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A short essay argues that most institutions should immediately institute moratoriums on hiring new faculty and building new facilities, and that universities need to focus on clarifying their value proposition in a world of ‘commodity [higher] education.’

Despite the seductive fusion of evolutionary principles with modern neuroscience, our search for an ultimate explanation of human behavior is not likely to find solutions any time soon. 

Summary: A personable, good-humored example of the liberal-theist cherry-picking ethic. I recently wrote about the evangelical writer Rachel Held Evans and whether her book, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, can […]

For the third year running, here’s a very personal, very subjective, “I can’t read everything, so I probably left out something, so mention it in the comments, OK?” list of […]

What will it mean to have a dissenter like Chuck Hagel as an ombudsman at the top at the Defense Department?  

“What are you thinking?” is a booby-trapped marriage question. I know this, but I can’t always resist its shiny lure.   My husband John and I were on a long […]

Nathan Harden writes with his characteristic techno-confidence that most higher education will be online soon enough.  That means that most non-elite private colleges and many mediocre public institutions will soon […]

“A poem should not mean/ but be,” Archibald MacLeish declared in his poem “Ars Poetica.” We too-often look to the arts to explain life itself as if they function as […]

I’ve received dozens of emails since my New York Times op-ed proposing a wealth tax came out on Monday. My goal with the piece was primarily to refocus the inequality […]

Security is perhaps the most well-known illusion human beings have contrived. From the cursory seduction of emotional stability to the wrathful manifestation of raging armies, the painful longing for complete […]

Part 1 of this essay appeared yesterday. Part 3 (of 3) will appear tomorrow. Where Thomas Hardy seems to me primarily a pessimist, W. B. Yeats is an ironist. A […]

Now that the election is over, it’s time for American freethinkers to turn our attention to some unfinished business. And here’s one thing that should be at the top of […]

Were the 20-year trend in declining circumcision rates to continue, reaching levels currently seen in Europe, Johns Hopkins physicians estimate substantial rises in health care spending. 

Will Germany follow the course of radical transparency or offshore inter-bank deposits? 

New businesses in Silicon Valley and Alley have tremendous power over what it will mean to be human in the coming decades. And with great power comes great responsibility. We hear often that the world is changing fast – we talk less about what we’d like it to change into.

Over the weekend, I was interviewed by Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor from the Freedom from Religion Foundation for their Freethought Radio show. That episode is now available for […]

Dr. Joachim Kohn has devoted his life to research and now it’s paying off. He’s creating new ways to regrow body parts for veterans injured in war.

Like millions of other Americans over Thanksgiving weekend, I went to see Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece, Lincoln.  I was mesmerized by Daniel Day-Lewis’s portrayal of the great statesman. I was also […]

Fed up with the banking system, one small business owner decided to start his own bank that pays out interest in his store’s goods.

Ever since our first digital search we’ve all spent increasing amounts of time on the web looking for the information we need. Since most of us are in a hurry, […]

The argument over guns is a complex topic, but we ought not to dismiss arguments because they do not square with our gut feelings – regardless of whether we want more or less guns, more or less laws. 

Imagine if nude women in fashion magazines, action movies, and music videos, suddenly screamed out against political corruption, debilitating income inequality, or oppression by religious leaders. Femen, a group of […]

Marc Tucker, President and CEO of the National Center on Education and the Economy, had a blog post back in August titled Instructional Technology: Villain of the Piece – or Savior? In […]

Government authorities now claim that certain foods contain the same addictive properties as certain drugs. Recent advances in neuroscience seem to support their conclusions.

So the best reason to read a “great book” is that you might learn a lot from it about who you are and what you’re supposed to do.  In that […]

Editor’s Note: Please welcome Korey Peters, who’s written a guest post about an atheist organization he’s founded that he’s calling the Calgary Secular Church. In this post, he’ll explain what […]

John Seely Brown argues that foregrounding the Humanities is our only hope of sustaining innovation in the United States.

The New Statesman has just published my piece concerning the creation of so-called online trolling behaviour. I argue that those who are shocked and outraged by horrible behaviour of online […]

In general, I avoid free literature thrown my way on subways and street corners. Recently passing by a stack of cheaply printed books while leaving Samosa House in Culver City, […]

Learning guru John Seely Brown is not being even slightly ironic when he says that he’d hire an expert player of World of Warcraft (the massive multiplayer online fantasy videogame) over an MBA from Harvard.