Help Break The Spell Of Religious Reverence (Tip 5 of 10 For Reaching Out To Religious People)

October 6, 2011 By 10 Comments

1. Don’t Call Religious Believers Stupid. 2. Make Believers Stay on Topic During Debates. 3. Don’t Tell Religious Believers What They “Really Believe”. 4. Clarify What Kinds of Evidence Warrant What Kinds of Beliefs. 5. Help Break The Spell Of Religious Reverence. Religious people are often on a hair-trigger to be offended. And they will [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy Of Religion 10 Comments

Can You Respect A Creationist?

September 29, 2011 By 12 Comments

The ever-wise Richard Wade responds to a letter from an atheist who is struggling with how to continue to respect someone who he likes a lot and shares a lot of interests with but who has recently been revealed as a creationist. Richard replies:

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Religion, Religion 12 Comments

Parrot (A Short Atheist Film)

September 28, 2011 By 2 Comments

A 20 minute Australian short film about a closeted atheist wants to be the atheist’s Philadelphia or In the Heat of the Night. Here is the trailer: Parrot Short Film Trailer from Myrtle Street Pictures on Vimeo. It looks interesting, but I admit that I am squeamish about the whole idea of self-consciously atheistic filmmaking. So [...]

Filed Under: Arts, Arts, Atheism, Atheist Videos, Atheist Videos, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Film, Film, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism 2 Comments

Nietzsche: "'Good' Is No Longer Good When One's Neighbor Mouths It"

September 26, 2011 By 3 Comments

I argued yesterday that Nietzsche believes that there are objective standards of value for assessing divergent moralities. In reply, Juno (of the blog Letters from Le Vrai) asks what I would make of Section 43 of Beyond Good and Evil which reads, in full, as follows: Are these coming philosophers new friends of “truth”? That is probable enough, for [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Autonomy, Autonomy, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Epistemology, Epistemology, Ethical Pluralism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Ethics, Historical Ethics, Historical Ethics, Historical Philosophy, Historical Philosophy, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Virtues, Virtues 3 Comments

Nietzsche: Moral Absolutism and Moral Relativism Are "Equally Childish"

September 25, 2011 By 23 Comments

Recently Joel Marks, a career moral philosopher, concluded that the moral certitude he has felt and argued for his entire career was built as much on faith as many theists’ belief in God is. And in response he swung radically in the opposite direction and came to believe that there can be no rational objectivity [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Ethical Pluralism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Ethics, Historical Ethics, Historical Ethics, Historical Philosophy, Historical Philosophy, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Teleology, Teleology 23 Comments

Atheism and Tradition Building

September 20, 2011 By 9 Comments

This year on 9/11 I saw a number of my atheist friends dismissing the whole notion of memorializing that nationally traumatic day or even of taking its ten year anniversary as an opportunity to reflect on its impacts on our nation’s values and history in the last decade. For some it was a spirit of [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism Tagged With: 9 Comments

Moral Perfectionism, Moral Pragmatism, Free Love Ethics, and Adultery

September 19, 2011 By 60 Comments

Kelly: You are a moral absolutist, Jaime. Jaime: Nonsense. You are the one who wants to impose monogamy on everyone, whether they like it or not. Kelly: No, when we talked the other day, I conceded it was your right to have whatever kinds of open relationships you wanted. I only said that, given human [...]

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Autonomy, Autonomy, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Duty, Duty, Ethical Pluralism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Ethics, Love, Love, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Psychology, Psychology, Sex, Virtues, Virtues Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 60 Comments

Why Getting Away With Wrongdoing Does Not Make It Worth It

September 18, 2011 By 15 Comments

This past week across numerous different classes I am teaching in both ancient philosophy and ethics, I have been talking with my students about Plato’s Republic, Book II. We have discussed whether there would be any intrinsic goodness to justice such that it would be in our interests to choose just courses of action even [...]

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Ethics, Ethics, Hypocrisy, Hypocrisy, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy Tagged With: 15 Comments

On Rejecting Faith in Morality

September 16, 2011 By 1 Comment

Update: Joel Marks has replied to this post and to my first follow up post.  I have reedited this post to incorporate his remarks at the end. Joel Marks is at the Center for Bioethics at Yale University and is professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of New Haven. Though writing on ethics throughout [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Ethics, Ethics, Love, Love, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Personal, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Skepticism, Skepticism 1 Comment

Why Clergy Rightfully Have No Place At A 9/11 Memorial (Or Any Civic Ceremonies)

September 11, 2011 By 7 Comments

Some clergy have been upset that they were explicitly excluded from today’s ceremonies about 9/11. I alluded to this, with a link where you can read more, in the following critical remark yesterday: some [are taking] the opportunity [of 9/11's tenth anniversary] to selfishly feel aggrieved because their religion and its pseudo-authority and pseudo-comforts are neglected. [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Free Speech, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Jesus, Jesus, Law, Law, Law & Politics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Prayer, Prayer, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats Tagged With: , , , 7 Comments