Monthly Archives: February 2013

Are You Secular, or Secularish?

tug of warYou don’t have to be an atheist to be secular. In fact, according to a new book, How to Be Secular: A Call to Arms for Religious Freedom, confusion between the two terms may well harm progressives.

How to Be Secular was written by Jacques Berlinerblau, a professor at Georgetown University and director of its Program for Jewish Civilization. In his book, he … Read more

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Fish Fights

Article by Davis Jacobson

I saw a bit in the Telegraph regarding the problems surrounding all the mackerel in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Yes, the mid-latitude Atlantic fish, and yes, the smallish island countries between Scandinavia and Greenland. Plus Russia.

A lot of science comes together here: climate science, biology, political science, economics…. (Today I’m using “science” in a broad sense like the German … Read more

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Teaching the Good in Godless

“Not possessing a religious basis for morality, atheists are fundamentally incapable of having a coherent system of morality.”

 –Conservapedia,  Atheism & Morality

“The biggest damage religion does is indoctrinating and brainwashing children.”

 –Richard Dawkins, in a The Times of India interview with Vineet Gill, 25 Jan 2012

As a precociously atheist child, I was often asked by friends why I didn’t just rob banks if … Read more

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6 Ways to Jump-Start Your Life

Checked_elephantSpring comes early where I live in Southern California, but anytime can be a good time to give yourself the refreshing feeling of starting anew.

And for those who still make New Year’s resolutions, it’s a good bet that many of those well-intentioned goals are now moldering away in a neglected corner of your subconscious. (If that’s not true in your life, please share your … Read more

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Blessed Are the Happy

Happy“Like dreams, statistics are a form of wish fulfillment.”

─ Jean Baudrillard

Molding statistics to fit one’s preconceived conclusions is such a common practice that it’s a cliché even to point out when it occurs.  But sometimes, I just can’t resist….

The following headline appeared on the 5 October 2012 on-line edition of Deseret News, Utah’s 2nd largest daily newspaper by circulation:

“Religious Read more

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My Body, My Abortion

choiceIf I were ever going to regret my long-ago decision to have an illegal abortion, it would have been on the ride home afterward. A sudden snowstorm caused the car I was in to slide into a snow bank. I began to bleed heavily and spent the next two days at a hospital in the tiny town of Lordsburg, New Mexico, pretending to the kind … Read more

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