The Secular Conscience

Ethics from below

Beyond Free Speech: Blasphemy and Equality

The speech of religious skeptics should be placed on a continuum of manifestations of conscience, attempts to grapple with ultimate questions of meaning, value, and morality.

Cognitive Bias and the Blame for Benghazi

When do we blame the producers of blasphemous material that sparks violence given that the Internet is littered with loads of comparable material that, as it happens, does not? The answer may have less to do with merit and more to do with the limits of our intuitive thinking.

Putting God out of the ethics business

Sometimes it is said that human life is valuable because we are made in the image of God. It is not that we find life to have worth because we believe we are made in the image of God, but rather that we believe we are made in the image of God because we find life to have worth.