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Home , Monotheism, Paul Kurtz, Religious humanism, Renaissance humanism, Secular humanism

Winter 1985/86 Vol. 6, No. 1

Is Secular a ?

Paul Beattie Joseph Fletcher

The Habit of Brand Blanchard

Homer Duncan's Crusade Against

Also: Education Secretary Bennett Gets a Failing Grade, Ronald Lindsay More on Freud, Psychoanalysis, and Religion, Adolf Grünbaum Should Humanists Celebrate ? Thomas Flynn And: Facing AIDS; No Rabbi, Please; Why Atheists Are Feared; Democracy and the Catholic WINTER 1985/86, VOL. 6, NO. 1 ISSN 0272-0701 Contents

3 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 26 BIBLICAL SCORECARD 61 IN THE NAME OF 10 ON THE BARRICADES 27 OF HUMANISM NEWS EDITORIALS 5 The Ministry of "," Ronald A. Lindsay. 6 The Role of Government in the New Testament, Delos B. McKown. 7 Those Poor Secular Humanists, Arthur Hoppe. 8 The Christian Seal, Kenneth S. Saladin. 9 The Official Book of the U.S. Congress ARTICLES Symposium: Is Secular Humanism a Religion? 12 The Religion of Secular Humanism Paul Beattie 18 Residual Religion Joseph Fletcher 19 Pluralistic Humanism Sidney Hook 20 On the Misuse of Language Paul Kurtz

22 The Habit of Reason Brand Blanshard 30 More on Freud, Psychoanalysis, and Religion: An Interview with Adolf Grünbaum 37 Homer Duncan's Crusade Against Secular Humanism Paul Kurtz 43 Should a Humanist Celebrate Christmas9 Thomas Flynn 46 On a Pedestrian Robert Wisne VIEWPOINTS 50 Facing AIDS, Vern Bullough. 51 Democracy in the , Anselm Atkins. 53 Why Atheists Are Feared, . 54 No Rabbi, Please, Elaine Oxman. 55 Affirmative Action, Nicholas Capaldi. 56 Self-Deceiving , Roy P. Fairfield BOOKS 57 Religion in the Public Square Richard Huett 62 CLASSIFIED

Cartoons on pages 7, 10, and I l Copyright 1985, Buffalo News. Reprinted with permission of Universal Press Syndicate. All rights reserved.

Editor: Paul Kurtz Associate Editors: Doris Doyle, Steven L. Mitchell, Lee Nisbet, Gordon Stein Managing Editor: Andrea Szalanski Contributing Editors: Lionel Abel, author, critic; Paul Beattie, president, Fellowship of Religious Humanists; Jo-Ann Boydston, director, Dewey Center; Laurence Briskman, lecturer, Edinburgh , Scotland; Vern Bullough, historian, State University of New York College at Buffalo; Albert Ellis, director, Institute for Rational Living; Roy P. Fairfield, social scientist, Union Graduate School; Joseph Fletcher, theologian, University of Virginia Medical School; , philosopher, Reading University, ; Sidney Hook, professor emeritus of , NYU; Marvin Kohl, philosopher, State University of New York College at Fredonia; Jean Kotkin, executive director, American Ethical Union; Gerald Larne, professor emeritus of and biblical , USC; Ronald A. Lindsay, attorney, Washington, D.C.; , professor emeritus of philosophy, ; Howard Radest, director, Ethical Culture Schools; Ralph Raico, associate professor of history, State University of New York College at Buffalo; Robert Rimmer, author; William Ryan, free-lance reporter, novelist; Svetozar Stojanovic, professor of philosophy, University of Belgrade; Thomas Szasz, psychiatrist, Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse; V. M. Tarkunde, Supreme Court Judge, ; Richard Taylor, professor of philosophy, Union College; Sherwin Wine, founder, Society for Humanistic Editorial Associates: H. James Birx, James Martin-Diaz, Thomas Flynn, Thomas Franczyk, Marvin Zimmerman Executive Director of CODESH, Inc.: Jean Millholland Book Reviews: Victor Gulotta Promotion: Barry L. Karr Cartoonist: Tom Toles Systems Manager: Richard Seymour Typesetting: Paul E. Loynes Layout: Guy Burgstahler Staff. Jacqueline Livingston, Alfreda Pidgeon

FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published quarterly by the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH, Inc.), a nonprofit corporation, 3151 Bailey Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14215. Phone (716) 834-2921. Copyright ©1985 by CODESH, Inc. Second-class postage paid at Buffalo, New York, and at additional mailing offices. National distribution by International Periodicals Distributors, San Diego, California. Subscription rates: $16.50 for one year, $29.00 for two years, $38.00 for three years, $3.75 for single copies. Address subscription orders, changes of address, and advertising to: , Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215-0005.

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2 FREE INQUIRY overlook the fact that textual and historical studies of believers have led to changes; but this activity is mostly confined to intellec- LETTERS TO THE EDITOR tuals or to authorized .) The devotee merely . He or she is not encour- aged—in fact may be actively discour- aged—from questioning . In tax-supported institutions like school Child Abuse a Smoke Screen? systems it is the open door philosophy that must always prevail, whether we call this As a sex researcher for over twenty-five and seizures of several academic and non- philosophy humanism or . years, I was especially appreciative of Vern academic researchers and organizations bring There is no room for the closed door. Other Bullough's "Child Abuse—Myth or " to the 1933 Nazi raids on Magnus aspects of separation of church and state (FI, Summer 1985). His points are welcome Hirschfeld's sex institute in Berlin. Such must also rest on this distinction. I submit and well taken. Many doubts are slowly events these days in the United States and that this simple analogy may be easy to con- beginning to appear as to the validity of England have coincided with the rise and vey to the public and persuasive to some. reports on the incidence and frequency of establishment of the Religious Right, and "abuse," especially sexual, and about phe- the characterization of "child abuse" has Noel W. Smith nomena like "kiddie porn" and "missing important connections to other political Dept. of Psychology children." The sexual issue particularly is interests of these groups. Like the anti- SUNY at Plattsburgh one to which Kinsey and others have tried masturbation frenzy of the late nineteenth Plattsburgh, N.Y. to bring some , but, thanks to the century, the current anti-abuse campaigns popular media and the career ambitions of to "save" the children appear to be damaging Finding Common Ground the "helping" professions, it remains dis- to society and its members far more than is torted and hysterical. Not only do we need called for. This issue is too convenient and to distinguish between actual and alleged useful for those with totalitarian ambitions. As a leader in Illinois's atheist/ free thought abuse, we need to ascertain the reality and movement and a disillusioned former mem- legitimacy of the whole issue. Just as deter- Sonenschein ber of , 1 wish to vigor- mining the actual incidence of homosexuality Austin, Tex. ously refute Arlene J. Gamer (Letters, FI, has been an unrealistic goal, so too is the Fall 1985). While Ms. Gamer undoubtedly idea of discovering increases ("epidemics") Humanism vs. Religion believes that American Atheists supports or decreases in sexual contact between adults inquiry and debate, 1 am afraid she is ig- and children. In fact, such questions appear 's excellent article, "Is Humanism norant of the facts, or she allows her loyalty to be of little or no importance except to a Religion? Does it Matter?" (FI, Fall 1985) to Madalyn Murray O'Hair cloud her vision those interested only in engineering a society can be further strengthened by the addition of the issue. on the basis of actuarial data. Slowly, and of another distinction between humanism The that sparked my resignation rather painfully, we are recognizing the and religion. This distinction may be made from American Atheists reflects the "dog- importance of quality of conduct in relation- with the analogy between an open door and matic atheist" psychology to a tee. My two ships as crucial to personal satisfaction and a closed door. Humanism is an open door closest friends and associates in the Northern benefit rather than placing emphasis on the that invites inquiry, debate, and verification. Illinois Chapter of American Atheists were ritualistic quantitative incidence and fre- It abjures finality: The door is always open "excommunicated" by O'Hair because one quency of sexual acts. Sex, particularly in for corrections. Religion is a system had listed the addresses of FREE INQUIRY, an erotophobic culture like "," in which the door is closed. (This is not to the , and Prometheus has long served as a smoke screen for bru- Books in a chapter newsletter. Many others talities worse than sex could ever inflict. The To Our Readers have been expelled for "disloyal" associations extent of the manipulation and exploitation with other groups—"pseudo-freethinking," of children by the institutions of religion, With this issue of FREE INQUIRY, we as Ms. O'Hair describes them. Mrs. O'Hair education, sports, and gender-role indoctri- enter into our sixth year of publica- wants to be the secular version of Herbert nation has caused greater abuses and longer tion. We are pleased to report that W. Armstrong; she has an "our church is lasting trauma. our paid circulation has exceeded the One True Church" mentality. Recently validated evidence shows that 16,500, our total distribution is 19,500 should be freedom from ide- sexual contact between adults and children and our print run 20,500. We are ology, but Mrs. O'Hair has let her vision is not inherently "pathological" or traumatic. grateful for your support. degenerate into a kind of We similarly have evidence that children can We founded FREE INQUIRY be- in reverse. Although I respect her past work, exhibit considerable sexual interest and cause we were convinced that there Mrs. O'Hair is doing more harm than ability many times to the point of initiating was a need for a provocative secular at the present time. relations with other children or adults. Not humanist magazine that tackled issues Atheists and freethinkers must allow only has this evidence been either ignored not widely discussed in the public people the freedom to believe; secularists or disfigured, but there has been the recent arena. Our goal is to develop and must tolerate religion if religionists are to disturbing development of the suppression expand our circulation base, and we tolerate . Pluralism and demo- of research that promises to contradict or are confident that we can achieve this, cratic ideals are founded on the philosophy severely qualify the state's current officially but only with your continuing help. of tolerance ("Finding a Common Ground," advocated view of such sexuality. The arrests FI, Summer 1985). 1 applaud Dr. Kurti s

Winter 1985/86 3 article on mutual tolerance. It is a breath of " in Judaism. sexuals but to all oppressed groups. 1 am fresh air after having been under the thumb appalled by the huge number of Americans of an exclusionary dogmatist like O'Hair. Joshua Hochstein who blindly follow the words of a man like Jameburg, N.J. Dr. Falwell when the hypocrisy in his words Jeff Governale, Assistant Director, shines brighter than the sun. How can Independent Atheist A Pun Before Its Time rational allow themselves to be con- Chicago, Ill. trolled by irrational fear without questioning Lee Carter's debunking of the Christmas it? Dr. Falwell evidently has figured out how Searching for mythology ("The and the to control people through fear and lead them Origins of Christmas," FI, Fall 1985) was with the carrot of " tickets to ." 1 was taught to believe that to be a Christian well done, except for a glaring anachronism. I am a slender quiet man, about 5 feet one had to believe in the —God, the It is hard to credit fourth-century Il inches in height. Much of my time is father, , and God the Holy with a pun on "son" and "sun" in defiance spent pursuing research in intra- and inter- —and that the son was Jesus Christ. of the holiday proclaimed by the emperor. specific competition of Chalcid wasps as a John Hick ("A Liberal Christian View," FI, No one in the fourth century could pun in graduate student at the University of Cali- Fall 1985) states that, in questioning whether English, since our language had not evolved fornia, Berkeley. Many quiet conversations Jesus ever existed the rider should be that, yet. The pun does not work in Latin. Carter with colleagues occur in smoky espresso if he did, he certainly did not intend to found indeed gives us the Latin, sol invicti, for the cafes over coffee and croissants. Yet 1 am the Christian religion, as stated in the . "unconquered sun." Son, in Latin, is filius. one of those "militant homosexuals" who Jesus believed that the end of the world was Perhaps I am missing something here, but it are threatening the very of our going to come very soon. Doesn't common appears to be one of those apocryphal stories wonderful country. 1 am one of those sense tell all believers that, if Jesus was the that gains currency from repetition and sur- monsters who is supposedly only interested son of God, he would be privy to more in- vives because it is a good story. in recruiting somebody's children. However formation and not go around preaching 1 didn't know it until Dr. Falwell told me that the end was near? To even question George Gauthier through his hate campaigns. Why no one whether Jesus was the founder of the Chris- Washington, D.C. wonders how such a bigot can understand religion is to show a lack of what it is like to be oppressed is unbelieva- of those times. As an ex-Christian, I remem- Homophobia ble. Why do so many people fear anything ber learning that it was Paul, long after the they perceive as being different from them- (or whatever) of Jesus, who really FREE INQUIRY has been a breath of fresh selves? 1 don't even wear a dress or make- began the church. Perhaps Christians should air for me for over three years. John Cole's up. 1 guess that my tiny amethyst earring is be called "Paulists." "Homophobia for All," (FI, Fall 1985) hit a terrifying apparition. Hick also says he'd be happy if he could closer to home than any previous article. As John Cole hit the mark when he wrote: convert secular humanists to any of the great a gay man I have dreaded the backlash of "You don't have to be gay to oppose world . If a poll were taken it would AIDS paranoia that is being fanned by viciousness, not only because of humane show that a great percentage of humanists fundamentalist bigots like the Reverend concern but also because we straights, or were at one time involved in some form of Jerry Falwell. I required thirteen years to , or Methodists are next. But it is easy religion. Need I say more? learn to consider myself "O.K." 1 am one of to remain silent in the nondefense of unpop- Yes, one more thing. It seems that Pro- the lucky ones. My family and I have ular minorities. The bottom line is not sex- fessor Hick is well on the road to become closer now that they know about uality but the apparent political endorsement a humanist himself. my homosexuality. Most of my gay friends that Falwell's hate campaign represents." have suffered terribly because of mis- This sounds terrifyingly similar to the words June Wagner application of the Bible. I find the cruelty Pastor Martin Niemöller, voiced during St. Paul, Minn. dished out by "God's chosen ones" to be Hitler's reign. utterly contradictory to God as an "all loving Tolerance means respecting other peo- Dr. Gerald A. Larue writes ("Jesus in Time entity." Twenty years ago my family and 1 ple's human rights (and much more than and Space," FI, Fall 1985): "And there are were very religious but have since moved that). We are a fearsome species, with our others—Gilgamesh, , Buddha—who toward a more humanistic philosophy, pri- seemingly violent nature and powerful tech- have become divine-humans... ." I think marily because of the hypocrisy in the Chris- nologies. But we have brains. We have the Dr. Larue errs in including Moses among tian church. My entomological interests and capacity to question and learn. We have the religious leaders worshiped in their respec- adjunct curiosity about evoked the capacity to overcome our fears and resultant tive . Not only does Deuteronomy 34:6 wrath of our church. My parents, especially intolerances. We have the capacity to delight tell us ". . . and no man knoweth of his my mother, suffered because they supported in the diversity that surrounds us. We have sepulchre unto this day"; never has there my interests. the capacity to throw off, once and for all, been any shrine for Jews to go to in order My purpose here is not to debate the the petty hatreds and superstitious beliefs that to Moses. In the Haggadah, the existence and/ or nature of God but to fetter us. We must do this soon or maybe manual of the Seder Service, at which the acknowledge an article that rips the facade we won't exist much longer after all. Exodus from is commemorated, the of "love" from the countenance of the Thank you FREE INQUIRY for pro- name of Moses is not even mentioned. The Reverend Falwell. How can he "love" homo- moting the of learning and sharing. text emphasizes that the liberation from sexuals but hate homosexuality? 1 am a Sometimes present-day societal pressures was wrought by God himself. In homosexual because of my homosexuality, pull me into deep depression. Then along Moses is never mentioned and I am as human as he is. As a gay man comes one of my friends to help me back worshipfully. There just aren't any "divine- my responsibility is not only to other homo- (Continued on p. 60) 4 FREE INQUIRY Editorials Washington and Jefferson, and documents like the Declaration of Independence, occa- sionally invoked God's name or religious The "Ministry of Truth" values in arguing for legal or moral rights, Education Secretary Bennett deserves a failing grade. there is also much evidence that the Found- ing Fathers did not regard the Judeo- Christian , or even , as an Ronald A. Lindsay indispensable support for representative government or democratic values. It is no n case you had not noticed, Reagan's The historical record of Judaism is less clear, accident that the Constitution contains no I Secretary , William J. Ben- for the obvious reason that only in ancient reference to a . (And it is the Constitu- nett and some other Department of Educa- history and in our own time have there been tion, after all, that provides the framework tion officials, such as undersecretary Gary Jewish states, but it is safe to say that at for our government, not the Declaration of Bauer, have been engaged in a campaign to least in ancient principles like "one Independence.) In fact there were a number convince the American people that the man, one vote" were not strictly followed. of objections made to this omission, all to Judeo-Christian tradition is the foundation The Bible reflects the fact that the ancient no avail. Furthermore, Article VI of the for everything we hold dear. As Secretary had no trouble accepting monar- Constitution explicitly states that "no reli- Bennett told the Knights of Columbus in a chical or oligarchical governments and, to gious test shall ever be required as a qualifi- speech this summer, "Our values as a free say the least, were not advocates of open, cation to any office or public trust under people and the central values of the Judeo- pluralistic societies. the United States." And while Jefferson Christian tradition are flesh of the flesh, These embarrassments of the past invoked the "Creator" in the Declaration of blood of the blood." Bennett subsequently undoubtedly account for the emphasis Ben- Independence, he also denied that "Chris- wrote that "the fate of our democracy is nett and company have placed on figures tianity is part of the common law," and he ultimately intertwined with the vitality of from American history like Washington, vigorously rejected, for instance, in his June the Judeo-Christian tradition." Moreover, Jefferson, and Lincoln, or on documents like 13, 1814, letter to Thomas Law, the proposi- Department of Education officials have let the Declaration of Independence. In fact, tion that is the foundation for it be known that they be leading a "fall when one surveys Bennett's speeches and . offensive" that has as one goal the restora- writings, or those of his allies in the govern- Finally, Bennett's strategy of citing tion of respect "for the Judeo-Christian tra- ment or the press, one finds that the evidence revered figures from America's past avoids dition, or for the values that so clearly they adduce in favor of their views consists the real issue. Quite apart from what Jeffer- emerged from it" in our public schools. principally of isolated quotes from some of son or Washington or others may have That such pronouncements should issue the Founding Fathers, such as Washington's thought about the matter, the real issue is from the nation's Department of Education admonition in his farewell address that we whether it is in fact true that Judeo- is a situation too rich in irony to be ignored; should "with caution indulge the supposition Christian, or even theistic, beliefs are an for, to put it charitably, there is absolutely that morality can be maintained without indispensable foundation for belief in demo- no credible historical evidence to support religion." This approach is intellectually dis- cratic principles and important moral values. the contention that Judeo-Christian beliefs honest in several respects. To begin, if it is Secretary Bennett has offered no argument are an indispensable foundation for democ- the Judeo-Christian tradition that is indi- for the view that the atheist or agnostic can- racy and/ or moral values that all reasonable spensable for democracy and morality, why not be as committed to democratic freedoms men would wish to preserve. Indeed, in should we focus only on what the Founding and civic as the theist, whether Jew making these contentions, it is clear that Fathers or other American figures had to or Christian or anything else. Certainly any Secretary Bennett and his allies are attemp- say about religion while conveniently ignor- number of political philosophers have ex- ting to carry out an Orwellian rewriting of ing centuries of history that compel some- perienced no difficulty in justifying critical history. In honor of their efforts, perhaps what different conclusions? Neither Judaism values without any appeal to Christ or any the Department of Education should be nor had its origins in 1789. The other deity. To take but one example, John renamed the "Ministry of Truth." dishonesty of this approach is especially Rawls's A Theory of , one of the If one surveys the societies that have striking when one considers that scholars major works of of this described themselves as Jewish or Christian, like Luther, Calvin, and , century, provides a detailed justification for one finds scant support for the proposition and political leaders like Phillip II of Spain democratic freedoms and significant moral that democracy and civil liberties go hand- and Oliver Cromwell, were unquestionably values, and there is not a theological refer- in-hand with Judaism or Christianity. To more orthodox in their religious views ence in the entire book. Until Secretary Ben- the contrary, Christianity has been con- (whether one accepts the Catholic or Protes- nett provides us with a sound philosophical sidered compatible with nearly every con- tant version of Christianity) than most of argument establishing a necessary connection ceivable form of non-democratic government the Founding Fathers, and yet they also had between religious belief and democratic prin- and with institutions like slavery, which a considerably narrower view of human ciples and values, his contention that our could scarcely be said to reflect a firm belief rights than did the Founding Fathers. If values are dependent on Judeo-Christian in the dignity and worth of every individual. anything, America's early history suggests beliefs cannot be regarded as resting on any- that the more skeptical a nation's leaders thing but religious bigotry. are in matters religious, the more likely it is Secretary Bennett came into office Ronald A. Lindsay is an attorney in that the nation will enjoy democratic free- stressing the importance of studying the Washington, D.C., and a contributing edi- doms. , especially history and philoso- tor for FREE INQUIRY. Second, while it is true that leaders like phy. He should heed his own advice. •

Winter 1985/86 5 trary to Jesus' express teaching (Matt. 5:33-37). What kind of human government The Role of Government in the (if any) could Jesus have had in mind that prompted him to command his disciples to New Testament swear no oaths of any kind? (See also James 5:12.) Finally, his almost certain antipathy to Roman rule does not imply his endorse- ment of any other, non-Roman human rule. St. Paul, like Jesus, had nothing to say concerning the proper constitution and con- duct of government, gave no opinion regard- ing the best economic system, and laid no Delos B. McKown explicit basis for retaining, reforming, or repudiating any particular social institution like slavery. When that institution came up, he was content to tell slaves to be submissive and to give satisfaction to their masters he Treaty of Tripoli (1797), ratified it was already being done in the . It (Titus 2:9) and to tell masters to treat their Tsoon after John became presi- should be pointed out that God's Kingdom slaves fairly (Col. 4:1). dent, says in part: is not to be confused with any human Just as Jesus expected the Kingdom of government, nor was Jesus, in his preaching God to come very soon (Matt. 10:23, 16:28; As the government of the United States and teaching, telling God how to run that Mark 13:30; Luke 21:32), so Paul expected of America is not, in any sense, founded Kingdom. The mother of the sons of Zebe- the form of this world to pass away very on the Christian religion; as it has in itself dee asked Jesus to command that her boys soon, so soon that he advised married people no character of enmity against the laws, have positions in this coming on to live celibately henceforth (1 Cor. 7:29-31). religion, or tranquility of Musselmen earth (Matt. 20:20), and Judas Iscariot may In the interval between the writing of his []; and as the said States never have believed, for a time at least, that he have entered into any war or acts of hos- letters and the end of the present world tility against any Mahametan nation; it is was going to be its treasurer, since in the order, Paul had one commandment for declared by the parties that no pretext existing age he carried the disciples' money Christians as citizens of various countries— arising from religious opinions shall ever box (John 13:26-29). to be submissive to governmental authorities produce an interruption of the harmony When Jesus announced later that his (Rom. 13:1), be submissive to rulers (Titus existing between the two countries [the Kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36), 3:1). Paul makes clear his belief that all United States and Tripoli]. it did not matter whether it was a celestial governmental authority flows from God, that kingdom or not of this world yet. In no those who rule, rule with God's permission, The treaty was clearly designed to allay case did the kingdom in his mind have rele- and that good Christians who obey the laws certain Muslims' fears that our government vance to or precedents for any future need not fear wrongdoing from those in might treat Muslim states with Christian constitutional monarchy, democratic repub- authority (Rom. 13:1-4). prejudice. However, it could as easily have lic, system of state , or any other The Declaration of Independence begs been designed to allay Hindu, Buddhist, governmental structure of human contriv- to differ with Paul, describes in detail the , or any other religion's fears. It ance. grievous despotism of George Ill over good simply expresses the truth, particularly from None of Jesus' teachings touches on the British Christian subjects in the American the standpoint of the New Testament. proper constitution and conduct of a human colonies, and says that whenever any form The good news of Jesus was not the government, none describes or mandates the of government becomes destructive of such assurance of the resurrection of the dead. best economic system for any nation or all rights as life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- That idea had already appeared in a book nations, and none touches on the retention piness "it is the right of the people to alter (Dan. 12:2) in what was to become (in 90 of, of, or repudiation of such or to abolish it...." What would Paul have C.F.) the , was already believed socioeconomic institutions as, for example, thought of such insubordination? in by in Jesus' time (Acts 23:8), slavery. Jesus may seem to have touched on It is an article of the flimsiest , and was reported to have happened to cer- taxation when he told his hearers to render unsupported by the New Testament, to think tain unnamed people (Matt. 27:52-53) before unto Caesar the things that were Caesar's that contributions were made to American the first Easter Sunday. The good news in and to God the things that were God's; but, government by Jesus, who believed God's the Gospels was that God's Kingdom (to be alas, he never made clear which was which! reign on earth was due to come very quickly, taken literally as well as religiously and in Looking to see whose image is on a coin is sweeping aside all human governments, or opposition to any human government, no help at all. It is as absurd to think that a by Paul, who believed that this world was especially the Romans') was at hand (Matt. Roman emperor would have owned every passing away equally quickly and could 4:17; Mark 1:15; Luke 9:27) and that God's coin bearing his image as to think that think of nothing to recommend in the mean- will was about to be done fully on earth as George Washington would have owned, if time but Christians' submission to any he had lived so long, every one dollar bill human autocrat or despotism. Delos B. McKown is professor of philoso- bearing his picture. Anyone who knows the New Testament phy at Auburn University and author of Moreover, to make matters even more knows that the Treaty of Tripoli is right: the novel With Faith and Fury (Pro- tenuous, any Christian who has ever sworn The government of the United States of metheus). an oath to any government or to any branch America is not, in any sense, founded on thereof, such as the military, has acted con- the Christian religion. •

6 FREE INQUIRY "Then you believe in the power of prayer?" "Well, it couldn't hurt."

noted that the polls show most Ameri- I cans consider themselves Christians. "Oh, Those Poor Secular Humanists! yes," he said. "Most of us secular humanists have been Christians ever since we were founded by the Founding Fathers, most of whom were Masons." "Then you believe in the redemptive powers of Jesus Christ?" The reverend shuddered. "Please," he said, "we secular humanist Christians never Arthur Hoppe discuss such matters out loud. We consider it tacky." "I'm sorry, Reverend," I said "but I'm veryone in the administration from "Who?" said the reverend. "Oh him. confused. What do humanists believe in?" EAttorney General Ed Meese on up is Certainly not. We welcome people of all "The dictionary's quite clear," he said. attacking the secular humanists for under- faiths and of all faiths into our "We believe in the 'dignity and worth of mining our Judeo-Christian nation. schools—as long as they don't create a man and his self-realization through And no one's said a kind word yet for the nuisance." reason.' " secular humanists. "And you don't object to prayer in the "Well, frankly, you don't sound like a In a spirit of fair play, I dropped around schools?" dangerous lot," I said. "I can't see why the the other Sunday morning to the Little "Goodness, no. We secular humanists administration and its right-wing supporters Church of the Good Call, a local bastion of have a number of we say, such as: are out to get such a harmless minority." secular humanism. I found its pastor, the 'God please don't let Miss Cracken ask any At that, the reverend smiled. "Minor- Reverend Seculus Fallnaught, loading a bag questions about zygotes.' Or 'God, please ity?" he said. • of golf clubs into his VW convertible, which don't let the IRS audit solar-powered wind- mills this year.' Or, 'God please don't let the was parked by the swimming pool in front Copyright 1985 by Chronicle Publishing Co. Reprinted with of the split-level edifice. rabbit die.' " permission. "No services today, Reverend?" I asked. He frowned, "Were you planning a wedding?" he said, "or perhaps a funeral? I don't think it's Easter and I know it's not Christmas Eve. Oh, we secular humanists do enjoy singing such hymns as 'I'm - ing of a White Christmas' in church on Christmas Eve. It's so festive." "Are those the only times you secular UTS Put humanists meet for devotions?" I inquired. "You don't sound too religious." "Oh, my, that's not so," he said. "I and half my flock religiously play at least pRkqçIR eighteen holes every Sunday morning. Of gpcN course, there's been a doctrinaire in our . The other half these days religiously THE plays tennis. But we're all quite tolerant." MIAt asked if this tolerance of secular human- I ists extended to Judeo-Christians as well. "Oh, yes," he said. "And Muslims, Buddhists and Zoroastrians, too. When we're decked out in our Sunday golf slacks or tennis shorts, we do our darnedest not to look down on those poor who are all gussied up in their uncomfortable girdles and neck- ties, trudging off to an hour of idleness and the threat of housemaid's knee. Live and let live, we say." "Perhaps," I said, "but is it true, as your critics contend, that you are trying to keep God out of our schools?"

Winter 1985/86 7 noted that the cross is "highlighted by a blaze of light emanating from its center" The Christian Seal and the sheep are "an undeniable element of Christian iconography. Thus, despite the fact that Bernalillo County was, and perhaps and the First Amendment is, a major sheep raising county, the Chris- tian symbolism of Jesus as the shepherd of the Christian flock or the lamb of God is apparent from this seal." Judge Logan observed that the seal "is Kenneth S. Saladin emblazoned approximately two feet high on the doors of all county vehicles," and remarked: n a recent case that has received almost gious partisanship. Vis-à-vis the other two I no attention in the press, Al Friedman, prongs, the court found no significant pro- If I an atheist, filed suit to challenge the official were approached by officers leaving a motion or approval by the county govern- patrol car emblazoned with this seal con- seal of Bernalillo County, New Mexico. That ment of the seal's "spiritual content" and no taining a prominent Latin cross, and seal contains a motto, "Con esta vencemos" excessive entanglement of government with whose uniform patches displayed this same (With this we conquer), above a large cross religion. "The court perceived no benefit seal, the impression conveyed to me would that is suspended in the air above a range of gained by any religious group by the display be that these officers were Christian police, mountains. In front of the mountains are of the cross and motto"—a statement that and that the organization they represented eight sheep on a green plain. must have brought a smile to the face of the identified itself with the Christian God. If The U.S. District Court rejected Fried- defense witness from the . I were an identifiable follower of any man's contention that the seal propagates The case was appealed and heard before non-Christian religion, I would question those officers' ability and desire to provide the Christian faith and violates the First a three judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court me with even-handed treatment. If 1 were Amendment. It accepted defense testimony of Appeals, which upheld the district court a local citizen with no strong religious that the cross in the seal "was symbolic of by a vote of 2 to I. The majority rejected an conviction, I would assume that my county the long history of Catholic exploration, the separation of church and state, had given the Christian religion its impri- Church's endeavors, and the invoking the well-worn clause from Zorach matur and surmise that 1 might benefit in impact of the Church on early Hispanic life v. Clausen (1952): "We are a religious people secular ways by identifying myself with in that region." The court rejected the con- whose institutions presuppose a Supreme that religion. tention that the sheep in the seal are a Chris- Being." tian symbol on the grounds of testimony District court Judge Logan, the lone dissenter The Friedman case has been granted an en from Dr. Charles Pozner, a Jesuit ethno- of the panel, remarked that he had been banc re-hearing in the 10th Circuit Court. historian at the University of Arizona, "that prepared to find no constitutional violation. One can only hope that Judge Logan's view sheep raising was the primary industry in "My view changed, however, once I saw the will eventually prevail, but in the present Bernalillo County...." Dr. Pozner argued overwhelming prominence of the cross on climate of religiosity, it is difficult to say that the cross was used in the seal "not as a the seal and understood its current use .. . that it will. but as an historic symbol as a strikingly Christian symbol in the con- of the Christian and Spanish heritage of New text of the seal." He then felt the historical (The author is awaiting the judge's decision Mexico." connotations of the seal insufficient to pro- in a suit he filed to remove the seal of Mil- The court "acknowledged that the cross tect it from the constitutional challenge. He ledgeville, Georgia. See FI, Fall 1984.) • had a religious significance, but explained that Catholicism cannot be separated from New Mexico history." Under the first prong of the familiar Lemon test 'of constitution- ality (Lemon v. Kurtzman, 1971), to pass a First Amendment challenge, a government Coming: practice must have a secular purpose. The district court made the astonishing finding that the Bernalillo seal passes the first prong "Biblical : because its secular purpose is "to authenti- cate official documents and communications In Myth and History" and to identify County property and - nel of the Sheriffs office." Neither the district nor the circuit court chose to con- FREE INQUIRY's annual conference will be sider if these secular purposes could have held on October 31 and November 1 and 2, been accomplished in a manner free of reli- 1986, at the University of Richmond, Virginia. Watch future issues for details. Kenneth S. Saladin is associate professor of biology at Georgia College.

8 FREE INQUIRY The Official Prayer Book of the U.S. Congress

Ronald A. Lindsay, a Washington, D.C., attorney working on behalf of FREE INQUIRY magazine and CODESH, Inc., and Paul Kurtz recently argued in U.S. Federal Court that the practice of the Senate and the House of Representatives of publishing the book Prayers is unconstitutional. The First Amendment explicitly states that Congress shall make no law that should tend toward the establishment of a religion. Yet both the Senate and the House have authorized publication of a book of prayers, which contains not only the prayers delivered by the Senate and House chaplains in opening sessions of Congress but, as in the case of Senate Chaplain Reverend Richard C. Halverson, sermons and prayers read outside Congress. The book, which is published by the Government Printing Office, also contains an Introduction and Foreword by Senate and House leaders. Government-sponsored publication of a prayer book is only a relatively recent development in our history. Copies of the book are available free to the public. We question whether this is an appropriate use of taxpayers money. We deem it a violation of the First Amendment. Arguments were heard in the case on October II, 1985. We are now awaiting the judge's decision. With the help of Ronald Lindsay, FREE INQUIRY, in a separate suit, is seeking to have nontheists on occasion deliver opening remarks to the Senate and House (the congressional chaplains have thus far not allowed them to do so). We have criticized the chaplains for using government pulpits to disparage nontheists.— THE EDITORS

Excerpts from the book Prayers: Senate Resolution 375 Introduction by That there be printed with an appropriate illustration as a Resolved, VICE PRESIDENT GEORGE H. W. BUSH Senate document, the prayers by the Reverend Richard C. Halverson, D.D., the Chaplain of the Senate, at the opening of the daily sessions We are in indebted at this critical juncture in history to of the Senate during the Ninety-seventh Congress, together with any have the dedicated guidance and prayers of our Senate other prayers offered by him during that period in his official capacity Chaplain, Dr. Richard C. Halverson, whose wisdom and wit penetrate problems and reveal the solutions to meet the as Chaplain of the Senate.... ultimate measure of testing: God's view of man's actions. The individual faith in God that each of us holds deter- mines both our personal commitment and contribution and that of our nation. As we make decisions that will direct the destiny of our country, Dr. Halverson reminds us it is crucial that we remain tethered to a firm faith in God. As our forefathers, we are called to prayer, committing our lives and our country to God's will. Most importantly, we are to prove our faith daily, in the knowledge that faith without action is not real. My prayers join yours as we work together for peace ev. Ea ard L. R. Ewa and prosperity for our great land. tA. tDL' D..met, Ijrrn. mn. t.SIJC

Foreword by SENATOR HOWARD H. BAKER, JR., MAJORITY LEADER At a time when the role of religion is being called into question, the Reverend Richard C. Halverson goes quietly about the business of proving just how important divine inspiration is to the daily work of the United States Senate. The prayers of Dr. Halverson are models of reverence, relevance, and eloquence which invoke not only the bless- ings of God on us, but our own best efforts to deal fairly and wisely with the great issues of our time. Our chaplain is a very special man as this collection of his prayers makes abundantly clear.

Winter 1985/86 9

Senate Kills Prayer Bill

The Senate has rejected a bill that would have prohibited the Supreme Court from hearing cases on voluntary prayer, Bible ON THE BARRICADES reading, and religious meetings in public schools. The measure, sponsored by Senators Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), Jeremiah Denton (R-Ala.), and John East (R-N.C.), would also have prohibited federal courts from strik- ing down state laws allowing organized re- News & Views cited prayer in public schools. During a brief debate on the bill, Sena- tor Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) told Helms, "If I would have written [the bill], I would Pat Robertson's Presidential be ashamed of it." He added, "You're begin- Candidacy ning to get into areas that are none of your business." Although televangelist Pat Robertson has rules covering such things as the sanctity of Another bill that would amend the not yet officially declared his candidacy for life and the "sanctity of property" that could Constitution to permit voluntary silent the presidency in 1988, he does have some yield worthwhile policies. prayer or reflection in public schools is still thoughts on what he would do if he were in The son of a former senator from Vir- in committee. If it passes Congress, it would the White House. ginia maintains that a consensus called for require ratification by three-quarters of the Robertson has told reporters that his the United States to be based upon the prin- states before going into effect. Christian morals would serve the United ciples in the Bible and charges that "there is States well, especially in serving the "poor a systematic attempt to rewrite the history and needy." He says that he has the credi- of our nation to explunge it of our Judeo- Meese Speaks on Religion bility necessary to address the "morality of Christian roots." Robertson says that he and Establishment of a "new " is the greatest problem of all—the runaway other evangelists have been prompted to threatened "by gradually removing from federal spending." enter politics by secular humanists who are public education and public discourse all However, Robertson does not believe trying to interject their own values into references to traditional religion," says that the Bible has specific answers to public government affairs. policy questions, but that it contains broad United States Attorney Edwin Meese III. Meese has recently been issuing warn- ings like this in speeches before religious PAT ROBERTSON. groups. He claims that references to tradi- tional religion are being substituted by "the Too CLUB. jargon and the and the morality of cult and of self." Meese is further charging that religious freedom is being attacked by those who have an "artificially strict" view of the constitutional separation of church and state.

i Congress Bans Braille Playboy ROBERTSON. (ANYWAY, , I WAS 1 I DON'T KNOW. I JUST DON'T you NAVE A TELEVISION? THINKING, DO YOu WANT ME TNoUGHT YOU MIGHT. Congress has voted to eliminate funding for To BE PRESIDENT OF TOE L UNITED STATES ? the Library of Congress to continue to pro- duce a braille edition of Playboy magazine. The American Council for the Blind is con- sidering litigation to reverse that decision. The move to eliminate the Library of J Congress's braille Playboy was initiated by Representative Chalmers Wylie (R-Ohio). In . WELL, (JILL you TuINK IT NuTI,INC FA,Ncy, A FALLINß / MEANL ILL, I'LL SEND You a statement from the house floor, Represen- AND SENG ME A SIGN LEAF... AN UNTIED SHOE.. tative Wylie said: "Making material of I'M GOOD AT INTERPRETING, SION. literary merit and value available to the blind AND A GENEROus CONTR18u... 4r . . . is a laudatory and valuable purpose. SCRATCH THAT, A SI6N No, But I do not feel that Playboy meets those Is suffICIE fiEL Tuis 4 1 uRv. to standards, and I do not think that the public UNi I My SNoE should be left with the impression that the Federal Government sanctions the promo- 14:11N011V (It tof(*a .6.4 tion of sex-oriented magazines like Playboy."

10 FREE INQUIRY In opposition to Wylie's measure, a decline among the number of people who which was made by the Boy Scouts' national Representative Vic Fazio (D-Calif.) pointed say that religion is important in their lives: executive board, has not only been reversed, out that Playboy has published interviews 56 percent today compared with 75 percent but the incident has prompted a rewriting with former President Jimmy Carter and the in 1956. For the future Gallup sees "renewed of the Boy Scout Oath. Reverend Jerry Falwell. In a statement interest in religion" among Americans with The new language of the oath removes released by the Library of Congress, Daniel an increased desire to see religion play a the definition of "God" as a supreme being. Boorstin expressed his "profound regret" and greater role in public life. However, Gallup It reads: "While not intending to define what wondered whether "the next step might be also envisions "rejection of the authority of constitutes belief in God, the Boy Scouts of to deny funds to the Library of Congress the churches." America is proud to reaffirm the Scout Oath for the purchase of books which the House and its declaration of duty to God." deemed inappropriate, subversive, or unac- Paul became a Life Scout when he told ceptable to the House. Censorship has no Textbooks Headed for Revision the board that he could subscribe to the place in a free society." on Evolution more liberal oath in good . The braille edition of Playboy is pub- lished without photographs or advertise- Last fall the state of California rejected every ments and is read by an estimated 1,000 seventh- and eighth-grade textbook blind persons every month. According to submitted by major publishers on the Falwell to Pay $5,000 the Braille Forum, it is one of the most grounds that their segments on evolution popular of the thirty-six periodicals that the had been "watered down" to appease biblical A Sacramento, California, judge has Library of Congress makes available in creationists. ordered the Reverend Jerry Falwell to pay braille. Now the publishers have submitted new for his derogatory remarks about a church In his statement to the House floor, drafts. According to California reviewers, whose congregation was composed mainly Representative Fazio noted that the braille the revised versions contain longer sections of homosexuals. Falwell owes $5,000, court Playboy had been requested by blind persons on evolution and include more detailed sci- costs, and 7 percent interest since July 1984 themselves. "I certainly hope that the mem- entific data. to Jerry Sloan, former pastor of the Metro- bers will be mature about this and really politan Community Church. reflect the diversity of American life, and During his "Old Time Gospel Hour," that the same diversity exists in the com- Atheist Scout Reinstated the Reverend Falwell called the church "part munity of the handicapped and blind," he of a vile satanic system [that] will one day said. "I think we ought not to intrude. I do When 15-year-old Paul Trout told his local be utterly annihilated." Later he denied not think we ought to become the censors. I Boy Scout review board in Virginia that he making the statement and promised Sloan do not think we ought to make a decision did not believe in God, he was denied a $5,000 if he could prove otherwise. Sloan which should be best left to the people who promotion to "Life Scout" (see "On the substantiated his charge and sued the utilize the service." Barricades," FI, Fall 1985). But the decision, Reverend Falwell when he refused to pay.

Fifty Years of Religious Belief NoW, NOBODY ms TO in the U.S. PRAY IN THIS ScNooL. Levels of religious beliefs and practice in BuT yO1) KNOW (J 4LI L Tit the United States have changed little from CHILDREN (.JNO DON'T PRAY GO... those recorded fifty years ago, according to a summary of data collected by the Gallup THAT'S PIGHT, organization. The study measured belief in STRAIGHT To... God and the of Jesus, prayer and Bible reading, church attendance, and mem- bership and confidence in religious institu- tions. Then as now, about 95 percent of all Americans believe in God, 40 percent attend weekly worship services, and nine out of ten pray, says Gallup. But also consistent in the past fifty years is a "glaring lack" of knowl- edge about religion and "superficiality" about its concepts. The study showed that only about two- thirds of Americans put their faith in the God of biblical , who watches over, helps, and judges people. Instead, most Americans display a "self-centered kind of faith" and pray because "it makes me feel good" rather than because it is God's will. "Religion in America: 50 Years" notes

Winter 1985/86 11 Symposium Is Secular Humanism a Religion?

The article below presents Paul Beanie's opposition to FREE INQUIRY's view that secular humanism is not a religion. It is followed by responses by Joseph Fletcher, Sidney Hook, and Paul Kurtz.

The Religion of Secular Humanism

Paul H. Beattie

s far back as we go into the history of , word "God" in his system of thought. to the beginnings of Greek, Hebrew, and Christian Jesus, as presented in the New Testament, represents both Athought, we find two tendencies in interpreting religion: tendencies; he rejects some aspects of religion and reinterprets One is assimilationist, and the second represents the categorical others. He said he came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it, rejection of religion or of some aspects of religion. In the but he also insisted that one could not put new wine into old prophet , who challenged all of on Mount Carmel, wineskins, or patch an old garment with new (unshrunk) cloth. we see both tendencies. On the one hand, Elijah was against In some places in the New Testament, Jesus insists that he , and so he had the prophets of Baal killed; on the comes only to the house of Israel and that his teaching, when other hand, he asserted that , who was originally a presented to , is like casting pearls before swine; in nomadic god, had assimilated the agricultural and rain-making other places he seems to indicate that his mission is to all of functions of the , who were agricultural deities. humanity. He said that the Sabbath was made for man, not In Greek philosophy, beginning with the pre-Socratic man for the Sabbath, a very humanistic approach to religion; thinkers, we see the same two tendencies at work. Philosophy however, his summary of religion as love to God and love to can be used to criticize religion in order to stop being religious, man is in conformity with the best Jewish religious thought of or philosophy can be used to purify religious concepts so as to his day and with the Old Testament scriptures. make them more acceptable and useful. When Protagoras said A sophisticated view of religion, it seems to me, has to that "Man is the measure," he was abandoning all recognize the value and validity of both of these tendencies of standards, and his book on the apparently took an religious thought. Religion has always needed to be criticized agnostic stance that claimed it was impossible to know whether for its excesses, its follies, its foibles, its imperfections, and its the gods existed or not. Protagoras was interested in freeing untruths. Every religion constantly needs to be examined cri- people from dependence upon the gods. In different ways, both tically and improved by those who try to practice it. Unfor- and tried to purify and exalt human thinking tunately, self-criticism and self-correction have not been the about god or gods, making god into the basis for absolute strong suits of religion and religious functionaries. At the same in Plato's system or into the in Aris- time, every culture seems to need to reinterpret, to adapt tra- totle's system. Epistemologically speaking, Aristotle was a ditional religious views to new situations as cultural change humanist, yet he, like the eighteenth-century deists, used the occurs. It is not impossible, but probably doubtful, that human beings will ever develop a culture that is so secular and so successful that religion will wither away or be totally repressed Paul H. Beanie is president of the Fellowship of Religious and disappear. The existence of religion seems to be based on Humanists and co-editor of the magazine Religious Human- human need; this is the insight of one of the early and most ism. Dr. Beattie is minister of the First Unitarian Church articulate humanists, . in Pittsburgh. Some years ago I was fortunate to be able to secure the great cultural historian William H. McNeill, of the University of

12 FREE INQUIRY Chicago as a speaker for the annual meeting of the Fellowship Unitarian ministers, one was a Universalist minister, two others of Religious Humanists. In his address he likened religious were Ethical leaders, and one a liberal Rabbi. Thus, seventeen, humanists, Unitarians and Universalists, Ethical Society mem- or half of the original signers, were liberal clergymen. The bers, and members of the American Humanist Association to author of the statement, Roy Wood Sellars, thought of himself the ancient Stoics, much to be admired but doomed never to as a religious humanist and was a member of the Unitarian make a great impact on the mass of human beings who need church in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Two others were Unitarian something more mystical and emotional than the laymen. Thus, Unitarian Universalists alone accounted for stoics prefer. If he is right, and I suspect that he is, critical seventeen signatures, again half of the original signers. While thought about religion will always involve both rejection of proclaiming that religion was under pressure from the changes some aspects of religion and reinterpretation of others. of the modern world, the Manifesto insisted "... through all Some people, especially some humanists and freethinkers, its changes religion itself remains constant in its quest for abid- may reject religion and religious concepts and choose to live ing values, an inseparable feature of human life." It uses the without any positive connection with religion. In today's cos- phrase "" and "religion" in a positive way mopolitan world it is possible for some individuals to live with in eight of its fifteen propositions. no connection to a religious community. In my view this is a Since the founding of the American Humanist Association mistake, because it deprives such individuals and their families in 1941, there has been a continuing tension between those of a staying power that is much needed and deprives religion of who see humanism as a religion and those who would eschew meaningful dialogue with some of the most enlightened people religion. When the Fellowship of Religious Humanists was in our society. If this had been the practice of all humanists in founded in 1967, it organized outside the American Humanist the past, a great many classic works on religion by authors like Association, even though it had originally been conceived as a A. Eustace Haydon, , Huxley, and Bertrand programmatic development to be connected with the AHA. Russell would never have been written. Many, though not all, who have been connected over the years with the American Humanist Association have wanted to dis- s a "religious humanist" I am under attack from the Right tance themselves from religion. On the other hand, to secure Aand the Left. The Right includes a whole coterie of funda- draft exemption for humanist conscientious objectors, the AHA mentalists who claim that secular humanism is the most allowed itself to be classified as a religion—and rightly so. dangerous religion in the world today. Their understanding of Back in 1963, when I was a minister to the Unitarian what religion is and of what humanism is, and of what secu- church in Concord, New Hampshire, I took part in planning, larism is, constitutes a massive and irremediable confusion of and then got my church to host, a conference on population the mind. They tend to think that anything they see as bad or problems, which was unique because it brought all the key wrong in the modern world is due to the machinations of experts on the subject to a single platform for the first time. secular humanists. Fundamentalists feel their tenets are threat- Alan Gutmacher, Curtis Wood, John Rock, and many others ened by a great conspiracy of secular humanists who are con- participated. One of the most impressive performances was by trolling the modern world. My view of their fears is that their Joseph Fletcher, who at the time was an Episcopalian priest critique of humanism is so intellectually deficient that it will and teacher of ethics at the Episcopal Theological Seminary. fall of its own weight. They have had some success on some In a day when even Dr. Gutmacher would not publicly endorse political issues by combining with other groups, as in joining abortion on demand and even denounced the new Yugoslav Roman Catholics in opposing abortion, but they have had vacuum machine, Dr. Fletcher gave a beautifully reasoned, little success in influencing the general public to make human- gently persuasive talk in favor of abortion. We got on well and ism the scapegoat for the anxieties of modernity. The forces much later became good friends. At the time, he was a Christian that have created the modern world have also created human- and I was a religious humanist. ism; to annul humanism, the fundamentalists would have to I sent Dr. Fletcher a sermon I had written called "Religion abolish modernity. This they cannot do; for them to succeed in Without God Is Possible; Life Without Religion Is Difficult." such a goal would mean a new dark age, like that initiated by He wrote back that, as a theologian, he felt obliged to keep Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran. The modern world is here to stay; God, but had long ago abandoned religion and would have no and, painful as it is, the fundamentalists are going to have to truck with it at all! "Churchianity" at its worst can be quite get used to that fact. disillusioning (and I would add also unreligious), and it was The attack from the Left against my religious humanism such "churchianity," I suspect, that made Fletcher abandon is exemplified by some of my humanistic colleagues, in particu- —or even the use of the word. Years later, lar two noted humanists whom I consider to be long-time close when Dr. Fletcher and I met again, he had also abandoned friends. Joseph Fletcher and Paul Kurtz represent the anti- God and had become a full-fledged secular humanist. Fletcher religious tradition of modern secular humanism. In 1933, with rejects all of the word religion that would make it the signing of the first , humanism came compatible with humanism. He told his story in an article to national attention as a choice one could make in developing titled "An Odyssey: From to Humanism," which a philosophical or a religious stance. Right from the appeared in the Fall 1979 Religious Humanism. "My story is beginning there were humanists who eschewed any contact with not one of changing religions, or of going somehow from the- religion and those who thought of humanism as their religion. istic to humanistic religion. I have no wish to use the word Thirteen of the original thirty-four signers of Manifesto I were religion at all.... The humanism I have embraced—or perhaps

Winter 1985/86 13 first, because it has not developed any inspiring and sufficiently clear message; and, second, because it has lacked charismatic leadership of sufficient skill and dedication; and, third, because humanist organizations have "... mistakenly sought to become another denomination or sect competing with other denomina- tions and , when humanism should have become a broad- based educational movement." He deduces a number of other for the weakness of organized humanism in our day, most of them true, including his statement that humanism "has at times become narrowly political and strident, [and] identified [itself] with only one part of the political spectrum."3 With this last criticism I entirely agree; Humanism is frame of orientation, it has embraced me—is secular, not religious."' Fletcher's per- a ground for dialogue—not a package of accepted political sonal example, and point of view, is a strong argument against nostrums. But I do not agree that connection with religion or linking humanism with religion; his secular humanism is so the attempt to copy religious models has hurt humanism. Quite gracious, intelligent, and independent. However, I can't help the contrary. I argue that a broad-based educational movement, wondering if Fletcher would be the fine person he is without while necessary and important, will have less influence and his many years as a member of a very high quality religious staying power than a humanism that is held as a religion of the community. He admits as much himself in his article. individual. The major thrust of Kurtz's objection to the religious hile Fletcher's example on behalf of humanism without model for humanism grows out of his analysis of religion. He Wreligion is effective, it is my good friend Paul Kurtz who sees Judaism, Christianity, and as having the same basis. has given the most damaging and sustained critique aimed at Historically speaking, they each accept a divine message; they separating humanism from religion. In recent years Kurtz has each had a charismatic founder: Moses, Jesus, ; increasingly moved from a stance that was largely neutral to they each developed institutions, rules, and ; they each religion or mildly critical of religion to a secular humanism utilized ethnic allegiances; they each had a common linguistic that is anti-religious. His most complete statement on this mat- and cultural heritage associated with their religion. And, in ter occurred in an article he wrote for the Fall 1983 FREE addition, each of these religions has four seemingly essential INQUIRY, "The Future of the ." It was rules by which they maintain themselves. They each have later reprinted in his book In Defense of Secular Humanism impulses to convert non-believers; they each insist that children (, 1984). be brought up within the faith; they each discourage marriage Kurtz's objection to connecting humanism and religion outside the faith; they each have ways to stamp out dissent and has two sources: first, his linking of the failures of explicitly excommunicate heretics. humanist groups to their religious connections; and second, his Presented in this way, religion seems obviously incompati- analysis of religion. Concerning the failure of humanism, Kurtz ble with humanistic ideals. But not as much as one might argues that organized humanism has been weak and ineffective, think. For example, consider Kurtz's four rules. I think a good humanist has impulses to spread his or her point of view and will be apt to bring up children so that they know and will The Adventure of your Life? accept the humanistic perspective. Most of us hope that our The 1986 Humanist World children will marry people who are philosophically compatible. Congress in Oslo, I would be appalled if my son or daughter married a funda- Come to Norway next summer, the mentalist. If my children's humanism has any depth at all, such country where 17% of the population a marriage would be highly unlikely. Thus, I am comfortable are humanists, in spite of the State with three of the four rules that Kurtz says are part of most Church and a Christian based Constitu- tion. religions. The fourth, the idea of excommunication for , The International Humanist and Ethical I explicitly reject; but this is a tendency in most human groups. Union will arrange its 9th World Con- Even humanists have to be careful that they do not excom- gress at the University of Oslo 3rd - 7th municate other humanists for "political heresy." In other words, August, 1986. Lecturers of world-wide Kurtz does not deal with the question of to what extent historic reputation. Discussions. Post con- gress tours. religions can be modified and reinterpreted to make them more relevant in the modern world. Apply for further to Consider his first five points and my response as a religious • Human-Ethical Association of humanist. We do not have a divine message, but we have the Norway classics of humanism. We do not have a single charismatic P.O. Box 2870 Toyen founder, but we have humanists heroes and heroines of the N - 0608 Oslo 6, Norway past and present. We cannot utilize ethnic allegiances the way Humanists say «Yes to Life.. The 1986 Humanist World Congress traditional religion has done, nor would we want to; but such ethnic allegiances occurred late in the ,

14 FREE INQUIRY which originally had universalistic impulses—reaching out for Greek, barbarian, Roman, Jew. Our humanism does have a "In today's cosmopolitan world it is possible for common linguistic and cultural heritage; it is the heritage of some individuals to live with no connection to a the —and, more broadly, of the whole epic of humanity. The Roman Terence spoke for all humanists religious community. In my view this is a mis- when he said, "Nothing human is foreign to me." take, because it deprives such individuals and Not only has Kurtz failed to show that the religious tradi- their families of a staying power that is much tion is incompatible with humanism, but he has also failed to needed and deprives religion of meaningful dia- recognize that there are millions of people who are both actively engaged in their religious and furthering and endors- logue with some of the most enlightened people ing humanistic values. In other words, the values humanists in our society." cherish and most espouse are supported by millions who do not call themselves humanists and who, in fact, are members of some humanists attempt to use some of the traditional aspects Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. Of course there are many of religion in the service of humanism. First, however, I want exponents of these religions who are narrow-minded, but to make one more point about the thirteen humanistic values millions of believers are not. In his book Kurtz presents a list Kurtz listed. Humanists do not have any way of coming of thirteen humanist values and principles, and every one is to agreement among themselves as to how best to implement supported by millions of people who do not call themselves humanistic values. We all want a peaceful world, but who best humanists. interprets Soviet intentions and how to meet them, Sidney These humanist values and principles are (1) a commitment Hook or ? We all want to use psychology to to free inquiry and the open mind; (2) a belief in the courage to improve human life, but who should we follow, B. F. Skinner live without fear or trembling; (3) a confidence in the power of or Carl Rogers? We all want economic abundance for as many human creativeness, inventiveness, achievement; (4) (a commit- people as possible, but who is right, the socialist Erich Fromm ment to make) constant efforts to improve the human condi- or the free-enterprise advocate Milton Friedman? Humanist tion, mitigate suffering, and eliminate disease, conflict, war, values transcend the humanist community, and humanists have and cruelty; (5) respect for the rights of others; (6) a dedication no easy answers as to how best to implement those values—it to the preciousness and dignity of the individual, his or her will take intelligence and dialogue without and within the and growth; (7) cultivation of happiness and the full humanistic community. Drawing the sharp line that Kurtz does life; (8) an emphasis on love, shared , human joy; (9) between humanism and religion is counterproductive, because tolerance of other points of view and styles of life; (10) a it removes humanists from the wider dialogue. commitment to social justice and humanitarian help; (11) a universal focus transcending national, ethnic, sexual, and racial hether a humanist is religious or not depends upon one's barriers—the ideal of a world community; (12) an emphasis on Wdefinition of religion. My definition makes it possible compromise and negotiation of differences; (13) belief in a free, for me to gladly call myself a religious humanist. When I ask open, pluralistic, and democratic society.4 Now if these values, myself about the content of my religious humanism I realize right now, were not being supported by more than just the that much of it comes from the secular perspective in Western organized communities of humanists and those who say they history. Thus I can comfortably say that my religion is the are explicitly humanistic in their thinking, our world would be religion of (secular) humanism! in deep trouble. These values are crucial in the lives of millions Let me attempt to define humanism. Humanism is a of traditional believers and non-believers; they are the result of "man centered" or "human centered" life stance, reminiscent of the secularization of the entire world, with input from tradi- Protagoras's statement that man is the measure. Humans are tional religions and cultures. the only beings that we know of who make value judgments. These values that Kurtz has listed have been mainline Our concept of humanism grew out of the . The thought in America since the Enlightenment. People do not term humanista, from which humanism was derived, originally live in -tight worlds. For example, it does not matter to meant "teacher of Latin," which was the language in which the average Christian that the Bible is essentially undemocratic, Roman and, for a time, Greek cultures were studied.' The that it stresses the concept of theocracy, rather than democracy. word humanism was popularized by mid-nineteenth-century This does not faze the average Methodist or Presbyterian; he cultural historians, and first seems to have come into usage or she is still a democrat. Indeed, it is possible to show that about 1832. It is interesting to note that the very forces that both Methodism and have made major con- were creating were also beginning the tributions to democratic theory and practice in spite of the process of secularizing the Western world, a process that has undemocratic nature of the Christian tradition and scripture. been a central defining characteristic of Western history and While Kurtz has asserted an incompatibility between humanist culture for most of modern history. values and religious organizational models, he has not proven his case; in the practice of millions of Americans, and of other The term secular is [appropriate] to describe humanism and people throughout the world, the exact opposite of his case is humanists because humanism was the product of a secularized demonstrated every day. society. Indeed, studia humanitatis referred in the Renaissance I will turn his argument around and argue that it is best if to the study of secular as opposed to divine literature. The

Winter 1985/86 15 Oxford English Dictionary preserves this distinction in its first and Christianity that has triumphed, not the particular definition of humanist; "A student of human affairs, or of of Judaism and Christianity. For most people nothing is so human nature; formerly sometimes a secular writer (as distin- guished from a divine)."6 supportive and reinforcing, outside the family, as the church or synagogue experience. There are many individuals, like Freud and Darwin, who have no need of religious community, and Today most humanists are agnostic, atheistic, or ignostic. many ordinary people, too, who do quite well without religious Most humanists are Hellenophiles, most accept the scientific membership. But for a large portion of the human population, method as the most trustworthy way of knowing, most view religious community is helpful in living. the evolutionary hypothesis as the central metaphor for self- understanding and for best understanding how to direct human here is no better way to spread a set of ideas about how destiny, and most humanists believe in the democratic process best to live, or to intensify commitment to such ideas, and the ideals of the Enlightenment as interpreted in the Bill of T than by means of religious community. Not only were fourteen Rights of the American Constitution. signers of Humanist Manifesto 1 Unitarian Universalist min- isters, but since then has created more humanists "I conclude that the religious model is a model than any other movement in Americas Back in 1967, a scientific that humanists should adopt, not only to spread study showed that 52 percent of Unitarians and Universalists their ideas and ideals, but also to reinforce their felt closer to a distinctive humanist religion (as opposed to liberalism, , the ecumenical movement within own humanistic values." Christianity, or to an emerging universal religion).9 The per- centage of Unitarian Universalists who feel this is probably Now let's define the word religion, a most difficult task. I higher today. But leaving the percentage constant, we can say remember reading years ago somewhere that a scholar by the that about 67,000 Unitarians and Universalists feel that their name of Leuba had collected more than two hundred definitions point of view in religion is closest to a distinctive humanist of religion that were not compatible with each other, and none religion than to any other option. In other words, Unitarian of which adequately fit all existing religions. The Encyclopedia Universalists, using the religious model, have led more people of Philosophy, edited by Paul Edwards, takes the fascinating to humanism than has the American Humanist Association, tactic of listing nine characteristics of religion, some specific Ethical Culture, and the Fellowship of Religious Humanists (belief in gods and the supernatural) and others general (religion combined. The AHA has perhaps 4,000 members, the FRH involves the total organization of one's life based on a world about 500, the Ethical Union in America about 3,000— view). After listing the nine characteristics, the encyclopedia combined they have about 7,000 or 8,000 members, while the suggests that being religious is a matter of degree, concluding: Unitarians have about 67,000 humanists. "We ... encounter less and less obvious cases of religion as we Obviously the university movement in Western society and move from, for example, Roman Catholicism through Uni- free public education spread humanistic tendencies throughout tarianism, humanism, and Hinayana to com- the population, but this has not led many people to join munism."' Definitions and examples of religion differ greatly. organized humanist groups. I conclude that the religious model In effect, a person or a religion can create a unique definition is a model that humanists should adopt, not only to spread that can be put into perspective by contrasting it with other their ideas and ideals, but also to reinforce their own humanistic religions and definitions of religion. There can be no absolute values. We should always remember that humanists who think standard (culturally or definitionally) as to what is or is not a of their humanism as compatible with religion, and those who religion. do not, are natural allies and can cooperate and reinforce one Here is my definition, in two parts. First, a religion is an another in many ways.10 individual's response to life. It is the core of attitudes and Having explained in what sense I use the word religion values out of which a person lives. Second, a religion possesses when I say that I am a religious humanist, let me now describe an institutional and community aspect. As my friend Rabbi the content of my religious humanism. I believe that we can Sherwin Wine has pointed out, you don't have a religion until learn much from the study of all religions, and especially those you have a religious community, a religious community that of our own cultural tradition. However, in the end, I have to marks the important life passages—birth, puberty, marriage, admit that most of my ideas and values come from the secular death—and that celebrates the seasons of the year. A religious tradition of the Western world. Secularism occurred in medieval community is a primary group that assembles regularly, and . In the beginning the church had almost total control hence provides us with a community by which we measure of every aspect of life, and gradually more and more of the life ourselves, and a way of conditioning and maintaining one's of Western men and women was emancipated from church life. In such an assembly one is renewed in one's sense of control. The period in which secularism began started with the commitment to truth and justice and one's dedication to love. church asserting that the purpose of life was to find heaven in This is the great secret of Western religion: The synagogue, the the next life, and it ended with the widespread acceptance of church, and the are primary group communities that the idea that the purpose of life is to prosper intellectually, allow individuals to live in artificially extended families or tribal spiritually, and materially in this life. groupings in the midst of a cosmopolitan, secular civilization. During the medieval period the word saecularis meant More than anything else, it is the sociological format of Judaism "the present era"; however, it also applied to clergymen who

16 FREE INQUIRY did not take monastic vows because they worked in the world Notes rather than isolating themselves in monasteries. Since their morality often did not conform to the absolute purity of the I. Joseph Fletcher, "An 0dyssey: From Theology to Humanism," Reli- Christian ideal, these secular religionists were often looked gious Humanism, vol 13, no. 4 (Autumn 1979), p. 146. 2. Ibid., p. 157. down on by the church. Secularism has always had a negative 3. Paul Kurtz, In Defense of Secular Humanism, Prometheus, p. 178. connotation to those with a traditional religious perspective. It 4. Ibid., p. 185. is interesting that religious functionaries helped to pioneer the 5. Bernard K. Duffy, "A New Meaning for Secular Humanism," concept. Religious Humanism, vol. 18, no. 4 (Summer 1984), p. 128. Beginning in the Renaissance, the story of the Western 6. Ibid. William P. Alston, "Religion," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. world has been a story of increasing secularization. As one of 7. Paul Edwards. Macmillan, 1967, vol. 7, p. 142. the best dictionaries puts it simply: Secularism is "the view that 8. Edwin H. Wilson, "Historical Note: A Humanist Manifesto (1933)." consideration of the present well-being of mankind should pre- The Free Mind, vol. 27, no. 2 (March/ April 1985), p. 2. dominate over religious considerations." Our modern usage of 9. Robert B. Tapp, Religion Among the Unitarian Universalists: Con- the word secular was coined by George Jacob Holyoake, a verts in the Stepfather's House, Seminar Press, 1973, p. 236. Gerald Meyer has recently written a fine article stressing the similari- working-class reformer and lecturer in the English Owenite 10. ties between secular and religious humanists in which he makes a plea for movement. In 1841 he was the last person jailed in England for cooperation between the two groups. See The Churchman, vol. CXCIX, no. public blasphemy, and he served a sentence of six months in 3 (March 1985), pp. 14-15. • the Gloucester jail. In those days one could be imprisoned for advocating atheism! Upon his release, he wrote a book in which Halley's Comet Tour of he coined the term secularism, which he thought less offensive than atheism. In effect, he wanted the good of the working Australia, Hawaii, and Tahiti class to be based on a calculation of their earthly condition and not on the basis of reasoning derived from an other- One of the best places to view Halley's Comet is from Down worldly, theistic perspective. Under. The Australian Skeptics (scientific investigators of para- normal claims) have organized a tour for North Americans to coincide with their Second Annual , to be held in ecularism is a good thing; without it the modern world as Melbourne, March 28 to 31, 1986. There will also be meetings 1.3 we know it would be impossible. The Secular Humanist with Australian humanists. Viewings of the comet from the Declaration in 1980 listed ten concepts of secularism, all of Gilgandra Observatory (Gilgandra) and from the Mt. Stromlo which have come to us from the secularization of the Western Observatory (Canberra) are included in the package tour. This world: (I) The right to free inquiry. (2) Separation of church two-week excursion is offered from both San Francisco and Los Angeles. Both leave Saturday, March 22, and return and state. (3) The ideal of individual and democratic freedom. Sunday, April 6, 1986. (4) Ethics based on critical intelligence instead of supernatural pronouncement. (5) Moral education can and should be cul- Sat., Mar. 22: Leave San Francisco 9:00 P.M., arrive Hawaii at tivated in children apart from religion, for example, in the midnight. public schools. Good does not necessarily depend Leave L.A. at 9:00 P.M., arrive Hawaii 11:30 P.M. Mon., Mar. 24: Leave Hawaii 1:40 A.M. CROSS INTER- on religion. (6) The cultivation of religious —and, NATI0NAL DATELINE. indeed, skepticism toward any unproven assertions. (7) The Tues., Mar. 25: Arrive Sydney 7:40 A.M. commitment to giving priority to reason and truth arrived at Leave Sydney 11:00 A.M., arrive Dubbo, N.S.W., at noon for Halley's Comet tour to Gilgandra rationally. (8) The recognition of the scientific method as the 0bservatory. most trustworthy way of knowing. (9) The acceptance of the Thurs., Mar. 27: Leave Dubbo 3:00 A.M. for Sydney. evolutionary hypothesis and its constant testing and refinement. Arrive Sydney 8:30 A.M. Fri. Mar. 28: Leave Sydney 9:30 A.M. Arrive Melbourne 10:40 (10) A commitment to universal education and literacy. A.M. As I look at these ten principles, which have to be elabo- Sun.. Mar. 30: Second National Convention of Australian Skep- rated to a greater extent to be fully appreciated in terms of tics in Melbourne these are the core Mon., Mar. 31: Leave Melbourne for Canberra. Lunch with Can- their power to aid human beings, I find that berra Branch skeptics on sheep station; evening of attitudes and values out of which I want to live my life. tour of Mt. Stromlo 0bservatory. These represent my religion. The secularism of the Western Tues., Apr. l: Leave Canberra for Sydney. Farewell Dinner with N.S.W. Branch skeptics. world has given me the values, the content of my religion. So it Wed., Apr. 2: Leave Sydney 11:15 A.M. CROSS INTER- is not a contradiction, as one might think, to talk about "the NATI0NAL DATELINE. religion of secular humanism." My religion is the religion of Arrive Tahiti 10:05 P.M. Sat., Apr. 5: Leave Tahiti 11:30 P.M. secular humanism. I will defend my religion against the funda- Sun., Apr. 6. Arrive Los Angeles 9:25 A.M. mentalist who tries to hold that both my humanism and my secularism are evil—and I will defend my religion against my Note: Visits to Hawaii, Dubbo, Canberra, and Tahiti may be deleted. friends in the humanist movement who want humanism to shun the power and vitality that can grow out of religious Remember the exchange rate is advantageous—$t U.S. is now worth $1.43 A.U.S. For further Conference and/or travel information call community when religious community is rightly understood or write Jean Millholland, FREE INQUIRY, Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215- and constructively used to further the best goals and aspirations 0005, (716) 834-2921. of human life.

Winter 1985/86 17 Residual Religion

Joseph Fletcher

nother way to state or express Paul Beattie's "religion subject of study—one which thus defined or redefined would of secular humanism" would be to call it "the religion fall under the Supreme Court's ban on any or all religious Aof the humanism that dispenses with religion." This teaching in the public school system. rephrasing helps us to see into the heart of the issue he raises. Jerry Falwell and the Religious Right constantly rail If we went through the roster of contemporary secular against the Supreme Court's separation of church and state in humanists—Hook, Flew, Skinner, Djilas, Ayer, Quine, Popper, the schools and hope someday to see their propaganda become Wilson, Crick, Sagan, just as a sampling—and asked them if legal. But in the meantime their strategy is to pretend that they pray and lead hymns on Sundays, they would say, "Cer- secular humanism is a religion, just as religious humanism is, tainly not." and should therefore be as illegal as any other religion. Senators Professor Kurtz and I say we are agnostics or atheists, one Orrin Hatch and Jesse Helms are the congressional sachems or the other. Being a religious humanist and the minister of a pushing this strategy of suppression by redefinition. church, Beattie could not intelligibly, and does not, call himself by such plainly secular names. The simple fact is that to speak nd now, alas, comes Paul Beattie—an old ally in the of religious is a contradiction of terms. People who Ahumanist fold—to bolster up the reactionaries. Informed use the English language "as she is spoke" will have no trouble people have known all along that some humanists are religious seeing the contradiction. and some are secular, but now comes Beattie to say that the Webster's, aside from the medieval uses of the term ecclesi- is really nonexistent and the distinction between reli- astically, defines secularism as "indifference to or rejection or gious and secular humanism is a mistake. On this logic the exclusion of religion." It says of religion, first, that it means secular Darwinian version of evolution is just as religious as "the service and worship of God or the supernatural." This is the creationist biblical version, and therefore (this, of course, is what the term ordinarily connotes. Then it adds, as the broadest what they are after) if one can be banned from the schools as and least specifying definition, "a personal or institutional religious so can the other—and both for the same reason! system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices." Beattie, as Secular humanists have no desire to deny the right of we all know, is religious not in the first or but other humanists to be religious, if they freely choose to be. in the second indeterminate sense. Even so, agnostics and atheists think religious humanists are To speak, therefore, as Beattie does, of religious secularism still embroiled in the religiosity of prescientific discourse. Resid- or secular religion is, to say the least, surprising. He does this ual religion. Religion that has lost its specificity and by means of what some logicians call the "fallacy of indefini- therefore any recognizable shape. tion." He cites Kurtz's list of the traits to be found in most One more point is worth making. Not content with trying secular humanists (many of which fit Beattie as an individual), to argue that secular humanism is by redefinition a religion, he never explains how he would himself define either "secular" Beattie in so arguing also claims that Kurtz's values (note: his or "religion," leaving the rest of us open to considerable surprise values, not what he thinks) are "mainline thought in America." as well as bewilderment. It may well be, I suppose, that many of Kurtz's ideals of open- The surprise is twofold. It comes not just on the score of mindedness, freedom of thought and speech, and the like, are his lexical contradiction. Far more seriously, at least in my commonly professed in our native land, but Beattie then sug- book, Beattie has also given aid and comfort to the politicians gests that Kurtz's thinking, his judgments and conclusions, are and courts who are also trying these days, like him, to include also mainline American. secular humanism among the religions. They do this, of course, This is simply not true. Kurtz's rejection of religious ideas because they want to ban it from school curricula as an illegal and his secular views are (like mine) not at all mainline Ameri- can. Surely I cannot be so completely mistaken about my own, Joseph Fletcher is a theologian and former professor of medical country as to suppose that Kurtz's (and my) repudiation of ethics at the University of Virginia Medical School. He is a religious faith is a mainline position for Americans. We wish it member of the Academy of Humanism. were so, of course, but it isn't. I charge Paul Beattie with indefinition, and I urge him

18 FREE INQUIRY further to recognize that definition is essentially negative, not positive. Defining and describing should make clear what some- "To be a secular humanist, to thus qualify the thing is not as well as what it is. noun, means to be a certain kind of humanist; The issue his article raises falters because he fails to explain what a secular humanist is not. I put it to him that the proper to think, that is, about men and their problems answer is "not religious." The adjective "religious" is what we and prospects without God or heaven or any are discussing, not the noun "humanism." Some adherents other religious ideas and aspirations entering in." among the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and all the other reli- gious traditions can be and are humanists when the noun is defined only positively—as in Terence's phrase, "Nothing think, that is, about men and their problems and prospects human is alien to me." without God or heaven or any other religious ideas and aspira- We can be sure, for example, that most of the modern tions entering in. No prayers or hymns or church services. Not beginning with Leo XIII would like to have been known only detheologized, but dereligionized. No residual wonderings as Christian humanists. To be a secular humanist, to thus about the "transcendental" or searching for the "ultimate." No qualify the noun, means to be a certain kind of humanist; to more worship of either God or man. •

Pluralistic Humanism

Sidney Hook

nfortunately, the English language "as she is spoke" is swear the use of the terms religion and religious. Their goal is not a guide to formulating wise policy in combating to limit, where they cannot bar, the study of science and the Uthe onslaughts of fundamentalists against the teaching development of rational, scientific habits of thought in our of science and the cultivation of critical, scientific thinking in schools. our public schools. For one thing, English "as she is spoke" is a So far as I know, secular humanists and religious human- developing thing, the norms of correct usage are historical, and ists (except for Christian humanists) do not teach their distinc- sensible people infer meaning from and in context. Even oxy- tive beliefs as such in public schools any more than Ethical moron has its appropriate usage, which cannot be outlawed Culturists do. The fundamentalists assume that the absence of out of hand by declaring it merely "a contradiction in terms." instruction in their own particular faith is tantamount to a For another thing, English is not the only language of human commitment to the teaching of a non-religious or irreligious discourse, and what cannot be rightfully said according to its faith. This assumption is mistaken both in logic and in fact. Of current rules of and correct usage may find appro- course moral or character education is integral to the education priate expression in another language. The furniture of heaven of children, but the case for the teaching of the moral, intellec- and earth is discovered by scientific inquiry. It is not created by tual, and social virtues can easily be made without reference to semantic legislation. supernaturalism or revelation. In the interest of religious freedom, I am eager to protect Anyone who reads Homer Duncan's Secular Humanism: Paul Beattie's right to speak of the religion of humanism. I The Most Dangerous Religion in America will see that what believe that the prospects of religious freedom improve with irks him and his supporters is that the Christian gospel is not a the multiplication of religions, especially religions that are free part of the curriculum of the public school, that the scientific of the of supernaturalism. The watchdogs of funda- theory of evolution is considered appropriate but not the bib- mentalism are not going to be quieted even if humanists, Ethical lical story of the divine creation of species. Personally, I would Culturists, and other holders of non-theistic world-views for- have no objection to stating the Anstatilian notion that species have existed from and the biblical story of species creation as alternative views to the theory of evolution and Sidney Hook is professor emeritus of philosophy at New York considering all of them critically, but Homer Duncan would University and senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution have an apoplectic fit at the prospect of any such approach. of War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University. He is a Anyone who has corresponded with him on these issues will be member of the Secretariat of the Academy of Humanism. convinced of his helplessness in the face of reasonable objections to the dogmas he would teach by fiat.

Winter 1985/86 19 am less concerned by the indeterminate meaning of religion I than I am by the reference to the by individuals who no more believe in his existence than I do. Although I have never considered myself a religious person, I am accustomed to being called "religious" by writers inspired by or Niebuhr or Tillich, who define religion in On the Misuse terms of ultimate concern. To be sure, we understand what is meant when one says that money or music or love is one's religion and that he or she Mammon or or A Response to Priapus. But we can understand what is being said very well without the use of the term religion. Feuerbach once observed that atheism is his religion, and I suppose other atheists have similarly indicated that they can live a full, contented, and moral life without the crutch of supernatural myths. I find the use of the term God more objectionable because in the Western world, especially, it is almost invariably identified with the God of Judeo-Christianity. I recall questioning John Paul Kurtz Dewey when I read the of his A Common Faith— in which he defined God as the union of the ideal and real— about the wisdom of the use of the term. He justified it by hen I first read Paul Beattie's paper "Is Secular saying that no one had patented a meaning of it, that the God Humanism a Religion?" I was dismayed at his of , , and Joseph was not the God of the New Wflagrant misuse of language at a particularly inop- Testament, nor the God of Plato or Aristotle or Spinoza or portune time. Right-wing and fundamentalist religious forces Hegel or Whitehead. He wasn't a "theist," but there was a have been insisting for several years that secular humanism is a connotation of a small-town, small-minded negativism about religion and that in order to preserve the principle of separation the term atheism that he disliked. His "God" was a positive of church and state, it must be extirpated from the schools and ideal that stressed the worthiness of striving to make the world from other areas of public life—the media, the , the a better place for mankind, and most of the people who believed courts, etc. Secular humanists, as other good citizens, are com- in God, according to him, were making a moral commitment. I mitted to upholding the First Amendment, and their opposition confess I was taken by surprise at the warmth of his statement, to the establishment of religion is well known. but predicted that sooner or later some clergyman was going to I have argued for many years that secular humanism is a try to establish a connection between Dewey's God and the nonreligious humanism and that it has an appropriate role to anthropomorphic God of the Bible. My prediction turned out play in public schools and in our civic life. Paul Beattie, a good to be accurate. The Reverend Wieman did claim Dewey for friend and colleague with whom I share many beliefs and values, some kind of Christianity, and I believe Dewey had several argues that secular humanism is a religion. This seems to me to exchanges with him in an attempt to be freed from his fraternal violate the ethics of language. Like Humpty Dumpty in Alice's embrace. Adventures in Wonderland, he makes words mean their oppo- Regardless of whether secular humanism is called a reli- sites. I have been the leading proponent of the term secular gion, the members of the Ethical Culture Society will call their humanism in order to distinguish it from religious humanism. group a religion. The strategy of combating the thrust of funda- Clearly religious humanism exists, and it has many adherents, mentalism and supernaturalism—and a religion can still be especially among members of the Unitarian church of which supernatural even if it is not theistic—should not rely on sur- Paul Beattie is a dedicated leader, the Ethical Culture Societies, rendering the use of the term religion by those naturalists who the Fellowship of Religious Humanists, and the Society for wish to regard themselves as religious. We are dealing with a Humanistic Judaism. I have no objection to these groups historical situation in the United States in which officially there adopting the label "religious humanism." Nor do 1 want to has never been a separation of church and state from the time engage in definition-mongering and insist on only one meaning the First Amendment was adopted to the present. So long as of the term humanism. Nevertheless, words have meanings, church property is exempt from taxation there can be no and there is an ethic concerning the use and abuse of language. absolute separation. On the other hand, in some countries like I think that Paul Beattie has violated this ethic. Why seek to England, Scandinavia, and Israel where church and state are impose a religious definition on all forms of humanism? In not separated, the state of religious freedom is as healthy as it particular, to misuse the word secular as to call secular human- is in the United States.Were we founding a society from scratch, ism a "religion"? secular humanists could reasonably propose policies that might not be realistic when we have to take our point of departure here is some sense in which the term religious as distinct from historical situations that reflect the great influence of the Tfrom religion is meaningful when applied to some forms religious past. It is the direction in which the community is of humanism. John Dewey used the term religious to refer to moving, toward or away from secular humanism, that should the quality of experience in which we express our commitment be our primary concern. • to ends and values. Dewey was even willing to use the term

20 FREE INQUIRY of dedicated interest may be said to be religious, in a meta- phorical sense, they surely are not examples of religions. A religion refers to a set of practices and beliefs, a or code (however liberally applied), a ministry, rites, and , churches or other centers of worship or prayer, and an of Language: organized community of believers. Unitarianism, though gener- ally noncreedal and individualistic, nevertheless roughly fits this definition. Secular nontheistic, atheistic, agnostic, or natur- Paul Beattie alistic cannot be said to be religions in this sense. They do not have a clergy or a priesthood, they have no estab- lished churches or temples, there are no codes or ; nor do they provide for common worship, prayer, or other services. Indeed, usually there is no fixed institutional framework to espouse a set of core values or to maintain a creed. However, these forms of secular humanism do have a set of ethical values, which they consider of prime significance (e.g., freedom of the individual, autonomy, tolerance, etc.); they are committed to the use of reason in evaluating claims to truth; and they believe that science best approximates our knowledge of the God in his controversial book A Common Faith (1934) in a at any one time in history. These forms of secular humanism naturalistic way to refer to our devotion to ideal ends. I might explicitly hold, however, that human beings can live good lives add that at that time two leading humanist thinkers, Sidney without clergy or churches, i.e., without a religion as the term Hook and Corliss Lamont, objected to Dewey's use of these is commonly understood. Millions of secular humanists are terms. They argued that, if these definitions were consistently even indifferent to religion, and they may accept secular applied, in one sense practically everything could function reli- humanism only nominally. Most secular humanists do not even giously. , the influential Protestant theologian, belong to a humanist organization per se. They are neither introduced the term ultimate concern to refer to this form of religious nor members of a religious institution. They are non- religiosity; and he found that both Christianity and atheistic religious secular humanists. humanism displayed similar religious characteristics. Here he Now some secular humanists may be passionately devoted was referring to the human qualities of and claimed to their beliefs and values. They (a relatively small number) that as religious Christians, Jews, and Muslims may be devoted may even be members of humanist organizations, and may to their religious faith or creed, so atheists, Marxists, and natur- publicly advocate the values and methods of secular and scien- alists may have an equal devotion and dedication to theirs. tific humanism. Perhaps they are religious in Dewey's sense; This commitment may be called "religious" if it expresses one's that is, they may have a deeply rooted psychological and socio- "whole response" to life—"core attitudes and values," to use logical commitment. As freethinkers they may be outspoken Beattie's terminology. critics of certain excesses of religion, especially those that are But this is where the issue becomes complicated. Does this authoritarian, dogmatic, or sectarian. They are nonreligious mean that any intense commitment to a set of beliefs and and antireligious—religiously so, Paul Beattie might say—but practices, if it has deep roots in the personality, should be here we are referring to the intensity or of conviction designated as "religious"? If one is a vegetarian and believes in a secular humanist's psychological framework, and nothing firmly that "Thou shalt not eat meat," would this be a religious beyond that; it is like being a committed vegetarian, a strong commitment? Perhaps it makes some sense to stretch the term Republican, or an avid sports fan. to cover such cases, but how far do we go? If one is a committed Although there may be some similarities between these member of a political party, believes deeply in the party's aims various positions there are still genuine differences between the and goals, works hard during and between election campaigns theistic and the nontheistic use of the term religious, and this to further its influence, should we say that this, too, is a reli- should not be fudged. Indeed, there is a substantial difference gious commitment? Similarly, if one is a devoted fan of the in kind between a pious, believing Christian, Jew, or Muslim New York Jets or the San Diego Chargers, goes to all the and a non-believing atheist, agnostic, or skeptic. The former football games, and roots passionately for the victory of his or claims to have a sense of the presence of a divine being, who is her team, is it stretching the term to say that this is "religious" worshiped, loved, or feared, and to whom is attributed powers behavior? Is a member of the Wine-Tasters Society also "reli- that affect one's life and the universe. There is a kind of awe gious" if he or she is a connoisseur of wines and visits the about the noumenal character of reality, a belief in some trans- French wine country annually to sample its delightful products? cending force, and there is a creed—a confession of faith— If one is willing to use the term religious indiscriminately, it that is often recited publicly. Nontheists, too, may be inspired would boomerang; whatever people deem important in their by the majesty and mystery of the universe but they can find lives could be considered "religious." no evidence for a divine being or purpose. They have no feelings But there is a difference between being religious and adher- of theistic piety. Thus viewed from within the experience, the ing to a religion. Even if some of the above-mentioned examples phenomenological character of the theistic believer is markedly

Winter 1985/86 21 different from that of the nonbeliever, however much the latter may (or may not, as the case may be) be devoted to his or her ideals. Theists deny that nontheists have the same religious qualities of experience they do, and they often attack secularists on this score. They claim a special mystical, noumenal aware- The Habit ness that nontheists do not believe in. Thus it is a cardinal mistake to say that all experiences that represent "ultimate concern" are synonymous and hence religious. They differ fundamentally. The theist believes that there is some external Brand Blanshard, distinguished professor emeritus of philoso- divine source or ground for his belief, but the nontheist denies phy at Yale University, is a Laureate of the Academy of that his concern is ultimate in that sense. (Both are only human, Humanism. He delivered the following address at Boston says the humanist.) The term religious thus has different University's 111th Commencement. meanings and cannot be applied in the same way to all en- deavors in which there is intensity, dedication, or commitment to a cause. If we approach the problem from the standpoint of the Brand Blanshard term religion, the differences are even clearer. Secular human- ism is not a religion. Beattie's definition of a religion is so broad that it includes any community of association or fellow- ust thirty years ago, when I was a young whippersnapper ship of individuals who hold the same set of core values. The in my sixties, I was taking part in a graduation exercise skeptic, atheist, or secular humanist can form an organization Jvery different from this in size. A great man of business, to achieve certain common goals without being thereby desig- Thomas Watson, Sr., head of IBM, was being given an honor- nated as having a religion—much the same as educators, ary degree, and for a brief time I was thrown into his company. doctors, , and others who voluntarily join professional What was an academic, straight from an ivory tower, sound- associations or special interest groups. They do not include proofed with ivy, to say to a captain of industry? How break common worship or prayer and the other paraphernalia and the enveloping ice? Suddenly an idea occurred to me that trappings of religion. wreathed Mr. Watson's face with smiles. I told him that affixed to my study wall at Yale was the slogan of his company, the person can live a good life, have a set of core values, and single word "Think!" That injunction was surely as appropriate Apossess a sense of belonging to a particular community, to a philosopher's study as in a businessman's office. When I and yet not be said (a) to be religious or (b) to have a religion. came to consider what counsel to give you graduates, as you One can live with an intense commitment to a wide range of go out into a noisy, infinitely complex world, I could conceive ideals—which may express one's core values—and not be reli- of nothing more to the point than what Mr. Watson and I had gious in the usual sense of having piety, a creed, or a sense of agreed was equally essential to philosophy and to business, . Moreover, one can participate in various that injunction, "Think!" communities—moral, social, economic, intellectual—but they In a sense, to be sure, it is silly advice. We are all thinking need not all be reduced to religion. One may even com- incessantly, whether we know it or not, just as surely as Mol- memorate rites of passage—birth, graduation, marriage or iere's Monsieur Jourdain had always been talking prose. John divorce, retirement, even death—in a purely secularized fashion Donne said that no man is an island. The strange fact is that without invoking any transcendent being or religious sense. To each of us is an island, communicating only by thought with insist that this implies a religion is to read far more into it than every other. Strictly speaking, I have never seen you, or you what is intended. me. I have heard your mouth making noises and have seen Beattie is obfuscating language. Secular humanism is dis- your hands making gestures. But these are not you. I say this tinct from religious humanism. Is there not a right to freedom in spite of a distinguished colleague at Harvard who is trying of conscience and freedom from religion for those who insist to develop a psychology without and sometimes upon it, without being accused of being covertly religious? sounds as if he had succeeded. If you are happy or angry, that Surely one who is indifferent to or neutral about religion, or is a state of consciousness, though I can never see or hear it. nonreligious or even anti-religious, should not be labeled "reli- But I can and do know it by an act of instant and effortless gious." To deny this would mean that something is what it is as from what you say or do. That is why John Stuart well as its opposite—a clear contradiction. There are many Mill could say that the drawing of is the main other institutions other than religious ones that can fulfill business of life. human interests, express core values, and satisfy psychological But of course it is not that kind of thinking that I am and sociological needs. The fact that Beattie shares most of the commending to you today; you are masters of it already. Nor values, methods, and outlook of secular humanism does not is it the kind of thinking Freud asked patients to do on the mean that it is religious. He also accepts the rules of arithmetic couch in his office. This is called "free association," because, and grammar, but this does not mean that they too are reli- like the famous Irishman who mounted his horse and rode off gious. Secular humanism is secular, not religious. The term furiously in all directions at once, it never arrives anywhere. should not be turned upside down. • You think first of a brown bear, then of the St. Louis Browns,

22 FREE INQUIRY of Reason

then of Father Brown the detective, then of Sherlock Holmes, then of Dick Tracy, then of Tracy Austin. That is not thinking. I once read of a farmer who went to the local court asking for a divorce. "What charge," said the judge, "do you bring against Professor Brand Blanshard your spouse?" "She talks all the time," said the plaintiff, "and I can't get a word in edgewise." "Well," said the puzzled judge, of your scheme of life as a whole. When these are clearly set "what does she talk about?" "I don't know," answered the out, you may find the decision surprisingly easy. Other things plaintiff; "she ain't never said." That is not thinking. equal, you will probably cast your lot with number three. The Then what is thinking? It is this: a directed effort to reach old flivver will still be with you, but so will Susan and your the truth by solving some particular problem that stands in the peace of mind. way. In its most common form it has four steps. That is an absurdly simplified pattern of thinking, but it The first step is to make the problem specific. The philo- will apply to most of our problems. Life is a succession of big sopher G. E. Moore used to say that, if you had made the and little crises, and one main aim of education is to supply us problem clear and precise, you had already half solved it. For with the strategies necessary for dealing with them. Further- example, you may be carrying about with you a cloud of more, dealing with them thoughtfully may become a habit. worry; you don't know quite why, or what to do about it. The Indeed, my thesis today is that if you have acquired that habit first thing to do is to delve about in the muddy depths of your of reasonableness, you will have acquired the best thing that an mind till you bring to light the nub of the worry. Suddenly it education can bestow. dawns on you. Why of course; you are heavily in debt; it is hanging round your neck like an albatross. You need a new et how rare that habit of reasonableness is! We Americans car; you want to marry Susan; but you can't while carrying the Yare an impatient, impulsive, excitable, and excitement- weight. loving people; we have been described as the Latin branch of The second step is to form theories freely of how to rid the Anglo-Saxon race. In a corner of our living room is a yourself of that burden. Your problem is now financial, which perpetual source of excitement that can be had for nothing, the makes it tough but definite. You can repudiate the whole thing TV set, and many of us, especially in our teens or our eighties, and take off for Canada; you can ask for a deferment; you can have become its addicts, preferring passivity to any planned confer with Susan, who is one of those astonishingly reasonable activity. An increasing number of our youth are courting a less modern girls and has a job of her own. You bless her and turn meaningful excitement through drugs. An hour, a day, a life to the third step. ordered by reflective choice strikes them as gray and dull. That step is to develop in foresight the consequences of Genius has become associated in many with rakish your proposals. The consequence of your first proposal is that excess; and it is a curious fact that most American Nobel you will have Uncle Sam on your trail; of your second, defer- laureates in literature have been alcoholics. The British critic ment, that your debt will have compounded and that in ten Lowes Dickinson remarked that modern literature is one vast years you will be a deadbeat. Your third proposal is probably hospital. For most of us a novel filled with reasonable people Susan's. She may say, "Keep the old flivver; set aside part of would be insupportably flat; and I feel sure that when Time your income and mine; and in exactly four and a half years, magazine comes out, many readers turn first to the section the albatross will fall off." called "People," for it is so rich in variegated lunacy. But The fourth and final step in thinking is to compare the reasonableness is a much rarer achievement than willfulness consequences of your proposals to see which is best in the light and ought to be more interesting.

Winter 1985/86 23 Rare as it is, I have met men occasionally who have actu- blown aside, as Mt. St. Helens blows its surface off when the ally embodied it. One of them was a friend and teacher of powers below break loose. Or, as some Freudian has put it, mine. I spent a far-off summer in Philadelphia with a group of our mind is like a guard standing at a cellar door, which is Columbia graduate students who were trying to find why a beaten on from time to time by the sinister occupants of the community of immigrants was forming a social cyst, largely cellar, a mob of idiots full of sound and fury. If he can keep cut off from the population around them. Our senior member them in control, he and his race are destined to a career of was John Dewey, a great name now in the history of education. unimaginable attainment; if he cannot, and the madness in the His philosophy I could not accept, but he remains in my cellar again takes over, your generation could be the last. memory as the most persistently thoughtful person I have There are those who are telling us that it is taking over known. Almost anything could set him off on a train of already and that control by mind is losing ground. Look, they thought. He would see an item in the morning paper on some- say, at the idiotic arms race. Or to take something a little less thing the State Department had done about Poland: that night obvious, look at our education. A college or university is an we would hear him pecking away at his old typewriter, and institution of higher learning. But many high-school graduates next morning he would read for us at breakfast an article for who present themselves at college doors cannot properly read, the New Republic, pointing out how shortsighted the depart- write, or count. The SAT, or Scholastic Aptitude Test, prepared ment had been. He could think in any circumstances. A biogra- by a capable and devoted board of scholars, is a test of one's pher writes: readiness to begin a higher education. This board found that, beginning in the 1960s, the average score of the applicants By taking an apartment at the corner of Broadway and 56th went down for nineteen consecutive years. Full success on the Street, a fourth-floor apartment fronting on both streets, he test would earn a score of 800. Last year the average score on managed to surround himself with enough noise so that he the mathematical side was 468, on the verbal side, 425. Some could get some thinking done.... There were five children large cities were still worse. One such city, for example, scored rioting about the house during the best years of this philoso- pher's life. They did not disturb his in the least. As 332 on the mathematical side and 306 on the verbal. Neither a logician, Dewey [was] at his best with one child climbing up the knowledge that incites thinking nor the interest in thinking his pants leg and another fishing in his inkwell. [Max Eastman, was there. Heroes I Have Known] Again, consider the need for reason in religion. Eighteen states have been contemplating legislation to demand equal He was so present-minded about what was before his mind time in our schools for the teaching of both "creation science" that he was absent-minded about what was before his eyes. I and "scientific evolution." In a closely reasoned decision of two have seen him, deep in thought, emerge from his office into the years ago, Judge William Overton of Arkansas denied that middle of the old philosophy reading-room at Columbia, sud- "creation science" was science at all. It was essentially an denly realize where he was, and pad sheepishly back into his attempt based, not on science, but on a literal interpretation of office. Indeed, he stopped thinking only when his heart stopped the Old Testament, to foist fundamentalism upon the schools. beating at ninety-three. His reflection had produced a pile of It does not go quite so far as Archbishop Ussher of Dublin, books and articles twelve feet high. who, by adding together the ages of the patriarchs, fixed the Of course he was a rare exception. Why is it that, with all creation as occurring on October 21, 4004 B.C. at 9 A.M.; but the advantages and with the appeal to reason open to most of "creation science" insists on the Garden of Eden and us, so few people succeed in guiding their way by thought? The and Eve, and 's flood, and Joshua's successful plea that true answer is that each of us is a divided self. A person is a the sun should stop while he slaughtered a few hundred more bundle of impulses or drives, of which the drive to know is Amorites. Many of us had thought that this brand of authori- important but feeble, and the others, especially when acting tarian mythology had been drowned in laughter at Dayton, together, are far more powerful. Why more powerful? The Tennessee, in 1923. Jerry Falwell and his millions have shown answer is biological. In 1973 the biologist Paul MacLean pointed us that we were wrong. out that we have three brains, which are really three levels of one brain. The oldest and most central is what he called the hat will stop this lemming-like mass return to medieval "reptillian" brain, whose functions include the control of mating, Wignorance? The only thing I can suggest is to get people feeding, and fighting. Superimposed on this central core is the to question and think. How do you reconcile the view that the paleomammalian brain, which is the anatomical base for emo- earth is about six thousand years old with the new chemical tions, such as fear, rage, pleasure, and grief. Atop this is the dating of rocks and meteorites, which shows that it is about 4.5 cerebral cortex, which came with the primates and made possi- billion years old? How do you reconcile the view that the race ble intelligence, foresight and logic. started with Adam and Eve with our cratefuls of skulls inter- Now the reason our impulses to feed and fight, to fear and mediate between man and animal, and so deposited in the rage, are so hard to control is that their roots are millions of earth's strata as to indicate a long, slow ascent? And, if the sun years old in our racial history; the reason foresight and logic suddenly stopped at Joshua's bidding—which must have meant, are so feeble in restraining them is that their cortical bases are not that the sun stopped, but that the earth stopped revolv- relatively recent, only a few hundred thousand years old; they ing—all people must have been precipitated eastward at about are therefore relative newcomers in the management of behav- a thousand miles an hour and been killed. If that happened, ior. They make the life of reason possible, but they can be where do we come from?

24 FREE INQUIRY One cannot pursue this questioning long without perceiving full of people who are there because they surrendered to impulse that the proposed authority is to take precedence over the logic before they took thought. of science. We are being asked to accept contradictions of I have been speaking of thought on practical problems, science at countless points. One may fall back on the airy line but we must remember that the great masters of thought had of Walt Whitman and say: "Do I contradict myself? Very well access to two worlds at once, the world of eternal and then I contradict myself." So what? he would add. Well, that the world of common sense. The founder of that line was "what" is that you have stopped thinking. As the philosopher , who first showed to the race what condor flights of McTaggart said, "No one ever tried to break logic, but that speculation the human could rise to, and yet, homely logic broke him." Try contradicting the law of contradiction as an old shoe, was a stonemason himself, at home with soldiers and see where you come out. If both sides of a contradiction and sailors, farmers and carpenters. The modern Socrates was, can be true, then the truth of does not exclude the I think, . Albert Einstein was three men: one, truth of evolution, and you are not denying it after all. Indeed, the man with an old sweater and baggy trousers who stood on you are saying nothing. There is not one rule for thinking in a Princeton street corner eating an ice cream cone or helped a religion and another for science; there is one great honest rule little schoolgirl who had heard that he was good at figures; for both: Adjust your belief to the evidence. two, the physicist who pursued to the end of that revolutionary I can hear the objections to such teaching. Objection one: trail of thought that ended in the tiny formula E = MC, energy "You're an elitist and an intellectualist; you are trying to hoist equals mass times the square of the speed of light; and three, the college graduate on to a pedestal, where he stands out the postwar Einstein, who dedicated himself to saving the world above the run of men." To which I answer: Exactly. I not only that he saw his formula might destroy. His argument was simple admit the charge; I would drive it home. What is an education and, I think, unanswerable. Nuclear knowledge is spreading in for if not to turn out an elite? Not a set of snobs and cads, of a world of international anarchy. In the past such anarchy has course, but minds intellectually disciplined. Don't underrate always produced war. It will again, and this time it will destroy that roll of paper you receive today from the university. Knowl- civilization unless the bomb can be contained. It can be con- edge and power to think are too undervalued in this country. If tained only in one of two ways, by its agreed-upon destruction you are not a better citizen, a better man or woman, a better by all nations that own it, or by its agreed-upon consigning member of society, because of the years you have spent here, into the hands of a world government. Einstein did not know then either you or the university has fallen down on the job. whether reason would outrun death; he did feel sure, according Objection two: "You are preaching from the wrong text. to report, that if there were a fourth world war, it would be Instead of `Think' it should be 'the ice man cometh.' You want fought by savages with bows and arrows. us to be intellectualists, full of prunes and prisms, with ice Men like Socrates and Einstein are what William James water in our veins instead of red blood, and to repress the called "quarto and folio editions of mankind." You and I are feeling, impulsive, desiring beings you have just admitted that paperbacks. Still, paperbacks vary in quality. When William we are." Answer: Not so. There is a deep divide between the Howard Taft was once addressing a graduating class, he said: intellectualist and the intellectual. The intellectualist does not "Some of you, I notice, are graduating cum laude, others magna run to head like an onion; he is only half a man; let him play cum laude, a few summa cum laude. I graduated mirabile his abstract games if he will. The intellectual, as Plato said, is a dictu." All of us could say, like Taft, that we graduated charioteer whose business it is to drive the powerful horses of "wonderful to say"; it is not our doing that we were born in a feeling and impulse; and only as he applies the bit and rein land where a university education was open to us. But with this judiciously will they ever carry him to his goal. Thought is no degree in hand, new worlds are possible, and whether they will enemy of feeling; indeed it may itself be driven by a passion for be realized depends on you. Each one of us is unique, and life truth, as it was in Einstein, for example, and in his favorite is one long experiment in self-discovery. philosopher, Spinoza. What the true intellectual despises is not Be your unique self. Leonard Bernstein has said: "The feeling, but feeling out of control. That excellent English critic great danger threatening us ... is the takeover of mediocrity," F. L. Lucas says, "Imagine the greatest man you can think of, and has added, "Never try to discourage in a bad temper; does he still, at the moment, seem great? No. thinking, for you are sure to succeed." Democracy and distinc- Not even were he Alexander. Real greatness implies balance tion are subtly at war with each other. The pressure of the and restraint." media and the shrinking of the world are casting our minds Objection three, the objection: "You are saying, into molds. The route to escape is through thought. By taking 'Look and think before you leap.' But the man who does that thought, we can choose our own media, select our own music, will probably not leap at all.... 'The native hue of resolution/ Is create our mental environment; we can surround ourselves with sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.' " Answer: That may the best that has been thought and said in the world. I don't in rare cases be true. Taking thought may end in being a mean the best sellers, which may be here today and gone mugwump, defined as being a bird who just sits on the fence, tomorrow, but the classics, defined as "works that are con- with his mug on one side and his wump on the other. But if we temporary with every age." are all, as in fact we are, little volcanoes, with impulses ready That is why my last word to you is: Whenever you choose to erupt, and with thought a feeble restraint, then the more a vocation or a spouse, a party or a candidate, a cause to authority we can give to thought the better. I have not heard of contribute to or a creed to live by—Think! • an American jailed for being too thoughtful; but our jails are

Winter 1985/86 25 BIBLICAL SCORECARD Was Jesus a God? Tom Franczyk

or most Christians and humanists So the Word became flesh; he came to the blood of Zechariah the son Fthe question of Jesus' divinity is to dwell among us, and we saw his of Barachiah, whom you murdered rhetorical. Let's see what the Gospels glory, such glory as befits the between the sanctuary and the have to say about it. Father's only Son, full of grace and alter." [Matt. 23:35 (RSV)] Jesus nowhere claims to be a God truth. [John 1:14 (NEB)] and, in fact, implies that he is not. But they conspired against him, and by command of the king they stoned with stones in the court of And as he was setting out on his The latest canonical Gospel shows the house of . Thus Joash journey, a man ran up and knelt how complete the separation from the king did not remember the before him, and asked him, "Good Judaism had become and why an kindness which Jehoiada, Zechari- Teacher, what must I do to inherit appeal to the adherents of the mystery ah's father, had shown him, but eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, cults became necessary: The Jews killed his son. [2 Chron. 24:21-22. "Why do you call me good? No could not accept a dead messiah or a See also 24:20.] one is good but God alone." [Mark man-god. This shift can be traced 10:17-18; Luke 18:18-19 (RSV). chronologically through the Gospels. Using Mark as a source, Matthew That Jesus does not claim to be Jesus says that Zechariah is the son (19:16-17) changes and weakens the of Barachiah, whereas the Chronicler implication.] a god can be attributed to divine humility. But there is another minimal tells us that he is Jehoiada's son. Strike two! Jesus is denying divinity or being requirement for the Christian God: deceptive, but not very godlike in infallibility. Was Jesus infallible? "You have learned that they were either case. told, 'Love your neighbor, hate Although the apostles refer to But he said to them, "Have you your enemy.' " [Matt. 5:43 (NEB). Jesus as "the son of God," Jesus never never read what David did when Note that Jesus was supposed to presumes the title for himself. But he was in need and hungry, he and be quoting exactly.] then, "son of God" is not a very exclu- those with him: sive epithet. Adam is referred to in "How he went into the house You shall not seek revenge, or this manner in Luke, and everyone who of God in the days of Abiathar the cherish anger towards your kinfolk; lives according to "God's will" can high priest, and ate the showbread, you shall love your neighbor as a make this claim, as in the Lord's which is not lawful to eat, except man like yourself. I am the Lord. Prayer and the Third Gospel. for the priests, and also gave some [Lev. 19:18] to those who were with him?" [Mark 2:25-26 (NKJV)] Which was the son of , which The carries no exhortation to was the son of , which was the "hate your enemy." Where did Jesus Now David came to Nob, to son of Adam, which was the son get this phrase, and why add it to the Ahimelech the priest. And Ahime- of God. [Luke 3:38 (KJV)] honored verse? Whatever the answer, lech was afraid when he met David, strike three! and said to him, "Why are you Be ye therefore merciful, as your alone, and no one is with you?" ... Jesus may have been correcting Father also is merciful. [Luke 6:36] So the priest gave him the holy misstatements in the Hebrew Scrip- bread; for there was no bread there ture, but he nowhere indicates this In the Hebrew Scriptures (Old but the showbread which had been intent. Testament), "son of God" refers to taken from before the Lord, in Many apologists would offer the the king or the expected messiah order to put hot bread in its place alleged performed by Jesus (Jesus can be neither, but that's a on the day when it was taken away. as "proof" of his deity. But his possible topic for a future "Score- [I Sam. 21:1-6. The New Catholic apostles, , medicine men, sha- card.") and does not imply divinity. Edition has this story in I Kings mans, , faith healers, and even 21:1-6.] Any suggestion that there was a God some of today's doctors claim "mirac- other than Yahweh, who was worthy ulous" achievements without suggest- of worship, was blasphemy. (Contrary Jesus has Abiathar as the priest, but ing that they are gods. (Pat Robertson to popular belief, was a it was Abiathar's father, Ahimelech, and Oral Roberts do it all the time.) late development. Although the who had that position according to Those who assert that Jesus ancient Hebrews believed that other Hebrew Scripture. Strike one! (Also was/ is a god must find the basis for gods existed, only Yahweh was to be note that 1 Samuel says David was their belief in sources other than his honored by the tribes.) alone; Jesus says David was not alleged words in the Gospels which Appealing to a audience, alone.) give them no support. If they read only the author/editor of the Fourth cookbooks the way they read the Gospel says that "Son" connotes deity, . that upon you may come all "Good Book," the food would become and the words are not put into Jesus' the righteous blood shed on earth, an abomination. mouth: from the blood of innocent Abel Humanists 1, Christians 0. •

26 FREE INQUIRY who had the privilege of knowing him were invariably impressed by his gentle manner ACADEMY OF HUMANISM NEWS and the generous spirit of his intellectual activities. He was a devoted teacher and wise counselor, always available and helpful to Ernest Nagel (1901-1985) those who sought him out. In the republic of letters he greeted everyone as a fellow A Naturalistic Humanist citizen who abided by the amenities of civil discourse, a respecter of argument as well Sidney Hook as of persons, whose only failing was a modesty so deep that it occasionally impeded he death of Ernest Nagel marks the power to diversify and, within limits, to con- creative work. For all his intellectual toler- Tpassing of an internationally known trol the varieties of experience. ance, he never let it affect his sense of quality humanist and philosophical naturalist. Nur- Ernest Nagel never identified the exis- or compromise his allegiance to the first rate. tured in the tradition of his teachers, Morris tence and experience of religion with a belief Ernest Nagel was an ardent champion of R. Cohen, F. J. E. Woodbridge, and John in God or any transcendent being. He re- intellectual and academic freedom. Despite Dewey, he devoted his immense intellectual garded religion as a form of organized social his gentleness he was in the forefront of the gifts to the detailed study of the methods consciousness whose multiple roles in life defense of the relative autonomy of the and logic of the . He concluded early provided a task for critical cultural and university during the tumultuous sixties, in his career that a rational view of the historical study. But refusing to evade issues when the freedom to teach and the freedom nature of the world and humankind's place by professing or by coining new to learn were imperiled. in it could be based only on the tested find- and arbitrary meanings for the terms God Although an admirer of Spinoza, Ernest ings of the empirical sciences. Although his and immortality, he courageously espoused Nagel was not a Spinozist. He was too much intellectual interests spanned a wide variety a philosophical atheism that challenged the aware of the irreducible pluralism and evils of areas and disciplines—symbolic logic, the whole array of fundamentalist revivals of of the world, of the tragic dimensions of theory of measurement and probability, our time. He was a militant defender of the, time and history, of the possibilities of mathematics, biology, law, and history—he values of a liberal civilization, whose validity human disaster as well as of human triumph, remained faithful to the Democritean- he defined in terms of their consequences to embrace an easy optimism about the Epicurean tradition that recognized that the for human weal and woe. He shared many future. Yet, in a sense, Ernest Nagel illu- emergence, development, and evanescence of of the aspirations of those who expressed strated what Spinoza called "the intellectual consciousness were a function of organized themselves in the language of natural or "—not, of course, in terms of patterns of matter. human rights but, as a naturalist, found no conventional theology, which they both Ernest Nagel was not only interested in basis for the view that they were grounded rejected, but in his dedication to the things the development of the sciences; he was a logically or ontologically in the nature of of the mind and to the perennial quest for staunch defender of rational methods of things. understanding, which to humanists is the inquiry in all areas of human experience The flavor and character of Ernest highest form of human . • against the periodic onslaught of religious Nagel's personality are not adequately con- and secular repression that sought to impose veyed by his sober, severe, and patient its views by authoritarian and intolerant analyses of scientific themes or even by the methods and by establishing road-blocks to trenchant tone of his critical studies. Those New Laureates Elected. free inquiry. He was convinced by the weight of evidence that there was no rational justi- fication for belief in the existence of disem- A meeting of the Academy of Humanism bodied mind or spirit, a notion inherent in will be held in Oslo, Norway, to coincide the religious world-views of the past and with the 1986 Humanist World Congress present or for the belief that incorporeal that will take place August 3-7, 1986. entities of any sort exercised a causal influ- Six Laureates have been elected to the ence on the behavior of man or things. Academy for 1986. They are: Yves Galifret, Nonetheless he contended, in opposition to professor of physiology at the Sorbonne and some of the reductive materialists of the past, director of l'Union Rationaliste; John Gal- that the scientific outlook did not entail the tung, professor of at the University conclusion that nothing existed but "the of Oslo; Adolf Grünbaum, professor of phi- movement of atoms in the void" and that losophy at the University of Pittsburgh and the color, variety, and glory of human con- former president of the American Philo- sciousness and culture in all their multiple sophical Association; Richard Leakey, direc- dimensions were illusions. He accounted for tor of the National Museum of Kenya in their emergence, novelty, and contextual Nairobi and chairman of the Foundation reality on the basis of the transformations for Research into the Origins of Man; Max that material things undergo in their inter- Rood, professor of law and former Minister actions with each other. Far from impov- of Justice in Holland; André Lwolff, Nobel erishing the richness of human experience, Prize-winner in physiology and professor of the scientific study of the causes and conse- science at the College de France.—Steven quences of phenomena increase our human L. Mitchell Ernest Nagel Winter 1985/86 27 CATCH UP ON WHAT YOU'VE MISSED! Use Card to Order FREE INQUIRY Conferences on Audio Tape (Add $1.50 per tape for postage and handling unless complete set is ordered.)

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Winter 1980/81 — Vol. I, no. I: Secular Humanist Declaration. Democratic Fall 1981 — Vol. I, no. 4: The Thunder of Doom, Edward P. Morgan. Humanism, Sidney Hook. Humanism: Secular or Religious? Paul Beattie. Secular Humanists: Threat or Menace? Art Buchwald. Financing of the Free Thought, Gordon Stein. The Fundamentalist Right, William Ryan. Repressive Right, Edward Roeder. and American , The Moral Majority, Sol Gordon. The Creation/ Evolution Controversy, Sidney Hook. A Symposium on the Future of Religion, Daniel Bell, Joseph H. James Birx. Moral Education, Robert Hall. Morality Without Religion, Fletcher, William Sims Bainbridge, Paul Kurtz. Resurrection Fictions, Marvin Kohl, Joseph Fletcher. Freedom Is Frightening, Roy P. Fairfield. Randel Helms. The Road to Freedom, Mihajlo Mihajlov. Winter 1981/82 — Vol. 2, no. I: The Importance of Critical Discussion, Spring 1981 — Vol. 1, no. 2: The Secular Humanist Declaration: Pro and Karl Popper. Freedom and Civilization, Ernest Nagel. Humanism: The Con- Con, John Roche, Sidney Hook, Phyllis Schlafly, Gina Allen, Roscoe science of Humanity, Konstantin Kolenda. Secularism in Islam, Nazih N. Drummond, Lee Nisbet, Patrick Buchanan, Paul Kurtz. New England. M. Ayubi. Humanism in the 1980s, Paul Beattie. The Effect of Education Puritans and the Moral Majority, George Marshall. The on Sex, Vern on Religious Faith, Burnham P. Beckwith. Bullough. 0n the Way to Mecca, Thomas Szasz. The Blasphemy Laws, Spring 1982 — Vol. 2, no. 2: A Call for the Critical Examination of the Gordon Stein. The , Marvin Kohl. Does God Exist? Kai Bible and Religion. Interview with Nielsen. Prophets of the Procrustean , Antony Flew. The Madrid on Science and the Bible, Paul Kurtz. The Continuing Monkey War, Conference, Stephen Fenichell. Natural Aristocracy, Lee Nisbet. L. Sprague de Camp. The Erosion of Evolution, Antony Flew. The Religion of Secular Humanism: A Summer 1981 — Vol. 1, no. 3: Sex Education, Peter Scales Thomas Szasz. Judicial Myth, Leo Pfeffer. Humanism as an American Heritage, Nicholas Moral Education, Howard Radest. Teen-age Pregnancy, Vern Bullough. F. Gier. The Nativity Legends, Randel Helms. Norman Podhoretz's Neo- The New Book-Burners, William Ryan. The Moral Majority, Gerald Larue. Puritanism, Lee Nisbet. Liberalism, Edward Ericson. Scientific Creationism, Delos McKown. New Evidence on the Shroud of Turin, Joe Nickell. Agnosticism, H. J. Blackham. Summer 1982—Special 72-page issue — Vol. 2, no. 3: A Symposium on Science and Religion, George Tomashevich. Secular Humanism in Israel, Science, the Bible, and Darwin: The Bible Re-examined, Robert S. Alley; Isaac Hasson. Gerald Larue, John Priest, Randel Helms. Darwin, Evolution, and Crea-

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tionism, Philip Appleman, William V. Mayer, Charles Cazeau, H. James Protection for Children, Rita Swan; Child Abuse and Neglect in Ultra- Birx, Garrett Hardin, Sol Tax, Antony Flew. Ethics and Religion, Joseph fundamentalist Cults and Sects, Lowell Streiker. The Flundations of Reli- Fletcher, Richard Taylor, Kai Nielsen, Paul Beattie. Science and Religion, gious Liberty and Democracy: A Symposium, Carl Henry, Paul Kurtz, Michael Novak, Joseph L. Blau. Father Ernest Fortin, Lee Nisbet. Joseph Fletcher, Richard Taylor. Biblical Views of Sex: Blessing or Handicap? Jeffrey J. W. Baker. Moral Absolutes Fall 1982 — Vol. 2, no. 4: An Interview with Sidney Hook at Eighty, Paul and Foreign Policy, Nicholas Capaldi. The Vatican Ambassador, Edd Doerr. Kurtz. Sidney Hook: A Personal Portrait, Nicholas Capaldi. The Religion A Naturalistic Basis for Morality, John Kekes. Humanist Self-Portraits, and Biblical Criticism Research Project, Gerald Larue. Biblical Criticism Matthew les Spetter, Floyd Matson, Richard Kostelanetz. and Its Discontents, R. Joseph Hoffmann. Boswell Confronts Hume: An Encounter with the Great , Joy Frieman. Humanism and Politics, Summer 1984—Special 68-page issue — Vol. 4, no. 3: School Prayer, Paul James R. Simpson, Larry Briskman. Humanism and the Politics of Nostal- Kurtz, Ronald A. Lindsay, Patrick J. Buchanan, Mark Twain. Science vs. gia, Paul Kurtz. Abortion and Morality, Richard Taylor. Religion in Future Constitutional Conflicts, Delos B. McKown. God and the Professors, Sidney Hook. Armageddon and Biblical Apocalyptic, Paul Winter 1982/83 — Vol. 3, no. I: 1983—The Year of the Bible. Academic Kurtz, Joseph Edward Barnhart, Vern L. Bullough, Randel Helms, Gerald Freedom Under Assault in California, Barry Singer, Nicholas P. Hardeman, A. Larue, John Priest, James Robinson, Robert S. Alley. Is the U.S. Vern Bullough. The Play Ethic, Robert Rimmer. Interview with Corliss Humanist Movement in a State of Collapse? John Dart. Lamont. Was Jesus a Magician? Morton Smith. Astronomy and the "Star of Bethlehem," Gerald Larue. Living with Deep Truths in a Divided World, Fall 1984 — Vol. 4, no. 4: Humanist Author Attacked, Phyllis Schlafly, Sol Sidney Hook. Anti-Science: The Strange Case of Paul Feyerabend, Martin Gordon. Humanists vs. Christians in Milledgeville, Georgia, Kenneth S. Gardner. Saladin. Suppression and Censorship in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church: Ellen White's Habit, Douglas Hackleman; Who Profits from the Prophet? Spring 1983 — Vol. 3, no. 2: The Founding Fathers and Religious Liberty, Walter Rea. Keeping the Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls, John M. Allegro. Robert S. Alley. Madison's Legacy Endangered, Edd Doerr. James Madi- Health , Rodger Pirnie Doyle. Humanism in Africa: Paradox son's Dream: A Secular Republic, Robert A. Rutland. The Murder of and Illusion, Paul Kurtz. Humanism in South Africa, Don Sergeant. of Alexandria, Robert E. Mohar. Hannah Arendt: The Modern Seer, Richard Kostelanetz. Was a Humanist? articles by Sidney Winter 1984/85 — Vol. 5, no. I: Are American Educational Reforms Hook, Jan Narveson, and Paul Kunz. Doomed? Delos B. McKown. The Door-to-Door Crusade of the Jehovah's Witnesses: The of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Lois Randle; Summer 1983—Special 68-page issue — Vol. 3, no. 3: Religion in American The Watchtower, Laura Lage. Sentiment, Guilt, and Reason in the Manage- politics Symposium: Is America a Judeo-Christian Republic? Paul Kurtz. ment of Wild Herds, Garrett Hardin. Animal Rights Re-evaluated, James The First Amendment and Religious Liberty, Sen. Lowell P Weicker, Jr., Simpson. Elmina Slenker: Infidel and Atheist, Edward D. Jervey. Sym- Sam J. Ervin, Jr., Leo Pfeffer. Secular Roots of the American Political posium: Humanism Is a Religion, Archie J. Bahm; Humanism Is a Philoso- System, Henry Steele Commager, Daniel J. Boorstin, Robert Rutland, phy, Thomas S. Vernon; Humanism: An Affirmation of Life, Andre Bacard. Richard B. Morris, Michael Novak. The Bible in Politics, Gerald Larue, Robert S. Alley, James M. Robinson. Bibliography for Biblical Study. Spring 1985 — Vol. 5, no. 2: Update on the Shroud of Turin, Joe Nickell. The Vatican's View of Sex, Robert T. Francoeur. An Interview with E. 0. Fall 1983 — Vol. 3, no. 4: The Academy of Humanism. The Future of Wilson, Jeffrey Saver. Religion and : Parapsychology: The Humanism, Paul Kunz. Humanist Self-Portraits, Brand Blanshard, Barbara "Spiritual" Science, James E. Alcock; Science, Religion and the , Wootton, Joseph Fletcher, Sir Raymond Firth, Jean-Claude Pecker. Inter- John Betoff. The Legacy of Voltaire (Part 1), Paul Edwards. The 0rigins of view with Paul MacCready. A Personal Humanist Manifesto, Vern Bul- Christianity, R. Joseph Hoffmann. lough. The Enduring Humanist Legacy of Greece, Marvin Perry. The Age of Unreason, Thomas Vernon. Apocalypse Soon, Daniel Cohen. 0n the Summer 1985 — Vol. 5, no. 3: Finding Common Ground Between Believers Sesquicentennial of Robert G. Ingersoll, Frank Smith. The Historicity of and Unbelievers, Paul Kurtz. Render Unto Jesus the Things That Are Jesus, John Priest. D. R. Oppenheimer, G. A. Wells. Jesus', Robert S. Alley. Jesus in Time and Space, Gerald A. Larue. Interview with Sidney Hook on , Marxism, and Human Freedom. Evangelical Winter 1983/84 — Vol. 4, no. I: Interview with B. F. Skinner. Was George Agnosticism, William Henry Young. To Refuse to Be a God, Khoren Orwell a Humanist? Antony Flew. Population Control vs. Freedom in Arisian. The Legacy of Voltaire (Part 11), Paul Edwards. China, Vern and Bonnie Bullough. Academic Freedom at Liberty Baptist College, Lynn Ridenhour. Special Feature on the Mormon Church: Joseph Fall 1985 — Vol. 5, no. 4: Two Forms of Humanistic Psychology, Albert Smith and the , George D. Smith; The History of Mor- Ellis. Psychoanalysis: Science or Pseudoscience? Grünbaum on Freud, Frank and Church Authorities: Interview with Sterling M. McMurrin. J. Sulloway; and Psychoanalysis, Michael Ruse; The Anti-Science: The Irrationalist Vogue of the 1970s, Lewis Feuer. The End Death Knell of Psychoanalysis, H. J. Eysenck; Looking Backward, Lee of the Galilean Cease-Fire? James Hansen. Who Really Killed Goliath? Nisbet. Jesus in History and Myth: New Testament Scholarship and Chris- Gerald A. Larue. Humanism in Norway: Strategies for Growth, Levi Fragell. tian Belief, Van A. Harvey; A Liberal Christian View, John Hick. The Winter Solstice and the Origins of Christmas, Lee Carter. Spring 1984 — Vol. 4, no. 2: Christian Science Practitioners and Legal

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Winter 1985/86 29 More on Freud, Psychoanalysis, and Religion: The Fall 1985 FREE INQUIRY examined the question of whether psycho- analysis was a science through commentaries on Adolf Grünbaum's book The Foundations of Psychoanalysis. In the following pages we hear from Professor Grünbaum himself, as he expands on the views expressed in his book and discusses secular humanism. An Interview with Adolf Grünbaum

I: To what do you attribute the popularity of psychoanaly- validated the knowledge claims he himself intended to make sis in the twentieth century? for his evolving theory by labeling it "scientific." And, in con- Adolf Grünbaum: This is a very important psycho- ducting this inquiry, I heeded the lesson of recent philosophy sociological question that, alas, I am not qualified to answer. of science that we do not have a universally applicable, non- My guess is, however, that it needs to be relativized to different trivial explication of the necessary and sufficient conditions for ideological and professional groups in our culture. For example, the scientific probity of a theory. Besides, I had to be mindful the reasons for the sway of Freud's legacy among such theists of Freud's claim that "in [psycho] analysis, however, we have as Hans Küng, Paul Ricoeur, and the Jesuit psychoanalyst to do without the assistance afforded to [other] research by William Meissner might be quite different from the sources of experiment" (S.E. 1933, 22:174). its appeal to those who see psychoanalytic theory and therapy In short, I reached my verdict on Freud's brainchild— as an emancipatory secular gospel (e.g., Jürgen Habermas) and which turned out to be mainly unfavorable—largely by using who share Freud's view of theism as an infantilizing mass his own avowed of scientific rationality rather than by delusion. imposing some extraneous methodological purism. And, in so Indeed, the challenge to social psychology posed by the doing, I did not claim, as Popper does, to be in possession of question is illustrated by the diversity within academic psychia- the criterion of demarcation between science and pseudoscience. try in the reception accorded to the psychoanalytic theory of FI: Your book The Foundations of Psychoanalysis has the neuroses and psychoses: For about the first two decades provoked a storm of controversy. Why? after World War II, this conception of psychopathology became Grünbaum: The book fundamentally challenges each of the dominant, if not exclusive, in the major university several ideologically disparate partisans as follows: departments of psychiatry in the United States, but achieved 1. Orthodox and revisionist psychoanalysts who claim that no such dominion in Britain, for example. the clinical evidence "from the couch" has yielded strong sup- FI: Has there been heretofore sufficient discussion of the port for one or more members of the family of psychoanalytic merits of psychoanalytic theory and therapy? hypotheses: the conflict-etiology of psychopathology, the pre- Grünbaum: As we know, this corpus has generated a huge sumed dynamics of analytic therapy, Freud's theory of dream- literature, both critical and supportive. Yet, before I wrote The instigation, or his theory of "slips" (bungled actions). Foundations of Psychoanalysis: A Philosophical Critique, there 2. Karl Popper and his votaries, who maintain that Freud's was, to my knowledge, no systematic appraisal of Freud's own theory is simply untestable in the sense that "no conceivable cardinal arguments for his monumental clinical theory of per- human behavior" could produce observational evidence against sonality and therapy. This gap was the more unfortunate, it. because the reasoning of the founding father—though deeply 3. The proponents of the so-called hermeneutic recon- flawed—was far more subtle and challenging, I believe, than struction of psychoanalytic theory and therapy. The hermeneu- either the apologetics from his orthodox epigoni or the ticists contend that Freud's scientific aspirations were "scien- of the revisionist exponents of his legacy. tistically" misguided from the outset, but that a proper construal Throughout his long career as a psychoanalyst, Freud saw of his discoveries provides methodological absolution of the himself entitled to insist that his enterprise had the epistemo- psychoanalytic study of human ideation from the evidential logical status of a natural science. Thus, he had declared stringency governing the validation of theories in the standard plaintively: "I have always felt it a gross injustice that people empirical sciences. have refused to treat psychoanalysis like any other [natural] 4. Freudian psycho-historians, literary critics, and assorted science" (Standard Edition 1925, 20:58). And in 1933 he wrote: students of the humanities who take psychoanalytic theory for "Psychoanalysis has a special right to speak for the scientific granted on the grounds traditionally offered by analysts. Weltanschauung" (S.E. 1933, 22:159). Hence it behooved me That Foundations seems to have struck some raw nerves to inquire, more specifically, whether his (clinical) arguments in these diverse constituencies is illustrated by a number of the

30 FREE INQUIRY

nearly forty commentaries on it in the Behavioral and Brain m

9, no. 2, 1986), together with my detailed bau

Sciences (vol. n u

"Author's Response." Gr

FI: Do you agree with Popper's critique? ra

ba r

Popper's critique consists of two major objec- Ba

Grünbaum: by by

tions: (1) Logically speaking, psychoanalytic theory is empir- to to

ically irrefutable by any conceivable human behavior; and (2) ho P in the face of seemingly adverse evidence, Freud and his fol- lowers (almost) always dodged refutation. Clearly, the first of these two theses is logically independent of the second, because the logical question as to the empirical content of psycho- analytic theory is distinct from the sociological question as to the receptivity of the psychoanalytic community to contrary evidence. After all, a theory may well be invalidated by known evidence, even as its true believers adamantly and scandalously refuse to acknowledge this refutation. Though Popper's two objections are distinct, he sometimes presents them in the same breath, and many of his followers have conflated them. This failure to keep them apart is the more odd since Popper himself has told us in another connec- tion (in Section 38 of his autobiography) that theories, on the one hand, and the intellectual conduct of their protagonists, on the other, "belong to two entirely different `worlds — (italics in original). In his view, theories lead a logical life of their own, as it were, qua objects in what he calls "world 3," whereas their Professor Adolf Grunbaum advocates are objects in "world 1," and the thought processes Grünbaum: To lend greater specificity to the question, let of these advocates belong to "world 2." me reformulate it as follows: Are any of the cardinal hypotheses My principal disagreement with Popper arises from my of psychoanalytic theory and therapy well supported by cur- rejection of the first of the two theses in his critique of psycho- rently available clinical or extra-clinical (experimental, epidemi- analysis, although I claim that he also used gross oversimpli- ologic) evidence? Even this reformulation suffers from some fication to make his case for the second. The grounds for my vagueness, since we do not possess a system of inductive logic response include: (1) examples of Freudian etiologic hypotheses that would render the notion of good (strong) support unequiv- that are demonstrably falsifiable and the derivation from them ocal. Yet, in the face of this relative vagueness, I venture to of predictions that qualify as "risky" by Popper's standards; (2) give a negative answer to the reformulated question. And I Popper's failure to have furnished actual proof of empirical should add a sociological observation: Though the methodo- irrefutability, and his reliance instead on a contrived illustration, logical conduct of the bulk of the psychoanalytic community is of psychoanalytic explanation relating to two men and a justly notorious, I have gotten to know—as scholars and drowning child; (3) Freud's own successive modifications of his friends—a number of analysts whose intellectual integrity I evolving clinical theory, conceptual changes that were neither unreservedly admire. immunizing maneuvers nor capricious but, rather, reactions to FI: What do you think is valid and invalid in Freud's seemingly adverse findings; (4) Freud's explicit statement as to work? the sort of evidence that he would acknowledge as refuting his Grünbaum: Let me focus on Freud's critique of theism, etiology of anxiety neurosis, as well as other documentation of without venturing to judge his entire opus. sophisticated methodological behavior eluding Popper's whole- In his fascinating 1927 book, The Future of an Illusion, sale criticism, even when Freud delayed for nearly a decade Freud wrote: public acknowledgment of the 1897 collapse of his seduction theory of hysteria; and (5) Popper's total neglect of Freud's Nothing that 1 have said here against the truth-value of religions 1937 "Constructions in Analysis" paper, which addressed the needed the support of psycho-analysis; it had been said by issue of evading clinical falsifications on the principle "Heads I others long before analysis came into existence. If the applica- win, tails you lose." tion of the psycho-analytic method makes it possible to find a new argument against the truths of religion, tant pis [so much Behavioral Furthermore, in my "Author's Response" in the the worse] for religion; but defenders of religion will by the and Brain Sciences, I elaborated on my thesis that the avowed same right make use of psycho-analysis in order to give full cornerstone of the Freudian edifice—the theory of repression— value to the affective significance of religious . [S.E. is indeed empirically disconfirmable and that Popper's whole- 1927, 21:37] sale charge of irrefutability has seriously misdiagnosed the very genuine epistemological defects of psychoanalysis, which are Just what psychological and epistemic tenets did the often quite subtle. founder of psychoanalysis epitomize when he characterized FI: Is psychoanalysis a pseudoscience? theism as an "illusion"? As he tells us:

Winter 1985/86 31 ... We call a belief an illusion when a wish-fulfillment is a As we learn (S.E. 1927, 21:23), the first kind of motive for prominent factor in its motivation, and in doing so we dis- religious belief features largely manifest or conscious wishes regard its relation to reality, just as the illusion itself sets no instead of the repressed desires familiar from psychoanalytic store by verification. [S.E. 1927, 21:31] theory. Therefore, this first element of Freud's triadic psy- chology of theism is not predicated on any of his psychoanalytic tenets. Indeed, it was not pioneered by him but by the nine- Thus, in Freud's technical usage, the term illusion denotes teenth-century German philosopher-atheist Ludwig Feuerbach. beliefs that are wish-inspired rather than warranted by pertinent Freud aptly states the first thesis of his triad as follows: evidence. Clearly, it is then still an empirical question whether any given "illusion"—thus defined as a purely wish-inspired . . . The terrifying impression of helplessness in childhood belief—is true or false. Christopher Columbus's conviction that aroused the need for protection—for protection through he had discovered a new, shorter sea-route to the Orient was at love—which was provided by the father; and the recognition once wish-inspired and false. In the vast majority of cases, that this helplessness lasts through life made it necessary to middle-class girls who have believed that a Prince Charming cling to the existence of a father, but this time a more powerful will marry them were concocting mere fantasies. Yet, in a few one. Thus the benevolent rule of a allays instances, this hope was not dashed. Hence Freud points out our fear of the dangers of life; the establishment of a moral (S.E. 1927, 21:30) that an illusion is not necessarily an error. world-order ensures the fulfilment of the demands of justice, And mistaken beliefs qualify as illusions only if they are which have so often remained unfulfiled in human civilization and the prolongation of earthly existence in a future life pro- prompted by the need for wish-fulfillment. By contrast, note vides the local and temporal framework in which these wish- that in the Oxford Psychiatric Dictionary, the term illusion is fulfilments shall take place. Answers to the riddles that tempt employed quite differently to denote an erroneous sensory per- the curiosity of man, such as how the universe began or what ception induced by a real object. the relation is between body and mind, are developed in con- In his psychogenetic account of theism, Freud's accent formity with the underlying assumptions of this system. [S.E. was not on more or less idiosyncratic illusions, or on those 1927, 21:30] entertained only by a relatively small number of people or only temporarily. Instead, his theses pertain to those evidentially ill- Understandably, therefore, the protector, creator, and law-giver founded illusions that constitute "fulfillments of the oldest, are all rolled into one. No wonder, says Freud (S.E. 1933, strongest and most urgent wishes of mankind" (S.E. 1927, 22:163-164), that in one and the same breath, 21:30). These beliefs, he tells us, were already held by "our coupled the starry heavens above and the moral law within as wretched, ignorant, and downtrodden ancestors" (S.E. 1927, both being awe-inspiring. After all, Freud asks rhetorically, 21:33). Therefore, let me refer to this particular sort of illusion "What have the heavenly bodies to do with the question of as "archaic." Then Freud's psychological case against theism whether one human creature loves another or kills him?" And can be encapsulated, I believe, in the following syllogism: he answers: "The same father (or parental ) which gave the child life and guarded him against its perils, taught him as Premise 1: All archaic, evidentially dubious illusions are well what he might do and what he must leave undone" (S.E. very probably false. 1933, 22:164). Thus, in the face of the anxieties of existence, Premise 2: All versions of theism are just such illusions. man has an emotional need for reassurance through dependency Conclusion: All versions of theism are very probably false. and for the psychological subordination inherent in compliance with authority. Formally speaking, this syllogism is deductively valid. To the extent that Freud's psychogenetic portrayal of reli- Hence the truth of its conclusions depends, of course, on the gion depicts it as the product of manifest, conscious wishes, his epistemic merits of the two premises. Freud told us that "exam- account has, I submit, good credentials as an immediate exten- ples of illusions which have proved true are not easy to find" sion of common-sense psychology. After all, it is a common- (S.E. 1927, 21:31). Thus his first premise asserts in effect that, place that anxiety-avoidance behavior includes the exclusion of the world being what it is, archaic and evidentially ill-founded threatening beliefs. Hence, for brevity, 1 shall refer to this com- illusions are too good to be true. I find it difficult to quarrel ponent of his triadic as "the common- with that claim. sense hypothesis." Each of the other two components of his By contending that all versions of theism are ill-founded, trinity is a set of psychoanalytic claims asserting the operation besides being wish-inspired, the second premise implicitly asserts of repressed motives. And yet they differ from each other, that there are no known cogent arguments for the existence of because one of them relies on Freud's theory of the psycho- God. Moreover, likewise implicit in this premise is Freud's sexual development of the human individual, while the other view that three distinct sets of powerful, relentless wishes consists of ethno-psychological and psychohistorical averrals operate synergistically in the psychogenesis of religion. And, pertaining to the evolution of our species as a whole. Accord- for each of this trio of wishes, he provides separate psycho- ingly, we shall label the former of these psychoanalytic assump- logical postulates that articulate their content and mode of tions "ontogenetic," but will refer to the latter, ethnopsycho- operation. Hence we need to consider, in turn, these three sorts logical ones as "phylogenetic." of hypotheses, each of which is thus presupposed in the second Clearly, the legitimacy of any psychogenetic portrait of premise of the syllogism above. religious creeds turns on the evidential merit of the explanatory

32 FREE INQUIRY hypotheses adduced by it. Therefore, if the psychoanalytic ready to expect punishment for his unconscious wickedness in hypotheses invoked in Freud's psychology of theism do not the form of trouble threatening him from without. [S.E. 1901, have far better credentials than the religious tenets he decries 6:260] as childish, then we ought not to take the two psychoanalytic components of his triadic account seriously. Hence, insofar as By 1907, in his paper "Obsessive Actions and Religious the hypothesized causal role of repressed wishes postulated in Practices" (S.E. 1907, 9:117-127), Freud employed his etiology psychoanalytic ontogeny and phylogeny is evidentially ill- of obsessional neurosis to diagnose religious rituals, no less founded, Freud's explanatory reliance on them is unavailing. than compulsive secular ones, as compromise-formations And, in that case, the viable part of his psychology of religion between a repressed forbidden instinct and the repressing forces would consist of both its common-sense hypothesis and of only of consciousness. Qua being a species of obsessive-compulsive those presumed operations of unconscious wishes that have acts, the religious rites are seen etiologically as exorcistic good psychogenetic credentials. This caveat is not a matter of defenses against evil wishes and against the disasters that such generic doubts as to the operation of a mechanism of forbidden desires are held to engender by sheer magic. Obses- repression; instead, the doubts pertain to the existence of the sional neurosis characteristically features intrusive, anxiety- specific sorts of repressed wishes invoked by Freud, and to producing thoughts and repetitive impulses to perform such their explanatory role as the actual causes of the phenomena acts as ceremonials, counting, hand-washing, and so on. he claims to explain. In his 1913 book and Taboo, Freud recalls from To render the content of the second premise in Freud's his 1909 case history of the Rat Man (S.E. 1909, 10:229 ff.) syllogism, we therefore need to summarize the relevant particu- that patient's delusional belief in such magical powers of lars from his psychoanalytic ontogeny and phylogeny of super- thought: . In 1901, in his Psychopathology of Everyday Life, Freud If he thought of someone, he would be sure to meet that very traced to unconscious causes (S.E. 1901, 6:258- person immediately afterwards, as though by magic. If he sud- 259). And there he likened religious belief to paranoia. Speak- denly asked after the health of an acquaintance whom he had ing of "the construction of a supernatural reality" and of "the not seen for a long time, he would hear that he had just died, myths of paradise and the fall of man, of God ... of immor- so that it would look as though a telepathic message had arrived from him. lf, without any really serious intention, he tality," he wrote: swore at some stranger, he might be sure that the man would die soon afterwards, so that he would feel responsible for his When human beings began to think, they were, as is well death. In the course of the treatment he himself was able to tell known, forced to explain the external world anthropomor- me how the deceptive appearance arose in most of these cases, phically by means of a multitude of personalities in their own and by what contrivances he himself had helped to strengthen image; chance events, which they interpreted superstitiously, his own superstitious beliefs. All obsessional neurotics are were thus actions and manifestations of persons. They behaved, superstitious in this way, usually against their better judgment. therefore, just like paranoiacs, who draw conclusions from [S.E. 1913, 13:86] insignificant signs given them by other people. [S.E. 1901, 6:259] Precisely by fearing that mere desires or thoughts can magically produce calamities, the obsessive's overvaluation of the power The psychological mechanism operative here, we are told (S.E. of mental processes betrays the mind-set of savages, who believe 1913, 13:92), is that of transmogrifying feelings and impulses in just such an of thoughts. And by performing into external agencies by projection, in the manner of the intel- the supposedly protective rituals, the obsessive wards off a ligent paranoiac Schreber, who confabulated so-called rays of crescendo of anxiety, the qualms of conscience brought on by God. Similarly for the belief in , which is "nothing but a their neglect (S.E. 1907, 9:119). Here, then, Freud's psycho- mass fantasy, constructed along the lines of a paranoid delu- genetic accent is on religious ceremonials or sacramental acts sion" (quoted in E. R. Wallace, Freud and , rather than on mere theoretical beliefs. But, overall, he sees Psychological Issues Mongraph #55, 1983, p. 271). Feuerbach religion as an enlarged, glorified form of obsessional neurosis, and Nietzsche had also assimilated religion to psychopathology. serving the neurotic infantile needs of the many in the wider Psychological projection is also a generator of particular super- cultural context rather than the intrapsychic conflicts of the stitions. As we learn from Freud: individual. But, in The Future of an Illusion, Freud introduces an . . . Psycho-analysis can also say something new about the important qualification of his psychodiagnosis of theism, and quality of the unconscious motives that find expression in there he reiterates an interesting twist: superstition. It can be recognized most clearly in neurotics suffering from obsessional thinking or obsessional states— Our analogy [between the obsessional neurosis of an individual people who are often of high intelligence—that superstition and the universal obsessional neurosis of mankind] does not, derives from suppressed hostile and cruel impulses [footnote to be sure, exhaust the essential nature of religion.... The omitted]. Superstition is in large part the expectation of trouble; pathology of the individual does not supply us with a fully and a person who has harboured frequent evil wishes against valid counterpart. others, but has been brought up to be good and has therefore It has been repeatedly pointed out (by myself and in par- repressed such wishes into the unconscious, will be especially ticular by Theodor Reik) [footnote omitted] in how great detail

Winter 1985/86 33 against strange superior powers, he lends those powers the "[Pseudoscience and irrationalism can be com- features belonging to the figure of his father; he creates for himself the gods whom he dreads, whom he seeks to propitiate, batted] first, by working toward a saner world in and whom he nevertheless entrusts with his own protection which there might be some lessening of the anxie- against the consequences of his human weakness. [S.E. 1927, ties on which irrationalist pseudo-solutions to our 21:24] problems feed; second, by unflinchingly and It is a measure of the current influence of psychoanalytic vigorously meeting the typically crude attacks on oedipal theory that Hans Küng, the liberal Catholic theologian, secular humanism in every legitimate forum peremptorily takes this hypothesis to be an empircally well- available to us." established body of knowledge. Nay, he vigorously champions it in the face of strictures by others. Indeed, Küng, no less than Meissner, explicitly endorses the method of psychoanalytic analogy between religion and obsessional neurosis can be fol- investigation as a natural science mode of inquiry. True, both lowed out, and how many of the peculiarities and vicissitudes in the formation of religion can be understood in that light. of these Roman Catholic writers repeatedly contend that the And it tallies well with this that devout believers are safe- full dimensions of elude capture by Freud's guarded in a high degree against the risk of certain neurotic theory of psychopathology. Yet, despite their denial of such illnesses; their acceptance of the universal neurosis spares them complete explanatory subsumption, they regard psychoanalytic the task of constructing a personal one. [S.E. 1927, 21:43-44] ontogeny as a viable and illuminating part of the psychology of religious belief. The twist he recalls here is the view that sharing in a mass But what of the actual empirical credentials of Freud's neurosis can obviate an idiosyncratic one. sexual etiology of obsessional neurosis, and of his oedipal But Freud's psychopathological ontogeny of theism is not theory? It is a clear moral of my Foundations and of my confined to obsessional neurosis. The pathogens of that neuro- "Author's Response" that, far from having good empirical sup- sis, we learn, are interwoven with those of the Oedipus complex. port, these hypotheses have yet to be adequately tested. A That complex is produced by the conflict between affectionate fortiori, the psychoanalytic ontogeny of theism still lacks evi- sexual feelings, on the one hand, and hostile aggressive feelings dential warrant, although it is true that religious rituals are of rivalry, on the other, that are entertained toward both parents usually performed in an obsessive-compulsive manner. Until in the psyche of all children between the ages of three and six. and unless there is such warrant for the ontogeny, it is surely at The special focus of these affects is the powerful, protective, least the better part of wisdom to forgo all explanatory reliance and yet threatening father. Being too disturbing to be enter- on it. tained consciously, these emotions are repressed. But the In any case, Freud's doctrine that theism is an infantile ambivalence toward the father figure lingers on into adulthood. mass-illusion can be adequately sustained by the pre-psycho- And hence the cosmic projection and exaltation of this author- analytic component of his triad. Hence his psychological ity figure as a deity in publicly approved fashion has an enor- characterization of religion as wish-inspired can stand, I submit, mous appeal. As Freud puts it: without dependence on his psychoanalytic ontogeny. But Freud was not content with explanatory reliance on It is an enormous relief to the individual psyche if the conflicts the conscious quest for anxiety reduction and on the repressed of its childhood arising from the father-complex—conflicts wishes of his ontogeny. Rather, he went on to develop a psy- which it has never wholly overcome—are removed from it and choanalytic phylogeny of theism. This account is given in his brought to a solution which is universally accepted. [S.E. 1927, book Totem and Taboo (S.E. 1913, 13:Essay IV, pp. 146 ff.). 21:30] In his view, this historical ethnopsychology is a valid extension of psychoanalysis. As Freud would have it, racial memories, These psychoanalytically fathomed, unconscious wishes of cumulatively registered by our primitive ancestors—but sub- the adult's residual Oedipus complex are held to combine syner- sequently repressed by them—were transmitted to us by gistically, we recall, with the urgent desire for relief from the Lamarckian inheritance of acquired characteristics. And each conscious fears of enduring vulnerability, fears that are intensi- of us has purportedly stored this phylogenetic legacy in the fications of the child's dread of helplessness. In Freud's own inner recesses of his or her unconscious. words: But how, we must ask, did Freud arrive at the content of these purported ancestral memories? We know from his own It is, of course, my duty to point out the connecting links .. . account that he reasoned as follows: between the deeper and the manifest motives, between the father-complex and man's helplessness and need for protection. The obscure sense of guilt to which mankind has been subject These connections ... consist in the relation of the child's since prehistoric times, and which in some religions has been helplessness to the helplessness of the adult which continues it. condensed into the doctrine of primal guilt, of original , is [S.E. 1927, 21:23] probably the outcome of a blood-guilt incurred by prehistoric man. In my book Totem and Taboo (1912-13) I have, following ... When the growing individual finds that he is destined to clues given by Robertson Smith, Atkinson and Charles Darwin, remain a child for ever, that he can never do without protection tried to guess the nature of this primal guilt, and I believe, too,

34 FREE INQUIRY that the Christian doctrine of to-day enables us to deduce it. If concurrent influence of past and present must give religion a the Son of God was obliged to his life to redeem truly incomparable wealth of power. [S.E. 1927, 21:42] mankind from original sin, then by the [Mosaic] law of talion, the requital of like by like, that sin must have been a killing, a Moreover, the ontogeny of the Oedipus complex is largely murder. Nothing else could call for the sacrifice of a life for its a developmental recapitulation of its conjectured phylogeny. expiation. And the original sin was an offence against God the And this psychogenetic isomorphism seemed all the more credi- Father, the primal crime of mankind must have been a parri- ble to Freud because it was the psychological counterpart of cide, the killing of the primal father of the primitive human 's biogenetic law. According to Haeckel, the horde, whose mnemic image was later transfigured into a deity. [S.E. 1915, 14:292-293; cf. also S. E. 1939, 23:130-131.] embryonic ontogeny of each animal, including man, recapitu- lates the morphological changes undergone by the successive Yet there is still the question of how Freud conjectured ancestors of the species during its phylogeny. No wonder that the motive for the inferred parricide. As he tells us: Freud felt entitled to regard the ontogenetic development of moral dispositions like remorse and guilt in each of us as both Darwin deduced from the habits of the higher apes that men, a replica and a phylogenetic residue of the primal father com- too, originally lived in comparatively small groups or hordes plex of early man (S.E. 1923, 19:37). [footnote omitted] within which the jealousy of the oldest and At this point, standing at the portal of death in 1939, strongest male prevented sexual promiscuity. [S.E. 1913, Freud is ready to deploy his repression-etiology of neurosis, 13:125] together with his ethnopsychological retrodictions. And he joins them to explain what he sees as the characteristic irrationality In each of these hordes or families, the dominant male imposed of traditional theism as follows: such erotic restraint on his younger and subordinate male rivals by controlling their sexual access to the women of the clan. A tradition that was based on communication could not lead But this prohibition did not sit well with these rivals. Freud to the compulsive character that attaches to religious phe- speculates that, driven by their ensuing hostility, and being nomena. It would be listened to, judged, and perhaps dismissed, cannibals, they banded together to kill and eat their own father like any other piece of information from outside; it would (S.E. 1913, 13:141-142). Yet they soon began to quarrel over never attain the privilege of being liberated from the constraint of logical thought. It must have undergone the fate of being the sexual spoils of this harem. Thus they became highly ambiv- repressed, the condition of lingering in the unconscious, before alent about their parricidal achievement. The memory of the it is able to display such powerful effects on its return, to bring homicide itself was repressed and thereby generated guilt. the masses under its spell. [S.E. 1939, 23:101] The resulting filial remorse, in turn, issued in two major developments: (1) the delayed enforcement of the father's As we learn on the same page, what Freud calls the "return" of original edict against incestuous sex within the clan made the religious tradition refers to the reawakening of the repressed exogamy mandatory; and (2) the prohibition of parricide turned memory of ancestral totemistic parricide. And this reanimation into the expiatory deification of the slain parent. As Freud put it: "The primal father at once feared and hated, revered and envied, became the prototype of God himself" (S.E. 1925, RENEW NOW! 20:68). Subscription Rates Freud assumed that over the millennia our primitive One Year $16.50 ancestors reenacted the parricidal scenario countless times (S.E. 1939, 23:81). And, as a convinced Lamarckian, he believed that Two Years $29.00 each of us has stored the cumulative memory of these phy- logenetic events in our unconscious. Hence, shortly before his Three Years $38.00 death, he confidently announced that "men have always known (in this special [Lamarckian] way) that they once possessed a Subscription includes the Secular Humanist Bulletin. primal father and killed him" (S.E. 1939, 23:101). The legacy of Name the engendered sense of collective guilt over the primal crime is thus preserved by phylogenetic inheritance (S.E. 1939, 23:132). Address But, remarkably enough, the incestuous and homicidal wishes toward the father are precisely the desires whose repres- City State Zip Code sion is featured by the ontogenic Oedipus complex! Hence, as Freud sees it, by combining ethnography with psychoanalysis, Outside U.S.A. add $4.00 for surface mail, $8.00 for airmail. he has discerned a third set of strong wishes that unite syner- gistically with the other two classes of his triad and make for , the psychogenesis of belief in God-the-Father. Therefore he C l• " proclaimed: Central Park Station • Box 5 We now observe that the store of religious ideas includes not Buffalo, New York 14215 only wish-fulfilments but important historical recollections. This

Winter 1985/86 35 was supposedly effected by two epoch-making episodes, each The accusation of megalomania continues to be leveled of which Freud claimed to be historically authentic: First, by against irreligious humanists. A distressing, more recent exam- the murder of Moses by the ancient Hebrews, who rebelled ple is furnished by Alexander Solzhenitsyn's 1978 Commence- against his tyrannical imposition of the intolerable prescriptions ment Address at Harvard University. Entitled "A World Split of monotheism; thereafter, by "the supposed judicial murder of Apart," it contains the following lament: "There is a disaster Christ" (p. 101). which is already very much with us. 1 am referring to the We have now specified the three sorts of synergistic wishes calamity of an autonomous, irreligious, humanistic conscious- that Freud designated as the decisive motives for belief in the- ness. It has made man the measure of all things on Earth— ism. Hence, in the second premise of the stated syllogistic imperfect man, who is never free of pride, self-interest, envy, reconstruction of his argument, the characterization of theism vanity, and dozens of other defects." as an "illusion" is to be understood in this triadic sense. Yet Prima facie, this declaration may sound ingratiatingly what are the merits of his psychoanalytic phylogeny of religious modest. But I submit that it is substantively hollow or simply belief? Daring and ingenious though it is, this third component question-begging. Whose revelation, 1 ask, is to supplant man of his triad is dubious, if only because it requires the trans- as the measure of all things? That of the czarist Russian Ortho- mission of repressed racial memories by Lamarckian inheri- dox church? Or the edicts of the Ayatollah Khomeini as tance. Furthermore, there are some genuine questions as to the enforced by his mullahs? Those of the Dutch Reformed church historical authenticity of the universal parricidal scenario. in apartheid South Africa? Or the teachings of Pope John Paul It emerges that Freud's psychological characterization of II, who—amid starvation in Africa—is getting support from theism as wish-inspired can stand, provided that it does not the native episcopate for the prohibition of birth control? The rely on either of the two psychoanalytic constituents of his moral prescriptions of the Church of England? Or yet those of triad. In particular, the wishes that generate the illusions of the the Orthodox rabbinate in Israel, which prohibits autopsies, second premise had better include only (1) the manifest, con- for example? And, if the latter, which of the two competing scious ones that Freud had invoked to begin with, and (2) chief rabbis is to be believed, the Ashkenazi or the Sephardic. those unconscious wishes that will turn out to have good psy- one? Is it not perfectly obvious that Solzhenitsyn is parochially chogenetic credentials. selecting a particular clergy to be the measure of all things? On that parsimonious construal, the second premise can, I FI: Do you consider yourself a secular humanist? think, be reasonably presumed to be true, no less than the first. Grünbaum: Indeed I do, as is clear from my responses to And, if so, the conclusion of the stated valid syllogism is, in the the two preceding questions. Over thirty years ago, I pub- fact, epistemically warranted. Furthermore, if the shared illusion lished an article on "Science and " (Scientific Monthly, of theism is thus presumably false, then such religious belief 1954, 79:13-18) in which I wrote: also satisfies Freud's criterion of being a mass "delusion," and indeed an infantilizing one. As he adds soberingly: "No one, The observer who is not already identified with one of the needless to say, who shares a delusion ever recognizes it as contending theological parties can see clearly that the moment such" (S.E. 1930, 21:81). a theology is to be used to yield ethical prescriptions, these FI: Was Freud a secular humanist; and, if so, in what rules of conduct are obtained by deliberations in whose out- sense? come secular aims and thought are every bit as decisive as in Grünbaum: Yes. This is epitomized in the concluding sen- the reflections of secular ethicists who deny theism. And the perplexity of ethical problems is not lessened by the theological tence of The Future of an Illusion: "But an illusion it would be superstructure. to suppose that what science cannot give us we can get else- I therefore cannot see in what sense theism can be held to be logically necessary as an axiomatic basis for where" (S.E. 1927, 21:56). This assertion, however, does not ethics. Nor can I agree that theism as such can serve vitally promise any pie-in-the-sky from science. Indeed, only a few and convincingly to lessen the ethical perplexity of modern pages earlier, Freud had stressed both the epistemic fallibility man in cases in which his secular resources of rational thought and the substantive incompleteness of the scientific enterprise: leave him in a quandary.

I know how difficult it is to avoid illusions; perhaps the hopes In fact, in the same year, this article was reprinted in the I have confessed to [for science] are of an illusory nature, too. American Humanist (14:161-173). But I hold fast to one distinction. Apart from the fact that no FI: As a teacher, do you discern a rise in pseudoscience penalty is imposed for not sharing them, my illusions are not, and attacks on rationality today? like religious ones, incapable of correction. They have not the Grünbaum: Alas, the campus is hardly immune to the character of a delusion. If experience should show—not to me, rising national tide of all sorts of irrationalist nostrums. And it but to others after me, who think as I do—that we have been would be utopian to expect otherwise. mistaken, we will give up our expectations. [S.E. 1927, 21:53] FI: How do you think we should respond to these? Grünbaum: In two ways: First, by working toward a saner Despite this explicit disclaimer, the psychoanalyst Gregory world in which there might be some lessening of the anxieties Zilboorg, a quondam Russian Jew who became a convert to on which irrationalist pseudo-solutions to our problems feed; Roman Catholicism, saw fit to depict Freud's atheistic Weltan- second, by unflinchingly and vigorously meeting the typically schauung as a case of "megalomanic " (Zilboorg, Psy- crude attacks on secular humanism in every legitimate forum choanalysis and Religion, 1962, p. 243). available to us. •

36 FREE INQUIRY Homer Duncan's Crusade Against Secular Humanism Correspondence between Homer Duncan and Joseph Fletcher, Sidney Hook, and Paul Kurtz.

Paul Kurtz

orner Ducan, a devout Baptist of January 30, 1984, Duncan wrote: and liberal philosopher. In his writings, Hfundamentalist, from Lubbock, Texas, he says, "The science to which I pinned is executive director of the world-wide my faith is bankrupt. Its counsels, which Missionary Crusader, Inc., and editor of its George Bernard Shaw is perhaps most should have established the millennium, led instead directly to the suicide of magazine. He is the author of several tracts renowned in the world as a freethinker attacking humanism, including the widely popular book Secular Humanism: The Most Dangerous Religion in America, which has a preface endorsing its contents by Senator Jesse Helms. 1 first became acquainted with the Reverend Dr. Duncan when he attended FREE INQUIRY'S first conference, "Science, the Bible, and Darwin," which was held at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1982. Dr. Duncan asked that he be given the opportunity to speak to present the bib- lical view of creation, and we agreed. In his talk, he told about his unshakable belief in the Good Book as the revealed word of God and in the theory of creation presented therein. Since that time 1 have remained on rela- tively good terms with Dr. Duncan, although we have basic differences on many issues. We have exchanged several dozen letters. He has attempted, come or high water, to convert me to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. But I have resisted his entreaties. 1 have been both amused and surprised at his persistence and his willingness to engage in dialogue with humanists, whom he con- siders to be sinners and disciples of Satan. Dr. Duncan has also written to other humanists associated with FREE INQUIRY, including Joseph Fletcher, Sidney Hook, and Paul Beattie—all in an effort to convert us. I. On George Bernard Shaw: Duncan and Fletcher Of special interest in the course of this cor- respondence over the past few years, is that Fletcher, Hook, and I have each received a letter from Dr. Duncan about George Bernard Shaw, who according to Duncan had recanted his earlier atheism. In a letter

Winter 1985/86 37 Lies for God's Sake Joseph Fletcher

hat follows is both a personal trated if the person he or she was try- Over against the absolutization of Wmemoir and a comment on the ing to save from hell-fire stubbornly truth-telling, such as Kant and St. dishonesty of some religious believers— answered, "But 1 don't and can't Augustine have tried to do, 1 have "true believers," as the philosophical believe what you believe." argued that we tell the truth for the longshoreman Eric Hoffer called them. Things came to a head when he sake of human beings, not for the sake My statement is personal because 1 wrote me, as well as Paul Kurtz, Sid- of truth itself. To tell lies, though, feel 1 have been used and abused and ney Hook, and Paul Beattie, to say which is what Homer Duncan did, the offer of my friendship debased. that George Bernard Shaw had actu- deceiving both Christians and non- FREE INQUIRY held a conference ally recanted his unbelief and his athe- Christians, is inexcusable, especially in Buffalo in 1982 to discuss Darwin, ism. He called Shaw "one of the when the lie is found out and is still evolution theory, and religion. A world's most renowned freethinkers." not confessed. "world-wide missionary crusader" 1 replied at once that he gave no refer- In the great Christian era, the down in Texas named Homer Duncan ence for Shaw's recantation and that , theologians and lay crashed the conference, feeling that we 1 thought it was a hoax, but "Let's philosophers argued that an untruth should hear directly from a funda- run this thing down to ... is not a lie if there is a "just cause" mentalist Christian exponent of bib- I'm all for honest reporting and facts, for it, such as self-defense or zeal for lical creationism. He gave the standard no matter whose ox is gored." God's honor. On the latter basis there "confession of faith" belief assertions I pressed Dr. Duncan so hard that were and still are pious frauds, falsifi- without, predictably, any scientific, he finally admitted that Shaw never cations of documents, manufactured philosophical, or historical support. said anything of the sort and that what legends, mongering, false Afterward he started an ongoing he quoted was a speech by the Elder decretals to gain power for the church. correspondence with those he appears in Act III of Shaw's play Too Good After all, God himself commissioned to have marked as humanist brands to Be True.. (Shaw wrote it in 1932, a lying spirit to deceive the prophets he might by persistence manage to when 1 was a student in London, and of Israel (Ezek. 14:7). pluck from the burning. I was one of in the preface he made the point that Some used "mental reservation" them. He also took aim at Paul Beattie Christianity and communism were to deceive; others allowed that we owe and the conference chairman himself, pretty much the same kettle of fish the truth but that the debt ceases in Paul Kurtz. and therefore antagonistic. Shaw was war or if we are being cheated (occult The letters were, as 1 say, of the of course never an atheist; he believed compensation), threatened with vio- standard variety. He wanted me to be in the vitalistic notion of "life lence, or faced (as Homer Duncan "saved" and enter into "eternal life," force"—a version of emergent or crea- was) with infidelity and . and the only way to do it was by tive evolution of the sort that Lloyd- Good Christians would see such things accepting Jesus as my lord and savior. Morgan had propounded.) as the devil's work, and the truth is To back this up he sent me photo- I then urged Dr. Duncan to pub- not owed to them. As they have often copies and pamphlets and little books, lish a correction in his propaganda claimed, "The truth (what they believe) all presumably paid for out of the cof- materials. To this day he has never has rights that error (what others fers filled by the Bible-believers in confessed that he published an un- believe) may not claim." Texas and elsewhere. Dr. Duncan's truth, nor even apologized privately. Humanists might think themselves letters came almost weekly and grew He still writes me, trying to "save" free to deceive out of compassion for increasingly tart. Probably anyone my "," blandly ignoring the whole a human being, but lying for God's who held his beliefs would be frus- incident. sake is a little much. •

Europe. I believed them once. In their a bombshell as that have gone unnoticed— it the publicity it should have. I'll bet he name I helped to destroy the faith of ignored by [Shaw's] critics and defenders was as puzzled as I am about never hearing millions of worshippers in the temples of alike, his biographers, and various literary of it before or seeing it revealed anywhere. a thousand creeds. And now they look at pundits. It's almost too much to believe. I'm not a Shavian scholar, but 1 sure don't me and witness the great of an So, old boy, let me have the exact remember anything of the kind [in any- atheist who has lost his faith." reference. Why didn't you give it in your thing] I ever read. 0f course not: If I'd letter, after the verbatim quotation, within known of it I'd never have forgotten it, the double apostrophes? Why? Can you you can bet your bottom dollar. 1 was surprised to hear about Shaw's blame me for wondering about it? alleged remarks and doubted that the quota- Don't waste any more time. Let's run tion was accurate. Was it taken out of con- It turned out that the quotation was this thing right down to the source and not of Shaw speaking about himself, but text? Joseph Fletcher had immediately get it out for the world to know. I'm all replied to Duncan and sent me a copy of for honest reporting and facts, no matter were taken from a play by Shaw (Too Good his letter. In this letter he said: whose ox is gored.... When I get this to Be True), in which one of the characters from you I'll get in touch with [Sidney] speaks the lines. Dr. Duncan, or whoever Great day in the morning. How could such Hook and we'll see what we can do to get he took the quotation from, had completely

38 FREE INQUIRY misread Shaw. The incident completely master deceiver. The Bible states that he offer no evidence except your faith. But exasperated Fletcher, and we publish his deceives the whole world. I believe that you would not accept faith in the existence recollection of the correspondence in the ac- true freedom can be found only in the of Santa Claus, or 0din, or Jehovah's companying box. Lord Jesus Christ, "If the Son makes you grandfather as evidence of their existence. free, you are free indeed." All men who I ask: How could an all-loving and have not discovered this freedom in Christ all-powerful God exist if he permits the are in the bondage of Satan. innocent to be tortured and the wicked to It seems to me that your reasoning is prosper? If he is all-loving and cannot pre- faulty when you say that you do not be- vent it, he is not all-powerful: if he is able II. On the Existence of God: lieve in God because you cannot under- to prevent it but will not, he is not all- Duncan and Hook stand Him or understand His ways. You loving. You answer that there are many state, "From time immemorial theologians things about God you do not understand. Sidney Hook also received a letter detailing have choked on the —no But that is begging the question: You Dr. Duncan's views about Shaw, and he all-powerful God would permit the inno- assume God exists, which is precisely what replied as follows: cent to suffer and the guilty to prosper. I I am challenging. believe that men create God in their own You make matters worse by saying The quotation from Shaw does not by moral image, that morality is therefore that God is like the computer that you any means establish the bankruptcy of sci- prior to religion." use without fully understanding it. The ence, about which, as his mystical belief There are many things that we cannot comparison limps on both legs. There are in life force shows, he knew little and cared understand about God or about the Bible. people who fully understand the computer. less. It expressed the bankruptcy of his Since God is an infinite God, it is folly to They fix them and make them. And no unscientific political faith in Mussolini, think that finite man can fully understand one is asking you to fully understand God, Hitler, and Stalin, which he shared, with Him. In my old age (seventy-one) I am only to understand a wee bit, why the infi- respect to the first two, with millions of thoroughly enjoying use of the computer. nitely loving God would doom to eternal churchmen and believers in God. Human There are a "jillion" things I do not under- torment innocent children who die unbap- beings should be judged not by their reli- stand about the computer. In fact I under- tized, why he would permit six million gious faith or its absence but by their con- stand very little as to how it works, but it unresisting men, women, and babes to be duct. Sakharov is an atheist: Solzhenitsyn does work whether 1 understand it or not. gassed and cremated by Hitler, why he believes in God. Both are morally admira- 1 repeatedly see the computer perform would permit millions more, some of ble. I trust you will give my comment what seem to be miracles. Now, would I whom even pray to him and Jesus Christ, thoughtful reflection. not be foolish to refuse to believe that to be destroyed by Stalin? Isn't God, if he computers exist because I cannot under- exists, more powerful? You too, like so After several further letters in which Dr. stand how they work? many Jesuits I have known, are choking Duncan attempted to convert Dr. Hook, an It seems to me that this is the very on the problem of evil. thing that you are doing in regard to God. If there were a creature or spirit exchange occurred concerning the existence You do not understand how an all- powerful enough to prevent evil who of God: powerful, loving, and holy God permits refused to do so, 1 would call him the evil, so you say He does not exist. Kindly Devil or Satan, not God. But 1 believe in September 27, 1984 think this through. neither God, nor Satan, nor Santa I am enclosing a monograph that I Claus. Dear Dr. Hook: am sending to about forty-five atheists and You tell me that our minds are too atheistic organizations. Perhaps you will finite to understand the mysterious wis- Thank you for your letter. Be assured that find time to read it. Simply put God to dom of God's ways in permitting torture, your thoughtfulness in replying to me is the test. He will meet you more than half- plague, cancer, etc. But if he is all-powerful sincerely appreciated. Be assured that I way. I believe you are an honest man or 1 why couldn't he give us the mind to under- have no desire to debate with you, but would not be writing to you. Level with stand? since you are a rationalist, I would like to God regardless of the consequences. Tell Now about morality. Do you believe reason with you. Him that if He will manifest Himself to it is moral to visit the of the fathers 1 believe that you are only partially you, you will by faith receive Jesus Christ on the heads of the children unto three correct when you state, "The greatest as your Lord and Savior. What do you generations? The Bible says yes. And you enemy of freedom is communist totali- stand to lose by making such a test? say it is divinely inspired. Do you believe tarianism. That is the enemy." Though I that it is right to punish a man for that am a very blunt person, 1 do not wish to Yours very sincerely, which he is not responsible? The Bible says unduly offend you, when 1 state that I Homer Duncan yes: It tells us that God hardened believe that 1 have a better base on which Pharaoh's heart when Moses asked him to build my thinking than you do. As I to let his people go, and then God understand the matter, you base your October 2, 1984 drowned Pharaoh in the Red Sea as pun- thinking on human reasoning and scien- ishment. Do you believe it is moral to tific investigation. I, too, base my thinking Dear Reverend Duncan: deceive one's father and to steal a brother's on human reasoning and scientific investi- blessing. The Bible says yes to this and to gation, but over and above these two I am sorely disappointed by your recent much worse. Whoever inspired the Bible things I have the eternal Word of the only letter. You propose to reason but run away approved many immoral actions. true and living God on which to base my from a straightforward argument like all I asked you: Do you believe it is thinking. Therefore, instead of seeing the theologians I have argued with. Let wrong to right evil? Jesus, who if he communism as the greatest threat to free- me try again. existed, was in many ways an admirable dom, I dig deeper and seek to discover The burden of proof for the existence man, enjoins us not to resist evil. That what is behind communism. As 1 study of anything or anyone rests with the per- means it would be wrong to kill a wicked my Bible, I discover that Satan is the arch son who asserts existence. You claim that would-be murderer even if that was the enemy of God. 1 discover that he is the an all-powerful, all-loving God exists. You only way to save the lives and freedom of

Winter 1985/86 39 millions. are over three million Jews in the land of tence of God before you go on to talk of In answering these questions please Palestine. I repeat that this is just a partial what is or is not God's. Suppose someone don't trot out your faith, which begs the fulfillment of what will take place after said to you, "I don't know whether , question. Give me reasons. the of Christ. the Norse God, exists or not but I am The Sunday before last 1 preached in trying to determine whether thunder is the Respectfully, my local Baptist congregation and I called voice of Thor." Is this not absurd? You Sidney Hook to their attention the marvelous way in are no less absurd. which Jeremiah 31:23 has already been And what reasons have you to believe October 16, 1984 fulfilled right in the very days in which we that the Bible is the word of God? Because, are living. This verse of Scripture states, you write, "It has transformed the lives of Dear Dr. Hook: "They shall use this speech in the land of tens of thousands of people all over the Judah and in the cities thereof, when 1 world." But this is plainly silly! Hitler's You state that you want reason and not shall bring their captivity." Mein Kampf transformed the lives of tens faith in our belief in the existence of God. For centuries the of thousands, and Lenin's writings trans- Of course, just believing in God will in no has been a dead language just like Latin. formed the lives of hundreds of thousands. way change your present status because Nobody in the world spoke this language. Does that prove that their writings are the Bible says that the devils believe and I visited the Holy Land in 1961 and at divine or even true? Some forget that tremble. that time all of the street signs were written writings like The Protocols of Zion have 1 claim to be a reasonable man and in English, French, and . None of transformed many lives, too. The truth or claim that what 1 believe is based on the street signs are written in that language falsity of a statement has nothing to do reason and solid evidence and not a blind today. All of the street signs are written with whether the statement transforms faith as you have suggested. in Hebrew. Hebrew is the language that is lives or not. Because millions of people Instead of starting to try to prove the being spoken today in the Holy Land. believe in fairy tales does not make them existence of God, take a different starting Now, my good friend, you can just true. point and determine whether or not the pass this off with a shrug of your shoulders The second reason you give for be- Bible is the Word of God. and say that it is a coincidence, but if you lieving that the Bible is the word of God At one time as a young man, 1 had want to be honest and will investigate is its "unity" and absence of "contradic- serious doubts as to whether or not the hundreds of what you would call coin- tion." This is even sillier than your first Bible was God's Word. Now I do not have cidences, you would find that instead of reason. Something that is a complete fic- such doubts. Allow me to suggest to you them being miracle incidents they are a tion can have unity and be frepof contra- three or four of the reasons that I believe marvelous fulfillment of prophetic Scrip- diction, and yet not be true. Actually the the Bible is God's Word. tures that were written by the Bible is teeming with contradiction, and First, because of its mighty trans- of God through men such as Paul, Peter, all you need do is to read Strauss's Life of forming power. The lives of literally tens Moses, Daniel, etc. Christ to see the contradictions in the of thousands of people all over the world Have I sent you a copy of my book, Gospels exposed. You dismiss these as have been changed and transformed by How Firm a Foundation? if not, let me "nitpicking," which means you are helpless the Word of God. This is not a matter of know, and I'll be glad to send a copy to to resolve them. But worse than the con- faith; this is once again hard, cold fact of you. 1 believe that if you'll make an honest tradictions of the Bible are its downright events that have taken place. investigation of the material that 1 present immoralities. I cited several illustrations Second, I believe the Bible is the in this book, you'll not only come to in my earlier letter and challenged you to Word of God because of the unity of the believe in God, you also will find the joy justify them. Your silence is very eloquent. Scriptures. The Book was written over a and privilege to receive Jesus Christ as Your third reason is the fulfilled period of 1,600 years, by more than forty your Savior, and as your Lord. prophecies of the Bible. The only fulfilled different men, and yet it has one continu- prophecies in the Bible are those that refer ous theme throughout them. 1 am well Yours very sincerely, to death and taxes. The weatherman's aware that you can "nitpick" and try to Homer Duncan prophecies are more often fulfilled than find little flaws here and there. It is an those in the Bible, described usually after amazing thing that more than forty men the event happens. But these fulfilled who wrote over a period of 1,600 years 0ctober 25, 1984 prophecies do not make the weatherman could write without contradiction of what divine. they write. You could not find ten pro- Dear Reverend Duncan: So, dear brother Duncan, believe in fessors in any university in America who any superstitious nonsense you please, and could agree on any given subject. 1 warned you that there was a risk in try- I shall defend your right to believe and Third, 1 believe in the Bible because ing to defend your faith by reason, but preach it against anyone who would de- of the wonderful fact of fulfilled prophecy. you took it and must live with the con- prive you of your freedom to do so. But 1 challenge you to make an honest investi- sequences. please do not speak of "reason." You have gation of this phenomenon and see You may believe what you want, but no reasons for your belief and you do not whether or not it is true and do not merely please do not pretend that what you even begin to measure up to the great assume that it is false. For example, events believe is based on reason. Your letter theologians like Augustine and Aquinas concerning the nation of Israel. God told shows that you are abusing the word who offered reasons for the existence of the nation of Israel that if they were diso- reason. You do not know what the word God—all of which are demonstrably bedient He would scatter them all over means and seem incapable of exercising invalid. the face of the earth. This was literally reason in its ordinary sense. 1 regret if you found this exchange fulfilled. The same God and the same Bible You now tell me that you are not with me painful—although I suspect that tell us that God will also regather the going to try to prove the existence of your incapacity to reason makes you nation of Israel, and this is now being par- God—which you promised to do—but immune to the discomfort one feels when tially fulfilled. Just a few years ago, even only "to determine whether or not the one is exposed as uttering absurdities— Bible scholars thought that this was an Bible is the word of God." Reason should but you have brought this on yourself. impossibility, but at the present time there tell you that you must first prove the exis- Instead of your torturing yourself to

40 FREE INQUIRY answer me, I suggest you criticize your brothers in Christ who are helping the communist totalitarians destroy freedom of religious belief and/or disbelief in so many areas of the world.

Yours truly, Sidney Hook

III. On Satan: Duncan and Kurtz

My correspondence with Homer Duncan, as 1 said, had been very friendly—until, that is, I received from him a copy of an editorial that he published in the May 1985 Mission- ary Crusader. It was written in response to FREE INQUIRY'S announcement of the Com- mittee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, which called for the critical exam- ination of the Bible, and of the conference information; they believe in evolution be- your reference to me and FREE INQUIRY held at the University of Michigan on "Jesus cause they wish to escape the authority of magazine and the incredible assertion that Almighty God.... in History and Myth." What upset me most a "subtle attack has been launched by Dr. Kurtz continues, "Fundamentalist Satan to undermine the Christian faith and was Dr. Duncan's assertion that these pro- religion ... questions the right to abor- to destroy traditional American values." jects had been "launched by Satan." It tion; it seeks to limit sex education...." To accuse those with whom you dis- seemed to me to so poison the well as to Right again, Dr. Kurtz. He says we wish agree as representing Satan is ungentle- make future dialogue difficult. Following are to abridge the freedom to read. This manly, ungracious, intolerant, and fanatic excerpts from his editorial and the corre- charge needs clarification. Every sensible calumny of the worst sort. If that is what spondence that ensued. person should have enough sense to know, you consider to be Christian conduct, then "garbage in; garbage out." If the minds of I grieve for my Christian brothers in Since the average Christian is blissfully our young people and boys and girls are America. 1 submit that it is you, not we, unaware that anything unusual is taking filled with filth and debauchery in the who is underming the "traditional Amer- place, they need to be made to realize that public schools, it will come out sooner or ican values" of fair play, decency, and the a subtle attack has been launched by Satan later in their lives. Therefore, Christians of other points of view. to undermine the Christian faith and to favor encouraging our young people to What FREE INQUIRY has called for destroy traditional American values.... read wholesome literature. We do not is a critical reading of the Bible using the Under the leadership of Dr. Paul favor making available to them the filthy best powers of human intelligence to inter- Kurtz, Editor of Free Inquiry magazine, literature the free thinkers want them to pret it. We approach this task as honest the Religion and Biblical Criticism Re- read.... and sincere human beings interested in search Project [sic] has been formed. In Kurtz says that fundamentalist reli- inquiry and truth. You may disagree with issuing a Call for the Critical Examination gion is "in effect, undermining traditional our interpretations, which is your right, of the Bible and Religion, Dr. Paul Kurtz American freedom." Our nation was but to attribute this to "Satan" is unfair states, "We are confronted today with a founded on Biblical principles, and as long and immoral. situation of imbalance. Tens of millions as we built on those principles we became I think that you owe me and the indi- of people are exposed daily to exhorta- the greatest nation on the face of the earth, viduals associated with the Biblical Criti- tions about religion and the Bible. Funda- but now with the humanistic philosophy cism Research Project an apology. Surely mentalist preachers and claim controlling the media and the educational you are entitled to your point of view, but that the Bible's teachings are literally true, system, we are going down the drain in so are we, in this free and democratic divinely inspired, and the ultimate source every way.... American society. 1 fear that many of your of human ." . . What the average, easy going, denom- readers will accept your word when you While the skeptics make much of "the inational Christian does not know, and attribute our work to Satan. Therefore, I scientific method," they certainly are not seemingly does not care to know, is that submit, some sort of gentlemanly retraction scientific in holding to the theory of evolu- the philosophy that is being promulgated is due. You surely appreciate the fact that tion. It is absolutely amazing to me that in the secular world is also being promul- we have attempted to engage in civilized so-called brilliant men, men who rank high gated in their own denomination. Godly, discussions, which you now seek to rup- in the academic and scientific world, can Bible-believing Christians are giving ture. accept the theory of evolution as a scien- money with one hand for the furtherance Sidney Hook and Joseph Fletcher tific fact. Plain, everyday common sense of the Gospel and with the other hand are have shared with me their recent corre- should show us that evolution is an impos- giving money to destroy the things they spondence with you, which has been sibility. Instead of being in harmony with hold dear. What folly! ... equally exasperating. You are one of the discoveries of modern science, evolution leading critics of secular humanism in the contradicts everything we know about sci- United States today. If your recent edi- ence. Skeptics deny the existence of a per- June 6, 1985 torial is any indication of your agenda, sonal devil, but the very fact that they then you can perhaps understand why so believe evolution shows me that they have Dear Homer: many Americans fear the possible future been deceived by the very one whose role that fundamentalists have in store for existence they deny. Men do not believe 1 must say that 1 was appalled by your America. If you gain power, the possible in evolution on the basis of scientific editorial. In particular, I was shocked by dangers of a new and witch-

Winter 1985/86 41 hunt reminiscent of the infamous years of opposing Biblical Christianity.... are the disciples of Satan. repression and intolerance are too terrible I'm convinced that we are living in to contemplate. the last days of the Age of Grace and that Yours ever sincerely 1 look forward to your response. the coming of the Lord draws near. The for a better world, Bible calls this the Blessed Hope. I'm so Paul Kurtz Sincerely yours, glad that 1 have hope in the coming of Paul Kurtz Christ to solve all the world's problems. IV. Postscript: "Snatched As Yours very sincerely, Brands from the Burning" June 13, 1985 Homer Duncan I wrote Homer Duncan one last time to Dear Paul: P.S.... Often as I am reading some good obtain his permission to publish in FREE book, I think of you, Sidney Hook and INQUIRY the exchanges between him and I've received your letter of June 6 letting Joseph Fletcher and wish that you could Joseph Fletcher, Sidney Hook, and myself. me know that you were appalled by my read and believe as 1 do.... His reply indicates that he is determined to editorial in the May issue of the Mission- ary Crusader. You suggest that a gentle- stay on his course. manly retraction and apology is due; how- June 20, 1985 ever, I cannot apologize for what 1 strong- September 17, 1985 ly believe to be the truth. For many years Dear Homer: I have preached that Satan always makes Dear Homer: his first attack upon the Word of God. In Your letter of June 13, 1985, is a source the Garden of Eden he whispered to Eve, of considerable dismay to me. I'm sorry You have written me several times in the "Hath God said?" This is still the method that you will not withdraw your remarks past requesting permission to quote from he uses throughout the world to cause about Satan or offer an apology. 1 have FREE INQUIRY, or my writings, or from people to doubt the integrity of the Word no doubt that you strongly believe the my letters to you. I have always agreed to of God. The Bible is the foundation upon Gospels to be the Truth, and that you are your requests. which the Christian faith is built and if convinced that people who do not accept I would like permission to quote from the foundation can be destroyed the entire your religious views of the universe have your editorial in the Missionary Crusader superstructure will fall. Of course, this will been "listening to the whisperings of and other writings you have sent to Mr. never happen because the Lord Jesus has Satan." But you merely state them without Fletcher and Mr. Hook. given the promise, "Upon this rock I will a foundation of proof and as an article of I trust that this is agreeable. build my church and the gates of Hell faith. This has the effect of damning your shall not prevail against it." ... opponents as those with whom you dis- Sincerely yours, I have often preached that the greatest agree. You are continually begging the Paul Kurtz tragedy in the world is the tragedy of the question. You accept the Bible as true Editor lost soul and that the second greatest because of what is written in it. Those tragedy is the tragedy of the lost life. I who don't accept your premises and faith think that it is a tragedy indeed that you are "lost men." September 23, 1985 and many other Humanists with whom Unfortunately it becomes difficult to I'm acquainted have allowed yourselves engage in constructive dialogue or to Dear Paul: to be deceived by Satan. He is indeed a further the course of negotiated compro- powerful and a subtle being. 1 know this mise so necessary in a democratic society It's been some time since we have ex- because I have had dealings with the old when one side considers the other side as changed letters. Yes, you have been most boy for over fifty years.... unbenighted disciples of Satan and their gracious in giving me permission to quote Paul, I think that it is tragic that you own side to be the only true defenders of from your writings. I'm glad to give you have turned aside from God's great pur- and Truth. The implications for our permission to quote from my editorial and pose for your life and have listened to the democratic society, which is based on the also material that 1 have sent to Fletcher whisperings of Satan. Of your own will, principle of pluralism, are extremely dan- and Hook.... you have chosen to believe the devil's lie gerous and worrisome; for your attitude, The other night this thought came to rather than to believe the truth of God. however deeply felt, can be destructive of me, "When 1 consider the marvels of the the public interest and the common good. universe in which we live, and the wonders Paul, if you continue in your present There is something absolutistic and final of the planet on which we dwell, and the course, if you continue to choose to follow about your views. Rest assured that I've intricacies of the human mind, 1 am com- the leadings of Satan rather than to listen given the Gospels a careful reading and pelled to believe that the theory of evolu- to the still small voice of the Spirit of that 1 remain totally unconvinced by the tion is the most stupid thought to enter God, this letter that I'm writing to you claims made on their behalf. Millions of the mind of man." Feel free to use that now will haunt you throughout all the your fellow citizens are living significant entire quotation in FREE INQUIRY if you countless ages of eternity. I've been pray- lives without belief in the religion that you desire to do so. ing for you and other Humanists ever since preach, which they consider to be rather I'm hoping and praying that 1 will hit I first met you and trust and pray that simplistic and outdated. Least of all do hard enough to bring some of you fellows you will, first of all, give the Gospel an they believe that the coming of Christ "will to your senses, and that you may be honest hearing and that you will respond solve all the world's problems." They are snatched as brands from the burning. to the claims of Jesus Christ on your life. to be solved by drawing upon critical Be assured there's no personal ani- All lost men are held in bondage by Satan intelligence and working together coopera- mosity because 1 write in a hard-hitting, and it's a difficult thing for any man to tively to solve our problems, not by resort- straightforward manner. come to Christ, so it will be doubly hard ing to biblical faith, and surely not by for you and other Humanists to do so believing that one has a monopoly on truth Yours very sincerely, because of the pride you have taken in and virtue and that all those who disagree Homer Duncan •

42 FREE INQUIRY Should a Humanist Celebrate Christmas?

Thomas Flynn

The fairies are gone ... the witches are gone ... the are throughout the winter months. Here is the origin of the decora- gone ... Santa Claus alone still lingers with us. tive use of holly and pine boughs; here, too, is at least a partial accounting for the tannenbaum. Another variety of pre- —Gamaliel Bradford Christian vitalism, the fertility cult, underlies both the tannen- baum in its role as phallic symbol and the more overtly phallic he holidays pose a special challenge for secular human- Maypole. Meanwhile the erotic connotations of mistletoe have ists, who ordinarily take pride in conducting thoughtful survived the centuries almost completely intact. Tlives guided by rationalist precepts. At no other time Astrological traditions not only helped shape today's does our society commit such vast resources to the celebration Christmas observance, but contributed its date as well. Naive of popular superstition, and at no time are unbelievers so primitives feared that the gradual shortening of December days powerfully pressured to "join the crowd." It is easy to see why would never end. To them the winter solstice was a blessed so many humanists buckle under this pressure. It is more diffi- event, variously understood either as an annual ritual combat cult to comprehend why so few nontheistic commentators have between the forces of light and darkness or as a successful advanced cogent objections to that collapse. intervention by local priests. On ancient calendars the solstice The power of Christmas stems in part from its unci}nny fell on December 25; this "Feast of the unconquered Sun" complexity. Contemporary American observance reflects a became the date of the Roman and finally of the historical potpourri of traditions from almost every prece4ing Christian feast that uneasily supplanted it. Western culture. Scholarly attempts to unravel Christmas, Folk superstitions of uncertain origin are also a part of American style, have identified three relatively distinct strands. today's holiday. In centuries past, Europeans considered Christ- Today's holiday draws its character primarily from ,pre- mas Eve a magical night when goblins, sprites, or the shades of Christian traditions, to a lesser degree, from authentically the dead roamed the earth. Some of these traditions were trans- Christian traditions, and to a growing extent, from a swelling ferred to Allhallows Eve (Hallowe'en), while others remained corpus of post-Christian or secular iconography. a part of the yuletide feast. The priestly figure of Saint Nicholas was supplanted by Santa Claus, whose elfly powers are far Pre-Christian Traditions more magical than holy in origin. The milk-and-cookies snack often left for Santa was once a propitiatory offering to satisfy Many of the ancient traditions that undergird contemporary marauding demons or to sustain visiting spirits of the family Christmas tradition are also echoed in other annual festivals. dead. The insistence that contemporary children be asleep when The agrarian harvest festival, which celebrates the bounty of Santa comes recalls folk convictions that it is unwise for anyone field and vine with ritual eating and drinking, underlies both to be abroad on Christmas Eve. the traditional lavish Christmas dinner and the Thanksgiving feast. Such yuletide traditions as medieval wassailing and con- Christian Traditions temporary holiday alcohol consumption also spring from agrarian roots. It is surprising how few Christmas traditions can be considered A related, vitalistic tradition reflects on the "miraculous" authentically and originally Christian. Still, without straining survival of plants and trees, which weather winter's assaults charity unduly we can perhaps credit Christian tradition with and rise renewed each spring. Many scholars believe the image the final shaping of such practices as gift-giving,, conspicuous of the seed, buried in the fall only to rise again in the spring, charity toward the poor, and of course the holiday's soterio- lies beneath the Easter story and most other legends of resur- logical dimension. The St. Nicholas myth (a blend of legends rected man-gods. At Christmas this tradition surfaces in the concerning St. Nicholas and the now largely forgotten St. of evergreens, which maintain outward vitality Martin), the adoration of the Magi, the appearance of angels to the shepherds, and the final form of the Twelve Days of Thomas Flynn is co-editor of the Secular Humanist Bulletin. Christmas can, perhaps, also be considered legitimately Christian.

Winter 1985/86 43 their believing playmates. "Humanists" of this stripe shoulder every parcel of the holiday burden, wishing strangers "Merry Christmas," singing carols, perhaps even participating in a few religious exercises for ostensibly aesthetic reasons. Yet it smacks of laziness and hypocrisy—and creates a baffling public incon- sistency—when humanists who profess to have outgrown reli- gion in favor of a rationalist viewpoint embrace the Christmas feast in its totality. Other humanists observe "secular" Christmas, accepting the holiday's pre-Christian and commerical aspects while eschewing its specifically Christian dimensions. Some who choose this route observe an essentially mainstream Christmas, distinguished only by a facile care to wish strangers "Happy Secular Traditions Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas." Others, generally atheists and other thoroughgoing freethinkers, choose to call Secular or post-Christian traditions are relatively recent addi- their celebration a "winter solstice" observance—though the tions to the myth. Their rapid acceptance demonstrates that festivities may be those of a mainstream Christmas and may Christmas is still very much a living and plastic festival. For peak on December 25, rather than the astronomically correct example, Santa Claus as Americans understand him took full December 21. shape only after Thomas Nast illustrated Moore's "Night Before Either approach to the "secular" observance necessarily Christmas" between 1863 and 1886. As recently as 1912 the involves a double standard. After all, most pre-Christian British scholar Clement A. Miles could treat the Santa myth as imagery (and much post-Christian iconography) draws power a transitory phenomenon: "Santa Klaus ... has come to us via from pagan roots. firebrand Anne Gaylor admitted the United States ... where he still has immense popularity." this when she declared, "The Christians stole the Solstice from The replacement of indigenous figures more reminiscent of St. the pagans, and we're going to take it back." The burden of Nicholas by the cookie-cutter American Santa is only now proof lies squarely on proponents of a "secular" Christmas to becoming complete in non-English-speaking Europe. explain how pre-Christian religious traditions are acceptable Even more recent accretions have become accepted ele- for secular humanists when Christian religious traditions are ments of holiday iconography. "White Christmas" was written not. If we have outgrown our faith in an immortal soul in need (by the Jewish Irving Berlin) in 1939—the same year in which of salvation—and thus need no longer celebrate a 's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first appeared in a Mont- birth—we have also outgrown our ancestors' querulous fear of gomery Ward promotion. (Johnny Marks's song of the same dwindling day-length. A serious observance of the winter sol- name came later.) "Frosty the Snowman," Mel Torme's "The stice seems inconceivable among people who know what we Christmas Song," and other relatively recent compositions have know about the structure of the solar system. In the same way, all become virtually canonical. biology has peeled back the mystery from the ways living things adapt to winter and spring. In the process, wreaths and holly Christmas: The Humanist Balancing Act and mistletoe and tannenbaums have lost their symbolic pur- pose. How can humanists celebrate these rites without at least The discussion above, although superficial, should make clear tacitly endorsing their pre-scientific roots—roots we try so hard that almost every element of the contemporary Christmas to leave behind the rest of the year? observance has accumulated through processes most humanists Many humanists object that, of all the admitted supersti- hold suspect. Yet we find Christmas far more difficult to debunk tions that constitute the holiday observance, only those elements than we would a UFO sighting or alleged paranormal mani- that are explicitly Christian justify the considerable effort festation, whose pedigrees are no less dubious. required to oppose them. After all, it is fundamentalist Chris- For most humanists Christmas occasions a balancing , not priests, who seek to ban textbooks, modify act—a game attempt to identify a personal point of least dis- curricula, and warp the Constitution to fit their beliefs. But comfort on the continuum between, on the one hand, untram- this practical objection blurs what is essentially an epistemo- meled indulgence in the holiday's undeniable pleasures, and a logical issue. If, as humanists, we are committed to purge fuzzy lofty rejection on the other. Considering the facts on their thinking from our lives, how can we choose to condemn only merits, Grinch-like disdain has more to recommend it than is certain superstitions while we enthusiastically embrace others? generally supposed. But how do real-world secular humanists The answer is that we cannot—not, at least, if we are to be deal with Christmas—and why do so many find it impossible taken seriously as proponents of a rational . to reject altogether? Many humanists respond to Christmas with frank capi- The Santa Claus Question tulation. Some consider the festival impossible to resist while ultimately unworthy of serious opposition. Others believe it A related question, and a critically important one for parents, cruel—or simply impractical—to deny their children a Christ- concerns Santa Claus. There appear to be sound reasons why mas when the holiday is so obviously materially rewarding to humanists should seriously consider leaving Santa out of their

44 FREE INQUIRY holiday observances, no matter how they feel about other aspects of Christmas. "If, as humanists, we are committed to purge What, after all, does the Santa myth entail? In stark terms, fuzzy thinking from our lives, how can we choose it involves parents lying to their children about a number of significant ontological issues—in many cases, presenting a real- to condemn only certain superstitions while we ity utterly at odds with the parents' own . Unlike enthusiastically embrace others? The answer is fairy tales and escapist fiction, which are usually shared with that we cannot—not, at least, if we are to be children as enjoyable untruths, the Santa myth is generally taken seriously as proponents of a rational life- presented as a physical fact. Many parents go to substantial lengths to create false "evidence" to intensify the apparent reality style." of Santa Claus—assembling toys in the middle of the night and leaving the half-eaten milk and cookies in a conspicuous place, Finally, the Santa Claus myth teaches children to to name just two examples. An analysis of the Santa myth accept—and to expect—judgment of persons rather than judg- discloses many elements humanists should interpret as danger ment of behavior. Dr. Albert Ellis of the Institute for Rational- signals. Emotive Therapy has written that "the myth implies that the Most humanists who were raised in religious families can child who misbehaves or thinks improperly during the year is recall moments of stark terror when they contemplated the not only one whose behavior is poor but is a rotten child who stern all-seeing God from whom no bad thought or deed could is undeserving of any reward at the end of the year." The myth be concealed. Many have vowed to spare their children this "strongly implies the person, rather than his or her behavior, is burden, and yet they embrace the Santa Claus tradition with good or bad.... The Santa Claus myth, along with other open arms. To a child who believes seriously in either God or myths, is definitely pernicious to people's completely and Santa Claus, there is precious little difference between them. unconditionally accepting themselves as humans, whether or Both are omniscient. Both judge the child's behavior according not they do good or bad acts."* to external standards and make a single black or white (Save or damn? Presents or coal?) decision as to the child's worthiness. The Sociopolitics of Christmas Both can retard the child's development of internalized ethics by providing powerful external gauges for behavior. And both This article has presented evidence that most elements of the can be used by lazy parents as surrogate disciplinarians, who contemporary Christmas observance fall short of the standards can record the transgressions Mommy and Daddy miss. for truth and validity that many humanists set for other parts Teaching the Santa myth also involves endorsing—at least of their lives. Indeed, some (such as the Santa Claus myth) implicitly—an irrational and unscientific world-view that is to may be deleterious to personal development. Humanists who be accepted on authority alone and judged according to very find the iconography of Christmas objectionable should still sloppy standards of evidence. Teaching Santa Claus means consider the practical, social effects of their visible accommoda- teaching that elves exist, that reindeer fly, and that faster-than- tion to the mainstream holiday. Ultimately, any festive observ- light travel is easy. (How else can the jolly old elf service every ance at the end of the year, be it "secular Christmas," the home on the planet in a single night?) On September 21, 1897, Solstice, or even Hannukah, is generally perceived by main- the New York Sun printed editorialist Francis Church's classic stream religionists as an endorsement of the holiday as they "Yes, Virginia" reply to the little girl who thought there was no perceive it. When humanists, Jews, or other minorities who Santa Claus. One of the sections less frequently reprinted today have no indigenous reason to celebrate Christmas willingly said: observe feasts so similar that the difference goes unnoticed from a small distance, the erroneous myth of religious and Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in philosophical unanimity in American life goes unchallenged. fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all More secular-humanists need to treat Christmas as "just the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even another day," eschewing feasts and gift-giving, even putting in if they did not see Santa Claus coming down what would that a normal day's work—if their workplace is open. Secular prove? humanism can scarcely be taken seriously when its proponents are seen each year to abandon their principles rather than pass Such obscurantist question-begging recalls the fallacious up an excuse to eat, drink, and be merry! arguments advanced in defense of UFOs, paranormal claims, Ultimately, a respectful but thorough retreat from Christ- quack medicines, and religious cults. It seems inappropriate for mas would be consistent with many humanists' convictions humanists to steep their children in this kind of thinking. about religion and rationality. And it would make manifest It is also disturbing that, thanks to the Santa Claus myth, that there exists within American society a thoughtful minority it has become a normal for American preadoles- that disdains superstition and means what it says. Some cents to discover that one of the most treasured beliefs of their humanists may find this approach overzealous—another case childhoods was an elaborate parental lie. What lessons do they of throwing out the babe with the bathwater. But most of us learn from realizing that the stern injunction to go fast to sleep threw out the babe long ago. The question is why we find on Christmas Eve, lest Santa stay away, was a ruse to give the ourselves so reluctant to part with the bathwater. • parents free run of the living room? *Albert Ellis, in correspondence, September 9, 1985.

Winter 1985/86 45 On Being a Pedestrian

The author proposes that the readers of FREE INQUIRY help to establish a new secular humanist organization. What do you think?

Bob Wisne

he motivation for writing this essay came while reading would feel very pedestrian playing a round with Jack Nicklaus, a selection in the Catholic Encyclopedia on Thomas and even some professional tennis players feel a little pedestrian TPaine. In reference to Paine's work The Age of Reason, playing Martina Navratilova; at least she makes some of them the editors write: look pedestrian. As professional quarterbacks, Joe Namath and Don Stating his belief in God and humanity, he argued that Christ Meredith were certainly not pedestrians, but how about their did not found a religion, but called men to the practice of as salesmen for after-shave lotion and iced tea? moral virtues and belief in one God; thus for him Christianity They both present themselves well on television, but what do was the of myth-makers. Large segments of the work they know about after-shave lotion or tea that you and I do dealt with rather pedestrian scriptural criticism. not know? Nothing. We know what fragrance or flavor we like better than anyone, but we may buy the products they recom- I understood that they thought Paine's work was rather unin- mend because we have so much respect for their record as telligent, but I went to my dictionary to find the exact sense of football players. the adjective "pedestrian" and chuckled when I saw that "com- Seemingly, each field must have its experts to make the mon; unimaginative" was given as the definition. Even though rest of us pedestrians or the word is meaningless. But consider it is somewhat derogatory, "unimaginative" may better describe this proposition: There are no experts in the field of theology, Paine's interpretation of the Bible than it would that of the therefore there are no pedestrians. Virtually every tennis player Catholic church, which I now find to be quite imaginative. I would admit that Martina Navratilova is an expert tennis say "now" because I held the Catholic view for more than forty player; virtually every mathematician would admit that Einstein years. was an expert mathematician; virtually every football player The adjective "pedestrian" probably stems from the idea would admit that Joe Namath was an expert quarterback. But that "common" people walked while kings and pharaohs were who are the expert theologians? Let us invite one top theologian carried or rode in royal coaches. Certainly, as pedestrians from each of the world's religions to a meeting and have them waiting to cross the street, we might feel a little "common" vote on who the experts are in understanding the meaning of watching a classy sports car drive by. Most amateur golfers the universe and the , God, or whatever. Would any of them get more than one vote? We would have to limit the number of theologians to the number of faiths that have at least one million followers or we would not be able to find a meeting place large enough. Besides, if we invited a representa- tive of every faith it might be too difficult to keep some of them from shooting one another. Bob Wisne is a commercial Or let us propose something more reasonable. The faculty airline pilot and a born-again of the various departments of most universities usually attend secular humanist. symposiums where they meet with other experts from other

46 FREE INQUIRY universities and exchange ideas, expert to expert. Chemists meet to discuss what each has been doing, as do economists, "I submit that most believers of the various reli- physicists, and even historians. But instead of trying to get gions of the world confuse the meaning of faith representatives from all of the world's religions together, we could start with a few here in the United States, say the in their own minds. . . . Most people believe Catholics, Mormons, and Born-Again Protestants. Let us pro- because their clergy and religious teachers, 'the pose a meeting of the theology departments of the University experts,' have told them such and such." of Notre Dame at South Bend, Indiana, Brigham Young Uni- versity at Provo, Utah, and Oral Roberts University at Tulsa, Oklahoma, at a neutral place equidistant from each, say hypothesis for which he or she does not have proof. We have Broken Bow, Nebraska. faith (confidence) in scientific theories in proportion to the Each of these three universities call themselves Christian, degree to which they can be verified. but their individual doctrines are very different and mutually Verifying historical "facts" is trickier. We all know the exclusive. Either one of them is correct or none are. If these game called "telephone," where one person whispers something learned and pious men cannot agree on the truth in the quiet, to his or her neighbor, and he or she to the next, and so on pastoral setting of Broken Bow, Nebraska, how can we pedes- around the room. Then we all have a big laugh when we trians ever decide? The fact is that the faculty of chemistry compare the final version with the original message. For that departments might agree to meet, but those of theology depart- reason hearsay evidence is disallowed in court; not only can ments would not, because they know that such a meeting would someone fabricate all or part of the story, but unintentional be fruitless. errors may be committed when the story is transmitted from Easier yet, we could invite the pastors of the various one person to another. Let's also take the example of a famous churches in our communities to meet together. They are all man telling a story about himself to his young son. The story is supposed to be experts in their faiths. Could these experts not true, but the father wants to impress some lesson on his agree as to what is the true religion? Of course not; and, like son. The son repeats the story in a biography of his father the universities, they would probably not agree to meet other because he believes it is true, and the world now has as history than at a social event. something that is fiction. To have strong faith (absolute con- The clergy and teachers of the world's religions are experts fidence) that a historical event is true, we must have good only within their own congregations. Muslims certainly do not corroboration, i.e., good data from several sources. People can look up to Catholic theologians and vice versa. As pedestrians view things differently too. You can hardly expect to obtain an in this world, we do not have time to verify for ourselves every accurate history of war by consulting only the participants. claim to knowledge, so we take the word of experts. A theolo- The evidence for Christianity is scanty at best. The Four gian cannot be an expert if he is teaching fantasy rather than Gospels with all their contradictions cannot be considered relia- fact, and most if not all of the world's theologians must be ble . The Catholic church says that the Gospels were teaching fantasy. One fantasy is as good as another because, as not meant to be histories, and that only the church has been with after-shave lotion or tea, whose taste is any better than given the authority to interpret the Bible. The Mormons say anyone else's? Therefore, there are no experts or pedestrians in the Bible is correct only in so far as it is translated correctly, theology. Remember, I am talking of theology, the discipline and they consider themselves to be the judges. The Born-Again dealing with the question of the existence and nature of God or Christians do not see any contradictions because they have a some Ultimate Reality, not with ethics. We can use the world's "personal relationship" with Jesus. Here is where Christian various religions to develop personal ethics and personal rela- theologists have had to give another meaning to the word tionships. To the extent the religion gives happiness and mean- faith. We are told that God can give us faith, that is, that ing to an individual's life, every religion on earth could be somehow God lets us know what is true. As a Catholic I was considered true. Islam could be "true" for one person, and one taught that, when a person is born into the church and is of the forms of Christianity could be "true" for another. baptized, the person is given "the gift of faith." In other words, you are given knowledge, with no worldly verification whatever. s life goes on, we obtain many bits of knowledge in the The verification is supernatural. I will quote from the Catholic Aschool of "hard knocks." Parents tell their children that Encyclopedia on faith: fire burns, but a young child has to touch a flame once to really learn the fact. But since it is not possible for each of us The intention of the Council [Second Council of Orange] was to verify every piece of human knowledge for ourselves, we to distinguish clearly two orders of knowledge: natural knowl- have faith, that is, confidence, that someone has verified these edge called Ratio, and supernatural knowledge called Fides. This distinction is made first in terms of the source of knowl- things. In the high school and college chemistry laboratory we edge or object of the mind: natural reason grasps truth by conduct experiments to add to our confidence that these things seeing intrinsic evidence of things; faith does so in virtue of the are facts. authority of God revealing. This is the first definitive statement: True scientists expect to have their work verified by others. faith is an act of real knowledge, but of an order essentially Experiments are successfully repeated to the point that if the distinct from reason... . experiment fails once, the conduct of the experiment is ques- After such a drastic distinction between faith and reason tioned and not the theory. At times a scientist proposes a in terms of object and ability, the fathers of the Council might

Winter 1985/86 47 seem to be hard pressed to find any place for reason at all. But they do not hesitate to affirm that faith, although distinct from reason, is still an intellectual act and reason has a most impor- "The case against theology is clear. There are no tant role in the preparation of our minds for faith. experts in the field, and those who call themselves experts cannot demonstrate their case before With reference to that last statement I would say it is the other so-called experts from other religions." abrogation of reason that prepares the mind for faith, but you choose for yourself on that score; it is shown here that at least some Christians equate faith with some sort of direct revelation "we believe that what God has revealed is true, not because of its intrinsic truth as seen with the natural light of reason but from God. because of the authority of God who reveals it, of God who I will cite one more quotation from the same entry: can neither deceive nor be deceived."

A Catholic's duty of preserving his faith includes not only the was clear in his detestation of human reason, obligation not to expose his faith rashly or unnecessarily but calling it the devil's bride and God's worst enemy. Today, a the obligation positively to protect it. He should heed the direc- Born-Again, "Spirit-filled" Christian, Judson Cornwall, writes tives of the Church about forbidden books that endanger the faith. [Emphasis added.] in his book Unfeigned Faith that faith does not have it's origins in man but that "faith's source is in , God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, not in the Bible, not in theology, My gosh! How stupid can they be for saying it, and how not in doctrine." To settle the matter that Christians believe stupid can we be for believing it, that this all-powerful, all- faith is some sort of God-given knowledge, St. Paul, in Romans knowing, all-everything God can give us the gift of faith, only 12:3, says: to be outgunned by someone like Tom Paine? The Catholic church obviously has no faith in it's own convictions, certainly For through the grace given to me I say to every man among not in its own children! you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to I may be criticized for using the word stupid, but let me think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has show you what some early fathers of the church thought of allotted to each a measure offaith. [Emphasis added.] faith versus reason. St. Anselm said: Whether an individual Christian believes that measure of faith to be some spiritual substance or God somehow acting on No Christian should openly discuss why the Catholic Church fully believes and orally confesses a certain doctrine to be true. the person's mind, it is very much akin to a personal revelation However, while simply believing and heartily living according from God. So, if a Christian tells me he believes Jesus rose to it he may patiently seek its rational basis. If he understands from the dead because he has some God-given faith (revelation), it, let him give thanks to God. If not it is stupid to protest. Let that is altogether different from saying he believes it because he him bow his head in submission. [Yves M. J. Congar, The has faith (confidence) in the historical evidence. We can discuss , emphasis added.] the historical evidence but not personal revelation. I submit that most believers of the various religions of the world confuse Here we at least can assume that St. Anselm thought much the meaning of faith in their own minds. They say they have more highly of knowledge gained through faith than of that faith, but what do they mean? Most people believe because gained through reason. their clergy and religious teachers, "the experts," have told The same book gives a summary of St. Augustine's view them such and such; the clergy and teachers believe for the on faith and reason. same reason; and through the ages people have told one another. That is faith-confidence. If they believe because God Reason is competent for terrestrial things whose possession has given them "a measure of faith," that is faith-revelation. does not interest the Christian; but it is incompetent for spiri- Again, if their belief is based on the latter, there can be no tual and eternal things. Hence there must be a constant distinc- discussion of the evidence. tion between two levels, two orientations, two spiritual powers, and two manners of thinking. no longer accept the Catholic church's notion of knowledge I gained through revelation. There is no way for a person to This view is still the position of the Catholic church. In The verify what he or she accepts on faith (revelation). True beliefs Catholic Catechism, John Hardon, S.J., speaks of the issue must be based on evidence and rational demonstration. If our and quotes the First Vatican Council: beliefs cannot meet the requirements of reason they are not justified and must be classified as irrational. Faith, by it's very "Why Faith?" The underlying reason is that "since man depends definition, is belief without rational demonstration and, there- entirely on God as his Creator and Lord and because created fore, is irrational also. This is the difference between chemistry reason is wholly subordinate to uncreated Truth, we are and theology; this is the reason Notre Dame will discuss obliged to render by faith a full submission of the intellect and chemistry but not theology with Brigham Young and Oral will to God when he makes a revelation." Furthermore, since Roberts universities. the content of faith is beyond the ken of human understanding, This is a complicated world, and we must depend upon

48 FREE INQUIRY one another to survive. When you fly on an airplane you must thought is free to challenge the most basic assumptions, and it trust that the experts in the field have done their homework should be. well. As a pilot I have faith (confidence) in the designers of the The case against theology is clear. There are no experts in aircraft, because for twenty-five years I have seen their products the field, and those who call themselves experts cannot demon- perform as advertised. Nothing human is infallible. I have had strate their case before other so-called experts from other reli- several systems malfunction, including two catastrophic engine gions. Their methods are irrational and we cannot believe any failures. With an expert crew and procedures designed by other of them. experts, in each case we got the airplane on the ground safely with no injuries to our passengers. Sadly, though rarely, there nough of this philosophizing. I am a pedestrian, and the are fatal failures, mostly human ones. For each of us, our only Eneed is clear; we pedestrians must unite! FREE INQUIRY choice is to trust the experts in a field in which we are pedes- magazine has previously announced the establishment of the trians. The one thing we must ask as pedestrians is, Who are Academy of Humanism for great humanist thinkers. It is only the experts to be trusted? fair that it help us with an organization for pedestrians. Its First, experts do not have to prove themselves to us pedes- purpose will be to determine who the experts are and publish trians, but they must prove themselves to other experts. We do our findings. We will be evangelical, not to win converts to not expect to see total agreement in a field; in fact, we might pedestrianism, but to show our friends and neighbors that they worry a little if we did, but we do need to see a consensus. If are already pedestrians. the experts can't agree, we pedestrians have no business taking The first step is to choose a name, so we'll have a contest. a position on the matter. Let's be humble enough to admit we FREE INQUIRY has agreed to award a $100 prize to the person can't know everything. who submits the winning entry. Send your idea to: Second, a person may be an expert in more than one field, but being an expert in one field does not automatically Bob Wisne qualify the person as an expert in another field; they are pedes- c/o FREE INQUIRY trians like us until accepted by other experts. Someone may Central Park Station, Box 5 point out that Galileo was not accepted by the scientists of his Buffalo, NY 14215 day, but I would submit that the science of his day was not free. The church controlled education, and all knowledge was The decision of the judges, myself and my squire Sancho, judged according to scripture. Today, in many places, human will be final. •

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Winter 1985/86 49 mately have the disease, while others put the figure higher. No one believes that all of Viewpoints those exposed will become AIDS victims, and this is grounds for optimism that a vac- cine may be quickly found. One of the handicaps to research is that public opinion has been so hostile on the whole issue of sexually transmitted diseases that until Facing AIDS recently there was no effort to develop a vaccine for any of them. We now have one for Hepatitis B and are finally working on one for gonorrhea, but, in terms of good public health policy, these efforts should have been started long ago. Because they were not, we are not as sophisticated in dealing with diseases carried in the semen Vern L. Bullough as we should be. Until we discover a cure or develop more effective preventive measures against erry Falwell, always quick to grab the agenda that has nothing to do with AIDS. AIDS, what should be done? Obviously we Jheadlines, has proclaimed that AIDS The association of epidemics with sin is have to try to lessen the potential for panic, (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is not new. When the bubonic plague hit and we also have to try to prevent the possi- God's punishment of sexually wicked peo- Europe in the fourteenth century, it wiped ble spread of the disease. Let me make the ple, the modern equivalent of the destruction out about a third of the population between following suggestions: of Sodom and Gomorrah. Following such -1-347 and 1351, and it led to attacks on the I. We need to extend compassion to lines of reasoning we could argue that lung Jews (who somehow were blamed for it), and provide care for the victims of AIDS. cancer is a punishment for smoking, stomach the rise of the flagellants (who tried to beat From all the evidence available, AIDS is and colon cancer a punishment for eating, the sins out of themselves and others), and not transmitted by ordinary contact (only and breast cancer a punishment for being general mass hysteria. As the plague peri- through anal intercourse or by blood con- female. odically returned, society learned to deal tamination). The disease is far less conta- It is this kind of silliness that has com- with it more effectively and adopted effective gious than hepatitis or many other common plicated the issue of AIDS. Obviously AIDS quarantine and public-health measures. Still, diseases. Special care should be taken to is a serious problem and one that poses a when it appeared again in fearsome form in avoid infection, but this should be a simple danger to society, but one of its lesser threats the Great London Plague of 1665, the citi- matter for professionals. is that of a vast incurable pandemic. The of that city, believing that cats and dogs 2. The use of condoms should become real danger is that people like Falwell will were carriers, killed thousands of the ani- accepted practice in anal intercourse as well seize upon AIDS to advance their own poli- mals, which only led to an increase in the as in vaginal intercourse in all casual sex tical agenda. Historically, societies have rat population that carried the flea that was encounters. Professionals have advised this often panicked when threatened with new host to the plague bacteria. More recently for years, and the practice would not only and unknown diseases, and the beginnings the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918 and eliminate the threat of AIDS but of most of this reaction can be observed in attempts 1919, which killed fifty million people, also other sexually transmitted diseases. to keep AIDS children out of the public led to mass panic. Many people refused con- 3. Prospective blood donors are now schools, the threat of the insurance industry tact with the sick, their families and even screened for AIDS, and the nation's blood to cancel policies for anyone who tests posi- their living-quarters. The list could go on, supply will be free of the virus. The existence tive for the antibodies, and the effort of some but the lesson to be learned is clear. Panic of the test, however, can also lead to prob- to make it a criminal offense for persons is not the solution, and neither is blaming lems. Safeguards need to be established to with AIDS to have sexual intercourse. those who are the victims of the disease. prevent the names of those identified as AIDS is so controversial because it is Ultimately the best way to counter the having the virus from being supplied to their associated with sexual activity, primarily panic over AIDS is to find a cure or a vac- employers, their insurance companies, or homosexual activity. This permits those who cine to prevent it. This will take time, but others who could use this information un- are opposed to homosexuality or to open much has been discovered in a remarkably fairly. expressions of sexuality to forge a "moral" short period. We have been able to identify 4. Research on a vaccine or cure should club, to mount public campaigns against the virus and find out how it works, we be speeded up and given high priority. groups they fear and detest. Such tactics are have a test to detect the presence of anti- Though the government and the research dangerous because they do not and will not bodies in the blood, and the threat of the community have done an outstanding job solve the problems that AIDS poses, and, disease continuing to spread among people so far, they could do better if more resources in fact, serve as a smoke screen for a political who need vast quantities of blood, like were committed to the effort. hemophiliacs, has been eliminated. We are 5. Two educational campaigns should Vern L. Bullough is dean of natural and still not certain how many of those who take place. One should be mounted in the social sciences at the State University of have been exposed to AIDS and have the gay community to educate gays about the New York College at Buffalo and a con- virus will actually develop the symptoms sexual practices most likely to lead to infec- tributing editor to FREE INQUIRY. associated with the disease. Some estimate tion. This, in fact, is already being done, that 10 percent of those exposed will ulti- but more support and effort is necessary.

50 FREE INQUIRY At the same time, a low-key public-education 7. Public officials have to take a strong AIDS victims have been drug users. In its campaign should be launched to minimize stand on AIDS, and for the most part they African homeland, AIDS thrived on poor some of the current hysteria. have. Many school superintendents have put sanitation and health practices, and this 6. The media should be encouraged to AIDS students into the classroom, mayors description often fits the environment of the be much less sensational in their coverage of several cities have tried to calm public drug user. I believe that AIDS poses a suf- of AIDS. Articles in the New York Post unrest, and several state legislatures have ficient threat to override the legal prohibi- and other tabloids, rather than providing enacted measures to protect the confidential- tions against the sale of sterilized needles. information, have contributed to panic and ity of the records of AIDS patients and those Needles might even be made available to hysteria, not to information, and those pub- who have the antibodies. drug-users at clinics free of charge. lished in Life magazine have been almost as 8. More drastic solutions are also called We must face the problems posed by bad. Ultimately the press will tire of AIDS for, such as making sterilized needles availa- AIDS realistically rather than simply react and turn to other issues, but the problem of ble to the general public without a prescrip- like the Jerry Falwells of the world in ignor- providing accurate information will remain. tion, since a larger and growing number of ance and fear. •

derive from any "people" at large, and cer- tainly not from an assemblage of saucy nuns in street clothes. (Yes, 1 have heard of the sensus fidelium, but this is essentially noth- Democracy in the Catholic Church? ing more than a parroting back of what the faithful have already been taught by the .) Like it or not, this top-down arrangement has always been a distinguish- ing mark of Catholicism. Anselm Atkins Beyond these merely historical observa- tions, however, one must go on to ask: Is a vox populi what liberals like Francoeur n his recent article on sex and the must add—as Francoeur neglects to do— really want for their church? True, it might I Catholic church, Robert Francoeur out- that the pope and hierarchy are themselves give them new grounds for reveling in an lines a position that I encounter occasionally part of that people. More important, they, "incarnational" or "all-too-human" church. in Catholic acquaintances and relatives (FI, and they alone, are the teaching and ruling But when, where, and how has it ever been Spring 1985). It is the opinion that it doesn't part. laid down that such a church actually does matter what the church says "officially" Let us agree at the outset that there is operate by majorities? Granted, in the poli- about birth control, masturbation, sleeping no reason why a person would want to be tics of church councils we have the spectacle around, and so forth. One can make up associated with the Catholic or any other of faith and morality being decided by vote; one's own mind about such matters and still church unless he or she believed it to be the but remember the voting is done by the hier- be a good Catholic. A confessor who agrees undeceived and undeceiving bearer of divine archy alone. Democracy is reserved for the can usually be found. After all, the theory teaching, of a revelation unfailingly true for use of the rulers. The "people" do not parti- goes, what is the church? It is the "people of all times and places, unchangeable as the cipate. Never has theology been decided by God." Says the new liberal, "I have as much god who revealed it. This revelation, being plebescite. Indeed, would liberals wish that right as anyone else to speak for the church." from god, is not subject to question, nor it were? For one would have to poll not A child of freedom, he feels his own views does it jostle in the marketplace of human only the few thousand liberal theologians ought to hold as much weight as anyone's. opinions. Otherwise, one might as well and liberated nuns—all registered and Alas, within Catholicism this position cannot simply invent one's own religion—an easy anxious to vote—but also the whole Catholic be held consistently or for long. It is, rather, enough thing to do, but not really very satis- peasantry of America and Ireland, not to the beginning of an estrangement—or else a fying to the religious spirit in the long run. mention the hundreds of millions of Latins colossal misunderstanding of what the So, then, one begins by being willing to sub- who staunchly plump for the pope. The Catholic religion is all about. mit to and assent to the divine revelation. Catholicism of these ecstatic throngs is still Francoeur correctly observes that the But note: The content of this revelation, as largely a matter of shrouds, festivals, incan- real issue is not sex, but power. Unfortu- claimed in the Catholic church, has never tations, and madonna worship. It may well nately for liberals, the location of power been proposed or defined by the "people of include belief in the flatness of the earth. within the church is quite clearly defined God" as a whole, but only by episcopal Few liberals are hearty enough to assent sin- both by history and by theology. It is per- authority. This is at least historically the cerely to what this overwhelming majority fectly true, of course, that "neither the case. It was never the "people of God" who of Catholics, worldwide, believes. So much Vatican nor the pope is 'the [whole] Catholic wrangled over the wording of doctrine—it for the "people of God," bless 'em. Look church' " and, without doubt, "the `people was the bishops in council. The great doc- not to them for salvation. of God' constitutes the church." This much trines of the church—Trinity, Consubstan- In the monastery at which I was sta- is currently acceptable in theology. But one tiality of the Son, , and tioned for a number of years, our revolu- others equally complex, which Catholics tionary cadre was making insidious inroads, cheerfully assent to weekly when they recite carving away huge chunks of tradition, until Anselm Atkins is a former Trappist monk. the creed together in the liturgy—were con- finally we contrived to institute democratic He is now a freelance writer and stained- structed and proposed by a comparatively procedures across the board—whereupon the glass artist in Georgia. small number of philosophically minded hitherto rather obedient conservative major- bishops. Such arcane doctrines did not ity began to reassert itself, bringing our little

Winter 1985/86 51 aggiornamento to a chagrined halt. Our best You're free, of course, as a human being, to in this same authority of the church, and in strategy, had we but kept to it, had been change parks and rules, but you should then that authority alone. quietly to bend the ear and twist the arm of be forthright enough to acknowledge that Lest the rest of Christians—the Bible an accommodating abbot. Indeed, a similar you are now playing a different game and it Christians—think my arguments are of no thing happened at Vatican I1, when a com- is misleading to continue to use the same concern to them, they should know that the paratively small party of learned bishops and name. Alternatively, one could work to case against scriptural religion is exactly the articulate theologians lobbied persuasively become a . Indeed, the rewards of same—only the terms are different. Once it and carried the day. But it must not be such a course are known to be fully equal is conceded (as of course it must be) that supposed that these represented a huge to the risks. However, if one's prospects for the Scripture cannot yield a clear, true, literal groundswell, at least at the beginning, or that seem remote, one should perhaps learn meaning at every point, but instead requires that their views necessarily reflected the another trade, or consider retirement. qualifications supplied by tastes of a majority of the church, which no Though my jabs at liberals are meant and , the game is over. The doubt still secretly longs with religious in a friendly spirit—I used to read Fran- interpreter of revelation, whether this be nostalgia for days of incense and Latin. coeur's writings with enthusiasm—I realize oneself or one's preacher, now becomes the Majority or no, not even good Vatican Il that my views, if accepted, would threaten real authority, and the former authority of was allowed to be trusted in matters of sex the security of those who wish to espouse Scripture as a locus of revelation vanishes. or the role of women. liberalism while maintaining allegiance to the A Catholic liberalism that contests the A thoughtful person might well step cherished church of childhood. 1 am also church's undemocratic authority to teach, back and wonder why the god of the uni- aware that the question of "Whose is the define, and declare, has begun a long slide verse would choose to express its mind and church?" is treated in professional circles that cannot consistently be stopped until the will on this obscure orb through a demo- with care and circumspection worthy of very bottom is reached. The church herself cratic majority—and not rather (as long as homoousian debate. knows this quite well and, for her own sur- this god was so set on dealing with humans) However, I see no way around what I vival, wisely keeps tight reins. It is of the through picked shamans, seers, philosopher- conceive to be the central issue: Anyone who very nature of Catholic liberalism, on the kings, and the like, as has been claimed by takes the church seriously (as I always did) other hand, to go out of business. Liberals most other religions, as well as by that as guardian and interpreter of divine revela- do not seem to understand this, though the neglected former "people of God," the tion and organ of salvation (who would set- church authorities try very patiently to make Hebrews. Democracy may be an excellent tle for less?) must also understand that this it clear. means of framing policy in a free society, same church's claim to infallible authority, The church, contrary to Voltaire's but it hardly avails for the reception and lodged historically in pope and bishops, wishes, appears to be uncrushable. Contrary communication of visionary revelation—or cannot simply be ignored or wished away. to what 1 myself once hoped, it is of its for judging matters of fact, which is rather But once that authoritative claim has been nature irreformable—in any fundamental the domain of skilled investigation and care- confounded at any point—this must be way. Let us then leave it alone, to glory and ful reasoning. Truth is never decided by vote grasped quite clearly—the whole structure bask in its gleaming Byzantine coils. Perhaps (though we agree to abide by the determina- collapses as a unit. One cannot pick and the human environment will finally become tions of juries). choose. There isn't even anything worth too inhospitable for such a relic, and the Throughout its tangled history, one ele- poking around for in the rubble, as all infamous thing will quietly expire of its own ment in the church has remained constant: Christian "truths" are grounded ultimately quaint obsolescence. • Ultimate spiritual authority is vested in the episcopate. Within the broad resource of the "people of God," only the hierarchy trans- FREE INQUIRY mits divine information. If this form of Gift Subscriptions of Christianity is not to one's liking, one may choose another, or none—but one ought not are now available! call any such mutant form "the church," for Please enter a one-year gift subscription at $16.50 for: that serves only to confuse. A spade is not a rake. One must not award names arbitrarily Name in the manner of Humpty-Dumpty. It is taking Catholic liberals an inordinately long Address time to grasp this point. The One Holy Roman Catholic and City State Zip Apostolic church, meanwhile, knows exactly who and what she is, and the whimsies of Additional gifts of FREE INQUIRY can be purchased at a 30% discount off the regular liberal theologians have scant contribution subscription price. (Please use a separate sheet.) to make toward her self-knowledge. The bishops, indeed, may alter the church in Total $ ❑ Check enclosed ❑ Bill me stages, as they have in the past—more fre- ❑ VISA ❑ MasterCard Exp quently than we realize. But one cannot Charge my eliminate, weaken, or circumvent this Please send a gift card in my name. ❑ episcopal-papal authority without creating something un-Catholic. The game of Return to: FREE INQUIRY, Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215 "church" (to use Francouer's metaphor) is played in one ballpark with one set of rules.

52 FREE INQUIRY religious belief. God or the devil can be blamed for the events in one's life. This is a safe, lazy approach.

ow that the major reasons for belief Why Atheists Are Feared Nin religion have been listed, we can examine the main reason people fear athe- ists, namely, they think that atheists want to take away their right to believe. In fact, Western atheists do not want to do this at all. Atheists, as one of the most persecuted minorities, have a keen awareness of the value of religious freedom and are strong Gordon Stein supporters of total for all. Of course real freedom of religion includes the right not to believe. In fact, it is ne old definition of an atheist says Most people don't base every moral action the paranoid religious who are prone to per- 0 that he or she is someone who has no on this fear, but many worry that they will secute. Some Soviet countries have taken invisible means of support. While this is not be judged as imperfect. away religious freedom in the name of pro- a serious definition, there certainly is much 4. The promise of heaven is a great moting communism. But this should not be confusion in the minds of most people, many comfort to many, and may also serve as a confused with the desires of all atheists. of whom have never met one, as to what an reason for inaction in improving this world. Another reason the religious fear athe- atheist is. Perhaps this is partially due to 5. The desire to see deceased loved ones ists (and 1 use the word religious to mean the fact that many atheists are still "in the in an may also serve as a powerful theistic believers) is that these believers are closet" for fear of ostracism or economic motivator for people to believe in other afraid that atheists will show them that their reprisals, but it is also because many mem- aspects of religion in order to obtain this beliefs are incorrect or false and that they bers of the clergy insist that atheists do not guarantee. It is a noble concept, even if there have wasted their lives. This is an intellectual exist. The "clergyman's definition" is that is no evidence for its truth. fear, as opposed to the legal political con- an atheist is someone who denies that God 6. There are also practical reasons for cerns of the previous reason. Atheists should exists or who says that he or she can prove belief. In many towns (especially smaller be able to publicly discuss the failings and that no God exists. ones) it is important to be seen at church. falsities of various religions, possibly on Atheists define themselves as persons Attendance may help employees get ahead radio and television. The religious may find who do not believe in a god or gods, or or be the source of business contacts. this offensive, but atheists find the current who lack a belief in a god or gods. Using 7. Some people, especially fundamen- religious radio and television shows offen- this working definition, one suddenly finds talists, are actually "in love" with their faith sive. There is a simple solution for all con- that there are millions of atheists—about 10 or with Jesus. He serves as a companion cerned: Don't watch or listen to those shows percent of the population in the United and friend. that offend you. States. 8. Many people are insecure and need The fear of death is another reason peo- People fear atheists, and to understand a father figure. They can't face the world ple shun atheists. If atheists can show that why, we must examine the reasons for belief alone. They give the credit for their successes there is no afterlife, believers will have to in religion. The major reasons are as follows: to God. Many people seem to have been face the finality of death. Many people feel I. The search for meaning and purpose raised with no sense of self-worth. that their lives have been unsuccessful, in life. Many people lead lives of "quiet 9. Loneliness is also an important con- unproductive, or unfulfilled and hope for desperation" and are comforted to think that sideration, especially among the elderly. better in the next world. Therefore, anyone God will protect and reward them. Religion serves a social function. It is a who shows that there is no next world is 2. Next is the fear of death. The con- respectable way of getting out of the house taking away that hope. The atheist may cept of personal annihilation is very fright- and being with other people. answer that it is indeed possible to face the ening to many people. But the idea of per- 10. Many people are intellectually lazy. idea of death without a belief in the afterlife. sonal immortality is reassuring and is found They have never tried to examine the beliefs There is also a general fear of the unknown, in many religions. In fact, the fear of death with which they were raised. They simply and religion is a major defense. The atheist may be one of the major reasons for the accepted their parents' beliefs. may be seen as removing this defense. creation of religion in general. 11. Lack of exposure to alternative Many people also fear having nothing 3. There is also the fear of eternal viewpoints may be one reason religious to believe in. They feel that a general sense punishment, or hell. This is learned in child- beliefs gained in childhood remain un- of purposelessness would result. For this hood and can serve as a powerful motivator. changed. The media rarely deal with atheism, reason, some feel that any religion is better and the thousands of books and several than none. Of course, they believe that there periodicals on the subject are not widely is only one true religion (theirs), but even a circulated. Many people who are intrigued belief in a false religion is better than no by atheism choose to maintain the status belief at all. 1 am not certain what the Dr. Gordon Stein is associate editor of FREE quo for fear of appearing "different" or los- explanation for this phenomenon is, but per- INQUIRY. He edited the recently published ing their friends. haps it is a reaction to the perceived arro- Encyclopedia of Unbelief (Prometheus). 12. A fear of taking responsibility for gance of the man who thinks he can be one's own actions may also be a factor in independent and self-sufficient, without

Winter 1985/86 53 needing God. Many believers think that man Atheists must try to overcome these and could wield considerable political clout has "messed up" in his attempts to solve fears by showing that they are decent, con- were their true size known. Atheists should problems, and that the course of the world cerned human beings who are seeking the also join and support the existing atheist must be left in God's hands. The atheist's same freedoms that others have. Atheists organizations, which help fight for separa- answer is to present his positive program of must inform the public about atheism and tion of church and state and make the atheist humanism. must come out of the closet to make their position and presence known to the Then there is always the fear of the true numbers known. They are a large group public. • devil. Satan is supposed to be very clever and deceitful. Perhaps the atheist is really Satan attempting to create doubt in the believer's mind. Since atheists also disbelieve No Rabbi, Please: The Need for in the existence of Satan, this is again not a valid fear. Perhaps it is really a product of the believer's own "dark urges" or inner self. Nontheistic Options The fear of communism has already been mentioned. The word atheist and the word communist have been mentioned in the same breath so many times that a num- ber of people think that the two concepts are necessarily related. They are not, and personal experience has shown me that the Elaine B. Oxman vast majority of Western atheists are not communists. In fact, many atheists in the United States are strongly anti-communist. s Sarah Slavin pointed out in her arti- made easy for me. Then he asked, "Do you They view communism as a system that takes Acle concerning the hardships occa- have a rabbi?" "No," I answered. "Then I'll away freedom of speech, freedom of assem- sioned in a particular tragedy (FI, Summer appoint one," he told me. bly, and freedom of association. 1985), formal options are needed for non- I like to think that some persons, even A few people think that atheists are theists in situations for which our society under the shock of new grief, would have moral monsters. There are, however, enough requires formal responses. calmly responded: "Thank you, but I'm not moral atheists known to the general public When my husband died suddenly four religious, and neither was my husband. I'll that the idea that religion is necessary to years ago, I was quickly put under pressure make other arrangements." I said nothing. morality is slowly dying out. The atheist's to select a funeral parlor and a burial site. I The upshot was that 1 found myself spon- best defense against this charge is to set a was fortunate in choosing the latter. My soring a religious service in which I did not good example and to explain that morality phone call to the first nonsectarian cemetery believe. is acquired during the period of socialization listed in the telephone book directed me to My husband and I had always been in childhood. a burial ground that was small, uncluttered, very willing to attend and participate in 1 briefly mentioned before that some a century and a half old, managed by a services with relatives and friends, but this fundamentalists have almost a "family" rela- family that lived on the site, and in an area was different. The ceremony's references to tionship with God or Jesus. They therefore that Harold and I were familiar with. I found "God" and "our Father" irritated and fear to lose this relationship. Again, the it comforting. The same was not true of the embarrassed me—and yet whom could I atheist is for total freedom of religion, funeral. Rushed as I was to decide on a blame but myself? I felt as if I had set up a including the right to this belief. place—my husband was still lying in a room political rally at my home for a senator The final reason people fear atheists has at the hospital where he had worked, and it whose views 1 opposed: How could I dis- to do with the fact that their clergy tell them was made clear to me that his corpse could tance myself from what he said when I was to do so. On the part of the clergy, it is not stay much longer-1 had given no responsible for the event? I told myself that, often a simple case of job security. The more thought to a ceremony. 1 chose the funeral after all, some members of Harold's family, atheists there are, the less need there is for parlor that had been used a few years earlier and of mine, were believers—perhaps this professional clergy. I don't think that this is for an aunt, because it was familiar to me comforted them; but that didn't help me a vast conspiracy, but rather simply a series and on a main street that could be reached much. Furthermore, 1 knew perfectly well of individual members of the clergy realiz- easily by mourners arriving from out of what sort of closure 1 would have wanted— ing that atheists pose a threat to their liveli- town. an informal ceremony in which we were free hoods and that theists (or, recently, secular When 1 went to speak to the director to speak about Hal and our memories of humanists) make a good target. It is not about the burial, he told me that there were him. There would have been an outpouring likely that any atheists will be in the congre- coffins for sale in the basement. Well, that's of love and respect for a man who was warm gation to defend themselves. convenient, 1 thought. We settled on what and sensitive and idealistic, who ground tele- flowers to order. Next he inquired about scopes and loved opera and chose to adopt eople fear atheists because they do not my husband and took notes for use in the biracial children because he had been the Pknow what atheism is or what atheists obituary. Everything was being arranged and victim of prejudice in his youth. There would want. All the fears about atheists in the have been laughter and tears and a feeling United States that we have examined turn of closeness among us. As it was, I experi- out to be groundless. Atheists do not want enced some of this later, when the friends Elaine B. Oxman is a psychologist at the to take away freedom of religion—they glory and relatives gathered; but the funeral was Philadelphia State Hospital. in it. Atheists just want equal rights. cold, and the stated beliefs were not his. 1

54 FREE INQUIRY felt that through ignorance (naiveté? passiv- situations. What should a nontheist do when Unfortunately, what we have witnessed ity? timidity? lack of imagination?) I had asked to swear in a courtroom? In the case too often is the quick-fix approach of done a disservice to my husband's memory, of jury duty, there is an implied religious bureaucratic zealots, political partisans, and barely three days after his death. test. The option (to affirm, and without a well-intentioned but impatient individuals. Later, 1 thought: Would not this make Bible) is there by law; but it is not men- The quick-fix in question is the use of people believe that 1 had turned to religion tioned, and to ask for it makes one a nui- quotas. Quotas, no matter how euphe- in my time of sorrow, and hence strengthen sance. It is easier to take the whole process mistically disguised, have been and still are whatever misconceptions they already had as akin to the Hippocratic Oath, sworn to used to define, identify, and solve the prob- about nontheists? Much, much later, 1 Apollo: A way of saying, "This is a solemn lem of equal opportunity. The use of quotas thought: Even if I guessed that the funeral statement, out of the ordinary"; but then for any of these purposes is unacceptable, director would set up a service, whom or one passes as a believer. and it is unacceptable on both theoretical what could 1 have called for an alternative. To have recognized, institutionalized and practical grounds. Using a numerical These two concerns—to have options, options would give us nontheists choices in formula to establish the existence of dis- and not to increase antagonisms toward times of crisis; it would permit crimination is logically ludicrous because it nontheists—have occurred to me in other itself to be acknowledged. • rests upon covert assumptions about human nature and talent that no one is in a position to know. Ironically, the misguided pro- ponents of quotas are forced to use them precisely because they cannot objectively establish discrimination in a case-by-case fashion, and they cannot establish it because that is not the real problem. Using a quota as a remedy is practically counterproductive, For Affirmative Action, since no one can reasonably identify the truly injured individuals. It is an attempt to use a Against Quotas shotgun in a fine-tuning situation, with all the devastating ricochet effects of reverse discrimination. The end never justifies the means, especially when the means cause us to lose sight of the end. At times like this, I remind myself why Jackie Robinson is one of my heroes. He was evaluated on his performance against Nicholas Capaldi white players who were playing by the same rules. Robinson did not get four strikes; he did not find first base 30 feet closer to home ffirmative action, properly understood, At the same time, we must resist the plate when he came up to bat; and he did Ais in the great tradition of American oversimplistic diagnosis of current social not find second base 30 feet closer to first idealism. Those who are both sensitive to problems that results from stale sociological base when he reached it. No one ever the injustices of the past and deeply com- statistics and the numbing effect of emo- claimed in the case of Jackie Robinson that mitted to the ideals of fair play, individual tionally charged that reflect a prior egregious discrimination against blacks merit, and equal opportunity welcome any bygone era. Members of minorities do as meant that different evaluative criteria were policy that reminds all employers to search well and in some remarkable categories do to be used in judging him. He would have actively and conscientiously for the most even better in the job market than do their found a preferential quota demeaning. talented, best qualified potential employees, white male counterparts with comparable The end has never been to achieve a to forgo the temptation and moral iniquity education and experience. That battle has racially balanced infield, to guarantee equal of the old-boy network, and especially to been largely won. The problems still faced results, and to fragment American society open up the competition to the current by minorities entering the job market are into hopelessly divided and hostile factions. members of groups historically denied the now due to circumstances that existed long The end has always been to create a fair opportunity to compete. No one should before they entered the employers' offices. and color-blind society. That was the goal underestimate the importance to public Specifically, minorities are still plagued with of the Founding Fathers, of Justice Harlan, morale of making affirmative-action recruit- inadequate education and occupational of John Dewey, of Hubert Humphrey, of ing efforts as visible and as honest as they training and the lack of sufficient moral sup- Bayard Rustin, of Sidney Hook, and of Roy can possibly be. Above all, we should not port and encouragement in the home envi- Wilkins. The best intentions in the world forget the importance of the self-respect that ronment. The latter can even undermine the should not blind us to the erosion of comes with being given a fair chance to best organized, best intentioned educational American idealism, which is our only hope compete and to merit one's achievement. system. Increasingly we have come to recog- of obtaining public support for workable nize the importance of family life, however solutions to genuine problems. The use of Nicholas Capaldi is a professor of philoso- much we may shy away from the tough quotas is a betrayal of the ethics of the civil- phy at Queens College. In his most recent questions of what to do about it. But the rights movement, a betrayal of America's book, Out of Order (Prometheus, 1985), he true test of our commitment to solving a profound ideals, and even a betrayal of the examines the practice of affirmative action. problem is our determination to hunt out liberalism that for so long was its con- its real origins. science. •

Winter 1985/86 55 The self-hypnosis of which Merton The Self-Deceiving Prophecy speaks frequently manifests itself in other ways. One may be so convinced that one Roy Fairfield can do nothing about a situation in a tech- nological, urbanized, mechanized, televised, lmost four decades have passed since tion. Linguistic analysts from Edward Sapir and bureaucratized society like ours that one ARobert Merton (1949, 184-193) wrote and Benjamin Whorf to Noam Chomsky may deceive oneself into believing that he his insightful essay "The Self-Fulfilling Pro- inform us that language conditions percep- or she has little or no opportunity/ power/ phecy," and for three decades his concept tion: hence one's language guarantees that right to protest, dissent, rise up in wrath to has been not only an integral part of social- each observer "sees" things differently from say, "I object!" This is the kind of self- science but also a household a person with a different set of linguistic victimization for which Freire prescribes a phrase. Merton focused on the "moral sensors. Scholars of physical perception, logistic to change. Saul Alinsky and other alchemy" that in-groups use to denigrate from Joseph Ames to the nuclear physicists, social-change philosophers have proposed out-group persons and behavior, even conclude that we "see" what we are condi- other solutions in the name of justice, indi- though both in- and out-groups manifest tioned to see, hence the danger of conceiving vidual dignity, and equity. Then, of course, similar characteristics. Whereas, for instance, physical models to reflect "reality" or of there is the historical democratic "influence Abe Lincoln was the "culture hero" embody- using them in analogous thinking. Social your political electees" syndrome as well as ing cardinal virtues, a Jew or black reflecting philosophers like Eric Hoffer and George the rhetorical and jurisprudential seeking of similar qualities would be perceived as Orwell, dealing with the phenomenon of "the "due process." Yet one wonders how many "pushy," "crude," "beyond their place." In true believer," make it clear that such Watergate forced to the wall of futility, short, "the right activity by the wrong people wielders of power and words are so con- they cried, "What's the use?" In this respect, becomes a thing of contempt, not of honor." vinced they have the truth that there is no Watergate may have been an important And, of course, self-fulfilling prophecy deterring them from justifying behavior in watershed in the history of American con- results in a metamorphosis or distortion of terms of that truth. Psychologists and sciousness! A related issue: How much and values, where achievements become faults anthropologists have attempted to make how many does TV mesmerize? and virtues are shortcomings. The social and sense of individual and social systems evalu- I have found it most revealing to watch psychological consequences of such percep- ated in experiential terms, whether one the self-fulfilling prophecy become the self- tions are that the powerful continue to con- group of persons or one culture is attempting deceiving one. For instance, many institu- trol, and the passive too frequently accept to find coherence in terms of their historical tions "delivering" human services in a non- the denigration and contribute to their fate values (tribal, perhaps)—"escape from free- traditional way have "caved in" to the as victims. dom" in the context of a diametrically powerful credentialing agencies from which At one point in his essay Merton opposing system—or inventing a viewpoint they needed recognition—even though they observes that "self-hypnosis through one's to explain its behavior. Too, there is a huge may have been fully aware that the accep- own propaganda is not an infrequent phase realm of uncritical belief wherein individuals, tance of another's means might change their of the self-fufilling prophecy," and therein as Erich Fromm (1955) suggests, accept the objectives. This is not to question their lies the root of my contention, namely, that following syllogistic path: motivation; colleges and universities, for the phenomenon of the self-fulfilling I am different instance, are full of people with good inten- prophecy might in many instances be more he says I am neurotic, hence tions. But once they accept a credentialing accurately called "the self-deceiving 1 must be neurotic. agency's power to ask questions, they dignify prophecy"! In fact, we have come to asso- On another plane, when one appeals to out-of-order questions by the very answering ciate "fulfillment" with self-realization, an authority, there is another danger of com- process. And perhaps they are unaware of essentially positive concept; but, as conceived mitting deception, such as when one appeals the psychological prices they pay, perhaps by Merton, "self-fulfilling" has negative con- to the authority of a medical doctor. As unaware of why their own "sound notations and denotations. Ivan Illich (1976) points out, a physician's strange." Possibly the essential nature of experi- very diagnosis of a situation may make it Much has been written about personal encing is self-deception, depending upon our into an iatrogenic disease. And Paolo Freire myths. Perhaps, my former colleague Ben views of "reality." Surely conventional wis- (1970), to cite another social philosopher, Thompson observes, each of us needs to spin dom about the traditional factual and objec- observes that "the pedagogy of the out his or her personal myth (defined as a tive base of experiencing has been subject oppressed" is the acceptance of oppression complex of beliefs and perceptions, individu- to increasing criticism. To cite only two without developing consciousness-raising ally integrated) in order to get through examples, Alfred North Whitehead's (1925) tactics and strategies for escaping the vicious any/every day. Carl Jung, Norman O. treatment of the "fallacy of misplaced con- circle creating the oppression. As Bertrand Brown, and others have dealt with this theme cretion" and C. Wright Mills's (1959, Chap. Russell (1951) once remarked, "Have no at great length. In recent times, the notion 3) view of "abstracted " suggest respect for the authority of others, for there of "myth" has gained psychological respect. the dilemma of trying to overcome self- are always contrary authorities to be found." Personal myths are okay. But, in view of deception. A host of other insights, evolved Should we respect Russell's viewpoint? Who the fact that so much of what goes on in in the past half-century, bear on the ques- is to say who is being deceived by whom? one's life is contradictory at best and absurd My very appeal to the work of Sapir and at worst (cf. Camus for the ultimate view of Roy Fairfield, founder of the Union Gradu- Whorf, Hoffer, Illich, Fromm, Freire, and absurdity), one may resolve one's own place ate School, is the author of Person-Centered others may in itself be self-deceiving. If not, in the world by developing a fine sense of Graduate Education and editor of Human- why not? Data derived from their viewpoints paradox, irony, and humor. In fact, laughter istic Frontiers in American Education. support my contention, but am I deceiving may be a human being's last best cope! And myself in the very process of citing them? surely, as Christopher Fry (1951) once

56 FREE INQUIRY observed, comedy is a on the human dilemma. Also, surely, if personal Books myths are okay, then each person needs space-time to tell his or her own story. And so long as one has the space-time, one can Religion in the Public Square probably add "psyche" to the complex or gestalt to achieve a comfortable coordinate of space-time-psyche. Then, assuming that Richard Huett this gestalt is self-deception or absurdity, The Naked Public Square: Religion and isn't it important to question how one uses Democracy in America, by Richard John it "to make a difference" in the world? In Neuhaus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984) that proverbial "state of nature" made viii + 280 pp. famous by a host of philosophers, one might "What the Fundamentalists Want," by deceive oneself without social consequences. Richard John Neuhaus, Commentary, But, in a very complex world like our own, May can we afford to indulge in or fall victim to 1985. others' prophecies that could control our lives, or project our own prophecies to con- Today, when both conceptions of nature fact that most of his energies, most of his trol others? If we are unable to avoid such and theories of logic are changing as perspectives, are fraiited within "the secu- self-deceptions, what qualitative difference rapidly as at any time since the ancient lar project" of the human spirit, within does it make to deceiver and deceived? Greeks, it is a revelation of intellectual the forward and autonomous movement In many respects this whole matter incompetence to regard the question of of human action and history through the raises the age-old question of and the relations of the religious object to arts and sciences, through economics and . Is it inevitable that we get nature as having been settled by the older politics and the whole , locked into systems or chance events involv- discussions. Theologians themselves have toward great but autonomous human goals ing the self-deceiving prophecy? Many, of in the past few years been abandoning the that have no religious image.... If we course, would argue that it is not. Michael old supernaturalism in greater numbers imagine secularity correctly, we will the than ever before ... , and scientists have more easily discover the relation of the Polanyi, for instance, has devoted a lifetime grown incomparably more critical of the sacred to it.—William F. Lynch, S. J., in to the "solution" of these fundamental issues traditional forms of naturalism. The only Christ and Prometheus via the achievement of more sensitivity to reasonable working hypothesis for our one's place in the world. Phenomenologists time is that old questions are too badly The naked public square is the result of and existentialists like Jean Paul Sartre and formulated for any of the old answers to political doctrine and practice that would Merlieu Ponty stress the importance of possess validity.... In short, only those exclude religion and religiously grounded breaking through the everydayness of exis- capable of confronting the problem of God values from the conduct of public business. tence. Perceptual psychologists like Art or of nature with fresh wonder, without The doctrine is that America is a secular society. It finds dogmatic expression in Combs and humanist psychologists like Carl arrogant confidence in their scientific or the ideology of secularism. I will argue Rogers, Abraham Maslow, and Clark theological sophistication, only those with the age can be intellectually born again, that the doctrine is demonstrably false and Moustakes have given us tools for more are likely to contribute to the discussion the dogma exceedingly dangerous.— insightful study of individuals and their posi- of this problem.—, in Richard John Neuhaus tive relationships. In short, to be more aware Beyond Humanism of being aware suggests a route for breaking he gravamen of The Naked Public some of the vicious cycles suggested in this The modern religious man is also inescap- TSquare is that secular humanism has analysis. And from the Marxists, too, we ably the secular man, so that the two sent religion, first depriving it of moral may borrow the of praxis— exacerbating problems—the problem of authority, into exile from the public square. namely, testing and shaping theory by the religious imagination and the problem But "because [religious] transcendence of the secular imagination as each faces experience and vice versa—unless such an abhors a vacuum," totalitarianism is likely epistemology becomes, in itself, a dogma- our new world—have this unity, that they habitually occur within one and the same to rush in to fill the void. reinforcing self-deception! man. If this were not so, the crisis would Richard Neuhaus roams far and wide, This is not to spell out all the conse- be less than it is. The crisis is not the addressing such issues as church and state, quences of the self-deceiving prophecy. It is perennial quarrel between the religious abortion, political allegiances, democracy to suggest its implications. Each person man on the one hand and the secular man and totalitarianism, government aid to pri- encountering or applying this concept may on the other. Rather, it is the struggle vate schools, patriotism and civility, the experience it differently. It is more than a going on in the one man between these morality of compromise, private morality matter of taking and giving, but it is my apparently diverse principles. Even if he and public virtue, and others. (I find it hope that we may be more sensitive to our wished it—which he does not—the reli- intriguing that the science versus creationism gious man of our day cannot escape the own psychokogical processes as we encounter controversy is ignored.) But I shall confine others' viewpoints or project our own onto myself in this limited space to the author's the landscape. The self-fulfilling prophecy Richard Huett is a former editor-in-chief obsession with the arch-villain on the Amer- has been a most fruitful concept for gaining of the Dell Publishing Company. His ican scene, secular humanism, pointing up a better sense of social action and interac- reviews have appeared in the American where I can the irrationality of his blind tion. The self-deceiving prophecy may Scholar and the New York Times. He has prejudices. Because of the advance favorable expand and sharpen the triangulating also written for philosophical journals. comments the book has received, together process. • with Neuhaus's activist record as "a national

Winter 1985/86 57 leader in movements for civil rights and been on other scores, they did, for the most is : there are occasions that peace," I was preveniently prepared to hail part, believe in the democratic idea." But, rightly call for a reduction to essentials.), him as a Daniel come to judgment. then, to buttress his oft-reiterated contention we have here still another illustration of the Thus, this review is being written in that religion is firmly entrenched not only age-old, deep-seated antinomies: supernatur- sadness and disappointment rather than in among the moral but among the great alism and naturalism, theocentrism and disputation, because the author of The Naked majority of Americans, he adduces "empiri- anthropocentrism, theism and atheism, etc. Public Square has allowed to pass a golden cal evidence" (the "Middletown Ill" study, I suspect the author's prejudice goes beyond opportunity to advance the development conducted by the National Science Founda- secular humanism to humanism altogether. Professor Hartshorne had envisaged and tion): There is one reference, a mere nod as it Father Lynch has hoped for. Instead of pro- were, to "a venerable tradition of humanism moting the peaceful, even symbiotic, rela- Ninety-four percent of the American peo- ... that is not secularistic. Christians espe- tionship, the rapprochement, between reli- ple profess belief in God, 88 percent say cially should affirm humanism. After all, we gion and secular humanism that must be the Bible is the inspired word of God, 90 are the ones who say that God became a obtained if humankind is to endure in a percent identify themselves religiously with human being, and you cannot get any more state of mutual understanding and charity, a specific Christian denomination or as humanistic than that." This is the only Neuhaus, in his rigid, unremitting attack Jews, 89 percent of us say we pray regu- acknowledgment of an approved humanism; upon secular humanism, has succumbed to larly, and so forth. the rest is silence. What ensues is a narrow- the traditional adversarial confrontation ing concept of humanism to the point where characterized, for too long, by accusation Yet, despite his frequent pronounce- he equates it with his prime target, secular and recrimination on both sides. ments that secular humanism has become humanism, which, in turn, he identifies with Ostensibly Neuhaus is evenhanded toothless, and despite the death knell he is , thereby committing the fallacy throughout the book, even to the balancing sounding, "Nonetheless," he admits, "it can- of taking the part for the whole. of genders ("The idea is widely accepted that not be denied that ... secular humanism On the other hand, despite Neuhaus's religion is something between an individual has a pervasive and debilitating effect upon awareness of the shortcomings, even dangers, and his God" and "Each person is free to our public life. [It is] part of the conceptual of politicized fundamentalists, despite his worship the God of her choice" [emphasis air we breathe"! Why, contrary to the pre- uneasiness regarding some of their tactics mine]); yet when it comes to secular human- mature news of its demise, and in the face and objectives, especially of those activist ism, his bête noire, he finds no redeeming of the vastly superior numbers offered by elements among them self-designated as the feature! What is noteworthy is the intensity the author to show what a religious country Moral Majority, the author manages to find of his antipathy, especially when he argues America is, is secular humanism still "part some extenuation for their positions and again and again that the secular humanist of the conceptual air we breathe"? Why? acts—because, if nothing else, they serve "to movement is passé: Had Neuhaus been cognizant of Paul Til- kick a trip-wire alerting us to a pervasive lich's searching question, he might have contradiction in our culture and politics .. . The air of modernity has been breathed probed more deeply and have been less and to the much larger reality of unsecular too often; it is used air. It is impossible to unrelenting in his attack. Tillich asks: imagine today a burst of freshness for the America.... A serviceable public ethic .. . "fighting faith" of secularism such as pro- is just waiting to be formed and reinstalled." duced the Humanist Manifesto in 1933. Why are the churches overwhelmingly Despite the distinctions and nuances In fact, we do not have to try to imagine limited to one section of mankind, where Neuhaus readily attributes to almost every it. It will be recalled that in 1973 some of they belong to a particular civilization, and aspect of societal arrangements, he denies the original signers organized Humanist why are they tied-up with the cultural secular humanism. He fails to remark the Manifesto H. The list of 1973 signers indi- creation of this civilization? And further: qualitative difference between religious evan- cated that in attacking militant secular Why, for almost five hundred years, have gelical movements to alter the course of humanism, the religious new right is secular movements arisen within Christian American mores and the secular-humanist civilization which have radically changed assaulting a vision from a geriatric ward. attempts to influence those mores. At most, Observers have noted that the attack on human self-interpretation and have in regarding the "paranoia" of the secular secular humanism is, for the most part, a many cases turned against Christianity, matter of beating a dead horse. There is notably in scientific humanism and natur- humanists, the worst he can adduce are full- truth in the observation. The more perti- alistic communism? This is a question to page advertisements charging the Religious nent and indeed startling observation is which another must be added today Right with all sorts of heinous intentions. I that a world view that only thirty or forty ([ 1963]): Why do these two forms of secu- have my own reservations about some of years ago was embraced by a culturally larism have such tremendous power in the pronouncements of some secular human- formative leadership is today so lacking nations with a non-Christian civilization, ists, but can Neuhaus sincerely believe that in partisan support. Today we condes- such as those of the East? In spite of all these strident and sometimes ill-conceived cendingly dismiss an ideology that not very Christian missionary efforts and successes proclamations ought to be compared to the long ago was believed to chart the way in some parts of the world, the spread of hate-spewing methods employed by members toward a certain and infinitely promising these outgrowths of the Christian civiliza- of the Religious Right in the name of God future... . tion is far more impressive.... How can this development in the midst of Christian and Christianity? Neuhaus himself does not Either the demise of the horse is greatly civilization be reconciled with the claim deny the fact that millions of the Religious exaggerated or the author is unusually cruel that Christianity has the message of that Right are being subjected by these Boanerges in continuing to beat it. event which is the center of history? to constant emotional exhortations whose To prove his fair-mindedness, Neuhaus [, vol. 3] tone often borders on violence. Can he seri- magnanimously (read "condescendingly") ously equate even the most extreme state- concedes that "however wrongheaded the At the risk of invoking his charge of being ments of secular humanists with those who secular humanists of yesteryear may have reductionist (There is reductionism and there "would supposedly lead mobs in burning

58 FREE INQUIRY books and imposing their repressive rules humanism but in , with seems to escape those who make them. upon the rest of us, [who] are philistines, its "more than 400,000 local churches and Indeed such crabbed statements of extraor- enemies of , and a threat to civil literally hundreds of denominations.... Add dinary insularity come readily to those who, liberties"? to size and complexity the sheer volatility of one has no reason to doubt, sincerely believe 1 pose the question rhetorically because American religion.... It is always changing. themselves to be liberal and ecumenical." the answer is inherent. Yet Neuhaus does . . . Establishments decline . . . and the In the book's penultimate chapter, have a ready reply. "Opponents of the reli- issues that divide and unite lap back and "Class Warfare among the Saints," Neuhaus gious new right," he says, "usually couch forth over the reefs of denominational and launches an intensive intramural attack upon their criticism in terms of styles that separate ideological alignment." It was not a new mainline Protestant church organizations, 'them' from 'us.' One reason for this, quite Nietzsche who reinstated the cry "God is the thrust of which is that they are unduly possibly, is that it is easier to criticize ways dead" in recent history, but, rather, members influenced by what he regards as a secularist in which people try to advance their view- of the Christian ministry. Witness, too, the trend. But he detects "hopeful signs of points than it is to challenge those view- division in the latest Southern Baptist con- change" among the younger clergy who are points directly. . . . They are attacked vention, the largest Protestant denomination. becoming more conservative, "having a because they are promoting their issues." But Neuhaus is firmly fixed on secular deeper interest in the integrity and distinc- But, just as "Style is the man," style may be humanism as his scapegoat: "The barbarians tiveness of Christian doctrine," which he the movement, manner may be substance. [guess who] are those who in principle refuse devoutly wishes would "lead to a basic chal- This is one more instance in which the to recognize a normative ethic or the reality lenge of the secularist assumptions of the author's phobia has clouded his thought. of public virtue." Implicit here is the notion present social order." "There is nothing wrong," Neuhaus that, unless you accept all the absolutes of Between The Naked Public Square and proclaims, "with viewing the world through religion Neuhaus finds acceptable, you are "What the Fundamentalists Want," the a particular and partial prism. Indeed we guilty of "the relativization of all values," of author has noticeably mitigated his stance have no choice but to do that." That may asserting that "every moral judgment is sim- toward fundamentalism. The warnings be, but some of us may use wider lenses and ply an instance of emotivism, a statement of enunciated in the book are absent in the see more of the spectrum. But, in any case, subjective preference that cannot be article, caveats have become cachets (going that it is a parti pris ought not to be lost 'imposed' upon others." Even a cursory so far as to charge the media and others sight of. How about secular humanism's reading of Humanist Manifesto Il should with unfairness, finding in their criticism a point of view? It is clear, however, that for have precluded this egregious charge. "pattern reflecting intellectual laziness mixed the author it has no place in "the moral As for "the naked public square," in with an unseemly measure of bigotry"!) His redefinition of the American future." If view of the constant public exposure to reli- is a plea for a better and more sympathetic moral redefinition, or reform, which iron- gion, especially to Christianity in its various understanding of fundamentalists. "Many of ically is to be "an exercise of love," excludes forms, by way of some of the crucial issues them, being typical Americans, also want to all but religious forces, it follows that he of our time—abortion, prayer in schools, be loved." Fair enough, but how about the wills the extirpation of secular humanism. euthanasia, creationism versus science, secular humanists? etc.—together with the strictly religious There is, at bottom, an essential distinc- ere is where I believe we have come preaching disseminated among millions via tion between secular humanism as a creed Hto the very heart of the author's war the electronic media, it might well be con- and as practiced by the greater number of against secular humanism. "Our ultimate tended that there is an overflow in the public its adherents and any fundamentalism that loyalty is to God, who is the God of all or square. To say that "the naked public insists it alone is privy to the Truth and the else he is not God at all." Those who do not square does not tolerate explication of reli- path to it. On the one hand, the attitude is share this allegiance are, then, fallen crea- giously grounded principles," is to fly in the one of laissez faire toward all beliefs, includ- tures incapable of responding to what Lin- face of considerable evidence to the contrary. ing those of "ultimate concern" (Tillich). It coln termed "the better angels of our nature." The author, in his incessant pounding upon declares that there are those who need not His unrelieved and, in the aggregate, intem- secular humanists, ought to heed his own believe in a supernatural authority to provide perate animadversions tempt one to specu- words: "The illiberality of statements .. . a moral, humane, and meaningful way of late as to the possible causes. Perhaps, given his calling, Neuhaus has taken up Luther's cudgels against humanism. But I am far more inclined to see him moved by fear and STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT Aver. no. Actual no. disappointment: fear that, in spite of all the AND CIRCULATION copies copies Date of filing: September 28, 1985 each issue single issue data indicating the overwhelming pre- Title: FREE INQUIRY during published Frequency of issue: Quarterly preceding nearest ponderance of religious belief in America, Location of known office of publication: 12 months filing date 3151 Bailey Ave., Buffalo, NY 14215 A. Total no. copies printed (Net Press Run) 16,625 18,500 and the promise of its continuing resurgence, Location of headquarters of publisher: B. Paid Circulation he remains unconvinced that this reflects a 3151 Bailey Ave., Buffalo, NY 14215 1. Sales through dealers and carriers, Publisher: CODESH, Inc., 3151 Bailey street vendors and counter sales 576 608 true picture of the real influence on our lives, Ave., Buffalo. NY 14215 2. Mail Subscription 12,041 13,958 Owner: CODESH, Inc., 3151 Bailey C. Total Paid circulation 12,617 14,566 that, instead, "things fall apart; the center Ave., Buffalo, NY 14215 D. Free distribution 2,392 2,936 cannot hold" and "a rough beast/Slouches Editor: Paul Kurtz, 3151 Bailey E. Total distribution (Sum of C 6 D) 15,009 17,502 Ave.. Buffalo, NY 14215 F. Copies not distributed towards Bethlehem" (Yeats); disappointment Managing Editor: Andrea Szalanski, 3151 1. Office use, left-over, unaccounted, Bailey Ave., Buffalo, NY 14215 spoiled after printing 1,616 998 in that Protestantism has failed in its once Known bondholders, mortgagees and other 2. Returns from news agents 0 0 fond hope to "Christianize America." security holders: None. G. TOTAL (Sum of E, F 1 and 2) 16,625 18,500

The future may well produce one of As of Dec. 9, 1985, net press run was 20,500, distribution 19,500 and paid circulation was 16,500. the great ironies of history if Christianity were to find its nemesis not in secular

Winter 1985/86 59 life for them—who know we can experi- (Letters, Continued from p. 4) Jerry Falwell has made it clear that his ence the numinous without having to harbor up. Soon we're off to our favorite coffee Moral Majority would work to outlaw abor- the paradox that the more one transcends house with the latest issues of Science, ento- tion and install school prayer at the con- this life the deeper one delves into it. On the mological journals, and FREE INQUIRY. vention, and the Catholic bishops would join other hand, there are those who, needing him on abortion and probably try to get anchorage in a transcendent being, insist that Stephen Allen Manweiler sectarian indoctrination permitted in public the only road to salvation—all others leading Cerrito, Calif. schools (and thus overturn the 1948 McCol- to satanic catastrophe—is via formal reli- lum ruling, as they have expressed interest gion, especially via a specific religion. For Constitutional Convention in doing). them there is no escaping St. Augustine's Our Constitution and Bill of Rights dictum: "There is no salvation outside the Allow me to respond to Scott D. Palmer's might survive a new convention, just as a church," meaning "my church." attack (Letters, FI, Summer 1985) on my few people have survived going over Niagara Finally, offering it both as part of my warning that a new national constitutional Falls in a barrel. But it would be unwise for reply to the author and as an appeal that he convention could seriously endanger the Bill us to play such a dangerous game with our re-examine and revise his position vis-à-vis of Rights ("Church vs. State: The Coming basic liberties and with a governmental secular humanism, I quote Sidney Hook: Battles," FI, Spring 1985). Let me first point system that, though cumbersome, is superior out that Mr. Palmer's Taxpayers Foundation to that in any other large modern nation. The characteristic doctrines of secularism is closely related to the National Taxpayers are compatible with personal belief or dis- Union, the odd outfit that is the primary Edd Doerr belief in theism and . Con- force behind the passage of the thirty-two Americans for Religious Liberty versely, it is logically possible for natur- state legislative resolutions intended to force Silver Spring, Md. alists ... , not to speak of nonbelieving Congress to call a convention. He is hardly statesmen, to favor giving the church a a disinterested bystander. Second, Mr. privileged position in society to insure Options for Humanists Palmer seems to suggest that the American "peace and order." Historically, however, it is quite true that the growth of natur- Bar Association is not worried about a runa- Sarah Slavin raises some important issues alism has been accompanied by an exten- way convention. However, the ABA in 1985 (FI, Summer 1985), but I disagree with her sion of secularism. But is it also true that advised state lawmakers that a convention conclusions. On the basis of the behavior either historically or psychologically secu- might be confined to a specified objective if of some individuals, she asserts that "the laristic naturalism coarsens moral sensitiv- Congress passed appropriate procedures nontheist community ... den[ies] that its ity and blinds those who hold it to the legislation, which it has not. Further, the members suffer." She goes on to point out and injustices of our time? ... ABA regards the procedures bill currently that "lack of interest in organized religion This is an empirical question and only before Congress as unconstitutional. does not free individuals of their human empirical inquiries can answer it. Let us It is clear that a new convention could, needs." I doubt that the nontheist "leaders" ask ourselves who the individuals have like the one in 1787, consider and revise to whom she refers are any more representa- been who have rallied the conscience of the world against the great moral outrages anything and everything in the Constitution tive than she and I. And, to me, the whole of our era. Call the roll of the cases and and the Bill of Rights. Like the first con- point is that theistic religion and its institu- places. Sacco-Vanzetti, Scottsboro, the vention, a second one would not be bound tions do not adequately respond to human Reichstag Fire, the Moscow Trials, or limited by anything but its own majority. needs and even repress and distort them. It Guernica, Munich, Warsaw, Katyn, down Article 5 of the Constitution provides only may well be said that some major disagree- to the latest Communist frame-up. Make for a convention to consider amendments ments between theism and humanism center a list of the causes which sought to raise (plural). What is most likely to happen is on what would be considered universal, the sharecroppers, the sweatshop workers that a coalition of Radical Right groups and essential human needs and which needs and every other exploited group to the sectarian special interests would try to con- should be given priority. level of human existence. How does [one] trol the delegate-selection process so that Ms. Slavin also asserts, "If the nontheist account for the fact that the value-blind a community, then it must naturalists have been in the thick and the Constitution could be changed—to out- community is almost always in the lead of the struggle? law abortion, authorize government- act like one (i.e., give emotional support to How does he account for the fact that in regimented devotions and teaching in public its members). Yet, in fact, she received little every good fight believer and nonbeliever, schools, and authorize or mandate tax sup- comfort from people who represented insti- men of all and of no religious faith, are port for sectarian private schools. This actu- tutions—priests and social workers. Her found? [Sidney Hook, and the ally happened at New York's 1967 conven- "support networks" were people with whom Tragic Sense of Life] tion, but fortunately the state's voters re- she shared a special interest, like the mem- jected the new state constitution three to bers of the National Head Injury Founda- Mutatis mutandis, this expression from one. tion, and "friends and colleagues" who, we one of the eminent thinkers of our time is Mr. Palmer is right when he says that may suppose, share with her a history of pertinent to the writings under review here thirty-eight states would have to ratify a new social contact, kindness, and generosity. because, while it recognizes the fundamental Constitution. But a new Constitution with a I do think an important positive func- difference between religion and secularism, Christmas-tree assortment of goodies for tion of secular humanist philosophy would it also reveals the essential humanism in powerful interest groups—a convention be to nurture the qualities of compassion both. Surely we can respectfully maintain would naturally try to make its product as and generosity Ms. Slavin describes as the doctrinal agreement as we join in the appealing as possible, like venders of tobacco "mannerliness." But should those who share nurturing of our mutuality, combining the and booze—might well be ratified. Is anyone a philosophy ipso facto form a community open mind and the open heart. I ask the so naive as to believe that our Bill of Rights responsible for the emotional welfare of its same of secular humanists. • could pass a referendum today? (Continued on p. 62) 60 FREE INQUIRY "Deenie"faction said their concerns go far beyond objectionable books in the public schools. "They're getting sucked in by secular humanism," Theresa Wilson said at the rally. IN THE NAME OF GOD "I command you in the name of Jesus to leave," Ms. Wilson said at one point to those opposing her view. This is a public school. I won't leave," one red-faced woman screamed back. For more than an hour Ms. Wilson, her sister Debie Gower, and their grand- father Gene Hall spoke in earnest of the changes they see in public schools. Teachers Mayor Koch vs. the Rabbi The animal welfare group ordered her are teaching about sex, death, and the suc- to arrange an abortion for the cat, but Ms. cesses of communism, they said. Rabbi Levin strongly criticized [Mayor Salvio, a Catholic, said she is against abor- "If I was a brain surgeon and I was Koch] —even questioning his personal tion, and offered to have Lacey's kittens opening up some teacher's head, I'd find the morality for speaking at a Jewish temple sterilized at her expense. (United Press Inter- male sex organs floating around in the fluid attended by homosexuals, marching in a national) right between the ears," said Hall, a 74- homosexuals' parade that was said to have year-old minister. included members of the North American Restrictions in the Mormon Church As evidence that students are suffering, Man-Boy Love Association, assertedly con- Ms. Wilson cited a national study that doning pornography and pressuring religious Mormon officials warned members not to showed rape, robbery, and other violent institutions receiving government aid to issue criticize the faith's leaders or its doctrines, crimes had replaced talking and chewing bans on discrimination against homosexuals. and likened increasing attacks by outside gum as the major classroom problems...... Mr. Koch, only responding to the critics "to a day when Christians were cast (Michael Moss, in the Atlanta Journal) homosexual temple assertion, said that "I into Roman arenas." never thought that a rabbi would denigrate Elder George P. Lee of the Church of Traditional Values a synagogue—no matter who goes to the Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Mor- synagogue." mons will face increasing persecution as the `... Back in 1982, I came in with Christ as He added: "Don't you want them to Second Coming approaches. my savior and my life completely changed. come? I mean, in most religions, whether it "Falsehoods are swirling everywhere That's when I began to be aware of the be homosexuals or heterosexuals, whether about the true saints of God, " Lee, a member educational system, political system and it be sinners or angels, if you can get them of the Mormon church's First Quorum of moral system we've developed in this coun- into the place of worship, thank God. ".. . the Seventy, said in remarks prepared for try, and what a negative impact it has on Responding, Rabbi Levin accused Mr. the church's 155th Semiannual General Con- our society... . Koch of "obfuscating" and "wearing your ference... . "The natural relationship between men Judaism on a lapel." Letters and diaries written by church and women is that generally the man will be "In the traditional Orthodox commun- founder Joseph Smith's early followers and the leader. He's physically stronger, emo- ity, " he said, "you are really sort of a step discovered by Mormon scholars have been tionally prepared to take a leadership posi- away from excommunication. . . . As a used to support claims that Smith was a tion. The woman is physically weaker, emo- Jew, I feel you're an embarrassment; as a charlatan who was involved in cult magic tionally prepared to take care of children religious person, as a family person, I think and searched for buried treasure... . and physically she has that requirement. the things you are doing are obscene." The Elder James E. Faust, of the church's "Generally, a happy home is where the rabbi repeatedly referred to 'family values" Council of the Twelve, said church members father takes the authority role and the more than abortion during the debate. place their souls in danger when they criticize mother takes the support, of building the The Mayor, his face grim, did not their religious leaders or church teachings. home. respond, but later he told reporters that he "I cannot help but wonder if a member "Put aside the modern thinking of civil would not let "vile people" keep him from a of the church does not place himself in some rights and whose rights are what and that parade. "We're not going to let the vile peo- spiritual peril when publicly disparaging the sort of thing, and you think about what was ple hijack a parade," he said. . . . (New prophetic calling of Joseph Smith, or his the wonderful lifestyle of just a couple York Times) successors, or any of the fundamental, settled generations ago; it was the family, with the doctrines of the church," Faust said. (Asso- father in charge... . Against Animal Abortion ciated Press) "I am not opposed to capital punish- ment. Most fundamental Christians are not. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Blaming Secular Humanism If you go back and study the Greek and to Animals is taking a woman to court to Hebrew, the commandment says 'Thou shalt gain custody of her cat and abort its surprise Parents who worked together to ban the not commit murder." That's entirely different pregnancy. . . . The SPCA claimed the book "Deenie" in Gwinnett County schools from 'Thou shalt not kill.' " ... (Richard woman breached her contract with the held a tension filled rally that broke into a Brenner, founder of the Moral organization by failing to have [Lacey] verbal brawl with their opponents. Majority, in an interview with the Colorado spayed. Arguments grew heated when the anti- Springs Gazette-Telegraph)

Winter 1985/86 61 (Letters, Continued from p. 60) ever ads you choose, and I respect that. New England Atheists. Meet other Atheists, members? In an article that appropriately However, out of respect and courtesy for stay informed. Send $1.00 to AMERICAN follows Ms. Slavin's, James Christopher the feelings of others who are opposed to ATHEISTS, P0 Box 147, East Walpole, MA 02032. describes the price such a community often this kind of advertising, I hope that you will exacts—the withdrawal of emotional support reconsider accepting these kinds of ads in BERTRAND RUSSELL S0CIETY. Informa- from members who question community the future. Also, 1 hope that you will extend tion: FI, RD1, Box 409, Coopersburg, PA 18036. beliefs. Maybe it would be better if secular- to the president of the Freedom From Reli- humanist organizations did not ape religious gion Foundation the courtesy of advising BOOKS institutions but simply provided an atmos- her of any such ads presented to you in the "THE TYRANNY OF GOD." Comprehensive phere conducive to social relationships. future. abridgment of Joseph Lewis's 1921 Free- Maybe it is no accident that Ms. Slavin's thought Masterpiece. Paper $4.00. Indepen- "mannerly community ... is largely barren Rita Bell, Assistant Secretary dent Publications, Box 162, Paterson, NJ 07513. of those who define themselves as secular Freedom From Religion humanists ... [and] of those who consider Foundation CIA TRICKS: trace/tail; see in darkness; themselves religious." Chicago, Ill. open safes, locks; listen through walls; beat As a secular humanist who chooses to lie detector; get unlisted phone numbers, latest surveillance gear. "Most Dangerous place her trust in human possibilities, I have replies: gained support and community from a net- Book"—NBC. H0W T0 GET ANYTHING 0N ANYB0DY, $34. AW, 584 Castro Street #351, work of individuals with whom I've ex- FREE INQUIRY believes very strongly in the San Francisco, CA 94114. changed acts of kindness. That's enough for right to free speech and we are very cautious me. I'm not eager to risk exchanging one For Scientific scholars with a faith in when it comes to censorship. In the past "0ccam's RazorR." Stolen from an experi- tyranny of belief for another. year we have rejected only two classified ment by A. Volta 2 centuries ago, a formula, ads on the grounds that they were blatantly which bisociated with Kelvin's Electrostatic Molleen Matsumura offensive. We thought that this ad was inno- Pressure formula give rise to 11 legends. Berkeley, Calif. cent enough, and not necessarily in poor * Thank you for sending "The Legend of taste, thus we decided to run it. the Blue Quasar." I found it fascinating. Yours sincerely, A. Koestler. * These Free Inquiry's Classifieds legends include Quasars, Tektites, Auroras, Tornadoes, Ball Lightning, Hailstones, Solar 1 was advised recently of a classified ad that CLASSIFIED Flares, and others. 0rig. price in Sci. Amer. was $20. Now only $8.75 + $1.75 check or appeared in your Summer 1985 FREE M.0. Ppd. incl. tax. C. W. Kaysing, 2244 INQUIRY relating to the Freedom From Reli- RATES Sunset Crest Drive, LA 90046. gion Foundation convention in September: Per word (single insertion) IMAGINE FREED0M from Government and 10-word minimum 40 cents Church; libertarian introduction. Stromy Single male Atheist, 31, seeks to meet 10% discount for placement in 3 con- mon, editor. 188 pp., illustrated. $3. Liber- single female Atheist for companionship secutive issues tarian Library, Box 24269-J, , C0 during Freedom From Religion Founda- Payment for insertion must accom- 80224. tion convention in Minneapolis September pany copy. 27-29. Send to Dan, C/o FREE INQUIRY, REALITY INSPECT0R. Strange fantasy story All classified ads are accepted at the about consciousness, chess, computers. $5. Central Park Station, Box 5-BK2, Buffalo, discretion of the publisher. NY 14215. John Caris, 56T Westgate, San Francisco, For additional information and rates CA 94127. for classified display advertising, write: I understand from the President of "GUYANESE SEED 0F S0UL" A New How- FREE INQUIRY FFRF, Anne Gaylor, that you did not check To Cookbook of Delicious Caribbean-Style Classified Dept. with her before running this ad in your pub- Cuisine. Send $9.95 to R & M Publishing Box 5, Central Park Station Co., Holly Hill, SC 29059. lication. I am concerned at the lack of Buffalo, N.Y. 14215 courtesy shown to Ms. Gaylor. FFRF does Increase your intelligence and freedom not accept this kind of advertising in its own through FUTURL0GICS. 144-page book. organization newspaper, and it is disap- ASSOCIATIONS Send $4.95 U.S. to: STP, Box 166, West Jordon, UT 84084. pointing that you did not seek that infor- J0HN ALLEGR0 S0CIETY. $10 'Introduc- mation from the president before you ran it tion" tape—plus! Reedville, VA 22539-0206. THE VANISHING G0DS, a history every in your publication. person should read; 6x9 HB, 256 pp. $10.95. ATHEISTS UNITED, a positive, activist, 0rder autographed copy from author; money I serve as an officer with the Freedom growing organization, will send you a FREE back guarantee. If not satisfied return From Religion Foundation and 1 care very Introductory Brochure and newsletter. Write: book—purchase price will be refunded. 0r much about its good reputation. I know I AU, 14542 Ventura Blvd., Suite 211, Sherman send SASE for book review, etc. G.M. Fox, 0aks, CA 91403—or call (818) 986-5288. share that concern with members of other 5313 Bakman Ave., Box 235, North Holly- organizations. Atheists and agnostics have a "EVANGELICAL AGN0STICISM!" wood, CA 91601. constant uphill battle in overcoming the Free information and lago. AMERICANIZING AMERICA by Frank Rood, assumptions that they are immoral, liars, SEA, Box 515fi, Auberry, CA 93602. e $3.00 Ppd. There is hope. 611 - 2nd Street, cheaters, etc., and that their meetings are SIX RURAL C0MMUNITIES invite visitors/ St. Petersburg, FL 33701. sex orgies. The kind of ad you ran in your members. Sane alternative lifestyles! SICK OF , waste, and greed? publication only adds fuel to the fires heaped Equality. Cooperation. Peace. Self- Join network developing positive alterna- upon freethinkers. supporting. Write ($1.00 postage): Egali- tives. Write: Inquiry, Box 741955, Dallas, TX tarians, Twin 0aks-FQ45, Louisa, VA 23093. I know that it is your right to run what- 75374.

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Winter 1985/86 63 The Academy of Humanism The Academy of Humanism was established to recognize distinguished humanists and disseminate humanistic ideals and beliefs. The members of the Academy, listed below, are nontheists who are (I) devoted to free inquiry in all fields of human endeavor, (2) committed to a scientific outlook and the use of the scientific method in acquiring knowledge, and (3) upholders of humanist ethical values and principles. The Academy's goals include furthering respect for human rights and freedom and the dignity of the individual, tolerance of various viewpoints and willingness to compromise, commitment to social justice, a universalistic perspective that transcends national, ethnic, religious, sexual, and racial barriers, and belief in a free and open, pluralistic and democratic society.

Humanist Laureates: Isaac Asimov, author; Sir Alfred J. Ayer, fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford University; Brand Blanshard, professor emeritus of philosophy, Yale University; Sir Hermann Bondi, professor of applied mathematics, King's College, University of London; Mario Bunge, Frothingham professor of foundations and philosophy of science, McGill University; Bernard Crick, professor of politics, Birkbeck College, University of London; Francis Crick, Nobel Laureate in Physiology, Salk Institute; Joseph Delgado, professor and chairperson in the Department of Neuropsychiatry, University of Madrid; Milovan Djilas, author, former vice-president of Yugoslavia; Sir Raymond Firth, professor emeritus of anthropology, University of London; Joseph Fletcher, theologian, former professor of medical ethics, University of Virginia Medical School; , Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University; Alberto Hidalgo, president of the Sociedad Asturiana de Filosofía, Oviedo, Spain; Donald Johanson, Institute of Human Origins; Franco Lombardi, professor of philosophy, University of ; Jolé Lombardi, organizer of the New University (laic) for the Third Age; Paul MacCready, Kremer Prize winner for aeronautical achievements; Jean-Claude Pecker, professor of astrophysics, College de France, Academie des Sciences; Sir Karl Popper, professor emeritus of logic and scientific method, University of London; W. V. Quine, professor of philosophy, Harvard University; , astronomer, Cornell University; Andrei Sakharov, physicist, Nobel Peace Prize winner; Thomas Szasz, professor of psychiatry, State University of New York Medical School (Syracuse); V. M. Tarkunde, chairman, Indian Radical Humanist Association; Richard Taylor, professor of philosophy, Union College; G. A. Wells, professor of German, Birkbeck College, University of London; Edward O. Wilson, professor of sociobiology, Harvard University; Lady Barbara Wootton, former Deputy Speaker, House of . *Deceased: George O. Abell, Ernest Nagel, George Olincy, Chaim Perelman.

Secretariat: Vern Bullough, dean of natural sciences, State University of New York College at Buffalo; Antony Flew, professor of philosophy, Reading University, (England); Sidney Hook, professor emeritus of philosophy, ; Paul Kurtz, professor of philosophy, SUNY at Buffalo, Editor of FREE INQUIRY; Gerald Larue, professor emeritus of archaeology and , University of Southern California at Los Angeles. Executive Director: Steven L. Mitchell. Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER) The Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion was developed to examine the claims of Eastern and and of well-established and newer sects and denominations in the light of scientific inquiry. The Committee is interdisciplinary, including specialists in biblical scholarship, archaeology, linguistics, anthropology, the social sciences, and philosophy, who represent differing secular and religious traditions. The only criterion for membership on the Committee is commitment to impartial scholarship and the use of objective methods of inquiry. Gerald Larue (Chairman), emeritus professor of archaeology and biblical studies, University of Southerp California at Los Angeles; John Allegro, former lecturer in Near Eastern and Old Testament studies, University of Manchester (England); Robert S. Alley, professor of humanities, University of Richmond; Michael Arnheim, professor of ancient history, University of Witwatersrand (South Africa); Joseph Barnhart, professor of philosophy, North Texas State University; Paul Beattie, president, Fellowship of Religious Humanists; H. James Birx, chairman of Anthropology/ Sociology Department, Canisius College; Vern Bullough, dean of natural and social sciences, State University of New York College at Buffalo; Joseph Fletcher, theologian, former professor of medical ethics, University of Virginia Medical School; Antony Flew, professor of philosophy, Reading University (England); Van Harvey, professor of religion, Stanford University; Sidney Hook, professor emeritus of philosophy, New York University; Paul Kurtz, professor of philosophy, State University of New York at Buffalo; William V. Mayer, director, Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, University of Colorado; Delos McKown, professor of philosophy, Auburn University; Lee Nisbet, associate professor of philosophy, Medaille College; George Smith, president, Signature Books; A. T. Steegman, professor of anthropology, State University of New York at Buffalo; G. A. Wells, professor of German, Birkbeck College, University of London (England); Steven L. Mitchell (ex officio), executive director, Academy of Humanism.

Biblical Criticism Research Project (CSER Subcommittee) The Biblical Criticism Research Project (Subcommittee) was founded to help disseminate the results of biblical scholarship—studies in , folklore, scientific archaeology, and literary analysis. It investigates the claim that the Bible is divinely inspired; the historical evidence for Jesus and other Bible personalities; the role of religious myth, symbol, and ritual; and the possibility of basing morality upon reason and experience instead of biblical doctrine. The Research Project's goals include compiling bibliographies of the best sources of information about the Bible, publishing articles and monographs about different facets of biblical research, and convening seminars and conferences. R. Joseph Hoffmann (Chairman), associate professor of biblical studies, University of Michigan; David Noel Freedman, professor of Old Testament, University of Michigan; Randel Helms, professor of English, Arizona State University; Robert Joly, professor of philosophy, Centre Interdisciplinaire d'Etudes Philosophiques de l'Universite de Mons (); Carol Meyers, professor of religion, Duke University; James Robinson, director, Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont College; John F. Priest, professor and chairman, Department of Religion, Florida State University; Morton Smith, professor of history, Columbia University; Steven L. Mitchell (ex officio), executive director, Academy of Humanism.