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December 2017

December 13, 2017

Elitism Is a Problem. Being Elite Is the Solution.

It’s almost 2018. We survived the past year, but it was a stormy one. Global politics...

October 2017

October 31, 2017

Yes, religion is connected with morality. Here’s how

One of the most common ideas about religion is that it’s somehow intrinsically connected with...

August 2017

August 15, 2017

Science Is Classist. Here’s a Solution

Science is an incredible thing. But classism and prejudice against working-class people are endemic in...

August 03, 2017

Science and democracy go hand-in-hand – and democracy is in danger

Science and democracy are mutually entwined. Both require independent thought and reasoned consensus. When democracy...

July 2017

July 03, 2017

In the 21st Century, Should We Be Patriotic?

Why be patriotic, since countries are often unfair, unjust, and warlike? Because humans need groups...

May 2017

May 22, 2017

Science and religion really are in conflict, people

The culture of science breaks ties with the past, while religion cherishes them. So for...

April 2017

April 04, 2017

Is a global community really possible?

This was supposed to be an era of globalism and tolerance. But if we want...

March 2017

March 28, 2017

Is a secular America a worse America?

After centuries of being more religious than other Western societies, the United States in the...

February 2017

February 14, 2017

Why colleges need (a few) more conservative professors

Liberals can teach students about the bad side of hierarchy – oppression. Conservatives can teach...

February 04, 2017

Is college too liberal?

A recent article in Boston Magazine argues that colleges are too liberal. This is true,...

January 2017

January 14, 2017

Trump shows why Rationalia would fail

Some think we should live in Rationalia. But Donald Trump shows us what a world...

November 2016

November 29, 2016

Overworked? Try a little ritual

Human ritual is an evolutionary product of the behavioral instinct for play. Without that instinct,...

November 15, 2016

Why Donald Trump happened

Connor Wood On Election Tuesday last week, I flew from Boston to Norfolk, Virginia, for...

September 2016

September 06, 2016

White American ethno-nationalism is on the rise. Why?

According to historian Peter Turchin, the white American ethnicity arose out of protracted military struggles...

June 2016

June 28, 2016

The Brexit, the farmer, and the forager

Psychologists say authoritarianism is to blame for the Brexit and Donald Trump. But there's another...

June 01, 2016

Science explains why America is going off the rails

Any country's success depends on its social capital, or "asabiya." The United States is losing...

April 2016

April 18, 2016

Why the world needs liberals

Cultural liberalism is valuable. More than that: it’s something to feel patriotic towards. I’m lucky...

February 2016

February 23, 2016

No space for God of the gaps

Scientists rudely keep uncovering more and more reasons for mysterious phenomena. That's why the god...

February 18, 2016

Why symbols matter for homo sapiens

You want lots of collective investment in the tribe? Then you need a tight and...

November 2015

November 03, 2015

No to Reason,™ yes to clear thinking

Connor Wood A couple months ago, I wrote a post here arguing that pure rational...

October 2015

October 13, 2015

Hilbert problems in the study of religion

Journal editors at Religion, Brain & Behavior are calling for experts and researchers across religious...

August 2015

August 11, 2015

Reason™ is not going to save the world

Should we be all rational, all the time? Not if we want the planet to...

July 2015

July 03, 2015

Newsflash: Elite universities are supposed to produce elites. That’s their job.

What is elite education for? Academics’ self-image as noble rebels – more prominent in Ivy...

June 2015

June 12, 2015

The culture wars come for public higher education

The evangelical Christian governor of Wisconsin is about to enact a set of laws that...

April 2015

April 28, 2015

Anthropology, not demagoguery, is the way to understand ISIS

Blaming ISIS on generic religious irrationality makes us completely blind to the social processes that...

April 16, 2015

Is religion evolutionarily adaptive?

Darwinian evolution is amoral. Evolutionary adaptations are often extremely nasty. Genetically maladaptive behavior can be...

March 2015

March 18, 2015

Comments aren’t for atheist evangelism

Interreligious tensions in Europe are growing and American religious resistance to evolution slouches on intransigently....

March 16, 2015

Why the religion-science dialogue needs secular religious studies

Secular religious studies could add vibrant insight to a dialogue whose main purpose is to...

March 05, 2015

Michael Shermer thinks he’s more moral than you

Skeptic thinker Michael Shermer believes that Western society is becoming more moral because we're very...

February 2015

February 02, 2015

America’s public ritual gone terribly wrong

Sports exemplify the central role of play in human culture, the crucial importance of arbitrary...