Posted on

Show 192: Fund Drive Show: “Our Children; Our Future”

Fund Drive Show: “Our Children; Our Future”

Audio 1 here!

Audio 2 here!

As the Culture Wars persist in America, what affect are they having on our children? How are parents steering their children in or around the battles between Right and Left and between Fundamentalist Religion and Secularization? And how are our notions of human nature and childrearing itself framing what and how our children learn – in school and in summer camp?

These are the questions we will be asking our very special guests on the next Equal Time for Freethought – our Fund Drive Special – Our Children, Our Future, as we look to understand where we may be going wrong, and how we might move in a more progressive way to secure our children’s futures, and indeed the future of humanity?

Our guests will be Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, directors of the Oscar Nominated documentary, Jesus Camp; noted education specialist and author of numerous books on human nature, education and parenting, Alfie Kohn; and High School Senior Matthew LaClair.

Continue reading “Show 192: Fund Drive Show: “Our Children; Our Future””

Posted on

Show 191: Stephanie Hendricks

This interview originally aired in part on October 5, 2006.

Audio here!

Stephanie Hendricks on her book; Divine Destruction: Wise Use, Dominion Theology And The Making Of American Environmental Policy

Book Description:

“It began as a simple investigation into environmental policy in the Sierra Nevadas. But what journalist Stephenie Hendricks uncovered turned out to be a far bigger story, the ramifications of which affect the entire globe. Hendricks discovered that the development of American environmental policy in the Bush administration is being driven by Dominion Theologists-far-right Christian ideologues who believe that by exhausting our natural resources they will hasten the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Known in policy circles as the “wise-use” doctrine, the theory is startling enough in implication, but even more chilling in practice-some officials say the Bush administration did not sign the Kyoto Accord on fighting global warming because it was “against God’s prophecies.” And as Hendricks investigates the Dominion Theologists’ power within the government and profiles some of its leading proponents, she reveals where their funding comes from and charts their regular intersection with the mining and logging industries, real estate developers, off-road vehicle manufacturers, and even The Walt Disney Company. She also tells the often frightening story of those people who dare to resist their policies-for example, the retiree who challenged the destruction of a national forest near her home only to have her life threatened.” – Melville House

Posted on

Show 190: Joseph Bloch on Transhumanism

Audio here!

Transhumanists and Futurists offer an important perspective on the human experience which is fundamentally non-supernatural.

They correctly think of human history in relation to cosmic chronology and accordingly see the human experience as barely having yet begun.

Transhumanists understand humankind not as a static species, but as one which will be continually morphing and evolving with ever increasing acceleration.

Transhumanists and futurists are among the only groups of thinkers that recognize that humankind will relatively soon live in a world radically different from the one we presently occupy, and do not automatically assume it will be dystopian.

Transhumanists do not think that human happiness can be derived from supernatural solutions or practices but is completely generated by human culture and technology. Many of them appreciate the need to abolish all suffering and the value of pleasure and pleasure enhancing substances and technologies. They are generally pro-sexuality. They value playfulness and fun.

Many Transhumanists envision that work does not need to be drudgery, and that it can and should be a joyful experience. They recognize this life as the only chance of conscious existence that we will ever get to experience and regard the achievement of radical life extension and the end of mortality as a very high priority in human affairs.

Joining us in our studio to discuss these and other topics will be Joseph Bloch, a member of the Board of Directors of the World Transhumanist Association. Mr. Bloch will explain why the vision of Transhumanism is consistent with a humanistic, non-religious worldview, and also pointedly addresses many important issues which traditional humanism does not, so…

Posted on

Show 188: The Politics of Jesus – A Debate

Audio here!

The battle between the progressive secular Left in America with religion lies squarely on the frontlines of radical religious fundamentalism. It is clear for the American Left that an America dominated by the likes of Dominionists – Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Tim Lahaye and many politicians in the current Neo-Conservative Republican Party – will be an America minus democracy, diversity and equality.

But what of religious liberals?

Continue reading “Show 188: The Politics of Jesus – A Debate”

Posted on

Show 187: Lauren Sandler

Audio here!

There’s a new youth movement afoot in this country.  It’s a counterculture fusion of politics and pop, and it’s taking over a high school near you.  Like the waves that came before it, it’s got passion, music, and anti-authority posturing, but more than anything else, this one has God.  So what does it mean when today’s youth counterculture has a mindset more akin to Jerry Falwell’s than Abbie Hoffman’s?

In Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement, Lauren Sandler, a dynamic young secular journalist, reports from this junction of Evangelicalism and youth culture, traveling across the country to investigate the alternative Christian explosion.

Continue reading “Show 187: Lauren Sandler”

Posted on

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”

Posted on

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.

Continue reading “Show 185: The Free Will Question”

Posted on

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”