FI Feb March C1_Layout 1 12/29/11 11:32 AM Page 1 DAVID GOLDFIELD Evangelical Origins of the Civil War CELEBRATING REASON AND HUMANITY February/March 2012 Vol. 32 No.2 BRIDGING THE GULF At Last, Social Science Measures Secularity EASTER EXPLAINED | CIRCUMCISION CRITIQUED MARK TWAIN TRIES TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN, ONE MORE TIME ARTHUR CAPLAN | P Z MYERS | JAMES HAUGHT | NAT HENTOFF 03 CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS’s FINAL COLUMN Published by the Council for Secular Humanism 7725274 74957 FI Feb March 12 _FI 12/28/11 3:39 PM Page 2 We are committed to the application of reason and science We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence. to the understanding of the universe and to the solving We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be of human problems. allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, access to comprehensive and informed health care, and to look outside nature for salvation. and to die with dignity. We believe that scientific discovery and technology We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, can contribute to the betterment of human life. integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that standards that we discover together. Moral principles are democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights tested by their consequences. from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities. We are deeply concerned with the moral education We are committed to the principle of the of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion. separation of church and state. We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences. We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual We are citizens of the universe and are excited by understanding. discoveries still to be made in the cosmos. We are concerned with securing justice and fairness We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, in society and with eliminating discrimination and we are open to novel ideas and seek new and intolerance. departures in our thinking. We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to disabled so that they will be able to help themselves. theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich per sonal significance and genuine satisfaction We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based in the service to others. on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity and strive to work together for We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather the common good of humanity. than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place We want to protect and enhance Earth, to preserve of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind suffering on other species. faith or irrationality. We believe in enjoying life here and now and in We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest developing our creative talents to their fullest. that we are capable of as human beings. *by Paul Kurtz For a parchment copy of this page, suitable for framing, please send $4.95 to FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, New York 14226-0664 FI Feb March 12 _FI 12/28/11 3:40 PM Page 3 February/March 2012 Vol. 32 No. 2 31 The Evangelical Origins of the American Civil War David Goldfield CELEBRATING REASON AND HUMANITY 35 Easter Explained What the Sacrificial Death of the Son Tells Us about the Father Peter W. Sperlich 16 Bridging the Gulf: At Last, 38 Pascal’s Wager Social Science Measures Secularity Adam Nehr Introduction Tom Flynn FORUM 17 The Social Science of Secularity 39 Atheists for Jesus? Frank L. Pasquale A Caution from the Epistemology of Ethics Daniel C. Maguire 24 Who Are These Doubters Anyway? A Look Back at the Demographics of Unbelief 41 Cranks, Behinds, and God Tom Flynn Lawrence Rifkin 42 Tom Flynn Responds to Daniel Maguire and Lawrence Rifkin EDITORIAL 14 Creeping Secular Humanism 53 Faith and Reason 4 Excrement Eventuates! James A. Haught Snip the Snip Tom Flynn Edan Tasca 15 Remembrances of an Enduring People LEADING QUESTIONS P Z Myers 57 Humanism at Large Mark Twain Tries—Again—to 7 From Faith to Critical Thinking Become a Christian A Conversation with Lee Salisbury DEPARTMENTS 47 Church-State Update Joel Welty LETTERS Personhood and Human Rights Edd Doerr REVIEWS 11 60 Darwin the Writer 48 Great Minds by George Levine OP-EDS Critias of Athens Reviewed by Lauren Becker James H. Dee 8 Goodbye to a Fine, Fierce Friend 61 Faith No More: Why People Andrea Szalanski 50 It’s Only Natural Reject Religion Domesticated Religion and Democracy by Phil Zuckerman 9 In Defense of Richard Dawkins John Shook Reviewed by Ryan T. Cragun Christopher Hitchens 51 God on Trial POEMS 12 The Vatican, Stem-Cell Research, Malevolent Design by Ted Richer and Me Ron Cordero 63 At the Astapovo Station Arthur Caplan Excreta 13 Obama’s Growing Torture Record Churches Nat Hentoff FI Feb March 12 _FI 12/28/11 3:40 PM Page 4 Editorial Staff Editor Thomas W. Flynn Associate Editors John R. Shook, Lauren Becker Tom Flynn Editorial Managing Editor Andrea Szalanski Columnists Arthur Caplan, Richard Dawkins, Edd Doerr, Shadia B. Drury, Nat Hentoff, Christopher Hitchens, Tibor R. Machan, Excrement Eventuates! P Z Myers, Tom Rees, Katrina Voss Senior Editors Bill Cooke, Richard Dawkins, Edd Doerr, James A. Haught, Jim Herrick, Gerald A. Larue, Ronald A. Lindsay, If a solar storm should burn off the won’t belabor matters here. Suffice it to say Taslima Nasrin peculiar damp that clings to this that when we employ “spirit” talk, we planet, this would be a very small Contributing Editors Roy P. Fairfield, Charles encourage our hearers to suspect that we Faulkner, Levi Fragell, change—no change at all in cosmic Adolf Grünbaum, Marvin terms, which are apparently based on are insecure in our naturalism. Kohl, Thelma Lavine, averages. The universe is lifeless now Why does this matter? In part, it matters Lee Nisbet, J.J.C. Smart, and will be lifeless then, so negligible because apologists for religion and mysti- Thomas Szasz is our presence in it. cism doggedly insist that human beings Ethics Editor Elliot D. Cohen —Marilynne Robinson, can’t endure life without clinging to some Literary Editor David Park Musella “Night Thoughts of a Assistant Editors Julia Lavarnway Baffled Humanist,” The vestige of the metaphysical, the transcen- Julia Burke Nation, November 28, 2011 dental, the mystical—you know, woo-woo. Permissions Editor Julia Lavarnway When our language suggests that we can’t Art Director Christopher S. Fix he most resolute secular humanists endure it either, we buttress their position. Production Paul E. Loynes Sr. are not merely nontheistic and hu - That’s regrettable because the argument T mane but also committed to a sternly that real atheism is, in effect, psychologically Council for Secular Humanism naturalistic view of the universe. Sadly, some impossible can be hugely powerful among Chair Richard K. Schroeder of us also tend to shoot ourself in the foot. “fence-sitters”: individuals nurturing real Board of Directors Kendrick Frazier Here’s what I mean: imagine conversing doubts about their former religious convic- Dan Kelleher Barry Kosmin with an average American, by whom I mean tions but fearful of what forsaking faith Angie McAllister someone fondly attached to some form of completely might entail. Richard K. Schroeder what James “The Amazing” Randi so delec- Allow me to speak from personal expe- Edward Tabash Jonathan Tobert tably termed “woo-woo.” Imagine that rience: misgivings of exactly this sort cost Leonard Tramiel individual objecting that your naturalism me at least two of the seven lonely years I Lawrence Krauss (Honorary) seems cold and arid. Now imagine yourself spent thinking my way out of the Roman Chief Executive Officer Ronald A. Lindsay fending off that critique by assuring your Catholicism of my childhood and into (even- Executive Director Thomas W. Flynn conversational partner that naturalists are tually) a frank and settled atheism. “Gee,” I Director, Campus and Community Programs (CFI) Lauren Becker still fine folks: while we may not believe in used to wonder, “can people live without Director, Secular Organizations God, we stare into the night sky and feel religion, without mysticism, without cosmic for Sobriety Jim Christopher as much “awe and reverence” as anyone meaning, without any of it?” I’d been told Director, African Americans for Humanism Debbie Goddard else. The truth is, imagine yourself saying, so often that people couldn’t that I thought Acting Director of Planning “We’re spiritual, too.” it might be true. and Development (CFI) Jason Gross Director of Libraries (CFI) Timothy Binga Congratulations. You have just imag- And sure enough, just when I’d begin Communications Director Michelle Blackley ined shooting yourself in the foot. to think that living without woo-woo was Legal Director (CFI) Steven Fox This inclination (strategy is way too possible after all, along would come Database Manager (CFI) Jacalyn Mohr strong a word) to reassure mainstream peo- someone like Carl Sagan with some decla- Staff Pat Beauchamp, Ed Beck, Melissa Braun, Shirley ple that we naturalists are more like them ration along the line of “A religion old or Brown, Cheryl Catania, than they think can bear strange fruit.