Secular America: Paine, Jefferson, and Madison

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was born in England but later migrated to America. His two pamphlets Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776-83) would be highly influential at the beginning of the American Revolution. Common Sense supported America’s independence from England, while The American Crisis inspired the Army which was to fight for that independence. But Paine also…

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The Most Bizarre and Disturbing Verses in the Bible

Some believe that the Book of Ezekiel contains passages about a UFO sighting. The Book of Ezekiel is full of ‘visions’ and this particular one is called ‘Ezekiel’s Wheel’: In Ezekiel 1:4, “I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north–an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The…

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Are We Living in a Multiverse?

The multiverse idea says that many universes exist, possibly an infinite number of them. The term ‘Universe’ literally means everything that there is, but it can also be more narrowly defined as everything that we can observe. This narrow definition allows for the possibility that other universes exist beyond this one, it’s just that we…

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Drug Addiction: A Health or Criminal Issue?

Before deciding whether drug addiction is a health or criminal issue, it is also important to understand what drug addiction is and how addiction in general works. People sometimes make a distinction between a physical addiction and a psychological addiction to something. Both are physical in nature since psychology boils down to physical processes, but it does seem…

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What is Secular Buddhism?

Can you be an atheist and a Buddhist? At first glance, it seems like it would be inconsistent to be both, to be someone who does not believe in God but belongs to a religion. But there is now a growing form of Buddhism, in the Western world at least, which is based on humanism…

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