In-Sight Publishing

2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 217 – The Blob Makes a Comeback

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/03

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Rick Rosner: The one making the willed decisions or perhaps you’ve got an agglomeration of joined selves that in combination make the willed decisions.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: And what is this entity?

Rick Rosner: We’ve been talking about a thing called, that we call “the Blob,” but it has aspects of the cloud, it’s got aspects of social media, it’ll be big patches of the planet-wide computing structure. I don’t know.

I doubt that the entire planet will be covered by a unitary computing or information processing entity. That seems like a bad idea and also seems like it won’t happen. But there will be entities that act in more or less unitary ways as if there is a single entity consisting of many different information processing parts.

I don’t want to say nodes but the thing that can unify itself across a bunch of information processing machinery whether organic or mechanical or both and act as an entity to preserve, protect, preserve and protect itself and its components and then do for itself in the world and you might have several of these, you might have billions of these; interacting with each other, merging with each other.

There will probably be a judge if not a single worldwide information processing infrastructure. I mean you might have that but on the other hand you might have one of the world’s biggest ones that covers most of the planet then you’ll have smaller ones in places that have willfully isolated themselves.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 216 – Morality and Escape Velocity

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/02

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Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Okay, so we’re just at the beginning of kind of a cultural adjustment to the possibility of extended life.

Rick Rosner: We’ve gone from—mortality lifespan statistics are a little tricky because at the beginning of the 20th century the average lifespan was 40, that’s not a fair deal because the average was brought down by huge levels of infant-child mortality. If you could make it, you know, past ten you’d likely live into your 60s.

But over the past century we’ve added 20 years or so to the average adult life span, but people don’t treat that as if it’s like a signal to change how we live our lives. It hasn’t impacted us psychologically and only now are we beginning to adjust our expectations to the idea of extended further extensions in lifespan.

Our risk avoidance behavior has changed consistently with increased adult life spans. It’s not like the 1930s where we drive around in deathtrap, unpadded automobiles with no seatbelts, you know, people drive worse than ever but auto fatalities keep dropping because cars are packed with safety features and that aspect of life.

So we have two waves; we’ve got the wave of extended healthy lifespan, we’ve got the wave that is sort of trailing that which is preserving mental function independent of the body.

With the healthy lifespan thing playing out across the next fifty years and the separating the mental function from the body thing playing out across the next 150 years and then beyond that is…

well, first we got to talk about what we want from cognition which goes back to the question every semi smart at least little kid asks her or himself at some point which is, “Why am I me and not somebody else?” with the answer being because all your sensory information, all your memories, all your information processing pertain to you in your body; everything is… all the information you have and use comes from your body with the added senses and its brain and pertains to you and your body. And for many aspects of extended life that will be able to preserve that feeling of the self.

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 215 – New Catch Phrases and Words

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/07/01

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Rick Rosner: We can continue to absorb catch phrases and words. So, there is probably more flaking than ever before, or failing to live up to assumed tasks. The will-do lunch is now widely recognized to mean we’ll never do lunch.

There has been a falling off of thank you notes. it is not an unpardonable breach to not respond – somebody has to be the one to stop the text chain. It is not an unpardonable breach without giving an explanation why.

People forgive that and assume the conversation is over, or that there is some reason the person had to step away from the text chain. All of those things are examples of flaking at some level, which means that volume of the tasks implied by standard communication and etiquette has reached the point where those conventions are now routinely violated.

It would be tough to keep up with all of them. It would be weird to be somebody to not be the one to end the chain of texts. They would be thought of as a kind of pain in the ass and OCD-ish.

There are limits being created by our ways of communicating right now, but they don’t appear to be putting limits on the new garbage words we can learn and quickly use up.

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 214 – Words in Circulation

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/30

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Rick Rosner: We are sending more letter type things to each other than people have ever done before in history by some crazy wide margin. So, you’d expect words to get into circulation and then get used up at a faster rate than previous eras.

The 50s and 60s had their words. SNAFU, it was a big WWII word. There is situation normal all fucked up. I don’t know if people in the army went around saying it all of the time. In the 60s, they had their cliches that were or things that were allegedly said.

In the 50s, there was a big focus on advertising, and it was allegedly said. it was, for the same reasons that Mad Men was popular, it epitomized the time. For the first time, America was a thoroughly prosperous consumer culture.

One of the cliches that you could put in the mouth of an ad guy is “running up the flag pole to salute.” There was the man in the grey flannel suit, or the organization guy. The guy, for the first time, who had – you had a greater number of people working for organizations, business organizations, than at any other time.

The man in the grey flannel suit is just a cognitive business machine. A guy who wears a suit to work and is one of a zillion drones who is doing mid-management stuff. It was the same culture to show a 100 by 100 room.

It would show many different secretaries each at their own desk.

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 213 – Partnership Options, or Not

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/29

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Scott Douglas Jacobsen: In the past, we talked about the differentiation between different partnership options, or not, in developing countries as technology causes massive change in social and cultural life, and in political orientation.

What we’re talking about now is sub-cultures that come somewhat out of 70s and 80s, and some new ones with regards to technology, that amounts to fringy outcroppings of what might come in different forms.

I mean, an alteration in the way people partner or don’t, so I mean a greater variety in partnership expression.

So, guy culture, anti-social culture, or, the one that you were describing, the not quite anti-social but non-social bro culture – which is no contact with women or society and do not get any education and completely drop out, in addition to the variations on that theme of those that become hooked to some form of electronic stimulation rather than moderate use.

What does this mean with regards to some of our older conversations about the broadening of the landscape? For example, we see much more acceptance of LGBTQ+, which opens the landscape for people to feel more comfortable in their own skin, and to partner up in the ways that they would have otherwise if not for oppression or repression from society: covert and direct.

Rick Rosner: There are several things going on. Maybe, we can find the main themes. For me, the main theme is that I grew up in the 1970s, which was a particularly sexual time. It was also a time that thought—the sexual attitudes of the 60s and 70s, during that time, were thought of being more essential and more natural than the attitudes of any other time that came before.

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 212 – Arousal Addictions

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/28

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Scott Douglas Jacobsen: There is a psychology of failure to adapt to these rapid changes with older men followed by younger men. It is the psychologizing it, or providing new diagnoses of it, with things like “Arousal Addictions.” Have you heard of this?

Rick Rosner: No, but go ahead.

Jacobsen: It is not more of the same, as with cocaine, for example, but it more of different things, and so arousal addictions. It would be something like “Pornography: Variations on a Theme, of Addiction.”

What happens is you get a shot of dopamine in the reward system in the brain, in particular the nucleus accumbens, it feels good.

Typically, what happens as you grow up is the prefrontal cortex, which is the house of executive function, allows you to plan, be conscientious, be moral, delay gratification, and so on, from which then once you accomplish these plans and delay this gratification, and succeed for the thing that was a later gratification, and so on, you get that shot of dopamine from the nucleus accumbens.

So, you have a system: planning ahead, delay of gratification from the prefrontal cortex for executive function, get a reward, nucleus accumbens activates and you feel good, so you get real world context. You get the context. But with pornography and video games, you get reward and no context.

Rosner: All of this stuff spreads across all thee other parts of life. So, trolls feel as though they won’t get laid, but also a lot of them also feel like there’s no path to good employment. They feel as if there is no achievement path for sex, for work, and so that increases the alienation and the hostility.

Also, there are more paths to pretty high levels of easy gratification than there were 40 years ago. Entertainment is more entertaining, food tastes better now, I have said this before. In the 70s, things sucked and sex was definitely one of the best things to aspire to.

There were so many other awesome things. Now, there is a lot more entertaining stuff in the world. So, sex doesn’t have to be the main thing you aspire to – so that is even more reason for trolls not to aspire.

Video game culture is about achieving gratification via entertainment rather than building a path to the future. I don’t know whether gamers, if you survey them, view what they do as temporary and then they’ll grudgingly attempt to fit into the traditional adult world.

The way, you know—I mean, if you survey guidos, and I assume there are, they will say it is a temporary thing they are doing while they can and will settle down and get married. The people on Jersey Shore settle down and have kids.

Snooki has written 3 books so far, maybe more, including one on parenting. Fucking Snooki! Who passes out by dumpsters while pissing, has written a bunch of books. J-Wow, also a dumpster pisser.

Jacobsen: I do not have experience with dumpster pissing.

Rosner: For work, I had to watch a lot of Jersey Shore. There was a lot pissing by a dumpster because you were drunk and couldn’t be bothered to go inside. You’re drunk already. I don’t know whether trolls, or what percent of them, consider this a temporary phase and then they’ll take on some kind of adult role.

Eventually, that they’ll try to grow up.

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 211 – Paradise of Porn

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/27

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Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You see these playout in preferences of verbal expression. [Laughing] That is a really abstract way of putting it. Men and their titles; women and their makeup. Typically, women will advantage their looks; men will advantage their status to some way.

Also, there is denigration of competitors. Then there is denigration by men against other men’s status, or women denigrating other women’s beauty.

Rick Rosner: That is pretty straightforward, then you get into ironic hipster culture. Where the criterion is authenticity, it is about living authentically. People riding antique bicycles, having ironic hair, using old non-technological techniques.

In hipness culture, you try to arrive at a state of hipness authentically, through having honest interests in these things as opposed to being a poser who is only interested in it because everyone else is interested.

Jacobsen: What about people on the fence who just want to fit in and so adapt to the culture, or sub-culture?

Rosner: You can choose a culture. Or you can turn out to not be well-adapted to any niche. You can choose to opt out, and just be adversarial. The 2016 election had all sorts of adversarial groups, like the 4Chan groups, or Pepe the Frog people.

People sharing intolerant messages, and a lot of the pro-Trump people – or the more visibly offensive pro-Trump people, or the alt-Right people. A lot of those people belong to cultures of opting out.

Guys who have given up o being popular and getting laid. Lonely basement guys, trolls basically, troll culture is an opting out cultures.

Jacobsen: The trolls, the MGTOWs, much of the men’s movement…

Rosner: …there are a lot of guys in those cultures who have decided it is not worth it for them to find a niche to compete to hook up with girls, and so they are going to stay on the sidelines and amuse themselves by trolling.

That points at masturbation culture.

Jacobsen: That overlaps with porn culture.

Rosner: They are part of exactly the same thing, I think. Everybody is still horny. But it is easier than ever to relieve one’s horniness without social contact. Yea, it is easier to get off without social contact.

So, you have people opting out and giving up on social contact, and giving up on productive, positive social contact altogether, and live lives that are pretty solitary except for online interactions, but they can be hostile because they don’t have to meet any societal standards to get laid.

A paradise of porn.

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 210 – Time Perspective

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/26

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Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Do you think there is an aspect of time perspective in this culture or cultures? Where if you look at the perspective of time that someone emphasizes – past, present, and future, do you think they’re focusing on the present?

Rick Rosner: I am not understanding entirely.

Jacobsen: If you look at rave culture, these are people focusing on the present in a hedonistic frame. There is a whole psychology of time perspective. If you look at the guidos, the bros, the guys…

Rosner: …I see what you’re saying. One of things we have to burn as a successful species is time. There is an aspect of time consciousness. Like, nobody plans on being a raver or a guido forever, but, right now, it is fine.

The cost of time is fairly low. Colleges, to some extent, are folding pens of parties, depending on which college and what people’s goals are – to some extent, you can see college as a way to reduce excess productivity that doesn’t—

For hundreds of years, we have seen increasing productivity, industrialization. To the point where millions of graduating, people graduating high school, do not join the workforce, to personally survive or to help the nation survive.

Instead, they can go and spend 4 years either learning further skills or partying in college, which is a sign that we have excess productivity and that colleges can be seen in some lights as productivity sponges.

It gives people a place to waste time. There are plenty of other activities in society that are time sucks that we get to engage in because we have time to spare, so you have entire lifestyles that are kind of among the things that they hinge on as time to spare.

You can go and be a guido, and go sow wild oats. Get your shit together in your late 20s, it is the same with rave culture. Rave culture is outwardly about everybody being loose and free and not having the constraints of everyday life.

But behind that, it is still demonstration of dominance and of fitness. People try to wear not much clothes. People who are in—

Rave culture is still a competition to see Coachella, which is southern California’s rave-type event. It is hot. It is in the desert. People put on outfits that are super skimpy. It is still a demonstration of sexual fitness and sexual availability.

Although, if you probably ask most people attending a rave, there number one objective of going to Coachella. It is not to hook up, but hooking up is a huge underlying theme of that whole deal.

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 209 – Hope for the Unpopular

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/25

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Scott Douglas Jacobsen: That sounds fantastically optimistic.

Rick Rosner: It is among the things you tell the unpopular kid who plays the tuba in the band. You say, “They are jealous and don’t like you.” It is a thing to make the unpopular kid feel better. In fact, that tuba thing came from something called The Hollywood Nights. It was about nerds trying to get laid.

But the entire culture has gone nerdy, where bros try to get laid. You’ve got guido culture, which can involve hair mousse and lifting and hitting club at night, and getting with women.

Jacobsen: There’s two aspects to that. One is traditional masculine with men as the head of the household. The other is bro culture which is drinking, smoking, don’t wear sunscreen, ride dirt bikes and motorcycles, and this is your life trying to hit on and pick up women aggressively.

It is attempts to appear dominant in ways that appear more awkward and less functional and less cool than before.

Rosner: There is fragmentation. I think there are—I never read John Nash book, but I saw the movie called A Beautiful Mind. He says that if you’re trying to hook up or mate successfully, then one strategy is to eliminate the most desirable females from consideration and then choose from among the best remaining females.

That you look for the best deal with reduced competition. You find the females that have the most competition for them, and then you ignore them and you look for the best deals based on what standards you have among the relatively ignored females.

There is a scene in the bar with the blonde being ignored. Then there is a brunette, the stereotypically less attractive female becomes more attractive because there is less competition for her.

So, I would guess that it comes to trying to hook up, in a species where you’re not competing directly against nature, but that in a super successful species that there is going to be the potential for niche forming.

Where people will aggregate themselves to maximize reproductive potential by forming groups where their attributes can be manifest to the best advantage; so, people will form bro culture, which gives an advantage to people who are best at being bros and broettes.

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 208 – Dominance Behaviour

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/24

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Rick Rosner: In earlier sessions, we were talking about dominance behaviour in species. It started when I saw a finch or a sparrow in a park in New York. I decided that that animals’ consciousness was less worried about the individual birds’ position in bird society as much as humans are about their position in human society.

I did a little reading. I found out that that is not as true to the degree that I thought it was. There are dominance hierarchies and pecking orders in many, many species. There is always the potential for those dominance hierarchies to form.

They provide efficiencies that prevent spending too much energy fighting amongst themselves, by giving them social structure. Some fighting takes pace initially, and then everyone else decides they’re cool with where they are.

Then you don’t have members of the species battling with each other. This saves energy for other aspects of survival.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You don’t need much extra to put more towards cognitive and behavioural flexibility. Also, estrus is year-round for our species.

Rosner: Things get weird when you get a hyper-fit species, as we are. The natural world is not as much of a threat to individual species member survival, for humans as it is for almost every other species.

Most humans survive to reproductive age, and most of our displays of dominance aren’t directly related to reproductive fitness. Things are more complicated, more baroque, and so displays of fitness and dominance hierarchies in humans are just a lot weirder than they are—less straightforward than they are for other species.

Within my lifetime, I have seen displays of fitness and dominance change from what can be seen as a more basic demonstration of physical vitality to more of a demonstration of hipness. When I was growing up, things felt more straightforwardly like jocks vs, nerds with jocks being cool and nerds being uncool.

That became more explicit in 1976, when Pumping Iron came out and made Arnie a star and weight training not a niche activity, but a widely accepted activity in America and people strived for that trim and muscular V-shaped torso, men did, and clothes and shirts were tight with shirts being tucked in.

That was 40 years ago. Now, physical fitness is overall de-emphasized compared to that era. People have the bodies they have. Clothes are not tight. Demonstrations of dominance, I think more in terms of Brooklyn hipsters; it has become—the stereotype when I was growing up or the thing that people were told was that “you’re nerdy in high school and junior high, but when you grow up you’ll be in charge. Everyone who is cool and a jock will be working in a gas station.”

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 207 – Science Fiction and S Curve

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/23

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Rick Rosner: People gradually adapt to these changes. Maybe, a better model of the future will be things look like now, and then an S curve pops in and then you have a new S curve. Instead of a gradual thing like the coming smart phones, you can have the things like that.

They took over in less than 10 years. Now, we have a stable relationship with smart phones. We’re constantly buying new crappy ones. You can buy crappy computers. You can buy new crap, but that buying new crap is kind of a stable thing now.

So, you can talk about the conditions under which you get an S curve. Technology must work well enough. People who want to use it—you get the very beginnings of these things. Where only a few are wanting to take the trouble, or are intrepid enough to deal with the technology; then it becomes useful technology, and people embrace them, it becomes hard not to embrace them.

I cannot think of any technological improvement to human life that hasn’t been embraced for some reason. If the technology is clearly convenient and helpful, and doesn’t have major problems, then people will ubiquitously use it.

Science fiction, if not impossible, eventually comes to pass. A story written in 1976 or 1980s science fiction might have a pervasive use of computers that we might not see until 2006. I have to say no to science fiction as a correction.

We will probably never have a society of flying cars because flying cars don’t make sense for a lot of people.

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 206 – Not for My Kid

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/17

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Rick Rosner: You’ve got more and better technology at 1472. Before that, the written word was a pain in the ass to circulate, and then across the next 550 years. It has become easier and easier to reproduce and disseminate words on paper or on screens.

But that whole deal of the printed word(s) has been a kind of stable point. Cars have been stable for 90 or 100 years, even though you have demographic changes. You have cars getting better with more features, but we use cars in a lot and even most of the same ways and for the same purposes.

So, you have stability, you have S curves. S curves show some things are being used by 0% of the population to almost every member of a population. The S curve measures the percent of the population doing or using something.

So, the S curve for the telephone is flat until the 1870s, 1880s. Then it starts to gradually go up. The curve of adaptation gets steep around 1910 and 1935. By the end of WWII, it is weird if a household doesn’t have a telephone.

That is an S curve for telephone, where it goes from a flat 0% of this curve to a flat 100%, and we can guess that future changes and the S curve implies punctuation. The S in the phone curve occupies 50 years. You’ve got thousands of phonelessness before the S.

You’ve got some 80 years and counting after the telephone. So, graduality, the people who live in times of change experience that gradual narrative. Things change. II experienced the changes of the computer chips invading the home. My kid didn’t.

By the time she was ready to really use computers, as close to the time that people got started; by the time she was old enough to make effective use of computers, the search was in place and the Internet was in place too.

The Internet sucked in 1995. Information search has been a super bad point of almost not being a thing. So, I experienced the S curve. My kid didn’t. So, science fiction tends to focus on S curve stuff. The going away of some old way of being and the coming of some new way of being.

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 205 – Gould, S.J.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/21

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Rick Rosner: As we’ve said a gazillion times, we have tried to pin down when it gets weird like a thousand times. We can try to pin down when the phase changes will occur. We can look at evolution, which is a gradualist theory.

Speciation takes place over huge stretches of time. Species are stable for huge stretches of time. It is the accumulation of change. 100 years after Darwin. Stephen jay Gould and his research partner came up with a modification to evolutionary gradualism with punctuated equilibrium.

The evolutionary changes still take a long time, but they don’t all take place at the same rate. If you look at the fossil record, you can find endless instances of extended periods of species stability and short periods of species change and adaptation.

The change will happen at shorter time scales than periods of species stability, but there seems to be more time for species to be stable, except for certain hallmarks of a well-adapted species. A lot of species that are good fits in their environment.

They are successful across centuries, which is the domination of jocks in a niche, basically. The well-adapted species tend to be the dominant species over time. The members of the species that are bigger and dominant drive things to be bigger and more dominant, but other things are stable.

When new species bud off, that happens relatively quickly. It is across hundreds of thousands of years, typically, but not like the hundreds of thousands and even millions of years in which species can be stable.

You can kind of look at changes in our culture from that same perspective. That things tend to be stable for a long time and then they have a stable period of technology. The era of writing and literacy extended for a long time.

Depending on what your criteria are, whether you need 20% literacy for the population to say their literate or 50%, whatever your criteria; however, you define the era of the written word. You’re going to get something that has been not too unstable for centuries.

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 204 – The Future, Inconsiderate Considerations

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/20

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: It is easier for people to call bullshit on the future on Twitter. People go along and hear predictions with these weird things and things being overturned, then you look at your life and think, “Where is the future? We had cars 100 years ago and cars now.

We have phones and movies now. Some are 3D. Some have special effects, but still they’re movies. So where is the fantastic future?”

That kind of misses—when the future arrives, it arrives all the sudden and then ka-boom within a couple of years things are different. “You got airbags. Fine. You got auto-park. Fine. It doesn’t change that we’re still driving cars.”

So, you have a bunch or a couple of ways for people toc all bullshit on the future. That doesn’t disqualify the future. That those ways of calling bullshit don’t disprove that the future is going to kick everyone’s ass.

On the one hand, we have shown stability is characteristic the way things are; it doesn’t preclude rapid changes in the ways things are. You have gradual changes that by their nature of being gradual do not seem like a big deal. It is like, “So what? The auto-parking car. How does this change my life?”

So that by the time you get to the self-driving car, you find the radical change that is the frog in the water that is being brought to a boil. You get used to a thing with changing technology, so you’re not blown away as easily.

The future finally gets here. It is like a principle of reality versus science fiction, which is, in science fiction you get to see the future and it is, awesome. You get to see it all at once. But, even with S curves, stuff takes a while.

When it gets here, then you see how it got here, and when it shows up, it is a culmination of old stuff and new stuff and it is grubby and sleazy and cheap. The sense of wonder has been sucked out of it by the process that it took to get here and how grubby it is by the time it gets here.

The principle is that you never get as much enjoyment out of the real future as kind of would anticipate seeing science fiction portrayals of the future.

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 203 – All Equal in Creation, Men

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/19

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: That the Constitution says, “All men are created equal…” and should include women too, not just men. The basic idea is that this is the basic idea for the fabric of American liberty. So, to make feminism unpalatable to a lot of people, you must hang a bunch of other stuff on it to make it seem not right.

That it is whiny. That women are already in a privileged position in society. That if women just knew their place, then they would be better taken care of than even men who must be the risk-takers. Then even more modern counter-arguments, that feminism is anti-beauty.

That they see it as part of a movement to being pro-abortion or is tied to pro-abortion arguments and movements; or the idea that – you see this with minority movements too, that all the important battles have been won and that we should be cool because we live in a post-sexist and post-racist society.

A lot of people have dumb ideas about what feminism is. It makes them decide that it is not for them anymore and doesn’t need to be respected when people espouse feminist ideas. So, as I said, I have a wife and daughter, I like them to live in a world.

Even if I didn’t have a wife and a daughter, I would like women to live in a society, where there is basic fairness among genders – and I look forward to the science fictioney future in which gender becomes less important as we gain more control over our identities and our biology.

And our choices about who to be and how to be. So, I have been active on twitter for a little more than 3 years. Social media and particularly Twitter is a good place, I think, to learn about feminism because some of the angriest and funniest voices on Twitter are feminist voices.

Jen Kirkman is a stand-up comedian who might be one of the most vehement pointer-outers of guy assholes on Twitter. As a guy, one thing I have learned is that there is such a thing as mansplaining. I don’t know if it came out of social media.

But the idea of it has been fleshed out of social media. Twitter is a good place to become cognizant of my own mansplaining tendencies, and to learn where sometimes I should just shut up. This is where I shut up. Is that enough of a thing?

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 202 – Legitimacy to Minorities

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/18

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: People who don’t want to grant legitimacy to minority movements try to represent those movements extreme versions of those movements, as unpleasant and unfair – more than citizens deserve. People are making trouble where there is no real trouble.

Like Rush Limbaugh and the Nazis, they describe feminism in this way. Feminism has been overtly fucked over, over the decades, with the waves of feminism. I don’t know what this wave is called now. This current wave started as an outgrowth of the discontent of the sexism and chauvinism of the Hippy movements in the 60s.

But a lot of the socially progressive and anti-war movements of the 60s, which were male dominated, treated women just as shittily as the rest of society did. The women who supported these social progress movements and these anti-war movements.

They got into the movements because they felt strongly against the war and some other stuff that was gong on, but noticed that they were being treated as shittily in the wider outside world and began taking up the reins of protest themselves regarding issues of sexism.

There were stereotypic anti-feminist reactions to this in the 70s. People were called “bra-burners.” People didn’t burn their bras, really. It was a symbol of cultural oppressions. Studies pointed out that women’s attire, more than men’s, hobbled women and constrained women more than men’s attire constrains men.

It is present as making it harder for women to run away as being chased by a guy, which was semi-facetious but not entirely facetious. There was the kneejerk reaction to feminism in the 70s, but reactions against Liberals have gotten more sophisticated beginning with Reagan.

Where how to take down Liberals has been focused on by conservatives, Fox News is a daily workshop in dissing Liberal causes. So, if you kind of look at what has happened to feminism, they have been persuaded that it is not for them, where it is like what has happened with Hillary Clinton.

Which is hanging a lot of lying bullshit on women, but it is a steady mischaracterization, the basic idea of feminism is that women should be treated equally to men; whether you believe women are equal to men in every single aspect, it doesn’t effect that idea that people should be treated equally.

[End of recorded material]

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 201 – White Supremacy and Feminism

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/17

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: I have been supportive of feminism for about 40 years. But to talk about his as a cis white male talking about feminism now…

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: …you’re Rick Rosner talking about feminism. Your own individual identity.

Rosner: Yea, but it is like a cis white guy talking about Black Lives Matter, it is a ticket to getting in trouble, to misstep.

Jacobsen: It is only a ticket to trouble if you’re thinking in terms of groups, but you live in America where the emphasis in on the individual. So, I am thinking of you as Rick Rosner.

Rosner: I am going to get caught with my pants down, I think. I live in LA. I have a wife and daughter and even if I didn’t. First, we can talk about majority movements. That is, movements that endorse a majority versus movements that promote minorities.

Specifically, white supremacy, most white people are not active white supremacists, and recently, somebody pointed out, it is not that white supremacists are necessarily claiming to be better than the non-whites.

What they want is the privilege, that they are supporting their right to privilege in the society. White supremacy isn’t a statement of superiority necessarily. It is saying that we want power as white people, which a) is gross and b) kind of reflects the reality that most supremacists are trashy people.

A lot of white supremacists are people who, even though they have the privilege that often goes with being in the majority, haven’t been able to make a good go of it with that privilege. They are trying to claim even more privilege, say.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 200 – Overpopulation, Religion, Government (Part 4)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/16

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: One is the freedom. One part of that is the control over our drives. It is to a huge extent getting control over how our sexual behaviour. So, we’re talking about coercive control. I wasn’t even talking about that. I wasn’t talking about it as we suss out become or learn more about how consciousness works and how to determine the types of consciousness we want to have.

That may me control over sex because sex is one of the great drivers of our conscious and unconscious existences.

We’ll be, in the future, able to decide if we really want to be driven by butts and tits. For an increasing percentage of the population over the next few centuries, that will come to be seen an antiquated and ridiculous.

There are some science fiction visions of the future that present a race of humans who are kind of desexualized and coldly clinically intellectual.

Sometimes, you see the humans of the future as being little spindly bodies with big throbbing brains

Their heads are three times the size of our own now and their bodies are shrunken by half. That is ridiculous.

But I can see a gradual deemphasizing of sex, but not a deemphasizing of foolishness.

That we all become coldly and clinically rational and smarter, but our entertainments. Our fun will become more developed, complicated, and ridiculous along with our abilities.

Sex will be just one of many the ways that we entertain ourselves.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: That does tie back in. That broadening of the landscape of entertaining ourselves does tie back into this differentiation, into the splinterings of sexual pairings or non-pairings and the variety o stimulation that come from that, or arise out of that.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 199 – Overpopulation, Religion, Government (Part 3)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/15

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What about—Can I make a distinction of reproductive control?

Rick Rosner: Yes.

Jacobsen: I like Margaret Atwood, and I am Canadian. So, this is partly where this is coming from. If you control women’s reproduction, then you control legacy. The primary means of control of reproduction are women, who are lower status globally and through time.

Secondary is men who get sex with a woman and generally lower-class males who get some status and the reward is the sex with the woman and probably enshrined in things like head of the household, head of the family, and so on.

Whereas for the primary control, that class doesn’t get that. I feel as though this era that we’re seeing now, and that you’re strongly directing attention to is a – not a dissolution, but a slow erosion of that.

People have more freedom in their lives and so control over their own reproduction, which hasn’t been the historical case whether from the state or a religion.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 198 – Overpopulation, Religion, Government (Part 2)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/14

[Beginning of recorded material]

Jacobsen: Well, if you take both examples, if you take the biggest religions in the world, they account for half of the population in the world; if you take the largest country in the world, you have a national secular policy for control of birth rates and who has kids, and how many.

Each have different forms of control of reproduction, which, for the most part, amounts to control of women generally. These are different manifestations of similar phenomenon, which might be similar phenomenon across primates of controlling female reproduction.

Rosner: Yes, this promotion of reproduction, which controls the push to make more – which governs all animals. All organisms. I am sure you can find some exceptions. It is probably as close to a universal as you’ll find in evolution. I am just guessing.

For humans, that will be coming not necessarily to an end, but it will fall more and more under overt human control, where we will be more and more in charge of what we want to do with the human population.

Whether we want to keep expanding it, for more than 100 years, people have or some people have been worried about increasing human population. The drive or the sex drive—now, that is something under societal consideration.

The things that drive us to make more people will more and more come under our consideration and control.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 197 – Overpopulation, Religion, Government (Part 1)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/13

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Do these become systems of control of populations, and so individual people?

Rosner: The US doesn’t really have a national population policy, but China does.

Jacobsen: America does, sure. I think of the Abrahamic religions.

Rosner: I mean the government doesn’t get involved, well does say to have kids and we’ll give you tax deductions with allowance of dependents allow you to take deductions from your taxes. You pay less for having kids.

We will make it economically slightly easier to have kids. It is not as overt as China policy. Policies they have had since Communist China came into existence.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 196 – Belief and Population Sizes (Part 2)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/12

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: That interlopers into Western society are trying to take it over by having more babies. That includes Muslims and Hispanic people, but while I think that is wrongheaded in a lot of ways. The US is less than 1% Muslim now.

The rate at which Muslim Americans reproduce by 2040, according to one estimate, they’ll be 2.1% of the population, which is a still really a tiny fragment of the population; whereas the world AI population by at least one person I know to be about 1 trillion by 2100.

I believe there was a march against Sharia Law. That somehow enough Muslim Americans will take over enough of America to impose Sharia Law. But like I said, those people marching against Sharia should be marching against robots.

Robots are going to be made at a fantastically greater rate than compared to Muslims. In any case, these normative models; these lifestyles that people are compelled to embrace and promote, and to fight for, at the expense of alternate lifestyles are models of how to make the species more successful.

Not necessarily accurate models, but models on how to pump out more people.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 195 – Belief and Population Sizes (Part 1)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/11

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: If you look at the size of some of them then, ignoring the timescale of centuries and millennia and even maybe decades for some, that enshrine these values; if you look at the Catholic Church, they are 1.3 or 1.4 billion people.

If you look at the Eastern Orthodox Church, they are 225 to 300 million.

Rosner: If you look at Islam, it is over 1 billion people. My conservative buddy gets really worked up at the rate at which Muslim populations increase. He says that one way that Muslims try to take over countries is by having more kids.

It is this paranoid view of things.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 194 – Behavioural Chauvinism

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/10

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: If everybody is kind of wired – regarding behavioural chauvinism – and I am not speaking clearly or sharply, if everybody feels they have a stake in their behaviour, that, maybe, is a manifestation of one more way evolution gets in the mix.

If everybody feels compelled to be or someone doesn’t act the way you do and you punish them, then that keeps that behaviour. Perhaps, competition in behaviour is another semi-evolved way to arrive at some optimal forms of behaviour.

Evolution doesn’t want anything because it is not teleological.

Jacobsen: Evolution’s natural directionality implies what…

Rosner: This might be another area where evolutionary force is taking place. The force to find the optimal way of being, even though that sounds ridiculous. If you look at the 1950s of the Make America Great Again people, it is everybody living in a 2-parent household in a suburb.

One provider and a house, and a car, you’re spitting out 2.3 kids or more, actually more if you look back at the 50s. Families were bigger. That idea is a recipe for reproductive success.

If everybody is in this nuclear family and spitting out kids, that’s one view of society’s model of success. That success includes a growing population.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 193 – Successful Alternate Lifestyles

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/09

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: To the extent that I have been successful, it has been being clever at making jokes or being smart rather than being attractive. I try to be attractive, but I am not smoking hot.

When I see people who are vapid as shit living in LA, you see people who are successful based on hotness. I am like, “Fuck you, hot person.” That is bullshit. I don’t like that because it is an avenue of success that is not open to me.

Similarly, some frickin’ rube might be like, “Fuck you, smart person, with your words and all. You’re not American. You don’t work with your hands. You don’t know how to clean a carburetor.” Fuck, I could clean one.

There’s resentment or tends to be resentment of alternative life strategies. It is just that people are just or don’t like – every like strategy involves foregoing other strategies. And yo want to believe in the choices you made.

When you see people having made other choices, even when they are other choices, you resent it, “Hey weirdos with the two guy and one relationship.” I have spent 10s of thousands of hours of my life going to the gym.

On some visceral basis, I don’t want to see three chubby people happily in a relationship with each other. It is like, “What the fuck? Why did I waste my time exercising and being monogamous? I am even struggle with contact lenses. These people that are chubby with glasses ar able to satisfy each other. It is annoying.”

To some extent, the institutions that you’re talking about can include religion, probably codify that fear and resentment. Does that make sense?

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Yes, it seems like a smaller phenomenon of the even more sincere and deeply held feelings then turned beliefs and then turned behavior of individuals opening up making-you-not-gay (and so straight) places and not hosting gay weddings or not giving cakes to gay couples.

You have a mild resentment, but this other category or series of categories feel so deeply about it. That they feel the need to impose their idealized world onto the society in which they live through legislation, and otherwise.

You don’t do that. You have feeling and keep it there, which is mild judgment. Everyone is entitled to their feelings and judgments and attitudes, especially feelings because they’re feelings. it is like anger not lying.

They want to impose on society, though. Especially in America, I see this with the Evangelicals quite strongly.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 192 – New Relationships

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/08

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: With all of these new relationship forms, those might work better now because people can always beat off.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: This makes sense evolutionarily too. Apparently, statistically, almost all female humans, women, have had 1 child; whereas, men will have 0 or 2. So a larger proportion of men will be completely out of the future gene pool compared to women.

Rosner: I see.

Jacobsen: Also, there are so many taboos crystallized in comprehension worldviews, like religions, that were not really acceptable, but were more or less imposed by government.

For instance, gay marriage was a huge issue and probably not widely accepted unless enforced by provisions of equality. So it is a larger thought, where a lot of these other ones will have a hard time.

Rosner: So what you’re saying for gay marriage to work, the government needs to step in on those that would stop it on religious or other grounds.

Jacobsen: Secular or religious grounds, I could see similar or the same pushback, whether religious or various secular-minded individuals who have personal disagreements with it and so don’t want to see it in society in any way – in all its combinations.

Whether quadruplets or triplets, or whatever the title may be, or in various sexual minority orientations…

Rosner: I feel that I am a self-righteous person, not a righteous person. I am judgy. I get pissed. I think a theme or semi-universal theme among people is to be a fan of one’s orientation or lifestyle or choices, and to be resentful when alternate choices are successful in the world.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 191 – Masturbation Culture

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/07

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: As someone who grew up in the 60s and 70s, I will see sex as more of a motivating factor than other ones. I see this as less of a motivating factor than in the 80s. I see the attitudes of the 70s with sex as a big thing.

It was exaggerated, but I see it as a huge thing because this is how evolution worked, to make everyone horny.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What do you say to someone who says this isn’t true?

Rosner: I think that’s true. I think sex is less important now. Even now, in a less overtly sexual time than the 70s, sex still doesn’t color almost everybody’s behaviour in some way. If you dug into why people behave the way they do on an individual basis, you could find a sexual component in almost every behaviour.

However, if the 70s put sex at a 10, maybe now, sex is an 8 or a 7 in terms of motivating factors. The dial has been turned down a little bit. And it will probably continue to be turned down.

Right now, we’re right in the middle of masturbation culture. It is that sexual gratification is more removed from personal motivation in other areas of life than it ever has before, at least in our culture.

It gives people more flexibility to be trolls on the one hand, to not have to constantly manifest reproductive fitness on another hand. That is, you don’t have to lift weights. You don’t have to be trim and sexy. If you can jack yourself off, it doesn’t matter necessarily what you look like.

You are free because your gratification is directly dependent on the sexual attractiveness of the people you’re with. So relationships can be more inclusive both in terms of who can hook up, even 1-on-1 relationships, but even among people who hook up in these newfangled multiple person relationships.

Where two guys and one girl, two girls and one guy, these triads or whatever you want to call them.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 190 – United States, Current (Part 1)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/06

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: Under the current political conditions of the United States, Liberalism is majoritarianism, having attitudes more Liberal than the government, people who are running the government right now, is a majority attitude.

The people who run the government would call people who disagree with them liberals, but no we’re the majority.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I have heard Noam Chomsky say that based on studies about – repeatedly I’ve heard him say this, which seems true to me – 70% of the American population are disenfranchised from the political process.

Where any choice or decision they make has no impact on the way the policy is set for the country, I think a good metric could be considered between the average data points you have about American society, from Pew, from Gallup, etc., and then contrasting that with the way policy is set, and then you could see how democratic the society is.

Because if you look at surveys with big samples and good questions, reliable and valid data sets, and if you state x, y, and z in surveys as a citizen, but the policy is against those to a reasonable significant degree, then you could go per topic how non-democratic the state is in some ways.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 189 – Academic Political Views (Part 7)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/05

[Beginning of recorded material]

Eventually, America may have to confront dumb attitudes that are reflexively opposed to any kind of sharing because that going against their idea of us as being rugged individualists, self-sufficient – and which is contradicted by actual conditions.

Which is that the Red States, the states most likely to hate the idea of a Nanny State or a Welfare State are the ones that take the most money from the government per capita. This is the thing that everybody or people have known for decades now.

If they haven’t known, they should know that the states that bitch and moan – the Southern states like Montana and Idaho or states that consistently vote red – more consistently get more money back from the government than they contribute, in social programs than they give in taxes.

Whereas the Blue States like California and New York give more in taxes than they give back, so we have a sharing economy whether we like to admit it or not.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 188 – Academic Political Views (Part 6)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/04

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rosner: Yea. China is becoming capitalistic, but it is still dictatorial in a gazillion ways. So even if it is a weaker form of dictatorship killing 60 million people with the Cultural Revolution, it still has the power to screw over people.

It is unfortunate that there is no untainted or politically untainted way to talk about the ideas about sharing economies because as we enter an increasing automated world the nature of work may change and there may not be enough work to go around.

I can imagine – to not any great extent – a hyper-social media connected world, in which people just get stipends for contributing to social media discourse because so much other work is being done by AIs.

That would be a weird dystopia or may semi-utopia. It is as likely as Idiocracy, which is just one among a few trends in society – like most science fiction that grabs a few things to extrapolate. But the idea of a sharing economy is not going away mostly because of AI making work more scarce and making the products cheaper.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 187 – Academic Political Views (Part 5)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/03

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rosner: It is a legitimate point of view. It is characterized by people being tender snowflakes. Then when you talk about Marxism, I guess Marx was or is 140 years after he wrote his stuff still—he is certainly the most recognized writer on the idea of a sharing economy.

It is Marxism. So he is the guy. Maybe, there are some obscure ones. There is Socialism, but he is the only one with his name attached to a sharing philosophy. So he is the guy. Marxism and Socialism have been associated with a bunch of governments that brutally fucked over their own people and the world.

And to some extent, they continue to do so. The Soviet Union was a failed Socialist experiment that led to the current failed Russian state, which is some weird Plutocracy/Kleptocracy…

Jacobsen: …[Laughing] Oligarchy.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 186 – Academic Political Views (Part 4)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/02

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: Yes. But that suggests the problem probably doesn’t lie with people, that somehow 1/3 of all Americans are lacking in discipline. But rather, that there is a problem with how food is presented to us.

If food is being marketed at us, prepared for us, available to us, in such a way that 1/3 of adults can’t avoid being overweight, then it is not just the fault of American adults. It is also the failure of our approach to food.

It isn’t then something that can be necessarily addressed by telling people to eat less, exercise more, and make some tougher dietary choices. Also, say 55% or 65% of all college students are women, and that women on average have certain social concerns, it becomes less reasonable to talk about the concerns as being just Liberal or feminist, or as being majoritarian.

Right now, we have a president and a Congress, and probably a Supreme Court that doesn’t abide by or represent the attitudes of a majority of Americans across most issues. Some form of strong support for majoritarianism like, “Hey, fuckers in government pay attention to what most people want.”

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 185 – Academic Political Views (Part 3)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/01

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: There’s another thing. In all 70 or so developed nations, more women are going to college than men. They are getting more awards. They are getting better grades. Women tend to vote more Liberal or Left. Men, I guess, tend to vote more Right.

I suspect some of that skew has to do with reproductive health rights and things like that, but that can also be an influence on the political perspectives in campus, on campus.

Rosner: Yes. But if more women are attending campus, then more of their concerns should be considered majoritarian views. We were talking about food yesterday.

Jacobsen: Yes.

Rosner: 1/3 of American adults are obese.

Jacobsen: Which is a staggering number.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 184 – Academic Political Views (Part 2)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/31

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: That influences the research questions. So if someone wants a research question or if someone wants to pitch a research question to a Bachelor’s Honor’s or thesis advisor, and if you were an instructor or tenured professor, who would you more likely want someone under you with regards to research: someone with a topic in line with your expertise or not in line with your expertise, knowing your topics will lean more Left-Liberal, even Marxist?

Rosner: Yes, the political landscape means the people who are conservative on campus as opposed to quietly conservative. There is a certain Ann Coulterishness among active conservatives that is an obnoxious torchbearer attitude among a lot of conservatives.

An anger at their underrepresentation and an eagerness to piss people off via taking aggressive stances.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 183 – Academic Political Views (Part 1)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/30

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: There was a survey of academicians’ political views with about 5% as Conservative and 23/24% as Neo-Marxist with the rest as other. I would see these in many gender studies and other departments, in terms of those departments being more likely Neo-Marxist. I forget the precise details.

Rick Rosner: You’re saying conservatives are wildly underrepresented in academia.

Jacobsen: Yes, they are wildly overrepresented in government at the same time, in America.

Rosner: Also, you’re saying people who are radically Liberal are overrepresented in academia.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 182 – Gender Equity and Similarity (Part 2)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/29

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: Nobody – I don’t think – or most feminisms are not wedded to the idea of ungendered upbringings or some natural state of ungenderedness, which is only formed via exposure to a sexist culture.

That is an old debunked thing that nobody is arguing about now. That gets brought up by anti-feminists to show that feminism is pursuing some creepy ass agenda. And nah! I don’t think so. People tried it a little bit.

Some people, they found out that people are gendered. That working to treat people as if they’re ungendered or to make them ungendered is not the agenda of feminism, but anti-feminists treat it as it is – as if everyone would walk around in the same jump suit.

Heaven forbid if you wear high heels and lipstick. That’s not feminism. That’s an unfair characterization of it, I think.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 181 – Gender Equity and Similarity (Part 1)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/28

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I found a quote by Steven Pinker. It is something to talk about:

Feminism as a movement for political and social equity is important, but feminism as an academic clique committed to eccentric doctrine about human nature is not.

Eliminating discrimination against women is important, but believing that women and men are born with indistinguishable minds is not.

Freedom of choice is important, but ensuring that women make up exactly 50 percent of all professions is not. And eliminating sexual assaults is important, but advancing the theory that rapists are doing their part in a vast make conspiracy is not.

Rick Rosner: That is an interesting quote to me. In that, he brings up some valid points, but the points that I think most people – and I think would include most feminists, and I shouldn’t speak for feminists – would concede is not a part of their agenda.

I’d say the early part of Second Wave Feminism, if that’s what 70s feminism and on is, might be Third Wave Feminism. Yea, there were some people who promoted the idea that kids are genderless, except as conditioned by society.

With the largest argument being that if you give boys dolls, they will be as happy with those things instead of giving them things that are stereotypically gender appropriate, and that kind of stuff is kind of obsolete to a great extent.

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 180 – Political Movements (Part 6)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/27

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Those women, who are giving relatively obvious discretionary notes, except those not obvious to a few people.

Rick Rosner: My favourite mother-in-law-splaining story is where we are at a coffee shop with the family. Coffee shop has one of those menus. It has a lot of stuff. There are a lot of items and a lot of pages.

Looking at the menu, she is looking at the menu and says this is something I wouldn’t know or wouldn’t have noticed, “They have sandwiches.” I mean come on.

Jacobsen: [Laughing] I wouldn’t be bent out of shape about it. [Laughing] I could start up a Twitter account, be uptight, and make a joke about it as a discretionary note.

Rosner: Imagine if you were married to somebody who explained at you, stuff that you knew all of the time.

Jacobsen: I would try to work on my own issues first, rather than theirs.

Rosner: I don’t know.

Jacobsen: What’s the old wisdom? You can’t change people.

Rosner: That’s true, but you can at least note it and tweet about it because it is interesting, maybe, or funny if you can take the right angle on it.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 179 – Political Movements (Part 5)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/26

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rosner: The people I follow who are doing this have specifically said, “Don’t – trolls aside – be this way when you’re communicating with me. Don’t mansplain at me. Here’s what mansplaining is. If you’re my friend, you won’t mansplain at me. Here’s what mansplaining is.”

Even though, they say, “Come on, this is what it is, stop doing it. Guys cannot stop themselves from doing it.”

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Because they’re people and people explain things to one another.

Rosner: Yea, but mansplaining is, I think, when you explain something that either doesn’t need to be explained or should be obvious to the person who is being explained at. It’s like my mother-in-law explains at me and anyone around her.

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Ask A Genius 178 – Political Movements (Part 4)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/25

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: That’s an indication of a problem, on another side – not the pooping one, but on the other one. It is a signalling with little risk and feeling good, and morally upright and righteous with almost no effort and no impact.

Rick Rosner: No! I don’t see that. The angry-ish women I follow. What they point out is how hard it is for guys to not be dicks…

Jacobsen: If you spend all of your time on Twitter looking for a “dick,” then you’ll find them.

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Ask A Genius 177 – Political Movements (Part 3)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/24

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I don’t agree with that at all. I think they’re real problems, but I do think they’re in proportion to other real problems people are facing. I think they are problems, but ones that need to faced in proportion to their hardness.

Rick Rosner: Twitter was designed to tell people what they’re up to. I could put this on Twitter, but I haven’t, “Last night, I sharted my pants at the gym.”

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Rosner: I thought it was a fart, and it wasn’t.

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Rosner: Twitter is the ideal place to disclose something like that. Or if you don’t want to be that intimate with people, say what you had for lunch, or that you’d like some particular movie; so, most people or nobody on the Twitter I follow has not experienced genital mutilation, but a lot of the people I follow have experienced guys being dickheads to them.

I think it is fine to point out incidents of dickishness and to share that with people and to make people aware of it. Now, I suspect—I have something going on with my bowels. I have too much of a bad kind of bacteria. So there could be some social value in sharing my—I think there’s an epidemic of people have bowel problems that is just below the surface.

That within the next year or so. What is going to become a major thing that people are aware of, people are aware of certain aspects of it, like people like to make fun of people who happen to be gluten free, or who are lactose intolerant.

But I suspect there’s a huge segment of the population, probably over 5%. Maybe over 10% of people, there’s this kind of—people’s digestive systems are fucked up, I suspect. If I went on Twitter and shared my ‘I sharted myself story” to help people become aware that this is a thing, and that this is something that might need to be addressed; on the other hand, I pooped myself

[Laughing].

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 176 – Political Movements (Part 2)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/23

[Beginning of recorded material]

Jacobsen: This is the game that is played. It seems like a very conscious setup.

Rosner: You call it a game. I would say it is partly a game. But I would also say that most of the feminist anger I see on Twitter is legitimate and justified. It comes out of a recent history of guys continuing or beginning to be dicks.

The fourchan guys, GamerGate guys, those are baby dicks. Those are guys who found their dickishness. Young guys who found their dickishness in creepy reactions to women wanting a place in the video gaming world or just online.

So a lot of pissed off feminism is a legit thing.

Jacobsen: That’s minor. At the same time, there are areas of the world where 200 million women have had a female genital mutilation done. That’s a real concern.

Rosner: That argument is the white person problem argument.

Jacobsen: I don’t mean to dismiss the concerns. I see the concerns and agree with them, in terms of trying to integrate into another aspect of society – the video gaming world, but it is a little bit self-indulgent in a Western country.

Rosner: I don’t know. My wife and I have been going to couples’ counselling for most of our marriage. Not because we’re always battling with each other. We only go once every three or four weeks, but it’s nice to work through things. It is nice to learn how to work through things and to address things before they become super big things.

And a lot of concerns that I see on social media from feminists are social justice concerns and legitimate ones. I see them on Twitter. It is not the comedy Twitter that I follow. I follow 1,400 people. And most of those people are funny.

When people bring up concerns, they are usually brought up in a way that has some humor attached to the scorn or the anger. So it is not just a world of complainy misery. It is like pointing out—a lot of the concerns are reflective of issues that are less sad making than female genital mutilation.

Or women being burned to death or stoned to death, by their own family, for trying to attempt some form of independence. At the same time, letting go of those less horrific concerns is kind of the same as excusing them.

[End of recorded material]

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 175 – Political Movements (Part 1)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/22

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Active political movements have shifted the conversation. Where it is of utility to look at things in terms of groups, but, at the same time, it is percentages and averages.

It is as if the slave master is talking. It has the tinge of the oppressor talking about the oppressed class. It is a pretty simple trick. I do see this as a way to berate people who do have a party line.

You define a system or look at a society. You define an oppressed class. You define an oppressor class. You look for some form of justice. You self-define as the defender of the oppressed class.

So you are the good person. You are helping the little guy. You are not seeing it as an individual. You are seeing it as a representative of the group. So, you have the backing of the whole group.

Rick Rosner: What you’re saying is regardless of what I say, it will be taken a certain way because I belong to the ‘oppressor class’.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 174 – The ‘Real World’ (Part 4)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/21

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: There’s also the mapping onto the universe. Standard set theory, which underlies various fundamental fields, is static. it describes single states. So if you describe the universe with only a single state, then you don’t have the tools to accurately describe the universe. But if you were to make…

Rick Rosner: …Instead of tools, let’s try to visualize what is going on. Under IC, we claim the universe is an informational map representing or modeling something beyond the universe. Analogously to how in each of our heads, we have a mental model of the world around us.

The world around you. There is what you know and what you don’t know. What you don’t know can take a bunch of forms, your mental state can mean one thing, but it can reflect a gazillion possible realities.

Where you don’t know what is going on in China, you don’t know if your girlfriend got drunk and kissed a dude last weekend. You don’t know if your dog has kidney stones. You only know what you know.

There is this whole set of possibilities beyond the boundary of what is known. That exists as potential flavors that are embedded in the uncertainty of what you know because your model is your best attempt to reflect what is going on now and what will happen.

As time unfolds, you can imagine in a multi-worlds kind of model that your different or nebulous knowledge. You incomplete knowledge of the world will play out in a gazillion ways.

That your future reality can split into 10^1,000th different paths over time. So your model reality reflects a zillion different flavors that that reality could come to be painted based on how the information you don’t know beyond what you do know plays out or comes into your awareness.

So one mental model can represent not different futures, but actually presents, at 10^1,000th of them. Each future is a present having its information play out. Even if you were waiting for the future to see the presents play out or the splits, your present that your model represents could take 10^500th models because you have incomplete knowledge.

That incomplete knowledge encompasses a huge number of possible preferences.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 173 – The ‘Real World’ (Part 3)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/20

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: These are flavors of the Empty Set. That’s one big thing. Also, the indefinitenes of elements in a set.

Rick Rosner: What it leads to is if you can even do set theory if the members of the set are each multiplicitous and can take on all of these flavors, it applies to, say, if your universe contains one atom. And that atom according to the rules, it will probably be a Hydrogen atom.

it will be one proton and one electron, but that minimal universe of one atom is itself going to have whiffs of differences. That one thing in a set. That set of smallest possible universe doesn’t just have one element because that one element is itself subject to what you’re calling having “flavors.”

It is not entirely pinned down, and neither are the rules for defining it. The object is not completely defined, and the rules of confining it to a set are not completely defined. So everything is a little fuzzy, so you have to build increasing order out of these fuzzy constructs.

But since we live in this type of universe, a quantum mechanical universe, it is doable. So there should be some type of math that embraces nebulousness in a fairly systematic way. which quantum mechanics does.

But I don’t think anybody has really tried to apply quantum mechanics to set theory in this way. You have fuzzy sets. I don’t know if this is really. – I guess if you’re going to look for how to do it. Then that would be where you’d look first.

Where you’d have sets, or a set theory, where the objects in your sets can take a variety of values according to a probability distribution. So I don’t know. Anyway.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 172 – The ‘Real World’ (Part 2)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/19

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Also, in an IC universe, zero has flavors: 0.0, 0.00, 0.000, 0.0000, and so on.

Rick Rosner: Okay, there’s – what you mean is that if you’re looking at the nebulous set of all possible universes that can exist. There’s the zero information universe.

Jacobsen: Or the Empty Set.

Rosner: That’s the same as the zero information universe. It contains no space, no time, no matter. But because there are quantum fluctuations around that nothing. There are the smallest whiffs of somethingness, which you’re call “flavors.”

An IC Set Theory would be a set theory operating under quantum rules, which are a little fuzzy and more determinate the more or bigger your set is. The more information your set contains, and the entities or the sets. The optics that comprise the sets are themselves fuzzy.

So even zero is fuzzy because you can’t pin that fucker down.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 171 – The ‘Real World’ (Part 1)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/18

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: To describe the real universe, you need a math, a logic, and set theory, to describe the real universe, and a real universe, especially in an IC universe is composed of finites.

So a set theory incorporating that would be better than standard set theory.

Rick Rosner: Well, set theory itself has infinities in it because it asserts things with infinite precision. Either something is in a set or not in a set. But when you look at an analogous situation in the quantum world, you can say an electron is or is not in the box.

It makes sense. it is one or the other. But when you apply quantum mechanics to this, either it is in the box, somewhat in the box, or not in the box but with this probability, or with this probability even though it is a closed box it will be this percent out of the box.

Within 10^42nd seconds, the electron is functioning in some of these ways. It has a probability wave associated with it. An electron can materialize at any point in the wave. The probability density can be at any point.

That probability density cloud is not exclusively located in the box. Some of it is located out of the box. There is a non-zero chance that the electron can materialize outside of the box. Once outside of the box, it is unlikely that it is going to be back in the box.

But anyway, unlike in set theory, where something is either all in or all out, the electron is not all in or all out. Nothing is all in or all out. Everything is just – or something is just – a thing or not with super high probabilities, so you can pretty much act as if an electron is all in or all out of the box.

Because it is or is not something with super big probabilities, to the extent that you can pretty much act as if the electron is all in or all out of the box because the probability that it is not in any given second is 1/10^47th, which means that in a practical sense you will never find that electron out of the box.

So you’re using an infinity that you shouldn’t strictly use as a matter of convenience because it is unlikely that it will ever cause a problem in that situation.

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Ask A Genius 170 – Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking (Part 5)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/17

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: The singularity is one of the problems that you run into. It is a problem because you have all of the matter collapsing into a black hole, into a single point, and so the math falls apart.

But if you hang quantum mechanics on it, the smallest possible point is fizzed out at the Planck radius or diameter, or scale, and there’s also a minimum Planck time. Upon which, everything is foam and fuzz.

But there are techniques for dancing around and not getting messed up. Though those techniques themselves may not be the ultimate right answer to what is going on. But it is a reasonable thing to think that infinities are almost always dangerous.

You can avoid them. There might be a healthier theory.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 169 – Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking (Part 4)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/16

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: In an infinite universe, if something was calculated over time – in an infinite information processing universe, the digit span could run forever. So the complex digit series and complex numbers…

Rick Rosner: When you say, “Infinite universe,” you’re implying an infinite clockwork universe.

Jacobsen: What about an implied infinite of information based on association within itself? In a standard universe, it has to do with the way things are traditionally represented. Someone gives you a number or a value about the ‘real universe’ in a standard Big Bang cosmology universe.

The digit series is implied to go on forever. So there’s a self-contradiction in the presentation of a standard Big Bang universe, consistently, because there is an assumed infinite amount of information to run that digit series forever.

But in fact, there’s not. But at one point, they will say, the universe began a finite time ago. But when we say a year, or a value, or a law, or a constant…

Rosner: What you’re saying is that in a standard characterization of the Big Bang universe, there are some implied infinities. And that any time you talk about them, you’re, at least numerically, implying something using numbers, which are themselves defined to an infinite extent because you have an infinity of digits beyond the decimal point – which implies infinite precision, which implies infinite information.

Jacobsen: Exactly! it is the big problem that I think is inherent in logic, physics, and mathematics, as standardly presented.

Rosner: I agree that that has the potential…

Jacobsen: …I think provably…

Rosner: …I think it is a danger. However, in quantum mechanics, it is the tool you have to work with incomplete information. People don’t view quantum mechanics that way, but that’s what it is. It is a mathematical tool to work with stuff that is incompletely defined because it is made out of finite amounts of information. Now, there may even be traps and dangers in quantum mechanics.

In that, quantum mechanics is itself built from numbers and relationships. In quantum mechanics, you have matrices made out of numbers, and numbers are infinitely precise. But I think if you’re good about applying quantum mechanics. you can avoid a lot of the problems that you run into, like the singularities.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 168 – Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking (Part 3)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/03

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: However, I think you were also implying like emergent order.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: The universe has limits in information. The spontaneous symmetry breaking seems to me like a factor to consider in informational limits. If the universe was a perfect sphere, it would have infinite information and time.

Rosner: Not exactly, because what looks like chaos to one observer can actually be encoded information to another observer, I think. If you don’t know the coding, if you don’t know it’s information, then

Jacobsen: An observer can take information in part from one sector of a sphere. Another observer can take information in part from another sector of a sphere.

Rosner: If you don’t know the coding, if you don’t know it’s information, then you can’t see the information. It just looks random.

Jacobsen: Technically, simple finite principles can produce an infinite product, if given infinite time.

Rosner: If you’re adding information…

Jacobsen: …what if the system produces its own information?

Rosner: You can look at the unfolding universe in a couple ways. You’ve got all of this information packed into the early universe, the first moments of the exploding universe, or the Big Bang universe. That information is encoded into the various velocity vectors that produce the kinetic energy that is built into the system that blows everything outward. Super early universe, everything has got a shitload of kinetic energy. Kinetic energy is like a set of instructions for the universe to expand like crazy. The universe contains its own seeds of space and time, and spatial aggregation, to some extent.

Where the small anti-isotropies of the early universe eventually coalesce into galaxies and stuff, on the other hand, the universe adds—the universe as an information processor—information, and that added information adds order to the universe, and helps the universe build itself as it aggregates, and as order emerges. I think it is a more reasonable point of view.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 167 – Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking (Part 2)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/03

[Beginning of recorded material]

RR: Another way people put it is that it is a pencil on edge. You may be able to get a pencil to stand up, but it doesn’t take much to push it over. Spontaneous symmetry breaking in the way it is used is that you need metastability, and in each of those cases those setups are symmetrical. In that, a marble on a sombrero is rotationally symmetrical, as is a pencil on edge, but then the symmetry breaks.

The pencil tips over. A marble rolls off the top of the sombrero into the lip of the sombrero. The pencil can’t move in all directions at once. The sombrero marble can’t move in all directions at once. It has to pick a direction.

It is random, but when it happens then it happens in a particular direction. Now, your deal is no longer symmetrical. Now, your marble is at 1 o’clock or 8 o’clock or sombrero o’clock. A symmetry is broken and in the breaking of symmetry a bunch of energy is released.

All of the energy of the energy that the universe needs to expand into its current form, or much of the energy. So that’s what I think spontaneous symmetry breaking is.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 166 – Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking (Part 1)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/02

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I had a new thought.

Rick Rosner: Okay.

SDJ: What is spontaneous symmetry breaking to you, or in a standard Big Bang universe?

RR: The analogy that everybody uses—there are two analogies that everybody uses. One is a marble on top of a sombrero, but they don’t say it that way. They say a marble on a peak, but imagine a marble on a sombrero! It may stay there for half of a second, but it is stable or semi-stable. It is very—stability, when you’re talking about the orientation of something in a gravitational field against a surface, is that object when it is in its lowest state, when it has its lowest possible gravitational energy.

It’s like a domino when it is face down on the table. Then there is meta-stability. An object is locally stable, but has potential gravitational energy that can be released. So a domino, there’s 3 ways to orient a domino: flat, lying along its long side on edge, lying along its short side on edge as you’d stand it up where a 1,000 dominoes have a chain effect when you push them over. Any time you have a domino on edge it is metastable.

Where it takes a little energy to push it over, but more energy gets produced pushing it over then when you put into it. It is metastable. There’s energy waiting to be released. So a marble on top of a sombrero is metastable. There’s potential energy waiting to be released. This is supposed to be the situation with regard to the Big Bang at the moment it is about to happen, which isn’t really a moment because there’s no time yet.

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Ask A Genius 165 – Silver Lining in Bullshit

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/01

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: Plus, with Scientology, the deal where you get audited. You hold tin cans in some piece of crap technology while somebody asks you questions about your past until you’re okay with what happened in your past, which is a little bit like the talk therapy of psychiatry or other kinds of counselling. Although, Scientology hates psychiatry. It is possible for it to do good for you even though it is basically bullshit.

It is possible for new religions to arise that embrace modernity, morality, and spirituality. I believe IC has at least the teeniest bit of spirituality in its directionality because 20^th century science feels cold and random because it is not driven by anything. Nothing is in charge. Randomness is in charge. The random mutations are in charge of organisms. The random breaking of the false vacuum spits out all of the space and time and particles that form the current universe.

I think a more sophisticated viewpoint is that it is not randomness in charge, but information in charge. Information implies persistent in time and order. Time, order, and persistent implies values that are geared towards creation. It is just the tiniest bit spiritual.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 164 – Religions React the Same

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/30

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: So religions are going to react the same. There’s going to be a lot of backlash. There will be some religious folk who look for the good in it. Perhaps, they will refuse to see the changes as inherently bad. There may be the coming of new religions. That don’t suck. Scientology is a new religion that mostly sucks because it is super exploitative of its people. It is super dishonest in the way that it presents itself to society.

It does a lot of creepy gangster things. At the same time, people can read. Dianetics is a big book filled with bullshit. This was written by a guy that was paid by the word, a pulp fiction. But Hubbard tried to make a half-assed attempt to put some reasonable concepts from the social sciences into Dianetics.

[End of recorded material]

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Ask A Genius 163 – Pillar of Society

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/29

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: If we take the perspective of marriage as traditionalists would have it be understood, this comes from, as you know, a broadly based religious, but also cultural, perspective.

So how will culture change with it? How will religious institutions change with it? Because traditional religious institutions view marriage, as you know, as a central pillar of and even the foundational part of society, civilize society.

Rick Rosner: There are three things that can happen to religions. People can consider themselves members of a religion, but they buy less and less of the doctrine and the theology.

They take what they want of it for spiritual counsel and spiritual soothing. Religion can be reactionary and get all pissed off about what’s happening, which much religion will. Religion can adapt by trying to figure out what is good about new forms of relationships.

What is good is the extent to which new relationships reinforce moral behaviour, in the future, it’ll be possible for 4 or 5 people to attempt to link with each other in some intimate way, yet still be forces for good in the world. I just finished a novel called Christodora, which is about mostly AIDs activism in the 80s, in New York. People were still trying to figure out what was going on and to get treatment.

You had a movement in ACT UP, where the activists were acting in a way that could be considered fantastically immoral from the point of view of traditional religion because a high percentage of then were or who had been banging the heck out of a zillion other dudes – having bathhouse and semi-anonymous sex. Somebody estimated that if you were in the bathhouse scene in the 70s, early 80s, you might be hooking up with 3 dudes a day per year – so over 1,000 dudes a year.

Traditional religion would tear its hair about that. At the same time, these activists were doing great good fighting for their own survival and anyone with AIDs by making sure that AIDs was acknowledged as an important thing and making sure drugs were made available, not just to people who fit the traditional definition of an AIDs sufferer, which is a gay man because gay women suffered from it too.

Women’s symptoms of AIDs were ill-understood in the 80s. They didn’t qualify because to get the therapy you had to meet a checklist of symptoms. You have guys high for gay lifestyles, but going great good.

Obviously, some traditionalists had huge trouble admitting or acknowledging the humanity of these people. Reagan took until the last 2 years of his administration before he could say, “Gay,” in public. Other religions or small fragments of religions adapted and acknowledged the righteousness of the cause, even those viewed as sinners.

[End of recorded material]

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 162 – Social Media Hellspawn

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/28

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: The truly disruptive effects are yet to come. They will come via the dislocation of humans and normal forms of human society as the peak creatures and the cultural arbiters on the planet. The disruptors will be humans plus AIs. Weird combinations of such, and—individual agents, augmented humans, and also powerful agglomerations of humans plus AI working in thought clouds.

The future hellspawn on social media. Where everybody is super plugged in all of the time and shooting thoughts at each other all of the time, and it is a creepy thought blob that is spreading across the face of the Earth, that will disrupt—you name a human institution and it will be disrupted. Pair-wise marriage was the norm. It used to be that long-term relationships were sanctioned via marriage.

Now, if you look at all of the cohabitating couples in the U.S., all of the couples living together in the U.S., the percent married may have dropped below 50%. When I say traditional 1-on-1 marriage, I am meaning gay and straight marriage, as long as it is between 2 people. Right now, that is still 99%+ of all long-term romantic relationships. They are between two people versus between these poly people.

They are trying to pull of 3-way and 4-way relationships. So right now, we are 99%+. 20 years from now, we will still be 98%+. 50 years from now, 96%+/95%+, I am taking wild guesses. But 80 to 100 years from now, we may be at 80% or less as people enter into all sorts of augmented relationships with a man, and a man, and their sexy AI robot friend. Or a man and a woman, and remotely in Iceland another man who is linked via telepresence 5 hours a day with a couple.

Or some experiment in communal linked thought 85 years from now, where you have 5 people in some kind of pentad relationship. Where they are both physically and intimately mentally linked via some social media app gone wild, that helps them share their thoughts in a more thorough way than just conversation does now.

[End of recorded material]

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 161 – High Tide Weirdness at 2100

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/27

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: We’ve talked about some disruptive effects, which are already happening. One is increased gender fluidity. There is economic disruption due to AI. The increasing pain in the ass that social media is in all of its different aspects. It is empowering, but often to the detriment of long established standards. This election was at least partially the consequence of dickheads being empowered via fake news and social media and feeling that they are justified in voting selfishly.

You have people driving and texting and walking and texting, and everything and texting. Those are already future effects. I have a rough rule of thumb that the percent weirdness in the world compared to some baseline based on the 20^th century as some kind of normal. The percent weird that the world has gotten is just the last 2 digits of the year. 2017, the world is 17% weird. In 2027, it will be 27% weird.

By the year 2100, it will be 100% weird, which – I don’t know – maybe it will only be 80% weird in the year 2100.

[End of recorded material]

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 160 – Sex Flex

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/26

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: Lesbianism is, I would guess, is one of the more flexible designations given that it has fewer social taboos attached to it. More people like the idea of two women making out. It seems more harmless than two men making out. So who knows what percentage of women make out with a girl in college, if it becomes easier and less brutal to experiment with one’s sex, people will do it.

It may never reach more than 15% of the population embracing non-heterosexual lifestyles, but it is more than 3 times the amount of now. 15% of the population means everybody will be friends and close friends with, and in family relationships with, and in other relationships with, somebody who is not traditionally heterosexual. And society has wide swathes of it that tries to deny the presence of non-heterosexuality in their sphere.

It will be impossible. North Carolina is fighting the anti-LGBTQ legislation that has been roiling for a couple of years now. So medicine will make people more willing to experiment. Social media has been and will continue to be promoting of non-heterosexual lifestyles. If you don’t know that anybody else is like you, say you have trans feelings, nobody came out as trans in past decades at all.

There were a lot of late in life people coming out as trans. There will still. Trans people come out earlier and earlier because people now know it is a thing and can reach out via social media to get information and to find other families with the same issues. That empowers people. That will continue to be a disruptive force. You can say people should be cool with it and it shouldn’t be a disruptive force, but big chunks of the country and the world aren’t cool with it at first and then freak out about it.

It will continue to be disruptive into the near and mid future.

[End of recorded material]

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 159 – Longevity and Tech Disruptions

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/25

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: Future technology will allow current 50-year-olds to live to 95 or 105. They will not see the effects of those extended lifespans for another 20, 30, or 40 years. It will take time for those people to get into their 70s, 80s, and 90. Although, we are seeing the beginnings of the economic effects of just the cost of great medicine. For 10 years now, the country has been tying itself in stupid knots over trying to come up with workable healthcare coverage.

It is kind of an impossibility because awesome medicine costs out the butt and will continue to cost more. So anyway, enough about medicine. There will be disruption over gender roles, which is already happening to a significant extent. Where you have 5% of the population, that is actively gay. That is just claiming gayness as their identity or as the sexuality part of their identity.

In recent years, you have people coming out as trans. It was 1/3 of 1%. Then you have gender queer and the LTBQ, LTBGQ, all of the initials. I am going to sound like a moron, but okay [Laughing]. There are some changes in society that will make people more likely to embrace and experiment with non-heterosexual gender roles. Medicine again will at some point impinge on gender roles as it makes it easier for people to be gender fluid.

That’s far down the line. Now, to switch from a male body to a female body or vice versa, or somewhere in between, it takes hormones and for the more serious re-engineering it takes surgery and brutal surgery – turning a penis into a vagina or vice versa is nasty surgery. It is nasty cutting and stitching.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: It is also self-contradictory ideologically because many of these people advocating for this, taking a distanced view, will say that you can’t reduce a man or a woman to the genitalia, but then they would go through drastic surgery – that would be cutting up a penis or a vagina to make the genitalia a penis or a vagina – and then saying that then therefore makes it a man or a woman. It is means to be more extensive to be legitimate.

RR: Legitimate or not, and the politics of it or not, in 60 years, when the gene therapies come to be widely available that bring you 80% of the way from male to female and female to male, and can take you back, there will be lots of people willing to try it out. As I’ve said before, there is a stereotype of women experimenting with gayness in college.

SDJ: The number of self-identified lesbians has gone up 3-fold.

[End of recorded material]

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 158 – Elements of a New Set Theory (Part 3)[1]

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/24

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: Fuzzy deals with things that are well-defined. They do not have exact values, but they have exact probability sets. So some of the members of the fuzzy set can take any value between 1 and 2.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Whatever that value is, it has an infinite string of digits implying an infinite amount of information.

RR: Quantum mechanics deals with finite information and, thus, fuzziness. IC takes that – I don’t know if farther than that, but it implies that – I guess it does – even the rules to some extent that the universe is operating under are not operating really well until the universe becomes well-enough defined for the rules to become definite.

I don’t believe in the deal where every universe that comes into being through Big Bang processes with spontaneous symmetry being that every universe that comes into being that way randomly picks its own rules of physics.

I feel like the rules of physics are the rules of information, and are, thus, pretty tightly constrained, but the constraints are pretty wimpy when you have small not very old and not very filled with information universes, which makes it hard to tell different universes apart.

You have to come up with a whole version of set theory if you’re going to get anything out of it. One that is better able to handle nebulous entities.

SDJ: I think you can draw an analogy to biological systems that are grown. I think the rules of a universe are akin to the growth and development of biological systems, or if you look at the growth and development of a brain over time.

It has relatively well-defined patterns of growth with certain things coming online within pretty tight ranges. So the rules will be pretty tight, but there will be a range of flexibility for them.

In a manner with information processing physics, you have development of a universe over similar timelines and stages of development, but at different scales. There will be consistency.

You noted fuzzy sets imply information, but the rules will be fuzzy themselves. But it is growing.

RR: There’s a fuzziness that I don’t admit, which is the larger amount of flexibility in picking the rules of physics and picking the physical constants.

I tend to think that all physical constants reflect the amount of information in the universe and the way that the things in the universe are arranged. There’s not a whole lot of freedom in the physical constants. They are determined by the conditions of the universe.

You don’t get the physical constants first and then the universe evolves according to those constants. The physical constants change in accordance to the changes in the universe based on the rules of information.

The proton-electron mass ratio is probably reflecting the amount of hidden or non-active or frozen information in the universe. That is, matter that is out of the electromagnetic interaction game.

You take a big star and you let it collapse into a neutron star, and beyond that into a blackish hole.

It is not doing a lot of electromagnetic interaction because everything has kind of been mushed together into stuff that neutronium and beyond, where all of the various charges that would be emitting a gazillion photons or just the star at an earlier stage with all sorts of ionized proton and electrons and other nuclei, interacting with each other.

Sending of a gazillion photons via electromagnetic interaction, but a star made of neutronium as far as I know doesn’t do a lot of electromagnetic stuff because all of it is locked into this largely zero charged thing.

It is out of the game in terms of—it can still absorb photons gravitationally, but it doesn’t absorb photons into electron shells and then emit all of the photons via the electrons dropping back down to a ground state or anything like that.

Even more so for blackish holes, my guess is that the ratio of close to 2,000-1 of protons to electrons in terms of mass and all that reflects at least the fact that there is a lot of collapsed matter than provides heft to the universe and anchors it, and keeps space open and defines space and that defining thing having kind of more impact on, I guess, protons.

Now that I say it is sounds like bullshit – and I’m still going to say it, but that increased definition going to protons more than to electrons.

Probably because protons are more subject to neutrino interactions. Now, I am getting deep into bullshit. Anyway, protons weigh 1,900 times or so more than electrons. I’m guessing that to some extent represents hidden information in the form of collapsed matter.

So anyway, it is not a free-floating constant. It is not like the universe said, “Hey, let’s make the electron-proton mass ratio this.”

No, it is a measure of something with regard to information.

[End of recorded material]

[1] These sessions and the correspondence are different expressions of the same ideas. In correspondence, we discussed this:

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I thought about sets of sets of sets and universes in universes in universes. The former do not fit the latter; the latter do not fit the former. Standard logic, math, physics, and set theory equate sets and the universe; the universe equates to a set. “The universe” describes one noun with encapsulation of everything. Sets in standard set theory describe single instantiations of the universe.

No necessary correspondence between the universe and set theory; the universe – as R. Buckminster Fuller described the dynamic, or verb form, rather than asserted static, or noun form, nature of the universe as “universe” – does not map onto set theory in whole. The static describes the dynamic in single instantiations. Sets describe single instantiations of the universe. Set theory applied to the universe describes single time slices. I will explore this later.

Set theory describes elements and sets. The Empty Set ({}), a single element, elements in subsets, subsets in sets, and sets in supersets, and {}, the elements, subsets, sets, and supersets in the Universal Set (U) – and U contains {}, the natural numbers and whole numbers with zero set (N₀), the natural numbers and whole numbers set without zero (N₁), the integers number set (Z), the rational numbers set (Q), the real numbers set (R), and the complex numbers set (C), or “U = {N₀, N₁, Z, Q, R, C}.”

{} remains contained in U, or other sets, without explicit statement. Arithmetic does the same. You write, “1 + 2 + 3 = 6,” rather than, “0 + 1 + 2 + 3 = 6.” Set theory makes one assumption: absolute definition. “Absolute definition” implies infinites. I thought about it. The assumption equates to the problem. This relates to the problems with infinities, and infinities within infinities.

Elements consist of absolute definition or definite precision. “Definite elements” can clarify the idea. The basic premise of set theory becomes explicit with the new idea. An implication of infinite information, and infinite internal and representational precision. Sets consist of elements; sets consist of definite elements. Ergo, definite elements mean definite subsets, definite sets, definite supersets, and a definite U. Definite means absolute precision or definition with infinite information.

The same with standard notions of “1 + 2 + 3 = 6,” or “Set A = {x, y, z}.” Same with 6 equivalent to A, and 1, 2, and 3 equivalent to x, y, and z, respectively. Logic meets math. For one previous example, “U = {N₀, N₁, Z, Q, R, C}” consists of an absolute definite or definite precision as the definite U.

Standard set theory assumes an infinite digit series – zeroes or complex digit series, or infinite precision, as with standard logic, math, and physics. Standard logic, math, physics, and set theory make the same big, wrong assumption: absolute definition. They work in limited or partial circumstances.

Informational Cosmology, or IC, creates the total framework. An Informational Cosmological Set Theory, or ICST, works from the simplest statements in set theory – the elements.

The elements amount to a general abstract category, which implies operational efficacy in math, logic, and physics too. IC without the assumption of the infinite digit series; IC with the empirical substantiation with the finite digit series shown in the finite universe and its finite constituents – space, time, matter, radiation, fundamental forces – weak, strong, electromagnetic, and gravitational, and particles and their higher order agglomerations. This creates one strength in IC over and above, and against, standard logic, math, physics, and set theory.

By analogy, in an IC or narrative universe, all stories begin, develop, and end. All characters contain finite depth and relations, and so information. A narrative universe begins, develops, and ends with agents at various scales with finite depth and relations, and so information. An IC universe follows the evidence with one shift in one axiom: absolute or infinite definition to partial or finite definition. Logic, math, physics, and set theory shift from the bottom-up; IC re-creates the entire landscape with all scientific evidence, too.

Novel versions of {}, N₀, N₁, Z, Q, R, C emerge in this. Probabilistic flavors of {} and other sets with further specification of the information in each. For example, 0.0 differs from 0.00 differs from 0.000 differs from 0.0000, but each can represent {}. Each needs more or less information than the other based on the length of the digit series. {} comes in one flavor in standard set theory; {} comes in different flavors in ICST. Same for every element – not definite element, elements in subsets, subsets in sets, and sets in supersets. Information content implies the flavor, scent, or sound of the concepts in set theory.

Furthermore, this set theory, ICST, does not equate to standard set theory. It means ICST because of the shift in assumption. An assumption, assertion, a fundamental premise, or an axiom supported by all empirical evidence, ever: finite parts of a finite universe rather than infinite parts in an infinite universe. Infinity remains the big, wrong assumption in all logic, math, physics, and set theory.

ICST changes logic, math, physics, and set theory. Even further, ICST maps logic, math, physics, and set theory to the universe, its contents, and other universes, or the non-standard sets of information spaces, or mind spaces, to any size – theoretical or actual.

ICST, with one more axiom, can shift the landscape for set theory. Any set implies 1-dimensionality; definite elements in definite subsets, definite subsets in definite sets, definite sets in definite supersets explain single instantiations in time. For example, sets A, B, and C equate to particles A, B, and C. Each with property sub-1, sub-2, and sub-3. That is, “Set A _{{1, 2, 3}},” “B _{{1, 2, 3}},” “C _{{1, 2, 3}}” describes one event, superset D. One event, D, comprises subevents, A through C, in a single instantiation of time.

ICST makes set theory 2-dimensional. By analogy, the three dimensions of space become compression into 1-dimensionality with the descriptors in sets applied to attributes of particles. The addition of the time dimension, not compressed, creates the 2-dimensional set theory, ICST, applied to physics. Multiple instantiations over time. D _{{1, 2, 3}}over, for example, the timeline of a mind space. Each D_n as indicative of a single instantiation of sets A, B, or C, or particles 1, 2, or 3. Advanced ICST incorporates the interactions in the sets. These sets’ or particles’ values, as shown earlier, remain finite or countable, probabilistic, and indeterminate. The larger the set then the greater the countable, less probabilistic or more certain, and less indeterminate or more determinate.

IC creates ICST. ICST includes all science and its evidence, present and future, because the universe presented by science remains finite, in part or whole. So one shift in one axiom, and one add-on axiom of “2-dimensionality,” creates ICST, and correspondence with all scientific evidence. Universe, the verb form, describes the dynamic universe; ICST describes the dynamic universe. Each becomes the other at different levels of precision…

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 157 – Elements of a New Set Theory (Part 2)[1]

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/23

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: However, when you try to apply set theory to IC or to a regular quantum universe, it becomes less clear that you could use the normal assumptions and rules of set theory, which, I assume, includes the idea that members of a set are distinct. Not that every member of the set is different, but that every member of the set has a definable existence – like the set of all counting numbers. Every number is precisely defined.

No number turns into some other number. No number is some other number part of the time, but under quantum mechanics, elements of a set can be fuzzy and can change from one thing to another and could may sometimes belong to a set or not belong to a set. If you’re defining members of a set of something, according on quantum rules, the set of all things in this box. Well, under quantum theory, not everything that starts in a box, even if the box is tightly sealed, remains in the box.

Because the things in the box exist as quantum probability clouds or points within probability clouds. Those clouds don’t stop at the edge of the box. They can sometimes be pointwise particles, can pick a point in the probability cloud outside of the box. If you’re choosing members of a set if they’re part of the box or not, your elements of the set are not well-behaved, according to the traditional rules of set theory.

Well, under IC, or under quantum mechanics, sometimes you cannot assign definite states to physical systems with the most famous indefinite system being Schrödinger’s Cat. If your set is the set of all things with a live cat, well, Schrödinger’s Cat only partly belongs to your set, which makes it—why have set theory if you have elements that may or may not belong your set depending on stuff.

IC further complicates it because the delineation of the existence of things under IC, the degree to which things exist under IC, depends on the amount of matter in the universe. When you have a big universe, like the one we live in, with 10^80^th particles, especially those with a long history of interacting with the other particle, those are well-established because they have long histories. But if you have a teeny little universe with roughly 10^3^rd particles, it will have a much shorter history, much less interaction among the particles.

It will have more particles that are more nebulous and closer to being virtual particles. That haven’t left enough of a record for you to definitely say they even exist. They only potentially exist. A universe, a teeny little IC universe is so ill-defined in so many ways that it is not a definite element of a set that you can apply standard set theory to. You have to come up with some new set theory like fuzzy set theory.

[End of recorded material]

[1] These sessions and the correspondence are different expressions of the same ideas. In correspondence, we discussed this:

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Your associative landscape seems to solve it, if we take the 3-dimensional bumpy landscape with each moment as the focus to solve it. Every moment can be more or less closely leaned to based on the current one.

So if the individual moment associates more with one superset in the set of all sets of logical possibilities for actualization of the universe, then the superset sub-1, universe sub-1, of the current universe moment (one Planck moment, fraction of fraction of a second: 1 tP) will transition into superset sub-2, universe sub-2, over superset sub-3, universe sub-3, because in the set of all sets of logical possibilities for actualization of the universe superset sub-2 associates more with superset sub-1 than the superset sub-3, where superset sub-2 & superset sub-3 could be future or past possibilities. This eliminates the distinction between past and future.

Each moment actualizing into another with apparent, but not real, distinction in time. Only distinction in moment-to-moment. Furthermore, superset sub-4 could not equate to a transition from superset sub-1 because superset sub-4 does not remain in the set of all sets of logical possibilities for actualization of the universe. This creates three big classes of sets. These sets as IC Set Theory, so probabalistic and dynamic.

Standard set theory is certain, infinite, and static. Fuzzy set theory is probabilistic, infinite, and static. ICST is probabilistic, finite, and dynamic. It justifies a new set theory. Big class 1: the set of all sets of logical possibilities for actualization of the universe; big class 2: the set of all sets of logical impossibilities for non-actualization of the universe; big class 3: the set of all sets of the universe. Class 3 contains class 1 and 2. Class 3 is the superset of sets 1 and 2.

Class 1 is the answer to the question, “What can happen?” Class 2 is the answer to the question, “What can’t happen?” Class 3 is the answer to the question, “What can and can’t happen?” The 3-dimensional non-Cartesian grid provides an image for it. 3-dimensional inflations with flowing into and out of, toward and away, from one another: the stuff, the information represented as spatial shapes, content, and relationships.

We can differentiate sub-events in superset sub-1, sub-2, or sub-3. With sectioning of a select volume from them, we find more probabilistic, finite, and dynamic elements at the bottom most level with the lowest magnitude defined by the information processing capacity limits set by the information in the universe. For us, the Planck scale to the universe seems like the minima and maxima.

ICST maps onto the universe. With the example, it does so, literally. Each instantiation of the smallest units of the universe and the universe as a whole ask Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3 questions, simultaneously. We described aspect of the universe as “Agents of the Universe” from particles to people to planets to filaments. We provide the how from physics. We provide the how from set theory.

We derive the ethic from the physics and the set theory. These foundations set the stage for asking, “Why?” Why these particles? Why these interrelationships? Why these information processing constraints? Why these organisms? Why this form of creation? Why these time and space scales? So that’s that.

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 156 – Elements of a New Set Theory (Part 1)[1]

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/22

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Set theory can be applied to the universe to some degree. But what are its implications in a non-information based universe compared to an information based universe, weaknesses and strengths?

Rick Rosner: We can apply set theory to the universe as we understand it in light of Big Bang and Many Worlds Theory. Under Big Bang, you have a universe with a finite amount of matter and a finite age governed by rules of physics. Some of which we know. Some of which we haven’t discovered yet. Some of those seem conducive to a set of all possible universes. Where you can imagine, the rules of physics or a set of all the possible rules of physics or the set of all possible combinations of different rules of physics.

Then all of the universes that might exist consistent with those rules of physics plus the rules of causality. Universes that could conceivably happen over time. You could also include the sets of simulated universes that nevertheless conform to the rules of physics. If you wanted to be really inclusive, you could include simulated universes that work well enough based on sets of rules that at least a temporary universe to exist, even if you can’t get a full cosmology.

You can imagine putting people in a world with all sorts of weird rules that could not originate naturally, but could exist in a simulation. All of those things are based on rules of what can and can’t exist. It is possible to imagine a set that contains all of these possible universes. It is a crazy big set, but it is possible because it is possible to have infinite sets and you’re talking about a bunch of elements are definite things, definite universes.

And if you wanted to limit yourself, so these things become—for some reason, if you think that you like working with finite sets instead of infinite sets, then you limit the size of the universe and the variations in rules that you’ll tolerate. It can’t be a simulated universe that could not have arisen over time. It is the set of all possible universes with 10^80^th or less particles. If that is too daunting, then 10^6^th particles. That seems like something you can work with.

You can use that kind of thinking for the things that set is good at. Maybe, you come up with theorems that every universe based on these rules and every member of the set has an origin in time. Maybe, every member of the set has a finite lifespan. An origin in time seems reasonable based on the rules we know or think we know, or can apply to the Big Bang. That seems like it might be a way to define elements in the set.

Or if not to define all elements in a set, then to define a subset or subsets in a set.

[End of recorded material]

[1] These sessions and the correspondence are different expressions of the same ideas. In correspondence, we discussed this:

SDJ: With the ICST explained before (I trust), the distinctions in time seem tenuous. Even as an emergent property in the universe, the range of the emergence of time depends on velocity with the minima, v=0, and the maxima, v=c. The velocity in this range determines time. Where time in an ICST framework, time is probabilistic, finite, and dynamic. It’s an “as needed” emergence of time in an “as if” universe with a “good enough” ethic.

RR: Don’t exactly understand the question. However, assuming apparent age of universe is proportional to the amount of information in the universe (but it might be age^3), then adding a million years of added history = 1 million/13.8 billion = 1/13,800 more information has been added to universe’s total. But this isn’t your question.

SDJ: …Not the question, but an interesting thought to consider.

RR: Explain further please…

SDJ: …It seems in the right path to me. It goes to one of the more basic distinctions in an IC universe: outskirts and center. The outskirts are frozen information, relatively speaking. The data will be used later. The center is active because of time. But why time there, and nearly no time or no time in the outskirts? It seems to be, in theory, because of velocity. Something with minimal Brownian motion and velocity freezes in time, more extreme versions of the neutron-rich/burned-out galaxies.

That leads to a questions, or a few. That is, the ratio of collapsing of space and freezing of an object in time to its speed. They’re interdependent variables in IC. If you slow something down, its space shrinks, then it travels in time slower. If you speed something up, like proton-rich galaxies in full burn, the local space expands and time moves faster. So changing one dial affects the other, what is that ratio? That’s an important ratio.

From the why view, moving from the how view, in IC, the object or the information representation is speeding up, expanding space, and in turn creating some time. In that act of creation, its relevance is made. It is relevant to something being processed in the active center because it is an older galaxy flooded with new fuel, so it becomes relevant again, or a galaxy coming alive from the outskirts. That ratio is not only an expansion-contraction of space, speed up-speed down dial on time.

It can probably be considered a metric of meaning, of relevance to the universe. It can loosely put a number on a how, and more importantly a why. But taking any volume of space over a time range, the information contained in it is probabilistic, finite, and dynamic. QM is clear on the probabilistic nature of micro objects. Effective theories are clear on the probabilistic nature of macro objects. The universe is incompletely defined. Our knowledge as agents in the universe is limited, about ourselves and the universe.

Both imply finite information. All of this is dynamic because things are always works-in-progress. So that’s why I feel ICST can emphasise those three traits: probability, finitude, and dynamism.

RR: …Age of universe might = I^(4/3), where I is amount of information. Radius of universe might = I^2/3.

SDJ: With apparent age of universe proportional to the universe’s data, then one million years more history at 1/138,000 more information made. With age, we have time, t. t = I^(4/3). With volume, V, as 4/3pi(r3), and radius, r, as I^2/3, and t = I^(4/3). We have the variables for the larger reference number. (4/3pi((I^2/3)3))*(I^(4/3)) = V. I might have that wrong. Anyhow, another thought experiment. Rather than 1/1.38*10^4 more information from adding 1,000,000 years to the universe.

What about an average 1/1.38*10^4 part of the universe over 1.38*10^10 years? Same amount of information added to it. It is equal to a million years of the net data processing of the universe.

That second thought experiment is more to the ICST point. The formula can go either way, but the second imaginary situation can section off a part of the universe. Then say, “This part over this range of time.” That new set is not certain because it is emergent on chance.

It is not infinite in definition because it is not infinitely precise or defined. It is not static because it bubbles, things interact, and the apparent order has an apparent chaos too, at the same time. It is probabilistic or uncertain because it is emergent on the odds. It is finite in definition because it is not infinitely precise or defined. It is dynamic because there’s constant rejiggering as the chaotically ordered mess of information processing in the new set is ongoing, expanding-contracting, creating its own time and micro-speeding up-speeding down, and representing something real, vivid, and partial in the mind of some higher-order information processor…

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 155 – Feedback and Disruptions

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/16

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: Rocks have very little feedback. Living things have all sorts of feedback systems that help maintain, help living things survive under changing conditions. Some of those feedback systems are not know yet. I know a guy working on this stuff. He’s got a theory that as evolved creatures we have lots and lots of feedback systems that may not be at the gene expression level. It may be among all sorts of systems in the body that haven’t been discovered yet.

Yet people are working to find out all of the different interactions among various systems in the body at all sorts of different levels. The molecular level on up to the organ level. Within 20 years, most of those things will have been found out and many of those mechanisms within the body will be addressable via medical therapy if things go wrong or if things wear out, which will lead to all sorts of disruptions because we can pretty much figure that—

One disruption is that at first richer people and richer countries will have better access to life extending and life improving therapies than people in poorer countries, which hasn’t been a significantly contentious issue yet because under the current conditions we all die pretty soon. The highest average lifespan is still not 90, even in the most developed countries in the world. And then in the most hellacious countries in the world, the average lifespan might be 50.

Those are so fucked up that they have other things to worry about besides getting pissed at people in countries living significantly longer than average. But the average lifespan for countries starts surpassing or approaching 100, and creeps up towards 120.

[End of recorded material]

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 154 – ‘When is the Future Going to Get Here?’

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/20

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: We were talking about when the future is going to get here. We talk about the future a lot without pinning down when it will happen and what it will do. I consider the election disrupted by the future. That is, disrupted by forces that have never played so large a role in an election, one thing is that actual jobs lost to AI and to robotics. I saw a statistic yesterday that for every robot in a factory, then you cost 6.2 human jobs.

People like to say that we’ve had increasing automation for 3 centuries, since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and people found work after each disruption. I believe that is a harder case to make now. There are probably millions of people in this country who have lost jobs to automation. They are pissed off. People also lost jobs to economic cycles, to offshoring and outsourcing, but automation puts constant pressure on the job market.

It squeezes it down and down and down. Those pissed off people and other pissed off people have been manipulated via computer hacking of information that generate social media bots. They have been manipulated into mistrusting longstanding American institutions. Most prominently, most importantly, the media; so this is a trend that may have shown up in previous elections, but it exploded in this election.

Senate is just beginning to have hearings on exactly how much we were fucked over by Russia. We have another national election coming up in 2018, which also includes all sorts of state elections. There is no guarantee. In fact, there’s no guarantee that we will be able to fight off that same electronic manipulation of people with propaganda and bots filling social media with bullshit.

In fact, you can pretty much guarantee that that’s going to happen. There are elections coming up in France that Russia is trying to mess with. Russia is trying to mess with the alliances in Western Europe such as NATO. He influenced Brexit. Russia’s efforts to destabilize Western democracies and will continue to be fairly successful. So that’s one form of futuristic disruption that is already here.

Other forms of disruption include a bunch of effects of vastly improved medicine. That within 20 years not only will the genome be entirely figured out – that is, say 90% of the effects of manipulating the various genes in a human genome will be known – along with a lot of other potential feedback loops in the human body. Living things live and move through the environment and have flexibility to deal with various conditions of life using feedback in the body.

[End of recorded material]

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 153 – Ray Kurzweil and the Future

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/19

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: Most of what he got true was for 2015 and later. Even over a 10-year time period, what he said would take 10 years, it took closer to 15 years, which is probably true for reasonable science fiction. Things that can be reasonably expected to come to pass will come to pass, but take twice as long as the futurist thinks. A guy named John Brunner wrote a couple of books in the later 60s called Stand on Zanzibar and The Sheep Look Up.

It was the word 10 years hence from the 1960s. The fashion trend I remembered because I was a horny little kid and it made me excited that people in the future would let you wear clothing that would allow you to see their panties, “Wow, I cannot wait for the future.”

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: [Laughing].

RR: It didn’t happen in the 70s, but, by now, performer—the idea of performing in a swimsuit or a skirt that is missing anything like a leotard-type bottom is a common thing. The panties came to be, but it took 30 years. Computer displays built into eyeglasses for augmented reality are in widespread use. Not really, Google Glass didn’t work out. People thought they were assholes and it didn’t catch on.

Computers can recognize their owners face from a piece of video, pretty much. A $1,000 computer can perform a trillion calculations per second. Yup. There’s increasing interest in massively parallel neural nets and other chaotic computing. Research has been initiated on research engineering the brain based on non-invasive methods. Elon Musk mentioned the enterprise.

What he thought would take 10 years is taking 15-18 years or more, for 2019, 20 years after he writes this book, he said for $4,000 you should be able to buy a computer with the computing capacity of the human brain.

[End of recorded material]

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 152 – Bodice-Rippers and the Future

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/18

[Beginning of recorded material]

Rick Rosner: Or it takes place in the 18^th century. They call historic romance novels “bodice-rippers.” A bodice is the top that a woman wore. A bodice-ripper is the rugged man who is overcome by his lust and just tears her shirt off and takes her, and only later turns out to be a good guy. You can go online. If you Google “bodice-ripper,” I’m sure you can find the cover of dozens of romance novels with the woman’s shirt semi-off and the guy’s shirt is fully off.

Let’s talk about the future. Probably the best known predictor of the future in any kind of detail is Ray Kurzweil, who is the guy who took up the banner of the Singularity. That by the 2040s we’re looking at a potential utopia because AI is going to—we’re going to build AI and AI is going to further AI until it is smarter and smarter until all solutions to human problems including aging have been figured out by the 2040s.

He’s written probably half of a dozen books. In some, he’s put out long year-by-year predictions about what will happen. His track record is not horrible. So we can look at his predictions and look how well he’s done and then look at the future predictions and see how he’ll do. For instance, he wrote a book called The Age of Spiritual Machines, which is about AI in 1999. Then he made a bunch of predictions for 10 years hence.

You, Scott, can go on Wikipedia and look up predictions made by Ray Kurzweil. He’s got a list of about 18 predictions. 2009, as predicted from 1999, majority of reading is done on displays rather than paper. He got that one. I’d say most people. Most texts would be made by speech recognition technology. He missed on that one. Intelligent roads and driverless cars will be in use. He missed that one. That’s more a 2019, 2020-something thing.

People use personal computers the size of rings, pins, credit cards, and books. Semi-got that one. Fit bits are somewhat the size of that and tablets are the size of books. Most portable computers don’t have moving parts or keyboards. He got that one. You press your screen, but it doesn’t really have a punchable keyboard. Desktop PCs are still common. Individuals still use portable devices. True.

I don’t know if it true for 2009, but 8 years later it is true. Personal computers worn provide monitoring, pretty close, but halfway. Devices provide high-speed access via wireless, got that one. Digital products such as games, books, and software typically acquired a files via wireless network and have no physical network associated with them. People can talk to their computer to give commands. Got that one.

[End of recorded material]

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2022-04-13

Ask A Genius 151 – Cohabitation and Marriage

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner

Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/17

[Beginning of recorded material]

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: That makes me think. That makes me think. It is an astute point. There has been data that has come in on more recent relationships. Live-ins? What do they call them?

Rick Rosner: Cohabitating?

SDJ: Yea. Cohabitating, that’s the one. So people that get straight married. They stay together longer and have more durable partnerships because they don’t get divorced as often as those that cohabitate and then get married. I don’t know the reason why, but apparently that’s a thing.

RR: It could be a bunch of different reasons. It could be that people who cohabitate fall into relationships more easily. You can divide people into two populations with regard to relationships. Hot people who find it easy to hook up, and less socially able people who find it harder to hook up and tend to hold on more. They want to hold onto the existing relationship more.

My family has that kind of divide between the easy hooker-uppers and the harder-hooker-uppers. So some people find it easy to hook up, and boom! They can break up with someone if things go badly.

SDJ: It could be social consequences too.

RR: Yea, people may be more religious or more traditional. There’s too many variables in there to pin it down. I would think that—the way marriage and romance was presented via media through – well, up until now – most of the 20^th century. There’s the soulmate and happily ever after. I would think that there is a lot of disappointment in relationships when it turned out not to be that, when you have a divorce rate of the last 80 years of 50%.

SDJ: That’s a misleading number, just intuitively. People who divorce more skew that number. It’s actually probably lower. People who have repeat divorces up that number.

RR: It’s still a good rule of thumb. That half of all marriages end in divorce.

SDJ: Yea, it is probably more like 40% because if somebody divorces 4 times or 3 times, or 2 times.

RR: But they still had a bunch of marriages that ended in divorces. You’re trying to differentiate people and marriages. What you’re saying is that there might be a lot of long-term marriages and people who have a shitload of marriages average is of divorces up. Still, overall, a good rule of thumb is 50%, and if you want to adjust for more modern numbers, it is probably 45%. You can look for more subtle trends, but half of all marriages end in divorce.

That high rate among the things that cause it might be high expectations cause by entertainment, where people expect to find their soulmate and to find relatively friction-free long-term relationships. And if the rate is dropping, one factor might be or two related factors might be the access of information via the internet about how things really are and about how entertainment reflects a lot of less romantic models of relationships.

Which show that many relationships are troubled and most relationships aren’t free of having to work on them, you always had a dark undercurrent of presentation of relationships in books and movies and such, but those weren’t mainstream entertainment. It is like Revolutionary Road by Richard Yeats, maybe, in the 50s that presents a sad disintegrating marriage. Most people went to Rock Hudson, Dorris Day comedies.

SDJ: I feel like the romantic delusions are fed to women more and social pressure is a big reason for men becoming married, which are two different things.

RR: There’s the idea of romance porn for women. Guys have porn porn and then women have romance porn, which used to be harlequin novels.

SDJ: Yea, it’s love that doesn’t end badly.

RR: The plot of a harlequin novel is a woman has a series of brief satisfying dates or just friendly relationships with just wimpy men and then she meets a manly man. He meets all of the stereotypes. He’s rugged, strong, but he’s really mean to her. It’s a little bit like you took Pride and Prejudice and dumbed it down to the ultimate degree. The guy is an asshole, but they somehow are overcome by their mutual attraction.

But then he’s even meaner. The woman doesn’t know what to do. At the end of the book, she finds out that he’s really a nice guy, who loves her deeply, and was only mean because he hated the loss of control that he felt around her because he was attracted to her.

SDJ: [Laughing].

RR: At that point, he morphs from being the complete asshole he’s been the whole book into being a loving man who want to settle and marry and have kids, almost immediately.

SDJ: [Laughing] So it’s also saving him from himself.

RR: That’s just the template. In the 70s, you could’ve gone out and bought 200 of these novels that have the same plot, except in one he works on an oil rig, and on another he’s a sheriff, and another he’s a cop. Only the settings and the occupations change.

[End of recorded material]

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2022-04-13

Politics News in Brief – May 19th, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/19

Brexit talks could collapse over UK divorce bill, says EU negotiator

According to The Guardian, Michel barnier, the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiation, has fears of a refusal of some member states (of the EU) to soften demands over the “divorce bill” coming from Britain.

This could collapse the talks and subsequently the UK could be “crashing out of the EU without a deal”.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission president, in addition to other senior officials, noted the stakes remain so high with Paris’ and Berlin’s refusal to pay any more for the departure of the UK from the EU.

Brexit and the Identity Crisis for the UK

CNN, reporting on the buildup to the UK elections, focused on the town of Redcar. Although the seaside resort and town is 250 miles from Westminster, the distance between its people and the UK’s heart of government could be “a million miles.” Redcar is in the industrial northeast of England, so should be safe for the Labour party.

Anna Turley, a local member of parliament (Labour), has been knocking on doors to “keep her seat” in the next month’s general election. There is, apparently, a “palpable” disaffection with the politics in Westminster.

As the voters are working class – steel and heavy industry types, the borough of Redcar (“and Cleveland”) has been “knocked off its feet by globalisation.” In 2015, 3,000 jobs shut down due to falling steel prices. Even though Redcar should be a victory for Labour, globalisation is another important factor for the vote.

The Difficulty, If Not Impossibility, of Stopping Foreign Influence on UK Politics

The commission’s chief says it monitors closely political parties’ use of data analytics and social media to target voters. The Guardian, reporting on the foreign influence on UK politics, highlights the fact the Electioral Commission has been powerless to prevent any foreign efforts altering the perceptions, and so the statistical votes, of the British electorate, and so British election.

Social media is another influence on the election too. Claire Bassett said, “If something is happening outside of the borders of this country and is not part of any of the regime we are responsible for, it’s not something we can cover within our regulation.”

This has raised concerns about companies using advanced data analysis. The analysis of social media stuff of people. The analyses can target people with specifically targeted messages to their profiles, based on their data. Bassett there wasn’t much individuals or governments could do to prevent paid manipulation through these analyses and other means.

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2022-04-13

Philosophy News in Brief – May 19th, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/19

Some Philosophical Principles of Success

An author from Inc., speaking on his personal philosophy for success, recently said, “I have a modest and maybe even overly simple personal philosophy with which I view my life — I compartmentalise my entire existence into three basic buckets: social, business, and family. This plays out in many different ways, but today I am focused on my walls around business.”

Two philosophical principles for entrepreneurial initiatives, from the author, come in two paths. One is the pursuit of gain while the other is the avoidance of loss.

However, the reduction of risk is not really a possibility, according to the author. The best companies do not factor into their calculations the possibility of worst-case scenarios, but they know that the paths of failure are probable outcomes.

John Singleton Copley as a ‘National Treasure’ Portraits

The Harvard Gazette reported that “Five years ago, when Harvard’s Ethan Lasser began examining the history of a series of portraits by the American painter John Singleton Copley, something odd caught his eye.”

Lasser described the continual references within the records as to the prior placement of the series of portraits by John Singleton Copley. When looking further, the author found a big and “untapped archive.”

They began to look for the original materials for the possibility of recreation of the “stories of collecting and scholarship that collided inside the Philosophy Chamber.” It is the largest of three rooms in the Harvard Hall, from the late 18^th and 19^th centuries, which taught students with “a vast collection of art, scientific instruments, plant and mineral specimens, indigenous American artefacts, and ancient relics.”

Reflection on the Reasons for Extremism After Mashal Khan Murder

The Daily Times recently published an article which, through highlighting the gory incident of Mashal Khan’s lynching at Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, stressed that there is an obvious question in the minds of most thinking Pakistanis currently: what is the cause of intolerance and extremism among the educated class of Pakistani society?”

It is noted that there are myriad reasons for this, including the “abysmal” state of the education system regarding philosophy in the post-secondary institutional sector.

The “coding” for kids can impact the personalities quite profoundly in addition to the “idiosyncrasy” found in Pakistani culture for kids, to not ask questions. In reflection on Mashal Khan, it was noted that maybe this is an important point of consideration surrounding his murder.

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2022-04-12

Science News in Brief – May 20th, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/20

UK Government Accused of Silencing Scientists

The cabinet secretary and the head of the civil service, Sir Jeremy Heywood, has received a letter authored by numerous leading scientific organisations stating that “they were unaware of any election in which purdah had been “extended so far into the daily work” of researchers and academics.”

The scientists felt that they were (not) unable to make any comments on the air quality plan of the UK government for example, due to the fact that their membership to the Scientific Advisory Committee (membership) made them subject to the rules — a specification that had been reiterated by the government, in what is perceived as an attempt to intimidate. The letter further stated that some experts were also “nervous” to discuss other topics such as climate change and drought. The Cabinet Office has since responded that the “pre-election guidance” was not meant to limit commentary from independent academics.

NASA Looking for Plans to Land on Europa

The NASA scientists report that there will probably be a lander at some point during the next decade (in the 2020s some time). NASA has yet to approve the mission, however, they have stated that there is enough funding to start the search for (the) “instrument ideas.”

About 2,000 New Species Found in 2016

1,730 new plants were discovered in 2016, according to The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and are said to be new additions to the scientific biological catalogue. The discovery includes eleven new species of the Manihot shrub, which is a Brazilian starchy root, along with hundreds of others.

Another seven of the species found, best known as varieties of rooibos tea or red bush, originate from South Africa. Six of them are however threatened with extinction. “Many have potential as food crops, medicines or sources of timber,” the BBC said, “However, scientists say some of the newly-discovered plants are already at risk of extinction. They are developing new ways to speed up the discovery and classification of plants to help safeguard them for future generations.”

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2022-04-12

Q&A on Ex-Muslim Experiences – Session 1, Yasmeen

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/18

This is an educational series on the experiences of ex-Muslims. The The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB) is one major organisation in the UK. The CEMB contingent will march in the gay pride parade in London on July 8, 2017. Those who want to be part of the CEMB contingent, please email Daniel at exmuslimcouncil@gmail.com. As well, the CEMB will be having an event entitled “International Conference on Freedom of Conscience and Expression in the 21st Century,” on July 22–24, 2017 in Central London. The following sessions are the stories, the personal narratives, of ex-Muslims in general. Yasmeen is the first profile. Here is her story as an ex-Muslim in America.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: To begin, what was your family background in religion? How did this, in turn, influence your development within the religion?

Yasmeen: My parents were Christian by name. So I grew up pretty secular. As a teenager, I was an atheist by default. I didn’t have solid arguments for my atheism. I feel like that definitely contributed to my conversion to Islam.

Jacobsen: From within Islam, what was your first perception of women’s status within it? And how did this develop over time as a perspective?

Yasmeen: I don’t really like to use the term “internalised misogyny,” but that’s kind of what was happening with me as I was a Muslim. I believed women were inferior to men. I accepted my role as a woman in Islam. That only really started to change when really horrible things happened to me, like abuse within the community, abuse within my own family. It started to get me out of that mentality. It was almost like a fantasy, but that fantasy was shattered when it actually happened to me.

Jacobsen: Is this a common experience for women that were within your community, at the time?

Yasmeen: Definitely, there are a lot of women who will reassure that it is okay how your husband is acting. He is supposed to be jealous and have what is called a gheerah. Some women were forced to wear a niqab during a wedding because they were wearing makeup. They will defend wife-beating and other such things.

Jacobsen: Within the community, are the restrictions on women, in general, more stringent and numerous than on men? If so, are there any equivalents in the restrictions on men as on women, in the Islam you were living under?

Yasmeen: It is basically day and night. People will say that technically under Islam men and women are treated the same as far as things like fornication, and dressing, and doing drugs and alcohol. They will say it’s the same. In practice, men and women are not treated equally whatsoever. We’re talking about the smallest thing like household chores, being able to go outside the house, especially at night time, being able to go out alone, how much skin you’re allowed to show, if you’ll be forgiven for fornicating or doing drugs.

Anything like that, it is completely different for men and women in Islam. Also, virginity is different for men and women. Men are not really held to the same standard as women. Women are expected to be virgins when they are married. Unless they are divorced or widowed. I got off pretty easy because I was a convert, but I had my own issues with virginity and issues regarding sexuality.

Jacobsen: For women reading this in near future or the far future, who are Muslim, and are under duress or abusive circumstances, who can they contact for help? How can they protect themselves from an abusive situation, whether within the family, with the spouse, or in the larger community? For those that aren’t Muslims, but are concerned for women under religious dictates, what are ways to reach out and help them, or to support organisations already doing so?

Yasmeen: First off, they have to be financially independent because what holds a lot of these women back is not being financially independent, and being financially dependent on their families for everything. Women shelters are an option, but, unfortunately, I’ve seen many of these women turned away and dismissed as a cultural issue.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many organisations that have the resources to help these women right now. I know a few people are working on it. Faisal Saeed Al Mutar is working on his organisation. Also, there is Faith to Faithless. They are working to get more resources to help people who have left their religion. I would tell them to never accept that this behaviour is normal and acceptable, even within Islam.

Jacobsen: Were there any positives that you took from your time as a Muslim? And subsequently, what were the personal benefits for leaving Islam to you? As well, if I may ask, were there any benefits in family life for you?

Yasmeen: Of course, anything isn’t completely evil or completely good. I don’t think Islam is completely evil. There are some good things to be learned from it, like family values, being committed to family, respecting your parents, being grateful for food, shelter, water. Islam taught me a lot of patience. I think even the bad things I endured during my time as a Muslim really helped me to mature.

Leaving Islam, on the other hand, was a horrible experience, it cost me my marriage. We were divorced for 5 months. We finally reconciled. It cost me all of my friends and my community. But one positive that came from this, my husband did some research himself. he read some Hadiths. He saw some horrible things. he moderated himself. He is a lot more moderate as a Muslim. That has improved our family life. However, he is not aware of the full extent of what I do.

Jacobsen: Taking a step back out of personal experience, and looking more at a demographic trend and the experiences that come from this, are there more public ex-Muslims that are men or that are women? Because in conversation with the CEO of Atheist Republic, it was noted that there do seem to be, at least in the online sphere, more ex-Muslim men than women.

I can make assumptions about various premises that might build an argument as to why, but I can’t necessarily state one way or the other. So your experience and insight would assist in rounding out this perspective on the demographic trends in the ex-Muslim community.

Yasmeen: Yes, there are a lot more men. I think this is because it is more acceptable for men to leave the religion. Because they can pretend it never happened, because there aren’t as many restrictions on them. Whereas, for women, it would be very difficult to lead that double life. They are also more likely to be stuck in marriages that they don’t want to be stuck in, and also more likely to be stuck with children to take care of.

I think those factors keep them in the religion, even though they don’t want to be. I think you are also a lot more scared of the consequences as a woman. You don’t know if somebody is going to beat you, disown you, or, in some cases, kill you. Even as somebody who was a white convert, I use a fake name online because I receive death threats constantly. I think converts are more likely to leave Islam, but less likely to talk about it.

I knew two girls just in my community who alluded to me that they were going to leave Islam, but then they disappeared off the face of the Earth.

Jacobsen: In America, I talked to a woman named Marie Alena Castle in an interview. She has been around through the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, the 00s, and the 10s for the women’s rights movement and the human rights movement, and the atheist movement, at least in America. She described the progression of women as earning the right to vote, earning the right or privilege to a career of their choice.

Following this, she now sees the current battleground against the “religious Right” — I believe that’s the proper term for the United States. She sees the fight against them as abortion, equitable and safe access to abortion, and reproductive health and rights, especially for women. What do you see as the current battleground for women within Islam, women that have left Islam, and women in general in Britain? A big question, but I think it is an important one.

Yasmeen: Both as a Muslim and an ex-Muslim. I feel we are fighting the Left and the Right. If you’re a Muslim that deviates even slightly from what is acceptable within the community, you’re not only attacked by Muslims, but you’re attacked by the Far-Right. They’ll say, “You’re a secret Jihadist. You’re practising, Taqiyyah.” Then as an ex-Muslim, you’re fighting the Far-Right, who will say, if you are not bigoted against Muslims, “You are just covering for them. You are a Jihadist supporter.”

Then, of course, you are fighting against Muslims. Some of whom want you dead, and you’re fighting against the Far-Left, who see Islam as a brown person’s religion. If you criticize it, then, somehow, you’re bigoted. The Far-Left seems to be siding with Islamists now because they are picking the most stereotypically Muslim people to support. So Liberal Muslims, ex-Muslims, cultural Muslims, all get thrown under the bus by Far-Left.

I do think abortion rights and some aspects of women’s rights are under threat by the Far-Right, but I also think our freedom of speech is under attack by the Far-Left. I remember when I was wearing hijab. I really didn’t want to. I didn’t have much choice to take it off. There were a lot of Far-Left people supporting World Hijab Day. They refused to recognize that a lot of women are forced, even in the US, within the community are forced to wear hijab.

Jacobsen: One of the more devastating effects on women through cultural, and easily arguably religious as well, practice is female genital mutilation, clitoridectomy, and so on. How is this viewed within the community, even within developed nations?

Coming out of the Muslim community as an ex-Muslim, how does one’s perspective shift on, not only a woman’s right to wellbeing with regards to her body, especially reproductive health, as well as access, equitable and safe access to that reproductive health technology?

In Islam, people differentiate between female genital mutilation and female circumcision, which is taking a piece of the clitoral hood off. Of course, now, ashamed that I ever supported something like that, but I don’t personally support circumcision on males either. As far as birth control goes, that also depends on the person in Islam. Some people do say that birth control is allowed as long as you aren’t on it indefinitely, as long as you plan to have children in the future. Some people say it is completely haram.

Other people say it is up to your husband. Personally, my husband was against birth control. So I wasn’t given access to birth control. Abortion is also technically allowed in Islam, kind of. If it is done before 120 days, it is not considered murder, but it is still haram. It is still considered a sin. I actually have a daughter because I wasn’t given access to birth control or an abortion.

Jacobsen: Changing gears a bit, and thank you for that, to some of the beliefs in the belief system, how many people adhere to supernaturalist beliefs such as angels, and jinns, and the Devil, and the myriad assorted beings that are purported to exist, as well as to the efficacy of things such as prayer, for instance?

I say this because Britain is one of the nations that has developed quite past other countries such as the United States, even Canada, in terms of reduction in anti-scientific and supernaturalist beliefs in the general populace to more scientific and naturalist beliefs.

Yasmeen: Pretty much everybody believes in jinn, sehir — which is black magic, angels of course, and of course dua — prayer. I haven’t met a single person who doesn’t believe in these things. In fact, they believe in possession by jinn. One time, I had a friend tell me about these teenagers who were practising sehir, which is black magic. They were executed. I said, “Isn’t that a little intense? They are just teenagers. Maybe, they are a little rebellious because they are teenagers.” She said, “No, because they were practising black magic.”

Jacobsen: With your husband having the final say on contraceptive use, and the daughter you had as a result of not being able to have a definite, a final, say in your own body with regards to reproductive health, what are the emotions that come up knowing this as a truth while being a believer? What are the feelings as you are raising the child as a result of this? What are the feelings raising the child outside of Islam?

Yasmeen: Okay, so, my husband didn’t approve of birth control because he thought it was haram to prevent a family, but what we did practice was something called Al-‘Azl or coitus interruptus. He told me that if I did get pregnant that I would probably be able to get an abortion if it was early on and that it would be okay. But when I got pregnant, that went out the window. I remember begging for an abortion because I didn’t want to have a child.

He and his family basically told me, “No.” That really affected me as a believer. That was a big, big turning point. It almost drove me crazy. I remember the whole pregnancy I was begging for an abortion. After she was born, I was so crazy. Maybe, it was postpartum depression too, but I almost abandoned her. Now, I accept my role as a mother and I love her, but some days it is still hard to accept it because I didn’t want another child to begin with. I do have another child from marriage.

Jacobsen: What is the different of marriage in Islam compared to civil marriage or a secular marriage, or other religious marriages? Because your own is not a legal marriage, as you have noted to me, off tape basically.

Yasmeen: Marriage in Islam is similar to marriage in any other religion. The man is basically the head of the household, and the woman is supposed to be subservient to him. As far as the actual process of marriage, you basically write up a contract. You have what is called wali for the woman, which is a guardian who she goes through to set up her marriage and pre-approve of her marriage. It could be a parent or somebody else.

Then the rest is pretty similar, you agree to the terms and say, “I do,” and then have a dinner. The problem within the community is a lot of these marriages are not actually recognized under the law. The reason for doing this is so the men don’t have to fulfil their actual legal obligations towards these women. It is also a loop hole to have a second, or third, or a fourth wife. That’s what happened with my marriage.

My husband initially told me that he would fill out the legal paperwork. “Let’s do it Islamically, and we’ll do it later,” and it never happened. I can’t say how many marriages aren’t done legally, but it is the ease with which it is done that concerns me.

Jacobsen: This leads me to some final thoughts with next steps. You have a unique perspective with regards to the ex-Muslim community, as a minority within that “minority within a minority” — to use Maryam Namazie’s phrase. You are a woman within the ex-Muslim community, which is, as noted earlier in the interview, not the dominant demographic of ex-Muslims.

The dominant demographic are men as ex-Muslims. As well, you described your own narrative as well as issues within the community from superstition to reproductive health rights and access, abortion access, approval of those by the community, social pressure, the man having the final word, and so on.

This makes me think, “What can be done next to move the conversation forward? How can we translate that conversation into action? And who can be an ally? And who have been allies?”

Yasmeen: I think we need to get this out there into the mainstream. I think the only people that are going to be completely honest and more unbiased will be ex-Muslims. I think we do already have a lot of allies in other apostate communities, like the ex-Jehovah’s Witness, ex-Mormon, and others. I think it would be a great task, but I think we need to get the Left on our side.

I think it could be easy with enough awareness because we are a minority within a minority. Why would the Far-Left not listen to us? I think if there were enough of us. I think they would come around to listening to us, but I don’t know how realistic that is.

Jacobsen: I appreciate you taking your time today. Do you have any feelings or thoughts in conclusion about the conversation we have had today?

Yasmeen: Yes, Scott, thank you so much. I wanted to remind people that whatever us ex-Muslims and Muslim liberals say. We’re not saying this because we hate Muslims. We have Muslim family. Sometimes, we have Muslim spouses and Muslim friends. We love them. We just think that what we’re doing is not only helping them but also helping people like us. When I say we’re trying to help Muslims also, what I mean is that most of the time, ex-Muslims are one of the only people trying to bridge the gap between the Far-Right and the Far-Left, and protect not only freedom of speech, but also protect Muslims against bigotry.

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time today, Yasmeen.

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2022-04-12

Interview with Hugh Taft-Morales – Leader of Philadelphia Ethical Society

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/16

Hugh Taft-Morales is the leader of the Philadelphia Ethical Society and the Baltimore Ethical Society. He is deeply rooted in the Ethical Culture and the Ethical Humanist movement as a leader and a member, and a scholar. He describes his experiences and work in this in-depth interview.

*This interview edited for clarity and readability.*

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Tell us your family background – geography, culture, language, and religion.

I was born in 1957 in New Haven, Connecticut. I am the son of an academic father and an artist mother. I grew up in a secular household and as part of East Coast Liberal culture. I was loosely part of the Episcopal religious culture around me in terms of general acceptance of Judeo-Christian morals, but I was not taught to believe the metaphysics of religion.

I never thought I’d go into something like Ethical Culture clergy work as a profession, but, after 25 years of teaching history and philosophy, I found myself really wanting to share some of what I learned in teaching and in school in a more inspirational setting in order to make the world a little bit better – not to be too dramatic about it! That’s what drew me into Ethical Culture work.

And what about your own educational background? How does that play into your own humanistic values, if at all, during your development?

Yea, it probably did because what I ended up focusing on in college was history; primarily, US history (20^th century). I was intrigued by post-Civil War history in terms of the ebb and flow in the United States of the power of money versus the power of populism – the tug-of-war between the robber barons and the rise of US populism. The farmer grain cooperative movement against the railroads. Teddy Roosevelt in the White House fighting the corporations. The rise of business during and after WWI and during the ’20s with power swinging back into corporate pockets, then the Depression bringing in more modern Democrats opposing corporate power, to the Welfare State in the ’60s, and so on.

I left college wanting to go into politics. I lived in New Haven on the Yale campus where my father was a professor. After graduation, I worked in Capitol Hill for one year. I enjoyed it. My humanist education focused on real mundane social justice issues, where people are both the ones responsible for the horrors of the world and responsible for making the world better. I never had the desire or the need to look beyond human beings to make this world better. My humanism is grounded there.

My first five years of teaching was at a private school in Washington, DC called St. Alban’s. Many sons of the elite went there. I began to appreciate the inspirational side of a religious school. I tried to teach the ideals of the human mind to allow kids to imagine a better world.

If you don’t imagine a better world, then you might fall into thinking of the personal acquisition of material riches as the path to a better world so you get as many toys as you can before death. However, if you believe in the possibility of a better world ethically – and somehow that was part of a meaningful life for you—I thought it would help people, myself included, to live a more ethical life. That began to draw me, initially, into Ethical Culture. I hadn’t heard of Ethical Culture until I was about 13 years into my teaching career. It came late for me.

How did you first become involved in The Ethical Society of Philadelphia, in depth?

Through the Washington Ethical Society. I lived inside the Washington beltway. I joined the Washington Ethical Society in the 1990s when we had two children and a third one on the way. My wife and I never thought of joining a religion. She calls herself a retired Catholic. She is very disgusted at the wealth and the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church and the misogyny.

We wanted our kids to grow up with some religious literacy. We didn’t think about it too much until one day our eldest son said at the table, “Mom, Dad, who is Jesus, again?” He was 7-years-old. [Laughing] We realised he’d be impoverished culturally. We could have done more of that, but our friend talked about the Ethical Society. They had a Sunday school program, which taught religion from a humanist perspective.

They taught that religions are human creations. This is the history. They had very sensible approaches to sexual education. We used Our Whole Lives program, which is our Unitarian program, which is down-to-earth, non-judgemental, and holistic. We were drawn into it because of our child. After going to the Washington Ethical Society for a year, or two, I began to appreciate a moment in the week apart from the chaos. Teaching and raising children, and the rest of life is chaotic, I began to assess where I was in life.

Ethical Culture began to grow on me. I found myself teaching at the Ethical Society. I decided to run for the board. I served on the board for a number of years. I was a president for one year. However, it became clear to me that I loved the teaching and preaching aspect – the motivational aspect so I decided after a couple of years on the board to go through the leadership training, which is our version of seminary work. I ended up getting the job in Baltimore at the Ethical Society.

My training took me about four years. I did internships at 3 ethical societies. My first year was in Baltimore. The next year I got a job in Philly. I am now splitting my time between Baltimore and Philadelphia commuting from Washington. I don’t use this term often, but I did use it when I applied for leadership positions. They ask you the same question, “What draws you into Ethical Culture leadership?” I said, “I felt called.”

I don’t have a drop of superstitious thought in my head, but saying “I felt called” seemed right. It was a way to express my values and admit my limitations with integrity and wholeness. It was a profession that became more of a vocation and a way of life for me. That was a nice direction. I loved teaching. I could go back tomorrow. I think it is fantastic as a job, but I don’t regret the shift.

With respect to being the current leader of the Philadelphia Ethical Society and the Baltimore Ethical Society, what tasks and responsibilities come along with these positions because I would see the teaching background as relevant to the current work in leadership?

It is. My teaching background was relevant to my current work in Ethical Culture and Ethical Humanism (I use interchangeably.) Sometimes, I see the term “Ethical Culture” as representing a historical legacy because that’s what it was called originally. But in the mid-20^th century, more and more people started to use the term Ethical Humanism because it connected to a broader movement. There are distinctions in humanism generally, but the term Ethical Culture had this Victorian antiquated feel to it. People didn’t get it, necessarily so Ethical Humanism works better in speaking to the general public.

In my job I play the same role as a minister in a small congregation, basically, but take the God aspect out. Both Baltimore and Philadelphia are small, like 80-90 members. Unlike Washington, and New York and St. Louis which are larger (around 300+). Anybody who goes into ministry knows there’s a big difference between running a small, medium, and a large society, what your roles are. Since I am in a small group, I am more of a jack-of-all-trades.

Primarily, my duties are teaching, preaching, counselling. I do adult ed., courses and outreach, events, one-off interviews with humanists, courses on Darwinism, or moral philosophy, or animal and human studies. Last year, in Philadelphia, we had a year-long series called “Capitalism in Crisis,” which was eight evenings with guests from around the country speaking on various aspects of capitalism’s limitations and problems.

The counselling, obviously, is there. It takes a lot of time. That’s why counselling needs to have boundaries so that it doesn’t become long-term counselling. It’s more helping people get through crises and helping them secure long-term counselling or psychotherapeutic counselling to help them get what they need.

In both Ethical Societies, my work touches on many aspects of running a small organisation more than I’d like, because it is not what I’m drawn to. It can involve making sure meetings run well, and agendas are set, helping all the volunteer-run committees, helping manage our listservs. I am basically the only staff person for our programs, and we have an administrator in Philadelphia who looks after the building, finances, and other tasks. I handle our membership.

There are lots of little things that need to get done or congregational development elements. How do you make sure your newsletter is well-produced? How good are your Sunday morning programs? Sunday morning is the hub of the wheel, so to speak. Like other small liberal congregations, our weekly meetings have a liberal lean to them. But in Ethical Culture we are exclusively non-theist and that’s important as a term for me. That means we don’t take a position on whether God exists or not.

Ethical Culture has always been non-theist because we believe that what’s most important in is how you live your life. If you battle over whether God exists or not, you often miss the point. Felix Adler, who founded Ethical Culture over 140 years ago, wanted to make sure there was a home for people who wanted inspiration and community without the metaphysical baggage, Ethical Culture doesn’t turn away theists either because the core message is that it is more important how you treat each other than your reasoning behind it, theistic or not.

That said, if you’re theistic and if you’re looking for a community that meets once a week and supports people and does social justice work, and you believe in God, then you’re probably going to go to some form of church, mosque, or synagogue. Consequently, many of our members tend to be atheists, freethinkers, and sceptics. But I have to remind them that there’s a distinction between our identity as a group of people and our mission as an organisation. While many of our members are atheists, our official position is non-theism. That allows us to focus on our mission: to inspire and support people to live closer to their ethical values and ideals.

What do you see as the main threats to the practice of humanism and Ethical Culture in general within the United States and within Philadelphia, in particular?

I’d have to say, greed, money. It’s a little simplistic, I know. I studied plenty of Marxism in college but I’m not a determinist. I’m not a simplistic materialist. I am basically a naturalist and materialist in one way, but not the way Marx was a determinist. But I think he got it right in saying that one way to understand oppression is basically to “follow the money.” Often greed and money push people to violate the values of humanism which looks at human beings as having inherent worth and dignity.

Most humanists believe that human beings, including oneself, should be treated well. Reason and compassion are the best tools for us to get along and figure out public policy and so on. All of those values are shared widely in humanism. I think they’re most challenged when somebody can make a buck by violating those values. I’ll bring up an example of the prison-industrial complex, which is making money off of criminalising the poor, particularly poor people of colour. It is not just criminalising. It is dehumanising. It is humiliating people who get caught up in the system often due to a system that tries to maximise profit. Private corporations are making money due to the criminalisation of poverty.

Again, a little detail that I think crystallises this. I worked with an organisation in DC that tries to help families and inmates stay connected. They are doing things like making sure phone calls are affordable between the prison and the home. This organisation facilitated skyping between inmates and their families. But I see how hard the system works against these efforts. The system seems to try to minimise the most powerful thing that could keep an inmate feeling loved and able to love – their family. The system tends to do everything it can to take that away due to some absurd, retributive approach to criminal justice. Ethically, it’s devastating to me. My tax dollars are going to support this retributive and profit-driven system.

Money works against my faith in the inherent worth of every individual. That faith is not based on a naive idea that everyone is “nice.” No, there are going to be people who are dangerous in the world. But our default is to dehumanise and to incarcerate, and we do it not just individually, but with large systemic, racially-biased systems from the top-down. And so I think the biggest—and I see more and more humanists agreeing with this.

I have a lot of respect for Roy Speckhardt of the American Humanist Association (AHA) for focusing on social justice issues. I see the Foundation Beyond Belief focusing on how to make the world better interpersonally regarding justice and so on.

I appreciate that. Thank you. You mention the poor and minorities as the primary victims of what some call the “prison-industrial complex,” where the ability to have a phone call with loved ones or family, or even a Skype call, become difficulties. I mean, the main punishment in prison is isolation. You can be surrounded by, you know, murderers, rapists, but the main punishment is isolation.

It goes to show, as a social species, we know the main punishment you can give to people is keeping them alone away from other people in minimal sensory conditions, minimal sensory input conditions. In the industrialised world, the United States leads in fatherlessness. In minority communities, the thing you did not mention, the main thing is lack of fathers, and prisons, mostly, are men, especially poor minority men.

So there are tied in, not necessarily “systemic” because the term has lost a bunch of meaning based on overuse in and out of context, socio-cultural sets of factors that come into play to reduce the amount of time innocent people, by which I mean children, have with their primary caregivers, at least one of them in most cases. So I agree with you, and just wanted to take that one more step.

There’s a lot of truth in what you say. It’s complicated. You remind me of when Patrick Moynihan wrote his famous report about the deterioration of the black family, which I believe came from a place of compassion based on facts and research, but it got turned into a political weapon that pathologised the black community. Politicians used it to turn the victims of our system into threats to “law and order.”

The problem began to be described as the “black problem,” rooted in the pathology of the black family. That was the way it became framed. This type of framing is happening today. I am wary how race issues are being defined and who is defining the problem, and where the problem lies.

Because it is all part of this pandemic afflicting areas of poverty in our cities. This urban focus is tied to the history of Ethical Culture which took root in the eastern coast in urban centres. It was involved with empowering the urban poor from the very beginning. It’s part of my focus. But our members all focus on ethical issues that most interest them. We deal with thousands of different issues.

Many are concerned with environmental justice. One of the enemies of humanism is global climate change because if there’s anything likely to reduce people to greater desperation and greed it is environmental collapse. Look what happens when water supplies are stressed – poverty rises and wars can break out. The ability of anyone to fulfil their potential as a human being decreases if their natural environment is devastated.

Many members have put a lot of time into LGBTQ issues as well.

However, I am a generalist. I know a bit about many things. I try to support many causes, but we are not first and foremost a social justice organisation. One of things I tell our members is, “We are not an advocacy organisation. We are not experts in advocacy. We are offering people a home to nurture their own commitment through community support and through human inspiration. This inspiration can be as simple as the reading of Carl Sagan or the reading of poetry or sharing of music.” We get involved in many social justice projects, but we are not experts on the issues.

Most ethical humanists—those that take part in Ethical Culture—might not care too much about the history, about Felix Adler and how he was Jewish, wasn’t so keen on it, and invented Ethical Culture. They might be more keen on the more immediate concerns you’re pointing out—greed, climate change, and nuclear catastrophe.

I agree. I am drawn to history. Most members care about how do you live in the world now, meaningfully, in dealing with these issues.

Also in a smaller context, what are more heart-warming stories that you have had in your time in Philadelphia, as a leader there?

The testimonials people give about what the Ethical Society means to them. There are some consistent themes. There is the feeling the Society is their communal home. There are fewer opportunities to be part of organisations that speak to the deepest parts of our humanity. I don’t know if you know Putnam’s book, Bowling Alone?

Yes.

His whole theme of the flattening of culture. the fact that there are fewer deeply meaningful connections. Those that come to society say, “This is what I am looking for.” They discover deeper meaning. I know some people were burned by their religious experience. It is thinking, “I can’t believe there is a group that is trying to deepen their connection to life in a way many religions do while not requiring a litmus test of belief.”

Another area of heart-warming experiences as a leader is bringing together interfaith coalitions. That includes coalitions of reason with sceptic groups and more traditional interfaith groups in the Baltimore and Philadelphia areas. The social justice work I am involved with the most is along the more traditional community-organising model.

In Philadelphia, the Ethical Society is a member of POWER, Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild. In working with people of traditional faiths, I have worked through my own resistance to traditional religion. Often, when we start what is called our “clergy caucus,” we start with a prayer. However, POWER invited humanists into the circle. I felt welcomed by those clergy from traditional faith traditions. In addition, I am so impressed with the civil rights work of POWER. They focus on bread and butter issues affecting marginalised groups.

Being involved with POWER is not about advancing my “denomination,” or increasing our membership, it’s about working in broad coalition. In Baltimore, our interfaith coalition has numerous non-theist organisations involved, like homeowners’ associations and day-care cooperatives too. They tackle tough issues.

They show up time and time again, whether at city hall, the city council meeting, or protesting on the streets. They protest against the proposed youth jail being built or against a large tax giveaway development program, which will create a gentrified neighbourhood in an urban area displacing those currently living in substandard housing.

There are people who put their lives on the line in ways I can’t manage quite to do. I am more sheltered, more comfortable, more scared, less able to take that so-called “leap of faith” into a commitment that is truly inspiring. I do my best

Those would be two areas I find heart-warming – testimonies from our members, and interfaith work – where I feel the joy and the warmth of work that I do.

For those that might want to found a humanist organisation or an Ethical Humanist organisation in particular, to build on previous legacies of Ethical Culture in their locale, how might they go about doing that?

Reach out to the American Ethical Union in New York, or call me at the Philadelphia or Baltimore Ethical Society, I will connect them. One Ethical Society was begun this past year with incredible energy and vibrancy. They have support from inspirational and historical elements, to practical advice on the various elements of congregational growth best practices in terms of how to get off the ground.

They get advice about routines that seem to work, which help groups craft intellectually satisfying and aesthetically pleasing events. I don’t think Ethical Culture is at its best when it is intellectual alone. We have a long history of that. Some deep thinking and talks offered, but more and more it’s necessary to create a sense of belonging and a rhythm of shared living. You can learn about that by studying successful congregations.

In Ethical Culture, we even have a sort of informal liturgical calendar. We celebrate the solstices, the equinoxes, the harvests, and the Spring festival. There’s a focus on the cycle of life. There’s a focus on various transition moments in life. We have coming of age programs. We perform weddings and memorial services. Different societies have different levels of programs and things to offer. My kids went through the Washington Ethical Society coming of age program.

It was one of the most moving experiences in my life, when I saw what it gave not to my children, and to many families. Ethical Culture is described by some people as “a religion of relationships.” Whether you use the term “religion” or not, Ethical Culture is about relationships so the coming of age program in Ethical Culture is not about the kids coming to a point in their life. It is about how parents and children negotiate the transition from childhood, to adolescence, to adulthood in a respectful way to nurture their relationships.

The broader society does not help teens become responsible adults. It tends to label kids, teenagers, as problems or difficult creatures, when they are in fact incredibly joyous human beings. We need to do better in building relationships between teens and adults. Parents have to be supported so that they avoid being both oppressively dictatorial or overly permissive.

Ethical Societies can help build relationships and deepen communities. It does this by speaking to the heart and the head. It uses rhythms, rituals, and programs that can have an aesthetic beauty to them in addition to wonderful speakers and social justice causes.

Do you have any feelings or thoughts in conclusion about what we have talked about today?

There are so many different areas I could go into, but here are two things I’d want to add:

First, there is a pragmatic streak in Ethical Culture. We are what we are by virtue of our history and communities together. There’s a rich interchange there. We don’t hand down rules and say, “This is how we are.” We come together as a community and say, “What do we agree on what we value? What about our history do we draw forward?” I like it.

We are open to change. Sometimes, it is as if herding cats. [Laughing] But that’s what comes with respecting the integrity of individuals and being open to conversation and pragmatic testing and change. But there are some values that we tend to agree upon, at least in Philadelphia and Baltimore where I serve. There is a lot of agreement.

One value we generally agree upon is the inherent value in every individual. That means respecting the individual as unique and irreplaceable. Every person has infinite worth that is not determined from the outside. It is part of who they are as a person. It is not necessarily proven by reason or given by human nature or divinely provided by God. But we agree to try to live as if all people have inherent worth so we are choosing to act towards people as if they are all unique and irreplaceable. That’s one value: inherent worth.

Second, the application of inherent worth universally, believing that everyone is of worth. To me, that leads to social justice work against systems that deny the worth of so many. Systemic injustice must be confronted. Finally, the third value would be true relationships. We respect that relationships are organic. They evolve. They’re respectful. They’re open. They’re compassionate. They’re candid. It’s about being compassionate and open, not on being superficially “nice.” I don’t think being superficially “nice” is respecting the other person. Respect includes being open and sensitive to reason and facts.

A second point I will leave you with is part of my personal journey. It focuses on the Masters thesis in philosophy that I wrote after my first 5 years of teaching. I was intrigued about how people in ethical conversations often seem to be talking past each other. And I keep using this following example.

Imagine somebody going into a burning house to save their child, and they run out of the house with it. Quite often, in western philosophical circles, people might say, “Oh! Look at that example of altruism, he was sacrificing himself for a child. What was a wonderful gesture!” Other people would say, “No, he was clearly doing it out of self-interest. It was his child.” Others would say, “It’s a bit of both.”

But that conversation occurs within a context of moral thinking in which all moral issues involve the balancing of individual interests. I didn’t think that captured so many examples of human behaviour. I didn’t think the father was being altruistic or selfish. It was not a case of whether he sacrificed himself for the baby or used the baby to feel better about himself. I prefer to say, “No, he ran into the fire because he was the child’s father.” This is not about individual interest. That is not about the weighing of values or the worth of individuals. It is about a relationship.

I saw wisdom in alternative approaches to justice that focused on relationships, from aboriginal cultures to Hegelian systems of relationships. Overgeneralising Hegel’s theory, it claimed that the whole is more primary than the parts. Hegel was used by Marx in this way. Marx would say, “We are what we are via virtue of our relationship to the means of production. If I own the means of production, and I am extracting the surplus value of labour from my workers, then I am a capitalist. If I do not own the means of production, and I am a tool of my oppressor and, as a result, I am a proletariat. I am what I am most essentially by my connection to the economic whole.

Fascism, which also drew from Hegel, said, “You are what you are by relation to the whole, the nation-state.” You can see that in Spartan soldiers who died in the battlefield and were said to have died in self-interest. How can you say you died in self-interest? [Laughing] You’re dead! Well if you are defined by your relationship to the state, then you are a soldier. By dying as a soldier you fulfil your role and in a heroic fashion. Nazi Stormtroopers did the same. They were fulfilled as part of the whole. I see these as politically motivated perversions of relationally-based systems of identity.

But there is something important about this regarding identity. I am what I am because of my relationships. I am a father, which is relational. I am not fully described by my autonomous existential existence. While a part of our identity is defined by our autonomy (I am an existentialist after all), part of our identity is defined by relationships. I am living in relationships. What I love about Ethical Culture is that it allows for this duality of human nature. We are creatures who are essentially autonomous from other people in a deep and profound way. That aspect of our identity can be seen in much Enlightenment thinking. At the same time, we are relational creatures. For me, balancing those two poles of my existence is the art of living.

How do I do justice to both my autonomous nature and my relational nature? I don’t do justice by rejecting relationships. I am autonomous, but I also live a life of joy with family and friends, and being a citizen of a country, and a man, a creature, on this planet. To me, that combination of autonomy and relation is fascinating. And Ethical Culture has that assumption of our duality undergirding it. I think this is due in part because Adler came from a very collectivist culture in eastern European Jewish culture and came to America where he was amazed and impressed at our individualism. Somehow navigating both of those aspects was necessary to be a part of individual life and of this country.

I appreciate that very much. It is insightful. Thank you for very much for your time, Hugh.

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2022-04-12

Interview with Andy Ngo – Formerly at the Vanguard, Portland State University

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/13

Andy Ngo is a University of California, Los Angeles alumnus. He is a graduate student at Portland State and a freelance journalist. Shortly before this audio interview, he made a recording of a student speaking on Islam at “Unpacking Misconceptions” at Portland State University.

Based on his reporting, he was fired by the Portland State University student newspaper, the Vanguard. He wrote an op-ed in the National Review about it. The Vanguard wrote a response to it after this audio interview. He can be reached through Twitter. Here is his recounting of the event and aftermath.

*This audio interview edited for clarity and readability.*

Scott Jacobsen: Can you give us an overview of recent events that have landed you in some trouble, and what happened to you as a consequence?

Andy Ngo: On April 26th, I attended a public interfaith panel event at my university. The event was organised by students as well as administrators.

I worked as a section editor for the student newspaper called the Vanguard. I attended the event, not on assignment however. It was purely out of interest out of what was going to be shared.

For most of the event, it was very uncontroversial, as students presented on their religious worldviews. They also tried to clarify on some misconceptions that they think the media perpetuates.

What was interesting to me was during the question and answer part of the event, where somebody in the audience asked the Muslim student about a verse from the Quran, and whether if the Quran permitted the killing of “infidels.”

I shared the video of his answer and some text summarising what he said on my personal social media accounts. In the video, he says that disbelieving — being an infidel — is not allowed when a country is run exclusively under Islamic law.

He said that people who disbelieve have the choice to leave the country or to face punishment for their crime. The punishment was never made explicitly clear in the actual answer seen in the video clip but in the context of the question he was answering, he was referring to a punishment of death.[1]

That night, after I tweeted out the video, I sent it to the editor-in-chief, and also the reporter from the Vanguard that was on assignment covering the event. I sent it to both of them because it was an interesting part of the event and I thought it would be relevant for them to include in the report that they were working on. Neither one expressed concern or outrage at the video tweet.

Four days later, I was called into an emergency meeting with the editor-in-chief, the managing editor, and also a staff advisor for the student media. It was in that meeting that I was informed that I was fired because of what I had shared on my social media. The editor in chief described me as predatory, reckless.

Those were the adjectives she used. She believed that I intentionally targeted another student on campus. She thought that the paper needed to be supportive of him, to protect him, which meant firing me.

They also brought up history they had of me, referring to my affiliations with conservative media in the past. I once did an interview about protests on campus for Conservative Review for their online news report. I’ve also written, at that point, one news contribution to The College Fix.

They talked about the reputation and perception of the paper as another reason why they needed to fire me.

Jacobsen: So they used your history to attack your character rather than target the actual claims and recording that was reported.

Ngo: Yes, that’s right. In the meeting, they did say that because I stood strongly by the accuracy of my tweets. What I really wanted to know was were my tweets really accurate or not and if in their independent investigation, did they find the tweets inaccurate? They were very wishy-washy on this. They said, yes, sort, of, by virtue of “taking things out of context.”

I was trying to ask them what was the context that was omitted that completely changed the meanings of the videos I shared that included this person speaking in his own words? I wasn’t given a clear answer on that. They said I should have included that the panellists “weren’t experts.”

The day after I was fired, they published their report of the event. There was a long editor’s note detailing that I was no longer with the organisation. It had my picture and name in it. The context that they added in did not reflect an incongruence with anything I originally tweeted. I was very puzzled when I read the report because much of the report goes on to summarise what was on the video. The meaning didn’t change.

Jacobsen: Do think this was a politically motivated firing?

Ngo: That’s an angle or a dimension to the firing that wasn’t explicitly clear in the original meeting. In my opinion, the paper had been facing a lot of pressure from student activists for a while based on a lot of reporting that I have done as well as what they think my personal political beliefs are.

I do not know if there were external pressures on the paper or the editor-in-chief. I don’t have evidence of how that ultimately could factored into their decision-making in firing me. It is something I think about, but it is just conjecture on my part if I was to speak more on it.

Jacobsen: Has there been a history of political bias with the Vanguard at all?

Ngo: I think for the most part the newspaper, especially the news section, tries to be politically neutral, or at least make an effort for balance in their writing.

But because it is a student publication, the publication also reflects the ethos of the office as made up by its editorial team of students that changes quite frequently. I was one of the longest serving editors by being there for over a year.

Typically, they have a fast turnover rate term-by-term. And with some of the changes that happened, recently things changed a lot in the office. I don’t know if that played a role in this decision.

But based on my own experience of being in the office, the political views just reflect the majority view on campus. This meant it was often hostile to nuance on conservative perspectives, I would say.

Jacobsen: Do you know the official statistics of the ratio between conservative and liberal views, as a simplified view?

Ngo: I don’t know the ratio for that at Portland State.

Jacobsen: Do you think that the student body as well as the faculty — and you don’t have to answer this question — lean more heavily to the political Left rather than the political Centre or the political Right?

Ngo: In my time at Portland State, my analysis would be that the political culture on campus is very similar to other large universities all across the country. And that means it leans heavily Left or Far-Left in its student body as well as faculty.

However, as we’ve seen after the last presidential campaign, and then the results of the elections, it has caused people to become even more reactionary — politically reactionary — and very intolerant of free speech, nuance and ideological diversity.

My firing doesn’t affect a lot of things outside of my small Portland State community. However, I think the bigger topics that connects to my firing does have implications for what is happening all over the country. Mainly, the subjects of free speech, journalistic practices, as well as the discourse on religious fundamentalism.

[1] The Portland State University Muslim speaker’s response at “Unpacking Misconceptions” on April 26th, 2017, transcribed from Ngo’s recording:

And some, this, that you’re referring to, killing non-Muslims, that [to be a non-believer] is only considered a crime when the country’s law, the country is based on Koranic law — that means there is no other law than the Koran. In that case, you’re given the liberty to leave the country, you can go in a different country, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it. So you can go in a different country, but in a Muslim country, in a country based on the Koranic laws, disbelieving, or being an infidel, is not allowed so you will be given the choice [to leave].

Ngo, A. (2017, May 12). Fired for Reporting the Truth. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/447563/free-speech-islam-portland-state-vanguard-editor-fired-tweets.

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Politics News in Brief – May 15th, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/15

UK youth have more power than they think in the election on June 8th

The youth in the UK have more power than they might expect in the turnout and the results of the upcoming general election. As such an election rolls around, so do editorials about the low turnout of the young voters. But there are indications this may be changing.

While it is common knowledge that older people might turn out in higher numbers, the 2016 EU referendum showed 64% of people aged 18 to 24 turning out to vote, which was an even higher number than the 1992 general election.

Turnout by young voters could well swing elections in several key areas. Research by the Higher Education Policy Institute and the Intergenerational Foundation suggested that between 10 and 83 MPs were vulnerable to surges in turnout among younger constituents.

More recent numbers indicate that young people may well be gearing up for June 8th. Hansard’s 2016 Audit of Political Engagement states that 39% of young people expressed a certainty of voting, the highest level in the 12 years.

Since the elections were announced, government data indicates that voters in the two youngest age groups have registered to vote at dramatically higher rates than their older counterparts.

Outside of the political party squabbles and little bitter battles over the youth and old age votes, the young people are beginning to determine the face of the UK with their votes more than ever.

Tony Blair is possibly back, possibly from Brexit vote

There have been numerous unintended consequences from the Brexit vote. One is a return of the previous prime minister Tony Blair. The conservatives are slated to win the next election, and Tony Blair is looking to be back in the political arena, with the stated intention of softening the blow from Brexit. In his own words “This Brexit thing has given me a direct motivation to get more involved in the politics.”

Blair does not suffer any illusions about a welcome comeback, and acknowledges he is not widely popular in his party at this point in time, even lesser than he was during his tenure, but defended his record on doing well for the British people.

Blair also clarified that he would not be immediately seeking a leadership role or status as an elected representative in Parliament. He indicated that he hopes to start an anti-brexit movement, the way Farage did without being an MP, but expressed caution, saying “I am not sure I can turn something into a political movement but I think there is a body of ideas out there people would support.”

Trump fires Comey, overseeing the investigation into Trump’s relations to Russia

In a tremendous political upset, President Donald Trump fired James Comey, the head of Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) who overseeing the investigation into the purported links between the President, his erstwhile campaign, business interests and Russia.

In the midst of the investigation, Trump has now fired him, citing dissatisfaction with his performance. The letter of termination states that while Trump “appreciated” Comey’s assurances that the President was not under investigation, he ‘accepted’ the recommendation of the DOJ that he was not able to “effectively lead the bureau”.

The White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, said the F.B.I. had been “terminated and removed from office.” Trump stated the recommendations were from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, although Mr. Rosenstein is later said to have disputed the extent of his involvement in the decision making.

The move has shocked Washington and many Democratic senators as well as a few Republicans have expressed concern about the dire constitutional situation resulting from Comey’s firing. Subsequent indications from Trump that he had ‘taped’ Comey and attempts to subtly intimidate him through such a statement seems to have made the situation worse.

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2022-04-12

Interview with Armin Navabi – Founder of Atheist Republic

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/13

Armin Navabi is the Founder of the Atheist Republic. One of the most popular pages on Facebook for atheists that has faced repeated censorship and shutdown from Facebook authorities. He was born in Tehran and raised as a Muslim. Now, he is an ex-Muslim and an atheist living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Here is his story.

*Interview edited for clarity and readability.*

Scott Jacobsen: So, to begin, let’s talk about your background to set the framework. You were a practising Muslim. Now, you’re an ex-Muslim. What is the story there?

Armin Navabi: I was born in Tehran into a very Liberal family that was Muslim by name, but not so much in terms of devout practice. But I took it seriously when I started going to school. What happened is that from a very early age, I was very worried about ending up in hell.

Hell is really terrifying. Right? Most people didn’t take it seriously. I took it very seriously.

Most people around me also didn’t really practice it. But I really, really wanted to make sure that I never ended up in hell. It was eternal torture.

Most people were worried about their careers, their grades, their next party, and so on. Nobody seemed to worry about the real possibility of burning forever. Even though, they all thought this was a real thing. So it seemed to me like it should be the highest priority to avoid. Right?

Our teachers in school taught us that children are innocent. This is different from what Christians are taught, for instance. In Islam, you are not born with sin as a baby. You are innocent until you reach the age of reason. For girls, that’s 9. For boys, that’s 15.

That means you’re completely pure and sinless before age 15 as a boy, right? So I thought to myself, “What about suicide? Suicide is a sin as well, but there is no sin before age 15 for boys?”

So based on what I was taught, I concluded that if you commit suicide before age 15, you have not committed a sin as a boy. So you can make sure you go to heaven. To me, it seemed like a loop-hole! Right? In the system.

[Laughing] I felt like I found a loophole. I was surprised that more people weren’t taking advantage of the loophole. I asked the religious teachers to make sure I am not missing anything. If I kill myself before 15, am I going to heaven?

The only reason they gave me not to do that was to say, if you earn heaven then you can go to a higher-level heaven. But I thought, who cares if upper or lower heaven/elite heaven? You can escape hell. At age 12, I jumped out of my high school window.

Jacobsen: Oh my goodness.

Navabi: Yeah. I was not successful. For 7 months, I was in a wheelchair. I broke my left hand and fractured my back. The only reason that I never tried it again was because I saw what it did to my parents. I saw my dad cry for the first time in my life.

I saw my mom in the hospital. I was like, “Okay, I am not going to do that again.” So when I became 15, I decided, “Okay, I will take this seriously. No more sinning. I will pray.” Now, I started fasting at Ramadan. I didn’t look at girls. This was the most difficult part.

Even though I was practising everything, I saw my parents as un-Islamic. They weren’t praying. I kept on trying to get them to take things seriously. I was annoyed with them. In Iran, I – like many others – watched a lot of American movies. All these people on TV– I thought – they would all go to hell. It seemed so unfair to me.

Jacobsen: Would you say the ‘unfairness’ of the ‘hell’ concept led you down this path?

Navabi: I wanted to study other religions to see what’s wrong with them. Maybe, they’re like Islam-ish – and actually had the same rules? Why were they doing all these sinful things? Maybe, I thought, they are not going to hell.

I started studying the history of religions.

When I started studying religions, it became very obvious they were all changing and evolving through history. Increasingly, it started to look like they were made up. It seemed like they were political tools and that it was all strategic.

One religion looked like another religion plus a mix of local culture. So I thought, “What if it is all made up?” Everything made sense as to why they would make these things up.

I started panicking and believed I would go to hell. So I prayed to God. I never questioned it before. I just accepted it. “Why? Why do I just accept it?” I asked myself. I prayed and prayed, and cried and cried. I kept going like this.

“God, I don’t want to be an atheist. I don’t want to go to hell. Anything. Anything!” But eventually, I became an atheist. When I did, I didn’t know any other atheists and thought to myself. That maybe I was just crazy, and that they were seeing something that I am not seeing.

By then, I was in university. So I told two of my friends, the first people I talked to about why I thought this is all made up. They became sceptics themselves after I talked to them about it. I felt that perhaps I was not crazy and so I made an online group.

Before then, I did not know many atheists. So I made a group before Facebook for Persian atheists. A bunch of people joined! I couldn’t believe! There were so many of us! That made me make it more international with Atheist Republic.

Now, it is the largest atheist page in the world with 1,600,000+ followers worldwide. I was very surprised. I thought we were alone.

It has been almost 12 years now, but even now, in the Age of Social Media, we have many atheists coming to our online groups and saying something like, “Hey! I am an atheist from Manila. Any atheists in Manila?”

They are always surprised by how many atheists are in their area. Now, they are supporting each other. It is a good community.

Jacobsen: What are things people can do to help atheists be open active citizens who could also happen to be ex-Muslims?

Navabi: By giving them a voice. Right now, especially with the anti-Muslim bigotry, people think that we shouldn’t bring attention to anything, anybody, who is against Islam. They shy away from that because they don’t want to be labelled a “bigot.”

But by doing that, they talk about shutting down a ex-Muslim voices. Just like Muslims, ex-Muslims also could use support. And they are often targeted from both anti-Muslim bigots and Muslims themselves. They are shutting down a minority group within a minority.

Jacobsen: I heard that from Maryam Namazie before. It is very descriptive as a phrase. Would you say then, that it is a form of double-persecution?

Navabi: We are all people. Just because we are ex-Muslim, it doesn’t mean supporting us is anti-Muslim. If Muslims are being prosecuted by non-Muslims, they need support. If non-Muslims are being prosecuted by Muslims, they need support too. Right?

Ex-Muslims who are here believe that this is the land of liberty and that they will find liberals here to support them. The thing is that here they are being shunned and silenced. We want to show that these people need support without being seen as anti-Muslims.

The easy way to do that is by just letting them speak, sharing their stories. Even if they are criticising Islam, that is not bigotry.

Jacobsen: How do you think liberals can extend support to the atheist community, especially the ex-muslims community?

Navabi: Invites them to your podcast, blog, YouTube channel, event, let them come on and share their stories, let others see them for the human choices they made. When you say, “Islam is oppressing people.” They might think it is a lie.

But when people tell their story, they can connect the dots. Some ex-Muslims have to come here because they were activists in an Islamic country.

They are putting their lives at risk. It is important to recognize that. They are rejected by the Left because it believes they should condemn anyone who speaks against Islam. But the funny thing is that real racists and bigots target all the people who come from Islamic countries no matter what they believe, and may not have a problem with Islam as an ideology.

They don’t like you because of where you come from. So you get rejected from the extreme Left and the extreme Right. It is very important to note this – when we talk about Islam, we are not talking about people. We are talking about the ideology.

When we go to somebody and don’t agree with them on economics or a scientific topic, they don’t think about it as a personal attack, but when it comes to religion, and especially Islam, then for some reason it becomes bigotry.

It is taken as a personal attack. Firstly that means they are not recognizing people who are actual bigots, whose views then become louder. Secondly, if you can’t challenge people’s ideology, the only voice against it will come from people who are actual bigots.

You are removing the discussion out of the equation. You are removing people who don’t hate Muslims but just want to have civil debates with them. I hope this changes and I hope we can start to have better discussions about the religion itself.

Jacobsen: Thank you very much for your time, Armin.

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Exclusive Interview with Aron Ra – Public Speaker, Atheist Vlogger, and Activist

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/13

Mr. Aron Ra was born in Kingman, Arizona. He was baptised as a Mormon. He is the ex-President of Atheist Alliance of America. He is a public speaker, secular activist, and an advocate for reason in education. He hosts the Ra-Men podcast with Dan Arel and Mark Nebo of BeSecular. Now, he is running for Texas State Senate. Here is his story.

*This interview edited for clarity and readability.*

Scott Jacobsen: To begin, you were born in Kingman, Arizona. You were baptized as a Mormon. What was the family background surrounding your growing up? What was a moment of realisation, or a series of them, in becoming a non-believer, in becoming an atheist?

Aron Ra: Well, my family background largely identified as Mormon. Although, most don’t know what that means. We have some people in the family that do the whole magic underwear thing. Some even to the point of not drinking coffee or eating cinnamon, but those are very, very rare. Most Mormons are disciplined for the most part. And most of my family are (way) not.

Jacobsen: Okay [Laughing].

Ra: I would say the better part of my family identifies as Mormon or they identify as Christian – not that that’s a different thing because all of them identify as Christian because they all think that Mormon is Christian, just like every Mormon seemingly does.

It is just other denominations that don’t think Mormons are Christians, just like they don’t think Catholics are Christian. This was an advantage for me growing up. I got to see the interdenominational bigotry within Christianity.

When we lived in places like New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado that were Mormon dominant, they were places that the Mormons controlled everything. And if you were not a Mormon, you were not employed, at least not if you were white.

There were places that were like that. Utah is rife with them. When we moved to other places, and I moved a lot as a kid, I moved an awful lot – up to 8 times a year.

Jacobsen: Oh wow.

Ra: Both of my parents – I would be with one parent, then another. They would always be living at a different place, and then the last time I saw them and so forth.

When we moved to places like Los Angeles area, for example, where the Mormons didn’t own and control everything, then anytime somebody asked, “What is my religion?” I know there is going to be a problem, well two problems.

They care what my religion is. And that’s always indicative of an issue right there. We are about to have an argument and the fault of the argument is going to be your assumptions. I would say, “My family is Mormon.” There’s obviously a “but…” coming, but I didn’t usually get to that.

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Ra: Right away, I would start hearing all of these ridiculous things Mormons believe. Now, I do not argue. Mormons do believe ridiculous things.

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Ra: Every religion does, to be completely honest. But the Mormons have their own collection of ridiculous things that are exclusively Mormon that are not the same ridiculous things that other Christian denominations believe, but the accusations these people were making were ridiculous things that my family, so far as I could tell, did not believe – none of them.

So my mum was always the most devout of all of the Mormons in my family that I could talk to.

I would invite these people in, “Hey, you want to come in and tell my mother that she believes all of the things that you tell me Mormons believe?”

They would always refuse the invitation. The refusal of the invitation seemed telling. It shows that they know what they are telling me is not true. They knew how quickly it is that I could refute all of that. I have been involved in the religion versus anti-religion argument unknowingly my entire life.

As a little child, I remember having conflicts with other people over religion at 5-years-old, at 8-years-old, and without realising it. Certainly, not realising my whole life would be this whole argument.

I would ask simple questions to my babysitter when I was a little boy, like, “How does Jesus turn water into wine? I know water is H2O. I know that wine is alcohol and fruit juice, and I don’t know what the chemical components of that are.”

But as it turned out, when I grew up I looked it up. It is only the difference of a carbon atom. The molecules are much more complex. But they involve oxygen, hydrogen, and some additional carbons. That’s it.

But all I knew at the time, water is H2O, and alcohol and fruit juice are something else. How does Jesus turn water from H2O into H2O and whatever else? I thought someone would give me some kind of intelligible answer.

Like how Jesus does that, whether he uses telekinesis or whatever he does.

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Ra: But they don’t come up with explanations like that, they didn’t want explanations. They didn’t even want to believe people had explanations. When I was growing up, I found believers not only hated accurate scientific answers, but they hated any answer that sounded scientific.

It was a funny thing. I was told all of the time that “sceptics were cynics” because we miss out on the big picture that only the believers can see.

They should’ve paraphrased this: People that make up stuff and call it truth have the power to imagine all kinds of nonsense. But that’s what it is all about. It really is make believe, and it took me the longest time to figure that out.

I thought, honestly, naively, even into middle age. I was in my 30s before I realised there were some people who do not believe what they do for a reason.

If you ask anybody, “Why do you believe X?” They are going to give you a reason why they think X is true. I thought this was true for everyone. I thought that you couldn’t believe something for no reason because that’s stupid.

You wouldn’t believe something against all reason. I have had people tell me exactly that. I get into more and more arguments moving into my 30s. I would identify as an activist since then, since around Y2K. I got into these arguments heavily on the internet, on Usenet.

I found myself in a position where I had unrestricted browsing and unlimited overtime. This was my first internet experience up to 12 hours a day in a job that doesn’t require really anything of me. So I am on Usenet while monitoring other things and not being interrupted.

And I get into these discussions, in-depth discussions with professional scientists and professional theologians on both sides.

They are both giving me references to look into. So I did for a number of years. It was almost obsessive the amount of time that I dedicated to this subject, this argument. When I came across people and asked them, “Why do you believe this?”

I had never really bothered to ask them this. The answers people give are, “I believe this because I want to. I believe this because it makes me happy.” You piece it together eventually.

People would be criticising me for the reasons that whatever they believe cannot be true. They’d say, “Why can’t I believe what I want to believe?” Why would you say that about something that I just proved is not true?

Why would you want to believe something after finding out it is not even possibly or even probably true, in either case? It is not possibly true. It is not probably true. It is not indicated by anything. It is disputed by everything.

There is no possibility here. This did not happen. There are no two ways about it. What the hell are you going on about? “But I want to believe that.” Why [Laughing]?!

Jacobsen: [Laughing] that’s hysterical.

Ra: [Laughing] I want to believe I’m a multimillionaire. I do. I want to believe that I have time travel capabilities. Great! But that doesn’t make anything real. And it is insane to imagine that. It took me forever to realise that. I actually said this myself ahead of Peter Boghossian.

He famously did a video on ‘faith is pretending to know what you don’t know.’ As if people know they don’t know it, and they’re pretending on purpose. But yes, I said something similar on video prior to that.

I said, “But faith is often a matter of pretending to know what you know you really don’t know, and that no one even can know, and which you merely believe – often for no good reason at all.” That was the way I phrased it.

I didn’t quite make as much money out of mine as he did the way he phrased his. This is actually true. That’s what faith is. Faith is literally make-believe. If people tell you that they want to believe something, even after they know that it’s not true, and people have told me that they want to continue believing, and that they will continue believing, even after they know that it is not true, that it’s not possibly true.

There’s no way in hell that this happened. If you believe in God, if you believe in miracles, then you believe in magic. You believe in magic. People argue against that all of the time, but that’s actually true.

If you look up a collection of dictionaries, online it is easy to do. Open up a bunch of them, and see where they all agree, find the points in the context where all of the dictionaries agree.

You will discover that if you compare the definitions between a miracle and magic, you will see that they are both the ‘evocation of supernatural forces or entities to control or forecast natural events in ways which are inexplicable by science because they defy the laws of physics, meaning they are physically impossible.’

That’s what both miracle and magic mean. So miracle is the same things as magic in the same way a boat is a yacht is if it is big enough.

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Ra: A murder becomes an assassination if it is a VIP. A miracle is magic in that way. So people were making things up. “Let’s think hypothetically”, I said to someone, which is another thing the believers can’t really do, because that is kind of what they’re already doing.

It destroys the self-made illusion to step in and jack that up with another illusion, even for a moment. Let’s imagine that there’s some form of technology sometime in the future that can detect the essence of God and can measure it.

We can confirm God exists, and importantly whose God it is. All of these people are making claims about this personal God and calling it Allah, or Krishna, but failing to call it Jesus. Jesus isn’t the only personal saviour out there.

There’s a bunch. All of these people making absolute statements about what they know for absolute certain about this absolute God. They are all mutually exclusive. They can’t be all right. They can all be wrong, but at most only one of them can be right.

So we have the device that can prove God exists and can show the qualities or the properties of God, and can verify who is right about God. Everybody was against that idea. “No, there can never be such a device because God must always be personal. God is always in your heart” … as opposed to reality?

God is something a lot of believers – and I realise a lot of people have not given this any thought, and a lot of people believe things for rational-logical reasons–that they have been misinformed all of their lives or been duped by the propaganda, or believe everybody believes it and so there must be some truth to it.

When you look in-depth and start talking to non-believers, when you start talking to people who know what they’re talking about, people have named this “Aron Ra’s Fork.”

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Ra: When you’re talking to someone who, like me, knows both sides of the argument, when you start talking to someone like this about why they don’t believe, you have to make a choice whether to remain honest or whether to remain creationist, because it is no longer possible to be both.

You will either have to concede that the claims of creationism – absolutely all of them – are unsubstantiated and fallacious or you’re going to have to start lying to preserve and defend that faith.

And that’s the choice they all have to make at some point. I have seen them come to that point and go the wrong way. “These may be what the facts are, but I prefer to believe this.” There is one that is the easiest to demonstrate. I can tell all of these anecdotes.

There was a movie that came out a couple of years back I happen to have been in, which was in called “My Week in Atheism.” It was made by a Christian named John Christy who was only pretending to be an atheist for a week.

He goes to an atheist conference and he lets the atheist speak. The whole game is, and I have seen this done many times, I have seen where churches will host an atheist to talk to their congregation.

They’ll have the whole thing where everyone seems to be on equal sides, but the obligatory statement at the end for the guy who has had his fingers figuratively in his ears the entire evening comes up and says, “And he didn’t change my mind at all. I’m still just as convinced. My faith is even stronger.”

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Ra: This is pretend! That was the game in the first place! That it doesn’t matter what anybody says. You’re going to continue to believe. This is what I bring up in my book. If you look up any of the leading creationist organisations – creation.com, Creation Moments, Answers in Genesis, Institute for Creation research.

Almost all of them post most prominently on their website. Sometimes, it takes a little work to find it. Generally, they will have a “Statement of Faith.” They might phrase it differently, but they will say there is no evidence that they will ever accept, acknowledge, or consider (!) that shows that they are wrong.

They simply reject it outright. One of them put it that “wherever science and the Bible conflict, the science is wrong. The Bible is right.” Another one says, ‘Whether it is archaeology, history, or any fact at all. If it refutes the Bible, it can’t. The Bible is always right.’

The leading apologetic debater makes the same argument. That whenever there is an obvious conflict between theology and science that science is wrong. It is like Ken Ham of Answers and Genesis said when they asked him and Bill Nye, ‘What would it take to change your mind?’ Bill Nye said, “Evidence.” Ken Ham said, “Nothing.” He’s going to believe what he wants to believe no matter what.

He’s going to keep on believing. There are so many people who tell me, “if I had a time machine and could prove that Jesus never rose from the dead”, with the admission that “I hope my faith and I are strong enough that I can keep on believing, even when my eyes tell me otherwise.” That’s make-believe! That’s lying to yourself. That’s the entirety of what religion is.

So I started making a challenge to people: “Can you show me anything in your religious belief that you can show to be more accurate than any other religious belief?” I would stress for people not just to show me where other religions are wrong, but to show me where theirs is right!

So I have to define my terms very rigidly all the time. If I look at the definition of truth, it took me a long time to figure out what people meant by “truth” when they were talking about it.

They are not being philosophically deep as I thought they were.

Truth is really whatever can be shown to correspond to reality. Truth is what the facts are essentially. Facts are after all points of data that you can verify to be accurate. A lot of people hate these definitions because it completely undermines their theology.

They can’t make the assertions that they want to by saying anything is the absolute truth, because under the definition of either word no you don’t! That’s the problem. People want to say what they know only what they believe. They pretend. There’s not a part of it that is honest.

My biggest sticking point is that the only value that any information can have is however accurate you can show it to be, and if you can’t show that it is accurate at all then that information has no value at all.

So it is just an empty assertion. You can tell me whatever you believe all day and night, and I won’t care, until you can show me what you believe is actually true.

That it has some truth in it – when you show me something actually true in your belief. I can show you the truth of evolution. I can show you the facts of evolution. I can show you the positively indicative and physical evidence that is exclusively concordant with one conclusion over any other.

I can do that all day, but religion can’t. No religion can because they’re all just made up. They don’t have any truth at all in them, none of them. The best that you can get out of people is that they can give anecdotal nonsense or will cite logical fallacies or they will say, “Somebody wrote once that there were Christians back in the 1^st century and that means Jesus existed.”

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Ra: Well, that doesn’t give you any more evidence than it does for Krishna or Mohammed.

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Ra: We also know by the way that there was a Joseph Smith. Mormons can point to exactly who that guy was, and when he died and why. There is no question on whether the prophets existed. We are talking about whether the religions they invented were true.

Can you show me the truth of that? Of course, they can’t. None of them can. They don’t want to. They don’t need to. I have seen people make that admission too.

Eric Hovind, son of the famous fraudster Kent Hovind, said that he will believe whatever the Bible says. Basically, if God said it, I believe it. That’s it. You just closed your mind to reality. He said that we don’t need science to back us up.

Wow! That’s a hell of an admission. I do need science to back me up. They have to do this reversal of the burden of proof. If I don’t believe that claim that you’re making, that positive claims require positive evidence and the burden of proof is always on the person making the positive claim.

If you want to posit some preposterous thing, then you want to do it for no reason at all. And I say, “I don’t believe you.” They challenge me to prove that they’re lying. No!

It is not my job to prove that you’re lying. It is your job to prove that there is a THERE there. That there is justification for the horse-shit that just fell out of your face. But there never is! It is a completely emotional lack of justification for anything. I say this all of the time.

If you use religion for your reason for any action or a position, then you still haven’t given a reason because religion isn’t one. It is as far against and away from reason as one can possibly be. When people use religion as their only reason for whatever laws they want to impose of people or on other things, these are always mostly unjust.

Think about every example, every time someone comes up with religion as the reason why they want to impose it. It is always stupid. It is always imposing bigotry or limitations against somebody else’s freedom because you want to pretend in your special brand of pixie dust that is different from the gods and monsters other people want to make up.

That’s what it is all about. There is simply no true religion because literally none of it is true.

Does that answer the question?

Jacobsen: [Laughing] Yes!

Ra: [Laughing].

Jacobsen: In association with the independent intellectual work that you’ve done on both the religious and the scientific sides from a very young age, you also have an activist side, which you did touch on briefly with regards to creationism and evolution and the teaching of proper science via evolution.

You are the former president of the Atheist Alliance America. As well, you were the Texas state-director of American Atheists. So without defining what those obviously are – collectives of atheists, what platform does that give for the unified voice for atheists in the country?

And what have been some prominent initiatives and campaigns? For instance, the creationist-evolution—I don’t want to call it debate.

Ra: [Laughing] what do you call it?

Jacobsen: Maybe, propaganda vs. science wars – creationism vs. science wars – respectively. What is the importance of a unified voice for non-believers in the country, at least under the banner of atheism?

Ra: I am running for Texas state senate. That has proved to be a lot more demanding, and will be. So when the job of president of Atheist Alliance America became more demanding my campaign would be a lot more demanding because they’d be at the same time.

At that point, I realised it would be a lot worse. So I realised that I’ll have to do one over another.

Atheist Alliance of America and American Atheists have pretty much the same goal. They were trying to achieve them in different ways.

Obviously, Atheist Alliance of America wanted to develop an alliance of atheists. American Atheists was all about putting money together for court challenges on various grounds. There are a lot of atheist organisations that do that sort of thing.

There are a number of atheist organisations focused on charity and helping people get out of Muslim countries. They focus on helping those people who come from countries which put atheists in danger, just because such people have, say, blogged something like “I don’t believe this anymore,” and now their lives are threatened.

Pakistan demanded that Twitter and Facebook give the name of anyone that speaks out against God so that people can go out and kill those people.

I don’t know if I am allowed to use harsh language on Conatus News. Blasphemy is not a crime. It’s a right. It needs to be exercised. We have the right not to believe lies. That’s important. Freedom of religion means freedom from religion as well.

You can’t have freedom to practice your religion if you’re not free from the dominant religion. It is basic sense.

If there’s one religion that owns and controls everything, and you have to bow in obeisance to that, then how do you practice your own religion which you believe to be true if you don’t believe that other one is true yet you still have to pay homage and acknowledge it, and pray to that God five times a day, for example, or give homage every morning with your hand over your heart with all of the other kids in the classroom where you’re swearing to defend this country “One nation under God”?

No matter what it does, you are going to support this country. No matter how evil it degenerates. No, we shouldn’t be doing that. The pledges come from a believers’ standpoint. The country needs to earn the support of its citizenry.

You can’t extort it. You can’t get people indoctrinated by always saying every morning before class where they’ll never question what you’ll do.

That’s what religion is all about. It is about controlling the masses. That’s why the powerful consider it useful and the lesser people consider it real.

Jacobsen: As side statement, please use any language you feel that you need to express your thoughts.

Ra: [Laughing] I am sorry to do that to you!

Jacobsen: [Laughing] it’s fine. Okay, so, that provides background. That provides your thoughts and the development of your thoughts. This includes your work in Atheist Alliance of America as well as American Atheists.

Now, you’re transitioning from the intellectual work and the activist work, social activist work, to political work. What was the inspiration for getting more involved in politics, and why now?

Ra: The biggest problem I’ve had with people as activists, whether they’re organisations or individuals, is the great deal of apathy. People who don’t follow things the way believers follow things. The infidels, or the atheists, have been categorised as a herd of cats.

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Ra: Everyone is an independent freethinker. They won’t be one-issue voters. You can’t find anything in the atheist collective upon which everyone would be a one-issue voter. I found atheists vote against their own interests in favour of things they care about more.

On the Republican side, they are very much one-issue voters at times. They will vote the exact way their leaders tell them too because of the authority.

Consequently, what happens any time there is low voter turnout? The Republicans win. The Republicans are predominantly the Right-wing religious types. They congregate on that side. What is called “the Left” is far away from what people say the Left is.

The Left is not the extremist communists. There are extremists; there are communists, but the vast majority, of what is called “the Left,” are reasonable people. But we don’t vote often. Many people are apathetic about the system.

They are critical of capitalism and socialism. It is a sad. In this last election, people didn’t vote for lack of interest. In the previous elections, there was simply disinterest. They think, “This is a broken system. Why would you contribute to a broken system?”

I find that bewildering that people think it. Now, we’ve seen the product of it. The worst of all imaginable options will happen if you don’t do something about it – if you don’t choose the lesser evil.

If you want to choose the greater good, then you need to work from the grassroots. When I became an activist 20 years ago, it was primarily because people that I was talking to were bragging to me that they had positioned all these senators and judges at various levels because their church pastor told them to do it.

This is the way the church votes in order to replace the entire political sphere with Right-wing believers, which is what they’ve done. That was 20 years ago. So this is a plan that has been enacted for a long time.

Now, we have every member of the presidential cabinet who is a Right-wing science denier. One says the earth is 5,500-years-old. They deny climate change. They’re all anti-science. They are all advocating Noah’s Flood among other things.

Of course, they are denouncing evolution as well. So we have all three areas of the federal government governed by Right-wing religious dominionists for the most part. I think there is also 38 out of 50 states governed by religious Right-wing conservatives.

Every level of Texas government is run by Right-wing religious conservatives. So I am taking the impossible odds. I am running in an election, in a district, where I know it is heavily Republican. You can’t win.

I could win every democratic vote and still not win. Given my obvious lack of charisma, I am going to hope to sway votes from republicans who may see the imbalance of what’s going on and how little they care about the platform issues.

For example, the bathroom bill: we want to prevent trans-people from being able to pee? Really?

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Ra: So they’ll all be on their moral high ground saying, “Yes, we don’t like men in dresses.” Or however they want to paint that. While that is going on, they don’t even recognise that they’ve

had their Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, and Health Benefits stripped from them.

Veterans’ Benefits, all of that, because they were fighting the good fight against what they see as perverts, which is that which they don’t understand or deviant and outside of their immediate family.

It is a frustrating thing, but I am thinking most people really probably would value their health care and their job, and how well they can sustain themselves and their family more than they do about where Trans people pee. I am just making a guess.

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Ra: I am thinking that if we can improve the quality of life and the way people get around and do things the way that it used to be. You know? Maybe, that would have a greater impact than being terrified of foreigners.

So we don’t have to become Russia by building a wall and keeping the foreigners out, and where we become disgustingly monochromatic and even more ethnocentric than we already were.

When I was a little boy, it was people who were proud that this was a “Melting Pot.”

Remember when Donald Trump said the “American Dream” was dead?

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Ra: In a sense, the American Dream was foreigners could come to this country and, through hard work, they could be successful, make a new start, and realise and fulfil their dream despite their caste or their religion in their homelands.

So Trump erected a system that denies them all of that. A system that sets castes, restricts religion, prohibits foreigners, and breaks all of the groundwork for small business, and for them to be able to do anything.

The American Dream is being destroyed by the current administration and also to a degree by the previous administration. I am no fool. I understand what has gone wrong on both sides. A lot of people don’t seem to realise it.

They want to see it in a false dichotomy. They want to see everybody as either far-Right, or far-Left. They don’t understand what any of the labels are. You have to express exactly what it is you believe in.

They won’t understand. They’ll think it means something else. I am supportive of people. I am supportive of the American Dream Trump is trying to destroy. I want them to understand. Regardless of your religion, you don’t get special privileges because you claim to believe something different from everybody else.

You don’t get special privileges because you get to claim that you believe the same things as the majority. It doesn’t matter what you want to make believe. You don’t special privileges for that. You aren’t restricted from it. No one should restrict your belief.

If someone says, “You are not allowed to believe that.” That’s ridiculous. It goes on in other countries, but it shouldn’t go on here. But that’s exactly what they’re trying to enact, where everybody has to pay homage to a Christian God. This is the last stronghold of that Christian God.

Everything that we set up for legislation that will promote Christianity will only pave the way for Islam later on because it is the fastest growing religion while Christianity is in a state of decline. Demographics change; you can’t fight religion with religion.

What will happen is Islam will eventually dominate Christianity; there won’t be any Christians left. Fortunately, secularists, atheists, and nonbelievers are on the rise faster than even the fastest growing religion. You can’t fight religion with religion, but you can fight it with reason. That’s what the atheist groups are really all about.

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time, Mr. Ra.

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Science News in Brief – May 12th, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/12

Astronomy is one of the few winners in Australia science budget

The new science budget for Australia is reportedly quite ‘bland’ and hardly remarkable. Les Field, the science policy secretary for the Australian Academy of Science in Canberra, said, “There are no big spending initiatives but no major cuts.”

The CEO of Science and Technology Australia in Canberra, Kylie Walker, agreed and said that this budget reflects a ‘business as usual for science and technology) approach.

Since the release of the budget on May 9, it has been seen as rather weak in its support of publicly funded science research, especially in terms of the allotment to the Commonwealth scientific and industry research organization which recently suffered major cuts.

The budget does not also allow for private investment to take up the slack, slashing a tax incentive that was designed to stimulate innovation in the public sector. However, that seems to be counterbalanced by an investment in innovation in manufacturing.

Higher education will also not see a boost. While one needs forward estimates to determine how much will be lost or gained, it is clear that the budget favours one branch – Astronomy. Astronomy has received $19 million to take part in major initiatives around the world and has a guarantee for a few more years.

Scientists name dinosaur after “Ghostbusters” villain

Royal Ontario Museum scientists have discovered the fossil of a 75-million-year-old species of armoured dinosaur which was unusually well preserved. It has been termed the ankylosaur in taxonomical, formal biological, classification and will be covered in the prestigious Royal Society Open Science Journal.

However, it has also been named the Zuuul crurivastator, also known as the destroyer of shins. The destroyer of shins title comes from the movie Ghostbusters – the name is sure to delight many a movie fan.

A palaeontologist, Victoria Arbour, who is a postdoctoral fellow at the ROM and the University of Toronto, said, “Me and my co-author David Evans were batting around for ideas for what to name it, and I just half-jokingly said, ‘It looks like Zuul from Ghostbusters’…Once we put that out there we couldn’t not name it that.”

Big Bang celebration from the Vatican

The Vatican has put on a celebration of standard Big Bang cosmology through the Vatican Observatory. The Vatican invited some of the best cosmologists and scientists to discuss gravitational waves, space-time singularities, and black holes.

It is an event honouring the legacy of one of the great Jesuit scientists ever to have lived named George Lemaitre. The Vatican Observatory was founded by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 to correct the false notion that the Catholic Church is in some way hostile to science.

This has been a consistent motif of derogatory commentary on the receptivity and acceptance of science by the Catholic Church since the heresy trial of Galileo 400 years or so ago.

The current position of the Vatican however, is that science and its explanations can quite harmoniously co-exist with religion. The head of the observatory, Brother Guy Consolmagno emphasised that belief in God and the Big Bang are reconcilable and not necessarily in conflict.

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Philosophy News in Brief – May 12th, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/12

The official stances of the Eastern Orthodox Church on LGBTQ

The world’s second largest Christian sect has is the Eastern Orthodox Church, which is composed of autocephalous or independent churches, or multiple patriarchates such as those found in Constantinople, Russia, and Greece.

Thus, all patriarchs all hold equal authority in the Church and there is no centralized headquarters or ultimate authority, which can sometimes make it difficult to ascertain the Church’s exact position on something.

The Church however does appear to have some consensus an official policy on LGBTQ. Thus, a few dioceses have unequivocally listed homosexuality alongside fornication, adultery, abortion and abusive sexual behavior and describe them as “immoral and inappropriate forms of behavior in and of themselves, and also because they attack the institution of marriage and the family.”

Therefore, it believes “homosexual behaviour is a sin”. On the topic of trans people, the dioceses mostly believe gender reassignment is condemned as an affront to God’s design for each individual.

The Eastern Orthodox Church is clear that it does not perform or recognize same-sex marriages. A statement by the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops, has categorically refused to bless same-sex unions. The church also does not ordain LGBTQ people. However, alternative organizations such as the Orthodox-Catholic Church of America do ordain both women and LGBTQ people.

Gaps remain. The Church has no statement on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). In general, it is fairly unwelcoming, but some report that individual congregations may follow a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Feminist associate professor publishes controversial philosophy article

A journal of feminist philosophy, Hypatia, published a controversial article, recently, by Rebecca Tuvel, entitled “In Defense of Transracialism”. Essentially, Tuval cited the argument about ‘identifying as a certain group’, that is used to validate and legitimise transgender people and bring them into mainstream society and argued that Transracialism could be defended on the same grounds. Predictably, Tuvel, assistant professor of philosophy at Rhodes College, has generated considerable controversy.

The editors of the journal drew “opprobrium” shortly after the publication because of its controversial subject matter. The article was widely criticized as a product of white and cisgender privilege.

An open letter called on the journal to retract the article, which was signed by 100s of academics. The article was accused of ignoring the work of transgender and black scholars, and using harmful language.

The editor of the journal now disagrees with the article, and Tuvel has been subjected to an academic witch hunt – with some even comparing her to Rachel Dolezal, who a former leader of an NAACP chapter, who claimed she “identified as black,” although her racial markers identified her as white, and home Tuvel had defended in her article.

‘An eye for an eye’ principle in punishment making a comeback?

Frustrated community leaders are exploring whether punishments that essentially epitomize the ‘eye for an eye’ principle should be used for petty crimes such as vandalism. The destruction, defacement, and disrespect of the material goods of an individual in a community caused by vandalism, they feel is lost on the perpetrators, who never know or care about the effects of their actions.

Someone vandalized a part of a streetscape with a cost of $4,500 to the taxpayers, in Lake Weeroona. The perpetrator, if caught would likely face a lighter fine. The author questions if that is fair to the masses of people in a community at the same time.

He, therefore, wonders about the efficacy of light penalties where the consequences may not be quite sufficient in some cases, and where heavier hands might do the trick – such as a punishment that would extract ‘an eye for an eye’.

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Religion News in Brief – May 12th, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/12

Brain damage could be linked to extreme religious beliefs

New research by scientists seems to indicate that damage in a certain part of the brain is linked to an increase in religious fundamentalism. Reportedly, in particular, lesions in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex reduced cognitive flexibility – the ability to challenge our beliefs based on new evidence.

Scientists involved in these research studies have found that people with brain injuries are more likely to be extremely religious. This has led to speculation about the human brain having a God spot, which might be responsible for religious belief.

Experts have begun to think that the God spot may be the cause of – or have a high positive correlation to – extreme religious belief. As it turns out, more and more research is pointing to brain trauma as the ‘cause’ of extreme religious belief.

The damage to the brain is indicative of people being less able to critically evaluate their most fundamental religious beliefs. Thus, this inability, which in turn fuels their unwillingness to examine or challenge their most fundamental religious beliefs results in such individuals holding on ever stronger to such beliefs, and therefore being increasingly extreme in their adherence to such belief systems.

Texan Republican proposes bill designed to restrict adoption by minority groups.

Texas is making the headlines again over religion. A bill has been proposed by a Republican James Frank over whether to have adoption agencies ban Jews, Muslims, and gay people from taking children in from these adoption agencies. The bill is due to be debated this week

It would probably amount to one of the most “sweeping” bills to differentiate entitled to services to certain groups based on the concept of freedom of religion bills in the United States. The bill, if passed would amount to a denial of adoption services, based on religious beliefs.

The bill has been proposed by the Republican-controlled legislature to protect faith-based adoption agencies. In addition, this would permit state-run agencies the ability to decline services based on the sincerely held religious beliefs of the providers’, and the adoption services’.

Some of the other objections, on the basis of which applicants could be rejected would be if there single, an atheist, or an interfaith couple.

Ban on distribution of Qurans by campaign liked to jihadists proposed in Zurich

Zurich’s Public Safety Office has recommended that the country’s most populous canton ban a campaign called the READ! campaign that distributes Qurans in public space. The Office believes the campaign is a front for incitement and recruitment relating to radical activities, and to jihadist movements.

This, however, is in contrast to the opinion of the Federal intelligence Services, which opined 3 days prior to the recommendation that such a ban could lead to strong conflict with regards to freedom of religion.

However, Zurich’s Public Safety Office has referred to it’s own legal opinion, and stated that it was under no obligation to provide public spaces to be used as a platform from which views that were irreconcilable to the country’s basic values could be spread.

The READ! campaign could not be reached for comment. The campaign was initiated by Germany’s DWR “True Religion” Group, formed in 2011 with the intention of distributing 25 million Qurans in Europe.

However, DWR was banned last year for being instrumental in recruitment of jihadists. Swiss authorities, citing the more than 80 people who have left Switzerland to fight with jihadist movements, point to the trend as allowing for obvious justification for such a ban.

The Association of Islamic Organisations did not expect a widespread negative consequence from the ban, since it was only to a particular campaign.

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Education News in Brief – May 11th, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/11

Preventing cuts on school spending means more money on income tax

The protection of England schools from “real-term cuts” will mean an equivalent increase in spending. This money is to come from raising the basic rate of the income tax according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The Institute is a financial think-tank. Based on its team’s analysis, the maintenance of current funding levels for England schools will mean an increase in spending of 3.7 billion British pounds.

Luke Sibieta of the Institute for Fiscal Studies said, “A promise to protect schools from cuts will not come cheap.” The funding for schools has become an election battleground with opposition parties pointing out the funding shortages.

UK and Australian academic life is more stressful than Iran and Uganda

Stress runs high in the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia for academics in contrast to Iran and Uganda. Academics in these areas of the world report fairly high and low levels of stress, respectively, in a study that is the first of it’s kind.

The global first is the global comparison of stress levels in higher education. The research found Germany’s researchers are the happiest; China’s are those reporting the “greatest strain.” Germany’s greater success comes from the high levels of staff morale and the strong job satisfaction.

Professor of educational psychology at Jönköping University, Roland Persson, made the ranking list. Persson analysed 91 articles, literature reviews, and national surveys in order to arrive at his conclusions. According to his study it seems that a significant reason for Germany’s success comes from the lack of management culture.

Prescription drug use by kids a concern for British parents

There is an increasing trend of prescription drug use by Britain teens, which appears to have been a more common and long-term trend in the United States. It can be a worry for parents, who have been urged to warn their kids about the issues around it.

The problems have come out after the Wiltshire police pointed out that over 20 kids either age 15 or 16, school age kids, needed treatment after increased use of Xanax, a drug to help with anxiety and panic disorders.

This casual or recreational drug use while increasingly common in North America now appears to be seeping into Britain. In the United States of America, in the state of New Mexico, 16 pupils have been hospitalised in 2017 alone with the year not even reaching its halfway point.

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Two Men in India Killed by Mob for Stealing “Sacred” Cows

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/07

Indian villagers beat a pair of Muslims to death. The two Muslim men were claimed to have been stealing cows and were asserted suspects, according to the police. Cattle are considered sacred by Hindus, who are the religious-majority in India.

In the Nagaon district, the police of Assam state registered the cases of Abu Hanifa and Riyazuddin as murderers. Two people were detained and questioned over the murders.

Nagaon’s chief police officer, Debaraj Upadhyay, said, “They were chased and beaten with sticks by villagers who said the two boys were trying to steal cows from their grazing field…By the time we took them to the hospital at night they had succumbed to their injuries.”

There was footage taken by a local witness, which was aired by the broadcasters in India. In the recordings, the two Muslim men were being beaten with their hands tied and the villagers surrounding them, beating them.

There have been killings and smugglings of cows, recently, and it has become a recent tension with regards to the religious and holy significance of cattle to the Hindu majority in India. The slaughter of cattle is a punishable offense in many states in India.

Various vigilante groups have been talking about “cow protection” in the early months up to the present of 2017. Another Muslim man was beaten to death in Rajasthan. Why? The mob discovered cows in his truck.

The vigilante groups, or mobs, have been inspecting transportation for cattle. The man beaten to death in Rajasthan was a dairy farmer and was in the middle of transporting milk cows. There were accusations hurled at the police. That they didn’t act in enough haste for the dairy farmer.

Some critics argue that the Narendra Modi victory has emboldened the vigilantes. Modi is the leader of the Bharatiya Janada party, known for being a Hindu nationalist party. Modi won the position of prime minister in 2014.

In 2016, Modi criticised the “cow protection vigilantes,” especially urging a “crackdown” on those that would use religion to cover their crimes. Across India, 10 Muslim men, at least, have been killed by these types of incidents with Hindu mobs descending to protect cattle and kill Muslims.

Not for being Muslims necessarily, but for suspecting the consumption of beef or the smuggling of cattle. To protect against smuggling, the government will be issuing millions of identification numbers for cows in a national database – linking the cows and the national database – in an effort to protect them from future smuggles in India.

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The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on a “Post-Secular Age”

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/06

The Archbishop and Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, from the Eastern Orthodox Church, and Sheik Ahmad el-Tayeb, who is the Grand Imam of al-Azhur University, attended the opening of the al-Azhar International Peace Conference in Cairo, Egypt on April 27, 2017.

The Head of the Roman Catholic church, Pope Francis, attended on April 28th. The focus of the event however was to be the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew who used the opportunity to provide a blueprint for interreligious dialogue in the future with a central role for religion in people’s lives.

It has been speculated before, that the spotlight on the Holy See, Pope Francis may possibly result in reducing the spotlight on Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I within the global Christian community. With the trip to Cairo, Egypt, by Pope Francis, Patriarch Bartholomew should have been, according to conventional thought, unseen or at the very least in the background.

But religious spheres of influence also appear to be shifting, and old realms of power are no longer as strongly held. With the retirement of Benedict XVI, observers of religious trends have asserted that some of the heavy lifting for Christianity has been done by Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I.

In particular, the intellectual and religious heavy lifting in association with Islam, or rather in relation to Christianity’s relationship with Islam appears to have been taken on by Patriarch Bartholomew I. The reasons for this are not hard to surmise.

While the Eastern Orthodox Church has had a longer and deeper interrelationship with Islam in the past than the Roman Catholics, in addition to doctrinal Christology, this is one other major difference between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The religious head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, lives in Istanbul. It is a mostly Muslim city, but one that has the historical distinction of having been a “bridge” for the Muslim and Christian religions for several centuries.

In Cairo, Egypt, he spoke to the future of interreligious dialogue and a post-secular world, exhorting the return to a religious way of life, and heralding a time when more people would return to religion.

Patriarch Bartholomew said, “[The] modernistic expectation is of a post-religious secular age…[however, it is] becoming a post-secular period, or even [an epoch] of religious explosion.”

He argued for religion as a core factor to human life, individually and socially. He listed four main reasons for religion affecting humanity. One, he explained that faith and religion connects and taps into some of the greatest concerns of people while providing answers to existential questions and thereby affording meaning and orientation in life.

Two, he pointed out that religion was inextricably related to the identity of civilizations and groups. Three, religion, he argued, has been the creator and preserver of some of the great achievements of culture in addition to the compassion, and ethics, and solidarity seen today.

Four, Patriarch Bartholomew I underlined his conviction that religion remained a vital factor in the peace process. Adverting to an extremely well-known quote by the famed St. Paul, he recalled that God was not the author of confusion but of peace.

The Patriarch acknowledged that while religion could, of course divide by causing intolerance and violence – the causation of such chaos was a symptom of its failure, and cannot be said to be its essence which, the Patriarch reiterated, wasthe protection of human dignity.”

He sees relativism and fundamentalism as extremes in the modern era and secularism as a reaction to the extremes that relativism and fundamentalism have been taken to.

Patriarch Bartholomew views the religious fundamentalist “outbursts” as ammunition for the critics of religious faith and called on the faithful to resist such influences, but rather remain true to their religious calling.

Memorably, The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I closed with these words – “True faith does not release humans from being responsibility for the world, from respecting human dignity, and from struggling for justice and peace.

On the contrary, it strengthens the commitment of human action, enlarges our witness for freedom and human core values.”

Al-Azhar, where the speaking engagement took place, is seen as a major institution of Sunni Islam. Patriarch Bartholomew denounced terrorism and disassociated it with any religion, which was received with applause from the crowd.

“This is the biggest challenge for religions, to develop their own potential of love, solidarity, and compassion…this is what humanity deeply expects from religion today,” Patriarch Bartholomew said.

The event at Al-Azhar is certainly interesting for its unifying of three of the most influential religious figures in the world today. Their uniform message of the role of religion in today’s world, its necessity, and their disavowal of religion as the cause of any of the extremist violence follows an old and well worn script. Whether the followers of these religions find new meaning within the words of Patriarch Bartholomew I and will become champions of a tectonic social change remains to be seen.

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2022-04-12

UN Intercultural Dialogue on Peace and Human Security

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/06

The government of Azerbaijan hosted the Fourth World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue in coordination with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural organisation (UNESCO) and others.

One modern issue is the integration of migrants and refugees into large cities. Associated with this is the rise in extremism and how it has turned violent, as well as, the radicalisation of youth via extremist context on the Internet.

It was reported that this will provide an opportunity for the examination of potential effective responses to the various issues surrounding human security, mass migration, and violent extremism.

Numerous government heads and ministers, private sector individuals, policy makers, journalists,

civil society activists, intergovernmental organisation representatives, and others gathered at the forum.

It was themed with ‘Advancing Intercultural Dialogue – New avenues for human security, peace and sustainable development.’ The UNESCO assistant director general for social and human sciences, Nadia Al-Nashif, said, “[The forum has a] very strong vision and resonates deeply with UNESCO’s mandate to build peace in the minds of men and women.”

Al-Nashif described the modern world as a complicated place with massive innovations in technology, increased tensions, and a lack of general trust based on insecurity. However, she noted in a UN forum UN dialogue is an important platform.

It allows for global citizens to debate coexistence with regards to the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.” It is an agenda for acceptance, integration, social inclusion, and tolerance plus empathy.

UNESCO will host 13 sessions at the forum. As an international forum through the UN, it is not simply academic, as noted by Ms. Al-Nashif, but there are cities and local authorities coming too.

UNESCO has been working to help with the increased influx of migrants into major city centres. Many of the products from the forum will be turned into a research publication entitled, “Interculturalism at a crossroads, comparative perspectives on concepts, policies and practices.” Al-Nashif said, “What the Baku Forum and UNESCO is doing is finding a common access where we continue to engage, to inform scientific evidence for why it doesn’t make sense to be racist, [and] why discrimination hurts socially and economically as well.”

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2022-04-12

The UK Air Quality Plan – A Weak, Half-Hearted Attempt?

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/06

The government of the United Kingdom, after much rebuke from European Union institutions, has finally drafted a strategy for the improvement of air quality. The improvement of the air quality in the United Kingdom is based on the reduction of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere.

Recalling that the UK was reprimanded by the European Commission for being one of five countries that persistently contravened EU regulations regarding the amount of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere and it was after the threat of legal sanction that this initiative has come to pass.

Air pollution is a serious problem in the UK. The exposure to outdoor pollution of air is associated with about 40,000 deaths per year in the UK.

This damage to the body can be inflicted across the lifespan, starting from some of the first weeks in the womb all the way to the older years of an individual. In addition, it has been linked with cancer, heart disease, asthma, and diabetes.

Therefore, the plan’s stated objective was to reduce pollution to such an extent as to bring the UK into the ranks of some of the cleaner and healthier areas. Vehicle manufacturers have an important part to play within the framework of the quality of air, according to the UK government.

The government has signalled that the options are open for consultation, which could run from from now until June 15. The final plan for the publication will be at the end of July.

However, the lawyers and activists who pushed for the plan and hoped that it would be designed in a manner to encourage or insist on the weakening of the impact of diesel vehicles in addition to the rapid transition into cleaner forms of transport seem to have been disappointed.

The plan allows for discussion around the possibility for a tax treatment for diesel vehicle drivers. However, the government has refrained from imposing any specific charges; there will need to be an engagement with stakeholders before any formal tax changes, circa the Autumn Budget 2017.

Even with the plan in place and the consultation in preparation, however, some have criticised the air quality plan as insufficient.

Some environmental lawyers have seen the plan as “much weaker than hoped for.” Chief executive of ClientEarth, James Thornton, described the government as removing personal responsibility, and shirking it to the local authorities.

Activists and politicians in favour of a more stringent plan point out that this plan was the result of Ministers facing a series of defeats in the courts, where the prior plans were viewed as illegal.

“The plan looks much weaker than we had hoped for,” said Thornton. “The court ordered the government to take this public health issue seriously and while the government says that pollution is the largest environmental risk to public health, we will still be faced with illegal air quality for years to come under these proposals.”

It remains to be seen whether the present plan will be approved of as being in line with public health requirements and the consequent obligations of the government.

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2022-04-12

Technological Innovations – Opportunities and Challenges

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/06

The International Labour Organisation, as the putative authority and overseer of labour and industry trends has had frequent occasion to comment on the difficulties with new technological innovations disrupting industry, but has also highlighted the opportunities they present.

Clearly, development of new technologies permit new modes of production. With new modes of production based on such innovations the landscape of work changes significantly and this has lead to disruptions in both blue-collar work and at some of the simpler levels in the sphere of white-collar work.

These disruptions can clearly upset lifestyles and lives and necessitate the need for further retraining. Those with the desire for work-life balance might be able to get it based on retraining and the ability to find a new job in the new market made by the new technologies.

With these disruptions, occasioned particularly when the pace of innovation outpaces society capacity to retrain, the job market collapses in some areas and reduces in some others, but expands in different ways.

This entails the creation and sustaining of new industries, which, in turn creates new jobs – however, an insufficiently prepared workforce may not be able to reap the benefits of such advanced. Technology is changing the landscape, and society, as well as authorities, have to gear up to address the challenges and opportunities associated with new technologies.

In a sample of 15 countries, those highly involved in telework and ICT-mobile work (T/ICTM) had a higher level of work intensity. This is regardless of the place that they have been working.

However, they have also managed to attain higher levels of work-life balance, which may be considered an overall social good, and therefore one of the more obvious benefits of technological disruption.

Some of the increased work-life balance can come from the reduction in the amount of time necessary to travel to work in addition to the flexibility of one’s own working time. However, this has led to longer work hours and ambiguity between work and personal time.

Some have found that the constant and consistent need to be on call has produced higher levels of stress. The ILO’s research has noted that the new forms of work will intensify within the era of large-scale electronics.

So, “working time regulations” will have to adapt to this, which should take advantage of the positives and mitigate the negatives, and ensure that technologies remain a force for good.

Technological innovations have always been profoundly dependent on the use to which they are put, and the manner in which they are utilised.

In much the same way that the industrial revolution set human society on a period of rapid advancement, the current leaps and bounds in industrial evolution due to information technology will have significant effects on society.

Their impact therefore, will depend largely on how they are received and managed. Ultimately, as the ILO’s research reflects, innovations such as automation represent both opportunities and challenges. What they end up being depends on how they are used by human beings.

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2022-04-12

Boy Beaten to Death at Islamic School for ‘Making Noise’

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/06

A Malaysian school boy aged 11 has died in hospital after being severely beaten at an Islamic school. Mohamed Thaqif Amin Mohd Gaddafi’s beatings were so bad that his legs, which were whipped with a water hose, were amputated to prevent the spread of infection. Bernama, the state news agency, reported on the death.

The boy’s death has sparked outrage in the Muslim-majority country. He, and other pupils, were whipped with a water hose. An assistant warden gave the whippings at the Johor Islamic school, which is north of Singapore.

There have been circulated photos of the boy with blackened legs, which were swollen from infection. After admittance to the hospital 2 weeks later, the doctors had to amputate the 11-year-old’s legs while he was in a coma.

The amputations were to prevent the spread of infection. The district police chief, Rahmat Othman, said, “We are now waiting for the medical and autopsy reports from the hospital before taking further action.”

Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim, chairman of the Parent Action Group for Education, said, “To this day, we do not know who are actually in charge of regulating tahfiz schools.” Many of the Islamic educational schools are privately operate and have registration in a government/state religious department.

They tend not to be with the education ministry. The education ministry has “strict guidelines” on corporal punishment, whereas the private Islamic schools do not. This particular case has prompted many to demand more scrutiny of the “tahfiz” educational institutions.

Students memorise the Quran there. Prime Minister Najib Razak has announced a 5.4 million British pound fund for the development of tahfix education, but has expressed condolences for the loss of the boy.

The death of Mohamed Thaqif Amin Mohd Gaddafi has focused a lot of public attention on a new bill being discussed in the Malaysian Parliament, a bill that would impose more stringent forms of the Islamic penal code. This could include whipping.

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2022-04-12

Trump Signs Executive Order in Favour of Religious Right

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/06

US President, Donald Trump, has signed an executive order, which provides the basis for the easier political manoeuvring of the religious in America as opposed to the non-religious.

There was a weakening of the enforcement of a rule that prevented churches and tax-exempt groups from the endorsement of American political candidates.

There were steps towards resolution of the dispute over Obama-era healthcare care plan rules, which moved in the favour of the religious Right by the opposition to birth control. More or less, Trump’s inner circle mostly belongs to the religious Right.

To faith leaders at the White House Rose Garden, Trump said, “We will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied or silenced any more and we will never ever stand for religious discrimination…With this executive order, we are ending the attacks on your religious liberty.”

Evangelical leaders and scholars consider this to be a watered down version of a drafted executive order that was leaked earlier in 2017. Even so, the executive order is highly in favour of the religious Right.

It was filled with religious exemptions and language that could give millions of Americans “a licence to discriminate” against parents that were unwed, some rights advocates, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.

This will possibly result in a new policy for the Health Department. The accommodation will be for religious institutions or groups that can tell the federal government that they were after the amendment “to provide employees with contraceptive coverage.”

The Centre for Reproductive Rights has an opening that is ready to block the order in court. The order seems to have gone far, but not as far as the refusal of services to individuals and organisations based on religious beliefs.

For example, if an individual was a Christian and did not want to provide a service to a Muslim, a homosexual, or a nonreligious individual, then the Christian owner of the business would be able to deny them the service based on their religious ‘superiority;’ being Christian.

There have been rumours about the Trump administration and their preparation of a sweeping executive order that would allow any government worker or organisation receiving federal funding the right to target LGBT people.

The president of Naral Pro-Choice America, Ilyse Hogue, said, “Americans did not vote to have their healthcare taken away or to have their access to birth control cut off.” As well, Trevor Potter, the president of the Campaign Legal Center, said, “For decades, the charitable political activities prohibition has kept tax-exempt religious institutions focused on their religious missions, freeing them from the pressures associated with partisan political campaigns.”

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2022-04-12

Gay Men at Risk of Torture in Indonesia

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/05

The government of Indonesia has been attempting, repeatedly, to threaten the rights and safety of LGBT citizens of the country. There have been a number of comments with regards to it and a call on the Indonesian authorities to release 2 gay men from the Aceh province. The local ordinance at the moment criminalises homosexuality.

On the night of March 28, 2017, unidentified vigilantes forcibly entered a home and brought two men found there to the police for having alleged same-sex relations. The two men, in their twenties, have been detained at a Wilayatul Hisbah, a Sharia (Islamic law) police facility in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.

The chief inspector stated the 2 gay men confessed to being gay and would be detained for being male homosexuals. In the Aceh Islamic Criminal Code (Qanun Jinayah), the men may face 100 public lashings.

Under international law, this section of the Islamic Criminal Code constitutes torture. There is disagreement between international law and the Aceh Islamic Criminal Code and was noted by the deputy Asia division director of HRW, Phelim Kine, that these two cases exemplify the embedded anti-LGBT discrimination in the Qanun Jinayah.

“These men had their privacy invaded in a frightening and humiliating manner and now face public torture for the ‘crime’ of their alleged sexual orientation,” Kine said.

There was cell phone footage of the raid. The ordinances in the Qanun Jinayah against gays is said to empower the public and the special Sharia police force in the public identification and detainment of someone in violation of the rules.

The Aceh authorities detained LGBT individuals in the past, including an 18-year-old and a 19-year-old pair of young women who were assumed to be lesbians. The charge was “embracing in public” with detainment for 3 nights.

Over the past 10 years, the Aceh parliament has begun to adopt various Sharia-inspired ordinances, which have criminalised non-hijab-wearing women, and other activities such as the consumption of alcohol, gambling, and extramarital relations. These can be enforced onto non-Muslims.

In 2016, 339 people received lashings – a Sharia-based punishment. Out of the 34 provinces in Indonesia, Aceh is the main one that can adopt, by law, the Sharia-based bylaws. The Human Rights Watch openly opposes all discriminatory laws and policies; especially those that violate the most basic human rights.

HRW said, in June, that the Minister of Home Affairs Tjahjo Kumolo backtracked on an announced commitment for the abolishment of abusive Sharia regulations in the nation. The government officials in Aceh province have worked to actively stoke the homophobia.

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2022-04-12

Q&A on the Philosophy of Economics with Dr. Alexander Douglas – Session 2

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/05

Dr. Alexander Douglas specialises in the history of philosophy and the philosophy of economics. He is a faculty member at the University of St. Andrews in the School of Philosophical, Anthropological and Film Studies. In this series, we will discuss the the philosophy of economics.

Scott Jacobsen: With the words such as “capital,” “debt,” “money,” and “wealth,” what creates moderate levels of confusion over use in public discussion?

Dr. Alexander Douglas: Take “debt,” for instance, the subject of my last book. We apply one word to a wide diversity of cases: my debt to a friend, a household’s debt to a bank, a government’s debt to its bondholders.

These cases have important differences, which are ignored if we assume the word to be perfectly univocal. I won’t say more about this example here, since I’ve written about it elsewhere.

Another example is “money.” We know that cash is money, but are bank deposits “money”? Some say yes, some say no, leading to unhelpful debates about whether or not banks can “create money” by making new loans.

Many people don’t count UK Treasury Bills and Gilts as “money,” but traders do: they call them “securities accounts” and treat them just like term deposits at a bank. The ambiguity in the concept leads to confusion.

But worse, if we restrict it to mean a certain class of financial assets, it loses almost all its explanatory power. In elementary textbooks, you find something called the Quantity Theory of Money, which tells you (among other things) that changes in the total amount of money, other things being equal, change prices.

But the theory breaks down if you restrict the definition of “money” to a certain class of assets while people make payments by creating and circulating different sorts of assets. Thus, the term “money” is either imprecise or of no real explanatory value.

How about “capital?” An economics textbook might tell you that it refers to the various physical equipment that can be combined with labour to produce output. But can we quantify it? In what units?

Weight, for instance, isn’t the relevant measure, since a lighter tool can be more productive than a heavier one – some sharp chainsaws weigh less than some blunt axes.

We can measure capital by its monetary value, but then we can’t distinguish between, e.g., the loss or physical destruction of £100,000 worth of capital and a drop of £100,000 in the market value of existing capital.

Meanwhile, Marx defined capital as power – the power of the capitalist to command labour and resources. Is Marx presenting a revision to the meaning of the term “capital,” or is he advancing a theory about what we all agree to call “capital?”

As for “wealth,” well – just what is it, and how should we measure it? Ruskin said there is no wealth but life. Was he obviously wrong?

Jacobsen: What have economists really tested against the data? What are some more established findings?

Douglas: There are lots of important recent developments in empirical economics. In the 80’s and 90’s, Alexander Rosenberg pushed a fairly critical line against economics. Drawing on some research by Wassily Leontief, he argued that economists had made almost no reliable precise predictions.

Prediction is the gold standard of explanation in science: if you can’t predict it, how do you know you’ve properly explained it?

But recently, economists have developed new techniques for gathering data and testing theories – they no longer depend only on time-series data, which is notoriously inconclusive.

They now design controlled laboratory experiments, which can be as simple as giving people choices with different parameters and seeing how they react – the growing field of behavioural economics uses techniques like this.

They are also starting to employ the research of sociologists and others to study how different sorts of institutional contexts affect human behaviour. They have developed new ways of measuring crucial macroeconomic variables like rates of inflation and growth.

But there is still much room for criticism. Many core theories are still almost impossible to test.

For example, if you try to measure the ‘price-elasticity of demand’ by seeing how the quantities purchased of some commodity change when prices change, you need to assume that the preferences of the relevant consumers are stable over time.

You also need to abstract away from interactions between the market for that commodity with all the other markets in which the consumers participate.

Although I’m not an expert, I think that many macroeconomic models use variables whose values can’t be tested – the rate of technological change, the degree of institutional trust: since these floating variables can absorb any error margin between the predictions of the theory and what shows up in the data, they put an opaque screen between the theory and the data.

Since these are the sorts of models that get used to guide economic policy, this should be of concern to society in general, not just to economists.

Jacobsen: You mentioned many names. From Jevons, Keynes, Smith, and Aristotle to Hausman, Rosenberg, Cartwright, Laws, Sen, Robinson, and Hicks. Logic, to an extent, forms the foundation for the ideas and thought processes. Here’s a general question, what is the logic below economics? The logic that gives rise to terms, which, as noted earlier, are used, even abused.

I ask because philosophies have logic. Thus, the philosophy of economics, seems to, at root, look at the logic of economics.

Douglas: One way to think of the theory of choice that underlies standard economics is as a sort of normative theory: it studies the choices that people should make, given their preferences, just as logic studies the sorts of inferences that people should make, given certain premises.

The fact that people often make irrational choices or bad inferences is simply not relevant to the aims of the discipline in either case.

I think there is still some confusion in economics around this: there is a lot of slippage between a purely logical theory of choice, given some formal definition of rationality, and a predictively powerful theory capable of explaining what actually happens in the world.

Sometimes the slippage is covered up by an appeal to ‘the long run:’ people might make irrational decisions in some cases, but if they repeat the choice-problem many times they will wise up and converge towards the formally rational outcome. I don’t buy it.

Jacobsen: Two questions for you: “Are economists justified in using abstract mathematical models?” and “Is Rational Choice Theory, which forms the basis of much economics, empirically unfalsifiable?”

Douglas: On mathematical models, it’s hard to say, since there are so many different sorts of mathematical models. Tony Lawson, whom I mentioned before, has come out very strongly against the use of mathematical models in economics.

He thinks it just gets the ‘ontology’ wrong: neither individual people nor economic systems as a whole are elementary particles operating according to fixed laws. I think there is a lot in his argument.

One issue I have with mathematical models in economics is that they sometimes assume an optimum exists, with no solid mathematical argument for this. To give a simple example: suppose I set you the problem of choosing the greatest real number that is less than 5.

There is no optimum solution – for any answer you give, there are an infinite number of better answers. If, on the other hand, I set you the problem of choosing the greatest real number that is less than or equal to 5, then there is an optimum answer: 5.

Economic models sometimes assume that the optimisation problems they describe are like the second example without proving that they aren’t in fact like the first example.

On the other hand, the difficulty with non-mathematical theories is in testing them. I like to think of this in terms of René Girard, an anthropologist whose writing I admire.

He has a single theory for explaining all human mythology and institutions, based on the centrality of what he calls the ‘scapegoating mechanism.’ He finds hints of this mechanism in the Upanishads, the plays of Shakespeare, and the phenomenon of global terrorism.

I find his work profound and illuminating, but would I bet my life on its truth? No, because there’s no way to measure just how accurate, and therefore, just how predictively robust the theory is. It’s easy to find hints of the scapegoating mechanism in any story, but there’s no way to quantify just how much any story really conforms to the model.

With Rational Choice Theory, I can be briefer. Yes, in its standard form, it is empirically unfalsifiable. The problem is simple: the theory claims that people make the choices that maximise their preferences subject to constraints.

But all we observe are the choices people make. If we take “preferences” simply to mean people’s patterns of choice – this is recommended in Paul Samuelson’s famous economics textbook – then the RCT is trivial: it just tells us that people choose what they choose. It can’t be refuted by any observation of choice behaviour.

But if preferences are something other than patterns of choice, we can’t observe them directly, and again the theory can’t be falsified (nor verified) empirically.

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2022-04-12

An Interview with Narendra Nayak – President of Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations & Founder of Aid Without Religion

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/03

You are one of the more famous unknowns. Your name should be more internationally recognised, I feel. You have done plenty of work in the sceptic movement and for reason. Your father bought a lottery ticket on the advice of an astrologer. This was a turning point for you.

Why? What other personal/educational background assisted with the development of rationalist perspectives and tools?

As for me being an unknown, I do not mind that! But you have to remember that ours is a country of 1.20 billion people, and among them I am quite known as one of the most visible faces in the field. We would rather do the work than seek publicity.

The international scene is replete with those who make orations at international seminars, and I have attended only a few. The IHEU had awarded me for outstanding services to Humanism at their Oslo conference.

Thanks for your feeling that I should be more recognised internationally!

One of the reasons for my turning a sceptic was my father’s obsession with astrology. But there are more reasons. They can be read here. http://nirmukta.com/2010/12/26/a-twice-born-atheist/ and here too http://nirmukta.com/2009/12/11/am-i-a-hindu/.

It was that I first became an atheist and remained one for quite some time. Atheism is just a conclusion. Later on, I should say may be at the age of 21 or so I became a rationalist who investigates things and looks for evidence before accepting something.

At the age of 25 or so I joined the movement. My undergraduate training as a chemist and later on my post graduate training as a medical biochemist made me more and more methodical in investigating claims of the paranormal.

The choice of a life without succumbing to any of the irrational practices thrust upon one by the society was a challenging task but I have managed to live up to it. You could read more here http://nirmukta.com/2010/11/26/practicing-atheism-in-ones-life-under-all-circumstances/.

The easy availability of literature and references was another plus point as I was teaching at a Medical College. Again we had many colleagues with such inclinations and would cooperate when needed.

Later on about three decades back, when I came in touch with Humanism, I realised that that was what I have been doing all my life. So, can now say that I am a Humanist!

In your experience and transition, rationalism is not only a scientific and philosophical stance. It is an ethical stance derived from personal, likely emotional, experience within the family. How do you maintain high ethical standards in this professional work over decades?

This was probably because I was working at a university where there was very little interference in the personal lives of the faculty unless their stands were a threat to the commercial interests of the set up. Even in such situations I have stuck to my stand, and attempts were made to ‘put me on the proper track’. These did not succeed.

When punitive action was taken in 1989, I approached the courts and won my battle, and it was technically held to be termination from service which could be done only after a due process of law which had not been followed as there were no grounds at all for such an action.

Of course, due to the slow moving Indian judicial system it took nearly five and a half years for the courts to decide in my favour.

But I had made my point and after that, there has been absolutely no interference in my activities! In my personal life, I have always stuck to my stand about ethics; no active participation in any religious ceremonies, no treatment from quacks etc.

This has been followed even in my business which is run on totally ethical lines.

To you, what is a rationalist, or makes a good rationalist?

According to me, I would define a rationalist as one who puts things to the test of reason before accepting them. Leading a life by one’s convictions makes a good rationalist. Though this looks almost impossible in a country like ours, many of us have done it.

You are the president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations(FIRA). What tasks and responsibilities come with this position?

My responsibilities as the President of FIRA are to hold the movement together on common points of action. I also work to promote the movement by going to places all over the country to speak to our member organisations, conducting workshops for developing rational thinking, representing our points of view at seminars, TV discussions, media and anywhere else needed.

I write regularly for the printed media through press handouts, web site publications and a regular column for a monthly magazine called Mangalore Today.

For a long, long time I have been conducting workshops for teachers at the national children’s and teachers’ science congresses. Of course, it has been stopped after the present government has come into power.

The responsibilities are difficult to perform as there are too many languages in this country and we have to communicate to people in their regional language which is possible for me as I can speak nine of them.

Perhaps that may be the reason I keep getting re-elected repeatedly! The last one happened a few days ago on the 26^th of February.

In July 2011, you founded Aid Without Religion. What was the inspiration for it? How did you identify this niche needing services?

The religious organisations try to justify their collection of funds from the public citing that they are needed for charitable purposes. They also directly or indirectly force the beneficiaries to sing praises of the head of the sect promoting these.

Their photographs are posted all over the place which receives their charity and many time paeans to them are sung. They also promote quackery in the name of medical care. So, it was very much needed to do some work without these.

So, I started this trust for the specific purpose. Again, when I pass away I want my personal assets to be put to use to promote such work. My idea is to see that my work goes on after me and a charity with such specific aims and objectives would help in that.

You put godmen and frauds to the test. They fail. What are godmen? What is the most common trick of godmen and frauds in India?

The term ‘godmen’ is a specifically Indian usage. Some of these gurus call themselves Bhagawan XYZ where the term Bhagawan or god is a prefix to their name. They also change their given names to high-sounding ones having a meaning like ‘a great one’, ‘a realised one’ and so on.

Some of them even add a number of ‘misters’ to their title like Sri Sri, Sri Sri Sri etc., the number of sris quantifying their greatness.

In order to bamboozle their gullible followers, they perform tasks apparently impossible for a normal person say something like ‘materialising’ an object from thin air, walking on embers, dipping hands into boiling oil are a few such examples.

There are also Jesus Christ-like moments multiplying food, converting one liquid into another, reviving the dead, healing disease etc.

Who was a particularly notable story in your professional career so far?

If you mean my profession as a medical biochemist, my involvement in the work about lead poisoning particularly in school children has been the most satisfying. As a consumer activist, we succeeded in bringing about a Consumer Protection Act for the country in 1986.

As a rationalist putting a stop to a fraud called as midbrain activation, which was allegedly conferring supernatural powers on children to see even when blindfolded, was one of our major achievements. Check this- http://nirmukta.com/2015/04/26/midbrain-activation-challenge-an-update/

What is the overall state of rationalism in India?

We are diverse nation with a huge population. We need a lot of activists to make the people think rationally. We have a program which appeals to the people directly which is called the ‘miracle exposure program’.

In this, we go to the people and show them the so-called God man tricks and explain how it is possible for anyone to do them. This helps as a starting point to make the people think about them. The newer generation of godmen have given them up and have started other things.

This would give an idea about some of the attitudes. http://nirmukta.com/2011/01/03/the-super-intelligent-superstitious/. This too- http://nirmukta.com/2010/04/22/yogi-in-politics-a-rationalists-thoughts-on-baba-ramdev/, which pertains to a so called yogi who has built up a marketing empire selling things like noodles and biscuits in the name of promoting yoga!

On one hand, we have the economically weaker sections who have been ruthlessly exploited by the religious system while on the other we have the more affluent the so called middle class http://nirmukta.com/2016/03/14/hypocrisies-of-the-great-indian-middle-class/, whose icons are again an example of irrationality many times- http://nirmukta.com/2011/05/26/icons-of-the-middle-class/.

How does one present the rationalist worldview in a respectful and positive light in various sectors of Indian culture, and subculture?

The rationalist world view is nothing new to India. Gautam Buddha taught about it 2500 years back. Charvaka was one of earliest materialist philosophers. Two religions, Buddhism and Jainism, have originated in India which are basically atheistic.

The Upanishads and Darshans encourage questioning. The Shad Darshanas are an example of this. Again the term ‘Hindu’ is a vague one with a legal definition as ‘one who is not a Christian, Muslim, Jew or a Parsi’ which means that all rationalist/atheists come under that ambit!

So, it is quite difficult for the rightist forces to attack us on logic and reason. So, they tend to label us as ‘sickulars’ (mockery of secular), ‘Commies’, ‘anti-nationals’ etc. But the common people are remarkably receptive to our point of view when properly presented.

What have been the most emotionally moving experiences in your professional rationalist work?

They are too many to be cited here. We have supported inter-caste, inter-religious marriages, helped the so-called untouchables, HIV-positive children shunned by the society and so on. One of these is here http://indianatheists.org/2011/04/07/children-of-a-lesser-god/

What are some of the demographics of FIRA? Who is most likely to join it?

FIRA does not take memberships from individuals. We are a federation who affiliates organisations who have members. We have organisations with thousands of members who are registered societies and trusts having a few members.

One of the strongest is Punjab Tarksheel Society with thousands of members. Kerala Yuktivadi Sangham has a very systematic setup with an organised membership. Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti has hundreds of branches in villages.

As already said, we do not take individuals as members. Those likely to join us are like-minded organisations – atheist, rationalist, secular, humanist- all are welcome who are interested in development of rational thinking.

What have been the largest activist and educational initiatives provided by FIRA (and you, individually)? Out of these, what have been honest failures and successes?

We have made a systematic effort to have activists in every district of the country and organised national and state level programs which were funded by the government of India. Some of them worked. Many did not.

Two times we have organised marches to the parliament to demand the enactment of a bill to separate religion from politics but nothing has happened on that front.

We have tried for anti-superstition acts in many states but have succeeded in only one state. Another of our failures has been our inability to attract younger people to join us actively. The younger generation has no significant presence in our movement.

Though many of them agree with our point of view, they do not want to take an active part. We have to work hard to bring them in.

Who/what are the main threats to rationalism as a movement?

The religious bigots, who now have the official support from the government ruling at the centre. The so-called minority pressure groups also target us. We are attacked from every side. Three of our people have been murdered so far.

Dr. Narendra Dhabolkar was the first one to be killed, and he was a very active member of FIRA. I am forced to go around with an armed bodyguard appointed by the government because threats to my life have been perceived.

How can people get involved with FIRA, even donate to it? How can people further rationalism in India?

We are more in need of participation than funds. My appeal to people is start an organisation of rationalists in your locality and join us as a member. We shall provide resources in terms of inputs and training.

Thank you for your time, Mr. Nayak.

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2022-04-12

An Interview with Michael Cluff – President of South Jersey Humanists

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/03

How did you become a humanist?

The story I usually tell is that I stopped believing in a soul the more I read about human cognition in college (I was a psych major). But that over-emphasises the intellect, a habit we atheists are prone to.

I also saw how religion was failing so many people and not living up to how it is advertised. I saw very little bliss and contentment, but lots and lots of guilt, torment, fear, and judgment.

Perhaps the point where I truly became an atheist was during a high-school religious retreat.

At the end of our retreat, our pastor suggested we walk out to the woods to pray. I scrambled to find a prayer-worthy spot — only the best for you, God! — and had to settle for an unremarkable log. As I struggled to come up with a prayer, my inner voice noted, “you’re trying really HARD to do this, aren’t you?”

It took a few years, but that doubtful voice got louder and louder, and finally I stopped suppressing it (Wait, maybe that voice was Satan).

What seems like the main reason for people becoming secular humanists in your experience, e.g. arguments from logic and philosophy, evidence from mainstream science, or experience within traditional religious structures?

I honestly can’t pinpoint one reason! Whenever a new person comes to a meeting, they’re given a chance to describe their belief history. We’ve met everything from life-long atheists to people who lost their faith weeks before.

If I had to pick, I’d say that science is the primary reason. But as my history shows, citing reason or “science” as the cause risks oversimplifying.

What makes secular humanism seem more natural to you than other sentiments, or ethical and philosophical worldviews?

The universe makes more sense to me if you don’t try to fit a personal God into your explanation. The problem of evil — why bad things happen to good people — simply vanishes without God. And the more modern views of God — god as energy or as the “ground of being” — strike me as truthy word games designed to protect a cherished belief.

So without a God, where do we go from there? What do we do with our one life while respecting the one life that others have? That’s the challenge of humanism. Our ethics should derive from the fact that we evolved as beings who feel pain and pleasure seeking to connect with other beings who also feel pain and pleasure.

What is the best argument for humanism you, personally, have ever come across?

I’m not sure if this is an argument. Perhaps it’s an observation:

Even the most religious people cannot be certain of the existence of God, much less know what that God would want from us. So a humanistic perspective, really, is the only honest one. I guess you could call that a flipped version of Pascal’s Wager?

You are the president of South Jersey Humanists. What tasks and responsibilities come with the position?

When we were smaller, being president meant preparing meetings and leading them, getting ideas for discussion topics, and keeping an eye out for battles we should fight. Now that we’ve grown, we have a (wonderful) board where we can share responsibilities and trade ideas.

I also connect with other group leaders and keep current with issues in the larger humanist, atheist, and sceptic movements.

What have been some of its major setbacks, and successes, in its foundation and development?

Growth is a sign of success but it can bring dangerous crises. When you’re small, it’s easy to work by consensus. When you get bigger, it’s harder to make everyone happy. Imagine setting a meeting date and time for five people. Easy-peasy.

Now imagine doing it for 35. No matter when you schedule it, someone will be left out. So when you grow, you have to formalise your decisions, create rules for managing money, and more. It’s a tough but important process!

We faced a different challenge at the same time: our membership hit a tipping point. The American Humanist Association was the first national atheist organisation to explicitly adopt a social justice agenda.

Most of our members were happy with this, as our group was already heading in that direction. However, we lost some of our conservative and libertarian members, some who were uncomfortable with supporting Black Lives Matter, and some who feared losing focus on “atheist issues.”

There’s a natural push and pull for a group to take action versus running an intellectual salon and debating society. Remembering that we’re primarily a humanist group, and not an anti-theism group, helps us stay true to our purpose.

With Trump’s election, it was clear that there’s a big need for humanist social justice. We’ve had an influx of eager, capable people saying that they felt it was time to act on their humanist beliefs.

What are some of the demographics of the organisation? How many members are in it? Who is most likely to join the organisation?

We’re probably more diverse than most humanist groups, but we’re still not diverse enough. Of our 33 paid members, about 40% are women, and only 12% are persons of colour. (Attendance at meetings and actions seems more diverse than these figures suggest, but I don’t have any numbers).

We don’t have data on LGBTQ membership or participation, but we are fully welcoming to all.

What are some activities of the provided by the South Jersey Humanists?

One of our chartered goals is to provide a welcoming community for those who disbelieve in the supernatural.

Each month we discuss a specific topic, article, or book club selection. We’ve had speakers (most recently ,vaccine expert Paul Offit, American Atheists president David Silverman, Death With Dignity activist Barbara Mancini, AHA president Roy Speckhardt, and “Soul Fallacy” author Julien Musolino). We also do potlucks and have a monthly “Drinking Skeptically” event where we always seem to wind up talking about movies.

Has the group taken up any activist causes? What were they?

Another goal in our charter is to promote social justice (not just for atheists).

For social justice, we try to do what a small group like ours can. We’ve raised funds for the AIDS Alliance’s AIDS Walk (Third Place Fundraising Team in 2016) and the Leukemia / Lymphoma foundation.

We volunteer quarterly at the local Food Bank, and we’ve also given them fresh vegetables we grew in our community garden.

Each year, we help students write letters for political prisoners on behalf of Amnesty International. This is at the local university as part of their Martin Luther King Day of Service.

While we did that this year, we met someone who is active in Syrian refugee relief (the Narenj Tree Foundation), so we’re hoping to help them soon. We’ve visited prisons, too, and participated in a prison pen-pal program.

What were their outcomes?

I wish I could say we’ve eliminated poverty, racism, and other forms of ignorance in our area, but there’s always next year. (Kidding, of course). I really admire what groups like Atheists Helping the Homeless have done in Texas, and I’d love for us to have that kind of success at some point.

Beyond the obvious benefits of our actions, taking action has gotten us together with other organisations and activists, which will make us better connected and more effective. And the more we do, the better at it we get.

What is the public perception of humanism in South Jersey?

It’s mixed. We live in a blue state, so we don’t face the same fights other humanist groups have, such as creationism in schools. But our part of South Jersey (near Atlantic City) is a patch of red buried within a blue state.

The church-state issues we see here are quasi-legal, such as non-sectarian prayers at town councils or “Good News Clubs” operating within local schools. But we see lots of reminders that this is a religious area.

Just down the road from me there’s a huge “One Nation Under God and Proud of It” sign at the local Catholic School. (That one doesn’t get vandalised like the “Black Lives Matter” one put up by the Unitarians).

What are the main impediments to the practice and advocacy of humanism in the local South Jersey area? Who/what are the main threats to humanism as a movement in general?

Sometimes, I wonder if apathy among atheists and humanists is our biggest problem. I know it took me a long time before I felt it was important to fight for the rights of atheists. When you live in a blue state, it’s easy to get by without thinking about your disbelief.

But perhaps the biggest impediment (locally and globally) might be the stereotype of atheists as amoral killjoys seeking to smash every Christmas display they see. The biggest compliment I ever got came from a co-worker who found out I was an atheist.

“If someone like you is an atheist then I have no problem with it at all.” The more ‘out’ we are, the less threatening we seem. It humanises Humanists.

How can people get involved with South Jersey Humanists?

Check our Facebook and Meetup pages to find an event you like.

Thank you for your time, Michael.

And thank you, Scott! I appreciate your interest in a group like ours.

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2022-04-12

Moroccan Converts to Christianity Demand Right to Live Openly

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/02

Those who secretly converted to Christianity in Morocco have emerged from the shadows. They are demanding to live their faith publicly because Islam is the state religion and any apostasy is condemned.

Those converts to Christianity are a super-minority within Morocco. There are no formal statistics, but the U.S. State Department estimates the range as 2,000-6,000.

Within Moroccan society, the proselytising of a religion is punishable by law. Those who are found guilty of the attempt to undermine a Muslim’s faith, or attempt to convert another Muslim to different religion will go to jail.

The term for the jailing will be 3 years. “Islam is the state faith of Morocco but the country’s 2011 constitution, drafted after it was rocked by Arab Spring-inspired demonstrations, guarantees freedom of religion.”

Those non-Moroccan Christians, and the other small Jewish-Moroccan population of about 2,500, are able to practice their religion openly.

”Moroccan authorities boast of promoting religious tolerance and a ‘moderate’ form of Islam, and the country’s penal code does not explicitly prohibit apostasy — the act of rejecting Islam or any of its main tenets.”

The history of Morocco is sensitivity to Christianity because of the country’s history with colonisation. The majority of converted-to-Christianity Moroccans live in Agadir and the central city of Marrakesh.

”With the exception of local Jews, Moroccans are automatically considered Muslims and King Mohamed VI holds the official title of Commander of the Faithful.”

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2022-04-12

An Interview with Ajomuzu Collette Bekaku – Founder and Executive Director of the Cameroon Association for the Protection and Education of the Child

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/05/01

What was the original interest in the protection and education of children?

I grew up in a community where child labour was perceived as “normal”. It was a time in Africa, especially in Cameroon, when it was normal for children to help parents at home with little household chores like sweeping the compound, selling fruits to raise income for the family, etc., just to name a few.

However, it was also a time when it was normal for children to work on banana and rubber plantations. It was also normal for them to carry very heavy loads on their heads (which impairs their health and growth), and it was normal for them to work under hazardous conditions full of dangerous chemicals and insecticides (which also impairs their education, health and growth).

As a result of seeing this situation in my community i.e. child labour, I became motivated and pushed myself to become an advocate for children’s protection and education.

I personally believe that children should be educated, offered opportunities for their development and not used as labourers.

What was the inspiration for the foundation of the Cameroon Association for the Protection and Education of the Child (CAPEC)?

I grew up with a single parent (my mum), in Mambanda Village, who was a primary school teacher. The majority of people leaving in this village were peasant farmers who were working in Banana and Rubber plantations for the Cameroon Development Cooperation (CDC), who were paid according to their daily productivity.

In order for them to increase productivity and make more money at the end of the month, parents were obliged to use their children as labourers in the plantations. Children worked under hazardous conditions.

As a 10-year-old girl, I went through this hardship and pain like other children in my situation. During this phase of my life, I organised storytelling events among fellow children aiming to focus our respective visions on life.

This enabled me to understand that children, even while poor and living in hard conditions, all had so much potential and vision. This motivated me to promote the rights of children in poor, rural communities like where I grew up.

This story and history lives in me, and my actions are still guided by my passion for a community where child rights are promoted and respected.

Immediately I graduated from university, and in conjunction with my work within various communities, I thought of formalising and sustaining the response to challenges faced by children by creating CAPEC, which is a growing, reputable and non-profit organisation. I started CAPEC in order to protect and educate underprivileged children living in various communities across Cameroon.

What tasks and responsibilities come with being the executive director of the CAPEC?

As the executive director and vision bearer, I am in charge of the overall supervision of the organisation.

I manage the relationships between the technical team and the Board within the organisation, as well as the relationship between the organisations and its partners. I also oversee the heads of each department of CAPEC, including fundraising, program development, HR management and accounting.

I also oversee the public relation the organisation maintains outside office and normal business hours. Furthermore, I attend and also host a range of fundraising events, new program inaugurations and public-relations events.

I often speak directly with reporters, donors, government representatives and members of the community at these events (spending a good deal of time acting as the public face of the organisation).

What is the current size of the staff and those cared for by CAPEC?

We have twenty-four staff in Kumba and Yaoundé office, five outreach officers, fifteen in the CAPEC Education Project (Teachers/Administrative staff), and four work in the office on CAPEC-related projects.

For those that don’t know, and many simply won’t because grassroots work is learned through action, what difficulties arise in the midst of grassroots organisation?

CAPEC carry out a lot of projects in rural communities ranging from HIV/AIDS, wealth creations, education, gender/capacity building.

Apart from the individual challenges we faced during executing these various projects, there are other general challenges and difficulties we face as a grassroots organisation, such as:

Difficult terrain: Most project areas are very difficult to assess during mid raining season, and thus needing a four-wheel drive vehicle to be able to reach these areas – which we cannot afford.

Social challenges: Weak community leadership and a difficult mindset rooted in the people living here, especially concerning the HIV/AIDS Program. A lot of people living in rural areas believe HIV/AIDS don’t exist, and consider it witchcraft. It’s difficult to convince them to get tested and actually get a sustained buy-in from community leaders.

Money: CAPEC need money for operations. We face difficulty in raising adequate funding to support our programmes and operations. There is no direct correlation between increased work and increased income; unlike a for-profit company where the work you do is directly sold for revenue.

So NGOs have to put a lot of its resources into creating successful media campaigns, getting the right connections, filling in tons of forms and paperwork for grants, aid and taxation. Not to forget, of course, the hassle of getting an NGO recognised as an NGO, and finding a secure way of getting tax-exempt donations.

What all this results in is a lack of focus. The people created the NGO to solve a problem and now the focus is on doing things that get attention to help raise money. This leads to disconnect between vision and work.

The funding environment for Cameroon is getting more and more challenging with more donors reducing funding interest for the country. NGOs struggle to mobilise resources in response to community needs and CAPEC is also faced with this challenge.

What are some of the eventual emotional difficulties and rewards?

NGOs like CAPEC are typically mission-driven advocacy or service organisations in the non- profit sector. Currently, NGOs are critical contributors in global efforts to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

However, the growth in the number of local and international NGOs in this sector has made it very difficult to secure funding to maintain staff and meeting our organisation objectives. Competition has become extensively stiff, especially with the presence of international organisations everywhere.

This has made local NGOs engage in more and more fundraising activities to sustain their activities. The members of staff often work long hours and yet the works itself has proven exhilarating and exceptionally rewarding as it is critically important to causes served.

CAPEC is not governmental and is a non-profit organisation. You founded the organisation in 2002. You work with young people, parents, and various governmental and intergovernmental bodies, and your main aims are the promotion of community welfare. What values and principles inform community welfare for CAPEC?

CAPEC operates with a primary focus on and responsibility for the providing of a higher, broader, and more public level of help for vulnerable children, adolescents, girls and women.

This principle is further attached to the integral values of the organisation that includes but is not limited to: i) respect for human rights; ii) the maintenance of our vision; iii) cooperation beyond borders; iv) public mindedness; v) accountability; vi) truthfulness; vii) transparency; and viii) non-profit integrity.

CAPEC’s vision is to allow children to realise their full-potential. What other sub-visions stem from this?

Other sub-visions include increasing the impact of activities centred on the promotion of child rights. This is achieved through a high-level advocacy in conjunction with a coalition of associations and NGOs with a similar vision.

In this regard, I have contacted a host of leaders of associations and NGOs who have accepted and are motivated to be co-founders of such a coalition. It is hoped that this initiative will have an influence on programming from individual association and NGO perspective so that child-right programming will become a reality.

What are the main activities, campaigns, and initiatives of CAPEC?

The gender and Capacity Building Department:

Gender awareness/Human Rights training.
Training in group dynamics and leadership.
Skill training for women/youth groups (e.g, soap making, tie & dye, production of bakery products, mushrooms, nutrition, etc.)
Training in starting and managing small business for affiliated groups.
In-house training for both national and international volunteers.

Health/HIV/OVCs:

Ongoing basic health training focusing on hygiene, sanitation and nutrition.
Provision of care and support to OVCs and PLWHAs
HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention sensitisation working alongside community-based groups, young people and schools.

Education Project:

Elementary, Primary and Secondary Education:

Under our Education Projects there are several subprograms that seek to develop children and surrounding communities as part of CAPEC’s primary mission. Currently, CAPEC has the following schools: Bitame Lucia Nursery and Primary School (BLIS) and Bitame Lucia Secondary School (BLIC).

Your targeted objectives utilise the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child without regard to tribe, sex, religion, or origin to protect children of sexual exploitation, forced child marriage, and child labour. Your work focuses on centres for the disabled and street children, orphanages, and prisons and the prevention of HIV/AIDS. How do these look on-the-ground?

It’s not an easy task, considering that they look upon themselves as not acceptable in their society. It makes it difficult to approach them. Lots of talking and sensitisation needs to be done in order to get them participating in those important activities that concern their well-being.

It is very difficult working with people with different religions and traditions. They have their entrenched way of thinking and their own entrenched lifestyle. However, we have been able to get some of them listen to us. Our long commitment to hard work and the determination of our dedicated team is proving to be fruitful.

Some of the activities we do to get street children and orphans to listen to us include: arts and crafts; painting; dancing and music – which are activities that can distract their minds from their present predicaments. With such simple and interactive activities, we have been able to get them interested in our activities.

What are your future hopes for growth, expansion of initiatives, and implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child?

Children in different parts of Cameroon suffer from different forms of abuse, violence and torture. For example, in Akwaya sub-division there’s a lot of children being forced into child marriage at a tender age of 10.

This is because of the impoverished state that their parents are usually in. My intention is to expand our programs nationwide and to target other forms of abuse suffers by children; not just child labour.

In 2009, CAPEC started a school for orphans and children from low income families to provide them with quality and affordable education. According to CAPEC, education is not only the main solution to poverty but it also stands at the heart of sustainable human development.

However, the present formal education system in Cameroon is not functioning properly and is a serious contributory factor to dropout and failure. The current curriculum in government schools lacks relevance.

The child-teacher ratio is too high (80-100 children per class), and slow children are never taken care of: “once you fail, you have failed.” CAPEC school offer youngsters in Cameroon from 4 until 12 years and adolescents from 13 till 18 years old a high-quality education.

CAPEC intend to expand this child-centred education to other regions in Cameroon. With high-quality education and the holistic development of children, we believe that their dreams can be realised.

For those that want to work together or become involved, what are recommended means of contacting CAPEC?

For those who would like to volunteer in CAPEC’s Projects or work in partnership on specific programs can contact us via

BP 20646 Yaoundé-Cameroon

Tel: (+237) 242030163

Mobile: (+237) 677751606 / 675036025

Email: info@capecam.org / cbekaku@yahoo.com

Website: www.capecam.org

https://www.facebook.com/CAPEC20/?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/Nkolfoulou/

Thank you for your time, Ajomuzu.

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2022-04-12

An Interview with Dan Arel – Secular Activist and Godless Parent

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/27

Scott Jacobsen interviews Dan Arel who is a secular activist, author, blogger and Godless parent. In this interview, they discuss secular activism, Dan’s blogging and parenting methods, as well as his favourite topics to write on.

You are a godless parent. You wrote a book on the subject. How does someone parent secularly in the 21^st century?

Buy my book and find out!

Also, it’s evidence based, and it’s about fostering your child to think for themselves, and giving them the tools to question everything and find the truth on their own. They need to learn from their mistakes, but also trust you and know they can come to you with questions, and be mentored.

You are a secular activist. As someone working for secularism and against the encroachment of religion on the ‘public sphere,’ what seem like the perennial battles for the separation of religion and government?

It seems today the biggest issues we face are religious attacks against the LGBTQ community and women’s rights. They are using their bible and “personally held beliefs” to find ways to discriminate, legally, against people they feel are “living in sin.”

This seems to be the focus right now, especially against the transgender community. I think they know they lost the battle against the LGB community and won’t be able to do as much damage, so now they are focused on the T and hoping they gain some ground they lost.

One does not need to be godless to be secular. One does not need to believe in gods, or God, to share rituals (e.g. rites of passage), sentiments (e.g. feelings of transcendence and awe), and values (e.g. the Golden Rule) important in the upbringing, experience, and raising of well-rounded children—barring some specific gift, talent, or interest of the child needing targeted care and nurturing to the detriment of being ‘well-rounded’.

Who are unexpected allies in the battle for secularism in public life and godlessness in parenting?

Some of the biggest allies are simply anyone, religious or not, that allows their kids to be themselves and do not dictate their beliefs. Religious parents, like my own, brought me to church, but allowed me to ask questions.

I asked enough to become an atheist, and they never tried to stop me. I know many parents like this who are more concerned with their children being smart and kind, rather than obsessing about what they believe.

You blog, too. As Seinfeld might say, what’s the deal? What are your favourite topics to write on?

Politics. Atheism is important, but not as important as politics are on everyone’s lives. This includes church and state separation, but also healthcare, education, etc. These issues are important regardless of what someone believes.

I am a far-leftist and I think I have an important role of using my voice to make sure people understand what the left wants and what we stand for.

What have been the most moving moments in your parental life?

Honestly, any time one of my kids accomplishes something they have been working hard on -from potty training, to reading, to my son learning to ice skate, play hockey, and then score his first goal. Each and every moment like that is just awe-inspiring.

Another important part seems to be the creation of a community; a parental culture. How do you build relationships, associations, and bonds of mutual solidarity for, not only a secular family, but a secular community; someone else to babysit, coach the Little League game, take out the trash for the elderly widow or divorcee next door; to give parenting lessons to the younger couples with newborns on the way, and so on.

I started coaching youth hockey and found a community here. Another coach knew my work and we hit it off. For me it’s easy because people in our community know me from my work, so I didn’t have to seek out much, it was just there.

However, just joining community events, volunteering at my kid’s school, coaching, all of those things build community. I don’t ask for people’s beliefs up front, and only if they bring up negative beliefs is there a problem, but overall, I find people are just amazing and want community too, regardless of their beliefs.

You can be found on your blog, the website, Twitter, and Facebook. How else can people connect with you?

I have a new podcast called Danthropology and you can find out more by visiting www.danthropology.com

It’s mostly a political podcast with a lot of atheism and intersectionality.

Also, head over to Amazon and check out my books!

Also, any upcoming projects?

Drafting up some ideas for book number three, and working on some summer speaking gigs about how to mount a secular resistance to Trump.

Any closing thoughts or feelings based on the discussion today?

Thank you for taking the time to interview me.

Thank you for your time, Dan.

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2022-04-12

‘Cooooooooal!’ A Score in the UK for Sustainable and Renewable Energy

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/24

BBC News reports that the United Kingdom might be spending its first day without generation of electricity from coal based energy, from a statement by the National Grid. The previous time for a no coal-generation of electricity was in May, 2016, for a total of 19 hours. The goal this time, however is to sustain that for a full 24 hours.

This is based on an increased demand and need for sustainable and renewable energy including natural gas. In addition, the power used for the United Kingdom tends to be low on Fridays.

The use of coal has declined since the 1990’s, with the advent of greater access to alternative fuels such as biomass. As of 2016, coal made up only 9% of electricity generation. In 2015, this number was much higher at 23%. The United Kingdom government wants to phase out the final plants of coal energy by 2025. This is in large part due to efforts for carbon emission reduction.

Professor of resources and environment policy at University College London, Paul Ekin, described the effects of the day without coal power as “enormously significant.” “As recently as the late 1980’s coal was supplying as much as 70% of UK electricity…We then had the dash for gas in the 1990;s, with nuclear roughly contributing around 25%, and coal dropped below 50%.”

Not only is this an important landmark in the history of the United Kingdom for the reduction of coal energy, but it is also a symbolic gesture as to the eventual elimination of coal power plants.

Ekin described that the “current thrust was to replace coal with gas, but that renewables like wind and solar were also playing a bigger role – accounting for 25% of supply in 2015.”

A large part of this reduction in coal based power is down to solar panels and wind turbines being used to generate electricity from factories and homes. In addition, the energy need has decreased.

Hannah Martin, head of energy at Greenpeace UK, said the first day without coal in Britain since the Industrial Revolution “would mark a watershed in the energy transition.’”

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2022-04-12

Assisted Death 2016 in Canada – Facts and Figures

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/29

The Globe and Mail reports that “at least 970 people in Canada received an assisted death last year, according to a new federal report that provides the first official snapshot of how medical aid in dying is playing out in hospitals and homes across the country.”

Of the total deaths in all of Canada, the assisted death numbers amounted to about 0.6%. This is based on a Health Canada report. ½ of the assisted deaths occurred in Quebec at 463. In Quebec, a separate “end-of-life law took effect” circa December 10, 2015.

This happened 6 months before the federal law related to assisted death took hold. The remaining 507 assisted deaths – medically so – happened between June 17 and December 31 of 2016. Patients wanting assisted death signed on for a variety of reasons.

“Cancer was the illness cited most often by patients granted an assisted death (in 56.8 per cent of cases), followed by neuro-degenerative conditions such as multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (23.2 per cent) and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases (10.5 per cent).”

The average patient age was aged 72, with an almost even split between women and men. Health Canada is making new regulations for dealing with assisted dying. “The formal-monitoring regime is expected to include a broader set of indicators, including how well the eligibility criteria and safeguards in the law are working.”

Nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and physicians will be given this data when helping a patient with assisted death. Data from provinces is now public mostly public.

The chief executive officer of Dying with Dignity Canada, Shanaaz Gokool, said, “How many people who’ve asked [for an assisted death] have a mental illness where they’re not imminently dying and don’t qualify?” Gokool emphasised the possibility of those losing capacities due to Alzheimer’s. She wanted quantitative data on the answers to these questions to inform the Council of Canadian Academies.

“Right now, medical aid in dying is limited to consenting adults who are suffering a grievous and irredeemable physical illness and whose natural death is ‘reasonably foreseeable.’ Some provinces are already collecting richer data that hint at the level of interest in hastening death with the help of a doctor.”

In 2015, the Canada Supreme Court struck down the Criminal Code provision against assisted suicide, which made assisted death/suicide illegal. In that act, it joined only a few other countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands.

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2022-04-12

Parents in UK Removing Children From Lessons About Islam

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/29

According to the Church of England (CofE), “many” parents are electing to remove their children from religious education classes to reduce exposure to Islam and Islamic teachings in the lessons.

It is asserted by some that this is to protect the children from learning about any other faith outside of Christianity, while for others it is simply to avoid their children having exposure to Islamic teachings in particular.

They pointed towards far-right political groups and some minority faith sects as activists who are trying to ‘exploit’ the legal right of parents to withdraw their children from school religious education.

CofE leaders called for the right of withdrawal to be repealed and for RE to become a compulsory part of school timetables to encourage pupils to learn to live with others from different backgrounds.

This is against a background of intense arguments over the future of Religious Education. The lesson is not currently a mandatory section of the National Curriculum and, along with sex education, is an optional lesson for children to take which their parents have the right to withdraw them from.

Derek Holloway, school inspection chief for the Church of England (C of E), said, “…I am aware that some parents have sought to exploit the right to withdraw children from RE lessons. This is seemingly because they do not want their children exposed to other faiths and world views, in particular Islam.”

Holloway described the need to live well together, and that education should be provided to students from all walks of life. However, “sadly,” he remarks, the allowance of withdrawal from religious education is being exploited through “dubious interpretation of human rights legislation.”

“Parents have a legal right to remove their children from RE under a 1998 education law. The CofE, which has 4,700 schools including 200 secondary schools, aims to promote ‘deep respect for the integrity of other traditions’ in RE.”

Religious education lessons are meant to teach about every religion, rather than just Christianity, even in schools that belong to a religious domination such as Church of England. Schools are required to provide a general background in the beliefs and histories of the major faiths and religions in the world today.

There are no figures on how many parents remove their children from RE classes, although C of E officials suggested the figure is small. The subject is popular at GCSE, with more than 250,000 children taking the exam at 16.

National Secular Society representative, Keith Porteous Wood, said, “If the subject was reformed to be genuinely educational and non-partisan study of religious and non-religious worldviews, the right to withdraw may no longer be necessary. But until such time, the right of withdrawal is required to protect parental rights and freedoms.’

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2022-04-12

Q&A on Atheism, Women’s Rights, and Human Rights with Marie Alena Castle – Session 1

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/29

Marie Alena Castle is the communications director for Atheists for Human Rights. She was raised Roman Catholic, but became an atheist. She has been important to atheism, Minnesota Atheists, The Moral Atheist, National Organization of Women, and wrote Culture Wars: The Threat to Your Family and Your Freedom (2013). She has a lifetime of knowledge and activist experience, which I wanted to explore and crystallise in an educational series. Here are the results.

Scott Jacobsen: You have a lifetime of experience in atheism, women’s rights, and human rights. Of course, you were raised a Catholic, but this changed over the course of life. In fact, you have raised a number of children who became atheists themselves, and have been deeply involved in the issues on the political left around women’s rights and human rights.

To start this series, what has been the major impediment to the progress of women’s rights in the United States over the last 17 years?

Marie Alena Castle: It’s actually at least the last 40 years. In the U.S., control of women is no longer about the right to vote or pursue careers. Those battles have been won. What is left is the religious right’s last stand: women’s right to abortion and the ultimate control over their own bodies. An anti-women legislative agenda began and has been going on ever since the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v Wade decision.

Almost immediately, the U.S. Catholic Bishops established a Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities that reached down to every Catholic parish in the country. The bishops recruited Catholic academics, journalists, and political commentators to disseminate “pro-life” propaganda. They drew in Protestant fundamentalists and provided them with leaders such as Jerry Falwell. They organized to get “pro-life” politicians elected at every political level and eventually took over the Republican party.

I was there and watched it happen. We Democratic feminists worked almost non-stop to prevent a similar takeover of the Democratic party and, thankfully, were successful. The “pro-life” campaign has never stopped. Over a thousand bills have been, and are, proposed at the state and federal level to restrict women’s access to contraceptives and abortion, as well as advantageous reproductive technologies that don’t conform to irrational religious doctrines.

(Stephen Mumford has documented this in full detail in his book, The Life and Death of NSSM 200, which describes how the Catholic Church prevented any action on a Nixon-era national security memorandum that warned of the dangers of overpopulation and advocated the accessibility of contraceptives and abortion.)

Jacobsen: Who do you consider the most important women’s rights and human rights activist in American history?

Castle: No contest. It’s Margaret Sanger, hands down. Many people have spoken out and worked for women’s rights throughout history, not just American history. But Sanger got us birth control. Without that, women remain slaves to nature’s reproductive mandate and can do little beyond producing and raising children.

This is often claimed to be a noble task. True enough. However, it always reminds me of the biblical story of Moses, who had the noble task of leading his people to the Promised Land, but because of some vague offense against Yahweh, he was condemned to see that Promised Land only from afar and never go there himself.

Women have raised children over the ages and have led them to the Promised Land of scientific achievements, Noble Prize Awards, academic honours, and so many others. But they – and their daughters – have seen that Promised Land only from afar and almost never allowed to go their themselves.

Sanger opened a path to that Promised Land by fighting to make contraceptives legal and available. The ability to control the time and circumstances of one’s childbearing has made the fight for women’s rights achievable in practical – not just philosophical – terms. She founded Planned Parenthood and we see how threatening that has been to the theocratic religious right. They can’t seem to pass – or try to pass – enough laws to hinder women’s ability to control their own bodies.

As for human rights in general, a good argument can be made that by freeing women – half of the human population – we free up everyone. As Robert Ingersoll said, “There will never be a generation of great men until there has been a generation of free women.”

Jacobsen: What is one of the more egregious public perceptions of atheists by the mainstream of the religious in America?

Castle: It’s that atheists have no moral compass and therefore cannot be trusted to behave in a civilized manner. No one ever comes up with any evidence for that. Most people in prison identify themselves as religious. Studies that rank levels of prejudice for racism, sexism, and homophobia show nonbelievers at the lowest end of the graph – generally below 10% – and evangelicals at the very highest – almost off the chart.

I’ve had religious people tell me it is religious beliefs that keep people, including themselves, from committing violent crimes. I tell them I hope they hang onto their beliefs because otherwise they would be a threat to public safety. As physicist Steven Weinberg said, “Good people will do good and evil people will do evil, but for good people to do evil, that takes religion.” I have known good and evil atheists and good and evil religionists, but the only time I have seen a good person do evil, it was due to a religious belief.

I have also observed that liberal religionists generally share the same humanitarian values as most atheists, but to have that moral sense they had to abandon traditional religious beliefs. There is a lot of evil in religious doctrines. The 10 Commandments are almost totally evil. Read them and the descriptions of the penalties that follow. Read the part about what you are to sacrifice to Yahweh – the firstborn of your livestock, your firstborn son… Yup, that’s what it says.

So they include don’t kill, steal or bear false witness. There is nothing new about that. It’s common civic virtue any community needs to function effectively. So religion promises a blissful afterlife. Ever stop to think what that might be like, forever and ever and ever and ever and ever? People believe that!? I so hope they’re wrong.

Jacobsen: Your life speaks to the convergence of atheism, women’s rights, and human rights activism. How do these, in your own mind, weave into a single activist thread? What is the smallest thing American citizens, and youth, can do to become involved in this fabric?

Castle: We all are what we are. I’m an activist because I can’t help myself. It’s who I am. Others would rather hang by their thumbs than do what I do. They like to get out in the yard and do gardening. You couldn’t pay me enough or threaten me enough to get me to do that. We should just try to be honest and compassionate and cut everyone some slack as long as no one is getting hurt. Live and let live.

We are a fragile species, making the best of our short life spans, stuck here on this hunk of rock circling a ball of flaming gas that could eject a solar flare at any time that wipes us out. Life is, as Shakespeare said, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Just accept that. It’s reality. Just be decent and helpful and try not to hurt anyone. If that’s the limit of your activism, it’s still pretty good.

If you think it would be great to be able to do more and to be politically active but that is just not in your DNA, then settle for the next best thing: Find a political activist whose views you agree with and vote the way they tell you. That is the smallest thing you can do. If you did not vote in the last election you made yourself part of the problem and you see what we got. From now on, try to be part of the solution.

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2022-04-12

New Robot Can Ask for Clarification

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/29

The World Economic Forum (WEF) reported on a new technology which is a combination of natural language processing, speech recognition, biometrics, video analytics, neural networks, and other computational processes. The novel algorithm allows robots to ask for clarification if unsure as to the request from a human operator. The algorithm permits robots to receive speech commands and information based on human gesturing. It is one form of information processing and commanding human beings use consistently.

Professor of computer science at Brown University, Stefanie Tellex, said, “Fetching objects is an important task that we want collaborative robots to be able to do…But it’s easy for the robot to make errors, either by misunderstanding what we want, or by being in situations where commands are ambiguous.”

It is non-verbal communication. When given the speech and gestural command, the robot was better at interpretation of the information than either one alone. Of course, computers can run into problems. This is one important reason for this new algorithm to allow computers to be able to understand human commands.

“When we ask someone for an object, we’ll often point to it at the same time. The new research shows that when robots received both speech commands and gestures, they got better at correctly interpreting user commands.” Tellex said.

If the computer is needed to only understand the question or query, and also to get information for the answer appropriately or to act accordingly, it needs to know what is being asked of it. Therefore, the speech and gesture command combination is important for computers now and into the future when given commands by human beings.

Now, the computer does not look to ask a question based on every single uncertainty. It will decipher, calculate, and then ask accordingly in an intelligent manner. The robot had performed so well in one experiment that participants in the study thought that the computer had capabilities that it did not in fact have.

One of the important features of the system is that the robot doesn’t ask questions with every interaction. It asks intelligently. And even though the system asks only a very simple question. The algorithm allows the robot to make inferences based on the answer.

The research was presented at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Singapore, and received funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and NASA.

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2022-04-12

Open Speculation on Alien Life and the Durability of Religion

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/29

According to The Guardian, it is uncertain as to the origin of life on other planets orbiting other stars. NASA’s current count of exoplanets – planets capable of hosting life as we know it – is at 3,500. Six are thought to be similar candidates to Earth.

With advancements in technology, researchers suspect possible discovery of life similar to Earth’s on an exoplanet. Two decades ago, this was more uncertain because of less advanced technology and fewer candidate exoplanets.

“…contact with intelligent life elsewhere in the universe will present theological and philosophical conundrums that many religions will find deeply challenging. This is especially true for Christianity, which primarily focuses on humankind.”

One core education in Christian theology asserts the creation of humankind by God with the flora and fauna of the Earth, and the Earth itself, made for human beings. Alien life has moved from the scientific into the theological now.

NASA invested $1.1 million into the Center of Theological Inquiry, which is an independent institution devoted to the study of the implications for society based on the research findings from astrobiology.

“The idea of infinite space with the infinite glory of God originated with Nicholas of Cusa, a German philosopher who kept his infinite theology within the Catholic framework. In 2017, such philosophical thoughts have given way to practical science…”

The theological inquiries begin with God’s creation possibly existing outside of Earth’s solar system. Outside of the Solar System, others might exist with life, even intelligent life with civilizations and technology – and religion.

“If so, would the inhabitants of those planets believe in the same gods as humans do? How could the creator of the universe deny the inhabitants of those worlds a chance to redeem their sins? Does that mean that God incarnated as Jesus in those worlds contrary to Bible teachings that say that the redemption in Christ was a unique event meant for humans on Earth?”

“Exotheology” could become a thing; “theological issues as related to extraterrestrial intelligence.” Religious institutions, The Guardian claims, have been durable with new paradigm shifts.

The scriptures become reinterpreted to suit the times. “There is also, quite simply, something special about religion that resonates with humans on a fundamental level.”

“For traditional religions and religious institutions, the desire to expand their material wealth and power has often take precedence over the spreading of theological doctrines.” The Earth and humankind have been exploited by it.

The Guardian author speculates that the Copernican or Darwinian revolutions did not overturn the established religious institutions – outside of ideas and some basic views – “in a significant way.”

“The triumph of these institutions is analogous to the audacity of organisms when facing challenges in nature. Religious institutions possess impressive survival skills, greater than individual human abilities.”

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2022-04-12

Q&A on Life in London with Pamela Machado

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/29

Pamela Machado is a contributor to Conatus News, and a journalist based in London, UK. She took some time to sit down and talk about life in London. Here are her thoughts.

Scott Jacobsen: You went on a bold trip to London for a young person. The story needs some background, which we have discussed and will explore in this Q&A. The ups and downs, the pluses and minuses, and the personal triumphs and tribulations with life in London. To begin, when did London seem like the more desirable place for you?

Pamela Machado: Like many of the people here, I used to see London as the capital of the world, as the most exciting place to be. Being an eighteen-year-old in a small town in Southern Brazil, I had desires which couldn’t be fulfilled at home. I wanted passionately to become a journalist and travel and London seemed the place to be when you want these things.

SJ: London is a desirable place. It has an appeal as a global hub for culture and innovation, especially youth culture and education. How did you come to the conclusion at 18 to leave to London? Was this an instant choice or a slow, incremental development?

PM: Leaving to London was the final result of various moments of dissatisfaction I had back home. It felt the right moment to come here because I didn’t have much to lose.

SJ: Travel is an exciting prospect, but the stress and anxiety resulting from new travels into a new place can be both exhilarating and crippling, it’s fun to see and do new things, but it’s nice to have family and friends from the previous life to bolster and encourage the new life.

PM: For a good part of my time here I lived with the excitement. I was excited about all the different things and people I am surrounded by. It felt as if I could never get bored or get disappointed because it would always be a new place, a new person. Probably around after the first year, a new feeling started to grow. I suddenly came to realise that I was getting used to life in London and London felt as much as any other place. The normal frustrations of life hit me, along with longing from home. Coping with the high cost of life, working on pubs and cafes on weekends, leaving with strangers… all that add up to my starting to feel overwhelmed.

SJ: It must be stressful without someone to reach out to, being away from home without too many contacts, especially being an introvert. Also, how tenuous can friendships in London be? Is there fast turnover of friendships? Are there lasting relationships more often than not?

PM: As a foreigner in London, most of my interpersonal relationships are with other foreigners. It is just as enriching as it is fragile. I don’t have any official numbers here, but most foreigners leave London at some point. They go back to their home country or go somewhere else, in many cases because they are tired of life in the city. Most of the friends I made are not here anymore. We eventually keep in touch but it is not the same. A true, lasting friendship takes years to be built.

SJ: There is an “it.” It comes and goes when in a new place and feeling as if without bearings. Have you found out what “it” is?

PM: I discovered it is important to keep things under perspective, always remember myself how much I have conquered and grown by being here. However, for most of the time, I find myself stuck in a mental spin, lost in the thought of things I need to do. People walking around London are usually so busy, rushing somewhere and it is contagious. Anxiety can be a really big problem over here and it definitely is to me. Competition is tough and the pressure one puts on oneself to succeed in London can be insane. No wonder London is the city with the highest mental illness rate in the UK.

SJ: A not common, but more frequent, phenomenon of women outpacing male peers in education and work, then hitting 25-35 and thinking, “Uh oh, what will I do from 40-80?” For many, not all, people, it becomes family – possibly children – and friends rather than work and hobbies. It can be a tough dynamic, which, reproductively and professionally speaking, can make women’s lives more complicated and difficult than men.

PM: I understand your point and even though I haven’t figured out exactly what I want for my later life, I do appreciate the presence of friends and family in life. Relationships and work life shouldn’t oppose each other – like happens in many cases, unfortunately. They should act together. A professional achievement has a lot more sense when it is shared with the ones will love. Coming from a tiring day of work to an empty home is not exactly a happy goal but it is what happens to many.

SJ: Only question that comes to mind for me that I feel as though you would want an answer to is, “What now?” So, what now?

PM: As someone from a small town in the south of Brazil, and as an eighteen-year-old, I wanted to travel and be part of a world that was unknown to me. I came here, left my family, my friends, university and came here. I wanted to study Journalism – which I’m now doing, I wanted to be here and grow but somehow it is not as good as I thought it would be – like everything in life, I guess?

There is a saying in London that you become a true Londoner after four years in the city. Well, more than four years later, I am still here and one could say I am doing pretty well in life. Yet, I did not achieve the fulfillment I expected I would get when I hopped on that plane. The ultimate question is; how can I feel fulfilled?

I mean, doing a general balance, I’m happy. I don’t regret any of my decisions. But this journey led me to value my roots and my people in a more meaningful way, and eventually open my mind to different possibilities.

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2022-04-12

Islamist Pleads Guilty to Planned Bomb Attacks in London

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/28

19-year-old named Haroon Syed from Hounslow, west London, has pleaded guilty to the charge of making homemade bombs and to the plot to use them.

Syed researched the possible bombing of an Elton John concert or Buckingham Palace. He was at the Old Bailey when “researching, planning and attempting to source” the necessary tools for the bomb.

He attempted to acquire the weapons materials online. Then he looked for busy areas online. The intent was to inflict a “mass casualty attack” on the public in the area. He talked online with British Security Service officers.

The officers posed as extremists to help with the sourcing of the weapons. He pleaded guilty to a plot running from April to September 2016 to get materials for a bomb to stage attacks. The judge, Michael Topolski, stressed Syed this was “a grave offence, and he would consider if a life sentence was merited.”

The young man’s brother, Nadir, who is 24, was convicted and jailed for life based on the plotted beheading of a poppy-seller or police community support officer on Remembrance Sunday. The Elton John concert was on the 9/11 anniversary, when planes were flown into the Twin Towers in New York.

At a previous hearing, the court heard how key evidence was gathered from Syed’s communications with the fake contact, Abu Yusuf, via mobile phone and social media. Syed asked for ‘gear’ for his ‘opp’ and when asked to give details, he said he needed a machine gun and an explosive vest.

A police officer pretended to be Abu Yusuf when Syed and him met at the Costa Coffee in Slough. The conversation was taped. “Throughout August, the discussions continued about making or getting a bomb and acquiring a gun, even though Syed confessed he had never used one before.

Syed was looking for a portable device, saying, “I might put the bomb in the train and then I’m going to jump out so the bomb explodes on the train… So ask the brother if he can make that type of bomb with button.”

He had done extensive research into locations, prior terrorist incidents, and the Islamic State. On September 8, the police moved in, seized Syed’s phone, and acquired the password for the phone from him. Syed was arrested in September 2016 and when detained by officers said ‘alright’. He told an undercover officer of his desire to get bomb-making material and was inspired by Isis.

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2022-04-12

An Interview with Julia Julstrom-Agoyo — Secretary & Treasurer of Americas Working Group of IHEYO

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/28

Let’s delve a little bit into your background to provide a foundation for the conversation. Do you have a family background or only a personal background?

A family background, my mom loves to tell the story about how she grew up in Lima, Peru and at the age of 7 she declared herself an Atheist after finding the word in the dictionary, which was unusual because the majority of Peruvians are Catholic, though her immediate family was less religious. She was a curious child and liked to challenge the existence of God in school, to the frustration of her teachers. She was very much of an outsider in that way, but she’s always liked being different — being unique.

My dad, in parallel, went to a Christian church with his parents, but he grew up in a small, Republican town in Illinois. His parents were heavily involved in the church, in part through music, but at the height of the Vietnam War, some anti-war peace protests were organized in the small town and my dad and his family received significant backlash from the church community for having their names attached to them. His parents decided they couldn’t be part of the church anymore, so they all left and joined the Unitarian Universalist church there, which was fine with my dad since he had independently kind of already decided he was an Atheist. That’s where his humanism, atheism, kind of sprouted from. So when my dad and mom (who was studying there) met in the small town and eventually moved to Chicago — after they had a couple kids — they found the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago.

So they started bringing us there because they wanted to have us grow up in a community atmosphere, where we could learn about all different kinds of religions and common values without the dogma. So they got to go to speakers every Sunday. Then us as kids got to grow up in a Sunday school learning how to be a good person. [Laughing]

[Laughing]

We got involved in volunteer projects and fundraisers, and stuff like that, and interacted with other kids who were not religious, which is really nice because most of our friends at school were religious and didn’t understand what atheists were — or were taught to fear or dislike them.

We were ostracized sometimes. It was whatever kids do like saying, “You’re going to hell.” It is a hurtful thing to say to a child, although even at that age I knew I didn’t believe in hell. [Laughing] It was about community. I owe a lot of who I am today to being brought up in that atmosphere.

With your mom realizing that she didn’t believe in God, that she was an atheist in Peru in, as far as I know, a very religious culture and, therefore, society. Did she, herself, face similar prejudice?

Apparently, not too much. She grew up in Lima, which is the capital of Peru — and so maybe that had something to do with people being pretty open. Anyway, I know she likes being a different person in a bunch of aspects. She was fine standing out from the crowd. I think her family was okay with it because they were actually not too religious — my mom even says they were humanists without labelling themselves as such. Even many religious families in Peru don’t regularly go to church — they feel they can simply pray in their homes.

Your dad with the Unitarian Universalist form of humanism. From my sense of American culture, it is taken a lot more softly than being an atheist, where atheist, as a self-identification, would provide more means for someone to be bullied than if someone was a Unitarian Universalist. Not only because Unitarian Universalist takes longer to say…

[Laughing]

But also because people probably don’t know what Unitarian Universalist is. For yourself now, if I may ask, where do you stand in terms of your own take on humanism — that is most comfortable to you?

For me, I thought a lot about it the last few years. I do identify as an atheist and a humanist, but what has become most important to me in the last few years is my humanism. I see my atheism as what I don’t believe in; I see my humanism as what I do believe in, which is much more important because I have a lot of religious friends. I don’t think our belief or non-belief in God is too important in a way.

So what ends up bringing us together are common values, which is what humanism is all about, that’s where I got my values, I think. It shifts the focus, which I think is more important these days with what’s happening around the world — what brings us together, where do we have common ground, what’s important, and don’t focus on what’s not important. God is not important to me, but I know it is important to a lot of people.

I don’t want to minimize that. For me, the fact that I don’t believe God exists is not the most important thing.

Now, you’re part of International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organization (IHEYO). Together, we’re on the Americas Working Group for IHEYO. What other, if any, humanist organizations are you involved in? What roles and responsibilities come with them — stated and unstated?

I am involved with 2 or 3 that are all connected. I am part of FES, which is the Future of Ethical Societies. My role in that hasn’t been too prominent because I spent the last year abroad, so I was limited in the things I could do. I did join FES after high school basically, and started going to the yearly conferences and was involved in planning in some of those conferences — not as of late, but I did have some roles.

For a year, I was the liaison to the AEU, American Ethical Union. My responsibilities in that were to call in on some of the AEU board meeting calls, which were very long. I’m not sure if I added too much to them, but it was interesting to see how they work, what kinds of things they do, and what those calls are like. I did attend the AEU conference in Chicago. I helped lead a workshop along with Emily Newman.

I was a FES representative for resolutions AEU passes on current events — like statements on what we think about climate change or gay rights. Now, I am back. Hopefully, I will get more involved in that, especially with the conference coming up. But now that I am also back in Chicago because I went to college in Iowa, I am now attending the local ethical society most Sundays. I listen to the platform.

There are actually some young people my age who are coming, which is exciting. Hopefully, we can begin to build the Chicago young group of the ethical humanists and hopefully get them involved in FES and IHEYO. So that’s obviously related. Then there’s IHEYO. I was involved after Xavier got us in there. He was the main person in charge of the Americas Working Group. I helped him out for a while as a secretary.

We were both working on outreach and what the Americas Working Group looks like, how we want it to look. There were leadership transitions. Now, it is looking very promising. Basically, we are looking on expanding our network. Now, we have Canada & America in North America, and South America, at the same time. [Laughing] It is for the first time, which is awesome.

Obviously, there are a lot of long-term goals, but, for now, I think expanding the network and working on things together, having calls, and planning. Helping where needed, I speak Spanish, so I can help with South American outreach too.

In America, within the Americas, there are concerns within the public about the ability to practice and advocate for ethical humanism, humanism, even possibly secularism. [Laughing] From your vantage, because you have a longer life history in humanism that I do, who or what do you see as the main impediments or threats to the practice, or advocacy, of humanism?

If we’re talking about the current political atmosphere in the U.S. — although, there’s a lot to worry about with our current government, I don’t think there’s too much of a threat specifically against the humanist community. I think we’re still going to do what we’re going to do. I don’t think they can do too much about us. Also, I don’t think we’re at the forefront of who they want to target. There are concerns about certain religious groups or people driving certain religious agendas, which I don’t agree with and don’t need to get into.

I don’t see it as a sincere threat to the humanist community — at least in the U.S.; there are areas in Central and South America where humanists or non-believers do see more of a threat. Maybe, I am misinformed, but I don’t think there is too much of a battle for us, comparatively. At least our society, we’re not supposed to proselytize, which we don’t — at least I don’t think we’re trying to convert everyone to our side. [Laughing] We’re trying to open our arms and let them know we exist because there are a lot of people that think like us and don’t know that there’s a wider community that they can be a part of.

That’s what a lot of people are missing, especially if they belong to a church and leave the church. They miss the community. Hopefully, they can see us as somewhere to go. Also, if you look at the numbers, our numbers are growing. They don’t have to physically attend an ethical society. But I think nonbelievers are on the rise as far as I know.

You made an important note there by saying that we don’t want to proselytize. In the question, I said advocacy was the concern. In traditional religious structures, it is encouraged for members to proselytize, which seems different than advocacy to me. I think humanism and ethical societies can advocate without proselytizing. Do you think that’s a fair and reasonable distinction?

Yes, I do. I think it is difficult, but I do think you’re right. It is just like, “How do we go about it?” It is something I have been struggling with for a while. [Laughing]

[Laughing] What are your hopes for humanism and ethical societies within your lifetime?

On a global scale, I would like to see humanists, free-thinkers — or really anyone from any religious background for that matter — free from persecution. In the U.S., one thing I would like to see, at least in my society — maybe, other societies are going about it in a different way — is a re-energizing of the ethical action committee. I would like to see that expand and grow and become more effective because I think a lot of people come to these societies — and I know not all ethical humanists attend these societies, and they don’t exist everywhere yet — to listen to these great lectures every week and leave with things to think about from these talks.

But there’s a disconnect in actually doing things about it, especially in this day and age when we need someone — everyone — to be doing something about what’s going on. Personally, in my own society, I would like to step up in the ethical action committee and have our presence at all of the protests, have our space also used for organizing. I would really like the societies to become more involved in interfaith activities, movements — reach out to all different kinds of places of worships, e.g. churches, and synagogues and mosques, and try to bring all different religions together. I think, in 2017 and going forward, we need not only to co-exist, but also co-resist.

There’s a collective benefit in increasing mutual understanding and to be there in mutual solidarity, especially when we see Jewish cemeteries being destroyed and Muslim communities being gunned down in their mosques while they pray and Black churchgoers being shot while they also pray. I think it is important to reach out and tell them we’re there to help and increase understanding of the different religions because I think that’s a big impediment to where we’re at these days. People will fear and hate what they don’t know.

Thank you for your time, Julia.

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2022-04-12

Saudi Arabia Sentences Atheist to Death for Renouncing Islam

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/28

The man, reportedly in his 20s, was deemed ‘insane’ by his lawyers because he was using drugs and alcohol when he committed blasphemy.

An atheist in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to death after uploading videos renouncing Islam and the Prophet Mohammed on social media – which led to him being charged with atheism and blasphemy.

The deeply religious country’s Supreme Court ruled against the man, named locally as Ahmad Al Shamri, after being arrested in 2014.

After a lengthy appeal process, the country’s Supreme Court ruled against him this week. In the original case against Mr Shamri, his legal team said that he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol and therefore technically insane.

However, the strict laws within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia determines that citizens who turn their back on Islam will be punished harshly, including even death.

Many other citizens in Saudi Arabia appeared to support the decision of the Supreme Court to put him to death. In 2015, the Saudi Arabian judicial system sentenced and executed 153 people mostly for drug trafficking and murder.

The kingdom has a track record of being questionable regarding human rights and women’s rights, and in this case the freedom of belief (or non-belief) in one religion or another, which has been put under the spotlight multiple times. Some of the strict Islamic legal code restrictions are on drug trafficking, and bribery, rape, and apostasy. All punishable by the death penalty. As in the case with the 20-year-old, Ahmad Al Shamri, this was shown to be true.

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2022-04-12

An Interview with Marie Alena Castle – Communications Director, Atheists for Human Rights

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/28

Was there a familial background in atheism? Were friends an influence on explicit atheist views?

Raised Catholic. Didn’t know any atheists. Religion was accepted as an expected normal part of life.

What were the moments, and the possible big awakening, for lack of belief in gods or God?

Pope’s position on birth control became more and more unrealistic but I accepted it because I was told the pope was infallible. Finally, “saw the light” when church authorities could not answer my logical questions about the morality (or not) of birth control. It became very clear that the pope was not infallible and if wrong on that how did I know he was right about existences of God. Gave that some thought and saw zero evidence for a god and I was out of there. I realized I was an atheist and it felt SO good to have my mind feel so clear at last.

You are an atheist activist/activist atheist. How does one be an activist for atheism? It seems counterintuitive. That is, why be an activist for the lack of belief in something, in gods and God? A humanist activist seems more intuitive because it affirms beliefs, traditionally speaking, more than atheism.

Atheism is not a belief, it’s a conclusion. I became an activist when I realized all the harm irrational religious beliefs caused. It’s like realizing how harmful slavery is and becoming an abolitionist to put a stop to that harm. Being an activist atheist is like scraping the barnacles off of the boat – get rid of them and the boat (humanity) sails along much better. Being a humanist just means dropping religious beliefs based on irrational doctrines. Liberal religionists who want to be moral do it by abandoning traditional religious beliefs so they can be moral and allow their basic human decency to come through. I get along fine with liberal religionists. They do good because they think it’s what their god wants. Fair enough. I do good because it needs to be done.

What have been the lesser known misconceptions about atheism?

Far as I can tell, all the misconceptions about atheism focus on our supposed lack of a moral compass. One of my old Catholic books says the only reason a person would become an atheist is “to be free to live a depraved life.” But what kind of morality it is that needs directions from an imaginary god? I prefer my atheist morality because it’s based on simple human decency and compassion. I don’t give a rat’s patoot what some imaginary god wants. Most gods seem to want us to harm those who prefer other or no gods. I just want to stop that.

You went back to school in your 30s at the same time raising 5 kids. What inspired going back to school in your 30s?

I always wanted to learn things. I envied those who could afford to go to university. I read a lot and thought a lot and finally decided to get a college degree. My educations background was pretty sparse. The Univ. of Minn. thought I would have a problem but let me enrol anyway. I was working 40 hours a week in a factory, managing a family of 5 kids, dealing with a husband who couldn’t understand why a woman would want an education – and being politically active at the same time. I did it piecemeal, partly correspondence, mostly summer sessions, some night classes, some day classes. Took 8 years. Graduated with a B.A. in journalism and a B+ average. Mission accomplished and it felt good.

What were the main values that came from it?

It broadened my view of the world, gave me new ideas to think about. Didn’t teach me much about writing (straight A’s there) because I was born knowing how to write. It was intellectually and emotionally satisfying being part of the wider world and learning more about how to understand it. And of course it deepened my atheism. Thinking will do that to you.

Why did you choose to earn a degree in journalism/mass communications from the University of Minnesota over other degrees, and how did you persist and succeed with the tremendous responsibility of raising 5 kids while doing it?

I already knew how to write. It was something that came to me naturally. I wrote a news item based on random info for a class assignment. The instructor posted it on the board as the best example he had ever seen. He said I must have had some experience. I said it was the first time in my life I’d done that. I got A’s in some classes where math was involved (which I knew almost zero about) because the exams included an essay question. My turf! I could write all kinds of B.S. and make it sound intellectual. (Doesn’t knowing that tell you something about how people perceive things? Reminds me of how I was so hooked on Catholicism when growing up. The Church was great at using big words and sounding oh so intellectual! Hooked me good!!) As to how I persisted, I just did, just kept plodding along. Besides, it was good for my kids to see me involved in life. I always did by best to show them as much of life and the world as I could. Never babied them or talked down to them. My oldest daughter was a straight A student all the way through from first grade to her masters’ degree. She loved what I was doing and wrote little essays for grade school about how great is was to have a mother doing all that and leaving her in charge (at age 9) during short periods when neigher I nor my husband were home. She just LOVED it, she said, because it made her feel so responsible! And she was. And still is. All my kids turned out to be great adults. And they are atheists!!!!

You have been involved with the Hemlock Society. In what capacity have you been involved in the dying with dignity movement through them, what’s a better argument for dying with dignity than for, say, those that harbour antithetical notions of death and ways to evaluate human worth, so come to conclusions in contradistinction to the dying with dignity movement?

I got involved because getting involved is what I do. I had a sweatshirt that said, “Stress is what happens when your gut says No but your mouth says, Yes, I’d be glad to do it.” I really hate it when people try to run other people’s lives when it’s none of their business. Everyone dies. Some want to do it on their own terms to avoid whatever assorted miseries afflict them. They should be free to take about it, get info on self-deliverance, and help in carrying it out. The government should be involved only to ensure their diagnosis of incurability is accurate, there is no coercion, the decision is obviously well thought out and rational. For people who disagree I say they should feel free to suffer all they want and hang on to life as long as possible, but not insist that others should do the same. Mother Teresa said “Suffering is the kiss of Jesus,” but that is religious B.S. Ok for those who buy into it but ONLY for those who buy into it.

You were integral in the formation of the Minnesota Atheists, and served as the president for 10 years. What are simple principles you can impart for those that want to found an atheist community and associated organization?

1. Try to avoid the “big tent” approach where anyone who ID’s as an atheist is encouraged to join. Too hard to get agreement on how to deal with religion. A tent doesn’t move.

2. Start with a definite stated position on what the group will do. “Support state-church separation” is meaningless. I have seen too many groups fall apart because they had no specific goal in mind. Spell out that goal in the bylaws. Atheists For Human Rights has the specific goal of supporting victims of religion based laws through our Moral High Ground project. We focus on that and our members understand and support that as well as our opposition to racist/sexist/homophobia views. When we first organized AFHR I would get calls from potential members. When a little conversation uncovered any racist/sexist/homophobia I told them they might be more comfortable joining MN Atheists and directed them there. (They have a big tent, which led to the breakup and the formation of AFHR.)

What are the emotional, even legal, difficulties they will encounter?

You get those difficulties with the “big tent” approach. Having no common specific purpose will do that. There is no solid attachment to atheism, just meetings and speakers and thinking of fun things to do. You basically just get a social club, which is OK and certainly better than nothing.

Now, you’re the communications director for Atheists for Human Rights. What tasks and responsibilities come with the communications director position for Atheists for Human Rights?

It’s pretty simple. For one thing we don’t have a hierarchal structure. People volunteer to be on the board and we operate by consensus. Everyone takes on a task they are able and willing to do.

There is no president. If we need one for signing some legal paper we just appoint one pro-tem for the purpose. I take care of all the communications stuff, edit our magazine, publish our booklets, write letters to the editor, etc. Other board members take care of the treasurer and secretarial work, Internet functions, graphics, events, video distribution and the new position of wrangling the USPS bulk mail requirements (big headache, long story). Our signature activity is our Moral High Ground project. I send out the grants every December.

You are an editor for The Moral Atheist, a magazine. How can people become involved and contribute material? What are some tips for new writers?

People just gravitate to things. They show some interest or are asked to do something and involvement happens. Our magazine contributors come from all over the country. They offer to send stuff and we pretty much always take it. I don’t have any tips for new writers. Either they can write or they can’t. They just have to stick to religion/atheism related topics because we don’t bother much with issues outside of those areas.

Your atheist activism stresses the grassroots and many Left, politically and socially speaking, issues, e.g. labor unions, being against the Vietnam war and a charter for the NOW (National Organization of Women), as well as working for the Abortion Rights. All of these are highly Left, progressive social and cultural, and legal, concerns. When did you realize your implicit values were Left?

I grew up with Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. I know what poverty is like and what a politically left government can do about it. Churches were no help and the Republicans were of the opinion that the problem with the country was that the rich didn’t have enough money and the poor had too much. Very hard to miss where the decent humane stuff was coming from and it was New Deal stuff. I saw what was going on. I lived it. Those left/right worldviews haven’t changed. There is nothing in the right wing worldview that I can find appealing. Too much greed there. “If the Haves gave half of what they have to the Have-Nots, the Halves would still be the Halves but the Halve-Nots would be the Halve-Somethings.”

How did you build the resilience and courage to act on the implicit values, making them explicit, public, and proactive?

I didn’t build anything. I am what I am and pretty much what I always was. I do what I do because I really can’t not do it. it makes me question whether we have free will. It’s like that sweatshirt I had. Someone says we need someone to do something and my damned hand goes up. It just goes up. That doesn’t happen as much any more because I’m 90 years old and running out of gas. And my arm hurts too much. But still I can’t help but keep going as best I can – which is still better than those who do nothing. “Those who wait until they can do a whole lot of good all at one time never do any good at all.” Right now I’m starting to write an updated version of my 2013 book, “Culture Wars.” My publisher wants it ready by August so I have work to do.

You wrote Culture Wars: The Threat to Your Family and Your Freedom (2013). The ideal of the constitution is separation of church and state in the US. How are laws justified within religious apparatuses to control the lives of the general population—most of whom are religious, but some of whom are irreligious—without secular justification?

No one seems to realize those laws are religion based and have no secular justification. Death with dignity and abortion and faith healing exemptions and stem cell research restrictions are clear examples. The media refer to the restrictions as socially conservative, never as fully based on religious dogma. We have a major problem too in that when those laws are challenged they are based on things like equal treatment or free speech. FEN has never defended itself by noting the religious basis for imposing a duty to suffer on hopelessly ill people. They lost the most recent case and are appealing. We wrote an amicus, noting the very clear religious basis for the government restrictions. But the FEN lawyer can’t use that in the appeal because the issue of religious doctrine was not part of the original case. All we can hope for is that a decency minded judge might read the amicus and decide to use that to rule in our favor.

What do you consider one of the more interesting findings that came from researching for the text? For example, the religious basis for prohibitions, in law, of “both contraception and abortions, limits on reality-based sex education in schools and bans against stem-cell research…Bible readings and prayers sessions held in public schools and Creationism is taught in many places as a legitimate alternative to Evolution…[and] laws against same-sex marriage and laws actually criminalizing homosexuality.” Not to mention the banning of specific books with tax privilege/preference for organizations that happen to be religion-based. I’m just trying to target something under the surface, not really thought about, but pervasive, affecting everyone, and pernicious in its effects on the young or upcoming generations.

What impressed me was how pervasive this religious control is, reaching from federal to state to local government, and how tied to religion it is. Further, how totally involved the Catholic bishops have been in keeping these restrictions embedded in our laws and using the Protestant fundamentalists as a front. Almost all of the Christian Coalition leaders have been Catholic and put there by the Catholic bishops, starting with Jerry Falwell. Their reach is impressive, helped by their monolithic structure. But I can say this for sure: the religious right would disappear overnight if Roe v Wade were overturned. Abortion is the bottom line litmus test driving force keeping this dystopian political populism going. I’ll deal with that in my updated book.

What has been the feedback from the readers of the book or even those claiming to have read the text—positive, negative, neutral, and other various flavours of feedback?

Mostly they think the book is great but almost none grasp the thesis that we have major laws that are totally religion-based. They can’t relate state-church separation to that – only to the trivial stuff like school prayers. Maybe this is because no lawsuits are ever filed that challenge the religious basis. (More about that in my updated book.) Otherwise, the negative comments have mainly expressed discomfort with my saying unkind things about the Catholic Church.

Thank you for your time, Marie.

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2022-04-12

An Interview with Simon Ørregaard – Chairman, Eftertro

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/25

Simon Ørregaard is the Chairman of Eftertro. It is a small Danish organization devoted to helping people who are in an existential crisis based on being “post-faith,” which is the translation of Eftertro.

How did you first become involved in the faithless community?

My first contact was via YouTube as shy and vulnerable as I was at the time. I found Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins and others in all these great debates, which was a breath of fresh air to listen to. I spent countless hours at nights being encouraged in my own process of leaving faith, being assured that I was on the right way, and that I was not alone. Then I reached out to several people on Facebook and got together with Anders Stjernholm from the Danish Atheistic Society. Since then, there has been no turning back.

Who are the most likely to leave religion? (Age, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, and so on)

That is a big and complicated question. Homosexuals are obviously likely to leave. But then again some live in restraint denying their own nature. I guess that everyone’s story is very individual. For me personally, it is a tale of 30 years of doubt, fear and insecurity. I do think that the younger you are, the easier it is to break out. That sounds obvious, but I did not succeed in getting out before I wasted the main part of my life in a sect. What I am referring to here is all the existential questions you have to deal with. On top of that, you have the social control and the sanctions that go with it. So it is crucial which background you are dealing with. For example, it is often a direct physical danger to break out of Islam. In my case, which was about escaping from Jehovah’s Witnesses, the shunning is worse than almost anything else. There are actually a lot of similarities between JW and Islam in that way.

So, for those who do not know, what is Eftertro?

Eftertro (or post-faith) is a small but still growing network of people who are in trouble because of doubt, fear, loneliness, or existential crisis in leaving or dealing with a religious background. We welcome people from all kinds of faiths. We have Muslims, JW’s, Mormons, Scientologists, New Age, various Pentecostal churches etc – even a Buddhist. All exes of course, even though we are not an atheistic organisation. What we do is to provide a safe place where people can meet and exchange their feelings and experiences, in order to help them in making the right decision for themselves. It is a very powerful thing to listen to all these fates and to realise that we all have the same universal problems regardless of our backgrounds.

As the Eftertro chairman, what roles and responsibilities come with this position?

My main purpose is to ensure everyone that the individual is the single most important. To make people comfortable in a difficult situation. To ensure everyone in that any feeling is legal. To be open, to listen and to share my own experience. I am fortunate to have a whole team to back this movement up. We have meetings in various places in Denmark. The big task now is how to make Eftertro more visible in the public because we see a large potential. That needs funding and we have not come across that yet. So I have a big task in front of me, but luckily I also have some great people who have become some of my best friends to work with.

What derivative, unexpected, tasks come with it, too?

Well, there is the whole issue of how to dissect a certain problem. Sometimes the problem lies elsewhere, and needs attending by professionals or the authorities. If a person is a minor, what do we do? If a person is in danger, where goes the line between our responsibility as citizens and activists? We have a social worker connected as well as a few psychologists. We do attempt to be very aware; that we do not cross any legal or ethical lines.

As a network of volunteers with the knowledge and experience relevant to doubt, faith, and social control, what is the importance of coffee meetings for everyone, and for those Eftertro’s volunteer staff help out?

First and foremost, it is a mutual process of getting out. Some people only come to one meeting, some stick around. For those of us who are working on this project the meetings are also very powerful. In that way, we heal ourselves trying to heal others. It is a community, which is often exactly what people like us miss the most.

What are the psychological processes, the internal dialogues, that surround doubt about religion or faith for people?

You can write books about that, but the core thing here is cognitive dissonance. It is a struggle of trying to push doubt aside, while at the same time being in doubt. You are, in a way, fighting for survival on two levels. That is a very troublesome and indeed lonesome process. Not least because you don’t know what lies ahead. What is out there? I believe that lots of people lose that battle before they even get started. When I talked to my family and friends, I got the notion that they knew they believed in something wrong or at least that they understood me. But that recognition is very difficult, because in that moment you lose everything you have believed in. It is basically based in fear of the unknown. The fear of death.

What are the methods of social control of the faith leaders on their followers?

From my own experience, and from others, it is a faith system that makes you feel sinful, guilty, in order to make you want to do good. And when the scale you compare yourself to is “perfection”, you will always have a bad conscience, which will make you try even harder. In that way you feel guilty and afraid before you even get to consider whether your belief is right or wrong (which is a sin in it self!). Then you get to the sanctions and punishment. I can hardly think of a task more difficult than going against that.

What are some of the more horrifying stories that you have come across, even witnessed?

Some are too afraid and vulnerable even to go to a coffee meeting. It is heartbreaking every time. In the Muslim field, it is very hard to witness young, intelligent, powerful, women, who can not move away from their home because of the religion/culture. Even though, their family are not practicing Islam it is dangerous for them to live their own lives. My own family is totally separated now, as if I was dead, which is very hard for my children (and me).

What have been some of the more heartwarming stories of people leaving personally deleterious religious faith?

To see people, connect and find a mutual understanding, in some cases, they go public and into the debate in the media. On the long term, Eftertro can make a difference. Very many of these people experience a vast loneliness, and through Eftertro, they can find some kind of peace.

What are the most common activist activities, educational initiatives, and political engagement movements through Eftertro, or in coordination with other groups?

Thus far we have concentrated on coffee meetings and counselling and also talking with students from both high schools and universities. From now on we will focus on more campaigning and lectures. But it is a big task for a small organisation like ours without any funding. But I sincerely believe that Eftertro has great potential, so we will do our best still.

Who are the biggest allies for Eftertro – and even unexpected allies in its efforts of helping out those that lost faith?

Well as far as unexpected allies, we had a priest from the Danish National Church at a certain point. But we agreed that it would interfere too much with the meetings if we had a Christian priest sitting there. But we do get a lot of recognition of our purpose. As far as allies go, the Atheist Society helped this project to get off the ground. In fact, it was their chairman, Anders Stjernholm who got the idea in the first place. He was never religious though, so he was clear on the fact that he would never participate in any meetings. He is still a very important part of the project, and a member of the board. Politically, I am also engaged in a newly started party, The Progressive which works for a secular society based on knowledge and cleansed of all religious bias.

What are their ways of helping out?

As of now by good spirit and support alongside working on some of the same goals. Again I must stress that Eftertro is neither a political or atheistic organisation. We help people in trouble because of faith related issues.

How can others help out, even donate? How can they become involved in Eftertro?

Helping hands are always welcome. Sometimes we struggle to find a location to hold a meeting. You can become a member or even donator via our website eftertro.dk. We do not have an English version yet, but we are working on it.

Any closing thoughts or feelings based on the discussion today?

I just want to say, “Thank You!”, for your interest, and if there is anyone in UK who can relate to us, we will always be interested in working together or exchange knowledge and experience. These problems are international so let us gather all good powers in helping the victims of religious dogma.

Thank you for your time, Simon.

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2022-04-12

An Interview with Wade Kaardal, Chairperson of the Asian Working Group for IHEYO

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/25

Was there a family background in humanism and scepticism?

To be honest, no. My family, being ethnically Norwegian, has strong ties to the Lutheran church, going back generations. My great grandfather was a missionary in Africa. Of course, he was an older kind of missionary, meaning his mission was in part to better the physical situation of those around him. While I personally reject some of his ideas and the motivation for what he was doing, the value of being in service to others was carried forward by my relatives and I do feel that some of the values that I learned from those around me are not now in conflict with my current humanist values.

My family also placed a strong emphasis on education, which gave me a solid knowledge base. However, it took time for me to learn how to be a critical and sceptical thinker.

What is your preferred definition of humanism and scepticism?

My preferred definition of scepticism is the one used on the Media Guide to Scepticism on the Doubtful News website “Scepticism is an approach to evaluating claims that emphasises evidence and applies tools of science.” The organised Sceptical movement works to promote this approach in people’s lives and society as a whole. I know many people see scepticism as an intellectual exercise or an attempt to debunk wild claims, but really it is a great tool for individuals to save time and money, as well as maintaining their health, by avoiding scams and frauds.

Humanism is not easily defined. Some of the biggest organisations around the world have tried and have only been able to narrow it down to page long manifestos and declarations. If I were to try to give you an elevator pitch of humanism, it would be, humanism is a worldview that appreciates both individual differences and the right for individual development, and tries to create a society that will not limit your ability to flourish based upon those individual differences. Furthermore, humanism should be informed by evidence, but it should also make room for inspiration from other fields such as the arts. I am a secular humanist, but I don’t think one needs to be an atheist to be a humanist. Humanism is anti-dogma, not anti-religion, and if our values line up, I’m happy to work towards progress with anyone.

Are there many legitimate cases of proper scepticism turned into cynicism, or cynicism masquerading as scepticism?

I believe there are some cases, and I imagine some of my fellow travellers are more cynical than sceptical. Scepticism is a process based on certain fundamental ideas. It is not a set of beliefs. Yet, for some this is the case. They hold certain ideas to be true, ghosts aren’t real for example, and will never change their minds on the matter. Cynicism is not far behind this kind of mindset.

If you are not willing to examine the evidence and revise your beliefs based on it, then you are not being sceptical. There are several examples of people who merely set out to debunk things and later gave up on the endeavour entirely. Sceptical investigator, Joe Nickel, has avoided this because he is driven by curiosity to find out what is actually go on, not to merely prove that certain claims are false.

For myself, I am happiest when the sceptical process leads me to a nuanced position on a situation. It would be nice to have simple answers, but reality is not always kind to us in this regard. I think it is this enjoyment of nuance that keeps me from becoming a cynic.

How did you find and become involved with IHEYO?

I first became involved with humanism and scepticism in Taiwan when I started two groups there. From that I got some notice in the region and connected with others who were doing similar things. Later, I found that another group, PATAS, was holding a conference in the Philippines so I decided to attend. It was there that I met some people from IHEYO. It was through the contacts I met there, as well as some others in Singapore, that I became involved with IHEYO directly. When the chairperson position opened up, I volunteered and having been facilitating the working group for a little over a year now.

Wherever you are, I suggest that you start a humanist or sceptical group, even if it is just at a local or community level. We need more advocates for good ideas, and a group is a great way to connect with like minded individuals. Who knows, it could be the first step to become an international leader in the humanist movement.

What are your tasks and responsibilities as the chairperson of the Asian Working Group for IHEYO?

There are two main responsibilities that I have as chairperson. The first is to facilitate communication between groups in the region. Asia is a very big region with every sub-region and even country having problems of their own and issue the groups there would like to focus on. It would be a fool’s errand and counterproductive of me or IHEYO to try and tell them what to do. Instead, I help the group stay in contact with each other and know what everyone is doing. In this way, they can share ideas and expertise and hopefully all the groups will benefit from each other’s experience.

My other responsibility is to find ways for IHEYO and the working group to support the member organisations. Again, each group has its own needs. Using the resources, I have available, be it contacts with organisations or individuals, volunteers, time, or money, I try to support the local groups to make what they are doing more effective. One thing we have done for example was organise translation efforts, so groups could have humanist materials in their native languages and are better equipped to engage with people in their counties.

In general, I view my position as being in service to those I lead. They know best what their organisations need. I want to do what I can to help make them better.

What are the main threats to the practice of humanism in the Asian region now?

This is of course a large question and it’s hard to point to all of Asia and say there is just one issue. If I were to try to point to one issue that many countries are facing, it would be a rise in authoritarianism and nationalism in Asia. Obviously, illiberal and totalitarian governments like China and North Korea, have been long standing presences in the region. Theocracies of many stripes also continue to limit the spread of humanistic values. Lastly, strong men and nationalists, like those currently in power in the Philippines and India, have chilled free speech and limited human flourishing in the region.

I do hope that humanists in continue to promote our values and fight hard against authoritarian dogmas as they are one of the greatest threats both human life and human progress in the Asia.

Who have been the most unexpected allies for the humanist and sceptical movements in Asia?

For me, on the ground in Taiwan, the LGBTQ rights movement has been our biggest and most unexpected ally. When the issue of marriage equality came up in Taiwan, many were surprised how quickly people organised against it. As it turned out, the main opposition was organised through Christian churches with help from abroad. In response, seemingly overnight, many anti-dogmatic religion groups sprouted up on social media translating videos and memes from the west. Not only has this increased, the overall dankness of our memes, it has also meant that we can reach more Taiwanese with our ideas, if only in sound bite form, and we can support a movement that many of us already agree with.

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2022-04-12

Philosophy News in Brief – April 25th, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/25

The “Trump Doctrine” still has no consistent philosophy

The National Post reports that President Donald Trump has been increasingly ‘fed up’ with Kim Jong-Un. The North Korean dictator has been “poised” for another nuclear missile test in the earlier parts of April.

In the midst of the test, a false alarm was set out through sending the USS Carl Vinson to the Korean Peninsula near North Korea. Later reports showed this was a false alarm and the U.S. carrier was going in the opposite direction for a “pre-arranged exercise with the Australian navy.”

“…some saw it as a reflection of the new president’s foreign policy generally. Despite no-nonsense assertions on the campaign trail, his international forays so far have included surprises, flip-flops and contradictions. If at this early stage in the administration there is such thing as a Trump Doctrine, it has been difficult to make out.”

Silicon Valley hires philosophers to teach them

Quartz states that happiness is an obsession for Silicon Valley and its professionals. There is purportedly a pursuit of a “mythical good life,” which is fulfilment connected to achievement in Silicon Valley.

There is an attempt, and indeed a movement, devoted to the quantified self in the “quantified self movement.” Some aspects of this include polyphonic sleep and various “off-label pharmaceuticals.”

“Andrew Taggart thinks most of this is nonsense. With a PhD in philosophy, Taggart practices the art of gadfly-for-hire. He disabuses founders, executives, and others in Silicon Valley of the notion that life is a problem to be solved, and happiness awaits those who do it. Indeed, Taggart argues that optimising one’s life and business is actually a formula for misery.”

Tech bros and Ancient Greek parallels

According to Quartz, the Silicon Valley mystique is definitely male. At the same time, this is not seen as a new phenomenon. This, and other current “tech bro” cultures could well be seen as being preceded by the Ancient Greek philosophers.

The “toga-clad men in Athens devising philosophical theories to shift our understanding of reality.” It was a cult devoted to the genius, and might be “toxic, even providing “excuses [for] bad behavior and allows prejudices to be cloaked in subjective assessments of intelligence and value.” Sound familiar?

One of the main problems in the tech world is the “white male homogeneity, rampant sexual harassment, and focus on catering to the concerns of the most privileged in society…Arianna…promised to wipe out ‘brilliant jerks.’”

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2022-04-12

Women’s Rights in the Philippines – An Overview

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/25

Humanism, as an ethical and philosophical worldview, provides the basis for proper action in the world with an emphasis on this world, the natural world. There is a phrase, “deed before creed,” that speaks volumes to the emphasis of humanism. Principles are nice; rights and privileges are good. But how do these affect the world? Answer: through action.

Human rights are a good example. Women’s rights are a better example. There are stipulations in international documents such as the UN Charter speaking to the equal rights of women. It needs action. It’s the same everywhere on that basic need to translate abstract ethics into practical morals.

Take, for example, the situation in the Philippines. Some things are good; other things are bad.

But these are loose statements, and can differ from the enactment of women’s rights, including advocacy and empowerment in the country. So what is the current state of women’s rights in the Philippines? What’s good and bad, and how can things improve?

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner says, “Women’s sexual and reproductive health is related to multiple human rights, including the right to life, the right to be free from torture, the right to health, the right to privacy, the right to education, and the prohibition of discrimination.”

As Olivia H. Tripon instructs from the Philippines Human Rights Reporting Project in 2008, women have fought for a very long time to be considered human beings deserving of human rights. Filipino women earned the right to vote only as recently as 1937. Rural and Indigenous women are even more vulnerable.

The Philippines ranks 7th in the World Economic Forum (WEF) Gender Gap Report (2016). Even with a relatively low mark in labour participation, women continue to be encouraged to excel in school and in the workplace. Women in business or positions of leadership are not an uncommon sight in the Philippines.

Filipino women enjoy a high literacy rate. The Philippines consistently earns high marks in terms of equal opportunity in education and employment, where a new law was passed in the Senate extending paid maternity leave to 120 days. And for LGBT women, an Anti-Discrimination Bill had been languishing in the Senate for the past 17 years, but is being debated now.

The initiative is spearheaded by Congresswoman, Geraldine Roman, the first openly trans woman to be elected to Congress in the Philippines. There are many positive signs within the country, but there are still plenty of negatives.

The Philippines continues to lag significantly behind in some aspects. Filipino women are empowered, development studies say. However, matters of the heart and the vagina do not seem to be included in this empowerment. Even with anti-Violence Against Women (VAW) campaigns by the government, Filipinas are still affected by gender-based violence, which is not limited to socioeconomic or educational status. This includes, but is not limited to, sex trafficking, forced prostitution, and sexual harassment in schools, the workplace, and on the street. Instances of this last one can be seen in Catcalled in the Philippines, a Facebook page where people can anonymously submit personal accounts of harassment.

Great challenges in implementing reproductive health laws and pursuing solutions to sexual health-related issues also exist. Abortion remains illegal and punishable by law (except when necessary to save the mother’s life), even as Human Rights Watch calls equitable access to abortion “first and foremost a human right,” and even access to birth control remains a testy subject, with the Supreme Court having issued a TRO on the sale of female contraceptives.

The Philippines also remains the only country with no divorce laws; there are provisions in the Family Code for legal separation and annulment, but the sheer expense of the process limits these options only the rich.

Neither does a culture of having serious conversations about sexual health in public exists in the Philippines. Organisations, however, that would rather see the education around it (e.g. the proper use of condoms) not taught in the schools, do. Such groups would like to see the education left to the parents, but in a culture where it is taboo to talk about sex, how does this encourage healthy education around the use of condoms at home? The answer: it does not.

The two “acceptable” methods advocated by the Catholic Church are abstinence and the rhythm method. Of course, both fail to deliver on their purported ends, and contribute to a high rate of teenage pregnancy. Added to this, is a stigma against unwed mothers (if pregnant, the man whodunit is expected to marry her) and the nonexistence of divorce, leaves a woman nominally empowered and oppressed by a deeply patriarchal society where even the notion of childlessness is seen as questionable. The expectation being that women naturally gravitate towards the desire to have biological children in their future, and furthermore have a duty to further the family line.

The taboos around sex do not help Filipino women, or society and culture in the Philippines. A proper sexual education curriculum (which includes safe sex practices, consent, and the variety of contraceptives on offer for men and women) would improve the situation for women in the Philippines. Universal access to evidence-based sexual and reproductive health education for children would be a great first step in this direction.

Another solution is the implementation, or the enforcement, of the stipulation in international documents relevant to women. For example, the UN Charter discusses the rights for women in the Preamble:

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom…

And Article 16:

Article 16.

(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

These and other acts protect women and girls’ rights. Through the Philippine Commission on Women, there is the Republic Act 9710, which is the “Magna Carta for Women.” In it, the Philippine government is devoted to the “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women’s (CEDAW) Committee.” CEDAW was ratified in 1981 in the Philippines.

Some stipulations in Republic Act 9710 include the increase of women in third level government positions for a 50-50 balance, leave benefits with full pay, non-discrimination in the military, police, or associated services, equal access and discrimination elimination in the domains of “education, scholarships, and training,” and portrayal of women in mass media.
Given the situation for women in the Philippines, the improvement in their livelihoods, especially rural and Indigenous women’s livelihoods, can be overturned fast. This makes the fight for women’s rights in the Philippines a battle that never really ends, and requires continual vigilance in the fight for equality and its requisite protection – however fragile the wins may be.

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2022-04-12

An Interview with Amanda Poppei

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/24

Minister Amanda Poppei is a Senior Leader and Unitarian Universalist Minister at the Washington Ethical Society (Ethical Culture and Unitarian Universalist). She grew up in upstate New York. Here is her story.

Let’s delve into your own family background. What were your family’s geography, culture, language, and religious/irreligious beliefs, principles and values?

I was raised in upstate New York, in a white family grounded in academia–my mother was a college professor, and my father had been studying for his PhD in Biology before leaving to make furniture. He worked out of a barn in our backyard, crafting beautiful pieces–really an artist. In my earliest years I didn’t attend any congregation, but in 4th grade I went on a sleepover to a friend’s house and attended church with her the next day. I came home and promptly announced that I wanted to go to that church! My mother was a little worried–we were a humanist family–but quickly relieved to discover it was Unitarian Universalist congregation.

She had actually been raised UU, just hadn’t gotten around to taking me to Sunday School. I attended religiously (ha!) through middle and high school, participating in their Coming of Age program in 8th grade. It was during that year that I first articulated a desire to become clergy myself one day.

My family raised me with a strong sense of social justice; my mother in particular followed in her own mother’s footsteps, building her life around making the world a better place. I knew I was raised with a lot of privilege (white, formally educated) and that part of the rent I needed to pay in the world was making sure that others had similar opportunities. My mother took me to Washington, DC for my first national march when I was in 3rd grade, supporting the Equal Rights Amendment. For his part, my father instilled a curiosity about how the world works, from the planets to the atoms, and a love of the outdoors. Both my parents raised me to challenge racism, misogyny, and homophobia. I feel incredibly lucky to have been raised with those values and to have the opportunity now to live them out in my work and home life.

You have many qualifications. Some selected ones include senior leader of the Washington Ethical Society since 2008, a Masters of Divinity from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, District of Columbia and a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from Yale University.

Most citizens in the US probably don’t know what ethical culture and Unitarian Universalists are. So what might be a good educational campaign for ethical culture adherents and Unitarian Universalists to pursue in the US?

I’m sure that’s true! Ethical Culture is a very small movement–just 24 congregations across the country–and although Unitarian Universalism is much larger–over 1,000 congregations–that’s still small in the overall American religious landscape. In many ways, I think the justice work we do is the best advertisement for both movements. We have always had an influence in the world that’s larger than our size, as we have fought for equal rights, fairness, kindness, and mercy. UUs and Ethical Culturists show up at rallies, marches, organising meetings, and town halls all across the country. Although we may have different beliefs (Unitarian Universalist is a pluralistic religious movement, and Ethical Culture welcomes people of all beliefs), we share a strong commitment to justice and a belief that every single person is worthy.

I think we also have a special appeal to families. More and more parents are choosing to raise their children outside of traditional religion–but they are still seeking a grounding in values, and a community to support their family. Both UU congregations and Ethical Societies offer that. Our education for children is based on encouraging questions and exploration, and creating a safe and nurturing space for children to spread their wings. We incorporate study of world religions, comprehensive sexuality education, and ethics education into almost every age group.

And we mark the passages of the year, through celebrations like Winter Festival and Spring Festival, and the passages of life, through baby naming, weddings, and memorial services.

When did ministerial/chaplaincy/pastoral work become a ‘calling’ for you?

8th grade! I was on a Coming of Age trip to Boston with my Unitarian Universalist congregation, and had been visiting some of the sites around the city where famous Unitarians and Universalists had lived and wrote and worked. We went to visit the headquarters of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and as I stood in the bookstore and looked around at the titles I suddenly thought: I want to spend my life thinking about these things!

As time went on, I continued to think about ministry. In high school, I would have said that congregations seemed like the best way to organise people to do good in the world (and I still think that). In college, I was a Religious Studies major and began to learn more about the role of religion in American life. And then of course in seminary–which I entered a few years after graduating college–I deepened my understanding of the values, theology, and philosophy that ground my life’s work.

What is the best argument for ethical culture or for Unitarian Universalism that you have ever come across?

We are not alone in the world–we are connected to each other. We need to practice what it means to be human together, to be in relationship as a way of supporting our own growth and as a way of working for justice in the world. Both Unitarian Universalism and Ethical Culture remind us of these core truths, and give us a place to practice, learn, and transform.

What seems like the main reason for individuals becoming a member of the ethical culture and Unitarian Universalist community? For example, arguments from logic and philosophy, evidence from mainstream science, or experience within traditional religious structures?

I think it’s a bit of all of those things. Most people that come to the Washington Ethical Society–the congregation I serve–have done a lot of thinking about what they believe. Whether they were raised in a traditional religion or raised secular, they’ve been thoughtful about their beliefs and worldview. Almost all of them share an essentially naturalistic worldview, and a sense that they want to be grounded in the here-and-now. What they’re looking for when they come to us is a community in which they can live out those values, where they can have the benefits of a congregation but without dogma that no longer works for them. They are looking for a place to support their family, or to care for them if they have a crisis, or just to provide a set aside time each week to be thoughtful and introspective. They often choose our community because they like our commitment to justice work. Ultimately, I think they are searching for a sense of belonging and a chance to make a difference in the world.

What tasks and responsibilities come with the senior leadership position?

I am responsible for our Sunday morning gatherings–I speak 2-3 times a month, and support guest speakers for the other Sundays. I provide pastoral care, visiting people in the hospital and offering counselling as needed (and I also work with a great group of members who do that work too). I serve as head of staff, and am responsible for managing the day to day operations of the congregation, everything from creating and tracking the budget to overseeing programming–although in all of that work I collaborate with a wonderful staff. And I work with the Board and the entire membership on setting vision and strategy for the congregation. Finally, I work out in the world, outside the walls of the congregation, fighting for what is right. That’s very often done in coalition, with interfaith groups or with secular groups.

What are some of the demographics of the Washington Ethical Society? (Age, sex, political affiliation, and so on)

We are a majority white, yet generationally diverse membership. We have slightly more women than men. Most WES members are progressive, ranging from pretty liberal to quite radical! We have Millennials, Gen X-ers, Boomers, and Silent Generation, plus of course children and teens who are the newest generational cohort. The number of people of colour in our community is small but growing. Most (but not all) WES members have a college degree, and many have a Masters or other advanced degree. They work in many different fields, but the helping professions (teaching, social work, etc) and public service and nonprofit work are highly represented.

What is pastoral care within an ethical culture/Unitarian Universalist framework?

It looks pretty similar to in any community. I work with a team of lay Pastoral Care Associates, members who are specially trained to offer care in times of crisis. We support members in practical ways–like bringing meals and giving rides to the doctor–and we also just visit with people and try to be present to them when they are struggling. I offer pastoral counselling as well, to people who are struggling with hard choices or just having a hard time in life.

How does it differ from traditional definitions, theory and practice? Are there major differences?

Of course we don’t believe that the things that happen to people are part of God’s plan, so there’s a difference perhaps in the overall conceptual framework. But the practice of caring for people is really the same no matter what your ideas behind it are–it’s about showing up for people when times are hard and celebrating with them when times are good.

You earned the National Capital Area Big Sister (2007) award from Hermanos y Hermanas Mayores/Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Anti-Racism Sermon Award (2006) from the Joseph Priestly District of the Unitarian Universalist Association for The Tip of the Iceberg. What was the background for the awards? What was the content and purpose of The Tip of the Iceberg?

That was a long time ago! I was talking about the differences between overt racism–like using racist slurs–and systemic racism, which is sometimes harder to spot but still incredibly damaging to individuals and to society as a whole.

How fulfilling is this recognition?

It was great to be recognised, especially at that time when I was still a seminarian, still training for the ministry.

What extra responsibility to the public comes with the recognition?

None. But certainly work on issues of racism continues to be a vital part of my work.

What is the importance of connecting youths to an ethical culture and Unitarian Universalist base for the sense of shared community?

Adolescence is a time of incredible transition. Having the support of a community bigger than one’s family can be so important–knowing adults beside your parents who care about you and want to see you thrive. Our LGBTQ teens know that they are supported and welcome in this community, as well. And in general our teens get to connect with others who support their values, who want to make a difference in the world. I am always blown away by their thoughtfulness and passion; we learn a great deal from them.

What do you consider the main threat to ethical culture and Unitarian Universalism in America? What have been perennial threats to them?

I’m not sure I think in terms of threats in this way. Injustice and bigotry are threats to all people, and we work against that. Not sure what this question might mean.

What are the common problems of community found at Washington Ethical Society?

Like any community, we have conflict–that comes from people being in relationship with each other! We are a diverse community, with many backgrounds and beliefs represented, which means we don’t always like the same music or styles of speaking. But that also is part of the richness in our community, and most folks really love the opportunity to learn from each other.

How can people become involved with or donate to the American Ethical Union or the Washington Ethical Society?

They can check out our website at www.ethicalsociety.org and click on the “give” button on the top right to donate…or explore the rest of our website to learn about our activities. To find other Ethical Societies, check out http://aeu.org/who-we-are/member-societies/ and to find other Unitarian Universalist congregations, try http://www.uua.org/directory/congregations.

Thank you for your time, Minister Poppei.

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2022-04-12

‘Religion of Love’ on the ‘Religion of Peace’

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/24

Francis Phillips, writer for The Catholic Herald, reviews “Letters to a Young Muslim”, a new book about Islam by Omar Saif Ghobash. The Catholic Herald reports that the idea of Islam as a “religion of peace” is more complicated than the first examination. Catholicism, as a sect of Christianity, is often referred to as the ‘religion of love.’ Islam is often considered the ‘religion of peace.’

“I never know quite what to make of this, partly because the media tends to focus on “Islamism” with its terrorist implications, and partly because one rarely hears a strong, public voice from the side of the peace-loving Islam.” Here, Phillips points out that with the public discourse around Islam in Britain, there appears to be only two discussions. One is on the form of fundamentalism geared towards part political imposition upon society. The other is based on a set of principles and practices for a faith among many others within a pluralistic democracy.

The difference is that “Islamism” is the desire to impose a political form of Islam onto society. The latter is simply the set of hypothetical statements about history and asserted principles for living in addition to the suggested practices that follow from them, which is simply termed “Islam”.

Phillips states, “Reading Letters to a Young Muslim (UK, US) by Omar Saif Ghobash does not clear up this problem – though it is good to read the reflections of a cultured, educated and cosmopolitan Muslim who also takes his faith with great seriousness.”

The author notes that the former, Islamism, is typically considered bad while Islam is considered good, especially by comparison to Islamism. One common association with Islamism is terrorism.

“Of mixed parentage himself – [Ghobash’s] mother is Russian and his father, killed by terrorists in 1977 when the author was aged four, was from the United Arab Emirates – he was educated at Oxford and the University of London and is currently the UAE ambassador to Russia.”

As noted by Phillips, there are some that see Islam as warmongering, and inherently so, and others see Islam as another faith among many, also the second most populous religion in the world outside of Christianity writ large.

“His book is written for his two sons, aged 12 and 16, in an attempt to help them to “understand how to be faithful to their inherited religion of Islam and its deepest values” and at the same time to recognise ‘through observation and thought that there need be no conflict between Islam and the rest of the world’.”

The book by Ghobash is seen as something notable for parents “anxious” for their children. Phillips describes the concern of some religious parents over the” temptations of the West, especially Freedom.”

Other threats to parents’ children can be the attempts to draw the children into “the limited fantasies of deeply unhappy people’ – i.e., terrorism.” Ghobash emphasises the peaceful nature of Islam, according to Phillips. However, he remains sceptical about Ghobash’s intentions: “the book does raise unresolved questions for a sympathetic but critical Westerner or Christian: for instance, Ghobash describes the Prophet Mohammed as ‘the finest role model we have’.”

Ghobash even enrols his sons into Islamic schools, which the author believes creates problems. The sons have been taught to hate infidels. “He acknowledges that there is a conflict within Islam when its proponents speak of suicide being wrong but suicide bombing being acceptable.”

The Catholic Herald notes Ghobash emphasises the persecution of the global community of Muslims, the Ummah, while simultaneously ignoring the massive persecution of Christians in Muslim-majority countries.

Phillips, representing the “religion of love”, concludes his piece on Ghobash by asking: “with what authority does the author write here? How numerous are those Muslims who agree with him? What influence do they have on the mullahs and imams? … Can the conflict between the hard-line fundamentalists and other members of the Muslim community, ably represented by this thoughtful and reflective writer, ever be resolved? Such questions deserve to be answered.”

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2022-04-12

Education News in Brief – April 24th, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/24

Selective schooling creates a negative impact on children in the UK

According to the Independent, educational experts, on examination of the selective schooling system in the UK, find “negative impacts.” This is based on comparative research of 34 countries, which indicate greater odds of bullying for British children.

“Almost a quarter of pupils surveyed in the UK said they were bullied at least ‘a few times a month’…Selective school systems such as grammar streams lower children’s expectations and impact negatively on the wider education system, world experts have said.”

There are moves by the government for the creation of free schools. Pupils in the selective schools are more likely to experience lower self-esteem and anxiety, based on a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

India-UK education-research programme partnerships

The Hindu reported that there are efforts underway for the increased interconnection between British and Indian education. This includes research too. It is called UKIERI as a joint education-research programme funded by the governments of India and the UK.

There are about 57 partnerships working with about 1.6 million British pounds. The education-research programme partnerships include “social sciences, engineering, human health, climate research and data science.”

“Over the last ten years, new joint UK-India research and academic exchanges have brought joint investments worth over 200 million pounds and UKIERI has been an important part of that success. Over 1,000 UK-India partnerships have been created, leading to 25,000 exchanges of academics and researchers,” Clark said.

GCSE grading system changes in the UK

BBC News reported, “Reforms to the GCSE grading system in England has created ‘huge uncertainty’ for schools, the NASUWT union says. The union says the new 9-1 GCSE grades will increase the pressure on pupils and narrow the range of educational opportunities for young people.”

The updated system for grading the students will be implemented in the summer with English, Maths, and “grades 9-1 replacing grades A*-G.” The standards are expected to be ‘driven up’ or become higher.

In Manchester, at the NASUWT annual conference, there was purportedly “unnecessary confusion” from the new grading system. It is creating new “negative consequences” for both teachers and their pupils.

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2022-04-12

Q&A on the Philosophy of Economics with Dr. Alexander Douglas – Session 1

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/24

Dr. Alexander Douglas specialises in the history of philosophy and the philosophy of economics. He is a faculty member at the University of St. Andrews in the School of Philosophical, Anthropological and Film Studies. In this series, we will discuss the philosophy of economics.

Scott Jacobsen: In correspondence with Dr. Stephen Law, completion of an interview, and then completion of the first Q&A on Philosophy with him, I reached out to him for a recommendation. He recommended you. Your specialty is the philosophy of economics, as noted in correspondence. This might seem confusing, as if an expertise in economics, as I thought – wrongly. So what is the philosophy of economics?

Dr. Alexander Douglas: I don’t have expertise in building economic models, collecting economic data, or any of the things economists specialise in doing. I’m not a good person to ask about the economic effects of Brexit, or of raising the minimum wage, or of changing the tax code, or anything like that.

I’m interested in tracing out the meanings of economic concepts. Words like “money,” “capital,” “debt,” “wealth,” and so on are used to great effect in public discourse. But when we look closely, they are often used in equivocal, confused, and contradictory ways.

I also look at the logical coherence of economic models. Economists often claim to have tested their theories against the data, thus discouraging criticism from non-economists who don’t know the data as well. But the job of the philosopher is always to ask: what have you tested against the data? Some theories suffer from logical inconsistencies that make it unclear regarding what it even means to say that they have been empirically tested. If I propose that all tall men are short, it’s hardly reassuring to know that I have tested my theory against the data. How would that work?

SJ: How did this interest in the philosophy of economics originate for you?

AD: I’ve always been interested in economics, but I began writing on it around 2011. I was becoming increasingly annoyed at the way, as I saw it, politicians and the media were using the concept of debt in an unreflective and illogical way to manipulate the public. I wrote my book, The Philosophy of Debt, in an attempt to clarify the concept and reduce its undeserved rhetorical power.

My main specialisation is in the history of philosophy, recently with an emphasis on the history of logic. But in a way, the history of economics is part of the history of logic. Many of the founders of modern economics were logicians – Stanley Jevons, for example, and John Maynard Keynes in a way. Even Adam Smith began as a professor of logic. To a certain extent, economics can be seen as a branch of logic: the logic of human decision-making, or what Aristotle might have called, the art of practical syllogism.

SJ: Who seem like some of the foundational names in the field?

AD: Daniel Hausman should probably get credit for founding the modern university sub-discipline known as “philosophy of economics.” Alexander Rosenberg was another pioneer, though he switched to philosophy of biology, as he tells it, upon discovering that economists have no interest in what philosophers have to say! Nancy Cartwright has done important work on the methodology and ontology of economics, as has the economist, Tony Lawson. Amartya Sen is both an economist and a philosopher and often brings the two disciplines together into a unity.

For the sort of philosophy of economics that interests me, the work of Joan Robinson is very important. Robinson published a book in 1962, Economic Philosophy, that still has relevance in the probing questions it asks about the conceptual foundations of the discipline. Other departures into philosophy by economists – John Hicks’s, Causality in Economics, for example – seem comparatively shallow to me.

SJ: What core concepts and sub-fields define the philosophy of economics?

AD: The dominant strand of philosophy of economics examines the methodologies employed by economists to see how they can be justified as ‘good’ science. For example: are economists justified in using abstract mathematical models, often based on unrealistic assumptions about human capacities, to explain observable economic phenomena? If models are successful at making predictions, does it matter if they contain unrealistic assumptions? Is Rational Choice Theory, which forms the basis of much economics, empirically unfalsifiable? Is it therefore unscientific? Etc.

Another strand looks at the ethical aspects of economics. Political economy and welfare economics involve ethical questions. Some philosophers of economics look at the moral foundations of welfare economics (is preference-maximisation a good measure of welfare?), explore what political philosophy has to say about economic policy (is economic efficiency relevant to justice?), and related enquiries.

A final strand – the one that most interests me – questions the logical coherence of economic theories. For instance, economic models often define a timeless equilibrium, in which the values of many interdependent variables are solved simultaneously, even while the models are meant to represent causal sequences; in which, what happens at an earlier time determines what happens at a later time. This can lead to terrific logical conundrums. Older models face a different logical problem: they describe sequential exchanges of one homogenous good, measurable in a standard unit, while proposing to represent exchanges of incommensurable goods that can’t be counted by a single standard unit. The way in which economists use seemingly innocent terms like “preference,” “expectation,” “capital,” “labour,” etc. often open out to these deep conceptual puzzles.

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2022-04-12

An Interview with Kim Gibson – President of Mississippi Humanist Association

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/24

What makes a good humanist?

A good human! In all seriousness, I believe a good humanist is someone that cares for and helps people, and seeks to better the world we live in as a whole.

Where do you most differ from mainstream humanism in its definition, aims, and activism, if at all?

I am not sure of what the “mainstream” definition of humanism is, so I am not sure if I line up with it or not. I do subscribe to the American Humanist Association’s “official” definition of Humanism – “Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfilment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.” Doing good is its own reward. I believe I align pretty closely to the activist goals of the American Humanist Association, as well.

What was your experience of becoming, of living, as a humanist?

Looking back, I have always attempted to live a “humanist” type life, seeking to do no harm and assist others with no thought of any supernatural deity, reward or punishment. However, I really did not become aware of actual “humanism”, per se, until just a few years ago.

What are the main reasons that, within Mississippi and your experience, people become humanists? For example, arguments from logic and philosophy, evidence from mainstream science, or experience within traditional religious structures?

I hesitate to speak or generalise for others. However, Mississippi is a very religious state, and some people, upon leaving their religion, may find humanism appealing. It encourages a positive outlook towards oneself and others, and seeks to do good for others just as a matter of course, not because of any supernatural threat or promise.

What is the best reason you have ever come across for humanism?

For myself, the fact that humanism is geared toward a positive view of humans building a better life together, and the fact that humanism is rooted in tangible fact, evidence and experience, not in faith, is the best reason for humanism.

Is it more probable for humanism to be accepted among the younger sub-population than the older sub-population?

I do believe the “younger” population in America is more open to and accepting of humanism/humanists. I certainly hope so, as that acceptance by the young is the future of humanism.

You are the president of Mississippi Humanist Association, becoming president on February 12, 2017. What are your hopes for the organisation?

My hopes for the Mississippi Humanist Association (MHA) include sustained membership growth, and the development of a strong secular community here in Mississippi, so we may support one another and help others in our communities. I also hope that we can educate the general public about humanism, as humanism is generally unknown or misunderstood in Mississippi.

What are the expected tasks and responsibilities that will come, and simply come, with being the president?

At this early stage, I can only really say what I believe to be my responsibilities are with regard to the position of President. I believe a primary responsibility of the President to visible, advocating for the organisation and our values. I believe it is my responsibility to represent the members of this organisation in a way that they feel is appropriate and reflects positively upon us as an organisation, as well as work with my fellow board members to continue and improve our current activities and serve our members and community.

Before becoming president, you were part of the board of directors (communications & vice president) since 2015. Given that you’re moving into your third official year, you are, in essence, one of the founding members. How did those roles prepare you to be president?

I am a charter member of the Mississippi Humanist Association. In 2014, we started laying the foundation for the official organisation, by developing bylaws, incorporating as a charity and becoming a chapter of the American Humanist Association. In serving in the roles of Board Member, Vice-President and Communications since the beginning, I believe those roles helped me to understand how important clear and consistent communication is to our organisation’s continued growth and success. Communication with our current members, prospective members, and with the general public is a large part of our activity and drives any continued support we may enjoy.

What have been the major developments and transitions for the organisation?

Well, at this early stage, our continued existence and growth in Mississippi is a major development! I believe we are still “finding our footing” as an organisation, and we hope to continue to transition into a solid statewide secular group in Mississippi, by building a strong secular community, educating the public about humanism and contributing to the common good.

What are the popular community activities provided by Mississippi Humanist Association?

As stated before, Mississippi is a VERY religious place, and we believe it is important to offer humanists in Mississippi opportunities to get together and socialise. Humanists in Mississippi are at a great disadvantage when it comes to meeting other humanists, as humanists don’t have a church on every corner. We sponsor a brunch and a happy hour monthly in the Jackson, MS area, so our members and prospective new members can get together and enjoy some like-minded secular company. Many humanists in Mississippi unfortunately still feel it is necessary to keep their humanist/atheist beliefs secret or “closeted”, because of the very real fear of retaliation on the job, or some possible backlash from their friends and/or family members. Because of this, we also sponsor a “secret” local Meetup group for atheists and humanists so they may get together and discuss topics important to them without fear of any judgement or retaliation. The MHA also holds food drives, book drives and school supply drives for charities in our community. We hope to expand these activities state wide eventually.

What are some of the demographics of Mississippi Humanist Association? Who is most likely to join Mississippi Humanist Association? (Age, sex, sexual orientation, and so on.)

I believe our oldest member is 75 years old, we have college age members, and all ages in between. We have some members from other countries, however, we demographically skew to the somewhat more “older, whiter” side, and we hope to do more effective outreach to other demographic groups here in Mississippi.

What have been the largest activist and educational initiatives provided by Mississippi Humanist Association? Out of these, what have been honest failures and successes?

So far, our activist and educational opportunities have been limited, we still have a bit of learning to do on that front. We are working on finding appropriate opportunities and taking advantage of them. One could say that just our existence here in Mississippi is an activist initiative, given the extremely conservative political and religious climates here. We have had a table at a local monthly public festival where we would introduce the general public to humanism, as humanism is usually unknown or misunderstood in Mississippi, and it went well. We are bringing a fairly well known atheist speaker to the area in May, so we are looking forward to that.

Who/what are the main threats to humanism as a movement?

I believe human nature is the greatest threat to whatever humanist “movement” there may be. Overcoming, or at least policing some of our human traits that lead to political infighting, tribalism, fear of the humanist as “other” – these are challenges to be acknowledged and addressed.

How can people get involved with Mississippi Humanist Association, even donate to it?

If you are in the Jackson, MS area, join us at one of our monthly events. The best way to support our efforts is to become a member, or donate online. For more information, please visit us at our website, where you can join or donate. Also, check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and Meetup for more information. All donations are greatly appreciated and are always used to further the cause of humanism in Mississippi, and to help us to build a strong secular community throughout Mississippi.

Thank you for your time, Kim.

Scott, thank you for your time and interest!

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2022-04-12

An Interview with Jason Frye – Chief Executive Officer, Secular Policy Institute

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/24

So, tell us briefly about your background, in terms of how you first found secularism. Not necessarily as a tacit thing, but as an explicit thing, where separation of church and state is important as a fundamental value.

I was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. My experience was heavily influenced by growing up gay in Nebraska in the 1980’s and 90’s. The 80s were not so easy for LGBT+ people in the Midwest at that time. They are getting better, but are still not that great. The peculiar thing I noticed growing up is how orthodox, Evangelical, conservative, authoritarian, religious structures have such a pernicious effect on the experience of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.

They’re so rigid. They are very repressive for the most part. They are very, very intolerant towards people who don’t exactly fit the mould, keeping in mind that not all religious institutions and individuals that even overlap with the broader context of what I am referring to necessarily apply in that manner, but, in general, when you’re growing up gay in Nebraska in the 1980’s and before then, you have a lot of resistance from church doctrine and religious people.

The narrative at the time was that being gay was considered a major aberration. Although, things have changed wildly and rapidly in the last several years, and when you grow up white, working class or middle class, there’s a narrative that you’re fed: that if you follow certain rules, life will be good for you. And you are placed with some substantial obstacles where just being who you are is considered deviant. And part of your natural characteristics are seen to make you ineligible from experiencing the benefits of what you were promised.

And in a state that is relatively homogeneous, and at the time was even more so, you have the privilege of noticing the fundamental disconnect compared to other people with more obvious connections to being part of a mainstream group. I think that coupled with the fact that I think I grew up nominally Christian. I think that not having a firm, strong, blatant religious experience that I was confronted with every single day.

That connected with the fundamental disconnect. I think that opened my eyes, not just in my own experience, but the experience of others as well. On top of that, growing up gay in high school, I was part of a mostly African-American gospel music-centred chorus in my high school. We were heavily involved with the NAACP. And I bet I am just rambling at this point. [Laughing]

It’s okay [Laughing].

This gave me a major perspective shift, and so, I got involved with LGBT rights early on as a teenager. I remember also that there was a protest outside the state capital. I grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. There was a protest outside the state capital, and it was on a change in the state constitution that was going to change marriage eligibility for same-sex couples. My picture was the prominent picture of the main section of the local paper.

My grandmother saw it and got a little mad at me. She said, “I think our friends will see that.” I said, “I hope they do.” So I got involved in LGBT politics. Part of that intersection, I met someone that was active in the local humanist group when I moved to San Diego. He was active in the local gay community. He was an early, early on gay activist, from the 70’s forward. He invited me to a humanist meeting. I started getting involved, and from LGBT rights movement to getting involved with the local humanist group. I shifting my focus from gay rights specific to more atheism.

This was kind of on the leading edge of the New Atheist movement. It was brewing in the 2000’s. I became heavily active with atheism and secular humanist activism. With that, I became the president of the Humanist Association of San Diego. I became terribly active in my community. I became the only person to deliver humanist invocations to the San Diego city council. We participated with a lot of marches and activism against Proposition 8.

I was active in both. I became Mr. Gay Pride 2005. I got involved with the American Humanist Association and became the first coordinator of the LGBT Humanist Council. Later, they upgraded that to a new position. In this process, what lead me to secularism, and a different perspective than atheism or secular humanism, I was the first person in my family to go to college. In that process, I decided to do political science.

And I had some extra time on my hands. I picked up a second major, which was religious studies. In religious studies, I became heavily interested in the sociological perspectives on religion and secularism. Not just to try to take on and destroy religion, or try to convert people to atheism, but to deeply understand why people come up with religious perspectives and the various intersects with political opinion concerning the separation of church and state, the perspective on minorities, the people formerly in out groups, etc.

In that process, I had incredible professors. One is an expert on secularism. I have developed, I think, a more broad and inclusive of secularism for myself to look at the world through because when you study religion you study religion, philosophy, history, and political science etc.

Through my experience growing up, through my experience in activism with LGBT and humanism and atheism, and going the academic route, this is what lead me.

It was a messy, messy, windy road, but I guess I went from activist to academic. That’s how I got where I am now.

Also, you’re a humanist celebrant.

I am a humanist celebrant!

That makes me think of the descriptions you’ve provided of various aspects of fundamentalist religious upbringings and doctrine, and how people can be excluded. In very intimate settings, in ceremonies, what denominations or sects appear to have the greatest amount of inclusion for those that, historically, have been marginalised and demonised groups, or individuals that would attach themselves to groups?

This is a wonderful question! I love this question. So I guess the biggest thing I can say is it depends, and the majority of world religions. In Islam, there is an increasing edge of inclusion in a lot of circles at the same time with this current rise of nationalist populism. There’s a major rise in conservative orthodoxy. Same with Christianity. Same with Judaism. What I mention about my academic background, the thing that I learned was that religious institutions have to respond to the changing world. Otherwise, they die.

If we look at Christianity, we can say there are groups that are heavily inclusive and there are others that are not heavily inclusive. From my perspective on this, the ones that are the most inclusive of LGBT people are the Unitarians. The Unitarians are very inclusive. Humanists and ethical culture tend to be very inclusive. That’s what we pride ourselves on. A lot of these things that divide us are from older ideas, if they are from a larger religious group.

If they are from a smaller religious group, there is this protective aspect of keeping the group from being wiped out. The Druze, for example, they don’t even let outsiders know about the deeper aspects of their particular religious experience, but the groups that tend to be more inclusive, Like I said Unitarians and humanists. These are groups that have a particular worldview from ethical culture. The motto is “deed not creed.”

I think Unitarians, humanists, and increasingly more Liberal sects of the different major religions are more and more going for that because they have to correspond in response to the people in the here-and-now. I think that this is one of my aspects in my own conceptions of secularism that are exhibited by looking at this particular situation. It is the fact that you have these Liberal-progressive groups that completely bypass what the text says.

You have particular values, particular values that are indicative of the human condition. When these come in conflict with the doctrines, usually, the doctrines get put to the side. We can look at Christianity, for example, with all of the prohibitions against witchcraft. We no longer burn witches for the most part. Certain places and certain sects do, but we change because we’re people.

You are the chief executive officer for the Secular Policy Institute. What is it? What do you do, and what fulfilment comes from undertaking this position?

I am the CEO. What the Secular Policy Institute has two main aims, we are a policy advocacy organisation and we’re a think tank. We’re more heavily geared towards our policy advocacy focus. We look at situations around the world, whether human rights violations or where there are instances of policy articulation, development, implementations, and legislation that involves a separation between religion and government.

We create advocacy letters and sign onto them. We are a coalition of 300 groups around the planet who agree that there needs to be a separation between church and state and agree with the principles in the UN Declaration of Human Rights. After we develop our advocacy letters, we will solicit our coalition members for their signatures, and then we connect with decision-makers, ambassadors, legislators, heads of state to promote necessary policy shifts or to contribute to the dialogue.

We also meet with different coalitions, government agencies, to add that particular secular perspective. From our think tank, we are increasing with that. We are increasing our work in writing policy briefs and white papers. We have around 30 distinguished fellows who are the leaders in their particular fields, e.g. linguistics, climate change, philosophy, biology, etc, etc. Once per year, we produce a World Futures Guide to look towards a better future from the minds of think tank.

What fulfilment comes from the Secular Policy Institute is the change that we actually make, and to give voice for more vulnerable people, for example, we saved the lives of 9 people in Nigeria last year. One of our current projects is we’re also helping the bloggers in Dhaka and Bangladesh who are under fire. This has been a major problem. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the BBC have covered this issue. We are active in helping these people re-locate who are under immediate threat, and just making a different, and not just for myself, but facilitating that channel so that just the average, ordinary person who feels like they can’t be involved and effectuate positive change.

It is helping them so they can accomplish good things. For example, we have one person in San Diego who contacted us for some assistance in some direct lobbying that she wanted to do. She is a school teacher. She is a former school administrator. She is a scientist. She is also a concerned mother. She wants to alter the education code to make the Pledge of Allegiance not a necessarily a mandatory exercise because you have a policy requiring a daily patriotic exercise because the term that was added to the Pledge of Alliance of the United States in 1954, “One Nation Under God,” that can be rather divisive at the same time.

What has been said in court cases many, many times is that when the government engages in the business of combining church and state, it sends a message to believers that they are political insiders and nonbelievers that they are political outsiders. We helped the teacher and mother who is going into kindergarten and starting the process in the public school. We helped her with the policy brief.

She met with three state assembly people, just yesterday. Just helping people in their everyday lives advocate and make connections, and lobby the government directly to change things, it is the key core element in the democratic process, which makes the democratic process thrive. Helping contribute to democracy, helping people get involved, and being that catalyst to facilitate deeper involvement, I think that is probably the most rewarding aspect of being the CEO of an organisation like the Secular Policy Institute because it is so vital.

What the single best way people can get involved with the Secular Policy Institute?

Email us!

Thank you for your time, Jason.

Thank you so much!

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2022-04-12

An Interview with John Perkins, Secular Party of Australia

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/24

John Perkins is the President of the Secular Party of Australia. The party is intended to promote secular humanist ethical principles in Australia as well as advocate for the separation of church and state.

What’s your own story? How did you get involved in secularism?

My father was not religious, but my mother took us to church. It was not because she was devout, but because it was considered a social duty.

Was there much of a family background?

My sisters were married in churches, but after that our family gave up religion. I think the doctrines seemed contrived and lacked credibility.

How did you first get interested in politics? What was the moment of political awakening for you?

I first began to have an interest in politics about the age of 16 when I began to feel I had a different view of politics to that of my parents. However, it was not until the events of September 11, 2001 that I became resolved to try to counter what I perceived as the egregiously negative effects that religions could have on society.

You are the president of the Secular Party of Australia. What are some core initiatives, campaigns, and policies of the Secular Party of Australia? Those that should be noted for those outside of the Secular Party of Australia, within the intenational secularist community, to support the Secular Party of Australia.

The Secular Party in Australia is the only party that stands not only for a true separation of religion from the institutions of state, but also to defend human rights, particularly the rights of children, against all forms of religious interference. To this end, the Secular Party has a policy to end all state funding to religious schools, and further, to prohibit any form of religious indoctrination is schools. Children should be free to make up their own minds about religion, and they should be able to do this in the knowledge that the founding claims of all religions are contradicted by scientific and historical evidence.

In the media, some aspects of political life are ‘attack ads’ or targeted, aggressive advertisement campaigns with the purpose of demonization of a party candidate—or a party as a whole. Have you been subjected to these at all? Has the Secular Party of Australia?

Of course our policies are criticised from those with a religious perspective. Surprisingly however, the most aggressive attacks against us come from those of a liberal view who regard any criticism of the religion of Islam as objectionable. Our policies apply equally to all religion. However, some religions do pose more of a threat to the secular ideal than others. Ideologically, Islam is anti-secular, as it perceives the state and all else to be subservient to the religion. Naturally we have cause on occasion to mention such contradictions. However, any critique of religion, however worded, is seen by some as being an attack on believers, and therefore as malicious, bigoted, racist and in similar pejorative terms. Such bigotry, no doubt does exist. Hence, we have difficulty in explaining that our motives are unbiased and humanitarian.

Being an out-and-out nonbeliever, or just secularist, in the public forum within political life can threaten one’s professional reputation in some countries, is this an issue in Australia? How many closet atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers do you think are currently in public office?

Being known as an atheist or agnostic is not, in itself, a political liability in Australia. Several of our Prime Ministers have professed agnosticism and this has not been seen as an issue. However, none of them have had the inclination or the courage to act on their agnosticism in any way to reduce the power and influence, and the financial largesse, that religions are afforded. There is probably a representative number of freethinkers in public office, but the political influence of the religious appears to be increasing. This is a paradox, because apart from certain groups, religiosity in the population is declining.

Who have been political heroes in Australia for you?

I have had particular Prime Ministers who at the time I regarded as heroes, but later came to realise that there were serious flaws in some of their policies, so I no longer regard any as heroes.

Who has advocated for secular values the most within Australian public life?

There is no politician that has ever advocated secular values in a coherent and substantial manner. It is left to the freethought groups to provide secular advocacy.

How can people get involved with the Secular Party of Australia, even donate to them?

People can become involved with the Secular Party via our web site, which includes a donations page, and which also has links to our facebook page.

Donations

Any closing thoughts or feelings based on the discussion today?

In times of increased religious conflict and division, the need for secularism has never been greater. When “fake news” proliferates, and a “post truth” and “post fact” world is proclaimed, the need for the truth to be carefully evaluated and respected has never been greater. In this regard, the widely held but often counter-factual beliefs of religions also need to be addressed. Religions are the original and the most institutionalised form of “post fact” beliefs.

Thank you for your time, John.

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2022-04-12

Religion News in Brief – April 22nd, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/22

Get the old-time religion out of politics

The Courier Journal’s Linda Allewalt argues that we don’t need any old-time religion, and stated, “Obama felt that Democrats needed to stop being shy about witnessing their religious beliefs. He changed his approach to religious expression in the political arena.”

Previous American president Barack Obama gradually expressed less personal religious perspectives through church and state separation. Indeed, “his ideas have influenced many Democrats.”

There began to be faith outreach staff for the Democrats in campaigns. Chaplains would start political rallies with their prayers. He spoke in more churches. He even appeared on the stage with Rev. Rick Warren.

Allewalt noted, “The efforts to convince voters that the Democrats represent a more “true” interpretation of what being Christian entails has been fruitless and has worked to weaken the Establishment Clause. So too has the attempt to tie ethical and moral ideas solely to religion, which Fitzsimmons does as well. It enforces stereotypes of non-religious people as having no foundation for morality, which in turn encourages discrimination against them.”

Religion’s recession in the young

MarketWatch states that numerous studies, and research in general, are showing young people losing their religion in much larger numbers than their elders or parents. Religion has been losing its grip with each subsequent generation.

“In the 2015 Pew Research Center report on religion and public life, 36% of 21- to 27-year-olds are classified as unaffiliated, a far higher proportion than among their parents’ (17%) or grandparents’ (11%) generations. ”

The majority of emerging adults feel as thought the mere acceptance of their parents’ religious belief is not an acceptable thing. Youth will modify, reject, or possibly confirm their faith claims in their individuated search.

Religion and science viewed as one to many Native Americans

According to the Religion News Service, Native Americans do not have an explicit separation in perspective, in general, between religion and science. Science and religion are seen as compatible.

The relationship between Native Americans and formal scientists has been a “contentious one” in the past because the face value is that religion is more important to Native Americans than science. This is not necessarily true.

“For many Native Americans, like my grandmother, myth and medicine, religion and science, are not viewed as separate, but are interwoven into the fabric of our lives.”

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2022-04-12

Science News in Brief – April 22nd, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/22

Asteroid hits Earth 11,000BC

The Telegraph has reported on the news that experts at the University of Edinburgh analysed mysterious symbols carved into stone pillars at Gobekli Tepe in southern Turkey, to find out if they could be linked to constellations.

The old stone carvings, based on the researchers, confirm a comet striking the Earth at about ~11,000BC. The asteroid is hypothesised to have wiped out the woolly mammoths. Civilisations rose shortly thereafter.

The engravings appear to align with not only the asteroid impact, but also when the mini-ice age took place, which is reported to have changed the “course of human history.”

Physicists experiment and observe “negative mass”

BBC News has reported on the story that scientists have created a fluid with the property of “negative mass.” It accelerates towards the force pushing against it rather than away from the force.

In the everyday world, when an object is pushed, it accelerates in the same direction as the force applied to it; this relationship is described by Isaac Newton’s Second Law of Motion. But in theory, matter can have negative mass in the same sense that an electric charge can be positive or negative.

A professor at Washington State University, Peter Engels, and others reduced the temperature to rubidium to slightly above absolute zero, which is about -273C, and created a Bose-Einstein condensate.

Gates: ‘terrorists could kill 30 million people’

The Telegraph reports that Bill Gates commented on the possibility of current or future terrorism based on engineered deadly biology such as deadly pathogens with the ability to kill as many as 30 million people.

He spoke at the Royal United Services Institute in London (RUSI). The respiratory bioterrorism could be more lethal than a nuclear attack. So the speech was a call for prevention of a potential global tragedy and or monitoring diseases.

“Bioterrorism is a much larger risk than a pandemic,” he said. “All these advances in biology have made it far easier for a terrorist to recreate smallpox, which is a highly fatal pathogen, where there is essentially no immunity remaining at this point.”

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2022-04-12

Politics News in Brief – April 22nd, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/22

British government ‘realises mistake of Brexit’

The Irish Times stated that the British government is beginning to realise the harm it will do to itself from leaving the EU. That Brexit is “an act of great self-harm,” where the upcoming negotiations seek for damage control now, according to a top Brexit official.

The official, John Callinan, said on Thursday, “I see signs in the contacts that we’re having, both at EU level and with the UK, of a gradual realisation that Brexit in many ways is an act of great self-harm, and that the focus now is on minimising that self-harm.”

Second secretary-general of the department of the Taoiseach, stated this at a Brexit seminar put together by Siptu and Impact. Both are trade unions.

Rowing champion speaks on virtues of Cuba and North Korea

According to The Washington Times, an Olympic rowing champion made favourable comments on Cuba and North Korea. James Cracknell, the Olympian and budding U.K. politician, said that they have good control over the overweight problems in each country.

He wants to become a Conservative Party MP in 2020. He seemed positive around the fact that those countries can affect real behavioural change in their respective citizenry. This was stated during an interview with Sky News.

“If you think of the two countries that have a handle on obesity, what do you think they are?” he asked. “North Korea and Cuba…They’re quite controlling on behavioral trend…It’ll have to be worked and you’ll have to get people to buy into it,” he rhetorically replied.

The Safe Passage initiative and the transfer of children

The Mirror said, “Charities and MPs have called on the government to rescue children with links to the UK from the Dunkirk refugee camp, which was destroyed by fire last night. The French camp was ravaged by a blaze overnight, leaving hundreds of people homeless.”

80 children with relatives in the UK were identified by the Safe Passage initiative in Britain. The children do have a legal right to transfer into another country. The Safe Passage project is run by British citizens. It urged the Ministers to speed up their transfer.

“Labour MP Yvette Cooper said: ‘France and Britain need to work together to get these children to safety immediately. Bring back the fast track system now. If they have family in the UK they should be brought here straight away – that’s the rules.’”

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2022-04-12

Atheists and Highly Religious People Fear Death the Least

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/21

According to a new study, those least likely to fear the end of life are atheists and the hyper-religious, or fundamentalists. Fundamentalists interpret scripture as literal, without metaphor, while atheists view an afterlife as less-than-plausible, usually.

So those without a fear of dying are similar on this factor, but different in other fundamental ways. The least and most religious, or the atheists and fundamentalists, were the least afraid of dying. The fear of dying has been termed “death anxiety.”

Researchers examined the issue with non-believers and believers – of various creeds. Based on the research, those that believed in a formal faith for the “social and emotional benefits” turned out to be the most afraid of death.

Death anxiety, as the “persistent fear of one’s own demise,” is associated with high religiosity and irreligiosity.

While those with motivation from “true belief” were the least fearful of dying, the atheists of the research grouping appeared to find a certain “comfort in death” and were not scared of it. Those unafraid of death did not seek religion.

Death anxiety, as the “persistent fear of one’s own demise,” is associated with high religiosity and irreligiosity. The higher levels of death anxiety were found in those who look for the “pragmatic conditions.”

“‘Meta-analyses are statistical procedures used to extract and combine the findings of multiple studies,’ explained Dr Jonathan Jong, a research associate at the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology and Research Fellow at Coventry University.”

18% of self-identified religious individuals were afraid of the end of life. Experts from the University of Oxford researched the issue. It was in collaboration with a number of other universities such as Oxford, Coventry, Royal Holloway, Gordon College, Melbourne University and Otago University.

18% of self-identified religious individuals were afraid of the end of life.

“The meta-analysis showed that while people who were intrinsically religious enjoyed lower levels of death anxiety, those who were extrinsically religious revealed higher levels of death anxiety.”

To reach their results, Jong and his team used 100 relevant articles that were published between 1961 and 2014 with information about 26,000 people worldwide.

The effects on death anxiety were found in similar things such as “belief in God, and an afterlife, or religious behaviour like going to church, and praying.” There are other studies that made a distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity.

“Extrinsic religiosity is when religious behaviour is motivated by pragmatic considerations such as the social or emotional benefits of following a religion, whereas intrinsic religiosity refers to religious behaviour driven by ‘true belief’.”

One controversial study claimed that atheism might be on its death throes, or “on the verge of dying out.” Half of the research found that fear of death and religiosity had no link. Now, the relationship between death anxiety and level of religiosity was found to be a non-fixed or a dynamic quantity. Different from context to context.

Malaysian and United States researchers found religious groups have a tendency to preach against contraceptive use. In turn, atheists have fewer children than the religious.

In Malaysia, Muslim families had an average of 5.89 children and 4.29 in the US. The second most fertile parents in Malaysia were Hindus with 4.01 children – but this was a small sample of only five students.” Malaysian atheists had 3.67 children.

There appears to be a mixed picture for the association between religiosity and death anxiety. The studies were conducted throughout the world. So the finding of the patterns from religion to religion or culture to culture is hard.

Rather than assuming that religiosity is either positively or negatively related to death anxiety, some researchers have posited that the relationship is like an upside-down U shape, with religious believers and disbelievers showing less death anxiety than people in between.

The University of Helsinki study found that religious people have a poorer understanding of the world. People who believe in God are more likely to think inanimate objects such as metal and oil can think and feel.

“Researchers say that the findings suggest people’s lack of understanding about the physical world means they apply their own rules, ‘resulting in belief in demons, gods, and other supernatural phenomena’.”

The research participants were asked about their belief in an “an all-powerful, all-knowing, loving God,” ghosts, and psychic powers. They were then tested on their comprehension of basic biology and on their intuitive physics.

Religious people act on instinct rather than analytic skills the tests found out, more often than not. “Out of the 100 studies, the team only found 11 studies that were robust enough to test this idea; however, of these, almost all (10) formed this pattern.”

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2022-04-12

The Female Medical Pioneers of 1885

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/21

Danny Dutch Photography published a report with an image of the first women doctors from Syria, India, and Japan.

These women were medical pioneers and the photo is from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) in 1885. These are medical students. They are wearing the “traditional clothes from their home countries.”

The original image can be found in the Drexel University archives. The archivist Matt Herbison found out more about the women medical pioneers. Each graduated and was the first for each of the countries. The Indian woman, Anandibai Joshi, was a high-caste Brahmin woman and married at age 9 to a man aged 29.

The 29-year-old husband was a progressive given the era. He encouraged the Indian woman’s education, or his wife’s – Joshi’s – education. Joshi was determined to become a doctor based on the death of a 10-day old baby. Joshi was only 14 at the time of having the baby.

There were obstacles to get to America including “caste and tradition, and a lack of money and connections.” Some think that she might be the first Hindu to set foot on American soil.

Unfortunately, the Indian woman, Joshi contracted, tuberculosis and died at age 21. She is considered a hero among Indian feminists as well.

The WMCP was attractive to foreign students that wanted to study medicine who could not within their own national territory.

The Japanese, Keiko Okami, went against the traditional expectations of women in the society and traveled independently to the US. Okami found out how to pay for both board and tuition while in the US.

For the era, America was seen as an exceptional 19th-century country by the author of the article. Okami went back to Tokyo and was appointed head of gynecology at one of the main hospitals in Japan.

However, the Emperor refused to receive her during a visit to the hospital. She resigned a few years later. She went to a private practice following this. She died at the age of 81.

Sabat Islambouli, from Syria, went back to Damascus to complete her degree. In 1919, she was on the alumnae list for the college, however, the college had lost touch with her. It is unknown as to what happened to Islambouli.

The WMCP was able to produce this image of the first Indian, Japanese, and Syrian women medical pioneers.

“Besides the international students, it also produced the nation’s first Native American woman doctor, Susan LeFlesche, while African-Americans were often students as well. Some of whom, like Eliza Grier, were former slaves.”

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2022-04-12

An Interview with James Croft – Leader of The Ethical Society of St. Louis

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/21

Scott Jacobsen interviews James Croft about humanism, his involvement in The Ethical Society of St. Louis and his opinions on the main threats and allies to humanism in St. Louis and the US.

Was there a family background in humanism?

I grew up in a nonreligious home, and although neither of my parents identified explicitly as humanists, humanist values were very much a part of how I was raised. Both my parents are extremely nonjudgmental and supportive of the fair and equal treatment of all people. They raised me to be open-minded, to love learning, to question authority, and to respect the humanity in everyone. We frequently enjoyed culture as a family, spending a lot of time in the theatre, art galleries, etc., and we traveled often. This instilled in me a love of world culture and a sense of cosmopolitanism which I believe to be central to the humanist worldview. They encouraged political participation and a sense of civic duty. In its own way, it was a very humanist upbringing.

What is your preferred definition of humanism?

Humanism seeks to recognise and uphold the dignity of every person. It is a life-stance which asserts the ability of human beings to work together for the improvement of humanity, without the need for divine intervention. Humanists promote the values of reason, compassion, and hope: the ability of human beings to use our own intellect to make sense of the world; the equal dignity and worth of every person; and the ability of people to improve the world on our own.

How did you find and become involved with The Ethical Society of St. Louis?

I began training as an Ethical Culture Leader (that’s our word for the professional clergy who lead Ethical Societies) after visiting the New York Society for Ethical Culture while I was on the Humanist Institute’s leadership training program. I was studying for my doctorate at the time, and travelling within the US, giving presentations on humanism, and I wanted to find a way to make humanist leadership into a career. When I discovered there are humanist congregations which bring people together to deepen their understanding of and commitment to humanism, I knew that’s what I wanted to do with my life. I began my training with the American Ethical Union, and part of the training includes an apprenticeship at an Ethical Society. I moved to St. Louis to complete that apprenticeship, and then was hired as their Leader with responsibility for outreach. I feel very lucky: I’m one of very few people who are clergy for a truly humanist congregation.

What are your tasks and responsibilities as the leader of The Ethical Society of St. Louis?

I am one of two Leaders — the other is Kate Lovelady, who has been leading the Society for more than ten years now. I play many of the roles of a clergy person in a religious congregation: I provide pastoral care for members, speak on Sundays, organise events for the community, lead educational workshops and discussion groups. I have particular responsibility for outreach, meaning I represent the Society and humanism in general in public events. I speak on panels, make presentations about humanism, visit college campuses etc. I am the professional public face of our community.

What are the main threats to the practice of humanism in St. Louis and the US now?

I don’t think there are major threats to the practice of humanism, in the sense that people can believe what they want and practice that as they wish. There are, however, major threats to the success of humanist values in culture. The US (and many European nations) is facing a very powerful populist right-wing movement currently which threatens to overwhelm political institutions and make the country more nationalistic, xenophobic, and closed-minded. Trump — and the political forces which swept him to the presidency — represents a grave threat to the humanist ideals of international cooperation, respect for science, equal treatment of people, and religious freedom. All across the wealthy west, people’s baser natures are reaching for the controls. People are afraid of their economic condition and tired of a political system which doesn’t serve them, and are looking to strongmen who promise a return to national glory. The parallels with the pre-war era are extremely worrying. The humanist movement must work extremely hard to help people resist these trends.

Who have been the most unexpected allies for ethical societies and the humanist movement in North America?

My strongest allies have been liberal religious clergy who understand the importance of crafting and presenting a powerful moral vision of society. Although we disagree over theology, these clergy understand the humanist project as an essentially cultural one, and since we share many of the same values, we are often together at rallies and events trying to promote a hopeful vision of society. I’ve been amazed by how principled and hardworking many liberal clergy are: I count them among my closest allies.

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2022-04-12

An Interview with Ariel Pontes — Chair of Americas Working Group

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/21

Scott Jacobsen interviews Ariel Pontes who is the chair of the Americas Working Group (AmWG). In this interview, Scott and Ariel discuss humanism, Ariel’s involvement in the humanist movement, his work with AmWG, working with IHEYO and the main threats and allies to humanism in Romania, the US and Latin America.

Tell us about your family background — to give some groundwork.

My mom is a singer/actress, my father is a music graduate who became a tax officer when I was born. Everyone in my family is nominally Catholic and I was also baptised, but my family never went to church except for special occasions (wedding, baptism, etc.). Brazilian Catholicism, however, is very syncretic, and in the southeast of the country it is deeply influenced by “Kardecist Spiritism” (especially in my family), which is very popular but not a very organised new-age/christian-universalist religion. Everything I learned about spirituality was within a spiritist framework.

What is your preferred definition of humanism?

“A movement that promotes secular ethics as a means to achieve peaceful coexistence between people of different social backgrounds in an increasingly diverse society.”

How did you find out about and become involved with the humanist movement?

I have always been very interested in spirituality, the meaning of life and deep questions of this sort. In my teenage years, I talked a lot to my grandfather about the afterlife and communicating with the spiritual world, went to the meetings of his cult and watched all documentaries about the supernatural that aired on Discovery Channel (or similar channels). I quickly became obsessed with having first-hand supernatural experiences. I could never, however, experience anything more than sleep paralysis and semi-lucid dreaming, so I started wondering if the people who claimed to communicate with the spiritual world really weren’t just fooling themselves and if the skeptics in the documentaries were right after all. I started challenging them, with the best of intentions, and proposing experiments to check if their experiences really were real, and I was met with excuses and antagonism. I eventually became an atheist and was very frustrated at religion. Years later I got tired of hearing arguments based on superstition when discussing ethics and politics and I started looking for groups that promoted secularism. I joined LiHS in Brazil but never got very involved. When I migrated to Romania, I went to atheist meet ups to meet locals and eventually joined ASUR and AUR (local Humanist NGOs). In a few months, I attended the Humanist Eastern European Conference and discovered Europe had a thriving Humanist movement incomparable with anything in Brazil. Since then, I became determined to promote Humanism in developing countries such as Romania, Brazil and Latin America in general.

What have been the main benefits of being a part of IHEYO?

Being in contact with members of much more developed organisations and learning from them. I’ve learned a lot in a short period about what volunteers on the ground can do to promote Humanism and about the politics and bureaucratic aspects of growing as a member and exerting influence in a big organisation. The main benefit though is probably the sense of accomplishment of working towards something that I believe in and being able to see the fruits of my efforts.

Now, you’re the chair of the Americas Working Group (AmWG). What tasks and responsibilities come, or will come, with this position? What is the purpose of the AmWG?

The purpose of the AmWG is to promote Humanism in the Americas, especially among youth.

The means by which we try to accomplish this are up to us to define. Our main strategy at the moment is to collect data about Humanism in the Americas and do knowledge transfer. We’ve created an online form where Humanists throughout the Americas can provide their contact info.

We then contact them and schedule video calls where we learn about their activities, structure, etc. and teach them about the successes and failures of more mature organisations, making suggestions when we think it’s appropriate. Another long-term aim is to promote more international collaboration among organisations in the Americas, in particular Latin America.

We hope to eventually be able to organise a Pan American conference somewhere in Latin America. In the present, the AmWG administration is still disproportionately U.S. based.

What are the main threats to the practice of humanism in Romania and in the Americas?

The religious right and populist politics are a constant obstacle probably everywhere in the world. In Latin America, Catholic ethics and the anti-abortion narrative are very powerful. The rise of right-wing Evangelical Christianity, partly influenced by movements in the United States, is also a big problem in Brazil and has resulted in tensions with local African religions which are accused of witchcraft. Endemic criminality also contributes to scepticism towards human rights and the rule of law, which is extremely dangerous. In Romania, on the other hand, most problems seem to stem from a rural, traditional mentality. Difference and strong individuality is usually seen with skepticism and antagonism. Here, as opposed to Latin America, anti-LGBT discourse is a bigger problem than anti-abortion discourse, for example. The public funding of religion is another problem Romania faces. Humanists are divided when it comes to the solution to this problem. Some think we should fight to be recognised as a religion and get funds as equals, as is the case in Norway for example, but others think we should just fight to stop financing of religions altogether. I personally find the latter more unrealistically ambitious (though both are unrealistically ambitious).

Who have been the most unexpected allies for the humanist movement in Americas?

When I became active in the Humanist movement, I quickly realised it was an extremely Eurocentric movement. It is, of course, only natural for historical reasons, and this is not accusation, but I was a bit disappointed. Fortunately, however, I very quickly realised that the mostly Western European leadership was very aware of this and fighting to change it. Every time I meet Humanists in international events, I quickly feel they are allies. In the AmWG needless to say I am learning a lot from the U.S. Americans and I am grateful about how committed they are to helping Latin America. Unexpected is a strong word though, after all, I can’t say I had pessimistic expectations. But I am positively surprised with how much focus the U.S. and Western Europe put in reaching out to the developing world.

Thank you for your time, Ariel.

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2022-04-12

An Interview with Waleed Al-Husseini – Founder of Council of Ex-Muslims of France

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/20

Waleed Al-Husseini founded the Council of Ex-Muslims of France. He escaped the Palestinian Authority after torture and imprisonment in Palestine to Jordan and then France. He is an ex-Muslim and atheist. Here is his story.

Scott Jacobsen: You were born in Palestine and live in France. There’s a story about the transition in geography and ideas, and beliefs. You were a Palestinian Muslim. Now, you’re an atheist and ex-Muslim living in France. You have a book coming out May 16, 2017 entitled, The Blasphemer: The Price I Paid for Rejecting Islam. Before getting to that point, what is your family religious background?

Waleed Al-Husseini: My family is Muslim Sunnah, like most Palestinian families, but they were normal, not fundamentalist, more humanistic than religious.

SJ: You are from Qalqilyah on the West Bank. What were the first moments of doubt in Allah?

WA: It started in my secondary school. I was thinking about free will in Islam because in the school we had to study Islam and Quran. I asked about my doubt to the teacher, but didn’t get answers. I tried with some imam in Qalqilyah, but the response was that is was from Satan. They told me that I should go home and pray because these questions were from Satan. So I started reading by myself and from the library. All of the Islamic books. I started to discover a lot of things, which shocked me.

SJ: What seems like the best argument for atheism and against Islam to you?

WA: In Islam, there a lot of things that make it one of the most weak religions. Since there are mistakes in the Quran, there are also things against human rights in the Quran, and for sure the situation of women in Islam. All these are arguments for atheism against Islam.

SJ: You wrote at the Qalqilyah Internet café. You were reported to the authorities for making Muslim citizens mad. Did your family and friends disowned you? What were the most hurtful comments? How did you cope?

WA: My family knew that I was an atheist before I got arrested. They were thinking that I’m just young and I will become a Muslim once I grow up again. My friends stopped the friendship with me. When they found out I was an atheist, I had problems in university too. So I had to change the university to save my life. The most hurtful for me was when they insulted me by my mother and the family. My family has Muslims in it. They insulted them, but most comments as usual were insulting and mixing with threats for killing and death.

SJ: Is this a common series of reactions for those that leave the faith in mind and heart, and then in deed?

WA: Yes, for them, when you speak about Islam and atheism, they think you are paid from someone. That’s why they threaten and insult. For them, it is not a personal choice to leave Islam.

SJ: Why is the reaction so seemingly disproportionate against even a son, a brother, or a friend such as yourself?

WA: Because this is always in the culture, this hurts me more than what they think, which, as I explained before, they think it’s not a personal choice, and that you are being paid by others to destroy Islam. It is impossible to leave Islam by yourself because what we learn is that Islam is perfect. Even others envy us for this religion, this one of the biggest problems in teaching children. They brainwash children.

SJ: You were a computer science student and a barber assistant – for your father. You wrote on the personal blog Noor al-Aqel or “Enlightenment of Reason.” What were the general topics? Why write there, and on those topics?

WA: In my blog, in the beginning, my articles talked about my doubts because I was writing at that time to look for the truth. That’s what I kept saying during all my articles, then I tried to put rocks in the calm water and speak about the taboo and that’s what I did.

SJ: You were arrested by the Palestinian Authority in October, 2010. The charge: (alleged) blasphemy against Islam in online writing – blog posts and Facebook. The arrest was an international note. What was the personal reaction 6/7 years ago for you?

WA: I was arrested on the 2^nd of November in 2010. My reaction in the beginning was like, “I don’t understand why I’m arrested because I thought that Palestine is a secular state as it is openly declared.” I was wrong. I went through the military court.

SJ: In imprisonment by the Palestinian Authority, there does not seem to have been a justification for it. You were in solitary confinement. This imprisonment went on for 11 months. You were tortured. For free expression, this happened to you. Foreign government and international attention placed pressure on the Palestinian Authority. You were paroled, then fled to Jordan first. Why Jordan?

WA: Because Jordan is the only country I can be without visa, and in West Bank, there is no embassy for a European country. So I have to go to Jordan if I want ask for a visa, so I escaped to Jordan to acquire the visa.

SJ: Next, you went to France. Why France from Jordan? What was the appeal of France?

WA: I chose France in the beginning because they know my story well. The French government spoke about my story. I didn’t want to lose time waiting for the visa and then have to prove my story. So it was really fast to have the French visa.

SJ: You founded the Council of Ex-Muslims of France on July 4, 2013. The date has significance. It “marked the torture and murder of young Frenchman Jean-François Lefevre de la Barre in 1766 for refusing to remove his hat while a religious procession passed by and was a reminder of the countless la Barres facing threats, torture, imprisonment and death for apostasy, blasphemy, heresy, atheism and refusing to comply with Islamist norms.”

There were a number of prominent speakers there.[i] The speakers list and its foundation was an attempt to establish an “important step,” a prominent first step, in provision of a challenge to Islamism – the desire to impose political Islam over society – and apostasy laws as well as a defense for “free expression, freedom of belief and atheism and secularism.” What has been the organisation’s trials and tribulations in foundation, development, maintenance, and growth since that time?

WA: Exactly, and we chose that date to show that we are similar like ex-Muslims, we are now more than 100 members who live in France. Most of us can’t speak and be in public, even they live here in France, for the same reasons if they live in Islamic country.

SJ: What seem like the best means to combat far-Right ideologies such as white nationalism and Islamism?

WA: For me, the far-Right do not mean only European far-Right. What they call “Islamism” are far-Right too. For me, they are all the same, some far-Rights fight Islamism just for their own racists goals, but we fight Islamism for our human rights. That’s why we are also against far-Right ideologies, even if they are use our speeches and words for their own goals.

SJ: Now, you advocate free speech and criticise Islam – as beliefs, purported divine revelatory scripture, and suggested practices for adherents. What makes free speech worth fighting for, even in the light of your previous imprisonment and torture?

WA: It’s worth it to help our people live in peace, to let the different people like me not have to leave their own country, to make friends accept them and doesn’t matter there beliefs, to try make the society for everyone, for secularism and respect.

SJ: What does France and Western Europe take for granted with respect to free speech?

WA: That you can say whatever you want about religion, criticise it, and speak openly.

SJ: Who is a favourite philosopher and writer in history, alive or dead?

WA: I like Voltaire.

SJ: You wrote on the conspiratorial perspective of some Muslims. That is, individuals leaving Islam can be seen as an agent of a Western or Jewish State. What seems like the source of this conspiracy view?

WA: Yes, because we are like spies to them, this comes from the Quran itself.

SJ: What are the upcoming and ongoing initiatives for the Council of Ex-Muslims of France?

WA: We have a conference in July in London for all ex-Muslims.

SJ: Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion based on the discussion today?

WA: Thank you.

SJ: Thank you for your time, Waleed.

[i] Successful launch of Council of Ex-Muslims of France (2013) said:

Speakers at the packed event included founding members of the Council of Ex-Muslims of France Waleed Al-Husseini; Atica Samrah; Mehdi Lamrani; Elias Ben Amer and Soad Baba Aïssa of Association pour la mixité, l’égalité et la laïcité en Algérie. Other speakers included Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain’s Maryam Namazie, Tunisian film-maker Nadia El-Fani; Secularist Caroline Fourest; Safia Lebdi of Insoumisses; activist Fatou Sou; Mimouna Hadham; and Marieme Helie Lucas of Secularism is a Woman’s Issue.

Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. (n.d.). Successful launch of Council of Ex-Muslims of France. Retrieved from http://ex-muslim.org.uk/2013/07/successful-launch-of-council-of-ex-muslims-of-france/.

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2022-04-12

Making Perovskite Solar Cells Less Degradable and More Stable

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/20

A Nature article described the viability of a new form of solar cell. They are called perovskite solar cells.

There is an increase in the size and efficiency of the perovskite solar cells. 90% of the photovoltaic devices in use utilise crystalline silicon. It converts light into electricity from semiconductors.

However, these forms of photovoltaics are expensive. Also, the by-products from the technology are toxic. So the search for cheap and safe solar technology is onward.

“Perovskites could be a game-changer. These materials have crystal structures that are based on pyramid-like tetrahedral arrangements of atoms or molecules,” Nature said. “Long explored as potential semiconductors, superconductors and for their optical and magnetic properties, perovskites are also efficient at absorbing light and transporting charges — ideal properties for capturing solar power.”

They are both cheap and easy to assemble in addition to their efficiency in absorbing light. They are a major candidate in a crystalline silicon dominated marketplace. “Typically they combine common inorganic and organic components, often methylammonium or formamidinium, both compounds of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen.”

The research into the perovskite solar cells has boomed in the last few years based on their viability to meet the increasing demands of energy and safer solar technologies than the current crystalline photovoltaic forms. In solution, they can be printed on glass or film over several square centimetres.

“In 2006, the first perovskite photovoltaic converted 2.2% of photons into electrons1; by 2016, that figure was 22.1%. Silicon rooftop panels have an efficiency of 16–20%; perovskite cells could in theory reach 31%. And even higher efficiencies might be achieved by combining silicon and perovskite devices.”

Perovskite has become a viable contender in that sense. In that, the conversion of photons into electrons is higher than the standard silicon rooftop panels, which are about 1/3 lower than the theoretical heights of perovskite solar cells.

Perovskite has problems, though. “The main one is stability: the cells currently only last for months outdoors, whereas silicon solar panels are usually guaranteed to work for at least 25 years.”

The weather and the extremes of it can deteriorate or degrade the perovskite solar cells more rapidly than the crystalline silicon ones with moisture as a major problem. The lifespans of the perovskite solar cells went from a few minutes to about a half of a year, recently.

So the authors of the article used this as the main point. That is, there needs to be more research into the potential for longevity of the perovskite solar cells to compete more fully with crystalline solar cells in durability, efficiency, ease of setup, and price-performance in general.

“Finding new stable materials requires interdisciplinary research and more funding. Theoretical physicists and materials scientists need to calculate and predict material properties; chemists and materials scientists to synthesise and study their properties; and engineers to develop devices.”

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2022-04-12

Spherical Encoding of Information Between Earth and Mars

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/19

Quanta Magazine reported on the use of a sphere to be able to communicate with Mars. It is difficult to send messages to and from Mars.

There is the rover on Mars called Curiosity, or the Curiosity rover. When it finds something of interest to astro people, it sends a message to NASA. There’s a catch. The binary message beamed to Earth has to do just that.

“The situation from Mars is an exaggerated version of what happens whenever a message is communicated through any noisy channel — be it from a flash drive to your computer or an air traffic control tower to an airplane.”

It has to travel to Earth. The trip from Mars to Earth, or vice versa, is not easy. It is far. It can scramble the transmission. So the communication clarity can take time and the message can be worse by the time it gets from the source – on Earth – to the receiver – on Mars.

Once it comes to Earth, “…it’s a game of telephone, as NASA engineers make their best guess about what Curiosity was trying to tell them. In each case, the receiver has to estimate what the sender meant to say.”

The question arises about the feasibility of other means of communication. The Quanta Magazine article author posits a solution: “spherical code.”

Information, rather than in binary, is encoded in a high-dimensional sphere. Spheres are not by necessity 3-dimensional. They have volume and 3-dimensionality in regular conceptualisations. Everyone went through school using area and its inherent 2-dimensionality to learn about spheres and their properties.

Spheres can exist, as with many higher-dimensional mathematical objects, in a large number of possible valuations while keeping basic formulations or axioms of their existence consistent. So spheres “can exist in any number of dimensions.”

“Imagine, for example, that you’d like to transmit the word ‘Mars.’ To do this, you’d need to find some way of relating each letter to a coordinate on the sphere. While the mathematics behind spherical codes is more complicated than this, you could imagine, for example, that the word “Mars” maps to the point (13, 1, 18, 19) on a sphere in four-dimensional space.”

Each letter, of course, corresponding to the linear countable numbers of those letters – a as 1, b as 2, o as 15, t as 20, and so on. Akin to 3-dimensionality with left-right, up-down, forward-backward, each has coordinates on the x, y, and z axes to provide indications as to the information about various points in the volume or on the surface of the sphere.

“The key, however, is to use only a limited number of points for encoding messages. As long as those points are spaced far enough apart, it’s unlikely that one point will end up being mistaken for another.”

So the received point will be more akin to the intended point which corresponds to the correct message. Communication becomes easier. Spherical higher-numeric dimensional encoding provides a means for improve communication methodologies between Earth and Mars, and vice versa.

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2022-04-12

Artificial Intelligence Self-Taught Heart Diagnosis Outperforms Doctors

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/19

According to Science (AAAS), artificial intelligence taught itself how to diagnosis heart attacks and performs better than doctors. Doctors have tools. Now, they may have another.

The human body is complex. Heart attacks are a problem. Computers and doctors working together perform better than doctors alone. It has been reported that “scientists have shown that computers capable of teaching themselves can perform even better than standard medical guidelines, significantly increasing prediction rates.”

The novel method might save 1,000 to 1,000,000 of lives per annum. A vascular surgeon at Stanford University, Elsie Ross, said, “I can’t stress enough how important it is…and how much I really hope that doctors start to embrace the use of artificial intelligence to assist us in care of patients.”

More than 20,000,000 people die from cardiovascular disease every year, specifically, “heart attacks, strokes, blocked arteries, and other circulatory system malfunctions.” The issue is prediction. Doctors need better extrapolation from diagnostics to know the probabilities of heart attacks.

The American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) describes the 8 main factors or variables in the risk of heart attacks including, “age, cholesterol level, and blood pressure—that physicians effectively add up.”

Biology is complex, as is the human body. The human body can prevent cardiovascular problems with fat at times and it depends. An epidemiologist from the University of Nottingham in the UK, Stephen Weng, said, “What computer science allows us to do is to explore those associations.”

The recent research by Wend used the ACC/AHA guidelines. They were put through the rigours. The rigours of 4 machine-learning algorithms. Each analysed human amounts of data: 378,256 patient profiles in the UK.

“First, the artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms had to train themselves. They used about 78% of the data—some 295,267 records—to search for patterns and build their own internal ‘guidelines.’”

The AI tested themselves on the records left out of the 295,267 taken out of the 378,256. “…They predicted which patients would have their first cardiovascular event over the next 10 years, and checked the guesses against the 2015 records.”

The machine-learning methods took 22 points of data to make the extrapolation such as kidney disease or ethnicity.

“The best [machine-learning algorithm]—neural networks—correctly predicted 7.6% more events than the ACC/AHA method, and it raised 1.6% fewer false alarms. In the test sample of about 83,000 records, that amounts to 355 additional patients whose lives could have been saved,” Science said.

A data scientist from the University of Manchester, Evangelos Kontopantelis, considered the work important with the possibility of leading to greater gains. “Going forward, Weng hopes to include other lifestyle and genetic factors in computer algorithms to further improve their accuracy.”

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2022-04-12

“The Handmaid’s Tale,” Margaret Atwood, and the Modern World

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/19

Reuters Canada recently reported on the modern world and “The Handmaid’s Tale” including an interview with acclaimed Canadian author Margaret Atwood.

Atwood said she did not have much “creative control over the latest adaptation of her dystopian novel, but she was “clear what she didn’t want.” This was that “That they not make a sort of soft porn film called ‘Maidens in Leather’ or something, which has always been a temptation to certain kinds of filmmakers.” Her novel was a near-future dystopia with the premise of a totalitarian state. In an additional premise, the fertile women are made sexual servants for the repopulation of the world. Women have no money, no literacy, and are forced to wear “modest” clothing with pervasive spying on every citizen, by other citizens too.

The novel was published in 1985 with subsequent republications. On April 26, Hulu will be premiering a television miniseries of it. Atwood is now 77. Her novel is not purely speculative fiction but based on real events in slices of human history, “…from Puritan society to environmental pollution, infertility, the fight for women’s rights, the Cold War, book burnings and slavery.”

“The Handmaid’s Tale” seemed remarkable and even “preposterous” at the time to Atwood. However, she said, “When politically inclined people say they want to do such and such, I always believe them, so why be surprised? Then the 2016 U.S. election happened and all this became much more immediate.”

Atwood is known as one of the foremost feminist authors in the world today. She considers women’s rights and civil rights “inextricably linked.” She sees women in the current era – the last 20 years – as complacent.

“People have forgotten that civil rights themselves had to be hard-fought for and have to be fought to maintain because someone is going to take them away from you if they get the chance… I think whole generations came along who didn’t have to fight for those things, and weren’t too worried,” she said.

When asked about society in the next 20 years and its possible ailments, she said, “That’s going to be your problem, because I’m going to be dead.”

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2022-04-12

Sweden Tops the Charts in Everything

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/19

The World Economic Forum (WEF) reports that Sweden succeeds in a number of areas important for the health and well-being of the nation and the wellness of its citizenry.

Firstly, Sweden is the best nation to do business with and in. It ranks number one in terms of the best countries for business. The powerhouse of economy of the United States is in 23rd place on that ranking. Only a decade ago, Sweden ranked 17th in that listing. With conscious effort and initiatives, it went straight to the top. Sweden continues to be a globally competitive nation based on the Global Competitiveness Index provided by the WEF.

The growth of the country has been good and the deficit has been decreased. Sweden has a high rate of employment in addition to a high level of women citizens participating in the workforce.

It is also strong on gender equality, ranking fourth on the Global Gender Gap Index circa 2016.

Sweden closed about 81% of the overall gender gap for the nation. There has been a significant increase in “female legislators, senior officials and managers, and [Sweden] has reached parity in the number of women in ministerial positions.”

In another ranking, the Corruptions Perceptions Index, Sweden is ranked 4th out of a total of 186 countries, placing it near the top of the charts in terms of being a transparent and anti-corrupt country.

According to an index known as the European Commission’s European Innovation Scoreboard 2016, Sweden is also an innovative country, which reflects upon the economic development of the country as well. Some of these factors might be associated with one another in a higher factorial analysis. Sweden is known as an “innovation leader” and takes top place alongside other economic and innovative powerhouses such as “Denmark, Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands.”

Sweden also has the second most powerful passport in the world according to Henley and Partners, a citizenship and planning firm, allowing Swedes to visit 175 countries without a visa.

For people who want a good place to grow old in, Sweden is one of the best places in the world because life quality is very high for all the people according to the Global AgeWatch Index 2015. Swedes have “above average level employment levels” and “levels of educational attainment.”

The language skills of the Swedes are high with regards to English. English is the lingua franca of the international world. Therefore, it is an important aspect of being part of international community, whether in be in business or in diplomatic relations. In addition, it has a good reputation for being a “great place for families” and a “safe country for women.” As previously noted, these indices are likely to work in association with each other and, together, mark Sweden as a high-ranking country for health and wellbeing of society and individuals.

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2022-04-12

North Korea Special Operation Forces on Show for the First Time

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/19

Yonhap News Agency recently reported that North Korea has formed a new unit and has put them on display in a parade in an apparent show of military power.

The display was amid ongoing tensions with the United States concerning North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs.

The Korean People’s Army were present in a military parade for the 105^th anniversary for the deceased founder of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung.

North Korea has media run by the state. Their media mentioned the navy, the air force, and the special operation forces in the parade.

“Military officers belonging to the special forces marched in formation while wearing black camouflage cream on their faces and black sunglasses, according to footage by the country’s state TV station.”

The special operation forces carried a novel form of grenade launchers in addition to night-vision goggles.

One announcer on television, in reference to the highest peak in the Korean Peninsula, said, “Once Supreme Commander Kim Jong-un issues an order, they will charge with resolve to thrust a sword through the enemy’s heart like lighting over Mt. Paektu,”

The current leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, watched from a Pyongyang plaza. There has been speculation as to a “sixth nuclear test.” Recently, there was a failed missile launch from North Korea.

The new forces are aimed at countering both the United States and South Korea with the “beheading operation” or launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile around its key anniversaries in April.

Seoul and Washington’s forces, including the U.S. Navy SEAL team that killed Osama bin Laden, joined this year’s annual joint military drills for the first time apparently to practice removing the North Korean leadership in case of war.

As this is the first presentation of the special operation forces ever, other militarised groups have been formed by North Korea for new purposes and then put on show during a parade.

North Korean Col. Gen. Kim Yong-bok, a former military leader of the KPA Unit 11, is presumed to be leading the special forces as a new commander, given that his name was mentioned by the country’s media at the parade.

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2022-04-12

Artificial Intelligence Learns Human Sentiment

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/19

According to OpenAI, artificial intelligence (AI) has learned sentiment. However, it cannot express it. Nevertheless, it can read it.

The system has been termed an “unsupervised sentiment neuron.” It develops a good representation of sentiment through only prediction of the next character in a text of Amazon reviews.

“A linear model using this representation achieves state-of-the-art sentiment analysis accuracy on a small but extensively-studied dataset, the Stanford Sentiment Treebank (we get 91.8% accuracy versus the previous best of 90.2%), and can match the performance of previous supervised systems using 30-100x fewer labelled examples.”

There appears to be a sentiment neuron within the system with containment of most of the signals relevant to sentiment. It is reported as a derivation from large neural networks. A property emerging as a result of the structure and nature of neural networks.

“We first trained a multiplicative LSTM with 4,096 units on a corpus of 82 million Amazon reviews to predict the next character in a chunk of text. Training took one month across four NVIDIA Pascal GPUs, with our model processing 12,500 characters per second.”

These were used as the foundation for the creation of a sentiment classifier: different types of sentiment. Each were weighted in linear combinations. Weighting is giving more or less value to something: X was more weighted than Y; Y was less weighted than X.

“While training the linear model with L1 regularisation, we noticed it used surprisingly few of the learned units. Digging in, we realised there actually existed a single “sentiment neuron” that’s highly predictive of the sentiment value.”

Sentiment became predictable from one value, mostly. This neuron can classify reviews as positive or negative based on the Amazon review system. It was dynamic, adaptable, and adjustable “on a character-by-character basis.”

The sentiment neuron within their model can classify reviews as negative or positive, even though the model is trained only to predict the next character in the text. (Image: blog.openai.com)

Typically, computers, algorithms, and AIs need big data to sift for self-learning. Unsupervised learning is different. This AI can do it. It can learn a good representation of a dataset, which can then be used to “solve tasks using only a few labelled examples.”

According to the researchers, the findings “implies that simply training large unsupervised next-step-prediction models on large amounts of data may be a good approach to use when creating systems with good representation learning capabilities.”

The researchers concluded that outside of the specific unsupervised learning, the capacity for “general unsupervised representation learning” could become a reality. “Our results suggest that there exist settings where very large next-step-prediction models learn excellent unsupervised representations. Training a large neural network to predict the next frame in a large collection of videos may result in unsupervised representations for object, scene, and action classifiers.”

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2022-04-12

Interview with Ashton P. Woods on Activism and Black Lives Matter

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/19

Ashton P. Woods is a social and political activist in the Black Lives Matter movement as well as the co-chair of the Black Humanist Alliance. In this wide-ranging interview, we discussed the first moment of political and activist awakening for Ashton. We also looked into the tasks and responsibilities of being a co-chair and increasing the public knowledge of the black humanist community. Ashton is HIV-positive and an HIV activist. We discussed how he found out about his own HIV, the feelings that arose, and the difficulties associated with it. Also covered, were ways of coming to atheism in addition to his own experience of growing up ‘religion-less.’ Ashton explains his role as the founder and lead organiser of Black Lives Matter Houston.

Finally, we close on the main initiatives and projects coming on the horizon, even into the long-term future with some references to the Sandra Bland Act.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So you’ve been an activist for a long time. I am curious to start things off with a little groundwork. What was your first moment of political and activist awakening?

Ashton P. Woods: My very first moment? It happened when I was 15. I co-founded the first gay-straight alliance at my high school in New Orleans. I got tired of seeing people being bullied for being different, not just LGBT, but different – period. That was my first action that burst me down the path I am on now.

SJ: Now, you’re the co-chair of the Black Humanist Alliance. What tasks and responsibilities come along with being the co-chair?

AW: As far as being the co-chair for me, we are not just organising black people as a monolith, but organising with the knowledge that black people come from different walks of life with some who happen to identify as a humanist or an atheist in the secular community. Because, obviously, we are not as visible, yet. There are more of us out there than people perceive there to be. One of the things that I do as a co-chair is I focus on social justice.

My work, in and of itself, fulfills the duties as the co-chair.

SJ: You were noting some of the difficulties. That is, not really being noticed in the public eye in terms of the black humanist community. What are some ways that are being pursued to overcome that barrier of public perception?

AW: To be honest with you; first, it is about being visible. The more people see you out there doing the work and identifying like they do, then they have a stake in the game. They have something to relate to. I have worked in activism. And it, in general, requires a certain level of relatability. That way, people are more inclined to be part of a movement or part of a project, and are willing to listen.

Because, “Hey, this isn’t churchy. This isn’t steeped in religion, and I see a place for myself here.” The conundrum is that in trying to be visible, make it so that we are visible within the atheist community as well. Because I went to the Nashville Nones! Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. And I could only count up to 10, maybe 15, black folks. What came of that, first of all, is it wasn’t on a weekend, so most people were at school or work. There’s also financial barriers.

So signing up and being part of those particular events, as well as my social justice work, and emphasising that there’s a place for the secular community in the Black Lives Matter movement, and feminism, and HIV activism. It can be tedious when it’s needed. For some reason, I never found it hard to do. I just do it, if that makes sense.

SJ: Yes, thank you for that. Also, you mentioned HIV activism. I do know that you’re HIV positive. When did you find out, what were the feelings that came up, and what have been some of the difficulties?

AW: Well, I was 21-years-old when I found out I was HIV positive. That would put it 2008. And I had never been educated a lot about HIV because I’ve been on my own since I was 16-years-old. Unfortunately, due to the fact that I founded the gay-straight alliance at my high school, things were very different back then. It was 1999. I was 17. Even though people are bigoted now, they were way more bigoted back then.

They were just more visible with it. Because of that, I was an LGBT youth. Deliberately, I went to community centres that were part of the LGBT community, and in the black community as well, and learned what I could learn because I had friends that died from it. So when I found out that I had HIV – of course, you can’t die from HIV, but you die from complications with AIDS, which should be noted – I found the biggest reaction was that I broke out in hives.

I didn’t want to be around people. I remember the conversations with friends, who are no longer here, that it is not a death sentence. Then it came about destigmatising HIV because HIV is safe. The black community, it is so disproportionate. It is hard to quantify, but I feel like it is not even quantifiable the amount of affect that it has. Even in 2017, or in 2008, people lack the common knowledge of how HIV works, and what it does to the body.

Also, the difference between HIV the virus and AIDS the syndrome. I feel like in doing this work we are going to talk about Black Lives Matter or any other types of black activism. We need to make sure we are including people who are living with this virus, and know that health is a main issue that should be discussed. So when we talk about, for example, Black Lives Matter, we say, “Black lives matter. Black health matters. Black women matter. Black LGBT people matter.”

You know? Things like that. As far as LGBT is concerned, it is not necessarily a blip in my life, but I came out in 2015 publicly and by the beginning of 2016 I was on the cover of an industry magazine that covers HIV issues, which was a very rapid rise in that context. But it is about knowing what is affecting your body. It is about knowing how it affects everybody else. Because it does not just affect the people that have it, it affects everybody around them as well.

And we need to come to a common place, where the stigma isn’t there anymore because there is a thing about it being nasty, about promiscuity. It is about these things that some people with HIV did not take part in. Some people with HIV were raped. There’s a lot. There’s a lot [Laughing] that needs to be unpackaged there with HIV. So that’s one of the things that I work on.

SJ: Also within the humanist community, there are many titles, which imply different forms of looking at the world.

AW: Right.

SJ: However, many humanists – or secular humanists with respect to the AHA – are atheists. You are an atheist. Generally, what I notice are two trends to becoming an atheist, one is a single moment. It is dramatic in some way. It is an argument that they come across. Or it is a disillusionment with traditional religious structures.

The second is a slow trend over time. Where, for instance, they may start off as a theist, become a deist, become an agnostic, maybe even a pantheist, and then end up as an atheist. For you, what was that development like for you, if indeed there was one away from a traditional belief system into atheism?

AW: Well, the irony is I don’t fit into either one of those boxes.

SJ: Oh [Laughing]!

AW: I, actually, grew up religion-less. It was around me. Others practiced it, but I was never forced to go to a church or forced to try to learn. I was offered, but it was never forced. I was left to make the choice on my own. I never really believed. By the time I was 10- or 11-years-old, I was like, “This isn’t real to me. I don’t believe in this.” As an adult, I did try to join a church to try to understand. I feel like I did what Anne Rice did, loosely.

I joined a church just to see what it was like, and to see if I could deal with it, and to see if I could believe in it. But no—it was, no. It just didn’t work. It’s not that I didn’t have any respect for the people because there are some good people there. But this is not who I am; it’s not who I am. I never experience agnosticism. There was just never any God for me.

SJ: As a last question while being mindful of time, you are the co-founder and lead organiser of Black Lives Matter Houston.

AW: That’s correct.

SJ: What are some of its main initiatives at the moment? What are you hoping to achieve in the next 1- to 10-year horizon – kind of big projects?

AW: Right now, I am not looking at 10 years. There is a long-range plan. The long-range plan is legal, and policy. What we decided to do, or what I’ve decided to do, as my part in the Black Lives Matter movement is to affect policy. One of that things that I have been good at is working with elected officials to change laws and policies. So I’ve been at the Texas legislature helping to look at language in bills.

I am helping to support bills by testifying on panels and meeting with elected officials to convince them to vote for particular bills. For example, there are bills that on the floor right now. I am actually on a committee in the Texas legislature. These bills, basically, abolish the ability for police to arrest you on misdemeanour charges if it’s not like a [Laughing] crime when someone is drawing blood – if you know what I mean.

There’s also victimless crime. You get a citation and then go. I’ve also been involved with the Sandra Bland Act. I was very involved in protests, planning protests, around Sandra Bland, even being a part of planning the protests in Phoenix at the Netroots Nation. It was with Sanders and Governor O’Malley. So it is part protest and part policy in the context, you know. I go and walk the halls of city hall or walk the halls of the state legislature, even taking part in being a political consultant on an individual level by working for some candidates that I think will be best on those positions.

Let’s just say, I haven’t lost a race yet [Laughing].

SJ: [Laughing].

AW: Yea, it’s about policy. Working on the Sandra Bland Act, which is 55 pages long, I’m not going to go into it. But it, basically, makes it so that the officer has to prove probable cause. That’s what these bills are for. It is one thing to protest in the streets; it is another thing to expand that protest to incorporating the piece where you’re actually engaging in the political process.

While we would love to dismantle this system of pain, we are still in it. It will take some time.

So you have to change some things. It doesn’t require you assimilating what is in the system that you don’t like, but it does mean that you work with some folks. As the old mentor that I have will say, “It’s about policy, and it’s also about one of the other things we should be doing, health.” It is interesting that you brought up the question around HIV.

Because we are going to be doing some health education around HIV and some other issues, and health in the black community as well.

SJ: Thank you very much for your time.

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2022-04-12

The Changing Landscape of Religion

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/18

According to a new P ew study, that the world’s Christian population currently lies at 31% of the global 7.3 billion population, or 2.3 billion people – making it the world’s biggest religion, with Islam and Hinduism standing as the second and third biggest religion respectively. This is based on a new Pew Research Center analysis of the demographics around religion.

However, in continental Europe, Christianity is declining. Christians had both the most deaths and the most births of any extant religion.

“Between 2010 and 2015, an estimated 223 million babies were born to Christian mothers and roughly 107 million Christians died – a natural increase of 116 million.”

Those are global numbers. For Europe, deaths outnumber births by about 6 million in one brief period. In Germany alone, there were an estimated 1.4 million more Christian deaths than births from 2010 to 2015.

Europe’s ageing and dying Christian population was unique compared to the rest of the world. The Muslim and unaffiliated population increased in Europe. There are 1.8 billion Muslims in the world of various denominations at 24% of the world population.

This is “followed by religious “nones” (16%), Hindus (15%) and Buddhists (7%). Adherents of folk religions, Jews and members of other religions make up smaller shares of the world’s people.”

Of the greatest organic increase in the numbers of adherents, Islam was the fastest growing. All religious/unaffiliated groups had more births than deaths.

Some countries, such as the United States, have a culture in which children growing up in one religion are more ably leave that religion. However, this trend is dwarfed by the differences associated with “fertility and mortality.”

Fertility differences between religious groups are one of the key factors behind current population trends and will be important for future growth. Globally, Muslims have the highest fertility rate of any religious group – an average of 2.9 children per woman, well above replacement level (2.1), the minimum typically needed to maintain a stable population.

The differences in the median ages of the religious demographics are important too. The differences can be seen in an older Christian global population. The median age for Christians is 30. For Muslims, it is 24. It is the youngest grouping.

Fertile years are more abundant – so to speak – for the world’s Muslim population than for the world’s Christian population or Hindu population – median age of 27.

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2022-04-12

Chart: The EU27 and Brexit negotiations

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/18

The Economist noted that the European Union (EU) member states fall into three categories. This is based on reportage on the EU27 and Brexit negotiations.

Of those opinions categorised for the EU member states, these fall into three categories: “hard-core, hard and soft.” The main thrust of the EU negotiation and the results of the new index reported by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) is the variables in discussion.

It gauges the views of EU states on the four core negotiating issues: the amount of money Britain will have to pay to leave; the four EU freedoms (movement of goods, services, workers and capital); trade arrangements and tariff barriers; and defence ties.

Based on the examination of EIU analysts, the ranks given to member states of the EU were out of 40. At the top of the rank, France earned the top spot. It is at 32.5 out of 40. Different nations have different concerns.

“This cluster mixes the traditional Anglophobes, Belgium and France, with the poorest member states, Bulgaria and Romania, who are concerned about both free movement and the budget. It also includes Germany, which sees itself as the custodian of the EU’s future cohesion.”

For the hard slot, 12 EU member states fall into it, which is significant if only 27 in the “EU27” and 3 categories. Hard-core scores were about 30 out of 40. Hard scores were 25-30. Soft scores were below 25.

“The final eight EU members, with scores below 25, make up the “soft” category. They include some which share Britain’s liberal position on trade and EU regulation—such as Sweden and Denmark. It also includes Ireland, with whom Britain has close historical and trade ties.”

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland placed a “premium” on Britain’s contributions. Contributions of defence and security for the continent.

“Nonetheless, even the countries most sympathetic to Britain have limits on how generous they will allow the terms of Brexit to be. If nothing else, the importance of maintaining warm relations with the remaining EU members will dissuade them from undermining the group’s overall negotiating position.”

The full report by the EIU can be read here.

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2022-04-12

North Korean Missile Launch Failure and Explosion

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/18

What many are deeming an increase in political instability within the country, Sunday morning saw a North Korean ballistic missile fired but exploding almost immediately after launching, U.S. military officials said, less than a day after leader Kim Jong Un paraded a never-before-seen long-range ballistic missile through the streets of Pyongyang.

The launch was at 5:51am in Sinpo on the east coast of North Korea. The missile was not an intercontinental ballistic missile according to a United States official reporting to The Wall Street Journal.

“Cmdr. Benham said the type of missile that was fired Sunday was still being assessed. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, who confirmed the failed launch, also said they were working on analysing the type of missile.”

The North Korean director of national security, Kim Kwan-jin, organised a special meeting for the security situation. North Korea is seen to be moving forward with its new weapons program based on the launch.

Even with the launch, it is seen as a show of resolve. “U.S. President Donald Trump warned Pyongyang against any bellicose behaviour, and the U.S. sent an aircraft carrier group into the waters around the Korean Peninsula.”

Jim Mattis, secretary of defence said, “The president and his military team are aware of North Korea’s most recent unsuccessful missile launch…The president has no further comment.”

The foreign ministry of South Korea warned against further launches or escalations from North Korea because these would be met with “strong punitive measures.”

Xinhua News Agency reported that the top Chinese diplomat, Yang Jiechi, who is a state councillor, was in discussions with the U.S. secretary of state Rex Tillerson. They talked on the phone about the situation in the Korean Peninsula.

“Japan on Sunday lodged a protest with North Korea over the launch via its embassy in Beijing, while Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida called on China to make further efforts to rein in its volatile neighbour, according to public broadcaster NHK.”

Vice president for the U.S., Mike Pence, landed in Seoul after the failed test launch. He will be travelling through Australia, Indonesia, and Japan. “Recent satellite imagery suggests North Korea may be preparing a sixth nuclear test at Punggye-ri, where the recorded blasts have escalated in strength since the first one in 2006.”

“North Korea’s failed launch on Sunday was its eighth missile to be tested this year. North Korea’s first launch in 2017, in February, came as Mr. Trump was meeting in Florida with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and was the country’s first attempt at a solid-fueled missile, which can be fired with little advance warning.”

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2022-04-12

Dementia and Alzheimer’s Patients Ask for Physician-Assisted Suicide

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/16

CTV News reported on the dementia and Alzheimer’s sufferers that are asking for “the right to consent to doctor-assisted suicide” or physician-assisted suicide.

The concern is the development of the diseases as they eventually destroy “their ability to walk, talk and think.” Currently, in Canada, it is against the law for a physician-assisted suicide. Of the provinces and territories to consider making this practice legal of this, Quebec is the first to “consider this controversy or proposal.”

“One of its supporters is Quebec politician Francois Bonnardel, who watches helplessly as Alzheimer’s slowly destroys the mind and body of his mother, Yolande Tremblay.”

Bonnardel is seen as a “frontman” for the push by Quebec to advance this controversial cause of physician-assisted suicide or “doctor-assisted suicide.”

According to the CEO of Dying with Dignity Canada, Shanaaz Gokool, “There is a provincial government that is willing to address this critical issue that so many Canadians, 80 per cent, support advance consent for a diagnosis like dementia.”

One woman’s family, Jocelyne Lizotte’s family, wants the option. She had Alzheimer’s, but was “denied a medically assisted death. She made a request to the husband: to kill her. Now, Michel Cadotte, who is 55-years-old, has “been charged with second-degree murder.”

Although, some organisations and individuals support the idea. Others do not support doctor-assisted suicide. The Canadian Alzheimer’s Society is against the idea. One representative, Line Vincelli, reports and believes that offering assisted death can put “the vulnerable at great risk.”

There was a study, which prompted the Quebec to study the issue of advance consent and whether it “should be allowed.”

Some dementia and Alzheimer’s sufferers say they would like the right to consent to doctor-assisted suicide before the disease destroys their ability to live and exercise a holistic lifestyle. Vincelli said, “We should fight to help give them a good life before trying to end their life.”

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2022-04-12

April 22 2017 is Earth Day

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/15

In 1970, Earth Day was started by the Wisconsin politician named Gaylord Nelson. It led to the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act. Apparently, the foundation of Earth was a “rare political alignment” with support from “Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders.”

Into the current celebration, the environmental movement continues to garner international support through the annual reminder of the need to protect the Earth’s – and our – life support systems. In 1990, the celebration – on its 20th anniversary – was important for the improvement in recycling.

As well, these were foundational for the 1992 Rio de Janeiro United Nations Earth Summit. In 1995, Senator Gaylord Nelson earned the honour of the Presidential medal of Freedom from the then United States president Bill Clinton, which is known as the highest civilian honour in America.

This year’s celebration will feature support from over 200 million people from 141 countries working to protect the environment this Earth Day. As with 2010 onward, arguably before that time, we face challenges with the denial of the reality of climate change or global warming based on the best statistical models and the consensus of the experts in the relevant disciplines.

As well, this includes “well-funded oil lobbyists, reticent politicians, a disinterested public, and a divided environmental community all contributed to the narrative—cynicism versus activism.” So the reminder for the year – indeed, the imperative – seems to be the need to change the narrative from the general negative apathy seen in cynicism and to change that into proactive engagement.

In what ways are we able to make a difference? Some things include turning off light-bulbs when the room is not in use, and any other electrical appliances and/or heating. We can recycle food waste and try NOT to waste so much food that we buy for the home. What might help in this regard, a solution which also benefits the environment is eating less meat.

According to the Earth Day website, the meat industry is responsible for 20% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. With global meat consumption tripling over the last four decades, the meat industry now emits over 36 billion tons of greenhouse gases annually and is showing no signs of slowing down, Earth Day introduced a ‘Meatless Mondays’ petition in order to encourage more people to eat less meat.

300 million tons of plastic is produced each year to make bags, bottles and packages.

Another option is to pledge not to use disposable plastic. Earth Day has another petition for this issue and consider it a priority. At present, 300 million tons of plastic is produced each year to make bags, bottles, packages, and other commodities for people all over the world. But! Only about 10% of this plastic is properly recycled and reused. The rest ends up as waste in landfills or as litter in our natural environment, where it leaches dangerous chemicals into the nearby soil and water, endangering humans and wildlife alike.

One last option is to donate to Earth Day’s ‘Canopy project,’ which aims to work with organisations worldwide that strengthen communities through tree planting. Using sapling and seed distribution, urban forestry, agroforestry, and tree care training, we have empowered rural and urban people alike to conserve, repair, and restore tree cover to their lands.

The goal of Earth Day is to strive, not just for “an environment of clean air and water and scenic beauty,” but to reach “an environment of decency, quality and mutual respect for all other human beings and all other living creatures.”

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2022-04-11

An Interview with Alida Tomas – Founding Producer, Eighty Wings Productions

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/15

Alida Tomas founded Eighty Wings Productions. She is a comedian, commentator, and producer. Here she talks to Conatus News about some of her work.

Alida, you earned professional qualifications in theatre, film, and television. Why did you choose those specialities for undergraduate training?

Specialties? Choose? No, no, film & tv chose me. Jokes aside, no one makes a logical, well-reasoned decision to go into the film industry. It’s very much instinct, and unabashed passion, and a sprinkle of stupidity. The odds are stacked against you, and your mental health. Dropping out of law school and into the void would have given my poor parents a heart attack, so instead I impressed them by getting into UCLA and left Australia (never to be seen again).

You are the founding producer for Eighty Wings Productions. What was the inspiration for the title and founding it?

Control freak. That’s the other other name for Producer (after asshole). I wanted to create and drive my own projects, so founded my own company. As for my production company name, it’s horribly convoluted, but basically my name, Alida, means Small winged one (that’s the ‘Wings’), and ‘Eighty’ includes both my favorite number, eight, and is also a homophone of my initials ‘A.T’. I told you, horribly convoluted. Also, I want to work on 80 shows before I die. No big.

What is its emphasis for productions?

Comedy comedy comedy. Black comedy. Satirical comedy. Action comedy. Dramedy.

Get outa here with your depressing masterpiece. I can’t cope.

When was the moment of ethical, political awakening for becoming a social commentator through comedy and video, e.g. Hipster Jesus? Also, what inspired Hipster Jesus for you?

I’ve always connected with layered comedy. It started with the South Park series and movies, then Team America, and now Book of Mormon. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are geniuses. The Colbert Report too.

There’s no one moment though. I’ve always kept my eyes and ears open to the world around me, so formed engaged opinions I guess. But I always felt uncomfortable shoving my unsolicited opinion down people’s throats, so I suppose I hid it inside a joke. Now, I hide it inside comedy. Only it’s not hidden at all. But the jokes will always be more important to me than the commentary. I’d rather make you laugh than make a deep political statement. Because laughter brings joy, and connects people, and relieves stress. It’s important. But so is exposing injustice. You need both. That’s satire.

As for Hipster Jesus… Well, Jesus-as-hipster is just a vehicle really. Hipster Jesus is a meme that’s been floating around in the ether for a while. Building a show around this character comes from a kind of equation in my mind… It’s basically Religious Figure + Contemporary Subculture = fodder for great social commentary and hopefully a good laugh. Also, I failed math.

What is the creative process that goes into the creation of a comedy cartoon such as Hipster Jesus? The planning process and simply getting the physical work done to create the final product.

Well, it generally starts with making my collaborators laugh. Or I’ll start with a topic that makes me kind of angry, and if I can’t “find the funny,” then those ideas go in the trash. If I can “find the funny” in a topic that riles me up, I’ll start writing a script. Sometimes, I’ll co-write, if my writing buddy connects with a particular idea. For Hipster Jesus, I put together an art portfolio of how I wanted each character to look, walk, sit, stand, and I took that to a professional illustrator and animator to help me bring it to life. The voice actors were recorded separately in LA and NYC, so later, in Melbourne, I sat with my sound designer and we picked the best line reads and smooshed them together. Movie magic.

What are some in-progress initiatives?

I’m about to go into pre-production on another satirical, but non-animated, comedy. No aging millennial religious icons in this one. It’s a more broad socio-political satire called Elite Kulture Kommandos – about four cultural crime fighters fighting a war against popular entertainment and political faux-populism. They’re deeply flawed but lovable characters socially impeded by the weight of their own cultural elitism, but they’re well-meaning nonetheless. I’m also developing a mental institution-set comedy with a magical realism twist, as well as a dramedy about two highly ambitious best friends struggling with autoimmune disease (it’s a real hoot).

Thank you for your time, Alida.

Thanks, Scott. Was lots of fun.

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2022-04-11

North Korea Responds to Provocations from Trump Administration

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/15

People’s Daily Online reports that the North Korea has promised retaliation if the United States takes military action against them.

Xinhua News Agency reported that the foreign minister for North Korea made an official statement that North Korea would attack with nuclear force based on further United States aggression in the region. The United States has been a source of provocation to North Korea, which is prepared – according to the public statement – to act on provocation with nuclear aggression.

“The spokesperson for North Korea’s Institute for Disarmament and Peace issued a statement condemning the [United States] for launching military attacks on a sovereign state while ‘crying out for peace by strength.’”

Pyongyang in North Korea is preparing to move forward with its 6th nuclear test. It is of concern to many for the possibility of a thermonuclear war or thermonuclear weapons in the peninsula. This could have implications for both security and world peace. China has expressed concern.

China is pushing to stop the “irreversible stage” for North Korea, according to Reuters. China states that this irreversible stage is an unmanageable stage. The preventatives from reaching that point are crucial for the maintenance of eased tensions and continuance of peace. Threats between North Korea and the United States create a dangerous environment for the rest of the world.

The US Navy launched 59 Tomahawk missiles on Syria based on deadly gas attacks. The US is pushing back by warning that the policy of “strategic patience” is at its end for America. The US Vice President Mike Pence will be travelling to Asia – including South Korea – for a 10-day trip starting on Sunday.

Additionally, North Korea is preparing tests for ballistic missile use that can fire upwards of 800 km, which could reach South Korea. For North Korea, this could become a strategic asset with South Korea in range of the ballistic missile.

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2022-04-11

Philippine’s and China’s South China Sea Claims Create Tensions

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/14

According to the Straits Times, President Rodrigo Duterte stated that he would like to keep a consistent “geopolitical balance” within the South China Sea for the time being.

Philippine president Duterte “announced that he was planning a trip to raise the Philippine flag on the largest island in the Spratlys that the Philippines has occupied.”

He has ordered the Philippine military to “fortify the islands and reefs…in the disputed waterway.” However, he has stated to China that there are no offensive weapons that will be placed within the Philippine-occupied site.

Of course, this does raise questions. The spectre increased tensions between the two nations because of the contested nature of the South China Sea. It has been disclosed by Duterte that he wanted to “fortify” the nine islands in the South China Sea, which the Philippines are claiming.

This set off alarm bells for Beijing. The Chinese Foreign Ministry did express concerns about his plans because of the intense and rising geopolitical tensions in the area.

“I ordered the occupation of the… islands that are just near our shores because there’s a heightening of the geopolitical issues and eventually maybe a violent low-intensity war over here,” President Duterte said. “China can relax. We are friends. We will not go to war with you. We’re just trying to maintain the balance of the geopolitical situation there.”

President Duterte stated that if there was ever a fight between the United States and China, then the Philippines would be caught in the middle of conflict. With regards to the territorial claims of China, it “claims most of the South China Sea.”

However, “Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also” have claims in the waterway.

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2022-04-11

Malala (Also) Becomes Youngest Honorary Citizen of Canada

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/14

CNN reports that Malala Yousafzai, the international icon and advocate for girls’ education, has become the youngest honorary Canadian in the country’s history at age 19.

Among the numerous awards and accolades that she has received, she is now also an honorary citizen of Canada. This occurred in an official swearing-in ceremony in Ottawa on Wednesday April 12.

Yousafzai said, “I’m humbled to accept honorary citizenship of your country…While I will always be a proud Pashtun and a proud citizen of Pakistan, I’m grateful to be an honorary member of your nation of heroes.”

The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was present to give her a certificate, in addition to a flag to signify both formally and informally, respectively, her Canadian citizenship. She provided a speech at the House of Commons in Ottawa, Canada.

“Thank you, Malala, for your inspiring words. It was an honour to host you in our House — which I hope you’ll now consider your House, too,” Prime Minister Trudeau said in a tweet post-ceremony.

She received a parliamentary standing ovation, where all the parliamentarians stood and clapped for her. Yousafzai came to fame for advocating girls’ education in Pakistan. While there, she was shot in the head and neck by the terrorist group known as the Taliban.

Recently, she was the recipient of the highest honour provided by United Nations, entitled the “Messenger of Peace”.

In her award speech for the UN Messenger of Peace honour, Yousafzai said, “” I stood here on this stage almost three and a half years ago… and I told the world that education is the basic human right of every girl…Once you educate girls, you change the whole community, you change the whole society.”

UN chief, Antonio Guterres, said, “It is an enormous pleasure to have you as our Messenger of Peace.”

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2022-04-11

(Video) Cassini Mission Finds Ingredients Necessary for Life on Moons

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/14

NASA has reported that its Cassini spacecraft mission discovered interesting scientific results about some of the ice and ocean on moons of both Saturn and Jupiter, which have been the sources of increased scientific research.

This might have applications for knowledge about satellites in orbit among other gas giants or planets in other solar systems. One form of chemical energy has been noted as being able to feed life, which appears to exist on Saturn’s moon called Enceladus.

Associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Thomas Zurbuchen, said, “This is the closest we’ve come, so far, to identifying a place with some of the ingredients needed for a habitable environment.”

Cassini mission researchers looked into the results from images taken, which found plumes. They found that plumed were bursting or were erupting from Europa, which is a moon of Jupiter.

The research is published a paper in the journal Science and it is noted that hydrogen gas is a potential “chemical energy source for life” and has been found present in the plumes. There is a presence of the hydrogen gas in the oceans of Enceladus.

The energy can be obtained from the combination of hydrogen and carbon dioxide dissolved in water. “This chemical reaction, known as ‘methanogenesis’ because it produces methane as a byproduct, is at the root of the tree of life on Earth, and could even have been critical to the origin of life on our planet.”

If or since hydrogen was found in the oceans of the moon, in the oceans, then this could be a potential source of chemical energy for life that might be found there – if any exists there.

“Life as we know it requires three primary ingredients: liquid water; a source of energy for metabolism; and the right chemical ingredients, primarily carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur.” NASA reported.

It turns out that Enceladus has every single of those ingredients necessary for the creation and maintenance and evolution of life. 90% of the gas found from the plans observed by the Cassini mission, the Cassini spacecraft mission, is water as well as 1% hydrogen with a mix of other elements such as ammonia, carbon dioxide, and methane.

The Cassini project scientist, Linda Spilker, said, “Confirmation that the chemical energy for life exists within the ocean of a small moon of Saturn is an important milestone in our search for habitable worlds beyond Earth.”

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2022-04-11

Crispr-Cas9 – Group Wants to Overturn Patent for Gene-Editing Technology

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/14

The Washington Post reported on the recent controversy surrounding the Crispr-Cas9 technology. One group is aiming to overturn a patent on the gene-editing technology. The dispute is between the Broad Institute and a California group, who developed similar but separate technologies around Crispr-Cas9.

“A group including University of California, the University of Vienna and researcher Emmanuelle Charpentier said on Wednesday that it seeks to overturn a patent decision related to the best-known Crispr system, Crispr-cas9.”

Two research groups noted that it would make gene-editing like “cutting and pasting text on a computer.” The tensions are rising based on the dispute between the two groups.

“That decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board protected Crispr-cas9 patents issued to the Broad Institute, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology against a challenge by the California group.”

This technology, of course, can be used to edit the genomes of plants, animals, including people. Many of the same scientists involved in this “dispute” invented similar technologies, where the two technologies use two different enzymes.

“Adding further legal uncertainty to the mix, Vilnius University in Lithuania received notice on Wednesday that the U.S. patent office plans to issue it a broad Crispr-related patent in the U.S. that could draw challenges from the California group and the Broad.”

One technology is the Crispr-Cas9. The other is the similar Crispr-cas13a. With the transformative technology that comes from this methodology, or these methodologies, the legal disputes focused on Crispr-Cas9.

“The patent judges ruled that the Broad Institute’s use of Crispr-cas9 in the cells of plants, animals and humans, differed from the California group’s claims to Crispr-cas9 as a gene editor regardless of location.”

The gene-editing technology under dispute has had investments in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The technologies could be used for gene therapies and even cures for diseases that have a basis in genetics. The legal battles over the technology continue.

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2022-04-11

NASA Sent a Twin into Space for Research

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/14

The highly-anticipated recent NASA mission that saw two astronauts sent into space featured something unprecedented: one of the astronauts happens to have a twin brother.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly spent a year in space while Mark Kelly – the non-NASA brother – stayed on Earth. The mission by NASA was part of an attempt to see the affects of space on Earth for the improvement of healthcare interventions.

“While the data are still being studied carefully, NASA recently released some intriguing preliminary findings. Kelly launched aboard the Russian Soyuz Rocket on March 27 2015,” The WEF said, “along with Russian cosmonauts Genaldy Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko (joining Kelly on the one year mission).”

Scott Kelly spent 340 days on the International Space Station. Both Mark and Scott provided large numbers of biological samples for the research prior to the launch of the 340-day mission.

With an examination of the molecular alterations, NASA is hoping to understand how certain proteins and bacteria in the body are influenced by nature or nurture by taking advantage of the extreme environmental differences between living on Earth or in space.

Many space agencies have expressed a “shared goal of taking people to Mars.” This will require a about 3 years away from Earth, and then taking about six months travelling to Mars in microgravity, followed by more than a year on the Martian surface.

Mars has about 1/3 the gravity of Earth. The travellers will need to prepare accordingly because there are effects on the body from the space travel because of the extreme conditions of space environments.

The WEF noted that microgravity has considerable effects on the human body. These include posture, muscle wasting, bone density loss, and reduction in the blood in the body. As well, the heart gets smaller.

One of the findings from the research through the twin study was that Scott’s – the one that went into space – telomeres appeared to shorten, which protect the DNA and become shorter as we age and increases damage to DNA as we age.

One speculation by the WEF author was that the research could increase the human lifespan.

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2022-04-11

North Korea Pays Homage to Late Leaders and Current Leader

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/14

Yonhap News has reported that the North Korean army is to hold a ceremony to pledge loyalty to the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, ahead of this week’s 105th birthday of the late state founder, Kim Il-sung. This is one of the major anniversaries in North Korea.

North Korea’s official Korean Central news agency stated that the army, air and anti-air force, and the navy of North Korea’s Korean People’s Army, has paid tribute to the current and late leaders. These are the late or deceased grandfather and father of the current leader, Kim Jong-un.

Participants at the ceremony included military chief Hwang Pyong-so, widely viewed as the No. 2 man in North Korea and director of the general political bureau of the KPA; Ri Myong-su, the military’s chief of general staff; and Pak Yong-sik, minister of the armed forces.

The Korean People’s Army of North Korea has pledged their allegiance to both the late father, grandfather, and the current leader. The anniversary is known “as the ‘Day of the Sun.’”

Reportedly, North Korea is preparing to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile in addition to carrying out its 6th nuclear test.

In a speech broadcast live by the North’s Korean Central TV, Hwang said the North will “mount a preemptive nuclear attack on South Korea and the United States and wipe them out without traces if they attempt to launch a war of aggression”.

The prior intercontinental ballistic missiles fired into the sea from the east coast. During the Day of the Sun ceremony, the band of the military paid homage to the two late leaders, the father and the grandfather of the current leader, with a 21-gun salute, which took place in front of two statues of the father and grandfather.

All North Korean soldiers and cadets from all levels of military academies took part in the celebration or anniversary.

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2022-04-11

Trade Raises Mean Incomes and Reduces Global Inequality

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/13

The last decade has saw an increase in international trade, which many countries have deemed a boon and benefit because it has raised incomes and cut inequality.

However, the consistent debate about the benefits of trade tied to the integration of the global marketplace at times, the world economic forum states, fails to realise that incomes across the globe have been raised by the reduction of poverty and global inequality dramatically.

Some countries have experienced a rise in inequality, but this is not the result of global trade but rather the result of the need for “stronger safety nets and better social and labour programs, not trade protection.”

“The 2001, US-Vietnam free trade agreement reduced poverty in Vietnam by increasing wage premiums in export sectors, spurring job reallocation from agriculture, forestry and fishing into manufacturing, and stimulating enterprise job growth.”

In the current global market, with countries feeling the need to turn inward, it has been predicted that many countries would turn outward and increase trade and reduce the obstacles to trade for the decrease in global inequality for the reduction of poverty and the general rise of mean incomes around the world.

“A study of 27 industrial and 13 developing countries finds that shutting off trade would deprive the richest 10 percent of 28 percent of their purchasing power,” the WEF said, but the poorest 10 percent would lose 63 percent because they buy relatively more imported goods.”

The share of world GDP based on merchandise trade grew about 30% to 50% from the periods of 1988 to 2013. This has been known as a “period of rapid globalisation, average income grew by 24% globally.” At the same time, the global poverty headcount ratio went down from 35% to 10.7%.

As well, the income of the lowest 40% of the world went up by as much as 50%. In addition, the growth in export is associated or positively correlated with greater gender equality; if a country has lower exports or a reduction in the growth of exports, then, by application, there will be greater gender inequality or a greater gender divide in developing countries.

For example, abandoning existing agreements in the Americas would have particularly large negative welfare effects in countries like Mexico (4 to 9 percent), El Salvador (2 to 5 percent), and Honduras (2 to 5 percent), according to early research at the World Bank.

Of the gains that have been gotten for women, reduction in global integration would reduce the gains seen in developing countries for greater gender equality. With trade and globalisation, there will be winners and losers in terms of the most economic gains.

However, there will be a net increase in the amount of money and funding that the average citizen will have in a country that is more integrated into the global marketplace. The World Economic Forum reports that there has been countries in Latin and South America that have shown wage distribution equalisation, such as Brazil or the reverse such as Mexico.

In India, poverty decreases in the more rural areas of the country when they have greater trade liberalisation. Between the periods of 1990 and 2010, which is noted as earlier as a rapid era of globalisation, the Gini index measuring inequality in the United States went from 43 to 47, and in Denmark from 31 to 26.

“Consider why. US workers concentrated in communities which face high volumes of Chinese imports have experienced fewer jobs and falling wages,” the World Economic Forum said, “And yet, the US Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program falls short of the challenge of helping people get back on their feet.”

With the national economies that “created losers,” the redistribution policies might be “needed” in addition to various policies to better equip workers to benefit from the opportunities offered by trade.

These include more better social protection and safety-net programs and non-trade protectionist policies.

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2022-04-11

An Interview with Robert Ray, President of the Humanists of North Puget Sound

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/13

How did you become a Humanist?

I honestly believe that Humanism is the default human position. We have an ingrained sense of empathy, which I feel is the core of Humanism.

That is not to say, I always knew I was a Humanist. I realised the label fit me best after looking for my place in the world and others who felt the same way I did.

I found a Humanist community near me and instantly knew I had found my “label.” Nearly all the tenets matched my world view, so I started to identify as a Humanist from that point on.

What seems like the main reason for people becoming humanists, in your experience, e.g. arguments, evidence, experience, or disenchantment with traditional religious structures?

I think people find that they are already Humanists when they find out what it is. There isn’t a main reason. As I stated earlier, it seems to be the default human position on morality and ethics.

You don’t even have to be an atheist to be a Humanist. There are many religious forms of humanism. In fact, when you see a religious person doing good despite the doctrine of their stated religion, they are expressing that innate humanism.

I identify as a Secular Humanist, meaning that I have no religious dogma or theistic belief tied to my Humanism. I am in fact an Atheistic Humanist, to put it bluntly.

What makes Humanism seem more natural to you than other sentiments, or ethical and philosophical worldviews?

We have evolved to be social creatures and have some genetic traits that make existing in this type of structure possible.

Empathy, reason, and the ability to learn from experiences are all necessary to work with others.

Religious dogma, on the other hand, was created to control others. It seems to work against our natural inclinations to help others by creating the idea of “others.” Humanism tries to eschew the concept of “others” and look past those walls that separate us.

What is the best argument for Humanism you have ever come across?

That is a little more difficult to pin down. I don’t think one argument can cover it.

But I do think one of my favourite quotes from my favourite orators of all time can cover my sentiment on this.

Justice is the only worship.

Love is the only priest.

Ignorance is the only slavery.

Happiness is the only good.

The time to be happy is now,

The place to be happy is here,

The way to be happy is to make others so.

Wisdom is the science of happiness.
Robert Green Ingersoll, “The Gods” (1876)

You are the president of Humanists of North Puget Sound. What tasks and responsibilities come with the position?

My job is not that much different from any other leader of a non-profit. I set the agendas, the tone, run the meetings, etc.

I am the official spokesperson for the group and I attend a lot of events in the Seattle area representing the group. I love that part. I get to hang out with all the friends I’ve made over the years.

These are the only times I get to see many of them. The Puget Sound is rather long geographically and travelling it can take some time. Our main meeting location for the HNPS is just over an hour outside of Seattle so there isn’t much overlap in our demographics even though we are tied into the same greater metro area.

What have been some of its major bumps and setbacks, and successes, in its foundation and development?

The HNPS has been around since 1991, so quite a bit before my time. But some of the original founders were still attending when I became president, so I learned a bit.

One of the biggest hurdles was location. It seems for a couple of years they rotated meetings in living rooms of the members. It wasn’t until the mid 90’s that they started settling on more regular meeting locations.

Recently, we have had some major set backs in membership. One is related to the age of the members. As I said, we still had founding members in our group as far as 2015. In fact, many members up to that point had been with the group for over a decade. This was great from a legacy standpoint, but posed as a major obstacle when it came to the future longevity of the group.

To put it bluntly, many of the long-term, regular members were just getting too old to keep returning. Some we lost, some had health issues that kept them from showing up. It became an issue when new members were not taking their place, which leads me to our second major hurdle. Obama.

The win of President Obama gave people hope for the future and many felt that an activist group wasn’t something they needed any more, so they weren’t all that involved. When people aren’t involved, less show up and it becomes a self-repeating cycle.

But we kept a small core of members and have persevered. Recently, we have seen some growth and anticipate quite a bit more with the attack on religious freedom from members of the Trump administration.

What are some of the demographics of the organisation? How many members are in it? Who is most likely to join the organisation?

We are relatively a diverse group. We range from folks in their teens to members well into their 80’s. Ethnically, not so much, but a lot of that is due to the demographics of our area.

Currently, we have 15 regular members with about 10 more that are kind of random attendees.

Since we are a Secular Humanist group, we tend to attract the more progressive and politically liberal atheists.

Has the group taken up any activist causes? What were they?

We do have a history of activism, from fighting against Nuclear power in the 90’s to standing up for transgender rights today. We advocated and helped promote a local Camp Quest. We stepped up to lobby for same-sex marriage when it was on the ballot.

What were their outcomes?

One of our greatest recent success was our role in getting Camp Quest Northwest rolling. We offered a challenge grant in 2011 to the group to see if they could raise $10,000 by the end of the year. The next February, I presented them with a check for $10,000. It gave them a huge jump in starting the camp. It was even covered by the Friendly Atheist.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/02/06/atheists-donate-10000-to-camp-quest-northwest/

What is the general status of Humanism in Puget Sound based on public perception?

For the most part, the Puget Sound is inclusive. We generally don’t get a lot of push back from the religious here. I was even allowed to give the opening Invocation to the State House of representatives in 2015.

What are the main impediments to the practice and advocacy of Humanism in the local Puget Sound area?

Membership. We are still small and don’t have a lot of influence here. Our voice is not as big as some other groups, so it harder to be activists.

Who/what are the main threats to Humanism as a movement in general?

Again, size matters. Being big enough to stand as our own movement is difficult at times. We just don’t have the numbers.

Another issue is identification. While as much as 25% of the population will identify as none/non-religious, a very small percentage of them identify as Humanist. Many don’t even know what Humanism is or its tenets.

What is The Original Motto project?

The Original Motto Project is a grassroots organisation that is dedicated to restoring E Pluribus Unum as our motto and opposes the use of “In God We Trust” on any government property.

We do most of our activism on online forums, such as Facebook and Twitter, but did hold a rally last year in Olympia opposite Franklin Grahams “Decision America Tour.”

http://originalmotto.us/

https://www.facebook.com/TheOriginalMotto/

What do you yak about on the Secular Yakking podcast?

Secular Yakking is a weekly show where my wife, Amy, and I take a look at news that isn’t always mainstream and our opinions on it from a Secular Humanist perspective. We focus more on politics, separation of church and state, and social justice issues but sprinkle in science and entertainment as we go along.

Secular Yakking

What is the future of Humanism – 5, 10, 25 years from now? (Broad question, I know.)

I do see hope though, the millennials identify as non-religious in ever-increasing numbers and many of them are socially progressive. They are already expressing Humanist Ideals; they need only to find out that they are doing it.

How can people get involved with Humanists of North Puget Sound?

The best way is to contact us via email info@humanistnps.org or go to our webpage http://humanistnps.org.

Thank you for your time, Robert.

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2022-04-11

Second San Bernardino Shooting in 2 Years

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/12

According to the San Bernardino Sun, the police are investigating the shooting that took place near the elementary school in California. There are 3 dead and a wounded student from the shooting that was a murder-suicide. In that, the shooter shot three people, injuring one, and killed himself.

This is “less than 18 months after San Bernardino was hit by terrorist attack.” It was a cop from the Redlands that had assisted in the take-down of the attackers. The recent attack was on a teacher who was gunned down, with two children critically wounded in the murder-suicide on Monday.

“Redlands Sgt. Andy Capps, who took part in the Dec. 2 shootout that killed the suspects after they fired at him and other pursuing police, said his first reaction was to be glad the school shooting wasn’t any worse than what had then been reported — that two adults were dead and two children injured,” the San Bernardino Sun reported.

One death was a teacher, aged 53, who was fatally shot. Another was a student that was 8-years-old. The teacher who was 53 was Karen Elaine Smith that was murdered by an estranged husband named Cedric Anderson from Riverside, California.

“Both deadly attacks in San Bernardino were shootings. The Dec. 2 attack left 57 survivors, with 22 shot. Martinez and an unidentified 9-year-old boy were critically injured at the school Monday. Martinez was flown to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where he died.”

This was based on the San Bernardino police making an open, public statement in a recent press conference. In the December 2, 2015 attack, there were 14 people killed with police and armed security guards on standby. One survivor from the 2015 attack, after the recent attack, stated that they felt a bit of remorse because some individuals do not seem to learn from terrorist attacks and mass shootings ongoing both “in United States and around the world.”

A San Bernardino County prosecutor said, “For some reason men — and it always seems to be men — can’t let go of a woman that says, ‘No,’” he said. “Sounds like she made the right choice to leave this guy.”

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2022-04-11

Malala Yousafzai Becomes Youngest UN Messenger of Peace

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/12

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has become the youngest “Messenger of Peace.” She is 19-years-old.

Her fellow United Nations messengers of peace include Leonardo DiCaprio and Charlize Theron. Each has been the youngest to win the award before her.

Hailing the Pakistani teenager as ‘the most famous student in the world’ and the symbol of the cause of education for all, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed her on Monday as the “Messenger of Peace for girls’ education.”

In 2012, the Taliban attacked Malala in the Swat Valley of Pakistan because of her campaigning to promote education for women.

“People drawn from the arts, entertainment, sports, science and public service are appointed Messengers of Peace, each with special missions,” the Khaleej Times said.

She defied the edict that had banned the education of girls in addition to the restriction of their right to go to school.

“’You have been going to the most difficult places, where education has more problems in becoming a reality,” said Guterres, who was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005-2015, as he recalled her work in refugee camps and the two schools her foundation has set up in Lebanon’s Beka’a Valley.

Malala, now living in the UK, had her injuries treated in Birmingham.

Other awards for Yousafzai include the Nobel Peace Prize with “Kailash Satyarti, the Indian children’s rights activist,” in 2014.

Yousafzai said, “I have a second life for the purpose of education and I’ll continue working,” as well as, “It wasn’t that I was very intelligent or very clever or I had some special kind of training or something. All I had was a father and a family who said, ‘Yes, you can speak out, it’s your choice’.”

Other awardees include: “Actor Michael Douglas, naturalist Jane Goodall, and Princess Haya bint Al Hussein, wife of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and Chairperson of the International Humanitarian City (IHC).”

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2022-04-11

Rising Tensions with North Korea – USS Carl Vinson Deploying to the Korean Peninsula

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/12

The Financial Times reports that “the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier” has been deployed at or near the Korean Peninsula. This is expected to “raise anxiety in Pyongyang just days after President Donald Trump launched a barrage of missiles against Syria.”

The message sent by the Trump administration based on the strike in Syria has been noted by many countries, even outside of Damascus and its territory. North Korea has openly called the act “unforgivable” with the regards to the aggression. It has considered this an impetus to maintain its nuclear arsenal.

This was in response to the White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, who stated that this “sends a very strong signal not just to Syria but throughout the world.” China got the message too. President Trump has stated that he would act unilaterally against North Korea if China did not place “pressure on Pyongyang,” tying in to the need to abandon the North Korean nuclear program.

The Secretary of State for the Trump Administration, Rex Tillerson, has stated in the first trip to Asia that the “policy of strategic patients has ended” with possibility for all military options on the table. There might be unease in China. Some of the options included the assassination of Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader.

A former top CIA China analyst, Dennis Wilder, said, “It’s very difficult to know the effect of this on Kim Jong Un, but his elites will worry about a more aggressive US policy.” Chinese analysts remain skeptical about the alteration of the Beijing assessment of the situation. China continues in a cautious mentality and approach, or strategy, with North Korea.

“Zhao Tong, a foreign affairs expert at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre, said the Syria strike had changed China’s perception of Mr Trump to a certain degree.” Zhao noted that the context of Syria is not directly related to the situation in North Korea.

“The US needs to take the consequences of an attack on North Korea into consideration, such as the safety of its troops in South Korea and Japan, and also its allies,” Zhao said. South Korea and Japan share concerns about the nuclear threat coming from Pyongyang.

A professor at Renmin University, Pang Zhongying, stated the possibility for a strike against North Korea remain low, “very low.” “North Korea is not Syria,” he said. “North Korea is totally different and even a surgical strike could bring disastrous consequences.”

US president Donald Trump talked to both Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and the acting South Korean president, Hwang Kyo-ahn. The talks revolved around the North Korean peninsula and the recent strikes in Syria.

A former CIA officer with experience with North Korean officials, Joe Detrani, said, “His father, Kim Jong Il, literally went into hiding after the first Gulf war when the US used overwhelming air power to destroy Iraq’s military…Kim Jong Un may do the same.”

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2022-04-11

India’s Solar Power Revolution to 2030

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/12

Daniel Muoio from the World Economic Forum and Tech Insider recently reported on the solar power boom that is ongoing in India.

He reported that solar companies and renewable energy are the big bet from India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that he wants to spend about $3.1 billion in state aid “for India’s solar panel manufacturing industry to increase India’s photovoltaic capacity and create an export industry.” This is a quote from Bloomberg News.

SunPower CEO Tom Werner said India is about to become the biggest market for solar energy, primarily because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interest in growing the sector.

Some plans have not been made public. The government plans are that 4/10ths of the country’s energy will be from renewable energy by 2030. Currently there are 300 million people who aren’t connected to an electrical grid or solar reserves or energy reserves in India.

“‘The market that’s going to boom is India”, Werner told Business Insider. SunPower. The second biggest solar installer in the US, is owned by European oil giant Total.

However, solar energy could provide an affordable way for the self-generation of energy by Indian citizens. In November, 2016, “India built the world’s largest solar plant that can produce enough energy to power roughly 150,000 homes.”

“SunPower has already partnered with Mahindra EPC, a solar subsidiary owned by Indian conglomerate Mahindra Group, to build a 5-megawatt solar plant in Rajasthan, India. The plant generates enough electricity to power 60,000 rural homes.”

According to many environmentalists, a commitment to solar energy is an extremely important thing to both the government and society at large in terms of the long-term capacity building as well as the big growth seen in the near-term.

Werner didn’t disclose whether SunPower has any upcoming projects in India. However, Werner said the market will become increasingly more important in the future.

“SunPower isn’t the only company taking note — Tesla is also eyeing India and could enter the market as early as this summer, CEO Elon Musk tweeted earlier in February. Tesla acquired SolarCity in a deal worth $2.1 billion in November and is continuing to expand its battery division.”

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2022-04-11

Former Aide to South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye Ousted

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/12

Park Geun-hye can be detained up to 20 days during investigation into accusations of bribery and abuse of power that led to impeachment.

According to The Korean Herald, president Park Geun-hye’s former aide was ousted. He recently appeared in court to “fight against the prosecution’s request for his arrest warrant over charges tied to the scandal.”

The former aide and previous prosecutor, Woo Byung-woo, is associated with the scandal that “led to Park’s removal from power and arrest.” Byung-woo was the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs between the 2015 and 2016. He is suspected of meddling in state affairs.

Byung-woo “turned up at the Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul at 10:05 a.m. to attend the hearing, which will likely continue for several hours. A decision on whether he will be arrested is expected to come near or past midnight.”

His charges total 8: peddling influence to boot “uncooperative” officials in addition to negligence of duty and abuse of authority, and perjury. He is suspected to have lied under oath during a parliamentary inquiry.

External to these charges are allegations “of embezzlement and disruption of a probe into the 2014 sinking of the Sewol ferry are not included. He has been separately investigated for alleged embezzlement involving his family members.”

There have been 50 witnesses who have been inquired as to the situation with Byung-woo. Byung-woo, as an important note, has avoided both indicted and imprisonment in spite of the numerous allegations and charges in his recent career.

“A number of ex-ministers, presidential aides and Samsung Group’s de facto chief Lee Jae-yong are standing trial in connection to the corruption scandal.”

On March 10, president Park Geun-hye was “forced” from office and ‘stripped’ of the immunity typically afforded to presidents from criminal investigations, based on the charges and allegations. On March 31, Geun-hye was arrested with inquiries ongoing while in jail.

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2022-04-11

China Invests in Science Initiatives

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/12

China has invested several billion yuan in science initiatives in 2016 on topics including, “brain science, new materials, advanced manufacturing, quantum communication, robots, and information security,” according to the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

41,184 programmes have been financed in science in 2016 alone in China. The total amounts to approximately 22.7 billion yuan or 3.3 billion US dollars. The programmes can include such esoteric physics and cosmological topics such as gravitational waves.

The NSFC was the funder for these 41,184 programmes. Yang Wei, the head of the NSFC, noted that the foundation has also launched several research projects to deal with, for instance, “cognitive robotics,” as well as, several foundational programmes of science noted at the outset.

These are some of the more important topics to be researching because these influence all areas of science. They work from the bottom level of knowledge. If you can discover something about the lowest level of the scientific topic, then you can use these basic principles that are newly discovered to influence the higher-level aspects of science projects.

Not only this, there are numerous other topics that have been deeply invested in China for their science, which means that China and its associated leaders in these areas of the government understand that the appropriate investment in science is the wave of the future.

Wei also noted that about 91 people and 33 programmes have been punished for misconduct.

The people were punished and the programmes were revoked in 2016.

So, not only is this funding being broadly spent on a variety of topics, it is being enforced in a way to “improve the research integrity system, ensure fairness and promote innovation,” Wei said.

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2022-04-11

Peking University Goes Global with Oxford Campus

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/12

Peking University will begin the enrolment for its Oxford campus starting in June, 2017. This is according to the dean of the HSBC business school of Peking University.

The university officials signed an agreement with Open University in February, 2017, for the purchase of a 15-acre campus for the cost of 8.8 million British pounds. This is the first time a Chinese university used its own finances to manage and set up a school within a foreign country.

Hai Wen, the dean of the HSBC business school, stated that there will be 100 international students enrolled in the school during the opening of August, 2018. This is purposed to occur simultaneously with the elite Beijing university’s 120th founding anniversary.

“The timing is monumental. In 1818, China’s first foreign-founded school, Ying Wa College, was set up by a British missionary. Now 200 years later, a Chinese university will set up its own school in Britain,” Wen said.

Wen also pointed out that many foreign universities over the years have opened schools within China and that Peking University is one of China’s top universities. It will be taking the “leading role” of the Chinese universities going global, he said.

A movement that is a change in the dynamics of internationalisation of Chinese education via its top universities. Peking University will be the first to endeavour to accomplish this effort through the UK-based Oxford campus.

“He said HSBC Business School’s finance, management and economics courses will feature Chinese business cases to help students become better acquainted with the Chinese economy and reforms,” XinhuaNet News reported on some aspects of the campus, “Students will take the first year course in the Oxford campus and the second year at the school’s campus in the city of Shenzhen, southern China.”

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2022-04-11

An Interview with Ron Millar – PAC Coordinator for the Center for Freethought Equality

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/12

What’s your own story? How did you get into the Freethought Equality business? Was there much of a family background?

My family has no history in atheist and humanist politics. I was raised in a fundamentalist Christian church and enjoyed interacting with many of the people there, but their narrow view of reality and restrictive proscriptions on varying lifestyles distanced me from the church. I explored other forms of Christianity and non-Christian religious traditions in search of the “Truth.” The process was much like trying on various hats, and I found that nothing really fit (before ultimately realising that I didn’t like wearing hats – to continue a strained metaphor). In the last semester of my senior year in college, which was in the early 1980s, I came to Washington DC to intern at a Ralph Nader publication, Multinational Monitor, and I left religion and my childhood home behind.

You have done research and conducted interviews with political candidates, and elected officials, looking into the possibility for the endorsement from the Freethought Equality Fund. What is the general narrative there? How do things play out?

The U.S. Constitution prohibits any religious test for public office. However, being an atheist in the electoral arena has been a powerful political taboo in our nation.

The Freethought Equality Fund was founded in 2013 to change this. Our mission is to increase the number of open humanists and atheists in public office at all levels of government. The Freethought Equality Fund is affiliated with the Center for Freethought Equality which is the advocacy and political arm of the American Humanist Association.

When I started this position in February 2016, I was aware of only three open elected officials from our community at the state level (and no one at the federal level). Ernie Chambers, a state senator in Nebraska; Juan Mendez, a state representative in Arizona; and Jamie Raskin, a state representative in Maryland.

The 2016 election cycle was very productive for our community as we quintupled the number of open elected officials from our community. These wins are an important step in removing the negative stigma against atheist and humanist candidates, but since the secular community is nearly a quarter of the population, these wins represent less than 0.25% of state and federal elected offices. So, we need to obtain an additional 1,500-1,600 seat to obtain equal representation.

We have a lot of work to do!

The Center for Freethought Equality has a list of secular elected officials and you can view our endorsed 2016 candidates and their election outcomes on the Freethought Equality Fund’s endorsements page.

How many closet atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers do you think are currently in public office?

This number is hard to determine but there are a lot. As I said before, the negative stigma against atheists has a long tradition in American politics but fortunately, our efforts during this past election cycle shows the paradigm is shifting.

The reason for this change is simple demographics; the number of secular Americans is growing rapidly. The Pew Research Center uses the short hand of “nones” for the religiously unaffiliated, which includes people who identify as either atheist or agnostic and those who say their religion is “nothing in particular.” According to Pew research, “nones” have grown from 16% in 2007 to 23% in 2014, and are the largest “religious group” in the Democratic Party. With a third of Millennials in the “nones” category, the religiously unaffiliated community will continue to grow. If you just consider Americans who self-identify as atheists and agnostics, our community is as large as the Jewish, Muslim, Mormon, Orthodox Christian, Buddhist, Jehovah’s Witness, and Hindu communities combined!

Americans are also becoming more and more open to voting for atheist candidates. Since 1958, Gallop has asked Americans if they would vote for a well-qualified presidential candidate who was an atheist. In the first poll, only 18% of Americans said they would vote for an atheist. In 1999, for the first time, a slim majority said they would vote for an atheist candidate. In Gallop’s 2015 poll, 58% of Americans said they would vote for an atheist presidential candidate. The willingness to vote for an atheist presidential candidate varies greatly by generation: 75% of those 18 to 29 years of age, 63% of those 30 to 49, 50% of those 50 to 64, and 48% of those 65 and over; and by political party: 64% of Democrats, 61% of independents, and 45% of Republicans.

Because of the changes in demographics and the increasing acceptance of atheists by voters, the time has come for atheist, agnostic, humanist, and other nontheistic elected officials to serve openly as secular Americans and for more openly secular candidates to run for office. Our democracy is impoverished and the quality of our political candidates is diminished. If a quarter of the population is effectively removed from the electoral arena, the negative stigma that still exists will only be eliminated when Americans see respected and ethical secular leaders in public office.

You work with the Center for Freethought Equality. You’ve been in the Washington, District of Columbia area for 30 years or more. You’ve worked with nonprofit education, advocacy groups, and so on. How has this work bolstered your work through Center for Freethought Equality?

I’ve worked in a variety of advocacy and education nonprofits in DC, and learning from my prior experiences, both successful and unsuccessful, help me in managing this project. For example, in 1988, I was the campaign manager for an openly gay candidate running for the Council of the District of Columbia. We ran a professional campaign and increased the political visibility and involvement of the LGBTQ community in the electoral arena. We lost that election, but subsequent candidates were able to build on our successes in breaking down barriers against the LGBTQ community and win seats on the DC Council.

Also, you were the associate director of the Secular Coalition for America (2005-2009). What was fulfilling about the work there?

I was the second staff member to be hired by the Secular Coalition for America, where I worked under the wonderful Lori Lipman Brown, our community’s first full-time lobbyist on Capitol Hill. I was not involved in the secular movement prior to this position but was thrilled at the opportunity to promote this cause. During my tenure there, we were able to help Congressman Pete Stark make his announcement that he did not “hold a god belief” – the first member of Congress to ever identify with our community.

I understand you earned a PhD specifically looking at the organisation learning in groups that are litigating church-state cases in the Supreme Court—no less. What was the main research question? What was the main finding?

Earlier research had concluded that organisations litigating cases before the Supreme Court did not change their legal arguments when faced with a change in legal precedent. My finding was that when faced with legal change, litigant groups did analyse the new precedent and the opinion(s) that supported the decision to modify or craft new legal arguments in seeking to win future cases. Looking at church-state education cases was ideal because Agular v. Felton (1985) and Agostini v. Felton (1997) offered essentially the same litigants and same case facts, separated by twelve years of a changing Court. This allowed me to explore the arguments used prior, during, and after these cases to map the evolution of the legal arguments used by church-state separation advocates and why.

Now, back to the Center for Freethought Equality. You are the PAC coordinator for the Center for Freethought Equality. What is PAC? How are you coordinating it? What are the hopes for it?

The Freethought Equality Fund has both a traditional political action committee (PAC) that makes donations directly to candidates and a SuperPAC that makes independent expenditures to promote candidates and campaigns.

In the 2016 election cycle, the Freethought Equal Fund PAC, the traditional PAC, endorsed 61 candidates from 22 states and the District of Columbia. Of the 61 candidates, 32 were running for Congress (6 from our community and 26 allies), 26 were running for state legislatures (23 from our community and 3 allies), and 3 were running for local seats (all from our community).

All but one of our 26 Congressional allies won their seats and one member of our community won his Congressional seat, Jamie Raskin from Maryland. All three allies won re-election to their state legislative seats and 14 members of our community won their state races (6 re-elected and 8 new – two of the new held seats in the House and are now in the Senate). One of the three local candidates won their elections.

The 2016 endorsements were the result of sending questionnaires to over 900 candidates in 38 states in open seats or interesting races. We also sent an additional 700 questionnaires to incumbents in legislatures of the 13 least religious states and the District of Columbia. From these USPO and email solicitations we received over 180 completed candidate questionnaires.

Our efforts were also made possible by local activists. For example, in Arizona, Serah Blain and Evan Clark helped us connect with a great cohort of candidates. Their efforts are a model for the Freethought community in recruiting and campaigning for secular candidates.

My hope is that our successes in 2016 will encourage other members of our community to get involved in the electoral arena and run for office, and for current elected officials who identify with our community to publicly announce their affiliation.

How can people get involved with the PAC or the Center for Freethought Equality, even donate to them?

First, become a member of the Center for Freethought Equality – it’s free! As a member, you will get our emails about our candidates and activities. Only members of the Center for Freethought Equality can donate to the PAC. Also, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Most importantly, I want to stress that elections don’t just happen every four years. Obviously, presidential elections are important, but state and local officials have more control over what happens in your neighbourhood and daily lives than the President does. Be an informed voter and participate in every election. Get to know your state and local elected officials. If they are not working for you, help replace them, and perhaps be the person who replaces them.

We have resource pages on our website to help make your voice heard and to run for office for anyone hoping to make a difference.

Last, and this is very important, since many of the Freethought Equality Fund endorsed candidates and secular elected officials are new to our community, they need to get to know us better. If you are a member of an atheist or humanist group, invite these candidates to speak at one of your events. Also, nonprofit groups can be politically active while retaining their tax exempt status – see our resource page for what nonprofits can and cannot do in the electoral arena.

Any closing thoughts or feelings based on the discussion today?

I urge members of our community to use their time and talents to become politically engaged. Be visible as a secular American in the electoral area and build a political network of friends and allies. Then select an elected or appointed office that seems attainable — and run for that office.

You can also run, even if the seat is unattainable, to promote issues that are important to you and to build the visibility for our community. Please be active and visible – this is the only way we can make our Constitutional protection that no religious test (Article VI, Clause 3) can be imposed for public office a reality.

Thank you for your time, Ron.

Thank you for doing the interview.

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2022-04-11

Antisemitic and Islamist Messages in X-Men Comic Book

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/12

Antisemitic and Islamist references within a popular comic book were recently discovered hidden in an X-Men comic book. Marvel comics claimed to be taking “disciplinary action” on at least one of the artists who had inserted the antisemitic and Islamist references into the X-Men comic book.

Indonesian artist Ardian Syaf says he included in X-Men Gold #1 hidden references to the election of the governor of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta. The vote has been one of Indonesia’s most polarising elections, and is about much more than about choosing the city’s leader.

There was a bitter contestant between the Chinese Christian incumbent named Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama and the rivals who were Muslims. The Muslims rivals won the favour of the “hard-line Islamists.”

This was reported by Time as an increasing split between the choice for pluralism and fundamentalist Islam within the “world’s most populous Muslim nation, where many religious conservatives say a non-Muslim should not hold high office.”

It can be seen within the book that one of the characters has a Quranic verse reference on his t-shirt that, from fundamentalist interpretations of Islam, can be read as recommending the prohibition of “Muslims from electing a Christian or Jewish leader.”

“In another scene, the Jewish character Kitty Pryde is also drawn together with a sign reading ‘Jewellery,’ her head next to the part of the sign that reads ‘Jew.’” Time said.

Marvel Comics made a public statement stating that the insertion was without its prior knowledge and that the references “do not reflect the views of the writer, editors or anyone else and in direct opposition of the inclusiveness of Marvel comics and with the X-men have stood force and the creation.”

The artwork that included the antisemitic and Islamist references will be omitted in digital versions in addition to digital and trade paperback versions.

Social media has criticised Ayaf based on taking part in the demonstration in December. “‘Choosing a non-[Muslim] as a leader is forbidden’ he said, as reported by the Jakarta Post. “’That’s what the [Quaranic verse] says.’”

A fellow Indonesian artist named Anindito stated the work done to the X-Men comic book by Ayaf was “very disrespectful and unprofessional.”

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2022-04-11

Do Not Politicise the Plight of Refugees” – UN Refugee Chief

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/12

The UNHCR, the main UN Refugee Agency, stated an open warning about the use of refugees and their difficulties as a political subject or a political tool. Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, discussed the matter after a landmark four-day visit to Syria where he witnessed first-hand the massive destruction caused by nearly six years of conflict.

“Grandi urges developed countries to show generosity to those fleeing conflict or risk undermining principle of solidarity…[he] met displaced people in Aleppo and witnessed the destruction.”

He met with numerous children in Jibreen, which has a population of 5,000 people. People are living in shelters within warehouses in Jibreen. According to Grandi, the politicisation of the plight of refugees is a risk: “the principle of international solidarity with those fleeing war and persecution…Refugees urged rich countries to show generosity to refugees, rather than regarding them as a threat.”

Grandi noted that the refugees are facing considerable danger: “we have serious concerns, and these are not new concerns, we’ve had them for some time, that the refugee issue in the industrialised world – in Europe, the US, Australia – is very politicised. It shouldn’t be,” Grandi said.

He is the first senior official to visit Syria since Turkey and Russia brokered a nationwide ceasefire. The refugees come from many places, and they need international solidarity, Grandi said. However, actions by the US has weakened that solidarity.

The UNHCR has estimated on the number of refugees at 20,000. They are living in an uncertain environment. The US has a 120-day suspension. “Grandi expressed his hope that the US would resume resettlements following its internal review of the programme,” the UNHCR said.

He made notes to the difficulties of many people to reconstruct their livelihoods in the “ruins of east Aleppo and the old city of Homs.” The UNHCR is in negotiations with the Syrian government for the provision of support to those in need, even in the “hard-to-reach areas.”

“People need to return eventually to Syria, and we all agree that that’s the ideal solution. But we need to be patient,” he said. “More progress needs to be made politically, then economically and infrastructure-wise in order for conditions to be there to have large returns.”

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2022-04-11

St. Petersburg Bomber Suspected Islamist

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/10

According to recent reports, the metro bombing in Russia is suspected to have been done by Akbarzhon Jalilov.

The St. Petersburg bombing suspect is reported to have been an Islamist who developed an interest in Islam and may have “travelled to Syria before” the attack. Former colleagues of the bombing suspect stated that he disappeared after a trip to Turkey.

The St. Petersburg Metro bombing recently resulted in the death of 14 people. Jalilov was 22. He travelled to Turkey in 2015. The movements of the suspected terrorist are unknown at this point in time. In that, he seems to have disappeared between 2015 and 2017.

However, the colleagues are not sure if for sure the terrorist suspect travelled to the war-torn nation of Syria. Radical Islamists have used Turkey as a route for parts of Syria, which are controlled by ISIS.

The terror suspect was born in 1985 and we grew up in Kyrgyzstan. It was a mainly Muslim ex-Soviet Republic in Central Asia that he grew up, which is called Osh. The man is suspected to be the one who exploded himself inside of the St. Petersburg Metro station that killed those 14 people.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a visit to the St. Petersburg Metro station. There has been no claim to responsibility for the attack by any organisation, terrorist or otherwise, at this point in time.

By implication, this might be a ‘Lone Wolf’ phenomenon rather than an organised targeted terrorist attack from a larger more well-known group. The man worked low paid occupations from 2011 onward.

One of Jalilov’s former colleagues described him as “an even-tempered man who didn’t drink or curse when they worked together.” In that, there did not seem to be signs of extremism of this man, or in his thoughts or behaviour.

In 2014, he did develop an interest in Islam and begin to pray, “going to the mosque, reading the Koran and growing a beard.” It is suspected that his trip to Turkey in November, 2015 was to join his uncle.

However, the uncle stated that the man left in September, 2015 to return to Osh where he grew up. The terror suspect showed up in Osh in February, 2017. He had rented an apartment at the time of the previous week’s attack.

The Russian officials have declined to comment on the travel history of the terrorist suspect.

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2022-04-11

The New Oil Battle Might Be Between Russia and Saudi Arabia

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/10

Business Insider reported that international oil markets could be heading towards a new war, as leading OPEC and non-OPEC producers are “vying for increased stakes”.

There has been an unexpected cooperation between countries with the full support of both Russia and Saudi Arabia for the crude markets, which has happened from the year-and-a-half of stabilisation concomitant with it. The predicted oil crisis, crude oil crisis, was averted by this unexpected cooperation.

“As long as Saudi Arabia, Russia and some other major producers (UAE, Kuwait), are supporting a production cut extension, financials will be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.”

The second shale oil revolution has been “mostly mitigated by a reasonably high compliance of OPEC and non-OPEC members” based on agreements to cuts by the members. The stabilisation associated with the market deals with economics, geopolitics, and the national interests of the OPEC and non-OPEC member states.

“…geopolitical and security issues have prevented Libya, Iraq, Venezuela and Nigeria, from entering with new volumes. Stabilisation in the crude oil market, as always, is not only fundamentals but also geopolitics and national interests.”

There are some growing fears that Saudi Arabia, an OPEC leading producer, might not be happy in the near-future based on the overall effects of the production cuts. However, there are other smaller OPEC members including Iraq and Iran that have predicted an increase in production.

Nonetheless, the main rivals are Saudi Arabia and Russia, who are the big ones of the OPEC and non-OPEC countries. Russia is the biggest non-OPEC country. Saudi Arabia is the biggest OPEC country. With regards to the European oil markets, Russia remains the largest supplier with about 3/10 of the total supply in 2016.

“Even if Moscow is still fully behind the official production cuts, Russian oil companies have been aggressively fighting for additional market share in Saudi Arabia’s main client markets,” Business Insider said, “China, India and even Japan. Iraq and Iran, in contrast to what was expected, have been cutting away share in Europe.”

With regards to the non-European oil markets, Saudi Arabia is the big generator and supplier. This is all to do with the Russian-Saudi oil war, who both “need…stabilisation in the market.” There apparently is a “conflict…brewing, but has not yet come to the surface.”

Europe’s industry is both a stable and a growing crude oil market. The price war could play out in the European oil or crude oil market sphere. Saudi Arabia and Russia are not necessarily willing to risk that price war.

Business Insider said, “Threatened by its own successful agreement, Saudi Arabia is now feeling the heat on all sides. Some analysts are even [proposing] a doomsday scenario, implying that Riyadh has lost its grip on the largest oil markets.”

In addition, Putin is at risk in the next 12 months of maintaining power with elections upcoming in addition to the heavy dependency on the oil market. “Iraq and Iran have been very smart by attempting to sneakily take market share from both sides.” Business Insider called this the “Iran-Iraq axis.”

Saudi Aramco’s first moves to re-enter Europe, however, clearly show that they are not willing to keep picking up the bill for others…Money will talk as additional outlets (refinery projects) were acquired by Aramco last month…Riyadh’s decision to change its European price setting is, however, a clear signal that there is a red line for the Oil Kingdom.”

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2022-04-11

Islamist Culture War on Beauty Industry Worth Several Billion Dollars

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/10

Gatestone Institute’s Shireen Qudosi reported on Islamism’s culture war on the beauty industry worth several billion dollars.

She opened the article with four main points. One of these is that there are western Muslims averse to standard Western values, and that there is a new cultural landscape to be attacked by the Islamist culture – the culture in fashion and beauty.

“In 2016, the élite fashion label Dolce and Gabbana launched an ‘Abaya and Hijab Collection.’ Months later, at New York Fashion Week, a sartorial Mecca, hosted the first catwalk spotlighting models fully donned in hijabs,” Qudosi reports.

Anniesa Hasibuan Brought Hijabs To The New York Fashion Week Catwalk

There have been advertising campaigns meant to be more appealing and friendly to the consumer. So even though the face has shifted in content, the underlying message and purpose remain the same.

Melanie Elturk, CEO of Haute Hijab, said, “…Fashion is one of the outlets in which we can start that cultural shift in today’s society to normalize the hijab in America.”

According to Qudosi, the Islamist beauty industry has “two faces of Islamist thought, one which underscores the myth of peace while privately exiling dissenting voices as ignorant, racist or bigoted.”

With the defeat of Hillary Clinton and the win of Donald Trump for the American presidency, some saw this as a possible resolute victory against Radical Islam.

There was now a transition into the area of culture for possible influence with Islamist ideological stances on fashion, as noted. Fashion and beauty are the linchpins in the domain of culture. Some of the campaigns by CoverGirl, for instance, have been used to portray “diversity.”

Qudosi said, “Later in the year, CoverGirl, a popular affordable makeup line, announced Muslim beauty blogger Nura Afia as its newest ‘brand ambassador.’ A 23-year-old wife and mother, Afia hosts a YouTube channel, with over 200,000 subscribers, for hijab and makeup tutorials.”

Many believe that there appears to be an attempt to homogenise the American values through a “funnel of multiculturalism.” With this attempt to shift the cultural conversation and values in America towards something appearing as, but not being, multiculturalism, the author argues that the mantra of Islamist groups is that they have lost their political ground.

Now, the battleground has been shifted to culture. There appears to be an assumption that if a woman, a Muslim woman, wears an Islamic garment, then non-Muslim men will recognise this and not harass the Muslim women: “…if Muslim women don an outer garment (jil-bab), non-Muslim men will recognise them as such and not harass them,” Qudosi said.

“A handful of Islamic scholars believe the practice of hijab grew out of exclusionary practices designed to draw a distinction between “believing” women (Muslims) and “non-believing” women (non-Muslims).” Qudosi argued.

“Beautiful Nura Afia in an advertising campaign is a far more appealing and consumer-friendly alternative to CAIR’s Nihad Awad,” Qudosi said, “or the political complexities of the Muslim Brotherhood. The face has changed but the message has not.”

Qudosi states that “Islamic culture embraces piety through” the covering of the female body, the Muslim woman’s body, which removes non-Muslim women of their dignity by viewing their bodies as mere property.

“The origin of the hijab tradition in Islam likely pre-dates the Quran, and comes from early Islamic society,” Qudosi said.

It has been argued that the mandatory wearing of the hijab for women does have merit with regards to the Quranic verses, but the “larger point”, according to Qudosi, is that at the same time “slavery was a standard practice. It thrived culturally through acts of social and religious demarcations, such as the hijab, which became to many Muslims a sign of class supremacy, whereas women who were not veiled have been, and continue to be, harassed and attacked.”

This appears to be from earlier slave-owning cultures in Arabia that had the “law of the veil.” So “social and religious demarcations” could be made with such symbols on women as the Hijab. In that, the sign of class supremacy was a Hijab in older times.

That is, the Muslim women would wear it based on the class supremacy and would not be harassed by non-Muslim men.

“It is then a fantastic stretch of the imagination when brands such as CoverGirl try to have consumers associate ‘equality’ and ‘diversity’ with hijabs and make-up. It also does not mirror the ‘Islam of peace’ that many Muslims try to emphasise,” Qudosi said.

Although, the current fashionable opinion is that the wearing of the Hijab is both chic and barrier breaking, it has been used “historically” as a barrier in life.

The concern of the author, one of many, is that “if you are not covered, you are not respectable and therefore not acceptable.”

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2022-04-11

China Protests to India Over Dalai Lama’s Visit

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/10

The Times of India reported on the recent statements by the Dalai Lama. Beijing has repeatedly warned against India having the Dalai Lama visit Arunachal Pradesh. However, the Dalai Lama has not taken these cautionary notes very heavily via Beijing and has decided to make a trip to India without cancellation.

It will be a 13-day trip to the northeast of the country, of India. The Tibetan spiritual leader has remarked that “things are normal” from his point of view.

He appears unfazed by the possibility of the repercussions of the 13-day trip to India. A foreign ministry spokesman from China reported that the visit by the Dalai Lama will “have serious damage on bilateral relations” for India.

He will attend, the Dalai Lama, a festival – the “Namami Brahmaputra festival on Sunday after addressing students at Gauhati University – along with other events. For example, the Dalai Lama will give an address at Dibrugarh University for the students in upper Assam.

After this, he will leave to Lumla – near Tawang – and will consecrate a Buddhist temple that is opening in Lumla.

The Nobel laureate will present a talk entitled “a human approach to world peace” that assisted the Dalai Lama; however, the “Ulfa (I)” appealed the laureate – who is the Dalai lama – to not speak negatively or “against China in public or in private.”

This was seen as a political issue rather than a talk alone. On April 10 and 11th, the Dalai Lama will visit Dirang and Bomdila, respectively, which is a sensitive area because it is where, in 1962, the Chinese army retreated. At that point, the Tibetan spiritual leader will then take a trip to the state capital on April 12.

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2022-04-11

Hawaiian Island to be Powered by Tesla Solar Power

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/09

Danielle Muoio published an article in collaboration with Business Insider and the World Economic Forum reporting on solar energy. In that, it has been reported that the Hawaiian island is instituting about 55,000 solar panels to power itself.

“Tesla officially unveiled the project Wednesday morning in Kauai following opening remarks by CTO JB Straubel and David Ige, governor of Hawaii. Tesla partnered with the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) to launch the project.”

Tesla, the solar power company, will be providing solar panels in addition to “giant battery packs” to a small Hawaiian island called Kauai. This was officially unveiled as a project, recently. The farm is expected to be composed of 54,968 solar panels with a mega wattage capacity of 13 in terms of solar generation capacity.

Tesla installed 272 large commercial batteries called the Powerpack 2 for the storage of the solar energy for use in the night. Fossil fuel use is expected to decrease by as much as 1.6 million gallons per annum based on estimates from Tesla.

“KIUC signed a contract with Tesla to purchase 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity for $.139 over a 20-year time frame,” Muoio said, “Before Tesla acquired SolarCity, the two companies agreed in February, 2016 to use Tesla’s 52 MWh Powerpack to bring 20 years of power to Kaua’i, so this project has been in the works for quite a bit.”

The solar system for the island will come in phases. It should be noted that SolarCity and Tesla were separate companies as of October, 2016, but were merged into one. In that, Tesla acquired solar city in November 2016.

“Tesla is also powering nearly the entire island of Ta’u in American Samoa with solar power and its Powerpacks.”

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2022-04-11

6,000 Flee ‘Terrifying’ Violence in South Sudan

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/09

The UNHCR or the UN Refugee Agency’s Mary Theru Wambui described the situation in the South Sudan difficult. 6,000 refugees have been reported to be fleeing South Sudan and escaping the violence into Uganda.

As well as the fighting near Pajok in Eastern Equatoria, ongoing fighting is also occurring in the districts of Magwi and Oboo near the border with Uganda, now the main host of the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis.

The UNHCR has expressed alarm at the deterioration in the security situation for South Sudan. At the moment, a northern Ugandan district has received over 6,000 South Sudanese Refugees with only 1,500 entering and over 4,500 crowded at the border.

“This spreading of violence signifies a worrying development,” Babar Baloch, UNHCR spokesperson said, “People fleeing the recent incident claimed that the town came under an indiscriminate attack by the South Sudan armed forces.”

The violence continues to be a significant concern for international organisations in addition to the refugee situation. There has been looting and beatings and killings. Children and women have been fleeing as well. Some have reported that bullets have been flying as they are escaping, or as they have been forced to lie on the ground as the bullets fly.

Auma Lucy Yubuan escaped with her kids and said, “I am so happy even though I have nothing to eat and I have lost everything, my children are alive. I was so scared I didn’t know if I would see them again. The bullets were flying everywhere and you couldn’t move, you had to lie on your belly. I am very grateful I am alive.”

In northern Uganda, the UNHCR has been stated to be “helping…desperate women, children, elderly, and the disabled.” These are officially refugees that are “in dire need of immediate humanitarian assistance including food, shelter, water and medical care.”

“Baloch said families fled the attack in Pajok in different directions; the elderly and disabled who could not run were shot dead. Many people are still hiding in the bush trying to find their way to Uganda, while homes and properties were looted and burned.”

The situation in Pajok has been estimated to be terrible, and the population is upwards of 50,000 people. At present, Uganda hosts over 832,000 refugees of South Sudanese dissent with 192,000 arriving in 2017 so far. There have been about 2,000 refugees “fleeing insecurity, violence and famine every day.”

3 out of 5 of the new arrivals of the refugees are children. “Some 1.7 million refugees have fled the world’s youngest country and the continuing brutal conflict. For more details, click here.”

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2022-04-11

Study on Science Denialism Reveals Surprising Results

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/09

Troy Campbell and Lauren Griffin in Scientific American reported that individuals who reject vaccinations and the consensus within the scientific community on climate change or global warming can, and often do, embrace the scientific research and facts from other areas of science.

In April, numerous people will be marching across America in the “March for Science” and will use it as a platform to push against the anti-scientific movements within the country. This is based on the November, 2016 elections in United States to some degree.

The comprehension of science or the appreciation of science at the very least are becoming more, and more, important. It is reported that there are television shows and spokespeople devoted to proper science and the consensus in the scientific community in addition to the proper dissemination of that consensus to the public in a respectful and constructive manner.

However, there are sceptics of climate change. As well, there are anti-vaccination initiatives throughout the US. One misconception pointed out is that people in general distrust scientists. In fact, based on a Pew Research Center poll done in 2015, people respect scientists in healthcare, food, and the environment.

It is the same for vaccinations. In other words, scientists and science have moderate to moderate-high levels of respect in the United States. Another misconception is that people do not use scientific findings and arguments. In fact, people will use scientific findings.

The difference is someone using what they believe to be credible scientific findings that aren’t and others who will use actually credible scientific findings, usually based on the scientific consensus among experts or those that know what they’re talking about.

Another misconception is that the disagreement with the scientific consensus or the scientific research findings are the main motivation or even a motivation for the denialism; whereas, the reality of the matter is that the implied solutions of scientific findings will motivate denial.

So, for instance, Republicans will more likely agree with climate science if within a market solution framework, which means a political ideological stance more appropriate to Republican principles of governance and political life.

One more misconception is that the correctness of facts is the reason for the denial of science by the “anti-science”. The reality is that “people often denying the relevance of facts, not just their correctness.” In other words, the situation is not as clear-cut in terms of denial is as one might think. People have their reasons.

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2022-04-11

South Korea Going Greener with New Charging Stations

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/10

South Korea will be expediting the building of 200 charging stations to continue the ‘greening’ of the country. That is, the charging stations will be for “green cars.”

That means the charging stations and the cars that they charge will be operating on electricity with electric fuel cells and liquefied petroleum gas by 2025. There are ongoing discussions amongst legislators and there is preparation for the revision of bills for this too.

“The Ministry of Land Transport is set to unveil plans to open multipurpose service areas for motorists driving green cars at a roundtable discussion to be held Friday together with the National Assembly and the ministries of environment and commerce.”

The government intends to provide the business opportunities for “private operators for the next 30 years.” This will be the basis for the station development in the beltways and highways throughout South Korea.

Each station will come with a hydrogen charger and another for the upcoming pure electric vehicles, according to an official from the Ministry of Land and Transport. This is part of a South Korean government plan of development of the fuel cells that will reduce the amount of net emissions, or the reduction of fossil fuel use in transports with these fuel cells.

Kang Ho-in, the Transport Minister for South Korea, reported that the other ministries in the relevant areas of the government in addition to legislators will be working together to implement this long-term plan for the future of transport.

It could be the basis for a slew of new job opportunities in the “hydrogen technology” sectors. “Establishing infrastructure such as charging stations and supporting R&D projects on green energy are part of promoting the new technology, officials said.”

In order to deal with the upcoming and ongoing challenges of climate change, this greening of the transportation of the country is something the government of South Korea believes will “help the nation to better deal with climate change as well as micro dust pollution.”

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2022-04-11

“Read the Quran”: Wife of Vice President of India, Salma Ansari, Speaks Out on Triple Talaq

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/09

The Times of India reported that the vice president Hamid Ansari’s wife, Salma Ansari, asserted that she could find no reference to “triple talaq” in the holy scripture.

Salma Ansari’s views on triple talaq come at a time when there is a nationwide debate on the practice and the validity of triple talaq, ‘nikah halala’ and polygamy practices among Muslims challenged in the Supreme Court.

“‘There is nothing like triple talaq in the Quran and women in India are being misguided over the issue,’ Salma said while addressing an event in Aligarh’s Madarsa at Civil Lines here on Saturday. ‘Read the holy scripture to clear your doubts,’ she advised.”

The wife “exhorted women to read the Quran” and further affirmed the fact that within the “holy scripture” there is no practice or justification for the practice within the text. Some of her comments have been “hailed by Muslim women, particularly the educated ones.”

“Zakia Soman, co-founder of the Bhartiya Muslim Morcha Andolan (BMMA), said that Salma Ansari is absolutely correct as the Quran has no mention of triple talaq.”

That is, they want this to be finished and done with and no longer part of the culture. Even further, she did raise doubts about some interpretations of the holy text and that women should not take things in the text for granted, within the Quran.

Furthermore, the issue has been “unnecessarily” fabricated during the developmental periods up to the present of Islam. In response to the question of divorce, Ansari stated that the statement three times of Talaq does not necessarily have any meaning to her.

“She said that women who fall victim to this practice have no option but to live with it, as Maulanas and Qazis support it. She said Salma Ansari should use her position to spread this word and save Muslim women from harassment.”

Dr Shadab Bano, assistant professor in History department, Aligarh Muslim University has stated that the practice is in fact un-Islamic and regrets the fact that the practices have become very common among Muslims and men against women, especially as the men can use this to their advantage over women.

By implication, this can be seen as a form of oppression overtly in the marital sphere against women and for men in this sphere of life, which apparently does not have an existence in the holy Scripture.

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2022-04-11

Two Islamic State Terrorist Attacks Kill At Least 43 in Egypt

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/10

More than 38 people have been killed in today’s blasts in Tanta and Alexandria which have been claimed by ISIS.

Two Islamic State (IS) attacks on Egyptian Coptic Christian churches in the last 24 hours have injured more than 50 and killed at least 43.

Egypt has declared a three-month state of emergency. The first attack occurred in the northern Egyptian city of Tanta, with the second attack on the city of Alexandria.

The Christian Copts are the repeated victims of these terrorist attacks based in Egypt.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for today’s attack which targeted churches in Tanta and Alexandria.

At least 43 people have been killed after two explosions targeting Coptic Christians in Tantra and Alexandria today. IS laid claim to the attacks. There is a known tension between Christians and Muslims within the country. Christians account for about 10% of the population.

The total population for Egypt is about 94 million people. Copts make up 10% of the population.

The tensions appear to be in isolated rural communities. However, the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi stated that the Islamist attacks have been on the Copts. The president has been emphasising that there is a need for continued unity of the religions within the country.

There have been other attacks such as in 2010 and 2011. “In a severe bombing of a church in December, nearly 30 people had been killed. At that time, the terrorism “Islamic State” (IS) confessed to the act.” Süddeutschen Zeitung said.

Süddeutschen Zeitung stated, “As the first Egyptian head of state, Egypt’s President visited the Coptic Christmas festival in January. In 2010, six Copts were killed during an attack by Islamists on a Christmas festival in the Egyptian Naj Hammadi; On New Year’s Day 2011, 23 people died in a bomb attack on a church in Alexandria.”

The end of April will see the visit of the Roman Catholic Pope Francis in Cairo, Egypt. It has been announced officially. He expresses solidarity with the Egyptian Copts.

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2022-04-11

Solar Power Improves Farming and the Lives of Farmers

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/09

Farmer’s lives have been improving with the increase in the efficiency, and even automation, in the domains of agriculture and farming. The World Economic (WEF) reported on the changing trends in the energy systems of the world of farming.

The author of the article, Mehrin Mahbub, described making a trip into the north of Bangladesh: “a young man working in a rice field under the scotching sun caught my attention. Habibur, 28, looked content amidst the wide green vista of fields.”

The life of this 28-year-old farmer was hard due to family and finance struggles. As a rice farmer, a rice cultivator, Habibur purchased a cow and leased land for rice cultivation, which “is a common practice in rural Bangladesh.”

With the rural Bangladeshi farming for Habibur, the irrigation is important for the yield and quality of the crops. However, for the irrigation, Habibur’s family needed diesel generators. Access to these is limited.

And “the diesel price [was] hiked in the local market, and he had to pay more than the government approved rate.” Circa October, 2015, Habibur and his family were able to have solar-powered irrigation, which allowed for solar pumps.

It “covers around 12 hectares of land and provides 500,000 liters of water daily. Habibur and 28 other farmers share the cost of a single irrigation pump that waters their fields. Their irrigation cost has dropped almost by half.”

Solar has less of a negative impact on the environment than diesel as an energy source. The cost in terms of finances and the environmental impact decreased from October, 2015 to the present. These solar pumps have made life easier for the farmers.

Money saved is money earned, and was used to buy more cattle. With the Bangladesh successes, there are solar-powered systems in homes for the provision of electricity in the rural areas of Bangladesh.

The World Bank is supporting this endeavour. It will help install 1,250 solar irrigation pumps by 2018. With the flatter terrain and higher levels of sunlight, the solar energy sources are adequate sources of energy for the farmers.

“The Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Development Project II (RERED II) is piloting solar-powered irrigation solutions using a public-private partnership model.” The WEF said, “The implementing agency, Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) channels grant and credit funding to the non-government organisations and private investors who install the solar pumps.”

300 pumps are helping 8,000 farmers to date. The pumps need little maintenance and will reduce the emissions of carbon. About $0.9 billion is spent on diesel fuel per annum by Bangladesh for irrigation purposes. This will cost less, assist farmers and improve environmental conditions.

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2022-04-11

British Columbia, Canada Celebrates Centennial for Women’s Right to Vote

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/09

Women were enfranchised on April 5, 1917 in B.C. — the fourth province to allow women to vote after Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. But First Nations people and Asian-Canadians of Japanese, Chinese and South Asian couldn’t vote until the late 1940s. Credit: Sunday Edition.

CBC News made a report on the centennial of women’s right to vote in British Columbia, Canada. It was at that time that British Columbia provided the right for most women to vote.

The enfranchisement of women was April 5, 1917 in British Columbia, which was the fourth province to make voting legal for women. The provinces in Canada that allowed women the right to vote earlier were Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.

That is, Canadian democracy is only about 100 years old by definition. The suffragette movement in British Columbia began over a period of several decades, according to SFU Gender and Women’s Studies professor Lara Campbell, which had its roots in the temperance movement.

“Suffrage didn’t extend to all women at the time. First Nations people and Asian-Canadians of Japanese, Chinese and South Asian descent didn’t get the right to vote until the late 1940s,” the article said.

There were movements such as the women’s Christian Temperance Union that considered alcohol as one main issue for women of the time. Campbell said, “Women bore the brunt of men drinking alcohol particularly at a time when women didn’t have control over their wages and how to spend family income.”

The first groundwork for the movement according to Campbell occurred in the 1870s, almost a century and a half ago, with Susan B. Anthony, the American suffragette who visited Victoria, British Columbia and ‘gave a talk.’

Anthony was “shocked” by the attendance of men at the talk. “Women in B.C. cities were first allowed to vote for school board trustees in 1884, if they owned property,” CBC News reported.

When 1912 came around the corner, the opposition party – the liberals – took women’s rights (women’s suffrage) as one of its causes. “It put enfranchisement to a vote in a referendum during the fall election of 1916 — it was the only Canadian province to do so.”

That passed in addition to the legislation in the following spring. At that time, women aged 21 and older were given the right to vote, and eventually in 1918, federally. “I think that suffragists would have maybe been disappointed that women were still so underrepresented politically,” Campbell stated when speaking on the present state of affairs.

Circa 2013, BC Speaker Linda Reid made the statement that British Columbia provided or had the greatest number of women or proportional women parliamentarians in Canada.

This was at a total of 36% of the MLA’s. Of course, it is important to note that more work is needed at this time.

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2022-04-11

Venezuelan Riots and Protests – Antichavisti

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/09

*Translated from Italian to English for quotes.*

La Repubblica reported on the week of the ‘antichavisti’ recently with the third demonstration in a single week. Now, Venezuela is in the midst of a protest against the current president Maduro, who is both liked and disliked by separate groups of protesters. 17 people have been injured in Caracas in Venezuela from the activities of the protest. The offices of the opposition, Capriles, have been torched.

The police have been brought forth and fired both rubber bullets and tear gas. In other parts of the country, there have been marches and parades as another form of public demonstration. The injuries to 17 people were based on clashes between the opposition and the police.

Both the “Bolivarian” and the National Guard responded to the events of 4,000 protesters in the Campiña district at which point they then fired the rubber bullets and tear gas. The protesters then threw stones at the police. The mayor of the Chacao municipality disclosed the number of the wounded.

“The men of two bodies of security ‘Bolivarian’ (police and National Guard) responded advance of the 4000 protesters in the Campiña district by launching tear gas and rubber bullets.”

Other areas of the country had protests as well outside of the state capital. Others in opposition to the protesting opposition also marched to defend the current presidency of Nicolas Maduro; the opposition has made a public announcement that it will host five novel events. “The protests were held not only in Caracas but also in San Cristobal, Tachira state of the capital and in other cities of the country. In parallel with the opposition march, even the ‘Chavismo’ took to the streets to defend the government of President Nicolas Maduro. The opposition has already announced that in the coming days will hold five new events.”

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2022-04-11

Women’s Rights Fight in the Balkans

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/09

The McGill International Review discussed the Western Balkans, which is a region of Europe that comprises the former Yugoslavia and its neighbours. It changed the status of women throughout the 20^th century into the early 21^st century.

Group of female Yugoslav Partisans in Mount Dinara (near the border of present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia), July 1943.

Before, in the earlier parts of the 20th century rather than the 21st century, women were by and large disenfranchised from the “social, economic, and political spheres.” The path to equality has been bumpy. That bumpiness comes from setbacks in and challenges to gender equality.

These are reported to “persist…to this day.” There is a purity culture with the practice of women having to be “sworn virgins” and that without an heir who is a male, the daughter takes on the role of the son and must live her life as a male. It is seen as reminiscent of the southeastern Europe’s patriarchal traditions.

The practices of “sworn virgins” remains a remnant of medieval practices that were part of some of the “poorest parts of Europe in terms of GDP per capita.” The “staunchly patriarchal societies” that can be found in southern Montenegro and northern Albania have this practice for families that have not birthed any sons.

The sons are typically associated with the transference of wealth and property. One reason for this is that women were not considered to be owners of property “under any circumstances.” The promise of swearing to be virgins and to never marry became the practice of sworn virginity.

The rights were therefore reserved solely for men. The women sworn to virginity would “dress in men’s clothes, smoke, carry weapons, and socialise with other men in male-only spaces.”

Some of these women that were sworn to this saw themselves as honoured and privileged rather than the estranged woman of the house. To this date, this is in some regards a continuing tradition.

Some women might express regret as to not being born male within these circumstances. In addition to the distinction of a patriarchal southeastern European cultural tradition found in the practice of “sworn virgins,” there are divisions of labour that are customary and can be found in the Partisan army. 12% of the combat units are women; 88% are men.

However, the roles given to these women were often as nurses rather than soldiers because nurses were seen to be women’s positions rather than the common soldiers or the common soldiery. After the postwar period, there was a commitment to women’s rights.

This was stated as “state, economic, and sociopolitical affairs” commitment connected to the constitution for the “newly formed Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.” It was after this point that women were given the right to vote, but only after several centuries lacked universal suffrage and general disenfranchisement.

There are some current significant efforts to get rid of the “archaic practices” associated with the sworn virginity practices. An influential women’s organisation spans across the entirety of Yugoslavia today.

One educational initiative is the mass education and literacy courses provided for “400,000 women” for them to learn how to write and read only one year after the conclusion of the war at the beginning of the post-war period.

The period with the advancements of the 20^th century followed the postwar period. Technically, all times after that major war are possible as there were transgressions of human rights as well as women’s rights that “indelibly marked the collective consciousness.”

There were cases seen here as seen in other areas of war such as rape as a weapon of war in addition to genocide. This was during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s, mainly executed by the actions of the nationalist Serbian forces.

The international criminal tribunal of the former Yugoslavia had “set a legal precedent clasping rape as a tool of genocide and a form of torture when used in war and proceeded to convict multiple war criminals on charges.”

Some see this as a win for women’s rights; however, it can be seen also as a tragedy for the victims – rape for war purposes is rape. In any case, there have been reports from the European Union stating that there have been advancements as well as challenges to the institution of laws and rights for them.

“While crucial progress has been made, the situation remains significantly less than ideal, even compared to the imperfect status of women’s rights in the West. Much remains to be done, like changing the dismissive attitude many hold towards feminism,” the author of the article said.

Implementing laws and institutions that ensure the promotion and protection of women’s rights, and adequately enforcing the gender equality that so many Balkan states formally espouse. If we ever want to see lasting peace and prosperity in the Balkans, women’s rights must be a priority for all current and future politicians that want to be taken seriously.

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2022-04-11

BREAKING NEWS: 13 Christians Reported Dead in Tanta, Egypt

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/09

At least 13 people have been killed in an explosion St George’s Coptic church in the city of Tanta, north of Cairo., Egypt.

According to various television channels, whilst the cause of the explosion is not yet known, at least 40 people had been injured in the Palm Sunday attack.

Egypt’s Christian minority has often been targeted by Islamist militants in recent years.

25 people died in December of 2016 when a bomb exploded at a Coptic cathedral in Cairo.

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2022-04-11

Science News in Brief – April 8th, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/08

25th annual Malofiej International Infographics Summit and awards

According to Jen Christiansen in Scientific American, there was a contest with 1300 entries from over 130 media companies and more than 30 countries. Participants in the context submitted written material.

“The 25th annual Malofiej International Infographics Summit—hosted in Pamplona, Spain by the Spanish chapter of the Society for News Design and the School of Communication at the University of Navarra—concluded last week with award announcements.”

Scientific American won a silver medal for the print category in January 2016. Some of the “Best of Show awards were bestowed upon La Lettura (Italy) for “The Journey of Foreign Fighters” (print), and The New York Times (U.S.) for “Olympic Races Social Series” (online).

Research community let down by Budget 2017 in Canada

The Calgary Herald reported that the university research community has not received as much is it would like from the new budget proposed by the federal government. However, there are “notable investments in higher education” for the coming years.

Nevertheless, the universities were in “anticipation mode” for the funding. The current announcements are that the investments added to the previous years’ investments will be $2 billion for various research spaces in addition to infrastructure.

The budget 2017 from the Canadian federal government has also been heavily invested in “research excellence such as artificial intelligence.” An additional $221 million for research internships will be had through the MITACS program, which is a “major investment in young people.”

American hard power as science power, and vice versa

Peter J. Hotez in Scientific American talked about hard power and soft power. The typical phraseology in the international community is soft power and hard power. Science, Hotez argues, or America’s science, is its hard power and, therefore, its greatness.

It is “vital to our homeland security.” With reflection on World War II and the expansion and building of the military in United States, the scientific infrastructure that was built at that time even through the Cold War.

However, the infrastructure in the United States for science are at a point of decay with many people giving second thought to the possibility of embarking on a career in science. The author of the article is an academic dean and stated that we are “losing or may have lost a generation of young scientists.”

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2022-04-11

Politics News in Brief – April 8th, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/08

The UK is said to need to be ready to ‘vote against EU measures’

According to BBC News, “EU proposals should be considered by the UK both as an EU member state, and in terms of their Brexit implications, the European Scrutiny Committee said. Policies would affect the UK up to, and in some cases after, Brexit, it said.”

Prime Minister Theresa May started the formal proceedings for the Brexit process with the “triggering” of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. That is, without 27 other EU member states and the UK extending the talks deadline, then the Brexit will proceed.

The UK government has stated that it “will continue to negotiate, implement and apply EU legislation” until the time of the completion of the Brexit processes. until Brexit. Officially, the UK will leave the EU on March 29, 2019.

UK F-35 jets in Turkey have become a security concern

BBC News reported on the UK’s F-35 jets that are in Turkey in the moment and have been brought forward as a concern. A security concern because there will be “major servicing work” on those F-35s in Turkey.

George Kereyan, SNP MP, has made a call for an inquiry to the policy surrounding this. The reason being the Turkish attempted coup in addition to the tensions association with the NATO partners.

However, the Ministry of Defence stated that this was an “international project with a global support network.” Kereyan stated that the UK “should” put together contingencies in the light of the possibility of a diplomatic crisis tied to Turkey.

New $10 banknote for Canada

CBC: Politics reported that the Canada 150 celebrations came with the unveiling, by the Bank of Canada, of a new $10 banknote. It features the portraits of 4 Canadian politicians with Canadian landscapes and Inuit art.

On Canada’s sesquicentennial, it was unveiled in Ottawa. This is “only the only the fourth time in Canada’s history that [the Bank of Canada] has created a commemorative banknote.”

“Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz and Ginette Petitpas Taylor, parliamentary secretary to the minister of finance, made the announcement,” and there will be 40 million of the $10 banknotes printed.

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2022-04-11

The Death of Don Rickles

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/08

Numerous outlets have reported on the death of the “insult comedian” Don Rickles, who died at the age of 90 on April 6. Jimmy Kimmel provided a heartfelt and teary-eyed series of personal stories about the late insult comedian. Kimmel was moved in reminiscing about the passing of Don Rickles.

He said that he loved Rickles “very much.” He noted that he went to dinner with Rickles after 17 appearances on his show. He described Don Rickles as a man of great warmth to the audience.

Seth Meyers another comedian in the late-night television show world described how he introduced himself to Don Rickles after a party where he was a member of the Saturday Night Live crew at the time.

Stephen Colbert considered the meeting of Rickles at the Emmys an “incredible honor.” Variety reported that Don Rickles had a career spanning six decades. Rickles was common in the nightclub acts as well as in performances in Las Vegas.

He took part in films such as Toy Story, in which he voiced Mr. Potato Head. Rickles had a career with many “ups and downs” changing with the comedic taste of the culture. The San Diego Chicago-Tribune provided some of his best lines:

“Show business is my life. When I was a kid I sold insurance, but nobody laughed.”
“Is that your wife, sir? … What was it, a train?”
“You are a politician. Black, white, Jew, gentile, we’re all working for one cause: to figure out how you became governor.”
“It’s tough having the last name ‘Rickles.’ Luckily, my kids handled it great.”
“Room service is great if you want to pay $500 for a club sandwich.”
“Struggling is hard because you never know what’s at the end of the tunnel.”
“I’ve got an accountant who’s been with me forty years. If he makes a mistake, he dies.”
“Eddie Fisher married to Elizabeth Taylor is like me trying to wash the Empire State Building with a bar of soap.”
“Clint’s idea of a good time is sitting on a pickup truck watching his dog bark.”
“Who picks your clothes – Stevie Wonder?”

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2022-04-11

Religion News in Brief – April 8th, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/08

Ireland losing its religion

According to BBC News, there has been a decrease in Irish belief in religion. Those who have identified as having no religion increased by 73.6% from the previous numbers compared to the recent census statistics office report.

“The number of people who stated they had no religion increased from 269,800 to 468,400, the census found. “Some 3,729,100 people identified as Catholic – 78.3% of the population – compared to 84.2% in April 2011.”

The number of Muslims in the country went from 63,400 to 49,200 since 2011. Orthodox Christianity rose 37.5% to 62,400 with Hindus rising by 34.1% from about 10,000 in 2011 to 14,300 now.

Religion and Ethics department loss from BBC

The Church Times reports that the BBC will be losing its Religion and Ethics department, which is Salford, Manchester. This is purportedly on the sole “loss of Songs of Praise to independent producers, earlier this month, it was confirmed last week.”

The remaining television producers – “religious television producers” – have been eliminated. The BBC removed the in-house guarantee for the program. Lisa Opie, director of factor at BBC Studios, had an email leaked about the redundancy of staff.

“Moving forward, we intend to continue to use Salford as a base to make some Religion and Ethics programmes,” Opie said, “These will be on a seasonal basis, staffed mostly by freelancers. We’ll also make some Religion and Ethics programmes in Glasgow.”

American hard power as science power, and vice versa

BBC Culture states the major influence on Western culture has been an obscure and oft unnoticed religion called Zoroastrianism that worships Ahura Mazda and believes the world is in a cosmic battle between good and evil.

“The concepts of Heaven and Hell, Judgment Day and the final revelation of the world, and angels and demons all originated in the teachings of Zarathustra.”

The religion has influenced a variety of thinker such as Freddy Mercury, Nietzsche, and Voltaire as well as popular culture in the modern era such as Star Wars and Game of Thrones.

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2022-04-11

Airstrikes in Syria by the US Causes International Fallout

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/08

Dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from two US Navy ships in the Mediterranean US Navy

The US has launched a missile strike against Syria for the first time since the civil war began, targeting an airbase from which the US said this week’s chemical weapons attack on civilians was launched by Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The attacks have made one of the most damaging wars in recent years even more unstable, raising the spectre of a confrontation between the world’s two most powerful international military powers.

The United Nations yesterday affirmed that any actions in Syria must be in line with international law. Iran and Russia are opposed to the actions by the United States. Britain, Canada, France, and Israel have shown varied degrees of support for those actions.

The United Nations political affairs chief, Jeffrey Feltman, stated that any actions should be “rooted in the principles of the United Nations and international law” and that the actions that are needed immediately should be in line with those as well as protecting the Syrian people.

“There can be no genuine protection if the parties to the conflict, government and opposition alike, are permitted to act with impunity,” Feltman said to the UN Security Council, “and if the Syrian government continues to commit human rights violations against its own citizens.”

The United States cruise missiles on the Syrian airbase have been close to partaking of a clash with the Russian military. The Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stated that the United States President Donald Trump and his first “foray” into the Syrian Civil War is a potential problem.

The Russian representative to the UN Council, the UN Security Council, has decried the airstrikes by the nine states with the cruise missiles. However, the United States and its allies have shown support for the strikes.

The United States ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley stated that the Trump Administration will be prepared to take more steps in Syria as necessary. She has stated that it is not something they hope will be necessary, but that the United States military is prepared to do more.

Haley said, “The United States will not stand by when chemical weapons are used. It is in our vital national security interest to prevent the spread and use of chemical weapons.”

The airbase in Syria was the Shayrat airbase and actually was home to Russian special forces and military helicopters. It is in part of the Kremlin’s efforts to support the Syrian government’s efforts.

The Kremlin, in a public statement, stated, “President Putin views the U.S. strikes on Syria as aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of international law and on a made-up pretext.”

This is in the Kremlin’s effort to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or ISIS. This has been reported as a ‘battering’ of United States-Russia relations. Moscow is hoping that Trump will revive the relationship between the United States and Russia.

The main airbase and naval facility of Russia were not hit by airstrikes by the US. The Russian President Vladimir Putin has openly condemned the airstrikes as illegal with a warning that further moves by the Trump Administration could damage the relationship between the two nations.

The ties were reported, by the CBC, to be at post-Cold War lows. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev claimed that the strikes were ‘one step away’ from “causing military clashes with Russia.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that “Canada fully supports the United States’ limited and focused action to degrade the Assad regime’s ability to launch chemical weapons attacks against innocent civilians, including many children.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday Canada was briefed in advance of U.S. missile strikes against the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons capabilities, and ‘fully supports’ the U.S. move.

The Canadian prime minister made further statements about the use of chemical weapons in addition to the crimes of the regime in Syria against its own people.

“President Assad’s use of chemical weapons and the crimes the Syrian regime has committed against its own people cannot be ignored. These gruesome attacks cannot be permitted to continue operating with impunity,” Trudeau said, “This week’s attack in southern Idlib and the suffering of Syrians is a war crime and is unacceptable. Canada condemns all uses of chemical weapons. Canada will continue to support diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in Syria.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that he “fully supports” the actions by the Trump Administration with the airstrikes in Syria. “In both word and action…[Trump]…sent a strong and clear message…the use and spread of chemical weapons will not be tolerated.” Netanyahu said.

Iran has condemned the missile launch and noted that this will “strengthen terrorists.” Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Bahram Ghasemi, said, “Iran … condemns use of chemical weapons … but at the same time believes it is dangerous, destructive and violation of international laws to use it as an excuse to take unilateral actions.”

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2022-04-11

An Interview with Christine M. Shellska – President, Atheist Alliance International

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/08

Christine Shellska is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Communication, Media and Film, Faculty of Arts, at the University of Calgary, Canada. Her research involves studying the rhetorical strategies employed by the Intelligent Design Creationism movement, and her areas of focus include history, philosophy and sociology of science, and rhetoric.

Among other involvement in the secular community, she is the President of Atheist Alliance International, the first Canadian to be elected to the Board of Directors for the American Humanist Association, and a regular co-host on the Calgary-based Legion of Reason podcast.

What is the standard, straightforward definition of atheism?

The most accurate, succinct definition of “atheism” is a lack of a belief in a god or gods. But if you want a slightly longer description, American Atheists has an excellent summary, here.

How did you become an Atheist, e.g. arguments from logic and philosophy, evidence from mainstream science, or experience within traditional religious structures?

I was raised in a non-religious household, and I grew up in a large, ethnically and religiously diverse city in Canada. Most of the religious people I knew growing up were very moderate. There is quite a robust community of new-agers here, who reject organised religion and self-identify as non-believers. Atheism is very normalised here.

In terms of philosophical influences, I was introduced to scepticism at a very young age, when I asked Santa for a toy, despite my parents warning me that it wouldn’t be what I expected. It wasn’t. I learned that I shouldn’t always believe what I see in TV adverts (especially ones targeted at children prior to Christmas).

My Dad was also involved in advertising, and I am by trade a graphic designer with a specialisation in corporate communications, marketing and advertising. I’ve always been fascinated by how language and imagery are used as tools of persuasion, and there is plenty of fodder in advertising to pique the sceptical mind and cultivate a healthy “bullshit detector.”

I went to public schools, and the curriculum was secular; science was understood as factual, but subject to change in light of new discoveries. I don’t remember anybody denying evolution, so I find this Intelligent Design movement very interesting.

I’m studying it from a rhetorical perspective for my PhD dissertation, and that’s how I entered the atheist community, when I attended my first American Humanist Association conference (I’m now on their Board of Directors).

In terms of traditional religious structures, my family rarely attended religious services, except for things like weddings and funerals. While I briefly explored some religions in my youth, and concluded they were mostly nonsense, I’ve never been constrained by the boundaries of traditional religious structures.

What is the best reason you have ever come across for atheism?

I can’t narrow it down to one reason; I’ve heard many compelling stories about why people have left their faiths. Some people have witnessed or suffered cruelty at the hands of their religion; some have come to atheism because they got in an argument, went online to prove their religion was true, and stumbled upon refutations.

I don’t have those experiences; for me, atheism is the default. I’ve never had to leave a religion, which for many atheists is an enormous risk, an act of bravery, and a painful process. One of the best reasons I’ve heard for religion is that it provides comfort, but atheism provides no such comfort. I don’t know if I would say this is the “best” reason for atheism, but I find it the most oft cited and compelling: a commitment to being honest to one’s self.

Is it more probable for atheism it to be accepted among the younger sub-population?

It depends on a number of factors, personal as well as geographical location, culture, access to education, internet access, and so on. But some societies are infested with proselytisers who take advantage of basic human needs; some societies live under oppressive regimes where media is highly censored, religious or political dissent is harshly penalised, and so on.

There are undoubtedly Atheists among those populations, but they might not dare to identify as such. De-stigmatising atheism will be more challenging in these areas, but the internet has facilitated the establishment of groups and on-line Atheist communities who are actively working to normalise atheism, many of whose members are young adults.

There are regions where younger generations are increasingly accepting atheism, and I think that will continue. Campaigns like Richard Dawkins’ “There’s Probably No God” bus signage and the Out Campaign helped normalise atheism to the Western world, and elsewhere. Many prominent academics and celebrities proudly identify as Atheists.

In societies where it is normalised though avenues like social media and popular culture, youth are more likely to accept atheism. Strategies to normalise and cast a positive light on atheism will vary from region to region. In some areas, engaging in activism means risking one’s life.

Being an ‘Atheist’ in some countries can mean being labelled a “terrorist” – such as in Saudi Arabia. What are your thoughts—well, more feelings—on this?

It must be terrifying to live in societies like that, not only for Atheists, but for religious minorities as well. There are a lot of places that I would like to visit at some point, but I’ve crossed some off my list, for awhile anyway. I have a unique last name, and goodness knows what would happen if an unfriendly border guard agent decided to Google it. I’m glad I live in a peaceful country, where I don’t fear anybody. The people I fear are the ones who fear me.

You are the president of Atheist Alliance International. What tasks and responsibilities come with being the president?

I’m responsible for the overall management and operation of AAI. I chair our meetings and oversee the activities of Board members, their teams, and their projects. I act as AAI’s public representative and media spokesperson.

What are the popular activities provided by Atheist Alliance International?

We support a number of educational initiatives, including two yearly scholarships, grants, and fundraising for projects and campaigns launched by our member organisations. Among these are the Kasese Humanist Primary School in Uganda, the Critical Thinking Project in Guatemala, and the Humanist Association for Leadership Equality and Accountability’s (HALEA) “Stand Up for Reason,” campaign, bringing awareness to the plight of children and adults accused of “witchcraft” in Uganda. Our communication outreach includes Secular World magazine, formerly a membership benefit, but now available for free at issuu.com/atheistalliance, and we support, attend, and participate at various conferences worldwide.

In 2013, AAI was granted UN Special Consultative Status. We defend the rights of religious non-believers and others harmed by religion and superstition, and we advocate secular, evidence-based public policy. We attend meetings in New York and Geneva, submit written and deliver oral statements, and collaborate with organisations on issues of mutual interest.

In 2013, we also launched our Asylum Project, to help support Atheists and Secularists known to our member and partner organisations who have received threats or been targets of religious violence. Due to budgetary restraints and the overwhelming number of asylum-seekers seeking our help, our role is primarily limited to offering asylum-seekers information on relocating to safe countries, and endorsing their applications with letters of support.

Occasionally asylum-seekers need immediate assistance with legal fees and short-term living expenses, and we collaborate with several international and national humanitarian organisations to collectively contribute to these expenses.

Sadly, not everybody who seeks our help will qualify for asylum. Many of those who are aware of this harsh reality have asked us to give them a voice, to share their experiences, and to overcome the restrictions that prevent individuals living in closed societies from being able to speak freely without fearing for their lives, and the lives of their families.

Many atheists and secularists live lives of secrecy, forced to deny their basic human rights to freedom of conscience and belief, fearing violence and death, even at the hands of their own families. We also try to lend a voice to Atheists and Secularists living in closed societies by translating and disseminating their works across our communication platforms.

What have been the most emotionally moving experiences in your time as the president?

My interactions with asylum-seekers, and Atheists and moderates living in closed societies have definitely been the most emotionally moving experiences I’ve had. Many of the requests we receive to be included in our asylum project are accompanied by heartbreaking stories, sometimes photos. I’ve developed a few friendships through social media and Skype, people who want to leave their countries because they live in fear, sometimes even in hiding. Some of people have even asked me to personally intervene, and the worst part is telling them I can’t help them, that I have neither the means nor the power to overcome laws and procedures.

Some of the asylum-seekers we’ve helped have been successful with their applications, and those are moments of profound joy, worth celebrating.

Atheist Alliance International is, as per the title, an international atheist collective. That is, it is representative of the global Atheist community. However, even looking at geographic distribution, on one variable, the number of Atheists can differ drastically, even region-to-region (Europe, MENA, etc). What countries and regions have the most Atheist members?

I think that the methods and reporting mechanisms of many studies do not accurately capture global atheism accurately. If self-reporting is involved, some might fear participating in research surveys. Categories of identity like “none of the above,” “agnostic,” and “non-believer” can be contentious and vaguely interpreted. Some countries demand their citizens identify with the dominant religion, and some measure religious affiliation based on, for example, religion recorded at birth, thus studies that rely on census data can be inaccurate.

Due to the challenges of acquiring accurate data, I think there are more Atheists globally than these studies can reflect.

Having said that, the most comprehensive studies I’m aware of are Pew’s Global Religious Landscape, the International Humanist and Ethical Union’s (IHEU) Freedom of Thought Report, and the US Department of State’s annual International Religious Freedom Report.

In terms of AAI’s membership, we have 36 global affiliate and associate member organisations representing six of the seven continents. Of our individual members, 45% are located in the US, 15% in Australia, 10% in Canada, 6% in each of Germany and the UK, and the remainder in various countries throughout the world.

What are some of the demographics of Atheist Alliance International? Who is most likely to join Atheist Alliance International? (Age, sex, sexual orientation, and so on.)

We don’t track our individual members’ social demographics, nor do we have data on the composition of our member organisations. However, AAI hosts the Atheist Census project, a brief survey that queries on country of origin, preferred non-religious identity, religious background, education level, age, and gender identity. Anybody can participate our survey and access our results through an interactive graphical interface located at www.atheistcensus.com. So far, we have nearly 285,000 responses.

We do not purport the Atheist Census to be a scientific study; it is an informal survey that in large part serves as a tool of solidarity to let Atheists in closed societies know they’re not alone. However, our findings on gender imbalance are consistent with other research (see, for example, Phil Zuckerman’s 2009 publication, “Atheism, Secularity, and Well-Being,” originally published in Sociology Compass, hosted by the Secular Policy Institute. At the time of writing, only about 26.3% of our Atheist Census respondents identify as female, compared to 73.1% who identify as male (0.6% identify as “other”).

Last year, we issued a questionnaire to prominent women activists, parliamentarians, academics, journalists, and scientists, to understand their perceptions of male over-representation within Atheist and Secular organisations, and to recommend best-practices to address gender imbalance for our Board of Directors and our member organisations. Our Gender Imbalance Report is located here.

What have been the largest activist and educational initiatives provided by Atheist Alliance International? Out of these, what have been honest failures and successes?

I hope that throughout this interview, I’ve highlighted a few of AAI’s and its member organisations’ recent successful projects and initiatives. We have recently applied for Participatory Status at the Council of Europe, and among other projects, our future plans include launching billboard campaigns focusing on normalising atheism in Uganda and Guatemala.

It is difficult to regard our challenges as “failures,” rather than unsuccessful experiments and lessons-learned. Much of our work is uncharted territory, so we have few empirical measures to evaluate the intangible aspects of our work. Most of our initiatives involve some degree of risk, which we carefully assess on the basis of their potential returns, financial as well as intangible.

Some of our initiatives and projects are not fully realised because of the usual challenges that many non-profit organisations face – lack of financial and human resources (with the exception of one paid employee, we are all volunteers), competing for donor dollars, and so on.

Who/what are the main threats to atheism as a movement?

Islamism and radical extremists seek to not only destroy atheism, but to impose their theocratic agenda worldwide.

There is an element on the political left, among them many atheists, for whom Maajid Nawaz coined the term “regressives” (shared here by The Friendly Atheist:). Nawaz, along with figures like Sam Harris, Bill Maher, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Maryam Namazie, Faisal Saeed Al Mutar, Ali Rizvi, Sarah Haider, Armin Navabi, and many others, draw hatred from both Islamic extremists as well as certain liberals for challenging the claims of Islam.

Even though they explicitly condemn anti-Muslim bigotry, such allegations have, for example, led to cancellations of some of their talks, and landed Nawaz and Hirsi Ali on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “A Journalist’s Manual: Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists,” located here. They are often accused of bigotry, racism, or “Islamophobia,” a made-up word deployed as a rhetorical device to pressure those who speak out against Islam into silence.

Consequently, there has been a breakdown of dialogue among the Atheist movement, a hesitancy to critically and honestly engage in discussions on Islam, and a tendency by some to marginalise the very voices who have experienced Islam first-hand. Some who condemn criticism of Islam have a uniquely and narrow western perspective, advancing Islam as a “feminist religion,” fetishising the hijab, and so on, seemingly oblivious to the plight of their sisters forced to live under Islamic theocracy.

No religion is exempt from sceptical criticism. We need to call out our apologists, and unite around the common cause of advancing secularism and defending the rights of Atheists worldwide.

How can people get involved with Atheist Alliance International, even donate to it?

Our website is located at www.atheistalliance.org. The Support AAI drop-down menu takes you to information on how to become a member, volunteer, or donate to our various projects and campaigns.

If you’d like to donate to our Asylum Project, our GoFundMe is located here: https://www.gofundme.com/2ekrkgrv.

Our social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AtheistAllianceInternational/.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/atheistalliance.

Thank you for your time, Christine.

Thank you, Scott; the pleasure was mine.

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2022-04-11

The Upcoming Era of the Edible Drone

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/07

Magdalena Mis reported through the World Economic Forum (WEF), originally through the World Bank, that there is a new type of drone that is in fact, edible. That’s right, eatable.

These “edible drones” could be used for humanitarian purposes, such as being, “filled with food, water or medicine” for the purposes of humanitarian emergencies. Areas that are difficult to reach by other means could have supplies delivered via drones, which could be a major benefit to humanitarian efforts trying to reach those remote areas.

It should be noted that over 50 kg of food can be stocked inside the edible drones, only costing 150 British pounds. Additionally, the drones could deliver “supplies to feed up to 50 people per day” and the prototype is mostly made of wood. Thus, the edible drone will be the post-prototype version of the drone, by implication.

In the report, there were notes to some of the most dangerous areas of the world today, in terms of war or combat, such as Aleppo and the Islamic State or ISIS. An ex-army catering officer and the founder of Windhorse Aerospace in the UK, Nigel Gifford, said, “Food can be component to build things.”

Gifford continued, “You fly (the drone) and then eat it…In combat zones like we have in Aleppo or Mosul nothing will work except what we have…With parachuted air drops the problem is you can’t guarantee where the loads will land.” Gifford and the team are waiting for the appropriate financing for the full experimentation of the idea of the edible drone. Windhorse Aerospace presented the idea to the aid minister of Britain, Priti Patel, and “initial testing” is expected “in May and should be ready to be deployed on its first mission by the end of the year.”

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2022-04-11

An Interview with Jim G. Helton – President of Tri-State Freethinkers

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/07

So many terms float around the Web, but they’re generally overlapping, such as secular humanist, bright, and so on. For the Tri-State Freethinkers, what is the definition of a freethinker?

Basically, somebody who makes decisions using science, logic, and reason without dogma.

How did you become a freethinker?

It started with my wife. We were getting-married Catholic. And we were going through the process; she knew nothing about religion. The priest was explaining the Eucharist. My wife said, “You want me to drink who and eat what?” She was being serious.

[Laughing]

[Laughing] That started my doubts and got me out of my bubble. It was a 10-year downward spiral from Catholicism to Christianity to Deist to agnostic to atheism over a period of researching the Bible and questioning things. That’s what started my questioning.

Based on conversation with others, and based on reading about the topic extensively, what seems like the main reason for people becoming freethinkers?

It is different for a lot of people. For me, when I started researching the Bible, it wasn’t to disprove it. Being raised Catholic, I thought some of these are truths. Some of these are moral stories. I wanted to find the fact from the fiction. I was horrified when I found out it was pretty much all fiction—like none of it was true. It was eye-opening for me. For some, it is morality.

That was also a part of it. When you start looking at the moral of the story, even though you say it isn’t true historically, people say to look at the moral of the story.

The Internet has been a huge boost for people to have access to information. That’s been huge. For Millennials, it seems to be the anti-equal rights stance the church has taken on issues, e.g. LGBTQ, women’s health care. It has pushed a lot of people away from the church.

What is the best argument for freethinking you’ve ever come across?

The best argument for it. It just makes sense. If you were using common sense and you were using logic and reason with no agenda, you would want to know the truth. It’s not necessarily where religion comes from. Religion starts with the answer and then they do everything they can to prove that it’s true. Science starts with a question & then searches for the truth no matter where it takes us.

If life was lived that way, and politics was that way, the world would be so much of a better place.

Now, you are the president of Tri-State Freethinkers. Did you found it?

Yes, my wife and I founded it 4 years ago.

What bumps and setbacks, and successes, came along with founding it with your wife?

It was an amazing thing. I got back from the Reason Rally and was motivated to do something.

The original Reason Rally; and my wife wanted to do community service projects, but it was all churches proselytising. We founded Tri-State Freethinkers on the foundation of doing activism for myself, and community service for my wife. But we needed a way to bring people in, so we used education as a way to do that by having meetings.

Then we created some social events because we really enjoyed each other’s company. We have 1,900 members in our parent organisation within 4 years. We absorbed 3 other organisations, which gives us about 5,500 members, with some overlap. It has been an amazing journey. We’ve made national and international press based on protests against the Ark Encounter. We changed the public perception of what a freethinker & atheist is. But it has also come with a price. It cost me my original job.

I’ve received death threats. My family and kids have also received threats. That’s the baggage that comes with the territory, but I would say that’s few and far between compared to all of the good that we’re doing. It provides a sense of community for people. I would do it again if I could.

With the 5,500 members based on the absorption of the other organisations, what are some of the demographics? Who is most likely to be a freethinker?

So, age-wise, we’re very mixed. We have kids come to some of our events all the way up to seniors. We are very, very age diverse. We’re also not very heavily male-dominated. 70% of our board are women & about 50% of our members are women. Where we need to get better on diversity is with race. We live in Kentucky, which isn’t very diverse & other races tend to be more religious, it is even harder to break that barrier.

You mentioned the change in perception of the public in the local area of atheism, or freethinking, in general. As well, you noted national and international press for the organisation. What explicit activist causes has Tri-State Freethinkers taken up, what were they, and what were their successes?

We’ve taken on quite a bit. Our first one, we adopted the highway in front of the Creation Museum.

[Laughing]

[Laughing] We also followed up with the highway in front of the Ark Encounter. That got us a lot of press in the atheist and freethought community. In addition, we were doing a community service project. It brought people out to do atheist community service. People will do it. It was a huge turnout. That was the first thing we did. The second thing we did was challenging Gideon Bible distribution in the public schools.

We were successful in removing them from the public schools in Kentucky. Not all of them because they are like whack-a-mole. They pop up everywhere, but we have been successful in stopping it. I get calls from all over the country. I even got a call from Canada asking, “How can you combat the Gideons?” There are ways to stop them. We have become very, very good at it. So, that got us a lot of recognition on our success.

We tackled sex education. There were churches teaching abstinence only sex education in public schools. We have gotten very good at throwing out the churches that teach that. We struggled at getting comprehensive sex education implemented. It is an ongoing process. We have created a little noise there. We’re stilling working on that.

We put an international project together where people from around the world come in from the Ark Encounter. We were on Fox & Friends Live, The New York Times, the Washington Post, and all of the local TV. People from the UK and Sweden. We are in the Bill Nye Film that is coming out. It is a small piece, but we have a cameo in the Bill Nye film. We Believe in Dinosaurs documentary about the Ark Encounter. We have a fairly decent-sized role in that.

We help pass women’s resolution in Cincinnati saying we have to pay them equally, give them health care and services, and so on. We hope to have the ordinance passed this year.

We’ve taken on equal rights issues. We are doing the March for Science. We were behind the Women’s March here in Cincinnati. So, with equal rights, we try to get involved from an activism standpoint to bring out our members.

What is the general perception of freethinking in America?

90% of people don’t know what it is. That’s why David Silverman from American Atheists doesn’t use it because nobody knows what it is. [Laughing] That’s exactly why we chose the name because people don’t know what it is. A lot of people join our group because they agree with our social issues. But if we said we were an atheist organisation, they wouldn’t come to us.

So, we don’t ask what your religion is. We don’t ask if you have any.

With most people, once they get in the social circle and start talking, they realise they have the same values. They’re probably either deist or agnostic. They just didn’t identify as an atheist, just because of the terminology. Personally, I identify as an atheist, but as a group we’re open to beyond atheists. A lot of people that hang around us end up identifying as atheists as well, but we don’t ask and we don’t care.

We do so many things it’s hard to name them all. We’ve taken on the death penalty. We are for dying with dignity. We support Planned Parenthood. We’re there almost every week. We don’t expect everyone to agree with us on every issue to be part of our group.

By my read of the United States in recent history and currently, there are rather extreme religious perspectives—religious fundamentalism. At the same time, the majority of religious individuals are like most non-believing individuals. They live their lives decently and get along with their neighbour. What are some activities that you’re coordinating with religious groups for good causes?

For instance, you were mentioning feeding the homeless. Are there initiatives akin to that where you’re building bridges like that among communities, between communities?

Let me go back a question because it will tie in together. I think when people take action, they worry about offending people or trying to appeal to a wide range of people. When we do something or we do an action, for instance, we protested the Ark Encounter by putting up a billboard and it was on the site for a day. It got everybody’s attention. People were like, “You’re going to piss off the Christians.” We were like, “Don’t care.” “You are only appealing to your base.” “Yes.” “You are only doing this for hardcore atheists.” “Yes, that was my goal.”

We want it because those hardcore people that would come out for that are the ones who are going to run the organisation. They are the ones who are going to work 1-20 hours a week volunteering for free. That’s my appeal. That’s what I wanted. I wasn’t extending an olive branch to my Christian neighbours. They were not my target. I still knew the creationists were going to go. At the same time, our interfaith committee says, “We have a meeting with the church.”

I’m like, “I’ve got a meeting with the mayor next week.” “This is going to make it harder for us.” I’m like, “I agree.” We were feeding the homeless once a year. We need to do it once per month. We need to do more community service. That is our outreach. We are at a church every month feeding homeless people. We’re with Habitat for Humanity who has never met an atheist before.

Then it creates dialogue. We were building a porch with a Christian group. I’m like, “We’re never going to get this porch done.” He’s like, “Jim, you just gotta have faith.” I’m like, “I have no faith, that’s the problem.” Then we both laugh. At the end of the day, the porch got done. He’s like, “See, all you had to have was a little faith.” I’m like, “You call it faith. I call it I convinced 6 more people to help.” But we can argue who gets credit.

[Laughing] But it got done, that’s the point.

It creates dialogue. It breaks down these barriers. When we do that, we do a lot of interfaith outreach. We say, “Do you agree with us on women’s issues?” I went to the state council with a Catholic nun. We’re fighting against the death penalty. A couple of months later, the Catholic church is protesting Planned Parenthood while we’re supporting it. If we find allies on an issue, I don’t care who they are.

We will partner and accept them for that issue, which I think gives us a lot of credibility. We’re going after legislation. We are going after state legislation for sex education. So, we take a multipronged approach from our activism. We are trying to reach our base that people here in the community, nonbelievers, are just like them and that we care about the community as well. We do social events like a movie night. We do a multipronged approach, very targeted, of who we are targeting and why.

We don’t worry about the people who are not targeted. The Ark Encounter, the Christians aren’t happy about it. When we are at a church feeding people, some of the atheists aren’t happy, but they aren’t our target. We do very targeted approaches on how to grow the group and the movements as a whole, and we are not afraid to do so and to reach people we feel need reaching.

How can people get involved with Tri-State Freethinkers?

With the Tri-State Freethinkers, all of our meetings are on Meetup.com. For example, February is 28 days, we had 29 meetups in February. We are probably one of the most active groups in the country. Meetup.com, you type up ‘Tri-State Freethinkers.’ You Google us. There are more pages. We also have, if you’re not close us, http://www.tristatefreethinkers.com/.

There’s a ‘support us’ page, where people can support us financially. Or because what we do is relevant to other states and organisations around the country, you can email me or call us about sex education, Gideons, and women’s rights issues. We share this information freely with other groups. Also, our Facebook page is where we post most of our news stories. On average, we get from 50,000 to 500,000 hits per week depending on what we’re doing at the time.

The news is Facebook. The events are Meetup. The website if you need a resource for some of the previous things.

Thank you for your time, Mr. Helton.

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2022-04-11

Philosophy News in Brief – April 6th, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/06

Rutgers University world-class philosophy department

According to the Daily Targum, the Rutgers philosophy programme was listed as having one of the best philosophy programmes in the United States. In fact, the department has taken the attention of Tsinghua University in China.

Tsinghua University has produced a “special book series where they publish Western philosophical studies. Their March issue includes a section dedicated to philosophy at Rutgers, and they translated six influential articles from some of the University’s most famous philosophers into Chinese.”

Many philosophers from Rutgers have earned various national and international awards, honours, and fellowships including those from Harvard, Oxford, Princeton, and Stanford.

Yoga good for physical and mental wellness

Quartz has reported that the local yoga class can improve one’s physical flexibility and “serenity.” A philosophy professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Lisa Miracchi, said behaviour, reasoning, and relationships can improve with its practice.

Miracchi notes that it is possible to examine the “emotions and sensations” for life as well as a complex philosophical worldview. Something that is “missing from contemporary Western philosophies, [and] can help make you a better person.”

“These benefits are not a coincidence. Yoga is part of a Hindu philosophy that, alongside a metaphysics and epistemological perspective, teaches yoga as a practical element.”

African Philosophy ‘Ubuntu’ as Students’ David Peace Grant Project

University of Virginia stated, “University of Virginia students will spend their summer in South Africa trying to rekindle a deeper appreciation of “ubuntu,” an African traditional philosophy focused on compassion and community, with a Davis Projects for Peace grant.”

The second-year students included: Jillian Randolph, Naki Kaur, Madeline Curry, and Sophie Binns. They are majoring in global studies. The aim is to develop a youth development centre in Khayelitsha in South Africa.

Randolph said, “We will create sustainable activities for youth through engaging the community in discussions of ubuntu…that emphasizes human commonality, community relations and compassion.”

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2022-04-11

Education News in Brief – April 6th, 2017

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/06

Inspire Maths textbooks series make “inroads” in Britain

According to the Straits Times, the maths style taught in Singapore is being used in the United States in “thousands of schools.” It is beginning to be used in the British schools too. There is a textbook series entitled Inspire Maths.

The textbooks were given a trial run in 70 primary schools in Britain via the Department of Education over the past 2 years. In terms of mastering the subject more, the textbooks appeared to be helpful.

“Now, with another £41 million (S$72 million) from the British government – to fund a network of “mastery specialist teachers” – the Singapore style of teaching maths may reach as many as 8,000 primary schools in Britain over the next few years.”

200,000 might be in poverty due to benefits changes

BBC News states that the changes to the benefits plans could lead to 200,000 being placed in poverty. That is, the payments to a limited number of benefits, will go to the first two children. Families are said to be £3,000 worse off per annum due to this.

That is according to the The Child Poverty Action Group and Institute for Public Policy Research. “Ministers say they are determined to tackle the root causes of disadvantage and make work pay,” the BBC said.

“The changes affect families who claim tax credits and Universal Credit;” a process that is intended to replace tax credits by 2022.

Religious countries less educated

The Independent reported that talented students from poor families earn less than those from richer families that achieve less in education, according to the Education Secretary. Justine Greening called this a “cold, hard, economic imperative.”

Greening, who spoke at a conference on social mobility said, “Children from high-income backgrounds who show signs of low academic ability at age five are 35 per cent more likely to become high earners than their poorer peers who show early signs of high ability.”

This was based on Greening’s “experience growing up in Rotherham” and observing the challenges faced by poorer families.

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2022-04-11

Make Your Life Meaningful

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/06

The Mayo Clinic, in a little ditty in their news network section caught my eye, which was a report or a post, more accurately, on global meaning and personal meaning. It was entitled Something to Think About: Personal and global meaning.

A certain Dr. Amit Sood, a well-qualified professional as the director of research in the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program on Mayo Clinic’s Rochester campus in Minnesota, wrote the piece.

Being the Mayo Clinic, he knows what he’s talking about. He opens with “It is easier and more useful to make your life more meaningful than to search for the ultimate meaning of life.”

He spoke to the nature of science and the ease with which one can find, at least, some meaning without ultimate meaning. To me, it is like asking, “What can help me build some more meaning?” Rather than, “Why are we here?” Both important questions.

However, one is more doable, and the doable one seems to be the former, for anyone with the will to put in the work, which seems to be the big tip.

“Awareness of the unimaginably large size of our universe (estimated at ninety-one billion light-years) creates a sense of awe—about the vastness of it all,” Dr. Sood said. “Knowledge about the subatomic quantum world with awareness of the power of intentionality is truly fascinating. But the details of physics at both the cosmic and the quantum levels still leave the curious mind dissatisfied.”

I see what he is driving at. I assume you see the same. The driving towards how before why, and sometimes the never-found why can be the big disappointment, where the littler howcan be an infinite source of daily, and moment-to-moment, curiosity.

“I…know how to align my limited mind with what I believe is my primary evolutionary responsibility—to help create a safer, happier, kinder world for our planet’s children,” Dr. Sood said.

Making piecemeal influence, working for the world at large, taking part in the individual pursuit – and responsibility – of the construction of meaning, and being that drop in the proverbial ocean.

“I believe contextual, transient meanings all converge to a global meaning. If I can take hold of my own little meaning and pursue it to the deepest place it can take me, the reflection of the global meaning might reveal itself. That will be enough.” And how about you, is it enough…got meaning?

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2022-04-11

Europe has had a Measles Outbreak

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/05

The United Nations (UN) has made a recent announcement about the outbreak of measles in continental Europe.

It is unexpected. Hundreds of measles cases have been reported in continental Europe where the disease was thought to have been eliminated in full by the United Nations health agency devoted to it.

This elimination was thought to be due to vaccinations for children on the part of families and national authorities. In addition, there were more drastic measures to have transmission stopped at the borders. There were hundreds of cases with most in “France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, and Ukraine,” recently.

The largest outbreaks have been found in Romania. There have been over 3,400 cases since January, so three months at 3,400 cases comes to about 1,130 to 1,140 cases per month – January, February, and March – since the start of 2017.

In addition, there are expected to be 850 cases in Italy in the coming weeks there. The national immunization estimates are assumed to be very good in continental Europe. It is important to bear in mind that “measles is a highly contagious virus that remains endemic in most parts of the world.”

Zsuzsanna Jakab, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe, said, “Outbreaks will continue in Europe, as elsewhere, until every country reaches the level of immunization needed to fully protect their populations.”

The “estimated national immunization coverage with the second dose of measles-containing vaccine is believed to be less than the 95 per cent threshold,” the Jakab said.

With the lower than desired immunization rates, the potential for the spread of measles is high.

“I urge all endemic countries to take urgent measures to stop transmission of measles within their borders,” Jakab said, “and all countries that have already achieved this to keep up their guard and sustain high immunization coverage. Together we must make sure that the hard-earned progress made towards regional elimination is not lost.”

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2022-04-11

World Health Organization Meets with Partners at Summit

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/05

The World Health Organization (WHO) met at the South Sudan National Health Summit with its (the WHO’s) various partners with over 500 participants coming to the meeting to discuss, and face, the challenges and opportunities that are potentially there for the “years ahead.”

The Republic of South Sudan’s Ministry of Health is the main partner with the World Health Organization in the subject area of challenges and opportunities for the years ahead. Some of the aims of the meeting will be new strategies and financing mechanisms being tied to political developments for the strengthening of the national health system.

However, there will be resource restrictions for the country and, therefore, for the ministry. The socioeconomic context of the country is fragile. And there are increased risks with the reduction in funding of communicable disease outbreaks in addition to malnutrition.

Also, there has been a famine with over 100,000 people facing starvation and another 1 million on the brink of famine. What is more, the average life expectancy for the country is, circa 2012, 55.

And the means of dying are far-ranging, and relatively common, which makes the importance of this summit even more clear.

These causes of death include: HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, acute respiratory infections, other infectious diseases, maternal, neonatal, nutritional cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, other NCDs, Suicide, homicide and conflict, and unintentional injuries.

The main purpose of the South Sudanese National Health Summit is to “build a resilient health system and obtain greater access to health services,” according to the WHO. The theme for the 5-day event is “Harnessing Strong Partnerships for a Resilient Health System towards attainment of Universal Health Coverage.”

The South Sudan Minister of Health, Dr. Riek Gai Kok, “convened the National Health Summit” in order to “foster understanding on South Sudan’s new National Health Policy (2016-2026).”

The needs of the population in terms of humanitarian assistance have increased in a significant way. So there is impetus behind this.

The WHO representative to South Sudan, Dr. Abdulmumini Usman, said, “We are facing an immediate crisis from famine that requires immediate action by South Sudan’s health sector…However, the National Health Summit also must give a voice to all of the 12 million people in South Sudan because this is a country facing a myriad of health crises from conflict to disasters to disease outbreaks impacting everyone.”

According to the WHO report, there is a predicted Famine Response Strategy agreement amongst the partners and the WHO meeting at the summit. However, the report for the 5-day conference was on March 27, so the agreement should be reached, or not, by now.

Regardless, there are millions who require health services: “5.4 million people are in need of health services, including 1.9 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), 1.4 million refugees…WHO estimates that 12.3 million people in South Sudan are at risk due to disease outbreaks.”

Even with these critical cases in the millions, there have been significant signals as to some of the positive changes that have taken place within South Sudan for the Sudanese population with health risks.

For example, WHO provided support for a “nationwide vaccination campaign against polio for 3 million children under age 5, including in famine-affected areas…[and] a cholera vaccination campaign.”

Much of this includes training and educating practitioners for these campaigns. “Dr Helen Rees, WHO Chairperson for WHO’s Africa Regional Immunisation Technical Advisory Group,” acted as the chair for the National Health Summit.

For further information:

Statement by WHO Representative at the 3rd National Health Summit of South Sudan

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2022-04-11

Stability of Personality Less Certain Over Time

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/05

It has been reported by the World Economic Forum (WEF) that in a study – with implications for the concept of “self” or “personhood” – an individual changes significantly over time to the point that a senior does not even recognise himself/herself very much as a teenager.

This has been called an ‘ongoing psychological and philosophical debate,’ according to research on personality over time. In fact, this is the longest personality study ever published. The study has been published in the journal entitled Psychology and Aging.

The British Psychological Society highlighted the research suggesting that over the course of time the cells in your body, the appearance to yourself, and your personality are significantly changed to the point of non-recognition.

The study involved 14-year-olds from 1950 a survey in Scotland totalling 1,208 people There were six questionnaires to measure core personality traits: “self-confidence, perseverance, stability of moods, conscientiousness, originality, and desire to learn.”

The collected results from the questionnaires where then titled one trait: “dependability.” After 6 decades, the researchers were able to track down a little over half of the participants or the research subjects.

Of those 635, 174 participants consented to a repeat testing from the 1950 survey. In other words, 1,208 14-year-olds in Scotland in 1950 took part in a 6 questionnaire test for the amalgamated “dependability” trait with 635 being tracked down over 60 years later – and of those 635 there were 174 taking part.

The participants were 77-years-old. The findings are reported to have surprised the researchers because over shorter periods of time personality traits appear to be robustly consistent, and the several decades study in regular intervals of life such as “childhood to middle-age, or middle-aged to older age.”

There was also stability, but there does appear to be change in fundamental personality characteristics in the participants of the study. A 63-year gap for the participants, which is much more significant than the age ranges of childhood to middle age, or middle-age to older age.

63 years can probably be considered a range of childhood to post retirement age. The author of the WEF article argues that there is then truth in the Buddhist conception of a non-stability in the sense of the self. That is, it is more or less an illusion. This is a statement of the writer based on increasing neuroscientific research.

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2022-04-11

Lifespan in the US is Behind Other Nations

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/05

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has reported – in coordination with Fortune – that the United States of America is behind other countries in the average lifespan of its citizens. American citizens are living shorter lives than other nations’ members.

WEF noted that the crime rate and the bad provisions for healthcare were the main reasons to blame for the lowered life expectancy for its citizens, Sy Mukherjee wrote in the WEF report. In fact, the gap is projected to grow between 2017 and 2030 on average, based on a new study in the Lancet.

Based on research from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Imperial College London, the average length of lives for the world will increase, but the deal with the United States is that its rate of improvement will be much slower compared to other countries.

For example, women will have an average lifespan of 83.3 while men will have an average lifespan of 79.5 there, by 2030. However, South Korea will fair much better with women living upwards of 91.1 years on average and men living to 84.1 years on average, also by 2030.

The reason for the current and growing discrepancy in the lifespans, apparently, comes down to the healthcare system in the US without a universal coverage policy tied to an attenuated – a weakened – safety new.

Other things include a fat nation, an obese nation. The authors of the study said, “The USA has the highest child and maternal mortality, homicide rate, and body-mass index of any high-income country…”

For the first time in 20 years, according to the projections from the Centers for Disease Control in the United States, the life expectancy could actually drop for the citizenry of America.

“The only top 10 killer of Americans where the survival rate increased that year was for cancer, which has seen a flurry of interest from the biopharma industry.”

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2022-04-11

The Mother of Iranian Feminism – Sediqeh Dowlatabadi

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/05

Based on work by Fuuse called sister-hood, I recently came across someone whom I did not know about before, and will never know in person or in correspondence – to my detriment – named Sediqeh Dowlatabadi, who was born in 1882 in Estafan.

She is described as the founding mother of Iranian feminism and one of the pioneering figures in the Persian women’s movement.

But this does not limit taking in the data with a critical eye and sympathetic heart. And hey, it’s the way to go. Her heritage was an “old and respected family” in the area. While studying in Tehran, she married at age 15, while divorcing shortly after.

Age 35, she created the “first girl’s schools and women’s organisation.” However, the school was attacked – by Conservative clerics – in addition to Sediqeh being beaten by them. 2 years later, so age 37, she founded “The Woman’s Voice” – or Zaban-e Zanan – in Esfahan.

The publication was banned by the authorities in Iran. It only accepted submissions from women and girls. With the closing of the magazine, she worked to fight the British influence on Iranian politics as well as continued the campaign for women’s rights.

Come 1926, she went to Paris’s Sorbonne University and earned a degree in education. In sister-hood it reads, “1926, she served as the representative for Iran at the tenth congress of the International Alliance for Women’s Suffrage.”

She became the supervisor of Women’s Education in 1928, when she returned to it – as well as the director of the Inspectorate of Women’s Schools.

Also, she was crucial to women’s suffrage, according to the profile. That is, Dowlatabadi “persuaded Mohammad Mossadeq to grant women the vote; but due to the British/American sponsored coup, this never came to pass. In 1962, Sediqua died, at 80 years of age.” In her will, it said: “I will never forgive women who visit my grave veiled.”

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2022-04-11

Q&A on Philosophy, with Dr. Stephen Law – Session 1

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/04

Dr. Stephen Law is Reader in Philosophy at Heythrop College, University of London. He is also editor of THINK: Philosophy for Everyone, a journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy (published by Cambridge University Press). Stephen has published numerous books on philosophy, including The Philosophy Gym: 25 Short Adventures in Thinking (on which an Oxford University online course has since been based) and The Philosophy Files (aimed at children 12+). Stephen is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts. He was previously a Junior Research Fellow at The Queen’s College, Oxford, and holds B.Phil. and D.Phil. degrees in Philosophy from the University of Oxford. He has a blog at www.stephenlaw.org. Stephen Law was Provost of CFI UK from July 2008-January 2017 taking on overall responsibility for the organisation, and particular responsibility for putting on talks and other educational events and programmes.

Scott Jacobsen: One of my favourite ideas I have come across from you is the “Going Nuclear” method. When losing an argument, Going Nuclear involves the adoption of a super sceptical position, which blows up the foundation for discussion. What are some examples of this?

Dr. Stephen Law: That’s right. It’s a rhetorical move. When it looks like your intellectual opponent is about to lose the argument, they suddenly get super sceptical. That gives them a great get-out-of-jail-free card. One way they may get super sceptical is to run the following argument:

‘You are using reason in this argument. But how can you justify your use of reason?! Any justification you supply will itself use reason! So it will be a circular justification. And circular justifications are no justifications at all: like trusting a second-hand car salesman because he says he is trustworthy. But if you can’t justify reason, then your entire argument collapses!’

Having detonated this sceptical bomb, your opponent can now insist that it’s ‘faith positions all round’. Your view is really no more reasonable than theirs. I call this ‘Going Nuclear’ because the effect of their bringing in this super sceptical argument is that this lays waste to every position – both yours and theirs – achieving what in the Cold War was called ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’. It looked like you were about to win the intellectual battle, but by Going Nuclear, your opponent has made it all square again. Both your positions now come out as equally (un)reasonable!

This strategy is particularly popular in religious and New Age circles. You might think you have established beyond reasonable doubt that Mary’s wrong to believe there are fairies living at the bottom of her garden, but then Mary Goes Nuclear and says: ‘Ah, you’re using reason. And reason is just another faith position. So your belief that there are no fairies in my garden is just as much a faith positions as my belief that there are!’

Mary became super sceptical about the foundation for debate. In this example, it is equivocation between reason and faith. Although, of course, the use of reason, proper, reduced Mary’s belief in fairies living at the bottom of her garden to rubble. Going Nuclear is also commonly employed by religious folk – including theologians who should know better – when they start losing an argument with an atheist.

What’s bad about ‘Going Nuclear’ is that it’s applied in a selective and partisan way; it only occurs to Mary to get sceptical about reason when she starts losing the argument. It does not happen when Mary’s winning the argument. Up until that point, she was happy to rely on it. In this case, the distinction between faith and reason, which is pretty foundational. Of course, she’s happy to rely it on it, all the time, in other contexts, when trusting the brakes on her car or figuring out how many tiles she needs to tile her bathroom. So Mary is just using the scepticism as a smokescreen device: as a trick to (i) distract attention away from the fact that, by the standards of reason she accepts in every other corner of her life, you’re winning the argument and (ii) get you bogged down in dealing with a thorny – and largely irrelevant – sceptical puzzle.

SJ: Do you think that the religious or the New Age are more problematic in general – not only in the use of techniques of shutting down losing arguments such as the ‘Going Nuclear’ method – but in the promotion by the government and in the educational system? For examples, the 26 Church of England, or C of E, bishops in the House of Lords as well as considerable numbers of faith schools. We do not see explicit requirements for Atheists or Humanists in the House of Lords or the permission for humanistic schools. According to the BBC (2011), there are 7,000 faith schools out of the 20,000 schools in the United Kingdom (UK). 35% of the schools seems like too many.

SL: I am more concerned about mainstream religion than New Age belief because mainstream religion wields considerable political power in the UK. Indeed, they are working hard to gain more. The UK is fairly politically secular, but, as you say, there is state funding of religious schools (not humanist schools) and the C of E automatically gets to put its bishops in the House of Lords where, e.g. they can potentially block legislation.

SJ: How early is it reasonable to teach critical thinking, logic, science, and statistics? How might this change the culture in the UK?

It is an empirical question, “How early are children able to engage productively in these activities?” However, the evidence suggests early. There have been pilot studies with philosophy in the classroom with children as young as 5, where it has been successful. So the evidence suggests these can be taught young.

Of course, not everyone is keen on children being encouraged to think critically about the beliefs they bring with them into the classroom. Particularly when it comes to religious beliefs, while paying lip service to the goodness of free thought, the truth is many religious individuals find excuses to place their own religious belief off-limits.

There is growing evidence that independent and philosophical thinking is good for kids’ emotional, social, and intellectual health. It can be tempting, when faced with the threat of young people being indoctrinated into dangerous belief systems, to try to get our own indoctrination in first. However, the best defence against young people getting radicalised and drawn into dangerous belief systems is not to get our own indoctrination in first, but to make them resistant to indoctrination in the first place – whether religious or otherwise.

That means raising them to have the sense and skills to spot when someone is trying to manipulate them, to spot when bad arguments are being passed off as good, and so on. Raising young people to be good, independent critical thinkers is, I think, our best defence against the kind of moral horrors that marred the 20th century. Sure, you always run a risk when you encourage people to think independently and make their own judgements. What if they end up rejecting the values we’d like them to have?

But the greater risk comes from raising moral sheep. That is, people who may do the right thing, but only because they are told to the right thing. When some more seductive pied-piper comes along, they may then be drawn into walking down some very dark alleys. They will lack the intellectual and emotional defences they’ll need to resist.

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2022-04-11

Family Trees for Our Stars

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/04

Mary Johnson-Groh discussed the methodological cross-over act from biology to cosmology with the attempt, recently, of astronomers to build the family tree of the stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, akin to methodologies found in biology to classify species, and families, orders, and so on.

With the classification in biology as taxonomy, the field of biology has become much more complex with the increase in evidence. However, the ability to catalogue provides a systematised manner in which to find and classify species, whether new or old.

This has been termed the family tree in terms of the tracing of the lineages of organisms. Apparently, astronomers are beginning to borrow from biology to catalogue and organise, in a systematic way, the stars.

In particular, this is being used for the Milky Way Galaxy. In a way, the information encoded into DNA can be used to decipher the lineage of an organism and the relationship of one organism to another, in that tree of life.

The chemical composition of the elements within stars can be used to determine its history. What fuel is it burning? Hydrogen, Helium, Iron? There are proxies as to the composition and age of the stars based on their spectra because some fuels emit different electromagnetic radiation – or light – than others.

Anyway, this can give a tree of the evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy.

The laws governing galactic evolution and stellar evolution, or the evolution of the galaxy and the stars, differ from those of organisms, but the information is passed down in a general way – and in this general passing down can be used in similar way, in an analogous way, with the stars in the galaxy.

Some have termed this “astrocladistics” after cladistics. It is a way to determine the characteristics inherited by stars over time in the galaxy. So astrocladistics deals with the formation and evolution of stars over time, or stellar evolution and formation. For this particular example, the Milky Way Galaxy that we inhabit.

The younger stars are to be found in the central thin desk of the Galaxy with the older stars in the thicker disk. The thickness of the disks differs for the young and the old stars. The thick disk, apparently, is said to be like a “diffuse cloud.”

However, researchers found a third category of stars, or stellar family. This raises questions. What is the origin of the newly found family of stars? As things move through the ‘heavens,’ we can see the trajectory and the age of the stars.

Did they form within the Galaxy or outside of it? The third category appears to be a family of stars termed “late-bloomers” because of their apparent formation from a possible galactic merger or the “collision” of two (or more) galaxies into one.

However, there are difficulties in the appropriate translation of the methodologies found in the biological sciences to the astronomical sciences, but the generalised analogous methodologies are used to suss out the general information about the family of stars in our Galaxy.

In that, the researchers found three classifications: the young and the old from within the original galaxy, and the late-bloomers from the collision of one (or more) galaxies together.

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2022-04-11

According to Research, Negative Emotions Are Vital to Well-Being

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/04

It has been reported, according to the research, negative feelings are in fact part of the process of feeling well and essential for mental health.

The research showed that negative motions were likely important for our very survival.

Over time, species become carved out. Human beings are no different. Therefore, the fact that we have negative emotions as well as positive emotions is important to keep in mind about general well-being. In fact, the suppression of various feelings and thoughts can turn out to be harmful.

As noted by Tori Rodriguez in 2013, “A crucial goal of therapy is to learn to acknowledge and express a full range of emotions, and here was a client apologising for doing just that.”

He takes his psychotherapy practice as a time to help clients deal with some of the most difficult emotions – some of the most extreme negative emotions – in human life such as “extreme anger” or “suicidal thoughts.”

But there is a trend among some to hide those feelings because of a feeling of guilt associated with having the emotions perceived to be or given a blanket negative valuation. Rodrigues attributes this to our culture’s hyper-focus on the positive.

As Richard Pryor instructs us: “All humour is rooted in pain” or “I had some great things and I had some bad things. The best and the worst . . . In other words, I had a life.”

Rodrigues continued, “Although positive emotions are worth cultivating, problems arise when people start believing they must be upbeat all the time. In fact, anger and sadness are an important part of life, and new research shows that experiencing and accepting such emotions are vital to our mental health.”

He goes on to talk about the various ways that the suppression of positive emotions can be a bad thing for the individual affecting even one’s own eating patterns for the worst. It is important to express oneself he stresses.

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2022-04-11

Solar Energy Systems Become More Viable and the Global Energy Chain Changes

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/03

The world’s energy systems are changing at an increasingly rapid rate, which is changing the dynamics of the global energy system. All of this bound by the needs of the public based on growing global population and the increased consumption patterns of the public.

Solar energy is becoming more dominant with each passing year. The World Economic Forum (WEF) reports that Germany reached 41GW by the end of 2016. “In contrast to earlier energy system evolutions, the arena this time is undergoing a truly disruptive transformation,” WEF said.

There is a modern wave, global change, in the energy sector driven by both the customer and the focus. The focus, too, being on the customer. The gird edge technologies pitched by the Paris agreement with distributed batteries and solar energy are important.

The scene is being set for more and more engaged and active customers. The customers will be able to profit from modern technologies in addition to be able to transform the system of energy production and distribution throughout the world.

“So the customer today is not a consumer, but rather a prosumer combining own generation of energy with ever more efficient and increasingly smarter consumption. This is why I believe, the change is not customer centric. The customer is the change itself,” the WEF said.

The WEF related two sides to the issue. One was the production side and the other was the consumption. With production, the services and products will be decentralised. With consumption, billions of assets throughout the world will be more thoroughly integrated than ever before.

This digital enabling of the customer with the energy grid is revolutionising the global energy system. This is part of modern and upcoming, and ongoing, connectivity, which is described in three parts.

The first is the sharing that involves people such as communities and regions. The second will be the transformed energy system based on the customer sharing of energy including the transfer of renewable electricity for heating and mobility. The third part of this energy sharing will be the connection between the aforementioned prosumers – those creating their own energy and using energy – and the regular consumer with energy or assets, e.g. the use of e-vehicles or the sharing of energy generation plants, and so on.

So this sharing will be a platform that will allow those kinds of sharing.

“A platform which provides to the customers on the one hand the efficient and flexible physical exchange of energy just as the indispensable security of supply.” the WFF said. “A better world, where it is only about the customer.”

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2022-04-11

Evolution vs. Creationism: Inside the Controversy

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/03

Scientific American recently published a short e-book, Evolution vs. Creationism: Inside the Controversy. It relates to the perennial social controversy – creationism versus evolution. Where the substantive evidence supports the bottom-up theorisation around evolution rather than the top-down face value plus scriptural assertion from numerous religious sectors within the religious subpopulation, not all, by any stretch, but, many, many religious folks, especially in America and the Muslim-majority countries adhere to creationist or quasi-creationist perspectives on the development and speciation of species.

In the world at large, evolution remains the minority view. Creationism remains dominant. Why? In-built agency detection mechanisms, legacy of fundamentalist-literalist interpretation of holy scripture, indoctrination of youth reliant on inculcation of ignorance to keep congregations at a low cultural level, newness of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, many reasons exist. What’s the solution? It depends on what you want and how you define the problem.

From the experts in biological sciences with full comprehension of evolutionary theory, and who have encountered the counterarguments in continual barrages from minority sects of the religious population that claim to speak for the totality of religious believers, well-funded fundamentalist preachers and literalist doctrines argue for the young Earth and the top-down narrative provided by literalist readings of the Book of Genesis.

Also, time is a big one. If a philosophy exists for a long time, more than others, and more people happen to believe in it, then the truth might have a hard time overcoming the continual message of top-down design. We seem hardwired, or wet-wired, or evolved to perceive patterns without appropriate natural reality to the pattern, outside of the conceptualisation in our mind’s eye.

Back to this book that you should be reading instead of this, the controversy for evolution and creationism, among the majority of qualified professionals in the biological sciences — which can sound like argument from authority, but seems more akin to argument from authoritative authority, those with relevant expertise rather than irrelevant expertise or no expertise — amounts to ‘controversy’ because the unanimous vote is “for,” or “aye,” rather than “against,” or “nay,” regarding evolution.

We evolved. We remain evolved Great African apes from the Great Rift Valley. We can’t not have genetic relation in the beautiful phrase: the “Tree of Life.” It runs along Lebanon to Mozambique, and even makes for a good topic around Christmas and associated cultural celebrations. Evolution is like a random cousin from a faraway country, who barely speaks your language, hardly knows your culture, and stinks, but you come to grips with them because you realise, to them, you barely speak their language, hardly know their culture, and stink.

There’s a distant, yet deep, kinship in an evolutionary framework. It speaks to the commonality of everyone, but without reference to things outside of confirmed natural processes, except in idle speculation for fun. Humanism speaks to the same impulses. It describes, at least in its core values — not everyone agrees to the letter of the law, one common species — not ‘races,’ whatever that means — with common evolved cousins and common ancestors in a massive Tree of Life spanning up to 3.77 billion years ago. Wow. So yea, life is super old and evolved, not young and created all-at-once in an act of creation only a few thousand years ago. (I’m bad at endings.)

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2022-04-11

Tuberculosis Given New Guidelines from the World Health Organization

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/02

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that there are new tuberculosis ethics guidelines launched on March 22, 2017. The WHO aims to “ensure that countries implementing the End TB Strategy” (End Tuberculosis Strategy) continue to hold fast to standards of ethics

End TB Strategy adhere to sound ethical standards to protect the rights of all those affected.

Tuberculosis kills 5,000 people each day. Some of the most affected communities are those that come from socioeconomic disadvantage. For instance, these can include ethnic minorities, miners, refugees, migrants, and many, many others.

These people come at intersections of sanitation, income, nutritional, and housing or home problems. These people come at increased risk of alcohol use and diabetes, HIV and other things. And about one-third of tuberculosis cases go unreported or undiagnosed.

Indeed, this means many individuals with tuberculosis go without any adequate care. That’s why the WHO ethics guidance or guidelines are important. As part of the protection of human rights, the ethics around appropriate tuberculosis treatment is important.

There will be an upcoming conference that will then inform the United Nations General assembly high-level meeting on tuberculosis, which will be held for deliberation in 2018.

The WHO director-general, Dr. Margaret Chan, said, “TB strikes some of the world’s poorest people hardest…WHO is determined to overcome the stigma, discrimination, and other barriers that prevent so many of these people from obtaining the services they so badly need.”

The five key ethical obligations or responsibilities listed for care providers, governments, health workers, researchers, and NGOs are as follows:

provide patients with the social support they need to fulfil their responsibilities
refrain from isolating TB patients before exhausting all options to enable treatment adherence and only under very specific conditions
enable “key populations” to access same standard of care offered to other citizens
ensure all health workers operate in a safe environment
rapidly share evidence from research to inform national and global TB policy updates.

The implementation of these ethical obligations has been said to be difficult by the WHO news release. The current tuberculosis is multidrug-resistant. That is, if one form of tuberculosis is resistant to a specific form of drug, then giving multiple drugs increases the odds of non-resistance.

For example, if the odds of a disease being resistant to one drug is 1 in a 100, and if you want to increase the probability of a cure or immunity with the shot, and if the odds of the same disease being resistant to another drug is 1 in 20, then the odds of the drug being resistant to both used at the same time in the multidrug mix is 1 in 100 times 1 in 20, or 1 in 2,000.

However, the current multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is creating a “crisis and the health security threat.”

“Only when evidence-based, effective interventions are informed by a sound ethical framework, and respect for human rights, will we be successful in reaching our ambitious goals of ending the TB epidemic and achieving universal health coverage,” director of the WHO Global TB Programme, Dr. Mario Raviglione said. He also claimed that, “The SDG aspiration of leaving no one behind is centred on this.”

The conference to be held will be the Global Ministerial Conference in November of this year in Moscow. That will be the basis for informing the high-level UN meeting in 2018.

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2022-04-11

Scientists Edge Closer to Solving Mystery Element of Earth’s Core

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/01

The final puzzle piece in the jigsaw of the Earth’s core was discovered by scientists to complete the image of the contents, regarding elements, of the Earth’s core. The experiments and findings were by scientists from the University of Tohoku, according to the World Economic Forum.

The innermost part of the Earth, or the ‘core’, is made almost entirely of iron at 17 parts in 20. It is 1 part in 10 nickel. However, the remaining 5% – the remaining 1 part in 20 – appears to have been, for some time, a mystery. Based on research by Japanese team, the missing element has been discovered, which is now known to be silicon.

The BBC has reported on this. The solid core of the Earth lies about 3,000 kilometres below the surface with a radius of 1,200 kilometres, or a diameter of 2,400 kilometres (2r=d). It is deep, so deep as to almost be impossible to make direct tests about it.

The deepest mines in the world reach to only about four kilometres. Many of these mines are for gold mining. Many researchers thought that the element must be lighter because of the easy bonding of the metals, which might explain the properties of the mystery element while at the time not knowing its precise label.

So there was a minor model, a miniature model, of the Earth composed of a crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core. Alloys were made from iron and nickel and silicon with the admixture. They put them under tremendous pressure and temperatures upwards of 6,000°C.

The conditions in the experiment matched those from seismic data gathered about the Earth’s core. That seismic data is based on waves that appear to have emanated from the Earth’s core. The team then use this to extrapolate for sufficient evidence – and from the experiment – as to the contents of the core of the Earth as silicon, which was then claimed to be the missing element of the core of the Earth.

The Japanese team presented their research in the Fall meeting in San Francisco of the American Geophysical Union.

Simon Redfern, professor of mineral physics at the University of Cambridge, said:

These difficult experiments are really exciting because they can provide a window into what Earth’s interior was like soon after it first formed, 4.5 billion years ago, when the core first started to separate from the rocky parts of Earth…But other workers have recently suggested that oxygen might also be important in the core.

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2022-04-11

Ancient Particle Accelerator Discovered on Mars (Joke Article)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/01

New images of the surface of Mars taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter probe have revealed the presence of the largest particle accelerator Credit: Daniel Dominguez/ CERN.

European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has reported making a massive, and what some argue is incredible, discovery on the surface of Mars. The news, which came as a surprise to many of the 10,000 scientists involved, was the finding of another super-collider on Mars – CERN reports.

This substantial discovery has, quite ultra-remarkably, fallen on a remarkable day: April 1^st, 2017 – today! That’s right. Today!

According to the ‘reportage’ by Arnaud Marsollier, and posted by Harriet Kim Jarlett today, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter appears to have discovered a large, ancient particle accelerator on the surface of Mars.

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the meaning of which was previously a mystery, seem to corroborate these observations, leading scientists to believe that the pyramids might have served as giant antennae.

With the continual search for Earth-like planets and signs of life, especially intelligent life by SETI (Search for Extra-terrestrial Life), by various scientific groups, with proxies such as water, Mars has been a prime candidate. Could life be just this close?

NASA and CERN scientists believe we may have made an incredible discovery with the interdisciplinary team’s analysis of the archaeological, geological, and particle physics importance of the discovery of an ancient super-collider.

It was found on Olympus Mons. CERN reported that it was “previously thought to be the largest volcanic formation in the solar system,” but, it is “in fact the remains of an ancient particle accelerator thought to have operated several million years ago.”

The circumference of the machine on Mars is thought to be about 75 times the size of CERN at 2,000 kilometres. Not only that, it is thought to be millions of times more powerful.

Amazingly, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs came along with it, too. The pyramids must have served as an important communicator. “The pyramids on Earth might therefore have allowed the accelerator to be controlled remotely,” Marsollier reports.

Head of technical design at CERN, Friedrich Spader, examined the situation and the evidence and came to the probabilistic conclusion, “The accelerator control room was probably under the pyramids.” Remarkable.

This particle accelerator may in fact be a portal from the Solar System to an unknown location. Another solar system, or galaxy, or what might such an advanced civilisation? “The papyrus that was recently deciphered indicates that the powerful magnetic field,” said Fadela Emmerich, who is the lead scientist. He went on to say that “the movement of the particles in the accelerator were such that they would create a portal through space-time.”

The portal would be thought to be used almost 2 million years ago based on the examination of the evidence on hand, according to Eilert O’Neil, who said, “We’re probably talking about forgotten technologies and a highly advanced ancient civilisation.”

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2022-04-11

Namib Desert Recycles Fog and Dew

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/03/31

Cindy Fox Aisen of the The World Economic Forum (WEF), reported on the phenomena of the ocean not being the “sole source of life-sustaining fog and dew for the Namib Desert’s” flora and fauna.

Ecohydrologist – from ecohydrology, which is the field for studying the interactions of ecosystems and water – Lixin Wang, assistant professor of earth sciences at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said, “Knowing exactly where the fog and dew come from will help us predict the availability of non-rainfall water in the future…we may be able to determine ways to harvest novel water sources for potential use in water-scarcity situations.”

So, there’s fog from the ocean and fog from soil, or ocean-derived fog and non-ocean-derived fog. According to the WEF, non-ocean-derived fog accounts for half of the fog in Namib, which was based on a one-year study of the phenomena.

There’s soil water and ground water. Soil water is below the surface and groundwater is higher. When rainfall comes, then it seeps into the ground, and the rainfall eventually becomes the fog. Soil water, in other words, “turns out to be an unexpected source of moisture.”

In light of global warming or climate change, which is the increase in temperature of the Earth due to human activity starting with the First Industrial Revolution, many areas of the Earth are becoming drier, and drier, and unable to hold as much water because warm water evaporates.

Warmer land becomes drier land. “With global warming, more areas in the United States and around the world are becoming drier and more desert-like,” the WEF said.

The programme officer for the earth sciences division of the National Science Foundation, Tom Torgerson, said, “In the driest places on the planet, even seemingly minor components of the water cycle, such as fog and dew, become major and are critical to keeping the environment alive and functioning.”

There is a consistency in the ecosystems around the world with their hydrological cycles, The Namib Desert, or Namib in general, is no different. It borders the Atlantic Ocean by precisely 2,000 kilometres with a temperature range of 0°C to 60°C.

It is “almost completely devoid of surface water.” Throughout the entire year, very few days have rain. Some years have no rain, with at most 2 to 3 inches, maybe 4 inches, and the flora and fauna of the area survive because of fog and dew.

Wang described the “long-term goal” as the expansion of the Namib research into the globe.

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2022-04-11

One More Citation for You, Eugene Garfield (1925-2017)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/03/31

Eugene Garfield (1925-2017) has died. He died on February 26, 2017. He created the foundation for the Science Citation Index or the SCI. To quote Nature quoting Garfield’s friend, Joshua Lederberg, circa 1962, “I think you’re making history, Gene!”

And indeed, he did. The SCI became the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science. Citations are important in science, and other fields. It can mean the difference between tenured professor and instructor.

It is difficult to imagine modern scientific research with metrics of citations, or indexes of scientific utility. That is, if a colleague or a scientist finds a research paper or article useful, or of utility, they then use that article in their research articles and papers. They put it in the references. So they cite it.

Anyway, he enabled an entire field: scientometrics, the quantitative study of science and technology. As well, he not only enabled, but launched, The Scientist, which is magazine for life scientists. So, at least, two major contributions to the unification, academic and professional-social aspects, of the sciences.

Many of the services he constructed were able to summarise, filter, index and classify articles. Also, he wrote, a lot, over 1,000 articles that continue to have utility for many, many people.

He earned a chemistry degree from Columbia University, which is in New York. He wasn’t good as a lab assistant. So he chose to work on information science rather than chemistry.

’51 comes around the bend, and he begins to work at the “Welch Medical Library at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where almost all information services of the National Library of Medicine were born.”

He noticed the medical literature was pacing beyond the human index system. He made machine ones, automatized methodologies. Another bend to 1953 in the road of Garfield’s life. He was at the “First Symposium on Machine Methods in Scientific Documentation.”

Here was the introduction to the Shepard Citation system, which is a legal indexing system for citations from 1873. William Adair was contacted by Garfield. Adair was an ex-vice president at Shepard’s, which means expertise in the indexing system.

Garfield began to learn about it, and earn a MA in library and information science at Columbia University in 1954 plus a PhD in structural linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1961.

When 1955 had come around, Garfield invented the scientific citation index and “introduced it to readers of the journal Science (E. Garfield Science 122, 108–111; 1955).” It was one of the top articles by citation with a “lukewarm” response, at least at the time.

He went out everywhere to get funding – no good. Until, it was 1957 and the Sputnik launch by the Soviet Union made a panic in the US. High-rankers wanted to know about the efficacy of science.

So Lederberg and Garfield teamed up, and they built an automated citation index across science. The SCI was a net loss for many years, though. After the 1970s, the influence, so power and extent, of the SCI took greater hold.

In 1975, another metric was introduced for journals as a whole, which publish sets of articles as periodicals: Impact Factor. The Impact Factor is a measure of the frequency of citation in a given year within a specific journal.

“Garfield’s enthusiasm was not the bookkeeper’s but the visionary’s. He saw in his creations a better science for society and the ideal of a unified body of knowledge accessible to all,” Nature said.

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2022-04-11

Ranking Happiness – The Happy Planet Index (HPI)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/03/31

There have been tremendous gains over the last few decades, and over time in general, for the development of both happiness and sustainability with improvements in livelihoods and general health around the world.

It is part of a global agenda to have a happier, healthier, and greener, and more sustainable planet. It is tied into the progress of nations. Countries are progressing if you track them on metrics of citizen well-being and infrastructural development.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) reported with the Happy Planet Index (HPI) on that progress: “There’s wealth, there’s health, there’s basic human freedoms.” Indeed. Those are good factors in a measurement.

In fact, these factors, or “criteria,” are included in a number of rankings: “the Better Life Index to the Sustainable Economic Development Assessment and the World Happiness Report.

With the newest measurement, the HPI, these factors come into the metric with the additional inclusion of sustainability.

The calculation is as follows: “take the well-being and longevity of a population, measure how equally both are distributed, then set the result against each country’s ecological footprint.” That is, the life span, health span, and ecological footprint as a single index.

Ecological footprint as a factor related to sustainability. Sustainable societies produce less of an impact on the environment. The wealthiest countries found in the West and the progressive Nordic nations do not make the top of the list for this particular metric, or index, the HPI.

Nation states in the top 10 tend to be the “Latin American and Asia Pacific countries” with “green and pleasant land.” For the “third time,” Costa Rica is the “happiest and most sustainable country on Earth.”

Life expectancy is 78.5 years, which is older than the US. The health and wealth come to about ¼ of the cost compared to the US. Some reasons include, if all factors for the HPI are taken into account, “99% of the country’s electricity supply is said to come from renewable sources, and the government has pledged to make the country carbon neutral by 2021.” As well, the investment in social programmes: education, health, and no national army since 1949. “Wealthier Western countries tend to score highly when it comes to life expectancy and well-being, but the high environmental cost of their way of life sees their ratings plummet,” the WEF said.

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2022-04-11

An Interview with Anya Overmann, Communications Officer of IHEYO

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/03/31

*This interview has been mildly edited for clarity and readability.*

Tell us about yourself — family background, culture, first language, and religious/Humanist background.

I was born and raised in St. Louis. My parents were raised Catholic. Independently, they decided Catholicism and Christianity were not for them. They didn’t want to follow that any further. When they had kids, my brother and I, they realised that they did want us to have a religious education, but not necessarily in a Christian context.

We found the Ethical Society in St. Louis. We learned about the different religions and the core values of ethical humanism. That is what had me ‘hooked’ — the core values. I believed in them. I thought they were good principles. As I got older, I became more involved with it. I took on leadership roles at every stage. That’s my background.

My parents are still members. They attend regularly. They have a role at the local ethical society. English is my first and only language. I can speak some Spanish, but that’s from speaking Spanish in school.

When did you find IHEYO?

I found it a couple of years ago. FES, the Future of Ethical Societies, is the group that I was a part of. The connection to IHEYO grew from the national level of FES. At IHEYO, I applied to be the social media manager. Over time, that evolved into communications officer. Now, I am managing the social media and the blog. All outreach for Humanists between the ages of 18 and 35.

Any demographic(s) analyses of Humanist youth?

A lot of our Humanist activity is in Europe. That’s not that surprising.

(Laugh)

Right.

There’s a lot of different organisations there. That’s where the funding comes from. What I found with our social media is a large number of people from Pakistan, India, and Nepal are active in following our page and reading our content, I found that interesting.

Anyone from Bangladesh?

There are quite a few from that region, specifically. Western Asia and the Middle East are becoming more active. They are up and coming.

So, what are some tasks and responsibilities that come along with being the social media person and communications manager?

I try to keep our presence active. It can be difficult. It is a volunteer role. I do what I can with the time that I have each day. I try to make the content diverse. I don’t want too much being posted on specific region of the world too. I know I can get carried away by posting on what is going on here, in the US. There’s a lot to be said now.

(Laugh)

There’s a lot going on in the world. I want that represented on the page because we are an international organisation. Also, I manage our blog, Humanist Voices. I look at the content submitted to us. We have the regional groups submit one piece per month. Then I edit them or somebody on the team edits them. We look over them, have them published, and try to distribute over social media. We’re trying to get our newsletter back. We want to expand our presence online.

Who are some Humanist heroes in history for you?

I always look to Felix Adler, who is the founder of the ethical societies here in the US. He came from Germany. He grew up Jewish. His father was a rabbi. He decided that he wasn’t really feeling being Jewish.

(Laugh)

(Laugh)

He came up with his own thing, ethical humanism. which I find different from classical humanism. People tend to associate atheism and agnosticism with traditional humanism. Ethical humanism is more inclusive, in my opinion. It welcomes people of all backgrounds, religious or not. It focuses more on the principles that we stand for rather than the beliefs and how we got to those principles which I really admire in the motto: deed before creed. That’s something that I believe in.

If you were to take one core argument for humanism, what would it be?

It’s that we have this one life that we know of and we have science to help us understand how life works. That is really the best that we have. I think that we can make the most out of life with this scientific approach and by appreciating this life. Also, the placement of humans first is the main thing that I stand behind. It is human rights as the main principle.

It is like the Bill Nye line: ‘I want to save the planet for me!’

Yea, exactly!

(Laugh)

(Laugh)

It is silly that we prioritise profit. How can we prioritise profit when we don’t have a home to live in later? If we kill the planet, how can we prioritise profit later? With the Dakota Access Pipeline, for example, it blows me away. People can be obtuse about the world and what it offers us. The prioritisation of the transfer of oil over access to clean water blows me away.

From an international vantage, what do you consider the most pressing concern for Humanist youth?

This rise in pushing-back against principles of the classically ‘Left.’ It is threatening the principles held dear by us. It is the result of hatred from both sides. Hatred isn’t doing any favours for us, as Humanists. I know many, especially young Atheists, who maintain the idea that their beliefs and values are superior to those who don’t have those beliefs and values.

It is a grave mistake, I think, to have that attitude. It doesn’t do us any favours. It makes people less inclined to support the movement. They think the movement is supported by an elitist organisation, which creates more of a push-back. We’re up against it. It creates a hateful divide.

Some of us are complicit in it.

We need to reform the way we think about ourselves and our values. We need to take a step back and ask, “What are we doing here?” We say, “We stand for all humans.” But do we, if we act like we’re superior to some humans? We need to do some self-reflection as Humanists. We need to ask, “Are we trying to value all human beings?”

Does that trend, which you’re noticing among younger Atheist-Humanists, of considering their own values superior to others lead to a certain type of self-exaltation that can exacerbate the trend seen in youth in general — possibly across time — of seeing their time as ‘The Time?’

Yes, it is hard not to think of it as that, when everything is coming to the climactic point with things as inevitable. Millennials have always prized themselves. That is not necessarily a bad thing. It has an innate value, but can have its disadvantages. One is thinking this time, this place, these values are the most important thing. If we don’t communicate those values for people to stand behind and with us, then we will create a greater divide. It will get worse. The way we go about standing behind this change is in an inclusive way.

You mentioned the push-back from the Left and the Right. Can you clarify that?

The push-back follows politics and social behaviour, which, I think, follows the laws of physics. For example, we had Obama as president for 8 years, which is a long time. A lot can happen in 8 years. We saw many not liking anything done by Obama because it was Obama. That is some of the push-back seen now.

The whole Donald Trump era is the pendulum swinging back towards the Right. The more swing that this pendulum has, then the more extremism that will result. With this push-back from the Right, and Donald Trump as president, we are seeing this push-back against the Left and the push of the Left against the push-back of the Right. It is getting tense.

There’s a large, swinging pendulum. That’s what I mean by the physics of politics and social behaviour. The more you push in one direction; the more push-back you’ll get in the other direction.

What are some near-future initiatives for IHEYO, communications-wise?

I want to push the outreach more as a resource for people concerned for our future. People are looking for guidance. They are looking for words of encouragement, which inspire hope. I hope IHEYO can jump on it, can provide it. I hope IHEYO can provide this need without furthering the divide.

What are your hopes within your lifetime for the Humanist movement?

I would like to see the youth organisation in a grand, sweeping effort. I think there’s a lot of activity going on around the world. It is so off and away. So, it can be hard for others to notice. I went to the youth section of the BHA, the Young Humanists. My vibe was that there’s a lack of awareness about other humanist organisations. They are unique, but they thought they were one-of-a-kind. I was surprised to hear it. There is a lot of Humanist activity ongoing around the world. If people made more effort to connect around the world in a productive way, we could accomplish great things.

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2022-04-11

Dara Ambriz, Land of Enchantment and Hopeless + Cause Atelier

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/11

I am a writer and executive administrator for Trusted Clothes, which is an ethical and sustainable fashion organization. The following is a series devoted in honor of the work done in collaboration with the Schroeckers and the Trusted Clothes team. Here is part 1.

—

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

I am a native New Mexican, born and raised in the Land of Enchantment. I come from a tightly knit family full of artists. Living here you can’t help not be one with the rich landscapes, the diversity of the people, the beautiful sunsets and magically star filled skies. As a girl, I was introduced to the opportunity of fashion design as a career, through the gift of Fashion Plates. This gift set was my creative outlet for design and mixing colors, patterns, and textiles on paper. I spent endless hours designing through this medium. I took the next step into actually creating my own clothing after my parents divorced while I was in the fifth grade. When that life event occurred, I spent countless summers with my maternal grandparents. That’s when my grandmother taught me to sew. It was a wonderful bonding experience and helped me to continue my love for fashion and design. This occurred during my early teenage years, in middle school.

Middle School, I feel, is that awkward time, when you are trying to find your own identity while still trying to fit in with your peers. For girls, acceptance and self-esteem play a huge role in your life at this time and for me without a clothing allowance, creating my own clothing were the way for me to create my own style. As I went on to high school, I was serious about following a path in fashion design. My junior year I signed up for the fashion course and club, only to be disappointed when the class was canceled due to budget cuts and the club disbanded due to lack of interest.

Because I didn’t want to leave the state of New Mexico and the lack of designs schools locally, I followed my second love: studying people through psychology and communications. This led me to work in the field of Human Resources and Community Relations. Through this work, I was able to engage and empower employees to assist them to develop their leadership skills and impact the community through non-profit volunteer work. While I wasn’t working in the fashion sector, it was never too far away for me. This role ended in 2013 and that’s when a ticket to New York Fashion Week brought me back to my first love.

Seeing designers bring their creations to life on the world’s stage inspired me to invest into an independent retailer and learn about the business. I learned that I had a keen eye for fashion, buying, and styling. I bought out of the Los Angeles market, so I began to appreciate slow fashion, lines that used eco-friendly materials and products that were made domestically or through sustainable manufacturing processes. I loved working one-on-one with customers to help them find the right look. It was incredible to see their transformation, feeling confident and empowered with my assistance. I had built a clientele base, helping people with their shopping and styling needs, and one afternoon I had a conversation with someone who asked me, “Why aren’t you designing?” I thought it was an odd question because he didn’t know that this was a childhood dream, so I responded, asking him, “Why do you say that? You’ve never seen anything I’ve created.” He stated matter-of-factly, “You have an eye for it. You’d make a killing.”

A few months later, I started designing and creating for myself. Being in the small business, in order to market the company, I attended many social and networking events (there are countless numbers of them in Albuquerque, NM). Evening wear can get expensive and especially when it’s something you don’t wear over and over again. I started making outfits for these events. It was great because I was truly unique in what I wore and received a number of compliments from friends. However, I was never quite sure if they were being just being kind or truly being honest.

Then shop closed. I was devastated and I wasn’t sure I wanted to move forward in this space. I had a conversation with a friend who challenged me. She said, “I’m not going to let you give up on this dream. I want to commission you to create two outfits for upcoming events.” I did and was with her at one of the events when she was stopped over and over again to be told how gorgeous her dress was. It was the perfect market research. That’s when Hopeless + Cause Atelier was launched. It’s a social wear line with a social conscience.

There are three tenants of the line. I want it to be a transformative experience for the wearer by helping them to feel empowered, confident, comfortable while making an impact on the scene (this comes from my background in psychology and communications and I see fashion through that lens). I want people to know who made their clothes and use sustainable textiles and recycled/upcycled materials in the process. One of the companies, I collaborate with is Batiks for Life. The founder, Sara Corry (who also writes for Trusted Clothes), created this company to provide economic empowerment to women in Ghana, Africa while the sales of the batik medical scrubs support health care access to people in that country. I purchase custom batik from her to create my Caprice line. Finally, giving back is hugely important to me. I believe in the work that nonprofits do to change the world for the better, so 10% of the sales of each piece benefit a nonprofit.

Since its inception, Hopeless + Cause Atelier has grown through word of mouth marketing and it’s moving at the right speed for me. I’ve hosted a couple of runway shows for the local New Mexico market. For the first time this October, the line will be shown outside of New Mexico during FWLA’s (Fashion Week Los Angeles) Spring/Summer 2017 Discovery Session. I’m excited to work with FWLA and out of the Los Angeles market because it will put me closer to more options for domestic manufacturing and sourcing of eco-friendly and sustainable textiles.

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2022-04-11

Stylianee, Fashion Revolution and Being an Ethical Fashion Evangelist

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/10

—

Before diving into the main conversation, what’s some of your background – personal, educational, professional, and so on? Tell us about yourself.

I grew up in Greece, studied cinema, theatre and cultural management and lived in England and France until I ended up in Luxembourg. I’ve worked mostly in content creation and film/theatre reviewing, then switched to fashion design; that was the moment I realised how creation is something divine. Literally. You are out in the streets and you bump on a girl wearing a dress you have designed. It’s the best feeling ever. That’s why after some time in corporate administration, and after being haunted by this creative quest, and animating upcycling workshops in Luxembourg, I decided to combine purposefully creation and ethics for my startup WHAT.EVE.WEARS.

You have self-defined as an “ethical fashion evangelist” with a passion for “all things sustainable, ethical and conscious” in addition to “raising awareness and advocating on upcycling, recycling, swapping, [and] mending.” What defines each title and activity?

I always loved the environment; already at school I was part of the environmental group, where we were learning about composting waste and going tree-planting. I believe a certain awareness was always in me, but it took a while to make the connection between Fast Fashion and environment and realise that the fashion industry pollutes the environment to such a degree, only second to the oil industry. Not to mention the unjust work practices involved i.e. child labour and all the rest.

What brings these self-definitions together?

All of the above are one thing in essence: trying to buy less, buy better, produce less waste and be conscious to the whole production chain behind the garments and all the products we buy for that sake. Sustainability is all about that. Making sure that the way we are doing things is the right one and does not replenish resources, whether they are natural or human.

These connect to your brand as well. You founded and developed WHAT.EVE.WEARS. You have a blog by the same name. What was the original inspiration for this brand?

The idea behind, as I said, is to create the alternative to fast fashion collections. My love for natural fibres and sustainability took this idea further, and my need to help my home country, made me decide I would like to produce the collection there. Greece, and especially the area of Thessaloniki has a track record in fashion production, even if due to cheap labour in the Balkan area and due to the economic crisis the fashion industry now is not blooming like before.

What about its name?

I was lucky with the name; many people get it and love it! The Biblical Eve, back in the Garden of Eden before eating the apple, was walking around naked. She had no need for clothes, not even for the fig leaf actually; that’s the painters’ invention. I come and make a hypothesis: if Eve would need to wear some clothes back in the Garden of Eden, what type of clothes would they be? And I’m coming up with an answer: Eve would wear ethical and sustainable fashion, garments that are not harming the environment, the animals or the workers involved in their production. It makes sense, don’t you think?

The Spring/Summer 2016 collection is coming up. What is the theme for this particular collection?

It is a capsule collection, no more than 6 – 7 pieces. The theme was innocence with some vintage elements. I’ve chosen earth colours, romantic lace, which gave some sweet, girly pieces. I also love unisex fashion, so I do have two pieces that I wear most of the time, much more neutral and can be literally worn by girls or boys alike.

You gave a talk entitled Ethical Fashion at Ideas from Europe. What is ethical fashion? What is sustainable fashion?

Ethical and sustainable fashion is what we call Slow Fashion and call it this way because it’s the opposite to Fast Fashion. It encompasses countless elements, but the goal is to create a system, which can be supported indefinitely in terms of human impact on the environment and social responsibility (and yes, that is from Wikipedia). This can be translated in so many ways: produce locally, support artisans, create vegan or cruelty-free, upcycle, reuse and repurpose last season stock, buy vintage clothing, work with no-waste patterns, timeless design, polymorphic clothes and there’s so much room for experiment when it comes to using sustainable textiles. It’s a totally new field and a very exciting one!

What is their importance with salient examples?

The importance of sustainable fashion is quite clear: we are creating a better, more just world of fashion, just for all parties involved. We are aiming for transparency together with the Fashion Revolution movement, because transparency is the only way we can convince corporations to be accountable for their production lines. We encourage customers to ask corporations #WhoMadeMyClothes and we, new designers dedicated to ethical fashion are ready to answer #ImadeYourClothes and show the good working conditions and give every single detail related to ethically sourced materials and the like. The end customer who wears our products can make sure he is not ‘carrying’ the pain of others in his shoulders.

WHAT.EVE.WEARS is on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

We will launch the full website very soon. We are also ready to deliver corporate wear like aprons or t-shirts, all from organic cotton and produced ethically in Greece. Also, our story is well-documented on Social Media, so whoever is interested in ethical and sustainable fashion would find it useful to follow us.

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2022-04-11

Connie Pillon, Self-definition, Corporate Conscience, and Ethical and Sustainable Fashion

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/09

—

You self-define as a life coach, writer, and activist for ethical fashion. In fact, you have some musings, and spoken word and poetry on the website as well. What is the ethical economy?

An ethical economy represents a win for all, including consumers, companies, employees, communities, and the environment.

Why these self-definitions?

My intention is to inspire people to become the highest version of themselves both personally and professionally. I hope to make a meaningful contribution to the world through writing and life coaching. I took an excellent program to learn a coaching style of communication, which I find empowers people to find their own inner truth. The secret lies in asking powerful questions. The coaching process can help take people from where they are now, to where they want to be.

I also have a passion for spoken word, it is an excellent way for people to express themselves, particularly our youth.

You run the Facebook page entitled Corporate Conscience. What is the importance of corporate social responsibility – or a corporate conscience (as they are defined legally as immortal persons, by implication of the law)?

Yes, we have all seen how giving a corporation the rights of “personhood”, while at the same time having no personal liability and accountability, can create a psychopathic ‘entity’. However, a corporation can be created by ethical business leaders, and have a system that is built on integrity.

Consumer influence is vital. Thanks to social media, corporations are frequently challenged by the public now. Recently, there have been stories of CEOs taking pay cuts to raise wages for workers, there is an exciting movement toward conscious capitalism.

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

By day, I work in accounting and administration to make ends meet, it is a practical way to support my family for now and takes up a great deal of my time. In my own personal journey, it somehow makes sense to work with numbers in order to earn money. I work hard, and it keeps me humble.

It is not part of my spiritual path to make money from spiritual/life coaching, nor from advocating for corporate social responsibility. I would accept donations for life and business coaching under certain circumstances, although it hasn’t happened yet. Money and career success is not the purpose behind it.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?

All the writing and coaching I have done until now has been voluntary, in the hopes that I am making a positive contribution to the world. This is all I want.

I have worked to plant seeds of empathy and ethics in my everyday life for twenty years now, both personally and professionally. I try to be a living example of the things I write about, and I have made a lot of people irritated in my lifetime as a result. Yet I have also had some very meaningful experiences. I will continue to speak my truth wherever I go, even if it means I am labeled as a trouble-maker once in awhile, for challenging the status quo.

With regard to ethical and sustainable fashion companies, what’s the importance of them to you?

Ethical and sustainable companies can act as role models to business leaders who may later follow in their footsteps. They demonstrate how sustainable business practices are vital for ‘longterm’ success.

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

Just want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my story.

I feel fortunate to have been able to make a contribution to the Trusted Clothes blog. It is an amazing organization, that is paving the way for mindful business practices in the fashion industry.

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2022-04-11

Connie Pillon, Background, and Fair Trade

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/09

—

Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

My childhood experiences compelled me to look for deeper meaning in life, starting at a very young age. However, I was fortunate enough to have experienced an authentic kind of love from my mother early on, which gave me a strong foundation to work with. I was always very interested in the spiritual realm, and have had my share of paranormal experiences.

I was strongly influenced by a few books, such as The Prophet, The Road Less Travelled, The Spirits Book, Mastery of Love, and The Power of Now. I found the work of Carl Jung to be very informative as well since I personally believe our highest purpose in life is to heal our own shadow.

When I graduated from high school, I felt a strong calling to choose a career that involved helping others, and I enrolled in nursing at the University of Windsor. Although, nursing was not my true passion at the time, I was more interested in creative writing and visual arts. Unfortunately, I was misguided and believed nursing would be a more meaningful profession since I would be directly helping others. This was a mistake. I would later drop out of nursing after realizing I had made the wrong choice. It wasn’t until much later in life that I realized that I could help others best by following my own passion and purpose, which would have allowed me to tap into an unlimited amount of inspiration.

After dropping out of university, I worked as a housekeeper in the special care section (lock up area) of a nursing home, and then later in a shelter for abused women. I witnessed a lot of death and suffering, and it changed my perspective on life.

I went back to college, although still misguided about what path to pursue. A few life coaching sessions might have been life to change at that point, to help set me in the right direction. However, I ended up eventually graduating from a Business – Accounting program, where I studied economics, accounting, marketing and organizational behavior.

I went on to work in finance and administration at a non-profit organization called Inspire Health, which planted a powerful seed in me about the importance of incorporating the ‘body, mind, spirit’ connection into the workplace.

I left after having a child and later went on to work in public practice for several years. After doing bookkeeping for more than fifty companies, where I had to record every transaction that went in and out of businesses, I gained deep insight into how companies operate. A bookkeeper truly sees all. I suffered a lot of workplace bullying and exploitation. This was hard, as I was already highly sensitive, like a lobster walking around with no shell. Equality and ethical business practices became a strong priority for me, and I recognized the need to spread the word about corporate social responsibility. With so many business leaders operating unconsciously, I decided to set up a Facebook page called Corporate Conscience to help educate people.

While working in payroll and human resources for different companies, my eyes were wide open to the fact that employee wellness = company wellness. Unfortunately, the leadership styles I witnessed were often damaging to employee morale. I took time to study various types of leadership and gained a strong interest in coaching. I enrolled in a coaching program at Coaching Cognition and obtained a life coaching certificate. Coaches are considered to be on the same level as the client, I value the equality in that. They also believe that the client has all the answers within themselves, the coach just has to ask the right questions.

Each of us has a unique set of strengths, I have always been very sensitive to energy, and felt very empathic toward others. I believe intuition is the language of the soul. Life coaching has allowed me to use these gifts to help others.

What is the importance of ethical fashion?

The fashion industry is influencing our youth and setting the standard for body-image and appearance. It is a great responsibility for fashion designers and clothing companies. May their message be one of self-respect.

Clothing is a necessity and can be a creative form of self-expression, but it is hard to feel good about wearing clothes made by children forced into slave labor, in a developing country. These clothes might as well be blood-stained from the suffering endured in sweatshops.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

If we can bring environmental sustainability into the fashion industry, we will have solved a major crisis, since fast fashion is the second largest polluter next to big oil. Every company should be measuring its carbon footprint.

Companies who are exhausting people and the planet will only experience short-term profits, and also risk getting a lot of negative publicity on social media. Individuals and other companies are also less likely to invest in businesses with a reputation for having unethical business practices.

What about fair trade?

There are thousands of products that carry the fair trade mark, which ensures that people at the end of the chain, e.g. farmers, are not being exploited.

Consumers can help improve lives in developing countries by purchasing fair trade products. Fairtrade also encourages farmers to use environmentally sustainable practices.

Textile manufacturers are beginning to sign up to the new Fairtrade Textile Standard, which focuses on workers’ rights and working conditions. Factories participating in the program are also offered training on environmental management, social concerns, and health & safety.

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2022-04-11

Kai Jonas Talks About Ethical and Sustainable Fashion

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/09

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Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

Hello, everyone! My name is Kai Jonas and I am a co-founder of Brighton-based fashion brand, Lite Apparel. We launched just over three weeks ago with our 06.16 Collection and we are very grateful for the amazing welcome into the Fashion world!

I along with other members of the team are University students, I’m personally an International Business student (quite fittingly) though we are made up of an Economics student, Arts, and Media students – so a good mix.

All of us were brought up in Brighton & Hove which is a small town (technically city) on the South Coast of the UK and became friends at a very young age through our love of football.

Our journey into the fashion world perhaps wouldn’t be deemed conventional, in that we weren’t the types to be hand crafting garments, though we all had a gauge on popular or mainstream fashion and appreciated high-quality garments.

What is the importance of ethical fashion?

Ethical Fashion covers a range of issues such as working conditions, exploitation, fair trade, the environment, and animal welfare. Unfortunately, these issues although being addressed more and more are still existent.

To date, 250 million 5-14-year-olds are being exploited in hundreds of thousands of sweat shops around the world.

It’s important to highlight that these sweatshops are not just based in the third world or underdeveloped countries – they can be found much closer to home than you would expect!

I was lucky enough to have some experience with manufacturing and production through a recent internship in China and learned the importance of not cutting corners when it comes to producing products. Along with this, and having exhausted hundreds of pages on Google Search, I have become more aware of the true implications of what would be considered fast fashion and it was one of the main reasons why we decided to launch an Ethical centered brand in Lite Apparel

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

Sustainable fashion in our view should be, and widely is, considered as important as that of ethical fashion.

This more so involves the physical processes of creating products, and more precisely relating to the effect production has on the environment.

One worrying statistic that I feel could do with some more circulation is that 25% of chemicals produced worldwide is used for textiles. With this, the fashion industry as a whole is widely branded as number 2 in the rankings of the highest polluters of clean water, just after agriculture!

This is an extremely alarming statistic that has been shown to lead to extremely detrimental effects on the environment.

Perhaps more relative to us as buyers – 16 out of 27 luxury fashion products, (59%) tested positive for one or more hazardous chemicals.

It’s crucial to be conscious and take care when purchasing any type of product as you never know what effect it has had on the environment, or eventually the effect it may have on yourself!

What is LiteApparel?

Lite Apparel is a Brighton-based fashion brand trying to raise and share the importance of ethical & sustainable fashion whilst offering some pretty kick-ass high-quality products (well at least we and our customers think so).

We have grown to understand that there is a need for a movement in the Fashion industry and we hope to inspire it.

What makes LiteApparel unique?

So this is a question we needed to and wanted to, raise right at the beginning when formulating the brand.

A lot of new start-ups in Fashion tend to innovate through design, which is awesome! Though none of us really had any experience in fashion design so truthfully we shied away from delving into that approach.

Instead, we wanted to innovate through the processes and procedures that would eventually make up our products.

We were very lucky to discover and partner up with The Fair Wear Foundation who helped significantly with the creation of our 06.16 collection – ensuring that all materials and products were ethically sourced and imperatively personified with award-winning energy efficient sustainable methods of production.

It’s meant to offer innovative, high quality, sustainably manufactured, and environmentally friendly products, and affiliated with fair wear foundation group. What is the importance of the relationship with fair wear foundation group?

Like mentioned in the previous question, partnering up with Fair Wear was essential and largely the reason why we have found success with this initial collection.

Not only did they provide superb resources through the creation process they also offered incredible support that I’m sure all of us will cherish forever.

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

We all agreed to solely focus on Lite over the Summer and it is seemingly paying off.

We are all pretty keen on sports, particularly football, so most of us are continuing with coaching younger children and communities around Sussex which is very fun & fulfilling.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?

For us, we are just very honored to be in a position to be able to contribute to the Fashion industry in hopefully a positive way. We all understand and believe that there is a need for a change from both the creator and consumers perspective and we hope to contribute to this as much as we can.

With regard to ethical and sustainable fashion companies, what’s the importance of them to you?

We had the opportunity to meet with members from our absolute inspiration ethical-brands Patagonia and Braintree which was incredible! Both of whom provided unbelievable support and provided, even more, inspiration to keep on going with Lite.

Particularly with Patagonia what is extremely inspiring for us is the fact that they are now becoming extreme heavy-weights in urban streetwear which is really where we hope to position our brand in the future. It just shows that you don’t need to produce cheaply in order to get into the mainstream.

Overall it’s just great to see so many doing so well and it supports that consumers are becoming more conscious and there is a market for Ethical & Sustainable fashion.

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

I would just like to remind all the consumers out there, including myself, that we have the power!

Although ethical or sustainably produced products tend to be a little more expensive, the reason generally speaking is because you are paying for a better quality product – and most importantly a wage of which the individual who produced it can, to put it bluntly, survive.

Be conscious people!

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2022-04-11

Kestrel Jenkins on Her Story and Sustainable Fashion

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/09

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Tell us about yourself – family background, personal story, education, and previous professional capacities.

I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin along the Mississippi River. For my family, being outside and enjoying the natural world was huge. Hiking and biking were our most common pastimes whenever we had a break from helping out at my parents’ restaurant and hotel. I spent a lot of days working with my family – serving customers, cleaning rooms, and connecting with travelers on their way through.

At university, I studied Global Studies, Women’s Studies, and International Journalism. Once I learned about the way that products, ideas and people move around the world, supply chains and their intricacies became hugely interesting to me. Post undergraduate studies, I secured an internship with fair trade fashion pioneer People Tree in London. This experience was my turning point – once I had this glimpse of the industry, I was hooked and all in.

I was humbled to receive a Fulbright Scholarship to teach English in Madrid, Spain for a year. Following this experience, I moved to New York City to work with Inhabitat & Ecouterre. From there, I’ve worked with several publications and companies in the space – including the GreenShows, EcoSalon, Fashioning Change and FashionMeGreen. Today, I also serve on the board of the nonprofit 1to1 Movement, which works to help each person find their own way to change the world.

What is the importance of ethical fashion?

Fashion’s impact on people globally is massive. The garment industry employs around 40 million people globally, 85% of them being women. As some of the lowest paid workers in the world, people working along the global garment supply chain regularly face violations of human rights. It’s not a question of the importance of ethical fashion, it’s the question of how we can all support a better fashion industry that respects the people that work to make the clothes we wear.

What is the importance of sustainable fashion?

The waste that’s associated with the textile industry is mind blowing. Today, the average American generates 82 pounds of textile waste per year. The big bummer about it is a lot of that waste could be recycled.

It’s all connected. In today’s world, buying organic food has become a somewhat mainstream concept. When it comes to clothing, we are still disconnected from the stories. What we wear has the potential to also be a reflection of our values. Farming does not only yield food products; fiber comes from the field as well. The more we can understand these overlapping realities, the more we can be connected to not only what we put in our bodies, but also what we put on our bodies.

What is AWEAR World?

AWEAR World is a platform that inspires us to think about where our clothes are made, what they are made of, and who made them. Through features of real people, their stories and the stories behind their clothes, AWEAR World gives us opportunities to learn more, in a community-oriented way, where we can help each other along the journey.

What makes AWEAR World unique?

AWEAR World empowers us to celebrate the positive ways we can all do something to affect the future of our planet and the humans who live here. Little things matter. While the realities of the fashion industry can be overwhelming and disturbing, we each have the ability to make small choices that can gradually, when tackled together, contribute to big change.

What other work are you involved in at this point in time?

I host the podcast Conscious Chatter which has a focus on fashion and the players in the garment supply chain. We trended on iTunes for two+ months and were featured on the iTunes homepage.

Past guests have included TV host Tim Gunn (HEMP), designer Mara Hoffman (MARA HOFFMAN + MINDFULNESS), cofounder of Fashion Revolution Orsola de Castro (FASHION REVOLUTION), winner of Project Runway Season 8 Gretchen Jones (DESIGNER DILEMMA), Founder of Project 333 Courtney Carver (TINY WARDROBE), author Elizabeth Cline (WASTE), Director of Social Consciousness at Eileen Fisher Amy Hall (SUPPLY CHAINS), organic farmer LaRhea Pepper (COTTON) and more.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?

Being part of the sustainable / ethical fashion conversation is my life. As cliché as it sounds, helping tell stories about the fashion industry and how we can all play a positive role in its future is literally who I am. It’s something that’s become part of my soul and how I find purpose in my life.

With regard to organizations/companies, and so on, like Trusted Clothes and AWEAR World, what’s the importance of them to you?

Knowledge is power. The more access to information we have – in an easily digestible way – the more we all have the opportunity to make positive choices that can influence change in the fashion industry and beyond.

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2022-04-11

Rinsing Dishes for Some Idle, or Maybe not so Much, Insights

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/08

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I had an experience. And I thought it might be relevant to you. It has to do with when I was doing the dishes just this late afternoon. I was doing the dishes and it occurred to me: if I’m putting the hot water into a sink, and then the soap, and then mixing it with the soap and throwing in the dishes and all the other junk, and then washing it away, where’s all this going?

It occurred to me that this is probably a very pervasive feeling and thought for other people. But this can be applied to other areas. What do I mean by that? Well, I mean the fact that individuals that use things will tend to be using them thoughtlessly, and I am no different than most of others, or others that aren’t even in this kind of movement.

I missed the very obvious fact that anything that I use will tend to be used in other areas by other people and they themselves will not necessarily know where it goes, why it’s used, and what happens to it. How mindful are we in using and consuming resources that the planet provides?

So here are ways we can recycle water at home:

1. Use a Shower Bucket

The shower bucket is probably the simplest way to recycle water at home. When you turn on the tap for your shower, the water that comes out takes some time to heat up to a comfortable temperature. Next time you’re warming up the shower, stick a bucket under the running tap until you’re ready to get in. You’ll be surprised at how much water you collect!

2. Install a Rain Barrel

Skip that whole municipal water system for watering your garden and collect rainwater instead. Rain barrel setups can be super simple or more complicated, depending on how much time you can invest and how handy you are. The best collection method that I’ve found is setting up the barrel underneath your gutter’s downspout, so it collects the most water when it rains.

3. Create a Rain Gardenain gardens take advantage of land’s natural water runoff to nourish the plants that live there. Unlike a regular garden that needs watering, a rain garden is constructed so that it reuses water that would otherwise run off into the sewage systems. The bonus is that by diverting that water from the storm drain, you’re giving your city’s overtaxes sewage system a break.

4. Save that Pasta Water

Next time you’re making a pot of pasta, don’t dump all of that precious water down the drain! Instead, set your colander over another large pot to collect all of that precious H2O. Once the water has cooled, you can use it on your garden or to water your house plants.

5. Save Water from Washing Veggies

Just like when you’re boiling pasta, washing veggies uses water that’s totally re-usable. Place your colander over a large pot to collect the water while you’re washing. You can use your collected water on the garden or for flushing the toilet.

6. Install a Gray Water System

Gray water is waste water that doesn’t contain sewage. Think the water that goes down the drain when you wash your hands or do laundry. A gray water system diverts that water, so it doesn’t go to waste. A good example might be diverting water from your shower drain for flushing the toilet. Grey water systems can get pretty complicated, and just like any plumbing setup, they do require maintenance.

7. Collect the Overflow from Watering Plants

When you water your potted plants, have you noticed that extra water usually runs out of those drainage holes at the bottom of the pot? Don’t let that water go to waste! Place your plants in deep trays to collect that water. You can use the runoff from your larger plants to water the smaller ones.

8. Reuse Excess Drinking Water

Got an almost-empty water glass that’s been sitting out too long to drink? Feed it to a thirsty house plant instead! You can also use unsweet tea on your plants. If the drink that’s been sitting is sweetened, you can pour it on plants in the garden, but don’t use it on house plants unless you like ants!

Our consumption patterns relate to one another in very different ways, but the consumption patterns can be unsustainable. So, it was a moment that actually made me pause and stop washing the damn cutting knife (no cuts!), but, even so, this can hopefully be a little bit of a cutting insight.

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2022-04-11

Zimbabwean Fashion and the African Diaspora

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/07

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I want to talk a little bit today about a topic close to the hearts of many people, but with a little bit of background via provision of context. And it is something of interest to me, too, with respect to the African Diaspora. It’s about an individual nation within the African Diaspora. I want to talk about Zimbabwe and its fashion industry. Zimbabwe is a country in Southern Africa that is landlocked. Some notable areas of the country are the Zambezi River and Victoria Falls in addition to the Patoka Gorge.

The capital is Harare, and the current president of Zimbabwe is Robert Mugabe. He runs the country with a population totaling 14.15 million people. In fact, he’s been President since 1980. That’s a long time. The accepted currencies are the US dollar, the Euro, the Botswana Pula, the Pound Sterling, and the South African Rand. The official languages are English, Ndebele, and Shona. Zimbabwe has a rich, and varied history including a Precolonial Era, the Colonial Era, the Unilateral Declaration of Independence and the Civil War, and the Independence Era.

The climate is tropical. Some of the flora and fauna of the region include evergreen and hardwood forests, and extends to over 350 species of mammals that can be found there, and even 500 species of bird and over 130 fish species. In addition to this, there are some international human rights concerns in terms of the organization positions reports such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch examining violations of rights for food, freedom of assembly and movement, shelter, and even protection of the law.

One of the main points of strength in the country relates to the high adult literacy rate of Zimbabwe within the African Diaspora. According to 2013 reports, the literacy rate is the highest in the continent of Africa at about 90.7% for the adult population although, half of Zimbabwe’s children have not progressed beyond primary school. In addition, some of the wealthier members of the population send their children to independent schools as opposed to some of the schools run by the government. So, with that in mind and in terms of providing a context for some of the culture, not necessarily in terms of pluses and minuses, this, rather, gives a context and complement to the presentation of fashion in Zimbabwe.

This is an interesting topic to me. I believe that it might be of interest to others. Sustainability is a challenge for the entire world. Fashion is a core aspect of her culture. To begin with some of the aspects of Zimbabwean fashion and culture, we can look at some of the historic precedents in the long history of the culture for instance, the traditional fashion and culture.

You can also show marital status with a married woman traditionally wearing a blanket over the shoulders with thick beaded hoops of grass, grass that is twisted. This can also include copper rings or brass rings around the neck, legs, or arms. The colors can range from blues, greens, reds, yellows, and browns. It is an important note that the head covering is an external sign of respect for the husbands. Little girls might wear beaded aprons or beaded skirts. Men can also wear animal skin headbands and ankle bands.

Of course, as influence from West and the Western world through colonialization occurred, the current European and Western set of apparels can bleed into the culture and affect the current generations for the future generations with respect to their choice of clothing. This sense of style can then change over time. This, then, changes the future culture. In other words, the more indigenous and more traditional aspects of them in the Zimbabwean culture has been influenced by the European or western culture, especially in regard to some of the context given before about the Colonial Era. Duly noted, there was a separation between the Precolonial Era and the Colonial Era. In addition, you can note the Independence Day is celebrated by the culture.

Now, with respect to the modern fashion culture of Zimbabwe, many of the citizens and individuals in the country wear, apparently, modern and Western-style clothing as the usual outfit. In other words, very few people will wear the traditional clothing on a regular basis within the country. It’s important to keep in mind stereotypes that might be in one’s mind and then contrast that with the reality. Sometimes true, sometimes false, or at times partially or even mostly true; it depends. Of course, there are the major fashion icons within the country that can then therefore produce aspects of the traditional culture within the fashion culture. Of course, this can also come into direct contact with the mixing and matching culture that seems to me like a large part of the international fashion culture. That’s all for now, thanks!

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2022-04-11

Cotton, Cotton Everywhere, Nothin’ But Another Natural Fibre There

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/07

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Back again to talk a little bit about, and in a little bit of a roundabout way for you, natural fibres! Again, natural fibres are much unlike the synthetic fibres. Natural fibres are divided into three categorizations known as minerals fibres, animal fibres, and plant fibres. Mineral fibres come in in only one form as far as I know, and that form is asbestos. Asbestos is used in many cases throughout homes as insulation for a good thing, but, unfortunately, the bad thing is that it is highly correlated as a carcinogenic material, probably and one might argue conclusively, correlated or causing for human beings.

Cotton is a natural fibre, and sustainable, ethical, and by the lights of Trusted Clothes much more fashionable. Ethical is sexy.

There are many kinds of outputs for this particular fibre, but this will be our look into its production and trade, design and manufacturing, and general uses. Cotton is cultivated as a fibre for textile utilization. The average cotton yield is about 800 kilograms per hectare. But it is almost purely cellulose and with a high level of both breathability and softness, which means that it is a popular natural fibre. Its length can be anywhere from 65 to 10 millimeters. Its diameter can be anywhere from 11 to 22 microns. It is highly absorbent of moisture and is a comfortable clothing in hot weather. Given that it has a high tensile strength; it is easy to wash with a variety of soaps. It is such a popular production as a natural fibre throughout the world that 80 countries are cultivating it. There are approximately 10 million small farmers that depend on this cultivation of cotton for their basic income. This means their livelihood.

So, the production and trade of cotton produces approximately 25 million tonnes throughout the world per annum, I think. The major producers are Brazil, China, India, Pakistan, the United States of America, and Uzbekistan, which accounts for approximately four-fifths of the world’s total exports of cotton via its production by the aforementioned 10 million farmers. In terms of raw cotton, China has been the major importer, and takes in approximately three to four million tonnes of cotton – circa estimations from 2006, but the main exporter has and continues to be the United States of America.

In terms of the uses of cotton, about 60% of cotton fibre is used for yarn and thread through a wide variety or range of clothing, which means jeans, t-shirts, and even shirts in general, but this can even include underwear and coats. It is used in home furnishings including bedspreads and window blinds, and even washcloths. As noted with multiple other natural fibres in this series on sustainable fibres, the main benefit of things such as cotton is for clothing and other uses in the daily life, in industrial manufacturing, or the fact that they can decompose and have a natural cycle, which I have turned the natural fibre life cycle. That’s all for now!

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2022-04-10

A 101 Guide to the Fantastic Sustainable Future

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/07

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Let’s take a look today at sustainability tips. Two sustainability tips seem relevant to me. These relate to the overall sustainable and ethical fashion culture, but in your home. You can use different lights. You can wash your clothes more efficiently. These are aspects of keeping one’s carbon output low and pollution low.

Another aspect of keeping things like those low is the home. The ways in which we keep our homes low in energy cost, but still with comfort. I think that some of the aspects of sustainability regarding fashion relate very deeply to one’s home. Aside from one’s clothing, the home is the next most intimate aspect of our own lives. The home is a reflection of self. A home is a reflection of style. Home is also a reflection of conscientiousness. Conscientiousness regarding the environment. Conscientiousness regarding pollution. And conscientiousness regarding environmental concerns over the next few decades for climate change.

What I want to share in this series are some tips for keeping sustainability are your own contributions to the improvement of the environment. The reduction of harm to the environment. Let’s look at two examples. There are lights. Lights in households. There are laundry machines. The lights tend to be incandescent or CFI bulbs – inefficient bulbs.

Laundry machines can be old, outdated, and so inefficient. Efficiency as in the cost per load of laundry for washing and drying based on electrical usage. We live in a very privileged time. Living in a wonderfully privileged society. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. But, to me, responsibility comes with some level of a better life, within reason. Better life can imply taking away the quality of life of people that is here now and other places of the world. Or, another set of people not yet born are just coming into this world. All these things matter. All these people matter. Our actions have consequences. Climate change is one example, and lights and laundry are great examples, I think. And they’re easy fixes!

What about deeper? Sure. You can see this extend into the realm of the home and clothing under the rubric of sustainability. If you look at the incandescent and CFL bulbs, they are typically not very sustainable because they are inefficient, and so environmentally irresponsible. If you refit your house with LED lights as opposed to CFL lights, you can have another, and increase efficiency of about 90%. That’s a great, great increase in efficiency. It is also environmentally responsible. No harmful gases, better and more efficient lights, and lights that apparently can live up to or last long as 20 years. That’s a good thing I think.

The second thing that can be done is changing laundry settings. This is closer to the textile and natural fibre industry, and to sustainability. If you need to heat water, you need to input energy into cold water or room temperature water. That would warm the water and imparts energy. When using laundry, a cold wash might be of use for some types of clothing or some loads of clothing. That can be more efficient. That can be environmentally responsible.

Some other options to do with laundry might be less desirable, but can help. For instance, we can wear clothes longer. We can wash clothes by hand. But, personally, I wouldn’t want my clothes washed by hand. Why? I like the 21^st century. Some other aspects can include the use of clothes lines to dry clothes by the sun and wind. That seems a little more reasonable to me, right? It depends on your level of investment. If a heavy effort, you can go full-throttle on throwing clothes on the line and doing a cold wash of laundry. (Depends on the surrounding area’s weather, though.) If light investment, you can do the cold washing of laundry alone and switch some lightbulbs to the LED bulbs. I think that’s enough to get us started.

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2022-04-10

Ghosts and Other Unprovables, and Fashion too!

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/07

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If you look at the popularizations of ghosts, ghost-like phenomena (whatever that means, Scott), and many other things, you can see that most ghosts seemed to have an enjoyment in wearing clothing.

John Keats had a poem called La Belle Dame Sans Merci, which translates by my reading as “The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy,” A few lines as follows:

She took me to her Elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.
And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.
I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!’
I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.

Thanks for scaring the crap out of people, Keats.

I don’t know about you, but this seems a little bit suspicious to me. Even though these kinds of stories and narratives based on the subjective experiences of individuals (which likely happen) can bring about lovely poetry and tall tales, these seem rather thin in evidence and content other than the elaborations of the reports and the legends and mythos that surrounds them.

I have a natural philosophical bent, so this means that I have a certain bias towards the general scientific and natural epistemological perspective on the world. In other words, my perspective is biased towards modern science, updated natural philosophy, with testability, predictability, and peer review.

If you look at some of the photographs interspersed throughout this article, you can see the clothing that is reported to be worn by these ghosts. It just seems weird. It just seems weird that people would come back in the clothing that they were wearing at the time of their death. Some might speculate that this is some form of immortal soul. How is this an immortal soul taking their clothing with them? Why clothing? Why that clothing from that period of time?

Most of the research I have done on supernatural ghost sightings seem to have them clothed in some type of Victorian-era clothing. Where are the ones in just jeans and t-shirts?

These so called ghosts in clothes have inspired some eery clothing designs like Dead Castle Project – a Sydney-based label – is well-known for combining a variety of styles in their collections from surf to skate to grunge and its 2012 Spring/Summer collection is no exception. Featuring plenty of black, the models in the graveyards appear disinterested and unperturbed by the fact that they are surrounded by dead bodies inches beneath the surface. This collection by Dead Castle Project is also infused with a slight dose of badass and authority as showcased in the tee-shirt that reads ‘Cool Kids Can’t Die.”

Paranormal investigators seem to have a hard time telling us why ghosts even wear clothing. So, would people that died then begin to wear just that one outfit? That seems sustainable and within the whole concept of buying less and having better. It would also be the first natural fibre never to bio-degrade – really, really degrade completely and utterly. Textiles in the afterlife, who woulda thunk? That’s all for now.

And as with everything written, I could be wrong, incredibly wrong – think for yourself and come to your own conclusions.

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2022-04-10

Poor Old Mineral Fibre, Needed Man Knowledge

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/06

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The how much and the what now? (Yep, me too.)

Okie dokie, it’s another issue of natural fibres, If you aren’t familiar with fibres or fabrics, then see the article below:

Related Article: Sustainable Fabrics- The Good

Man-made fibres are regenerated and synthetic fibres. Synthetic fibres are manufactured synthetically and do not decompose. While regenerated fibres are an admixture of natural fibres and man-made fibres. In that, regenerated fibres are the ones that are originally plant or vegetable fibres with cellulose in them, and through the viscose method of extrusion and precipitation are given a chemical that gets rid of cellulose in the vegetable fibre. And then by another chemical process have those parts filled in with another chemical so that they then become regenerated fibres. Therefore, the regenerated fibres are a combination of original vegetable fibres and then by chemical process becoming man-made fibres are regenerated fibres.

Man-made, synthetic or regenerated fibres do not decompose. Natural fibres – that’s fibres and animal fibres and mineral fibres – do decompose. There are many methods to decompose things by a hot or cold compost, or with wiggler worms.

Related Article: A How-To Composting Your Clothes

So we’re going to be talking a little bit today about mineral fibres. What are they?

They are, or more accurately it is asbestos, which is the only mineral fibre. It is a silicate of many minerals including magnesium, calcium, iron, aluminium, and other minerals. It is, amazingly, rust, flame, and acid proof. And its particles are actually carcinogenic and therefore it has a very restricted use.

What is a silicate? Silicate contains an anionic silicon compound. What is “anionic”? It is a negatively charged ion or any negatively charged atom or group of atoms. That means silicate is simply an anionic silicon compound and a mixture. A mineral fibre from asbestos can be made into something like a mineral wool. They can also be known as a mineral fibre or even a man-made mineral fibre.

Well, isn’t that great? Find out about a new fibre, a good ol’ natural fibre, but it is carcinogenic or cancer contributing or causing. I’m not sure whether if they’re contributing or if they’re causing. And I have to take caution at this point in time about the length of exposure and kind of exposure to the asbestos. However, it might be a little bit like the smoking correlation vs causation argument.

Where the amount of smoke that an individual or population smokes is highly correlated with cancer, which shows that cigarettes are so correlative as to be argued as causative of cancer, maybe the same with these. Although we haven’t found any conclusive evidence or studies to suggest that prolonged exposure to mineral fibres (such as in clothing) can cause cancer, we do absorb toxins through our skin.

That’s an interesting property there’s not much more on these little things. However, I think that it was worth exploring for a little bit. Especially because these are actually used in tremendous amounts of housing insulation, and I think that’s worthwhile as a thing to explore or for yourself. You can simply Google “mineral fibre” and “asbestos” (or Bing or Yahoo, etc, etc) to gain a better idea of this particular natural fibre. That’s all for now thanks for your time!

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2022-04-10

Carolyn Bailey, Treasure Box Kids and Ethical and Sustainable Fashion

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/06

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Tell us a little bit about your background such as education, and some personal and professional experience.

My passion for quality clothing and apparel construction drove me to create the business I now own. Growing up in a rural town across the street from a fabric studio was where I learned quality clothing construction and also where I grew a love for quality fabrics. After gaining a wealth of knowledge and experience in sales, marketing and management as a business woman, this gave me the professional skills to pair with the love I have for quality fabrics and apparel construction to create my company, Treasure Box Kids.

What was the inspiration for Treasure Box Kids – and its title?

The inspiration behind the name “Treasure Box Kids” came from my idea that the clothing my company produces are precious treasures for children. Treasure Box Kids is “Ethically Made, High Quality, Socially Responsible, Children’s Clothing”. My inspiration for the company as a whole is to create quality family heirloom pieces that can be passed down to future generations.

What makes Treasure Box Kids unique?

Our product offering contains styles custom made by Treasure Box Kids in the USA, Independent Designers that make their clothing in the United States and also a new line made in Kenya named Little Maisha, that helps to support women economically. What makes Treasure Box Kids unique is that you cannot walk into any department store or online store and find this exact product mix.

You sell clothing for girls, girls’ dresses, and birthday dresses. Why these products? Where will the product line expand in the future?

Treasure Box Kids began with girls clothing because of my preference visually to girls’ clothing. After learning to perfect that niche, it has sparked my desire to expand our lines. Plans are in development currently to include boys clothing as well as to expand the Kenyan line.

What meaning or personal fulfillment does this work bring for you?

Quality, ethically made apparel is my passion. My fulfillment comes from the affirmation that my customers are getting quality outfits as well as the knowledge that the clothing production is not harming anyone but actually helping the economy, the environment and the people producing the apparel.

With regard to companies like Trusted Clothes and Treasure Box Kids, what’s the importance of them to you?

I see the two companies goals aligned similarly in regard to excellence in apparel construction and the fair treatment of apparel workers. It is very important to educate the consumer on how apparel is made and also how the people who make our apparel are being treated. The consumer will be more aware and ultimately make better purchasing decisions. Education is the foundation for change and growth in a culture and I see that our two companies can invoke that change.

Any feelings or thoughts in conclusion?

The impact my company, Treasure Box Kids (a for profit corporation) has on the wider community, is the need for ethically and sustainably manufactured clothing. I plan to be at the forefront of the growing need to help produce clothing that has a positive impact on society.

Thank you for your time, Carolyn.

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2022-04-10

Silk, Queen of the Fabrics and the Silkworm

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/05

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Natural fibres divide into animal and plant fibres. Animal fibres are those that are composed of amino acids called proteins, plant fibres are those made mainly of cellulose. Examples of animal fibres are alpaca, angora, cashmere, mohair, silk, and wool. Plant fibres can be things like in abaca, cotton, flax, hemp, jute.

Natural fibres themselves also differ from man-made artificial and synthetic fibres. These fibres consist of rayon, nylon, acrylic, and polyester. Each of these are unable to decompose.

One such fabric is silk, sometimes called the “queen of the fabrics.” Its original development was in ancient China. Silk is produced from a silkworm. The worm is fed Mulberry leaves, as it matures the worm spins a cocoon.

Once filaments are made of silk, they can have a great strength and can measure from 500 to 1500 m in length, which is quite substantial given the source. The actual form of the woven silk is a triangular structure. Its absorbency is good and it dyes well, and is produced in over 20 countries. These include the major producers, such as Asia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Egypt, and Madagascar. The particular type of industry, in terms of the manufacture of silk from silkworms, is called sericulture.

There are over 1 million workers in China alone with the provision of production for households, and in India, upwards of 700,000, and growing. The production and trade of silk can range from about 100,000 tons to 150,000 tons per annum. Of the producers of silk in the world, China produces 70% of it, with the other more than 20 countries producing 30%.

The price for raw silk is 20 times as much as the raw price for cotton (circa 2008). It does provide a warmth during the cold months and is typically used in fashion such as lingerie and underwear. It is generally used in textiles and upholstery. Silk is diverse and beautiful, lets just try to involve ethics and sustainability when seeking quality!

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2022-04-10

Sisal, Natural Fibre, Textile Material, and Sustainable Fashion

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/05

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Today’s sustainable fibre will be sisal. Sisal is a fibre that is native to Mexico derived from the Agave plant (Yay, tequila!), it is a hardy plant that grows in hot climates. In addition, it is actually able to grow in dry areas that tend to be, for the crops, quite unsuitable. These can be cut or crushed. This is then made into a pulp from the fibres. The average yield is about one tonne per hectare with the yield and the staff of about 2.5 tonnes. I find this to be quite amazing because it is an increase in productivity of about 2.5 times, exactly.

The fibre is illustrious and creamy white according to the Food and Agricultural organization of the United Nations. It can measure up to 1 metre in length, and is very durable as well as having an elasticity component to it. It is not able to absorb moisture easily, but can resist deterioration from salt water. Its main cultivation is in Brazil, China, Cuba, Kenya, Haiti, Madagascar, and Mexico. The global production of sisal is collected in moderately large amounts of around 300,000 tons, with an estimated net value, per annum, of $75 million. 35 to 40% of that 300,000 tons is produced by Brazil at about 120,000 tons. And 5/6 th’s of that produced by Brazil is exported as raw fibre and manufactured goods.

Sisal fibres are made into rope and yarn that is popularly used to make rugs, bags, bath sponges, and even wall coverings. “New products are being developed continuously, such as furniture and wall tiles made of resined sisal. A recent development expanded the range even to car parts for cabin interiors.”

The compatibility and multitude of uses of this natural fibre is simply amazing!

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2022-04-10

The Misquoting of “Great Leaders” as a Persistent Concern

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/05

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I would like to explore something about misquotations, as well as two very interesting fellows. I want to start with a picture I came across with a particular quotation about ‘The’ Albert Einstein. It got me thinking quite a bit, it bothered me enough to want to write something about it. But I had to tie this into textiles or sustainability, one thing about Einstein is that he advocated for vegetarianism. How does that tie in with this global warming era and its consequences?

I know that Einstein was a claimant at one point in time, to saying that people should be vegetarians, or that he was, and so might have not explicitly advocated for others, but described himself: “I have always eaten animal flesh with a somewhat guilty conscience.” That picture-meme quote is more descriptive of an ideal rather than prescriptive based on an ideal. And vegetarianism is in the same line as sustainable fibers and a more sustainable lifestyle. Close enough. In that, it is not simply a fashionable thing to do, but rather, it is something that is low in terms of its carbon footprint and possibly even a negative carbon footprint.

And I came across another quotation by a well-known guru, spiritualist, medical doctor, endocrinologist, and popular author;

His name is Deepak Chopra:

If you look at the actual quotations of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, two of the most prominent physicist/cosmologists of the 20th century – and one into the early 21st century, you can find quotations that refute any notion of them believing in either a “God” in the case of Stephen Hawking or a “personal God” in the case of Albert Einstein. Neither seems to indicate that perspective very much implied by Deepak Chopra. In other words, he misquoted them. Simple. So, let’s compare this with two quotations from Albert Einstein:

And this one:

He is more noted for the structure and mathematical precision of the universe with the and you can now look at a quotation from Professor Stephen Hawking:

This is a problem. It is a problem in accurate presentation, and it seems to be a common either as a conscious tactic, or unconscious oversight or mistake in automaticity of quotation – or even quoting Chopra in conversation. These things happen, but this seems like a long thought, as a quote. So, that’s something to keep an eye out for not only in the more popular among groups, spiritualists, and like, but also in the world of fashion and claims about the efficacy of certain things. I’ll leave some of the last words to Chopra:

Imagine that you’re looking at an ocean and you see lots of waves today. And tomorrow you see a fewer number of waves. It’s not so turbulent. What you call a person actually is a pattern of behavior of a universal consciousness. There is no such thing as Jeff, because what we call Jeff is a constantly transforming consciousness that appears as a certain personality, a certain mind, a certain ego, a certain body. But, you know, we had a different Jeff when you were a teenager. We had a different Jeff when you were a baby. Which one of you is the real Jeff?

Like. Wow. You know?

As with everything written, I could be wrong, incredibly wrong – think for yourself and come to your own conclusions. I have biases, fallibilities, and quirks – even some funny ones. My words aren’t gold, nor are they a calf. And no bull! Although, I will milk it, if it’s prize goat (or alpaca, or camel, and no can do for cottonmandu). And if gold, I might fleece it, if a winged ram (more the same, more the same).

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2022-04-10

Incan Civilization and the Fabulous Fibres and Fabrics

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/04

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So, we’re back a little more to talk about the history of natural fibres in one context with an ancient civilization. That civilization is the Incan civilization. These peoples had an extraordinary decorative world, and working textile industry that was representative, as with us now, of status and wealth and other things. They did not have paper money.

Nonetheless, they had used textiles both as a tax and as the currency in their culture. That would seem to have a certain psychological effect on what people valued in that culture. In fact, some of the most prized objects were not gold, silver, diamonds, platinum, and so on. Rather, it was very high quality textiles. Think about that.

These were the crown jewel of value in the civilization. When the Spanish invaded, or euphemistically arrived, in the 16th century, they looted, stole, and plundered textiles in greater proportion than metal and mineral, I think, which is a very interesting note to the previous one.

Textiles were the heart of the empire of the Incan civilization. The dry nature of the Andes, and the burial sites around in the highlands in the mountains of that area have stayed in decent condition for archaeologists and others to look at the textile and cultural traditions via the textiles for examples. They were weavers. Men and women were weavers.

We have talked about some of the other main fibres in the world. These were also used by the Incan culture. For instance, llama, alpaca, and wool in the highlands. The capital of the Incan culture was Cuzco. There were state-sponsored workshops in this particular culture. And the subsidized workers were making the clothing, quite naturally, for the army and the nobility, and, as a speculation, the army most likely protected the nobles alone, the royalty.

There were three classifications of cloth in the Incan culture. There was a very rough one used for blankets and the like. The coarse, or common ones, that were for work in daily life or military applications, and finally the finest cloth was also there for possibly greater than decorative use such as religious rights. Weaving was a highly esteemed craft in their culture. The designs of the cloth had a certain kind of dyed strand embroidery; and the embroidery itself and tapestry was done by either hand or wooden stamps.

They had a certain abstract geometric set of designs in addition to checkerboard motif. The actual patterns by some scholars’ speculation were ideograms and may have had specific meanings.

Those specific meanings could relate to many things. One might think religious rights or cultural values. However, I leave that to the experts and scholars that spend their lives researching this topic. Of course, there are also non-geometrical patterns in the clothes, which might include the aforementioned llamas, or snakes, sea creatures, and even plants, which would be common in that area, maybe. You can see the influence of geographic surroundings on the culture and vice versa. Culture becomes human interaction with the environment, even at times to the extent of changing the environment. It depends.

The designs found on the cloth could likely be reflected in the designs on the potteries for the pottery decorations of the Incas. You can see various animals as with many other cultures such as monsters and half-human figures. These are interesting to say the least. What are the functions of these things? I leave that to you.

Many of the men only wear a loincloth or maybe even a simple tunic. In the winter, when things got quite cold actually, you could see them in a poncho or perhaps a cloak. Women wore more of a body wrap with a waist belt or sash. Both men and women wore cloth hats or headbands in this culture. Clothing, as you might be able to tell from the style and design in the textiles – and for the currency and tax, is a great reflection of the status of someone in a society – such as the reflection it will have on purchases. As with most conquered cultures, they had to pay a tax or a tribute to the central state because they were conquered by the Incas. What happens to civilizations that expand too far, though?

It’s just a short note on the Incan culture and civilization in relation to some of their textiles. It seems interesting to me because the text all that was there were a great influence on both the currency and the status. I like the interrelationship of there.

I like the fact that the currency is related to status, even though this is not even distinct. It is not directly related because as with any culture with currency, maybe. The currency is the means through which one makes their own purchases, and these purchases are reflected in one’s own goods such as clothing. And then, we see the status symbol in the clothing selected from the purchase via the currency. Thank you for your time.

And as with everything written, I could be wrong, incredibly wrong – think for yourself and come to your own conclusions. I’m human. I’m a writer. I have biases, fallibilities, and quirks – even some funny ones. My words aren’t gold, nor are they a calf. And no bull! Although, I will milk it.

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2022-04-10

The Promise of Hope and the Burden of Self-Doubt

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/04

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When you think of individual effort and the problems that affect our sense of self, self-doubt can be crippling.

Here at Trusted Clothes, the important part of our mandate is social activism for sustainable, ecologically friendly, and ethical fashion. Don’t despair, don’t be paralyzed by self-doubt, and don’t let your hearts be troubled, is what I say.

Social activism that involves a concentrated effort to increase the consumption of natural fibres in an economy that relies heavily on synthetic/man-made fibres is a tall order to fill. Some of the major global impacts that have to do with climate change and global warming are because of pollution and the consumption of natural resources.

Some estimate that there are over 4.54 trillion pieces of micro plastics in the world’s oceans today. What’s worse is that our current recycling practices cannot keep up with the rate at which these micro plastics pollute the environment and, therefore, our consumption patterns are unsustainable in the long term but they can be sustainable to a limited degree in the short-term. However, this brings forth the question; what kind of world do we want to leave for our children, grandchildren, and even our future selves that are on the road to aging and ill-health? The solution to this issue may come down to the individual.

A Collection of Individuals

As individuals, we make up the larger society that participates in this consuming culture. That means an individual with positive intent may have some measure of self-doubt, a quality that affects most of us. I concluded a previous piece with the question, ‘but what can’t we do?’ I have come up with what I think is a suitable answer; any change in history comes from the dead and forgotten in name and action, but it is seen through their triumph over self-doubt via collective action. Name any movement, it was accomplished using this method, which is to overcome the worst enemy of the self, and help others to do the same.

This question ‘but what can I do’ is a reasonable concern that seems grounded, partly, in some form of self-doubt. If I’m an individual, and I’m attempting to do some good for future generations, the health of the environment, and to also contribute towards a sustainable system for all other living beings, then I have to take into account that I am a single individual and at times, I can feel devastatingly lonely in my endeavours.

But, at the same time, there are reasons to be hopeful and feel less alone making sustainable choices. I think that one of the main reasons to maintain a sense of hopefulness comes from the fact that people around the world are becoming more connected through the internet. As more people have access to devices with internet connectivity, relevant information is becoming more available to people across all social and economic backgrounds enabling them to be able to better educate themselves on issues that are of great importance to their local communities and the world at large. Therefore, community participation, social activism, and economic activism through the use of more environmentally friendly resources like natural fibres/textiles, can be incorporated into the fashion industry and can also be taken into account within the global perspective. This, I think, is a great reason to have hope.

And as with everything written, I could be wrong, incredibly wrong – think for yourself and come up with your own conclusions. I’m human and a writer. I have biases, fallibilities, and quirks – even some funny ones. My words aren’t gold, nor are they a calf.

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2022-04-10

A Country of Overcoming, Haiti and Sisal

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/09/04

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It does have a difficult time in growing in very moist or saline, salty, soil. It does show that it is resilient to disease, and it is typically harvested after about 2 years from its original planting and its productive cycle or life cycle can be up to 12 years, in which it can produce up to a total of 180 to 240 leaves for its growth depending on the level of rainfall, the altitude, and the location.

So, this can be of great use to areas such as Haiti in terms of its productive capacity and its capability provide for its own needs with such things as natural fibres. Or by making animal feed. It is interesting to note that the leaves themselves are about 90% moisture and yet still have a rigidity. It seems counterintuitive to me. In terms of its average yield, the dry fibres come to about one ton per hectare. Although, it is reported that East African crop for this fibre can grow up to four tonnes per hectare. That is an astonishing four-fold increase in the amount of fibre that is growing per hectare. What else is Haiti?

It’s a religious nation among many other things with about ¾ as Roman Catholic and 3/20ths Protestant with a sprinkling of Pentecostal, Advent, and the universalist religion of “other.” So, by any reasonable definition, a Christian influenced nation. They have another proverb: “Bondye bon.” Or God is good, sounds familiar? For whatever reason, I don’t know why, but this is bringing to mind Bach’s Cantata 54, BWV 54, for me, which went as follows:

Widerstehe doch der Sünde,
Sonst ergreifet dich ihr Gift.
Laß dich nicht den Satan blenden;
Denn die Gottes Ehre schänden,
Trifft ein Fluch, der tödlich ist.

In Standard English as a translation of the old German, this says:

Stand firm against sin,
otherwise its poison seizes hold of you.
Do not let Satan blind you
for to desecrate the honour of God
meets with a curse, which leads to death.

So, what, Scott? God is good, but Satan is tempting and sin is bad. Well, if it’s this kind of a religious nation, and we have good reason to expect this form of religiosity provide the numbers of the religious or Christian population in its citizenry, then the metanarrative for Roman Catholic and Protestant Christianity incorporate these narratives. Besides, those are damn good proverbs by my reading, and fabulous music by Bach too. It’s like double-bubble.

Sisal is also a major part of agriculture in the north coast region of Haiti. And it is used for rope, wallpaper, rugs, and other daily items of use to citizens of Haiti in various combinations and to different communities. Near the conclusion of sisal’s lifespan, it can grow to upwards of 15 feet in height and can have numerous plants and baby plants linked with it.

In other words, it is an abundant source of fibre for the Haitian people. The waste that is not used for ropes, rugs, and so on, is actually used to make, by a particular process, fertilizer or food for animals.

The process mentioned before is called decortication. Decortication is the crushing and beating of leaves by a rotation wheel with blunt knives. Once only the fibre remains, then the fibre is dried to get a high quality fibre by the removal of the moisture in the fibre prior to that the moisturizing process.

After that point, the fibre product is brushed and after that point it is then ready to be used for a variety of products including rope, rugs, wallpaper, and many other things of daily use in homes and various communities in Haiti.

In terms of sustainability and the ethical use of this particular fibre, it is one of the best around, especially for areas of the world where it is poor. It is one of the grand ironies, and not an original point to me or any one individual, that with climate change and global warming. That is, the advanced industrial nations are the major participants in the industries that pollute the environment, and the undeveloped nations or the poor of the world are not and are actually working to improve it. In addition, the indigenous communities of the world are the ones that are partaking in, not the industry, but the social and environmental activism to help with these global problems relevant to their local level.

There were consequences of the Industrial Revolution. We see them today. We see reactions to their consequences, of dead generations’ sins, today. On that same line of reasoning, that ‘grand irony’ of the modern era relates to one of the poorer areas of the world that are even under tremendous political turmoil and at the verge of a possible civil war, and are able to keep an industry that is both ethical and sustainable within the world.

Back to Haiti, and its fibre, sisal produces less carbon dioxide than it takes in and, therefore, it is a net negative carbon producer. It produces mainly organic wastes. To get to the close of this particular article, it is cultivated in many other areas of the world including Angola, Brazil, China, Cuba, Indonesia, Kenya, Mosinee, South Africa, and so on. And the estimated value of the 300,000 tonnes of output is upwards of 75 million dollars. I do not know the currency. It could be Canadian or American et cetera.

And following that earthquake and its own internal problems, which are, quite granted, numerous, there’s always some good, if you look close enough.

And by the light of Bach, and via the hope of Haiti: Degaje pa peche. To get by is not a sin.

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2022-04-10

Germany Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/25

Good news in light of Pride Month!

Lawmakers in Germany voted on Friday, June 30th to legalize same-sex marriage. Germany is the 14th country in Europe to pass a measure for marriage equality. The 13 other European countries to have passed marriage equality laws are:

Belgium
Denmark
Finland
France
Iceland
Ireland
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom

The Netherlands was the first to pass same-sex marriage equality in 2001. Finland was the last one before Germany to approve same sex marriage or marriage equality. This comes in the wake of a free vote provided by Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was against same-sex marriage.

The vote was 393–226, for-against, which is pretty much a supermajority. The vote was for “marriage for everybody.” Merkel’s Christian Democrat, Jan-Marco Luczak, said, “It would be absurd to try and protect marriage by preventing people to marry.” Germany’s first same-sex marriages are set to be celebrated early this coming fall.

This is a significant development given Germany’s role in the EU and in the world in general. It is both an economic power and a cultural one too. With such a decision, it can be predicted that other European nations will follow suit.

References

The Associated Press. (2017, June 30). Germany votes to legalize same-sex marriage despite Merkel’s thumbs down. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/germany-votes-to-legalize-same-sex-marriage-despite-merkel-s-thumbs-down-1.4185430.

Carrel, P. & Shalal, A. (2017, June 30). German lawmakers approve same-sex marriage in landmark vote. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-gay-marriage-idUSKBN19L0PQ.

Connolly, K. (2017, June 30). German parliament votes to legalise same-sex marriage. Retrieved from

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/30/germany-poised-legalise-same-sex-marriage-bill-law.

Lowder, J.B. (2017, June 30|). Same-Sex Marriage Finally Comes to Germany. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2017/06/30/same_sex_marriage_is_now_legal_in_germany.html.

Vonberg, J. & Smith-Spark, L. (2017, June 30). German lawmakers vote to legalize same-sex marriage; Merkel votes no. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/30/europe/germany-gay-marriage-vote/index.html.

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2022-04-10

Bishop George Kuhn on the Catholic Universalist Church of the Philippines

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/24

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How did you become a Catholic Universalist?

Bishop George Kuhn: became a Universalist in my early teens having heard a sermon by a Roman Catholic priest I admired a lot. I questioned him about it and he made it clear that eventually all would “go to heaven.” Using the terminology I would understand and what was common (still is). I do not know the full demographics of the community.

Jacobsen: What are they?

Kuhn: Right now we have only one active parish, and that’s the Chapel of St. Mary Magdelene in Talakag, Bukidnon, Mindanao. Those folks are all Filipinos, of all ages. We have a fellowship in Parkersburg, West Virginia, USA, which ministers primarily to the LGBTGQ community, although they do a fair amount of social justice work for other causes, too.

Jacobsen: How did you begin training as a religious leader and subsequently begin moving up the ranks of the church?

Kuhn: I studied to become an Interfaith Minister at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in New York City. After being ordained as a minister, I did independent study with Bishop Mark Sullivan in New York with the goal of being ordained to the priesthood. That happened November 1, 2008. After several years as a priest, Bishop Mark suggested that I be elevated to become a bishop. That happened on July 20, 2013. As part of my ministry, Bishop Mark and I founded the Catholic Universalist Church at that same ceremony on July 20, 2013. My idea was to reintroduce the concept to Universal Salvation to the Philippines in order to heal some of the religious injury inflicted at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as some of the more fundamentalist Christian denominations.

Jacobsen: What is love to you?

Kuhn: Love has many different meaning. In the religious context, we speak of the “agape” love, or as some call it “big love.” John the Evangelist, in his first epistle, famously writes: “God is love.” And from that Divine Source we have everything that is, was and will be, as well as non-things that are timeless, as is the Divine Source.

Jacobsen: What are life and death you?

Kuhn: We are spiritual beings with eternal existence on that level. There is no spiritual death, and since our primary nature is spiritual, we are eternal beings. For reasons unknown to almost all of us, we inhabit a physical body that exists in time and will eventually cease to exist. The death of that body is undeniable. But our spirit continues. How much of what we experience as humans also continues is question I cannot answer definitively. There has always been much speculation; my personal opinion is that human experience is not lost when the body dies but is retained in the spiritual realm. Maybe it is for review; maybe just because the Divine Source retains everything.

Jacobsen: What are your perspectives on the possibility of an afterlife?

Kuhn: I kind of answered that one in the previous question. I definitely feel that there is spiritual life after bodily death, and I also believe we can reincarnate and “take another ride” on Planet Earth, or maybe another world, if we care to. Or maybe we might need to come back into material form to complete a task left undone.

Jacobsen: How do you help the community build and make the transitions from new life to the finality of the body with physical death?

Kuhn: There’s no escaping the mortality of the body. I don’t hold classes on how to transition. It’s going to happen and it is very often sudden with no conscious preparations. These are things more appropriately discussed with individuals, and each individual would have his/her own needs and questions.

Jacobsen: How do the central ethical precepts of the Catholic Universalist Church of the Philippines translate into individual lives and familial and community activities?

Kuhn: We are a community that gathers to show our gratitude to the Universal Source, the Godhead, the Ground of Being. (Personally, I try to avoid the use of the word “God” as much as possible. That term has some pretty hefty baggage attached depending on who is in on the conversation. I am absolutely not a theist, and the “God word” strongly implies that understanding. So I personally avoid it when possible. So in our communities, we try to change people’s perceptions about “God” from the “old man with the beard sitting on a cloud taking notes on everybody” do the Source of the eternal, infinite love shown to creation and from that love we have our very existence. And our worship services emphasis that love and our gratitude for it. Of course, Roman Catholics have been under pressure from the public because of the scandals around sexual abuse of children, young people, by some of the religious authorities in the Roman Catholic Church.

Jacobsen: How do you think they should have dealt with the situation?

Kuhn: The Roman Catholic hierarchy should have been totally upfront and transparent from the beginning. Instead, they almost without exception did the opposite and protected the criminals from civil justice.

Jacobsen: What have been real successes and honest failures of the Catholic Universalist Church of the Philippines?

Kuhn: The real success has been the flourishing of the Parish in Bukindon and the fellowship in Parkersburg. It is nearly 100% due to the efforts of Rev. Joseph Rholdee Lagumbay in Bukidnon and Rev. Steve Peck in Parkersburg. We “inherited” an existing parish in New York City from another church that could no longer provide a priest. The congregation was shrinking, and nothing we tried seemed to help. We simply could not get people through the door. In New York City there is a lot of competition for people’s attention 24/7 and we, as well as most other churches, have found that organized religion is not a high priority. So having to disband that parish, at the request of the laity on the parish council, was our first real failure.

Jacobsen: Any final thoughts or feelings in conclusion?

Kuhn: I appreciate the opportunity to introduce your readers to the Catholic Universalist Church. I hope I have given some insight into what we are about. We are an offshoot of the Liberal Catholic Church, Theosophy, and Gnosticism, so our theological leanings are very liberal and progressive. We have a very basic website: www.CatholicUniversalistChurch.org, and the Philippines has an active Facebook Page at Catholic Universalist Church of the Philippines, as well as Catholic Universalist Church of Asia Pacific.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Bishop Kuhn.

Kuhn: Thank you for inviting me to talk about our community.

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2022-04-10

Skeptic Meditations Founder on the Reliance on External Authority

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/23

Scott is the Founder of Skeptic Meditations. He speaks from experience in entering and leaving an ashram. Here we talk about the reliance on external authority.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: With regards to the tactics to keep members in a cult-like organization, what seem like the more prominent examples?

Scott from SkepticMeditations.com: There’s many tactics that cult-like groups, like Self-Realization Fellowship Monastic Order, use to trap followers. First, is the unlivable ideal of renunciation. It’s a trap because its irreconcilable. No human can ever be perfect, though followers idealize stories of their founder, like SRF’s Paramahansa Yogananda.

“I killed Yogananda long ago. No one dwells in this body now but God.” proclaimed Paramahansa Yogananda.

Meditation techniques are often prescribed to followers of Eastern enlightenment. Why? Meditation done right is presumed to still thought, which is a way to kill the ego, to become a Yogananda or God-like being. It’s a psychological trap for followers

Jacobsen: What runs through the mind of a believer to keep them bound to the cult or cult-like organization?

Scott: People trapped in cult-like organizations are in a double bind. There get trapped inside the no-win kind of communication designed to keep followers obeying the authority figure.

Cult-like organizations implicitly or explicitly communicate to their followers such as:

“You are asleep or ignorant. Meditation is the path to awakening or knowledge of God. You are asleep or ignorant, so keep meditating.

You are ego/self-centered. Meditation is the path to ego destruction/self-transcendence. If you are not yet egoless or selfless, keep meditating.

You are racked with desires. Meditation is the path to fulfillment of all desires, therefore becoming desireless. If you are not yet desireless, keep meditating.”

In each of these examples, the cult-like group keeps you psychologically trapped in the double bind. If you are meditating and trying to follow the given techniques for enlightenment but do not get results (i.e., do not still your thoughts or become enlightened), the group says that it’s your fault.

Your ego got in the way and that you just to keep trying to do better. The followers are often filled with doubts about whether they will ever be good enough to “make it”, to attain the highest states of enlightenment.

Jacobsen: How is the inculcation of self-doubt and reliance on an external authority part and parcel of the maintenance of the follower mentality in a cult?

Scott: Mental or psychological control is easy when people doubt themselves.

Cult-like groups and gurus use many methods to to instill self-mistrust in followers. They patronize followers (treat them with kindness while betraying superiority). Or, they assume superiority (know what’s best for others).

Or, they use any method that will instill fear, guilt, or shame. Cult-like groups belittles reason, analytical thinking, and personal experience.

They emphasize the dangers of ego, lower self, self-interest. As I noted above cult-like groups often provides methods such as meditation to overcome self or ego. The group often emphasizes service to guru or authority versus taking care of one’s self-interests, such as family

In cult-like groups, if followers question any abuse they are told that it is spiritual “training” and it is beyond understanding in a rational way. “God works in mysterious ways”. And of course, they assume the leader of the group is attuned or at-one with God.

Once inside the SRF ashrams the environment was very closed. Everything the monks did had to be approved by your counselor or by the ashram superiors. Or, whatever was offered in the ashrams was pre-approved and monks were expected to accept it as coming from Guru, from God.

In this setup the SRF leaders and monastic superiors could do no wrong. Many members endured physical and psychological abuses in the name of “training”. That is, for the spiritual benefit of the members to breakdown their self-centered ego-consciousness.

Clearly, all abuses–physical or psychological–could be justifed as “training”. The sad part was that for the first few years I believed the abuses were for my own good. Of course, eventually–after many years of allowing abuses–I finally say through the control and manipulation, resisted it and eventually was able to leave the ashram

Jacobsen: Even if there aren’t formal methodologies on some levels for the individual follower, how does the follower make excuses for the abuse and bad behavior of some of the leaders of some cults and cult-like organizations?

Scott: On my website I’ve posted the many formal rules and vows of the SRF Order, which I belonged. In addition, the SRF Lessons–which are available to the public when they become SRF members–contain 100s of SRF “official” rules and methods regarding vegetarian diet, sexual abstinence, and a variety of esoteric meditation techniques.

There’s something called the “sunk-cost” fallacy. Where we invest so much time and energy and possibly money into something that even if its a failure we can’t cut our losses and give it up. Investing emotionally also plays a huge role in why followers have a difficult time escaping the traps of abuse in cult-like organizations.

Jacobsen: What is the general marketing that cults or cult-like organizations present to the outside world, i.e. the warning signs and signifiers of a potentially harmful organization?

Scott: With the Eastern, Hindu- and Buddhist-inspired, groups they often use meditation techniques as a way to gain followers. Meditation is the gateway. Meditation is scientized.

That is it is promoted as a practical and scientific method. Meditation practice is supposed to bring the faithful practitioner peace, material success and happiness, and ultimate enlightenment.

Cult-like ideologies also promote that they have all the answers. People who are most vulnerable are those who are going through a challenging life transition. That’s why you often find young, college-age disciples who join cults.

Or, people who are suffering and seek a way to end that suffering, often by escaping into an idealized model of the world as “spiritual training” where suffering is given ultimate meaning.

Also, these groups and leaders of cults claim to have divine dispensations. That is the group has a mandate from God to bring the lost to the Truth. Of course, only this cult group has the answers. Groups like Scientology often charge exorbitant fees to “clear” themselves of evil thetans through a method they call auditing.

I recommend the documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief. I believe many of the behaviors and tactics used by Scientology are also used by other cult-like groups. Just in varying degrees, not in kind.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Scott.

Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to share my thoughts and experiences about what I believe is an important topic.

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2022-04-10

Abiodun Sanusi on Being a Freethinker in Nigeria

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/23

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You are 23. How did you come to be a freethinker in a religious family, in a familial setting of 6?

Abiodun Sanusi: Yes, I became a freethinker through rigorous vigorous reading and thinking. Although I was very active in the Anglican church I attended with my family. Up to the stage that, I became an altar boy (an acolyte) and everyone in the hood including my family was happily expecting me to get into the seminary immediately.

I got out of the high school or the university when they discovered I chose to go to the university after high school, in fact, the Anglican church we attended sponsored my tertiary education by providing 70% of my school fee.

Jacobsen: As you became an atheist in your first year of high school, how did you go about making the transition from religious to non-religious?

Sanusi:Like I said earlier, I became an atheist through thinking, reading, debating, and doing a lot of research. I only made my transition known to friends and family through logical explanations and scientific and philosophical methods, which I always implore during conversations and debates and in my everyday activities by rejecting dogmas both local and foreign and by asking for proofs for everything including the Bible and Quran and even African religious creeds.

Jacobsen: You live in Lagos and study in Ogun state. Why did you pick geography and regional planning for tertiary education studies?

Sanusi:Yes. I picked geography and regional planning for so many reasons:

1. I wanted to become an astronaut and visit space to know if all NASA says about space and the universe was true.

2. I wanted to be the first African or black to visit space (I still look up to that though).

3. I opted for geography because I cannot afford the fee to study astronomy and there is no institution in Nigeria where I could study astronomy even if I could afford it except in the US or Russia and I cannot afford that.

4. I want to develop my environment through environmental science as I look forward to venturing into mainstream politics after school.

Jacobsen: As you are against oppression in any form, how do you fight this some activist work in Nigeria?

Sanusi:The first time I stood individually against oppression was during my final year in high school when I stood up to a teacher who was a notorious bully and I came out victorious although with a little price of cutting the grass.

But I was glad I saved the whole 12 (SS3) classes from being flogged severely with the cain and going through severe punishment for days or a week.

Now in the university, I have always stood against oppression since my first year and I sometimes pay for it with my grades (score reductions). Even now, we’re standing up to the school over the issue of stop and search at the school gate, which involves only the students who board the public shuttle.

As those who go in with their cars are never stopped nor searched at the gate, including the staff, a comrade was illegally arrested by the police 2 days ago, but was released yesterday after students went to the police station to plead as we were threatened with expulsion if we ever dare stand up to the school management against oppression.

There is so much I cannot say her,e but I am yet to be affiliated to any human rights organization as I’m yet to find a vibrant one (I’ll be glad if I could, especially an internationally recognized one).

Jacobsen: How can the international community support the atheist community in Nigeria?

Sanusi:The international community can help atheists and the atheist community in Nigeria by helping to sponsor human rights and atheistic campaigns and providing legal backings for freedom of thoughts, sex, gender, and every other thing, which should be personal and doesn’t affect anyone in any sane manner.

The homosexuals especially should be helped by helping activists worldwide including local ones to stand up for gay rights in Nigeria and Africa, and to sponsor and support youths as most of us can’t come out as an atheist because of rejection, especially financially and death threats in places like northern Nigeria.

Jacobsen: Any final thoughts or feelings in conclusion?

Sanusi:I would be very glad if the international community could help promote atheism and human right through media campaigns like billboards and television programmes and radio programmes.

I will voluntarily gladly volunteer to host television programmes in favor of atheism and human rights including gay rights.

Thanks.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Abiodun.

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2022-04-10

An Interview with Amjad Sattar

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/22

Scott Jacobsen: Was there a family background in humanism?

Amjad Sattar: Yes, our great grandparents were secular and pragmatic in nature. They co-existed with multiple faith believers until their children had to leave their ancestral land due to division of Greater Punjab & Bengal on religious grounds by the colonial masters.

Jacobsen: When did humanism become the philosophical and ethical worldview for you?

Sattar: I had been participating in free thinkers’ forums since 2002. My friends, who had more schooling than me, were active in study circles against religious dogmatism in Pakistan. Thousands of innocent citizens have been murdered since 1977, due to state sponsored extremist clergy. Seeing the predicament of innocent dissenting voices in this country, the importance of humanism was a natural development for me.

Jacobsen: What seems like the main reason people become humanists? What is the best argument for it?

Sattar: There are reasonable solutions for existing human problems by using scientific and rational approach. Blind faith on scriptures has spread chaos and bloodshed through the history.

Jacobsen: What is your current work? How does your humanist value set influence this work?

Sattar: Besides my business, I am promoting Humanism, wherever I can for peace and solidarity with fellow human beings.

Jacobsen: What are the main threats to humanism today?

Sattar: Extremely religious and dogmatic stance of terrorists and some nation states, for political gains under any sort of funding or sponsorship is a major threat to Humanism. We got to resist religious narrow mindedness all over the world.

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time, Amjad.

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2022-04-10

An Interview with Kwaku Adusei Founder – The Common Sense Foundation

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/21

*This interview edited for clarity and readability.*

Scott Jacobsen: How did you first find and become involved in Humanism? What makes it more or less true to you as a worldview?

Kwaku Adusei: It has been a long time. Somewhere in 1999, I was interested in the Bible. I started reading the Bible, trying to understand what is really in that book. The more I read, the more I come across something. I went to read the books of Exodus and Genesis. That was Jews starting choosing. That means that the Gentiles are not part of God’s family. Some of Israelites were ordered to go to Amalek and killed the Amalekites.

They slaughtered them all. I thought, “What kind of God is this?” A God who can kill a mass group of people. A God who can create even with word of mouth. That God cannot kill by himself, but only through others. I thought some propaganda is behind the story. Some political propaganda. They are seeking to achieve a political end, to achieve something by trying to use the Word of God to cover up.

You get my point. It is something used to deceive people. The more I read the Bible, I thought, “This isn’t making sense. Why don’t I go and get other books?” So I started reading the Bhagavad Gita. The holy book of the Hindu people. I read books of logic. I thought, “These books aren’t making sense as far as logic is concerned.” Then I started making the transition from the religious life to the humanistic life.

I realized if there was a supernatural power outside the universe that can give me energy, or any power to do whatever I want on this material world. It would mean that if you have a belief in God, then you can do anything. But in Ghana, this is when I changed so fast. When there are more religious people, you have more poverty. The more people become religious, the more they become poor. So something is missing.

I started reading Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene. I read Christ Conspiracy. I read Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ. After reading all of these books, I thought, “This thing we call God is nothing but something designed to deceive or enslave the masses. So that is what took me away from the religious life.” Now, it was not easy for me. The books began to shape me. I became demonized. I said, “Hey, I know what I am doing.”

My family and my loved ones, they all neglected me. I said, “No, I still have to be strong and live my life.” So every day I make sure I read my logic books and anything that has to do with science. Unless, it can be scientifically proven, then I will not believe it. If people say, “If God wills it, it will come to pass.” If I say this, I will not be applying logic and reason. In 2002, I became a full atheist.

That’s where I started moving into atheism. After atheism, I thought, “I need a step forward.” For one, we are humanists. Without human beings, it will not be easy to do whatever you want to do. If you are calling yourself irreligious, how do you work together with them on this particular planet? I started looking for others who are also thinking like me. It was difficult to me. I hide my humanist ideology for more than 5 years.

Maybe, it was 6 years. In 2010, I found 4 people who were also like me. We would get together on a weekly basis to discuss humanist ideas to make sure we make a meaningful life for ourselves without adherence to supernatural forces or higher powers. 2 years ago, I was trying to found humanist groups across the company. I saw on Facebook. I connected with IHEYO. They said they had a group in Accra, in Ghana.

I also got my friends who were humanists in Kumasi, in Ghana. I started to form a humanist group associated to the one in Accra. So we agreed and formed a humanist group in Kumasi here. When I formed the humanist group with Roslyn, I figured, “We cannot hide in the darkness. There are people outside will to hear from us. So why don’t we go outside?” Others can understand that the religious people are not what they are hearing about.

So I joined one of my friends who is a radio presenter. He was preparing something for all atheist people. And then the program features people from Hare Krishna. People from Christianity and Islam. So I joined that program. The outcome was [Laughing], I got a lot of backlash. People tried to even kill me. People, some of them got to understand me. As I talk to you, I have 59 members on my platform, where we interact each and every day on humanist ideas to get more people involved.

SJ: As well, you founded The Common Sense Foundation. What is the target audience, and the purpose of it?

KA: Yes, The Common Sense Foundation, we are an organization of the Humanist Association of Ghana. First of all, it is one part of my plan. I want to make a radio program. I started to realize there are more people who are willing to hear our message. I put my phone number on the radio station. People started calling me and saying they wanted to learn more from me. That’s where I created a WhatsApp platform and then have some direction with them on daily issues.

I thought, “Why don’t we have a platform to spread the news across the country?” If that is what we are proposing, then we can do that. Then we formed the humanist community and The Common Sense Foundation. Our main target is the youth because the youth are more open to information. The youth have now come to realize that religion is killing people. Religion is dehumanizing people.

Religion is making people slaves. The youth have the mindset, but they don’t have the courage to come out of that mess. We have come to give them that boost. We have come to encourage them. So they can be strong, be bold, and can move from religion to the secular world, which is what we seek to do — to build a critical thinking centre. Where we organize a forum to encourage them.

That way, they can realize things without panic or being hypnotized by the religious people. We cannot teach logic to some of the adults because they have already made up their minds. The youth are always looking for new information. The Common Sense Foundation is there to give them the information that they need, to help encourage them to live their lives, and can do whatever they want to do without adhering to any spiritual forces.

We realize they have the doubt, but that they are now free to move to another level. We talk to them. So that is what we are doing now, we go to the radio stations and talk to people. Those that want to talk to us, contact us, and then we put them on the WhatsApp platform to share ideas and have fun. That’s all. It is difficult for us because sometimes we don’t organize very big programs, so that we also invite +people from outside it.

Eminent and experienced humanists come to give lectures, but we are moving in that bigger direction. Especially with the critical thinking centre the work with the young people, it is difficult for us. We are talking to other friends who are humanists in their work. We see if they try and help us. The target, though, is for the youth.

SJ: Thank you very much for your time. It was nice talking to you, Kwaku.

KA: You too.

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2022-04-10

Professor Matt Sheedy on Theories of Secularism and Atheism

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/20

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: As a lecturer at the University of Manitoba and a visiting assistant professor of Canadian Studies at the Universität Bonn, what tasks and responsibilities come along with the positions? What are your favorite courses to teach at the University of Manitoba?

Dr. Matt Sheedy: Having recently completed my PhD in the study of religion, I am currently on the market in search of the elusive tenure track job. I teach part time at the University of Manitoba in the Department of Religion, and have a one-year contract (likely to be renewed for a second year) in Bonn, Germany in the department of North American Studies. My favourite courses to teach at the UofM have been science and religion, and religion and media. Relatedly, I’ve taught and will be teaching classes on media representations of Islam, and Indigenous traditions in North America at the University of Bonn, which has been great since non-tenured scholars rarely get to craft their own courses from scratch.

Jacobsen: You have an expertise in theories of secularism and religion. What are the main bases of these fields? What are the main theories of secularism and religion?

Sheedy: That’s a great question, though a very meaty one … let’s see if I can pull off an “elevator” version here. In the last couple of decades there has been a lot of scholarly work tracing histories and genealogies of the category religion (i.e., definitions and classifications) and how it has been applied in different times and places, especially in relation to non-Christian groups. Although critical analysis of gods, customs, and rituals date back as far as ancient Greece with thinkers like Lucretius, the scientific study of religion only became institutionalized in the late 19^th century in places like Germany, the Netherlands, and especially at Oxford University under the leadership of F. Max Mueller. Crucially, these comparative studies were distinguished from theology (e.g., they did not privilege religious beliefs or supernatural claims) in their methods of analysis. This move toward the social sciences was an important step in the critical study of religions, though it wasn’t until after the Second World War that such departments began to emerge in North America. And so while there is a lot of influential work that we could point to that helped to promote thinking critically about religion—from pioneers like David Hume, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Nietzsche in philosophy, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim in sociology, Sigmund Freud in psychology, and, of course, Charles Darwin in evolutionary biology—the academic study of religion is a relatively young field that is still confused with theology, much to the humour/chagrin of me and my colleagues.

Turning to the question of secularism: there is a growing awareness that much of the comparative work on religions that was done in the 19^th and 20^th centuries privileged a Protestant Christian perspective by which all societies and cultures were compared. This perspective often included the idea ‘religion’ contained some combination of the following criteria: that it ought to be believed-in on the basis of faith, privately held and not publically displayed, voluntarily chosen and not imposed by state authorities, and managed under (secular) law. In addition, this perspective privileged written scriptures, such as the Qur’an or Bhagavad Gita, over oral traditions. One of the main points of emphasis of more recent studies on religion and secularism has been to draw attention to the fact that many societies did not contain any (or most) of these criteria, and thus were often classified by European scholars as less advanced on a social evolutionary model of historical development (e.g., as primitive). In addition, the individual perspectives and forms of knowledge (i.e., epistemologies) of those being studied were not well understood and, as a consequence, were rarely taken into consideration. Scholars like David Chidester, Talal Asad, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, and Saba Mahood have all drawn connections in their work between European colonialism and the forceful imposition of a Protestant worldview, which is commonly understood to have been the primary basis for Western forms of secularism (esp. in the work of Max Weber). One take away from these studies is that religion should always be thought about in relation to other social forces such as secularism, nationalism, and the power dynamics between competing groups that influence and shape one another in endless combinations. Considering these relational dynamics is why I’ll sometimes put ‘religion’ in scare quotes, to indicate that we’re never just talking about gods, beliefs, rituals, and so on, in isolation from myriad other factors at play. Paying attention to how competing conceptions of religion, secularism, nationalism, culture, and so forth, relate to each other in different times and places is crucial if we’re going to historicize and contextualize these complex ideas rather than simply assume and assert what they mean, once and for all—which is what so many politicians, pundits, and religious leaders do, and is what, imho, good scholarship aims to interrogate and critique.

Jacobsen: What explains the recent popularity and rise in atheism in Western culture? How is this represented in the discourse around it?

Sheedy: Common wisdom surrounding the recent rise in atheism in (Euro-) Western culture is linked to popular responses to 9/11 as represented by so-called ‘new atheist’ authors like Sam Harris (The End of Faith 2004), Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion 2006), and Christopher Hitchens (God is Not Great 2007), among others. A more comprehensive genealogy might also look at the impact of Sigmund Freud, the Frankfurt School, and Jean-Paul Sartre throughout the twentieth century, all of whom were influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche, along with Bertrand Russell (among many others) in the tradition of Anglo-American philosophy. These scholars and schools of thought provide a theoretical backbone for much contemporary atheist thought. To this list I’d also add Emma Goldman and Ayn Rand as key figures linking atheism with anarchist and libertarian schools of thought respectively. Less commonly acknowledged, but no less influential, would be strands of feminist, queer, and post-colonial theory, including Indigenous and Black liberation movements, that have drawn connections between patriarchal, hetero-normative, and colonial domination with Christianity in particular. These theories and movements have been used to both reform Christianity via theologies of liberation, or have rejected it altogether, thus contributing practical and theoretical depth to critiques of ‘religion’ as a form of domination and control. Asking why these movements have not been strongly connected to popular atheism is an important question, and one that I’ll touch upon in due course.

One could also add to the list the schools of thought that were inspired by German sociologist Max Weber and his theory of secularization, which held that increasing secularization in Euro-Western societies, such as an observable decrease in church attendance and religious affiliation, were a model for how all societies would eventually develop as they underwent ‘modernization’—that is, as they followed a secular, liberal, capitalist trajectory. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, however, scholars have been seriously reconsidering these models and, beginning in the late 1990s, many have turned to theories of ‘post-secularism’ as a way to think about the perseverance of religious identities in nominally secular societies.

More significant then theories, perhaps, would be to look at flash point events such as the Scopes “Monkey” Trail of 1925, concerning the teaching of evolution, the Abington School District vs. Schempp US Supreme Court decision banning Bible reading in public schools in 1963, or the successful cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1996. Like 9/11, these events sparked intense public debate that drew-in the general public in ways that scholarship never could. Thomas Dixon’s A Very Short Introduction to Science and Religion (2008) provides a decent overview of some of these public debates, including the role that theories of evolution, legalized abortion, and LGBTQ struggles have played in causing some people to renounce religious affiliation in support of these ideas, issues, and identities. Likewise, the work of Peter Harrison, especially his recent book The Territories of Science and Religion (2015), is a great resource for those interested in these questions.

Returning to the post-9/11 era, I would suggest that the popularity of the ‘new atheists’ in combination with the rise of social media has helped to spur the growth of atheist ideas and, more importantly, atheist, secularist, and humanist organizations (including atheist churches and the academic study of secularity and non-religion, esp. in the UK) that have both popularized and legitimized these ideas and identities in ways that were unthinkable in earlier generations. The popularity of Bernie Sanders is emblematic of this shift in consciousness, where his secular (Jewish) identity and advocacy for democratic socialism did not prevent him from nearly beating Hilary Clinton as the Democratic nominee for president. The positive reception of someone like Sanders could not have happened in decades past, especially as the link between socialism and “godless communism” was so dominant throughout much of the twentieth century, which created strong associations between atheism and Soviet-style totalitarianism (esp. in the US), and thus contributed to caricatures of atheism (e.g., as immoral, as the enemy of freedom, etc.). Younger generations of today have grown up in a world where these connections no longer hold much sway, which is one of the reasons why atheism has lost some of its stigma, at least in most Euro-Western countries. There are many other variables to consider that I can’t go into here, especially when we look at the rise of the category ‘Nones’ in recent census data, along with various ‘new age’ movements and emerging forms of secular ‘spirituality’ (even Sam Harris is getting in on the action with his 2014 book Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion).

As with the term ‘religion’ or ‘religious,’ however, a lot depends here on how we define ‘atheist’ (i.e., what counts and what is disqualifying?) beyond the most obvious criteria. For example, do some practitioners of yoga or Buddhist style meditation count as atheist or agnostic if their point of reference is devoid of supernatural claims, but still centred around concepts like prana, chi, compassion, and the like? What are the differences between Albert Camus’s existentialist atheism and that of Richard Dawkins (to say nothing of feminist or Black atheisms), what types of politics do they align with, and what theories of the mind, body, society, and culture guide their thinking?

Lastly (and more on this in the next question), rising controversies surrounding freedom of speech and identity politics have also caused a rift in recent years, where popular atheists like Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali have come under increasing criticism for their over-emphasis on rationalist thought and secular liberalism, along with their dismissal of so-called cultural or identity politics (e.g., feminism and critiques of colonialism and Islamophobia), causing some to shy away from this particular brand of atheism that has not, to date, been replaced by an equally visible movement that calls itself by the same name. For a brief period it appeared that the “Faitheist” idea that Chris Stedman helped to popularize back in 2012, which de-emphasized the link between religion, rationalism, and belief and put emphasis on “shared values” between humanism and religious ideas instead might create a significant sectarian split in atheist ranks, but this has not born out to date.

Jacobsen: What is the rhetoric of Islamophobia in North America? How does this play out in practical terms?

Sheedy: I’ve become increasingly interested in analyzing the rhetoric of Islamophobia in recent years since it brings together so many of my research interests and is a key component, imo, for understanding certain formations of atheism in our current moment. It is fairly well known that the so-called ‘new atheists’ were spurred to write their best-selling books because of the 9/11 attacks. While ostensibly criticizing all ‘religion,’ Islam came in for special treatment by these authors, to say nothing of the scores of politicians and pundits (from Geert Wilders and Marine La Pen in The Netherlands and France, Peter King and Donald Trump in the US, to Fox News and what some have called the “Islamophobia Industry” [see Nathan Lean’s 2012 book of the same name], represented by Daniel Pipes and Pamela Geller) who’ve made a living out of promoting fear of Islam. While the term “Islamophobia’ came into common usage back in 1997 after the British government sponsored a commission on the topic, known as the Runneymede Trust Report, it is only in last decade or so that it has become part of mainstream political debate. Popular atheists like Sam Harris, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Bill Maher have all been called Islamophobic for things that they’ve written and said (e.g., in Harris’s The End of Faith, Hirsi Ali’s Nomad, and on Real Time with Bill Maher), and have responded to these charges in interviews and in print (e.g., Harris’s Islam and the Future of Religious Tolerance: A Dialogue with Maajid Nawaz [2015], and Hirsi Ali’s Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now [2015]).

What interests me most in these debates is how they are typically framed in relation to different theoretical camps or schools of thought. One side tends to measure various cultures/religions by their seeming ability/inability to embrace the values of reason, rationality, and Western-style secular liberalism, which tends to follow some variation of the Protestant model that I outlined above. On the other side are those that prioritize a cultural studies perspective—including studies of gender, sexuality, racism, and colonialism—and tend to foreground these particular issues when questions of Islam arise (e.g., it’s never just about doctrines and beliefs). While I don’t think for a moment that these are mutually exclusive camps, or that it’s even useful to frame these debates in this way, I do find it important to think about the ways in which complex, fluid ideas like Islamophobia become caricatured in relation to what we might call ‘culture wars’ rhetoric. In this sense, the meaning of ‘Islamophobia’ gets transformed once it is caught up in questions of ‘free speech’ (i.e., the blurry lines between critiquing religion vs. being racist and xenophobic), ‘shared values,’ the state of multiculturalism, and so forth. This type of analysis is what some scholars refer to as ‘discourse’ or the discursive study of language and meaning. As many popular atheists within the Euro-West are clearly in the first of these ‘camps,’ I am interested in analyzing the ways in which their responses to the charge of Islamophobia have re-shaped atheist/humanist/secularist identities and, more broadly, the general public’s perception/reception of these new variations (or memes, if you will) that continue to evolve before our eyes.

Jacobsen: Any final thoughts or feelings in conclusion?

Sheedy: Thanks very much for this opportunity to talk about my work on this fascinating topic!

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dr. Sheedy.

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2022-04-10

An Interview with Dr. Leo Igwe — Founder, Nigerian Humanist Movement

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/19

Leo Igwe is the founder of the Nigerian Humanist Movement and former Western and Southern African representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union. He holds a Ph.D. from the Bayreuth International School of African Studies at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, having earned a graduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Calabar in Nigeria.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Was there a family background in humanism, secularism, and rationalism?

Leo Igwe: There was no family connection to my embracing humanism. I found humanism, secularism, and rationalism during my education. My grandparents were traditional religionists. My parents were born traditional religionists, but like most persons of their generation, switched religion while growing up.

They became Catholics not really by choice, but due to existential needs and necessities. My father told me that he embraced Christianity because that was the only way he could get formal education.

My father was trained as a teacher and he taught in primary schools until he retired in the late 80s. My mother dropped out when she was in Standard Two. My mother was — and still is — devoutly religious, but my father never took religious seriously.

Today, I describe my father as an agnostic. I served as an altar boy when I was in primary school and later went to the Catholic seminary where I was trained to be a priest. I left the training in 1994, and started the humanist movement in 1996.

It was while in the seminary that I came into contact with the idea of humanism. I found the humanist outlook to be more realistic than religion. Humanism related to me directly, to human beings that I saw and interacted with.

That was unlike religion that focused mainly on gods and spirits, which I could not see or really interact with. I also noticed that religion encouraged people to be dishonest, to claim to be seeing what they are not seeing or to be in communication with somebody when they are in communication with nobody.

Religion encouraged fakery. So, some of these issues led to me embracing humanism.

Jacobsen: What is the state of these world views and movements in Nigeria?

Igwe: Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the socialist movement was very popular in Nigeria but the movement has been less visible and in fact has almost disappeared since the soviet bloc disintegrated.

I also heard about the pan-Africanist movement, which was effective during the anti-colonialism and anti-apartheid struggles. I do not hear so much about it these days. Apart from these ‘worldviews and movements’, the movement prominent in the region is religion, especially the Christian and Islamic movements.

Religious worldviews overshadow other worldviews. Religious movements override other movements. The most prominent movement in the region is religion. We are only beginning to see the emergence of non-religious movements, such as the humanist/atheist movements rear their heads.

However, these worldviews are far from commanding the influence and followership like the faith movement. I hope with the advent of the internet and the spread of information. We will witness a phenomenal growth of humanist, secularist, and rationalist movement in the region.

Jacobsen: Of those prominent irreligious individuals in Nigeria, who has the most impact in changing the policies, the legislation, the culture, and the scientific literacy of the country? Also, outside of individual effort, what about associations, collectives, and organizations?

Igwe: It used to be Tai Solarin but Solarin passed away in the 90s. Now, the most eloquent irreligious individual voice in Nigeria is our first Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka. Soyinka is an eminent literary scholar.

He has consistently argued for tolerance and respect for the humanity of all in the face of religious intolerance and extremism. Soyinka has not minced words in condemning the unconscionable religious gladiators in the region that have often turned the country into a theatre of absurdity and holy wars.

He has been consistent in his condemnation of the jihadists and crusaders who often orchestrate religious bloodletting in their quest to implement Sharia law or to further some self-styled divine mandate.

While I cannot say for sure how impactful his rational appeals are on policies and programs, Soyinka’s statements are sources of hope and light at times of darkness and despair. I can say for certain that on occasions when religious extremists push the nation to the brink.

When religion blinds and people are unable to see or think clearly, when fear and fanaticism loom very large, Soyinka is a voice of rational sanity, thoughtful courage, and moderation.

Apart from the individual voices such as Soyinka, there are no active irreligious associations making impact except the emerging irreligious bodies such as the Nigerian Humanist Movement and its affiliates.

Jacobsen: What research points to the increasing secularization and scientific literacy of the general populace?

Igwe: Gallup polls point to increasing religion and scientific illiteracy. In fact, not too long ago, Nigeria was polled to be the most religious nation on earth. However, one can point to the emergence of active humanist and free thought groups in the country as an indicator of the rise of secularism.

For instance, the Humanist Assembly of Lagos is hosting a conference in Lagos this July. Many irreligious individuals will be in attendance. Irreligious attendees are expected from various parts of the country including Kano and Plateau states in Northern Nigeria.

Recently, such meetings have taken place in Ibadan, Abuja, Calabar, Port Harcourt, Benin and Owerri; although, these are not captured in any poll or research they surely point to a growing secular space in the country!

Jacobsen: What are some of the worst reactions to the non-believing community, from children through to the elderly, in Nigeria?

Igwe: First, it is mainly a family issue. The state gets involved in more extreme cases. But this is rare.

The reactions take covert as well as overt forms. The reactions depend on how liberal or conservative a family is. Worst reactions are expectedly from conservative families. Just to let you have a feeling of what the reactions could be.

A popular Nigerian Muslim woman who was reputed to be a liberal person told me that she would have nothing to do with any of the children who renounced Islam. Under Sharia law, apostasy is a crime punishable by death.

So, reactions to non-belief include ostracization, severance of family support, abandonment, and other forms of maltreatment. In a society where the family is virtually everything in terms of social support and sustenance, family sanction is indeed the worse form of punishment for non-belief.

Jacobsen: Of those children that are abused, what are the statistics on them? How many? What kinds of abuse? What has been one of the most bizarre and tragic cases you’ve read or witnessed of Nigerian children being abused based on superstition?

Igwe: About 15,000 children are branded witches and subsequently abandoned in Southern Nigeria and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, many of the 25,000 homeless children living on the streets of Kinshasha are victims of witchcraft accusation.

I was involved in rescuing children who were accused of witchcraft and I heard very horrific tales. There were cases of children whose family members shackled and starved for several days. Some of children were flogged with sticks and iron and had bruises all over their body.

Others had gasoline poured on them and were set ablaze in the quest to expel the spirit of witchcraft.

Jacobsen: How can religion be liberalized? In America, they had Carl Sagan and have Neil Degrasse Tyson. Is there an equivalent in Nigeria?

Igwe:. We don’t have yet the likes of Carl Sagan and Neil Degrasse Tyson. It is not because there aren’t some scientists who can disseminate scientific ideas and principles.

The science is there. The scientists are there. But the popularizing scientific will is not. This is because scientists are afraid of backlash from religious establishments. Scientists do not want to disseminate scientific ideas in a way that they could be accused of blasphemy.

Religious authorities are still very influential in Nigeria and will go to any length to suppress and neutralize any one promoting science in a way that puts religious claims into question. Science is still within the cocoon and control of religious authorities.

Religion in Nigeria has yet to attain that liberalized state.

Jacobsen: What scientific discipline would have provided the greatest inoculation against the superstitions that most plague Nigeria, e.g. astronomy, biology, chemistry, or physics, and so on? Why?

Igwe: In tackling the disease of superstition, all inoculations are needed because pseudoscience and anti-science manifest in various forms and shapes. Astronomy would be helpful in addressing superstitious beliefs regarding the universe.

Nigerians strongly believe that God, the angels, ancestors and spirits are out there, somewhere in the sky. So, the notion of exploring the planets does not intrigue or command an appeal. Going to the moon or traveling to Mars seems like venturing into the territory of the gods, or embarking on a venture that could elicit the wrath of the divine.

A discipline that sees the ‘heavenly bodies’ as an object of study not of worship will be resourceful in dispelling credulous beliefs. Biology and chemistry will provide the antidote to irrational notions of life and physics will inoculate the people against supernatural beliefs. In Nigeria, belief that human beings can turn into birds, cats, and snakes is pervasive.

This belief is not innocuous because those whom people suspect to traversing these terrains are attacked and killed. A discipline that encourages Nigerians to seek evidence or to base their knowledge or claims on evidence is an asset in the anti superstition campaign.

Jacobsen: Is Creationism an issue there too, as with where I live, Canada? It is a problem here too. Moderate double-digit levels of superstition and Creationism exist — Young Earth Creationism even.

Igwe: Creationism is not just an issue; Creationism is the issue and exists in its both young and older Earth formations. That means in Nigeria people subscribe to the notion that the Earth was created whether it is a few thousand years ago or tens or hundreds of thousands of years ago.

The belief is that Earth came into being through a divine decree. People often show disdain for science because it challenges their creationist ideas.

Jacobsen: What has been a big victory for the humanist community in Nigeria?

Well, the victory is significant but not necessarily big because religions still have so much influence. Religious establishment still dominates public debate and policymaking. The humanist community is only trying to provide a counter weight and indeed there is a growing momentum of humanism and freethought.

I can only explain the growing visibility of humanism by stating as American philosopher and humanist, Corliss Lamont, once wrote that humanism is the next step. Yes, humanism is the next necessary step for Nigeria. Religion has held Nigeria hostage for too long.

Superstition has caused so much confusion, darkness, and deception. Dogma has been used to tyrannize over the lives of the people. So, this is the time for change and of some transformation based on reason, science, critical thinking, and humanity. People are yearning for freedom and emancipation. Humanism is critical in delivering that change and in the realization of social renewal.

Jacobsen: What are the differences in beliefs on important secular topics between the young, the middle aged, and elderly in Nigeria? Why these trends?

Igwe: The young tend to be more curious and critical as they seek to understand life and make sense of their experiences. But as they grow older they start questioning less and try to conform.

The young people tend to hold liberal positions on issues such as abortion or gay sex because they are not in positions of authority and not necessarily interested in the maintenance of law and order.

The youths are not interested in things or in issues as established, but in issues as they think. So, they can afford to challenge existing norms. However, as they grow older and get into positions of authority, the maintenance of law and order becomes paramount — and they become more conservative.

Jacobsen: How respected is freedom of conscience, belief, and speech in Nigeria, especially, in line with the prior questions, regarding critical questions about religion and its role in society — and the status of women?

Igwe: When it comes to critical questions of religion, freedom of conscience, belief and speech is a paper tiger in Nigeria. There is no freedom in religious matters. In fact, religion is presented as inadmissible of criticism, of opposing views and opinions whether it is the status of women, of children, gay, or of non-believers.

Religious positions are cast on stones. Views that are critical of religion easily get framed as blasphemy, which is a crime under Sharia law and is punishable by death or imprisonment.

Freedom of conscience, belief and expression is not respected because the exercise of such freedom ‘provokes’, ‘offends’ or insults the sensibilities of the religious and these are epithets to canonize and legitimize state sanction or mob action.

Jacobsen: What do you think about theological and social arguments for the respect for faith, for religion, and for traditions from faiths and religions?

Igwe: Theological arguments are supposed to provide ‘explanations’ for the existence of God. That means these arguments ought to persuade and make anyone who does not know about God to at least understand that God exists.

But unfortunately, this is not the case. Anyone who takes a critical look at the theological arguments would really wonder what those who advanced these explanations had in mind. For instance, the ontological argument explains God as “that than which nothing greater can be conceived.”

The cosmological argument states that God is the First Cause (of things). Whilst the teleological says that God exists as the designer of the universe. Now how have these arguments really provided justifications for the existence of the God of Christianity and Islam, or in fact any God at all? Given that the religions do not really agree on the notion and expression of the divine, which God have these arguments proved? The Biblical that appeared from nowhere, hovered over the void, created everything, and apparently retreated?

Or the Allah god who dictated the Quran to an illiterate in a cave, sent Muhammad, and then escaped back to paradise? Is that the being than which nothing greater can be thought? Surely, I can conceive a being greater than these Christian and Islamic constructs!

This flimsy reasoning applies to the social argument of faith which says that religion has a social value and provides a moral fiber that holds the community together. First, this idea is mistaken. Human beings are social beings with or without religion.

In fact, human beings lived in communities before the invention of religion. Religion only reinforced what has been part of human nature that is community life. In fact, the greatest tragedy is that religion hijacked the human sense of community.

This tragic role is evident in the challenges and difficulties of building communities in a religiously plural nation such as Nigeria. The role of religion in terms of community building is ambivalent.

While religion fosters a sense of family or community on one hand, it causes division and strain on the other because in a multireligious environment there are competing senses of family and community. Catholic community is different from the Protestant community.

Shia social sense is not the same as Sunni version. Faith or religion should not be respected to the extent that they peddle lies and deception, and fuel division, and hatred and intolerance.

Jacobsen: Who is the worst charlatan offender in Nigeria that abuses the positives of religion — societal community building and ordinary citizen activism?

Igwe: A key test of a community is how it treats the vulnerable members of the population. For me, the worst charlatan offenders are the witch hunters and the demon hunters because they ply their trade in ways that hurt and exploit human beings especially women, children, and the disabled.

Given my encounter with her and the church members, I would say that Helen Ukpabio of the Liberty Gospel Church is the worst charlatan and offender in Nigeria because of her vicious campaign against the rights and dignity of children using religion and witchcraft as a cover.

Jacobsen: What happens to those who speak out against religion, or who ask the simplest of critical questions?

Igwe: It depends on where in Nigeria one speaks out against religion and which religion is involved. In Muslim majority states in northern Nigeria, speaking out against Islam is blasphemy and it is punishable by death or imprisonment.

Criticizing Islam is dangerous not just because the state could prosecute, execute or jail the critic, but one could be killed by Islamic mobs.

In fact the chances are that one is more likely to die in the hands of the later than the former.

Unfortunately, killers of real or imagined critics of Islam are never brought to justice. In a high-profile case that recently happened in Kano, the court declared that suspected killers had no case to answer.

Jacobsen: Is prayer a standard and assumed ritual in meetings of political types, as in much of North America as well?

Igwe: Yes, prayer is a standard ritual in meetings and events. However, it is not all religious prayers that are said at all meetings and in all places. In Muslim majority sections, Islamic prayer is the standard.

Christian prayer is the norm in the Christian dominated areas of the country and both Christian and Islamic prayers at national gatherings especially in Abuja. These prayers take place despite the constitutional provision that prohibits the adoption of any religion as state religion.

Saying Christian and Islamic prayers at official meetings attests to the non-neutrality of the state in religious matters and official discrimination on religious grounds.

Jacobsen: How can formal education from the youngest ages to graduate training inculcate critical thinking, statistical principles of thought, scientific literacy, and heuristics of logic and formal reasoning?

Igwe: It is by making the inculcation of critical thinking more than a classroom, examination-passing affair. For now, science, logic, and critical thinking are taught as classroom subjects, as courses which students take with the aim of getting certificates and securing jobs.

Young people are not made to understand sufficiently that these are tools that they need to navigate through life. Heuristics of logic and formal reasoning should be taught as skills that are needed to everyday life.

Jacobsen: Who, in a neighbouring country, gives you hope for the humanistic future?

Igwe: The Humanist Association of Ghana gives me hope; yes, it does. I founded the Nigerian Humanist Movement and worked and campaigned to grow and develop it. For decades, I worked to grow and develop humanist groups in different African countries.

Many of the initiatives have fizzled out or have remained at individual activist or contact levels. So, it gladdens my heart that at last an effective humanist group has taken off in Ghana and is actively involved in coordinating the Humanist Service Corps project in northern Ghana.

A few years ago, such a humanist group sounded like a pipe dream but today it is a reality. I thank Roslyn Mould and her team for diligently delivering on this key humanist promise. I only hope that the humanist association in Ghana grows from strength to strength.

Jacobsen: Do many or some consider you a personal hero? If so, how does this feel, as an exemplar of the community of the irreligious with international reach?

Igwe: I do not think that some people consider me as a hero. I don’t really feel comfortable being placed in that box because I am not done yet. I want to keep doing my work in ways that would allow me to make mistakes and live my own life without being pressured to conform to anyone’s pattern or expectation.

However, I am aware that there are some who have said that they were inspired by what I did or have done. My feeling is this: How I wish I accomplished more and performed better than I did. I have always worked under constraints, with limited resources.

I have not always achieved as much as I would have loved to achieve I still feel that I did not do enough and has not done enough. We still do not have effective humanist, freethought, and skeptics groups in most African countries. That does not make me happy.

It is only when we have active humanist organisations in all African countries that I would feel fulfilled. And as you can imagine we are certainly a long way from reaching that goal.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the time, Leo.

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2022-04-10

Interview with Deo Ssekitooleko — Representative of Center for Inquiry International — Uganda

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/18

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: In brief, what is your family story?

Deo Ssekitooleko: I was born in a poor African family. I first saw my biological father when I was ten years old. I am the heir of my late father, Fulgensio Ssekitooleko. He was a very committed catholic, very social, and a committed humanitarian. I grew up with my mother Noelina Nalwada — which was typically a single-parent household (but at other times I had step-fathers).
I am the only child. My father’s children, apart from one, died after getting infected with HIV/AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s. My mother is an atheist, agnostic or skeptic. When I tried to enter a catholic seminary, she abused me and challenged me whether I had ever seen somebody who has ever seen God or returned from death.

However, one of my last stepfathers who was both a devout catholic and a believer in African traditional religion influenced me to be a very religious person (Catholic) in my early youth. My mother knew how to fight for my (and her) rights, so I never understood issues concerning human rights violations during my youth except when seeing teachers apply corporal punishment to my fellow students.

As I was growing up, I was not aware of the massive human rights abuse by the governments of the day, but, once in a while, I could hear whispers about somebody who has disappeared or killed by the government. Those were regimes of president Iddi Amin Dada, and the second regime of Apollo Milton Obote as he was fighting guerrillas lead by Yoweri Museveni — the current president of Uganda

I am married to Elizabeth, and we have been together for 17 years. We have four children: Sylvia (16 years), Diana (12), Julius (11), and Nicholas (3).

Jacobsen: Are there any others things about your personal story you would like to share?

Ssekitooleko: I grew up striving to succeed in education so that I could escape poverty, ignorance, and unfairness in society. My mother’s relatives were always exploited by witchdoctors who claimed to have healing-powers and thus could cure diseases — including HIV/AIDS. My uncles and aunts gave away their land to witchdoctors in order to get cured from HIV/AIDS, but they later died leaving no property to their offsprings.

In the years to come, the Pentecostal movements emerged promising prosperity on earth, good health and many other opportunities. The two groups, i.e. the traditional religions and the Pentecostals, were undermining the struggle against HIV/AIDS, exploiting poor people. Yet, nobody could talk about them or challenge them.

This was a traumatising experience. I never knew whether this was a human rights issue or mere belief, or ignorance. As the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights defends the right to belief, all governments have gone on to include that article in their constitutions.

This means that ignorant people can be exploited in the name of belief as it is their human right to be exploited as long as they believe. This has been one of my most traumatising struggles in life. I have lost so many relatives out of their ignorance of science concerning health issues. Yet, governments cannot do anything about this because the politicians are also superstitious and the laws protect the charlatans.

In Uganda, almost 80 per cent of FM radio stations spend most of their time promoting the work of faith healers and witchdoctors. Rationalists do not have resources to own a radio station or to buy time on radio and television.

In my struggle to promote rationalism, I founded the Uganda Humanist Association. I became the East African Representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (2007–2012). Now, I am the Ugandan Representative of the Center for Inquiry International.

As advocacy campaigns are difficult, we now engage with local communities to talk about science and superstition in health and community development. Our work is now to invite whoever happens to be involved to discuss these issues openly and inform communities of the dangers of superstition in health and community development.

As of now, I have personally suspended armchair conference-hall humanism. I am in the trenches of community practical humanism. Whatever little I do, I feel proud that at least I am part of the struggle to rationalise African communities.

Jacobsen: What are your religious/irreligious, ethical and political beliefs?

Ssekitooleko: I grew up as a staunch Catholic, and then at university I became a radical secular humanist. Now, having interacted with various so-called humanists and observed their limitations (especially in building harmony, inclusive communities, practical approaches to society problems, and a general lack of openness) I have reviewed my humanism.

I am now a free thinking, liberal, practical humanist. I do not mind other people’s beliefs on the condition that they do not infringe on the rights, happiness, and welfare of other human beings. I can work with Catholics on a health project, but I tell them point blank that the use of condoms should not be undermined and that family planning is essential in our families.

I tell Pentecostals that by preaching miracles such as faith-healing they are committing homicide. However, I enjoy my intellectual philosophical humanism as we debate Darwinism, the Big Bang theory, the environment, and the future of humanity among others. Politically, I am a social welfare democrat. Democracy should not be only about elections, but on how society shares opportunities and resources and how it promotes harmony.

I do not support the winner takes it all type of democracy. I prefer proportional representation in government as a form of democracy, as is the case in many countries which suffered the madness of the second world war.

Jacobsen: How did you become an activist and a sceptic?

Ssekitooleko: When I enrolled in high school, I was still a very confused young man. I had experienced a lot in my childhood. My Biology teacher, the late Mathias Katende, made an explosion in my brain and changed my ideological worldview. He introduced evolutionary biology to us.

The more he taught, the more we became confused. All along, I had prepared myself to go to heaven and meet Mary, the mother of Jesus, and escape worldly problems. However, by the time I entered University to study Botany, Zoology, and Psychology, I had become completely healed from this ideological and philosophical trauma.

At University, we got more lessons on evolution, but the lecturers were not as committed to evolution as my high school teacher. In fact, most students never took evolution seriously. They just wrote their examinations and moved on with life.

At university, by luck, a friend gave me a book on discovering religions. I read about most religions, worldviews, and philosophies. I found Humanism to be more related to my new worldview. I wrote to the British Humanist Association and got a positive response from Matt Cherry who encouraged me to form a humanist organisation. That was the birth of the Uganda Humanist Association.

He connected me to the center for Inquiry International through Norm Allen who was the Director of African Americans for Humanism (AAH). The Free Inquiry Magazines that Norm sent us opened our eyes wider on how humanity sees itself. Later, we were to work with the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) on many secular projects.

Jacobsen: Do you consider yourself a progressive?

Ssekitooleko: I am very progressive. I have always been evolving in my ideological, philosophical, cultural, and political views. I used to be a staunch believer in American democracy, but now I am more rotated towards European Social Parliamentary Democracy. I used to hate China’s politics, but now I see it relevant in order to maintain orderliness and social welfare to a country (that has over one billion people) under one authority. I am a progressive because I am ever open to new challenges, new ideas, and new world views for the good of humanity and the environment at large.

Jacobsen: Does progressivism logically imply other beliefs, or tend to or even not all?

Ssekitooleko: I don’t look at progressivism as a confined ideology or philosophy. If so, then I need more education about it. In my view, progressivism should be open to all aspects of human life including but not limited to culture, beliefs, politics, philosophy, and views about the environment among others.

Jacobsen: How did you come to adopt socially progressive worldview?

Ssekitooleko: As I explained earlier, it is a combination of my childhood experience, my culture, my environment, and possibly my inherited biological genes. I am lucky to have been introduced to evolutionary theory by my high school biology teacher and through reading various related literature including Richard Dawkin’s The Blind Watchmaker. The works of Philosophers such as Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason taught me critical reasoning skills. Studying the American revolution was equally important in my political thought development. I was humbled by the sacrifices of Nelson Mandela and his colleagues to liberate South Africa from apartheid. Julius Nyerere’s trials with community socialism in order to liberate Tanzanians from poverty and to unite them into one nation was a positive human commitment. I can not forget reading the life of Bill Clinton in his voluminous autobiography. It is a story of moving from no where to the top of the mountains of his country.

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time, Deo Ssekitooleko.

Contacts:
Email: deossekitooleko@rocketmail.com
The website is being worked on.

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2022-04-10

Public Intellectual and Philosopher Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/17

Professor Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is a novelist, philosopher, public intellectual, and visiting Professor of Philosophy and English at New York University and Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the New College of the Humanities.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What is your family story?

Rebeccer Newberger Goldstein: I was brought up in an Orthodox Jewish household. My father was a refugee from Poland, and all the kids in my extended family were named after relatives who had died in the Holocaust.

I’m named after my great-grandmother who died in a cattle car on her way to Auschwitz. I would say that my father never quite adjusted to the New World and carried tremendous sadness within him.

He was a gentle and compassionate man, of great intellectual potential, who had no ambition beyond never again seeing the worst that humanity can do to each other. He was exquisitely sensitive to others’ pain, a great believer in performing secret acts of charity.

He became a cantor in order to support his large family. We were poor. My mother, who was born in the U.S., had more worldly ambitions, but they were all directed toward her one son, my older brother, who is a rabbi.

As a girl I was raised to have no ambitions beyond getting married to an Orthodox Jewish man. I was engaged to my first husband at age eighteen.

Jacobsen: What about your personal story?

Goldstein: Though we couldn’t afford many books, it was a bookish family, which meant that we used the public library religiously. The Sabbath day was spent reading, and my parents’ attitude was that if a book came from the library then it couldn’t be a bad book.

So, for example, when my mother saw me reading, at age thirteen, a book by the philosopher Bertrand Russell called Why I Am Not A Christian, she had no objections — especially since we were Jewish!

She had no idea that the title essay went through each of the major arguments for the existence of God and systematically destroyed them. I was particularly interested in the elegant destruction Russell brought to bear on the so-called moral argument for God’s existence, which tries to argue that God is necessary to provide an objective grounding for ethics.

(Only years later did I discover that Russell had cribbed his elegant counter-argument from Plato. It’s the famous Euthyphro argument.) In any case, after much intense thinking, spurred by Russell’s essay, I became an atheist — a quiet atheist, since I didn’t want to do anything to upset my parents, most especially my father, of whom I was, for obvious reasons, always protective.

Jacobsen: What are your religious/irreligious, ethical, and political beliefs?

Goldstein: I’m a secular humanist and a political progressive. Although I began my career as a philosopher of science, most interested in the foundations of quantum mechanics, I’ve become increasingly interested in moral philosophy, which has — since the time of Plato and Aristotle — been going about the business of grounding morality on purely secular grounds.

One of my books was on the philosopher Spinoza, with whom I feel a strong affinity. Spinoza was the first philosopher of the modern age to try to rigorously ground morality in naturalism. His concept of conatus is essential in his project of naturalising ethics, so I was pleased to see the name of your news organisation! I also sympathised with Spinoza’s personal story.

He, too, had been born into a Jewish family that had been traumatised by murderous bigotry — only in his case it was the Spanish-Portuguese Inquisition. This personal involvement with his story went into my book, Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity.

I’ve always been interested in showing how the whole person, including personal history, is involved in philosophical positions, which is one of the reasons I also write novels. Our individually variable intuitions that are expressed in our philosophical positions are embedded in our philosophical characters and temperaments, shaped both by genetic and environmental factors.

Jacobsen: Your recent publication is Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away. It won the Forkosch Award (2014). An earned award from the Council for Secular Humanism. What was the content and intended message behind the text — or set of themes covered?

Goldstein: I had four interrelated goals. The first was to put forward an original theory as to why the ancient Greeks were responsible for inventing the field of philosophy. Their society was saturated with religious rituals, but when it came to the question of how to live our lives, they didn’t look to their gods but rather to a secular grounding.

This doesn’t mean that they were a culture of philosophers. There never has been a society of philosophers! And, of course, Athens sentenced Socrates to die. But the pre-conditions for philosophy were created in their secular approach to the big questions, and I was interested in exploring this aspect.

The second goal was to explain Plato in the context of the wider Greek culture. The third goal was to demonstrate that progress has been made in philosophy, and to demonstrate this by going back to the inception of Western philosophy and uncovering presuppositions that had been instrumental in getting the whole process of critical reasoning going but which critical reasoning had, in its progress, invalidated.

I was concerned to demonstrate in the book that progress in philosophy tends to be invisible because it penetrates so deeply down into our conceptual frameworks — both epistemological and ethical.

We don’t see it, because we see with it. And the fourth goal was to demonstrate that the kinds of questions Plato introduced, philosophical questions, are still vitally important to us, and to demonstrate this, I interspersed the expository chapters with new Platonic dialogues, injecting Plato into contemporary settings.

The first place I bring him to is the Googleplex in Mountainview CA, the headquarters of Google International, where he gets into a discussion with a software engineer on whether philosophy makes progress. I also have him on a panel of child-rearing experts, including a tiger mum.

Then I bring him to a cable news set, where he’s interviewed by a rabble-rousing blowhard; they discuss the role of reason in the public square. The last dialogue has him getting a brain scan and engaging the neuroscientists on the question of whether neuroscience dissolves the notions of personal identity and moral responsibility.

I’d produced these dialogues as a bit of fun to enliven my points, but it was this aspect of the book that got all of the attention from reviewers.

Jacobsen: You earned other prizes in previous years: MacArthur fellowship (2011), Humanist of the Year, Free-thought Heroine, Richard Dawkins Award (2014), and the National Humanities Medal (2015). What do these public recognitions of professional excellence mean to you?

Goldstein: Since I’ve been very experimental in my writings, using forms of writing that my fellow philosophers don’t recognise as legitimate — for example, novels — these prizes have been encouraging.

I got the MacArthur prize, for example, at rather a low point in my philosophical career, when many of my colleagues had written me off because I’d written some bestsellers. The MacArthur carries a great deal of weight in American academic circles, since it’s popularly known as the genius prize, so this prize did a little bit of work in rehabilitating my reputation.

Jacobsen: What one is most dear to your heart? Why?

Goldstein: Without a doubt, my proudest moment was having President Obama put the National Medal of the Humanities around my neck. And when he had greeted me in private before the ceremony, he had said, “Ah, the philosopher who knows how to write great novels.”

Being in the White House, in the presence of the president who knew something of my work, I couldn’t help being flooded with memories of my father and how displaced he’d always felt in his new country — how displaced he’d felt in the world at large.

And here was a president, putting a medal around my neck, who hadn’t been raised to feel entitled to stride the corridors of power — quite the contrary. I felt proud for all of us who believe that reason can destroy the groundless prejudices that break the human spirit and keep our shared human potential from being realised for the greater good.

I only wished that my father might have been alive to witness the moment, though it might have been too overwhelming for him — as it nearly was for me.

Jacobsen: What responsibilities come with these recognitions?

Goldstein: I wasn’t raised to be a public person, to say the least. The virtue that had been most impressed on me growing up as an Orthodox girl was female modesty, meaning never to attract undue attention to oneself, especially male attention — not to one’s body, not to one’s mind.

So I have to overcome a great deal of inner resistance, even shame, in speaking out in the name of things I believe in. It remains a torment to me to do anything that gets me attention, though over the years I’ve toughened up a bit.

Sometimes, when the criticisms against what I’ve said or written become very personal (and they do), my upbringing kicks in, and I have to fight the sense that this is what I deserve for being so immodest as to make myself heard.

But I do feel that addressing a public audience is my responsibility, as someone who has had the privilege of being able to get myself a first-class education and to use it to think about big issues.

It’s a great privilege to think for one’s living — especially when that is what one most loves to do! But, as with all privilege, this one, too, begets obligations, which is why I’ve ventured beyond the confines of academia.

Jacobsen: You are the visiting professor of philosophy and English at New York University (NYU) in addition to the visiting professor of philosophy at the New College of the Humanities (NCH) in London, England. What tasks and responsibilities come with these positions?

Goldstein: I try to impress on my students what a hard thing knowledge is to achieve and that they ought to take their responsibilities for being accountable for their beliefs — as well as their actions — seriously. No matter what they go on to do in their lives, they can’t leave accountability behind. That’s what I most want to impress upon them.

Jacobsen: What are your favourite courses to teach to students?

Goldstein: Coming to philosophy from a background in physics, my first interest was philosophy of science, and this is still my favourite course to teach. I love it because it requires that one understand both the science and the philosophical issues to which the science gives rise, and it forces me to keep up with what’s going on in science.

In general, I like to teach courses that attract an interdisciplinary mix of students, so that they can learn from the strengths of one another. I also teach philosophy courses that use novels, and these courses also attract an interdisciplinary mix of students.

Jacobsen: Who is the smartest person you have ever met?

Goldstein: There are too many kinds of smartness for me to be able to answer this question. I’ve known mathematical geniuses who are dunces when it comes to the kind of imaginative intelligence that goes into interpreting works of art — or, for that matter, interpreting people.

I’ve met brilliant novelists whose deductive talents aren’t sufficient to get them through an elementary course in symbolic logic. I have an appreciation for sundry forms of smartness, though there are characteristics other than smartness that I value far more in people.

Too many people who are celebrated for their intellectual or artistic talents think that their gifts license them to be jerks. What I call “talentism,” the conviction that those with extraordinary abilities matter more than other people, is as faulty a normative proposition as any other that regards some people as mattering more than others — such as sexism, racism, classism, ableism, lookism, ageism, nationalism, imperialism, and hetero-normativity.

Challenging all of these presumptions is part of the mandate of progressive thinking and progressive activism, at least as I conceive it.

The truth to which progressive movements have always been pointing is this: to the extent that any of us is committed to our own lives mattering — which is, of course, a commitment that forms the infrastructure of our entire emotional life, something that Spinoza had tried to capture with his notion of conatus — then we must be equally committed to all lives mattering and to the exact same extent.

To me, that’s the essence of what drives moral progress forward, and the greatest privilege of my privileged life is to play any role at all, no matter how small, in that progress.

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2022-04-10

An Interview with Chris Worfolk — Founder, Leeds Atheist Society

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/17

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Was there a family background in humanism?

Chris Worfolk: No, my family are open-minded but rational people. So there wasn’t much in the way of religion or belief in our household. My parents just get on with life.

Jacobsen: How did you come to find humanism, or a humanist community?

Worfolk: When I arrived at university, I was greeted by a huge array of religious activity. I’m not sure whether I expected university to be a temple of reason or not, but it definitely wasn’t. The religious societies were huge. They ran loads of events and put week-long marquees outside the student’s union touting their existential wares. I have no problem with this. But it did lead me to ask

Jacobsen: Where do the humanist students go?

Worfolk: The answer was nowhere. So I founded Leeds Atheist Society. I then spent the next few years of my life fielding the question “what is the point of an atheist society?” But evidently many people did see the point because a few years later we were one of the most active societies on campus, running three or four events per week to accommodate all of our members.

Jacobsen: What seems like the main reason for people to come to label themselves as humanists, from your experience?

Worfolk: I think it varies depending on generation. Ten years ago, West Yorkshire Humanists had a predominantly elderly membership base. And many of them were there as a reaction to religion. They had been hurt by it in the past, mostly over LGBT issues, and so came to Humanism as a place of refuge. On contrast, our younger membership base seems to have found Humanism for different reasons. Some are Dawkinites, but I suspect that most are here because they’re looking to fill the hole left by the breakdown of traditional neighbourhood communities in the West. Or because as society continues to become smarter and better educated, we all become more existential, get more depressed, and want a positive answer to the whole life, the universe and everything question without resorting to “a magic man in the sky did it”.

Jacobsen: What was the experience of finding a community of like-minded individuals?

Worfolk: It’s an easy way to find high-quality friends. Typically, anyone who takes horoscopes seriously, or refuses to vaccinate, is filtered out, for example. I also met my wife through LAS, and most human behaviour is probably driven by the desire to propagate our genes.

Jacobsen: You play guitar. How has the development of this skilled improved personal life? What is your favourite kind of music? Any favourite artists?

Worfolk: I’ve had a guitar since I was about 17. But I never learnt to play it. Then, when I reached 27, I decided to take lessons. I think it took me that long to gather enough emotional maturity to say to myself “look, a year of practice misery will give you fifty years of enjoying playing the guitar. And that’s a good deal.” I like to think of myself as a poster child for proving anyone can play an instrument. I have no music aptitude. I couldn’t play anything for the first six months of lessons. Nothing. Then it clicked. Now I play the piano, as well, and sing. I think learning one really hard skill gives you the confidence to go on and learn others. Now I play in the “house band” at Sunday Assembly Leeds. Which is a great way to improve your skills because the good musicians pull you forward. I don’t often discuss my music tastes because it leads me to lose all credibility as an adult. I like Avril Lavigne. Also Smashing Pumpkins, Dire Straits, Sheryl Crow, Lordi, rock music you can sing along to.

Jacobsen: What is the best argument for atheism, and theism, that you have ever come across?

Worfolk: Personally, I used to struggle with morality. I found it difficult to make sense of objective morality without an omniscient rule maker, which led me to adopt subjective morality.

But that never sat well with me either. Sam Harris finally cleared it up for me with The Moral Landscape. He makes an eloquent case for objective morality inside a Humanist framework.

Jacobsen: Who are personal heroes?

Worfolk: Bill & Melinda Gates because they are almost single handily wiping out malaria and polio. Jimmy Wales because he took all human knowledge and made it available to everyone for free.

Also Ray Kroc and Colonel Sanders. Kroc was 55 when he founded McDonald’s, and Sanders was 62 when he founded KFC. Which gives me hope that even if I achieve nothing in the next thirty years of my life, I could still make a valuable contribution to the world before I die.

Jacobsen: What differentiates New Atheism from ‘Old Atheism’?

Worfolk: I’m not sure anything does. I think the “new” represents a new wave of interest. It boomed in the seventies, and again in the naughties when people realised the battle for freedom from religion had not yet been won. But it’s essentially the same merchandise.

Jacobsen: What is the current strategy of the atheist movement to advance its cause?

Worfolk: I think the “movement” is probably too diverse to have a cause or a strategy. We can’t even agree if we’re atheists, agnostics, humanists, secularists, freethinkers, sceptics, etc. So there are many different movements worth commenting on.

In the UK, the National Secular Society changed its constitution so that it no longer affirms atheism. They want to be seen as objective as it is difficult to argue against an organisation campaigning for a level playing field without being able to accuse them of anti-religious bias.

Sunday Assembly is out there trying to create a secular church. It’s a well-trodden route: Auguste Comte’s Religion of Humanity, the ethical societies of the late nineteenth century, Humanist Community, Church of Freethought have all tried it.

But Sanderson Jones is doing a great job of building a new movement. Then you have organisations like Atheists Feeding the Homeless and Humanist Action Group attempting to convert humanist ethical values into positive action. But the efforts are rather fragmented.

Take Atheism Plus, for example. It’s atheism plus social justice. Which is Humanism. But for some reason they wanted their own movement. Which is always likely to be the way when you try to herd free thinkers. Ultimately, what will advance the cause is the slow march of time.

We can rely on the tranquilising drug of gradualism if needed, because the world is only going to get smarter, and better educated, and more caring. The Moral Arc goes up. And that is good news for humanism and bad news for outdated and silly belief systems.

Jacobsen: Thank you for your time, Chris, I enjoyed that.

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2022-04-10

The Charge of ‘Scientism’, and Philosophy and Science!

Author(s): Dr. Stephen Law and Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/16

Some scientists dismiss philosophy. They think science and empirical observation provide the sole window into reality. How can we gain insight into the nature of the world out there by sitting down, closing our eyes, and just thinking about it? How can we find out anything about reality by employing the armchair methods of philosophy?

Simultaneously, some philosophers and many religious people think such scientists are guilty of ‘scientism.’ That is, the arrogant assertion that all legitimate questions can only be answered by scientific methodologies.

For example, scientists, like Richard Dawkins, who think science is capable of revealing anything about the supernatural – let alone God – are supposedly guilty of hubris, of pride.

Dawkins and others are told to show some humility and acknowledge there are ‘more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in their scientistic philosophy.’ So, who is right? Is it those charging ‘scientism,’ or those who dismiss anything other than the deliverances of science as, well, bullshit?

On the one hand, Dr. Law is a professional philosopher. So, you may expect him to carve out a special non-scientific territory for philosophers. On the other hand, he supposes that in the hands of some – including many theologians – the ‘scientism!’ charge has become an unjustified and knee-jerk form of dismissal, much like ‘communism!’ in the past.

There do appear to be questions science can’t answer. Moral questions for example. Science is great at revealing facts about what is the case. Morality, however, is concerned not with what is the case, but with what ought to be. As the Enlightenment philosopher David Hume pointed out, observation does not reveal ‘ought facts.’

Hume also draws attention to the is/ought gap: It appears that premises concerning what is the case – certainly, premises of the sort that pure empirical science is capable of establishing – fail rationally to support moral conclusions: conclusions about what one ought or ought not to do. So, it appears science can’t supply answers to our most fundamental moral questions, either by direct observation or by means of an inference from what has been directly observed.

Or take the question: why is there something rather than nothing? Science points to the Big Bang to explain why the universe exists. But why did the Big Bang happen? Whatever science points to explain that will be more, well, something. So, it seems something must always be left unexplained by science.

Here is another question:

At a family get-together, the following relations held directly between those present: Son, Daughter, Mother, Father, Aunt, Uncle, Niece, Nephew, and Cousin. Could there have been only four people present at that gathering?

Actually, there could. It’s possible to figure that by doing some armchair, conceptual work. No scientific investigation is required or would even be relevant here. So, conceptual puzzles are puzzles that science cannot answer, but armchair methods can.

Now, philosophical puzzles also seem to have this conceptual character. Take the mind-body problem. Just how could the activities in our brains give rise to a rich inner world of subjective experience?

True enough, scientists might discover everything that’s going on in my brain as I savour the taste of this cheesecake, but surely, my experience couldn’t just be that brain activity, could it?

Isn’t there some sort of conceptual obstacle to identifying minds with brains? Many think there is: we can know, they think, from the comfort of our armchairs, that minds just couldn’t be brains.

However, whether or not there is such a conceptual obstacle about something requiring only armchair conceptual investigation to figure out, just as it only took armchair conceptual investigation to reveal there could, appearances to the contrary, be just four people present at that family gathering.

Our view is that philosophical problems are, for the most part, such conceptual problems. As such, they require armchair methods, not the scientific method, to solve them. At the same time, we agree with scientific critics of philosophy who say, “How can you discover anything about reality via armchair philosophical reflection or investigation?” You can’t.

Philosophical reflection can’t discover the basic nature of reality. Pure armchair theorising is an unreliable guide to reality. Science has shown that many of our armchair intuitions about time, space, matter, and so on, are wrong.

Still, while philosophical reflection can’t reveal how nature fundamentally is, it can on occasion reveal how nature isn’t.

Galileo ran a thought experiment to show Aristotle’s theory that a lighter and heavier ball will fall at different speeds cannot be correct. Galileo showed through philosophical investigation that Aristotle’s theory generates a contradiction: if the two balls are chained together, they will fall faster because their weight is now combined; they will also fall slower because the lighter ball will act as a drag on the heavier ball.

So, it seems there is an important role for pure armchair philosophical reflection even in science, contrary to the views of some scientists. However, we agree that armchair philosophical investigation can’t explain how nature is – it can at best reveal that certain descriptions cannot be true of it because they involve contradictions.

Have we conceded that the charges of ‘scientism!’ against Dawkins and others are correct? No. To acknowledge questions and puzzles that science is the inappropriate answer does not mean the supernatural, the gods, or God are off limits to the scientific method.

God and the supernatural are normally unobservable. However, the unobservable is not off limits to science. Electrons are not directly observable. Same with the distant past of this planet (unless, of course, a time machine is invented).

Yet, we can confirm and refute theories about unobservables via the scientific method. Why? Because existence of electrons and the Earth being older than 6,000 years have observable consequences.

But many claims about God and the supernatural have observable consequences too. Take, for example, the claim about God answering prayers. Two large scale double-blind studies – researchers and participants do not know the control group or the experimental group – have been done on the effect of petitionary prayer on heart patients.

Both revealed prayer had no effect. There was an absence of evidence for prayer working. But there was not just an absence of evidence for the efficacy of prayer, there was also evidence of absence – evidence that prayer does not work in that way.

Maybe science cannot in principle answer all questions. Maybe some claims are off-limits. That prayer works is not one of them.

What motivations might be behind the charge of scientism? One seems to be shutting down debate, and immunise religious and supernatural claims against scientific refutation. Bishop James Heiser writes:

“The efforts of scientists to disprove the existence of God is not a pursuit of Science, but Scientism” (Heiser, 2012).

Bishop Heiser seems to have an image of some scientists rubbing their hands menacingly together, cackling, and actively working to disprove the existence of the supernatural or God.

As should now be clear, even if that were the aim of some scientists, efforts to test claims concerning the existence of the supernatural or even God do not necessarily involve an embrace of ‘scientism.’ Perhaps science cannot answer every question.

Still, it may be able to answer various questions about the supernatural, including various questions about God. To believe this is not, in fact, to embrace scientism. And to point out that scientism is false is not to discredit such investigations. In their paper, ‘Has Science Disproved God?’ Ashton and Westacott write:

“It is important to note that science, unlike scientism, should not be a threat to religious belief. Science, to be sure, advocates a ‘naturalistic’ rather than ‘supernaturalistic’ focus, and an empirical method for determining truths about the physical world and the universe. Yet, the proper mandate of science is restricted to the investigation of the natural (physical, empirical dimension) of reality. It is this restriction that scientism has violated…” (Ashton and Westacott, 2006, 16).

Science is, in fact, capable of investigating the supernatural.

When a believer is stung into doubt about the lack of evidence for their belief in, for example, petitionary prayer, they can be lulled back to sleep by repeating over and over, ‘But this is scientism! It is beyond the ability of science to decide!’ The spell is cast, and the faithful return to their slumber.

No doubt some things will forever remain beyond the ability of science, and perhaps even reason, to decide. We’re happy to concede that. Still, there’s plenty within the remit of the scientific method, including many religious, supernatural, New Age, and other claims that are supposedly ‘off limits.’

However, because the mantra, ‘But this is beyond the ability of science to decide’ has been repeated so often with respect to that sort of subject matter, it is now heavily woven into our cultural zeitgeist. People simply assume it is true for all sorts of claims for which it is not, in fact, true.

The mantra has become a convenient factoid that can be wheeled out whenever a scientific threat to belief rears their head. When a believer is momentarily stung into doubt, many will attempt to lull them back to sleep by repeating the mantra over and over.

The faithful murmur back: ‘Ah yes, we forgot – this is beyond the ability of science to decide…. zzzz.’

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2022-04-10

Interview with Theoretical Physicist, Professor Jim Al-Khalili

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/16

Professor Jameel Sadik “Jim” Al-Khalili OBE is a British theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster. He is currently Professor of Theoretical Physics and Chair in the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Surrey.

How did you become an activist and a scientist, and science communicator?

I think it’s fair to say that my career evolved gradually. When I began my academic life it very much followed the traditional route of PhD, postdoctoral research, at University College London then Surrey, then I secured a five-year research fellowship after which I became a full time (tenured) academic lecturer and moved up the academic ranks to professor by teaching and conducting research in my field of theoretical physics. I did all the usual stuff of publishing my research, attending conferences and applying for grants.

But around the mid-90s I also became active in outreach activities and communicating science more widely to the public. I found I enjoyed this as much as I did my other academic activities. I began to get involved as a contributor to radio and TV programmes and wrote my first popular science book, on black holes, in 1999. From then on, one thing led to another. Over the past decade I have been more involved in public life, but always speaking as a representative of the scientific world.

Were parents or siblings an influence on this for you?

Not particularly. They were encouraging and supportive. But it was my wife who really enabled me to do what I do now.

Did you have early partnerships in these activist and scientific pursuits? If so, whom?

Science is a collaborative endeavour, so over the years I have built up a wide range of colleagues and collaborators, whether in my research fields or in the public arena. The academics in the nuclear physics group at Surrey are scientists I have worked with over the years and published many research papers with. Several senior colleagues were also valuable mentors for me, supporting my development in my early career.

How did you come to adopt a socially progressive worldview?

I don’t feel my worldview is particularly different from the vast majority of people I interact with on a daily basis. First and foremost, I am a scientist and so I try to see the world objectively and demand evidence for views, policies and beliefs. I am also liberal and secular in my politics. I served for three years as president of the British Humanist Association and I feel that my humanist values do indeed shape my worldview to a large extent. Last but not least, I come from a mixed culture and heritage background: born in Iraq to a Muslim Arab father and Christian English mother, I feel I can have a broader perspective on the world that is not shaped by just one ideology.

Why do you think that adopting a social progressive outlook is important?

It depends on how one defines ‘socially progressive’, since I suspect that people from a wide cross-section of the political and social spectrum might regard themselves as forward-thinking and progressive. I also feel it is important to stress that being socially progressive is meaningless if we do not learn the lessons from the past. We cannot wipe slates clean and move forward without understanding where we have come from.

Do you consider yourself a progressive?

I hope so. I can say that I am an optimist about the future, despite the many challenges that face the world today.

Does progressivism logically imply other beliefs, or tend to or even not at all?

I think it is one of those terms that can easily be adopted by many ideologies. Maybe it is a quite clearly defined ideology or worldview in its own right. If so, then I need to learn more about what it implies.

What are your religious/irreligious beliefs?

I am not religious. I guess I am defined as an atheist, which is a strange term since it implies there has to be a supernatural being, a god, in the first place for me not to believe in! Essentially ‘atheism’ is for me no more a belief system in itself than not collecting stamps is a hobby.

As a progressive, what do you think is the best socio-political position to adopt in the United Kingdom?

Ideologically, I align myself with the liberal left and the social welfare stance of the traditional Labour movement.

What big obstacles (if at all) do you see social-progressive movements facing at the moment?

In the UK, I think the biggest challenge is the disillusionment of many in society, such as those who voted Brexit, which manifests itself in a craving for elements of the past: a return to some perceived utopia when ‘things were better’. For me this is the opposite of a social-progressive movement.

How important do you think social movements are?

I find this quite difficult to answer because today social movements can grow so quickly that there is often not enough time to consider carefully what they actually stand for. We live in an age of post-truth politics, disillusionment with establishment, vast inequalities in society, and social media that can pick up a meme and spread it faster than a virus. In this environment, social movements can thrive. But that does not necessarily mean that all social movements are for the good.

What is your current work?

I am doing many things. My academic career continues, as does my broadcasting, and I am excited about new developments in scientific research. In recent months I have stepped back from a lot of my public work to focus on writing, not least of which is my first novel, which I hope will come out next year.

Where do you hope your professional work will go into the future?

Well, I hope to continue as it is today. I am very happy doing what I do.

Thank you for your time, Professor Al-Khalili.

Keep up-to-date with Professor Al-Khalili’s work by following his Twitter account: @jimalkhalili

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2022-04-10

An Interview with Ray Zhong — Translator, Amsterdam Declaration

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/16

You live in Taipei, Taiwan and attended the Taipei Municipal Daan Vocational High School. What is the personal background in humanism for you?

I became a humanist because of three things: my father’s religiosity, Isaac Asimov’s writings, and my English. All of them influenced me, one by one, in that order.

My father is a very pious Buddhist who often preaches about reincarnation and reciting Buddha’s name. In his view, those who do not undertake all the Five Precepts (no killing, no stealing, no adultery, no false speech, and no alcohol) will not reincarnate as humans in next life. Instead, they will be reborn as animals, ghosts, and so on. However, there is a way out: reciting Buddha’s name. Do it as often as you can and, after death, you will be led to Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss and freed from karma. Following my father, I bowed to Buddha’s figure and recited Buddha’s name, but I somehow remained unconvinced. This unsubstantiated skepticism followed me into adolescence. Then I met Isaac Asimov, in his works.

Isaac Asimov was an extremely prolific and prescient sci-fi author. He wrote more than 500 books in his lifetime. His most famous work is the Foundation series, which I read in junior high school. Fascinated by his novels, I moved on to reading his nonfiction works, of which there were a great many. In one of his essay collections, I came across a piece titled The “Threat” of Creationism. In that piece, he argued against teaching creationism in public schools by dismantling the creationist arguments, such as the watchmaker analogy. That was my moment of enlightenment. Not only was it the moment I became aware of the threat religion possessed to the society, but it was also the moment I understood the clash between religion and science, or rather religion and reason. Asimov ignited my enthusiasm for science and introduced me to atheism. Then, I started to learn English.

I am a graduate from Department of English in National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology. As a tool, English broadened my scope and granted me access to resources I had no been able to reach. I started from watching Matt Dillahunty debating the callers on his show Atheist Experience, and then I switched to watching the Four Horsemen’s lectures and debates. I was so impressed by Christopher Hitchens’s wit and style that I made Chinese subtitles for some of his videos on YouTube. To gain more views, I posted it on the Facebook pages of a few Taiwan atheist groups (there were very few.) This led to my friendship with Feng Ching-wen, an extremely erudite and resourceful humanist who was the founder and head of Taiwan Humanism Studio. He contacted me and invited me to attend the lectures held by his humanist club at National Sun Yat-sen University. That was when I first learned about humanism. Later that year, Asian Humanist Conference was to be held in Taipei. I had the honor to work as an interpreter at the conference and meet many great humanists, some from other countries. Then, I became a humanist.

Any family interest in it?

My father is still a Buddhist and my sister a Christian. There were some quarrels between them when my father learned about my sister’s religion. I want no quarrels, so I have never told my father how I feel about his religious views. I remain silent whenever he preaches. He knows I do not believe it, but he never gives up trying to convince me.

How do some of the principles play out in real life for you?

I want to talk about a decision I made a few years ago: I may have sent my mother to hell.

It was the summer vacation during my second year in university. My mother had been ill with cancer and suffering for five years. She was bedridden in the palliative care. My father, sister, and I took turns to look after her. One afternoon during my watch, a young lady, no elder than me, entered the ward with a Bible in her hand and wished to save my mother from eternal hell fire. I stopped her and walked her out to the corridor. I thanked her for her kindness and told her that my parents were Buddhists and, maybe out of arrogance, that I was an atheist. She had the audacity to say that Buddha could not save my mother but Jesus could. Provoked by this comment, I retorted, “Then don’t save her at all!” She left, fuming.

The compunction haunted me for the rest of the day. I could almost hear the French mathematician Blaise Pascal whispering in my ear, “what if you’re wrong?” What if my atheism was not the right position and, because of my reckless defiance, my mother, who had already been in agony for years, was condemned to endless suffering in hell? What had I done? Wasn’t it safer for my mother to be a believer? Questions like these filled my mind as fear and doubts took over me. Then, reason kicked in.

The counterargument to Pascal’s wager occurred to me: what if the lady was wrong? What if my father was right? How should I determine who was right? Since neither side was supported by evidence, I figured what mattered here was my mother’s feelings. There was a portrait of Buddha on the curtain around my mother’s bed. My father had put it there to remind my mother of reciting Buddha’s name. What would my mother have thought if I had let the lady talk to her? Hitchens captured this very well in a discussion with Sam Harris and two rabbis:

I mean, If Sam [Harris] and I were to go around religious hospitals — which is what happens in reverse — and say to people who were lying in pain: ‘Sorry, did you say you were a Catholic? Well, you may only have a few days left, but you don’t have to live them as a serf, you know. Just accept that was all bullshit, the priests have been cheating you, and I guarantee you’ll feel better…’ I don’t think that would be very ethical. In fact, I think it would be something of a breach of taste. But if it’s in the name of God it has a social license; well, fuck that, is what I say.

In hindsight, I saved my mother from needless concern, so she could have some peace of mind in her last moments. That was all it mattered, and that was good.

You are a translator for the Amsterdam Declaration. What languages will the declaration have translation into by you — and others if you know?

I cannot take all the credits for the translation, because it was a group work. Half of it was translated by Ted Yang, a very talented translator in our team. Back to the question, I learned Japanese and German at my university, because we had to take at least one second foreign language. But neither is good enough for doing translation yet. I might do a Japanese translation in the remote future. For now, I have to keep on learning.

Is this part of a larger translation effort — of more IHEU and IHEYO, and humanist, relevant documents?

I also help translate some short video clips and quotes about humanism or atheism for Taiwan Humanism Studio. I look forward to working for IHEYO again.

Thank you for your time, Ray.

Thank you for having me.

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2022-04-10

Justine Nelson on the Pipeline Issues

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/15

Justine Nelson is a collaborator and friend on volunteer projects, especially writing (here and here) over more than a year or two now. Collaborations started after a smudging ceremony. Nelson is the Coordinator for the PIPE UP Network, works with a variety of non-profits, and an M.Ed. student studying Education for Sustainability. Here we talk about some updates on pipeline issues.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Let’s jump straight to the point of the chat today, what are the big concerns and issues for locals, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, regarding pipelines in the Lower Mainland?

Justine Nelson: Climate change, Indigenous justice, and rights over their territories, oil spills, increased tanker traffic, expansion of the tar sands.

The list of concerns is long but ultimately the expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline, and as a result of the tar sands, is not in line with the sustainable, just transition to a fossil-free future we envision.

Jacobsen: Regarding the main pipeline of concern, the Kinder Morgan Pipeline, what is its status of construction and progress? How are the current group activists working together?

Nelson: Kinder Morgan is not allowed to start construction of the Trans Mountain expansion on public lands until it meets all the requirements set out by the NEB, which it has not yet done.

At this point the CEO has said they hope to start construction in 2020, we know that is not going to happen. It has, unfortunately, gotten permission from the NEB to bypass Burnaby bylaws and begin the expansion of its tank farm up on Burnaby Mountain.

There is a big resistance to this, and various groups have been challenging the construction. Camp cloud has been up there for months disrupting work, with a group called the Justin Trudeau Brigade.

Last Saturday, March 10, saw the biggest mobilization against Kinder Morgan yet, with up to 10 thousand people coming out to support the Tsleil-wautuths building of a watch house, which is currently being occupied at all times on Burnaby Mountain.

They are exerting their rights to protect the land and water. Groups across the lower mainland, including PIPE UP, are coming together in various capacities to support this work.

Jacobsen: In the case of a spill, which seems relevant right into the present with the Kinder Morgan and other pipelines, what tends to happen to the environment, e.g., the water, the land, the plant and animal life, and the human communities?

Nelson: Historically we have seen that Kinder Morgan is not responsive to spills. In 2012 when there was a spill at the Sumas tank farm in Abbotsford, it took 6 hours to get a Kinder Morgan operator on the scene.

Local schools had to be evacuated because the fumes from the spill were being inhaled by students, some of whom had to make a trip to the emergency room. This stuff is toxic!

If a spill happens in water Diluted Bitumen is known to sink, making clean up essentially impossible.

One of the most frustrating, and darkly humorous, parts of the spill conversation, is that Kinder Morgan owns a majority stake in at least one oil clean up company. Meaning they make money when oil spills happen.

Jacobsen: We have three arguments, at least: moral duties based on compassion, Indigenous rights (UNDRIP), and economic.

Even if someone is not swayed, at least not in full, by moral duties to fellow human beings’ wellbeing with the risks associated with an oil pipeline spill, and even if someone rejects, at least in part, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, what are the short-term, at this point, and long-term economic benefits to rejection of coal, oil, and gas in favour of alternative energy sources?

Nelson: Well, I am certainly not the expert on the economic side. My motivation in this is definitely aligned with Indigenous rights and protecting the earth for future generations.

Projects like Kinder Morgan threaten many employment opportunities in tourism, food production, fisheries, etc. The minimal, and it is minimal, number of jobs created through this project can be found elsewhere if we put more effort into moving towards a clean energy future.

Even Bill Nye pointed out to Trudeau in an interview the other day that it political will that is missing from the transition, not a plan of how to transition. We could do it, the petrostate just doesn’t want to.

With Climate change happening now, the impacts will only continue to get worse, our economy will suffer because of this, and if we don’t start transitioning to a clean energy, resilient community-oriented society, then that impact will only be more exasperated.

Jacobsen: Any final thoughts or feelings in conclusion?

Nelson: I think the only thing I would add is that if you feel called to act, now is the time. Go up to Burnaby mountain, support the Tsleil-waututh and other grassroots people organizing and resisting Kinder Morgan’s blatant disregard for the lack of consent for their bitumen shipping pipeline expansion.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Justine.

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2022-04-10

Interview with Dina Holford on Being an Ex-Jehovah’s Witness

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/15

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How did you grow up with religion? Was it central or peripheral to your life?

Dina Holford: My mother was baptized as one of Jehovah’s witnesses whilst heavily pregnant with me. She had been a regular recreational drug taker until she had a knock at the door and started a bible study.

My dad, however, although having studied with Jehovah’s witnesses on/off, was more inclined to Wicca and was still taking drugs after I was born before quitting when I was around the age of 7.

My father was initially opposed to my mother raising me as a witness, even having taken her to court over the blood issue, however gradually softened. I went to meetings on/off during my childhood before completely stopping before my teens.

I then underwent a moment of wanting spirituality and decided to have a bible study at the age of 15. I became an active member of the congregation and was baptized just weeks after my 17th birthday.

I would say, from the age of 15, this particular religion was my entire life. I was so absorbed in it, that I now realize my family was pushed out because it had taken over. It was the number one thing in my life.

Jacobsen: When did you first begin to have small doubts about the Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Holford: I always had some niggle in the back of my mind, but I always pushed it aside and pretended it wasn’t there. Occasionally, I would come across what was deemed “apostate” words online, and naturally, I thought, why would there be so much hatred for a religion which was meant to be “the truth”?

Curiosity led me to read some of it, mainly relating to shunning, and you then try not to question why such kind loving people would treat people like they are dead.

Jacobsen: How did you begin to have strong doubts and even misgivings with the Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Holford: the two big things that led to my serious doubts were when my mother was disfellowshipped, and then when I had begun pioneering. My mother was disfellowshipped when I was about 18.

She was an alcoholic, and the elders had met with her a few times, but after she was spotted out drinking and having a sneaky cigarette, they called for a judicial meeting. Instead of offering her any support, suggesting ways to get help, or even offering to go with her, they told her she was being disfellowshipped.

I remember the day clearly as she came home crying badly. At that moment, I hadn’t realized how serious it was. But then the elders came to speak with me (at that time, I was no longer living at home).

They told me that unless there was an emergency situation such as my dad having been rushed to hospital with something life-threatening, I would not be able to have any form of contact with her at all.

At the time, I couldn’t understand it. I was feeling very hurt, and they were pushing the thought into my head that my mother was a bad person who didn’t love “Jehovah” and was on “Satans side”. I became angry and would slam down the phone, not answer the door, or visit my family.

Then one day, my father spoke with me and told me that if I cut my mother off, my family would no longer have any sort of relationship with me. That is when I began to realize what I was doing to my own mother. I felt like suddenly I was thinking for myself.

My bubble burst and I began to realize that shunning isn’t loving and that I had caused more hurt and pain in a few months, than showing love and support which my mother needed. I then resumed my relationship with her secretly. Around this time, I was also pioneering.

This is also where I began to have major doubts. I could see pioneers being put on pedestals and there was this hierarchy I couldn’t understand. I remember a brother calling pioneers and above, “the elite”. It was as though you were better than those you were meant to be equal to.

Behind the scenes, there was so much pressure to be preaching, and to be the best. If you had more bible studies, you were better than the rest…it was this sort of thinking. Getting time in, though was one of the worst pressures.

I fell ill the year before I left, whilst still pioneering, and there was an immense pressure to get the hours in. Realising that I couldn’t do it and was severely depressed and in pain, I had a visit from the elders who decided to take me off pioneering (preaching for 70 hours a month).

I reluctantly agreed because of my health. Once this was announced, it was like they had announced I had leprosy. No one looked at me the same again. I wondered where the love was, and where my support was.

Jacobsen: What do those who leave gain and lose at the same time within the few years after leaving the JWs?

Holford: Unexpectedly for me, I fell in love with someone who wasn’t one of Jehovah’s witnesses and was accused of fornication and was disfellowshipped. I lost my home, I lost my friends, I lost what I thought was everything.

Being one of Jehovah’s witnesses puts you in some sort of untouchable bubble which is your entire life. You are cut off from the outside world. I didn’t know how to work, how to live, how to be happy…It was like being a baby all over again in a world which you had been brought up to believe was very scary and evil.

All of a sudden, you are treated like you have died, and you have to grovel for forgiveness. Then a group of men has to decide whether you are repentant enough! I couldn’t go back. Starting anew made me feel free.

I found love, I gained life skills and found work, rented my first house, had children…Being away from this religion has brought my family together, and made a massive difference to my mental health especially.

Although I still suffer from depression, I am happier than I ever have been. I am under no pressure from any human to please God in the way they dictate or to live up to any HUMAN standards. I have complete control over my own life, and finally feel like I am living and not just surviving.

Jacobsen: If you have any advice for those individuals who are thinking of leaving the religion, what would it be for them? How can they leave safely? Why should be concerned about it? Why should they be happy about it?

Holford: My advice would be to really really think about the basic teachings of this religion. The biggest principle they claim to live by is love. Does shunning really bring people back out of love for God, or out of fear and through guilt tripping? Is shunning really such a loving act?

And is there really enough internal support as they claim? If you have any doubts, then don’t ignore them. You have every right to happiness as the next person. It is definitely not going to be easy, and perhaps the easiest way is to slowly fade as many do, but do not deny yourself the chance to be free from pressure and negativity and man’s ideas of how you should live your life and how worthy you are to be a worshipper of God.

Do not allow your life to be dictated for you by a group of men. Plan ahead, and definitely find support groups…there are many online for ex-witnesses. They are a haven for people who have been through this before and who are still going through the heartache caused by these people.

Jacobsen: Any final thoughts or feelings in conclusion?

Holford: 2 years on, I realize leaving was the best thing that happened to me. I am free. Never deny yourself happiness, never live a lie.

We are only here for a tiny spec of time, and we should enjoy the time we are here. We don’t know what may happen tomorrow, we may not even wake up. So why waste time? Be happy be free.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Dina.

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2022-04-10

TWIN with Kevin and Benedict on Their Show

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/14

Kevin and Benedict are colleagues. We have written and worked together. They have a podcast called This Week in News with Kevin and Benedict. I like them. Here’s their story. Kevin grew up in Sacramento California, where he conquered his enemies and saved the city from annihilation multiple times. He currently attends UC Berkeley as a Political Science major. He also worked as a heavy equipment mechanic for 5 years before college. He enjoys cigars, hockey (Go Sharks), politics, and saltwater fish tanks. Benedict is a Brit living in the US. He studied Spanish and Portuguese at Oxford University before moving on to a career in political punditry and journalism.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: You two are friends. You run a podcast called TWIN or This Week in News with Kevin and Benedict. What are the things that you two talk about that may be of interest to potential listeners?

Benedict: We try to look at the news. There is a lot of mass hysteria about the news. If you want to get the news, you can get that. We like to talk about the news in a way that makes us feel better. If we do not laugh, we will cry.

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Benedict: We will try to rationalize and laugh about them because the world is hopeless and on fire.

Kevin: [Laughing] We are basically a political show. We come at it from our perspective, which is two atheist humanists. Obviously, we have complete editorial control over our content.

Benedict: I have complete control.

Kevin: That is true. It is almost impossible to not talk about the Trump Administration. It is hard to escape the black hole gravitational pull of Trump and the administration. We have t actively look for stories to talk about besides that.

We look at religious overreach into our culture. If we lived in a Trump-free America, we would be able to focus more on the “fun stories” like church-state separation issues. These days, we try to make sense in this nuclear-armed rogue state on your Southern border.

Jacobsen: [Laughing] How does this graduate training in Spanish and Portuguese at Oxford University help with understanding some of the news items of the day? As a friend, I have never heard you speak Portuguese.

Kevin: Give him a chance, he will go at it.

Benedict: [Laughing] I think more than the languages themselves. It is an appreciation of cultural differences that help me with that. Having spent time in four different countries now, I feel that I can come at things from a different angle now.

I can have an empathy for people with cultural differences. That is more useful to me than the languages themselves. It is not often that we talk about the news from Spain and Portugal in particular because there is too much news that happens in our own country, which we get wrapped up in.

Travelling broadens the mind, I hope that has done that for me.

Jacobsen: How has your education at UC Berkeley helped your work in the podcast? It is the third-ranking university in the world, I hear.

Benedict:[Laughing].

Jacobsen: You went to the University of Oxford.

Benedict: It is the #1 university in the world.

Kevin: Go fuck yourself.

Jacobsen: [Laughing] The premier institution in the world. From the United Kingdom premier educational institution in the world perspective, also, Kevin, a highly reputable institution in North America at UC Berkeley in the United States.

These are different cultural experiences, but high-quality educational experiences. This must influence the perspectives that you bring to the podcast.

Kevin: Yes.

Benedict: We are really smart [Laughing].

Kevin: [Laughing].

Jacobsen: This is true.

Kevin: I have direct training in political science. Obviously, I have direct training on these sorts of things that we talk about on the show. I think there is something that we haven’t explicitly talked about. But Benedict and I, in the back of our minds, we are very cognizant of that.

We are the epitome of two elitist coastal liberals.

Benedict: It is part of our brand [Laughing].

Kevin: [Laughing] It is part of our brand. We don’t play down that we are that. But we try to recognize that when we talk about topics because most people don’t have the background that we have. We try to – or at least I do; Benedict, I don’t know about him. He is just an elitist snob.

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Kevin: We try and recognize that everyone has had the benefit of all of this training and education when we are talking about this issue. We try to explain this as plainly as possible and with analogies that are more easy to digest.

Benedict: Beyond that, not everyone has the time to think about these things, how lucky are we to be able to think about these things and not worry about where the next meal is going to be coming from?

Jacobsen: Do you notice an undercurrent that may have actually bolstered and is still a bulwark for the Trump Administration of a resentment for the “Hollywood elites” or the “Liberal Establishment”?

Kevin: Oh, definitely.

Benedict: It is a faux one because they voted for a reality TV president. It is just like if Hollywood disagrees with you, which it does a lot of the time. Fox News loves having conservative actors on. They love it!

Kevin: There is this not so hidden disdain for college and education. Not hidden at all! In their movie, on their radio, if you go over to Right Wing Watch, right-wing Evangelicals criticizing the education system in the United States because they believe it creates liberalism.

Education doesn’t make you a liberal.

Benedict: It helps.

Kevin: It helps. The educational process helps you realize the things that you were taught as a far-right fundamentalist aren’t true.

Jacobsen: Reality leans liberal.

Kevin: Yes.

Jacobsen: That leads to a question. What are the things – if we are taking the metaphor of Left-Right as the spectrum – those on the traditional Left get wrong? Within the context of a comedy-political podcast, what things deserve ridicule, humor, and incisive analysis?

Kevin: There are a lot of things that we on the Left do that are goofy and silly. We are prone to our own types of woo. There are a lot of people on the Left who are the natural green mommy who say, “I want to be all natural.”

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Kevin: There are anti-nuclear people on our side. There is a huge difference between the Left and the Right. Our wackos on the Left are far less dangerous than the ones on the Right.

Benedict: The thing is, our wackos don’t run things when they get into power; theirs do. For me, I would go further than Kevin. The things like the technocratic worship on the Left. I think there is a lot of pandering to the centre-right that we still do on the Left.

Jacobsen: Do you mean the technological utopianism?

Benedict: Yes, the way people see Obama, Macron, and Trudeau to an extent run things. That technology will solve all of the problems.

Kevin: Relying heavily on experts is a big feature of technocratic thought.

Benedict: I feel like you are mocking me with that.

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Kevin: The reliance on experts is not a bad thing. It is overreliance. It is assuming that your expert has the answer to all problems is the problem with technocrat philosophy.

Benedict: I think you are right, Scott, with the technological utopianism. It is “if we just did this, then all of the problems would be solved.” There is a short-sightedness. What problems will that create?

Kevin: It is a big problem caused by the demographics behind the Left. It is this short-sightedness. The Left has trouble getting people to go out to vote. You have people who aren’t enthusiastic about an election. Literally, that is all it takes. It was 77,000 votes in the right places would have put Hillary Clinton in the White House.

You did not have enough people excited about the election. There are more people on the Left than the Right. There are more people who lean Left that aren’t registered than Republicans. Republicans are old white folks who show up, who vote.

Jacobsen: What do you consider the big split between the news items we see on the conservative and the liberal sides, the Democratic or the Republican sides, or the Left and the Right sides?

Benedict: You can look at the news and predict what the Fox News top stories are going to be. I do not think that you should be able to do that. You can predict the angle they will take. You can do that to an extent with the Huffington Post, but they know their audience 100% and know what will sell with them.

Kevin: The whole Liberal Media, or the Left-leaning media, the flat-out unbiased media, there is no way that there is no bias in media. Sources like the Washington Post and The New York Times. People got pissed at them for publishing a bunch of op-eds from Trump supporters a couple of weeks ago.

People who go out of their way to get the other side of the story. The reason why we often see stories that are uncovered by the conservative media or have such spin that it is so incredible. You see a headline and think, “Wow, this is a whacked out twist on the story.” The reason is there is so much more.

On the Left, you have almost every newspaper in America. The big cable news networks other than Fox News. You have most radio, NPR, and that stuff. It is a matter of choosing what to cover. Whereas, the mainstream media covers every story that they can. They do not omit stories.

The Right has the option of omitting stories because they know they are the only sources that the conservatives will go to and so they can shape the stories the way they want to.

Jacobsen: The end.

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2022-04-10

Diana Bucur on Leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Atheist

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/14

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What was it like with the Jehovah’s Witnesses in early life?

Diana Bucur: I was born into the Jehovah’s Witnesses so I didn’t really know any different. My parents made it sound as if I had a much better life compared to the other children. However I didn’t feel comfortable, I could never understand why I couldn’t celebrate birthdays and I wasn’t always comfortable around other children my age.

Jacobsen: What seems like some of the pivotal moments in that early development regarding the Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Bucur: In my mind, I used to question many things but I was inside the community, I couldn’t really talk to anyone about my concerns and I was comfortable within the community so I didn’t examine my faith thoroughly. I remember once I read some articles online, about JWs, written by ExJws. I told my father what I read and it made me think but he said I should never read things like that as it’s forbidden.

Jacobsen: How did you begin to question your personal faith in the Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Bucur: I used to have questions as I was growing older but the turning point was when I researched articles about the JWs Russian trials. The information on JWs website (JW.org) was very biased and different compared to what the other newspapers were saying. That is when I thought we are not presented with the true facts. Afterwards I spoke to my Aunt about what I read and how different jw.org presents the facts and her answer was: well surely the other newspapers are lying. That was a significant point when I started to realise how mind controlled we were.

Jacobsen: What are common signs that one has psychologically and emotionally left the faith?

Bucur: I believe it starts with a feeling of Anger, discovering that one’s been lied and manipulated for so long. Then it is the da disappointment felt when people that you believe are friends and family abandon you suddenly, even if they don’t know why they do it. It’s enough for someone to tell them not to speak to you, they won’t try and look for explanations. That is when you realise that even your parents love has been conditional. There is obviously a loneliness that is very painful.

Jacobsen: What are some peculiar experiences of those once deeply within the Jehovah’s Witnesses who have left them – stories only ex-JWs know?

Bucur: I got in touch with some friends who left the religion few years before me, and got to find out their real story. When they left, the JWs in my local congregation invented so many lies about them (that they burnt the literature in a ritual, that they are actually gay etc). They picture the ones that chose to leave as Mentally ill people, wicked, people they only try to hurt you. And it’s only when you leave and get to speak to them that you realise they are loving and caring.

Jacobsen: Any final thoughts or feelings in conclusion?

Bucur: My main regret is that my husband is still a JW and he refuses to look at the organisation in an objective manner. My marriage has been happy but the problem created by this religion created a huge strain on our marriage.

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Diana.

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Reflection on the Reasons for Extremism After Mashal Khan Murder

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