In Good We Trust

Let’s share the image of earth however we can this Earth Day. We must find more common ground - our time is running short. President John Kennedy artfully blended idealism with pragmatism, saying, "If we cannot end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal." The earth is our most basic common link - it is the common ground we share.

Charles Darwin yearned to unify both human understanding and human beings. As Marek Kohn, a British scientist, explains, “Evolutionary thinking enabled [Darwin] him to rescue the idea of human unity, taking it over from a religion that no longer provided it with adequate support, and put the idea of common descent on a rational foundation.” Evolution connected our insignificant, subjective lives into a grand narrative. But as I shared in my last podcast, Charles correctly anticipated the resistance his work would foster, and the anguish it would cause Emma who believed in a heaven where they would both reunite after death.

Critics of evolution ridicule it as being "just a theory." But it's so much more than that. It includes a vast collection of test results, gathered over decades and analyzed publicly by thousands of researchers. It’s the best our collective community of inquiry offers. Charles Darwin’s voyage around the world that led to his theory took nearly five years of painstaking collection, rough seas, bouts of seasickness, and stretches of monotony. The scientific process is arduous and humbling. It is a human creation, so it must involve human limitation. It offers us refreshing humility.

If the current political situation in the U. S. is making you feel raw, exhausted, depressed, angry, frustrated, sad, or fearful, think about others who are in more challenging spaces. Then consider how you might defend marginalized populations. Consider the following work and groups: Defend immigrants: United We Dream https://unitedwedream.org/ Defend LGBTQ+ youth: Lambda Legal https://lambdalegal.org/ Defend women: Planned Parenthood https://www.plannedparenthood.org/ Defend a free press: Freedom of the Press Foundation https://freedom.press/ Defend our system of government: Protect Democracy https://protectdemocracy.org/ Defend the environment: The Sierra Club. https://www.sierraclubfoundation.org/ Defend the rights of everyone: The American Civil Liberties Union. https://www.aclu.org/

Martin Luther King was raised to appreciate his own inherent worth – a worth independent of background or resources. When speaking in Cleveland in 1967, he said, "In order to be truly free, the first thing we must do is to develop within ourselves a deep sense of somebodiness. Don't let anybody make you feel that you are nobody."

Doubt, if tempered with optimism and curiosity, can encourage dialogue and exploration. It offers more opportunity for the changing of minds. If nothing else, doubt will help us follow one of the most rudimentary rules taught to us: look before we leap. Doubt can inhibit rash behavior. That’s important because despite our relatively advanced intellects, we can be spectacularly stupid. Also for the show notes: For the philosophers out there, Hugh recommends Hume’s The Natural History of Religion (1757) and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779) for some early empirical support of doubt.

Felix Adler who founded Ethical Culture warned about the certainty of religious fanatics. Certainty can lead people to condemn heretics and burn witches in the fires of fanaticism. Crusades, inquisitions, and jihads have slaughtered men, women, and children. Some true believers are eager to kill each other to prove a point. That’s why Adler founded a movement based not on competing metaphysics, but on ethical cooperation. Atheists can be certain too, but usually they don't kill because of it.

There are lots of psychological reasons for why so many of us believe in ghosts: they thrill, they sell books, movies, and ghost tours, they can give us a sense of control over death, and they can connect us to those we’ve lost. But as a humanist, I’ll work to help the need for ghosts fade away by offering a way to satisfy the deep yearning for human connection with those dead and gone. I'll promote remembering the best in the lives of others and trying to live as they did. Perhaps we’d feel less haunted if we more effectively manifest in our lives and in our actions the ideals of the dead we most admire. Some sources used: — Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, Mary Roach — The Ghost Story Persists in American Literature. Why? by Parul Sehgal - Oct. 22, 2018 FROM: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/books/review/ghost-stories.html — “Ghosts in the Ancient World”, Joshua J. Mark, founder of World History Encyclopedia FROM: https://www.worldhistory.org/ghost/

NOTE: Join me live at 11AM this Sunday at the Philadelphia Ethical Society or on Zoom at this link to hear more reflections about Stoicism and peace. Those living in or near Philadelphia can also learn more about Stoicism by checking out Philadelphia Stoa, a lively philosophical group meeting at the Ethical Society. Their website is https://philadelphiastoa.org/. And wherever you are, I recommend A Handbook for New Stoics written by Massimo Pigliucci and Gregory Lopez. May your week be full of serenity! -- In honor of the United Nations International Day of Peace, Hugh Taft-Morales explores how the philosophy of Stoicism can help us build peace from the inside out. It can help us nurture peace within by contemplating the "big picture" and by understanding what we can control and what we cannot. Stoicism can help us manage the relationships between our thoughts, emotions, and behavior. This can lead to greater equanimity and more effective peacebuilding in the world.

Like all human institutions, organized labor is not perfect. But I believe that no other movement has done more to uplift average people and offer hope for a fairer society. We need it revived today more than ever. Right now 40 million Americans suffer from poverty and the gap between the richest and poorest citizens continues to grow. As we approach Labor Day, I suggest that we improve our nation by celebrating and supporting the role of working women, both historically and for our future.