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Education and Free Inquiry a Statement from the Academy of Humanism

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Education and Free Inquiry a Statement from the Academy of Humanism Education and Free Inquiry A Statement from the Academy of Humanism Isaac Asimov Antony Flew Paul MacCready Brand Blanshard Stephen Jay Gould Ernest Nagel Vern Bullough Sidney Hook W. V. Quine Francis Crick Donald Johanson Richard Taylor Joseph Fletcher Paul Kurtz Edward O. Wilson Gerald Larue Sidney Hook Searching China, iIîarxism for and Jesus Human Freedom COMING SOON: TRE. REALLY REALLY T RUE ACTUAL TOMB 0 Also: Press Blackout on Criticism of the Bible • Sobriety Without Superstition • Evangelic Agnosticism • Is Child Abuse a Myth? SUMMER 1985, VOL. 5, NO. 3 ISSN 0272-0701 Contents 3 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 4 Education and Free Inquiry, A Statement From the Academy of Humanism 5 EDITORIALS 8 ON THE BARRICADES ARTICLES J ESUS IN HISTORY AND MYTH 10 Finding a Common Ground Between Believers and Unbelievers Paul Kurtz 13 Render to Jesus the Things that Are Jesus' Robert S. Alley 18 Jesus in Time and Space Gerald A. Larue 23 Biblical Scorecard: Was Jesus "Pro-Family") Thomas Franczyk 24 An Interview with Sidney Hook on China, Marxism, and Human Freedom 34 Evangelical Agnosticism William Henry Young 37 To Refuse to Be a God: Religious Humanism of the Future Khoren Arisian 41 The Legacy of Voltaire (Part II) Paul Edwards BOOKS 50 Arguing About Old-Time Christianity Antony Flew VIEWPOINTS 51 Child Abuse: Myth or Reality? Vern L. Bullough 52 A Humanist's Lack of Options Sarah Slavin 53 Sobriety Without Superstition James Christopher 56 IN THE NAME OF GOD 58 CLASSIFIED Editor: Paul Kurtz Associate Editors: Doris Doyle, Steven L. Mitchell, Lee Nisbet, Gordon Stein Managing Editor: Andrea Szalanski Contributing Editors: Lionel Abel, author, critic, SUNY at Buffalo; Paul Beattie, president, Fellowship of Religious Humanists; Jo-Ann Boydston, director, Dewey Center; Laurence Briskman, lecturer, Edinburgh University, 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; Antony Flew, philosopher, Reading University, England; Sidney Hook, professor emeritus of philosophy, NYU; Marvin Kohl, philosopher, State University of New York College at Fredonia; Jean Kotkin, executive director, American Ethical Union; Gerald Larue, professor emeritus of archaeology and biblical history, USC; Ronald A. Lindsay, attorney, Washington, D.C.; Ernest Nagel, professor emeritus of philosophy, Columbia University; Howard Radest, director, Ethical Culture Schools; Ralph Raico, associate professor of history, State University College of New York 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, India; Richard Taylor, professor of philosophy, Union College; Sherwin Wine, founder, Society for Humanistic Judaism Editorial Associates: H. James Birx, James Martin-Diaz, Thomas Flynn, Thomas Franczyk, Marvin Zimmerman Executive Director of CODESH, Inc.: Jean Millholland Book Review Editor: Victor Gulotta Promotion: Barry L. Karr 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 . 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: FREE INQUIRY, Central Park Station, Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215. Manuscripts, letters and editorial inquiries should be addressed to: The Editor, FREE INQUIRY, Central Park Station, Box 5, Buffalo, N.Y. 14215. All manuscripts should be accompanied by two additional copies and a stamped, addressed envelope. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or publisher. 2 FREE INQUIRY To Our Readers FREE INQUIRY is pleased to LETTERS TO THE EDITOR announce that its subscribers will now receive the Secular Humanist Bulletin at no extra cost. The Bulletin will be mailed four times a year, between issues of FREE INQUIRY. Church vs. State telling everyone that the convention move- ment is a conspiracy of the Radical Right, I E. O. Wilson As a humanist who supports a limited con- spend half my time trying to reassure stitutional convention to draft a balanced- Radical Right types that it's not a conspiracy E. O. Wilson (FI, Spring 1985) says that budget amendment, I must take exception of "dem debbil" secular humanists. Phyllis one competitive advantage of scientific to Edd Doerr's well-meaning but misin- Schlafly, the conservative anti-ERA cru- materialism over religion is its unity: "No formed comments (Editorials, FI, Spring sader, opposes a convention for just this competing scientific materialisms exist." 1985). Doerr contends that the real (as reason: She thinks that the Edd Doerrs of What can he mean? The Marxist version is opposed to the "proclaimed") purpose of a the world want a convention so they can so different from Wilson's that he regards it convention would be to "hack up the Bill of outlaw private religious practice. as a kind of religion. Epicurus, Hobbes, Rights" and pass amendments to outlaw Hume, Diderot, Comte, Feuerbach, Mill, abortion, require prayer and creationism in Scott D. Palmer Dewey, Russell, Sellers, and Quine all mean the public schools, and establish government Taxpayers' Foundation different things by "science" and "matter"; support for Christianity as an official "state Washington, D.C. as a professor of philosophy I am more religion." With all due respect, that's a lot impressed by their differences than by their of nonsense. The most obvious flaw in unity. If we include theists who reject Doerr's reasoning is that a constitutional The Vatican and Sex "revelation" and maintain the autonomy of convention, limited or not, cannot change both science and ethics, such as Aristotle, the Constitution. Any proposed amendment As an ex-Catholic who left the church fifty Spinoza, Locke, Kant, Peirce, James, and must be ratified by at least thirty-eight states. years ago, I read Robert T. Francoeur's "The Whitehead, the variety is even greater. The Our recent experience with the proposed Vatican's View of Sex: The Inaccurate unity of the scientific outlook, like the unity Equal Rights Amendment shows that rati- Conception" (FI, Spring 1985) with keen of religion, is faith rather than fact. fication is difficult even for amendments that interest. For years, even as a child, 1 have As I see it, "secular humanism" is not a have overwhelming public support. Amend- recognized the church's morbid hangup on philosophy (Which of these would it be?) ments supported by fringe-groups simply sex, and 1 have tried to determine why. My but an attitude within which philosophy, "don't have a prayer." answer follows. science, art, politics, and education can go 1 support unconditional abortion rights As we know, intense pleasure is asso- on without requiring a religious commit- through the second trimester. 1 oppose pub- ciated with the reproductive process. Chris- ment; in which religion is an "optional extra" lic school prayer and have written articles tianity, on the other hand, is vehemently left to the individual. In this sense, funda- debunking both creationism and the excesses anti-pleasure, not only in regard to sex but mentalists are right to see it as a serious of Christian supernaturalism. If there were in virtually all areas of human existence. threat to their position; indeed, the battle is the slightest chance that a limited constitu- Self-imposed torture has made many persons almost over. tional convention could even consider candidates for sainthood. The church—and amendments on these issues, I would oppose 1 include nearly all Christian denominations Richard J. Burke such a convention. However, disinterested in that designation—is powerless to eradicate Oakland University scholars—such as a special study commission the various sources of pleasure, so it does Rochester, Mich. of the American Bar Association—have con- the next best thing: It inculcates guilt by cluded that a convention could be limited association. And, in doing so, it has been E. O. Wilson states that sacred rituals are to the specific subject for which it was called: extremely successful. Pleasure and the pur- cultural universals. As sociologists under- in this case, to draft and submit a balanced- suit thereof, when attended by guilt, becomes stand this term, it refers to phenomena that budget amendment to the states. an instrument for the perpetuation of exist in every culture. If this is what Dr. The ABA commission also pointed out, chronic guilt; chronic guilt reinforces one's Wilson means, his assertion is highly ques- perceptively, that discussions of a constitu- dependence on church and clergy. This tionable, since a few societies seem to have tional convention usually take place with dependence, in turn, provides a never-ending lacked not only ritual but any vestiges of reference to a specific proposed amendment; supply for the collection plate, which, in its religion whatsoever. Lubbock's Origin of hence, those who oppose the amendment turn, provides fuel for the greatest of all Civilization and the Primitive Condition of tend to use scare tactics about a convention human vices, namely, the lust for unbridled Man cites a number of examples, as does as an alternative strategy for stopping the power. The church's morbid preoccupation Robertson's History of America (vol. 4). constitutional reform of which they disap- with sex, then, is political; and organized prove. religion is ultimately just that—politics. John George Talk of a "runaway" convention is not, Central State University by the way, limited to humanists, liberals, F.
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