Walking Backwards Into the Future: September 2015

Thursday, September 24, 2015

State of the Syrian Civil War (Current Events 2)

Have did the civil war in Syria start? Well, I'll tell you. This will be a quick summary of a loooong article on Vox.com. The conflict has its origins in French colonialism. The French gained control of what is now Syria and Lebanon in 1920. When they left in 1963, the Alawite Shia Muslims whom they had placed in power stayed in power. In 1976, many Syrian Sunni Muslims started a civil war. Concerned about maintaining his power, the Alawite leader Hafez al-Assad resorted to brutally massacring thousands of people in the city of Hama. But this did not solve any of the problems that had caused this civil war, and the tensions caused by authoritarian minority rule and threats between demographic groups continued to foment a rebellion.

In March of 2011, non-violent protests began in the city of Deraa, and police responded by firing on the protestors. This triggered a wave of protests throughout the country and led to the foundation of the Free Syrian Army, mainly composed of defectors from Bashar's army. They seized control of military bases and began to engage in conventional warfare against the state.

But support for different rebel groups from the Arab league led to conflict among the rebels. Al-Qaeda was involved, but their group fractured and formed ISIS (the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria). Iran, Bashar's ally, also entered the fight. The fact that many rebel groups were extremists deterred other international interference for a while, which was what Bashar wanted.

In 2014, President Obama began a largely unsuccessful effort to help more moderate rebels. Meanwhile, Kurdish fighters were having success in taking away territory from both Assad and ISIS. But all the fighting has been hellish for Syrians - a quarter million have been killed, four million are refugees, and about half the Syrian population has been displaced from their homes.

The political situation in Syria is very complicated, but refugees fleeing the country need asylum and aid. The US response has been poor; only 1500 Syrians have been allowed to come here. We ought to be doing more to help them. Check out this petition to resettle more Syrian refugees in America and this watchdog list of charities.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Study Journal Notes 1

(For my ethics class)

Sep. 8th

Western concepts of ethics have much of their roots in Aristotle's ideas about moral excellence
Ethics and morals are processes of systematizing what is right and what is wrong
In modern philosophy, often ethics are seen as secular while morals are seen as religious in origin

Sep. 10th

Churchy people tend to get worried about trends of moral relativism that they see in society
Situational ethics is based on the idea that love should be at the core of our morals, but its founder may not have defined what is love (baby don't hurt me) explicitly enough
The four main tenets of situational ethics are pragmatism, relativism, positivism, and personalism

Sep. 15th

Taking a long time to observe a subject will help you find details that it would be easy to skim over
Ethics are difficult enough to define that it takes a lot of observation and thought to come to reasonable conclusions about what is ethical
We may not have knowledge about what kind of stuff we don't know, so we need to be careful not to think we know everything

Sep. 17th

Just because a law is on the books doesn't mean that it's ethical
Some people's moral ideas are founded on the idea of a devil and a God who will help you overcome that devil's temptations and other difficulties
David Bednar has gotten the impression that people mainly leave the LDS church because they have been offended by someone.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Atheism, Moral Standards, and Adultery Amid China's Sexual Revolution (Current Events Post 1)

A recent article published at wantchinatimes.com discusses the recent Ashley Madison website hacking and the social mores associated with sexual behavior in China. The Ashley Madison website advertises itself as a way to secretly arrange extramarital affairs, and the recent hack revealed tens of thousands of Chinese users.

But there are other indicators that show that Chinese people are breaking established social mores about sex. Ninety-five percent of corruption probes into public officials showed that they had affairs. The WeChat app, used for hookups, is more popular than Ashley Madison in China. The rate of affairs for men and women in China are higher than the average for other countries.

There are social mores against adultery, pornography, and frequenting sex workers in China, as there are in the United States. But the fact that these mores exist in China shows that people can and do create ethical standards for their society without a belief in God, since the majority of Chinese are atheists.

The conservative sexual mores in China are similar to those of conservative Christians in America, in spite of how Christianity is not the predominant religion in China. Some problems with the customs of both of those groups is an unwillingness to discuss sexuality openly and a pressure to have children. But hopefully the sexual revolution in China will lead to more healthy and beneficial customs without the loss of mores regarding marital fidelity. More openness in talking about sexuality and relationships can help those who chose to marry to have happier marriages and be less likely resort to cheating for sexual satisfaction. Lower stigmas against divorce will allow couples whose relationships are not working out to separate without feeling like they've failed.

In the discussions in my ethics class, several people have claimed that God is the source of morality, and without God there cannot be moral rules. But the situation in China challenges those assertions, because the Chinese people do have cultural and ethical standards that people are expected to live by. Standards for good human conduct can exist without a belief in a higher power.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Web comics and an Introduction

I'm starting this blog for my ethics in computer science class at BYU, but I plan to use it for other things, too. Eventually I want to start writing about important events in my life. But in the meantime, check out this list of my favorite web comics!