Author: Landon Haynes
The Foundations of Morality
Perhaps morality isn’t so complicated. Upon reflection, the foundations of morality are summed up in two simple sentences: I feel bad when I treat another poorly. I risk being treated poorly if I treat another poorly. The first sentence speaks to our innate human empathy. The second sentence speaks to the fact that we are an interconnected, interdependent social species that has to live toge...
Secular Principles of the American Founding Fathers
America’s liberties are under threat. American Christian nationalists want to establish a theocracy, one dogmatically guided just as those Islamic countries under sharia law. One of their central talking points is that America was founded as a Christian nation. Which, of course, it was not. Undoubtedly the majority of the United States population has always been Christian. However, neither Christi...
Atheists Before Darwin
In his 1986 book The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins expressed his position that he couldn’t imagine being an atheist before Darwin. As it happens, there were atheists before Darwin, and theories of evolution go back to ancient Greece. It’s a shame if Professor Dawkins is unaware of this history, as there is a great legacy of atheist pioneers who helped forge the modern world by cutt...
What Would a Secular World Look Like?
A secular world doesn’t guarantee a better one. However, I won’t refrain from addressing the largest impediment to achieving one, religion, just because there are others. The type of secular world that will be better is one that follows the key themes of the Enlightenment: humanism, science, reason, and progress. Every secular society that has followed this path, in contrast with other...
Refuting The Gloom and Doom of Christianity
Christianity sees the world as irredeemably fallen and man as inherently broken. The Age of Enlightenment challenged this notion and recognized and promoted the fact that humans have made immense progress and have done amazing things. It championed basing our views on facts and data and showed that when we use these factual foundations we can better ourselves and the world. There’s no proble...
Is the West Built on Christian Values?
Christianity is about obedience and authority (even submission to worldly authority which is assigned by God), not freedom. The Abrahamic God is a tyrant. Scripture says nothing about democracy and Christian history is one of massacring people for incorrect views, and in no way preaches freedom of religion. Christianity has, and the Bible does, subject women and condone slavery. Christianity comma...
Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
Did thought create the universe? We can probably all agree there is a universe, or at least SOMETHING. There at least seems to be thoughts being thought about that something. We know our thoughts and senses perceive it accurately enough as evidenced by all we’ve been able to do and build. There is also an obvious evolutionary survival advantage to accurately diagnosing the world. But could thought...
Is the Universe Indifferent?
In a discussion with a theist, I stated that one of the most basic observations we can make about the world, when looking at it objectively, is that there is no god protecting anyone. As far as we can tell, no groups whether based on religion, age, or innocence are immune or better protected from the ravages of life. I was told that this was a claim on par with saying there is no god and that it w...