Unbelief but Rather Focus on Temporal Humanist to Abide by Methodological Naturalism: There Is a Third Sense of Secularism

THE AFFIRMATIONS OF HUMANISM: A STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES*

We are committed to the application of reason and science to the understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems. We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation. We believe that scientific discovery and technology can contribute to the betterment of human life. We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities. We are committed to the principle of the separation of church and state. We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual understanding. We are concerned with securing justice and fairness in society and with eliminating discrimination and intolerance. We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the handicapped so that they will be able to help themselves. We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity and strive to work together for the common good of humanity. We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other species. We believe in enjoying life here and now and in developing our creative talents to their fullest. We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence. We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual preferenc- es, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have access to comprehensive and informed health-care, and to die with dignity. We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative standards that we discover together. Moral principles are tested by their consequences. We are deeply concerned with the moral education of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion. We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences. We are citizens of the universe and are excited by discoveries still to be made in the cosmos. We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, and we are open to novel ideas and seek new departures in our thinking. We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich personal significance and genuine satisfaction in the service to others. We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind faith or irrationality. We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest that we are capable of as human beings. *by Paul Kurtz

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free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 2 Editorial Features 4 Multi-secularism: SCIENCE AND THE The New Agenda ISLAMIC WORLD Paul Kurtz 33 Science and the Islamic World: Op-Ed February/March 2008 Vol. 28, No. 2 The Quest for

13 An Unbelievable ISSN 0272-0701 Rapprochement Beginning (Part 1) Pervez Amirali Richard Dawkins Hoodbhoy 15 Why the ‘A’ Word 41 Humanism and Won’t Go Away Atheism in China Tom Flynn Paul Kurtz 17 The Duty of Dissent David Koepsell 44 Can We Survive? (Part 1) 18 The Karamazov Stephen Paley, Principle George K. Oister, and Christopher Hitchens Departments 20 No More Cloning Around 9 Leading Questions Humanism and Arthur Caplan Communicating 21 Should We Science A Conversation with Discuss Race and Neil deGrasse Tyson Intelligence? Peter Singer 11 Letters 23 Christianizing America 48 Church-State Update Nat Hentoff Edd Doerr and Tom Flynn 25 Pandering, Pretending, 49 Humanism and and the Law the Arts A.E. Housman: Wendy Kaminer Poet, Scholar, Atheist 26 Atheists Aren’t Gary Sloan a Bad Lot Dan Gardner 51 God on Trial Buddhism: Blood and 27 Clear Proof America Enlightenment Is Not a ‘Christian Joseph Grosso Nation’ John Tomasin 53 Islam Watch The Significance of the 30 Fairness Is a Non-Muslim Evidence Minor Virtue for Qur’anic Studies Tibor R. Machan Reviews 31 In Defense of Fairness 61 With God on 64 Nothing: Something Paul Kurtz Our Side to Believe In By Michael L. Weinstein By Nica Lalli and Davin Seay Ed Buckner Poems Keith R. Taylor 65 No Country By Felicia Nimue Ackerman 62 Philosophers for Old Men 32 Aunt Vera without Gods Written and directed by Edited by Louise Antony Ethan and Joel Coen 52 For N.T. Jean Kazez Michael Ray Fitzgerald EDITORIAL FI Editorial Staff PAUL KURTZ Editor in Chief Paul Kurtz Editor Thomas W. Flynn Associate Editors Norm R. Allen Jr., Nathan Bupp, Austin Dacey, D.J. Grothe, R. Joseph Hoffmann, David Koepsell, John R. Shook Managing Editor Andrea Szalanski Columnists Arthur Caplan, Richard Dawkins, Shadia B. Drury, Nat Hentoff, Christopher Hitchens, Wendy Kaminer, Tibor R. Machan, Peter Singer Senior Editors Bill Cooke, Richard Dawkins, Martin Gardner, James A. Haught, Jim Herrick, Gerald A. Larue, Ronald A. Lindsay, Taslima Nasrin Contributing Editors Jo Ann Boydston, Roy P. Fairfield, Charles Faulkner, Antony Flew, Levi Fragell, Adolf Grünbaum, Marvin Kohl, Thelma Lavine, Lee Nisbet, J.J.C. Smart, Svetozar Stojanovic,´ Thomas Szasz Ethics Editor Elliot D. Cohen Literary Editor David Park Musella Multi-secularism: Assistant Editors Donna Budniewski and Julia Lavarnway Art Director The New Agenda Lisa A. Hutter Production Christopher Fix, Paul E. Loynes Sr. Cartoonist Webmaster Don Addis Robert Greiner he battle for secularism has leaped to center stage world- Council for Secular Humanism wide; we find it being contested or defended everywhere. Of the world’s fifty-seven Islamic countries, virtually all Chair Paul Kurtz except Turkey and Tunisia attempt to safeguard or enact TIslamic law (sharia) as embodied in the Qur’an. Radical Islamists Board of Directors Thomas Casten, Kendrick Frazier, David Henehan, wage jihad against the secular society. Pope Benedict XVI rails Dan Kelleher, Lee Nisbet, Jonathan Kurtz, against secularism, portraying it as the major challenge to Roman Richard Schroeder, Edward Tabash Emeritus: Jan Loeb Eisler, Joseph Levee Catholicism. There have been attempts in Eastern Europe to rees- Executive Director tablish the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the United States, the David Koepsell religious Right and its spokespersons—among them Pat Buchanan, Director, Educational Programs (CFI) Bill O’Reilly, George Weigel, and Newt Gingrich—vociferously casti- Austin Dacey gate secularism. Mitt Romney claims that freedom requires religion Director, Campus and Community Programs (CFI) (since when?). He says nothing about the rights of unbelievers in D.J. Grothe America and accuses them of wishing to establish “the religion of Director, African Americans secularism.” Regrettably, leading Democratic candidates have thus for Humanism far remained silent rather than defend the secular society for fear Norm R. Allen Jr. of antagonizing religious supporters. Nevertheless, secularism is Vice President of Planning and Development (CFI) Sherry Rook growing; it is essential for flourishing vibrant, pluralistic, democrat- Director of Communications (CFI) ic societies and especially important in today’s developing countries. Nathan Bupp However, secularism needs to be adapted to diverse cultural Assistant Communications Director (CFI) conditions if it is to gain ground. I submit that we cannot legislate Henry Huber secularism uberhaupt without recognizing the cultural traditions Director of Libraries (CFI) Timothy Binga in which it emerges. Accordingly, multi-secularism seems to be Fulfillment (CFI) the best strategy to pursue: that is, adapting secular ideas and Jackie Mohr, Darlene Banks values to the societies in which they arise. Staff The question that I wish to raise is: What is secularism and/or Pat Beauchamp, Lauren Becker, Cheryl Catania, the secular society? I will focus on three main characteristics. Eric Chinchón, Brent Dillingham, Thomas Donnelly, Debbie Goddard, Sandra Kujawa, Sandy Lesniak, Corey Neil, Lisa Nolan, Paul Paulin, Sarah Pierce, Sara Rosten, Anthony Santa Lucia, John Sullivan, Vance Vigrass Paul Kurtz is a professor emeritus of philosophy at the State Executive Director Emeritus University of New York at Buffalo and the chair of the Center Jean Millholland for Inquiry.

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5 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 Catholic Church seeks to resume its ear- tiation of differences, and the willingness must share the Earth, no entity can lier, powerful position. Thus, the idea of to compromise. any longer be allowed to attempt to the separation of church and state is The modern age is basically secular. impose an exclusive, doctrinaire reli- always under threat. In France, the Quite independently of religious beliefs, gious creed on every man and woman. Libre Penseurs are always on the bar- the world’s economies seek to achieve We live in a multicultural world in which ricades defending secularism against growth and increase social wealth, thus multi-secularism needs to be developed— incursions from the Roman Catholic providing consumers with goods and in which different forms of secularism Church or Islam. In Turkey, the army services that everyone can enjoy. (I note need to be adapted to the diverse cul- is ever ready to resist efforts to restrict that Pat Robertson and some other reli- tural traditions and contexts of specific Kemal Atatürk’s secular constitution. gious Right ministers have not eschewed societies. Thus, we need secularized A key point to recognize is that fancy cars and splendid homes.) It would one does not have to be an atheist or be ludicrous to inject religiosity (save as agnostic in order to defend the sepa- a perfunctory formality) into the modern ration principle. In the United States, corporation. Here the tests are efficien- “I submit that secularism most Protestant denominations defend cy, productivity, quality products and separation, as do secular Jews, liberal services, and the bottom line. We are can provide affirmative Roman Catholics, Unitarians, and mem- appalled that Islamists in the Middle alternatives for nonreli- bers of other denominations. Secular East oppose charging interest because it is forbidden by the Qur’an, yet use every gious men and women rationalization to circumvent that prohi- of every kind. Hence, we bition to tap the power of finance. The point is well recognized that no modern should society can function if it does not train focus on the nonreli- “. . . we need secularized skilled practitioners in diverse special- Christianity, secularized ties. No nation can survive unless it can gious master the practical arts and sciences. If as our constituency.” Judaism, secularized I have a toothache, I want a dentist, not a Hinduism, and even priest; and if I wish to construct a building I had better be damned sure that I secularized Islam. . . .” have competent architects to draw the plans and that the engineering is solid. Christianity, secularized Judaism, secu- Similarly, it is widely recognized larized Hinduism, and even secularized that broad-based education—cultural, Islam; all are requisite for societies to historical, intellectual, scientific, and be able to cope with their problems. And humanists have many allies in this great artistic—is the right of every child and here the question is, Can we develop a battle. Indeed, both liberals and con- that every adult must have the opportu- set of shared values and principles that servatives, believers and unbelievers, nity to expand his or her dimensions of can provide common ground for global have stood firmly in support of the First experience and knowledge. civilization? High on the agenda, of Amendment. Not the least among secular values course, should be our first responsibili- of course is free inquiry and freedom ties: to preserve the environment of our The Secularization of Values of scientific research, the very basis of common planetary abode, to eliminate Second, when we talk about secularism science and technology. Religious cen- poverty and disease, to reach peaceful we may also refer to societies that cul- sorship or limitation—such as that intel- adjudication of conflicts, and to achieve tivate secular values; since the Renais ligent-design advocates seek to impose prosperity for as many people as possi- sance, secularity in the ethical domain on scientific theories of evolution—is ble. These are practical problems that has been growing in influence. Secularists unacceptable. The free mind is vital for demand realistic, secular solutions. do not look to salvation and confirmation the open society. If one wants to pur- of the afterlife as their overriding goal, sue scientific inquiry, then one needs Secularization and Unbelief but rather focus on temporal humanist to abide by methodological naturalism: There is a third sense of secularism. Some values in the here and now—happiness, objective standards of evidence, ratio- recalcitrant foes of secularism insist that self-realization, joyful exuberance, cre- nal coherence, and experimental testing it is synonymous with atheism; some ative endeavors and excellence, the actu- are quite independent of the Bible or militant atheists agree with them. But alization of the good life—not only for the Qur’an. Actually, secular considerations I think that this is a mistaken view. individual but for the greater community. are vital in virtually all human interests, Far from being secular, some militant The common moral decencies, goodwill, from sports and the arts to pharmacol- atheists have sought to protect their and altruism are widely accepted, as are ogy, psychiatry, and meteorology. In “faith” by abusing the power of the state. the civic virtues of democracy, the right these and other areas, religious doc- Indeed, some totalitarian regimes that of privacy, the belief that every individ- trines are largely irrelevant. embraced atheism as part of their ideolo- ual has equal dignity and value, human Among the secular values that emerge gy, such as those in the Soviet Union and rights, equality, tolerance, the principles today is the compelling need to develop Cambodia, have persecuted—even exter- of fairness and justice, the peaceful nego- a new Planetary Ethics. Because we minated—their religious opposition.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 6 One thing that distinguishes those and Spinoza. This same impulse was such values are formally religious, but who share a secular outlook from those intrinsic to the American Revolution, only nominally affiliated with churches, committed to the rule of dogma, whether which appealed to “life, liberty, and the synagogues, and temples; they are more it is religious or atheistic dogma, is the pursuit of happiness,” and to the French likely to be receptive to secular attitudes acceptance of freedom of conscience. Revolution, which proclaimed “liberty, and humanist values and to be tolerant Bitter experience has taught many of equality, fraternity” and “the Rights of of personal diversity. This is especial- the religious that a secular state works Man.” Later, biology struggled to overly the case if they are broadminded, best for them. Many religious denom- come intemperate attacks on Darwin reflective, and perhaps members of their inations have suffered at the hands of ism; in medical science, such advanc- denominations only because of an acci- other devout believers: Roman Catholics es as autopsy and anesthesia required dent of birth or family pressures. have persecuted Protestants (as with the defense against religious intransigence. That is why a negative atheism that suppression of the Huguenots in France), Today stem-cell research and evolution- seeks simply to destroy religion, with- ary theory are attacked on religious grounds. Such advances as the abolition of slavery, the recognition of women’s “For some believers, rights, and the acceptance of sexual “. . . the secularization of freedom (contraception, abortion, divorce, the quest for God and/or gay rights, etc.) were achieved only society needs a more after protracted struggles. Traditional inclusive agenda to salvation may trump the moral beliefs, enshrined in practice and pursuit of happiness or sanctified by religious doctrine, had to enlist like-minded nom- be modified or overcome. Modern demo- the battle for social jus- cratic societies have known long battles inal religionists to share tice.” to allow diversity of taste and lifestyle. in defending—and These secularizing forces grew out of the democratic-humanistic revolutions expanding—humanist of the modern world, which recognized values.” that all citizens have equal dignity and while Protestant states have likewise value and that the rule of law should waged war against Catholics (as in Eliza apply to poor persons as well as rich bethan England). Hence, there has been ones. Hence, intrinsic to modern demo- out providing a positive agenda, will “a war of all against all,” to paraphrase cratic-capitalist and socialist societies not in my judgment get very far. The Thomas Hobbes. After centuries of sec- is an acceptance of the civic virtues of wider platform for human progress as tarian violence in these places, a truce democracy. Again, one does not have to part of a New Enlightenment** needs, between contending factions was hard be an atheist to accept libertarian values I submit, to advocate secularism in the won, and the secular state was the result. or the democratization of society. above three senses: (1) the separation of Demands for secularity also reflect the Now, I grant that it may be difficult religion from the state; (2) the human- experience of religious minorities. Jews for a very devout person to fully accept ization of values that satisfy the deeper have been hounded out of country after secularity in ethics. For some believers, interests and needs of human beings; country by devout Christians; Sunnis the quest for God and/or salvation may and (3) the decline of religious practice, and Shiites have slaughtered each other trump the pursuit of happiness or the entailing the growth of the Human City with impunity; Hindus and Muslims have battle for social justice. By the same in place of the City of God. engaged in bloody communal riots, as token, unbelievers may have an easier I am not suggesting that we should have militant Buddhists in some coun- time fully achieving the fullness of life not critically examine religious claims, tries. Thus, the separation principle has and the realization of their talents and especially where they are patently false, been agreed to by many sects—even proclivities, including the satisfaction of injurious, and destructive. The secular devout Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, sexual desires. world constantly needs to be defended Baptists, and Seventh-day Adventists In the war waged on behalf of dem- against those who would undermine it, in the United States. All have experi- ocratic institutions, there is an ongo- and we need to responsibly examine enced persecution and have welcomed ing need to defend pluralistic societies the transcendental and moral claims of a modus vivendi. Thus, one does not that permit individuals “to do their own supernaturalism and criticize its preten- have to be a nonbeliever to accept the thing”—even as we hope this might be sions—especially when they impinge on separation principle. modified by responsible self-control. If we personal freedoms. This latter form of The Enlightenment sought to liberate were to insist that, in the last analysis, secularism is akin to neo-humanism, men and women from the stranglehold secularism is equivalent to atheism, we a broader, more welcoming expression of religious morality inflicted on them may do a great disservice to secularism’s of the humanist outlook (see my “Neo- by overzealous “virtue policemen” (we importance in the battles for individual Humanism,” FI, October/November 2007). might call them “theo-thugs”). This long autonomy and the right of privacy. Accordingly, the secularization of process of emancipation began with The degree to which religiosity de the defense of free thought in response clines brightens the prospects for secu- **See my “Re-enchantment: A New Enlighten to the persecutions of Bruno, Galileo, larization of values. Many who embrace ment,” FI, April/May 2004.

7 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 society needs a more inclusive agenda pendent careers, not be confined only billion people on the planet today who to enlist like-minded nominal religionists to housework and menial jobs. Women are nonreligious, and their numbers are to share in defending—and expanding— have a right to an education and to pur- growing. These include agnostics and humanist values. But this must be ap sue the roles they choose in their soci- atheists but also people who are simply plied to actual socio-cultural contexts. Long ety’s economic, political, and cultural indifferent to existing religions. As I standing preexisting customs will vary life. They have equal dignity and value pointed out, there are also significant from culture to culture; deeply ingrained and should have equal status. This is numbers of nominal members of reli- ethnicities should be taken into account, today widely accepted in advanced demo gious bodies who are skeptical and need including the richness of diverse lan- cratic societies. It is rejected in most to break the stranglehold of the so-called guages, culinary tastes, and differences Muslim societies, and this is the Achilles sacred texts. We should point out that in fashion, manners, and other norma- heel of those societies that so badly although we may appreciate the his- tive conduct. We cannot simply repeal needs to be pierced. torical, literary, and moral values that religion and/or hope to wipe it off the It follows, of course, that individuals traditional religions have bequeathed to map; its tentacles are deeply rooted, should be permitted to marry or partner us, nonetheless we wish to focus on other and some religions profoundly define the sources of inspiration that are more identity of each adherent—even nominal relevant to life today: modern science ones. Our approach should be multisec- and philosophy, the vast reservoir of the ular, adapted to existing institutions secular arts and literature, and the ever- and mores. “‘. . . one does not expansive richness of cultural diversity. Christians and Jews, Mormons and The Sermon on the Mount is beautiful, as Sunnis, Protestants and Buddhists, Hin have to be a is much in Buddhism, but neither should dus and Shiites carry culturally condi- nonbeliever to accept yoke us to the past. tioned bundles of attitudes and values; The United States is an anomaly it is a long process to reform behavior the separation among advanced nations because of and move people’s thinking onto anoth- principle.’” its widespread public piety. Europe is er plane. basically postreligious; only a negligible One of the basic ingredients of a minority still practices the old-time reformation is to get a clan, sect, or religion. Similar phenomena prevail in denomination to transact with people Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, of other faiths and convictions, hard as and elsewhere in the world. that often is. This involves dialogues with whomever they wish, even if that In the United States, the num- and discussion, interaction and inter- means going outside their faith. Women ber of secularists is growing. A rap- mingling, appreciation and understand- should be accorded the same freedoms idly increasing segment of the public ing of other points of view, as well as and responsibilities as men. is the unchurched, untempled, and responsible criticism. One of the major The secularization process is pro- unmosqued. Religion has little impact dangers of any isolated religious system ceeding rapidly in today’s world: Prot on their lives. According to a recent is that separation and exclusivity tend estants and Catholics now intermarry Barna poll, the unchurched comprise 43 to solidify its dogmas. in spite of earlier prohibitions; so do percent of the population. These people Jews and Christians, Asians and Anglos, belong to no church and very rarely wor- The Agenda for Secularization blacks and whites. How encouraging that ship or attend services. They are secular High on the agenda of secularization of Ireland and Spain, formerly bastions of too; saying that a person is secular does course is education. We need to insist Catholic authoritarianism, have rapidly not necessarily mean that he or she is that all children have the right to appre- secularized and adopted humanistic val- an atheist or even antireligious. I submit ciate and understand a wider range ues. Secular Jews likewise eschew Ortho that secularism can provide affirmative of cultural experiences—including the doxy. Although they may retain some alternatives for nonreligious men and study of the sciences, the development degree of ethnic loyalty, large percent- women of every kind. Hence, we should of critical thinking, and exposure to ages of contemporary Jews have sought focus on the nonreligious as our con- world history, the arts, philosophy, com- mates outside their religion. They look stituency. Indeed, a large number of parative study of religions, and alter- to Spinoza and Mendelssohn, Einstein ordinary folks, a majority of scientists in native political and economic systems. and Salk—modern Jews who herald- the United States, Nobel Prize winners, This entails recognizing the rights of ed science and the arts—rather than and people affiliated with our research children as human beings. Parents can- to the ancient prophets of the Hebrew universities and colleges, artists, and not starve, beat, or cruelly punish their Bible. There is a beginning effort on the poets—people from every walk of life or children. Similarly, they should not pro- part of secularized Muslims, especially occupation—express a secular outlook hibit them from receiving a full educa- in Western democracies, to adopt the and exemplify ethical beliefs that are tion. Indoctrination is an assault on the democratic ideals of liberty, equality, and thoroughly secular and humanistic in rights of children as persons. fraternity and to become more tolerant appeal. The defining characteristic of The liberation of women from dom- of the multiplicity of faiths as they begin secularists is simply that they are non- ination by men is also high on the sec- to study the sciences and enter secular religious. ularizing agenda; women must be free professions. In the spirit of cooperation and good- to work and travel and to pursue inde- There are perhaps one and a half will, we need to convince our neighbors

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 8 LEADINGLEADING QUESTIONSQUESTIONS

impact those implications might have? Tyson: There are a number of scien- Humanism and tists who have the set of social skills to effectively communicate science to the public, but the science community needs to have more incentives to attract scien- Communicating tists with those skills. Now, about down- playing implications of science . . . at the Center for Inquiry’s recent conference “The Secular Society and Its Enemies” Science in New York City, I was honored to be elected to the International Academy of A Conversation with Neil deGrasse Tyson Humanism. Reflecting on this, however, I realize that I have lived my whole life Neil deGrasse Tyson, one of America’s you have to speak in sound bites, reduc- successfully avoiding any “isms.” Now I leading science popularizers, directs ing what you say down to the sim- seem part of a “humanism” movement. the Hayden Planetarium at the plest terms in order to have the widest I worry that what it means now is that American Museum of Natural History. appeal? someone can label me as a humanist and The host of PBS-Nova’s ScienceNow, he then tune me out on the premise that appears regularly in the media. He they know my worldview. This makes has just been named a Laureate of the it hard to leave the doors of communi- International Academy of Humanism. “I have lived my whole cation open with some people, because This passionate science educator someone believes they already know recently discussed communicating life successfully avoiding what I believe as a humanist, an atheist, science to the public with D.J. Grothe, an agnostic, or what have you. The day any that happens to me, I get pigeonholed, associate editor of Free Inquiry.—Eds. ‘isms.’ Now I seem part and that hurts me as an educator. FI: You don’t want to draw a line in ree Inquiry: Has science edu- of a ‘humanism’ move- cation gotten better? Are people the sand. You want to keep the conver- more into science now than they ment. . . . This makes it sation going even with people who may F believe, unlike you. were twenty years ago? hard to leave the doors Tyson: Precisely. Otherwise the con- Neil deGrasse Tyson: What is cer- versation—my attempt at educating— tain is that people have more access to of communication open begins in a fight. The conflict between science than ever before. Let’s go back with some people. . . .” religion and science can be very cleanly to 1980 when Carl Sagan’s Cosmos first defined. It is not whether or not you’re appeared. At that time, how many tele- going to heaven or hell, or whether Jesus vision stations were there? Back then, is your savior. The conflict between sci- you could go months before you would ence and religion on school boards is stumble on a program on science, the Tyson: When I am invited on shows when people looking at a religious text kind of science programming you find like this, I look at past episodes to see assert that they have knowledge about now, when you have three hundred what kind of opportunities I can expect the physical universe that is demonstra- channels including some entirely devot- to have to get my message out. This bly false. If you’re going to tell me that ed to science. helps me better package my message Noah had dinosaurs on his Ark, I must This leads us to an interesting conun for that forum. If someone comes to tell you that you’re ignorant and scientif- drum: how is it that access to science my college class, I am not going to ically illiterate. You don’t belong in a can be so high, yet it appears that sound-bite astronomy for them; but the science classroom, and that’s what I care science literacy in the population has moment I go into this other medium, I about. But if you want to teach that in a made only marginal gains, if any at all? owe it to the viewer to ask: How do I not Bible school, I’m not going to go knocking Some would say the public has reverted compromise on the science yet deliver it on your door to stop you. Yet you have to superstitious thinking over rational in comedic short form or evening news fundamentalist religious communities analysis of the world in which we live. sound bite? If as an educator you try trying to knock down the doors of the FI: You have been on The Daily to understand what’s going on in the science classroom. As a scientist, I am Show and The Colbert Report numer- minds of your audience, you can then not here to fight religious people; I am ous times. Both Jon Stewart and Stephen shape the message in a way that best here to defend the science classroom. Colbert have said you are among their intersects their capacity to receive it. all-time favorite guests. Do you think FI: Does science need better PR? Do your appearances sometime undercut you need to downplay some implica- This is only a small part of the conver- your science education agenda because tions of science because of the negative sation. To hear the rest of D.J. Grothe’s

9 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 “Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.” – Jacob Bronowski, scientific polymath For a more rational tomorrow … please support the new phase of the Center for Inquiry New Future Fund

Across our world, forward-thinking men and women have recognized the scientific paradigm as their surest guide for sound thinking and living. For them, knowledge is the greatest adventure. Today, the Center for Inquiry movement strives to keep the adventure of knowledge accessible to all. To defend science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and human values in an ever-changing world, we must adopt new methods … new approaches. To realize tomorrow’s ambitious goals, we must expand our organization. Toni van Pelt, Paul Kurtz, Ron Lindsay and (seated) Lawrence The New Future Fund is an audacious, multiyear $26.265 million campaign to fund Krauss, David Helfland, and Nobel Laureate Paul Boyer introduced the Declaration in Defense of Science and program needs, capital expansion, and endowment for the Council for Secular Secularism at the inaugural press conference of the Center for Inquiry/Office of Public Policy in Washington, D.C. In this new phase, the focus turns to Outreach and Education: publishing, media relations, personal outreach and more

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by men; and there are also eunuchs things I buy are worth more to me than who made themselves eunuchs for the the price I pay. And when I spend my sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who money, I contribute to the growth of is able to accept this, let him accept it” other businesses. Everybody gets more (Matthew 19:12). than they give. It’s a win-win-win situa- The Center for Inquiry should assist tion all around. America’s eighty million Bible-believing We are not all scrambling to grab Christians desirous of proving their love bigger pieces of the same pie. We are of the kingdom of heaven and hoping to continually making the pie bigger. “attain to that age and the resurrection I’m pretty happy with the way this from the dead.” We can accomplish this works out. My employer seems happy. heavenly task by providing “Eunuchs My coworkers don’t complain much, for Jesus” facilities throughout Amer most of them. Our customers must be hap ica. These facilities would provide coun- py; they keep coming back. So, what’s seling on male castration and female the problem? genital mutilation for Christians who Two hundred years ago, Thomas truly love Jesus with all their hearts. Robert Malthus inspired the epithet Undoubtedly, these facilities will be “dismal science” for economics when overwhelmed with clients anxious to he argued that economic growth would please God and assure their eternal cause a population explosion and mass What destinies while at the same time helping starvation. History proved him wrong. to solve this pressing overpopulation For a better explanation of the na Overpopulation problem. Praise the Lord! ture and beneficence of of market econo Lee Salisbury mies, Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose Problem? Stillwater, Minnesota and F.A. Hayek’s Road to Serfdom are a great place to start. The writers, both Tom Flynn’s op-ed “Beyond Ponzi Eco Nobel laureates, are the two most influ- nomics” (FI, December 2007/January I’m so glad Tom Flynn asked for help ential economists of the past century. 2008) describing his concerns about in his op-ed piece, “Beyond Ponzi Eco They successfully put to rest the falla- overpopulation is needlessly pessimistic. nomics.” As a loyal and grateful reader, cious theories of Karl Marx and John With so many Bible-believing Christians I humbly offer the following: Maynard Keynes. And they write for a asserting the Bible to be the Word of God, The source and consequences of general audience. Their books have sold all that needs to be done is to get Christ unlimited economic growth are both sim- millions of copies. ians to act upon the wise, loving advice of ple and benign. The source of unlimited I hope this will be helpful. their Lord and Savior. growth is mutually agreeable trade. The Dave Coyne Jesus said, “The sons of this age consequences are mutually beneficial. Goshen, Indiana marry and are given in marriage, but When I report for work on Monday those who are considered worthy to morning, I go because the money my attain to that age and the resurrec- employer pays me is worth more to me Tom Flynn addresses a valid point tion from the dead neither marry nor than additional leisure time. The week- about the limitations to growth. But the are given in marriage; for they cannot end was fun, but it doesn’t pay the bills. problems of growth are exacerbated in even die anymore, because they are like The services I provide to my employer the developing countries. For instance, angels, and are sons of God, being sons are worth more to him than the money take the case of Kenya: 60 percent rural of the resurrection”(Luke 20:34–36). he pays me. If this were not true, I would population; 4.8 births per woman; 2.8 Jesus rebukes Christians of “this age” be looking for a new job on Tuesday. percent growth rate (=26-year doubling who marry and engage in the lustful act My employer and I both receive more rate); 42 percent are age fourteen or of sexual intercourse. These Christians than we give. This is better than the alter- less. Many other African countries have are only concerned with earthy, short- native, regardless of what anybody says. higher rural populations with corre- term objectives. Only those Christians Together, my employer, my cowork- sponding growth rates. Rural popula- who abstain from such earthy, flesh-grat- ers, and I manufacture a product that tions in developing countries mean that ifying behavior are “worthy” of the age to we offer for sale. Our product is worth services (such as energy distribution) come and the resurrection. more to our customers than its price. are difficult to provide, leading to mas- Lest anyone be tempted to backslide Otherwise, they would not choose to be sive deforestation for fuel as well as for and change his mind, Jesus offered a our customers. We and our customers subsistence farming. This is Flynn’s more certain and permanent answer receive more than we give. “carbon-loading, global-warming” scene— to the sex problem. He said, “There My employer makes a profit that he according to the United Nations, defor- are eunuchs who were born that way can blow in Vegas, or he can invest it estation accounts for about 30 percent from their mother’s womb; and there to expand production and create more of greenhouse gases. It is also Flynn’s are eunuchs who were made eunuchs jobs. When I spend my paycheck, the “impact on biodiversity” scene (see

11 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 LETTERS

www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/RS_ scarcity. If this time around we don’t Whether your readers (or I) agree or Kenya.htm, for example). Tom is find a technological magic bullet, I’d disagree with him is quite immaterial to right—”urbanization alone may trig- prefer to avoid a mass human die-off this complaint. Unsupported opinions ger population decline” and with it a by famine, disease, or war. I’d also have no place in this magazine. reduction in the problems caused by like to avoid a totalitarian future Otherwise, keep up the good work. rural populations—but in many coun- where states ration scarce resourc- Chuck Adcox tries, sufficient urbanization to take the es and license reproduction. To my Anderson, Indiana pressure off the environment seems to mind, the best outcome would be a be a long way off. market-based solution that contin- Edd Doerr responds: Alan Cheetham ues to provide economic opportunity Seattle, Washington even as we shrink toward a sus- My commentary about Al Gore and tainable population . . . if we have overpopulation very definitely dealt Thomas Flynn replies: an economic model for doing that. with a church-state issue: the sup- And of course, we need governments pression of the Nixon/Ford admin- A libertarian myself, I’m familiar with to stop exacerbating the problem by istration’s 1975 NSSM 200 report on Friedman and Hayek. They demon- encouraging rapid immigration and overpopulation, doubtless due to the strated that individual initiative out- incentivizing fecundity. report’s conclusions that universal performs central planning. But they Alan Cheetham is right about access to family planning education said little about resource scarcity; the heightened ecological impact of is essential, and that the problem nor did Marx or Keynes. The market’s urban ization in the Third World. cannot be solved without legaliza- capacity for “making the pie bigger” When I noted urbanization’s welcome tion of abortion, conclusions strongly fades quickly when we start to run out role in reducing human fecundity, opposed by conservative theocrats. of crust and filling! I never suggested that urbanization Theocon attempts to use government Malthus got his specifics wrong— alone could solve the population prob- to restrict freedom of conscience though population grew more or less lem! Rather, I cited it as one of sever- on reproductive matters, as has as he projected, technological advanc- al reasons why shortsighted political occurred under the last three Repub es in food production he did not leaders seeking to stave off the prob- lican administrations, is clearly a foresee staved off famine. Likewise, lems of demographic contraction by church-state issue, one of deep con- 1960s-era catastrophists like Paul promoting rapid growth—ecological cern to humanists. Ehrlich failed to anticipate the Green consequences be damned—might wind My reference to the questionable Revolution. However, they were right up failing to meet their foolhardy 2000 presidential election outcome in principle: continued population targets. (well received by my 2001 interna- growth must inevitably lead to calam tional humanist listeners) was sim- ity the first time a powerful techno- ply a way of introducing the subject logical “fix” fails to materialize in and is a widely shared view. I won- time. As it turns out, the Green Revo What about the der if Mr. Adcox actually read past lution was a flawed “fix.” It boosted Facts? my first paragraph. crop yields but expanded monocul- ture, increased energy consumption Inasmuch as I always appreciate the to fuel farm equipment and produce information in “Church-State Update” fertilizer, and swamped croplands by Tom Flynn and Edd Doerr, there In Defense of and watersheds with pesticide-laden seems to be something wrong in the Paula Kirby runoff. December 2007/January 2008 issue. I What rabbit will we pull from our think Flynn may have overlooked edit- I have been reading my latest copy of hat when the globe has nine billion ing Mr. Doerr’s actual contribution. Free Inquiry, and “Reassuringly Ration inhabitants, many of them newly Doerr’s diatribe, entitled “Al Gore al” by Paula Kirby. I was really delight- middle-class Indians and Chinese and Overpopulation,” really belongs on ed to read this article, because similar aspiring to American standards of some other page, or maybe even in some thoughts have been going through my consumption? Absent a sudden break- other publication. It is not based on any mind for years. My personal feeling through in nuclear fusion or cheap exposition of facts or line of reasoning, is that we scientifically oriented peo- mass water desalination—neither of nor does it have anything to do with the ple who find belief unnecessary and which seems likely in the short term— stated purpose of the page. It is simply are constantly thought of as weird by we’re running out of clean water and a one-sided political opinion masquer- our believing associates, pay too little anywhere to put the carbon dioxide ading as “Church-State” news. I might attention to what might be called the we’re pumping out. And those are just suggest that, since Mr. Doerr obviously psychobiological or psychomechanical the most obvious problems. feels strongly about what he calls a aspects of religion. Why, in other words, In my op-ed I asked, in essence, “judicial coup d’etat,” FI should invite are people who are rational and reason- whether anyone since Malthus had him to support his opinion with facts and tackled the economics of resource rationale in a complete article. (Continued on page 66)

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 12 OP-ED

RICHARD DAWKINS

and sometimes go out of their way to set up the rather stringent conditions—much An Unbelievable more stringent than supporters usually realize—that proper evidence requires. Supporters of homeopathic medicine, for example, or dowsing, seldom understand Beginning the need for statistically analyzed, double-blind controlled experiments to guard against chance effects, placebo effects, “. . . if Einstein was reli- (Part 1) gious it is hard to imagine who is not: no sensi- Culminating five years of development, Prometheus Books has released ble person denies The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, edit- that there are deep laws ed by Free Inquiry editor Tom Flynn. Richard Dawkins provided the work’s and foreword, reprinted in part below, principles underlying the which he composed before completing the manuscript of his 2006 best-sell- universe.” er The God Delusion. Readers familiar with that work may recognize earlier and the unwitting suggestibility of the versions of some of the structures and believing mind. It is a matter of conven- arguments employed in Dr. Dawkins’s tion that skeptic has come to be associ- later-written but earlier-published ated with those matters, while the super- book.—Eds. ficially synonymous unbeliever specifies Elvis on Mars, spoon bending by mental religious unbelief. The two kinds of skep- nbelief sounds negative. How energy, the Easter Bunny, green kan- ticism/unbelief often go together, but you can you have an encyclopedia of garoos on Uranus . . . the list could be can get into trouble if you simply assume U anything defined as an absence? expanded trivially and without end. We that they do. There are encyclopedias of music, but don’t bother to declare ourselves unbe- There is a further ambiguity over who would buy an encyclopedia of tone lievers in all the millions of things that whether unbelief signifies positive dis- deafness? I have seen and enjoyed an nobody else believes in. It is only worth belief or mere lack of belief. The dic- encyclopedia of food, but an encyclope- bothering to declare unbelief if there is tionary definition allows either. In the dia of hunger? a default assumption that we all must original 1985 Encyclopedia of Unbelief, The first thing wrong with these com- believe in some particular hypothesis its editor Gordon Stein interpreted unbe- parisons is that music and food have unless we positively state the contrary. lief to mean a definite belief that deities positive associations. Tone deafness is Manifestly, and in spades, that is the (from now on, for brevity, I shall use an absence of something valued. So is common assumption over the hypothe- “God” to stand for supernatural deities in hunger. Among the many things this sis of divine intelligence. general) do not exist. Others could easily Encyclopedia demonstrates is that Divine intelligences are not the only mean something more agnostic. Within religious unbelievers are not similarly things that are both widely believed and agnosticism there are those who feel deprived. For many—and I shall return widely doubted. The word skeptic rather that, because we can neither prove nor to this—unbelief comes as a liberating than unbeliever is commonly applied to disprove the existence of God, existence gateway to a more fulfilled life. those who doubt the widespread claims and nonexistence are therefore com- The second thing that might give us of astrology, homeopathy, telepathy, pletely undecidable hypotheses, on an pause about unbelief is that there exists water divining, clairvoyance, alien sexual exactly equal footing with each other and an all but infinite number of things in abduction, and communication beyond having equal probability. Then, of those which we don’t believe, but we don’t go the grave. Skeptics in this sense do not agnostics who forswear such “equal out of our way to say so. I am an unbe- necessarily deny the validity of these probability” impartiality, there is a spec- liever in fairies, unicorns, werewolves, claims. Instead, they demand evidence trum of those who lean one way or the

13 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 OP-ED

other. The following five representative an intelligence who created the uni- movement between Islamic and Christ propositions span the spectrum: verse, who can see into your mind, who ian jihadists in holy alliance. The United 1. Strong Theist. In the words of C.G. cares about your vices and virtues, and States of America is now suffering an Jung, “I do not believe, I know.” will punish or reward you for all eternity epidemic of religiosity that seems almost 2. Agnostic, Leaning toward Theism. I after you die. medieval in its intensity and positively cannot know for certain, but I think the 2. Deism. God is some kind of supernat- existence of God is highly probable. ural intelligence who laid down the laws “We don’t bother to 3. Truly Impartial Agnostic. It is impos- of physics and started the universe off declare ourselves unbe- but then stood back and intervened no lievers in all the millions “The United States of more in its subsequent development and evolution. of things that nobody America is now suffering 3. Einsteinian “religion.”God does not else believes in. an epidemic of religiosity exist as a personal intelligence at all, but the word may be used as a poetic It is only worth both- that seems almost medi- metaphor for the deep laws of the universe that we don’t yet understand. ering to declare unbe- eval in its Once again, the spectrum is contin- lief if there is a default intensity and positively uously distributed, and people who call themselves “religious” might be invited assumption that we sinister in its political to locate themselves using a pencil mark all must believe in some ascendancy.” on a graphical axis with my three propositions as guideposts. My own position particular hypothesis would be 3, except that I deplore the use sible to prove or disprove the existence of the word God itself in the Einsteinian unless we positively of God, and therefore his existence and sense (or in the sense of Stephen Hawk state his nonexistence constitute equally ing’s “For then we should know the mind probable hypotheses. of God”), because I think it has actively the contrary.” 4. Agnostic, Leaning toward Atheism. confused many people. I prefer to limit It is impossible to disprove God, but the word religious to 1 and 2 but not 3. sinister in its political ascendancy. At he is just as improbable as fairies or Einstein called himself “religious,” but if various times in history, it has been unicorns. Einstein was religious it is hard to imag- impossible for a woman, a Jew, a homo- 5. Strong Atheism. I know there is no ine who is not: no sensible person denies sexual, a Roman Catholic, or an African God with the same conviction Jung that there are deep laws and principles American to gain high political office. “knows” there is one. * underlying the universe. Today this negative privilege is pretty I suspect that most contributors to An American student asked her pro- much restricted to atheists and crimi- this Encyclopedia, including me, would fessor whether he had a view about me. nals. The actress Julia Sweeney, in her place themselves somewhere around “Sure,” he replied. “He’s positive sci- beautiful theatrical monologue “Letting 4 or 4.5 in the spectrum, while most ence is incompatible with religion, but Go of God,” recounts with black humor thinking churchgoers would not stray he waxes ecstatic about nature and the her parents’ response to her own gentle far beyond position 2 or 1.5 at the universe. To me, that is religion!” atheism. other end. Propositions 1 and 5 are But is religion the right word to My first call from my mother was more too strong for most reasonable people. use? Words are our servants, not our of a scream. “Atheist? ATHEIST?!?!” This really is a spectrum, by the way. masters, but there are many people out My dad called and said, “You have A research questionnaire to measure there, passionate believers in supernat- betrayed your family, your school, religious belief could sensibly invite par- ural religion, who are only too eager to your city.” It was like I had sold secrets to the Russians. They both ticipants to place themselves along a misunderstand. said they weren’t going to talk to me continuously scalar graph, with my five There is a tactical, political point to be anymore. My dad said, “I don’t even propositions serving as guideposts. made here. Maybe Einsteinian “religion” want you to come to my funeral.” Religious belief itself is subject to provides a useful way for atheists to After I hung up, I thought, “Just try and stop me.” ambiguity and misunderstanding. Here euphemize their way into American soci- I think that my parents had been is another spectrum of statements, all ety and lessen the grip of fundamentalist mildly disappointed when I’d said I of which might be claimed as “religious” theocracy. In the twenty-odd years since didn’t believe in God anymore, but by those who utter them. the original Encyclopedia of Unbelief being an atheist was another thing 1. Strong theism. God is a personal was published, the expected decline in altogether. being whose exact nature is specified in religiosity has continued apace in West Well, that’s just one woman’s par- my Holy Book (as opposed to yours!)— ern Europe, but the reverse has hap- ents. But the mischief reaches all the pened in North America and the Islamic way to the top, as we’ll see in the con- *In The God Delusion, this spectrum is world. The hapless European sometimes cluding installment. expanded from five to seven points. feels cornered in a nightmarish pincer

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 14 OP-ED

TOM FLYNN

matters less which labels we prefer to use to characterize ourselves than the Why the ‘A’ Word label or labels the culture uses to characterize us. Whether we like it or not, most people associate our worldview with a single label, and it is “atheist.” I’ve been doing media appearances as Won’t Go Away a secular humanist activist for fifteen years now. I perennially underwent this exchange: am Harris dropped a bomb at a recent atheist convention by sug- Reporter/Host: Are you an atheist? gesting that those who embrace Me: I call myself a secular human- S ist. Secular humanists disbelieve in the the label “atheist” “are consenting to be supernatural and prefer to use reason, viewed as a cranky subculture.” In the compassion, and the methods of sci- last Free Inquiry, no lesser an authority ence to build the good life in this life. than Paul Kurtz agreed (p. 8), warning Reporter/Host: But you’re an secular humanists against “accepting atheist, aren’t you? the label of ‘atheist.’” But do secular I couldn’t sidestep the “A” word. humanists get to choose whether to When I tried, it was all I’d get to talk accept or reject the “A” word? about. Today, I handle this question differently: What Is Atheism, Anyway? Atheism has many meanings. In his Reporter/Host: Are you an atheist? Me: Yes, but that’s only the begin- Cambridge Companion to Atheism, ning. Michael Martin distinguishes between Ultimately, this controversy is mean- “positive atheism,” the firm confidence ingless. If we seek a future in which the After that, my odds of actually get- that no deity exists, and “negative athe- nonreligious can enter American cul- ting to say something about secular ism,” the simple absence of god-belief. ture’s arena of “acceptable diversity,” it humanism are pretty good. Why do In various writings, Paul Kurtz echoed Martin’s dichotomy, proposing a distinc- tion between atheism and nontheism, claiming for the latter term negative atheism’s implied open-mindedness.* In our respective encyclopedias of unbelief, Gordon Stein and I argued for a definition of atheism closer to Martin’s negative atheism—the mere absence of god-belief. This reflects the word’s Greek roots: a-theos, literally “without god.” Stein and I both found it perverse that “real atheism” should require certainty that God does not exist, itself a sort of faith.

*Odd but true: using Michael Martin’s defi- nitions, negative atheism can seem more “positive” than positive atheism. Also, this should not be confused with positive atheism as used to describe god-disbelief accompanied by humane values, essentially secular humanism; throughout this essay, a “positive atheist” is someone who confidently asserts the nonexistence of a god or the supernatural.

15 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 OP-ED

things work this way? with ourselves about the trouble it brings. or come out of the closet as they choose. 1. Secular humanists are atheists. Not Atheism gives mainstream Americans the For the same reason, no bigot is immune just any atheists, as we’ll see in a mo creeps. They recoil viscerally from the to the despised condition. A white racist ment. But when mainstream Americans seeming emptiness of living in an author- can’t wake up black, but any antigay slap the “A” word label onto us, it sticks. less cosmos and from what they imag- bigot can experience same-sex attrac- 2. Mainstreamers have powerfully neg- ine the absence of God would mean for tion, and any bigoted theist can fall prey ative, largely noncognitive responses morality. Mainstreamers tend to inter- to doubt. Much of the fury of antigay, to atheism. This is bigotry, surely. But pret all atheism, positive or negative, as and today antiatheist, bigots presumably while it persists, average Americans harsh positive atheism. Many frighten reflects this fear of becoming what they may be incapable of responding ratio- themselves by imagining how horrible it detest. nally to the parts of our secular human- would be (they think) if they lost their Given the oppression of forty years ist agenda that have less to do with own faith. In the grip of such revulsion, ago, how stunning are the changes that atheism, such as the autonomy of ethics, few will hear what we have to say about gay/lesbian activism wrought. Yesterday’s applying scientific methods to social the things besides atheism that secular “love that dares not speak its name” is and moral problems, and defending uni- humanism stands for. Bad as this is, it’s now a sitcom staple. Gay marriage is versal human rights. only bigotry. It can be resisted. a live issue. Few look twice if two guys In view of the second point, it might In my view, secular humanists need— kiss at a party. How did the gay/lesbian seem wise for secular humanists to dis- no less than Americans who define them- lobby do it? Not by avoiding the issues tance themselves from atheism, as Harris selves solely as atheists—to change pub- that most disturbed the mainstream, but and Kurtz have recommended. The prob- lic attitudes toward atheism. Since main- by attacking them head-on. Much gay lem is the first point: anyone can plainly streamers tend to interpret all nontheism activism celebrated precisely the things see that secular humanism is a variety of as positive atheism, we need specifically straights found most disturbing, from atheism. Struggle as we may to exclude to destigmatize the most hard-edged sort gay eroticism to the word queer itself, atheism from the discussion, we can’t; of positive atheism. Impossible? Don’t repeatedly confronting mainstream sen- when we try and fail, we just look sneaky. count on it. Only decades ago, another sibilities with flamboyant gay exemplars reviled minority figured out how to drag that “lived down” to straights’ most neg- o ho re the ecular S , W A S itself from being America’s most-hated ative stereotypes. Humanists? and feared group (yes, more so than athe- And it worked. Picture the set of all atheists—those ists) to a status of general public accep- Thirty years of refusing to soft pedal who at least lack belief in God or tance. As I’ve observed in many previous the things that made gays and lesbians the supernatural. They’re a diverse lot. writings, we can learn a lot from the gay/ different dragged American culture from Some are nihilists, rejecting not only lesbian community’s success.** “Let’s go bash some queers” to “Hmm, God but the very idea of the good; set why hasn’t Queer Nation’s agenda back- them aside. Ditto for relativists who The Gay/Lesbian Achievement fired?” to “Hey, can I borrow your Queer believe that with God gone, anything in Perspective Eye DVDs?” goes; subjectivists who believe one per- Think atheists have it bad? Four dec If gay/lesbian activism could destig- son’s idea of the good as good as any ades ago, known homosexuals were matize the “Q” word and make Ameri other’s; diehard Marxist atheists wed- routinely denied employment, shut out cans feel neutral about gay sexuality, ded to a fundamentally inhumane dog- of higher education, and exiled from imagine what similar activism by athe- matic system; and so on. Eventually, their families. It wasn’t unusual for ists—secular humanists included—could you’ll isolate the subset of atheists who straight young men to down a few beers do to destigmatize the “A” word and disbelieve in God and the supernatural and go find some “queers” to beat up. help mainstream Americans accept but do believe that right and excellence Back then, it was homosexuality that their peers who live without invisible can be identified objectively, and believe gave mainstream Americans the creeps. means of support. further that reason, compassion, and They recoiled viscerally from the pros When advocates like Richard Daw scientific methods are uniquely power- pect of attraction toward one’s own gen- kins call atheists to come out of the clos- ful tools for building the good life in this der, reserving special disgust for overt et, they’re calling secular humanists, too. life. Welcome home: you’ve found the gay sexuality. Antigay bigotry and anti- Once atheism, even positive atheism, secular humanists—the minority within atheist bigotry have many parallels. In is destigmatized, we may find main- the atheist minority that has the most part this is because both homosexuality streamers more willing to engage with vivid cognitive and affective program us about the parts of our life stance that and atheism are affective orientations, for forging good lives in a universe that we find most compelling. But first, we’ve states of mind without clear physical happens to be unencumbered by a deity. got to tackle antiatheist bigotry head-on. markers; like gays, atheists can stay in As I said, secular humanists are athe We have the strategic template and the ists—but that’s only the beginning. raw numbers. Misgivings about the “A” **Today activists prefer to call it the “gay, les- word should not dissuade us from doing The Trouble with Atheism bian, bigendered, and transsexual” (GLBT) what needs to be done. movement. At the time of the reform work If I’m right that secular humanists can’t under discussion, “gay/lesbian” was the label avoid the atheist label, we should be honest in general use. Tom Flynn is the editor of Free Inquiry

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DAVID KOEPSELL

would it be if we did? If you want a party line, there are The Duty of Dissent organizations that will cater to that. The Council for Secular Humanism will not be one of them, because that would our years ago, I took the position mean abandoning one of our core prin- of executive director here at the ciples: that dissent is not just good but Council for Secular Humanism. a duty. In the great tradition of J. S. F Mill, we have always held the conviction The job intrigued me, faced as we were that good ideas cannot be deemed good at the time with political and social without testing, without debate, without challenges that seemed, frankly, insur- facing the challenge of dissent in the mountable. President George W. Bush was at the height of his popularity, and his outrageous affronts to secularism, as well as a still-strong alliance with “If you want a party line, Christian fundamentalism, threatened to undo many of the protections of the First there are organizations Amendment. The Council was about to that will cater to that. turn twenty-five years old and had come a long way, building the circulation of us to be more vociferously supportive of The Council for Secular its flagship magazine, Free Inquiry, and “progressive” politics and notable left- Humanism will not be gaining strong support among those who wing causes and people. On the other, embrace secular humanist values. With I frequently hear criticisms from those one of them.” this sort of support, facing what seemed who think we affiliate too often with “pro- like an impossible battle to hold the line gressive” or left-wing causes and people against creeping fundamentalism and (“Please, can’t we just focus on the im court of public opinion. This must be theocracy seemed almost possible. In portant issues of secularism and human- true within our own policies and phil- fact, it was. ism?”). I see this as good. The fact that osophical discussions, as well as the The past few years have seen a shift, we do not please everyone all the time world at large. If we cannot air in these as movements inevitably do, and there means we are being consistent, not along pages or in our other publications the is again a certain sense of momen- political lines but along the ideological/ full range of criticism and comment on tum for our positions. The public has philosophical lines that define secular even our most cherished beliefs, then grown wary of fundamentalists and humanism. I do not fear dissent, even in we will be hypocrites, because this is their connections to Washington, D.C. our own “ranks.” our publicly stated conviction and our Part of this is due to their own hypoc- The sneer quotes for “ranks” is, duty in the world of public ideas. risy, and we can’t take much credit for of course, deliberate, for no group is About a month ago, I wrote a column that. Demagogues like Ted Haggert, more appropriately likened to the fabled for our online newsletter, the Secular who boasted about his access to the “herd of cats” than secular human- Humanism Online News, which now halls of power, and Larry Craig, who ists. Well and good; it is central to the has a circulation of nearly ten thou- inhabited those halls, left themselves philosophy of secular humanism that sand readers. Many of you might have open to destruction by the complete conscience should be free. It is our duty read it. I focused on something a for- disconnect between their public words to use our limited capacities for reason mer Free Inquiry columnist, Sam Harris, of sanctimony and their private actions. to develop our own rationales, to ques- said at a recent conference on atheism. Having seen enough of this, the public tion authority, and to argue, debate, He had the radical notion that the use has retreated. The fundamentalists are and often dissent. Within our ranks is of the term atheist somehow does not retreating from politics, too, though not a range of opinions about political and do us justice, doesn’t adequately define nearly enough of them. Secularism still social issues. In fact, this is part of what us, and is not particularly politically has plenty to do, with no thanks to many makes Free Inquiry so interesting. You useful. He continued by putting forth on the American Left who publicly pan- won’t get just “the party line” but opin- the even more radical notion that no der to religious groups and causes. ions across the full spectrum of dissent. term really quite suffices—indeed, that Throughout all this, I have been buf- We may all be humanists, but we need labeling ourselves does little good for feted by opposing viewpoints within our not share every opinion. How boring our cause. He suggested that instead movement. On the one hand, some want we ought to live our lives according to

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our beliefs—defending science, reason, party line called for a purge. progress. We will progress as long as we and our values through the lives we As you can see, I did not heed the embrace dissent as a necessary part of lead—rather than by putting on atheist call, and the organization remains un that method, as necessary to the pursuit conferences and the like. I expressed cleansed from my impure opinion. I of that object. I enjoy our debates and remain sympathetic, in some ways, to value those who raise objections when a “If we cannot air . . . the Harris’s point of view, though I never new, controversial, or downright silly full range of criticism embraced it fully. His dissent raised an idea is voiced. It sets us apart from our important issue, and it engendered some cultural competitors and will, if we let it, and good discussion about the role of groups enable us to succeed in our shared goal and group identity, as well as labels and of a better, progressive, more humanis- comment on even our the value of just living the “good life.” tic society—so long as we avoid the ten- By exposing these topics to sunlight and most cherished beliefs, dency to call for purges or sacrifices of unfettered public debate, we develop a those who dare to differ. This is the dif- then clearer understanding of our positions ference between ideas and ideology. I’ll we will be hypocrites.” and better arguments to support them. No philosophy can develop, grow, take the former, thank you. some sympathy for this point of view in or ultimately survive without ongoing my column as being extremely pragmat- debate. This is one of our most formida- David Koepsell is the executive director ic and honest. Within a day, calls for my ble criticisms of religious dogma. Dogma of the Council for Secular Humanism resignation came from a handful of col- cannot shift; it cannot stand against and a Free Inquiry associate editor. He leagues. Oh, the irony. So much for free contradictory new evidence; it cannot be is the author of The Ontology of Cyber inquiry. Rather than prompting honest, subject to debate. It is static. We are not space (Open Court, 2000) and Searle on civil debate about the issue—which is static, and it is the ebb and flow of ideas the Institutions of Social Reality (with what ensued for most of us within our that makes us strong. The method of the Laurence Moss, Blackwell, 2003). halls—some felt that straying from the sciences and the object of humanism is

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

see it and am occasionally able to reach through the fog of boredom and recall The Karamazov the counterargument. In fact, I am thinking of doing a handy series of briefings on just this. “. . . what are the believ- Principle ers telling us about themselves? Are they remember Professor Leszek Kola kowski, one of the great Polish intel- saying that if they did Ilectual dissidents from the Stalinist not fear hellfire or desire period, saying that when he debated with apologists for the system, he often paradise they would found himself almost on the losing side. indulge in rape, theft, This was because the arguments of his opponents were so antiquated that he’d pillage, forgotten what the original refutations and perjury? If so, then were. (Another way in which he phrased this was to compare the experience to they are telling us some- sitting through a boring movie and the thing worth knowing sense of relief of being able to leave early upon realizing that one had seen faithful has sometimes made me feel the about ‘faith-based’ it before and already knew the ending.) same way. I lack Kolakowski’s intellectu- Trudging around the country and al history and authority, but I recognize a My first exhibit might be the belief, debating various representatives of the stale and worn-out debating point when I often attributed to Dostoyevsky and cer-

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tainly put in the mouth of Smerdyakov, with God that certain otherwise unthink ical movements, which gleefully hope for one of the characters in The Brothers able cruelties are possible. the utter destruction of the only world we Karamazov , that without God all things We don’t seem to know of many god- know or will ever know, are religious by are possible. In other words, in a godless less despots and conquerors in antiquity, definition. Not to make a cheap point, but world, people would feel free to behave but suppose there to have been such; the serial-killer and “voices told me to do exactly as they choose and would award one might imagine a despot deciding to it” community is hardly a secular or themselves permission for any selfish- slaughter all the civilians in a town that atheist one. So, once again, we discover ness or excess. “Do what thou wilt shall had just fallen. Brute self-interest might be the whole of the law”—this, I have dictate such a policy or the setting of such an example. However, just picture “The genital mutilation “Smerdyakov was the scene in that town once the papal envoy has said, as was said of the city lobby is exclusively reli- wrong, or that sheltered the Albigensian heretics: at least he was very “Kill them all. God will know his own.” gious. The massacre would at once cease to The suicide-bombing gravely be utilitarian and become hysterical. An one-sided. It is only with unbeliever might well torture an enemy ‘community’ is almost in order to get him to say where the but not quite exclusively God that certain other- treasure is buried, but torture really wise unthinkable cruel- becomes exorbitant when the authorities religious.” have convinced themselves that they are ties saving the soul of the tortured one. Then, there are no limits. I have heard several read, is the credo of the Satanists. times from Iranian oppositionists that that it is not just logically impossible to Well, for starters, it can’t be said that Islam forbids the execution of a virgin. derive ethics and morals from the super- the Satanists don’t believe in a super Very well, then, a guilty virgin will first natural; it is actually much less likely natural authority. But if we step over be raped by Mr. Ahmadinejad’s pious that we get our moral precepts from the that obvious point, we find that the rest “Revolutionary Guards” and, only when sky than it is that we get them—or may of the argument is either very feeble they are done with her, handed over to hope to get them—from an examination or very revealing. To begin with, what the hangman. Once you have God on of our common human condition. Those are the believers telling us about them- your side, there is no crime you can- who argue the contrary are refusing to selves? Are they saying that if they did not commit and no cruelty you cannot face the role of religion and superstition, not fear hellfire or desire paradise they self-righteously devise. not just in failing to make people behave would indulge in rape, theft, pillage, and The genital mutilation lobby is exclu- better but in positively inciting them to perjury? If so, then they are telling us sively religious. The suicide-bombing behave worse. something worth knowing about “faith- “community” is almost exclusively reli- based” morality. Examine your own con- gious. The “end of days” and eschatolog- Christopher Hitchens is a columnist science, reader of this secular humanist magazine. What really inhibits you from abusing your children, stealing from your neighbors, or lying to your colleagues? Is it a belief in a supreme being who can convict you of thought-crimes for your sinful private desires? Or is it some notion of human solidarity and the vague yet distinct idea that we have a common interest in behaving as well as we can toward one another? Maintaining that the second choice is far more realistic and based on a much higher degree of probability, one might also add that the first choice is even less “moral” than it looks. Don’t we frequently find, when considering the most horrible, self-destructive, and antisocial crimes, that they are committed by those who are listening to divine instructions? Smerdyakov was wrong, or at least he was very gravely one-sided. It is only

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ARTHUR CAPLAN

born human children by cloning is huge— so huge that talk about reproductive No More Cloning cloning will still be confined for the immediate future to nuts, kooks, cultists, Around and cranks who have no shot at success. “Cloning human embry- hen Dolly the cloned sheep’s existence was revealed to the os using the Oregon W world ten years ago, panic technique should jump- ensued. World leaders, including pres- idents Clinton and Bush, the pope, and start embryonic stem numerous prime ministers, spent the next few months condemning Dolly’s cell research that uses an creation and warning about the horror individual’s cells to begin of human cloning. the process.”

“. . . it is time for politicians and potentates to It is so risky that, for now, there ought in the chemicals used in the Dolly clon- to be a ban on human reproductive clon once again pay attention ing process had allowed researchers at ing—carrying a penalty of jail time— to cloning. the Oregon Regional Primate Center to until further work in primates proves make twenty cloned monkey embryos that cloning can safely be used to make What should they do? has changed everything. Since what healthy primates. Not much.” works in monkeys tends to work in us, The other major reason for cloning it is time for politicians and potentates ourselves—to have a source of human to once again pay attention to cloning. embryos—is less morally controversial What should they do? Not much. and more likely to work than other There are two reasons to try to options. Up until now, the fight about At the time, my view was that there apply cloning to people. One is to create the ethics and funding of embryonic was no reason for panic. It took more embryos so that stem cells can be taken stem cell research has presupposed than 250 pregnancies to produce Dolly, from them and used to develop treat- either making human embryos using and the odds of that same cloning pro- ments against disease. The other is to sperm and egg or using already existing cess working in humans were not great. make a clone of you or me. It is repro- embryos that are unclaimed and unwant - In the years since Dolly was born, the ductive cloning that seems to engender ed at in vitro fertilization clinics. Cloned only scientist who claimed any success the most fear on the part of the public. embryos would be a better source, moral in cloning human embryos was Professor No one who is in a position to actually and scientifically. Hwang Woo-suk. He was forced to resign ly try to apply to humans what the Ore Why? From a scientific point of view, in disgrace when it became clear that he gon scientists did with monkeys has any cloned embryos are best. If you make had fabricated his evidence for cloning. interest in using cloning to reproduce or some cloned embryos by putting DNA In the ten years since the creation mass-produce people. While the Oregon from, say, your own skin or tongue cell of Dolly, no scientists anywhere in the researchers did make monkey embryos, into an egg from which the DNA has been world had managed to clone any sort of they could not get a viable pregnancy removed, then you have embryos whose primate. No monkey, gorilla, chimp, bono from any of them. This means that clon- stem cells can be used to repair diseases bo, or orangutan embryos or adults were ing to create adults is still very hard to and injuries in your own body with- cloned. The announcement in November do and certainly very dangerous to try. out fear of the body’s immune system from Oregon that a slight modification The risk of making deformed or still- rejecting the cells as foreign tissue.

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People could use their own cells to make destroy them and harvest their stem cells. it far more ethical to use cloned human stem cells that could then effortlessly be If laws are passed prohibiting implan- embryos for embryonic stem cell put back into their own bodies to repair tation of cloned human embryos into a research than human embryos created damaged hearts, severed spinal cords, or woman’s body, as has been done in a solely for research purposes. worn-out parts of the brain that lead to few countries such as Britain, then this It has taken ten years, but the pro Parkinson’s disease. will be just as effective a prohibition on spect of human cloning has now inched The Oregon announcement is very reproductive cloning as on the creation of very close to becoming a reality. We don’t welcome news if you suffer from diabe- cloned human embryos. Make it a crime need politicians to panic or religious lead- tes, nerve damage, paralysis, or heart to clone for reproduction, and you will ers to decompensate. We need sound failure. Cloning human embryos using have done all you can do to prevent it. public policies that will prevent the pre- the Oregon technique should jump-start And while it is true that the creation mature use of reproductive cloning, while embryonic stem cell research that uses of stem cells means destroying a cloned opening the door to the use of cloning for an individual’s cells to begin the process. embryo, a cloned embryo in a lab dish stem cell research. There are two primary ethical con- has no ability or potential to develop into cerns with this type of stem cell research. a person. It is at best a possible person— Arthur Caplan is the Emmanuel and First, it is argued that cloning human not an actual one. Moreover, we already Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics embryos will make it too tempting to know that nearly all cloned embryos and the director of the Center for use them for reproduction as well as are so miswired that very few are capa- Bioethics at the University of Penn research. Second, critics hold that it is ble of becoming healthy adult organ- sylvania in Philadelphia. murder to clone human embryos solely to isms. This diminished potential makes

PETER SINGER

Two years later, one of the most eminent scientists of our time blundered Should We much more clumsily into the same minefield, with predictable results. In Octo ber 2007, James Watson, who shared Discuss Race and the 1962 Nobel Prize for his descrip- “. . . the intersection of n modern liberal democracies in genetics and intelligence which freedom of inquiry and discus- remains an intellectual Ision is widely respected, one issue is still difficult to discuss freely. Long after minefield.” it has become commonplace to discuss previously taboo topics like the existence of God or sex outside marriage, the intersection of genetics and intel- tion of the structure of DNA, was in ligence remains an intellectual mine- London to promote his memoir, Avoid field. Though I would assume that most Boring People and Other Lessons from readers of this magazine believe, as a a Life in Science. In an interview in matter of principle, that inquiry should the London Sunday Times, he was be entirely free, I would expect some to quoted as saying that he was gloomy hesitate before defending the right to about the prospects for Africa because free inquiry in this area. age more gifted in these fields than “All our social policies are based on the Former Harvard president Larry women, but that there is some reason fact that their intelligence is the same Summers became a victim of the mine- for believing that men are more likely as ours—whereas all the testing says field in 2005 when he tentatively suggest- than women to be found at both the [it is] not really [the same].” He added ed a genetic explanation for the difficulty upper and lower ends of the spectrum of that he hoped everyone was equal, but his university had in recruiting female abilities in these fields—and Harvard, that “people who have to deal with black professors in math and physics. (He of course, only appoints people at the employees find this is not true.” did not suggest that men are on aver- extreme upper end.) Watson tried to clarify his remarks in

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a subsequent interview in The Indepen about what the facts are. What does remains: should scientists investigate dent, saying: “The overwhelming desire raise the suspicion of racism, however, the possibility of a link between race and of society today is to assume that equal is propagating a negative view of the intelligence? Is the question too sensitive powers of reason are a universal heritage facts when that view lacks a solid scien- for science to explore? Is the danger of of humanity. It may well be. But simply tific foundation. misuse of the results of any research That is precisely what Watson has conducted in the area too great? now admitted that he did. Returning to Those dangers are obvious enough. “A racist has a negative New York, he apologized to those who had drawn from his remarks the implica- attitude toward peo- tion that Africa is somehow “genetically “. . . no matter what the ple of a particular race. inferior.” This was not, he claimed, what he meant, and more important, “there is facts turn out to be, they There is no scientific basis for such a belief.” will not justify racial nothing racist about try- The retraction came too late. London’s Science Museum cancelled a hatred nor ing lecture Watson was to give about his disrespect for people of to get clear about what book and his career. Under pressure from the board, Watson resigned his a the facts are.” position as chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, an institution different race.” that under his leadership has grown wanting this to be the case is not enough. to become one of the world’s leading This is not science. To question this is not research and educational institutions to give in to racism.” in the biological sciences. Rockefeller Racist stereotyping harms the prospects Watson is right that questioning this University also cancelled a lecture that of many nonwhites, especially of those of assumption is not, in itself, racist. A Watson had been scheduled to give. African descent. The concepts of intelli- racist has a negative attitude toward Putting aside the specific claims gence and race are less clear-cut than people of a particular race. There is Watson made in his Sunday Times we often assume them to be. Scientists nothing racist about trying to get clear interview, a genuinely difficult question need to handle them very carefully if they are to pose meaningful questions about the point at which these two concepts intersect. Some say that the tools we use to measure intelligence—IQ tests—are themselves culturally biased. The late Stephen Jay Gould, author of The Mismeasure of Man, dismissed cross-cultural research using IQ tests as an attempt by white men to show their superiority. But if that was so, the attempt has backfired, because East Asians tend to score better than people of European descent. On the other hand, it clearly is possible that differences in IQ scores between people living in impoverished countries and people living in affluent countries are affected by factors like education and nutrition in early childhood. Controlling for these variables is difficult. Yet to say that we should not carry out research in this area is equivalent to saying that we should reject open-minded investigation of the causes of inequalities in income, education, and health between people of different racial or ethnic groups. When faced with such major social problems, a preference for ignorance over knowledge is difficult to defend.

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In explaining why it was canceling and intelligence. If so, one can only hope that is evidently exceeded by the vast Watson’s lecture, the Science Museum that watching how Watson blew himself majority of human beings irrespective of said that his remarks had gone “beyond up will not discourage them from ven- their racial or ethnic origins. the point of acceptable debate.” It then turing into the minefield at all. struck a reasonable balance by inviting Finally, no matter what the facts turn Peter Singer is the Ira W. DeCamp people who want to learn more about out to be, they will not justify racial hatred Professor of Bioethics at Princeton the “the science behind genetics and nor disrespect for people of a different University. His books include One race” to look into other events to be race. Whether some are of higher or lower World: The Ethics of Globalization (Yale held at the museum over the coming intelligence than others has nothing to do University Press, 2002) and The Ethics year. The speakers at these events will with that. Human rights are not depen- of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices presumably have better credentials than dent on intelligence, or, at least, not on Matter (coauthored with Jim Mason; Watson for discussing topics like race intelligence above a minimal threshold Rodale, 2006).

NAT HENTOFF

House, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, agrees. Christianizing Unsurprisingly concerned, Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti- Defamation League, told The Jewish Week (October 5): “The religious factor n array of reports and stud- in campaigns is becoming more and ies—not to mention Jay Leno’s more acceptable—it could easily cross impromptu questioning of A the line and become a kind of religious college students on NBC’s Tonight test for office.” Show—make it alarmingly clear that All of this is telling those of us who from grammar school to graduate school, and across the country at large, are not Christians that we are here on many Americans are educationally left sufferance. I’m reminded of a day years behind in their knowledge of the basic ago when I was on a panel at Robert constitutional, individual liberties. You son’s Regent College in Virginia. The know—the liberties we are purportedly question was: “Is this a Christian nation?” trying to protect from terrorism. Before we went on, previous speakers In September, the Freedom Center, agreed, in celebratory chorus, that this based at Vanderbilt University (a source is clearly a historical fact. of valuable research for me) released its When my turn came, I suggested the annual “State of the First Amendment” support school holiday programs that are audience look more closely at the fact national survey. Many of the responses entirely Christian. (I remember such pro- that God is absent from the Constitu were as politically correct and consti- grams during my elementary school days tion—except for the date of the docu- tutionally incorrect as I have come to at Boston’s William Lloyd Garrison public ment: “the seventeenth day of Septem expect. Fifty-six percent of respondents school during the so-called Great Depres ber in the year of our Lord one thousand would prohibit public statements that sion.) Reversing the Supreme Court, 50 seven hundred and eighty seven.” would offend racial groups; 74 percent percent would permit public-school teach Amid the hostile stirrings in the audi- would ban students from wearing T-shirts ers to use the Bible as a “factual text” in ence, I also told them to check out Arti that might be offensive to various groups. history classes. cle VI, Section 3: “. . . no religious test What startled me was that when The fundamental question in this sur- shall ever be required as Qualification asked if they believe “the Constitution vey was “Is America a Christian nation?” to any Office of public Trust under the establishes a Christian nation,” 46 per- Presidential candidate John McCain says United States.” For the rest of the day, I cent of respondents strongly agreed, yes. Commenting on the First Amend was the pariah in the room. 19 percent mildly agreed, 12 percent ment Center’s poll in a September 30 What I hadn’t realized at the time, disagreed, and 19 percent—brave secu- New York Times interview, McCain until reading David Koepsell’s “Human larists—strongly disagreed. said, “I would probably have to say that ism and Civil Rights” (Free Inquiry, Here’s more to gladden the heart of the Constitution established the United October/November 2007) was that Pat Robertson: 58 percent desire teach- States as a Christian nation.” The only despite a 1961 Supreme Court decision, er-led prayers in schools; 43 percent Baptist minister running for the White there remain states that—in addition to

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denying atheists a range of civil rights— Torcaso v. Watkins was not even fully to the states. They would have no prob- defy the utterly clear language of Article obeyed by the offending states. In Isaac lem with a return to state-sponsored VI, Section 3, which forbids religious Kramnick’s and R. Laurence Moore’s religion. We can only guess where tests for public office. The Godless Constitution (Norton 1995; Samuel Alito and John Roberts will Writing for a unanimous Supreme expanded paperback edition, 1996), the come down on this matter. Court in Torcaso v. Watkins (1961), authors help to explain the growing Christ “We should stand ready,” he added, Justice Hugo Black penned a decision ianization of this nation in Americans’ “if the need arises—as it well might with that affected the state constitutions of minds: “Since 1961, amazingly enough, this Supreme Court—to follow the mod Arkansas, Maryland, South Carolina, each of the five states, including Mary el of successful civil rights movements Tennessee, and Texas, all of which con- land, have amended their constitutions and fight for what we have so slowly tinued to mandate belief in God as a [as ordered by the Supreme Court] but gained and so tenuously hold.” requirement for state office. In the case have not eliminated required belief in Koepsell also advised that we not before the Court, a citizen appointed as a God from the documents. The force of minimize “the way we are misperceived notary public in Maryland was forbidden by a hostile public.” (Concrete evidence to serve because he would not abuse his of that hostility to us atheists can also be conscience by swearing to a belief he did found in the “State of the First Amend not hold. Hugo Black ordered that no “All of this is telling ment” survey.) state could act as if Article V, Section 3 But the civil rights movement has not had been written in invisible ink. those of us who are not been successful in securing compliance Among the remaining civics classes Christians that we are by state and federal legislatures to the that have survived the No Child Left unanimous Supreme Court decision in Behind Act’s concentration on teaching here on sufferance.” Brown v. Board of Education—wit- for tests in reading and math, I doubt if ness our increasingly racially segregat- Torcaso v. Watkins is ever mentioned ed public schools. in public schools. Actually, the First We do need a civil rights movement Amendment Center might have asked [these remaining clauses may be symbol- for atheists. As Koepsell writes: “There the respondents to its “State of the First ic in view of Torcaso], but they do matter. is no need now to march in the streets,” Amendment” poll how many had ever They speak to pressures that weigh upon but we must maintain “our vocal and read the Constitution. legislatures and to the mentality of those forceful presence in the courts, where It would be useful if the same ques- who appoint and elect people to office. the laws will protect us.” tion could usefully be asked of members They tell atheists not to apply.” (Empha But the meanings of these laws—as of the Congress, the incumbent presi- sis added.) shown by some states’ post-Torcaso eva dent, and the presidential candidates of David Koepsell ended his Free sion of that Court decision and among both parties. Except for Joseph Biden, Inquiry article by warning that “Some the general public—are not being suffi- very few ever cite the unilateral “effec- Supreme Court justices have publicly ciently protected. We also need to edu- tive revisions” of the Constitution by stated their opposition to Torcaso and cate the educators and the public that this administration. its application of the First Amendment the Fourteenth Amendment’s “equal protection of the laws” continues to fail to prevent debasement of atheists in the ways Koepsell describes in his article. The considerable recent sales of books by atheists—and I doubt that only atheists bought them—shows a momen- tum of interest about the foundations of atheism that should be continued and quickened. I welcome specific ideas of how exactly that can be done. Perhaps not all future “State of the First Amendment” polls will reflect the current ignorance about atheism and atheists—and the Constitution.

Nat Hentoff is a regular columnist for The Village Voice and The Washington Times, a United Media syndicated col umnist, and the author of Living the Bill of Rights (University at California Press, 1999) and The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance (Sev

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 24 OP-ED

WENDY KAMINER

During oral arguments, the Court reportedly appeared skeptical of the Pandering, constitutional challenge to the pandering provision. Legal reporters have specu- lated that the Court would uphold the statute, partly by construing it narrowly to discourage its use against people who Pretending, and discuss legal material without intending to imply that they’re discussing child the Law porn. “. . . the PROTECT Act oes the First Amendment protect effectively allows gov- the right to make statements that Dmight be construed falsely as solici ernment officials to esti- tations or offers of child pornography? mate someone’s state of The Supreme Court confronts this question this term in U.S. v. Williams, a case mind and that doesn’t bode well for free speech. prosecute him for it.” In 2003, Congress passed a child pornography law (the PROTECT Act) that includes a prohibition on “knowingly . . . advertis(ing), promot(ing) . . . or soli The Court’s apparent hesitancy to cit(ing) . . . any material or purported strike down the pandering provision material in a manner that reflects the of the PROTECT Act probably reflects, belief, or that is intended to cause anoth- Nor should it be constitutional to treat in part, the facts of the case before it. er to believe, that the material or purport- people who actually or apparently pre- Michael Williams, who challenged the ed material contains” child porn. tend to traffic in child porn as harshly as provision, was convicted of pandering “. . . Purported material”? “. . . in a people who do traffic in child porn. Child actual, not “purported,” child porn. (He manner that reflects a belief, or that is in pornography is not protected speech: was also convicted of possessing actual tended to cause another to believe. . . .”? the Supreme Court ruled long ago, in child porn; that conviction is not at If this language confuses you, take a New York v. Ferber, that people can be issue and neither is his sentence, since number. The Eleventh Circuit Court of prosecuted for simple possession as well he was sentenced concurrently on the Appeals deemed it “so vague and stan- as production or distribution of it, and pandering and possession charges.) His dardless as to what may not be said” they are today, with a vengeance. (As I conduct doesn’t make the statute consti- that people are left with no clear under- wrote in the June/July 2007 issue of Free tutional or any less of a threat to people standing of what may be said (increas- Inquiry, a fifty-seven-year-old Arizona engaged in protected speech, which is ing the likelihood of chilling protected man with no criminal record was recent- why the Court hears challenges to over- speech). The Court added that this poor- ly sentenced to two hundred years in ly broad laws brought by people who ly drafted provision allows law-enforce- prison for merely downloading twenty could have been constitutionally pros- ment agents to make entirely subjective images of child porn. The Supreme Court ecuted under laws that were more nar- determinations about whether speech in declined to consider the constitutionality rowly drafted. But the fact that Williams fact “reflects the belief” or is “intended of his sentence.) was not a victim of the vague, overly to cause another to believe” that the But a ban on possessing child porn broad language of which he complains material it references is child porn. In surely should not justify a ban on dis- naturally makes it easier to rule against other words, the law effectively allows cussing child porn, much less pretending him, for reasons having nothing to do government officials to estimate some- to discuss it. I would have thought that with the law. (Williams’s status as an one’s state of mind and prosecute him much was obvious, if not to Congress actual child pornographer may have scared or her for it. That can’t be constitutional, then at least to the Supreme Court. Sad off the American Civil Liberties Union, as the Eleventh Circuit correctly ruled. to say, I would have been wrong. which declined to join free-speech advo-

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cates in filing a friend-of-the-court brief ed of possession even if the pandering their amicus brief, the pandering provi- supporting the constitutional challenge conviction is reversed.) The danger is sion, if upheld, would dangerously expand to the PROTECT Act.) that the Court’s desire not to rule in government power “to penalize and chill The danger of this case is not that an favor of a child pornographer, even if speech based on its content” and “pres- he’s right on the law, will lead it to limit ent widespread opportunity for abuse the legal doctrine by which it hears by local law enforcement officials. The “Nor should it be challenges to overbroad laws brought risk, demonstrated time and again, is constitutional to treat by guilty people on behalf of innocents that police officers and prosecutors, in whom the laws seem likely to ensnare. their zeal to combat real child abuse, people who actually or (Legal commentators Tony Mauro and will charge innocent people with child Lyle Denniston noted that the justices pornography, solely on the basis of their apparently pretend to discussed limiting this “overbreadth” ideas, fantasies, speech or expression.” traffic in child porn as doctrine.) These are frightening times. Whether pro If the Court reverses the Eleventh voked or enabled by fear of terrorism or harshly as people who Circuit and upholds the ban on pretend hysteria about pornography, the govern- do traffic in child porn.” pandering, an innocent person will not ment is increasingly inclined to prose- go to prison in this case, but innocent cute the innocent in the belief that doing people will be at real risk of imprison- otherwise would let the guilty wander innocent man will go to prison or that a ment in the future. As the National free. guilty one will escape on a “technicali- Coalition Against Censorship and the ty.” (Again, Williams will remain convict First Amendment Project stressed in Wendy Kaminer is a lawyer and social

feelings” are not the result of what we learned in Sunday school. “They arise Atheists Aren’t a from the neurobiological and evolutionary design of the organs we call moral emotions.” Bad Lot Physically, humans are pretty pathe Dan Gardner “. . . now everyone knows

an we be good without God? Alas—some would say—faith has a few atheists who are That’s a very old question believ- eroded over the centuries. Today, sub- not lying, thieving, mur- Cers like to ask because, I suspect, stantial numbers of people have decided the answer is very pleasing to them. that until such time as there is proof of derous wretches. They No, they say, we cannot be good with- the existence of Santa Claus, they will work. They pay taxes. out believing in an invisible spirit who, not believe Santa Claus exists. Ditto like Santa Claus, knows when we’ve for God. And they’re open about their They have kids and don’t been bad or good. No invisible spirit, no disbelief. beat them or sell them reward or punishment. No reward or This has complicated the issue con- punishment and moral codes become siderably, because now everyone knows for medical experiments. empty words. Inevitably, atheists must a few atheists who are not lying, thiev- How can this be?” conclude that morality is for suckers— ing, murderous wretches. They work. and so believers are, ipso facto, better They pay taxes. They have kids and people than nonbelievers. don’t beat them or sell them for medical There was a time when there wasn’t experiments. How can this be? more to say on the subject. Almost every- An answer comes from the godless one believed in a god or gods, and those science of evolutionary psychology. few who didn’t kept their mouths shut “People have gut feelings that give them tic. We’re weak and slow and our fangs lest others conclude they were the sort emphatic moral convictions,” writes wouldn’t frighten a raccoon. We do, of lying, thieving, murderous wretches Harvard cognitive psychologist Steven however, have really big brains and, by people inevitably become when they stop Pinker, “and they struggle to rationalize working together, our ancient ancestors genuflecting to invisible spirits. the convictions after the fact.” Those “gut could survive and thrive. But work-

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 26 OP-ED

ing together required humans to follow good but she can imagine circumstances they feel, and how they behave—an certain rules, even when doing so was in which it’s not appropriate. To reflect assumption belied by heaps of academ- contrary to their short-term interests. that, she may rate it “important” instead ic research, not to mention plain old Say you covet your neighbor’s cave. common sense. Televangelists would get You could just smash his skull and move boffo scores in Bibby’s poll. Does that in. But you need your neighbor’s help in “… the lowest levels of mean they are models of moral behav- the mammoth hunt. And besides, if you ior? Anyone who believes that is invited smash his skull and take his cave, some- religious belief and week- to send a contribution to the Church of one else might get the same idea. So in ly church attendance Latter-day Skeptics at my Ottawa Citi the long run, both your neighbor and you zen e-mail address. will be better off if everybody agrees it in the world—possibly To get around this, we have to look is wrong to smash thy neighbor’s skull. the lowest in history— at how people behave. As it turns out, Humans who learned to restrain them the lowest levels of religious belief and selves prospered. Those who didn’t van- are found in Northern weekly church attendance in the world— ished. Over time, the internalized rules European countries . . . possibly the lowest in history—are found we call morality became hardwired in Northern European countries. These societies are not lacking in basic moral instinct. the most tolerant, qualities. In fact, they may be the most That instinct remains no matter what peaceful, compassion- tolerant, peaceful, compassionate, order we believe about invisible spirits. And ly societies that have ever existed. its force is not diminished by recognizing ate, orderly societies that If that’s the fate of countries that say its origins in biology: we can no more have ever existed.” goodbye to God, it will be a good day when choose not to feel moral impulses than we see the back of that old fraud. we can choose not to feel sexual desire. ©The Ottawa Citizen 2007 So it’s no surprise to learn that atheists of “very important.” That wouldn’t mean can be perfectly decent people. They are she’s a less moral person. It would mean Dan Gardner is a columnist for The human, after all. she’s more thoughtful. Ottawa Citizen (Canada), in which this This has led believers to a subtler Worse, Bibby simply assumes a link article appeared on October 12, 2007. attack. “People who don’t believe in God between what people casually say, what It is reprinted with permission. can be good,” writes Reginald Bibby, a theist and University of Lethbridge sociologist. “But people who believe in God are more likely to value being good, enhancing the chances that they will be good.” Mr. Bibby’s evidence is a widely report ed poll he conducted in which higher per- centages of believers than nonbelievers Clear Proof America said values such as kindness, forgiveness, and patience were “very important.” “To the extent that Canadians say goodbye to God,” Bibby concluded, “we Is Not a ‘Christian may find that we pay a significant social price.” So occasional atheists may be fine people, but in general they’re not as nice as theists, and if their numbers rise society will go to hell in a hand- Nation’ basket. hough some religious activists One of the many problems with This was done later by our Con Bibby’s thesis is that his poll asks about keep claiming that America was stitution, in which the Founders delib- qualities that religions typically present T “founded as a Christian nation,” erately omitted reference to God or as dogmas. Kindness is good. Period. No the historical proofs are opposite and in Creator, forbade any religious tests for discussion. It just is. The same goes for writing. The activists say the Declaration public office (Article VI), and provided forgiveness and all the others. of Independence proves the “Christian for separation of church and state (the So it’s no surprise that believers nation” claim because it cites our God and First Amendment) to establish a “more would simply say, yes, these are very Creator; but the purpose of the Declar perfect union”—not a “Christian nation,” important. That’s what their dogma ation was to cite the source of our right to which they could easily have formed, had says. But an atheist is less likely to freedom from Great Britain, not to set up they so desired. They did not so desire. approach morality dogmatically. She the government in America, which was an Further proof positive is the Amer might feel, for example, that kindness is entirely different undertaking. ican treaty of 1797 that ended conflict

27 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 OP-ED

The International Academy of Humanism Welcomes New Members

The International Academy of Human Margherita Hack (Italy) is an Fernando Savater (Spain) is a ism is pleased to announce the elec- astronomer, a professor emeritus at philosopher and the winner of the tion of nine new Humanist Laureates. Trieste University, a member of the Sakharov Prize in 2000 for human They were inducted in November at Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei since rights on behalf of the civic movement the Center for Inquiry’s “The Secular 1978, and a member of the Interna Basta Ya, for which he is the spokes Society and Its Enemies” conference tional Astronomical Union. Hack has person. Savater has won the Anagrama in New York City. published more than 250 scientific Prize, the Ortega y Gasset Journ alism Margaret Atwood (Canada) is the papers in international journals, ten Prize (2000), and the Fernando Abril internationally acclaimed author of books for university students, and Martorell Prize for “his contribution more than thirty books of fiction, about twenty popular books on astro- to the defense and promotion of free- short stories, poetry, literary criti- physics. dom, tolerance and human rights.” cism, social history, and books for Christopher Hitchens (United Neil deGrasse Tyson (United children. Published in over thirty-five States) is an author, journalist, and States) is an astrophysicist and the countries, some of her best-known literary critic. A prolific essayist and Frederick P. Rose Director of the novels include The Edible Woman political commentator, Hitchens wrote Hayden Planetarium at the American (1970), The Handmaid’s Tale (1983), the controversial and best-selling God Museum of Natural History. His book The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons One Universe: At Home in the Cosmos (1996), and the 2000 Booker Prize Everything (2007). Hitchens writes was the winner of the 2001 American winner, The Blind Assassin. for Slate, The Daily Mirror, and Free Institute of Physics Science Writing Ann Druyan (United States) is an Inquiry and is a contributing editor to Award. His most recent book, The author and a producer. With her late The Atlantic Monthly and Vanity Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures husband, Carl Sagan, she wrote the Fair. of an Urban Astrophysicist, is a books Comet and Shadows of For Elizabeth Loftus (United States) memoir. gotten Ancestors, as well as sections is a member of the National Academy Established in 1983, the Inter of The Demon-Haunted World. In of Sciences; a distinguished professor national Academy of Humanism is addition, she wrote an introduction to in the University of California, Irvine’s a unique organization based at the The Cosmic Connection and the epi- departments of psychology and social Center for Inquiry/Transnational in logue to Billions and Billions, both behavior, criminology, law and society, Amherst, New York. The purpose of the by Sagan. Alone, she wrote the novel and cognitive sciences; and a Fellow Academy is to disseminate humanist A Famous Broken Heart. In the areas of The Center for the Neurobiology of ideals and beliefs. It is devoted to the of film and television, she was one of Learning and Memory at UC Irvine. principles of free inquiry in all areas the writers for the television series Loftus has published over 250 journal of human endeavor, the scientific out- Cosmos and a producer of the film articles and eighteen books, including look, the use of reason and the scientif- Contact. Currently, she is the CEO Eyewitness Testimony, which won ic method in acquiring knowledge, and and a cofounder of Cosmos Studios. the American Psychological Associa humanist ethical values and principles. Rebecca Goldstein (United States) tion’s National Media Award in 1980, The goals of the Academy include fos- is a philosopher and the author of and, most recently, The Myth of tering respect for human rights, free- the best-selling novel The Mind-Body Repressed Memory. dom, and the dignity of the individual; Problem. Her latest books are Incom Elaine Pagels (United States) is tolerance of various viewpoints and pleteness: The Proof and Paradox of the Harrington Spear Paine Professor willingness to compromise; commit- Kurt Gödel and Betraying Spinoza: of Religion at Princeton University and ment to social justice; a universalistic The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us the author of the acclaimed New York perspective that transcends national, Modernity. She is a Fellow of CFI’s Times best-seller Beyond Belief: The ethnic, religious, sexual, and racial Committee for the Scientific Examina Secret Gospel of Thomas, The Gnostic barriers; and the belief in an open, plu- tion of Religion. Gospels, and The Origins of Satan. ralistic, and democratic society.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 28 OP-ED

with Tripoli (Treaties of the United sent was heard from George Washington, zealots to press a claim they know to be States, Volume 2, Document 20, Article Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, untrue actually discredits religion. 11). It specifically states that “the gov- James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and many other Founders then alive and active. “. . . the Founders delib- Since its founding, the nation and John Tomasin is a retired attorney erately omitted refer- religion have prospered. For religious and judge. ence to God or Creator, forbade any religious tests for public office (Article VI), and provided for separation of church and state (the First Amendment) to establish a ‘more perfect union’—not a ‘Christian nation.’ . . .” ernment of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion” (emphasis added). This treaty was unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate and signed by President John Adams in 1797. No dis-

Tentative Schedule (in Washington, Congress sets the agenda) Friday • Social and Welcome by Elizabeth Daerr Saturday • Trip to the Global Warming Exhibit at the Marian Koshland Science Museum • Tour of the Thomas Jefferson Library of Congress • Evening Memorial Walking Tour (weather permitting) • Alternative museum visits of your choice—Air and Space Museum, American Indian Museum, Natural History Museum Sunday Friday, February 22 to Monday, February 25, 2008 • “Ingersoll’s Life in D.C.”—1.5 mile, two-hour walking tour. Center for Inquiry/Office of Public Policy Bring your favorite Ingersoll quotation to share. 621 Pennsylvania Avenue SE • A briefing about current congressional issues presented by Washington, D.C. 20003 Eddie Tabash, constitutional lawyer and leading expert in First Amendment law as it applies to free speech and the separation of church and state. The cost of the event is $100.00, and payment can be made online via PayPal. • A briefing about climate change and global warming bills To register, e-mail to [email protected] in Congress presented by Dr. Stuart Jordan, emeritus senior or call 800-398-7571 or 202-546-2330. staff scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. • Briefing by Toni Van Pelt about CFI/Office of Public Accomodations are available at the Holiday Inn, 550 C Street, SW. Policy’s lobbying schedule and what’s moving through the The hotel is one block from the L’Enfant Plaza Metro, orange/blue lines. Congress. For reservations, use the code CFI. There are three ways you may do so: • Briefing by Ron Lindsay on the current state of CFI’s legal cases. 1. Visit www.centerforinquiry.net/dc and click on the link 3. Call 800-holiday Monday or • Meet with legislators, attend congressional briefing or hear- 2. Visit www.hicapitodc.com (202) 479-4000 ing, and, if time allows, tour the Capitol building. The hotel rate of $119 sgl/dbl is guaranteed until January 23.

29 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 OP-ED

TIBOR R. MACHAN

to worry about how to direct their own lives, not whether others are being fair Fairness Is a to them. Yet, they keep saying things like “Life is unfair,” as if there were still some parent standing about assigning Minor Virtue them tasks and distributing burdens “. . . fairness is a minor

ew ideas serve more wicked pur- administrative virtue, poses than “fairness.” In public handy once bigger issues Fpolicy, it is probably the most overused justification for increasing the like justice, liberty, and power of some people over others, for merit have been dealt meddling in others’ private lives, and for being guiltlessly resentful. with. . . .” Yes, there is some virtue to fairness, as when teachers grade and parents divide the dessert fairly. In short, fairness and benefits. But the fact that some of is a minor administrative virtue, handy us are too short for reaching the apples once bigger issues like justice, liberty, on the trees is not unfair, any more and merit have been dealt with properly. than it is unfair that some are too large Unfortunately, the childish concern to become jockeys, even if that is what with whether one is being treated fairly supposed to have superiors at all, after we would really, really like to be. This by one’s superiors keeps preoccupying they have reached the age of their own is just life and has nothing to do with the minds of adults after they aren’t reason. At that stage, they are supposed fairness versus unfairness. Yet, thinking that fairness has something to do with such matters creates a powerful temptation to campaign for remedies—let’s get Congress, city hall, the welfare state, and so on to even things out for us all (except, of course, when it comes to the power it takes to become an equalizer). So, when some people are very pretty or much prettier—or richer, faster, or more talented—than others, they are resented for this (especially for the benefits that may come their way in consequence), and much too much effort is spent on creating that mythical “level playing field” so many public philosophers demand. This, as noted already, produces a class of folks who are genuinely unequal along the one axis over which equality should reign—namely, power over others. Of that, you see, no one ought to have more or less than anyone else, because, in the end, no one has the right to rule others past the time of childhood. Someone I know reasonably well, the philosopher Paul Kurtz—a major leader of the secular humanist movement—has recently made much of the fact that

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 30 OP-ED

some people who make a lot of money such unhinged fairness, period. from under. There is nothing fair about are not taxed “progressively” enough.* More important is the fact that, when subjecting us all to equal measures of (“Progressive taxation” means impos- it comes to being the victims of taxa- villainy. Yet that is exactly what Profes ing a higher tax burden upon those who tion—taxation being a relic of feudal sor Kurtz is promoting: “Tax them all, are wealthy!) Kurtz keeps insisting that, times that now amounts to plain old and those with more, tax even more!” despite the objections of his libertarian extortion—the more who can escape, the That’s just bunk. Tax them none, I pals, such a policy is only fair. The rich better. That is how it was with military say—and, if the taxman cannot be have more, so taking a lot more from conscription. (Come to think of it, quite stopped, do not condemn but instead them is fair, he thinks. a few who understood this about the applaud those who can skip out on this There is, of course, no end to the draft just don’t get it when the issue of nasty scheme of extortion. ambiguity and vagueness attendant on taxation comes up!) Evil, vicious policies discussions about fairness. Some rich need to be stopped; short of that, they Tibor R. Machan is a Hoover research folks may well have more important need to be escaped, dodged, and evaded. fellow at the Pacific Research Institute responsibilities than some poorer ones So, when the draft was in effect, it was a in San Francisco and a professor emeri and thus merit more dough. But never good thing to “unfairly” escape it. tus in the Department of Philosophy at mind—there is no sensible measure of Yes, Virginia, successful draft dodg Auburn University. He also holds the ers were right, and tax dodgers are as R.C. Hoiles Endowed Chair in Busi *Paul Kurtz, “The Principles of Fairness: Pro well. The rest of us are just unfortunate ness Ethics and Free Enterprise at the gressive Taxation,” FI October/November 2006. victims who aren’t managing to get out Argyros School of Business and Eco

help themselves. Radical libertarians would deny this. Many demand a flat tax with no pro- In Defense of gressivity whatever. Yet, paradoxically, many seek preferential treatment for certain classes of income, such as dividends and capital gains (now taxed Fairness at 15 percent); at the same time they oppose the minimum wage. These poli- s I read Tibor Machan’s assault the common defense, and providing vital on fairness, I rubbed my eyes services such as police, fire, and public “Tibor Machan . . . carica- A in disbelief. Surely he must be health. Some regulations are essential jesting; surely his tongue is in his cheek. in a democratic society, and appealing to tures the moral principle He caricatures the moral principle of fairness is eminently worthwhile. fairness, considering it a “minor virtue,” The free market for some is equiv- of fairness, considering while at the same time appealing to it in alent to the infallible “hidden hand of it a ‘minor virtue,’ while order to justify his opposition to the pro- God,” but it may not always promote gressive income tax. It is unfair, implies the general welfare. The Preamble to at the same time he Machan, to tax rich people on a progres the Constitution of the United States appeals to it in order to sive scale! Rich folks, he complains, are proclaims: “We the People of the United the “victims of taxation,” and this is “plain States, in order to form a more perfect justify his opposition to old extortion.” I grant that some may have union, establish justice, insure domes- the progressive income misused the fairness argument for trivi- tic tranquility, provide for the common al issues; nonetheless, it is a vital virtue defense, promote the general welfare, tax.” that is essential if we are to balance the and secure the blessings of liberty . . . scales of justice. do ordain and establish this Consti I have known Tibor a long time, and tution for the United States of America” cies are a form of regressive taxation. I can understand his fear of excessive (emphasis added). Indeed, virtually all I maintain that fairness is a widely government. He escaped from commu- democratic states in the world have in shared, common moral decency and nist Hungary; as a result, he has re place some form of progressive taxation that it is related to our sense of justice. belled against taxation and believes to achieve their goals. It is based upon (See John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A fervently in the free market. the premise that each person is entitled Restatement [Harvard University Press: Now, I agree that the free market to some equality of consideration. This Cambridge, 2001]). Machan’s indictment can be a powerful engine of economic is a vital principle of justice. Thus, a of fairness is especially unfortunate today growth. It is not, however, infallible. The child of a poor person has as much right for a compelling utilitarian reason: the government often has an important role to an education as a child of a rich per- United States is in danger of becoming an to play in fulfilling needs that the free son; progressive taxation helps the com- entrenched plutocracy because of unfair market does not—enforcing contracts, munity to redress disparities in income, tax policies. maintaining roads and bridges, ensuring and it seeks to help those who cannot I surely do not believe that the pro-

31 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 OP-ED

gressive tax should be confiscatory, as in the case of Terri Schiavo) or the deny the extension of opportunities as it was during the presidencies of bedroom; nor should it prohibit “the for the disadvantaged, would in effect Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Dwight right of privacy” and the right of indi- solidify an entrenched oligarchy in Eisenhower, when the wealthy had much viduals to choose their own lifestyles which a relatively small percentage of of their income confiscated. Moreover, I so long as they do not harm others. absentee aristocrats rule and a large think that there may be some justifica- Third, in regard to economic libertari- sector of the population is effectively tion for lower capital-gains taxation as anism, clearly we need to support the impoverished. an incentive to economic growth. But, free market but not in an absolutistic I find Tibor Machan’s dismissal of please, let us not discard even a moder- sense. I submit that some measure of the virtue of fairness shortsighted and ate form of progressive taxation. altruism and empathy for the needs of intemperate, and I plead for some sense The demand that estate taxes (the the disadvantaged should be encour- of justice in a free society where we so-called death tax) be entirely elim- aged. I consider politics based on greed need to respect both the blessings of inated is especially unwise, for many and self-interest alone morally wrong. liberty and an equality of concern. in a family’s second and third gener- My view combines libertarianism with ations may have inherited wealth and social justice. not earned their fortunes. These for- The recent efforts of the radical tunes, if exempt from taxation, are apt Right to privatize Social Security, to to compound and grow exponentially. Warren Buffett has argued that it is unfair for him to pay a lower tax rate on his dividends and capital gains than his secretary, who is taxed up to 35 percent on her “earned income.” A new book by Paul Krugman, The Aunt Vera Conscience of a Liberal (W. W. Norton, Felicia Nimue Ackerman 2007), points out that because of these exemptions, the top 1 percent of earners Aunt Vera seemed frail while I was growing up. have made substantial income gains in Every year, she had colds and laryngitis. recent years, whereas the middle class She could not swim. has seen its real income reduced. Dis She had allergies; parities in income and wealth are widen She could not enter our cat-filled home. ing. If such inequalities persist, there is grave danger to the future of democ- But, when I moved back to New Hampshire racy, which depends on a large middle After my divorce, class. Indeed, Krugman points out that I saw that my parents were aging; it is the richest .01 percent of Americans Aunt Vera was not. who have improved their economic sta- With a scarf over her gray hair, tus the most—sevenfold in the last few She could pass for thirty-five. decades—whereas middle-class Ameri For so long she was young, but now she is old. cans have barely increased their status. Her hair is white. We are confronted today with a Gilded Her eyes are cloudy. Plutocracy, a return to the pre-New Deal Her face is lined. age of disparity. Surely, Machan’s cava- Her fingers are gnarled. lier dismissal of such inequalities should not rest on his alleged case against She looks every day of eighty. fairness. One can make a moral case She is ninety-six. for the widest range of people sharing in the productive wealth of society, not Felicia Nimue Ackerman is a professor of philosophy at Brown primarily a small privileged group of University. Her research interests include philosophy in literature, bioethics, and moral psychology. Her current work people. focuses on philosophical themes in Malory and on the ethics I should point out that I support some of end-of-life issues. She also writes short stories, which have forms of libertarianism: first, in the po- appeared in Prize Stories 1990: The O. Henry Awards and in litical sphere, where civil liberties, free other venues, and poems, which have appeared in English elections, and an independent judicia- Studies Forum and elsewhere. ry should prevail. Second, in the moral domain: I defend the moral freedom of in-dividuals. The state should not legislate morality unduly; it should not inter- vene in the hospital room (for example,

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 32 Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy

he question I want to pose—perhaps as much to myself as to anyone else—is this: With well over a billion Muslims and extensive material resources, why is the Islamic world disengaged from science and the process of creating new knowledge?T (I am here using the fifty-seven countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference [OIC] as a proxy for the Islamic world.) It was not always this way. Islam’s magnificent Golden Age in the ninth to thirteenth centuries c.e. brought about major advances in mathematics, science, and medicine. The Arabic language held sway in an age that created algebra, elucidated principles of optics, established the body’s circulation of blood, named stars, and created universities. But with the end of that period, science in the Islamic world essentially collapsed. No major invention or discovery has emerged from the Muslim world for well over seven centuries now. That arrested scientific development is one important element— although by no means the only one—that contributes to the present marginalization of Muslims and a growing sense of injustice and victimhood.

33 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 Adapted with the permission of the author from Pervez Hoodbhoy, be roughly paraphrased as, “The Qur’an tells us how to go to “Science and the Islamic World—The Quest for Rapprochment,” Physics heaven, not how the heavens go.” That echoed Galileo, earlier Today, Volume 60, Issue 8, p. 49, 2007. Copyright 2007, American Institute in Europe. of Physics. The twentieth century witnessed the end of European colo- Such negative feelings must be checked before the gulf nial rule and the emergence of several new independent Muslim widens further. A bloody clash of civilizations, should it actu- states, all initially under secular national leaderships. A spurt ally transpire, will surely rank along with the two other most toward modernization and the acquisition of technology fol- dangerous challenges to life on our planet—climate change lowed. Many expected that a Muslim scientific renaissance would and nuclear proliferation. ensue. Clearly, it did not. First Encounters What Ails Science in the Muslim World? Islam’s encounter with science has had happy and unhappy Muslim leaders today, realizing that military power and eco- periods. There was no science in Arab culture in the initial nomic growth flow from technology, frequently call for speedy period of Islam, around 610 c.e. But as Islam established itself scientific development and a knowledge-based society. Often politically and militarily, its territory expanded. In the mid- that call is rhetorical, but in some Muslim countries—Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), Pakistan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Nigeria, among others—official patronage and funding for science and education have grown sharply in re Internal causes led to the decline of cent years. Enlightened individual rulers, including Sultan ibn Muhammad Al-Qasimi of Sharjah, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Islam’s scientific greatness long before of Qatar, and others have put aside some of their vast personal wealth for such causes. No Muslim leader has publicly called the era of mercantile imperialism. To for separating science from religion. contribute once again, Muslims must be Is boosting resource allocations enough to energize science, or are more fundamental changes required? Scholars of introspective and ask what went wrong. the nineteenth century, such as the pioneering sociologist Max Weber, claimed that Islam lacks an “idea system” critical for sustaining a scientific culture based on innovation, new experiences, quantification, and empirical verification. Fatalism and an orientation toward the past, they said, make progress eighth century, Muslim conquerors came upon the ancient difficult and even undesirable. treasures of Greek learning. Translations from Greek into In the current epoch of growing antagonism between the Arabic were ordered by liberal and enlightened caliphs, who Islamic and the Western worlds, most Muslims reject such filled their courts in Baghdad with visiting scholars from near charges with angry indignation. They feel those accusations and far. Politics was dominated by the rationalist Mutazilites, add yet another excuse for the West to justify its ongoing cul- who sought to combine faith and reason in opposition to their tural and military assaults on Muslim populations. Muslims rivals, the dogmatic Asharites. A generally tolerant and plural- bristle at any hint that Islam and science may be at odds, or istic Islamic culture allowed Muslims, Christians, and Jews to that some underlying conflict between Islam and science may create new works of art and science together. But over time, account for the slowness of progress. The Qur’an, being the the theological tensions between liberal and fundamentalist unaltered word of God, cannot be at fault: Muslims believe interpretations of Islam—such as on the issue of free will that if there is a problem, it must come from their inability to versus predestination—became intense and turned bloody. A properly interpret and implement the Qur’an’s divine instruc- resurgent religious orthodoxy eventually inflicted a crushing tions. defeat on the Mutazilites. Thereafter, the open-minded pursuits of philosophy, mathematics, and science were increas- In defending the compatibility of science and Islam, Mus ingly relegated to the margins of Islam. lims argue that Islam had sustained a vibrant intellectual A long period of darkness followed, punctuated by occasion- culture throughout the European Dark Ages—and thus, by al brilliant spots. In the sixteenth century, the Turkish Otto extension, is also capable of a modern scientific culture. The mans established an extensive empire with the help of military Pakistani Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Abdus Salam, would technology. But there was little enthusiasm for science and stress to audiences that one-eighth of the Qur’an is a call for new knowledge. In the nineteenth century, the European Muslims to seek Allah’s signs in the universe, and hence that Enlightenment inspired a wave of modernist Islamic reform- science is a spiritual as well as a temporal duty for Muslims. ers: Mohammed Abduh of Egypt, his follower Rashid Rida from Perhaps the most widely used argument one hears is that Syria, and their counterparts on the Indian subcontinent, such the Prophet Muhammad had exhorted his followers to “seek as Sayyid Ahmad Khan and Jamaluddin Afghani, exhorted knowledge even if it is in China,” which implies that a Muslim their fellow Muslims to accept ideas of the Enlightenment is duty-bound to search for secular knowledge. and the scientific revolution. Their theological position can Such arguments have been and will continue to be much debated, but they will not be pursued further here. Instead, let Pervez Hoodbhoy is chair and professor in the department us seek to understand the state of science in the contemporary of physics at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, Islamic world. First, to the degree that available data allows, I Pakistan, where he has taught for thirty-four years. will quantitatively assess the current state of science in Muslim countries. Then I will look at prevalent Muslim attitudes toward

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 34 science, technology, and modernity, with an eye toward iden- the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development tifying specific cultural and social practices that work against (OECD), whose thirty member nations encompass most of the progress. Finally, we can turn to the fundamental question: industrialized West. Forty-six Muslim countries contributed 1.17 What will it take to bring science back into the Islamic world? percent of the world’s science literature, whereas 1.66 percent came from India alone and 1.48 percent from Spain. Twenty Measuring Muslim Scientific Progress The metrics of scientific progress are neither precise nor unique. Science permeates our lives in myriad ways, means different things to different people, and has changed its con- “With well over a billion Muslims and tent and scope drastically over the course of history. In addition, the paucity of reliable and current data makes the task of extensive material resources, why is the assessing scientific progress in Muslim countries still harder. Islamic world disengaged from science I will use the following reasonable set of four metrics: • The quantity of scientific output, weighted by some reason- and the process of creating new knowl- able measure of relevance and importance; • The role played by science and technology in the national edge?” economies, funding for science and technology, and the size of the national scientific enterprises; • The extent and quality of higher education; and •The degree to which science is present or absent in popular Arab countries contributed 0.55 percent, compared with 0.89 culture. percent by Israel alone. The U.S. National Science Foundation Scientific Output records that of the twenty-eight lowest producers of scientific articles in 2003, half belong to the OIC. A useful, if imperfect, indicator of scientific output is the The situation may be even grimmer than the number of publi- number of published scientific research papers, together with cations, or perhaps even the citation counts, suggest. Assessing the citations that reference them. Table 1 shows the output the scientific worth of publications—never an easy task—is of the seven most scientifically productive Muslim countries complicated further by the rapid appearance of new internation- for physics papers, over the period from January 1, 1997, to al scientific journals that publish low-quality work. Many have February 28, 2007, together with the total number of publica- poor editorial policies and refereeing procedures. Scientists in tions in all scientific fields. A comparison with Brazil, India, many developing countries, under pressure to publish or attract- China, and the United States reveals significantly smaller ed by strong government incentives, choose to follow the path of numbers. A study by academics at the International Islamic least resistance paved for them by the increasingly commercial- University of Malaysia showed that OIC countries have 8.5 sci- ized policies of journals. Prospective authors know that editors entists, engineers, and technicians per 1,000 population, com- need to produce a journal of a certain thickness every month. In pared with a world average of 40.7, and 139.3 for countries of

Table 1. The Seven Most Scientifically Productive Islamic Countries as of Early 2007, Compared against a Selection of Other Countries

Physics Papers Physics Citations All Science Papers All Science Citations

Malaysia 690 1,685 11,287 40,925

Pakistan 846 2,952 7,934 26,958

Saudi Arabia 836 2,220 14,538 49,654

Morocco 1,518 5,332 9,979 35,011

Iran 2,408 9,385 25,400 76,467

Egypt 3,064 11,211 26,276 90,056

Turkey 5,036 21,798 88,438 299,808

Brazil 18,571 104,245 128,687 642,745

India 26,241 136,993 202,727 793,946

China 75,318 298,227 431,859 1,637,287

USA 201,062 2,332,789 2,732,816 35,678,385

These data are from the Philadelphia-based science information specialist, Thomson Scientific.

35 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 addition to considerable anecdotal evidence for these practices, National Scientific Enterprises there have been a few systematic studies. One such study found Conventional wisdom suggests that bigger science budgets that chemistry publications by Iranian scientists tripled in five indicate, or will induce, greater scientific activity. On average, years, from 1,040 in 1998 to 3,277 in 2003. Many scientific papers the fifty-seven OIC states spend an estimated 0.3 percent of that were claimed as original by their Iranian chemist authors, their gross national product on research and development, and which had been published in internationally peer-reviewed which is far below the global average of 2.4 percent. But the journals, had actually been published twice and sometimes trend toward higher spending is unambiguous. Rulers in the thrice with identical or nearly identical contents by the same U.A.E. and Qatar are building several new universities with authors. Others were plagiarized papers that could have been manpower imported from the West for both construction and easily detected by any reasonably careful referee. staffing. In June 2006, Nigeria’s president announced a plan The situation regarding patents is also discouraging: The to plow $5 billion of oil money into research and development. OIC countries produce negligibly few. According to official Iran increased its R&D spending dramatically, from a pittance statistics, Pakistan has produced only eight patents in the past in 1988 at the end of the Iraq-Iran war to a current level of forty-three years. 0.4 percent of its gross domestic product. Saudi Arabia an Islamic countries show a great diversity of cultures and nounced that it spent 26 percent of its development budget levels of modernization and a correspondingly large spread on science and education in 2006, and it sent five thousand in scientific productivity. Among the larger countries—in both students to U.S. universities on full scholarships. Pakistan set population and political importance—Turkey, Iran, Egypt, a world record by increasing funding for higher education and and Pakistan are the most scientifically developed. Among science by an immense 800 percent over the past five years. the smaller countries, such as the central Asian republics, But bigger budgets by themselves are not a panacea. The Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan rank considerably above Turk capacity to put those funds to good use is crucial. One deter- menistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Malaysia—a rather atypi mining factor is the number of available scientists, engineers, cal Muslim country with a 40 percent non-Muslim minority—is and technicians. Those numbers are low for OIC countries, much smaller than neighboring Indonesia but is nevertheless averaging around 400 to 500 per million people, while developed more productive. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the U.A.E., and countries typically lie in the range of 3,500 to 5,000 per million. other states that have many foreign scientists are scientifical- Even more important are these workers’ quality and level of pro- ly far ahead of other Arab states.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 36 ate institutions were in the top-200 list of the Times Higher Table 2. High-technology Exports as a Percentage of Education Supplement for 2006. No OIC university made the Total Manufactured Exports top-500 “Academic Ranking of World Universities” compiled Malaysia 58% Iran 2% by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. This state of affairs led the director general of the OIC to issue an appeal for at least Pakistan 1% Egypt 0% twenty OIC universities to be sufficiently elevated in quality to make the top-500 list. No action plan was specified, nor was Saudi Arabia 0% Turkey 2% the term quality defined. An institution’s quality is fundamental, but how is it to Morocco 11% be defined? Providing more infrastructure and facilities is These data are from the World Bank’s World important but not key. Most universities in Islamic countries Development Report 2006. have a starkly inferior quality of teaching and learning, a tenuous connection of curriculum to job skills, and research that fessionalism, which are less easily quantifiable. But increasing is low in both quality and quantity. Poor teaching owes more to funding without adequately addressing such crucial concerns can lead to a null correlation between scientific funding and “No major invention or discovery has performance. The role played by science in creating high technology is emerged from the Muslim world for an important science indicator. Comparing Table 1 with Table 2 shows there is little correlation between academic research well over seven centuries now. That papers and the role of science and technology in the national arrested scientific economies of the seven listed countries. The anomalous position of Malaysia in Table 2 has its explanation in the large direct development … contributes to the investment made by multinational companies and in having trading partners that are overwhelmingly non-OIC countries. present Although not apparent in Table 2, there are scientific marginalization of Muslims and a grow- areas in which research has paid off in the Islamic world. Agricultural research—which is relatively simple science— ing sense of injustice and victimhood.” provides one case in point. Pakistan has good results, for example, with new varieties of cotton, wheat, rice, and tea. Defense technology is another area in which many develop- inappropriate attitudes than to material resources. Generally, ing countries have invested, as they aim to both lessen their obedience and rote learning are stressed, and the authority of dependence on international arms suppliers and promote the teacher is rarely challenged. Debate, analysis, and class domestic capabilities. Pakistan manufactures nuclear weap discussions are infrequent. ons and intermediate-range missiles. There is now also a bur- Academic and cultural freedoms on campuses are highly geoning, increasingly export-oriented Pakistani arms industry restricted in most Muslim countries. At Quaid-i-Azam Uni that turns out a large range of weapons from grenades to versity in Islamabad, where I teach, the constraints are similar tanks, night-vision devices to laser-guided weapons, and small to those existing in most other Pakistani public-sector institu- submarines to training aircraft. Export earnings exceed $150 tions. This university serves the typical middle-class Pakistani million yearly. Although much of the production is a triumph of student and, according to the survey previously mentioned, reverse engineering rather than the fruit of original research ranks number two among OIC universities. Here as in other and development, there is clearly sufficient understanding of Pakistani public universities, films, drama, and music are the requisite scientific principles and a capacity to exercise frowned on; sometimes even physical attacks by student vig- technical and managerial judgment as well. Iran has followed ilantes who believe that such pursuits violate Islamic norms Pakistan’s example. take place. The campus has three mosques with a fourth one planned, but no bookstore. No Pakistani university, including Higher Education QAU, allowed Abdus Salam to set foot on its campus, although According to a recent survey, among the fifty-seven member he had received the Nobel Prize in 1979 for his role in formu- states of the OIC, there are approximately 1,800 universities. lating the standard model of particle physics. The Ahmedi sect Of those, only 312 publish journal articles. A ranking of the to which he belonged, and which had earlier been considered fifty most-published among them yields these numbers: twen- to be Muslim, had been officially declared heretical in 1974 by ty-six are in Turkey, nine in Iran, three each in Malaysia and the Pakistani government. Egypt, two in Pakistan, and one each in Uganda, the U.A.E., As intolerance and militancy sweep across the Muslim Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Kuwait, Jordan, and Azerbaijan. For world, personal and academic freedoms diminish with the the top twenty universities, the average yearly production rising pressure to conform. In Pakistani universities the veil of journal articles was about 1,500, a small but reasonable is now ubiquitous; the last few unveiled women students are number. However, on average each article is cited in less than under intense pressure to cover up. The head of the govern- one other article, a poor rate that may itself be optimistic, ment-funded mosque-cum-seminary in the heart of Islamabad, since the survey report does not state whether self-citations the nation’s capital, issued the following chilling warning to were excluded. There are fewer data available for comparing my university’s female students and faculty on his FM radio against universities worldwide. Two Malaysian undergradu- channel on April 12, 2007:

37 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 The government should abolish co-education. Quaid-i-Azam discovered astounding scientific facts, accurately described in University has become a brothel. Its female professors and the Muslim Holy Book and by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) students roam in objectionable dresses. . . . Sportswomen are spreading nudity. I warn the sportswomen of Islamabad 14 centuries ago.” Here one will find that everything from to stop participating in sports. . . . Our female students have quantum mechanics to black holes and genes was anticipated not issued the threat of throwing acid on the uncovered faces 1,400 years ago. of women. However, such a threat could be used for creating Science, in the view of fundamentalists, is principally seen the fear of Islam among sinful women. There is no harm in it. as valuable for establishing yet more proofs of God, proving There are far more horrible punishments in the hereafter for such women. the truth of Islam and the Qur’an, and showing that modern science would have been impossible but for Muslim discoveries. Antiquity alone seems to matter. One gets the impression that history’s clock broke down somewhere during the fourteenth century and that plans for repair are, at best, vague. In that “Most universities in Islamic countries all-too-prevalent view, science is not about critical thought and awareness, creative uncertainties, or ceaseless explorations. have Missing are Web sites or discussion groups dealing with the philosophical implications from the Islamic point of view of the a starkly inferior quality of teaching and theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, chaos theory, super- learning, a tenuous connection of cur- strings, stem cells, and other contemporary science issues. Similarly, in the mass media of Muslim countries, discus- riculum to job skills, and research that is sions on “Islam and science” are common and welcomed only to the extent that belief in the status quo is reaffirmed rather low in both quality and quantity.” than challenged. When the 2005 earthquake struck Pakistan, killing more than ninety thousand people, no major scientist in the country publicly challenged the belief, freely propagated through the mass media, that the quake was God’s punish- The imposition of the veil makes a difference. My colleagues ment for sinful behavior. Mullahs ridiculed the notion that and I share a common observation that over time most stu- science could provide an explanation; they incited their follow- dents—particularly veiled females—have largely lapsed into ers into smashing television sets, which had provoked Allah’s becoming silent note-takers, are increasingly timid, and are anger and hence the earthquake. As several class discussions less inclined to ask questions or take part in discussions. This showed, an overwhelming majority of my university’s science lack of self-expression and confidence leads to most Pakistani students accepted various divine-wrath explanations. university students, including those in their mid- or late-twen- ties, referring to themselves as boys and girls rather than as Why the Slow Development? men and women. Although the relatively slow pace of scientific development in Muslim countries cannot be disputed, many explanations can, Science and Religion Still at Odds and some common ones are plain wrong. Science is under pressure globally, and from every reli- For example, it is a myth that women in Muslim countries gion. As science becomes an increasingly dominant part of are largely excluded from higher education. In fact, the numbers human culture, its achievements inspire both awe and fear. are similar to those in many Western countries: The percentage Creationism and intelligent design, curbs on genetic research, of women in the university student body is 35 percent in Egypt, and beliefs in pseudoscience, parapsychology, UFOs, and 67 percent in Kuwait, 27 percent in Saudi Arabia, and 41 per- so on are some of its manifestations in the West. Religious cent in Pakistan, for just a few examples. In the physical scienc- conservatives in the United States have rallied against the es and engineering, the proportion of women enrolled is roughly teaching of Darwinian evolution. Extreme Hindu groups such similar to that in the United States. However, restrictions on as the Vishnu Hindu Parishad, which has called for ethnic the freedom of women leave them with far fewer choices, both cleansing of Christians and Muslims, have promoted various in their personal lives and for professional advancement after “temple miracles,” including one in which an elephantlike god graduation, relative to their male counterparts. is said to have miraculously come alive and started drinking The near-absence of democracy in Muslim countries is also milk. Some extremist Jewish groups also derive additional not an especially important reason for slow scientific develop- political strength from antiscience movements. For example, ment. It is certainly true that authoritarian regimes generally certain American cattle tycoons have for years been working deny freedom of inquiry or dissent, cripple professional societ- with Israeli counterparts to try to breed a pure red heifer in ies, intimidate universities, and limit contacts with the outside Israel, which, by their interpretation of chapter 19 of the Book world. But no Muslim government today, even if dictatorial or of Numbers, will signal the coming of the building of the Third imperfectly democratic, remotely approximates the terror of Temple, an event that would ignite the Middle East. Hitler or Joseph Stalin—regimes in which science survived In the Islamic world, opposition to science in the public and could even advance. arena takes additional forms. Antiscience materials have Another myth is that the Muslim world rejects new technol- an immense presence on the Internet, with thousands of ogy. It does not. In earlier times the orthodox had resisted new elaborately designed Islamic Web sites, some of whose view inventions such as the printing press, loudspeaker, and penicil- counters indicate hundreds of thousands of “hits.” A typical lin, but such rejection has all but vanished. The ubiquitous cell and frequently visited one has the following banner: “Recently phone, that ultimate space-age device, epitomizes the surpris-

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 38 ingly quick absorption of black-box technology into Islamic culture. For example, while driving in Islamabad, it would occasion no surprise if you were to receive an urgent SMS (short message service) requesting immediate prayers for helping Pakistan’s cricket team win a match. Popular new Islamic cell-phone models now provide the exact GPS-based direction for Muslims to face while praying, certified translations of the Qur’an, and step- by-step instructions for performing the pilgrimages of Haj and Umrah. Digital Qur’ans are already popular, and prayer rugs with microchips (for counting bend-downs during prayers) have made their debut. Some relatively more plausible reasons for the slow scientific development of Muslim countries have been offered. First, even though a handful of rich oil-producing Muslim countries have extravagant incomes, most are fairly poor and thus in the Muslim scholars and doctors attend the first “Conference for Healing with the same boat as other developing countries. Indeed, the OIC aver- Koran—Between Religion and Medicine” in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi, April 12, 2007. Tired of seeing their religion accused of obscurantism, Muslim doctors, age for per capita income is significantly less than the global scholars, and exorcists declared war on charlatans and recommended healers to average. Second, the inadequacy of traditional Islamic lan- work alongside doctors in a scientific way. (AFP/Getty Images) guages—Arabic, Persian, Urdu—is an important contributory reason. About 80 percent of the world’s scientific literature appears first in English, and few traditional languages in the developing world have adequately adapted to new linguistic demands. With the exceptions of Iran and Turkey, translation “Academic and cultural freedoms on rates are small. According to a 2002 United Nations report written by Arab intellectuals and released in Cairo, Egypt, campuses are highly restricted in “The entire Arab world translates about 330 books annually, one-fifth the number that Greece translates.” The report adds most Muslim countries.” that in the one thousand years since the reign of the caliph Maa’moun, the Arabs have translated as many books as Spain translates in just one year. such a mindset in a society in which absolute authority comes It’s the Thought that Counts from above, questions are asked only with difficulty, the pen- But the still deeper reasons are attitudinal, not material. At alties for disbelief are severe, the intellect is denigrated, and a the base lies the yet-unresolved tension between traditional certainty exists that all answers are already known and must and modern modes of thought and social behavior. only be discovered. That assertion needs explanation. No grand dispute, such Science finds every soil barren in which miracles are taken as between Galileo and Pope Urban VIII, is holding back the literally and seriously and revelation is considered to provide clock. Bread-and-butter science and technology requires learn authentic knowledge of the physical world. If the scientific ing complicated but mundane rules and procedures that place method is trashed, no amount of resources or loud declara- no strain on any reasonable individual’s belief system. A tions of intent to develop science can compensate. In those bridge engineer, robotics expert, or microbiologist can cer- circumstances, scientific research becomes, at best, a kind tainly be a perfectly successful professional without ponder- of cataloguing or “butterfly-collecting” activity. It cannot be a ing profound mysteries of the universe. Truly fundamental creative process of genuine inquiry in which bold hypotheses and ideology-laden issues confront only that tiny minority are made and checked. of scientists who grapple with cosmology, indeterminacy Religious fundamentalism is always bad news for science. in quantum mechanical and chaotic systems, neuroscience, But what explains its meteoric rise in Islam over the past half human evolution, and other such deep topics. Therefore, century? In the mid-1950s, all Muslim leaders were secular; one could conclude that developing science is only a matter secularism within Islam was growing. What changed? Here of setting up enough schools, universities, libraries, and the West must accept its share of responsibility for reversing laboratories, and purchasing the latest scientific tools and the trend. Iran under Mohammed Mossadeq, Indonesia under equipment. Ahmed Sukarno, and Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser are But the above reasoning is superficial and misleading. examples of secular but nationalist governments that want- Science is fundamentally an idea-system that has grown ed to protect their national wealth. Western imperial greed, around a sort of skeleton wire frame—the scientific method. however, subverted and overthrew them. At the same time, The deliberately cultivated scientific habit of mind is manda- conservative oil-rich Arab states—such as Saudi Arabia—that tory for successful work in all science and related fields where exported extreme versions of Islam were U.S. clients. The critical judgment is essential. Scientific progress constantly fundamentalist Hamas organization was helped by Israel in demands that facts and hypotheses be checked and rechecked, its fight against the secular Palestine Liberation Organization and is unmindful of authority. But there lies the problem: the as part of a deliberate Israeli strategy in the 1980s. Perhaps scientific method is alien to traditional, unreformed religious most important, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan thought. Only the exceptional individual is able to exercise in 1979, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency armed the

39 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 fiercest and most ideologically charged Islamic fighters and His research found that 83 percent of Jews were “morons”—a brought them from distant Muslim countries into Afghanistan, term he popularized to describe the feeble-minded—and he thus helping to create an extensive globalized jihadi network. went on to suggest that they should be used for tasks requiring Today, as secularism continues to retreat, Islamic fundamen- an “immense amount of drudgery.” That ludicrous bigotry war- talism fills the vacuum. rants no further discussion, beyond noting that the powerful have always created false images of the weak. How Science Can Return to the Islamic Progress will require behavioral changes. If Muslim societies World are to develop technology instead of just using it, the ruthlessly In the 1980s, an imagined “Islamic science” was posed as an competitive global marketplace will insist not only on high skill alternative to “Western science.” The notion was widely prop- levels but also intense social work habits. The latter are not easi- agated and received support from governments in Pakistan, ly reconcilable with religious demands made on a fully observant Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and elsewhere. Muslim ideologues in the Muslim’s time, energy, and mental concentration: The faithful United States announced that a new science was about to be must participate in five daily congregational prayers, endure a built on lofty moral principles such as tawheed (unity of God), month of fasting that taxes the body, recite daily from the Qur’an, ibadah (worship), khilafah (trusteeship), and rejection of and more. Although such duties orient believers admirably well zulm (tyranny), and that revelation rather than reason would toward success in the life hereafter, they make worldly success be the ultimate guide to valid knowledge. Others took as literal less likely. A more balanced approach will be needed. statements of scientific fact verses from the Qur’an that relat- Science can prosper among Muslims once again, but only with a willingness to accept certain basic philosophical and attitudinal changes—a Weltanschauung [worldview] that shrugs off the dead hand of tradition, rejects fatalism and absolute belief in authority, accepts the legitimacy of temporal laws, values intellectual rigor and scientific honesty, “Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad . and respects cultural and personal freedoms. The struggle to . . has three mosques with a fourth one usher in science will have to go side-by-side with a much wider campaign to elbow out rigid orthodoxy and bring in modern planned, but no bookstore.” thought, arts, philosophy, democracy, and pluralism. Respected voices among believing Muslims see no incom- patibility between the above requirements and true Islam as they understand it. For example, Abdolkarim Soroush, described as Islam’s Martin Luther, was handpicked by ed to descriptions of the physical world. Those attempts led Ayatollah Khomeini to lead the reform of Iran’s universities in to many elaborate and expensive Islamic science conferences the early 1980s. His efforts led to the introduction of modern around the world. Some scholars calculated the temperature analytical philosophers such as Karl Popper and Bertrand of Hell, others the chemical composition of heavenly djinnis. Russell into the curricula of Iranian universities. Another None produced a new machine or instrument, conducted an influential modern reformer is Abdelwahab Meddeb, a Tuni experiment, or even formulated a single testable hypothesis. sian who grew up in France. Meddeb argues that as early A more pragmatic approach, which seeks promotion of reg- as the middle of the eighth century, Islam had produced the ular science rather than Islamic science, is pursued by institu- premises of the Enlightenment, and that between 750 and 1050, tional bodies such as COMSTECH (Committee on Scientific and Muslim authors made use of an astounding freedom of thought Technological Cooperation), which was established by the OIC’s in their approach to religious belief. In their analyses, says Med Islamic Summit in 1981. It joined the IAS (Islamic Academy of deb, they bowed to the primacy of reason, honoring one of the Sciences) and ISESCO (Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cul basic principles of the Enlightenment. tural Organization) in serving the ummah (the global Muslim In the quest for modernity and science, internal struggles community). But a visit to the Web sites of those organizations continue within the Islamic world. Progressive Muslim forces reveals that over two decades, the combined sum of their activ- have recently been weakened, but not extinguished, as a conse- ities amounts to sporadically held conferences on disparate quence of the confrontation between Muslims and the West. On subjects, a handful of research and travel grants, and small an ever-shrinking globe, there can be no winners in that conflict: sums for repair of equipment and spare parts. It is time to calm the waters. We must learn to drop the pursuit One almost despairs. Will science never return to the of narrow nationalist and religious agendas, both in the West Islamic world? Shall the world always be split between those and among Muslims. In the long run, political boundaries should who have science and those who do not, with all the attendant and can be treated as artificial and temporary, as shown by the consequences? successful creation of the European Union. Just as important, the Bleak as the present looks, that outcome does not have practice of religion must be a matter of choice for the individual, to prevail. History has no final word, and Muslims do have a not enforced by the state. This leaves secular humanism, based on chance. One need only remember how the Anglo-American common sense and the principles of logic and reason, as our only elite perceived the Jews as they entered the United States at reasonable choice for governance and progress. Being scientists, the opening of the twentieth century. Academics such as Henry we understand this easily. The task is to persuade those who do Herbert Goddard, the well-known eugenicist, described Jews not. in 1913 as “a hopelessly backward people, largely incapable of adjusting to the new demands of advanced capitalist societies.” Further Reading

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 40 Chinese Calligraphy for the word world.

erhaps the most for “harmony,” though derived from significant global Confucius, is an important part of developments of Chinese policy today. We convened in Pthe past two decades have been the huge, newly refurbished Beijing Friend the rise of China (and Asia), the rel- ship Hotel in a conference auditorium in which Chair ative decline of Europe and Russia, man Mao had himself spoken in 1950. and the weakening of America’s pow This Congress was the culmination of some twenty er and influence in the world. These years of interchange that the Center for Inquiry and realities were vividly demonstrated during its affiliated organizations have carried forward with the Eleventh World Congress of Centers for representatives of CAST and CRISP, both nongovern- Inquiry in Beijing, China, hosted by the new mental organizations. Over the years, several dozen Center for Inquiry/Beijing in October 2007. This Chinese officials and students have participated in the Congress was cosponsored by a wide range of Chinese Summer Institute of the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, and institutions, including the Chinese Association for Science and we have welcomed Chinese colleagues to our World Congresses. Technology (CAST), the Chinese Research Institute for the We have also sent four delegations to China—the first in 1988, Popularization of Science (CRISP), and various universities when six skeptics toured the country evaluating paranormal and institutes. claims. These contacts with China have continued. I was accompanied to the Congress by David Koepsell and What I found so astonishing in my most recent visit to Barry Karr, respectively executive directors of the Council for China in October 2007 was the incredible economic and social Secular Humanism and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, progress that China has made. We visited four cities (Beijing, both based at the Center for Inquiry/Transnational in Amherst, Shanghai, Xi’an, and Guilan) and were able to compare China New York; and Kendrick Frazier, the editor of the Skeptical as it was twenty years ago to China today. The cities have Inquirer. Our delegation included an additional fifteen scien- been modernized at a rapid rate, transformed by a building tists, many of them Laureates of the International Academy boom of breathtaking proportions. of Humanism, such as Murray Gell-Mann (Nobel Laureate), The dazzling new National Center for the Performing Arts Daniel Dennett (philosopher), Jean-Claude Pecker (French in Beijing, containing an opera house, concert hall, and the- astronomer), Lionel Tiger (anthropologist), and Sir Harold ater with the most up-to-date acoustics, is touted as the larg- Kroto (Nobel Laureate). Some five hundred Chinese scientists, est in the world. And the more than 2,000 new skyscrapers in officials, and students took part in the Congress, and more Shanghai compete with Manhattan for sheer audacity. than seventy papers were read. The theme of the Congress The World Congress enabled us to talk at length with many was “Scientific Inquiry and a Harmonious Society.” The quest people—professors and students, party officials and ordinary folk—about the prospects and problems confronting China. Paul Kurtz is chair of the Center for Inquiry/Transnational. We have agreed to continue our exchanges in the future

41 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 was open to tourists, and we visited an exotic Muslim business quarter where merchants displayed endless wares. We met the former editor and founder of Science and Atheism, Dr. Du Jiwen, and we conversed extensively with editors and researchers of the Chinese Society for Atheism. Dr. Du delivered an address at the Congress, saying that he believed in religious freedom, and this meant the right to believe or not believe. Religious believers, he assured everyone, have the right to practice their beliefs. There even has been talk of a rapprochement of sorts between the Vatican and Beijing. The Communist government had been appointing China’s Catholic bishops, a privilege the Vatican reserves to itself, but the government stance seems to be softening at present. Even so, the Chinese have not forgotten the fact that nineteenth- and twentieth-century Western missionaries The city of just twenty years ago is unrecognizable in today’s dazzling skyline tried to covert the populace, which they identify with colonial of Shanghai. exploitation. Meanwhile, the government has announced and to expand them, for we found them mutually productive. that visiting teams to the 2008 Olympic Games in China will be given every encouragement to practice their faiths and Of special interest, no doubt, to readers of Free Inquiry is the fact that China is officially an atheist country. Over the hold the religious services they prefer. China’s government years we have met key officials of the Chinese Atheist Society, is attempting to display a positive attitude toward religious freedom before the world. founded in 1979. Though it was dormant for many years, it has One group that troubles the authorities is the Falun Gong. been revived. This society publishes an academic journal, Sci This movement sprung up in China in 1992 and has apparently ence and Atheism, which has a circulation of about four thou- spread worldwide. First introduced by Li Hongzhii as “a method sand specialists and has republished many articles from Free of mind-body cultivation,” it is, in part, a form of relaxation Inquiry. China has a long history of disparaging religion and its that is sometimes called internal Qigong. This is naturalistic practitioners, not just under communism but reaching into the and can be evaluated empirically. Another form is known as ancient Confucian past. As for the Communist Party, it adopted external Qigong, the claimed capacity to transmit energy from Marxist atheism, viewing religious beliefs and practices as out- a master who claims extraordinary powers. This is considered dated, a form of prescientific superstition. Even today it regards metaphysical and paranormal. The government considers religious monks and gurus as charlatans who bilk a gullible pub the Falun Gong a cult and a threat to the state. Hence, it was lic. Theism has never been a major force in Chinese history; so banned in 1999 over protests that members’ rights were violat- atheism in the Western sense does not strictly apply. Nonethe ed. Some estimates maintain that Falun Gong claims 70 to 100 less, our Chinese hosts made clear that they reject all gods, the million devotees in China; that is no doubt an exaggeration. supernatural, and the notion of heaven. The government still considers Falun Gong a pseudoreligious The Chinese Communist government has not suppressed and superstitious cult that undermines its encouragement of religion (as did the Soviets), provided it remain confined to science. its own domain. China has never suffered religious warfare In our many meetings with the Chinese, we have attempted as has been experienced in the West. Buddhism and Taoism to introduce the principles of secular humanism. Like athe- have many humanistic strains; monotheism or belief in eternal ism, secular humanism is surely nonreligious, but it emphasizes salvation have never been characteristic of Chinese religion. humanistic values. Related to humanism, of course, is its The Chinese are a pragmatic people, and the precepts of commitment to democracy and human rights and the need for Confucianism were based on prudence as tested in practice. the open society, freedom of conscience, and civil liberties. It is true that Mao expelled foreign missionaries when he The ethical aspect of secular humanism emphasizes the culti- came to power, considering them seditious, and during the vation of virtue and personal happiness; considerable interest Cultural Revolution the Red Guards destroyed many temples was expressed in this at the Congress. and religious artifacts. But the widespread reforms of Deng A principal concern of the Congress was how to raise public Xiaoping adopted in 1979 expressed a more tolerant attitude appreciation for the scientific method and its naturalistic cosmic toward religion, so long as it confines itself to private matters perspective. The Chinese are expending a large percentage of and does not seek political power. In addition, many forms the national budget on science and technology, and so they are of folk religion are apparently practiced in rural areas as in keenly interested in raising the level of scientific literacy. Support olden days, including ancestor worship. Meanwhile, one can for research is high on their development agenda. (Incidentally, see Buddhist and Taoist monks performing rituals and chants Dr. Ren Fujun, director of CFI/Beijing, expressed interest in a at historic temples; but these are like relics of an ancient past new graduate program that the Center for Inquiry is offering in the bustle of present-day Chinese urban life. in cooperation with the State University of New York at Buffalo Some tolerance has been extended to Christian bodies. titled “Science and the Public,” which is available online.) Roman Catholics and Protestant churches are recognized, as is China is governed by the Chinese Communist Party, which Islam. Western media have made much about a religious reviv- holds the preponderance of power, controls the military and al in China. We did not see much evidence of this on our brief police, and dominates the media—indeed, all public sources of trip, though we did visit a historic Islamic mosque in Xi’an that information. Yet, China is a mixed economy, and the state has

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 42 Ren Fujun (far left), director of CFI/Beijing, opens a session of the Beijing Congress. Seated panelists, left to right: Qin Dahe, former director of the Chinese National Meteorological Administration; Nobel Laureate and Academy of Humanism Laureate Murray Gell-Mann; Cheng Donghong, secretary general of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology (CAST); Paul Kurtz, cochair of the Congress; Lin Zixin, former editor of Science and Technology Daily and critic of Qigong; and Academy of Humanism Laureate Daniel C. Dennett. encouraged the emergence of a new class of wealthy entrepre- manufacturing and construction and have seen their incomes rise, neurs who enjoyed the latitude to set up factories and engage in but the leaders recognize that this prosperity needs to be extended real estate and stock market speculation. In addition, they have to the countryside. This disparity in income is similar to what has allowed people to open private shops across the country. Thus been happening in the United States, though much of China is still capitalism is a dominant strand in Chinese life. Today, China backward, and per capita income is comparatively low. is the fourth-largest economy in the world; it expects in less The Chinese participants in the World Congress talked than a decade to become number two, after the United States. much about the need to go “green.” Development, they agreed, Its dynamism is a result of its free-market economy, which was must be sustainable. They also recognize the need to increase encouraged by Premier Deng Xiaoping, liberating China from supplies of consumer goods and services in the poorer parts of the Marxist-Leninist ideology with its central planning. the country. Their goal is to enable all Chinese to lead “a rea- China’s GNP keeps expanding, but with this has come problems sonably comfortable life” by 2020—a very ambitious one indeed. of environmental degradation, depletion of natural resources, and They also say that their hope is to develop a more dem- pollution of air and water supplies. China’s leaders are deeply ocratic society in which the universal humanistic values of worried about global warming. Another problem for China is “freedom, dignity, equality, and justice” will prevail. Whether population growth. China has added 250 million people since this goal is achieved remains to be seen. But we were encour- the year 1980, and it will add 300 million in the next twenty-five aged by their great economic progress and hope that it will be years. This is despite the country’s one-child policy and other complimented by political progress in human rights as well. strict efforts to limit births. Population growth has nonetheless In conclusion, I should point out that the relationship continued, driven by the decline of the death rate—longevity has between the Center for Inquiry and its Chinese counterpart increased from thirty-five years to seventy-two years in the has been cordial. It is based on a nongovernmental inter- past four decades. Credit the development of public sanitation, change between scientists and educators. One hopes that the improved health care, and an increase in the food supply—the ideological controversies of the past have passed, and that the Chinese are very proud of their discovery of a new strain of world community is receptive to a new level of amity and civil- hybrid rice by Professor Ylan Longfing, which has enabled them ity. The Chinese have opened their society to the world for to increase food production significantly. trade and commerce—and to new ideas. We are pleased that A disquieting development in China today is the disparity the Center for Inquiry in Beijing has had an auspicious inau- in incomes between a still-impoverished peasantry and a new guration and that there is strong interest in opening still other class of very wealthy millionaires and billionaires. Perhaps 150 Centers in other cities, such as Shanghai. With great anticipa- to 200 million Chinese living in urban centers are involved in tion we look forward to the results of future cooperation.

43 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 Can We (Part 1) The Changes Required to Deal Effectively with Global Warming Stephen Paley, George K. Oister, and Richard T. Hull

our significant and interconnected physical problems are likely to reach critical stages over the next two decades. They are: F • Global warming and environmental degradation • Depletion of key resources including oil, gas and potable water • Pollution caused by use of fossil fuels with current technologies • A world population that has grown beyond Earth’s carrying capacity (which exacerbates the first three problems)

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 44 Keeping these problems within tolerable limits will require sions turn to energy technologies. Practical energy technolo- defining the actions that must be taken and the sequence in gies must also have a high “energy gain.” Energy gain ratio is which they must be taken, followed by rapid deployment of the the energy obtained by say, burning a gallon of gasoline, com- largest set of integrated, knowledge-based changes the world pared to the energy expended to obtain that gallon. “Energy has ever seen. Included in these changes is the deployment expended,” in this case, includes that required to drill, proof certain “survival” technologies. Much of this article will duce, transport, and refine the oil and also the energy (pro-rat- discuss fundamental impediments to their creation, adoption, ed) required to make pipes, erect oil-drilling platforms, con- and deployment. struct refineries, and so forth. For other forms of energy, such The compartmentalization of knowledge, along with vari- as electricity generated by wind power, we similarly need to ous cultural, economic, and business realities, has created a compare the total energy generated by a wind turbine over its severely limited understanding of the changes necessary for lifetime with the energy needed to mine the metals, forge the our survival, and has also delayed implementation of those blades, build the generator and the support structure of the changes. These realities are: turbine, and other factors requiring the expenditure of energy. • Economic self-interest Unless all of these parameters are favorable, the technologies • Profit motive as the sole determinant of action upon which we depend for our survival will at some point fail us. • Lack of appropriate institutions to promote and manage the Finally, we must be certain that in regions where climate required changes change is most evident, the resources that proposed survival • Limitations on the range of practical solutions that experts technologies will require are not depleted by climate change. can create, often imposed by their own specializations For example, a recent summer drought in Western Europe • Limitations associated with (nonexpert) decision makers diminished the water supplies needed to cool nuclear reactors. who formulate decisions that require expert knowledge Consequently, reactor power levels (and the electricity they We suggest that an institution be created and designed to generate) had to be reduced, which led to strain on the power orchestrate solutions to the first three of the four problems supply and limited the availability of air conditioning that used above. The institution’s role regarding the fourth, overpop- reactor-generated electricity. This, in turn, resulted in the death ulation, would be to promote understanding of the need for of several thousand elderly people who could not adjust to the population reduction as necessary for human survival and sudden heat stress that they had to endure. Thus, the water- to help create improved birth-control technology that might cooled nuclear reactor must not be considered a future survival make that possible. technology in any region susceptible to permanent freshwater shortages, unless the reduced water supply can be replaced in The Nature of Survival Technologies a practical manner. And freshwater shortages are occurring all over the world. The fact that these basic physical problems are coupled Australia is presently suffering the worst drought in its his- together renders the creation of survival technologies exceed- tory; a significant portion of its crops have failed. There has ingly difficult and not always achievable by those possessing a been speculation that the drought is due to global warming narrow range of specialized knowledge. By “survival technol- and may represent a permanent climate change. Such a change ogies,” we mean those that are sustainable and provide to a may result in the need to relocate up to six million people, but significant extent for: no one has suggested where. • Human needs for energy, fresh water, and population reduc- Some areas that grow much of the world’s food are pre- tion dicted to become hotter and drier due to global warming • Reduced human impact upon the environment and potentially reduced precipitation. In North America, this • Restricted global warming to within tolerable limits includes the American Midwest, Southwest, and far West. In • Facilitation of adjustment to the negative environmental the future, these regions may no longer be able to support changes caused by global warming high-yield agriculture because of a lack of water. In addition Survival technologies must be sparing in their use of nonre- to less precipitation, agriculture in the Midwest and South newable resources, and must perform without producing much Central region of the United States is threatened by the pollution or harming the environment. The wish list of survival approaching depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer. Much of the technology characteristics calls for them to be robust, relatively West and Southwest, including parts of California, gets 80 low-cost, rapidly deployable if possible, and compatible with percent of its water from mountain snowmelt runoff, which is existing infrastructure. As shorthand, we will refer to a survival already in sharp decline because of global warming. technology exhibiting these characteristics as “practical.” What water is left behind is increasingly diverted to grow- But even this formidable list is incomplete when discus- ing cities, which compete with agriculture for this vital re Stephen Paley is a physicist, and George K. Oister, who source. For example, most of the water in California’s Imperial died while this article was being prepared, was an elec- Valley, formerly a major producer of fruits and vegetables, tronics engineer. They spent most of their professional has been transferred to cities in Southern California. Imperial careers in research, development, and technical manage- Valley farmland is being converted to housing developments ment for multinational corporations, defense contractors, that have less need for water. Thus, what was once a major and small high-tech companies, at which they contributed food-producing area is in now in the process of being perma- to the development of several important new technologies. nently transformed. Richard Hull, trained as a philosopher, has participated The survival technology that could enable humans to have in the development of some technologies with Paley and adequate supplies of water and maintain food production would Oister, chiefly as an investor. be a practical, extremely low-cost, energy-conserving method

45 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 of desalinating vast quantities of ocean water. As though rapid increase of greenhouse gases in the Another example of a survival technology, one that would atmosphere and irreversible environmental damage were not enable population reduction, would be an injection that ren- threatening enough, even more disturbing is the prospect that ders humans sterile until another counteracting shot is admin- global warming might become self-sustaining. As Earth’s istered. The wide adoption of such a technology would slow temperature rises due to additional warming, the rate at which population growth so that human numbers could be stabilized some natural sources inject greenhouse gases into the atmo- or even reduced below present levels. sphere also increases. This, in turn, increases the Earth’s temperature even further, further accelerating the rate at which Why Global Warming Requires Immediate natural sources of greenhouse gases enter the atmosphere. Such Deployment of ‘First-round’ Survival processes, well known to physicists are characterized as hav- Technologies ing “undamped positive feedback upon the input.” They are Normally, we like solid proof of potential outcomes before common in nature and represent potential sources of unstable acting on major issues. But some aspects of global warming equilibria that, if pushed too far, could continue to spontaneous- require us to compromise this principle. Global warming is a ly drive environmental changes beyond the limits humans can critical problem that, if it becomes pronounced enough, will tolerate. put mankind’s future on the planet in doubt. Given that threat, If tipping points are reached at which natural sources certain aspects of global warming must be addressed before of greenhouse gases continue to increase and are self-sustaining, then the biggest contributor to additional global warming will be global warming itself. Although there is “The survival technology that could great uncertainty in global-warming models as to how fast such effects will develop, consider the following three exam- enable humans to have adequate sup- ples of positive feedback of greenhouse gases. plies of water and maintain food pro- The small amount of global warming that has now occurred is causing permafrost, a layer of earth frozen since the last duction would be a practical, extremely ice age, to begin melting. (One continuous area of permafrost low-cost, energy-conserving method in Asia is larger than the areas of France and Germany combined.) Permafrost contains large quantities of the greenhouse of desalinating vast quantities of ocean gases methane and carbon dioxide, which are released when water.” the permafrost melts. This contributes to global warming, which, in turn, contributes to more rapid melting of perma frost, and so forth. A second example relates to the recent discovery that soil 100 percent certainty of cause and effect has been established. is a depository for carbon dioxide. The small amount of global One such aspect involves the quantity of greenhouse gases in warming that has occurred has increased the rate at which soil the atmosphere and their rate of increase and the potential for emits the gas. England has reduced its carbon dioxide output global warming to become self-sustaining. from manmade sources more than any other nation. Even so, It is accurate to describe the advance of global warming as by the end of 2006, the amount of additional carbon dioxide already out of control. Recently published data for the years emitted by English soil due to global warming slightly exceeded 2000 through 2004 show an astonishing average annual rate the total amount saved by all emissions cuts made in England of increase in carbon dioxide emissions of 3.2 percent—four up to that time. As far as future emissions cuts are concerned, times the annual rate of increase of 0.8 percent during the England has already made all those that are technologically 1990s.* The worst case of six scenarios published by the easy to achieve. Globally, soil may now be supplying as much Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), predict- as 30 percent of the carbon dioxide that enters the atmosphere. ing a 6.1°C increase in temperature over pre-industrial levels, A third serious example currently under discussion is the has already been exceeded. possible future release of loosely bound methane from our The time during which humankind can hold global warming oceans. The ice covering the Arctic Ocean, for example, will to tolerable limits may be short: among three thousand climate essentially disappear within thirty years. Melting ice absorbs researchers who participated in a recently ended five-year heat without causing a temperature rise and, hence, may cur- international study of global warming, a common, privately rently be retarding temperature increases in the Arctic Ocean. held view is that the time left is shorter than ten years.** That But, after the ice is gone, the ocean’s temperature will begin is not to say that global warming will be full-blown within a to rise. Also contributing to the rise in ocean temperature will decade, but rather that progressive and irreversible effects be replacement of the ice on the surface of the ocean by water: will by then be locked in and beyond humans’ ability to mod- ice reflects 90 percent of the light falling upon it, but ocean erate sufficiently. water absorbs 90 percent of that light and changes it into heat. At the bottom of the ocean is a solid form of the greenhouse gas methane, in the form of hydrates which are very tem- *Steve Connor, “Global Growth in Carbon Emissions Is ‘Out of Control,’” The Independent/UK, November 11, 2006. Accessed on perature sensitive. If the temperature of ocean-bottom water December 2, 2007, at http://www.commondreams.com. increases sufficiently, methane will be released and enter the atmosphere. Molecule for molecule, methane is twenty times **Private communications from three Intergovernmental Panel on as efficient as carbon dioxide in promoting greenhouse warm- Climage Change (IPCC) climate researchers. ing. And there is a lot of it—ten trillion tons, much more than

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 46 all of the oil and coal on Earth. The last time ocean-bottom earn a profit without their products conforming to the many methane was released (some fifty million years ago), most requirements of a survival technology—a major reason for organisms had a very hard time maintaining their existence; our current environmental crisis. Profit motive alone does not higher forms tended to die out. guarantee that fundamental technologies in the field of energy These and other examples suggest that both manmade will be survival technologies, and the companies that develop and natural sources of greenhouse gases must be addressed them often do not have the knowledge, internal mandate, or immediately. It doesn’t matter what percentage of carbon organizational structure to develop them as such. dioxide comes from human-made versus natural sources; • The economic benefits of some technologies are partitioned we know enough about the carbon cycle to know the ending among different groups so that these benefits cannot be con- (human extinction, along with that of much of the biosphere) solidated on a single balance sheet. Solar cells, for example, if we allow atmospheric carbon dioxide to continue increasing would have looked much more economically attractive de at its present rate. Worse yet, this rate appears to be acceler- cades ago if the economic benefits associated with their lack ating. of pollution could have appeared on the balance sheets of the In principle, two approaches are available to us. One would organizations that purchased them. be the use of various techniques to reduce the output of some natural sources—difficult because most natural sources are distributed over large areas. The other approach would be to employ “. . . by the end of 2006, the amount of a practical survival technology that would remove and sequester greenhouse gases after they enter the atmosphere, irrespective additional carbon dioxide emitted by of whether they come from manmade or natural sources. English soil due to global warming In our opinion, the capture and long-term sequestration of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere is the most import- slightly exceeded the total amount ant emergency measure that can be taken to cope with such fundamental problems as environmental destruction, global saved by all emissions cuts made in warming, population increase, conventional methods of ener- England up to that time.” gy generation and use, replacement of planted areas by concrete and asphalt, and so on. But it is an emergency measure analogous to placing a human patient on a heart-lung machine to keep him or her alive long enough to fix fundamental prob- But other significant impediments may be less familiar. lems. As such, we cannot rely upon capture and sequestration There are specific skills, different from those of basic research of atmospheric carbon, or other purely compensating tech- and germane to creating first-round survival technologies, that niques, by using them to avoid dealing with basic causes while are almost extinct. Changes have occurred in multinationals, we continue life as usual. defense contractors, and government labs that make it almost Many of the necessary changes and technologies, however, impossible for these alternative development skills to be utilized will require more time than we have left to contain global within these organizations to create survival technologies. warming. A conceptual solution is to immediately deploy cer- The culture of freedom and flexibility prevalent in many tain “first-round technologies” to buy us more time—for exam- small, high technology companies has enabled some of them ple, employing technology for large-scale capture and long- to create such technologies. Some technologies, in fact, are term sequestration of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. pivotal in the battle to contain global warming, but access to The additional time the rapid deployment of first-round capital with which to commercialize them is, for all practical technologies may buy must be used to develop and deploy purposes, nonexistent. other necessary technologies and to make other changes that Researchers at some university centers and govern- because their nature cannot be accomplished quickly. ment-sponsored labs have incorrectly claimed that certain Because there is no time left for further research and devel- badly needed technologies are not yet ready for commercial- opment of first-round technologies, their implementation must ization and that they won’t be for at least five years. The effect be achieved by (1) employing technologies that already exist is to keep research funds flowing to these organizations for an (or slight modifications of them) and are capable of being rap- additional five years. idly deployed; and (2) synthesizing optimized systems created Not every survival technology can be driven by the profit from such existing technologies. motive, and, if such technologies are to be deployed, it will take government intervention that, so far, has yet to occur. A Look Ahead Finally, there is a fundamental obstacle that we have labeled In the second part of this essay in the next issue of Free Inquiry, the “knowledge barrier.” It often accompanies the above-listed we will deal with the various impediments to the creation and impediments and arises when decision-makers who have little commercialization of first-round survival technologies. or no firsthand knowledge of technology—be they economic, Some impediments will come as no surprise: financial, industrial or political decision-makers—attempt to • Large and multinational companies suppress technologies make decisions concerning technology. Fundamental limita- harmful to them, such as in the case of oil interests restricting tions arise when such decision-makers try to utilize, in a “sec- the market for solar cell arrays.*** ondhand” fashion, the knowledge of science and technology • Companies in areas requiring survival technologies can experts. These limitations result in decisions that are usually ***See the history of Solarex, its possibly illegal takeover by oil inter- far from optimum. If this flawed decision-making process con- ests, and the subsequent restriction of sales of its solar cell arrays. tinues, it will significantly reduce the likelihood of creating,

47 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 CHURCH-STATE UPDATE

tion, in 2006 alone poured over $28 mil- Edd Doerr and Tom Flynn lion into the coffers of twenty-three pro- voucher organizations! The Walton outfit, of course, rides on the profits of the Guiliani to Push School Vouchers the media paid scant attention to what Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club chain, the largest Presidential aspirant Rudy Giliani has was the twenty-sixth (yes, twenty-sixth!) retailer in the world. (Personally, that’s named an Educational Advisory Board statewide referendum defeat for school one of the reasons why I’ll never spend whose membership is stacked in favor of vouchers or their variants in forty years. a dime in a Wal-Mart.)—ed diverting public funds to faith-based pri- Millions of voters from coast to coast vate schools under voucher plans. The have said No! by an average margin of s Akron, Ohio, discontinued recitation panel is to be headed by voucher pro- two to one to any diversion of public of the Lord’s Prayer before city council moter Terry Moe and former Bush edu- funds to faith-based or other nonpublic meetings after a church-state watchdog cation secretary Rod Paige, and includes schools. The latest national Gallup poll, group threatened legal action. voucher advocates Clint Bolick and Sol in mid-2007, registered almost exactly Stern. Giuliani seems not to have noticed the same level of opposition. If vouchers t A federal judge suspended Wash that over the last forty years, millions of can’t pass muster in the reddest of the ington state rules compelling pharmacies voters in twenty-six statewide referenda red states, they can’t pass anywhere. to provide “morning after” contraceptive (including in his own state of New York) Why, then, do we have voucher plans pills, ruling that it violates the religious have rejected vouchers or their variants in operation in Wisconsin and Ohio? Not freedom of pharmacists who may object by an average margin of two to one. See to the pills as abortifacients.—tf “More on Vouchers,” below.—ed R.I.P. Henry Hyde t Another Brick Out of the Wall: After Former Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) went receiving a letter of complaint signed by “Millions of voters from to his eternal reward on November 29, 160 lawmakers, Stephen Ayers, acting 2007. Hyde will be mainly remembered architect of the U.S. Capitol, rescinded a coast to coast have said as the guy who used his powerful post in policy that had forbidden unconstitution- the House to deny safe, legal abortions al religious expressions on certificates No! by an average mar- to as many women as possible. Less verifying a flag flown over the Capitol in gin of two to one to any well known is his role in holding up Rep. honor of a selected individual. Ernest Istook’s (R-Okla.) school prayer diversion of public funds amendment. Hyde kept this proposed s The cross removed from Los Angeles to faith-based or other constitutional amendment bottled up County’s seal in 2004 will stay off; the during much of the 1990s, until Istook U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a nonpublic schools.” allowed its modification to add weasely suit challenging the removal as “hostili- language to permit school vouchers. ty toward religion.”—tf Fortunately, the Istook/Hyde amendment was defeated. More on School Vouchers Several years ago, I had the pleasure On November 6, half a million Utah of debating Hyde on a televised Amer voters went to the polls and crushed an only because the Wisconsin supreme ican Enterprise Institute program. I ambitious school voucher plan by 62.2 court failed in its duty to uphold the was literally a last-minute substitute for percent to 37.8 percent. Unfortunately, state constitution, and because the U. S. Illinois Senator Alan J. Dixon. Needless Edd Doerr, president of Americans Supreme Court mistakenly allowed Ohio to say, I won. Although it is not nice to for Religious Liberty (arlinc.org) and to circumvent the First Amendment, speak ill of the departed, Hyde remind former president of the American but also because those two states’ law- ed me of what Senator Wayne Morse Humanist Association, is the author makers did not allow voters a chance to (D-Ore.) once said about Senator Homer of over 3,500 published books, sec- correct the legislature’s mistakes. Capehart (R-Ind.) on the Senate floor. tions of books, articles, columns, book Theocons and neocons continue He called him “a tub of rancid igno- and film reviews, translations, let- scheming to force all taxpayers to support rance.”—ed ters, short stories, and poems. He has faith-based and other private schools, made over two thousand speeches which commonly practice forms of dis- t The Illinois legislature passed a and radio and television appearanc - crimination and indoctrination that moment of silence law—overriding a would be intolerable in public schools. es. Tom Flynn is editor of Free Inquiry veto by Governor Rod Blagojevich—in and editor of The New Encyclopedia of Powerful lobbies, pressure groups, and October 2007. Unbelief (Prometheus Books). He was influential columnists like George Will the founder of the Council for Secular pour enormous effort into promoting s Rob Sherman, a Buffalo Grove, Humanism’s First Amendment Task vouchers and with them the destruction Illinois, church-state activist, filed a Force. of democratic public education. A single federal lawsuit challenging the moment foundation, the Walton Family Founda of silence law—also in October 2007.—

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 48 HUMANISM AND THE ARTS

London, and, in 1911, he was named a professor of Latin at Cambridge, a posi- A.E. Housman tion he held until his death. Possessed of keen intellect, capacious memory, and adamantine persistence, he became the Poet, Scholar, Atheist foremost Latinist of his era. In his university lectures, he was all scholar; the Shropshire lad never emerged. Gary Sloan Housman was often perceived as aloof, daunting, and enigmatic. Yet, as his friend Percy Withers noted, the foreboding exte- hough his poetry comprises but land, field, and dale. As he wandered, lines rior belied an inward warmth: “[H]is sar- four slender volumes—A Shrop of poetry spontaneously welled up within donic quips, his biting satire, his easy Tshire Lad (ASL), Last Poems, him. Fleshed out, these lines sprouted resort to mockery and scoffing: of such More Poems (MP), and Additional into haunting poems about nature, death, was the outward vestment composed. And Poems (AP), the last two published post- love, youth, aspiration, betrayal, tran- it was a grim deceit. Underneath beat as humously—Alfred Edward Housman sience, and oblivion. Written in spare, warm and as generous a heart . . . as I (1859–1936) belongs in the pantheon of simple language, the poems include such have ever known” (Richard Graves, A.E. English poets. Born in Worcestershire, popular pieces as “Loveliest of Trees,” Housman: The Scholar-Poet, p. 243). in the environs of the Shropshire hills, “When I Was One-and-Twenty,” “With Because he outwardly conformed to Housman liked to amble through high- Rue My Heart Is Laden,” “To an Athlete the idols of the tribe, few contemporaries Dying Young,” and “Terence, This Is Gary Sloan, a retired English pro- knew that Housman was an atheist. Only Stupid Stuff.” fessor in Ruston, Louisiana, is a fre- in his waning years did he divulge that Housman was a redoubtable scholar quent contributor to the freethought fact and then only to a handful. In a letter as well as poet. In 1892, he was appointed media, including Free Inquiry. written to his sister Katharine, a devout a professor of Latin at University College, Anglican, six months before he died, Housman wrote: “I abandoned Christ ianity at thirteen but went on believing in God till I was twenty-one, and towards the end of that time I did a good deal of praying for certain persons and for my self. I cannot help being touched that you do it for me, and feeling rather remorse- ful, because it must be an expenditure of energy, and I cannot believe in its effica- cy” (Henry Maas, ed., The Letters of A.E. Housman, p. 381). Although Housman left the church when he became an atheist, he remained, says biographer Richard Graves, “emotionally attached to a past in which he had believed in God, but the intellectual break with any form of religious faith was complete” (p. 51). Geoffrey Morris, the classical tutor of Corpus Christi, recorded a comment by Housman that underscored his ambivalent attitude toward the religion of his boyhood. When, in 1920, at a college dinner, Morris asked him about his religion, Housman described himself as a “High-Church atheist.” He said “the qualification ‘High-Church’ was a tribute to his mother’s memory and his own early upbringing” (Graves, p. 187). While Housman left no explicit defense of atheism, his poetry and prose teem with observations palatable to atheists. In his introductory lecture at University College, London, Housman limned a race stripped of its cosmic centrality, divine

49 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 provenance, and grand inheritance, a spe- (MP, 1) Speak now, and I will answer; cies shrunk to Lilliputian proportions: How shall I help you, say; In “New Year’s Eve,” Housman offers Ere to the wind’s twelve quarters Man stands today in the position of his own rendition of the twilight of the I take my endless way. one who has been reared from his gods. Acknowledging their obsolescence (ASL, 32) cradle as the child of a noble race and the heir to great possessions, and and acquiescing in their demise, the gods In step with his rejection of immor- who finds at his coming of age that he worship the secular ideals of the West: tality, Housman adopted a carpe diem has been deceived alike as to his ori- We are come to the end appointed philosophy. Like the author of Ecclesi gin and expectations; that he neither With sands not many to run; springs of the high lineage he fancied, astes, his favorite book of the Bible, Divinities disanointed he was preoccupied with the passage nor will inherit the vast estate he And kings whose kingdom is done. looked for, but must put off his tower- of time. He tried to live each moment ing pride, and contract his boundless The peoples knelt down at our portal, to the full since, as the biblical author All kindreds under the sky; hopes, and begin the world anew from noted, “there is no work, nor device, nor a lower level. [Graves, p. 80] We were gods and implored and immortal knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave.” In “Easter Hymn,” Housman juxtapos- Once: and today we die. Despite occasional nostalgia for es a human Jesus with a heavenly savior. They turned them again to their the religion of his childhood, Housman If mortal, Jesus is now supremely oblivi- praying, abhorred illusions. Like Sophocles, he ous to the sectarian animosities he unwit- They worshipped and took no rest, saw life steadily and saw it whole. “The tingly fanned. If divine, he should get off Singing old tunes and saying house of delusions,” he wrote, “is cheap “We have seen his star in the west,” his celestial throne and fulfill his promises: to build, but droughty to live in, and Old tunes of the sacred psalters, ready at any instant to fall; and it is If in that Syrian garden, ages slain, Set to wild farewells; You sleep, and know not you are And I left them there at their altars surely truer prudence to move our fur- dead in vain, Ringing their own dead knells. niture into the open air” (Graves, p. 82). Nor even in dreams behold how dark (AP, 21) Housman preferred the spacious abode and bright of science to the ramshackle dwelling of Ascends in smoke and fire by day Influenced by Epicurus and Lucre metaphysics and mysticism. In an anno- and night tius, Housman attributed his existence The hate you died to quench and tation to a book on Greek philosophy, he to the fortuitous configuration of ran- could but fan, wrote: “Plato’s doctrine of Forms or Uni domly moving particles. Death was a Sleep well and see no morning, son versals is useless as a way of explaining of man. dispersal of the particles. Though fleet- things—it is up to Science to show what ing, life was meaningful: But if, the grave rent and the stone is the reality of the world” (Graves, p. 48). rolled by, From far, from eve and morning At the right hand of majesty on high In a poem he wrote while still a stu- And yon twelve-winded sky, dent at St. John’s College, Housman You sit, and sitting so remember yet The stuff of life to knit me Your tears, your agony and bloody Blew hither: here am I. mused that reason and science, proper- sweat, ly exercised, lead to atheism (Graves, Your cross and passion and the life Now—for a breath I tarry you gave, Nor yet disperse apart— pp. 45–46). To his credit, our Shropshire Bow hither out of heaven and see and Take my hand quick and tell me, lad declined to prostitute reason to the save. What have you in your heart. allure of desire.

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free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 50 GOD ON TRIAL

his majestic study Zen at War, Brian Daizen Victoria (himself a Soto priest) Buddhism: Blood explores Buddhist support for Japan during the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05), which eventually led to Japan’s annex- and Enlightenment ation of Korea in 1910, and how Buddhist leadership reconciled itself to totalitar- ianism. Joseph Grosso Among the references Victoria cites is this early twentieth-century statement by the famous Buddhist scholar hat country is in the midst of dom in vogue on campuses and celebrity D.T. Suzuki regarding the relationship a long-standing civil war—a rock tours, as well as to make the Dalai between religion and the state: “The W war that has displaced hun- Lama the world’s most famous refugee interests of religion and the state do not dreds of thousands of citizens, seen the and arguably its most revered man. conflict but rather aid and support each first widespread use of suicide bombers, However, the current situation in Sri other in a quest for wholeness. . . . The and in which the government fighting Lanka is not the first time that Buddhism problem is easily resolved if one thinks separatist forces has among its most has allied itself with a warring state. An of religion as an entity with the state as militant allies the country’s religious even more illustrative example was the its body, and as the state as something clerics? Chances are most Westerners institutional support Buddhist leaders developing with religion as its spirit. In thus questioned would search their gave to Japanese imperialism during the other words religion and the state form minds for the name of a Middle Eastern half-century ending with World War II. In a unity . . . then whatever is done for the or African country—or at least a country with a Muslim majority. However, the correct answer is Sri Lanka, and the prowar clerics are Buddhist monks. Buddhist monks have their own political party in Sri Lanka, the National Heritage Party, which holds nine seats in the country’s 225-member Parliament (Buddhism holds a “principal” place according to Sri Lanka’s constitution). The party’s support has strengthened the government’s hand in conducting a fierce offensive against the Tamil Tigers separatist group that has been fighting an on-off secessionist war since 1983. A New York Times article (February 25, 2007) reports that monks have gone so far as to brawl with antiwar protestors and publicly torch Norway’s flag and effigies of its envoy in protest against Norway’s efforts to broker peace talks. This would seem to contrast with Western conceptions of Buddhism as an “enlightened, peaceful” religion. After all, Buddhism is probably second only to Scientology in terms of affection among Hollywood elites and has long been trendy among educated American liberals. Even many secularists have proclaimed a respect for Buddhist attri- butes. All of this has served, among other things, to make the cause of Tibetan free- Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse (top) prays alongside Buddhist monk leader Ellawela Joseph Grosso is a librarian and Medananda as they worship at a temple. Rajapakse’s bid for the presidency is supported by the all-monk writer living in Brooklyn, New York. National Heritage Party, which approves of his efforts to undo peacemaking with Tamil Tiger rebels. [Photo: Newscom]

51 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 sake of the state is done for religion, tions as well as coordinate international interview with Jonathon Hari of The and whatever is done for the sake of support for their cause. The Dalai Lama Independent in 2004, the Dalai Lama religion is done for the state.” took some initial steps toward modern- provided a bizarre response when asked Through such scholarly support, as ization but eventually was blocked by about karma, as follows: well as by serving as military chaplains, monastic elites quite content with the Jonathan Hari: Yet the Dalai Lama missionaries, and indoctrination train- feudal order. In his book The Snow Lion has suggested that Tibetans are being ers for soldiers and industrial workers, and the Dragon, Melvyn C. Goldstein punished for “bad karma.” Can this be Buddhist leaders contributed to Japan’s writes of their reaction to moderniza- true, Your Holiness? war effort. Toward the end of World tion efforts: “All this, however, sent Dalai Lama: Yes, of course. We are War II, as Japan’s position grew des- shock waves through the monastic and punished for feudalism. Every event is perate, monks were assimilated into the aristocratic elites who held most of due to one’s karma. war industry as “industrial warriors.” the land in Tibet in the form of feudal Jonathan Hari: So, are disabled chil- It was the most-admired Buddhist estates with hereditarily bound serf-like dren being punished for sins in a past life? ideas, such as selflessness and the peasants. Modernization was expensive elimination of the ego, that morphed . . . [and] was also perceived by reli- Dalai Lama: Oh yes, of course. into militancy for the cause of aggres- gious leaders as an ideological threat to Suddenly, a member of the Dalai sion and submission to the unity of the dominance of Buddhism in Tibet. . . . Lama’s entourage—dormant until the state in the person of the emperor. Equating modernization with Western now—leaps up and speaks quickly to his master in Tibetan. As Christianity had its Pope Urban II atheism and secularism, the conserva- rallying for the first crusade, Buddhism tives believed that it could diminish the Dalai Lama: (to Hari.) This is for Buddhists! Only for Buddhists! had Emperor Hirohito. (More ironic power and importance of Buddhism.” still was some Buddhists’ support for The feudal theocracy was main- This is not to say that there aren’t Mao Zedong’s forces during the Korean tained by Buddhist teachings on karma, some aspects of Buddhism worth defend- War.) It’s also fair to note an unhealthy which taught that serfs had to accept ing. Indeed, it probably was the great Buddhist influence on Japan stretch- their imprisoned station as punishment, atheist Nietzsche who first acknowledged ing back to medieval times: armies of while elites deserved their glorious elements in Buddhism that humanists “warrior-monks”—recruited mercenar- wealth as reward for virtues in earlier could respect, such as its lack of a theistic ies who safeguarded temple wealth, lives. Debts were often passed down divinity. However, history reveals that blackmailed local towns, and fought for generations, limiting social mobility. Buddhism has earned a place in the neighboring temples over land and polit- The famous Drepung monastery alone realm of religious cruelty. Like all reli- ical influence. These disputes were fre- owned twenty-five thousand serfs, and gions at various times, it has hitched quently settled with the burning of an out of Tibet’s total population of 1.2 mil- itself to aggressive states, acquired and opposing temple. lion people, an estimated seven hundred preserved political power at the expense Even the just cause of Tibetan free- thousand were serfs. of nonbelievers, and blocked progressive dom is not without its darker side. It is from no lesser an authority than modernization. It is clear that whatever Contrary to popular conceptions, Tibet the current Dalai Lama that we glean the virtues of Buddhism, true “enlighten- before China’s 1950 military occupation the preeminence of karma. During an ment” will only be achieved with this was a feudal theocratic state largely controlled by Buddhist monks, especially the always-reincarnating Dalai Lama. In addition, Tibetan history exhibits its For N.T. share of religious strife between rival Felicia Nimue Ackerman Buddhist sects, often with interventions from China. For example, at about the The path to joy is faith in God, same time Europe was experiencing the Reformation and the subsequent wars The young man told his friend. between Catholics and Protestants, His joy was plain upon his face; Tibet was rocked by civil and religious He’d no wish to offend. strife between the Karma Kargyu and All night they talked, and, on the Yellow Hat sects. morn, With the fall of China’s Qing Dynasty When day flared bright and hot, and the the return of the thirteenth He shook her hand and wished Dalai Lama (predecessor to the cur- her well rent one), and with the aid of Nepalese And set out on his yacht. troops in 1913, Tibet was able to issue something like a declaration of independence. Given that China did not acknowledge the declaration, some Tibetan aristocrats thought it best to modernize the state in order to defend their territory against Chinese ambi-

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 52 ISLAM WATCH

The Significance of the Non-Muslim Evidence for Qur’anic Studies, Part 2 Ibn Warraq

With this article, Ibn Warraq continues the examination of significant figures in the medieval West’s appraisal of Islam that he began in the December 2007/January 2008 issue. In this installment, he focuses on Robert of Ketton (who probably died in the second half of the twelfth century) and Mark of Toledo (fl.1193–1216).—Eds.

Peter the Venerable, an outstanding French abbot of Cluny, carried out important spiritual, intellectu- The Abbot of Cluny, Peter the Venerable (1092/94–1156) “was al, and financial reforms that restored Cluny to its high place among the religious establishments of Europe. Equally important was his insistence that a learned man who recognized frankly that little trustworthy Christians study Islam based upon Islam’s own sources. He commissioned a comprehensive translation of Islamic source material, traveling to Spain to meet translators of Arabic into Latin in 1142. information about Islam existed in Latin and blamed Christian Peter’s own views of Islam were rather neg- James Kritzeck, “Robert of Ketton’s Translation of ative; nonetheless, he did manage to set out “a the Qur’an,” Islamic Quarterly 2 (1955):309–12. more reasoned approach to Islam . . . through ignorance on the general loss of zeal for the study of languages.” using its own sources rather than those which were the products of the hyperactive imagination of some earlier Western Christian writers” (Hugh Stimulated by his visits to Cluniac abbeys and priories in Spain Goddard, A History of Muslim-Christian Relations [Chicago: New Amsterdam Books, 2000], p. 95). in 1141 and 1142, Peter planned an ambitious project to translate

Arabic texts into Latin. He picked two translators, Robert of Ketton

Al-Kindi (who, according to some scholars, was and Herman of Dalmatia, the latter having translated, for example, writing in the early ninth century), not to be confused with the philosopher of the same name, Said ibn Umar was the little-known author of a was the author of a famous Arabic apologia for genealogy (Nasab) of the Prophet Muhammad. the Kitab Nasab al-Rusul by Said ibn Umar and the former the Christianity known as the Risala, which professes “Nasab” was a fundamental organizing principle to be a contemporary account of a controversy of Arab society. “Genealogy provides the histor- about the relative values of Islam and Christianity ical validation of kinship and all that it involves Qur’an and a collection of Judeo-Islamic legends. One of the first that occurred around the year 819 c.e. and . . . Kinship continued to remain a most import- involved the Caliph al-Mamun. ant factor in Muslim society, for reasons such as the enduring determination of ‘nobility’ with its attending privileges on the basis of tribal works translated was Al-Kindi’s Risala. Peter himself produced descent (and descent from the Prophet and Ali)” (Encyclopaedia of Islam). a refutation of Islamic doctrine, out of love, not hatred, and using Ibn Warraq is the author of Why I Am Not a Muslim and the editor of The Origins of the Koran, The Quest for the Historical Muhammad, and What the Koran Really Says.

http://www.secularhumanism.org 53 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 reason instead of heavy-handed rhetoric. had often left out what was explicitly in

We are not at all certain of the date of Al-Khwarazmi’s birth or Robert had already been translating the text, but incorporated into his Latin death—according to some, he died in the second half of the ninth century c.e. He flourished in scientific works from the Arabic in Spain version what was only implicit in the the reign of the Caliph al Mamun (reigned 813–833). Al-Khwarazmi studied mathematics, geogra- and is now known for his Latin trans- Arabic original.” phy, astronomy, and history. In his achievements in algebra, Al-Khwarazmi was dependent on lation, Liber algebrae et Almucabola, Ludovico Marracci likewise found the work of the Hindus, Persians, Thomas E. Burman, “Tafsir and and the school of Gundisapur. Translation: Traditional Qur’an His most important mathematical of al-Khwarazmi’s manual of algebra, Robert’s effort more of a paraphrase than Exegesis and the Latin Qur’ans work is the so-called Algebra, al-Ki- of Robert of Ketton and Mark of tab al-mukhtasar fo hisab al-jabr Toledo,” Speculum 73 (1998): wa-al-muqabalah. al-Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr 705.

wa-al-muqabalah. Translating the “. . . the first complete Qur’an was another matter entirely, but translation of the Robert set about it in a dedicated man- Qur’an into

ner. He completed his translation of the a Western language . . . Ludovico Marracci (1612–1700) began his studies at an early age, became a medieval pursuing them in Rome where in 1654 he joined a group of schol- Qur’an in 1143 and was well paid for his best-seller. ars responsible for translating the Bible into Arabic. He became a Its accuracy has been lecturer in Arabic in 1656 at the pains. Then he went back to translating University of Sapienza in Rome, challenged ever since.” where he stayed until his death in 1700. While still a student, scientific works. Ludovico had come across a page of Arabic that aroused his intellectual curiosity and pushed him to His was the first complete translation learn the language of the Qur’an.

of the Qur’an into a Western language,

and it became a medieval best-seller. Its a faithful translation. In the eighteenth

accuracy has been challenged ever since. century, George Sale (1697–1736), in the P.M. Holt has rightly called the publication of George Sale’s translation Juan de Segovia [c.1393–1458] objected preface to his own translation, wrote that of the Qur’an (which appeared in 1734) a “landmark in the history of Quranic studies.” Sale’s work was to the cavalier manner in which Robert “the book deserves not the name of a the first accurate translation into Juan de Segovia was a Spanish English directly from the Arabic and theologian. In 1432, the Univ was annotated from Muslim com- ersity of Salamanca and King had translated and to his redivision of translation; the unaccountable liberties mentators, especially al-Baydawi John II of Castile sent him as and al-Suyuti, the whole prefaced their representative to the Coun with an extensive “Preliminary Discourse” of some eighty thou- cil of Basle, where he was one the Qur’an into more than the standard therein taken and the numberless faults, sand words in which Sale describes of the ablest defenders of the accurately the beliefs, rites, and superiority of the council over the rituals of Muslims and the sects of pope. His most important literary 114 suras. Furthermore, Robert “had both of omission and commission, leaving Islam. On the whole, Sale presents work is an extensive history of facts objectively and fairly, without the Council of Basle. His other moved what was at the beginning of scarce any resemblance of the original.” polemics. The translation itself is works include a Treatise in Favour heavily annotated with references of the Immaculate Conception to Arab authors. of our Lady, printed at Brussels in 1664, and a refutation of the many Quranic passages to the end, and However, Thomas Burman, in a series Qur’an, titled De mittendo gladio Thomas Burman is professor of in Saracenos. history at the University of Ten vice versa; he had altered the meaning of of lucid and convincing articles, confer- nessee, Knoxville. He is the auth or of Religious Polemic and the Intellectual History of the Moz Quranic terms as he translated them; he ence papers, and books, has argued that arabs, c. 1050–1200 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994); and Reading the Qur’an in Latin Christendom, 1140– 1560 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2007). free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 54 Robert’s rendering is worthy of respect ly every sentence that he translated, and fares well in comparison with, for Robert was also going to remarkable example, the more literal translation of lengths to insure that his paraphrase

Mark of Toledo [fl. 1193–1216]. Burman nevertheless reflected what Muslims contends that themselves thought to be the meaning

of the Qur’an. The most vivid signs of there is no denying that Robert was

this are the numerous passages in all an exuberant paraphraser who simply

parts of his Latin Qur’an where Robert could not leave well-alone, at least when

has incorporated into his paraphrase it came to the Qur’an, and his para-

glosses, explanations, and other exeget- phrasing certainly did do violence to

ical material drawn from one or several the Arabic text at points. Rather; what

Arabic Quranic tafsirs or commentaries. I intend to quarrel with is the assertion Burman, “Tafsir and Translation,” p. 707. that simply because his Lex Mahumet is In other words, Robert’s version often

a paraphrase it is therefore a poor and reflects accurately Muslims’ understand-

misleading translation. There are sever- ing of their own holy book, more so than

al grounds for disputing that assertion, Mark of Toledo’s literal effort. Burman

not least because scholars of transla- further shows that Mark of Toledo some-

tion theory and practice—both ancient times turned to Arabic exegetical liter- Richard Bell (1876–1952) was educated at Edinburgh Univ and modern—have long argued that ature to make sense of that opaque text ersity where he studied Semitic languages and divinity. He be came a minister of the Church in many cases literal translations are that is the Qur’an. of Scotland in 1904. Between 1938 and 1947, Bell was Reader in Arabic at Edinburgh University. much less faithful to the original texts It is also interesting to note that Robert Bell concentrated his research on the Christian influences on the development of Islam and than well-constructed paraphrases. rearranged the order of the passages. the structure, chronology, and composition of the Qur’an. His celebrated translation of the But the specific argument that I intend This is after all the same basic prin- Qur’an—The Qur’an Translated, with a Critical Re-arrangement of the Surahs (Edinburgh: T.&T. to make here is that Robert compen- ciple employed by Richard Bell nearly Clark)—came out in two volumes between 1937 and 1939.

sated for his elaborately paraphrasing eight hundred years later in his famous

approach in a very surprising way: at translation of the Qur’an that came out

the same time as he was recasting near- (Continued on page 60)

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Matthew Summer 1989 Vol. 9, No. 3—The Future of Marxism: An Interview D’Agostino; The Humanist/Mormon Dialogue, Tom Flynn. with Sidney Hook; The Humanistic Guru, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh Fall 1994 Vol. 14, No. 4—Special Section: Defending Prometheus; and Robert H. Rimmer; Mechanic of Death: The Case of ‘Ivan the Subsection: New Conceptions of the Mind; Subsection: The Terrible,’ Joe Nickell and John P. Fischer. Promethean Attitude; Francis Crick on the Workings of the Brain. Spring 1989 Vol. 9, No. 2—Special Section: Living without Religion, Summer 1994 Vol. 14, No 3—Special Section: Do Children Need the Ethics of Humanism; Can We Achieve Immortality? Carol Kahn; Religion? Special Section: Humanism and the Arts; The Crisis of the Cryonics and Other Technologies, Steven B. Harris; Abortion in Black, Religious Intellectual, Norm R. Allen Jr. Historical Perspective, Vern and Bonnie Bullough. 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free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 58 Spring 1986 Vol. 6, No. 2—Special Feature on Faith-Healing: Miracle or Anthropologist’s View of Humanism, Sir. Raymond Firth. Fraud; An Insider’s View of Fundamentalism, Max Hocutt; A Humanistic Summer 1983 Vol. 3, No. 3—A Symposium: Religion in American Donald G. Simmermacher Alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous, . Politics, Part 1: The First Amendment and Religious Liberty, Part 2: Winter 1985/86 Vol. 6, No.1—Symposium: Is Secular Humanism a Secular Roots of the American Political System, Part 3: The Bible in Religion? Education Secretary Bennett Gets a Failing Grade, Ronald Politics. Lindsay; Should Humanists Celebrate Christmas? Thomas Flynn. Spring 1983 Vol. 3, No. 2—Special Section: The Founding Fathers Fall 1985 Vol. 5, No. 4—Special Section: Psychotherapy: Science vs. the Establishment of Religion; Special Section: Was Marx a or Pseudoscience? Two Forms of Humanistic Psychotherapy, Albert Humanist? The Murder of Hypatia of Alexandria, Ronald E. Mohar. Ellis; Christian Belief vs. New Testament Scholarship, Van A. Harvey Winter 1982/83 Vol. 3, No. 1—Special Feature: Academic Freedom and John Hick. Under Attack in California; The Play Ethic, Robert Rimmer; Interview: Summer 1985 Vol. 5, No. 3—Special Section: Jesus in History and Corliss Lamont; AntiScience, Martin Gardner. in Myth; Interview: Sydney Hook on China, Marxism and Human Freedom; Education and Free Inquiry–A Statement from the Academy Fall 1982 Vol. 2, No. 4—Special Section: Sidney Hook at 80; of Humanism. Humanism and the Politics of Nostalgia, Paul Kurtz; The Religion and Biblical Criticism Research Project, Gerald Larue. Spring 1985 Vol. 5, No. 2—Special Section: Religion and Parapsychology; Interview: E.O. Wilson on Sociobiology and Summer 1982 Vol. 2, No. 3—Special Issue: An International Symposium Religion, Jeffrey Saver; The Legacy of Voltaire, Paul Edwards; The on Science, the Bible, and Darwin, Part 1: The Bible Re-examined: A Origins of Christianity, R. Joseph Hoffmann. Scholarly Critique, Part 2: Darwin, Evolution and Creationism, Part 3: Ethics and Religion, Part 4: Science and Religion. Winter 1984/85 Vol. 5, No. 1—Special Section: The Door-to-Door Crusade of the Jehovah’s Witnesses; Special Subsection: Is Humanism Spring 1982 Vol. 2, No. 2—Interview: Isaac Asimov on Science and a Religion?; Are American Educational Reforms Doomed? Delos B. the Bible; The Continuing Monkey War, L. Sprague de Camp; The McKown; Animal Rights Re-evaluated, James Simpson. Supreme Court and Secular Humanism, Leo Pfeffer; The Erosion of Fall 1984 Vol. 4, No. 4—Special Section: Censorship in the Seventh- Evolution, Antony Flew. day Adventist Church; Health Superstition, Rodger Doyle; Keeping the Winter 1981/82 Vol. 2, No. 1—Special Section: Tribute to Andrei Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls, John M. Allegro. Sakharov, Karl Popper and Ernest Nagel; The Effect of Education Summer 1984 Vol. 4, No. 3—Special Feature: Armageddon and on Religious Faith, Burnham P. Beckwith; Secularization and Biblical Apocalyptic; Special Section: School Prayer; Science vs. Modernization in Islam, Nazih N.M. Ayubi. Religion in the Future Constitutional Conflicts, Delos B. McKown. Fall 1981 Vol. 1 No. 4—Special Section: The Return of the Sacred; Spring 1984 Vol. 4, No. 2—Christian Science and Faith Healing, Communism and the American Intellectuals, Sidney Hook; Corporate Rita Swan; Ultrafundamentalist Sects and Child Abuse, Lowell Financing of the Repressive Right, Edward Roeder; Resurrection Streiker; Special Section: The Foundations of Religious Liberty and Fictions, Randel Helms. Democracy. Summer 1981 Vol. 1, No. 3—Special Section: Sex Education, Peter Winter 1983/84 Vol. 4, No. 1—Special Section: The Mormon Scales and Thomas Szasz; Myths about Teenage Pregnancy, Vern Church; Interview: B.F. Skinner on Humanism, Freedom and the Bullough; Scientific Creationism: Axioms and Exegesis, Delos McKown. Future of the Human Species; The Anti-Science Vogue, Lewis Feuer. Spring 1981 Vol. 1, No. 2—The Secular Humanist Declaration: Pro Fall 1983 Vol. 3, No. 4—Special Feature: Announcing the Academy and Con; New England Puritans and the Moral Majority, George of Humanism; A Personal Humanist Manifesto, Vern L. Bullough; An

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59 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 (Islam Watch cont’d. from p. 55) Toledo, which reflects the obscurities of Richard Bell. The Qur’an Trans lated, with a Critical Re-arrange between 1937 and 1939 and which I shall ment of the Surahs. 2 Vols. (Edin the original, is also valuable. Mark’s ver- burgh: T.&T. Clark, 1937–39). discuss in Part 3. sion does not pretend to smooth over the

It is undeniable that the Qur’an is a difficulties with arbitrary and sometimes

difficult text, and all translators have far-fetched glosses or commentaries of

had recourse to tafsirs or commentaries, the Muslims and thus can teach us per-

not to mention lexicons and manuals of haps more about the language and syntax

rare and difficult words. Even Sale, who

showed nothing but contempt for Robert’s

rendering, was obliged to smuggle in “. . . the Qur’an is

extraneous exegetical matter to complete a difficult text, and all translators have his own translation. had recourse to tafsirs It is altogether another matter, how- or commentaries.” ever, to decide that by using these com- Christoph Luxenberg (pseud.), associate professor of Arabic at the University of Saarland, lives mentaries one is any closer to what the in Germany and is a Semiticist and Qur’anic scholar. Chief among his publications is Qur’an really means. Robert’s reading the monograph Die syro-ar- amäische Lesart des Koran: Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der may indeed reflect Muslims’ own under- of the original. Here is what Mark him- Koransprache (Berlin, 2000; 2nd ed., 2004; 3rd ed., 2005). In the latter book, Luxenberg tries to standing of their scared scripture, but is self wrote about the style of the Qur’an: show that many of the obscurities of the Koran disappear if we read certain words as being Syriac and this understanding accurate? If Luxenberg’s “. . . sometimes he [Muhammad] speaks not Arabic. thesis is anywhere near correct, then the like a crazy man, sometimes however

answer to my rhetorical question is “No.” like one who is lifeless, now inveighing

Furthermore, if, as Gerd Puin once against the idolators, now menacing them Gerd Puin (born 1940) is a re Quoted by Norman Daniel, Islam and the West: The Making of an searcher at the University of said, one-fifth of the Qur’an makes no Saarland. From 1981 to 1984, with death, occasionally indeed prom- Image (Edinburgh: The University he was responsible for an Aus Press, 1962), p. 59. wärtiges Ant (the cultural arm sense, and, if the Qur’an is indeed an of the German foreign office) ising eternal life to converts, but in a project in Sanaa, Yemen, entitled “Restaurieren und Katalogisieren arabischer Handschriften,” in the abstruse allusive scripture that no one confused and unconnected style. . . .” series “Studies on the Historical Orthography of the Qur’an” (Stu dien zur historischen Orthograph has understood, then, surely, a literal (Emphasis added.) ie des Korans). translation such as the one by Mark of To be continued.

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the Office of Special Investigations and Our (Soon to Be) Sectarian accused of writing the threatening letters to himself. Discipline failed him at that point. He lost it and did something Air Force that he kept secret for thirty years. He coldcocked the OSI officer and fled the room, frightened to death. Keith R. Taylor Mikey was certain that he would be thrown out of the Air Force. He With God on Our Side: One Man’s War Against an Evangelical Coup in called his father, who was himself a America’s Military, by Michael L. Weinstein and Davin Seay (New York: graduate of the Naval Academy and Thomas Dunne Books, 2007, ISBN 0-312-38143-2) 258 pp. Cloth $25.95. who had served in the armed forces for twenty-nine years. Weinstein isn’t quite sure what transpired after that, but he was surreptitiously interviewed by a member of the Anti-Defamation League. From what little he could piece together, he learned that someone from the ADL The places of hell are reserved for lie, steal or cheat, nor tolerate among warned academy officials that if they those who remain silent, particu- us anyone who does.” In 1984, it was harmed one hair on his head, Mikey’s larly in times of moral crisis. I will amended so that it ended: “So help me story would be aired in the New York not be silent. God.” The addition was only for empha- Times. Furthermore, they promised —Dante, quoted by Michael sis, however. From the Academy’s begin- that they would get Barry Goldwater, Weinstein and Davin Seay in With God on Our Side ning, the cadets were made to under- at that time a U.S. senator, involved. stand that all matters of honor involved Goldwater had Air Force clout. He was ith God on Our Side is about God, in particular, the god of the most a Reserve brigadier general. Michael Weinstein, who does fundamental segment of Christianity. After the ADL intervened, the harass W not remain silent. “Mikey,” as Weinstein in the 1970s, and three ment and attacks ceased. Nobody was he calls himself, raises unholy hell about decades later, his son, Curtis, under- charged. One wonders how the guilty got religious persecution at one of America’s went the hazing traditional in our coun- the word without being identified or, if most revered universities, the Air Force try’s military academies. The upper- they were identified, why they weren’t Academy. Mikey is by his own definition classmen had the upper hand and the charged. a Jewish American. Notwithstanding his underclassmen were required to obey Weinstein never found out, and he theism, atheists must pay attention to all orders—even those they thought was glad to let that part of his past his story, because his problem is our silly. This environment was tailor-made remain a secret. I can understand why. problem. Indeed, it is even more than for the zealous fundamentalists who Hitting an officer is one of the worst that—it’s America’s problem. were bent on saving souls. It was also things an enlisted person or a cadet can An alumnus of the Academy, Wein tailor-made for getting dissenters out possibly do. Respect for and obedience to stein takes on his old institution in a of the way of the chosen people, who, officers is a linchpin of military discipline. polemic written in the third person. in the Air Force, were usually not guys Few violations could weigh more heavily Perhaps this technique gave him the with names like “Weinstein”—unless on the conscience of an aspiring officer. freedom to use the words that he felt they repented for killing Christ. Mikey Weinstein went on to compile best expressed his outrage. Juicy old One guy with the name of Weinstein a sterling record. He quotes himself: Anglo-Saxon expletives, along with their was given special attention, including “It’s also true that my record at the more modern inner-city adaptations, some attention that surely flew in the Academy would have been impossible leap out at the reader from between face of the vaunted idea of unit cohesion. to accomplish if it had been known that quotation marks. As a Navy veteran of In his first year, Mikey was constantly I struck an officer. Obviously, the cov- twenty-three years, I envy his ability to called religious epithets. Then he started er-up was incredibly thorough.” express himself so vividly. receiving anonymous notes calling him The sad and yet unanswered question From 1954, when the first cadets a “fucking Jew” and a “Christ killer.” is, why wasn’t there a thorough investi- were sworn in, the Academy has been To emphasize the point, the notes were gation? Defamatory and even life-threat- allied with evangelical Christians. All decorated with swastikas. ening religious persecution was carried cadets have to subscribe to an honor To get around that part of the old say- out under a cover of hazing. And what code that originally read: “We will not ing that ends “but words will never hurt would have happened if Weinstein had not had the Anti-Defamation League on Keith Taylor is a former president me,” someone resorted to the sticks and his side? I also found myself wonder- and current program chair for the stones as well. Mikey was twice waylaid, ing how much help an atheist in those San Diego Association for Rational knocked unconscious, and beaten. On circumstances would have received if Inquiry. He served twenty-three years, one of those occasions, he was even he’d asked a senator named Feinstein enlisted and officer, in the Navy. thrown down a flight of stairs. After all that, he was called into for help.

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(I once wrote Diane Feinstein, ask- ance, objectively manifesting itself in I hope my fellow secularists are paying why she didn’t say anything on my numerous acts of unconstitutional prej- ing attention. This is our battle, possibly behalf when, in 1994, Rabbi Daniel Lapin udice and discrimination.” even more than it is the battle of Jewish opened the 106th Congress with a prayer. And that was just the beginning. Americans. My worry is, what happens The part that I remember is “. . . this is to Michael Weinstein confronted the super if people like the ones who condoned remind us that nothing has the ability intendent of the Academy. That’s when and carried out the harassment at the to unify people as much as a common his wife jumped in with what must have Air Force Academy move into positions devotion to Him except perhaps hatred been the most scathing but trenchant of power in our government? How much of Him, as seen in the evil doctrines of comment on leadership Lieutenant Gen damage can one of those brainwashed socialism and atheism. . . .” [Emphasis eral John Rosa had ever heard: “You cadets do down the road when he ends added.] My senator answered with a have a total of six stars on your shoul- up wearing stars on his shoulders and form letter thanking me for my interest ders, John. If you tell someone to do thinks the End Times need a little push? but ignoring the question altogether.) something, they will do it. . . . But you Now give him control over some hydro- But, the hounds off his back, Michael never gave that order and that’s a failure gen bombs and ask that question again. Weinstein kept his secret for three de of leadership.” One of the most telling statements in cades. During his time at the Academy, In my opinion, the best thing to come the book came from a chaplain who was he was on the dean’s list every semester out of it is that Weinstein is still airing his in retreat but obviously trying to save for which he was eligible. He finished grievances for the world to see. He lent something in the process. “I will not as an Honor Graduate, the equivalent of his support and donated heavily to the proselytize from other religious bodies, magna cum laude at a civilian college. Military Religious Freedom organization but I retain the right to evangelize those After his graduation in 1977, he earned at http://militaryreligiousfreedom.org. It who are non-affiliated.” Guess who that a law degree and continued to serve as is well worth a mouse click. would be? a JAG (Judge Advocate General) lawyer. Then he worked as a special counsel in Ronald Reagan’s White House. Today, he is a civilian lawyer and the proud father he arieties of nreligious of two sons who graduated from the Air T V U Force Academy. It was in his role as father that he Experience discovered that, three decades later, harassment still continues for Jews at the Academy. When Weinstein visited Jean Kazez his alma mater in 2004 to attend a Graduate Leadership Conference, he Philosophers without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular visited his son Curtis, then about to Life, edited by Louise Antony (Cambridge, UK: Oxford University Press, commence his fourth year. Curtis was 2007, ISBN 978-01951713079) 336 pp. Cloth $28.00. upset. When pressed, he said, “I’m going to beat the shit out of the next guy that calls me a ‘fucking Jew.’” He added, “I just thought that before it happens, you and Mom should know.” Weinstein understood and resolved to do something about it. He writes, “I t used to be so easy not believing in The first section of the book con- would never be one of those docile, pious God. Now there are books atheists have sists of autobiographical essays, many Jews . . . I would be a Judah Maccabee Ito read, and books and more books. reminding me of the song “Losing My Jew, the ones who faced down Antiochus I thought I’d never read another Religion” by REM. Orthodox Judaism is and his ten thousand howling Syrians on book promoting atheism after reading lost by several writers and various forms their armored elephants. . . .” my fourth last summer, but then along of Christianity by many more. Then He proved his impiety at the confer- came the essay collection Philosophers there are those who never had a religion ence by confronting the Academy’s vice without Gods: Meditations on Athe to begin with but find themselves close commandant, Colonel Deborah Grey, ism and the Secular Life, edited by to the world of religion either through who had just finished a PowerPoint Louise Antony. It turns out there really family ties or scholarship. How best to presentation that included the agenda is more to say on the subject. think about religion is something they item: “An Apparent Insensitivity to Non- vitally need to sort out. Jean Kazez is the author of The Weight Christian Beliefs.” In a tirade that he Many of these authors—all of them of Things: Philosophy and the Good Life was later told lasted an hour, he remem- British and American philosophers— (Blackwell, 2007). She teaches phi- bers saying, “No Debbie, you don’t have experience disconnection. The atheist losophy at Southern Methodist Uni an apparent insensitivity. . . . Instead adult is disconnected from the religious versity in Dallas, Texas. you have a lusty and thriving intoler- child she once was; a son is disconnected

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from his parents; several find themselves studies as a student of seventeenth-cen- things you find completely crazy? In the disconnected from the religious outlook tury thought. He carefully examines second half of the volume, Georges Rey of the philosophers they study. There’s his esteem for the Pensées of Pascal makes the surprising suggestion that even disconnection between one author and even the oft-derided wager, which there may not be so many real believers. and his wife and children. exhorts nonbelievers to take all the steps Educated people who say they believe in Disconnection sounds bad, but a recur they can toward belief, since the rewards God must be misdescribing themselves— rent theme in the collection is the joy of are infinite (if there is a God) and the the problems with theism are so obvious breaking away. Louise Antony finds it costs are minimal (if there isn’t). I find and overwhelming. But if self-deception positively liberating when she finally real- something empathic and moving about is involved, there are two possibilities: izes in college that she doesn’t believe his sense that it might be good to find (1) self-described theists might fend off in God. Thus, she is relieved of having oneself believing and that finding oneself problems, suppress doubt, and appeal to solve a huge number of puzzles that believing needn’t involve unreason. What to faith, thereby succeeding in believing have mounted up over the years. Couldn’t stops him, then? The worry is that the against their better judgment; or (2) their God have let Hitler kill just (say) a million initial steps would feel like steps toward better judgment could stop them ever Jews? Was the good of Hitler’s having self-deception. In other words (mine, not really believing, though they refuse to free will—if that’s the best story avail- his), the price is too high if one must take admit this is so. Rey picks (2). Maybe able—really worth all six million deaths? a pill to become a believer. there are many cases of (2), but surely Many of the authors recount happy mo Another writer on the connection side there are also (1)s. And (come on!) also ments of enlightenment when it became of the aisle is Marvin Belzer, who traces (3)s—people who, free of all nefarious clear that one religious doctrine or anoth a journey away from Christianity that machinations, really do believe. er is utterly absurd. For Joseph Levine, began because of the stranger at the The further you read in this vol- it is too absurd to think that the Jews dinner table brought in by his evangelical ume, the more respect will come to are “the chosen people.” For several, parents. Loath to see his gradual journey seem problematic. (See the trenchantly what’s too absurd is Christian exclusiv away from religion as a rebellion against skeptical essays by Elizabeth Anderson ism. The problem of evil is cited again anything, he actually finds the seeds in and David Lewis, among others.) Still, and again. faith itself. His faith makes him see the we all have smart friends who believe. Since I read Philosophers without stranger (at the table, or in the remote Can’t atheists hold out the olive branch, Gods after four other atheist books, all jungles of South America) as loved by maybe saying things like “Reasonable chock-full of the joys of disconnecting, God whether Christian or not Christian. people will disagree”? This platitude is what intrigued me most in this volume But if God doesn’t care if the stranger put to a thorough test in Richard Feld were the essays conveying a desire for con- believes, it starts to seem unimportant man’s thought-provoking essay and found nection. I happen to be one of those strange whether he himself believes. It’s his faith (regrettably) wanting. If two people find atheists who go to synagogue on major hol- that initiates a growing detachment. But themselves with contradictory beliefs, idays. I might enjoy a good harangue about then, as he recounts it, faith leads to but regard each other as entirely rea- the absurdity of religion on the way, and unfaith: “And then something completely sonable, the logical response, he claims, even revisit the theme on the way home, unexpected happened. I totally stopped is for each to withhold judgment. We but while sitting in the beautiful sanctuary thinking about God.” In the end, he winds must disagree disrespectfully, he argues, of the temple where I’m a member (even!), up as a meditation leader, still enjoying or stop disagreeing! I’m entirely happy to be there. Naturally, I something like the religious ecstasy he Simon Blackburn is confronted with respect the participation of the other congre- felt as a child. the issue of respect when he’s invited for gants, whether they’re nonbelievers like me Anthony Laden is clear that there’s Shabbat dinner at the home of a Jewish or (more likely) believers. nothing actually repellent to him about friend. He refuses to go along with the Am I just irrational, or is connection faith, but it just isn’t a real possibility. local rituals (“putting on hats”)—a res- with religious people, religious thinkers, “God plays no role in my imaginative, re olute “disconnect.” But then, halfway earlier religious selves—and even reli- flective, or even emotional understand through his amusing and subtle essay, gion itself—a coherent possibility for an ing of or engagement with the world he pivots. It turns out he rather likes atheist? I was moved by the willingness to around me. God, I might say, never seri- English parish churches, “their com- experience connection that’s expressed ously occurs to me.” Still, transcendence fortable spaces and simple pieties, their in many of these essays. Those who say of some kind is something he aspires to. quiet graveyards.” And alas (“it is hard atheists are hostile to religion will find For me, going to services involves going to confess”), he likes religious music and their view challenged many times over. beyond what is me-here-now to what is poetry. What’s that all about? Though he’s put it completely behind him, long ago, far away, communal, morally It’s not about embracing a minimal- Joseph Levine remembers the “beauty significant, mysterious, beautiful. Laden ist, “expressive” theology—an option he and grandeur” of Torah Judaism and the explores what transcendence is, seeing very effectively dismantles. Blackburn “warmth and spiritual joy,” the “penetrat- it in Aristotelian contemplation but also interprets his response as a product of ing intellectual power,” and “keen sense in religious rapture and even in awak- empathy: “I admire people who try to of irony and humor” of his first Talmud ening from racism. give voice to the great events and emo- teacher. Daniel Garber speaks of his sym- But let’s be serious. Can it make sense to tions of human life.” Standing in the Taj pathy with the religious philosophers he respect, really respect, people who believe Mahal, it would be downright strange not

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to be swept off one’s feet. “Second order evokes awe about the supernatural for personal, and provocative essays make piety,” as he calls it, is a sort of respect. believers, but awe about the world itself it clear that there are many kinds of Having come to this semi-deferential for the rest of us. This is “first order nonbelievers and many different ele- conclusion, he’s less certain in the end awe,” not a feeling about the faithful. ments that make up a single skeptical about his reaction at the Shabbat dinner. Atheists can actually have some of the outlook. Contrary to the popular image, I doubt that “second-order piety” is same thoughts and feelings as the faith- atheism isn’t all rebellious trumpets and all that I feel sitting in my synagogue, ful, and perhaps it’s on this foundation defiant drums. That part of the orches- or all that you might feel listening to that we must build respect. tra is essential, but here we have all the Handel’s Messiah. Religious music Taken as a group, these readable, varieties of unreligious experience, a

a religion. It may well be difficult for a Something about Nothing Western European, say, to imagine what it is like for people you care about to be offended, not by some attack you launch on their religious ideas but by the simple Ed Buckner fact that you’re not religious. Lalli provides the context needed to understand Nothing: Something to Believe In, by Nica Lalli (Amherst, N.Y.: what that feels like, even if none of us Prometheus Books, 2007, ISBN 978-1-59102-529-0) 271 pp. Paper should accept it as reasonable. $17.00. Lalli’s early life was of course quite different from what a Southerner or a Texan or a child in an African-American Baptist/Muslim mixed family would have experienced. She makes little attempt to generalize explicitly from her own experience, and there are some parts of ooking for a carefully reasoned Hampshire; San Francisco; the Bronx; the book where the personal details bog philosophical treatise defending Washington, D.C.; and Boston) and a down into tedium, but the particulars atheism and attacking theism? short stay in Italy. It is the story of L of Lalli’s experience will often reso- Then this isn’t the book for you, nor growing up in a mixed marriage (her nate even for readers with very different does author (and Brooklyn art educa- father was nominally Catholic, her moth- backgrounds. tor) Nica Lalli pretend to be offering er nominally Jewish) without any seri- Richard Dawkins forcefully argues such weighty material. But nothing says in The God Delusion that it is immor- something like Lalli’s Nothing: Some al to apply such labels to children as thing to Believe In. This deceptively This deceptively simple “Christian” or “Muslim” or “atheist”; simple story, straightforwardly told, is he insists that we should instead rec- the one to read if you want to know what story, straightforwardly ognize that children cannot reasonably it’s like for an atheist or agnostic in a be said to have come to meaningful, society that takes its theism for granted told, is the one to read if independent religious conclusions until as some great good, some set of obvious you want to know what they mature. Nica Lalli’s book was writ- truths. Theists in America and atheists ten before Dawkins’s book was pub- in other, more sane nations should all it’s like for an atheist or lished, but it would be interesting to read Nothing. Americans without reli- agnostic in a society that hear what she would have to say about gious convictions already know much Dawkins’s argument. Lalli’s story is of what Lalli experienced, but there are takes its theism for of a young girl desperate—at times things in this book for them as well. granted as some great comically so—to claim a religious label. Lalli’s autobiographical tale is of her But her concluding chapter, regarding unique personal journey, an odyssey good, some set of obvi- her own children and her eagerness from Chicago to Brooklyn, with stops all ous truths. for them to grow on their own into an over much of the United States (Vermont; adulthood identity, suggests she might Vassar College; Cape Cod; Hanover, New be likely to agree with Dawkins. Equally Ed Buckner, a former executive direc- interesting would be her take on Sam tor of the Council for Secular Human ous religious attachment on either side. Harris’s recent controversial (and some- ism, is currently the Southern Director It develops into the story of an adult times misconstrued) argument regarding for the Council for Secular Humanism coping—sometimes more easily and abandoning any label—“atheist,” “sec- and a leader of the Atlanta Freethought effectively than at others—with assort- ular humanist,” “freethinker,” etc.—for Society. He is semi-retired and lives in ed friends, in-laws, and relatives unable those of us who accept no religious the Atlanta, Georgia, area. or unwilling to accept someone without claims. (Harris draws a parallel with

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the fact that we neither have nor need a that she and her friends followed, and other times the detail is enriching. In label for a contemporary Westerner who precise locations (we learn for exam- all instances, her story has the ring of rejects the claims of astrology.) Both ple, the name and location of the hotel truth as an honest recounting from her supporters and detractors of Harris on where she and her husband spent their perspective. this question can find comfort in differ- first night of marriage; and when she An index would have improved the ent parts of Lalli’s tale. mentions an event on Cape Cod, she book for those readers, like me, who want Lalli fills her story with concrete, describes exactly where on the long to go back and revisit a passage in the specific cultural details, bringing to life arm of the cape she means). While light of something mentioned later on. the time and place of different phases of sometimes her naming every tree gets Buy Lalli’s book. At least then you her life with brand names, rock bands in the way of our seeing her forest, at can say you have Nothing to read.

in my field of media history. What does Happily Never After history consist of, and how do we tell the tale? Call me a cynic, but my assessment is that historical studies only “begin” Michael Ray Fitzgerald when writers and journalists take note of certain events and “end” when we stop paying attention. The same is true No Country for Old Men. Written and directed by Ethan and Joel Coen. of any story. Distributed by Miramax Films and Paramount Vantage. 2007. 122 Like Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, minutes. No Country for Old Men is a little too real, which raises another question: Why do we need art that mirrors reality? Most artists seem to aspire to rectify reality, not represent it, while most viewers seem to want to escape it. he Coen brothers’ adaptation of But this isn’t the case in this movie, and This turns out to be a rather convenient Cormac McCarthy’s No Country without giving too much away, I’ll ven- symbiosis, particularly in Hollywood. for Old Men turns its back on ture to say that this plot development is An even deeper issue concerns our T society’s concept of poetic justice. The Hollywood’s sappy, happy-ending film the crux of the work. formula. Of course, not all moviegoers I’ll also venture to predict that No audience I sat with waited on the edge of seem to appreciate this. Country for Old Men will not do well their seats for two hours and didn’t get The story begins in West Texas, at the box office. It challenges peo- any. Americans like to believe that there where a local hunter, played by Josh ple’s assumptions about story structure, is a cosmic justice that—eventually, at Brolin, happens to come across a stash order in the universe, and poetic justice. least—redeems or punishes every deed. of millions of dollars at the scene of a As the film wound down, I was aston- But is there truly any justice in this drug deal gone bad. Brolin’s character ished at the reaction of a dozen or so universe, or does it only exist in our naively thinks he can handle himself members of the audience—they acted stories? Judging from television, for in the situation in which he suddenly as if they’d been sucker-punched. Some one example, an ordinary viewer might emerges. Turning in his usual workman- hooted and hollered; a few left the the- assume that the cops always catch the like performance, Tommy Lee Jones ater obviously annoyed. bad guys, yet Federal Bureau of Investi plays a Texas lawman who is struggling Howard Suber discusses the psy- gation statistics show that about six to protect Brolin. The dealers send a chology of happy endings in his book thousand murders per year go unsolved hit man, played by Javier Bardem, to The Power of Film. My main question, in the United States. We like to think find and collect the money. Bardem is however, is not, Why do audiences need “Cheaters never prosper,” yet most truly chilling as a sociopathic killer with happy endings? but, Why do we need white-collar crimes are never reported. nearly superhuman abilities. endings at all? Many of McCarthy’s, These seem to me biblical notions. The usual Hollywood assumption is Raymond Carver’s, and Albert Camus’ So it should come as no surprise to see that if the protagonist (in this case, stories, like reality, do not have endings. Bible Belt residents become annoyed by Brolin) dies, there’s no movie—how can But audiences—at least most American a movie that suggests their basic view of you have an odyssey without Odysseus? audiences—seem to feel cheated if they reality is probably flawed, that most if are not given some kind of resolution. not all events happen for no good reason, Michael Ray Fitzgerald is a Ph.D. stu- They need closure. that most of us are in constant danger dent in the College of Journalism and Is their reaction cultural or archetyp- (not from murderers or terrorists, but Communications at the University of al? Are we, as Westerners, conditioned from cars running red lights), and that Florida in Gainesville. He has writ- to require resolution in storytelling, or the old cliché “Might makes right” is a ten for many publications, including is this a universal need? The topic of fact of life. Their cognitive dissonance Left Curve and Utne. narrative structure is a serious issue seems to boil down to a struggle between

65 http://www.secularhumanism.org February/March 2008 REVIEWS

accepting that most things happen for good as gold or as tough as nails, but 7. This talisman is defective or fake. no reason at all and the belief that there are times when this God of Cosmic 8. Beware the Ides of March. everything is under some sort of cosmic Justice doesn’t seem to be protecting 9. Today just isn’t my day. control. Most seem to have a childlike us (or maybe the stars aren’t with us). 10. There ain’t no reason. need to believe that some father figure There are only so many conclusions we or some omnipotent spirit is in charge— can infer. I list them below. No Country for Old Men pulls back and watching out for them. scabs most of us don’t want to look The Top Ten Reasons Why Bad Apparently, the mere suggestion under. It makes us squirm and think Things Happen to Good People—and that violence, often random, rules this thoughts we don’t want to think. I would to Movie Protagonists world—and that evil people easily tri- agree that it is probably not healthy to umph over good—comes as a challenge 1. God works in mysterious if not perverse dwell too much on such thoughts. Denial to the American notion that if we are ways, which we can never understand. isn’t always a bad thing. good, we have a right to expect God to 2. He isn’t listening because we aren’t In his book, Suber mentions that mov protect us. Again, this is a biblical notion. good enough. ies play much the same role in our cul- Most people—not just Americans 3. He didn’t hear us because we didn’t ture as religion. “Like religion, people go and not just religious folks—simply pray hard enough. to the movies not to see the world as it can’t stomach the idea that we may be 4. He is calling us home so that we can really is, but to see a world that compen- careening through space in a gigantic be with all the good people in heaven. sates for the one they know.” But some bus with no driver. Or, if there is a driv- 5. He is a psychopath, just like my ene- people still occasionally create art for er, he or she is asleep at the wheel. As mies. art’s sake. And yes, some people do need the brothers Coen show, we may be as 6. He, She, or It isn’t there. art that reflects reality.

(Letters cont’d. from p. 12) Auburn, California Scientific Practitioner and Secular Humanist” (FI, December 2007/January 2008), gave a partial account of the great able in all other respects simply unable Reassuringly Angry Albert Ellis’s contribution to the world. One to handle the application of the same important element to Mr. Ellis’s life was principles to issues of belief? Paula Kirby’s “Reassuringly Rational” his ability to communicate his incredible I am convinced that this has to do was singing my song—until she quite insight into human behavior on a level that with interaction between behavior, espe- unexpectedly attacked alternative ther- allowed Mr. Ellis’s readers to make radical, cially repeated behavior, and some sort apies as unscientific as well. productive changes in their lives. Often of imprinting. I remember many years As a massage therapist for the past times scientists (especially philosophers ago reading Konrad Lorenz’s studies sixteen years, I have done my share of and psychologists) write only for other aca- of geese. If a gosling emerges from the work and research, and the beneficial demics. Albert Ellis wrote to every human egg and its first sight is a human being physiological effects of massage are being. After reading Rational Emotive well documented. Kirby’s broad-based instead of a goose, it spends the rest Therapy, I had a solid foundation for dismissal of alternative therapies is of its life thinking that it is human and identifying irrational thoughts in my own even attempts to copulate with humans. rather unfounded and unfair. critical thinking. This foundation continues If someone tells me, when I am a child, The tightly controlled power of medical to allow me to re-enforce my rehabilitation that walking under a ladder is bad luck, deities (MDs) share similarities with the through reasoning. The world will never I will avoid walking under ladders even all-knowing religious powers. They, too, know the full extent of Dr. Ellis’s amazing though I am not at all superstitious and make their way the only way. Obviously, contributions to the human race. know that this behavior is harmless. I abuse exists in all spheres. However, not nonetheless get a very uncomfortable all alternative therapies are just selling Edward King feeling that something bad is going to “hope,” and to throw us all into the “spiri- Airway Heights, Washington happen if I do. During my working tual energy camp” is deeply offensive. career, I was required to travel by air Martha McPherson almost constantly all over the world. At Aiken, South Carolina Thinking Positive! one point, I was musing on takeoff and developed a mantra. Even though I know Far be it from me to wish ill of anyone, let that this is a meaningless superstition, I alone Katrina Voss (Love and Marriage will always say this mantra on takeoff Albert Ellis, a in Central Pennsylvania,” last issue), but because of some deep-seated fear of bad Rehabilitation I would greatly enjoy reading more of consequences if I fail to repeat it. her humorous accounts of the irrational troubles that come her way. Bill Stenwick Paul Kurtz, in his article, “Albert Ellis,

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