January / February 2016

Star Turn

SINCE LONG BEFORE the oldest physical creations in human culture—the raising of the step pyramid at Saqqara or the Great Wall of China, for example—people have been telling stories of human origins. Through religion, such explanations have become creation myths, sacred genealogies, epic tales, and pious platitudes (e.g., “you are...

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Features

Up Front

Terror-Go-Round: Breaking the Cycle of Xenophobia

As the German and French national football teams entertained a crowd of 80,000 supporters inside Paris’s Stade de France on Friday, November 13, three cowardly men—hellbent on the destruction of modernity and peace—tried unsuccessfully to get...

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Columns

Reviews

Elsewhere in the Humanist:

Faith, Authority, and the Lure of Certainty

THE RISE OF THE NAZI PARTY did not emerge from a cultural vacuum. It was enabled by a psychological and social environment receptive to hierarchy, obedience, mythic identity and the moral elevation of the in-group. While Nazism was not a religious movement,...

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Elsewhere in the Humanist:

When They Speak of Our Time

Speech delivered at the No Kings protest at the Lexington Common, MA, October 18, 2025. Good morning to all. My name is Regie Gibson and I am the Inaugural Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I always feel it necessary to...

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Elsewhere in the Humanist:

By Conscience Alone

We are here today to present the American Humanist Association’s Humanist of the Year award to Jelani Cobb. The award was established in 1953 to recognize a person of national or international reputation who, through the application of humanist values, has made...

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Elsewhere in the Humanist:

The Future of Civic Power

At this moment in history, we have a clear challenge and opportunity. There is the long-term challenge of educating for expansive civic engagement, and there is the immediate challenge of responding to growing attacks on the very structure of democracy and an...

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