TOM FLYNN: THE POPE IN THIN AIR

CELEBRATING REASON AND HUMANITY June/July 2016 Vol. 36 No.4

GUEST EDITOR: SIMON DAVIS PHIL TORRES INTERVIEWS LAWRENCE KRAUSS CAROL DELANEY PZ MYERS TANER EDIS CAITLIN DOUGHTY MADELINE WELD MASSIMO PIGLIUCCI Opinion by MATTHEW80% FACCIANI1.5 BWR PD

HEINA DADABHOYJ/J 08 OPHELIA BENSON RUSSELL BLACKFORD

07 SHADIA DRURY MARK RUBINSTEIN

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24 Why This Atheist Would Not Heina Dadabhoy CELEBRATING REASON AND HUMANITY 27 Three Minutes before Midnight: DEATH: THOUGHTS ON THE FINAL SUBJECT An Interview with Lawrence Krauss about the Future of Humanity 14 Introduction: Phil Torres Atheism Is Scary Because It Reminds People of Death 32 How the Nonreligious Are Simon Davis Reshaping American Burial Simon Davis 16 Inevitable Death P Z Myers 34 Protecting Your Service Wishes When Your Loved Ones Are Religious The Future of Death 17 Simon Davis Caitlin Doughty 36 God the Concept 21 A Secular Stoic Perspective on Death Carol Delaney Massimo Pigliucci 39 Islam and the Eclipse of Secularism 23 Would You Pray With a Dying Believer? Taner Edis Simon Davis 42 Sadly, Malthus Was Right—Now What? 24 Why This Atheist Would Madeline Weld Matthew Facciani

EDITORIAL LETTERS 56 Humanism at Large 4 Maybe It’s the Cabin Pressure 13 Tom Flynn The Rise of the Granfalloons: Overcoming the Stigma of NEWS OBITUARY Corporate Intangibility Dan Davis 6 Atheist Law Student 23 Tibor R. Machan, Killed in Bangladesh 1939–2016 REVIEWS OP-EDS DEPARTMENTS 59 Strange Gods: A Secular History 7 Revulsion and Habituation of Conversion Ophelia Benson 47 Doerr's Way by Susan Jacoby And Then There Were None(s) Reviewed by Tom Flynn 8 Suppress and Punish: The Dangerous Edd Doerr Impulse to Shut Down Speech 60 Elbow Room: The Varieties 49 God on Trial Russell Blackford of Free Will Worth Wanting ISIS, Moses, and Sex Slavery by Daniel C. Dennett Steve Sklar 9 Will the Neoconservatives Reviewed by Brooke Horvath Lose Their Grip on the GOP? Shadia B. Drury 50 Faith and Reason Angel Unaware: An Atheist’s 62 After Roe: The Lost History of the Abortion Debate 11 The Christian Moral Code, Perspective on Child Suffering by Mary Ziegler Part 2: Forgiveness Mark Cagnetta Reviewed by Tom Flynn Mark Rubinstein 54 The Faith I Left Behind Atheist in a Foxhole 64 Books in Brief LOOKING BACK (or Rather, an Unarmored Toyota) Doug Traversa 12 POEM 66 In Good We Trust by JO Frohbieter-Mueller Editor Thomas W. Flynn Managing Editor Andrea Szalanski Columnists Ophelia Benson, Russell Tom Flynn Editorial Blackford, Greta Christina, Edd Doerr, Shadia B. Drury, Nat Hentoff, Faisal Saeed Al Mutar, Mark Rubinstein

Senior Editors Bill Cooke, Richard Dawkins, Edd Doerr, James A. Haught, Maybe It’s the Cabin Pressure Jim Herrick, Ronald A. Lindsay, Taslima Nasrin

Contributing Editors Roy P. Fairfield, Charles Faulkner, Levi Fragell, Adolf Grünbaum, Marvin Kohl, Lee Nisbet ave you noticed? Riding on air- to use condoms. Perhaps David Willey planes makes Pope Francis say the OBE, the BBC’s longtime Vatican corre- Assistant Editors Julia Lavarnway darnedest things. Nicole Scott H spondent, summed it up best: “Despite On a July 2013 flight to Rome from the headlines, despite the almost uni- Literary Editor Cheryl Quimba Rio de Janeiro, Francis joined reporters versal perception that Pope Francis has Permissions Editor Julia Lavarnway for an impromptu eighty-minute Q&A. brought a whiff of fresh air through Art Director Christopher S. Fix Responding to a question about gay the corridors of the Vatican, I detect no Production Paul E. Loynes Sr. priests, he said: “If someone is gay and undue haste to undo the teachings of he searches for the Lord and has good- his predecessors.” Center for Inquiry Inc. will, who am I to judge?” World media If we look closely at what the pontiff Chair Edward Tabash went wild, hailing what they portrayed actually said in flight this February—as Board of Directors Brian Engler as a softening of church doctrine by opposed to what some news commen- Kendrick Frazier Barry A. Kosmin Recent History’s Most Lovable Pope. tators thought he said—it’s clear why Y. Sherry Sheng Fast-forward to February 17, 2016. no one should have expected the “lesser Leonard Tramiel Aboard a flight to Rome from Ciudad evil” remark to usher in real change. A Honorary: Rebecca Newberger Juarez, Mexico, the pontiff suggested reporter asked Francis whether in a case Goldstein that for Latin American women urged to such as the Zika outbreak, with its high Susan Jacoby delay pregnancy for fear of birth defects risk of birth defects, the resort to abor- Lawrence Krauss linked to the Zika virus, abortion is not tion or contraception might be consid- Chief Executive Officer Robyn E. Blumner an option—“it’s an absolute evil”—but ered a lesser evil. President Ronald A. Lindsay the use of contraception might be con- “Abortion is not a lesser evil—it’s a Director, Campus and sidered a “lesser evil.” Again the media crime,” Francis replied. “It’s an absolute Community Programs Debbie Goddard went wild. evil.” Then his tone softened. “Don’t Director, African Americans for Humanism Debbie Goddard Before we secular humanists get confuse avoiding pregnancy with abor-

Director of swept away in ecumenical euphoria, it’s tion.” In extreme cases, he suggested, Development Martina Fern important to remember what resulted artificial birth control might be consid- Director of Libraries Timothy Binga from each of these boundary-shattering ered a “lesser evil.” Francis cited Cardinal

Communications Director Paul Fidalgo statements: nothing. Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria It’s been nearly three years since Montini, who in the early 1960s con- Database Manager Jacalyn Mohr Francis’s remark regarding gay priests. In doned a theological paper suggesting Webmaster Matthew Licata that time, what has happened to soften that nuns in the then–Belgian Congo Staff Pat Beauchamp, the official Vatican line on gay priests might be permitted to use oral birth Melissa Braun, Shirley Brown, Lauren Foster, or regarding homosexuality in general? control because militants there were Roe Giambrone, Cody There’s been no follow-through, no tem- using rape as a weapon of war. (In 1963, Hashman, Nora Hurley, pering of church doctrine. In retrospect, Marc Kriedler, Stef Cardinal Montini became Pope Paul VI.) McGraw, Paul Paulin, “Who am I to judge?” was an empty Unlike abortion, Francis concluded, Anthony Santa Lucia, question. “avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute Diane Tobin, Vance Vigrass It’s already clear that Francis’s “lesser evil” in cases of extraordinary hazard. Council for Secular Humanism evil” remark is more of the same. It her- Note what was not said. Francis never alded no Vatican pronouncement autho- Executive Director Thomas W. Flynn said that pregnant women in countries rizing couples in Zika-infested countries where Zika is rife are facing an extraor-

4 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org dinary hazard equivalent to the one harsh misogynistic doctrines on abor- that confronted nuns in the Congo fif- tion and contraception. A statement by Free Inquiry (ISSN 0272-0701) is published bimonthly by the Center for Inquiry in association with the Council for Secular Humanism, P.O. Box ty-odd years ago. And he never, ever the National Catholic Bioethics Center— 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Phone (716) 636-7571. Fax (716) 636- endorsed the conclusion to which any yes, issued after the pope’s statement— 1733. Copyright ©2016 by the Center for Inquiry and the Council for Secular Humanism. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be secular humanist would leap, namely, titled “Zika Does Not Justify Abortion reproduced without permission of the publisher. Periodicals postage paid that contraception is a lesser evil than at Buffalo, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. National distribution by Disticor. Free Inquiry is indexed in Philosophers’ Index. Printed in giving birth to a baby with microcephaly. the United States. Postmaster: Send address changes to Free Inquiry, No, what Francis said was that in certain P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or publisher. No one speaks exceptional cases—a category that may on behalf of the Council for Secular Humanism unless expressly stated. or may not include the Zika outbreak— TO SUBSCRIBE OR RENEW contraception might, just possibly, be Call toll-free 800-458-1366 (have credit card handy). considered a lesser evil than abortion. Internet: www.secularhumanism.org. Since Catholic doctrine views abortion as, “In retrospect, ‘Who am I to Mail: Free Inquiry, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. you know, murder, that’s really not say- Subscription rates: $35.00 for one year, $58.00 for two years, judge?’ was an empty question.” $84.00 for three years. Foreign orders add $10 per year for ing much. “In other words,” as Irish femi- surface mail (Canada and Mexico); $14 per year outside North nist Emer O’Toole put it in the Guardian, America. Send U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank; American Express, Discover, MasterCard, or Visa are preferred. “contraception is still evil; it’s just less evil Single issues: $5.95 each. Shipping is by surface mail in U.S. than killing people for lols.” (included). For single issues outside U.S.: Canada 1–$3.05; (In this regard, it’s worth remember- 2–3 $5.25; 4–6 $8.00. Other foreign: 1–$6.30; 2–3 $11.40; 4–6 $17.00. ing that the future Paul VI’s decision to tolerate the use of birth control by nuns CHANGE OF ADDRESS Mail changes to Free Inquiry, ATTN: Change of Address, P.O. in a war zone, enlightened as it seemed, Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. yielded no definitive results either. After or Contraception” says it all. (Arguably, Call Customer Service: 716-636-7571, ext. 200. he donned the shoes of the fisherman, that title alone says it all.) “. . . In no way, E-mail: [email protected].

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Latin American Catholics support the The minority of Catholic women ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS use of contraceptives, while a USAID in Latin America who still try to live in Complete submission guidelines can be found on the web at www.secularhumanism.org/fi/details.html. report indicates that 62.5 percent of accord with Vatican teachings will face Requests for mailed guidelines and article submissions should be Latin American women use some form the terrors of the Zika outbreak alone. addressed to: Article Submissions, ATTN: Tom Flynn, Free Inquiry, of modern birth control.” That latter P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. And on an Ironic Note … figure might be higher, except that in LETTERS TO THE EDITOR many Latin American countries poorer Secular humanists cheered in December Send submissions to Letters Editor, Free Inquiry, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664 or e-mail aszalanski@centerfor women can’t afford contraception or 2015, when the United Nations Climate inquiry.net. may be unable to access it. Meanwhile, Change Conference in Paris ended with For letters intended for publication, please include name, address (including city and state), and daytime telephone number (for abortion is prohibited across most of the a firm decision by nearly two hundred verification purposes only). Letters should be 300 words or fewer continent—and banned in four coun- participating countries to do, well, some- and pertain to previous Free Inquiry articles. tries—meaning that some 95 percent thing to keep global temperatures from The mission of the Council for Secular Humanism is to of Latin America’s roughly 4.4 million climbing more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 advocate and defend a nonreligious life stance rooted in science, naturalistic philosophy, and humanist ethics annual abortions are unsafe. degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial and to serve and support adherents of that life stance. At the end of the day, and despite levels. Holding them to within 1.5 degrees fevered speculations generated by would be even better, but there was gen- papal bon mots delivered at a cabin eral agreement that warming beyond 2 pressure equivalent to no more than degrees would irreversibly damage the eight thousand feet above sea level, ecosphere. That agreement was less than the Roman Catholic Church clings to its three months old on March 3 when, for a

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 5 few hours, temperatures across the entire missed as methodologically primitive National Catholic Bioethics Center. 2016. “Zika Northern Hemisphere ran more than 2 de- and excessively alarmist, has in fact Does Not Justify Abortion or Contra­ ception.” February 22. Available at http:// grees Celsius above normal. That’s right: If predicted developments through 2010 www.ncbcenter.org/resources/the-ncbc- only briefly, the disaster that nations have with disturbing accuracy. Population, responds-to-the-zika-virus; accessed March pledged to prevent by, oh, 2050 has al- resource extraction, and other economic 14, 2016. O’Toole, Emer. 2016. “What Hope Has Pope ready happened—in the words of veteran and environmental variables have all Francis Offered to Women Exposed to Zika? environmental activist Bill McKibben, “for followed The Limits to Growth’s timeline None.” The Guardian, February 22. the first time in recorded history and likely almost doggedly for the past forty-odd Willey, David. 2016. “Is Pope Francis’s Contra­ ception Hint Just a Puff of Smoke?” BBC, for the first time in the course of human years. That’s disquieting because the February 21. Available at http://www. civilization.” “Mad Max” part of that timeline is all bbc.com/news/world-europe-35620937; This development underscores how but upon us. Its model predicts severe accessed March 15, 2016. Wooden, Cindy. 2016. “In Zika Outbreak, Con­ urgent—and perhaps, how insupera- economic and political dislocations—fall- traceptives May Be ‘Lesser Evil,’ Pope Says.” ble—are the challenges we face. Clearly, ing industrial output starting just about Catholic News Service, February 19. the dream some international develop- now; rising death rates around 2020; And on an Ironic Note . . . ment specialists still cherish of elevating and, by 2030, population losses around McKibben, Bill. 2016. “The Mercury Doesn’t Lie.” 3 “Of course, viewed through a all the world’s poor into Western-style half a billion people per decade amid The Boston Globe, March 4. lifestyles of high consumption and high general socioeconomic degradation. Turner, Graham, and Cathy Alexander. 2014. secular lens, it doesn’t matter “Limits to Growth Was Right. New Research emissions is instead a nightmare sce- Consider that as you read this issue’s Shows We’re Nearing Collapse.” The what the pope said.” nario. The ecosphere could not possibly interview of Lawrence Krauss by Phil Guardian, September 1. withstand all of humanity’s teeming bil- Torres concerning the probabilities that Wagner, L., I. Ross, J. Foster, and B. Hankamer. 2016. “Trading Off Global Fuel Supply, CO2 lions living like Americans or Europeans, the human experiment might end alto- Emissions and Sustainable Development.” if such a thing were even possible. Based gether in this century. PLoS ONE 11, No. 3. on March’s temperature excursion, there We humans have our work cut out is reason to wonder whether the envi- for us—if it isn’t already too late. ronment will survive what we’ve done Further Reading to it already. Tom Flynn is the editor of Free Inquiry and the Maybe It’s the Cabin Pressure A new University of Melbourne study executive director of the Council for Secular Donaldo, Rachel. 2013. “On Gay Priests, Pope Humanism. even suggests that The Limits to Growth, Asks, ‘Who Am I to Judge?’” New York a pessimistic 1972 study frequently dis- Times, July 30.

Atheist Law Student Killed in Bangladesh News

CFI grieves Samad’s death and is outraged that yet another murder has occurred. CFI’s Freethought Emergency “. . . A campaign of terror Fund has helped many secularists in targeting critics of Islam . . . countries such as Bangladesh to relocate if they believe their lives to be in danger. has claimed the life of its first But the government of Bangladesh victim of 2016.” must take serious action to protect its people and their rights. In CFI’s official response to this latest attack, United Nations Representative Michael De Dora said, “These murders keep hap- In 2015, several secularist writers and student and activist Najimuddin Samad. pening because they are allowed to activists in Bangladesh were slaugh­ Samad had been organizing campaigns happen, leaving writers and activists tered by Islamist radicals, beginning­ ad­­vocating secularism on Facebook, like Samad, Avijit, and the other victims with Center for Inquiry (CFI) ally and Free and he had criticized the Bangladeshi as the only ones willing to stand up to Inquiry author Avijit Roy, in a campaign government’s unwillingness to main­ those fomenting this violence.” of terror targeting critics of Islam. Now, tain law and order. On April 7, he was CFI extends its sincere condolences that campaign has claimed its first victim attacked on the street with machetes to Samad’s family and friends. of 2016, twenty-eight-year-old law and shot. — The Editors

6 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org Ophelia Benson OP-ED

Revulsion and Habituation

he unabashed racism of Donald That’s the disconcerting thing about enough consciences for that, but the Trump and the enthusiasm of his history’s genocides: they demonstrate account Browning gives in Ordinary Tfans are reminders of recurring that very few of us will sacrifice our- Men, to give just one example, is disturb- questions about how easy it is for peo- selves or even inconvenience ourselves ingly corrosive of that kind of optimism. ple to allow genocides and other atroc- to halt a crime against humanity, pro- The men of Reserve Police Battalion ities to happen. How thin is the line? vided it’s remote enough. We flinch 101 were middle-aged draftees consid- Could a genocide happen here? at the thought of personally killing ered too old for the German army, most If you pull the camera back far people, but we won’t interfere if duly of them raw recruits. On July 13, 1942, enough, the question becomes ridic- signed orders are carried out some- they were given the job of rounding up ulous. Of course genocide could hap- where distant. I would like to be able to all the Jews in the small Polish town of pen here, because it already has, and think that there’s a great gulf between Józefów. “The male Jews of working not all that long ago. The nineteenth the kind of people who can commit age were to be separated and taken to century was one long festival of geno- genocide and the kind who can’t, but cide of Native Americans, and when I think in truth it’s a matter of circum- Reconstruction failed in the post–Civil stances more than of kinds of people. War South, slavery was smuggled in In one way, it is possible to separate “ Of course genocide could through the backdoor in the form of the sheep from the goats, and that’s on Jim Crow labor laws that bordered on the question of ideology. If you have an happen here, because it already genocidal in their effects. ideology that views certain classes of has, and not all that long ago.” But we feel that we’ve changed. people as radically, ontologically, per- We’ve put all that behind us, and made manently inferior, that’s a wide-open things better, and resolved to go on in door to genocide. If by contrast you that same direction. I grew up thinking have an opposed ideology that rejects genocide was in the past, in that dis- the whole idea of radical inferiority, a work camp,” Browning writes. “The tant country Before I Was Born—that that particular door is closed. In that remaining Jews—the women, children, we had firmly turned our backs on it, sense I can read Robert Jay Lifton’s The and elderly—were to be shot on the vowing never again. But the reality is Nazi Doctors, Christopher Browning’s spot by the battalion.” Chapter 7 gives that genocide never stopped being an Ordinary Men, and Hannah Arendt’s a detailed account of that day, taken option. There was My Lai, for instance, Eichmann in Jerusalem without feeling from testimony of the men themselves a local holocaust, and there were complicit. Nazis were Nazis; they had some twenty years later. They had to other local holocausts in Guatemala, a belief system that considered whole march into the forest with their vic- Argentina, the Congo—many places, swathes of humanity not just inferior tims, one at a time, and shoot each often with U.S. Central Intelligence but dirty, impure, a disease. I’m not a one in the back of the head. The men Agency involvement. The Khmer Rouge Nazi, I don’t have that belief system, so I did not enjoy their work, and in fact killed millions. Did we really mean it wouldn’t have done what they did. were badly traumatized by it. At first about “never again” or did we not? The But that gets us only so far. We pre- the reader feels reassured by this—but Balkans and Rwanda seemed to tell us fer to think that even if we’d been fully then we read on and find that the offi- we did not as long as the genocide in paid-up members of the Nazi Party, we cers learned to prevent traumatization question was happening sufficiently far would have drawn the line at genocide. away. We’d all like to think we have strong (Continued on page 44)

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 7 Russell Blackford OP-ED

Suppress and Punish: The Dangerous Impulse to Shut Down Speech

hen we enter public debate on ual concerned will incite violence. The ions deny audiences the opportunity to controversial issues, we should intention of campaigners who tried to hear those opinions. By contrast, when Wexpect some sharp disagreement keep Wilders out was not to preserve rival opinions on controversial topics with our opinions. The search for truth the peace but to prevent local dissem- are advanced and disputed straight- and the effort to build better societies ination of controversial opinions. That forwardly in the public square, we all are served by vigorous scrutiny of all is highly illiberal. If Wilders is wrong benefit. We can obtain a better under- viewpoints. I’m not the first, however, to about (in particular) Islam and its effect standing of competing viewpoints and notice a trend for cultural and political on European society, don’t try to shut judge for ourselves which criticisms and antagonists to venture far beyond scru- him up or to shut him down—rebut him countercriticisms seem most cogent. In tiny, and beyond merely tactless rebuttal, with argument and evidence! some cases, even highly unpopular opin- on to tactics of suppression and pun- That said, many campaigns against ions might seem compelling once we ishment. Too often, disliked speech is disliked speakers involve no requests listen to the supporting arguments. In for government action. In these cases, other cases, we will gain a better under- efforts are made to silence the speaker, standing of unfamiliar ways of thinking, at least in particular instances, through even though we’re ultimately uncon- methods that involve organized private vinced. The arguments for one side or “Too often, disliked speech is power. Thus, individuals are subjected the other may turn out to be weak once to threats, smear campaigns, and public they’re openly articulated: they may, for greeted with an impulse to ‘shut shaming. Campaigns are initiated to boy- example, stand revealed as depending down’ the speaker.” cott magazines that publish disliked jour- on prejudice, groupthink, or emotional nalists and commentators (a related tac- manipulation. But even if we decide that tic is to lobby corporations to withdraw all the arguments surrounding a partic- advertising). Conferences, conventions, ular issue are inconclusive, that may be and universities are lobbied to disinvite intellectual progress. certain guest speakers, and employers If these considerations matter to us, are pressured to fire staff members we will most definitely insist that no greeted with an impulse to “shut down” who have expressed contentious views. opinions be suppressed by state power. the speaker. We’ve seen this many, many Groups from all over the political map However, the logic of open discussion times, even from secularists and scientific engage in such ill-conceived campaign- cannot stop there: we will insist, more skeptics. ing, but it’s remarkable how often they generally, that even opinions we dis- When it’s demanded that a contro- are joined by people who claim to sup- like should be met with nothing more versial politician or activist be barred port freedom of speech—which they punitive than contrary opinion, forth- from entry to an entire country, this is simplemindedly rationalize as the bare right criticism, or—where truly justi- a blatant appeal to the state to exercise absence of government censorship. fied—appropriate levels of satire and its coercive power. In cases such as Geert Whether they utilize the power of the mockery. We will, accordingly, repudiate Wilders’s visits to the United Kingdom state or rely on other forms of pressure campaigns to suppress opinion, whether and Australia in recent years, there is and power, successful efforts to shut usually no genuine risk that the individ- down the expression of disliked opin- (Continued on page 44)

8 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org Shadia B. Drury OP-ED

Will the Neoconservatives Lose Their Grip on the GOP?

he candidates vying for the Rep­ of the war on Vietnam and the use cuts for the wealthy, and insisted on ublican presidential nomination of nuclear weapons. During the Cold the deregulation of industries, includ- Tof 2016 are a terrifying collection War, only lunatics believed that nuclear ing banking. Is it any wonder that they of warmongering extremists, religious war could be fought and won against presided over the worst economic zealots, and unhinged ideologues. the Soviet Union. Stanley Kubrick sat- recession since the Great Depression? However, the emergence of Donald irized this derangement in the hilar- In the old days of the second Bush Trump as the leading candidate pro- ious film Dr. Strangelove, or: How I administration, the neoconservatives vides a glimmer of hope that the Learned to Stop Worrying and Love defended their policies in idealis- “Grand Old Party” might come to its the Bomb (1964), which ends in the senses. destruction of the world in a mush- Yet the prospect of Trump secur- room cloud, courtesy of the nutty peo- ing the nomination has made the ple in control of the United States. Party establishment apoplectic. The Luckily, Goldwater lost the election in National Review published a whole a landslide to Lyndon B. Johnson and “. . . The Party is not opposed issue titled “Against Trump.” The editors his “Great Society,” but the Republican to Trump because he is declared that Trump is a “philosophi- Party was moved dramatically to the cally un­moored political opportunist” right, and neoconservatives flocked in. vulgar. . . . They fear him who will shred the Party’s “ideological The greatest triumph of the neo- because he threatens the consensus.” And there’s the rub. Let us conservatives was in the second Bush neoconservative ideology . . . of be clear—the Party is not opposed to administration where their foreign pol- Trump because he is vulgar or because icy became identical with the “Bush the establishment.” his campaign has racist overtones or Doctrine.” The latter included regime because he quotes the Italian fascist change (toppling unfriendly dictators); Benito Mussolini or because he insults preemptive war (the right to strike women, Mexicans, and Muslims or any potential enemy); launching the because his hair is more sophisticated War on Terror; and acting unilaterally, than his mind. They fear him because despite the opposition of the United tic terms. In Of Paradise and Power, he threatens the neoconservative ide- Nations and its Security Council. The Robert Kagan argued that American ology, or “ideological consensus,” of goal was American global military world domination is not only good for the establishment. supremacy, or what neoconservatives America but also the world, because The victory of Arizona Senator Barry called “full-spectrum dominance.” Is it the United States is a “Behemoth with a M. Goldwater over moderates such as any wonder that they led their coun- conscience.” How could anyone object Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller of New try into endless wars with no hope of to replacing dictatorship with freedom York in the presidential primaries of victory? and democracy? How could anyone 1964 made the Republican Party the In domestic policy, the neocon- object to defeating tyranny in every natural vehicle for the militant anti- servatives supported “free markets,” corner of the globe? communism of the neoconservatives. regarded all government regulation as Goldwater endorsed the acceleration creeping socialism, advocated huge tax (Continued on page 45)

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Donate today. When you make a donation to CFI, you become a member of a worldwide movement of humanists, skeptics, atheists, and freethinkers—all working together to promote the secular worldview and give voice to your values. Our major goals include: ■ Protecting the rights of nonbelievers ■ Advocating for science-based medicine ■ Sustaining and expanding the secular movement Make your most generous gift today, or request information on planned giving or making a bequest (see "Leave a Legacy of Reason," p. 43). To receive a brochure elaborating on what we are doing to achieve our important goals and how you can help, please complete and return the attached card or contact us at: Center for Inquiry Development Offi ce PO Box 741 Amherst, NY 14226 1.800.818.7071 [email protected] www.centerforinquiry.net/donate Mark Rubinstein OP-ED

The Christian Moral Code, Part 2: Forgiveness

orgiveness is the eleventh com- surate form of reparation. personal forgiveness is that confession mandment of Christianity: Thou 7. Ideally, ethical values and reparation or shows of repentance too easily sub- Fshalt forgive that thou shalt be should be blind to status. stitute for reparation (elements 4–6). The forgiven (similar to Luke 6:37). So the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw Lord’s Prayer includes supplication to Forgiveness agrees: “[Merely asking for forgiveness God to “forgive us our trespasses as we Jane’s response allows some discre- is] a means by which we cheat our con- forgive those who trespass against us.” tion. She can insist on full or partial sciences, evade our moral responsibili- Divine forgiveness is sought through reparation. She can choose to pardon ties, and turn our shame into self-con- faith (in Jesus), baptism, communion, with a simple expression of accep- repentance, prayer, fasting, confession, tance or simply to overlook the wrong and penance, including self-inflicted cor- despite the evidence. Even though she poral punishment. My concern here is may be in a position to exact revenge the prior qualification: that is, to deserve without fear of retaliation, she can “Interpersonal forgiveness, divine forgiveness, you must first offer be merciful or even generous so as to as Christianity practices it, interpersonal forgiveness to those who improve Dick’s lot. has a number of pitfalls.” have injured you. Interpersonal forgiveness, as Christianity In the modern view of interpersonal practices it, has a number of pitfalls. First, forgiveness, perpetrator “Dick” qualifies Dick and Jane must assume they are suf- for forgiveness for harming victim “Jane” ficiently judicious to know what is right when several elements are present. and wrong. In particular, Jane must be gratulation by loading all our infamies qualified to judge Dick. It is here that the Judgment on the scourged shoulders of Christ” Christian moral code, as grand as it may (The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her 1. Dick and Jane must have previously sound, becomes muddled. Matthew’s (7:1) Search for God). agreed on what is right and wrong. and Luke’s (6:37) “Judge not, that ye be Restoring the moral balance between 2. Dick must have caused harm to Jane not judged” seems to make forgiveness according to these values. impossible, since judgment (elements 1–3) Dick and Jane requires reparation; for- 3. Dick must be responsible for the harm- begins the process of forgiveness. giveness without reparation is incom- ful action; that is, it cannot be invol- The extent to which Dick’s wrongful patible with justice. Forgiveness cannot untary or unintentional. action is due to upbringing, ignorance, undo an unjust harmful action; what’s chance, genetic predisposition, or other done cannot be undone. But through Contrition and Reparation external circumstance out of his control reparation, Dick’s moral debt to Jane 4. Dick must show contrition—at a is not appreciated by the New Testament can be repaid, and both can agree to minimum, he must acknowledge the (with one exception, Luke 23–24) and put the episode behind them. Even so, wrong to Jane and his responsibility barely mentioned in the 1997 Catechism justice should never stand in the way of for it. of the Catholic Church (the most recent charity. If Jane decides to refuse repa- 5. Dick must give Jane assurance that the edition). If, in the extreme, people do not ration, Dick’s moral debt to Jane can be wrong will not be repeated. have free will, then the whole idea of put aside. 6. If possible, Dick must willingly make, interpersonal forgiveness is moot. or offer to make, Jane some commen- Another problem with Christian inter- (Continued on page 46)

secularhumanism.org June/July 2015 Free Inquiry 11 LOOKING BACK

35 Years Ago in Free Inquiry

“. . . Most humanists agree that public and utilitarian grounds, sex education school courses in sex education should should be an option available to stu- be voluntary, that they should not be dents and parents as a matter of free required for students whose parents choice. oppose them. Some humanists, such “There is no one humanist view on as psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, argue sex education, as there is not on many against sex education programs. Szasz’s other issues, but humanists do agree objections are different from those of that there is a need for free inquiry on the traditionalists. . . . As a libertarian, this and all other moral and social ques- Szasz is committed to individual free- tions.” dom and would exclude the state and also the ‘medical-psychiatric establish- —Paul Kurtz, “The Crusade Against ment’ from such a private matter as sex Sex Education,” from Free education. Many humanists disagree Inquiry Volume 1, No. 3 with Szasz and feel that, on moral (Summer 1981)

25 Years Ago in Free Inquiry

“I first became aware of the question of that sometimes precedes a migraine St. Paul’s temporal lobe epilepsy from attack.’ Why not? It makes more sense The New York Times Book Review. The than meeting with God on a mountain, writer, Stuart Sutherland . . . review- and I hope Restak’s letter has inspired ing a book about consciousness and some research on the state of Moses’s the brain . . . mentioned the possibility health. . . .” that Paul’s conversion on the road to —Nina Rulon-Miller, “Saint Paul’s Damascus . . . might have been caused Conversion on the Road to by an epileptic hallucination. . . . Damascus: An Epileptic “Richard Restak, a well-known author- Hallucination?,” from Free ity on the brain, later wrote to the Book Inquiry Volume 11, No. 3 Review to object to the idea that ‘one (Summer 1991) of the world’s major religions’ might have ‘neurological foundations’ . . . Editor’s Note: The author, then a graduate as a ‘throwaway gratuitous slap at student, went on to teach women’s stud- Christianity,’ and attempted to dis- ies, rhetoric, and non-Western literature credit Sutherland by asserting, ‘One at the College of New Jersey and Rowan can speculate, I suppose, that Moses University. She has written on the Bible as suffered from migraines; that the Ten literature and more recently emerged as a Commandments represent nothing constructor of crossword puzzles appear- more than a product of the excitement ing in the New York Times and elsewhere.

12 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org LETTERS

3. We annexed sovereign lands intellectual project drawing on that takes this as central to his to enlarge our empire. empirical findings from the prac- or her worldview tells others to 4. We deployed weapons of tice of the scientific method phil- test their belief in the crucible of mass destruction. osophically refined through the knowledge. 5. We launched illegal and lens of reason and clarity. The conflict between knowing immoral wars worldwide. Jim Valentine and believing as currently framed under ego-driven exceptionalism In her December 2014/January Woodland Hills, California can be evolved from this meme 2015 column, “Vanquishing Evil,” as: “For me to believe is sufficient Drury wrote: “. . . evil, violence for you to know, and you better and injustice are the founda- I too have long felt uncomfort- believe it or else.” The contrast is tion blocks of every state, not to able about the use of the word clear. As long as human beings’ mention empires.” Who could unbelief as a descriptive label thinking is dominated by this disagree with that? If we are ever (“About that Word Unbelief” by mentality, we are in deep trou- to redeem ourselves, we need Tom Flynn). My discomfort is not ble. How long that will continue a National Day of Atonement directly related to comments by dominating our interactions with in which we plead for forgive- religious critics. It is due to what others will define how well our ness from those whom we have we are saying about ourselves. species prospers in our corner of wronged. We’ve waited far too Justice Scalia’s The fact is that we are defining the universe. long to cleanse our conscience Originalism ourselves in a negative man- Rodger A. Sanders of the cruelty and arrogance that ner by communicating what we In Ronald A. Lindsay’s op-ed, has sullied our nation’s reputation are not, not what we are. This is Central Tennessee “Justice Scalia and Originalism: throughout much of its history. never constructive or fulfilling, May They Rest in Peace,” Lindsay David Quintero and it is sometimes counterpro- contends that it is plausible to Monrovia, California ductive. Re: “Racial Diversity and the infer that the founders intended From this perspective, how is Fu­ture of the Secular Movement” to establish the principle that the one to approach defining one- by Juhem Navarro-Rivera. You government may not impose any self positively? How can secular need to get secular information punishment that, given the cir- Sustaining the Growth humanists, readers of Free Inquiry, (table at colleges, country fairs, cumstances of the present time, of Unbelief make that determination? My etc.) anywhere you can, to get is considered cruel and unusual. suggestion is to look at how we the info out there. I carry around On the other hand, Scalia would Re: the special section (FI, April/ reason and operate. We evalu- NOW brochures in my purse and argue that if a punishment was May 2016) “How Do We Sustain ate information that is available, hand them out to people who I practiced at the time the Bill of The Growth Of Unbelief?” Our make observations, dwell on the think, after talking to them, are Rights was adopted, it would be role in sustaining the growth meaning, reevaluate past con- open to discussion. We need to acceptable now. I am in agree- of unbelief begs for reassess- clusions, look for patterns from get the truth out to the public ment with Lindsay because ment given our tiny, scattered, the available information, make everywhere we can about reli- crimes—interracial marriage for and marginalized numbers. projections, and reach (new) con- gion or we won’t see changes in example—have changed with “Unbelief” implies commitment clusions. We do not allow fantasy our lifetime. Maybe the Center the times, so it is only appropriate to an intellectual exercise—the projections or preconceived ideas for Inquiry can do more outreach that punishments do, too. science-based inference that to influence our conclusions. In in minority communities. David Klement God and the supernatural do short, we are logical and rational. Joyce Morris not exist in a physical cosmos. Oconomowoc, Wisconsin And there is the word, I conclude, 2010–2014 NOW National Psychologically, most Americans, that readily allows us to define indeed the vast majority of the ourselves in a (strongly) positive Board Member world’s population, recoil from manner. We are rational believ- Chair, NOW Task Force to End Foreign Affairs and the the more grim implications of ers (positive definition), more Racism atheism that envisions a mate- than just unbelievers (negative Richland, Missouri Culture of Shame rial universe devoid of purpose; definition). Furthermore, rational Our nation’s conscience carries a human organism that dies like implies that those we disagree a burden of shame that most any other animal then decays with are irrational (without actu- Americans have fashioned into a into oblivion. Even most Nones ally saying so). We have taken the Faith and Moral banner of virtues by the alchemy share the popular antipathy offensive. Derangement of denial (“Foreign Affairs and toward strident atheism, reject- Bruce Bernstein ing not only total unbelief but the Culture of Shame” by Shadia Rockville, Maryland Re: “Faith Ideology, and the Seeds B. Drury, FI, April/May 2016). How also wincing at its abrasive tone. or Moral Derangement,” by Andy sad! That shame of our misdeeds Surely atheists, affiliated with a Norman (FI, April/May 2016). should instead feel as heavy as broad coalition of secular human- Pervasive ideologies always lead an anvil pressing on our hearts. A ists, can take pride in their contri- The articles on belief brings to to violence. The reason is simple: few examples: bution to the secularization of the fore a singular meme for When someone gets the idea society, the promotion of science all minds to acknowledge and that their notion of propriety 1. We unleashed a war of geno- education, and the steady erosion adhere to. That meme is this: is absolutely right and impervi- cide against Native Americans. of religious belief. Nonetheless, “For me to believe is insufficient 2. We enslaved African blacks. atheism remains at its core an for you to know.” The individual (Continued on page 66)

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 13 Death: Thoughts on the Final Subject Introduction: Atheism Is Scary Because It Reminds People of Death

Simon Davis

hen my friend and fellow nonbeliever Greta Christina negative as terror management theory made it sound. Cook wrote her recent book Coming Out Atheist: How to Do agreed with me in part and responded that thinking about death WIt, How to Help Each Other, and Why, she noticed a com- in a conscious way “can increase your appreciation for things” mon theme among the over four hundred stories she collected: and “can be a great thing,” adding that there was thirty years of “The subject of death came up a lot. When atheists come out research to back this up. However, “there are different responses (to Christians, anyway), the first reaction is often about Hell. when we think about death consciously and unconsciously.” Sometimes it’s manipulative or hostile, an attempt to scare athe- Cook’s study looked more at the unconscious side of things. He ists back into belief. More often, though, it’s genuine concern or did this by using two different experiments, both conducted with fear—they sincerely believe atheists will burn in Hell, and they students at the College of Staten Island, which he told me was don’t want that to happen to the people they love.” chosen in part due to the diverse makeup of its student popula- A study last year coauthored by Corey Cook titled “What tion—but also because it has more older students enrolled than If They’re Right About the Afterlife? Evidence of the Role of the eighteen- to twenty-two-year-olds typically found among Existential Threat on Anti-Atheist Prejudice” may begin to shed undergraduates. some light on the phenomenon Christina noticed. Cook is a social In the first experiment, comprising 236 students (172 female psychologist at the University of Washington and spoke with me and 64 male, most of them Christian), participants were asked about his study. It is true that there is a well-documented general to write down “what you think will happen physically when you mistrust of atheists that has shown up in the polls over the years die” and then “describe the emotions that the thought of your (including the perennially last-place hypothetical atheist presiden- own death arouses in you.” Then they were asked their feelings tial candidate). However, what Cook—an atheist himself—noticed about either atheists or Quakers, including rating those groups’ during his research into threats and prejudice is that there’s not trustworthiness. much literature on why atheists are perceived the way they are The second experiment asked 174 students to either describe by religious believers in America. the emotions they felt toward their own death or “write down, as The abstract for Cook’s study lays out his hypothesis: “Terror specifically as you can, what atheism means to you.” Then students management theory posits that the uniquely human awareness completed a set of word fragments, which could be either read of death gives rise to potentially paralyzing terror that is assuaged as neutral words (e.g., skill) or death-related words (e.g., skull). by embracing cultural worldviews that provide a sense that one What Cook’s experiments did was to move their participants is a valuable participant in a meaningful universe. We propose beyond talking about death in the abstract and make it more that pervasive and pronounced anti-atheist prejudices stem, in salient. And according to terror-management theory, Cook says, part, from the existential threat posed by conflicting worldview when that happens “People start to care about people who beliefs.” Cook succinctly summarized the results of the study for buffer or support their worldview and you actually start to see me: “What we found is that when participants thought about increased derogation against people who believe differently atheism, it activated concern about death to the same extent as about the world. So we have after-effects which we don’t know actually thinking about death.” are there and we can’t tap into so much as individuals. So when Being an atheist myself who has authored more than forty suddenly your values matter more to you, that’s an unconscious articles on death and the morbid (for a Vice column called “Post thing; you’re not realizing that they matter more than they did a Mortem”), I put it to Cook that maybe getting people to ponder couple minutes ago.” Cook pointed out that this has been shown their mortality in a nonthreatening way wasn’t as much of a in other studies with other out-group targets.

14 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org Interestingly, he also revealed that atheists in his study weren’t attitudes towards atheists to the degree that they start to agree immune to this: “We found the effect even if we included atheists with them on these issues.” in our study. Because as an atheist you have to confront that ‘Wait a minute, what is going to happen?’ So atheism increases hat exists today in America is an interesting combination thoughts of death even for atheists. We just didn’t have enough Wof several factors that all influence how we will view in our sample to include them as a separate group and test them. death as a society—likely for generations to come. We have We analyzed them, and it didn’t change our results at all. So it’s people with no religious affiliation—the Nones—being the not just the Christians. It’s something deeper than that.” fastest-growing segment of the population and comprising a third of adults under thirty. To be clear, most of these Nones learly, the atheistic lack of belief in an afterlife is striking don’t identify as atheists, and many maintain supernatural Ca nerve. Gary Laderman is professor of American religious beliefs, but what they don’t have is a religious affiliation history and cultures at Emory University and also the author that rigidly informs how they practice burial rituals. We have of two books on death in America. When I told him about around two-thirds of the American public supporting physi- Cook’s results, he said that he wasn’t surprised by this finding, cian-assisted aid in dying, with several states now enacting and although he seemed to place it within a broader context of debating legislation to legalize a practice that most religions people questioning previous closely held religious beliefs about oppose. We also have a continuous trend of Americans choos- death: “The power of [religious] institutions and those traditional ing cremation over burial, largely driven by a lack of religiosity. cultural authorities is really eroding in a lot of ways. People are However, as Cook’s study highlights, there is still a lot of stated more willing to accept a variety of different possibilities about and unstated opposition to the notion that death is the end. The death. But one thing that most people don’t want to confront is afterlife appears to be something that most Americans still desire. what we associate with atheism: the idea that there is nothing In the face of this defensiveness on the part of the religious, how post-mortem. There is no transition to some other kind of life. then should atheists of a different persuasion proceed? Cook’s So that’s what is interesting about the study. It’s digging beyond recommendation in the conclusion of his study is for atheists to the obvious kind of theological debates to these more existential, avoid “militant denunciation of theistic conceptions of reality” basic ideas about human life.” and to opt instead for “critical skepticism and civil disagreement” Another example of this erosion, said Laderman, is the de- with the religious. I asked Cook how he reconciled his recommen- creasing opposition by many Christian groups in America to dation with the fact that in his study, even the most matter-of- cremation, which they’ve now mostly accepted—with the no- fact mention of atheism seems to trigger this mortality salience table exception of the Eastern Orthodox church. However, he in the minds of believers. His response was that “there’s not a said that people are now more likely than ever to bypass religion lot of knowledge about ‘what an atheist is,’” and that therefore altogether and to look toward popular culture for guidance. caution is warranted to decrease defensiveness. “Cremation has radically changed the landscape. But whether Cook’s is just a single study. However, it is an indication that that has changed attitudes toward the afterlife, that is a very thinking about atheism causes people to imagine their own good question.” He also pointed out that atheists aren’t mono- deaths in a way that is perhaps a bit less abstract than they are lithic and that a secular outlook leads many science-minded accustomed to. Being mindful of this is probably not a bad thing individuals to find the idea of a body going into nature in a green when discussing atheism or humanism. burial “if not transcendent, certainly appealing.” A version of this article previously appeared on VICE.com on Burial rituals aren’t the only area where Americans are recon- May 11, 2015. sidering established religious notions. Ideas about how and when we die are also being challenged. Michelle Boorstein, religion Further Reading reporter for the Washington Post, brings up the example of Cook, Corey L., Florette Cohen, and Sheldon Solomon. 2015. “What If euthanasia: “I think as we have more conversation in our society They’re Right About the Afterlife? Evidence of the Role of Existential Threat on Anti-Atheist Prejudice.” Social Psychological and Personality about assisted suicide and the idea of people having some say Science, April 27; accessed March 21, 2016. over their own death. I think it just puts more public discussion about it out there. I mean, we don’t talk about [death] much anyway.” Boorstein believes it’s possible that maybe all of those things will work in favor of more acceptance of atheism. “As Simon Davis, guest editor of this special section, is a Washington, you look at the percentages of people who are more in favor D.C.–based freelance writer. In addition to his Post-Mortem column for of assisted suicide and that sort of thing, that would sort of VICE, he writes about science and language. His work has appeared in challenge this idea that ‘only God can decide when I go.’ I think the Atlantic and Free Inquiry and on mental_floss and the Religion New as you see people thinking more about what they want around Service websites. end of life, and ask ‘why?,’ that will [positively] affect people’s

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 15 Inevitable Death P Z Myers

rom a biologist’s perspective, death isn’t just inevitable; before programmed cell death kills it. Why? Because a cell that it’s an inherent part of the process of living. We are not old is likely to carry enough defects that it is prone to go rogue Fstatic; living things dwell in a domain of constant, dynamic or fail to do its job. It will instead be replaced with a relatively churn. Our cells build proteins that they nearly instantly young cell (in terms of number of cell divisions) from a slow dismantle. Most of our tissues continuously shed cells and growing, sheltered population of stem cells. generate new ones. So while our overall appearance seems It’s a smart strategy, honed by a billion years of successful constant, undergirding it is a near-perpetual cycling. When reproduction. In our development, we build tissues and organs that cycling stops, we’re dead. in a modular fashion, setting aside groups of cells that will con- That incessant turnover gives life its flexibility and respon- struct the tissue and maintain it. The founding population will siveness, but there’s a cost: it also involves the slow, inescapable contain a small reserve—the stem cells—that will be held back accumulation of error, and, in complex systems like us, some while the other cells divide rapidly to form the tissue and then errors can lead to catastrophic collapse. A small error in the con- do the intended work of the organ; they’ll divide and divide struction of an arterial wall leads to a weak spot that balloons until they expire, and then replacements will be doled out outward and ruptures in a deadly aneurysm. A skin cell acquires from the stem cell reserve to allow prolonged operation. One a tiny genetic error that uncouples the brakes on the control of of the causes of aging is that the stock of stem cells becomes cell division, and it blossoms into a madly proliferating colony depleted, and there is a dearth of replacements to fill in for normal attrition. You might be wondering: If error is cumu- lative and inevitable, and if we multicellular “No process can be perfectly flawless, and when you’re built animals have to limit cell divisions to prevent out of trillions of cells and are losing and replacing hundreds runaway errors, how can we evolve? Shouldn’t of millions of cells every minute, even a minuscule error rate of the cells of our wormlike ancestor from about a billion years ago have fully exhausted their one in a million converges on certainty.” potential and collapsed into unavoidable cor- ruption by now? And on a shorter scale, doesn’t this mean our children, the products of our of cancer cells. No process can be perfectly flawless, and when dividing cells, have inherited depleted prospects? you’re built out of trillions of cells and are losing and replacing The answer to that is, again, death. hundreds of millions of cells every minute, even a minuscule We produce gametes and offspring prolifically, and the over- error rate of one in a million converges on certainty. It’s actually whelming majority of them die. Men produce a billion sperm astounding that we human beings can usually hold ourselves every month; women set aside a few thousand cells as ova. together for three score and ten years. Almost all of them are lost. They are produced and put through We have evolved mechanisms to minimize error: there a gauntlet, in which the majority is destroyed, failures at the are multiple layers of error correction in DNA replication, for game of fertilization. Even the sperm and eggs that manage to instance. But all processes that correct errors will also have fuse are tested—and many fail, with approximately half of all rates of failure, so nothing can reduce the buildup of mistakes conceived humans being aborted naturally, as a consequence to zero. of errors. The winnowing is intense. The children brought to full Another way our bodies minimize the likelihood of cata- term are the products of cells functionally screened for a lack strophic failure is to implicitly acknowledge the inevitability of devastating genetic problems, basically resetting the ticking of fatal errors in populations of cells and limit reproduction. A time bomb of decline to a fresh state. Of course, destructive healthy cell is allowed to replicate itself only about fifty times errors may still appear. And because of the intrinsically imper-

16 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org DEATH: THOUGHTS ON THE FINAL SUBJECT

fect process of replication, offspring cannot be perfect clones and capacity for change that the death of individuals bestows of their parents; every human is born with on the order of one on a population. Without it, I wouldn’t be here for my brief hundred novel, generally non-lethal mutations. tenure as a living, breathing, thinking person. Without death, Biology and life simply do not work without this pattern of without change, evolution wouldn’t be possible, and Earth’s routine rebirth, reuse, renewal, and recycling. As I sit here, I am inhabitants would never have progressed beyond the state of invisibly shedding a thin cloud of outer skin cells, which are mere fermenting vesicles of simmering chemical broth. It is the replaced by burgeoning deeper cells; squamous cells lining my transience of individuals that gives the population the potential throat and gut are pushed out by dividing cells beneath them; for growth and change. red blood cells collapse dead and exhausted, are filtered out Every once in a while, you hear someone talking about science by my liver and broken down, and their numbers renewed by defeating death. It won’t happen. It requires a fundamental budding colonies of progenitor cells in my bone marrow. Even misunderstanding of the nature of life to think it can continue in my stillest, quietest moments, this seething metamorphosis without death . . . because you can’t be human without the is going on, as bits of me die and new bits are born. You are prospect of change. And I rather like being human. never at rest; you are always in flux. As it is with our cells, so it is with us as individuals. We are born, we flourish briefly, we fade and die, and we are replaced with new individuals. Even as culture seems to change only slowly, there is a constant alchemical shift—150,000 people die PZ Myers is associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota every day in the world, an immense ongoing tragedy, but over Morris. He is the founding author of the Pharyngula science blog. His 300,000 are born, so the population goes on, and even grows. research in evolutionary biology is currently focused on zebrafish. And here’s the personally important point: it’s that resiliency

The Future of Death Caitlin Doughty

he Buddha—of Buddhism fame—was born Siddhartha a wooden plank. Having confronted old age, sickness, death, Gautama in what is now Nepal. Young Siddhartha was and nothingness all in one trip, Siddhartha renounced palace Tnot born enlightened; he spent the first twenty-nine years life and became a monk. The rest, as they say, is religious history. of his life ensconced in palatial luxury. Siddhartha’s father, In the Siddhartha story, the crude physicality of the burning the king, had been warned that his son would grow into a corpse is not a negative force but a positive one. It catalyzed great spiritual thinker if he came into contact with suffering his transformation. Encountering a corpse forced the man or death. Naturally, his father preferred Siddhartha end up who would be Buddha to see life as a process of unpredict- a king like him rather than a measly thinker, so he banned able and constant change. It was life without corpses, trapped death of any kind within the palace walls. behind the palace walls, that had prevented him from reaching When Siddhartha reached twenty-nine he announced his enlightenment. desire to explore the surrounding city. His father agreed but Westwind Cremation & Burial, a family-owned mortuary in arranged things so that his son saw only young, healthy people Oakland, California, changed my understanding of death. Less engaging in young, healthy-people activities. But the gods than a year after donning my corpse-colored glasses, I went were having none of that: they sent an old man with gray hair, from thinking it was strange that we don’t see dead bodies missing teeth, and a limp to surprise Siddhartha, who had never anymore to believing their absence was a root cause of major before seen old age. Siddhartha next saw a man infected with problems in the modern world. plague and finally, the pièce de résistance, a corpse burning on Corpses keep the living tethered to reality. I had lived my

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 17 entire life up until I began working at Westwind relatively “Ma’am, the veterans’ cemetery is expecting the body to corpse-free. Now I had access to scores of them—stacked in the arrive in its casket for burial. We’re going to deliver it there on crematory freezer. They forced me to face my own death and Thursday,” I explained. the deaths of those I loved. No matter how much technology “You’re not listening. That’s what I’m saying; his body isn’t in may become our master, it takes only a human corpse to toss any casket, you cremated him without my permission.” the anchor off that boat and pull us back down to the firm I tried to explain in the nicest way possible that it made no knowledge that we are glorified animals that eat and shit and logistical or financial sense for Westwind to cremate Jeremy and are doomed to die. We are all just future corpses. then deliver an empty casket to the Sacramento Valley National Jeremy, the body on the prep room table today, was a fifty- Cemetery, but she wasn’t buying it. three-year-old man covered in tattoos. Half of his life had been Jeremy’s sister wasn’t the only one who assumed we death spent in prison. Many of his tattoos were self-inked and had workers were up to no good. People had wild theories about faded into a dull green. Numbers and letters dotted his arms, what we did with the bodies. Elderly women would call the torso, and back. Jeremy also had tattoos that were brand-new, crematory, their voices shaky and slightly confused. from his time post-prison. They were colorful images of birds “Westwind Cremation and Burial, this is Caitlin,” I would and waves and other metaphors for freedom. He had left prison answer. and sought liberation in a new, different life. The tattoos were “Hello, dear, I’m Estelle,” said one woman. “You are going to stunning. The concept of the body as canvas becomes more cremate me when I die. I have the paperwork with your company powerful if the canvas is dead. and it’s all paid for. But I saw a thing on the news this morning about you all burning the bodies together dear, is that right?” “Less than a year after donning my corpse-colored glasses, “No, no ma’am, everyone is cremated on their own here,” I said firmly. I went from thinking it was strange that we don’t see dead “They said you put a pile of bodies on a bodies anymore to believing their absence was a root cause bonfire and there is big pile of ashes after- of major problems in the modern world.” wards and you just scoop from that pile,” Estelle said. “Ma’am, I’m not sure who ‘they’ are.” “The news people,” she said. As I started to wash Jeremy, the bell at Westwind’s front “Well, I promise they aren’t talking about us here at Westwind. gate rang. I pulled off my gloves and headed into the courtyard. Everyone gets their own serial number and is cremated alone,” Before I could even muster a “Hello, come in,” a woman, who I assured her. subsequently introduced herself as Jeremy’s sister, squealed, She sighed. “Well, OK dear. I’ve lived so long and I’m just real “Hey there, six-footer!” afraid about dying and being left in a pile of bodies.” “Oh yes, well, I’m pretty tall, you’re righ—” Estelle wasn’t alone in her fears. One woman called to ask “My, my, my, what a big, beautiful girl you are!” she shrieked, if bodies were kept hanging on meat hooks in the refrigerator wrapping me in a huge hug. I thanked her. like sides of beef. An enraged gentleman informed me we I showed Jeremy’s sister into our arrangement room, where shouldn’t be charging for a sea scattering because all that she pulled out a lollipop and began grinding it down with her meant was “dumpin’ the ashes in the toilet with a packet of teeth while furiously tapping her foot. I didn’t want to make salt and flushing.” assumptions, but if pressed I might have guessed she was high It broke my heart to hear them, even the ones who were on some manner of amphetamine. She would not have been screaming at me. Holy crap, you’ve been thinking that? I thought. the first family member I had spoken to in such a condition, the You think you’re going to die and be hung on a meat hook burden of selling low-cost funeral services in Oakland. before being thrown into a bonfire of corpses and flushed “Honey, here’s what we’re going to do,” she said. “I want down the toilet? a nice funeral for Jeremy in San Francisco, then he’s gonna be Hearing these fears took me back to being eight years old buried at the veterans’ cemetery in Sac Valley. I’m gonna drive and believing spitting into my shirt was keeping my mother behind you all the way.” The cadence of her speech synched up alive. I began to experiment with complete honesty. Everyone with the tapping of her foot. who asked these sorts of questions got brutally clear answers. “You’re aware the cemetery is two hours away?” I said. If they asked about how the bones became ash, I’d say, “Well, “Y’all are gonna cremate him if I don’t keep an eye on you. there’s this machine called the Cremulator. . . .” If they asked I can’t be sure you didn’t do it already.” whether their body would rot before cremation, I’d say, “See,

18 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org DEATH: THOUGHTS ON THE FINAL SUBJECT

the bacteria start eating you from the inside out as soon as washing known as Ghusl. The person who performs the Ghusl you die, but body refrigeration really puts a stop to that.” The is chosen by the dying man or woman themselves. Men are strange thing was, the more honest I was, the more satisfied washed by men and women are washed by women. Selection and grateful people were. is an honor and a sacred obligation to fulfill. Holding a witness cremation—though it gave me palpi- In centuries past, before society fully understood bacteria tations—solved many of these problems. People saw what and germs, outbreaks of disease, from cholera to the Black was actually happening—saw the body, saw it glide into the Death, were believed to originate from “bad air” floating like cremation retort alone, even symbolically took part in the a mist off corpses. Larger cities took to burying their dead far process by pushing the button to start the flames. The retort outside city limits. While it’s true that bodies create offensive may have been a huge machine opening its mouth to eat your sights and smells, a dead human body poses very little threat dead mother, but pushing the button offered a participatory to a living one—the bacteria involved in decomposition are ritual nonetheless. not the same bacteria that cause disease. I felt a growing compulsion to do more, to change how the A few weeks before my encounter with tattooed Jeremy public understood death and the death industry. There was an and his sister, Westwind received a visit from Miss Nakazawa, admirable group of women in the Bay Area working toward a young woman whose mother had died at home. She wanted this change, who performed funerals at the dead person’s to keep her mother’s body in the house for a few more hours home, referring to themselves as Death Midwives or Death after she died to say her good-byes, but she said, “The police Doulas. They had not been trained or licensed by the funeral detective told me I had to call you guys right away because industry but saw themselves as New Agey vestiges of a time past, when the body was taken care of by the family. Prior to the Civil War, as previously mentioned, death and dying were strongly associated with the home. “Home is where the corpse is,” they would “Jeremy’s sister wasn’t the only one who assumed we say. (They didn’t say that, I made it up, but they death workers were up to no good. People had wild theories might as well have said it.) Since corpses were a domestic affair, the duty to care for them fell to about what we did with the bodies.” women. Women baked the meat pies, did the laundry, washed the corpses. In many ways, women are death’s natural com- panions. Every time a woman gives birth, she is creating not only a life, but also a death. Samuel Beckett wrote she had diabetes and keeping the body any longer might that women “give birth astride of a grave.” Mother Nature is harm my family.” indeed a real mother, creating and destroying in a constant “I’m sorry, ma’am, he told you what?” I replied, my jaw on loop. the floor. If the matriarch of your family didn’t want to wash and “He told me we had to have a mortuary come pick her up shroud the body herself, the family could hire “layers-out of right away or the body will make us sick.” the dead.” In the early nineteenth century it was mostly women To recap: a police detective thought this family was going who had this job, a tradition brought over to the American to be harmed by diabetes caught from a dead body. He might colonies from England, where it had long been the accepted as well have told her she was going to get AIDS from a toilet practice. There were midwives for babies and layers-out for seat. Putting aside the misguided idea that someone can “catch” corpses; women to bring you into the world and women to diabetes from another person, much less a corpse, most viruses take you out of it. and bacteria, even those that could potentially cause disease, Most of Westwind’s clients didn’t realize the dead body was only live for a few additional hours in a dead body. The rare theirs to take care of as they wished. They didn’t have to hand virus that survives longer (for example, HIV, up to sixteen days) Dad over to a funeral home, or even hire a death midwife. That poses no more harm in a dead body than in a living body. It’s body, for better or worse, belonged to them. Not only was more dangerous to your health to fly on an airplane than it is caring for your own dead legal in California, dead bodies are to be in the same room as a corpse. far from the nefarious creatures the modern death industry has Miss Nakazawa had contacted another funeral home before made them out to be. In Muslim communities, it is considered Westwind, but was told her mother absolutely had to be a “meritorious deed” to wash and shroud the dead in a ritual embalmed if the family wanted to see her again. “We don’t

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 19 want Mom embalmed,” she said. “She was a Buddhist and powder-blue polyester suit with the ruffled tuxedo shirt. didn’t want that, but the funeral director told me we had to Holding up his arm to wash it, I paused: I was comfortable. embalm the body for health reasons.” I wanted other people to know that they could do this too. Great. So two “professionals” in one day told this woman The washing, the comfort. This confident, stable feeling was that her dead mother was a ticking time bomb of highly haz- available to anyone, if society could overcome the burden of ardous deadness that was going to infect her whole family. superstition. Embalmers embalm because they think it makes the corpse Ten months into my job at Westwind, I knew death was the look better, because they’ve been told it’s what’s “right” and life for me. I wanted to teach people to take care of their own “decent,” and because it makes it easier to control the viewing. dead like our ancestors used to. Washing the corpse themselves. Also, they get paid for it. Not because the microorganisms Taking firm control of their fear. Several options presented present in an un-embalmed body pose any threat to a family. themselves. The first was to pack my bags and steal away in Now that we have a sophisticated understanding of germ the night, leaving the crematory to join the death midwives. theory and the science of death, police detectives and funeral This would mean abandoning the funeral industry and the professionals have no excuse for saying that proximity to the security and legitimacy (deserved or not) it provided. I didn’t dead will harm the living. mind leaving behind the commercialism and up-selling parts of Because of superstition, unquestioned even among those the industry. The problem was, as a general rule, the midwives who should know better, this woman wasn’t given the oppor- were far more, shall we say, spiritual than I was. I had no moral tunity to sit with her mother until, as a friend of mine put it, objection to sacred oils, incense, and death chakras, but as her grieving “felt . . . done, somehow.” She missed her chance much as I respected these women, I did not want to pretend for closure. A corpse doesn’t need you to remember it. In fact, death was a “transition” when I really thought of it as, well, a it doesn’t need anything anymore—it’s more than happy to lie death. Done. Finito. Secular to a fault. there and rot away. It is you who needs the corpse. Looking My second option was to attend mortuary school, but that at the body you understand the person is gone, no longer an meant going even deeper into the industry and all its ghastly active player in the game of life. Looking at the body you see practices. yourself, and you know that you, too, will die. The visual is a “You know you don’t need to go to mortuary school, Caitlin,” call to self-awareness. It is the beginning of wisdom. Mike (the crematory manager, and my boss) told me. “Why When a death occurs on the Indonesian island of Java, the would you put yourself through that?” whole town is obligated to attend the funeral. The body is Mike had not gone to mortuary school himself, the fortu- stripped of clothing, the jaw closed with a cloth tied around nate beneficiary of a California state law that doesn’t require the head, and the arms crossed over the chest. Close relatives of classwork to become a licensed funeral director. A degree in the deceased wash the body, holding the corpse on their laps, anything (looking at you, BA in basket weaving), a lack of felo- positioned so the living are soaked in the water as well. The nies, and a passing score on a single test, and you’re in the club. idea of cradling the dead this way, according to anthropologist But now that I had embraced my calling as a mortician, I Clifford Geertz, “is called being tegel—able to do something wanted to know everything, understand everything. I could odious, abominable, and horrible without flinching, to stick run to the fringes or I could go back to school for another it out despite an inward fear and revulsion.” The mourners degree, learn how to embalm, and see firsthand what they perform this ritual to become iklas, detached from the pain. were teaching. As much as the death midwives’ practices Embracing and washing the corpse allows them to face their appealed to me, I didn’t want to throw pebbles at an iron discomfort head-on, and move to a place where “their hearts fortress. I wanted to be on the inside. I decided to apply to are already free.” mortuary school. Just in case. Even if she didn’t realize it, this is the type of closure Jeremy’s sister wanted as well. After she left Westwind, at last convinced This article was adapted from Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: And Jeremy’s body hadn’t been cremated on the sly, I stood over him Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty. Copyright in the prep room. I read the story his tattoos told and forced ©2014 by Caitlin Doughty. Printed with permission of the pub- out of my head the uneasy voice that had narrated my rookie lisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. months at Westwind, suggesting that perhaps his hand would rise up and seize mine, keeping me forever on edge. Nor did I worry that I was somehow going to mishandle or break his Caitlin Doughty is a licensed mortician and the creator and host of the body. I thought instead of what his tattoos meant, and about Ask a Mortician web series. She founded The Order of the Good Death how some people would look at this man and judge him as (a death-acceptance collective) and cofounded Death Salon. Her latest dirty, a criminal. project is Undertaking LA, a funeral service alternative to mainstream He had been a criminal, but he was also beautiful. I wasn’t options in Los Angeles. there to judge, only to make him clean and dress him in his

20 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org A Secular Stoic Perspective on Death Massimo Pigliucci

onsider for a moment the following quote: that Stoicism represents a powerful alternative secular philos- C ophy for modern times, akin to secular humanism (which has Reflect that the dead suffer no evils, that all those stories which taken a lot from Stoicism and other so-called virtue-ethical make us dread the nether world are mere fables, that he who approaches) and to secular Buddhism. Indeed, the analogies dies need fear no darkness, no prison, no blazing streams of between Stoicism and Buddhism are many and intriguing, and fire, no river of Lethe, no judgment seat before which he must it is not too far off the mark to think of the first one as the appear, and that Death is such utter freedom that he need fear Western equivalent of the latter. (There are some major dif- no more despots. All that is a phantasy of the poets, who have terrified us without a cause. . . . Death is neither a good nor a ferences too, of course, stemming at the least in part from the bad thing, for that alone which is something can be a good or fact that, unlike Stoicism, Buddhism has had an uninterrupted a bad thing: but that which is nothing, and reduces all things history of more than two and a half millennia, during which to nothing, does not hand us over to either fortune, because time it has split into a number of highly divergent branches: good and bad require some material to work upon. some more religious; others mystical; yet others decidedly ratio- It sounds like something Carl Sagan may have said, except for nalistic in nature.) the somewhat arcane language. If I told you that it is ancient and asked you to guess its source, I imag- ine you might suggest that it is from Epicurus, who was famous for expressing similar sentiments, or from the Roman poet Lucretius, whose De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) is a beautiful “. . . Stoicism represents a powerful alternative secular exposition of Epicurean philosophy in verse. philosophy for modern times, akin to secular In fact, the quote is from another Roman, the Stoic philosopher Seneca, who was advisor to the humanism . . . and to secular Buddhism.” young Emperor Nero and who was ordered to commit suicide by the latter when Seneca’s and Nero’s political visions, shall we say, diverged beyond the point of reconciliation. Stoicism has seen a resurgence over the past few decades. To make my case, and to reconnect it to the theme of death Even though it has not been an active philosophical school and dying, let me give you a very, very short introduction to since the end of the Roman Empire, it has influenced a num- Stoicism. The school was started by Zeno of Citium in about 300 ber of important Western thinkers, including Rene Descartes BCE in Athens. It moved then to Rome and spread throughout and Baruch Spinoza. It has been jolted back into action by the the empire, where for centuries it was the rival of Epicureanism, fact that a number of evidence-based psychotherapies—Victor Platonism, Aristotelianism, and eventually Christianity. Frankl’s logotherapy, Albert Ellis’s Rational Emotive Behavior Stoicism is a thoroughly naturalistic philosophy. Even though Therapy, and the increasingly diversified family of cognitive the Stoics talked about “god” and “soul,” they meant by those behavioral therapies—have been directly inspired by Stoic phi- terms, respectively, the rational principle permeating the cos- losophy and practice. Meanwhile, Seneca’s philosophical letters mos and the rational principle allowing human reasoning. Both and essays have been studied over the centuries, and two of principles corresponded to material things, as the Stoics rejected the major extant texts of ancient Stoicism—Marcus Aurelius’s the idea of the supernatural altogether. Moreover, they were Meditations and Epictetus’s Manual—have been in print ever what we would call “determinists”: they accepted that the uni- since there has been such a thing as print. verse is governed by cause and effect—no miracles are allowed. However interesting all of the above may be, why am I writ- The Stoics thought that the point of studying philosophy was ing about Stoicism in Free Inquiry? I have become convinced to understand “ethics,” by which they meant much more than

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 21 the modern interpretation of the term. Ethics for the ancient years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your Greco-Romans was the study of how to properly live one’s life power, be good.” while being the best human one could be. In order to do so, Contra popular mythology, the Stoics counseled neither however, the Stoics thought one needed to muster two other suppression of one’s emotions nor detachment from worldly fields, which they called “physics” and “logic.” By “physics” they affairs. They simply thought that everything we do should be meant the whole of the natural sciences, as well as metaphysics; assessed in the proper perspective. Contemplating the vast- by “logic” they meant a theory of proper reasoning, a theory ness and age of the cosmos, as Marcus Aurelius often did, is of knowledge (epistemology), and an account of the ways in no reason for nihilistic despair. On the contrary: since we have which human beings make reasoning mistakes (psychology). In little time to act, we had better act here and now, without other words, in order to know how to live your life you need to postponing things or wasting our time on irrelevancies. After understand both the nature of the universe (so you can judge all, the famous Stoics we know of were teachers, politicians, and your place in it) and human nature (so that you can correct what generals—all people who very much thought that they could is deficient in yourself and nurture what is good). change the world by engaging in it. (Most of them, naturally, As for ethics in particular—which is what concerns us the were men, but historical records reveal that Stoicism had one most in the present context—the Stoics thought that the point of the highest adherences of any ancient philosophy among of a human life was to live rationally as a social being, or, as women, a few of whose names—such as Porcia Catonis—have Seneca put it: “Bring the mind to bear upon your problems.” survived.) There is a second important aspect of the Stoic attitude toward death that, I think, speaks to modern secular sensitivities: suicide. There are many stories about Stoic suicide. The school’s founder, Zeno, was said to have com- “. . . The Stoics thought that the point of a human life mitted suicide once he was so old and frail was to live rationally as a social being. . . . I hope you can that he judged that he had nothing more to see why these ideas . . . should be very appealing to contribute and was becoming a burden to his friends and family. Cato the Younger (Porcia’s a secular-minded community.” father) was an enemy of Julius Caesar (whom he saw as a tyrant bent on destroying the Roman Republic) and took his own life rather than be captured by Caesar and be exploited for political gain. This could best be done by cultivating four fundamental char- Here is an important passage from Epictetus on suicide: “Pain acter traits called “virtues” (from the Greek word arete, which too is just a scary mask: look under it and you will see. The body means excellence): practical wisdom (the ability to successfully sometimes suffers, but relief is never far behind. And if that navigate complex situations); courage (not just in the phys- isn’t good enough for you, the door stands open; otherwise ical sense of the term); justice (in the social dimension); and put up with it. The door needs to stay open no matter what the self-control (so that one wouldn’t ruin one’s life by indulging circumstances, with the result that our problems disappear.” in excesses). I hope you can see why these ideas, translated and The first part of this passage is an example of the famous updated to modern thought and informed by the intervening Stoic attitude toward suffering (both physical and psycholog- progress in philosophy and science, should be very appealing ical), based on endurance. Few hardships, according to the to a secular-minded community. Stoics, cannot be overcome by the prepared mind; a modern example of this was U.S. Navy Vice Admiral James Stockdale, ut the topic that we are dealing with here is death, so let who credited his readings of Epictetus while at Stanford for Bus go back to it. As we have seen with Seneca above, the his surviving seven years of prison and torture in the infamous Stoics thought that death is both natural and something not “Hanoi Hilton” during the Vietnam War. to be afraid of. But it is also something that we do well to keep But some circumstances really are too much for anyone to in mind, as a reminder of who we are and an incentive to take bear (for example, the inevitable decline toward the end of advantage of every moment of our lives. Marcus Aurelius, the one’s life), or there may be instances where it is worthwhile to emperor-philosopher, put it this way: “A limit of time is fixed sacrifice oneself for others or for a just cause (for instance, the for you, which if you do not use for clearing away the clouds first responders to the attacks on September 11, 2001). In such of your mind, it will go and you will go, and it will never re- cases, says Epictetus, “the door is open,” meaning that one has turn. . . . Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand the option to leave life if one has determined that it is no longer

22 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org DEATH: THOUGHTS ON THE FINAL SUBJECT

worth living. Indeed, he says, the door must be open, because is intelligible by way of reason, the so-called “Einstein God”): it is in part that possibility of a final escape that gives us the “Whether the universe is a concourse of atoms, or nature is a fortitude of character to stay and fight another day—against system, let this first be established: that I am a part of the whole disease, injustice, or whatever it is that we are facing. that is governed by nature; next, that I stand in some intimate I find this philosophy both very powerful (and empower- connection with other kindred parts.” ing) and remarkably modern. One sees none of the stigma In this and other passages, Marcus Aurelius is saying that commonly attached to suicide, fear of death, or longing for an whether the metaphysics will turn out one way or the other, afterlife that doesn’t exist. The Stoic life unfolds hic et nunc, in our role remains the same: to do the best we can to live a the here and now, because that is how a human being can best meaningful and productive life. This sort of ecumenism is unfor- fulfill his or her nature of a social animal capable of reason. It tunately missing from a lot of modern debates, where one side is a message that modern freethinkers are likely to agree with casts the other as evil or stupid, and it is worth meditating on regardless of whether they are willing to accept other aspects the simple fact that regardless of our opinions, we are indeed of Stoic philosophy. part of a whole, and we do have deep connections with other such parts. et me conclude with one more quote from Marcus Aurelius. LIt addresses one of the aspects of Stoicism that may be at first sight least appealing to modern secularists: the idea that the Massimo Pigliucci is the K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City world is governed by a rational principle, the Logos. Historically, College of New York. He was a long-time columnist for Skeptical that has been interpreted both religiously (by a number of an- Inquirer and has written a number of books, more recently coediting cient Stoics, as well as by Christians inspired by Stoicism) and in Philosophy of Pseudoscience (Chicago Press, 2013). a secular fashion (as simply the observation that the universe

Tibor R. Machan, 1939–2016

Tibor Machan came to the United States a PhD in Philosophy at the University of as a teenager from Hungary in the 1950s, California, Santa Barbara, by 1965. During his secret passage arranged by his fam- his long career, he was a research fellow, ily struggling with communist rule and a visiting professor, a board member of unrest that led to the failed Hungarian foundations and think tanks, a syndicated Revolution. By the time of his death on and freelance columnist, and an author of March 24, 2016, at the age of seven- more than one hundred scholarly papers ty-seven, Machan had built a distinguished and forty books. His work focused on ethics career as an academic, a publisher, and (particularly business ethics) and political an author with an international network philosophy and touched on objectivism, of friends and colleagues. He was a close epistemology, free will, secularism, natu- associate of the late Paul Kurtz, founder ralism, and animal rights. His book Classical of Free Inquiry, writing articles and contrib- Individualism: The Supreme Importance of uting a regular column for more than ten Each Human Being (Routledge, 1998) is years, ending in late 2013. Until the end of considered to be the fullest expression of 2014, Machan held the R. C. Hoiles Chair of his thinking on ethics. Business Ethics and Free Enterprise at the Perhaps Machan will be most remem- “Tibor Machan was Free Inquiry’s lib- Argyros School of Business and Economics bered for his role in publishing the liber- ertarian gadfly, speaking for—and to—a at Chapman University. tarian magazine Reason and the establish- persistent and vocal minority among its After arriving in the United States in ment of the Reason Foundation. He and readers,” said FI editor Tom Flynn. “He was 1956, Machan began his university stud- two others took over Reason’s publication at his best when challenging a liberal con- ies, earning an undergraduate degree in the late 1970s, with Machan contribut- sensus to acknowledge other views.” at Claremont McKenna College (then ing his scholarly training and passion for Claremont Men’s College), an MA in individual liberty and a free society to the —Andrea Szalanski, Free Philosophy at New York University, and enterprise. Inquiry managing editor

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 23 Would You Pray with a Dying Believer?

PostSecret is “an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.” The website posts many of the postcards it receives. In 2015, PostSecret published a submission that contained the following message typed over an image of an empty hospital bed: I don’t believe in god when i was 19 my mom was on her death bed and asked me to pray for her I told her I couldn’t because I would by [sic] lying now she’s gone forever, and I feel like I failed her as a daughter By design, notes sent to PostSecret are brief and unsigned, so we don’t have any additional information about this woman’s specific situation. However, it’s safe to say she’s not the first or last nonbeliever with a dying parent or family member who will be faced with such a dilemma. What is a secular humanist to do under these circumstances? To pray or not to pray? We put the question to two writers on opposite sides of this conundrum. —Simon Davis Reprinted with permission.

Why This Atheist Would Why This Atheist Would Not Matthew Facciani Heina Dadabhoy

n the first Hunger Games movie, Katniss sang to her t can be downright cruel for an out atheist to pray with friend Rue as Rue lay dying from an injury. Katniss wasn’t a theist relative on his or her deathbed: it’s cruel to the Ia singer and probably would rather not have gone Irelative, cruel to the atheist, cruel to anyone even mar- around singing on an active battlefield, but she knew ginally involved, and cruel to the nonreligious in general. this would comfort her dying friend during Rue’s last few There are many reasons. moments alive. As an atheist, I see praying with a dying Blatantly Insulting to the Theist’s Faith loved one as very similar to what Katniss did. It’s simply an act of compassion. By the internal logic of most versions of theism, it would be My atheism merely states my lack of belief in god. What I insulting, not comforting, for an eternally damned apostate do believe is much more important, and many of my beliefs atheist to pretend to pray for and with a theist. Aren’t lying derive from secular-humanist principles. One of these prin- and hypocrisy condemned by most, if not all, religions? ciples is reducing suffering whenever and wherever I can. So What a mockery of any believer it would be for an atheist if I can comfort someone during the final few moments of to pretend to supplicate to a being in which he or she does his or her life, I’m all for it. I may not be supercomfortable not believe. pretending to pray, but at that moment the focus shouldn’t Giving False Hope be on me. We all cope in different ways, and even though I don’t think there is a god, I can use what someone else Back when I was a Muslim, I shed endless tears and whis- believes to reduce his or her suffering. pered infinite, fervent prayers for the people in my life who

24 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org Like everything else, my position becomes more compli- weren’t Muslims, as well as for those Muslims who did not cated when considered more carefully. Again, I’m a human- adhere overmuch to Islam. I prayed that their good deeds ist, so I adhere to several core humanist principles. One of and upstanding character would be enough to save them those principles is to reduce suffering when I’m able, but from the eternal hellfire that seemed promised to them in another is to be honest and try to understand reality as best the Qur’an for their lack of belief and unrepentant sinful- I can. So if I were to pretend to pray, that would be dishon- ness. I was hardly unaware of my own sinfulness, which is est and not truly reflect on what I think is reality. My own why I never personally judged them or condemned them, beliefs now face some conflict—but so what? but I knew where my beliefs stood in regard to people who Sometimes not everything is about oneself. In this made the choices in life that they had. I supplicated for their situation, I would be slightly uncomfortable for a few forgiveness, which I knew was possible through Allah’s mercy. moments—at most—in order to make the dying person’s Now that I am an atheist, many of the theists who truly last minutes on Earth more peaceful. To me that is a more care about me have, at some point, hoped aloud that I will than fair trade-off, and I’m happy to do it. Some may argue someday revert to Islam (or convert to their own faith, if it that pretending to pray with a dying religious person could isn’t Islam). I suspect that even the theists who stay silent mute an atheist’s identity, but I disagree with that as well. on the matter—as I did when I was a believer—feel the Yes, atheists are forced to “shut up” all the time in reli- same way. If you are a compassionate person who sincerely gious societies because of the fear of being ostracized or believes in a religion and you fraternize with people who do even physically harmed. Yes, atheist identities are muted not adhere to it, feeling pain regarding the ultimate fate of quite often around the world. But there are many other your nonbelieving or non-adherent loved ones is a sad part opportunities to fight against atheist discrimination. What of everyday life. do we really achieve by upsetting a dying person by saying that there is no god right before he or she dies? Even if you argue that atheists are being muted and that they should always be honest, the dying person will be gone soon any- way! What significant impact could you have, even from the standpoint of atheist activism? Despite my position on pretending to pray if someone “Just because someone is dying doesn’t is dying, I think that atheists shouldn’t pretend to pray in more everyday scenarios. For example, if a child who make it suddenly okay to deceive them!” doesn’t want to is forced to pray during school, he or she should absolutely speak up! If a religious person is going through a rough time and wants an atheist friend to pray with him or her, the atheist friend is totally in the right to say no! Theists should understand that many atheists have been harmed by religion, so asking them to pray in more everyday scenarios can be hurtful, in addition to While alleviating that pain on someone’s deathbed might going against what they believe and muting their identity. seem a good thing at first glance, it may prove to be less Ultimately, it’s all about picking our battles. positive. By praying after having come out as nonreligious, So while I agree that atheists definitely need to speak the atheist is signaling “I’ve reverted,” which—however out about their atheism and the harm done by religion, I do comforting another might find it—is a lie. Just because not think a believer’s last minutes of life is the time or place someone is dying doesn’t make it suddenly okay to deceive to do so. The world is a messy and difficult place, and we them! Shifting gears at the very end in the name of comfort often need to make decisions that do not have perfect out- is rather patronizing. comes. But ultimately if we care about making the world a But if the atheist hasn’t yet come out, then by all means better place, sometimes that means going through minor it makes sense to continue the farce. Maintaining a certain discomfort to express compassion. level of deception regarding one’s beliefs is one’s right. Suddenly taking up lying is hardly as ethical. Flipping the situation makes the truth rather clear: Should one suddenly reveal one’s atheism to a theist relative on his or her death- bed, after having been consistently deceptive about it prior Matthew Facciani is a sociology PhD student, gender equality activist, to that moment? I think I’d be hard-pressed to find anyone and science communicator. who would answer “yes” to that.

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 25 Legitimizing Emotional Blackmail Furthering the Oppression of the Nonreligious Many apostates have been condemned and harmed by their When this question was discussed in the Patheos online com- former religion and its adherents. Some have emotional and munity (sparked by the PostSecret image discussed previously psychological damage that could be triggered or otherwise in which an atheist regrets not having prayed with her dying worsened by pretending to believe again. There are often good, mother), a rather disturbing message surfaced in the comments. strong reasons both for why they both left their religions and The idea that atheists need to be far “nicer” to theists than most came out to their family about it. That a family member is dying theists would ever be to us is abhorrent. I was personally mocked doesn’t delegitimize those reasons in the slightest. and berated for my stance by some commenters. It appears that If a dying family member knows this and still asks that the even atheist-oriented blogs aren’t safe spaces for people who atheist engage in a religious act for his or her sake, this might will not (or cannot) live deceptively to appease the feelings of be an effort to use the emotionally charged situation to strong- the theist majority. arm the atheist into pretending to be religious again. While this Sure, being an atheist on its own is not much of a claim of scenario may sound far-fetched to some, it is the cold reality for oppression in the United States. But what if you are an African- others. For many apostates, dealing with emotional blackmail American atheist? An ex-Muslim in Saudi Arabia? A skeptic in on the part of family members is an all-too-common occurrence. India? To learn by example that the more-privileged American “I’m on my last breath . . . please, I beg you, pray for me” isn’t atheists who don’t hail from scary fundamentalist backgrounds are happy to give into the demands of theists is hardly heartening. If members of the most-privi- leged nonreligious group refuse to stand up and affirm that their feelings are just as valid as those “For many apostates, dealing with emotional of believers, what hope do the more marginalized have? blackmail on the part of family members is What If I Am an Atheist Who Would Pray? an all-too-common occurrence.” Ultimately, people will do what they will regardless of any number of arguments. Closeted atheists will stay closeted for as long as they feel it is appro- priate, for reasons that may be selfish, legitimate, that different from “You’re killing your father with your stub- or some combination of both. Others will be open about their bornness”; “If you loved us, you’d listen to us”; “I carried you atheism but will cave into the demands of theists when pressed. for nine months, I know better than you what is good for you”; My fight is not about the choices made by either group but “Just as I used to stop you from touching the stove as a baby out with those who shroud either choice in sanctimonious self-jus- of love, I now force you into religion to save you from hellfire”; tification. Stripped of extreme circumstances, deception is not “Can’t you pretend for the sake of your family? Don’t you love the virtuous, morally superior, or kind choice. It would take an us?”; and “I cry all the time and can’t sleep because I worry about argument far more convincing than the blithe “What’s the harm your soul.” A deathbed guilt-trip is no less unethical than any in being ‘nice’?”–type sophistries I’ve encountered to convince of the other ones preceding it in the course of a relationship. me otherwise. In that context, the request for prayer is a last-ditch effort Unless I hear a better argument for deception on a relative’s to manipulate and control. Why legitimize that tactic for the deathbed, if I am ever the recipient of such a request, I will say benefit of someone who is going to be dead soon anyway? That “You pray. I’m here with you,” while holding my loved one’s benefit would die shortly with the relative, while the harm done hand. will echo on for years to come in the living atheist. The harms associated with legitimizing emotional blackmail extend far beyond what is done to the individual in question. It sets a frightening precedent for those around them, especially within extended family structures. Some people are simply less able to lie and pretend than others. Those people are the ones Heina Dadabhoy is a former practicing Muslim and currently proudly out who are punished most harshly when others more skilled in atheist who blogs at Heinous Dealings on the Orbit Network and is now deceit give in to pressure. “Why can’t you at least fake it like writing A Skeptic’s Guide to Islam. Deceptive Person did?” is one of the many weapons used to punish people who live honestly and consistently.

26 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org Three Minutes before Midnight An Interview with Lawrence Krauss about the Future of Humanity

Phil Torres

can’t think of a more important question than whether humanity will survive the twenty-first century. Human civili- I zation is a grand experiment—perhaps the only such exper- iment ever conducted in the universe*—and right now the results are inconclusive. For most of our history, we were haunted by a small flock of “existential risks” from nature, which we might call our “cosmic risk background.” But this changed in 1945, when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese archipelago, thereby inaugurating the Atomic Age. With the creation of nuclear weapons, humanity introduced the very first anthropogenic existential risk—a turning point after which self-annihilation became a real, and terrifying, Lawrence Krauss possibility. Since then, many additional risks with existen- tial implications have appeared on the threat hori- zon—climate change, biodiversity loss, engineered pathogens, self-replicating nanobots, and even rogue “With the creation of nuclear weapons, humanity superintelligences that harvest humanity for our atoms. These possibilities gesture at a wild future introduced the very first anthropogenic existential risk. . . .” of exotic new threats, but by many accounts it’s the future toward which Homo sapiens is rushing, pro- pelled by the exponential development of advanced technologies and our ability to force global-scale changes to the climate and biosphere. (of the Millerites), Martin Luther, Irenaeus (an early church Perhaps one is skeptical at this point about the degree to father), and the Apostle Paul. Indeed, most New Testament which existential apprehension is warranted. After all, the scholars today maintain that Jesus himself was a failed apoc- ancient roads of history are littered with end-times alarmists alyptic prophet who expected an imminent end to the world who shouted that the world was about to end. For example, (see Matthew 24:34). readers might recognize the name of Harold Camping, an The point is that every generation has claimed the unique American evangelist who incorrectly predicted the world’s status of being the last, only to be embarrassed by the con- supernatural destruction on May 21, 2011. But he is by no tinued existence of our pale blue dot. But a history of people means unusual within the Abrahamic traditions. With respect crying wolf without a subsequent attack doesn’t mean that a to Christianity, the lineage of failed prophets stretches back vicious canine isn’t creeping up behind us. The one and only ages, through Edgar Whisenant, Hal Lindsey, William Miller thing that matters when evaluating apocalyptic claims is the *Then again, perhaps ours is one of millions of civilizations, all of which epistemological basis upon which they stand. For secular phi- have self-destructed. losophers such as myself, it’s no surprise at all that so many past

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 27 prophets have been dead wrong about their predictions: faith For example, the director of FHI, Nick Bostrom, argues that and revelation are never good bases for truth claims about the the likelihood of an existential catastrophe occurring before the past, present, or future of the universe. twenty-second century is at least 25 percent, and he adds that In contrast, the declarations of possible doom made by “the best estimate may be considerably higher.” Meanwhile, contemporary scientists are based not on faith and revelation the cofounder of CSER, the cosmologist Sir Martin Rees, claims but evidence and reason: our very best, albeit fallible, guides that the odds of survival this century are the same as getting a to truth. Even the more speculative risks that have been dis- “heads” after flipping a coin: a mere 50 percent. These dismal cussed—such as the possibility of a mean-spirited superin- figures are—one might be surprised to know—fairly representa- telligence dismantling the biosphere or humanity living in a tive of the opinions of other experts in the field. Indeed, I would supercomputer simulation that gets shut down—involve ideas argue that Rees’s figure is plausible, although I think that one that are constrained by what current science tells us is possible could make a case that, if anything, it’s overly optimistic (due to and what current social and technological trends suggest is what I call the “New Doomsday Argument).”* The point is that probable. As the great Scottish philosopher David Hume might the most knowledgeable scholars are often, but not always, the say if he were to join the conversation at this point: it’s not that most skeptical about our future survival on spaceship Earth. wise people are never afraid; it’s that they proportion their While FHI and CSER are fairly young institutions, having fears to the best available evidence, considered as a whole. This emerged in the past decade and a half, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a much-older organization whose focus has been less futurological and, instead, directed more toward immediate global threats. It was founded shortly after “. . . A history of people crying wolf without a World War II by a group of physicists horrified subsequent attack doesn’t mean that a vicious by the catastrophic destruction unleashed canine isn’t creeping up behind us.” by the weaponized atom. The initial aim of the Bulletin was to educate the public about the existential dangers of nuclear weapons. Toward this aim it created the Doomsday Clock—a metaphorical mechanism that tracks is precisely what scientists and philosophers today are doing, our collective nearness to annihilation over time by moving the and it’s why their claims ought to be heeded while those of minute hand toward or away from midnight, which represents religious prophets should be dismissed as unfounded nonsense. doom. Since its inception in 1947, the clock’s minute hand has The result of this incursion of scientific thinking into the changed positions a total of twenty-one times, getting as close once-purely theological arena of eschatology—or the study as two minutes before midnight in 1953, after the United States of the end of the world—is a new field called “Existential and the Soviet Union detonated hydrogen bombs, and as far Risk Studies.” Although people have worried about a secular away as seventeen minutes, at the end of what we might call apocalypse at least since the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bomb- the First Cold War. (There appears to be a new, Second Cold ings, Existential Risk Studies as a proper field of inquiry can be War brewing between the United States and Russia right traced back to a brilliant 1996 book by the philosopher John now, as the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev recently Leslie, appropriately titled The End of the World. In the years suggested.) since, a number of institutions dedicated to understanding our Unfortunately, since being set at 11:43 back in 1991, the existential predicament using the tools of scientific inquiry have Doomsday Clock’s minute hand has steadily moved closer to popped up, such as the Future of Humanity Institute (FHI) at midnight. For example, in 2015, the Science and Security Board Oxford University and the Centre for the Study of Existential of the Bulletin decided to move the minute hand forward from Risks (CSER) at Cambridge University. The central idea behind five minutes to a mere three minutes before midnight, as a these institutions is that the threat of annihilation today is result of the ongoing threat posed by nuclear weapons and genuine, and it might even be growing due to increasingly pow- the slow-motion catastrophe of climate change. Then, just erful “dual-use” artifacts. Indeed, according to some existential last January, the Bulletin announced that it would keep the riskologists, not only are there far more annihilation scenarios Doomsday Clock set at an ominous 11:57, despite two “small than ever before in our history (nuclear weapons didn’t exist bright spots in a darker world situation full of potential for before 1945!), but the probability of a scenario occurring has catastrophe”: the Iran nuclear deal, which effectively prevents risen significantly as well. *www.goo.gl/DMFXm4.

28 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org DEATH: THOUGHTS ON THE FINAL SUBJECT

Iran from building a nuclear weapon in exchange for the lifting modernizing their nuclear weapons fleets, which is counter to of economic sanctions; and the Paris climate agreement, which the spirit, if not the letter, of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. You aims to keep global surface temperatures from exceeding 1.5 also have North Korea, India, and Pakistan. These are worrisome degrees Celsius relative to preindustrial levels. [nuclear states], and I think that if it hadn’t been for the Iran deal—and this is just a personal view—the clock could very urious about the Bulletin’s decision, I contacted Dr. Lawrence well have been moved forward. But the last time we left the CKrauss, a world-renowned cosmologist, chair of the Bulletin’s clock stable and didn’t move it, we called on world leaders and Board of Sponsors, author of A Universe from Nothing, and an governments to address these problems, and more or less none honorary board member of the Center for Inquiry. have been addressed. So that’s probably the most important Over Skype, we had a pleasant conversation about an reason for keeping it the same. unpleasant topic (it could only have been enhanced by the Torres: The Bulletin’s official press release specifically criti- absence of digital mediation and the presence of a glass— cizes the Republican Party for “[standing] alone in the world or three—of wine). I was especially eager to know Krauss’s in failing to acknowledge even that human-caused climate thoughts about the future of our threat situation in the cosmos change is a problem.” And the Bulletin’s press conference and how religious belief—which a 2015 Pew poll projects will included references to the difficult “political climate” in which increase in the coming decades, with more than 60 percent the Obama administration forged the Iran nuclear deal. Some of people being either Christian or Muslim by 2050—could people might see this as a partisan attack on the Republicans nudge civilization toward collapse. As I’ve written elsewhere from—well, you’re a progressive atheist, for instance. Do you on a number of occasions, the growing power of emerging think it’s unfair to single out a political party like this? technologies means that we’re no longer irre- sponsible kids playing around with matches; we’re irresponsible kids playing around with flamethrowers that could easily burn down the entire global village. And perhaps the most “. . . Not only are there far more annihilation scenarios than obvious example of our irresponsibility as a species is our continued romance with ancient ever before in our history . . . but the probability of a scenario myths about what the world is like and, even occurring has risen significantly as well.” more dangerously, how it ought to be. Unless we grow up—and fast—we could be headed for serious trouble. (Secular humanists, take note: our mission is even more important than we might have realized.) Krauss: No. It was kind of an amazing thing for the Bulletin to say—and an unfortunate thing for us to have to say. It’s not Phil Torres: Thanks so much for chatting with me. To begin, partisan at all. These are neither Democratic nor Republican why did the Bulletin decide to keep the Doomsday Clock set issues. What’s unfortunate is that if you look at the modern at three minutes before midnight? Is the fact that the minute industrial world, for better or worse there’s this anomaly right hand wasn’t moved forward good news? now that the Republican Party is the only major political orga- Dr. Lawrence Krauss: I don’t think it’s good news at all. It’s nization that’s propagating myths about climate change. It’s only good news when the hand is moved back. The point was, particularly climate change that was addressed. It is true also there are a lot of reasons to move it forward and backward, that at this point any major nuclear weapons agreement seems and we kind of figured that they cancelled out. There’s been to be stalled—or dead—in the House and Senate. But I think some good news: the Iran [nuclear] deal and the Paris [climate] there we were talking more about the dysfunctional state of accords. These were two bits of positive news. But at the same the U.S. government system rather than the Republican Party. time, the Paris accords really don’t do anything. They’re just a You know, nothing the president wants to do is approved. But first step, and no country is required to do something about I think that [calling out the Republicans over] climate change climate change. is a real statement. In fact, we’ve had international members And then countering the Iran deal is some real saber-rattling of the Bulletin who point out that we don’t find incoherent in terms of nuclear weapons with Russia, with a major govern- anti–climate-change propaganda coming from any major ment figure saying that we could reduce America to ash. This political party of any major industrialized country except for country [the United States] and Russia are both committed to the United States.

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 29 Torres: That’s truly an incredible situation—to have a politi- two phenomena in the future? (After all, climate change has cal party that’s literally pushing civilization toward the precipice often been described as a “conflict multiplier.”) What about of disaster. interactions between other risks looming in the future? Krauss: You can say that again. Krauss: We do look at everything, and we try to bring in Torres: Let me ask about the Doomsday Clock itself. It is, experts to address different issues. There is a connection, in fact, arguably, a somewhat confusing metaphor for conveying the because we talk not just about nuclear weapons but nuclear overall level of global risk. What’s the best way to interpret power as it applies to nuclear proliferation. So there’s a con- it? What exactly does three minutes before midnight mean? nection right there: nuclear power is one source of potential And how exactly does the Bulletin decide where to place the energy production that doesn’t generate carbon dioxide or minute hand each year? other greenhouse gases. There’s a motivation in some sense Krauss: What’s really important if you look at the Bulletin is to incorporate nuclear power in the set of tools one has to try the derivative, as we say in physics—not the absolute value. Is to address climate change. At the same time, nuclear reactors the world getting safer or closer to a cataclysmic event? And produce waste, which can in itself be dangerous, and they so the absolute value of the clock never really means much. I’ve also can be used to produce enriched fuel to produce fissile been involved in setting the clock for over a decade, and the materials for nuclear weapons. Thus, the safety of these mate- question each time is: Are people acting to make the world a rials is very important. And that’s a scenario that the Bulletin safer place? Part of the purpose of the clock is to offer an oppor- addresses at great length—has always addressed, in fact—in tunity once a year to focus on these big questions. Most of the the Doomsday Clock announcement. It’s an area where there’s time people bury their heads and assume the best, especially clearly a coupling. Interestingly enough, when we look at other areas like cyberterrorism and bioterrorism, we often com- pare, along with our experts, these issues to nuclear weapons, because when we first began to discuss bioterrorism, there were aspects of it that suggested “. . . Cosmologist Sir Martin Rees . . . claims that the to us that it was not much of an issue at first. One is odds of survival this century are the same as getting a that it’s very difficult to broadly disperse a biological agent that could be used by terrorists. You could ‘heads’ after flipping a coin: a mere 50 percent.” create a devastating blow to a locality, but not to global civilization. The other is that to generate seri- ous biothreats, one needs access to laboratories that are rather sophisticated. They sometimes even make nuclear weapons laboratories—or rough nuclear weapons laboratories—look not so sophisticated. So when it comes to nuclear weapons, in spite of the fact that for those reasons it doesn’t loom as high a threat in our minds. there have been many close calls and many times when the And cyberterrorism is an area that’s emerging, and obviously world was on the brink in one way or another. it’s related because one of the relevant questions concerns the The purpose is to really point out that these issues aren’t command and control of weapons, including nuclear weapons. being addressed. We may be lucky and nothing may ever So the notion that hackers might be able to assume command happen, but they’re nonetheless major, major issues. And and control or generate false signals is of great concern. Yes, also to point out to the public—who in the Western world, there are obviously couplings. for the most part, can elect their government officials—that Torres: I see, and I would completely agree. I think one of their governments are not acting in their best interest in this the areas of research that has, to my knowledge, been severely regard. So, if anything, it’s not so much a call to doomsday. under-studied is the complex interactions between multiple We’re just saying that humanity is behaving as if there is no risk scenarios unfolding in parallel, resulting in additive or threat, and there is a threat. In fact, we’re taking actions such as synergistic effects. On a related note, the Bulletin’s official modernizing our nuclear weapons fleet that are antithetical to announcement also mentions emerging technologies, which it the real purpose of defense. People can say, “What does three says “could become a major threat to humanity.” Do you think minutes until midnight really mean?” but to them I would just that fields such as advanced biotechnology, synthetic biology, say that the clock didn’t go backward, and the issues are real. nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence could one day pose Torres: The Bulletin seems to treat nuclear weapons and even greater threats than nuclear weapons? climate change as causally unconnected threats. Do you see Krauss: Well, they can pose greater threats than they do potential interactions, or even a kind of synergy, between these now. And happily within fields such as synthetic biology there

30 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org DEATH: THOUGHTS ON THE FINAL SUBJECT

are a lot of controls that the community is imposing on its own. phone them with questions or issues, politicians will listen. The Many of the other threats are different. It’s hard to imagine in second thing is that we all have access to groups, although the near term any of these threats eclipsing nuclear war as a some of us have bigger soapboxes than others. School groups, global existential threat that can be immediate and long-last- church groups, book clubs—we can all work to educate our- ing. And as I said before, cyberterrorism is difficult to uncouple selves and our local surroundings, on a personal basis, to from it. I mean, destroying the world’s banking system—which address these issues. The last thing anyone should feel is com- could cause devastating lulls—may be one thing, but perhaps a pletely hopeless or powerless. We certainly affect our daily lives more serious existential threat is related to getting command in how we utilize things, but also we affect our community in and control over nuclear weapons. various ways. So, we have to start small, and each of us can do Torres: It’s an unsettling fact that we have increasingly powerful technologies being devel- oped in a world that’s still overflowing with ancient faith-based beliefs about what reality is like and how it should be in the future, according to God’s plans. [As mentioned earlier, a recent Pew poll “In fact, we’re taking actions such as modernizing projects that the nonreligious demographic will our nuclear weapons fleet that are antithetical to the shrink as a percentage of the world population by real purpose of defense.” —Lawrence Krauss 2050.] What role do you think religion could play in inflating the probability of a global catastrophe? Is the “instrumental rationality” of our means begin- ning to dangerously surpass the “moral rationality” of our ends? Krauss: I always view archaic worldviews as a negative. There’s never any way in which they’re positive. that. And, of course, if you’re more interested [in working to Not accepting the world for what it is is always a dangerous reduce the threat of a catastrophe], you can organize a local situation, especially when you’re talking about global threats. group and have sessions in which you educate others about There have been evangelical groups that have spoken out about such issues. The power of voting and the power of education— peace, and some Catholics have been trying to get the Vatican those are the two best strategies. to speak out about nuclear weapons issues, but have not been Torres: Those do go together, in my view, since one must able to so far. So, certainly religious leaders can advocate peace, be sufficiently educated to cast an informed vote. but on the whole, religion is an obstruction to progress. And Krauss: For me, education is incredibly important. We can’t these apocalyptic views make people just resign themselves expect people to act unless they’re aware of the issues or know to saying, “Okay, if this is the end of the world then there’s a how to make themselves aware. As an educator, this is very reason for it.” Or they lead to the equally ridiculous view that important to me. And the Bulletin does precisely this. It’s more God has given us dominion over the earth and will take care than just the Doomsday Clock; it’s an online source of knowledge. of it for us, a view that ignores the reality of climate change Many people, including people in defense and world govern- and its possible devastating impacts. So, one can always find ments, use it to get accurate, nonpartisan information. religious views that get in the way of progress. But the real danger is, as you say, an ancient and outdated understanding This interview was edited for clarity and length. [of reality] that has been subsumed by our current knowledge. We have to get people to accept the world the way it is, and all the world’s religions are in some sense based on ignoring the realities of the world. Torres: I completely agree. This being said, what can “ordi- nary” people do to reduce the threat of annihilation? What actions can we take to maximize the probability of an “okay Phil Torres is the founder of the X-Risks Institute and the author of outcome” for humanity—to borrow a line from Nick Bostrom’s The End: What Science and Religion Tell Us about the Apocalypse “Maxipok rule”? (Pitchstone,­ 2016). He is also a freelance writer focusing on terrorism, Krauss: As responsible citizens, we can vote. We can pose religion, emerging technologies, and existential risks. questions to our political representatives. And that’s a major factor. Politicians actually are accountable, and if lots of people

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 31 How the Nonreligious Are Reshaping American Burial Simon Davis

rior to his death a few years ago, Jim Underdown’s father, The percentage of people expressing the least enthusiasm— James, requested that he be cremated, becoming the those responding that it is “not at all important”—has more Pfirst in his family to do so. A month later, a memorial than doubled in the last three years, from 10.4 percent to 21.4 luncheon was held in Chicago. In accordance with James’s percent. On the other end of the spectrum, the percentage wishes, his cremated remains were scattered in a wooded of people calling a religious component “very important” area in Wisconsin of which he was fond. The decision to forgo has declined from 49.5 percent in 2012 to 42.3 percent in the traditional burial that was the norm in his family was in line same period. A separate survey is conducted every five years with James’s rejection of religion. “He certainly didn’t want by the Funeral and Memorial Information Council (FAMIC), a any churchiness surrounding his death,” said his son, Jim, who trade group representing several associations in the death- is executive director of the Center for Inquiry–Los Angeles. care industry, including the NFDA. In the most recent study, The desire to eschew burial and opt for cremation is becom- in 2015, 91 percent of nonreligious respondents said they’d be “definitely” or “somewhat likely” to consider cremation for a friend or family member. That is by far the highest pro-cremation response rate that FAMIC has recorded—and an all-time high even for “. . . 2015 was projected to be the year that cremation the “Nones” (the other religious groupings FAMIC surpasses burial for the first time in the United States. . . . polled are Catholic, Protest, Baptist, and Other). A key factor driving this is decreased religiosity.” It should be noted that not all religious groups active in the United States either mandate that a body be buried in a typical casket and vault or shun cremation. With the exception of the Eastern Orthodox Church, most Christian denominations no ing more common each year in the United States, largely longer actively oppose cremation. Reform Judaism also permits for similar reasons. According to the annual report of the it. Islam prohibits cremation but mandates burial without a National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) issued last July, casket. On the other hand, Buddhist and Hindu traditions have 2015 was projected to be the year that cremation surpasses long encouraged cremation. burial for the first time in the United States, the culmination of a long-standing trend. A key factor driving this is decreased o be sure, burial need not incorporate a religious ceremony. religiosity. The NFDA’s latest annual report singles it out: “A TSo why is it then that the nonreligious are increasingly surge in the number of Americans that no longer identify with drawn to cremation? Overall, according to Barbara Kemmis, the any religion has contributed to the decline of the historically executive director of the Cremation Association of North Amer- traditional funeral in America—and the rise in cremation as the ica (CANA), cost is the most-cited reason that her organization disposition of choice.” has found in its consumer surveys that people prefer cremation. For the past few years, the NFDA has conducted surveys However, there are other considerations—particularly the flexi- asking Americans forty and older to rank the importance of bility to have a memorial ceremony after some time has passed, including a religious component in the funeral for a loved one. with practically limitless options for venue. Kemmis said that she

32 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org DEATH: THOUGHTS ON THE FINAL SUBJECT

hears the term destination funerals used more often these days. about religion/spirituality” were “significantly associated with In the Underdown family’s case, the month that intervened 40–70 percent less odds of willingness to consider donation.” between James’s death and his memorial service not only gave However, a 2012 PLoS One study that looked at couples’ body his family time to plan it but also allowed more notice for other donations in Hawaii didn’t find a correlation with religious people invited from all over the country so they could attend. observance or lack of it. A CANA infographic shows a very high correlation between Reliable statistics on how many people opt for green burial cremation rates and religiosity among states. (For example, in (inground burial without a casket of a body that has not religious Mississippi, 17.7 percent of the dead are cremated; in been embalmed with formaldehyde) are not readily available. noneligious Oregon, it’s 73.2 percent). However, the Green Burial Council (GBC), a private nonprofit Citing the FAMIC data, Kemmis’s sense is that nonreligious organization that certifies funeral providers and burial grounds, people are also highly likely to not be beholden to what are knows of 115 burial grounds that meet its criteria—a tiny today considered traditional funeral rites—hence, their greater fraction of the estimated hundreds of thousands of cemeter- desire to choose cremation. “When I hear consumers talk about ies in the United States, albeit one that is growing. In April, it, there [might be] balloon releases, [or] dove releases, and dif- GBC published the responses to its survey from thirty-seven ferent things that are unique and personal . . . certainly what no cemeteries in its network. The nonreligious/unaffiliated were one would call ‘traditional,’” she said. This lack of attachment to significantly overrepresented, being 72.7 percent of the total postmortem traditions factored heavily in James Underdown’s number buried in the respondents’ cemeteries, second only to thinking: “He had no feeling of belonging in a place where Protestants at 77 percent. ‘one’s own kind’ would be resting nearby for all time—like a Catholic or Jewish cemetery. He knew that once he was dead, he NFDA projects that by the year 2030, only 23.2 percent it didn’t really matter what happened to his body, because he Tof Americans will be buried in caskets in cemeteries, a sharp would not be able to experience anything anyway,” said Jim. decline from 61.4 percent just ten years ago. Given that growth Are other options besides cremation and burial such as body in the number of American Nones shows no signs of abating, donation or “green” burial seeing similar gains in traction? might this mean a more enduring shift in what Americans NFDA statistics don’t break out selection of these options consider a “traditional” funeral/burial to be? Kemmis believes individually, but the total national percentage they report for cremation is “becoming the new tradition in the United States” these alternatives is 6.9 percent in 2015, an increase from 6.3 for the nonreligious and the religious as well. For the former, percent in 2005. Some states record method of disposition cremation offers a way to create an individualized memorial on the death certificate. Kemmis’s research shows that body service. For the latter, it can be seamlessly incorporated into donation percentages in California and in Arizona, where this traditional practices. She illustrates the point by paraphrasing information is tracked by state agencies, is “well into the dou- what a funeral home outside of Boston that serves predomi- ble digits.” Among people who identify as atheists or secular nantly Catholic families told her: “When a family chooses cre- humanists, body donation may be even more popular. Margaret mation, it’s [just] an extra step. You’ve got the mass, you’ve got Downey is a secular humanist celebrant from Philadelphia who the wake, you go to the cemetery . . . but first we go to the has officiated weddings, baby-naming ceremonies, and funeral crematory.” services across the country for more than a decade. She says that body donation is actually the most frequently chosen This article has been adapted from one posted by the Religion option for those who ask her to officiate at memorial services. News Service on December 17, 2015. From a ceremonial point of view, the main difference from burial or cremation is that cadaver donations are typically done immediately, so services in these cases usually don’t include a Further Reading viewing of the body. Anteby, Michel, Filiz Garip, Paul V. Martorana, and Scott Lozanoff. 2012. Surveys of prospective body donors have not been included “Individuals’ Decision to Co-Donate or Donate Alone: An Archival Study of Married Whole Body Donors in Hawaii.” PLoS One 7, No. in funeral and cremation industry questionnaires, but there 8: e42673. Published online August 7, 2012. has been some research published in medical journals. A 2012 Boulware, L. E., L. E. Ratner, L. A. Cooper, T. A. LaVeist, and N. R. Powe. study in Anatomical Science Education looked at the religious 2004. “Whole Body Donation for Medical Science: A Population- based Study.” Clinical Anatony, October. affiliation of people who had signed up as donors in New Cornwall, J., G. Perry, G. Louw, and M. Stringer. 2012. “Who Donates Zealand, Ireland, and South Africa. The nonreligious were Their Body to Science? An International, Multicenter, Prospective substantially more likely to donate than the general popula- Study.” Anatomical Sciences Education July/August. Green Burial Council. 2015. “Green Burial Cemetery Survey.” January. tion in all countries. A 2004 study of Maryland households in Available at http://greenburialcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/ Clinical Anatomy found that—among other factors—“attitudes 2015/04/2015-GBC-Survey.pdf.pdf, March 7, 2016.

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 33 Protecting Your Service Wishes When

Your Loved Ones Are Religious

f you’re the lone unbeliever or one of very few in your family situation, you may have concerns about loved ones turning your funeral or memorial into a religious occasion that fails to acknowledge—or outright denies—your secular worldview. In that situation, what Ican—and can’t—you do about it in advance? I asked Josh Slocum, executive director of the Funeral Consumers’ Alliance. —Simon Davis Simon Davis: You’re the only atheist or humanist in a devout funeral. So yes, you can easily, and at no cost, cut off your blood family, and you’re concerned that when you die your relatives or marriage kin’s legal rights. They have no standing if you will throw a big religious funeral for you and totally “plow assign that to another adult. Think of it like your health-care under” any acknowledgment of your unbelief. Is there anything proxy/advocate, who has the final say on your medical condi- you can do now, while still alive, to prevent that? tion when you’re unconscious, only extended into death. Josh Slocum: Get comfortable with the reality that you can- Davis: Conversely, is it possible to guarantee that a secular or not and will not ever be able to control what happens after nonreligious memorial gathering will be held? your death. There are ways to plan to avoid some of these cir- Slocum: You can’t compel people to have a certain celebra- cumstances, but nothing is foolproof. Remember that when tion, and you can’t prevent them from having one. Stop and you’re dead you’re not a person anymore with interests. You think about it. How, literally, do you believe it would be possi- won’t be around to hear what people say about you. ble to legally decree that “no one in my family is to go to their church and have a religious service in my memory”? Davis: How can you assure that your desired form of disposition (burial, cremation, body dona- “Get comfortable with the reality that you cannot and will not tion, and so on) is honored? ever be able to control what happens after your death.” Slocum: Your designated agent is the best way to do this. Again, find a person you trust. Find that friend; plan together; give him or her the legal authority, and put your mind at rest. People are going to say awful things about you after you’re Davis: Is it possible to guarantee that any monument or dead (there’s always someone who doesn’t like us), and people headstone doesn’t contain religious symbolism? are going to say wonderful things. Slocum: Once again, there is no physical or legal way to com- Davis: What, if any, are the options for ensuring that your pel anyone even to buy you a tombstone. Or a funeral. Most survivors do not hold an overtly religious funeral or memorial people don’t know this, but next of kin are not bound by law ceremony? to pay for your funeral or incidentals if they don’t want to take Slocum: At bottom, this is about logistics, not specifically on that responsibility. Yes, you can buy your own tombstone about religious vs. secular matters. These conflicts happen in ahead of time, but as a consumer advocate I warn in dire terms all families. The best way to arrange things in advance to your against buying cemetery property far in advance. Buying inter- liking is to legally designate a trusted friend who you know will ment rights ahead of time is risky because you might not be honor your wishes as best as he or she is able. But remember living in the cemetery’s area many years down the road, and that the people you leave behind matter too. You, in death, transporting a casket a long distance can be very costly for your don’t exist anymore. Please try to be kind to the people you survivors. An unneeded grave can be difficult to sell, especially love and ask them what they can manage. Helpful guidelines today when the cremation rate is rising. are more workable. As for pre-purchasing a stone, each cemetery has its own In almost every state, you can legally designate a person rules about the type and size of monuments it will allow to be to be the sole legal authority to direct what happens at your set. If you do move and choose a different cemetery, the stone

34 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org DEATH: THOUGHTS ON THE FINAL SUBJECT

you pre-purchased may not be acceptable there. Finally, the var- once again, the answer is that you need to find a trusted friend ious pre-need funeral plans offered through funeral homes are to designate as your agent. Leave him or her some suggestions seldom as efficient financially as simply depositing the funds in a about the kind of work you’d like to be remembered for. This is Payable-on-Death account at own your financial institution. the right place for that, and it’s perfectly natural to want your Davis: Are there ways to ensure that the death notice values reflected. released to the local press acknowledges your atheism or Davis: Finally, are there more effective methods that work humanism or at least makes no false or anachronistic claims only if you’r e wealthy (say, your will directs your executor to about your being a church member? cut people out of the estate if they hold a religious funeral)? Slocum: Nope. Anyone with the legal right to arrange your Slocum: I suppose, but that’s more out of the plot of an old funeral can write anything he or she wants in an obituary. So Hollywood potboiler than a real-life situation.

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secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 35 God the Concept Carol Delaney

he notion of God is a concept—a concept created shocked the nuns and my fellow students, and I was pun- by humans. No doubt it is meant to give expression ished. An eraser was thrown at me, and I was told to write five Tto people’s awareness that there is something that hundred times, “I will love God my Father who is in heaven.” transcends their understanding. It is also a way to address I can still see my ill-formed, childish handwriting filling the the sense of wonder that there is anything here at all: the lines on several sheets of paper. The punishment was excruci- world, the heavens, let alone sentient human beings. That ating and had consequences opposite of what was intended. awareness or sensibility is not what I find troubling, for it I became very suspicious not just of the stories but of religion leads some people to ask questions and seek answers. It is in general, particularly of the way it is indoctrinated when we the concept that troubles me, because once a label is put are children so that it becomes “just the way things are.” In on that awareness, something else happens. The transfor- other words, it forms our worldview. mation and consolidation of the awareness into a concept, Fortunately, children move on—and my family moved to a proper noun that is then personalized as a being to whom another state. Although that episode was seemingly forgot- we owe worship, makes it something people can grasp; but ten, it apparently left an indelible impression. Not until I had simultaneously it cuts off, rather than fosters, the awareness a child of my own did it resurface, and then with full force. I and sensibility. realized with renewed horror the implications of that biblical story. How could any parent be willing to sacrifice his or her child? Why would anyone believe that God had asked that such a thing be done? Why should that person be revered? And why is this “Some of these pilgrims hardly noticed the staff or thought story at the foundation of the three “Abrahamic” about the farmers and vintners. They walked through religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam? These villages without much thought to the people who housed questions called for answers, but it took years before I was able to delve into them. Later, I will them and provided for their needs.” discuss my research at Harvard Divinity School, but first, let me relay another, more recent, revelation. In May and June of 2014, I hiked the more than five hundred miles on the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. Although I was called a peregrino I first became antagonistic toward organized religion (a pilgrim), I did not go as a religious pilgrim. I went because when I was about seven or eight years old. I was in the third I like long walks, wanted time to think, and wanted to get grade, attending a Catholic school not because our family away from the confines, routines, and stresses of everyday was Catholic—we were not—but because it was the closest life. Religious pilgrims were focused on getting to the des- school to our home. Of course at the time, I didn’t know that tination, the cathedral in Santiago where St. James is sup- God was a concept; I didn’t know what a “concept” was. In posedly buried. For me, as in life, it was the journey not the class, the nuns presented God as a real person, though divine, destination that mattered most. and taught that we owed him our obedience and worship. The Camino is not a wilderness trail such as the Appalachian But when they told our class the Genesis story of how God Trail or the Pacific Crest trail. It passes through medieval vil- asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, I was shocked. In a loud lages and famous cities such as Pamplona and Burgos. One voice, I asked something to the effect of: “What kind of god meets people along the way, and most walkers sleep in alber- would ask such a thing? What kind of father would be will- gues (hostels) rather than tents or hotels. It was a wonderful, ing to do that? I hate that god.” Not surprising, this outburst unforgettable experience. However, at one communal din-

36 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org ner, a man got up to say grace: “Thank God for the food we sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess are about to receive.” I had a gut reaction against this seem- the gate of his enemies” (Genesis 16–17; emphasis added). ingly gracious prayer. Too often, people thank this other- Today, some recent translations of the Bible have changed worldly concept rather than the people right in front of them. the word seed to progeny, but in so doing they have clearly Instead, I suggested that we thank the people whose labor misrepresented how that word lies at the core not only of the went into our meal: first, the farmers who produced the food story but of the entire theology. Only men were thought to and the vintners who made the wonderful wines we drank have seed; they were imagined as the procreators, doing on for free; then the restaurateurs and hosteliers, many of whom the human level what God had done on the divine. Women, in are volunteers, who accommodate the pilgrims’ curfew by contrast, were assimilated to what God had created, namely the creating special three-course meals at low cost and much Earth. Women were imagined as either the fertile or barren soil earlier than Spanish dinnertimes; next, those who cooked the in which the seed was planted. This process is still referred to as food; and last but not least, those who served us. That would “insemination,” literally “to put the seed in,” thus unconsciously be a wonderful expression of gratitude. Instead, the simple perpetuating this outmoded theory of procreation. In addition, prayer made them all invisible. Some of these pilgrims hardly of course, male children were desired because only they could noticed the staff or thought about the farmers and vintners. pass on the line. The seed was imagined to hold the identity and They walked through villages without much thought to the soul; girls had souls, but they were bequeathed by the father. people who housed them and provided for their needs. Abraham’s very name means something like “exalted father” or “the father is exalted”—in relation to whom, one wonders. In went to the Divinity School at Harvard not to become a min- Judaism, perhaps it should not be surprising that the covenant Iister but to follow an academic path to delve further into between God and man (circumcision) was signed on the male the story of Abraham’s sacrifice. I studied its various interpre- procreative organ. Christianity furthered the idea of male pro- tations but also the history and culture of the peoples who creativity. Not only is God called “father,” but medieval paintings had been living in the areas related to the story.* Abraham is show a fully formed baby Jesus descending on beams of light referred to as the “father of faith” for his willingness to obey to enter the body of Mary—often through the ear. The mother God’s command: “Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of” (Genesis 22:2). “Only men were thought to have seed; they were Several things need to be noted at once. God imagined as the procreators, doing on the human communicated only with Abraham, not also his level what God had done on the divine.” wife, Sarah, implying that the child belonged to Abraham in a way he did not belong to Sarah. Second, Isaac was not Abraham’s only son. His firstborn, Ismail, was conceived by Hagar, who was not his wife. Thus, marriage was the bond that legitimized a is imagined as merely the receptacle, an immaculate one to be child. To me, however, every child is legitimate by virtue of sure, but still a receptacle. Jesus is called the “Word of God.” I being born. should not have been surprised, I guess, when I saw, engraved But the most important assumption, though conspicuous, on the pulpit of the Basilica of the National Cathedral of the has been overlooked, and that is the word seed. This is not sur- Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., the words: “The prising because, as anthropologist A. I. Hallowell wrote long ago, Word is the Seed of God.”‡ “The most fundamental assumptions of any religious system are Islam continues the tradition of circumcision and the the least transparent,” even if in plain view.† Because the word Qur’an records Allah’s directive to men: “Women are given seed, inscribed in these sacred texts, has long been part of the to you as fields, go therein and sow as you wish” (Sura 2:223). discourse, few have thought to explore its meanings and ram- Elsewhere, there are many references to seed. During my ifications. two years of anthropological fieldwork in a Turkish village, Because of his obedience, God then said to Abraham: people said that children belong to the man because of his “Because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld seed. Others used the following as proof: “If you plant wheat thy son, thine only son. . . . I will bless thee, and in multiplying you get wheat, if you plant barley you get barley. It is the I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the seed that determines the kind of plant that will grow.”§ The ‡The role of the priesthood is to spread the seed (word) of God, but *See my book Abraham on Trial: The Social Legacy of Biblical Myth given the thousands of cases of priestly sexual abuse, some have taken (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995. It was also made into an this role literally. opera of the same title and premiered in England. §See my book The Seed and the Soil: Gender and Cosmology in Turkish †M.F. Ashley Montague, Coming Into Being Among the Australian Village Society (Oakland: University of California Press, 1991). I use the Aborigines­ (Abingdon, England: Routledge & Keegan Paul, 1974 word cosmology to focus on worldview rather than specific Muslim re- [7937]), 387. ligious practices.

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 37 Turkish word for sperm (a word that, itself, means seed) is döl, begins. People in the Turkish village told me that it begins at and the word for womb is dölyatağı, meaning seedbed. birth, after the baby takes its first breath. Language is extremely important, for it colors our thought Today gender and reproduction are relegated to “nature,” and thus how we imagine things to be. while religion is assumed to deal with the “spiritual.” Rarely This tiny word, seed, is not something expendable or sub- are the two brought into the same semantic context. And stitutable but absolutely central to the entire theology, as it that is the problem, though it goes unrecognized. Yet it is also affects notions of gender and issues of marriage, divorce, hard to deny that these religions, including the very concept contraception, abortion, and ordination (but why would any of God, are in large part about gender. Our vocabulary has woman want to step into a totally patriarchal theology?). not caught up with our revised beliefs about “reproduc- tion”—a word that, itself, devalues what women do by assim- he meanings of “father” and “mother” were established ilating it to something akin to what a photocopier does rather Tlong before modern genetic theory was developed. As than being the process where a sentient being is brought noted above, conception was imagined in terms of seed that into the world. It also devalues what a human is. To me, every developed in the fertile womb, though we now know that birth, not just that of Jesus as Christians believe, seems mirac- both male and female contribute the same kind of things to ulous because each child is unique, surely not a copy. Maybe, an embryo, namely genes. In addition, women undergo the if we recognized the absolute uniqueness of every person, we labor of birth and provide the nurture of the growing fetus would not so easily kill them in the name of God. in the womb and often at the breast; yet nurture is the only thing that has defined “mother” for millennia, while “father” udaism, Christianity, and Islam are referred to as the has been defined as the procreator, the one who generates. J“Abrahamic” religions because each traces its origin to the And this notion is transferred symbolically in such notions as a foundational story of Abraham, who proclaimed the one and “seminal” thought, implying that creative ideas are masculine only God. But to me, they seem like three brothers fighting in character. over the patrimony. That is, they are fighting over who has These notions of procreation are not only in the Bible and the right interpretation of God’s will and who will inherit the Qur’an but also in the works of Aristotle, Galen, and medi- promises. And, as we have seen in recent years, it is a fight eval philosophers. And they are still held by many today, if to the death. We need to expose the problems with the very the statement expressed in 2014 by Senator Steve Martin “conception” of these religious traditions that is, as I have of Virginia that “women are merely hosts” for the child, is suggested, related to ancient notions of conception. representative.* Although the mammalian “egg” was discov- So back to God. God is a concept, a reified concept—that ered in 1827 by Karl Ernst von Baer, the human ovum was is, the concept makes it seem as if it is something real. Yet, it not discovered until 1928, and even then it was thought to was created by humans. Furthermore, the concept in the contain only nurturant, not creative, material. The modern Abrahamic religions has always been referred to in the mas- genetic theory of procreation is relatively recent. Beginning culine gender. Perhaps it is worthwhile to consider that per- in the late nineteenth century, Gregor Mendel worked on the haps it is not God who created man in his own image but genetics of pea plants; in the early twentieth century, others rather, at a particular time in the ancient Near East, a group of worked with fruit flies, but the genetics of human procreation men acting on their new notions about procreation—and in a did not become known until the 1940s and 1950s, and still it complete reversal of Mesopotamian culture where Inanna is neither known nor understood among certain segments of was Queen of Heaven and priestesses served in the temples— the world’s population. Indeed, I, as a woman born in 1940, created God in their image, and thus launched the most pow- was told the age-old theory: “the daddy plants the seed,” erful myth the world has ever seen.† It is high time we changed which, I confess made me very uncomfortable. Yet because this. this scenario is so deeply ingrained in our culture, I started to repeat it to my daughter (in 1968) when she asked the †Not so coincidentally, in two places related to Abraham—Ur, from which he migrated and Harran, where he went—there were temples perennial question. In mid-sentence I stopped, shocked at the to Inanna. implications, and revised the explanation. That moment was the inspiration for all of my academic work. Not only do many people not know the genetics of pro- creation, they are unaware that conception is a process. It From the Author: The title of this paper is a take on God the begins when a sperm meets an ovum and they conjoin to Problem by Gordon Kaufman, one of my professors at Harvard form a zygote. A week or so later, as it develops—if it does with whom I had a number of conversations, even though our (and much can go wrong at any point in the process)—it will notion of what the problem is differed. become an embryo. Then it takes two months or so before it becomes a fetus. Thus, it is difficult to say when human life Carol Delaney is professor emerita of cultural and social anthropology at Stanford University. Her latest book is Columbus and the Quest for *On his Facebook page, due to criticism, Senator Martin changed the Jerusalem (Free Press, 2011). word host to bearer of the child. But this is not really very different. He †Not so coincidentally, in two places related to Abraham—Ur, from which he does not recognize the woman’s genetic contribution. migrated and Harran, where he went—there were temples to Inanna.

38 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org Islam and the Eclipse of Secularism Taner Edis

e—humanists, Enlightenment rationalists, secular a man’s marriage may remain valid when he happens to lust liberals in general—like to think that secularism is after his own daughter. Such rulings annoyed liberal Muslims, Wuniversally applicable. If we want to keep the peace who like to think that Islam is all sweetness and light. between sects, promote personal freedom, and enjoy the The long-standing moderate Islamist government of Turkey benefits of modern times, we have to separate the state keeps working to Islamize the public sphere. While the minority and religious institutions. We must enforce public neutrality of secular Turks were complaining about the rulings published toward private faiths. by the Directorate of Religious Affairs, the government ordered Some aspects of modern life do seem universal. Almost that public employees should be allowed extra time off on everybody enjoys shopping. In the richer, Westernized parts Fridays for public prayers. This was supposed to respect the of my hometown, Istanbul, many store owners decorate their religious freedom of devout Muslims by accommodating their shops with tinsel and Christmas trees in December. The com- religious obligations. But in a time when career advancement mon journalistic cliché describes Turkey as a secular state with is often helped by signaling one’s religiosity, both in govern- a Muslim majority. A few Turks observe a kind of secularized ment and in conservative Muslim parts of the private sector, Christmas: they just call it a “New Year” celebration and go out this means that nonobservant Muslims and the irreligious have drinking on December 31 in establishments that sport decorated trees. Cultural conservatives are not happy. Last winter, some conservative activists put on a street skit where they arrested Santa Claus. Men dressed up as old-time Ottoman soldiers, hauled a man in a Santa costume in “The long-standing moderate Islamist government of front of a man dressed as a traditional Islamic judge, and Turkey keeps working to Islamize the public sphere.” accused Santa of enticing Muslims to follow Christian customs. The judge questioned Santa, who responded that those who observed Christmas did so of their own free will. The judge set Santa free. But then, impressed with Islamic justice, Santa Claus converted to Islam on the spot. fewer opportunities to hide. Many will feel a need to demon- Government also gets into the act. Turkey may be allegedly strate their respectability by appearing at Friday prayers. secular, but many local education officials have written to school Istanbul today looks modern: it is full of skyscrapers and men administrators in their districts, cautioning against allowing in suits running around with smartphones making business cebrations of New Year that are “a product of Christian Western deals. Women in headscarves increasingly adopt the looks tradition” and might degrade “our national and religious promoted by Islamic fashion houses rather than covering values.” themselves more traditionally. At night, citizens retreat to their Meanwhile, Turkey’s government and Sunni Islam are homes and a realm of miniseries and reality TV. But Turkey is increasingly intertwined. Again this past winter, the Directorate not secular. As in the rest of world, to neutralize dissent, the of Religious Affairs—a government office with a budget larger Turkish government often uses accusations of terrorism. But than many ministries—became embroiled in controversy. The in addition, officials also prosecute blasphemy. In the secular Directorate operates religious institutions whose religious func- schools, there is mandatory religious instruction; plus, there is tionaries are state employees and publishes Islamic legal rulings an extensive parallel religious school system run by the state. in response to questions from citizens. Following the sacred Important nationwide exams include detailed questions on texts too closely led the Directorate to make pronouncements Sunni theology. On one hand, the Turkish public sphere is about the sin of engaged couples spending time together becoming privatized and restricted; on the other, it is subject without supervision and to detail the conditions under which to endless religious intrusions. The state influences and directs

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 39 public expressions of Sunni Muslim faith. And in turn, the ruling prosperity preachers, as well as study circles led by engineers party legitimates itself by the moderately Islamic public ambi- or business people. The old religions of parish priests or local ance it supports. scholars and holy men are long gone, replaced by new forms of religiosity. The believers of today embrace technology and capi- ome observers have noticed that the “secular Muslim state” talism but seek a religiously authentic, pious form of modernity. Sdescription no longer rings true about Turkey. Many suggest The success of Hindu nationalism in India alongside the gradual that the Islamist party in power for nearly fifteen years has lately erosion of postindependence Indian secularism furnishes a vivid turned authoritarian and has resorted to more urgent appeals example. Buddhist nationalism is noticeable in countries such to Islam to retain its power. as Sri Lanka and Thailand; Jewish nationalism is ever-present in This is misleading. Turkish secularism—a half-baked secular- Israel. Closer to home, the Christian nationalism of the religious ism in the best of times—has been in a slow-motion collapse Right enjoys significant influence in American politics. In all such for many decades. Most signs of an eroding secularism, from cases, existing forms of political secularism have been challenged mandatory religious instruction to an interfering Directorate and sometimes badly eroded. Religious movements allied with of Religious Affairs, have been evident since long before the business interests often exercise power, claiming to represent present ruling Islamist party was founded. The Islamists have religious freedom and cultural integrity. mostly intensified previous arrangements: extending the parallel In the face of this changing world, those of us who continue religious school system, increasing the budget of the Directorate, to favor secularism repeat our stale arguments. We say that installing religious conservatives in positions throughout states are not competent to decide theological claims, and so the government, and supporting pious business networks. the state should confine itself to worldly concerns. In complex Desecularization was just as much in progress ten years ago, societies, we cannot agree upon private faith-based claims, when Western observers were celebrating increased formal and, therefore, we have to negotiate our interests by offering democracy and doctrinaire free-market practices under Turkey’s secular public reasons. More religion in politics leads to a free- moderate Islamism. dom-denying theocracy such as Iran or Saudi Arabia. A secular state prevents conflicts between sects. Such arguments are much less compelling today. Secularism is too obviously tied to the history of the post-Christian West. Muslims do “. . . Nonobservant Muslims and the irreligious not have a historical memory of wars of religion; have fewer opportunities to hide.” Muslim political tradition emphasizes autono- mous communities rather than a secular state as a way to contain sectarian conflict. Indeed, recent Muslim experience associates secularism with despotic, oppressive regimes. Turkey is not very different from many other Muslim coun- For most Muslims, Islam is supposed to be a public truth and tries. Since the 1970s, a worldwide Islamic revival has replaced the foundation of public order, not just a private confession. secular nationalisms with varieties of religious nationalism. And moderate, business-friendly religious conservatives do not Muslim populations have become more conservative, very visibly aspire to emulate Iran or Saudi Arabia. They draw inspiration so in countries such as Egypt. Sometimes observers attribute from the latest trends in political thought, which are often neg- intensifying religiosity to failed modernization, economic stag- ative toward secularism. Both postmodern and old-fashioned nation, and political chaos, as seen in most populous Arab states. conservatives describe secularism, with its implied state control But at the same time, many non-Arab Muslim nations have more of religion, as an artificial, inauthentic, colonially rooted imposi- successfully modernized, joined the ranks of middle-income tion on pious populations. Religion, today, appears to many as countries, and also desecularized. For instance, Turkey, Malaysia, a domain of freedom—of organic social commitments closely and Indonesia have liberalized their economies, developed a linked to personal identities—as opposed to quasi-totalitarian, wealthy and dominant business class, adopted modern tech- state-centered, homogenizing demands seeking to make worldly nologies, and taken advantage of Western deindustrialization. liberal individualists of us all. Even within the Western democ- Their pious middle classes adopted a business-friendly religious racies, secularism has lost much of its sparkle. Strict secularism conservatism and supported transitions to electoral democracy, may be unsuitable for multicultural societies, excluding the curbing the influence of military-based secular nationalists and pious among natives and immigrants alike from full citizenship. transforming the authoritarian states that had followed inde- Secularism still has a political constituency in many countries, pendence. Their politics, popular culture, and public spheres largely among the weakly religious and the indifferent. There are have become saturated with modern varieties of Islam. technocratic elites who make a living from expertise acquired Lest we think Islam is especially resistant to secularism, other through secular learning, who may not have much use for con- religions are also putting up a fight. Today’s reforming religious servative populism. Sometimes, as with the Alevi sect in Turkey, a movements are moralizing, entrepreneurial, and scripturally religious minority may be so alienated from the majority religion literalist. They are often represented by televangelists and that its members strongly support political secularism. But by and

40 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org large, secularism expresses the political aspirations of secular Third, we can no longer coast on the expectation that secu- people. Those places, such as Western Europe, where secularism larism is an inescapable accompaniment of technological and has the most depth, are also places where organized religion economic modernity. Alternative, pious forms of being modern has faded. Globally, such regions are anomalies. are on offer. Hindu nationalism or moderate Islamism, like the Christian Right, can flourish within our current global neoliberal o, defending secularism today has become much more economic order. Indeed, nonreligious ways of maintaining Scomplicated. Many of our assumptions, such as a neat sep- social solidarity are more at risk in today’s conservative political aration between public and private domains, do not work as environment dominated by business and financial interests. often as we might like. It is not possible to have a political order And fourth, we have to acknowledge that secular liberalism that is fully neutral about religion. For example, secular states is not the only way to keep the peace. Majority-Muslim societies inevitably, often implicitly, take positions on the truth or falsity successfully resist attempts to remove religion from the public of many theological claims—such as when they direct schools sphere. Their ways of maintaining harmony and respecting to teach evolution, impose public health requirements such as other religions will more likely be legally pluralistic and com- vaccinations, and override religious beliefs about child welfare. munity-oriented, rather than relying on liberal individualism And we need to take the believers who belong to tight-knit and a common law for all. Those not attached to a religious religious communities seriously. It is not so easy, today, to place community will be second-class citizens in Muslim lands, just as extra burdens on the devout by requiring secular rationales for one fully living according to an orthodox Islamic ideal encoun- public practices. Religious conservatives present alternative ters roadblocks in secular Western societies. Again, politics has views about how to manage complex multicultural societies winners and losers. while allowing a fuller form of religious freedom than secular frameworks have typically recognized. Much of the postmodern and conser- vative critique of secular liberalism is overstated. But much of it rings true. Clearly there is a long and compli- “. . . Turkish secularism—a half-baked secularism in the best of cated argument to be made. But I will times—has been in a slow-motion collapse for many decades.” venture a few suggestions. First, we have to remember that the contest between secular and more reli- gious political frameworks runs deeper than disagreements about the consequences of particular his past winter in Istanbul, I got together with some of my policies. Secular liberals and religious conservatives do not Thigh-school and university friends. We spent hours eating want the same things. Religious politics does not have to and drinking, even though taxes on alcohol had been just mean theocracy; nonetheless, godly social orders and secular raised to an absurd level, ostensibly to promote health but liberal social arrangements emphasize different goals. Religious perhaps also because the government likes to discourage vi- and secular people will culturally compete and occasionally olations of God’s laws. Curiously, among the friends I see cooperate. But it makes little sense to seek an overall political most often, most now declare themselves as deists, agnostics, framework that does not provide any structural advantage to and even atheists. None would have done so when we were anyone. Secularism is political; politics has winners and losers. young. Religious politics has polarized the country, and many Second, we have to start with secularism as a political from liberal Muslim backgrounds have had to examine their framework that is best suited for secular and religiously liberal religious commitments more closely. So while religious unbe- people. It is not a universally appealing way to live together. lief, rather than just lax observance, has been very rare We can aspire for a secular liberal order to become universal, among Muslims, it might be increasing. My friends represent and we can certainly keep secular culture open and available only a small, politically impotent minority. But they remind to people from all sorts of backgrounds. But world religions me that the religious landscape never stays the same. If civili- such as Islam can also claim a similar universality. If we are zation lasts long enough, secularism might one day get an- not content for secularism to remain the identity politics of other chance in Muslim countries. For now, it is dead. people like us, we must then work to dampen intense religious attachments. We will often support the cultural reproduction of secularity by means of public policy, particularly in education. This will interfere with the religious freedom of, for example, Taner Edis is professor of physics at Truman State University, Kirksville, creationist parents of schoolchildren. Freedoms conflict; sec- Missouri. His latest book, Islam Evolving: Radicalism, Reformation, and ularism cannot be completely neutral, and some coercion is the Uneasy Relationship with the Secular West, will be published by associated with any social arrangement. Religious conservatives Prometheus Books in June 2016. are not deluded when they object to secularist policies that advance secular interests.

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 41 Sadly, Malthus Was Right—Now What? Madeline Weld

ebruary 13, 2016, marked the 250th anniversary of the in many areas. birth of Thomas Robert Malthus. I would like to wish him Homo sapiens’s appetite is gargantuan. As we strive to get Fmany happy returns. And he does keep on returning— at dwindling resources for ever more people, we dig deeper doesn’t he?—despite those who say he is wrong or passé. into the Earth, blow the tops off mountains, divert rivers, cut Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population argued that, down forests, and pave over swathes of land. We fill the land, if left unchecked, human population growth will encounter water, and air with our pollution. We’re driving record numbers limits: “The power of population is indefinitely greater than of species to extinction and decimating others with activities the power in the Earth to produce subsistence for man.” He ranging from chemical poisoning to hunting for bushmeat—or foresaw famine, disease, and much suffering, especially among simply by taking over their habitat. the poorest. But in addition to these “negative checks,” he also Greenhouse gases from our industry are changing Earth’s recognized “preventive checks” such as limiting birthrates and climate, with such dangerous consequences as ocean acidifica- later marriage. As a cleric, he advocated “the chaste postpone- tion, rising sea levels and flooding, changes in rainfall patterns ment of marriage.” including in vital “breadbaskets,” and loss of forest cover. Some 218 years after the first edition of his controversial While the word sustainable has become popular, growing treatise was published, we are still arguing about it. In 1798, human numbers and activities are anything but. Increasing the world population was under one billion. Now it’s 7.4 billion awareness of our impact has led to developments in renewable energy, recycling, Earth-friendly farming, and more. There have also been spectacular advances in family planning. But powerful—notably reli- gious—opposition has kept governments and “Malthus . . . does keep on returning—doesn’t he?—despite international bodies from actively promoting small families and prevents hundreds of millions those who say he is wrong or passé.” of women who would plan their families from having access to modern methods. Those who deny that overpopulation is a problem say the poor don’t consume much. Yet and counting. For the last four decades, it’s been increasing the poor want nothing more than to consume more, as proved by one billion every twelve to thirteen years. Some people say by India and China. Who can blame them? And a burgeoning that’s no problem, that we’re better off now than ever. The number of desperately poor people do have a major impact: Green Revolution staved off the starvation in India predicted they cut down forests to grow food, drain rivers, deplete aqui- by Paul Ehrlich in The Population Bomb (1968). Advances in fers, and overfish and over-hunt in their local areas. But make agriculture, medicine, and other technologies have made us these points and you’ll be accused of blaming the poor for the richer and healthier. problems of the rich. The late Julian Simon even said that ever more people is a We seem bound to learn the hard way that there really is a good thing, since humans are “the ultimate resource” and every limit to how many people the Earth can support. We wish it mouth to feed comes with a pair of hands to work and a brain weren’t so, but it really is starting to look as if Malthus was to solve problems. What could go wrong? right. But things are going seriously wrong. To provision our ever-growing population, we are, in Ehrlich’s words, turning the planet into a “feedlot for humanity.” We have taken over Madeline Weld is president of Population Institute Canada and a board about one-third of its land surface and scoured its oceans, member of Canadian Humanist Publications, publisher of Humanist wiping out several major fisheries and depleting the rest. Our Perspectives. This essay first appeared in the February 15, 2016, “solution” of farmed fish creates other problems. High-yield Montreal Gazette. Green Revolution crops require pesticides, fertilizer, and water; the first two are becoming more expensive and the last scarcer

42 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org

Ophelia Benson Revulsion and Habituation cont. from p. 7 via division of labor. The job became a crazy.” Instead they became increas- since his arrest on March 16. He has a matter of ghetto clearing and deporta- ingly efficient and calloused execu- rather sweet, soft-featured face, disturb- tion rather than one-on-one shooting; tioners. ingly so—we expect mass-murderers to the actual killing was done at Treblinka. That’s what human beings do—we look like mass-murderers. But they don’t Problem solved. Browning sums it up get used to things. We adapt. In gen- always look the part, and they don’t chillingly: eral that’s a useful and morally neutral always even talk or think or feel the part. Instead, they adjust to their role In short, the psychological alleviation quality, but when what we have to get and get on with the job. It’s a job that necessary to integrate Reserve Police used to is a world of genocide, torture, Battalion 101 into the killing process most people can be made to do. or mass deportations, it can be a gently was to be achieved through a two- fold division of labor. The bulk of sloping road to doing things we could the killing was to be removed to the swear we would never do. The men of Ophelia Benson edits the Butterflies and extermination camp, and the worst Reserve Police Battalion 101 went back of the on-the-spot “dirty work” was Wheels website. She formerly was associate to normal life after the war, as did mil- to be assigned to the Trawnikis. This editor of The Philosopher’s Magazine and lions of other Germans who had taken change would prove sufficient to has coauthored several books, including allow the men of Reserve Police Bat- part in horrors. The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense talion 101 to become accustomed A photo of Salah Abdeslam, the sus- to their participation in the Final (2004), Why Truth Matters (2006), and Solution. When the time came to pected organizer of the November 2015 Does God Hate Women? (2009). kill again, the policemen did not “go Paris attacks, has been much in the news

Russell Blackford Suppress and Punish: The Dangerous Impulse to Shut Down Speech cont. from p. 8 through the use of state power or other- liberty to discuss topics of general impor- thrive on added notoriety. The more wise. It’s true that, in the American con- tance. This included the freedom to crit- they’re attacked, the better known their text, only government actions to abridge icize religious beliefs. In this respect and ideas become. Such people are obviously “the freedom of speech, or of the press” others, Mill feared informal pressures difficult to silence. are constitutionally forbidden. However, toward social conformity even more But even when a high-profile speaker the deliberate use of “merely” social than he feared the coercive power of cannot be effectively silenced, the real power to suppress disliked opinions the state. Individuals who support free- victims may be less powerful individu- dom of speech only in the narrow sense als. When, for example, Peter Singer is of an absence of state censorship are disinvited from speaking engagements “. . . Even opinions we dislike missing the point and making a fetish because of his controversial opinions should be met with nothing more of state power. (Perhaps they should about life-and-death medical decisions, go back and reread On Liberty.) The he is able to reply publicly. But less-pow- punitive than contrary opinion, absence of state censorship of opinion erful academics with similar views may forthright criticism, or—where is certainly one requirement for a society well be intimidated into self-censorship. truly justified—appropriate distinguished by an ethos of liberty. But That’s doubtless the intention—and equally important is a genuinely liberal unfortunately, it’s already happening. levels of satire and mockery.” mind-set that rebels against even private To oppose the contemporary trend efforts to suppress unwelcome opinions toward silencing tactics, let’s call it what and punish disliked speakers. it is. This trend is authoritarian. Shutting should equally be anathema to anyone, Finally, attempts to suppress opinion down speech is authoritarianism in anywhere, who is seriously committed often backfire. If the speaker is well-re- action. to the liberty of thought and discussion sourced and determined—perhaps with famously advocated by John Stuart Mill. media access and enthusiastic support- Russell Blackford holds an honorary In On Liberty (1859), Mill was not ers—attacks can have perverse effects. research appointment with the University advocating freedom to attack individu- Sufficiently relentless negative attention of Newcastle, Australia. His latest book is als, such as by telling malicious lies about may succeed in destroying such a person, The Mystery of Moral Authority (Palgrave them or lobbying to get them fired. but it’s unpredictable. Some individuals Pivot, 2016). Rather, he argued for an unrestricted with high profiles and large platforms

44 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org Shadia B. Drury Will the Neoconservatives Lose Their Grip on the GOP? cont. from p. 9

Unfortunately, this lofty goal is not world. “America is a country that thinks of the nomination at the Republican attainable—except at the expense of big, acts boldly, and leads without Convention. Others have followed the intellectual incoherence and duplicity. apology,” he said. Abandoning all pre- National Review and backed Cruz. As Neoconservatives confuse American tense to idealism, he espoused “peace Senator Lindsey Graham put it: “At “values” with American interests, through strength,” saying: “the way to least there is some hope with Ted, no democracy with liberty, and liberty achieve peace in the world is to make hope with Donald.” Hope for what? with unregulated capitalism. As a sure people fear us.” Hope that the working class will be result, they toppled only those dic- With the collapse of his campaign, more impoverished? Hope that millions tators who were not willing to serve Jeb Bush has joined the National will be without health care? Hope for American interests or to do her bid- Review and the rest of the Republican more deregulation? Hope for another establishment in endorsing the self- recession? Hope for more wars in the styled antiestablishment Senator Ted Middle East? Hope for more extremism Cruz—a Christian zealot whose hyper- in defense of liberty? bolic language exudes the absolutism that reviles all compromise as unprin- “Trump has indeed rejected the cipled capitulation to the forces of evil. Cruz has accused Donald Trump extreme doctrines of neoconser- of being a “moderate,” an insult that vatism—not because he knows harkens back to Goldwater’s famous what they are but only because, words: “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in pursuit of “The best that can be expected on most days, he has too much justice is no virtue.” is that Trump might loosen the sense to endorse them.” Trump has indeed rejected the stranglehold of neoconservatism extreme doctrines of neoconserva- tism—not because he knows what they on the GOP. . . .” are but only because, on most days, he has too much sense to endorse them. He has denied that George W. ding; they rejected democratic elec- Bush “kept us safe,” since the terrorist tions whose results were inconvenient. attacks of September 11, 2001, hap- No wonder their idealism was riddled pened on his watch. He has denounced with hypocrisy. When Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq in 2003 as a disas- The best that can be expected is that Iraq turned into disastrous quagmires, ter that has led to the rise of the Islamic Trump might loosen the stranglehold the neoconservatives accused the Bush State. He has accused George W. Bush of neoconservatism on the GOP, allow- administration of incompetence. In of leading the country into war on ing it to rediscover its roots as the truth, no amount of competence could false pretenses—there was precious “Grand Old Party” of Lincoln who have salvaged their mélange of fanciful little evidence that Iraq had any weap- ended slavery in America. But then ambition, intellectual confusion, dou- ons of mass destruction; the work of again, Trump’s mind is flexible, his blespeak, and dishonesty. the United Nations nuclear inspectors ideas are capricious, and his intellect is Relying on the short memory of was cut short, and the intelligence was fragile. the electorate, the neoconservatives skewed to justify the war. And, even have reemerged in the election of though he pledged unconditional sup- 2016 as the unabashed custodians port for Israel when addressing the Shadia B. Drury is Canada Research Chair of the “ideological consensus” of the Zionist lobby group AIPAC, he previ- at the University of Regina in Canada. She is Republican establishment. Sadly, their ously made the logical (but unforgiv- author of The Political Ideas of Leo Strauss policies have become even more stri- able) claim that solving the conflict (2005) and Leo Strauss and the American dent. Echoing the policies of his broth- between Israel and the Palestinians will Right (1997), which examines the intellec- er’s administration, then-candidate Jeb require American neutrality. tual roots of neoconservatism and explains Bush announced his determination to Some neoconservatives have decided why it is the worst of both worlds—liberal- preserve America’s preeminence in the to back Hillary Clinton—after all, she is ism and conservatism. world, project American power, and almost as hawkish as George W. Bush. spread American values around the Others are busy plotting to rob Trump

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 45 Mark Rubinstein The Christian Moral Code, Part 2: Forgiveness cont. from p. 11

A further problem can be traced to and asks his forgiveness only after he has To summarize, drawing from Christian ancient legal systems, such as the Code wasted his fortune and is perishing with Scripture, interpersonal forgiveness is not of Hammurabi, which assume that hunger. Better to be a hired servant of what it should be because: the higher Jane’s status compared to his father, he reasons, than to remain in 1. Some biblical verses appear to make Dick’s, the less easily an injury should his current situation. It is easy to miss this interpersonal forgiveness logically be forgiven (element 7). Christianity distinction, since, as noted, on several impossible (impairing element 1). applies this outdated distinction to sins occasions the Gospels emphasize that 2. Unappreciated exculpatory circum- committed directly against God. What Jane should grant forgiveness to Dick for stances are usually present (compli- would have been a minor infraction of the wrongs he has done her. This may cating element 3). man’s laws (eating stolen fruit) rises to reciprocally imply that Dick should ask 3. Shows of contrition can substitute for an unpardonable sin if it is against God. for forgiveness of Jane, but that implica- reparation (impairing elements 4–6). As central as interpersonal forgive- tion is not explicit. This omission is easy 4. Interpersonal forgiveness can inap- ness is to the Christian moral code, it to understand. With a God who can peer propriately be displaced by divine is hypocritically practiced. We see this into your very soul, Christian forgiveness forgiveness (impairing elements 4–6). in Matthew’s portrayal of Jesus: on the has more to do with internal reforma- 5. Interpersonal forgiveness is one-sided, tion than external reparation. As a result, leaving out the injunction to ask for it asking directly for divine forgiveness can (impairing element 6). replace earning forgiveness from those 6. Crimes against God are treated as who are harmed. For example, in the worse than crimes against men 2012 Republican presidential primary “Another problem with Christian (impairing element 7). campaign, in response to questions 7. The one sin that cannot be forgiven interpersonal forgiveness is about his two affairs and subsequent is not accepting Jesus. divorces, Newt Gingrich did not say he that confession or shows of 8. Practice contradicts preaching. had asked his ex-wives for forgiveness. repentance too easily 9. Deathbed confessions are accepted. Instead he said, “I went to God for for- 10. The only reason given to forgive is in substitute for reparation. . . .” giveness” (emphasis added). anticipation of future divine reward. Two other elements of Christian divine forgiveness give pause. Divine However, if you drop God from the forgiveness is never too late, as long equation, criticism of forgiveness should as you obtain forgiveness before the not be carried too far. Forgiveness, one hand, he preaches interpersonal kingdom of heaven arrives. Recall the though difficult to get right, becomes forgiveness “seventy times seven” offer Jesus makes in his very first words secular and disentangled from divine (Matthew 18:22); on the other hand, in in Mark: “The time is fulfilled, and the forgiveness. All that matters is the here the same Gospel, he curses the Pharisees, kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and now: if you forgive, you help to pre- his religious enemies, seven times over and believe the gospel” (1:15). Matthew condition the world to be a place where (Matthew 23:13–33); damns three unre- and Luke teach this with several para- forgiveness becomes expected. In this pentant cities (Matthew 11:20–24); and bles, most famously that of the Prodigal way, forgiveness of others makes room threatens unbelievers fifteen times with Son. But this makes it easy to think you for forgiveness of yourself. hell. These groups have made the cardi- are given license for a lifetime of odious nal error of committing the one sin that behavior, as long as you save yourself This is the second of a multipart series cannot be forgiven: failure to accept with a deathbed confession. on the Christian moral code. The first (believe in) Jesus. Any benefits from Second, interpersonal forgiveness, part, “Sin,” appeared in the April/May practicing interpersonal forgiveness are as it is repeatedly represented in the 2016 issue. in the end undone. Gospels, is cramped by linking it directly Strangely, with one limited excep- to personal salvation: if you do not for- tion—Luke’s (15:11–32) Parable of the give others, you will not be forgiven. Prodigal Son—the Gospels say nothing There is little sense that offering forgive- Mark Rubinstein is a retired professor of about asking forgiveness from your fel- ness is fundamentally the generous and finance for the University of California at low man, that is, about Dick appealing noble thing to do. Instead, according to Berkeley who now writes on early Christianity to Jane to be forgiven. In this parable, the Gospels, you should forgive to earn and humanism. the prodigal son returns to his father a future reward.

46 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org Doerr’s Way

And Then There Were None(s) Edd Doerr

his column is being written a concentrates her extensive research God watches your every act and is aware few days after the Ides of March, on what happens when Nones marry of all your thoughts can be terrifying to Twhich marks not only the demise and start families. [She is the author children, especially when combined with of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE but also that of “Raising our Children to Choose for traditional religious teachings about sin of Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential run. Themselves” (FI, April/May 2016).—Eds.] and punishment. . . . But before we discuss this year’s polit- Their choices on how to relate to reli- ical scene, let’s look at the rising phe- gion(s) or raise their children are quite nomenon of the “Nones,” the religiously varied and defy easy generalization. The unaffiliated who, polls show, now make following are some of her conclusions: up about a quarter of American adults. “Just as there are many studies This quarter-of-American-adults fig- pointing to religion’s benefits, there is ure, however, obscures the fact that also plenty of research showing orga- “. . . When Nones marry only about one-third of the Nones are nized religion to put children at risk. actually humanists, atheists, or agnostics. Numerous studies have associated reli- and start families. . . . The other two-thirds are a very diverse gion with psychological and physical Their choices on how to relate to mix of unchurched believers and seek- abuse of children, with long-term con- religion(s) or raise their children ers or those simply indifferent to the sequences for the victims’ lives. The best whole religion question. Confusing the known recent example is probably the are quite varied and defy easy picture further is the fact that many tens clergy sex abuse scandal in the Catholic generalization.” of thousands of humanists, nontheists, Church—although many would argue and freethinkers are “affiliated” with that religion per se was not a causal fac- Unitarian Universalist, Ethical Culture, tor here. . . . (R)esearch literature sug- or Humanistic Jewish congregations. gests several instances where religious Complicating matters still further, a teachings and practices themselves do great many people who are affiliated seem to be implicated in causing harm with traditional religions are actually to children. . . . unbelievers. All of this bears out my “Religion has been shown to encour- “The claim made by some evolution- haiku: “Labels may conceal / Far more age physical abuse by providing a moral ary psychologists that children are born than they might reveal. / They can mask framework that legitimizes often severe with an inclination to believe in super- what’s real.” corporal punishment. . . . The widely held natural beings lacks empirical support; Two useful new books on this subject Christian doctrine that children are born and even if it could be proven, it does are by academics: Christel Manning’s with a ‘wayward or distorted will’ and not follow that parents should encour- 2015 book Losing Our Religion: How the belief that God would punish earthly age such belief through immersion in Unaffiliated Parents Are Raising Their pleasure with torture in hell also moti- organized religion.” Children (NYU Press) and Elizabeth vates parents to use physical punish- Drescher’s book covers much of Drescher’s 2016 book Choosing Our ment. . . . The result is that religion-based the same ground as Manning’s, but it Religion: The Spiritual Lives of America’s child abuse is not uncommon. . . . includes additional material, based on Nones (Oxford University Press). Manning, “Many people think that it is com- extensive interviews with Nones and herself a None, a parent, and a professor forting to children to know that God considerable poll data. She agrees that at a Catholic university in Connecticut, watches over them. But the idea that the Nones category is spread all over the

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 47 map and applies the term Somes to the dant data: if one totals the membership itics, increasing poverty, our crumbling three-quarters of Americans with reli- numbers of humanist and atheist organi- infrastructure (roads, bridges, water and gious affiliations. She finds that both the zations and adds the numbers of those sewage systems, electricity grid), school Nones and the Somes actually spend far affiliated with Unitarian Universalist, and community resegregation, voter more time and effort on family, friends, Ethical Culture, and Humanistic Jewish suppression, legislative gerrymandering, food, pets, and music than they do congregations, the organized more- racism, foreign policy, international ter- on religious or nonreligious thinking or-less secular Nones add up to under rorism, and our over-incarceration binge. or activity and that the differences in one million people, about 10 percent of We in the humanist camp need to this regard between Nones and Somes all secular Nones and 3 percent of the recognize that peripheral issues need to are rather small. She reports that her eighty million or so Nones. Of course, be set aside, labels need to be regarded research found no shortage of ethical this does not diminish the importance with suspicion, and all of us, Nones and thinking among Nones compared to of humanist organizations and publica- Somes alike, must pull together to pro- Somes, and she is even critical of the sim- tions, but it does suggest the advisability mote the many common goals that we plistic ethical thinking of large numbers of a modicum of humility. outside the religious Right and extremist of Somes. Drescher also notes that Pew These two books are worthy reads, camps agree on. Readers of this journal studies found that when Nones were despite their limitations. Now let’s turn and such others as Conscience, the quar- asked if they were “looking for a reli- to the all-important 2016 elections. terly of Catholics for Choice, for example, gion that would be right for you,” fully In my last column (April/May), I high- are on the same page on women’s rights 88 percent said “thanks, but no thanks.” lighted three of the most important and clericalism. Neither author, disappointingly, deals issues in this year’s elections: climate The clock is ticking. at all adequately with the organized change with all its concomitants and humanist movement, formally launched the raging conservative wars on wom- with the 1933 Humanist Manifesto and en’s reproductive choice and our public augmented by the 1973 Humanist schools. To this list should be added, of Edd Doerr is the president of Americans for Manifesto II and subsequent declara- course, such key social justice issues as Religious Liberty and a former president of tions, or with humanist organizations or the increasing concentration of wealth the American Humanist Association. He is a publications. One thing is clear, though, in the hands of the top 1 percent, the columnist and senior editor of Free Inquiry. from these two books and from abun- skyrocketing influence of money in pol-

48 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org God on Trial

ISIS, Moses, and Sex Slavery Steve Sklar

n 2014, ISIS attacked a small reli- a man.” [In the Great Minds excerpt in course, and a Hebrew named Phinehas, gious community in Iraq known as the the April/May 2016 issue, Thomas Paine a grandson of Aaron, killed them both IYazidis. The Yazidis were of no threat also discusses this passage.—Eds.] At with one stroke of a spear. It was at this to ISIS, their territory of no significant that time in the Middle East, a girl was point that the plague stopped. Later military importance. The purpose of the considered able to be married once she books of the Old Testament, especially conquest was to initiate an institution of had begun menstruating, so the great Ezra and Nehemiah, make it abun- sex slavery. The men and boys were sub- majority of those taken as sex slaves dantly clear that Hebrew men were jected to mass executions. The women were either teenagers or preteens. not to marry non-Hebrew women. The and girls were crowded onto buses, The principles behind the conquest Midianite sex slaves would remain sex shipped to warehouses, then stripped performed by ISIS and that performed slaves until their deaths. naked and displayed before prospec- by the Hebrews were basically the same. It would be pure hypocrisy to con- tive buyers in slave markets. The prices Both claimed to be especially favored by demn the actions and principles of ISIS were determined largely by age—the God. Both claimed that God’s favor enti- yet revere Moses and his laws. Their younger girls fetching a higher price tled them to exterminate other religious actions and principles are basically the than the women. Ten-year-old girls were communities, slaughtering thousands same. It would not even be correct to of greater value than their thirty-year- who had done nothing wrong and who say that Moses was innocent of the old mothers. Once purchased, a slave posed no military threat. Both accepted many atrocities attributed to ISIS ter- had no rights against her owner. He was sex slavery as a legitimate institution rorists. We know about ISIS because free to rape her as he saw fit, to resell favored by God. Both valued young girls we have witnesses. There is no way of her, or even to kill her. This was, in part, over grown women, Moses going so knowing what wrongs Israelites com- a recruitment incentive. Many young far as to kill any woman who was no mitted against their slaves. The book of Muslim potential ISIS fighters come longer a virgin. Neither believed that Judges, chapter 19, provides a warning. from societies that will not permit them human beings had any intrinsic rights or A Levite and his concubine were travel- to hold the hand of a female or even value and certainly did not believe that ing and were welcomed into a strang- see her face if she is not a relative and humans were created equal. er’s house. Some of the locals wanted to now they were being offered a girl to Yazidi women have a potential advan- rape the Levite, so he “took his concu- dominate totally and without restraint. tage over the Midianites. According to bine and sent her outside to them, and Was this an atrocity only Muslim Islamic law, once a person converts to they raped her and abused her through- fanatics could commit? Not according Islam, all previous sins and failings are out the night” until the Levite found her to the Old Testament. In the Book of forgiven. If a Yazidi were to convert, she in the morning, dead on the stranger’s Numbers, chapter 25, some of the fol- might be taken as a legitimate wife. Being doorstep. lowers of Moses had sexual intercourse the wife of an ISIS terrorist is far from If ISIS is to be condemned, so must with Midianite women and began to ideal for Yazidi girls, but it would give Moses. If Moses is to be revered, so must worship their gods. A plague broke them a modicum of legal protection. A ISIS. Does the reader know anyone who out among the Hebrews, which Moses Midianite woman had no such option. reveres ISIS? attributed to the religious infidelity of The children of Israel were descendants the men seduced by the Midianites. of Jacob, sons of Isaac, and grandsons of Chapter 31 continues: “They fought Abraham. The Midianites were a differ- against Midian, as the Lord commanded ent tribe. No matter what their individual Steve Sklar has a degree in Oriental Studies Moses, and killed every man.” In verse beliefs, those women could not become and Western Philosophy from Columbia 17 of this chapter Moses says, “Now kill members of the Hebrew community. College. He studied Asiatic faiths with native all the boys. And kill every woman who The issue was made very plain in chapter adherents overseas for twelve years. He has slept with a man, but save for your- 25 of Numbers. A Hebrew man and a presently lives and works in Florida. selves every girl who has not slept with Midianite woman were having inter-

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 49 Faith and Reason

Angel Unaware: An Atheist’s Perspective on Child Suffering Mark Cagnetta

hen I retired to Arizona in 2008, I encephaly and was given two years to act reasonably, rationally, and empath- never imagined—given its prox- live. That was in 2000. He died in 2008. ically; and to grasp even the most basic Wimity to very liberal California My associate’s daughter, who apparently of scientific principles transcends minor and its distance from the prototypical was also born with a genetic disorder gaps of time in the twentieth century. “South”—that I would be living in the but was never successfully diagnosed As evidenced by Rogers’s thought pro- heart of the Southwest Bible Belt. But with any nameable condition, died at cess throughout Angel Unaware, there that is where I, an atheist, took up res- the tender age of two. I viewed my son’s is a common denominator that thwarts idence and began my postretirement death as an evolutionary glitch, despite any inkling of lucidity: religion. It is career. the unbearable sadness it brought upon Rogers’s embrace of Christianity that my family and me. Dave, conversely, was so verily confounds her worldview. It is adamant that God had gifted him with also the cause of the chasmic separa- an ill child so that he and others could tion between her philosophical outlook, learn from the tragedy that was her life. Dave’s abstruse position, and mine. “. . . There is a common Despite my repeated contentions that denominator that thwarts any I did not need the rationalizations of ust a few pages into the book, Rogers inkling of lucidity: religion.” others to come to terms with my son’s Jinforms the reader that she and Roy death, Dave insisted that I read a book are Baptists. She fails to mention that written by Dale Evans Rogers titled Angel she was married and pregnant at four- Unaware (1953). Rogers, the wife of the teen, divorced at fifteen, and had two famous singing cowboy Roy Rogers, was more failed marriages before she finally As I am hardly one to hold back my also unfortunate enough to have lost a married Roy. For his part, Roy was twice views, conversion attempts and dispar- child due to faulty genetics. She wrote divorced when he got hitched to Dale. aging remarks were commonplace at a book about her daughter, Robin, who Robin was their first child together, born work. I was even presented with a copy was born with Down syndrome and died in 1950. Within days of her birth, Robin of C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity bear- before her second birthday. I successfully was diagnosed with Down syndrome. ing the inscription: “I hope this book resisted Dave’s request until just recently, Before she could celebrate her second helps you realize the love of God.” In when I noticed that the book was a con- birthday, she contracted mumps. She the course of these interactions, one of cise little volume of only sixty-five pages. died from complications shortly thereaf- my coworkers—Dave, a professed born- I read it in a matter of hours, highlight- ter. Rogers refers to Robin as “a special again Christian—shared a traumatic ing and scratching my head as I went. creation from God.” life-altering experience with me. It has Granted, things were quite differ- First identified by its namesake, both connected and divided us. ent back in the 1950s, but the ability British physician John Langdon Down, My son, Michael, was born with liss- of humankind­ to display emotions; to Down syndrome is the most common

50 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org chromosomal disorder found in new- telomeres—the tips of chromosomes— parent; I’m just going to show that she borns. Characterized by developmen- are dramatically shortened in caregivers would have been a better parent if she tal and psychomotor delays, physical of disabled children, possibly taking up had abandoned her worthless religious malformations, increased risk of heart to ten years off their lives. Although I’ll beliefs. defects, gastrointestinal tract disorders, never know for certain if my life span Certainly, I would be remiss if I didn’t and respiratory infections, as well as a may have been affected in this way, I mention that some good came out of variety of other health problems, Down can certainly understand the premise this book. Institutionalization was a syndrome results when there is a third of such a claim. My wife and I would common prescription for children born copy of chromosome 21, also referred care for Michael in shifts based on our with birth defects in the 1950s; Rogers’s to as “trisomy.” work schedules, with the aid of my boldness in declining to surrender her When he was three months old, my mother and daughter. Sleep became child, instead choosing to keep her at son Michael was diagnosed with lissen- a commodity and trips to the hospital home, was admirable. In that respect, cephaly. In the foreword to the 1963 routine. Sometimes I’d find myself at she helped to shape culture. She also paperback edition of Angel Unaware, the gym at midnight when everyone shed new light on the mainstream accep- Rogers notes, “If Robin had grown up else was asleep. Not once, however, tance of disabled children, despite her as a normal child, she would now be did I ever imagine that God had any- misguided proselytizing. Rogers’s partic- fourteen years of age.” As I began to thing to do with my son’s condition; ipation in mothering, however, appears write this, Michael, had he lived, would clearly he didn’t. I certainly had no one have been fourteen years of age. to blame for Michael’s illness either: it Lissencephaly is one of those diseases was a rare, unfortunate mutation. In that no one has ever heard of. Due to a fact, it would be ridiculous to diminish “deletion” on Michael’s chromosome 17 his delicate existence by attributing his during his prenatal development, he was debilitating condition to a loving god, “[Rogers] actually believed born with a “smooth brain,” the literal but that’s exactly what Mrs. Rogers, in that God inflicted . . . her own interpretation of lissencephaly. Children referring to her daughter, has premised with lissencephaly are genetically cursed. in Angel Unaware. “Afflicted children,” flesh and blood . . . with Down Routine neural migration in the brain is Rogers theorized, “were God’s special syndrome as a favor to stalled, resulting in pronounced psycho- loved ones.” She actually believed that the Rogers family to make motor retardation, difficulty swallow- God inflicted Robin—her own flesh and ing, vision problems, and the inability blood—with Down syndrome as a favor them more spiritual.” to thrive. Seizures are commonplace. to the Rogers family to make them more Most children with lissencephaly show spiritual. If God had truly sent Michael little development beyond the level of a as a divine courier with important life three-month-old and have a life expec- lessons for his family, I never found time tancy of two to four years. Respiratory to decipher the holy dispatches amid the problems, as in Michael’s case, are the twenty-four-hour care my son required. to be sketchy at best, although heartfelt. most common causes of death. She routinely hired caretakers for Robin, In his short and traumatic existence, ogers took a unique approach to and at one point even installed her in a Michael suffered from seizures, blind- Rher authorship. In the foreword of casita of sorts behind their primary res- ness, incontinence, constipation, the her book, she writes in the first person, idence, where she lived with her nurse. inability to sit upright or crawl, dislo- intimating her grossly distorted view of One thing the Rogerses and we had cated joints, and kidney stones. He was why she conceived a baby with Down in common as parents was our incre- also reliant on many medications; some syndrome: Robin was a messenger from dulity that this was actually happening required precise preparation, so his care God. The body of the work continues to us. Learning of such a condition is was arduous work. Feeding was always a with Rogers giving a first-person voice heartrending news. Michael was my chore, but unbeknownst to us, Michael to Robin—to a child who was incapable son. My love for him was immense and had, at some point, begun aspirating of speaking and unquestionably illiter- unwavering despite perpetual feelings his food. Regrettably, this was his death ate—as she converses with God shortly of helplessness. Rogers could have cho- knell. Michael was diagnosed with aspi- after arriving in heaven. Through Robin, sen any number of titles for her book rational pneumonia when he was eight Rogers displays, in my opinion, typical but she settled on two words from a years old. Due to his fragile condition, we Christian arrogance, indifference to the biblical verse: “Forget not to show love were informed that his precious life was severity of her child’s ailment, and even unto strangers; for thereby some have coming to an end. There was nothing the a smidgen of guilt for putting her career entertained angels unaware” (Hebrews doctors could do. ahead of the needs of her daughter. I’m 13:2, ASV). Far from being a stranger, There is some speculation that the not insinuating that Rogers was a bad and most definitively not a cherubic

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 51 being in the scriptural sense, Robin was During her “mission,” Robin apparently Christians, conversely, assume there is a living, breathing human being with strengthened the family spiritually and a reason why everything happens and, manifold needs. But in the book, Rogers drew them closer “in the knowledge as Krauss posited above, that reason is portrays Robin as a mere pawn in a sick and love and fellowship of God.” She almost always of heavenly origin. What theological game. She claims this seed and Roy learned great lessons of truth comfort could one find in knowing that was planted by Father Smith, the man through Robin. Roy also learned that the suffering and premature death of a who baptized Roy’s children: “You and “real” success was “spiritual.” “It was child was the act of a loving God? How your husband will soon begin to receive hard for mommy and daddy,” Rogers could only the message matter? what our Lord wants you to learn from writes, posing as her child, “but worth Who would ever posit such a macabre this child,” Rogers quotes Smith as say- every tear and heartache it cost! I saw notion in the first place, and why? We ing. “In my opinion these little children what was happening; already, they were are talking about an imaginary man in are allowed to come into this world to beginning to appreciate Your cross. . . .” the sky, so there must be a component of bless lives.” Herein lies a hubris that I find Robin also notices, in her surrogate selfishness—of egoism—for individuals unfathomable. voice, that her parents were “growing to attribute everything in their lives to in grace.” “I heard mommy say one day some supernatural cause. To reduce the that she was coming to believe that the most vulnerable of persons, your own only important thing in this world was child, to a postscript of your life—as an a person’s relationship to God and his instrument of lessons learned—is the faith in Jesus Christ. Then she said she ultimate in arrogance. God so favors you “I’m not insinuating that Rogers was actually grateful to You for sending over all others and is so concerned about was a bad parent; I’m just going me in my handicapped condition.” your waning faith that he felt compelled Their child’s illness made Roy and to grace you with a child who is unbear- to show that she would have Dale so much stronger not only in their ably ill and whose time in this world been a better parent if she faith but likewise in their “appreciation will be grotesquely short-lived? It is, had abandoned her worthless of the responsibility we had been given.” quite simply, disgustingly self-centered. “There’s a new glory inside them,” If there was any deistic involvement at religious beliefs.” Rogers insinuates through Robin’s voice, work, it could only be identified as a “and on everything all around them. . . .” cruel joke by a sadistic god. Michael was This miraculous plan additionally taught my child; nothing less, nothing more. Robin’s parents “to see purpose in pain, The cosmos is Krauss’s realm, but I and messages on the crosses they have say it is indisputable that we reside in a The renowned physicist Lawrence to carry around.” But, most important morally neutral universe. Despite how Krauss once said in an interview that of all—and this is a startling revelation, strenuously Rogers tried to metamor- calamities happen all the time. “We all particularly considering that Robin was phose a dreadful situation into a positive think that what happens to us is signif- almost strangled by her own umbilical message from God, both of our chil- icant,” Krauss stated, “and we ascribe cord, suffered seizures, had a hole in dren’s situations remain random acts of significance, and often, therefore, divine her heart, couldn’t walk or talk, and was evolutionary biology condensed into the significance, to random events.” Indeed, given a death sentence by her doctors— goings-on of an uncaring microscopic according to Rogers, despite all the hun- Rogers lets us know that the “real mir- world. They most assuredly were neither ger, disease, natural disasters, war, and acle” here was that prior to her daugh- punishments nor part of God’s syllabus brutality in the world, God thought she ter’s death, she could never have written for life. and Roy, a famous and successful couple, “anything people would have wanted to were getting a little out of line. What read.” But, just two days after Robin’s ogers’s egocentricity didn’t end at her would be better to teach them a les- death, she put pen to paper! Rself-professed favor from God. Robin son, God supposed, than to have their noted that her mother was obsessed first child together be stricken with an aving such an absurd notion as that with fame and fortune. “Mommy had incurable birth defect? It worked, after Hmy son was sent to teach me silly, always been career minded,” Rogers inti- all; at least it did according to Rogers’s inconsequential lessons in exchange for mated, utilizing her child’s voice in some twisted rationale. his own pain, suffering, and death would sort of bastardized personification. “Even Throughout the book, Rogers—in her most assuredly label me as certifiably, when she was a young girl she wanted to own narrative and in her voice-over for and disgustingly, deranged. But I’m an succeed, and succeed ‘big’ in show busi- her daughter—declares how wonder- atheist, and I fail to see what lessons can ness, and for a long time she put that fully God’s plan was taking its course. be learned from the suffering of others. career before everything else in her life.

52 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org But after I arrived, it didn’t seem to mean day.” In actuality, what God was doing tion or the end of a mission for him, no so much to her, after all.” This, it seems, is for the two could be summarized quite merciless god pulling the strings of his proffered evidence that would obviously succinctly; if truth be told: nothing and life. Similar to any parent, I would have be expected of any good parent, but nothing. wanted a son free from disease, a son in Rogers’s case, it is intentionally mis- whom I could watch grow, whom I could leading. “Then she realized,” Robin con- espite all the heartwarming feedback nurture, and who would have children of fessed, “that giving me all her time and Dgiven to Angel Unaware—there are his own. I would have wanted for him to attention might be bad, too.” In addition over one hundred five-star reviews on revel in life’s mysteries, to experience this to tending to her other children, she Amazon.com—it remains a misguided extraordinary planet, and to change it had to “go on with her work.” When religious tome. Perhaps it makes some for the better. That’s what he deserved. a friend recommended a doctor who people feel good about their lives, while Angel Unaware was recommended might be able to help Robin, Rogers’s for others it strengthens their belief in to me in an attempt to help me see career took precedence: “mommy said their heavenly father. I find it a brazen God’s love even in the most egregious she’d take Cau-Cau (the nurse) and me rag, putting on display the unchecked of situations. Instead I saw a perversion. to see him just as soon as they got back ego of a woman who put her self-serving Not only don’t I believe in God, but I from a rodeo engagement in Houston, superstitions ahead of her own child. am highly suspicious of people who do, Texas.” Whether it was due to appear- particularly those who claim to know his ing on radio programs, television shows, hidden intentions. Theodicy is simply an movies, rodeos, or taking personal time, exercise in futility. A God who torments Rogers conveniently makes her daugh- children is worthy of no one’s praise or ter accepting of her absences. At times, “. . . I’m an atheist, and I fail to admiration. All of our children—Dave’s, Rogers’s career and proselytizing came see what lessons can Dale’s, and mine—were the victims of ahead of poor Robin, who played sec- tragic consequences that could not be ond fiddle to her mother’s capital vices, be learned from the helped. If I learned anything, it was just specifically vanity and avarice. suffering of others.” how temporary and fleeting life can be; The child was placed in the care of to cherish every moment. I’ll forever nurses who were sometimes unprofes- mourn the loss of Michael. sional and may have been a bit delu- Dave and Dale got it all wrong. sional themselves. One called her an They were the ones who were truly “impatient little witch” due to Robin’s How a reader can put this book down unaware. crankiness. Another nurse claimed feeling sympathy and sorrow, much less Rogers wasn’t Robin’s mother at all, closer to God, is beyond me. How can a Acknowledgment asserting that she was “God’s child” and rational person not question the modus Thanks to Jerry Coyne for his assistance on that God would heal her. For reasons operandi of anyone or anything that genetics. unknown, one nurse wanted to take would cause such immense suffering in a Further Reading Robin away from her family to care for child and then justify his horror by claim- The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Interview with her at the nurse’s own home, for months ing the child’s pain will make the parents Lawrence Krauss. Broadcast July 4, 2013. on end. “You can imagine what mommy more patient and loving? Rogers even Evans Rogers, Dale. 1982. Angel Unaware. New York: Jove Publications, Inc. (Original said, NO! A big, loud, furious NO!” wrote makes reference to a neighbor child who work published 1953). Robin. Remarkably however, this stance was also disabled and projects the same weakened and rather quickly. “Finally, spin on the pitiful little girl: “She’s had she said, ‘Oh, all right.’” Likewise, when thirty-five operations on her legs, but a revival meeting in Houston dotted oh, Father, how happy she is, and how Rogers’s calendar, she declined the invi- happy she’s made the people around tation due to Robin’s worsening condi- her!” Mark Cagnetta wrote about his son’s illness tion. In a dream God spoke to Rogers At the end of the book, upon Robin’s previously in Free Inquiry in the August/ and asked, “Which comes first—Robin untimely death, Rogers, in deference to September 2014 issue in an article titled or Me?” Incredibly, the answer was that the Bible’s creation story, mouths for “Why I Am Not a Catholic: Sundays with equally selfish, and admittedly jeal- her daughter, “My old clay shell just fell Estelle.” He is a retired police officer with ous, man in the sky! “She knew it was off,” with Robin ultimately asking God an EdD in organizational leadership. He more important to tell the world about if she can test-drive her newly acquired is married and has a daughter and two what You were doing for her and for wings. I would have wanted more for grandchildren. me, than to stay in my room night and my son. There would be no predestina-

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 53 The Faith I Left Behind

Atheist in a Foxhole

(or Rather, an Unarmored Toyota) Doug Traversa

eaving my faith required a long, serious about my eternal destiny. My A few months later, two men came painful, convoluted journey that cul- family was attending a liberal Lutheran to our home to speak to us about the Lminated in my becoming an atheist church at the time, and I decided that Gospel. I believe my mother had invited minister—quite the trip indeed! the first step was to get baptized. Surely them. Even though they were speaking Although I came out of fundamental- that would help. But meeting with the to my parents, I came into the room and ist Christianity, this sort of faith was not minister proved to be massively disap- listened unobtrusively. They were from an a part of my early years. True, my mother pointing. Not only could he not assure independent Bible church, and they could took my sister, brother, and me to church me that baptism would save my soul, he (and did) tell us exactly how we could get sporadically, but my father rarely went. couldn’t actually state definitively why to heaven when we died. All we needed We attended various mainline churches I should even get baptized. He offered to do was ask Jesus to save us from our and military chapels (my father was a U.S. several arguments, but his words fell on sins and to be our Lord and Savior. We Air Force officer), but since we moved deaf ears. I did not want possibilities; were saved by grace, not by works, and many times, I never developed an attach- I wanted clear, authoritative answers, needed only to repent and accept the and I wasn’t getting them (ironically, I free gift of salvation to be assured of now consider him the most honest in a residing in heaven once we died. long stream of ministers I would meet Now this was more like it! These men over the coming years). Still, I agreed to spoke with certitude and authority. More attend confirmation classes before get- important, this was the way I could finally “. . . Even in those early years, ting baptized, even though the minister know with absolute certainty that my had offered to baptize me right then. I soul was saved. So at the age of thirteen, I was already taking the long declined, as the sheer wishy-washiness in the privacy of my room, I did indeed view of spiritual things.” of the entire conversation had turned me repent and asked Jesus to save me. off. It would be better to study this mat- From that point on, I was very seri- ter further, because apparently baptism ous about my Christianity. I dragged my wasn’t the key to heaven I had hoped for. friends to church, witnessed to many At least, it didn’t seem to be. Things were people, and undoubtedly annoyed still pretty unclear. more than a few along the way. In high ment to any particular denomination. Confirmation class turned out to be a school, I determined that I would go to However, even in those early years, I was tortuous affair, with a couple of kids who a Christian college and probably become already taking the long view of spiritual teamed up to be as nasty as possible to a missionary. In college, I decided that I things. I believed in heaven and hell (as I me. This and the fact that I finally put my could use my love of literature to serve was taught) and worried that I might not foot down and refused to go back after the Lord by becoming an English teacher get into heaven. The qualifications one one snide remark too many is about all in a Christian school, and that’s exactly needed were somewhat vague, which I remember of the classes. At this point I what I did for four years after I graduated. was disturbing considering the eternal wanted nothing more to do with church, ramifications. I grew increasingly con- and since my father wasn’t interested nfortunately, serving the Lord was not cerned about my prospects (not that I either, we were finally free to stay home Upaying the bills, and I had a wife and was particularly bad, but only an idiot on Sundays. However, my mother was two young children to take care of. The wouldn’t worry about the possibility of growing sadder at our lack of church-go- financial pressures were too much for me everlasting damnation and torture). ing, and I knew things could not remain to keep teaching at poverty wages. I did When I was twelve, I decided to get this way for long. some job-searching and soon discovered

54 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org that having a degree in English education that it was a matter of faith rather than cide bomb would kill us very easily. Yet, did not open up many doors. Fortunately, reason. This was unsatisfactory, and after on that day, our commander decided the Air Force would take me, since they about a year, we stopped going to church that the rules would change, and there- just wanted a college degree. So for the altogether. after we went out pretty much no mat- next twenty years, I served Uncle Sam. ter what. We never understood why on I never encountered any Christian nce freed from the conservative this day, of all days, the policy changed. favoritism from any commanders while OChristian mind-set, I found myself The rumor was that the commander had I served. We did have a group called much more accepting of people. I no decided we needed to do our job, no Officer’s Christian Fellowship that I reg- longer looked at the unsaved as rebel- matter what the risk. ularly participated in, and it helped my lious sinners deserving of hell. I found This sudden death-defying stance faith remain strong for another six years. myself happier than I had been in a long came as a surprise to all of us, and our However, doubts started creeping in. The time, because I no longer worshipped spirits sank pretty low. I was absolutely critical foundation of my faith—an iner- a god of wrath, one who would send convinced that I would die the next day. rant, inspired Bible—no longer seemed the majority of humans to eternal tor- It was not logical, but it was very real to reasonable. My regular reading of the ment to appease his sense of justice. I me. I had one day to live. Bible continually revealed things that sim- did not look at every relationship as an I am happy to report that I was wrong; ply made no sense. It was my study of the opportunity to proselytize. I could sim- we all survived that day and indeed the Old Testament and its endless array of idi- ply accept people on their own terms. It rest of our tour. No one in our unit was otic laws allegedly given by a loving god was liberating! Looking back on it, I am targeted that day. The risk was assessed that finally did it. The detailed instructions embarrassed to have ever believed the as high virtually every day after that, so on how to establish slavery, the endless things I did, but at least I moved on. I left maybe the commander knew what was slaughter of animals for sacrifice, and the God behind—at least the version taught coming. Our replacements were not degradation of women all proved too in the Bible. I would now be unapolo- so lucky, losing one man to a shooting much to bear. This simply could not have getically atheistic. shortly after we got back to the United come from God! Add to this the equally About eight years after embracing my States. abhorrent notion that billions of people atheism, I went on a yearlong deploy- Despite the mistaken certainty that I would be tortured for all eternity, and I ment to Afghanistan. Even though I was was about to die, I did not revert back to finally quit. The Bible was neither inerrant in the Air Force, I was tagged to fill a my former beliefs. I am an atheist to this nor inspired; I had wasted a huge part of U.S. Army position, embedded with the day, even after facing what I was sure my life believing a lie. Afghan National Army, helping to sup- would be my last day on Earth. I felt no Now came the hard part. I had to port a transportation unit. We were not need to fall on my knees and pray. There explain to my wife that I had grave safely ensconced on an American base. are indeed atheists in foxholes (and unar- doubts about Christianity. She, my We traveled through war-torn Kabul mored Toyotas). children, our families, our friends, and every day in unarmored Toyota SUVs The final irony of all this is that I am everyone else who mattered to us were while suicide bombers were attacking now a minister: an atheist minister—an Christians. Leaving the faith would have NATO troops regularly. After a few weeks open, unapologetically atheistic minister. serious repercussions, and it was not of fear, most of us learned to accept the I found a home in the Unitarian something to be done without a great risks with a grim stoicism. I chose not Universalist Church, which welcomed me deal of thought and study. Fortunately, to fear death—I had to, or I would go as an atheist to be a full participant in all she understood my doubts and even crazy with worry. But before I got to that activities and ministries. It’s another story shared some of them. She suggested I point, I had to go through my “atheist in for another time, but it is the conclusion start asking tough questions of our pas- a foxhole” moment. to this tale. Having left behind a church tor, teachers, and friends before I decided There are few phrases I detest more that demanded faith, I unexpectedly to pack it all in. We could even visit other than “there are no atheists in foxholes,” found a church that reveres rational more liberal churches. We would go on mainly because it is born of arrogance thought and welcomes atheists. Amazing. this journey together. and is completely false. I know this from Having sworn to never set foot in a So I began asking harder questions at personal experience. On September 10, church again, I find that the universe loves church, and I soon encountered a pat- 2006, the day before the anniversary of to throw curveballs. To quote Douglas tern I would see again and again as we September 11, 2001, we received word Adams, “In an infinite universe, anything visited different churches. Once my ques- that suicide attacks on vehicles were likely is possible.” tions became too difficult (or too annoy- the next day. Since we were a logistics ing), I was told I just had to have faith. unit, if there was a high threat-level, we Doug Traversa is the minister of the Christianity was always presented initially did not normally travel from our base Unitarian Universalist Church of Tullahoma, as logical and reasonable, easily defended to the Afghan base. After all, we were Tennessee. He is also a practicing Zen in a debate. But after asking some chal- driving around in civilian vehicles, and Buddhist and a retired Air Force officer. lenging questions, I was always advised an improvised explosive device or sui-

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 55 Humanism at Large

The Rise of the Granfalloons:

Overcoming the Stigma of Corporate Intangibility Dan Davis

omes now Citizens United v. lectually contrived associations based owned by the entities themselves. Assets Federal Election Commission and upon premises that their members mutu- held outside the corporate shell, such CBurwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., ally agree to accept. To become a gran- as the personal wealth of the humans U.S. Supreme Court decisions grafted falloon, an association must be assigned pulling the strings, could not be accessed onto the law of the land, establishing a separate identity in the minds of its by corporate creditors except in extraor- that corporations must be recognized members. Should the members aban- dinary circumstances. as persons and granting such persons don their belief in the entity’s enabling Over the years, courts granted corpo- the right to exercise their religions as concept, the entity will cease to exist. As rations additional rights deemed consis- they see fit. noted by Vonnegut’s fictional prophet tent with their mission of enriching their These shining moments in the corpo- Bokonon, “If you wish to examine a owners while limiting attendant risks. To rate civil-rights movement are only the granfalloon, just remove the skin of a justify the expansion of these rights, the beginning. The full implications of these toy balloon.” legal theory of corporate “personhood” landmark decisions must be recognized A granfalloon may be useful, harm- was conceived and nourished within a and carried to their just and logical con- less, or destructive, depending on the developing ontogeny of case law. Finally, nature and execution of its purposes. To with two historic decisions, the Supreme illustrate, consider the following three Court’s conservative majority gave birth examples: the United States, Yankees to a new life-form: an intangible corpo- fans, and the Aryan Brotherhood. rate golem, raised up by constitutional “We must not discriminate Entrepreneurs and executives proudly legerdemain and endowed by its cre- against the intangible solely proclaim their love of competition and ators with certain inalienable rights. risk-taking. Their love is true, faltering only The cases, of course, were Citizens because they have no physical when their own enterprises are affected, United v. Federal Election Commission characteristics at all.” whereupon they move heaven and Earth and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. to stifle the competition and reduce or In Citizens United, the judicial majority eliminate their risks. Corporate granfal- applied its self-proclaimed strict con- loons are a manifestation of such move- stitutional interpretation to conclude, ment. in effect, that corporations are indeed clusions. Current American jurisprudence Long ago, merchants succeeded in persons and as such are entitled to the maintains that constitutional rights shall convincing their government patrons rights of free speech guaranteed by the not be abridged by reason of a citizen’s that businesses needed certain protec- First Amendment. These free-speech physical characteristics. We must not tions to survive, lest commerce wither rights, the justices explained, include discriminate against the intangible solely away and chaos ensue. Thus began the the right of corporate people to spend as because they have no physical charac- concept of the corporation, an intangible much money as they like on purchasing teristics at all. structure within which enterprises could political speech and inflicting it upon Corporate beings are “granfalloons” operate as independent entities. These their tangible brethren. created by operation of law. As explained entities would be accountable for most The creativity of this “strict” interpre- in Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut’s 1963 adverse consequences of their activi- tation can only be described as astound- novel, granfalloons are intangible, intel- ties, but only to the extent of the assets ing, considering that corporations and

56 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org political spending aren’t mentioned in ntil the recent death of Justice Antonin Once emancipated, corporations can the First Amendment or anywhere else UScalia, the extension of religious rights be endowed with the remainder of their in the Constitution. But more was yet to all corporations appeared to be only a constitutional rights, to wit: to come. matter of time. His passing was a stagger- 1. The right to vote. Pursuant to the ing setback to constitutional originalism in It would be uncharitable, although Fifteenth Amendment of the U.S. general and corporate rights in particular. reasonable, to believe that the Citizens Constitution, the right of corporate No jurist could equal his skill in contriving United majority expected or sanctioned citizens to vote shall not be abridged eighteenth-century approaches to twenty- the media flood of untraceable polit- on account of their previous condition first century controversies, or in divining ical excrement that resulted from its of servitude. our forefathers’ intentions relating to decision. We can only assume that the 2. Accommodation of religious beliefs. issues they never imagined. majority was, and is, sincerely convinced The Hobby Lobby decision has granted Now corporate beings must depend on that corporations are de facto human corporate persons the freedom to fol- senatorial originalists to postpone Scalia’s equivalents and therefore entitled to low their religious beliefs. The court replacement until either a Republican constitutional protections. The majori- thus far has limited this freedom to president assumes office or the Rapture ty’s subsequent Hobby Lobby decision transports our Christian corporations to supports this assumption. Jesus’s heavenly stock exchange. Unlike Citizens United, the Hobby Lobby Imagine the world if strict con- decision was not a First Amendment case. structionists prevail. Since the First The court majority instead relied on the Amendment applies to corporations, imaginatively named Religious Freedom so should the rest of the Constitution. “Only those incapable of Restoration Act (RFRA) as its basis for strik- Determining the details will require an grasping the complexity of strict ing down a requirement that the plain- extraordinary degree of legal creativity, tiffs provide certain types of contraception but the originalists of the Court’s con- constructionism would ask why under their health-care plans. servative wing have proven themselves the religious liberty of corporate Hobby Lobby reaffirmed the Citizens capable of the task. The problematic ‘owners’ should be relevant United conclusion that, in effect, corpo- provisions are addressed below. rations must be regarded as persons. The The most complex constitutional at all if corporations decision went on to state that protecting conundrum is the issue of corporate themselves are persons.” corporate free-exercise rights protects slavery. Since corporations are owned the religious liberty of the humans who by their shareholders, they may be own and control the corporations. Only regarded as victims of involuntary ser- those incapable of grasping the com- vitude. Pursuant to the Thirteenth and plexity of strict constructionism would Fourteenth amendments, our corporate brethren should be set free from their ask why the religious liberty of corpo- closely held corporations. When corpo- shareholder masters and afforded the rate “owners” should be relevant at all rations have been emancipated from same privileges and immunities that if corporations themselves are persons. their shareholders, the limitation can are granted to citizens who breathe. But legal doctrine often unfolds in no longer apply. Corporations may continue to work on increments. Our Founding Fathers knew In the interim, religious freedom behalf of their shareholders, but only this when they planted the seeds of cor- should not be denied. The corporate civ- at their own discretion and only if paid porate liberation deep within the decep- il-rights movement will continue to work a fair wage. tively plain language of the Constitution, toward the accommodation of every The difficulty of achieving corporate to be discovered, sprouted, and har- corporation’s religious beliefs, regard- emancipation should not be underesti- vested by the Supreme Court’s priestly less of the number of shareholders. As mated. Not unlike God, granfalloons are interpreters nearly 250 years later. The soon as an ingenious corporate attorney intangible creations of human imagi- produces a remotely coherent rationale, court’s conservative majority was simply, nation that do not exist outside the the Supreme Court conservatives are if gradually, working toward the framers’ minds of their acolytes/associates. To certain to extend religious freedom to hidden goal of extending constitutional divest corporations of human ownership every corporate citizen. rights to all corporations. is to abandon them to a limbo where 3. Corporate marriage. Pursuant to the This is powerful stuff. Pursuant to thought, intent, and the capacity for precepts of religious freedom, corpo- the now-revealed intent of the consti- action are absent. They undoubtedly will rate persons must be permitted to join tutional framers, the First Amendment require the assistance of their directors together in holy matrimony. has not only endowed our corporate and officers in overcoming this hurdle, brethren with freedom of speech; it also but we must rely on the high priests of a. A corporation should be able to allows the closely held among them to the Supreme Court to reveal the required marry in the church of its choice, freely exercise their religions. methodology. enabling its decision to be recog-

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 57 nized and blessed by its chosen ural persons, they should be per- tions will complicate the realization of deity. Its right to marry must extend mitted to marry human beings. their Second Amendment rights. We beyond mere civil ceremonies such Miscegenation laws affecting tangi- must depend on our firearms man- as mergers and acquisitions. ble Americans have been universally ufacturers, themselves corporations, b. Unlike same-sex marriage, there are repudiated; the same should be true to develop intangible arms that non- no biblical arguments against corpo- for inter-tangible relationships. corporeal entities are capable of bear- rate matrimony. God has never pro- 4. The right to hold public office. Corporate ing. Only then can we enlist corpora- scribed sexual (or any other) activ- persons must be granted the same rights tions into well-regulated intangible ities between mutually consenting to hold public office as are enjoyed by militias. corporations, regardless of gender. citizens with pulses. For example: Article c. As most religious professionals 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution e are fortunate to be living in a time maintain, the primary purpose of stipulates that members of the House Wwhen corporate civil rights are finally marriage is divinely sanctioned pro- of Representatives must have attained becoming acknowledged. We who enjoy creation. Corporations procreate a minimum age of twenty-five years; the privileges of the corporeal class must by creating subsidiaries, a process must have been a U.S. citizen for at ensure that our intangible comrades will far purer than human procreation least seven years; and must be an not be left behind. since it doesn’t require sex. Allowing inhabitant of the state that elected Further Reading corporations to marry will further them. Several corporations already Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., No. sanctify this process. meet these requirements, and there 13-354, 573 U.S. ___ (2014). d. Corporate marriage will rectify an is no justification for excluding them Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, income-tax inequity now suffered from political candidacy. No. 08-205, 558 U.S. 310 (2010). Vonnegut, Kurt. 1998. Cat’s Cradle. New York: by corporate citizens. Corporations 5. The right to bear arms. Under the Dial Press Trade Paperbacks, an imprint of are presently taxed under one rate Second Amendment, corporate citi- the Random House Publishing Group, a structure, which is conceptually zens have the right to bear arms. This division of Random House, Inc. equivalent to treating all of them as right extends beyond the ability to single persons. Once corporate mar- engage human proxies such as police, riage is recognized, the government armies, or private security forces. must create an additional tax-rate American humans have been afforded schedule for married corporations the constitutional right to individually Dan Davis is a writer and semiretired certi- wishing to file jointly. bear arms, and corporations should be fied public accountant/consultant. e. Since corporations have been treated no differently. granted legal equivalency to nat- The nonphysical nature of corpora-

58 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org Reviews

Religious History without a Prayer Tom Flynn

usan Jacoby, one of secularism’s lead- Sing public intellectuals, is back, this time with a wide-ranging history of a phenomenon one might not expect a Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion, by Susan secular historian to tackle: religious con- Jacoby (New York: Pantheon, 2016, ISBN 978-0-375-42375- version. Her scope is wide—from Paul 8) 464 pp. Hardcover, $29.95. and Augustine to John Dunne, Heinrich Heine, Edith Stein (a Jew who became a Catholic nun, was killed in the Holocaust because of her Jewish heritage, then controversially canonized as a Catholic martyr), and Muhammad Ali. The book delivers on its subtitle, eruditely probing these and other conversion narratives who selected that über-Catholic historian from an utterly secular perspective. to write a predictably harsh review.) Beneath Jacoby’s gaze, each conver- For secularists, the publishing mile- sion proves explicable without treating stone that is Strange Gods offers two the “spiritual” matters—often thought lessons. The first, of course, is the book’s central to any conversion experience— “Beneath Jacoby’s gaze, each dazzling demonstration that a persuasive as in any way causally significant. She conversion proves exp history of conversion (for such it is) can be demonstrates, thunderously, that some licable without treating the written from a perspective that excludes of Western history’s most influential and any whiff of the supra-natural. The sec- most assiduously studied conversions ‘spiritual’ matters—often ond is more cautionary: clearly, atheism can be accounted for without positing thought central to any and humanism still have far to go to win that any religion contains truth or even conversion experience—as in full acceptance in the supposedly secular that vaguer, numinous “spiritual” factors domain of American letters. played a role. any way causally significant.” Strange Gods is no New Atheist screed. And some reviewers absolutely detest Jacoby is not playing the Richard Dawkins that. “I suppose a skeptic could no more or Sam Harris role here, climbing a hill and explain something as personal and spiri- announcing that there’s no god. What she tually significant as belief any more than accomplishes is more subtly subversive. someone who has continually starved “I doubt that there is such a thing as a could understand what it is to have a full of religious conversion is a little like read- ‘true’ conversion to or from any religion,” and nourishing meal,” complained one ing a sex manual written by a nun.” she writes, “if what is meant by ‘true’ is reviewer on Amazon.com. In the New York Times, Gary Wills a purely spiritual or intellectual process More disturbing was psychotherapist delivers a thorough hatchet job: “Anyone uninfluenced by external social pressures.” Gary Greenberg sounding the same dis- who knows even some of these charac- In the debate between atheists and cordant note in a review in Harper’s, a ters well—Donne, Stein, Augustine—must believers, believers call atheists metaphys- liberal magazine one might expect to be wonder how [Jacoby] managed to make ically blind; atheists counter that believ- more friendly to Jacoby’s project: “Reading them so much smaller than our experi- ers see (or feel) what isn’t there. Jacoby’s Jacoby—who tells us that she has been an ence of them has been.” (One questions method in Strange Gods topples the last atheist since age fourteen—on the subject whether to fault Wills or the Times editor refuge of even the most rarefied believer.

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 59 She elucidates each of the conversions of radical Islam today); secular intellectual milieu yet ultimately she examines, and by extension all con- • the convenience of adopting a more cannot bear to admit that it’s brute natu- versions, as proceeding from: socially advantaged religious identity ralism all the way down—that no mystical (Heine, Donne, Disraeli, Quaker pio- “something extra” lurks behind some milky • trauma (Paul); neer Margaret Fell, Ann Hutchinson); veil to breathe ultimate meaning into our • motives we would now categorize • ambition (again Donne, Disraeli, Fell, lives. as psychotherapeutic (for example, and Hutchinson); or Gary Wills opens the final paragraph Augustine and his, to describe it • A desire to escape (Stein, C. S. Lewis, of his Times review with this crotchety anachronistically, sex addiction); G. K. Chesterton, Ali, and others). aside: “Looking back over Jacoby’s cast of • intermarriage, driven by desire that characters, I hear Peggy Lee: ‘Is that all has never been a respecter of creeds; There is much more, including a richly there is?’” Yes, Professor Wills, that is all • rational survival (Jews and Muslims nuanced discussion of how the formerly there is. who converted, if often insincerely, life-and-death business of conversion has to Catholicism at sword’s point in fif- become something more akin to sport teenth-century Iberia; “the mass con- in contemporary America’s superheated version of slaves from paganism or lifestyle marketplace. Islam to Christianity” in America; or It’s easy to see why Strange Gods so Tom Flynn is the editor of Free Inquiry. those who convert under the threat vexes thinkers who operate in a largely

What Sort of Free Will Is Worth Having? Brooke Horvath

arly in Henry James’s novel The EAmerican (1877), his hero, the wealthy Christopher Newman, de­scribes his abandonment of a successful busi- Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting, ness career after awakening one day by Daniel C. Dennett (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2015 [new with a “mortal disgust” of deals and edition], ISBN 978-0-262-52779-8). xiv + 227 pp. Paper, competitors. The decision, he tells his $21.95. friend Tristram, “came upon me like that! . . . I couldn’t tell the meaning of it.” He ends by emphasizing that “all this took place quite independently of my will, and I sat watching it as if it were a play at the theatre. I could feel it going on inside of me. You may Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University, feel, and do. If so, we haven’t free will but depend upon it that there are things explains, “We are afraid that science has an illusion of agency; we are spectators going on inside of us that we under- shown, or will soon show, that we can’t of our own decision making, victims of stand mighty little about.” To this con- be what we want to be.” It is a fear, he processes over which we have no con- fession, Tristram shoots back, “Jupiter! continues, that thrives on ignorance and trol, perhaps not even any knowledge. You make my flesh creep!” oversimplifications of what “science has Our response to such a loss of responsi- In Newman’s brief account of his to tell us about ourselves and the rest bility should be, or so we’re told, that of state of mind can be glimpsed recent of the universe, about causation, about Tristram: a feeling of moral and existen- challenges to the claim that we possess time, about possibility.” The message, tial horror. free will—challenges that come today in short, is Newman’s: “There are things In Elbow Room—this new edition not from theology (Luther, Calvin) but going on inside of us that we under- of which is identical to the 1984 edition from the sciences. As Daniel C. Dennett, stand mighty little about” and that are save for a new preface and an afterword University Professor and Austin B. Fletcher ultimately responsible for what we think, that began life as the 2012 Erasmus Prize

60 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org Lecture—Dennett is keen on making the Yes, if we try hard, we can imagine a act, one must realize that it would have case for compatibilism (the reconciliation being that listens to the voice of rea- been impossible to act otherwise? Can son and yet is not exempted from the of free will and determinism) by arguing we “even conceive of beings whose wills causal milieu. Yes, we can imagine a that “the varieties of free will worth want- being whose every decision is caused are freer than our own?” Would evolu- ing, the varieties that underwrite moral by the interaction of features of its tion as presently understood be possible and artistic responsibility, are not only current state and features of its en- in a deterministic world? not threatened by advances in (neuro-) vironment over which it has no con- Readers of Free Inquiry may be inter- trol—and yet which is itself in control, science” (or any other science) but rather ested to know that nowhere does and not being controlled by that “distinguished, explained, and justified in omnipresent and omnicausual envi- Dennett attempt to reconcile free will detail” by a scientific (naturalistic) account ronment. Yes, we can imagine a pro- “with the hypothesis of an infinite, of ourselves and our world. cess of self-creation that starts with all-knowing Being,” for that hypothesis Detailed explanation is indeed what a non-responsible agent and builds, “depends on a very literal and anthro- gradually, to an agent responsible for the reader is given as Dennett moves its own character. Yes, we can imag- pomorphic vision of God” that Dennett through his seven chapters. He first dis- ine a rational and deterministic being admits he simply cannot take seriously penses with those “bogeymen” that who is not deluded when it views its and could treat only as “an intellectual 1 “How much variety in types of have “done most of the work behind the future as open and “up to” it. Yes, we amusement.” His afterword, however, scenes in propelling the free will problem” can imagine a responsible, free agent politics can exist consistent with of whom it is true that whenever (that is, those fearmongering arguments it has acted in the past, it could not humanism?” that find us, sans absolute free will, the have acted otherwise. playthings of some “cosmic child”; pris- At the risk of oversimplification: biol- oners too witless to see the cage we’re ogy and environment control what we in; “automata, insectlike in our behavior”). “In [this new edition of] Elbow perceive (give us “lots of timely and rele- He then focuses on six topics that “phi- Room . . Dennett is keen on losophers usually rush past with a lick vant true beliefs about what’s out there”) and a promise”: “our biological status as and “cause us,” ideally, “to act on the most making the case for compati- rational animals”; the meaning of “con- judicious assessment of that evidence”— bilism (the reconciliation of free judiciously enough, at any rate, for us to trol” and “self-control” (key concepts that, will and determinism). . . .” along with “luck” and “inevitability,” the “be counted upon to act responsibly, and author says haven’t been heretofore care- hence . . . held responsible for our actions,” fully examined in the free-will debate); though we remain free to make of sen- the “concept of self or agent”; the rela- sory input and “judicious assessment” tion of determinism to deliberation and what we will. “The fact that our decisions to “opportunities seized and tragedies are events in our brains caused by prior opens with the free-will debate between averted”; the question of whether one events in our brains caused by still earlier Luther and Erasmus to broach the lat- ever “could have done otherwise”; and events,” writes Dennett, “simply does not ter’s fear that acceptance of determin- the question of why we wish to hold oth- have the implication that free will is an ism would have disastrous social conse- ers and ourselves responsible for behav- illusion, unless you define free will in such quences (it didn’t). Dennett introduces ing as we do. a way that this follows trivially”—a “way” the concern to raise the question of Taking recent scientific research seri- that will interest no one “but underem- whether biologists, neuroscientists, psy- ously (“recent” meaning before 1984— ployed theologians and philosophers.” chologists, and others need to take more Dennett has seen nothing in the scientific “seriously their moral obligation to think literature since to change his thinking), ennett’s development of this argu- through the presuppositions and impli- he employs an approach derived from Dment is clearly written and compel- cations of their public pronouncements” ordinary language philosophy to salvage ling and his “thought experiments” declaring free will an illusion. “the everyday concept of free will,” a usefully illustrative, although I did find Should the bad news from the labs notion perhaps limited but expansively myself sometimes losing sight of the be kept from us children? Dennett thinks serviceable and far from nullified by bio- big picture as I wrestled with particular not because it is not, properly understood, logical imperatives, environmental factors points (suggestion: on a first reading, bad news at all: “Nothing found so far in beyond our control, luck, or imperfect try to ignore the complicating foot- science . . . casts any doubt on the import- rationality. Indeed, unless we hold out for notes). Certainly, part of the challenge ant kinds of free will”; in fact, quantum Kantian absolutism (“complete subjuga- of coming to grips with the argument(s) mechanics reveals a subatomic indeter- tion of the will to the dictates of reason”) of Elbow Room is getting a firm hold minacy that might render our thoughts and “absolute freedom” from all “physical on the surprising questions asked and “macroscopic effects of quantum-level causation,” we will find that we have as answered: Why can’t anyone change indeterminacies,” though Dennett “much of what we want to be true about the course of history, and why does this chooses not to pursue this very far. More ourselves” as we need and can reasonably not damage notions of free will? Why to the point, just as Luther preached expect: is it that, looking back on a particular determinism to people who “went right

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 61 on believing in free will,” so will most of us Dewey put it almost a century ago: “What stay a real choice? Will you read this book today. (By the way, in the course of mak- men have esteemed and fought for in (or the rest of this sentence) or choose ing this argument, Dennett has some very the name of liberty is varied and com- not to? Can I bring this review to a close, interesting things to say in his afterword plex—but certainly it has never been a or must I write more? about the unfortunate consequences of metaphysical freedom of will.” Still, the clergy knowing more than they dare tell issues to which Dennett’s subject gives Brooke Horvath’s most recent review their parishioners.) rise are, as I have tried to suggest, suffi- for Free Inquiry was of Jonathan Israel’s It will surprise no one that the ciently provocative to override any initial Revolutionary Ideas: An Intellectual History exchange between Christopher Newman lack of interest in the main question. How of the French Revolution from The Rights and Tristram with which I began did not should one respond to feelings of guilt or of Man to Robespierre (October/November lead them into a discussion of free will, shame if one could not have acted other- 2015). His poem “Redbud” appeared in the for as Dennett admits, for most people wise? If I am in a room and don’t know April/May 2015 issue. the question is of small interest. As John the doors are locked, is my decision to

A New Perspective on Roe v. Wade Tom Flynn

f you’re like many Free Inquiry readers, Iyou might be in the habit of attending a party each January 22, the date of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 decision After Roe: The Lost History of the Abortion Debate, by Mary Roe v. Wade, which made abortion legal Ziegler (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2015, across the nation. Apparently, some his- ISBN 978-0-674-73677-1) 367 pp. Hardcover, $39.95. torians of this subject have embraced a view that Roe accomplished great good in a regrettable way. The decision was premature, this opinion goes, curtailing discussions among the public and within state legislatures that given time might have forged more enduring support for firmed its commitment to ‘a middle tion as, in part, a tool for population abortion rights. Moreover, Roe polarized ground between the extreme of abor- control; today’s familiar rhetoric of the country, directly impelling the rise tion on demand and the opposite choice was the work of younger activ- of today’s fiercely antiabortion religious extreme of all abortion as murder.’” ists. This aspect of Ziegler’s argument Right. Far from being a knee-jerk reaction to we have heard before; the politics of But don’t worry, that’s wrong too. Roe, the monolithic, absolute oppo- the movement’s strategically question- In After Roe, Mary Ziegler, a law pro- sition to abortion we now associate able decision to retreat from cham- fessor at Florida State University, offers with the religious Right took several pioning the moral licitness of abor- a richly documented alternative view. years to coalesce under the influence tion, emphasizing instead the easier She contends that today’s fractured pro- of multiple factors. but less-robust rubric of “choice,” was choice/pro-life landscape developed • Even a decade after Roe, “abortion ably covered by William Saletan in his gradually. In fact, it took shape over at opponents had not united behind Bearing Right (University of California least a full decade after Roe, often for a single platform.” One controversy Press, 2003), which I reviewed in Free reasons little connected with the high centered on whether to accept legis- Inquiry, April/May 2004. court’s decision. “We have adopted a lative compromises that would render conventional account of post-Roe polar- abortions more difficult to retain or to A brief review cannot do justice to this ization that is fundamentally flawed,” insist on the more ideologically pure eye-opening book. With measured tones Ziegler writes, “based on assumptions demand for a ban on all abortions. and expert scholarship, Mary Ziegler about the aftermath of the Supreme • Abortion proponents were no less demonstrates that almost everything Court decision rather than on fundamen- divided. In the immediate post-Roe most of us think we know about Roe and tal research.” The book ably presents the years, many feminists construed the its consequences is incorrect. The reality fruits of Ziegler’s sleuthing, documenting decision principally as an expansion she uncovers is far richer than the con- counterintuitive facts such as these: of physicians’ rights, not of those of sensus story. Anyone interested in the • In 1974, a full year after Roe, “the women. Along another axis, old-line history of U.S. abortion rights since 1970 Southern Baptist Convention reaf- feminists tended to champion abor- should read After Roe.

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Listing here does not preclude a full guage is influential. Case studies explore A collection of the author’s essays and review in a later issue. the religious arguments presidents have short pieces from the last three decades, made to defend their decisions on issues most revised and expanded for this new Truly Human Enhancement: A Philo­ such as defense spending, environmen- book. Contents include: “Don’t Call Them sophical Defense of Limits, by Nicholas tal protection, and presidential scandals. Libertarians” (on the appropriation of Agar (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, The author provides evidence that when the term libertarian by laissez-faire capi- 2014, ISBN: 978-0-2620-2663-5). 232 religious rhetoric is used, public opinion talists); “AA Lies” (on the ineffectiveness pp. Hardcover $35.00. typically goes against the president, the and religiosity of Alcoholics Anonymous); media reacts harshly, and Congress fails “Anarchism: What It Is and What It Isn’t,” The transformative potential of genetic to do as he wants. But he says that pres- “Means to Change,” and “20 Reasons to and cybernetic technologies to enhance idents do not talk this way because they Abandon Christianity.” Provocations also human capabilities is most often rejected want to: Jimmy Carter and George H.W. includes the best 170 definitions from on moral and prudential grounds or Bush were quite uncomfortable using The American Heretic’s Dictionary and hailed as the future salvation of human- faith to promote their agendas, but they numerous caustic essays on politics, eco- ity. Agar makes the case for moderate felt they must. nomics, and “livin’ in the USA.” human enhancement—improvements Unsafe Gods: Security, Secularism, and to attributes and abilities that do not sig- Voices of Humanism, edited by Gary nificantly exceed what is currently possi- Schooling, by Lynn Davies (London: Insti­ Bauslaugh (Victoria, British Columbia, ble for human beings. He argues against tute of Education, 2014, ISBN softcover Canada: Rocketday Arts, 2014, ISBN radical human enhancement, or improve- 978-1-85856-525-5, PDF e-book 978-1- 978-0-9877987-1-8). 262 pp. Softcover ments that greatly exceed current human 85856-549-1, ePub e-book 978-1-85856- $22. capabilities, because we may inadver- 550-7, Kindle e-book 978-1-85856- tently create beings (“post-persons”) 551-4). References and Index. 248 pp. This anthology includes thirty-five arti- with higher status than that of unen- Softcover $36.95. cles by fifteen humanists. They showcase hanced persons. Agar explores notions the rich and lively intellectual history of of transformative change and motives In this era of revived fundamentalist humanism and go beyond the issue of for human enhancement, distinguishes religions, education has come under nonbelief to show how humanist thought between the instrumental and intrinsic attack—literally as schoolchildren are enriches our thinking about many issues value of enhancements, argues that too mowed down in their classrooms and of human importance. The book is struc- much enhancement undermines human dorms in Pakistan and Nigeria and more identity, considers the possibility of cog- subtly as curriculum changes are forced tured around the seven fundamental nitively enhanced scientists, and argues upon educators. The author argues that principles of humanism as defined in against radical life extension. religion can be complicit in conflicts and the 2002 Amsterdam Declaration of that a new secularism is vital to foster the International Humanist and Ethical God Wills It: Presidents and the Political security. It can be used to accommodate Union. Bauslaugh is a past editor of Use of Religion, by David O’Connell (New diverse faiths and beliefs in world poli- the magazine Humanist Perspectives Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, tics and enable young people to develop and a past president of the Humanist 2014, ISBN: 978-1-4128-5486-3). 352 the skills and networks to create change Association of Canada. pp. Hardcover $54.95. without resorting to violence. Reimagining God: The Faith Journey David O’Connell analyzes hundreds Provocations: Don’t Call Them Liber­ of a Modern Heretic, by Lloyd Geering of transcripts to discover the hidden tarians, AA Lies, and Other Incitements, (Salem, Ore.: Polebridge Press, 2014, strategy behind presidential religious by Chaz Brufe (Tucson, Ariz.: See Sharp ISBN paperback 978-1-59815-156-5 and speech. He asks when and why religious Press, 2014, ISBN: 978-1-9372-27605-8). e-book 978-1-59815-157-2). 250 pp. language is used and whether such lan- 185 pp. Paperback $14.95. Paperback $20 and e-book $9.99.

64 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org In this engaging collection of essays, The Soul Fallacy: What Science Shows tions, among other topics. Geering retraces key developments in We Gain from Letting Go of Our Soul the Western understanding of God. Beliefs, by Julien Musolino, with a fore- Islam Evolving: Radicalism, Reformation, He is a New Zealand theologian who word by Victor J. Stenger (Amherst, N.Y.: and the Uneasy Relationship with the was charged with heresy in 1967 by the Prometheus Books, 2015, ISBN softcover Secular West, by Taner Edis (Amherst, Presbyterian Church and a member of the 978-1-61614-962-8 and e-book 978-1- N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2016, ISBN 978- Jesus Seminar. 61614-963-5). Endnotes, bibliography, 1-6338-8189-1). 340 pp. Hardcover index. 287 pp. Softcover $18.00, e-book $28.00. Freedom from Speech, by Greg Lukianoff $11.99. (New York: Encounter Books, 2014, ISBN Edis evaluates the interplay of modern softcover 978-159403807-5). 48 pp. A cognitive scientist explains where soul trends and Islamic values and devotes Soft­cover $5.99. beliefs come from, why they are so wide- spread culturally and historically, and separate chapters to prominent exam- ples of what he calls Islam’s “pious The legal protections of the First how science offers a naturalistic alterna- modernity.” For instance, while most Amendment notwithstanding, the larger tive to religious conceptions of mind. He Muslim societies embrace the applied culture is increasingly obsessed with pun- shows that a coherent, meaningful, and sciences and technology, they are cooler ishing both public and private individ- sensitive appreciation of what it means toward aspects of science with material- uals for allegedly offensive utterances. to be human remains and rebuts recent ist implications. They are also enthusias- Academia has grown still more intolerant claims that science supports the existence tically adopting a market economy and with high profile “disinvitation” efforts of the soul and the afterlife. consumerism while preserving Muslim against some well-known speakers and Alpha God: The Psychology of Religious religious values. Even in such controver- demands from students for professors Violence and Oppression, by Hector sial areas as multiculturalism, individual to provide “trigger warnings” in class to A. Garcia (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus human rights, freedom of speech, and protect them from even G-rated material. Books, 2015, ISBN softcover 978-1- gender roles, the author shows that Meanwhile, the global situation for free- 6388-020-7 and e-book 978-2-6388- Muslim societies are drawn toward a dom of speech has grown even worse. 021-4) Notes. 320 pp. Softcover $19.00, flexible conservatism. He critically evalu- Lukianoff argues that as global popula- e-book $11.99. ates attempts to import Western political tions increasingly expect not just physi- and cultural notions into Muslim societies cal comfort in their lives but intellectual The author is a clinical psychologist who and draws interesting parallels between comfort as a kind of right, threats to free- uses evolutionary psychology as a lens to conservative Christian reactions to secular dom of speech are only going to become explain religious violence and oppression. society and similar responses in Islam. more intense as time goes by. He offers He examines religious scriptures, rituals, potential solutions to ensure freedom of and canon law, focusing on the image Atheism: The Case Against God, by speech survives. of God as the dominant male in Judaism, George H. Smith, foreword by Lawrence Christianity, and Islam. The concept M. Krauss (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Belief & Unbelief, by Barbara G. Walker reflects the dominant-ape paradigm. Books, 2016, ISBN softcover 978-1- (Washington, D.C.: Humanist Press, 63388-197-6, e-book 978-1-63388-198- 2015, ISBN 978-0-9317-7956-5). 180 pp. Voltaire’s Revolution: Writings from His 3). 384 pp. Softcover $18.00, e-book Softcover $16.95. Campaign to Free Laws from Religion, $11.99. edited and translated by G. K. Noyer Twenty-two essays cover the spectrum, (also the author of the Introduction) from “The Islamic Holocaust” being per- (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, In this classic atheist treatise, George H. petrated against women to the dizziness 2015, ISBN softcover­ 978-1-6388- Smith sets out to demolish what he con- of crystal-gazers in “Encountering the 038-2 and e-book 978-1-63388-039-9). siders the most widespread and destruc- New Age.” Walker explains how religion Endnotes. Softcover $21.00, e-book tive of all the myths devised by human has been perverted from its naturalis- $12.99. beings—the concept of a supreme being. tic roots in coping with the mysteries With painstaking scholarship and rigor- of life to a patriarchal orgy of violence. Voltaire (the pen name of Francois-Marie ous arguments, Smith examines, dissects, In “Does Religion Make People Good?” Arouet) was one of the most influential and refutes the myriad “proofs” offered she responds with an emphatic “No!” leaders of the French Enlightenment. This by theists—sophisticated, professional and cites extensive evidence in “Bible is the first English translation of many of theologians—as well as the average reli- Morality” that produces today’s Christian his key writings from his famous pam- gious layman. He explores the historical “God the Monster.” Women have borne phlet war for tolerance, written from and psychological havoc wrought by reli- the brunt of patriarchal religion’s evils, 1750 to 1768. The pieces focus on the gion in general and concludes that reli- which she argues in “Religion as the Root errors in the Bible, the corruption of the gious belief cannot have any place in the of Sexism.” clergy, and religiously inspired persecu- life of modern, rational man.

secularhumanism.org June/July 2016 Free Inquiry 65 Poem Letters continued from p. 13

ous to criticism, it means that anyone who disagrees must be absolutely wrong and, hence, unworthy of any tolerance or equi- table consideration. Atrocity is usually the In Good We Trust result. Even Japanese Zen Buddhism had its fanatical moments during World War II JO Frohbieter-Mueller and was used to train military officers. The Roman Catholic Church also assumed such a stance during the sixteenth century and Oh, what a difference an “O” makes. tortured and killed religious dissenters with In this land where separation of church and impunity. The fanatical Protestants were State really no better. Combating such ideologies is best accom- Has contributed to the strength of our nation, plished with preventative measures. We And freedom of, or from, religion is heralded must be taught that life is always an ongo- ing search for meaning, never a final accom- As a constitutional right, plishment. We must act with confidence Citizens gather in the marketplace tempered with the proper humility. There And pass the coinage of our country. is always the possibility of error. Our moral thinking must always be open to criticisms A failure of our government is emblazoned and rational adjustment. Otherwise, what On each coin and bill that passes between we think is morally proper may become a weapon. hands. It would also behoove us to understand God-fearing people have used their might that fanatical ideologies are sometimes a To trample the rights of the unbelieving. reaction to rapid social change. Amid infor- mation implosion such that we experience Do we have the courage today through mass media, some people lose Do we have the wisdom their sense of coherence to life. They attempt to restore their psychological well-being by Do we have the will repressing elements of the modern world To add an “O,” and resorting to fanatical ideologies. Such is And embrace all citizens? the case with radical Islam. They are trying to restore a medieval worldview in an age of he himself descends in his critique to com- computers. Violence can only be the result. parable contradiction and pedantry: “Does On a brighter note, the West­ern millen- he intend to argue that a new identity pol- nial generation is probably less prone to itics . . . is only now overcoming the New fanatical ideologies because they are used to Atheism? (Or perhaps he thinks the New information implosion through their famil- Atheism displaced one sort of identity pol- iarity with high technology—especially their itics and is now being displaced in its turn JO Frohbieter-Mueller is a cellular biologist who computers. We should use their lifestyles as by another.)” Redundant. Elsewhere, Flynn appears to be merely ankle-nipping, as carp has been writing for several decades. She has an example of preferred living in the mod- will do to someone swimming in a lake (it had seven books and nearly eight hundred arti- ern era. This will not settle well with radical Islam. But it is the only rational alternative isn’t called “carping” for nothing). Overall, cles for popular magazines published, along with that we have. his shots land mostly wide of the mark. seventy scholarly publications. She has been a John L. Indo Spencer Harper columnist for business journals, including Income Houston, Texas Atlanta, Georgia Opportunities and Small Business Opportunities, with over one million monthly readers. Frohbieter-Mueller is especially interested WRITE TO in constitutional issues, and she deals with these Rebuttal to a Review issues in unusual ways. For instance, she lives In reference to Tom Flynn’s review of the in Indiana where the motto “In God We Trust” is book The Evolution of Atheism: The Politics Send submissions to Andrea Szalanski, splashed across the state’s license plates. So, as of a Modern Movement by Stephen LeDrew Letters Editor, FREE INQUIRY, the poem suggests, she adds an O to the motto (FI, April/May 2016), I found Flynn for the P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. on all license plates of her vehicles and on all most part to be uncharitable. While I do Fax: (716) 636-1733. bills she spends, converting the message to “In feel that LeDrew would’ve benefited his E-mail: [email protected]. Good We Trust.” This action has never brought readers by better fact-checking and more exhaustive backgrounding, it should be In letters intended for publication, please any repercussions, and she is hopeful that others include name, ad­dress, city and state, will take up the call to create a groundswell of remembered that his book is an expansion of his doctoral dissertation—albeit likely an ZIP code, and daytime phone number resistance to this constitutional infraction. insufficient expansion. (for verification purposes only). Flynn evinces a certain contempt, by Letters should be 300 words or fewer and pertain turns studied and breezy, for his subject. Yet to previous Free Inquiry articles.

66 Free Inquiry June/July 2016 secularhumanism.org CENTERS FOR INQUIRY | www.centerforinquiry.net/about/branches

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