One Hot Book: Richard Seaver & The Public Burning’s Wild Ride
The publication of Robert Coover’s audacious 1977 novel, The Public Burning, almost never happened. The book uses the circumstances surrounding the 1953 execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (sentenced to death for allegedly providing the... Read More
The HUMANIST Interview with Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
Author and philosopher Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s new novel, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction (Pantheon, 2010), follows the past and present of one Cass Seltzer, a professor of the philosophy... Read More
Lonesome No More! Kurt Vonnegut’s Freethinking Heritage
On April 27, 2007, Kurt Vonnegut was scheduled to speak in Indianapolis as part of the city-proclaimed Year of Vonnegut (he was born and raised in Indianapolis where his family had long-established roots). I was... Read More
Praying for Sex
A 140-year-old organization in London called the “Catholic Truth Society” has published a new “Prayer Book for Spouses,” containing among other things a prayer to be recited by couples before engaging in sex. The prayer... Read More
No Agenda? A Humanist View of Justice Scalia
With the death Saturday of the conservative lion of the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Antonin Scalia, we revisit David Niose's analysis of his jurisprudence and Joan Biskupic's 2009 biography, American Original: The Life and Constitution of... Read More
No, We’re Not a Broken People
In 2004 I began speaking at rallies and forums around the country on issues of peace and justice, something I’ve done off and on ever since. Up through 2008 it was extremely unusual for questions... Read More
Apex or Ex-Ape?
It’s no secret that evolution has been controversial in Christian history. But why? First, there is the clash with the literal reading of the creation stories of Genesis, namely with the time element. Genesis 1... Read More