The Science of Compassion

It turns out that when I advocate that you cultivate an attitude of compassion in your daily life and with the real live people you encounter throughout your day, I’m not just making it up.  There is actual bona fide science behind it.

The New York Times published a review of some recent research and here is what they found.

• Feeling compassion for one person helps you feel compassion for all people. Compassion feeds on itself. The more you feel, the more you feel and the easier it gets.

• The way to feel compassion is to recognize what you have in common with other people.  Which means, the more human other people are to you, the more compassion you will feel for them.

 The conclusion of the article is that: “Simply learning to mentally re-categorize one another in terms of commonalities would generate greater empathy among all of us — and foster social harmony in a fairly effortless way.”

To read the entire article go here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/opinion/sunday/the-science-of-compassion.html?_r=2

Image Happy Teens" by Louisa Stokes: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Freedom of Belief has Consequences

Look – everyone has the right to believe whatever they want even if it is complete nonsense. We don’t, however, have a right to be shielded from the consequences of our beliefs. What we believe matters. If your beliefs are not reality based, you are going to have problems with reality.

I bring this up because there are a lot of people who, because of their religious beliefs, do not have a good relationship with reality. It is not surprising that these families try to insulate themselves from the real world and surround themselves only with other people who agree with them. This self-imposed insulation only makes matters worse because it re-enforces their rejection of reality.

If you want to teach your kids all sorts of misinformation about science such as evolution, go right ahead. But there are consequences to that decision. Mostly that unless they reject all the non-science you erroneously taught them your child will not be able to get a career in science if they continue to reject reality. It doesn’t matter how often you cry foul, the rules of science are not going to be rewritten to accommodate the reality challenged.

Use Common Sense

Humanist strive to live long and happy lives. In order to live long and happy lives, you must be healthy and.... alive. To that end, it is probably not a good idea to do stupid things while driving your car. Things like, oh, I don't know... folding your laundry. Surely you are not in that much of a rush that your laundry folding can't wait until you get home. I am not an expert, but it seems to me that folding laundry while driving is almost guaranteed to end your life sooner, rather then later. And that is not conductive to living a long and happy life. So please people, use some common sense. Don't fold your laundry while driving.