EthicalStL.org

This talk presents a psychological perspective on evil. This perspective emphasizes the underlying cognitive and emotional mechanisms that allow humans to be cruel to one another. This understanding can be applied to comprehending extraordinary acts of evil, such as recently occurred in Paris, but it also applies to under-standing the garden-variety cruelties that people commit everyday against one another. Also described are various personality traits, e.g., narcissism, psychopathy, borderline - that illustrate one or more of the mechanisms that contribute to human cruelty. At the individual level, evil is overcome through the development of compassion and empathy.

Dr. Larsen holds the Stuckenberg Professorship in Human Values and Moral Development in the Department of Psychology at Washington University, a position endowed by a St. Louis businessman –William R. Stuckenberg - who was a friend of the Ethical Society and a man keenly interested in morality and human values. Dr. Larsen's research interests range from the positive side of human nature, e.g., happiness, resilience, and well-being, to the darker aspects of our humanity, for example, prejudice, jealousy, and depression. He has published over 100 scientific papers and four books, and is currently working on a book on ethical issues for scientists.

As we explored in a previous platform on the on the existential lifestance, Ethical Humanism does not posit a given meaning or purpose to human life. So are our lives meaningless? It's up to each of us to answer that question, and, if we want a sense of meaningfulness in our lives, to find or create it. How do we go about this vital project?

Modern science has produced profound and accelerating changes in the way we live over the last two centuries. Most of those changes have been for the better: for example, life expectancy has increased dramatically and worldwide hunger has likewise decreased. Yet we live in a time of widespread disbelief in, and attacks on, science. These attacks come both from the right of the political spectrum (e.g., climate change denial) and from the left (e.g. refusal of vaccinations). I explore some of the science under assault, and the motivations and methods of the deniers.



[Correction, by Claude: After the platform, I discovered to my embarrassment that I erred in describing how an ordinary greenhouse works. After letting sunlight in, the glass in a greenhouse eeps the heat from getting out mainly by preventing hot air from escaping. For more efficient greenhouses, special coated glass can also be used to prevent infrared waves from escaping, but this is a minor improvement --- keeping the hot air in is the main mechanism. My description of the greenhouse effect for the Earth as a whole was correct, though. Since gravity keeps our atmosphere from escaping, rising hot air has no effect in cooling the planet as a whole --- it just cools one place at the expense of heating somewhere else. The only way the Earth can cool is by emitting infrared waves into space, and that is where CO2 comes in, by reflecting those waves back down to the surface. Sorry for my mistake. Darn, science is hard!]

People spend years searching for their life's "purpose", but what does it mean to find your purpose in life? Does our life have a purpose from the moment we're born, is it something we discover, or is there no purpose to life at all? James Croft will explore this question and help you find your "Raison d'Etre."

Yes, it's the annual pledge campaign, and I feel truly grateful for another opportunity to talk about how we can all support the flourishing of Ethical Humanism for the next 50 years and beyond. Come hear about our successes of the past year and our plans for the future.

The racial unrest in Ferguson has been fueled by a more than 115 year-old phenomenon. Since the early 1900s, African Americans in St. Louis have been legally restricted, confined or relocated into areas where they were not always welcomed. Due to "white flight," limited vision and few resources to start businesses in their own communities, blacks have been trapped in pockets of poverty throughout the region. This poverty-especially generational poverty-is the root cause that fuels crime, illegal drug activity, family dysfunction, chronic illnesses and hopelessness in many low-income St. Louis neighborhoods. In this discussion, Sylvester Brown, Jr., director of the Sweet Potato Project will detail a plan where everyone and anyone can help build vibrant and economically vibrant African American communities in the St. Louis region.

Sylvester Brown, Jr. is an award-winning journalist, former publisher of Take Five Magazine and former metro columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He has worked as a researcher, consultant, and contributor with numerous authors including Tavis Smiley, Dr. Cornel West, Tom Burrell, and Chef Jeff Henderson. In 2012, Sylvester partnered with the North Area Community Development Corporation to create the Sweet Potato Project. The mission of the Sweet Potato Project is to restore economic activity in North St. Louis by creating alternative and progressive ways of producing and distributing locally grown products and to teach young men and women sustainable business and entrepreneurial skills that can change their lives.

Let's start the new year with a community resolution to live our ethical values. This talk will explore how we can resist becoming ethical by-standers, and respond actively rather than accepting passively what goes on around us.

What does it mean to come out? In this talk James Croft will tell the story of his own coming out as a gay man, recount the struggles of 10 years in the closet, and encourage us to think about the closets we're stuck in and how we might honestly explore our own identities to find self-love and acceptance.

Both today's gift-lists and the visions of futurists tend to fix on technological marvels, which can sometimes distract us from the ethical questions of how "progress" can or should be measured, and shared. As we enter the major gift-giving season, a time that at its best is meant to highlight the values of thoughtfulness and generosity, we will explore the broader question, What would actually make our lives and others' lives better? We'll also see a concrete example of a shared better future with an update, including pictures, from our international ethical action project: the support of female scholarship students at the pioneering Ugandan Humanist Schools.

Last year Leader Kate Lovelady explored the ethical lessons we can draw from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. This year Leader-in-Training James Croft will perform selected sections from the story, a chilling tale of ghosts and greed, and a heartwarming lesson on gratitude and generosity.