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A New Vision for Secular Transcendence
LIFE IS SAD FOR US SECULAR PEOPLE. Foregoing church and other religious communities, we endure our drab and dreary days without hope, fellowship, joy, or meaning, without anything greater than our sorry selves and empty existences.... Read More
Exorcising the Ghosts of the Sixties
"I COULD NOT UNDERSTAND how anybody could rebel against a system so clearly benign." That authorial “I” was John Updike in his self-deluding memoir, Self-Consciousness; the rebels he was referring to were fed-up blacks, middle-class students,... Read More
Artificial Stupidity
Computers aren’t bigoted—they’re just based on cold calculations, right? The past two years have featured a steady drumbeat of problems with various artificial intelligence (AI) procedures, centered around a common theme: they produce the same kind... Read More
If the Enrichment of Humanity is our Project, Tighter Bonds and Bigger Gifts May be the Key
A recent New York Times piece by Molly Worthen (author of the book Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism) examines a group she calls “the podcast bros”—wellness gurus based largely in the... Read More
The One-Way Quest
“Does a flower blooming in an uninhabited wood have no value?” —Lyle L. Simpson (2011) At embarkation, the Jovian Explorer had a crew of ten. Three months into the journey, the crew was reduced to one... Read More
Want to Bring Back Bipartisanship? Try Restoring Pork Barrel Spending
American politics are especially divisive at the moment, which is why the current Congress is one of the least productive in decades and struggles to get much of anything done. But just because things are especially... Read More
Meet the New AHA Staff Member: Brody Armstrong
Please welcome the American Humanist Association’s new education assistant, Brody Armstrong! TheHumanist.com: What is your educational and work background? I graduated from the University of Iowa in the fall of 2016 where I triple-majored in philosophy,... Read More
Rules Are for Schmucks: Brunson Is Not Enough
Andrew Brunson appears to be a nice, quiet man caught up in events not of his own making. He’s been a pastor serving a tiny Protestant community in Izmir, Turkey, for over twenty years. He came... Read More
It’s Okay to Be “Selfish” Sometimes: The Effect of Cultural Trends on Birth Rate
The number of births per year in the United States is at a record low. Last year the fertility rate fell to 60.2 births per 1,000 women aged 15-44, a 3 percent decrease from 2016. This... Read More
Ahead of the Curve: A World without Cash?
My wife and I picked a bad time for our trip to India. In November 2016, right before we departed, India’s government had a brilliant idea: jumpstart a drive to push Indians away from the use... Read More