Negative feelings about “Big Pharma” have inundated our popular media. The pandemic and its associated medical misinformation, the controversies surrounding “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli and the Sackler Family’s Purdue Pharma bankruptcy have led people to believe that for Big Pharma to succeed, it requires people to remain sick. With these stories and many others, it’s […]
This article originally appeared in The Skeptic, Volume 2, Issue 2, from 1988. The philosophical world was startled in 1944 by the publication from the head of the Cambridge philosophy department of an extraordinary paper: a 15-page discussion in the journal Philosophy on “The Experimental Establishment of Telepathic Precognition.” Of course this was not the
From the archive: S.G. Soal – A statistical master of deception Chris Scott The Skeptic Read More »
Every time you burn your fingers with a hot teapot, your spinal cord rapidly withdraws your hand before you can understand what was the matter – and before you experience an emotionally loaded, unpleasant sense of tissue damage that you call pain. This example of a simple reflex illustrates a usually omitted fact: nociception, which
“Don’t let them drive the tractor. They need to know their place.” It was 1992. I was living in Israel, breathing in the desert air, loving the family that adopted me on the kibbutz, and enjoying the company of the Palestinian day-laborers who came over from Gaza each morning to work. They had to get
Reflections on a Death Spiral Nicole Scott Free Inquiry Read More »
Please take just a moment to send words of support to Mubarak Bala, a humanist imprisoned in Nigeria for “blasphemous” social media posts. In 2022, the Kano State High Court in Nigeria sentenced Mubarak Bala, President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria and “outspoken advocate for Nigerian atheist rights and freedoms,” to twenty-four years in
#FreeMubarakBala The Humanist TheHumanist.com Read More »
It’s easy to get the impression that the government acts swiftly to ban any substance primarily enjoyed by young people. Nitrous Oxide recently joined this list, along with freshly picked ‘magic’ mushrooms (which were previously only illegal to own if processed, for example by drying). There is now a move to ban disposable vapes. Are
This article was adapted from a transcript of the November 7, 2023, episode of the author’s podcast, Making Sense. We have witnessed extreme moral confusion since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking over 200 hostages. Some of it has been just frank anti-Semitism, but much is actual confusion.
The Bright Line between Good and Evil Nicole Scott Free Inquiry Read More »
For ten days each year—encompassing the National Day of Reason on May 4th, the National Day of Prayer on the first Thursday of May, and two weekends—the secular movement rallies together for inclusive responses to social problems and promotes the welfare of humankind. We’re one month away from the beginning of Secular Week of Action
SWoA Celebrates the Power of Community Action The Humanist TheHumanist.com Read More »
The latest from Cagle Cartoons. Webb Telescope clarity by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian The post The Comics Section: The Science of Insignificance appeared first on TheHumanist.com. The latest from Cagle Cartoons. Webb Telescope clarity by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian The post The Comics Section: The Science of Insignificance appeared first on
The Comics Section: The Science of Insignificance The Humanist TheHumanist.com Read More »
March is Women’s History Month in the United States, a time in which we recognize the often overlooked historical contributions women have made to our society. What originally began in 1978 as a weeklong celebration in Sonoma, California, to coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8, Women’s History Month has since expanded and grown
