Author: Adam Lee

I hate to say it, but there are still monsters in the world. They’re not the supernatural beasts that myth and imagination have populated the night with. They aren’t ghouls who want to devour our flesh. They don’t have fangs or talons by which to identify them. The real monsters take human shape. If you…

Few people realize it, but secular humanism—the progressive crusade to improve life for all—may be the chief driving force of western civilization. Humanism means helping people, and secular means doing it without supernatural religion. The movement soared three centuries ago in the Enlightenment, when bold thinkers sought to end the divine right of kings, end…

Thomas Jefferson told us in his own words that all men are created equal, then lived his life by the opposite principle. It’s time we stopped glossing over that hypocrisy.

The power to control ever-greater amounts of energy is a hallmark of civilization’s progress, and humanity is poised to take the next big step.

We shouldn’t root for people to die, but we can and should conserve our empathy for those who are affected by COVID through no fault of their own, rather than those who could have protected themselves but didn’t.

The future is inherently unknowable, and we should be skeptical of anyone, doomer or utopian, who’s excessively confident about what it holds.

Jerry Falwell Jr. pretended to a faith he never truly held for the sake of wealth and power. His story is the story of American evangelical Christianity in microcosm.

Stories derive power and even reality from being retold. But we can always choose to stop telling old stories and start telling new ones.

Atheist and secular groups and individuals need to shift their emphasis to remain relevant in the MAGA era.

In 2007, I saw the Arecibo Observatory for the first and last time. I was in Puerto Rico on a family vacation, and despite a packed schedule, I had to carve out time to see it. The town of Arecibo is a considerable drive from San Juan, where I was staying, and the observatory itself…