Reading Time: 9 minutes “Can we actually win a war of ideas with people? Judging from my email, we can. I’m constantly getting email from people who have lost their faith and were, in effect, argued out of it. And the straw that broke the camel’s back was either one of our books, or some other process of reasoning.” […]
Critical thinking
Understanding critical thinking—what it is, why it’s important—from a secular point of view.
Posted inReproductive rights
How to discuss the overturning of Roe v. Wade with our kids
Reading Time: 4 minutes We’ve heard about the SCOTUS decision. Changes to abortion laws are coming. Now it’s time to discuss it with our kids. Here’s how.
Posted inCritical thinking
Scooby-Doo, where are you? Our kids need you more than ever
Reading Time: 3 minutes As a child of the late 80s and early 90s, Saturday morning was a sacred time. Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, and Scooby-Doo dominated my morning. I filled my mind with useless jokes and colorful fun as Captain Crunch destroyed the roof of my mouth. My father called it the “boob tube,” and was utterly […]
Posted inDeep Dive
Why we need to decolonize our thinking on archaeology
Reading Time: 13 minutes In a world of significant scientific illiteracy, it’s easy to point fingers at “the other side”. Religious extremists, and the politicians who leverage them for power, are a serious problem. But what habits have we formed, and what narrative structures exist in our media, that only make things worse? Today I interrogate my own weaknesses, […]
Posted inCritical thinking
What we learned when Fox News viewers were paid to watch CNN
Reading Time: 5 minutes Fox News isn’t just a news network or part of a larger media and entertainment umbrella. It is a lifestyle, a political worldview, a cult. This bubble or better, cage, is where Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity are the sect leaders, manipulating and cajoling, provoking and controlling. And like with any cult, breaking out is […]
Posted inCulture
Learning to love our messy activism: A podcast on quinoa
Reading Time: 4 minutes There’s the world we want to live in, and there’s the world we have. In many conversations here on OnlySky, I’ve noticed that one of the biggest mental blocks in activist discourse is our frustration that people won’t think or do differently right now. Why should we cater to their ignorance, or their obstinacy? There’s […]
Posted inCritical thinking
Discipling: Yes yes, but what does it look like?
Reading Time: 6 minutes A recent Lifeway survey reveals that many evangelical leaders don’t know what discipling actually looks like in practice, much less how to disciple. Here, we have another active case of yes yes, but what does it look like? And I am here for it because it reveals so much of what’s wrong with Christianity as a whole.
Posted inHealthcare
Alternative medicine in the dressing room: Does self-employment drive some to quackery?
Reading Time: 3 minutes As the daughter of a self-made businessman and a full-time musician, I felt almost destined to be self-employed. Although when I was writing an elementary school “What do you want to be when you grow up” essay assignment, I didn’t write about wanting to be a stripper. I’m pretty sure it was more along the […]
Posted inScience
Can we make science journalism better for everyday readers?
Reading Time: 8 minutes Every person with an active interest in the natural world has their personal bugbear when it comes to the way journalists write about science. Maybe it’s neuroscience. Maybe it’s a common engineering problem. For me, it’s evolution. I cannot stand the way that most mainstream media reports on evolution for the everyday reader. And since […]
Posted inEnvironment
What degrowth is, and why it matters
Reading Time: 11 minutes In Livermore, California, there is a light bulb that never goes out. It was installed in 1901 in a fire station that didn’t realize for many decades what a wonder it had on its hands. The bulb was made by the Shelby Electric Company, with a patented-coil carbon filament eight times thicker than the tungsten […]