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An Exclusive Interview with Sir Peter Ustinov

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An Exclusive Interview with Sir Peter Ustinov Is There a Need for An Exclusive FM'M? Interview with Sir Peter Ustinov Are daydreams, by Warren Allen Smith illusions, and religious beliefs an escape from Remembering reality, or bene- ficial tools for World War II dealing with life? Racial Superiority and `Ethnic Cleansing' The Wandering Jew by Martin Gardner Editor: Paul Kurtz SUMMER 1995, VOL. 15, NO. 3 ISSN 0272-0701 r- PreS1.re I Contents C Senior Editors: Vern Bullough, Thomas W. Flynn, Gerald Larue, Gordon Stein 3 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Executive Editor: Timothy J. Madigan Managing Editor: Andrea Szalanski 5 An Exclusive Interview with Contributing Editors: Robert S. Alley, Joe E. Barnhart, David Berman, Peter Ustinov Warren Allen Smith H. James Birx, Jo Ann Boydston, Bonnie Bullough, Paul Edwards, Albert Ellis, Roy P. Fairfield, Charles 8 EDITORIALS W. Faulkner, Antony Flew, Levi Fragell, Adolf Grünbaum, Marvin Kohl, Jean Kotkin, Thelma Agenda for the Humanist Movement in the Twenty-First Century, Paul Lavine, Tibor Machan, Ronald A. Lindsay, Michael Martin, Delos B. McKown, Lee Nisbet, John Novak, Kurtz / True Believers and Utter Madness, James A. Naught I Right to Skipp Porteous, Howard Radest, Robert Rimmer, Die: The Battle Is Joined, Ronald A. Lindsay Michael Rockier, Svetozar Stojanovic, Thomas Szasz, V. M. Tarkunde, Richard Taylor, Rob Tielman 15 Humanist Potpourri Warren Allen Smith Associate Editors: Molleen Matsumura, Lois Porter 19 Editorial Associates: REMEMBERING WORLD WAR II Doris Doyle, Thomas Franczyk, Roger Greeley, 19 Racial Superiority and `Ethnic Cleansing' Revisited Paul Kurtz James Martin-Diaz, Steven L. Mitchell, Warren Allen Smith 20 Why I Am Immune to Mysticism Paul A. Pfalzner Cartoonist: Don Addis 22 Doing the Right Thing George and Eva Klein Chairman, CODESH. Inc.: Paul Kurtz 26 Protecting the Children Vera Freud Chief Development Officer: James Kimberly 27 Exiled Reason Kurt Baier Public Relations Director: Norm R. Allen, Jr. 31 The Wandering Jew and the Second Coming Martin Gardner Executive Director, Secular Organizations for Sobriety: James Christopher Chief Data Officer: Richard Seymour 34 IS THERE A NEED FOR FANTASY? Fulfillment Manager: Michael Cione 34 Introduction: Fantasy, Religion, and Typesetting: Paul E. Loynes, Sr. Missing Teeth Timothy J. Madigan Graphic Designer: Jacqueline Cooke 35 To Dream Is Human Molleen Matsumura Audio Technician: Vance Vigrass 37 The Fantastic Power of Fantasy Charles W Faulkner Stuff: Georgeia Locurcio, Anthony Nigro, Ranjit Sandhu 38 The Fantasy Option David Berman Executive Director Emeritus: Jean Millholland 39 Humanism, Science Fiction, and Fairy Tales Kenneth Marsalek FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published quarterly 43 The Future of God Bart Kosko by the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism 45 Vaihinger and the 'As If' (CODESH, Inc.), a nonprofit corporation, 3965 Rensch Rollo Handy Road, Amherst, NY 14228-2713. Phone (716) 636-7571. 46 Transcending Illusions Brian Zamulinski Fax (716) 636-1733. Copyright ©1995 by CODESII, Inc. 49 Secular Humanism in Literature Second-class postage paid at Amherst, N.Y., and at addi- Edythe McGovern tional mailing offices. National distribution by International Periodicals Distributors, Solana Beach, 54 REVIEWS California. FREE INQUIRY is available from University Microfilms and is indexed in Philosophers' Index. An Early Critic of Christianity, Gerald A. Larue / Everything You Printed in the United States. Always Wanted to Tell Fundamentalists ... And More, Farrell Till / A Subscription rates $28.51) for one year, $47.50 for two Thomas Paine Bonanza, Gordon Stein I A Call for Common Decency, years, $64.50 for three years, $6.95 for single issues. Address subscription orders, changes of address, and Greg Erwin / Books in Brief advertising to FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. 59 VIEWPOINTS Manuscripts, letters, and editorial inquiries should be Catholic Priests and Adult-Child Sexual Interaction, Vern L. Bullough I addressed to The Editor, FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Editorial submissions must Pat Robertson's Fantasy, Skipp Porteous I Religion and Sexual be on disk (PC: 3-1/2" or 5-1/4"; Mac: 3-1/2" only) and Orientation, Richard J. Goss accompanied by a double-spaced hardcopy and a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Acceptable file for- mats include any PC or Mac word processor, RTF, and 66 IN THE NAME OF GOD ASCII. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or publisher. Postmaster: Send address changes to FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Cover art by Bruce Adams. Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Cover photo of Peter Ustinov courtesy of Michael O'Mara Books, Ltd. herself comes on as very much his peer in Letters to the Editor all of those respects. Arthur Heusinkveld Cedar Rapids, Ia. The Many Faces of Feminism feminism where the anti-feminists get more pages than the feminists. Since it Many of Camille Paglia's comments I think it highly appropriate for FREE would take a letter as long as the magazine made me sad, but none more so than her INQUIRY to focus an issue on feminism issue to respond to each and every mis- enthusiasm for controlled violence. No ("The Many Faces of Feminism," FI, take, lie, and uncalled-for attack, I'll make doubt there once were people who Spring 1995). I am sorry, however, that this simple: (1) Women who name the vio- enjoyed the controlled violence of the rit- even the writers who agree that equality lence against us as male violence are not ual sacrifice of human beings. for women is a worthy goal are so disso- reveling in victimhood, we are placing the nant in their approach. It is disappointing blame where it lies; (2) Women do not Helen P. Sheffield and troubling to read the vitriol emanating control academia, and it is the people who Kaysville, Ut. from the pen of Barry Smith ("On make such absolutely ridiculous state- Feminist Nomadism") against Rosi ments that are the true purveyors of politi- Braidotti ("Feminism and Modernity"). cal correctness. Robert Sheaffer's "Feminism, the Noble His characterization of Braidotti's essay Kate Greene Lie" made a number of telling points, but as amounting to "nothing more than non- Hattiesburg, Miss. a few of his assertions were questionable; sense on stilts" is mean-spirited and for instance, the "pre-surgical female-to- below the belt. It appears that where his male transsexual" taking male hormones argument failed he felt it necessary to I nearly let my subscription lapse because who "reported that her energy level sud- belittle. Men who really believe in equal- you have become too dogmatic in my denly increased dramatically, as did her ity for women can help most by simply view. What saved you was your coura- sex drive." While males are physically closed-mouth-making-it-happen. geous feature on the flaws in the feminist stronger than females, there is, to my movement. knowledge, no data showing that they Walter S. Boone Conrad Jess have a higher energy level. The same may Terrell, N.C. Fairborn, Ohio well be true of sex drive. As to this trans- sexual's inability to cry as much, a con- siderable number of us very masculine Rosi Braidotti's response will be pub- "I hate dogma in any form," Camille types cry fairly often, and it is as least lished in the next FREE INQUIRY.—EDS. Paglia declares in the interview with Tim arguable that the proclivity of tears is Madigan. The way she then expatriates at strongly related to the sort of socialization length in classic dogmatism begs for a one undergoes. It's not that I want to stifle free speech, or revision of the thought: she hates all free inquiry, but surely your magazine dogma but her own. And some of that John George should not be publishing anti-woman, comes off the wall. Professor of Political Sciences anti-feminist pieces under the general In scorning baseball as a "very pas- and Sociology guise of presenting "The Many Faces of sive" sport compared to football's far University of Central Oklahoma Feminism." Anti-feminism is no more one superior content of strategy and rule- Edmund, Okla. of the "faces" of feminism than religious bounded violence, Paglia betrays com- fundamentalism is one of the "faces" of plete insensitivity to baseball's subtle flow secular humanism. of batter-vs.-pitcher/catcher strategies I kept thinking I had the wrong magazine. with every pitch. Not to mention base- Surely the article by Robert Sheaffer must Anne White ball's endless tactical maneuvering with be something written by James Dobson, Rainbow Lake, N.Y. runners on collision-scarred sacks. Pat Robertson, or Rush Limbaugh. Equally far-out is the Paglian praise of We don't need to answer with ad Rush Limbaugh as one of America's "few hominem insults as Mr. Sheaffer stated we I subscribed to your magazine thinking freethinkers"—a "principled speaker and would. All we need to do is give the facts, you were actually open-minded and thinker" with "his own independent point "just the facts, Ma'am, eh, Sir, just the believed the statement of principles you of view." Those must be the traits that facts." publish so prominently each issue, but I make him such a darling of the rigidly He states that feminists' claim of being have been exposed in every issue to a clear doctrinaire right. Ostensibly, Limbaugh is victimized belies their claim to a belief in antagonism toward feminism. Then you a self-important, dogma-hustling, scorn- strict equality. Does he also believe this publish an issue with several articles on habituated, know-it-all buffoon. Paglia about blacks, that, because they claim Summer 1995 3 equality yet recognize they were victims ment funds, thus practicing gender dis- exactly what feminism is and what femi- of two hundred years of oppression, this crimination at the taxpayers' expense.
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