Newsletter: Week of Dec 18, 2017

From the Executive Director

Greg Epstein
 

It's the holiday season. You're a humanist, atheist, or agnostic. As much as you tell yourself, "the point of holidays is being with friends and family," you're not comfortable celebrating somebody else's idea of a holy night. You're ready to claim your good (without God). If so, you belong with us. Earlier this year, I called the present era a turning point for the humanist movement. As important as it is to be openly secular, it's also vital to work, as an openly secular community, to celebrate life and better the world. 

What's step one? We're going to taking back the word holy (a word whose roots date back to pre-Christian times). As in holy-day. And whole-iday. As in celebrating what is essential to be kept whole, intact. Just as we Humanists, atheists and agnostics have a right and a responsibility to claim our good, we have a right and responsibility to claim our holy.

With our rationality intact and our compassionate hearts open, the Humanist Hub community has asked itself the big question, what is holy to our shared humanity? Our Community Leadership Intern (and Student Minister) Nina Lytton crowd-sourced the answer from Humanist Hub members. The results will both delight and challenge you.

December 24th truly is a holy day for Humanists. 

Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, entered lunar orbit on December 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts-Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders-held a live broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and moon as seen from their spacecraft. Said Lovell, "The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth." Astronaut Bill Anders took one of the most important photographs ever taken. Earthrise shows Earth and parts of the Moon's surface taken from lunar orbit. This was the moment when humanity could fully see the reality of Carl Sagan's words: "The cosmos is also within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself." 

The Hub community has collaborated to create two signature celebrations, and we're inviting you to be our guest. 

On December 24th, we'll think together about what we know is true, and celebrate our precious one lives here on the pale blue dot. 

On December 31, we'll celebrate together what we believe is right for our home, the spaceship earth. We'll turn this old year around, dust ourselves off, and get ready for 2018. What Next for Humanists?

Please join us both days for ceremony, social time, and pot-luck to follow. Friends and extended family are welcome as we celebrate our shared celebrate humanity.  1:30-3:00pm, 30 JFK Street.  Read more here.

PS: To make your annual donation to the Humanist Hub, or to sign up as a regular contributing member, go to humanisthub.org/donate
. New $20/month memberships will be matched for a year if you sign up this month. Thank you so much!
Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction 
at the Hub
On Wednesday nights starting January 3, Shea Riester will lead a MBSR class at the Hub Pre-registration  is required.
 

Next Good without God class!
Hold the date of Weds, Feb 28 and 6 more Wednesdays thereafter for the next Humanism 101 Good without God class taught by Greg Epstein.  Registration opens after New Year's Day. 

Be a 
Contributing Member!
The Humanist Hub needs you to sign up as a contributing member. We need at least $10,000 a month in regular member donations in order to set a sustainable budget for 2018. Thanks to dozens of donors like you, we've gone from $2,000 to over $5,000 per month in such giving; every single dollar counts toward our total.  We also have matching funds available to double the impact of everyone who signs up before the end of the year to start giving $20/month.



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