Naturalism as Mastery?

Traditional environmentalists’ “humility” is overrated: we have all too often made the world’s
poor and powerless pay for our environmental progress.

Introduction to Special Section

For the scientifically well-informed, there’s a seriously bleak quality in the air around global warming and other environmental threats. To avert the multiple foreseen catastrophes will require heroic measures. But which measures have a chance of working?

The Politics of Holding on to Health Care Reform

The Left has been left whimpering that health care reform did not go far enough, that we should adopt “Medicare for All.” But the claim that this bill is middle-of-the-road or too pragmatic has not found any significant public sentiment and fails in the face of the financial pressure on government.

The Future of God — and Secularism

The future of God depends on the future of secularism. Most people will hear in that sentiment a prediction about the growth of secularism: If secularism grows, belief in God will commensurately shrink. If secularism stagnates, the world will continue to believe in God in 2100.

A Universe Struggling to Become Aware?

Without the compassion that arises when we realize our nonduality — empathy not only with other humans but with the planet — it becomes increasingly likely that civilization as we know it will not survive the next few centuries.

Healing Is Not a Business

Of the advanced nations, the United States has the highest number of preventable deaths. Why is this? It’s because we are the only advanced nation that thinks of patients as consumers and health as a commodity to be bought on the market. It’s because we have tried to fit medicine into a business model.