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dogma-inspired errors, as the pope did of self-appointed Pharisees, a cup of hemlock, recently. If religion journalists assume that or a holy hit. fi no headway can be made by critical reason- ing against the tenets of faith, I suggest that Lewis Vaughn is editor of FREE INQUIRY. they peek into a few contemporary journals in the field where intellectual progress is made in every issue. Then again, some religion journalists may be painfully aware of the criticism of religious claims by scholars but dare not speak of it for fear of offending the people in the pews. Or they may assume that, if the intellectuals are out of step with the mass of believers, the intellectuals must be wrong. This is the kind of prejudice that lifted the cup of hemlock to Socrates’ lips. Others would say that, if this new critical journalism is not epistemologically suspect, it Religion vs. is at least bad manners, corrosive bias, or even a hate crime. My, how far we have slid down the dark hole of political correctness, where criticism of ideas is a sin, and any query Rationalism in about the justification of dogma is viewed as an attack. I recently met with several brave people Sanal Edamaruku who have seen firsthand what happens when this fear of inquiry is taken to its logical conclusion. They are Islamic dissidents who hough and many parts of caste order, bloody caste and tribal wars, witch have criticized certain tenets of Islam for southern India have undergone hunting, human sacrifices, exploitation by encouraging abuses of human rights, oppres- important changes in the last sadhus and godmen doing “miracles,” voodoo sion of women, and violence against critics. Tdecades, in some of the northern parts of practitioners and tribal magicians in Africa, In Islam, they are blasphemers or apostates. India terrible things still happen because the bloody ritual of female genital mutilation Some of them have been forced into exile; of traditional, backward practices. A young in Egypt—these are the local structures of evil some are living under a fatwa (a sacred way couple who married against the social order that the rationalist movement has to fight. to order a hit); all have suffered for daring was axed to death by the caste leaders of the Some require patient explanations by local to speak their minds. By speaking against village, among them the parents of both of activists, others the mobilization of police and what they think are religiously inspired young people. This happened in Haryana, the judiciary. moral outrages, they have offended people in an area where India successfully tried the There are other and different challeng- of faith. Should they be silent so as not to Green Revolution some decades ago. The es. Prime ministers and presidents in India give offense? To assume so is itself a moral young man belonged to Jatava, an untouch- ridicule secularism by prostrating themselves outrage. able caste, and the woman to the Jats, the before the “super ” Sai Baba and his Such widespread aversion to legitimate so-called backward caste. Fearing the anger of like. The nexus between godmen and poli- criticism of religious tenets makes the para- the community, they ran away to a far away ticians seriously undermines the democratic noid’s case for him. Society is indeed perme- town and lived there. Their families located system. Mighty godmen emerge as extra-con- ated by a potent force that pulls everyone into them, offered social acceptance, and brought stitutional powers and influence political a different path but is almost never called to them back to the village—with no other decisions. account, and then only in hushed tones. intention than to brutally murder them. There is the Muslim fundamental ism But publicly criticizing the articles of Recently in Bangladesh a young woman raging in Asia, Arab countries, and Africa. someone’s faith is divisive, many would say. died when an Islamic cleric ordered her Hindu nationalism as a counter product is So is honest scholarship, public debate, and buried up to the waist and to be flogged 101 growing to alarming dimensions. And the informed disagreement. They are all neces- times with a bamboo cane. She was alleged to rationalist movement has to combat the sary to democracy and moral progress. have had pre-marital sex with her lover and invasion by Christian missionaries who try Perhaps one day journalists will regular- undergoing an abortion. to secure maximum influence of their foreign ly offer balanced reports on the historical Last year in a village in Tanzania, nine donors and instructors. While the growth accuracy of the Bible or the Koran, or on children fell ill with chicken pox. A tribal rate of the Christian churches of the Western the logical inconsistencies of some church magician “cured” them by giving them unpu- world came to a standstill long ago or even doctrines, or on scientific investigations of rified river water to drink and talismans to declined, missionaries in India entertain great alleged miracles. And maybe, when society hang around their necks. Seven children died. hopes. The Christianization of Asia ranks grows up, they won’t have to fear the wrath Brutal punishment for those who defy high on the Vatican’s agenda for the coming

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century. Besides the Roman Catholic church there are Christian churches in the mission- ary race: Protestants, Evangelicals, Baptists, Pentecostals—they all try hard to get the best Truth and Dogma piece of the Third World cake. The “Consul- tation of World Evangelization” in Thailand in 1980 declared all of 700 million Hindus Robert M. Price their worldwide target. Missionaries come equipped with detailed instruction about successful techniques for n a time of comfortably orthodox implicitly charged the Church: preferring a converting Hindus: the use of “miraculous retrenchment among New Testament particular party-line, a given set of opinions, healing” and other special elements of the scholars, Gerd Lüdemann has been a to the truth per se. Is the truth material, a Hindu religion is advised. Another tech- Ibracing voice urging scholars not to forget, set of dogmas we already possess? Or is it nique is “demonstrating social concern,” for as they seem eager to do, the radical insights formal, a North Star by which to navigate example, for lower castes and tribes or other of David Friedrich Strauss. Lüdemann our search? If the truth is not open-ended, it untouchables of the Hindu community. How stands courageously for Strauss’s brand of is hypocritical to pretend to search for it. And to win the higher caste community, how intellectual honesty. And, like Strauss, who that is the pretense (if that is all it is) of great to use illiteracy for successful “radio-evan- was ejected from the teaching profession, gelism,” and how to perform in a way that Lüdemann is now paying the price. Like the finally brings in the harvest are taught by ancient Sanhedrin closing ranks against Jesus professionals. Mass conversions spark Hindu (why do they never even notice the paral- protest and violence. lel?), the Protestant authorities at Göttingen These different pressures demand reac- University have decreed that Professor tions on different levels. In India, the Indian Lüdemann shall lose research funding and Rationalist Association has emerged nation- that divinity students shall no longer study Is the truth ally as a corrective force by rising above local with him. Thankfully, he has not yet been material, a set events. When the Delhi BJP government in consigned to the streets. 1997 installed a Mantra Healing Centre in a Lüdemann’s “crime” was to leap from of dogmas we already state-funded medical college, we succeeded the confining nest of Mother Church and to possess? Or is it for- in forcing its closure within one month by take wing with the pinions of critical reason mal, mobilizing public opinion. When the “milk and spiritual honesty. Long since having miracle” swept all over India and within repudiated biblical literalism, he recently a North Star by hours millions of people were gripped by found theological liberalism equally galling. which to ecstasy, we succeeded in stopping the spectre He could no longer brook the pretense that navigate before dusk by explaining through television Jesus rose from the dead in some Pickwickian the laws of physics behind the phenomena. sense compatible with his corpse rotting, that our search? These two examples show the importance of the Christian should live in “eschatological rationalist presence in the media. fi hope” (the charade of Advent), even though the promise of the Parousia is over 19 centu- Sanal Edamaruku is Secretary General of the ries forfeit. As Socrates urged his disciples to Indian Rationalist Association. think not of Socrates but only of the truth, Lüdemann at last decided that the truth itself was the only banner he could fly in good con- science. And this the Göttingen Sanhedrin universities such as Göttingen and Tübingen deems “thoughtcrime,” a contagion from have been. But of late they seem enamored which tender seminarians must be shielded. of becoming indoctrination mills, glorified Some might regret Lüdemann’s treat- Bible colleges. The difference is exactly that ment and yet grant that an institution has between academic freedom and intellectual a right not to employ those unsympathetic honesty on the one hand and mere cate- to its official policy. Jello could no longer be chism on the other. To condemn Lüdemann expected to pay for Bill Cosby’s endorsement because he won’t “get with the program” as if he made it known he preferred Royal a loyally gray apparatchik shows where his Gelatin instead. In this manner some likewise university stands. defended the pope’s decision, some years We as humanists, including Gerd ago, to forbid Hans Küng to teach any lon- Lüdemann, do not share the Christian faith, ger at Tübingen as a “Professor of Catholic however much we may respect it. But we may Theology.” But this defense is fatally reveal- be said to embrace a faith of our own: the ing, is it not? For it is a bald-faced admission confidence, perhaps naive, that the truth will of the very crime with which Lüdemann has out. It must evidence its superiority in the

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