Latest Articles
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Freedom of Thought Report extract: The Watch List
Each year, one fifth of all countries across the globe are reviewed as part of a rolling cycle of updates. The following are countries that have not been updated in this year’s cycle, but that Humanists International continues to monitor closely. Afghanistan Historically, Afghanistan was religiously diverse, but the vast majority of non-Muslims fled after the Taliban consolidated control of the government in 1996.…
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Misunderstanding Science
The biggest misunderstanding about science is seen in the claim that its worldview, materialism1, is as faith-based as idealism. According to this myth, just as idealism rests on faith that some form of consciousness is the ultimate reality, so materialism rests on faith in cosmic uniformity; causal relationship; in-principle attainable certainty (or at least near-certainty). Pushing this myth is very much in the interests…
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From ‘RAFT’ to ‘CRAFT’: a Tutorial on De-Worming
Rationalism and Free-Thought together make an unsinkable ‘R.A.F.T’; buffeted by gusts of hot-air and tossed on waves of holy-water; but unscathed because truth is heat-resistant and water-tight. Free Thought is an anti-helminthic: a sure-cure for the ‘T.A.P.E-worm’ of tradition, authority, prejudice and emotion that characterises superstitious thinking. But free as it is of dogma, it has also to free itself of untested opinion and…
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Skepticism away from the Coal Face
A lot of skepticism these days involves battling against wrong-heading beliefs related to topics that are important to us, and to our world: whether an all-powerful God created us, and wants us to follow his strict, perversely specific and often nonsensical rules about how to live our lives; if climate change is real, and how much of a risk it is to our continued…
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Consciousness, Value and Purpose; No God in Sight.
Consciousness (awareness) is the evolved efflorescence of neural complexity. Its elaboration is unquestionably greatest in our species. Its neural base underlies perceptual experience, all of whose mysteries are solved or soluble by science. And perceptual experience augmented by further neural elaboration has led, in our lineage, to cognitive abilities to intuit, to infer, to evaluate, to assert, to question and to explain. We can…
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I Don’t Know: and Neither Do You
It is important to keep in mind that ‘Enlightenment’ science flourished in spite of, not because of, the religious indoctrination of 18th century scientists1. I used to disparage the asking of what I called ‘stupid-because-unanswerable’ questions (like “Why is there something rather than nothing?”). Of course, when questions whose answers can’t be checked are gratuitously posed, they shouldn’t have been asked in the first…
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Why constitutional monarchy is a good system of government
This article is offered as a reply to the criticisms of monarchy which appeared in the previous issue of The Open Society, one of them by my friend Max Wallace. It will, I hope, be understood as my contribution to the debate among friends and colleagues – one of the key indicators of an open society. This is purely my personal opinion and I…
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2500 years of freethinkers, scientists, and religious believers
When I was eight years old at school I wrote that when I grow up I wanted to be a scientist. As a teenager in Auckland, I was told by my ‘uncle’ that I should not believe anything scientists tell us. He was a fundamentalist Baptist Church elder. I challenged him, shocking his family, which of course had repercussions. His views included odd ideas…
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AI Utopia is Hell
The BBC report that an open letter has been signed by more than 1,300 experts saying AI is not an existential threat to humanity; it will be a transformative force for good if we get critical decisions about its development and use right. Those signing the open letter say AI technology is enabling new ways to detect serious illness. It is enabling classifiers which detect cardiac…
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Can, and should, everyone do their own research regarding complex issues such as climate change and public health measures?
Introduction The responsibility and ability of individual citizens to exercise intellectual autonomy by undertaking their own research into highly specialised topics raises some meaningful questions for social epistemology. During the Covid-19 pandemic, this issue stepped out of the lecture-halls and ivory -towers and into the public square. It became one of urgency due to the socio-political effects of science scepticism, and the rejection and…
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When did the first Karma arise?
In hindsight, was the first cause of the first Karma a positive or negative step? Humans have climate change and we edging towards extinction. We are back at the old chicken and egg lark? Did God create creation or did the creatures of creation create God? Who lit the match to set off the Big Bang? Will we ever know? I go to Wikipedia…
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After Cyclone Gabrielle: heartbreak in Wairoa
My only connection to Kiri Allan is that I voted for her at the last election. At the time I was still a registered voter in the East Coast electorate and the lacklustre candidate pool meant that Kiri didn’t need to work too hard to be my pick. She was already established as a Labour list MP and seemed like an okay person –…
