Steve Grumette argues that effective moral education should be grounded in empathy, critical thinking, and evidence-based understanding of human moral development rather than religious authority, enabling students from diverse backgrounds to reason through ethical challenges together.

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https://secularhumanism.org/2026/05/secular-approaches-to-moral-education-building-character-without-commandments/

About the Author:

Steve Grumette is an Academy Award–winning filmmaker (The Magic Machines, Best Live Action Short) and pioneer of live computer imagery in Hollywood, with credits including WarGames. A UCLA-trained engineer and physicist, he writes on philosophy and criminal justice ethics. He is the founder and artistic director of the Ojai Film Festival and lives in Oak View, California.

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Leo Igwe examines how humanist activists in Africa are combating witch hunts by challenging superstition, promoting critical thinking, and helping victims seek legal protection against accusations that often lead to violence, abuse, and death. Drawing on real cases from Nigeria, he argues that reason, science, and human rights advocacy offer the most effective path toward ending witchcraft-related persecution across the continent.

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https://secularhumanism.org/2026/05/can-humanism-help-end-witch-hunts-in-africa/

About the Author:

Leo Igwe, founder of the Nigerian Humanist Movement and founding director of the Center for Inquiry Nigeria, recently completed a doctorate degree in religious studies at the University of Bayreuth in Germany. He is the chair of the Humanist Association of Nigeria and recipient of the IHEU 2017 Distinguished Service to Humanism Award.

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Mark Kolsen argues that rock 'n' roll and the sexual revolution played a significant role in the rise of religious "Nones" in the United States by encouraging more permissive attitudes toward sex and weakening traditional religious participation. He traces how early rock music emerged from Pentecostal church culture, how conservative religious backlash against rock and sexuality politicized religion, and how younger Americans increasingly distanced themselves from organized faith as the religious Right aligned itself with conservative politics.

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https://secularhumanism.org/2026/05/how-rock-and-sex-effected-the-increase-in-nones/

About the Author:

Mark Kolsen lives in Chicago. A fan of the Four Horsemen and the late Victor Stenger, he strives to understand all facets of scientific cosmology and evolutionary biology.

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This is a modified version of an article that originally appeared in The Free Press under the title "The Golden Age of Humanity? We're Living in It." Free Inquiry is republishing it with the gracious permission of The Free Press and the authors. Copyright is retained by The Free Press.

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https://secularhumanism.org/2026/05/medieval-christendom-are-they-serious/

About the Author:

Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and the author of When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows

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Ronald A. Lindsay examines competing narratives about American history and identity ahead of the United States' 250th anniversary, arguing that both right-wing myths of a flawless Christian nation and left-wing portrayals of America as irredeemably oppressive distort a more complicated reality rooted in Enlightenment ideals. He contends that free speech, democracy, and gradual moral progress—especially regarding slavery and women's rights—remain the nation's greatest strengths, while warning that polarization, censorship, and partisan echo chambers now threaten the future of American unity and democratic culture.

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https://secularhumanism.org/2026/05/the-united-states-whither/

About the Author:

Ronald A. Lindsay is the former president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry, recent interim general counsel for CFI, and editor of Free Inquiry magazine.

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Richard Dawkins argues that calling himself a "cultural Christian" reflects his upbringing in English Christian traditions, literature, and music—not any belief in Christian doctrine, which he continues to reject as irrational.

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https://secularhumanism.org/2026/05/cultural-christian-so-what/

About the Author:

Richard Dawkins is an English ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and bestselling author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008. In 2006, he founded the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science, now a division of the Center for Inquiry.

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Ronald A. Lindsay previews the June July 2026 issue of Free Inquiry, The U.S.: Where It's Been, Where It Is, Where It Should Go, Free Inquiry 46.4.

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In This Issue June/July 2026 | Free Inquiry

About the Author:

Ronald A. Lindsay is the former president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry, recent interim general counsel for CFI, and editor of Free Inquiry magazine.

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Ronald A. Lindsay criticizes Mike Johnson for distorting the constitutional principle of separation of church and state by arguing that religion may influence government while government must not interfere with religion. He also accuses Johnson of hypocrisy for presenting himself as a devout Christian while consistently defending Donald Trump despite behavior Lindsay argues contradicts basic Christian moral values.

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https://secularhumanism.org/exclusive/speaker-mike-johnson-ideologue-and-hypocrite/

About the Author:

Ronald A. Lindsay is the former president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry, recent interim general counsel for CFI, and editor of Free Inquiry magazine.

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Ronald A. Lindsay argues that while assassination can be morally justified under extreme conditions—such as in the case of a dictator like Adolf Hitler where no peaceful change is possible and killing could prevent greater harm—those conditions do not apply in a functioning democracy. Despite concerns about the actions of Donald Trump, Lindsay concludes that assassination is unjustified and morally wrong in this context because democratic mechanisms for change still exist and violence would likely worsen the situation.

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https://secularhumanism.org/exclusive/when-if-at-all-are-assassinations-justified/

About the Author:

Ronald A. Lindsay is the former president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry, recent interim general counsel for CFI, and editor of Free Inquiry magazine.

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Donald Trump and Pope Leo may appear to represent opposing moral visions, but Ronald A. Lindsay argues that both promote deeply flawed and unjustifiable positions—one through harmful political leadership and the other through outdated religious doctrine. Rather than choosing between them, his article contends that both should be critically rejected for their respective impacts on reason, ethics, and human well-being.

Read this article and find accompanying references at:

https://secularhumanism.org/exclusive/trump-vs-the-pope-not-much-to-choose-from/

About the Author:

Ronald A. Lindsay is the former president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry, recent interim general counsel for CFI, and editor of Free Inquiry magazine.

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