Human Solidarity
Can the human community imagine and create a more constructive sense of solidarity when no obvious common enemy presents an imminent existential threat to civilization’s survival?
Month: September 2011
The Use of Religion to Achieve Earthly Power
Human Leadership The Swiss Protestant theologian Karl Barth (May 10, 1886 – December 10, 1968) is described as one of the most important religious thinkers of the 20th century. Barth personally mailed a public stance against Nazism (Barmen Declaration) to Adolf Hitler in 1934. He left Germany to avoid a required loyalty oath to the Nazi leader. Quests …
An Essential Alliance
Women in Saudi Arabia will be given the right to vote and run in future municipal elections, which are the only public polls in the country, the BBC reports. The BBC’s world-affairs correspondent, Emily Buchanan, says it is an extraordinary development for Saudi Arabian women, who are not allowed to drive or to leave the …
Dawkins on Atheism
“We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.” – Richard Dawkins What is Dawkins talking about?
Remembering Names
Flight 93 On Sept. 11, 2001, courageous passengers and crew on Flight 93 decided to sacrifice their lives in defense of their nation. The plane they were traveling on was infected by malignant terrorism. They fought back. They developed a plan and attacked the cancer. We honor their courageous citizenship. We know the names of …
Retroactive Xenophobia
The Ten Commandments appear three times in the Bible. Each entry is different. The Jewish, Protestant and Roman Catholic versions of the Ten Commandments are similar but not identical. The precise intention of the original text was subject to interpretation as the sacred words of the Ten Commandments were translated into new languages and cultures. …
Excerpts from The Federalist, No. 10 by James Madison (1787)
So Much Alarmed Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction. The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous …
Excerpts from The Federalist, No. 10 by James Madison (1787) Read More »
Daedalus and Icarus Revisited
The Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus is one of the first wing analogies we know about. The powerful King Minos holds brilliant inventor Daedalus and his son Icarus prisoner on the island of Crete. Daedalus devises a plan that they will escape by flying over the sea. He constructs two sets of wings using …
Parenting Is Our First Line of Defense
Parenting is the most important responsibility shared by all humanity. Every people’s future is likely to be managed by their children. Parents have more impact on what’s in store for civilization than any other social cohort. Parents hold the long suit for advancing humankind. A thousand generations of passionate parenting hasn’t led to perfect people. …
A Human Project
It’s important to remember that our self-discovery is a human project.