In keeping with my new tradition (read: game) I have decided to post another government photo with a completely fictional and, hopefully hilarious caption attached. And I will call this thing, Government Capt-ivity.
Though President Bush made several requests,
the boys at the nuclear power plant insisted that they
not try to make all the lights come on at once.
“Hey, it’s Sailor Punk, man!” Never Again was a band from Hawaii. Sadly, they are to play… Well, you get the idea. MP3s available.
Sounds like: [Screeching Weasel 
] [Blink 182 ]
A North Korean factory boss accused of making international phone calls was executed by a firing squad in front of 150,000 people. Six people were also crushed to death and 34 others injured in an apparent stampede as they left after the execution.
Buy me coffee! Sphere: Related ContentHappy Monday!
Right… Anyway, I took the weekend off in order to produce a video pod for submission to Current.com, website for the television network spawned by Al Gore. My video deals with Government Eavesdropping. Please take a look and give me the green light if you like it! Just follow the link below:
“‘Big Brother’ on Government Eavesdropping” as seen at Current.com. This video is in contention for air time on the Current network. Please vote!
Thanks,
JMK
Buy me coffee! Sphere: Related ContentIn an article posted at Time.com, a concept known as reciprocal altruism was discussed briefly, and it gave me pause. I was thinking back to a few years ago when, tired of hearing excessive rhetoric about how religion, and even God himself, were behind this notion of human morality, I delineated a simple process by which any being could come across a sense of morality.
It is unarguable, though probably not completely provable either. Yet, it served its purpose as a shunt to that meaningless dribble I was always hearing from the religious right. You cannot have morality without God in your life… Those comments got old fast. In the military for some reason, there seems to be a relatively high concentration of practicing Christians. By Christian I mean the entire Judeo-Christian world, not any specific denomination.
I found this to be odd, and particularly at odds with my understanding of their faith. In my five years in the Navy, I only encountered one man — a Catholic — who stated for all to hear that he did not believe in killing and that, if the time came, he would not do so. Most of the rest claimed that God somehow wanted them there to protect “his people.” This concept frightened me. Could they really believe that?
So, in order to counter their diatribes and hopefully plant a seed for logical thought, I relayed my theory of Three Steps to Morality. It goes as follows:
1) The subject in question experiences either physical or emotional pain on a personal level. In my example, I use the stubbing of one’s toe. Immediately they learn that stubbing their toe is painful, and they take a mental note to be more careful with the placement of their feet while walking.
2) The subject in question next observes another member of their community, whether it be another person, another chimp, another dog, or what have you, stubbing their toe. They see that the experience is exactly as painful for the second subject as it was for them. They now understand the experience on a universal level.
3) The subject finally makes the connection between the cause and effect of pain and pain avoidance. They realize that if something causes them pain, and they know that it causes the same pain for others, then it is illogical and immoral to cause that pain unto another willfully. Also, they know that if it is beneficial for them to avoid certain types of pain, then the same is true for others in their community and therefore it is logical and moral to assist their peers in the avoidance of such pain. Thus, morality has be derived from three, simple steps.
Now, clearly I won’t be winning a Nobel Prize for this theory, the article at Time.com was far more in depth than this and made more sense. But I still feel that the basic premise is sound and that my ability to see morality in this way allows me to feel confident that I can, and do, act morally even without a deity to worship. I settled comfortably into my non-belief after reading a few things that a very popular and wise man had written on the topic.
“Everything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with the satisfaction of deeply felt needs and the assuagement of pain…”
“With primitive man it is above all fear that evokes religious notions — fear of hunger, wild beasts, sickness, death…”
“…the human mind creates illusory beings more or less analogous to itself on whose wills and actions these fearful happenings depend.”
“A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary.”
— Albert Einstein Originally written for New York Times Magazine and published on 09 November, 1930. Republished in “Ideas and Opinions” in 1954 by Crown Publishers, Inc.
It struck me as fantastic that a man as brilliant as Albert Einstein, who had the ability to see complex mathematical processes by simply imagining them, thus enabling him to have a very base and subtle understanding of the inner workings of our world, could be so calm and matter of fact about allaying centuries of human belief! And what was more, I agreed with him. He went on in other parts of “Ideas and Opinions” as well…
“There is nothing divine about morality; it is a purely human affair.”
“A religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance and loftiness of those super-personal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation.”
“…science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”
“…the existence of an omnipotent, just, and omni-beneficent personal God is able to accord man solace, help, and guidance; also, by virtue of its simplicity it is accessible to the most undeveloped mind.”
“…if [God] is omnipotent, then every occurrence, including every human action, every human thought, and every human feeling and aspiration is also His work; how is it possible to think of holding men responsible for their deeds and thoughts before such an almighty Being? In giving out punishment and rewards He would to a certain extent be passing judgment on Himself.”
Anyway, he goes into depth about his feelings on the concept of religion in the Human conscience. After the first time I read these things — and I have read them again many, many times since — I was enthralled by the concept. Einstein saw himself as a largely spiritual and moral man, though he claims not to have needed a name for his spirituality nor a specific deity to guide him to it.
Anyway, I’ve carried on long enough on the topic. Hopefully I will have spurned some of you to read “Ideas and Opinions.” It is a wonderful book that is well worth reading. It does not center entirely around religion, either. In fact, it is only one of several topics topics that the books covers including Freedom, Education, Friends, Politics, Germany, Science, and more.
Enjoy!
JMK
Buy me coffee! Sphere: Related Content
NPR Opinion PiecesPowered by WordPress and Fjords04 Web Design Services, based on Qwilm. Thanks to Domain Name Registration and Merchant Accounts for contributing.
