Reading Time: 3 minutes Mystery and intrigue make for great entertainment, especially when it ends with an answer to a burning question or the exposure of a hidden truth—or in the case of a stripper, body parts. When I stepped out onto the stage and into the fake smoke and black lights, I scanned the faces of my audience, […]
critical thinking
Posted inPhilosophy
Can we handle the truth?
Reading Time: 4 minutes “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). That’s good news to anyone who wants to be free, which is probably everyone. But what does truth have to do with freedom? And I guess a more pertinent question is the one Pilate supposedly asked later in the same […]
Posted inRaising Freethinkers
Santa Claus: The ultimate dry run
Our culture has constructed a silly and temporary myth alongside its silly and permanent one. It’s an unmissable opportunity.
Posted inRaising Freethinkers
Pants-on-fire parenting
Germ theory was a huge advance in human health—but we’ve overlearned the lesson. Thanks to air filters, airtight homes, and antibacterial everything, our environments have been so thoroughly scrubbed that our systems are losing the ability to deal with the germs and irritants that abound in the world outside our doors. The result has been […]
Posted inRaising Freethinkers
The problem with unthinking obedience
Examining the most common words in a parenting book can offer insights into the book’s values. Included in the 100 most common words in ‘What the Bible Says About Parenting’ are OBEDIENCE, OBEY, SIN, DUTY, EVIL, FEAR, AUTHORITY, DISCIPLINE, COMMAND, COMMANDMENT, SUBMIT, and LAW—many of them variations on the theme of obedience. Not one of […]
Posted inCritical thinking
From razor blades to fentanyl: What’s not hiding in your kid’s Halloween candy
Reading Time: 3 minutes Growing up in the 80s, one of the most frustrating but mandatory Halloween rituals was dumping out my bag of candy for inspection. Up until I was a teenager, I was strictly forbidden to eat a single piece until my mother searched my candy thoroughly. The reason, my mother said, was so that she could […]
Posted inCritical thinking
There’s a reason every strip club has a ghost story
Reading Time: 3 minutes Late one night, I stepped down from what I hoped was my last stage show of the night at the strip club where I worked the closing shift. My eyes were still dazzled by the strobe lights and the fake smoke. My Red Bull had long since worn off. I was exhausted and more than […]
Posted inPseudoscience
Why are pseudosciences so appealing?
Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s only natural for us to try to find certainty and protection from our fears. Pseudoscientists take advantage of this yearning.
Posted inDrugs
Are Biden’s pot pardons a glimpse of reason in politics?
Reading Time: 2 minutes As a long time Californian, where marijuana has been legal since 2016, I still have to resist the urge to stuff my purchase down my pants on the way out of a legal dispensary. As silly as that sounds, it’s even sillier when you consider my demographic. As a white lady from the suburbs, I […]
Posted inCritical thinking
Conspiracy theories and poor thinking without facts, oh my!
Reading Time: 3 minutes A conservative article sees a scary Leftist hiding in every closet and under every bed. I’m not used to reading this level of rage. Let’s try to understand the argument.