Taboos. Do we really need them? Does society really benefit from prohibiting things, even when there's no clear reasoning to support the prohibition? Are there certain activities which society should simply refuse to accept, regardless of the rational arguments for allowing them? Or would we all be better off if every form of behavior was permitted, leaving it up to each individual to decide for himself whether or not certain behaviors were constructive to himself and to his community...

Got into a (very) brief debate with Michael Totten about secular humanism , in the comments on this post . Specifically, we were talking about why some conservatives consider Democracy and Education by John Dewey a "dangerous book". Anyway, it was the first time I'd actually written down my thoughts on secular humanism, so I figured I might as well archive them here, for future reference (and, hopefully, further debate). Below are the relevant bits. Secular humanism proposes ...