Reading Time: 5 minutes Many Christians seem to love the idea of humans being hardwired for belief. By this phrase, they mean that their god placed in each human’s heart a desire to worship something supernatural. Unfortunately, their god didn’t finish the job.
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Posted inTechnology
‘Cementing bias in a flower-scented maze’: A.I. and the eternal digital footprint
Reading Time: 7 minutes Artificial intelligence is big business, and it’s not going away. International Data Corporation predicts that worldwide revenue for the A.I. market will top 157 billion in 2020, growing to over 300 billion by 2024. A.I. is prolific, with estimates of over 403,000 conference papers on A.I. in 2019 alone. The number of A.I. deployments is […]
Posted inThe Secular
Why I’m post-religious, and you might be too
Reading Time: 4 minutes When religion falls into the background hum of culture, playing no greater part in your thinking than anything else—you are post-religious.
Posted inNews
It’s either Christian nationalism or democracy. You can’t have both
Reading Time: 4 minutes In the days before President Biden addressed the nation to commemorate the violent attack on the US Capitol by conservative rioters, commentators speculated on the President’s likely message. Would he stick to memorializing the dead and affirming a commitment to democracy, or point directly at the cause? In the end, Biden opted for direct, offering […]
Posted inScience
Science lets us tell better stories
Reading Time: 5 minutes Ancient myths and rituals were humanity’s first, fumbling attempt at understanding the world. But now we can tell the true stories.
Posted inCulture
The power of telling your story
Reading Time: 4 minutes A good story wins people over, which is why atheists and other secular folk need to get better at telling ours.
Posted inThe Secular
The urgency of secular values
Reading Time: 5 minutes Nonbelievers have a shared value system that puts humanity first. In this moment, that’s precisely what the world needs.
Posted inCulture
Smoothing the rough places: Infrastructure as an act of secular love
Reading Time: 6 minutes When we fix a bridge or give someone better healthcare, we’re saying that this life and this world are worth protecting.
Posted inCulture
‘Condolences and congratulations on the death of your son’: How a culture of martyrdom poisoned a nation
Reading Time: 11 minutes There was another wave of spikes in cases and deaths due to COVID-19. Was it the second one? The third? I cannot remember. But I do remember that the daily death numbers were in triple digits and that the map of Iran–my nation–was drenched in bloodlike crimson. We were physically present in my place of […]
Posted inMusic
Music is made of time
Reading Time: 3 minutes Music is a hard thing to study or even talk about because it can’t stop moving. Aside from film, visual art tends to stand still, giving the viewer some control over the experience. But music moves forward relentlessly, thwarting any attempts to get a firm grip. Imagine telling a friend that you attended a Frida Kahlo exhibit yesterday. […]