On the origin of goodness

At The New Yorker, James Wood raises the question, "Is That All There Is?" Here's an excerpt from his discussion:

Many people, for instance, believe that morality is a deliverance of God, and that without God there is no morality—that in a secular world “everything is permitted.” You can hear this on Fox News; it is behind the drive to have the Ten Commandments displayed in courtrooms. But philosophers like Kitcher remember what Socrates tells Euthyphro, who supposed that the good could be defined by what the gods had willed: if what the gods will is based on some other criterion of goodness, divine will isn’t what makes something good; but if goodness is simply determined by divine will there’s no way for us to assess that judgment. In other words, if you believe that God ordains morality—constitutes it through his will—you still have to decide where God gets morality from. If you are inclined to reply, “Well, God is goodness; He invents it,” you threaten to turn morality into God’s plaything, and you deprive yourself of any capacity to judge that morality.

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What your taxes are for.

According to Pragmatic Progressive Forum, there are at least 102 things you are no longer entitled to do if you "hate taxes." Here are a few:

1. Do not use Medicare. 2. Do not use Social Security 3. Do not become a member of the US military, who are paid with tax dollars. 4. Do not ask the National Guard to help you after a disaster. 5. Do not call 911 when you get hurt. 6. Do not call the police to stop intruders in your home. . . .
And there are a lot more well-considered items in this list. The free-marketers never campaign to get rid of these many critically important government services. They simply don't want to fund them. They insist that these things will all just keep existing even if we don't fund them. Or that we'll get along fine without these things. In short, they are engaging in magical thinking. If you enjoyed the above list, also consider Bruce Lindner's list of identifying characteristics of members of the Tea Party.

Continue ReadingWhat your taxes are for.

It’s time to read this article on procrastination.

Scientific American Mind published a well-written article on procrastination back in December 2008, but I keep putting off writing a little note on that article.    Today, however, I decided to get to it because the stark irony of putting it off anymore was annoying me to no end. I should re-emphasize: I really do suffer from procrastination, and I have really put off writing about this article. The article was written by Tricia Gura, and it is titled "I'll do it tomorrow." What is procrastination? It's not the mere tendency to schedule some tasks for later times. The term more properly applies where someone puts off tasks that have greater urgency than the tasks they are going to do instead. Gura explains that procrastination "carries a financial penalty, endangers health, harms relationship and ends careers." Yet many of us continue to procrastinate-- the article estimates that 15 to 20% of adults "routinely put up activities that would be better accomplished right away." Procrastination can also be seen as a symptom of a deeper problem: "Procrastination is about not having projects in your life that really reflect your goals." [More . . . ]

Continue ReadingIt’s time to read this article on procrastination.

Scary News from the Christian Coalition

I did not opt out of the Christian Coalition newsletter mailing list that someone unknown signed me up for some months ago. It helps to keep an eye on what the other side is up to. The Aug 5, 2011 issue includes the following scary observation:

"Critics and supporters of the Budget Control Act ... agree that the Tea Party now controls the agenda in Washington D.C. As one who attended Glenn Beck's Tea Party event last August -- along with over a half million other Tea Party supporters -- when looking at the hundreds of thousands of families near the Lincoln Memorial on Washington D.C.'s Mall, I realized that those families represent the large majority of the American people, as anyone with any kind of commonsense would.

Why in particular do I find this scary?
  • Open admission that The Tea Party (not even an official political party) controls the actions of our legislature. This group is a powerful vocal minority, arguably smaller but richer than the 1980's "Moral Majority."
  • Lack of fact checking: The attendance of the Glen Beck event is well established by several independent sources. They range from Beck's hopeful "300,000 to 600,000" and Michelle Bachman's "at least a million" to several actual counts from aerial photos between 60,000 and 87,000.
  • The massive innumeracy that equates "thousands of families" with "large majority of the American people." Please divide several thousand by hundreds of millions and show that this is somehow more than half. 87,000 / 330,000,000 = 0.00026 or somewhat less than a majority, however you massage it.
  • The implication that the openly theocratic ideals of the Tea Party are somehow related to common sense. Even Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" argued against a government supported by the church (as is England's).
  • And in totality, the tone that says that the oddball ideals of this group are somehow mainstream. They seem hopeful about Lenin's maxim that a lie told often enough becomes the truth. And the Christian Coalition is all about The Truth.

Continue ReadingScary News from the Christian Coalition