Category Archives: Morality
John Lewis: character matters
My wife and I awoke to news that Congressman John Robert Lewis, a hero of the Civil Rights movement, had died in the night. An indefatigable warrior for racial equality and common decency, John Lewis had kept up his struggle … Continue reading
. . . . with freedom and justice for all
Included below are the words of the next-highest official both authorized and sufficiently informed to speak for the Confederate States of America (CSA), Vice President Alexander Stephens. It may strike you as contrary to the picture of a noble southern … Continue reading
The lethal cost of playing with guns
March has marched in like a lion. Our shameful president is busily destroying America’s institutions. House and Senate Republicans continue to negligently ride a tiger of their own making. The NRA owns our elections even more than Russia. America’s international … Continue reading
America has too few dead kids
Our politicians make sycophantic speeches and announce that “something must be done,” but decide it must not be by them. Our Congress and the president are ostensibly waiting until the numbers get high enough, unconcerned that while scores are killed, … Continue reading
Men and #MeToo
In evolutionary biology, significant changes are normally thought of as gradual over incredibly lengthy periods. Yet sometimes major changes—according to some biologists like the late Jay Gould—occur quickly though infrequently, called in theory “punctuated equilibrium.” Political and social phenomena can … Continue reading
Religion and Gays as “the Others”
We often fail to incorporate scientific learning into social improvement. Consider sociology’s concept of the “Other” and our vulnerability to the dynamics it explains. By vulnerability, I mean our tendency in actual instances of dealing with those we don’t understand … Continue reading
Variations in morality
As author of this blog, I pay attention to readers’ comments and occasionally reply to them. As a policy, however, I’ve chosen not to use the posts themselves to interact with any one person, notwithstanding that readers’ comments have occasionally … Continue reading
Sunday at church on Gay Pride day
My wife and I went to church a couple of months ago; a rare experience for us both. Invited by close Canadian friends in Toronto, we attended the Sunday morning service of their liberal Protestant congregation. We were honored to … Continue reading
The immorality of religion’s morality
Religious people in the major religions regularly contend that authoritative morality comes exclusively from whatever god they espouse. Religion-based moral codes do contain some sensible rules of behavior, but are awash in shibboleths more damaging than helpful. In terms of … Continue reading
Christian lying
Is a large segment of Christianity culturally addicted to lying? I don’t mean the unproven and unprovable foundation on which all religions are built, such as utter faith without evidence in a myriad of meticulous propositions about supernatural beings and forces. … Continue reading
Secular humanism goes beyond atheism
Many of my blog posts concern atheism or atheism’s relationship with theism. It would be understandable to think that my major identity is atheist. But it is not. My major identity is secular humanist. Unfortunately, in the United States if … Continue reading
Christian bullying (Part 2)
This the second of a two part series on Christian bullying. In case you missed Part 1, here are excerpts to set the stage for Part 2: Our country was designed to accommodate citizens of whatever convictions about religion, with … Continue reading
Christian bullying (Part 1)
It’s in the nature of many religions to bully those outside religion in general and even outside their own specific faith. Christianity and Islam are the worst offenders. Examples abound through history: Catholics versus Protestants, Shia versus Sunni, and religious … Continue reading
What good are Christian soldiers without an enemy?
Christians, most of whom are well meaning, seem unable to grasp how bullying it is to use the power of government to support their views. Christians, like Muslims, Jews, Atheists, and all else are totally free to practice and argue … Continue reading
Lust still OK, damaging sentient beings is not
I wrote in a recent post (”Lust,” June 16, 2015) that “Lust and damaging other people in the presence of lust are separable issues.” Naively, that statement seemed to me to be so simple and straightforward as hardly to merit … Continue reading
Lust
OK, relax. This post comes with words only, no pictures Let’s consider lust. Not the symbolic sort like that for power and money—the lust I have in mind is the original type: desire for a sexual partner. What got me … Continue reading
The moral neutrality of extramarital sex
In my most recent post, I compared “revealed truth” (ostensibly divinely imposed) morals with those developed without feigned divine commands, the latter being based on minimizing the damage each of us might do to the “survival and flourishing of sentient … Continue reading
Morality in secular humanism
When I’d been an atheist for no more than two years, one of my sisters put this question to the 22 year old me: “Even if you believe there’s no God, how can you not believe Christianity offers the highest … Continue reading
The sin of sin
I’ve been pondering sin lately—not sinning (as in a pastime), but sin (the concept). In short, it is a primitive and ridiculous idea. Besides leading to burdensome, unnecessary guilt, it impedes ethical progress. In other words, sin itself is a … Continue reading
Sin
I’ve been pondering sin lately—not sinning, but sin—and how primitive and downright ridiculous the idea of sin is: besides leading to burdensome, unnecessary guilt, it impedes ethical progress of humanity. Sin is a religious notion. It’s part of various religions’ … Continue reading
Is secular humanism a religion?
It is not uncommon for people to use atheism and secular humanism interchangeably. Both are vociferously condemned by the faithful; it is not clear that they know the difference. Atheism has little philosophical content. We humans come into the world … Continue reading
Morality is too important to be left to religion
What is the most important attribute of human societies? Among the important are inquisitiveness, sense of beauty, technical cleverness, and affectionate bonding. I am musing about that this rainy morning in Atlanta; maybe that’s what rainy days are for. My … Continue reading
The Big Ten (no, not university sports)
What tragedies, social dysfunctions, and evil trends would be prevented if only American schools, courts, city councils, and the public square would post the Ten Commandments . . . or so the faithful—and, curiously, the not so faithful as well—would … Continue reading
John just thinking . . . . 