Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
. . . . religious concepts are parasitic upon moral intuitions How is it possible to live a moral life if we don’t believe in a god? Without belief in God, some believers shriek hysterically, we would have no moral code. We would believe we would be free to kill and steal and do all … Continue reading “Why We Connect Moral Judgments to God(s)”
We are not the only social animals with rules of behaviour we must follow or risk some form of punishment but our moral systems are surely the most complex. How does it all work? I’d like to think that we can figure it out enough to help us understand what’s going on when two sides are at loggerheads, each convinced of its own … Continue reading “Towards Understanding How Morality Works”
I used to think morality was a distinctively human attribute but no more. To tell the complete story I really believed morality was unique to humans and divinities or spirits of some kind. This led to unresolvable problems that hurt my head, such as: Why does a good sleep or healthy diet have such a … Continue reading “Morality: Why and What Is It? (And more blog serendipity)”
Another fascinating Radio National program worth sharing is Babies and a Sense of Morality in the latest edition of the Health Report. Highlights: Babies can recognize good and bad behaviour, and demonstrate that they believe good behaviour is preferable, and even believe that it is right to punish bad behaviour. The experiment involved exposing babies … Continue reading “Our Moral Nature”
I loved this video clip of Frans de Waal’s talk, Moral Behavior in Animals. (It was recently linked on Jerry Coyne’s Evolution is True blog.) It demonstrates that more animals than humans have evolved moral attributes of empathizing with others, offering others consolation, “prosocial” tendencies such as caring for the welfare of others, and a … Continue reading “Evolved Morality”
This post relates to an earlier one on Keller here. There is plenty wrong with human nature but there is also plenty of good. I have been lucky enough to have travelled a little bit to places where different religions are practiced and where the majority of people appear to profess no religion, and one … Continue reading “Why oppose godless (human) morality?”
Reflections on having completed Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence in History and its Causes. . . . By the time I had completed the seventh chapter of Better Angels I began to feel my existence was somehow in a surreal place. Compared with most lives throughout human history mine has been fantastically … Continue reading “Better Angels of Our Nature”
Here is a list of some of the posts I have read and starred for future reference over this past week or two. From Valerie Tarico: The Slut Shaming, Sex-Negative Message in the Virgin Birth—It’s Worth a Family Conversation Religious Trauma Syndrome: How Some Organized Religion Leads to Mental Health Problems From Heather Hastie: Seven (More) Things … Continue reading “Some Christmas Holiday Reading”
This afternoon I was feeling a punch-gut of illness after reading blogs by classical humanist intelligentsia openly referring to “dumbshit masses”, “mob morality”, “village atheists”, “education for character” and the like, and was in dire need of some reassuring contact with the everyday people who make up those supposedly benighted masses. One of the hardest … Continue reading “It’s not necessarily bad to be against religion”
I am continuing here with my responses to criticisms raised on the earlywritings forum against the proposal that the first biblical texts were composed as late as around 270 years before Christ. (I had looked forward to continuing the discussion on that forum until I lost confidence in the sub-forum’s promise to be an “academic … Continue reading “Questioning the Hellenistic Date for the Hebrew Bible: Elephantine ‘Jews’”
Continuing…. Above all else, it is the early Jewish-Christian volume of the Pseudo-Clementine writings that provides the most striking parallel to Johannine baptism [in Antiquities of the Jews] In this post I begin by addressing Peter Kirby’s final argument against Rivka Nir’s case for the John the Baptist passage in Josephus’s Antiquities being an interpolation. … Continue reading “Where does John the Baptist fit in History? — The Evidence of Josephus, Pt 3”
Derek Lambert of the MythVision program dedicated a program to something he found on “yours truly” blog outlining aspects of Philippe Wajdenbaum’s case for linking Abraham’s (near) sacrifice of Isaac with the Greek myth of Phrixus: The Bible’s roots in Greek mythology and classical authors: Isaac and Phrixus Greek Myths Related to Tales of Abraham, … Continue reading “How a Biblical Tale Could have Emerged from a Greek Myth”
Is there anything at all that can be said? I can only feel — appropriate words won’t come. I gather news updates from a range of sources and have been distressingly learning for years now about the increasing attacks by Israelis on Palestinians, including the killing of women and children, with the clear winks from … Continue reading “Unspeakable…”
Critique of the Gospel History of the Synoptics by Bruno Bauer Volume 3 —o0o— 103 Twelfth section. The activity of Jesus in Jerusalem. Mark 11, 1 – 13, 37. ———— § 76. The Entry into Jerusalem. Mark 11, 1 – 11. The changes that the three others made to the original report are so obvious … Continue reading “§ 76. The Entry into Jerusalem”