What if I was vegan? What if I was vegan and you weren't? Let's imagine that both of these things are true for a moment.
Not only are you not vegan, but you enjoy all the foods vegans don't eat. You are happy with the status quo and have no desire to change your diet.
I show up one day and demand that you become vegan. Why? Because of my religious beliefs. Based on these beliefs, I've decided that everybody should be vegan.
We've all heard of people who identify themselves as "spiritual, but not religious." Who are they? What do they believe? We should have many opportunities to find out in the coming years. After all, a recent Gallup poll shows that 33% of Americans describe themselves this way.
Some atheists will celebrate this. They'll consider it more evidence of the declining influence of organized religion. Others will question whether this reflects progress. They'll argue that "spiritual, but not religious" is replacing one type of woo with another. Who's right?
In the United States, we have a controversy raging around gender-affirming health care. Some conservatives would like to charge physicians who provide it with crimes. Many of those who wouldn't go that far still hope to discourage this care.
In other parts of the world, we see a different controversy involving physicians and the care they provide. What role, if any, should doctors have in church-sanctioned exorcisms?
There's a common argument that one can expect to hear from some on the political left in the United States. The two major political parties are so similar, they say, that there's little reason to support one over the other. I can understand why someone might say this. I find it to be inaccurate in the best of times and harmful in the worst of times.
This argument is an expression of dissatisfaction with today's Democratic Party. I can understand it because I share this sentiment. The Democrats seem to have lost their way and often appear ineffective or even hapless. But more to the point, the mainstream of the party is more conservative than I'd prefer.