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Select a Month August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

August 2017

August 03, 2017

#Epicurus and Atomic Moderation

Working out the implications of what it means that “mind” is a function of the...

July 2017

July 20, 2017

The Danger is in Not Being You

There is a story that has been told in various ways about a rabbi named ...

June 2017

June 29, 2017

Loving What Happens

Amor fati. The love of (your own) fate. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus appears to have...

June 15, 2017

The Stories We Listen To; the Stories We Tell Ourselves

Our elders teach us things. Sometimes, later, we change our minds about those teachings, sometimes...

June 08, 2017

Murder and What’s in a Story

Why do we kill each other? I have to admit that when I walk along...

February 2017

February 23, 2017

A Toolkit for Resisting Totalitarianism

For my money the philosopher Hannah Arendt offers the most profound analysis of the causes...

January 2017

January 19, 2017

“Great Men” and the Tide of History

“Hindsight is 20/20” goes the cliche. And in my experience a lot of people want...

October 2015

October 15, 2015

Death of the Curate

Art museums are currently going through a sea change, and that sea change is about...

August 2015

August 27, 2015

The Duality Fallacy

The Methodist Church across the street from my church has a large lighted sign that...

August 06, 2015

On the Right to Take Up Space

(homily for a prayer vigil for those murdered at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Charleston,...

July 2015

July 16, 2015

Guest Blogger Maria Greene asks, Why is Humanism So Scary for the UUA?

In the late 1960s—like so many other liberal movements—Humanism lost its way. Understandably, many Universalist...

June 2015

June 18, 2015

News Flash: Banana Cream Pie Eats Planet

Time Share Proposition: The Earth is a time-share condo. Like a time-share condo, each of...

May 2015

May 07, 2015

Hate and Homo Sapiens

STAR LOG Had space aliens stopped by planet Earth a hundred thousand years ago, as...

April 2015

April 30, 2015

#Baltimore and the Failure of Human Flourishing

HONESTY DOESN’T RULE Huffington Post called the president’s remarks on the Baltimore uprising “the most...

April 09, 2015

Reason is Dead; Long Live . . . Advanced Hindsight

JUSTICE IS A SNACK AWAY Justice. It may be a meal best served cold, but...

March 2015

March 19, 2015

The Transient, the Permanent, and the Stitching Horse: What Remains True in Religions

When I was a kid, I loved wandering in the barn on my grandfather’s farm....

February 2015

February 19, 2015

Apocalypse: What Death Cults Really Want

The recent Atlantic article by Graeme Wood, “What Isis Really Wants,” examines the Isis phenomenon...

February 12, 2015

Greenery Without People: The Future of Post-Religious Community

I don’t get it about the natural world. Like, greenery, without people in it, is...

January 2015

January 29, 2015

The Bigness of our Littleness: Humanism and Individualism

Late in his life the philosopher Richard Rorty—well known to be an atheist—was asked...

January 08, 2015

Covenant: Broken Promises, Dumb Ideas, and Ways Forward

Captain, We're Out of Beer! When those adventurers we now call the Pilgrims realized they...

June 2014

June 12, 2014

The Proof’s in the Pudding (or What’s Churchy about Church?)

Imagine I’m sometimes asked how humanists can have “church” without invoking god. Here’s how I...

May 2014

May 29, 2014

Spiritual But Not . . . Keep Talking

Literary critic Terry Eagleton said, “The din of conversation is as much meaning as we...

May 22, 2014

Tinfoil Hats and the Examined Life

Let’s say I tell you I’m wearing a tinfoil hat today . . . What...

January 2014

January 30, 2014

A Scream and a Theory: Natural Selection and the Higher Moral Order

Scientific theories do not occur in a vacuum. Like poems or paintings, theories reflect the...

August 2013

August 01, 2013

Free Will, Fate, and Destiny: A Humanist Perspective

Human religions have always been built upon foundations of the best available science of the...

July 2013

July 04, 2013

Freedom . . . for Which?

I subscribe to the notion that separating out religion from other meaning-making systems is valid...