Episode 28 - Altruism Without Faith: Can We? Should We? Part 2

May 10, 2010

Part two of a two-part lecture on bioethics by Brahm Segal, associate professor of medicine at the University of Buffalo Medical School and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. On November 21, 2008, Dr. Segal presented a lecture entitled “Altruism without Faith: Can We? Should We?” at the Center for Inquiry / Transnational in Amherst, New York.

Many consider altruism—doing good for others without reward—to be evidence that God has imparted to us a spirit of empathy that leads to kindness. If this is the case, is God the reason why we have both the means and the moral imperative to be altruistic? Dr. Segal explores the alternative explanation that Darwinian natural selection can account for our inclination to be altruistic.

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Episode 28 - Altruism Without Faith: Can We? Should We? Part 2

http://www.centerforinquiry.net/audio/centerstage/centerstage-0028.mp3

Comments from the CFI Forums

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Am I the only one who felt like this presenter was presenting outside of his discipline and was not really prepared intellectually or philosophically to deal with the Q&A that he precipitated? His Q&A was beginning to sound like the replies of a bad therapist “Hmmmm, well why don’t you tell me what YOOUUU think about that?”

Posted on May 14, 2010 at 5:08am by Bill Goodwin Comment #1