Based on several conversations I’ve recently had with some religious/social conservatives, God is no longer a Trinity. Whether I raise pressing issues about oil, housing or education I hear the same answer: “The free market will take care of it.” They seem to repeat this free market mantra as their…
Jimmy Carter on Fundamentalism: one can find it in religious circles and now "very overwhelmingly" in Washington. A fundamentalist believes, say, in religious circles, that I am close to God. Everything that I believe is absolutely right. Anyone who disagrees with me, in any case, is inherently wrong and therefore,…
I hereby propose a new version of the Ten Commandments.
1 Choose and follow a version of the golden rule. Note in your heart that golden rules have appeared in the writings of many cultures, including Jewish, Buddhist, Confucian and Ancient Egyptian.
2. Never publicly advocate that one’s own version of a supernatural God is truer than the Gods of others; always apply the same degree of skepticism one uses regarding the Gods and sacred writings of others to one’s own God(s) and sacred writings. Don’t build expensive or ostentatious worship places in honor of your God. Never scare any child with stories of great suffering in order to cause that child to believe in the existence of any particular supernatural being. Thou shalt not blasphemy the unfolding mysteries of the universe by claiming to know the thoughts or plans of any God. Thou shalt always approach the mysteries of life with humility, awe and unbridled curiosity.
3. Do not honor any God who you believe prohibits you from honoring any other God or who, in your opinion, threatens to eternally torture any person or animal for any reason. Constantly remind yourself that you have a serious obligation to take good care of all of the children of the world, not just your own children. Regularly breathe deeply and remember to keep a sense of humor, especially when considering spirituality, sex and death. Whenever you speak of God, don’t get that look like you’re about to be smacked with a …
Aristotle wrote with great insight and clarity that maintaining friendships was a prerequisite to acting virtuously. For Aristotle, to act virtuously was necessarily to consciously act for the right reasons. But doing this requires bringing our non-rational parts into harmony with the rational. Further, finding this harmony requires self-knowledge that…
People who don’t believe in God are constantly disparaged as immoral by those who do. Many conservatives believe that most of what they perceive to be wrong with the world can be traced to secular humanism, a phrase they can barely utter without spitting. For them, secular humanism is a…