Jasmine’s Reviews > Humanists in the Hood: Unapologetically Black, Feminist, and Heretical > Status Update

"What truly warms my soul? I get to define that---not society, not a deity, not a century-old tome. I am free. My morality isn't based in blind trust. "

-Sydney Stewart, a Black Skeptics Scholarship winner.

"Although I will never know whether a higher being exists, I do know that the world exists. Humans exists. Most importantly, the power of individual choice exists. So, I make poignant choices everyday to advocate for myself and those who are silenced. With empathy as my fuel and passion as my roadmap, I navigate life fiercely, fighting for all that I think is right."

-Sydney Stewart.

"While many were brought up with the charismatic rhetoric of "heavenly redemption" and death as "homecoming"---and not the last stop---they reject this worldview as a hinderance to self-determination."

"I was confronted with the reality that a major failing in religion is this promulgation of the belief that the afterlife is more important than the good that you do for people on Earth and that the declaration of being a "good Christian" outweighs the need to be a good person."

-Mike Grimes in To Be Young, Secular and Black.

"I decided to stop waiting for someone or something to change the world, and instead, be that change myself." ❤️

-Lydia Mason in To Be Young, Secular and Black.

"There came a day when I got tired of waiting for God to fix the world for me. I realized that I have the ability to set my own standards for the kind of person I wanted to be. And that I had the responsibility for upholding those standards."

-Lydia Mason in To Be Young, Secular and Black.

“Gen Z youth don’t accept religious dogma without questioning it first.”

“In fact, women are considered among the material blessings of life with cattle and horses. In many verses in the Quran, women are referred to terms such as “plowing land”.”

“How can Muslim women find empowerment when they are constantly sexualized in their holy book? In no context in the Quran are a man and woman together other than for the purpose of sexual relations.”

“Do you say that the bible is against our rights? Then I say that our claims do not rest on a book written by no one knows when or by whom. Books and opinions—no matter from whom they came—if they are in opposition to our human rights, are dead letters .”

-Ernestine Rose