers down the ages, from ancient Greek and Indian philosophers through the 18th century Enlightenment that shaped much of modern political thinking in Europe and North America.

This is an important piece. Casual observers on the right may be lulled into thinking they are winning the culture war because of President Bush's re-election. They would be mistaken. The culture war is a full blown war for the soul of our country and our western Judeao-Christian system of beliefs, and far too many people who believe in those traditions are all too often, silently sitting back in their "Lazy Boy" recliner, remote control in hand, watching society get crazier and more out of control as each day passes. Don't just sit there, do something! The first thing you could do is finish reading the above article.