Tag: newsletter
“EVERYONE’S CRAZY EXCEPT FOR THEE AND ME, AND I’M NOT SURE OF THEE”
In being critical of the bizarre beliefs of others, we must be careful to examine our own beliefs, some of which may be just as crazy. [...]
Happy Girl: The Latimer Dialogues
The arrest, trial and imprisonment of Robert Latimer for ending the life of his ailing 12-year-old daughter Tracy, in 1993, has been a case of enduring concern to the Canadian public. Did ou [...]
EDITORIAL: More Dubious Ideas
For the second issue in a row we are examining the odd persistence of questionable ideas. Why? I guess because there are so many of them. [...]
Voice of a Humanist: Was Queen Elizabeth II a Humanist?
The queen was a kind and caring person who never shared negative opinions in public. She exemplified many humanist values and principles with her deeds, actions and decisions. However, given [...]
Humanist Perspectives Short Submission Contest 221
We invite you to share your humanist views with us in a paragraph or two (MAX 1000 chars) on one of the following subjects reflected by these 3 images. [...]
Interview with Steven Pinker
“There is a fundamental split between two mindsets… is it that society is like a diseased patient where a bunch of medical professionals try to diagnose the cause of the problems and try to [...]
Super-Concise Bios
Recently I asked, as I do, for short bios from our writers, except in one case I mistakenly said “2 to 3 words” instead of my usual “2 to 3 sentences.” [...]
Memoir: The Day the Ceiling Fell
A somewhat dubious idea: to think one can move to an elderly farmhouse and escape trouble. Terry’s encounter with trouble was quite dramatic. [...]
Dodging the End Times
Religious prophets once reigned as authorities on the end of time, but fortunately their warnings were premature, and based on questionable evidence. Modern day scientists have taken up the [...]
On Roots, Fruits, and Religious Disputes
Ian Johnston invokes William James in arguing for tolerance of those who hold religious beliefs. Religion has persisted, even prospered, in the face of rationalist criticism. Perhaps it fill [...]
Moral Detachment, One Key to the Persistence of Dubious Ideas
Why do dubious ideas persist? Janet Keeping argues that part of the problem is moral detachment. One can have the “right intellectual concepts in one’s head, but that is of little value if w [...]
Military Defeat and the Smashing of Ideas
We like to think that pernicious ideologies can be defeated by the use of military force. We thought that Nazism was finished off after 1945. We thought that antisemitism could not persist a [...]
They’re Out to Get You
American historian Kyle Burke writes about Robert Welch, the man who paved the way for the paranoid American right. Many liberals thought of Welch and his John Birch society as irrelevant an [...]
Freedom Misunderstood
What does it mean now when we see Canadian flags displayed in windows of cars and houses? It used to be that these were signs of a touching and genuine patriotism. Now, they seem to be coopt [...]
Voice of a Humanist
It is a cause for celebration when progress is made regarding human rights. Victories won bring a period of hope and relief from suffering. The lifting of oppression is accompanied by an exp [...]