In mid-February, Valentine’s Day and International Darwin Day arrive two days apart. Which makes this an auspicious time to remember that you and those you most love are all stupendous badasses...
Have you heard this? “But what about before the Big Bang?” “What about life coming from inorganic material?” “What about missing links?” “But what about consciousness?”
Homeschool—a loaded term with a history that reeks of religious indoctrination and keeping children out of touch with modern society. But it’s not like that for most homeschoolers today.
Dad and Irene, his first wife, grew up in Sylvester, TX, a small, dusty, West Texas town with no more than a few hundred people in the whole county. Dad never talked about Irene.
Conventional wisdom in the conservative, religious circles of my evangelical days is that dealing with death without the belief in a god and the corresponding afterlife is unbearable. In the early days after I walked away from religion without a backward glance, I often wondered what secular humanists and atheists offered to the grieving to replace that “comfort.”
When I was very young, America was “el otro lado.” The other side. That ominous, vaguely mystical phrase was how people around me in Mexico referred to my future home country. This little phrase forever colored the way that I saw the US.
My Chinese parents are not tigers. They did not rage when I brought home poor grades; they did not resort to corporal punishment, except on the truly rare occasion.
“I’m your father - if I tell you to eat nails, you eat nails” – a close translation of a phrase my father would use on me time and time again during our disagreements...
Emma was a domestic worker in our small town, where even the poor could sometimes afford a domestic. Emma had worked for my mother from before my birth, and continued to do so occasionally even after my father left, leaving Mom destitute.
What do you do when suddenly your life changes at age 70? I found myself and my old dog driving 2,400 miles from Oregon to Houston. And believe me, I love Oregon. I miss my friends, the mountains, the rugged Northern Pacific Ocean 40 miles from my house and my friends of 12 years.
I was kicked out of school in eighth grade. One fine day I decided that hiding a squirt gun under my desk and firing away at our science teacher’s fly was a good idea.
Mr. Marat, a Muslim coworker, and I had just driven together to an urgent meeting when, as I was impatient to rush out of the car, he asked me to wait for him as he completed his prayer...
Several community moment speakers have described their experiences growing up in a family strongly committed to a particular religion such as Southern Baptist or Christian Science.
As far back as I can remember, the wonders of the universe have fascinated me. Whether it was learning about dinosaurs and their ultimate but uncertain fate when I was 7-years-old...
I consider myself an accepting person and approaching things with an open mind is important to me. But even I was nervous having a conversation with a man who was addicted to a PCP...
