Death is a tricky subject. I talk about talking about it in the current issue of Free Inquiry. W hen my children were very young, I stayed ...

For the longest time I couldn't get a fix on what the problem in Darfur was all about. I saw the full-page Save Darfur ads in the New Yo...

My talent show poll has received a nice boost thanks to Ophelia Benson at Butterflies and Wheels . There are some interesting comments here...

On Wednesday my kids' school was put on "lock down," with the kids having to hide under their desks. A gunman was loose in th...

There’s a way of thinking about morality that is common and, I think, unhelpful. On this interpretation, if you should do something, then “e...

[Please take the talent show poll ! 5 days left!] How are human beings different from all other animals? We've been asking that for a ...

The Jewish New Year starts at sundown today. According to rabbinic tradition, this is the day that God finished creating the world. However...

I've got a post today at Talking Philosophy . It starts: An article in the paper caught my attention recently. It said the infant morta...

I often read books because I want to escape to another place or time. If I want to live in Iceland for awhile, I read Halldor Laxness. If m...

[Please take the talent show poll !] Around the time my book was published, I found myself often saying things like "I wonder when Blac...

[Please take the talent show poll !] One of the reasons I enjoy teaching is that I so often come out of a class with something new to think ...

Perhaps you have had this experience. If not, please try to imagine. You go to a talent show--skating show, theater competition, dance thing...

I just read the article about Mother Teresa in this week’s issue of Time and can’t stop shaking my head. It turns out she wrote letters...

A New York Times article a couple of months ago has stuck in my mind. It was about women who spend a couple of thousand dollars a month (o...

A full page ad in the New York Times yesterday said "Who's Killed More Animals?" Under a picture of recently convicted Michae...

There won't be any ten-year olds interrupting me every five minutes today, so I'll actually have to get some work done. But first, ...

I'm still at the point where it thrills me to think that people actually walk into bookstores and buy my new book, people who are not a...

I've been reading and enjoying the book Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond , by the actor Don Cheadle a...

I’ve been tagged by Ophelia Benson , and I’m supposed to list 8 random facts about myself. If you think this is a silly waste of time, ign...

Why, may I ask, is there poison ivy? I write this with teeth clenched, using all the self-control I have not to turn on myself in an itchin...

There's an interesting editorial by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times today. Bono was heckled at a conference in Africa recently ...

I've read some idiotic editorials lately ridiculing celebrities who get involved in good causes. My opinion? Hurray for the celebritie...

I really enjoyed Jonathan Haidt’s book The Happiness Hypothesis , but there’s an idea in the last chapter I find amazing, and not in a go...

The best book I've read all summer is The Origins of Virtue by Matt Ridley. The book is about cooperation in animals, primitive societ...

....I’m enjoying a song sent to me by Kevin Denton of the band The Crooners. He wrote it while struggling with grief over a friend and ban...