Introduction Given the horror with which modern man views slavery, it comes as no surprise that Christians love to claim that their religion is responsible for its abolition. For instance, during an attack on the so-called New Atheists, Christian theologian Professor Stephen Prothero excoriated them for not giving religion credit for the good that it …

One has to give the religious Right credit for persistence. For decades now, they have been pushing to have the Ten Commandments set up as monuments on public land, displayed in courthouses, and posted in classrooms. About the only public spaces left untouched by this relentless drive to place the Ten Commandments before our eyes …

As Gary L. Francione states in the opening line of his essay in this issue, to say that “there is a controversy surrounding the issue of transgender rights is an understatement.” In fact, there are multiple controversies arising out of the interaction of transgender, or would-be transgender, individuals with various activities, practices, policies, and institutions …

To say that there is a controversy surrounding the issue of transgender rights is an understatement. Is it enough to accept that, for example, a man can present and identify as a woman, or can society be required to believe that this person is a woman? On one far side of the spectrum are those …

Should transgender women be allowed into women-only spaces—including women’s restrooms? I focus here on the controversy surrounding some of Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling’s well-known remarks on this issue and the role reason and emotion played in shaping them. In 2018, the U.K. government began the process to reform the Gender Recognition Act (2004; …

Texas recently enacted sweeping anti-transgender legislation, banning transgender minors from receiving puberty blockers and hormone treatment. The law was enacted under the guise of protecting children and parental rights. The effect is the exact opposite. These laws eviscerate the right of parents to raise their children as they think best. Justification for these laws was …

Few topics in modern political discourse are as fraught as gender. It is misunderstood, misconstrued, and misused, and opponents frequently lampoon each other’s “gender ideology.” Ideology? Really? Gender is a psychosocial phenomenon that flows from the biology and natural history of sex. As such, the topic of gender is firmly rooted within the natural sciences, …

Of the twenty-seven amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the second is probably the most controversial. Its muddled wording and syntax, which have created decades of interpretive confusion, are as follows: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not …

Auguste Comte suggested the creation of a “Religion of Humanity,” a pre-runner of secular humanism that includes rituals, holidays, and all the other trappings of organized denominations but that elevates the virtues of rationality and the results of science. Revolutionary figures such as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Albert Einstein would be its “saints.” However, …

Every assertion I make in this editorial is disputable. It has to be. Otherwise, it has no business being published in a secular humanist journal. Humanists sometimes have difficulty categorizing humanism. Is it a philosophy? Yeah, sort of, but it does not represent a particular school of philosophy, such as existentialism or logical positivism. In …

Historians of the American experience have spilled oceans of ink attempting to explain the heart and soul of the country, and the attempts to do so will never cease. Part of the explanation for this quest is that social and cultural development is not stagnant, and succeeding generations of scholars and activists are motivated by …

Psychologist Robert Abelson writes that the relationship we have with our beliefs shares properties of our association with physical possessions. We may hear “come to a conclusion,” “hold an idea,” “inherit” or “acquire a belief,” “attack” or “defend a point of view,” and so on.1 And, like it happens with other things that we own, …

“The heart has reasons that reason does not know,” wrote seventeenth-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal. In the case of empathy, which indeed is an affair of the heart, can we discern those reasons? And are they as reliable as the reasons that serve other methods for acquiring knowledge, science included? This article will answer in …

Most Americans are unlikely to have a medical assistance in dying law available to them in the near future, but other options are available for those facing an unacceptable, protracted death that lacks the dignity most people seek. Few people want to discuss dying. But in my over thirty years of working in the right-to-die …

In 2022, I revealed in an online article for Skeptical Inquirer that I was victimized by a romance scam after the death of my longtime partner. I thought it was important to share that story so others reading about my experience would learn to recognize the tell-tale giveaways that distinguish scams from genuine attraction between …

There comes a time in a man’s life when he must think about the inevitable. When I turned a leaf in 2023, I went online to check the list of notables who died at that age. The list includes George Washington, Leonardo da Vinci, Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, and Ava Gardner. I started thinking about …

It is fair to say that this fall the attention of most of our readers has been focused on the U.S. presidential election. That election may be over (but perhaps not determined!) by the time this issue of Free Inquiry reaches you, but the issues dividing Americans will remain whatever the election’s results. One of …

Jennifer and Jason Reinoehl of Granger, Indiana, tried to bring about a modern version of the Scopes Trial. In 2023, the couple filed suit claiming that the teaching of evolution by their local public school in Mishawaka, Indiana, is the equivalent of teaching atheism. According to their federal court complaint, teaching evolution to their five …

Every social movement must have a clear vision of its basic interests and goals. Sadly, much of the women’s and feminist movement seems to have lost its way recently as it has been sucked into the vortex of the intersectional bandwagon, which maintains that all supposedly oppressed and disadvantaged groups in the world must ally …

Religion has staked its claim to many aspects of people’s lives for thousands of years. From where, when, and how you practice your faith to your speech, presentation, and personal conduct, religions dictate an individual’s life and actions. It would not be too far-fetched then for a religion to stake its claim to a specific …