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Welcome. Facts4U.com is a mirror site for Naturalism.Org, and it is intended as a resource for those interested in scientific naturalism and its personal and social implications. By understanding natural causality in the light of science, naturalism shows our full connection to the world and others, it leads to an ethics of compassion, and gives us control over our circumstances. It therefore supports progressive and effective policies in areas such as criminal and social justice, addiction and behavioral disorders, environmentalism, and science education and awareness. Although naturalism is rooted in a tough-minded commitment to evidence and critical thinking, it nevertheless supplies the basis for a satisfying approach to existential concerns. For background and FAQs on naturalism, please see A Guide to Naturalism, Tenets of Naturalism, Consequences of Naturalism, and the Resources page. Naturalism.Org welcomes your feedback and suggestions for additional links and resources, so please be in touch. Click here for an overview of contents, or see below for a chronological listing. Center for Naturalism. Naturalism.Org is also home for the non-profit Center for Naturalism, devoted to increasing public awareness of naturalism and its many implications for personal and social well-being. The CFN seeks to encourage the dissemination of a naturalistic world view as an alternative to theism, supernatural beliefs, new age philosophies, and other varieties of dualism. Through its educational activities and initiatives, the CFN promotes a positive, constructive naturalism, supports progressive social change, and in collaboration with other secular groups, helps to build a community of naturalists. Those wanting more information can contact the director (Tom Clark) at twc@naturalism.org, back up email: twclark@aol.com. See also the companion Applied Naturalism Group and CFN Fellowship Group. ~ Upcoming events: Paul Bloom speaks on "Bodies and Souls" on 2/28, other talks, philosophy cafes, causality club... ~ Hodgson's Black Box - tenuous, speculative science can't save libertarian free will. ~ Crime and causality: do killers deserve to die? - it's time to question the fundamental moral justification for capital punishment. 2005 January: Must Democrats get religion? - no, but they should form a coalition among naturalists and supernaturalists. Progressive implications of naturalism - challenging the myth of the self-made self is inherently progressive in its implications. 2004 December: Naturalists, Unite! (modestly, non-self-righteously) - a response to John Horgan; Liberals, evil, and free will - admitting that behavior has causes doesn't erase the distinction between right and wrong. November: Affirmative action and its discontents. October: Darrow and Determinism: Tamler Sommers on the myth of ultimate responsibility; Friends of Naturalism: those working to promote a naturalistic view of ourselves. September: Davies' Really Dangerous Idea: An analysis of astrophysicist Paul Davies’ worry about free will. August: Causality, Compassion, and Control: Ethical Implications of Naturalism - a presentation for the Ethical Society of Boston. Free Will in the News - Excerpts from news stories illustrate how beliefs in free will function as background assumptions in justifying attitudes and social policies. July: Deflecting reductionism, questioning faith - don't confuse misguided reductionists with friendly determinists; and must we live, even partially, by faith? June: Causality, Victimhood, and Empowerment: How to Hold Addicts Accountable - a naturalistic understanding of addiction gives us control and generates compassion. May: The Moral Levitation of David Brooks - must we float free of causality to count as moral agents? April: Reason Continues to Evolve - Julian Sanchez of Reason magazine gets naturalism just about right. March: Is There an Observing Self? - commentary on Baars et al.,“Brain, conscious experience, and the observing self.” February: Toward a Positive Naturalism - this challenges the secular humanist community to adopt a well-articulated, thorough-going naturalism, complete with its personal and social implications. 2003 December: Debunking Enlightenment - a review of John Horgan's Rational Mysticism; Radio naturalism -Dr. Les Garwood discusses determinism and its implications on Equal Time for Free Thought. October: Luck Swallows Everything: policy implications of discovering determinism, in Currents in Applied Naturalism. August: WBAI radio show on naturalism with Tom Clark. July: A question for Brights: How naturalistic are you?; and yet more free will in the news: Free will? Not really. May: Living Without Ultimate Responsibility - Tamler Sommers interviews Galen Strawson; Commentary on Crick and Koch's "A framework for consciousness" on the Consciousness page; Keeping the Streets Mean for Addicts, an editorial on the morality of harm reduction; Reason Evolves (the magazine) - by publishing an interview with Daniel Dennett on his new book. April: those wild and crazy libertarians, Round 3; Jim Farmelant reviews a classic by philosopher Kai Nielsen; an example of Free Will Panic in response to neuroscience; an update to Recent Writings on the Self and Free Will; and Absolution for Addicts: using the causal story behind addiction to combat stigma and discrimination. February: What Justifies Retribution, Precisely? - exchanges with a retributivist, on the Criminal Justice page. January: Losing Faith in Free Will - science writer John Horgan finds his faith in free will beset by neuroscience, and retreats to a freedom of the gaps. 2002: November: Boston Globe: Neuroscience enters the debate on free will and why "Accountability is still in play"; Free will in the news: neuroscience and freedom; causality and capital punishment. Encountering Naturalism: Common Errors and Exaggerations, on the Resources page - some things change under naturalism, some don't, so don't panic. August: Review of Owen Flanagan's The Problem of the Soul - highly recommended, this book is by far the most explicit and comprehensive look at the implications of naturalism for our self-concept, morality, and meaning yet published. A must read! July: Is Free Will a Necessary Fiction? Some suppose that belief in free will is necessary to underpin morality, meaning, and human worth. But must we remain deceived about our true nature to be good, to find meaning in life, and to value each other? Also, Recent Writings on the Self and Free Will on the Resources page. These writings by mainstream authors show that Naturalism.Org is neither unique nor crazy in suggesting that 1) we don’t have free will and 2) we’d be better off if we made our peace with this fact and adjusted our beliefs and social practices accordingly. June: Review of Daniel Wegner's book, The Illusion of Conscious Will. May: Science and Freedom - Although science may undermine traditional conceptions of freedom and responsibility, there are nevertheless grounds for moral responsibility compatible with science that have significant implications for social policy. March: Why Intelligent Design Isn't Science - Intelligent design fails as science not because science a priori rules out the supernatural (it doesn't), but because the intelligent design hypothesis has no merit as a scientific explanation. Why Science Can't Get Us to God - Trying to use science to support the hypothesis of intelligent design or the existence of the supernatural is like trying to draw a round square. 2001: Against Retribution - on Michael Moore's book Placing Blame. By showing the causal story behind human behavior, naturalism helps undercut retributive attitudes and justifications for punishment which Moore claims are central to criminal justice. Charlottesville Study Group on Naturalistic Spirituality and Enlightenment; Spirituality Without Faith - how naturalism can inspire a non-dualistic spirituality; NIDA and Naturalism - the seeds of a new view of ourselves are being sown in the scientific study of addiction. Three Strikes Against Fatalism - two short essays, one by Bob Miller, join a third in denying that determinism disempowers us. Exchanges on free will, Legislating Naturalism in Currents; Addiction: Choices and Cravings on the Addictions page. 2000: Does neuroscience threaten freedom and dignity? - Comment on Neuroscience and the Human Spirit, a conference hosted by the Ethics and Public Policy Center; Addiction and Responsibility: review of Addiction is a Choice, by Jeffrey A. Schaler; Ecstasy and the mind-body problem; Currents in Applied Naturalism: Who Wrote the Book of Life?, Seeing Drug Use as a Choice or as a Brain Anomaly; Review by Jim Farmelant of B.F. Skinner, A Reappraisal, by Marc Richelle; Currents: Playing God, Carefully. 1999: Fear of Mechanism: A Compatibilist Critique of "The Volitional Brain", How to Cope with Creeping Mechanism; Review: The Natural Selection of Autonomy by Bruce Waller. Comment on "Death, Nothingness, and Subjectivity". 1998: Materialism and Morality: The Problem with Pinker (free will); Libertarianism and the Myth of Personal Autonomy (those crazy libertarians!); Readings in antifoundationalism: the Wilson Quarterly debate between E.O. Wilson and Richard Rorty; a Naturalistic Lexicon of Responsibility.
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