https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to ethics en https://religiondispatches.org/2020/01/08/trying-really-good-enough-good-place-has-c-word-problem On October 8 th, 2019, Jameela Jamil, one of the lead actresses on the surprising hit TV-show The Good Place was embroiled in a Twitter scandal. Liberal TV personality Ellen DeGeneres, who had developed a public friendship with former president… Wed, 08 Jan 2020 03:50:54 EST Daniel Albert Joslyn e0c43bb2-dd02-419a-8b97-dfdc31b80e9a https://religiondispatches.org/2017/05/09/irony-repeats-itself-reconsidering-reinhold-niebuhr-trump-era For the third time in this young century, Reinhold Niebuhr is getting another splash of attention. It happened last in 2008, when presidential candidate Barack Obama said that Niebuhr had deeply influenced him. It happened before that in 2003, when… Tue, 09 May 2017 03:23:27 EDT Gary Dorrien 8a280f61-ba1c-4b18-81b7-f177ac7211aa https://religiondispatches.org/2015/12/15/moral-galaxy-war-and-suffering-star-wars-old-republic A new Star Wars film premieres this week, accompanied by the kind of social ferment usually reserved for presidential elections—or in the case of this year, papal visits. Beyond George Lucas’ classic trilogy, the Star Wars galaxy also includes books… Tue, 15 Dec 2015 03:28:21 EST Robert M. Geraci, Nat Recine 86a5348f-c0f2-4846-9312-188501f174fe https://religiondispatches.org/2015/04/28/ethics-everest In the wake of tragedy, considering both the human and the moral costs of the ultimate sports pilgrimage. Tue, 28 Apr 2015 09:02:22 EDT Michael Schulson 51fcf5d5-a260-4ea4-b9af-44320004ab65 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/10/21/google-question-evil The slogan “Don’t be evil” prompts questions Google’s chairman seems ill-equipped to answer. Mon, 21 Oct 2013 02:02:06 EDT Michael Schulson e9af7bb4-6742-425f-9ed2-c31abfe711e9 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/07/08/evangelical-intellectual-takes-same-sex-marriage-grasps-straw-men Though Craig is correct that his argument is “simple,” he is wrong to believe that simplicity makes it good. Indeed, the suggestion that terms and concepts are immune to redefinition is simply… false. It demands an unflattering comparison to Rick Santorum, who once stumped around the nation declaring that a “ napkin is a napkin.” Mon, 08 Jul 2013 02:39:57 EDT Eric C. Miller b7c27bc6-976e-4cdf-8201-bd472f53bb75 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/05/20/inventing-jihad Last week, in the wake of Russian-led investigation, it was reported that when Tamerlan Tsarnaev was in Russia he was, in fact, more eager to wage war than the Islamist contacts he had traveled to find. Accounts reveal that he arrived in Russia with “an avid interest in waging jihad.” Mon, 20 May 2013 11:59:39 EDT Asma Afsaruddin e76e02d0-341d-4ddb-98f1-2c1d6e97d656 https://religiondispatches.org/2012/06/25/contraceptive-mandate-and-animal-suffering Peter Singer: if your religious beliefs don’t permit it, don’t do it. Mon, 25 Jun 2012 12:50:07 EDT Frances Kissling ee5cc2bf-ccbf-49f1-8475-7366f1bf7489 https://religiondispatches.org/2012/05/16/eat-pray-kill-basic-brutality-eating When it comes to the consumption of meat, our human hands have long been dirty. This isn’t a discouragement to stop striving for the good. But a moral proposal that promises to wash our filthy fingers spotlessly clean—in seconds flat—is suspect. Because they will still be dirty. The pressing moral question, of meat, becomes: given that human hands are obviously soiled, what can be done with these polluted tools? Wed, 16 May 2012 06:06:34 EDT Beatrice Marovich 6611ea50-be3b-4cef-88ce-3be9dcec5110 https://religiondispatches.org/2012/04/16/cone-shame-spiritual-crisis-humanities We humans are, today, animals like any other. We always have been. Our culture, however, appears designed to culminate in a magnificently human apex. This has long been a problem when it comes to legal rights. I know I don’t have to explain that the fight for animal rights has fanned the flame of much heated political controversy. And I won’t take an ethical position on that now. Because I’m pointing to something else that, I think, is increasingly under fire: the powerful, dreamlike, quasi-trance state driven by that powerful myth of being human. Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:28:25 EDT Beatrice Marovich ea3103e0-3154-4d54-8eff-e53cb58f8bb3 https://religiondispatches.org/2010/12/16/meditation-shopping-and-desire Shopping is an ethical act. Today we live in a culture of cheap. We have an unprecedented access to cheap goods, yet we must recognize that cheap goods are cheaply made. I am not speaking of quality, I am speaking of cheap labor. We must recognize that through the act of shopping—whether it is for an article of clothing, a toy, a pint of strawberries, or even our morning cup of coffee—we participate in a global economy that values profit over people. Disposable goods are made by disposable people, faceless individuals whose backbreaking and unjustly paid labor produce the goods we consume. What we buy and where we buy it is a political act. It is also, I argue, a religious act. Thu, 16 Dec 2010 09:20:30 EST Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado eb78eb6e-279c-4188-a47c-c835ff98b99b https://religiondispatches.org/2010/12/16/matter-life-and-debt-role-religion Just about all of the issues that we religious folk insist we really care about—issues like world poverty and hunger, resource wars and environmental degradation, human trafficking, widening domestic inequality, shrinking access to quality higher education, declining on-time graduation rates for low-income students and students of color, urban neighborhood blight, stress-related health problems, declining family life and domestic violence—are directly related to systemic debt oppression. Thu, 16 Dec 2010 09:08:44 EST Peter Laarman 3c060ebd-23a0-4784-8131-cd88f4f76f05 https://religiondispatches.org/2010/10/26/little-value-new-harris-book Sam Harris latest, The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values, is undermined by poor scholarship, ad hominem attacks and an obsession with religion. Tue, 26 Oct 2010 11:51:42 EDT Michael Ruse 485ebb9e-6a21-4d9a-96c2-4ae9cbbf3a3b https://religiondispatches.org/2010/06/04/religion-or-ethics-supreme-court The exquisite tap dance around talking about what Supreme Court nominees really believe continues. Fri, 04 Jun 2010 12:44:59 EDT Daniel Schultz 031e2eae-089c-4ddc-aeb3-e04553c89ffb https://religiondispatches.org/2010/05/12/morality-not-necessarily-good Ten questions for philosopher Hans-Georg Moeller whose new book explains how the language of morality, or of ethical purity, distorts our ability to tackle the toughest social and political problems. Wed, 12 May 2010 04:36:51 EDT Hans-Georg Moeller 5a0e2f94-448b-477d-98c2-5eb31129ef4b https://religiondispatches.org/2009/12/23/shopping-your-kids-bioethically-speaking Questions about the ethics of surrogacy span biology, psychology, class, and the law—and it’s not even clear where the authority to answer these questions might lie. Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:05:03 EST Arri Eisen 3efe40ee-33ac-40aa-88d0-67418f3bf59d https://religiondispatches.org/2009/12/02/gmo-or-no-problematic-intersections-religion-biotechnology-and-food Can a genetically altered hot dog be kosher? Can a vegetarian eat a tomato that has animal DNA in it? Is modified corn just another instance of colonialism? These and other questions are broached in a new anthology, sure to make excellent Thanksgiving dinner conversation. Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:30:24 EST Brittany Shoot 09c41625-dade-40fe-8521-897e836744dd https://religiondispatches.org/2009/11/06/daily-utopia-creating-our-moral-values-every-day The author of a new book talks to RD about the radical that lies beneath our everyday practices, whether ethics requires religion, and the “education of desire.” Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:24:00 EST Anna Peterson 43b3460a-1521-44c8-83b9-3dea91bb525c https://religiondispatches.org/2009/09/25/killing-one-primate-save-another-ethics-animal-rights A disturbing story emerged this week of a scientist leaving his research out of fear for his and his family’s lives. What are our responsibilities in this area and what do our traditions have to say about it? Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:29:38 EDT Arri Eisen aa25962b-d784-421c-8c77-c6ca31e6fe86 https://religiondispatches.org/2009/09/10/endgame-health-reform-religious-progressives-need-keep-critical-perspective Is Universal Coverage the only moral touchstone in health care reform? Religious progressives need to think again. Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:59:23 EDT Peter Laarman ed45845c-7dde-4c07-b15e-09b4e4b1b493 https://religiondispatches.org/2009/07/16/do-atheists-borrow-religions-morality Does morality come from religion or is it merely “the language games of one’s time”? Are the most basic moral boundaries we evolved that make life easier and less chaotic a reflection of the character of God? If there is no God, or if He doesn’t care about us, then our common morality is still the result of practical, reality-based needs, which also “teach” that a good life depends on the “Do unto others…” ethic. Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:22:26 EDT Frank Schaeffer ca74577d-df1e-4a0d-9bd5-5d0e178525a0 https://religiondispatches.org/2009/07/03/quaker-loses-job-over-loyalty-oath Wendy Gonaver’s lessons on the American Constitution may soon include her own story: the refusal to sign a loyalty oath designed to root out communists in public jobs whose effect is to weed out religious believers, particularly Quakers and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:47:12 EDT Peter Montgomery 7abfb107-6273-476f-8cdb-1f0464af1072 https://religiondispatches.org/2009/07/03/getting-wright-wrong-preaching-not-policy Anyone who thinks that full agreement with your pastor is necessary has never been to church… Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:15:28 EDT Anthony B. Pinn 0aac07f7-dd9c-450b-9b86-7ae394dcbfaa https://religiondispatches.org/2009/06/23/would-manny-ramirezs-clone-use-steroids Unless you are a geneticist the answer may surprise you. The ethical problems with cloning turn out to be the result of some confusion about what cloning is, and isn’t. Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:57:50 EDT Arri Eisen 3bd0c98e-95a4-42ae-b327-883f4188e659 https://religiondispatches.org/2009/06/23/rdpulpit-efca-needed-stop-employers-bearing-false-witness In addition to the direct consequences for workers and their families, one study estimated that for every worker fired, 395 coworkers got the message: attempt to organize and you’ll get fired too. Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:48:04 EDT Kim Bobo bf562ea0-92bf-4997-8380-4a2d3ec6b589