Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Bio
Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the publisher of In-Sight Publishing (ISBN: 978-1-0692343) and Editor-in-Chief of In-Sight: Interviews (ISSN: 2369-6885). He is a member in good standing of numerous media organizations.
Stories (101)
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South Korean Christian Abusers, Exploiters, and Frauds are Historically Common
This chronological overview traces seven decades of major crimes committed by South Korean Christian leaders, from Park Tae-seon’s 1950s fraud convictions to Jung Myung-seok’s 2025 sexual-violence sentence. It details embezzlement, fraud, tax evasion, sexual assault, and coercive control cases involving figures such as Sun Myung Moon, David Yonggi Cho, and Shin Ok-ju. The analysis links these patterns to the professional limitations of theology-only education and rigid gender expectations in conservative Christianity, suggesting that such environments may exacerbate vulnerability to corruption. It closes by urging stronger transparency, regulation, and ethical oversight within South Korea’s religious institutions.
By Scott Douglas Jacobsen3 months ago in Criminal
Rabbi Debra Bennet on Jewish Life, Learning, and Building Inclusive Community at the Mid Island Y JCC
Rabbi Debra Bennet is the Director of Jewish Life & Learning at the Mid Island Y JCC in Plainview, NY. She received her rabbinic ordination in May 2007 and has previously served as the Rabbi Educator at Temple Beth Torah in Melville and as the Associate Rabbi of Temple Chaverim in Plainview, where she developed teen programming and worked to strengthen connections to Judaism and the Jewish Community. In her current role, she continues to educate and inspire her community while addressing pressing social issues, fostering dialogue and collaboration across faith traditions, and cultivating an inclusive, connected community throughout the JCC.
By Scott Douglas Jacobsen3 months ago in Interview
The Soft Cruelties of Conversation: Travelogues and Emotional Safety Reflections
When you travel with someone steeped in select grievance, a gentle, loving persuasion eventually gives way to containment: kindness, limits, and exit routes — for a time. This is a short field guide from one fraught trip: how to stay humane, set boundaries, and leave without rancour when conversation turns into performance.
By Scott Douglas Jacobsen3 months ago in Journal
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka Speech at CSW69: Backlash, AI, Representation
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka reflects on UN Women’s creation and warns of a growing backlash against gender equality. She argues that women’s participation strengthens democracy and economies, citing research estimating trillions in global gains. Celebrating progress since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, she urges meaningful commemoration paired with forward planning. Two priorities dominate: digital inclusion—especially women’s presence in AI knowledge-making—and representation, where women still hold only about one third of decision-making roles. She calls for solidarity across movements, protection of affirmative action, and faster action so girls and young women are not left behind as technology and power structures evolve.
By Scott Douglas Jacobsen3 months ago in History
Michelle Bachelet Speech at CSW69: Michelle Bachelet Reaffirms UN Women’s Global Mission, Empowering Half of Humanity
Former UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet reflects on the organization’s founding in 2010 through the merger of DAW, INSTRAW, OSAGI, and UNIFEM, created to champion women’s rights worldwide. She highlights persistent structural barriers, political backlash, and the economic potential of gender equality, noting studies showing women’s participation could add $12 trillion to the global economy. Bachelet underscores that empowering women strengthens democracy, economies, and societies as a whole. Quoting Archbishop Desmond Tutu, she urges continued hope and action, reminding the world that gender equality remains both an urgent moral imperative and a smart investment for humanity’s shared future.
By Scott Douglas Jacobsen3 months ago in Humans
Beyond Dogma and Relativism: Scientific Skepticism Meets Secular Humanism
Rejecting both postmodern relativism and divine-command dogma, this piece argues for a third path: mixing scientific skepticism with secular humanism. Rather than reflexively “drinking the Kool-Aid,” it urges testing claims, valuing falsifiability, and grounding ethics in human flourishing. Scientific skepticism supplies method—doubt, evidence, reproducibility—while secular humanism supplies purpose—dignity, freedom, pluralism. The essay warns that political dogmatisms, including state-promoted atheism in China, mirror religious authoritarianism. It advocates evidence-based policy on climate, health, and technology; open inquiry; and empathy as civic virtues. In short: Galileo’s method meets the Universal Declaration’s ideals, uniting disciplined doubt with compassionate action within a naturalistic, fallibilist outlook for all.
By Scott Douglas Jacobsen3 months ago in Humans
Fort Langley’s Pride Crosswalk: A Village’s Tangle of Symbolism
Fort Langley, known as the “birthplace of British Columbia,” hides an undercurrent of control beneath its postcard charm. A satirical account of a self-styled “Midnight Dad Brigade” exposes tensions over image, power, and moral authority in the village. Harassment and intimidation against dissenters underscore how fragile civility can be in tightly knit communities. Parallel to this, the rainbow crosswalk at Mary and Glover—installed in 2017 and repeatedly vandalized—has become a flashpoint for identity and belonging. The Township’s 2025 attempt to replace it with “heritage” art, later withdrawn after backlash, reflects the continuing struggle between heritage and inclusion.
By Scott Douglas Jacobsen3 months ago in Humor
Fumfer Physics 23: Why the Universe May Never Face Heat Death
In this dialogue, Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner explore how Information Cosmology (IC) diverges from the Big Bang model. IC rejects the concept of heat death, arguing that as the universe expands, it would require ever-increasing information to define matter precisely—a paradox that breaks conservation of information. Instead, IC predicts an eventual contraction after vast time scales, with cosmic structures gradually fading as information coherence weakens. The framework posits a universe that behaves like an immense computational system with finite capacity, maintaining equilibrium over immense epochs rather than expanding endlessly toward entropy.
By Scott Douglas Jacobsen3 months ago in Interview
October 7, 2023 in a Long History of Antisemitic Violence
October 7, 2023, fits a continuum of violence against Jews across millennia. From ancient deportations (Assyria, Babylon) to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Bar Kokhba revolt, medieval pogroms, expulsions from England, France, Spain, and Portugal, the Mawza Exile, Khmelnytsky massacres, and Russian-imperial pogroms, persecution recurred, culminating in the Nazi genocide of six million. After 1945, assaults continued: the Farhud in Baghdad, Kielce, waves of expulsions across the Middle East and North Africa, Suez-era crackdowns, and Poland’s 1968 campaign. On October 7, militants murdered about 1,200, wounded thousands, and took hundreds hostage. Rising antisemitic rhetoric historically foreshadows rising violence.
By Scott Douglas Jacobsen3 months ago in Education
Humanist Enabling Life Project: Compassionate Response to Sharia Amputation, Blasphemy Attacks, Murder, and Other Faith-Based Abuses in Nigeria
By Dr. Leo Igwe [Ed. Dr. Igwe is one of the most prolific and energetic humanists known to me.] Dr. Leo Igwe is a board member of the Humanist Association of Nigeria and of Humanists International. He holds a masters in philosophy and a doctoral degree in religious studies from the University of Bayreuth in Germany and wrote his doctoral thesis on witchcraft accusations in Northern Ghana. Igwe directs the Advocacy for Alleged Witches and Critical Thinking Social Empowerment Foundation.
By Scott Douglas Jacobsen3 months ago in Education
How OFA Group’s AI “PlanAid” Is Transforming Building Code Compliance and Architectural Efficiency
Thomas Gaffney is the Chief Operations Officer of OFA Group (NASDAQ: OFAL), an architectural technology company pioneering AI-driven automation for building code compliance and design review. With a background in product operations and strategic partnerships, Gaffney leads initiatives that help architects, developers, and investors deploy greener, faster, and data-informed projects. Under his leadership, OFA launched its beta AI platform PlanAid in October 2025 following a successful IPO earlier that year. Gaffney frequently engages with media and industry leaders to discuss the convergence of architecture, artificial intelligence, and sustainable innovation in the built environment.
By Scott Douglas Jacobsen3 months ago in Interview
Fumfer Physics 22: Entropy, Order
In this philosophical-scientific exchange, Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner explore whether the universe distinguishes between matter and meaningful information. Their conversation moves from the cognitive processing of text to cosmological entropy, the “heat death” scenario, and whether civilization-generated order could influence universal information flow. Rosner suggests that while entropy increases globally, local systems—like planets and minds—can grow in order and information. Jacobsen draws analogies between human learning and cosmic evolution, proposing that advanced civilizations might sustain galactic order, potentially integrating themselves into the universe’s informational architecture.
By Scott Douglas Jacobsen3 months ago in Interview
