Author: David Koepsell

“Our technologies are certainly changing us and our planet.”

“It remains to be seen whether nanotechnology will suffer lapses such as those of medical science.”

Given the lapses by scientists, governments, and corporations in permitting harms that have come about through the development of technology and marketing of products outside of medicine, might we consider applying the Belmont Principles to scientific research in general?

Humanists have a special obligation to defend the humanities, in education and in society.

Pop culture surrendered to despair because it is easier to embrace our doom than to do something about it.

“How much variety in types of politics can exist consistent with humanism?”

If we choose to pave our way through suffering with labels such as like “good” and “evil,” we should not expect this to alter our suffering.

A foundational research paper underlying the field of positive psychology has been, well, positively refuted.

Our approach toward a more secular society cannot be solely achieved through the courts.

Tom Flynn recently offered me the opportunity to write about my four years as head of the Council for Secular Humanism (from late 2003 to 2008). To sweeten the deal, he assured me that I could write whatever I wanted. Well, such an offer could hardly go unanswered! But as I thought back on my …

For more than fifteen years now— essentially since Peter D. Kramer’s Listening to Prozac helped a generation overcome much of the stigma associated with one of the most common health problems in the United States— antidepressant use has grown steadily. Even while the drug war placed many so-called recreational drugs off-limits to those inclined to …

Four years ago, I took the position of executive director here at the Council for Secular Humanism. The job intrigued me, faced as we were at the time with political and social challenges that seemed, frankly, insurmountable. President George W. Bush was at the height of his popularity, and his outrageous affronts to secularism, as …

We live in a culture of increasing alienation. We are estranged from our friends, families, and communities. Work may overwhelm and exhaust us, leaving us little time to commune with others. There are challenges to developing relationships with our coworkers—the average worker now entering the U.S. workforce can expect to have ten jobs by the …

Recently, our colleague and friend Matt Nisbet reopened an old wound by suggesting on his blog, Framing Science, that atheism is not a civil rights issue. Nisbet’s post referenced an article written by Austin Dacey and D.J. Grothe that appeared in the February/March 2004 issue of Free Inquiry, titled “Atheism Is Not a Civil Rights …