Reading Time: 3 minutes We all do it, at least most of us do. And yet we all pretend we don’t. Who me? Why I never… Why the denial? Why is this very natural, human, and healthy activity such a source of embarrassment? Assuming you’re keeping it strictly to yourself, it doesn’t affect anyone except the person doing it. […]
Culture
The everyday human stories that matter to you, told from a secular perspective at OnlySky, a secular community for nonreligious Americans.
Posted inParenting & Family
One-and-a-half cheers for depopulation
Reading Time: 4 minutes Although we can’t predict the future in detail, there are large-scale trends that make me hopeful. The blossoming of renewable energy is one of these. Let’s discuss another. Overpopulation is a common fear among those who predict catastrophe. They point to the exponential growth of humanity in the 20th century, from 1.6 billion people to […]
Posted inCulture
7 things Ira Glass learned, but I only needed to learn 5
Reading Time: 3 minutes Last week I saw a live performance by Ira Glass. If you have not seen his stage show “7 Things I’ve Learned” and intend to, consider this a spoiler alert. Everyone probably knows Ira Glass from his immensely popular public radio program “This American Life,” which he has hosted and produced since the mid-1990s. How many […]
Posted inLaw
WV school district finally settles case involving Bible indoctrination classes
Reading Time: 5 minutes A West Virginia school district has finally paid up for decades of Christian indoctrination, putting an end to a five-year legal battle waged by a courageous student who faced considerable harassment over her “Bible in the Schools” class. All of this occurred in the Mercer County Schools, which offered “elective” Bible courses at the elementary […]
Posted inCulture
Are we talking about the same America?
Reading Time: 4 minutes When I hear, “Donald Trump doesn’t represent the America I know,” it makes me wonder what America they’re speaking of.
Posted inBiology
Uterus 101: On menstruation, miscarriage, and mifepristone
Reading Time: 10 minutes When my Grade 5 class went through Ontario’s reproductive health curriculum in the mid-1990s, the boys and girls were separated, and received remarkably different lessons. Along with the basics of our changing bodies, I and the girls were shown how to use condoms through a banana demonstration, and told how important protection would be when […]
Posted inHistory
E Pluribus Unum: It’s time to bring back our motto
Reading Time: 5 minutes Our national motto is “In God We Trust.” Not only does it disenfranchise non-Christians, it steps on the Constitution. When pressed, Christian supporters admit the problem. We must return to E Pluribus Unum.
Posted inParenting & Family
How do we explain gun violence to our kids?
Reading Time: 3 minutes How do we strike a balance between honesty and shielding when we discuss Sunday’s mass shooting in Buffalo?
Posted inHealth
Naomi Judd, guns, and suicide: Public health and the 2nd Amendment
Reading Time: 3 minutes America loves its guns, even though that love affair is killing us. If you own a gun, don’t worry. I’m not coming after them. I know of many non-religious folks, like Seth Andrews, the popular Thinking Atheist podcaster, who own firearms. But as a secular humanist, don’t you want to live a life guided by […]
Posted inEducation
A school board member justified bigotry with Jesus. This mom wasn’t having it.
Reading Time: 5 minutes You have to hear the speech that a parent delivered at a recent school board meeting in response to one board member’s religious tirade against her daughter. To make sense of it, you have to understand that Colorado Springs has long been a hotbed for white evangelical Christianity. That brand of bigotry has now crept […]