Becky, Josh, and Meredith take a trip around the globe to talk about divine intervention (or lack thereof), robots, Halloween (and it’s oft-confused Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos) and a FORTY-FOOT CROSS!
Announcements
Humanists of Washington and Seattle Atheists, along with the University Unitarian Humanists, cordially invite freethinkers and their families and friends from Seattle and beyond to celebrate the coming winter solstice with our annual Solstice Potluck!
Saturday, December 9, 2017 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM University Unitarian Church, 6556 35th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA
This year we are encouraging attendees to bring new socks to donate to Treehouse, an organization benefiting foster youth in the greater Seattle area.
Children are a welcome and essential part of this celebration! We’ll have some craft activities for them and welcome teens who wish to help facilitate and assist with this.
News
- Bill O’Reilley blames God for sexual harassment blowback.
- Portugal man receives no jail time for biblically-justified beating of ex-wife.
- Female robot “Sophia” granted Saudi citizenship; has more rights than real Saudi women.
- Irish clergy warns Halloween brings kids to Satan.
- New Zealand Prime Minister sworn in without the help of God.
- Forty Foot Cross in Maryland ruled unconstitutional.
Día de los Muertos
Becky asked secular members of the Latino Secular Alliance if they celebrate Día de los Muertos and how they feel about the holiday’s religious history.
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Tomas from California: “Never heard of it till I moved to California. Even then not for at least 10-15 years after.”
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Mariana: “Honestly I don’t see how it can be secular at all. I celebrate like crazy it’s actually my favorite holiday season of the year and even though I don’t pray or something the celebration is religious. We celebrate that our beloved ones return from the dead to party and is kind rough filter (sic) the ancient religious meaning. I mean one can prefer doing it the least Catholic possible but ancient pagan religions are still religious.”
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Louie from California: “I started checking it out because I was curious, it is a part of my culture, and [my city] had some pretty cool activities organized around Dia de los Muertos.”
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Arlene: “I don’t usually celebrate dia de los muertos but if my abuelita or mom would invite me to the cemetery to have a picnic to celebrate a deceased loved one, I would not say no. Dia de los muertos is silly but it’s also part of my culture. I’m not about to turn my back to my culture.”
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Ana: “We can still honor our dead and not have to have religious tones. So, yes, I still honor the holiday.”
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Jorge from California: “ I take it as a form of ancestral worship. Sometime[s] some atheist are so uptight with their disbelief. [So,] I got to explain myself because I will get flooded with angry comments. I am an anti-theist. Ancestral worship as in honoring those in your family who came before you. You can take it in a literal or metaphorical sense. I’m happy I do celebrate, because death sucks and the death of those that I lost is even [worse] for me.”
Feedback
Thank you for all the time and effort that goes into the show. Becky has done a great job on the show but my family misses Sam and hopes that he is well.
Brandon from Hawaii