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Recipes to Save the World! Lentil Ragu

Lentil Ragu (Lentil Bolognese) Two Sentence Recipe Fry onions, carrots, celery and garlic together, add red lentils, canned tomatoes, tomato puree and herbs.  Cook until reduced and lentils are to the desired texture, then add to separately cooked pasta. Very Basic Recipe Ingredients Oil for frying (light canola/olive oil) 1 Onion (chopped) 2 garlic cloves (thinly chopped or crushed) 250g red lentils 1 can of tomatoes 1 tbsp Vinegar 1 tsp sugar ½ tsp salt 250g pasta (spaghetti or shells works well) Instructions - Fry onion and garlic for 2 minutes -Add rest of ingredients cook until lentils are soft but still have bite -Cook pasta separately -Combine and eat! Basic Recipe – 2/3 servings Ingredients 1 Onion (chopped) 1-2 celery sticks (thinly chopped) 1-2 carrots (grated) 250g red lentils 2 garlic cloves (thinly chopped or crushed) 1 can of tomatoes 500ml vegetable stock (can be left out
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10 Recipes to Save the World!

10 Recipes to Save the World Jamie Oliver suggested everyone should know 10 recipes before they leave school, so they were able to cook healthy nutritious food from real ingredients.  His list was written from the point of view of human health, which is important but to those of us that have Humanist aligned values, it is not the only thing. We might want a different 10 recipes that would help protect the environment, prevent animal cruelty and human suffering.  They should be inexpensive and accessible to everyone, they should also be the kind of food you can buy cheaply and keep in the back of the cupboard so you are ready for hard times, should that be a surprise loss of income or being unable to leave your home for a period of time. "A good start to solving the problem, is not being part of the problem." this might mean we are also in a position to help others at times of crisis. So these  10 Recipes to Save the World  will be plant based and focused on humane treat
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How to become a Level 1 Humanist!

For some time I have been thinking about what practical skills I should be pursuing to be a better citizen, person and Humanist.  Obviously the title ironically refers to cult-like approaches to paying money to level up, but there is a serious question about what skills should be most widely distributed amongst the Humanist community and which ones should (in the main) be addressed first.  This requires a balance between the skills that have the biggest impact, are most likely to be used and are relevant to Humanism. Skills to make Humanism itself more successful would include knowledge of Humanism, persuasive speaking, psychology of belief, understanding of the arguments that are most, commonly used against our point of view, and an understanding of opposing points of view.  Of these, the quickest and easiest is the basic understanding of Humanism. To actively help others, we should accrue organisational skills, determination and confidence to put ourselves out there, an und
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What skills do proactive Humanists need?

So this is a short post hoping for some suggestions, I'll write a longer post with some additional ideas and the results of any research based on comments on this post. I'm interested in cataloguing the skills that we need as proactive Humanists to make the world a better place.  And more importantly to get some suggestions as to to how these can be acquired. Here are a few general ideas to start with: Persuasive speaking Research skills Organisational skills Confidence building How to be happy How to make the personal changes needed (mental fortitude) Any thoughts on what else or how to achieve these things.
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Why the Humanist Guild

Finding a hook to hang ideas for a more focused version of Humanism, on gives the possibility of collecting ideas from like-minded people and perhaps put something more practical together.  Of course there is the possibility that someone will point the way to a group that has already found the answers and direction that these posts are working towards.  In which case this is a moot point... Names like Brighter Culture and Ethical Living sprang to mind, but this is not the invention of something new, I'm no genius or expert on the subject.  So perhaps a title claiming this doesn't fit.  Gymnasium implies training and improvement and once had an academic implication.  Guild implies trades and artisans, standardisation and training.  Unions have a similar association but often for professions.   As living is a practical affair involving all walks of life Guild seems to fit.   So for the moment its Humanist Guild, that is until something better comes along. Life is serious,
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Lazy Atheists and Smug Humanists

I think we Humanists need something extra, a bit of zing, a bit of a turbo charge, that missing ingredient. Humanism, is to me is the most sensible approach to the one life we live; but I wonder if we are not quite there yet, or perhaps that some of us need to travel to the next destination. What you might ask has that to do with the title above? Well... Growing up my family were all religious, we discussed and debate our beliefs (particularly my mother and me). We were interested in understanding our faith, what was ethically "right and wrong" and what was true. Ultimately this, handed down curiosity, resulted in my digging too deep into the faith in which I was raised, through the bottom to the empty underside, discovering to my surprise (and shock) that I had become an atheist. There was however in my family one person that had never believed in Christianity.  However there was a difference in approach: they didn't study any of the literature, debate or discus
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