Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Category: Society

  • The Ghost of Miguel Servetus

    An excellent and eloquent statement by Austin Dacey in yesterday’s meeting of the Human Rights Council being held in Geneva.

  • A Plea for Reason

    A promotional video from the Center for Inquiry. It’s a worthy effort, but I couldn’t help but think that during the opening minute, when the "once we believed in superstition" trope was being laid out: don’t look now folks, but most of us on this sorry little excuse for a planet still do…
     
    More’s the pity, and more power to the elbow of the folks in the Center for Inquiry. Hmm, perhaps I should be putting my money where my mouth is…
     
       

  • Depressing

    While this news story is depressing enough, what is even more depressing is reading the comments on it that follow. Barking doesn’t even begin to describe them. I’m sorry, I now need to go for a quiet walk in the woods. 

  • Religious Rights Triumphing?

    Worrying news from the UN where it seems that religious rights are in the process of being elevated over human rights. Austin Dacey reports on the developments in the UN’s Human Rights Council. He is eloquent on what he means by respect for religions:
    In the final analysis, it is not religions that deserve our respect. A religion is a collection of metaphysical ideas and moral ideals. Ideas are believed or disbelieved; ideals are pursued or rejected. Admiration, appreciation, perhaps, but respect? No. What deserves respect are persons. Surely, the feelings of persons–individuals believers–can be affected when their beliefs are attacked or ridiculed. These feelings are real and important. However, feelings of offense do not generate a right not to be offended.
     
    Respect for persons does not require that we never hurt their feelings, but rather that we treat them as possessing dignity equal to our own, and therefore hold them to the same fundamental intellectual, ethical, and legal standards to which we hold ourselves, to see them as autonomous, self-legislating creatures. Therefore, respect for a person is not only consistent with criticism of a person’s beliefs; respect for a person sometimes requires criticism of his or her beliefs. Sometimes in order to respect, we must disagree. Anything less is not respect, but indifference.  
    Absolutely. Although I would add that sometimes people do not disagree out of indifference, but also out of fear of the consequences. That is truly worrying. 
     
    The Center for Inquiry has also published a new report on this topic. 

  • What Makes Us Tick?

    Here’s a terrific talk at this year’s TED conference by Jonathan Haidt. He’s looking at what he sees as the five moral values that underpin how we look at the world and treat each other. Great talk.
     

  • No Winners Here

    So the outcome over the remarks by Michael Reiss, a clergyman and Director of Education at the Royal Society is that he is now the ex-Director.
     
    I’ve got mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, reading his original remarks, I find them somewhat ambiguous. Certainly, one reading of the text is that he was close to calling for a simplistic "teach the controversy" approach in science lessons. When the shit hit the fan, he issued a clarification which outlined the sensible approach, i.e. be prepared to respond to students’ questions. Nonetheless, the calls for his resignation have been strident, and give no quarter. As Richard Dawkins has written:
    To call for his resignation on those grounds, as several Nobel-prize-winning Fellows are now doing, comes a little too close to a witch-hunt for my squeamish taste. 
    I agree. Watching Dawkins’ recent series The Genius of Charles Darwin, I was struck by how Dawkins tried to engage those students who clearly believed their religion over the facts of evolution – the very approach being advocated by Michael Reiss. What I found truly worrying in the series was the reaction of the science teachers who refused to engage with the students on their misguided beliefs for fear of losing their jobs. That sort of reaction will only allow igorance to take root further. I see that Francis Sedgemore has picked up on the same points.
     
    The Royal Society has not come out of this affair with any credit. This is a self-inflicted wound that does not advance society’s understanding of science one iota.
     

  • Uncle Ken

    Phil Penfold writes the obituary of his uncle, Kenneth Young, in today’s Guardian. A touching tale of a life well lived, I think.

  • Bear-Baiting and Bedlam on TV

    Today’s Observer carries a powerful piece by Carole Cadwalladr, who looks at the stomach-turning phenomenon that is the Jeremy Kyle Show on TV. As a court judge said last year:
    ‘It seems to me that the purpose of this show is to effect a morbid and depressing display of dysfunctional people whose lives are in turmoil. It is for no more and no less than titillating members of the public who have nothing better to do with their mornings than sit and watch this show which is a human form of bear baiting which goes under the guise of entertainment.
    It is telling that the practice of letting the public visit the Bethlem Royal Hospital (Bedlam) was apparently ended in 1770 because it "tended to disturb the tranquillity of the patients" by "making sport and diversion of the miserable inhabitants". That practice seems to live on in TV shows today and I can’t feel that society has been enriched or educated as a result. 

  • Be Afraid…

    … be very afraid. This travesty is running for Vice-President of the US? Even though I’m an atheist, this is enough to make me pray fervently: God help us all.
     
    Addendum: PZ Myers points to the same video of Sarah Palin and makes the (to me) truly horrifying point that many Americans are likely to see nothing amiss. Given this, and the age and health of McCain, the odds maybe are not so far away from this woman being the US President in a few years. Stop the world, I want to get off.

  • The Delta Commission

    In 1953, severe storms in the North Sea led to widespread flooding in the west of the Netherlands. As a result, the Dutch government of the time set up a commission – the Delta Commission – to investigate and report on preventative measures that the country could take to prevent a repeat of the damage. Major civil engineering work resulted – the Delta Works.
     
    While the main work was completed in 1997, because of climate change and the rising sea level, up to 30% of the current dikes are considered still not to be high enough. Accordingly, a new Delta Commission was set up in 2007, and today they have presented their report to the Dutch Cabinet. The presentation, by the chairman, Professor dr. Cees Veerman, was televised, and I’ve just been watching it. The results are sobering: by 2050, the sea-level is expected to rise by 40 cm. By 2100, the rise is expected to be between 65 to 130 cm, and by 2200, a rise of between 2 to 4 metres is forecast. The risk of extensive flooding in the Netherlands, if nothing is done, is unacceptable. As Veerman said, the situation is not acute, but it is urgent. The commission has made a number of recommendations. We shall see whether they are carried out, but Prime Minister Balkende, in his response to the report, was very positive and I expect that the report recommendations will be implemented. The potential economic damage to the Netherlands if nothing is done would be disastrous.
     
     

  • The Pill-Popping Society

    Ben Goldacre has an excellent piece on his blog on how society is becoming medicalised. We are encouraged to reach for a pill at the earliest opportunity. Worth reading.

  • The Unblinking Eye

    I really enjoy Future Perfect – the blog of Jan Chipchase, a researcher at Nokia. He travels the world noticing, and photographing, examples of how cultures use technology, often in intriguing ways; or how norms in one society signal something very different in another. Do drop by, I don’t think you will be bored.

  • Long Term Backup

    Over at the Long Now Blog, Kevin Kelly writes on the challenges of preserving human knowledge over long periods of time – thousands of years. The Long Now Foundation has come up with one possible way of doing this, by micro-etching up to 350,000 pages of information onto a 3-inch nickel disc with an estimated lifespan of 2,000 -10,000 years. As a proof-of-concept experiment, they have created a disc that is a modern day equivalent of the Rosetta Stone – it contains the text of Genesis written in over 1,500 human languages.
     
    While part of me appreciates the fact of trying to preserve a record of these languages beyond the civilisations and societies that produced them, I can’t help but feel that there’s a missed opportunity in the choice of text. I’m not sure that I would use a creation myth dating from around 2,500 years ago – it’s likely to confuse future readers (human or otherwise), rather than illuminate. I can see them now (shades of Vroomfondel and Magikthise) voicing the thought: did they actually believe this rubbish? It reminds me of the short story in which alien explorers puzzle over what human society must have been like based on the sole surviving artifact that they have – a Walt Disney cartoon short. 
     
    Mind you, I’m not sure what I would substitute in place of Genesis. Perhaps I would not substitute, but supplement. I would have included the blueprints of the Large Hadron Collider on the disc.

  • When Alarm Bells Ring…

    There are certain phrases that start alarm bells ringing in my head. An excellent example is provided by the Pub Philosopher. S/he’s commented upon that nasty little phrase that starts with "Speaking as…" 

  • Antithetical Advert

    Over at Obscene Desserts, the Wife points out an example of an advert that is meant to convey feelings of security and safety, but ends up conveying the complete opposite to those of us brought up on Orwell. Spooky in the extreme.

  • Reverse-engineering Religion

    Over at a Blog From Hell, Norm Doering draws my attention to a talk given by Dan Dennett at the 2006 TED conference. It’s one that I don’t think I’ve seen before, although it deals with themes that he’s explored before in his work. It’s also an excellent critique of the false assertions contained in Rick Warren’s book: The Purpose-driven Life. Read Norm’s commentary, and then watch Dennett in action.

  • The PC Minefield

    In a globally-connected set of societies, then no matter what you do, someone is bound to take offense. Exhibit A: the rumpus over the Spanish Basketball team. I honestly believe that the team meant no harm, but the PC brigades are after their (and the reporter’s) blood. Sigh. As someone who used to be called, as a very young boy in primary school, the "China Doll", because of the shape of my eyes, all I can say to the massed PC brigades is: "get over it, you bunch of Marys".

  • Rage

    Over at the End of the Pier Show, Henry Gee muses on customer service. I know what he means, the sense that one is fighting marshmallow seems to pump up the rage factor with the greatest of ease.
     
    I think I’m currently embarking on one such pump at the moment. It involves a bank transfer of a not inconsiderable sum of my hard-earned money which disappeared into the ether of the international banking system almost a month ago without a trace. It’s early days yet, but the first skirmish involved a person at a financial institution trying to pass the buck on any responsibility whatsoever to investigate said disappearance. I batted that back to her, and we’ll see whether she follows it up, as she (reluctantly) said she would. Watch this space.

  • The Slippery Slope

    In an excellent article, Johann Hari points out the danger of choosing cowardice over questions. Worth reading. I honestly believe that all of us, believers and non-believers alike, will have grown up a little when the day comes that the equivalent of Monty Python’s Life of Brian can be made about Islam.

  • Trepanation

    Here’s a straightforward interview with Heather Perry, who voluntarily had a hole drilled in her head to improve her state of mind. It takes all sorts, I suppose. Sample:
    We went to see Bill’s doctor, who was a GP but he was into alternative kind of therapies. When he checked me over the following morning he said that we’d pierced the first meninges, but he didn’t seem overly concerned. He told me to eat Jello and drink plenty of water to stay hydrated. I had a cough, so I was a bit like a whale – every time I coughed, some fluid would come out of the hole in my head. He gave me some medicine for that and also prescribed me some kind of Chinese herbal remedy. I think maybe we did it in the wrong place because there is an artery there somewhere which is quite close to the surface, so in retrospect maybe we should have done it in a slightly different place. 
    Somehow, I don’t think I will be rushing to emulate her. As someone has already commented, I need a trepanation like I need a hole in the head…