“Ethics is not imposed by a priesthood, the law or another person but is the self-directed exercise of being profoundly and honestly human with reference to the rest of humanity.”
The Humanist Society secretary, Jean Brown, discusses the evolutionary origin of ethics. Is that enough for ethical behaviour today? More …
At an in-house discussion of the Humanist Society on Sunday 11 September 2011, Dr Tom Mole, formerly Chief Research Scientist in the CSIRO, delivered a compelling introduction to the topic. For the full article, please click here!
“Short term gain; long term pain” on the left above – abstract below.
The belief systems which dominate present day society are not the various religions and atheism, but cause-and-effect reason (science) and free-market philosophy (institutionalised greed). Nowhere is this more obvious than in the debate on climate change.
We need a shared understanding of what drives climate change. Understanding comes from ideas about the flow of energy to and from (our domicile) the surface of earth, and about the behaviour of carbon dioxide and the various materials derived from it.
The fossilisation of carbon below the surface, the abundance of the resulting fossil fuels, and our ridiculously profligate exploitation of the fossil fuels are important elements of the understanding.
“General worldview education” (GWE, click here) is a much more general phrase than “general religious education” (GRE, click here) and should replace it in the Education Act. – HG
Humanism is a philosophy of life for secularists, i.e., for people who believe in the separation of church and state.- by Brian Ellis, Professor Emeritus, Philosophy, La Trobe University
The Council of Australian Humanist Societies calls on the federal government to institute a Tobin tax on each foreign currency transaction made by Australian banks. The amount taxed need be no more than 0.05% of the amount transacted; the revenue to be deposited into a special trust fund for foreign aid projects. It is said that the Australian Treasurer is not keen on the idea. – Dr Alan McPhate. More here
On the left, James Tobin, 1918 – 2002; see Wikipedia (click here)
