On personal spiritualism and liberal religiosity

A little while back a friend asked me if I thought that recent violent acts by religious fundamentalists have stained the benefits of interiorized spirituality. Since this is a good question and one at the heart of much of my thinking on religion and “spirituality” (I’ll explain the shutter quotes later), I figured I’d make my response a fairly detailed blog post, and also address some related issues that she may not have actually had in mind.

The Secular Conscience | Dr. Austin Dacey speaks in Toronto this Friday

THE SECULAR CONSCIENCE:  WHY BELIEF BELONGS IN PUBLIC LIFE,
 with Dr. Austin Dacey.  The first Canadian book tour stop!

 Do ethics presuppose religion? Are objective morals incompatible with
 secular liberalism? Do questions of religion & values belong in public
 life?

Robert Latimer paroled

The Globe and Mail reports that after serving seven years in prison for the mercy killing of his severely disabled daughter, Robert Latimer will be freed on day parole this week. The appeal division of the National Parole Board has overturned a parole board decision last December that rejected Latimer’s parole application. Parole has been granted on the determination that Latimer does not pose an undue risk to reoffend.

Review of Atheism - Christianity debate between Christopher DiCarlo and Dave Hunt at the “Decide for Yourself” religion debates in Whitby, ON

For general overviews of the event, go here, here and here. These reviews are all written by humanists who were strongly disappointed by the slanted nature of the event. Put briefly, the event was run by Christian literalists, at a Christian school, with Christian moderators, with questions to the speakers having to be written down so that they could be selected by the Christian literalist organizer, and with numerous other examples of favouritism toward Christian presenters and guests. See reviews for more details. If anyone else would like to submit a review for posting here (good or bad), please send it to theframeproblem [at] live [dot] ca. Read on for the review on DiCarlo vs. Hunt.

Defending the legality of abortion

In this post I will argue on behalf of the legality of abortion. I will consider the issues from the stance of the unborn fetus, the parents, and society. I will also briefly consider the issue of abortion in the case of rape. I will not, however, consider abortion from the perspective of religion. While I am perfectly willing to consider moral arguments from religious texts, I will not give the arguments any special priority simply because they came from the Bible, the Qur’an, or some other religious text. My argument will revolve around rational consideration of human and societal well-being.

Western society is in no position to ban the raping of animals. There. I said it.

Now hear me out on this before allowing any pre-conceived judgments to crystallize on this assertion.

Before I get into my argument, I will say that I personally have no interest in having sex with or forcing myself sexually upon an animal. Nor am I saying that people should do this, or that it is a morally defensible act. What I am saying is that our society would be nothing short of hypocritical to ban animal rape. Notice how I’m saying animal rape, rather than simply sex with animals. I’m saying that our society is in no position to ban the brutal rape of animals. Why, because our society has already deemed unnecessary gruesome treatment of animals to be acceptable. It’s entirely possible that I have overlooked some considerations. Feel free to point any such considerations out. This post is an invitation for discussion, not simply me shouting my opinions.

Sam Harris: It’s not about atheism, it’s about reason and genuine respect for the well-being of others

Having just watched the recent Sam Harris + Rabbi David Wolpe debate on the existence of God, I was reminded of Sam Harris’ very important and agreeable position that a big part of the cultural struggle being fought be secularists should not be about atheism specifically, but about reason generally. Now, the subject of religion surely earns very special consideration in the struggle because it is one of the few, if not the only, domains in which people are not pressed for evidence for their beliefs, and are often even treated favourably for holding these beliefs in the absense of evidence. And of course, there is also the aspect of the secularist movement which is pushing for the raising of consciousness with the respect to the fact and inappropriateness that atheism is apparently one of if not the last hot button social characteristics for which it is still fairly socially acceptable for one the display overt bigotry toward. So definitely, given all of this and the great political import, considerations of religion remains the highest individual priority for the movement. However, at its core this movement needs to be more generally about anti-dogmatism and open-minded and genuine respect for the well-being and freedom from suffering of others.

Found: The Objective Moral Standard

Got a moral conundrum? Is your supernatural guidance counsellor of choice not checking his prayer-mail? Well then you’ll want to pay a visit to the Museum of Weights and Measures. Fear not if your p-mail Inbox is empty. The Objective Moral Authority is now just a short trip away. There’s just one problem, though: the address of the Museum has yet to be specified.

Hat Tip: This Busy Monster

Cafe Inquiry: Can we be good without God?

The next University of Toronto Secular Alliance event is this coming Wednesday. The event is a part of the ongoing program entitled Cafe Inquiry. Cafe Inquiry is modeled after Cafe Scientifique, a grassroots endeavor to provide an opportunity for citizens both within and especially outside of the university community to learn about and discuss important issues with other interested people spanning the spectrum from newbie to expert. Cafe Scientifique was born in the UK, but there are now Cafes on every continent. Cafe Inquiry is a new program which is currently being run at at least two Center For Inquiry locations: CFI Ontario and CFI West. Here is the bill for the upcoming Toronto event followed by some commentary on the event topic:

Cafe Inquiry

Good Without God?

Discussion + Inquiry
Professors + Students
Relaxed + Thoughtful
Tea + Coffee

Join us for relaxed, thoughtful discussion between professors + students alike over tea + coffee.

Featuring:

Prof. Thomas Hurka - Dept. of Philosophy
Special interests: moral philosophy, political philosophy, ethics, value theory

Prof. Peter King - Dept. of Philosophy
Special interests: medieval philosophy, ancient philosophy, political philosophy

Wednesday, February 13th
5pm - 7pm at the Centre for Inquiry Ontario
216 Beverley St. (St. George)
A short walk south of College St.

Renowned scientist Stuart Kauffman at McMaster University tonight, York University and CFI Ontario tomorrow

REINVENTING THE SACRED:
How the Paradigm of Emergence Offers New Scientific Views on the
Origin of Life and Biodiversity, Economics, Ethics, and Spirituality

Stuart Kauffman, Institute for Biochemplexity and Informatics,
University of Calgary

Thursday, Feb 7, 7:30-930pm, Michael G. Degroote Centre for Learning & Discovery and Atrium (MDCL), Rm. 3022, McMaster University, 1280 Main St. W, Hamilton, On

Friday, Feb 8, 2:00-4:00pm, Acolade West (ACW005), York University main entrance 4700 Keele St., Toronto, On

Friday, Feb 8, 7:30pm, Centre for Inquiry Ontario, 216 Beverley St,
downtown Toronto.
Part of our ongoing Voices of Reason lecture series - www.cfiontario.org

These event are open to the public.  A catered reception for Friends of the Centre with Dr. Kauffman will be held prior to the CFI Ontario event at 6pm at CFI Ontario. Become a Friend of the Centre today by contacting CFI Ontario at
ontario@centerforinquiry.net!

You may RSVP online through facebook
http://utoronto.facebook.com/event.php?eid=21247816464

“I would like to begin a discussion about the first glimmerings of a
new scientific world view — beyond reductionism to emergence and
radical creativity in the biosphere and human world. This emerging
view finds a natural scientific place for value and ethics, and places
us as co-creators of the enormous web of emerging complexity that is
the evolving biosphere and human economics and culture. In this
scientific world view, we can ask: Is it more astonishing that a God
created all that exists in six days, or that the natural processes of
the creative universe have yielded galaxies, chemistry, life, agency,
meaning, value, consciousness, culture without a Creator. In my mind
and heart, the overwhelming answer is that the truth as best we know
it, that all arose with no Creator agent, all on its wondrous own, is
so awesome and stunning that it is God enough for me and I hope much
of humankind.”

Kauffmann is best known for arguing that the complexity of biological
systems and organisms might result as much from self-organization and
far-from-equilibrium dynamics as from Darwinian natural selection.

Stuart Alan Kauffman (28 September 1939) is an American theoretical
biologist and complex systems researcher concerning the origin of life
on Earth. He is best known for arguing that the complexity of
biological systems and organisms might result as much from
self-organization and far-from-equilibrium dynamics as from Darwinian
natural selection.

Kauffman presently holds a joint appointment at the University of
Calgary in Biological Sciences and in Physics and Astronomy. He is
also an iCORE chair.  He graduated from Dartmouth in 1960, was awarded
the BA(Hons) by Oxford University in 1963, and completed a medical
degree (M.D.) at the University of California, San Francisco in 1968.
After a brief medical career, he moved into developmental genetics,
holding
appointments first at the University of Chicago, then at the
University of Pennsylvania from 1975 to 1995, where he rose to
Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics. Kauffman held a MacArthur
Fellowship, 1987-1992.

Kauffman rose to prominence through his association with the Santa Fe
Institute (a non-profit research institute dedicated to the study of
complex systems), where he was faculty in residence from 1986 to 1997,
and through his work on models in various areas of biology. These
included autocatalytic sets in origin of life research, gene
regulatory networks in developmental biology, and fitness landscapes
in evolutionary biology.

In 1996, Kauffman started BiosGroup, a Santa Fe, New Mexico-based
for-profit company that employs complex systems methodology to attempt
to solve business problems. BiosGroup was acquired by NuTech Solutions
in early 2003. As of 2003, Kauffman was a director of NuTech.

Cost: $7 general, $4 students, FREE for Friends of the Centre

Contact: www.cfiontario.org, ontario@centerforinquiry.net, 416-971-5676