Posted inBooks Morality

Quotations from “Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic”

l am loving Matthew Stewart's brilliantly written book, Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic. It demolishes the absurd oft-heard claims that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. Yet it is difficult to summarize Stewart's arguments why this is untrue. "Nature's God," which I'm about 2/3 through, is a complex blend of history and philosophy. It isn't enough to simply say that this country was founded by deists, not theists.  Yes, this is true. But to understand the book's subtitle, "The Heretical Origins of the American Republic," not surprisingly requires Stewart to journey through a…
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Posted inMorality

What if…? (questions for religious believers)

Believers in God deserve to have the What if...? gambit turned back upon them. They enjoy telling atheists, agnostics, and other non-believers in a supernatural divinity that nasty things await them -- hell, for instance. Failing to accept the reality of a world beyond this one supposedly leads to undesirable consequences (in this life and an imagined next one). But what if the atheists are right and believers are wrong? This is extremely likely, as I noted in last year's "Religious believers, what if you're wrong?" That post includes some quotes from a book by James Lindsay, "God Doesn't; We…
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Posted inMorality

Values end up being justified by nothing

Having finished Todd May's book, "A Significant Life: Human Meaning in a Silent Universe," I left an Amazon reader review titled Best "Meaning of Life" book I've ever read.  That's high praise, since I've read a lot of them. Philosophical, spiritual, psychological, mystical, religious, scientific, political, environmental.  May's book has resonated with me more than any other. Maybe it is because "A Significant Life" is the most recent one I've read. But I don't think that's the reason. Rather, May delves into issues that have always fascinated me, explicating them in a fresh and appealing manner. For example... Whether we're speaking…
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Posted inMorality Religions

Religious ridiculousness: men refusing to sit next to women on planes

Rather than the so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act, legislatures in the United States should get busy passing Freedom from Religion bills. After all, to me (and many others) religiosity is a relationship between an individual and his/her imagined divinity. It's a matter of personal belief, which I have no problem with. Believe whatever you want, so long as you don't interfere with the right of other people to believe as they want.  Unfortunately, all too often religion becomes a matter of outward action, rather than inner belief. And not private actions, but public ones that affect other people. Case in…
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Posted inMorality Religions

Religious people have no right to discriminate against gays

Oh, man. As if I needed another reason to hate religious bigotry. But there it was, couldn't be ignored... a New York Times story that got my moral blood boiling: "Anticipating Nationwide Right to Same-Sex Marriage, States Weigh Religious Exemption Bills." So what do these religious jerks want to be exempted from? Treating homosexual people with the same dignity and respect due everybody else.  As it looks increasingly likely that the Supreme Court will establish a nationwide right to same-sex marriage later this year, state legislatures across the country are taking up bills that would make it easier for businesses and individuals to opt…
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Posted inBooks Morality

Ten modern atheist non-commandments

A few months ago I wrote about Lex Bayer's and John Figdor's atheist manifesto in "Halfway through 'Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart,' I love this book." Having finished it, here's their full list of ten non-commandments (I'd only gotten to six at the time of my first blog post). 1.  The world is real, and our desire to understand the world is the basis for belief.2.  We can perceive the world only through our human senses.3.  We use rational thought and language as tools for understanding the world.4.  All truth is proportional to the evidence.5.  There is no God.6.  We all…
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Posted inMiscellaneous Morality

Once again, I praise a New Year’s resolution of… nothing

I'm on a five-year nothing roll when it comes to New Year's resolutions. Of course, there's always something more to say about nothing, so I'll do just that after sharing links to my previous paeans to irresolution. 2010: "New Year's enlightenment resolution: nothing"2011: "Don't make resolutions for the New Year -- just live it."2012: "'Nothing' is my spiritual resolution for the New Year"2013:  "Thanks, godless heathens, for a good blog year"2014: "Brains are us: a fresh thought for a New Year" (Yes, I managed to squeeze some thoughts about nothing into the 2013 and 2014 posts.) This year one of…
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Posted inMorality Science

Free will believers like Eddy Nahmias make no sense

I firmly believe that free will doesn't exist. (See here, here, and here, among my many posts on this subject.) To me, and many others who consider that any "free will" worthy of that name should be really free, articles like Eddy Nahmias' Why we have free will in the most recent issue of Scientific American rest on an absurd proposition.  Namias basically argues that because conscious thinking affects our behavior, this points to free will. In other words, our actions aren't solely controlled by unconscious brain processes. He says: A body of psychological research shows that conscious, purposeful processing…
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Posted inMorality

Why I feel killing animals for sport is wrong

I just wrote a post on my other blog, "Why a photo of a dead deer makes me feel hunting is wrong." The post includes thoughts about the nature of consciousness, the value of wildness, and such. Give it a read.  Here's an excerpt. It bothers me when people de-animalize themselves. Humans are animals. After billions of years of evolution, we are related to every other living entity, including bacteria, insects, fish, and other animals. There isn't any sort of gulf or divide between us and them. Life on earth is a continuum. I've read a lot of books about…
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Posted inMorality

Meaning isn’t outside or inside us. It is in-between.

I'm a fan of David Chapman's Meaningness site. I haven't read all of Chapman's writings, but what I've perused has impressed me.  (See my 2011 post, "David Chapman's dizzying writings on Meaningness and Buddhism.") Recently he sent out an email to those who have signed up to get updates on changes to his site. Chapman included a link to his page So how does Meaningness work?  I may have read it before. Regardless, I enjoyed reading it again. The writing is clear; the reasoning persuasive. Here's an excerpt: The natural human view is that meanings are inherent in external things. Thunder…
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Posted inMorality Reality

Meaning of life is whatever you find meaningful

What is the meaning of life? I used to think this was an important question. Heck, maybe the only question worth seriously pursuing an answer to. Why? Because once the question was answered, I'd know what were the most important things to do in life. (Which, though I didn't ponder this at the time, had damn well better include "search for the meaning of life," or I was seriously screwed.) Now I'm not nearly as interested in thinking about the meaning of life. I'm actually living a meaningful life -- much preferable to wondering what one might consist of. A few…
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Posted inMorality

Petraeus affair reminds us that lust is the force of life

I love The New Yorker. No, more. I lust for it. When it arrives in the mail each week I feel tingly. Gazing fondly upon the cover image, I fondle the table of contents, looking forward to that magic moment when I'll fill up our bathtub with hot water, pour a glass of red wine, and slip into the dual liquid sensuousness with a magazine that features marvelous writers. Such as Adam Gopnik, who wrote a piece in the November 26, 2012 issue that spoke about General Petraeus' affair, and sexual morality in general, in a way that make me…
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Posted inFree will Morality

Sam Harris explains how life is good without free will

Free will. Who needs it? Not me. Not you. Not Sam Harris. Not anybody.  Which is a good thing. Because almost certainly free will doesn't exist. So it's good news, and unsurprising news, that something humans don't have isn't necessary to live a satisfying life. Harris is an excellent writer and thinker. Read his "Life Without Free Will." If you're under the illusion that you're free to do whatever you decide to do, his piece will reassure you that's it's fine to give up that unsubsantiated belief. I particularly liked this section of the essay. In my view, the reality of…
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Posted inMorality Spiritual practice/meditation

Open up to life, fearlessly, not leaning on religion

Openness. Could this be the key that unlocks the happiness door? And keeps it (no big surprise)... open!  So says Michael Singer in his intriguing book, "The Untethered Soul," which I've blogged about here and here. I re-read the chapter on transcending the tendency to close this morning. Liked it the second time as much as the first. Singer says that us humans used to mostly worry about physical danger. With saber-toothed tigers safely extinct, psychological threats are our biggest concern now. As a result, the protective energies have adapted toward defending the individual psychologically. rather than physiologically. We now experience…
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Posted inMorality

Moral relativism linked with openness to experience

By and large, I'm a moral relativist. This fits with my irreligious inclinations. I don't believe in the Ten Commandments, or any set of moral codes that supposedly emanated from a divine, supernatural, or more-than-human source. I think Sam Harris got it mostly right in his book, "The Moral Landscape." Even though I lean toward moral relativism, I agree with Harris that human flourishing is the standard by which moral decisions should be made. He writes: Meaning, values, morality, and the good life must relate to facts about the well-being of conscious creatures -- and, in our case, must lawfully…
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Posted inMorality Radha Soami Satsang Beas Religions

Religion is wrong, but it feels right to believers

So how is it that religious beliefs are almost certainly wrong, yet the vast majority of people in the world accept them? What makes religiosity so attractive?  A central theme of my previous post, New Scientist looks at the science of religion, is that belief in the supernatural comes naturally to humans. Early on in childhood development we understand that "agents" with desires, intentions, and a consciousness like our own exist even though we can't perceive these beings. It isn't much of a jump to divine unseen agents, gods and other entities. But after listening to a Point of Inquiry…
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Posted inFree will Morality Science

Free will is a limiting, destructive belief

Free will. Who could be against this seemingly wonderful notion? The opposite idea seems to be a depressing downer: Unfree determinism.  After I'd read the first part of Sam Harris' new book, "Free Will," I shared my enthusiasm with my wife about giving up the belief that I can freely decide what I think, feel, or do. She wasn't nearly as enthused, perhaps because of her lengthy experience as a psychotherapist. "But wouldn't people then use I've got no free will as an excuse for doing whatever they want? And wouldn't this take away people's motivation to change, to improve…
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Posted inMorality Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Kierkegaard and crazy leaps of faith

Recently I listened to a Philosophy Talk podcast about Soren Kierkegaard, a dour 19th century Danish philosopher. I read some Kierkegaard back in college, many years ago. At that time I was into crazy existentialists, loving how they embraced the meaninglessness of life. Now, I see Kierkegaard as simply crazy -- without many, if any, redeeming philosophical qualities that balance his insane defense of religious leaps of faith. The podcast focused on Kierkegaard's take on the Old Testament tale of Abraham and Isaac, as discussed in his book "Fear and Trembling." According to Wikipedia: Kierkegaard wanted to understand the anxiety that…
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Posted inMorality

If a magic pill makes me happy, is my happiness real?

Does happiness need to be deserved to be genuine? Here's one person, virtuous, moral, ethical. She's kind and generous. Volunteers at her kid's school. Helps out at the homeless shelter. Prays, meditates, goes to church. All this do-gooding and God-praising makes her happy. We know, because she scores high on reputable psychological tests that measure happiness. And when she's put in a brain scanner and asked to think about her good works, her left prefrontal cortex "lights up," which is an indicator of a positive mental state. Here's another person, a gangster. He's sociopathic, vicious, mean, law-breaking. After stealing some high-tech…
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Posted inFree will Morality Science

There’s no free will, so you’re unable to believe me

I gave it my best try last night -- arguing that we humans don't have free will, though it seems ever so obvious that we do. (Of course, it also seems obvious that the sun goes around the Earth, which demolishes the "obviousness" argument for anything.) My wife and I belong to a three-couple book/article discussion group. Yesterday the subject was the justice system. When it came time for me to share my thoughts, I started off by quoting from Jerry Coyne's column in USA Today, "Why you don't really have free will." The issue of whether we have of…
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