Humanism // Current

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2 hours ago

Pat Robertson: Islam not a religion, but violent political system (Video)

Yesterday Evangelical Pat Robertson claimed Islam is not a religion but a violent political system on his television program, The... more

locutus
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Green House Gases; World-FlowChart

In Graphic Detail http://cait.wri.org/figures/World-FlowChart.jpg

remanns
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Cost of extra year's climate inaction $500 billion: IEA

The world will have to spend an extra $500 billion to cut carbon emissions for each year it delays implementing a major assault on... more

WakeUpPeople
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2012 Prophecies Sparking Real Fears, Suicide Warnings

Survival kits, documentaries, and nearly 200 books presenting the "real" 2012 story are all on offer. And you could... more

pjacobs51
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Will "Green Religion" Save Us or Sink Us?

When I posed the question of whether leading by green example can be passive aggressive preaching, I was surprised when commenter Joey claimed that I had eluded that I was a "member of a religion." To me environmentalism is anything but a matter of faith, but rather a question of sound scientific understanding that material resources, and the Earth's ability to support life, are both limited. And that it's in our own self interest to live within our planetary means. But it proves how much attention I've been paying to headlines—as Kristin already reported, a UK court has determined that belief in global warming is indeed akin to a religious or philosophical conviction. Depending on who you talk to, this could either be good for environmentalism, or very, very bad indeed.

As Kristin pointed out, Tim Nicholson, who brought the case against his former employers, had indeed changed his lifestyle considerably to reduce his impact, and the changes (including giving up flying, eating little meat etc) are in many ways akin to the type of actions some religions advocate to appease their particular deity.

Commenters on Kristin's post tended to lean toward reading this as a positive development—after all, why should someone be discriminated against for their beliefs, even if those beliefs are based on science rather than theology?

On the other hand, commentators in the UK are less sanguine. Catherine Bennett, over at The Guardian, writes a seathing blog post entitled Welcome to the Age of the Eco-Martyr: God Help Us, asking just how green one has to be before one's convictions are considered a belief system, and pointing out that the chances are good that the more extreme you are, the more likely a payout will be.

I personally find the whole debate worrying in the extreme. Besides the question of sending out a dubious message about environmental 'belief', it's yet another example of a focus on individual sacrifice and piety as a sensible goal for us greens, as opposed to the fundamental systemic shift toward a saner, fairer society that I believe we need. (I also wonder what happens when Jeremy Clarkson argues that it's his 'belief' that global warming is a crock of sh*t, that man has 'dominion' over the Earth, and he is duty bound to tear up the Salt Plains of Botswana to wake up the masses...)

To those who argue, as some did on my post about preaching, that supporting political action on climate change—or any other environmental issue—is 'enforcing' our beliefs on others, it is not. It is advocating for a sensible, robust approach to legislating the impact that each of us has on each others' ability to live on this planet.

You want to use up more of the Earth's resources than me? Fine—but I believe that what you pay should reflect how much your actions cost the rest of us. Of course, how we do that fairly and effectively is a matter of debate. I may advocate a gas tax. You may oppose it. I may argue for or against cap n' trade. You may do the same. These are not matters of faith, they are matters of politics.

We're all interconnected, and our actions impact each other. That's not religion. It's an observable fact.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/will-green-religion-save-us.phpWhen I posed the question of whether leading by green example can be passive aggressive preaching, I was surprised when commenter... more

pjacobs51
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8 comments

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23 hours ago

56 Types of Geeks

http://www.webofentertainment.com/2009/11/56-types-of-geeks.html

neham
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6 comments

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20 hours ago

Catholic Nuns sexually abused children as much as priests

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0809/648351_video.html?ref=newsstory I found this story extremely shocking and timely. We can... more

jubal
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10 comments

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22 hours ago

Christian terrorists release Defensive Action Statement, justify political assassination

Christian terrorists have released a Defensive Action Statement in an attempt to justify political assassination. The same day... more

locutus
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1 day ago

Teaching Pol Pot

Textbook sheds light on Khmer Rouge era Students can rarely have seemed so enthusiastic about receiving a textbook. Even though... more

unimatrix0
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1 day ago

Christian terrorist Scott Roeder admits killing Dr. George Tiller

AP is reporting Christian terrorist Scott Roeder admits to the killing of Dr. George Tiller. Dr. Tiller was a hero, who provided... more

locutus
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2 comments

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1 day ago

Remembering Carl Sagan

Today would have been Carl Sagan's 75th birthday. His life and work were monumental in astronomy and public outreach, and he... more

pjacobs51
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1 comment

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1 day ago

The 11/9 Anniversary

Today, November 9, is the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Today is the real 9/11. This is not meant as a quibble about dates. Future historians will remember 9 November 1989 as far more significant than that terrifying day in September eight years ago. Countless long-forgotten events have been marked in headlines as the day we shall all remember. But nobody can doubt that the world changed on that wonderful night in Berlin.

When the Berlin Wall fell, communism died. Events have moved on fast since then. A new clash of civilisations – or in many ways an old one – began to surface. Now it is hard for anyone under about 40 to remember communism. To recap: it was that once idealistic, inspirational creed promising equality, freedom from exploitation and the creation of a new perfect humankind. The problem was that people had an annoying refusal to be perfected.

Almost always communism was imposed at the point of a gun and created labour camps and bread queues. The Stalins, Mao Zedongs and Pol Pots turned communism into the bloodiest social experiment of all time. History will mark 9 November 1989 as the day it was seen off as a miserable failure.

Again, we should try to look back. Less than a generation ago a third of our continent was under military occupation by a foreign superpower. The Soviet Union had around 750,000 troops stationed in central Europe. Hundreds of nuclear missiles were aimed at western cities, while the Nato countries had hundreds targeted at Budapest, Warsaw and so on. As easyJet and Ryanair take us on weekend breaks to Berlin or Bucharest, we should recall how unwelcoming and lugubrious these places were 20 years ago. Their people, imprisoned behind an iron curtain of electrified fences and minefields, were crying out to be free.

Then there was the wall in our heads, on both sides of the divide. For most of the four decades before 1989, communism was a real threat to our way of life. Two generations were brought up to fear the Soviet monolith. There were nuclear scares (the Cuban missile crisis) and the cold war fuelled proxy wars on other continents, such as Angola and the Soviet conflict in Afghanistan. Culturally, we were fed on spy thrillers and movies with the reds as the enemy.

All that changed in 1989. The collapse of communism inspired liberation elsewhere, most dramatically in South Africa, where apartheid could have survived longer. Nelson Mandela was released three months after the fall.

A downside to this story is that 9 November led directly to 11 September. The end of the cold war opened a door for Osama bin Laden. But Islamic fundamentalism is not a threat to western-style democracy as communism was. Obviously there will be converts, and all demographic graphs show that the number of Muslims will increase. But it is unlikely that Islam will appeal to the sort of western minds who were once attracted by socialist thinkers in the European intellectual tradition.

Terrorism is not a cause; it is a weapon, as Trotsky observed. Modern terrorist groups are a threat to many lives and will continue to be so. But to our way of life? Only if we choose to make it so. Outside the mind of an al-Qaida fanatic, it is fanciful to imagine that any day in London, Paris, Rome or Budapest imams will be in charge of governments sanctioning sharia law. In 1989, communist party apparatchiks ran a dozen now free European states, quite apart from the communist revolutions exported to the third world.

Last, but not least, 9 November was gloriously happy. Anything seemed possible that night. 11 September was a day that sparked panic and fear. I know which is a better 9/11 to remember.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/08/september-11-berlin-wall-communismToday, November 9, is the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Today is the real 9/11. This is not meant as a... more