__________________________________________________________________ President Donald Trump signed a directive on Friday August 25 following up on his earlier tweets that he “will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.” Whatever you think about the decree, the spin from the Trump administration about it amounts to gaslighting of the transgender community. Consider the terms of this order. It prevents any new openly transgender recruits from joining the armed forces. It also order the military to… Read more
August 21, 2017
The One Thing Trump Got Right on Charlottesville
August 21, 2017 By Gleb Tsipursky
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Caption: Photo of car involved in car ramming attack (Wikimedia commons) _______________________________________ Both Democratic and Republican leaders roundly denounced President Donald Trump’s statement putting “blame on both sides” about the violence at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, NC on August 12. However, while I personally find reprehensible various forms of white nationalism, racism, and neo-Nazism, Trump’s words that both sides deserve a degree of blame have some validity. A broader context provides more clarity on where Trump is… Read more
August 18, 2017
What Would Gandhi Do About Trump? High-Time for a Science of Wisdom
August 18, 2017 By Gleb Tsipursky
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Caption: Mahatma Gandhi, close-up portrait (image credit) Written by Charles Cassidy MPhys, Director of Evidence-based Wisdom ______________________________________ It was 3:30 AM, and my wife and I were crumpled in stunned silence in the back of a taxi, racing through the deserted streets of South London. Our all-night US election party on November 8, 2016 had taken an unexpected turn from a celebration to a tragedy. Black comedy was fast becoming a dark reality. In defiance of all expectations,… Read more
August 12, 2017
Rumors About Me in the Secular Community
August 12, 2017 By Gleb Tsipursky
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Caption: Meme saying “I don’t always engage with rumors about me, but when I do, I pull out all the stops” (From imgflip.com) ____________________________________________________________________________ As I wrote earlier, rumors abound in the secular community, ranging from true to half-true to mostly false to completely false, and I have been the target of some myself. The situation is so problematic that in 2013, the Secular Coalition for America published an Open Letter signed by a host of major… Read more
July 26, 2017
Advice That Works for Anyone
July 26, 2017 By Gleb Tsipursky
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Guest post by Max Harms ______________________________________________________- When was the last time you got bad advice from someone? How did it feel to be the target of advice that you knew just won’t work for you, even if you might not have been able to say why? Or maybe you didn’t realize the advice was bad until you tried it, and had it backfire! Of course, the person had good intentions, but does it really matter when you suffer… Read more
July 24, 2017
Is Spirituality Irrational?
July 24, 2017 By Gleb Tsipursky
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Guest post by Ron Garret ____________________________________________ Spirituality and rationality seem completely opposed. But are they really? To get at this question, let’s start with a little thought experiment. Consider the following two questions: 1. If you were given a choice between reading a physical book (or an e-book) or listening to an audiobook, which would you prefer? 2. If you were given a choice between listening to music, or looking at the grooves of a phonograph record… Read more
July 23, 2017
How To Avoid Giving Regret
July 23, 2017 By Gleb Tsipursky
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I want to share my story to help you avoid the kind of regret I experienced as a deep churning in my stomach when I found out what bad decisions I made by giving to my favorite charity for many years. Make-A-Wish Foundation helps kids with terminal diseases achieve a grand wish. For example, it could take the child and her family to Disneyland. It then shares the stories of these kids through their marketing materials. These stories are truly heartwarming…. Read more
July 20, 2017
How To Advance Rational Thinking In Your Community
July 20, 2017 By Gleb Tsipursky
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Why don’t they teach this in high school?!? Or even college, for that matter. That’s the reaction that my wife and I had after attending Columbus Rationality meetings. This subgroup of the Humanist Community of Central Ohio, an affiliate of the American Humanist Association, hosts a wide variety of events devoted to advancing rational thinking strategies. My wife and I aren’t alone in our reactions – many attendees report having similar experiences. After an event focused on effective decision-making, one… Read more
July 18, 2017
Political Precommitment without Evidence: How Worldview Undermines Reason
July 18, 2017 By Gleb Tsipursky
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Guest blog by Joel Lehman _____________________ “And so castles made of sand, fall in the sea, eventually.” -Jimi Hendrix Can you recall a romantic relationship gone wrong, and notice in hindsight the clear signs of the impending breakup, even when during the actual unraveling itself you didn’t notice these signs? Maybe there’s a political belief you once embraced that you’ve now let go. Perhaps you thought Ayn Rand was the most important thinker ever, or that Communism… Read more
July 17, 2017
Are Friends the Enemies of Wise Choices? The Hidden Factors Influencing Our Most Important Decisions
July 17, 2017 By Gleb Tsipursky
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By Charles Cassidy MPhys, Director of Evidence-based Wisdom I recently decided to buy a petrol-guzzling car. But was it really me who decided? I don’t like cars. They’re costly on the wallet and toxic to the planet. I also live in London, a city of narrow, victorian streets, where graceful parallel parking is a daily necessity. The only time I have ever gracefully parallel parked was in my driving test 23 years ago. How did I end up… Read more
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