Vinay Kumaran

What I believe: I believe our planet has the resources for us to live comfortably and sustainably if we control our population and share our resources. I believe we should try and provide everyone with the basic necessities of life. These include shelter, food, clothing, healthcare and education. I believe morality and ethics vary from society to society but there are some basic foundations which should be common to all. These can be arrived at by the use of the 'Categorical Imperative'. As Kant said: "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law." In other words, when considering a course of actions think about what would happen if everyone were to follow the same course. I believe both Capitalism and Communism have failed. Capitalism concentrates wealth into the hands of a few and leaves many in poverty and suffering with no means of emerging from their circumstances. Communism failed because it ...

Where do morals and ethics come from and is there a difference between them? If you ask a religious person they will say that morals come from religious books and represent a kind of code of conduct handed to us by God. They use the Bible or the Quran or the Upanishads or the Torah or whatever their religion prescribes as their moral compass. Whatever is written in the Holy Book is God's message to humans and should be followed without question as a matter of faith. This can be corrupted and has often been used to justify Crusades or Jihad. Killing someone who belonged to a different faith became 'moral'. Religious people are deeply distrustful of atheists. They think that since we do not accept the 'word of God' as given in the 'Holy Book', we must be immoral people. They seem to think that without religion (fear of God) there is nothing to prevent humans from killing, raping, stealing and the various other crimes that their 'Holy Book' proscri...