In 2016, I was invited to speak at a conference for Humanist Students UK (the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies, as it was called at the time) at the University of Sheffield. I was dating an English guy then and was excited to share my enjoyment of networking with humanists. He […]
Anya Overmann
Anya Overmann is a digital nomad, writer, activist, and lifelong Humanist. As former President of Young Humanists International, she continues to work to advocate for inclusive young humanist communities around the globe by means of connecting. Anya grew up attending the Ethical Society of St. Louis, which led her to garner a fiery passion for human rights. In August 2020 when the pandemic was making for bleak conditions in Missouri, Anya decided to pull the trigger on her dream to become nomadic and seek countries handling the pandemic better than the US. She sold nearly all her possessions and is now living out of two bags while running her content marketing and ghostwriting business from her traveling office.
Posted inEconomics, Ethics, Philosophy
We need to talk about the dark side of the Golden Rule
The Golden Rule, that much-loved staple of low-calorie morality, does more harm than good. Humanists UK posted this on their Facebook page as part of their #HumanistVoices campaign: “A naturally occurring moral philosophy based on reason and empathy,” says Humanists UK about the Golden Rule. “It’s really not complicated,” says Dan Snow. Is that true? […]
Posted inMeaning & Purpose, True Story, Your World, Your Life
When dissent meets disproportionate consequences
It was June 10th, 2022. My plane had just touched down in Los Angeles. The long travel day from Glasgow was finally over. I wasn’t thinking about dissent; I was thinking about a bed to sleep in. Scotland had given me a rough time. I had broken my leg in two places and was now struggling […]
Posted inEthics, Meaning & Purpose, The Secular
Is ‘sentientism’ really better in practice than humanism?
Imagine a world where all sentient beings – human or otherwise – have recognized and protected rights. That’s sentientism. But is it better?
Posted inCulture
I’m not celebrating the 4th of July
A 5-year-old with a pair of round glasses with a short, brown bob cut sits in a kindergarten classroom in a northern suburb of St. Louis. The day is just beginning, and the teacher asks the class to stand to perform the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. As she places her right hand […]
Posted inPolitics
Government without gods: Where are the nonreligious public servants?
As a digital nomad, I’m currently experiencing life in a country that separates church and state and has no official religion (guaranteed by the Constitution) but still privileges Christianity. No, it’s not the US. It’s Colombia. On a recent trip to the grocery store in Medellín, I picked up a book by Alejandro Gaviria Uribe, […]
Posted inCulture
How my identities collide—and why it matters
I had never thought about the way my own identities collide to create the person I am until I learned the term intersectionality. First coined in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a US American lawyer and civil rights activist, intersectionality describes how race, class, gender, and other identities “intersect” or overlap, each interacting with the others […]