One Year Later Harlan Ellison
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ONE YEAR LATER HARLAN ELLISON CelebratingCelebrating Reason Reason and and Humanity Humanity SUMMER FALL 2002 • VOL. 22 No. 43 f 23> Paul KURTZ • Wendy KAMINER • Richard DAWKINS • Nat HENTOFF Christopher HITCHENS • Tom FLYNN • Jeannette LOWEN • Taner EDIS 7725274 74957 Published by The Council for Secular Humanism THE AFFIRMATIONS OF HUMANISM: A STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES We are committed to the application of reason and science to the understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems. We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation. We believe that scientific discovery and technology can contribute to the betterment of human life. We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities. We are committed to the principle of the separation of church and state. We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual understanding. We are concerned with securing justice and fairness in society and with eliminating discrimination and intolerance. We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the handicapped so that they will be able to help themselves. We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, and strive to work together for the common good of humanity. We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other species. We believe in enjoying life here and now and in developing our creative talents to their fullest. We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence. We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have access to comprehensive and informed health-care, and to die with dignity. We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative standards that we discover together. Moral principles are tested by their consequences. We are deeply concerned with the moral education of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion. We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences. We are citizens of the universe and are excited by discoveries still to be made in the cosmos. We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, and we are open to novel ideas and seek new departures in our thinking. We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich personal significance and genuine satisfaction in the service to others. We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind faith or irrationality. We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest that we are capable of as human beings. For a parchment copy of this page, suitable for framing, please send $4.95 to FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, New York 14226-0664 free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 2 EDITORIAL FEATURES 5 Secular Humanism 28 Terrorists A New Approach Harlan Ellison Paul Kurtz SPECIAL SECTION OP-ED DRAWING CLEAR BOUNDARIES: SECULAR VS. RELIGIOUS 9 Religion’s Real HUMANISM FALL 2002 VOL. 22, NO. 4 Child Abuse ISSN 0272-0701 Richard Dawkins 35 A Secular Humanist Definition Setting The Record Straight 13 Citizens Resist War Tom Flynn on the Bill of Rights Nat Hentoff 44 ‘Religious Humanism’ And the Dangers of 14 The Stupidest Semantic Distortion Religion Frank L. Pasquale Christopher Hitchens 48 The Unitarian 16 Choosing Our Quandary Battles Is Religious Humanism Wendy Kaminer Ruining the Humanist Religion? 17 I May Pledge James A. Haught Allegiance, But Not To Any God 50 God: 12,000 Ed Buckner The Faith of a Rebeliever Tony Pasquarello 19 The Will to Believe Keeps the Worldwide Church of God Afloat DEPARTMENTS Vern Bullough 7 Letters 21 The Supreme Court Gets Into the Education Business 26 Frontlines . for Real J.E. Hill 54 Church State Update Pledge Aftermath Bad 22 No Milk-and-Water News for Secularists Faith Indeed Tom Flynn John J. Dunphy 55 Great Minds 23 What Would Jesus Emile Littré, 1801–1881 Do? William Raymond Clark Shawn Dawson 57 Science and Religion REVIEWS An Accidental World Taner Edis 65 Humanism: Beliefs and Practices 68 The Cosmic Fairy: The New by Jeaneane Fowler Challenge of a Darwinian 59 God on Trial Tom Flynn Approach to Humanism Ten Religious Reasonings 66 Why Religion Matters; The Fate by Arthur Atkinson John Radford of the Human Spirit in an Age Tom Flynn of Disbelief 60 Humanism and the Arts by Huston Smith 68 Celebrities in Hell Doing Time with by Warren Allen Smith Jason Rosenhouse Marcel Proust Tom Flynn 67 What Went Wrong? Western Jeannette Lowen Impact and Middle East Responses 69 Does God Believe in Atheists? 62 The Humanist Activist by Bernard Lewis by John Blanchard Secular Humanist Mike McGlothlin Hector Avalos Foot-Soldiers? DJ Grothe FI Editorial Staff FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published quarterly by the Editor-in Chief Council for Secular Humanism, a nonprofit educational corporation, Editorial Board Paul Kurtz P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226. Phone (716) 636-7571. Fax Editor (716) 636-1733. Copyright ©2002 by the Council for Secular Robert Alley Thomas W. Flynn Humanism. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be Professor of Humanities Emeritus, Univ. of Richmond, Virginia Managing Editor Deputy Editor reproduced without permission of the publisher. Periodicals postage Andrea Szalanski Norm R. Allen, Jr. paid at Buffalo, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. National Hector Avalos distribution by International Periodicals Distributors, Solana Beach, Columnists Associate Professor of Vern Bullough, Richard Dawkins, California. FREE INQUIRY is available from University Microfilms Religious Studies, Nat Hentoff, Christopher Hitchens, and is indexed in Philosophers’ Index. Printed in the United States. Iowa State University Wendy Kaminer, Tibor R. Machan, Postmaster: Send address changes to FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Peter Singer, Joan Kennedy Taylor Joe E. 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