It has been observed that if you want to be an emperor, it is better by far to be one at the beginning of the empire than at the end, when the whole enterprise is collapsing. If so, this is as good a season as any to start thinking about how to get there. Empires have been out of fashion for several generations, but history moves in cycles, and the day of the empire is returning. Read on…
All my life I’ve been fascinated by unfamiliar lands and peoples; the mosaic of human cultures for me is the most fascinating subject in the universe. I have spent half my life abroad and almost all of it dealing in one way or another with what works in different cultural environments, and what happens when cultures collide. I’ve gotten to know my subject the way Mark Twain’s riverboat pilot got to know the Mississippi. Recently I have become involved with … Read on…
I remember once asking my late son William, “What is the purpose of life?” William, a schizophrenic, was babbling nonsense, but he stopped and in a moment of clarity gave me a quirky smile and replied: “The purpose of life is to relieve God’s boredom”. Read on…
If you are an atheist, and find the title of this essay provocative, it is not entirely an accident. I have a point, and now that I have your attention perhaps you will listen while I make it. Religions have survived over the millennia because they thrive on boundaries between the “us” and the “them”. This applies in spades to the three great monotheistic ones. Christianity and Islam not only have evolved elaborate rituals and behavioral requirements to provide instant … Read on…
Why aren’t there more open, committed humanists in the United States? Many of my acquaintances think like humanists in all important respects but shy away from having the label attached to them. As far as I can determine from the various polls that deal with religious affiliation, this is true of at least a strong minority and perhaps even a majority of the American public. These individuals may have been tagged with an affiliation to some religious denomination as children … Read on…
The title of this essay is “Let Our Conscience Be the Guide.” Not “your conscience.” Not “Our consciences.” By using the term “Our Conscience” I want to start right off with the assertion that everybody has the same kind of conscience, it is part of our genetic inheritance, and it is something every human being is born with. It is as common to all of us as is the fact that we walk upright rather than swinging around in trees. … Read on…
My excursions into classical philosophy and the great world religions have always left me disappointed. Plato and Aristotle were brilliant, the Old Testament prophets were inspiring, and Christ and his followers were lovable, but when you put them all together in a blender, as we have done with our so-called Judeo-Christian ethic, what I end up with is a confusing farrago of ideas all based on a profound misreading of the nature of life in general and humanity in particular. … Read on…
Think of religion as a collection of viruses, specialists in modifying a host’s behavior in specific ways, that somehow got into our ancestors during the long period of human biological evolution. As they settled in and adjusted to their environment, they developed various degrees of symbiosis with the host and each other. The host evolved both physically and in terms of cognitive powers; in the process, new needs appeared that some of the religion viruses were able to fill, including … Read on…
Atheists and humanists are united in the conclusion that the supernatural isn’t real. This means that both are without a belief in a god or gods and both hold that people have to take final responsibility for their actions. The buck stops here. In this regard, both also see themselves as at least as capable to lead sane and moral lives as people who believe in confession, absolution, and an afterlife. And by their fruits we know them: the large … Read on…