This morning, I led a discussion group at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fort Wayne. The topic was morality and ethics from an atheistic perspective. Especially here in the United States, a large majority of people claim a god or gods to be the source of morality, and religion to be the only method to understand it. Many American atheists were raised within this moral framework, and when they come to finally reject the religion into which they were born, they are forced to reconsider morality from the ground up.
For obvious reasons, this can be completely overwhelming. However, after the related search for meaning, it is one of the most important challenges an atheist must face. Thankfully, more and more writers, philosophers, and scientists are addressing the issue of establishing, in the most objective manner possible, a natural basis for morality. Here is a small sampling of the resources presently available:
A Guide for the Godless. This free e-book by professor Andrew Kernohan of Dalhousie University focuses on meaning more than morality, but I find the two to be inextricably linked, and this is a great place to start.
Life! This book by Martin Walker uses the laws of physics to consider how we might create a framework for objective morality.
The Moral Landscape. Prominent atheist writer Sam Harris discusses how the science and reason can be used to establish morality.
Sense and Goodness Without God. Historian Richard Carrier uses metaphysical naturalism to explain morality and other topics.
The Science of Good and Evil. Skeptic Michael Shermer looks for natural sources of morality, focusing on evolution and the behavior of other primates.
Parenting Beyond Belief. Dale McGowan's book gives advice on how to raise thoughtful, ethical children without indoctrination - not what to think, but how to think for themselves.
To all who attended the discussion, thank you very much, and great thanks to UUCFW for having me. Please leave a comment here or contact me at mike_butler (at) freethoughtfortwayne (dot) org with any questions.
File this under, "Way to Not Be a Stereotype, Dan Coats Supporters."
Of course, if they knew how to write properly, they probably would know how to read properly, and then maybe they would become educated enough realize how fucking retarded it would be to move this douchebag straight from K street back into the senate.
I think if we created a $1,000 fine for misspelled political signs, we could put an end to the conservative movement inside of a week.
"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions."
~Thomas Jefferson
After weeks of wading through insane flat assertions from my work and social acquaintances and piles of batshit crazy on my (now defunct) facebook page, I think mockery is the only reasonable option left. Until the upcoming midterm elections are over, I will offer no serious political messages. Only ridicule. Let's see how this works.
It's been a while since I've posted about my continuing endeavor - or at all, for that matter - and there have been some substantial developments recently.
With child expenses, car expenses, and an upcoming trip to Costa Rica for my brother's wedding, I haven't exactly had the funds to grow my record collection lately, especially given my taste for rare albums. However, I have been able to address an issue I didn't discuss in my first post: once I get all of this vinyl, how am I going to listen to it?
Building a decent hi-fi turntable-receiver-speaker setup can be an expensive proposition on its own. At the high end, there are items like this masterpiece turntable from Avid:
I've obviously neglected this blog for a few weeks now...I'm working on a lengthy post about vinyl, but for the time being I wanted to cover a few political notions I've been considering lately:
If you're arguing simultaneously for lower taxes, lower government spending, and lower unemployment, you fail it. It being critical thinking. The deficit is a big problem and will be for quite some time. However, there is still a massive credit crunch. In order for us to address unemployment, which is the most pressing issue, someone has to start spending. The private sector still can't get the credit to do it right now, so the best available candidate is the government. Another point that is lost amidst all of the rampant deficit-hawking is that if the government is in debt, more money has to be in private hands. It's zero sum. And China does not hold most of our debt, by the way - not even close. While they hold the largest amount of our foreign debt, the lion's share of the national deficit is held in the United States itself, by the private sector. Finally, concerning spending, the federal government is far and away the largest employer in the United States. I don't think it's wise at this point for the country's largest employer, and the only one has the ability to counteract market irrationality, to cut jobs in the middle of a deep recession. To summarize, anyone who is deficit-hawking right now has missed the point, and the ones who are simultaneously complaining about high unemployment are especially unhinged.
Here is a piece I wrote in February of '08, in case anyone was wondering why I despise Mr. Scandal-of-the-Moment so.
Ugh.
A few days ago I received a response to the email I sent to my jackassed representative about HR 888:
Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition to affirming our nation's Judeo-Christian heritage. I appreciate hearing from you.
No, seriously - don't dilly-dally around. Just piss me off in the very first sentence with your pathetic attempt at sarcasm. Bag of douche.
As you know, Representative Randy Forbes of Virginia introduced H.Res. 888 on December 18, 2007. I have cosponsored this resolution, which would affirm the significant role that religion and faith have played in the establishment of our country. H.Res. 888 has been referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for further review.
I know what it is, asshat. That's why I wrote you in the first place. And no, it's not about "affirming the significant role that religion and faith have played in the establishment of our country." It's about revising history to insert christian influence where it never before existed, and ignoring the dominance of classical liberalism in creating a representative democratic republic.
I know the tagline of my blog is "Politics and Pop Culture," but in light of recent events, I'm going to shoehorn "and Sports" in momentarily. My two favorite sports teams are Notre Dame in college football and Chelsea F.C. in England's top soccer division, the Barclay's Premier League. For the past couple of years I've been playing around with a theory that borrows the organizational elements of English "football" to solve a longstanding problem in American college football: crowning an undisputed champion.
Win-loss records presently matter in NCAA football, to be sure, but the methods used to basically settle ties when multiple teams are undefeated or have the same record are ultimately subjective. Statisticians have composed detailed formulas for rankings and strength of schedule, but no matter how precise and scientific they seem, they will always leave something to be desired. The best place to determine a champion is on the field of play, and I think I have come up with a system that will do exactly that.
The arrests of several militia members in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio over the weekend and Monday remind me of an experience I had with a member of a similar group.
In November of 1998, I was working as a loan officer at a bank branch on the north side of Ann Arbor. The bank "offered" everything from unsecured personal loans to car loans to home equity loans. However, the only loans incentivized to loan officers were home equity loans, so we were encouraged to steer all customers to that type of product. Even if you had great credit, if you didn't own your home, we would likely find a way to deny you - typically insufficient net worth. When I asked my superiors why we always tried to get a home as collateral, they invariably responded with what was then considered gospel truth: A home will always, ALWAYS increase in value, 2.5% per year, guaranteed.*
I knew when I started that it wasn't an original subject, but reading back through my posts, I grew very bored. I'm getting a little bored of watching it as well - last night's taffy pull of a show was just ridiculous, starting with Siobhan getting 2 lengthy criticisms from each judge, and ending with a performance from Aaron Kelly that I just couldn't bring myself to consume. Though Lee DeWyze gave a shockingly great performance last night, there's no way he can improve upon it, so I'll just tap out here and boldly assume that Crystal Bowersox is going to win the whole damned thing.
Now, Dancing With the Stars....THERE'S a bloggable show...
In my more conservative days in college, I was routinely annoyed by the attitude of my more liberal classmates toward "corporations." They used the term as a monolithic catch-all of evil. Faceless, soulless "corporations" were encroaching on our freedoms, destroying the environment, and ruining our democracy.
"But not all corporations are 'evil,'" I would say. "Many provide jobs and charitable donations. In fact, I would guess that most of us owe some of our financial well-being, including the ability to afford college, to corporations."
Now as then, I still think that making a blanket statement about "corporations" is a bit wrong-headed. There are good corporations and bad corporations. I do, however, find an even larger fault with the corporate-worship of the right, and the Supreme Court ruling which basically granted personhood to corporations is just nuts.
For the past several years, I've heard the same type of blanket statements being made, only now they are coming from the right, and the word "corporations" has been replaced by "government." The government is doing this, the government is doing that, the government is encroaching on our freedoms, etc. The government is the catch-all for the evil in this country. President Bush seemed to harbor this mistrust, as he railed against the ineptitude of "big government," then showed us precisely how to make government even larger and even more inept. We need to remind the folks who hold this position that we are the government - all of us. It's a representative democratic republic. For all the wrong you think the government is doing, at the end of the day - or term, more accurately - you have the opportunity to change it.
I hate needless bureaucracy as much as the next person, but the truth is that, whether we do so willingly or unaware, we all implicitly endorse a complicated system of economic and social relationships. Unfortunately, maintaining that system takes people and paperwork. I would much rather deal with these "hassles" than have to constantly worry about feeding and protecting my family. Though our government sometimes functions badly, the answer is not to throw the whole thing away, but to calmly and rationally try to fix it.
Yes, I watch American Idol. And yes, I have opinions.
Elimination Recap:
Lacey Brown deserved to go, though there are worse contestants left. I actually think that if someone less boring was writing her songs, she may have a future as an independent artist.
The Judges:
Randy Jackson - He actually had a moment of clarity when he immediately recognized how boring Tim Urban's performance was.
Kara Dioguardi - There were moments when I didn't know what show she was watching. And get the damn out of Simon's face already. (Anybody have Paula's number?)
Simon Cowell - Reclaimed his spot as the voice of reason, particularly in his spot-on criticisms of Lee Dewyze and Casey James.
Ellen Degeneres - I still think that she has interesting things to say, but she dropped the ball big time on Casey James.
I've heard them all at this point. "So many people come from Canada to the US for health care." "My uncle hated going to the VA hospital." "This will 'hurt small business.'" "The 'doctors' don't want it." "We have the best healthcare system in the world."
Enough.
Show me some data, or shut the fuck up already.
Here are some of my anecdotes:
1. I pay more in health costs each year than what I effectively pay in taxes - about 16% of my income - and I'm a relatively healthy person.
2. I work for a small business that has seen its health insurance premiums increase by 50% with a slight decrease in benefits. (My employer would be exempt from the mandates of the current plan under discussion.)
3. An estimated 18,000 people die every year from lack of insurance within the country with the "best healthcare system in the world."
Oops - #3 isn't an anecdote, rather an analysis by the National Academy of Science's Institute of health. That's about six 9/11's every year, and nobody who's opposed to health insurance reform seems to want to acknowledge this. Frankly, even if the reform under discussion leads to some inconveniences for me, I will gladly take them if it saves even a third of the people who would have died from lack of insurance.
I'm sorry, but if you disagree with that last sentence, perhaps this whole "civilization" thing just isn't for you. I know that government isn't always the answer, but sometimes it is. (And this is nowhere near the 'government takeover' that the obstructionists are trying to conjure up!) Due to the complexity of health care issues, there will be bureaucrats involved no matter what. I'll take the ones who are, at some level, accountable to voters rather than shareholder wallets. We've let the private sector try to fix this for long enough. It's time for us to stop behaving like selfish assholes and do the right thing, and that's what this particular reform bill is; maybe not the perfect thing, but compared to the status quo, the right thing.
Yes, I watch American Idol. And yes, I have opinions. (And sometimes, I take a week off.)
Elimination Recap:
The Great Massacre of 2010. Fake Sisqo never made us like him enough to stick around, but the other 3? Really? Though he struggled with nerves, I would place Alex Lambert 2nd on the guys' side. How Tim Urban is still around just baffles me. The girls' side was even worse. Katelyn Epperly had a bad week, but Katie Stevens and Paige Miles had worse weeks...still my darkhorse is out. There were clearly 5 girls, including Katelyn Epperly, that should have gone home before Lilly Scott. I know that this Nickleback nation of ours often gets it wrong when it comes to musical talent, but this is damn wrong. The show will be worse this season for it.
The Judges:
Randy Jackson - Dude. Dog. Hot. Pitchy. You worked it out. Just aaight for me.
Kara Dioguardi - Is "douchebag" a specifically male term? Kara's on my short list of women I would refer to as a "douchebag."
Simon Cowell - I don't understand his obsession with Lee Dewyze.
Ellen Degeneres - She's clearly the second best judge, and for never having been in the pop music industry, she's surprisingly constructive with her criticism.
The NRA has been robo-calling the shit out of our office these last few days. I'm not sure what's causing the spike, but usually the call times out before one of their reps picks up, which leaves one of our employees - me lately - repeating the word "hello" like an idiot for 10 seconds or so. Today, however, some unfortunate rep was on the other end. I let her introduce herself, and then:
Me: Oh my God! Is OBAMA gonna take all our GUNS!?!?!?!?!
NRA Rep: (pause) Yes, that is a possibility.
Obviously, the correct answer was, "No sir. That very concept is just as silly as, say, deporting all of the 'illegals' or 'ending the fed.'" But no, the NRA needs to keep everyone as scared as possible at all times. I am still looking for better sources, but there are stories of people burying their bibles when Jefferson was elected in fear that an atheist (he wasn't, unfortunately) would ban them. This is precisely the sentiment the NRA is trying to channel.
So, where do I stand on gun issues? I'm not anti-gun, and I'm not sure that we need new gun laws. We definitely need to do a better job of enforcing the laws already on the books. What I despise, however, are some elements of the gun culture in this country, for the following reasons.
Yes, I watch American Idol. And yes, I have opinions.
Elimination Recap: Unlike with the guys, I think America got it right enough. Janell Wheeler had a really bad performance, and Ashley Rodriguez was just too boring. Her attitude after her elimination was terrible too - I know that's to be expected to some extent, but she looked like she was ready to kill someone. Oh well.
Yes, I watch American Idol. And yes, I have opinions.
Elimination Recap: According to my rankings, America got it half exactly right and half terribly wrong. I ranked Tyler Grady second-worst, and he was rightly shown the door. However, I had Joe Muñoz as second-best, and he was also shown the door. He was a little bizarre, as his interview demeanor was incredibly awkward while his singing demeanor was a picture of confidence. I guess the voters just couldn't reconcile the two, and that's too bad for the fellas. That guy really could sing.
A note on my rankings - I'm not out to predict who will be voted off. If you're looking for that sort of thing, I would recommend DialIdol.com - which had an 87% success rate when I started using it a couple of years ago. My rankings are strictly my opinion, which sometimes goes against the norm...sometimes drastically so.
By internet standards, this editorial from last week is ancient news. It might as well be written on papyrus. However, it is very relevant and, in my opinion, right on the nose in assessing the American psyche at the moment.
Don't worry, the irony of writing about an article decrying our dehumanization via social networking and blogs in my own blog is not lost on me. I'm just enjoying it and moving on...so please indulge me for a moment and check out this highlight on the topic of healthcare:
Americans don’t want a European nanny state — fine! But, as a lawyer friend, Manuel Wally, put it to me, “When it comes to health it makes sense to involve government, which is accountable to the people, rather than corporations, which are accountable to shareholders.”
I've been saying this for a while now, and it's one of the reasons for my switch from kind of conservative to definitely progressive, which I will describe in more detail in a future post: Conservatives seem to worship the free market. I recently heard, in multiple cases, proponents describing violations of Austrian School principles as if they were violations of the laws of physics. While I'm not even close to being anti-capitalist, I do recognize that all economic ideologies, of which free market capitalism is only one, have their strengths and weaknesses. One simply cannot shoehorn in their favorite and expect it to solve a problem for which it was not designed. When it comes to health care and insurance reform, I don't think it's possible to reconcile the profit motive with ethical treatment for health conditions - many of which arise nearly entirely out of our control.
I think Roger Cohen and Manuel Wally are entirely correct - this is why we have a government in the first place, to achieve cooperation between our own self-interests and competing societal interests. To those who worship at the altar of free markets, the Milton Friedman/Austrian School ideals are the only path to a better world. In practice, however, I believe they lead to something more like Somalia.
Yes, I watch American Idol. And yes, I have opinions.
The Judges:
Randy Jackson - For me, for you, he was just alright. Dawg.
Kara Dioguardi - She actually had a few relevant things to say last night, but they were mostly points that other judges already made.
Simon Cowell - Better last night than the first night. The guys didn't really have a singular great performance, and he seemed kind of insulted by it.
Ellen Degeneres - She went a little off the rails last night and started using quasi-musical terms that may have been out of her range of understanding - "You 'pushed it' and then you 'brought it back'" - stuff that really could mean just about anything and nothing at the same time.
Yes, I watch American Idol. And yes, I have opinions.
The Judges:
Randy Jackson - I think he's on a mission to find the most completely generic thing to say at any given time. It's so bad that I can't even really review him, so I'll just say "he did his thing." (Dawg)
Kara Dioguardi - I don't really know what she's talking about. Ever. She does make some pretty serious faces, though, and that probably counts for something. She totally said "Bitch" too!
Simon Cowell - He was off last night. It was bizarre; one of those "it must sound different in person" sort of nights. He commented to one of the girls about the surplus of internet singer-songwriters putting acoustic twists on hits...what exactly do you expect when the most mediocre internet busker won the whole damned thing last year?
While I was aware of it much earlier, I first became really acquainted with the internet my freshman year of college in the fall of 1995. For point of reference, Amazon.com had only launched two months prior to my moving into the dorms. For those of us who spent our late teens and early twenties "growing up" with the internet, we were among the first to experience the new and exciting yet morally challenging world of internet-facilitated music piracy.
At the time high-speed internet became more widely available, around 2000 or so, I started working for Grand Valley State University's AV Equipment Services. I was one of the nerds who pushed projectors around to classrooms. (Hey, at least they were digital.) (On second thought, that doesn't make it any better.) To this day it is probably my favorite job of all time: 15 minutes each hour setting up equipment before class, and 45 minutes of internet loveliness. This was at the height of Napster...then SongSpy...then AudioGalaxy...then Bearshare/Limewire et al... Until that point in my life, I had viewed the world of music through a keyhole, and anonymous internet file sharing, combined with a new group of relatively music-savvy coworkers, turned this view into a full 3-D IMAX extravaganza. If you ever wonder how I became such an unbearable music snob, you need look no further than my time at AVES.
"For certain reasons" is, in my opinion, the pinnacle of rhetorical crutches. Its meaning, for me anyway, originated in a 100-level communications class I took at Grand Valley State University. The professor had very little control over the discourse, which subsequently veered sometimes wildly off-topic. His name escapes me, but one of the students in the class liked to hold the discussion hostage with his rambling, ill-informed opinions. The mysterious source material for his arguments was always "certain reasons:"
"The government wants to privatize social security, for certain reasons."
"Flag-burning is un-American, for certain reasons."
I guess if you reference "certain reasons," no further citation is required. "For certain reasons" is my precursor to Ms. Teen South Carolina's "such as" and Sarah Palin's "also, too."
Over the last 3 years, my worldview has changed pretty drastically. I deconstructed virtually everything I thought I believed, and put it back together based upon reason and critical thinking. It's something I think everyone should do...although it should probably be done before you make huge commitments in your personal life, career, etc. My commitments are still very much intact, but changing your worldview in such an environment certainly doesn't make things easier.
As one of the founding members of FreeThought Fort Wayne, I'll do most of my "freethinker" blogging there. Living in (latest presidential election aside) bright red Indiana and working in the construction industry, I have to chose carefully when to push my progressive opinions, so they will find a home here. I'll also write about pop culture as the mood strikes.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Michael B
