Social and ethical issues
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George Monbiot on the food crisis, the environment and meat eating. Michael Pollan tries to reconcile personal virtue and social change. How to invest in renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure, and rebuild the American manufacturing base while we’re at it. Dreaming of an eco-apocalypse? A review of a book about looking for sustainable seafood. A collection Read more
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Maybe instead of debating how far to extend our “nuclear umbrella” we should be re-thinking the morality of nuclear retaliation itself. Is it ok to threaten our enemies (real or potential) with mass, indiscriminate slaughter? Read more
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Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society has an appreciatvie post on Benedict’s public statements about our treatment of animals. E.J. Dionne on the Pope’s discomforting words for the Right and the Left. Read more
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Reason‘s Ron Bailey has an interesting article about the moral implications of scientifically “uplifting” animals – i.e. making them more intelligent – through genetic manipulation: Some technoprogressive thinkers such as editor-in-chief of Betterhumans.com George Dvorsky argue that we have a moral obligation to uplift other species to sapiency. “It would be negligent of us to Read more
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You may not have noticed that the ELCA has released a draft of a new social statement on sexuality, which you can read here. The Journal of Lutheran Ethics has several responses here. After a period of comment and feedback, the social statement will be taken up for official endorsement at the 2009 churchwide assembly. Read more
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I just finished reading James Alison’s Undergoing God, and the more I read of him the more I like him and think he’s onto something important. Alison, to recap, is a student of anthropologist/literary theorist Rene Girard, who has proposed a rather daring new interpretation of Jesus’ death on the cross. For Girard human selves Read more
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Calvin College philosopher Matt Halteman, whose work I’ve blogged about before, popped into comments to this post to alert us to a terrific booklet he wrote for the Humane Society’s program on animals and religion. Thanks, Matt! Read more
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The Christian Century reviews three books on just war theory and pacifism. All three agree that even if we accept just war theory, there’s a need for positive practices to nurture peace. Read more
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I’d be surprised if I haven’t already linked to this at some point. Read more
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Over the weekend I started reading John Gray’s Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals. Gray, a British political philosopher, has gone from being a free-market Thatcherite to a critic of global capitalism to a proponent of James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis. If there is a connecting thread here it’s Gray’s resolute opposition to utopianism Read more
A Thinking Reed 