Our Golden Rule
The “Golden Rule” is a collection of moral aphorisms from religion and philosophy used to promote consideration of other people. In a world desperately in need of more empathy, reciprocity, and altruistic behavior, what place should the Golden Rule have in our lives? Hugh Taft-Morales explores various versions, their effectiveness as guides to behavior, and […]
Youth Perspective on the Climate Movement
Sophia Kianni is an 18-year-old climate and environmental activist. Her passion for environmental advocacy began after she witnessed the devastating effect pollution was having on her parents’ home country, Iran. She is a national strategist for Fridays for Future and a national partnerships coordinator for This is Zero Hour. She has also joined Extinction Rebellion […]
The Meaning of Membership
Ethical Leader Hugh Taft-Morales discusses the meaning of membership and how Ethical Culture works to build relationships. This meeting of the Baltimore Ethical Society was held online via Zoom on April 26, 2020. Bio: Hugh Taft-Morales joined the Baltimore Ethical Society as its Ethical Leader in 2010, the same year he was certified by the […]
Tell Me What I Need to Know
Ethical Leader Amanda Poppei of the Washington Ethical Society (WES) discusses the meaning of leadership broadly, in the current difficult situation caused by the pandemic, and then more specifically, as it relates to WES. This previously recorded platform address from WES was included as part of the BES meeting held online via Zoom on April […]
IRL: Finding Realness, Meaning, and Belonging in Our Digital Lives
The BES online platform for March 29, 2020 featured the following platform address presented by Chris Stedman to the Ethical Society of St. Louis on February 23, 2020. What does it mean to be “real” in the digital age? As more people leave the institutions that once helped many of us find meaning and belonging—opting […]
What is Humanism?
Ethical Leader Hugh Taft-Morales discusses what it means to be Humanist. Can Ethical Culture be considered to be both religious and secular? This meeting of the Baltimore Ethical Society was held online via Zoom for the first time on March 22, 2020 due to COVID-19. Bio: Hugh Taft-Morales joined the Baltimore Ethical Society as its […]
STEM Stories That Few Cover
Frank McCoy, Editor, Writer, Web Producer Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) knowledge and skills are vital to the success of today’s students. McCoy — being one of the few journalists with experience in mainstream business publications writing about STEM issues — recently has written, edited, and produced hundreds of articles on minority leaders with […]
For Country, Sans God: Humanism and Religious Hegemony in the Military
Ryan M. Jean, Captain, U.S. Army Reserve May 20, 2012 Pro Deo et Patria [for God and Country]? Since the earliest days of the republic, the Constitution’s First Amendment has furnished a source of endless debate regarding religious intermingling in government affairs. Nowhere does this result in a sharper point of contention than in the […]
Anniversary Banquet
The Baltimore Ethical Society celebrated its 60th Anniversary with a banquet on Saturday, April 21, 2012. Four speakers addressed the society that evening. The speeches of three are offered here as a podcast. First, Michael Franch, past Leader of the Baltimore Ethical Society and current associate minister at First Unitarian Church of Baltimore. Second, Dale […]
Pythagoras and Dark Energy
During the 6th to 4th centuries B.C., the Pythagoreans were a small secretive cult of ascetics who step-by-step discovered abstract mathematics. Their central metaphysical doctrine was that our natural surroundings are an incarnation of the logical arrangement of what they called “number.” This curiosity reached across the centuries to ignite the thinking of Copernicus, Kepler, […]
