Reading Time: 2 minutes I am generally struggling with life at the moment, in terms of doing all the basic things I should be doing – my job effectively, parenting effectively, being a decent partner, having time off to experience and enjoy life, and so on. And that’s before I factor in blogging, writing, editing and all sorts. This […]
Happiness
Posted inGeneral
World’s Happiest Countries Revealed: And Religion?
Reading Time: 3 minutes CNN have recently produced a list of the world’s happiest and least happy countries. There are no prizes to those who guess the correlation between lack of religion and happiness. This is a recurring pattern that we have seen over the years. Of course, we can talk more pointedly about causality and correlation here, for there […]
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Posted inEducation, Psychology, The Secular
Ignorance Is Bliss; Christians Are Happier; Christianity = Ignorance…
Reading Time: 5 minutes Psychology has thrown up some interesting conclusions over the years. Firstly, we have research to suggest ignorance or lack of intelligence is bliss. Then we have the claim that religious people are happier. Using logic, we can perhaps claim that religious people may be happier, but that’s because they are more ignorant. He heh! But can we say […]
Posted inEthics and Morality, Meaning & Purpose, Politics, Psychology
Prosociality, Happiness, and Socially Desirable Responding
Reading Time: 5 minutes I just wanted to pick up on something that Johno mentioned in his piece, Christians, their morality and their ironic intolerance. This was a quote from that post: …religious people report being prosocial… Interestingly, this prosocial tendency as a function of religion seems to be universal. For instance, the high agreeableness of religious people seems constant […]
Posted inHealth, Politics, Psychology, Religion, The Secular
Faith as a Source of Self-Esteem… sometimes
Reading Time: 5 minutes This post may shed some light on Bert’s recent post, Why Does Faith Give Meaning To Life? I was at a conference on Monday and Tuesday, at Cardiff University, entitled Changing Attitides in Public Discourse: Arrogance and Polarisation in Public Debate, and one of the presenting authors was Constantine Sedikides from the University of Southampton. […]
Posted inEthics and Morality, Health, Politics
The Matthew Effect
Reading Time: 6 minutes One of the big arguments between liberals and conservatives is around the issue of inequality, particularly as it relates to wealth. My understanding of the predominant conservative position is that those that gain wealth through their own efforts should be allowed to keep more of that wealth, and should not be taxed at significantly higher […]
Posted inEnvironment, Ethics and Morality, Health, Meaning & Purpose, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Science, The Secular
Epistemology and Morality
Reading Time: 10 minutes Back in my second ever post on The Tippling Philosopher, I mentioned my fusing of Maslow (1969), Schwartz (1992), and Kohlberg (1977). The reasoning behind this was simple enough, Maslow’s well-known pyramid is a hierarchy of needs, and Kohlberg’s was a stage model of moral development – Schwartz’s model sits in between them, as it […]
Posted inEthics and Morality, Health
Is abortion objectively morally wrong?
Reading Time: 3 minutes I don’t have a whole lot of time today, so please excsue this for being rather rushed. Considered, logical responses, critiques and corrections gratefully received. Ideological ranting not so much. Image from University of Kentucky Kentucky being a Bible Belt State with a high abortion rate. P1) Abortion is objectively immoral. P2) It is possible to […]
Posted inClimate Crisis, Environment, Ethics and Morality, History, Meaning & Purpose, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Religion, Science, Sex & Gender, The Secular
Critiquing modern US Conservatism: What All Conservatives Can Agree On?
Reading Time: 21 minutes Today I will be getting back to my ongoing critique of Conservatism, by dissecting claims about the central theses of Conservatism, as expressed by Conservatives. Previously I looked at the Sharon Statement (1960). This time I am looking at a summary of the commonalities between a diverse group of Conservative thinkers that was gathered together for […]
Posted inPhilosophy
Hiram Crespo on the Epicurean Revival
Reading Time: 6 minutes Some time ago, Hiram Crespo, author of a book on Epicurean philosophy, contacted me to see if I would post something which he originally wrote for the AHA here. Check it out, and comment below with your thoughts. Thanks to Hiram for providing this for ATP consumption! Hiram Crespo is a blogger, philosopher, author of Tending the […]