Life, Earth, and Politics: Ideas for the Next 400 Years

Science, not speculative philosophy, is the only guide, however imperfect, to the nature of existence. Science culture uses and supports science. The social brain experiences free will and needs religious faith. Empathy is a choice based on intuition. We need a better scientific understanding of dogma and chauvinism, and this book explores these issues. It also describes the Crisis of the Anthropocene, described in under a hundred pages, is a wakeup that needs to overcome ignorance and naïve optimism, and reach our deepest emotions. Topics include climate change, biodiversity, pollutants, population, and political causes behind the collapse. This book also presents data from Internationalcomparisons.org that demonstrates that the US is neither advanced nor a democracy and has failed to deal with guns, reproductive rights, taxation, social welfare, fiscal discipline, and other issues. Even with these already significant problems Americans must face, there is even more: Trumpism and Putinism are existential threats to American freedom and democracy. This book presents a framework for others to act in the time of these issues.