Secularity (adjective form secular) is the state of being separate from religion, or not being exclusively allied to any particular religion.
For instance, eating and bathing may be regarded as examples of secular activities, because there may not be anything inherently religious about them. Nevertheless, both eating and bathing are regarded as sacraments in some religious traditions, and therefore would be religious activities in those world views. Saying a prayer derived from religious text or doctrine, worshipping through the context of a religion, and attending a religious school are examples of religious (non-secular) activities. Prayer and meditation are not necessarily non-secular, since the concept of spirituality and higher consciousness are not married solely to any religion but are practiced and arose independently across a continuum of cultures.
Most businesses and corporations, and some governments, are secular organizations. All of the state universities in the United States are secular organizations (especially because of the combined effect of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution) while some private universities are connected with the Christian or Jewish religions. Among many of these, some prominent examples are Baylor University, Brigham Young University, Boston College, Emory University, the University of Notre Dame, Duquesne University, Texas Christian University, Southern Methodist University, and Yeshiva College.
Matt Dillahunty is the president of the Atheist Community of Austin, the host of the live internet radio show "Non-Prophets Radio" and of the Austin Public-access television cable TV show The Atheist Experience. He is also the founder and contributor of the counter-apologetics encyclopedia Iron Chariots and its subsidiary sites.
Matt was raised as a Baptist Christian and sought to become a Baptist minister. His religious studies, instead of bolstering his faith as he intended, led to a rejection of Christianity and, eventually, all religions.
Sam Harris may refer to:
Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004), known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records. He also helped racially integrate country and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records, most notably with his Modern Sounds albums. While with ABC, Charles became one of the first African-American musicians to be given artistic control by a mainstream record company.Frank Sinatra called Charles “the only true genius in show business.”
The influences upon his music were mainly jazz, blues, rhythm and blues and country artists of the day such as Art Tatum, Nat King Cole, Louis Jordan, Charles Brown, Louis Armstrong. His playing reflected influences from country blues and barrelhouse, and stride piano styles.
Rolling Stone ranked Charles number ten on their list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2004, and number two on their November 2008 list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In honoring Charles, Billy Joel noted: "This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley. I don't know if Ray was the architect of rock & roll, but he was certainly the first guy to do a lot of things . . . Who the hell ever put so many styles together and made it work?"
Violence and agression become passion in this world
Walking down the alley smelling the prey – tally ho!
Feeling like a hunter aiming for the strongest stag
All the satisfied and all the fat should now take care
Are you afraid – he came to judge you
Are you afraid – they call him thrasher
Who is to blame – violence and aggression
Who is to blame – hatred of the thrasher
Fear the stalking thrasher in the canyons you call
streets
Resistance from the gutter getting hotter day by day
Victims never get to know the violators name
Leaders of society they hide in towers of glass
Are you afraid – he came to judge you
Are you afraid – they call him thrasher
Who is to blame – violence and aggression
Who is to blame – hatred of the thrasher
Who do you think you are?
Everytime you went to far
You planted a gentle breeze
But a hurricane is what you harvest
Are you afraid – he came to judge you
Are you afraid – they call him thrasher
Who is to blame – violence and aggression
I counted every brick of the walls you built around me
Freedom is a foreign word long ago I lost it's meaning
Now it is time to break the jail that held me back so
long
I planed to rise again to build a place that I call eden
I am the one to tear down prisons and cages
I am the animal you dream of at night
Shattered by tension I still wait for my own kingdom
I built of blood and tears of this lamb that they call
human
Certainly it is my fate to reign and legislate
Now I know the time is right for a new race to be hatched
I am the one to tear down prisons and cages
I am the animal you dream of at night
I am the link between demonic and god-like
Anything around me tried to bring me down
On the run from anything just anger all around
I ran but didn't turn my look just straight on
I'm lonely and on my own all trust is gone
All these years I ran but now I know
The circle shuts
I'm the one who kept the true belief
The circle shuts
Through years of darkness perseverent I went on
Noone ever gave a damn but I'm still here
To take my chance again to laugh in their faces
Of all the slanderers and all the hypocrites
All these years I ran but now I know
The circle shuts
I'm the one who kept the true belief
Facts turn into fate
Corpse desecrated and raped
Fires burning so cold
Lies for truth they were told
There was a time to change
It was on you
Acts unseen unpure
Massdestruction the cure
Illusion of faith
Crossing unwalkable ways
Now it's time to make a change
Drop your mask betrayer
On your knees now you will crawl
Right to fight betrayer
Wind's merciless blow
Dark future to show
Grin while others cry
Each word just a lie
Now it's time to make a change
Drop your mask betrayer
On your knees now you will crawl
You're spitting fire you're spreading glowing hate
Your rage is boiling so hot I can't resist
From deep within like an ancient magma stream
It's just unquenchable no cooling from this heat
Cool down before it's too late
Maybe there's no turning back
Keep away
Do never play with fire
Keep away
From the sources of ignition
You've always been hot you never run away
Like a volcano lidsed by a giant rock
They call you hothead just unpredicable
You stand in flanes again but who's the arsonist
Cool down before it's too late
Maybe there's no turning back
Keep away
Do never play with fire
Keep away
From the sources of ignition
Lit by hate – boiling rage
Keep away
Do never play with fire
Keep away
Words like violence
Break the silence
Come crashing in
Into my little world
Painful to me
Pierce right through me
Can't you understand
Oh my little girl
All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm
Vows are spoken
To be broken
Feelings are intense
Words are trivial
Pleasures remain
So does the pain
Words are meaningless
And forgettable
All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm
See the masses how they're racing
Feel their hatred's daily growth
Longing just for global power
Not a method is a taboo
See them burn the flags and pictures
See them raise their automatic arms
Loving fathers true believers
Offering their only sons
Perversion of salvation
Is what their god has send
But he who knows the answer
Is silent all the way
March side by side
Martyrs of the half moon
Die with a smile
Martyrs of the half moon
Who's to blame for this delusion
It is shurely not their god
In the holy book it's written
Do not kill nor kill yourself
Perversion of salvation
Is what their god has send
But he who knows the answer
Is silent all the way
March side by side
Martyrs of the half moon
Die with a smile
Martyrs of the half moon
Spit on them
Holy man
Let them burn
You're sublime
March side by side
Martyrs of the half moon
Die with a smile
Hopes falling away
There's nothing to stay
All around me just loss
But who pays the cost?
My longing it ends
On this last of all days
And the last tear dried out
Before touching the ground
Brown leaves are flying
Blown down by the wind
Autumn is coming
Turning me to grey
These days getting cold
Uncertain future obscured
The uncrawling frost
Slowly covers my soul
Brown leaves are flying
Blown down by the wind
Autumn is coming
Turning me to grey
Iceflowers on the window
No chance to watch the world
It's the beginning of the end
I'm not afraid of winterfrost
Brown leaves are flying
Blown down by the wind
Autumn is coming
Back on my feet again
I pulled myself out of the mud
And all those lovely friends
Are gone like straws in the wind
It's no surprise
Lost all disguise
I carry on
Stay on my own
Now I feel free again
I am alone but doing well
I am my own best friend
This friendship last forevermore
It's no surprise
Lost all disguise
I carry on
Stay on my own
Call me the one once fallen
Now I'm the leader of the pack
No bowing and no crawling
I won't defend I just attack
Still I am growing strong
Experienced by greed and hate
I know I can't be wrong
Watching the world being wrecked each day
It's no surprise
Lost all disguise
I carry on
Stay on my own
Call me the one once fallen
Now I'm the leader of the pack
No bowing and no crawling
I won't defend I just attack
I stood up I am stronger
Call me the one once fallen
Now I'm the leader of the pack
No bowing and no crawling
I was born in the rotten part of the town
The biggest trap I had seen
Wherever you'll go and wherever you'll get to
Evil is all around
My mother's a bitch my father's a killer
Gettin' paid for murder
Fightin' and strugglin' the whole day
The only way to survive
Wanted from law but they'll never catch me
I'd much rather die in this bloody war
Fly high touch the sky
Never know the reason why it ends
Victim of fate!
I had to kill people to save my own life
I don't wanna go to hell
I started at the bottom
I'm headin' for the top
I'll never return I'll never go back
To that goddamn part of the town
Headhunters won't get me 'cause I'm not stupid
But this ain't the life I dreamt of
What now lonely man who's standing
In the shadows of the streets
You're left alone with no helpin' hand beside you
You hide from the daylight living in darkness
You got no friends you can trust nobody
Except for yourself
The only shade that's beside you
Is the shade of Lucifer
Laughing with a satanic smile
And his friend Death sharpens his sickle
You don't wanna die, do you? But you will
You will burn in hell!
Here comes your nightmare back again
Did you think you're safe?
I never wanted to forget
And so should you
I'm crazy and that's for sure
But do not care
I never was to blame for that
Cause it ruins in the family
The years in jail made me insane
Between these walls I had time to think
You wonder how I found you
I just followed my nose
This scent was always on my mind
Cause you smell like a rose
Saying no you still mean yes
It's the same as before
Look at me my purest goddess
Now I use you like a whore
I came for you
Back here to say hello
Nightmares have come true
I came for you
I've waited oh so long for this
Short moment in time
Love faded and hatred grew so strong
I saw your agony every night
Now just for a second I'm a king
Nomore a clown
No! why did you die fast
I deserve more entertainment
The years in jail made me insane
Between these walls I had time to think
I came for you
Back here to say hello
Nightmares have come true
I came for you
Back here to say hello to you
New times waiting – old times fading
Nothing remains the same
So relentless mostly aimless
Confusion is what we see
Hear the piper from his shelter
Luring all the rats
False messiah's crippled mind
Using any chance
We don't believe just what we see
Another controls our will to be
Hope is falling while we're crawling
Into the bright white light
Starbeam calling all the hopeless
Who waited for a sign
What gives us hope is just a word
We lick from a liars lips
God is spreaking we want to believe it
And everything's just benign
We don't believe just what we see
Another controls our will to be
See us praying the ancient words
Blessings he sends just like a curse
New saviour are you there
Worship you forevermore
New saviour get aware
We're ship and you're a carnivore
Hear the piper from his shelter
Luring all the rats
False messiah's crippled mind
Using any chance
We don't believe just what we see
Another controls our will to be
See us praying the ancient words
Blessings he sends just like a curse
New saviour are you there
Worship you forevermore
New saviour get aware
Sensuality is the wrong word
It's more like being trapped inside
Is this a man or an animal
Is it me or a monster instead
Blooming desire no control
Carry me higher I'm a sick man
What is real inside this world I live
These urges never to repress
Who am I where do I run to
These urges never to repress
Words in my head never to be spoken
This secret I hold a monstrosity
I know guilt and I know morality
But I know I can't be stoped
Blooming desire no control
Carry me higher I'm a sick man
What is real inside this world I live
These urges never to repress
Who am I where do I run to