When Micah Kennedy described death doula education as “the Wild West,” ey meant it as both encouragement and warning. The field’s accessibility allows practical knowledge about dying, funerals and grief to circulate beyond hospitals and... Read More

Humanists love reason. We trust science to tell us what is true about the world. This works beautifully to understand the objective world around us, but science can’t answer moral questions or weigh competing values.... Read More

At the foot of burning Mount Doom, Samwise the gardener kneels beside his friend, Frodo, who can no longer walk. Frodo has been carrying a great weight– the One Ruling Ring, which grows heavier with... Read More

Anyone who has graduated from an American high school knows these words from studying the Declaration of Independence in civics class:  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that... Read More

The contemporary geography of the death penalty reveals a striking pattern. Capital punishment is increasingly concentrated in a small minority of states, many of which have political or religious institutions that place extraordinary authority in... Read More

We view our religions through lenses forged in early childhood. Because we grow intimately accustomed to these frames of reference, identifying internal flaws or systemic contradictions becomes an extraordinary cognitive challenge. Inherited dogmas feel intuitively... Read More

Author’s Note: I have taken the liberty of referring to God as “He,” the most preposterous assumption in human history.  One might not think so, given all the cerebral works on the subject, but there... Read More