Chana is a fourth year mathematics major at the University of Chicago. She is a vegetarian Jewish atheist feminist, and is thus usually angry about something or other. She also blogs at www.themerelyreal.wordpress.com
Science is a tremendous human universal. The discovery of the Higgs boson(-like particle) was a win for scientists everywhere and will lead to the continuation of awesome physics in the future. Physicists in Canada aren’t rejecting the discovery just because it happened in Switzerland or was theorized in America, because that would be ridiculous. But apparently not too ridiculous for Pakistan’s Sunni Muslim extremists. Adbus Salam, a Pakistani Muslim, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979 along with Sheldon… Read more
Fear-based education is unethical. It might even be child abuse. Scaring children into good behavior relies on lower-order reward and punishment mechanisms instead of emphasizing the intrinsic benefits of acting appropriately. Humanists know that educators should put reasonable restrictions on the way they teach difficult concepts to children. These restrictions don’t seem to be in effect in one Beit Yaakov (Orthodox) school in Lakewood, New Jersey. This story (transcription and definitions of Hebrew terms here) was sent out as a… Read more
