Equal Time For Freethought

George Lakoff & John Jost on “The Science of Conservatism”

Audio here!

What does it mean to be a Conservative?  Are the NeoCons a natural offshoot of Conservatism, or something far more radical?  What is going on inside the Conservative mind which leads to those policies liberals find so appalling?  And how can we understand Conservatism – as an alternative political mindset, or a product of an underdeveloped psychology?

To speak to these questions and more, ETFF presents a special interview with cognitive scientist George Lakoff, author of Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, and New York University Professor of Psychology John Jost – author of the revealing psychology paper, “Political conservatism as motivated social cognition.”

 

Harmon Leon on Republican Like Me: Infiltrating Red-state, White-ass, And Blue-suit America

Audio here!

A flaming liberal in real life, Leon has been called “a cross between Michael Moore and South Park.”  Among other things, he reports on his zany experience at a Christian wrestling extravaganza, where the scantily clad wrestlers toss opponents into the stands in the name of Jesus.  Leon’s daring anthropological romps into finding out how the other half lives are by turns outrageous, disturbing, and hilarious, yet always illuminating.

Dan Bova, Executive Editor of Stuff Magazine: “Harmon is insane, hysterical,..and after reading about all of the lunatics he’s ripped apart in this book, I hope bulletproof.”

Sunsara Taylor & Carl Dix – “Faith and Revolution: Black America and The Millions More Movement”

Audio here!

Can the faith laden messages offered during the recent Millions More Movement event lead to lasting progressive change?  Equal Time for Freethought is joined by two activists who attended the MMM event – Sunsara Taylor one of the initiators of this November 2nd’s “The World Can’t Wait Campaign to Drive Out the Bush Regime,” and Carl Dix one of the four black communist atheists currently touring the country as the “The RC4,” to examine MMM from a naturalistic perspective.

Sam Harris (The End of Faith) & Brian Flemming (The God that wasn’t There)

Audio here!

Tom Clark on Naturalism & the Gulf(s)

Audio here!

“On Consciousness”  w/ Ted Honderich & Susan Blackmore

Audio here!

What is Consciousness?  Is the “self” just an illusion?  Do we really have “free will?”  The last 300 years has brought us two of the most important scientific discoveries of human civilization.  The Copernican-Galilean Revolution took humankind out of the center of the universe and allowed us to understand the nature of space.  The Darwinian Revolution removed humankind from our privileged position at the center of “God’s Universe,” and allowed us to understand the true nature of godless life.  Now, the upcoming Consciousness Revolution will allow us to understand the nature of our minds and indeed our very existence.

Imagine what a deterministic, self-less understanding of human behavior can lead us to in our many struggles both with each other and with the universe at large.  First, however, we need to understand what is means to be conscious in the first place.

Continue reading “Show 142: “On Consciousness” w/ Ted Honderich & Susan Blackmore”

Jerry Coyne on “The Case against Intelligent Design”

Audio here!

Now that George Bush has lent his support to the teaching of Intelligent Design, along side of evolution in our public schools, it is important to know just what Intelligent Design is.  Is it really an alternative view on how life on earth came to be; or is it just the newest incarnation of religious creationism?  Either way, why is it important that we should care about this distinction if indeed so many Americans are for equal time for Intelligent Design in our children’s science classes?  Isn’t this a free country, after all?  We’ll find out on Sunday, September 18th at 6:30pm on Equal Time for Freethought!

Jerry Coyne is a professor at the University of Chicago in the Department of Ecology and Evolution.  There, he is on the Committee on Evolutionary Biology and the Committee on Genetics. His recent essay in the New Republic addresses the political and scientific issues surrounding the new Creationism of Intelligent Design. That essay is called The Case against Intelligent Design: The Faith That Dare Not Speak Its Name.

Call In Show on  “9/11, New Orleans and the Naturalistic Reaction to Disaster”

Audio here!

Robert Tapp on EcoHumanism, Multiculturalism and Democracy

Audio here!

What does humanism have to say about ecology and the environment?  We know religious fundamentalists don’t care about the health of the planet because they await the “End Times,” and the destruction of this world.

What does humanism say about multiculturalism and globalization?  We know the Right disdains the notion that all humans on earth deserve the same quality of life.  We also know that the Left has been so engaged in “identity politics,” that it has often missed the forest for the trees.

What does humanism say about democracy?  We know both the religious and secular Right would prefer anything from a theocracy to an aristocracy, or – worse yet – a neofascist society.

Robert Tapp is the chairperson of the humanities program, and professor of humanities and religious studies, at the University of Minnesota.  He has written extensively on humanism including his anthologies Ecohumanism, Multiculturalism: Humanist Perspectives, and the upcoming The Fate Of Democracy.

Andrew Cohen on What is Enlightenment?

Audio here!

Who’s Enlightenment?

According to the publishers of What is Enlightenment magazine, the enlightenment movement is about “finding new ways to think and new answers to the difficult questions that are the challenge of our moment in history.  Those answers,” publishers argue, “can only be found by looking freshly at the emerging reality around us, without relying on older solutions that were sufficient for simpler problems.”  But just what are those new solutions, and what reality are they addressing?

Andrew Cohen, fonder of What is Enlightenment, Insists that his study into what he calls, “evolutionary spirituality,” is a science-based method of reaching what we on ETFF consider to be progressive social change.  We agree with Mr. Cohen on the goal, but it seems to us that he is disingenuous about his claim that his movement is scientific.

This program will be a discussion with Mr. Cohen on methods of enlightenment – naturalistic vs. supernaturalistic.