I wasn’t sure I’d like a book called Worth Fighting For by a former soldier who walked across the United States to raise money for the Pat Tillman Foundation. The website of that foundation celebrates... Read More

One might begin a review of Philip Appleman’s new book, The Labyrinth: God, Darwin, and the Meaning of Life, by wondering what a poet might bring to a discussion of science, religion, philosophy, and world... Read More

Human trafficking—for sex, labor, and even organ selling—is among the most profitable businesses in the world, yet it is ignored or minimized by governments and mainstream society. Worse than governmental ignorance, perhaps, is the unwitting... Read More

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s ode to philosophy, Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away, imagines a collision of worlds: What would happen if Plato, the famous philosopher, suddenly appeared in the twenty-first century? In... Read More

Jim Grebe’s book Democracy’s Defender: The Life of L.M. Birkhead presents the life of a Methodist minister-turned humanist Unitarian minister-turned social activist. Born in Missouri in 1885, Leon Milton Birkhead was a man of reason... Read More

When the United States was very young—circa 1808—President Thomas Jefferson and the wealthy, successful businessman John Jacob Astor (fur trading, Manhattan real estate) had a joint brainstorm. In the aftermath of the Meriwether Lewis and... Read More

Some humanists endorse the ancient notion that a wise guy invented religion with an omniscient god so that people, who might otherwise do bad things, would stay in line for fear that the god was... Read More