The thing About religious fundamentalists is that they expect you to base your life and your belief system and morality on religious texts written three thousand years ago, before: – The Renaissance (15th and 16th Centuries CE)- The Scientific Revolution (1543-1687 CE)- The Enlightenment/Age of Reason (17th & 18th Centuries CE)-
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Views from the Beltline: Religion still making mischief
In a rapidly changing world, some things do remain the same. One such thing is religion’s capacity for mischief. Examples are legion. The mullahs of Iran, who as religious leaders might be expected to be moral leaders, oppress their own people and make trouble throughout their region. Saudi Arabia, an
Continue readingScripturient: Morally and Ethically Bankrupt
It’s official: our council is morally and ethically bankrupt. You may have felt that from their past behaviour, but Monday night they confirmed it for everyone. There is not a shred of decency left to share among them. At the Jan. 24 meeting of council, they voted unanimously to revoke
Continue readingScripturient: Socrates and Saunderson
In Plato’s dialogue Gorgias, Socrates debates with three sophists — Gorgias the rhetorician and his pupils Polus, and Callicles — about justice, power, morality, and virtue. Socrates also questions the value of oratory and rhetoric — the crafts of the sophists — in contemporary politics and whether they do good
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Identity Politics in Action – When “Who” is more important that “What”.
Identity politics serves to corrupt the notions of morality, common sense, and what it means to live in a society under the rule of law. This is a brief examination of a twitter thread I stumbled across about the recent cases of Catholic Churches being burnt down as misguided retaliation
Continue readingScripturient: Shopping carts, masks, and morality
The shopping cart theory — or rather the S.C. hypothesis, since it really isn’t a theory in the proper scientific sense — is a test of our humanity, or so the notion goes: The shopping cart is ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing. But it’s
Continue readingScripturient: Can an atheist be a good citizen?
The answer to the headline’s question is no, at least according to the late Catholic priest Richard John Neuhaus in a podcast in the Socrates in the City series (Sept. 22, 2004; I came across it as one of the chapters in the 2012 book from the podcast, Life, God,
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Psychopaths, Society, and Morality
Heidi Maibom in her essay at Aeon Magazine explores some the psychological and philosophical insights into morality gained by observing the behaviour of psychopathic individuals. I recommend going to Aeon and reading the entire article, its quite insightful. “The psychopath’s response to people who suffer indicates that what we
Continue readingScripturient: Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules
I really wanted to read this book objectively, separating it from the media hype and social media torrents of opinion and abuse that often accompany its author, Jordan Peterson. I wanted to consider it in the company of the vast number of already-published self-help or philosophical books, and the historical
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The University Process – A Moral Purpose?
My undergraduate University days were nothing like what is routinely described as the ‘University Experience’. It was a much more utilitarian experience – go to class, take notes, and then rinse and repeat the next day. Add review said notes and study as test time rolled around. The social aspect
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice – Appropriating Morality
Grab your morning coffee and enjoy your Sunday Disservice. 🙂
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Quote of the Day – Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn was an active and vocal opponent of the Vietnam War. He brings insight, like Noam Chomsky, to the issues that our liberal societies won’t acknowledge. The diffusion of Personal responsibility – and no, not the ‘personal responsibility’ (bootstraps!?!!!!) wielded by the corporatist right to bludgeon the poor,
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Most Violence Motivated by Personal Morality.
The idea that spanking is somehow a valid parenting practice is disturbing enough. What is more troubling is that people who practice spanking are likely to justify it within their own moral framework and not change their views on the subject. “To find answers, I looked at violence across
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Fixing the Cleveland I*****s Racist Team Name
Congratulations, Toronto Blue Jays on another exciting season! Let’s hope that before the Atlanta B****s or Cleveland I*****s come back to Toronto they will have changed their name. And as I’ve argued in the past, the process of fixing racist team names can itself be a reconciliation moment. A moment
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: A Glimpse of Last Week in White, Male Supremacy
People, especially people who are white and male: we need to drastically up our game if we are going to move towards equity and away from the increasingly brutal white male backlash that’s been growing. Last week a number of things happened that reinforce the supremacy of white men, but
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice – On Biblical Morality
Pancakes and shedding blood just doesn’t seem right. Filed under: Religion Tagged: Bible, Christians, Morality, The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How Far Will Men Go to Keep Their Entitlements?
How can you tell that America is suffering from a vast, intense, rageful male backlash against feminism? How can you tell men are struggling brutally hard to hold onto their entitlements? [And don’t be too complacent Canadian men; are we really different?] Well, while this electoral analysis can’t actually manifest
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: One Million Vaginas Helps Us With Trump
The wise, inspiring folks at One Million Vaginas have done it again, helping reframe Trump’s attempt to disempower women into an empowerment meme. Feel free to sprinkle these hashtags as well! #GrabHimByTheBallot #NeverTrump #RapeCulture #SexualAssault So please, all my American friends/readers, and all YOUR American friends, help the world
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day!
I so hope you had a wonderful Indigenous Peoples’ Day yesterday! In “America” there is a movement to replace the systemically racist Columbus Day. It’s spreading briskly; soon it may reach the 100th Monkey and spread across Turtle Island. In Canada, we had Thanksgiving Day, for all the cornucopia reasons
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