Richard Carrier is the author of Sense and Goodness without God, On the Historicity of Jesus, The Scientist in the Early Roman Empire, and many other books, chapters, and articles. With a Ph.D. in ancient history from Columbia University, he specializes in the modern philosophy of naturalism, the origins of Christianity, and the intellectual history of Greece and Rome.
In today’s episode, Richard defends the premise that a government run along secular humanist principles is the best form of societal governance. His two core tenets are that human interests matter above all, and that rational, evidence based reasoning makes everyone better off. Richard and Leslie explore these two concepts in depth, then compare secular humanism to other possible governing philosophies.
Further reading and watching:
- The Christian Nationalism vs. Secular Humanism “Debate” (more of a harangue, and does a poor job of representing either perspective)
- Richard’s analysis of the “Debate”
- Richard’s written debate on animal experimentation
- Richard’s paper: Objective moral facts exist in all possible universes
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I'm glad there's been a lot of research on the democratic and humanistic benefits of ranked ballots and proportional representation, but I wonder how anarchic consensus would compare. The logostics in large, complex societies could be messy, to be sure, but as this approach eliminates winners and losers, thereby saving face, precluding polarization and eliminating the need for the state to impose results on the population through the underlying threat of violence, it might be worth trying...
ReplyDeleteAnd to all the people who have lashed out at me as a way to externalize the cognitive dissonance my very existence creates in their minds: lt's not my job to make you feel comfortable around me. Nice try making me the problem, though! You are not good people, you are BAD and MEAN; you are not in control, you are WEAK and STUPID!!!