Religions have multitudes of venerated people that they have elevated to the status of saints. I'm sure almost any reader of this column can rattle off a dozen or so names with no problem at all. Within Christianity we have Saints Joseph and Mary, the apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke John, etc., Joan of Arc, Mother Theresa, and many, many more. What about humanists? Are there any humanist saints?

Humanism does not create saints. There have been, however, many very highly respected people within the humanist movement. We don't venerate or worship them but we certainly hold them in high regard. If we did have saints, the following persons past and present, I feel, would be among the many who would be so honoured.

There's been a lot of news about priests abusing children but there is another dimension.  Many priests cannot live with celibacy so have secret affairs with a woman in the parish.  In one report in the U.K. Guardian, it is estimated that there are currently 1000 people living now in Britain and Ireland whose fathers are priests.  Many of these priests acknowledge their children to a limited extent yet must keep it quiet from most people so they can continue their career - or as they would say "Continue with god's work". [See this article in the UK Guardian].  One problem with this of course is that these priests are being hypocritical.  They preach a sexual morality that they don't follow themselves.  They hear confessions and forgive the sins of others doing just what they are doing - having sex outside marriage.

Why are Muslims so devout?  Why are they mostly so irrational?  Moderate Muslims might argue that they are not irrational but they are at least unable to spot enough of the errors in the Qur'an to reject Islam.  Ex-Muslim Mumin Salih, writing on Islam-Watch says that he was once asked "How do Muslim intellectuals read the Qur'an without noticing its obvious errors? How do they read about Muhammad's evident murders and stand with the murderer? How do they read about his wars and stand with him, the aggressor?"

His answer is that it has to do with the most extensive brainwashing process a human can ever be subjected to. The Islamization of the Muslim mind is a process that starts immediately after birth and continues throughout his/her life. After birth, an adult holds the child and recites the azan, the call for prayers, directly into ears of the newborn. The moral of the practice is to prime the child's hearing with the blessed names of Allah and Muhammad. Indeed, that call for prayers soon becomes the most frequently heard sound by Muslim children. The azan is repeated five times a day in every mosque in the area. If there are ten mosques in the area, which is common nowadays, the azan would be heard, through the loud speakers, fifty times a day. In addition, the newborn's ears will get used to hearing the endless recitations of the Qur'an that go on almost continuously.