| Rational, Compassionate Living |
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| Ethics Through Empathy: combining reason and compassion to form a joyous philosophy of life |
| A Role Model? |
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| What Would Jesus Do? Is this the most ethical question we can ask? |
| Animals |
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| What are our ethical responsibilities towards non-human animals? |
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Does "America" deserve a "blessing" or is it in need of forgiveness? |
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In formulating our philosophy of life, is it responsible to simply adopt an existing system of beliefs and ethics? If so, how do we decide which system to choose?
The articles in this site delve into these issues, but in brief, here is a synopsis of my thoughts.
It is not responsible to simply accept what our culture teaches without question. It is our duty as citizens of the world to recognize that there are many different cultures and beliefs. It's not likely that we just happened to be born into the "right" one!
If we are to question our culture's beliefs, what standard can we use to determine right from wrong? I believe the answer lies in empathy: that feeling of connectedness we all have inside of us. It is a feeling, sadly, that patriotism and religion often trample upon in putting forward their own agendas.
Few genuine acts of terrorism are ever committed outside the names of religion and/or patriotism. These are the two main culprits in subverting our sense of empathy.
As children we cry when we see others crying. We cringe at the thought of taking a barbed hook and pushing it through a live squirming worm. We hesitate to pull the rifle's trigger when an innocent animal stares back at us. As young idealists we march against war and sing songs of peace.
But then we "grow up". Our religion teaches us that it is humans whom God died for, and animals were put here for our use. We listen to the "pastor" recount his deer hunting story as part of his sermon, and we see the "Support Our Troops" decal on his SUV... We buy into the comfortable illusion that everything is here for our benefit, and we thank our religion and our country for such a "high standard" of living.
Religions have posed as the bastions of morality. So much is this so that it is generally assumed that to call someone "godless" or an "atheist" or even a "non-Christian" is tantamount to calling them immoral. But this is a skewed view of reality. Morality existed long before Christianity and the other major religions of our day. People have never needed religion to coerce them into acting morally. Sane individuals who have been raised with love are naturally moral. The danger of associating morality with religion is that when religion finally goes the way of ancient mythology, some may mistakenly throw the baby out with the bath water. It is better to understand right now that morality need have nothing to do with religious beliefs.
The article Rational Compassionate Living demonstrates the superiority of ethics based on empathy over ethics based on the Bible.
While Christianity generally teaches that the world was created for our use, in the articles on animal rights I argue that concern for animal suffering and for the environment are important ethical issues.
And while Christianity often holds up Jesus as a role model, in my article What Would Jesus Do? I point out that using him as a role model could lead to immoral consequences. In place of WWJD, I suggest using our own hearts and minds to determine the moral course of action in our lives.
Next to religion, patriotism has been the cause of more atrocities than any other ideology. Read what Tolstoy had to say about patriotism in 1900; it could've been written yesterday.
Finally, I examine the statement "God Bless America", and conclude that the United States is more in need of forgiveness than it is deserving of a blessing.
