SECULAR HUMANISM IS NOT A RELIGION! Tom Flynn, Ronald A. Lindsay, and Nicholas J. Little

CELEBRATING REASON AND HUMANITY February /March 2015 Vol. 35 No.2

TASLIMA NASRIN: WHY SECULARISM IS NECESSARY FOR WOMEN

GRETA CHRISTINA | FAISAL SAEED AL MUTAR BEVERLY WINIKOFF | GEORGE A. WELLS CARRIE POPPY Investigates Crisis Pregnancy Centers

80%RYAN 1.5 BWR PD SHAFFER Profi les India’s Atheist Political Movement F/M 08

03

7725274 74957 Published by the Council for Secular Humanism CENTERS FOR INQUIRY | www.centerforinquiry.net/about/branches

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The mission of the Center for Inquiry is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. The Center for Inquiry is a supporting organization of the Council for Secular Humanism, publisher of Free Inquiry. February/March 2015 Vol. 35 No. 2

CELEBRATING REASON AND HUMANITY

14 Why Secularism Is Necessary 28 Periyar and India’s Dravidian Movement: for Women A Strident Atheist in the Land of Religion Taslima Nasrin Ryan Shaffer

20 White Lies for Life: Crisis Pregnancy 31 Krishnasamy Veeramani: Continuing Centers in Los Angeles the Fight for Humanism Carrie Poppy Ryan Shaffer

23 Is One of These Things Not Just Like 33 Science and the the Other? Why Abortion Can’t Be Emancipation of Humankind Separated from Contraception Lorenzo Lazzerini Ospri Beverly Winikoff 37 Albert Schweitzer and The Quest of 26 War and the Religious State the Historical Jesus—One Hundred Years On Steve Sklar George A. Wells

EDITORIAL 43 Humanist Soapbox 58 Life After Faith: The Case 4 Secular Humanism: Not a Religion A Better Name for Us for Secular Humanism, Tom Flynn, Ronald A. Lindsay Glade Ross by Philip Kitcher and Nicholas J. Little Reviewed by Wayne L. Trotta 50 The Faith I Left Behind OP-EDS Jump-Starting a Brain Frozen 62 Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins in the Cold War of the American Republic, 9 Remember Ebola? Constance Hoffman by Matthew Stewart Arthur L. Caplan Reviewed by Edd Doerr 53 Living Without Religion 11 Getting Atheists to Talk about Death When We Die POEM Greta Christina James Davenport 63 The Blessing of the Animals 12 Who Is Really Gross and Racist? 55 Humanism at Large Andrew Tonkovich Faisal Saeed Al Mutar Letter from the Serpent Robin Queen BOOKS IN BRIEF LETTERS 63 13 OBITUARY 65 Jean C. Millholland First Council for Secular Humanism DEPARTMENTS Executive Director, 1925–2014 41 Church-State Update Climate Change Is Real and Threatens Us All REVIEWS Edd Doerr 56 The Necessity of Secularism: Why God Can't Tell Us What to Do by Ronald A. Lindsay Reviewed by Derek C. Araujo Tom Flynn, Ronald A. Lindsay, and Nicholas J. Little Editorial

Editor Thomas W. Flynn Managing Editor Andrea Szalanski

Columnists Ophelia Benson, Russell Blackford, Arthur L. Caplan, Greta Christina, Edd Doerr, Shadia B. Drury, Nat Hentoff, Tibor R. Machan, Faisal Saeed Al Mutar, Mark Rubinstein Secular Humanism: Senior Editors Bill Cooke, Richard Dawkins, Edd Doerr, James A. Haught, Jim Herrick, Ronald A. Not a Religion Lindsay, Taslima Nasrin

Contributing Editors Roy P. Fairfield, Charles Faulkner, Levi Fragell, Adolf Grünbaum, Marvin Kohl, Lee Nisbet

Assistant Editors Julia Lavarnway itigation always carries risk—first Background of the Case Mo Madden of all, the risk of losing one’s case, Jason Michael Holden has been an in- Literary Editor Cheryl Quimba but also the risk that a court deci- mate at the Federal Correctional Institu- Permissions Editor Julia Lavarnway sion will bring unintended conse- L tion at Sheridan (FCI Sheridan), Oregon, Art Director Christopher S. Fix quences. The Freedom From Religion since 2010. A self-described Humanist Foundation discovered that in Hein Production Paul E. Loynes Sr. (apparently, his capitalization), Holden v. Freedom From Religion Foundation repeatedly sought permission to orga- (2007), a taxpayer suit challenging the Council for Secular Humanism nize a Humanist study group and was re- then-named White House Office of Chair Edward Tabash peatedly denied. Prison officials claimed Board of Directors R. Elisabeth Cornwell Faith-Based and Community Initiatives that humanism was not a religion. At Kendrick Frazier that resulted in a sweeping decision Barry A. Kosmin various times they characterized human- Hector Sierra sharply limiting the ability of taxpayers ism as a philosophy, not a religion, or Leonard Tramiel to bring future cases questioning exec- offered to allow Holden to organize an Judith Walker utive-branch spending decisions under Lawrence Krauss (Honorary) atheist or Unitarian Universalist study the establishment clause of the First group, neither of which reflected Hold- Chief Executive Officer Ronald A. Lindsay Amendment. On October 30, 2014, the en’s life stance. Holden was apparently Executive Director Thomas W. Flynn American Humanist Association (AHA) quite consistent in maintaining that he Director, Campus and had what may prove to be a simi- viewed Humanism as his religion and Community Programs (CFI) Debbie Goddard lar experience. In American Humanist that he sought to have his Humanism Director, Secular Organizations Association v. United States of America, accommodated in the same way the for Sobriety Jim Christopher a federal district court in Oregon ruled prison accommodated other religions, Director, African Americans for Humanism Debbie Goddard that a prisoner had a valid legal claim from Christianity to Adventists, Sikhs, and when he alleged that prison officials Director of Odinists. Development (CFI) Martina Fern refused to authorize a humanist study In April, 2014, the AHA joined Holden Director of Libraries (CFI) Timothy Binga group. So far, so good. However, in in filing suit against the United States, the Communications Director Paul Fidalgo reaching this conclusion, the court Federal Bureau of Prisoners, and other bizarrely ruled that secular humanism Database Manager (CFI) Jacalyn Mohr defendants. The defendants sought to is a religion, when the nature of secular have the suit dismissed; on October 30, Webmaster Matthew Licata humanism was never even an issue in United States District Judge Ancer L. Hag- Staff Pat Beauchamp, Ed Beck, the case. Of course, the judge may have gerty refused that request. In constitu- Melissa Braun, Shirley Brown, Eric Chinchón, been persuaded to reach this conclu- tional cases, a refusal to dismiss usually Roe Giambrone, Jason Gross, sion because in its arguments to the leads to a motion for summary judgment Nora Hurley, Paul Paulin, Michael Rupp, Anthony court, the AHA vigorously contended by the other party and, not infrequently, Santa Lucia, Diane Tobin, that humanism is a religion and made swift settlement of the case on the terms Vance Vigrass no effort to distinguish its brand of of the refusal to dismiss. So the October humanism from secular humanism. 30 decision was a weighty matter.

4 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org There seems little room for doubt living rich and moral lives here on Earth that Holden, who viewed his Humanism in what are considered most probably FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published bimonthly by the Council for Secular Humanism, a nonprofit educational as a religious commitment, was seek- the only lives we have. corporation, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Phone ing a reasonable accommodation of This humanist community, itself (716) 636-7571. Fax (716) 636-1733. Copyright ©2014 by the Council for Secular Humanism. All rights reserved. No part the same sort that the prison already quite broad, can be divided further into of this periodical may be reproduced without permission of offered to members of some twen- at least three principal strands: the publisher. Periodicals postage paid at Buffalo, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. 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It seems clear from the (including city and state), and daytime telephone number (for that do not recognize the authority verification purposes only). Letters should be 300 words or fewer and truth of traditional religions; do case materials that Holden sought to and pertain to previous Free Inquiry articles. not recognize any set of writings as *Free Inquiry’s October/November 2013 issue The mission of the Council for Secular Humanism is to sacred or any person as having the contained a cover feature in which one of us advocate and defend a nonreligious life stance rooted (Flynn) and James Croft, Greg Epstein, William in science, naturalistic philosophy, and humanist ethics authority to dictate a creed that must R. Murry, and Jennifer Kalmanson examined and to serve and support adherents of that life stance. be accepted; do not recognize the exis- the phenomenon of congregational hu­ tence of any transcendent beings, dei- man­­ism. The issue’s table of contents can ties or otherwise; view human beings be viewed (with links to the relevant articles) at http://www.secularhumanism.org/index. as the primary objects of moral con- php/cont_index_33. Available to Free Inquiry cern; and seek optimal approaches for sub­scribers only.)

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 5 organize his Humanist study group as a The court reached this conclusion even not only humanism generally, but secu- religious exercise and viewed obstruc- though the Center for Inquiry, a humanist lar humanism, is a religion. tive efforts by prison officials as reli- organization, insisted it is not a religious This finding may do great damage gious discrimination against him. The organization, and Reba Wooden, the to the humanist movement, partly by more significant question is whether secular celebrant who was a co-plaintiff the precedent it sets and partly by its the AHA was wise to accept the case in the case, similarly maintained she impact on public rhetoric. It is doubly on Holden’s terms or whether a higher was not religious. The court pointed perverse because: objective could have been pursued out that under the First Amendment’s • Secular humanism played no particular with reduced risk of unintended conse- neutrality principle, the government role in this case, which concerned a reli- quences—in this case a gratuitous find- cannot favor religion vis-à-vis compara- gious Humanist’s pursuit of his right to ing that a certain strand of humanism ble secular belief systems. Accordingly, conduct a religious exercise; and was a religion for establishment clause for purposes of solemnizing marriages, • Of all the strands of humanism, secular purposes. humanism is entitled to be treated humanism is the one that most consis- as though it were a religion—even though it is not. tently and explicitly describes itself as It may seem like a subtle difference separate from—indeed, wholly other to say that humanism can be treated than—religion. as though it were a religion for certain Secular Humanism and Religion “. . . In its arguments to the legal purposes as opposed to saying that humanism is a religion, but that To understand the inappropriateness of court, the AHA vigorously subtle difference is very significant. The this verdict more clearly, some further contended that humanism is a former approach is consistent with the background is in order. In particular, we should review the circumstances that religion and made no effort to long-standing principle embraced by most humanists that religion and reli- gave rise to the founding of the Council distinguish its brand of human- gious organizations are not entitled to for Secular Humanism, the nation’s only ism from secular humanism.” any special privileges. This is a principle explicitly secular-humanist advocacy or- for which many humanists have shed ganization, in 1980. blood, sweat, tears, and money. The The 1970s had seen a precipitous rise latter approach essentially says, “If you in influence and prestige by evangelical can’t beat them, join them.” It doesn’t and fundamentalist Christian groups maintain that religion and religious with ambitious social agendas. Figures Several court decisions have recog- organizations are not entitled to any including Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, nized that even though atheism and special privileges; instead, it tries to Francis Schaeffer, James Dobson, Tim humanism are not religions in the tradi- portray humanism as a religion so it can LaHaye, and others argued vigorously tional sense of that term, they are sec- partake of these privileges as well. that humanism was an alien reli- ular analogues to religion when they For all that Mr. Holden probably gion that needed to be purged from hold a similar place in adherents’ lives. sincerely understood his grievance as American culture, especially from pub- The series of cases so holding goes religious in nature, and for all that a lic schools. The tenets of this “religion back to the Supreme Court’s decision superficially simpler “humanism is a of humanism” were alleged to include in Welsh v. United States, 398 U.S. 333 religion” argument might have struck most of the fruits of twentieth-century (1970), which held that the exemp- the AHA’s litigators as easier to pur- secular culture, from contraception to tion for conscientious objectors to the sue, there would have been much to the theory of evolution. At the time military draft applied to nonreligious gain by recasting his complaint as an it was widely feared that groups such individuals who had serious, deeply argument that humanism is a secular as the Moral Majority might use this held moral beliefs analogous to reli- belief system entitled to be treated as mischaracterization of humanism as a gious beliefs. Turning to the prison a religion for certain legal purposes. religion to damage education, repro- context, the U.S. Court of Appeals for The case might have contributed to the ductive freedom, and other areas of the Seventh Circuit held in Kaufman larger expansion of freedom-of-con- life. Sometimes, religious Right figures v. McCaughtry, 419 F.3d 678 (7th Cir. science litigation and its gradual argued that humanism was a religion; at 2005) that when making accommo- replacement of principles rooted solely others they argued that secular human- dations to prisoners, atheism must be in religion, an outcome any secularist ism was a religion, a difficult claim to treated as favorably as religious beliefs. might be expected to find desirable. refute since at that time no organization More recently in Center for Inquiry Also, by avoiding the misleading argu- spoke specifically for secular humanists v. Marion Circuit Court Clerk (2014), the ment that any type of “humanism is a and their interests. Seventh Circuit held that secular cele- religion,” it would have provided some Unfortunately, certain facts offered brants have the same right to solem- protection against a perverse conse- support for accusations that humanism nize marriages as religious celebrants. quence: Judge Haggerty’s finding that was a religion:

6 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org • The Humanist Manifesto (1931), widely for Secular Humanism and the Center In AHA vs. United States, Judge viewed as the founding document for Inquiry are postreligious. We . . . Haggerty took Justice Black’s footnote of American humanism, explicitly de- wish to dissociate ourselves with any in Torcaso v. Watkins all too seriously. scribed humanism as a new religion. and all attempts to ape religion.”† ”On Indeed, it appears to be the entire • The only national humanist organiza- our website, on a page titled “What basis for his conclusion that secular tion existing at that time, the AHA, held Is Secular Humanism?,” it is currently humanism deserves to be considered a a religious tax exemption.* described as “a comprehensive, nonre- religion. Finding that plaintiff Holden • Religious Humanists existed, if any- ligious life stance incorporating a nat- had a valid complaint under the estab- uralistic philosophy, a cosmic outlook thing, in greater numbers than they lishment clause, Judge Haggerty con- rooted in science, and a consequential- do today. There was no shortage of cluded a brief examination of relevant ist ethical system” (emphasis added).‡ writings demonstrating that some hu- law as follows: “In Torcaso v. Watkins, If secular humanism is the most manists viewed their Humanism as a the Supreme Court said that the gov- religious commitment. explicitly nonreligious form of human- ernment must not ‘aid those religions ism, how did it alone come to be labeled Philosopher Paul Kurtz viewed these as a religion by Judge Haggerty? matters with understandable dismay. In The story goes back to Torcaso v. the 1970s, as editor of the AHA’s maga- Watkins, a landmark 1961 case that zine The Humanist, he successfully cam- largely ended religious tests for state paigned to move American humanism offices such as notary public. In a foot- “. . . It seems uncontrover- in a more secular direction. In 1973, he note to that case, Justice Hugo L. Black sial that plaintiff Holden can and Edwin H. Wilson drafted Humanist wrote: “Among religions in this country be understood as a religious Manifesto II, which explicitly repudi- which do not teach what would gener- ated its predecessor’s description of ally be considered a belief in the exis- Humanist. . . . The more humanism as a religion and sought to tence of God are Buddhism, Taoism, significant question is whether portray humanism as a secular move- Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism, and the AHA was wise to accept ment, more philosophy than religion. others.” This observation was startling By the late 1970s, Kurtz was no for multiple reasons. Not only were the case on Holden’s terms or longer active with the AHA. Joining there no organized secular human- whether a higher objective with others, in 1980 he formed the ists in 1961, the term appears to have could have been pursued. . . .” Council for Democratic and Secular been used only once before, by the Humanism (now the Council for Secular prominent church-state attorney Leo Humanism), in large part to embody Pfeffer, who apparently coined the secular humanism and to assert its phrase in his 1958 book, Creeds in nonreligious nature. On more than Competition. (Pfeffer was Torcaso’s based on a belief in the existence of one occasion, Kurtz confided to one attorney.) Certainly, there were in 1961 of us (Flynn) that in the event that no Secular Humanists who capitalized God as against those religions founded some future court defined religious the phrase as though it were the name on different beliefs.’ Among these lat- Humanism, or humanism generally, of their church! Justice Black probably ter religions, in a footnote the Court as religious, the Council would strive composed this list of nontheistic reli- included Secular Humanism. Therefore, to show that at least one strand of gions using no reference source other the court finds that Secular Humanism humanism was explicitly nonreligious, than his memory. Unfortunately, it is is a religion for Establishment Clause and that humanism generally could simply incorrect. Fortunately, it is con- purposes . . .” (citations omitted). never be accurately described as mono- tained in a footnote to a Supreme lithically religious. Court decision. Footnotes in Supreme Is the AHA Not Cognizant of the From then until now, the Council Court decisions are generally held not Distinction between Secular and has remained true to this view of sec- to carry the weight of precedent (as Religious Humanism? ular humanism. In 2002, Kurtz wrote: courts do not typically express their In their briefs in AHA v. United States, “We need to reiterate that the Council holdings in footnotes), though lower AHA litigators insist repeatedly and un- courts are sometimes inconsistent in *Founded as an educational organization in conditionally that “Humanism is a reli- the 1940s, the AHA successfully petitioned­ observing that principle. gion.” A charitable view might be that the Internal Revenue Service to change its Paul Kurtz, “Secular Humanism: A New AHA’s leadership, or perhaps its legal exemption type to religious in the 1960s. This † was done so the organization’s credentialed Approach,” Free Inquiry, Fall 2002, p. 6. Avail­ counsel, were unaware of the existence celebrants, then called Humanist Counselors, able online to Free Inquiry subscribers at of humanists who view their life stance as http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/ would have clergy privileges and be able to anything but religious—or that they were solemnize marriages throughout the country. articles/2579. The AHA has again held an educational ‡http://www.secularhumanism.org/index. unaware of the negative consequences exemption since the mid-2000s. php/3260. that might follow a judicial finding that

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 7 humanism is a religion. A 2007 essay* by call themselves either ‘religious human- Noebel, in particular, continues to put Roy Speckhardt, then and now the exec- ists’ or ‘secular humanists’ on the basis forward similar arguments today—even utive director of the AHA, demonstrates of their position on this issue.” in a 2011 Free Inquiry mini-essay, “Secu- that neither is true: “While some hu- It seems clear, then, that AHA lead- lar Humanism Is Evangelistic” (February/ manists are comfortable explaining their ership must have been cognizant that March 2011). worldview­ in religious terms, and may the claim that humanism is a religion As the October 30 decision in AHA v. even feel that other vocabulary falls short is controversial, freighted with poten- United States becomes better known— of describing their vibrant intermingling tial dangers, and applicable only to and as it, inevitably, becomes separated of emotive and rational thought, more some who claim the label humanist. in the public mind from such nuance and more humanists prefer to describe How unfortunate that all of this was as the case’s complexities provided— their convictions in a more clearly secular set aside in order to score a simplistic it seems likely to provoke an entirely manner. Indeed, many humanists bristle legal victory. As a religious Humanist, unnecessary revival of those old tropes at the idea of being a dues-paying mem- Jason Holden deserved to have his about the “religion of humanism.” ber of a religious organization.” rights respected. AHA v. United States achieved that, but it did so in a need- Conclusion lessly retrograde and destructive way. Whatever its final outcome may be, AHA v. United States is a vivid demonstration What Will Follow from This? that advocacy organizations must strate- “Several court decisions have Fortunately, AHA v. United States is a gize carefully before they embark on liti- recognized that even though case whose issues are deeply interwoven gation. Had this case been pursued with atheism and humanism are not with the facts of the controversy. For that just a slightly more complex argument, reason, the likelihood that its defective namely, that certain secular beliefs religions in the traditional sense conclusion that secular humanism is a should be treated as though they were of that term, they are secular religion will contribute damaging prec- religious beliefs for certain legal pur- analogues to religion when they edent is probably modest. But in the poses, instead of a simple “humanism is larger domain of social rhetoric, it will a religion” argument, it might have ob- hold a similar place in adher- likely resonate like a cannon shot. In re- tained relief for its prisoner plaintiff ents’ lives.” cent years, Christian Right activists have while simultaneously achieving a higher been more muted in their arguments social purpose. It could have further ad- that humanism or secular humanism vanced the great secular project of re- are religions—though there have been placing, where possible, freedom-of-reli- exceptions. In the 1990s, a California gion law with freedom-of-conscience As to the dangers posed by the idea school teacher who was an evangelical law. And it would have avoided the un- that humanism, or secular humanism, Christian sued, seeking to be exempted intended consequence of causing a life is a religion, Speckhardt commented: from a requirement to teach about the stance and an organization that were “It was during this time [the 1970s] theory of evolution because that was not even involved in this controversy— that the religious right began to gain part of the “religion of secular human- ironically, the strand of humanism that strength and started to blame secular ism.” The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Ap- most vigorously holds itself apart from humanists for society’s ills and accuse peals rejected that argument, stating: religion—to be inaccurately and unwel- the public educational system of teach- “Neither the Supreme Court, nor this comely declared “a religion.” ing the ‘religion’ of secular human- circuit, has ever held that evolutionism ism. Debates continue to this day with or secular humanism are ‘religions’ for Editors’ Note: The word humanism is cap- fundamentalists who claim that sec- Establishment Clause purposes” (Peloza italized only when referring to religious ular humanism is a ‘religion’ taught v. Capistrano Unified School Dist., 37 F. 3d Humanism. When referring to secular in schools and secular humanists who 517–Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit 1994). humanism, congregational humanism, argue that it isn’t a religion at all.” (Judge Haggerty’s decision acknowl- or humanism generally, Free Inquiry’s pol- An unsigned editor’s note following edged this decision but argued that its icy is to set the word in lowercase. Speckhardt’s essay goes so far as to authority had been weakened by later note, “Some humanists think human- decisions.) In 2000, evangelist David A. ism is religious, and other humanists Noebel and high-profile Christian leader disagree. In fact some humanists think- Tim LaHaye issued Mind Siege, an integrated se- this question is so important that they ries of books, videos, Tom Flynn is executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism *Roy Speckhardt, “The Humanist Tax Ex­­ and instructional ma- and editor of Free Inquiry. Ronald A. Lindsay is the president and emption,” posted to Humanist Network terials making the spe- CEO of the Council for Secular Humanism and the Center for Inquiry. News February 7, 2007. http://www.amer Nicholas J. Little is the legal director of the Center for Inquiry. icanhumanist.org/hnn/archives/?id=283 cific case that human- &article=1. ism is an alien religion.

8 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org Arthur L. Caplan OP-ED

Remember Ebola?

hatever became of Ebola? For President Barack Obama at the polls Americans. This is a function of the pri- weeks in October 2014, it was and took over the Senate. That story mary lesson learned from Ebola. Wall the rage in America. Patients dominated the headlines. Then Obama, So what lessons can be drawn from coming for treatment in Atlanta and who had been more or less somnolent the intense but brief life of Ebola? The Nebraska were monitored by a swarm- for the previous year, awoke from his world needs a standing medical force ing media. A physician kept New York slumbers and responded to the political that is well trained and ready to get to City on edge because prior to becoming vote of no confidence by sticking his remote parts of the globe in a few ill, he had ridden on the subway, gone finger in the eye of the Republicans, weeks. Volunteers won’t do. Rare infec- out to eat, and touched a few “rocks” in announcing a unilateral immigration tious diseases need more money allot- “throwing some lines” at a Manhattan amnesty policy. That got a few days ted to their study at the National bowling alley before winding up in of intense coverage. A grand jury in Institutes of Health and by other major isolation at Bellevue. A nurse just back Ferguson, Missouri, issued no indict- research organizations. There is no from West Africa told off a couple ment of anyone in the death of Michael lobby to achieve this, so it just has to get of governors who tried to quarantine Brown; that got a few days of atten- done by medical and scientific leaders. If her, took the most photographed bike tion. And then came Thanksgiving. we are going to use quarantine as a ride since a steroidal Lance Armstrong And when those events were done so, method to fight a disease, we had better completed the Tour de France, and seemingly, was Ebola. figure out how and what level of enforce- wound up getting a judge to permit Well, not completely. In November, ment we are able to apply. And last, if the her to roam her hometown of Fort Ebola was still a major public-health world wants protection against deadly Kent, Maine—presumably to the dis- threat in West Africa, with thousands plagues, it had better do a better job of pleasure of the wildlife there, who of new cases; many deaths, including teaching geography—including major vastly outnumber humans. Some politi- local doctors, nurses, and gravediggers; rail, maritime, aviation, and migratory cians screamed for airports to be closed economies in shambles; and orphans routes—so that Americans can begin to to anyone coming from Africa, until all over the place. But America’s moral appreciate that what is in one part of the they realized that this would include vision did not extend beyond its bor- world today will almost certainly arrive Americans trying to return home. The ders, and Americans’ attention spans here a few days or weeks later. Whether Internet was awash with rumors that had maxed out after about a month of it is computers, animals, plants, or peo- terrorists had or would smuggle Ebola coverage. ple, a focus on “America only” is a across the Mexican border to use as So the primary lesson to be learned foreign policy that only a virus could a biological weapon. A few schools from Ebola is that you can’t rely on love. closed when it turned out that a pupil Americans to engage with an epidemic had an uncle or cousin who had either that they don’t think threat- been to Liberia as a missionary, could ens them directly. A secondary spell Sierra Leone, or identify where lesson is that American anxi- Arthur L. Caplan is the Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Guinea was on a map. ety is fueled by media outlets Mitty Professor of Bioethics and director of the Division of Then came November, and Ebola that have no interest in cover- Medical Ethics at Langone Medical Center, both at New York completely vanished from the national ing or talking about epidemics University. consciousness. The Republicans clocked that do not directly threaten

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 9 Take action with us.

You can help promote science, reason, and secular values. Imagine a world where religion and pseudoscience do not influence public policy—a world where religion no longer enjoys a privileged position. The Center for Inquiry is working toward these goals and educating the public to use reason, science, and secular values rather than religion and pseudoscience to establish public policy. The Center for Inquiry advances its mission through advocacy, education, and outreach programs. No other organizations advance science and secularism on as many fronts as CFI and its affiliates, the Council for Secular Humanism and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

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Getting Atheists to Talk about Death

’m a public speaker. One of the many It’s also a hugely important sub- Plenty of people stay in religion for topics I speak about is death—athe- ject, especially for atheists. When peo- reasons other than whether it’s true Iist philosophies of death and how ple are questioning their religion, or or not. Showing people that atheists atheists can find comfort and mean- when they’re in the process of leaving can cope with life’s big questions is ing in the face of our own mortality it, the fear of death is often one of a great way to help them open up to and the deaths of people we love. My the most difficult things they have to the possibility that God doesn’t exist. talks about death are among my most face. Accepting the reality that death So I’d like to see atheists talk about popular: the questions and comments is truly final when you’ve believed for death more. I’d like to see us do it during the Q&As are always compel- most of your life that it’s just a tempo- in public: in talks, at conferences, in ling and heartfelt, and the conversa- rary interruption of existence—that’s workshops, on blogs, and on social tions afterward are always intense rough. Helping to make this process media. And I’d like us to do it in more and greatly appreciated. a little less rough, helping to ease the They’re among my most popular transition and show some possible talks—when I get a chance to give them, ways through it, is one of the best “It seems that once the that is. things we can do to make atheism My talks about death are also look like a viable, welcoming option. conversation gets started, atheists among the least requested. In the five But death is a subject that athe- love to talk about death—but it’s years that I’ve been a public speaker, ists often concede to religion without really hard to get that I’ve been asked to speak about sex, needing to. I’ve written about this about anger, and about coming out before, in this very magazine (“Do We conversation started.” as an atheist more times than I can Concede the Ground of Death Too count. I’ve been asked to speak about Easily?,” June/July 2012). Many of us death maybe half a dozen times. It assume, without really questioning, private settings as well. Talking with seems that once the conversation gets that religion is always going to win each other about death will make our started, atheists love to talk about on the death issue, and that secular own views on it clearer and stronger— death—but it’s really hard to get that views of death can’t possibly comfort and it’ll give us more and better ways conversation started. people the way religion does. to talk about it with the believers in This article isn’t about my pub- I think this is a mistake. It’s a mis- our lives. lic speaking career. (I am now done take in the sense of just being . . . But it seems like this isn’t going talking about that.) This is about a well, mistaken. I think when it comes to happen on its own. Once we start larger question: How can we get athe- to death, religion is comforting only talking about death, it’s like open- ists to talk about death? if you don’t think about it very care- ing the floodgates—the topic is so Of course, I get it. Death is a fully—which ultimately makes it not important and yet so taboo that once weird, hard subject, to put it mildly. very comforting. And it’s a mistake in that gate gets opened and the conver- Of course, I get that when people the sense of being bad strategy. Death sation starts, the sense of relief can be are casting about for a conversation isn’t going anywhere: it’s not like peo- palpable. But getting it opened in the starter, the opener is not usually, “Hey, ple are going to forget about it if we first place can be tricky. How can we we’re all mortal and doomed, and the don’t bring it up. It might be nice if help make it happen? people we loved who are dead are everyone considered the question of I don’t have any big answers. I’m really gone forever and we’ll never whether religion is true based purely thinking this one through myself. But see them again!” It’s not exactly light on whether there’s good evidence for cocktail-party banter. it, but that’s not the reality we live in. (Continued on page 40)

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 11 Faisal Saeed Al Mutar OP-ED

Who Is Really Gross and Racist?

will assume that you watched or at million people, of whom just over 87 percent; Jordan, 97 percent; Indonesia, least heard about the debate between percent are Muslim. That’s 217.5 mil- 93 percent; and Pakistan, 87 percent. Iactor Ben Affleck and Pulitzer Prize- lion people. Sixteen percent of them— In October 2014, the World Economic winning author and New York Times okay, only 34,872,000 Indonesians— Forum distributed its annual Global columnist Nicholas Kristof versus come- favor the death penalty for apostasy. Gender Gap Report, a review of how well dian Bill Maher and best-selling author Only (rounding up very slightly) thir- 134 countries have succeeded in closing Sam Harris on the October 3, 2014, ty-five million people. gaps between women and men in four episode of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Nothing to worry about, then. areas: economic participation and oppor- Maher. There is no difference between tunity, educational attainment, political The subject of the rather-heated dis- attacking Islam for its flaws and attack- empowerment, and health and survival. cussion was whether Maher and Harris ing Christianity for its problems, which Among the eighteen lowest-ranked could criticize the religion of Islam with- many secularists, especially on the Left, countries, sixteen are Islam-dominated: out being “gross and racist” toward seem to champion. Here are some clear Qatar (117); Nigeria (118); Algeria (119); Muslims, something Affleck and Kristof reasons why Islam needs to be exam- Jordan (120); Oman (122); Iran (123); said was essentially impossible. ined, not excused. Syria (124); Egypt (125); Turkey (126); I am an Iraqi refugee best known In Muslim-dominated countries, you Morocco (127); Benin (128); Saudi Arabia for my human-rights activism as well can be lawfully executed for blasphemy (129); Mali (131); Pakistan (132); Chad as my opposition to Islamic extremism. and apostasy. According to Reuters, (133); and Yemen (134). I am glad that criticism of orthodox atheists and other religious skeptics In a 2010 report dealing with the interpretations of Islam has come to are subject to execution in at least thir- status of women around the world, mainstream media—it is a subject on teen nations: Afghanistan, Malaysia, the United Nations Department of which I have spoken out since I came to Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) the United States. Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, measured the number of girls of prima- Unlike any of the “experts” who Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, and ry-school age enrolled in school com- appeared on the show’s panel that day, Yemen. pared to boys. The seven countries with I not only have the knowledge to speak Islam is also slowing the acceptance the largest gaps are without exception about the topic but also the experi- of homosexuality. Let’s look at the Pew Islamic countries. In Chad, 22 percent ence of having lived in three Muslim- Research Global Attitudes Project’s more boys than girls were enrolled; dominated countries viewed by the 2013 report, The Global Divide on in Yemen, 20 percent; in Pakistan, 16 West as poster-children for moderate Homosexuality, which asked the follow- percent; in Guinea-Bissau, 16 percent; Islam: Iraq, Lebanon, and Malaysia. ing question of citizens in each coun- in Mali, 14 percent; in Iraq, 13 percent; Malaysia was specifically mentioned by try: “Should society accept homosexu- and in Niger, 13 percent. Kristof during the segment; he referred ality?” In Canada, the United Kingdom, The same report compared adult lit- to it as the poster child of modera- and the United States, more than 60 eracy rates between women and men. tion. Then Kristof offered this inad- percent responded “yes” (Canada, 80 Of the twenty-eight countries with the vertently chilling observation: “What percent; United Kingdom, 77 percent; worst literacy gap for women, twenty about Indonesia? Only 16 percent [of United States, 60 percent). But in the of them were Islamic. Of the seven Indonesian Muslims responding to a Islamic world, those answering “no” countries with the largest literacy gaps, poll] favor death for apostasy.” were in the clear majority: Lebanon, five were Islamic: Yemen, 36 percent; Only? 80 percent; Turkey, 78 percent (despite Let’s see: Indonesia has about 250 having a secular government); Egypt, 95 (Continued on page 40)

12 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org Letters

Considering a Yule-Free ubiquitous principles equitable favorite curmudgeon. We sing it to all and depend on nothing but every year at our house. It is sung December their own unconditional exercise to the tune of “Oh Come All Ye and mutual goodwill. Faithful.” I enjoyed Tom Flynn’s op-ed I don’t think we are going on Christmas (“Thirty Years This year’s winter solstice is pretty to get rid of Santa Claus any Yule Free,” FI , December 2014/ much like last year time soon. There is just too much January 2015). Obviously, I was With singing and drinking fi lling folks money being made off of his with good cheer. also a subject in the great exper- image and other commercial Why does this happen periodically? iment of encouraging belief in Christmas decorum. Because the Earth is tilted to its plane Santa Claus. I was the analytical of orbit type from a young age, and I John L. Indo The Earth’s axis is tilted: twenty- was able to turn it to my advan- Houston, Texas three degrees. tage. I asked my parents why The Earth’s solar orbit illuminates the Santa brought me presents but north sky Then six months later it’s the south’s they didn’t. Thinking I was still Instead of Christmas, how about too young to be told the truth turn to fry. keeping “Grav-mass,” the cele- It’s simply envisioned gyroscopically. (obviously I wasn’t), they had to bration of comprehensible phys- Earth’s axis of rotation while circling in double up on my presents. ical laws. It would be held on its orbit I can’t fi gure out why adults December 25, Isaac Newton’s Maintains an inclination of twenty- The Failures of have lied to children about so many birthday. three degrees. things (Santa, the Easter Bunny, Richard Stallman And now, in December, there’s hardly Religious Morality the Tooth Fairy, etc.). The doubt any sunlight that eventually develops should Cambridge, Massachusetts And up north in Reykjavik the whole Re : “Religious Morality: Point- carry over to God, but it obviously day is night . less, Worthless, and Utterly Sub- doesn’t for most people. But daylight’s returning automatically . Because the Earth is tilted to its plane jective” by Ronald A. Lind say ( FI, John Worsley I have a very diff erent view of of orbit December 2014/January 2015): Lenoir, North Carolina Christmas. I am a psychoanalyst, The Earth’s axis is tilted: twenty-three Functional analysis (sociology) and still revere Freud, of blessed degrees. has always had a problem even memory. But I do enjoy Christmas And so, while we’re singing, it’s not with objective aspects of society/ and the nice things that go along to Jesus’ birthday Tom Flynn’s experiences with culture. Emile (David) Durkheim’s with it. I don’t think religion has Or to the Maccabees that we toast Santa Claus are no less disgrun- to play a big role, although much today. “On Morality and Society” and tling than mine. When I was four- of the stories and traditions are No, it is simple astronomically. his ensuing argument with Terrae proclinatae (Of the leaning teen years old, I asked my Sunday pleasant and meaningful. Having Feuerbach may be helpful here. school teacher how fundamen- Earth) fun, looking forward to presents, Ambitum laudamus (We praise the As “God” is the deifi cation of the talist Christianity could justify good cheer and goodwill to all— orbit) reifi cation of society itself, moral- teaching children to believe in a well, maybe not all, but a lot. My Venite extollamus (Come, let us exalt) ity can be seen as the “normaliza- supernatural being other than wife and I now have a tradition. Terram Dominam. (The Earth, our tion” of the reifi cation of society those accounted for in the Bible. We religiously watch three mov- Lord) itself, a process. For Durkheim, After all, wasn’t that idolatry? As ies during December, to get us in Stephen Baird society exists sui generis not might have been expected, my the spirit: A Christmas Carol with Solana Beach, California only independent of its parts; question was met with disdain. Alastair Sim, The Bishop’s Wife I was told that I was missing the it is more than just the sum of with Cary Grant, and Elf with Will point. Well, what point was that? its parts and is unexplainable in Ferrell. Our children and grand- Was it the spirit of giving? If so, terms of its parts. Society is not children enjoy the holiday as we On Football there were many references to do, and they thank us for not a thing but a process. This is the generosity in the Scriptures. So having imposed religious beliefs Re : “The Roar of the Crowd” by same with morality. Morality, like why do the Christians tolerate upon them. My behavior is pretty Ophelia Benson (FI , December society, is sui generis and inde- such nonsense? It’s just blind tra- good throughout the year, if not 2014/January 2015): Ophelia Ben- pendent of Linsday’s “functions,” dition. exemplary, and I do like getting son hates football. Fair enough. and it cannot be explained by Perhaps the saddest thing up Christmas morn and looking Other Americans, numbering scores them. As pure process, morality about the Santa Claus myth is under the tree. So far I have not of millions, constitute a dedicated not only is neither objective nor that it teaches children to fear been disappointed. fan base. Afi cionados of foot- subjective, but also it can have no supernatural beings as substan- Carl Saviano ball and other “violent,” or, more tiation of their values. Mature “should” or “ought to.” Morality Northampton, Massachusetts generically termed, “physical is what it is at any given nanosec- ethics should not depend on get- contact” sports such as boxing ting rewards for good and pun- ond in time. have compared the astonishing ishment for bad. Universal broth- athletic skills—tactics and strate- John Karlin erly love, which the Christians say Here is a nonreligious winter sol- Tecumseh, Oklahoma they want, should be based on stice carol for Tom Flynn, our (Continued on page 65)

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free InquIry 13 ADVERTISEMENT

Why Secularism Is Necessary for Women Taslima Nasrin

ecularism is necessary for women’s freedom simply unfortunate Bangladesh is now drowning in Islamism. because religions—all religions—are opposed to wom- I continue to encourage the people of Bangladesh to Sen’s freedom. No woman can have the rights and free- transform their country back into a secular nation so that they doms she deserves under any religion’s laws. Women have can fight against poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, superstition, greater rights in those countries where laws are not based fascism, and barbarism. on religion and where the state is separated from religion. Recently, a new secular movement called Shahbag has Women are more sorely oppressed in those countries where arisen in Bangladesh. It deserves the support of all sane and the state and religion are not strictly separated, where laws secular people. It has dared to challenge Jamaat-e-Islami, are based on religion, where societies are not secular, and the country’s largest Islamist political party, even demanding where the people follow religious tenets and are not edu- that that party be proscribed. (Though I support democracy, I cated about women’s equality. also support a ban on Jamaat-e-Islami because in Bangladesh The state must be separated from religion so that laws can it is nothing but a terrorist organization.) Reformers have be religion-free. faced terrible opposition. Islamists killed two atheist blog- The definition of secularism is different in different coun- gers associated with Shahbag: Asif Mohiuddin, twenty-nine, tries. To me, secularism means unrelated to any religion. In and Ahmed Rajib, thirty-five. Powerful Islamists continue to some supposedly enlightened countries, secularism not only demand the execution of eighty-four other atheist bloggers means respecting all religions equally, it also means respect- on the grounds that they have insulted religion. ing the barbarisms of all religions equally. I support the rights The label “atheist” is sometimes imposed by Islamists of all people to practice their religious beliefs privately, but inappropriately to further their own aims. Many Shahbag I oppose the idea of respecting religions. In truth, I have no members consider themselves Muslims. Alarmingly, atheist respect for any religion. I believe religion is not compatible has come to be seen as an obscene word in Bangladesh. It with human rights, women’s rights, or freedom of expression. is tragic that even liberal people, inside and outside of the country, do so little to support of the freedom of expression Tragedy and Hope in Bangladesh of atheists—whether they be those who are simply labeled as I am Bengali, and I have witnessed how my people created a atheists by their powerful enemies or a significant number of secular state and how it was quickly ruined. We fought against activists who genuinely are atheists. the then-new Islamic Republic of Pakistan in order to save our Islam must not be exempt from critical scrutiny; neither Bengali language and secular culture—to replace Islamism must any other religion. Islam in particular needs to undergo with secularism. We had a revolution and ultimately a war a process of enlightenment and reformation similar to what against Pakistan. We were victorious in December 1971, and other religions have experienced. If the secular movement a new, secular country called Bangladesh was born. But after in Bangladesh can’t make people understand this simple only a few years, the wrong people came to power and slowly but necessary concept, then real change can never occur. I destroyed the country. They changed the constitution and know that even the atheists in the Shahbag secular move- made the country Islamic and non-Muslim people second-class ment would say that the time for this idea has not yet come. citizens. Now, Bangladesh is completely under the control of However, I earnestly hope that people will soon be motivated Islamists who revile democracy. They seek to establish a the- by the realization that there is no real difference between the ocracy and to bury democracy and secularism forever. Once a Islam of the seventh century and the Islam that Islamic terror- thriving community of vibrant, affectionate, creative people, ist organizations practice today.

14 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org I also hope that, if the present-day Shahbag movement never realizing that this portrays Islam as a hobbled faith that fails to achieve its goals, the brave and enlightened people is unable to survive without artificial supports. associated with it will not become permanently disillusioned or disheartened. I hope they will renew their efforts until their Atheism under Attack dreams come true. Atheists are under attack, not only in Bangladesh but in many People like to believe that Islam is a religion of peace. Since other countries (though especially in Muslim countries). Why my childhood, I have witnessed the opposite. must we protect a charlatan called Muhammad for centu- ries? Why must we defend Allah, who does not exist? Why The Need for Anger and Resistance do Muslims in the twenty-first century think it is their right to People need to get angry. I am painfully aware that evil violate people’s human rights, including their right to free- powers once sought my death and with the pro-Islamist dom of expression? Most of all, why do so many in the inter- government of Bangladesh conspired to throw me out of national community think they should refrain from speaking my own country twenty years ago, never to allow me back. out when enlightened atheists are jailed, banned, or even Therefore, I know how much I would love to see hundreds of mutilated and slaughtered for the sake of seventh-century thousands of angry, passionate young people with a secular myths that reek of inhumanity? vision rise against the insanity of Islamists and offer guideposts toward real change, toward a new era. Instead, crowds in the hundreds of thousands support the Islamists. Last year, half a million Islamists gathered in the city of Dhaka. Mobilized by an organization called Hefazat-e-Islam, they set “Women have greater rights in those countries fire to shops and vehicles and killed both police and where laws are not based on religion and where civilians. These were their demands: the state is separated from religion.” • Restore the call for “absolute trust and faith in Allah” in the constitution of Bangladesh and repeal all laws that conflict with the values of the Qur’an and Sunnah (the normative Muslim way of life). • Enact an anti-defamation law that retains the death penalty “Atheism shouldn’t be a crime,” cried one secularist. for such crimes as defaming Allah, Muhammad, or Islam “Blasphemy should be celebrated, not outlawed.” These and “spreading hate” against Muslims. bold words remind us of the obvious yet vital point that • Immediately prohibit antireligious writings by atheist blog- atheism must not be criminalized. Those subversive individ- gers holding leading positions in the so-called Shahbag uals who have the bad manners to remind us that no idea is movement; make their punishment exemplary. sacred—that governmental defense of any theology neces- • End all alien cultural practices: immodesty, obscenity, mis- sarily weakens the legitimacy of both the government and conduct, free mixing of the sexes, and candle-lighting in the the theology—should be thanked. They are making us think, name of personal freedom and free speech. reminding us what it means to live in a free and open society. • Abolish the anti-Islamic inheritance law (which ignores In the final analysis, ideas (including religious ideas) cannot Islam’s requirement that women inherit half as much as be defamed—only people can. men) and “ungodly” education policy. Make Islamic educa- tion compulsory. Reading the Qur’an in . . . Name the Place As we read this list, one thing is unmistakably clear: We all know what happened at the Boston Marathon on April “almighty” Allah must be very weak and unable to protect 15, 2013. We recognize the names of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar himself and his religion. The government and some Islamic Tsarnaev, the alleged perpetrators of the attack. Yet did organizations must protect Allah, not to mention Islam itself, you know that members of the Tsarnaev family have been from atheists, who must be powerful indeed. What is implied embroiled in political struggles since the 1940s? Josef Stalin if such radical steps are necessary? Almost all political par- was their first enemy. They were uprooted from their native ties in Bangladesh already support Islam and Islamists. The Chechnya and forced into exile in Kyrgyzstan. Wherever Bangladeshi government frequently takes action against they went, they faced ethnic discrimination. Despite it all, critics of Islam. Yet that is not enough. Bangladesh’s radical Tamerlan and Dzhokhar were good boys—at first. They were Islamists desperately seek to protect Islam by any means, sent to good schools to become better boys. They called

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 15 themselves Muslims, though they barely practiced the faith. brothers could go anywhere they wanted and watch or play Then, radical Islamism claimed their thinking and destroyed any games they wished; I could not. My sister could not. I was everything. It brought blindness, veils, unreason. Good boys told that girls were not made for such activities, that their became bad boys. Very bad boys: they became terrorists. role was to stay home and learn how to cook, make beds, and Religion is such a powerful evil! Good boys needed religion clean the house. My mother was not the only woman who to become bad boys. was oppressed; I saw that my aunts and my female neighbors The Qur’an is powerful but unpredictable. After reading and other acquaintances were trapped in the same roles and the Qur’an, Boston’s Tsarnaev brothers became religious oppressed as well. But, in all of our minds, torture of women terrorists. After reading the Qur’an, I became an atheist. was not oppression but rather tradition. We had become Can we draw any conclusion from this? The Qur’an is a very accustomed to tradition. dangerous book. Some who revere it become harmless; some Moving into adulthood, I realized that I was a part of become extremists; some become terrorists. You never know that tradition but also that I was being oppressed, just as my what you may become—good or bad—if you read it. It is bet- female classmates and, later, my female patients were. (I first ter not to believe the words of any holy books because there studied medicine and became a medical doctor. Becoming a is no evidence that Allah—or any other gods—exist. writer came later.) Religions are all made up of lies. And lies are always harmful. Some Islamists brainwashed Tamerlan Tsarnaev to become Women under Islam a terrorist. Religion stunted his thinking mind. During my child- Women’s rights are human rights. But Islam does not con- hood, many people tried to brainwash me to become religious. sider woman to be a separate human being. It teaches that I refused. I never prayed. Instead, I was a curious child. I always the male was the original creation; womankind was created asked questions if I did not understand something. secondarily and solely for man’s pleasure. Islam treats women as intellectual, moral, and physical inferiors. In marriage, Islam protects the rights of men only. The Qur’an gives men total freedom within marriage, saying: “Your women are as your “. . . I have no respect for any religion. I believe religion field, go unto them as you will” (2.223). The Hadith says that two prayers never reach the heavens: is not compatible with human rights, women’s rights, first, those of escaping slaves and, second, those or freedom of expression.” of reluctant women who frustrate their husbands at night. Islam considers women psychologically inferior, too. They are not allowed to testify in divorce cases. If a woman is raped, she must produce four male witnesses for the court. If she cannot, no charge My Story will be brought. In Islamic law, the testimony of two women Even at age twelve, I knew I was an atheist. It came easily is worth that of one man. If a man suspects his wife of adul- to me. I had studied science and taken it to heart, so it was tery or denies the legitimacy of the offspring, his testimony is hard for me to accept Qur’anic assertions that the sun moves worth that of four witnesses. A wife has no right to charge around the earth, the moon shines by its own light, and her husband in a similar manner. Nor can women inherit mountains exist to support the earth so that it will not fall property on equal terms with their brothers; Allah proclaims down. I came to suspect—eventually, to be sure—that the that when an estate is settled, a male shall inherit twice as Qur’an was not written by someone with any knowledge of much as a female (4.11–12). (And yes, as we saw above, this science. reactionary principle is one of the traditional standards that As I grew up, I observed the women around me. My Bangladesh’s Hefazat-e-Islam seeks to restore.) mother was oppressed: she had been given into marriage as a And after men have enjoyed all their rights and freedoms, child. At first a good student, she was not allowed to continue after they have obtained all possible sexual pleasure in addi- her studies. My grandfather forbade it. He wanted her to be a tion to the pleasure of having been masters, after death men good housewife, a good mother, a good caretaker. That’s all. will be rewarded with exquisite wine and food and seven- Education was for boys. ty-two virgins in Paradise, including whatever wives they had Every aspect of my upbringing reinforced that girls were on Earth. And what is the reward in the afterlife for the pious inferior to boys. Boys could play outdoors, in the fields; girls woman? Nothing. Nothing but the same old husband, the had to play with their dolls in a corner of the house. My same man who caused her suffering during this physical life.

16 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org Why Secularism Is Necessary for Women

A Woman without a Country darkness forever. Their women will never enjoy the right to In Bangladesh in the beginning of the 1990s, hundreds live as human beings. of thousands of Islamists burned my books publicly and In India, women have been victims of female feticide, marched to demand my execution. Fatwas, Islamic religious dowry murder, bride-burning, gang rape, sexual slavery, and edicts, were issued against me; a price was set on my head. domestic violence. It is one of the most dangerous countries Instead of resisting the Islamists, the government took action for women in the world. I am trying my best to fight all against me. I was accused of blasphemy and, finally, thrown kinds of discrimination against women by raising aware- out of my country. My crime was writing these words: “It is ness. At the same time, across India, Hindu fundamentalism dangerous to follow the religious scriptures in this modern is rising. Whether they be Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Jewish, world. Not only the Qu’ran, but all the religious scriptures are or Buddhist, all religious fundamentalists oppose women’s out of time, out of place. And they are all anti-women.” rights and freedom of expression. In all the world, I have no country to call my own. I am left In supporting women’s rights everywhere, I have criticized any and all religions, traditions, cultures, and customs that with memories of a land and people intrinsic to my being, are antiwoman. But to my surprise, I find myself labeled whose language and culture molded me. It has been twenty anti-Islam. Some people say I am a Muslim-hater. But they years since my country abandoned me, and I have never been are wrong! I stand beside all oppressed people. I stood beside allowed back. When my mother lay on her death- bed, the Bangladeshi government told me I could not return. A few years later when my father was dying, I begged, pleaded, and cried to be allowed to visit him, if only for two days. Once again, the “I am Bengali, and I have witnessed how my government refused to permit me to enter my people created a secular state and how it was country. quickly ruined. . . . Once a thriving community of After living my exile life in Europe and America for a decade, I moved to India. In India, too, fatwas vibrant, affectionate, creative people, unfortunate were issued against me. I was physically attacked by Bangladesh is now drowning in Islamism.” Muslim fundamentalists, received numerous death threats, and witnessed violent protests against my writings by bloodthirsty mobs in city after city. The threats did not always come from Islamist fanatics. Sometimes, disturbingly, they came from leftist intellectuals Muslims when they were oppressed in Gujarat in India, in who felt that they must defend Islam because it is India’s Palestine, and in Bosnia. I defended their rights to live, just as minority’s religion. They consider themselves defenders of I stood beside the Hindus who are oppressed in Bangladesh human rights—yet they do not object when the human rights and the Christians in Pakistan. To me, their religious identity of Muslim women are continually violated. is not important. I consider them as human beings. No one Should Islam continue to be untouchable, immune to should be oppressed because of her or his beliefs. criticism by outsiders? In the West, too, intellectuals enjoying The criticism I make of religions, I make by writing. I do the comforts of secularism quail from criticizing the Islamic not go to harm the believers physically. I do not believe in oppression of women for fear it might hurt the religious violence. For their part, religious fanatics reject the idea of sensibilities of Muslims. Some fear reprisals by Muslim radi- having a debate with me or writing articles or books oppos- cals. Most do not want to be seen taking a critical stand that ing me. Instead, they try to kill me or march in great numbers might make them appear racist or “anti-Muslim.” Many fear demanding my death, for they are convinced by their religion being called Islamophobes. It’s amazing to see the amount of that an apostate must be killed. energy the civilized world expends to protect Muslims from questioning the unethical social practices of Islam. The Imperative of Women’s Rights as Human Rights Yet if no one speaks out, the status quo will continue. I believe that no country can become civilized without criticiz- Should women continue to suffer for the sake of religious ing the dogmatic practices of its religions. Without separating sentiments? state and religion, no state or society can become modern. Without criticism of Islam, it will never be possible for Democracy means nothing if it fails to provide equal rights Islamic countries to separate state and religion, never possible to women. Ensuring women’s rights benefits not only women for women and men to have a secular education instead of a but also the men and children in their families and their soci- Qur’anic education, never possible to stop Islam-based poli- eties as a whole. It also strengthens democracy and prosper- tics. If those things never happen, Islamic states will remain in ity, enhances stability, and encourages tolerance. Protecting

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 17 both the human and property rights of women and of all are obviously not going to better the lives of the oppressed. people is at the core of building a civil, law-abiding society. Until a society is based on secularism and women are con- It is the foundation for true democracy. Empowering women sidered equal to men before the law, I do not think that the through equal access to education and economic opportunity mere achievement of women’s participation in politics will is essential for the eradication of poverty. It alone enables automatically advance the cause of women. women to effectively participate in the decision-making pro- My Convictions: Older than Feminism cesses that shape their communities and their lives. Education is increasingly essential if individuals are to succeed in a global After I started writing, critics charged that I was influenced by and technologically advanced economy. Women’s integration Western feminism. But I had formed my own ideas regarding into the mainstream of economic life leads not only to signif- women’s oppression long before I even heard of feminism, icant economic progress for the family but ultimately for the Western or otherwise. As I mentioned, I questioned the country as well. authoritative pronouncements of my family and society at In Muslim countries, a women’s rights movement is emerg- large even as a child. When I wasn’t allowed to play outside, ing, although timidly. It has the uphill task of fighting against when I was called “impure” during my menstrual periods, or religious laws and for the introduction of a uniform civil code when I was told by some of my relatives and neighbors that that will treat citizens of all faiths—and none—equally. So far, I must cover myself completely in a burqa if I wanted to step out, I dared to question. When strange boys would hurl abuses at me, snatch my scarf, or pinch my breasts as I walked past, I protested. I couldn’t stomach it when I saw husbands beating their wives or young mothers “Women’s rights are human rights. But Islam does not weeping in anxiety and fear because they had given birth to baby girls. Upon observing the shame consider woman to be a separate human being.” on the faces of raped women, I felt their pain acutely; I broke down when I heard about women and children being trafficked from city to city, from one country to another, in order to be forced into prostitution. Nothing could make me accept the torture of women by men, by society, or by the this movement tends to consist of a few individual feminists state. But no one witnessed my pain, my tears, until I started who, too often, are forced to compromise with religionists. writing. For women’s status to change, we also need enlightened I didn’t learn defiance from a book. It is not necessary to leaders who believe in equality. In countries such as mine, read thick, heavy books to be aware; one only needs sharp women with strong voices do not have the support of polit- eyes. In order to demand rights for women, one doesn’t need ical leaders, whether they be men or women. Look at the to internalize Simone de Beauvoir or Gloria Steinem; one’s countries in which women participate in politics, or are even own awareness and courage can be enough. If I’m hungry, heads of state. Does it follow that women in those countries I shall eat; if I am lashed, I shall wrest away the lash; if I am are emancipated? Because of long-standing vested interests, oppressed, I shall stand up—these sentiments are universal. such leaders continue to back measures that oppress women. Feminism is not a property of the West. It is the result of ardu- They are not ideologically committed to changing these condi- ous struggle by abused, oppressed, tortured, disrespected, and tions. In South Asia, most of the women who become heads of ignored women coming together, even putting their lives at state are religious or pretend to be religious to stay in power, stake for the sake of their rights. and like men, they adhere to the religious objectives of the I have learned that women of the West have had no less Establishment. than their share of suffering. Abused and bloodied, they have I am the victim of a country whose prime minister is a woman. had their backs to the wall. For centuries, they have been I have seen women oppose me when I talk about women’s victims of patriarchy, religion, misogynistic traditions, and rights. They say God does not want women to be equal. I know the like, just like their Eastern counterparts. Religious fanatics men who reject what is said in religious scriptures and support have burned them alive; misogynistic traditions have imposed equality between men and women. Gender has nothing to metallic cages on their bodies in the name of chastity; they do with this belief. It depends on one’s conscience. Muslim have been turned into sex slaves. East or West, North or South, women who embrace the veil and glory in their subservience women still suffer for the “crime” of being women.

18 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org Why Secularism Is Necessary for Women

Human rights are universal. Those who speak of separate, Put your hands on your waist, stand firm and say lesser human rights for the people of the East and seek to —Yes, yes I am a whore distance themselves from the concept of universal human They will be shocked rights— thinking that this stance represents a victory over pro- They will stare longed oppression by the West—actually end up harming the They will wait for you to say more East more than the West. The men amongst them will sweat The Necessity of Atheism If one believes in women’s rights, one first has to cast away one’s religious identity. I have been free of that since early adolescence. I have chosen humanism as my “faith.” I should Taslima Nasrin, an award-winning writer, physician, secular human- not be mistaken for a “Muslim reformer.” I am no reformer ist, and human rights activist, is known for her powerful writings on from within: I belong to no religious community. My com- the oppression of women and her unflinching criticism of religion, munity is that of humanists free from religion. despite forced exile and multiple fatwas calling for her death. In India, I strongly believe that no one can be a true feminist with- Bangladesh, and abroad, Nasrin’s fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and mem- out being an atheist. All religions are antiwomen. No one oir have topped best-seller’s lists. can be pro-woman while supporting antiwoman dogmas. I Nasrin was born in Bangladesh. She started writing when she was stand with the British philosopher A. C. Grayling, who wrote thirteen, and her writings have resonated with people across borders. that religion is “one of the biggest impediments to peace Her novel Lajja (Shame) was published in 1993. It sold fifty thousand copies and human progress” and “one of the most destructive in Bangladesh before it was banned by the government. To date, she has forces plaguing humanity.’’ written thirty-five books in Bengali, including poetry, essays, novels, and an I will close with one of my poems. autobiography series. Her works have been translated in thirty different lan- guages. Nasrin has been banned, blacklisted, and banished from Bengal, both from Bangladesh and West Bengal part of India. She has been prevented by You Go Girl the authorities from returning to her native country since 1994 and to West Bengal since 2007. They said—slowly Her awards have included the prestigious literary award Ananda Said—calm down from India in 1992 and again in 2000; the Sakharov Prize for Said—no talk Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament in 1994; the Kurt Said—shut up Tucholsky Award from Swedish PEN; the Simone de Beauvoir Award They said—sit down and Human Rights Award; Le Prix de l’ Edit de Nantes; an award from Said—bow your head the Royal Academy of Science, Literature, and Fine Arts Belgium; the Said—cry on Distinguished Humanist Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union; the Freethought Heroine award from Freedom From Do you know what you should do? Religion Foundation; the IBKA (International League of Non-Religious You should stand up now and Atheists) award in Germany; the Feminist Press Award in the Should Stand up United States; the UNESCO Madanjeet Singh prize for Promotion of Your back straight the Tolerance and Non-violence; the Medal of Honor of Lyon; and the Your head held high Condorcet-Aron Prize at the Parliament of the French Community of You should speak Belgium in Brussels. Speak your mind Nasrin is a Laureate of the International Academy for Humanism, a Speak loudly program of the Council of Secular Humanism, publisher of Free Inquiry. Scream. She has been a senior editor of Free Inquiry for several years. Speak so loud, they will cover their ears Several cities have given her honorary citizenship, and honor- They will say—you are shameless ary doctorates have been bestowed by universities in Europe and Hear this, and laugh the United States. She has been invited to address the European Parliament, the National Assembly of France, and gatherings at the uni- They will say—you have a loose character versities of Sorbonne, Oxford, Harvard, Yale, and others. She obtained Hear this, and laugh louder fellowships at Harvard and New York Universities. She was a Woodrow They will say—you are rotten Wilson Fellow in the United States in 2009. Laugh, laugh even louder Hearing you laugh, they will shout, you are a whore

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 19 White Lies for Life: Crisis Pregnancy Centers in Los Angeles Carrie Poppy

loria” (not her real name) was sixteen when she no state grants. So they turn to private donors, inside and entered a “crisis pregnancy center” and said she outside California, to fund their missions within liberal Los “Gwas afraid she was pregnant. The only volunteer Angeles and “convert the lost.” From God’s country, donors there, a sweet woman behind an uncluttered desk, asked can impact leftist L.A. by writing a check. her to confirm her pregnancy with a urine test. When it came back positive, Gloria cried. She wasn’t ready to have a s Gloria sat in the exam room, she pondered her options baby, and she couldn’t afford one. Whatever happened next, Aaloud. The volunteer tried to steer her further and fur- Gloria told the woman, she wasn’t going to be a mother. She ther from the option she actually wanted. Gloria was frus- needed an abortion, she said. trated and becoming angrier by the second. But Gloria wasn’t going to get one there. The clinic was But Gloria wasn’t pregnant. Not even close. She had sub- actually an antiabortion pregnancy center, where staff and stituted a pregnant woman’s urine for her own for the preg- volunteers attempt to talk women out of abortions. nancy test. She had come to the center on a “muckraking” The centers, which operate largely on a bait-and-switch assignment from her high-school English teacher, who had model and intercept clients intending to find an abortion instructed each student in the class to pick an organization or clinic, have now become easier to find than abortion services company that might be doing something unethical and “sting” themselves. There are over 2,500 centers in the United States. the place. Gloria immediately thought of the center. She had These crisis pregnancy centers, or CPCs, outnumber abortion always been interested in abortion access, and she knew how clinics by about seven hundred, according to Pam Belluck of to identify an antiabortion center in one quick glance. The New York Times. But they are not just quaint small-town, CPCs advertise free pregnancy tests, make vague promises mom-and-pop operations. They are big business, and they about their services, and often are just a few steps from an can be found in unexpected places . . . even in Los Angeles. actual abortion provider, Gloria had learned. She located a Normally considered a liberal bubble, Southern California center quickly. As soon as her test came back positive, the is known for its progressive politics, and most would expect it woman working there dropped the act. She was no longer a to be full of pro-choice proponents and health centers offer- potential abortion provider: she was here to talk Gloria out of ing speedy and discreet abortion services. In reality, although ending her pregnancy. California has some of the strongest abortion access in the The woman comforted Gloria as she cried in the middle United States with 160 clinics offering abortion services, it has of the exam room, which she described to me as “an Anne antiabortion pregnancy centers in even greater force. Today, Geddes nightmare,” referencing the photographer known there are over two hundred CPCs in California, and at least for placing infants in unlikely places, such as in the middle thirty of them are in Los Angeles County. While these cen- of a tulip. But the volunteer wasted no time; before Gloria ters receive federal tax breaks, in California they may receive could process what was happening, she had turned on a

20 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org video about the horrors of abortion. “The video . . . basically said. “They didn’t get paid. They did it out of love.” Then she misrepresented the size of the fetus, said that the zygote echoed the motto of Feminists for Life: “Women deserve bet- can feel pain, it’s got a heartbeat, it’s thinking. That so many ter than abortion.” women are injured by them [abortions], so many women are But Gloria’s experience wasn’t the same. Even though she traumatized by them, there’s a higher rate of breast cancer wasn’t really pregnant, she was overwhelmed by the infor- [among women who have had abortions],” Gloria reported. mation on the video and thought of the shoes she would be That’s typical of these centers. When NARAL Pro-Choice in if she really had been pregnant when she walked through America sent undercover activists to CPCs across California, that door. She said she would need time to think about it. The every single clinic gave false or misleading information about sympathetic staff woman feebly said she would get Gloria abortion, from telling women that they would ruin their fer- some prenatal vitamins. When she came back, she had a pair tility to suggesting that women who have abortions are put- of rainbow-colored crocheted booties in her hand. “Oh, we’re ting themselves at risk of suicide (false and false, by the way). out of prenatal vitamins,” she said, “But I brought you these.” Gloria was living in a small, conservative town when she She handed the booties to Gloria. performed her muckraking assignment. She turned in her And so, Gloria sat with a pair of booties in her hand, star- paper, saw it printed in the school newspaper, and went back ing at the symbol of a baby she would never have. It was a to her ordinary sixteen-year-old life. Until the letter came. gift that she was sure was intended to make her picture the The center was threatening to sue the school newspaper child she was ethically obligated to birth. A $2 gift to offset for libel if Gloria didn’t publish a retraction. They sent the the $241,000 it would take to raise the child for eighteen message through one of Gloria’s teachers, a board member years. She left. of the very clinic she had infiltrated. “He asked me, didn’t I know that abor- tion was murder? This was a public school,” she said. Gloria, scared and sixteen, posted a retraction. From then on, she knew these centers meant business. But they didn’t want “[Crisis pregnancy] centers, which operate largely anyone to know exactly what that business on a bait-and-switch model and intercept clients intending to was. Gloria became an abortion-access advo- cate. One of her main passions: blowing the find an abortion clinic, have now become easier lid off CPCs. to find than abortion services themselves.”

loria’s got her work cut out for her. Since Gher teenage sting operation, antiabor- tion pregnancy centers have become a major enterprise. And sometimes their underhanded conversion tactics Nine years later, Gloria really did become unexpectedly succeed. pregnant. She didn’t even consider a crisis pregnancy center. Peggy Farren was twenty-six and engaged when she She went immediately to Planned Parenthood and termi- discovered she was pregnant. Her fiancé balked at the idea nated the pregnancy. When I told Gloria about Farren’s expe- of having a child and insisted that she terminate the preg- rience, she paused thoughtfully. “Well, that may have been nancy. Unsure of what to do but willing to consider all of her her experience thirty years ago,” she said (Farren’s son is now options, Farren turned to a coworker who suggested she go twenty-eight), “but it’s not now.” to the pro-life clinic down the road. There, the staff helped Gloria has been volunteering for abortion access ever since her to find a doctor who would see her for free. They helped her own eye-opening experience, and she has seen these cen- her find housing, gave her a car seat for her baby-to-be, and ters firsthand. She says that they are typically privately funded found her a teaching hospital where she could deliver her and shoddily organized. And most important, their purpose child for a small fee. She says these kindnesses helped turn her differs from the purpose of the woman entering their doors: into a “feminist for life” (which is to say not a lifelong feminist, she may come to end her pregnancy, but the center is there but rather a feminist opposed to abortion). to stop her at all costs. “I was pro-choice before that experience,” Farren told me. That is reflected in the Yelp reviews for the crisis pregnancy I asked her what that meant to her, and she clarified that she centers across Los Angeles. One such review reads, “I came mostly hadn’t thought about it before then. Why would she? here for information about abortions. The ‘nurse’ spent an She hadn’t needed to. But once she was pregnant, she had HOUR convincing me not to get one, even bringing herself to to confront the pro- and antiabortion divide. And she chose tears in her efforts!” a side. I stopped by one clinic in the heart of Hollywood. It was “While Planned Parenthood tried to prey on my bad situ- called “Hollywood Women’s Center of Los Angeles,” and on a ation to make money, these volunteers all helped me!” she large blue and white sign it boasted free pregnancy tests. The

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 21 lettering and the color scheme looked strikingly familiar . . . with a beating heart’ but it turned out she had an early ecto- almost too familiar. Then it struck me. Less than a block away, pic [pregnancy] . . . I never understood what happened there. I saw the same design on a familiar sign tucked into a mini- My guess is that they showed her a videotape of a normal mall: “Planned Parenthood.” The placement and coloring pregnancy on the ultrasound machine.” A lie for a life. were perfect for catching the attention of a woman walking Kramer says CPCs have actually done the opposite of what through a busy parking area off the major thoroughfare, try- they are intended to do; they have delayed abortions, making ing to find her way to her appointment. them more dangerous, more serious, and performed further I stopped in to visit the clinic’s neighbors, a coffee shop along in the fetus’s development. “Most women, by the time with a bohemian feel. Two men in berets sat leaning against they come to me, have wasted weeks with the CPC,” she said. a wall, gesticulating wildly and talking about Woody Allen. I contacted Avenues Pregnancy Clinics to get their perspec- “Do you talk to your neighbors at all?” I asked the barista as I tive on their controversial mission. The front desk referred dove into a chocolate mini-cupcake. me to the president, who didn’t return my calls. E-mails went unanswered. Finally, I called again, this time saying that I would like to hear more about volunteering. I got someone on the line. “I’m sorry, we aren’t “When NARAL Pro-Choice America sent accepting volunteers at this time,” she said, undercover activists to CPCs across California, “but we appreciate it.” And she hung up. every single clinic gave false or misleading information, t seems the crisis pregnancy-center culture from telling women that they would ruin their fertility Iis not an easy one to enter, perhaps because to suggesting that women who have abortions are there are so many people—like me—trying to putting themselves at risk of suicide. . . .” expose their real objectives. When your entire business operates on a bit of a trick, having too many people in on the game may be a death knell. There are only two ways to get inside, it seems: be pregnant or pretend to be. Gloria tried the second way. And now, she “Oh, them?” she said, eyeing the wall between her estab- tries to raise awareness of their true purpose so fewer people lishment and the next. “No, I don’t talk to them.” will go in the first way. “Do you know what they do?” I asked. But in Los Angeles, where business is booming, it only “Yes,” she said, “they trick women into not having abortions.” takes a blue and white sign a half-block walk from Planned The center is part of a network of offices in Los Angeles Parenthood to make Gloria’s job that much harder. called Avenues Pregnancy Clinics, and their self-description References on Yelp reads “We are a medically licensed non-profit orga- Belluck, Pam. “Abortion Fight: Helping Hands Gain Influence.” The nization dedicated to serving the needs of anyone facing an New York Times, January 5, 2013. unplanned pregnancy. We are committed to educating our Charles, Vignetta E., Chelsa B. Polis, Srinivas K. Sridhara, and Robert patients on all pregnancy options and providing free and W. Blum. “Abortion and Long-Term Mental Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review of the Evidence.” Contraception, December confidential services.” 2008. But their Form 990, the tax document all nonprofits must Guttmacher Institute. “Induced Abortion in the United States,” July file with the government at year’s end, tells a different story. 2014. http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion. html, accessed November 10, 2014. There, Avenues says that “the organization has one sole pur- United States Department of Agriculture. “Expenditures on Children pose: to provide services to expectant mothers” and explains by Families.” http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/ that they “compassionately present Biblical truth resulting expenditures_on_children_by_families/crc2013.pdf, accessed November 10, 2014. in changed lives to the Glory of God.” Rather different from “educating patients on all pregnancy options.” The bait may be shallow, but the switch is deep. Katherine Kramer, an abortion provider who runs a net- Carrie Poppy is an investigative journalist, writer, radio personality, and work devoted to unmasking crisis pregnancy centers, told me comic actor. She is the host of the podcast Oh No, Ross and Carrie and a that switch didn’t surprise her at all. “I had a woman report columnist for Skeptical Inquirer magazine. that a CPC did an ultrasound and that she saw a ‘live baby

22 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org Is One of These Things Not Just Like the Other? Why Abortion Can’t Be Separated from Contraception Beverly Winikoff, MD MPH

e have come to a pretty pass: advocates of family goals over her fertile years unfortunately became a minority planning, who have long believed they could shelter vision when the family planning field changed to the more Wtheir cause from unending fundamentalist attacks technocratic aim of optimizing the effectiveness of individual on reproductive health services only if they could distance contraceptive methods. themselves from the subject of abortion, have received a The emphasis on individual methods also led to the kinds rude shock. Family planning advocates who are opponents of policy compromises that have turned out to be costly in the of mixing abortion with their contraception have suddenly long run. The official report of the UN International Conference awakened to the fact that the return tactic is merely to tar on Population and Development in 1994 instructed that “in all contraception with the allegation that it, too, might be no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family equivalent to abortion. In other words, making “abortion” planning.” Over time, the sentence morphed from emphasis into an unequivocally stigmatized word (and action) has drawn attempts to attach “abor- tion” to whatever aspect of reproductive care challengers wish to discredit. How could we have been so confused in “It has never been behaviorally, biologically the first place? It has never been behavior- or pragmatically sensible to try to promote ally, biologically or pragmatically sensible to contraception by segregating abortion.” try to promote contraception by segregating abortion. First, it may be helpful to review the history of how abortion was banished from the world of family planning and the miscon- structions on which this tactic has been based. on avoiding the “promotion” of abortion to the nonsensical Early data on reproductive health and maternal mortality but often used phrase: “Abortion is not a method of family showed that limiting fertility to wanted children produced a planning.” The latter formulation effectively requires that great health benefit—both to women and to their families, everyone, including advocates for public health and women’s including the children they did choose to bear. The safety rights, subscribe to a fantasy—that women seek abortion for of methods of fertility control and the public health impact something other than to limit fertility. of use of these methods was a subject of much research in The proposition that contraception and abortion are the 1960s and ’70s. One of the intellectual heroes of that mutually exclusive contradicts women’s experiences by posit- movement, Dr. Christopher Tietze of the Population Council, ing that women avoid all unwanted births either by prevent- concluded that the safest strategy for a woman seeking to ing pregnancies or by terminating them. This false dichotomy limit her childbearing would be to use a barrier method, with sets up women who have abortions to be victims of friendly abortion as a backup in the case of failure. This integrated, fire, abandoned by the very policies and people promising to strategic view of how a woman could achieve her fertility help only with contraception. After all, contraceptives are not

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 23 really available everywhere in the world, some have rather and family planning—there has been a seemingly endless daunting price tags and none is 100 percent effective: even quest for bright line definitions of what is and is not an abor- sterilization has a failure rate. And a woman who is dedicated tion. In order to be sure something is not abortion, we need to limiting her fertility may feel profoundly deceived if she specific indicators of what is an abortion, raising questions cannot get a reliable method or if her method fails. In such therefore of when “life” or “human life” or “a baby” is pres- a circumstance, she may well decide to terminate her preg- ent. This perspective arises from a desire for clarity, such as nancy as part of an overall strategy to limit births. one might find with legal definitions. Indeed, we know that abortion rates do not necessarily However, for biological phenomena, the task is much decline immediately when contraceptive services are intro- more difficult. Fertilization, implantation, embryogenesis, duced. This situation occurs in part because the widespread fetal growth, labor and delivery are part of a continuous, adoption of contraception requires that many women begin incremental biological whole where one process gradually to believe they can and should be able to control the num- leads into another. None of these processes takes place in ber of children they have. At the same time, the availability an instant of time, and all are spread over hours, days, weeks of contraceptive methods and contraceptive services may or months. For each, there is a before, an after as well as a not keep pace with demand—and many women may find “during,” which may create difficulty in deciding when one themselves wanting to limit their fertility but without access stage ends and another begins. Indeed, the concept of “via- to affordable, effective contraceptive methods. In such cases, bility” is also subject to this tug of war between precision and abortion is more frequently practiced. functional understanding. The US Supreme Court weighed in on this subject in the Colautti v. Franklin case, which was decided after Roe v. Wade, and suggests that the common understanding of viability as something achieved after a certain “The proposition that contraception and abortion number of weeks of pregnancy is flawed. The court decided: are mutually exclusive contradicts women’s experiences by “Viability is reached when, in the judgment positing that women avoid all unwanted births either by of the attending physician . . . there is reason- able likelihood of the fetus’ sustained survival preventing pregnancies or by terminating them.” outside the womb. . . . Because this point may differ with each pregnancy, neither the legis- lature nor the courts may proclaim one of the elements entering into the ascertainment of viability—be it weeks of gestation or fetal weight or any other single factor—as the Yet, the language of family planning has specifically determinant. . . .” created an aura of exceptionalism around the practice of Many of the processes in question when debating whether abortion. Many documents refer to “recourse to abortion” or something is or is not abortion are both incremental and “need for abortion” as though abortion were not a common unobservable, so applying any definition to a particular situa- practice, when in actuality, there are an estimated 44 million tion may be impossible. abortions every year, according to the latest figures in the Of late, the Supreme Court has taken another tack when Lancet. Women are portrayed as needing abortions only in confronted with biological uncertainty. In the Hobby Lobby exceptional circumstances (e.g., rape, incest or urgent medical case, corporation owners were exempted from covering problems). Abortion in other circumstances is basically viewed certain contraceptive methods, such as IUDs and emergency as a moral failure. contraception, in employee health plans, simply on the basis As we have often been cautioned about abortion ste- of a sincerely held belief that those methods were abortifa- reotypes generally, there is not one type of woman that has cients. This perspective confounds Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s abortions and another that has babies: these are the same maxim that while you can have your own beliefs, you cannot women who manage their lives in different ways at different have your own facts. By defining abortion as whatever each moments, sometimes desiring a pregnancy and sometimes person decides it is—and ignoring the best current science— trying to avoid pregnancy and childbirth. Abortion has a rela- the decision essentially allows opponents to tag any repro- tionship to all these goals: to avoid an unwanted birth, but ductive health service with the stigma of abortion. The result also sometimes to deal with a very wanted birth when the is that contraceptives are becoming abortifacients in a way trajectory of pregnancy has gone awry, for example, either that leaves family planning advocates wringing their hands endangering the woman’s health or resulting in a fetus with in dismay. There is irony here as well, since the fertility low- terrible, sometimes lethal, physical problems. ering effect of breastfeeding may function in ways similar to In order to avoid the stigma associated with abortion—a what is now considered “abortion” by opponents of IUDs and stigma reinforced when advocates for contraception turn emergency contraception. Are we now going to withhold their backs on the intimate relationship between abortion funds from breastfeeding equipment and counseling on the

24 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org grounds that we would be supporting abortions? After all the noise we have heard in the political arena, There are other ill effects of this metastasis of abortion professional forums and public spaces from those trying to stigma. We are mortgaging future contraceptive develop- impose an illogical and hurtful division between contracep- ment as well, since segregating contraception from abortion tion and abortion, it would be easy to think that few in posi- has become a requirement for contraceptive advocacy with- tions of power understand women’s lives. But it’s interesting out controversy—a dampening effect that extends to the that a US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, got it right: “You technology, funding and marketing of contraception. In this cannot have maternal health without reproductive health, vision, contraceptive development is consigned to find addi- and reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortions.” tional ways to keep sperm and egg from meeting: anything else might be accused of being abortion. By acceding to this reality, we may very well be giving up the opportunity to cre- ate products that could exactly match what women say they want: something very effective, very safe, inexpensive, and Beverly Winikoff is currently president of Gynuity Health Projects and a reversible, with minimal requirements to use. professor of clinical population and family health at the Mailman School If we cannot get the conversation and the politics right, of Public Health, Columbia University. Her work has focused on issues of we may compromise advances in technology; restrict wom- reproductive choice, contraception, abortion, and women’s health. Dr. en’s choices for planning their families; increase the stigma Winikoff graduated from Harvard University magna cum laude, earned attached to all reproductive health options; fail to meet her MD degree from New York University and her MPH degree from the women where they are; and, generally, hinder the achieve- Harvard School of Public Health. This article is reprinted with permission ment of reproductive health and rights for large parts of the from Conscience, Vol. XXXV No. 3 (2014). world, including the United States.

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secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 25 War and the Religious State Steve Sklar

ost Westerners consider the excessive violence of ISIS Whatever actually happened, the attitude of the Bible is (the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) to be a product of clear. Living in the land God had assigned to the Hebrews MIslamic extremism, a sign of how uniquely inhumane was a sin worthy of the death penalty, not just for individu- the Muslim faith can be. Unfortunately, the excesses of ISIS als but for entire communities. God’s miracles affirmed this. are part of a tradition that goes back thousands of years and He caused the walls of Jericho to fall and caused the sun to is supported not only by Islam but by the other two religions remain still in the heavens in order to give Joshua time to of Abraham, Judaism and Christianity. make the slaughter complete. God was decisively on the side of genocide. Judaism In chapter 31 of the Old Testament’s book of Numbers, Moses Christianity orders the men of Israel to attack the Midianites, although Christ was not violent, but many Christians have been. After the Midianites had not attacked them. The Israelite soldiers Pope Urban II called for the first Crusade, the Crusaders killed all the men and boys and nubile women among the (while crossing Eastern Europe on the way to the Holy Land) Midianites, saving only virgin girls, whom they took as slaves. massacred thousands (most likely tens of thousands) of Jews. They also burned all the Midianite dwellings. And what had These Jews were in no way linked to the Muslims who ruled the Midianites done to bring down such fury? Their crime was Jerusalem, but they were non-Christians and they were in the to invite some followers of Moses to share their faiths. Crusaders’ path, so they were killed. News of these deaths reached Jerusalem before the Christian soldiers; Jerusalem’s Jews fought as allies of the Muslims, resisting the Crusaders. The intensity of the battle “Unfortunately, the excesses of ISIS are part of a led to corpses being piled up in the holy city—they tradition that goes back thousands of years and is were so numerous that it took weeks to bury them all and presented a serious health problem. supported not only by Islam but by the other two Even more people died during the wars of the religions of Abraham, Judaism and Christianity.” Protestant Reformation. Within one hundred years of Luther posting his Protests upon a cathedral door, one-third of the population of what is now Germany was wiped out, not to mention millions According to the Old Testament book of Joshua, when of other people elsewhere in Europe. Religious belief was not the children of Israel entered the promised land, they exter- the only motivation for these atrocities, but without a faith minated the local populations. They did not drive them into supporting persecution and death, the atrocities would not exile or enslave them; still less did they try to convert them. have been accomplished. They killed everyone. The historical accuracy of this invasion is War: An Abrahamic Universal questionable; the book of Judges, which comes immediately after the book of Joshua, tells about Hebrews continuing to In all of these events, military victory was taken as a sign of fight with some of the peoples Joshua had supposedly anni- God’s favor. The victory was proof of God’s support. It did hilated and sometimes living with some of them, as the tribe not matter what tricks were used or even how many people of Benjamin lived with the Jebusites in Jerusalem. Also, it is were unnecessarily put to death. The fact of victory justified not clear how Gideon, in the book of Judges chapters 6 and the conflict. The book of Joshua portrayed the Israelites’ con- 7, managed to defeat the Midianites if they had been annihi- quest of the promised land as absolute because God’s favor lated at the time of Moses. had to be undeniable. The Emperor Constantine accepted

26 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org Christianity because of his vision assuring him that if his sol- in the Middle East but the leader of the Muslim world. Of diers wore the sign of the cross they would be victorious. This course, very few Muslims agree with him, and his declaration vision spurred him to attack and conquer Rome. Muhammad threatens the leaders of the Muslim nations around him. was accepted as a prophet because he was the first man in Clearly, he does not hesitate to violate Islamic law when it all of history to unite the Arab world and because his beliefs suits his military or political purposes. But there is a perennial spread rapidly after his death. While all three religions— desire in human nature to identify and follow such a leader. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—preach peace, all three These leaders are a grave danger for those who follow them accept military triumph as justification of their principles. and for those who do not. The founders of the three faiths had no such assurances. Conclusion The pharaoh’s armies were defeated by a miracle of God, not by Moses or the men of Israel. Christ blessed those who The religions of Abraham claim that man is created in the make peace and healed the ear of the soldier who had been image of the divine but also insist that men are divided into attacked by Peter. The great majority of Muhammad’s con- those who have faith and those who do not. At times during verts accepted Islam willingly, without threat of war. The the histories of all three faiths, this division has been a matter founders of the faiths were persuaders. Militants such as of life and death. Religious warfare in the West declined not Joshua and Constantine—and ISIS—have seen themselves as so much because Westerners are so compassionate to each enforcers. other but rather because the religious wars they fought were The militants’ intent is to create a state that enforces the so bloody yet produced no political or theological victory on laws revealed to the founders. Individual belief has to be either side. backed up by community power. The law once articulated ISIS may seem an anachronism to us, but it is an anachro- must be applied, and its application implies the use of force. nism based in our own traditions. Let us hope it dies the way To the militants, this does not make the state unjust. On the violent religious movements of our past have died, and let us contrary, a state that imposes divine law is holy to them. It is hope it dies quickly. worth fighting for, worth killing and dying for. It is the expres- sion of God’s will on Earth, be it Jerusalem or Rome or Mecca. Steve Sklar earned degrees in Oriental Studies and Western Philosophy The people who support these states are not just citizens. from Columbia College. For twelve years, he studied Asiatic faiths with They are saints. The people who oppose these states are not native adherents overseas. Presently, he lives and works in Florida. just outsiders. They are infidels. These states are so valuable that ordinary morality, which forbids killing, is suspended. Acts that normally would demand punishment, when per- formed under the aegis of the state, garner rewards. The promise that Pope Urban II made to the Crusaders— that if they died they would be either martyrs or heroes—is almost identical to the promises made by Muslim jihadists today. It is not very different from the promise made by God to the followers of Moses to encourage them to enter the promised land. Violence against those who follow the laws of the state is criminal. Violence against those who oppose the state is seen as evidence of faith. The advantage to the leader of the sacred state is obvious. Because he supports the word of God, anyone who opposes him opposes that word and perhaps even opposes God him- self. This has been a means of demanding loyalty through much of human history. The pharaoh was believed to be a descendant of the god Horus; the Japanese emperor was believed to be descended from the sun goddess; the Chinese emperor supposedly held a mandate from heaven; it was said that the Roman emperor would become a god at his death. The claimed root of their authority resembles David’s mon- archy in Israel and the Donation of Constantine claimed by medieval popes. They echo the claim of the head of ISIS, Abu Bakr Al-Bagdadi, that he is the caliph of the present age. The caliph is the political leader in charge of enforcing the laws of Islam within the Muslim state. When Al-Bagdadi proclaimed ISIS a caliphate, he pro- claimed himself not just the leader of a rebel community

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 27 Periyar and India’s Dravidian Movement: A Strident Atheist in the Land of Religion Ryan Shaffer

There is no God. cultural pride, the state government has constantly fought There is no God. “alien” influences and inequality, which for some social lead- There is no God at all. ers is personified by Hinduism and the caste system. Periyar He who invented God is a fool. He who propagates God is a knave. bluntly wrote: “We find fault with religion and scriptures He who worships God is a primitive. because they ruin not only intellectual faculty, but also char- —Periyar acter, honest behavior, love, compassion, unity, equality.”

or the past five decades, a strident and vocal atheist has eriyar was born E. V. Ramasamy in September 1879 to a been the main inspiration for the ruling parties in one of Pwealthy trader family in present-day Tamil Nadu. As a Fthe most populous states in India. Periyar, whose name member of a lower caste, he first encountered discrimination means “the great elder,” was a social activist who campaigned at a young age when he was not allowed to touch people of for Indian independence, equality, and rationalism through- other castes or drink water at the homes of his upper-caste out his life. Known for challenging authority, including its classmates. His formal education came to an end during ele- stance on caste discrimination and the compulsory teaching of mentary school, and he later left the area to visit Kashi, a holy Hindi in schools, Periyar was arrested nearly twenty times and city in the north on the banks of the Ganges River. Ramasamy charged with crimes that include publishing atheistic material was not an upper-caste Brahmin and so he had to beg for and encouraging people to make their own clothing. Most food during the journey because the choultries, or resting famously, in 1953, he was charged with violating a law against places, did not allow lower-caste people inside. That experi- blasphemy for breaking idols of the god Ganesh to demon- ence left a lasting impression on him. Upon returning home, strate that they had no powers. Though revered by the Dravida his father turned the trading business over to him. Periyar Munnetra Kazhagam (Dravidian Progress Federation) and the joined relief efforts when the plague broke out in South India All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the two parties in 1904. that have ruled Tamil Nadu since 1967, Periyar has been viewed Ramasamy soon involved himself in politics, first in local as a villain by Hindu nationalists and segments of the upper- government. He then joined the Indian National Congress’s caste population in South India. fight against British imperial rule. In 1919, Congress recruited India is ostensibly a secular state, but Hinduism is perva- him when the party was seeking non-Brahmin members in sive throughout the country, even though there are sizable order to stave off challenges from other groups. Ramasamy’s minority populations of Christians, Muslims, and Sikhs. From membership quickly earned him two arrests; they would be large, seasonal religious festivals to public displays of gods, followed by many more in the coming decades. Hinduism is an unavoidable part of Indian life. Yet in regional After resigning from his posts in local government, he politics, atheism has found no conflict with deeply religious joined the Congress’s Non-Cooperation Movement, led by people and even political parties led by the religious. Tamil Mahatma Gandhi, which boycotted British-made goods. Nadu, a state in South India with nearly seventy-three million Ramasamy was arrested for wearing and promoting khadi, people, celebrates its ancient roots and language. With this homespun cloth that hurt the sale of British clothing exports.

28 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org Next, he was arrested for protesting toddy shops (liquor ernment required schools to teach Hindi as the national stores). Ramasamy gained more fame and earned the nick- language. It naïvely underestimated the opposition. Periyar name “hero of Vaikom” for his successful agitation for the helped lead protests that sought the restoration of the untouchables’ right to walk on roads near a temple devoted indigenous Tamil language in schools, and in this effort he to Shiva. He was arrested twice during that protest, but in was joined by groups previously opposed to the Self-Respect 1925 a compromise was accepted that allowed the untouch- Movement because of its atheism. Ultimately, the law was ables to use some roadways near the temple. Ramasamy was rescinded. During this period, Periyar’s politics began shifting. celebrated as a hero, and this episode propelled his involve- He had become a member of the Justice Party, and he was ment with a new movement devoted to equality. briefly attracted to socialism. He even visited the Soviet Union during a tour of Europe but was expelled by the suspicious n 1926, Ramasamy established the Self-Respect Movement Soviet government. Once back in India, Periyar was arrested Ifor equal rights among the castes. He left the Indian National for republishing Why I Am an Atheist by Bhagat Singh, a pop- Congress because he was disappointed that the party did not ular Indian revolutionary executed for the revenge killing of do enough to address caste discrimination. In contrast to the a British officer. Congress, the Self-Respect Movement was a social, not political, As Indian independence approached, Periyar grew appre- organization that opposed child marriages, allowed widow re- hensive about the treatment of Dravidian people, a linguistic marriage, demanded equal rights for women, and called for an group including the Tamils, and he founded the Dravidar end to ancestry shaping a person’s occupation and social status. Kazhagam (Dravidian Organization) in 1944. He had turned An example of how the Self-Respect Movement combined rationalism and social activism was its 1930 campaign against Devadasi, a practice where a girl is not allowed to marry and instead devotes her time to worshiping a Hindu god at a temple. The Self-Respect leaders, including women who practiced Devadasi, argued for leg- islation to ban the practice. Attempts at passing legislation were defeated, but the movement continued to spread its message to the public through songs, theatrical performances, and literature that argued for equality. Ramasamy also campaigned for communal representation and opposed the upper-caste’s dominations of politics, professions, and edu- cation over the majority of the population. Moreover, he campaigned for a system that would ensure that lower-caste people had the same access to education and government services that Brahmins did. At this time, he became more outspoken against Hinduism Mourners pay final respects to Periyar following his death on December 24, 1973, at age ninety-four. and publicly burned the Manusmriti, a book of Hindu laws. He promoted weddings without Brahmin priests and Sanskrit mantras, which he said the down offers for leadership roles in other parties. Periyar’s public did not understand anyway. He proposed a new type Dravidar Kazhagam sought the establishment of a separate of ceremony that became popular; eight thousand were per- nation from India to ensure that Dravidian rights would not formed between 1928 and 1932. These marriages reflected be subjected to the “foreign” rule of the north. The party a relationship model in which women and men were equals, boycotted the first national elections after independence, and Ramasamy encouraged women to become leaders in his but Periyar continued to be outspoken and press his goals movement. Indeed, he explained that the “self-respect” mar- for social change. After his 1953 arrest for violating the blas- riages “emphasize that men and women are equal, husband phemy law, he remarked that “an atheist is not rejecting the and wife are equal partners in domestic life.” sayings or commandments of God, but the sayings and com- By the 1930s, Madras Province was given autonomy, and mandments that men made in the name of God.” the Indian National Congress won the ensuing election. According to Ramachandra Guha’s anthology about signif- n his old age and declining health, Periyar saw his influence de- icant Indian leaders, it was during this time that Ramasamy Ivelop into actual political change. In 1949, his anointed succes- “was increasingly known as ‘Periyar.’” In asserting its nation- sor, C. N. Annadurai, founded the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam alist goals of unification against the British, the new gov- (DMK, Dravidian Progress Federation), which split from Periyar’s

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 29 Dravidar Kazhagam. Tension had existed for several years but facilities, wedding hall, museum, and memorial with Periyar’s finally erupted when Periyar remarried and his new wife gained final resting place. The Periyar Trust continues Periyar’s social, influence in the movement and was perceived as becoming his rationalist, and educational work by operating several col- successor. Despite the split, Annadurai pledged that the new leges and free hospitals and offering free legal assistance, party would remain true to Periyar’s goals. In fact, writer Bala Je- but it faces many challenges. Veeramani continues to publish yaraman noted that Annadurai’s party did not elect a president Periyar’s Viduthalai (Freedom), a daily rationalist newspaper out of respect for Periyar. in Tamil, and he also edits the Modern Rationalist, a monthly In 1967, Annadurai became the first non-Indian National English rationalist magazine, as well as publications for chil- Congress leader of present-day Tamil Nadu, due to his skill- dren. More recently, the group has been translating atheist ful political leadership. Periyar became an advisor to the works such as Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion and government and pressed for it to pass rationalist legislation, Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian into Tamil. including banning government holidays for religious festivals. Increasingly, he became frustrated when the government espite political support for Periyar’s work, religion and superstition are pervasive in Tamil Nadu. The group took a moderate route and merely banned images of Hindu D still receives threats and has suffered attacks from Hindu nationalists; Veeramani has been assaulted numerous times. Nevertheless, Periyar continues to influence Indian culture, including through an eponymous Tamil-language film “India is ostensibly a secular state, but Hinduism is starring Sathyaraj, a well-known Tamil actor pervasive throughout the country, even though there who is also a rationalist. are sizable minority populations of Christians, To his supporters, E. V. Ramasamy is Periyar, the “great elder” who promoted social equality Muslims, and Sikhs.” and rationalism. To his critics, his anti-Brahmin and anti-Hindu efforts stoked the flames of hos- tility. Nevertheless, Periyar’s strident atheism and social work continues to be celebrated, and his politics have been the main influence on the parties that have ruled Tamil Nadu for the past gods from government buildings. Two years later, Annadurai five decades. With such a legacy, the social and political leaders died, and M. Karunanidhi, an outspoken atheist in his own of a state where Hinduism is pervasive still publicly praise the right, became head of the party and government. Under life of an atheist who denounced religion as nonsense. Karunanidhi’s leadership, the party faced another split in 1972 when actor M. G. Ramachandran parlayed his popularity Further Reading with the public to start the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra For more information on Periyar in English, visit www.modernra- Kazhagam (AIADMK) party, which drew its naming influences tionalist.com. from Periyar and Annadurai. Sources Since 1967, either the DMK or the AIADMK parties have Author interview with Krishnasamy Veeramani, February 2014. Bala, Jeyaraman. 2013. Periyar: A Political Biography of E.V. Ramasamy. ruled Tamil Nadu, a state with more people than the United New Delhi: Rupa Publications. Kingdom. They have preserved Periyar’s version of secular Guha, Ramachandra. 2011. Makers of Modern India. Cambridge, humanism. The Dravidar Kazhagam ceased contesting elec- Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Periyar E. V. Ramasamy: A Biographical Sketch. 2007. Chennai: The tions and has focused on social activism to influence society. Periyar Self-Respect Propaganda Institution. In 1973, Periyar received a state funeral and his grave site Veeramani, Krishnasamy. 2013. Contributions of Periyar to the Rationalist Movements in India. Chennai: Dravidar Kazhagam. attracts supporters and politicians who praise his work. ———. 1979. Periyar and his Ideologies. Chennai: The Periyar Self- Karunanidhi, now ninety years old, remains the leader of the Respect Propaganda Institution. DMK; as head of the state, he has publicly questioned the ———, ed. 2010. Periyar Feminism. Thanjavur: Periyar Maniammai University. existence of the Hindu god Rama and asked: “Who is this ———, ed. 2011. Thoughts of Periyar. Chennai: Dravidar Kazhagam. Rama? From which engineering college did he graduate? Is Periyar. 2007. Collected Works of Periyar E.V.R. Chennai: The Periyar there any proof for this?” Self-Respect Propaganda Institution. Natarajan, Prabha. “Tamil Nadu Elections: The Incumbent, DMK’s Periyar continues to affect the lives of many South Indians. Karunanidhi,” Wall Street Journal, April 1, 2011. Online at http:// After his death, his wife became leader of the Dravidar blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/04/01/tamil-nadu-elec- tions-the-incumbent-dmk%E2%80%99s-karunanidhi/. Kazhagam. Since her death, it has been led by Krishnasamy Swami, Praveen. “India’s god laws fail the test of reason,” The Hindu, Veeramani, still an active rationalist, writer, and lawyer now May 7, 2012. Online at http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/ in his eighties. In a 2014 visit to Dravidar Kazhagam’s head- indias-god-laws-fail-the-test-of-reason/article3391109.ece. Supreme Court of India. “S. Veerabadran Chettiar vs E. V. Ramaswami quarters in Tamil Nadu, I spoke with Veeramani at length and Naicker & Others.” August 25, 1958. Online at http://indiank- toured the facilities, including the rationalist library, printing anoon.org/doc/165707/.

30 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org Krishnasamy Veeramani: Continuing the Fight for Humanism

Ryan Shaffer

rishnasamy Veeramani is a lawyer turned social activist by birth. It is worse than apartheid. With apartheid, the edu- who fights for humanism in South India. He currently cational rights were not denied for the black people. They Kleads the Dravidar Kazhagam (Dravidian Organization), were given separate schools. But here the worst aspect of the which promotes freedom and challenges superstition as well as caste system is that once you are born in a caste you live in caste and gender inequality. He continues in the tradition of its that caste, you die in that caste so the caste system decides former head, Periyar (1879–1973). Periyar’s ideas and organiza- everything.” Caste has shaped “whether you are entitled to tion have shaped contemporary Tamil Nadu, a state of nearly get educated. If you belong to the lower caste you are not seventy-three million people in South India, to the point where entitled to education.” Veeramani discussed how society the two parties that have ruled the state since 1967 both cite changed because of Periyar’s contributions, noting that now Periyar as their social and political inspiration. After he died in “it is very difficult to imagine the era when Periyar started” 1973, Periyar’s wife led the organization and upon her death and that “basically the Hindu religion alone perpetuates the Veeramani became its leader. caste system.” Veeramani concluded: “We want scientific Currently, Veeramani is the chancellor of Periyar Maniammai temper in people,” specifically “rationalists and humanists.” University and leader of a movement that operates nearly fifty Veeramani described the movement’s humanist vision institutions, including several schools, colleges, rural empow- as demanding that people “must have liberty, equality and erment centers, and six hospitals. He is the author or editor of fraternity.” As a lawyer and chancellor of a university, he several books, including The Necessity of Scientific Temper, in which he argues the “future depends on upholding scientific temper.” Born in 1933, he became active in the organization at the age of ten. He later became editor in chief of Dravidar “Neither [Veeramani’s] age (he is over eighty) Kazhagam’s daily Tamil rationalist newspaper, nor the violent attacks of his opponents which has been published for eighty years. He con- have slowed his efforts.” tinues to serve as editor of that publication as well as a youth periodical and a monthly English maga- zine titled the Modern Rationalist. Neither his age (he is over eighty) nor the violent, physical attacks of his opponents have slowed his efforts. In February 2014, at a sprawling complex with a research has gratitude to the movement because as a member of the library, museum, bookstore, editorial offices, printing presses, lower caste he previously would not have had access to edu- wedding venue, and Periyar’s grave site, Veeramani discussed cation. He said that “only because of this movement” are his the origins of the movement and its current mission. He leadership abilities respected. describes Periyar as “a great social revolutionary. He is the Over the last many decades, he said, “there has been a sea father of modern Tamil Nadu and is the mentor for almost all of change in the social side.” Among them is the shift from the political parties here.” Hindu marriages with Sanskrit mantras to secular weddings Veeramani has continued the rationalist struggle, and he (he called the mantras “great bunkum” because people criticizes Hinduism for the caste system’s creation of social “don’t know the meaning of them”). He has promoted inequality. Decades ago, those born into lower castes could secular unions and personally presided over “thousands” of not even walk on the streets where a sacred Hindu temple secular “self-respect” marriages. was located. He explained that “caste is the very bane on our Contrasting the nature of his organization with politics, society” because “a person’s status and privileges are decided he noted that “any government may come, any government

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 31 may go” with each person getting one vote. However in Veeramani said that attacks on his life have been attempted society, everyone is not the same. Dravidar Kazhagam seeks four times, including once when Hindu nationalists from the social equality and empowerment where political parties do Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh “posed as if they wanted to not get involved. Veeramani said that “this organization is garland me and so my driver stopped the car.” Pointing to for abolishing and the eradication of caste and the empow- a disfigured part of his nose, Veeramani said that someone erment of women.” He noted that in the Christian religion, a came running up and hit him with a flag mast, causing a man who wants to be a priest or pastor can get the qualifying deviated septum. education to be ordained. Likewise, a Muslim who wants to Despite these attacks and threats, he optimistically and be a mullah can study and become one. Yet, “in the Hindu proudly speaks about traveling in his eighties to promote religion that is not possible,” because it is “heredity, upper rationalism and humanism and carrying on the mission of caste people” who get the training and learn Sanskrit, the promoting equality and justice without the trappings of mag- language of the religion. ical thinking. Describing the uniqueness of Dravidar Kazhagam, Further Reading Veeramani notes that Periyar put his wealth into a public char- For more on Dravidar Kazhagam and the Modern Rationalist, visit itable trust in order to carry out a rationalist and social justice www.modernrationalist.com. agenda. From schools to hospitals to orphanages, the organi- zation has a humanist agenda and is internationally known. It Ryan Shaffer is a writer and historian. He has a PhD in history and is even welcomed a visit from former Maryland Governor Parris currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Global Studies at Stony Glendening in early 2014. Funding has allowed the group to Brook University in New York. continue in the face of opposition from religious opponents. NOW AVAILABLE THE FAITH I LEFT BEHIND Edited by Tom Flynn, Andrea Szalanski, and Julia Lavarnway

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32 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org Science and the Emancipation of Humankind Lorenzo Lazzerini Ospri

he claim that science is an inherently amoral and thus of the Left is quintessentially a Western development (despite apolitical enterprise has been repeated so often that it has the validity of its lessons being universal), and why it was sci- Talmost passed unquestioned into the common wisdom ence that supplied its indispensable requisite: the banishment of our time. Is science merely one more tool at the disposal of of the divine from the world. economic players responsible for social injustice? Far from it. The The backdrop for the “revolution of the minds” that gave truth, as I will show, is that science and the political Left (properly birth to the Left was eighteenth-century Europe. There as defined) are the twin heirs of a common intellectual tradition; everywhere else, the vast majority of people, whether peasant they rest on the same assumptions about the nature of knowl- farmers or city laborers, lived their lives in wretched poverty, edge and the world and have been pitted throughout their their labor arrogantly exploited for the opulence of a privi- existences against the same philosophical foes while battling for leged few. The “1 percent” of those days were aristocrats and people’s hearts and minds. merchants, along with an embryonic capitalist class that was The Origin of the Left already coalescing in those wild early days of industrialization. Social hierarchy was upheld not only through the force of If error and ignorance have forged the chains of peoples, arms, by mercenaries and professional armies. There was then, and if prejudice perpetuates those chains, it is science, rea- as there is now, a far more effective “police of the spirit,” a pro- son and truth which will one day be able to break them. paganda corps made up of the clergymen of all confessions, —Baron d’Holbach who made a point of preaching at every step that the rigid Common definitions of the Left currently in vogue comprise ranks of life were the work and will of the Creator, and that a variety of heterogeneous schools of thought, from Marxism it was the sacred duty of the underclass, as the Bible says, to to social democracy, from anarchism to the bland “liberal” “obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not politics of the U.S. Democratic Party. Here, I propose that the by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of fundamental nature of the Left, shared at its core with that of heart, fearing the Lord” (Col. 3:22). science, is revolt. The Left has mounted a metaphysical insur- Religious faith and respect for those in authority, the foun- rection against the sacred in society, just as science sprang dations of tradition, imparted such unshakable legitimacy that onto the stage of history in rebellion against the sacred in the countless young men, many of them married with children, were workings of the universe. As a consequence, for reasons we will willing to be sent to kill and be killed in remote corners of the soon see, the Left can be coherently identified with only a great world in wars fought for colonial or dynastic interests—that is, intellectual movement—the first beacon of light inaugurating for the exclusive benefit of merchants, profiteers, and monarchs. the struggles of modernity—that began a couple of centuries In times of war as well as of peace, there was bigotry and intol- ago and persists today, known as the Radical Enlightenment. erance, persecution and oppression. Independent thinking of D’Holbach and Diderot, and Bayle and Spinoza before them, any sort was viewed with suspicion and criminally prosecuted were its early prophets and the true forefathers of the egalitar- if threatening enough to vested interests. Women were consid- ian and democratic ethos that must denote what Progressive ered weak, contemptible creatures, little more than chattel, to be politics is today. At its core is the rejection of a state of affairs in transacted from father to husband when ready for childbearing. society that is recognized as illegitimate. When humanity, edu- Personal conduct was minutely ordained by religious authorities, cated and gradually enlightened about its rights, awakens to with waves of hysteria and attendant trials against homosexuals the realization of how sharply socioeconomic relations offend rippling through Europe. Jews were confined to their own com- newfound human dignity, revolt becomes inevitable—its goal munities, where they suffered under the equally tyrannical yoke the emancipation of fellow humans from injustice and oppres- of rabbinical authority. sion. This is a kind of outrage that can unfold only through All was justified and endured in the name of God and tradition. sacrilege, for, in a world of sacred order, the illegitimacy of tra- Such had been the state of humanity in virtually every soci- dition is literally inconceivable. This is also why the emergence ety since the invention of agriculture. But while sporadic acts

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 33 of defiance driven by hunger and desperation had been fairly terms of material comfort but “with liberty and justice for all.” common throughout history, from Roman bagaudae to the It just so happens that issues as concrete as not having peasant uprisings of ancient China, they had never been the enough money to buy your next meal while Wall Street feasts outcome of a newly discovered awareness (of a shared human- on caviar boil down (or up) to apparently lofty metaphysics. ity, of deep injustice), and so they never left lasting changes. Matter and Soul They were bound each time to devolve into acts of brigandage, mere matters of public disorder inevitably destined to meet A common refrain that is often repeated of late in polite conver- their ends at the edge of a sword. The basic legitimacy of the sation is that science and religion are supposed to be “non-over- social order, its hallowed foundations in the minds of even lapping magisteria,” that is, domains of knowledge having noth- those who took arms against it, could not be questioned in a ing to say about each other. Yet clearly this is nonsense. world where tradition provided all the answers. Not only does religion rest its moral prescriptions on state- What happened for the first time in eighteenth-century ments of facts about the world that are scientific claims (Did Europe was that a small minority of educated “new philoso- Moses receive the tablets of the covenant from God on Mount phers” started to attack the intellectual foundations of the old Sinai or not? Did Jesus rise from the dead or not?), but the very regime. They had reached an understanding of the world that founding axiom of science—the conviction that nature is objec- was utterly new to the human mind: materialistic, secular, and tive, that there are only efficient causes—is outrightly incompat- naturalistic, the spawn of science, this new worldview was— ible with religion’s postulate that final causes direct history and justly—recognized as socially revolutionary. The writings of the world. these philosophes reveal the mad lucidity with which they laid This goes even beyond the simple problem of theodicy. out their mission, as they saw it: they had to make the world You know the recitation: there is obvious evil in the world; profane in the eyes and hearts of everyone. ergo, if a god exists, it is either not benevolent or not omnipo- tent. While this is a perfectly valid confutation of the existence of an all-powerful benign deity, it shows only that religion contravenes logic. Science goes a step further. Science assumes that everything hap- “The Left has mounted a metaphysical insurrection pening in the world has only natural, material causes. against the sacred in society, just as science sprang Suppose that indeed there is no evil in the world. Imagine, for instance, that only would-be serial killers onto the stage of history in rebellion against the sacred contracted cancer, invariably dropping dead before in the workings of the universe.” they could commit their crimes. God would then pose no more problem for logic but would still be denied by science. Science would have to assume (without evidence, before any empirical datum) that whatever neuro- psychiatric anomaly causes murderous impulses must Widespread ignorance about the fundamental questions, share a common etiology with cancer development and that they averred, was the root cause of all social evils that beset in turn could be reduced to molecular events, nothing but humanity. Wrote d’Holbach: “All error is damaging. It is by being blind chance and hard necessity. I repeat: this is not an empir- deceived that mankind has made itself unhappy.” Enlighten ical truth, it is a choice that a person is making in accepting people on the true nature of the world, by proclaiming science the scientific method—a choice plainly incompatible with the and reason, to turn defiance into revolt—and individual revolt religious worldview. into social revolution—and a new kingdom of liberty and jus- More realistically, since there is plenty of undisturbed evil tice will be born on the ashes of old privilege and oppression. in the world, this very argument was invoked by the radical It is important to realize that none of this is obsolete or Enlighteners more than a century before Darwin to refute the passé. To the extent that the world today has progressed so-called “argument from design”: there is the appearance of beyond oppression and exploitation, it is due to the striving, design in nature, ergo there is a designer. This argument was effort, and often personal sacrifice of those early blasphemers convincing enough for Voltaire to rest his deistic faith entirely and their intellectual scions. The march of progress, however, is on it. The radicals, by contrast, countered that the appearance far from over. The first “general revolution” (what we now call of final causes must be just that—an appearance—and that the American and French revolutions) failed to bring about a science, if its founding assumptions are true, would one day perfect society. In fact, we are today only marginally better off be able to explain design by a naturalistic mechanism. They than a few centuries ago in terms of social justice (though mat- had, in fact, predicted evolutionism. ters have arguably been deteriorating since the 1980s). Again, this only demonstrates that religion and science are The struggle continues. And it remains a crucial responsibil- incompatible; there is no empirical probe, no observation in ity to explain how and why exactly science is at heart a subver- the shimmering mirrors of phenomena, to conclusively settle sive ideology so central to attaining a better world, not just in the question of which system is the valid one.

34 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org The primordial choice one is required to make, the one to be limited to allowing worship (to the extent that that between finalism and naturalism—that is a moral choice, and does not infringe on the rights of others). one with vast political implications. 3. Individual freedom. The right and duty to exercise one’s reason on all matters in the context of an egalitarian society God Wills It must be guaranteed by the Republic beyond the reach of If finalism is true, if Providence is guiding human history any passing majority to curtail. Individual liberty is first and toward a preordained end, then the general order of society, foremost the liberty to dissent. and specifically its traditions and hierarchy, must be valid. Social injustice is either the least that it can possibly be or A leftist political agenda today is one devoted to realiz- actually required by God’s mysterious plans and therefore not ing fully this ideal of radical democracy. It runs counter to morally objectionable. Conservatism of rank and privilege, or still-widespread superstitions, obsolete moral systems, and minor reform, must be the way forward. powerful entrenched interests, but if the French revolution- As Locke pointed out, if men have souls, they can be spir- aries could do it in the teeth of the ancien régime’s fiery back- itually equal—equal in the eyes of God—even while they lash, and if (most) World War II partisans could draw their are ruthlessly exploited in the material world. Thus, true afflatus from it for fighting the Nazis, we of all people should equality, the only one that really matters sub specie aeterni- not shirk from perseverance. tatis, is divorced from any real-world moral obligations, and Constant revolt inevitably follows in the shadow of natu- the grand banquet of exploitation may go on undisturbed. ralism, and its rewards are worth the unpleasantness of the Outright slavery was justified this way. struggle. Conversely, if naturalism is true and chance and necessity Even today—after the defeat of Nazism, the supreme account for everything, society’s present order can be outra- counter-enlightenment—a true democracy still does not geously wrong. Without a heaven awaiting humans to com- exist anywhere in the world. Its three simple requirements of pensate them for all the wrongs and abuses suffered in life, equality, secularism, and individual freedom are anything but drastic redress on this plane becomes imperative. Tradition simple to realize. The straightforward principle of “one per- loses all its claims to legitimacy, and reason alone must guide son = one vote” has demanding implications: citizens must be human affairs. free from violence and intimidation (otherwise the one with Aristocracy (no matter whether of birth or wealth) is laid the most bullets rules) and from corruption (lest the sleaziest bare as morally repugnant. The first Leftists on the scene of prevail). Finally, and most important for today’s Western soci- the world, the radical Enlighteners, determined that society, ety, citizens must be free from need (thinking through issues now without gods or transcendent masters, should be orga- and candidates on the ballot is impossible if you are desper- nized according to rational justice, which in its turn leads to ate to eke out a meal) and from ignorance and manipulation, three guiding principles. which requires not only a truly free press (as in “free from con- centrated media ownership”) but also a free public education 1. Equality. As everyone is equally endowed with reason, to teach people to think critically. These last two points are so basic fairness and reciprocity dictate that all should have crucial that a strongly redistributive welfare state designed to equal say in matters of public interest. This does not imply root out extreme wealth inequality becomes paramount; like- a leveling of society. Indeed, since not everyone contributes wise, citizens should be required to have a lifelong continuing equally to the common good because of differences in education beyond their school years to deepen their aware- talents, circumstances, and abilities, fairness requires merit ness of the facts and their own interests. Being a member of to be rewarded. What is of the essence is social equality: a self-governing republic is neither simple nor convenient. the overthrow of hierarchies, the application of rights If science and reason have freed us from dogmas and the and duties equally to all citizens, and the elimination of scourge of religion, they have also made us autos-nomos: the extreme inequality of wealth. The last point was deemed, moral law is not imposed by authority or revelation, yet at the for reasons we will see soon, as essential to the survival of a same time it becomes the responsibility of everyone to reason self-governing republic as ensuring to reward merit.* out and give the law (universal and equal for all) to ourselves. 2. Secularism. A democracy can function only through ratio- The carefree subjection of the slave is replaced with the grave nal public debate (that is, debate that is accessible to all, no liberty of the citizen. “The emergence of people from their matter one’s private beliefs); theocracy, as any other expres- state of self-incurred nonage” is no easy task. sion of will-to-power, is incompatible with it. “God wills it” is the peremptory cry that shuts down rational debate—and Science and the Right democracy with it. The only public egress of religion needs In conclusion, if the Left, according to its most coherent defi- *Certain empirical research appears further to support these nition, is whatever political force strives to bring to full frui- conclusions. For instance, game theory suggests that cooperation tion a radical egalitarian democracy, the Right is the constel- and reciprocity are demonstrably better evolutionary strategies than lation of forces actively opposed to that goal. The features all violence and exploitation. Research in experimental psychology points to extreme wealth as a factor associated with decreased of those reactionary forces share include anti-intellectualism, ability to experience empathy, and increased unethical behavior. veneration of authority, and fateful attraction to a finalistic

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 35 and deregulation in order to be saved from gay marriage. Their contempt for science manifests most clearly in their rearguard The Power of Emancipation action against Darwinism. But the same authoritarian tendency makes them distrust the science of global warming as well, or in The power of the Enlightenment’s emancipation fact whatever particular discipline happens to threaten the inter- of radical philosophy is hard to overstate. Consider: ests of their trusted leaders. Science itself, with its free-thinking, eighteenth-century France was as repressive and authority- and faith-negating ethos, is but grudgingly tolerated, unequal a society as any other at that time. By 1793, and that only because of its lucrative technological by-products. after a thirty-year deluge of radical tracts advocating When inconvenient, science is denied, stripped of funding, or reason and naturalism, the Revolution had become outrightly politically suppressed (think here of all the “politici- a reality. Slavery was abolished, Jews were emanci- zation of science” scandals during the George W. Bush admin- pated, homosexuality was decriminalized; the imme- istration). morial privileges of the clergy were wiped out and Again, things come down to d’Holbach’s warning that women were allowed divorce. The National Assembly truth is the lethal enemy of privilege and injustice. came very close to granting women suffrage. The Nazism and Marxism, somewhat counterintuitively, have right of the people to work, to education, and to plenty in common with each other and with traditional reli- a decent life was enshrined in law and placed on a gions. They vary in their stated motivation for subjugating par with property rights. Robespierre’s most endur- humanity, “philanthropy” in the latter case, and “a taste for ing crime is having sullied the historical memory of the superhuman” (as Camus expressed it) in the former. But the Revolution. Yet it is important to understand first and foremost, they both profess that human history that his rule was a short and fundamentally alien tends toward an ultimate telos: any means is legitimate on experience during the Revolution. He imposed a the path to it; any scientific fact is to be discarded that stands fanatical ideology that was implacably hostile to the in the way of it. The Soviet Union did this with genetics, Enlightenment: “Cold reason” was constantly vilified, decreeing it an idealist doctrine (the distinction between to the exaltation of the general will and sentiments of gene and phenotype reflecting that between noumenon the “common people.” Enlightenment philosophers and phenomenon); so it was at odds with Marxism and so were deliberately targeted during the Terror. Diderot, perforce false. Lysenkoism was conjured up as the orthodox with usual prescience, had foretold: “Exaggerating replacement. his principles, Rousseau’s disciples will be nothing During its relatively brief (yet all too long) existence, Nazi but madmen” (“Réfutation de l’ouvrage d’Helvétius Germany sought to impose its system of values—racial and intitulé l’Homme”). social hierarchy—on all aspects of life. Science had to undergo —Lorenzo Lazzerini Ospri Gleichschaltung like everything else. “German Physics” and “German Mathematics” reflected the Nazis’ determination to find truth by banishing “Jewish influence,” while Ahnenerbe ideology. I am going to consider mainly the modern religious was their new archaeology, tasked with finding the inevitable Right, with only a few words about Nazism and Marxism- proof of the primordial supremacy of the Aryan race over the Leninism. ancient world. The religious Right is the most straightforward case: it is In sum, the historical evidence as well as theoretical consid- plainly the same old same old, a perpetuation of the original erations should make it perfectly clear that the search for truth reaction against the “new philosophy” when it first spread in is not a morally or politically neutral endeavor. The social order the 1700s, only marginally tamed in the West by two and a known as radical democracy, born out of naturalism’s original half centuries of enlightened polemic. Its votaries still maintain moral value, follows in the footsteps of science—not by coinci- that faith and tradition are the legitimate rulers of human exis- dence—in rejecting the spurious edifice of dogmas and author- tence. Their involvement in the politics of nominally democratic ity. Inexorably it applies the lesson that nothing should be Western states is fraught with deliberate equivocations: their shielded from criticism, no ambitious hypocrite allowed resort value system is not compatible with democracy, yet its political to the mask of faith to evade the scrutiny of reason, no injustice legitimacy is never even questioned. This is partly because rel- or privilege brooked under the shroud of ignorance. And so atively few people are made aware of the moral-philosophical must we continue the fight to make liberty, equality, and frater- underpinning of modern liberal democracy: declaring the United nity more than just the hypocritical pieties they have become States a Christian nation, for instance, is not met with the roar under our modern regimes. of laughter it deserves but deemed a respectable opinion. The other, possibly more important, reason is the usefulness of this ideology to people in positions of power eager to maintain Lorenzo Lazzerini Ospri was a student of philosophy before he turned his their privileges (precisely the same role it played for the ancien focus to science. He is currently a neuroscience PhD candidate at Johns régime). The United States is the prototypical example, with its Hopkins University, where his research focuses on the effects of light on plutocrats bankrolling an army of evangelical fanatics and media the brain. hacks beguiling voters in Kansas to back tax cuts, union-busting,

36 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org Albert Schweitzer and The Quest of the Historical Jesus—One Hundred Years On George A. Wells

n the fifty years since the death of Albert Schweitzer words, “the historical Jesus is a stranger and an enigma to our (1875–1965), his famous The Quest of the Historical Jesus has time.” His ethical teaching is “limited by Jewish-particularist Ilost none of its relevance. Originally published in 1906 and ideas, ” an “interim ethic,” inextricably linked with his convic- revised and extended in 1913 and later, Quest gives a compre- tion that the whole world will shortly come to a catastrophic hensive account of life-of-Jesus research from Reimarus in the end, and, hence, uncompromisingly severe—sinners are to eighteenth century to the author’s own time. A long-overdue be thrown into hell where “the fire is not quenched” (Mark English translation of the book in its final form, based on 9:43–48)—and replete with sayings appropriate for an emer- the ninth German edition of 1984, was published by SCM gency situation, such as the directive to abandon family and in London in 2000. Its editor, the Rev. John Bowden, called possessions for the sake of the gospel (Mark 10:29f.). it “beyond question the greatest twentieth-century book If Jesus was, as Nineham says, “mistaken in his unquestion- on Jesus”; in a foreword, the New Testament scholar Dennis ing conviction that the kingdom of God and the end of the Nineham gives a lucid summary and appraisal of Schweitzer’s world would come within a few years of the time when he position. was speaking,” then he was a false prophet. Yet he himself Jesus declared that “the time is fulfilled and the kingdom denounced false prophets in the harshest terms, as ravenous of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matt. 7:15). 1:15). Schweitzer, Nineham says, was right in his con- tention that Jesus mistakenly expected the more-or- less immediate future to usher in this kingdom “in roughly the form in which it was pictured in contempo- “Nineham adds that few scholars now rary expectations”—that is, in the Jewish apocalyptic dispute that Jesus’s ‘thinking and teaching literature of the time—according to which the immi- were carried on in first-century Jewish categories,’ nent arrival of the kingdom would be heralded by a period of cosmic tribulation after which the present hence, that he was ‘a culturally conditioned figure,’ world would come to an end. “The sun will be dark- not ‘the timeless Christ of orthodoxy.’” ened, the moon will no longer give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven. . . . Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away until all these things be accomplished” (Mark 13:24f., 30). It is now widely agreed, as The Oxford theologian T. W. Manson complained in 1956 the New Testament scholar D. C. Allison Jr. stated in his 2003 that “in spite of the moving eloquence with which the story essay “The Eschatology of Jesus,” that “ancient Jewish sources is told by Schweitzer, there is no escape from the fact that its regularly depict the birth of a better world as accompanied by hero was a deluded fanatic.” And William Temple, the arch- terrible labor pains,” and “the sort of disasters catalogued in bishop of Canterbury who died in 1944, thought he would chapter 13 of Mark can be found in many documents, Jewish have to consider renouncing Christianity if he believed that and Christian.” Jesus held such views as Schweitzer supposed. Unsurprisingly, Nineham adds that few scholars now dispute that Jesus’s then, many theologians have considered Schweitzer’s assess- “thinking and teaching were carried on in first-century Jewish ment to be completely wrong. In 1980, G. B. Caird dismissed categories,” hence, that he was “a culturally conditioned fig- his conclusions as “facile” and his mind as “pedestrian,” in that ure,” not “the timeless Christ of orthodoxy.” In Schweitzer’s

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 37 he took literally Jesus’s eschatological statements when really hat in Schweitzer’s account has rightly found little accep- they were all mere metaphor. Caird thus typifies the usual Wtance is, as Nineham notes, his “detailed reconstruction refuge of apologists in a society that has outgrown its sacred of the development of Jesus’s outlook and expectations” that books. Similarly, N. T. Wright, until recently bishop of Durham, “goes far beyond the evidence.” Schweitzer supposed that holds that Schweitzer, with “the great majority” of later New Jesus originally believed that the great tribulation and the Testament scholars, “misunderstood the nature of apocalyp- end would occur as early as the time of his own missionary tic” and that passages in both Jewish and Christian documents activity in Galilee; in chapter 10 of Matthew, he sends the about the stars falling from heaven and the son of man coming disciples out as itinerant missionaries not only to preach that with angels on clouds were really mere images expressing the “the kingdom is at hand” but also to do so in the conviction view that God would shortly vindicate his people. that they “will not have gone through all the towns of Israel Other scholars dispose of such eschatological passages before the Son of man comes”—an instruction recorded only in the Gospels by regarding them as having been added in Matthew. The Messiah-son of man is a supernatural per- to Jesus’s originally non-eschatological teachings by later sonage expected to come down from the clouds at the end Christian communities. Against such views, the Finnish New of time (Mark 13:26f.). As Jesus repeatedly refers to himself as the son of man, he obviously, said Schweitzer, expected to be Testament scholar Heikki Räisänen has said that “to under- changed into this personage and “to be recognized as such when the Kingdom of God arrives.” Schweitzer envisaged the disciples making a hasty tour of the towns, running from one to another before being overtaken by persecution, which would “If Jesus was, as Nineham says, ‘mistaken in his form the onset of the final tribulation. Even Matthew’s unquestioning conviction that the kingdom of text, to which alone Schweitzer can here appeal, does God and the end of the world would come within not support this interpretation but clearly refers to preachers who are to stay in one area long enough a few years of the time when he was speaking,’ to found a Christian community there. When they then he was a false prophet.” are persecuted in one town, they are to flee into the next (verse 23). No universal persecution is expected but rather harassment of individual missionaries who, if not safe in one town, can reckon on safety, at least for a time, in another. If, as most scholars sup- stand the rise and early development of Christianity, one can- pose, Matthew was writing near the end of the first century, not just dispose of an eschatological Jesus.” Paul, for instance, such sporadic persecution had begun to be a real possibility, believed that Christ would return in the near future to judge and it is quite intelligible that a ruling to preachers not to court martyrdom but to move on when harassed should have the world, and that only the faithful would be saved. The been put into Jesus’s mouth. whole creation will be affected (Rom. 8:18ff.). Marius Reiser, Although a number of passages in Mark and Matthew professor of New Testament at Mainz (Germany), calls a imply that the end will come soon, it is only Matthew’s chap- recent depiction of Jesus as a “teacher of popular wisdom”— ter 10 that Schweitzer can adduce for his theory that Jesus indeed any such non-apocalyptic portrayal of him—“a fantas- originally believed the end would come in a matter of weeks. tic construction.” He finds that “on the main point Schweitzer And Jesus’s whole speech here cannot be an authentic early was right,” in that, if eschatology is deleted from Matthew missionary speech by him, for even when Schweitzer wrote, it and Mark, there remains “only a text cut to ribbons which is had been seen to be compounded with material from other of no good use for anything.” speeches that in the Gospels were made at a later stage in By the third century, it had become clear that a prompt Jesus’s life. arrival of the kingdom in the eschatological sense of the Gos- In actuality, the end did not come, and the disciples pels of Mark and Matthew could no longer be expected, and returned safely from their mission (Mark 6:30). Schweitzer most of the Fathers followed Origen in reinterpreting God’s believed that Jesus’s disappointment at this nonfulfillment of kingdom to mean no more than his reign in human hearts. his prediction led him to revise his view of the coming tribu- This is still the position held by many Christians, for whom lation and to conclude—from meditation on passages about the kingdom is an ethical ideal perhaps to be realized in the the suffering servant of Yahweh in Isaiah 53—that if he alone modern church. Groups that are more fundamentalist retain suffered and died, God would spare mankind any general the original sense of the coming kingdom but reinterpret it tribulation and would inaugurate the kingdom. to mean that it will shortly come in their own lifetimes, not This alleged psychological reorientation on Jesus’s part in that of Jesus; many today are confidently expecting to be outstrips anything suggested in the texts. It is ironic that “raptured” just prior to the great tribulation—spirited away Schweitzer, who repeatedly and justly complained that many from Earth to join Christ in the sky as he descends, in accor- scholars seem to know far more about Jesus than the Gospels dance with the promise of 1 Thessalonians 4:17. themselves do, should have laid himself open to the same

38 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org charge. Moreover, his interpretation of what is actually England were, among others, already maintaining that there stated in both Matthew and Mark presupposes that these had been no historical Jesus at all. Schweitzer did not accept two Gospels are reliable “down to the smallest detail.” “Either that they had made a convincing case, but he did allow that Jesus did not exist or he was just as Mark and Matthew, “modern Christianity must always reckon with the possibility understood literally, depict him.” Schweitzer held that both of having to abandon the historical figure of Jesus” and must Gospels originated in Palestine around 70 CE and rest on have a metaphysic in readiness for such a contingency, so as a common source that, “as well as the special material in to base religion on mind, not on history. He appealed to the Matthew, go back to men who were present during the min- German metaphysical tradition and seems to have had partic- istry of Jesus. They have . . . a clear conception of the order ularly in mind Schopenhauer’s view of the primacy of the will of events and give a reliable report of the speeches of Jesus” as a transcendent reality at the basis of self-consciousness. On (Nineham here quotes from another of Schweitzer’s books). this view, consciousness can furnish unmediated, immediate As Nineham observes, other scholars had already shown that certainties; hence, what we learn from it is not fallible in the there were much stronger grounds than Schweitzer appreci- way in which what we learn from observation of the external ated for contending that “even the earliest evangelists—and world is fallible. Against such a claim the British empirical indeed the pre-Gospel tradition—were as much interested in tradition has insisted, as Alexander Bain famously wrote in his theological interpretation as in accurate chronicling.” The Emotions and the Will (1859), that “there is a very large However, Schweitzer stressed that his findings give no amount of fallibility in both the one and the other.” endorsement of conventional Christian beliefs: “Those who Schweitzer concluded by conceding that our relation to are fond of talking about negative theology can find their Jesus is “ultimately of a mystical kind.” We are to establish account here. There is nothing more negative than the result community with him by sharing his will to “put the kingdom of the critical study of the Life of Jesus.” Quite apart from of God above all else,” although what this kingdom means to the way Schweitzer construes the ideas governing Jesus’s us (if anything at all) is not what it meant for him. ministry, his brief remarks on the resurrection are not encour- aging. Against the commonly held view that if the tomb had hat we cannot accept in Schweitzer’s account should not not been empty, the Jewish authorities would have at once Wobscure what is truly significant in it. Nineham notes that refuted resurrection claims by producing the body, he noted in 1941, in a book that won Schweitzer’s approval, the Ber- that the disciples came forward with the “Easter message” nese New Testament scholar Martin Werner “sought to show only at Pentecost, after a lapse of weeks (by which time no that the whole development of Christian doctrine in the first body would have been identifiable). And he was scornful of four or five centuries can be made much more intelligible on the ambiguous way in which, then as now, many apologists the basis of Schweitzer’s account of Christian origins,” for this treated the resurrection: “The art of preserving credit for development was “profoundly affected by the ever-increas- all sides by indistinct statements which comply with every ing delay in the appearance of the expected parousia,” the change of wind is becoming more and more highly rated, and return of Jesus at his second coming. This thesis “deserves far is practised with ever-growing virtuosity.” more attention than it has generally received.” Finally, we should not overlook that in 1913 Schweitzer et, for all his negative results, Schweitzer still found that gave up his academic career to care for the natives of French Y“Jesus means something to our world because a mighty equatorial Africa at the hospital of Lambarene, and that he spiritual force streams forth from him and flows through our was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. As Nineham time also. This fact can neither be shaken nor confirmed by notes, in his autobiography he declared that “the real subject any historical discovery.” If Jesus is to be regarded as merely of Jesus’s teaching was love”; only its “structural framework” one element in religion, then the danger of narrowing it to was provided by first-century eschatology. a purely historical base will have been avoided. What mat- Further Reading ters about him is that he attempted to impose his will on his Details concerning the books of the various authors mentioned in this situation, believing that his action would bring about the article, and references to the relevant passages in them, are given in kingdom. Hence he can bring the hopes and longings inher- my Cutting Jesus Down to Size (Chicago: Open Court, 2009), which also includes a detailed account of the development of the view that ent in us “to heights and to a clarity we would not achieve . . . Jesus was an eschatological prophet, from Reimarus to Johannes without the influence of his personality.” The limitations of Weiss and Schweitzer and beyond. his outlook fall away “once his will as such is transposed into our own world-view.” These statements that religion needs in essence to be independent of historical fact—since even the best historical scholarship may in time need revision—were made at a time when the Breslau New Testament scholar William Wrede had George A. Wells is emeritus professor of German at the University of London set aside even Mark, the earliest of the canonical Gospels, and a former chairman of the Rationalist Press Association. He writes fre- as a theological fiction that provides information about the quently for Free Inquiry: his last article, “The Eucharist and the Origin of author’s own theology, not about Jesus. Even more alarm- Magical Ideas,” appeared in the June/July 2014 issue. ingly, Arthur Drews in Germany and John M. Robertson in

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 39 Greta Christina Getting Atheists to Talk about Death continued from p. 11 right now, my main thought is that Cafe (look it up!), you could show up enough, and frightening enough, on its since it’s clearly hard for these conver- and share your atheist/humanist/skep- own. Let’s not make it more difficult sations to start on their own, we need tical views of death. If you just have and more frightening by staying silent to set up some structures to get them a Facebook page with a lot of atheist about it and keeping it taboo. Let’s going. friends, you could post your own ideas start some conversations. If you’re in a local atheist group, and views about you could organize a discussion group death without God Greta Christina’s new mini-book, Comforting Thoughts About Death That about it. If you’re in an online atheist or an afterlife, and Have Nothing to Do with God, was published as an e-book and an audio- forum, you could propose the question: ask people to share book on December 11. She is also author of Coming Out Atheist: How “As an atheist, how do you cope with theirs. If you have to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why and Why Are You Atheists your own mortality and the deaths of other ideas, I’d love So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless (both from Pitchstone people you love? Here are some of my to hear them. Publishing, 2014 and 2012, respectively). thoughts. . . .” If your city has a Death Death is difficult

Faisal Saeed Al Mutar Who Is Really Gross and Racist? continued from p. 12

Mozambique, 30 percent; Guinea- because of racism, specifically the rac- American liberals to do this before Bissau, 29 percent; Niger, 28 percent; ism of lower expectations. We in the there is no one left to stand with in the and Pakistan, 27 percent. West too often hold white Christians to Muslim world, because they have all Finally, Islamic states fare poorly different standards than we hold oth- been tortured and butchered by the regarding the percentage of women ers, especially people of color. radical Muslims, who (lest we forget) participating in the adult labor force. We demand that white Christians are not a minority there. Of twenty-seven countries in which respect liberal values, but we do not Further Reading women accounted for less than one- demand the same for others. Evans, Robert. “Atheists Face Death in 13 third of the total adult labor force, We are more phobic of being called Countries, Global Discrimination: Study.” twenty-two were Islamic states, with “racist” or “Islamophobic” than we are Accessed at http://www.reuters.com/ the United Arab Emirates (15 percent) concerned about facts. article/2013/12/10/us-religion-atheists- idUSBRE9B900G20131210. and Saudi Arabia and Qatar (16 per- We are Islamophobic-phobic rather Fisher, Max. “The Seven Countries Where the cent each) scoring worst. than defenders of the civil liberties of State Can Execute You for Being Atheist.” These are just basic statistics pertain- all people, as we love to claim. Accessed at http://www.washingtonpost. com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/12/10/ ing to human-rights issues in Islamic American liberals have betrayed fel- the-seven-countries-where-the-state-can- countries. low liberals in Iraq, and in many other execute-you-for-being-atheist/. In Islam-dominated countries, there countries in the Muslim world, who are Goodenough, Patrick Goodenough. “Statistics Show Women Fare Badly in Muslim is little to no freedom of religion or fighting for the same rights American Countries, but U.N. Official Says Critics Are speech, widespread support for reli- liberals claim to value. Instead, time ‘Stereotyping’ Islam.” Accessed at http:// gious law, rising intolerance for homo- after time, American liberals side with www.cnsnews.com/news/article/statis- tics-show-women-fare-badly-muslim- sexuals, and deep inequalities in the their enemies against fellow liberals in countries-un-official-says-critics-are. status of women. This is not coinci- the Islamic world. Hess, Alexander E. M. “10 Worst Countries dence; it directly reflects mainstream American liberals ask white people for Women.” Accessed at http://www. huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/29/worst- interpretations of orthodox Islam. So to acknowledge their privilege. But I countries-for-women_n_6241216.html. why is it when we hear millions of am here to challenge American liberals Muslims clamoring for more of such to acknowledge their hypocrisy and policies that Western liberals seem not their racism that accepts lower expecta- to hear it, but those same liberals are tions and to stand in quick to shout down anyone who is solidarity with their white and critical of Islam? liberal brethren in Faisal Saeed Al Mutar is an Iraqi-born writer, public speaker, web When intolerant beliefs are shared Muslim-dominated designer, and social activist now living in the United States. He is the by a large percentage of Muslims, many countries against the founder of the Global Secular Humanist Movement and Secular Post. of whom are not white, those Western threats posed by rad- Al Mutar is a community manager at Movements.org, a division of liberals are silent. Why? I think it is ical Islam. I challenge Advancing Human Rights.

40 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org Church-State Update

Climate Change Is Real and Threatens Us All Edd Doerr

ddressing the United Nations has been definitely linked to human Earth’s surface that belongs to nobody climate summit in New York emissions.” The picture that the science and every­body. All the major fisheries, Ain September 2014, President community supports follows. which feed hundreds of millions of peo- Barack Obama declared: “There’s one Climate change and global warming ple, are in danger of being exhausted. issue that will define the contours of are caused by the excessive buildup Industrial fishing is depleting edible this century more dramatically than of carbon dioxide and other green- seafoods while, according to writer any other, and that is the urgent and house gases in the atmosphere, and Lewis Pugh in the September 29, 2014, growing threat of a changing climate.” this is due to the ever-increasing burn- New York Times, the seafloor is being American public opinion lags well ing of fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural littered with tires, plastic junk, bottles, behind, however. A New York Times/ gas), which are finite resources, as cans, shoes, and clothing. As for arable CBS News Poll in September found well as the excessive burning of wood, that only 46 percent of respon- which, though renewable, can be over- dents think that global warming used to the point of unsustainability. is having a serious impact now (26 Hacking down tropical rain forests for percent of total Republicans, 47 per- agricultural and other uses is inadvis- cent of Independents, 61 percent of able because these forests’ soils are “Expanding human populations Democrats). Ten percent hold that nutrient-poor and rapidly exhausted by on a planet with finite, shrinking global warming does not exist (18 agricultural overuse. Deforestation and resources will inevitably lead percent of Republicans, 10 percent of desertification, in turn, reduce the for- Independents, 3 percent of Democrats). ests’ capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, to increased sociopolitical In contrast, 54 percent accept that further contributing to climate change instability and violence.” global warming is caused mostly by and global warming. such human activity as burning fossil Global warming is causing the fuels (35 percent of Republicans, 53 melting of glaciers and the polar and percent of Independents, 67 percent Greenland ice caps, which causes rising of Democrats). The responses of those sea levels, already noticeable in many who are in denial of climate change areas. Just imagine what a sea-level rise land, soil erosion and nutrient loss are are what might be expected from peo- of a foot or two this century would do felt even in rich agricultural areas such ple who tend to denigrate science and to the 40 percent of the world’s pop- as Iowa. And then there is the accel- think the world is only six thousand ulation living in coastal areas. Where erating biodiversity and habitat loss years old. will all these people go? How much will worldwide, including the vanishing of Scientists are close to unanimous in it cost to move to higher ground? Get plant and animal species that haven’t recognizing that climate change is real the scary details from oceanographer even been studied yet. and that it is largely anthropogenic, John Englander’s 2012 book High Tide We are seeing the depletion of finite that is, caused by human activity. As the on Main Street. resources and the overuse of renew- New York Times reported on September Think of what we are doing to able ones, plus the accumulation of 30, “the overall global warming trend the world’s oceans, the two-thirds of waste, much of it toxic and some of it

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 41 radioactive. Expanding human popu- world population today would exceed water to produce a pound of meat lations on a planet with finite, shrink- nine billion. What is obviously needed than a pound of grain), and reduce the ing resources will inevitably lead to is the universal availability of contra- distance between the haves and the increased sociopolitical instability and ception and legal, safe abortions, plus have-nots. violence. total equality of rights and education Despite all of the above, there is for women. Women enjoying equal November’s Elections too little talk about human overpopu- rights and being educated translates to Only 36 percent of eligible voters both- lation, which has tripled to more than smaller families, healthier children, and ered to participate in our November 4 seven billion since 1945. Scientists such more stable and sustainable societies. national intelligence test. Of those who as humanist Julian Huxley were sound- Finally, let’s note two important did, majorities opted for politicians ing the warning bells in the early 1950s. new books. In their 2014 book Hope who are skeptical of climate change, Biologist Paul Ehrlich shook things up on Earth, scientists Paul Ehrlich, author wish to continue the concentrating of with his 1968 book The Population of The Population Bomb in 1968, and wealth in the top 1 percent, oppose Bomb. Twenty years ago, we saw the Michael Charles Tobias bring us up to women’s fundamental right to repro- massacre of up to a million people in the date on the full slate of environmental ductive freedom of choice, and disdain and population crises, concluding that the public schools that serve 90 percent world population already exceeds our of our children and the church-state planet’s carrying capacity. Ehrlich in separation principle that is necessary particular pins the blame largely on the for full religious liberty. But there were Vatican and the Catholic bishops, while a few bright spots. “. . . Pope Francis could earn noting that “Catholics use contracep- Hawaii voters rejected, 55 to 45 per- tion as much as non-Catholics, and they cent, Amendment 4, a sleazy, foot-in- the gratitude of the whole world have abortions with even higher fre- the-door attempt to allow the diversion by rescinding the Vatican’s quency.” As I have written elsewhere, of public funds to faith-based private irresponsible condemnation of Pope Francis could earn the gratitude schools. That is the same percentage of the whole world by rescinding the by which Florida voters rejected Jeb contraception. . . .” Vatican’s irresponsible condemnation Bush’s signature school-voucher plan of contraception, which was issued in two years earlier. This brings to twen- 1968 by Pope Paul VI in defiance of ty-eight the number of state referen- the overwhelming majority of his own dum elections between 1966 and 2014, advisers. Francis also could and should in which many millions of voters from end the Vatican’s unique status as the coast to coast voted by an average two only religious entity that enjoys per- to one margin to reject vouchers, tax tiny, overpopulated central African coun- manent observer status in the United credits, and other gimmicks to allow try of Rwanda, where about 10 percent of Nations General Assembly, which it government to compel taxpayers to the country’s population was killed. (See has misused for decades to impede support faith-based, special-interest my column, “Rwanda’s Horror Twenty international efforts to slow population private schools. Years Later,” FI, December 2014/January growth and promote women’s rights Two thirds of Colorado and North 2015.) Scientist Jared Diamond, in his of conscience and religious freedom Dakota voters rejected proposed “per- classic 2005 book Collapse, traced the with regard to reproduction. sonhood at conception” amendments downfall or near-downfall of a number University of Utrecht environmental designed to deny women the right to end of societies due to overpopulation and philosopher Floris van den Berg’s 2014 problem pregnancies. And California vot- failure to protect fragile environments. book, Philosophy for a Better World, ers reelected state school superintendent The 1975 National Security Study is a magnificent, compelling book Tom Torlakson, whose opponent had Memorandum 200 report mentioned in on ethics, moral reasoning, and our been generously supported by tons of my previous column noted that there responsibility to protect our one and money from billionaire blame-the- were about thirty million abortions per only planet for our fellow world-citi- teacher school pseudo-reformers. year worldwide in the mid-1970s. Alan zens and for those who come after us. Weisman reports in his superb 2013 Van den Berg calls on all of us, of every book, Countdown, that there are now religious persuasion and about forty million abortions per year life stance, to reduce con- worldwide, a great many of them dan- sumption, reuse, recycle, Edd Doerr is the president of Americans for Religious Liberty and gerous and illegal. If these hundreds of quit eating animals (it the former president of the American Humanist Association. millions of abortions had not occurred, takes far more land and

42 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org Humanist Soapbox

A Better Name for Us Glade Ross

e’re a very nice bunch of folks, year missionary duty with great valor. lthough it was far from obvious at we in this community who iden- I completed my undergraduate work Athe time I departed the faith, before Wtify with (and, yes, celebrate) at Brigham Young University (BYU), long I began to understand what made the principles Paul Kurtz set out to then proceeded through the program me different, what distinguished me promote when he spearheaded the at its affiliated law school. It was during from those who remained “in the fold.” launch of Skeptical Inquirer and Free law school that certain elements of my It’s not that I was manifestly smarter. Inquiry and later founded the Center makeup—call it integrity, if you like— Rather, I began to realize the differ- for Inquiry. But at the risk of raising an would not allow me to overlook facts ence was one of priorities. Initially, I’d oft-visited and sometimes painful ques- assumed that others would naturally that did not add up. I’d made a prior tion, what should the members of this rank their priorities just as I had done commitment to put reality first, and community call themselves? (what is authentically true matters first; if my Mormon belief (dear to me as it Later in this article, I’ll be offering all else, even allegiance to Mormonism, was) proved inconsistent with reality, it a suggestion—one I’m fairly certain is subordinate). But that assumption was my faith that would have to give. you haven’t encountered before. But was woefully naïve. Over time, I rec- Thus, by the time I graduated law first let me offer some autobiography, ognized that my way of prioritizing because the line of thinking that gave school and moved to California, I found was in fact quite unusual. For better rise to my suggested name for our com- myself reborn: I was freshly made to munity is inseparable from the experi- a life without religion and all its con- ences that marked my own withdrawal ceptual supports. I needed to get from religion. some grounding as to just what this It is no coincidence that I opened new stance meant. Somehow, I got a “. . . What should the this essay by mentioning Paul Kurtz. His mailing inviting me to join with other members of this community work was especially meaningful to me. “unchurched Americans” and subscribe Back in 1982, I was a young man to Free Inquiry. I did, and a subscrip- call themselves?” who had just escaped from the delu- tion to Skeptical Inquirer followed soon sions of Mormonism. Just months ear- after. lier, I’d been a “dyed-in-the-wool, true- I began to devour these periodicals. blue through-and-through” Mormon. It’s hard to describe how much it meant My ancestry goes back to the early days to discover I was not a lone pioneer. of the sect, and my entire clan stretches or worse, I care significantly more than Others had blazed the trail before me. as far as the eye can see and in every most people about whether my beliefs They were veterans. They knew their direction (siblings, cousins, second and accurately accord with what is real. stuff and were welcoming. That I had third cousins, and so on)—all partaking Those who didn’t leave their faith, I deeply of the delighted certainty that managed to stumble into their circle realized, did so because they treasured “This is the glorious Mormon truth, and seemed nothing short of wonderful. their theistic belief (and its pleasures aren’t we fortunate, special, and won- From that moment, I have always and comforts) more than they cared derful to be part of it!” drawn cheer, comfort, and courage about its truth content. During my formative years, I ques- from knowing that I am not alone, that This is why I found myself identify- tioned none of it. If anything, I may have there are others like me. ing with the community of folks inter- been above average in my Mormon More particularly, there are others twined with Free Inquiry and Skeptical zeal and intensity. I’d done the two- who are good, as I am good. I will explain. Inquirer. In a nutshell, we wish not to

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 43 believe in rubbish (I could easily pick tially contradict “core” beliefs while I developed enhanced meanings for a harsher term). From the first time selectively seeking (and habitually labels already in my quiver. Labels can I began reading these publications, I exaggerating) any supposed evidence be good things, particularly when they have felt this is the commonality that that might be contorted to seemingly foster understanding. binds us: We like to see what’s genu- confirm them. Thus, Person B devel- I learned, for example, that most of inely real. We put that first. ops expert proficiency in methods that us within this community call ourselves I will go further. Because we put abuse and distort reason. Whatever “atheists,” for the simple reason that truth first, we are, in that regard, better corrupt expedients may be needed to after one reviews all the applicable than others. Yes, we are. No doubt, it’s foster and maintain confidence in spite evidence, there is no compelling reason politically incorrect to say so. But it’s of the lack of verity, these are Person to think that gods as described by any true. Please, for consideration, test this B’s tools. Indeed, they are deployed religion exist. for yourself. not merely for conviction-building and We also tend to find that we are maintenance but also to erect a strong “empiricists.” Why? When we examine pretense of justification. the various methods which persons use I think there can be little doubt to justify their beliefs, we tend to find which of these two persons, A or B, that every method but one has zero is higher-minded, more noble, more efficacy when it comes to accurately “Over time, I recognized that praiseworthy, more rare—and, yes, distinguishing reality from illusion. The my way of prioritizing was in more moral. only method that seems genuinely effi- When we choose in any degree to pre- cacious in this regard is the method fact quite unusual. For better or fer what’s comfortable and emotionally that rigorously compares ideas to expe- worse, I care significantly more pleasing in belief, as opposed to what’s rience in search of a good or perfect than most people about whether accurate, we have in that degree “drunk match, with the corresponding deter- the Kool-Aid.” In Kurtz’s language, we mination to reject ideas where a mis- my beliefs accurately accord have yielded to the “Transcendental match compels it. This is a reasonable with what is real.” Temptation.” We have become part of definition of empiricism, so it is logical a camp that is different and apart from that we should describe ourselves using those who are always and without excep- that label. tion determined to inhabit Category A. Likewise, we generally find we are Between those who embrace Category “materialists.” When empiricism is your B practice in any degree and those who method, you tend to discover that Compare two persons. Person A embrace none of it, the divide is distinct reports of things from “other realms” wants his or her views about stuff to and broad. (spirit matter and such) never really be accurate, regardless of whatever the So, where do we, in this commu- check out. We did not design things personal cost may be of so concluding. nity, fit? Bluntly, we are the teetotalers. that way; it’s just what we tend to find Given this, he or she is determined By purity of intended principle, if not when we apply our method. to respect all evidence, and, indeed, always perfection in practice, we are Interestingly, we tend also to find constantly strives to collect and weigh Category A people. Granted, we are we are “humanists.” In part this is not all that is available—fully, fairly and human. Far too often, we fail to live surprising. When you remove all imag- honestly. He or she is always ready, up to this ideal. But it is our ideal, and ined gods from your focused center, moreover, to alter even the most-cher- we embrace it because, genuinely, in there’s an obvious logic in moving ished conclusions should the evidence our heart of hearts, we really want one’s focus back toward humans. But, recommend it. to see what’s real. It’s our foremost even so, one could at least conceiv- In contrast to Person A, Person B desire. This is the germ of virtue that ably withdraw one’s focus from any is determined to maintain at least a makes each of us part of this particular imagined heavenly menagerie and, in few particular conclusions, no mat- Paul Kurtz–founded community. When reaction, formulate a negative, pessi- ter what. These will involve matters newcomers find this community, or we mistic, perhaps even hateful outlook essential to his or her emotional and/ find them, we recognize one another toward humans. It seems that those or societal comfort. Most particularly, as fellow travelers. in our group have done mostly the they are conclusions that he or she is opposite. We have discovered hope determined to maintain regardless of hat said, let’s go back to me in 1982. for a much-improved human condition authentic truth content. Because of this THow terrific it was for me then to that seems to rise all but spontaneously determination, Person B has no interest find others like me, and, yes, to begin from within ourselves—a yearning to in what evidence genuinely declares on learning some new terms. I began learn- labor for betterment coupled with the such matters. Indeed, he or she will flee ing new labels, some for things I’d never optimism that there may be within our from evidence that threatens to poten- previously had labels for. In other cases, species such nobility as to achieve it.

44 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org theist, empiricist, materialist, human- as to where my priority and values shall tion? Of course you will! In answer- Aist. These are but some of the labels lie. In that very respect, it commends ing, you’ll have superb opportunity to our group has found fitting. Yet so many my choice (and resulting values/priority explain that you subscribe to a philos- of us have wanted something more—a change) to others. At least in theory, ophy that is fundamentally opposed to word, a label that, compared to those anyone can join me as a genuist by Pascal’s Wager. This philosophy recog- above, more elegantly defines us. choosing a priority and values simi- nizes there often are indeed emotional, There have been proposals. Paul lar to those I have chosen. This is in societal, and other benefits in adopting Kurtz coined the term eupraxophy (later marked contrast to the label “bright,” beliefs without regard to their genu- eupraxsophy), suggesting it as a fitting which suggests that its possessors are ine truth. It recognizes many humans description for our general “endeavor- mentally superior to others. This offers (indeed, most) choose to go that way. ing stance” in life. He further suggested few opportunities for others to join; it A genuist, however, deems those ben- we might call ourselves “eupraxso- is not very practical to suggest that oth- efits unworthy of even the slightest phers.” Unsurprisingly, this never gained ers simply choose to “ratchet up” their weight in choosing what he or she traction. innate mental horsepower. will believe. On the genuist’s view, the Another proposal (which did gain at Yes, some will object that if we claim only matters of worthy weight are the least initial traction) was that we might the term genuist, that carries an impli- things that genuinely indicate what is, call ourselves “brights.” That term has cation that others are not ingenuous most likely, real. likewise failed, and I need not review or are less ingenuous than we in their Among us—we atheists, we empir- its debilities. epistemological preferences. However, icists, we materialists, we humanists—I Instead, I want to suggest a term is there really any news in that asser- believe that genuism has been our that, after thinking very long and hard tion? The bulk of those in the other stance and practice all along. We lacked over these many years, I consider truly camp openly advocate closing their only a label able to capture all of its ideal for our community: Genuism. eyes to evidence. (What else is their virtues. I propose that from here on we Why this word? celebrated “faith,” after all?) This impli- should pervasively adopt and use the I’ve already described the element cation is a truth that, on any reasonable term genuism and its cognates. I believe is our group’s largest com- examination, those in the opposing Genuism describes what we are, as monality, our shared determination to camp cannot reasonably deny. opposed to describing only a minor assure that our views regarding what’s It is also true that genuist might be element regarding what we are not, imagined to exist “out there” accurately interpreted as implying that our posi- as does atheism. It sets us apart from depict what genuinely does exist out tion is morally superior. Rather than atheists who never became so in con- there. Because this is our objective, we being a fault, I think this is a great vir- sequence of a genuistic analysis but likewise seek to assure that our con- tue. Certainly, the other side constantly only, say, because it was socially popular clusion-adopting methods are ingenu- claims moral superiority for its stance, among one’s peers (and how strange to ous (as opposed to permitting them to going so far as to deny that people like think that, at least among the young, become disingenuous, as happens with us could even have a basis for morality, this is now possible). It likewise distin- the Category B character-type described while simultaneously predicting that guishes us from those who, like us, are prima above). Because this is the most real and we are bound for an eternity of tor- humanists but nevertheless retain facie unreasoned epistemologies. Unlike major distinction between those who ment owing to nothing more than our the word bright, it implicitly invites belong to our community and those who depraved disbelieving state. I think it is those who are not genuists to become do not, genuism describes us fully—per- not at all a bad thing to counter with so. Finally, it openly (even, it may be haps, better than any other term. the implied assertion, “Guess what? argued, fiercely) advertises the high and What do you call a person who We’re the moral ones.” Beyond that, noble morality in our stance. practices genuism? Easy. He or she is a how can you lead others toward a I like it a lot. I hope you will too. “genuist.” better and more moral stance absent I like being a genuist. I think it’s a a willingness to assert: “Yes, the reason great description. It positively describes you should prefer this stance is because who and what I am. it’s morally superior.” Perhaps outright Every label implies a comparison to advertising of this virtue—indeed, others; if a label is meaningful, the openly celebrating it as people whom it fits must differ in some a virtue—would help it Glade Ross is an attorney and the founder of a software business of verifiable way from the people who do to gain in popularity. which he is CEO and president. He currently lives on Puget Sound in not. If I am a genuist, the implicit com- I also love the term Washington with his wife and children and is passionate about sailing. parison with others associated with genuism as a discussion This essay is adapted from part one of a four-part essay that will be that label does not in the least assert starter. Tell someone published in its unedited entirety on the Council for Secular Humanism that I am smarter than anyone else. It you’re a genuist. Think website. simply describes a choice I have made you’ll prompt a ques-

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 45 A CFI Conference

Buffalo Marriott Niagara Buffalo, NY June 11–15, 2015

Science, reason, and secularism can be Featuring: positive forces for change, especially when guided by the values of skepticism and humanism and driven by the passion and creativity of a vibrant freethought community.

Join us at the Center for Inquiry for Richard Dawkins Rebecca Goldstein Susan Jacoby “Reason for Change,” an international Scientist and author Novelist and philosopher Author and journalist conference where humanists, skeptics, and all those who value science and reason will meet to inform and inspire one another to be a positive force for change.

We’ll do it in a place that many consider to be “home” to the skeptic and humanist movements: Western New York and CFI’s headquarters in Buffalo. Fittingly, 2015 will be the 35th anniversary of Free Inquiry and the 39th anniversary (last party before 40!) of Skeptical Inquirer, the two foundational publications that helped start it all.

This conference will be truly special. It will be both a celebration of our accomplishments and a robust examination of the challenges we still face. It will be an invaluable opportunity to connect and collaborate with thinkers, activists, researchers, and other luminaries from around the world.

FREE Child Care Available! Throughout the conference, free child care will be available for attendees’ children ages 4–12. Child care is provided by Just for Kids and includes supervised, age-appropriate games, activities, crafts, and entertainment. All staff are background-checked and insured.

After-Conference Tour Opportunities On the afternoon of Sunday, June 14, enjoy half-day coach tours of Buffalo’s classic architecture or world-famous Niagara Falls. On Monday, June 15, take an all-day coach tour of the Robert Ingersoll Birthplace Museum and other sites on the Freethought Trail in West-Central New York. (Separate registrations required.) www. .centerforinquiry.net Conference Shedule

3:40–5:00pm Alternative Medicine Panel

­Thursday, June 11 moderated by Leonard Tramiel 9:00am-5:00pm Secular Celebrant Training Panelists: Harriet Hall, David Gorski, Steven Novella Learn how to officiate for nonreligious marriage and commitment ceremonies, funerals and memorials, Humanist Track and other celebrations of the milestones of life. 3:00–3:40pm The Impact of the Religious Freedom The demand for secular ceremonies is growing fast, Restoration Act (RFRA) so this is the perfect time to build your skills and get Lecture presentation by Nicholas J. Little certified. Trainer: Reba Boyd Wooden, executive director of CFI–Indiana. 3:40–5:00pm Leaving Religion Panel moderated by Reba Boyd Wooden. Noon–5:00pm Registration Panelists: Catherine Dunphy, Muhammad Syed, Jerry DeWitt Noon–5:00pm Tours of Center for Inquiry Shuttle buses will run continuously between the Marriott 6:00–7:00pm Reception and Cash Bar and CFI headquarters, one mile away. Tour the offices (Banquet registration required) and the world’s largest humanist and skeptical libraries, meet staff members, and return when you like. 6:30–10:00pm Reception, Banquet, Awardee Lecture by Susan Jacoby (Separate registration required) 5:00–7:00pm Development Reception invitation only Presentation of the Balles Prize 7:00–9:00pm Conference Reception (Open to all registrants) and the Forkosch Awards Opening remarks by Ronald A. Lindsay, Kendrick Frazier, Barry Karr, Tom Flynn. Awardee Lecture by Susan Jacoby

Friday, June 12 Comedy by Leighann Lord

7:30–8:30am Registration

8:30–11:15am Plenary Session (Open to all registrants) Saturday, June 13 9:00am –Noon Plenary Session (Open to all registrants) 8:30–9:00am Opening session Views of Secularism Moderator: R. Elisabeth Cornwell panel discussion Marking thirty-five years ofF ree Inquiry, almost forty moderated by Paul Fidalgo years of Skeptical Inquirer, and the merger of the Panelists: Ronald A. Lindsay, Phil Zuckerman, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and the Council for Barry Kosmin Secular Humanism with the Center for Inquiry. Presenters: Tom Flynn, Kendrick Frazier 10:20–11:00am Lecture presentation by Eugenie Scott

11:00–11:15am BREAK 9:00–9:50am GMOs: Why Reason Doesn’t Matter Lecture by Michael Spector 11:15–11:55am Taking Atheism to the General Public Lecture presentation by Eddie Tabash 9:50–10:00am BREAK Noon–1:30pm Speaker Luncheon (Separate registration required) 10:00–11:20am round the orld panel discussion CFI A W Lecture presentation by Joe Nickell Moderator/Presenter: Michael De Dora. Panelists: Bill Cooke, George Ongere. 1:30–5:00pm Plenary Session (Open to all registrants)

11:30am–1:00pm Luncheon and Keynote Address (Open to all registrants) Keynote speaker: Rebecca Goldstein 1:30–2:30pm LIVE: Point of Inquiry Podcast with Hosts Josh Zepps and Lindsay Beyerstein, with guests TBA 1:00–2:45pm Plenary Session (Open to all registrants) the Humanist Movement and Social Justice Issues. 2:30–3:25pm Lecture Presentation by Steven Salzburg a moderated conversation led by Debbie Goddard and Ronald A. Lindsay 3:25–3:40pm BREAK Panelists:Ophelia Benson, Anthony Pinn, Todd Stiefel, Eric Adriaans Skeptic Track 3:40–5:00pm Climate Change Panel chaired by Mark Boslough 2:45–3:00pm BREAK moderated by Kendrick Frazier Panelists: Scott Mandia, Jan Dash, Joshua Rosenau 3:00–5:00pm Breakout Sessions (Open to all registrants) 7:00–9:00pm Don C. Dangler Memorial Lecture. Skeptic Track by Richard Dawkins www. .centerforinquiry.net 3:00–3:40pm Why People Fall for Dubious Claims: The Lessons from a Life of Skepticism Lecture presentation by skeptical pioneer Ray Hyman. Conference Shedule

Sunday, June 14 12:30pm AFTERNOON TOURS (Optional at additional cost)

9:00–10:00am Plenary Session (Open to all registrants) CHOOSE EITHER: Lecture Presentation by Stephen Law

Historic Architecture of Buffalo Tour (returns 7:00 p.m.) Buffalo is home to some of the greatest American 10:00–10:10am BREAK architecture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. See the mansions of Buffalo’s 3:00–5:00pm Breakout Sessions (Open to all registrants) glory days, established and emerging historic districts, and the landmark buildings of downtown Skeptic Track Buffalo. Motor coach tour with professional guide ends with an elegant dinner at the historic 3:40–5:00pm Executive Council Panel moderated by Barry Karr Lafayette Hotel. Panelists: James Alcock, Kendrick Frazier, Harriet Hall, Ray Hyman, Scott O. Lilienfeld, Amardeo Niagara Falls, Canada Tour Sarma, Eugenie Scott, Karen Stollznow, Steven Explore one of the natural wonders of the world Novella, Dave Thomas, Leonard Tramiel from its most impressive vantage point: Canada! In addition to the Falls, this motor tour includes a visit to the Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory and dinner at the world famous Skylon Tower Humanist Track Revolving Restaurant, a full 775 feet above 3:40–5:00pm We Are Awake Already: the water. Secular Humanists Reply to Sam Harris (This tour will enter Canada. valid U.S. Passport or Enhanced moderated by Stef McGraw Driver’s License required.) Panelists: Judith Walker, R. Elisabeth Cornwell, Eddie Tabash Monday, June 15

7:30am–9:30pm 11:30am–Noon The Future of CFI Tour to ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL presentation by Ronald A. Lindsay Birthplace Museum (Dresden, New York) and Freethought Trail sites in Rochester, including the Susan B. Anthony House Noon END OF FORMAL CONFERENCE PROGRAM and significant sites from the life of Frederick Douglass. (Separate registration required.)

The elegant Buffalo Marriott Niagara is the full-service conference hotel closest to the Center for Inquiry–Transnational, CFI’s headquarters in Amherst, New York. www.marriot.com/bufny.

www. .centerforinquiry.net Please register ______persons for Reason for Change. Registration includes all daytime sessions. Does not include Development Reception, Friday Awards Banquet, Saturday Speaker Luncheon, Bus Tours. Complete and mail this form with your payment (personal check or MC/Visa/AmEx/Discover).You may also register online at http://reasonforchange.centerforinquiry.net (credit card required), YES or by phone: dial toll free 1-800-458-1366 during business hours Eastern time (credit card required). Main Conference Registration Additional Events Secular Celebrant Training Thursday, June 11, 9 AM–5PM $75 l Basic Registration $279 X Number of Persons: ______l (Meals not included. Limit thirty participants) l Discount Registration* $250 X Number of Persons: ______*Special rate for Friends of the Center for Inquiry or Associate Members of CSH or CSI Awards Banquet Friday, June 12, 7PM $65 l Full-time Student Rate $50 X Number of Persons: ______l (Must show valid student ID at check-in) Join us as we present Lifetime Achievement Awards to Susan Jacoby and Richard Dawkins. Featured Speaker: Susan Jacoby. Subtotal: $______(Please let us know if you have dietary restrictions or require special menu options. E-mail Barry Karr at [email protected]) Single Day Admission: Friday Only Does not include Banquet. l Lunch Event with Joe Nickell Saturday, June 13, Noon $35 $140/person Number of Persons: ____ Friday Total: $______Enjoy lunch and an illustrated lecture with Joe Nickell, CSI’s senior research fellow and the world’s only full-time, professionally trained paranormal investigator. Saturday Only Does not include Luncheon. (Please let us know if you have dietary restrictions or require special menu options. $140/person Number of Persons: ____ Saturday Total: $______E-mail Barry Karr at [email protected]) Sunday Only Niagara Falls, Canada Tour (Sunday, June 14, 12:30–9:30PM) $150 $75/person Number of Persons: ____ Sunday Total: $______l (Limit 55 participants. Passport or Enhanced Driver's License required.) Please do not order individual day admissions if you have ordered a Basic Registration for the same person.

l Historic Architecture of Buffalo Tour (Sunday, June 14, 12:30–7PM) $120 (Limit fifty-five participants) REGISTRATION SUBTOTAL: $ ______

(Monday, June 15, 8AM–10PM) Please register my child(ren) for child care provided by Just for Kids. l Finger Lakes Freethought Tour $160 (Limit fifty-five participants) Child care is provided at no additional charge. Thursday no. of children: ____ age(s): ______Friday no. of children: ____ age(s): ______Saturday no. of children: ____ age(s): ______GRAND TOTAL: $______Sunday no. of children: ____ age(s): ______

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Jump-Starting a Brain Frozen in the Cold War Constance Hoffman

With this article, Free Inquiry launches a new department. Based on our recent, the necessity of beauty, I fit into the com- well-received four-part series, “The Faith I Left Behind” invites readers to submit per- munity that reportedly spent twenty-six sonal deconversion stories. How did you let go of your previous perspective, religious thousand dollars for a digital sign outside or otherwise, and become a secular humanist? Please note, essays for this department the civic center. It may have been utilitar- must be sent in accord with FI’s normal submission policies; submitting a manuscript ian, but it was ugly. by e-mail only is not permitted. For submission guidelines, visit http://www.secular- Occasionally, someone would pro- humanism.org/index.php/submission-guidelines or request a hardcopy using our vide a spark that enlivened my lan- postal address (see page 5). —Eds. guishing mind. Averell, who was mar- ried to a South Dakotan she had met rmageddon’s so close. You would it? My grandparents, immersed in Arizona, volunteered in the library probably won’t have chil- in a free home Bible Study conducted where I worked. She pronounced for- “Adren. You might never get the by a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses, eign as fahren. Her everyday speech, chance to grow up and get married.” weren’t lying, were they? Mama and featuring words such as obstreperous “South Dakotans are in great dan- Daddy wouldn’t lie to me. Would they? and matriculate, hinted at her educated ger. If the Russians decide to take out Years later, when my oldest grand- Connecticut background. “Can you tell our power supply, they’ll bomb the daughter was in high school, she told me,” she asked once, “why you people dams on the Missouri River. Hide under me about a class in which the students out here say, ‘it looks like rain’”? your desk.” learned critical thinking. “Critical think- Huh? Giving her my most puzzled “God’s people go to Sunday School. ing?” I said. “What’s that?” I’d never look, I said, “Well, because when we Jesus loves me, this I know.” been taught to think. For me, school look outside, we see that it looks like “Use your brain. Hypocrites fill had been work, an unpleasantness that it’ll rain, so we say, ‘It looks like rain.’” churches.” had to be endured. The rest of my life “But like should never be used as a “Christians live by faith. You must was pretty much the same. Why have conjunction,” she said. believe. You are a sinner. Everyone sins. dreams? The community was bound “Huh?” Hell is forever.” to knock them down. (“Who do you “You should say, ‘It looks as if it “In this house, what I say goes, god- think you are, anyway? An artist? What could rain.” damn it. Don’t question me. When you makes you better than anyone else? I was so flabbergasted that I barely get out in the real world, you’ll damn And who needs art? Get a real job. heard her explanation. “But I was good well learn to follow the rules.” There’ll always be a need for someone in English,” I said. I believed all of it. The country, whose to empty bedpans.”) She smiled and gave me a hug. Later, flag I stood before and swore allegiance I tried to listen to and please everyone. when she wasn’t looking, I took down to, would not tell me lies, would it? By squelching my dreams, I just about fit Strunk and White’s Elements of Style The Methodist Church, whose ministers into my family and then my husband’s and looked it up. It confirmed what taught me “Kumbaya,” wouldn’t lie, family. By not speaking up in defense of Averell had said, adding: “Like has long

50 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org been widely misused by the illiterate. . . .” example by explaining some of what he said, pointing to one item on the So in spite of my having graduated from he knew, most of which came from menu and then another, “and some Burke High School, I was illiterate. Philip, reading. He read everything. Signs at of this. But could you leave out the my boyfriend, reinforced that truth. rest stops along the highway. Maps. onions?” I couldn’t follow him even in “The horse drug him,” I had said. “His Labels. Free brochures in the library or English. When the waiter didn’t under- foot got caught in the stirrup, and . . . .” courthouse. The fine print on anything. stand, the kid repeated, using the same “Dragged.” words only more loudly. I hoped none “Huh?” e planned a trip to Italy. Philip’s of the Italians thought we were friends “The past tense of drag is dragged. Wbrain, accustomed to studying, was or, God forbid, related. The horse dragged him.” limber enough to soak up some Italian There was a train strike as we were I stared at him. “You’re kidding.” before we got there. I retained very lit- about to go back to Rome from Naples. “No.” tle. Thinking was a chore. Studying was We sat for hours on a bus. One man “But everyone I know says that.” (It’s unthinkable. It was as if I were trying to sitting across from us slapped his own true. Some of our state representatives get water using a broken pump handle. arm. “Zanzara,” he explained to his com- spoke in the same illiterate manner.) Once when were were playing cards, panion. “I know.” Philip dealt them out while counting in “How’d you get so smart?” I asked. (I Italian for practice. While I was decid- adored him back then.) ing what to discard, he’d read from “Nuns. They beat it into me.” the dictionary. “Zanzara. Know what I didn’t believe that Philip was smart that is?” because of nuns, whether they beat “A clothing designer?” him or not. Intelligence, to me, had a “It’s a mosquito.” magical quality. Either you had it or you “Mosquito. Why waste time learning didn’t. My father had it. After he died, such obscure things?” “I’d never been taught to think. my mother was fond of bragging about The eight-hour flight to our desti- For me, school had been work, his high IQ. I didn’t have it. When I was nation, during which a cousin of Rod five and about to go to school in a few Serling taught me to play Hearts, over- an unpleasantness that weeks, I exasperated my father—caus- whelmed me. Italy overwhelmed me. had to be endured.” ing him to swear—because I hadn’t I was lost in the babble of a foreign yet learned to write my name and tie language, the smells, the meat markets, my shoes. I was just smart enough to the ancient stone buildings, and the figure out I was stupid. I didn’t have pigeon-filled piazzas. When a group of intelligence. So why should I try? Americans invited us to join them for Outside of my town, my county, dinner, I was sort of relieved. They were my state, things were different. Philip much younger than we were and too told me that his home state of New boisterous and loud, but I thought they York required everyone to pass the knew the ropes. A man across from me reached into state Regents examinations in order to When we arrived at the restaurant, his paper bag, drew out a fat root, graduate from high school. Students we found the door shut, pulled down in white with a frilly green top, held it up, actually studied. the manner of a garage door. “What?” and said, “Finnochio,” which rhymes Given my stupidity, it’s a wonder that one young man said, angrily gesturing with “Pinnochio.” Using a pocketknife, I’d gotten a boyfriend like Philip. (It’s at the door. “It was here. Just last night. he began slicing the vegetable. A also a wonder that later I would end an And it was open.” They uttered profan- smell that I recognized as fennel filled unhappy relationship and get divorced. ities, most of which I’m uncomfortable the bus. Though I’d used the seeds Or that I’d leave my religion and, follow- repeating. in bread, I’d never seen fennel root. ing the example of my mother and sisters, Philip bent down to see a small The man held a white slice out to me. become a Jehovah’s Witness.) handprinted sign taped to the door. “Mangia, mangia.” “But,” I’d said to him, “you do Squinting in the dim light, he slowly “Eat, eat.” The Italian word was so believe in God, don’t you?” Having read, “Chiuso venerdi.” Turning to unfamiliar, and I lacked the sense to asso- not yet recovered from the effects of the rest of us, he said, “It’s closed on ciate mangia with manger. But what is a religious dogma, I had a terrible need Fridays.” manger but a place where animals eat? to persuade my soul mate about the We found another restaurant. Our Why hadn’t any parent, grandparent, existence of God and his original plan companions seemed to think that all preacher, or teacher ever connected me of filling a perfect Earth with perfect Italians were slow, but they read the to the root of a key word in “Away in the mankind, but the devil is out there . . . menu so atrociously that I was embar- Manger”? blah, blah, blah. rassed. One young man kept trying to “He wants you to eat it,” Philip whis- Philip let me blather. Then he set an mix and match. “I want some of this,” pered.

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 51 I did. “Grazia,” I said. ciple or body of principles offered to told sincerely, by someone you trust, explain phenomena, such as ‘wave the- someone as gullible as you are—are didn’t believe Philip when he told me ory of light.’” still lies. II was smart. I told him he was a genius. It also turned out that, because of Philip is back in New York. He and He said that wasn’t true. He studied. prevailing attitudes and the residual I talk nearly every day. He’s working He worked hard to learn and retain. effect of my former religion, Jehovah’s on learning the Polish language. I’m He was always reading and thinking. Witnesses, I was unable to remain with learning Russian. Why? Because I can. He rode his bike, jogged, and ate fish, my second boyfriend. I could not get Because, after he jump-started my giving his brain oxygen and nutrients. over thinking of him as my brother-in- brain, I found out how much fun learn- He was a teacher when I met him, law, which he’d been for fifteen years. ing is. Had we not been subjected to and he told me that he hated hearing Though they were divorced, in my mind the Cold War propaganda, who knows two phrases: “Do we have to know that smart man still belonged to my what we might have learned? this?”and “Will it be on the test?” smart little sister. Just consider this: Krem’l is the “What difference does it make?” For a while, I wandered from boy- walled fortress of an old city. he’d say. “Knowledge won’t hurt you. friend to boyfriend, like Eve sampling Gahzyetyah is newspaper. Zhoornahl is It might even help you.” fruit in the orchard and thinking all kinds magazine. Our language is tied to that of formerly forbidden thoughts. While of the Russians. Amazing, huh? enduring menopause, I wondered why God had invented hot flashes. Why did I still have a sex drive? Why did God put such a drive in adolescents, who are not at all ready for parenthood? Those “Intelligence, to me, had a hormones—especially in fine physical magical quality. Either you had specimens—can render one quite stupid. Constance Hoffman playes guitar, composes poetry, and paints murals and trompe d’oeil in it or you didn’t. My father had Choosing a good mate is pretty much a crap shoot. What’s up with that? Where Burke, South Dakota. it. . . . I didn’t have it.” in the world do we get the idea that mar- riage is sacred? Finally, after years of being estranged from my religion and turning down offers from well-meaning neighbors to fill that void with another faith, I studied the Bible. By that I mean that I was past the age of fifty when I I studied the book without assuming it began to stretch my lazy brain. I read. was sacred, inherently right, or divinely I listened to the news, even on politics! inspired. I had no need to prove it right. I ordered some college courses on tape And I didn’t. More of it turned out to be and DVD. Most of them were way over wrong than right. my head. Yet I took notes, and some of Why was there so much fighting over it stuck. what was included and what was left After my divorce, I got a second out? Why would a loving god allow that? boyfriend, a West Coast man and a true Why create more confusion with con- soul mate who’d known me when I was flicting stories and principles? Why were religious. “You’re different,” he said. there two accounts of the creation? Why “You seem smarter.” was Mark’s Gospel, the oldest, put after I laughed. “I am.” Matthew? Why not begin with Paul’s Well, it turns out that because I’d writings, the oldest of the Greek writings? learned from my first boyfriend, the Hey! I’ve been thinking! I can now second one and I could have deeper think anything. Although no one has ver- discussions. I’d found out that “theory,” ified it, I can believe that an all-knowing as in “Theory of Evolution,” can mean all-seeing Santa lives at the North Pole. Or “an unproved assumption.” But it can— I can choose not to. It’s up to me. Wow. according to Philip and my Merriam I have stopped believing most of the Webster’s—also mean “a plausible or stories from my childhood and a good scientifically acceptable general prin- chunk of my adult life. Lies—even those

52 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org Living Without Religion

When We Die James Davenport

hen we die, we don’t go to But I want to look at it a different nothing to be done—ever! So perhaps heaven—we leave heaven. way. The human experience in its total- in any subsequent permutations of the W The survival instinct in ity—as well as each individual’s experi- doctrine of heaven, some agenda could human beings is so great that we can- ence as a living entity—is miraculously be devised to give us cosmic purposes not imagine, even conceptually, that unique in the cosmos. Our planet Earth to pursue and therefore avoid righteous there could come a time when we, per- alone seems to be potentially one of boredom. sonally, would no longer exist. We can a kind in its gift of introducing and accept that we did not exist before we sustaining life—although logically the were born, but somehow not to exist possibility must exist elsewhere in (per- once we have begun to exist—once we haps other) universes too. Any ordinary have been born—seems unimaginable. human life anywhere on the planet “We can accept that we did not It seems like such a waste and a tragedy is wondrously representative of the for our life not to go on in some form, in unique and evolutionary result of what exist before we were born, but some other place—perhaps some better it means to be a living human being. somehow not to exist once we place. So we may want to idealize what At any given time on this earth, “heav- have begun to exist . . . seems that place and experience would be like, enly” experiences abound for anyone or let others do it for us. Life that would who is simply alive. unimaginable.” be eternal is greatly to be wished for. We need to give some thought to But it is only a wish. Our celestial bounty how the traditional concept of heaven is actually to be found and savored in would actually be experienced: endless the present, here on Earth. and effortless rapture perhaps? And this Now comes the realization that we would be our fate for millions of millions But back to heaven on Earth. With are already living in heaven. “How could of millions of years everlasting? Maybe less imagination than it would take to that be?,” you may ask. This world with there would be nothing that needs to posit some otherworldly heaven, we its troubles and travails is nothing like be attempted or accomplished, since we might just be able to see, if we are what we imagine heaven to be. Here, we would be perfect and without needs. willing to, the heaven all around us. have suffering and disappointment and Could this lead to boredom? No doubt; You could almost say that heaven exists sometimes unimaginable tragedy. No, it as Oscar Wilde suggested, there is “that inside us as well as all around us. There would seem that this life and many of our ennui that comes to those to whom is the ongoing perfection of simple earthly experiences are not at all what we life denies nothing.” Presumably so too human functioning and existence the want to think of as “heaven.” an everlasting and perfected life leaves world over, relentlessly providing us

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 53 with all that humans are capable of No, it is still heaven for such a person vant—moral suffering, the comeup- experiencing. Is it not heaven to see to be alive. Some people lack good pance we may experience when we your baby’s face, to hear Beethoven, to health or circumstances, but others too realize that we have not treated others smell lavender, to taste chocolate (my have obstacles to perfect happiness. as we ourselves would like to be treated favorite), to feel your spouse’s body (my Human life is, by far, not a perfect (a pre-biblical concept that is almost second favorite)? And these are just the heaven, but it is the only one we have. universal in even primitive codes of sparse physical and sensory examples Of the unfortunate but real suffer- law). This concept acknowledges that it of the wonderment of any human life. ing in this world, there would seem to is people who need proper treatment, But this can’t be heaven, you say, be only three kinds, one of which can not God—after all, you couldn’t do because not everyone can have or enjoy be absorbed into the other two. There much to hurt God even if there is one. is most definitely physical suffering and But you can most certainly hurt other limitation; this seems profoundly evi- people—you probably have in the past dent and indisputable. Alas, our heaven and will do so in the future. So spiri- on earth comes with the human condi- tual suffering becomes moral suffering: tion and all its vulnerabilities, but the we transgress against others continu- bad part does not replace the good ally, even our dearest loved ones. That “Life that would be eternal is whole. Life with whatever limitations “something’s not quite right” feeling is it may possess is still almost always between us and others, not between us greatly to be wished for. better than no life. Consider the over- and God. And we cannot make light of But it is only a wish. whelming suffering and need across it; sometimes the transgression is most Our celestial bounty is actually the globe and humanity at any given foul and reprehensible. We exist only moment. Then consider that its only among humans; there is no need for to be found and savored in the redress is through nature’s bounty and spirits, devils, angels, eternal damna- present, here on Earth.” the efforts of humanity itself. tions, or purported heavenly parents. Then there is the idea of spiritual What then of our death? The death suffering, originating out of concepts that ends our life is like our being a such as sin, guilt, alienation, and hav- guest in someone’s very nice home, and ing somehow chosen the tree of the no matter how good you are or how knowledge of good and evil rather than much you contribute or are apprecia- wanting to remain ignorant (or maybe tive, you know that sooner or later you these experiences. True enough, but wanting to genetically modify our own will be asked to leave—probably sud- even if all five of those kinds of expe- trees). And this was done by a very dis- denly and perhaps violently. Is not our riences were to be denied to any given tant relative for whom each of us is still present life an overwhelming good? individual, are there not literally millions somehow responsible and will be for Is not that why we are so reluctant to of other miraculous experiences in any generations to come, according to the leave it, even for a hypothesized per- basic human life—even at the lowest dogma—the sometimes barbaric wis- fect and eternal alternative? With all its end of human existence—and do not dom granted to us from the Iron Age. drawbacks, we seem to cherish the sub- these make us loath to give up what Is the petty issue of human “sin” truly lime cacophony of our simple, present anyone would acknowledge is a less- what keeps the creator of the universe human existence. Heaven could seem than-perfect human life on this less- up at night? However, this spiritual suf- preferable only because we can make it than-perfect Earth? Someone physically fering can be addressed and dismissed anything we want it to be; it is entirely disabled—with blindness for exam- in about five ticks of the clock. It isa made-up. ple—can still hear children’s voices, figment of someone’s imagination and So let us cherish and even relish all taste food, and feel the sun’s warmth. not binding on you unless you choose it the beautiful music that is in this pres- Regardless of level of education, that to be; it is entirely unnecessary and not ent life alone—remembering the person can still reason logically (if I pertinent to normal human life. And to silence of the grave. Also, don’t forget hear the church bell ringing it must be think that such negative self-absorp- to enjoy heaven before you die! Our Sunday, or else there is a funeral, and tion is the only meaning some people celestial bounty is to be found here on so on) and use language—a feat essen- get out of life! Strange that religions Earth. tially exclusive to human beings. The can be man-made and yet manage to brain alone can baffle and outrun the be so anti-human! most sophisticated of our computers. Instead, I would suggest that the James Davenport, PsyD, is a licensed clinical A disabled person’s capacity for a rich unnecessary burden of millennia of psychologist in private practice in southwest emotional life might put the rest of us unwarranted spiritual suffering be Chicago. able-bodied persons to shame. replaced with something more rele-

54 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org Humanism at Large

Letter from the Serpent Robin Queen

f the multitudes of biblical inter- push you out of the proverbial nest In closing, I would really like to pretations, “crafty” is my personal and hope for the best. Adam may take this time to apologize for God’s favorite describing the lowly yet need a little egging on to try out a slight overreaction. I am really trying O new way of approaching life, but not to be critical here, but the sooner tenacious serpent of Genesis fame. My that’s only because men are creatures you realize your parents aren’t per- heart goes out to this poor, godfor- of habit. On a side note, pretending fect the better. Look at the bright saken creature, whose fate as the most that you are deathly afraid of me side—you’ll never look at childbirth reviled, most vertically challenged of will only make him feel more mascu- in the same way again. Women do line when he whips out the garden it every day, and the bond you’ll animals was decided by a slip of his shovel in an attempt to protect you. have with that baby will blow away forked tongue. Why would God create Fear not, I am swift and agile. the memory of excruciating pain like such a beast to grovel for all eternity? There is something that’s been a candle in a windstorm. And as Why bother dreaming up something eating away at me, so I may as well far as your husband goes, again, let get it out in the open. What’s the him think he rules over you, because imperfect just to turn right around and big deal with nudity anyhow? Why sometimes it’s just easier to think chastise the imperfections you created would God create such a snazzy things were his idea. in the first place? A Robin Hood of sorts birthday suit in the first place if he I hope this pep talk has been myself, I identify with the serpent that, didn’t want us to flaunt it? Look at helpful to you, Eve. It is important I am quite certain, simply couldn’t resist me! I’m stark naked, day in and day that we keep this communication out, and I have not one stitch of open, because when our lives get sharing the wealth. How could he lay shame. I know that you are humans busy and bogged down in the idly by when an abundance of delec- and all, but let us animals teach you daily minutiae, you will look back table, fruitful knowledge was ripening a thing or two about letting it all fondly on those simpler times, when on the vine? hang out. First of all, we have no creation was just getting going. pockets. No pockets, hence no pos- Honestly, if I had it to do all over, I I imagine that he later conveyed his sessions and no keys to misplace. wouldn’t change a thing about what thoughts on the incident to Eve. Second, picking out what to wear on I did. There is something beautiful a daily basis is such a massive waste about vulnerability, and I wanted Dear Eve, of time: you get bogged down with you both to see it for yourselves. Woman! The old adage that igno- what does or does not make your It means your heart is open, and rance is bliss ain’t as blissful as it’s butt look fat. Trust me on this. There because of it you will always risk get- cracked up to be. Knowledge, you are so many more important things ting hurt. But what is the alternative? see, is POWER. Be bold, Eve; your to focus on in life, plus we are in As I said, ignorance is rarely bliss, in gender will thank you for it! Tis bet- Paradise, which is always a pleasant all reality. Fear can be a good thing, ter to die on your feet than live on 73 degrees. but please don’t dare be ashamed of your knees! Take it from someone And why did you throw me under yourselves. This will only lead to per- who has no knees. I read somewhere the bus? Understandably, God can be sonal insecurity and ginormous bills (yes, snakes do read) that success is pretty intimidating, but remember from your therapist. Yes, Adam has going from one failure to the next he loves us all no matter what, or pointed his finger, but accept that he without losing momentum. The les- at least he will once his son comes is imperfect. There is no such thing as son itself is possible only when we along. I am now destined to slither perfection, and those who strive for give ourselves permission to screw on my belly from this day forth, but it are frankly quite boring. up once in a while. I applaud you all let me let you in on a little secret: life the same for being your own per- is pretty awesome as a snake. I can With love, The Serpent son and questioning authority. Think effortlessly glide across water, like of God as the overprotective parent Jesus (I’ll explain later), and I never who doesn’t always give credit where have to stress out over expensive Robin Queen is a graduate of a Christian credit is due. The most important gift dental work. I just unhinge my jaws, university, from which she received a nurs- a parent can bestow is the instilling and down the hatch it goes! And the of some critical thinking skills, so that very best part of all: I shed this getup ing degree with honors. The above article is one doesn’t always take everything for a brand new look each season. I adapted from an essay she wrote for a creative one hears at face value (we will get don’t like to rub it in God’s face, but writing class. She received an A for the course. into free will later). God can only life as a snake is pretty darn fantastic.

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 55 Reviews

Toward a Better World Derek C. Araujo

n a better world, Ronald A. Lindsay’s The Necessity of Secularism: Why God ICan’t Tell Us What to Do would never have been written. The Necessity of Secularism: Why God Can’t In a better world, the tenets of Tell Us What to Do, by Ronald A. Lindsay political secularism that Lindsay so ably (Durham, N.C.: Pitchstone Publishing, 2014, ISBN defends would be unmistakable and 9781939578129). 224 pp. Softcover, $16.95.

cherished truths, firmly established through centuries of hard-won political experience. These sensible principles— that government should not involve itself in religious matters, that secular reason- ing rather than religious doctrine should drive public policy, and that religious but inevitable. Although Lindsay focuses Where contrarians lack coherent argu- institutions and beliefs should not enjoy ments, he generously supplies them. The special social privileges—would be cele- his analysis mainly on the United States, brated by the religious and nonreligious where religious persecution has gen- works of the New Atheists have been citizens that profit from their (as yet erally subsided and sectarian violence maligned, rather unjustly, as shrill and imperfect) implementation. Americans has given way to political and legal skir- belligerent polemics. Critics will be hard in particular would laud the sagacity of mishing, he reminds us that religiously pressed to hurl such an accusation at Paine, Madison, Jefferson, and the dises- motivated brutality still rages in many The Necessity of Secularism. The book is tablishmentarian Founding Fathers. societies abroad. neither a mere antireligious screed nor Yet even as Lindsay’s book went to The Necessity of Secularism presents a tiresome recitation of the political evils press, the Pew Research Center released Lindsay’s prescription for avoiding con- wrought in the name of religion. Rather, new polling data suggesting that a flict and maintaining harmony in a reli- it is a meticulously crafted argument, growing share of the American public giously mixed society. His purpose is not built from first principles, demonstrating favors more, not less, mixing of religion to eradicate religion but to convince both that political secularism provides the best and politics. Alas, ours is far from the religious and nonreligious citizens that means of safeguarding freedom of con- best-possible world, and The Necessity of political secularism, as defined above, is science and religious liberty for all in a Secularism could hardly be more timely the best guarantor of their shared rights pluralistic society. and essential. and common interests. The book is there- The book’s argument proceeds in In its opening pages, Lindsay mar- fore written as a simultaneous appeal to three phases, reflected in the ordering shals a wealth of demographic data the faithful and the faithless. of its chapters. Lindsay begins by tracing that establish the book’s undeniable This is a book that believers and the development of the secular state relevance to present sociopolitical con- unbelievers alike can welcome. Its pages and the secular society, outlining their ditions. Ours is a world in which a sig- are brimming with clear, accessible, and historical motivation and the practical nificant and growing share of the pop- relentlessly respectful language. Among needs they serve. His opening chapters ulation self-identifies as nonreligious. At its chief strengths is Lindsay’s insistence outline the religious intolerance and the same time, religious belief—along on treating religious believers’ perspec- persecution that prevailed during the with belief in the privileged status of reli- tives seriously. He thoroughly expounds American Colonial period; the drafting gious beliefs and institutions—remains the anti-secularist position, its motiva- of the Constitution and the legislative resilient among a sizeable portion of the tions, and its principal supporting argu- history of the First Amendment’s religion population. Some form of conflict is all ments in considered, measured prose. clauses; and the advent of the modern

56 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org secular society, in which policy discus- The Necessity of Secularism possesses In the end, the book is carried not by rhe- sions are restricted voluntarily to secular many virtues one might extol. Foremost torical seduction but by the sheer force arguments and believers are encouraged among them is its effective union of of its arguments. to translate their religiously motivated the practical and the theoretical. Lindsay Lindsay’s joint expertise as a lawyer concerns into secular terms. Lindsay per- threads a fine needle that has con- and a philosopher shines throughout. He suasively argues that the secular soci- founded many writers in this field. Some skillfully wields historical facts, sociologi- ety provides the optimal conditions for secularist authors merely catalog the cor- cal data, legal arguments, and philosoph- open, robust democratic discourse. He rosive effects religious dogma exerts on ical analysis to examine a breathtaking rightly distinguishes the secular state, public policy, devoting scant attention range of issues ancillary to his main the- which remains neutral between religion to profound philosophical issues con- sis—from establishment clause jurispru- and irreligion, from the state atheism cerning the foundations of secular ethics dence to the meaning of life without of communist nations, in which govern- and morality’s alleged dependence on God to the alleged disparity between ment makes a show of religious neutral- religion. On the other hand, some pro- religious and nonreligious charitable giv- ity while persecuting and discriminating fessional philosophers engage in rarefied ing—without once losing the thread of against believers. musings on religion and politics that If religious arguments are to be quickly become unmoored from the prac- excluded from public policy debates ticalities of real-world legal and political with moral dimensions, morality must systems. For example, a few philosophers “Ours is a world in which a sig- be shown to have a secular, nonreli- Lindsay criticizes have argued—rather nificant and growing share of gious basis that believers and nonbe- astonishingly—that secular interests the population self-identifies as lievers alike can grasp without reference are best served by jettisoning our com- to divine authority. The book’s middle mon insistence on secular reasoning nonreligious. At the same time, chapters are devoted to making this and encouraging the faithful to inject religious belief—along with demonstration. In a philosophical tour their religious arguments into policy dis- belief in the privileged status de force that is too detailed to summa- cussions, where their ardent beliefs are rize here, Lindsay shows not only that supposed to shrivel under the illumina- of religious beliefs and institu- moral differences can be resolved with- tion of reason. This view simultaneously tions—remains resilient. . . .” out recourse to religion but that religion overstates religionists’ willingness to is incapable of grounding morality in the engage in dispassionate reasoning and first place. (Hence the book’s subtitle.) papers over the enormous impracticality Lindsay draws upon a wealth of philo- of transforming policy discussions into his argument. The breadth of the book’s sophical writings to conclude that moral- protracted theological squabbles. scope is impressive, and it is altogether ity is a practical, human institution serv- Lindsay admirably avoids such pit- astonishing that Lindsay accomplishes ing human needs. Its dictates, however, falls, deftly interleaving moral philoso- so much in just over two hundred pages. are far from “subjective”; their objectivity phy, political theory, and legal and policy The Necessity of Secularism is a can be found in their success in serving analysis. Readers will not want for per- remarkably robust, compelling and con- morality’s social functions. tinent facts, figures, and informational cise defense of political secularism, pep- The final chapters of the book are an gems. The book abounds with them, and pered with engaging discussions on illustrative application of Lindsay’s gen- Lindsay employs them liberally in the ser- related topics in law, politics, and philoso- eral prescription for secular reasoning vice of exploring profound philosophical phy. Anyone interested in the interplay to a particular policy issue that has been matters. Yet while his explorations are between faith, morality, and public policy the subject of frequent and grandilo- thoroughgoing and rigorous, they are would do well to read this book. One quent religious pronouncements: physi- always made with an eye toward the might spend years of study and contem- cian-assisted suicide for the terminally ill. realities and imperfections of the legal plation, pursuing a mastery of moral Lindsay illustrates how woolly religious and political systems with which human- philosophy, legal and political theory, shibboleths—for instance, the “sanctity ity must cope. and relevant history before gaining a of life”—can be imbued with substance Although Lindsay’s writing is by no comprehensive understanding of the and intelligible meaning by translating means dry or academic, here it lacks some subject. Or one can reap the benefits of them into secular concerns, such that of the rhetorical glamour characteristic Lindsay’s having done much of the hard- parties who do not share a religious of some celebrated secularist authors. est work for us. How lucky we are to be advocate’s peculiar theology can engage This is a strength rather than a weak- his readers. with him or her in fruitful discussion. ness, and I suspect that Lindsay purposely The book closes by inviting believers and employed a more muted approach when Derek C. Araujo was formerly a campus leader nonbelievers to reason together, exhort- writing this book. In a discourse devoted and then in-house counsel and a member of ing them to embrace rather than lament to probing nuanced questions at the the board of directors for the Center for Inquiry. the fact that we cannot rely on divine heart of moral and political philosophy, a He is currently pursuing a PhD in physics. directives to tell us what to do. more colorful style would be distracting.

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 57 A Philosopher’s Journey from Faith Wayne L. Trotta

rom the title of Philip Kitcher’s latest Fbook, Life After Faith: The Case for Secular Humanism, you might be led to believe that an autobiography is on Life After Faith: The Case for Secular Humanism, by offer. You would be at least partially Philip Kitcher (New Haven: Yale University, 2014, right. ISBN 978-0-300-20343-I). 175 pp. Hardcover, The book begins with the story of $25.00. Also available on Kindle. Kitcher’s twenty-one years as a singer in his Anglican church’s choir. Having started as a five-year-old soprano, his gradually deepening voice would allow him, by age twenty-six, to have repre- sented all four voices of Handel’s Messiah and Brahms’s Deutsches Requiem. The experience gave him a love for the music able. Arguments about the transcendent, legitimize anything, it must be said, in the such that he continued to sing for years as he puts it, “are presented, rebutted, end, to legitimize nothing. after he had ceased, in his early teens, to refined, and questioned again, in a pro- Believers may counter that secular believe the words. One imagines that he cess that makes no progress, in which no humanism lacks an external, objective must often have wondered what Brahms question is ever settled, in which opinion standard, one that is independent of or Handel might have written had they never converges and disagreement never human desires and decisions, on which not been thoroughly immersed in a reli- abates. No basis can be found for sup- to base morality. If everything is relative, gious culture. posing that this process is well suited to they ask, what is there to compel anyone This brings us to the subtitle and cen- lead to transcendent truth.” The process to be good? How can we judge as good tral purpose of the book. Kitcher wishes only continues, he adds, because those or bad the behavior of individuals or of to make a case for the secular human- who pursue it already believe the doc- different cultures? How can we speak of ist worldview,­ but he also knows from trines of their favored tradition. moral progress when no standard exists firsthand experience the depth, richness, Kitcher further notes that doctrine for us to be progressing toward? meaning, purpose, hope, comfort, moral has been time and again remolded in Kitcher’s response is that, if we can- confidence, and sense of belonging that response to political pressure or to suit not speak of progress to, we nevertheless religion can provide its adherents. Can the wishes of potential converts. This have every right to believe that we have secular humanism even begin to com- is hardly a reliable means of getting at made progress from. In only the past sev- pare? the truth. Nor does personal religious eral decades, civil rights and protections Secular humanism begins with experience, the sensus divinitatis, fare have been encoded into law for minori- doubt. If a case can be made to legitimize any better. What standard of evidence ties, women, homosexuals, children, and secular humanist doubt, then, whatever is being employed when the vague psy- animals. The temptation to view this as the promises of religion, they must be chological states of religious subjects progress is, as Kitcher says, “irresistible.” based on a fraud. Kitcher points to the are offered as evidence for an “equally Any doubters need only imagine how processes by which specific religious doc- vaguely described transcendent?” The it would feel to go back. And, if these trines about the transcendent are gener- faithful can fall back on faith as a way of changes have made us a better soci- ated and finds them profoundly unreli- knowing, of course, but, since faith can ety, then there must be some standard

58 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org of “goodness” that has a claim on us. and that make available more possi- preneurship and innovation? Or should Otherwise, how could we have more bilities for every individual member. In we value opportunity first and foremost of something that is so relative as to be the course of this conversation, ethical and risk expanding the range of wealth effectively nonexistent? truths are being constructed by rather inequality? Such questions confront us in For Kitcher, humanity has been en­ than discovered by us. Taking his cue the voting booth each year, if not in the gaged in what he refers to as the “ethi- from William James, Kitcher makes the news every day. cal project” from the very beginning of claim that truth, including ethical truth, Philip Kitcher is John Dewey Professor the species’ life history. We have evolved of Philosophy at Columbia University. Life to become intensely social beings, but After Faith is a short book, only about 175 even so, we are beings who retain a pages in all, but it is packed with tightly limited capacity for responsiveness to reasoned arguments and with insights one another. To very loosely paraphrase that proliferate on almost every page. It is Kitcher, when it comes to morality, we “For Kitcher, humanity has been a book for the lay reader and professional philosopher alike. Most intriguingly, it is a can do it; we just aren’t very good at it. engaged in what he refers to Nevertheless, we are improving. The book by a thinker with some sympathy problem of our limited responsiveness as the ‘ethical project’ from the toward the religious worldview who also is addressed in all of the extant ethical very beginning of the species’ happens to be one of our first-rate philos- ophers and who argues convincingly for traditions “by connecting ethical pre- life history.” scriptions to a broad range of human the possibility of thriving societies and fulfilling individual lives based on a secu- emotions, almost all of which are inde- lar humanist worldview and secular pendent of religious belief.” Kitcher’s humanist values. If you are familiar with brand of secularism “places humanity at Kitcher’s other books—I am thinking in the center of value” and “conceives us particular of Abusing Science: The Case as both creators and loci of value.” The Against Crea­tion­ism and Living with result, in Kitcher’s words, is a “transfor- is not something waiting out there for Darwin: Evolution, Design, and the Future mation of human existence, through the our discovery but rather something that of Faith—then you don’t need further forging of connections among people “happens to an idea.” When it comes convincing that Life After Faith is required and through the expansion of the possi- to scientific truths, we may be willing reading. If you are not familiar with bilities of human lives.” Meaning in life is to await the pronouncements of the Kitcher’s work, then Life After Faith is a a matter of mattering to others. experts, but ethical truth is, to a large great place for diving right in. The ethical project can be thought degree, the stuff of everyone’s everyday of as an ongoing conversation that existence. Should we, for example, value humanity is and always has been hav- equality above all and spread the wealth Wayne L. Trotta is a psychologist and frequent ing about the best ways to create soci- more evenly, even if, by doing so, we risk reviewer for Free Inquiry. eties that connect us to one another losing important incentives for entre-

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secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 59 “HOW DO WE REACH THE NINETY PERCENT?”

Professors Richard Dawkins and Laurence Krauss, • Philosophy and Logic from the finest minds have freethinking heroes, in a joint appearance before been in play for centuries and the ninety stands. some three thousand in Phoenix, were asked that • Biblical and Historical criticism has wrought havoc question from the audience [referring to the ninety for some two hundred years and the ninety percent of Americans who believe in God]. The emi- stands. nent biologist and cosmologist, among other things, • Science has utterly demolished the earth-centric agreed that educating women, installing high-school universe and the flat earth, but the ninety stands. science teachers, who were actually educated in • Science has produced overwhelming evidence for science and, paying them properly would be great Darwinian evolution, yet the ninety stands. steps forward. • Science has a real chance of doing the same to Free Will, the Achilles Heel of Christianity—St. Getting a hearing from the ninety is a bridge too Augustine said, without freely chosen sin, there is far—most of them are way too invested in religion to no guilt and no need for a Savior. But then, why hear anything against it; no doubt, it’s best to leave expect any such proof to fare better than evolu- them to heaven. tion? The best bet is that the ninety will still stand.

But among them are many millions of disaffected Perhaps Christopher Hitchens had all this in Christian outcasts; most grievous are LGBT and their mind when, in a message to the 2011 families. They are prime to have their disbelief justi- American Atheist Convention he was too ill to fied in other ways. Millions more, users of artificial attend, he said: birth control, divorcees, unmarried living together and remarrieds, are told they are ‘in sin’—and scoff. “The cheap name of this Crucially too, the majority of those under thirty are lethal delusion is religion here—the natural constituency for free thought. and we must learn new ways of combating it in the In short, these millions are aggrieved; and ripe public sphere, just as we for a major, carefully planned and sustained have learned to free our- evangelization effort. Helping to free them selves of it in private.” from a sin-besotted superstition of guilt, and everlasting punishment for all but a ‘few’, is Here is a new method! I have offered many exam- noble work. ples of the kinds of ads which can reach into the ninety and generate action. I know better ads can be In the past ten issues, I have argued that present written; but no one knows which copy approach— methods and arguments are inadequate to the task— straight-on or gentler—is best, or which medium. But not inadequate to defeating religious claims, in that I know how to find out. This confidence is based on they are indispensable—but inadequate to reach, in- forty years in the direct marketing field. terest and engage those millions. That is a marketing problem. This method is only new in this application. It annu- ally generates—from the one hundred percent— millions of responses in the form of purchases, con- Jesus solemnly warned us that many will fail this tributions, signed-petitions, requests-for-information, trial and only few will be saved. And, crucial in this and more. It can do the same for our cause. The sublime story is that our God of love knew those only questions are, at what cost and with what over- who would “be kindling for his fire”—before he all effect? Only proper testing can answer. created them!

Equally important, we need a new argument— There is all the matter to make our target one that appeals to the emotions, the real glue audience feel as well as understand, it is of Christianity. Actually, what we need is old, its possible only for a tyrant God; it is quite master was the great Robert Green Ingersoll. He impossible for a God who IS love, justice, provided a treasury of material which powerfully mercy and forgiveness. engages emotion and reason. (Visit theingersoll- times.com website, in a newspaper format, for an AS EVEN GOD CANNOT SQUARE A CIRCLE, HE exciting look at this Titan of Humanity.) CANNOT MAKE HATE – LOVE.

We must expose as sham the JESUS-IS-LOVE mantra The program I am suggesting is testable at low cost. —the source of his heart-hold on people. The creeds It is controllable market-by-market. With it, the make it easy to do this. Nothing is better understood ninety will inform us which approach is most effec- in Christianity than that there is ONE-ONLY-GOD- tive. This guarantees evolutionary improvement. EVER. “I and the Father are One”; the Trinity Doc- trine and all mainline churches demand it. If proper testing discloses a feasible way, I suggest a series of periodic ads by an appropriate sponsoring JESUS, JEHOVAH, and the LORD are all ONE organization, to run as long as they are productive. from the beginning. Thus, Jesus bears all They would be honed to arouse the attention and in- Jehovah‘s obscene crimes, and adds one of his terest of all segments, but especially the vulnerables, own, infinitely worse, the promise of eternal to the end that they will self-identify by asking for punishment without hope, except for a ‘few’. more information. Thus, results will be measurable.

THE FRUIT OF LOVE Who will pay for it? Devoted secular humanists, who see beyond the speciousness to the vicious and vile. Accept all the pages of the Bible, and all the com- mentaries; all the prayers, liturgies, sermons, heart- The respondents will be a fraction of the total read- rending music and hymns; the Christian religion ers—maybe one percent plus or minus, depending comes to this awful finality—for each of us. This on the ad and the audience characteristics. But, flash-life, into which we were injected, is but a trial. all will have received a powerhouse message in On Judgment day, Jesus will decide, based on how language appealing to both the heart and mind… we lived, our attitude about our sins, and most cru- and it will shake them. cially, our belief about him, whether we will spend eternity in Heaven or, will be condemned to “a lake I think Christopher Hitchens would say, Do of fire”—never to die—but there to suffer—forever. It—now! What about you?

PLEASE — write to me: [email protected] and give me your point-blank opinion about all this. I will attend to what you say and answer every response. Getting Our Story Straight Edd Doerr

everal years ago, the American Civil SLiberties Union (ACLU) succeeded in a court challenge to a large, lighted cross atop a radio tower at a fire sta- Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic, tion in a Chicago suburb during the by Matthew Stewart (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2014, holiday season. During the ensuing hub- ISBN 978-0-393-06454-4). 566 pp. Hardcover, $28.95. bub, the local ACLU sponsored a meet- ing at which I was the speaker. After I outlined our history of religious freedom through church-state separation, an irate woman in the audience, a supporter of the lighted cross, accused me of being the author of the First Amendment. (I really don’t look that old.) local governments should deal with reli- organized body such as a church or a gious matters. As a former public-school movement. The “Nature’s God” of the history teacher, I attribute this largely book’s title is that of the Declaration “Far too many Americans seem to the fact that too many of our his- of Independence. It is not the deity to be distressingly ignorant of tory teachers are athletic coaches whose of the mid-eighteenth-century “Great American history and how interests lie elsewhere, and also that Awakening” or of today’s conservative teaching the intricacies of our history evangelicals but rather the somewhat government works. . . .” too often exposes teachers to unwanted generalized “First Cause” of Jefferson pressures. and the deists, who often used the Matthew Stewart in Nature’s God: words God and Nature interchangeably. The Heretical Origins of the American What led noted First Amendment Similarly, during the Iranian elections Republic, puts our history straight with scholar Leo Pfeffer to write in his 1958 a couple of years ago, an American televi- an in-depth scholarly examination of our book Creeds in Competition that “the sion crew in Tehran interviewed Iranians founders’ thinking about religion, includ- deistic rationalism of late eighteenth on the street about American govern- ing Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, century America (more often referred to ment. The crew later interviewed people John Adams, George Washington, in this book by the more modern term, on the streets in the United States on Thomas Paine, and Benjamin Franklin, secular humanism) has had a tremen- the same subject. The Iranians seemed plus such lesser-known figures as Ethan dous influence in American history.” And, to have a better grasp of the U.S. sys- Allen, Joel Barlow, Philip Frenau, and “The term ‘secular humanism’ is used tem than the Americans. (“How many Thomas Young. All were deists of one in this book not to mean a consciously senators does your state have?” “Duh, I sort or another who were influenced non-theistic movement, but merely the dunno.” “Can you name your congress- by the work of such philosophers as influence of those unaffiliated with man?” “Uh, no.”) John Locke, Baruch Spinoza, and other organized religion and concerned with Far too many Americans seem to be Enlightenment figures, who were in human values.” This in turn may be where distressingly ignorant of American his- turn influenced by Epicurus (341–270 the Supreme Court in the 1961 Torcaso v. tory and how government works and are BCE) and Lucretius (95–55 BCE). The Watkins ruling got its footnote listing thus not prepared to deal with the reli- founders were neither “irreligious” nor “Secular Humanism” as “among religions gious Right’s and Tea Party’s myths about like today’s evangelicals; they did their in this country which do not teach what the role of religion in the founding of our best not to stir up religious contro- would generally be considered a belief government and how federal, state, and versy. In addition, deism was never an in the existence of God.” (See my arti-

62 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org POEM cle “Tracing ‘Secular Humanism’” in the Jefferson’s words, a “wall of separation April/May 2013 Free Inquiry.) between church and state.” We might also note that in 1776 Stewart’s book is a valuable contribu- he Blessing of we were in the early stages of a war tion to our understanding of the men against the most powerful empire on who led our democratic revolution and the Animals the planet, one that was still not entirely built our government. But I wish he had T free of the notion of the “divine right of noted that Madison and Jefferson’s Andrew Tonkovich kings.” What better way to sell the rev- efforts in laying the groundwork for reli- olution than by proclaiming the “divine gious liberty and church-state separation rights of the people.” With independence in Virginia would not have been success- And the confusing of the fruit trees. The secured, the constitution writers in 1787 ful without the support of Baptists, worrying of the bees. The distracting of saw no need to insert religious language Presbyterians, and others—proof that the ravens. of any kind in the document other than Americans of all religious and life stance a ban on religious tests for public office persuasions can work together. The misnaming of the rhododendron. The and allowing government officers to be teasing of the spiders. The flipping over of “bound by Oath or Affirmation.” This of Edd Doerr is a columnist and regular reviewer the beetles onto their backs. course was followed shortly by the Bill of for Free Inquiry. He is the president of Rights, the first article of which protects The capturing of the roly-poly bugs. The Americans for Religious Liberty and the author religious liberty and bars acts “respecting of numerous books and articles. forgetting of the dogs in the car. The an establishment of religion,” erecting, in anthropomorphizing of the snake.

The objectifying of the cow. The baiting of the bear. The misplacing of the dodo.

The interrupting of the salmon. The Books in Brief overlooking of the polar bear. The lionizing of the snowy leopard.

The yelling at of the wild grasses. The hiding of the dandelions. The misplacing also of the shark.

The beatifying of the peacock. The invoking Divine Fury: A History of Genius, by Darrin Brave Genius: A Scientist, a Philosopher, of the cockroach. The sneaking up behind M. McMahon (New York: Basic Books, and Their Daring Adventures from the French of the kitty cat. 2013, ISBN hardcover 978-0-465-00325-9 Resistance to the Nobel Prize, by Sean B. and e-book 978-0-465-06991-0). 352 pp. Carroll (New York: Random House, 2013, ISBN The commending of the crickets. The Hardcover US$29.99 and CAN $34.50. hardcover 978-0-307-95233-2 and e-book absolving of the swine. 978-0-307-95235-6). 576 pp. Hardcover US$28 The baptizing of the bison. An intellectual historian gives the first and CAN$33. comprehensive account of the concept And then, yes, the forgiving of them all for The author draws on a wealth of previ- of genius, from Socrates to Napoleon ously unknown and unpublished mate- their sin of being slaves. to Einstein and beyond. In the course rial to tell the story of two men—Jacques of analyzing the democratization, dis- Monod and Albert Camus—who over- appearance, and potential rebirth of came the adversities presented by World Andrew Tonkovich is a lecturer in the Department the genius figure, McMahon discusses of English at the University of California, Irvine, War to pursue the study of the meaning the beginning of the idea of genius (in and editor of the West Coast literary journal of existence, one on the molecular level Santa Monica Review. His essays, short stories, the eighteenth century, when increased and the other on the philosophical level. and reviews have appeared most recently in skepticism about religion allowed people After the German invasion and occu- the Los Angeles Review of Books, Faultline, to take full credit for their creativity), the pation of France, both men joined the Ecotone, and Best American Nonrequired kind of power attributed to geniuses, French resistance and rose to danger- Reading 2013. He hosts a weekly literary arts “evil” geniuses, and the future of the ous leadership roles. Following the war, program on KPFK Pacifica Radio in Southern genius concept, which began to wane they championed freedom and opposed California. after World War II. the Soviet regime, leading Monod to

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 63 become involved in smuggling refugees. Searle, and Thomas Nagel. Churchland Koranic Allusions: The Biblical, Qumranian,­ and In the years following, Camus turned to also describes new research in evolution, Pre-Islamic Background to the Koran, edited by writing to explore how one finds mean- genetics, visual neuroscience, and other Ibn Warraq (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, ing in life. Monod researched the work- areas and argues that the philosophical 2013, ISBN hardcover 978-1-61614-759-4 and ings of genes to explore how complex significance of the new findings lie in the e-book 978-1-61614-760-0). Appendices. 463 human beings develop from single eggs. support they tend to give to the reduc- pp. Hardcover $32.00 and e-book $15.99. tive and eliminative versions of materi- Matter and Consciousness, by Paul M. alism. Churchland’s other books include The influence of well-known religious Churchland (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2013, The Engine of Reason, The Seat of the writings such as the Jewish Torah and ISBN 978-0-262-519-58-8). Preface, index, the Christian Gospels on the Qur’an is Soul, and Neurophilosophy at Work. figures. 288 pp. Softcover $25.00. accepted by scholars. The author of this anthology has assembled articles that Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and The author, professor emeritus in illuminate other, little-known sources. Moral Responsibility, edited by Gregg D. the Depart­ment of Philosophy at the The contributors examine the connec- Caruso (Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books, University of California, San Diego, pres- tions between the Qur’an and pre-Is- 2013, ISBN harDcover 978-0-7391-7731-0 ents a concise and contemporary over- lamic poetry and the Muslim doctrines and e-book 978-0-7391-7732-7). Refer­ences view of the philosophical issues regard- and ideas found in the writings of the and index. 324 pp. Hardcover $85.00. ing the mind and the main theories and Ebionites (a Jewish Christian sect of the positions that have been proposed to second to fourth centuries), as well as the solve them. He makes the case for the rel- In recent years, many philosophers, psy- influence of Coptic Christian literature on evance of theoretical and experimental chologists, and neuroscientists have Muhammad’s traditional biography. results in neuroscience, cognitive science, either expressed doubt or outright denial and artificial intelligence to the philoso- of the existence of free will and/or moral Crescent Moon Rising: The Islamic Trans­ phy of mind. This is the third edition of the responsibility. The contributors, who formation of America, by Paul L. Williams book; the changes range from references include Susan Blackmore and Thomas W. (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2013, ISBN to the iPhone’s “Siri” to expanded discus- Clark, investigate the philosophical and softcover 978-1-61614-636-8 and e-book 978- sions of the work of contemporary philos- scientific arguments for free will skepti- 1-61614-637-5). Endnotes and index. 367 pp. ophers, including David Chalmers, John cism and their implications. Softcover $20.00.

64 Free Inquiry February/March 2015 secularhumanism.org Forty years ago, Muslims in America were a statistically insignificant minority, num- Jean C. Millholland bering fewer than one thousand individ- uals. Today, Islam is the second-largest First Council for Secular Humanism Executive Director, and fastest-growing religion in America, 1925–2014 with more than six million adherents. Journalist Williams examines this rise and its implications. In the first half of hen Free Inquiry was launched the book, he traces the beginnings of in the winter of 1980, Jean C. Islam in the United States, in particular Millholland was named as the the rise and influence of the Nation of W executive secretary of the editorial staff. Islam among African Americans. In the The magazine was published by the second half, he considers statistical stud- then-called Council for Democratic and ies of American Muslims regarding age Secular Humanism (CODESH). By the groups, family size, professional affilia- fall of 1981, Millholland was the execu- tions, annual income, and religious and tive director of the fledgling nonprofit. political commitments. He also examines She held that position until 1991. some disturbing developments, such Helping to manage and grow as the ties of many American mosques CODESH into an internationally known to Saudi benefactors who promote an organization was a second career for ultra-orthodox, anti-Western agenda, Millholland, who had retired from the recruitment of ex-convicts for Muslim teaching in special education. Her col- paramilitary training, and the ties of even leagues from the early days of the She could also relish the fun—or the moderate Muslims to political radicals. Council will always remember her irony—in almost any situation. I hugely with fondness, respect, and appreci- enjoyed my years working with her.” —Andrea Szalanski, ation. Said current Executive Director —Andrea Szalanski, Free Inquiry managing editor Tom Flynn, “Jean was organized, pro- Free Inquiry managing editor fessional, and creative in her work.

Letters continued from p. 13 gies—demonstrated at the high- cies in the millions who play or parallels. When we start bomb- the world’s policeman in all things est levels of competition on a par have played the game, especially ing mosques and markets full of large and small. Still, those who with great performance art. Ernest a disposition to commit sexual people, deliberately, then I’ll see won’t lift a finger to help others Hemingway, Norman Mailer, and assault and rape? How many of the her point. I have no qualms about preserve their liberty deserve it not Joyce Carol Oates have written scores of millions who enjoy watch- sending out drones to get leaders for themselves. eloquently about boxing; Jimmy ing football—fans who vocifer- who murder American journalists Dave E. Matson Breslin, George Plimpton, Roy ously support hometown teams or and health-care workers, attempt Pasadena, California Blount, Jr., and Michael Lewis have fathers and mothers who applaud to rape whole cultures, and would written informed tributes to foot- their sons’ participation—may be attack America itself if they had ball revealing the good, the bad, associated credibly with alleged the means. Sorry, that does mean and the ugly. apologists for domestic violence, civilian casualties. I am a fan of Shadia Drury. She’s Benson disorients the reader sexual abuse, and “rape culture?” As for those Jewish-only set- forceful and does her homework. with digressions from topic— Jim Valentine tlements, I’ll leave it to the reader At the same time, I think her arti- cle “Vanguishing Evil,” is seriously with the inflammatory assertion Woodland Hills, California to find two good reasons why that the game basically “encour- Muslims are not invited in. Such flawed amid much truth. ages aggressive entitled bullying” settlements do not compare to She says: “the U.S. is not exactly unqualified by background infor- ISIL’s attempt to “purify” large a vessel of virtue, and while ISIL mation or comparisons with the The U.S. and Evil areas of Iraq or Syria. People have is guilty of medieval brutality, general population. She cites four a right to gather in settlements ISIL also does some good things atrocious cases that “prove” foot- Shadia Drury’s “Vanquishing Evil according to their heritage even if in the Middle East, while the U.S. FI ball fails to build character: Ray ( , December 2014/January 2015) exclusive; they don’t have a right kills innocents using drones.” Rice, “a long book that covers one struck me more as an exercise in to hammer everyone else into their Therefore, I quote, “The difference (juvenile gang rape) example,” the dogmatic opinion than of reason. mold. between the U.S. and ISIL is not a Steubenville [juvenile gang] rape She makes some interesting points, It is the duty of civilized states moral difference, but a technical case, and Jerry Sandusky. but they are mixed with total inan- to speak out against evil and, in one.” She ends, “the best policy Over a million boys currently ities. The fact that the United States some cases, act militarily. However, is to watch it self destruct. It is play football at the high-school was largely built on evil deeds does such actions must be accompa- high time for the West to leave level, the most popular sport by far not logically imply that we should nied by a healthy understanding these people alone to fight their in the top ten. How does football not oppose evil today. Drury makes of other cultures; we are not the own battles and make their own cultivate violent criminal tenden- light of ISIL by drawing ridiculous yardstick for all. Nor should we be history.”

secularhumanism.org February/March 2015 Free Inquiry 65 This article does significant vio- as a form of slavery rather than a Waking Up, Edward Tabash asks, lence to any decent sense of pro- Supporting Society civic duty. in relation to Alvin Plantinga’s portionality equating ISIL and the Re: “My Pleasures, My Vices,” by Dennis Middlebrooks claim that “there is a mecha- United States. Most people prefer Tibor Machan (FI, December Brooklyn, New York nism for sensing the existence to accept the moral responsibility 2014/January 2015): Once again, of God called the sensus divin- that, “The only thing necessary for Tibor R. Machan regales readers with itatis”: “Would Harris say that evil to triumph is that good people his libertarian laments over taxation, my inability to see the illusory do nothing.” Should the United which he regards as a form of extor- Praising Statistics nature of believing that I am a States have watched Europe from tion. This same taxation pays for our separate self . . . is because I have After struggling through statis- the sidelines from 1939–1945? national defense; highways; pub- a defective sensus meditatus? ” tics classes at the Universities of Drury tries to make her case lic schools; universities; hospitals; More important, I think, would Wisconsin (Madison) and Montana, that the United States is congruent police, fire, and sanitation de­part­ be to ask if Harris would deny I never thought I would read an with ISIL by citing U.S. slavery and ments; air traffic controllers; and the existence of Plantinga’s sen- article that even suggested statis- the slaughter of Native Americans, EMT workers, as well as such pro- sus divinitatis, for which there is tics could be praised. Although I as if what our ancestors have done grams as Medicare, Medicaid, and neither more nor less proof than understood the necessary evil of is the same as modern Americans Social Security that benefit the Harris’s own meditative sense of statistics, I had not understood the doing it. Worse, she sees it as the general population. Presumably, non-separate self. And if Harris place of statistics and probabil- same as ISIL performing crucifix- Machan has benefited from many would deny Plantinga’s sense, ity in a historical perspective. “In ions for the sheer joy and terror of these fruits of government as I believe he would, on what Praise of Statistics” by Alexander of it, now in real time. Sorry, that’s extortion along with all other U.S. grounds would he deny it? The Nussbaum (FI, December 2014/ religion. citizens, who, collectively through most likely grounds of nonob- January 2015) created a paradigm Drury has fallen into her own the democratic process, have recog- jectivity and non-repeatability shift for me. If only I had an instruc- trap where she criticizes religion nized the need for taxation, albeit would disprove Harris’s own the- tor who had introduced the sub- for the disproportionate absurdity fairly imposed and effectively imple- sis with equal force. ject as Nussbaum did. Thanks to of the equality of Hell for both mented. However, Machan rejects Nussbaum for shattering my mind- Jim Flechtner misdemeanors and genocidal the notion that he has any obliga- set of fear and replacing it with Findlay, Ohio maniacs who are intent on enslav- tion to abide by the majority will appreciation and awe. ing the world, not satisfied with and just wants to be left alone to enslaving all women within reach. enjoy his riches, which most likely Anna Hoagland Especially, strong, forceful women would not exist were it not for the Trinidad, Colorado Send submissions to Andrea like Drury that do their homework infrastructure, programs, and ser- Szalanski, Letters Editor, FREE INQUIRY, and demand a voice in the world vices provided by the various levels P.O. Box 664, Amherst, just like men. The nerve. of government. Based on Machan’s Sam Harris’s Waking Up NY 14226-0664. Karl Williamson Johnson worldview, I presume he would Fax: (716) 636-1733. E-mail: [email protected]. Studio City, California regard a summons for jury duty In his review of Sam Harris’s book

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