Dr. Joe Chuman's Talks at The Bergen Ethical Society

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As the leader of the Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County, Dr. Chuman gives our platform address the first Sunday of each month. Below are selected transcripts and videos.

I'm a Believer

For anyone who cherishes reason, the last several decades of American life and politics must seem like a long descent into madness. We have always been a religious society, yet the public role and influence of religion has become phenomenally pervasive and powerful in the current Bush administration. We live in a time of faith-based justice, faith-base social services, faith-based science, faith-based health and faith- based war. Religious ideology, and not reality nor facts, in increasing measure, determine how you are to govern your own uterus, whether your alcoholism counseling comes with a heavy dose of Jesus, whether you will be taught about evolution and whether global warming is a fact, whether you will have access to contraceptives, and whether Christian scenarios of Armageddon will determine American foreign policy.

Religion, Ethnicity, Identity and Ethical Culture

As we well know, and cannot forget, tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of the assault on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Time has confirmed the feelings I had then, that the collective psyche of Americans would be indelibly changed. Whether fear of continued terrorist attacks on American soil is hyped for political purposes or not, the attacks have brought a continuous low level anxiety into American society, which, of course, is exactly what terrorism is designed to do.

Ethics from the Heart

I believe in the life of reason, and my commitment to reason, in great measure, is what makes me a humanist. While honoring reason does not, in itself, a humanist make, it is certainly an essential component of the modern humanist worldview.

When the Delusional Becomes Normative: George Bush's War on Science

Among the most surreal episodes to take place in the Soviet Union in the Stalinist era was the assault on genetics, and the rise of Lysenkoism. Trofim Lysenko was an agronomist from the Ukraine who had no background in science, but whose experiments with crop reproduction caught the attention of Communist apparatchiks.

The Realm of Faith and the Realm of Politics

The humorist, Will Rogers, once said that “Nothing changes like the past.” And he was assuredly right. Those who interpret history cannot avoid injecting their own values and interests into their interpretations. And if they are politically invested, which they inevitably are, those interpretations of history will seek to further their current political interests. This is true of all of us, whether we locate ourselves on the left, the right or in the center of the political spectrum.

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The Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County

I'm a Believer

Religion, Ethnicity, Identity and Ethical Culture

Ethics from the Heart

When the Delusional Becomes Normative: George Bush's War on Science

The Realm of Faith and the Realm of Politics

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