Reading Time: 13 minutes Humanists know that there is so much to do in our hurting world. It’s frustrating when a given cultural moment nevertheless compels us to dwell on toxic religious turf instead. Every time we do? We’re not working together to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Not grappling with rising environmental and war refugeeism, and reshaping […]
Ethics
Posted inBooks
Adam the Ape: A thought-provoking middle-grade book for science-loving readers
Reading Time: 2 minutes Humans have been paired with chimps in movies, television, and books as far back as I can remember. I’d assume that’s mostly due to the similarities we share with these great apes—how we can see ourselves in them and undeniably realize our link to them, despite also being indoctrinated elsewhere into the idea that humans […]
Posted inAnalysis
Of God and guns
Reading Time: 4 minutes In the wake of yet another and another and another mass shooting by a young man armed with an AR-15, it is natural for people to seek someone or something to blame. The left blames their usual suspects: too-easy access to increasingly lethal firearms, the NRA, and their Republican enablers. The right also has their […]
Posted inFilm/TV
Can any civilization ‘Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach’?
Reading Time: 9 minutes There are many useful narrative structures for humanist stories, and all tend to get airtime in classic Star Trek series. Some involve a juxtaposition of multiple storylines, to hold different crises and outlooks in tension. Others present the full problem early on, allowing different perspectives and conflicts to emerge as characters struggle to find a […]
Posted inEthics
Please allow Denis Diderot to instruct you on religious and irreligious morality
Reading Time: < 1 minute French Enlightenment philosopher, encyclopedist, and atheist (and contemporary of Voltaire) Denis Diderot succinctly explained religious and irreligious morality in a brief piece he called, ‘Conversations with a Christian Lady.’ It will be most effective if you read this aloud in your best French accent. The characters are no one in particular. La Marechale: Are you […]
Posted inEthics
Against perfectionism
Reading Time: 6 minutes To be human is to be a work in progress. Human beings grow, change, and fail. That’s why we need compassion and forgiveness. We ought to give people a break, show some patience, and stop scolding one another. No one is perfect. This goes for other people and ourselves. But we remain strangely wedded to […]
Posted inEthics
Morality is a technology
Reading Time: 5 minutes Just as inventions like metal forging and glass-making improve our physical capabilities, morality is a technology that gives us the ability to achieve what no one individual could do alone.
Posted inEthics
If we don’t own ourselves, we own nothing
Reading Time: 5 minutes Bodily autonomy is the most fundamental human right. The more diligently we protect it, the freer and better society is, but theocrats want to pull us in the other direction.
Posted inEthics
No, Jesus wasn’t a progressive
Reading Time: 5 minutes Encouraging individuals to do good deeds isn’t the same as calling for reform of oppressive power structures.
Posted inEducation
A Christian college punished a sexual assault victim for having premarital sex
Reading Time: 3 minutes Roughly five years ago, a teenager at a private Christian school became pregnant. Visibly pregnant. And that was the problem right there. The girl chose not to have an abortion because it violated her religious beliefs. Because she didn’t do that, though, the school punished her for having premarital sex: She wasn’t allowed to receive […]