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My (Somewhat) Revised Approach to Religion

August 26, 2024

ignorance, knowledge, philosophy, society

Just to make this immediately clear: I am an atheist. I have revised nothing in terms of what I think regarding the existence of a supreme being. And because I consider the current evidence overwhelmingly against the existence of such a being, I do not accept theists’ rational explanations behind it, either. However, I have lately revised my approach to religion in terms of theists’ irrational acceptance.

Much more importantly, in my somewhat revised approach to religion I now place significant weight on such acceptance being a conscious choice.

I will explain all this in more detail in this post – I believe there is merit in establishing such contact lines for the benefit of society – but here’s the general gist: I don’t believe in a supreme being, and – with existing evidence – there’s nothing anyone can do to convince me. More still, if they believe from a rational perspective (“God made humans because how else, intelligent design, blah blah”), I’m entirely unimpressed.

However, if they say “I fully understand science is on the right track, a God doesn’t make sense, but I choose to believe anyway”, then they at least have my sympathy (even empathy, in this flawed life), and we can communicate.

revised approach to religion. image of an unimpressed cat — “There’s only one God, me…”

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Pornography or Erotica? On Art’s Function, Purpose, and Essence

March 18, 2024

Criticism, Philosophy, Society

art, criticism, experience, experiencing, love, philosophy, sexuality, society

The topic might sound unusual and, ironically enough, this too is part of the theme. Namely, we should be able to explore a topic as ubiquitous as human sexuality. The differentiation between pornography and erotica (erotic art, that is) is problematic. United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart notoriously said he couldn’t define it but he knew it when he saw it.

That isn’t good enough.

I want to define it and I want to understand it. I’ve had some discussions on the topic with my friend Igor, and I decided to take my side of the emails we exchanged, edit it for length and focus, and turn it into a post.

But here’s an important caveat: My main interest isn’t in defining pornography (or erotica). Rather, I want to create a more general theoretical framework that talks about the differences between art’s function, purpose, and essence. So while there will be a fairly in-depth discussion on pornography, erotica, and their differences, my ultimate focus will divert to art in general.

pornography vs erotica. Image of young woman — Erotica doesn’t even need to display nudity to be erotic. Though, funnily enough, even nudity *itself* can be a matter of definition (i.e. historical/cultural contexts). Is the woman of the photo nude (a little? a lot?) or not? Ask a twenty-year old secular, liberal person in present-day Helsinki and a Victorian prude like Christina Rossetti, and you’ll get very different answers!

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Ethics or Morality: A Crucial Difference

October 2, 2023

Philosophy, Society

knowledge, philosophy, society

Let’s get this out of the way: There is no “god-given” definition of either ethics or morality (there’s a meta- element of irony here, as you can hopefully perceive). Most people might even use them interchangeably to refer to the same thing. However, there is a crucial difference between the two.

In most definitions, morality refers to a person’s moral convictions, what they consider right or wrong. Ethics, on the other hand, usually refers to systems of convictions; agreed convictions, in a way. For example, we might refer to “journalistic ethics”, that is, a commonly agreed set of practices and behavior that journalists should adhere to.

The proverbial plot thickens – there are never simple answers – because one’s personal convictions, their morality, is always a result of external factors; our environment, our culture, our upbringing. Perhaps some would like to suggest that our DNA pushes us in certain directions, but that, too, would be a result of external factors: We might be born good/evil (a huge oversimplification), but the externality remains, as our DNA is a result of our ancestors.

Ultimately, the debate “ethics or morality” is important – after all, that’s the whole point of this post, right? – because it refers to another crucial difference that, although contained in the one between personal/collective convictions, is easier to miss.

That difference is between knowledge and behavior.

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