TED Talk: Paul Zak: Trust, morality -- and oxytocin

For the full experience, check out Humanistic Paganism.

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Today I'll talk about spending time in nature, and exploring the Five +1 (fives senses, plus one introspective sense).  Befitting the topic, there's extra sensory stimulation in this post: not only images but a video too (click play above).

Last night I drew an omen for today (see Day One ( Read more... )

Get the full experience at the web site: Humanistic Paganism

For some time now the subtitle for this livejournal has been "A personal journal of Humanistic Paganism and the human experience."  It's high time I explain what I mean.  What is Humanistic Paganism?


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This article reports claims that humans, with our propensity to help others that are genetically unrelated to us - which baffles traditional evolutionary theory, may have evolved due to a tendency to move between groups, which few or no other animal species share.

The question of why humans display altrusitic behavior toward non-kin is a hot topic ( Read more... )

This is something that I've been thinking about for some time.  It arises from the sense of heroism I get from Greek epic and tragedy, and synthesizes aspects of Greek and modern philosophy, especially Pyrrhonism, Stoicism, Romanticism, Humanism, and Brendan Myers' elaboration of heroic virtue.


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Marc Hauser, author of Moral Minds, may have fabricated control group data, pressured his students to draw conclusions they felt were wrong, and fallaciously interpreted videotapes he claims show monkeys recognizing themselves in a mirror.  The dean of Harvard is holding him responsible for eight counts of scientific misconduct, but stopped short ( Read more... )

On the first of December last year, I committed to one good deed each day, and recorded my efforts in a blog. Now, I have completed one full year of good deeds. That's it for the blog, although I'm going to continue with my daily deeds. My favorite deeds were serving food to the homeless at House of Charity, organizing the Genocide Prevention ( Read more... )

This article is interesting because it compares Epicurean ideas with modern psychological research on happiness.  Some precision is lost because Epicurus' idea of happiness is different from that of these studies, so to a certain extent it's comparing apples and oranges.  But overall the comparison is interesting.

"If a little is not enough for you ( Read more... )

From the Principia Cybernetica Project:

Happiness

Apparently this month has been declared a month for blogging about pagan values: June 2009 is International Pagan Values Blogging Month.  northwestpass and alfrecht , among others, have made contributions.

Almost everything I write in this journal seems to bear on the topic in some way or another.  Nevertheless, I wanted to pick out a list of highlights.

Essays
Ethical ( Read more... )