By Merrill Miller, originally posted on TheHumanist.com

American Humanist Association President Rebecca Hale has a catchy saying to succinctly explain humanism to people who may be sympathetic to the lifestance but have never heard the term. When a famous intellectual or celebrity makes a comment about the moral imperative for treating people justly and equitably, Hale quips, “Sounds like humanism!” As a philosophical tradition, humanism spans centuries of thinking about our shared humanity and how we can derive our morality from reason and empathy without the supernatural. Part of humanism’s moral imperative is to recognize inequality, whether based on economic class, gender, race or sexual orientation or identity, and work to create a society that ends injustice. But that’s a mouthful to say, so the phrase “Sounds like humanism!” is a witty way to identify humanist ethics in everyday life. The American Humanist Association even built a successful Facebook campaign around it.

Through our weekly newsletter, we like to let you know about our upcoming events as well as a number of issues and campaigns that we think might be of interest to you. Let me know if you have any suggestions to include in future roundups. Email: [email protected]

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DISCLAIMER: The opinions which appear in the newsletter and in this roundup of all the news which didn't fit within the newsletter are not necessarily shared by all or even most of the members and board of the BC Humanist Association.

On Saturday, I joined 30 supporters from Dying With Dignity Canada on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery to bring attention to the need to make physician assisted dying an election issue. Our past president and current Dying With Dignity board member, Sue Hughson led the rally. And I spoke with Katherine Hammond, daughter of Margot Bentley.

Classes have been under a way for about a month and across British Columbia students are building new communities for atheist, skeptic and Humanist. I wanted to give a quick update on where some of the groups are, and how the donations BCHA members made have helped us support them.

Through our weekly newsletter, we like to let you know about our upcoming events as well as a number of issues and campaigns that we think might be of interest to you. Let me know if you have any suggestions to include in future roundups. Email: [email protected]

And for the latest news items, be sure to like the BC Humanists on Facebook and follow @BCHumanist on Twitter.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions which appear in the newsletter and in this roundup of all the news which didn't fit within the newsletter are not necessarily shared by all or even most of the members and board of the BC Humanist Association.

As more and more of our fellow humans fall through the cracks in our social safety nets around the world, the idea that everyone should get a guaranteed basic income is gaining support.

By Matthew Bulger (originally posted on TheHumanist.com)

Today is International Blasphemy Day, a day when millions of atheists, humanists, agnostics, and nontheists are encouraged to openly criticize religious teachings that they disagree with and to protest the continued existence of blasphemy laws around the world.

Through our weekly newsletter, we like to let you know about our upcoming events as well as a number of issues and campaigns that we think might be of interest to you. Let me know if you have any suggestions to include in future roundups. Email: [email protected]

And for the latest news items, be sure to like the BC Humanists on Facebook and follow @BCHumanist on Twitter.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions which appear in the newsletter and in this roundup of all the news which didn't fit within the newsletter are not necessarily shared by all or even most of the members and board of the BC Humanist Association.

Religious conservatives argue that doctors and pharmacists should be able to use so-called conscientious objections to refuse their patient's access to abortions, contraceptives, and physician-assisted dying in Canada. We only need to look to our neighbours South of the border to see the harm inflicted by these restrictions on access.

In 2013 the Supreme Court of Canada struck down several of Canada's laws against prostitution. In 2014 the Conservative government introduced new laws making it illegal to purchase sexual services while it remains legal to sell them. In this article (originally published on TheHumanist.com), Clay Farris Naff explores sex work and sex trafficking from a Humanist's view of morality.