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Author Archives: A Rational Woman
Does “Faith” Separate Us?
“You ruined my life,” my mother told me. The first time she said it was decades ago, when I first married, and she’s repeated it more than once since then.
The distress I caused her (which, perhaps oddly, never seemed to impact our loving relationship), was due to my marrying a non-Jew. Nominally, he was Greek Orthodox.
He and I had two children. And, according … Read more
Posted in A Rational Woman
Tagged agnostic, America, atheist, children, Christian, divorce, faith, intermarriage, Jewish, marriage, parenting
5 Comments
Why Atheists Stop Believing
Good writing and clear thinking don’t always go hand in hand. It’s a pleasure, then, to find both in a book about going it alone–using rationality rather than supernatural entities to face reality–titled 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists.
In one volume, edited by Russell Blackford and Udo Schuklenk, idiosyncratic essays by a range of atheists are featured, from science fiction authors … Read more
Posted in A Rational Woman
Tagged atheists, books, Doctor Who, essays, shermer, skeptics, writers
3 Comments
Are We Less Violent Than in the Past?
Steven Pinker is a major modern thinker and atheist, so when I got a paperback copy of his new book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, I read it seriously. All 700 pages of it (add another 100 for notes, references, and index).
Could it really be true that human societies are less, rather than more, violent than at previous … Read more
Posted in A Rational Woman
Tagged baby boomers, crime, empathy, human nature, Middle East, optimism, peace, reading, reason, skepticism, Steven Pinker, violence, war
3 Comments
Are You Secular, or Secularish?
You 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
Posted in A Rational Woman
Tagged berlinerblau, nonbelief, religion, secular, secular state, secularism, separation of church and state
3 Comments
6 Ways to Jump-Start Your Life
Spring 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
Posted in A Rational Woman
Tagged awareness, change, habit, New Year's resolutions, positive psychology, subconscious
2 Comments
My Body, My Abortion
If 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
Posted in A Rational Woman
Tagged abortion, birth control, human, law, motherhood, pro-choice, religion, roe v. wade
4 Comments
The Best (Atheist) Singing Acting Comedian
When I initially watched a video of Tim Minchin performing one of his songs to his own piano-playing, it was love at first sight. His timing is great, his rational philosophy is matchless, he’s delightfully honest about love and human absurdity and parenthood and prejudice and religion. Plus he’s very funny and rather attractive in a self-mocking semi-androgynous way.
Minchin, an Australian, has been touring … Read more
Posted in A Rational Woman
Tagged absurdity, atheist, comedy, performance, rationality, religion, tim minchin
2 Comments
A Radically Rational Approach to Marriage
Most of the world’s cultures advocate some form of the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You’d think treating your mate according to such a rule would be ideal.
Not necessarily. Not if it means you’d be giving what you want for yourself, not what the other person wants. I like to think in terms of an … Read more
Posted in A Rational Woman
Tagged change, couple's manifesto, fairness, golden rule, good will, loving in flow, marriage, rationality, relationships, susan k. perry, tit for tat, trust
1 Comment
10 Bright Ways to Think about Death
It may seem paradoxical, but what more rational way for a Bright to say good-bye to the old year and welcome a new one than to consider the end of everything?
That’s why I’ve compiled some approaches toward death held by various clear thinkers. Philosophers, psychologists, scientists, poets, and novelists have expressed a wide array of attitudes about dying. I find each of the ones … Read more
Posted in A Rational Woman
Tagged death, denial, fear, mortality, new year, novelists, philosophy
66 Comments
Make Every Day a Holiday
From time to time, I’ll be highlighting a new book about issues that concern me as a Bright and as a rational woman. I don’t claim to be a book critic, rather simply a blogger who knows what she likes and wants to share it with the like-minded.
A book that’s timely now (and anytime) is Penn Jillette’s Every Day is an Atheist Holiday!: More … Read more
Posted in A Rational Woman
Tagged Christmas, comedy, Halloween, holiday, humor, joy, new year, non-belief, Penn Jillette, rational, stereotype
6 Comments
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