THE HUMANIST IN A RELIGIOUS WORLD
To be a Catholic or a Muslim for example, one has to accept all the doctrines of
Catholicism or Islam as being revealed by God. So you cannot be a member of a
religion and an Humanist. In bigoted areas, the Humanist can fake allegiance to
the Church or a religion to dodge trouble for himself or herself. The Humanist
who attends Church does it only as a spectator and not as a participant is to
find a way to turn as many in the congregation away from God and religions as
possible. Normally it is preferable to stay away and discourage churchgoing. One
good tip is to ask awkward questions that the religionists cannot answer and
which will produce doubt. Believers in religion will fall away quicker when
somebody who pretends to be a friend to the Church undermines its teaching but
in a friendly way. Give the Church no money with which to spread its
stranglehold.
The ideal thing for Humanists is to get their names off the Church membership
rolls and separate completely. In some cases, the Humanist can get her name off
the books and still keep up appearances. The long lists of members that religion
has, have a lot to do with the undesirable power it has for it seems to wield
political clout.
The children of Humanists must be raised as no religion until they are free to
decide. They can only be baptised when there is a real risk of grave persecution
if they are not. Advise your parents and friends as to why you can't let the
children be baptised. Infant baptism or infant circumcision is just religion
taking advantage of the child's vulnerability for the child would belong to
another religion and follow that if he or she were initiated into it instead.
The purpose of the rite is to give the clergy the right to indoctrinate the
children - a right that nobody, even parents, can ever have. Let nobody steal
your child's thinking.
