PE Forum Seminar on 7/10/20: Mark Smith on his new book manuscript

On 7/10/20 the UW Political Economy Forum had the pleasure to welcome Professor Mark Smith to our weekly seminar. We tried something new this time : we did things over Zoom and recorded our conversation, which is available to anybody who wants to listen.

Mark is Professor of Political Science at UW and the author of  Secular Faith: How Culture Has Trumped Religion in American Politics

He presented his new book: Right from Wrong:  Why Religion Fails and Reason Succeeds. Mark argues that religions are, contrary to popular belief, not coherent guides to morality.

Instead, the ground rules associated with science can do a better job. By informing inclusive deliberation, reason and evidence allow humans to incrementally make progress towards improved morality.

In that spirit, we had a great discussion. Please feel free to listen in.