Category: Uncategorized

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If one is interested in bringing about justice and equality for all then this is a book that you want to read. This is an intense read and you will find out more about yourself than you may care to but the effort and self-searching is the sort of work that needs to be done by all of us who claim justice for all is what we want. Ms. Oluo is quite adept at smashing the trite slogans and talking points that are always heard in discussions about race using facts and research. Implicit in the sophistry that you hear in discussions of race is the subtle or not so subtle denying of the life experiences of millions of men, women and children. This denying of peoples’ experiences is the engine of the anger that we see so often and one feels empathy for people who experience this each and every day once one the message of this book sinks in. It is a good writer that can produce empathy in the reader and Ms. Oluo is exceptional at it. More importantly, the empathy she engenders will move you to take action on both yourself and the social systems we live with. There is a lot of work to be done and thankfully Ms. Oluo gives us in this book the tools and guidance on how to get it done.

View all my reviews

The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump by Michiko Kakutani

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“In a republican nation, whose citizens are to be led by reason and persuasion and not by force, the art of reasoning becomes of first importance”
― Thomas Jefferson

“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”
― Thomas Jefferson

I’m sure every reader of this has asked themselves, “How do these people believe the lies coming out of our political leaders that are demonstrably false?” There has been a subtle shift in the common epistemology that has been deliberately engineered for the benefit of a few. No longer do people claim, “I believe it because it is true and here is how I know that.” Today, the mantra is, “I believe it so therefore it is true.” It matters not whether the claim is the earth is flat and 6,000 years old, or that politicians you don’t like are surely running a child sex ring out of the basement of a building which has no basement, it is true because they believe it to be true. Congruence to reality has ceased to have any intellectual weight in these peoples’ thinking process. How did we get to this point? This book attempts to answer that question and, in this reader’s opinion, answers it well. Well written and well researched, it traces back the various threads that have come together to give us the intellectual climate we find a large percentage of our fellow Americans living in. The two pronged attack on reason and the free press is, as it turns out, by design and this book unpacks the “how” and “why” behind it.

View all my reviews

“A melancholy lesson of advancing years is the realization that you can’t make old friends.”― Christopher Hitchens

Monday mornings and I have never managed to come to any sort of rapprochement.  Mondays are not the sort of day one looks forward to for obvious reasons but some are far worse than others.  For me, this last Monday was one of the more terrible ones.  I was greeted with the news that an old friend had finally lost his ten year battle with cancer.  The news from the week prior was not good but we all expected him to make a recovery as he had many times previously.  Fate, it seems, had other intentions for our friend this time.

In this day of social media news spreads quickly. Well wishes and condolences started to stream in.  I found myself on the phone with mutual friends who I hadn’t spoken with in years.  I’ve always thought it a shame that that the only time we call or reach out to each other these days is when someone we know passes away.  It was good to hear their voices as it reminded each of us of a time when our friend was still there, laughing one more time about the adventures of our youth and the coming of age experiences we shared. As we talked and the conversations moved to what was now the all consuming event in our lives, the death of our friend, we seemed to part ways in spirit.  They took great consolation believing that the spirit of my friend ‘lived on’ in heaven and would be watching over those of us who were still dwelling in the land of the living. It was if they were talking about color to a blind man.

I’m a naturalist so I don’t have a belief in the supernatural which includes a place where the departed spirits go after this life is over.  All we have, in my view, is our brief time together while we are alive in this world.  I take consolation in the fact that my friend left a large body of work for us to enjoy and the memories I have of the times and experiences we shared.  I find it especially rewarding that I can look up at a sky full of stars and remember the many times we spent gazing through my telescope and waxing philosophical about life, the universe and everything, to quote Douglas Adams. These memories also create a sense of urgency in me to take out the telescope when I might not feel like it, to pack up the bass and head out to that Blues Jam when I would rather stay home and to sit down and write that article when all I’d rather do is surf Facebook.  We all have a limited time to do the things we want to do; some of us have more than others as life so often brutally reminds us. Eventually the silence of the grave will overtake us all and our voices will be extinguished.  But while we are alive our voices ring out loud and clear.  Now is the time to be heard, now is the time to make music and dance.  May the life of my friend and all he accomplished constantly keep this fire alive in me; I can’t think of a better way to honor his memory until that eternal silence overtakes me.

A recent Buzzfeed article by  Peter Aldhous (BuzzFeed News Reporter), Azeen Ghorayshi (BuzzFeed News Reporter), and Virginia Hughes (BuzzFeed News Science Editor) chronicles allegations of sexual misconduct by Dr. Laurence Krauss spanning at least a decade.  According to the article their “reporting is based on official university documents, emails, and interviews with more than 50 people.” Given the current social zeitgeist, I anticipate that all of these will become a matter of public record and, if the allegations are true, Dr. Krauss should bear full responsibility and suffer the consequences for these reprehensible actions, consequences which need to be quite stout.  According to KSAZ,  Arizona State University, where Dr. Krauss is a professor, has issued a statement that they are unaware of any allegations against him and have initiated a review.  They have encouraged anyone who may have concerns about faculty, staff or students in this regard to come forward.

I’d encourage everyone to read the BuzzFeed article as it is not without bias against secularism.  That being said there are a number of things in it that concern me. First and foremost the article states that Dr. Krauss has been banned from the campuses of two institutions, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario in response to complaints made against him.  If true, this points to a pattern of behavior.  The second is Dr. Krauss’s response to the current allegations against him.

From the article,

In lengthy emails to BuzzFeed News, Krauss denied all of the accusations against him, calling them “false and misleading defamatory allegations.” When asked why multiple women, over more than a decade, have separately accused him of misconduct, he said the answer was “obvious”: It’s because his provocative ideas have made him famous.

“It is common knowledge that celebrity attracts all forms of negative attention from many different angles,” Krauss said in a December email. “There is no pattern of discontent revealed here that suggests any other explanation.”

My gut response to this is that his reply smacks of deflection.  After further reflection, I am convinced that is what he is doing. I am a big fan of his work.  His ability to communicate complex and difficult ideas is one of the best I’ve seen.  Ergo, his inept response to these allegations raises even more suspicions in my mind.

Dr. Krauss has already suffered some repercussions from these allegations according to a recent Gizmodo article. If the allegations are confirmed then it is the moral responsibility of all organizations to cut ties with Dr. Krauss for two reasons.  First, the behavior itself.  This sort of behavior should not be tolerated and it is up to the secular community to make a strong statement that it will not be tolerated within it’s ranks and follow those words up with equally strong actions.  Second,  the self-professed sine qua non of the secular movement is the pursuit of the truth.  We are fond of posting memes and quotes in social media and arguing in debates that it is the quest for truth that motivates us no matter how uncomfortable that truth may turn out to be.  If these allegations are proven to be the truth then Dr. Krauss’s initial denial was a flat out lie.  That permanently disqualifies him to be a standard bearer in an organization or movement that professes to hold truth as the ultimate good.

“I became a journalist because I did not want to rely on newspapers for information.”
― Christopher Hitchens

I started to read Larry Taunton’s book, “The Faith of Christopher Hitchens” and he begins the book by painting a picture based on “Hitch 22”, Christopher Hitchens’ autobiography. Having read “Hitch 22” when it first came out I was struck how the impressions that Taunton was getting and the seemed importance he was assigning to them were not jibbing with my recollections so I decided to re-read Hitchens’ book.

Aside from the pedestrian account of his upbringing which will interest Hitchens’ fans, both friend and foe alike will be interested in his narration of his move from the ‘Left’ to the ‘Right’ as he witnessed the events in Bosnia, Yugoslavia, Cuba, and the Middle East unfolding. As I write this a secular revolution is happening in Iran. The youth are taking to the streets, demonstrating against the Mullahs, burning Korans and Hijabs and demanding democratic elections, in short demanding a secular government and society that affirms the preeminence of the secular values espoused by Paine, Jefferson and Madison. These are the same ideas that motivated our revolution here in America, the only revolution still standing in the world. These are the same ideals that inspired the countries of Eastern Europe to tear down the Berlin wall and the Iron Curtain and are now inspiring the young in Iran. Unfortunately it appears the United States has turned it’s back on the world and the ideals it once stood for and exported around the world and has embraced nationalism and populism. I fear our revolution and the nascent one in Iran may be in grave jeopardy and I’d like to think Hitchens would feel the same way.

Now on to Larry Taunton’s book……..

A question was asked of atheists on Quora recently to explain how they felt about the “void of justice” if no one is held accountable in the next life for the evil they did in this life. This is usually asked as a corollary in the kettle logic arguments employed against atheists.  Many serial killers, we are told,  have a long life and a peaceful passing surrounded by loved ones, never being brought to justice for their crimes.  The crooked financial advisor who bilked grandma and grandpa out of their life savings retired on a yacht in the Caribbean with his ill gotten gains without a care or worry in the world.  Whoever it was that stole your dog ‘Bosco’ when you were in the 2nd grade really did get away with it.  There will be no comeuppance for them because there is no afterlife in which a comeuppance would happen according to the atheist. In fact, nothing will ever happen to them according to atheists. Ever.  They got away with it and that’s that, according to the unbeliever. I mean, the nerve.

The serial killer example is the most often employed presumably because it is thought to add the most moral heft to the question. When I hear this, and I hear it often, I like to think I know how Huxley felt when he turned to his friend and said “the Lord hath delivered him into mine hands” as he rose to answer Bishop Wilberforce’s question about his ancestry.   I’ll get to Huxley’s answer in a moment.

My retort to this question is always the same:  This question should be asked of the Christian, not the atheist, for this is what the Christian believes.  The serial killer Jeffery Dahmer, also know as the Milwaukee Cannibal, became a born again Christian while in prison before he was killed by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver. Dahmer confessed and was convicted of murdering 17 young men some of which he sexually abused and cannibalized.  If the Christian’s doctrine is to be believed then Dahmer’s conversion insured his immediate entrance into heaven.  What of sis accountability for his unspeakable crimes?  According to the Christian, he has none.

I challenge you to come up with a more pernicious and amoral idea than this. Once this is believed all that remains is convincing oneself that the one who sits on the throne of heaven is now the coxswain of one’s life to guarantee first place in the race to the bottom of the moral cesspool.  Christopher Scarver, after he had beaten Dahmer and another inmate to death with a pipe, returned to his cell and informed a prison guard: “God told me to do it.”  Life, it seems, has it’s own sense of irony, both for serial killers and kettle logic apologists.

It takes intellectual courage to accept the life we live is the only life we have and to understand that justice, if it is to be found at all, is to be found in this life. Rather than being an impetus, the idea that there is a future comeuppance in a world to come saps the vim and vigor of our efforts to ensure justice in this life. “Don’t worry, God will right all the wrongs.” To think in such a way engenders apathy towards injustice and allows one to be a silent witness to the most horrific and barbarous acts against our fellow man.  It is the creed of the coward.

In their famous debate on evolution it is said Bishop Samuel Wilberforce asked T.H. Huxley, who was given the name “Darwin’s Bulldog”, whether he traced his ancestry from apes through his paternal or maternal grandmother. Huxley turn to his friend and whispered what I related to you earlier, rose and responded, “I would rather be a man descended from two apes than be a man who is afraid of the truth.”