
On Activism
My philosophy towards teaching is that it is a sort of sacrosanct profession. It is something that is too important to take lightly and a teacher should never overstep the bounds of his or her subject. This particular thinking of mine resulted from having, in public (state-funded) schools, my own …

Going Up Against the Good News Club: An Interview with Dan Courtney
Dan Courtney is President Emeritus of the Freethinkers of Upstate New York and is active in a number of Freethought and church/state separation groups. Dan gained international attention for being the first Atheist to offer an invocation at the Town of Greece following the US Supreme Court’s ruling on the …

Creationists in Astronomy Class are Not Fun!
Every semester as part of the general astronomy class I teach it is required that we do a few lectures on the history of astronomy. It is intended that we start all the way back into ancient astronomy and talk about how the people of the time viewed their Earth …

Required Readings, 12 December 2013
Religion! Women! Minorities! Universal Childcare! Other hot-button topics! All in today’s required readings. People home-schooled by religious parents are starting to fight back. The New York Times weighs in on solutions to bringing more women and minorities into STEM. Childcare is key to a healthy economy and society, say UK …
Required Readings, 31 October 2013
Happy Halloween, teachers and learners! I’ve got spine-tingling required readings for you today. In Michigan, school districts differ on how to handle Halloween, a “controversial” holiday. Well, other schools know exactly what to do with Halloween in school: ban it! The faith writer at the Washington Post advocates toning it …

Required Readings, 20 October 2013
Government’s dire experiment of shutting down science, the Roswellian syndrome and more. Good morning everyone, enjoy your Sunday and, hopefully, your reading as well! The Government Shutdown Was Temporary, Its Damage to Science Permanent – this only shows why science education should be much better than it is now, so …

Pop Quiz: Surprise Jesus
This is going to be a quick Pop Quiz since I’m off on school hike into the rainy Scottish wilderness shortly. If I don’t post anything else after today, then I’m probably at the bottom of a ravine somewhere. You guys can have my stuff. Today I wanted to ask …

Quebec helpfully shows how NOT to do secularism
There is currently a fair bit of controversy over the ruling separatist government’s plans to institute a “Charter of Quebec Values” [note: English version is incomplete and mostly still in French…quelle surprise] that would ostensibly put an end to the years-long question of what constitutes “reasonable accommodation” of religious minorities …

Spiritual Martians, Pieta Vandalism, and an Old Man’s Groceries: A Day in the Life of Richard
As an AIH (Atheist in Hiding) while at work, it can be hard to carry on the charade day after day, week after week, even year after year. The challenge is dealing with the misconceptions and misinformation. I have chosen a particularly interesting day from last week to help highlight …

Et tu, Radiolab?
It’s time for my morning jog and I spend a few minutes looking over my list of podcasts to choose my educational listenings for the next hour or so. Scrolling through my podcasts I find my trusted running companion, Radiolab. A new episode. Thanks, loyal friend. If you are not …