Reading Time: 4 minutes Ayaan Hirsi Ali is now a former ardent atheist, embracing the lure of Christianity. But how justified and surprising is her move back to religion?
Meaning & Purpose
Posted inIdentity
The struggle for our shared humanity
Reading Time: 8 minutes Identity is given to us before we get much choice in the matter, and then often shapes our whole lives. Is there any hope for seeing our species more holistically while living more fully as individuals?
Posted inDeath & Dying
Never waiting for the miracle
Reading Time: 7 minutes None of this would have landed in my purview if I hadn’t stepped out on Christmas Eve last year with the last of my seasonal food hampers. I knew that only folks having the roughest of times would be out during Nochebuena, a holiday that finds folks here, from the poorest to the richest, with […]
Posted inCulture
On the death of an Average Joe
Reading Time: 5 minutes This week, amid surging Ukrainian drone strikes against Russia, Europe’s largest wildfire (yet), and the racist massacre of three Black citizens in Florida, a US veteran died of pancreatic cancer. He was 49 years old. Because he had put himself in the political spotlight, and because he had stayed there despite significant holes in his […]
Posted inMeaning & Purpose
Don’t be yourself
Reading Time: 6 minutes A growing movement of Christian evangelicals decries “expressive individualism,” or in other words, the freedom to make your own choices and decide what to do with your own life.A growing movement of Christian evangelicals decries “expressive individualism,” or in other words, the freedom to make your own choices and decide what to do with your own life.
Posted inMeaning & Purpose
Do we need the opiate of religion?
Reading Time: 4 minutes These are hopeless times. A widely-cited study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that 42% of high school students report persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness. Rates of sadness and hopelessness have increased steadily since 2011 when only 28% of high schoolers reported the same. A variety of explanations have been offered […]
Posted inMeaning & Purpose
A life that’s more than a bucket list
Reading Time: 4 minutes For the past two years, my friend Paul Louis Metzger has devoted untold hours and a huge portion of his energy to something that would never appear on anyone’s bucket list—driving to a care facility several days a week to care for his young-adult son Christopher. Christopher suffered a traumatic brain injury and remains in […]
Posted inMeaning & Purpose
Blessed
Reading Time: 5 minutes People born with privilege like to believe that their good fortune is deserved, whether by divine favor or by superior work ethic. It’s difficult to accept that our blessings are due to chance, but that acceptance is essential to building a fairer world.
Posted inMeaning & Purpose
AI is here: Are we finally ready to rethink the value of being human?
Reading Time: 6 minutes It’s been a good few months for machine-learning software—and a confusing one for the humans trying to live their best lives around it. Last fall, digital art generators like Midjourney and DALL-E drew the alarm of illustrators, photographers, and other digital artists: not just because the algorithms were trained on data not expressly sanctioned by […]
Posted inThe Secular
Is secular life bereft when tragedy strikes? Not for a minute
Reading Time: 4 minutes In the week since NFL player Damar Hamlin’s near death on the field, prayer has had a big moment: players bowing their heads and circling to pray before games, ubiquitous signs and social media posts bearing messages like “Pray for Damar,” TV commentators speaking of prayer—and in at least one case actually praying during coverage—with […]