Dr Joanne LaFleur is Associate Professor in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Utah. Joanne has taken an interest in questions that lie at the intersection of science and morality. In this state of lockdown, there are surprisingly many things to see as science, public health, politics, economics, morality and philosophy generate many new questions for all of us. Whose lives are worth saving? How is life-saving to be done? Does this moment expose the flaws in our economic systems? Does Covid-19 bring us into conversation about alternative ways of understanding the structures we depend upon for human survival?
Not, all of these questions will be answered in this conversation, but I hope Joanne’s reflections on this moment as a scientist and as a regular person who is entering into the question with refreshing honesty and humility, will give us permission to wonder anew this thing we call life.
Science alone doesn’t provide meaning or direction in life. I never really understood what Atheism truly has to offer beyond eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. Purpose and hope is best derived from religion and spirituality. However, when falsehoods are introduced due to cultural dominant narratives that are illogically perpetuated… it is then that we become disenchanted with our faith and religious system; and we risk it all by possibly throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
It is an ugly realization to things might not get better, but better is only a matter of perspective and ultimately it is only different from what originally expected. In fact, if we consider humanity in historical terms it truly never has been better, speaking about humanity collectively and not individually.
I’ve never understood folks who think that atheism automatically lacks spirituality. Science, which tells us that everything is interconnected at an energetic level, drives my (a-theist) spiritual belief in connection as the truth most worth pursuing, and sets the ethics by which I live my life.