Secular Heros

TheDoctorDonna

Out side of the Buddhist or other religious Teachers, who in History has inspired you to help the world?

Here are some, certainly not all, of mine...

S. Hawkings
Carl Sagon
Rosiland Franklin
Bill W. & Dr. Bob
Richard Dawkins

And l the list goes on...

Artemis

Dawkins and Sagan would be on my list too. Also:

Robert Heinlein
Victor Hugo
Vincent Bugliosi
Martin Sheen
Gregory Peck

qoheleth

Just curious... how has Richard Dawkins inspired you to help the world?

TheDoctorDonna

qoheleth wrote: »

Just curious... how has Richard Dawkins inspired you to help the world?

Good question.

I am very concerned about the public preception of science and that people do not realise how important our evolutinary line is in todays world. Dawkins has done a great deal of work in this area.

Rmurray1985

George Carlin

What can I say?

robot

Captain James T. Kirk

The_Fruit_Punch_Wiza

Dawkins doesn't come to mind when I think of Secular heros, but Sam Harris Does.

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Jason

Eugene Debs and Howard Zinn immediately come to mind.

qoheleth

The Doctor Donna wrote: »

Good question.

I am very concerned about the public preception of science and that people do not realise how important our evolutinary line is in todays world. Dawkins has done a great deal of work in this area.

I just started reading "The Greatest Show on Earth" in order to educate myself along these lines.

Epicurus

Inspired me to help the world. No one really.

Mountains

It just seems the right thing to do. I suppose I could point to some of the obvious ones:

Ghandi
Dr. Martin Luther King
Abraham Lincoln

The_Fruit_Punch_Wiza

...and Gora.

[DeletedUser]

My parents attributing to grace nature of ancestors.
Singapore statesman Lee Kuan Yew and Chinese statesman Sun Yat-sen and Deng Xiaoping

seeker242

My Mom.

Floating_Abu

Rmurray1985 wrote: »

George Carlin

What can I say?

He was very good.

B5C

Don't forget this great man:


and

Wednesday

Martin Luther King

I liked Victor Hugos book Les Miserables as a holy work.

Invincible_summer

Malcolm x
Subcomandante Marcos
Peter Kropotkin
Karl Marx
VI Lenin
Mao Zedong
Frantz Fanon
Simone de Beauvoir

Reading Marx, Lenin, Fanon, Mao, de Beauvoir, Kropotkin really opened my mind to the suffering of the common man/woman and really inspired me to seek out social justice.

Also, I find the actions of Malcolm X and Subcomandante Marcos inspirational as they really impacted their respective societies.

The_Fruit_Punch_Wiza

I love Kropotkin!

Floating_Abu

Aung San Suu Kyi actually.

upalabhava

Bucky Fuller

for embarking on "an experiment, to find what a single individual [could] contribute to changing the world and benefiting all humanity."

Frank Zappa

for asking the two biggest questions:

1) "When?" You can't define something accurately until you understand when it is. When is what.

2) "WTF?" I think that when is a very important thing, but "what the fark" is also a very important thing to ask. Just keep asking, "What the fark?" I mean, why the fark bother? See what I mean? The important thing is, deal with the when. When will open a lot of shiat for you. "What the fark" really makes it easier to deal with it when you understand the when.

genkaku

I am grateful for many examples, but my teeth itch when people use the word "hero."

shenpennangwa

My mother.
Gene Roddenberry.
Pablo Picasso.
Ernest Hemingway.

Artemis

genkaku wrote: »

I am grateful for many examples, but my teeth itch when people use the word "hero."

Why do you say that, out of curiosity?

Simonthepilgrim

Invincible_summer wrote: »

Malcolm x
Subcomandante Marcos
Peter Kropotkin
Karl Marx
VI Lenin
Mao Zedong
Frantz Fanon
Simone de Beauvoir

Reading Marx, Lenin, Fanon, Mao, de Beauvoir, Kropotkin really opened my mind to the suffering of the common man/woman and really inspired me to seek out social justice.

Also, I find the actions of Malcolm X and Subcomandante Marcos inspirational as they really impacted their respective societies.

I recall attracting serious opprobrium when I put a quotation from the Great Helmsman in my sig.

shenpennangwa

Invincible_summer wrote: »

Mao Zedong

Why not add Stalin, Hitler, and Pol Pot to the list if mass murderers are your thing?

genkaku

genkaku: I am grateful for many examples, but my teeth itch when people use the word "hero."

Artemis wrote: »

Why do you say that, out of curiosity?

Because it unfairly limits those who have expended the effort.

Did you ever listen to anyone who is being applauded for being a "hero" -- as for example the U.S. soldier who was recently awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Afghanistan or the pilot who landed the passenger plane in New York's Hudson River, saving all on board?

Neither of these men considered themselves heroes. It was everyone else who insisted that they were as a means more of applauding themselves than respecting the deeds these men considered ordinary or just part of the job or doing what needed to be done.

Don't you think we owe it to our heroes to listen to them when they speak about heroism? Who would know better than they what heroism really is ... and what it isn't? Do we need to burden them beyond their heroic deeds with our own needy accolades? Maybe so, but it strikes me as rather unkind.

Artemis

shenpen nangwa wrote: »

Why not add Stalin, Hitler, and Pol Pot to the list if mass murderers are your thing?

Having read a good number of their posts on here, I'd like to give Simon and Invincible the benefit of the doubt, and assume that they admire aspects of Mao Zedong's political ideology, and not the tragic bloodshed that many of his policies resulted in.

For my own part, I could have put Maximilien Robespierre down..I greatly admire his passion and dedication to his political ideals and think he was quite forward-thinking for the 18th century..on the other hand, his willingness to protect and preserve the new French Republic by guillotining dissenters horrifies me.

Because of this, I don't include him on my list. When I learn or remember something like this about a personality, I find myself "disqualifying" them. But my concept of "heroes", I see as a tool...as a way of emulating characteristics I see as positive.

This tool works differently for different people (and some may choose to go without it, to shun the need/desire for "heroes"). While it seems to suit me to be somewhat rigid and only include who I see to be the best of the best, the most spotless, on my list, it may suit another to include people with severe and/or obvious flaws such as Robespierre or Zedong. (And perhaps it's to Infinite's and Simon's credit that they can do so--perhaps it shows they are more able to exhibit forgiveness than the rest of us?)

Spaceless

Parents and school teachers. Parents nurture me with their unconditional love and proper ethics. And teachers nurturing me with their knowledge & skill, graciousness, courtesy and also teaches me to be a good child as home. Personally, this is the inspiration and true value towards a world of harmony, care and love that simply begins at home and school.

With Metta

compassionate_warrior

M.L. King wasn't secular. He was a preacher.

Vandana Shiva
Harry Belafonte
Andrew Young
Nelson Mandela

PietroPumokin

Batman

Artemis

Simonthepilgrim wrote: »

I recall attracting serious opprobrium when I put a quotation from the Great Helmsman in my sig.

When I first read this, I thought "....? George Takei?"

Jeffrey

Bjork
Donovan
Peter Gabriel
Phil Collins
Stuart Murdock of Belle and Sebastian and co.
Sting
Bono
John Denver
Debbie Harry of Blondie (saw interviewed once and like music makes me jazzed up)
The Neely's from the cooking show because they make me feel happy and hungry
Barefoot Countess but I am jealous of all her friends she has
Vincent Van Gogh
Oprah although she is rich for mixing the culture of ideas (with her own spin style whatever of course)
Bill Watson of Calvin and Hobbes
JRR Tolkien
JK Rawling
Frank Herbert
Charles Dickens
Camus