Reading Time: 10 minutes Another term for the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has closed after a week of controversial rulings, and with the promise of a contentious Second-Amendment issue on the next session’s docket. In a bit of grim humor earlier this week, a social media meme proclaimed that, having mastered submarine engineering, keyboard warriors were currently getting their […]
social justice
Posted inCritical thinking
A tale of two vessels lost at sea
Reading Time: 4 minutes A recently shipwrecked migrant vessel at Pylos and a lost submersible near wreckage from the Titanic create an easy contrast for reflecting on injustice. But are we missing the larger lesson?
Posted inThe Future
What fifty years of struggle can teach us, going forward
Reading Time: 9 minutes The year is 1973. In January, Richard Nixon is sworn in for his second term as president, the US officially withdraws from its conflict in Vietnam, and an investigation into the Watergate break-ins expands from the burglars to the statesmen. In the coming months, Nixon will orchestrate a cover-up of a cover-up, trying to hold […]
![It's past time for bittul ha-tamid ] Closed sign](https://i0.wp.com/onlysky.media/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Its-past-time-for-bittul-ha-tamid.jpg?resize=1200%2C604&quality=89&ssl=1)
Posted inCulture
It’s past time for Bittul ha-Tamid
Reading Time: 2 minutes There has always been an element of protest in Jewish religiosity. We can picture ancient biblical prophets like Nathan or Amos or Jeremiah ranting at someone, or no one, or everyone about even small injustices inflicted upon seemingly unimportant people. We can imagine their grim visage on such occasions, illuminated paths of sweat scoring their […]
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 inThe Color of Disbelief
The Black Girls’ Guide to Humanism: On mental health and social justice
Reading Time: 5 minutes Late last year, I surveyed Black youth between the ages of 15-24 about their views on Black humanism, media representations of Black and women of color atheists, respectability politics, and the connection between religion, misogynoir, and homophobia. The majority of them were from South Los Angeles. I followed up with a podcast featuring four of […]
Posted inEthics and Morality
And I said nothing: Teaching in rural schools
Reading Time: 7 minutes “See that man?” said the principal during our lunch interview, pointing a few tables down. “He is a good man, a man I admire, because he is a man of God first, a family man second, and one heck of an athlete. Do you understand what I am saying?” I didn’t know at the time that it’s illegal to ask someone their religion in a job interview. This was his way of trying to ensure that I understood what was important to him, and by extension, the school. I needed a job, so I said nothing.
Posted inPinn Drop with Anthony Pinn
When to walk, when to fight | Nadya Dutchin
In this week’s episode of Pinn Drop, Anthony Pinn talks to Nadya Dutchin, executive director of the American Humanist Association, about a movement in need of new direction, the rise of young leaders, and the one priority of the moment that rises above all others. On pressing the humanist movement’s old guard to embrace change […]
Posted inResearch
How deep does ‘anti-woke’ opinion go among atheists?
Reading Time: 12 minutes Several globally-prominent atheists have established themselves as opponents of what they call “wokeness.” But an attempt to compare them to atheists generally, and even the prominent atheists’ most ardent fans, shows that the sentiment is not widespread.
Posted inReproductive rights
Is your activism getting in activism’s way?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Humans can be pretty nifty. When something goes wrong, when there’s a crisis in need of immediate redress, many of us are right there on the frontlines, trying to help. And sometimes knowing how to help is easy! Show up here. Sign the petition there. Contact your government representatives (always). But in many situations, the […]