Happy National Day of Reason 2026!

Now, more than ever, America needs a Day of Reason.

With Christian nationalist influence in Congress, and with the threat to our judiciary looming large, it has never been so important to affirm our commitment to the constitutional wall of separation between religion and government, and to celebrate reason as the guiding principle of our secular democracy.

During the past year we have witnessed the intrusion of religious ideology into all spheres of our government, with assaults on the wall separating church and state that include the following:

• Faith-based initiatives in federal agencies that give preferential treatment to religious organizations which proselytize and employ discriminatory hiring practices;
• 
  
• Restrictions on important scientific research on the basis of religious objections;
• 
  
• Attempts to introduce biblical creationism and its alter-ego “Intelligent Design” into our public school science curricula;
• 
  
• The appointment of judges who willingly place their religious beliefs above our laws;
• 
  
• Battles over the display of the Ten Commandments and other overtly religious icons in schools and on courthouses;
• 
  
• Religiously motivated restrictions on access to reproductive services and information; and
• 
  
• The push to place chaplains in public schools.
• 
  
• Increased attacks on access to abortion, IVF, and other reproductive healthcare across the states
• 
  
• Ramped up repression of the rights LGBTQIA+ people, particularly trans* youth, and their families

As in previous years, this year’s National Day of Reason occurs in close proximity with the congressionally mandated and federally supported National Day of Prayer. We thank all who value the separation of religion and government & join us in commemorating this year’s Day of Reason, and in building awareness for this important cause.

What can you do to demonstrate your support for a Day of Reason?

• Plan a special event to commemorate the NDoR, such as a teach-in, special lecture, or social gathering;
• 
  
• Host a Lobby Day at your state capitol;
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• Work to have a Day of Reason proclaimed by your state or local government;
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• Hold a press conference for your local media to promote respect for the separation of religion and government, and to draw attention to the many breaches of that principle during recent months;
• 
  
• Organize a letter-writing campaign urging your elected officials to support the separation of religion and government;
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• Write op eds or letters to the editor to spread awareness;
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• Visit the National Day of Reason website to view planned events and read media coverage from previous years.

We invite individuals and organizations to submit information about their plans to commemorate the National Day of Reason and their efforts to educate the public about the important underlying issues. Those conducting events, activism or outreach in their communities will be featured on this site so that activists can readily identify opportunities to organize and participate in local events.

There is great potential this year to give voice to our shared concerns about the serious threats to the wall separating church and state. We hope that you will visit our site, and we look forward to hearing about your plans to observe the National Day of Reason.

For more information about The National Day Of Reason, visit the website:
http://nationaldayofreason.org/

Happy National Day of Reason 2025!

Celebrated the first Thursday of every May, today is the National Day Of Reason. It is more important now than ever to promote reason and truth; we (our country, our government, and Democracy itself) barely survived the last administration which has returned to destroy the fabric of our lives. There is a large segment of the citizenry who don't care about facts or reality or obvious consequences such as spreading a deadly pandemic. We need Reason, Logic, and Action, not thoughts and prayers.

The National Day of Reason was created by the American Humanist Association and the Washington Area Secular Humanists in 2003. In addition to serving as a holiday for constitutionalists and secularists, the National Day of Reason was created in response to the perceived unconstitutionality of the National Day of Prayer.

The National Day Of Reason site says:

NOW, MORE THAN EVER, AMERICA NEEDS A DAY OF REASON.

With the religious right’s influence in Congress, and with the threat to our judiciary looming large, there has never been as important a moment in which to affirm our commitment to the constitutional separation of religion and government, and to celebrate reason as the guiding principle of our secular democracy.

During the past year we have witnessed the intrusion of religious ideology into all spheres of our government, with such assaults on the wall separating church and state as:

Faith-based initiatives in federal agencies that give preferential treatment to religious organizations which proselytize and employ discriminatory hiring practices;

Restrictions on important scientific research on the basis of religious objections;

Attempts to introduce biblical creationism and its alter-ego “Intelligent Design” into our public school science curricula;

The appointment of judges who willingly place their religious beliefs above our laws;

Battles over the display of the Ten Commandments and other overtly religious icons in schools and on courthouses;

Religiously motivated restrictions on access to reproductive services and information.

As in previous years, this year’s National Day of Reason occurs in close proximity with the congressionally mandated and federally supported National Day of Prayer. We thank all who value the separation of religion and government & join us in commemorating this year’s Day of Reason, and in building awareness for this important cause.

For more information about The National Day Of Reason, visit the website:
http://nationaldayofreason.org/

Happy National Day of Reason 2024!

Celebrated the first Thursday of every May, today is the National Day Of Reason. It is more important now than ever to promote reason and truth; we (our country, our government, and Democracy itself) barely survived the last administration which is threatening to return and destroy the fabric of our lives. There is a large segment of the citizenry who don't care about facts or reality or obvious consequences such as spreading a deadly pandemic. We need Reason, Logic, and Action, not thoughts and prayers.

The National Day of Reason was created by the American Humanist Association and the Washington Area Secular Humanists in 2003. In addition to serving as a holiday for constitutionalists and secularists, the National Day of Reason was created in response to the perceived unconstitutionality of the National Day of Prayer.

The National Day Of Reason site says:

NOW, MORE THAN EVER, AMERICA NEEDS A DAY OF REASON.

With the religious right’s influence in Congress, and with the threat to our judiciary looming large, there has never been as important a moment in which to affirm our commitment to the constitutional separation of religion and government, and to celebrate reason as the guiding principle of our secular democracy.

During the past year we have witnessed the intrusion of religious ideology into all spheres of our government, with such assaults on the wall separating church and state as:

Faith-based initiatives in federal agencies that give preferential treatment to religious organizations which proselytize and employ discriminatory hiring practices;

Restrictions on important scientific research on the basis of religious objections;

Attempts to introduce biblical creationism and its alter-ego “Intelligent Design” into our public school science curricula;

The appointment of judges who willingly place their religious beliefs above our laws;

Battles over the display of the Ten Commandments and other overtly religious icons in schools and on courthouses;

Religiously motivated restrictions on access to reproductive services and information.

As in previous years, this year’s National Day of Reason occurs in close proximity with the congressionally mandated and federally supported National Day of Prayer. We thank all who value the separation of religion and government & join us in commemorating this year’s Day of Reason, and in building awareness for this important cause.

For more information about The National Day Of Reason, visit the website:
http://nationaldayofreason.org/

Happy National Day of Reason 2023!

Celebrated the first Thursday of every May, today is the National Day Of Reason. It is more important now than ever to promote reason and truth; we (our country, our government, and Democracy itself) barely survived the last administration and there are still huge groups who continue to believe in bizarre conspiracy theories that threaten the fabric of our lives. There is a large segment of the citizenry who don't care about facts or reality or obvious consequences such as spreading a deadly pandemic. We need Reason, Logic, and Action, not thoughts and prayers.

The National Day of Reason was created by the American Humanist Association and the Washington Area Secular Humanists in 2003. In addition to serving as a holiday for constitutionalists and secularists, the National Day of Reason was created in response to the perceived unconstitutionality of the National Day of Prayer.

The National Day Of Reason site says:

NOW, MORE THAN EVER, AMERICA NEEDS A DAY OF REASON.

With the religious right’s influence in Congress, and with the threat to our judiciary looming large, there has never been as important a moment in which to affirm our commitment to the constitutional separation of religion and government, and to celebrate reason as the guiding principle of our secular democracy.

During the past year we have witnessed the intrusion of religious ideology into all spheres of our government, with such assaults on the wall separating church and state as:

Faith-based initiatives in federal agencies that give preferential treatment to religious organizations which proselytize and employ discriminatory hiring practices;

Restrictions on important scientific research on the basis of religious objections;

Attempts to introduce biblical creationism and its alter-ego “Intelligent Design” into our public school science curricula;

The appointment of judges who willingly place their religious beliefs above our laws;

Battles over the display of the Ten Commandments and other overtly religious icons in schools and on courthouses;

Religiously motivated restrictions on access to reproductive services and information.

As in previous years, this year’s National Day of Reason occurs in close proximity with the congressionally mandated and federally supported National Day of Prayer. We thank all who value the separation of religion and government & join us in commemorating this year’s Day of Reason, and in building awareness for this important cause.

For more information about The National Day Of Reason, visit the website:
http://nationaldayofreason.org/

Happy National Day of Reason 2022!

Celebrated the first Thursday of every May, today is the National Day Of Reason. It is more important now than ever to promote reason and truth; we (our country, our government, and Democracy itself) barely survived the last administration and there are still huge groups who continue to believe in bizarre conspiracy theories that threaten the fabric of our lives. There is a large segment of the citizenry who don't care about facts or reality or obvious consequences such as spreading a deadly pandemic. We need Reason, Logic, and Action, not thoughts and prayers.

The National Day of Reason was created by the American Humanist Association and the Washington Area Secular Humanists in 2003. In addition to serving as a holiday for constitutionalists and secularists, the National Day of Reason was created in response to the perceived unconstitutionality of the National Day of Prayer.

The National Day Of Reason site says:

NOW, MORE THAN EVER, AMERICA NEEDS A DAY OF REASON.
With the religious right’s influence in Congress, and with the threat to our judiciary looming large, there has never been as important a moment in which to affirm our commitment to the constitutional separation of religion and government, and to celebrate reason as the guiding principle of our secular democracy.

During the past year we have witnessed the intrusion of religious ideology into all spheres of our government, with such assaults on the wall separating church and state as:

Faith-based initiatives in federal agencies that give preferential treatment to religious organizations which proselytize and employ discriminatory hiring practices;

Restrictions on important scientific research on the basis of religious objections;

Attempts to introduce biblical creationism and its alter-ego “Intelligent Design” into our public school science curricula;

The appointment of judges who willingly place their religious beliefs above our laws;

Battles over the display of the Ten Commandments and other overtly religious icons in schools and on courthouses;

Religiously motivated restrictions on access to reproductive services and information.

As in previous years, this year’s National Day of Reason coincides with the congressionally mandated and federally supported National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 6, 2022. We thank all who value the separation of religion and government & join us in commemorating this year’s Day of Reason, and in building awareness for this important cause.

For more information about The National Day Of Reason, visit the website:

http://nationaldayofreason.org/

"Head On" by José González

"Head On' by José González (previously here).

 
Yes.

González says, "I'm thrilled to share with you 'Head On'. I wrote it as a combat song or a list of instructions...a manual. I mean both ‘straight ahead’ and head ON - as in switching on your mind. It was inspired by Fela Kuti’s 'Zombie' and the way I used to write lyrics for my hardcore band.

Video director Cee Karlsson says: 'The animations for ‘Head On’ are based on a cellular automaton called ‘Game of Life’ created by mathematician John Horton Conway. ’Game of Life’ has emergent properties, meaning that complex forms can arise, or evolve, through simple individual parts. Without any designer, plan or intent. In the video, we used visuals from ‘Game of Life’ as an analogy for the flow of information; bits of information forming patterns. Adapting. Evolving. Mutating. Like memes, or mind viruses; positive, neutral or negative. Traveling from mind to mind in a never-ending war of ideas that we all participate in and are influenced by.'"

 

Action
Reaction
Stay with it
Hang on
Engage
Disengage
Deal with it head on

Head on

Inhale
Exhale
Wave coming
Undertow
Speed up
Go slow
Put on your new boots and deal with it
While marching on

Head on

Speak up
Stand down
Pick your battles
Look around
Reflect
Update
Pause your intuitions and deal with it head on

Head on

Rent seekers
Value extractors
Corrupt oligarchs
Power snatchers
Pervert incentives
Ludic loops
Nepotism
Tribal troops

Deflate
Escalate
Hit the sweet spot
Ignore the hate
Forget your miracles
Forget your god
Join forces and deal with it head on

Head on

http://jose-gonzalez.com/

Happy National Day of Reason 2021!

Celebrated the first Thursday of every May, today is the National Day Of Reason. It is more important now than ever to promote reason and truth; we (our country, our government, and Democracy itself) barely survived the last four years of the last administration yet there are still huge groups who continue to believe in bizarre conspiracy theories that threaten the fabric of our lives. There is a large segment of the citizenry since who don't care about facts or reality or obvious consequences such as spreading a deadly pandemic. We need Reason, Logic, and Action, not thoughts and prayers.

The National Day of Reason was created by the American Humanist Association and the Washington Area Secular Humanists in 2003. In addition to serving as a holiday for constitutionalists and secularists, the National Day of Reason was created in response to the perceived unconstitutionality of the National Day of Prayer.

The National Day Of Reason site says:

NOW, MORE THAN EVER, AMERICA NEEDS A DAY OF REASON.
With the religious right’s influence in Congress, and with the threat to our judiciary looming large, there has never been as important a moment in which to affirm our commitment to the constitutional separation of religion and government, and to celebrate reason as the guiding principle of our secular democracy.

During the past year we have witnessed the intrusion of religious ideology into all spheres of our government, with such assaults on the wall separating church and state as:

Faith-based initiatives in federal agencies that give preferential treatment to religious organizations which proselytize and employ discriminatory hiring practices;

Restrictions on important scientific research on the basis of religious objections;

Attempts to introduce biblical creationism and its alter-ego “Intelligent Design” into our public school science curricula;

The appointment of judges who willingly place their religious beliefs above our laws;

Battles over the display of the Ten Commandments and other overtly religious icons in schools and on courthouses;

Religiously motivated restrictions on access to reproductive services and information.

As in previous years, this year’s National Day of Reason coincides with the congressionally mandated and federally supported National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 6, 2021. We thank all who value the separation of religion and government & join us in commemorating this year’s Day of Reason, and in building awareness for this important cause.

For more information about The National Day Of Reason, visit the website:

http://nationaldayofreason.org/

Humanism In A Nutshell

https://humanism.org.uk/

Happy National Day Of Reason 2020!

Celebrated the first Thursday of every May, today is the National Day Of Reason. It is more important now than ever to promote reason and truth since we seem to be living in a time when so many don't care about facts or reality or obvious consequences.

The National Day of Reason was created by the American Humanist Association and the Washington Area Secular Humanists in 2003. In addition to serving as a holiday for constitutionalists and secularists, the National Day of Reason was created in response to the perceived unconstitutionality of the National Day of Prayer.

The National Day Of Reason site says:

NOW, MORE THAN EVER, AMERICA NEEDS A DAY OF REASON.
With the religious right’s influence in Congress, and with the threat to our judiciary looming large, there has never been as important a moment in which to affirm our commitment to the constitutional separation of religion and government, and to celebrate reason as the guiding principle of our secular democracy.

During the past year we have witnessed the intrusion of religious ideology into all spheres of our government, with such assaults on the wall separating church and state as:

Faith-based initiatives in federal agencies that give preferential treatment to religious organizations which proselytize and employ discriminatory hiring practices;

Restrictions on important scientific research on the basis of religious objections;

Attempts to introduce biblical creationism and its alter-ego “Intelligent Design” into our public school science curricula;

The appointment of judges who willingly place their religious beliefs above our laws;

Battles over the display of the Ten Commandments and other overtly religious icons in schools and on courthouses;

Religiously motivated restrictions on access to reproductive services and information.

As in previous years, this year’s National Day of Reason coincides with the congressionally mandated and federally supported National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 7, 2020. We thank all who value the separation of religion and government & join us in commemorating this year’s Day of Reason, and in building awareness for this important cause.

For more information about The National Day Of Reason, visit the website:

http://nationaldayofreason.org/

Happy National Day Of Reason 2018!

Celebrated the first Thursday of every May, today is the National Day Of Reason. It is more important now than ever to promote reason and truth since we seem to be living in a time when so many don't care about facts or reality or obvious consequences.

The National Day of Reason was created by the American Humanist Association and the Washington Area Secular Humanists in 2003. In addition to serving as a holiday for constitutionalists and secularists, the National Day of Reason was created in response to the perceived unconstitutionality of the National Day of Prayer.

The National Day Of Reason site says:
"A consortium of leaders from within the community of reason endorsed the idea of a National Day of Reason. This observance is held in parallel with the National Day of Prayer, on the first Thursday in May each year. The goal of this effort is to celebrate reason—a concept all Americans can support—and to raise public awareness about the persistent threat to religious liberty posed by government intrusion into the private sphere of worship. The National Day of Reason website is co-sponsored by the American Humanist Association and the Washington Area Secular Humanists. The Day of Reason also exists to inspire the secular community to be visible and active on this day to set the right example for how to effect positive change. Local organizations might use “Day of Reason” to label their events, or they might choose labels such as Day of Action, Day of Service, or Rational Day of Care. The important message is to provide a positive, useful, constitutional alternative to the exclusionary National Day of Prayer."

And to celebrate National Day Of Reason, here is a lovely video of José González (previously here, here, here, and especially here) singing his song "Leaf Off/The Cave" live at a Sunday Assembly meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden.
The Sunday Assembly website says:
"The Sunday Assembly was started by Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans, two comedians who were on the way to a gig in Bath when they discovered they both wanted to do something that was like church but totally secular and inclusive of all—no matter what they believed.

The first ever Sunday Assembly meeting took place on January 6th 2013 at The Nave in Islington. Almost 200 people turned up at the first meeting, 300 at the second and soon people all over the world asked to start one.

Now there are over 70 Sunday Assembly chapters in 8 different countries where people sing songs, hear inspiring talks, and create community together.

Why do we exist? Life is short, it is brilliant, it is sometimes tough, we build communities that help everyone live life as fully as possible."

So, as Sanderson Jones says in the video, let's "live better, help often, and wonder more" today and every day!

Let the light lead you out
Let the light lead you out

Why can't you take the leaf off your mouth
Now that you have the facts on your side?
Take a moment to reflect where you're from
Let reason guide you
See all tracks lead you out from the dark
See all tracks lead you out to the stars

Why can't you take the leaf off your mouth
Now that you have the facts on your side?
Take a moment to reflect where we're going
Let reason guide you
See all tracks lead you out from the dark
See all tracks lead you out to the stars

Let the light lead you out
Let the light lead you out

Why can't you take the leaf off you're mouth
Now that you have the facts on your side?
Take a moment to reflect who we are
Let reason guide you
See all tracks lead you out from the dark

How the light feeds life
What makes up you and I
What it takes to thrive
What we need to survive
How we flourish and die
What it means to be alive
What it means to be alive

Let the light lead you out
Let the light lead you out

For more information about The National Day Of Reason, visit the website:
http://nationaldayofreason.org/

For more information about Sunday Assembly and to find a chapter near you, visit:
http://www.sundayassembly.com/

And to learn more about Jose, visit:
http://jose-gonzalez.com/

"A Point of View: When does borrowing from other cultures become 'appropriation'?" by Adam Gopnik

This is a great, thoughtful article by writer Adam Gopnik--a transcription of his regular Radio 4 show "A Point of View"--which appeared on the BBC website.

A Point of View: When does borrowing from other cultures become 'appropriation'?

You may have heard of the current kerfuffle here in America about the sin of what is being called "cultural appropriation". Some students at Bowdoin, a small liberal arts college in chilly Maine, were punished recently for wearing Mexican sombreros at a Mexican theme party. They had appropriated Mexican culture as a white person's prerogative.

Then, at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the practice of trying on a kimono for a selfie in front of a Monet painting of a French woman wearing a kimono was declared verboten for Boston, so to speak. It was a form of cultural appropriation of what belongs to Japan, while a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Mikado" was closed down for the same reason. It showed only a racist stereotype of Japan, as imperially imagined by Victorians. There have been more incidents, many at liberal arts colleges, involving Chinese food and the art form we wrongly call "belly dancing" and even the hugely popular practice of yoga. They belong to Others, and we cannot have them, or take them, for ourselves.

Now, I am not about to launch into a tirade against the "politically correct". I am old enough to recall that political correctness actually began as a term of self-mockery used by the hyper-sensitive, ruefully, against themselves, lightly guying their own good efforts at eliminating the casual sadism of daily interactions. "I guess I'm just being a little politically correct here, but…" someone almost always a woman) would say in the 1980s, and then point out an instance of unconscious sexism somewhere in the room. And in truth, "politically correct" is almost always these days synonymous with "sensitively courteous". We know this because when someone says "I am not going to be politically correct!", what he - and it is always a he - really means is, "I am not going to be sensitively courteous to anyone's feelings except my own and that of my gang!" We have a demonstration of this principle every night on our screens over here these days, and it is a nightmare.

Nonetheless, I would be lying if I did not say that the practice we call PC has its absurd aspects. It is funny because it puts more weight on the words we use than the actions we take, always a mistake. My son's dormitory at his liberal arts college has a live-in resident of deliberately indeterminate gender who wants to be referred to neither as "he" nor "she" - they are imprisoning patriarchal categories - nor as "it "(that would be an objectifying put-down) but as "they" and " them". This is at least convivial. When he - no, she - no, they - are there, it's always a party.

There is something funny about this undue weight given to words, because we can't be endlessly sensitive and attentive and courteous in every interaction we have in life. People who try end up seeming insipid and exasperating rather than entirely admirable. My own wife, Martha, for instance, who does try to be so in every exchange, is, though much loved, also famous for the length of time it takes her to extricate herself from a social occasion, having first to be certain that she has been nice to everyone. This leads her, perversely, to avoid many social occasions for fear of wearing herself out from attentiveness - the price of such niceness can be very high. Prolonged punctiliousness is exhausting to all, particularly to husbands - er, mates - er, partners - er, co-habitating life colleagues.

But the idea that cultures - recipes or poses or even hats - belong to one group rather than another is something worse than a moment in a comedy of manners - or, rather, it misses the way that a larger comedy of manners has always shaped what we mean by culture. Cultural mixing - the hybridisation of hats, if you like - is the rule of civilisation, not some new intrusion within our own. Healthy civilisations have always been mongrelised, cosmopolitan, hybrid, corrupted and expropriated and mixed. Healthy societies seek out that kind of corruption because they know it is the secret of pleasure. They count their health in the number of imported spices on their shelves.

One of my favourite stories of how healthy cultural hybrids happen involves Japan and the West, though not, in this case, the Mikado. You know those beautiful 19th Century Japanese prints, by Hiroshige or Hokusai or their friends, poetically depicting everyday events, or favourite places, all in charming comic book colour, with Mount Fuji often delicately if secretively included in every view (like a kind of sublime Where's Wally). Those delicate black-edged figures and long almost cartoonish faces, those startling juxtapositions of foreground and distance, that informal and haiku-like lyricism - Japanese prints had, as everybody is taught in class, an enormous influence on French Impressionist art in the middle of the 19th Century. They were, exactly, an exotic appropriation.

Well, it turns out that they weren't really exotic at all. They were the product of the Japanese infatuation with Western perspective drawing and graphics, which had only recently arrived in Japan on ships and boats as part of the Japanese opening to the West. The Japanese artists saw them, and saw expressive possibilities in them that the Western artists were too habituated to the system to notice. The Japanese appropriated Western perspective in ways that Westerners would never have imagined. Then the Japanese pictures got sent back to Europe, where they looked wonderfully exotic, and re-made the Western art they originally hailed from. It's exactly the same process that happened in our own lifetime when Howlin' Wolf and Big Bill Broonzy records sailed over to Liverpool and the suburbs of London and were heard by boys who barely understood their context but loved their attitude. Ten years later you got Mick Jagger and John Lennon. Innocent imitation is always the engine of cultural innovation.

Nor is it just that the borrowings can be beautiful. The things we borrow show us the things we are. Having passed through Chuck Berry, The Beatles and the Stones could better claim their own distinctive Englishness. In the same way, distinctly English food - all those real beers and farmhouse cheddars - has only gotten better because restaurants that served real Italian food helped showed how wonderful a coherent seasonal market-based cuisine could be. If we want to be ourselves, we have to travel - and nowadays, we do much of our travelling internally.

If all you know is your provincial culture, you don't know enough to know if your culture is provincial or not. When it ceases to be, you're not wise enough to recognise it. Appropriation is far more often empowering than oppressing. There's no cheaper way to get the drop on a bad guy than to borrow his hymns and habits and make them your own. That's what diaspora Jews have done throughout their history. It's how German bred with Hebrew to become Yiddish and Yiddish became the great language of Jewish folk tale and protest.

So cultures cannot be corrupted enough, civilizations cannot be appropriated too often. Nor is this only seen in heroic acts of original innovation. It's a nightly act of healthy practice. Last night, for instance, I made a Burmese curry, which combines Indian spices - cumin and turmeric - with the Chinese technique of stir-frying. The ingredients came from our local New York City Greenmarket - and I always mix butter in with the cooking oil, a habit picked up in Paris. The recipe also calls for yogurt, but my wife, of Icelandic extraction, prefers skyr, and it's all put together by me, while I amuse no one but myself by doing my very bad international accents. So it's actually a Jewish-Icelandic-Chinese-Indian-Burmese -French emigre-New York state stir-fry. All in one pot, and five minutes.

That's the norm of cooking. That's the norm of life. Blurring the boundaries of culture is what cooking does. When we do the same thing in ways that last longer than dinner, we call it art. Done often enough, it makes what we call civilisation.

So wear sombreros and kimonos and Mormon underwear beneath, if you so like. Eat Chinese food with Indian spices and French butter and celebrate the range of being human. We are mixed in nature, many in our very essence. We can't help it. To be human is to be hybrid. It is as close to a rule of life as you can ever hope to find.

Original article here:
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35782855

"All Scientists Should Be Militant Atheists" by Lawrence M. Kruss

From The New Yorker.
Thank you, Lawrence!


SEPTEMBER 8, 2015
All Scientists Should Be Militant Atheists
BY LAWRENCE M. KRAUSS

As a physicist, I do a lot of writing and public speaking about the remarkable nature of our cosmos, primarily because I think science is a key part of our cultural heritage and needs to be shared more broadly. Sometimes, I refer to the fact that religion and science are often in conflict; from time to time, I ridicule religious dogma. When I do, I sometimes get accused in public of being a “militant atheist.” Even a surprising number of my colleagues politely ask if it wouldn’t be better to avoid alienating religious people. Shouldn’t we respect religious sensibilities, masking potential conflicts and building common ground with religious groups so as to create a better, more equitable world?

I found myself thinking about those questions this week as I followed the story of Kim Davis, the county clerk in Kentucky who directly disobeyed a federal judge’s order to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, and, as a result, was jailed for contempt of court. (She was released earlier today.) Davis’s supporters, including the Kentucky senator and Presidential candidate Rand Paul, are protesting what they believe to be an affront to her religious freedom. It is “absurd to put someone in jail for exercising their religious liberties,” Paul said, on CNN.

The Kim Davis story raises a basic question: To what extent should we allow people to break the law if their religious views are in conflict with it? It’s possible to take that question to an extreme that even Senator Paul might find absurd: imagine, for example, a jihadist whose interpretation of the Koran suggested that he should be allowed to behead infidels and apostates. Should he be allowed to break the law? Or—to consider a less extreme case—imagine an Islamic-fundamentalist county clerk who would not let unmarried men and women enter the courthouse together, or grant marriage licenses to unveiled women. For Rand Paul, what separates these cases from Kim Davis’s? The biggest difference, I suspect, is that Senator Paul agrees with Kim Davis’s religious views but disagrees with those of the hypothetical Islamic fundamentalist.

The problem, obviously, is that what is sacred to one person can be meaningless (or repugnant) to another. That’s one of the reasons why a modern secular society generally legislates against actions, not ideas. No idea or belief should be illegal; conversely, no idea should be so sacred that it legally justifies actions that would otherwise be illegal. Davis is free to believe whatever she wants, just as the jihadist is free to believe whatever he wants; in both cases, the law constrains not what they believe but what they do.

In recent years, this territory has grown murkier. Under the banner of religious freedom, individuals, states, and even—in the case of Hobby Lobby—corporations have been arguing that they should be exempt from the law on religious grounds. (The laws from which they wish to claim exemption do not focus on religion; instead, they have to do with social issues, such as abortion and gay marriage.) The government has a compelling interest in insuring that all citizens are treated equally. But “religious freedom” advocates argue that religious ideals should be elevated above all others as a rationale for action. In a secular society, this is inappropriate.

The Kim Davis controversy exists because, as a culture, we have elevated respect for religious sensibilities to an inappropriate level that makes society less free, not more. Religious liberty should mean that no set of religious ideals are treated differently from other ideals. Laws should not be enacted whose sole purpose is to denigrate them, but, by the same token, the law shouldn’t elevate them, either.

In science, of course, the very word “sacred” is profane. No ideas, religious or otherwise, get a free pass. The notion that some idea or concept is beyond question or attack is anathema to the entire scientific undertaking. This commitment to open questioning is deeply tied to the fact that science is an atheistic enterprise. “My practice as a scientist is atheistic,” the biologist J.B.S. Haldane wrote, in 1934. “That is to say, when I set up an experiment I assume that no god, angel, or devil is going to interfere with its course and this assumption has been justified by such success as I have achieved in my professional career.” It’s ironic, really, that so many people are fixated on the relationship between science and religion: basically, there isn’t one. In my more than thirty years as a practicing physicist, I have never heard the word “God” mentioned in a scientific meeting. Belief or nonbelief in God is irrelevant to our understanding of the workings of nature—just as it’s irrelevant to the question of whether or not citizens are obligated to follow the law.

Because science holds that no idea is sacred, it’s inevitable that it draws people away from religion. The more we learn about the workings of the universe, the more purposeless it seems. Scientists have an obligation not to lie about the natural world. Even so, to avoid offense, they sometimes misleadingly imply that today’s discoveries exist in easy harmony with preëxisting religious doctrines, or remain silent rather than pointing out contradictions between science and religious doctrine. It’s a strange inconsistency, since scientists often happily disagree with other kinds of beliefs. Astronomers have no problem ridiculing the claims of astrologists, even though a significant fraction of the public believes these claims. Doctors have no problem condemning the actions of anti-vaccine activists who endanger children. And yet, for reasons of decorum, many scientists worry that ridiculing certain religious claims alienates the public from science. When they do so, they are being condescending at best and hypocritical at worst.

This reticence can have significant consequences. Consider the example of Planned Parenthood. Lawmakers are calling for a government shutdown unless federal funds for Planned Parenthood are stripped from spending bills for the fiscal year starting October 1st. Why? Because Planned Parenthood provides fetal tissue samples from abortions to scientific researchers hoping to cure diseases, from Alzheimer’s to cancer. (Storing and safeguarding that tissue requires resources, and Planned Parenthood charges researchers for the costs.) It’s clear that many of the people protesting Planned Parenthood are opposed to abortion on religious grounds and are, to varying degrees, anti-science. Should this cause scientists to clam up at the risk of further offending or alienating them? Or should we speak out loudly to point out that, independent of one’s beliefs about what is sacred, this tissue would otherwise be thrown away, even though it could help improve and save lives?

Ultimately, when we hesitate to openly question beliefs because we don’t want to risk offense, questioning itself becomes taboo. It is here that the imperative for scientists to speak out seems to me to be most urgent. As a result of speaking out on issues of science and religion, I have heard from many young people about the shame and ostracism they experience after merely questioning their family’s faith. Sometimes, they find themselves denied rights and privileges because their actions confront the faith of others. Scientists need to be prepared to demonstrate by example that questioning perceived truth, especially “sacred truth,” is an essential part of living in a free country.

I see a direct link, in short, between the ethics that guide science and those that guide civic life. Cosmology, my specialty, may appear to be far removed from Kim Davis’s refusal to grant marriage licenses to gay couples, but in fact the same values apply in both realms. Whenever scientific claims are presented as unquestionable, they undermine science. Similarly, when religious actions or claims about sanctity can be made with impunity in our society, we undermine the very basis of modern secular democracy. We owe it to ourselves and to our children not to give a free pass to governments—totalitarian, theocratic, or democratic—that endorse, encourage, enforce, or otherwise legitimize the suppression of open questioning in order to protect ideas that are considered “sacred.” Five hundred years of science have liberated humanity from the shackles of enforced ignorance. We should celebrate this openly and enthusiastically, regardless of whom it may offend.

If that is what causes someone to be called a militant atheist, then no scientist should be ashamed of the label.

Lawrence M. Krauss is the foundation professor and director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University, and the chair of the board of sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. His books include “The Physics of Star Trek” and, most recently, “A Universe from Nothing.”


Original article here:
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/all-scientists-should-be-militant-atheists

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