Morality

What does morality mean? How do you understand morality? Is it one of the most significant values every person should have?   You have a brilliant opportunity to answer these questions and express your ideas about morality while preparing an essay on morality.   Essays on morality aim to discuss a certain problem related to the issue of morality [...]

"The dogma of Christianity gets worn away before the advances of science."--Adolf HitlerThis is not the beginning of a reductio ad Hitlerum. I will not be attempting here to argue that Christianity is good and science bad because Hitler hated the one and championed (in his own depraved way) the other. But I came across this quotation in Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism, and it triggered some assoc

Jim Berkley, formerly of the IRD, now writes columns for the LayMAN and he posts occasionally on his blog. On his latest post he gloats that nine presbyteries have voted no on the passage of the new amendment B. So far no presbyteries have voted in favor.This is no surprise. All of these presbyteries are conservative and always vote the wrong way on these measures. The strategy of the conserva

What Ever Happened To Morality, Especially When Kids Are Watching?I have gotten used to E.D. commercials morning, noon and night when young kids are watching T.V., and they are wondering what an erection is, why it would last more than four hours, why the sink handle is falling off and spurting water into the air, why the couple is going into the bedroom and shutting the door, why these people are

What is good? What is bad? What is right? What is wrong? We as a society and you as an individual have preconceived notions of these concepts. But in reality, they are just concepts. They have no existence in the world outside of what we think. Morality is so relative. There's nothing absolute about it at all.To illustrate this point; take how what we consider being right and wrong and spreading t

Image by ruSSeLL hiGGs via FlickrAmong the many accusations some Christians direct toward atheists is the notion that we are immoral. Without belief in their god and their bible, they argue, we have no moral foundation. And yet, a belief system which includes the expectation that the majority of the world's population will suffer the horrors of their hell while a select few are magically transport

I read with much anger about the China baby milk scandal. My first thought is: What is it with these people? Have they no ethics that all ends to profit would justify the putting of melanin in milk powder?!!The latest is that the food scandal would affect not just milk powder but harmful substance could also be found in ice creams and other China products! That is the last straw that any foodstuff

In nonduality, what basis is there for morality and ethics? Where does morality come in? These have been questions I get periodically over the years and so I thought it would be a good subject. In this episode we will delve into these questions. Website - Namaste, ~ Eric Putkonen

Doing a stint at AOTP, our friend Cernig (of Newshoggers reknown) has a truly beautiful post on the history of what is perjoratively called moral relativism, and what it can teach us about the shared history of classical American political thought ranging from libertarianism to liberalism to Burkean conservatism to anarchism. Cernig's piece comes remarkably close to my own views, and is the very

- Various Atheist Symbols/Signs found on the web. I take no credit for any of these. I am writing this because I recently heard a story, of a man who refused to be baptized. The wife, the children, were all baptized, but he refused to do so. The reason? You’re going to love this. The reason is because he thinks that it is absurd to be ‘donating’ 20% of his salary to the church. Oh yes, the

I don't know about you, dear reader, but I like some privacy when I visit the porn store. The idea of my friends, family, employer, and co-workers knowing about it is not particularly appealing. I guess it is understandable that I am not impressed with the group of Indiana Christians taking photographs of porn store patrons and then posting them on a public website. Their goal is to drive customer

Is it intrinsically wrong to take drugs for fun? The Nurse - locked away in her damp, moss walled sub-basement cell - is engaged in an ongoing fight for logic, common sense and clear thinking. She fervently hopes that her efforts might, in some small way, stem the relentless tide of idiocy and hysteria that permeates Western society. After all, one day she might be released… and [.

Government and media outlets are busy these days. Constantly trying to put spins on how being nice makes us a higher moral being than our enemies who are just misunderstood malcontents. The Israeli media is full of commentary justifying the recent exchange of a live terrorist for dead bodies. This is nothing new. The American media has been busy trying to claim a moral high ground of its own.

Gay[s] want equal rights. The once beautiful word used by Homosexuals to describe themselves, which means, carefree and happy has been hijacked to purport a sinful lifestyle. I have always made it clear that I do not hate Homosexuals, but I do hate their sinful lifestyle. Their lifestyle is an abomination [...]

Adriano Galliani, whose name pops up here more frequently than it really ought to, has told Italian TV that he has a letter from Arsenal that suggests the sale of Emmanuel Adebayor is going to happen. According to the Man from Milan the missive said that Arsenal were now prepared to enter into negotiations over [...]

From www.TheBlackAtheist.comTwo of the most common arguments in favor of the existence of God—or against atheism— are: 1. God gives us morality, 2. without religion people would be immoral. These arguments, which are essentially one in the same, are illogical and ill-informed on several counts. Nonetheless, this type of thinking permeates so much of our culture. We can approach, and subsequent

Read this story about a brave lady who caught a thief in his act. Seems she has a knack for catching thieves while they are mighty busy deciding what to shove into their cloth. What’s amazing is that... This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more!

Anymore,  it is like shooting fish in a barrel with these guys… You know that unidentified estranged wife of a Reno doctor that the governor of Nevada is not having an affair with? Well, during one month last year he exchanged 850 text messages with her phone from his official state phone, at 15 cents per. It's all part of an increasingly messy divorce after 22 years between the 6

Pakatan Rakyat leader Anwar Ibrahim has defended the morality of inviting Barisan Nasional representatives to form the next federal government.At a press conference in Petaling Jaya today, thetone and atmosphere changed when questions were thrown at him about the morality and ethics of crossovers.At the start of the press conference, Anwar delivered a briefstatement, saying he welcomed the submiss

Glenn Beck CNN Headline NewsJack Thompson is in Pt.2 if you want to skip ahead.

I had a discussion briefly with several atheists on other blog that fancied themselves critics of Ayn Rand and Objectivism.   The blog-owner himself claimed that he had been an Objectivist for seven years, before realising the philosophy was flawed.  One of his reasons for rejecting Objectivism was of its notion of intrinsic values.  Later on, he [...]

A video presentation by Aspirin99As part of my graduate program, I'm taking a Rhetorical Theory class. For the last assignment, I was asked to take something I had previously written and improve it using principles we had studied.I chose Rogerian Argument. This principle is suggested for debating topics of hot emotional content, such as religion and politics. It seeks to place the opponent at ease by telling him or her what you like about their views and then finding common ground from which to start the discussion.I chose to take correspondence regarding Creationism and turn it into a Rogerian documentary video. I enlisted the help of Antlerman, a mod in the forums, to do some of the voice-overs.It's an hour-long documentary that I made in two weeks; so, it's not perfect, but I think you'

From the book of Judges, chapter 19: 20 “You are welcome at my house,” the old man said. “Let me supply whatever you need. Only don’t spend the night in the square.” 21 So he took him into his house and fed his donkeys. After they had washed their feet, they had something to eat and drink. 22 [...]

'Morals' comes from the Latin mores meaning 'customs'. It referred to what people usually did. It was, at the time, customary to have household deities, and give divine respect to certain emperors. It was immoral to show divine respect to a foreign rebel leader from a small province who had been executed by the will of his fellow men (renamed by us as Jesus, but not a name he would have been familiar with). 'Ethics' comes from the Greek for 'customs' - again it is referring to customary behaviour, but the Greeks did reflect a little more on what was the right thing to do. In their case it would be true that what Socrates was doing, getting young men to question traditional views, was would definitely be unethical in the sense of contrary to custom.In Buddhism there is the term Sila wh

  The media spotlight the past few days has been on Eliot Spitzer, the Governor of New York, and his link to the Emperor’s Club VIP prostitution ring. Whether his damaging behavior is related to an inflated sense relationships

The sexual morality ship is fast sinking and taking millions of people with it. If you think the sinking of the Titanic was a disaster, this ship is sinking faster and taking more people with it than the former. And worse, it is also sending many millions to the bottomless pit called “hell”! Parents in California [...]

I've been kicking around the idea of how a lot of "green" activities are actually also morally upright. I sort of alluded to this in my previous post when I complained how not composting seems wrong in the face of soil degradation that can be linked with famine and may increasingly be so in the future.It's an interesting idea because a lot of religious organizations and movements seem to feel threatened by the green movement (though that's changing rapidly) because it seems to them to smack of something pagan, or worshiping the "Creation" instead of the Creator. I'm a spiritual person. I was raised Christian-ish. I don't think there's any disconnect between Christianity and having green values. When we protect our environment, we generally protect ourselves. When we make sure nutrients are

Tim Hames criticises the government's reported intentions to tactically increase tax on alcohol, specifically to attack "middle class wine drinkers". He asks whether the damage of stay-at-home 'binging' is a severe as crawling around the streets at 3am, and whether increasing taxation is justified or whether it is simply an excuse to increase revenue: It is also a fraudulent exercise in terms of policy. What supposed harm are “middle-class wine drinkers” doing to the rest of society? Is there any evidence that drunken fights on the streets at 3am on a Saturday are between two accountants who have hit the Châteauneuf-du-Pape too vigorously? Is the vomit in which the Daily Mail claims that Britain wades a result of 24-hour chablis bingeing? No, it is not. The middle classes, like everyo

Thanks to Brand New Atheist for discovering these videos.In these two short videos are described a few of the problems with theistic based morality. These videos suggest how one can be moral and a non-believer.Part IPart II

A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it. Alexis de Tocqueville All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it. Alexis de Tocqueville America is great because she [...]

Philosophy teacher Dan Harkin explains how he came to appreciate the value of Kant

The blogger holds the same view expressed here towards all, the Madhesis, Pahadis, so-called Janajatis, etc…whatever ‘label’ they like to be recognized with. This post’s focus... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

There are a couple of things going on here that get under my skin. First, what kind of ass wanders around with a camera trying to catch people having sex? Honestly, the terms ‘pervert’ and ‘peeping tom’ come mind. Second, watch the film through to the end. Lewd behavior too close to a church is a [...]

“Man will become better when you show him what he is like.” - Anton Chekhov Our modern culture highly values our rationality. Genius, seemingly defined as those with great accomplishment, is highly celebrated by our culture, if not by income, at least by notoriety. Our emotionality, on the other hand, seems to get attributed with causing many of the problems our culture finds criminal. Rage is said to have led to many murders, domestic abuse, child abuse and greed to theft and fraud for a couple of examples. Combining genius and emotional disturbance however seems to characterize those that gain infamy in the history books. Hitler and Stalin come to mind. We are part rational, part emotional. From my clinical experience, we are unable to separate the two effectively. In other words,

Okay, so it's been a while since my last post. This has had nothing to do with the unhappiness at work that had previously coincided with my absences from blogging. I'm between full-time jobs, and I've been working more hours at the book store in the meantime. I've actually been having a blast! Working in retail during the holiday season provides a bizarre sort of thrill, and I've enjoyed it immensely. The new job starts in about a week.I believe it was the day after my last post that Mitt Romney gave the world his fantastic speech about how his religion would or would not influence him as president. From what I heard, he really gave a stirring, impassioned, convincing, honest, and reassuring speech. Really great! Congratulations, Mitt.However, as magnificent as his speech was, he made it

By Ben SteinLong ago, when asked what the stock market would do, the famous financier J.P. Morgan, said, "It will fluctuate." How right he was, and how clearly we're seeing it recently.The stock market has been on a wild descent, then a wild ascent, then a wild descent again. What to do, what to do?Plenty of LiquidsLet me start with an anecdote. A few days ago, I had lunch with an old friend and her husband, who's a mortgage lender and builder of spec homes in Orange County, Calif. Two years ago, the couple thought they were rich. Now they're in a severe liquidity crisis.The homes they built on spec aren't selling. The carrying costs in interest are eating them alive. Their mortgage business is extremely slow. Most serious of all, they didn't have a big liquidity cushion. They're continuously borrowing money at ever higher costs.Frankly, I don't know what will happen to them. One alternative is for them to just give the houses they built back to the lenders. Another is bankruptc

Humans are not like animals. It is not our level of intelligence that differentiates us from animals; it is the nature of our intelligence. Humans think and reason on a conceptual level, whereas animals no matter how higher their brain functions, operate at the perceptual level. Without the ability to abstract and form concepts, rational thought is not possible. Animals act on instinct, and have the necessary behaviour that allows them to survive. An animal will hunt, and prey, flee, or build a nest, based on instinctive behaviour. Humans are not like this; we must discover how to survive. We must think, create, produce. To live as a man means to live as a rational being. Man cannot live as a man without thinking. A man who rejects reason surrenders himself to life as an animal, with only luck ensuring his survival. How does man think his way to survival? He must discover what is good for his life or not. He must discover what is of value to him or not. Implicit in this dis

Last night as I was about to cook supper, I got an email from my husband: he had planned a surprise evening for us out on the town. Two hours later, Asher was with Grandma and Grandpa and I was downtown settling in to see Wicked (and what better timing than the night before Halloween?)What an amazing show - one I highly recommend to anyone and everyone. I had heard rave reviews, and this show met them all and more. As we walked out of the theater we turned to each other and said in unison, "that was fantastic. It was so...postmodern."In the original Wizard of Oz, there are good witches, and there are bad witches. No ambiguity there - good and evil fighting against each other; good wins. Wicked is essentially the back-story of the original, following the intimate, personal lives, hopes, dreams, struggles, failures and successes of Glinda ("the good witch") and Elphaba ("the wicked witch"). And there is a lot that happened before Dorothy dropped in.If you read this blog, you won'

Yesterday the Johnson City Press published names, photos, and addresses of forty men caught in a sex sting at two local parks. I wrote in my blog that I thought the public shaming seemed excessive. That was an understatement. In today's paper we read that one of those accused apparently took his own life. Here is the article. One comment on yesterday's post wondered if this amounts to a public stoning. I do not think that is an exaggeration. What is the penalty for disorderly conduct and indecent exposure? Are these not misdemeanors? One hundred hours of community service? The Johnson City Press decided that these particular misdemeanors were far worse. They deserved a public shaming. A shaming so overwhelming for this one individual that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. I am ashamed of Johnson City today. They could have handled this issue of sex in parks without ruining lives. My message to the 40 or so men who were arrested and their families is t

Whoopi Goldberg: Pelosi Admirer Extraordinaire Sure, politicians always appreciate a warm welcome when they appear on daytime TV talk shows. But the welcome House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got today on ABC’s chick TV show “The View” was more than warm - it was downright steamy. Even before Pelosi walked on stage to take her seat at the round table, the show’s moderator, Whoopi Goldberg, and its co-hosts - with former news anchor Barbara Walters leading the pack - started flirting with the speaker’s husband, Paul, who was seated in the front row. “You wanna take a look at Nancy Pelosi’s handsome husband?” Walters asked the audience. Yes, came the answer in the form of whooping and hollering. Poor guy was actually blushing. Then the show’s hosts asked him how long he and Madame Speaker have been married. “Forty-four years,” Mr. Pelosi managed between pained glances in the direction of a blanket, a paper bag, anything to hide un

The Myth of Morality (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy)Cambridge University Press | ISBN 0521036259 | 2007-04-23 | PDF | 263 pages | 777 KBRichard Joyce argues in this study that moral discourse is hopelessly flawed. At the heart of ordinary moral judgments is a notion of moral inescapability, or practical authority, which, upon investigation, cannot be reasonably defended. He asserts, moreover, that natural selection is to blame, in that it has provided us with a tendency to invest the world with values that it does not contain, and demands that it does not make. This original and innovative book will appeal to readers interested in the problems of moral philosophy.

I was once asked during a talk at a local Unitarian church, what is the basis for morality and ethics in the traditions and teachings I speak about? My answer was "no basis at all...morals and ethics are only temporary safeguards for those who do not know any better." We give our children rules (”don’t play in the street”) in order to protect them and help them do the right things. But eventually, they learn why they should not play in the street (for example) and now the rule serves no purpose. You don’t give a mature adult the rule “don’t play in the street” – for they already know why not to play in the streets and they don’t need the rule. Likewise, if there are people who do not know what doing the right thing is…then you give them rules (i.e. morality and ethical rules) to guide them. But for someone who has deep understanding…no rules are needed, ethically or morally. The right thing will be done through understanding. Namaste, ~ Eric Putk

A word of warning: some of the events described in this post are quite graphic. My more sensitive readers may wish to stop reading here and click over to The Daily Puppy. If you’re still here out of morbid curiousity, I’ll continue. I don’t write this to be gratuitous in any way. The event I outline below is only to lay foundation for a broader, more important moral and cultural question. The Chinese Monkey Incident My step-father was telling us the story of how his boss, Dan, flew to China to drum up new clientèle for their wholesale seafood business. His prospective clients treated him to a local restaurant that specializes in very traditional Chinese fare - a variety of animal delicacies. At the conclusion of a dozen or so courses including all manner of mammal, fish, reptile and insect bits, the coup de gras was delivered to the table: a live monkey. The monkey was walked to the dining table, into the center of which a whole had been cut, then strapped to t

(Christians would rather use this than the more effective weapons of the gospel.) I was reminded about the absurdity of so-called “value voting” when I read a recent article about Dr. James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family and one of the most politically influential Christians in the country. Dr. Dobson has made a big fuss about the issue of Gay Marriage in the last few years, so his diatribe against Fred Thompson is simply the latest. From the article: “Isn’t Thompson the candidate who is opposed to a Constitutional amendment to protect marriage, believes there should be 50 different definitions of marriage in the U.S., favors McCain-Feingold, won’t talk at all about what he believes, and can’t speak his way out of a paper bag on the campaign trail?” Dobson wrote. I’m no supporter of Thompson myself. In fact, I don’t support any politician and only cover Ron Paul because he represents a dramatic shift away our current

Dr. G.  Venkataraman writes a lot about scientific discoveries in his series on the heart-to-heart website which he runs in connection with Radio Sai, but he writes from the standpoint of a religious believer and preacher of morality. There is therefore not much head-to-head communication in it, and - though he reproduces information of a popular scientific kind well enough, the bias is quite a-scientific in spirit. Take for example, his article “4 M’s - MAN, MONEY, MYTH AND MORALITY By Prof. G. Venkataraman“. He firstly dwells on how science has affected technology - simple, well-known high school level stuff.  Economists who were his audience must have been bored stiff with a patronising lecture on such elementary events in the rise of industrial technology known well enough to any educated person.However, he summed up the whole thrust of his lecture as follows: “My central point was that when man goes avidly in quest of wealth, he quickly loses discriminati

The Chinese have something referred to as Mo Dak. It is loosely translated as "the morality of gung fu." Its all about respect for the martial arts, its heritage, proper martial etiquette, humbleness of your own abilities and appreciation of gung fu as a whole.Mo Dak shows your character as a person. It is an expression of your appreciation and humanity. Its the opposite of being egotistic and narrow-minded. Its not about being self-righteous or protecting some code of honor. Its about being a good person for yourself and genuinely helping others.Mo Dak also means the ability to appreciate the art and the effort of the teacher. Instead of looking at the art as something money can buy and viewing the teacher as a person giving you a service, appreciation is given the art as a whole and those that have come before you. Mo Dak comes into play when a Sifu takes on new students. The teacher looks for those that are genuinely interested in learning the art. Only those potential students th

I hadn’t really come across the argument from morality much before - at least not enough to seriously think about it. I’d heard people ask “if you don’t believe in God, then where do your morals come from?”, but rather than answer the question (I’d say honestly “I don’t know”), I’d retort with the observation that Christians “pick and choose” their morals from the bible, and clearly their morals come from the same place as mine - and it’s not the bible (an idea I’d always had, but one that Dawkins helped me articulate). For those not familiar with the argument from morality, it basically goes like this1: If God does not exist, then there are no objective (i.e. independent of human opinion) moral values and duties. There are objective moral values and duties. Therefore God exists. My gut instinct when I first thought about this argument is that the first point has issues. I’ve asserted befo

In chapter six of The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins deals with the roots of morality. There seems to be a major concern amongst religious people that should people become atheists there would no longer be any reason to behave morally. After all, why would anyone behave in a good way if there was no after-life reward, and if there was no hell fire, what would stop people from murder and rape??? On the question, "If there is no God, why be good?" Dawkins writes: Posed like that, the question sounds positively ignoble. When a religious person puts it to me in this way (and many of them do), my immediate temptation is to issue the following challenge: 'Do you really mean to tell me the only reason you try to be good is to gain God's approval and reward, or to avoid his disapproval and punishment? That's not morality, that's just sucking up, applepolishing, looking over your shoulder at the great surveillance camera in the sky, or the still small wiretap inside your head, monitoring you

Ah, the benefits of being an athlete.Will someone please tell me why this guy (pictured above) is still offered the privledge of employment with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays?Oops, let's not forget -- talent supercedes morality in sports....Read the report here: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2959870from the AP, the block quote I love:Earlier this summer, Devil Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg defended his decision to deactivate Dukes rather than release him."This will pass, hopefully, with a very positive outcome for him," the owner said at the time. "If it doesn't, our reputation will remain intact as an organization that's trying to help somebody or did what they think they could to help somebody." Now, if he were batting .200, and didn't have a body of throughbred, would the 'Rays be giving us lip service? Of course not!If I were the Devil Rays, cut ties with him now!You have a talented team, and he is NOT WORTH THE TROUBLE!

Debunking Christianity asks whether Christians find Michael Vick's dogfighting morally reprehensible. The assumption is that Christians will say "of course," opening the door to some version of the problem of evil. However difficult it may be to consider that this assumption might be wrong, there is some evidence that it may be exactly that.As reported on ChristianNewswire, Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Pastoral Associate of Priests for Life, views animal cruelty as little more than an opportunity to oppose a woman's right to a certain medical procedure. Evidently, Dr. King believes that the real significance of the Vick case is that it highlights "the disparity in societal protections for animals and unborn humans.""The appalling cruelty to dogs described in the complaint against Michael Vick immediately reminds me of another kind of cruelty that is not only not punished, but is protected by our authorities," said Dr. King. "I'm talking about the incred

All eyes on the "Babble, bullshit, blasphemy and being" blog. No pressure guys...I have begun a blogalogue with theist blogger Rhology on the subject of morality. Both blogs will carry the full text of the conversation. Do we need a god to be moral? Let's find out. Rhology opens things up with the first post.http://choosedoubt.blogspot.com/ Don't leave comments here... leave them there. What are comments anyway? I'm glad I don't make a living from comments. I do recommend you click on the adultfriendfinder link at the bottom of my page and join up so I can make some pocket money. Yeah, good idea eh, find an adult friend to play backgammon with, or find a friend, or a date, or a swinger couple, or a F.B. Hmm, now that wouldn't be very ethical... for some I suppose, what was this blog about? Moral and ethics... find a moral and ethical adult friend.

It seems a common claim that morality is impossible without religion. While I might agree that in some cases religion (or, more specifically, the fear of eternal damnation) can be a pretty good motivator, I think that a morality that doesn’t rely on religion is not just possible, but it’s a lot more desirable. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve outlined how some people think that religion is the only kind of morality, even though religious teachings aren’t necessarily moral. This week, I’d like to outline some moral structures that can (and do) exist without religion. Morality Part 1: God Hating Atheists Morality Part 2: Immoral Religion Non-Theistic Morality (or, what you do when nobody’s watching) In line with my theory of religious eclecticism, I think that all religions share the same basic ideas on morality.1 That said, however, morality based on religion is flawed not because of what is taught (be good to others, don’t kill, etc.) but ho

It seems a common claim that morality is impossible without religion. While I might agree that in some cases religion (or, more specifically, the fear of eternal damnation) can be a pretty good motivator, I think that a morality that doesn’t rely on religion is not just possible, but it’s a lot more desirable. Last time, I outlined a somewhat extreme view of what some people think of morality without religion. In this post, I’d like to explain how I feel Christian morality (and religion-based morality in general) can be flawed and potentially abused. Next time, I’ll outline some of my ideas about morality. Morality Part 1: God Hating Atheists Morality Part 3: (To be continued next week…) Immoral Religion With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg1 As Steven Weinberg suggests, some people use religion to justify th

If sources are to be believed, thinking heads at Yashraj Films are facing ‘a moral question’. Aditya Chopra and director Pradeep Sarkar are hesitant about Rani Mukherjee’s portrayal of a sex worker in Lagaa Chunari Mein Daag. Going by the plot, Rani hails from a respectable middle-class family living in a small town. City life [...]

“But the relationship of morality and power is a very subtle one. Because ultimately power without morality is no longer power.” James Baldwin (1924 – 87) U.S. novelist and poet

It seems a common claim that morality is impossible without religion. While I might agree that in some cases religion (or, more specifically, the fear of eternal damnation) can be a pretty good motivator, I think that a morality that doesn’t rely on religion is not just possible, but it’s a lot more desirable. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be outlining what some people think of morality without religion, why religion-based morality is potentially suspect, and my ideas on morality. God Hating Atheists Some have claimed that atheism is responsible for immoral acts, and that lack of Christian morality (ignoring the possibility of other types of morality) in schools is responsible for school shootings. Both these articles describe various violent acts and crimes committed by young USAians1, and then jump right into blaming Atheists and Darwinists (perhaps I’m missing a step in the argument, but I can’t see it - although “How to build a bomb in the public

Just because you can trick someone out of some serious amounts of hard earned cash, should you? What kind of person does this? What a winner. Here’s another fabulous eBay scammer, just like Kelli Filkins, going as Awesome Electronics . Looks like they’ve been shut down, but you can bet this kind of lowlife will pop up somewhere else, auctioning off photos of stuff. Loser.

Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong and that 99% of them are wrong. – H. L. Mencken Copyright © 2007 JONTILLMAN.COM. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact legal@jontillman.com so we can take legal action immediately.Plugin by TaraganaShare This

I was catching up on some news one day when a story caught my eye about stem cell research.(http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060606/sc_nm/science_stemcells_dc_5). Now, I am, an avid supporter of this very controversial subject and am hoping that the government will get their head out of their asses and focus on the benefits as opposed to buckling to Christian Beliefs.......Morality has no place in Medical Science, especially when it could treat and save lives......What I find so funny about it all is, as long as they are using private money they can bypass all the federal restrictions placed on it....My father, being the conservative Republican that he is, and I , the very liberal person I am, have gotten into this debate time and time again. The only argument that he can provide against it, is the morality argument.....Give me something more than that.....His stance???? God didn't intend for us to do that.... Really? He has personally stated this to you? Let me guess, it was the burn

In a recent post in which I pointed out that the Christian bible is a poor basis of morality, many interesting comments emerged through the sea of argument between a handful of Christian trolls and regular readers. I realized that my initial post did not do justice to the points I was trying to make. This is an elaboration on that post.In my previous post, I offered the example of Exodus 34: 13-17 to suggest that the Christian bible cannot seriously be viewed as any sort of guide to moral behavior. I noted that the Christian has a few options for dealing with passages such as this one, one of which is to interpret them away through the standard claim that context is lacking and that additional study is needed to arrive at the "right" interpretation. My previous post criticized this viewpoint as being arrogant (which it is), but that does not do justice to the far more important problem with such claims.This is how Richard Dawkins expresses the more important problem to which I refer in

Many Christians claim that their bible is the source of morality and that it is something of a guide for Christians to determine how to live their lives. If we accept this claim (i.e., that they believe this to be the case), the implications are terrifying. Granted, there are some good things in the Christian bible, and even if they can be traced back to moral systems that pre-date Christianity, this does not necessarily diminish their value. However, there are also many terrible things in the Christian bible, making me extremely uncomfortable with the suggestion that this book should guide anyone's behavior. Let's look at an example.The following comes from Exodus 34: 13-17 and provides a decent example of why the Christian bible cannot seriously be regarded as any sort of guide to moral behavior:...ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves. For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Lest thou make a

Morality: More interesting than it might seem?

“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.”Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900) Irish playwright, novelist, and poet

Article by Vaughan Wynne-Jones

For thousands of years the nature of ethics and morality has been a argued by philosophers, theologists, and everyone in between. Theologists would credit religion and God for laying the guidelines for good and bad behavior, while philosophers would take an alternative road and investigate the fundamental characteristics that define moral behavior. I would not like to be excluded from the

Why now ? All of a sudden, the UN's Secretary General asks Koizumi to stop his provocating visits to Yasukuni and a UN panel asks the US to stop Guantanamo's tragic farce. Maybe Kofi Annan feels his days are counted at the head of this not yet dead international body. That won't save Darfur but bad guys can be found everywhere.Anyway, both Japan and the US do as if nothing happened. Toni Snow said "everything that is done in terms of questioning detainees is fully consistent with the boundaries of American law" and I'm afraid he is right : Amerika's administration changed America's laws to allow torture, illegal tapings, illegal abductions among other small steps for W but giant leaps backwards for humanity.

I'm at it again. Adum and I went through some of our old trunks in storage yesterday trying to de-junk and now I have about 10 things listed on eBay and stand to make about $200. It makes me sick to think of all the "junk" I've just thrown out in the past when such an incredible market for everything under the sun is out there. An few old metal lunch boxes that I got in college are now worth about $40 each, a pocket watch holder that Adum has never even used will probably fetch another $40, an old, broken laptop will get at least $50, Felix the Cat shoelaces of all things, and so on. Now I'll feel a little better about spending a few bucks on a formal dress for myself for this weekend. Of course, I still haven't found one.The idea that my old lunch box will probably end up in Japan in somebody's extensive "Speed Racer" collection is just bizarre. The bad thing about eBay is that it makes you so mercenary. None of your items are safe from the discerning eye of probable value. I ha

Some atheists seem to have trouble answering this question. In the recent Paula Zahn program on CNN I was depressed to find that the President of the American Atheist Associate Ellen Johnson was posed the question of "where do you get your morality” but Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson. She stumbled in her answer and seemed to avoid the question. The answer of, "where do Atheists get their morality” though is so very simple I am surprised an educated women of her stature was unable to enunciate it.Society, yes society dictates morality. Murder, rape, theft, all things condemned by society in law, all things condemned by morality. One does not need guidance of a God to appreciate what is fair and what is just. As early as Hammurabi's code, law has dictated the morality and the morality has impacted law in mutually beneficial relationship which fostered the growth of societies across the world.The Golden Rule is in fact a very secular idea. "Do unto others as you would have

It is nothing new to say that you need to protect the image of your brand, but 23 years ago that lesson was driven home with uncommon power—and violence—by the debacle that was New Coke.

Any good businessman understands one thing—if he understands nothing else—that customer service is vitally important to the continued survival of a company. In fact, ask any small business owner the secret of his success and the answer will usually have something to do with customer service. That is a lesson that the airlines seem to have forgotten.

Defend the earth from alien invasion, commander.