The Ethics of Morality

     A few months ago I stumbled on a preacher on television.  The reason I stopped to listen was that on the screen he was scrolling through a litany of famous scientists, their fields and contributions, and noting that each was a Great Christian.  Then the preacher–I don’t know who he was, sorry–ended his litany by making the claim that science and religion are inextricably linked, that they must have each other to work, that there is no dispute between them–
     –and that evolution is wrong.
     This was a week after I listened to an NPR interview with Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania in which he made the claim that it is vital to settle this question of where “we” (meaning humans) came from because if evolution is true, then we would have no basis for morality.
     This is one of the most perverse false syllogisms I have ever heard, and it baffles me no end.  Underlying it is the assumption that morality only ever comes from a supernatural source, that without a deity we are too dumb, puerile, self-serving, and just plain hopeless to ever do anything right–for ourselves on anyone else. (The Erik Von Danniken theory of moral provenance.) That atheists are a priori immoral and that evolutionists, who reject special creation, are necessarily atheists, and therefore, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, likewise immoral.  They can’t help it.  They have no god giving them direction.
     A minute of clear thought shows how this is substantively untrue.  …

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Even if you believe you are going to heaven, will it really be you?

I recently heard a preacher describing what heaven will be like.  He said, enticingly, that heaven will be a place where there will be no sin:  no envy, no lust, no anger, no pride, no scorn, no competition, etc. It got me thinking:  exactly what is left of a human…

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The benefit of hiring incompetent people

Last night, my local PBS station aired a 'Frontline' program, called "The Lost Year in Iraq," about the Bush Administration's handling of the Iraq occupation.  Among other things, it confirms that Americans who sought civilian jobs to help rebuild Iraq were asked questions such as whether or not they had…

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Paul Rieckhoff speaks out about our Fratboy-in-Chief

Paul Rieckhoff hits the mark again with this comment on Huffpo:

As a veteran of this war in Iraq, I am sickened by the consistently flip nature of the President in the face of deadly serious issues. His ridiculous banter reflects poorly upon all Americans . . .

[W]ith nukes in North Korea, perverts in Congress and 140,000 of my brothers and sisters in uniform bound to serve another four years in Iraq, I’d rather have a statesman than a frat boy.

Rieckhoff is the Founder and Executive Director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). He is also the author of a book I’ve struggled to read for the past two months:  Chasing Ghosts (2006). Would you like to know what it would be like to be a soldier during the early months of the Iraq occupation?  Rieckhoff’s book is the place to start.

Rieckhoff is not your typical soldier. After graduating from an Ivy League college, he signed up for the Army reserves in 1998.  While serving in the reserves, he took a high-paying job on Wall Street.  After the attacks of 9/11, he volunteered for active duty and he volunteered for the invasion of Iraq, to the dismay of his father.  “I wanted to fight the good fight.  I wanted to be a hero.”

Rieckhoff had heard Dick Cheney assure everyone that we would be “greeted as liberators.”  Cheney told the country “all we had to do was take out Saddam and his regime …

Continue ReadingPaul Rieckhoff speaks out about our Fratboy-in-Chief