tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122783890832753562012-02-12T07:04:10.696-05:00How much are we historically indebted to religion(s) for our morality, and how much are we dependent upon religion to live decent, meaningful lives today?Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.comBlogger241100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-236574097674529632011-11-20T09:53:00.001-05:002011-12-24T10:07:10.003-05:00

Recently, a friend asked my opinion about a moral dilemma he was dealing with. Obviously, it would be ethically crappy of me to relate his personal story here, but my conversation with him got me thinking about my whole view of morality now. Have I learned anything since starting this blog? What can I say about the question in the subtitle? How big of a role does religion play in morality? The

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-11210554869413118502011-04-22T07:13:00.000-04:002011-04-22T07:13:48.822-04:00

Let's assume we're going to bootstrap ourselves into some kind of improved moral shape. Then I think Franklin's virtues are admirable enough. But I'm not sure that's the best way to go about it. Some of them are a little abstract. For instance, his virtue of Order: "Let all your Things have their Places. Let each Part of your Business have its Time." I actually do understand the sentiment, and I

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-85360350625606997282011-04-09T16:14:00.001-04:002011-04-13T15:36:46.397-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything on this blog, but from time to time I go back and read some of the entries and comments. About two years ago, Martilou posted on "Moral transformation vs spiritual transformation." I'm still interested in looking at the nature of morality and at the history of religious traditions, but right now I'm thinking that this would be a good time to delve into

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-78306160662663725382010-12-12T07:27:00.000-05:002010-12-12T07:27:10.726-05:00

There are some interesting videos over at The Science Network on what science can tell us about right and wrong.

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-49009726468977387282010-03-21T08:52:00.000-04:002010-03-21T08:52:36.917-04:00

There's a story about the study in the Washington Post here. You can read the study here.

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-78754337885347040242010-02-06T12:04:00.002-05:002010-02-06T12:04:45.500-05:00

So, here's Cox's way of dividing Christian history into three periods. The first is the Age of Faith. Starts with Jesus and his immediate followers. "'Faith' meant hope and assurance in the dawning of a new era of freedom, healing, and compassion that Jesus had demonstrated. To be a Christian meant to live in his Spirit, embrace his hope, and to follow him in the work that he had begun." The

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-49937993250245708832010-01-30T10:41:00.000-05:002010-01-30T10:41:39.665-05:00

This may not be new to anyone else, but I found Harvey Cox's distinction between belief and faith to be helpful (*The Future of Faith*, pg. 3): "Faith is about deep-seated confidence...Belief, on the other hand, is more like opinion...Beliefs can be held lightly or with emotional intensity, but they are more propositional than existential. We can *believe* something to be true without it making

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-34980281242729684102010-01-22T11:36:00.000-05:002010-01-22T11:36:37.341-05:00

I'm thinking of converting to Dudeism: http://www.dudeism.com/. If I ever get around to it. Check out the musing on what makes a religion in "The Take it Easy Manifesto." And "Duderonomy" has some good tips for abiding. If you've seen the *The Big Lebowski* that is. If you haven't, your first step to taking it easy is renting it. But that's just, like, my opinion man.

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-69945811271247793872010-01-22T11:25:00.001-05:002010-01-22T16:43:51.545-05:00

[This is the last post on *Society without God* and I just want to repeat that the point of all of this is not to say that we'd all be better off living in a Denmark or a Sweden. Or that we should try to actively create a non-believing society. The point is just to be well informed about what is actually happening in other countries, about what is possible, and to make certain fundamentalist

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-43776795403971702882010-01-16T09:39:00.000-05:002010-01-16T09:39:02.826-05:00

Page 69: Zuckerman asks his interviewees, "Aren't contemporary Scandinavians vexed by the existential mysteries of life?" Jonas, quoted in the previous post, "The meaning of life, I think, is just to have a good life for myself and the people I care about. All this making the world a better place--I don't know. Because we as humanity really just screw it up so bad." Tina, Stockholm, 39, atheist,

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-9565673437338160722010-01-16T09:25:00.000-05:002010-01-16T09:25:06.810-05:00

I got an e-mail from the Center for Inquiry, which is a non-religious organization, asking if I would like to donate money towards disaster relief for the Haiti earthquake. I've been on their mailing list just a couple of weeks, since I read about them in Epstein's book on being good without god. The money, 100%, goes to Doctors Without Borders, who lost all three of their medical facilities in

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-91933250825467805292010-01-14T09:25:00.000-05:002010-01-14T09:25:36.366-05:00

So what's really great about this book are the interviews. Starting on page 60, he transcribes a bunch of them on the topic of death. Tina's a 39-year-old chemical engineer living in Stockholm. What happens after we die? "Absolutely nothing!! I think we are gone. I really think that's it." Mads, Danish, 52 years old, works in a slaughterhouse: "My body will dissolve and be part of the natural

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-30488410201301145792010-01-12T14:25:00.003-05:002010-01-14T09:09:20.068-05:00

I've started reading *Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment* by Phil Zuckerman (NYU Press). He's a sociologist at Pitzer College who spent 14 months in Denmark in 2005 and 2006, and some time in Sweden. Aside from "countless" informal conversations, he conducted nearly 150 formal, structured, indepth interviews with Scandinavians from all ages,

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-8255875744935027482010-01-08T16:07:00.002-05:002010-01-08T16:13:24.787-05:00

I recently finished Greg Epstein's *Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe*. He's the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard, and this is his way of describing what Humanism is--people being good without god. I've been waiting for a book like this for a while now. It's another "atheist" book, but one that is toned down, positive and constructive. It presents something to believe in

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-29460361552726825612009-08-09T14:51:00.000-04:002009-08-09T14:52:14.793-04:00

"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.""God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-73785560189318168662009-07-25T09:38:00.002-04:002009-07-25T09:42:05.650-04:00

"Does religious involvement increase or reduce the likelihood of committing partner violence?" This question is found in an article in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (Vol. 40, No. 2 [Jun., 2001], pp. 269-286). The article, "Religious Involvement and Domestic Violence among U.S. Couples", was written by Christopher G. Ellison and Kristin L. Anderson. They cite a study done in '86

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-9579256238511374652009-07-25T09:25:00.003-04:002009-07-26T20:59:19.961-04:00

The problem with Christianity, if anyone will consider a diagnosis from an atheist, is that Jesus became a book. He became the written word. If I accept that Jesus of Nazareth actually existed (which I do), and if I accept that the Gospels contain many of the things he said and did (which I do, with reservations), then I think that an important teaching of this rabbi was that the written word

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-11154831827174361912009-07-25T09:17:00.001-04:002009-07-25T09:20:12.112-04:00

I've been asking many people this question recently. And I think it has something to do with our topic. The question is really about exclusivism. Why do many religions, and specifically Christianity, require you to believe something to be saved? Require you to believe certain doctrines, at the exclusion of belief in other religions and their doctrines. What's so important about a belief?It seems

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-10804824426770680932009-07-09T01:00:00.003-04:002009-07-09T01:21:10.464-04:00

The development of morality is amazing to observe. As a youth pastor for 30 years, I had the opportunity to watch teens develop in this area over a 6 yr time period. Now working with Young adults who have committed felonies it is even more interesting to see the shifts and changes in moral development. As I have observed this development, I have discovered what appears to be two types of

martilouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08511375993122343757noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-12907218430395833762009-07-05T19:28:00.002-04:002009-07-05T19:35:59.615-04:00

This is actually the title of a web-page on a site called “The Science of Generosity”: http://generosityresearch.nd.edu/. Christian Smith, at Notre Dame, is a sociologist who is investigating generosity. He’s interested in these aspects:1. The sources, origins, and causes of generosity2. The variety of manifestations and expressions of generosity3. The consequences of generosity for both the

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-26591401285430624672009-07-05T13:27:00.003-04:002009-07-05T13:35:57.590-04:00

It’s been suggested that we may do well to take a look at specific religions in order to get a good sense of what they are like, what they offer in the way of moral guidance and meaning.As I’ve already admitted, I know just a little about Buddhism. And maybe I know just enough to idealize Buddhism as an exemplary religion, when in fact the religion I have in mind doesn’t really exist. So, like a

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-82117073527731655442009-06-30T11:28:00.005-04:002009-06-30T12:15:32.335-04:00

One of the points that Robert Wright makes in his new book The Evolution of God is that the concept of God within different religions evolves over time in a positive moral direction. Wright calls himself a "materialist" because he thinks that the conditions that are responsible for the concepts we form and the way we think about things are socio-politico-economic. This is "materialist" in

Silentiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02329691157023177256noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-55900618274267662212009-06-23T16:23:00.002-04:002009-06-23T16:25:31.087-04:00

If we want to consider whether or not morality has its origins in religion or is dependent upon religion today, we also should consider what we mean by “morality.” I’ve found Marc Hauser’s Moral Minds to be a great source for an understanding of the psychological mechanisms of what could be called the moral sense. We have a certain inborn intuition about what we ought to do, which seems to be

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-712278389083275356.post-70033955853048731202009-06-21T23:17:00.002-04:002009-06-21T23:29:29.748-04:00

I know that Christians (or I should say evangelicals, because those are the Christians I’m most familiar with) are often wary of the word religion. They say things like “Christianity isn’t just a religion—it’s something much more than that.” I sympathize with the sentiment, but it’s still a religion. And for the non-believer, it is just one among many religions in the world. Honestly, I haven’t

Sub-sub-librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01914007517722127444noreply@blogger.com14