The ISHV Cyber Think Tank is a digest of articles, interviews, and other musings compiled by ISHV Board Member Robert B. Tapp.
Tom Jacobs, Steven Pinker’s Radical Brand of ‘Contingent Optimism’:
We will always be vulnerable to urges like revenge, anecdotal thinking, and demonization. The question is whether our institutions and norms can keep them at bay. The habits of journalism are to always focus on the present. We can be misled by the availability and vividness of current news, and the fading of bad memories, into an inaccurate picture of which way the world is going. Although I’m a political centrist, I apportion the lion’s share of the blame for the challenging of those norms to Trump and the Republican Party. The key point of the book is that the values of the Enlightenment embolden us to solve problems. Human nature allows for the possibility of cumulative improvement, even as it faces the constant drag of primitive impulses that work against it. It’s an ongoing struggle. ….The position that we can’t solve the problem [climate change} is completely consistent with the denialist position that nothing should change whatsoever. Different premises, but they reach the same conclusion.” read
CFI, Navy Rejection of Humanist Chaplains Demeans and Discriminates, Call for a Ban is Unconstitutional read
David Breeden, Doin’ It Like Church read
7 in 10 young people in the UK are non-religious, new research finds read
Walter G. Moss, Review of Steven Pinker’s “Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress” read
Valerie Tarico:
Why is the bible so badly written? “Although some passages in the bible are lyrical and gripping, many would get kicked back by any competent editor or writing professor — kicked back with a lot of red ink.” read
40th anniversary: Timeline of FFRF’s history read
Maryam Namazie, We resist and challenge because we must read
Zenos Frudakis, Darrow statue can help educate for years read
Bob Seidensticker, God Loves the Smell of Burning Flesh: Human Sacrifice in the Bible read
Kurt Vonnegut, Social Justice: The New American Dream read
Kelly Besecke, Reflexive Spirituality: Seeking the Spiritual Experience in a Modern Society (excerpt from her book, Can't Put God in a Box: Thoughtful Spirituality in a Rational Age ) read
Christopher Cameron, Black atheists matter: how women freethinkers take on religion read
Carl Chudy, Exploring the Bleeding Borders of the Secular and the Sacred read
Skye C Cleary and Massimo Pigliucci, Human nature matters read
Hemant Mehta, MIT Appoints Humanist Chaplain, the First at a Tech-Focused School (Greg Epstein) read
Rick Snedeker, Poor Teacher Pay, Rise of Trump are Related Cheek and Jowl read
Philip Galanes, The Mind Meld of Bill Gates and Steven Pinker read