See show #197
Audio for part two HERE!
Show 186a: Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior
Audio here!
Humanism requires unselfish behavior and human cooperation for it to relevant to the future of human society. It has become popular – perhaps as a backlash to the 1960s liberal strides – to think of humans as selfish, greedy and uber-competitive… A Hobbesian take on human nature which has been promoted to justify dangerous economic systems such as capitalism, as well as authoritarian fascist states such as the Bush Administration has been taking us toward.
Some scientists such as Richard Dawkins, Robert Trivers and Stephen Pinker, while not backing the latter, have backed the former, and now claim that science backs such draconian perceptions of our basic nature.
Others haven’t made such claims.
Continue reading “Show 186a: Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior”
Show 185: The Free Will Question
Audio 1 here!
Audio 2 here!
A couple of weeks ago week, “Equal Time for Freethought” featured an encore presentation of a discussion we had this past summer with Eddie Ellis, host of WBAI’s “On the Count!: The Criminal Justice and Prison Report.” During our conversation one major question which emerged hinged on the question of whether people behave as they do as a result of their own free will, or as a result of factors which they do not choose.
Show 184: James Loewen – The Meaning of Thanksgiving
Audio here!
Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving in America? How many of us know what happened leading up to the first Thanksgiving? Why are so many of us ignorant to the fact that Thanksgiving was not meant to be about family and friends gathering for turkey, but about ethnocentric nationalism, genocide and civil religiosity? What does all this tell us about how we view our history and our current role in the world?
James Loewen, author of Lies My Teach Told Me, will discuss these questions and more as we investigate the meaning behind Thanksgiving in America.
Continue reading “Show 184: James Loewen – The Meaning of Thanksgiving”
Show 183: Chris Hedges
Audio here!
This week on Equal Time for Freethought, Sunsara Taylor will interview Chris Hedges about topics touched on in his forthcoming book, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America. They will also discuss his recent speech at a teach-in held in NYC by ‘World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime’ where he insisted that attempts to dialogue and seek “common ground” with Christian fascists will lead to disaster.
Show 182: Fund Drive Special: Ann Druyan & Stephenie Hendricks
Audio 1 here!
Audio 2 here!
For the 2-hour Equal Time for Freethought October marathon special, the bridge between science and religion will once again be crossed… this time to analyze the special relationship between the two and to find out what can go wrong when the latter steps to hard on the toes of the former. For this program, we talked to Ann Druyan and Stephenie Hendricks.
Carl Sagan is considered one of the greatest scientific minds of our time. His ability to explain science in terms easily understandable to the layman in bestselling books such as Cosmos, The Dragons of Eden, and The Demon-Haunted World won him a Pulitzer Prize and placed him firmly next to Isaac Asimov, Stephen Jay Gould, and Oliver Sachs as one of the most important and enduring communicators of science. This December will mark the tenth anniversary of Sagan’s death, and Ann Druyan, his widow and longtime collaborator, will mark the occasion by releasing Sagan’s famous “Gifford Lectures in Natural Theology,” The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God.
The Varieties of Scientific Experience has been edited and updated with an introduction by Ann Druyan. In the book, Sagan discusses his views on topics ranging from manic depression, creationism and so-called intelligent design, and the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets, to the likelihood of nuclear annihilation of our own.
In Divine Destruction: Dominion Theology and American Environmental Policy, Emmy-winning broadcast journalist Stephenie Hendricks charts the important connections between “Wise Use”—a rabidly anti-environmental philosophy—and dominion theologists—far-right Christian ideologues who believe that there is no reason to protect the environment given the imminence of the Second Coming of Christ. This political collaboration reaches all the way to the Bush administration whose environmental policies are deeply influenced by dominionist thinking. Divine Destruction is an in-depth look at the radical remaking of American environmental policy already underway—in terrifying secret.
Show 181b: Ted Honderich on “Right & Wrong” II
For information and audio for Pt. 1, see listing for September 24, 2006
Audio here!
Show 181a: Ted Honderich on “Right & Wrong”
From Publisher:
Audio here!
“Philosopher Ted Honderich insightfully relates four shattering current events in this articulate, well-reasoned moral and political analysis. Exploring the war in Iraq, the controversy in Palestine, and the tragic events of 9-11 and London’s 7-7, Honderich elucidates the great questions of right and wrong in a conflict-ridden era.
“Ted Honderich, Britain’s foremost radical philosopher, is Grote Professor Emeritus at University College London and a visiting professor at the University of Bath. He is internationally recognized for his numerous books on philosophy, including Punishment: The Supposed Justifications Revisited, Conservatism, Terrorism for Humanity, After the Terror, and How Free Are You? Honderich, in Right and Wrong, and Palestine, 9-11, Iraq, 7-7…, discusses what is wrong with our perceptions of the Middle East, with our American (and British) styled democracies, and how we might discern an ethical system to create a more humane planetary society.”
Show 180: David Detmer on “Postmodernism, Truth & the Left”
Audio here!
To many, the antithesis of modern humanism, which was founded on Enlightenment principals, would be the philosophy of postmodernism. The political Left in America, over the past 45 years or so, has been marred by postmodernism, and the Right has taken advantage of that fact. What started out as an honest and justified consideration for the well-being of cultures ‘other than’ European and American (cultures which often have been historically the victims of European/American colonialism and hegemony), has morphed into an acceptance of double standards by some thinkers.
One might call this the ‘who are we to judge’ effect. The Right, as is its wont, fights back with fundamentalisms of every sort – or what might be called their ‘we alone are to judge’ doctrine. Is there then, a way to understand and implement a progressive humanism which, while Leftist in political orientation, is still Enlightenment based?
That is the question David Detmer tries to answer in his book, Challenging Postmodernism: Philosophy & the Politics of Truth. Challenging Postmodernism is a philosophical treatise which examines the problems with postmodernism and its anti-humanistic implications, and tries to determine whether or not the intellectual Left is indeed guilty en masse of cultural relativism. It then explains how a progressive politic is indeed very much in step with Enlightenment humanism.
Show 179: Lawrence Pintak
From the preface of Reflections in a Bloodshot Lens: America, Islam, and the War of Ideas
Audio here!
“For Americans, Islam has emerged as the quintessential “Other,” replacing the Soviet Union as the touchstone against which U.S. citizens measure their collective sense of Self. It has become a cliché to say that the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 “changed everything.” On one level, that is true. The nation’s illusion of security was shattered; its relationship with terror as something that happened somewhere else was unalterably transformed. But on another level, 9/11 simply made overt a worldview that had long been present but little acknowledged.
“Since a keffiah-clad Rudolph Valentino first strode across the silent screen, Arabs and Muslims have been Othered in U.S. society, the subject of stereotype and differentiation. Blinded by their view of Self, most Americans knew – or cared – little about what the rest of the world thought of them. Meanwhile, Arabs and non-Arab Muslims harbored a host of clichés and preconceived notions that shaped their view of the U.S., set against the overarching perception that the U.S. is intrinsically linked to, and responsible for, the policies of Israel, the ultimate Other.