“What is the meaning of life?” I struggled with this question throughout my teenage years and young adulthood. My parents tried to convey their more religious-themed meaning of life to me when I was a teenager. Yet my contrarian streak prevented me from really listening to them. Instead, I thought and talked about the meaning of life with my friends. I remember long conversations when we would discuss and debate this topic with each other. I particularly remember one conversation... Read more
This videotaped discussion between a United Methodist Minister, Caleb Pitkin, and myself – a professor and scholar of meaning and purpose – uncovers both differences and some surprising parallels in the approach of religion and science to these eternal issues. According to the mainstream opinion in the United States and many other countries, meaning and purpose come from religion. At the same time, research shows that having a clear answer to the question of life meaning and purpose... Read more
Caption: Head with brain and puzzle pieces (Geralt/Pixabay) Written by Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, Intentional Insights Co-Founder and President. ________________________________________________________________ How did Donald Trump win, when he used so many misleading statements and outright deception? Couldn’t people see through them? As an expert in brain science, I want to share why his followers fell for his lies and what can be done to address this situation in the future. First, let’s get the facts straight. Politifact.com, a well-known non-partisan website, rates... Read more
Caption: Meme created by Ed Coolidge for Intentional Insights (Used with permission) Atheists in the U.S. cover the entire spectrum of political views, despite the assumption that to be an Atheist means to be a left-wing liberal. No matter who you voted for or how much you were impressed or disgusted by the tactics used by the Trump and Clinton campaigns, there was a troubling amount of irrationality that was given wings early on and has now taken... Read more
Caption: Truth and lies (Open Clipart-Vectors, Pixabay) This article is also available in: Russian ________________________________________________________________ It is an undeniable fact that Donald Trump is the 45th President of the United States. Yet a part of me refuses to accept that reality. On the one hand, I love this country for its freedom and democracy, and as part of my love greatly respect the office of the Presidency. On the other, it seems to me that Trump is doing great damage... Read more
Caption: Image of CNN with quote from Kellyanne Conway saying “Spicer gave alternative facts on crowd size (NBC/This Morning)___________________________________________________________________ I shuddered, horrified to the depths of my soul when Donald Trump’s senior adviser Kellyanne Conway presented the Trump administration’s false claims as “alternative facts” in a January 22nd interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” She was defending the lies told by Sean Spicer, the White House Press Secretary, about Trump’s inauguration. For instance, Spicer stated that Trump drew “the largest... Read more
Caption: Trump and Obama graphic (Wikimedia Commons) Regardless of their political affiliation, most who follow politics in any depth easily dismissed Donald Trump’s series of grave Twitter accusations on March 4 that Barack Obama ordered Trump Tower wiretapped before the 2016 election. Trump offered no evidence for his wiretapping claims, but instead used inflammatory language such as calling Obama “sick” and “bad,” and requested that Congress conduct an investigation into the Obama administration. Behavioral science suggests that despite Trump offering... Read more
Caption: Arguing people (Kick-ads, used with permission)________________________________________________________________We frequently use debates to resolve different opinions about the truth. However, debates are not always the best course for figuring out the truth. In more emotionally charged situations, the technique of collaborative truth-seeking is often better. The Problem with Debates The usual method of hashing out disagreements in order to discover the truth about reality is through debates, in person or online. Yet more often than not, people on opposing sides of a... Read more
Caption: Trumpocchio Head of Donald Trump ___________________________________________________________________ DONALD TRUMP is our first post-truth president. And he may well be the first of many. The Oxford Dictionaries website chose “post-truth” as its 2016 word of the year, in large part due to Trump’s success in the presidential election. It defined post-truth as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” (Incidentally, the 2015 word of the... Read more
Thanks for taking the time to learn more about me! I am an Openly Secular activist for reason whose primary vocation is helping people, organizations, and our society as a whole avoid disaster through science-based decision-making and emotional and social intelligence. Poor decision-making is one of the worst and most damaging problems facing us as human beings, since so many of all our other problems stem from it. People make bad decisions in their everyday lives, which results in them... Read more
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