A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death - John Dewey
A group of us had a debate about capital punishment. I am against it. Not because I believe the worst of humankind should be spared the indignity of state execution, but for our own dignity. We, the judge, jury, and excutioner. We are the ones who need to preserve our own nobility by not killing people...is it ever possible for capital punishment to be seen as anything loftier than state sanctioned revenge? I think not. When we were growing up, most of our parents told us not to hit back. Turn the other cheek - Nkem Ifejika, http://us.oneworld.net/
Vaccines have saved the lives of millions worldwide, yet still, in 2009, in low-income countries, two out of five deaths in children under five were due to pneumonia or diarrhoea.
The UK Royal Society of Arts' new mission seeks to combine "thought leadership, social engagement and innovative forms of collaboration". In short, the RSA is now calling for nothing less than a "21st century enlightenment".
...there appear to be nine common diet and lifestyle habits among centenarians.
There are many stages of human development: from archaic to magic to mythic to rational to pluralistic to integral and higher.
Or, according to Spiral Dynamics: from beige to purple, to red, to blue, to orange, to green, to yellow, to turquoise.
Where are we collectively now?
...asks Time magazine, if synthetic organisms have arrived? It seems that it will soon be possible to mix and match genomes to generate organisms that can perform all sorts of molecular functiions, including - possibly - curing diseases.