Reflections

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Archive for the ‘Ethics’ Category

Freethought and deep thought

Posted by Reflections on November 16, 2009

I attended the Texas Freethought Convention in San Antonio this weekend. It was a really good time, like last year. Next year’s convention will be in Dallas, and the year after will be in Houston. If you are anywhere near, you really should check it out. There were a couple of hundred Freethinkers there: Atheists, Humanists, Brights and one token Deist. ;-)

On the way back I drove past Brooke Army Medical Center. As I looked at the building I could not help but think about who was lying there in a hospital bed in a heavily-guarded room. I thought about the news reports about the funerals that day for three victims of the Fort Hood slayings. I thought about the words of Kathleen Johnson the previous evening. She told us what she could of the events of the previous week. She works in law enforcement at Fort Hood and knows more than she can tell at this stage of the investigation.

In a couple of years we will give Major Hasan a fair trial. We will convict him and then kill him or lock him up until he dies. We will say that justice has been served, but we know that, whatever the outcome, it will be short of justice. No one will come back to life. Those damaged will not be made whole. Hearts will not be unbroken. Human justice is inadequate, but we do what we can.

And as BAMC faded in my rear view mirror I pondered. What could have been going through the mind of the shooter in the days, weeks and months leading up to this horrific act? Is he insane? By any standard of modern, civilized behavior, he is insane. And what brought on this insanity? We know the answer. There’s no fanatic like a religious fanatic.

The Texas Freethought Convention is represented primarily by Atheists. These are people who have arrived at the logical and reasonable conclusion that there is no God. I have arrived at a different conclusion, but my position is much, much closer to their stance than it is to that of anyone who worships a God who commands His followers to go out and kill in His name. I cannot believe in, let alone worship, a God like that. No religion is far, far better than a religion like that.

I respect people who hold different religious beliefs. I do not respect all that they believe, but if they do not impose their beliefs on others, I think they can believe anything they choose. My own ethical code is simple: be considerate. I take into consideration that other people are usually raised in the religion of their parents. Religion is a social phenomenon, and people derive much spiritual satisfaction from their faith. But organized religion also has a poisonous side. Sacred texts and clergy have urged followers to commit extreme acts against unbelievers and sinners, and followers have followed their leaders’ urgings, no matter how depraved or atrocious. When the promised afterlife is more highly valued than their current life, people can do extraordinary things. Unfortunately, these things are often extraordinarily bad.

Freethinkers use reason and logic to reach their conclusions about life, God and the afterlife. We do not rely on second-hand claims or Bronze Age texts. We can make a leap of faith, but some chasms are too wide and deep, and what is on the other side is not attractive enough. In fact, we just don’t see the allure of what is on the other side. And the more closely we examine it, the more we become convinced that it is an illusion. So as I passed the hospital along I-35 in San Antonio, I tried to imagine what illusion could turn a person into a mass murderer, and my imagination fell short. And I think the shooter also fell short as he leaped the chasm towards his vision of paradise. I believe he plummeted into the depths of that abyss. It’s just too bad that he dragged so many people down with him.

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Surprise, sadness and resolve

Posted by Reflections on November 14, 2009

Ever since 9-11 we have known that the day would come when we would get hit again. We did not know when or where or how many would be lost, but we knew the day was coming. And now that the day has arrived, many are in denial. For some reason many of our national leaders cannot accept the fact that a home-grown extremist has committed an act of terror against his fellow soldiers on our own soil. I do not understand why they are in denial. We cannot fix a problem if we refuse to recognize that we have a problem. Once again, some impressionable person has arrived at the conclusion that killing is the proper way to serve God. The political goals of some spiritual leader became more important than even his own life.

Yes, I know we are supposed to be politically correct, and we should wait until all the facts are in, and if things turn out differently than I think they will, I will apologize and retract my statements in this post, but it is already quite clear that the reason this Army major went berserk and killed 13 people is because he was deluded by a religious call to do harm to others based on religious and political grounds: our country does not agree with the extremists’ point of view.

I watched the Fort Hood memorial service, and I saw and heard our president call these acts incomprehensible. That is an absurd statement. These acts are not at all difficult to comprehend. The sacred text that the major looks to for guidance calls for what we consider in modern times to be barbaric behavior toward unbelievers. To be fair, the Christian sacred texts also call for similar barbaric behavior towards unbelievers, and Christians have happily slaughtered hundreds of thousands. But Christians mostly ignore their sacred text’s requirements to commit murder in the modern era. And they have been ignoring these requirements to slaughter unbelievers for several hundred years, so Christians tend to not be as forgiving of such ritual murder in modern times as their Islamic counterparts.

Most modern-day Muslims have abandoned the barbaric requirements of the Koran as modern Christians have ignored the barbaric requirements of the Bible. Unfortunately, we all know that some clerics urge their followers to commit jihad and kill infidels. And many of their followers follow their leaders’ urgings and reach martyrdom, leaving behind them a trail of death, destruction and heartbreak. Normal people cannot understand the special breed of murderous insanity necessary to produce a suicide bomber or any jihadist, for that matter. Most of us cannot fathom how someone can hate that much, how they can throw their life away in order to kill and maim their perceived enemies. What kind of God would reward such barbaric behavior with eternity in paradise?

Is Islam to blame? Islam is certainly partly to blame. There can be no doubt. If a member of the Westboro Baptist Church was to start shooting up a funeral, Christians from coast to coast and around the world would condemn the act, and there would be no politically correct group protesting that their religion was not to blame. Certainly, their religion would be to blame. This sect’s members believe that “God hates fags”. People do not confuse members of the Westboro Baptist Church with other Baptists. I don’t believe that most people confuse mainstream Islam with radical Islam, but mainstream Islam does not do nearly enough to distance itself from radical Islam. Islam must defeat radical Islam with religious arguments that the deluded will accept. We cannot convince these extremists with any arguments. We have to kill them or capture them to stop them.

Moderate and mainstream Muslims have condemned the terrorist act at Fort Hood, and that is proper, but they have gone on the defensive, because they fear a backlash. I think they have a valid fear. They should continue to vigorously distance themselves from all radical Islam and spend some time actively campaigning and educating their own. They have an enormous problem on their hands. Muslims, more than anyone, need to figure out how to deal with radical Islam. No one else can do that for them.

And we need to be honest with ourselves. Political correctness is at least partly to blame for the slaughter in Texas. We need to identify and fix this problem. Otherwise, even more will die.

Let us not blind ourselves to what is going on here. If racists lynch someone because of his race, we recognize the bigotry and condemn racism. If an ideologue blows up a building or assassinates an opponent, we condemn him and his ideology. If people murder others because of their ethnicity or nationality, we condemn extreme nationalism and ethnic cleansing. The same is true for other violent extremist activity. We recognize that the perpetrator is insane by the definitions of civilized behavior, and we recognize that extreme  anti-social behavior based on ethnicity, nationality, religion, race or other such group identities, is uncivilized. As a species we are growing out of such barbaric behavior, but sadly, our evolution is still incomplete.

For the government to say that we must not blame Islam is absurd. This attitude is insulting, arrogant and condescending. Federal authorities are telling us we are not capable of figuring out on our own what is mainstream Islam and what is radical Islam. All we need do is follow the trail of bodies. Yes, there are bigoted and close-minded Americans who will blame all Muslims. We can deal with them. Dealing with blind, politically correct government bureaucrats is a much larger problem.

Freethought is a step in the right direction. Freethought celebrates individuality, which is the opposite of groupthink. We need free and critical reasoning to prevail to defeat groupthink.

I am not surprised that a terrorist killed Americans, but I am surprised that it was a soldier killing soldiers. I am saddened by the loss and the weak leadership that we are exhibiting in response. I do sense a resolve, however, that people are not going to accept this weak response. Perhaps that will clear the minds of our leaders. If it does not, we need new leaders.

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A glass of white

Posted by Reflections on August 31, 2009

It was a day of rest and relaxation when I began this piece. The evening was pleasant. A glass of white wine sounded good. The sun was down, but its glow still reddened the undersides of the clouds in the purple distance. In some ways life has been a bit more challenging lately. The heat has been oppressive. Work has been demanding of my time and energy. But challenges make us stronger. Surviving them is a measure of our success. Without challenges we grow soft and weak. Competition is natural. But cooperation is also part of human nature. So, when should we compete, and when should we cooperate? This post borders on the political, but the concern is societal. How we solve these problems requires that we end politics as usual. The politicians in this country are mostly not solving anything.

All of life is ultimately competitive. In nature we compete to survive. In the school of hard knocks, we must survive the knocks, and if necessary, we must knock harder than our competition to survive. Life is not fair. Thinking that it is could be fatal. But humans have advanced beyond mere survival. And we have become better survivors because we have learned to cooperate. Two humans can achieve much more than one. There are things that one person can never accomplish alone. Some things take a dozen persons working in concert to be successful.

Cooperation can be voluntary or involuntary. Involuntary cooperation is coercion, cooperation by force. Cooperation advances us and makes us better as a species, but we step backwards if the cooperation is involuntary. As we develop and grow as a species we try to be more cooperative, but if resources become scarce, we have no option except to compete. The key, it would seem, is to keep ensuring that there are abundant food, water, shelter and other necessities so that we do not have to be so competitive just to survive.

What happens when certain people are uncompetitive? What do we do when those who do not compete well become poor? There are several options. We can take resources away from those who do compete well and give these resources to the uncompetitive. We have done that for some time, and the practice does not decrease the number of poor. We can try to make the uncompetitive more competitive, but if resources remain scarce, it will be difficult for the poor to rise up with their newly acquired strength and skills and be competitive enough to rise up out of poverty.

I believe that there is no single thing we can do to magically make everything better. I look at the problem through Deist eyes. I look to reason and nature. It stands to reason that we should continue to increase our productivity, because that will increase the availability and lower the price of products and goods available for everyone. We should conserve our natural resources, because we have only one Earth, and its resources are finite. We must be careful about overpopulation There was a time, a few thousand years ago, when it made sense to say, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it…” That time has long since passed.. More people means more consumption of natural resources and the food and products we produce. We cannot sustain infinite growth in a finite space.

We must educate our children. The poor are poor for many reasons. It may be because they are denied opportunity. That is an injustice, and we must correct this injustice wherever we may find it. Some remain poor because they do not take advantage of opportunity. This too is an injustice, and we must work harder to build character in our children so that they long for and strive for a better life. Growing up to be a top gang member or a successful drug dealer is not the type of competition and achievement we wish for our children.

But we must also remember not to punish the successful for being successful. If you work hard and achieve much it is very dispiriting to have half the fruits of your labor confiscated because people in a position of power believe they know better how to spend your money than you do.

We can fight nature and try to “have dominion over” nature , but we can never defeat nature. The laws of nature will not be violated. Involuntary cooperation is coercion. Involuntary charity is robbery. Involuntary service is slavery. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are our natural rights. Denying them is tyranny.

These were my thoughts over that glass of white wine. It was pretty good wine. I wish I could share it with every politician in the land.

Posted in Deism, Ethics, Freethought, Life, Nature, Philosophy, Spirituality | Leave a Comment »

Forests and trees

Posted by Reflections on July 23, 2009

All forests are made up of trees, but not all trees grow in forests. If you can’t see the forest for the trees, you need to adjust your perspective. You must step back and take a fresh look at where you stand. Your point of view determines your outlook. Can you see the big picture, or are your views obscured? When things are very close, whether we are talking about time or distance or emotionally, they can take complete and total control of our senses. We may not be able to see the big picture (the forest) at all.

Lack of perspective gives us a distorted view of life. When our outlook is obscured, we have no clear idea of what is really going on. We see only what we can see, which is probably all we want to see (and far less than what we should see). We are shackled by the limits of our vision. Truth is where you find it, but we won’t find much truth if we choose not to look. If we fail to seek, we shall not find.

Don’t hide behind a tree. Take a stroll, and you will find that there is a great big forest out there. It’s not so scary, really! Go around the trees that block your view and impede your forward progress. Take your blinders off, and see what’s really there, not what someone else tells you is there.

For a fresh perspective, look through someone else’s eyes. As Harper Lee wrote, “You never understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” Walk a mile in his or her shoes. Consider the other person’s view. Being considerate is the only moral guide you will ever need. When you put yourself in another person’s skin and wear it for a while, you will feel even more comfortable in your own skin as a result.

Posted in Ethics, Life, Nature, Philosophy | 1 Comment »

In praise of reason and individuality

Posted by Reflections on December 21, 2008

I believe that the body human suffers from a terrible illness that brings much tragedy to our world. Some blame much of the trouble in the world on religion, but problems attributed to organized religion are just a symptom. The illness itself is what really needs to be eradicated. The real culprit is groupthink.

Like religion, groupthink has been around for thousands of years. Every culture has religion. The reasons are complex. I suggest reading “Religion Explained” by Pascal Boyer. Religion provides some people comfort and fulfills a need for spirituality in their lives. Religion can be positive, uplifting and satisfying. So what turns it poisonous? Groupthink. When religion becomes organized, some group does the organizing. Often, they use the faith of their followers to control them. When religion becomes a controlling mechanism, the clergy operates the controls. Power corrupts. Even a positive force can do harm. When you impose your beliefs on another person, even with the best of intentions, there is a strong potential for harm. When a religion tells us how to think, what to think, what not to think and generally does our thinking for us, we lose our individuality. Worse yet, when religious leaders tell us to behave in ways that reason would tell us makes no sense, we can end up doing senseless things.

More than one religion discourages or prohibits birth control. When you increase your population, you outnumber your competition. Human sexuality is a very powerful force. When you control sexual behavior in the name of morality, you control minds and attitudes. But the problem here is the controlling and the being controlled, not religion per se.

It is not only religious sects that promote groupthink mentality. The problem is “us”, thinking as groups instead of actually thinking as reasoning individuals. This attitude compels hundreds of millions of people to control or be controlled along religious, nationalistic, ideological or ethnic lines. Mobs influenced by groupthink commit everything from lynchings, to burning at the stake to full-blown genocide, acts which no reasoning individual would commit.

Religions wield great power. But blaming the world’s ills on religion is narrow thinking. Idealogues and politicians also want power. Their atrocities are at least as numerous as those of religious fundamentalists. Nationalists often stir up a white-hot fervor in their followers to achieve their goals in their lust for power, which has led to many a slaughter. Ethnic cleansing and genocide are the harvests we reap when man seeks to consolidate power along ethnic lines. Power and control rely on people abandoning their individuality and their reason. Groupthink is the true monster. The religious monster is just a sub-species. Whether we are speaking of Tribulation or Manifest Destiny, the dictatorship of the proletariat or the KKK, Pol Pot or Darfur, groupthink leads to tragedy.

When we think in groups and fail to think as individuals, we don’t use reason, our most important gift. When we think as groups and dehumanize other people by thinking of them as faceless groups, we lose our own individuality and sometimes our humanity. I think if you look back on the world’s greatest atrocities, you will find that groupthink is the evil at the heart of much of what is wrong in this world.

And while you are looking about at the world and then back at yourself, take a look for a moment at what you are in favor of, not just what you are against. What are the good things in life that you want to see more of in the world? Just being against things is not all that constructive. Two negatives don’t always equal a positive. Religion has a positive side.

But most importantly, be a thinking, reasoning individual. Examine carefully when someone tells you how and what you must think. Avoid being one of the herd. Herds get slaughtered.

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