Consciencebound

Archive for the ‘Philosophy’ Category

Gotta love Tim Minchin. He has quickly become my favorite comedian

LOSING MY RELIGION: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America — and Found Unexpected Peace.

I heard about this book while listening to the Hugh Hewitt radio program. The author is a long time friend of Hewitt’s and so Hugh had him on the show for an hour to discuss his book and to take calls about it. Although my viewpoints have changed quite a bit over the years, Hugh Hewitt is still one of the conservative talk radio guys I really like and his interview with Lobdell is one reasons why. He did a two part interview with Lobdell which can be found here and here. This interview will give you a little glimpse into Lobdell’s story and personality. Hugh is an Evangelical Christian and he has callers on his radio show call in and talk to Lobdell about his book. Although the interview drags on a bit at times, I think it is good because it shows Lobdell’s sincerity and that he was a meaningful and true Christian who truly struggles with his loss of faith.

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Interesting discussion on morality from a youtube vlogger. Most memorable quote is at the very end of the video,

The problem is not that people don’t believe in objective morality, the problem is… that they do.

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The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul  Krugman

I will be blogging my way through this book as I read it. This is part 1.

A friend of mine who voted for Barack Obama ( I did not) gave me this book to read that espouses the economic policies of some of the current democratic party.  I try to be open to different opinions that I do not agree with and so i am happy to read this book.  This is also an exercise for me to practice what I preach.  I push people to question their beliefs on a regular basis on this blog.  Now I get to see how honest I am in questioning a long held belief of mine in smaller government and lower taxes.  My hope is that I can take a serious look at my reasons for thinking what I do about how government should operate and have a thoughtful discussion with the person who gave me the book.  

Chapter 1

The Way We Were

The biggest thing that hits me in this first chapter is that Krugman has a few premises that are clear he will be working from as he moves on in this book:

1. Economic inequality is a moral problem.

2. It is the responsibility of government to correct this problem.

3. Republican (conservative) policy causes economic inequality.

4. Democratic policies(the New Deal) decrease economic inequality.

My initial response is that economic inequality is not a morally bad thing at all.  Read the rest of this entry »

How do you parent your children if you are not religious? As a person who used to be religious, this is always a question that I think about. How do I teach my kids to think for themselves and to learn to understand what other people believe? When it comes down to it, I don’t want to indoctrinate my children in my (current) beliefs necessarily, I just want to give them the tools that they need to be able to enter the world and make a decision for themselves about how the world works and what worldview they should adopt.

The book parenting beyond belief deals with these questions and more. I actually have not read this book yet but I just ordered it here after hearing much about it. I have also been watching some of the videos that the author puts out on youtube on his youtube channel here. You can also find his web site which has lots of helpful information here.

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When pondering the subject of morality, the subject of God’s actions and the questionable morality of those actions often comes up. When I refer to God’s actions, I would be referring to any religion which seems to make a claim to actually knowing what God’s actions are. In my case, Christianity is the closest to home and so that is where my questions are directed.

We are told by Christians that we derive our morality from God himself. We are told that without God there would be no morality and that God gives us moral directives which come from his nature. So a certain thing is not moral just because God says it, but rather it is moral because that is part of who God is and he can do no wrong.

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I have four great kids and would like to think that I know a thing or two about raising children. But the truth is… I DON”T KNOW JACK! I am always looking for pointers and advice on raising kids and learning new ways to effectively communicate with them and to help them to become good, responsible people. Often I feel that I am making no progress at all and so it is good to read what other people have found to be effective.

I ran across this blog called called Half Full through a Point of Inquiry podcast and I have found tons of great stuff on there. The Half Full name comes from teaching kids to have a positive “glass is half full” outlook on life and does so by drawing on the vast amount of research that has been done over the last 50 years in psychology, sociology, and neuroscience.

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I love debates. I hate debates. Long live debates!

I love debates because I love the intelligent discussion of ideas. I love finely crafted arguments and skillful rhetoric. I love to watch someone with a quick wit and a storehouse of knowledge in their head articulate their position well in the face of equally talented opposition.

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Here is a cool video that I came across explaining evolution.

My friend Paul wrote this and I thought it was really good so I am re-posting it here.  It provoked a very long discussion on Facebook which has been quite good.  I hope you find it interesting…

I am writing from exile. I have been out of the Church now for over 4  years, because ultimately, my conscience led me here. As many of you know, I was once a Calvary Chapel Pastor and missionary, but it slowly stopped making sense. I do have reasons for this, but that is not what I am writing about now. I was taught to believe that people like me became this way because of a gross sin, or because they loved the world more than they loved God. I now know this to be a lie. I am really not much different morally than I was then, nor do I wish to pursue things that would harm myself or others. Ironically, to be quite honest, I think I’m a bit more moral than I was then. I am most definately way more honest.

I’m not writing to make a case for leaving Fundamental Evangelicalism, because I know that to be a waste of time. The real point of writing is to ask a question to those who prefer Dogma over their own conscience when they collide. My question is:

If Conscience brought you to believe a certain Dogma, what do you do when that same conscience tells you to leave it?

A friend of mine who is also no longer involved in Christendom uses the analogy of Martin Luther. Martin Luther, upon leaving the Catholic Church, gives conscience as one of the reasons for his “protest” against the Catholic Church. “For a man to deny his conscience is neither right nor sane…..here I stand I can do no other”. As a Protestant, I found that statement to be very moving. I still consider it to be moving. However, the Catholic Church found it to be heresy.

For whatever reason, the high value of following ones “heart” seems to be a commonly held belief. As Joseph Campell puts it, to “Follow your Bliss” seems to be the key to happiness and fulfillment. He goes as far as to say that Maslow’s theory of five human needs mean nothing to a man who lives his passion. Following our heart is obviously a foundation for happiness and true fulfillment. Read the rest of this entry »