02 SEP 2016 by ideonexus
De-Romanticizing Voting
Ugh. In actual outcomes, voting isn't an expression of your heart, your soul, or even your emotion. The result of a vote isn't "the right thing" or "the thing I love" or "the cure for social ills" or "the perfect solution." It's not a mechanism of protest or a chance to be dramatic, and it's not a "gesture" or a stand -- that's what demonstrations, letter writing, and petition campaigns are for. A vote is a functional choice for the preferable viable outcome, an act that adds 1 to a tally th... 1 
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notes30 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Literacy Increases Compassion
The human capacity for compassion is not a reflex that is triggered automatically by the presence of another living thing. As we shall see in chapter 9, though people in all cultures can react sympathetically to kin, friends, and babies, they tend to hold back when it comes to larger circles of neighbors, strangers, foreigners, and other sentient beings. In his book The Expanding Circle, the philosopher Peter Singer has argued that over the course of history, people have enlarged the range of... 1 notes
notes21 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Where are Proponents of the Enlightenment?
The place of the Enlightenment in public debate has all but disappeared. Renowned philosophers who do engage with criticism of the Enlightenment, such as Jürgen Habermas and Charles Taylor, do not catch the imagination of a wide public in the way Foucault did 40 years ago. Even the great scientists of NASA and Caltech, heirs of Isaac Newton, armed with massive modern reams of data, cannot sway the majority of the American public into believing that global warming is man-made. Instead of majo... 1 notes
notes19 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
The Chain of Human Rights to Morphological Freedom
The right to life, the right to not have other people prevent oneself from surviving, is a central right, without which all other rights have no meaning. But to realize the right to life we need other rights.
Another central right for any humanistic view of human rights is the right to seek happiness. Without it human flourishing is unprotected, and there is not much point in having a freedom to live if it will not be at least a potentially happy life. In a way the right to life follows from... 1 notes
notesFrom Anders Sandberg's "Morphological Freedom – Why We Not Just Want It, but Need It"
09 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
Dan Nerren Secular Invocation
Let us open our hearts to the welfare of all people in our community by respecting the inherent dignity and worth of each person, and realize our differences of race, religion, and party affiliation are merely superficial. Our common humanity unites us all, and may we recognize that through our interdependence we share a common fate.
In order to achieve the greatest good as citizens of Tulsa, it is important for us to maintain an open mind, and honor and respect the human rights of each othe...Folksonomies: secularism
Folksonomies: secularism
1 notes
notesDan Nerren, founder of Atheist Community of Tulsa, made history by being the first atheist to give an invocation at the Tulsa City Council Meeting on August 30, 2012.
18 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
Declaration for the Right to Libraries
LIBRARIES CHANGE LIVES
Declaration for the Right to Libraries
In the spirit of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we believe that libraries are essential to a democratic society. Every day, in countless communities across our nation and the world, millions of children, students and adults use libraries to learn, grow and achieve their dreams. In addition to a vast array of books, computers and other resources, library users benefit fro... 1 notes
notesLibraries empower, ennoble, and enlighten.
27 AUG 2012 by ideonexus
Human Rights
After ages of error, after wandering in all the mazes of vague and defective theories, writers upon politics and the law of nations at length arrived at the knowledge of the true rights of man, which they deduced from this simple principle: that he is a being endowed with sensation, capable of reasoning upon and understanding his interests, and of acquiring moral ideas.
They saw that the maintenance of his rights was the only object of political union, and that the perfection of the socia...Folksonomies: human rights paradigm
Folksonomies: human rights paradigm
1 notes
notesEarly concept natural philosophy, refuted the established paradigm.
08 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
The Need for a Common Perspective
That we need a planetary ethic is so obvious that I need but list a few key words: climate, ethnic cleansing, fossil fuels, habitat preservation, human rights, hunger, infectious disease, nuclear weapons, oceans, ozone layer, pollution, population. Our global conversations on these topics are, by definition, cacophonies of national, cultural, and religious self-interest. Without a common religious orientation, we basically don't know where to begin, nor do we know what to say or how to listen... 1 notes
notesWe need a singular vision based on reality in order to come to consensus and overcome our political and ideological differences.
23 MAR 2011 by ideonexus
1973 Humanist Manifesto II - Democratic Society
Democratic Society
SEVENTH: To enhance freedom and dignity the individual must experience a full range of civil liberties in all societies. This includes freedom of speech and the press, political democracy, the legal right of opposition to governmental policies, fair judicial process, religious liberty, freedom of association, and artistic, scientific, and cultural freedom. It also includes a recognition of an individual's right to die with dignity, euthanasia, and the right to suicide. W...
1 Section on Democratic Society from the Humanist Manifesto.
23 MAR 2011 by ideonexus
1973 Humanist Manifesto II - World Community
World Community
TWELFTH: We deplore the division of humankind on nationalistic grounds. We have reached a turning point in human history where the best option is to transcend the limits of national sovereignty and to move toward the building of a world community in which all sectors of the human family can participate. Thus we look to the development of a system of world law and a world order based upon transnational federal government. This would appreciate cultural pluralism and diversit... 1 notes
notesSection on World Community from the Humanist Manifesto.
