ONE YEAR LATER HARLAN ELLISON

CelebratingfCelebrating Reason Reason and and Humanity Humanity SUMMER FALL 2002 • VOL. 22 No. 43

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.

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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 67   What Went Wrong? Western Tom Flynn 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. 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free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 4 SECULAR HUMANISM

EDITORIAL PAUL KURTZ A NEW APPROACH

ecular humanism and atheism are not identi- cal. One can be an atheist and not a secular humanist or humanist. Indeed, some think- ers or activists who call themselves atheists Sexplicitly reject humanist ethical values (for example, Stalin, Lenin, Nietzsche, and others). Nor is secular humanism the same thing as humanism by itself; it is surely sharply different from religious humanism. I should also make it clear that secular humanism is not antireligious; it is simply nonreligious. There is a difference. Secular humanists are nontheists; they Photo by Mark Mulville ©2001 The Buffalo News may be atheists, agnostics, or skeptics about the God question and/or immortality of the soul. To say that we are nonreligious means, that is, that we are not religious; ours is a scientific, ethical, and philosophi- cal life stance. I have used the term eupraxsophy to denote our beliefs and values as a whole. This means that, as secular humanists, we offer good practical wisdom based on ethics, science, and philosophy. The term secular should make it clear that secular humanists are not religious. In contrast, the term religious humanism is unfortunate. It has been used by some human- ists to denote a kind of moral and æsthetic commitment to a set of ideals and practices; but this is most confusing. Often it serves to sneak in some quasi-spiritual and/or tran- scendental aspect of experience and practice, aping religion. It is puzzling that religiosity is so strong in America today and that even humanists are fearful of denying that they are nonreligious—heavens to Betsy! In my view, cow- ardice is an important motive for many religious humanists who are embarrassed for anyone to know that they do not believe in God or salvation; and so they fudge, hide, mask, and obfuscate their real convictions in order to be socially accepted. They fear especially to be seen criticizing religion or to become known as an atheist. Ecumenism teaches that we should accept virtually all religions. In that spirit of tolerance, reli- gious humanists do not wish to be seen as critical of any religion, whether Roman Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, or the numerous denominations of Protestanism.

“Religiosity is so strong in America today that even humanists are fearful of denying that they are nonreligious—heavens to Betsy!”

Secular humanism is nonreligious. But this does not mean that it does not criticize the claims of religion; indeed, we have a moral obligation to speak the plain truth. There is a difference, however, between being antireligious—attacking religion or dis- missing it cavalierly—and being willing to analyze religious claims and calling them to account for their lack of reliable empirical foundations. Biblical and Qur’anic criticism are essential to intellectual honesty and clarity; and so, secular humanists are able and willing to submit the claims of religion—particularly where these are relevant in the open public square—to critical scrutiny. To shy away from this would be dishon-

Paul Kurtz, founder of the Council for Secular Humanism, is editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry and professor emeritus of philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

5 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 est. Accordingly, secular humanists are humanists believe that: servatives, social democrats, radical non- nonreligious critics of religious claims, * Ethics is an autonomous field of conformists, and libertarians. particularly where these intrude in pub- inquiry, independent of theological We also share some part of the pro- lic policies and beliefs. Surely theistic claims, amenable to rational scrutiny, test of atheist groups (such as American religions today attack secular humanists testing value judgments by their conse- Atheists, Atheists United, the Atheist and naturalists without compunction. quences. Alliance International, the Freedom From In contrast, secular humanists have a * Ethical values and judgments are rel- Religion Foundation, and others) in our responsibility to truth, to respond and to ative to human interests, needs, desires, skepticism of theology and our defense present the outlook of secularists and the ends, and values; they are open to objec- of the separation of church and state. But ethics of humanism in clear and distinct tive criticism and evaluation. we stand for more than atheism alone, * Fulfillment, realization, and maximi- since we offer an alternative ethical life zation of human freedom and happiness stance and eupraxsophy which is an “We have a are what humanists seek, both for the inherent part of our position. That ethical individual and the community. dimension, indeed, defines our responsibility to truth.” * Thus there are ethical responsibil- humanism. ities that humanists hold toward others within the community, on the interper- language. sonal level, the level of the democratic Sidney Hook Secular humanism is thus committed society, and the planetary community to science and reason as the method as well. Centennial of evaluating all truth claims, whether Clearly, secular humanism is not Conference arising in popular belief, scientific the- equivalent to atheism—it is far more than ories, or in moral, political, or religious that. Similarly, secular humanism finds Engenders claims. Similarly, secular humanists are itself at odds with religious humanism, sympathetic to skeptical inquiry—that since its outlook is clearly nonreligious. It Controversy is, the application of rational methods goes beyond any negative skeptical inqui- and empirical/experimental testing to all ry insofar as it seeks to provide a positive conference commemorating the claims to truth. For that reason, too, and affirmative alternative to customary hundredth anniversary of the secular humanists cannot understand moral and religious practices. Abirth of Sidney Hook (1902– why religious humanists so fear to step The moral of the story is that the 1989) will be held at the City University on the toes of their religious brethren. Council for Secular Humanism, publish- Graduate Center in New York City on Similarly, secular humanists are criti- er of Free Inquiry, and the Center for October 25–26, 2002. According to a story cal of those contemporary skeptics who Inquiry represent a point of view which in The New York Times, this will be the express trepidation about treading in is distinct from those of other existing first major posthumous evaluation of this religious waters. Surely, skeptical episte- humanist and atheist organizations in influential American philosopher. mology means that there is open season the United States. We respect our sister The Council for Secular Humanism is on any and all claims to truth; all are sub- organizations, and are willing to work a co-sponsor of the conference. Sidney ject to empirical and rational scrutiny. with them on concrete projects. None­ Hook was one of the leading secular Critical thinking should not be confined theless, there are genuine differences humanist philosophers of the twenti- to paranormal claims alone, which might between the Council and the American eth century and a supporter of Free be considered safe to criticize. In princi- Humanist Association, the American Inquiry from its start, having endorsed ple, critical thinking should likewise be Ethical Union, the Friends of Religious the “Secular Humanist Declaration” in applied to religion, politics, economics, Humanism (now HUUmanists), and 1980, and contributed many articles to and morality. the International Institute for Secular Free Inquiry following that. Within the current skeptical move- Humanistic Judaism. All of these groups The conference has already stimu- ment, I have argued that the Committee have religious impulses and religious lated intense controversy, in the pages for the Scientific Investigation of Claims tax-exemptions. We need to reiterate of The New York Times, The Nation, The of the Paranormal (CSICOP) should deal that the Council for Secular Humanism New Yorker, The Chronicle of Higher primarily with paranormal and fringe-sci- and the Center for Inquiry are postreli- Education, and elsewhere, primarily entific claims, and with religion only gious. We have educational and scientific because some well-known neoconserva- where an empirical scientific claim is exemptions; more important, we wish tives announced that they were with- made and can be tested. This is a matter to dissociate ourselves with any and all drawing from the gathering. This includes of the division of labor and expertise. But attempts to ape religion. We believe in Irving Kristol (The Public Interest); his I never meant to imply that religion is science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and wife, author Gertrude Himmelfarb; art beyond the domain of skeptical inquiry. developing an alternative to the religious critic Hilton Kramer; and City University Secular humanists and skeptical inquir- doctrines of the past. Simi­larly, we are historian John Patrick Diggins. The rea- ers have the right, and indeed duty, to open to a wide diversity of political views, son they gave was that Cornel West, noted submit these claims to examination. and we cannot be identified with left-wing African-American historian at Princeton, What is central to humanism, in my liberalism or right-wing libertarianism. view, is the ethical component; namely, We open our pages to liberals and con- (Continued on page 25)

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 6 LETTERS

ly at the same intensity. There these the Eurofacist movement. Certainly his forces are mitigated by other cultural sympathies lay in that direction, though factors, making religion less necessary. he was careful to preserve his power A more human scale of development, the by not allying too closely with Hitler ubiquity of local agriculture, the pres- and Mussolini, to their extreme frus- ence of ancient buildings and byways, tration. What is clear is that, despite the memory of social hierarchy, fewer some quibbles, the Catholic Church was automated modes of interaction, and an ardent supporter of the hard right an altogether greater sense of history anti-Bolshevist until the relatively liber- and permanence may seem individual- al years of the Second Vatican Council. ly insignificant but collectively have a Raised Catholic, Franco became devout tempering effect. By providing a sense as death approached. Had Pope John of identity, stability, and comfort they Paul II and his Opus Dei allies been in thereby subserve some of the functions charge during Franco’s time, matters of religion. Here in America, unchecked would have been different—something by ancient guidelines, the neuroses of the increasingly nontheistic Spanish modern life rage most fiercely and must people have not forgotten. be assuaged. Stephen E. Silver Waterford, Connecticut Coming Out

The East, the West, Re Richard Dawkins’s “Come Out of Many thanks to Gregory Paul for the Closet: A Challenge to Atheists” (FI, and Religion his exceptional article “The Secular Summer 2002). Of course, sign me up Revolution of the West” (FI, Summer for APAC (Atheist Political Action Com­ While Christianity appears to be dying 2002). He did, however, make the same mittee), but reading your article gave a natural death throughout Western mistake as a couple of you previous writ- me an idea. Perhaps a wider net could Europe, it is proving to be amazingly ers: his footnote 16 refers to Francesco be thrown very quickly to gather in all resilient here in the United States. It Franco as a fascist. Franco never types of nonreligious people and make should come as no surprise, however, belonged to the Spanish fascist party a little splash. that Americans, the richest and most (the Falange), and, by following the path Here’s the idea: set up a nonprofit powerful people on Earth, the most of traditional rightist authoritarianism, organization of nonreligious people (call aggressive and self-assured, should also he helped to keep the Spanish fascists it something like “Individuals for Non­ be the ones most susceptible to religious from gaining power. Although truly a religious Giving”) to unite their charity sentiment. One does not have to look nasty dictator, Franco never came close giving. Individuals would send whatever to history to explain this phenomenon. to attempting thought control and total money they wished to donate with a Simple observation of contemporary mobilization of society that have been list of charities that should get their American life provides important clues. essential characteristics of fascism. money. ING would collect these checks All this time we thought that it was Among good sources is Max Skidmore’s and enter the amount that would go to the poor who were especially inclined to Ideologies: Politics in Action (1993). each charity into a database and then be religious, for obvious reasons. Now it John George, Professor Emeritus once a quarter issue a check to each of seems that an excess of prosperity may Political Science and Sociology the charities that members have chosen. have the same effect. University of Central Oklahoma The checks (and a letter explaining There is a strain involved in main- Edmond, Oklahoma INB) would go to each charity that mem- taining the pace and equilibrium of our bers pick with no limits. (One-tenth of 1 American-style lives. There is a sense of Gregory Paul replies: percent of thirty thousand nonreligious emptiness lurking at the heart of the end- in America according to the American less pursuit of personal happiness. There As usual the situation is complex. Religious Identification Survey, 2001), is a sense of loneliness and responsibil- Franco took over the Falange in 1937 each giving an average of a thousand ity at having achieved such phenomenal as part of his consolidation of power, dollars a year, could create an organi- mastery over the natural world. and although he moderated it in some zation that gives out $30 million a year. How, then, can there not be a tenden- respects and cared little about its That starts to be real money that would cy to seek out a realm of calm and sta- fascist economic programs, the fas- give us clout. bility, to find a sense of personal fulfill- cist salute was not dropped until the I would think that ING could get a ment, and a welcome sense of humility? final Allied victory made it bad form. fair amount of publicity in the media as Religion is the answer par excellence to Franco was not Hitler, nor a Mussolini, a nonreligious nonprofit organization these supercharged needs. although he had more power than the with a goal of only telling the American Western Europeans, of course, are Italian dictator. Franco can be consid- public that nonreligious people exist in subject to the same dynamic, but hard- ered to be at the “moderate” edge of America in large numbers.

7 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 Steve Feltes the weary centuries, religionists of all New York, New York kinds have done terrible things in the Deists for Secular belief that they were simply living their Humanism faith. Regarding Richard Dawkins’s thought- We shudder as we think of the suffer- I beg to slightly disagree with fellow ful essay, yes, the word atheist is a ing engendered, but we cannot call them physicist Matt Young (FI, Summer stumbling block. It is an ugly sound- criminals. Other writers have pointed 2002): I believe the purpose of the uni- ing English word. When uttered, it out that we cannot call them cowards, verse is to be the cradle for life, allowing sounds like a snake hissing. I agree either. What do you think it cost Andrea it to form and evolve. I suspect that with Darwin in the quote offered by Yates in anguish as she revved up her most astrophysicists would agree with Professor Dawkins: “‘But why should courage to hold her small, helpless, me. I still prefer to call myself a deist you be so aggressive?’ He went on trusting children under the water? Who since I believe that that which sustains to suggest that atheism might be well among us would not have flinched with the universe and that which caused it and good for the intelligentsia, but that terror as the airplanes neared the great to form some 15–20 billion years ago I ordinary people were not ‘ripe for it.’” I towers? loosely refer to as God. And this God ask why Professor Dawkins should be Acknowledging the above, it behooves­ can only be known through a study (or so aggressive in pushing atheism to the those of us who hold this life dear to do appreciation) of the universe. Thus, a general public? all we can to show that reason should be minor quibble with Richard Dawkins. Religion came into being for a good the only guide in making choices. He enumerated many thoughtful choices reason. We humans are out of harmony Abigail Ann Martin for alternative names (flavors?) of secu- with the rest of the animal kingdom, Brandon, Florida lar humanism, but neglected to include because through evolution we have deism. But thanks to this fine issue, the developed self-awareness. We can fore- deist that I am is very comfortable (now) see that we will die and all those we with identifying myself also as a secular love will die, and that when we have Giving the FBI the humanist. learned in life and our unique identities Business John G. Eoll will be annihilated by death. That is Amesbury, Massachusetts why humans invented religions—to try If we are really concerned about the to bring harmony, where Nature offers Federal Bureau of Investigation now us none. having the power to seize the records of Rolf Jansen an individual’s transactions at a book- Another Task Houston, Texas store or a library (“The FBI Can Find for Tom Out What You Read,” by Nat Hentoff, FI, Summer 2002), I think there is an I liked Tom Flynn’s article, “When Reason Must obvious solution. Every bookstore, pub- Words Won’t Die” (FI, Summer 2002). lic library, video rental outlet, and any I use the synonym personality (not Prevail store or Web site that makes available on Tom’s list of “95 Ways Not to Say material covered under this law should ‘Spirit’”) to counter the “spirit” label How rich in information, in good writing, post a large sign, right above its cash whenever someone tries to apply it to in enthusiasm Free Inquiry is. It should register, and/or on its Web site where it me. If a religious friend tells me “You be in every home. I was particularly will be seen during Web purchases, that have a spirit,” I always reply, “Nope, I pleased with the Stanley J. Alluisi arti- says something like have a personality, and it comes with an cle, “Consequences” (Summer 2002). It NOTICE TO CUSTOMERS: Section expiration date.” brings up and brilliantly discusses a 215 of the USA Patriot Act, recently Still, old habits die hard, and it is point that has been all too often over- passed by Congress, gives the FBI the really difficult to eliminate from my right to obtain a court order demand- looked—the rigid inconsistency in the vocabulary all the old religious words actions of religious fundamentalists. I ing, WITHOUT NOTIFYING YOU, any records we have of your transactions and expressions I acquired as a pious have often thought that if I “believed” at this location. We will be required to youth. If only I could find a way to halt I’d applaud every word, ever deed per- give them the requested information, the expletive “God damn it!” which, AND WILL BE FORBIDDEN FROM petrated by the Robertsons and Falwells for example, I use reactively when I of the Right. They are doing and saying TELLING YOU OR ANYONE ELSE ABOUT IT. miss a nail, and whack my finger with exactly what is correct according to a hammer. It’s annoying, and I think their professed beliefs. I suspect it won’t be long before lots of people have a problem with that Dr. Alluisi rightly asserts that Andrea Congress will make the folly of this law one. We could use another helpful list Yates, in killing her young children, was more clear than when everyone real- here, Tom—even the religious would doing what she thought was demanded izes that the government now has the appreciate it! of her as a loving, believing mother. The authority to snoop into your business, Dean Schramm pilots crashing into the New York tow- not just the bad guys. Key Largo, Florida ers on September 11 were doing what Hugh B. Haskell would bring approving rewards from Cary, North Carolina (Continued on page 63) Allah. Over and over again, through all

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 8 OP-ED

RICHARD DAWKINS

accept that his misdemeanors, although by today’s standards enough Religion’s Real to earn imprisonment followed by a life sentence of persecution by vigilantes, were mild compared to those committed by some priests now in the Child Abuse news. I am in no position to make light of the horrific experiences of their altar- boy victims. But reports of child abuse n the wake of the current scan- cover a multitude of sins, from mild fon- dal over child abuse by priests,1 I dling to violent buggery, and I am sure Ireceived a letter from an American many of those cases now embarrassing woman in her mid-forties who was the church fall at the mild end of the 2 brought up Roman Catholic. She has Photo by Lalla Ward spectrum. Doubtless, too, some fall at two strong recollections from when she the violent end, which is terrible; but I was seven. She was sexually abused by would make two points about it. First, her parish priest in his car. And around just because some assaults by pedo- the same time, a little school friend of philes are violent and painful, it doesn’t hers, who had tragically died, went to mean that all are. A child too young hell because she was a Protestant. Or to notice what is happening at the so my correspondent was led to believe hands of a gentle pedophile will have by the then-prevalent doctrine in her no difficulty at all in noticing the pain church. Her view now is that, of these inflicted by a violent one. Phrases like two examples of Roman Catholic child being led to believe that I, or someone “predatory monster” are not discrim- abuse, the one physical and the other I knew, might go to everlasting fire. As inating enough, and are framed in the mental, the second was by far the worst. soon as I could wriggle off his light of adult hang-ups. Second (and She writes: knee, I ran to tell my friends this is the point with which I began) Being fondled by the priest simply left and we had a good laugh, the mental abuse constituted by an the impression (from the mind of a 7 our fellowship enhanced by year old) as “yucky,” while the mem- the shared experience of the ory of my friend going to hell was one same sad pedophile. I do not of cold, immeasurable fear. I never believe that I, or they, suf- lost sleep because of the priest—but I spent many a night being terrified fered lasting or even tempo- that the people I loved would go to rary damage from this dis- Hell. It gave me nightmares. agreeable physical abuse I am sure her experience is far from of power. Given the Latin unique. And what if we assume a less master’s eventual sui- altruistic child, worried about her own cide, maybe the damage eternity rather than a friend’s? Odious was all on his side. as the physical abuse of children by priests undoubtedly is, I suspect that it may do them less lasting damage Of course I than the mental abuse of having been brought up Catholic in the first place. Happily I was spared the misfor- tune of a Roman Catholic upbringing (Anglicanism is a significantly less nox- ious strain of the virus). Being fondled by the Latin master in the squash court was a disagreeable sensation for a nine- year-old, a mixture of embarrassment and skin-crawling revulsion, but it was certainly not in the same league as

9 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 National MediaCenter and theCenterforInquiry 7 THE PROJECT IS LAUNCHED. No longer a dream, reality has begun for our permanent Center for Inquiry – West. After a five-year search we have purchased and partially occupied a building at 4773 Hollywood Boulevard, in the heart of Hollywood. This ultimate Rallying Point for humanists and skeptics will house CFI-West’s regional programs as well as Center for Inquiry’s™ new national Media Center. This development has enormous importance for supporters of critical thinking everywhere, especially readers of Free Inquiry.

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by lost faith. Perhaps it would get the from the religions that, with parental sympathy of a jury.) But the point is this. approval, damage minds too young to “Odious as the If you can sue for the long-term mental understand what is happening to them. damage caused by physical child abuse, He is right, and the same lesson should physical abuse of why should you not sue for the long-term inform our discussions of the current mental damage caused by mental child pedophile brouhaha. Priestly groping of children by priests abuse? Only a minority of priests abuse child bodies is disgusting. But it may be undoubtedly is, the bodies of the children in their care. less harmful in the long run than priestly But how many priests abuse their minds? subversion of child minds. I suspect that it may Why aren’t Catholics and ex-Catholics lin- do them less lasting ing up to sue the Church into the ground Notes for a lifetime of psychological damage? 1. http://www.time.com/time/covers/11010 I am not advocating this course of 20401/story.html. damage than the 2. As, for example, in ‘The Confession action. Much as I would like to see the of Father X,” http://www.time.com/time/cov- mental abuse of Roman Catholic Church ruined, I hate ers/1101020401/fallen.html. having been brought opportunistically retrospective litigation 3. A prominent modern Catholic, Frank even more. Lawyers who grow fat by dig- McCourt, author of the bestseller Angela’s Ashes, is quoted as saying, in support of up Catholic in the ging up dirt on long-forgotten wrongs and allowing priests to marry: “I think it was St. hounding their aged perpetrators are no Paul who said ‘It is better to marry than to first place.” friends of mine. All I am doing is calling burn.’ All those pedophile priests are going attention to an anomaly. By all means, to burn.” http://www.time.com/time/covers/ unsubstantiated threat of violence and let’s kick a nasty institution when it is 1101020401/forum.html. 4. The obvious exception, and the main terrible pain, if sincerely believed by the down, but there are better ways than lit- example I can think of where religiously child, could easily be more damaging igation. And an obsessive concentration inspired physical damage does last through- than the physical actuality of sexual on sexual abuse by priests is in danger out life, is circumcision. Far from being con- abuse. An extreme threat of violence of blinding us to all their other forms of demned by society, the practice of male infant circumcision has spread from religion to and pain is precisely what the doctrine ecclesiastical child abuse. secular medicine. It is very common to this of hell is. And there is no doubt at all that The threat of eternal hell is an extreme day in the United States, and was so in many children sincerely believe it, often example of mental abuse, just as violent Britain when I was a child. Though it must be continuing right through adulthood and sodomy is an extreme example of phys- hideously traumatic at the time, it is not clear old age until death finally releases them. ical abuse. Most physical abuse is mild- whether it does more than temporary mental harm. Occasional “hang-ups” about it exist, It will be said that the Catholic Church er, and so is most of the mental abuse of course, but, depending on the surrounding no longer preaches hellfire in its full inherent in a typical religious education. culture, are experienced by the uncircum- horror. That depends on how upmarket The priest who urged a fourteen-year-old cised as well as the circumcised. Of course I is your area and how progressive your altar boy to give him oral sex, “blessing am speaking here only of male circumcision. 3 5 Clitoridectomy and the other forms of female priest. But eternal punishment certain- it as a way to receive Holy Communion,” genital mutilation are not only hideously ly was the normal doctrine dished out wasn’t only abusing the trust normally painful. They also—as they are designed to congregations, including terrified chil- enjoyed by any teacher, youth leader, or to do—severely curtail a woman’s capacity dren, back in the time when many of the scoutmaster. He was cashing in on the for sexual pleasure and presumably have a priests now facing expulsion or prose- years of religious brainwashing that the lifelong impact on mental contentment. This unspeakable barbarity is the best example I cution committed their physical abuses. child had endured as a cradle Catholic. know to point up the absurdity of uncritical Most of the victims bringing or supporting Holy Communion: nice one! But again, “respect” for religious and cultural traditions. lawsuits are now in their middle years. only an extreme example of what church- 5. http://www.time.com/time/covers/11010 Therefore they, along with many others es—and also mosques and synagogues— 20401/story.html. 6. In the U.S.: Nicholas Humphrey (1998), who were never physically abused, prob- do to child minds in their care, in the “What Shall We Tell the Children?” in Wes ably experienced mental terrorism of the normal course of events. Williams, ed.: The Values of Science: Oxford hellfire type. The long retrospect of the “What Shall We Tell the Children?” by Amnesty Lectures 1997 (Boulder, Colorado: law entitles middle-aged victims to lucra- the distinguished psychologist Nicholas Westview Press, 1999), pp. 58–79. Also avail- tive redress, decades after they suffered Humphrey is a superb polemic on how able in the U.K. in Nicholas Humphrey, The Mind Made Flesh (Oxford: Oxford Uni­versity physically. Nobody thinks the physical religions abuse the minds of children. It Press, 2002). injuries of sexual abuse could possibly was originally delivered as a lecture in 7. http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/hum last decades,4 so the damages now being aid of Amnesty International, and has phrey/amnesty.html. claimed have to be for mental conse- now been republished in book form.6 The quences of the original physical abuse. A lecture is also available in text form on Richard Dawkins is the Charles Simonyi typical claimant, now fifty-four, said that the Web, and I strongly recommend it.7 Professor of Public Understanding­ of his “life was marred by inexplicable con- Humphrey argues that, in the same way Science at Oxford University.­ An evo- fusions, anger, depression and lost faith.” as Amnesty works tirelessly to free polit- lutionary biologist and prolific author (Parenthetically, one can’t help marvel- ical prisoners the world over, we should and lecturer, his most recent book is ling at the idea of a life being marred work to free the children of the world Unweaving the Rainbow.

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

NAT HENTOFF

Citizens Resist War on the Bill of Rights “Sam Adams’s basic advice n announcing revised intelli- is being heeded gence-gathering guidelines for the IFederal Bureau of Investigation by more and more (FBI), Attorney General John Ashcroft assured the nation: “I don’t have the Americans.” power to erode the Constitution. I wouldn’t do it if I could.” Yet, in reacting to the return of the FBI to J. Edgar Hoover’s version of com- pliance with the Bill of Rights, Wisconsin their liberties as the general search Republican James Sensenbrenner,­ one warrant that allowed customs officers of the more conservative members of to turn homes and offices and colonists Congress, and chairman of the House upside down in pursuit of contraband. Judiciary Committee, pro­tested: “We can This February, in Northampton, have security without throwing respect Massachusetts, some three hundred for civil liberties into the trash heap. We the FBI, neither did he involve Congress doctors, nurses, lawyers, social work- don’t have to go back to the bad old days in his order to have FBI agents listen in ers, retirees, teachers, and students when the FBI was spying on people like on lawyer-client conversations in feder- organized the Bill of Rights Defense Martin Luther King.” al prisons—thereby shredding the Sixth Committee to protect the residents of Those “bad old days” encompassed Amendment. As Roger Pilon, the Cato the town from the provisions of the Hoover’s COINTELPRO (counterintel- Institute’s protector of the Constitution, Bush-Ashcroft USA Patriot Act and ligence program) from 1956 to 1971, notes, “This is now an executive branch subsequent executive orders that—in when the FBI monitored, infiltrated, that thinks it’s a law unto itself.” the language of a resolution passed and often disrupted civil rights, antiwar, Responding to the return of unanimously by the Northampton Town and church organizations without any COINTELPRO, the Northampton, Council in May—“threaten key rights evidence or reasonable suspicion that Massachu­setts, Bill of Rights Defense guaranteed to U.S. citizens and non- they had committed or were planning Committee said: “Now Mr. Ashcroft and citizens by the Bill of Rights and the criminal activities. Mr. Bush, like Mr. Nixon before them, Massachusetts Constitution.” Such as: Now, as John Ashcroft declares, “We have unilaterally placed in jeopardy the “freedom of speech, assembly, proceed- don’t need any leads or preliminary right to organize peacefully and legally. ings, and protection from unreasonable investigations” to send disguised FBI Not only is this unconstitutional, but it searches and seizures.” agents into public meetings, churches, will put our communities at risk. Who The USA Patriot Act radically lim- mosques, or any public place “under is sitting next to us at City Council, its judicial supervision of FBI raids of the same terms and conditions of any church, peace or ACLU meetings? And homes and offices where the occupants member of the public.” what will that mean to the outcome of aren’t there, as well electronic sur- We civilians do not have any expec- that meeting or our individual securi- veillance of e-mail and other computer tation of privacy in a public space, but ty?” communications. we also do not expect to be spied on The Northampton Bill of Rights Similar defense committees have for what is said at a meeting, or what Defense Committee is one of a num- been formed in Amherst and Leverett, we say, nor do we expect the amiable ber of modern-day versions of the Massachusetts, as well by the city coun- person next to us to put us into an FBI Committees of Correspondence, started cils of Ann Arbor, Michigan; Denver, database. Just as Ashcroft did not con- by the Sons of Liberty in Boston in 1756, Colorado; and Berkeley, California. sult Congress in violating our First and that spread the news throughout the Other towns and cities have contacted Fourth Amendment rights in unleashing Colonies about such British attacks on the Northampton patriots to find out

13 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 OP-ED

more about organizing their own com- be added to the list tomorrow.” in ignoring the news of this revival of the mittees. (Updates on these present-day In initiating this new American Committees of Correspondence, Sam Committees of Correspondence, and Revolution, the citizens of Northampton Adams’s basic advice is being heeded by organizing them are on the Northampton state plainly: “We reach back to the more and more Americans. As quoted committee’s Web site: www.gif.org/ fundamental ideology and approach of in historian Pauline Maier’s From BORDC.) the founders of our nation: local critique Resistance to Revolution, Adams At the Leverett, Massachusetts, town and resistance to violations of freedom. emphasized that “colonists must hence- meeting, Don Ogden, who offered the We recommend the same to all commu- forth primarily depend upon themselves resolution, said: “It is truly Orwellian nities of concerned citizens.” for the defense of their liberties.”1 So doublespeak to call such unpatriotic As Sam Adams, an original member must we. efforts [as Ashcroft’s] a ‘patriotic act.’” of the Sons of Liberty, and a bold signer And at the Amherst town meeting, of the Declaration of Independence, said Note before the unanimous vote passing the in 1771: “A true patriot would keep the 1. Pauline Maier, From Resistance resolution to protect those citizens from attention of his fellow citizens awake to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to the attorney general, Anne Awad made a to their grievances, and not allow them Britain, 1765–1776 (New York: W.W. Norton, pertinent point—that was probably duti- to rest till the causes of their just com- orig. ed. 1972, paperback ed., 1991). fully communicated to Ashcroft by the plaints are removed. . . . Our ship is in FBI—“As members of the Select Board, the hands of pilots . . . who are steering Nat Hentoff is a regular columnist for the we want to know that all residents and directly under full sail to a rock. The Village Voice, Legal Times, Washington visitors to our town feel safe. We do not whole crew may see [this course to vio- Times, and Editor & Publisher, a United want to support profiling of particular late our liberties] in full view if they look Media syndicated columnist, and the types of people. If one group is viewed the right way.” author of Living the Bill of Rights suspiciously today, another group will Quiet as the national press has been (University of California Press).

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

about Muhammad’s wives in The Satanic Verses, for example, occur during the The Stupidest dream of a man described as mentally deranged. But essential distinctions of this he French novelist Michel kind have little appeal to the righteous. Houellebecq, whose fictions Even in America, still protected by its Thave become celebrated for their First Amendment, there is a tendency to unsparing accounts of sexual and polit- assume that anti-Muslim and anti-Arab ical anomie, is now facing trial on one feeling is the same, even though most count and widespread vilification on Arab-Americans are Christian (as are another. In both cases, his trouble aris- perhaps 20 percent of all Palestinians), es from what is loosely called anti-Mus- and even though Islam advertises itself lim or anti-Arab sentiment. In a recent as a universal religion. One unhappy interview, he referred to Islam as “the consequence of this is that secular and most stupid of all religions.” In his liberal critics often watch what they say, latest novel, Platform, his leading char- thus leaving the field to fundamentalist acter expresses delight whenever he Christians, who often attack Islam in reads that “a Palestinian terrorist, or a the most scabrous and abusive terms. Palestinian child or a Palestinian preg- The next stage is, rather depressingly, nant woman had been gunned down in contempt for religion are by definition not a counter-attack by aggrieved American the Gaza Strip.” racist (unless leveled at religions like the Muslim organizations which, rather The French courts have agreed to Dutch Reformed Church or the Mormons, than exposing the absurd theology of hear a formal case brought against which used to be racially exclusive). In the Christian loons, claim that it is by Houellebecq for the first remark, which the second case it ought to be an axiom definition “hurtful” or “offensive” to is charged as “racism” by four French that an author is not ipso facto respon- attack any religion at all. Muslim organizations. One can make the sible for the thoughts of his characters. Thus, under the cover of pluralism clear objection to this that expressions of The supposedly blasphemous reflections a number of dogmatic orthodoxies

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

acquire an undeserved respect and pro- “insulting a billion and a half Muslims”: tection. An early example of this was a charge as absurd as it was flattering. “Under the cover the “shocked” reaction in 1987 when a Islam makes very large claims for Jerry Falwell clone named Bailey Smith itself. It claims direct divine revela- of pluralism a observed that “God Almighty does not tion and inspiration and, depending on hear the prayers of a Jew.” This is which sura or hadith you emphasize, it number of dogmatic the only instance known to me of an appears to warrant or at least counte- orthodoxies acquire anti-Semitic remark having a basis in nance global proselytism. Its adherents fact. After all, there is no such person can hardly complain if these tenets are an undeserved respect as God Almighty and thus all prayer by subjected to close scrutiny and even all denominations has the same moral to vivid disagreement. And perhaps a and protection.” effect as aerobic dancing, if not less. reader can tell me if there is any Muslim This would merely extend an already But not even secular Jews thought of country where it is a punishable offense stupid and anachronistic Blasphemy making this reply. Instead it was back to to ridicule or denounce non-Muslim Act, which used to defend the suscep- the discourse of injured innocence and beliefs, including agnostic or atheist tibilities only of Christians and was “insensitivity.” ones. The only societies where such thus sectarian as well as censorious. I would not want the job of decid- cases can be heard are multi-religious But perhaps I can be forgiven for being ing which monotheism, let alone which systems, which are almost by definition especially sad about the pious develop- faith, was “the stupidest.” For one thing, based on secular laws. Many such laws ments in France, which was the first one becomes lost in an Aladdin’s cave of protect ethnic minorities from threat or European country to emancipate the multiple choice. I do not think that Islam intimidation, precisely because a mem- Jews and the first to proclaim a secular is dumber than, for example, the output ber of such a minority is vulnerable for republic. It’s distressing to think that in of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. But I was something that he or she cannot alter. the birthplace of Voltaire one could not taken aback in a recent public debate That is not the case with weird and safely utter an equal-opportunity on the aftermath of September­ 11 when, optional belief, such as the conviction “ecrasez l’infame.” in answer to a question from the floor, I that one’s presence on Earth is due to a said that, if the Qur’an was the word of heavenly plan. Christopher Hitchens is a columnist God, it had been dictated on a very bad The British government, too, has for Vanity Fair and The Nation and a day. An audible shock passed through recently proposed a law to protect the professor of liberal studies at the New a distinctly “Left” and “liberal” audi- feelings (or, if you prefer, to subsidize School in New York. His most recent ence. And I was promptly accused of the self-esteem) of religious groups. book is Why Orwell Matters.

Farewell to Two Giants

Humanism has lost two commanding thinkers with the of what he considered the misapplication of social sci- passing of Sir Raymond Firth and Stephen Jay Gould. ence. His controversial theory of punctuated equilibrium Firth died on February 22 in London at the age of 100. argued that species evolve in intense bursts rather than Born in New Zealand, he began anthropological fieldwork continuously. His clashes with Richard Dawkins, Daniel in the 1920s and remained active until his death. His C. Dennett, and others over interpretations of Darwinism empirical approach privileged observation over theory, embodied scientific inquiry at its finest—though some- a stance that meandered in and out of anthropological times seized on by fundamentalists as “proof” that evo- fashion over his long career. Knighted in 1973, Firth lutionary biology was a theory in crisis. Gould elicited was named a Laureate of the International­ Academy of controversy in humanist circles with his claim that sci- Humanism at its founding in 1983. His most recent article ence and religion operate in wholly separate areas of life in Free Inquiry appeared in Fall 1996. and never conflict.1 Gould was named to the Academy of Gould died on May 20 in New York at the age of sixty. Humanism at its founding in 1983. In November 1990, he The Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard headlined a Free Inquiry conference at which he received University, Gould was one of the foremost late twenti- an award for his book Wonderful Life. eth-century popularizers of science. His long-running —The Editors column in Nature explored issues from evolutionary biol- ogy to intelligence testing to the symmetries of baseball. Note He was America’s highest-profile defender of evolution 1. Stephen Jay Gould, Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the education in public schools, and a relentless opponent Fullness of Life (New York: Ballantine, 1999).

15 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 OP-ED

WENDY KAMINER

“The same First Choosing Our Battles Amendment that

prohibits the y the time this article is published,

the controversial federal court establishment of

decision holding that the insertion B religion envisions of the words under God in the Pledge of

Allegiance in 1954 was unconstitutional a society in which will probably have been reversed—or so

I hope. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I’d individuals­ agree say that the plaintiff in this case, atheist to tolerate offensive Michael Newdow, was fronting for the

Religious Right. His initial victory before speech.” the Ninth Circuit Court has been enor- mously helpful to its cause. Politicians his daughter to pledge, but claimed that like nothing better than to carry on about merely listening to other students do so how much they love the Lord, linking love violated her religious freedom. of God with love of country, and some gion (and embolden us in the Cold War This assumes that the mere reference would welcome an excuse to repeal the against atheistic communism). But if the to a nation under God turned the Pledge First Amendment and allow state-spon- religious purpose has been clear, the reli- into a prayer, an assumption that only an sored sectarianism. gious effect has been quite trivial. No stu- ultra-sensitive atheist would make. Focus Of course, the words under God dent can be required to say the Pledge, on Newdow’s claim that his daughter was should not have been included in the thanks to a 1943 Supreme Court deci- made uncomfortable by merely hearing Pledge. It’s fair to say that this reference sion, West Virginia Board of Education other classmates say “under God” (and to a deity was intended to promote reli- v. Barnette. (The Barnette case was brought by Jehovah’s Wit­nesses who assume that the claim is true; I sus- claimed that their religious beliefs pro- pect the discomfort may have been his). hibited them from pledging allegiance to This case then looks less like a demand a national flag, with or without a refer- for religious freedom than an exercise ence to God.) Michael Newdow acknowl- in political correctness. The same First edged that no one was forcing Amendment that prohibits the establish- ment of religion envisions a society in which individuals agree to tolerate offen- sive speech. Maybe Newdow’s daughter has a right not to be made uncomfortable by listening to an official pledge, because it includes a passing reference to a deity, but it’s a right that may not be worth protecting, considering its effect on our ability to combat more serious partner- ships between church and state. What did Newdow’s lawsuit accom- plish? In addition to encouraging bi-par- tisan religious displays and an assurance from the president that our rights come from God, it helped deflect attention from the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the constitutionality of voucher programs that support religious schools. (The voucher decision, Zelman v. Simmons- Harris, was handed down the same week

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 16 OP-ED

as the Ninth Circuit’s initial holding in Some purists equate political strat- swiftly pass a constitutional amendment the Newdow case.) Where should sep- egizing with selling out; they disdain repealing the prohibition on religious arationists devote their energy, after exhortations to choose their battles. establishment. Strategizing doesn’t all—to eliminating the words under God You can praise this as idealism, but it mean ducking issues or selling out; it from all official documents and procla- often looks like self-indulgence. Michael means asserting your principles in ways mations, or fighting the establishment Newdow strikes me as someone who that don’t endanger them. of a state-sponsored system of sectarian put his own ideological purity above schools and massive government funding the larger fight to preserve religious Wendy Kaminer is a lawyer and social of sectarian social services? It takes con- liberty. If the Supreme Court ever were critic. Her latest book is Sleeping­ siderable political naïvete to believe we to attempt cleansing all official lan- with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of can effectively do both. guage of the word God, Congress would Irrationalism and the Perils of Piety.

At least a few nontheists have joined the chorus of ninety-nine pandering U.S. I May Pledge Senators in opposing the court ruling. For example, in a recent letter to the editor to the local Buffalo news­paper, a self-identified atheist insisted that Allegiance, But Not majority opinion, not the wishes of an offended minority, should control. I dis- agree, though not merely on the basis of to Any God being offended. In 1954, Frederick Brown Harris, the U.S. Senate Chaplain (another taxpay- Ed Buckner er-funded bow to religion that should not exist) said, in support of expanding the Pledge, “To put the words ‘under God’ on millions of lips is like running he Council for Secular Humanism­ up the believer’s flag as the witness of strongly supports the Ninth U.S. a great nation’s faith. . . . The results TCircuit Court decision that rightly of blasphemous denials of God on a tre- held that “the 1954 Act adding the words mendous scale already are being shud- ‘under God’ to the Pledge . . . violate[s] deringly shown by the baneful social the Establishment Clause” (see box for pattern of atheistic materialism.” It was more from the decision). Expressing not trivial to that Christian chaplain to loyalty to a god should not be a condi- Many secular humanists, atheists, and have the religious declaration included, tion of citizenship. Love of country is agnostics have laid down their lives for and it is not trivial to me to insist that it not measured by a citizen’s religious this country; others have served her in be excluded. belief or lack thereof, nor should it be. innumerable ways. Nor is it a bad thing that controversy

The U.S. Ninth Circuit on the Pledge (Newdow v. U.S. Congress, 9122–9123)

In the context of the Pledge, the statement that the United indivisibility, liberty, justice, and—since 1954—monothe- States is a nation “under God” is an endorsement of reli- ism. The text of the official Pledge, codified in federal law, gion. It is a profession of a religious belief, namely, a belief impermissibly takes a position with respect to the purely in monotheism. The recitation that ours is a nation “under religious question of the existence and identity of God. A God” is not a mere acknowledgment that many Amer­icans profession that we are a nation “under God” is identical, for believe in a deity. Nor is it merely descriptive of the unde- Establish­ment Clause purposes, to a profession that we are niable historical significance of religion in the founding of a nation “under Jesus,” a nation “under Vishnu,” a nation the Republic. Rather, the phrase “one nation under God” in “under Zeus,” or a nation “under no god,” because none of the context of the Pledge is normative. To recite the Pledge these professions can be neutral with respect to religion. is not to describe the United States; instead, it is to swear “[T]he government must pursue a course of complete neu- allegiance to the values for which the flag stands: unity, trality toward religion.” Wallace, 472 U.S. at 60.

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whiners? That really makes no more sense than deciding it by military might. Join the Council for Shall we let those “in authority”— popes, preachers, educated people, rich Secular Humanism “We all think people, aristocrats, legislators, theolo- in the Godless we’re right about gians, or scientists—decide? Even if Americans March we were to agree to give power to one religion, yet none such authority, how could we agree on on Washington, D.C. which? The only alternative that can November 2, 2002 of us can provide work is freedom of religion, sustained conclusive proof of by governmental neutrality. John Adams, our second president our position that will and a framer of the Constitution, wrote satisfy those who of himself and his fellow framers, “It will never be pretended that any persons disagree with us.” employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven. . . .” He also wrote that our government was “founded on the natural authority of has been generated about the Pledge. the people alone, without a pretence of Even if, as seems likely, the constitu- miracle or mystery.” Neither Adams nor tionally correct decision is overturned Jefferson nor any of the other framers in favor of a politically correct one, at intended to establish an anti-Christian least some citizens are now getting bet- or anti-religious government; it was lib- ter educated about religious liberty. We erty they sought, for Christians as well The Council is a proud endorser must boldly support what is right and as for everyone else. of this march on the nation’s not worry about what is popular. What Jefferson said in a letter to his capital. Its organizers have It has been two hundred years since friend Benjamin Rush in 1803 is still called for the participation of Thomas Jefferson’s letter made famous true today: “It behooves every man who all secular humanists, ratio- the phrase “a wall of separation between values liberty of conscience for himself, nalists, atheists, agnostics, church and state” approved of by “the to resist invasions of it in the case of and freethinkers. We urge whole American people,” and yet there others; or their case may, by change all our supporters to join us in is still controversy over the idea. There of circumstances, become his own.” D.C. behind the banner of the should not be. The choice, despite what As Jefferson also said in unmistakably Council for Secular Humanism. some say, really is between having a free clear language in his famous Virginia A large turnout will see to it country and having an officially religious Statute for Religious Liberty, “No man that the voice of secular nation. You can have one or the other, shall be compelled to frequent or sup- America is not drowned out by but not both; and religious believers port any religious worship.” the wave of religiosity currently should join me in choosing freedom, as Citizens of a free nation are not, and crashing over the country. the framers of our Constitution­ did and should never be, required to declare their as logic dictates, not just for my sake but allegiance to a flag or to a government; for their own. it is egregious to imply that anyone, We all think we’re right about reli- especially school children, should have gion, yet none of us can provide con- to pledge allegiance to a religious idea. clusive proof of our position that will Whoever is in the majority today could, satisfy those who disagree with us. by next year or next century, find them- Given that we all have irreconcilable selves in the minority. Minority rights For help in organizing your group’s participation in the march with differences, how shall we decide which therefore matter and must be fiercely the Council, contact DJ Grothe by religious views the government should guarded by all, including those now in phone at ext. endorse? Shall we let all the factions the majority. Only by vigorously opposing (716) 636-7571 314 or by fight to the death, until only one view on any convergence between church and e-mail at djgrothe@centerfor religion is left alive? Even if we agreed state, only by insisting on a religiously inquiry.net. See our Web site, to this, there is nothing to suggest that neutral Pledge of Allegiance and gov- www.secularhumanism.org for truth would be the victor, nor that the ernment, can we succeed in defending information on hotel rates in winning view would not soon be ques- freedom of conscience for all. Washington and transportation tioned among the victors. opportunities. Shall we let the majority have their Dr. Ed Buckner is executive director of way and slander any who disagree as the Council for Secular Humanism.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 18 OP-ED

VERN L. BULLOUGH

Philharmonic. Still, the college proved successful, and by the 1980s it had The Will to Believe Keeps moved from a missionary training cen- ter to an accredited academic institu- tion that offered degrees. the Worldwide Church of The church grew rapidly. At its peak, in the early 1970s, it had approximately 120,000 members with congregations throughout the United States and annu- God Afloat al earnings of $200 million. A television program hosted by Armstrong’s son and apparent successor, Garner Ted ne of the more fascinating sto- Arm­strong, was one of the nation’s most ries of the rise and decline of a popular religious programs and was Ochurch is that of the Worldwide syndicated all over the world. Church of God, founded by Herbert W. Armstrong (1892–1986) in 1933 in Decline and Fall Eugene, Oregon. Originally it was called But cracks in the church’s facade began the Church of God, of which there were to appear, and its troubles quickly many. Armstrong did not add the term mounted. The first scandal involved Worldwide until 1968. Garner, the church’s most impressive Armstrong’s teachings were essen- media representative. In 1974, he was tially based upon what religious schol- accused of adultery, and in 1978, he was ars call the “Sabbatarian Adventist” tra- abruptly dismissed from his television dition; that is, Armstrong held Saturday to be holy and anticipated the almost immediate second coming of Jesus. Self- educated, he regarded himself as God’s spread his beliefs. Armstrong’s organi- program and chosen apostle-messenger for these last zation was now officially called days. He assumed absolute authority the “Worldwide Church of God.” within his church, ordaining and appoint- From radio, he ex­panded into ing all its ministers. Armstrong believed television and began publishing in pacifism and British-Israelism (the a magazine called Plain Truth, doctrine that Britain and the United whose circulation for a time States had been settled by the two lost reached 500,000. tribes of Israel), and was opposed to Money poured in. Armstrong divorce and remarriage and to medical used part of it to build an architec- intervention because only God could turally beautiful $50 million cam- cure an illness. He subscribed to what pus for his college in Pasadena, can only be called a smorgasbord of with Ambassador Auditorium as other beliefs. Many of Armstrong’s­ bibli- its capstone. To celebrate the open- cal interpretations were mistranslations ing of the auditorium, he imported from the original Hebrew scriptures or the Vienna Symphony. The event was his misunderstanding of the English followed over the years by headline translations. concerts and performances by individ- Armstrong’s key to success was a uals ranging from Arthur Rubenstein­ radio program, The World Tomorrow, and Luciano Pavarotti to Bob Hope which he began in 1934. However, he and Bing Crosby. Sometimes his did not learn to use the media effectively plans were more ambitious than until he moved to Pasadena, California, his knowledge base. The story is at the end of World War II. It was also told that, when he invited the in Pasadena, in 1947, that he founded Vienna Symphony, he thought Ambassador College to train clergy to he was getting the Vienna

19 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 OP-ED

excommunicated by his father. Garner had claimed. Rather, they said, his the surviving organization was moved to countered by establishing a rival reli- claims were unique and distorted inter- Texas. In the words of one of the current gious organization, the Church of God pretations of the Scriptures, and should leaders, J. Michael Feazell,­ the church International, and continued his televi- be abandoned. Within a few years, all liberated itself and abandoned its legalis- sion career out of Texas. these church tenets had been aban- tic observance of non-essential doctrines Factions within the church began to doned as false. Also abandoned was to concentrate on the importance of a challenge the elder Armstrong’s finan- Saturday worship, the celebration of Christian’s standing with God. cial dealings. In 1978, several ex-mem- traditional Jewish holidays such as Whether a somewhat less dras- bers successfully brought a lawsuit to the Feast of Tabernacles and the Day tic reformation/cleansing would have have the church placed in receivership of Atonement, and even the British- lessened the trauma to the church is pending a trial on charges of misuse of Israelite belief. uncertain. Still, even with the radical funds. The trial never occurred be­cause The shedding of almost every doc- dismantling and discarding of most of the California­ legislature, lobbied by a trine to which the Worldwide Church of the doctrine taught by Armstrong, the variety of other churches, intervened to God once clung is a story almost without Worldwide Church of God survives in a prohibit such actions against churches parallel in American religious history. much reduced form in a loose alliance on the grounds of separation of church Although on a much smaller scale, insti- of congregations. That a church could and state. tutionally it could be compared to the essentially abandon all of its basic doc- Dissent continued, but was less open pope renouncing the Petrine succession trines after the death of its founder, until the death of the senior Armstrong because it was based on myth and mis- publicly at least imply that its founder in 1986. Without the infallible prophet, interpretation (which religious scholars was a fraud, and still manage to retain “Christ’s end-time apostle,” as he once say it is), or the Mormons saying that even a modicum of its believers is indic- referred to himself—and still without Joseph Smith did not translate the Book ative of just how strong is the will to any sign of the Second Coming—contro- of Mormon. believe for vast numbers of people. This versies that had ranged silently broke The death of its leader, the radical phenomenon is something that secular out in the struggle for leadership. Many change in doctrine, and the financial humanists always find difficult to under- critics, some of whom had gone to mess that ensued disheartened believers, stand and accept. professional religious seminaries as broke up families, and most important- well as Ambassador College, discov- ly, drastically curtailed church income Vern Bullough is a senior editor of Free ered that Armstrong’s idiosyncratic (based on tithing). Ambassador College Inquiry and a laureate of the interna- beliefs lacked the scriptural basis he was closed, the campus was sold, and tional Academy of Humanism.

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The Supreme Court “Perhaps unwittingly, the high court has Gets Into the Education made itself the arbiter of what will and will Business . . . for Real not be acceptable in implementing vouch- J.E. Hill ers. The results will be messy.”

n its carefully coiffured majority pose. How many voucher schools will let Court will have to decide regarding cur- opinion in Zelman v. Simmons- auditors inspect their books? How many riculum and standards. I Harris, a Supreme Court chanting will cry foul, claiming that as religious Now let’s talk about transportation, the mantra of “choice” found a school organizations they are exempt from reg- books, supplies, extracurricular activi- voucher program it liked—and part of ulations like these? The Supreme Court ties, children with special needs, issues the Establishment Clause it did not. will end up deciding this question, too. of discrimination and discipline, li­brar- What really happened is this: Perhaps The bureaucratic nightmare for ies, facilities, food service . . . how will unwittingly, the high court has made states and other administrating agents private schools receiving public money itself the arbiter of what will and will not is apparent: To whom do we send deal with all of this? Or once more, must be acceptable in implementing vouchers. the check, and where? Most import- the Supremes decide? The results will be messy. Inevitably, ant, how? One proposal is to place the If the high court simply demurs, leav- fifty states and numerous other juris- private schools of each region under ing it to states to answer voucher ques- dictions will create voucher programs the auspices of a local school district. tions, the results will be fifty different of their own, each slightly different than But this will just add to local districts’ solutions . . . and turmoil and pandemo- the one approved by the Court. Most, already overwhelming administrative nium as our once-fixable (and in gen- I predict, will push the envelope of the burdens. Will states or other high-lev- eral, still successful) public education Court’s decision. Thousands of new pri- el administrative bodies send money system breaks down completely. vate schools will pop up, each hoping for directly to voucher schools? That rais- The Supreme Court has decided that its share of the public dole. Then we will es enormous difficulties. Payments will it knows what’s best for the education of face a fourfold dilemma: inconsistency probably be determined on what admin- children in this country. The Justices (five of educational product; lack of account- istrators call a student full-time equiva- of them, anyway) decided to “solve” edu- ability on the part of private schools; a lent (FTE) basis. But how? If states pay cation’s problems rather than focusing on bureaucratic nightmare for states and on a school-year basis, voucher schools the constitutional question that was put other administrating agents; and great will get a check once a year, intend- before them. I hope they are ready to hear difficulty in securing adherence to feder- ed as compensation for a full year’s endless voucher-related cases. I hope al and state standards regarding curric- attendance by each student. But what they are ready to provide solid answers ulum and testing. about students who return to public and make their creation a seamless sys- Inconsistency of educational product schools after the first month? How will tem. Zelman gave them the luxury of rul- is inherent in a system where anybody voucher schools return the funds? Will ing on generalities. Now they will have to can open a school. Without established they return them? Monthly distributions rule on particulars. After about ten years systems for credentialing, background could solve this problem, but it would and hundreds of cases, perhaps they will checks, and professional references, impose a ludicrous accounting task and have the wisdom to reverse this travesty. many voucher schools will suffer with would require enlarging state bureau- Unfortunately,­ by that time thousands of unqualified teachers, administrators, cracies many times over. The Supreme children will have ended up the victims of and assistants. The damage will be Court will have to decide this, as well. the Supreme Court’s inability to mind its done to children before it’s noticed. Testing to Standards. State and own business. People will sue, and the Supreme Court national standards must be met. Will will decide. voucher schools that fail to do so be shut J.E. Hill is a twelve-year member and Lack of Accountability. How will all down, returning undereducated chil- current chair of the school board in these schools be accountable to the tax- dren back to the public schools? If not, a small rural district in northeastern payers and their proxies, the states? will their students simply go on receiv- Washington. He is also a member of the Money intended for tax-supported pri- ing substandard educations? Again, Inland Empire Freethought­ Society. vate schools must be used for that pur- lawsuits will follow, and the Supreme

21 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 OP-ED

instead of a pulpit to convey humanist values in whatever subject they teach, regardless of the educational level— No Milk-and-Water preschool daycare to large state uni- versity. The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new—the rotting Faith Indeed corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and miseries, and the new faith of humanism, resplen- dent with its promise of a world in John J. Dunphy which the never-realized Christian ideal of “love thy neighbor” will finally be achieved.

ey, Dunphy! Is Buchanan In 1983, my award-winning essay “A Now can you imagine a Christian talking about you?” A friend Religion for a New Age” was published radical rightist finding anything even “Happroached me holding a in The Humanist magazine. Its first remotely objectionable in such an innoc- copy of Pat Buchanan’s latest book, denunciation came courtesy of my fellow uous passage? Why are these people so ominously titled The Death of the West. Altonian, Phyllis Schlafly, in her national- hypersensitive? “Oh, shit,” I thought to myself. “Here we ly syndicated column. And that was just In his book, Buchanan introduced my go again.” the beginning of the tidal wave to come. celebrated paragraph by remarking that: Yes, Buchanan was referring to me, “A Religion for a New Age” has been The cultural revolution is about a new and if my name means anything to you, lambasted by virtually every significant moral hegemony. After all the Bibles, I’m sure you know the work of mine he figure on the contemporary American books, symbols, pictures, command- quoted in his book. But if you’re new Religious Right, including Jerry Falwell, ments, and holidays have been purged from the public schools, these schools either to humanism or to the Religious Pat Robertson, Cal Thomas, and even shall be converted into learning cen- Right, a note of clarification may be in order. then-President Ronald Reagan, in the ters for the new religion. October 1984 issue of Harper’s. I have Sounds like a dream come true to me, been denounced in countless newspa- Pat! “I now wonder just per and magazine articles, as well as I laughed aloud upon reading his in books. A few years ago, I did an how many other pithy editorial comment at the con- Internet search for my name and found clusion of my essay’s passage. “The Christians who have “A Religion for a New Age” quoted on new secularism is no milk-and-water several dozen Web sites. faith,” Buchanan warned readers. And denounced my essay You newcomers are undoubtedly to that pronouncement, I would add wondering just why the essay is so over the years have an em­phatic if unhumanistic “Amen.” controversial. I will now reproduce the There’s nothing detached or wimpy actually read it.” single paragraph that created such a about the kind of humanism I advocat- firestorm of criticism, the paragraph ed in “A Religion for a New Age” and that Buchanan reprinted— other writings. It’s a fighting philoso- somewhat condensed—in his phy that recognizes that this life is all book. we have, so we had damn well better I am convinced that the make the most of it by working to battle for humankind’s future build the kind of world where poverty, must be waged and won in the public school classroom war, bigotry, and every other evil that by teachers who correct- progressives have battled through the ly perceive their role as ages have no place . . . the kind of world the proselytizers of a where totalitarian religionists never new faith: a religion of humanity that succeed in establishing theocracies recognizes and that substitute scripture for science respects the spark and dogma for reason. of what theolo- While I certainly respect Buchanan’s gians call divin- right to quote my essay for the sole ity in every human being. These teachers purpose of using it to scare the hell must embody the same out of his fans, I have a bone to pick selfless dedication of with him. There was a footnote number the most rabid funda- after the quoted passage, and I checked mentalist preacher, for they will be min- the source cited, fully expecting to see isters of another sort, the all-too-familiar “A Religion for a utilizing a classroom New Age,” The Humanist, January-

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 22 OP-ED

February 1983. Imagine my surprise anan evidently chose not to read “A of Christianity, which comprises the and disappointment when I instead Religion for a New Age.” Perhaps he better part of “A Religion for a New found a Web address. I looked it up was simply pressed for time or refuses Age,” will corrupt their faith by making only to find the source was none other to read humanist writings on principle, them take—probably for the first time in than Phyllis Schlafly’s denunciation believing them to be the devil’s work, their lives—a critical look at the religion of my essay on her Eagle Forum Web something to be kept at arm’s length they profess? site. That would seem to indicate that lest they contaminate the godly. Buchanan has never actually read “A For that matter, I now wonder just John J. Dunphy writes from Alton, Religion for a New Age,” and knows it how many other Christians who have Illinois, the town that also gave the only through one of its many denunci- denounced my essay over the years world Phyllis Schlafly. ations. have actually read it. Could it be they I can’t help wondering why Buch­ fear that reading the moral indictment

“As a What Would Jesus Do? secular humanist, I’m torn between Shawn Dawson laughing at the WWJD phenomenon WJD—What Would Jesus Do? actually did, whether he even existed, and strongly —has become an increasingly the historicity and consistency of the Wpopular Christian slogan over Gospels, and so forth, I propose a dif- opposing it.” the last few years, spawning books, ferent ap­proach. Purely for the sake of Web sites, and all sorts of merchandise, argument, let’s suppose that the Bible is believe in him (John 3:16–18), for those from T-shirts and key chains to a line divinely inspired and that the Gospels, he regarded as hypocrites (Matt. 23:33– of sports apparel. Inspired by a book in particular, are an accurate record 34), for people who wouldn’t listen to his called In His Steps, written by Charles of Jesus’ life. The question is, given disciples’ preaching (Matt. 10:14–15), H. Sheldon in 1896, the phrase is meant all this, should we adopt WWJD as a for those who committed the ill-defined to encapsulate Christian ethics and model for how we ought to live? I think “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” serve as a guide for a truly Christian the answer is no, and we can see this (Mark 3:29–30), and on and on. life style. In whatever we do, advocates by considering some of the things that • He sometimes acted rather less of WWJD believe that asking ourselves, Jesus allegedly did and what he failed than divinely. Two examples of conduct “What would Jesus do?” will help us live to do. Some enlightening examples as God wants us to. follow. As a secular humanist, I’m torn • Jesus threatened hell- between laughing at the WWJD phe- fire. It’s really quite shock- nomenon and strongly opposing it. On ing to discover how often the one hand, WWJD is so patently Jesus threatened people silly and simplistic that it almost seems with hell, so much so that an a waste of effort to take it seriously. objective reader is forced to Which Jesus? Whose Jesus? What did recognize that he was a rath- Jesus do? WWJD can seem plausible as er vindictive person. Jesus a guide for life only if you ignore or gloss promised hellfire over important questions like these. On for everyone the other hand, WWJD is an influential who did not movement that has received relative- ly little open criticism. Surely, one of humanism’s most important roles is to provide an alternative voice in a large- ly religious world. With this in mind, I think we ought to consider WWJD seriously enough to analyze some of its flaws. Instead of tackling large and dif- ficult issues concerning what Jesus

23 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 OP-ED

unbefitting a perfect deity come readily strive to sell all we own and give it to the could an omniscient being be mistaken to mind: the case of the fig tree and the poor, as he told a rich man to do (Luke about when the world was going to end? Gadarene swine. In the first case, Jesus 18:18–23)? Or is our obligation to the It would not be hard to come up cursed a fig tree for not bearing figs, poor more modest, as Jesus seemed to with more examples, but I hope I have causing it to wither up, even though it mean when he did not rebuke a woman already made my point. Humanists can made no sense to blame the tree (Matt. for anointing him with expensive oint- and should learn from the moral wis- 21:18–19). In the second case, Jesus ment rather than giving the money it cost dom that the Jesus of the Gospels has exorcised demons from two possessed to the poor (Matt. 26:6–13)? And to take to give, such as the Golden Rule, his men, for some reason casting them into a more famous example noted earlier, injunction to love and forgive others, a herd of pigs. The pigs then leapt over a what in the world constitutes blasphemy and his perceptive remarks on hypocri- steep bank and fell into the sea to their against the Holy Spirit, and why can’t it sy. Moreover, some of Jesus’ behavior is deaths (Matt. 8:28–32). In both cases, be forgiven? admirable, such as the kindness he dis- it is not hard to imagine alternative • Jesus failed to speak out against played to the woman caught in adultery courses of behavior more appropriate grossly immoral practices. A morally (whom the scribes and Pharisees want- to a supposedly perfect, omnipotent, sensitive person must find it striking ed to stone) when he said, “Let him who omniscient being. that Jesus utterly failed to condemn is without sin among you be the first • He spoke ambiguously. It is notable many immoral practices such as slavery to throw a stone at her” (John 8:3–11). that Jesus preferred to speak oblique- and the subjugation of women. If Jesus But uncritically adhering to WWJD as ly, often using parables, hyperbole, and really was a morally exemplary person, a code of conduct is something that ambiguous statements, rather than say- we would expect him to have spoken intelligent and moral persons ing what he meant clearly and forthright- out, but he did not. The most that can cannot do. ly. In so doing he caused centuries of be said is that he favored better treat- still-ongoing dispute over the interpreta- ment of slaves and women, but did not Note tion of his words. (On the other hand, he oppose slavery or the subjugation of 1. Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the provided employment for thousands of women per se. Perhaps the main reason Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of Its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede, trans. W. theologians.) In this regard Jesus stands for this failure was his firm belief that Montgomery (London: A.B.C Black, 1910). in sharp contrast to the Old Testament his Second Coming was very soon at 1 prophets, who by and large indicated hand, as Albert Schweitzer has argued. Shawn Dawson works in information clearly and forcefully what God expected But even if this exonerates Jesus from technology and is an avid humanist of people. For example, what was Jesus’ a serious moral failing, it simply sub- and skeptic. He occasionally teaches position on giving to the poor? Should we stitutes one problem for another: how philosophy classes at the University of

The Council for Secular Humanism Calendar for 2003!

The Council for Secular Humanism will soon be offering as its 2003 calendar—Robert Green Ingersoll: Humanist Hero. Ingersoll is being highlighted in 2003 to coincide with the 10th anniversary of reopening the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum in Dresden, New York.

The calendar is $10.00 (plus $2.00 shipping and han- dling), or three for $25.00 (plus $2.00 shipping and handling). You can send in your orders now or call (716) 636-7571 ext. 302. You can also order online at www.secularhumanism.org. Expected shipping date is in early October 1.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 24 (Paul Kurtz cont’d. from p. 6) ism—for he was one of the chief intellec- Left avowed. He also criticized violence tual critics of Leninism-Stalinism, and on the campuses as inimical to academic was lionized during the Cold War by freedom. Although I did not personally was invited. West had written a sym- many neoconservatives. Phelps admires agree with each and every view of Hook pathetic chapter on Hook in his book, the early revolutionary Marxist books about the dangers of communists on the The American Evasion of Philosophy: A of Hook, but consistently ignores Hook’s domestic scene, there is no doubt that he Genealogy of Pragmatism (University of defense of democratic socialism. Hook is kept alive an appreciation for democratic Wisconsin Press, 1989). The neoconser- also castigated by Phelps for accepting values. vatives apparently withdrew from the the Medal of Freedom from President Although many neoconservatives conference because they consider West to Reagan in 1985. embraced Hook during the Cold War, be a “left-winger.” But this is odd. Surely As the editor of two festschrifts in Hook was not a neoconservative, and he any great philosopher will engender var- honor of Sidney Hook, Sidney Hook and remained a social democrat to the end. ious interpretations. For example, there the Contemporary World: Essays on the He was a critic of unregulated libertarian were left- and right-wing Hegelians and Pragmatic Intelligence (New York: John free-market economics; he thought that a left- and right-wing Heideggerians. At Day, 1968) and Sidney Hook: Philosopher democratic society needed to respect the Hook’s eighty-fifth birthday celebration, of Democracy and Humanism­ (Amherst, principles of social justice; and he defend- which I helped to organize in New York New York: Pro­metheus Books, 1983), I ed the labor movement, which since his in 1982, many leading men and women remember that Hook called me on the day has been seriously undermined by of thought and action representing the telephone prior to the conferring of the the corporate state. Thus he believed not Left, the Right, and the center partici- only in political but economic democracy. medal wondering if he should accept pated, including Senator Daniel Patrick Interestingly, Hook was an atheist, it—we would speak by phone virtual- Moynihan, Jean Kilpatrick, Irving Kristol, who rejected belief in God. But he was ly every other week, year in and year Norman Podhoretz, Daniel Bell, Arthur more than that, because he also advocat- out. “I wonder if the Republicans­ know Schle­singer, Jr., Albert Shanker, and ed ethical humanism, which he said relied that I’m a strong secular humanist,” he other representatives of the social-dem- on the arts of intelligence to enlarge and asked bemusedly. I recommended that he ocratic and American labor movement. enhance the parameters of human free- accept the medal, for Hook was a stalwart Fortunately, despite the neoconserva- dom. He held that ethics was autono- defender of freedom who believed that tives’ withdrawal from the upcoming mous, and that ethical principles and val- the primary battle in the world was not Centennial Conference, other important ues could be justified on rational grounds between capitalism and communism, but personalities will participate, including (without theological premises), tested by democracy and totalitarianism (wheth- Alan Ryan of Oxford, Arthur Schlesinger,­ their consequences in experience and er fascist or communist); he strongly Jr., Steven Cahn, and Robert Westbrook. practice. Thus he defended euthanasia affirmed that Western civilization needed The conflict about who should attend and abortion, usually rejected by neo- to defend democracy, civil liberties, the the conference would perhaps amuse and conservatives. Like Dewey, he wished to legal right of opposition, political parties, surprise Hook, who was regarded as one use the “method of intelligence” to solve free labor unions and voluntary associa- social problems. of the leading polemicists of his time, and tions as a precondition of any kind of just If there was any theme underlying loved to engage in debate with people of society. Hook pointed out in the 1930s Hook’s philosophical message it was the various points of view. before it was fashionable to do so that importance of democratic humanistic val- Hook was a complex thinker. A stu- Stalin had imposed a brutal police state ues—political, economic, and social—as dent of John Dewey and an advocate of in the Soviet Union. Later, he criticized the main guarantee of human freedom pragmatic naturalism, in his early days he the new Left for defending Ho Chi Minh and justice. was a Marxist, indeed the first declared and Mao; they were not, he said, simply Communist professor at an American nationalists or democrats, as some on the university (New York University in 1932). And he was the author of two influential books on Marx: Towards an Understanding of Karl Marx (1933, “Sidney Hook Reconsidered:­ A Centennial Celebra­tion” will be held to be reissued shortly by Prometheus at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 365 Fifth Books) and From Hegel to Marx (1936). Avenue (at the corner of 34th Street) in New York City on Friday and Christopher Phelps, who will also speak Saturday, October 25–26, 2002. The conference has been generously at the conference, considers these books to be the most significant Marxist studies supported by grants from the Council for Secular Humanism and the ever published in the United States by a John M. Olin Foundation. Scheduled speakers include Alan Ryan, Arthur philosopher, though he castigates Hook M. Schlesinger, Jr., Cornel West, Paul Kurtz, Barbara Forrest,­ Tibor (in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Machan, Marvin Kohl, Timothy Madigan, and others. Tickets are $15 per July 12, 2002) for being “gripped by an day or $25 for both days. Non-CUNY student tickets are $10 per day. At obsessive anticommunism.” Phelps, an pontifical apologist for the doctrinaire this writing, registration is taken by telephone only at (212) 817-8215. Left, accuses Hook of neoconservativ-

25 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 FRONTLINES

SIDE LINES Mountain Meadows VATICAN EXTENDS REACH TO THE INTERNET—The Vatican newspaper l’Os- servatore Romano has reported that the Massacre Artifact Now Believed police have acted on its complaint against Internet sites that carried objectionable material regarding God and the Virgin to Be Fake Mary. According to the paper, a special police unit “took over an internet site due to the blasphemous nature of unrepeat- able words which accompanied the name A lead scroll inscribed with an alleged confession to the Mountain of the Madonna.” Visitors to the site found blacked-out pages and the words “Site Meadows Massacre by convicted murderer John D. Lee is now seized by the Head of Rome’s Special believed to be a fake. The artifact, discovered in January 2002 by a Police Force on the orders of Rome’s Chief National Park Service volunteer working on a project to stabilize his- Prosecutor.” Four other similar sites were closed. torical buildings at Lee’s Ferry on the Colorado River, was declared a fake in separate statements by forensic document examiners George LAMB FROM GOD?—This summer, thou- sands locked to Durmen Village in Throckmorton of Salt Lake City and William Flynn of Phoenix, Uzbekistan to see a black lamb born with Arizona. white patterns in its fleece that resemble The scroll measuring approximately 12 by 16 inches is inscribed the Arabic words for Allah on one side and Muhammad on the other. The beneficia- with a confession that stated the murder of over 120 California-bound ries of the phenomena include the lamb’s Arkansas emigrants by members of a Mormon militia was committed owner, who has been able to buy a car “On orders from pres [sic] Young thro [sic] Geo Smith.” George A. and put a new roof on his house with the donations pilgrims have made, and Islamic Smith was an Apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day militants (including the nephew of the Saints who traveled extensively through Southern Utah preaching lamb’s owner) who have been at odds with the reformation and preparing “Zion” for the second coming of Jesus a secular government. The lamb appears Christ during the period preceding the tragic event. The inscription to be in the last car on the gravy train—it gets no special food or pen and is slated also reads “by my own hand, J.D. Lee - Jan 11 - 1872.” for eventual slaughter for a religious feast. After a thorough authentication effort coordinated by Chris AUDITING GOD—Arthur Andersen has made Goetze, lead archeologist of the Glenn Canyon National Recreation partial restitution to 10,000 mostly elderly Area, both document examiners arrived at the same conclusion upon investors who lost $570 million when the reviewing known Lee handwriting samples. Baptist Foundation of Arizona, one of Anderson’s clients, went bankrupt. The In a recent letter, William Flynn writes: “Considering the consis- company’s action, which reversed an earli- tent significant differences found in the questioned writings on the er decision to fight the investors in court, scroll with the known writings of John D. Lee and the minimal affect means the victims will get about half their money back. Andersen, however, refuses of the lead on one’s writing, it is the opinion of the undersigned that to admit a role in the foundation’s failure. the handprinted data and signature appearing on the ‘Lee Scroll’ THEY BOTH LOSE—After a Saturday night of were not executed by the maker of the known John D. Lee writings.” bar-hopping in Fort Worth, Texas, last July, Samples of Lee’s writings are extensive. As the adopted son of Johnny Joslin and Clayton Frank Stoker, Brigham Young, Lee, along with many of his nineteen wives, colo- both in their early twenties, got into an argument about heaven and hell. Stoker nized much of southern Utah and northern Arizona, keeping diaries had the idea to settle it by pulling the trig- and in 1871 chiseling a petroglyph in a rock. After warrants were ger on the loaded shotgun he had placed issued for his arrest for participation in the crime, Lee was excom- in his mouth. Joslin offered himself as the guinea pig, and was shot in the chest when municated by LDS Church officials. While in exile, Lee moved to the he pulled the gun out of Stoker’s mouth. Colorado River to establish a profitable river crossing. Captured by Stoker, a county corrections officer, now federal authorities in 1874, Lee was tried twice for leading the mas- sits in jail awaiting trial for first-degree sacre. He was found guilty of murder in the second trial and executed murder. by a firing squad at Mountain Meadows in 1877.

—Keith Bryan Jeffreys

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 26 FRONTLINES

Fed Ed Officials Reach inars, and family oriented programs, and perform secular celebrations such SIDE LINES Out to Religious as marriages, memorials, and namings. Groups The center will encourage the devel- opment of critical thinking skills and SCRIPTURE-BASED SMACKING—A private Last summer, an Education Department­ ethical alternatives to the reigning religious school in England has gone to team traveled around the country meet- mythologies of the day. CFI–FL will court to overturn a British law that bans ing with religious groups to coach them provide a community setting for secular corporal punishment in school. Head in applying for some of the $1 billion in humanists, skeptics, and nonbelievers. teacher Phil Williamson of the Christian federal grant money that has been made It will offer positive and affirmative Fellowship School in Liverpool said available for after-school and tutoring activities for Floridians. Christians are entitled to use such meth- ods in disciplining their children, citing programs. The effort, which is designed The evolution of humanism is about to enter a new epoch. the biblical passage: “Your rod and staff to get programs in place as early as this they comfort me.” In presenting the case, fall, is being spearheaded by John Porter, the lawyer for the school said “It is a head of the department’s Center for —Katherine Bourdonnay central tenet of the Christian religion that Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. mankind is born with a heart inclined to It is authorized by the education bill Minnesota Observes all kinds of evil. Discipline in the educa- approved­ by Congress last year that tional context is therefore vital.” Corporal gives money to schools, businesses, and ‘Indivisible Day’ punishment was barred in British state community-based organizations, which schools in 1986 and extended to the coun- July 4, 2002, was “Indivisible Day” in try’s two hundred private schools in 1990. according to the Bush administration Minnesota, according to an official includes churches and other religious BARBIE AND DANCING DRAWS IRE OF proclamation signed by Governor Jesse entities, for after-school programs and IRANIANS—Iranian police have been comb- tutoring. Ventura. The document calls for people ing toy stores for Barbie dolls and confis- of “all world views to coexist in harmo- cating their stock. The action follows a ny” and for mutual respect for all our proclamation denouncing the doll, which —Andrea Szalanski citizens.” The “whereas” includes the is sold in Iran wearing swimsuits and mini- phrase “if we are to remain ‘One nation, skirts, as un-Islamic. Iranian toy manufac- turers are replacing Barbie with “Sara,” New CFI Center indivisible,’” and does not include the who stands on the shelves in the chador Debuts in Florida words “under God.” or traditional Iranian folk costume. The The proclamation was issued in attack on Barbie is being viewed as a The Center for Inquiry–International is response to a request by Atheists of reaction by religious conservatives to a pleased to announce the opening of a Minnesota for Human Rights, which sup- reformist government and increasing per- new Center for Inquiry in Florida (CFI– plied the language. It has drawn the ire sonal and commercial liberties. FL). The Florida center is committed to of religious conservatives, who attacked Meanwhile, a Tehran court has sen- tenced Iran’s most famous male dancer reason, science, and freedom of inquiry Ventura for signing the proclamation, as well as his refusal to make the Pledge of to a ten-year suspended jail term for in all areas of human interest. It is the promoting corruption among young people. Allegiance mandatory in public schools first of its kind in the Southeast. There Mohammad Khordadian­ lives and performs are other centers in Los Angeles and in and to sign a proclamation making May in Los Angeles, and his dance programs the metropolitan New York area. 2 a voluntary day of prayer in the state. are broadcast both in the Unites States CFI–FL will serve the entire state of and in Iran by satellite. He was arrested Florida. It will host conferences, sem- —Andrea Szalanski last spring during a visit to Iran. His sentence prevents him from leaving Iran for ten years, from giving any more dance classes, and from attending public cele- Fading Dreams brations or wedding ceremonies of anyone but close relatives for three years. “. . . The number of Americans who rarely or never attend church is growing far faster. According to the National Opinion Research Center biennial survey, the number of TALL TALES FROM TELEVANGELISM—Benny Americans who said they never attended church or attended less than once per year rose Hinn has cancelled plans to build a fifty-acre, from 18 percent in 1972 to 30 percent in 1998. In 2000 the National Election Study found $30 million “World Healing Center” in Texas, that nonattenders—who overwhelmingly vote Democratic—represented 27 percent of and observers are wondering what happened the electorate. By contrast, voters who identify themselves as members of the religious to the money donors gave to support it. His right fell from 17 percent of the electorate in 1996 to 14 percent in 2000 . . . the proportion organization is declining to give an account- of observant Catholics—another Rove-targeted group—also dropped during the ’90s.” ing, although it insists that the funds raised were returned or used as the donors wished. —“Majority Rules,” by John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira, The New Republic, August 5 Hinn has, however, built a new world head- & 12, 2002. The article examines the strategy of George W. Bush’s chief political quarters and is awaiting completion of a $3 advisor, Karl Rove, for expanding the Republican Party base, including an analysis of million “parsonage” in California. the falling number of “observant, tradition-minded, moralistic” voters that had been targeted by the GOP.

27 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 Terrorists Harlan Ellison

“Sir, if a man has experienced the inexpressible, he is under no obligation to attempt to express it.” Samuel Johnson

t is wickedly difficult attempting to generate a sense of gravitas when you have convinced yourself that you have nothing to say that anyone should properly need to hear. ILet me try this: Why can’t I get that portion of the human race to which I have access to understand that it has been systematically gulled, hoodwinked if you will, had enough smoke blown up its kilt to refloat the Lusitania, by disingenu- ous egalitarian bunkum, into believing “Everyone is Entitled to His or Her Opinion” when, in truth, everyone is only entitled to his or her informed opinion; and all the witless upchuck devoid of fact or common ratiocination is merely the chittering of intellectually-arid hominids swathed in Old Navy shmatahs. No, I can’t launch into it that way. Sounds too Elitist. Don’t even dare to suggest that some folks are smarter than some other folks. That ain’t The American Way. All opinions have the same weight: Herman Kahn, Debbie Reynolds, Miss Cleo, Colin Powell. Joyce Carol Oates. Adam Sandler.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 28 Okay, let’s go a different way. How about this: So I said, sure I’ll come on the show. When? And Carole In the dead of night, masked marauders should stalk and said we’ll be taping as usual at CBS Television City after our ensnare Jerry Falwell in his bed, his coiffed cap of majestic hiatus, Tuesday, November 20th. I said that’s peachykeen, and silver hair mussed as a haystack, drag him into the bayou, to what will the topics be? an abandoned crayfisherman’s shanty, hang him up with his And Carole—quite correctly—reminded me that they don’t arms handcuffed behind his back on a slaughterhouse hook finalize the discussion topics till the day of the telecast, in screwed into the top half of a Dutch door, strip him to his gour- order to keep courant with the savory flavors of the breaking mand gut, slick and pale as a planarian worm, and beat him news; but that I’d get my précis probably on Monday the 19th. across the belly with an aluminum ballbat till his piss runs red. Ah, I thought, no more beaks and feet; my fifteen minutes Oh, whoa! Can’t do that, either. Sounds—at best—stone has done rolled ’round again! vicious, meanspirited, sadistic. This is Moral Jerry, the voice of Gawd Above. Can’t write such stuff, not The American Way. V Guide carried the listing, and I was the only name offi- Jerry talks to the Lord, and the Lord gets right back to him. T cially slotted in. (I’m usually a last-minute replacement Only a card-carrying member of the ACLU would doubt that. for Queen Latifah. Other than that I’m a short white Ohio So, um, let me see . . . would this work: Jew, age 68, we could’ve been separated at birth, y’know what

he phone rang. It was October 19th 2001. Only thirty-eight Tdays after the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon. No one was talking about anything “You now have the straight else, because nothing mattered as much; but the fabricators dope from the straightest of tchatchke novelties were already casting the molds for the cute antimony ashtrays with the rubble stumps and American dope in America. Jerry Falwell, flags unfurled. And my phone rang. who speaks to God, and God speaks It was Carole Chouinard, one of the “talent coordinators” for the ABC-TV talk show Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. back to him, has told you that They wanted me to come on the show as part of the usual it wasn’t religious fanatics serving disparate quartet of opinionated citizens, some of whom (like me) had a tenuous yet deathlike grip on the appellation “celeb- an all-powerful god who threw rity.” themselves into fiery hell, I’d done the show perhaps fifteen or twenty times over the years, all the way back to its original incarnation out of New it was the ACLU.” York on Comedy Central cable. But I hadn’t heard from them in more than a year, ever since the telecast in which I’d explained to Maher (with some difficulty of comprehension on his part) I’m sayin’?) Subsequently, the fax I received from Assistant that I didn’t fantasize about other women when my gorgeous Talent Coordinator Stephanie Lynn on November 19th con- and brilliant wife, Susan, and I were in bed, mostly because my firmed that the other three guest chairs were to be occupied dick had fallen off years ago in a particularly frigid high-wind- by ex-M.A.S.H. star and political activist Mike Farrell, a very chill evening in Manhattan, outside the St. Moritz. smart cookie; actress Charlotte Ross, at the time a regular So I was glad to hear from them. on NYPD Blue; and ultraconservative Representative Dana When you’ve been writing professionally for just abaft Rohrbacher. Now, I have no idea of how deep and wide runs fifty years, it gets more and more strenuous trying to keep Ms. Ross’s intellect or awareness of current events, but those any sort of a commercially viable profile that permits you—if other two guys are sharp and knowledgeable. you’re a freelancer—to continue earning a decent living with- Thus it was, one day before the telecast, that I received out recourse to scripting a film that will star Pauly Shore, or advisement of my on-camera companions, along with the doping racehorses, both of which will send you to the eighth three topics that had been chosen by Maher and his staff for and inner circle of Hell. (Only difference: with the former, you discussion. take the express.) And here are the topics, exactly as presented to me: So doing Politically Incorrect didn’t pay much; but in terms of keeping one’s name and kisser in front of the fickle masses 1) America has taken great pains to assemble a coalition of nations in its fight against terrorism. Is a coalition important? for an extra eyeblink or two, well, it was a halibut swimming 2) President Bush says the noose is getting tighter around in a beneficent sea. Usama bin Laden. When he is caught, what should we do to Harlan Ellison is the author or editor of more than seventy-five him? Should he be killed on sight? Should he be tried in court? Should Saddam Hussein be next? books and more than 1700 stories, essays, and articles. He has 3) Undoubtedly, the fight for increased homeland security could received more awards in the various genres of imaginative benefit from increased tax dollars. Are Americans more will- literature than any other living writer. Among his two dozen ing to sacrifice—financially and otherwise—than politicians teleplays was “City on the Edge of Forever,” widely considered admit? the definitive episode of the original Star Trek. In June he received the Distinguished Skeptic Award at the conference I stared at that faxed page for a long time. of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of One spends a lifetime wondering if one’s ethics are report the Paranormal. card “A”—buttressed by courage sufficient to understand at every test-point not only that you gotta do The Right Thing,

29 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 but to know when it’s time to do The Right Thing. We are a tardly intention. The voice grows soft, cashmere, Reddi-Wip, weasely little species, capable of alibi and obfuscation at a plangent; soothing and as confidential as words whispered in level of instant adroitness that would put a turkey vulture the death cell at Dannemora. to shame. If you doubt it for a second, pick a television court “Oh my.” show like Judge Judy, and watch it for a week. Will make your I say nothing. gorge buoyant. “Well, this really is terribly short notice, Harlan. We even I stared at that faxed page for a long time. have the limo laid on to bring you to the studio.” Everybody wants to be on television. Everybody. At the scene “Yes, I know, Nora [or Marilyn, Carole, Stephanie], and of a fifty-car smashup, bodies strewn everywhichway like bloody you’ve worked with me enough times to perceive that this is pick-up-sticks, there will invariably be some gobbet of human an unusual circumstance, because . . . have I ever pulled this sort of thing on you guys?” “No, you haven’t. Are you sick?” “Not in the accepted, non-psychiatric sense of the word; no, “We are a weasely little species, I’m just fine, dear heart. But I cannot sit on that show with the topics Bill is planning to throw at us.” capable of alibi and obfuscation at a “Why, what’s wrong with them?” level of instant adroitness that would put “Nothing’s ‘wrong’ with them; I just don’t have any intelli- gent opinions on them. I truly have nothing to say.” a turkey vulture to shame. If you doubt “But you’re so funny; you always have something to say on it for a second, pick a television court anything! That’s why we call on you so often.” “Yeah, you’d think I’d have something to shoot off my big show like Judge Judy and watch it for a bazoo about, wouldn’t you? But, in truth, kiddo, I just don’t.” week. Will make your gorge buoyant.” “You have no opinions about 9/11?” Astonishment trembled in her voice. This was a concept she could not parse. A Flat Earth Theory for the 21st Century. In the word of the evil Sicilian, Vizzini, who kidnapped Buttercup, Inconceivable! phlegm who, with slack jaw and extruded tongue, positions “I was three thousand miles away from ground zero when him- or herself behind the stringer with the mike, who waves it happened,” I said, beginning to get annoyed. “I saw it on to the world or to Mom while squishing an ejected large colon teevee, fer chrissakes! I wasn’t there, though I know there ’neath his/her Nikes. Pedestrians in malls, passersby in mar- are people who delude themselves that they ‘saw’ the Manson kets, patrons in moviehouses, all pant and drool as their prog- murders or the Lindbergh baby kidnapping or the assassina- ress is impeded by a total stranger with a hand-mike, seeking tion of JFK because they glommed a docudrama on the tube. their oracular wisdom. The late British Prime Minister Harold It was a horror show, and I was watching live as the second Macmillan once wrote, “I have never found, in a long experience plane dissolved through the wall of the second Tower, and I of politics, that criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance.” spent days trying to reach friends of mine who lived in the And, hell, we pay politicians to have opinions. area, or worked in the buildings, but . . .” Everybody wants to be a dancing bear on television, and How the hell do you say what comes next? everybody deserves to shoot off a big mouth on the tube because, “. . . but I wasn’t affected. I didn’t lose anyone close to me. I as everybody knows . . . We Are All Entitled To Our Opinion. was a spectator. I’m enraged at the atrocity, just like everyone Doesn’t matter if we’re dumb as a box of Hamburger else, but what the hell does my opinion mean? It’s just more Helper, as uninformed as a hemorrhoid, as surfeited with hot air and posturing, expelled like all the hot air by the hun- jingoism and urban myth as a foot-soldier in the White Aryan dreds of wannabes who’ve been on the tube for the last month. Army, by gosh we’re entitled to express that bone-stick-stone I have nothing to say that anyone needs to hear!” opinion, endlessly, at the top of our lungs, ungrammatically, “But you’ll be great on the show. You can say what you’ve like uh totally and, gawd willin’ and the crick don’t rise, on just said to me.” telemuthuhfugginvision! “I can go drain valuable airtime on a coast-to-coast hookup, I stared at that faxed page for a long time. to say that I’m empty of opinion? That I know nothing more than what I read and see in the news, and there are actual hen I called Politically Incorrect and told Nora Burdenski people out there who’ve been through it, but I’m a bigmouth Tor Carole or Marilyn Wilson or Stephanie or someone that on the other end of the continent who should shut up and sit I was going to have to do what I had never ever done before, in down? Is that my contribution to the advancement of Western more than forty years of talk-show appearances. I was going to Civilization on this particular topic?” have to excuse myself from the panel. Tomorrow night. “But this is really inconvenient, it puts us in a hole.” When you tell someone who has booked a talk show slot cut “Don’t you think I’m well aware of that? Don’t you think I and sewn to fit your shape only, that you are doing a bunk, there sat and stared long and hard at those topics trying to dredge is—first—a moment of silence one encounters only in undefiled up something meaningful that would validate my sticking my Pharaonic tombs. That moment, as they refer to it in Indonesia, teeny opinions in the faces of three million viewers? And I is djam karet, the moment that stretches. A caesura gorged with don’t delude myself that Politically Incorrect is news, kiddo: billions of Roentgens of incipient hysterics. it’s mere show biz, it’s entertainment. Nonetheless, I am Then they take that esteemed cortical-thalamic pause, for affronted when you put on guests who are as uninformed they know if they explode it will only serve to solidify your das- and as outright stupid as—” and I named half a dozen recent

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 30 guests, “—so I’d rather not be a hypocrite and balm my own strike in the Coachella Valley, spoke for more than 1100 actu- cheap need for exposure, at the expense of three million al hours in dozens of venues on behalf of the Equal Rights people’s patience. I grant you the show, and even the lowliest Amendment, and I once sued a large corporation for screwing opinion by the dopiest standup comic pseudo-pundit, is better its customers, and won a rebate for them, not to mention a than the entirety of those Grand Guignols presided over by policy change. I am an American. My response to your cavil Letterman and Leno and Conan the Borebarian, but it ain’t that “I’m unpatriotic” is a soft, sane, reasoned bleep you and Nightline or the editorial page of The New York Times. the snake you slithered in on.) “I understand that jerking you around like this will likely On September 17th, less than a week after the suicide mean I’m persona non grata at Politically Incorrect, but I find slaughters, when Bill Maher’s show went back on the air for myself inexplicably troubled by the ethical considerations of the first time after the 9/11 events, he made some comments pretending to know something in front of so many people, about the turmoil, the roiling and chaos, the vast number of when I just don’t have the vaguest opinion on these weighty topics. So . . . well, maybe you can get Queen Latifah to stand in for me. We were separated at birth, you know.” Well, there were a couple of cajoling calls an hour or so “Cowards do not saddle up a flying later, but by that time I’d firmed my resolve, though I knew coffin filled with something like 24,000 such behavior would redound to my detriment profilewise. There was even a call from the new producer who had gallons of high-octane jet fuel and taken over when Scott Carter left the show to produce Candace hurtle at full throttle into a Bergen’s short-lived chat-a-thon. He said he understood per- fectly what my bizarre concern was, he assured me he felt World Trade Center spire. . . .” sanguine about my coming to do what I’d agreed to do, and he further assured me that even if I screwed them over this sum- marily, it would IN NO WAY deter him from inviting me back, opinions by everyone from Jennifer Aniston to Geraldo Rivera, and soon. Very soon. Almost sooner than I could envision. the intrepid war correspondent (Aniston, that is; the intrepid I thanked him for his understanding and compassion, and war correspondent). Among his remarks was one that prompt- told him that as a lifelong blabbermouth of infinite hubris I ed White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer to chide him, found this spike of ethical constriction most unnerving. But I “This is not a time for remarks like that.” was, for better or worse, fixed in my decision. The remark. Maher suggested—and I concur with his proper He said he’d make sure I was invited back in December. use of terminology—that you could call those brutal skyjackers We parted amicably. rabid, you could call them demented, or brainwashed, or mer- That was five months ago as I write this. Listen, amigos, ciless, amoral, devoid of kindness or compassion, the heartless do we hear the silence of Pharaonic tombs? The silence of dregs of a mad society . . . but you could not, rationally, call them petrogeny? The silence of Coventry? I’ll be placing a small “cowards.” Cowards do not saddle up a flying coffin filled with personal ad in the Green Sheet seeking the whereabouts of my something like 24,000 gallons of high-octane jet fuel and hurtle at lost fifteen minutes. Maybe on milk cartons. full throttle into a World Trade Center spire, turning themselves into screaming flaming gelatin, their eyeballs melting, their rib have never expressed a public opinion on the nightmare of cage exploding, their hair burning down through their brain. I9/11. I’ve been asked by others, but I just shrug and mumble Assholes, maybe. Religious fanatics, damned skippy. something to the effect that it isn’t my place to have a public But not cowards. Wrong word. opinion. Even though I hold with Voltaire: “My trade is to say A bit of convenient jingoism used by the Ashcrofts and the what I think,” there are some things in this sad and painful Bushes, to demonize what is already demonic. But not cowards. world that are too large, too significant, too troubling for the squirrel chatter of the mook in the street. My pal Tony Isabella notes: “Hell hath no fury like that of the uninvolved.” But, boy, did I catch the shit. On one of the websites “dedicated” to my comings and goings, a guy went on at sibilant length as to how “unpatriotic” I am, not man enough to let others know how I felt about the sudden vaporized disappearance of a few thou- sand innocents. I chose not to reply. Then, something straight out of the Manual of Synchro­ nicity went down, and I found to my chagrin that I did, indeed, have an opinion—if not about 9/11 directly, well, at least it was a strong opinion about terrorists. You won’t like it, and you may echo that gnat’s e-post that I’m not a Good Amurrican, but I’ll pass it along, anyhow. Do with it what you will. (A pause. I am an American. Says so on my passport. I served in the U.S. Army for two years, I have paid loads of taxes for half a century, I marched for civil rights with Martin Luther King, Jr., worked with César Chavez on the grapefruit AFP PHOTO/Seth McAllister

31 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 To an enormous segment of the world’s population they that included more than 1800 “Portraits of Grief” remembering are the equivalent of Audie Murphy, Sergeant York, Captain the victims of September 11th—and setting itself up to win America, the kid who throws himself on the grenade to save seven Pulitzers, Maher was fighting to keep his sinecure. He his buddies, the old lady who pushes the toddler out of the way became a pariah. For expressing a logical but not hysterical of the Peterbilt and gets turned into roadkill for her trouble. opinion. We call those people heroes. Sure, here in our beloved republic you are “entitled to your See, I told you that you wouldn’t like it, where I was going. opinion,” just as long as you don’t voice it when the lynch mob But don’t expend all your outrage just yet; I plan to take this is raising the flag and the cross. a lot further. But, still, I didn’t post my agreement publicly, because it Maher’s remark loosed the Apocalypse upon him. Now, I am wasn’t necessary. Dozens of righteous (as opposed to self-righ- not a friend of his, nor do I agree with him most of the time, teous) commentators jumped to Maher’s defense, including nor has he ever expressed so much as a fartwhistle of interest that blowhard bully Bill O’Reilly. “Censorship of anything, at in getting to know Susan and me. When I do the show, he is any time, in any place, on whatever pretense, has always been always sedulous in making a green room appearance to thank and always will be the last resort of the boob and the bigot.” his guests, but apart from exchanging passing courtesies, I Eugene O’Neill. Now dead, so no one can bust his chops. know you better than I know Bill Maher. But I became incensed But what happened next, almost simultaneously with at the mindless, lockstep behavior of empty patriotism that Maher’s oh-spare-me-the-imprudence-of-it-all, was the force the great manipulable wad of American slopebrows unleashed that yanked the wooden stake out of me widdle vampire heart. on him. Samuel Johnson had it screwed down tight when he Jerry Falwell, the pimp of religious recidivism, went on Pat observed that “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” I Robertson’s tube and blamed the World Trade Center Towers offer Timothy McVeigh and Richard Nixon as examples. slaughters on those who run abortion clinics, homosexuals, And while the New York Times was running a special sec- feminists, and the liberal scum who refuse to allow Christian tion titled “A Nation Challenged”—a four-month long project Fundamentalists to take over the schools more than they have already. (The fact that something like 65 percent of all science teachers in high schools believe in the wacky creationist theo- ry of the universe ought to scare the crap out of anyone but a bible-thumping true believer.) There he was, that smooth, slick planarian worm of a minister, telling everyone that it was the fags and the feminazis and the baby-killers who were to blame. I will now offer for your predilection vast windy sections of Pat Robertson’s interview with Falwell from the 13 September 2001 edition of The 700 Club. Two days after the great death. Two days into the American heartache. (Please note, all peck- sniffs: in the original manuscript of this essay, I reproduced the totality, every last word of this obstinately wearisome exchange. Just so no one could possibly suggest there had been any flummery. But the good barristers who vet this mate- rial pointed out that even though I’d taken this from The 700 Club’s own website, where it appears sans copyright; and even though it had been broadcast live over the public airwaves; and even though there was a surety that this was what is called “fair use,” that the censorious carrion birds who serve the Messrs. Falwell and Robertson might, nonetheless initiate a nuisance lawsuit if I was to republish the entirety of the TV duologue. So we cut it, this seriatim babble by Tweedledum and Tweedledumber. Here’s the essence. If you think, in a last- straw grasp at paranoid justification for the monstrousness you are about to read, that I have misrepresented even by a scintilla, I urge you to go to the anointed website to fill in the blankety-blanks.) Clip and save: Falwell in full flight, followed by the comments of Robertson on the same episode of The 700 Club prior to Falwell’s appearance.

Pat Robertson’s Interview with Jerry Falwell

Pat Robertson: Well after Tuesday’s attacks, many Americans are struggling with grief, fear and unanswered questions. How should Christians respond to this crisis? Well joining us now with some answers is a dear friend of ours, the Pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty University, the head and founder of that, Dr. Jerry Falwell. Jerry, it’s a delight to have you with us today. Jerry Falwell: Thanks, Pat.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 32 Pat Robertson: Listen. What are you telling the church? . . . Well, why it’s happening is that God Almighty is lifting his Jerry Falwell: . . . I gave away a booklet I wrote ten years protection from us. And once that protection is gone, we are all ago. I gave it away last night on the Biblical position on fasting vulnerable because we’re a free society, and we’re vulnerable. and prayer because I do believe that that is what we’ve got to We lay naked before these terrorists who have infiltrated our do now—fast and pray. And I agree totally with you that the country. There’s probably tens of thousands of them in America Lord has protected us so wonderfully these 225 years. And right now. They’ve been raising money. They’ve been preaching since 1812, this is the first time that we’ve been attacked on their hate and overseas they have spewing out venom against our soil, first time, and by far the worst results. And I fear, as the United States for years. All over the Arab world there is Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense said yesterday, that venom being poured out into people’s ears and minds against this is only the beginning. And with biological warfare available America. And, the only thing that’s going to sustain us is the to these monsters; the Husseins, the Bin Ladens, the Arafats, umbrella of the Almighty God. what we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be miniscule if, in fact, if in fact God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve. Pat Robertson: Jerry, that’s my feeling. I think we’ve just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven’t even begun to see what they can do to the major population. “Nobody notices that the same religious Jerry Falwell: The ACLU’s got to take a lot of blame for this. Pat Robertson: Well, yes. insanity that drives little girls to wear Jerry Falwell: And, I know that I’ll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal bustiers of C-4 is the one that Falwell court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for and Robertson slather across our this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe daily bread.” that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say “you helped this happen.” So get this straight: all you’ve been told by the left-wing Pat Robertson: Well, I totally concur, and the problem is we liberal kneejerk commie-and-queer-dominated news media is have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. all wrong. You now have the straight dope from the straightest Not counting the occasional “Amen!” used in place of their dope in America. Jerry Falwell, who speaks to God, and God natural grunts (human speech not being their native tongue), speaks back to him, has told you that it wasn’t religious fanat- this extended badinage was in no way percipient for our little ics serving an all-powerful god who threw themselves into town meeting here. It was mostly hype and hustle, disingenu- fiery hell, it was the ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union, ous backslapping and mutual greasing about what a powerful the ones who take up the cases of poor schnooks who’ve force for paleolithic thinking Jerry is, and how we’uns is all been fired for blowing the whistle on corporate polluters and gonna git t’gethuh in Bedford on Sunday for an exploitative subhuman sweatshop owners. The ACLU, that says the First prayer memorial and pocket picking. I have excised these Amendment is pretty much sacrosanct, even when it means sections because they put my typewriter to sleep. I had to defending scumbags like serial killers and members of the bitch-slap it to get it to continue. I am sedulous in trying to much-beloved American Nazi Party. present the full indictment here, but when the self-serving But the gargoyles of the ACLU couldn’t have brought palaver is about as appropriate as argyles on a turtle, well, down the Towers alone. Hell no, they needed those godless you’ll just have to take my word for it—untrustworthy though self-involved sluts devoid of Family Values, those ferocious I may be—that between what you’ve just read, and what is to harridans who reject their rightful role as punching bags and follow, there was nothing, how shall I put it, exculpatory. Just soup makers for Manuel and Meyer Machismo. The heathen boring. But now, let us surge forward. Feminists, damn their uplift bras! And, of course, the faggots and lesbos, those unmentionable corrupters of the young— Pat Robertson’s Comments Preceding the Falwell unlike the good priests of the Catholic Church, princes all, Interview who merely seek little princelets with whom they can share the Divino Afflante Spiritu—who so upset the Falwells and Pat Robertson: And we have thought that we’re invulnerable. Robertsons of the world that mere mention of them causes And we have been so concerned about money. We have been Righteous Televangelists to lubricate embarrassingly. so concerned about material things. The interests of people are on their health and their finances, and on their pleasures See, isn’t that all clear now? Not the dedicated children of and on their sexuality, and while this is going on while we’re Islam, but home-grown nasties right here. And not even the self-absorbed and the churches as well as in the population, we stand-up American patriots who shoot physicians and bomb have allowed rampant pornography on the internet. We have medical centers, who tie niggers and butt-fuckers to trailer allowed rampant secularism and occult, etc. to be broadcast on television. We have permitted somewhere in the neighbor- hitches behind SUVs and drag ’em till they plow a decent fur- hood of 35 to 40 million unborn babies to be slaughtered in our row, who blow up half of downtown Oklahoma City in the name society. We have a court that has essentially stuck its finger of God and the American Way . . . but people who pay dues in God’s eye and said we’re going to legislate you out of the to the ACLU and want to decide what happens to their lives schools. We’re going to take your commandments from off the and bodies themselves instead of having self-appointed little courthouse steps in various states. We’re not going to let little children read the commandments of God. We’re not going to let autarchs like Falwell and Robertson calling the shots. the Bible be read, no prayer in our schools. We have insulted I didn’t have an opinion worth voicing on 9/11, till I read God at the highest levels of our government. And, then we say what that termite Falwell had to say on 9/13. Now I have an “why does this happen?”

33 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 opinion; but not one I much think would go over well with the “take religion to task for the evil it has ushered into the world.”1 studio audience at Politically Incorrect. And don’t give me any of that banana oil about all the But here it is. wonderful things like the Renaissance and illuminated man- Usama bin Laden and his crew of degenerate thugs, and uscripts that religion has proffered. That’s what a man-made Jerry Falwell and his cadre of sicko-pervo-freakos, with Pat succoring faith is supposed to do! It’s not, however, supposed playing the Gabby Hayes sidekick, all worship the same god. to do all the rotten stuff it does. Like burning Giordano Bruno Not the gentle succoring Jesus, and not the kindly warm-heart- and turning Galileo into a craven wimp; like stoning witches to ed Allah, but some third entity, some horned and astigmatic death and flinging people onto the strappado for the pleasure sulfur-breathing deity who battens on hatred and loathing of the Inquisitions; like banning books and art and dance; like and the spreading of elitist snake-oil promising 72 virgins or dynamiting gloriously beautiful ancient Buddhist statues; like the Pearly Gates, if only you will waste your lives in pointless telling the gullible and uneducated that they must empty their denigration of everyone Pat and Usama and Jerry point to as pockets of milk and medicine money even as they hate and enemies of the all-powerful God. It is hard to slam religion hate and hate all those with lifestyles unlike the ones Jerry when there are so many decent Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and Pat and Usama trumpet as Moral Values; lifestyles of Muslims, even Atheists. But if nobody notices that the same honor they cannot live up to themselves. religious insanity that drives little girls to wear bustiers of C-4 I have no opinions on what happened September 11th, 2001. is the one that Falwell and Robertson slather across our daily None that need be voiced, because they’re even less informed bread, then we become as one with the hypocrites who mani- than yours, and frankly, if you’re like me, you don’t know fest astonishment that priests bugger choir boys. As though it actual jack . . . hasn’t been going on for five thousand years! But you asked, and you persisted in asking, and you How many lives has Falwell ruined? How many walking pressed me to shoot off my big bazoo, so I give you the opinion zombies inculcated with religious lunacy has he set on the to which, as a dumb-as-ditchwater average American, I am path to murder and arson and rape and madness? There entitled. is no difference at all, in my opinion—which I’m entitled Do with it what you will. to—between a terrorist egomaniac like bin Laden and his al While I go in search of some gravitas, and my lost fifteen Qaeda, and Falwell with his Moral Majority. No difference. minutes of fame. Neither of them serves a sane god; neither of them will go to ©2002 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation. heaven; neither of them belongs in a world as sad and troubled as this one. You want an opinion . . . try this: Falwell and Robertson ought to be in chains, sharing a hut at Gitmo’s Camp X-Ray, where the good terrorists are sent. Note All over the globe, people are being slaughtered in the 1. Salim Muwakkil, “Faith-Based Violence and Religious name of God, said Salim Muwakkil in the Chicago Tribune last Zealotry,” Chicago Tribune, March 25, 2002. March. It’s been that way throughout history, but no one dares OPEN ALL FALL! America’s only freethought museum, birthplace of agnostic orator Robert Ingersoll. New 19th century Ingersoll bust now on display! 61 Main St., Dresden, NY (in the Finger Lakes region). Open Saturday and Sunday through October 27, Noon to 5 p.m. For more information see www.secularhumanism.org/ingersoll.

Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum A project of the Council for Secular Humanism

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 34 DRAWING CLEAR BOUNDARIES: SECULAR VS. RELIGIOUS HUMANISM

A Secular Humanist Setting the record straight Definition Tom Flynn

[P]erhaps more than any other movement, humanism Those are perennial questions.2 Humanism matters too much expresses the outlook and values of the modern world.1 for crucial questions about its nature to go unexplored. In addition, a political problem demands attention: is there a —Paul Kurtz compelling reason why more than a dozen national secular humanist, religious humanist, atheist, and freethought organi- Introduction zations all need to exist in the United States? Some have sug- gested that our movement would be better served and better respected if these groups coalesced. “Unity appeals,” I wrote eleven years ago. “Still, if contemporary humanism is a house divided, it is hard to imagine what anyone might gain by using imprecise language to obscure the disjunction.”3 ore than twenty years ago, someone from Does secular humanism merit a niche, hence an organiza- People for the American Way quipped tion, all its own? To ask that is to ask whether secular human- that “defining secular humanism is like ism brings something to the marketplace of ideas that other life nailing Jello to a tree.” That phrase lives on, though a recent stances fail to capture. It is to ask whether secular humanism MWeb search reveals that “raising a teenager” has eclipsed possesses what marketers call a “unique selling proposition.” “defining secular humanism” as the undertaking most often said to resemble nailing Jello to a tree. Undeterred, I’ll attempt Secular Humanism’s Proposition to define secular humanism in a way that makes clear its rela- Coined four decades ago by advertising executive Rosser tionship to neighboring life stances such as atheism, agnosti- Reeves, “unique selling proposition” means a distinctive and cism, and religious humanism—in the process, shedding light meaningful characteristic that only one among a cluster of on the Council for Secular Humanism and its unique mission. competitors exhibits.4 It’s the thing that makes your message or How does secular humanism differ from religious human- product different from any other. If secular humanism exhibits ism—or from simple atheism? Do the differences matter? such a characteristic, then that would almost certainly justify its existence as an independent life stance—and demonstrate the Tom Flynn is the editor of Free Inquiry. need for a dedicated organization to be its advocate.

35 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 • rooted in the world of experience; • objective; and • equally accessible to every human who cares to inquire into value issues. We believe that it is possible I make this point cautiously, since religionists often falsely accuse atheists of having no values. Most atheists I know have to bring about a more humane world, strong value systems. In fact, some of my favorite atheists are one based upon the methods of secular humanists without knowing it. But atheism is only reason and the principles of tolerance, a position on the existence of God, not a comprehensive life stance. Nothing about atheism as such compels atheists to adopt compromise, and the negotiation of any particular value system. British author Jeaneane Fowler differences. — “A Secular Humanist noted that “while atheism is a ubiquitous characteristic of secu- Declaration” (1980) lar humanism, the most that can be said of an atheist is that he or she does not have belief in any kind of deity; the majority of atheists have no connection” with secular humanism.8 The same is true for agnostics (who doubt God’s existence To me, secular humanism’s unique selling proposition is on epistemological grounds) and freethinkers (who engage in rooted in the balance it strikes between cognitive and emo- systematic, rational criticism of religious doctrines). Like athe- tional/affective commitments. Paul Kurtz captures this when ism, these stances are not morally self-sufficient. Freethinkers he identifies knowledge (cognitive) and courage and caring who call it unfair of God to condemn his creations to hell must (affective) as “key humanist virtues.”5 Christopher Hitchens reach outside of freethought to construct a concept of fairness. makes the same point more obliquely when he contrasts Secular humanism is unique among these life stances in that it “those who believe that god favors thuggish, tribal human contains within itself all the raw materials needed to construct designs, and those who don’t believe in god and who oppose thuggery and tribalism on principle” (emphasis added).6 Secular humanism’s cognitive thrust lies in its natural- istic worldview; its emotional or affective thrust lies in its “While atheism is a necessary condition positive ethical outlook. Each element is equally essential to for secular humanism, it is not a secular humanism; neither stands alone. I submit that this meaningfully differentiates secular humanism from religious sufficient one.” humanism, and from simple atheism as well. Continuing with Hitchens’s language, secular humanists necessarily disbelieve in god (naturalism) and just as necessarily oppose thuggery and tribalism on principle (an outgrowth of ethics). Of course, inspiring value systems that are both realistic and humane. many atheists, agnostics, and religious humanists do the same. But when atheists and agnostics adopt positive ethics, What Are Secular Humanist Ethics? they do so for reasons independent of their atheism or agnosti- Secular humanism propounds a rational ethics based on cism. When religious humanists defend naturalism, they do so human experience. It is consequentialist: ethical choices are for reasons outside the boundaries of their religious human- judged by their results. Secular humanist ethics appeals to sci- ism. Only for the secular humanist do both commitments arise ence, reason, and experience to justify its ethical principles. organically within his or her life stance. Observers can evaluate the real-world consequences of moral decisions and intersubjectively affirm their conclusions. Kurtz Drawing Clear Boundaries: and other secular humanists argue that all human societies, Pencil Sketch even deeply religious ones, invariably construct consensus moralities on consequentialist principles. Millennia of human Unlike religious humanism, secular humanism eschews tran- experience have given rise to a core of “common moral decen- scendentalism in any and all forms. Depending on the context, cies” shared by almost all.9 transcendentalism can mean outright mysticism, the “spir- Human happiness and social justice are the larger goals of itual” (itself a term with many meanings), or simply a rush secular humanist ethics. For Owen Flanagan, “[e]thics . . . is toward emotional closure disproportionate to the knowable systematic inquiry into the conditions (of the world, of individ- data. However defined, transcendentalism is rejected by secu- ual persons, and of groups of persons) that permit humans to lar humanists in favor of a rigorous philosophical naturalism: flourish.”10 These conditions include freedom from want and “naturalists maintain that there is insufficient scientific evi- fear, freedom of conscience, freedom to inquire, freedom to dence for spiritual interpretations of reality and the postula- self-govern, and so on. Undergirding­ all of these is a keen com- tion of occult causes.”7 mitment to individualism. Secular humanism takes upon itself How about atheism? When people ask me whether I’m an the Enlightenment project of emancipating individuals from atheist, I say, “Yes, but that’s just the beginning.” Unlike simple illicit controls of every type: the political control of repressive atheism, secular humanism affirms an ethical system that is: regimes; the ecclesiastical control of organized religion; even

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 36 DRAWING CLEAR BOUNDARIES: SECULAR VS. RELIGIOUS HUMANISM

the social controls of societal and family expectations, conven- tallized a movement among Unitarians that was already tional morality, and the tyranny of the village. This does not two decades old. Drafted by philosopher Roy Wood Sellars, mean that anything goes, but rather that social and political Unitarian minister Raymond Bragg, and others, the unfortu- limits on human freedom must be justified by the individual nately named Manifesto was signed by thirty-three Unitarian and social benefits they confer. ministers and also philosopher John Dewey (1859–1952). Secular humanism affirms the values of both creative and The principal religious humanist organization is the individual self-realization and cosmopolitanism. Therefore, American Humanist Association (AHA), founded in 1941. secular humanists sometimes defy ideals of the Left as well as the Right. Free Inquiry has opposed political and religious correctness, defending the right to criticize any teaching, even “Therefore, people who hold no teachings revered by religious or ethnic communities. We support social and cultural fluidity, for example, champion- transcendent beliefs but don the ing intermarriage and assimilation when liberal opinion has “religious humanist” label are being sought to preserve static ethnic and religious identities. dishonest—either with the public, The Heritage of Secular Humanism or with themselves.” Though different from atheism and religious humanism, secular humanism owes a great deal to both traditions. In fact, secular humanism is best understood as a synthesis of (While AHA’s aims extend beyond religious humanism and atheism and freethought, from which it derives its cognitive include naturalistic humanism, it serves as “home organi- component, and religious humanism, from which it derives its zation” for a great many religious humanists.) Founded as emotional/affective component. an educational organization, it was granted religious status Atheism and freethought trace their roots to ancient Greek by the Internal Revenue Service in 1968 (see the second philosophy, with its emphasis on rational inquiry and curiosity sidebar, “Having It Both Ways”). Other religious human- about the workings of nature. Other sources included early ist organizations include the American Ethical Union, the Chinese Confucianism, ancient Indian materialists, and Roman North American Committee for Humanism, the International Stoics, Epicureans, and Skeptics. Submerged during the Dark Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, the former Friends Ages, freethought re-emerged in the Renaissance. With the of Religious Humanism, now calling itself “HUUmanists,” and Enlightenment, rationalist and empiricist thinkers laid founda- the Humanist Society of Friends. The latter two organiza- tions for the modern scientific outlook. Utilitarians emancipat- tions are now included within the AHA. Religious humanism ed morality from religion, foreshadowing consequentialism. The defends its identity vigorously. For instance, in 2001, an late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ushered in a golden Austin, Texas, Ethical Culture society sued the state of Texas, age for freethought. With the turn of the twentieth century, this winning recognition as religious for tax purposes although it flame flickered, but an abiding tradition remained that decades asserts no belief in a deity.11 later would emerge as secular humanism. Though the term secular humanism appeared prior to 1961, Religious humanism also began with Greek philosophy no organization existed specifically to advocate it until Paul and its hope of achieving the good life through human agency. Kurtz and others formed the Council for Democratic and Secular Rome’s Epicureans and Stoics offered early human-centered Humanism (CODESH) in 1980. The name expressed opposition value systems. Renaissance humanism, a literary and phil- to totalitarian nontheisms such as those in the communist world. osophical movement, assigned prime importance to earthly CODESH issued A Secular Humanist Declaration, the successor happiness. Ironically, even the Reformation left its stamp to Humanist Manifesto II (1973). Free Inquiry was launched late in 1980, publishing the full text of the Declaration in its inaugural issue. In 1996 CODESH shortened its name to the Council for Secular Humanism, the fall of communism having rendered the Secular humanism lacks any reliance on modifier “democratic” unnecessary. In 1999 the Council issued Humanist Manifesto 2000, the most recent restatement of the (or acceptance of) the transcendent. secular humanist position.

Secularism, Religion, and Confusion on religious humanism, infusing the notion of the primacy We come to the crux: Is secular humanism a religion? An orien- of individual conscience. Liberal religion would be religious tation document on the Council for Secular Humanism Web site humanism’s immediate ancestor. Universalism, originally a says no: “Secular humanism lacks essential characteristics of Christian denial of eternal damnation, was founded in 1780. a religion.”12 Everyday parlance assumes that religion has to Unitarianism, which renounced the Trinity, formed its first do with a god or gods, life eternal, and similar supernatural American congregation in 1785 and organized as a church in claims. Yet thinkers as varied as John Dewey, Paul Tillich 1819. In 1876, Ethical Culture was founded by Felix Adler; it (1886–1965), and A.H. Maslow (1908–1970) sought to extend continues as today’s American Ethical Union. the definition of the words religion or religious so as to encom- Religious humanism budded from liberal religion in the pass “ultimate concerns” with or without transcendental con- early twentieth century. Humanist Manifesto I (1933) crys- tent. In A Common Faith, Dewey chose to define religion and

37 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 Watching Our Language

Much of the debate over religious and secular humanism famously called God “the ground of all being.” Dewey pro- turns on the meanings of words. Here are sample defini- posed independent meanings for religion and religious, tions of essential terms: maintaining a transcendental definition of religion but a more abstract one for religious. Julian Huxley called Secular. “4) Pertaining to the world or to things not for an “evolutionary and humanist religion,” holding spiritual or sacred; relating to or connected with worldly that the word could encompass nontheism.11 Abraham things; disassociated from religious teachings or princi- Maslow yearned to tear “‘religious’ out of its narrow 1 ples; not devoted to sacred or religious use. . . .” context of the supernatural, churches, rituals, dogmas, Secularism. Coined in 1841 by English freethinker George professional clergymen etc., and distribute it in principle Jacob Holyoake (1817–1906), who defined it as “the exten- throughout the whole of life.”12 Writing in Mircea Eliade’s sion of freethought in ethics.”2 Plainly Holyoake intended 1995 Encyclopedia of Religion, Winston King settled on something very like the synthesis of unbelief and rational this bafflingly vague definition: religion is “the attempt ethics seen today in secular humanism. to order individual and social life in terms of culturally “a variety of utilitarian social ethic which seeks perceived ultimate priorities.” human improvement without reference to religion and The “how not to” award goes to Verglius Ferm, editor exclusively by means of human reason, science, and social organization.”—Robert Worth Frank, 19453 of An Encyclopedia of Religion (1945). Despairing of defin- A narrower dictionary definition: “indifference ing religion at all, Ferm elected to define only religious: “to to or rejection or exclusion of religion and religious be religious is to effect in some way and in some measure considerations.”4 a vital adjustment (however tentative and incomplete) to whatever is reacted to or regarded implicity or explicity as Humanism. “2. Any system of thought or action con- worthy of serious and ulterior concern.”13 cerned with the interest and ideals of people. My own preferred definition: religion is “a life stance 4. . . . the intellectual and cultural movement . . . char- that includes at minimum a belief in the existence and acterized by an emphasis on human interests rather than fundamental importance of a realm transcending that of on the natural world or religion.”5 ordinary experience.” “Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance which affirms that human beings have the right and I’ll close this survey with wisdom from the late responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own anthropologist and Humanist Laureate, Sir Raymond lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society Firth: “Religion is a name for some of man’s most auda- through an ethics based on human and other natural val- cious attempts to give meaning to his world, by giving ues in a spirit of reason and free inquiry through human his constructions a symbolic transcendental referent.”14 capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept Hear, hear. supernatural views of reality.”—Minimum Statement adopted by the International Humanist and Ethical Union, 1996 Notes Atheism. “from Gr. atheos, without a god: a (priv.) and theos (god).”6 Atheism is popularly supposed to demand 1. Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary. the active denial of God’s existence, or even a faith in 2. Gordon Stein, “Secularism,” in Stein, ed., The Encyclopedia of Unbelief, p. 613. God’s nonexistence as unbending—and irrational—as 3. Robert Worth Frank, “Secularism,” in Vergilius Ferm, ed., the faith of believers. This is untrue; all atheism requires An Encyclopedia of Religion (New York: Philosophical Library, is the lack of belief in God. 1945), p. 700. 4. Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary. Religion. Defining religion is a minefield. Geddes 5. Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary. MacGregor managed to compile an entire Dictionary 6. Ibid. of Religion and Philosophy that skipped the word and 7. Geddes MacGregor, Dictionary of Religion and Philosophy­ its cognates altogether!7 In The Idea of the Holy (1917), (New York: Paragon House, 1989). Rudolf Otto pictured religion “in terms of the presence of 8. Winston L. King, “Religion,” in Mircea Eliade, ed.-in-chief, an awareness of the sacred or the holy.”8 Mircea Eliade The Encyclopedia of Religion (New York: Simon and Schuster also found “the unique and irreducible essence of all Macmillan, 1995), v. 12, p. 284. religious experience” in “sacredness”; see his The Sacred 9. King, in Eliade, ed., p. 284–85. and the Profane (1951).9 Winston L. King summarized 10. Ibid., p. 283. the conventional view of “religion as a set of beliefs and 11. Jeaneane Fowler, Humanism: Beliefs and Practices practices that are different from surrounding beliefs and (Brighton, England: Sussex Academic Press, 1999) p. 31. practices and that embody a special relationship to deity, 12. Abraham Maslow, “Religious Aspects of Peak- that transcendent other.”10 Experiences,” in W.A. Sadler Jr., ed., Personality and Religion (London: SCM, 1970), p. 70. 13. Verligius Ferm, “Religion, the Problem of Definition,” in Many twentieth-century thinkers tried to break reli- Ferm, ed., p. 647. gion’s ties to the supernatural. Friedrich Schleiermacher 14. Raymond Firth, Religion: A Humanist Interpretation called religion “a feeling of absolute dependence”; Tillich (London: Routledge, 1996), p. 70.

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religious dissimilarly. Religion retained its common associa- tion with the transcendent or supernatural while religious was held to subsume any commitment of deep significance.13 (See the first sidebar, “Watching Our Language,” for etymological profiles of words important to this controversy.) Still, common—that is, pre-Deweyan—usage holds that the genuinely religious necessarily involves the supernatural The first principle of democratic or transcendent. Common usage has its advantages, not least secular humanism is its commitment to that it sustains discrete meanings for terms like philosophy free inquiry. — “A Secular Humanist and ethics. I still stand by a definition of religion I offered in OPNOP these pages in 1996: Religion is a “life stance that includes at Declaration” (1980) minimum a belief in the existence and fundamental impor- tance of a realm transcending that of ordinary experience.”14 From this definition, it follows that in order to be a genu- some of which the ceremonialists preserve. But this is pro- ine religious humanist, one must believe in something that is foundly misleading. After all, nothing prevents a thorough-go- unprovable in this world. One needn’t believe in a deity or a ing naturalist—by our definition, an irreligious person—from spiritual substance (though some religious humanists do)— cherishing humanist ceremonies.16 The split between human- one might simply cling to some historical or social proposition ists who embrace humanist ceremonial and those who scorn in which one’s faith outruns the available evidence. For exam- it is not a split between religious and secular humanism; it ple, Teilhardian or Tiplerian optimists who believe in the inev- belongs on some other spectrum. When we confuse genuine itable perfectibility or triumph of humankind would qualify as religiosity—that is, transcendentalism—with the mere taste religious humanists. So would dedicated Marxists, ironically for ceremonial, we misrepresent both. And we run the risk enough. And of course, there are human-centered thinkers that secular humanists holding solidly naturalistic worldviews who nonetheless believe in a fairly literal kind of spirit, in the will mislocate themselves in the religious humanist camp sole- human soul or elan vital, or in a disembodied system of karma: ly because they relish ritual.17 their claim to the term religious humanist is uncontroversial. I’ll conclude my “pencil sketch” phase by offering two blunt On the other hand, if my definition of religion is correct, conclusions: then a great many self-declared religious humanists . . . just 1. People who hold no transcendent beliefs but don the aren’t. I suspect that three principal processes make religious “religious humanist” label are being dishonest—either with humanism seem a more popular option than it actually is. the public, or with themselves. The first process is improperly ascribing the word religious 2. Because it lacks any reliance on (or acceptance of) the to a secularized “spirituality” from which all transcendence transcendent, secular humanism is not—and cannot be—a has been wrung. In our previous issue, Matt Young and religion. Malcolm D. Wise wrote eloquently that they had abandoned transcendentalism.15 For Young, religion had been reduced Humanism, Religion, and the essentially to an ethnic and social heritage. Wise argued that a wholly this-worldly awe in the face of nature’s wonders Prayer Warriors served as “spirituality” for him. Based on my definition of Our denials aside, Christian Right activists ceaselessly make religion, I respectfully disagree. If you have journeyed beyond the case that secular humanism is a religion. In 1980, Religious the possibility of belief in any literal transcendence, congrat- Right activist Phyllis Schlafly charged: “Secular Humanism ulations—but please find another label. You are not religious, has become the established religion of the U.S. public school and “religious humanist” misstates your position. system . . . and the various rationales that have caused public The second process is less edifying and requires little com- schools to eliminate prayer, moral training, and the teaching ment. No doubt some who claim the label “religious human- of basics.”18 ists” simply find it a useful way to avoid having to admit their Fifteen years later, little had changed. In 1995, Pat unbelief. Buchanan thundered: “We see the God of the Bible expelled The third process by which I believe the prevalence of from our public schools and replaced by all the false gods of religious humanism is exaggerated is also the most inter- secular humanism.”19 esting. Some wholly naturalistic humanists call themselves Most recently, fundamentalists Tim LaHaye and David “religious” because their practice of humanism retains cer- Noebel are still pounding that drum. In Mind Siege, their tain forms that echo congregational life. I have come to see bestselling polemic endorsed by many powerful leaders on the this as a misnomer. Humanists vary in their enthusiasm for Religious Right, they inveigh: “Until the American people real- rites of passage, ceremonies, and similar communal symbolic ize that humanism is a religion, not simply a naïve philosophy activities. One could arrange us along a spectrum, from crusty or modern educational theory, the humanists will continue freethinkers who disdain ritual in any form to enthuasiasts their siege on the minds of our children.”20 who find humanist ceremonies deeply satisfying. It’s tempting By calling secular humanism a religion, Christian Right verbal shorthand to say that the curmudgeons are “more sec- activists hope to bar modern science, evolutionary theory, sex ular,” the ceremonialists “more religious.” The analogy seems education, nonbiblical values, and pedagogical innovation from to ring so true: the curmudgeons reject everything “churchly,” public schools. In other words, “secular humanism has to be

39 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 Having It Both Ways

The humanist organization to which the Council for Secular AHA might prompt the IRS to review AHA’s long-unused edu- Humanism is most often compared is the American Humanist cational exemption, adding cost and delay.3 “The reason for Association (AHA), based in Washington, D.C. Though embrac- moving DHC [the Division of Humanist Counseling] under the ing religious and secular humanists, AHA operates as a reli- HSOF was eventually to move AHA to being a purely educa- gious organization. This may surprise members and other tional organization,” said current AHA executive director Tony observers who believed that AHA had abandoned its religious Hileman in a telephone interview. “The decision not to proceed exemption in the early 1990s. was based in pure pragmatism.”4 First, some background. Tax-exempt status for nonprofit This decision to retain the religious exemption was not organizations is established in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal well publicized. Only with the debut of GuideStar.org, which Revenue Code. The section defines several types of nonprofits, publishes government filings of every U.S. nonprofit, did including educational, scientific, fraternal, and religious. All many in the movement discover that AHA still operated under are exempt from federal income tax; most, but not all, file Form its religious exemption. 990 annually in lieu of a tax return. Completing an accurate Check for yourself. Log onto www.GuideStar.org. In the 990 entails about as much bookkeeping, preparation effort, and search field, enter “American Humanist Associa­tion.” Scroll public financial disclosure as a corporate tax return, the differ- down until you find the one in Washington, D.C., the national ence being that no tax is paid. headquarters. Click through and you will see the statement, Religious organizations, and only religious organizations, are “This organization is not required to file an annual return with not required to file Form 990. Nonprofits that enjoy a religious the IRS because it is a religious organization.” exemption thus receive benefits unavail- If AHA’s organizational status able to nonprofits of other kinds: lower confuses you, relax. Apparently it accounting costs and reduced financial also confuses people at AHA. The disclosure requirements. AHA Web site offers model bylaws AHA was founded in 1941 by Edwin for prospective chapters. Would- Wilson, a Unitarian minister and reli- be AHA chapters are encouraged gious humanist. In 1946, it received to adopt language that identifies its first IRS exemption as an educa- them as chapters “of the American tional organization. In 1968, it applied Humanist Association,­ a secular for an additional exemption as a reli- nonprofit educational organization gious organization in order that coun- (emphasis added).”5 That’s seriously selors attached to AHA’s Division of inaccurate. The use of educational is Humanist Counseling (DHC) could defensible in view of AHA’s original, enjoy privileges of clergy, including if now unused, educational exemp- the power to perform legally binding tion. But secular? That word is at marriages. AHA thereafter operated as best curious, at worst misleading, a religious organization, and properly ceased filing Form 990s. when applied to a religious organization. Perhaps it indi- By 1989, many AHA members recognized that their group’s cates how deeply some within AHA still wish it were secular. religious status abetted Christian Right activists who consid- As this issue went to press, we learned that AHA may ered humanism a religion. “Most AHA members want the AHA finally abandon its religious exemption—albeit more that to be a secular organization,” declared then-board chairperson a decade later than many of its supporters thought. AHA Edd Doerr.1 But if AHA gave up its religious exemption, its members received a summer ballot asking them to approve a counselors would lose their clergy powers. In November 1989, restatement of AHA’s Articles of Incorporation. If approved, the AHA board voted to absorb the Humanist Society of Friends the new articles would define the AHA as an educational (HSOF), a fifty-year-old Quaker religious humanist organi- organization, effectively reversing its 1968 transition to zation, into “the AHA’s family of corporations.” Transferring religious status and ending an embarrassing vulnerability AHA’s counseling arm to HSOF would keep counselors’ clergy within our movement. privileges secure as AHA transitioned to educational status. Tony Hileman said nothing about the pending change In its membership newsletter, AHA announced plans to relin- when I interviewed him on June 3, though it had already been quish its religious exemption. Henceforth, it said, it “will use its approved by AHA’s board. Speaking of the religious-to-ed- long-standing educational designation.”2 ucational transition that was shelved in the early 1990s, The Division of Humanist Counseling remains under he clearly assumed that AHA’s original 1948 educational HSOF to this day. Many observers—including, to my knowl- exemption remained in place and would come into effect at edge, at least one mid-1990s AHA board member—simply whatever time the religious exemption was relinquished. assumed that AHA had relinquished its religious exemption. Our research suggests that the IRS has lost its record of But it hadn’t. AHA remains for tax purposes a religious the 1948 exemption and now views AHA solely as a religious organization. In fact, the IRS seems to have forgotten that organization. If AHA members approve this long-overdue AHA ever had an educational exemption. When I called the change, it will be intriguing to see how it is implemented— Cincinnati IRS office that handles issues regarding tax-ex- especially if it means that AHA must reapply for an educa- empt nonprofits, an agent looked in the database and cheerily tional exemption it thought was already in hand. informed me that “the American Humanist Association is a church.” Notes 1. Edd Doerr, “Chairperson of the AHA Board Responds,” Free Mind What happened? [AHA newsletter], March-April 1990, p. 11. In the early 1990s, AHA’s project of renouncing its religious 2. “Major Actions by the AHA Board of Directors,” Free Mind January- exemption was quietly abandoned. This was done for a variety February 1990, p. 4. 3. In fact, AHA’s original educational exemption may no longer exist. of reasons. Operating as an educational organization would 4. Telephone interview with Tony Hileman, June 3, 2002. entail added costs for bookkeeping and filing those 990s. There 5. http://www.americanhumanist.org/chapters/samplebylaws. was also concern that by surrendering its religious exemption, html, downloaded 6/7/02.

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extirpated.”21 Large campaigns have been mounted to achieve this. In 1986, 624 parents aided by then-Governor George Wallace sued Alabama, alleging that forty-four public school textbooks unconstitutionally promoted the “religion of secular humanism.” The case, heard initially by a sympathetic federal judge, W. Brevard Hand, became a media circus. Subpoenaed to the trial, Paul Kurtz was cross-examined for ten hours about whether sec- The secular humanist recognizes ular humanism was or was not religious.22 (Judge Hand’s ruling the central role of morality in favor of the plaintiffs was overturned on appeal.23) in human life. Those who paint secular humanism as a religion often—and incorrectly—claim the authority of the U.S. Supreme Court. In — “A Secular Humanist Declaration” a footnote to Torcaso v. Watkins (1961), Justice Hugo L. Black (1980) wrote: “Among religions in this country which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God are Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism, and others.” Justice Black just had his facts wrong. More Drawing Clear Boundaries: important, personal footnotes, or dicta, are not considered part of Supreme Court decisions and carry no weight as legal This Time, in Ink precedent. That didn’t keep then-Justice Antonin Scalia and Secular humanism occupies one point on a spectrum of then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist from citing the footnote reformist orientations, between atheism on the “left” and in their pro-creationist dissent to 1987’s Edwards v. Aguilard. religious humanism on the “right.” Drawing from all across In Peloza v. Capistrano Unified School District, a 1994 this spectrum, it is a vigorous hybrid whose debt to its source ruling that never faced appeal, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of traditions should never be forgotten. Appeals explicitly denied that the Torcaso footnote constitut- ed a legal finding that secular humanism is a religion. “Neither the Supreme Court, nor this circuit, has ever held that evolu- Atheism lends a valuable critique of outmoded, regressive tionism or secular humanism are ‘religions’ for Establishment religious systems. We welcome its vision of a universe upon Clause purposes,” said the court. “Indeed, both the dictionary which meaning was never imposed from above. But secular definition of religion and the clear weight of the case law are Atheism Secular Humanism Religious Humanism Figure 1. Nontraditional Stances on Religion: A Continuum

humanism goes further, calling on humans to develop within “Through no fault of its own—simply by the universe values of their own—as it were, from below. existing—religious humanism gives aid Further, secular humanism maintains that, through a process of value inquiry informed by scientific and reflective thought, and comfort to the prayer warriors.” men and women can reach rough agreement concerning val- ues, crafting ethical systems that deliver optimal results for human beings in a broad spectrum of circumstances. At the same time, we acknowledge religious human- to the contrary.”24 ism’s compassion and its focus on human-centered values. After years of Religious Right activism, overt religious Nonetheless, secular humanists reject religious humanism’s expression is more prevalent in public schools than at any conviction that leaning on spiritual or transcendental moor- time since 1962. Is the charge that secular humanism is a ings—even if lightly—is essential for the good life. religion still potent? As we’ve seen, Christian activists go on Secular humanism is invigorated by the best that atheism playing the “religion of secular humanism” card. I conclude and religious humanism have to offer—thoroughly naturalistic, that we are wise to scent danger if secular humanism and yet infused by an inspiring value system. It offers a nonreligious religion are further conflated in the public mind. template that may one day guide much of humanity in pursu- Complicating our task is the undeniable presence of ing truly humane lives. This is the fulfillment of secularism as humanists and humanist organizations that are outspokenly George Jacob Holyoake imagined it (see the first sidebar): the religious. John Dunphy’s op-ed in this issue, “No Milk-and- successful quest for the good life, intellectually, ethically, emo- Water Faith Indeed,” showcases the nineteen years of trouble tionally rich, and without any reliance on religious faith. that followed one humanist’s bombastic use of religious lan- guage. Through no fault of its own, simply by existing, reli- A Secular Humanist Definition gious humanism gives aid and comfort to the prayer warriors. We can now attempt our definition of secular humanism. These nested confusions simply underscore the urgency Secular humanism begins with atheism (absence of belief that secular humanism be unmistakably clear in upholding its in a deity) and agnosticism or skepticism (epistemological nonreligious identity. caution that rejects the transcendent as such due to a lack of evidence). Because no transcendent power will save us, secu-

41 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 lar humanists maintain that humans must take responsibility Unique Mission for themselves. While atheism is a necessary condition for secular humanism, it is not a sufficient one. Far from living Secular humanism indeed possesses a “unique selling prop- in a moral vacuum, secular humanists “wish to encourage osition.” Its full richness cannot be captured by an umbrella wherever possible the growth of moral awareness and the organization that encompasses the value neutrality of athe- capacity for free choice and an understanding of the conse- ism and the epistemological neutrality of religious humanism. quences thereof.”25 Atheism and freethought are distinct positions that deserve Secular humanism emerges, then, as a comprehensive non- to be represented by organizations of their own. The same religious life stance that incorporates a naturalistic philoso- is true of religious humanism in its several varieties. Surely phy, a cosmic outlook rooted in science, and a consequentialist no less is true for secular humanism! As secular humanism’s ethical system. That is the definition I offer.26 principal exponent and a resolute defender of its nonreli- gious character, the Council for Secular Humanism fills a Secular Humanism and the Council’s unique niche. It champions the best the community of reason

Who’s Who at Home

In the interest of full disclosure, we offer the following ational services to the Council for Secular Humanism information about the Council for Secular Humanism and CSICOP. Publisher of The American Rationalist. and the other organizations that make their home at A tax-exempt 501(c)(3) educational organization. the Center for Inquiry–International. According to its mission statement, the Center’s pur- pose is “to promote and defend reason, science, and The Council for Secular Humanism, Inc. freedom of inquiry in all areas of human endeavor.”

Founded 1980. Publisher of Free Inquiry. A tax-exempt Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of 501(c)(3) educational organization. In its original the Paranormal (CSICOP), Inc. Certificate of Incor­poration, the Council’s purposes were described in part as follows: Founded 1976. Publisher of Skeptical Inquirer magazine. According to its mission statement, CSICOP “encourages a) To foster interest in and encourage the growth the critical investigation of paranormal and fringe-science of the traditions of democracy, secular humanism, claims from a responsible, scientific point of view and and the principles of free inquiry in contemporary disseminates factual information about the results of such society; to revitalize, nurture and publicize the inquiries to the scientific community, the media, and the values represented by Thomas Jefferson and public. It also promotes science and scientific inquiry, crit- Thomas Paine through written materials, conven- ical thinking, science education, and the use of reason in ing and holding conferences and symposia; and examining important issues.” While wholly independent to encourage and support . . . journals, articles, of the Council for Secular Humanism, CSICOP shares with monographs and books that present a democratic the Council in utilizing facilities, equipment, and person- secular humanistic point of view. nel provided by the Center for Inquiry. b) To establish an organization to concern itself All of these organizations are nonreligious. They with free inquiry into and self expression regard- have been declared tax exempt as educational orga- ing the principles of democratic secular human- nizations. Each files Form 990 annually and bears the ism, from educational, literary, scientific or costs of recordkeeping, outside auditing, and other philosophic thought. expenses associated with preparation of the Form 990.

The Center for Inquiry, Inc. Founded 1998. Operator of the network of Centers for Inquiry worldwide and provider of facilities and oper-

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 42 DRAWING CLEAR BOUNDARIES: SECULAR VS. RELIGIOUS HUMANISM

has to offer: hard-minded scientific realism tempered by the it offers its own significant emergent qualities. The secular compassionate commitment to an ethics that welcomes being humanist agenda is a full one—in my opinion, an essential judged by its results. agenda for contemporary civilization. Surely it is more than Speaking of results, the Council for Secular Humanism’s enough to justify the existence of an independent organiza- achievements in its more than two decades existence have tion dedicated to implementing it. The Council for Secular remarkable. Never in the nineteenth- or twentieth-century Humanism has a compelling mission, one we will continue to history of freethought or humanism has any American orga- pursue with determination and vigor. nization mustered as many readers and supporters, as many world-renowned thinkers, as large a staff, or such capable Acknowledgments facilities in the service of rational thinking and humane ethics. I would like to thank Tim Binga, Center for Inquiry director of As part of the international Center for Inquiry movement, the Libraries, Paul Paulin, CFI fiscal officer, and David Henehan for valu- Council continues to flourish despite powerful religious and able research assistance. cultural forces ranged against it. Secular humanism is a balanced and fulfilling life stance. It is more than atheism, more than “unhyphenated humanism”;

Notes vol. 9, no. 1, and “Legitimize Bastardy!” SHB vol. 12, no. 1. In those articles I suggested that humanists who spurn ritual are 1. Paul Kurtz, “Humanism,” in Gordon Stein, ed., The “more secular” than those who indulge. I now concede that I Encyclopedia of Unbelief (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, was in error. When words are carefully defined, the distinction 1985), p. 329. between religious and secular humanism turns solely on wheth- er one embraces the transcendent. If they notice, I am sure that 2. Unitarian minister Paul Beattie addressed the secu- my colleagues who embrace naturalism but esteem humanist lar-religious humanist controversy in Free Inquiry’s premier issue in 1980. See also the following, all in FI, Fall 1996: ceremonial will be relieved to know that I am now convinced Paul Kurtz, “Beyond Religion,” pp. 4–6; David Noebel, “The that they are still secular humanists. Religion of Secular Humanism,” pp. 7–9; Skipp Porteous, 17. Elsewhere in this issue, Frank Pasquale makes an “Humanism Is Not a Religion,” pp. 10–11; Mason Olds, “What Is intriguing case for identifying naturalists who savor ritual as Religious Humanism?” pp. 11–14; Tom Flynn, “Why Is Religious “celebrant humanists.” 18. Phyllis Schlafly, “What Is Humanism?,” a 1980 syndicated Humanism?” pp. 15–16; John E. Smith, “Humanism as a ‘Quasi’- newspaper column reprinted in Free Inquiry, Spring 1981, p. 8. Religion,’” pp. 17–22; Timothy J. Madigan, “Deliver Us From 19. “Buchanan on Secular Humanism,” Free Inquiry, Spring Religion,” pp. 22–23. 1996, p. 11. 3. Tom Flynn, “What a Difference a Word Makes,” Free 20. Tim LaHaye and David Noebel, Mind Siege: The Battle Inquiry, Spring 1991, p. 46. for Truth in the New Millennium (Nashville, Tenn.: Word 4. Rosser Reeves, Reality in Advertising (New York: Knopf, Publishing, 2000), p. 170. 1961). 21. Paul Kurtz, “The Two Humanisms in Conflict: Religious 5. See Kurtz’s The Courage to Become: The Virtues of vs. Secular,” Free Inquiry, Fall 1991, p. 50. Humanism (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1997). 22. Paul Kurtz, “The New Inquisition in the Schools,” Free 6. Christopher Hitchens, “Single Standards.” The Nation, Inquiry, Winter 1986-87, pp. 4–5. See also Ronald Lindsay, May 13, 2002, p. 9. “Judge Hand Erred in Holding that Secular Humanism Is a 7. Humanist Manifesto 2000, Free Inquiry, Fall 1999, p. 9. Religion,” Free Inquiry, Fall 1987, pp. 25–27. 8. Jeaneane Fowler, Humanism: Beliefs and Practices 23. Randall D. Eliason, “A Tale of Two Secular Humanisms: (Brighton, England: Sussex Academic Press, 1999), p. 67. The Alabama Textbook Case,” Free Inquiry, Spring 1988, pp. 9. Paul Kurtz, Forbidden Fruit: The Ethics of Humanism 59–62. (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1988). 24. “Federal Court Rules Secular Humanism Not a 10. Owen Flanagan, The Problem of the Soul: Two Visions Religion,” Secular Humanist Bulletin, Spring 1995, p. 1. Molleen of Mind and How to Reconcile Them (New York: Basic Books, Matsumura, “New Court Decision Brings Death to a Myth,” FI, 2002), p. 261. Fall 1996, pp. 9–10. 11. “Texas Court Declares Ethical Culture a Religion,” 25. “A Secular Humanist Declaration,” Free Inquiry, Winter Washing­ton Ethical Action Office [American Ethical Union] 1980/81, p. 5. Reports, February 2002, p. 1. 26. Ironically, one of the problems in defining secular human- 12. Fritz Stevens, Edward Tabash, Tom Hill, Mary Ellen ism is that English offers no common word to label the sort of Sikes, and Tom Flynn, “What Is Secular Humanism?” http:// endeavor that secular humanism is. Secular humanism can be www.secularhumanism.org/intro/what.html. described as a scientific, philosophical, and ethical outlook—but 13. John Dewey, A Common Faith (New Haven: Yale how to express that in one word or, at most, a pithy phrase? University Press, 1934). German offers weltanschauung. British humanist Harry Stopes- 14. Tom Flynn, “Why Is Religious Humanism?” p. 16. Roe proposed life stance, which I have used in this article. Paul 15. Matt Young, “How to Find Meaning in Religion Without Kurtz coined eupraxophy, later eupraxsophy, a compound of Believing in God,” Free Inquiry, Summer 2002, pp. 44–46; Greek roots meaning “good practice and wisdom,” though for Malcolm D. Wise, “Religion and Spirituality: A Humanist View,” aesthetic reasons the term has not won broad popularity. See loc. cit. p. 49. Paul Kurtz, Eupraxophy: Living Without Religion (Buffalo, N.Y.: 16. Count me among the curmudgeons. For reasons rooted Prometheus Books, 1989), reissued in 1994 as Living Without not in my metaphysics but in my commitment to individual- Religion: Eupraxsophy. As of today, it still remains unclear ism, I personally disdain humanist ceremonial and broadly what ought to complete the sentence, “Secular humanism is not distrust much communal symbolic activity: see my “Humanist a religion, it’s a ______.” Ceremonies? Over My Dead Body,” Secular Humanist Bulletin,

43 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 ‘Religious Humanism’ And the dangers of Semantic Distortion Frank L. Pasquale

s articles in the Summer 2002 Free At the outset, I should stress that I am not suggesting that Inquiry demonstrated, many humanists every use of the term religious humanism is improper. It is best de­scribed as naturalistic—humanists legitimately used by (true) religionists with a humanist bent. whose worldview rejects the transcendent or supernatu- If one defines humanism broadly enough—say, as a preoccu- A 1 ral—continue to call themselves “religious humanists.” To pation with what it is to be human, an overriding concern with explore this issue, I re-visited the essay “What Is Humanism?” humanity, or a pan-human ethical or moral commitment— by Frederick Edwords. Edwords, former executive director then some Catholics, Hindus, and Mormons, among others, of the American Humanist Association and current editor of can properly call themselves religious humanists. Similarly, its magazine, The Humanist, has presented this treatment of Unitarian Universalists who subscribe to their own broadly humanism to various groups since 1989.2 His essay offers a humanist principles, but believe that a transcendent force unique opportunity to reconsider the historical emergence of operates in the universe, are religious humanists. [See James contemporary naturalistic humanism, along with some prob- Haught’s article in this issue for more on religion and agnos- lems that attend its linguistic legacy to the present day.3 ticism within Unitarian Universalism.—Eds.] Pantheists with In “What Is Humanism?” Edwords delineates a broad array true dedication to the welfare of all humanity may properly be of what we might call “hyphenated humanisms” that have designated religious humanists. Even teleologists committed arisen since the Renaissance (e.g., classical, modern, secular, to humanist principles, but who believe that an invisible hand etc.). When he gets to “religious humanism,” Edwords touches guides human destiny to a transcendent omega point, qualify. on a problem as old as contemporary humanism itself. In the My concern lies squarely with use of the term religious process, he unwittingly points up some of the unfortunate humanism by naturalistic humanists, which poses serious repercussions that come of stretching pivotal terms like reli- problems with respect to the notions of both religion and gion and religious well beyond their standard meanings. humanism. I will suggest here that religious humanism when applied to naturalistic humanists, is an unfortunate and misleading What Is (Religious) Humanism? usage. It represents an unsatisfactory “resolution” that was Frederick Edwords is, of course, by no means the only natural- adopted at a historical inflection point in the emergence of istic humanist to use or defend the term religious humanism. contemporary naturalistic humanism. And it represents a It has been in use at least since the early part of the twentieth semantic distortion whose repercussions extend far beyond century, most notably in Humanist Manifesto I (1933). But his the “merely semantic.” In this article I will suggest alternative essay furnishes a unique opportunity to analyze the term, its language that I hope will meet the needs and desires of natu- internal contradictions, and the confusion it produces within ralistic humanists without requiring that they continue to use the context of contemporary naturalistic humanism. inevitably misleading terminology. Edwords demonstrates that for quite some time human- Frank L. Pasquale, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist who, ism has been hot verbal real estate. Many people with many following a career in international business and cross-cultural agendas have wanted a piece of this upbeat-sounding word. As training, is doing research and writing on religion, culture, Corliss Lamont noted, “Humanism is such an old and attrac- humanism, morality, and church-state “separation.” He resides tive word and so weighted with favorable meanings that it has in Portland, Oregon. been currently adopted by various groups and persons whose use of it is most questionable.”4 This is obvious from the eight

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hyphenated humanisms which Edwords lists: Renaissance, [R]eligion is a system of communal beliefs and practices rela- Literary, Cultural, Philosophical, Christian, Modern, Secular, tive to supernatural beings.6 and Religious. To these we may add others cited by Lamont, including Academic, Naturalistic, Catholic, Integral, Marxist, I would actually consider this too restrictive, since there and so on. Hot property, indeed! are properly religious belief systems which admit of transcen- In his essay, Edwords opens discussion of the “religious dent realms or processes, or of supernatural forces, not neatly humanism” problem with his observation that: packaged into discrete “beings.” Closer perhaps, is the Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus’s primary definition of religion: The most critical irony in dealing with Modern Humanism is the inability of advocates to agree on whether or not this worldview 1. the belief in a superhuman controlling power, esp., in a per- is religious. Those who see it as philosophy are the Secular sonal God or gods, entitled to obedience and worship7 Humanists while those who see it as religion are Religious Humanists. This dispute has been going on since the early years As suggested by Tom Flynn elsewhere in this issue, reli- of this century when the secular and religious traditions con- verged and brought Modern Humanism into existence. gion may be defined as “at minimum a belief in . . . a realm transcending that of ordinary experience.” But, Edwords’s But he goes on to state that: definition does not at all reflect this primary defining attribute of religion—belief in the supernatural or transcendent. Again: Secular and Religious Humanists both share the same world- view and the same basic principles. Religion is that which serves the personal and social needs of a group of people sharing the same philosophical worldview. This is puzzling, since the customary or standard meaning of secular is, for example: In fact, following from this, wouldn’t value system or belief system or culture or association or society (in the sense of a 1. concerned with the affairs of this world; not spiritual nor group of people sharing a particular philosophy) meet his defi- [sic] sacred. nition of religion? Continuing, Edwords states that 2. . . . not concerned with religion nor [sic] religious belief.5 the true substance of religion is the role it plays in the lives of These terms would hardly suggest that secular and “reli- individuals and the life of the community. Doctrines may differ gious humanists” share the same worldview, even if they hold from denomination to denomination, and new doctrines may replace old ones, but the purpose religion serves for PEOPLE some basic principles in common. Edwords seeks to resolve [sic] remains the same. If we define the substance of a thing as the conundrum by noting that: that which is most lasting and universal, then the function of religion is the core of it. It is only in the definition of religion and in the practice of the philosophy that Religious and Secular Humanists effectively By this token, if one defines the most lasting and universal disagree. attribute of “psychiatry” as “that which serves the mental or emotional well-being of people,” then psychiatry is functionally And further on, he elaborates: equivalent to meditation or counseling or psychotherapeutic The definition of religion used by Religious Humanists is a drugs. In the same way, religion becomes anything that serves functional one. Religion is that which serves the personal and “the personal and social needs of a group of people sharing the social needs of a group of people sharing the same philosoph- same philosophical worldview,” like an association or a society, ical worldview. or a culture, or a value or belief system. They’re all functionally indistinguishable from religion as defined by Edwords. Here, more serious concerns arise. While anthropologists All of this leads him to note that: and religion scholars debate precisely where the edges of reli- gion feather into other cultural dimensions, or into philosophy The fact that Humanism can at once be both religious and or nonreligious belief systems, two defining attributes are secular presents a paradox, of course, but not the only such consistently applied to the word religion in standard usage: paradox.

1. Something having to do with a supernatural, spiritual, divine, Is all this truly a paradox, or merely confusion caused by non-material, metaphysical or transcendent dimension of some the distortion and misuse of the word religion for rather special description, and purposes? For it is upon the quicksand of the distorted use of 2. Something having to do with human rituals or practices religion that Edwords erects the semantic house of cards he associated with, or some human involvement or relationship with, that dimension. calls “religious [and yet naturalistic!] humanism.” He does so on behalf of those who reject notions of the supernatural and After noting that “some definitions of religion are too yet still want restrictive” (e.g., “belief in God”) and some “definitions of a basis for moral values, an inspiring set of ideals, methods for dealing with life’s harsher realities, a rationale for living life joy- religion are not helpful largely because they are vague” (e.g., ously, and an overall sense of purpose . . . [as well as] a sense of “worldview”) the Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of World belonging, an institutional setting for the moral education of chil- Religions settles on the following, which, it asserts, “has dren, special holidays shared with like-minded people, a unique received reasonable acceptance by most scholars”: ceremonial life, the performance of ideologically consistent rites of passage (weddings, child welcomings, coming-of-age celebra-

45 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 tions, funerals, and so forth), an opportunity for affirmation of Partial overlap in belief systems or semantic space is fine. one’s philosophy of life, and a historical context for one’s ideas. But based on everything Edwords has said about “religious humanism” as he is using the term, it isn’t religion and it isn’t Edwords notes in this connection that he really religious. It has some ideas or attributes in common with secular humanism, and some practices or rituals in common was once asked by a reporter if this functional definition of religion didn’t amount to taking away the substance and having with religion qua religion in its ritual sense. In the final analy- only the superficial trappings. sis, however, is something actually more different from religion than from secular humanism, but distinctly different from both. His reported answer was the perplexing statement quoted earlier that “define[d] the substance of a thing [as that] which What Difference Does It Make? is most lasting and universal” and so, defined religion solely The forgoing may lead some to ask, “What difference does in terms of its purported function (that is, serving the personal all this really make?” The difference is that by distorting and social needs of its adherents). religion or religious in the ways described here, (naturalistic) Now, I honestly do not care what terms we create or use to “religious humanists” actually aid and abet parties whose pur- denote things, entities, concepts, or phenomena, as long we do poses threaten the rights and aims of naturalistic humanists! so clearly and without ambiguity or contradiction. Edwords’s Confusion within contemporary (naturalistic) humanism purposes—and apparently those of (naturalistic) “religious about whether humanism is religion has contributed to sim- humanists”—have overwhelmed linguistic rigor and so, not ilar confusion, or worse, in the public square. Opponents of surprisingly, given rise to a raft of “paradoxes.” humanism often exploit apparent admissions by naturalistic Apart from poetry, little except confusion is achieved by humanists that contemporary humanism, of whatever stripe, is stretching the meaning or use of words utterly beyond their a “religion” or “religious.” Others argue that secular humanism normal usage, as we see when Edwords ends up declaring that: rests upon a kind of “faith in reason,” and so indeed represents an alternative “religious faith.” Since religion denotes belief in . . . Religious Humanism should not be seen as an alternative the supernatural or transcendent, however, this fundamentally faith, but rather as an alternative way of being religious. misrepresents secular, or any form of naturalistic, humanism. Some critics have argued further that “secular humanism” And: or “secularism” are what the Supreme Court has “forced upon the public square” and into public schools. Thus, the The paradoxes don’t end here. Religious Humanism is usually [usually!?] without a god, without a belief in the supernatural, argument continues, since even “secular humanism” is a “reli- without a belief in an afterlife, and without a belief in a “higher” gion” of a sort, then there is no such thing as truly achievable source of moral values. government neutrality with respect to religion, and so “true” religions should enjoy the same sponsored presence in public And: schools as those of “secularism” and “secular humanism.” The Supreme Court succumbed to the same dangerous These paradoxical features not only require a unique treat- error when it categorized secular humanism as a “religion” ment of Religious Humanism in the study of world religions, (in a footnote to Torcaso v. Watkins 367 U.S. 488 [1961]). This but also help explain the continuing controversy, both inside and outside the Humanist movement, over whether Humanism was later used by Justice Antonin Scalia to argue for either is religion at all. the inclusion of “creation science” or exclusion of evolutionary theory in the public schools (in Edwards v. Aguilard 482 U.S. We can avoid much of this controversy. If something 578 [1987]). doesn’t exhibit the standard defining attributes of the terms So it is that apparently harmless semantic distortions—dis- religion or religious (at minimum, concern with a supernatural tortions disseminated by naturalistic humanists themselves— or transcendent realm), then it isn’t religion or religious. It’s can threaten us down the road. These examples should serve something else, and should be called something else. to indicate that the debate about “religious humanism” is more Edwords begins to close his exposition by noting that: than merely semantic. Real issues are at stake. At the very least, confusion results; at worst, that confusion can lead to Once we leave the areas of confusion it is possible to explain, in serious negative consequences in social discourse, political straightforward terms, exactly what the Modern Humanist phi- debate, and even jurisprudence and legislation. losophy is about. It is easy to summarize the basic ideas held in common by both Religious and Secular Humanists. What to Do? This is a philosophy: I know that some may still object that modern humanism emerged, in part, from a Unitarian Universalist religious . . . for people who think for themselves heritage, and so, retained certain aspects of that heritage. . . . focused upon human means for comprehending reality They will point to the many references to “religion” and . . . of reason and science in the pursuit of knowledge . . . of imagination “religious humanism” in Humanist Manifesto I. But on this . . . of compassion basis, one could point out that Christianity emerged from a . . . for the here and now Judaic cultural and religious heritage and has retained certain . . . [which is] realistic obvious aspects of that heritage—for starters, the entire Old . . . [and] in tune with the science of today. Testament. Given that, and following the example set by the

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illegitimate use of religious humanism, we should really call dview, but who differ in experiential emphasis or proclivity. Christianity “Christian Judaism.” Or our non-“Native-Ameri- Celebrant humanists are those who tend to value social cel- can” culture should really be called “European America” and ebratory ritual and inspirality somewhat more than secular our national acronym should be the U.S. of E.A. humanists, who generally tend to de-emphasize or eschew Everything emerges from something prior. But as a newly celebratory ritual and/or inspiral experiences. emergent entity or concept evolves, it exhibits new defining Quite apart from these are true religious humanists—those attributes that make it progressively more distinct from its who believe in a supernatural or transcendent realm, but who “parentage.” Based on such distinctions, we give the new share with naturalistic humanists a concern for human wel- entity or concept a new name to signify its distinctness. If it fare, an ethical commitment to humanity, or any other of the becomes different enough, a hyphenated or adjectivally-modi- central nonreligious principles characteristic of contemporary fied name reflecting its parentage confuses more than it clar- (unhyphenated) humanism. ifies. At this point, it’s best to give the new thing an entirely With these distinctions in place, we will leave religion and new name. I suggest that this is the case with (naturalistic) the religious to the (true) religionist, spirituality and the spir- “religious humanism.” itual to the spiritualist, and yet enable celebrant (and when For those naturalistic humanists who wish to emphasize so inclined, secular) humanists to speak of the earth-bound certain ritual, social, or celebratory experiences that are experience of awe, of inspirality and the inspiral, free from important to them (and which may have been adapted from oxymorons and dangerous semantic distortion. truly religious practices, albeit after rejecting the religious concepts that once underlay them) I would suggest the terms Acknowledgments celebrant humanist and celebrant humanism. My thanks to Tom Flynn and to Dick Mase of the Humanists of Greater Beyond the concern for celebratory ritual, the observa- Portland, Oregon, for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this essay. tions made by Robert M. Price and Malcolm D. Wise in the Summer Free Inquiry remind us that there is something else of importance to some naturalistic humanists and surely to most celebrant humanists. It is an experience which some, like Price and Wise, refer to as “numinous,” “divine,” or “spir- itual.”8 But these terms drive us into the same semantic web as does the illegitimate use of religion and religious, since the experience to which we refer actually involves no assumptions of the uncaused-causal divine, the supernatural, transcendent, numinous or the spiritual. It is, rather, a quite human percep- Notes tual, cognitive, affective, and expressive response to life, to 1. For example, see Robert M. Price’s use of the term existence, to sentience itself, and to the grandeur of all that we religious humanism in “Religious and Secular Humanism, know and do not (yet) know of the universe. It is the experience What’s the Difference?” Free Inquiry 22, no. 3 (2002): 47–48. 2. Frederick Edwords, “What Is Humanism?” ©1989 by of awe, wonderment, even the sublime, with perhaps a measure Frederick Edwords, published at many locations on the Web of “free-floating gratitude” (though without any specific object including www.infidels.org/library/modern/fred_edwords/ of that gratitude). Throw in Wise’s “feeling of interconnected- humanism.html. Since I quote repeatedly from this essay, ness,” if you wish. But it does not transcend the natural world specific citations will not be provided for each quotation. or human psychological and affective experience. 3. This designation follows Corliss Lamont in The Philosophy of Humanism (New York: Frederick Ungar For those naturalistic humanists who wish to express or Publishing Co., 1982 [1949]). There, he states that “[t]he reflect on such experiences, I offer an addition to the “dis-spir- adjective naturalistic shows that Humanism, in its most ited lexicon” that Tom Flynn presented in the Summer Free accurate philosophical sense, implies a world-view in which Inquiry. There, he urged secular humanists to leave all refer- Nature is everything, in which there is no supernatural and in which man is an integral part of Nature and not separated ences to “spirituality” behind and offered alternative words from it by any sharp cleavage or discontinuity” (1982: 22). that enable them to do this.9 I would like to suggest that, This term is less ambiguous than to either “contemporary” instead of ruminating on the “mysterium tremendum,” the or “modern” humanism, since true religionists can properly “spiritual,” or “spirituality,” naturalistic humanists refer to refer to themselves as humanists, broadly defined. Lamont the (nonspiritual) sense of awe and to the new words, inspiral endeavored to lay claim to (unhyphenated) humanism for the naturalists, but this is problematic. (IN-spur-uhl) and inspirality (IN-spur-AL-i-tee). With these 4. Lamont, Note 3, 1982, p. 21. terms, all naturalistic humanists (and particularly celebrant 5. The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus, American humanists) who gnash teeth about having to leave the “spiritu- Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 1365. al” and “spirituality” at the meeting-room door, but who yearn 6. Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of World Religions­ (Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1999), p. 915. for some nontranscendent way of expressing a special sense 7. Oxford Dictionary, Note 5, 1996, p. 1270. or feeling they have when inspired by nature or existence, may 8. Robert M. Price, Note 2, and Malcolm D. Wise, now express this with nary a spirit in sight. “Religion and Spirituality, A Humanist View,” Free Inquiry 22, no. 3 (2002): 49. In Sum . . . 9. Tom Flynn, “When Words Won’t Die: A Dispiriting Proposal,” Free Inquiry 22, no. 3 (2002): 50–51. These suggestions leave us with two distinct groups of nat- uralistic humanists who share a common naturalistic worl-

47 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 The Unitarian Is religious humanism ruining the humanist religion? Quandary James A. Haught

he largest identifiable body of agnostics in At my UU fellowship in West Virginia, one minister (a America is within the Unitarian Universalist once-Southern Baptist who had lost his faith) declared that Church, a traditional stronghold of freethink- God is the heart of the church. This caused turmoil, eventually Ting. A 1987 survey found that only 3 percent of “UUs” believed followed by additional complications producing his ouster and in the standard supernatural God of conventional religion. a bitter rift in the congregation. Two-thirds acknowledged a “life force” or “spirit of love”—but “Spirituality” is today’s UU buzzword, and it appeals to 28 percent called the word God “an irrelevant concept.” great numbers of new Unitarians. Wicca priestesses in my More recently, in a 1997 survey of the denomination’s congregation talk of “the goddess” and “spirits of the north, 220,000 members, about half of respondents described them- south, east and west.” Being literal-minded, I ask what they selves as humanists—by far the largest category. Doubt was mean—but I never understand the answers. The “women’s strongest among older members. They’re a remnant of a spirituality” group in my church deals tarot cards (but ignores postwar heyday when multitudes of skeptical scientists and my suggestion of Ouija boards). professors joined Unitarian Universalism as a sort of new In 1997, the New York Times Magazine printed a special Enlightenment. In those days, the denomination’s Beacon issue on religious diversity in America. Their UU example Press printed hard-hitting critiques of religion, such as the was a woman minister who heard a magical voice speak to works of Paul Blanshard. Some churches displayed slogans her while she whirled in a spiral dance led by “Starhawk,” the like “To Question Is the Answer,” or a Peter Ustinov remark: witch. I was embarrassed to have my church represented by “Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them.” auditory hallucinations. Today, thousands of these UU secular humanists feel voice- Doubters among Unitarians tend to gravitate to the church’s less, because their organization rarely questions the invisible adult discussion circles, where they ponder physics, philosophy, spirits and magical heavens of major religions. Unitarian psychology, social issues, and the like. Some of them don’t attend Universalism has grown so diverse—embracing Wicca priest- the main “worship” services, which replicate hymn-singing esses, liberal Christians, Buddhist meditators, New Age mys- Protestant rituals. Or if they attend, it’s done partly like a family tics, Postmodern symbolists, and more—that any official ratio- obligation, to avoid ruffling feathers among fellow members. nalist assertion would hurt someone’s feelings. Questioning Many of the skeptics join the UU humanist affiliate, or a the supernatural is taboo. A polite silence prevails. Beacon small group called UU Infidels. Other sparks of the old free- Press now prints “uplift” books. thinking remain. Recently, one of my minister friends spoke on Worse, many ministers talk of God and Jesus in ways that “Why I Am an Agnostic” and “Why I Am an Existentialist.” But boggle the agnostic majority. The denomination’s new presi- he’s an exception. Most congregations avoid such touchy topics. dent, once an avowed atheist, now chatters about God. He told So you see, perhaps 100,000 American agnostics belong to a Massachusetts congregation: “The task of the Unitarian side a movement that once was a pioneer in religious doubt, but of our faith is to find our own relationship to the divine, to God. now they feel marginalized within their own organization. The task of our Universalist side is to view that God as a loving They can’t question the surrounding mysticism without seem- God.” After the September 11 religious horror, he reassured ing rude. I recently described this dilemma in an article for America: “There is a loving God who will hold out her hands the official UU magazine, but it was rejected. (I understood. to hold us . . . and be there to catch us as we fall.” Naturally, the “house organ” must promote harmony within We skeptics in the pews are mystified by such theism. In the ranks, not sow discord.) the past, Unitarian Universalism took no stand on the exis- However, I think those 100,000 UU skeptics at least should tence or nonexistence of God. Now our national leader and discuss their predicament. Knowing that many agnostic numerous ministers are proclaiming the former, and we who Unitarians also read Free Inquiry, I want to share the essay lean toward the latter are left out in the cold. that UUWorld wouldn’t print. Here it is. Haught, editor of The Charleston Gazette and a senior editor of Free Inquiry, has been a Unitarian Universalist for four decades.

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Make Room for Doubt in the Unitarian Church

A great truth about our denomination sects . . . dread the advance of sci- and his “only begotten son,” etc., because rarely is mentioned. It isn’t cited in our ence as witches do the approach of we cannot. Many freethinking members Seven Principles or other church dec- daylight. (Letter to Correa de Serra, would recoil and rebel. larations. Yet it lies at the heart of our April 11, 1820) Today, however, it seems taboo for movement. any UU to voice the skepticism that lies The first Unitarian president, John This unspoken truth is that most UUs at the core of our church. In my half-cen- Adams, was less abrasive than Jefferson, doubt the supernatural. We question the tury of affiliation, I’ve rarely heard clear yet time after time he scorned established mystical, magical, miracle claims central assertions of disbelief in the aforemen- churches. He signed a 1797 treaty with to all other faiths: the pantheon of gods, tioned gods, devils, heavens, hells, sav- Tripoli declaring that “the government devils, heavens, hells, saviors, angels and iors, angels, and the rest. I haven’t heard of the United States is not, in any sense, the rest. In fact, disbelief is the foremost bold statements like those of Jefferson, founded on the Christian religion.” In an feature setting UU apart from convention- Adams, Emerson, Thoreau, or Taft. 1814 letter to John Taylor, he wrote: “The al religions. UU is the only church that Worse, it has become fashionable priesthood have, in all ancient nations, welcomes complete atheists as members. for UU ministers and leaders to invoke nearly monopolized learning.­ . . . And, If doubt is entwined in our church, why God. Many of us in the pews can’t guess even since the Reformation, when or the silence about it? After all, it has been what they’re talking about. Obviously, where has existed a Protestant or dis- crucial, right from the beginning. The very they don’t mean the god of Jerry Falwell, senting sect who would tolerate A FREE word, unitarian, conveys disbelief. While President Bush, or Usama bin Laden. We INQUIRY? [capitalizations his]. The Christianity proclaims three invisible dei- assume they’re speaking in theological blackest billingsgate, the most ungentle- ties in the Trinity (and additional spirits crypto-jargon, with some abstruse, alle- manly insolence, the most yahooish bru- such as Satan, the Virgin Mary, demons, gorical, postmodern meaning that’s actu- tality is patiently endured, countenanced, saints, etc.), early Unitarians doubted that ally meaningless. Perhaps the denomina- propagated, and applauded.­ But touch a Jesus was a god, and said so. They were tion should require ministers who use the solemn truth in collision with a dogma of a called anti-Trinitarians—doubters of the word to provide a definition. sect, though capable of the clearest proof, Trinity. Some pioneers, such as physi- Why does our denomination, rooted and you will soon find you have disturbed cian Michael Servetus, were put to death in doubt, never mention doubt—and even a nest, and the hornets will swarm about for it. The first known Unitarian preach- make standard-sounding appeals to God? your legs and hands, and fly into your face er, Francis David of Transylvania, was Maybe it’s because UU is so diversified. and eyes.” imprisoned for his doubts, and died in a Questioning the supernatural might seem Unitarian minister Ralph Waldo Emer­ cell. The English home and laboratory of rude to members with New Age, Buddhist, son wrote scornfully: “As men’s prayers scientist-Unitarian Joseph Priestley were Earth-centered, Christian, and other spir- are a disease of the will, so are their burned by a Christian mob. itual inclinations. Since UU takes an offi- creeds a disease of the intellect.”1 And In America, renowned Unitarians were cial hands-off approach, with no creed, he said: “Other world? There is no other skeptics. Although Thomas Jefferson the church is open to a remarkable vari- world! Here or nowhere is the whole fact.”2 never officially quit the Anglican Church, ety of people. Therefore, the only way to Henry David Thoreau, another he’s somewhat our patron saint. We all maintain harmony evidently is to avoid Unitarian (who, like Emerson, eventually know that he wrote, wishfully: “I trust mentioning beliefs—even the skeptical quit churches entirely), sneered at religion there is not a young man now living beliefs that created the denomination. as “a baby-house made of blocks,” and in the United States who will not die Well, I don’t want to hurt anyone’s wrote: “I did not see why the schoolmaster a Unitarian” (Letter to Dr. Benjamin feelings, but I think we agnostics should should be taxed to support the priest, and Waterhouse,­ June 26, 1822). But we’re be allowed to express our honest views not the priest the schoolmaster.”3 less aware of Jefferson’s contempt for within our church. I’d like to penetrate the This skeptical pattern continued Christian supernaturalism and the minis- silence, but do it without injury. through succeeding generations. Another ters who preached it: Every denomination provides fellow- Unitarian president, William Howard Taft ship, the nurturing “extended family” in (1857–1930), was offered the presidency The day will come when the mystical which members share the joys and prob- of Yale University, at that time allied generation of Jesus, by the supreme lems of their lives. In this regard, UU is no with the Congrega­tionalist Church. He being as his father in the womb of different from the rest. declined on doctrinal grounds. “I do not a virgin, will be classed with the Every denomination advocates humani­ fable of the generation of Minerva in believe in the divinity of Christ, and there tarian social action to help the poor, the the brain of Jupiter. (Letter to John are many other postulates of the orthodox sick, the impaired, the old and others in Adams, April 11, 1823) creed to which I cannot subscribe,” he need. In this regard, UU is no different wrote in an explanatory letter to Yale. Question with boldness even the exis- from the rest. Doubt of supernatural Christian beliefs tence of a God; because, if there be We’re different in only one way: was the driving force of the entire Unitarian one, he must more approve of the Unitarian Universalists doubt the magic homage of reason than that of blind- movement in Europe and America. The claims of conventional religion. I wish we folded fear. (Letter to his nephew, rise of scientific thinking two centuries were allowed to say so. Peter Carr, August 10, 1787) ago impelled many New England congrega- To talk of immaterial existences is tions to leave their former denominations to talk of nothings. To say that the and join the Unitarian­ tide. Notes human soul, angels, god, are immate- Our chief distinguishing feature is the 1. “Self-Reliance,” 1841. rial, is to say that they are nothings, lack of a creed—which, indirectly, proves 2. Quoted by George Seldes in The or that there is no god, no angels, that Unitarian Universalism is skepti- Great Quotations (New York: Lyle Stuart, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise. cal. Unlike standard churches, we don’t 1960). (Letter to Adams, August 15, 1820) chant that we “believe in God, the Father 3. Both from “On the Duty of Civil The priests of the different religious almighty, creator of heaven and earth” Disobedience,” 1841.

49 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 God: 12,000 The faith of a rebeliever Tony Pasquarello

have long felt that the paradox of religious belief in by the solitude of a majestic forest; ecotheists stunned by individuals of unquestioned intellectual prowess poses nature’s unity and inter-connectedness; “aesthetic” theists, the most intractable difficulty, the most troubling (aestheists?) who find something unutterably, transcenden- dilemma, the most serious theoretical challenge to a consis- tally moving in the arts. And, of course, we all know the many I 1 tent and successful atheism. The existence of bright believers varieties of Tillichians who insist on affirming their depth and strikes at the very heart of the rational enterprise and the integrity as profound human beings of “ultimate concern.” vision of a unified humanity, for it challenges our belief that These are the sorts of answers forthcoming when bright there exists one overarching, universal, cerebral hard-wiring believers attempt to give voice, shape, and substance to their called human reason, including the basic rules of thought. beliefs. Sensitive atheists will heartily concur that these Intelligent individuals in possession of the same facts ought to agree on what is “reasonable.” Some of the brightest of the bright believers are distin- guished professional philosophers; some of them even defend a traditional theism. A distinction here, a modification there, Rebelievers want to transfer the affective and, lo!, the Prime Mover rides again; the Causal and Ontological Arguments turn out to be good after all; and there components of the old symbols to the is no inconsistency whatever in an omnipotent, benevolent new referents that they have selected. being’s causing or permitting the most appalling evil. What contradiction? Only one small problem. Like Wiles’s proof of Fermat, few will be able to follow the intricate, rarefied, and extremely difficult reasoning employed.2 This is another disturbing, humbling consequence following from the reality of bright believers. There may be, after all, a sound proof of God’s existence, or an airtight, successful defense against the problem of evil, the Humean and Positivistic attacks, which I cannot comprehend because it’s way over my head. We don’t need the theological hypothesis of original sin to account for the finitude of the intellect and the dulling of reason. The complexity of the universe and aging will do rather nicely.3

Average Bright Believers The vast majority of bright believers are neither fundamental- ists nor wily philosophers. What do they believe? Many often realize that their theistic and religious beliefs frequently amount to no more than a vague and comforting pantheism, a kind of nature-worship, a sincere conviction that this is a user-friendly universe. We all know “celestial theists,” those overwhelmed by the immensity of a starry sky; “deep-woods” theists, awestruck

Tony Pasquarello is an emeritus philosophy professor at Ohio State University-Mansfield. His quasi-autobiographical spoof, The Altar Boy Chronicles, is available from American Atheist Press. “God 12,000” is an abridged version of a lecture given at the 26th National Convention of American Atheists in April feel- 2000 in San Francisco. ings

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 50 of communion with nature, beauty, humanity, the universe, What you cannot do is say that your revised concept is the “true” et al. are precious and ennobling. Our only reservation or “real” meaning of the term, or that that’s what we “meant all is this: Why the religious twist? Why the insertion of a deity along.” (You can say that’s what we should have meant.) “connected with” or “behind” these familiar, grand senti- ments? (Must we still think of thunderbolts as hurled by Dr. Clone Meets the Rebeliever Zeus?) Worse still, why the muddled attempts at equating But all of this has been terribly abstract. What if these issues these thoroughly naturalistic phenomena with God? If you could be exemplified, all the problems illustrated, by examin- want to say that the heavens are breathtaking when seen from ing the actual, informal proposal of an average bright believ- a hilltop on a cold, achingly clear night, we, and poets, have er—and that is not an oxymoron. Fate presented me with just many perfectly good ways of saying that. In fact, I just used such an opportunity. A resident of my own community, here- one of those ways. To paraphrase a Tina Turner refrain—What’s God got to do with it? The adverbial, figurative, metaphorical uses of the terms religion and God are understood by all. All except, “If you want to say that the heavens are apparently, these bright believers who confuse metaphor with literal truth. The semantic games and linguistic blunders breathtaking when seen from a hilltop under discussion are absurd. That is precisely why it is so on a cold, achingly clear night, we, puzzling that bright people should be the culprits. The bogus procedure is this: When there is something and poets, have many perfectly good that clearly does not exist, but one wishes that it did exist and wants to be able to say that it does exist, then choose ways of saying that.” something real that is similar in some respects and give it the name of the nonexistent entity. Voila! You have now proved the existence of something that doesn’t exist.4 Suppose one wants to prove that God exists. Find something awe-inspiring, inafter referred to as “X,” having seen my secularist essays or powerful, or infinite, or fundamental . . . and call it “God.” and letters in the local paper, sent me an essay containing his Now, God exists, and the various practices with respect to thoughts on the “God-religion” issue. that God are “religious.” Unfortunately, in reality, all you’ve And, why was he bright? I knew, from independent sources, done is play with words and, thereby, pull off a shabby, uncon- that X was a chemist, had advanced degrees, and was a mem- vincing trick. Although, after a period of self-conditioning, the ber of MENSA. What follows is what X wrote; perpetrator might convince himself that he or she has done leading-edge, radical theology. I feel there are some interesting consequences for the person who reads this article and agrees with its conclusions. For Rebelievers example, he can sincerely say that he “believes in god.” You could say it. The concept of “god” used here may not be exactly Because they redefine the terms God and religion, and, in the same as the meaning used by fundamentalists, but as stat- so doing, revise the concepts to their specifications; because ed in the article, who is to say which one is right? their stand is, at bottom, reactionary, representing a return to Do you believe in God? If not, then after you read to the end of this message, you will! You will also believe in “heaven” and religion; because they positively reject the standard god and you will believe in “life after death.” organized religion, but feel immediately compelled to replace . . . We would be amazed at the world of 10,000 years hence. them with something vaguely similar; for these and a hundred One of the miracles they will perform, will be resurrection of other “re’s,” I have chosen to dub this special, large subset of the dead. We don’t know how they will do it; perhaps some the bright believers, the “rebelievers.” I think the term is apt, form of cloning, Those future men . . . will be as gods. In fact, for all prac- with its slightly pejorative suggestion of regression. Tillich, tical purposes, they will be gods. Do you believe in “God” now? and Bishops Robinson and Spong, are all rebelievers. On their Of course you do! God is not yet born, but some day he certainly way to a new, remodeled “god” and a refurbished “religion,” will be, and he will be the one who brings you back to life, some- they all conveniently forget to mention that the old “God” does time in the distant future. This “God” is not the same “God” that most religions describe; not exist. And since the old “God” is the standard, traditional, but who is to say that their belief is more valid than yours? dictionary, Falwellian God, that must be the being referred to in the dictionary definitions of theism and atheism. In short, they are atheists without admitting it. After having made One Trillion Vertebrates that admission—and only after—are they entitled to go on to Among the many difficulties apparent with X’s scenario, explain the modifications they wish to make to the standard perhaps the most obvious is this: Why on Earth would that concept, and, most important, why the old symbol God should (mad) superscientist—let’s call him Dr. Clone—bring me back be retained for the new concept. to life? It is not false modesty to venture the opinion that, But really, we already know why they want to keep using if I make the list of potential resurrectees at all, my name the old terms for new things. Rebelievers want to transfer the would be well down the list, at several removes from Einstein, affective components of the old symbols to the new referents Aristotle, da Vinci, Newton, Bach, et al. that they have selected. So, Dr. Clone will revivify not only me (that would prove he Let me be clear: certainly, you can examine the concept of was an idiot), but, as X states, my loved ones. The clear implica- God, explore the properties in the standard package, indicate tion being that every human who ever lived and died, up to the which ones are problematic and how they might be repaired. year 12,000, would be “brought back to life.” Assuming a stable

51 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 population of six billion people replaced every one hundred cattle than fairies. years, and adding another six billion as the sum of all humans who ever lived before the present, we get a rough figure of 606 You Say Tomayto, I Say Tomahtoe billion revivified people streaming out of Dr. Clone’s laborato- Ah, yes. And, who’s to say? X’s citation, twice, of that infamous rhetorical question reveals that his shockingly sophomoric, unperceptive under- standing of the nature of linguistic usage enables the creation of his hybrid theistic-scientistic scenario. He has to make a “Take the term God. Here’s one plausible case for calling Dr. Clone “God,” but his reasoning is anything but plausible. concept— God is Supreme Being. Clearly, X thinks of language and usage as entirely private: And there’s another—God has seven a subjective, personal affair. Words and symbols, concepts and meanings are mere individual playthings, alterable at the tattoos and a tongue stud.” whim of the user. Take the term God. Here’s one concept— God is Supreme Being. And there’s another—God has seven tattoos and a tongue stud. You mean one thing, I mean some- thing else. Who’s to say? ry. For me, it will be great fun to meet Brahms and Socrates, Funny thing about “Who’s to say?”: while always intended Cleopatra and . . . Lucy! For Dr. Clone will have to go back to as a rhetorical question, ironically, it’s a question that can Lucy. Indeed, while he’s at it, he’d better pick up a few prior usually be answered. Correctly. The authorities here, the dic- generations of apes just to be sure he doesn’t miss anybody. tionaries, are the ones to “say.” And the pets? Best to bring those back, too. At the most con- servative estimate, that’s one trillion startled, hungry animals. Is Dr. Clone God? Will Dr. Clone’s fellow citizens call him or think of him as Is Dr. Clone omniscient? No. Is he eternal? Perfect? No. Did “God”? Well, they probably will have some choice names for he create the universe out of nothing? No. Is he supreme? A Dr. Clone, but “God” is not likely to be one of them. Their spirit? No. Is he a judge, unchanging, or a redeemer? No. Can hatred and resentment of the madman who is dumping a he conquer death? Yes. thousand Chinas on their community will be very deep indeed. Dr. Clone resembles God in one respect. He is a one-trick Obviously, if Dr. Clone resurrects me, he will have to resur- god, though admittedly, it is a very neat trick. X has gone to rect everyone. But, as we see, that notion is utterly ludicrous. all the trouble of concocting his futuristic scenario to come up Therefore, he will not be resurrecting me. Personal Identity It is astonishing that thinkers like X will blithely expound “Our public officials and legislators get on personal survival, immortality, resurrection, etc. without having any clear idea of the nature of the “I”—the personality the message, loud and clear. that is supposed to survive death. Personal identity, on most interpretations, is located in the retention of certain vital, Why maintain the wall of church-state essential, core memories or mental contents that are consti- separation when all the citizens tutive of the person, though countless other mental events crowd the phenomenal stage at every gradation from “core” are in church?” to “peripheral.” We cannot say with any precision which are vital, how many must be present, and at what level of intensity to be able to say that I am there. Just as we are not quite cer- with a being who is not God, but godlike. And that is a rather tain that Grandpa is still there in the nursing home, when one significant difference. Not the devil, but the deity is in the grandchild laments that Grampa could no longer remember details. the knight’s move in their chess game, but another noted “that Actually, Dr. Clone will be considered as a god for the brief old, sly sense of humor.” Again, in the truest sense, Grandpa stretch after revival, until the reborn person realizes that Dr. is partially there. What we sometimes say in jest—“He’s not Clone’s procedure is commonplace. After that, he’ll be no more all there”—turns out to be literally correct. divine than our own dentists are to us. If this fluid set of essential memories is what makes me me, It is a gross understatement to say, as X does, that the then, at a minimum, their presence is a necessary condition concepts of “Dr. Clone” and “God” “. . . may not be exactly the for the survival of my personhood. But, those core elements of same . . .”; they’re nowhere near the same! And, it’s our con- my identity are biochemically encoded in my brain in the form cept, the one all the religious and political leaders are using, in of neurological structures or states. And these, after 10,000 which we’re interested. We want to know whether that “God” years of decomposition and dispersal, will be simply impossi- exists. In good conscience, we must first address that meaning ble for the mad superscientist to reconstitute or replicate. It is and take a stand on that entity, before we start speculating or no good trying to salvage the work of Dr. Clone by reverting changing the definition. to an unintelligible dualism wherein the mental is nonmaterial X was so happy to be able to offer me a way out of atheism; or “spiritual.” If anything, his task would be harder! How does if I agreed with his new meaning for “God,” then even I could one reassemble spiritual elements? Surely, it is easier to herd say that God exists. The only appropriate response to such

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 52 tomfoolery is to offer X a way into atheism; if he agrees with Unfortunately, not all is sweetness and light with rebeliev- the standard meaning for “God,” then even he could say that ers; their position is not merely a harmless, benign exercise “God does not exist.” No, Dr. Clone will not be “God,” but he in amateur theology. For whatever reasons, insofar as rebe- surely would be one hell of a doctor! lievers frequently join Unitarian, Congregational, or other extremely liberal churches, the fact remains that they are The God Fixation and are counted as members of religious bodies. They swell It must be emphatically stated that the point of all this analysis the ranks of the “churched” and enhance the impression of a is not to deride or belittle X. Our aim is to attempt to understand “churchgoing America.” the thought processes of believers and rebelievers, to examine It is in this matter of creating the impression of a “deeply their arguments and strategies, and to be sure that we, as religious nation” and a “God-fearing people” that I fault the atheists, can respond convincingly. I reiterate my belief that X rebeliever’s fuzzy fling with religion. I charge them with political is a bright, well-educated, thoughtful person who was utterly naïvete at best. Consider the area of public opinion surveys, polling, etc. Questionnaires and pollsters have no time for phil- osophic or semantic subtleties. When they ask “Do you believe in God? Are you religious?” They pose the usual questions, “If you live like an atheist, vote like an with the usual intent—they and we know what is meant. But rebelievers don’t. They hear something different; they make atheist, pray like an atheist . . . you’re their private, instant mental translations, and come up with sur- an atheist! Admit it.” prising answers. “Are you religious?” becomes, to X, “Are you a man of depth, integrity, and concern?” He answers a resound- ing “Yes.” “Do you believe in God?” becomes, to X, “Do I think Dr. Clone will resurrect me?” Another resounding “Yes.” And so it goes. Lo and behold, rebelievers, by their affirmative answers, sincere in his effort to alleviate the plight of atheists by suggest- have allied themselves with the most dismal, regressive ele- ing a gambit, such that they, too, could say they believe in God. ments in our society. The media then dutifully report the results That proposal was really a misguided effort to tinker of all these “studies”—overwhelming majorities believe in God with the usual semantics of the term God. His travails occur and attend church. Our public officials and legislators get the because he cannot make a clean break with religion, or shake message, loud and clear. Why maintain the wall of church-state his God fixation; he cannot sever God’s umbilical cord. He suc- separation when all the citizens are in church? cumbs to the temptation to respond to the typical challenges Catholic intellectuals must sometimes wonder what they often hurled at atheists: “So, what will replace God, for you?” are doing up there on the same “pro-life” platform with some or “So, what do you believe in?” X replies, “Dr. Clone and sci- illiterate cornball preacher. In a similar vein, rebelievers like ence” but is too quick to add that they are God and religion, X, with their self-deluding word games and coy flirtations with respectively. He fails to see that imaginary entities don’t call religion, unintentionally give hope and comfort to the dark- for replacement. They weren’t there in the first place; they side forces of superstitious ignorance. They unwittingly open don’t do anything; they are causally null and void. the door to unsavory characters and bizarre alliances. In other The story of X is instructive because so many of us share words, strange bedfellows. On that note, I close by reminding his history. He cannot bring himself to say the words—”God X and all rebelievers of the consequences of loose behavior does not exist”—though undoubtedly, he has thought the with strange bedfellows: if, some enchanted evening, you find thought. He cannot do what he, and most adults, had already yourself bedding down between Jerry Falwell and Mother done with respect to Zeus and Thor, Satan and Superman, Angelica, will you respect yourself in the morning? fairies and centaurs—eradicate them, finally and neatly— without demanding replacements. X: Friend and Foe Rebelievers could be considered as, arguably, perfect exem- Notes plifications of the concept of a “mixed blessing.” We recognize 1.Tony Pasquarello, “Humanism’s Thorn: The Case of the that they are, intellectually and emotionally, our brothers and Bright Believers,” Free Inquiry 13, no. 1 (Winter 1992/93). sisters. Yet, they should be reminded of the old adage, “If it Dawkins’s bewilderment over one specific bright believer looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, . . .” Dear X, if you live (Richard Dawkins, “Sadly, an Honest Creationist,” Free like an atheist, vote like an atheist, pray like an atheist . . . Inquiry 21, no. 4 (Fall 2001) eloquently exemplifies the bright you’re an atheist! Admit it. believers’ continuing ability to perplex—nay, dumbfound— scientific freethinkers. The Case of the Bright Believers is still Our stance with respect to X and all like him must be one open. Wide open. of gentle firmness, unswerving allegiance to our principles 2. For example, see Alvin Plantinga’s “The Free Will combined with a twenty-four-hour welcome mat. We will lend Defence” in Philosophy in America, ed. Max Black, Cornell a sympathetic ear to theories concerning various candidates University Press. 3. If it is true that we shrink significantly as we age, the for godhood, but we point out that these candidates, like all class of things over our heads is always increasing. others, are not God, but merely godlike. We will add that, in 4. This fraudulent type of “proof” is perfectly general. I most cases, atheists’ respect and admiration for nature, art, show its applicability to Santa in “Churching Santa,” Amer­ science, the universe, will match those of any rebeliever. We ican Atheist, Winter 1999/2000. just see no reason to call any of those “God.”

53 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 CHURCH-STATE UPDATE

Graduation Prayer Watch.¸ A feder- al judge rejected a Colorado atheist Pledge Aftermath Bad teacher’s challenge of his high school’s graduation prayer policy. The judge rejected Sean Shield’s contention that News for Secularists the new policy, which invited a selected student to present a commencement “message,” represented an end run Tom Flynn around First Amendment concerns. ˘ In West Virginia, a federal judge barred a planned graduation prayer because pol- icy required school officials to approve hurch-State Update tracks con- Constitutional argument why our Pledge its text in advance. Showing a disregard tinuing developments in important of Allegiance cannot acknowledge our for law that is becoming typical in these Cfederal, state, and local church- commonly held belief that ours is one scenarios, about a hundred graduating state issues. Each item is preceded by nation, under God, indivisible, with liber- seniors stood and recited a Christian an up arrow (˘) or a down arrow (¸), ty and justice for all.” Could Jesse Helms prayer. ¸ The Illinois house passed a bill based on the story’s implications for have phrased it more tartly? that would legalize public prayer during separation of church and state and the However refreshing the decision may the school day and at school functions. rights of the nonreligious. be, it is expected to have a short life. ˘ In Iowa, a federal judge forbade a high When you read this, it may already have school choir to sing a setting of The ˘ Ninth Circuit Rules Out “Under God”: been overturned by the whole Ninth Lord’s Prayer at graduations. Will It Last? For years now, a small Circuit. If the Ninth Circuit upholds movement has struggled to restore the the decision—which is possible, since Commandments Watch. ˘ A federal judge Pledge of Allegiance to its condition the decision’s legal reasoning is actu- ordered Ten Commandments plaques before Congress added “under God” in ally fairly conventional—rejection by to be removed from two Chatta­nooga, 1954 (see http://www.secular.ws/pledge). the Supreme Court seems inevitable. Tennessee, municipal buildings. ˘ After Sacramento, California,­ atheist Michael I predict a 5–4 decision that will twist four years of litigation, Elkhart, Indiana, Newdow stole their thunder when a precedent in ways that license vast new will remove a Commandments monu- three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit abuses of non-Christian Americans. But ment. City leaders gave up after a federal Court of Appeals accepted his complaint at least we’ll know where we stand. judge rejected their last-ditch effort to that “under God” coercively promoted surround the Decalogue with historical religion. In case you’d forgotten that ¸ Supreme Court Okays Vouchers. Okay, documents. ˘ A federal judge ordered average Americans regard the nonreli- so Ohio’s voucher plan gave Cleveland Richland County, Ohio, judge James gious as second-class citizens, the nation children only enough money to attend DeWeese to remove a Ten Command­ responded hysterically to the ruling. The ments poster from his courtroom. Senate voted 99–0 to condemn it. In a the lowest-priced religious schools. So 96 percent of them spent their vouchers ¸ Plattsmouth, Nebraska, has ap­pealed Newsweek poll, 87 percent of respon- a federal judge’s order that it remove a dents supported keeping “under God” at religious schools. That doesn’t mean monument bearing the Ten Command­ in the Pledge. That’s right, almost nine that the government was improperly aid- ments and stars of David. in ten Americans thought it the height ing religious education! On the contrary, ˘ Ogden, Utah. The Tenth U.S. Circuit of citizenship to grind atheists and any said the U.S. Supreme Court, this was “a Court of Appeals has ruled that Mormon- Americans who don’t think their deity’s program of true private choice.” The 5–4 name is “G-o-d” face-first in the mud of decision, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, is dominated Ogden, Utah, must allow a their bigotry. a terrible setback for church-state sep- New Age UFO religion called Summum As a New Yorker, I wrote a protest aration. It will likely trigger a torrent of to post a display of its “Seven Principles” to Senator Hillary Clinton. Here’s her litigation to determine the exact parame- alongside the elaborate Ten Command­ response: “I believe that the Court misin- ters of allowable aid to religious schools. ments display on the courthouse lawn. terpreted the intent of the framers of the Expect a state-by-state battle. Many The city argued that having the Decalogue Constitution and instead undermined one states have constitutional provisions— on the courthouse lawn did not violate of the bedrock values of our democracy, so-called Blaine amendments shaped by the establishment clause, but allowing that we are indeed ‘one nation under nineteenth-century nativist mistrust of the Summum monument beside it would God.’ . . . It is my hope that this wrong and Catholic schools—which may hamper — a position the court found “somewhat unfair decision will be promptly appealed voucher schemes. Expect a confusing ironic.” As this is written, the city plans and overturned. . . . There is no moral or quilt of voucher options. But in most of to appeal. Observers speculate that, if those states, tax dollars (including those the city loses, it will remove its Decalogue Tom Flynn is editor of Free Inquiry paid by the nonreligious) will fund sec- monument rather than allow the Summum and former coordinator of the First tarian religious education at levels not monument to be erected alongside it. Amendment Task Force. previously imaginable.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 54 GREAT MINDS

1867 to 1883. By the time of his death in 1881, Littré had contributed some Emile Littré, sixty articles and notes to the review. Two important ideas recur throughout these writings: that all religions (theol- ogies is Littré’s usual term, borrowed 1801–1881 from Comte) have been outgrown by humanity and will soon disappear; and that any hypothesis—including all belief William Raymond Clark systems—that cannot be supported by positive, factual evidence must be dis- carded as unworthy of investigation. his year France celebrates an ume translation and critical edition of Throughout the second half of his important literary anniversa- the writings of Hippocrates (published life, Littré was roundly demonized by Try, the bicentennial of the birth 1839–1861), a scholarly achievement the Church and its defenders. An anec- of Victor Hugo (1802–1885), arguably that made him France’s leading medical France’s greatest nineteenth-century historian. writer. But as we salute the author of Paralleling his interest in medicine Emile Littré Les Misérables, we might well pause to was a passion for languages. While pur- (1801–1881) honor the memory of an important con- suing his medical studies, Littré learned temporary of Hugo’s, whose own bicen- and taught English, Italian, Spanish, Background tennial came and went quietly one year and German, combining these modern Born Maximilien-Paul-Emile Littré Febru­ary ago. The man in question, famous in his languages with a repertoire of classical 1, 1801, died June 2, 1881. His grand- father a Jacobin, his father an admirer of day for his courageous opposition to the tongues that included Greek, Latin, and Robespierre; both parents ardent repub- Church and tireless defense of democ- Sanskrit. His 1840 translation from the licans. Rejected deism as a school boy. racy, scientific method, and reason, was German of David Friederich Strauss’s Studied medicine in his twenties. Disciple of France’s Noah Webster, Emile Littré. Life of Jesus marked an important August Comte in 1840s. Broke with Comte Littré’s fame rests principally on his step in the dissemination of Germany’s in early 1850s. lexical masterpiece, the Dictionnaire Higher Criticism into France. Achievements étymologique, historique et grammati- In 1840—1841, at the halfway point of Auguste Comte’s leading disciple, diffuser of cale de la langue française. Published in his life, Littré discovered the positivism positivist ideas from 1840s and especially 1867–1881. Elected to French Academy eight volumes over a fifteen-year period of Auguste Comte, as expounded in the and to National Assembly (both 1871). (1863–1878), this dictionary is notewor- latter’s six-volume Course in Positive Became a Freemason in 1875; named sen- thy both for its philological erudition and Philosophy (1830–1842). In 1844, six ator for life the same year. for its many illustrative quotes, culled articles by Littré in Le National intro- Some Notable Works from a wide range of French authors. duced the general reading public to Famous for his monumental Etymo­logical, Called by Encyclopaedia Britannica Comte’s ideas. By mid-century, Littré Historical and Grammatical Dictionary “perhaps the greatest dictionary ever was universally regarded as Comte’s of the French Language. Also authored a written by one man,” Littré’s monumen- leading disciple. History of the French Language (1862) and Auguste Comte and Positive tal word book holds a lasting place of In 1851–1852, however, Littré broke Philosophy (1863). Founder and guiding honor among French reference works. with his mentor. A republican to the core, force behind La Philosophie Positive, Equally distinguished, though less wide- he was offended by Comte’s endorse- whose dates of publication, 1867–1883, ly remembered today, are Littré’s con- ment of the coup d’état that enabled define the contours of Scientific Positivism as a movement in France. tributions to the cause of freethought. Louis-Napoléon to become Emperor Littré was born in Paris on February Napoleon III, thereby turning France’s Intellectual Passions 1, 1801. His parents had lived through Second Republic into its Second Empire. Modern and ancient languages; history of French language; medieval and classical the French Revolution, emerging from it Also repugnant to Littré was Comte’s French literature; ancient medicine. imbued with republican ideals that they veering off into a quasi-religion of his proudly passed on to their son. Emile own devising, a kind of godless mysti- Religious and Political Beliefs spent his twenties as a medical student. cism in which great historical figures Lifelong champion of democracy and scien- Lack of money prevented him from fin- were transformed to “secular saints.” tific method. Regarded all religious asser- tions as useless hypotheses. ishing his degree, but he went on to Determined to keep positivism a sec- write voluminously about medicine. Of ular movement, Littré formed his own Fitting Epitaph special note in this regard is his ten-vol- school under the banner of Scientific “He was convinced that tolerant minds will inherit the earth and that truth lies in a Positivism. In 1867, his group gained an Bill Clark teaches French language liberalism that does not fear the liberty of official platform when Littré founded others.” (Ernest Renan) and literature at Salem State College in the review La Philosophie Positive. This Massa­chusetts. periodical survived for sixteen years, appearing in bimonthly numbers from

55 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 dote from the pen of Ernest Renan illus- from the Academy in protest. ten in July 1881 just after Littré’s death trates the insults that became Littré’s (La Philosophie Positive Vol. 27), he daily bread once he had come to be seen Deathbed Coercion pointed out that objective information as positivism’s standard bearer: In his last hours, an exhausted, disori- about Littré’s final hours was practically In 1872, visiting a lighthouse on the ented Littré wearily gave in to appeals nonexistent, since only immediate family coast of Brittany, [Littré] fell from the from his wife and daughter, both devout members, not any of Littré’s friends, had second story. He escaped with only Catholics, that he accept a Catholic actually witnessed his last moments; that a few bruises, but a local newspaper funeral. Biographer L. Guinet, writing the priest who was present had been lamented the fact that he had not bro- in 1925, paints a sad scene of deathbed summoned by Littré’s wife and daughter ken his neck. “We had differing ideas about theology” Littré added when coercion, attributing Littré’s acquies- and not by the dying man himself; and recounting this story, “and this was cence to an “excess of tolerance”: that this same priest had frankly stated their way of telling me they disagreed to a reporter from Le Clairon that, even with me.” (Guinet, p. 77) Unfortunately, when he died peacefully on June 2, 1881, his family took advan- though a Catholic burial had taken place, When Littré applied for membership tage of his physical weakness and had there had been no baptism, no confes- in the French Academy in 1863, his him baptized and [these] religious rites sion, and no communion. The whole story appear to negate his life-long [skepti- of faith miraculously regained was pure reputation as an unbeliever and his cal] position. Fortunately Wyrouboff stature in anticlerical circles raised the set the record straight [. . .]: “there sensationalism, charged Wyrouboff, fab- hackles of Bishop Félix Dupanloup, one can be no doubt that [Littré’s] convic- ricated by the widely read Figaro in an of the most powerful clerics in Paris and tions, which were very firm, did not effort to boost sales. To an open-minded change during his final days and that, reader, Wyrouboff’s article makes an himself an Academician. The bishop perhaps out of an excess of tolerance, set out to block Littré’s election and [. . .] he did not dare to put any last overwhelming case for Littré’s unswerv- succeeded, making strident opposition requests in writing that might cause ing allegiance to unbelief. Nonetheless, to Littré’s rejection of religion the crux pain to his wife and daughter, whose to this day the myth of his last-minute of his campaign. But eight years later, religious ideas he had always respect- religious rebirth persists, carefully per- ed.” (Guinet, p. 84) in 1871, with much of the monumental petuated by the Catholic Encyclopedia. Dictionary now in print, Littré’s sec- Grégoire Wyrouboff, co-editor of the As recently as 1999 (online edition), it ond candidacy was too strong for even La Philosophie Positive, had vigorously maintains that the dying Littré: “yielding Dupanloup to torpedo. Littré was elect- disputed rumors of the dying Littré’s to the entreaties of his wife and daughter, ed. An outraged Dupanloup resigned alleged return to faith. In an article writ- . . . had long interviews with Fr. Millériot, S.J., and finally asked to be baptized, and he died in the Catholic Church” (emphasis added). No evidence is cited Littré’s Moment of Awareness in support of Littré’s alleged request for baptism; no mention is made of Wyrou­ This passage is excerpted from an essay written in 1877, “Thoughts on boff’s powerful dissenting article. the Current State of Theology Throughout the World” (La Philosophie Littré continues to be regarded Positive, Vol. 19, 168). The event Littré describes apparently took place throughout the French-speaking world in his early teens. as one of France’s greatest philologists and lexicographers. Schools and streets Now that I am ill and well into old age, many life experiences have been have been named for him in several passing through my mind, among them the one that divested me of my French cities and towns. In Paris, rue theological beliefs. They were the beliefs of deism: God, the soul, the after Emile Littré, situated on the Left Bank life. They had not been formally taught to me; I had simply picked them not far from the university quarter, up from my surroundings. One evening, at the end of the school day, memorializes his name and the last- alone in my little room, I was settling down to my studies when suddenly ing importance of his contributions to I stopped. Without anything in particular prompting the question, I asked French learning. myself exactly what the foundation was that my beliefs rested upon. The References answer not only greatly surprised me but frightened me as well: my belief “Emile Littré,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, was based on nothing but arguments, some more convincing, some less. vol. 9, online edition, 1999. www.new It could not claim a single objective fact that might give it reality and advent.org. certainty. The blow was unexpected and profound in its impact. The prob- L. Guinet, “Emile Littré.” Isis 8, no.1 (1925): lem was so disturbing that I decided to postpone a final decision until all 77–102. Emile Littré, “De la Situation théologique aspects of it had been examined. Later, the study of medicine and, after du monde.” La Philosophie Positive 19 that, the study of the history of religions were far from restoring my old (September-October 1877): 161–172. opinions. Finally, however, positive philosophy calmed all the fluctuations Grégoire Wyrouboff, “La Mort de Monsieur of my mind by leading me to the one true point of view, which consists of Littré,” La Philosophie Positive 27 (July- neither affirming nor denying anything about that which is unknowable, December 1881): 7–12. and treating theologies as the historical products of human evolution.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 56 SCIENCE AND RELIGION

physics cannot produce it, so much the better. The world must have a transcen- An Accidental World dent cause—God! The cosmological argument sounds reasonable, even after philosophical crit- Taner Edis ics point out that it is not quite iron- clad. Basically, it makes common sense. However, since we also seem predisposed to see cause and pattern where there are he human brain is not at its best suggests our species was coughed up none, we should look a little closer at the when it confronts random, mere­ by a process of random variation and notion of randomness before jumping to Tly accidental facts. We perceive a selection, theologians assure us a divine conclusions. Let’s examine particular- face on Mars or see Jesus in a burnt tor- purpose was guiding everything behind ly modern physics, which has replaced tilla. We believe basketball players get a the scenes. And then there is one of the the Newtonian clockwork order with a “hot hand” even though streaks of suc- most intuitively appealing reasons to world awash in randomness. cess are a normal part of shooting their suspect there is a God. We can ask, usual overall percentage. If disaster why does this universe exist, among Randomness in Physics strikes us, we wonder if there was some an infinity of possibilities, including Randomness most famously appears in cosmic reason we were singled out. nothing at all? There is no naturalistic quantum mechanics. Here we have an Our religions also feed on this aver- answer; our sciences take us as far as extremely successful theory that, as far sion to accidents. If evolutionary biology they can, and then we just have to say as we can tell, describes how the world our universe has no further cause. It works at the most fundamental level. Taner Edis is assistant professor of could have been otherwise, but ours just And it gives us probabilities, not defi- physics at Truman State University, happens to be the one we live in. But nite predictions. The results of quantum and author of The Ghost in the Uni­ never mind just us; this whole universe measurements are random. Events in verse: God in Light of Modern Sci­ence can’t be just an accident, can it? There the quantum realm happen at random, (Prometheus 2002), upon which this has to be a cause behind it all, says the including, for example, particle-antipar- article is based. classical cosmological argument, and if ticle pairs popping into existence out of

57 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 nothing and vanishing again. ical cosmologists today are comfortable The randomness in physics is exact- Of course, quantum physics is also playing with ideas such as univers- ly like this. Physicists do not declare notoriously weird, and we might take es popping into existence at random, randomness lightly, going on initial the random fluctuations of the quan- somewhat like a particle-antiparticle ignorance. They attempt to find pat- tum realm to be yet another aspect of pair or multiple “bubbles” of univers- terns, including causal connections, and its overall strangeness. But random- es in which different low-energy laws judge something as random only after ness also shows up in other funda- of physics operate because the roll of failing and seeing no prospect of finding mental theories. For example, general the symmetry-breaking dice turns out an overall pattern on closer investiga- relativity. At the boundaries of space- differently in each. After all, random, tion. If something is random, we cannot time, we find randomness. What comes uncaused events appear to be the rule identify a pattern to link it to a net- out of the Big Bang is a roll of the dice. in physics — why should physical cos- work of causes. Randomness, in other Black holes destroy information and mology be different? words, is where explanation ends: when emit thermal noise. Though it may offend common sense, we cannot give further reason for how It may still seem that these are exotic randomness reigns in modern physics, something is as it is, when we can do no matters at the limits of our knowledge, particularly in our most fundamental more than say it is a brute fact. though physicists take them very seri- theories. If we look a bit more closely at This does not, of course, prevent ously. But even our everyday lives are what randomness means, we find this is the metaphysically inclined from touched by the fundamental randomness no accident. in­venting hidden causes behind ran- in physics. Consider the existence of domness. Some philosophical inter- good old-fashioned heat, long known to Where Explanation Ends pretations of quantum mechanics do be a consequence of microscopic disor- We may still be tempted to rally common just this. However, these causes do no der. Or entropy, the increase of which sense and object to this talk of uncaused real work: all the calculations remain keeps track of the gradual disordering of events. Randomness, we may think, is the same, and the randomness is still the universe, establishing the “arrow of merely a label for our ignorance of true there, only displaced from the dynam- time.” The nature of our everyday world causes. If we encounter randomness in ics itself to the initial conditions. The is closely tied to the randomness in our fundamental theories, this is only difference is that between rolling the microscopic physics. because this is where the current limits dice on the spot and looking up ran- Now, this does not quite fit the pop- of our knowledge stand, and so we have dom numbers from a predetermined ular image of physics, where theoretical not yet figured out the deeper causes. but hidden table. In other words, there geniuses contemplate the sublime sym- Liberal religious thinkers tend to is no way to legitimately infer a cause metries of nature, grasping elegant laws think this way. Their God is hidden; he behind what appears random. If some- of nature where beauty becomes truth. is not some tinkerer who directly inter- thing is random, this means that at Einstein thought that a superior intel- venes in the world, but he is also not some level it is uncaused. ligence was revealed in “the harmony absent. The seeming accidents of evolu- In fact, if we really want to take of natural law”; randomness seems to tion and physical cosmology all have a modern physics seriously, we should go introduce an ugly messiness into these purpose—to create humans, perhaps. In further. We have traditionally thought rarefied realms. fact, something like quantum indetermi- of a world that works by cause and But even here, randomness is cen- nacy may be just the device for a God to effect as a fundamental assumption of tral. The ideal of a physicist is a set tweak the outcome of cosmic evolution science, even as a presupposition of of equations that can fit on a T-shirt without crass intervention; something rational thought. But in modern phys- and generate all interactions between not possible in a Newtonian clockwork ics, ordinary causality breaks down in elementary particles based on abstract universe. the microscopic realm. Not only do we symmetry principles. However, equa- Unfortunately, none of this real- have events that happen at random, tions on a T-shirt would contain very ly works. Consider a series of coins there is no distinction between forward little information; they would say arranged in an alternating pattern of and backward directions in time. Our remarkably little about our universe. heads and tails, “HTHTHTHTHTHTHT. familiar, macroscopic sense of cause Our particular world would have to be . . .” This is not random: we can easily and effect is, like the arrow of time, not generated through “symmetry break- predict the next coin in the sequence, something basic to the world. These ing,” where our low-energy world is fro- and provide a simple rule for the both emerge in our macroscopic envi- zen out through a series of accidents. sequence. But if we flipped a fair coin, ronment, out of a microscopic substrate In other words, elegant symmetry prin- we would end up with something like that is radically different. ciples specify what sort of dice were “HTTTHTHTHHHHHT . . .,” a series Again, all of this is quite offensive rolled to produce our world. Symmetry with no overall pattern at all, where it to common sense. But then, it has long and randomness are inseparable, the is impossible to predict the next toss. been clear modern physics is counterin- way the symmetry between heads and All we can do is list, as a brute fact, tuitive. Our brains just aren’t built for it. tails is essential to the randomness of whether the result of each toss is T It also seems crazy that our world just a coin flip. And the more simple and or H: no rule will help us simplify our exists, with no cause, as an accident. elegant our most fundamental laws, the description. In the long run, the series Nevertheless, this seems to be most like- more this means our world is a result will have plenty of local patterns, but ly true. Ours is an accidental world, a of accidents. like the Face on Mars, these will be chaos that finds shape without the help So it comes as no surprise that phys- meaningless. of the gods.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 58 GOD ON TRIAL

wide and taken to be proof of the local religion. At best, only one can be true, Ten Religious and this seems unlikely. Conversely, apparently identical experiences are reported by nonreligious individuals, and interpreted in nonreligious ways. Reasonings 5. Argument from miracles. Events have occurred that could not have hap- pened, and these prove divine inter- John Radford vention. Comment: Most “miracles” are so ludicrous, or trivial, like statues weep- or centuries philosophers have have been transmitted by divinely guid- ing tears of blood, that the best one can argued over belief in religion, or ed men ever since. Thus they must be say is that God must have a marvelous FGod, or one particular religion. true. sense of humor. More seriously, mira- All the classic arguments in favor are, Comment: There is no valid reason to cles are actually nonsense. A dead man in my view, fallacious. In everyday life, believe in God, and all traditional scrip- cannot come back to life, because death in conversations with friends and col- tures known to me are conglomerations is defined as that condition from which leagues or doorstep evangelists, one of writings from various sources, made recovery is not possible. Someone who does meet some of these golden oldies, for various reasons, and collected more is nearly dead, or apparently dead, may like the argument from design, or the or less arbitrarily. recover, to general amazement, and this argument from first causes. The first 2. Historical argument. The New no doubt was the root of many miracle says, essentially, that the universe is Testament (in particular) is a historical stories, especially in former times when so orderly and so unlikely to have hap- record of extraordinary events, above medical knowledge was rudimentary. pened by chance that it must have been all the crucifixion, death, burial, and (Today, Roman Catholic miracles of designed by someone, and this must resurrection of Jesus Christ. These healing have to be inexplicable by med- have been God. In fact, the universe is prove the truth of Christianity. ical knowledge. God presumably keeps not particularly orderly and is the result Com­ment: Actually the Gospel up to date with this as it rapidly chang- of innumerable small changes over time, accounts of these events were written es.) some working better than others and quite a long time afterwards, relying 6. All-explanatory argument. If you thus being perpetuated. The second presumably on oral tradition. There is read our scriptures you will see that argument is that everything comes from no corroborative evidence from other they give a complete explanation of something else preceding it, like a plant sources. They are about as reliable as everything. No other writings do this. from a seed from another plant. The the tales of King Arthur. And they con- Comment: No one book can possibly universe must have come from some- tain so many elements of other Middle give a complete explanation of every- thing else and this must be God, who Eastern religious myths as to be virtual- thing, and to claim this is to stretch is a “necessary” being, self-created or ly indistinguishable from them. both the sense of “explanation,” and the always existing. But if there could be 3. Argument from uniqueness. Jesus interpretation of a text, so impossibly a “necessary” God, there might just as Christ (in particular), in claiming to be wide as to make both meaningless. well be a “necessary” universe. the Son of God, was either telling the 7. Argument from human potential. Mostly, however, one hears other truth, or he was the greatest charlatan Human beings have many attributes, reasons in favor of religion, to most of that ever lived. such as the capacity for love, courage, which I think professional philosophers Comment: Quite a few people have and creativity, that cannot be explained. would not give house room. Here are claimed to be, not just sons of God, but Their origin must be divine. some I have met with, with brief com- God himself. Some are in psychiatric Comment: There is no reason to ments—not complete answers, just indi- hospitals, but others include several think that all human attributes, good cations of why I find them unconvincing. Roman emperors and the twentieth-cen- and bad, do not have the same ori- The titles are my own. I use the word tury magician Aleister Crowley. The gins, namely evolution both physical scriptures for the holy texts of any reli- Emperor of Japan claimed to be divine and social. Psychology can in fact offer a gion, though this is often Christianity. until the victors in World War II made convincing account of, say, love, as well 1. Argument from authority. Our him relinquish that status. as of, say, reading difficulties. scriptures came directly from God, and 4. Argument from personal experi- 8. Argument from survival. Where do you go to when you die? You must go John Radford is emeritus professor of ence. “I have experienced religion/God somewhere, and this proves that what psychology at the University of East directly in my own life, and I know/him religion says is true. London, United Kingdom. He is author to be true.” Comment: When you die, there is no or co-author of some fifteen books and Comment: One cannot deny the real- “you” to go anywhere. “I” am not a sep- numerous articles both scientific and ity of another person’s experience. The popular. question is, what is the experience? Similar experiences are reported world- (Continued on page70)

59 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 HUMANISM AND THE ARTS

“Proust discovered a formula that could Doing Time with give meaning to his

life and, through his Marcel Proust ‘work of art,’ the

lives of many.” Jeannette Lowen

suggest the factual data or the skeleton; but the original flavor of the scene will arcel Proust devoted his life Past Recaptured to unravelling the mystery of be left behind. This flavor is the “price- Proust’s book has been renamed by time. He uncovered the secret less everything” to an artist, making a M some In Search of Lost Time. In the of extracting the “permanent and the moment in time unique. final volume, The Past Recaptured, he significant” from “the transitory and Unusual experiences led Proust to divulges a way “to recover the whole of the trivial.” He sought some “perma- “the truth of involuntary memory,” the our lives.” nence” in a world where things, people, basis for his life’s work. The famous At age twenty-two, he was already ideas, and feelings seemed ephemeral, incident of the petit madeleine revealed tormented by the thought of temps perdu. and “importance” in all of our too often to him a past lying dormant within him, His early writings resonate with the idea trivia-filled lives. Proust discovered a ready to be called back to consciousness. of time as a haunting nightmare. He was formula that could give meaning to his He was able to retrieve “a feeling of introduced to Henri Bergson’s view that life and, through his “work of art,” the inexplicable happiness” when his moth- there are two different ways of consid- lives of many. er offered him the little plump cake. He ering time: there is time that vanishes Proust is considered one of the few was illuminated by a childhood memory into nothingness and time that endures. literary geniuses of the twentieth centu- (of Combray), where his Aunt Leone on “Enduring-time” (temps-duree) is psy- ry. And when his mammoth 3,000-page Sunday mornings used to give him a chological time. It is the nonmeasurable, Remem­brance of Things Past comes to madeleine, dipping it first in her own cup qualitative experience in which the pres- a close, his many readers would prob- of tea. It “all sprang into being, town and ent continuously augments the past with- ably say that his quest was worthwhile, garden alike, from my cup of tea!” out obliterating it.” his search for lost time fulfilled, and that How to explain when, from the past, Proust began to see “inner time,” on the way all our lives have been illumi- “nothing seems to subsist, the smell, a reality filled with our feelings and nated. The book is often referred to by sound, and taste of things remained. emotions, as very different from “chro- enthusiasts as simply “The Novel,” and And it is these sensory experiences that nometric time.” “The past,” he wrote, countless volumes have been written bear unfaltering the vast structure of “still lives in us . . . has made us what we about its author. recollection!” are and is remaking us every moment! Proust’s concerns about “the pas- Proust thus uncovered a form of . . . An hour is not merely an hour!” (the sage of time” speak to all of us: Where memory, beyond the control of our con- Proustian image). “It is a vase filled with has it gone? How much is left? What sciousness. Recollection is suggested perfumes, sounds, places and climates! shall we do with it? He focuses on how by some unexpected physical sensation . . . So we hold within us a treasure of we live, and communicates a way of (perhaps unimportant in itself) such as impressions, clustered in small knots, “living in time.” a faint scent, taste, or sound. But that each with a flavor of its own, formed A study of French society from 1880– sensation has in the past been associ- from our own experiences, that become 1919, Proust’s novel bears witness to the ated with a number of definite impres- certain moments of our past.” oceanic transformations that changed sions, and when by chance the identical Yet, Proust realized, we cannot reach the horse-and-buggy world to one of avi- sensation recurs years afterwards, all this treasure, which is buried in our ation, cubism, and modern hygiene. The the impressions (associated with it) also subconscious mind. “Time past” is lost book is the record of one man’s experi- rush back, en masse. “It is a complete to us, but the sensations experienced ence, but it is not just autobiographical fragment of the past, with its original are not: here is an inexhaustible mine as the narrator, in investigating his ‘perfume,’ that is for a moment given for art. past, looks beyond his own experience. back to us.” Resurrection of the past as the aftermath of an accidental, involun- Involuntary Memory From Temps Perdu to The tary physical sensation is the keystone When we give our memory an order Jeannette Lowen is the author of Imagine of Proust’s conception of life and art. It to bring back a fragment of our past combines past and present. a World Without Boundaries and Anger (our “voluntary memory”), it can only in Twentieth Century Living. Proust’s artistic engagement with memory intersects in many ways with

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 60 what science has learned about the to arise either from lack of occupation mechanics of memory. The physiolo- or false occupation. “Occupation” in “Proust’s gy of Proust’s petit madeleine experi- Proust is not to be confused with the ence is well understood. The olfacto- work one is forced to do for a living, concerns about ry system, for instance, has a direct, nor with the occasional practice of an the passage of time evolutionarily primitive connection to inadequately mastered art undertaken the hypothalamus not shared by other as an escape from the boredom of doing speak to sensory systems, which gives odors a nothing at all. Occupation, for Proust, all of us.” special power to trigger memories in is that which lies wholly within one’s some detail. His work also anticipates power. It is the expression of oneself. converse qualities, of course, are cruel- modern psychological findings on the The whole last volume of Proust is one ty, unscrupulousness, selfishness. The degree to which memory is reconstruc- long hymn to the glory of finding a true positive as well as the negative attri- tive, “fleshing out” the details of a and fulfilling occupation. butes are illustrated profusely, the les- remembered scene anew each time it sons are drawn, hammered in with the Proust’s Ethics is recalled, the memory itself being relentlessness of a morality play. The merely an “outline.” Humankind appears in Proust’s work to poignant cry for understanding—the cut a very poor figure indeed. Cruelty is plea for tolerance, as integral to his own A Social Critique widespread, and cowardice hardly less time and his own life, for Jews and for In his search for time—as a mystery, so. Even when people are not busy pur- homosexuals—is uttered in his pages: “lost,” a qualitative (not merely quan- posefully tormenting each other, they How we spend our time, said Proust, titative) experience—Proust’s massive go their own way and do as they please, is how we “create ourselves!” undertaking is a “social critique.” Idlers indifferent to the hurt they may inciden- make Proust angry. Throughout The tally be inflicting. Unawareness of the Novel, which is an indictment of the suffering we cause, said Proust, is “the French society he knew (particularly most usual and lasting form of cruelty.” the upper classes), we are struck by Only in some few do the sorrows that Notes the relative unimportance that many they themselves suffer result in a feel- 1. Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Proust’s characters give to how they ing of sympathy for others. But for those of Things Past (New York: Random occupy their time. Writers, painters, few who have been touched by compas- House, Inc., 1927). composers and connoisseurs of art are sion, by a real love for the life of others, 2. Milton Hindus, The Proustian Vision (London and Amsterdam: portrayed as “going from activity to by a feeling which “might make a man Southern Illinois University Press, activity . . . minimally involved” and greater than his own trivial life,” there 1954). dissatisfied with their lives. exists a foundation for the strongest 3. George D. Painter, Marcel “The torture of boredom” is what tie that can exist between creatures in Proust (New York: Penquin Books, Proust illustrates with his stories in this world. 1959). endless variations. It becomes so ter- In The Novel, before Proust traces rible to many of the characters he por- any other outlines of a person’s appear- trays that they look for some positive ance, he draws what might be called a pain as a relief from it. He portrays “moral profile.” One of the first things the lives of those who are rich enough we are informed of concerning financially to be idle but not rich enough the grandmother is “she had spiritually to find creative occupation brought so foreign a type for themselves. of mind into my father’s “Lack of serious occupation” is the family that everyone major source in Proust of unhappiness, made a joke of it!” This unfulfillment, and brutality to others. By foreign element, we are soon contrast, Francoise, the cook, respon- informed, is simply an extraor- sible for culinary events, plays a piv- dinary moral endowment. otal role, “taking the trouble, going Proust, like many from place to place, herself” just as writers, thought that “Michelangelo, choosing the most per- art should be moral. fect blocks of marble.” Francoise is “Kindness, scrupulos- “in her own way an artist”; she is no ity, self-sacrifice”— Michelangelo but far closer to him than these are the high many others who “dabble in the arts. points of but are not involved.” Remembrance of When the narrator finds himself, he Things Past. finds the clue to his own significance, The which turns out to be his “artistic occu- pation.” All the evil and suffering with which Proust’s pages are filled seem

61 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 THE HUMANIST ACTIVIST

on secular memorial events in your area, or for assistance in planning an Secular Humanist event in your community, see www. secularhumanism.org/societies.htm. For more information, see www.Secular Foot-Soldiers? Memorials.org. September 21–29: Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read. Created by the American Library DJ Grothe Association in 1981 in response to the growing number of attempts to ban books in public libraries across the In public policy, it matters less who activists, there is a need for more country by religious extremists, this has the best arguments and more coordination and organization among week-long event is reminds Americans who gets heard—and by whom. the almost three hundred secular and not to take for granted their freedom —Ralph Reed1 humanist societies, on- and off-campus, to read all forms of the written word. which the Council for Secular Humanism For information about how you can get and the Center for Inquiry support.4 involved in your area, see www.secular- he song “Onward Christian humanism.org/societies.htm. Soldiers” gives us a glimpse into Ready to March? September 28, 2002: Rally For the Wall T the incredible power evangelical While there are no secular humanist Between Church and State: Persons of All leaders have over their followers: Tim foot-soldiers per se, secular human- Religions and None Joining Together to LaHaye and David Noebel have written ists will be on the march this com- Keep Pluralism and Diversity Alive and best-selling books calling for “Christ-ian ing November. The Council for Secular Well in America. Come join the the Bay foot-soldiers” to fight in a “battle a­gainst Humanism has endorsed the “Godless Area (San Francisco) Communities of Secular Humanism” in a “cosmic war for Americans March on Washington” Reason (BACOR) in a rally where you will the soul of our country.”2 And earlier this scheduled for November 2, 2002. hear the Founding Fathers themselves year it was revealed that Ralph Reed, Organized by American Atheists, the (at least, costumed impersonators) tell former head of the Christian Coalition, march calls for the participation of all why they separated church from state. had offered his Christian consulting ser- secularists, humanists, rationalists, Visit www.bacor.org (http://www.bacor. vices to energy giant Enron before it was atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers. We org/) or e-mail Rallycoordinator@bacor. enveloped in scandal. Reed’s proposed urge all of our supporters to join us in org for more information. consulting services consisted of an auda- D.C. behind the banner of the Council for November 24, 2002: Church/State cious $380,000 campaign that would have Secular Humanism. Your involvement enlisted “faith-based activists” to sup- will help insure that the voices of secu- port electricity deregulation and other lar America are not subdued by recent policies supportive of Enron’s financial shouts pledging religiosity. To partici- aims.3 Reed’s most commercial consult- pate or volunteer, contact the Council’s ing asset is that he is known to have tens field department at (716) 636-7571 ext. of thousands of Christian foot-soldiers 314 or e-mail me at the address below. who stand ready and waiting for him to Other activities endorsed or spon- issue marching orders. sored by the Council for Secular Preserve the future Secular humanist leaders resist Humanism and the Center for Inquiry: of humanism. developing such organizational power, September 11, 2002: Secular 9/11 and not just because organizing human- Memorial. Since public memori- Provide for ists is like “herding cats.” Humanist al events—parades, vigils, and other leaders celebrate individual freedom, events honoring the victims of the Free Inquiry and so would fear a following of activists unconscionable acts of September who mindlessly do what they’re told and 11—will almost inevitably be domi- in your will. believe whatever they’re told to believe. nated by religiosity, the Council for For more information, Even so, given the threat of a well-orga- Secular Humanism encourages all secu- contact: Development Director, nized minority of evangelical Christian lar, humanistic, and other nonreligious Free Inquiry, P.O. Box 664, individuals and groups to memorialize DJ Grothe is field director for the Amherst, NY 14226-0664. the September 11, 2002, anniversary Council for Secular Humanism. He in a nonreligious way. Memorials can can be reached at djgrothe@center All inquiries are held in the include anything from silent observanc- strictest confidence. forinquiry.net. es and candlelight vigils to participation in other public events. For information

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 62 Separation Week. Celebrated during the humanism.org/societies.htm for more terforinquiry.net. week of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, information about getting involved. this annual commemoration provides activists with an opportunity to celebrate What You Can Do Today one of Jefferson’s highest ideals, the sep- While I hope you won’t consider yourself aration of religion from government. For a secular humanist foot-soldier, I hope information on how you can get involved that you see a need to get involved with Notes in your community, see www.secular secularism and humanism at the grass- humanism.org/societies.htm. roots level in order to let the voice of 1. From a memo Reed sent to Enron executives offering his con- February 12, 2003: Darwin Day. secular America be heard. sulting services. Washington Post, Becom­ing ever more popular with sci- Become an associate member of the February 17, 2002, page A1. ence enthusiasts, Darwin Day is emerg- Council for Secular Humanism, North 2. Marching orders issued by ing as a popular celebration among America’s leading organization for ethi- LaHaye and Noebel in Mind Siege, pp. 225, 259. These quotes are just scientists, educators, and secular cal, nonreligious people. Share this copy a few examples of their language hu­man­ists around the world. It’s not of Free Inquiry with secular and human- of war. too early to start planning your involve- ist students and friends in your area, 3. Ibid. Reed was on Enron’s ment. With the goal of enhancing the or give them a gift subscription. And payroll “off and on” from 1997 until public’s image of science and the theory get involved with the secular humanist Enron’s bankruptcy last fall. 4. For an up-to-date listing of of evolution, Darwin Day is a great way society in your area! To find an inde- independent off-campus groups allied for you to help advance the aims of the pendent secular humanist society allied with the Council, see www.secularhu- Council for Secular Humanism and the with the Council for Secular Humanism manism.org/societies.htm. Center for Inquiry. See www.secular near you, contact me at djgrothe@cen-

(Letters cont’d. from p. 8) school and college “humanistic teach- Linking us with bin Laden is below Free ings” be considered a religious-political Inquiry’s normally high standards of On Surviving extremist position? In the very same spirited controversy. issue of Free Inquiry, Richard Burke I am willing to send our 150-page Humanist notes that “there is a kernel of truth, book Clergy in the Classroom: The however, in the linkage between sec- Religion of Secular Humanism free of Teachings ular humanism and religion” and that charge to anyone interested in seeking “Secular Humanism . . . is the appropri- an objective, rational, academic look at A few observations regard DJ Grothe’s ate stance . . . for educating children in the issue. I know it is objective, ratio- “Responding to the Religious Right” public schools” (p. 23). nal, and academic because it accurately article (FI, Summer 2002): While it is Why should Summit Ministries be quotes secular humanists. true that we had an enjoyable two- termed “religious-political extrem- David A. Noebel hour conversation on the Bob Grant ists” for setting forth some protection Summit Ministries Show (in which Paul Kurtz and I con- to naive Christian students who don’t Manitou Springs, Colorado versed for a few minutes) regarding the understand the hidden agenda in the religious nature of secular humanism, canon or curriculum of what goes under DJ Grothe replies: I deny that I hold a definition of religion the label “education”? Irving Kristol in that’s “decades old and dismissed in Commen­tary magazine (August 1991) I see David Noebel as a sincere and the academy because it it is too broad.” sought to protect Jewish students from well-meaning man, intelligent, and less In point of fact I hold to a definition of the humanist-riddled agenda and noted extreme than some of his associates. Of religion that is academically respect-able. that secular humanism “is the orthodox course he and his organization do not One can’t get more timely and academi- metaphysical-theological basis of the two blow up any towers or universities. My cally in tune with “the consensus defini- modern political philosophies, socialism comments about the similarity of his tion of scholars” than Ian S. Markham’s and liberalism.” Does that make Kristol a rhetoric to Usama Bin Laden’s was not A World Religions Reader (Blackwell, “religious-political extremist”? intended to “quiet discussion” on the 2000). Markham deals with the follow-­ Besides, why is the “Right” always important topics he addresses. On the ing religions: Sikhism, Islam, Christian­- extremist? Is there no extreme Left? contrary, I think he’s asking some of -ity, Judaism, Shintoism, Chin­ese Reli- Someone there needs to read Gold­berg’s the most meaningful questions of any gion, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Secular Bias! Is Grothe a “nonreligious-political evangelical Christian. I do consider his Humanism. I copied Markham’s list from Left extremist”? language of war to be reminiscent of bottom to top. He places secular human- And then to marry bin Laden to our bin Laden’s rhetoric: He says he is in ism first in his listings of world religions! efforts is merely seeking to quiet discus- a “cosmic war for the soul of our coun- I’m not sure what Grothe means by sion. We are not blowing up any towers try,” seeking to assemble an “army” “Noebel and other powerful religious-po- or universities. This kind of rhetoric against the “powerful forces . . . assem- litical extremists.” How can preparing can boomerang, e.g., humanist madras- bled against” him. He asks his followers Christian teens to survive their high sas inculcating humanist dogma, etc. to “enter the battlefield” and to be pre-

63 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 pared to fight with “blood, sweat, and 3. Ibid. Markham’s own definition of reli- I am a Christian and a veteran and proud tears.”1 gion states that it “is a way of life that refus- of it. But I think it is wrong, and a slap in As to our disagreement regarding es to accept the secular view.” the face of millions of American citizens, 4. See the chapter in David Noebel and definitions: he says secular humanism is Tim LaHaye, Mind Siege: The Battle for for Big Government to make their chil- the state-supported religion of America’s Truth in the New Millennium (Nashville: dren say a little prayer (“under God”) public schools, and that this is a vio- Word Publishing, 2000) entitled “Human­ists before they can pledge allegiance to our lation of the establishment clause. He Control America” where secular humanists flag and country in school, teaching them are said to direct (among other organizations) cites Ian S. Mark­ham’s listing of secular UNESCO, UNICEF, the National Council of that if you are not a Christian, you are humanism in his world religions text- Churches, American Civil Liberties Union, probably not a good American. Would book as evidence. But in the pages of the television networks, National Public a Christian parent like his children to the very book he cites, Markham himself Radio, and the World Health Organization. be forced to pledge allegiance to “one says that “secular humanism is not a nation, under Allah, indivisible,” etc.? religion.”2 Markham’s own definition of Amend the Pledge to read: “. . . one religion excludes the secular humanist nation under ______,” and let the worldview as a religion.3 On Humanism and children add whatever their parents Noebel asks “Is Grothe a nonreli- Speciesism teach them. Adults can say whatever gious political Left extremist?” To they like. assume that every secular humanist I am a new subscriber to Free Inquiry John Tomasin, Esq. is on the political Left is to commit a and like the magazine very much. Many West New York, New Jersey conspiracy fallacy, imagining that some of the articles are written in the lan- cabal of leftist secular humanists are guage of philosophy, which is hard for in control of America.4 While he’s right me to follow, but the ideas are worth- to call me nonreligious, he’s wrong to while, so I struggle through. assume I’m a leftist. Economically, I However, I am not a humanist. I consider myself a “classical liberal,” a believe that all animals are of value conservative. Socially, I am persuaded equal to our own. Every weekday eve- by a tempered libertarianism. ning from 5 to 7 p.m. I watch two spell- Secular humanism, a nonreligious but binding hours of animal episodes on ethical worldview, isn’t partisan. At the Wild Discovery. I love all animals. I love Center for Inquiry, where the interna- them for the emotions they are capable tional offices of the Council for Secular of, for their magnificent evolutionary Humanism are located, he’ll find conser- adaptations, and for the the great cour- vatives and liberals, Marxists and Liber­ age they should in facing the dangers tarians, Democrats­ and Repub­licans, all and hardships of their lives. I am proud united despite our political differences that we share this Earth. to “defend and promote reason, science, Esther Mattson and freedom of inquiry in all areas of Mequon, Wisconsin human endeavor.” Lastly, I would strongly encour- The Editors reply: age readers to take Noebel up on his WRITE generous offer of a free copy of his Humanism is not, and does not imply, excellently argued book, Clergy in the human speciesism. Secular human- TO FI Classroom. Though the case he makes ists occupy a broad spectrum of posi- doesn’t stand up to final examination, tions regarding humans’ obligations to his argument is worth respectful con- other creatures. (Surely­ few can ask sideration. More im­portant,­ he high- for a more animal-friendly stance than Send submissions to lights important philosophical differ- that of our columnist Peter Singer.) Of Norm Allen, Jr., Letters Editor, ences between the Council for Secular course, even humanists who do value FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Humanism and other national humanist­ humans sharply higher than other life Amherst, NY 14226-0664. organizations that share some of our forms can join with “green” humanists For letters intended aims. We at the Council look forward to in acknowledging the need for ecostew- for publication, further dialogue on his important thesis ardship—if only because human surviv- please include name, in the future. al depends on a healthy environment, ad­dress, city, and state, too. and daytime phone number Notes (for verification purposes only). 1. David Noebel and Tim LaHaye, Mind Letters should be Siege: The Battle for Truth in the New Millennium (Nashville: Word Publishing, 300 words or less 2000), pp. 106, 225, 259, etc. A Little Help from and pertain to previous 2. Ian S. Markham, A World Religions FREE INQUIRY articles. Reader (Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers, Our Friends 1996), p. 6.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 64 HEADINGREVIEWS SUBHEAD

nature as an emergent property. Efforts Making Strides but Taking Sides to explain it in terms of biology, neu- roscience, or social influence smack to her of reductionism, which she vilifies Tom Flynn as “anti-humanist.” She flogs reduc- tionism repeatedly; by book’s end, she Humanism: Beliefs and Practices, by Jeaneane Fowler (Brighton, U.K., has implicitly read most leading evo- and Portland, Ore.: Sussex Academic Press, 1999, ISBN 1-898723-- lutionary biologists and cognitive sci- 70-2) 347 pp. including notes, bibliography, index. Paper $29.95. entists out of the humanist movement. In addition, her view of human nature depends on a surprisingly naive view of free will. For Fowler, the human capac- rdinarily, Free Inquiry reviews trivial; American readers may glean works published within the past little from her lengthy treatment of ity to make moral choices depends on two years. Fowler’s ambitious abortion and euthanasia reform under human thought being literally, physical- O ly un­predictable. Determinism, too, is Humanism: Beliefs and Practices, pub- British law. At one point, she suggests lished in the United Kingdom in 1999, that Christianity acquired the virgin anti-humanist; deterministic humanists is a merited exception. This accessible birth dogma solely as a consequence of will kindly line up outside next to the work attempts to present, justify, and the Pauline distaste for sex (p. 161). She evolutionary biologists. Worse, Fowler’s defend the whole of humanism between posits an eccentric distinction between handling of free will places humanism two covers. Not since A. J. Ayer’s The nontheism and atheism (p. 66–67), and on needlessly brittle foundations. What Humanist Outlook and H. J. Blackham’s offers surprisingly priggish critiques of if cognitive science demonstrates con- Humanism (both 1968) has such a com- situation ethics (p. 212) and sexual lib- clusively that brain function is determin- prehensive treatment of humanism eration (pp. 295–96). More substantive- istic, as D.M. Wegner, Derek Pere­boom, appeared in the U.K. American human- ly, Fowler takes sides on issues about Owen Flanagan, Thomas Clark, and oth- 1 ists will want to shelve it next to Corliss which many humanists disagree, some- ers expect? If free will becomes just Lamont’s The Philosophy of Humanism times undercutting her book’s utility as one more Cartesian illusion that scien- and Paul Kurtz’s Exuberance, Forbidden a comprehensive survey of humanism. tific moderns must cast aside, Fowler’s Fruit: The Ethics of Humanism, and For example, secular humanist hard- humanism will collapse with it. Fortu­ Living Without Religion. That said, liners will quarrel with Fowler’s embrace nately, most humanists do not anchor Fowler’s Humanism has its faults, and of humanist ceremonial. Analyzing the their model of human nature in a sim- one would do well to bear them in mind psychological functions of religion, she plistic commitment to Cartesian free will. when offering the book to others as an concludes that faith provides feelings of These flaws are genuine, but far introduction to humanism. interconnectedness, permanence, pro- from fatal. Fowler’s book remains the Jeaneane Fowler is a specialist in tection against uncertainty, and person- best one-volume introduction to human- world religions. In addition to Human­ism, al identity that all humans yearn for. ism now in print. Pressed to explain she has authored books on Hinduism “[U]nless humanism as an alternative my life stance by lending a single book, (1997) and Taoism (forthcoming) for to religion fulfills the emotional needs of I would offer Humanism: Beliefs and Sussex Press’s Library of Religious the human being it cannot gain ground,” Practices with pride, though with a few Beliefs and Practices. Having devour- she warns (p. 112). Few hardliners caveats about its partisanship. ed almost the whole of the U.K. and would agree; for them the adventure of American humanist literature, Fowler humanism lies precisely in overcoming discusses humanist thought with erudi- the emotional needs formerly coddled by tion and authority. She describes human- religion. Others, notably, those Frank L. ism as “an atheistic stance to life which Pasquale has termed celebrant human- stresses the fulfillment of the potentiali- ists (see story in this issue), will wel- Note ties of each human being” (p. 21) and a come this, as well as Fowler’s chapter 1. See D.M. Wegner, The Illusion “forward moving existentialism, optimis- on rites and ceremonies which draws of Conscious Will (Cambridge, Mass.: tic, creative, and positive” (p. 23, empha- heavily from Jane Wynne Willson’s pop- MIT Press, 2002); Derek Pereboom, Living Without Free Will (New York.: sis in original). Her skeptical account­ of ular U.K. guidebooks of humanist ritual. Cambridge University Press, 2001); Christianity’s origins is the best since Fowler’s efforts to construct a thorough- Owen Flanagan, The Problem of the Kurtz’s in The Transcen­dental Temp­ ly secularized spirituality (pp. 50–52) Soul: Two Visions of Mind and How tation. In many ways, Fowler’s book is will raise similar controversy. to Reconcile Them (New York: Basic something our movement has long lacked: But it is Fowler’s handling of reduc- Books, 2002)—reviewed in Free Inquiry, Summer 2002; Thomas W. Clark, a sensitive, generally accurate portrayal tionism, free will, and human nature “Science and Freedom,” Free Inquiry, by an objective outsider. that may raise the most eyebrows. Spring 2002, pp. 61, 63, and also Clark’s Yet the weaknesses exist. Some are “Humanism is generally anti-determin- Web site, www.naturalism.org. ist and anti-reductionist,” she declares Tom Flynn is editor of Free Inquiry. (p. 151). Fowler conceives of human

65 http://www.secularhumanism.org fall 2002 REVIEWS

just mentioned” (p. 3–4). Leaving aside Does Theology Have Any Content? the blatant absurdity of this last state- ment (for example, the polytheism of the ancient Greeks, with their numerous gods Jason Rosenhouse whose petty disputes spilled over into the mortal realm, was born out of ignorance, not spiritual longing), what evidence can Why Religion Matters; The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age Smith adduce for the existence of benevo- of Disbelief, by Huston Smith (New York: HarperCollins, 2001, ISBN lent supernatural entities? 0-06--067102-5) 290 pp. Paper $14.95. Apparently nothing more than the ubiquity of such belief in human culture. Smith considers the ill-defined intuitions [Physicists] do not laugh when a fellow subjects (statements like, “In lay lan- of humanity serious evidence for a theistic scientist, Dale Kohler, writes “We have guage, what the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen worldview. Of course, the pattern of broad been scraping away at physical reality experiment demonstrates is that if you agreement coupled with massive local all these centuries, and now the layer of the remaining little that we don’t separate two interacting particles and variation, perfectly exemplified by human understand is so thin that God’s face is give one of them a downspin, instantly religious customs, is precisely the sort of staring right out at us.” (p. 177) the other will spin upward” [p.174], do thing evolution produces so ably. Darwin himself, in The Descent of Man, offered an uston Smith believes that sci- not inspire confidence), but he feels no explanation for how belief in the super- entism has infiltrated every shame in lecturing on their metaphysical natural could have arisen from various aspect of modern society, from the significance. He trots out the standard H clichés of the field—the anthropic prin- animal instincts. Smith rejects evolution, media to the law to academia. By spread- but offers no explanation for why human ing their blinkered belief that science is ciple, nonlocality in quantum mechan- intuition, which has so often been faulty the most reliable, if not the only, road to ics, the intractability of the mind/body in the past, should be accepted over the knowledge of the world, arrogant materi- problem—but contributes nothing new considered judgment of every branch of alist scientists have abused the respect or insightful. the life sciences. And since sacred texts granted them by society. Theology has At least here Smith acknowledges have routinely proven themselves incom- been unfairly maligned. “My shelf of that many professionals do not share petent regarding testable qualities of the books on science for the laity,” he writes, his views. Biology is granted no such natural world, why should they be trusted “is as long as my shelves on each of the respect. Smith is certain that evolution concerning the supernatural? major world religions, but I will be very is a threat to the feel-good theism he pro- Smith fleshes out his simple-minded- much surprised if you can say as much motes, meaning that it must be brushed ness with the standard tools of popular from your side” (p. 273). aside. But he is a busy fellow who can’t theology-anecdotes contrasting theolog- Since Smith argues that he has seri- be troubled to come up with his own bad ical modesty with scientific arrogance: ously pondered the formidable implica- arguments. So he boasts of his asso- tions of modern science, since he wishes ciation with Icons of Evolution author A scientist to review a book on theolo- to present himself as the clear-thinking Jonathan Wells, and brazenly repeats gy? To see what that choice bespeaks . . . imagine the editors . . . reaching pluralist confronting militant dogma- the charges of fraud and dishonesty lev- eled therein (p. 180). That all of Wells’s for a theologian to review a book on tism, and since he engages in learned science. The standard justification for discourse on subjects ranging from claims have been thoroughly refuted, and this asymmetry is that science is a quantum mechanics to evolutionary that charges of fraud are far more plausi- technical subject whereas theology is biology to cognitive science, it is not bly leveled at him than at biologists, has not, but now hear this. Several years back at a conference at Notre Dame mere churlishness that leads me to apparently eluded Smith’s radar. His treatment of theology is no bet- University I heard a leading Thomist observe that Dale Kohler, the noted say in an aside to the paper he was scientist at whom physicists do not ter. He makes vague pleas for respect, delivering, “There may be—there just laugh, is a fictional character. He exists but it is not at all clear what theology may be—twelve scholars alive today is or what its methods are. If Smith can who understand St. Thomas, and I am nowhere outside of John Updike’s novel not one of them.” (p. 66) Roger’s Version.1 It’s a blunder typical offer any means for choosing between of this shallow and superficial book. the truth claims of rival religions, he Folksy asides allow him to straddle the Smith sees modern physics and cog- does not reveal them in this book. line between Joe Everyman familiarity nitive science as allies in his quest to And what is it that theology has dis- and high-minded erudition, and gibber- gain respect for theology. One suspects covered, exactly? Smith regards it as ish masquerades as profundity. After that Smith understands nothing of these obvious “that the finitude of mundane reading this book, I haven’t existence cannot satisfy the human heart the faintest idea why reli- Jason Rosenhouse received his Ph.D. in completely,” that “the reality that excites mathematics from Dartmouth College in and fulfills the soul’s longing is God by Note 2000 and is currently at Kansas State whatsoever name,” and that “until mod- 1. John Updike, Roger’s Version University. ern science arrived, everyone lived with (New York: Knopf, 1997). a worldview that conformed to the outline

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and better ways to adapt to changing and The Decline of Islamic Civilization difficult situations. In the case of Islam, this is because religion is politics. Lewis stops short of assigning direct Mike McGlothlin culpability to Islam. Nevertheless, he concludes that the solution to Islamic misery is “that of secular democracy, What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response best embodied in the Turkish Republic , by Bernard Lewis (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-19-- founded by Kemal Ataturk.” 514420-1) 180 pp. Cloth $23.00. If Lewis contradicts himself by not attributing Muslim problems to Islam while at the same time offering sec- ular democracy as the answer, he offends history by advancing the theo- ry of a Christian origin of secularism. n world-changing crises, the comfort- ated the historical transformation as a Lewis boldly asserts that the concept able milieu of the times is upturned, result of which Islamic civilization now of separation of church and state has and people rightly seek understand- finds itself in a serious plight. Western I an intellectual and theological basis ing. In earlier times, understanding was barbarians have firmly replaced­ Islamic in Christian tradition. “In a profound grounded in wide knowledge of philos- dominance. sense,” Lewis concludes, “Western sec- ophy and history. Regret­tably, today’s Hence the title: What Went Wrong? ularism . . . is Christian.” postmodern mental fashions offer unin- The first thing to go wrong, Lewis illus- This worn-out argument is severely telligible nonsense; most contemporary trates, is the way Muslims responded to flawed. It relies on the quote: “Render historians have abandoned criticism in their civilization’s decline. “The blame therefore unto Caesar the things which favor of a relativist ethos under which game” first was played against the are Caesar’s; and unto God the things ethical and cultural judgments are Asian Mongol invaders of the thirteenth that are God’s.” But which things are ostensibly suspended. In this intellectu- century. Next Arabs and Turks blamed properly Caesar’s, and which God’s? In al climate, the title of Bernard Lewis’s each other, while the Persians pointed the absence of divine intervention, world- book on Islamic civilization What Went a reproaching finger at “Arabs, Turks, ly power remained the actual arbiter. Wrong? is apt to strike many readers as and Mongols impartially.” Then the fin- A more warranted explanation for critical and insensitive. That, apparent- ger pointed to “Western Imperialism,” the secularization of Western civilization ly, will be the foregone conclusion of his with European colonialists eventually turns on Europe’s empirical experience most notorious inquisitors, who have in being replaced by the United States as with immensely bloody religious wars the past disparagingly dismissed Lewis the object of Islamic ire. and the principle of toleration—best as an “Orientalist.” According to Lewis, the argument expressed by John Locke—which arose Contrary to his critics, however, that colonialism is to blame for Islamic as a historical and philosophical reaction Lewis offers an unsurprising balanced society’s current predicament is uncon- to those murderous conflicts. Locke’s treatment of Islamic history. He paints vincing. As he points out: “the Anglo- proposition that: “. . . the power of . . . with deliberate strokes the wide can- French interlude was comparatively government . . . is confined to the care of vas of a grand Islamic history and its brief and ended half a century ago; the the things of this world, and hath nothing place in the human saga: as he readily change for the worse began long before to do with the world to come,” logically acknowledges, for many centuries “in their arrival and continued unabated places politics outside the realm of reli- the forefront of human civilization and after their departure.” The latest and gious jurisdiction, leaving empiricism— achievement.” Muslims have long con- most poignant scapegoats are “the Reason—the arbiter of politics. The sidered their civilization superior, but Jews,” the underlying anti-Semitism consequence is that people can agree according to Lewis, such a viewpoint largely a holdover from Arab associa- to disagree regarding the most intense was formerly well-grounded in histor- tions with the Nazis. religious delusions and still live together, ical fact. When medieval Europe was But other-directed self-deception, making possible freedom and peace. a “pupil,” Islamic civilization was not pales in comparison to the larger problem In his concluding chapter, Lewis out- only the world’s leading military and confronting Islamic civilization, which lines Islam’s alternatives: “if the peo- economic power, but it “had achieved seems to be the religion of Islam itself— ples of the Middle East continue on the highest level so far in human history more precisely, the failure to separate their present path, the suicide bomber in the arts and sciences of civilization.” secular political authority from religion may become a metaphor for the whole Islam’s primacy began to deteriorate. and to adopt a broad principle of toler- region.” However, “if they can abandon The series of military defeats for Islam ance. Throughout history, civilizations in grievance and victimhood . . . they can that began in Andalusia in 1492 initi- which religious and metaphysical certi- once again make the Middle East . . . tude has prevailed have disappeared in a major center of civilization. . . . The Mike McGlothlin has written for the the face of empirically driven competi- choice is their own.” e-zine The Ethical Spectacle. tors. Certitude of opinion masquerading as knowledge precludes learning new

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to know it when we can”) and the fear Rare Gem of death (“when the end comes, what a happier prospect we have than religious people! For death brings us no fear, the Tom Flynn simple reason being that we shall know nothing about it”) (both p. 112). The Cosmic Fairy: The New Challenge of a Darwinian Approach to Humanism, by Arthur Atkinson, with a foreword by David Bellamy (Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, U.K.: Colin Smythe, 1996, ISBN 0-86140--403-3) “Atkinson offers pithy, 133 pp., including index. Paper. sometimes genuinely novel, replies to the aving broken the “no old books” you don’t believe in fairies!”) principal objections taboo by reviewing Jeaneane Atkinson offers pithy, sometimes HFowler’s 1999 Humanism: genuinely novel replies to the principal believers throw at Beliefs­ and Practices, let’s go all the objections believers throw at human- way. Arthur Atkinson’s 1996 The Cosmic ists. “Giving up religious belief is often humanists.” Fairy is out of print and hard to find. criticised as being purely negative,” he I learned of it only because of a vague- notes; on the contrary, it is the most pos- ly disapproving reference in Fow­ler’s itive act imaginable. “What is so fruitless Most provocatively, Atkinson argues book. It belongs to an unpromising and frustrating is trying to establish that humanists who take seriously the genre: self-indulgent, often self-pub- relationships between ourselves and notion of consciousness-as-brain-states lished autobiographies on the theme of God” (p. 41). Philosophers might quail at should no more talk of an abstract qual- “How I Abandoned­ Religion and Found his cheeky claim that God the intelligent ity called “mind” than they would speak Humanism”­ are often dreadful. But The creator cannot exist, because conscious- of a metaphysical entity called “soul.” Cosmic Fairy is the book those autobi- ness and intelligence are qualities that There is no “mind,” Atkinson insists, ographies yearn to be, a gemlike little emerged into the universe only billions merely the thoughts that occur in our account of the humanistic worldview one of years after its creation by the process brains. I’ve called for purging spirit and retired schoolmaster found satisfaction of evolution—but it’s a bodacious free- its cognates from the humanist vocab- in crafting for himself. (By the way, the thought debating point, and one I’ve not ulary; Atkinson’s call to evict mind as “cosmic fairy” referred to in the title is encountered elsewhere. well is downright brash. I think I’ll try it God — used in the sense of “Come now, Also refreshing are Atkinson’s takes for a while. But be warned; you may lose on the unknown (“we have simply to your, um, mind trying to find a copy of Tom Flynn is editor of Free Inquiry. accept its mystery . . . striving to get this obscure little masterpiece.

factual errors, and directory listings Gossip on the Half Shell years out of date at publication. Smith seems to have taken these crit- icisms to heart.1 Celebrities in Hell is not Tom Flynn merely a compilation of celebrity listings sifted from the earlier book. Smith has rewritten many, added new ones, and Celebrities in Hell, by Warren Allen Smith (Fort Lee, N.J.: Barricade Books, updated as thoroughly as a lone editor 2002, ISBN 1-56980--214-9) 288 pp. Paper $14.95. can. But lacunae remain, and in great number. Max von Sydow’s listing men- tions none of his films after 1980.2 Bruce Willis’s bio lists no films later than 1991 elebrities in Hell catalogues arts work Who’s Who in Hell (WWIH). and never mentions his breakthrough and entertainment personalities WWIH was a slow-motion train wreck television show Moonlighting.­ 3 Though Cwhom someone—virtually anyone that tried to be both an encyclopedia Michael Stipe is credited as coproduc- — has identified as unbelievers. This of freethought and a directory of con- er of 1999’s Being John Malkovich, the book is a spin-off of Smith’s immense but temporary atheists and humanists. No film goes unmentioned in Malkovich’s ultimately unsuccessful 2000 reference single book could meet those disparate own listing. Nor are “movement” figures objectives. Worse, because Smith com- exempt: James Randi is still listed as Tom Flynn is editor of Free Inquiry. piled his huge tome single-handedly over “principal investigator” of a Council for many years, WWIH bristled with typos, Secular Humanism project that hasn’t

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existed since the late 1980s. But these ject’s opinions about religion! you never knew shared your unbelief. are simple errors. That brings us to the problem of Still, Celebrities in Hell is error-ridden Celebrities in Hell suffers more deep- inclusion standards. Many of Smith’s and marred by blatant editorial bias and ly from two systematic problems: edito- listings are based solely on the Celebrity sloppy scholarship. This book reflects no rial self-indulgence and lax standards Atheists Web site, which ascribes athe- credit on its publisher or on the human- for inclusion. As to self-indulgence, ism to pop icons on evidence that can ist/freethought movement. Warren Allen Smith is a man of many be slender indeed, sometimes just a interests, and people Smith knew from few words from an interview taken his Greenwich Village recording studio out of context. Other items are based days, people with ties to the gay and on Smith’s personal knowledge, so lesbian community, people with adult there’s no way to check them. Perusing film backgrounds, and, well, people who Celebrities in Hell, I found more than are simply Smith’s friends get more twenty-five listings from varied sources Notes than their share of ink. That’s how porn that contained only ambiguous evidence 1. Who’s Who in Hell received an actress Nina Hartley rated more space that their subjects were unbelievers or, unfavorable staff review in “Deficient than Blondie vocalist Debbie Harry, like the Diamond and Bowery items, Directory,” FI, Spring 2001, p. 67. and how gay performance artist Leigh contained no information about their 2. The Internet Movie Database Bowery merited two and one-half pages subjects’ religious opinions. In what (www.imbd.com) lists seventy von Sydow appearances after 1980, while television/film star and avowed purports to be a directory of celebrity including U.S. films, foreign films, and agnostic George Clooney got two and unbelievers, that’s an astonishing over- television. one-half inches of type. Perhaps it also sight. 3. Though Willis’s listing does not explains how both classical composer Celebrities in Hell has its merits. Its mention Moonlighting, it does mention a single guest appearance on Miami David Diamond and the aforementioned efforts to include figures from contempo- Vice. It also mentions Willis’s 1987 Bowery won write-ups longer than rary fine arts and popular music under Emmy Award, though without noting that for famed comedian/director and the humanist tent are laudable. Among that Moonlighting is what he won it avowed atheist Mike Nichols, despite the the listings that are adequately docu- for. fact that neither Diamond’s biography mented, you will probably discover some nor Bowery’s ever mention their sub- arts and entertainment legends whom

But one need not look very far to An Incompetent Defense of Faith see major problems. first, too many of Blanchard’s sources are secondhand. In Chapter 4, for example, no fewer Hector Avalos than 26 (or 22 percent) of his 118 notes are described as “cited in” anoth- er work, which means Blanchard is by John Blanchard (Auburn, Mass.: Does God Believe in Atheists?, not really reading the original sourc- Evangelical Press, ISBN 0-85234-460-0, 2000) 655 pp.$24.95. es here, but rather blindly parroting information found in other Christian apologetic books. very year Christian fundamen- from Pacific International University, a Often I cannot find quotations at the talist students in my Iowa State school not recognized by the U.S. Office place cited. For example, in order to EUniversity Bible classes bring in a of Education (see www.paciu.edu/u/ refute the statistical probability of evo- book that they think provides a definitive accredit.htm). lution, Blanchard (p. 606, Note 82) cites defense of Christianity and a lethal blow Blanchard’s book appears very a “1997” article by Hubert P. Yockey: to my atheism. This year, the book of impressive and scholarly at first, with “A Calculation of the Probability of choice seems to be the title under review. 655 pages and thousands of footnotes. Spontaneous Biogenesis by Information John Blanchard has a long history The book is organized as a sort of his- Theory,” in the Journal of Theoretical in Evangelical circles as a writer of tory of atheistic ideas with adjoining Biology, page 67. Had Blanchard actu- some twenty-two books and a confer- counterarguments. Thus, Chapter 1 cov- ally looked up this article, he would find ence speaker. Blanchard’s own aca- ers Greek philosophers. Chapter 2 takes it on pages 377–398 of Volume 67, of the demic credentials are somewhat sus- us from the Middle Ages through the year 1977. pect: he received a “Doctor of Divinity” Enlightenment. There are discussions of In any case, the relevance of Yockey’s the origin of life (Chapter 14), the idea article to Blanchard’s argument is exag- Hector Avalos is associate profes- that morality requires God (Chapter 17), gerated. Yockey is mainly concerned sor of religious studies at Iowa State the Bible’s divine origin (Chapter 19), with the improbability that one large University. and Jesus’ uniqueness (Chapter 24). protein (cytochrome c) can be produced

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spontaneously. This does not mean that Cambrian Explosion Exploded?” Sci­ who would repatriate the Jews for the no other biogenic molecule of any other ence 293 [July 20, 2001] pp. 438–439). specific purpose of building the temple size can be produced. Nor do Yockey’s And there are even more serious at Jerusalem.” It does not occur to calculations prove that smaller mole- problems with the data Blanchard Blanchard that the biblical author might cules cannot lead to larger ones, a point accepts from other sources. For exam- have been writing after Cyrus lived, and Blanchard invokes in order to defend. ple, on page 408 Blanchard accepts the so this is not a prophecy at all. It is a These are not irrelevant infelicities. claim that: retrojection, much like what he might It is characteristic of Christian apol- while there are no prophecies in claim about the prophecy concerning ogists to repeat bad information as the Qur’an, in the Hindu Vidas or Muhammad in the Qur’an. though it is reliable. Another example Bhagavad-Gita, in the sayings of In Chapter 17 he argues that with- Buddha, Confucius or in the Book of is page 96, where Blanchard repeats Mormon, it has been estimated that out God there can be no moral stan- a claim by Philip Johnson (Darwin on about 30% of the Bible consists of dards and life would be meaningless. Trial, [Downers Grove: Intervarsity, prophecy of one kind or another, mak- He apparently overlooks the fact that 1993], p. 54), who sees the so-called ing it unique in religious literature. God-based systems can make life easily Cambrian explosion as “the sin- A simple check of some of the sacred expendable. Numbers 31:17, for exam- gle greatest problem which the fossil books shows Blanchard’s patent igno- ple, commands the killing of women and record poses for Darwinism.” The sup- rance. One example is Sura 61:6 of the children. Deuteronomy 7:2, the biblical posed “sudden” appearance of life in Qur’an, where it is claimed that Jesus god, commands the Hebrews to extermi- the Cambrian becomes an argument for announced “Glad Tidings of an apostle nate the indigenous peoples of Canaan creation. to come after me, whose name shall in order to take their land. The fact Blanchard overlooks the existence be Ahmad,” which is another name for is that God-based systems are just as of life up to a billion or more years Muhammad. Muslims regard this proph- (or even more) relativistic as atheistic before the Cambrian in the Archean ecy hundreds of years before its fulfill- systems. The difference is that atheistic and Proterozoic eras. The Cambrian ment to be a certain proof of the divine moral systems don’t create mythologi- explosion simply marks the rise of origin of the Qur’an. We could cite many cal entities and ideas to fight about. hard-bodied organisms. Soft-bodied other supposed prophecies in almost In sum, John Blanchard may fool some ancestors will not be preserved as well every source that Blanchard claims has of my undergraduates into thinking he in pre-Cambrian layers. Johnson, of no prophecies. is a great scholar. But his book is just course, clouds the issue by making it The supposed lack of prophecies in another careless hodge-podge of second- seem as though evolutionists claim that non-Christian books is then juxtaposed hand quotations repackaged to make the absolutely no soft-bodied animals will with the usual argument that the Bible unwary believe it is something new and be preserved in the pre-Cambrian fossil contains prophecies so accurate that definitive. Secular humanists have noth- record. Johnson’s statement may be only divine inspiration can explain. He ing to fear from John Blanchard. outdated already, as is evident by the says of Isaiah, “Even more remarkably, discovery of new fossils from the lower he prophesied that their captivity would Cambrian (see Richard Fortey, “The be ended by someone named Cyrus,

(God on Trial cont’d. from p. 59) escape unpunished, while good people from whatever causes, and the convinced suffer. In a religious system, they will find arguments that seem to them to arate being living in my body, but a total eventually pay for their crimes, if not make sense, to support it. This is actual- functioning entity. When the body ceases now then after death, and the good will ly quite a well-documented process, even to operate and decays, then memories, be rewarded. This is clearly better, and in such non-emotional fields of psycho- thoughts, feelings cease also. The per- thus religion must be true. logical research as problem-solving. This sonality is not the same thing as the brain Comment: Apart from the fact that is why you can never convince the argu- and body, but it cannot exist without its there is no after-life, there is no reason mentative doorstep evangelist. He or she physical substrate. (We can see the two to think that the universe must be as is not really arguing, but expressing con- disintegrating together in such distress- we would like it to be. It is up to us to victions. but with those who are quite so ing conditions as Alzheimer’s disease.) promote justice here and now; there is committed, reasoning may bring a chink 9. Argument from success. My reli- no one else to do it for us. of light into the cavern of faith, and the gion is the largest (or fastest growing, All these arguments have been put to prisoner may eventually find a way out. or oldest) in the world, and it must me quite seriously and sincerely, often Of course, it could be that I am so therefore be right. by intelligent and well-educated people. convinced of my own position that I am Comment: Formerly, virtually every- They all seem to me so patently wrong merely rationalizing my objections to one believed Earth was flat. It isn’t. that I can draw only one conclusion: that these religious reasonings. I must ask 10. Argument from justice. In this is that they are not really reasons at all, readers to decide for themselves. world, many wicked people manage to but rationalizations. At least for many people, religious conviction comes first,

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 70 Vern L. Bullough, distinguished professor, University of Conor Cruise O’Brien, author, diplomat, University of Southern California (USA) Dublin (Ireland) Mario Bunge, Frothingham Professor of Foundations Indumati Parikh, M.D., president, Radical Humanist and Philosophy of Science, McGill University (Canada) Association of India (India) Jean-Pierre Changeux, Collège de France, Institute John Passmore, professor of philosophy, Australian Pasteur, Académie des Sciences (France) National University (Australia) Commission for International Development Patricia Smith Churchland, professor of philosophy, University of California at San Diego; adjunct pro- Jean-Claude Pecker, professor emeritus of astrophys- fessor, Salk Institute for Biological Studies (USA/ ics, Collège de France, Académie des Sciences The Center for Inquiry maintains bilateral cooperative Canada) (France) relations with a great number of humanist and ratio- Sir Arthur C. Clarke, author, Commander of the British Wardell Baxter Pomeroy, psychotherapist, author (USA) nalist organizations and centers worldwide, several of Empire (Sri Lanka) Dennis Razis, medical oncologist, “Hygeia” Diagnostic which we helped to establish and support with funding. Bernard Crick, professor of politics, Birkbeck College, We provide a partial listing. University of London (UK) & Therapeutic Center of Athens S.A. (Greece) CENTRAL AMERICA—Asociación Mexicana Etica Francis Crick, Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology, Salk Marcel Roche, permanent delegate to UNESCO from Racionalista A.C., Apartado Postal 19-546, 03900 Institute (USA) Venezuela (Venezuela) Richard Dawkins, Charles Simonyi Professor of Public México D.F., México Max Rood, professor of law; and former Minister of SOUTH AMERICA—Asociación Ediciones de la Revista Understanding of Science, Oxford University (UK) Justice (Netherlands) Peruana de Filosofía Aplicada, El Corregidor 318, Rímac José M. R. Delgado, professor and chair, Department of 25, Lima, Perú Neuropsychology, University of Madrid (Spain) Richard Rorty, professor of philosophy, University of Jean Dommanget, Belgian Royal Observatory (Belgium) AFRICA (African-Americans for Humanism)—Action for Virginia, Stanford University (USA) Umberto Eco, novelist, semiotician, University of Humanism, PO Box 91, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., professor of history, City Nigeria; Rational Centre, PO Box 01132, Osu-Accra, Bologna Ghana; The Uganda Humanist Association (UHASSO), Paul Edwards, professor of philosophy, Brooklyn University of New York (USA) P.O. Box 4427 Kampala, Uganda College, City University of New York (USA) Léopold Sédar Senghor, former president of Senegal; Luc Ferry, professor of philosophy, Sorbonne University EASTERN EUROPE—Russian Humanist Society, Center member of the Académie Française (Senegal) and University of Caen (France) for Inquiry—Moscow, filosofskií fakultet, MGU, J. J. C. Smart, professor emeritus of philosophy, Vorobyevy gory, 118899 Moskva (Moscow), Russia; Antony Flew, professor emeritus of philosophy, Reading Instytut Wydawniczy “Ksiazka i Prasa” ul. Twardo 60 University (UK) Australian National University (Australia) PL-00-818 Warsaw, Poland Betty Friedan, author, founder, National Organization Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate, playwright (Nigeria) for Women (NOW) (USA) NEW ZEALAND—The New Zealand Rationalist & Barbara Stanosz, professor of philosophy, Instytut Humanist, 64 Symonds Street, Auckland 1001 Yves Galifret, professor emeritus of neurophysiology at Wydawniczy “KsiÅÛka i Prasa” (Poland) INDIA—Indian Rationalist Association, 779, Pocket-5, the University P. and M. Curie; general secretary of Mayr Vihar-1, New Delhi 110 091; Atheist Centre, l’Union Rationaliste (France) Svetozar Stojanovic,´ director, Institute for Philosophy Vijayawada 520 010 Johan Galtung, professor of sociology, University of and Social Theory, University of Belgrade Oslo (Norway) NEPAL—Humanist Association of Nepal, P.O. Box 5284, (Yugoslavia) Kathmandu, Nepal Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel Laureate; professor of phys- Thomas S. Szasz, professor of psychiatry, State Islamic Secularism—The Council maintains a Web site ics, California Institute of Technology (USA) for secularism in the Islamic world at www.secularislam. Adolf Grünbaum, professor of philosophy, University of University of New York Medical School, Syracuse org. Pittsburgh (USA) (USA) Jürgen Habermas, professor of philosophy, University International Humanist and Ethical Union, 47 Theobald’s V. M. Tarkunde, senior advocate, Supreme Court; Road, London WC1X 8SP, United Kingdom of Frankfurt (Germany) Secular Organizations for Sobriety—SOS, headquar- Herbert Hauptman, Nobel Laureate; professor of bio- chairman, Indian Radical Humanist Association tered at the Center for Inquiry–West, has helped estab- physical science, State University of New York at (India) Buffalo (USA) lish similar groups in various parts of the world: SOS Richard Taylor, professor emeritus of philosophy, Clearing House, http://www.cfiwest.org/sos/. Alberto Hidalgo Tuñón, professor of philosophy, Universidad de Oviedo (Spain) University of Rochester (USA) INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF HUMANISM Donald Johanson, Institute of Human Origins (discover- Sir Keith Thomas, historian, president, Corpus Christi ACADÉMIE INTERNATIONALE D’HUMANISME er of “Lucy”) (USA) College, Oxford University (UK) Sergeí Kapitza, chair, Moscow Institute of Physics and The Academy is composed of nontheists who are: (1) Rob Tielman, professor of sociology, Universiteit Technology; vice president, Academy of Sciences (Russia) voor Humanistiek, Utrecht; former copresi- George Klein, cancer researcher, Karolinska Institute, dent, International Humanist and Ethical Union Stockholm (Sweden) (Netherlands) Ioanna Kuçuradi, secretary general, Fédération Lionel Tiger, professor of anthropology, Rutgers—the Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie (Turkey) State University of New Jersey (USA) devoted to the principle of free inquiry in all fields of György Konrád, novelist, sociologist; cofounder, human endeavor; (2) committed to the scientific out- Hungarian Humanist Association (Hungary) Sir Peter Ustinov, actor, director, writer, Commander look and the use of reason and the scientific method in Paul Kurtz, professor emeritus of philosophy, State of the British Empire, 1975 (UK) University of New York at Buffalo (USA) acquiring knowledge about nature; and (3) upholders of Mario Vargas Llosa, author (Perú) humanist ethical values and principles. Gerald A. Larue, professor emeritus of archaeology and biblical studies, University of Southern California at Simone Veil, former Minister of Social Affairs, Health, Los Angeles (USA) and Urban Affairs (France) HUMANIST LAUREATES Thelma Lavine, Clarence J. Robinson professor of phi- Gore Vidal, author, social commentator (USA) Pieter Admiraal, medical doctor (Netherlands) losophy, George Mason University (USA) Shulamit Aloni, former education minister (Israel) Jolé Lombardi, organizer of the New University for the Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., novelist (USA) Ruben Ardila, psychologist, National University of Third Age (Italy) Mourad Wahba, professor of philosophy, University Colombia (Colombia) José Leite Lopes, director, Centro Brasileiro de of Ain Shams, Cairo; president of the Afro-Asian Kurt Baier, professor of philosophy, University of Pesquisas Fisicas (Brazil) Philosophical Association (Egypt) Pittsburgh (USA) Paul MacCready, Kremer prize-winner for aeronautical Sir Hermann Bondi, professor of applied mathematics, achievements; president, AeroViroment, Inc. (USA) Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize winner; professor of King’s College, University of London; Fellow of the Adam Michnik, historian, political writer, cofounder of physics, University of Texas at Austin (USA) Royal Society; Past Master of Churchill College, KOR (Workers’ Defense Committee) (Poland) George A. Wells, professor of German, Birkbeck London (UK) Jonathan Miller, OBE, theater and film director, physi- College, University of London (UK) Elena Bonner, author, human rights activist (Russia) cian (UK) Jacques Bouveresse, professor of philosophy, Collège Taslima Nasrin, author, physician, social critic Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor, the de France (France) (Bangladesh) Agassiz Museum, Harvard University (USA)