Using religious language to fight global warming

An interesting discussion of how religious terminology is used by scientists discussing climate change. Have they adopted the language of a millenium cult to "scare us" into stop sinning and take climate change seriously?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8468233.stm

Morality Play

A new morality game to test your ethics from The Philosopher's Magazine online.

http://www.philosophersnet.com/games/morality_play.php

Philosophy A2

The Philosophy A2 course begins on 22nd June with a module on Religious Language. Full course outline is attached below:
Religious Language

• Use and purpose of religious language

• The via negative

• Verification and Falsification principles

• How meaningful is religious language

• The use of symbol, analogy and myth to express our understanding of God

• The Vienna Circle

Religious Experience

• Arguments from religious experience

• Main conclusions drawn by William James

• Forms of religious experience: visions, voices, “numinous” experience, conversion experience, corporate religious experience

• Revelation through sacred writing

• MIRACLE including:

o Different definitions including Hume

o Biblical concept of miracle

o Criticisms made by Hume and Wiles

The Nature of God

• God as eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, omni-benevolent and the philosophical problems these cause

• Boethius – Book 5 The Consolations of Philosophy

• Would a good God reward or punish



Life and Death: The Soul

• Distinctions between body and soul (Plato, Aristotle, Hick and Dawkins)

• Questions surrounding the nature of a disembodied existence

• Relationship between the afterlife and the problem of evil

Tenth worker at ipad factory commits suicide.

Do workers have the right to good working conditions? What constitutes good conditions and what should an employer do when 10 of their workers commit suicide? Read the following report from The Independent and consider it in the light of the business ethics topic and the recent programmes on "Blood, sweat and luxuries"

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/tenth-worker-at-ipad-factory-commits-suicide-1982897.html

Fallacy-B-Gone Critical Thinking Spray - Effective on Politicians, Banke...

Found this on the TPM site - If philosophers made infomercials!

'Artificial life' breakthrough announced by scientists

Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first synthetic living cell.

The researchers constructed a bacterium's "genetic software" and transplanted it into a host cell.

The resulting microbe then looked and behaved like the species "dictated" by the synthetic DNA.

See the story here...

Is this the ultimate in intelligent design? What are the ethical implications here?

Pale Blue Dot

You need to watch this twice: once to listen to what he is saying and once to spot all the films he uses in the clips. A small prize for any of my a-level students who can spot more than 20!

Religious Story Animations

Proof that I am not the only Religious Studies teacher to use play dough in my lessons!

The famous violinist or Whose body is it anyway?

Remember Judith Jarvis Thomson's violinist? Test out the consistency of your views on personhood and abortion by trying this quiz from Talking Philosophy.

http://blog.talkingphilosophy.com/?p=1730&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CombinedTpmBloggingFeed+%28Combined+TPM+Blogging+Feed%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Also of interest - Should you kill the fat man? which tests Utilitarian beliefs.

An immoral waste of time?

Consider this and relate the various ethical theories to the issue. What would a libertarian say? What does Natural Law say? How would a Utilitarian respond to this?

Please comment!

http://www.jeremystangroom.com/immoral-waste-of-time/314/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CombinedTpmBloggingFeed+%28Combined+TPM+Blogging+Feed%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

What does it take to be a man?

Food for thought after today's Y13 debate on sexual ethics and equality.

http://blog.talkingphilosophy.com/?p=1737&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CombinedTpmBloggingFeed+%28Combined+TPM+Blogging+Feed%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Will the proposed corporate governance laws improve a company's ethics?

Corporate governance rules and business ethics

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article7096628.ece

The start of designer babies?

Embryos containing DNA from a man and two women have been created by scientists at Newcastle University.

This new avenue of exploration into IVF treatment has led to the creation of an embryo where one mother's genes are replaced with more desirable one from a donor mother, due to the original egg donor having a potentially harmful genetic condition. Have we stumbled into designer babies?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8619533.stm

5 Minutes with AC Grayling

Here's a link to a series of five minute interviews with an eclectic collection of people.
thos one is with the Philosopher AC Grayling and within the five minutes he talks about his views on free will and also give a 22 second summary on Emmanuel Kant.

VIDEO LINK

There is also an interesting interview with Richard Dawkins on life and death.

A few news stories to ponder over

Please comment if you have any views on any of the articles.

'A third of britons would sleep with a stranger for £1 million'
Ends to a means or abusing your body for money?

'New codes allow pharmacists to refuse to dispence based on religious beliefs'

What are peoples views on these? Get commenting!

New video from 06clared - Euthyphro

Do morals come from God?

A Level Philosophy And Ethics OCR

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

A Level Philosophy And Ethics OCR

View more presentations from Rachel Haig-Williams.

GCSE Philosophy And Ethics OCR

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

GCSE Philosophy And Ethics OCR

View more presentations from Rachel Haig-Williams.

Author Terry Pratchett welcomes assited suicide guidelines

Author Sir Terry Pratchett welcomed today's guidance on assisted suicide as "the best we can get without a change in the law".
The 61-year-old, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, believes people should have the right to choose when they die.

Read the full article by following the link below:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/terry-pratchett-welcomes-assisted-suicide-guidelines-1910907.html

What changes have actually been made? Follow the changes and subsequent discusions in the next set of links:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mps-call-for-debate-on-new-assisted-suicide-guidelines-1910696.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/assisted-suicide-policy-focused-on-suspect-motivation-1910294.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/assisted-suicide-rules-fail-to-settle-debate-1911312.html

And finally read philosopher Julian Baggini's comments:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/julian-baggini-suicide-can-be-a-rational-choice-1912358.html