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POPSCulpable Ignorance It takes less arrogance to say that we have a variety of important issues – from the future collapse of social security, to global warming, to a struggling economy, to poor education, and to simply add, "I don’t know which one is the most important, which is why I want somebody with sufficient breadth of knowledge to deal with all of them."
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POPSBad Desires Desires that thwart other desires of the agent The suicide bomber, or even the holy soldier whose desire to serve some god is strong enough to motivate him to risk injury or death Desires that tend to thwart the desires of others Opposition to embryonic stem-cell research, the teaching of ‘intelligent design’ (promoting an ignorance of evolution), adding misery to the lives of homosexuals, inhibiting the education of women, inhibitions on free speech and the free exchange of ideas Desires that cannot be fulfilled A parent with a desire that his children be healthy and happy will act in ways in which he believes will bring them health and happiness. However, the only acts that have real value are those that generate true health and happiness. If an act harms his children, even though he acted with the best intentions, the fact that his children were harmed means that this is an act he has reason to wish he had never performed
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POPSThe Miracle of Science anybody can have false beliefs that make them a threat to the life, health, and well-being of others. Certain religious beliefs are simply a subset of these. The true problem is not religion. The true problem is beliefs that make one a threat to the well-being of others; religious and non-religious alike. However, when it comes to saving lives, promoting good health, and improving well-being, scientific investigation has in the past shown itself to be far more useful than prayer and faith. Any person truly interested in promoting life, health, and well-being will have good reason to go with what works.
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POPSThe Myth of Secular Moral Chaos - Sam Harris As a source of objective morality, the Bible is one of the worst books we have. It might be the very worst, in fact—if we didn’t also happen to have the Qur’an. It is important to point out that we decide what is good in the Good Book. We read the Golden Rule and judge it to be a brilliant distillation of many of our ethical impulses; we read that a woman found not to be a virgin on her wedding night should be stoned to death, and we (if we are civilized) decide that this is the most vile lunacy imaginable. Our own ethical intuitions are, therefore, primary. So the choice before us is simple: we can either have a twenty-first-century conversation about ethics—availing ourselves of all the arguments and scientific insights that have accumulated in the last two thousand years of human discourse—or we can confine ourselves to a first-century conversation as it is preserved in the Bible.
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POPS'Good' and 'Should' I had to read this several times for it to make sense. The question I hear all the time is where do I get my morality from without god. Hopefully this helps.
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POPSTolerance vs. Intolerance Doctor 1: "I believe that the problem is focused on your gall bladder. We are going to have to remove it." Doctor 2: "No! The evidence clearly shows that this condition is caused by a bacteria. We should start the patient on antibiotics" Doctor 1: "I do not see why you militant bacterialists simply refuse to tolerate the opinions of us defective organists. We have as much of a right to our opinion as you do. We have a sick patient here. We should learn to tolerate each other's beliefs and work together." I don't know about you, but as soon as I heard Doctor 1 make that statement, I'm firing him as my doctor. Clearly, he does not understand what medicine is about and that treating a patient involves finding the best treatment based on the available evidence.
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POPSBush's New Moral Order Every moral tradition has a test for virtue that asks the agent to measure the rightness or wrongness of an option by asking, “What would you have others do unto you?”
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POPSA Call to Action This is my favorite post from Alonso Fyfe, who blogs at Atheist Ethicist . I run into people all the time who tell me "I'm a Christian and I'm for stem cell research" or "I'm a Christian and believe in Evolution" or "I'm a Christian and I don't have a problem with homosexuals". Then speak up! Stand up to the Robertsons and Dobsons and let them know it is wrong.
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POPSMistakes and Character These are people who profit in the marketing of hate. They sell hate for cash contributions, so that they can manufacture more hate, and sell it to raise more money. It does not matter to the hate monger whether his advertising campaign contains truth or fiction. It only matters whether it is useful – whether it increases sales, revenue, and profits – profits that come in the form of money and power. This we get from people who claim that their religion gives them true virtue.
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POPSGen. Pace, Homophobia is Only Part of the Problem On the off chance that you somehow missed this story, this is what General Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during an interview with the Chicago Tribune on March 12: "My upbringing is such that I believe there are certain things, certain types of conduct, that are immoral. ... I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts."
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POPSBigotry: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Today’s post was adapted from an article that appeared in the Chicago Tribune: “Don't drop `don't ask, don't tell,' Pace says” By Aamer Madhani, Tribune national correspondent, March 13, 2007.
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