Call In Special: “Is There Anything More Important Than Whether or Not You Believe in a God?”
The God debate may be interesting but when it comes to making our world a better place, is it really what matters the most? Recently, a wide variety of professionals, including neuro-scientists, primatologists, social psychologists, media journalists, and others have all been writing and talking about something far more central to achieving the progressive social change about which humanists should be concerned; empathy.
The concept of empathy speaks to those who are religious and non-religious alike. It is the mechanism that results in our most humane and joyful experiences, just as the lack of it result in experiences which are the most debased and hurtful. While seemingly uncontroversial, unthreatening, and innocuous, having a full appreciation of our natural inclination to empathize can open people to ideas that they might otherwise dismiss without adequate consideration.
During this installment of Equal Time for Freethought we’ll hear some sound clips of some of the principal players in the current “Empathy Zeitgeist” and take some of your calls to see if you agree that there are more important issues than atheism or faith, and that empathy may be the most important of all.
