Can Humanism Save Us?

B

BidenPresident

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"I think free-thinking — to rely on your own reason, on evidence, on how things appear to you, rather than accepting things on the basis of an authority, whether it's a religious authority or a political authority. It's not necessarily that we're talking here about the kind of radical skepticism that leads to questioning everything, because if that unmoors from reason and evidence, then that's where you end up thinking that the Earth is flat. But it is getting at not believing something simply because you've been told to believe it."

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/writersand...ought-from-the-renaissance-to-today-1.6797795
 
"I have never had any belief in God, or an afterlife, or any organized religion. I've always felt that the important things for human beings are our connections with other people, our moral life, but also our great sense of curiosity, our artistic sense, our desire to create something and to form bonds with other people and to be a part of the larger circle of life — that has always felt, to me, like the source of meaning and also of happiness."

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/writersand...ought-from-the-renaissance-to-today-1.6797795
 
The voices of reason and love were heard by the world yesterday


Right from the state that MLKs life ended in


These ideas come from a Place of Love


How beautiful and concise that young man is
 
No....it is too late to avoid this dark age....which will last a long time....likely measured in hundreds of years if we dont kill the planet with nuclear war before then....which is likely.
 
BidenPresident said:
"I think free-thinking — to rely on your own reason, on evidence, on how things appear to you, rather than accepting things on the basis of an authority, whether it's a religious authority or a political authority. It's not necessarily that we're talking here about the kind of radical skepticism that leads to questioning everything, because if that unmoors from reason and evidence, then that's where you end up thinking that the Earth is flat. But it is getting at not believing something simply because you've been told to believe it."

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/writersand...ought-from-the-renaissance-to-today-1.6797795
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No, in fact not even close.
 
BidenPresident said:
"I think free-thinking — to rely on your own reason, on evidence, on how things appear to you, rather than accepting things on the basis of an authority, whether it's a religious authority or a political authority. It's not necessarily that we're talking here about the kind of radical skepticism that leads to questioning everything, because if that unmoors from reason and evidence, then that's where you end up thinking that the Earth is flat. But it is getting at not believing something simply because you've been told to believe it."

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/writersand...ought-from-the-renaissance-to-today-1.6797795
Click to expand...

99 percent of our lives are spent relying on authority and expertise.

I rely on doctors for medical advice, I rely on lawyers for legal advice, I rely on civil engineers for roads, highways, and transportation, I rely on electrical engineers for power and electricity, I rely on agricultural engineers and growers for food, I rely on physicists, chemists, and geneticists for their expertise in science.
 
As a secular humanist,
I'd say that the salvation of our species
may be debated as to whether it's a good idea or not.

That's how fucked up we are, thanks to tolerating devolved mutants.
 
Cypress said:
99 percent of our lives are spent relying on authority and expertise.

I rely on doctors for medical advice, I rely on lawyers for legal advice, I rely on civil engineers for roads, highways, and transportation, I rely on electrical engineers for power and electricity, I rely on agricultural engineers and growers for food, I rely on physicists, chemists, and geneticists for their expertise in science.
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You have extremely poor reading comprehension: "whether it's a religious authority or a political authority."
 
Cypress said:
99 percent of our lives are spent relying on authority and expertise.

I rely on doctors for medical advice, I rely on lawyers for legal advice, I rely on civil engineers for roads, highways, and transportation, I rely on electrical engineers for power and electricity, I rely on agricultural engineers and growers for food, I rely on physicists, chemists, and geneticists for their expertise in science.
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Certainly. Because of their expertise.

I believe the question is, who do you rely on for your ethical and moral standards and guidance?
 
BidenPresident said:
That is you.
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You too. The vast majority of your life depends on the expertise of authorities.

Free thinking has it's place in personal ethical decisions, relationships, contemplation.

But "free thinking" is what the face mask deniers and vaccine skeptics claimed what they were doing. Our atrocious response to the COVID pandemic is entirely related to the dismissal of authority and expertise
 
Cypress said:
You too. The vast majority of your life depends on the expertise of authorities.

Free thinking has it's place in personal ethical decisions, relationships, contemplation.

But "free thinking" is what the face mask deniers and vaccine skeptics claimed what they were doing. Our atrocious response to the COVID pandemic is entirely related to the dismissal of authority and expertise
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You clearly did not read and understand the post I made. The author clearly was not referring to physics.
 
BidenPresident said:
You have extremely poor reading comprehension: "whether it's a religious authority or a political authority."
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Religion and politics are a very small part of most people's lives on a day to day basis.

I'm saying that we vastly overestimate our abilities to supposedly be courageous and individualistic free thinkers. The vast majority of our lives are completely dependent on authority and expertise.
 
Cypress said:
Religion and politics are a very small part of most people's lives on a day to day basis.

I'm saying that we vastly overestimate our abilities to supposedly be courageous and individualistic free thinkers. The vast majority of our lives are completely dependent on authority and expertise.
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Tiresome debating you when you literally cannot comprehend what is written.
 
domer76 said:
Certainly. Because of their expertise.

I believe the question is, who do you rely on for your ethical and moral standards and guidance?
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For the most part, we inherit it from the cultural mileu we grew up in and absorbed.

I don't believe any one decided one day in highschool that they were going to devise their own moral philosophy.

I think we can mold it around the edges by reading Nietzhe, The Dhammapada, or Daoist philosopy. But the fact is, to some degree we inherited our ethical framework from a two thousand year old western religious and intellectual history our culture has germinated in.

I think the big choice most of us face is whether or not we are going to act on that moral framework.
 
domer76 said:
who do you rely on for your ethical and moral standards and guidance?
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I rely on my biology. I'm like all other humans and am a "social creature". I understand that a lone human has an almost zero percent chance of survival in the wild. We gain a survival advantage from social groups. Actions that destabilize the social groups are "immoral", ie murder or theft.

If someone murders another member of society then it makes the entire society less safe so we put opprobrium on the act. No one thinks a well-fed housecat that kills a songbird is doing something "immoral" even though it perfectly fits the concept of "murder". But we would consider a human murdering another human to be "immoral".

Theft, same thing. Etc.

While I doubt very highly anyone had to sit down and think it out to initially come up with the idea that murder was immoral, no I think it manifested over millennia as we became a more cohesive society.

The "Golden Rule" (which is related) is found in a huge number of societies and traditions, even those that had no interaction with each other. It arises naturally among social animals IMHO.

The idea of "fiat" morality or morality as defined by some god or gods seems a much weaker concept. It runs afoul of Euthyphro and thus loses any imperative aspect. But the truths are still there.
 
BidenPresident said:
"I think free-thinking — to rely on your own reason, on evidence, on how things appear to you, rather than accepting things on the basis of an authority, whether it's a religious authority or a political authority. It's not necessarily that we're talking here about the kind of radical skepticism that leads to questioning everything, because if that unmoors from reason and evidence, then that's where you end up thinking that the Earth is flat. But it is getting at not believing something simply because you've been told to believe it."

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/writersand...ought-from-the-renaissance-to-today-1.6797795
Click to expand...

No it cant. In fact its already destroying us.
 
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