Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Transparency: The Rise of Atheism in America

America has always been a religious country. But a recent study finds that might be changing; The percent of the country who considers...

Chris Korbey
By Chris KorbeyOct 08, 2009
Chris Korbey
See Full Bio

America has always been a religious country. But a recent study finds that might be changing; The percent of the country who considers themselves atheists is rising rapidly. While they still make up a small minority in comparison to the major religions, the current trends indicate that we may not be one nation, under God, forever. Our latest Transparency is a look at what we believe.A collaboration between GOOD and Chris Korbey.We've corrected the text to the introduction to this piece (indeed, atheists are not a majority), you can see the old version here. We regret the error.

livingpeopleatheismspirituality and religion

The Latest

Researchers are blowing people's minds after sharing the ideal shower length
Health

Researchers are blowing people's minds after sharing the ideal shower length

For James Beard Semifinialist Daniel Garwood, mental health advocacy isn’t a tall order
Culture

For James Beard Semifinialist Daniel Garwood, mental health advocacy isn’t a tall order

Collage of different movies
Culture

5 movies to help you chill out and relieve stress but that aren’t boring

A person listens to music on headphones with their eyes closed, with album covers superimposed on top
Culture

People say these 5 songs can help ease an anxiety attack

More For You

Silhouette of older man with young child
Photo credit: Canva

Older dads sound off on when they’re confused for grandpa around their young children

A dad on Reddit shared an experience he had in a thread on r/daddit. What happened to him is something that has become a growing trend in recent years. He was showing a picture of his seven-month-old son to a person. She asked the question that many older fathers dread: “Are you his grandpa?”

Fellow older dads empathized with the father, as many of them were also asked that question at one point or another in their life in fatherhood. One would think that fatherhood itself would cause enough stress to induce a few premature gray hairs and wrinkles, but not enough to jump past a whole generation. Many of the older dads offered their takes on how to respond to the “Are you their grandpa?” query.

Keep ReadingShow less
After a mysterious disappearance, transgender R&B icon Jackie Shane's legacy lives on
Archivo:Jackie-shane.jpg - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
es.m.wikipedia.org

After a mysterious disappearance, transgender R&B icon Jackie Shane's legacy lives on

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but that talk don’t bother me,” Jackie Shane sang on her 1963 cover single “Sticks and Stones.” In some ways, the words would define aspects of Shane’s life as she became an early transgender R&B icon. By the time she had over a decade of music industry prowess under her belt, however, she mysteriously disappeared from the public eye in 1971.

Almost 50 years after that, in 2017, she reappeared with an anthology of her work named after another 1963 hit, Any Other Way–it was then nominated for a Grammy for Best Historical Album, an award that’s not given to an artist but to an album’s production team. At that point, she gave one of her first interviews in decades to the Associated Press, which in part explained her absence but also cemented her as an influential musical pioneer.

Keep ReadingShow less
woman sleeping on blue throw pillow

Who knew dreams varied by location?

Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash

Research finds that what we dream about depends on where we live

A recent study shows that people who daydream while they're awake tend to have better recall of their sleeping dreams. In the article, "Why Some People Remember Their Dreams (and Others Don’t)" on Studyfinds.org, the author shares that research conducted at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca reveals the three main factors that predict how strong dream recall will be: "A person’s general attitude toward dreaming, their tendency to let their mind wander during waking hours, and their typical sleep patterns."

Dreaming has always been an intriguing subject. Nearly every night, when most of us go to sleep, our minds just make us little movies and then push play. There are seemingly no editors. Why do we dream? How do we dream? Obviously, biochemically, we're cycling through REM/deep sleep, and neurons are firing. But how often do we think about the fact that our surroundings affect our dreams?

Keep ReadingShow less
Archaeologists discover lost cities that mysteriously 'disappeared.' It changes the history of civilization
upload.wikimedia.org

Archaeologists discover lost cities that mysteriously 'disappeared.' It changes the history of civilization

For hundreds of years, historians and archaeologists believed that Mesopotamia (nearly 3800 BC) was the cradle of civilization. But in the past few years, this belief began to dwindle. In the 1960s, a Russian topographer was going through some aerial photographs of Ukraine when he noticed some unusual shadows materializing on the grounds of Kyiv city.

Curious, he magnified the photos and was flabbergasted, as many more concentric circles of these shadows emerged. Further examination revealed that the shadows were cast from unknown archaeological remains that lay buried in the soil. ScienceNews reports that when archaeologists studied these remains, they proposed that the first cities of humanity were built in Ukraine, not Mesopotamia (what is now Iraq). The secret hid in the Trypillia megasites, the forgotten city that mysteriously disappeared.

Keep ReadingShow less
2000-year-old temple featured in 'Indiana Jones' found in the depths of Gulf of Puzzuoli
Underwater ruins of ancient temple building. (Representative cover image: Getty Images
Photo by byarnoldus

2000-year-old temple featured in 'Indiana Jones' found in the depths of Gulf of Puzzuoli

Off the western coast of Italy, the Gulf of Pozzuoli in the Tyrrhenian Sea is an underwater museum of ancient ruins, submerged baths, and even remnants of a forgotten city. Its stunning emerald waters, where Roman emperors once bathed, are now home to dolphins and schools of sperm whales gliding through the historic depths. In 2023, archaeologists diving into these waters stumbled upon what appeared to be the remains of a 2,000-year-old Nabataean temple—a site with architectural echoes featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, according to Live Science. Their findings were officially published in Antiquity in September 2024.

This remarkable discovery came through a collaboration between Italy's Ministry of Culture and the University of Campania as part of the “Between Land and Sea” project. This initiative aims to uncover the rich archaeological heritage hidden along the Phlegraean coast, a region marked by ongoing volcanic activity and geological shifts. These underwater ruins offer an extraordinary window into ancient Rome's daily life, commerce, and culture, preserving layers of history within the tranquil yet tectonically active Gulf of Pozzuoli.

Keep ReadingShow less
Groom stops midway through vows to hand bride a scribbled note — it contained a promise
man in gray suit and woman in white wedding dress
Photo by Eugenia Pankiv on Unsplash

Groom stops midway through vows to hand bride a scribbled note — it contained a promise

Childhood sweethearts finding their way back to each other after decades apart sounds like something out of a fairytale, but sometimes, real life has plans even more poetic. That seemed to be the case for Lauren and Brooks, who went their separate ways in February 2015. But during a flight to Oklahoma, Brooks felt a shift—he realized that Lauren was truly the love of his life and decided he was going to marry her.

And marry her he did. Recently, to mark their third wedding anniversary, Lauren shared a touching clip from their wedding ceremony on her Instagram page. In the video, Brooks tells her about the moment on that flight when he wrote a heartfelt love confession, acknowledging how much she meant to him. The video was taken during a beautifully orchestrated day that included a bachelorette party, a rehearsal dinner, and a garden pizza party, all leading up to the church ceremony where they exchanged vows. In her blog, Lauren shares that in that moment, surrounded by loved ones and the church’s priest, Brooks recalled how that flight had changed everything for him.

Keep ReadingShow less
Man reading to his daughter while she sits on his lap

Library Dads get together to read to their children and bond as fathers.

Photo credit: @thelibrarydads

Atlanta fathers step up for literacy as “Library Dads” for the community

Khari Arnold is just a dad in Atlanta that wanted to bond with his baby daughter and instill a love of reading into her. After a year of taking his daughter to the library and reading to her aloud, he posted a reel on Instagram to recap his weekly trips. He wanted his fellow fathers in the community to share this joy, so he stepped up to create Library Dads.

Library Dads is a community of Atlanta fathers that get together on weekends twice a month to take their children to the library. At these “Library Link-Ups” the dads get to bond with their children and participate in read-aloud story time. It’s not only a bonding experience from father to child and a promotion of literacy, but a “brotherhood” of dads looking for community and friendship.

Keep ReadingShow less
The wild all-female bartending competition Speed Rack is the best bar scene innovation in years

Ivy Mix and Lynnette Marrero, renowned bartenders and co-founders of Speed Rack, an all-female and femme speed bartending competition.

Elyssa Goodman

The wild all-female bartending competition Speed Rack is the best bar scene innovation in years

“We have no women bartenders, where are all the women?” Lynnette Marrero remembered.

The decorated bartender and mixologist worked a cocktail festival many years ago where some 30 women put it together behind the scenes. But when it came time for a film crew to record female bartenders, they were at a loss. She didn’t want it to happen again and neither did fellow renowned bartender Ivy Mix. “It was an a-ha moment, of what can we do to showcase these women?”

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2025