Wrong again, J.D.

Speaking today at Turning Point USA's annual "AmericaFest" conference, Vice President J.D. Vance said, to great applause: "The only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been, and by the grace of God we always will be, a Christian nation."

Actually, we haven't.

Vance's statement flies in the face of our Constitution, whose First Amendment reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…." James Madison of Virginia, the key thinker behind the Constitution, had quite a lot to say about why it was fundamentally important to make sure the government kept away from religion...

HCR
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/december-21-2025?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay

The genetic age: who shapes evolution now? | The Darwin Day Lecture 2026, with Professor Matthew Cobb – Humanists UK

Like all species, humans have been inadvertently shaping the genomes of other species – predators and prey – throughout our history. And with the development of agriculture, we began to specifically, deliberately alter plants and animals through selective breeding. But in the second half of the 20th century, that ability has taken on a new form. Not only do we have a far more precise understanding of how selection and heredity interact in agriculture, but the invention of genetic engineering in the 1970s has changed things completely.

We can now change species at will. Not only has this transformed the pharmaceutical industry – allowing the cheap manufacture of drugs like insulin – it has also altered agriculture and now, in the 21st century, threatens to change ecosystems and even humanity itself.

Evolution appears to be under our control, but – as the molecular biologist Leslie Orgel warned us – evolution is smarter than we are. Looking at the past, present, and future of genetics, we can glimpse both the promises and perils that await us.

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In this 2026 Darwin Day Lecture, Matthew Cobb will confront the shadow cast by our own ingenuity. Tracing the path from simple selective breeding to the ignition of a biological revolution, he will explore a modern Promethean moment where the power to reshape life is no longer theoretical – but operational.

As the pace of discovery accelerates into a competitive sprint, we're challenged to consider whether we have merely stolen the fire of evolution, or if we have sparked a chain reaction that we can no longer extinguish.

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About Professor Matthew Cobb

Matthew Cobb is Professor Emeritus at the University of Manchester. His recent books include Crick: A Mind in Motion, from DNA to the Brain and The Genetic Age: Our Perilous Quest to Edit Life. He was the presenter of the BBC Radio series Genetic Dreams, Genetic Nightmares. In 2024 he won the Royal Society's Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal, and in 2021 was awarded the J. B. S. Haldane Lecture by the Genetics Society.

About the Darwin Day Lecture series

The Darwin Day Lecture explores humanism and humanist thought as related to science and evolution, Charles Darwin, or his works. The Darwin medallist has made a significant contribution in one of these fields.

The lecture and medal are named and held to mark the annual global celebration of the birth of Charles Darwin, held every 12 February.

https://humanists.uk/events/darwinday2026/

How the American Humanist Association is empowering a new wave of atheist content creators

A quiet experiment could redefine how secular voices reach millions online and revive a movement that’s lost momentum

A few months ago, I was given the Humanist Media Award from the American Humanist Association. Rather than speak directly about my own work, I used my time to highlight a growing concern I’ve had about the broader atheism movement.

Here was my argument in a nutshell: Church/state separation is obviously under serious attack right now by the forces of Christian Nationalism. Scientific research is being defunded while prominent voices in the Republican-dominated government perpetuate pseudoscience and the whitewashing of history. Public education is being replaced with religious indoctrination. We don’t even have shared facts anymore. There’s never been a greater need for rational, evidence-based thinkers. That used to be our thing!

But books about godlessness, which helped spur the “New Atheism” movement decades ago, don’t get much attention anymore, no matter who’s writing them… and many of the most famous atheists in the country—Richard Dawkins, Bill Maher, etc.—have a host of problems in their own right.

We don’t have many prominent atheists these days who can capture attention for the right reasons. The ones who can break out of our bubble and speak to new audiences about the importance of a secular nation, and how church/state separation is good for believers and non-believers alike, and why religion itself is not a virtue. The ones who can push back against the daily assaults by conservative Christians on civil rights and women’s rights and LGBTQ rights—effectively and memorably. Even when those people exist, they’re doing it themselves, not as part of a larger movement.

And while the larger atheist organizations do excellent work, they aren’t necessarily drawing in newer, younger members. They’re doing many of the same things they’ve done for decades even though that playbook has run its course. Their focus (sometimes by necessity!) is playing defense—by filing lawsuits—leaving them with fewer opportunities to inspire people to ditch religion and fight for our shared causes. That’s not a knock on those groups! The work they do is essential. I sure as hell rely on their work. But I’d bet good money that younger people—even younger atheists—are largely unfamiliar with the groups meant to represent them.

In fact, the AHA acknowledges that concern...

Hemant Mehta
https://open.substack.com/pub/friendlyatheist/p/how-the-american-humanist-association?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer