There’s a tendency among humanist and atheist writers to make their books dense and detailed, recognizing that the usual audience wants all the facts comprehensively collected in one place. Their readers may not need or... Read More

In his new book, Nonbeliever Nation: The Rise of Secular Americans David Niose, president of the American Humanist Association, outlines the history of secular thought in America, the relatively recent rise of the Religious Right,... Read More

Warren Chisum is a conservative state legislator in Texas. He has long campaigned for the re-criminalization of homosexual acts, and for the elimination of programs designed to help people with AIDS. In 1994 he boasted... Read More

Did you know that in the Roman Catholic Church, there is an official called a camerlengo whose sole duty since the Middle Ages has been to ascertain that a pope is truly dead? One of... Read More

Edward O. Wilson's latest book is structured around three questions: Where did we come from, what are we, and where are we going? Philosophers and theologians have been chewing on these questions for millennia, but... Read More

Awarded the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction, Stephen Greenblatt’s new book The Swerve: How the World Became Modern gives us a fascinating, if somewhat disjointed, history of the suppression, unlikely survival, and subsequent effect on... Read More

“If a man is going to publish his life story, he had best take the precaution of leading an interesting life first. Or at least to being a very funny writer or of lacing his... Read More