David Boots

If people started bombing and killing and stabbing and beheading in my name then I would be appalled. And I would condemn it in the strongest possible language.

Would I be responsible for it? Well I didn’t actually do the killing so I am not responsible for that. But if I am silent then the message I send is that I accept people killing in my…[Read more]

What is weird about the American healthcare system is that it so tied to your job. It got that way because companies were able to claim it as a tax deduction and it was treated as a non-taxable fringe benefit for employees.

It seems very complicated to me. In Australia you pay a 2% tax and it is all basically free. Its not perfect and over half…[Read more]

I might be able to summarise what is generally (although not completely) agreed:
– there are many different moralities and it may be difficult (if not impossible) to define an atheist morality;
– theists do not have a monopoly on morals; indeed by many of their own moral metrics, atheists are categorically at least as moral if not more lawful and…[Read more]

Pakistan (and India before partition) has had blasphemy laws on the books for hundreds of years. It is only in the last twenty or so years with the growth of religious extremism that they have taken on a sinister pall.

They are now used to settle disputes and get revenge in petty civil matters. The judiciary, to it’s credit, sometimes dismisses…[Read more]

We can all agree that different people are going to have different morals. And not believing in a god does not prevent one having morals.

Davis argues that there is no atheist morality; but I disagree, I think it has simply yet to be codified.

This is why. The very fact an atheist chooses to require evidence to believe in a god means they make a…[Read more]

This is the country that hid and sheltered Osama Bin Laden so why would anyone be surprised.

Some people may be surprised at how extensive blasphemy laws are. This map shows just how widespread they are.

Since this research was completed Kuwait has now made blasphemy a capital offense and Denmark has charged a citizen under it’s blasphemy…[Read more]

I have sympathy for the muslims who speak out against violence in the name of their religion.

But if, as a follower of this ideology, you fail to recognise that islam is no longer  ‘a religion of peace’ for some of it’s followers then we have a problem. Because it is readily apparent that for a variety of reasons, some of your fellow beli…[Read more]

Another definition is ‘Morals are the principles on which one’s judgments of right and wrong are based. Ethics are principles of right conduct.’

As observed above, this definition is totally subjective. And perhaps this is what scares theists. They can point to a book, a list or ask a priest or a cleric who will tell them what is wrong or r…[Read more]

I would take aesthetics over ethics any day.

From the net “Morality is understanding the distinction between right and wrong and living according to that understanding, and ethics is the philosophy of how that morality guides individual and group behavior. The two are closely related, with morality being the foundation of ethics.”

Simple then…[Read more]

The authors state: The idea behind the scale is that human morality is the result of biological and cultural evolutionary processes that made human beings very sensitive to many different (and often competing) issues.

Some of these issues are about treating other individuals well (the first two foundations – harm and fairness).

Other issues are…[Read more]

You can take a morality quiz at yourmorals.org designed by the university of Virginia. My results are below. Is purity really a moral foundation?

So morality is a force for social cohesion and co-operation. Does it need to be shared then?