Darwin Day, celebrated on Charles Darwin’s birthday on February 12, is a time “to ensure that children are being taught scientific facts, not religious dogma, and to fight back against those who seek to undermine…
Evolution Talks and Banana Splits
AHA Groups Spread Joy This Holiday Season
’Tis the season to be jolly, and humanist groups across the country are helping to make the end of 2019 jollier by providing communities in need with food, toys, and warm clothing. While the religious right claims…
Happy Separation of Church & State Week!
Separation of Church and State Week is observed annually during the week of Thanksgiving. It’s the secular movement’s response to National Bible Week, which kicks off with International Day of the Bible on the Sunday…
Shame Isn’t an Education
How did you learn about sex? Were you taught that it’s a natural part of life or that it’s a sin? Did you receive medically accurate information that prepared you to make safe and responsible…
Education Innovators Shoot for the Moon
Despite decades of research, standardized testing, and increased spending, educational outcomes in the United States have stagnated behind other developed countries. Literacy rates and reading skills of our nation’s seventeen-year-olds have demonstrated little to no…
From Slavery to Civil Rights: AHA Speaker Series Opens with History of Black Freethought
One of the best things about the American Humanist Association headquarters in Washington, DC—besides the sixteen-foot-tall happy humanist on its lovely blue exterior—is that it provides an excellent space to share social and educational events,…
We Need More Climate Education
More than a decade ago, former Vice President Al Gore gave the keynote address when I graduated from Carnegie Mellon University. He praised the school and the city of Pittsburgh for their impressive environmental accomplishments…
Connections: Humanism in South India and Beyond
“Humanism will be the only ‘ism’ in the future. That is what we are training for.” These were among the opening words at the international Humanism & Self-Respect conference held at the Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center…
Mottos, Prayers, Courses, and Clubs: Protecting Student Rights
After the latest round of mass shootings over the course of two weekends—gun violence that claimed a life in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn; four lives in Gilroy, California; twenty-two in El Paso, Texas; and…
Living Humanist Values: The Ten Commitments
Like many of you, I have read a plethora of articles and longer works defining humanism. Each proclaims a different emphasis highlighting various aspects of what is valued by humanists. Some declare humanism to be…