Why progress requires saying “No” to nature — Judging from the documentary “Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life,” Rand’s heart seems to have been in the right place when she first conceived of her philosophy of life, which she called “Objectivism.” Living in soviet Russia until she left for the United States when she was 21, Rand despised…

Contrasting internal and external perspectives to explain the objectivity of value judgments — Morality is old-fashioned. Morality seems like prudery, in that having scruples or being conscientious is comparable to having an uptight character. If we’re tempted to think that way, it’s because philosophy in general — like democracy — has been superseded by the ideologies of capitalism. The question of how we…

The many fallacies of the common consent argument — Peter Kreeft is a philosophy professor who converted to Catholicism when he was a college student, and who’s written over 80 books on Christian apologetics. The quality of his arguments can be gleaned from his report on what convinced him to convert to Catholicism. The “central and deciding” factor, he…

Objectification and the surpassing of animistic myths with Luciferian ones — Scientists are objective, we say. Indeed, science is the height of objectivity. But notice how that characterization already sets up nature as being in a passive role in relation to us, as being the object of our thought. That asymmetry doesn’t amount to a neutral stance of detachment. Indeed, an…

The telltale continuum between prehistoric pantheism and civilized monotheism — God is supposed to be a person who lives on an ethereal plane outside space and time. According to theistic religions, this person chose to create the whole universe and “he” did so to magnify his glory. God intervenes in nature when he chooses, leaving miracles in his wake. And…

Love as a vestige of animality, and intellectualism as a gateway to alienation — Perhaps nothing has more repulsed so-called spiritually enlightened individuals than our preoccupation with romantic love. According to the esoteric ideas that often captivate shamans, gurus, ascetics, saints, monks, philosophers, and reclusive artists, this kind of love is an understandable distraction, a hormonal pitfall, and a mental prison that prevents us…

Altruism, the egoism of robber barons, and the crudeness of Objectivism — In the afterword to her novel Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand says her philosophy, “in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.” Alan Greenspan…

Religions’ social utility, and where religions still go wrong — There was once a fad of discussing atheism, of all things, in public. Yes, even that academic abstraction, “atheism,” which was seldom heard of in movies, TV shows, or novels was once a heated topic of debate around water coolers in English-speaking parts of the world. What sparked the fad…

Liberalism, collectivism, and the dream of an existentially honourable society — The character of societies that are genuinely religious is familiar, from cults and zealous countercultures to theocracies and imperial cults of personality. But what are the options for atheistic society? Atheism itself is just a negation with respect to the narrow question of whether a supernatural deity exists. But how…