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I wish to follow my previous piece on epistemology with a related one.

There is probably nothing more central to the way we view reality than the role faith and reason play. One’s viewpoint and decision regarding this matter determines almost completely how they will decide the critical issues in their life, personally, socially and politically.

‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’

Consider that for moment. Evidence without evidence is essentially...

You can tell a good deal about a person by learning what they consider to be legitimate means of knowing anything.

If they indicate that anything other than observation and reason is a reliable means of knowing then you are dealing with a religious or mystical person.

Man's only means of knowing anything at all is through the use of his five senses to observe reality and then his faculty of reason to understand that which he has observed.

Almost all violence is committed by people who believe...

It was Frederick Hayek who first called my attention to the concept of 'Spontaneous Order'. He had concluded, and I believe his conclusion is irrefutable, that complex social systems such as language, money, rule of law, markets and boundaries come about spontaneously and without direction. There is no intent involved.

In other words no creator or any other central intentional figure is necessary for these complex systems to form and evolve. They come about as the result of the actions of many...

Frustration is that feeling we experience when our plans or goals are hindered, obstructed or derailed. It is not a pleasant feeling and is experienced differently by different people with different personalities. Some experience frustration as depression while others experience it as anger.

The key to avoiding frustration is to refuse to tie our happiness to outcomes per se, and instead focus on improving ourselves day by day.

Many people consider guilt and shame to be synonyms. That is not the case, This is just one more example of how our language has been corrupted.

Guilt is the fact that a person has done something wrong or committed a crime. It is a matter of fact.

Shame on the other hand is the feeling one experiences when they have done something they consider inappropriate.

People often mistakenly consider writers and authors as synonymous. They are not. They are closely related, and one might even suggest that the concept of writer is nested in the concept of author.

Many people are writers who are not authors while everyone who is an author is a writer.

A writer is anyone who engages in writing on a regular basis, either for their own personal enjoyment or as a profession. For example, a person who journals is a writer. So also is a newspaper or magazine...

People often deride competition while lauding cooperation. I consider this an error in judgment, and one with potentially serious consequences.

The reality is that competition and cooperation are the two sides of the same conceptual coin, and both are necessary to create and maintain the balance required for a healthy society and economy.

Competition is what accounts for the improvement of things as well as a reduction of the cost to produce and own them. Competition between rivals in any...

In order for a plant to take root, some reasonably fertile soil is required. Also, moisture and sunlight are needed. Something similar is the case in other areas of life. For example rebellions or uprisings of one sort or another are the result of pre-existing conditions which serve as a precursor to such events.

One such fertile soil which is a precursor of much human mischief and misery is boredom.

In a previous piece I discussed the topic of depression and why it is so prevalent in these...

I believe it was the late Andrew Breitbart who pointed out that politics is downstream from culture. I've always considered that an astute and important observation. It calls attention to the fact that politics doesn't create our culture but rather our culture forms the political landscape.

So that got me thinking about what was responsible for or upstream from our culture. It seems to me that the answer is morals. The moral values we hold determine the culture we consider acceptable and even...

One thing is certain for you and I; we are prone to error in our judgments and assessments of situations, events, and people. Since this is the case it is crucial that we have some mechanism available to correct these errors and get back on the right intellectual course.

All moving objects created by man have mechanisms for course correction. Radar and sonar are used for just such purposes as well as being useful for detecting and tracking other objects.

The mechanism for course or error...

There's hardly a hotter topic these days than that of AI or Artificial Intelligence. Everywhere a person turns they are confronted by advertisers and institutions touting there adoption and usage of AI. It almost seems as if only Neanderthals are reluctant to use AI for virtually everything.

I wanted to comment on the topic and thought I would approach it from a slightly different angle. That is, to speak about the value of human intelligence.

When I chose AI: Authentic Intelligence for my...

As I have pointed out on many occasions and in many places, people often use words which the seem to think they understand owing to the frequency with which they are used, when in fact they cannot articulates a coherent and accurate definition of the word.

The word 'Capitalism' is a perfect example. Neither the Socialists of the left nor the Conservatives of the right are able to offer an accurate definition of the words meaning and thus cannot effectively attack or defend the idea. You cannot...

In my book 'Are You Asking the Right Questions?' I explained that I thing the questions : 'What is the meaning of life?' and 'What is the purpose of life?] are meaningless.

It is my contention that life is itself void of all meaning and also has no purpose.

Life is a blank canvas which beckons us to provide a meaning of our own choosing and to select a purpose which we are willing and capable of pursuing.

Some apparently find this point of view unusual an perhaps even disturbing. I on the other...

I came across the term 'affective polarization' the other day. I think it sheds a good deal of light on the political situation of our time. Parties have always been polarized. Republican, Democrat, left and right, etc., but the type of polarization we are witnessing today has a more harmful if not sinister element to it.

It doesn't just involve differences of opinion on social and political issues, it becomes more of an attack on the very character of those with whom we disagree. Affective...

I must confess that the topic of morality is at the top of my list of interests along with the idea and art of asking questions. You may consider little if anything I have to say here even remotely controversial until we get to the chapter on the most rational and defensible foundation for morality. When I have shared my views on this topic with certain others in the past they haven’t known whether to consider me a heretic or a madman. Feel free to take your pick. LOL!

If asked to explain...

Perhaps the best way to begin to understand just exactly what Humanism is would be to simply refer to the most important Humanist document. That is the Humanist Manifesto III. I am quoting the document in its entirety because I think it is critical for an understanding of where Humanism is today. After the document I will add my comments on various components of the document and attempt to highlight their significance. I think it would be very difficult for any intelligent, reasonable and...

Trust is the glue that holds societies together. It is impossible to have any sort of functioning society without trust.

So, what exactly do we mean by trust?

Essentially it means that we can depend upon something or someone.

In the first case we trust that when we flip the switch, the lights will come on. When we open the tap, the water will flow. When we turn the key, our car will start, and so on.

In the second case we trust that a person will do as they say and fulfil any obligations...

Since the idea of justice is a rather complex one let’s begin by defining just what we have in mind when we use the term justice. As I have pointed out on numerous occasions, it is imperative to define our terms at the outset in order to avoid confusion and talking past one another in discussing or debating an issue.

The most basic dictionary definition of justice is the concept of fairness and moral rightness, in how people are treated, particularly by the law and in the application of...

It’s difficult if not impossible to conceive of any idea more central to the well-being of mankind than that of truth. As I have noted many times in the past, people often mistakenly assume that they understand what a term means simply because they have heard and used it so many times.

This is misleading and one of the reasons we often become muddled and confused in our thinking.

If you were asked to give the definition of truth, are you confident that you could offer up a satisfactory one?...

Anyone familiar with the work of Viktor Frankl will instantly realize that the title of this piece was inspired by his magnificent and important contribution to human psychology entitled ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’.

That book is the springboard I used to develop the ideas you will be encountering here. I hope to demonstrate that meaning and a sense of certainty are inextricably connected and that it is man’s search for some certainty in this life which defines to no small effect the meaning...