August sept 2011 V1_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:50 AM Page 1

STEPHEN LAW: Intellectual Black Holes

CELEBRATING REASON AND HUMANITY August / September 2011 Vol. 31 No.5

George A. Wells Jesus: What’s the Evidence? also WENDY KAMINER ARTHUR CAPLAN

Introductory Price $4.95 U.S. / $4.95 Can. OPHELIA BENSON Introductory Price $4.95 U.S. / $4.95 Can. 09 RONALD A. LINDSAY 7725274 74957 Published by the Council for Secular FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/29/11 10:15 AM Page 2

CENTERS FOR INQUIRY | www.centerforinquiry.net/about/branches

CFI–ORANGE COUNTY CFI IN INDIA (HYDERABAD) UNITED STATES 4773 Hollywood Blvd. Ex. Dir.: Prof. Innaiah Narisetti CFI–TRANSNATIONAL Hollywood, CA 90027 Hyderabad, India President and CEO: Ronald A. Lindsay Tel.: (323) 666-9797 CFI IN JAPAN (TOKYO) PO Box 741 Email: [email protected] Ex. Dir.: Erick Eck ITTSBURGH Amherst, NY 14226 CFI–P CFI IN KENYA (NAIROBI) Tel.: (716) 636-4869 Coordinator: Bill Kaszycki Ex. Dir.: George Ongere Email: [email protected] PO Box 19003 Pittsburgh, PA 15213 CFI IN LONDON (U.K.) CFI–AUSTIN Email: [email protected] Ex. Dir.: Suresh Lalvani Coordinator: Clare Wuellner Provost: Dr. Stephen Law Tel.: (512) 565-0297 CFI–PORTLAND (OREGON) Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Email: [email protected] Coordinator: Sylvia Benner London WC1R 4RL, England Tel.: (971) 238-0808 CFI–CHICAGO Email: [email protected] CFI IN THE LOW COUNTRIES Coordinator: Adam Walker Ex. Dir.: Floris van den Berg, PhD PO Box 7951 CFI–SAN FRANCISCO Bunnik, The Netherlands Chicago, IL 60680-7951 Coordinator: Leonard Tramiel Tel.: (312) 226-0420 Tel.: (415) 335-4618 CFI IN MONTREAL (CANADA) Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Ex. Dir.: Brahim Abdenbi Email: [email protected] CFI–DAYTONA BEACH CFI–SOUTHERN ARIZONA Coordinator: Bob Stevenson Coordinator: Jerry Karches CFI IN NEW ZEALAND (AUCKLAND) PO Box 1824 2926 W. Fairway View Circle Ex. Dir.: Bill Cooke Ormond Beach, FL 32175 Tucson, AZ 85742 CFI IN FRANCE (NICE) Tel.: (386) 671-1921 Tel.: (520) 297-9919 Ex. Dir.: Dr. Henri Broch Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Universite of Nice, Faculté des Sciences Nice, France CFI–FORT LAUDERDALE CFI–TALLAHASSEE Coordinator: Jeanette Madea Coordinator: Marci Whittenberger CFI IN ONTARIO (TORONTO, CANADA) Tel.: (954) 345-1181 Email: [email protected] Ex. Dir.: Derek Pert Email: [email protected] CFI–TAMPA BAY 216 Beverley Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 1Z3, Canada CFI–HARLEM Coordinator: Rick O’Keefe Tel.: (347) 987-3739 Tel.: (813) 443-2729 CFI IN PERÚ (LIMA) Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Ex. Dir.: Manuel A. Paz y Miño Lima, Peru CFI–INDIANA CFI–WASHINGTON, DC Ex. Dir.: Reba Boyd Wooden Ex. Dir.: Melody Hensley CFI IN POLAND (WARSAW) 350 Canal Walk, Suite A Tel.: (202) 543-0960 Ex. Dir.: Andrzej Dominiczak Indianapolis, IN 46202 Email: [email protected] Warsaw, Poland Tel.: (317) 423-0710 CFI IN ROMANIA (BUCHAREST) Email: [email protected] INTERNATIONAL Ex. Dir.: Gabriel Andreescu CFI–LONG ISLAND CFI IN RUSSIA (MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY) Coordinator: Amy Frushour Kelly CFI IN BEIJING (CHINA) Ex. Dir.: Dr. Valerii A. Kuvakin Tel.: (631) 793-9382 Ex. Dir.: Ren Fujun Moscow, Russia Email: [email protected] China Research Institute for Science Popularization CFI IN SENEGAL (DAKAR) CFI–LOS ANGELES Beijing, China Ex. Dir.: Fadel Niang Ex. Dir.: James Underdown Dakar-Fann, Senegal 4773 Hollywood Blvd. CFI IN BUENOS AIRES (ARGENTINA) Hollywood, CA 90027 Ex. Dir.: Alejandro Borgo CFI IN SPAIN (BILBOA) Ex. Dir.: Luis Alfonso Gámez Tel.: (323) 666-9797 Buenos Aires, Argentina Email: [email protected] CFI IN CAIRO (EGYPT) CFI IN UGANDA (KAMPALA) Ex. Dir.: Deogratiasi Ssekitooleko CFI–MICHIGAN Chairs: Prof. Mona Abousenna Ex. Dir.: Jeff Seaver Prof. Mourad Wahba CFI IN VANCOUVER (CANADA) 3777 44th Street SE 44 Gol Gamal St., Agouza, Giza, Egypt Ex. Dir.: Jamie Williams Grand Rapids, MI 49512 CFI IN CALGARY (CANADA) Email: [email protected] Tel.: (616) 698-2342 Ex. Dir.: Nate Phelps CFI IN ZAMBIA (LUSAKA) Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Ex. Dir.: Wilfred Makayi CFI–NEW YORK CITY CFI IN CANADA Ex. Dir.: Michael De Dora National Ex. Dir.: Justin Trottier P.O. Box 26241 216 Beverley St. Brooklyn, NY 11202 Toronto, Ontario M5T 1Z3 CANADA Tel.: (347) 987-3739 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] CFI IN GERMANY (ROSSDORF) CFI–NORTHEAST OHIO Ex. Dir.: Amardeo Sarma Coordinator: Randy Pelton Kirchgasse 4, 64380 PO Box 2379 Rossdorf, Germany Akron, OH 44309 Email: [email protected]

The mission of the is to foster a secular society based Transnational on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. The Center for Inquiry is a supporting organization of the Council for , publisher of FREE INQUIRY. FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:46 AM Page 3

August/September 2011 Vol. 31 No. 5

19 Is There Independent Confirmation of CELEBRATING REASON AND HUMANITY What the Gospels Say of Jesus? George A. Wells

28 Intellectual Black Holes and Bullshit Stephen Law

31 On Ethics and Morality David Tribe

EDITORIAL 17 Progress Elusive for 57 Divinity of Doubt: 4 and Human Dignity Egypt’s Women The God Question Ronald A. Lindsay Mona Abousenna by Vincent Bugliosi Reviewed by Robert M. Price LEADING QUESTIONS 18 Secular Studies Arrives at Last 8 Accommodationism: Phil Zuckermann 59 Pox: An American History The Debate Continues by Michael Willrich A Conversation with Chris Mooney DEPARTMENTS Reviewed by Stuart Whatley 44 Church-State Update 61 God and Human Beings LETTERS Florida Showdown Looms Edd Doerr by Voltaire 11 Reviewed by Nathan Curland 46 God on Trial OP-EDS The Philosophical Significance POEMS 9 Are Unbelievers More Resilient? of Psychopaths Scott Hightower Tom Flynn Postmodernism, Morality, and God 45 In The Rambles of the Alhambra, David N. Stamos Coming upon a Bronze of a Naked 12 Religion Is the Problem in the Balkans Man Subjugating a Goat Christopher Hitchens 50 Faith and Reason and Religious Pluralism 13 Is Sluttishness a Feminist Statement? Navigating Between Freedom of Pipe Dreams (A Lullaby) Wendy Kaminer and Freedom from Religion Kile Jones 14 The Stem of the Conflict Arthur Caplan REVIEWS 53 The Prince of War: Billy Graham’s 15 The Presence of Justice Crusade for a Wholly Ophelia Benson Christian Empire by Cecil Bothwell 16 Do We Get the Constitution Reviewed by Richard A. S. Hall Back in 2012? Nat Hentoff FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:46 AM Page 4

Editorial Staff Ronald A. Lindsay Editorial Editor Thomas W. Flynn Associate Editors John R. Shook, Lauren Becker Managing Editor Andrea Szalanski Columnists Arthur Caplan, , Edd Doerr, Shadia B. Drury, Nat Hentoff, Christopher Hitchens, Wendy Kaminer, Tibor R. Machan, Tom Rees, Katrina Voss Senior Editors Bill Cooke, Richard Dawkins, Edd Doerr, James A. Haught, Jim Herrick, Gerald A. Larue, Ronald A. Lindsay, Taslima Nasrin Contributing Editors Roy P. Fairfield, Charles Secularism and Human Dignity Faulkner, Levi Fragell, Adolf Grünbaum, Marvin Kohl, Thelma Lavine, Lee Nisbet, J.J.C. Smart, Thomas Szasz Ethics Editor Elliot D. Cohen Literary Editor David Park Musella Assistant Editors Julia Lavarnway Julia Burke ecularism is a scary word for some, Two Senses of Secularism Permissions Editor Julia Lavarnway especially those on the religious Right. Secularism can be understood in both a Art Director Christopher S. Fix Moreover, as we are now officially into Production Paul E. Loynes Sr. S narrow sense and a broad sense. In a nar- the 2012 presidential election campaign, row sense, secularism reflects the familiar Council for Secular Humanism you can expect to hear a lot more about the concept of the separation of church and alleged evils of secularism. Before his recent state. Government should stay out of the Chair Richard K. Schroeder political implosion, self-appointed intellec- religion business. It should do nothing to Board of Directors Kendrick Frazier Dan Kelleher tual Newt Gingrich was busy inveighing promote or advance religious beliefs (or Angie McAllister against secularism in articles, speeches, and antireligious beliefs). Individuals should be Richard K. Schroeder books. (His most recent book was titled To free to come to their own conclusions Edward Tabash Jonathan Tobert Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular- about the existence of the or Leonard Tramiel Socialist Machine.) Gingrich’s rants may transcendent without compulsion, prod- Chief Executive Officer Ronald A. Lindsay now receive less attention, but his views on ding, or oversight by the state. Executive Director Thomas W. Flynn secularism are echoed by many others, In a broad sense, secularism not only Director, Campus and Community Programs (CFI) Lauren Becker including Republican presidential hopefuls prohibits government interference with Director, Secular Organizations Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney. religious beliefs but also prohibits religious for Sobriety Jim Christopher This dread of secularism among some influence on public policy. Further, it insists Director, African Americans that discourse about public policy should for Humanism Debbie Goddard of the religious is misplaced. Properly Vice President of Planning be framed entirely in secular terms and understood, secularism is not a threat to and Development (CFI) Sherry Rook that decisions about public policy should Director of Libraries (CFI) Timothy Binga religious beliefs. Granted, secularism is a be based entirely on secular considera- Communications Director Michelle Blackley threat to the privileged position that reli- Database Manager (CFI) Jacalyn Mohr tions. One implication of this broad under- gion still maintains in certain areas, and Staff Pat Beauchamp, Ed Beck, standing of secularism is that religious that may explain some of the adverse Melissa Braun, Shirley leaders qua religious leaders have no spe- Brown, Cheryl Catania, reaction to secularism. But religion’s privi- Eric Chinchón, Matt cial role in formulating public policy. The Cravatta, Roe Giambrone, leged position is neither justified nor con- common practice of inviting representa- Leah Gordon, Jason Gross, sistent with freedom of conscience or the tives of various “faith” traditions to testify Adam Isaak, Lisa Nolan, respect we owe to others. To the contrary, Paul Paulin, Anthony on some proposed regulation or statute Santa Lucia, John Sullivan, adherence to secular principles is required does not exhibit a praiseworthy tolerance Christopher Szczygiel, if we are to respect the dignity of others, for different beliefs; instead, this practice Vance Vigrass including the dignity of religious believ- elevates religious dogma over empirical Executive Director Emerita Jean Millholland ers—or so I will argue here. evidence and secular considerations. There

4 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:46 AM Page 5

is no more justification for having a priest, Happily, that perspective was shared by minister, rabbi, and imam offer their views the founders, who provided us with a on stem cell research, for example, than Consti tu tion that is wholly secular and a there is for listening to the opinions of Bill of Rights that expressly prohibits gov- FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published bimonthly by four individuals selected at random. ernment intrusion into religious matters. the Council for Secular Humanism, a nonprofit educational The fact that almost all of the Founders corporation, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Phone Secularism and Human Dignity (716) 636-7571. Fax (716) 636-1733. Copyright ©2011 by were religious did not prevent them from the Council for Secular Humanism. All rights reserved. No Above, I made the claim that secularism is grasping the importance of secularism. part of this periodical may be reproduced without permission of the publisher. Periodicals postage paid at Buffalo, N.Y., and related to human dignity. It’s time I made For better or worse, the separation of at additional mailing offices. National distribution by Disticor. good on that claim. church and state actually provides favor- FREE INQUIRY is indexed in Philosophers’ Index. Printed in the United States. Postmaster: Send address changes to FREE First, a couple of words about human able conditions for religious beliefs, espe- INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Opinions dignity. Nowadays, everyone considers cially minority religious beliefs. The only expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or publisher. No one speaks on behalf of the Council for human dignity important, but the concept persons and institutions adversely affected Secular Humanism unless expressly stated. of human dignity is rarely ex plained or by the narrow sense of secularism are TO SUBSCRIBE OR RENEW defined. (This may be one reason “human those who want to impose their religious Call TOLL-FREE 800-458-1366 (have credit card handy). dignity” is universally ap proved; just like views on others. Fax credit-card order to 716-636-1733. “justice,” it’s a concept with malleable con- Internet: www.secularhumanism.org. tent.) I along with others would maintain Human Dignity and the Broad Sense Mail: FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. that human dignity is predicated on our of Secularism Subscription rates: $35.00 for one year, $58.00 for two years, $84.00 for three years. Foreign orders add $10 per capacities, in particular, our capacities to But is secularism in the broad sense also year for surface mail. Foreign orders send U.S. funds drawn reason, to think for ourselves, to express connected to human dignity? Yes, if we on a U.S. bank; American Express, Discover, MasterCard, or Visa are preferred. ourselves, and to make decisions for our- accept that human dignity is more likely to Single issues: $5.95 each. Shipping is by surface mail in selves. In short, human dignity is predicated be protected and promoted in a democracy. U.S. (included). Single issues outside U.S.: Canada 1–$2.07; on our ability to be autonomous beings. (Proving that would require a longer argu- 2–3 $4.81; 4–6 $7.00. Other foreign: 1–$4.60; 2–3 $10.56; 4–6 $13.95. Unwarranted interference with our ment than I can provide here, but the his- autonomy represents an affront to our tory of the last two centuries surely provides CHANGE OF ADDRESS Mail changes to FREE INQUIRY, ATTN: Change of Address, dig nity. Such affronts to our dignity are prima facie evidence for this assertion.) P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. most obvious and most serious Call Customer Service: 716-636-7571, ext. 302. when they prevent us from exer- E-mail: [email protected].

cising the freedoms that are fun- BACK ISSUES damental to giving shape, direc- Back issues through Vol. 23, No. 3 are $6.95 each. Back issues Vol. 23, No. 4 and later are $5.95 each. 20% discount tion, and meaning to our lives. on orders of 10 or more. Call 800-458-1366 to order or to Such fundamental freedoms in- ask for a complete listing of back issues.

clude the freedom to express our- “. . . Adherence to secular principles REPRINTS/PERMISSIONS selves, to marry or not, to bear To request permission to use any part of FREE INQUIRY, write is required if we are to respect the to FREE INQUIRY, ATTN: Julia Lavarnway, Permissions Editor, children or not, and to accept or dignity of others, including the P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. reject religious doctrines. If we dignity of religious believers....” WHERE TO BUY FREE INQUIRY prevent a person from exercising FREE INQUIRY is available from selected book and magazine autonomy in these matters, we sellers nationwide.

are effectively appropriating that ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS person’s life—we are directing and Complete submission guidelines can be found on the web at www.secularhumanism.org/fi/details.html. dictating how that life is to be Requests for mailed guidelines and article submissions should lived. We are stripping that person be addressed to: Article Submissions, ATTN: Tom Flynn, FREE of dignity. INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. The connection between the narrow In a democracy, citizens are encour- LETTERS TO THE EDITOR sense of secularism and human dignity aged to discuss and debate public policy, Send submissions to Letters Editor, FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664 or e-mail aszalanski@center should now be clear. Human dignity re - and the government is expected to justify forinquiry.net. quires the freedom to decide for oneself its public policy to its citizens. There is one For letters intended for publication, please include name, address (including city and state), and daytime telephone num- what to believe and profess about reli- clear prerequisite for this democratic dis- ber (for verification purposes only). Letters should be 300 words gious matters. Human dignity requires the course to be successful: the participants in or fewer and pertain to previous FREE INQUIRY articles.

state to refrain from pressuring a person, that discussion must be able to under- The mission of the Council for Secular Humanism is to advo- directly or indirectly, to adopt a religious stand, evaluate, and debate reasons that cate and defend a nonreligious life stance rooted in science, naturalistic philosophy, and humanist ethics and to serve and belief. others offer for their views. That is not support adherents of that life stance. This connection between freedom of possible if religious doctrine is offered as a conscience and human dignity is one rea- justification for public policy positions. son Enlightenment thinkers insisted on As the late Richard Rorty observed, reli- the separation of church and state. gion is a conversation stopper. Once reli-

secularhumanism.org AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 FREE INQUIRY 5 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:46 AM Page 6

gious doctrine is invoked as a justification not share one’s religious beliefs. If all make any sense when you try to explain it for a particular viewpoint, it is futile to you’re doing in debating public policy to someone else? carry the discussion further. “Faith” means alternatives is preaching your own reli- It only remains to note that this broad not having to supply reasons. You cannot gious doctrines, you’re not truly engaging sense of secularism is not in any way antire- argue with someone’s faith. As an exam- others in a discussion. You’re simply trying ligious. It does not restrict private religious ple, let’s consider someone who opposes to impose your beliefs on them. You might beliefs or practices. Moreover, this broad same-sex marriage because of a faith- as well shut up and use your Bible or sense of secularism protects religion as based belief that God considers homosex- Qur’an as a weapon to beat people over much as it protects democratic discourse. If uality immoral. Once that explanation is the head with. Your message can be dis- religion is allowed to influence our discus- given, that’s the end of the discussion, isn’t tilled to this: accept my religious doctrines; sions about public policy, then the religion it? There’s no point in discussing empirical accept my religious doctrines; accept my with the overwhelming number of commit- evidence about the stability of same-sex religious doctrines. ted adherents will prevail, whether it’s relationships, the important legal benefits But is adhering to this broad sense of Catholic Chris tianity, Protestant Chris tianity, that are attached to marriage, and so forth secularism really feasible, even if it seems Islam, or Hin duism. Alterna tively, where mi - because there’s no effective way to per- like a worthy goal? And is it actually a nority religions gain enough political influ- suade someone who is relying on religious worthy goal? Are we not denying those ence, there will be a demand for special doctrine. who accept religion as a guide to moral laws and regulations to accommodate values a right to participate in them. Some Western nations have recently public policy debates? Or, at witnessed this in the demand for Sharia to the very least, are we not be applicable to the Muslim communities in requiring them to restructure their countries. The only way to preserve a and rephrase their views in unified state that puts all citizens on an “The only way to preserve a unified nonreligious terms before they equal footing—that respects the dignity of state that puts all citizens on an participate in such debates? all citizens—is to have a broadly secular equal footing—that respects the dignity This was the complaint made society. by Stephen Carter in his 1994 Widespread acceptance of the impor- of all citizens—is to have a broadly book The Culture of Disbelief. tance of individual autonomy and human secular society.” He argued that those who dignity is a relatively recent phenomenon want to keep religious values in human history. It has its roots in the out of public policy discussions Enlighten ment, and the first, critical step force religious citizens to in creating a sphere of personal autonomy restructure their arguments in was in recognizing the right to freedom of Oh, sure, one could immerse oneself purely secular terms before they can be conscience. During the last two centuries, in a theological discussion involving bibli- presented. we have seen that sphere of personal cal exegesis, but that discussion would be My response to Carter and to others autonomy gradually grow larger, to en - as pointless as it would be endless. There who present similar arguments: And? So compass such matters as political rights are no intersubjectively valid criteria for what? and the right to pursue a career of one’s determining the “correct” interpretation of If a person wants to engage fellow cit- choosing, until now it is (finally!) recog- scripture. And, of course, such an excursion izens in a discussion about the correct nized by many as including the right to into theology begs the question of why we course of action to take on a particular live freely and openly in accordance with should make use of some allegedly sacred issue, those arguments should be struc- one’s sexual orientation. Throughout this writing from millennia ago that provides us tured in secular terms. There is nothing pro cess, it is no accident that the influence with the “wisdom” of a nomadic and bar- onerous about that requirement. In fact, it of religious doctrine has waned while sec- baric tribe as both the starting and ending operates as a much-needed check on the ularism has gained more acceptance. points of any public policy debate. soundness of one’s reasoning. If one can- Secular ism does not guarantee respect for Public policy discussion must rely on not reformulate a religiously based moral human dignity, but it is difficult to envision evidence that, at least in principle, is acces- belief in terms that a nonbeliever might a society that truly respects human dignity sible to everyone. This requirement is not find persuasive, one should pause to con- that is not predominantly secular. only based on practical considerations but sider whether those views are correct. is implied by our obligation to respect the Perhaps you have misinterpreted God’s dignity of others. Formulating one’s argu- commandments. After all, ment in secular terms is necessary to show why would God ask you to Ronald A. Lindsay is president and CEO of the Center for respect for one’s fellow citizens who may follow a rule that does not Inquiry and the Council for Secular Humanism.

6 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:46 AM Page 7

Discover How to Truly Understand the Secrets of Calculus Learn ways to approach and solve the fundamental problems of this mathematical field with 36 richly illustrated lectures delivered by an award-winning professor.

alculus is the greatest mathemati- 14. Concavity and Points of Inflection cal breakthrough since the pioneering 15. Curve Sketching and Linear discoveries of the ancient Greeks. The Approximations Ctechniques of calculus are so diverse that they 16. Applications—Optimization train you to view problems—no matter how Problems, Part 1 difficult—as solvable until proven otherwise. 17. Applications—Optimization And turning a problem over in your mind, Problems, Part 2 choosing an approach, and working out a solu- 18. Antiderivatives and Basic Integration Rules tion teaches you to think clearly—which is why 19. The Area Problem and the calculus is crucial for improving cognitive skills, © Image Source/Corbis. Definite Integral and why it’s a prerequisite for admission to top scholar-teachers are selected to make The Great 20. The Fundamental Theorem universities. Courses. of Calculus, Part 1 Understanding Calculus: Problems, We’ve been doing this since 1990, produc- 21. The Fundamental Theorem Solutions, and Tips immerses you in the unri- ing more than 3,000 hours of material in mod- of Calculus, Part 2 valed learning experience of this mathematical ern and ancient history, philosophy, literature, 22. Integration by Substitution field in 36 lectures that cover all the major topics fine arts, the sciences, and mathematics for 23. Numerical Integration of a full-year calculus course in high-school at intelligent, engaged, adult lifelong learners. If a 24. Natural Logarithmic Function— the College Board Advanced Placement AB level course is ever less than completely satisfying, you Differentiation or a first-semester course in college. With crystal- may exchange it for another, or we will refund 25. Natural Logarithmic Function— clear explanations of the beautiful ideas of cal- your money promptly. Integration culus, frequent study tips, pitfalls to avoid, and Lecture Titles 26. Exponential Function hundreds of examples and practice problems, 1. A Preview of Calculus 27. Bases other than e this course is your guide to conquering calculus. 2. Review—Graphs, Models, and Functions 28. Inverse Trigonometric Functions Award-winning Professor Bruce H. Edwards 3. Review—Functions and Trigonometry 29. Area of a Region between 2 Curves has crafted an extensively illustrated course suit- 4. Finding Limits 30. Volume—The Disk Method ed for anyone who wants to leap into history’s 5. An Introduction to Continuity 31. Volume—The Shell Method greatest intellectual achievement, whether for the 6. Infinite Limits and Limits at Infinity 32. Applications—Arc Length first time or for a review. With his exceptional 7. The Derivative and the Tangent Line and Surface Area teaching, you’ll come away with a deeper appre- Problem 33. Basic Integration Rules ciation of the beauty of calculus, and a powerful 8. Basic Differentiation Rules 34. Other Techniques of Integration tool for unlocking the secrets of the ceaselessly 9. Product and Quotient Rules 35. Differential Equations and Slope Fields changing world around you. 10. The Chain Rule 36. Applications of Differential Equations About Your Professor 11. Implicit Differentiation and Related Rates Dr. Bruce H. Edwards is Professor of 12. Extrema on an Interval Mathematics at the University of Florida. 13. Increasing and Decreasing Functions He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Dartmouth College. The coauthor of a best- selling series of calculus textbooks, Professor S A V E $ 1 7 5 ! Edwards has earned numerous teaching awards OFFER GOOD UNTIL OCTOBER 8, 2011 at the University of Florida, including Teacher of the Year in the College of Liberal Arts and 1-800-832-2412 Special offer is available online at Sciences. Fax: 703-378-3819 www.THEGREATCOURSES.com/3freei About The Great Courses Charge my credit card: We review hundreds of top-rated professors n n n n from America’s best colleges and universities 4840 Westfi elds Blvd., Suite 500 each year. From this extraordinary group we Chantilly, VA 20151-2299

choose only those rated highest by panels of our ACCOUNT NUMBER EXP. DATE customers. Fewer than 10% of these world-class Priority Code 57066 Please send me Understanding Calculus: Problems, SIGNATURE Solutions, and Tips, About Our Sale Price Policy which consists of 36 30-min- ute lectures plus Course Guidebooks. NAME (PLEASE PRINT) Why is the sale price for this course so much n lower than its standard price? Every course we DVD $79.95 (std. price $254.95) SAVE $175! MAILING ADDRESS make goes on sale at least once a year. Producing plus $15 Shipping & Handling n large quantities of only the sale courses keeps Check or Money Order Enclosed CITY/STATE/ZIP costs down and allows us to pass the savings * Non-U.S. Orders: Additional shipping charges apply. For more details, call us or visit the FAQ page on our PHONE (If we have questions regarding your order— required for international orders) on to you. This also enables us to fill your website. order immediately: 99% of all orders placed n FREE CATALOG. Please send me a free copy of ** Virginia residents please add 5% sales tax. your current catalog (no purchase necessary). by 2 pm eastern time ship that same ** Indiana residents please add 7% sales tax. Special offer is available online at day. Order before October 8, 2011, Offer Good Through: October 8, 2011 www.THEGREATCOURSES.com/3freei to receive these savings. FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:46 AM Page 8

Leading Questions

Accommodationism: The Debate Continues, Part 1 A Conversation with Chris Mooney

Recently, in a special two-part episode of restrained in one’s criticism of religion and ing any claims about the natural world? Point of Inquiry, the Center for Inquiry’s that some of the so-called new atheists When religion does make claims about the podcast, cohost Chris Mooney changed such as Richard Dawkins are far too shrill natural world—claims that at least in prin- places and became the interviewee. In the and condescending and their criticisms of ciple might be tested by science—doesn’t first part, an edited version of which is religion are counterproductive. there tend to be conflict? presented below, CFI President and CEO In Unscientific America, you state the MOONEY: What if the religion is saying Ronald A. Lindsay asks Mooney about his following: “The official position of the it’s OK to accept evolution—it’s compati- stance of accommodationism regarding National Academy of Sciences and the ble with their beliefs? science and religion. In the second part of American Association for the Advance ment LINDSAY: In one passage in your book the interview, to be published in the next of Science is that faith and science are per- you say that at least on the topic of evolu- issue of FREE INQUIRY, Mooney discusses his fectly compatible. It is not only the most tol- tion, there’s no tension between some recent work on the psychology of belief in erant but also the most intellectually major religions and science, and you cite general, emphasizing how our commit- responsible position for scientists to take.” as an example the Catholic Church. But ments and our values shape our reasoning So is it your position that faith and science that’s not quite accurate, is it? Because and our processing of information. are perfectly compatible, and if so, isn’t that yes, the Church says that the faithful can As well as a cohost of Point of Inquiry, position at least partially incorrect? accept evolution, but that comes with a Chris Mooney is a science and political CHRIS MOONEY: There’s no doubt that big asterisk. The Church insists that journalist and commentator and the faith and science can be compatible. Catholics must also believe that God inter- author of three books, including the New There are also cases where they come into vened at some point and put a soul in York Times best-selling The Republican conflict, and I think we’re very aware of humans. In other words, the Church War on Science and Unscientific America: this. is the most obvious case. insists that there’s a sharp discontinuity How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our What I view my accommodationist posi- between humans and animals, which is Future, coauthored by Sheril Kirshen - tion as stating is that because there are so something that science doesn’t support. baum. They also write The Intersection many diverse world religions and they MOONEY: That depends on whether blog for Discover blogs. have very different relationships with sci- the soul is something that they claim that Ronald A. Lindsay is a bioethicist, law yer, ence, and because people don’t even fol- science can test or measure. If the soul is and president and CEO of the Cen ter for low their own doctrines so that within reli- beyond science, then they can say that. Inquiry. For many years he practiced law in gions you have many different kinds of Whether it’s really a scientific claim as Washington, D.C., and was an ad junct pro- relationships with science, you don’t nec- opposed to a supernatural claim that’s not fessor at Georgetown Uni versity and Amer - essarily have to have a conflict. Faith and really testable by scientists is open to ican University, where he taught jurispru- science can be compatible; however, we debate. If they said that God put a soul in dence and philosophy courses.—EDS. do see faith and science conflicts all humans and we can prove it—we have the around us. data and this is how we do the studies— ONALD A. LINDSAY: A controversy over LINDSAY: So would you then perhaps then they would clearly be putting them- so-called accommodationism was back off a bit from the statement that faith selves into conflict with science. sparked at least in part by your book and science are perfectly compatible? R LINDSAY: We take science strictly to Unscientific America. I think the core mean- MOONEY: The word perfectly maybe mean something that subjects evidence to ing of accommodationist would be some- suggests that it goes a bit more felicitously controlled experiments and testing in an one who maintains either that science and than it does. effort to try to replicate results. Perhaps religion are compatible or that they should LINDSAY: You say that at least in some there aren’t that many claims that religion be described as compatible even though in cases faith and science can be compatible. is making that are testable by science and fact there may be some tension between But wouldn’t it be simply that in some situ- then may be in direct conflict with science. them. The term is also used to describe ations, certain religious beliefs or certain (Continued on page 38) those who believe it is important to be religious people have backed off from mak-

8 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:46 AM Page 9

Tom Flynn OP-ED

Are Unbelievers More Resilient?

s sociologist and author Phil Zucker - et’s get started. I know an awful lot of salist minister, or Ethical Culture leader, but man notes in this issue, the study of Lunbelievers, and with very rare excep- many nonreligious Americans—in all likeli- A unbelievers as a demographic group tions they’re some of the happiest people hood, the majority of so-called secular in its own right is finally gathering steam. I know. By contrast, most of the melan- humanists—opt simply to leave this void (if Until recently, everything social scientists choly, dejected, and discontented people it is one) unfilled. and pollsters could tell us about nonreli- of my acquaintance hold more or less con- Given all this, we might reasonably gious Americans was “by-catch”—tangen- ventional religious beliefs. Wretchedness, expect the nonreligious to be miserable! tial information acquired in the course of thy name is Piety—or so it seems accord- Even if unbelievers were on average only studying religious Americans.* ing to the admittedly unscientific sample as happy as believers, that would clamor This state of affairs could not continue. of People Tom Flynn Knows. (When I share for explanation—to say nothing of my Since the 1990s, Americans reporting no this view with other freethinkers, they claim that the nonreligious lead more exu- religious affiliation have grown to com- usually agree. Of course, that’s just piling berant lives. prise 15 to 16 percent of the population. anecdote upon anecdote.) “But wait,” some may say. “Haven’t I A reported 10.7 percent are self-described Assume for argument’s sake that my read about piles of studies in which reli- atheists or agnostics, or they’re so-called observation is correct. If so, isn’t it remark- gious people score higher and unbelievers hard seculars, men and women who don’t able that less religious people check the box for “atheist” or “agnostic” are happier, considering that by but nonetheless lead lives effectively most measures unbelievers untouched by faith. Given such numbers, should comprise a more psy- it’s not surprising that demographers are chologically vulnerable popula- belatedly discovering atheists, agnostics, tion? It’s well attested that non- “. . . For the first time Americans who secular humanists, freethinkers, and other religious people tend to have live without religion are objects of unbelievers and studying our various com- fewer deep social connections munities on their own terms. (starting with the fact that most inquiry at locations across the land and Future issues of FREE INQUIRY will devote of us go to one fewer church at levels from the scholarly monograph increasing attention to this “secular stud- than many members of the to the popular opinion poll.” ies” phenomenon. For now, suffice it to general population). Our com- say that for the first time Americans who munity is top-heavy with “lon- live without religion are objects of inquiry ers” and “nonjoiners”—the at locations across the land and at levels “cats” about whose herding from the scholarly monograph to the pop- atheist and humanist activists ular opinion poll. so frequently despair. If I can, I’d like to offer an immodest The prospect that nonreligious people lower on multiple indices of happiness, life proposal for the direction of some of this might actually be happier than believers is satisfaction, personality adjustment, and research. It’s based on nothing but per- trebly remarkable when we consider that mental health?” Funny you should ask. sonal experience and anecdote, to be most unbelievers do without a particularly Multiple studies do claim to advance that sure; still, by the end of this column, I close and friendly source of support most conclusion. But one of the first secular- hope to develop a slate of questions that churchgoers take for granted: one-on-one, studies projects FI reported on suggested a lends itself to scientific examination. face-to-face affirmation, mentoring, and reason (spoiler alert: it’s not because those counseling such as is offered by a priest, studies are correct). minister, rabbi, imam, or other leader of a In “Profiles of the Godless” (FI, August/ *For a thorough exploration of the problem, local religious community. Granted, some September 2009), Grand Valley State Uni- see Frank L. Pasquale’s entry “Unbelief and Irre- li gion, Empirical Study and Neglect of” in my atheists and humanists find close substitutes (Continued on page 40) 2007 New Encyclopedia of Unbelief. in a humanist counselor, Unitarian Univer -

secularhumanism.org August/September 2011 FREE INQUIRY 9 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:46 AM Page 10

“It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.” – Tomas Paine You are invited to join the Center for Inquiry to Act, Combat, and Promote…

Since 1976, three remarkable organizations have been in the forefront of efforts to promote and defend critical thinking and freedom of inquiry. The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (founded in 1976), the Council for Secular Humanism (1980), Center for Inquiry and the For thirty years, the Council for Secular Humanism has advocated for a nontheistic worldview (1991) have advocated, based on reason, education, and compassion in place of fear or unquestioning religious belief. championed, and, when necessary, defended the freedom to inquire … while Your Help Is a Necessity! ACT, COMBAT, and PROMOTE demonstrating how the fruits We are currently focused on three of objective inquiry can be Each year, magazine goals central to our core objectives: used to understand reality, subscriptions fund a smaller refute false beliefs, and percentage of this work, even Act to end the stigma achieve results that benefit as the need for activism attached to being humanity. increases and the population nonreligious. we serve grows. In many ways, our organiza- Combat religion’s tions have been ahead of More than ever, CFI and its privileges and its influence on public policy. their time. Now, they are affiliates depend on the truly 3 For Tomorrow. generosity of our supporters Promote science-based Through education, advocacy, both to fund daily operations skepticism and critical thinking. publishing, legal activism, and to build capital and its network of regional for the future. Make your most generous gift branches, CFI and its affiliate today . . . or request information

organizations continue to on planned giving or a bequest. Your support today can provide support for everyone protect tomorrow for us all. For more information, return the attached card who seeks a better life—in Your generous gift can or contact us at: this life—for all. perpetuate our work toward Center for Inquiry Development Office the kind of world you—and P.O. Box 741 your grandchildren—can feel Amherst, NY 14226 proud to live in. 1-800-818-7071 [email protected] website: www.centerforinquiry.net FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:46 AM Page 11

Letters

accepted.” Exactly! They reject evolution their religion as a source of comfort with- because they have been indoctrinated out trying to impose it on others (what into believing that morals and ethics have harm are they doing?); (3) do confront any a divine origin. efforts to promote religion in the public Accommodationists pander to the arena—schools, government. moral arrogance of believers by repeatedly Who cares that some believe in the reassuring them that they can have their supernatural? If it is a battle to prove who faith and eat it too, that science will not turn is right and who is wrong, it is useless and them into nonbelievers. This approach results only in further division. What about implicitly validates the bigoted prejudice live and let live? that there is something morally degenerate Frank Hay about having no religious beliefs. Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina David Rand Montreal, Quebec, Canada The topic “Science and Religion: Confron- ta tion or Accommodation” was miscon- Victor Stenger’s article contains an often- ceived; hence, the discussion itself was used statement that should no longer be meaningless or worse. The error lies in the employed without qualification, especially misconception of religion as a monolithic in articles criticizing scientists for being un - entity when in fact it is tremendously com- Science and Religion: duly tolerant of superstition-based scien- plex. As posed, the question demands Accommodationism or tific claims (such as, for example, supernat- responses that are black and white, not Confrontation? ural origins of the universe): “Of course, allowing for shades of gray. A more everyone has a right to his or her own nuanced and productive question would Re “Science and Religion: Accommod a tion beliefs.” The overwhelming majority of peo- be, “Which aspects of religion should be or Confrontation?” FI, June/July 2011: Both ple do not have their “own” beliefs; most accommodated and which should be con- PZ Myers (“The Need for Con fron tation”) people simply accept the beliefs imposed fronted?” This encourages a really useful and Victor Stenger (“Why Religion Must Be upon them by their families. When asked: analysis of religion into its component Confronted”) present cogent arguments for “In what do you believe?,” most people parts and leads to distinguishing religious a principled response to creationists. should respond, “I was raised in a society practices that are relatively benign from Eugenie C. Scott (“The Need for Ac - that taught me to believe in a god and/or those that are harmful to society. commodation”) and Chris Mooney (“Tow - Jesus; so what I would believe—without Does the editor really believe that sci- ard Common Cause”), on the other hand, having been so indoctrinated—has no way ence should confront the private exercise of spirituality? While we may wish that give us nothing but excuses for the accom- of being determined.” devout individuals were more enlightened modating attitudes that they support. This is It is a hard habit to break, but it needs or less irrational, as long as they do not not surprising, as accommodationism is to be broken nevertheless. seek to impose their views on the public intellectually untenable: indeed, the re- William Dusenberry they are not a major danger to society, quirement that biologists and other scien- Broken Arrow, Oklahoma tists should avoid offending the exagger- and their right to believe (not necessarily ated sensibilities of the religious is like their beliefs) should be respected. The politicization of theological dogma is a dif- asking astronomers to be very careful not In answering the question of what place ferent matter. All of the discussants— to alienate those who believe in astrology. confrontation and accommodation have while not explicitly mentioning theoc- To say that it is possible to be both a the- in the discussion of science vs. religion, we racy—are in agreement on this. From a ist and a scientist is simply a disingenuous need to keep in mind our overall goals. strategic standpoint, secularists will be way of saying that human beings are What do we hope to accomplish, and more effective if we focus our efforts on capable of maintaining cognitive disso- which tactic better serves our cause? I find confronting specific theocratic threats nance, i.e., simultaneously holding two or it helpful to remember that “you cannot rather than nonspecific, ineffectual gener- more mutually contradictory sets of with reason convince a person out of a alizations about religion. We also need to beliefs. Ironically, Mooney comes ex- position that he or she did not use reason to accommodate and work with those reli- tremely close to hitting the nail on the get to in the first place” (source unknown). gious institutions and individuals who head but then completely ignores the This being the case, what alternatives does value freedom and oppose theocracy. important lesson that he almost learned. it leave us? May I suggest: (1) do nothing, Walter R. Ehrhardt He writes, “Creationists resist evolution and let those who see science and religion Knoxville, Maryland because they believe that everyone will as incompatible fight among themselves; (2) lose their morals if evolution is generally do not confront those who merely use (Continued on page 64)

secularhumanism.org August/September 2011 FREE INQUIRY 11 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:46 AM Page 12

Christopher Hitchens OP-ED

Religion Is the Problem in the Balkans

eporting on the capture of the mass- Orthodox priests.” In the 1990s, the nationalists of murdering General Ratko Mladic by The words emphasized in both of the “Greater Serbia,” who sought to remove Rthe Serbian government on Memorial above extracts are italicized not in the orig- non-Serb populations from their soil and Day, the New York Times summarized the inal but by me. We can thus criticize from the soil of neighboring republics, newly created political situation like this: Carvajal and Erlanger for three different were overwhelmingly Eastern Orthodox “Critical questions remain about precisely kinds of reportorial lapse. The first is to use Christian and held together by religious who protected Mr. Mladic. The pro-Western the same significant phrase twice in the imagery and propaganda. Meanwhile, government of President Boris Tadic says it same article without clarifying it by the rep- “the Croats” was another collective noun will investigate, a politically delicate exami- etition. The second is to make the strong for the Roman Catholics of Croatia and nation that could lead to former govern- assumption (“perhaps even”) that priestly Western Herzegovina who also wanted a ment officials and perhaps even to religious participation in a career of criminal violence “pure” religious state of their own. During would be an occasion for shock as the 1940s, they had actually enjoyed pos- well as—not quite the same session of such a state in the form of a thing—surprise. The third is to be Nazi protectorate run by an extreme so unaware of the recent history of Catholic fascist party named the Ustashe. “In contrast to certain media the Balkans as to believe that Serbian memory of this period is extremely stereotypes, the Muslim leadership in membership in the Serbian Ortho- traumatic, not least because the Ustashe Bosnia was strikingly secular in dox clergy would make it less program included forced conversion of the likely—rather than more so—that outlook. This was especially true of heretical Orthodox as well as cruel collec- the person would be involved in tive punishment for those who declined it. the multi-ethnic and multi-religious gross violations of human rights. (Not to look for any shallow exculpation, city of Sarajevo, which became the Did I just say “the recent his- but it seems that General Mladic’s father tory of the Balkans”? It would be target of Mladic’s special wrath.” was one of the Serbs who fell victim to nearer the truth to say that the this Crusader-type program.) entire history of the region is one In contrast to certain media stereo- long confessional feud that when types, the Muslim leadership in Bosnia was allied to ultra-toxic nationalism strikingly secular in outlook. This was espe- was strong enough to drag the cially true of the multi-ethnic and multi- authorities, since Mr. Mladic said after his entire modern world into a catastrophic religious city of Sarajevo, which became arrest that he had been visited over the war in the summer of 1914. It nearly did the target of Mladic’s special wrath. There years by many priests.” the same to post-Cold War southern and were some sectarian atrocities committed Pursuing the front-page story to an Adriatic Europe after 1990, and it was by Bosnian government forces and by inside page, we see that the Times’ only halted at a terrible cost in blood. The some Islamist “volunteers” who briefly reporters, Doreen Carvajal and Steven clerical element of this nightmare was entered the country looking for a jihadi Erlanger, stayed with that theme: “Govern- obscured by the media’s habit of referring opening, but observers tended to agree ment authorities, including President Tadic, to the three contending parties as “the that the Bosnian side was the least culpa- have vowed to investigate the protective Serbs,” “the Croats,” and “the Muslims.” ble and also that the more religious a party You can see at a glance that there is a lack network, especially to determine if some of or militia was, the more likely it was to act the loyalists included government opera- of symmetry in that already sketchy and tives, high officials or perhaps even Serbian subjective picture. (Continued on page 40)

12 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 13

Wendy Kaminer OP-ED

Is Sluttishness a Feminist Statement?

ifty years after the onset of the occasionally to be evaluated by their forms choices are familiar, like the belief that girls modern feminist movement, sexual and not their intellectual or characterolog- and women are empowered by aggres- Fviolence remains a primary issue, ical contents. sively asserting their sexuality, in the most especially for young women asserting Indeed, celebrating sluttishness proba- conventional ways. Power sluttishness was their right to dress or undress as they bly encourages girls to rely on appear- the theme of Cosmo girls decades ago and choose. The “slut walk” is the latest ances; it tends to reduce sexuality, and was reinvented by lipstick feminism (and protest gimmick, inspired by the stupidity self-regard, to a matter of appearance. A Madonna) in the 1990s. It has always held of a Toronto police officer who advised recent study from Kenyon College consid- obvious, understandable appeal to young women (rather unoriginally) to “avoid ering the influence of girl’s clothing styles women eager to disassociate from the dressing like sluts in order not to be victim- on their “self-objectifica- ized.” So, to make their point about victim tion” determined that about blaming, women are proclaiming their 25 percent of the clothes sluttishness, trying to reframe it as a found in popular stores for healthy, confident sexual choice; they’re girls was “sexualized.”* Of “reappropriating” the word slut, along course, sexualized dress is a “Young women who proudly dress like with its dress code, while simultaneously fairly subjective concept: the sluts intending only to assert their sexual Kenyon researchers defined protesting their sexual objectification. confidence should not be surprised if Good luck with that. A more dissonant it as “clothing that revealed strategy is hard to imagine. You don’t or emphasized a sexualized some onlookers believe that they’re have to share the dim-witted belief that body part, had characteristics advertising their availability as sexual associated with sexiness, rape is caused even partly by provocatively toys. They should expect at least dressed females to suspect that tottering and/or had sexually sugges- around half-naked in stilettos may not be tive writing.” But talk to the occasionally to be evaluated by their the most effective way for women to dis- mothers with young daugh- forms and not their intellectual or ters, and you can accumulate courage their objectification. characterological contents.” I’m not making moral judgments a lot of anecdotal evidence about women’s sartorial or sexual prefer- and concern about the naïve ences; I sympathize with the desire to de- idealization of sluttishness and the “power” it gives moralize discussions of female sexuality. girls over boys. It’s a perverse I’m simply questioning the utility of slut- version of feminism that encourages sexu- stereotypical image of feminists as unat- tishness in a fight against sexual violence. ally vulnerable girls to feel protected by tractive, desexualized, and (at least aspira- My concerns are practical, not moral; as a highly sexualized femininity. tionally) emasculating. practical matter, we can control the way Slut walks seem about as likely to ad - But lipstick feminism, under various we present ourselves but not the ways in vance a feminist agenda as Disney rubrics, has contributed to feminism’s which we are perceived. Young women princesses or the viewing parties organized incoherence, effectively embracing or who proudly dress like sluts intending only around the wedding of Will and Kate. “appropriating” sexual objectification in to assert their sexual confidence should Princesses or sluts? Virgins or whores? The the vain hope of defeating it and positing not be surprised if some onlookers believe that they’re advertising their availability as *Http://www.springerlink.com/content/1v5354 (Continued on page 41) sexual toys. They should expect at least 14815328t8/.

secularhumanism.org August/September 2011 FREE INQUIRY 13 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 14

Arthur Caplan OP-ED

The Stem of the Conflict

hy has there been so much hype Americans) to ban or at least withhold the use of human embryos contended that in the ongoing debate about pub- funding for such research was to argue that since the body has many naturally occurring Wlic funding for stem cell research work with embryonic stem cells was not cells that can repair damaged human in the United States? The answer is simple needed because anything that could be cells—known as adult stem cells—and since and can be summarized in one word: abor- done with embryonic stem cells for thera- these have been used to cure many people tion. Some forms of stem cell research peutic purposes could also be done using while embryonic stem cells have not, then involving the use of embryos require adult stem cells. Another even more repre- there is no need to pursue embryonic stem embryo destruction to extract a stem cell. hensible stratagem was to argue that mod- cell research. Father Thad Pachol czyk, lead- Others, involving cloning, require transfer- ified adult stem cells—so-called IPSCs ing Roman Catholic religious authority on ring a full set of genes from an adult cell (induced pluripotent stem cells)—could the matter of the science of stem cell into an egg. Both procedures have re - absolutely do the job expected of embry- research, noted that “dozens of diseases ceived heavy criticism from those opposed onic stem cells. The case for the adequacy are currently treatable using these [adult] to embryo destruction or embryo creation of adult stem cells never made any sense stem cells, including sickle-cell anemia, by a technique other than sex. While there except as willful ignorance fueled by reli- leukemia, spinal cord injury, and heart dis- is a good deal of focus on the problems gious dogma. The case for IPSCs as the ease.” Embryonic stem cells, however, he generated by the power of money in gen- alternative answer to using embryos has went on, have not cured anyone of any- erating bias in science and medicine, the now, predictably, been debunked, showing thing. Ergo, who needs to bother with battle over stem cell research makes very that wishes built on religious desires are not embryonic stem cell research funding? clear that religious views can also be a a substitute for rigorous science. I am not sure what Father Thad was talk- huge source of distortion and bias. As I have tried to point out for more ing about regarding treating spinal cord than a decade in commenting injuries, which as far as I know remain com- on the embryonic stem cell pletely incurable. But it is true that bone controversy, when people pri- marrow transplants have been used as part “While there is a good deal of focus marily steeped in religious of curing various blood disorders in a lot of on the problems generated by the power dogma about embryos argue children and adults. And indeed, bone mar- of money in generating bias in science that science shows one type of row is one type of adult stem cell. That is research that does not involve where the truth of this argument ends and and medicine, the battle over stem cell embryo destruction to be just unbounded hype, driven by moral opposi- research makes very clear that religious as good as another, watch tion to embryonic stem cell research, begins. views can also be a huge source out! Arguing from a commit- The research behind bone marrow ted religious point of view transplantation began in the 1950s. It of distortion and bias.” about which line of stem cell received generous government grant sup- research is the most promising port for the next fifty years. It is still awash is akin to asking biblical funda- in government grants. Embryonic stem cells mentalists whether they think were first discovered in 1998. Research random genetic mutations, involving those cells has received only mini- Critics, usually motivated by religious geographic isolation, environmental selec- mal funding from any source since then. beliefs about the moral status of human tion, or divine purpose has played the great- Nearly every scientist who works in the stem embryos and fearful that manipulating or est role in driving evolution. cell area, even those who work only with destroying embryos might weaken opposi- The claim that adult stem cells could be adult stem cells, will tell you that success in tion to the destruction of fetuses, have a valid alternative to embryonic stem cell that area says nothing about the scientific made embryonic stem cell research their research never made a lick of scientific case for funding and doing embryonic stalking horse in the abortion wars. One of sense. But that never stopped anti-embry- their most irresponsible strategies for con- onic stem cell critics from repeating this bit (Continued on page 42) vincing public officials (and by extension, all of scientific treacle. Those who winced at

14 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 15

Ophelia Benson OP-ED

The Presence of Justice

ne of the pleasanter changes in world-view, let me help you understand frank, open, unapologetic atheism. It’s not morals and manners over the last their central and timeless insight: Unless illegal, but it is taboo. It is subject to force- Ofew decades has been the marginal- you as an atheist are willing to disparage ful, angry opprobrium, and that not just ization of ugly talk about “the Xs”—the all religious people, describe them all as from the predictable enemies—con serva - Jews, the Mexicans, the Chinese, the imbeciles and creeps, mock every text and tive religious believers—but also from queers. Thoughtful people don’t talk like thinker they have ever produced, then you other atheists, even liberal atheists. that anymore, and what a relief that is, must be some sort of deluded, self-hating This results in multiple layers of irony, grumbles about political correctness not- sellout, subverting the rise of the Mighty in which liberal atheists berate other lib- withstanding. The old style now reeks of Atheist Political Juggernaut.” eral (but new) atheists for saying that paranoia and ignorance. “The Jews”— These passages are sadly representa- atheism is taboo and subject to bullying, what did that even mean? What verb can tive; it is all too easy to find more via thus proving the very point they are shout- possibly follow such a general noun? “The Google. There are whole books filled with ing at the new atheists for making. Jews” what? Nothing; the question is ab - similar invective, such as Chris Hedges’s I The pattern is familiar in recent history. surd. The intention behind the phrasing is Don’t Believe in Atheists. The civil rights movement in the 1950s and revealed as malicious. It has come to The quoted passages share three con- ’60s lived out the same ironies. The point sound stupid and sinister to make sweep- spicuous qualities: they are general, inaccu- was to disrupt the status quo in which ing generalizations about groups. rate, and vituperative. This is a bad combi- black people put up with inferior status, sat But it appears that some people are nos- nation, and it’s the hallmark of racism and in the back of the bus, and kept quiet; yet talgic for the music of hostile generalization racism-like group hatred. It’s familiar from there were always plenty of people who and delighted to have the opportunity to generations of us/them rhetoric. Step one: rushed to defend that very status quo, even engage in it again. Respectable liberal intel- talk about “the Xs” as though all people in though they agreed with the disrupters on lectuals and academics—people who group X were somehow the same. Step the essentials. Of course plain racists re- wouldn’t be caught dead growling “the two: make large, invidious claims about the sisted the civil rights movement—there’s no blacks this” and “the Jews that”—can be dangerous alien qualities of the Xs. irony in that—but so too did people, both found enthusiastically heaping opprobrium It’s obvious how crude that is. It barely black and white, who believed in civil on the freshly minted outgroup called “the rises to the level of yellow journalism. So rights. The preservation of the status quo new atheists.” One such person is the why is it that reputable academics such as and preference for a veneer of peace and philosopher Michael Ruse, who wrote on Ruse and Berlinerblau allow themselves to social harmony trumped principle. Martin the Chronicle of Higher Education blog write articles that fit the pattern so neatly? Luther King Jr. famously addressed this in Brainstorm in March: “I think the New Why do professional taboos and standards his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”: Atheists are a disaster, a danger to the well- not inhibit them? They would never write I must confess that over the past few being of America comparable to the Tea that way about blacks, gays, Jews, or immi- years I have been gravely disappointed Party. It is not so much that their views are grants (can you doubt it?). So why do they with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that wrong—I am not going to fall into the trap feel able to write that way about atheists? the Negro’s great stumbling block in his of labeling those with whom I disagree The label “new” isn’t enough to explain it. stride toward freedom is not the White immoral because of our disagreements— This isn’t the part where I answer my Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klan- ner, but the white moderate, who is but be cause they won’t make any effort to own question, because I don’t know the more devoted to “order” than to jus- think seriously about why they hold their answer. It baffles me. It baffles me anew tice; who prefers a negative peace positions about the conflict between sci- each time it happens, and it happens often. which is the absence of tension to a ence and religion.” I don’t know the reason, but I think the positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree Jacques Berlinerblau wrote on the fact that this happens confirms the very with you in the goal you seek, but I same blog a couple of days later: “For thing that new atheism as a movement is (Continued on page 43) those not familiar with [the new atheists’] trying to address: a strong social taboo on

secularhumanism.org August/September 2011 FREE INQUIRY 15 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 16

Nat Hentoff OP-ED

Do We Get the Constitution Back in 2012?

n May 4, Bob Barr, a conservative invoked “state secrets” to prevent courts as is happening in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Republican constitutionalist, wrote a from even hearing cases in which the “uni- and Yemen. We know officially of one Oblog post whose headline should tary executive” has quashed all semblances American citizen on the assassination define a fundamental issue in the 2012 of due process; for example, cases concern- list—Anwar al-Awaki, an outspoken, influ- elections: “With Bin Laden Dead, It’s Time ing government torture as championed by ential jihadist. He’s in hiding in fear of the to Restore the Bill of Rights” (The Barr Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and John Yoo. executioner—without ever having faced Code, May 4, 2011). Is this the same Obama who, on his charges or appeared in one of our courts. I was not surprised at the source of this very first day in office, issued an executive At least George III went to Parliament. call. When President Bill Clinton introduced order forbidding torture and cruel, inhu- Inadvertently, innocent civilians are legislation in 1996 that in cluded govern- man, or degrading practices? Yes! Yet the destroyed in those drone strikes, including ment fishing warrants for roving wiretaps International Red Cross and the BBC have women and children. Yet these pilotless of terrorism suspects—on any phone any- reported continuing torture in a special killers have become this president’s favorite where the target might use—Barr was the “black” room at our Bagram Airbase in weapon against terrorists, beyond any only member of Congress to vote against Afghanistan (“What Is Obama Doing at accountability to our laws or international that provision, which is still in the Bush- Bagram?: Torture and the ‘Black Prison’” treaties we have signed. Increas ingly, pilot- Cheney PATRIOT Act that is also champi- [www.andyworthington.co.uk2010/06/03]). less drones are also now in our American oned by President Barack Obama. And during Leon Panetta’s tenure as skies—useful for keeping tabs on sus- Obama’s director of the pected terrorists in our towns and cities. Central Intelli gence Agency Dig this: our president, who has taught (CIA), “renditions”—also constitutional law at the University of supposedly forbidden by Chicago, surely is well versed in the Obama—have continued. In Miranda warnings that must be given to “ ... Our privacy rights hang by a the preceding Bush adminis- those in our custody. But on March 24, the tration, this term referred to Wall Street Journal reported: “Obama’s thread as government surveillance our sending terrorism sus- Department of Justice announced “new technology advances beyond both what pects to other countries to rules [that] allow investigators to hold George Orwell could have imagined and be tortured. Do Obama-era domestic-terror suspects longer than others renditions only serve to give without giving them a Miranda warning, what Bush and Cheney actually did.” prisoners a change of significantly expanding exceptions to the scenery? Despite Obama’s instructions that have governed the han- proud pledge that his would dling of criminal suspects for more than be “the most transparent four decades” (“Miranda Is Obama’s Latest administration in our his- Victim,” Glenn Greenwald, salon.com, tory,” all information about March 24). Important as Barr’s warning is, it will these CIA kidnappings is classified. Having reported for decades on our take more than resuscitating the Bill of Soon after Obama became our leader, government’s brutal violations of our own Rights to bring back the separation of pow- it was he who instructed us that we must war-crime laws, and of international ers intended by the Constitution. Obama fight terrorism “with an abiding confi- treaties we have signed forbidding cruel has gone even farther than George W. dence in the rule of law and due process, and inhuman treatment of prisoners held Bush in demonstrating the eighteenth-cen- in checks and balances and accountabil- by us anywhere—the Constitution follows tury prophecy of patriot Abigail Adams: ity” (Glenn Greenwald, salon.com, March the flag—I was chilled when President “Power, whether vested in many or a few 24). Yet he has also seized the ultimate Obama, during his third month in office, [or in an imperious president] is ever grasp- personal authority to order the targeted went to the CIA and promised: “I will be ing, and like the grave, cries ‘Give, give!’” killings by CIA-directed Predator drones of Obama, even more often than Bush, has alleged terrorists far from any battlefield— (Continued on page 42)

16 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 17

Mona Abousenna OP-ED

Progress Elusive for Egypt’s Women

Although this article was written prior to their heads and bodies so that only their is like any other third-world society. The the political unrest in Egypt and the fall of faces and hands show. This practice is first movement, which occurred in Europe the government of Hosni Mubarak, we rooted in the religious and intellectual during the sixteenth century, liberated are assured by the author that the situa- legacy of Islam, especially the work of Ibn scripture from ecclesiastical authority, thus tion described here has not materially Taimiya, a thirteenth-century Islamic scholar enabling scripture’s free examination and changed.—EDS. whose influence is still felt today. interpretation for all believers. (Allegorical All women are subject to male domi- interpretation of sacred texts in Egypt is any middle-class women in nation. According to a popular Egyptian still discouraged, as is secularization, in all Egypt, who entered the work force saying, “The shadow of a man is worth circles—even in academia.) The second Mafter being granted the right to more than that of a wall.” It means that it movement, the Enlightenment—which equal employment opportunities and pay is preferable for a woman to be under the oc curred in Europe during the eighteenth under the Constitution of 1961, are now shadow of a man—that is, willingly resigning from their jobs. And to be married. The presence their juniors—in most cases themselves of a man in a woman’s life is the daughters of career women—are necessary if social norms “. . . Fifty years ago, Egyptian women deciding not to go out to work but rather and customs are to be entered the work force before they had the to marry and stay at home as housewives obeyed. This is because the and mothers. single woman, whether she chance to reexamine and change beliefs It is believed that today 54 percent of has never married or is a and attitudes regarding themselves and Egyptian families are financially supported divorcée or a widow, bears a their role in society and domestic life. by women. But this fact has not given social stigma. women much power. Instead, they find A man in a woman’s The resulting strain is now driving many themselves doubly exploited, forced to life is deemed to be better women to retreat from public life and labor within their households and also at protection than a wall (that voluntarily return to domestic confinement.” outside work. This situation has arisen be - is, living as a single woman cause fifty years ago, Egyptian women in the parents’ house). A entered the work force before they had man’s involvement shields the chance to reexamine and change a woman from the slander beliefs and attitudes regarding themselves of other women and from and their role in society and domestic life. other men’s sexual harassment. Even century—liberated people from all author- The resulting strain is now driving many women who are economically independ- ity save that of reason itself, in all fields of women to retreat from public life and vol- ent choose to accept this system. Women knowledge. untarily return to domestic confinement. who do not earn their own living have no The second reason is that Egypt has As in any society, women in Egypt are such choice. never experienced a genuine women’s lib- divided into classes and subclasses. Despite Why are women now succumbing to eration movement, rooted in the prior this diversity, one common denominator the stresses of the clash between modernity movements of reformation and enlighten- unifies all women in Egypt, whether they be and tradition? The pressure of Islamic fun- ment, simply because those were totally Muslim or Christian: namely, their belief that damentalism, emergent since the 1970s, absent in Arabic and Islamic cultures. The they are ordained by God to be good wives plays some role. But the larger reason for absence of this essential philosophic and and mothers. Because this is the core of women’s regression and withdrawal is intellectual infrastructure is, in my view, their identity, they accept being confined to twofold. responsible for the backward situation of their homes and relinquishing public life. One reason is that Egypt, unlike women in Arab and Islamic societies in gen- Those who must work outside the Western countries, has not experienced eral and in Egypt in particular. It means that home out of economic necessity face cer- two major historic movements—religious (Continued on page 43) tain restrictions. Muslim women must cover reformation and enlightenment. In this it

secularhumanism.org August/September 2011 FREE INQUIRY 17 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 18

Phil Zuckermann OP-ED

Secular Studies Arrives at Last

tudents can now study secularity. In short, the time has come to take will the number of scholars interested in They can even get a degree in it. secularity seriously as a significant subject studying them. The most obvious example SPitzer College, one of the Claremont of study in its own right. Why now? of this has been the formation in 2008 of colleges in southern California, has for- Several factors have contributed to the the Non-religion and Secularity Research mally approved the formation of a secular birth of secular studies. The biggest, how- Network (NSRN), an international and inter- studies program—the first such depart- ever, is the undeniable growth of secular- disciplinary network currently with over fifty ment in the United States and, I think, the ity in recent years. Based on data from var- scholars from around the world as affiliated world. I’m very proud to be a part of this ious surveys—including the American Reli - members. Just a few years earlier, in 2005, exciting development. gious Identification Survey, the Faith we saw the establishment of Trinity Broadly conceived, secular studies is an Matters survey, and Pew Forum surveys— College’s Institute for the Study of Secu- interdisciplinary program focusing on the rise of irreligion is being heralded as larism in Society and Culture (http://www. manifestations of the secular in societies one of the most significant changes on trincoll.edu/secularisminstitute), the first uni- and cultures past and present. Secular America’s religious landscape. The per- versity-linked institute focused on ad- studies entails the study of nonreligious centage of American “Nones”—people vancing the understanding of the role of people, groups, thought, and cultural who, when asked what their religion is, secular values and the process of seculariza- expressions. Emphasis is placed upon the claim “None”—has grown from 8 percent tion in contemporary society and culture. meanings, forms, relevance, and impact of back in 1990 up to between 15 percent And now we have an undergraduate pro- political and constitutional secularism, and 17 percent today. Approximately gram offering a degree in secular studies. philosophical skepticism, and personal 660,000 Americans now join the ranks of On a personal note: I can sense the and public secularity. those claiming no religion every year. thirst for such a program. So many stu- From a philosophical perspective, we Somewhere between 12 percent and 21 dents, perhaps galvanized by the “new are interested in studying the develop- percent of Americans are atheist or agnostic atheists,” want to take classes that chal- ment of naturalistic worldviews and ethi- in orientation—the highest rates of nonbe- lenge religious worldviews, explore the cal positions devoid of supernatural lief ever seen in U.S. history. Furthermore, social construction of religion, articulate assumptions. We also find debates over 27 percent of Americans currently “do not rational ethics, provide a solid grounding in the existence of God most engaging. From practice any religion,” and 22 percent say evolution, and the like. When I first a sociological point of view, we seek to that religion is “not a factor” in their lives. decided to offer a course called “Secu - know what types of people tend to be sec- Almost 30 percent of Canadians can now larism, Skepticism, and Irreligion” in 2009, ular, what cultures are largely secular, and be considered secular, and approximately the student response was overwhelming. how secularity intersects with other social one in five Canadians does not believe in The snowball has been growing ever since. phenomena. We’re also interested in God. Europe has experienced widespread For over one hundred years, scholars studying secular groups and secular social secularization in recent decades as well. In from numerous disciplines have been movements. From a psychological point of France, for example, 33 percent of the citi- studying every fathomable aspect, facet, view, we seek to learn about the minds zenry is now atheist, claiming not to believe angle, limb, version, development, level, and personalities of atheists and agnostics in God or any sort of “spirit” or “life force,” and form of religion. Now some scholars and the ways in which secularity is corre- while in Belgium the figure is 27 percent. (and, more important, students!) are start- lated with other psychological phenom- Rates of unbelief are even higher in the ing to look outside the religious box. ena, as well as upbringing, family dynam- Czech Republic, Estonia, Sweden, and There’s a lot out there. ics, etc. Neurological aspects of secularity Slovenia. We also find significant chunks of are especially exciting. Historically, we seek secularity in various regions around the to uncover evidence of secularity in the globe, including Uruguay, Japan, South past and the development of secularism Korea, Israel, and Azer bai - over time. We are also fascinated by the jan—to name several dis- Phil Zuckerman is professor of sociology and secular studies at role secularism plays in political life. Turkey parate examples. Pitzer College in Claremont, California. He is the author of sev- and France stand out as two current polit- As the number of secular eral books including Society Without God (NYU Press, 2008) ical theaters where an understanding of men and women continues and Faith No More (Oxford University Press, 2011). secularism is essential. to grow worldwide, so too

18 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 19

Is There Independent Confirmation of What the Gospels Say of Jesus?

George A. Wells

n this article, I shall focus on the contribution made to this oft- and stresses that in his own case, it is not real knowledge of the discussed question by the eminent New Testament scholar Bart Bible and its problems that led him to become a confessed agnos- ID. Ehrman, professor of religious studies at the University of tic but rather his awareness of “so much senseless pain and mis- North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Ehrman’s many books make him ery in the world,” which he finds incompatible with the belief that prominent among scholars in the field who, as Jacques Berlinerblau “there is a good and loving God who is in control.” He works ami- observes in The Secular Bible (Cambridge University Press, 2005), cably with colleagues who, he says, are as critical of the Bible as are rarely secularists but “to their immense credit” have produced he is and yet have remained Christians; he finds that he, they, and “all the explosive materials” so damaging to traditional Christian their Bible students, once they have “acknowledged that different beliefs, while “secular hermeneutics differs mainly in its critical ori- parts of the Bible have different (even contrasting) things to say on entation—its eagerness to detonate.” His point is that whether we important topics,” can go on to “evaluate these different biblical wish to “detonate” or whether we find continuing faith plausible, messages” and see which ones are particularly germane to we should be grateful to these exegetes, for it is due in part to “American Christians living in the twenty-first century.” Such them that in some countries people are free to believe or disbelieve “picking and choosing” has often been condemned as arbitrary, religious claims without penalty. but Ehrman is surely right to say that “everyone already picks and Together with many Christian scholars, Ehrman has shown that Jesus’s virginal conception, child- hood, and resurrection as narrated in the New Testament are not, from this evidence, defensible “Together with many Christian scholars, [Bart D.] as historical events and that Jesus’s teaching as given in the Gospels is both to some extent morally Ehrman has shown that Jesus’s virginal conception, flawed and also, in the first three Gospels, vitiated childhood, and resurrection as narrated in the New by apocalyptic delusions that are central to it. As Testament are not, from this evidence, defensible as he writes in Jesus Interrupted (Harper One, 2009), Ehrman is also well aware that “the Gospels are historical events and that Jesus’s teaching as given in full of discrepancies and were written decades the Gospels is both to some extent morally flawed after Jesus’s ministry and death by authors who and also, in the first three Gospels, vitiated by had not themselves witnessed any of the events of Jesus’s life.” apocalyptic delusions that are central to it.” The subtitle of Ehrman’s 2009 book is Revealing the Hidden Contra dictions in the Bible (and Why We Don’t Know About Them). The rea- son for our ignorance, says Ehrman, is that “seminarians who chooses what they want to accept in the Bible.” I would suggest, learn the historical-critical method in their Bible classes appear to as examples, that few Christians live in perfect confidence that forget all about it when it comes time for them to be pastors,” God will always supply them with food and clothing (Matt. and they then approach the Bible devotionally. He finds this natu- 6:25–33). Nor do most follow Jesus’s injunction to hate (Luke ral enough for purposes of the pulpit but asks whether this atti- 14:26) or abandon (Matt. 19:29) their families in order to be his tude need be extended to their “adult education classes.” We disciples. Many do not find nonresistance to evil (Matt. 5:39) might think that if they did not so extend it, they then would find acceptable. themselves questioning in their classrooms what they had been Ehrman is well aware that what is so often taken for multiple affirming in their pulpits. But Ehrman denies that this need be so attestation (reinforcement of, say, a miracle claim by virtue of its

secularhumanism.org August/September 2011 FREE INQUIRY 19 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 20

being recounted in multiple Gospels) is truly multiple only when eighteenth-century French scholar, C.F. Dupuis, compared what the witnesses pronounce independently of each other. Thus “if Tacitus says about Christ with what a French historian might be the same story is found in Mark, Matthew, and Luke, that is not expected to say for the benefit of his readers if he had occasion to three sources for the story but one source: Matthew and Luke mention an Indian sect that had won some adherents in France, both got it from Mark.” What, then, does he find in these three namely that these people were called “Brahmins” after a certain Gospels that is attested independently elsewhere? He knows that Brahma who had lived in India at a certain time past. Such a state- Greek and Roman sources of the whole of the first century have ment would clearly not imply that the writer had properly investi- “absolutely nothing” to say about Jesus. But he thinks that, in gated the matter. Tacitus, we do find, ca. 115 CE , “some confirmation” of what the Tacitus would have been glad to accept from Christians their Gospels record of his death. own admission that Christianity originated only recently, for, as Ehrman himself has stressed, the Roman authorities were willing to tolerate only ancient cults. He may himself have heard something of Christians from his experience as governor of the province of Asia, where he could have had the same kind of trouble with “Ehrman is ...well aware that ‘the Gospels them that his friend Pliny experienced as governor of are full of discrepancies and were written the neighboring province at about the same time. decades after Jesus’s ministry and death by Albert Schweitzer states in the second and later edi- tions of his famous survey of the history of life-of- authors who had not themselves witnessed Jesus research, Geschichte der Leben-Jesu Forschung any of the events of Jesus’s life.’” (Tübingen: Mohr, 1913 and later), that Tacitus’s refer- ence to Jesus’s death at Pilate’s hands at best estab- lishes that this is what the church of the early second century believed. E.P. Sanders’s verdict delivered in The Historical Figure of Jesus (London: Penguin Press) stands: “Roman sources that mention Jesus are all dependent on Christian reports.” acitus, writing of Nero’s punishment of Christians for allegedly As for Jewish testimony, Ehrman accepts the historian Josephus Tsetting fire to Rome, explains that these people derive their as an independent confirmatory source, even though he, like name and origin from Christus, who had been executed by sen- Tacitus, was writing at a place where (Rome) and at a time when tence of the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius (ca. 94 CE) he could well have heard about Jesus from Christians. (Annals 15:44). Tacitus did not draw this information from some As an Orthodox Jew, he should have been dismissive or even official Roman record, for he gives Pilate an incorrect title (“procu- downright hostile if he mentioned Jesus at all. But the relevant rator” when his title was “prefect”), and an official record would paragraph in his Antiquities of the Jews is a glowing appreciation have named the executed man, not called him “Christ” (Messiah). of him, and Ehrman, with almost all commentators, allows that at “Research into archives,” said the historian A.D. Momigliano in least the obviously Christian words in it could not have come from “Popular Religious Beliefs and the Late Roman Historians” (in C.T. Josephus. Had he believed what they assert, he would not have Cummings and D. Baker, eds. Popular Belief and Practice, Cam - confined his remarks here to a brief paragraph. Ehrman does, how- bridge University Press, 1972), “was seldom and unsystematically ever, accept a trimmed-down version of it as authentic. I quote practised by classical historians.” Their interests were centered on next his rendering of it, where he has put square brackets around the present or the recent past, and so for study of the former they what he calls “a few choice insertions,” leaving a residual text relied on “direct observation,” and for study of the latter on “oral which he takes as confirming “some of the most important aspects tradition.” If they did go further back in time, they became “com- of Jesus’s life and death as recounted in the Gospels.” pilers from previous historians” not researchers in archives. At this time there appeared Jesus, a wise man [if indeed one In any case, Tacitus had no motive for ferreting out possible should call him a man, for] he was a doer of startling deeds, archival or other material about what was for him a superstitious a teacher of people who receive the truth with pleasure. And perversity, for his purpose went no further than to give his edu- he gained a following both among many Jews and among cated readers some indication of wherein it consisted. He clearly many of Greek origin. [He was the Messiah.] And when Pilate, because of an accusation made by leading men among us, felt he could not expect them to know this already, so little impact condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him previ- had Christianity then made upon cultured Romans. A perceptive ously did not cease to do so. [For he appeared to them on the

20 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 21

third day, living again, just as the divine prophets had spoken referred to, and this suggests that some time elapsed before all or of these and countless other wondrous things about him.] most copies of Josephus then available came to include it. All this And up until this very day the tribe of Christians, named after Feldman admits to be an argument from silence, “but as a cumu- him, has not died out. lative argument it has considerable force.” The passage is indeed We note that here Jesus is not merely called “Christ” but is actu- found in all the extant Greek manuscripts and Latin translations, but ally named. our earliest manuscript for this part of the Antiquities dates only Ehrman gives no indication that numerous scholars have from the eleventh century and so may well derive from an interpo- shown that the whole passage is intrusive into its context. It lated copy. Ehrman himself has pointed to the importance of keep- breaks the thread of the narrative at the point where it occurs, and ing in mind that whereas today we are accustomed to printed its removal leaves a text that runs on in the proper sequence. copies that are identical, in the ancient world books were copied by Moreover, there is an ancient table of contents of the Antiquities hand, and every individual copy was a scribal artifact that could be that omits all mention of the passage. Louis H. Feldman in as faithful or as deviant as the scribe or his patron chose. Josephus, Judaism and Christianity (edited with G. Hata, Detroit: The passage also occurs at exactly the point at which one Wayne State University Press, 1987) says that this table is already would expect a Christian interpolation to be made; for Josephus mentioned in the fifth- or sixth-century Latin version of the is here recording the behavior of Pilate, prominent in Christians’ Antiquities, and he finds it “hard to believe that such a remarkable minds since the time of the Gospels, so that if Josephus had writ- passage would be omitted by anyone, let alone by a Christian ten of him without mentioning Jesus, Christian scribes would have summarizing the work.” Ehrman is well aware that the transmis- seen this as an omission to be rectified. sion of Josephus’s work was almost entirely effected by Christians. The Jews hated him as a traitor because of his behavior in their war with Rome (66–73 CE). He was popular with Christians partly because he stressed the supposed superior- ity of biblical ethics to Graeco-Roman morality but “... What is so often taken for multiple attestation (rein- far more because he gives detailed descriptions of forcement of, say, a miracle claim by virtue of its being the appalling suffering during the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in CE 70, which Christians recounted in multiple Gospels) is truly multiple only regarded as God’s decisive punishment of the when the witnesses Jewish people for their rejection of Jesus as pronounce independently of each other.” reflected in the words of the Jerusalem mob at Matt. 27:25: “His blood be on us and on our chil- dren.” One of the marks by which an interpolation can be recognized is the failure of later writers to mention it when reference to it can be expected as relevant to the Dr. Alice Whealey’s conclusion to her study of the reception of subject they are discussing. It is then significant that, although this this Josephan paragraph from antiquity to the twentieth century paragraph in Josephus’s text would have suited the purposes of (Josephus on Jesus, Peter Lang, 2003) is that the authenticity of this the church fathers admirably, none before Eusebius (in the fourth “most discussed passage in all ancient literature,” often considered century) quotes it. We know from Justin Martyr’s Dialogue With to be “the only extant extra-biblical evidence to the historicity of Trypho (ca.135 CE) that Chris tians were charged by Jews with hav- Jesus,” has after four hundred years of discussion “still not been ing “invented some sort of Christ for themselves” and with believ- settled.” She shows how during the eighteenth century the passage ing “a futile rumor.” The obvious Christian reply would have been came to be regarded as a Christian forgery and how the whole dis- to point triumphantly to the passage in Josephus. But Justin does cussion was nevertheless reopened by twentieth-century scholars. not do so, and Feldman in Josephus in Modern Scholarship, Josephus, as we saw, could, like Tacitus, have said something about 1937–1980 (De Gruyter,1984) is able to name two church fathers Christians based on hearsay. A Christian scribe could well have seen from the second century, seven from the third, and two from the fit to replace any such remarks either with the whole passage as it early fourth, all of whom knew Josephus’s work and cited it but now stands or with a neutral text later expanded into the present “do not refer to this passage, though one would imagine it would eulogy by a further Christian hand. But, as Sanders has said, “fail- be the first passage that a Christian apologist would cite.” Even ing a fluke discovery” we shall never know what Josephus actually after Eusebius, a century passes before the passage is again wrote at this point.

secularhumanism.org AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 FREE INQUIRY 21 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 22

Josephus made one further (much shorter) reference to Jesus, Pontius Pilate. In fact, however, in none of these documents is and I have discussed them both in some detail in my books The there any reference to when it was or in what circumstances he Jesus Legend and The Jesus Myth (Open Court, 1996 and 1999). had lived on Earth. There is no mention of a Galilean ministry; no (Both books have somewhat misleading titles, for, although they mention of Bethlehem, Nazareth, or Galilee; no suggestion that show that there is a good deal of myth about Jesus in the New Jesus spoke parables or performed miracles; and no indication Testament, they do not impugn his historicity.) All that Ehrman that he died in Jerusalem (a name never used in these writings in offers to justify his positive evaluation of the longer of the two connection with him). Josephan passages is an endnote stating that the Catholic scholar Paul’s Christian experiences began when the risen Jesus called J.P. Meier has given “a full discussion” of it in his 1991 Jesus book him to his service by appearing to him, thus convincing him that A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus (Doubleday, the eagerly awaited resurrection of the dead had already begun (1 Anchor Bible Reference Library). But even Meier allows that the Cor. 15:8, 20). Paul regarded Jesus as fundamentally a supernatu- rejection of the entire passage as a Christian interpolation still ral personage, “the power of God and the wisdom of God” who “has its respectable defenders,” although it “does not seem to be had assisted God in the creation of all things (1 Cor. 1:24; 8:6). the majority view.” God subsequently sent him, as his own son, as a sacrifice for sin “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8:3); “like- ness” indicates Paul’s unwillingness to represent him as in any way sinful, so that to this extent Jesus was not incarnated as a completely normal human “Consider the Epistles, or letters, ascribed to Paul; being. Nevertheless, he was “born of a woman” under the (Jewish) law (Gal. 4:4), a descendent of those that most scholars agree are from his hand David “according to the flesh” (Rom. 1:3), and a are also agreed to be earlier than the Gospels. “servant to the circumcision” (Rom. 15:8). During There are also other New Testament that time he was “emptied” of supernatural pow- ers (Phil. 2:7) and so must have lived a life quite Epistles....It is here, surely, that we may look unlike that of the Gospel figure who worked won- for confirmation that Jesus ministered in Galilee ders that made him famous throughout “all Syria” early in the first century, was acquainted with (Matt. 4:24). All that Paul records of Jesus’s ministry is his crucifixion for our redemption. He makes mys- John the Baptist, and died in Jerusalem at the tical statements about it, such as: “I have been cru- behest of the governor, Pontius Pilate. In fact, cified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but however, in none of these documents is there Christ who lives in me,” and referring to Christ “who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. any reference to when it was or in what 2:20). That is not unlike what we find in the pagan circumstances he had lived on Earth.” mystery religions, where the initiates partake in the destiny of the deity. Various religious brotherhoods of the time were anxious to believe that after death their members would be rewarded and compen- sated for all the unhappiness of their lives. The f, then, we look in vain for pagan or Jewish evidence that would creed of a brotherhood served to identify it, and Iindependently confirm the Gospels’ records of Jesus’s ministry Paul’s “we preach Christ crucified” (1 Cor. 1:23) seems to have and death, we ask whether the rest of Christian literature makes been just such a sectarian shibboleth. good this failure. Consider the Epistles, or letters, ascribed to Paul; Since Paul specifies this crucifixion as the very substance of his those that most scholars agree are from his hand are also agreed preaching, he might be expected at least to allude to when and to be earlier than the Gospels. There are also other New where this important event occurred, if that was known to him. Testament Epistles that, if not quite so early, were obviously writ- But he does not and certainly does not corroborate the Gospels’ ten independently of the Gospels, presumably before they had accounts. In his letters there is no cleansing of the Temple, which become widely known and accepted as significant. It is here, according to Mark and Luke triggered the resolve of the chief surely, that we may look for confirmation that Jesus ministered in priests and scribes to kill Jesus. There is no Gethsemane scene; no Galilee early in the first century, was acquainted with John the conflict with the authorities; no thieves crucified with him; no Baptist, and died in Jerusalem at the behest of the governor, weeping women—not a word about time or place and no men-

22 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 23

tion of Pilate. What Paul does say is that the crucifixion was In contrast to what we find in all the early Epistles, much in the effected by “the rulers of this age” who did not realize that Jesus Gospels seems to be based on traditions about an early first-cen- is “the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:6, 8). Although apologists take this tury Galilean preacher who called the Jews to repentance in view as a reference to Caiaphas and Pilate, it is widely agreed that for of a catastrophic judgment of mankind soon to be effected by a Paul, these world rulers are some kind of evil, supernatural supernatural figure called “the Son of Man” (never mentioned in demonic power. His wording resembles the title given in the the canonical Epistles). In The History of the Synoptic Tradition fourth Gospel to the supreme demonic being, “the ruler of this (Blackwell, 1963), Rudolf Bultmann hinted that these “life of Jesus cosmos” (John 12:31; 16:11). (Paul himself uses “this age” and traditions” about a Galilean prophet were originally quite inde- “this cosmos” interchangeably: they are equated at 1 Cor. 1:20 pendent of the Pauline lore about a preexistent Christ who lived and 3:18f.). These hostile forces he sometimes calls not rulers but in heaven before his incarnation and redemptive death and that principalities, powers, dominions, or thrones. Ephesians 2:2 men- the two streams of tradition were first brought together (and then tions “the ruler of the power of the air,” and in Ephesians 6:12 the only to some extent) in the Gospel of Mark, the earliest of the “principalities, powers and world-rulers of this darkness” are canonical four. “The author’s purpose,” said Bultmann, “was the expressly said to be not “flesh and blood” but rather “spiritual hosts union of the Hellenistic kerygma about Christ whose essential of wickedness in the heavenly places.” The article archõn (ruler) in Kittel’s standard Theological Dictionary of the New Testament observes that Paul is “not refer- ring to earthly rulers” and that arguments to the con- trary “are not convincing.” To understand Paul and the Epistle writers who “In contrast to what we find in all the early soon followed him, we need to be more conversant Epistles, much in the Gospels seems to be based with the psychology of mysticism than with the history on traditions about an early first-century Galilean of Palestine. For the early post-Paulines (Ephesians, Colossians and 2 Thessalonians, not written by Paul preacher who called the Jews to repentance in and dated shortly after the authentically Pauline letters) view of a catastrophic judgment of mankind soon to are equally vague about the earthly Jesus. Though be effected by a supernatural figure these three letters are ascribed to Paul in the canon, the New Testament scholar Christopher Tuckett in called ‘the Son of Man.’” Christology and the New Testament (Edinburgh: University Press, 2001) endorses the “widely held view” that they are pseudonymous and that Paul’s authoritative position “led to other people writing ‘let- ters’ in his name.” The opening chapter of Colossians stresses, even more than Paul had done, that “our Lord Jesus Christ” content consists of the Christ-myth, as we learn it from Paul, . .. is fundamentally a supernatural personage, and designates him: “the with the tradition of the story of Jesus.” image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him Mark does state that Jesus’s death was redemptive (10:45; were all things created, in heaven and upon earth, . . . all things have 14:24) but does not labor the point, as Paul has done. What Mark been created through him; and he is before all things, and in him all does, strikingly, is to give the crucifixion of the Pauline tradition a things consist.” setting in time and place consonant with the lifetime of the Tuckett allows that “quite how all this can be said of a human Galilean preacher. In thus combining a passion narrative with say- being living in the recent past is not easy to understand.” Quite ings and narrative of a ministry, Mark took a decisive step; for in so—and I show in my books of 1996, 1999, and 2005 (Can We the upshot only Gospels containing a passion narrative were Trust the New Testament, Open Court) that the remaining New authorized for use in the emerging Catholic church. Testament Epistles that can be dated early (Hebrews; James, 1, 2, Mark, however, assimilated only some of the Pauline-type and 3; John; and 1 Peter) throw little if any more light on the Jesus material, and we have to wait until the fourth Gospel before we we know from the Gospels. Christian scholars, aligning the Christ find Jesus’s preexistence also taken into an account of his life. In of the Epistles as one and the same person with the Jesus of these his masterly 2010 survey of The Rise of Christian Beliefs (Fortress Epistles, have to posit what Tuckett calls an “enormous amount of Press, 2010—surely the culmination of his life’s work), the Finnish christological development that had already taken place by the New Testament scholar Heikki Räisänen notes the “apt” observa- time of Paul.” This they admit to be very “surprising.” tion of H.-J. Kuschel that, while “the universal christology of Paul

secularhumanism.org AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 FREE INQUIRY 23 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 24

and the Deutero-Paulines” (letters ascribed to Paul but likely not well into the second century, when there was a “proliferation of written by him) does not know any material directly relating to gospel literature,” some of it independent of the canonical Gospels, Jesus’s life, the first three of our Gospels, replete with such biog- from which material could be freely combined with other matter, raphical matter, know nothing of his preexistence. “These two reworked, and expanded. It all voiced an understanding of Jesus far things,” says Kuschel, “hardly seem to fit together.” Indeed they removed from that of the Paulines and other early Epistles. do not, and only with the fourth Gospel do we first find any In a 1984 symposium, From Jesus to Paul, edited by P. Richard - attempt to “square the circle” by linking them. son and J.C. Hurd (W. Laurier University Press), the Toronto the- In early Christianity, the “life of Jesus” stream of tradition was ologian S.G. Wilson admitted with characteristic frankness that extremely variegated, being based largely on oral material. In a the relation between the Christ described by Paul and the Jesus of recent symposium, Trajectories Through the New Testament and the Gospels seems sometimes to be a topic that is “instinctively the Apostolic Fathers (edited by A. Gregory and C. Tuckett, Oxford avoided because to pursue it too far leads to profound and dis- University Press, 2007), Helmut Koester in “Gospels and Gospel turbing questions about the origin and nature of Christianity.” Traditions in the Second Century” has pointed to discoveries over Ehrman, aware of the topic’s importance, ad dresses it in chapter 22 of his excellent historical introduction to the early Christian writings titled The New Testament (3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2004). There, he acknowledges how little Paul tells about “the tra- ditions concerning Jesus, or indeed about the his- “... S.G. Wilson [has] admitted with characteristic torical Jesus himself,” and even asks: “Do Jesus frankness that the relation between the and Paul represent the same religion?” Ehrman Christ described by Paul and the Jesus of the concludes that he must leave his readers to decide that for themselves. However, in his 2009 book he Gospels seems sometimes to be a topic that is aligns himself with the consensus that Paul’s Jesus ‘instinctively avoided because to pursue it too far does not merely have some similarities with the leads to profound and disturbing questions about Jesus of the Gospels but that Paul to some extent corroborates their records. the origin and nature of Christianity.’” A favorite example of such corroboration, which Ehrman too adduces, is one of the occasions when Paul uncharacteristically appeals to the authority of “the Lord” to support his own teaching (concerning, in this case, divorce: 1 Cor. 7:10). But for Paul, “the Lord” designates the risen Lord, not the historical the past fifty years that have shown “the existence at an early time, Jesus. It is a title associated with the resurrection (Rom. 10:9), and possibly as early as the second half of the first century, of written scholars have repeatedly shown that early Christian seers gave direc- collections of sayings of Jesus” and also “the development of dia- tives in the name of the risen Lord as the obvious way of supporting logues of Jesus with his disciples”—“interpretations of traditional the rulings they wished to inculcate. Paul himself expressly records (2 sayings” of his. By no means all of this material ascribes suffering Cor. 12:8–9) what “the Lord” had said personally to him in answer and death to him. Räisänen observes that a “soteriological inter- to a prayer—and the speaker could only have been the risen Lord, pretation of Jesus’s death”—that is, a view that Jesus’s death was for Paul did not know Jesus before his resurrection, and as a Pharisaic redemptive—is “either missing from, or is only of minor signifi- persecutor of Christians would not have prayed to him before the cance in many first- and even second-century writings.” Further, risen one called him to his service. Räisänen notes that chapters 2 what we know as “the Easter experiences” are by no means and 3 of the book of Revelation provide “a vivid illustration that a always important, or even present at all, in all of them. A signal Christian prophet could present his topical message as an utterance example is the Coptic Gospel of Thomas, discovered in 1945, by the risen Jesus.” He gives Paul’s “words of the Lord” at 1 which contains only sayings of Jesus—as Ehrman notes in his Lost Thessalonians 4:14–17 as a further example (234, 382n.42) and Christianities (Oxford University Press, 2003): “no birth, no bap- adds that, in time, “quite a few such utterances” may well have tism, no miracles, no travels, no trials, no death, no resurrection.” been taken for statements made by the historical Jesus and so In this Gospel, salvation has nothing to do with Jesus’s death and assimilated into the Gospels. In such cases, the influence will have resurrection but is accorded to those who can rightly interpret his gone not from life-of-Jesus material to Paul but from him and enigmatic sayings recorded in it. other early Christian prophets to form supposedly authentic life- Koester shows that the fluidity of life-of-Jesus material continued of-Jesus material.

24 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 25

What is taken for the strongest evidence for linking Paul’s uments, unknown. These later writings include, within the canon, Jesus with the Jesus of the Gospels is that Paul’s list of persons 1 Timothy (one of the three Pastoral Epistles ascribed to Paul but who had seen the risen Jesus includes men known personally to generally admitted to be later compositions) and 2 Peter (proba- him, and they—it is claimed—had known Jesus during his min- bly the very latest of the twenty-seven canonical books). Outside istry. Thus the Cephas known personally to Paul is equated with the canon, there are the Epistles of Ignatius of Antioch, the short Peter, the disciple in the Gospels; and Paul’s “James the brother of manual on morals and church practice known as the Didache, the the Lord,” again a personal acquaintance, is taken to have been Epistles of Barnabas and Polycarp, the so-called second Epistle of one of the brothers of the Galilean Jesus. If so, it would be hard Clement, and the two Apologies of Justin Martyr. Significant bio - to believe that Paul had not learned from these two men much graphical material is present in all these writings and in others of more about Jesus’s earthly life than is apparent from his letters. similar date. Ehrman himself disputed the equation Cephas = Peter in his care- There is, then, no doubt that in the first half of the second fully argued article “Cephas and Peter” (Journal of Biblical century, Christian writers refer to Jesus in a way that is unknown Literature 109 [1990] but seems now to accept it. And James and the other “brethren of the Lord” mentioned by Paul may well have been members of a “brotherhood”—a group of Messianists not related to Jesus but zealous in the service of the “It is when we come to Christian writings, in and risen Lord. Just as Paul’s “words of the Lord” can be outside the canon, that are known to have been understood as words of the risen, reigning Christ, composed late enough for the Gospels (or at any rate the church’s Lord—likewise “the Lord” in his phrase “brother/brethren of the Lord”—may well desig- some of their underlying traditions) to have been nate the risen Lord rather than the historical Jesus. current that we do find clear allusions to relevant In Acts, the Jerusalem Christians are called “the biographical material about Jesus in a way that is, brethren,” and 2 Cor. 8:18 mentions a “brother” who is “famous among all the churches for his in the earliest documents, unknown....I have preaching of the gospel.” Paul also mentions a fac- repeatedly insisted that until this distinction is tion at Corinth whose members called themselves recognized as fundamental, there will be no “of Christ” and who were not in full agreement with other Christian groups there, differently adequate understanding of Christian origins.” named (1 Cor. 1:11–13). If, then, there was a Corinthian group called “those of the Christ,” there may well have been a Jerusalem one called “the brethren of the Lord” whose members were as little related in the earliest documents. I have repeatedly insisted that until this to, or personally acquainted with, the pre-crucifixion Jesus as were distinction is recognized as fundamental, there will be no ade- the Corinthians. quate understanding of Christian origins. It is one illustration of If this looks like special pleading, I would refer readers to my the enormous diversity of attitudes and ideas among early 2009 book, Cutting Jesus Down to Size (Open Court) for fuller dis- Christians, whose doctrines could differ in almost every respect. cussion of these important issues. Here I will only ask: Can we Räisänen concludes his 2010 survey by noting that, in view of this really believe (as even Räisänen does) that Paul was personally diversity, there was absolutely no inevitability that Christianity acquainted with the brother of the Jesus of the Gospels and there- would develop, as it has done, into the mainstream varieties of fore must have known from him—and indeed from other follow- today. Its future was “completely open, at least during the first ers of Jesus whom he supposedly knew—that this Jesus minis- two centuries.” tered in Galilee and died in Jerusalem at the behest of Pontius Finally, how Paul and other early Christian writers could come to Pilate, and yet that Paul and other early Epistle writers chose to worship a crucified Messiah not to be identified with the early first- make no mention of these and many other supposedly biograph- century Galilean preacher of the Gospels is a question that must be ical facts about the Jesus they worshipped? faced but cannot be addressed in the compass of this article. It is when we come to Christian writings, in and outside the canon, that are known to have been composed late enough for George A. Wells is emeritus professor of German at the University of the Gospels (or at any rate some of their underlying traditions) to London. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the origins have been current that we do find clear allusions to relevant bio - of Christianity and on German intellectual history. graphical material about Jesus in a way that is, in the earliest doc-

secularhumanism.org AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 FREE INQUIRY 25 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 26

R

MOVING $ $ ______

! SECULARISM or a Friend of the Center for Inquiry, take 1 Deduct $ ______$ ______

! $ ______FORWARD ( The annual joint conference of

MARCH 1–4, 2012 Luncheon Total: $ ______! S

ORLANDO, FLORIDA Luncheon Total: $ ______

Bask in the splendor of the world-class Hyatt Regency Orlando ! International Airport. No shuttles or taxis to contend with—just collect your luggage and ride the escalator straight to the hotel Banquet Total: $ ______lobby! Full-service conference hotel. Free broadband Internet ! access in guest rooms. Easy access to Disney World, Universal Studios, and all other Orlando attractions. Stay up to three Excursion Total: $ ______days before and after the conference at the exclusive discounted conference rate. !

Address ______

SPEAKERS INCLUDE C ) ______/______DANIEL C. DENNETT | SIR HAROLD KROTO | STEVEN PINKER REBECCA GOLDSTEIN | P Z MYERS | KATRINA VOSS | ! RUSSELL BLACKFORD | STEPHEN LAW | RITA SWAN ! ANTHONY PINN | VICTOR STENGER | ELIZABETH CORNWELL N Signature ______( EDDIE TABASH | OPHELIA BENSON | RON BAILEY P. O. BOX 664, AMHERST, NY 14226-0664 U.S.A. RAZIB KHAN | JAMILA BEY | SIKIVU HUTCHINSON F DAVID SILVERMAN | BILL COOKE | STEVEN K. GREEN ELLENBETH WACHS | RONALD A. LINDSAY | DEBBIE GODDARD

TOM FLYNN and more to come!

Why Florida? Florida will host one of 2012’s most dramatic church-state battles. In re- sponse to a Council for Secular Humanism lawsuit, a measure on Florida’s November 2012 ballot would amend the state constitution to jettison language that forbids state funding of religious institutions. The national implications: more than thirty-five other states have

similar constitutional provisions (often called “Blaine Amendments”) that bar state aid to religious groups in language stronger than the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

At “Moving Secularism Forward,” you’ll learn about the Florida face-off—about what you can do to help defend Florida’s Blaine Amendment—and much, much more!

FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 27

REGISTRATION FORM YES! Please register ____ persons for “Moving Secularism Forward.” Registration includes all daytime sessions. G Does not include Friday and Saturday Speaker Luncheons, Saturday Gala Banquet, or Kennedy Space Center excursion. CONFERENCE RATES: $375 PER PERSON ____ persons @ $375 $ ______

! ADDITIONAL DISCOUNT M (If you’re an Associate Member of the Council for Secular Humanism or a Friend of the Center for Inquiry, take 10 percent off the registration fee. (Enclose copy of your Associate Member or Friend of the Center card.) Deduct $ ______$ ______

! FULL-TIME STUDENT RATE $100 PER PERSON ____ persons @ $100 $ ______D (Enclose photocopy of valid full-time student ID.) Only one person may register on this form if student rate is selected. REGISTRATION SUBTOTAL $ ______

ADDITIONAL ITEMS: ! FRIDAY SPEAKER LUNCHEON with Rita Swan, director of Children’s Healthcare Is a Legal Duty, on the successful campaign to end Oregon’s legal protections for parents who deny their children needed medical care on grounds of religion. M $62/PERSON # of Persons: _____ Luncheon Total: $ ______! SATURDAY SPEAKER LUNCHEON “No Fire, No Sword: Freedom of Religion and the Secular State” with Australian philosopher, bioethicist, author, and critic Russell Blackford, coeditor of 50 Voices of Disbelief. $70/PERSON # of Persons: _____ Luncheon Total: $ ______

! SATURDAY EVENING GALA BANQUET with Daniel C. Dennett, author of Breaking the Spell, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea. Premium dinner, awards ceremony, entertainment TBA. $95/PERSON # of Persons: _____ Banquet Total: $ ______Full-service conference hotel. Free broadband Internet ! KENNEDY SPACE CENTER EXCURSION Luxury motorcoach to Cape Canaveral; guided tour; museum admission; IMAX movie. a A full-day experience (Monday, March 5). $140/PERSON # of Persons: _____ Excursion Total: $ ______

! PREORDER COMPLETE PROCEEDINGS OF THIS CONFERENCE ON AUDIO CDs. _____ set(s) at $125 $ ______Set price is guaranteed regardless of actual count of CDs in the set.

Name ______Address ______

City/State/Zip ______Phone / E-mail address ( ) ______/______| R | | | ! Check enclosed ( only U.S. checks drawn on U.S. bank and denominated in U.S. dollars) | | ! Bill my credit card (required for all foreign-currency transactions)/ ! AmEx ! Discover ! MasterCard ! Visa A | | Number ______Exp. Date ______Signature ______(required for credit-card transactions) E | | MAIL TO: CONFERENCE FREE INQUIRY, P. O. BOX 664, AMHERST, NY 14226-0664 U.S.A. R | | FAX with credit-card information to (716)636-1733 or CALL toll-free 1-800-458-1366 ext. 308 D | | during business hours Eastern time or E-MAIL [email protected]. E | | Sorry, online registration is not available during this EXCLUSIVE T advance registration period for FREE INQUIRY readers/subscribers only!

HOTEL INFORMATION: Through February 9, 2012, conference attendees can reserve rooms at the special conference discount rate of $149.00 single or double occupancy ($174.00 triple occupancy, $199.00 quadruple occupancy; room rates do not include applica- ble state and local taxes and applicable service of hotel-specific fees in effect at the time of the meeting). Attendees are urged to stay through Sunday evening, March 4, and through Monday, March 5, if joining the Space Center excursion. Staying to enjoy Orlando’s many recreational options? Conference room rate is available for up to three days before and/or after the conference. Sleeping rooms not included in conference registration. You must contact the hotel directly to book sleeping rooms at the conference rate.

To obtain conference hotel room rates, you must reserve online at https://resweb.passkey.com/go/CFSH2012 (preferred) or by phone. Call 1-888-421-1442. Give operator the pass phrase “C F S H 3-1-12” to secure discounted conference rate. Driving to the conference? Parking in the airport/hotel ramp is FREE for attendees! EXPERIENCE ALL ORLANDO HAS TO OFFER! Plan to see and do it all before or after the conference—your way! Visit www.secularhumanism.orlandomeetinginfo.com for complete Orlando information, including links to all major attractions. Compiled by VisitOrlando exclusively for attendees of this conference! FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 28

Intellectual Black Holes and Bullshit

Stephen Law

ven among the world’s best-educated and most scientifi- contains, if you like, numerous intellectual black holes—belief sys- cally literate populations, ridiculous belief systems abound. tems constructed in such a way that unwary passers-by can find EHuge numbers of people believe in such things as astrology, themselves similarly drawn in. While those of us lacking robust television psychics, crystal divination, the healing powers of mag- intellectual and other psychological defenses are most easily nets, and the prophecies of Nostradamus. Many suppose that the trapped, we’re all potentially vulnerable. If you find yourself pyramids were built by aliens, that the Holocaust never happened, encountering a belief system in which one or more of these mech- or that the World Trade Center was brought down by the U.S. anisms features prominently, be wary. Alarm bells should be going government. A few would have us believe that Earth is ruled by a off and warning lights flashing, for you may be approaching the secret cabal of lizardlike aliens. Even within mainstream religions event horizon of an intellectual black hole. many people believe absurdities. Some imams promised seventy- two heavenly virgins to suicide bombers. Other religious authori- Fake Reasonableness ties insist the entire universe is only a few thousand years old. Note that the mere fact that a set of beliefs is attractive doesn’t make How do intelligent, college-educated people end up the will- it an intellectual black hole. Take a set of beliefs about water, such as ing slaves of claptrap? How, in particular, do the true believers that it freezes at 0 degrees centigrade and boils at 100 degrees. manage to convince themselves and others that they are the People are powerfully wedded to these beliefs because they are gen- rational, reasonable ones and everyone else is deluded? uinely reasonable. The seductive draw of the beliefs that lie at the heart of an intellectual black hole, by contrast, has nothing to do with whether or not they’re reasonable or true. To those inside, the core beliefs may appear reasonable. But “How do intelligent, college-educated people the appearance is a façade—a product of the belief sys- tem’s ability to disable the truth-detecting power of reason end up the willing slaves of claptrap? How, and get its victims to instead embrace habits of thought in particular, do the true believers manage to that are deceptive and unreliable. convince themselves and others that they The Dangers Posed by Intellectual Black Holes are the rational, reasonable ones and Why worry about intellectual black holes? What does it everyone else is deluded?” matter if some people happen to believe absurd things? There’s no doubt that intellectual black holes can exist without causing any great harm. They are still dangerous, however. The hazards posed by an extreme cult, such as Cosmologists talk about black holes, objects so gravitationally that of the Reverend Jim Jones (which ended in the mass suicide powerful that nothing, not even light, can break away from them. of his followers), are abundantly clear. Once our minds have been Unwary space travelers passing too close to a back hole will find captured by such a belief system, we become vulnerable to the themselves sucked in. An increasingly powerful motor is required wiles of those who control it. Victims have even been led to com- to resist its pull, until one eventually passes the “event horizon” mit terrorist attacks. and escape becomes impossible. There are less dramatic but still serious dangers. Every year, mil- My suggestion is that our contemporary cultural landscape lions of dollars are spent on alternative medicines that, in many

28 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 29

Why Do We Believe What We Do? Why is belief in supernatural beings—such For example, in his book Illusion of get large numbers of people—even smart, as ghosts, angels, dead ancestors, and Conscious Will, Daniel Wegner points out college, educated people—to believe down- gods—so widespread? Belief in such super- that what he believes is the most remarkable right ridiculous things. Neverthe less, if the natural agents appears to be a near-univer- characteristic of those using a Ouija board (in HADD hypothesis is correct, it adds yet sal feature of human societies. There is some which the planchette—often an up turned another nail to the coffin lid of the suggestion evidence that a predisposition toward beliefs shot glass—on which the subjects’ index fin- that “Lots of people believe it, so there’s got of this kind may actually be innate—part of gers are gently resting appears to wander to be something to it!” our natural, evolutionary heritage. The psy- independently around the board, spelling out Another psychological theory is the the- chologist Justin Barrett has suggested that messages from “beyond”): “People using the ory of cognitive dissonance. Dissonance the prevalence of beliefs of this kind may in board seem irresistibly drawn to the conclu- is the psychological discomfort that we feel part be explained by our possessing a hyper- sion that some sort of unseen agent . . . is when we hold beliefs or attitudes that sensitive agent detection device, or HADD. guiding the planchette movement. Not only conflict. The theory says that we are moti- Human beings explain features of the is there a breakdown in the perception of vated to reduce dissonance by either adjust- world around them in two very different one’s own contribution to the talking board ing our beliefs and attitudes or rationalizing ways. For example, we sometimes appeal to effect but a theory immediately arises to them. natural causes or laws in order to account account for this breakdown: the theory of The example of the sour grapes in for an event. Why did that apple fall from outside agency. In addition to spirits of the Aesop’s story of The Fox and The Grapes is the tree? Because the wind blew and shook dead, people seem willing at times to adduce often used to illustrate cognitive disso- the branch, causing the apple to fall. Why the influence of demons, angels, and even nance. The fox desires those juicy-looking did the water freeze in the pipes last night? entities from the future or from outer space, grapes, but then, when he realizes he will Because the temperature of the water fell depending on their personal contact with cul- never attain them, he adjusts his belief below zero, and it is a law that water freezes tural theories about such effects.” accordingly to make himself feel better—he below zero. Because the movement of the planch - decides that the grapes are sour. However, we also arrive at explanations ette is inexplicable and odd, it is immediately What role might the theory of cognitive by appealing to agents—beings who act on put down to the influence of an invisible dissonance play in explaining why we are the basis of their beliefs and desires in a agent (though notice the kind of agent in - drawn to using belief-immunizing strate- more or less rational way. Why did the voked varies from group to group, de - gies? Suppose, for the sake of argument, apple fall from the tree? Because Ted pending on the members’ own particular, that our evolutionary history has predis- wanted to eat it, believed that shaking the culturally led expectations). posed us toward both a belief in supernat- tree would make it fall, and so shook the Note that the HADD hypothesis does ural agents and also toward forming beliefs tree. Why are Mary’s car keys on the man- not say that there are no invisible agents. that are, broadly speaking, rational or at the telpiece? Because she wanted to remind Perhaps at least some of the invisible agents very least not downright irrational. That herself not to forget them and so put them that people suppose exist are real. Perhaps might put us in a psychological bind. On the where she thought she would spot them. there really are ghosts, or spirits, or gods. one hand, we may find ourselves unwilling Barrett suggests that we have evolved to However, if we suppose the HADD hypothe- or even unable to give up our belief in cer- be overly sensitive to agency. We evolved in sis does correctly explain why so many peo- tain invisible agents. On the other hand, we an environment containing many agents— ple believe in the existence of invisible may find ourselves confronted by over- family members, friends, rivals, predators, agents, then the fact that large numbers whelming evidence that what we believe is prey, and so on. Spotting and understanding hold such beliefs can no longer be consid- downright unreasonable. Under these cir- other agents helps us survive and reproduce. ered good evidence that any such agents cumstances, strategies promising to disarm So we evolved to be sensitive to them— exist. It will no longer do to say, “Surely not rational threats and give our beliefs at least oversensitive, in fact. Hear a rustle in the all these people can be so very deluded? the illusion of reasonableness are likely to bushes behind you, and you instinctively Surely there must be some truth to these seem increasingly attractive. Such strategies spin round, looking for an agent. Most beliefs, otherwise they would not be so can provide us with a way of dealing with times, there’s no one there—just the wind in widespread?” The fact is, if the HADD hy - the intellectual discomfort such innate ten- the leaves. But, in the environment in which pothesis is correct, we’re likely to believe in dencies might otherwise produce. They we evolved, on those few occasions when the existence of such invisible agents any- allow true believers to reassure themselves there is an agent present, detecting it might way, whether or not such agents exist. But that they are not being nearly as irrational well save your life. Far better to avoid several then the commonality of these beliefs is not as reason might otherwise suggest—to imaginary predators than be eaten by a real good evidence such agents exist. convince themselves and others that their one. Thus evolution will select for an inher- There was already good reason to be belief in ghosts or spirits or whatever, even itable tendency to not just detect—but skeptical about popular support when it if not well-confirmed, is at least not con- overdetect—agency. We have evolved to comes to justifying beliefs in invisible trary to reason. possess (or, perhaps more plausibly, to be) agents, as well as many other beliefs of a So we can speculate about why certain hyperactive agency detectors. religious or supernatural character. The fact belief systems are attractive and also why If we do have an HADD, that would at that around 45 percent of the citizens of such strategies are employed to immunize least partly explain the human tendency to one of the richest and best-educated popu- them against rational criticism and provide feel that there is “someone there” even lations on the planet believe that the entire a veneer of “reasonableness.” Both the when no one is observed and so may at universe is only about six thousand years HADD hypothesis and the theory of cogni- least partly explain our tendency to believe old is testament to the fact that, whatever tive dissonance may have a role to play. in the existence of invisible agents—in spir- else may be said about religion, it undoubt- its, ghosts, angels, or gods. edly possesses a quite astonishing power to —Stephen Law

secularhumanism.org August/September 2011 FREE INQUIRY 29 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 30

cases, just don’t work. Not only are these medicines ineffective, but kind of fakery. A bullshitter, says Frankfurt, is not the same thing as people relying on them may expose themselves to serious risk as a a liar. The bullshitter does not knowingly tell a fib. He or she does not result. For example, people may die as a consequence of relying on assert something he or she knows to be false. Rather he or she just homeopathic treatment rather than conventional immunizations to says things to suit his or her purposes—to get away with some- protect them against malaria. Belief in the efficacy of homeopathy thing—without any care as to whether those things are true. to protect against malaria, or that homeopathy has any kind of I don’t entirely agree with Frankfurt’s analysis. His definition, it genuinely medicinal effect, is not supported by the evidence. seems to me, is in at least one respect too narrow. People regularly Each year, vast sums are also spent on astrologers, psychics, talk about astrology, feng shui, Christian Science, the latest self-help and others claiming extraordinary powers. Vulnerable people fad, and so on as being bullshit, and their practitioners as bullshit waste both cash and emotional energy seeking out reassurances artists, even while acknowledging that those who practice these about lost loved ones that are, in reality, bogus. beliefs typically do so in all sincerity. Not only do the practitioners So intellectual black holes allow people to be taken advantage believe what they say, it matters to them that what they say is true. of financially. Indeed, they are big business. But victims can, of What nevertheless marks out practitioners of astrology, feng course, be taken advantage of in other ways, too. Intellectual shui, and Christian Science as bullshit artists, I’d suggest, is the black holes can lead people to waste their lives. In some cases, kind of faux reasonableness that they manage to generate—the true believers may be led to abandon friends and family and throw pseudoscientific gloss that they are able to apply to their core away real opportunities, all for the sake of furthering their belief beliefs. They create the illusion that what they believe is reason- system’s hypnotically attractive, if bogus, cause. able while not themselves recognizing that it’s only an illusion. They typically manage to fool not only others but themselves, too.

On Stupidity “. . . Our contemporary cultural landscape Victims of intellectual black holes need be neither dim nor foolish. Those inside them are often smart. contains, if you like, numerous intellectual Nor need those who fall afoul of intellectual black black holes—belief systems constructed in such a holes be generally gullible. Victims may in other way that unwary passers-by can find themselves sim- areas of their lives be models of caution, subjecting claims to close critical scrutiny, weighing evidence ilarly drawn in. While those of us lacking robust intel- scrupulously, and tailoring their beliefs according to lectual and other psychological defenses are most robust rational standards. They are able to, as it easily trapped, we’re all potentially vulnerable.” were, compartmentalize their application of these strategies. So if you begin to suspect that you yourself may have fallen into an intellectual black hole, On Religion there’s no need to feel foolish. People far cleverer than either you Examples of intellectual black holes include Young Earth creation- or me have fallen victim. ism and Christian Science. However, I should emphasize that I am not suggesting here that every religious belief system is an intel- This article was adapted from Stephen Law, Believing Bullshit: How Not to Get Sucked into an Intellectual Black Hole (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus lectual black hole or that every person of faith is a victim. I am not Books); www.prometheusbooks.com. Copyright ©2011 by Stephen Law. arguing here that all religious beliefs in question are false, or that Used with permission of the author and publisher. they couldn’t be given a proper, robust defense. Just because some religious people choose to defend what they believe by Further Reading dubious means doesn’t mean that no one can reasonably hold Justin Barrett, Why Would Anyone Believe in God? (Lanham, Md.: Alta- those same beliefs. mira Press, 2004). Harry Frankfurt, On Bullshit (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005). Daniel D. Wegner, The Illusion of Conscious Will (Cambridge Mass.: MIT On Bullshit Press, 2002). So, to be clear, when I talk, as I do, about an intellectual black hole being a bullshit belief system, it’s not the content I’m suggesting Stephen Law is senior lecturer in philosophy at Heythrop College, University of is bullshit but the manner in which its core beliefs are defended London, and provost of the Center for Inquiry in London. His books include The and promoted. Philosophy Gym (Orion, 2003) and A Very Short Introduction to Humanism According to philosopher Harry Frankfurt, whose essay On (Oxford University Press, 2011). Bullshit has become a minor philosophical classic, bullshit involves a

30 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 31

On Ethics and Morality

David Tribe

ho would have thought in 1972 that “ethics” would ever of sins of the mind (impure thoughts), which do not cause harm, become fashionable? That was when my Nucleoethics: with sins of the body, which may (Matt. 5:28). Another objection- WEthics in Modern Society was published in the same socio- able feature of the Judeo-Christian-Muslim moral purview is its logical series as Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch (1970). obsession with sex, such that an “immoral” person is usually not Today, ethics is everywhere. The hitherto-obsolescent Hippo- taken to be one guilty of aggression, intolerance, untruthfulness, cratic Oath for doctors has been joined by codes of ethics for malice, greed, and exploitation but rather of forms of sexual activ- advertisers, journalists, lawyers, accountants, and even financial ity or depiction of which religionists disapprove. Together with a planners; John Forge’s Responsible Scientist (2008) urges one for messianic urge to proselytize, this obsession leads fundamentalists scientists. In almost every industry, big companies have ethics com- to extremes of torture and murder as practiced by their founders mittees; there are “bioethics” features in every serious newspaper. and the patriarchs of history, legend, or myth. Of course, most reli- But has this effusion of ethics led to any overflow of morality? gionists today are not fundamentalists, but the best that can be My own background is that of a Bible-believing Austrian puri- said of them is that their conduct is no better than that of irreli- tan obsessed with “pure” thoughts and chastity. Now only the gionists from the same socioeconomic background. Puritan work ethic survives. Of course, scattered in both the In humanist circles in Britain, there was much talk during the moralistic Bible and the Puritan code are moral teachings of uni- 1960s and 1970s of altruism, individual morality, rationality based versal validity, but how does one detect them? My moral quest on science as the essence of morality, permissiveness, and an open first produced “What Is Morality?” (The Plain View, Winter 1964): society (oxymoron)—all unsupported by adequate definitions, or an “orthodox” mélange of humanist ethics and morality but with any definitions at all. Humanists wrote about determinism but a hint of later heterodoxy. First the orthodoxy. spoke of free will. They endorsed philosophical materialism but Secular humanists agree that religion cannot be the basis of eschewed mechanism or cited Arthur Koestler’s Ghost in the morality. Differing moral codes—from religion to religion, sect to Machine (1967). Liberals of all backgrounds, including secular sect, and generation to generation—negate any universal moral humanists, were strong on “rights” and giving “power” or “liber- law upheld by an eternal, unchanging deity. A more basic ques- ation” to hitherto-discounted segments of society (women, gays, tion is whether right conduct is simply what God decrees, or does blacks, students, and infants), but most said nothing about respon- God decree it because it is right? The first alternative prompts two sibilities. Despite its ongoing promotion of the theory of evolution troubling conclusions: (1) humankind needs no moral insights, and the work of ethnologists like Desmond Morris, the U.K. only obedience to God’s dictates; (2) as raised by Robert Stovold generally perpetuated an anthropocentric (Argus [U.K.], October 3, 2009), if human “sin” is merely disobey- view of the world, often quoting Protagoras’s “Man is the measure ing God, there is no yardstick to distinguish between a heinous of all things,” writing “god” and “Man,” and overlooking “animal crime and a peccadillo. The second alternative also prompts two liberation” (bioethicist Peter Singer, 1974). troubling conclusions: (1) God is subservient to the moral law and Just as Darwinism (despite Charles Darwin’s recent apotheosis) is thus superfluous morally; (2) humans must rely on the moral law was not the last word in evolution, neither was the above “ortho- to decide which gods are good and to be obeyed (Yahweh) and dox” humanist position of 1964. Asked about the universe or which are not (Satan). Further, how are they to know what the humankind’s place in it, about natural law or moral law, a religion- good god’s will really is—through a teaching church, ancient scrip- ist could simply reply, “God did it.” It was clearly not enough for tures, or personal intuition? All of these communications are an unbeliever to say, “God did not do it.” Nor was it enough to imperfect, especially regarding morality. add, “Morality arose through the situation of humankind as a Practically, religions—especially Christianity—have moral dilem- social animal”; especially when almost all humanists then—and mas. Is motivation by fear of hell or hope of heaven moral at all or probably many today—asserted that morality was uniquely merely prudential? Morality is placed below faith, mediated human and other social animals merely had “instincts.” through divine grace (Eph. 2:8–9). The extremity of this position is While presumptuously claiming to solve some fundamental antinomianism, the view that Christians are freed from the moral philosophical problems, Nucleoethics freely concedes that we do law. So Martin Luther could say, “Pecca fortiter” (sin boldly). Those not know, and are likely never to know, why there is something sects that practice confession and absolution can also sin boldly. instead of nothing (see the writings of Polish philosopher Leszek Another regrettable aspect of Christianity is its frequent equation Kolakowski) or why that something has the properties and poten-

secularhumanism.org August/September 2011 FREE INQUIRY 31 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 32

tialities it has. My book began with thirty-three definitions of codes or expectations flowing from them, within a number of ide- some common words and several neologisms, in a vain hope of ologies: not only versions of religion and humanism, which are doing for ethics and morality what Mendeleyev’s periodic table clearly committed to moral considerations, but also political philoso- had done for chemistry and Linnaeus’s natural systems for biology: phies, science, and individualism. All are seen as offering a blueprint that is, to clarify and systematize moral concepts. First, a distinc- for living. All worldviews have a moral core: that is, whatever the tion was made between ethics (“study or theory of the origin and hidden agendas of their founders and promoters, they are pre- nature of right and wrong”) and morality (“moral code or mores sented as, and come to represent, a moral outlook justifying the or moropractice or persomoropractice”). Thus Homo sapiens allegiance of adherents. Those adherents, in turn, defect only when remains unique by formulating ethics, while morality can be attrib- they come to doubt the ideology’s relevance to their societies or uted to other social species. “Moropractice” was defined as “fol- learn of—and are appalled by—the immorality of the worldview’s lowing one’s own moral code. ...” current figureheads. Unfortunately, the ethics of each ideology usu- ally leads to moral requirements that, when viewed objec- tively, are either unacceptable or unattainable. Even when society benefits materially from the implementation of partic- ular worldviews, which all name their saints and martyrs, “Secular humanists agree that religion cannot opponents can name their villains and oppressors; and the be the basis of morality. Differing moral moral lives (moropractice) of ordinary people are not signifi- cantly affected at all. codes—from religion to religion, sect to sect, What then are the factors that determine actual moro- and generation to generation—negate any practice? Everyone is likely to concede the importance of universal moral law upheld by an eternal, parents and teachers, particularly during the vital first seven years identified by the Jesuits, and probably to recognize unchanging deity.” peer pressure on children and teenagers. But the back- ground of each individual is unique, and civil society depends on a broad consensus concerning acceptable behavior. Factors I identified as producing this consensus are By that I meant the individual’s “working” moral code, com- pragmatism, technology, admass (J.B. Priestley’s name for “the pounded of genetic inheritance (nature) and experiences in life, creation of the mass mind”), bureaucracy, and law, despite wide- especially early life (nurture), and always somewhat different from spread contemporary demonization of most of them; but eternal a professed moral code in tune with public opinion. “Perso moro- vigilance is needed. Some practical questions and attempted practice” refined moropractice. It meant the way an individual answers follow. behaves in ordinary circumstances when not under the influence of “emergency ethics” (see Bernard Gert, Michael Walzer). Then How Does Morality Actually Work without God? behavior is dictated by ideological frenzy, as whipped up in times Collectively, morality works through the operation in each society of war, crusades, jihads, pogroms, or revolutions and by threats to of the factors just outlined, which in turn depend on contempo- oneself and family. raneous knowledge. In McLuhan’s global village, dissemination of Persomorality is to be distinguished from “individual morality,” knowledge slowly leads to closer global approximation of moral promoted in the 1960s by psychologist and humanist James Hem - codes and particularly of expected moropractice. While a Victorian ming. His Individual Morality (1969) defines the “moral instinct” as a “cult of progress” (my Words and Ideas, 2009) is no longer ten- manifestation of “the transcendental and the spiritual” and stresses able, in Western societies life is inarguably better now than in past individuals’ “responsibilities to themselves to develop their individual centuries for most people. uniqueness.” Not only is such quasi-religious language uncongenial to most humanists today, but the concept ignores age-old wisdom. How Do Unbelievers Discover ‘the Good’? The Jesuits famously declared, “Give me a child until he is seven and “The good” is discovered through entirely natural processes ac - I will show you the man”; rationalist and utopian socialist Robert cessible to everyone. Figures who have demonstrated exceptional Owen proclaimed, “the Character of man is formed for him, and wisdom or undertaken special “psychosocial” research (Julian not by him” (New Moral World masthead). Thus, while every indi- Huxley’s term) may be called moral “authorities,” but reform is vidual has a responsibility to learn from mistakes and respond to possible because their authority is not absolute and can be sup- correction, society has a collective responsibility to provide an envi- planted. Humanists regard “intuition” as the natural emergence ronment in which everyone can flourish. into consciousness of unconscious/preconscious ideas. Their value There are ethical assumptions, and explicit or implicit moral is problematic, and each needs rigorous testing.

32 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 33

What Is ‘Conscience’? The first was originally developed by Daniel Langleben for It is a natural thought process, a concern over personal moromal- diagnostic purposes. The phenomena of percepts (appreciation of practice (“breaking one’s own moral code”) or unrealized moro- sensations) and concepts (translation of percepts into ideas) and practice (deficient sympathy, empathy, or practical humanitarian- the operation of mental triggers for observable behavior occur in ism), usually played out obliquely in unremembered dreams rather different parts of the brain, which light up when functioning and than confronted consciously, and producing an adverse psycho- exposed to electromagnetic radiation. The light patterns in healthy logical response (abreaction). This is akin to neurological “nega- people are different from those with mental or neurological dis- tive feedback,” where an action causes a countervailing reaction, eases or impairments. It was a short step from neuropathology to but it is not as instantaneous and predictable. To be more than a neurophysiology—the study of mental processes in healthy peo- pious, superficial New Year’s resolution, some dramatic event is ple—in an attempt to discover the sites of consciousness, free will usually required to produce behavioral change. Moral education is (if it exists), memory, intelligence, personality, sexual orientation, an even slower and less predictable analogue to “positive feed- and even beliefs and to resolve the conflict between rational and back” (reinforcement), and if merely theoretical and moralistic, it emotional reactions. Not everyone believes that these complex can be counterproductive. Most students tune out and the school mental processes, and any moral conclusions that may be drawn cheat or bully wins first prize. from them, can be elucidated by brain scans; Raymond Tallis and Ancient beliefs and modern idioms center emotions in the Edward Vul have equated fMRI with phrenology. heart, and a few physiologists even speak of a “cardiac brain,” but The value of x-phi questionnaires has also been challenged (as the real brain is “the thing that thinks” (Nucleoethics); its complex by David Papineau). So have those used by psephologists, opinion operations, though still imperfectly understood, are increasingly seen as mechanistic. Thus science aspires to be philosophical even while philosophy aspires to be scientific, seeking empirical evidence for conscience and a sense of guilt or shame. Most “Practically, religions—especially Christianity—have Anglo-Saxon humanists are now in the ambiguous moral dilemmas. Is motivation by fear of hell or hope position of having embraced empiricism from the of heaven moral at all or merely prudential?” beginning of the Enlightenment, yet still speaking like “armchair philosophers” of the Renaissance.

Does How We Think Influence What We Think? Having rightly rejected the extremist 1920s behaviorism of J.B. pollsters, market researchers, and mid-twentieth-century linguistic Watson, who dismissed consciousness, sensation, imagery, per- analysts and promoters of “non-cognitivist meta-ethics,” the ception, and will, and both B.F. Skinner’s simplistic utopian behav- “logical study of the language of morals” (R.M. Hare, 1952). Do iorism of the 1940s and his rejection of freedom and dignity in the people respond accurately and honestly when confronted with 1970s, humanists have tended to overlook the importance of pos- questions about their use of moral language, a topic to which they itive reinforcement and experimental psychology, as promoted by have probably given scant attention? If not, are their answers the behaviorists. While rightly rejecting the bogus diagnostic and likely to reflect what they perceive that their questioner, or therapeutic claims of psychoanalysis, they often undervalue its respectable society in general, expects of them? revelation of the importance of the unconscious in mental Increasingly, therefore, attention has concentrated on psycho- processes, including the development of morality. And they largely logical experimentation, which largely involves eliciting sponta- ignore the generally useful new insights of experimental pharma- neous responses to moral alternatives. This approach has spawned cology, neurophysiology, genetic engineering, robotics, and artifi- a new branch of moral philosophy (in reality, an academic industry) cial intelligence research in understanding human evolution and known as “trolleyology.” It was facilitated by a growing interest in its implications, exciting or excruciating, for the future. Aquinas’s theories of a “just war” (just cause pursued by just In recent decades, a number of independent investigations of means) and “double effect,” which asserts that a good action with the way we think, and the consequences for ethics and morality, foreseeable bad side-effects can be justified if the side effects are have been pursued and are converging in a discipline named “x- not intended and the net result is good. This interest was in turn phi” (Joshua Knobe, Shaun Nichols), whose icon is an armchair in facilitated by the conviction of some philosophers (Kolakowski, flames. X-phi has three components: (1) functional magnetic res- John Gray) that religion and philosophy are inseparable, so that a onance imaging (fMRI); (2) questionnaires (“clipboard” documen- growing “consequentialist” or pragmatic approach to moral ques- tation); (3) psychological experimentation. tions outside the orbit of philosophy was called for. In opposition

secularhumanism.org August/September 2011 FREE INQUIRY 33 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 34

to the classical moral view, this approach asserts that right and contact and therefore much less emotional involvement (Josh wrong actions do not depend on right and wrong attitudes or Greene). Singer told his audience he thought the spur and abstract concepts of “good” and “bad,” “virtue” and “vice” but fat-man options morally equal. As an evolutionary moralist, a util- on right and wrong outcomes (consequences). itarian, and a rationalist, in all circumstances he favored sacrificing one life for the sake of five. What Is Trolleyology and How Has It Evolved? Hauser has extended his analysis of spur and fat-man responses Trolleyology was invented some decades ago by philosophers to those involving incest and eating vomit (the “yuck!” factor Philippa Foot and Judith Jarvis Thomson. Today it is chiefly associ- or “reactive attitude” [Peter Strawson]) as well as attitudes toward ated with the colorful biologist/psychologist Marc Hauser (Moral authority, reciprocity, aggression, dominance, submission, different Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and types of weapons, harming chimps and humans, and actions Wrong [2006] and Moral Sense Tests on the Internet), who began or omissions. Instead of two categories of response—“for” his career studying the social behavior of monkeys. The “trolley” and “against”—he employs three: “obligatory,” “permissible,” and is a hypothetical runaway train placing five people in its path in “forbidden.” jeopardy unless it is (1) diverted to a siding (“spur”) with only one Lawyers have long debated the relationship between the per- missible and the forbidden, and whether it should be the business of law to uphold morality. My (controver- sial) view as a layman is that it should. I justify simulta- neous support for “permissive” legislation (many sup- porters of which assert that law should not uphold “[Secular humanism’s] significant influence is morality) by saying that such legislation really concerns in the realm of ideas that help to create a society matters of personal taste and not common morality. Moral philosophers are now debating the relationship in which individuals can flourish physically, between the forbidden and the obligatory, the latter mentally, emotionally, and morally; in which being invoked in “good Samaritan” legislation. Bernard science is tempered with humanity, and all Gert has gained considerable support for his proposal of ten “negative” rules (to avoid causing harm to others) assertions are tested.” and accompanying “positive” ideals (to prevent harm to others). This revives the religious division between sins of commission and sins of omission, which have tradi- tionally been seen as less blameworthy. In contrast with the 1960s’ democratic concentra- potential victim in its path, or (2) an obese person (“fat man”) can tion on social permissiveness, contemporary attention among be pushed off an overpass above the track to stop the train. sociologists and “applied” (as distinct from “pure”) philosophers Responses to these two scenarios were originally sought from is focusing on responsibility. “Role” responsibility (Peter Berger, American college students and later from the general public. Thomas Luck mann) is seen as applying to not only parents, teach- Marginally different results have been reported, but always a sig- ers, and carers, but to all the professions and occupational groups, nificant majority supports 1 and opposes 2. During a recent pub- such as lifeguards. Here, conduct that for others might merely be lic lecture at Sydney University, Peter Singer asked for a show of desirable becomes obligatory. Also identified are ad hoc “group” hands and got the same response. Variants of 2 involve Frances re sponsibility (H. Lewis) and ongoing “collective” responsibility Kamm’s version involving pushing the fat man onto a turntable (Joel Feinberg), where all members are held responsible for the (“lazy Susan”) in the train’s path (on this variant, support for push- activities of their associates. An unfortunate by-product of role ing increases somewhat) and Josh Greene’s pressing a button to responsibility is a potential conflict of interest between the drop the fat man onto the track (in this variant, support increases demands of clients and the state. An example is doctors’ official greatly). Explanations given for these findings are: those who sup- opposition to voluntary as they “strive officiously to port (1) do not intend to kill the lone person on the siding, and it keep [patients] alive” (Arthur Hugh Clough). is not certain that they will do so (the train may be derailed by the Setting theoretical priorities in trolleyology has widespread switch); those who oppose (2) see pushing the fat man as inten- practical implications for bioethics and government policy. The tional homicide, which cannot be justified under any circum- most obvious parallel, heard daily in the news, is “collateral dam- stances. Opposition declines with the lazy-Susan solution because age”—usually a euphemism for killing civilians—in warfare. the fat man is thought to have a chance of survival and falls away Infliction of collateral damage is universally practiced, and almost sharply with the trapdoor solution, which involves no personal universally condemned. An exception is Singer, who sees both

34 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 35

combatants and noncombatants as enemy targets. A less publi- tions are actively suppressed, nonreactivated, or reactivated to cized but constant dilemma is medical “triage,” deciding which rationalize vice and magnify virtue. casualties to treat first (or at all) in emergencies in which resources of staff, equipment, and drugs are limited. As populations age and Is Our Behavior Motivated By Reason or Emotion or Both? the ratio of taxpayers to beneficiaries of health care shifts, the While some contemporary philosophers (Rawls, Singer, J. Rachels) dilemma is likely to extend beyond emergency situations. agree with Kant that reason is paramount in morality, most prob- ably support Hume’s dictum: “Reason is, and only ought to be, the Why Should We Do What We Think Is Right? slave of the passions.” This does not mean that we do, or should, Moralists have periodically agonized over this issue since David succumb to every whim. There is evidence that the rational pre- Hume wrote A Treatise of Human Nature (1739). In his Principia frontal cortex filters out bizarre emotional impulses arising in the Ethica (1903) G.E. Moore called this conflation of is and ought amygdala. Yet our moral sense is innate, and functional efficiency statements censured by Hume the “naturalistic fallacy,” but he was and benevolence result from routinely acting on “impulse” and anxious lest readers conclude, as Max Stirner had (The Ego and His not consciously debating the merits of every action. Thus we can Own, 1845), that morality itself was a fallacy. Moore asserted be saved from callous calculations like “economic rationalism.” unconvincingly that moral qualities were nonnatural, recognizable Nucleoethics posited that the traditional mental sequence of by “intuition.” In the mid-twentieth century, tradi- tional normative ethics, which prescribed the good life, gave way to fashionable noncognitivist meta- ethics. By pointing out that “happiness” is elusive, subjective, and populist (“the greatest numbers”); “Of course, most religionists today are not fundamen- ignores justice (John Rawls); and involves a measure talists, but the best that can be said of them is that of psychology rather than morality, the meta-ethi- their conduct is no better than that of irreligionists cians were largely responsible for undermining utili- tarianism, which had been formulated in 1725 and from the same socioeconomic background.” uncritically accepted by humanists as the yardstick of morality for two centuries—nor have humanists entirely abandoned it today. Hare addressed the nat- uralistic fallacy by saying that moral statements simply constitute awareness, will, then memory should be reversed. Our memory of “commending” and follow ordinary logic, while other meta-ethi- appropriate response leads to spontaneous action, which we cians invoked a mysterious emotive logic or re jected all logic. almost instantaneously become aware of and imagine we Neither approach satisfactorily explained why anyone should fol- “willed.” Neurophysiology has recently verified this order of brain low a moral injunction. activity, which occurs over a span of about half a second. I suggest that, far from being what Kant termed “categorical H. Tristram Englehardt Jr. asserts that it is not possible for “rea- imperatives,” ought statements usually imply some doubt over son to justify a canonical contentful morality” (The Foundations of whether they will be followed, by ourselves or anyone else, and I Bioethics, 1996). Most secular humanists probably believe that, regret that morality is still tinged with the mysticism of religion. while our actions may be technically “impulsive,” we can usually Moreover, I assert that the naturalistic fallacy is itself a fallacy. give reasons for them; though we should be alert to the dangers There is no essential difference between “Jones is a large man” of specious rationalizations. and “Jones is a good man to be emulated.” Both statements are evaluative, depending on the experience of the commentator, and Is Morality Dictated By Nature or Nurture or Both? will be accepted or rejected by hearers according to their experi- Child rearing has always revealed a balance between nature and ences. With sufficient numbers, a broad consensus will be nurture, but the publicly recognized relationship has changed over reached, though the degree of certainty is likely to be greater for time. In the pagan world, human beings saw themselves as the descriptive is statements than prescriptive ought statements and puppets of spirits or gods who differed from humankind in power therefore less likely to change. and in the acceptability of their vices and crimes, or puppets of fate. Judeo-Christians of all persuasions inherited this tradition and Why Do We Act Against Professed Convictions with Little added predestination or “free will”—essentially the will of God or Compunction? the wiles of Satan. All these concepts demonstrate the supremacy The most plausible explanation is that people’s actual moral codes of nature. are often different from what they profess, so there is little real Freethinkers progressively abandoned traditional theology, reli- moromalpractice. Another factor is selective memory. Recollec- gioethics, and religiomorality. Nucleoethics described the fruits of

secularhumanism.org August/September 2011 FREE INQUIRY 35 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 36

unbelief as “irreligioethics and irreligiomorality (or religioethics [2] or ap proval. In Truman’s phrase, “The buck stops here.” And so it and religiomorality [2]”) as a concession to those who might is with personal delinquency. regard secular humanism as a “.” (I would not Civil society remains civil through enlightened penology, concede this today.) By the 1960s, most psychologists and sociol- whereby public retribution and private payback yield to reforma- ogists were attributing criminality to society (nurture) and not the tion and deterrence—both deterministic forces. individual, though Hans Eysenck called it hereditary (nature). In the 1970s, genetics (nature) became trendy again when Richard Should Altruism Be Fostered? Dawkins proclaimed The Selfish Gene (1976). Over time, particu- Many religionists and humanists advocate altruism, without defi- lar genes (or their absence) were identified as causing diseases nition. If it means Sermon-on-the-Mount self-abnegation, it is and regulating sensory or motor functions; Craig Venter and both unrealistic and undesirable. Evolution depends on the sur- Francis Collins sequenced the human genome in 2003. Even vival of groups and ultimately of individuals within them. Self- genes for criminality, drug dependence, homosexuality, and reli- respect precedes respect for others. Self-regard should not gious belief were “identified” then abandoned. exclude regard for others. Sane individuals usually call their heroic “Religion doesn’t have a ‘God spot’ as such, instead it’s deeds (“guts and glory”) spontaneous, not suicidal or especially embedded in a whole range of other belief systems in the brain praiseworthy. Others praise them but may deem them foolish. that we use every day,” Jordan Grafman suggests. Brain scans This even has a parallel at the interspecies level. A bird known show that networks activated by religious beliefs overlap those as the East African Honey Caller has a special song it sings for that mediate political and moral beliefs. Today a balance between Masai warriors, by which it leads them to a hard-to-find beehive. nature and nurture seems to be recognized. Working with crimi- After smoking and robbing the hive, the warriors take most of the nals, including twins and adoptees, in Dunedin, New Zealand, and honeycomb but leave some for the bird. If it deems the reward London, Terrie Moffitt and Aushalom Caipi concluded there was a insufficient, it ceases collaborating. Society functions best on genetic predisposition to criminality, but that it must be switched enlightened self-interest. on by childhood ill-treatment in order to be expressed. Have the Above Developments Affected Humanism? How does this operate? Nucleoethics postulated layers of computerlike programs in the brain: primary (nature or machine Certainly its terminology has multiplied. Inspired by Pierre Teilhard code); secondary (nurture or software); tertiary (nature or func- de Chardin’s “noosphere,” in New Bottles for New Wine (1957) tional). The book wrongly stated what was believed in 1972: “The Julian Huxley coined to describe human direction baby is born with a full complement of neurons.” of evolution as a psychosocial phenomenon. Transhumanism has reemerged in technological guise to describe genetic manipulation Are We Motivated By Free Will or Determinism? and human interfacing with machines to form cyborgs (Jean Despite the quantum-mechanics fiction of “particulate freewill,” Baudrillard). “” (Donna Harraway, Cary Wolfe) com - nature and nurture operate on causality (determinism). As the bines speciesism, transhumanism, poststructuralism, and postmod- product of both, human activity is therefore determined. Moral ernism. And there are “humanist posthumanism” (Singer) and philosophers, religionists, and many humanists then ask how this “posthumanist posthumanism” (Jacques Derrida). conclusion leaves room for personal responsibility. Philosophically What Is the Role of Humanism? this is worrisome, but real life largely depends on pragmatism (truth is what works). The law asks felons if they knew what they The above account suggests that secular humanism, like other were doing and that it was wrong. If the answers are unequivo- ideologies, has no direct impact on moropractice. Its significant cally no, they are deemed unfit to plead. Claims of being under influence is in the realm of ideas that help to create a society in the influence of alcohol, other drugs, or hypnosis are no defense which individuals can flourish physically, mentally, emotionally, against conviction, but they may be allowed as evidence of and morally; in which science is tempered with humanity, and all “diminished responsibility” for purposes of sentencing. Factors assertions are tested. like age, provocation, prior convictions, “moral” duress, and fam- For particularities, see Paul Kurtz’s “Affirmations of Humanism,” ily commitments are also considered today. Proven self-defense by frequently reproduced in this magazine. “appropriate” means usually results in acquittal. In academia, a new jargon has arisen of “compatibilists” and David Tribe is a leading secular humanist now in and formerly in the “incompatibilists.” John Forge says the former “believe that free , where he was chair of Humanist Group Action, president of the will—and thus responsibility—is in fact compatible with determin- , and editor of The Freethinker. He is an honorary asso- ism.” How can freewill and determinism be compatible? But free ciate of Rationalist International. His books include The Rise of Mediocracy and will is not the same as responsibility. Leaders are widely held Questions of Censorship (both from Allen & Unwin, 1975 and 1973). “responsible” for what subordinates do without their knowledge

36 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/29/11 10:14 AM Page 37

DRESDEN, NEW YORK (off State Route 14 between Geneva and Watkins Glen)

For info, e-mail [email protected] MUSEUM HOURS: or visit www.secularhumanism.org/ingersoll. SatURDAY and SunDAY noon–5 P.M., For directions, phone 315-536-1074. Memorial Day Weekend through Halloween

MATILDA ROBERT JOSLYN GREEN GAGE INGERSOLL

Experience the Most Amazing History You Never Heard Of! In the nineteenth century, West-Central New York was a hotbed of social, political, and religious innovation. Fayetteville suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage called religion the “enemy” of women. Writing from Elmira, Mark Twain raised irreverence to an American art form. At Ithaca, Andrew Dickson White cofounded Cornell University, the nation’s first secular institu- tion of higher learning. In 1848 reformers and freethinkers of Hit the Trail Online at every stripe thronged Seneca Falls to demand new roles for www.-trail.org ! women. Corning native Margaret Sanger led the twentieth- Almost eighty marked and unmarked historic sites, century birth control movement. The birthplace museum of the from the study where Mark Twain wrote his best-loved famous orator, political speechmaker, and outspoken agnostic novels to the print shop where freethinking journalist Obadiah Dogberry debunked the Book of Mormon Robert G. Ingersoll is an anchor of West-Central New York’s —before it was published! “Freethought Trail.” And this is just the beginning! Pique your curiosity . . . or plan your trip! Site includes full navigational aids.

Freethought history from the Council for Secular Humanism. Portions funded by a grant from the James Hervey Johnson Charitable Educational Trust. FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 38

Leading Questions Accommodationism: The Debate Continues, Part 1 continued from p. 8

I’ll give you a broader definition of science, inition than the one you are using. defensive mode. It seems to be highly which basically would encompass any type LINDSAY: It’s certainly the case that some unlikely that taking someone on for whom of secular reasoning—any type of reason- of the scientists from the early modern era identity is strong in that way is going to ing that says that we should conform our such as Galileo or Newton—the latter is a have any effect other than leading him or beliefs to the evidence. If that’s the case, great example because he spent a lot of her to reinforce that identity. Now of isn’t it true that science in that broad sense time trying to research the Trinity—were course there are going to be people for of secular reasoning undercuts support for religious individuals. Is this simply an exam- whom identity is not strong. There are essentially all religious beliefs because ple of how, with science’s increasing ability going to be people looking for a reason to there’s simply no evidence to accept belief to explain things that previously were inex- change, and this might be a way of getting in a soul, immortality, or a personal god? plicable, the ground for religious belief has there. MOONEY: Sure, but that means that every receded so that in fact whereas people in LINDSAY: In terms of specific evidence, scientist who has a religious belief is not the 1600s or the 1700s may have thought do you have any evidence that the books, really scientific by your definition. And I don’t “Well, we need a god to explain the uni- publications, speeches by these so-called think they or I would like that very much. verse,” now, we no longer need a god for new atheists have actually interfered either LINDSAY: I think we simply recognize that purpose? So yes, some of the early sci- with the acceptance of science in general the fact that people sometimes, within entists were religious, but couldn’t some- or with the acceptance of evolutionary the- their own minds, can house incompatible one maintain now that that position is no ory in particular? beliefs. It happens all the time. Jerry Coyne longer tenable? MOONEY: What kind of controlled ex- used the example in one of his articles that MOONEY: Well, it’s not culturally nearly periment would you conduct for this? Who people say that they believe in marriage, as powerful as it was. “Tenable” is a dif- has the funding to do it? It’s not like one but there are people who also engage in ferent thing. But that’s not quite being fair can set this up very easily and prove it one adultery, and they somehow find that to Galileo and Newton be cause actually it way or the other. You’d have to get a big compatible at a certain level. There cer- seemed that their religiosity in spired their grant, and you’d have to set up a major tainly are some scientists who probably science. In some sense religion was actually study of polling data, et cetera. I would believe in things such as therapeutic touch motivating learning, which again suggests a hope that there would be researchers out and reiki, but that doesn’t necessarily relationship that is a little less antagonistic. there who would be able to do that. And if mean that they are not scientists—it just LINDSAY: Let’s turn to another aspect of I saw that study and the results were some- means that perhaps they are not entirely the accommodationist dispute—your claim thing very different from what I suspect, I consistent in how they apply science. as set forth in Unscientific America and would be glad to acknowledge that. Someone who would maintain that there elsewhere that frank, unsparing criticism of LINDSAY: I was intrigued by an observa- is a conflict between science and religion religious beliefs is counterproductive if one tion that you made in your book that resi- could say sure, I recognize that there are of our goals is to get religious people to be dents of the European Union are less scien- scientists who are religious, but this is sim- more accepting of science and in particular tifically literate overall than Americans, but ply an instance of people not following the fact of evolution. What’s the evidence they have less of a problem accepting evo- the scientific method or scientific view- for that? Isn’t that assertion really based on lution. One could surmise that that’s point in all aspects of their lives. just a hunch? because many in the European Union are MOONEY: That’s one way of slicing it. MOONEY: No. There’s a huge amount of less religious and more secular than But I would say that that definition of sci- evidence in favor of that. It’s all basically Americans, which perhaps means that if we ence is not the one that has been most psychology, and since writing Unscientific want to get people to understand science accepted throughout history. For in stance, America, I have done more research and better and maybe accept evolution, what if you look at a Galileo or a Newton, these become more convinced of the validity of we should do in fact is to get them to give are people who thought God created the this. Basically the evidence is that religion is up their religious beliefs. So in fact the way world and that doing science was protect- a deeply held belief. We know this. It’s cen- to get people to accept evolution is not to ing God’s plan. They also thought that they tral to people’s identity and I think that soft-pedal criticism of religion but rather to had to follow a methodology of research in that’s obvious. So if you look at how peo- subject religion to rather harsh criticism. order to test claims. That’s why we came ple respond to attacks on their identity— MOONEY: That’s if you assume that the up the definition of science as method- it’s about what they perceive, not about harsh criticism is going to change their ological naturalism. That has been the def- how you perceive them, about how they minds, which is something that I strongly inition that has not only been de fended feel—then we know that this triggers a reject. I think it will backfire. I will grant you strongly by a lot of people but also was the defense mechanism that largely appears to that if you have a society that is less reli- victorious definition in the Dover evolution be acting before people are even con- gious, it’s highly likely to be a society that’s trial. And that is a much more limited def- sciously thinking; they are emotionally in a more accepting of evolution. But the ques-

38 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 39

tion is, how do you get there? me in my first book, undermines science LINDSAY: And how would you get by pushing , something there, except through the critical examina- I’m very, very opposed to. Liberty Uni - tion of religion? versity was founded by Jerry Falwell, a MOONEY: You say “critical examination leading antievolutionist and founder of of religion” as if by suddenly making the Moral Majority. rational arguments against religion, these With the Templeton Foundation, it’s a are going to be taken up and accepted in very different situation. They are generat- the minds of the people for whom religion ing a dialogue about the relationship is the center of their identity. That’s incred- between science and religion and doing it ibly naïve psychologically. That’s not how very successfully. As far as I can tell, there human beings work. is nothing about that dialogue that they I would try to empower the messengers are controlling in the sense that they are that they will listen to—people who are forcing people to come up with a particu- more like them. People whom they trust. lar way that they view the relationship. That means people in their community— They are just generating attention to the hopefully pastors, scientists who are reli- topic. gious—people who are closer to them and I don’t see anything wrong with gen- CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS can speak a bit more of their language and erating this dialogue. I think some people may be able to move them. It will still be “Advancing a Culture of Free Thought” don’t like the direction it goes when it gets hard and trigger a lot of resistance. But I generated. ... think there will be more openness than one I’m someone who has written a lot The Portland Humanist Film would get from a frontal assault from about the integrity of science, messing Festival was established in 2010 to be someone with whom they have very little or with science, violations against science, a provocative and enlightening cultural nothing in common. and I’ve waved red flags in a number of experience for the rapidly growing LINDSAY: You accepted a journalism fel- areas. One of them is religion encroaching lowship at Cambridge from the Tem ple ton secular humanist movement in on science, leading to attacks on evolution Foundation, a very well-endowed founda- the Pacific Northwest. and stem cell science. You know, they tion that devotes a substantial amount of make up this thing about adult stem cells its grant money to projects that are This year’s festival runs November being as good as embryonic and doing it in intended to show the compatibility of reli- 11–13, 2011. It celebrates independent the service of God. There are attacks on gion and science. Would you accept a fel- film and will be juried. Categories reproductive health science. They make up lowship from the Discovery Institute or include documentary, narrative, stuff—abortion leads to breast cancer, Liberty University? and animation, each in both abortion makes women have mental ill- MOONEY: No. I applied for this fellow- short and feature length. ship; I didn’t just accept it. I said, I want this ness, fetuses can feel pain before they have the brain configuration to do so—these are fellowship; I want to go to Cambridge, and Submissions may explore themes such I want to work on what I ended up work- all attacks on science in the service of reli- as Cultivating Reason, Compassion ing on, which was a piece about the spiri- gion. I’ve blown the whistle on all these & Ethics, Science & the Natural World, tuality of scientists who don’t believe in things, as well as the corporate attacks on and Freedom of Thought, Speech, God. My whole Templeton project was science—on climate change, endangered about atheism, which they were very happy species, mercury pollution, and on and on. & Critical Inquiry. with. It was about scientists who are not I think I know it when I see it and I don’t actual believers but still say that they are see it here. This is a different thing. This For more information, including all spiritual, which is an interesting, growing is about the relationship between science deadlines and entry fees, please visit phenomena. and religion, and I don’t think that talking www.humanistfest.com. LINDSAY: How would you distinguish about it is wrong. When you talk about between taking a fellowship from Liberty it, yes, people come to different conclu- University and taking a fellowship from sions. But I think it’s a good thing to be Deadline for submissions: the Templeton Foundation? talking about. September 1, 2011 MOONEY: The Discovery Institute, as To hear the interview in its entirety, visit humanistfest.com many folks have documented, including please visit www.pointofinquiry.org—EDS.

secularhumanism.org August/September 2011 FREE INQUIRY 39 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 40

Tom Flynn Are Unbelievers More Resilient? continued from p. 9

versity researcher Luke W. Galen described week ago last Tuesday—NRIS charted What mattered in terms of “thri ving” was the NonReligious Identification Survey each subgroup independently alongside how assuredly one held one’s metaphysical (NRIS), a pilot psychological study of non- its members’ responses on standard meas- view, whatever it was. religious Americans he designed and ures of “thriving.” Presumably this has always been so, administered online with the aid of Center As Galen reported, having more but previous studies failed to detect it. for Inquiry–Michigan. NRIS was one of the nuanced data made a profound difference. Agglutinating nonreligious respondents first survey projects to focus on unbelievers Instead of a straight diagonal line, in NRIS into a single group caused the loss of data as such. It gave strong evidence that study- those “thriving” indicators graphed against on relevant differences among them. ing unbelief as a phenomenon in its own religious belief and unbelief in the shape of The upshot? Apparently—and at the right is critically important. a U. Apparently the older diagonal graphs risk of oversimplifying—everything you As Galen noted, numerous studies had not been measuring a link between know about religious belief being associ- have suggested that believers are happier, “thriving” and religious belief or disbelie f ated with more robust “thriving” is wrong. more satisfied, and better adjusted than after all. Their real connection linked “thriv- This brings us back to the puzzling— unbelievers—in a word, that believers are ing” with how confidently one embraced and, again, admittedly anecdotal—obser- more likely than unbelievers to thrive. one’s life stance, religious or nonreligious. vation that unbelievers seem to thrive bet- Often these studies include a graph whose On the religious side, strong believers ter than believers even though believers single diagonal line trends from high reli- scored higher on “thriving” indices than enjoy access to sources of social and emo- gious belief/high “thriving” in one corner weaker ones; wavering believers plagued tional support that many unbelievers, who to low belief/low “thriving” in the opposite by doubt scored lower still. The pattern live without a parochial community rooted corner. Invariably, these are studies of reli- repeated on the nonreligious side of the in a shared life stance, lack. Why might gious people that clump all their nonbe- scale. Atheists scored higher than agnos- this be? I offer two hypotheses, one lieving respondents into a single unhelp- tics; those uncertain in their disbelief or tongue-in-cheek, the other more serious. fully labeled category such as “Other.” who had recently abandoned a long-held My tongue-in-cheek hypothesis: Most NRIS released its unbelieving respon- faith scored lower. The most confident pastors do such an execrable job of being dents from that cramped pigeonhole. atheist scored as high as the most confident a counselor or therapist that close contact Atheists or agnostics, deists or doubters, believer. It wasn’t whether one believed or with them actually degrades the average lifelong nontheists or newbies who tear- disbelieved or whether one’s worldview in - believer’s happiness. Maybe that’s because fully jettisoned their hopes for heaven a cluded the supernatural that mattered. psychology is so immature a science that

Christopher Hitchens Religion Is the Problem in the Balkans continued from p. 12

in a barbaric manner—which makes the asked to justify their claim to Kosovo, a attachment to a tenuous future prosperity same point in a different way. Secularists province where Serbs are a very small that depends on keeping local atavism in were also targeted within their “own” minority, they replied that Kosovo was check. Religion nearly destroyed the econ- communities. The only decent joke I heard Serbian because it contained their holy omy and society of former Yugoslavia and during those bad years (and I apologize to places and was Serbia’s “Jerusalem.” did deep and lasting damage to its people those readers of FI who may have heard Right away you know what’s coming: civil- and culture. But in the journal of record me tell it already) came from the Croatian ians will be killed and deported to protect for American liberalism, the profound con- intellectual unbeliever Zarkho Puhovski. “If the integrity of boneyards and relics and nection between faith and fanaticism is you are a Croat and you say you are an caves. And the Kosovo war, bad as it was, treated as if it were a startling exception atheist,” he told me, “the first question could easily have been very much worse. rather than a grim rule. you face is ‘How can you prove you are not Right now, the only thing preventing the a Serb?’” Puhovski was partly Jewish, revival of inter-communal which in a region with that particular his- bloodletting is the horribly Christopher Hitchens is a columnist for Vanity Fair. His memoir tory brought special problems. fresh memory of the last Hitch-22 is newly published in paperback by Twelve. When the Serbian ethno-fascists were time and a somewhat insipid

40 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 41

even the best-trained practitioners harm and goodness with a world awash in secular-studies community might find wor- more than they help; or maybe the prob- relentless evils, and so on. thy of scientific scrutiny: Are the nonreli- lem lies not with psychology but with the Second (full disclosure: this is the inter- gious actually happier, more satisfied— great numbers of clergy, especially on the pretation I favor), maybe individuals who more apt to “thrive”—than believers? Are “storefront church” side of the spectrum, enjoy higher levels of confidence and self- they happier despite their greater isolation who dispense pastoral services though esteem are simply more likely to wind up from community and pastoral structures? If their education includes no training in unbelievers. A majority of today’s unbeliev- so, why? Are these community and pastoral valid counseling or therapy techniques. On ers began their lives in some religious tradi- structures actually harmful although we’ve this view, not having a pastoral connection tion then thought their way out of it. Maybe never realized it before? Or might unbeliev- turns out to be the best thing that ever individuals already disposed toward greater ers as a group share some quality— happened to many unbelievers. confidence, self-reliance, and fortitude are resilience?—that empowers us to thrive with My more serious hypothesis is that better able to follow their worldview lower levels of the social and personal sup- unbelievers enjoy better average out- odyssey clear to the shores of unbelief. Or port that others require more abundantly? comes in their lives simply because they maybe it’s because nonreligious people self- It may be years before secular-studies ap proach their lives with greater confi- select from among the emotionally hardy researchers reveal the answers. Unfor- dence. Again, that confidence can be that we can better handle the stress of tunately, I don’t have years; I have to write modeled in two very different ways. First, abandoning our previous certainties, attain another op-ed in two months! In it I will maybe unbelievers enjoy greater confi- greater happiness and life satisfaction, pose the following impertinent question: If dence because they are free from super- and—perhaps most important—do all this nonbebelievers are more resilient, what natural beliefs that, if held, would erode while retreating from community, some- does that imply for the suddenly fast-grow- that confidence. Unlike believers, they times family, and almost always pastoral ing (and to some observers, oxymoronic) don’t feel corrupt and worthless by com- support, all of which are often thought field of humanist chaplaincy? parison to an all-powerful god that, after indispensable for exuberant, zestful living. In all, does not exist. They aren’t seared by other words, maybe we nonreligious are To be continued. guilt when they fall short of moral expec- more resilient.

tations that are cruel precisely insofar as Having reached this point, Tom Flynn is the editor of FREE INQUIRY and the executive direc- they are impossible. They aren’t bruised by I offer a slate of questions that tor of the Council for Secular Humanism. trying to reconcile God’s supposed love members of the fast-growing

Wendy Kaminer Is Sluttishness a Feminist Statement? continued from p. 13

sexual allure as a political act. It is, how- ideologically confused that it barely exists women who obtain abortions and for ever, a personal act, and the personal is as a movement at all. organizations that provide them (notably often apolitical. Celebrating depoliticized That’s too bad for women, because Planned Parenthood, which is primarily female empowerment, lipstick feminism they’re regularly losing fundamental devoted to women’s health care). helped confer popular feminist credibility rights, most notably their rights to privacy Meanwhile, not surprisingly, the right to on such antifeminist celebrities as Sarah and reproductive choice. At the state and dress like a slut remains secure. Palin. The feminist movement has never federal levels, lawmakers have proposed been monolithic; women’s rights advo- or enacted a long list of prohibitive limita- cates have been divided historically by dif- tions on access to abortion; intrusive con- fering visions of equality or protectionism ditions on women seeking for women, individualism or collectivism, abortions (like mandatory Wendy Kaminer is a lawyer and social critic. Her latest book is as well as by class and racial conflicts. But sonograms); and financial Worst Instincts: Cowardice, Conformity, and the ACLU (Beacon these days feminism is so splintered and so burdens or punishments for Press, 2009).

secularhumanism.org AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 FREE INQUIRY 41 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:47 AM Page 42

Arthur Caplan The Stem of the Conflict continued from p. 14

stem cell research. funds for embryonic stem cell research cells remains the current darling of critics If science does not support the ade- (hey, I thought President Bush claimed— of research involving embryos. But the quacy of adult stem cells, then what about and still claims in his recent book—that technique is barely understood. Its safety IPSCs? Is fooling adult cells into acting like this was a “compromise”) since there was has long been a source of huge concern to embryos the magical solution to the now a way to create “a magical stem cell those working in the area. embryonic stem cell quandary? It is if you that can become bone or brain or heart or A new study published earlier this year let your values about the inviolate nature liver” without using human embryos.* confirmed those fears. Writing in the jour- of embryos override your science. “Magical”—really? Could there be nal Nature, a team led by Yang Xu, profes- Conservative columnist Charles Kraut- any claim more fraught with bias than sor of molecular biology at the University hammer led the hype machine on this sub- declaring that any biomedical discovery is of California, San Diego, showed that ject. Back in 2007, an announcement was ready to go right from the lab to your doc- IPSCs triggered immune reactions when made that researchers in Japan had dis- tor’s office? implanted into mice. In some cases, the covered how to reprogram adult skin cells Making adult cells into embryo-like cells were completely destroyed by the ani- to resemble embryonic stem cells. Kraut - mals’ immune systems. hammer immediately declared that *Http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/ Although the studies were done in George Bush had been right to ban public 222986/celling-vindication/charles-krauthammer. rodents, the findings raise doubts over the

Nat Hentoff Do We Get the Constitution Back in 2012? continued from p. 16

as vigorous in protecting you as you are in police, state homeland security offices and have dissolved. protecting the American people” (Garett military criminal investigators.” For a while, I had hopes that the Tea Graff, The Threat Matrix [Little Brown]). During next year’s presidential cam- Partiers would take issue with big govern- Many of these documented war crimes paigns, most loyal Democratic voters will ment’s unilateral suspension of the Fourth have been committed in the now-discon- feel little concern about their eventually Amendment prohibition on unreasonable tinued CIA secret prisons (“black sites”) winding up in government surveillance searches and seizures. But while the Tea and elsewhere. But since renditions are still databases. Some independent voters may Partiers have scorned many omnivorous going on, new sites may be added. Obama, be alarmed, but from the present field of expansions of the federal government, true to his word, refuses to appoint an Republican candidates for the Oval Office they’ve offered little protest against the independent commission to investigate there has been nary a word about the president becoming our supreme spymas- what Dick Cheney has called “the dark unblinking government electronic eye—let ter. This seems most unbecoming for folks side” of our responses to terrorism. alone Obama’s invasive collecting of links to who often carry a copy of the Constitution President Obama insists he intends to your telephones, Internet choices, and the in their pockets! “keep looking forward, not backward.” like. If you frequent Facebook or engage in I have no idea whether George San - That lets him off the hook on his own Tweeting, the Federal Bureau of Investi - tayana was a civil libertarian, “dark side.” gation, the National Security Agency, and but in his The Life of Reason, he gave us a Getting back to the expiring Bill of other official scrutinizers are there, too. lesson on which we—as involved citi- Rights, our privacy rights hang by a thread At our Constitutional Convention in zens—must act if this constitutional as government surveillance technology 1787, Edmund Randolph of Virginia was republic is to survive: “Those who cannot advances beyond both what George among the delegates intent on preventing remember the past are condemned to Orwell could have imagined and what our having an executive branch with over- repeat it.” Bush and Cheney actually did. But there reaching power. “The have been no street demonstrations or People,” he said, “will not Nat Hentoff is a United Media syndicated columnist, a senior fel- congressional inquiries into what the bear the Semblance of low at the Cato Institute, and the author of, among other books, Washington Post’s Dana Priest and William Mon archy.” Randolph Living the Bill of Rights (University of California Press, 1999) and Arkind documented last December 10 in would be grievously disap- The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance “Moni toring America”: “The United pointed at how inert The (Seven Stories Press, 2004). His latest book is At the Jazz Band States is assembling a vast domestic intel- People have become as Ball: Sixty Years on the Jazz Scene (University of California ligence apparatus to collect information their guaranteed constitu- Press, 2010). about Americans—using the FBI, local tional individual liberties

42 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 43

future use of IPSCs in humans. Xu told the anything will work. Research is difficult a failing heart, then you deserve honest, media that “the assumption that cells and often fails. When it works, it takes unconflicted, unbiased information about derived from IPSCs are totally immune-tol- what can seem like forever to figure out what is the best strategy to follow to find erant has to be reevaluated before consid- why, how, and for whom it works. treatments and cures. Due to the noise gen- ering human trials.” In English, he is say- Relying on pronouncements about what erated by the ongoing war over abortion, ing that somehow in the course of turning is the best direction for scientific research by accurate information has been very difficult adult stem cells into embryonic-like cells, those with huge ethical stakes in the to hear. the immune system sees them as foreign game—in this case, those opposed to the tissue and kills them. This is not a good destruction or manipulation of embryos, no thing if you are using these modified cells matter what their source or fate—makes for to try to cure diseases. very poor science policy. If your child suffers So what is the take-home message from diabetes, if you are from all of this? In the early days of re - a veteran with a severed Arthur L. Caplan is the Sidney D. Caplan Professor of Bioethics search in a new area, no one can say with spinal cord or a grandparent and the director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of any certainty what will work or even that beset with Park inson ism or Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Ophelia Benson The Presence of Justice continued from p. 15

cannot agree with your methods of harsh names. fanatical, aggressive, extreme, and any direct action.” There it is, the catch-22. Yes, you should other name we like. The same applies, mutatis mutandis, to have equal rights; no, you may not actually Yes, but make no mistake—it’s an ugly feminism and gay rights. Yes, of course make use of them. We all agree in principle business. There is no good reason for athe- women should be treated as equals, and that you too are part of the human family, ists to be silenced and closeted, so there is gays should not be stigmatized, but—but, but we absolutely do not agree that you no good reason to berate them for leaving but, but—you are much too aggressive, mil- have any business saying so in public. the closet and speaking out. To do so is sim- itant, strident, shrill, noisy, divisive, angry, Of course, this is simply hopeless. If the ply to defend an unreasonable and unjust dogmatic, extreme. We agree with you on civil rights we have are purely formal and status quo; it is to justify an illiberal popular the substance; we just don’t agree that you not to be exercised outside our own living prejudice and indeed to express it so thor- or anyone should ever actually do anything rooms, then we don’t have them. Civil oughly as to become one with it. about it. rights are public rights or they are nothing. So it is with explicit atheism. Yes of Nonsense, will come the Ophelia Benson is editor of the website Butterflies and Wheels course atheism is not a crime, and you have impatient re ply. You do have and coauthor of Why Truth Matters (Continuum, 2006) and Does every right to be an atheist—just don’t ever civil rights, and we have the God Hate Women? (Continuum, 2009). talk about it in public, or we will call you right to call you dangerous,

Mona Abousenna Progress Elusive for Egypt’s Women continued from p. 17

women will continue to fall victim to the lar is widely considered to be the equiva- medieval Muslim philosopher and founder only truly dynamic ideological trend in lent of atheism. In my view, secularization of the theory of allegorical interpretation those societies: Islamic fundamentalism, is the alternative to fundamentalism. The of sacred texts that was the basis of the which holds women’s subordination to essence of secularization is the relativiza- sixteenth-century European movement men to be part of a divine order based on a tion of absolutist modes of thinking toward religious reformation. Only a secu- literal understanding of the Qur’an. Islamic through interpretation. Secularization, in lar culture will offer full equality to all fundamentalism uses the subordination of this sense, could form the foundation of a Egyptian women. women as a stepping stone to political secular culture in the Muslim power not only regionally but also globally. world. One way that this Mona Abousenna is professor emerita of English at the Faculty There is no secular countertrend to could be accomplished is by of Educa tion–Ain Shams University and cofounder and secretary Islamic fundamentalism in Arab and Mus - implementing the ideas of general of the Afro-Asian Philosophy Association and the lim societies. So impoverished is the con- Ibn Rushd (1126–1198), also Averröes and Enlightment International Association. cept of secularization that the word secu- known as Averröes, the

secularhumanism.org AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 FREE INQUIRY 43 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 44

Church-State Update

Florida Showdown Looms Edd Doerr

On May 11, Education Week published pose is to allow the state to tax all citizens ing against public-school prayer and Bible this letter of mine: to support religious institutions they would reading in Abington School District v. The four states discussed in the article not choose to support voluntarily. While the Schempp. Kane asserted that “prayer and “GOP Lawmakers Press Voucher Ex- amendment is ostensibly aimed at blocking Bible reading in public schools hurt no pan sion in States” (April 27, 2011) are a Council for Secular Humanism lawsuit one” and that the ruling is be lieved by among the 39 states whose constitu- against tax aid for a sectarian prison pro- some to have led to a “decline in academ- tions prohibit tax aid to religious insti- tutions, but, tellingly, are not among gram, its real aim is to smooth the road for ics and discipline in public schools since the 14 states (including the District of school vouchers. By lumping church-related 1968.” He agreed with Schempp’s lone Columbia) where voters de cisively but essentially secular charities with perva- dissenter, Potter Stewart, that the Court rejected vouchers or their variants by sively sectarian religious private schools, the erred in applying the First Amend ment’s landslide margins in over two dozen statewide referendums. authors of HJR 1471 seek to bamboozle church-state principle. If voters in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Florida voters into supporting the diminish- Kane and other conservatives are and Pennsylvania were allowed to vote ing of their religious freedom and the unable to get their heads around the fol- on these voucher plans, they would wrecking of their public schools. lowing facts: (1) The Schempp ruling was surely knock them down. We can assume that GOP legislators and gover- This dangerous amendment will be on preceded by the 1962 Supreme Court’s nors understand this and are reluctant the ballot in November 2012, along with 6–1 ruling in Engel v. Vitale, a challenge to to follow the honorable course and pro- President Barack Obama’s bid for reelec- government-sponsored prayer in New York pose state constitutional amendments tion. Real defenders of religious freedom public schools brought by parents of vari- that would allow voters a voice on these radical attacks on their public schools of all persuasions will need to work ous religious persuasions; (2) In 1962, only and their fundamental rights. together to defeat this insidious attack on about half of the nation’s public schools, our most fundamental liberties. almost all of which were on the East Coast Then, on May 13, the Associated Press By the way, there have been thirteen or located in the states of the former Con - reported that the Republican-dominated statewide referenda in which tax aid for Florida legislature had voted, in a mainly federacy, had prayer and Bible reading; (3) party-line vote (26–10 in the Senate; 81–35 religious schools through vouchers or tax Far more people than just humanists were in the House) to approve an amendment to credits were proposed. All were defeated offended by public school prayer and Bible the state constitution, HJR 1471, that by an average margin of 67.6 percent to reading; and (4) There is no evidence that would allow the state to use public funds to 32.4 percent. There have been six referenda the ab sence of government-sponsored aid religious private schools and other reli- on proposals to remove church-state sepa- devotions has had adverse effects on pub- gious institutions to the degree that the ration language from state constitutions. lic education. Reagan/Bush appointees to the Supreme These were all defeated by an average mar- But Kane missed the big picture. Court would allow such aid under the U.S. gin of 62 percent to 38 percent. (Details Public-school prayer and Bible reading First Amendment. may be found on Americans for Religious were hallmarks of Protestant hegemony in The language of HJR 1471 is slick, de- Liberty’s website, www.arlinc.org.) public education, a hegemony that was ceptive, weasely, and designed to fool vot- November 2012 is not that far off. We extremely offensive to the burgeoning ers into thinking the amendment supports need to start working now. Catholic population in the United States religious freedom when in reality its pur- from the mid-nineteenth century on. Kane Not Able There being no legal remedy for the Gregory Kane is a columnist Protestant hegemony, Catholic Church “HJR 1471 is ...designed to fool for the Wash ington Examiner, officials began a massive program of cre- voters into thinking the amendment the give-away tabloid that ating Catholic private schools. By the time supports religious freedom when in competes with the Washing - of the school-prayer rulings of the early ton Times for the coveted sta- 1960s, Catholic school enrollment had reality its purpose is to allow the state tus of the most reactionary reached about 5.5 million students. to tax all citizens to support religious daily rag published in America. Then things began to change rapidly. institutions they would not choose In his May 19 column, We elected our first Catholic president in Kane took a wild swat at the 1960, one strongly and sincerely dedi- to support voluntarily.” Supreme Court’s 1963 8–1 rul- cated to church-state separation—as my

44 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 45

Scott Hightower Poems

late colleague and co-columnist Paul Blanshard, who had met with John F. Pipe Dreams Kennedy and Ted Sorensen in the White In The Rambles of House to discuss the matter, assured me. the Alhambra, (A Lullaby) When the Engel ruling came down, Kennedy sided with the Court. Engel and Coming upon a Mary’s Milkdrops, lungwort: Schempp ended Protestant hegemony in Pulmonaria officinalis, public schools (except perhaps in part of Bronze of a Naked Galaktotrophousa, Maria Lactans, the old Confederacy, where there were few Madonna del Latte: Catholics—or humanists). The Second Man Subjugating a Blessed is the womb that bore thee Vatican Council of 1962–65 let some fresh and the paps––Eden to Byzantium; air into the Catholic Church and elevated Goat Rome to a bottle and Theodore (for a great many) conscience over dogma. Angel Ganivet Monument, Granada Roosevelt’s bear––that gave thee In 1968, the Vatican issued its blanket con- suckle. demnation of birth control, against the Simply holding fast to his position, advice of most of its own experts, and trig- A doll is static and innocuous, gered a huge revolt by Catholics against a a man— an awkward bridge to the world. great deal of what I call the “malignant naked and dappled patriarchalism” of the church hierarchy. with afternoon sunlight But every baby––even Voilà! Catholic private school enroll- the efflorescent wonder ment began to decline, from 5.5 million in (oddly reminiscent of a newborn divinity 1965 to a little over two million today. of the Medici Fountain in puking in its mother’s arms–– Studies by Catholic universities for the pro- Paris)— voucher Nixon administration showed that comes with its own system the decline was due not to economic factors here, oddly intimates the swan of hunger and change. but to “changing parental preferences.” dominating Leda. It is possible Mouth “I love you” On the other hand, the end of Protes - that we find ourselves hovering tant hegemony in the public schools, com- in whatever language you speak. bined with the successes of the civil rights astraddle a stallion, a fountaining Leave a pot of lungwort movement, led to the start of the growing billy, a tusked boar. We are or a freshly cut carnation fundamentalist private-school movement, not strategically placed gods. on the nightstand of the child’s the homeschooling movement, and grow- new castle. ing evangelical support for school vouchers. At times, heroically holding fast, At the same time, Catholic movement brutally dominating—we claim . . . a bottle and Theodore away from sectarian schools led to Catholic (at least in the reach of our art) Roosevelt’s bear, voter opposition to diversion of public to be neither simple effervescing a bridge to the world funds to religious schools. . . . a bottle and Theodore beast Roosevelt’s bear–– nor the fluid “consolation” of a Edd Doerr, president of Americans for encoded with its layers Religious Liberty and a past president of the swan. of historical American Humanist Association, is the and natural disasters. author of over five thousand published books, sections of books, articles, columns, book and film reviews, translations, letters, short stories, and poems. He has made over Scott Hightower has published three collections of poetry. His reviews frequently appear in Fogged Clarity and The Brooklyn Rail. He is also a contributing editor to The Journal. A native of central two thousand speeches and radio and tele- Texas, Hightower lives in New York City and sojourns in Spain. vision appearances.

secularhumanism.org AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 FREE INQUIRY 45 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/29/11 10:15 AM Page 46

God on Trial

The Philosophical Significance of Psychopaths David N. Stamos

Postmodernism, Morality, and God

sychopaths are fascinating, in a ality. Conceivably a psychopath could have chopaths there is no difference. Their repugnant sort of way. Whether we the genius of an Einstein and function response is the same. And this is not con- Pread about Ted Bundy or Paul Ber - quite well in the world. There is no twisted fined to words. They register no emotional nardo or see psychopaths depicted in fic- logic necessarily involved with psychopa- response when they see a person bleeding tional characters such as Hannibal Lecter, thy, no warped thinking that is so obvious and screaming in pain or a dead body man- we are forced to wonder how a human in the mentally ill and insane, no hallucina- gled from a car accident. And it is no differ- being could ever do such horrible things. tions, no depression, no dysfunctionality ent if they are the cause of the screaming We are also forced to wonder whether we necessarily. person or the mangled dead body. ourselves could ever do those things— Psychopaths are defined in terms of Psychopaths are also highly narcissis- whether such darkness possibly exists something else—a cluster of features, tic. Not only are they extremely self-cen- deep within us all. most of which are deficiencies. This means tered, but they also think of themselves as As a sensitive human being, I was that psychopathy is a matter of degree. being of a higher nature than the rest of always baffled by psychopaths until I studied Many of us might score relatively high in us. To them, normal individuals are made the topic of psychopathy, especially as one or more of these defining characteris- weak by sympathy and empathy and understood by its foremost expert, Robert tics, but that does not necessarily mean refrain from getting the most that they Hare, the psychiatrist who developed the that we are psychopaths. On the other can from life because of conscience, guilt, Psychopathy Checklist, now the standard hand, there are those who score so high and remorse. To psychopaths, we are like tool for diagnosing people with psychopa- on the Psychopathy Checklist that they are sheep. They, on the other hand, are like thy. But it was as a philosopher that I expe- considered full-fledged psychopaths. They wolves—animals of prey. The sheep exist rienced a kind of awakening. This is because are, so to speak, the interesting ones. for the sake of the wolves. The sheep are I not only came to understand what makes And they are more common than one to be manipulated, used, and even killed if psychopaths tick, but I began to see the might think. According to Hare, roughly the situation is right. All that matters is wider significance of psychopaths—connec- one in every one hundred humans is a full- that the wolf be gratified. tions with areas of inquiry that experts such fledged psychopath. Imagine that. There In The Descent of Man (1871), Darwin as Hare (let alone philosophers) did not you are in a lecture hall with a class of called the human who lacks sympathy, seem to see. (I am a “What is x ?” philoso- roughly 240 students, and in that room empathy, and other moral instincts an pher, the kind who takes science seriously, there are probably two or three full- “unnatural monster,” but there actually is the kind who believes that it is not wisdom fledged psychopaths. nothing unnatural about psychopaths, any to ignore evidence.) What distinguishes psychopaths from more than congenital blindness or a very In this article, I shall focus on three normal people? Principally, it is a total high IQ is unnatural. Hare suspects that in areas of wider significance: postmod- absence of what we typically take to be addition to environmental causes, psy- ernism, morality, and theology. It is perhaps moral qualities: sympathy, empathy, com- chopathy may also have genetic ones. But astonishing that the human phenomenon passion, guilt, remorse, conscience, loyalty, in spite of the role of environmental fac- of psychopathy can teach us anything truth telling, and a sense of fairness. This tors in the expression of our moral in - about these three fields, but as we shall also shows up in their brains, for example in stincts, I would think that full-blown psy- see, it actually has a lot to teach us. EEG experiments. When shown the word chopathy is primarily genetic. This is be - car and then the word stab, most people cause family background does not seem irst we need to be reasonably clear on have different emotional and physiological to matter, psychopathy shows up very Fwhat psychopathy is. Following the responses to these words that register in early in life, psychopaths cannot be reha- work of Hare in his must-read Without their brain waves. The limbic system, which bilitated, and psycho pathy is far more Conscience (1995), psychopathy is not a is responsible for people’s emotions, exhibits common among males. Interestingly, sym- form of insanity or even a mental illness, an emotional response to the word stab pathy and empathy are generally greater given the clinical meanings of these terms. that is missing (or is very different) when in females and appear much earlier in Nor need psychopaths be lacking in ration- responding to the word car. But for psy- female infancy. In addition, males tend to

46 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/29/11 10:16 AM Page 47

shut off sympathy and empathy in com- Emperor’s New Clothes,” FI, Fall 1998). arrogant and condescending tone. petitive situations (see The Oxford Hand - But still, what has this to do with psy- The analogy breaks down when it book of Evolutionary Psychology, 2007). chopaths? For a start, psychopaths lack comes to numbers. Psychopaths number What we seem to have with psychopathy, what may be called “moral virtues and val- roughly 1 percent of the human popula- then, is a statistical phenomenon in evolu- ues.” I have already listed some of these: tion, higher in prisons (not all killers are tionary terms. sympathy, empathy, conscience, guilt, psychopaths, but many are) and also in Still, how is all of this relevant to philos- remorse, a sense of fairness. Psychopaths corporations, where the attributes of psy- ophy? Let us begin with a standard field in don’t have these, and moreover they don’t chopaths (ruthless greed without con- philosophy: epistemology, the study (logos) want them. They don’t want them be- science) are highly valued (see Babiak and of knowledge (episteme). A modern chal- cause they see nothing wrong with them- Hare, Snakes in Suits, 2006). Post modern - lenge to those who believe in the existence selves. They look at the moral virtues and ists, on the other hand, probably number of knowledge is known as postmodernism. values of normal humans as the very fea- far less than 1 percent in the general pub- According to postmodernists, there is no tures that make those humans weaklings lic as a whole but number considerably real distinction between truth and falsity, and suckers, ready to be exploited by peo- higher in universities and colleges among objectivity and subjectivity, fact and theory, ple like them. Psycho paths are not like faculty, depending on the division—virtu- knowledge and opinion. For postmod- Nietzsche’s Overman, who goes beyond ally zero in the natural sciences but ernists, what is called “knowledge” is really good and evil into a new synthesis of the upwards of 50 percent or more in the merely a powerful opinion, a strong point master and slave moralities. Psycho paths, humanities, the social sciences, and philos- of view, or a social construction—a preva- instead, are without morality altogether, ophy, depending on the department. lent point of view conditioned by social, and they want to stay that way. The bottom line is that there is no point cultural, and political forces, all of which are There is a strong analogy sea changes. here with postmodernism. As far as I can tell, postmodernism Just as psychopaths lack began reasonably enough, in the field of moral virtues and values and “Just as psychopaths lack moral abstract art. Throw some shit against the do not want them, postmod- wall and put a frame around it. Is it art? ernists lack epistemic virtues virtues and values and do not want them, You have your opinion and I have mine. and values and do not want postmodernists lack epistemic virtues Neither of us is right or wrong. And if we them. There is a trend in phi- and values and do not want them.” both agree that it is art, then what is the losophy of science, in trying meaning of it? Again, you have your opin- to distinguish science from ion and I have mine and neither of us is pseudoscience and non- right or wrong. What matters is only that science, which is not to look we be allowed to express our opinions. for any one or few essentialistic features arguing with postmodernists about why This perfectly reasonable approach to but to find the distinction in a cluster-class they should pursue knowledge. This is abstract art then spread to literary theory, of epistemic virtues and values that pro- because they lack and do not want the and it kept spreading—to the humanities, mote the pursuit of knowledge. Among very stuff of knowledge, the epistemic including philosophy, and the social sci- these are being clear, valuing evidence, virtues and values. In other words, arguing ences, particularly sociology and anthropol- exposing theories to testing, not being dog- against them is a colossal waste of time. ogy. Reinforced by cultural relativism, multi- matic, keeping explanations and explana- The most one can hope to achieve is detec- culturalism, political correctness, and a left- tory entities as simple as possible, and not tion. I can pretty much tell when I’ve come wing hatred of all that is powerful and letting politics determine good scholarship. across a postmodernist by his or her reac- mighty (and that means primarily the United This is why no religion or theology is a sci- tion to the mention of science or the States, the military and police, and the nat- ence and why astrology and homeopathy importance of evidence. I don’t hate post- ural sciences), postmodernism has now are not real sciences either. They lack epis- modernists. I’m just not going to waste my become an imposing dogma in the aca- temic virtues and values. And postmod- time arguing with them; there is no point. demic world, provoking physicist Alan Sokal ernists lack them too. They lack them, and Harry Frankfurt seems to miss this in 1996 to write a postmodernist critique of moreover they don’t want them. In fact, in implication in his book On Truth (2006), in science that was published in the leading analogy with the narcissism of psy- which he seems to argue against post- journal for postmodernist critiques of sci- chopaths, postmodernists view themselves modernists. Frankfurt’s argument can only ence, Social Text. The editors were duped; as superior to those who possess epistemic hope to work on those who are not post- the article was bullshit, written in the style virtues and values. They see themselves as modernists. Only they will nod in approval. of postmodernist writings, using postmod- above such things, as superior. “You don’t Instead, the most one can hope to do is to ernist jargon and references. It was a beau- really think that people believe because of expose postmodernists and what post- tiful piece of gibberish in the service of an arguments, do you?” is a common ques- modernism is, just as Hare exposed the exposé (see Jean Bricmont, “Exposing the tion put by postmodernists, usually with an nature of psychopaths. Once we know

secularhumanism.org AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 FREE INQUIRY 47 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/29/11 10:16 AM Page 48

what postmodernism is, then we can chopath is not going to be convinced by why it should fly. The answer can only be, know how to detect postmodernists and this argument either, since the nature of a “Because I am a bird.” If we take evolution how best to deal with them. psychopath does not conform to what seriously, there can be no other answer. Aristotle thought the essence of the his brings us to our next area in philoso- human species to be. his brings us to theology, because many Tphy: morality. What can psychopaths Bentham and Mill thought we should Twith a theological bent will take excep- possibly teach us about morality? A lot. seek the greatest happiness of the greatest tion to the view that “taking evolution Once one realizes what psychopaths are, number, because we seek our own happi- seriously” means thinking in such purely that they are not necessarily mentally ill or ness and avoid our own pain. But there is no naturalistic terms as random mutation, insane but do have a complete absence of logically compelling reason that will con- natural selection, and other physical moral virtues and values, and once one vince a rational and logical psychopath that processes such as genetic drift and envi- realizes that a psychopath can be the most he should pursue the greatest happiness of ronmental change. The mixture of evolu- intelligent and rational human on the the greatest number of people or sentient tionary biology with theology is known as planet, then it ought to become evident beings. Such a person can be compelled to theistic evolution, of which there are vari- that one cannot possibly hope to convince pursue his own greatest happiness and the ous kinds. What all the kinds share, how- a psychopath of why he should be moral, happiness of others only as a means to ever, is a problem known as the “problem and it is important to see why. achieving his own happiness. of evil”: If God exists and is all knowing, Throughout the history of moral phi- Kant thought we should be moral—for all powerful, and all loving, then evil losophy, a central question has always example, never treating a person merely as should not exist (evil in the sense of man- been, “Why should I be moral?” Plato and a thing—because that is the rational thing made evil, such as murder, and natural Aristotle attempted to answer the ques- to do. Take any personal maxim of action, evil, such as hurricanes and polio). But evil tion in terms of individual happiness. An he said, and universalize it. Ask, “What if does exist. So either God does not exist or immoral soul, said Plato, is a disordered everyone did it?,” and if the answer God does exist but is not all knowing, all soul, and a disordered soul cannot achieve involves you in a self-contradiction, then powerful, or all loving. happiness because it is not in control of any motive based on that maxim is Some, following St. Augustine, have itself. But there is no reason a psychopath immoral. But there is no logically com- tried to avoid the conclusion by arguing pelling reason that a psy- that evil does not exist. Imagine someone chopath should universalize any telling that to a person dying painfully of of his personal maxims of cancer, or to a person whose child burned “The upshot is that it is impossible action, and hence, there is no to death in a house fire, or to the thou- to provide a logically compelling logically compelling reason that sands who died in the Haiti earthquakes, he should be moral in Kant’s or to the tens of millions who died in Nazi argument to a psychopath for why sense of the term. and communist concentration camps. he or she should be moral because The upshot is that it is Others, following St. Irenaeus, accept psychopaths lack the very stuff of impossible to provide a logically that evil exists but argue that God allows compelling argument to a psy- it for the purpose of “soul making,” since morality (sympathy, empathy, chopath for why he should be evil is needed for genuine moral choice conscience, and so on).” moral because psychopaths and also because the moral virtues (com- lack the very stuff of morality passion, charity, courage, forgiveness, and (sympathy, empathy, con- so on) require the existence of evil in order science, and so on). One can to develop. The problem here is the enor- could not have his reason rule his emo- give the psychopath a strong argument for mous amount of gratuitous pain, suffer- tions and together with his emotions (the why he should pretend to be moral, but ing, and killing in the world—gratuitous spirited part) rule his appetites and still be that is a very different thing. In line with the because (1) much of the pain, suffering, a psychopath, exploiting humans when primatologist Frans de Waal (for example, and killing could not possibly serve the possible, taking rational steps to avoid in his The Age of Empathy [2009]), morality purpose of soul making since it does not being caught, and having no bad con- is not a veneer but something deep in come under human purview, and (2) there science about it. human nature, the building blocks of which is far too much pain, suffering, and killing Aristotle claimed that only the virtuous are shared with other primates and rela- for what would be needed for soul mak- human can possibly be happy, where tively intelligent social animals. To the ques- ing—a general case of far too much when moral virtue is a kind of excellence, vice is tion, then, “Why should I be moral?,” the much less would do. an excess or deficiency in a moral virtue, only answer can be, “Because I am a Now add evolutionary time to this sce- and the list of moral virtues is species-spe- human being,” or rather, “Because I am a nario: the mind-boggling amount of pain, cific, a matter of human nature. But a psy- normal human being.” It’s like asking a bird suffering, and killing on this planet alone

48 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 49

(there may be many more planets such as ours) of untold trillions of creatures spread YOU CAN MAKE A over hundreds of millions of years—the fear Elena Bonner, LASTING IMPACT ON and horror of predation, the torture of para- THE FUTURE OF sitism and disease, the agony of starvation, 1923–2011 SECULAR HUMANISM . . . the brutality of temperature extremes— almost all of which never came under WHEN YOU PROVIDE human purview or even contributed to hu- FOR FREE INQUIRY man evolution in the slightest. God (assum- IN YOUR WILL. ing God exists) would have to be infinitely coldhearted in order to permit all of this. The Council for Secular Humanism and In response, one might apply the idea of FREE INQUIRY are leading voices of dissent kenosis in Christian theology and suppose and discussion in fields ranging from that God empties himself into his creation religion to church-state by experiencing the suffering of his crea- separation, civil rights, and ethical liv- tures along with them—that is, subjectively, ing. You can take an enduring step to from the inside. But if true, that would do preserve their vitality when you provide absolutely nothing to reduce the suffering for FREE INQUIRY in your will. of the countless trillions of creatures. There Your bequest to the Council for Secular is an even deeper problem, however—one Humanism, Inc., will help to provide for having to do with ends versus means. Quite the future of secular humanism as it simply, whatever the goal or purpose we helps to keep FREE INQUIRY ascribe to reality—the production of morally Humanist Laureate and Russian financially secure. Depending on your good humanoids, God-worshipping souls, rights activist Elena Bonner died tax situation, a charitable bequest to the or whatever else—this end cannot justly be June 18 at the age of eighty-eight. Council may have little impact on the net called “good” given the enormous cost in To gether with her husband, physi- size of your estate—or may even result suffering required to attain it. cist Andrei Sak harov, Bonner led a in a greater amount being available to A perfectly reasonable conclusion, group that monitored the USSR’s your beneficiaries. given the problem of evil and the fact of compliance with the 1975 Hel sinki We would be happy to work with you evolution, is to concede the first part of Accords, which protected human and your attorney in the development the original conclusion—that there is no of a will or estate plan that meets God. To my mind, this makes the most rights and freedoms. After Sakharov your wishes. sense of everything. It should have to be criticized the Soviet invasion of A variety of arrangements are possible, conceded, however, that evolution and Afghanistan in 1980, he was exiled including: gifts of a fixed amount or a evil are in fact compatible with the exis- to Gorky, hundreds of miles from percentage of your estate; living trusts tence of a God, just not the God of Moscow. Bonner operated as his or gift annuities, which provide you with Western theology. Specifically, evolution two-way link to the outside world a lifetime income; or a contingent and evil are fully compatible with a god until the government accused her bequest that provides for FREE INQUIRY that is, at most, omniscient and omnipo- of being an agent for the U.S. only if your primary beneficiaries do not tent, and that fits the definition of a “psy- Central Intelligence Agency, and survive you. chopath.” That too would make a lot of she then was also exiled to Gorky. sense. In that case, one might say not that For more information, contact The couple lived in isolation even God made man in his image, but that he Sherry Rook, from family members until 1986 made every one in a hundred of us in his Vice President of Planning when Mikhail Gorbachev allowed image—which is precisely what one and Development, should expect a religious psychopath to them to return to Moscow. They re - at 716-636-7571, ext. 427. believe. vived their hu man rights monitoring All inquiries are held in the activities and pressed for greater re- strictest confidence. forms. Sak harov died in 1989. David N. Stamos teaches philosophy at York University in Toronto, Canada, and is the author —Andrea Szalanski of a variety of publications, including Evolution and the Big Questions: Sex, Race, Religion, and Other Matters (Blackwell, 2008).

secularhumanism.org AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 FREE INQUIRY 49 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 50

Faith and Reason

Atheism and Religious Pluralism Kile Jones

Navigating Between Freedom of and Freedom from Religion

hat happens to atheism in a lib- mer is a call to engagement; the latter sim- them to stand against ideologies that seek eral democracy when religious ply describes a state of affairs. As a way of to strip humans of their autonomy and W beliefs are respected? And more engagement, religious pluralism seeks to mold them into a form suitable for divine important, how can atheism show its bring about interreligious understanding, acceptance. It is the striking resemblances respect for the right to believe as one wishes break down walls of hostility, and promote between totalitarian political regimes and while considering such beliefs con- unity based on cross-religious similarities large organized religions that cannot be temptible? Much work done on religious (for example, every faith teaches a variant underestimated. It was Christopher pluralism elevates religion to a place of sanc- of the Golden Rule). As a state of affairs, Hitchens who, in his God Is Not Great, tity and often confuses the right to believe religious diversity simply describes the pres- compared George Orwell’s analysis of with respect for any and all beliefs. If you do ence of different religious groups in a given totalitarianism to the God who keeps society. The irony of modern religious humans under constant surveillance: pluralism, though, is that its umbrella “Religion even at its meekest has to admit houses the very people and ideolo- that what it is proposing is a ‘total’ solu- “If you do not respect someone’s gies pluralism is thought to stand tion, in which faith must be to some against. Conservative religious lead- extent blind, and in which all aspects of religious beliefs in a pluralistic ers, many of whom see themselves as the private and public life must be submit- society, you are often seen as “engaged exclusivists,” still believe ted to a permanent higher supervision. intolerant, even if you respect the that their beliefs are the truth, that This constant surveillance and continual everyone else ought to believe them, subjection, usually reinforced by fear in right of the person to believe so.” and that there is a punishment for not the shape of infinite vengeance, does not doing so. Such beliefs have the ulti- invariably bring out the best mammalian mate aim of doing away with religious characteristics.” pluralism. On the other hand, many As Orwell put it in 1984, “you had to not respect someone’s religious beliefs in a liberal religious persons, the very thinkers live—did live, from habit that became pluralistic society, you are often seen as who pioneered interreligious dialogue and instinct—in the assumption that every intolerant, even if you respect the right of modern religious pluralism, do not wish to sound you made was overheard, and, the person to believe so. This article attempts exclude the exclusivists. There is a general except in darkness, every movement scruti- to locate a place where one can respect the fear of being seen as intolerant for drawing nized.” Totalizing religious beliefs, as with right of people to freely hold and express a line in the sand and condemning conser- totalitarian political regimes, attempt to do their religious beliefs while allowing for oth- vative religious ideologies. After all, would- the impossible by erasing doxastic differ- ers to consider such beliefs false, misguided, n’t that make you like the very people you ences. It is the religious forces of assimila- and hazardous. It examines the ways athe- condemn? tion, control, and power that modern athe- ism may relate to totalizing beliefs, religious ism stands against and publicly condemns. pluralism, and liberal theology and tries to Freedom and Totalizing Beliefs A typical critique believers employ find a balance between freedom of and free- Many think there must be a way past this against atheism is that it is a secular pro- dom from religion. dilemma. They think there ought to be gram aimed at ridding the world of religion. Religious pluralism differs from reli- some consensus among educated leaders, When they think of atheism they imagine gious diversity in one notable way. The for- a kind of common sense that compels the totalitarian governments of Stalinist

50 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 51

Russia and Maoist China censoring religious appear to be so unreasonable, so damag- are places of agreement between them: a gatherings, practices, and beliefs on the one ing to individuals and society, that to denial of the inerrancy, inspiration, and hand and the social anarchism of revolution- “understand” them is next to impossible. authority of the biblical canon; an accept- ary-era France on the other. To some extent Acceptance and understanding run ance of the historical-critical method and they are justified in holding these images; awfully close to condoning, and that is the higher criticism; hostility toward dogmatic yet in other ways they are not. They are jus- last message atheists want to convey. How stances on theology proper, soteriology, tified in the sense that atheists, like any then can atheists respond to religious plu- and eschatology; and general liberally other group of people, have committed ralism in general and religious beliefs in minded stances on politics, ethics, and evils; but they are not justified in assuming particular without appearing bigoted on society. that there is some clear “atheist program” one hand or compromising on the other? Yet many atheists have spoken out or political agenda that is entailed by believ- How can love and truth unite? against liberals, secular and religious. Sam ing there is no God or supernatural realm. The truth is that regardless of the Harris, in a Los Angeles Times piece titled After all, atheists have been communists attempts made by religious pluralists to “The End of Liberalism,” argues that liber- (Karl Marx), socialists (Bertrand Russell), promote conflict resolution and multicul- als “should be especially sensitive to the anarchists (Noam Chomsky), and even capi- tural understanding, religion has lost none dangers of religious literalism. But they talists (Ayn Rand). of its malignant force. The notion that reli- aren’t.” Two years prior, Harris spent a The problem is that in the West, as gions can unite in peace, liberalize them- good portion of The End of Faith arguing with the majority of places around the selves, and become “a city on a hill” is that “religious moderates betray faith and globe, it is religion, not unbelief, that “pretend pluralism,” to borrow holds the power of public approval. Stephen Prothero’s poignant Atheists are in the minority, and the phrase. As Hitchens has noted: “It “dominant programs” are religious groups is not possible for me to say, Well, doing what they can to create converts. you pursue your Shiite dream of a The point I wish to make is that given the hidden imam and I pursue my “The irony of modern religious current state of the world, freedom from study of Thomas Paine and religion, not freedom of religion, should George Orwell, and the world is pluralism ... is that its umbrella houses be the pressing issue. If the moral burden big enough for both of us. The the very people and ideologies of proof were to lie anywhere, it should lie true believer [the title of Eric pluralism is thought to stand against.” on the side of religion. Hoffer’s seminal work] cannot rest until the whole world bows the Approaches to Religious Pluralism knee.” Their sacred texts and tra- Atheism, historically speaking, has held an ditions promise them land, eco- explicit disregard for religious beliefs and nomic prosperity, an apocalyptic institutions. Religious pluralism, on the demise of unbelievers, privileged other hand, has promoted an acceptance access to God, and heavenly rewards for reason equally.” Richard Dawkins, in The of differing religious beliefs. Decades ago, martyrdom, and these cannot simply be God Delusion, said, “even mild and mod- it was considered progressive simply to tol- liberalized away or utterly reinterpreted. If erate religion helps to provide the climate erate divergent religious beliefs, but now they were, it would only be for a small of faith in which extremism naturally flour- “tolerance” is thought of negatively. Diana portion of people who study in a liberal ishes.” These and similar statements are Eck, the founder of Harvard’s Plural ism setting, not the majority of believers who tantamount to saying that liberals are too Project and one of the leading spokesper- still adhere to the folk understanding of “liberal” toward religious extremism and sons for religious pluralism, ex plains why their religion. what Victor Stenger has called “the folly tolerance is problematic: “Tolerance can of faith.” They naïvely believe that reli- create a climate of restraint, but not a cli- Atheism and Liberal Theology gious conflict will subside when religious mate of understanding. Tolerance is far too Usually atheists are seen in juxtaposition persons educate themselves and change fragile a foundation for a religiously com- with conservative religious persons. It is their religion “from the inside out,” when plex society, and in the world in which we obvious why this is the case—conservative in fact it has been secular advances—the live today, our ignorance of one another religion being an easier target and all— rise of modern science, the revolt against will be increasingly costly.” but what about atheism and liberal reli- religious hegemony, and an understand- The problem for atheists in the mod- gious persons? How should atheism ing of human rights—that gave liberal reli- ern world is that many religious beliefs respond to liberal theology? Surely there gion its impetus. Liberal religion is an hon-

secularhumanism.org AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 FREE INQUIRY 51 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 52

orable enterprise and certainly more posi- practice of religion or atheism, except are another. How closely connected, or tive than conservative agendas, but it is an when such beliefs generate actions that causally related, a belief is with the actions unrealistic take on the malevolent nature infringe on the rights of others or cause that follow it is debatable. Many religious of traditional religion. them physical harm. John Stuart Mill made persons openly admit how connected their Another problem is that modern liberal this point when he argued in his On Liberty beliefs are with their actions, as do many theologies have created an atmosphere of that “the only purpose for which power atheists. Actions done “in the name of” or ambiguity concerning what exactly one can be rightly exercised over any member “because of” certain beliefs ought to be believes about God; it is not like the clear of a civilized community, against his will, is evaluated based on their social conse- definitions given by conservative and to prevent harm to others.” Suicide bomb- quences and merits. If they harm someone creed-based religions. Daniel Dennett, in a ings, polygamous sects, child abuse, and psychologically or physically they are recent study on nonbelieving clergy, religious laws (Sharia, Halakha, and bibli- infringing on the rights of the harmed. pointed this out: “The ambiguity about cal) are examples of this infringement. How to determine what counts as “harm” who is a believer and who a nonbeliever Religious terms on currency, in courtrooms is another problem, one that must take into follows inexorably from the pluralism that and public schools, or located on any state- account the whole range and scope of a has been assiduously fostered by many reli- owned public area (parks, intersections, person’s beliefs. If an action is directly gious leaders for a century or more: God is monuments, and the like) are clear viola- causally related to its prior belief, it follows many different things to different people, tions of the separation of church and state that if one “fixes” or “changes” the con- and should be treated as such. tent of the belief, then in principle it should II navigated change the action. The more an action is freedom from and freedom of by not causally related to its prior belief, the saying that “The state should less this will be the case. encourage maximum freedom for Nonetheless, in a liberal democracy, “It is the striking resemblances different moral, political, religious, critique of religious beliefs should not only between totalitarian political regimes and social values in society. It be practiced but encouraged. To the best and large organized religions that should not favor any particular of its ability, a liberal democracy ought to religious bodies through the use see the hazardous and dangerous effects cannot be underestimated.” of public monies, nor espouse a of religious and supernatural beliefs, chal- single ideology and function lenge their content, and protect those thereby as an instrument of prop- whose rights are violated by the actions aganda or oppression, particularly sourced in such beliefs. This does not against dissenters.” mean outlawing religion or religious be - and since we can’t know if one of these With all of these issues in mind, we liefs, but it does mean keeping a close conceptions is the right one, we should can now locate a place where atheism can watch on them and the effects they have honor them all. This counsel of tolerance respect the right for religious persons to on others. Maybe if this occurred more creates a gentle fog that shrouds the ques- believe as they wish without respecting often, religiously influenced child abuse tion of belief in God.” the content of such beliefs. This right to and domestic abuse would be greatly Atheism says something different: we believe is not to be equated with immunity diminished. In other words, religion has should honor their right, not honor their from critique or the freedom to act im- earned the public’s paranoia about it. beliefs. It seems to me that liberal theol- morally toward others. If the action Without outlawing religious belief or prac- ogy is both an ally and an enemy of con- sourced in somebody’s religious beliefs tice, there is still a way to navigate the thin servative theology. It can be an ally by infringes on the rights of others, the line between freedom of and freedom allowing a context where religious beliefs believer should be considered misguided from religion. are validated and esteemed, and it can be and hazardous because he or she may an enemy by providing critiques of the impose the beliefs on others. Freedom Acknowledgment method and content of conservative reli- from religion means that no religion can Thanks to Dr. Philip Clayton and Dr. Phil gious beliefs. On a spectrum, some liberal infringe on others or impose itself, in Zuckerman for their academic support. theologies are closer to being allies and requiring what to believe and how to act, some closer to being enemies. It is not as on those who disagree and dissent from easy as simply lumping them together such a religion. If this were to with conservative beliefs. happen it would be taking away Kile Jones holds a Master’s of Theological Studies and a Freedom from and freedom of religion people’s rights to believe as they Master’s of Sacred Theology from Boston University. He is must be continually balanced in order for a wish. currently working toward his PhD in religion at the liberal democracy to survive. Govern ments As Mill has pointed out, Claremont School of Theology. cannot and should not outlaw the free beliefs are one thing and actions

52 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 53

Reviews

Evangelist Unmasked Richard A. S. Hall

illy Graham has had public and pri- vate facilities named after him and Bbeen called the “preacher to presi- dents” and “God’s ambassador.” He is an icon of America’s enormous evangelical- The Prince of War: Billy Graham’s Crusade for a Wholly fundamentalist community. Even those who Christian Empire, by Cecil Bothwell, second edition are not partisans of his creed unthinkingly (Asheville, N.C.: Brave Ulysses Books, 2010, ISBN credit him with goodness. Yet Christopher 9781456325909) 215 pp. Paper, $16. Hitchens, to whom we are much indebted for his devastating exposé of the “saintly” Mother Theresa (who was anything but), has pronounced Graham as “disgustingly evil” because of his well-documented anti- Semitism. If you doubt the justice of Hitchens’s animadversion to Graham, you The picture that emerges is decidedly not take drastic action. The Bay of Pigs invasion need read no further than Cecil Bothwell’s that of a disinterested man of the cloth. quickly followed. At a prayer breakfast in unauthorized biography, The Prince of War: Rather, Graham often appears as a well- 1966 attended by Lyndon B. Johnson and Billy Graham’s Crusade for a Wholly connected covert political operative.” other government officials, Graham said, Christian Empire, which was originally pub- “There are those who have tried to reduce lished in 2007 and fortunately has now othwell chronicles Graham’s activity as Christ to the level of a genial and innocuous come out in a second edition. Bothwell Ban unofficial advisor on American for- appeaser; but Jesus said ‘You are wrong—I amply supports Hitchens’s judgment of eign policy through at least five presidential have come as a fire-setter and a sword- Graham, allowing Graham to condemn administrations. In this capacity, Gra ham wielder.’” (This, by the way, is an example of himself with his own thoroughly docu- fomented the Cold War mentality that proof-texting, a hermeneutic technique mented words and deeds. Hitchens con- emerged after the Second World War. Like whereby passages from religious texts are demns Graham only for his anti-Semitism; Joe McCarthy, whom he supported to the wrenched out of context in order to sub- Bothwell, though, furnishes many other rea- end, Graham harbored an almost patholog- stantiate a particular belief. Proof-texting, sons for condemnation. ical hatred of communism, principally though discredited by reputable biblical Bothwell’s book is a brief chronological because of its atheism. He saw the West as scholars, is a favorite device of evangelical biography that summarizes the main being engaged in a holy war again godless fundamentalists like Graham—“the devil events in Graham’s life and something of communism with Satan directing the com- can cite Scripture for his purpose.”) his beliefs and outlook on the world. If munist side and God guiding the Western. Graham predictably became a cheer- you want a thoroughly detailed and per- In league with Harry S. Truman, Dean leader for the invasion of Iraq, even though haps “authorized” account of Graham’s Acheson, and Foster Dulles, Graham was the World Council of Churches and the life and views, you should consult other only too happy to rattle the saber against Vatican, among other Christian organiza- sources, to which Bothwell helpfully refers North Korea and the Soviet Union. On June tions, condemned it as an unjust war. His the reader. What principally and most 25, 1950, after North Korea invaded South virulent militarism is an expression of his valuably emerges from Bothwell’s study is Korea, Graham tele grammed Truman to black-and-white, Manichean worldview a clear, vivid, and disturbing portrait of urge him to declare war in retaliation. (This grounded in his woefully distorted interpre- Graham’s character; the more you read, is the first of several times Graham urged a tation of Scripture. Graham is an American- the more the picture—like Dorian Gray’s— president to wage war.) He later criticized style Rasputin without the brilliance, dash, becomes hideous. Bothwell, in his own Truman for not expanding the war into and panache of the Russian, his disingenu- words, “reveals a Billy Graham who has China. Later, Graham told Richard Nixon to ous claims of apoliticality notwithstanding. been an unabashed nationalist and capi- get John F. Kennedy’s ear concerning Cuba’s Graham has had unusual access to talist and advocate for American empire. drift toward communism and advise him to those in the highest levels of power. Both -

secularhumanism.org AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 FREE INQUIRY 53 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 54

well reports that in 1985, at the behest of Luce raised Graham’s standing considerably accusing the Jews of “putting out the the elder Bush, Graham visited the Bush through many articles in his Time and Life pornographic stuff” and “undermining the family compound in Kennebunk port, magazines. There was also Russell Maguire, country.” Later, Graham said that his anti- Maine, to talk to the younger Bush, who an oil man and submachine gun manufac- Semitic statements did not reflect his real apparently had disgraced himself by drunk- turer, whom Graham met in 1952. Russell beliefs, to which Bothwell rejoins, “What enly insulting his mother’s friend. George W. had lost his Wall Street broker’s license are we to make of a preacher who insists and Graham had long walks on the beach because of what the Securities and that his words don’t reflect his beliefs?” together, and the upshot of this pastoral Exchange Commission described as “fla- In mitigation of Graham’s anti- visit is that the future president suddenly got grant violations.” Maguire purchased The Semitism, one might point to his much- religion and foreswore his drinking. American Mercury (H.L. Mencken’s maga- vaunted pro-Israel stance. But this is However, not all the presidents were zine) and turned it into an anti-Semitic, anti- inspired by his millennial expectation that taken in by him. Kennedy was cool toward communist, racist rag. Maguire financed Christ, upon his return, will use Israel as him; Jimmy Carter ignored him; and after Graham’s various film projects to the tune of his headquarters from which to set up his their first and only meeting, the no-non- $75,000. And then there was Strom kingdom on earth, whereupon he will Thurmond, the South Caro - exterminate all Jews and countless others lina governor and senator who do not believe in him. whose segregationist views Then there is the matter of Graham’s “It seems that even torture (in serving a and opposition to the Civil racism, explicable perhaps in light of his righteous cause, of course) may be forgiven Rights Act did not prevent Southern upbringing. Bothwell relates this him from having an illegiti- anecdote from Graham’s youth. To a and condoned on Graham’s moral principles. mate child by his African- friend’s recommendation of a “colored Bothwell reports that Graham employed American maid—a child, barbershop,” Graham riposted, “Long as Nelson Bardesio, formerly a torturer in incidentally, that he never there’s a white barbershop in Charlotte, I’ll publicly acknowledged. Gra - never have my hair cut at a nigger barber- Uruguay’s Death Squad, for his Mexican ham was Thurmond’s guest shop.” It is not fair to attribute to the man crusade of 1977.” at the governor’s mansion the attitudes he held in his callow youth, during a 1950 crusade. but Graham’s opinions and actions later in life are perfectly consistent with his youth- raham was a bigot. I say ful views. G“was” because when Graham opposed the quick disman- bigotry was no longer in tling of the Jim Crow laws. As late as 1991, sense Truman said of Graham, “He’s one of fashion and became a source of embar- he maintained membership in the segre- those counterfeits I was telling you about. rassment to those who espoused it, gated Biltmore Forest Country Club, which He claims he’s a friend of all the presidents, Graham, ever the opportunist, publicly distinguished itself by ejecting a black child but he was never a friend of mine when I renounced his bigoted views. However to from its swimming pool in 1988. And, of was president. ... All he’s interested in is his credit, like the Ku Klux Klansmen course, conspicuously absent was Gra - getting his name in the paper.” Graham whose ranks included one of his grandfa- ham’s complete lack of support for Martin entered a Faustian bargain with presi- thers, Graham was an equal-opportunity Luther King Jr.’s crusade for civil rights. dents: they cynically used him to help get bigot, directing his bigotry against Jews, When Graham was petitioned by officials out the vote in their campaigns, and in Blacks, and Catholics—here, indeed, he concerned for public safety to go to Little exchange he received certain privileges did not discriminate. Rock, Arkansas, and lend his prestige to from their hands—for example, he rou- Perhaps the most damning of all, be- help calm the disturbances that erupted tinely flew on military aircraft. Ronald cause it was so explicit and made public, after the forced integration of the city high Reagan opened the way for him to preach was the virulent anti-Semitism for which school in 1957, he declined, thereby avoid- behind the Iron Curtain. Hitchens so roundly scores him. This came ing retaliation from his white, Southern Graham’s politics, driven by his hyper to light in a taped conversation with Nixon base of supporters. Indeed, he was a harsh anti-communism and his religious authori- in 1972. This conversation lasted an hour critic of King’s crusade for social justice. His tarianism, are to the far Right. His early and a half and was mostly denunciatory of backhanded response to King’s “I Have a career was boosted by right-wing ideo- Jews. Graham suggests, in an eerie echo of Dream” speech was, “Only when Christ logues like Randolph Hearst and Henry the “Final Solution,” that something might comes again will the little white children of Luce, whose anti-communist message be done about this “problem” after Nixon’s Alabama walk hand in hand with little found an enthusiastic advocate in Graham. reelection. Bothwell quotes Graham as black children.” Graham’s magazine,

54 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 55

Reviews

Christianity Today, failed to mention King etrated the Huaorani territory in Ecuador’s in what amounted to genocide by saying at all, only breaking its silence in 1964 with Amazon area but were driven out in 1948 that he did not engage in it intentionally. the terse announcement that Time had by native tribes who had previously suf- However, his later actions during the named King “Man of the Year.” fered enslavement and massacres at the Vietnam War indicate that had he known Sometimes Graham condemned racism hands of rubber barons. In the meantime, he might have approved of them. In April from the pulpit; at other times he said there the Missionary Aviation Fellowship and of 1969, Nixon received from Graham a was no scriptural objection to segregation. other organizations such as the Jungle letter headed, “The Confidential Mission - Accord ing to Graham, racism was a “local” Aviation and Radio Service (JAARS) were ary Plan for Ending the Vietnam War,” in issue that did not warrant comment. His working their way into the South which he advocated the bombing of the waffling on the issue of race may be American wilderness. JAARS together North Vietnamese dikes. This action, by explained by his need to appear good not with other missions were associated with destroying their agricultural system, would only to his white Christian supporters but the Christian fundamentalist Summer indirectly kill masses of people. After also to their opposite faction—the decent Institute of Linguistics (SIL), a front for Graham’s letter was made public, he, true people who were clamoring for social jus- Wycliffe Bible Translators, which translated to form, shifted the blame to others, say- tice. According to Graham biographer the Bible into native languages. Graham ing that it expressed the opinions of mis- William Martin, whom Bothwell cites, sat on the Wycliffe board. Graham “sometimes seemed less con- SIL/Wycliffe made its cerned with the intrinsic injustice of racial translators available to the discrimination than with the effect on his CIA. Missionaries worked as “Graham is billed as an evangelist, ministry’s image.” CIA operatives, and mission- which by definition is a bearer Lest it be thought that he was merely ary maps were used for of good news. But Graham’s message the hapless victim of his racist Southern cul- locating and targeting tribes. ture, it should be remembered that there Accord ing to Both well, the is at bottom bad news. It is a were other clergy who risked life and limb missionaries would soften message of fear—fear of the devil, to promote civil rights for blacks. As early as the native population for hell, communists, left-wingers, 1947, the Reverend Charles Jones con- future military and industrial fronted white supremacists intent on vio- exploitation by flying over vil- pornographers.” lence when he held integrated labor meet- lages slated for “salvation” ings at his church in Chapel Hill, North and dropping candy, trinkets, Carolina (Graham’s home state). and pictures of the whites who would sionaries (how extraordinary!) and he was soon appear. This strategy was quickly simply their messenger. However, Graham et Graham’s warmongering and bigotry taken up by mercenaries who on their first took the precaution of later sending a Yare not the worst of his sins. Bothwell fly-over dropped supplies of sugar on the copy of the letter to Henry Kissinger, then suggests that Graham was complicit in villages to gather the population and then assistant to the president for national genocide, if only indirectly. Through the on their second dropped dynamite on the security affairs, and commended it to his combined efforts of Graham, missionaries, unsuspecting natives. Subsequently, when attention. the Central Intelligence Agency, and the the natives took to defending their land, Rockefellers, over one hundred thousand thereby being reclassified by the political hat more, on Bothwell’s account, indigenous people in South America were authorities as communist insurgents, the Wmight be said about Graham’s pro- murdered because they stood in the way U.S. government provided napalm that fessed “moral code” beyond its permit- of and resisted miners and oil rigs— conveniently eradicated any evidence of ting bigotry and both complicity in and Manifest Destiny marching south. This is a genocide. advocacy of mass murder—enough to severe charge, but Bothwell lets the facts Not coincidentally, money from the damn anyone? One thing is that it permits speak for themselves. appreciative industrial recipients of the mendacity and making ad hoc excuses Bothwell reports that John D. Rocke- missionaries’ assistance swelled the coffers when one is caught out in a falsehood or feller Jr. funneled $50,000 to Graham’s of SIL, Wycliffe, and the Graham crusades. lie. As one example, in that aforemen- sixteen-week Madison Square Garden cru- Time reported that Graham’s missionary tioned telegram urging Truman to go to sade of 1957. The author speculates that activities in South America had been war against North Korea, Graham asserted a motive behind Rockefeller’s largesse may underwritten in part by an organization that there were more Christians per capita have been access to South American oil funded by the CIA. in South Korea than anywhere else in the fields. Standard Oil and Shell Oil had pen- One might excuse Graham’s complicity world. According to Bothwell, this claim

secularhumanism.org AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 FREE INQUIRY 55 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 56

was palpably false. What does this say able to fault Nixon only for his profanity, peddling salvation. Bothwell calculates about a man who has made a business of notes Bothwell, “while giving his friend a Graham’s personal compensation package proclaiming the “truth” of Scripture? We pass on all of his very real crimes: conspir- from the Billy Graham Evangelistic are entitled to ask whether he actually acy to burglarize, bribe, extort, subvert jus- Association for 2005 as exceeding half a believes any of it. tice and the rest.” He excused his intimate million dollars, based on tax returns filed Graham’s morality also condones friend’s malfeasance by attributing it to with the Internal Revenue Service. ambivalence about the law. For instance, “sleeping pills and demons.” when Graham learned that four thousand Graham’s moral beliefs are derived raham’s life is further evidence, as if “full-time Christian workers” who collab- from the Bible—more accurately, from a Gany were needed, that religion and orated with him in his organization were narrow and now discredited (at least by morality are quite distinct. A colleague eligible for the draft in 1969, he made an reputable biblical scholars) fundamentalist once re marked to me that the pious often urgent call to the White House requesting interpretation of it. The Apostle Paul think that being religious excuses them that that they be granted the same unambiguously states in Romans that gov- from the necessity of being moral. exemption as the ordained clergy. Earlier ernment is established by God, and so em- Nathaniel Haw thorne’s story “Young on, when he himself was eligible for the powered as “the servant of God to exe- Goodman Brown” comes to mind. The draft during the Second World War, he cute wrath on the wrongdoer” (Rom. protagonist in that story finds himself in applied to become a military chaplain. This 13:4). Graham takes these words literally the forest at night, either awake or dream- and out of context; he ing. There he witnesses a witches’ believes them to be inerrant Sabbath being celebrated by the very folk and inspired by God, and so he took to be paragons of piety in his vil- “For one who has claimed to follow the not to be trumped by a prin- lage—among them his catechism teacher teachings and example of a homeless cipled right of civil disobedi- and even the pastor himself. Like the itinerant teacher who had no place to ence as defended by the “good” people in Hawthorne’s story, likes of Henry David Graham appears before us proudly wear- lay his head, Graham has made a Thoreau and exercised by ing the mantle of respectability, but killing from peddling salvation.” Martin Luther King Jr. Bothwell reveals him to be an emperor Bothwell quotes these without clothes. Brown’s nocturnal experi- telling words of Graham ence in the forest forever jaundiced his required his entering a chaplain’s training echoing his interpretation of Paul: “I do view of his neighbors. Similarly, after read- program at Harvard Divinity School (an believe we have the responsibility to obey ing Bothwell’s book, no one should be education that would have done him a the law. No matter what that law may able to look upon Graham or others who world of good). Instead, he informed the be—it may be an unjust law—I believe we set themselves up as religious or spiritual authorities that he was not well enough to have a Chris tian responsibility to obey it. leaders without suspicion. travel. He was discharged, and he Otherwise you have anarchy.” Graham is now at death’s door, and I returned to Florida to recuperate at the Graham is billed as an evangelist, shudder at the fulsome eulogies and expense of a sympathetic listener to his which by definition is a bearer of good encomiums that will be heaped on him radio programs. news. But Graham’s message is at bottom upon his demise. Fortunately, Bothwell’s It seems that even torture (in serving a bad news. It is a message of fear—fear of book can provide a salutary antidote to righteous cause, of course) may be forgiven the devil, hell, communists, left-wingers, them. It is the only fitting memorial for and condoned on Graham’s moral princi- pornographers. Graham, more accurately, Graham and stands as a stark warning to ples. Bothwell reports that Graham is a “dysevangel,” to borrow a term from posterity to be on guard against similar employed Nelson Bardesio, formerly a tor- Nietzsche. Graham himself is a very fearful charlatans, mountebanks, and dema- turer in Uruguay’s Death Squad, for his man who reportedly sleeps with a loaded gogues, especially in the fertile field of reli- Mexican crusade of 1977. Nevertheless, gun at the side of his bed. gion. Bothwell’s book should be required Graham’s delicate moral sense is offended However, to give the devil his due, reading for all Americans. by certain things—not by war, racial injus- Graham must be given credit for his tice, or genocide, of course, but by Playboy astuteness as a wheeling-and-dealing centerfolds. (I once heard a snippet from power-broker and businessman. For one one of his crusade sermons in which he ful- who has claimed to follow the minated against the rising tide of pornogra- teachings and example of a Richard A.S. Hall is associate professor in the Department of phy. To stem it he recommended legally homeless itinerant teacher who Government and History at Fayetteville State University in sanctioned censorship, to which his audi- had no place to lay his head, North Carolina. ence applauded approvingly.) Graham was Graham has made a killing from

56 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 57

Reviews

The Prosecutor’s Case Against Christanity Robert M. Price

incent Bugliosi has been a personal hero of mine since I saw the CBS tele- V vision movie Helter Skelter in 1976. He successfully prosecuted the self-styled Antichrist Charles Manson in the face of Divinity of Doubt: The God Question, by Vincent Bugliosi police incompetence and cultist threats to (New York: Vanguard Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1-59315- his life. You may remember the scene in 629-9) 352 pp. Cloth, $26.99. which Bugliosi (portrayed by George DiCenzo) interviewed an ex-member of the Manson Family who provided the key piece of information regarding Manson’s motive for the Tate and La Bianca murders. It seems that Manson deemed himself a com- bination of Jesus and Satan destined to does seem to be the sense in which the worth considering even if uncertain. foment an apocalyptic race war and to rule term agnostic is popularly used. No one But Bugliosi’s main gripe against the what would be left of the world. In this he has the copyright on it. Maybe it would new atheists (excluding Daniel C. Dennett) would be fulfilling biblical prophecy as clarify things if all agreed to adopt is that they harp too much on religion and interpreted, he imagined, by the Beatles’ Bugliosi’s version and leave Huxley’s under not enough on God. It is easy to focus on White Album. Manson’s religion was utterly the heading of Skepticism (keeping the the silliness and the shameful record of insane, and in Divinity of Doubt Vincent capital S). religions, but neo-orthodox theologian Bugliosi explains how conventional, ortho- More serious trouble arises when Bugli - Karl Barth agreed with such criticism: he dox Christianity is just as crazy. osi characterizes the atheism of writers such in sisted that Christianity, like other reli- Our author’s title is a double entendre: as new atheism heroes Christopher gions, stood under judgment of the Word doubt is divine, and the God of religion is Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins of God, Jesus Christ, and that it very often highly doubtful. Bugliosi is out of patience as no less a matter of irrational faith than failed the test. This didn’t, however, mean with both sides in the current wars over the theism these gentlemen attack. As I that there is no God. This is how Barth was theism. He contends for a third option understand it, these writers are technically able to write an introduction to Ludwig between, or beyond, theism and atheism, agnostic. They do not have a faith commit- Feuer bach’s The Essence of Christianity in namely agnosticism. He credits the term to ment to there not being a God, but neither which Feuerbach demonstrates the self- Thomas Henry Huxley but redefines it in a do they hang suspended in the gulf of centered wishful thinking underlying the manner Huxley rejected. Huxley said that, uncertainty as agnostics purportedly do. It is Christian religion. Barth agreed with him. in denominating himself an agnostic, he just that they do not see meant that he did not know whether God sufficient reason to take exists and didn’t see how one could have the God idea seriously. It such knowledge. By the same token, remains conceivable that Huxley admitted that he did not claim to God is in his heaven—and “Bugliosi is out of patience with both sides know that God’s existence was unknow- that Mars is somewhere able. Perhaps new evidence or arguments inhabited by four-armed in the current wars over theism. He con- or some new approach might one day set- Tharks—but, really, is there tends for a third option between, or beyond, tle the question. (Huxley hardly needed to any reason to think so? theism and atheism, namely agnosticism.” coin a new term for this, as it matches Theism seems to Dawkins exactly the ancient philosophy of skepti- and company not to be cism.) But Bugliosi says he is convinced what William James called one can never settle the question. That a “live option”—one well

secularhumanism.org AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 FREE INQUIRY 57 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 58

Away with all that so as to clear the field when your belief crashes like a bumper car nize a good argument and a bad one for the real revelation of God in Jesus in an amusement park against the very wherever each occurs. He doesn’t want to Christ! Bugliosi doesn’t go that far, but he, same standards of ethics and reason you claim that any argument proves (or dis- too, warns that to disprove religion is not say you cherish. You finally give up and proves) more than it does. And that is why to disprove God, which he thinks one can- say, “Well, really God’s ways are unknow- he prefers agnosticism: if God were prov- not do in any case. able to mortals, so I can’t answer your able, someone would have proven him Strangely, Bugliosi comes pretty close objection.” But that isn’t what you said a long ago. But you never know! to repeating the same error when he minute ago when you were telling me You would know, however, if God devotes most of the book, and most of his exactly what God thinks and wants me to were to take up Bugliosi on his challenge. vitriol, to the flaws of one particular reli- do and believe. If you admit God is so If God wants to convince us he exists, why gion: Christianity. (He attached a quick inscrutable, you belong on my team—the doesn’t he appear in the skies one night, chapter on the other major religions, but it agnostics! announcing himself and informing the comes across as an afterthought.) We may Bugliosi has no trouble demonstrating human race it has no more excuse to be sure beyond reasonable doubt that the the hopeless silliness of foundational doc- doubt him. But would that settle the ques- God of Christianity (and of Judaism for trines like the atoning death of Jesus, the tion? I am by no means sure. that matter, when the Old Testament Trinity of the Godhead, and divine provi- Let us see if we can go Bugliosi one dence. He decimates the better. Philosopher D.Z. Smith once raised practice of prayer as the question of what it would take to con- objectively as if he were vince a Viking warrior, waking up after a visiting from another battle in which he had lost consciousness, “Bugliosi’s main gripe against the planet whose inhabitants that he had really arrived in Valhalla. How had never heard of it and fancy, how transcendent would the feasting new atheists (excluding Daniel C. Dennett) cannot make sense of it. hall have to be to qualify? Or if you were a is that they harp too much on religion Indeed, he shows how member of The 700 Club and one day Pat and not enough on God.” Christian confidence vir- Robertson came on the air covering the tually boils down to the Second Coming, with a radiant Jesus boneheaded assumption descending upon the Mount of Olives— that “our religion is true would you automatically believe it? Even as because we were born a faithful believer in Arm ageddon and the into it.” Rapture, wouldn’t you find yourself won- comes up for discussion) does not exist— The only god Bugliosi is willing to ad dering, “Wait a minute! Is this a trick? A even cannot exist—because he is a walk- mit even might exist is the hands-off deity movie? Special effects?” How “special” ing, talking contradiction in terms: a god of deism. This rationalistic creed affirms a would it have to be to satisfy you? And then of infinite love, mercy, and justice who god who created the world to run like a you would begin to wonder what you had commands the deaths of hundreds of machine according to mechanistic natural expected it to be like. thousands of innocents (millions, in Noah’s laws and gave human beings the brains to I love an old Penthouse cartoon depict- flood), stands idly by when millions of surmise moral truth, as well as God’s exis- ing two guys wrapped in dingy sheets and Jews are turned to ashes and lampshades, tence, without benefit of miracles or reve- sitting on a splitting Naugahyde couch and pledges to send everyone to hell who lation. He gave them freedom and respon- under a naked lightbulb hanging from the does not “accept Jesus as savior.” sibility, so it is useless to try to pester him ceiling. On the wall tilts a cracked plaque Bugliosi’s style is caustically funny, and with prayers. emblazoned with the word Heaven. As he he pulls no punches, describing this and Such a transcendent god, Bugliosi rea- fingers his wire halo, one man says to the that major Christian tenet as “idiotic,” sons, might actually exist. If he did, it other, “Somehow I always thought it would “lunatic,” and “mad.” And he backs it up. would explain where the first “singularity” be classier than this!” The book has a bracing, frank common- came from before the Big Bang and how sense tone. Throughout the book evolution eventually bridged resounds the note: Christian believer, you the gap between bacteria Robert M. Price is professor of theology and scriptural studies have no right to define God in your own and Bach. But Bugliosi dis- at Colemon Theological Seminary and a research fellow at the moral and logical terms as long as it carries misses intelligent-design cre- Center for Inquiry. His latest book is Secret Scrolls: Revelations your theology forward, only to retreat into ationism as ill-conceived. He from the Lost Gospel Novels (Wipf and Stock, 2010). a fog of contented intellectual laziness tries his level best to recog-

58 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 59

Reviews

The Story of the Smallpox Vaccines and Its

Lessons for Today Stuart Whatley

uring the first years of the twenti- eth century, smallpox, that most Dfeared of scourges, became known as the “fool killer.” One simply had no excuse for catching it anymore. Any physi- Pox: An American History, by Michael Willrich (New York: cian worth his salt knew the clinical pro- Penguin Press, 2011, ISBN 9781594202865) 400 pp. Cloth, gression of the disease and the efficacy of $27.95. vaccination in warding against it. But if the history of vaccination teaches us anything, it’s that some people, fools or otherwise, require more than an expert’s say-so. At that time, people actually had good reasons to avoid public health officials’ vac- cination lancets. The smallpox vaccine was Willrich richly describes the struggles suit was the first representative of the U.S. notorious for causing “sore arm,” which these experts and a nascent public health government they ever encountered.” could debilitate a worker for a full week. In force faced with stymieing what should Something Wertenbaker and his col- an era with only inchoate social safety nets have been a highly preventable disease. leagues encountered in return were indig- and job security, such a loss in pay didn’t When Dr. Charles P. Wertenbaker of the nant and sometimes cunning saboteurs. always seem worth it. Moreover, many elite corps of Marine-Hospital Service’s Beyond the millions of minority and poor average Americans doubted the science traveling surgeons was dispatched to working-class individuals who were simply behind vaccination, with germ theory only Middleboro, Kentucky, he arrived to find a skeptical or inconvenienced by vaccination having recently emerged in the preceding smallpox epidemic that had been allowed were those in the educated middle class decades. And there was grounds for suspi- to run amok due to petty squabbling who further encouraged those groups to cion about the safety of vaccines them- between municipal and county officials resist it: the activist antivaccination move- selves, following a few highly publicized over who would fund the effort to fight it. ment. Seizing on themes of the day, such as reports of doses being tainted with tetanus Add in a population of marauding day antimonopoly sentiment, child protection, or syphilis by unregulated and unscrupu- laborers inherently skeptical of vaccina- and originalist notions of individual liberty in lous manufacturers. tion, and one witnesses how a cut-and-dry the new context of urban-industrial society, In his exhaustively researched Pox: An public health case can turn soggy. Officials the antivaccinationists launched a move- American History, Brandeis University histo- often carried out compulsory vaccination ment that continues today. In fact, some of rian Michael Willrich tells of the last wave of campaigns with the local police force in their talking points are still in use. An smallpox epidemics to sweep through the tow. Opposition was met with fines and apparent favorite asserts: “Compulsory United States, between 1898 and 1903, arrests; on some rare occasions, vaccina- vaccination ranks with human slavery and and of medical experts’ struggles to defuse tions were even administered at gunpoint. religious persecution as one of the most them. This was the start of the Progressive Willrich argues convincingly that the flagrant outrages upon the rights of the era, when critical reforms in workers’ rights federal government’s push for universal vac- human race.” and the rights of women and children were cination during the Progressive era was a The antivaccinationists’ medical argu- changing the face of society. Willrich also defining, vanguard moment for much of ments that smallpox could be avoided with describes the time as including “the advent what now comprises the modern, central- simple sanitation carried no water, and they of the modern expert, when university- ized American bureaucracy. Of Werten baker were met with vituperation from public trained professionals in medicine, the sci- he writes that, “for a growing number of health officials, the likes of which make ences, and law acquired a new authority in people across America and many other even today’s most heated debates appear American life.” parts of the world, a medical man in a navy civil. According to one New York doctor,

secularhumanism.org AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 FREE INQUIRY 59 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 60

“To call [the antivaccinationist] an ass is to larger society itself. In exploring the pre- fewer people know what it’s like to fear disparage donkeys in general.” The chair- carious dichotomy between public health polio; and as for smallpox, the last two man of the Boston Board of Health, Dr. and the rights of the individual during the known samples may soon finally be Samuel H. Durgin, went so far as to offer Progressive era, Pox maintains his previ- destroyed. But just because a danger has any “leading members of the antivaccina- ously set standard. passed from memory does not mean it tionists” the “opportunity to show the However, although one mustn’t blame isn’t dangerous. This is one reason the people their sincerity in what they pro- an author for not achieving that which he public so consistently misjudges risks and fess” by willingly exposing themselves to did not attempt, I wish that Willrich had why an understanding of heuristics (men- smallpox, sans vaccination. (One unortho- done a tad more to situate his subject in the tal tricks whereby the mind aligns its dox, crankish physician, Dr. Immanuel larger context of antivaccination move- thoughts with what one wants to believe) is Pfeiffer, actually took Durgin up on the ments in Western society, especially given so vital to public health policy. A public offer, only to disappear and later be found the current antivaccinationist incarnation whose reasoning is blighted by countless convalescing from a full-blown case of that insinuates a link between vaccines and cognitive biases, sensationalist media, and smallpox. He was discovered in the care of autism spectrum disorders. The legitimacy a web culture that facilitates social informa- a fully vaccinated household.) of some aversions to vaccination in the tion amplification and group polarization smallpox era are simply lack- like never before cannot always be trusted ing in the rhetoric today to make health decisions on its own. (though there are of course Another excellent new book on the “... If the history of vaccination striking analogues as well, subject gives the real-life account of what teaches us anything, it’s that some people, such as the consistent falsity happens when individuals take public fools or otherwise, require more than of the public’s intuitive toxi- health concerns into their own hands. In cology). Again and again, The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, an expert’s say-so.” independent authorities from Science, and Fear, journalist Seth Mnookin the Vaccine Court to the tells the tragic story of unvaccinated Center for Disease Control to Gabrielle (Brie) Romaguera, who at four Despite the more obvious cases of chi- countless peer-reviewed medical journals weeks old caught pertussis (whooping canery, Willrich warns against painting this have put to rest the canard that Andrew cough). After undergoing risky surgeries crowd merely as outré cranks of an ante- Wakefield’s “elaborate fraud” brought and being sustained by numerous diluvian outlook. Though they were wrong into the mainstream in recent years past. machines, Brie eventually died. As Mnoo - on the facts, their efforts fortuitously led to But it still persists. The major measles out- kin writes, her infection in 2003 coincided what he argues were the first successes in break that struck France between January perfectly with the latest resurgence of vac- civil liberties law, which were taken up in and March of this year was, according to cination fears. earnest a decade later during the World the United Nations’ health agency, a direct Pox is a history of compulsory vaccina- War I government crackdowns on dissent result of vaccine abstinence. tion efforts in Progressive America. But it is and later still during the civil rights move- Nevertheless, though the author does also an encapsulated history of modern ment. When the antivaccinationists man- not explicitly extrapolate his findings to the industrial-urban society itself. Admittedly, aged to take their case all the way to the current imbroglio, Pox has embedded one can allegorize that latter narrative in Supreme Court, in Jacobson v. Massachu - insights into the abiding human embrace of countless ways, but not least among ready setts, they lost their argument that com- bunk, especially as it relates to public options would be to say that it is a tragedy pulsory vaccination was unconstitutional. health. Willrich writes that public health of paradox: as our freedom has allowed But the ruling did uphold (to a degree) officials came to “[realize] that a commu- for collective progress, that progress has their arguments for due process (the state nity’s understanding of disease depended created an exponentially more complex, could not vaccinate at gunpoint); equal on something more personal than a public wrangling society, wherein we are obliged protection (the state could not single out health circular or a family doctor’s advice. to submit to new forms of power, author- one immigrant group to vaccinate); and Medical beliefs rested upon the shared ity, and expertise. This reliance on expert- harm avoidance (someone with docu- experience and memory. On this score, ise is often painted in a bad light—and mented, legitimate health issues who smallpox posed a special problem. Outside sometimes for good reason, as the finan- could suffer adverse effects to vaccination the urban centers and port cities . . . most cial crisis of 2008 showed—but there are must be exempted). communities had not seen smallpox in a plenty of countervailing lessons to warn All told, Willrich’s history is dense and generation.” against throwing the modern “expert” edifying. His previous award-winning The same can be said of countless dis- out with the bathwater. book, City of Courts: Socializing Justice in eases today. For most, the utter malicious- Pro gres sive Chicago, cogently explored ness of diphtheria is a moot if not entirely the Dostoyevskian question of whether unknown factor in consider- Stuart Whatley is a writer and journalist in Washington, D.C. crime is rooted in the individual or in the ing health risks; fewer and

60 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 61

Reviews

Voltaire’s Study of Religion Nathan Curland

od and Human Beings is a little- known work by Voltaire (1694–1778). GIt was published late in his life, when he was seventy-five years old, and just recently translated from the French by God and Human Beings, by Voltaire; first English translation Michael Shreve. In it, one of the best-known by Michael Shreve, Introduction by S.T. Joshi (Amherst, N.Y.: symbols of the French Enlighten ment cre- Prometheus Books, 2010, ISBN 978-1-61614-178-3) 183 pp. ates what ostensibly appears to be one of Paper, $18. the earliest known works of comparative religion. Voltaire’s disdain for organized reli- gions, especially those with Judeo-Christian origins, and his well-known acerbic wit and skepticism turn the work into a 147-page essay highlighting the author’s long-held opinions and biases as well as breadth of from criticizing the government and the ing of out of harm’s way and began pub- knowledge. The book was published under Catholic Church through his essays, verse, lishing more and more works under pen an English pseudonym, Dr. Obern, and was and plays. The early 1700s were not a time names (at least 178 have been attributed supposedly translated into the French by to poke, even mildly, at the French estab- to him), a common practice in eighteenth- “Jacques Aimon.” Upon publication, it was lishment. The monarchy, church, and century Europe. In addition to meta- attacked as the work of the devil promoting nobility controlled the country with an iron physics, Voltaire studied the sciences, his- atheism and was burned by order of the hand. Voltaire’s writings resulted in tory, and the Bible, and his works started Parlement de Paris the following year. numerous imprisonments (in the Bastille) Though highly critical of Christianity, God and exiles. This in turn reinforced his out- and Human Beings does not, in fact, pro- rage against the unjust use of power by mote atheism but rather is better seen as a the authorities and set the stage for his defense of Voltaire’s deism. later attempts to improve the French judi- To fully understand God and Human cial system. In 1725, Voltaire agreed to be Beings, one must first understand Voltaire exiled to Great Britain to avoid a long and his times. Born in Paris as François incarceration in the Bastille. There he Marie Arouet, he was the youngest of five became intrigued by Britain’s constitu- children of François Arouet, a minor treas- tional monarchy, as well as the country’s ury official, and Marie Marguerite relative support of the freedoms of speech d’Aumart, daughter of a nobleman from and religion, and made contact with many Poitou. His parents sent him to the Jesuit English deist freethinkers. After three College Louis-le-Grand with the intent years, he returned to Paris and wrote a that he would follow in his father’s foot- series of essays on English literature, reli- steps. But by the time Voltaire had left gion, and government, calling English school, he had decided that he wanted to views more “developed” and more toler- be a writer. This set the stage for cycles of ant than those of the French. This resulted paternal actions and filial rebelliousness in a burning of his work, and he was again that extended to a lifelong disdain for forced to flee. French authority. He adopted the name Voltaire took up residence in the “Voltaire” in 1718, a step that marked his Chateau de Cirey, located on the border of formal split from his family. Champagne and Lorraine, and began a Voltaire’s early life revolved around long-term relationship with the Marquise Paris, and his wit made him popular du Chatelet (better known as Emilie du among the aristocratic families with Chatelet). Due to his past brushes with whom he mixed. But he could not refrain authority, he developed the habit of keep-

secularhumanism.org AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 FREE INQUIRY 61 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 62

to openly criticize intolerance and estab- when weak.” The next chapters maintain adopted parts or all of the religions of the lished religions. that the antidote to this behavior is “God, peoples they conquered. He holds special After the death of the Marquise in the rewarder and revenger.” As “proof,” approval for those that were tolerant of childbirth in 1749, he moved to Potsdam Voltaire maintains that all civilized societies other religions as long as they did not to join Frederick the Great, one of his have needed a God for their citizens to live undermine the authority of the state, admirers. But Voltaire’s penchant for using morally with each other. That is sufficient for which he deemed a necessity for a civiliza- his pen to poke satirically at his rivals even- him to believe that there must be a deity. tion to succeed. As such, he reserves high tually led to a disruption of this relation- How ever, he notes that the leaders and praise for the Roman Empire, the Chinese ship when it was directed at friends of the chiefs of men have found it useful to take dynasties, and, in his time, the English king. He then turned to Geneva and this belief in a God as a means to manipu- constitutional monarchy. bought a nearby estate. However, the late and control the populations. As a result, The bulk of Voltaire’s work, however, is authorities banned theatrical performances we have the major religions of the world devoted to demonstrating the falsity and of his plays, and he was forced to move with their class systems and myths. hypocrisy of the Jewish and Christian reli- across the French border to Ferney, where Because of Voltaire’s belief that there gions. He does so by attacking the histori- he spent the last twenty years of his life. must be a deity for humanity to behave cal basis of the Hebrew and Christian morally, he never takes the bibles; by noting various historical sources final step toward atheism, that should have mentioned, for example, instead declaring that a the exodus or Moses or Jesus but did not; man who says there is no by citing works from various authors who “The bulk of Voltaire’s work ... God is one that extols men have disproved the historical accuracy of to “slander, betray, deceive, these texts; and, more invectively, by is devoted to demonstrating the falsity steal, murder, poison, it’s all bringing under his satirical and acidic gaze and hypocrisy of the Jewish the same as long as you are the morality of the biblical god and his and Christian religions.” the strongest and most people. In this context, the Jews are seen clever.” He reserves the des- as wandering thieves, murderers, liars, and ignation “freethinkers” for plagiarists who were idolaters until the fellow deists such as John time of the Babylonian exile. Their fables Locke, Isaac Newton, and and myths can all be traced to other, older oltaire was an incredibly prolific writer Henry St. John Boling broke, religions, and their murderous morality to Vand playwright. He is credited with writ- listing them in abundance in Chapter 23. those outside of the “tribe” is a sign of a ing over two thousand books and pam- Contem poraries (and perhaps rivals) such as “barbarous people.” These chapters are phlets, over fifty plays, and over twenty Baron D’Holbach and Denis Diderot, who so filled with disdain for the Jewish people thousand letters on a wide range of topics were true atheists, are never mentioned. that they are hard to read and give under- encompassing philosophy, science, politics, The work is a fascinating study in how pinning to the charges that Voltaire was and history. His admirers regard him as one much was known during the eighteenth an anti-Semite. His apologists have said of the great figures of the Enlightenment, century about ancient religions. Voltaire that this was common in the European an advocate of church-state separation credits India with having the oldest reli- Enlightenment era and that furthermore, and champion for the oppressed (most gion via texts that were written in Sanskrit Voltaire was setting the stage for his real notably in the last years of his life.) His at least three thousand years before the target, the Catholic Church. However, he detractors accuse him of plagiarism, Common Era. The invention of Lucifer does spend fifteen chapters on this rant racism, anti-Semitism, and an anti-demo- shows up in their writings and myths and (versus only twelve on Jesus and cratic stance, the latter arising from his is clearly the basis for the Christian ver- Christianity), and one could certainly well-known distrust of “the masses” and sion. The Chinese religion (presumably argue that his attitude led to the later his support for the English concept of a Con fucianism) is also stated to have atrocities against the Jews. constitutional monarchy. existed at least before the time of the bib- It is interesting to note that one of the All these multifaceted aspects of Vol - lical flood. In the Middle East, the tenets Voltaire attributes to the Jews, which taire are visible in God and Human Beings. Chaldeans had made astronomical obser- modern humanists take for granted, is a The work is organized into forty-four short vations for at least two thousand years lack of belief in an immortal soul. However, chapters, none more than a few pages long. before the time of Alexander. The this is portrayed as a negative: “It is sure We are immediately informed of Voltaire’s Zoroastrians are credited with creating a that almost all nations surrounding the Jews underlying beliefs. Chapter 1 portrays hell for the wicked. Voltaire shows how ... accepted the immortality of the soul and humanity as “stupid, ungrateful, jealous, the myths of these ancient religions can be only the Jews had not even examined the greedy for other people’s goods, abusive of found in Judaism and Christianity. He question.” This is portrayed as self-cen- their superiority when strong, and deceitful notes that successful conquerors either teredness and lack of intellect on the part of

62 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 63

the “Chosen People.” Voltaire himself appeared to believe in some sort of soul as part and parcel of his deism and even commented positively on the Eastern concept of reincarna- tion, stating: “Above all, the doctrine of metempsychosis is neither absurd nor useless.” When it comes to Jesus, Voltaire does not dwell on whether Jesus existed or not. For him, the important point is that Jesus was a Jew who preached, as any preacher would, morality. To Voltaire, Jesus was not the Messiah and did not claim to be. Further more, the Gospels were written at least one hundred years after the supposed death of Jesus by non-eyewitnesses that contradict each other, and therefore these works cannot be considered anything more than a collection of fables. Christianity, as such, arose three hundred years after this time. Voltaire follows its theologi- cal progress over the next six hundred years as a mixture of fear about the end of the world, the development of the concept of resurrection, and the incorporation of the Platonic concept of trinity that was adopted by the Alexan - drians. He goes on to show how Christianity developed a rigid orthodoxy and an intolerance for any view that does not strictly conform to its dogma, which has been the scourge of Western civilization ever since. He uses Chapter 42 to enumerate and estimate, in typical Voltaire style, how many humans were killed in the name of this religious purity. Only counting Christians killing Christians, he comes up with a figure of 9.5 million, noting that this estimate is very conservative. In the end, Voltaire claims he does not want to abolish Christianity: “nevertheless, we don’t want to cut it down, we want to graft it.” He proposes to keep “in the morality of Jesus everything that conforms to universal reason” and discard “impertinence and absurdity,” which “cannot be religion.” He believes, “The adoration of a God who pun- ishes and rewards unites all men; the detestable and con- temptible argumentative theology divides them,” and con- cludes, “Yes, we want a religion, but a simple one, wise, august, less unworthy of God and made more for us; in a word, we want to serve ‘God and human beings.’” Voltaire was a complex man, and his beliefs were com- plex. Considering his history of exile and persecution, his aptitude as a playwright and showman, his egotism and belief in his own superiority among men, his desire to be the shining example of the Enlightenment, and his con- tempt for those who did not agree with him, it is hard to know how many of the opinions in the book are genuine and which are for show. But that, in many ways, was his attraction.

Nathan Curland is vice president of the Humanists of Minnesota and editor of the group’s newsletter.

secularhumanism.org AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 FREE INQUIRY 63 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 64

Letters continued from p. 11

My introduction to FREE INQUIRY came in the tive” should be taken for what it is: an Exactly—so why continue the outdated form of a gift subscription from a friend attempt to bring people together to do exercise of positing a link between people’s some time ago. As a seventy-three-year- something, anything, that fosters coopera- life stances and their helping or giving old grandmother who is a young human- tion and collaboration in our FOX-ed up cul- behaviors? People generally don’t do good ist with minimal formal education, I had ture. Worth a try, don’t you think? works because of what they believe about some concerns that the magazine would Chris Highland God; they are far more frequently moti- be a bit over my head. However, I have San Rafael, California vated by what Paul Kurtz has called the plunged ahead into what has become a “common moral decencies” that all hu- great educational experience. mans share. The White House “interfaith “Science and Religion: Confrontation Tom Flynn makes cogent objections to service” initiative is harmful because it fails or Accommodation?” is a must read. Being White House “Interfaith” service programs, to recognize this. Instead, by affirming the sometimes confrontational myself, as well but they do not include a balanced and malicious fiction that faith bears a relation- as feeling strongly about the truth, I found long-term view of their essence and impor- ship to service more powerful than other PZ Myers’s article delightfully humorous as tance in present-day reality. For the very first elements of character, it perpetuates the well as informative. I will continue to learn time in our entire history and on the highest bigoted canard that believers are morally from FREE INQUIRY. level, nonbelievers are named and fully rec- superior to nonbelievers. Carolyn P. Lawing ognized as of equal status and im portance In reply to John Tomasin, the Obama Walhalla, South Carolina with all historic faiths, in volving hundreds of administration’s Office of Faith-based and millions in programs that deal with nonreli- Neighborhood Partnerships seems only cos- gious services only. metically renamed when we recall that Secular Blues on Government Flynn objects to the titles of Obama’s President George W. Bush had named the “Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partner - same entity the Office of Faith-Based and Interfaith Programs ships” and equates it with the George W. Community Initiatives. Throughout Tom Flynn’s editorial, “The Bush’s “Faith-Based Initiative,” but if that Secular Blues” (FI, June/July 2011), I kept were true, why add “Neighborhood Part - waiting for (though not expecting) a point nership”? What does and mean in this con- Plato and Suicide Cults text if not a separate entity? It’s a start. where he would say something like, “Once Stephen J. Gallagher’s article “Plato’s He condemns the Interfaith and Com - when I was helping my community along- Ancient Error Leads to Modern Tragedy” munity Service Campus Challenge (again side a diverse group of believers and nonbe- (FI, June/July 2011) provides a thought- note the and) and cites the “inaugural lievers. ...” But alas, as I’ve found in Harris, provoking comparison between Plato’s announcement” that specifically states, Hitchens, Dawkins, and others, there is ideas and the behavior of the Heaven’s “Interfaith service involves people from dif- hardened critique and intellectualism with- Gate members. Like Gallagher, I believe ferent religious and nonreligious back- out relationship or pragmatic alternative. As that Plato’s rejection of the body and reality grounds” (emphasis added). Not perfect but a nontheist freethinker (who happens to be is a dangerous ideology, and I do not sup- quite a start. a former minister and, I confess, an “inter- port it. However, I think too much blame Flynn objects to the use of the term faith” chaplain), I directed a county emer- has been placed on the ancient Greek interfaith as coopting the nonbelievers, and gency shelter for two winters. I worked philosophers. transitionally it may seem to do so to some. beside hundreds of people of many faiths Gallagher compares the mass suicide of It actually affords a truly unique, affirmative, and those, like me, without supernatural the Heaven’s Gate members to Socrates and again historic opportunity for the non- credos. What connected us was a conflu- committing “suicide by jury.” The relevance religious, and many more millions of spiri- ence of beliefs that met at basic (and yes, of this connection is negated by the context tual but nonreligious (who have a faith and reasonable) compassion. Rather than merely of the situation. Neither Socrates nor Plato hope for a hereafter but realize it cannot be labelled as interfaith, it was inter-let’s-do- advocated suicide as a means to free the known or proved during any lifetime), to something-about-people’s-suffering. In mind from the confinement of the body. direct national and world attention to alter- other words, our belief systems essentially Socrates was seventy years old when he native and universal “faith in reasoned evaporated while we were engaged in what died, a ripe old age for that time period. He morality” and get out of the stagnant one evangelical pastor called “the right could have died any day from natural causes “antireligion” business forever. thing to do.” We didn’t have the interest or anyway, and martyrdom served his cause John Tomasin, Esq. the time to get hung up on theological better. Plato lived to eighty and likely died of West New York, New Jersey games, let alone antifaith or antisecular natural causes. In contrast, most of the sui- warfare. cidal Heaven’s Gate members were in their Tom Flynn replies: I heartily agree that semantics matter, forties, and one was only twenty-six years and Flynn’s attention to definitions has merit I applaud Chris Highland’s observation that old. They had so much to live for. Socrates and raises some fine debate points. But “belief systems essentially evaporated” and Plato may have looked forward to maybe President Barack Obama’s “initia- while engaging in “the right thing to do.” death for release, but they lived to promote

64 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 65

their teachings and to interact with others. On Humanism prediction that the world would end on It is vital to recognize that ideas by May 21, 2011. That did not come to pass.— themselves are not lethal. Socrates and Re “’Humanism? What’s That?’” by Law - EDS. Plato may have held views hostile to the rence Rifkin (FI, June/July 2011): if human- Once again an utter fool predicted the end body and to life, but that did not move ism is about “being good and being happy” of the earth, and once again nothing hap- them to lead their followers to mass sui- (sans the supernatural) then it is a bit too prescriptive and pragmatic, and I’m in the pened. The day after the failed rapture, cide or to kill themselves halfway through many children across America went to their lives. Something else was going on wrong pew. “Good without God” sounds as if one should simply ignore the putative church where they were told they had psychologically with the Heaven’s Gate sinned and would spend an eternity in hell creator. members that made them commit this unless they repented. Sadly, few of us have Humanism is trying to live as a loving horrific act. They are not the first people to the guts to stand up to protect those kids god would have intended if, that is, such a hide behind religion because they could from such dangerous ideas. Nor will many Big-Guy-in-the-Sky existed. The “loving not face the reality of life, and they will of us stand up to the institutions that stand god” establishes a common vernacular; not be the last. firmly against science when we make our “trying” says I’m not a “know-it-all atheist” Jennifer S. Brown own predictions. If we know disaster is and have some humility; dismissing the “Big Odessa, Missouri forthcoming because of rigorous testing of Guy” is heuristic but congenial. The state- hypotheses, peer reviews, and publishing of ment is not comprehensive; it is not a secu- theories, what good does it do unless it is lar bull; it is ambiguous and easily chal- I am gratified whenever a bold thinker like vigorously defended? That defense has to lenged, but it implies no evangelizing to Stephen Gallagher dares to question the include confronting those who choose to “believe” as I do. It is, however, a concise wisdom of ancient philosophers who have believe rather than seek answers. gambit that may start a conversation (not a been revered for centuries by Western civ- Keith Taylor “dialogue”). ilization. What a pity that men like Plato Chula Vista, California Jerry Bronk created the concept of the human soul— San Francisco, California and then convinced even the best minds that all souls are encased in bodies that May 21 has come and gone, and the end of are containers of lust and gluttony from the world did not come to pass. Rev. Harold Once again, FREE INQUIRY has reminded me of which they must escape. And what a pity Camping’s prophecy was wrong. Might we the reason I call myself an atheist rather also that to this day, we still pay unre- have expected otherwise? than a secular humanist. On the inside front strained homage to those dour men I have just one question: Why is it that cover of the June/July edition is what is such a sanctimonious ass like Harold Camp - who—like practical jokers—poured vine- essentially an advertisement for secular hu - gar into the punchbowl of life. ing is allowed to disrupt the lives of thou- man ism. The ad says that secular humanism sands with his demonstrably fraudulent David Quintero incorporates a “consequentialist ethical sys- claims? Shouldn’t this be against the lawful Monrovia, California tem in which acts are judged not by their public interest? A business person could not conformance to preselected norms but by make demonstrably fraudulent claims about their consequences for men and women in a product or service. Progressive Taxation the world.” Many people (myself included) If guaranteed rights in this society are to As a retired economist, I fully agree with believe that animals have “rights” and that survive, people must abide by laws that pro- Philip Howard’s arguments in “The Case for the environment, animals, and plants tect the public interest. Harold Camping Progressive Taxation,” (FI, June/July 2011). should be considered to be important by should either be prosecuted for con artistry or themselves, not just by how they affect However, for economists going back to else picked up on a mental health warrant. humans. But I suspect that many secular Paul Samuelson’s first text (1945), the main John L. Indo humanists really do believe that acts should argument in favor of progressive taxes is Houston, Texas be judged based only on the consequences based on the marginal benefits of the tax for humans. That is sad and wrong. rate. For example, what does a millionaire Michael Shaw give up when she spends $100 on, say, a History Lessons Reston, Virginia new hat compared to what a family of four Luis Granados (“Caroline vs. Smallpox,” FI, gives up spending $100 on new clothes? If April/May 2011) may know a thing or two the rich woman is taxed $120 and the poor Harold Camping’s Apocalypse about smallpox, but his knowledge of the family is taxed only $80, the real cost to the “English” Civil War is abysmal. He wrote woman is far less than the family who may One of the features in the April/May FREE that “a Calvinist rebellion led by Oliver have to eat less or live in a colder house. INQUIRY was “Harold Camping and the Crom well broke out against the moderate William B. Bennett Second Stillborn Apocalypse” by Edmund D. Stuart dynasty in the 1640s.” Cromwell was Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Cohen, which discussed the evangelist’s an ordinary member of Parliament but was

secularhumanism.org AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 FREE INQUIRY 65 FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/30/11 3:01 PM Page 66

not among the parliamentary leadership at to become an absolute monarch with Luis Granados replies: the start of the Civil War. He emerged later, French help, after which part of the “deal” There was a rebellion, and Cromwell wound as a very successful army leader. was that he would become a Catholic. His up as its undisputed leader, whether or not The Stuarts moderate? Moderate schemes failed, but he quietly converted to he held that post from day one. shmod er ate! One of the principal causes of Catholicism on his deathbed. He was suc- The overwhelming issue of Charles I’s the war was Charles I’s firm belief in the ceeded by his brother, the openly Catholic day was the Thirty Years War, fought largely absolutist notion of the divine right of kings James II, who eventually provoked the at the behest of competing God experts. and his insistence on trying to run the coun- English to ask William of Orange and his Charles kept England out of that war, enrag- try without a parliament. Things came to a English wife, Mary, to replace James. ing the radical Puritans while saving thou- head when Charles tried unsuccessfully to William landed in England with a few Dutch sands of English lives. This resulted in part arrest five members of Parliament—but they from his Protestant father’s wisdom in secur- troops, and James’s support largely evapo- had been tipped off. Charles II spent a lot of ing him a Catholic bride. Persecution of the rated: he fled though a year later he tried to time in exile in France, where he was influ- Catholic minority was relatively mild during enced by the autocratic notions of King retake the country by landing in largely Charles’s reign, and he helped push Church Louis XIV, described by Winston Churchill as Catholic Ireland. He failed, as did later of England rituals toward a “High Church” “the curse and pest of Europe.” Charles “Jacobite” rebellions in 1715 and 1745. hybrid of Catholicism and Protestantism. He was eventually offered the throne, with lim- Nigel Sinnott was no democrat, but I’ll stand by my char- ited powers, but he was regularly scheming Sunshine West, Victoria, Australia acterization of “moderate.”

A fearless journal of freethought has been revitalized. Te American Rationalist, published since 1956, has a new editor and fresh new voices, with a dynamic, revamped approach to the piercing insight and freethinking, secular focus we’ve proudly made our signature. Editor S. T. Joshi (author of Te Unbelievers, . editor of Icons of Unbelief, Atheism: A Reader, and many other books) offers more stimulating, in-depth com- mentary on politics, social issues, and entertainment; an expanded section of book and film reviews; and reprints of classic works celebrating the history of our movement, all presented with a healthy dose of skeptical wit. Te American Rationalist is on the cutting edge like never before. But it’s still the biggest little bargain in freethought publishing. Susbcribe today and discover the new American Rationalist.

Name ______Address ______City/State/Zip ______Phone / E-mail address ( ) ______/______

! Check or money order enclosed ! Bill me Bill my credit card ! AmEx ! Discover ! MasterCard ! Visa

Number ______Exp. Date _____ Signature ______

Send address changes to:

Te American Rationalist P.O. Box 741 Amherst, NY 14226-0741 ISSN-0003-0708 is published bi-monthly by the Center for Inquiry, Inc.

Subscriptions and renewals: Center for Inquiry/AR P.O. Box 741, Amherst, NY 14226-0741 Phone: 1-800-335-1095

66 FREE INQUIRY AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Aug Sept cut_Layout 1 6/24/11 11:48 AM Page 67

We are committed to the application of reason and science We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence. to the understanding of the universe and to the solving We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be of human problems. allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, access to comprehensive and informed health care, and to look outside nature for salvation. and to die with dignity.

We believe that scientific discovery and technology We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, can contribute to the betterment of human life. integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that standards that we discover together. Moral principles are democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights tested by their consequences. from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities. We are deeply concerned with the moral education We are committed to the principle of the of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion. separation of church and state. We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences. We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual We are citizens of the universe and are excited by understanding. discoveries still to be made in the cosmos.

We are concerned with securing justice and fairness We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, in society and with eliminating discrimination and we are open to novel ideas and seek new and intolerance. departures in our thinking.

We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to disabled so that they will be able to help themselves. theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich per sonal significance and genuine satisfaction We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based in the service to others. on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity and strive to work together for We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather the common good of humanity. than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place We want to protect and enhance Earth, to preserve of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind suffering on other species. faith or irrationality.

We believe in enjoying life here and now and in We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest developing our creative talents to their fullest. that we are capable of as human beings.

*by Paul Kurtz

For a parchment copy of this page, suitable for framing, please send $4.95 to FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, New York 14226-0664