[Audio] Ethics and Morality, without Religion
Mon, 01/18/2010 - 22:32 >> CausalCrunch
From MPR Broadcast: Midmorning, 01/18/2010, 9:06 a.m.
The humanist chaplain at Harvard preaches on living an ethical life without belief in God as the underpinning. His new book explores why people manage to do good without belief in a deity.
Guests
* Greg Epstein: Author of "Good Without God." He's the humanist chaplain for Harvard University.
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Study: Cleaners 'worth more to society' than bankers
Sun, 01/03/2010 - 02:47 >> CausalCrunch
By Martin Shankleman, Employment correspondent, BBC News
Hospital cleaners steaming beds in a hospital
Hospital cleaners play a vital role, the study found
Hospital cleaners are worth more to society than bankers, a study suggests.
The research, carried out by think tank the New Economics Foundation, says hospital cleaners create £10 of value for every £1 they are paid.
It claims bankers are a drain on the country because of the damage they caused to the global economy.
They reportedly destroy £7 of value for every £1 they earn. Meanwhile, senior advertising executives are said to "create stress".
The study says they are responsible for campaigns which create dissatisfaction and misery, and encourage over-consumption.
Waste recycling worker standing by a pile of plastic bottles
Waste workers promote recycling, researchers note
And tax accountants damage the country by devising schemes to cut the amount of money available to the government, the research suggests.
By contrast, child minders and waste recyclers are also doing jobs that create net wealth to the country. ... Read more
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An Alternative to Capitalism
Fri, 10/23/2009 - 16:48 >> ineptsegueConservatives often point to badly designed governmental systems as evidence that government in itself is by necessity a bad thing and that some relatively unregulated form of capitalism works better. These conservative critics are certainly correct that capitalism is very far from the worst possible system that we could create. They are also correct that there many possible systems that would use government to do even more terrible things than generally occur under laissez-faire. However, it is a giant leap from this position to the notion that no systems can use government to benefit people, or indeed the position that no system can use government to serve the interests of people better than capitalism. It would be far more reasonable to say that we should be wary of the many forms of government that are ineffective even as we embrace evidence-based systems of governance that actually function to benefit people. ... Read more
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Study: Gun ownership not helpful in assault or at home, increases risk of death
Thu, 10/01/2009 - 11:02 >> CausalCrunch
ScienceDaily (Sep. 30, 2009) -- In a first-of its-kind study, epidemiologists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that, on average, guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault. The study estimated that people with a gun were 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault than those not possessing a gun.
The study was released online this month in the American Journal of Public Health, in advance of print publication in November 2009.
“This study helps resolve the long-standing debate about whether guns are protective or perilous,” notes study author Charles C. Branas, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology. “Will possessing a firearm always safeguard against harm or will it promote a false sense of security?”
Continue Reading at ScienceDaily (Sep. 30, 2009)
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Study: U.S. Torture Gathers Faulty Intel
Tue, 09/22/2009 - 10:42 >> CausalCrunch
ScienceDaily (Sep. 22, 2009) -- According to a new review of neuroscientific research, coercive interrogation techniques used during the Bush administration to extract information from terrorist suspects are likely to have been unsuccessful and may have had many unintended negative effects on the suspect's memory and brain functions.
A new article, published in the journal, Trends in Cognitive Science, reviews scientific evidence demonstrating that repeated and extreme stress and anxiety have a detrimental influence on brain functions related to memory. ... Read more
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Criminalization of Dissent: Unlawful Arrests at the RNC One Year Later
Mon, 09/14/2009 - 18:47 >> ineptsegueA show and tell of ineptsegue's (my) arrest while protesting peacefully at the RNC, one year after being detained all night without justification.
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[Audio] Linguist George Lakoff discusses political language
Sun, 08/16/2009 - 23:20 >> CausalCrunch
MPR -- George Lakoff, professor of cognitive linguistics at the Univeristy of California, Berkeley and author of "The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientist's Guide to Your Brain and Its Politics," discusses the use of language in politics.
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We are an online community of passionate, thoughtful people who believe that the consistent application of reason leads to a secular, progressive, naturalistic, and compassionate philosophy of life. We hold that all beings share an interest in their own happiness, and that compassion for others is often instrumental in attaining happiness. We also hold that incorporating compassion into our social, cultural, governmental, and political systems is the key to creating a society that is maximally free and fair to all beings. Though we reject the idea that there is any utopian cure for our world's ills, we believe that better solutions to complex problems can be found by using science and research in an effort to understand causes and consequences. [more]
We also recognize that for most people, including ourselves, conflicts between compassion and self-interest exist, and that living ethically can be difficult. As a partial remedy, we join together as members of a supportive community to pursue not only the happiness of others, but also our own.
While Beingism's most fundamental premises as described above are unlikely to change, our philosophy is organic, evolving as its adherents and debaters discuss it. We welcome new ideas, just as we welcome new members to our community. Join us for discussion and debate, activism and aid.
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Beingism is a philosophy of life based on rationality and compassion for oneself and others. It is nondogmatic, progressive, and atheistic.
You might be a Beingist if you believe:
- Reason and science are our best means of understanding the universe.
- Everything that exists is natural -- nothing is supernatural.
- Ethical values are subjective, but nevertheless very important to people.
- There's no such thing as free will, and causality appears to play a significant role in the way our world operates.
Other premises include:
- Everyone wants to be happy and have a fulfilling life.
- A belief in free will as it is commonly understood is a major barrier to compassion and
- Although suffering is sometimes unavoidable, no one deserves to feel pain.
- People are generally more likely to be happy in a culture where power and control are shared together rather than held by elites.
- We all benefit to some extent from the success of others, and with effort and patience, society can be structured such that this is even more the case.
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Beingism's Purpose
Our mission is to establish a coherent vision of ethical behavior and social activism for people disinclined to accept religious and faith-based philosophies of life, and to further it by creating community and developing new and enjoyable ways of changing the world for the better.
It may be that nonreligious individuals are less likely to form communities than their religious counterparts. Certainly, the lack of a preexisting community (such as an established church) is a relative hindrance to community-building. No doubt also willingness to question pervasive societal norms, particularly when they are part of belief systems from which most people derive emotional, social, and/or financial support, probably tends to accompany an individualistic (rather than community-oriented) approach to life. In addition, social stigma reduces the community resources available to nonreligious people, both financially (e.g. nonreligious institutions are not given the same financial benefits as faith-based organizations) and socially (e.g., fear of discrimination leads to increased difficulty in reaching out to find others with similar values). Unfortunately, these factors have fractured communities of nonreligious people, making it extremely difficult for them to agree upon or articulate a positive vision for the future, or to create social change. This lack of community also leads religious communities to conclude that nonreligious people are without ethics.
When we say that we're "nonreligious," "agnostic," "atheist," or "unbelieving," we're really only saying what we aren't. These words certainly reflect an aspect of our identity, but we can be (and we are) much more than this: We are a community of people with many shared ideas and values, including reason, happiness, and compassion.
Creating the social change these values ask of us isn't always easy. Powerful forces oppose it, and devoting effort to creating change may mean hard work helping others or engaging in activism. It may mean giving up the time to do other fun activities. Sometimes it means being stigmatized by ideological enemies as unpatriotic, weak, contrary, or worse. And even if we don't fear wasting our efforts or being criticized, we may simply not know how to go about it by ourselves.
By working together, we can avoid many of these problems. By doing so, we not only get closer to creating the kind of society we want to live in, we also find ways to enjoy the process. By unleashing our creativity and passion in the common pursuit of a well-chosen goal, and by finding whatever connections between us as we may, we make it exciting and enjoyable. The point is that we can be ourselves -- and change the world.