It’s not exactly like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but still, you should know we’re out here. Living amongst you. Unseen. Demographic survey-takers like to call us “Nones,” as in folks who when asked what religion they identify with reply, “None.” Turns out this is a large, sundry group – about a quarter of the U.S. population now and growing fast – including atheists, agnostics and people so religiously disabused …

Reasonable people can see President Trump’s recent actions as criminal.
When he demanded an oath of loyalty from the chief of a federal probe into his presidential campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia, that’s obstruction of justice. When, failing to get this oath, he then fires the chief, thus beheading the probe, that’s obstruction, too. And when he then threatens to publicly unveil …

The proposed Senate legislation known as SB 55 is not about improving the teaching of science in South Dakota schools, as its language would deceitfully have us believe. It is about protecting teachers from consequence if they choose to teach religion in science classes under the guise of so-called “creation science.
Creation science” is a term adopted by Christian science …

Has it really been nearly a century since the curious 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial” played out in a steamy courtroom in Dayton, TN, pitting science against old time Christian religion?
Could’ve fooled me.
Just last month, the South Dakota Senate voted 23-12 in favor of SB 55, a bill that would protect teachers from penalty if they were to corrupt science by teaching religiously derived nonscience …

The election of racist, misogynist, reading-averse Donald J. Trump as the United States’ 45th president was actually assured centuries ago when Western educators stopped teaching classical philosophy as essential.
It happened after the European Enlightenment’s once-bright promise dimmed and philosophy’s educational imperative waned, marooning the revolutionary intellectual innovations …

I love this still-pretty-new pope, and I’m not even religious. He jokes around. He cusses (although accidentally and in a second language, but it’s still a hoot). He washes the feet of prisoners. He lambastes preening, self-important princes of the church as “peacocks and crusaders.” He dismisses rule-obsessed Catholic scolds as “sourpusses.” He chooses to wear sensible, black shoes …

Critical thinking.
Few skills are more powerful, but, even in 21st century America, it’s an aptitude not easily acquired — often for the same reason that pioneering Italian scientist Galileo Galilea was nearly put to death by the Roman Inquisition nearly 400 years ago. Galileo’s crime? Critical thinking.
Galileo promoted novel cosmic theories that not only challenged but threatened to vaporize …