New Secular More on Humanist Faith-Healing Centers?

James Randi Gerald Larue Vern Bullough Henry Gordon Bob Wisne David Alexander Faith-healer Robert Roberts Also: Is Goldilocks Dangerous? • Pornography • The Supreme Court • Southern Baptists • , Catholicism, and Unbelief in

1n Its Tree _I FALL 1986, VOL. 6, NO. 4 ISSN 0272-0701 Contents

3 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 17 BIBLICAL SCORECARD 62 CLASSIFIED 12 ON THE BARRICADES 60 IN THE NAME OF GOD 6 EDITORIALS Is Goldilocks Dangerous? Paul Kurtz / Pornography, Censorship, and Freedom, Paul Kurtz I Reagan's Judiciary, Ronald A. Lindsay / Is Neutral? Richard J. Burke / Southern Baptists Betray Heritage, Robert S. Alley / The Holy-Rolling of America, Frank Johnson 14 HUMANIST CENTERS New Secular Humanist Centers, Paul Kurtz / The Need for Friendship Centers, Vern L. Bullough / Toward New Humanist Organizations, Bob Wisne THE EVIDENCE AGAINST 18 Are Past-Life Regressions Evidence for Reincarnation? Melvin Harris 24 The Case Against Reincarnation (Part 1) Paul Edwards BELIEF AND UNBELIEF WORLDWIDE 35 Protestantism, Catholicism, and Unbelief in Present-Day France Jean Boussinesq MORE ON FAITH-HEALING 46 CS ER's Investigation Gerald A. Larue 46 An Answer to Peter Popoff 48 Popoff's TV Empire Declines .. David Alexander 49 Richard Roberts's Healing Crusade Henry Gordon IS SECULAR A RELIGION? 52 A Response to My Critics Paul Beattie 53 Diminishing Returns Joseph Fletcher 54 On Definition-Mongering Paul Kurtz BOOKS 55 The Other World of Shirley MacLaine Ring Lardner, Jr. 57 Saintly Starvation Bonnie Bullough VIEWPOINTS 58 Papal Pronouncements Delos B. McKown 59 Yahweh: A Morally Retarded God William Harwood

Editor: Paul Kurtz Associate Editors: Doris Doyle, Steven L. Mitchell, Lee Nisbet, Gordon Stein Managing Editor: Andrea Szalanski

Contributing Editors: Lionel Abel, author, critic; Robert S. Alley, professor of humanities, University of Richmond; Paul Beattie, president, Fellowship of Religious Humanists; Jo-Ann Boydston, director, Dewey Center; Laurence Briskman, lecturer, Edinburgh University, Scotland; Vern Bullough, historian, State University of New York College at Buffalo; Paul Edwards, professor of philosophy, Brooklyn College; Albert Ellis, director, Institute for Rational Living; Roy P. Fairfield, social scientist, Union Graduate School; Joseph Fletcher, theologian, University of Virginia Medical School; Antony Flew, philosopher, Reading University, England; R. Joseph Hoffmann, associate professor of biblical studies, University of Michigan; Sidney Hook, professor emeritus of philosophy, NYU; Marvin Kohl, philosopher, State University of New York College at Fredonia; Jean Kotkin, executive director, American Ethical Union; Gerald Larue, professor emeritus of archaeology and biblical history, USC; Ronald A. Lindsay, attorney, Washington, D.C.; Howard Radest, director, Ethical Culture Schools; Ralph Raico, associate professor of history, State University of New York College at Buffalo; Robert Rimmer, author; Svetozar Stojanovic, professor of philosophy, University of Belgrade; Thomas Szasz, psychiatrist, Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse; V. M. Tarkunde, Supreme Court Judge, India; Richard Taylor, professor of philosophy, Union College; Sherwin Wine, founder, Society for Humanistic Judaism

Editorial Associates: H. James Birx, James Martin-Diaz, Thomas Flynn, Thomas Franczyk, Marvin Zimmerman

Executive Director of CODESH, Inc.: Jean Millholland Book Reviews: Victor Gulotta Promotion: Barry L. Karr

Systems Manager: Richard Seymour Typesetting: Paul E. Loynes Layout: Alain Kugel Audio Technician: Vance Vigrass

Staff Stephanie Doyle, Jacqueline Livingston, Valerie Marvin, Alfreda Pidgeon

FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published quarterly by the Council for Democratic and (CODESH, Inc.), a nonprofit corporation, 3151 Bailey Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14215. Phone (716) 834-2921. Copyright ©1986 by CODESH, Inc. Second-class postage paid at Buffalo, New York, and at additional mailing offices. National distribution by International Periodicals Distributors, San Diego, California. Subscription rates: $18.00 for one year, $32.00 for two years, $42.00 for three years, $3.75 for single copies. Address subscription orders, changes of address, and advertising to: , Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215-0005. Manuscripts, letters and editorial inquiries should be addressed to: The Editor, FREE INQUIRY, Box 5, Buffalo, N.Y. 14215-0005. All manuscripts should be accompanied by two additional copies and a stamped, addressed envelope. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or publisher. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR We Need Your Financial

Belief and Unbelief Worldwide while Latin America continues to wallow in Support the intellectual darkness so aptly described I enjoyed very much Jorge J. E. Gracia's by Professor Gracia. FREE INQUIRY, now in its sixth article ("Religious in Latin year of publication has become the America," FI, Summer 1986) describing the Maurice M. Tanner leading secular humanist and free almost total failure of free thought and Bangkok, Thailand thought publication in the world, skepticism in Latin America, an area 1 know with over 25,000 circulation. But well through both academic study and per- sonal experience. I was bothered however Faith-Healing Exposé if we are to continue to grow, we with the glib ease with which the editor's need your financial support. Our note lumped all of Asia with other parts of Last spring FREE INQUIRY editor Paul Kurtz budget is strained to its limits, and the world where all, "except for a small elite called me to ask for the help of the New our growth plans far exceed our of educated persons, are oblivious to free York Committee for Skeptical Inquiry financial resources. The opposition thought." (NYSCI) in an investigation of faith-healer is wealthy and powerful. Several of what the West calls "Oriental W. V. Grant, who was scheduled to hold a If you believe that there should religions" could be better described as service at the Brooklyn Academy of Music be a dissenting voice of reason and "atheistic philosophies." Buddhism, Con- on Tuesday, April 15, at 7:00 P.M. James free inquiry in the contemporary fucianism, and Taoism do not teach any Randi was also going to be there, in disguise, world, then please contribute to belief in a Supreme Being, but instead focus continuing his investigation of Grant. (See our efforts. on the importance of man's relationship to " 'Be Healed in the Name of God!': An himself and the world around him. One Exposé of the Reverend W. V. Grant," FI, A contribution of 5100 or more will could argue that these beliefs give parts of Spring 1986.) We were asked to arrive well enroll you 88 8 FREE INQUIRY Asia a head start over even our own tradi- before the service began to observe the pre- Associate. All contributions are tion of skepticism. Buddhism especially has parations. It was suggested that 1 volunteer tax-deductible. what must be described as a scientific orien- to be an usher for Grant. I did and was YES, tation, with its emphasis on change and the accepted. I would like to contribute to FREE INQUIRY. Enclosed is my need to learn through one's own personal The ushers' first task was to pass out experience. Most important perhaps for the flyers describing Grant's ministries. We then ❑ Check ❑ Money 0rder modern age, there is no movement by these distributed forms on which people could Charge my ❑ VISA ❑ MasterCard philosophic religions to enlist the power of write their names and addresses in order to the government in halting the teaching of get on Grant's mailing list. Our next task new scientific principles out of fear that sci- was to give small booklets to anyone in the Exp ence might threaten the traditional "reli- audience who made a contribution of three gious" values. Indeed, ideas like evolution dollars or more. We were told backstage My contribution S fit very comfortably with the philosophical that we weren't "selling" the booklets, but basis of these ancient Asian religions. On the distinction was mighty fine. Quite a few Name the other hand, Christian, Islamic, and members of the audience gave the required Hindu missionaries have been notably un- amount, and 1 estimated that 1 collected successful in selling their brands of mind- about $150 to $200. After the ushers had Address numbing beliefs, except through the medium taken the money backstage, we were told of conquest. that we wouldn't be needed again until the City The quiet, unassuming Asian commit- "offering." By this time, the hall, which holds ment to a scientific philosophy is demon- 2,100 people, was full. strated in the way that Hong Kong, Singa- After Grant preached and performed State Zip pore, Taiwan, Thailand, and South Korea some "healings," it was time for the offering. actively encourage scientific excellence in The ushers were called backstage and given Make checks or money orders pay- their educational systems, even when they buckets in which to collect the money. Grant able to: are sometimes not nearly so liberal about spent about fifteen minutes telling the audi- FREE INQUIRY encouraging opposing political ideologies. ence that he was not pressuring them to con- Box 5 There is no question in my own mind that tribute. But he went on about the expenses Buffalo, New York 14215-0005 this willingness to accept new things and involved in his missions in Haiti and in his Thank you for your support. new ideas does much to explain the modern being on the air in three hundred cities. (In Asian economic miracle that is taking place fact, Grant is on the air in less than one

Fall 1986 3 hundred cities.) Grant told the audience that the latter would not knowingly jeopardize scientists deciding whether or not actu- Jesus would return any donation one- another person's life for a quick buck. ally spoke to a given ideologue who believes hundredfold by the end of the year. He gave If he were alive today, I wonder what in this conversation or whether one would guidelines on how much to give, "If you Lucian of Samosata (who lived in the second or would not be "poorer in spirit" for failing have a twenty-dollar bill, a ten-dollar bill, century c.E.) could add to the comments of to attend a particular revival. Our culture and a five-dollar bill in your wallet, how James Randi, Steven Schafersman, and has many magical themes, e.g., advertise- much should you give?" he asked the audi- Robert A. Steiner. According to the Syrian ments showing numerous beautiful women ence. "Twenty dollars," they shouted. "If you satirist, his contemporary Alexander, the frantically chasing a man who is wearing were going to write a check," he asked, "how Quack Prophet, used a number of Popoff's the correct aftershave lotion. much should it be for? Well, why not make tricks, less those provided by electronics Belief in freedom of religion and separa- it equal to the largest check you've written technology. Moreover, Alexander dispar- tion of church and state are also basic in the last four days?" At this point, all who agingly called his critics either "atheists" or American cultural motifs. Dr. Singer extrap- were going to contribute were asked to hold "Christians," while his modern counterparts olates the assumed dominant rationality of up their offerings, and the entire crowd use the epithet "secular humanist." For a American culture to justify a somewhat ex- prayed over the money. The ushers were hearty belly laugh, every humanist, if he or cessively authoritarian orientation toward then dispatched to collect the offerings. she has not already done so, should read certain religious believers and practitioners. I was astonished by the amount of money Lucian. In this connection Dr. Singer seems to mis- we collected. The crowd was overwhelmingly interpret Thomas Szasz's ironic comment black and poor, and yet the most common F. Mark Davis that if you talk to God, you are religious, bill in my bucket was a twenty. There were Chico, Calif. while if God talks to you, you are crazy. I some ten-dollar bills, some fifty-dollar bills, don't think Dr. Szasz approves of labeling and a surprisingly large number of one- someone mentally ill merely because he or hundred-dollar bills. The few checks I saw I wish to relay my appreciation for your she claims to have had personal communica- were made out for one hundred dollars. exposé of the faith-healing side show. Now tions from God. Dr. Singer, who is eager to People were upset if I didn't take their that I know some of the tricks of the trade I call "psychopathic" or "sociopathic" those money fast enough or if I didn't notice their will be watching for them. I wonder if you who claim to have received communications offering when I passed by. might now investigate the "selling of perse- from On High, removes some of the irony Although the part of the theater I was cution." from Szasz's observation. working was small, I had about $6,000 in "The PTL Club's" Jimmy Bakker wails Dr. Singer correctly notes that those who my bucket. Since there were at least twelve during his program about being persecuted. turn to faith-healers are often suffering from ushers collecting, the amount of money His fifteen-minute harangues are followed inexorable degenerative or otherwise as yet taken in during the offering would be at by five-minute pleas for money to counter incurable disorders. He also correctly notes least $72,000. Add to this the amount from this harassment. Viewers must believe him, that in many cases the meanings that are the sale of booklets and the personal offer- since he keeps using this technique. "The imbibed from the healer (e.g., exculpation, ings made at the beginning of the service, 700 Club" is as bad. The sight of a chain Jesus loves the afflicted) are more important and the Reverend Grant probably took in and padlock on the church door draws in to the client than the alleged physical heal- about $100,000 that evening. many extra thousands of dollars a week. ing. Is it not therefore possible that some The Christian Broadcasting Network down- benefit may actually be derived by some per- Terence Hines plays the legal violations and contempt cita- sons from being "healed"? A sick invalid Assistant Professor of Psychology tions of those involved. The televangelists may live out his or her remaining years with Pace University seem to be saying, "It is persecution if I a sense of peace or purpose or community (Director, New York Committee can't have my way." with other faithful. Inasmuch as morale is for Skeptical Inquiry) raised and stress is reduced, there might be Dennis W. Wendt an actual improvement of the medical prog- Waupun, Wis. nosis. Of course the effect of charismatic healing or holistic medicine mystiques on After reading "The Shocking Truth About the trajectory of persons' ailments is an Faith-Healing" (FI, Summer 1986), in which empirical question, and Dr. Singer is right I concur with much of what Philip Singer Peter Popoff and other latter-day snake-oil to call for more research in this area. hawkers are exposed for what they are, says about American shamans ("A Medical Anthropologist's View of American Sha- certain questions haunt me. One of them is Thomas Robbins manism," FI, Spring 1986). But there are a this: If such con artists are endangering the Rochester, Minn. lives of credulous people by urging them to few points on which I must dissent. discard their vital medications, why does Dr. Singer treats "our culture" as a neat God permit Popoff and his likes to get away and simple unity, perhaps like that of a small Secular Humanists Be Damned with such chicanery—if indeed there is a tribe or island. But our culture is diverse God who rewards and punishes? In my and pluralistic and has many subcultures. I would like to address a few comments to opinion, if Popoff, W. V. Grant, and others Just because one has imbibed the rational those who believe that secular humanists of their ilk know that they are operating culture of the medical establishment does should be allowed to run our schools. These without fear of supernatural retribution, they not mean that one is still not an "outsider" people are sadly mistaken. Not only do they no more believe in God or Jesus than does imposing one's own categories on funda- preach the evil theory of evolution, but also an honest atheist. But the only difference mentalists or pentecostals whose beliefs one the satanic, secular humanist theories of between them and the honest atheist is that is denigrating. I see no proper basis for social gravity, electricity, astronomy, biology and (Continued on p. 61) 4 FREE INQUIRY

FREE INQUIRY's Fifth Annual Conference Ethics in Conflict: Biblical vs. Secular

October 31 and November 1, 1986 at the University of Richmond Richmond, Virginia Is the Bible a reliable guide for moral conduct, as religious proponents insist, or does it have serious limitations? Are there alternative standards of ethics, as humanists point out? If so, what are they?

Topics: Biblical Ethics in History and Myth • Biblical Interpretations of Morality: Abortion, Sexual Morality, Right to Privacy, Homosexuality, Euthanasia, and War and Peace • Biblical Ethics and Philosophy • Ethics and the Law

Speakers: University of Richmond James Hall, University of Richmond Robert S. Alley, North State University R. Joseph Hoffmann, University of Michigan Joseph E. Barnhart, Paul Kurtz, SUNY at Buffalo Joseph Blau, Columbia University Gerald A. Larue, University of Southern California Vern L. Bullough, SUNY College at Buffalo University of Richmond John Priest, Florida State University Frank Eakin, Hebrew Union College Lewis S. Feuer, University of Virginia Ellis Rivkin, University of Virginia Medical School Richard Rubinstein, Florida State University Joseph Fletcher, Theodor Gaster, Columbia University Morton Smith, Columbia University Richard Taylor, Union College Special Feature ": How It Is Done" James Randi, conjurer and principal investigator of FREE INQUIRY'S Faith Healing Investigation Project

Program: The conference will begin at 2:00 P.M. on Friday, October 31, 1986, and end on Saturday evening, November 1, 1986. The fee is $55.00. A buffet luncheon ($8.50 per person) will be available on Saturday afternoon. The Saturday evening banquet ($25.00 per person) will be followed by a discussion of faith-healing by James Randi. Transportation: Piedmont Airlines (Conference Bureau: 1-800-334-8644) is offering registrants a 35 percent discount on round-trip fares to Richmond, Virginia. Accommodations: Special rates are available from the Hyatt Richmond Hotel (1-804-285-1234). State that you are attending the "Ethics in Conflict" conference. "Ethics in Conflict: Biblical vs. Secular" October 31. and November I., 4986 ❑ YES, I (we) plan to attend FREE INQUIRY'S 1986 Conference. Enclosed is: ❑ $55.00 Registration Fee for person(s) $ D $8.50 each for Saturday Buffet Luncheon for person(s) $ ❑ $25.00 each for Saturday Banquet for person(s) $ Menu choice: Flounder Normandy Beef Brochette Vegetable/Fruit Plate ❑ $5.00 Bus Transportation (between campus and hotel) for person(s) $ ❑ I cannot attend but I am enclosing $ to help support the important work of FREE INQUIRY.

Check or Money Order (U.S. funds on U.S. bank, payable to FREE INQUIRY) Total $ Visa MasterCard # Exp Date

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Daytime telephone number Return to: Jean Millholland, FREE INQUIRY, Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215-0005 • (716) 834-2921 because of a passage describing a girl reading to a boy while he cooks, which they say Editorials undermines the God-given sex roles as stated in the Bible. Last but not least, Mrs. Vickie Is Goldilocks Dangerous? Frost, a leading figure in the lawsuit, has vehemently objected to a story about Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance because "a central idea of the Renaissance was belief in the dignity and worth of human undamentalist parents in Hawkins condemned for dancing in the moonlight, beings." FCounty, Tennessee, have objected to which they say is indicative of satanic wor- Tim LaHaye said that he agrees with the several textbooks published by Holt, Rine- ship, and the Three Little Pigs dance around need for pluralism, but he interprets this to hart and Winston and used in the first to the wolf in the boiling kettle, which signifies mean that teachers should also be permitted the eighth grades. This case is now before witchcraft. to teach the biblical point of view in the the courts and is likely to be taken all the Other objections are more serious. The schools. My reply was that the fundamen- way to the Supreme Court. Conservative parents criticized The Diary of Anne Frank, talist opposition to the curriculum, if allowed religionists in another case, in Mobile, because Anne points out that it's good to to prevail, would denude education and Alabama, are also determined to change the believe in a religion no matter what one it deprive students of the best knowledge in character of the public schools by rooting is, which they said was anti-Christian. science, literature, the arts, social sciences, out the alleged influence of secular human- Science-fiction stories by Ray Bradbury and philosophy, and morality. The task of edu- ism. Given the mood of the country and the a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen were cation is to develop critical intelligence, the changing makeup of the Court, it is difficult opposed by the parents, and even the reading ability to analyze beliefs and values. Educa- to predict what the final ruling in these cases of Jane Goodall's investigation of chimpan- tion is supposed to expand the horizons of will be. zees because it contains one sentence about appreciation. Apparently, some parents con- The charges against the Hawkins County evolution. Another book was condemned sider this dangerous and believe that their School District are extreme. A small group of parents maintains that the Holt books are "anti-American" and "anti-Christian." In exposing their children to a diversity of reli- gions, races, and values, they claim, the teachers violate the religious and moral con- victions of parents. I recently debated Tim LaHaye on Cable News Network's "Larry King Show" (Dick Cavett was the guest host). LaHaye is one of the founders of the Moral Majority and the Creationist Institute, and he is now head of the American Coalition for Traditional Values, based in Washington, D.C. He has repeatedly argued that secular humanism is "the most dangerous religion in America," in control of and undermining the school system and, indeed, all the institutions of I.r•" American society. His wife, Betty LaHaye, is one of the leaders of Concerned Women for America, which is in the forefront in the Tennessee case. BUT ( DORT On the King program, LaHaye claimed SEE MNYTNIJVG, that the Holt reader Riders on the Earth advocates witchcraft, idolatry, mind control, MOM , , sexual permissiveness, euthanasia, situation ethics, and one-world government. I pointed out that the charges were unsub- stantiated and ludicrous. The Tennessee parents have also objected to the reading of The Wizard of Oz because it teaches that one can be courageous and moral indepen- dent of religion and it portrays witches in a good light. They have opposed "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" because Goldilocks is never punished for breaking and entering, and destroying property. Jack and Jill are

6 FREE INQUIRY children should lead lives sheltered from and destroying the integrity of the schools. the first such incidents in Prometheus's six- other points of view. Parents have a right to The notion that "secular humanism is being teen years of operation. bring up their children however they wish. taught in the schools" is the focal point of In the first instance, Bookcrafters, Inc., But is intellectual and cultural deprivation the witch-hunt. While it is true that secularist a Michigan printer, refused to handle John in the children's best interests? and humanist ideas and values are being Money's Venuses Penuses. Money's book is The right to read, the right to learn, and taught, it is also true that they are essential a collection of serious papers on gender and the right to knowledge are being threatened. in the modern world. To prohibit them is to role-identification previously published in What is at stake is quality education and destroy the educational process. It is, indeed, scientific and medical journals. Money, a high standards of excellence. Self-righteous an attempt to keep children ignorant of the professor at Johns Hopkins University vigilante groups are unfairly libeling teachers culture in which they live.—Paul Kurtz Medical School, is one of the world's leading researchers in sexology. Perhaps the title of the book is captious but it should not have dissuaded the printer. Soon afterward another Michigan prin- Pornography, Censorship, ter, Edwards Brothers, which prints FREE INQUIRY, refused to print Prometheus's American edition of the highly praised and Freedom British book Sexual Fulfillment, a tasteful book similar in content to The Joy of Sex written by Dr. Phillip Cauthery, Dr. Andrew Stanway, and Fay Cooper. Cauthery and Stanway are medical doctors and Cooper is he controversial report that culminated the right of privacy between consenting honorary secretary of the Association of Ta year of study by Attorney General adults. Interestingly, freedom today is being Sexual and Marital Therapists in Great Edwin Meese s Commission on Pornography undermined by those forces who claim to Britain; Prometheus thinks their book can has been covered extensively in the press. believe in liberty but are willing to apply a have an important influence in the United Also alarming to civil libertarians is the double standard in regard to intellectual and States. In both cases, Prometheus was able recent Supreme Court decision that exempts moral freedom. to find other printers. state anti-sodomy laws from federal jurisdic- It is clear that the mood of the country Although it is doubtful that there is a tion. is swinging toward repression, limiting the direct connection between these incidents In his brief supporting the Court's deci- parameters of freedom. One disturbing indi- and the refusal of some convenience stores sion not to overturn a Georgia law making cator of this swing is that two large printing to distribute Playboy and Penthouse maga- sodomy a crime, Chief Justice Warren Bur- companies recently refused to print two zines, the Meese Commission on Pornogra- ger said: "Condemnation of these practices books published by , an phy may already be having a chilling effect is firmly rooted in Judeo-Christian moral independent skeptical and humanist press— on freedom of the press.—Paul Kurtz and ethical standards." In an impassioned dissent, Justice Harry Blackmun replied: JOHN TREVER FOR THE ALBUOUEROUE JOURNAL

The assertion that "traditional Judeo- Christian values proscribe" the conduct involved cannot provide an adequate justi- fication for (the Georgia law). That cer- tain, but by no means all, religious groups condemn the behavior at issue gives the State no license to impose their judgments on the entire citizenry. The legitimacy of secular legislation depends instead on whether the State can advance some justi- fication for its law beyond its conformity to religious doctrine. Thus, far from but- tressing his case, petitioner's invocation of Leviticus, Romans, St. Thomas Aquinas, and sodomy's heretical status during the undermines his suggestion that [the Georgia law) represents a legiti- mate use of secular coercive power. A state can no more punish private behavior be- cause of religious intolerance than it can punish such behavior because of racial animus.

One does not have to approve or disap- prove of homosexuality in order to respect

Fall 1986 7 within a year. Powell's loss could be critical, since he has been an important "swing" vote. Reagan's Judiciary For example, although he voted to uphold the constitutionality of nativity scenes on public property, he also voted against the Ronald A. Lindsay constitutionality of Alabama's "silent prayer" law. Reagan's appointments to the lower resident Reagan's nominations to the against school desegregation. Of course, a federal courts—the circuit courts of appeals Supreme Court and the lower federal unanimous Supreme Court, in Brown v. and the district courts—may be as significant courts have been making news lately. For Board of Education, subsequently found that as his appointments to the Supreme Court. those seeking to preserve our nation's civil segregated public schools were unconstitu- Indeed, Reagan may well be on the way to liberties the news is not good. tional. In another case, involving a challenge transforming the federal judiciary. He has Chief Justice Warren Burger's retirement to a rigged pre-primary election process, already named approximately 270 of the has permitted Reagan to nominate ultracon- Rehnquist again argued against finding the nation's 761 sitting federal judges; before he servative William Rehnquist, now sitting on process unconstitutional, explaining that "it finishes his second term, he may have had the Court, to fill Burger's position. Antonin is about time the court faced the fact that the opportunity to appoint half of the Scalia, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the the white people in the South don't like the nation's federal judges. District of Columbia Circuit, another con- colored people." It would be inaccurate and unfair to issue servative, will replace Rehnquist. The Rehn- The D.C. Circuit has a steady diet of a blanket indictment of Reagan's appointees. quist and Scalia nominations will probably administrative law cases, so Scalia has not Although the Justice Department's screening not bring about an immediate, violent shift had very many opportunities as a judge to process ensures that appointees will almost in the state of the law, since retiring Chief rule on constitutional issues. Nonetheless, always be conservatives, a number of ap- Justice Burger was hardly a zealous advocate he was a prominent academic for several pointees have had distinguished legal careers of civil liberties. Nonetheless, while Chief years prior to his appointment to the bench and are fair-minded individuals who will Justice Burger was unlikely to expand the and he is well known as an archconservative respect precedent and the rights of minori- scope of constitutional rights, he rarely in- Catholic. He is strongly opposed to abortion ties. However, some of Reagan's appoint- dicated a willingness to overrule or recon- and, given the proper opportunity, would ments and nominations are simply disas- sider prior decisions from the Warren Court probably rule that a woman's right to an trous. or the early Burger Court (which had a more abortion has no constitutional foundation. Consider the case of Daniel Manion, a libertarian composition than the Burger With respect to church-state issues, he is former Indiana legislator who has just been Court in later years). Rehnquist has shown believed to favor government aid to paro- appointed to the U.S. Court of no such reluctance. chial schools and other religious institutions. Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He is clearly The contrast between Burger and Rehn- Scalia also takes an extremely narrow view unqualified for the federal appellate bench; quist is illustrated by their opinions in of standing; that is, the right of an individual he has never been lead counsel in a federal Wallace v. Jaffree, the 1985 decision that or organization to prosecute a case. As those case, has never authored any scholarly arti- struck down the Alabama law permitting who have been involved in church-state liti- cles, and has had basically a small-town "silent prayer" in public schools. Although gation know, the argument of "no standing" practice. Why was he appointed? Because Burger dissented from the Court's decision, is one continually employed by state and he is such a reactionary that his votes on he did so principally because he concluded federal governments to defeat meritorious constitutional cases are utterly predictable. that the statute could not be interpreted as litigation on procedural grounds. When he was a legislator he coauthored coercing the nonreligious. Rehnquist, on the The impact of the Rehnquist and Scalia legislation requiring "creation science" to be other hand, was not concerned about coer- nominations will become clearer when the taught in the public schools. He also intro- cion of the nonreligious. He expressly stated Supreme Court has an opportunity to rule duced legislation requiring the posting of that the framers of the Constitution did not on Aguillard v. Edwards, the case involving the Ten Commandments in public school- mean to require "government to be neutral the constitutionality of Louisiana's law re- rooms—just two months after the Supreme between religion and ," adding that quiring the teaching of "creation science" Court found that practice to be unconstitu- "[t]here is simply no historical foundation whenever evolution is taught. The full U.S. tional! In short, as a legislator Manion pub- for the proposition that the framers intended Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found licly thumbed his nose at the Supreme to build a 'wall of separation' " between the law unconstitutional, but by a disturb- Court's decisions respecting church-state church and state. Rehnquist would have no ingly close vote: 8-7. The law is blatantly separation. There is no reason to expect his qualms about overruling the school-prayer unconstitutional, as it is nothing more than conduct on the bench to be any different. decisions from the 1960s that prohibited a disingenuous attempt to put religion back Manion was such an egregious choice state-sponsored oral prayers in the class- into the public schools by labeling it "sci- that his nomination was almost defeated in room. ence," and it should be unanimously struck the Senate. (He was confirmed by a one- Rehnquist's lack of concern for the rights down. A close vote by the Court (one cannot vote margin.) But even with the controversy of minorities is nothing new. When he was bring oneself to think of a reversal of the surrounding his nomination, Manion man- serving as a clerk for Justice Jackson in 1952 Fifth Circuit!) would mean rough times aged to pass Senate scrutiny. he wrote a memo to Jackson urging a vote ahead for church-state separationists. As the electorate was warned in 1984, Obviously, the situation will become Reagan's right to make lifetime appoint- Ronald A. Lindsay is an attorney in Wash- worse if Reagan has the opportunity to make ments to the federal judiciary means his ington, D.C. another appointment. Rumors in Washing- influence on public affairs will be felt for a ton have it that Justice Powell may retire generation after he leaves office. •

8 FREE INQUIRY (or Neo-Darwinian) theory of evolution atheistic, they mean that it claims to explain Is Secularism Neutral? human life without the necessity for divine intervention; and in this they are absolutely correct. Recent versions of the Big Bang origin of the universe, in which a "random Richard J. Burke quantum fluctuation of nothing" can give rise to space-time, energy, and matter, are the logical culmination of modern scientific thought. have no sympathy with fundamentalist 3. Therefore religion is not necessary for Modern science and public education are I Christians who want our public schools mature citizens of our society. both neutral on the , but to teach Christianity either overtly or covert- The first premise was not true fifty years that is not the relevant issue. An agnostic is ly in the form of "scientific creationism." ago, but it does seem to be true now. Per- uncommitted on that issue, but is committed Their motive seems to be preservation of haps that is why fundamentalists have only on the issue of whether God's existence can moral values: They believe that morality has recently become so agitated about the be known. In the same way modern science no foundation without religion, that people schools. The gradual addition of courses in is committed on the issue of whether nature will restrain their impulses only if they fear civics, current events, driver training, sex and can be understood without God; and the the wrath of an angry God. This is demon- marriage, drugs, television, and now com- public school system is committed on the strably false. Philosophers since puters, strongly suggests that the state has issue of whether one can be a good American and have shown repeatedly that ethics accepted the responsibility—formerly shared citizen without being religious. The position requires no theological assumptions and that with the family and the churches—for com- of fundamentalist Christianity, as I under- it is weakened rather than strengthened plete preparation of its future citizens. The stand it, is not that it is commendable to be theoretically by adding them. (For example, importance of organized sports in our a Christian, but that it is necessary to be a is behavior really moral when it is motivated schools, widely believed to "build character," Christian—often, indeed, to be a certain kind by fear of punishment in hell?) is also part of this picture. Public school- of Christian—necessary not only for salva- Historians and anthropologists have teachers are expected to cultivate moral tion, but for a good life here on earth. God shown that moral values grow out of the values—tolerance, honesty, fairness, equal- is the indispensable foundation of all moral- experience of peoples, vary when that ex- ity—both by example and by the methods ity, all science, all civilization worthy of the perience varies, and change when that they use in their classes. If religion is never name. The position of secular humanism is experience changes. (Christians, for example, mentioned in school, the obvious inference that morality, science, and civilization in have very different attitudes today about is that it is an unimportant "optional extra," general are autonomous activities that may slavery, war, government, witches, and so like white-wall tires on your car. or may not take religious form at different on, from those prevalent just three hundred There is an instructive parallel issue in times and in different cultures. I cannot see years ago.) And empirical studies by sociolo- the philosophy of science. Secularists often any neutral position between these two on gists have shown that theists are no more point to science as a model of the benefits which a public school system could be based law-abiding or altruistic than atheists, and of theological neutrality, of . But that would satisfy both. Christians no more than other theists. again fundamentalists have a point when This does not mean that secular human- The fundamentalists have a point, how- they characterize modern science as "god- ism is a religion too, as Senator Orrin Hatch ever, when they argue that secularism is not less." Science has not always been agnostic. and others have recently claimed. But it is a neutral either, and that our public schools Aristotle held that scientific explanation was philosophy—a set of basic assumptions on today are biased against their type of reli- incomplete without an "Unmoved Mover," controversial issues—and as such it is part gious belief. The secularist typically holds and his argument was still accepted by of the larger philosophy of the framers of that, in a democracy, public schools must seventeenth-century scientists like Descartes, our Constitution. Every social institution is adopt a strictly neutral attitude toward reli- Leibniz, and Newton. It was only around based on philosophical assumptions. We are gious beliefs, including nonbelief, leaving this 1800, when Laplace told Napoleon, "I have still working out the implications of these aspect of the child's life to the discretion of no need for that hypothesis," that scientists assumptions for our public school system, his or her parents. But consider this syl- began to omit God altogether from their just as we continue to work out their impli- logism, which is implicit in the writings of theories of the cosmos. Since then, science cations for our legal system in the courts. many fundamentalists: has become by definition the attempt to give We are not, and have never been, a "Chris- 1. The public schools today attempt to a complete explanation of natural phe- tian nation" in the fundamentalist sense of provide everything the students need as nomena without reference to supernatural that term. Christian nations were quite mature citizens of our society, social as well entities or forces of any kind. Hence it is familiar in the eighteenth century—Europe as intellectual. precisely "godless." By the same token was full of them, both Catholic and Pro- 2. The public schools do not teach reli- science cannot prove that God does not testant—and that concept was deliberately gion. exist, as Kant and others pointed out. But rejected by our Founding Fathers. We are, by assuming that everything can be ex- and have always been, a secular nation, Richard J. Burke is professor and chairman plained without God, modern science made formally committed to the proposition that of the Department of Philosophy of Oak- belief in a creator an optional extra from a civilization is not necessarily founded on land University. He is co-editor of Western theoretical point of view, and greatly weak- religion. Our public schools are based on Society: Institutions and Ideas and the ened the appeal of theism to intellectuals. that commitment. They are not, and cannot author of numerous journal articles. When fundamentalists call the Darwinian be, philosophically neutral. •

Fall 1986 9 talists undermined the tenuous system as effectively as Adolf Hitler destroyed the weak Weimar Republic. Mob rule, biblical Southern Baptists Betray Heritage literalism, and bigoted anti-intellectualism utilized democracy to eliminate it. Adrian Rogers, who, joined by a gaggle of literalists, had sought control of the Southern Baptist Convention in the late seventies, is again president of a Convention now bereft of Robert S. Alley those values of freedom that made Baptists significant. It seems certain that the Conven- tion will soon effect a complete destruction of free inquiry in its institutions of learning while its newly acquired nationalistic jingo- ism leads to an abandonment of the principle he individual freedom endorsed by like soul competency rang in the best of of religious freedom. Tseventeenth-century English Baptists Baptist theology as Walter Rauschenbusch A culpable companion in this sad specter has never had an easy existence when con- structured his social gospel on a profound has been the Reagan White House, which fronted, as it was from the beginning, with understanding of freedom, and two decades has systematically interfered in the affairs of the exclusivistic claims of traditional Chris- later Baptist minister Harry Emerson Fos- the Convention, beginning with Vice Presi- tianity. Those nonconforming dissenters who dick, a regular target of fundamentalists, dent Bush's seeking to have Southern Bap- emerged in the reigns of Elizabeth I and equated the best in Christianity with a tists reverse their position on prayer in James I caught something of the radical spirited humanism. schools, and this year in Atlanta with Presi- freedom that appears to me to be at the Freedom was hardly the primary motiva- dent Reagan's gratuitously and unconstitu- heart of Jesus the iconoclast. Seldom has tion for Southern Baptists, whose purpose tionally injecting himself into the business freedom been more uncomfortably yoked for organizing in 1845 was to retain slavery. of that religious body as he congratulated with its precise opposite. Fellow dissenters In the South the torch of freedom was held Southern Baptists for rejecting liberalism. with the Baptists, the Quakers quickly com- by black Baptists culminating in Martin He did this prior to sessions in which the prehended this and moved away from re- Luther King, Jr., but there persisted in the group was to consider important resolutions strictive doctrine. Baptists sought a compro- Southern Baptist Convention a vestige of on issues of church and state. mise, establishing the Bible as authority in that fragile tradition. It glowed in the theo- The best that can be hoped for is a split faith and insisting that each believer was logy of William Whitsitt and E. Y. Mullins that will free open-minded moderates in the competent to interpret that document. But and found recent manifestation in the Convention to search for the moorings that what was that faith? Organized into associa- thirty-three years (1937-1970) of editorializ- gave purpose to the early English Baptists. tions, Baptists found themselves writing ing by Reuben E. Alley of the Virginia Reli- It will not be easy, for most of the moderates "confessions of faith" that, they insisted, gious Herald. That cherished heritage was are captive to an exclusivistic claim to truth were not to be equated with creeds. The best observed in the steady support for the that effectively truncates the concept of in- believer remained free to define his or her First Amendment by yearly resolutions on dividual competency and hinders biblical faith; the confession merely set forth com- church-state separation and in the demo- scholarship. Yet I firmly believe that, if monly held views voluntarily accepted by cratic system of church polity. Christianity has a future in this world, it lies the fellowship of believers. In so doing the But a group of ineffective and timid men, with those who boldly assert the necessity Baptists apparently hoped to claim the holding the chief administrative positions in of an unhindered quest for truth as a com- genius of Jesus combined with fifteen cen- the Convention following World War II, panion to a claim for a God with the turies of theological development. It may squandered their heritage. Their fear of being humanistic ethic of love, mercy, and justice. have been an impossible dream, but at its labeled "liberal" led to a series of compro- That is, I think, the real heritage of the best it challenged the self-righteous claims mises with biblical literalists that decimated innovative "man for others," Jesus of to ultimate authority so pervasive in Chris- the biblical criticism emerging in the semi- Nazareth. • tianity. naries in the fifties. Beginning in 1958 sys- Translated to American soil Baptist tra- tematic destruction of the Convention's ditions of freedom flowered in the fertile intellectual strength was set in motion by a mind of Roger Williams. Founders Madison minority of "inerrantists" who not only went and Jefferson saw in the colonial Baptists a unchallenged by the "moderate" power link with their own commitments to freedom. structure but were aided by it. Moderate "Reason and free Nevertheless, Baptists quickly became one leaders of seminaries and boards, crying inquiry are the only more of the traditional Calvinist denomina- pragmatism, assured those of us who pro- tions in nineteenth-century America. Still the tested their stifling of open study that they effectual agents heritage of freedom would not die. Terms were with us in spirit. They lied. against error." Finally, in 1986, a weakened Convention Robert S. Alley is professor of humanities saw its outdated polity bring "soul compe- Thomas Jefferson at the University of Richmond and editor tency" and individual liberty to an end in Notes on the State of Virginia of James Madison on Religious Liberty among Southern Baptists. Using the inherent (Prometheus Books, 1986). weaknesses of pure democracy exercised in massive organizations, dogmatic fundamen-

10 FREE INQUIRY "Simulated plastic," he said proudly. "Except for the goat. That's made of pure naugahyde. Go ahead and touch it." I held myself in check. I baldly explained The Holy-Rolling of America the reason for my visit, that I wanted some insight into the commercialization of Chris- tianity, that I felt the religious tradition that had once been so kind to our imagery was now butchering it. Between my sentences, he labored at selling me razor blades. We were at an impasse. Frank Johnson "What's that 1 smell from your kitchen?" I asked, getting up to leave. "The wife's baking my favorite," he re- plied. "She calls it 'He-is-raisin cake.' " "That's an example of what I'm talking about," I said. "The infiltration of religion into the ridiculous." At the doorway, he looked me in the eligion is overstepping its linguistic for the soul, depending upon who's behind eye, finally giving vent. "You ain't seen Rboundaries. The process can be subtle the landing forces. But lately it's been like nothing yet, my friend. We have a strangle- or obtuse. In my life, I suppose it had its Omaha Beach. They're coming on like gang- hold on Madison Avenue and, like Jacob unnoticed origin when I was a child: To busters. with the angel, we're not gonna let loose. wake me for school, my mother would I turn on the television to an advertise- We're moving into all areas of life—I mean sweetly holler, "Up and Adam!" At least ment of an upcoming interview with the all areas. It's wide open. I'm going to give that's what I thought she said, and I never quarterback of the New Orleans Saints titled: you some promo material from a Christian questioned this indistinct, out-of-syntax in- "In Todd We Trust." I seek out TV Guide business clearinghouse. It will make your terruption of my most secular dreams, sim- to efficiently change channels, and the book- day, I guarantee." ply because I had an intense religious up- let opens to a cardboard nuisance-ad for "That's all I need," 1 said. bringing and did not consider it too unusual Christian music that includes an exercise "And you're sure, now, you don't want to be mandated from bed with Old Testa- record emblazoned: "Firm Believer." I turn to buy some razor blades?" he asked. ment stuff. I should confess that I didn't off the television, unfold the newspaper, and Brochure in hand, I strolled off. I noted find some vague reference to paradise all am confronted with the face of some local that the 1968 Buick in his driveway sported that peculiar to my beginnings of the day fish princess, the picture of her coronation a bumper sticker that read: "Jesus Shaves." because most mornings were Eden to me. captioned: "God Save the Queen." 1 opt for It should have been fair warning. Many years later I hitchhiked my way bed. Just at the crucial point where reality As I walked home beneath the Halloween through the South. I thought the road the diminishes, some fruitloop knocks at my moon, I read the Christian clearinghouse only proper study for a writer. The end of door and wants to sell me a biblical board- mail-order form. They had indeed moved the cotton rainbow was to be the Mardi game called "Christian Monopoly." I kick into this bizarre, many-mansioned world Gras in New Orleans; I found it a confusing him to kingdom-come. with a vengeance, listing the following pot of coal. The hippies were drunk, the Suddenly sleepless, I decided that if you businesses and corporations: sailors were stoned, and I was somewhere can't ignore them you might as well engage Thy Will Be Done—evangelical estate- in between. On my journey back to the north them. I knew exactly where to go because it planning country, I sat beneath an Alabama billboard was Halloween and a neighbor down the Wine Into Water—alcohol rehabilita- with my thumb out for twenty-six hours, street, rather than displaying a skeleton or a tion center for the doctrinaire drunk sweating in the cold under a Kerouac sky. witch, or placing a quiet pumpkin on the The Lord's Hair—wigs, toupees When I was finally picked up, I glanced steps, had somehow managed to erect on Hymn and Hers Bathroom Towels— back at the sign; it was an advertisement for his roof a neon sign that read in biblical for the Christian spinster a crop-sprayer that read: "Deliver Us from scroll: "Boo Unto Others." All I knew about Forgive Us Our Trespasses—fundamen- Weevils." him was that he was an otherwise innocuous talist law firm Years later still, I was living in California, door-to-door razor-blade salesman. A little Prophet and Loss—investment counsel- north of San Francisco, on the Russian strange, perhaps, but a responsible member ing for ecclesiasticals River. I distinctly remember one misty of the human race. Blessed to Kill, Inc.—Christian rifleman morning being further ruined by a Christmas He invited me in. He lived in a fairly available for capital punishment gift-food catalogue in my mailbox. It was small house, but I counted six crosses on Hallowed Be Thy Dame—hyperortho- titled: "Put Your Faith in Cheeses." my way to the living room. If I were a dox ways to attract a puritanical This is pretty tame stuff, I know. Small vampire, I wouldn't be around to write this. woman invasions of religious puns may even be good "Nice crosses," I said, sitting down. In Amazing Lace—enticing nightwear for front of me, in the center of the room, was procreation a life-size reproduction of the nativity scene, Dress You, Boys—modest fashions for Frank Johnson is a freelance writer in replete with barnyard animals and horn- the evangelical transvestite Tenants Harbor, Maine. tooting angels suspended from the ceiling. Thy Pup Runneth Over—obedience "Nice manger, too." school for Christian canines. •

Fall 1986 11 Court Approves School ON THE BARRICADES Prayer in Canada The Ontario Supreme Court has ruled in a 2-1 vote that the use of the Lord's Prayer in public schools does not violate the religious freedom of non-Catholics. Five families from Sudbury, in northern Orthodox and Secularist which appeared in the March 21 issue, says Ontario, had challenged the local school Jews Clash in Israel that Jesus probably died on the cross from board's regulation specifying religious in- shock due to blood loss and an inability to struction that included the Lord's Prayer. Orthodox Jews in Israel have been burning breathe. Authors Dr. William Edwards, a The families, three Jewish, one Muslim, and bus shelters in protest over their displays of pathologist at the Mayo Clinic, and Wesley one nonreligious with a Christian back- advertisements showing women in swimsuits, Gabel, a pastor at two Methodist churches ground, argued that although their children claiming that they are contrary to their reli- in Minnesota, treat the Gospels as histor- were allowed to skip religious instruction, gion. Such disputes between Orthodox Jews ically accurate. pressure to conform from the Christian and secularists are indicative of a serious JAMA editors say the article is generat- majority amounted to coercion. split that dates back to Israel's founding in ing the most mail the magazine has seen in The Court did not agree, saying that the 1948 and that threatens to permanently five years and that 70 percent of the letter- pressure to conform was not substantial divide the country. writers are critical. The journal and the enough to constitute infringement of religion. Thirty-eight years ago Israel's founders authors are being taken to task for the "Our schools have an obligation to teach forged an informal understanding, known uncritical acceptance of the Gospel shown morality," said Justice Dennis O'Leary. as the "Status Quo," between secular and in the article, for using the magazine as a "While some may argue that morality may Orthodox Jews. Among the points agreed forum to "disguise theological, we dare say, be taught without associating it with God, upon were that Saturday would be the legal fundamentalist biases," and for reviving "the few would deny that in the minds of most day of rest, that religious education would ancient, but insubstantial charge of deicide persons morality and religion are intertwined be autonomous, and that official institutions leveled against the Jews." and that to associate God and morality is would serve kosher food. Historians say that an effective way of teaching morality." both parties were able to reach a compro- Sakharov's Academy of Humanism In a dissenting opinion, Justice Robert mise because each believed the other would Invitation Blocked by Soviets Reid said, "It may be difficult for religious eventually disappear—the Orthodox, who peoplé to appreciate the feelings of agnostics came from Eastern Europe, being absorbed The Academy of Humanism, an interna- and atheists. Yet nevertheless those feelings by society and the secular being returned to exist." Reid added that "forcing the minority religious observance by living in the Holy tional body of scientists, philosophers, and scholars, held a symposium on "The Growth to put up with any degree of coercion means Land where Hebrew is spoken. they enjoy less freedom than the majority." Today Orthodox Jews make up about of Neo-Fundamentalism and the Defense of Science" in Oslo, Norway, on August 6, In 1981 there were 1.8 million declared 15 percent of the Israeli population and the nonbelievers in Canada-7.4 percent of the Knesset. When they acquired a greater role 1986, in conjunction with the meeting of the International Humanist and Ethical Union population and the fourth largest confes- in the government they forced the Israeli sional group in the country. More recently, airline, El Al, to stop flying on the Sabbath, (IHEU), August 3-7. Andrei Sakharov, Humanist Laureate a 1985 poll showed that 32 percent of those introduced legislation banning the sale of surveyed had attended church in the pre- pork, and obtained exemptions from military and a member of the Academy, was invited to the symposium. Copies of the invitation ceding seven days. That figure was down service for the increasing number of religious from 41 percent in 1975 and 60 percent in students. were sent to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorba- chev and Soviet Academy of Sciences head 1957, and if the present trend continues it But the Orthodox community has re- will be only 15 percent by the year 2000. cently turned to illegal methods in pursuit Anatoli Alexandrov with a letter asking that of its goals. When bus shelters began dis- Sakharov be permitted to attend. playing advertisements of female models in Surprisingly, the invitation (sent by Secular Humanistic Sociology Text swimsuits, Orthodox Jews burned them registered mail, return receipt requested) was Rejected in Wisconsin under cover of darkness because they believe not even delivered. It was sent to Sakharov's women should not reveal their bodies. Gorki address, which his son-in-law Ephraim No matter how the Supreme Court decides Yankolovich of Boston had given the in the suit brought by fundamentalist parents Academy, and returned stamped "Addresse AMA Journal Article in Tennessee over the textbooks their chil- inconnu" (address unknown). dren are using in public schools (see "Edi- Relies on Gospel Apparently, the Soviet authorities found torials, p. 6), local school boards have al- it inadvisable to notify Sakharov of his ready begun to examine prospective texts. The prestigious Journal of the American invitation to the Oslo meeting. The IHEU One of the first casualties is Knopfs Medical Association is under attack for pub- has repeatedly defended human rights and Sociology, which has been rejected as a sup- lishing an article on the death of Christ that protested Sakharov's exile in Gorki. We did plemental text in advanced-level sociology relies in part on the Gospels for medical not expect the Soviet authorities to allow courses by the West Allis-West Milwaukee analysis and concludes that the New Testa- Sakharov to attend the meeting, but we School Board by a vote of 5 to 3. ment account is correct. hoped that they would have at least allowed Board members who opposed use of the "On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ," him to know of the invitation. text said they were concerned that the district

12 FREE INQUIRY would lose federal funding for using a book tinues. On June 29, the Midwest Committee More Stores Ban Magazines, that promoted the "religion" of secular for Rational Inquiry passed out leaflets at a Rock Records humanism. Peter Popoff faith-healing crusade in Chicago. The leaflets detailed Popoffs Last spring the 4,500 7-Eleven stores owned AMA Joins in Investigating methods of information-gathering and his by the Southland Corporation took adult Faith-Healers use of a radio receiver concealed in his ear magazines off their shelves. Now several through which his wife informed him of the other national chains and regional stores The American Medical Association's 388- names and afflictions of audience members. have followed suit, and rock recordings have member House of Delegates has unani- Prior to the Popoff service, the Chicago been added to the list of items the stores are mously passed a resolution to investigate Tribune published an article by religion refusing to sell. faith-healing. The resolution was authored writer Bruce Buursma about FREE INQUIRY's The stores are responding to pressure by Dr. Francis Horvath of Lansing, Michi- investigation of Popoff. from fundamentalist groups and the U.S. gan. Then, on July 13, when the Popoff cru- Attorney General's Commission on Por- "Quackery and charlatanism are increas- sade rolled into Pittsburgh, members of the nography and Crime. Those who have joined ing in the United States," the resolution Investigating Committee of 7-Eleven in dropping Playboy, Playgirl, reads. "Quackery serves the interests of poli- Pittsburgh were there to greet him. Group Penthouse, and other magazines include 582 tical and religious demagoguery through members passed out flyers describing drug and discount stores owned by the Los exploitation of the susceptible 30 percent of Popoffs use of electronics technology and Angeles-based Thrifty Corporation, 601 the population highly vulnerable to the use also observed his performance. Stories fea- drug-stores owned by CVS, and all People's of the air media and demands of adherence turing the FREE INQUIRY investigation of Drug, High's Dairy, Dart Drug, and Rite to exclusive forms of therapy." Popoff appeared in the Pittsburgh Post- Aid stores. The president of one local com- Horvath says that the resolution is aimed Gazette before and after the crusade. pany that decided to stop sales of the maga- at some televangelists and anyone who Popoff, it seems, is growing weary of zines, Ulbrich's of Western New York, said, claims to cure disease but can't prove it. the continued monitoring of his faith-healing "We're already one of the largest Bible "This is not an antireligious resolution. It is crusade. He claimed that CSER teams have distributors in Western New York. We enjoy directed against faith healers practicing put "ringers" with fake afflictions in his that reputation and want to expand on it." medicine without a license and defrauding audience to try to make a charade out of At least one chain has also targeted the the public," he said. the healing services. world of rock music as an unsuitable subject FREE INQUIRY editor Paul Kurtz has In any case, Popoffs audience has been for the magazines and recordings it sells. contacted Dr. Horvath to offer the coopera- cut, since one broadcast syndicate is no Wal-Mart, which has hundreds of stores in tion of the Committee for the Scientific longer carrying his programs. (See "Popoffs twenty-two states, has decided to stop selling Examination of Religion (CSER), which has TV Empire Declines," by David Alexander nearly three dozen rock magazines, including attracted national attention for its investiga- on p. 48) Rolling Stone, Circus, and Tiger Beat. It tion of faith-healing (see FI Spring 1986 and A CSER team will be in attendance when has already dropped recordings by 11 come- Summer 1986). Popoff brings his miracle crusade to Toron- dians and musicians, including Eddie Mur- Meanwhile, CSER's investigation con- to, Canada, on August 17. phy, Richard Pryor, AC-DC, and Black Sabbath.

DEAR LPRP ABOVE, Fundamentalists Pray for IGRi PLEASE STRIKE JU CL WILLIAM Justice's Death BRE NNAN DEAD ... A fundamentalist Baptist minister has called ARA OUT, THROTTLE Supreme Court Justice William Brennan a CARRY NIM OFF, RUB "baby killer" and exhorted his congregation AM... CHOKE, STRANGLE,, GARROTTE ALM- to pray for the jurist's death so that he can ANNULATE, ExTERMWATE , 0BLATERATE HIM... be replaced with a judge opposed to abor- IFE tion. ßtnckER HIM, SLAuGNTLR NAM... Brennan is one of seven justices who sup- WM- ported the 1973 Supreme Court decision HACK, NEW, DRAW AND QUARTER legalizing abortion. The Fundamental Bap- SAVAGE, MAU., CNoP, BAYONET, IMPALE, STAB, SLICE AND t tist Tabernacle of Los Angeles hired a plane to fly over the commencement of Loyola Marymount Law School, which Brennan was addressing, trailing a banner that read: "Pray for Death: Baby-killer Brennan." "It's always a last resort to pray against 14,111. t.7. .,04. 44 ,_ a leader," said associate pastor the Reverend J. Richard Olivas. "But we have prayed now for thirteen years for the law to be changed, and it appears that William Brennan is re- So FoR1I Aa N AND calcitrant and does not want to change."

Fall 1986 13 New Secular Humanist Centers

ver the years, the editors of FREE nonreligious individuals and families to share secular humanist centers? Do you want to OINQUIRY have received numerous in- a wide range of activities: educational lec- put into action the ideas and values ex- quiries from readers asking for assistance in tures and seminars, conferences, art exhibi- pressed in FREE INQUIRY? If so, may we forming local or regional groups for people tions, films, musical programs, and dances. invite you to take the initiative in forming a with mutual interests in the principles and A friendship center might also have a read- group in your area and to keep us informed goals of secular humanism. Perhaps the time ing room or café. It could be a haven for of your activities. Secular humanist centers, is now right for such a movement to take those in the process of "deconversion"— or friendship centers, could be places for place. fundamentalists, Catholics, Jews, and others those who have rejected religion and feel The following articles by Vern Bullough who have outgrown the practice of a reli- isolated from their communities to find in- and Bob Wisne offer some suggestions of gious faith. Community outreach programs spiration, fulfillment, and friendship. the possible activities and services such could also be set up. groups might provide. In a light-hearted vein These groups would not be part of a Paul Kurtz, Editor Wisne suggests they be called "Fribbling national humanist organization (there are Vern L. Bullough, Contributing Editor Freethinkers" or "Doubting Thomases." several such organizations, all of which have Gerald A. Larue, Contributing Editor Bullough proposes the formation of "friend- failed to gain mass support), but a con- Jean Millholland, Executive Director ship centers." These centers would be non- federation of independent, autonomous Lee Nisbet, Associate Editor religious and strictly secular in character. groups. The Committee for the Scientific Doris Doyle, Associate Editor They would provide important support for Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal Steven Mitchell, Executive Director, those skeptical of the claims of traditional (publisher of the ) has Academy of Humanism religions who share humanist values: a com- spawned more than twenty skeptics groups Andrea Szalanski, Managing Editor mitment to rational and free inquiry, democ- in North America and thirteen in other Thomas Flynn, racy, fellowship, and the exercise of creativ- Coeditor, Secular countries throughout the world. Humanist Bulletin ity in pursuing personal goals. The question is, Are there individuals or Thomas Franczyk, Coeditor, Secular Such centers would make it possible for existing groups who would like to form Humanist Bulletin.

groups, and a wide variety of activities. In The Need for Friendship Centers fact, it is often the activities that hold these congregations together, and not the Sunday morning or Friday night services. American Humanist Association chapters are at a dis- advantage, because they hold their chapter meetings and occasional lectures and discus- lthough there are millions of people congregations within the Unitarian-Univers- sions in rented halls and do not offer mem- Ain the United States who do not belong alist Association, and the growing success bers other activities. to any church—a significant percentage of of FREE INQUIRY and the Secular Humanist What is necessary, at least in my opinion, whom adhere to humanist concepts— Bulletin. At the same time, the ideals is a new concept of how to bring humanists organized humanism remains a pitiably small espoused by humanists have gained increas- together, and to this end I propose the group. In fact, in some ways it is declining. ing influence on the public consciousness, development of friendship centers. In a Ethical Culture, for example, is not now as so much so that humanists have become the sense, such centers are not a new thing, since large as it once was; movement devil incarnate to the fundamentalists on the they have roots in the settlement house within the Unitarian-Universalist church has far right. movement among the poor (pioneered by been weakened, as ministers in that denomi- The problem is that institutions have not the Ethical Culture Society) at the turn of nation try to be all things to all people; and, developed to meet the needs of today's the century, in Young Men's and Women's although the American Humanist Associa- humanists. The Ethical Culture Society, Christian Associations (which were more tion has some active chapters, most of them Unitarian-Universalist churches, and limited than the settlement houses), but are small. There are obviously bright spots, Humanistic Judaism have followed the tra- mostly in the Jewish community-center such as the Humanistic Judaism movement, ditional religious practice of holding a week- movement, which has served as the glue that the continued existence of strong humanistic ly service that includes a lecture (call it a holds many disparate Jewish groups to- sermon) and some socializing, with little gether. Vern L. Bullough is dean of natural and activity between services. Some of the more As I see it, a friendship center would be social sciences at the State University of successful humanist-oriented societies try to a family-oriented facility that offers a variety New York College at Buffalo. involve the entire family, with ethical train- of activities. It would have adequate re- ing for children, high school and college sources to meet the various needs of human-

14 FREE INQUIRY ists, from those who are interested in fitness and health to those who want to study and discuss ethical issues. Each center would include a gym, a swimming pool, and other recreational facilities; an auditorium for Toward New Humanist Organizations services, lectures, and plays; classrooms; a kitchen; and special-purpose rooms that could be used for weddings, memorial serv- In the Winter 1985/86 issue of FREE INQUIRY, Bob Wisne ices, and celebrations of other important offered a $100 prize to the individual who came up with the events in the life cycle. Families would come best name for a new secular-humanist community organization. to a friendship center for a variety of There are two winners: "Fribbling Freethinkers, "submitted by reasons: Children could be given moral or Barbara McDonald of Columbia, Missouri, and "The Paine ethical instruction while their parents played Truthers, "submitted by Tim Madigan of Rochester, New York. bridge, exercised in the gym, or participated in a study group. The whole family could go swimming or periodically join with other center members in a group supper. Plays could be put on, special lectures could be given, crafts could be taught, and special- interest groups could meet every day and evening. As the center grew, various support n my article "On Being a Pedestrian" in blind faith is a virtue! Tim receives his half groups could be formed, from a humanist I the Winter 1985/86 FREE INQUIRY 1 of the prize for an entry he made and later version of Alcoholics Anonymous to a announced, with tongue in cheek, a contest withdrew, "The Paine Truthers," in respect single-parents' group. A wedding could be to name a new humanist organization. Here for Thomas Paine, the original pedestrian. occurring in one section of the center while are the results. Tim thought better of the proposal when it a meeting of senior citizens could be taking First, most people who responded took occurred to him that Herbert W. Armstrong place in another. the organization I proposed in the article might sue us for the pun on his Plain Truth An increasing number of churches and too seriously, and that is my fault. 1 am magazine. Of course this kindly old gentle- temples are finding that traditional weekly interested in the growth of humanist groups, man passed away recently, and it will be services are not enough to hold congrega- fellowships, associations, or whatever, but interesting to see what happens to the tions together. They have tried to deal with my proposal was meant as a dig at the Worldwide Church of God without Herb. the problem by establishing many of the "experts" in theology. Some readers did see But let them sue; we need the publicity. The same services and activities I propose for the quixotic nature of my organization, as I Fribbling Freethinkers could have a publica- the friendship centers. In a sense, the referred to my squire Sancho, who of course tion called The Paine Truth, and we could churches and temples have succeeded, since was Don Quixote's squire. I was really look- distribute it in laundromats across the large numbers of people belong to avail ing for a name we could have some fun nation. themselves of the support services they offer, with. So on to the winners. even though they may no longer subscribe Sancho and I have decided to divide the few respondents were disgusted with to the religious doctrine. In fact, many never prize between two people. One half goes to Ame for attempting to start yet another attend the formal services but only partici- Barbara McDonald of Columbia, Missouri, humanist organization. Marc Glass of Phila- pate in the extracurricular activities. By for her entry, "Fribbling Freethinkers." We delphia wrote FREE INQUIRY and tore me establishing our own centers, which would could make up buttons that say "FFs to shreds. Eric Merrill Budd of Oberlin, offer a wide variety of services and activities Against TTs," (Theistic Theologists), so that Ohio, really chewed me out, but gave me and deemphasize the traditional sermon or when people ask us what the slogan means, very good ideas for humanist organizations. lecture—or even do completely away with we can tell them that we stand opposed to One observation he made was that ideas in it, since it is usually geared to the lowest theologians who have been misleading com- humanist organizations should common denominator to reach a widely mon laypersons for too long. No matter how flow from the bottom up, not from the top varied audience—we can focus on real needs. liberal we are in our definition of "expert," down, as they do in churches. Lectures and discussion are important, but this group of people just cannot qualify. Oscar Gunther of Philadelphia informed for the most part they should be aimed at The other half of the prize goes to me of an existing organization called the specialized audiences. Philosophical groups Timothy Madigan of Rochester, New York. Institute of Expertology. It goes one step could meet while others discuss the situation As did many people, he gave an interesting further and declares that all experts usually in Nicaragua. Several activities could take justification for his entry. I rejected his idea, are wrong. (The members of the Institute place at the same time. In the process we "The Doubting Thomas Society," but his have declared themselves "meta-experts"!) would be building mutual support groups, reasoning was sagacious. The apostle Mr. Ermont Lawrence, a disabled World which are the major attractions of many of Thomas would not believe Christ rose from War II veteran, reported that he tried to get the successful churches and temples of today. the dead until he saw evidence. He was criti- the Unitarian Universalist Association to Friendship centers might be costly, but cized for his lack of faith, and the Bible change its name to "Truth Seekers," but, they could be started economically by using reports that Jesus said to Thomas, "Have since it refused, he has offered the name to or other existing buildings, including you believed because you have seen me? my group of pedestrians and signed his card, churches whose congregations have dis- Blessed are those who have not seen and yet "The Ole Vermont Porkupine." Mr. banded. Anyone interested?— Vern L. Bu!- believe." It need not be said that the Frib- Lawrence now lives in Florida. I bet he rat- lough bling Freethinkers reject the notion that tles a few cages down there.

Fall 1986 15

The most sophisticated entry, in my FREE INQUIRY Conferences judgment, was from Edmund Brand of Tenino, Washington. He proffered the "Society of Practical Cats," shortened to on Audio Tape Now Available! "Practical Cats," with the mnemonic Religion in American Politics "PCATS" (pronounced Pee Cats). Mr. National Press Club, Washington, D.C. — March 16, 1983 Brand's idea comes from T. S. Eliot's Old Session #1—S8.95—"The Secular Roots of the American Political System"; Paul Kurtz, Possum's Book of Practical Cats, from Robert Rutland, Henry Steele Commager, Daniel J. Boorstin, Richard Morris, Michael which the Broadway musical "Cats" was Novak. adapted. To quote Brand: "The nine types Luncheon—S6.95—"The Bible or the Constitution": Senator Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. of cats that Eliot describes were each special, Session #2—S8.95—"The Bible and Politics": Gerald Larue, Sam J. Ervin, Leo Pfeffer, Robert Alley, James Robinson, A. E. Dick Howard. unique, and different. But in a human way they all had a sublime pedestrian quality." Complete set $26.50 (10% savings). Mr. Brand does not sound like a pedestrian Armageddon and Biblical Apocalyptic?: Are We Living in the Last Days? to me. University of Southern California, Los Angeles Campus February 27, 1984 he strangest message I received was Session #4-88.95—"Doomsday Prophecies," Paul Kurtz; "The Nature of Apocalyptic Tfrom a Rosicrucian in Tucson who sug- Thinking," Randel Helms; "Apocalypse Macabre: Evangelism's Ultimate Obscenity," gested the name "W.I.N.," for "Wisdom Is Joseph E. Barnhart. Negative." When I wrote back and asked Session #2-88.95—"Dimensions of Apocalyptic Thinking," Gerald A. Larue; "The him to explain, he simply replied, "Sir: A Bible as an Engine of American Foreign Policy," Robert Alley; "Isaiah and Christian- ity," Michael Arnheim; "The Gospel Time-Bomb," Lowell D. Streiker. Rosicrucian is a 'walking question mark.' Thank you." Complete set $19.00 (10% savings). Many people took the time to write me Jesus in History and Myth letters, and 1 have exchanged letters with University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Campus — April 19 and 20, 1985 some of them. 1 feel I have come to know Session #1—S8.95—"Introduction," Paul Kurtz. "Jesus in History," R. Joseph Hoff- humanists from across the country, and it mann, G. A. Wells, Morton Smith, George Mendenhall, Paul Beattie, Robert Alley. has been a pleasure. Some people wrote that Session #2—S8.95—"Historical Problems," Vern Bullough, John Allegro, David Noel they did not feel the need for a humanist Freedman, John Dart, Ellis Rivkin, Tikva Frymer-Kensky. support group; but others, and I count my- Session #3—S8.95—"The Apocryphal Jesus, the Gospel Tradition, and the Develop- self among them, would like to be members ment of Christology," Gerald Larue, Randel Helms, Robert M. Grant, R. Joseph Hoffmann, Rowan Greer. of a local group. Session #4—$8.95—"Theological and Philosophical Implications," Delos B. McKown, Ruby Kuklenski was raised as a funda- Antony Flew, Van Harvey, John Hick. mentalist in the Bible Belt. She now lives in Banquet—S6.95—Gerald Larue and Paul Kurtz. Anderson, Indiana, and as a humanist is Complete set $39.00 (10% savings). almost afraid to come out of the closet. She suggested I call my organization "Plainfolks Secular Humanist Fellowship," and asked that I inform her of any like-thinking people FREE INQUIRY Conference Tapes Order Form who live in her area. FREE INQUIRY has Please send me the following: sent her some names. We're with you, Ruby! Religion & Politics Biblical Apocalyptic The only choice many of us have now is o Session #1 S8.95 o Session #4 S8.95 to join a Unitarian Fellowship. The one in Luncheon 56.95 O Session #2 $8.95 my area is rather humanistic, but the UUA Session #2 88.95 D Complete Set 519.00 as a whole is just too religious for me. I am o Complete Set S26.50 a member of the national American Human- Jesus in History and Myth ist Association (AHA), and although it has Session #1 $8.95 D Session #4 58.95 done some good for secular humanism in o Session #2 58.95 u Banquet $6.95 the courts recently, it does not operate on a o Session #3 88.95 1 Complete Set $39.00 personal level. Both the AHA and the UUA Add $1.50 per tape for postage and handling. Save 10% by ordering complete sets. are very involved in political and social issues, which is fine. But how about groups Total S D Check enclosed of humanists coming together as humanists for social and educational activities? This ❑ Visa o MasterCard Exp time I am serious. Let's start local humanist clubs. Some of us don't need it. Some of us NAME (print clearly) do, and Sancho just told me who is re- sponsible for getting it started. On to "The STREET Quest"! (That's the name submitted by Ken CITY STATE ZIP Ryan of Tacoma, Washington.)—Bob Wisne FREE INQUIRY • Box 5 • Buffalo, NY 14215 Tele.: 716-834-2921

16 FREE INQUIRY Biblical Scorecard Would You Ban This Book? (Part 2)

Tom Franczyk

here has been much controversy recent- When 1 arose to open for my beloved, The entire "Song" should be read.) my hands dripped with myrrh; the liquid ly over the issue of "pornography." Key T myrrh from my fingers ran over the knobs Other verses, not written as beautifully, questions when dealing with this subject are: of the bolt. With my own hands I opened might be found unsavory, especially by the What is pornography? What is erotica? Are to my love, but my love had turned away Meese Commission on Pornography: either to be banned or censored? Who de- and gone by; my heart sank when he turned cides? We will here examine some beautiful, his back. 1 sought him but I did not find But Rabshakeh said unto them, Hath my "erotic" Bible verses, and some that are not him, I called him but he did not answer. master sent me to thy master, and to thee, so beautiful. The watchmen, going the rounds of the to speak these words? Hath he not sent me "The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's" city, met me; they struck me and wounded to the men which sit on the wall, that they (or "Canticle of Canticles") has been vari- me; the watchmen on the walls took away may eat their own dung, and drink their ously interpreted, depending on the outlook my cloak. [5:3-7 (NEB)] own piss with you? [2 Kings 18:27 (KJV); 4 of the interpreter and the degree of scholar- How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, 0 Kings in the Catholic Bible] ship employed in the exegesis. Jewish apolo- prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs The chief officer answered, "Is it to your gists suggest that the book portrays God's are like jewels, the work of the hands of a master and to you that my master has sent love for the children of Israel, and Christian cunning workman. Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor [spiced me to say this? Is it not to the people sitting apologists claim that it tells of "the mutual on the wall who, like you, will have to eat love of Christ and his church." Some biblical wine (NEB)1: thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lillies. their own dung and drink their own urine?" scholars indicate that the Song of Solomon Thy two breasts are like two young roses [Isaiah 36:12 (NEB)] consists of edited versions of older, pagan, that are twins. [7:1-3 (KJV)] fertility-cult "poems" (the love of Ishtar and And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and Tammuz) adapted for reading at Hebrew How beautiful, how entrancing you are, my thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh weddings. Here is a sampling from the New loved one, daughter of delights! You are out of man, in their sight... . English Bible and the King James Version: stately as a palm-tree, and your breasts are Then he [the Lord!] said unto me, Lo, I the clusters of dates. have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith. The song of songs, which is Solomon's. I said, "I will climb up into the palm [Ezek. 4:12-15 (KJV)] Let him kiss me with the kisses of his to grasp its fronds." May I find your breast mouth: for thy love is better than wine. like clusters of grapes on the vine, the And now, you priests, this decree is for you: [1:1-2 (KJV). The word love is here trans- scent of your breath like apricots, and your if you will not listen to me and pay heed to lated from the Hebrew word meaning sexual whispers like spiced wine flowing smoothly the honoring of my name, says the Lord of love.] to welcome my caresses, gliding down through lips and teeth. [7:6-9 (NEB)] Hosts, then 1 will lay a upon you. I will turn your blessings into a curse; yes, While the king reclines on his couch, my into a curse, because you paid no heed. I spikenard gives forth its scent. 0, that thou wert as my brother, that sucked will cut off your arm, fling offal [dung My beloved is for me a bunch of myrrh the breasts of my mother! when I should (KJV)] in your faces, the offal of your as he lies on my breast. [1:12-13 (NEB)] find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised. pilgrim-feasts, and will banish you from my presence. [Mal. 2:1-3 (NEB)] Thy lips, 0 my spouse, drop as the honey- I would lead thee, and bring thee into comb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; my mother's house, who would instruct me: and the smell of thy garments is like the I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine Has it been suggested that any of these verses smell of Lebanon.... of the juice of my pomegranate. be censored? I am come into my garden, my sister, His left hand should be under my head, The "Biblical Scoreboard" is not recom- my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with and his right hand should embrace me. mending that any work be banned or cen- my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with [8:1-3 (KJV)] sored, but rather suggesting that one person's my honey; I have drunk my wine with my religious text may be another's "por- Wear me as a seal upon your heart, as a milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink nography"! abundantly, 0 beloved. [4:1 I; 5:1 (KJV)] seal upon your arm; for love is strong as Note: "Would You Ban This Book?" death, passion cruel as the grave; it blazes (Part One) can be found in the November I have stripped off my dress; must I put it up like blazing fire, fiercer than any flame. on again? 1 have washed my feet; must I [8:6 (NEB)] 1985 Secular Humanist Bulletin, vol. 1, no. soil them again? 4. For further, extra-biblical reading see The When my beloved slipped his hand God's love for Israel? Christ's love for his Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary on through the latch-hole, my bowels stirred church? Who can read "The Song" and not the Bible (Abingdon Press) and Gerald A. within me [my bowels were moved for him find it erotic? (These verses have been se- Larue's Sex and the Bible (Prometheus (KJV)]. lected, with brevity in mind, to make a point. Books). •

Fall 1986 17 Are "Past-Life" Regressions Evidence of Reincarnation?

Recent decades have witnessed tremendous popular interest in Eastern religions and philosophies, and with them, reincarnation. Now, a new fad that capitalizes on these beliefs is sweeping the country—past-life regression. Some "therapists" even claim to be able to "progress" their patients to 'future" lives. In the first of the following two articles on reincarnation, Melvin Harris exposes the false claims of some famous past-life regression cases. Then, Paul Edwards, in the first of a two-part article, examines and refutes the arguments for reincarnation and the Law of Karma.

Melvin Harris

arl Jung wrote: "With a free and open mind I listen but his interest in past-life regressions did not emerge until attentively to the Indian doctrine of rebirth and look quite late in his career. Despite that, he managed to accumulate Caround in the world of my own experience to see a cupboard full of tapes of his experiments with more than whether somewhere and somehow there is some authentic sign four hundred people. pointing towards reincarnation." For many thousands in the Jeffrey Iverson first heard about this collection at a party. Western world the signs have arrived. For them, hypnotic As a producer with the BBC in Cardiff, he was constantly on regressions have lifted the heavy veil that once shrouded the the lookout for program ideas; and, in October 1974, he called subject, and the domestic tape-recorder has become the great at Bloxham's house. After listening to the calm old man's ally of Truth by capturing "authentic accounts" of long-for- claims, Iverson concluded that, if his claims were true, the gotten life-cycles. recordings could represent the largest investigation ever under- It all began with the Bridey Murphy case in 1952. The taken into regression. Iverson thought that, if Bloxham's tapes Search for Bridey Murphy, by Morey Bernstein, topped the could be verified, "then that single famous case ... The Search best-seller lists in the United States and was translated into five for Bridey Murphy, was just a tune on an Irish fiddle compared languages. It spawned a motion picture; a disk from one of the to his symphony of voices." recordings sold tens of thousands of copies; and all over the Iverson began listening to the tapes and discarding those United States tape recorders began purring away at innumerable that he felt could not be researched and proven. Gradually, he regression sessions. came to concentrate on a limited number that seemed to contain Twenty years after the Bridey Murphy sensation, a much details that "coincided remarkably with known but quite ob- more impressive case of past-lives startled the public. The Blox- scure periods of history ... in which people talked about cities ham tapes were first presented as a British Broadcasting Cor- and countries they had apparently never visited in their present poration (BBC) television documentary produced by Jeffrey lives." Iverson. Then they were included and enlarged on in Iverson's Two outstanding cases emerged from this weeding process. book More Lives Than One? The tapes were regarded as "the In one, Graham Huxtable, a Swansea man, regressed to a most staggering evidence for reincarnation ever recorded .. . squalid life aboard a Royal Navy frigate engaged in action amazingly detailed accounts of past lives—accounts so authentic against the French some two hundred years before. But the that they can only be explained by the certainty of reincarna- most important case involved a Welsh housewife named Jane tion." Inevitably they achieved international renown. Evans. The tapes themselves had been accumulated for years by an Mrs. Evans described six past lives. They were remarkable elderly Cardiff-based hypnotherapist named Arnall Bloxham. not so much for their number and diversity as for the sheer, Bloxham had been unable to study as a doctor and had turned almost overwhelming amount of detail that was packed into to hypnotherapy. He was a life-long believer in reincarnation, her account of three of them. In her three minor lives she was first a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon in the 1500s, Melvin Harris researches, writes, and presents his own pro- then a London sewing girl named Anne Tasker living about grams on the national networks of the BBC and the BBC 1702, and finally Sister Grace, a nun living in Des Moines, World Service. He is the author of Investigating the Unex- Iowa, who died in the 1920s. plained, just released by Prometheus Books. Of Mrs. Evans's three major lives, two centered around the

18 FREE INQUIRY town of York. The earliest was set in the third century during She was again accurate when she related Jacques Coeur's the rebellion of Carausius, the Roman admiral who seized fall from favor. He was once close to the king, but after the power in Britain and declared himself emperor. Jane Evans death of Agnes Sorel a rumor spread that Coeur had poisoned was then Livonia, the wife of Titus, tutor to the young son of her. Coeur was indeed arrested, tried on a number of charges, Constantius (governor of Britain) and his wife, Helena. As and imprisoned. But Alison knew only of his arrest. According Livonia, Mrs. Evans describes how Constantius has to return to her, when the soldiers came for her master he gave her a to Rome and how the rebellion is engineered in his absence. As poisoned drink, and she ended her life by accepting it. a consequence, Livonia, Titus, and the rest of Constantius's When television viewers saw Jane Evans under hypnosis household flee from Eboracum (York) to Verulam (St. Albans), and heard her astonishing stories, they were understandably where they live apprehensively until the rebel regime is over- impressed. She did not seem to be acting. When fear and thrown by an army led by Constantius. Yet her husband's anguish came into her voice, it was clear that she was racked triumphant return brings only sadness for Lady Helena. Roman with real emotions. And her easy grasp of often difficult names power-struggles dictate that her husband has to divorce her of people and places made it seem that she was indeed remem- and contract a new marriage with Theodora, daughter of bering things that she'd once known intimately. But Jane Evans Emperor Maximinus. Helena, therefore, decides to stay in in her unhypnotized state was adamant that she knew nothing Verulam with Livonia and Titus. There they are influenced by of Jacques Coeur, nothing of Carausius and his times, and the Christian wood-carver Albanus, and Titus becomes so nothing of the massacre of the Jews at York. zealous in his new faith that he volunteers for the priesthood. Iverson concluded: "The Bloxham Tapes have been re- On the eve of Titus's induction as a priest, Roman troops searched and there is no evidence that they are fantasies. In swoop down on Christian houses and burn them. Titus dies in our present state of knowledge about them, they appear to the melee, and Livonia apparently dies in some terror a short convey exactly what they claim: a genuine knowledge and while afterward. experience of the past." But were these tapes ever researched as Mrs. Evans's next life in York also ended tragically. It painstakingly as they should have been? Was the search for unfolded in the year 1189 in the north of the city, where "most Bridey Murphy thorough enough? Is it possible that quite of the wealthy Jews live." She was then Rebecca, wife of Joseph, another phenomenon rather than reincarnation can account a rich Jewish moneylender. The times were troubled for Jews. for these rich narratives? Anti-Jewish uprisings had occurred in "Lincoln, London and Chester." In York Jews were subject to abuse and threats. One re past-life regressions really evidence for reincarnation? member of their community, Isaac of Coney Street, was even AOr could they be glimpses of ancestral memories? Both murdered by a mob. theories have their followers. Yet rigorous research provides a By the spring of the next year it was obvious that violence distinctly different answer. These regressions are fascinating was inevitable. Rebecca and her family prepared to leave the examples of cryptomnesia. city, but they were too late. An armed band broke into the To understand cryptomnesia we must think of the subcon- next-door house, killed the inhabitants, looted the place, and scious mind as a vast, muddled storehouse of information. then set fire to it. Joseph, Rebecca, and their two children were This information comes from books, newspapers, and maga- able to run only as far as the castle of York. But even there zines; from lectures, television, and radio; from direct observa- they were unable to find safe shelter. They finally found refuge tion and even from overheard scraps of conversation. Under of a sort when they entered a church, took the priest and his normal circumstances most of this knowledge is not subject to clerk captive, and hid in the cellar. Later, from the safety of the recall, but sometimes these deeply buried memories are spon- church roof, they could see flames and hear distant mobs taneously revived. They may reemerge in a baffling form, since screaming "Burn the Jews, burn the Jews!" their origins are completely forgotten. This is cryptomnesia Rebecca's family's respite was short-lived. Their captives proper. escaped and alerted soldiers, who came to the church. At this Because its origin is forgotten the information can seem to point in the story, Jane Evans became "... almost incoherent have no ancestry and can be mistaken for something newly with terror" as the soldiers took her daughter; then, whispering created. The late Helen Keller was tragically deceived by such "Dark ... dark," she presumably died. a cryptomnesic caprice. In 1892, she wrote a charming tale Evans's other major life was in medieval France around called "The Frost King." It was published and applauded, but 1450. At that time she was apparently a young Egyptian servant within a few months it was revealed that Helen's piece was named Alison in the household of Jacques Coeur—the out- simply a modified version of Margaret Canby's story "The standing merchant prince of that period. She was able to talk Frost Fairies," published twenty-nine years earlier. Other at length and knowledgeably about Coeur's intrigues, about authors have fallen into the same trap. the king's mistress Agnes Sorel, and about the clash between In a similar fashion a number of cases of automatic writings, the Dauphin Louis and King Charles VII. She knew a great supposedly from discarnate spirits, have been traced to pub- deal about Coeur's possessions and his extraordinary house at lished works. For example, the famous Oscar Wilde scripts of Bourges. Her knowledge of the clothes worn by her master was the 1920s were gradually shown to be derived from many accurate: "tunic edged with miniver, red hose ... shoes of red printed sources, including Wilde's De Profundis and "The Cordovan leather ... a jewelled belt around his waist and a Decay of Lying." chain around his neck." But could such unconscious plagiarism account for Bridey

Fall 1986 19 Murphy and her offspring? Were these past existences nothing ten and Imogen Holst. And the mystery music was, of all but subconscious fantasies yielded up in order to please the things, the famous "Sumer Is Icumen In" with the words hypnotists? Were they simply a pastiche of buried memories rendered in a simplified medieval English. made gripping by the sincerity that accompanies cryptomnesia? A spate of similar successes led Kampman to conclude that In 1956, Dr. Edwin S. Zolik of Marquette University set out to he had demonstrated "that the experiences of the present answer these questions. personality were reflected in the secondary personalities both After Dr. Zolik hypnotized his subjects, he instructed them in the form of realistic details and as emotional experiences. to "remember previous existences," and they obliged by pro- The recording of a song from a book simply by turning over viding convincing accounts of past lives. In a waking state they the leaves of the book at the age of 13 is an outstanding assured him that they knew nothing about these previous life- example of how very detailed information can be stored in our times. But, when rehypnotized and reexamined, the subjects brain without any idea whatever of it in the conscious mind, were able to remember the sources used in constructing their and how it can be retrieved in deep hypnosis." These findings past-life adventures. In brief, Zolik's detailed analysis showed allow us to look at the Bridey Murphy and Bloxham cases that past-life memories could easily be nothing but a mixture with more understanding. of remembered tales and strong, symbolically colored emotions. Zolik recommended his method of probing for real-life hen the Bridey Murphy case first surfaced, it was greeted origins of reincarnationist material to anyone seriously in- Wwith naive enthusiasm, and this inevitably provoked a terested in the truth. Unfortunately, few, if any, of the enthusi- sour reaction. The Chicago American published a stinging astic hypnoregressionists took any notice of his advice, and exposure claiming that Ruth Simmons's knowledge of Bridey session after session was committed to tape and marvelled over, came from her relatives and acquaintances in Chicago. The without any effort being made to verify the origins or meaning Denver Post countered by sending their man, William J. Barker, of this material. Hypnotherapist Arnall Bloxham, for one, to Ireland in search of supporting material. The rival papers recorded more than four hundred past-life regressions without fought fiercely for their totally opposed viewpoints, yet neither ever once digging for the possibly mundane origins of these produced a conclusive answer. But the onus of proof always alleged lives. On the other hand, the Finnish psychiatrist Dr. lies with the side that makes the positive claims. And Bernstein Reima Kampman devoted years to the systematic investigation and his friends were too quick to make claims on the basis of of the cryptomnesic origins of past-life accounts. slender research. They marvelled over Ruth's knowledge of the Dr. Kampman of the Department of Psychiatry at the old custom of kissing the Stone yet failed to spot a University of Oulu, Finland, began his work in the 1960s. He found his subjects among large groups of volunteers drawn from the three highest grades of the secondary schools of Oulu. All who were able to enter a deep hypnotic state were selected for closer study. Kampman found it relatively easy to induce past-life recall as a response to his instruction: "Go back to an age before your birth, when you are somebody else, somewhere else." His most amazing subject was a girl who conjured up eight past-lives. Her lives took place in ancient Babylonia, in Nan- king, in Paris, in England, and finally in revolutionary Russia. Her thirteenth-century English life—as Dorothy, an innkeeper's daughter—brought to light "a very explicit account of con- temporary happenings." And she astonished everyone by singing a song that none of the listeners were familiar with—she called it "the summer song." The language of the song was later studied by a student "with high honors in the English language." He had no difficulty in identifying the words as examples of an old-style English, possibly Middle English. But the girl had no memory of ever having heard the words or the music of the song before. L- The solution to this riddle came during a later experiment. OILi3'I She was asked to go back to a time when she might have seen the words and music of the song or even heard it sung. She then regressed to the age of thirteen and remembered taking a book from the shelf in a library. It was a casual choice, and she merely flicked through the pages; yet she not only remembered Irish Village. One of the most popular exhibits at its title but was able to state just where in the book her "summer the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the St. Louis song" could be found. The book was Musiikin Vaiheet, a Fair of 1904 was the Irish Village. It, and not a "past life," was the likely source of knowledge Finnish translation of The History of Music by Benjamin Brit- about Ireland for Ruth Simmons ("Bridey Murphy").

20 FREE INQUIRY

complete work on the custom by John Hewlett called The handmaiden to Catherine of Aragon, could easily have been Blarney Stone. It was published in New York, of all places, in based, sequence for sequence, on Jean Plaidy's historical novel 1951. They were equally overawed by her familiarity with the Katherine, The Virgin Widow. Irish Uillean pipes, Irish jigs, and Irish customs and geography. But Evans's three major lives proved to have the most She had never set foot in Ireland, and yet she knew fine detail illuminating ancestries. Her recital as Alison, a teenage servant concerning last-century Erin. But their skimpy research failed to Jacques Coeur, the fifteenth-century French merchant-prince, to uncover the fact that Americans could delve deeply into was said to prove that she "knew a remarkable amount about Irish life and customs in the late nineteenth century without medieval French history." Yet in her waking state she said, "I leaving the United States. have never read about Jacques Coeur, I have never even heard In 1893, the World's Columbian Exposition was staged in the name." Chicago. Among the exhibits at this giant fair was an Irish Jeffrey Iverson even concluded that she could not have village—the brain-child of Lady Aberdeen. Her original idea picked up her many facts from standard sources. After all, she was modest—just a single Irish cabin—but by opening day it knew so much, including inside knowledge of the intrigues had grown into a complete village of fifteen cottages. They surrounding the king's mistress Agnes Sorel. Among other were grouped around a green facing a full-sized replica of the things, Evans was able to fully describe the exteriors and tower of . To give the exhibit life, Ishbel Aber- interiors of Coeur's magnificent house—she even gave details deen traveled to the farthest corners of Kerry, Connemara, and of the carvings over the fireplace in his main banquet hall. Donegal and chose girls who could spin, sing, make butter, Even more surprising, she spoke of the carved tomb of Agnes and dance jigs. The rosy-cheeked colleens were then shipped, Sorel that was housed in a church. According to Iverson, this suitably chaperoned, to the States to live and work in the tomb "had been cast away by French revolutionaries and spent Chicago village. Every day for the six months of the fair, a hundred and sixty-five years, until its rediscovery in 1970, visitors could hear the burbling Uillean pipes, listen to the out of sight in a cellar." But like a number of observations in songs of old Ireland, and see traditional jigs danced on the the book More Lives Than One? this claim does not stand up green. A huge relief-map of Ireland could be viewed, books to scrutiny. and souvenirs could be bought, and, to crown it all, a replica The truth is that the Sorel tomb was placed in its present of the Blarney Stone could be kissed in the traditional manner setting no later than 1809. It has been a tourist attraction for at the top of the Blarney Castle tower. the whole of this century, and it is described in detail in H. D. On opening day some 20,000 visitors paid twenty-five cents Sedgwick's A Short History of France published in 1930. The to enter the Irish village. Word spread and the crowds grew. The village became one of the three shows in the exposition that made money. By the end of the fair over three and a half million people had been brought into contact with all things RENEW NOW! Irish. And it did not end there. The whole venture was so Subscription Rates wildly successful that an Irish village, complete with the full- size tower of Blarney Castle, was erected for the St. Louis Fair One Year $18.00 of 1904. Two Years $32.00 Ruth Simmons (or rather Virginia Tighe) was born in 1923 in Chicago. During her formative years she probably met a Three Years $42.00 veritable army of people who had visited these Irish villages. Just as this possible source of Virginia's knowledge of Ire- land was neglected, so was the tried and proven method of probing, under hypnosis, for the real-life origins of the Bridey Affix mailing label here. saga. Perhaps it is not too late. An independent hypnotist (Include identification number in upper right-hand corner.) could still put the crucial questions to Virginia. Until she con- sents to this, the case can only qualify as a famous curiosity and no more. 0utside U.S.A. add $4.00 for surface mail, $8.00 for airmail. But the case is very different with the Bloxham tapes. (U.S. funds on U.S. bank) Graham Huxtable proved unable to help in an investigation, and Jane Evans flatly refused to cooperate. As a result, the ❑ Check or money order enclosed only course was to scrutinize the texts and laborious search for ❑ Visa ❑ Master Card the probable origins of their "previous lives." The extravagant Acct. # Exp. Date claims made for these tapes led me to undertake the search. I decided to concentrate on the six past-lives of Jane Evans, since Iverson considered them to constitute "the most con- FREE INQUIRY sistently astonishing case in Bloxham's collection." Box 5 • Buffalo, New York 14215-0005 My investigation soon showed that the claims made for the Tele.: 716-834-2921 tapes were false and the result of misdirected and inadequate research. For example, one of Jane Evans's minor lives, as a

Fall 1986 21 book was popular for decades and was often found in public but Rebecca's death came in the cellar of a church in which she and school libraries. Apart from that, the tomb has been had taken refuge. Around this cellar episode a formidable referred to in many other books and photographed frequently. legend has grown up. It is now asserted that the church is St. The circumstances are very much the same with Jacques Mary's of Castlegate and that a crypt was actually discovered Coeur's house. It is one of the most photographed houses in all there after Jane's regression. The truth is that the original tele- of France. Fine, explicit photographs of it are included in vision program script stated that there were three possible Dame Joan Evans's book Life in Medieval France. There one churches that could qualify as the place of refuge. St. Mary's can see the stone carvings over his fireplace and gain a sound was chosen to film in simply because it was the most convenient, idea of how the place looked, both inside and out. There is since it was being converted into a museum. And it was this little doubt that Jane Evans has seen these or similar pictures. conversion that led to the uncovering of an aperture under the And there is overwhelmingly strong evidence that the rest of chancel. For believers, this was naturally a medieval crypt and Jane's material was drawn from a source not known to Iverson, proof of Rebecca's story. A very different view is presented by the 1984 novel The Moneyman by C. B. Costain. The book is a report of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments. based on Coeur's life and provides almost all of the flourishes On York (vol. 5, 1981) it says, "Beneath the East end of the and authentic-sounding touches included in Evans's "past-life" chancel is a charnel vault with a barrel-vault of stone rubble, memory. probably a later insertion and now inaccessible." In particular, the novel very neatly answers an important For all that, the furor over the crypt is meaningless, since question raised by Iverson and other commentators: Why the Rebecca regression is clearly a fantasy. It is an amalgama- doesn't Alison know that her master is married? As Iverson tion of at least two different stories of persecution taken from puts it: "How is it that this girl can know Coeur had an Egyp- widely separated centuries. tian bodyslave and not be aware that he was married with five The proof that we are dealing with a fantasy lies in the children?—a published fact in every historical account of historical absurdities found in the tale. Rebecca repeats four Coeur's life? ... If the explanation for the entire regression is a times that the members of the Jewish community in York were reading of history books in the twentieth century, then I cannot forced to wear yellow badges, which she described as "circles explain how Bloxham's subject would not know of the over our hearts." But the Jewish badge was not introduced marriage." until the following century, and then the English pattern con- Costain's short introduction to his novel clears up the sisted of two oblong white strips of cloth that represented the mystery. He writes: "I have made no mention of Jacques tablets of Moses. The yellow circle was, in fact, the badge worn Coeur's family for the reason that they played no real part in by Jews in France and Germany after 1215. This is one aspect the events which brought his career to its climax.... When I of Jewish history over which there are no legitimate doubts. attempted to introduce them into the story they got so much in Further absurdities were discovered in passages from the the way that I decided finally it would be better to do without tapes that were excluded from both the book and the film. In them." these revealing passages, Rebecca repeatedly speaks of living in The view that Evans's tapes were simply the result of cryp- the ghetto at the north of York. This ghetto was a quarter tomnesia could still be contested if it were not for the con- without street names in which only the rich Jews lived and she firmation provided by the vetting of her remaining two major pointedly mentioned a poor Jew who had to live in "the middle lives. As Rebecca, the Jewess of York, Evans was supposed to of York in a street called Coney Street." have met her death during the massacre of 1190. At that time, Now there never was a special Jewish quarter in York. The most of the Jewish community died in the York Castle Keep, Jews lived scattered among the Christians in Micklegate, Fos- gate, Bretgate, Feltergayle, and near the center of town in Jewbury. The idea that a Jew would live on Coney Street Moving? because of his poverty is ludicrous. Coney Street was, in truth, the choice place for many of the rich Jews to settle, including Make sure FREE INQUIRY Josce, the head of the Jewish community! As for the notion of the ghetto itself, this involved a leap in follows you! time of over three hundred years, since the first ghetto was not Please attach old mailing label here set up until 1516 in Venice. It was established on an old foundry site. The very name is derived from the Italian geto, or foundry. (Include number in upper right-hand corner.) New Address his means, inevitably, that Jane Evans has the ability to Tstore vivid stories in her subconscious and creatively com- Name bine and edit them to the point where she becomes one of the characters involved. The clinching proof that this is so is pro- Address vided by the Livonia regression. It is the purest regression of City State Zip all, as it is based on one source only. FREE INQUIRY • Box 5 • Buffalo, NY 14215-0005 This particular life involves a turbulent period in Britain's Tele.: 716-834-2921 history: a time of rebellion and instability. The name of the Roman governor of Britain during this period is unrecorded in

22 FREE INQUIRY since Facilis died in the first century C.E. Livonia then describes a visit by the historical character Allectus. He brings Constantius an urgent message from Rome, but despite its urgency Constantius "stopped at Gessoriacum to see Carausius who is in charge of the fleet." This section is drawn from the same part of the novel as the above, in which the visit leads to the takeover of Britain by the rebellious Carausius, who is aided by Allectus. Iverson writes: "Livonia gives a basically accurate picture of this quite obscure historical event." Quite so, but only because the whole of the material rests on De Wohl's research. In the same way, every single piece of information given by Jane Evans can be traced to De Wohl's fictional account. She uses his fictional sequences in exactly the same order and even speaks of his fictional characters, such as Curio and Valerius, as if they were real people. There are two minor differences worth noticing, since these involve her editing faculty. In the first instance, Evans takes a minor character, Titus Albus, a Christian soldier willing to die for his faith, and recasts him as a tutor to Constantine. But only the name itself is taken from De Wohl, for all of Titus's feelings and actions are those of De Wohl's character Hilary. Hilary is converted to Christianity by Albanus, ordained as a priest by Osius, and killed during a violent campaign against his faith. All these things happen in turn to Jane Evans's Titus. In the second instance she takes another insignificant character, Livonia, who is described as "a charming creature Louis De Wohl's 1947 best-selling novel The Living Wood provided the basis for Jane Evans's account with pouting lips and smouldering eyes," and amalgamates her of her "past life" as a Roman wife. with Helena. A composite character recast as the wife of Titus existing historical records. Evans's past-life memories seem to then emerges. This new character is able to act as both an fill this gap for us by stating that Constantius, father of Con- observer and as someone who voices Helena's sentiments, thus stantine the Great, was in charge. After consulting his reference making the story that much fuller and far easier to relate. books, Iverson happily concluded: "Nor can the regression be This feat of editing reveals a little of the psychology behind dismissed as a fiction built around a blank area of history. these fantasies. Hilary is the eminently desirable male in the Livonia knows a considerable number of verifiable historical novel described as having "a beautiful honest face with eyes of facts that fit perfectly into her vision of the missing years. No a dreamer." He is also secretly in love with Helena. As Titus he modern student of history could contradict the names and becomes the lover of Livonia of the pouting lips and smoulder- events she describes...." After hearing the tape, Professor ing eyes—in other words, of Jane Evans herself. And there we Brian Hartley, an authority on Roman Britain, seemed to agree, have all the combustible material that fueled a young girl's since he commented: "She knew some quite remarkable histor- daydreams. And all inspired by an exciting historical novel. ical facts, and numerous published works would have to be In conclusion, I should emphasize that in investigating consulted if anyone tried to prepare the outline of such a story." regressionist claims I chose the most difficult and best-known Professor Hartley was right, much painstaking research went cases available. They had remained unchallenged for years and into the making of Jane's story; but the research was undertaken were regarded as impregnable. A BBC documentary team had by the late Louis De Wohl. In 1947, he wrote the best-selling checked them out in every detail. They were triumphantly novel The Living Wood, and Jane's life as Livonia is taken marketed as "the most staggering evidence for reincarnation directly from that novel. Brief comparisons will show how. ever recorded ... accounts so authentic that they can only be Livonia's tale opens in Britain during 286 C.E. She describes explained by the certainty of reincarnation." Yet in the end the garden of a house owned by the Legate Constantius. His they turned out to be nothing but fantasies, pure and simple. wife is Lady Helena, his son Constantine. The son is pictured as being taught the use of shield, sword, and armor by his References military tutor Marcus Favonius Facilis. This entire sequence is taken from Book 2, Chapter 2, of the novel, in which Constan- Hirvenoja, R., and R. Kampman, eds. 1978. Dynamic relation of the secon- tine trains in the use of arms and armor under his military dary personality induced by hypnosis to the present personality. In tutor Marcus Favonius, called "Facilis ... because everything Hypnosis at Its Bicentennial. Plenum Publishing Corporation. was easy to him." De Wohl based this character on a real-life Iverson, Jeffrey. 1977. More Lives Than One? London: Pan Books. Zolik, E. S. 1958. Experimental investigation of the psychodynamic implica- centurion whose tombstone is now in Colchester Castle tions of the hypnotic "previous existence" fantasy. Journal of Clinical Museum. But his account of this centurion's life is pure fiction, Psychology, 14. •

Fall 1986 23 The Case Against Reincarnation

Part I

Part II of this article will appear in our next issue.

Paul Edwards

he beliefs in reincarnation or rebirth and in the Law of studied the behavior and beliefs of peasants in an Indian village, Karma are generally held together, but they are logically was told that people guilty of serious crimes may in a future Tdistinct theories. There are numerous arguments which, life sink so low as to become jars. Presumably it is believed if they were valid, would prove reincarnation without proving that such jars have an inner life. They cannot communicate Karma, and conversely there are objections to the doctrine of with anybody but they realize their fate as a dreadful depriva- Karma that do not automatically refute reincarnation. In this tion. Among recent Western converts and also among the more article I will examine the main arguments in support of both philosophically articulate Eastern supporters of the theory, theories, showing their fatal flaws, and then offer a number of rebirth is believed to occur only in human bodies. For obvious reasons for rejecting both of them. reasons this is a much more defensible position. Reincarnation may be defined as the view that human beings An important difference between reincarnation and Western do not, as most of us assume, live only once, but on the beliefs in survival is the view that human beings, or rather the contrary live many, perhaps an infinite number of times, souls that inhabit their bodies, did not have a beginning. acquiring a new body for each incarnation. Belief in reincarna- Incarnations stretch infinitely into the past. In the Bhagavad tion comes in many forms. According to several Eastern ver- Gita, which dates back to about 500 B.C.E. and thus precedes sions the body into which a person migrates is not necessarily the rise of Buddhism, Krishna, the god of love, assures his as another human body: it can be that of an animal or a plant or yet unenlightened companion Sanjaya that grief and sorrow even an inanimate object. According to a well-known story, are quite inappropriate emotions in relation to the death of stopped someone from beating a dog, on the ground somebody we loved. The reason is that a human being will live that he had recognized the voice of a friend in the yelping of forever and that "the eternal in man cannot die." A person's the dog. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad it is taught that birth is not the beginning of his existence and his death is not some wicked human beings are reborn as insects—wasps, gnats, the end: and mosquitos. The Harvard anthropologist Oscar Lewis, who .. We have all been for all time: 1, and thou, and those kings of men. And we all shall be for all time, we all for ever and Paul Edwards teaches philosophy at Brooklyn College and the ever. [II/ 12-131 New School for Social Research. He is the editor-in-chief of The Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the author and editor of The last sentence of this passage must not be misunderstood to numerous books and articles. He contributed the articles on mean that the series of incarnations will also stretch into the A. J. Ayer, Logical Positivism and Unbelief Wilhelm Reich, future without limit. Eventually those who have lived suffi- and Voltaire and wrote the Foreword to the recently published ciently good lives will attain a state of enlightenment and reach Encyclopedia of Unbelief (Prometheus 1986). His Heidegger Nirvana, which is not, as is frequently supposed, the absence of und der Tod, which contains a critical discussion of Heidegger's all consciousness, but a kind of Absolute or Cosmic Conscious- views on death and "Being," was published in Germany in ness. Recent Western converts to reincarnation who have been 1985. Professor Edwards was awarded the Butler Silver Medal brought up in a Judeo-Christian environment have great dif- for Outstanding Contributions to Philosophy by Columbia ficulties with the notion of an infinite past and in most cases University in 1979. they simply ignore this question. They also do not seem to concern themselves with the question of the "ultimate" fate of

24 FREE INQUIRY the latter of these views. A person's body is different in every incarnation, but he is the same since it is the same mind that animates all the different bodies. In the words of the Bhagavad Gita: As a man leaves an old garment and puts on one that is new, the Spirit leaves his mortal body and then puts on one that is new. [II/22] To refute reincarnationism it is quite sufficient to show that the extreme form of dualism is untenable; and I think that the great majority of contemporary philosophers—reductive ma- terialists, identity-theorists, and moderate dualists (including epiphenomenalists among the last group)—would unhesitatingly Paul Edwards agree that the extreme form of dualism is quite indefensible. the soul. Their main concern seems to be that death, i.e., the Not only is reincarnation opposed to all of the most widely death after the present life, should not be the end, and a few held views on the mind-body problem. It also follows from additional lives would probably be quite sufficient to appease what has been said that it is opposed to one of the major their longings. current theories about personal identity. This is the view that It is not easy to find a clear and unambiguous statement of holds that, however much more than a body a human being the Law of Karma. However, insofar at least as it concerns the may be, personal identity involves bodily continuity. If we refer immediate human scene, the basic idea is quite straightforward. to this view as "corporealism" it should be emphasized that it is The doctrine maintains that the world is just; and justice is not the same as either reductive materialism or the identity equated with retribution. Everything good that happens to a theory. These do indeed presuppose corporealism, but the human being is a reward for some previous good deed, and reverse is not true. What concerns us here is that, unless cor- everything bad that happens to him is punishment for an evil porealism can be shown to be false, reincarnation is ruled out deed. As we shall see later, far larger claims are also made, but from the start. for the time being it will be convenient to ignore them. It Finally, although a reincarnationist need not hold the view should also be mentioned that, although many supporters of that the mind can or ever does exist without a bodily foundation Karma, especially Hindus, believe in gods or a God, many or concomitant, he is committed to the assumption that a others do not. In the West reincarnation and Karma are fre- person's mind does not require the particular body or brain quently offered as an alternative philosophy to those of theism with which it is connected in the present life. This follows from and deism. the claim that in other lives the mind will be tied to different It is clear that somebody can believe in reincarnation with- bodies and brains. I shall try to show in some detail later on out believing in Karma but that the converse does not hold. To that this assumption of the causal independence of the mind say that a human being will live again in other bodies does not from the person's present body and brain is more than a little by itself imply anything whatever about rewards and punish- doubtful. ments. On the other hand, if somebody believes in Karma he must believe in reincarnation, unless he takes the absurd posi- The Logical Advantages of Reincarnation tion that all the good and bad things happening to people are Over Other Forms of Survival just rewards and punishments for deeds they performed in this life. It would be difficult to find an Eastern believer who accepts he question is often asked why reincarnation should have reincarnation without also accepting,Karma, but some of the Tbecome such an attractive theory to large numbers of best-known Western philosophers who have advocated rein- people in Western countries in recent years. This is no doubt carnation have not also endorsed the karmic theory as true, an interesting question, but I prefer not to discuss it here. On although they usually regard it as an admirable idea. the other hand, I do wish to say something about the related question of why reincarnation might appear logically superior t is evident that reincarnationism makes several huge as- to other forms of survival. Although I don't believe that reason I sumptions that have been the target of severe criticisms by and evidence have much to do with the current vogue of rein- Western philosophers in recent decades and, in some instances, carnation, some of its new-found friends may have been partly for many centuries. To begin with, reincarnation logically pre- influenced by certain of these advantages. Some of the advan- supposes an extreme form of dualism. If we include as dualists tages we shall find to be illusory, but others are quite real. all those who agree that mental events and processes cannot be In the first place, although many Eastern reincarnationists identified either with actual and possible behavior or with any do believe in a "higher region," this is not an essential part of bodily states or processes, then we may distinguish the more the theory, and it is quite consistent for a reincarnationist to moderate variety, which holds that a person is both a mind rule out any kind of "Beyond." This means that reincarna- and a body, from the extreme form, which maintains that a tionists can dispense with anything like heaven and hell. Sur- person is his mind and that the body is simply one of his vival is said to take place right here on earth and not in a possessions. It is clear that reincarnationists are committed to mysterious realm whose location cannot be specified and which

Fall 1986 25 metry" of Western beliefs in survival. In Reason in Religion, Santayana observed that "the fact of having been born is a bad augury for immortality" (p. 165). Santayana was only concerned to point out the antecedent implausibility of Western beliefs in survival. Schopenhauer and Hume made similar remarks with the explicit purpose of showing the logical superiority of rein- carnation or, as Hume preferred to call it, "metempsychosis." "Judaism," Schopenhauer wrote, "together with the two reli- gions which sprang from it, teach the creation of man out of nothing." It then becomes a "hard task" to "link on" to beings with a finite past, "an endless existence a parte post" (The World As Will and Idea, vol. 3, p. 305). Unlike Schopenhauer Hume did not believe in reincarnation, but he also regarded it as logically superior to the Christian view. "Reasoning from the common course of nature," he observes in a passage that has frequently been quoted by reincarnationists, we must hold that "what is incorruptible must also be ingenerable, "and hence that "the soul, if immortal, existed before our birth" ("On the Immortality of the Soul," in Antony Flew, ed., Body Mind and Death, p. 182, Hume's italics). A little later he adds that "the metempsychosis is the only system of this kind that philosophy can harken to" (p. 186). Emphasis on the superiority of reincarnation because of its avoidance of the asymmetry of the Western view is usually has never been seen or otherwise observed by anybody. Next, accompanied in the writings of reincarnationists by scornful reincarnationism seems to be able to dispense with the notion comments about the absurdity and incredibility of the Christian of the disembodied mind as the vehicle of survival. Many liberal doctrine of "special creation," which holds that at conception Protestants are stuck with this view and, although believers God infuses a soul into the newly formed embryo. "If we claim who follow Aquinas take the position that the soul will eventu- that some divine power creates the soul," writes Irving S. ally be united with a resurrected body, they too are committed Cooper, one of the my favorite theosophists, "it is rather diffi- to a disembodied mind at least for the period between death cult to explain why the exercise of that power is dependent and the availability of the resurrected body. Now, the notion upon the sexual passion of man" (Reincarnation: A Hope of of a disembodied mind seems to many philosophers quite inco- the World, p. 58). Similarly, Professor Ducasse speaks of "the herent; but even if it is not incoherent, it seems incompatible shocking supposition, among Christians" that when two human with the evidence from neurology concerning the dependence beings mate, "be it in wedlock or in wanton debauche," an of consciousness on the brain. The other main form of survival infinitely loving God creates "outright from nothing" an im- believed in the West involves the notion, mentioned a little mortal human soul and that aribitrarily with a particular one earlier, that after we die our bodies will be resurrected. Except out of many possible sets of latent capacities and incapacities" for a small number of professional theologians, this view seems (A Critical Examination of the Belief in Life After Death, p. nowadays as incredible to educated believers as to unbelievers. 210). I may observe in passing that I unreservedly endorse Reincarnationists have not been slow to heap scorn on it. Thus these criticisms of the Christian position. It seems ludicrous Professor C. J. Ducasse, the leading philosophical supporter of that something as important as the creation of a soul that is reincarnation in recent decades, protests that nothing in the going to exist forever should be tied to such accidents as the position of reincarnationists is remotely as paradoxical as belief failure of a birth control appliance. It is safe to say that in in the "resurrection of the flesh," which is or was accepted by practice educated Christians and Jews do not believe in the many Christians "notwithstanding the dispersion of the dead special creation of the soul any more than atheists and agnostics body's material by cremation or by incorporation of its particles and that they adopt a completely naturalistic view concerning into the living bodies of worms, sharks, or vultures." Ducasse the origin of human beings, their psychological no less than does not address himself to the more sophisticated version of their physical attributes. resurrectionism that teaches that somehow, somewhere replicas of our original bodies will be created that will serve as the The Evidence for Reincarnation physical underpinning of our conscious lives. Aside from pre- senting serious problems concerning personal identity, such a now proceed to a discussion of the various kinds of evidence claim strikes most sane people as utterly fantastic, no less fan- I that have been adduced in support of reincarnation and tastic than the literal resurrection of the flesh. Karma. I believe that I have not left out anything of significance Another advantage or apparent advantage of reincarnation but in two cases, for reasons to be explained, my discussion may be described as its "symmetry" as opposed to the "asym- will be somewhat sketchy.

26 FREE INQUIRY 1. The Moral Argument. This argument, which is also called life," we must "as a logical necessity" affirm "the pre-existence "the argument from justice," though it could just as appro- of souls." We must affirm that "we are the product of self- priately be called "the argument from injustice," is used by the generated forces in states of prior existence" (ibid.). In this way great majority of the defenders of reincarnation, the more we arrive at "the great Law of Karma," which teaches that articulate and educated writers as well as the more primitive believers. It closely resembles the "moral" arguments for the Whatsoever a man sows, whether in the field of action or existence of God and life after death found in Kant and thought, sometime and somewhere the fruits of it will be reaped by him. [p. 377] numerous Christian and Jewish apologists. To many of its supporters the argument seems so overwhelmingly plausible It is a "reasonable law of justice which runs through the world that they find it difficult to conceive how anybody could fail to on all levels" and applies "equally to good things and evil see its cogency. Unlike most of the other arguments to be things." We have thus explained human suffering and inequality considered, the moral argument would, if valid, prove Karma as not being due to chance or the will of God but to our own as well as reincarnation. deeds in previous lives. The first step in the argument is a declaration that the world as we know it contains a vast amount of injustice. It will t is amazing that an argument that is so transparently be helpful to distinguish three kinds of injustice. To begin with, I fallacious should have gained such widespread support. First there is the undeniable fact that human beings are born with of all, Dr. Johnson and all the other reincarnationist writers very unequal endowments and into environments offering very who argue along the same lines are grossly confused about unequal opportunities. Some are born intelligent, with healthy what extending the "Law of Cosmic Effect" to mental phe- and handsome bodies; others are born with less intelligence nomena involves. It involves the search and, where one suc- and sickly or even crippled. Some are born to parents who are ceeds, the discovery of causal explanations. It most emphatically affectionate and well-to-do; others into families that are un- does not involve the demonstration that justice in the karmic loving, uneducated, and poor and into a society in which the or any other familiar sense prevails. If we show that a given prospects for happiness are exceedingly slim. Next, there is the mental phenomenon is the result of certain conditions or suffering later in life resulting from illnesses, accidents, and factors, we have causally explained it regardless of whether it natural disasters like floods, fires, and earthquakes, which are has thereby been shown to be a just reward or punishment. not in any obvious way due to voluntary human actions. Indeed, finding the causal explanation of a certain act may at Finally, there is the injustice inflicted by other human beings. the same time show it to be just. If we find that certain indi- I will follow Dr. Raynor Johnson, a Christian reincarna- viduals are engaging in revolutionary activity because they have tionist, in stating the remainder of the argument. Dr. Johnson been viciously mistreated by the rulers whom they are attemp- was for many years the Master of Queens College of the Uni- ting to overthrow, we have found the cause of their activity versity of Melbourne. In addition to his theology degree he and also exhibited its justification. However, much more often, also holds one in physics; and he is frequently cited by other finding the cause does not at the same time show the act in reincarnationists as one of their foremost spokesmen. After question to be just. If we discover that the tortures inflicted on listing numerous instances of injustice, he mentions "mere a political prisoner by his guard during the recent military chance" and God's plan as two ways of explaining the facts. regime in Argentina were the result of the guard's sadistic Chance is no explanation of anything, and it would be highly impulses coupled with a fanatical hatred of liberals and radicals, paradoxical to saddle a good God with the responsibility for then we have found the cause of the guard's conduct, but we the world's injustice. He then asks this question: have in no way shown it to be just. The confusion involved here is facilitated by a certain ambiguity in the word rational If neither of these alternatives is acceptable, what explanation and other cognate expressions. It is sometimes said that causal have we to offer which carries with it the reasonable assurance explanations show the rationality of the world; and this is true that we live in a just world? [The Imprisoned Splendour, p. in the sense that they show it, at least in the area in question, 376] to be orderly or law-governed. However, causal explanations do not by themselves show the world to be "morally" rational, Fortunately there is a third alternative. We can discover it if we i.e., to conform to our moral demands or sentiments. If we use have the courage to extend the "Law of Cause and Effect" terminology made familiar by the existentialists we might say from the physical domain to the "levels of desire and thought" that showing that physical as well as mental phenomena can be and to human behavior and consciousness generally, even if in subsumed under laws in no way shows that the world is not doing so we endanger the freedom of will. Surely it is "most morally "absurd." improbable" that mental phenomena are any less subject to Reincarnationists habitually state the available alternatives cause and effect than those that are purely material. inadequately. We saw that Dr. Johnson presents us with the Now, if we extend the Law of Cause and Effect to the three alternatives of "mere chance," God's plan, and reincarna- mental domain we have to maintain "that the grossly unequal tion. This simply ignores the theory known as "," conditions of birth and childhood," to confine ourselves to one which holds that all phenomena, if they are caused at all, are form of injustice, "are the result of prior causes." Since, how- the result of natural causes. Needless to say, a naturalist regards ever, such causes are "not by any means apparent in the present the hereditary inequalities of individuals as resulting from purely

Fall 1986 27 biological factors. Since he does not go beyond natural phe- undisputed fact that we have observed vast amounts of injustice nomena, a naturalist cannot escape the conclusion that the in the past, it most certainly cannot be inferred that in the world is not just. Reincarnationists are so wedded to their future, here or anywhere else, everything will be perfectly just. position that they seem quite incapable of stating naturalism Ultimately the only reason naturalism and its consequence fairly and they also have a tendency to beg crucial issues by the that the world is not just are rejected is that they are emotionally very way in which they formulate their questions. One of the unsatisfying. Reincarnationists and also many of the defenders few American philosophers during the period between the two of Western religions cannot bear the thought that good people world wars who championed reincarnation was A. G. Widgery, should suffer and that death should be the end for them. Some who taught at Duke University for many years. In an article on of the Eastern defenders of reincarnation are quite open here. "Reincarnation and Karma" in The Aryan Path of October Thus Swami Nikhilananda, the very able editor of an abridged 1936 he poses the apparently innocuous question: "Why is an edition of The Upanishads, maintains that "the theory of total individual born with this or that kind of body?" He complains annihilation is not satisfactory," and prominent among the that "occidental thought" ignores this "problem," but that the reasons is the fact that "it is inconsistent with the self-love we "doctrine of reincarnation" gives an answer to it. It is evident all possess." Such an outlook is understandable, but it is that Widgery will not accept the usual occidental answer in logically indefensible. It does not follow from the fact that terms of biological causes. He thereby assumes at once, in the something is "inconsistent with our self-love" that it therefore very act of raising the question, that there must be a "moral" cannot be real. justification for hereditary endowments and this by the usual 2. Otherwise Inexplicable Empirical Facts. The next argu- route leads to good and bad deeds in previous lives. ment or set of arguments is of a quasi-scientific kind. Various empirical facts are enumerated, and it is claimed that they "It is evident that reincarnationism makes several cannot be adequately explained in terms of natural or, more huge assumptions that have been the target of specifically, biological causes. Only an explanation along rein- carnationist lines is plausible. Existence in one or more previous severe criticisms by Western philosophers in recent lives is here advanced as an explanatory hypothesis. Since the decades and, in some instances, for many cen- structure of these arguments resembles that of many arguments turies." in the sciences, it is tempting to call them "scientific," but since reincarnation is most emphatically not a testable or falsifiable theory 1 will refer to them as "quasi-scientific." Among the It should be emphasized that a naturalist is not committed facts frequently mentioned in this connection, both by Western to the view that the hereditary endowment of human beings is and Eastern believers, are "infant geniuses" and remarkable a matter of "mere chance," at least in one important sense of precocious performances generally, the so-called déjà vu experi- the word. If chance means absence of causation then the natur- ence, love at first sight, striking differences between children of alist does not maintain that hereditary inequalities or any of the same parents, and many more. the other instances of injustice in the world occur by chance. The prize case of Western reincarnationists is that of the He is committed to the view that they are instances of chance Irish mathematician Sir William Hamilton (1805-1865) who, only if chance means absence of design or of moral significance in addition to remarkable mathematical feats at a very early in the karmic sense. While it would indeed be absurd to main- age, had mastered no less than thirteen languages by the time tain that hereditary inequalities and human misfortunes are he reached adolescence. These included not only modern lan- uncaused, it is not at all obvious that they are designed or that guages like French, German, Italian, and Spanish but also they have karmic significance. The latter is what the reincarna- Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, Hindustani, and Malay. There are tionist is supposed to show. In ignoring the naturalist view the also of course the cases of musical geniuses like Mozart, Schu- reincarnationist in effect assumes that the world is just. It would bert, and Mendelssohn who composed some of the world's be difficult to find a more flagrant instance of a question- greatest music at a very early age. Referring to a girl who, begging procedure. although coming from a quite unremarkable family, conducted It should be added that the moral argument proceeds in a the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a difficult program at counter-inductive fashion that in any everyday situation would the age of eight, Leslie Weatherhead, a prominent Christian be dismissed as totally perverse. Let us suppose that in a course reincarnationist, asks the question: of weekly lectures the instructor has been excruciatingly boring the first ten times. It is not impossible that on the eleventh Is it an accidental group of genes that makes a little girl of occasion he will have an off-day and surprise everybody by eight a musician far in advance of grown men and women, being lively and interesting. This is not impossible, but we have who have slaved for many years in that field? [The Christian no right whatever to infer it from the ten preceding per- Agnostic, p. 300) formances. If anything, we have reason to believe that on the eleventh occasion he will be tedious once again. To argue that Returning to Sir William Hamilton, he asks if it is nothing since the lecturer was boring in all the ten previous classes he more than "a piece of that a boy of fourteen can write will be interesting during the eleventh class is altogether per- perfect Persian?" If the answer is in the affirmative then life is verse. In the absence of proof that the universe is just, the "unjust as well as chancy." Fortunately the answer is not in the reasoning of reincarnationists is just as perverse. From the affirmative. It seems evident to Weatherhead that these child

28 FREE INQUIRY prodigies acquired their skills and knowledge in a previous life, and he quotes Plato's Meno as supporting this conclusion. "Most reincarnationists know absolutely nothing It must not be thought that great artistic gifts are invariably the result of the acquisition of certain skills by the person in about science and they do not show the slightest previous human incarnations. According to The Tomorrow of interest in remedying their ignorance. The authors Death, a book published in Boston in 1888, "the soul of a of the quasi-scientific arguments evidently work musically inclined child" may not have come from a human with a pre-Mendelian, `common sense' theory of being at all but from "the nightingale, the sweet singer of our woods" As for children with a talent for architecture, it only genetics that holds that all features in an offspring stands to reason that they should have inherited "the soul of a must have been exhibited in one or both parents. beaver, the architect of the woods and waters" (p. 247). The It appears that they have heard neither of recessive author of this charming work does not express any opinion genes nor of mutations." about how some New York City landlords and physicians acquired their blackmailing proclivities. I have no doubt that in a previous life they were sharks. Homosexuality is not usually regarded as requiring an Cooper's chronology is slightly off in the case of Mendelssohn, explanation in reincarnationist terms, but at least one writer, and there is much else about his list that is defective. Be this as and this is a very famous one, was convinced that no other it may, another "suggestive" phenomenon that cries out for explanation is adequate. In E. D. Walker's Reincarnation, A explanation is the "appearance of an isolated group of Ameri- Study of Forgotten Truth, which was published in 1888 and can poets and philosophers" all of whom were "born together has frequently been reprinted since then, Louisa M. Alcott, the in one section of the United States, and many of them, later author of Little Women, is quoted as saying, "I must have on, became intimate friends" (pp. 68-69). The most important been masculine [in my previous life] because my love is all for members of this group were Bryant, Emerson, Longfellow, girls." I am not aware that any male homosexual has offered Whittier, Poe, Thoreau, Whitman, and Lowell. These remark- this kind of explanation for his sexual orientation, but if it is able clusters suggest the thought that "life after life, groups of true for lesbians there seems to be no reason why it should not intimate friends and co-workers incarnate together to continue equally hold for their male counterparts. their activities." For all we can tell such group incarnations of Many other puzzling facts seem to lend themselves to the composers and writers are going on right now. How can we be same treatment. How are we to explain the characteristic dif- sure, for example, that Norman Mailer is not Charles Dickens, ferences between the English and the French? Of the English Saul Bellow William Thackeray, Phillip Roth Henry James, people, my favorite theosophist, Irving S. Cooper, writes, we and Susan Sontag George Eliot? The possibilities are endless. notice a "tendency toward colonization," a "lawmaking in- It is doubtful that Cooper ever read Schopenhauer, but, if stinct," a thoroughness in every undertaking, and a "massive he had, he might have stressed the superior consoling power of style of architecture." These admirable characteristics, it must reincarnation over that of traditional Christianity. Christians be noted with regret, are accompanied by a "sacrificing of console themselves, wrote Schopenhauer, "with the thought of beauty to utility and strength" and a "lack of imagination in meeting again in another world." Reincarnation teaches that art, religion and philosophy." In France it is just the opposite. "the meeting is already going on now," to which Schopenhauer There is very little interest in colonization and no lawmaking adds the qualification that it is occurring "incognito." He grants instinct worth mentioning. However, the French have an that recognition is limited to an "obscure intimation," but if "imaginative touch," a love of beauty, a "worship of form and one contemplates the history of mankind in a "purely objective expression," and a special "intellectual keenness." There is only manner," the conviction is forced on one that "the present one way of accounting for these differences in "racial" charac- generation, in its true inner nature, is precisely and substantially teristics. May it not be, writes Cooper, in what is a purely identical with every generation that has been before it" (The rhetorical question, "that in a mass the egos of Greece have World As Will and Idea, vol. 3, p. 303). taken incarnation in France, the egos of Rome in England?" Some of the writers just quoted are a delight, but their (Reincarnation—A Hope of the World, p. 67). arguments are incredibly flimsy. Most reincarnationists know There are many other pearls in Cooper's remarkable book. absolutely nothing about science and they do not show the He calls attention to the fact that great painters, composers, slightest interest in remedying their ignorance. The authors of and writers frequently come in clusters. It is surely significant the quasi-scientific arguments evidently work with a pre- that "the founders of music" lived around the same time, an Mendelian, "common sense" theory of genetics that holds that idea that Cooper obscurely expresses by telling us that all of all features in an offspring must have been exhibited in one or them were "born in a singular way." He then enumerates the both parents. It appears that they have heard neither of recessive the founders of modern music: genes nor of mutations. The differences between siblings are in part due to differences in the environment (no two children are First came Handel and Bach, then Mendelssohn, Mozart and treated exactly alike by their parents or by other people), but Beethoven, and lastly, in quick succession, a large group com- they are undoubtedly in large measure genetic. There is nothing posed of Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Wagner, Ruben- here the least inconsistent with contemporary genetic theory. stein, Brahms, and Grieg. [p. 68]

Fall 1986 29 Love at first sight and instant or almost instant likes and dislikes detail in a later section—that it is nothing of the kind. In the have not been studied in any systematic way by psychologists, formulation of various of its key assertions, concrete words but I think few people cannot give at least a partial account of associated with certain observable processes are employed and what draws them to or repels them from certain individuals. this suggests that we have a theory with empirical content. It is Those familiar with Reichian psychiatry know that deeply said that the soul "enters" or "invades" the womb of the pros- rooted emotional attitudes like contempt, disgust, sadism, and pective mother where it "merges" or "combines" with the many more are revealed by various chronic muscle-tensions, embryo. It is also constantly asserted that the soul at the some of them in the face, especially in the eyes, the chin, and moment of death or else during the interval between incarna- the mouth. People who know nothing about psychiatry never- tions "chooses" its new parents. In normal contexts these words theless perceive these chronic expressions; and this at least in refer to certain observable processes but, as I shall show, in the part accounts for their instantaneous reactions. As for déjà vu present context they do not. If this is so and if reincarnation is experiences, psychologists have done some research on this not an empirical or scientific hypothesis but a metaphysical subject. One theory reported by Arthur Reber in the Penguin theory, then, whatever value it may have, it cannot be a com- Dictionary of Psychology (1985) maintains that these experi- petitor of genuinely scientific hypotheses and it cannot explain ences are "due to a kind of momentary neural `short circuit' so empirical facts in the sense that is relevant here. A simple that the impression of the scene arrives at the memory store illustration will make this clear. X, a notoriously vicious person, (metaphorically speaking) before it registers in the sensorium" suddenly collapses and dies. We want to find out why he died. (p. 183). Reber adds that there is some evidence for this view Somebody answers that he was a sinner, that God was fed up since déjà vu experiences are known to be symptomatic of with him and that he therefore eliminated him from the world. certain kinds of brain damage. I do not profess to know whether Let us grant that this is true. It still does not explain X's death this theory is true, but it seems a good starting point for further in a scientific way. We were inquiring into the medical cause of research; and there is every reason to suppose that eventually a his death: Did he die of a cerebral hemorrhage or a sudden fully satisfactory account will be worked out involving solely heart attack or perhaps an overdose of cocaine, or did he take physiological and psychological factors. Reincarnationists never Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide? To our empirical question show the slightest interest in such theories when they are concerning X's death, the statement about God's decision to mentioned to them. eliminate the malefactor is no answer at all. A coroner who The case for reincarnation may appear to be strongest when happens to be a religious man and who in fact believes in this we come to child prodigies. For here it must be admitted that theological claim would not enter such a nonempirical explana- so far genetics and psychology have told us very little that is tion into his report. It is exactly the same with questions about specific. Nevertheless the reincarnationist argument is also quite the cause of genius, déjà vu experiences, love at first sight, and worthless in this case. There is not the slightest reason to sup- all of the other phenomena for which reincarnation is supposed pose that in order to explain the extraordinary gifts of men to be the best explanation. Reincarnation may or may not like Mozart or William Hamilton we have to go outside a have value as a metaphysical theory, but it cannot compete study of the human brain. It should be remembered that in with physiological, genetic, and psychological theories as a spite of the impressive progress of recent years, brain research scientific explanation of any facts. is still in its infancy. I think very few brain researchers have Perhaps one further observation on the origin of the special any serious doubts that with further improvements in our skills and aptitudes of a child genius like Mozart may help to instruments we will be able to shed much light on these prob- clarify the issues. Reincarnationists are in the habit of talking lems. It seems entirely plausible, for example, that Mozart's very vaguely about the soul's acquiring skills and knowledge in auditory cortex was in certain ways significantly different from a previous life and taking these along into the next incarnation. that of people lacking his gifts. To foreclose further research in One must pin them down and inquire about the "mechanics" this area would be an utterly defeatist procedure. To substitute of this transmission. Let us assume that, before it came to an explanation in terms of the acquisition of musical skill in an inhabit the body of Wolfgang Amadeus, the soul of Mozart earlier life (for which there is not the slightest positive evidence) lived in the body of Heinrich Hanauer and that it was during would be like abandoning medical research into the causes of that incarnation that it acquired the knowledge passed on to cancer and substituting theological speculation on the ground the Mozart body. I think that reincarnationists who are not that medical science has so far provided us with only a very altogether lost to some fantastic form of occultism will admit limited understanding of cancer. Even if a thousand or ten that the transmission from the Hanauer to the Mozart body thousand years from now researchers have not come up with a occurred via the brain and nervous system of the new embryo. satisfactory theory this would in no way support a reincarna- If they admit this they have tacitly admitted that Mozart's tionist explanation. It would only show that up to then no special ability is due to certain features of his brain that are not naturalistic explanation had been discovered. It would not and present in the brains of other human beings. Reincarnation has could not show that none is possible. in a sense become redundant. It will no doubt be replied that The preceding remarks naturally lead to what I think is the reincarnation is still necessary to account for the special features most basic objection to reincarnationist attempts to explain of Mozart's brain. However, if we have reason to believe in infant prodigies or any of the other phenomena under discus- what I call the "sufficiency" of genetics and embryology, this sion. Reincarnation is put forward in this context as a scientific will take care of the last reincarnationist stand. I will discuss hypothesis, but it can be shown—and I shall try to show this in this issue in a later section.

30 FREE INQUIRY 3. Past-life Regressions. The general public is probably not familiar with any alleged evidence for reincarnation except the recollection of previous lives by hypnotic subjects. The most famous case of this kind in America is that of Virginia Tighe, whose apparent memories of a life in Ireland at the end of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries are the subject of Morey Bernstein's The Search for Bridey Murphy (1956). This topic is handled so expertly by Melvin Harris in his article in the present issue of FREE INQUIRY that it is unnecessary for me to say more than a few words. Mr. Harris deserves special admiration for his expert detective work in tracking down the source of the "remarkable" information displayed by Jane Evans, the most impressive of the Bloxham cases. I should like to supplement Mr. Harris's remarks by men- tioning some examples of the transparently bad faith of past- life regressionists. At the time of the publication of The Search for Bridey Murphy it was already well known that by rehyp- notizing a subject and asking direct questions one could usually obtain the source of her information concerning historical facts of which she pleaded total ignorance in her waking conscious- ness. The Summer 1956 issue of Tomorrow, a popular quarterly review of research that often allowed space to complete skeptics, was entirely devoted to the Bridey Murphy case. Dr. Eric Dingwall, a British investigator who started his professional coverup of Bernstein's failure to ask her about it. If, as an life as an assistant to Houdini and who has spent many years experienced hypnotist, he did not know that such questions exposing fraud and unscientific practices among psychical re- frequently reveal the source of the subject's information, his searchers, contributed a devastating analysis entitled "The ignorance was culpable. If, what is far more likely, he did Woman Who Never Was." Dr. Dingwall concluded his article know about the need for such questioning and nevertheless with the remark that, if Virginia Tighe were asked under hyp- failed to engage in it, one can only wonder about his motives: nosis where she had obtained the story of Bridey Murphy, the was it the fear on the part of an ardent reincarnationist of source might be given. "It is curious," he adds, "that this was losing a good case or were perhaps visions of a potential best- not tried at the time." Life magazine, which at first had been seller already crossing his mind during the sessions? I should extremely sympathetic, featured a critical study of the case add that although later editions of Bernstein's book are adver- when it was beginning to fall apart. Among those interviewed tised as reprinting the original text without alteration this is were two leading medical hypnotists of the time, Drs. Jerome not true. Some passages whose inaccuracies had been exposed Schneck and Lewis Wolberg. Both expressed the opinion that by Dr. Dingwall were simply eliminated or changed without questioning Virginia under hypnosis about her early life would one word of explanation. In Fads and Fallacies have revealed the source of her Irish recollections. Bernstein described The Search for Bridey Murphy as an "utterly worth- was an expert hypnotist when he undertook the sessions with less book designed to exploit a mass hunger for scientific Virginia Tighe, and in the book he showed an intimate familiar- evidence for life after death" (p. 316). This seems a fair verdict ity with the literature of hypnosis. He quotes from the publica- and it equally applies to dozens of books published since then, tions of Dr. Wolberg and refers to him as "the famous medical including Raymond Moody's Life After Life, which, to the hypnotist." Throughout the book he speaks of an unnamed shame of the American public, also became a best-seller. "keen thinker" of "national prominence" with whom he dis- In recent years past-life regressionists have extended their cussed the Bridey Murphy tapes and who persuaded him that activities to exploration of future lives. It is reasoned that, if reincarnation was the only plausible hypothesis to account for hypnosis can regress a person to a period before he was born, Virginia's recollections. I might mention in passing that thirty it should also "progress" him to a period after his death. In years later this "keen thinker of national prominence" has still their future lives the subjects would of course be familiar with not been identified and I have always suspected that he is none the state of the world at that time and all kinds of interesting other than Bernstein himself. The keen thinker is quoted as things might be learned that cannot be learned by ordinary saying that "if she had read or heard all of this, your subject means. There is just one catch. The "progressionists" never could easily explain that fact under hypnosis." Very possibly show any interest in the near future. People are always pro- Virginia could have done so if Bernstein had asked a few gressed to future centuries when all of us, including all the questions about the source of her recollections. To bring up skeptics, will be safely dead. One of the leading past-life regres- the fact that Virginia did not reveal the source of her recollec- sionists, Dr. Helen Wambach, author of two widely circulated tions as evidence favoring reincarnation is surely a brazen books, Reliving Past Lives and Life Before Life, a star of the

Fall 1986 31 tabloids and one of the "authorities" to whom Shirley MacLaine mation to the public. Newspapers disappeared. Instead there appeals for a scientific underpinning of her investigation, has was the "information pill." This timesaving device "contained in recent years concentrated on mass-progressions. Her findings all the new scientific achievements, new items of general interest, were published in the National Examiner in May 1982. and all of the latest advancements" (p. 165). New information "Amazingly," we were told, all subjects progressed into future pills were available every day and my guess is that, in addition lives between 2100 and 2300 agreed on what they saw, "a to the scientific information, they also contained all the latest frightening world devastated by a nuclear holocaust and pollu- gossip. The information pills were swallowed just like other tion, and devoid of vegetation." How they survived is not clear, pills, and here for once one could be sure that all the new ideas but perhaps they had taken sufficient provisions into their space were really digested. vehicles since half of Wambach's subjects were "inside space Dr. Goldberg in his modesty has not realized that he himself colonies orbiting around the earth." Fortunately after 2300 constitutes the best evidence for reincarnation. His comic gifts conditions on the earth "had" greatly improved. Nevertheless, are quite in the same league as those of Fatty Arbuckle and Ben many of those progressed were by then living on other planets. Turpin. I do not for a moment believe that such a stupendous "Amazingly," we are also informed, "people from outer space talent can be explained by ordinary genetics. The only adequate had been helping in the evacuation of the earth." explanation would be in terms of one or more previous lives of One of my favorite progressionists is Dr. Bruce Goldberg, a assiduous labor or else the hand of God. Baltimore comedian who earns his living as a dentist and who Much as I admire Drs. Wambach and Goldberg, I must also has a practice in past-life therapy. In his Past Lives, Future register one complaint. I wish that they would give us informa- Lives (1982), a book that easily answers all the most difficult tion about the near future, perhaps the next two decades or metaphysical problems, he presents numerous progressions. He even the next two years, especially in such matters as nuclear admits that progressing a person is much more difficult than disasters and the conquest of disease. Stock-market quotations regressing him and explains this as due to the fact that all of us would also be welcome. I venture the guess that they and other have been "programmed to believe that the future hasn't oc- hypnotic explorers of the future will not comply and that they curred yet." This is evidently a serious error. In spite of this will continue to confine their progressions to distant centuries. widespread prejudice, Dr. Goldberg frequently succeeds in pro- 4. Spontaneous Memories of Past Incarnations. Through- gressing his subjects into distant centuries. He reveals in some out the ages claims have been made by or on behalf of certain detail what life will be like in the year 2542. Some altogether individuals that they could recall previous lives. These memories remarkable changes will have taken place by then, especially in or ostensible memories differ from hypnotic regressions in that such areas as transportation, farming, and the dissemination of they occur to the person in his waking life and, furthermore, information. Dr. Goldberg made his discoveries by progressing they are not provoked by an artificial stimulus. "I have been a young man from Baltimore by the name of Larry who in his born many times, Arjuna," says Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, future life became Zeku, the son of a scientist by the name of Lus-Lu who was in charge of constructing an underwater city. and many times hast thou been born. But I remember my past The progression gets really exciting when Dr. Goldberg asks lives and thou hast forgotten thine. [IV, 5] Zeku how people moved around in 2542. The answer, to use National Enquirer terminology, was "startling": "You could be It is widely believed by Buddhists that yogis have the power beamed from one place to another, which consisted of disas- to remember entire past lives, and not only recent ones, but all sembling the molecules of your body and reassembling them at those in which they inhabited a human body. In his Preface to the other transportation center at your destination" (pp. the fourth edition of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the editor, 163-164). Unfortunately the technique of "disassembling" and an American anthropologist by the name of W. Y. Evans- "reassembling" the molecules of the body is not described. I Wentz, who was a convert to Buddhism, insists that the belief hope that mistakes were not frequent at the destination, espe- in reincarnation need not be taken on faith. On the contrary, it cially as far as brain-molecules were concerned. Zeku had has a "sound basis" in the "unequivocal testimony of yogis who equally "amazing" information about the size of fruits: claim to have died and reentered the human womb consciously" (p. v). Similarly, Swami Nikhilananda, the editor of the abbre- Farming had undergone tremendous change. Very large forms viated version of the Upanishads whom I quoted earlier, rejects of vegetation were developed by geneticists, resulting in fruits the theory of annihilation partly because it is inconsistent with the size of cars. Lasers were used to divide and process the "the intuitive and direct experience of the seers regarding the foodstuff. [p. 164] indestructibility of the soul" (p. 58). In Buddhist scriptures the Buddha is frequently credited What is not explained is how these giant fruits were delivered with remembering an unlimited number of his own earlier lives or stored. No doubt there were by then refrigerators the size of and also with the power to intuit the details of the past and baseball stadiums to accommodate the new giant apples, future incarnations of other human beings. In the Sanyutta- peaches, and strawberries. As for transportation, perhaps the Nikaya the Buddha is reported to have made the following fruits were temporarily shrunk to the familiar size in the store claim: and then returned to their real size upon reaching the customer's home. Undoubtedly, however, the highlight of technological I, brethren, according as I desire, can remember my divers improvement concerned the new methods of transmitting infor- former lives, that is to say, one birth, or two, or three, or four,

32 FREE INQUIRY or five births, or ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty births, or a "remarkable" independent corroboration is claimed. However, hundred, a thousand, or even a hundred thousand, or even it is only with the arrival of on the scene that more... this kind of evidence has acquired an investigator and spokes- man whose presentations deserve to be taken seriously. Born in John Hick, whose Death and Eternal Life contains much Montreal in 1918, Stevenson obtained his medical degree at interesting information about the Buddha's alleged recollections, McGill University. He eventually specialized in psychiatry and points out that there is no credible historical evidence that the at the age of thirty-nine obtained an appointment as professor real Buddha ever made such claims and he adds that details of of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Virginia his past incarnations "belong to the rhetoric of fairytale rather Medical School in Charlottesville. As the Carlson Professor of than to historical reality" (p. 390). Psychiatry, a post to which he moved some years later, he Reincarnationists habitually list numerous famous men and founded the Division of , whose director he women in history who supposedly had spontaneous recollec- has been ever since. Stevenson is distrustful of hypnotic regres- tions of earlier lives. The list usually includes Pythagoras, sions and all the cases he has studied are of the spontaneous , Ovid, the emperor Julian the Apostate, Sweden- variety. He has also been interested in other areas of parapsy- borg, Goethe, and Alexander Dumas Fils. They also include in chology, but his fame rests exclusively on work bearing on their list the somewhat less famous Madame Blavatsky and reincarnation. In his early publications he did not take a definite Annie Besant, the first two leaders of the Theosophical Society. stand, but in more recent years he has come out as a very Empedocles, Swedenborg, Dumas, and the two theosophist ardent supporter of reincarnation. It should be remarked that ladies really belong on this list, but in the case of the others the he is an excellent writer and that the presentation of his cases is evidence is either dubious or nonexistent. Pythagoras did be- always lucid, systematic, and extremely detailed. Ian Wilson, lieve in reincarnation and he may well have claimed to recall one of his critics, acknowledges that Stevenson has brought "a previous lives, but the only evidence for this are two paragraphs new professionalism into a hitherto crank-prone field" (Mind in Laertius, a notoriously unreliable purveyor of Out of Time, p. 48). It will hardly come as a surprise that he gossip and hearsay, and one of Ovid's poems in which Pythag- has become a hero to believers in reincarnation all over the oras is made to recall his participation in the battle of Troy as world. It is difficult to pick up a book or pamphlet defending a brave soldier by the name of Euphorbus. Julian the Apostate reincarnation that has been published in the last fifteen years (331-363) is invariably said to have remembered being or so that does not refer admiringly to Stevenson's work. Alexander the Great. Julian was raised as a Christian but Stevenson got involved with one adult spontaneous-recollec- abandoned Christianity as a result of his philosophical studies. tion case that caused something of a stir in England in the He was a just and noble ruler who tried to return the Empire early 1970s and to which I will turn shortly. However, the bulk to the practice of religious toleration. His early death proved a of his cases concern small children, and they have a fairly boon to the persecuting Christians, and I would not at all be uniform pattern. These children usually begin making state- surprised if the rumor about his "recollection" was started by ments between the ages of two and four about coming from a Julian's Christian enemies in order to suggest that he was mad. home and place different from those in which they are living. In any event, even reincarnationists admit that it is nothing They recall altogether different parents and most of them speak more than a story. Goethe did on several occasions express of having lived as adolescents and adults. Some also recall sympathy for "metempsychosis," but the only evidence that he their death, often a violent one, in their preceding life. Children claimed to remember having lived before is the following state- vary greatly in the quantity of their utterances and the richness ment: "Surely, I must have lived already before the Emperor of the details they recall. The volume and clarity of the state- Hadrian, for everything Roman attracts me with inexpressible ments usually increase until the age of between five and six. force." Paul Siwek, a Catholic opponent of reincarnation, After that there is less and less mention of a previous life and devotes a chapter of his The Enigma of the Hereafter (New by the age of eight the memories have in most cases faded York, 1952) to these "memories of the 'initiated.' " Siwek rightly completely. During the period when the child remembers his ignores the claims about Ovid and Julian but he takes all the early life he often behaves in strange ways. The strange be- others very seriously and tries to discredit the value of their havior, Stevenson notes, is consistent with the character and ostensible memories on the ground that these persons were occupation of the remembered person. However, none of this known to be either psychotic or else exceedingly unbalanced. would be particularly impressive and even begin to be evidence This seems to me a misguided approach for the simple reason of reincarnation if the children's recollections could not be that, as C. D. Broad remarked in a different context, showing corroborated. Often indeed they cannot be, and Stevenson dis- that a person is "cracked" does not by itself provide a good misses such cases as not deserving further consideration. How- reason for supposing that what he claims is false. I should also ever, in several cases, which form the subject matter of his remark in passing that Siwek fails to show in some cases, books, there has been extensive corroboration. Research shows especially those of Empedocles and Goethe, that the individuals that the person the child remembers to have been did in fact were either mad or highly disturbed. There are much better exist and many, though usually not all, descriptions of the strategies of dealing with the reincarnationist appeal to spon- experiences, acts, and relationships turn out to be correct. This taneous memories. at least is what Stevenson maintains; and if one reads his The occultist literature of the late nineteenth and early twen- books and articles without knowing what the critics have to tieth centuries is filled with accounts of memories for which say, one can hardly fail to be impressed.

Fall 1986 33 The adult case in which Stevenson became prominently Ryall's claims were the investigations by Michael Green, who involved concerned an elderly Englishman by the name of is Inspector of Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings for Edward Ryall, who wrote a letter to the Daily Express in May the Department of Environment in London. Green found 1970 saying that he had clear and extensive memories of a life Ryall's statements about his house and farmlands extremely in the seventeenth century as a West Country farmer by the vague. He began corresponding with Ryall, who displayed great name of John Fletcher. The letter was published and came to uneasiness at having his claims for the first time submitted to a Stevenson's attention. Stevenson corresponded with Ryall and real expert. After much evasion and prevarication he finally paid two visits to his home. He became convinced of the answered Green's request to mark on a large-scale map that authenticity of Ryall's recollections and encouraged him to Green had sent to him the location of his lands and to supply write a book about his previous life. Ryall's book, Second details about the construction of his house. It should be men- Time Around, appeared in 1974, with an introduction and tioned parenthetically that Ryall claimed to have had recollec- supplementary notes by Stevenson. The case caused so much tions of his earlier existence throughout his life and they were interest that in 1976 the British Broadcasting Corporation not only not fading but becoming clearer and more specific. devoted a program to it. Participating in the program, the bulk When Ryall finally replied, he placed the farmlands on a loca- of which was reprinted in The Listener of June 3, 1976, were tion that had been open marshland until 1800, and the house Ryall himself, Stevenson, and two skeptics—John Taylor, pro- he described was not a type or made of material found in that fessor of mathematics at London University, and John Cohen, part of England in the seventeenth century. Ryall died in 1978, professor of psychology at Manchester. Ryall came off very and Stevenson went on defending him for a number of years, well, parrying all the hostile questions, though he quite ex- but in the end he admitted, somewhat grudgingly, that the case pectedly failed to convince the skeptics of the genuineness of was not as strong as he had originally thought. In an interview his recollections. in the September-October 1986 issue of Venture Inward, a What are we to make of Stevenson's work? I will discuss periodical published by the Association for Research and En- the cases of the children at the end of my second article after I lightenment, the organization that promotes the ideas and have presented the arguments against reincarnation. There are writings of Edgar Cayce, Stevenson remarks that he does not certain general reasons for rejecting them as evidence for rein- now regard the case as "enthusiastically" as he had ten years carnation that equally apply to cases of ostensible memories of earlier. He concedes that the absence of any John Fletcher in past lives. These general reasons cannot be adequately stated the parish records is damaging, but he does not refer to Michael until the arguments against reincarnation have been discussed. Green's exposure, which seems quite decisive to anyone without However, aside from these general reasons, there are also more an axe to grind. Stevenson's surrender is in fact far from total. specific, and extremely damaging, objections to Stevenson's "What we may be dealing with," he tells the interviewer, "are investigative methods. Here I wish to say a few words about perhaps some real memories of a previous life which Ryall the denouement of the Ryall case. then . . . embellished rather like a historical novel." Some Ryall was eventually exposed as either a hoaxer or the people never give up! victim of delusions, or, very possibly, a combination of the In the BBC discussion of the Ryall case there occurred the two. Credit for his exposure belongs to Michael Green, an following exchange: architectural historian whose role will be explained in a moment, Renée Haynes, editor for the British Society of Psy- Cohen: "... memories are tied to a particular brain tissue. If chical Research and an Oxford history graduate, and to Ian you take away the brain, there is no memory." Wilson, whose Mind Out of Time (1981), a book I quoted Stevenson: "I think that's an assumption. Memories may previously, presented the full details of the story for the first exist in the brain and exist elsewhere also." time. I should remark in passing that Mind Out of Time, a Cohen: "But we have not the slightest evidence, even a book hardly known in the United States, is far and wide the single case, of a memory existing without a brain. We have best work on reincarnation I have seen. All the most famous plenty of slight damage to a brain which destroys memory, but reincarnation cases are minutely examined and on the basis of not the other way round." Stevenson: "I feel that's one of the issues here—whether meticulous research all of them are found wanting. memories can, in fact, survive the destruction of the brain." From the start, Ryall's book failed to convince most readers. Taylor: "Professor Stevenson, do you have any evidence, It simply did not have the ring of truth. It did not read like a other than these reincarnation cases, that memories can survive series of recollections but rather like erotic fiction embellished the destruction of physical tissue?" by some period details. Renée Haynes in her book The Seeing Stevenson: "No. I think the best evidence comes from the Eye (1976) and in several subsequent articles pointed out reincarnation cases." numerous anachronisms. She and Ian Wilson found that while some of Ryall's recollections did check out, others of a crucial We have here a very clear statement of one of the basic issues character did not. The main of these was that the parish records dividing unbelievers from believers in most forms of survival, of Weston Zoyland do not list any John Fletcher for the period including reincarnation. The question is whether memories can of Ryall's story. They do not record his marriage to a Cecily continue without the brain and more generally whether the Fuller or the death of his father or his mother or of Fletcher consciousness of a person can continue to exist without its himself or the baptism of his two sons, all these being events bodily foundation. This will be one of the main topics discussed mentioned in Ryall's book. What finally proved the undoing of in the second part of my article. •

34 FREE INQUIRY Protestantism, Catholicism, and Unbelief in Present-Day France

In the Summer 1986 issue FREE INQUIRY began a continuing series entitled "Belief and Unbelief Worldwide" with reports from India and South America. Below Jean Boussinesq describes the status of Christianity in France. Articles on the Middle East, Great Britain, Eastern Europe, Australia, and Mexico, will appear in future issues. Boussinesq was born in France in 1918. He studied philosophy, history, and sociology, principally at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. After entering a Catholic religious order and studying theology, history, and religious sociology, he took on various ministries, among worker groups in large cities and among the sub proletariat. Boussinesq left the church when he became convinced that the rationalist attitude is the only viable one. He became a sociologist, an advisor, and finally the director for a large consulting group. Since 1978, as a member of the Rationalist Union, he has been primarily interested in sociology and in the history of religions in France. This article is adapted from a lecture he gave before the Rationalist Union in early 1985. Since then, important events have occurred in the French Catholic church that on the whole confirm Boussinesq's hypothesis.

Jean Boussinesq Translated by Gary Sutton

rotestantism and Catholicism, the two churches that Christianity against the attacks of the Modern Age and to represent Christianity in France, are very different from protect its members against worldly temptations. Pwhat they were eighty years ago. To help the reader The dogma of the church had been fixed at the Council of understand this, I will begin with an overview of the history Trent and by later pontifical and conciliar documents; its phi- that has brought them to their present forms. Then, after a losophy and theology are presented in simplified form in the brief sociological study of the problems confronted by each of catechism, which Catholics learned by heart. Certain items were them, I will give my assessment of the situation—the point of given particular attention: original sin and redemption; sin and view of a somewhat informed nonbeliever. grace; heaven, purgatory, hell, and the resurrection of the body; Throughout this historical and sociological discussion, I the sacraments; the church, as the holder of the truth, and its shall make the distinction between the churches proper and the hierarchical organization of pope, bishops, and priests; and more informal Christianity of believers who are attached only finally, the very strict moral philosophy based on the Decalogue slightly to a church or to either a Protestant or a Catholic and the commandments of the church. sociological tradition. Moreover, in the historical account, I The piety of the faithful was maintained by liturgy and by shall not proceed in the same way for both religions, for evolu- many religious exercises: simple ones like saying the rosary and tion of Catholicism began about fifty years ago, whereas to some that were more complex and demanding for the more understand the present trends of Protestantism it is necessary spiritual who engaged in religious contemplation or took part to go back much further. in retreats for meditation and instruction. From time to time, Fifty years ago, French Catholicism, at least in its principal parochial missions would come to the parishes: to preach, to traits, was not very different from what had been set in motion confess, and to reconvert the lukewarm. The doctrine gave by the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century and completed special emphasis to whatever the modern world, in ideas as and confirmed by the first Council of the Vatican (1870) and well as in politics, might introduce that was contradictory or by several pontificates, notably Pius IX in the nineteenth dangerous to the truth; but, in fact, the state and the schools century and Pius X in the beginning of the twentieth, in spite were secularized, and many intellectuals were influenced by of signs of a different future under Leo XIII at the end of the scientific, or positivist, philosophies, which often cultivated an nineteenth century. The Catholic church Was clearly dogmatic, indifference to religion, especially among the male population. strongly hierarchical, conservative, and organized to defend Finally, the Catholic church was distrustful of and pro-

Fall 1986 35 foundly hostile to the worker movement that began in the people. Thus there was a spiritual dimension to Catholic Action middle of the nineteenth century. It was not that poor working as well as the more active dimension, one of engagement in the conditions had not preoccupied Catholics—one could even say service of humankind—whether in one's community, in a city, that they preoccupied certain Catholics more than most of the or even on a worldwide basis. This was the motivation of bourgeoisie—but the structure and mentality of Catholicism many of those whose education had been formed by Catholic kept it outside of the organized worker movement. Action. These activists were found (and still are) in all walks of As the pope had walled himself up in the Vatican—he life—at the head of labor unions, in political parties, and even hadn't left it since 1870—so Catholicism and French Catholi- in government. cism existed in a kind of fortress. But there were some windows The spirit of Catholic Action was inspired by the new direc- in the walls of this fortress, and they were beginning to open. tions in theology. Catholic theology in France, Germany, Hol- They were opened to the world by missionaries who lived in land, and elsewhere benefited from the arrival of a generation countries where the mentality and tradition were different from of remarkable scholars and thinkers—Congar, de Lubac, those of Western Christianity. They were opened to culture by Rahner, Urs von Balthazar, and others. Their thinking is re- Catholic writers who had been asserting themselves since the flected especially in the nature of the church—a continuation beginning of the century, authors like Claudel, James, Mauriac, of Christ in History—and in the sacraments, which included Maritain. Windows were opened to the misery and suffering in man as a sort of collective being, immanent to history (but the world and the drama of history by the mobilization of transcendent, as a divine person). This vision of the church is priests and members of religious orders, especially during World grounded on patristic texts—that is, texts that predate the War I. Finally, a window was opened to . Contempla- Middle Ages. It surpassed not only classic Thomistic theology tive and spiritual, simple and fervent faithful followed one of (without openly contradicting it) but the "judicial" theology the fundamental dogmas of the Catholic faith, the communion that had prevailed in preceding periods. Chiefly, it opened per- of saints—the belief that prayer would permit communication spectives that could appear grandiose, for—very like the with the faithful who had died or who were living far away, or Marxist vision, although in a very different way—it assumes a even with those who would come later. The benefits of prayer place in history that denotes a sense and a purpose, which for would thus be reversible in time. Prayer for the dead, or for the Catholic is the final participation in the resurrection of the Chinese, was already a fact in the communion of saints. Christ. The scientific-epic visions of Teilhard de Chardin is the Many elements therefore were preparing to reopen the extreme expression of this position—the best known outside church to the world. For this reopening to be realized, it was Catholic circles but not the most common in the church. necessary that the initiatives coming from the lower echelons From this theology came a liturgy that was less formal and be welcomed and developed by an understanding hierarchy less distant, one that it was hoped would include the faithful in that was concerned with the future of the church. It is in this a more active way. It also expanded the practice of Bible- way that the great changes in the church had been accomplished reading among the faithful in the light of an exegesis that, for in the past: in the thirteenth century by the mendicant orders the Old Testament at least, often drew its inspiration from the and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by the Society biblical criticism of nonbelievers in the nineteenth century and of Jesus and other organizations. In the years from 1920 to was developed by radical Protestants; and this was reflected in 1930, this conjunction of the base and the summit was realized the schools of theology and even in the seminaries. at first with the creation and immense success of Catholic The Catholic church, having arrived at a peak of belief Action, then with a new theology and a new catechism, and between 1960 and 1965, might well think that things were finally with the affirmation of these new developments in the looking up. It still had the parish structure, but movements 1950s and with their official recognition by Vatican II. toward a parallel structure were often led by the parish clergy I shall not give a detailed history of this period, which themselves aided by specialized chaplains. Ancient and modern began with the Belgian worker movement, owing to a young structures were therefore in harmony, and because the number vicar, Father Cardijn, developed under Pope Piux XI, con- of seminarians and ordinations of priests was being augmented tinued even under the conservative Pius XII during and after and because the militants were relieving the clergy of some of World War II, and finally emerged in the pontificate of John their duties, it appeared that the problem of a church without XXIII. Instead I will sketch a balance sheet of this period as it priests, which had been the great fear of the 1920s, had been would have been drawn up in the early 1960s. solved. The Vatican Council II made the hopes of the new After thirty years of continuous evolution, one could say church a reality by establishing conditions that I shall take care that by the time of Vatican Il the Catholic church had caught not to call "progressive," but that one might justly call up with the problems of the time. The ferment of this evolution "open." had been Catholic Action—not only the official Catholic Action The following fifteen years upset everything. They were and its specialized movements and independent groups, but years of brutal and profound crisis, even according to the hier- also what one could call the "spirit of Catholic Action," which archy and the most sympathetic observers. First there was the motivated many of the faithful to participate in various broader crisis of the clergy: a vertiginous fall in vocations and ordina- movements as well as in isolated actions. It was a question of tions and the departure of many priests and religious. There living one's beliefs in one's social group, or in one's workplace, was also a crisis of Catholic Action, which although it survived not so much as a missionary who preaches his ideas but as a it was much diminished and no longer had the force it had witness and member of the mystic church present among the from the 1930s to the 1960s. There was a crisis in the parishes.

36 FREE INQUIRY Accelerated urbanization in France (less than 10 percent rural, as opposed to 50 percent in 1940) emptied many parishes and submerged neighborhoods in the cities and the suburbs to the point where the traditional framework of the parish was not able to adapt. There was a moral crisis. The morality of the Decalogue had been disrupted by new ways of life, by our "per- missive society," and especially by the widespread practice of contraception and the increase of "free love" at the expense of marriage. There was a crisis of piety and of the liturgy, the new liturgy having sometimes disconcerted the faithful in the parishes. Finally, there was the intellectual crisis. The church for fifteen years had been the arena of a battle whose extreme point was in South America but which also had its skirmishes in Europe, for example with the Schillebeeckx and Hans Kung affairs. One might think that since 1965 the church has become, in the words of a theologian bishop, Monsignor Matagrin, "a field of ruins," but I think this is an exaggeration. However, we will shortly examine the strengths and the weaknesses of the Catholic church today. But first I would like to mention an astonishing development during these years of crisis: the birth of a "charismatic" Catholi- Jean Boussinesq cism; a Catholicism of the Spirit of Pentecost; and more widely the birth of a large number of small communities—with various objectives and made up of all dispositions, but all born spon- taneously—that are in the process of creating, thread by thread, These excesses should in no way diminish our admiration a church of a new cloth. This phenomenon, and the growth of for such genius, which has exerted its influence in almost all a laity that is increasingly taking on the duties of the clergy, domains—theology, social action, politics, music, the Germanic fills a pressing need, and we shall return to it soon. languages, and so on. However, the hopes that were fueled for Luther and Calvin e have just taken a look at the recent history of French for the recognition of their Reformation by the universal church WCatholicism. During this time, what has become of have been disappointed. It has brought about persecution; Protestantism? To answer this question, it is necessary to go atrocious war; infinite polemics; and a constitution not of one back a little further in history. reformed church but of several, sometimes with one in severe One can discern three major phases in the evolution of battle with another. One would have thought that after the Protestantism. The Reformation began with the personal ad- treaties of Westphalia in the middle of the seventeenth century ventures of Martin Luther. But one would understand the that things would have stabilized and that the two worlds would Reformation poorly if one saw it only as the revolt of one man live peacefully side by side, whether people liked it or not, against the abuses of the Roman church. The changes brought according to the adage: "Cujus regio, ejus religio," that is to about by Luther were much more profound. Luther's arguments say, the best for subjects is to follow the religion of their were based on the notion of merit: How can we assure ourselves prince, Protestant or Catholic, whatever the case. Indeed, under that we are in the grace of God? A rigorous and agonizing the double effect of the persistence of the spirit of the Catholic soul-searching slowly led Luther to rethink all of theology and Counter Reformation (the spirit of intransigence and recon- finally settle on a triple affirmation that summarized his quest), on one hand, and of the development of puritanism in thought: "Only grace, only faith, only scripture." Zwingli and Anglo-Saxon countries, on thé other, where the Reformation Calvin followed different paths, but their reforms would have took its own course under Henry VIII and especially under been unthinkable if Luther hadn't shown the way. It is remark- Elizabeth I, the maxim "Cujus regio, ejus religio" was to able that neither Luther nor Calvin claimed to be the founder produce its bitterest fruit at the end of the seventeenth century. of a new church; they thought that their vision of Faith was In England under Charles I and James Il manifestations of that of the whole Christian past and that it was therefore Catholicism that were more than maladroit were definitively "catholic" in the true sense of the term. In their eyes, what they swept away; in Ireland, Catholicism became the religion of a had to abolish were the abusive theology and practices that colonized people. But, in France, the totalitarian spirit of the had become ingrained in the Roman church and which were Catholic Counter Reformation was played out in the Revoca- characterized by the tendency to combine faith and reason, the tion of the Edict of Nantes, whose sad tercentenary we cele- Bible and philosophy, divine grace and human virtues, Chris- brated last year. This episode left its mark on French Pro- tianity and humanism. Let us not be astonished if Luther testantism and separated Protestantism and Catholicism in a (whose poetic vigor did not recoil before verbal violence) profound way for at least two centuries. occasionally called human reason the "Devil's whore." But, during this time, Protestantism in Germany, and then

Fall 1986 37 in Switzerland and France, was gradually undergoing a pro- in France, Germany, and Switzerland, and which is charac- found change. There was first a change in piety. The severe terized by the return to the primary inspiration of Luther and Huguenot piety and the piety of Luther, founded on the com- the Reformers. munion of the people around the Holy Word and devotional This trend began as a reaction against the collaboration of music, was giving way to a more sentimental piety that centered certain theologians with nationalism, and particularly fascism on the sufferings of Christ. This is what one calls "pietism," and Nazism: This has grown into a condemnation of all "natural which was important in the music of J. S. Bach, the poetry of theology," in the name of the triptych of the Reformation, Klopstock, and also in the primary education of the young "Only grace, only faith, only scripture." Karl Barth was its Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Schleiermacher, and even later most illustrious representative during the first half of this in the formative years of two great adversaries of Christianity, century. What biblical fundamentalism there might be in this Feuerbach and Nietzsche. attitude is compensated for by an exegesis that took account of Finally, there was an intellectual change. The successive the progress of biblical criticism. Still there was a problem, and influences of the spirit of the Enlightenment and the first several ways to resolve it; one of the most original solutions Romantics were epitomized by Kant and Rousseau. The work was that of the great Protestant theologian Rudolf Bultmann, of Schleiermacher, at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth a contemporary of Barth. For Bultmann, the religious message, centuries, was typical of this new Protestantism. It was pri- that of Christ, was not a notional message; it transcends all marily what Barth called a "natural theology," that is, a doctrine concepts; it has therefore been understood and developed by in which the divine appears as the crowning of the human and disciples as a history in which the mythical amplification is whose tenets are reflected in the important philosophical ques- mixed with real facts. It is up to the exegete to unravel them. tions that man poses and in his art and science. Often—not The message is essentially eschatological; it aims beyond time. always—one finds at the end of this path the basic principles It is always present among us by predication. "It is in the that are the essence of Protestantism, but in a different spirit; predication that the event which is named Jesus Christ, the for there is no rupture between God and man that grace alone revelation of God by human word, continues to take place." can heal; this had been the fundamental intuition of Luther One sees that, even in this presentation, as bold as possible for and Calvin. a believer, one is far from the "natural theology" of Schleier- In the nineteenth century things were to become complicated macher or Sabatier. Even with Bultmann, one is again in the by the entrance of the radical exegetes, who put into question line of Luther; still more, evidently, with Barth. The thinking the very meaning of the words of the Bible by studying them in of Barth and Bultmann, and principally Barth's, has dominated the light of philosophy and history. So much so that toward the Protestant churches in France for fifty years; and the other the end of the nineteenth century in France one had in the belief, which one could call, in its broadest sense, "liberal main three groups. The beliefs of the "orthodox," of whom Protestantism," is expressed outside the church by numerous Guizot was a well-known representative, were very near to Protestants who are so by choice. those of Schleiermacher, for example, but they insisted on the This brief historical sketch of Catholicism and Protestantism maintenance of traditional dogmas. At the other extreme were has shown how these two histories differ. We are now at the the radical liberals, of whom the younger Coquerel had been heart of our subject: the present state of French Protestantism one of the leaders, and whom the orthodox succeeded in and Catholicism. What I have written will help us understand depriving of leadership roles in the community. And finally, the two sociological ensembles, where ancient and recent cul- between the two extremes was a moderate group that was tural traditions have become entangled and superimposed, just strongly preoccupied with the problems of the modern world. as at a geological site strata deposited at different times in the A typical representative of the moderates was Auguste Sabatier, past are superimposed and sometimes mixed. dean of the Faculty of Protestant Theology in Paris at the end of the nineteenth century. Sabatier's writings show how far this irst, Catholics. How many are there? According to the group had come from Luther. In fact, the role of Luther, like FCatholic Directory, in 1981 there were 45,750,000 French that of Calvin, appeared to be more of a historic one, a first baptized Catholics, that is, 84.7 percent of the population. But step in the liberation of thought. It is a little like what Goethe how many people are declared Catholics? According to a 1981 had already said to his friend Johann Eckermann: "We do not poll 79 percent of the population identify themselves as such. know everything that we owe to Luther and to the Reformation To be even more precise, one must have access to more detailed in general. We have been delivered from the chains of an polls. One can then see that 20 percent of the French attend intellectual narrowness; our education has gone forward." mass (not necessarily a parish mass) at least twice a month; Goethe could not foresee that this interpretation of the role of and moreover 17 percent attend several times a year but not Luther would go much further and that, on his fifth centenary, regularly. One can conclude that about 37 percent practice the one of the leaders of East Berlin would pronounce him the liturgy. On the other hand, a 1980 poll of 3,944 French above "champion of the social transformation in the first phase of the 15 years of age showed that 65 percent believe in God. This bourgeois revolution" and would conclude that "the heritage of alone does not define a person as a Christian; but 50 percent the former is a source of the historic conscience of socialism." believe in the resurrection of Christ, 45 percent in his eucharistic This vision of Protestantism, the result of an evolution presence, and 40 percent in the Trinity. If one deducts the begun in the eighteenth century, is contradicted at a right angle authentic Protestants, one gets a number close to that of those by what is now the majority position in the church, especially who practice the liturgy. Finally, a third poll, taken in 1978,

38 FREE INQUIRY believe "in their way," is more difficult. They are often tempted to hold on to the bits of doctrine and practice they remember "Agnosticism is probably the attitude of a great from their childhood, and therefore to adopt traditional posi- many of those who call themselves `Catholic' or tions, while leaving aside as they please a goodly number of prescriptions and dogmas of the ancient as well as modern `Protestant' but are so in their own way and church. outside the churches, not to mention the 14 per- The spectacular behavior of Pope John Paul Il intrudes on cent in France who, in a thoughtful and clear this somewhat disparate fabric of French Catholicism; it is manner, affirm that they are nonbelievers or meeting distrust and criticism, especially on the side of the ,, conciliar Catholics. On the whole he is applauded: 64 percent atheists. of Catholics-66 percent of occasional churchgoers, 82 percent of regular churchgoers—think he has enhanced the image of the church in the world. But the same poll reveals that 78 tells us that 51 percent of the population say that they pray (15 percent of nonchurchgoers, 72 percent of occasionals, and 64 percent every day, 4 percent only on Sunday, 32 percent from percent of the regulars claim that this pope has had no influence time to time). One also sees that, of those who pray, 53 percent on their personal faith. Above all, there is an obvious difference pray to God the Father, 20 percent to Jesus Christ, 14 percent between the sympathy that most feel for this pope (83 percent to Mary, and 4 percent to a saint. Forty-three percent pray for in a Harris poll of 1984) and their disagreement with the posi- success, a healing, and so on. (But one must remember that the tions of Rome on morals, especially sexual (same poll: 65 per- "asking" prayer has always been recommended by the church.) cent against the of sexual relations before marriage, If one compares these diverse polls, corroborated by several 74 percent against the proscription concerning contraception, others and by numerous testimonies, one can conclude that 65 percent against the refusal to marry those who have been there is in France a core of about eleven million Catholics (20 divorced). One finds oneself, as a sociological Catholic has percent of the population) who believe in and practice their said, with a "Christianity à la carte," and this impression is religion, and pray regularly; around this core, there is a circle confirmed when one sees how some people who declare them- of less regular faithful who in general believe in essentially the selves Catholic interpret some fundamental dogmas. It is same dogma—about 15 to 25 percent of the population. The astonishing to discover the way the Catholic population con- total, let's say between 35 and 45 percent, would be the popula- siders sin. A 1983 poll posed the problem of "moral fault." tion that one can call Catholic, in the proper sense of the term; Twenty-seven percent of those interviewed responded that, that represents between 19 and 24 million French. There remain putting themselves in this situation, they found a "feeling of 35 to 45 percent who declare themselves "Catholic" but who guilt," and 5 percent a feeling of "sin"; but 56 percent thought are either partially or completely outside the church (except for only that they had committed "an error." Even among prac- the most important rituals of life) or who are Catholic only by ticing Catholics, 31 percent had the feeling of guilt, but 40 sociological or traditional reference. percent that of error! Hence it follows that the responses on It is rather difficult to discern, in the "Catholic" population "confession" and on "penitence" were basically rather negative. in the strict or larger sense, the successive strata just discussed. Other surveys confirm these findings. The feeling of sin and the Events, group manifestations, and writings occasionally permit very word sin seem to be falling into discredit. How far we us to perceive them. Among the 35 to 45 percent of those have moved from the time when the novels of Mauriac and properly called Catholics, one can distinguish a majority that Bernanos and the plays of Claudel had as fundamental motives one can call "conciliar," who feel at ease in the modes of piety, for action the drama of sin and grace! liturgy, and thought institutionalized by Vatican I1 after having To finish with this rapid overview of present-day Catholi- been gradually put into place during the era of Catholic Action. cism, I shall return to the crisis of the clergy. The following (Fifty-six percent of "regular church-goers" think that the numbers show its gravity. In the preceding generation (1930 to changes that have been made since the Council are positive; 63 1960) there were an average of 1,400 ordinations every year in percent of Catholics are in favor of the liturgy in French.) France; that was more than the annual average in the period Another group that is distinguishing itself, occasionally very prior to 1914. But between 1975 and 1980, there were only 150 clearly, corresponds to the small communities of various kinds ordinations a year. The number of priests leaving the priesthood that have proliferated since 1965—some more mystical and every year has been large, but it declined from 128 in 1970 to even "charismatic," others turned toward study, and still others 82 in 1981; and it is now tending to stabilize. The number of toward action; occasionally there emerges a criticism of what is vocations is now tending to increase slightly. The pyramid called Catholic Action; one observes also a new taste for dogma. formed by the ages of the French clergy has as its base the This group is to be distinguished carefully from a third stratum, predominance of priests over sixty. But here I must draw atten- which includes the more traditional Catholics, without speaking tion to an essential point: There have been brilliant periods in of the so-called integrists, some of whom are inside the church the history of the church when the number of priests was and others on the periphery, like those who to a greater or rather small, because many of the marginal and service func- lesser extent follow Monsignor Lefebre. tions were filled by laity. The church now seems to be moving Analysis of the other part of the Catholic population, the toward a situation of this kind. If one adds the effective force 35 to 45 percent who practice little or not at all and who of the militants of Catholic Action, the active faithful in other

Fall 1986 39 movements and in the communities, the catechists (200,000), the German and Swiss Reformed Church and at present with the active religious (feminine) in the parishes, and priests in the the influence of Barthism—that is, a return to inspiration and service of the faithful, one obtains a total "staff' of nearly the initial formulas of the Reformation—is still predominant 500,000, which is considerable. As for the Episcopate, the there. Elsewhere—in America, for example, and in numerous nominations made under the present pope are gradually modi- countries of the third world—the influence of churches de- fying its physiognomy: the former chaplains of Catholic Action scended from British Protestantism is considerable, such as the are being succeeded by theologians and men of action, of whom Methodists and Baptists, not to mention the churches that are Monsignor Lustiger, archbishop of Paris, is the most familiar. clearly marginal, like the Seventh-Day Adventists and the However, the crisis of French Catholicism must not mask Mormons, whose success in France is modest. two realities: The first is the dynamism of this confession, the However, it is necessary to take into account the Protestan- cohesion that it can show in certain circumstances, its quality tism that has been perpetuated outside the established churches, (instruction, reflection, reading of the Bible, and so on), and its either as a personal faith or as a tradition of thought situated influence on all levels of society, including the highest. The at the uncertain limits of Christianity and deism. A 1980 poll second is that the crisis has not reached other Catholic countries conducted by a group of Protestant, Catholic, and regional in the same way. In 1981, there were in the universal church newspapers revealed that two million people in France claim 5,889 ordinations, as opposed to 5,787 in 1980; between 1977 that they are Protestants. Of these, 31 percent declare them- and 1981 the number of vocations in the world increased by selves near the Reformed churches, 9 percent Lutherans (the 5.8 percent. Catholics have become the majority in Switzerland, sampling was national, whereas the basis of is and the Catholic church is now the most important religious Alsace-Lorraine): 5 percent Baptists, 3 percent Pentecostal, and group in the United States. The progress of Catholicism is 4 percent from other evangelical churches. In total, 52 percent certain in the third world. Finally, in France as elsewhere, the of "Protestants" are more or less attached to a church. But 37 number of religious vocations, especially the contemplative or percent do not feel close to any church, and 11 percent make semi-contemplative orders, far from having decreased, seems to no pronouncement. In sum, the Protestant churches, even in be growing. It would be speaking lightly to say that Catholicism their greatest area of influence, scarcely count more than half is on the decline; and, even in France, it seems, as Monsignor of the people who call themselves "Protestants." Matagrin would say, it has entered into a phase of recon- The poll shows, in effect, that 47 percent of those inter- struction. viewed consider Christ as the son of God, but 48 percent con- sider him a simple "moral ideal"; 41 percent believe in the resurrection, but 44 percent do not; 64 percent pray at least Slipping from the religious register to the moraliz- from time to time, and 35 percent never pray. One can therefore ing register has always been a great temptation of say that half of the persons who call themselves Protestants are Protestantism, but classic Catholicism has not deists rather than Christians, but they are attached to the word been exempt either; and today this moralism is Protestant—the name and the tradition, which probably signi- fies for them free thought, mistrust of dogma, and so on. On taking new forms and addressing different prob- the other hand, in the churches or outside the churches, the lems, for example, social rather than private, but faith of the great majority of Christians is the pure faith of the it is still giving lessons. And for many faithful, Reformation put in the context of today's world. this moralizing lesson, of very diverse content s much by their history as by their sociological composi- depending on the position of the church, is more Ation, therefore, French Protestantism and Catholicism are important than the religious message itself." very different. And yet at the end of this century they are at grips with serious problems, many of which are common to both. These problems are numerous, serious, and menacing— hat about the present state of Protestantism? It is a according to the churches themselves. Wconfession very much of the minority; in taking into 1. The problem of the catechism and that of preaching. account only the numbers given by the churches themselves, The teaching of the catechism has made enormous progress in one would have a total of 800,000 faithful: Reformed (Cal- both Catholic and Protestant churches. However, a new text, vinists), 450,000; Lutherans, 275,000; Baptists, 12,500; diverse the official schema of Catholic cathechism, is under study fol- others, 4,000 to 5,000; to which one can add 50,000 members lowing remonstrances from Rome. I have observed, by studying of that clearly preach a Christian doctrine and yet do not one of the most widely known manuals, that the word sin fall into a sectarian biblical fundamentalism. These figures relate occurred only five times, original sin one time, and Trinity two only to metropolitan France; they are to be compared either times; but a presentation (both objective and respectful) of with the numbers given above for French Catholicism or with Islam occupied a half-page. In the church, this creates a prob- the effective global forces of Protestant churches, which count lem. The same thing is true of certain forms of preaching. between 270 and 300 million. The composition of Protestantism 2. The problem of the intrusion of the church into society in the world is moreover rather different from that of French and into modern life. The influence of the churches is certainly Protestantism; the latter has always lived symbiotically with very great: in political, professional, and social life; in the mass

40 FREE INQUIRY media; in literature; and so on. But the churches are not content it is carried to the point of synthesis, not to say of syncretism; with the multiform presence of their laic representatives in whereas the Protestant is fundamentally marked by his tradition certain key posts of civil society; rather, they impose their of trust in God, the sole source of salvation, and in Scripture, authority in many areas. And here, observes a Protestant theo- the sole source of truth and life. The most fervent and the most logian, they run a double risk: On the one hand is the risk of "advanced" Catholics live intellectually and spiritually in a incompetence on the part of the clergy. (The same theologian church that they conceive as Christ continued in history; this goes so far as to say that one can even see both sides rising up vision profoundly shocks the Protestant (even more concerned against each other—an incompetent and politicized clergy and with ecumenism), because for him the church is a community a competent and demobilized laity). On the other hand is the of simple, faithful sinners redeemed and assembled by the pure risk of moralism. Slipping from the religious register to the moralizing register has always been a great temptation of "Christian religion will very probably be the most Protestantism, but classic Catholicism has not been exempt either; and today this moralism is taking new forms and ad- durable nucleus of religiousness for many years dressing different problems, for example, social rather than to come. All signs indicate that this religiousness private, but it is still giving lessons. And for many faithful, this is increasing among the population; moreover, moralizing lesson, of very diverse content depending on the religions throughout the world are growing at an position of the church, is more important than the religious message itself. Once again, I am limiting myself to what the increasing rate, whatever these religions might be." churches themselves are saying. 3. The problem of , the more disturbing problem of grace of Christ. The gulf is profound, and it seems that the practical agnosticism, and the still more disturbing problem of Protestants and Catholics will have to be content to pray side religious syncretism, which amalgamates Eastern and Western by side but not to celebrate the Eucharist together; for, as the beliefs with a few references to "science," techniques of yoga, Catholic hierarchy says, there is in this, for the Catholic, the and so on. This threefold problem is of great concern to the risk of interpreting the Last Supper as an ordinary com- churches. They are fighting hard against sects. New forms of memoration. piety—charismatic, for example are able to keep certain faith- 5. And, finally, theological problems. We have just dis- ful within the churches, such as those who are attracted by cussed some of them. There are many others. A Protestant pentecostal groups. Moreover the churches (especially the theologian recently said at Neuchatel that in the reformed Catholic) flatter themselves for having disarmed the threat of church, "after the doctrinal renewal that corresponded to the science by showing that "science and religion go happily to- Barthian period, one saw a profound return to the theology of gether." Agnosticism is probably the attitude of a great many experience. This is no longer characterized, as in the liberalism of those who call themselves "Catholic" or "Protestant" but are of the nineteenth century, by a searching of the religious and so in their own way and outside the churches, not to mention moral conscience, but by a collective listening to the political the 14 percent in France who, in a thoughtful and clear manner, and social call of dependent peoples." He thus makes allusion affirm that they are nonbelievers or atheists. to the famous South American "theology of liberation," which 4. The problem of ecumenism. The concern of ecumenism developed on Protestant terrain as well as on Catholic. is inherent in Christianity as such, even though the ecumenical One knows with what vigor Rome is combating liberation movement was not born until the beginning of this century, theology. But a "Letter of theologians of the first and third from initiatives starting at the base and not among the hier- world," published following a colloquy of Protestant theolo- archy. Speaking only of relations between Catholics and Pro- gians in Geneva, appeared so dangerous to Pastor Roger Mehl, testants, there is no doubt that they have greatly improved in a well-known philosopher and theologian, that he did not hesi- the past fifty years. The pioneers of ecumenism worked as tate to say that "theological reflection is in danger." In particu- theologians searching for points of agreement in dogma and lar, examining the final formula of this "Letter," "to make a liturgy; but the two communities remained profoundly sepa- theology from the people, for the people, and with the people," rated by their histories and by their sociological and cultural Mehl notes that its end purpose is good, but that "to make a traditions, and they often mistrusted each other. theology from the people" makes absolutely no sense, since Today it is different. Many parishes of the two churches theology has no other source but the word of God. visit one another, priests and pastors live on good terms, para- I cite Mehl to show that the adversaries of "inductive liturgical meetings unite the faithful of both creeds, and. even theology" are not only in the traditional areas of the churches. the Catholic liturgy reformed by Vatican Il has become much In fact, the idea of an "inductive" theology is not new. It less shocking to Protestants. This coming together culminated appears, although perhaps in a different form, throughout the in Pope John Paul II himself going to a Lutheran church in history of Protestantism since Schleiermacher, in the nineteenth Rome to pray! On the other hand, it seems there has been no century. It also appears, and this is less well known, in the progress, and no hope of progress, in dogma itself. And it is theological practice of the recent Catholic Action period, whose not due only to the return of Rome to a certain doctrinal practico-theologico-mystical meetings of reflection tried to bring intransigence. In fact, even and perhaps especially in its most out affirmations of faith of an analysis of everyday reality. "modern" manifestations, Catholic thought has always had a Basically, the theology of liberation, born in the dramatic con- tendency to combine reason and faith, supernatural and natural; text of Latin America, is only an extreme form of this kind of

Fall 1986 41 thought. The dogmatically structured thought of Roman theo- logians cannot admit this, nor even understand it; but one might think also that this thought clashes somewhat with the famous Declaration of Barmen of 1934, in which the German NORD-PASSE CALAIS Evangelical Church reminded us that "Jesus Christ, such as he HTE- NORMÁNDIE is attested in Holy Scripture, is the only Word of God that we PICARDIE SSE- CHAMPAGNE. have to listen to" and rejected the idea according to which "the NORMANDIE ILE DE ARDENNE LORRAINE FRANCE Church could and should recognize equally as a source of its BRETAGNE ALSACE preaching other events and powers, other phenomena and truths PAYS DE LOIRE CENTRE than divine revelations." BOURGOGNE The nonbeliever remains perplexed before this wrangling. FRANCHE. COMTE POITOU- He understands that theology is reflection upon all the funda- CHARENTES mental ideas of faith and that, since this faith is man's faith, LIMOUSIN RHÖNE•ALPES the theologian ought also to reflect on man. The nonbelieving AUVERGNE observer also distinguishes Protestant theology, which tries to AQUITAINE lean on the formula "Only grace, etc.," from Catholic theology, MIDI-PYRENEES PROVENCE-ALPES- for which nature and history are also the words of God to be CÔTE D'AZUR deciphered, and for which the church is also the source of LANGUEDOC- truth, since it is Christ continued in time. ROUSSILLON CORSE This explains why the domain of Catholic theology is so vast, so imprecise, and occasionally so ambiguous, while that of classical or Barthian Protestant theology is clear but narrow. France But it is much more difficult to understand how an "inductive theology" can succeed without the support of biblical or theo- formulation of this idea is that the church will be given back to logical quotations. This problem is one of the most serious the people who create it with Christ. This vision pushed Catho- facing the churches. lic theology to the extreme from 1940 to 1960. Each of these two churches also has its own problems. But, at the same time, John Paul II seems to be determined French Protestant churches since the Barthian period have been to found, or restore, a church that is solidly dogmatic, hier- looking for new life. They are trying to stem the increasing archical, and ready for combat. The pope may be modeling the trend toward putting aside dogmas and celebrating "life" in- church after the Polish church, from which he came. But the stead. They are taking liberal positions on burning issues like Polish church is characterized by the prestige and the power of contraception, abortion, and the nuclear threat, but these posi- the bishops and priests. How can this be adapted in France, tions do not have unanimous support among Protestants. where the clergy has become tragically insufficient and where Finally, they are posing the fundamental questions: How can fifty years of Catholic Action have given the laity a position of the Christian message, in the characteristic form the Reforma- prime importance in the church? Differences between Rome tion has given it, respond to the hopes and fears of the world and the Catholic church are not new. What is new, and a today? Luther met the anguished consciences of his time with serious problem for the church, is the coexistence, even among the promise of salvation; the message of the new Protestantism Catholics most attached to their faith, of a renewal of interest of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries responded to ques- in dogma and mystical doctrine with an obvious alienation tions that interested the public then—civil liberties, democracy, from the morality preached by the church, especially where sex science; the Barthian message addressed itself to a world crushed is concerned. All the polls are in agreement on this struggle by the totalitarianisms of the twentieth century; but for today between religiosity and laxity. and tomorrow, what message can the church give? Other contradictions and ambiguities are making life diffi- On the other hand, French Protestantism, always very much cult for the French Catholic church. Many Catholics, even a minority group, has lost part of its traditional sociological nonintegrists, have made violent attacks against Catholic foundation: It has lost both the peasants and the bourgeoisie. Action, its convictions and its methods. (Cardinal Ratzinger, (This Republican bourgeoisie, enterprising and austere, was for Pope John Paul's right arm, has supported these attacks and a long time the backbone of the French Reformation.) Today, praised the "charismatic communities.") New groups thronging the general mixing of the populations and ideas has reduced into the church often go off in divergent directions, in both the originality of the Protestants. Eighty percent of marriages thought and action. The parishes have not yet succeeded in performed in Protestant churches are interreligious. Protestan- formulating a new structure to adapt to a world totally upset tism is running the risk of either becoming diluted in modern by the accelerated urbanization, new attitudes of a consumer civilization or isolating itself to preserve its individuality. society, and disarray caused by this crisis. A few parishes, and The problems of Catholicism are no less serious. There is, the number is growing, are taking steps to solve these problems. first of all, the crisis of the clergy, although the laity is taking They are trying different ways of welcoming new parishioners up the slack. A 1982 survey confirmed that the church is moving and trying new forms of confession; they are providing places toward a structure in which the priest will take charge of the for spiritual retreat and for meetings of the various communi- sacraments and the community will do the rest. An astonishing ties. The clergy and the faithful are creatively looking in several

42 FREE INQUIRY directions, depending on the particular environment. way. Finally, one sees evidence of a rather surprising shift in The search for truth has nothing to do with popular opinion. attitude. Some Catholics and their clergy (even at the summit Christian religions have known highs and lows. It seems to me of the hierarchy) are reverting to the defensive combat position that they are in the process of coming out of a decline as they that became common about 1910 but gave way around 1960 to undergo a transformation. That has little importance for me. I a dynamic, aggressive mentality. How else are we to interpret, do not make decisions according to the number of adherents for example, the indignant protestations of Monsignor Lustiger on one side or the other of a particular issue, or according to when two television comedians in 1983 dared to make jokes the results of polls. In this respect, it is of little importance to about religion, jokes that seem rather bland when compared me whether I am with or against the "predetermined course of with the many well-known anti-religious writings since Voltaire history," especially since, for many reasons, I do not think that (and compared with the violent attacks on atheists by great history has an easily discernible course. Catholics like Leon Bloy, Bernanos, and recently Clavel). Christianity in all its forms—Catholicism, Protestantism, Cardinal Ratzinger recently warned Catholics that they would and Orthodox—rests on the "fact" of the Resurrection of Christ; be fighting against the "world." that is the basis of everything. However, I have consulted However, the church is still capable of mobilizing large exegetes and historians in vain to assure me of this "fact," in crowds—for example, to call attention to problems of educa- the way I am assured, for example, that Ravaillac assassinated tion. Since this issue is tangential to our subject, I shall mention Henry IV. I have seen many explanations of this "fact," either only that several polls were made before and during the massive in the manner of Bultmann or even through a purely mythical demonstrations of 1984 and all found similar attitudes among construction. But, when one asks me to believe in this "fact," the parents. One poll reported the motivations of parents who one is not just asking for a simple intellectual consent; rather, chose private Catholic schools for their children: 38 percent one is asking for a pledge, a commitment, a turning upside- chose private schools because they were able to follow the down of my whole life. I have to ask for a few more guarantees child from the beginning to the end of his school program; 26 before such a metamorphosis can take place. percent because private schools teach respect for traditional Another form of religion is based on what is called "natural values; and only 25 percent because of religious education. theology." This is an effort to crown human thought and action These figures show great respect for the education provided by with a mystique that would make them emerge in divine tran- religious schools, but they also show an ambiguous response to scendence. But, by starting from below, one will never emerge the church's positions on the schools. This ambiguity has as a transcendent being; or else one would not be transcendent. certainly been perceived by the episcopate and explains why it I also think that thought and action can do very well without has often remained in the background in disputes between this complement. If I have read Kant correctly, this kind of some leaders of these protests, and this prudence has been speculation is purely a manner of speaking. It is true that Kant criticized by Catholic politicians. finally found in God a presupposed necessity of moral duty; he even thought he could prove the existence of a radical evil in s to the future of the two great forms of Christianity in humanity. This led him to justify in his way a certain number AFrance, I disagree with those who see them engaged in an of dogmas. But is moral duty truly a universal fact of reason? irremediable decline. Nor do I believe that they are gradually Are the fact and the sense of sin so constant in humanity? making room for diverse forms of the irrational (which would History and ethnology tell us the contrary. Kant believed he was include astrology, parapsychology, new forms of Eastern spir- reasoning as universal man; but he reasoned from a pietist itualism, and other diverse sects). The facts contradict this mentality, which he had been conditioned to by his education. somewhat confused vision. What is certain is that during this Another mentality, another conclusion. half of the century the two Christian churches are in the process As for the enormous intellectual content of Catholicism, of undergoing a change. This is clearer in the case of Catholi- not only does it hold the two aforementioned weaknesses, but cism, which seems to be moving toward "Christianity à la it includes a number of difficulties and ambiguities that one carte," where mystical theology, social action, and occasionally perceives when one penetrates this impressive edifice—if one a return to some of the church dogmas can unite with a moral- opens one's eyes. The variations of the Catholic church that I ity contradictory to precepts of the church. This contradiction have described, and that Bossuet had not foreseen, are simply is much more evident with Catholics, whose traditional rigid a historical account of the plasticity that has permitted Catholi- doctrine (by nature more philosophical than religious) leaves cism to welcome almost everything for two thousand years. room only for obedience or rejection. Thus transformed, in a Almost everything; not everything. For it cannot welcome the manner no one could have foreseen, Christian religion will strength and very essence of reason, which is always to put very probably be the most durable nucleus of religiousness for everything into question, including its own productions. Faith many years to come. All signs indicate that this religiousness is proposes global solutions to man that'permit him to live and increasing among the population; moreover, religions through- to die thinking that he has understood the essentials about his out the world are growing at an increasing rate, whatever these life and his survival; reason tells him the contrary. Reason tells religions might be. him that he knows very few things. It can teach him only that This is my conclusion, as honest as possible after a rapid he is a link in a chain that begins with the animals and con- study in which I have tried to be objective. Since this is not the tinues in a process of evolution that is not yet complete. This is subject of this article, I shall do so in a brief and even lapidary all that I know; and for me it is sufficient. •

Fall 1986 43

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Do Kid. Need to Pray' Armageddon: Are We Living t7 Marl Twun in the Last Days?

Vern John a,:m. aaaGenr ' Rama FAITH-HEALING ammao/ Miracle or Fraud? m ruma CeoettleMeeed Back Issues o (A 20% discount will be given on orders of 5 or more copies of the same issue; 40% on orders of 10 or more.) FREE INQUIRY Summary of Major Articles

Winter 1980/81, Vol. I, no. 1 — Secular Humanist Declaration. Democratic Summer 1982 Vol. 2, no. 3 (special issue) — A Symposium on Science, the Humanism, Sidney Hook. Humanism: Secular or Religious? Paul Beanie. Bible, and Darwin: The Bible Re-examined, Robert S. Alley, Gerald Larue, Free Thought, Gordon Stein. The Fundamentalist Right, William Ryan. John Priest, Randel Helms. Darwin, Evolution, and Creationism, Philip The Moral Majority, Sol Gordon. The Creation/ Evolution Controversy, Appleman, William V. Mayer, Charles Cazeau, H. James Birx, Garrett H. James Birx. Moral Education, Robert Hall. Morality Without Religion, Hardin, Sol Tax, Antony Flew. Ethics and Religion, Joseph Fletcher, Marvin Kohl, Joseph Fletcher Freedom Is Frightening, Roy P. Fairfield. Richard Taylor, Kai Nielsen, Paul Beattie. Science and Religion, Michael The Road to Freedom, Mihajlo Mihajlov. $3.50 Novak, Joseph L. Blau. $5.00

Spring 1981, Vol. I, no. 2 — The Secular Humanist Declaration: Pro and Fall 1982, Vol. 2, no. 4 — An Interview with Sidney Hook at Eighty, Paul Con, John Roche, Sidney Hook, Phyllis Schiafly, Gina Allen, Roscoe Kurtz. Sidney Hook: A Personal Portrait, Nicholas Capaldi. The Religion Drummond, Lee Nisbet, Patrick Buchanan, Paul Kurtz. New England and Biblical Criticism Research Project, Gerald Larue. Biblical Criticism Puritans and the Moral Majority, George Marshall. The Pope on Sex, Vern and Its Discontents, R. Joseph Hoffmann. Boswell Confronts Hume: An Bullough. 0n the Way to Mecca, Thomas Szasz. The Blasphemy Laws, Encounter with the Great Infidel, Joy Frieman. Humanism and Politics, Gordon Stein. The Meaning of Life, Marvin Kohl. Does God Exist? Kai James R. Simpson, Larry Briskman. Humanism and the Politics of Nostal- Nielsen. Prophets of the Procrustean Collective, Antony Flew. The Madrid gia, Paul Kurtz. Abortion and Morality, Richard Taylor. $3.50 Conference, Stephen Fenichell. Natural Aristocracy, Lee Nisbet. $3.50 Winter 1982/83, Vol. 3, no. 1 — 1983—The Year of the Bible. Academic Summer 1981, Vol. 1, no. 3 — Sex Education, Peter Scales Thomas Szasz. Freedom Under Assault in California, Barry Singer, Nicholas P Hardeman, Moral Education, Howard Radest. Teen-age Pregnancy, Vern Bullough. The Play Ethic, Robert Rimmer. Interview with Corliss The New Book-Burners, William Ryan. The Moral Majority, Gerald Larue. Vern Bullough. Lamont. Was Jesus a Magician? Morton Smith. Astronomy and the "Star Liberalism, Edward Ericson. Scientific Creationism, Delos McKown. New of Bethlehem," Gerald Larue. Living with Deep Truths in a Divided World, Evidence on the Shroud of Turin, . Agnosticism, H. J. Blackham. Sidney Hook. Anti-Science: The Strange Case of Paul Feyerabend, Martin Science and Religion, George Tomashevich. Secular Humanism in Israel, Isaac Hasson. $3.50 Gardner. $3.50

Fall 1981, Vol. 1, no. 4 — The Thunder of Doom, Edward P. Morgan. Spring 1983, Vol. 3, no. 2 — The Founding Fathers and Religious Liberty, Secular Humanists: Threat or Menace? Art Buchwald. Financing of the Robert S. Alley. Madison's Legacy Endangered, Edd Doerr. James Madi- Repressive Right, Edward Roeder. Communism and American Intellectuals, son's Dream: A Secular Republic, Robert A. Rutland. The Murder of Sidney Hook. A Symposium on the Future of Religion, Daniel Bell, Joseph Hypatia of Alexandria, Robert E. Mohar. Hannah Arendt: The Modern Fletcher, William Sims Bainbridge, Paul Kurtz. Resurrection Fictions, Seer, Richard Kostelanetz. Was Karl Marx a Humanist? articles by Sidney Randel Helms. $3.50 Hook, Jan Narveson, and Paul Kurtz. $3.50

Winter 1981/82, Vol. 2, no. 1 — The Importance of Critical Discussion, Summer 1983, Vol. 3, no. 3 (special issue) — Religion in American Politics Karl Popper. Freedom and Civilization, Ernest Nagel. Humanism: The Con- Symposium: Is America a Judeo-Christian Republic? Paul Kurtz. The First science of Humanity, Konstantin Kolenda. Secularism in Islam, Nazih Amendment and Religious Liberty, Sen. Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., Sam J. N. M. Ayubi. Humanism in the 1980s, Paul Beattie. The Effect of Education Ervin, Jr., Leo Pfeffer. Secular Roots of the American Political System, on Religious Faith, Burnham P. Beckwith. $3.50 Henry Steele Commager, Daniel J. Boorstin, Robert Rutland, Richard B. Morris, Michael Novak. The Bible in Politics, Gerald Larue, Robert S. Spring 1982, Vol. 2, no. 2 — A Call for the Critical Examination of the Alley, James M. Robinson. Bibliography for Biblical Study. $5.00 Bible and Religion. Interview with Isaac Asimov on Science and the Bible, Paul Kurtz. The Continuing Monkey War, L. Sprague de Camp. The Fall 1983, Vol. 3, no. 4 — The Academy of Humanism. The Future of Erosion of Evolution, Antony Flew. The Religion of Secular Humanism: A Humanism, Paul Kurtz. Humanist Self-Portraits, Brand Blanshard, Barbara Judicial Myth, Leo Pfeffer. Humanism as an American Heritage, Nicholas Wootton, Joseph Fletcher, Sir Raymond Firth, Jean-Claude Pecker. Inter- F. Gier. The Nativity Legends, Randel Helms. Norman Podhoretz's Neo- view with Paul MacCready. A Personal Humanist Manifesto, Vern Bul- Puritanism, Lee Nisbet. $3.50 FREE INQUIRY Back Issues (continued) lough. The Enduring Humanist Legacy of Greece, Marvin Perry. The Age The Vatican's View of Sex, Robert T Francoeur. An Interview with E. O. of Unreason, Thomas Vernon. Apocalypse Soon, Daniel Cohen. 0n the Wilson, Jeffrey Saver. Religion and Parapsychology: Parapsychology: The Sesquicentennial of Robert Ingersoll, Frank Smith. The Historicity of Jesus, "Spiritual" Science, James Alcock; Science, Religion and the Paranormal, John Priest, D. R. Oppenheimer, G. A. Wells. $3.50 John Beloff. The Legacy of Voltaire (Part I), Paul Edwards. The Origins of Christianity, R. Joseph Hoffmann. $3.75 Winter 1983/84, Vol. 4, no. 1 - Interview with B. F. Skinner. Was George 0rwell a Humanist? Antony Flew. Population Control vs. Freedom in Summer 1985, Vol. 5, no. 3 - Finding Common Ground Between Believers China, Vern and Bonnie Bullough. Academic Freedom at Liberty Baptist and Unbelievers, Paul Kurtz. Render Unto Jesus the Things That Are College, Lynn Ridenhour. The Mormon Church: Joseph Smith and the Jesus', Robert Alley. Jesus in Time and Space, Gerald Larue. Interview Book of Mormon, George Smith; The History of Mormonism and Church with Sidney Hook on China, Marxism, and Human Freedom. Evangelical Authorities: Interview with Sterling M. McMurrin. Anti-Science: The Irra- Agnosticism, William Henry Young. To Refuse to Be a God, Khoren tionalist Vogue of the 1970s, Lewis Feuer. The End of the Galilean Cease- Arisian. The Legacy of Voltaire (Part II), Paul Edwards. $3.75 Fire? James Hansen. Who Really Killed Goliath? Gerald Larue. Humanism in Norway: Strategies for Growth, Levi Frage!!. $3.50 Fall 1985, Vol. 5, no. 4 - Two Forms of Humanistic Psychology, Albert Ellis. Psychoanalysis: Science or ? Grünbaum on Freud, Frank Spring 1984, Vol. 4, no. 2 - Christian Science Practitioners and Legal Sulloway; Philosophy of Science and Psychoanalysis, Michael Ruse; The Protection for Children. Rita Swan; Child Abuse and Neglect in Ultrafunda- Death Knell of Psychoanalysis, H. J. Eysenck; Looking Backward, Lee mentalist Cults and Sects, Lowell Streiker. The Foundations of Religious Nisbet. Jesus in History and Myth: New Testament Scholarship and Chris- Liberty and Democracy: A Symposium, Carl Henry, Paul Kurtz, Father tian Belief, Van Harvey; A Liberal Christian View, John Hick. The Winter Ernest Fortin, Lee Nisbet. Joseph Fletcher, Richard Taylor. Biblical Views Solstice and the Origins of Christmas, Lee Carter. $3.75 of Sex: Blessing or Handicap? Jeffrey J. W. Baker. Moral Absolutes and Foreign Policy, Nicholas Capaldi. The Vatican Ambassador, Edd Doerr, A Winter 1985/86, Vol. 6, no. I - Symposium: Is Secular Humanism a Naturalistic Basis for Morality, John Kekes. Humanist Self-Portraits, Mat- Religion? The Religion of Secular Humanism, Paul Beanie; Residual Reli- thew les Spetter, Floyd Matson, Richard Kostelanetz. $3.50 gion, Joseph Fletcher; Pluralistic Humanism, Sidney Hook; 0n the Misuse of Language, Paul Kurtz. The Habit of Reason, Brand Blanshard. An Summer 1984, Vol. 4, no. 3 (special issue) - School Prayer, Paul Kurtz, Interview with Adolf Grünbaum. Homer Duncan's Crusade Against Secular Ronald Lindsay, Patrick Buchanan, Mark Twain. Science vs. Religion in Humanism, Paul Kurtz. Should a Humanist Celebrate Christmas? Thomas Future Constitutional Conflicts, Delos B. McKown. God and the Professors, Flynn. 0n Being a Pedestrian, Robert Wisne. $3.75 Sidney Hook. Armageddon and Biblical Apocalyptic, Paul Kurtz, Joseph Edward Barnhart, Vern L. Bullough, Rande! Helms, Gerald Larue, John Spring 1986, Vol. 6, no. 2 (special issue) - Faith-Healing: Miracle or Priest, James Robinson, Robert Alley. Is the U.S. Humanist Movement in Fraud? The Need for Investigation, Paul Kunz; "Be Healed in the Name of a State of Collapse? John Dart. $5.00 God!" James Randi; A Medical Anthropologist's View of American Shamans, Philip Singer; 0n the Relative Sincerity of Faith-Healers, Joseph Fall 1984, Vol. 4, no. 4 - Humanist Author Attacked, Phyllis Schlafly, Sol Barnhart; Does Faith-Healing Work? Paul Kurtz. God Helps Those Who Humanists vs. Christians in Milledgeville, Georgia, Kenneth Sala- Gordon. Help Themselves, Thomas Flynn. The Effect of Intelligence on U.S. Reli- Suppression and Censorship in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church: din. gious Faith, Burnham Beckwith. $3.75 Ellen White's Habit, Douglas Hackleman; Who Profits from the Prophet? Walter Rea. Keeping the Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls, John Allegro. Summer 1986, Vol. 6, no. 3 - The Shocking Truth About Faith-Healing: Health , Rodger Pirnie Doyle. Humanism in Africa: Paradox Deceit in the Name of God: What Can Be Done? Paul Kurtz; Peter Popoff and Illusion, Paul Kurtz. Humanism in South Africa, Don Sergeant. $3.75 Reaches Heaven Via 39.17 Megahertz, James Randi; Peter Popoff: Miracle Winter 1984/85, Vol. 5, no. 1 - Are American Educational Reforms Worker or Scam Artist? Steven Schafersman; Behind the Scenes with Peter Popoff, Robert Steiner; W. V. Grant's Faith-Healing Act Revisited, Paul Doomed? Delos B. McKown. The Door-to-Door Crusade of the Jehovah's Kurtz. Further Reflections on Ernest Angley, William McMahon, James Witnesses: The Apocalypticism of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Lois Randle; Griffis. Salvation for Sale: An Insider's View of Pat Robertson's 0rganiza- The Watchtower, Laura Lage. Sentiment, Guilt, and Reason in the Manage- tion, Gerard Straub. Belief and Unbelief Worldwide: Religious Skepticism ment of Wild Herds, Garrett Hardin. Animal Rights Re-evaluated, James in Latin America, Jorge Gracia; Science, Technology, and Ideology in the Simpson. Elmina Slenker: Infidel and Atheist, Edward Jervey. Symposium: Hispanic World, Mario Bunge; Religious Belief in Contemporary Indian Humanism Is a Religion, Archie Bahm; Humanism Is a Philosophy, Thomas Society, M. P. Rege; Humanism in Modern India: An Interview with V. M. Vernon; Humanism: An Affirmation of Life, Andre Bacard. $3.75 Tarkunde, Tariq Ismail. The Revolt Against the Lightning Rod, Al Seckel, Spring 1985, Vol. 5, no. 2 - Update on the Shroud of Turin, Joe Nickell. John Edwards.

Secular Humanist Bulletin The Secular Humanist Bulletin is published quarterly and is free with a subscription to FREE INQUIRY. Copies can be purchased in bulk (five issues per order) for $2.50 plus $1.00 postage and handling.

February 1985, Vol., no. 1 - With articles on the new Secular Humanist January 1986, Vol. 2, no. 1 - Prayer Printing and the U.S. Senate; Hatch's Bulletin; the Hatch Amendment; Helms and CBS; Pastoral Malpractice; E Anti-Humanism Law; Helms's Anti-Witchcraft Law; Falwell Slipping; Pluribus Unum; and Is Morality Inevitable? Student Spies; Pat Robertson for President?; and Postal Service Issues May 1985, Vol. 1, no. 2 - FREE INQUIRY's "Jesus in History and Myth" Religious Stamp. conference and its new Committee for the Scientific Examination of Reli- May 1986, Vol. 2, no. 2 - FREE INQUIRY's Faith-Healing Probe; Alabama gion; the Attack on Public Education; Wisconsin Freethinkers; Lincoln and Parents Sue Over Secular Humanism in Schools; Media Hype and the Reagan on the Bible; and the Age of Unreason. Brookings 'Church-State Book'; Education Department Hits Religious August 1985, Vol. 1, no. 3 - The Supreme Court and Religious Freedom; Neutrality of Textbooks; Canadian Catholic School Battle; Exorcism; List More on Public Education; the Legal Status of Priests; Christian Rock; and of the "Damned." Christian and Muslim Fundamentalists. August 1986, Vol. 2, no. 3 - Media Notes F1's Faith-Healing Exposé; November 1985, Vol. 1 no. 4 - "Parochiaid" Ruling; Hurricane Elena; Reagan Conservatizes Supreme Court; Krol Blasts Humanism; IRS Rules Pornography; Right to Die; Anticlerical Persecution in West Germany; Favor Churches; Alabama Public School Suit; Faith-healers for President; Gorbachev; St. Jude; the Christian Nation Debate; and Battles over Atheism Delinquent "700 Club"; Circumcision Coverage Dropped; Pastor Distri- in Virginia. butes Snuff Tape; Catholics Return to Mystery. Issues of the Secular Humanist Bulletin also contain "The Secular Humorist," "Biblical Scorecard, "and "Education Update." FREE INQUIRY • Box 5 • Buffalo, NY 14215-0005 • Tel.: 716-834-2921 More on Faith-Healing With the articles that follow, FREE INQUIRY continues its report on the results of the investigation into faith-healing by the Committee for the Scientific Examina- tion of Religion (CSER). See the Spring 1986 and Summer 1986 issues for earlier articles on the investigation.

CSER's Investigation

hen the Committee for the Scientific or her name, ailment, etc., Popoff declared quiet, dignified series of conversations with WExamination of Religion (CSER) that he was told to use this technique by the members of the television industry, with initiated its inquiry into faith-healing as Holy Spirit. The question any true believer Popoffs ministry, and with former em- practiced by television evangelists, we were should ask is, "How does one test the ployees of the Popoff organization. The fascinated by the way in which these reli- Spirit?" That is, how does one prove that results of his persistence are given below. gious healers were able to provide details the Holy Spirit encouraged this deceit? It should be noted that Mr. Alexander about the individuals they interviewed. Further, what are the ethical principles that did not simply go off on his own. He Names, addresses, ailments, ministering guide such self-proclaimed men of God? checked each step with me as the Chair of physicans, and hospitals were all docu- CSER's exposure of Popoff has received CSER. He used CSER stationery with my mented as though the information was com- widespread news coverage. Some of us approval and he shared what he wrote before ing, as the evangelists intimated, from the wondered why the leaders of the mainline putting his letters in the mail. I note this "Holy Spirit." The investigating team, churches did not speak out in condemnation important feature, not to discourage anyone headed by James Randi, soon established of such deceptive behavior carried out in from contacting local television stations still that, in the case of the Reverend Peter the name of God. It was clear that the people carrying Popoffs program to inform them Popoff, information gathered prior to the interviewed by CSER investigators had not of the deceptive methodology and the serious meeting proper by Mrs. Popoff was trans- been healed as the evangelist claimed. Popoff ethical issues involved, but rather to encour- mitted to the evangelist electronically—that had invited members of his audience to dis- age any efforts to educate station manage- is, Popoff wore a radio receiver in his ear. card medications, including some that were ment to be carefully thought out and coordi- Her messages were taped by the CSER team essential to control diabetes and heart prob- nated with CSER. so that there could be no question about lems. Deceptive techniques were employed On behalf of the CSER I wish to thank how the evangelist received the information. by the evangelist. Where was the organized James Randi, his team members, and David When a Los Angeles television reporter church? We still do not have an answer. Alexander for a job well done! I know this asked Popoff why he employed this method One of our investigators did not wait for is only the beginning of our CSER inquiry.— rather than simply asking the person for his a public outcry. David Alexander began a Gerald A. Larue, CSER Chairman

is able to "call out" members of the audience. An Answer to Peter Popoff This is a very powerful gimmick, during which the performer wanders through the audience, picks out an individual apparently James Randi at random, and addresses him or her by name. The person's street address may also be given. A doctor's name is usually an- eter Popoff, the evangelist/ healer whom Nine Gifts of the Spirit. This squeaky-voiced nounced, along with an accurate account of PI have been disassembling recently in preacher directs his religious empire from the person's affliction. Other details, such as the pages of FREE INQUIRY ("Reaching Upland, California, sending out more than a pet's name or the fact that a relative is in Heaven Via 49.16 Megahertz," FI, Summer 100,000 computer-generated begging letters prison, can be thrown in. Most evangelists 1986) and in other places, claims to be an to devotees from coast to coast every two will go to great lengths to assure viewers anointed minister of God, possessing the weeks. He admits to an income of $550,000 that they have never spoken to or questioned a month from that source. Since most of those whom they address with this informa- James Randi is principal investigator of that enters the collection plates—which are tion. Popoff and the others say that their faith-healing for the Committee for the four-gallon plastic wastebaskets—in the form God-given "Gift of Knowledge" enables them Scientific Examination of Religion. His new of cash, the official figure might be some- to know such information and that God book, The Faith-Healers, will be published what different from Popoffs declaration. directs them to each sufferer who deserves by Prometheus Books. The most notable aspect of Popoffs healing. Needless to say, the audience is exposure has been the revelation of how he greatly impressed by this seeming miracle.

46 FREE INQUIRY As revealed in FREE INQUIRY, Popoff sonate Mrs. Popoff on a "doctored" video- edited and chosen personally by Peter has a miniature radio receiver inserted in tape. That explanation didn't sell too well, Popoff himself—that proves his claims to his left ear, which picks up the voice of his and the media continued to press for the be lies. I quote here, word for word, the wife, Elizabeth, who is broadcasting to him truth. Finally, on Day Three, the Reverend testimonial from an unnamed woman in from backstage. Mrs. Popoff is equipped Popoff admitted the existence of the radio Pennsylvania. with the data Popoff needs. She has already device, claiming, incredibly, that "almost been meeting members of the audience and everybody" knew about the "communicator." As of approximately six weeks ago, I never gathering information, and Popoff has also He added, "My wife occasionally gives me knew of you. And I ran—happened by sent out his "front man," Reeford Shirrell, the name of a person who needs special your—your telecast (I won't say "by acci- for that same purpose. In casual conversa- prayers." dent" because it was the work of the Lord) ahh, oh—about four weeks ago, five weeks tion with early arrivals, these workers have Since that time, in response to further ago. And I says, can this be? Can this be, obtained names, addresses, and other in- pointed questions, the Reverend Popoff has that this man is calling our names and formation, noted each person's location in also stated that he never even tried to imply addresses? Amen. And, ahh, so, as I said, the auditorium and a brief but adequate that he was using his Gift of Knowledge for I watched about three, four programs and description of the person, and then hurried the "calling out." He has said that he uses then I found that you were coming to backstage to record the data. "Healing cards" the "communicator" for two reasons: one, Pittsburgh. I says, well, 1-1—I really provide another rich source of information. "to keep in touch with the television crew"; didn't believe it. 1 said—I have to—I just These cards are handed out to all who enter, and, two, as a convenience, so that he does have to go and see. And today, when you asking that specific information concerning not have to carry the healing cards around called my name—first name and last, street their "prayer needs" be written down, as well with him. And he promised to insert a "dis- address—uh, number and address—I as their names and addresses. The cards are claimer" at the beginning of every one of mean, believe me, people, God is real! O000h. God is real! Hallelujah!" gathered up early and taken backstage, bear- his television broadcasts. More on that ing the same sort of data that was obtained shortly. in the personal interviewing. Sorry, Rev, it just ain't so. In all of the There it is, positive proof that Peter many hours of recording we have of Mrs. Popoff did indeed give his viewers the im- rmed with the videotape of the Popoff Popoff speaking to you on the `communi- pression that he was speaking to God—and Atelecast recorded in San Franciso, I cator," not once is the television operation hearing from Him personally. But remember appeared on the Johnny Carson show in referred to. And the channel used by the Popoffs announced intention to put a dis- mid-April and showed his television audience television crew never attempts to get infor- claimer at the beginning of every per- two taped segments. First they saw a sixty- mation to you. As for the "occasional" name formance? Well, he did just that. But does second piece of a "healing" by Popoff exactly given you by Elizabeth, we found that all of he tell people in this disclaimer that he is as Popoff had presented it on his telecast. the people you "called out" were given to using a "communicator"? Does he deny Then I told them about Popoffs radio you by the secret transmitter and that no hearing from God via the Gift of Knowl- device, and we showed that same tape seg- names were given to you that you did not edge? No. There is just this brief voice-over ment with the added audio track of Mrs. call out. statement: "People at the Peter Popoff Popoffs voice. The audience went wild as It is also not true that "almost every- services are prayed for by request." If it were they realized how they'd been tricked by the body" already knew about the secret device. not so tragic, we could laugh at the joke. evangelist. And Johnny Carson himself made To examine this claim, members of the Bay his dismay quite clear. Area Skeptics, the Southern California y exposé of W. V. Grant, another of Carson, long known as opposing such Skeptics, the Houston Society to Oppose Mthe televangelist/ healers, has ap- flummery, gave our campaign against such Pseudoscience, and the San Diego Skeptics peared in FREE INQUIRY (see "Be Healed in deception exactly the impetus it needed. And (in particular, Don Henvick, David Alex- the Name of God," FI, Spring 1986). In consternation took over at the Upland camp. ander, Bob Steiner, and Ronn Nadeau) that article, I revealed his gimmick of sup- Early the following morning, an emergency tracked down several of Popoffs victims. plying wheelchairs to selected persons who meeting was held. Popoff was bewildered, All but one of them, a lady who mistakenly actually are able to walk and seeming to never having had to answer the kind of very believed that Peter Popoff had her healing heal them since they respond to his com- serious questions the media were now calling card in his hand when he called her out of mand to get up out of their wheelchairs. to ask him. He floundered. the audience, asserted that they believed When a representative of the Popoff ministry At the crisis meeting on Day One after Popoff knew their names and addresses by (Garry McColman, the president of mar- Armageddon, Popoffs public relations per- the Gift of Knowledge. And there is much keting for Peter Popoff Ministries) appeared son was instructed to answer all inquiries stronger evidence available. on television with me in St. Louis to debate from his followers by saying, "Everything Before the Carson show was aired, I the matter, he arrived rather poorly informed Amazing Randi says is not true," and to appeared on Cable News Network (CNN) by his master. Though he frequently invoked ask that the callers "pray for the ministry." and revealed that Popoff was being supplied "Blessed Jesus" and used other similarly That was the total official response. Popoff information obtained through personal in- powerful phrases, he blew it all by insisting busily tried to explain himself to those on terviews with members of the audience. But that, unlike the Reverend Grant, the Rev- his staff who had not known about his elec- I did not mention the secret transmitter, erend Popoff was above using the wheelchair tronic assistance. Some long-time associates expecting that Popoff would assume that gimmick. After getting him firmly to assert immediately resigned. Among them were a what I'd said was all I knew. He fell for it. that fact, I played an audio-tape on which few who promptly contacted me about The following week, he broadcast a series Mrs. Popoff, via the secret transmitter, as- further chicanery within Popoff s operation. of testimonials that he felt would validate sured Popoff that the woman in the chair On Day Two, the Upland office was claiming his ministry. As a result, there exists a video- Popoff was about to "heal"—whom we had that NBC had hired an actress to imper- tape segment from his own broadcast, seen placed there by Shirrell—could walk,

Fall 1986 47 and she added, "That's one of our [wheel- of others who expect a miracle will be swept shallow were the "anointed." They laughed chair] rentals." Then Popoff commanded the up by it all. Their symptoms may well van- and joked at the "boobs" and "big butts" of woman to "get up and walk!" McColman 's ish, either temporarily or permanently. But the terminally ill women who were there reaction to this evidence was rather colorful. that result can also be achieved by a doctor's giving their money and their confidence to During that same program, McColman bedside manner or by any one of a hundred the Popoffs. They discussed breast implants, produced a videotape that Popoff had pre- placebo treatments—in which category the recipes, and family gossip while Popoff pre- pared for him to show. It concerned a young healing ministries belong. tended to heal the sick, snapping back into girl who he said had been healed at one of Organic diseases are another matter. The action when he went into a series of "Amens" his meetings in Sacramento, California. The healers typically choose subjects for their that signaled his need for new data. "healing" that Popoff chose to present as demonstrations who have arthritic condi- The claims made by the faith-healers are evidence of his success brings us to the tions, diabetes, or heart trouble. Cures of hollow boasts and do not stand up to question that supersedes all the others: Does such ailments cannot be proven, one way or examination. Popoff, following my accusa- Popoff—or do any of the other evangelist the other, at the scene of the performance. tions on the CNN broadcast, appealed to healers—actually effect any healing? Unable But even those who return home to discover his television viewers to send him healing to respond honestly to the revelations of his that they have not recovered often bear false testimonials. Then he claimed to have re- trickery, Popoff is offering "proof" of divine witness. I tracked down one person who ceived 200,000 replies from satisfied cus- healing to confound the critics. But, as we W. V. Grant advertised as having "kept" a tomers. I immediately wrote to him and sug- shall see, that proof falls far short of his healing of diabetes. The man insisted he was gested that he choose at random any five of goal, and he refuses to offer better evidence. healed and that he had been healed for two those testimonials and submit then to an At the Popoff show in San Francisco, I years. Only by careful questioning did I learn independent, neutral medical board for photographed a very enthusiastic woman that he knew his doctor would deny that he evaluation. Popoff ignored my suggestion. who was telling everyone that Popoffs no longer had diabetes. And he admitted Why? Because he knows full well what the miracles were "all real" because he had that he was still taking his insulin though he results would be. healed her daughter of epilepsy. She is the "knew" it was only a matter of time before Peter Popoff has attempted to respond mother of the girl whose case Popoff offers he would give that up. to our criticisms and revelations. He has as his "proof." On his carefully edited video- Researchers over the years have looked floundered around, embarrassed and be- tape of this claimed healing, Popoff showed into hundreds of healing claims. They have leaguered. a doctor who said about the little girl, "She had the same results, though many were Fond as he is of quoting Scripture, the did, however, respond fairly well to medica- ardent believers in at least the strong possi- Reverend Popoff should appreciate a certain tion.... We would expect the seizures to bility that such healings were possible. In very appropriate selection from the Good return once the medications had stopped." the more than sixty cases we were able to Book, in which he seems to have been antici- Asked if he'd seen any further evidence of follow up, the victims were willing to tell us pated. He appears to be pious and innocent, epilepsy in the girl, he replied, "None at all. that they were not healed at all and that but he has perpetrated a vicious, callous, None whatsoever." But when Ross Becker, they were angry and frustrated. Frequently, and highly profitable scam on his flock, a reporter for KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, they asked us what they could do to get bringing grief, economic loss, and danger to contacted him, the doctor told him that he their money back and whether there was the health of the victims. I ask him to turn and his wife are charismatic Christians and any hope that something could be done to Matthew 7:15, where it is written: "Beware thus believe in such events. Such a witness about the trickery they had fallen for. of false prophets, which come to you in is hardly unbiased. In fact, says Becker, the We recorded conversations between sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are doctor told him that he is personally con- Elizabeth Popoff and Shirrell's wife from ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by vinced that the healing is "a miracle." How- the trailer that demonstrated to us clearly their fruits." • ever, he also told Becker that the girl's vari- just how callous, arrogant, bigoted, and ety of childhood epilepsy often goes into temporary remission quite spontaneously. That part of his medical opinion was not Popoff's TV Empire Declines presented by the Reverend Popoff. Now, months later, one wonders what has hap- pened to that child, and whether Popoff or David Alexander the mother have managed a rationalization if the affliction is once again active. But the mother will not discuss the matter now. he results of the investigations of organization, even though underfunded and It is well to note that Popoffs original TW. V. Grant and Peter Popoff by the understaffed, can still have a very large and broadcast of that "healing" event had super- Committee for the Scientific Examination of far-reaching effect. The following story is imposed on the screen the words "A True Religion (CSER) have shown that a small an example. Word of Knowledge." Randi's investigation of faith-healers was David Alexander has made his living as a in progress when I came on board. While I bviously, psychosomatic ailments, by professional magician, private investigator, helped develop a small part of the informa- Otheir very nature, are susceptible to and currently is a publisher. He is the as- tion, my main contribution occurred after the ministrations of faith-healers. It is a sistant executive director of the Southern the major part of the investigation had con- recognized fact that suggestible individuals California Skeptics and a Special Consul- cluded. who are immersed in an emotional, theatrical tant to CSER. While Randi was making appearances atmosphere and surrounded by thousands on the "Tonight" show with Johnny Carson

48 FREE INQUIRY and "West 57th Street," giving national ex- reached with some trepidation. rest of the country. After several weeks of posure to the methods of Grant and Popoff, Every program director walks a fine line, close examination and continued dilution of I decided to explore a different approach. I balancing the station's ethical and financial his program, Popoff canceled his contract addressed the self-interest of the stations that interests, the government's regulations and and left the station voluntarily. His show carried Grant and Popoff in our local area. requirements, and the First Amendment had changed to the extent that his ability to Faith-healers have two necessary and rights of individuals and groups. Add to that raise money was impaired. Indeed, the vulnerable outlets: television and mail. Since the knowledge that most groups come with general manager of Video Program Network, I did not have a,large sampling of Grant's an organized following who have money and a large religious television program syndi- or Popoffs letters, I concentrated on tele- can easily hire lawyers to sue the station if cator, told me they will no longer carry vision as my first priority. Television is ab- the program director makes a decision they Popoff for ethical reasons. solutely vital to the evangelist's operation, don't like. Some stations in small markets I have just learned that Popoff will be since faith-healing is primarily a visual are lured by the financial gain and feel they back on television in Los Angeles. He is presentation. Additionally, television gives have done their civic duty by airing a dis- buying time on channel 30, a station so the faith-healer the widest possible exposure claimer at the beginning or end of the pro- obscure they are not listed in TV Guide. for the least amount of money. Deny him gram. The management of KCOP is to be con- television time and you critically undermine Because of a change in the ownership of gratulated for putting ethical issues ahead his ability to raise large amounts of money. KHJ, Peter Popoff moved to KCOP, of money. Popoffs contract was worth W. V. Grant and Peter Popoff appeared another Los Angeles VHF independent sta- several million dollars to the station. back to back on KHJ-TV, Channel 9, in tion. Another letter was sent, this time about KCOP's handling of this issue and their Los Angeles. A letter was sent to the Broad- Popoff and on CSER stationery, to the head recognition that it was and is an issue of cast Standards and Practices Department of of the Broadcast Practices and Standards ethics and not religion is an example that KHJ-TV that gave background on Grant Department, with an advance copy of the should be followed by other broadcasters and asked three questions: (1) Now that you article on Popoff from FREE INQUIRY (Sum- across the country. know his methods, by continuing to broad- mer 1986). The letter gave additional back- Popoffs television empire was, at one cast his program, are you now a party to the ground on Popoff and asked the same three time, very healthy. He bought half-hour slots fraud? (2) What are the limits of KHJ's questions. on approximately sixty stations. But now liability? And (3) Does this type of fraudu- Several weeks later Popoff was gone he appears on only nine or ten. This writer lent broadcasting benefit the public and is from KCOP. The letter had raised a number could not confirm the exact number at the this the sort of programming that your sta- of questions in the minds of management, time this article was written—even Popoffs tion wants to be associated with? It was and they gave careful scrutiny to each of office is not sure. The receptionist there stressed that this was an issue of ethics, not Popoffs broadcasts. Over the ensuing weeks, originally told me Popoff was off television religion or theology. Popoffs program took on a different flavor, completely. Included with the letter were copies of with less and less "healing" and more straight I have also obtained a list of some cities the articles on Grant from FREE INQUIRY testimonials. in which he still buys television time. It (Spring 1986 and Summer 1986). Even It was not financially viable for Popoff looks as though I have a few more letters to though Peter Popoff also appeared on the to produce two versions of his show, one write. • same station, the investigation of him was for the Los Angeles market and one for the still in progress and the results had not yet been made public. I could only address the methods of Grant at that time. Popoff was to come later. Richard Roberts's Healing Crusade Within a week W. V. Grant was gone from Channel 9. I learned from the program director that Grant's show had been dropped Henry Gordon by mutual consent and that the problem was financial. My letter and information had not precipitated his removal from the air; how- aving seen a letter of invitation re- It was an open letter to Richard Roberts ever, it raised questions that would make Hceived by Paul Kurtz from Richard published in the Toronto Star, with the his return difficult, if not impossible, even if Roberts to his appearance in Toronto on headline "Shuddering at Faith Healers," A his financial problems were solved. The pro- April 6, I was a little surprised by Roberts's Baptist minister, the Reverend Leslie Tarr, gram director informed me that my letter lack of advertising in the Toronto media. had apparently also received an invitation had taken the decision out of his hands, As a matter of fact, the first publicity I and was sufficiently incensed to sit down at should Grant want to buy time again. The noticed was not the kind that Oral Roberts's his typewriter to compose a blistering attack letter and the attendant articles were copied son would appreciate. on Roberts. Among his remarks were the and distributed around the station so that following: all management and staff were fully briefed. The discussion with the program director Your suggestion to us is that, at the gave me greater insight into the problems Henry Gordon is a Fellow of the Commit- meeting, "we are going to witness more associated with programming religious tele- tee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims miracles than ever before." That emphasis vision. The director noted that he had been of the Paranormal. He writes a weekly is evident throughout the letter in which approached in the past by religious groups column, "Debunking, " for the Toronto you refer nine times to "healing" or "mira- cles." whose programs were obviously scams, but Sunday Star. That healing and those miracles are that the decision not to run them was always

Fall 1986 49 linked to you. In the 27-sentence letter with their loads. aisle. there are 28 occurrences of the first per- Richard Roberts then introduced fellow Roberts cried out, "Someone is partially sonal pronoun (I, me, my). That preoc- evangelist David Mainse, who was in the deaf in their left ear. Who is it, who is it?" cupation with miracles and healing, real audience. Mainse was persuaded to come A woman raises her hand. "Are you healed?" and imagined, and the intimation of any onstage, and the two charismatic personali- mortal that he is God's "anointed instru- he asked. She shook her head. "Someone ment" for conveying them constitute a ties swapped compliments, to the delight of else," he yelled. "There's someone else." One great disservice to the Christian Gospel. their admirers. of the people in the aisle responded. Evi- I am persuaded that more harm is David Mainse is Canada's leading tele- dently the miracle had been beamed in her being done today to the Christian cause vangelist. He is the star of "100 Huntley direction. More applause. by those who are glibly promoting the Street," a weekly television program seen Roberts began to address the audience, "gospel of health and wealth" than by all on various networks across the country. He but suddenly stopped and seemed to be talk- of our external critics. is charming, photogenic, convincing, and ing to himself. He was speaking to God! He conducts himself with professional aplomb. then relayed the message he had received The Reverend Tarr closed his letter with, According to some sources, more than from above: "Who has a pain in the neck "Thank you for the invitation to the meeting, 100,000 people send Mainse fifteen dollars coming down from the ear?" By that time I but I will not be there." a month. It is estimated that Canadians give was ready to respond, but someone beat me This type of criticism, of course, like any more than $50 million to American televan- to it. other criticism, has absolutely no effect on gelists who are welcomed into their homes "Someone has a duodenal ulcer? Is it the followers of the purveyors of healing by cable television. Mainse probably figures still burning?" he asked. A woman in the hokum. When I entered Toronto's Massey it's only patriotic to keep some of this money aisle shouted "No, it stopped." She was Hall the following day, ninety minutes before in the country—in the care of "100 Huntley emotionally overcome, and in tears. the scheduled start of the program, the entire Street." Roberts then proceeded to "heal" others lower auditorium was packed. I had to settle When questioned about his constant ap- who had been herded to the right aisle. for the balcony. Not having a team of ob- peals for money from many who probably Meanwhile several people had come forward, servers to work with, I chose a front-row can't afford it, Mainse replies, "The elderly of their own volition, to line up in the left seat with a commanding view of the entire tell us [the program] gives them strength, it aisle. They were totally ignored. I noticed house. gives them hope.... It gives them a reason two women in the audience, quite distraught, Within twenty minutes the hall was filled for living." But it is just possible that the who were trying to come to the front. They with more than two thousand expectant people who are addicted to these programs were firmly dissuaded by a couple of men spectators, many with children in tow. After feel a distinct obligation to answer pleas for and were ushered out of the auditorium. a warmup talk by one of the staff and some funds. A woman seated near me in a front-row piano music, Richard Roberts appeared and David Mainse has been pushing hard for balcony seat was gesturing toward Roberts. was greeted with thunderous applause from government consent to establish a religious Finally he called out, "There's someone who the faithful. television network. In Canada, unlike in the has a growth, a tumor, on her left knee. Roberts's repertoire is enhanced by United States, the airwaves are still under Where are you?" He looked up at this several songs, which are intermixed with a government control. With his intense lobby- woman and shouted, "Is it gone?" blend of Bible stories and folksy anecdotes. ing, Mainse will probably eventually get his Without bothering to touch her knee, By this time the audience is totally won over. way. she cried out, "Yes, it's gone." "Touch it, That's when Roberts hits them with an ap- Roberts settled down to the main touch it," he insisted, and she complied. peal for money. event—the miracles everyone came to wit- At no time did Richard Roberts leave Assistants with large buckets were al- ness. He began in the most economical way the stage. He did not touch anyone. He has ready posted throughout the auditorium, possible, by conducting a mass healing. Can evidently perfected the technique of long- ready to spring into action on cue. Roberts you imagine the time and trouble he saves? distance faith-healing. He modestly admits, sat down on a high stool, centerstage, and He just heals everyone at the same time! "I have never healed anybody. But I've seen gradually led up to the hard sell. "It's ex- This is definitely the wave of the future. Jesus heal thousands." As do most others in tremely important that we know what your Roberts simply asked everyone who had his profession, he claims only to be an needs are," he intoned. He then begins to an ailment to stand. Practically the whole intermediary. recount his needs and makes it clear that, congregation rises. Roberts then intones, The fact that those who had lined up in whatever money members of the audience "Curvature of the spine, be healed; herniated the right aisle were hustled out after they give, they'll get back from God. He speaks disc, be healed; blood-sugar problems, leave, were "cured" made it impossible for me to continually about "seed money." "Plant the be healed; liver problems, be healed; heart talk with them when I left the hall. I did seeds and you'll reap the harvest," he problems, ulcers, colon problems, leave, be encounter a young man on crutches out on promises. The buckets his minions pass healed; bladder problems be healed. Some- the street and asked him if he had been around are large enough to hold the roots one has a pain in the jaw, leave—where are helped. He looked very depressed and moved of an oak tree. He doesn't ask for much: you?" One trusting soul raised his hand. "Is on without answering me. "Just five dollars or ten, or twenty, or fifty, your pain gone?" Roberts asked. The man or one hundred—or one thousand. nodded, and everyone applauded. "Sit down he Reverend Tarr, in his open letter, All around me I saw people—some who after you have been healed," Roberts in- Thad a few questions for Richard looked as if they could use a square meal— structed. Gradually, everyone sat down. Roberts that seemed more relevant after dropping ten- and twenty-dollar bills. The All during this demonstration people viewing his Healing Crusade. "Are we to pitch from thè stage continued nonstop, until were crying and wailing, waving their arms assume that the many Christians who are the audience had been completely milked in the air. At the same time, some of the not healed, although they have sought it, and the bucket-toters staggered backstage ushers were lining up people in the right are deficient in faith?"

50 FREE INQUIRY "Does the emphasis placed on 'faith- healing' not often have the effect of crushing or embittering those who have not been healed?" Now available .. . Faith-healing does work, sometimes, under certain conditions. Whether it be THE TRANSCENDENTAL TEMPTATION through the laying on of hands or just A Critique of Religion and the Paranormal through the verbal encouragement of the healer, the mind will sometimes effect a cure Paul Kurtz for certain types of ailments. Of course this This provocative book poses the question: Why do people accept mythic, super- applies only to psychosomatic or neurotic natural, and paranormal belief-systems in spite of clear evidence that they are false? illnesses like paralysis, blindness, and the loss Why are people so easily deceived? Is there within the human species a deeply rooted of speech or hearing when these conditions tendency toward "magical thinking," a "transcendental temptation"? have hysterical origins. It has also been Paul Kurtz claims to have discovered a close affinity between supernatural religion shown that these cures are often only tem- and the paranormal. He examines in detail the lives of Jesus, Moses, Muhammad, porary. Joseph Smith (founder of Mormonism), Ellen G. White (Seventh-Day Adventist), and the religions founded in their names. He finds striking parallels with the spiritualists So when Richard Roberts proclaims that of the nineteenth century and the of the twentieth. "your neck pain has gone," quite likely he is speaking the truth. Suggestion is a powerful "Carefully researched ... explosive, persuasive, and richly informative." tool. But when he makes claims for healing —Martin Gardner cancer, liver, heart, and lung problems, and 500 pages Cloth $19.95 all other organic diseases, he is playing the part of the bamboozler, whether he himself JESUS IN HISTORY AND MYTH believes it or not. This is quackery, pure and simple. edited by R. Joseph Hoffmann and Gerald A. Larue The case against the televangelists, re- Was there a person by the name of Jesus who lived in Palestine in the first century gardless of the methods they use to con the A.D.? Do the Gospels and letters of the New Testament really attest to the actual gullible, is twofold: first, they are deceiving existence of a Messiah, or were these documents written by clever propagandists for a good portion of the public when they claim the faith rather than by objective historians? These and other intriguing questions are explored in this absorbing collection, which emerged from a powerful symposium to be administering God-inspired healings; held in 1985 at the University of Michigan under the auspices of the Biblical Criticism second, they are prying precious dollars out Research Project. of the old, the sick, the lonely, the afflicted, and the vulnerable, dollars that are often 217 pages Cloth $21.95 more needed for the necessities of life. I filled out my name and address on a A SKEPTIC'S HANDBOOK form handed out at Roberts's service in Massey Hall, and I recently received my first OF PARAPSYCHOLOGY mailing from his organization. It included edited by Paul Kurtz Roberts's booklet titled "How to Know God Never before have paranormal phenomena been subjected to skeptical scientific scru- Wants to Heal You." In it he recounts the tiny of this magnitude, nor have the writings of so many eminent scholars been heart-rending story of a young boy who gathered together in one volume. This book is a comprehensive critical analysis of attended one of his crusades, a Bible in one parapsychology with contributions by 27 of the leading authorities in the field. hand and a songbook in the other. "The continuing popularity of belief in the paranormal has created a need for a According to Roberts, the boy, a stut- skeptical, scientifically sophisticated appraisal of the field of parapsychology. Kurtz terer, tried to speak but couldn't get the has fulfilled this need admirably ... This volume will serve as a convenient source- words out. Moved with compassion, Roberts book for anyone interested in evaluating the state of research in parapsychology... . prayed for him. Within moments the boy Highly recommended ..." was able to speak—in Roberts's words, —Choice "through a miracle of healing." Could it have 727 pages Cloth $34.95 Paper $16.95 been the power of suggestion rather than a miracle that effected this "healing"? And how ❑ The Transcendental Temptation Cloth $19.95 A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology long did the "cure" last? ❑ Jesus in History and Myth Cloth $21.95 ❑ Cloth $34.95 ❑ Paper 16.95 Also enclosed in this mailing was a letter headed "Dear partner" that offered to hear My check/M.O. for is enclosed. Add $2.00 for postage and handling. (NYS residents add applicable my prayers. There was a separate page with sales tax.) spaces for me to fill in my prayer requests. Or charge (check one): ❑ VISA ❑ MasterCard A portion at the bottom was designed to be Name cut out and returned. It read: "Richard, as I Account N Exp. Date sow this $ I'm believing God for the Address harvest." Roberts's garden is in full bloom. Signature City/State Tip His and other televangelists' financial success 700 E. Amherst St., Buffalo, NY 14215 remind me of an old saying: "Never trust a PROMETHEUS BOOKS Customers outside NYS can call Toll Free: 800421-0351 F preacher who owns more than one suit." •

Fall 1986 51 terms by their opposites and that this is also possible in some of the formulas of language Is Humanism a Religion? analysts, it is not a good practice in ordinary discourse. Fletcher is wrong in insisting that my "religion of secular humanism" is giving aid ' and comfort to fundamentalist creationists. A Response to My Critics The theory of evolution and my secular humanism are both responses to the emer- gence and dominance of the scientific A symposium on "Is Secular Humanism a Religion?" was published in the Winter world-view in the twentieth century. When 1985/86 issue of FREE INQUIRY, with articles by Paul Beattie, Joseph Fletcher, the public schools teach evolutionary theory, Sidney Hook, and Paul Kurtz. Below Paul Beattie replies to Fletcher, Hook, and they are teaching what the scientists have Kurtz. Fletcher and Kurtz then offer some final comments. discovered; those who also choose to put the evolutionary perspective at the center of their religion are not responsible for the impact science has had on the public-school curriculum. Paul H. Beattie Finally, Fletcher is wrong when he chal- lenges my claim that many of the humanist values and principles (e.g., free inquiry; the cultivation of happiness; belief in a free, open, pluralistic, and democratic society) are ven a brilliant man like Joseph Fletcher is a developing thing, the norms of correct cherished by most Americans and are in the Ecan be wrong (FI, Winter 1985/86). In usage are historical, and sensible people infer mainstream of our cultural life. All of these response to my article in the same issue, he meaning from and in context. ... The furni- principles and many other humanist values says that as a minister I cannot be an atheist. ture of heaven and earth is discovered by can be found in the Declaration of Inde- For a number of years now I have called scientific inquiry. It is not created by seman- pendence, the Constitution, the Bill of myself an atheist, and prior to that I called tic legislation." Rights, and also in the writings of the myself an agnostic leaning toward atheism. Fletcher is wrong in stating that I have Founding Fathers and of most American In the first year of my ministry in Pittsburgh not made clear how I define "secular" or cultural leaders. These ideas have been a large headline on the second page of the "religion." On page 16 of my article, my cherished and defended by most U.S. citizens major newspaper stated, "Minister Admits definition is given (the words in parentheses and most of our political leaders; attacks on He Is an Atheist." I suspect that I shall end were inadvertently omitted): "Here is my them have been the exception, not the rule, up an "ignostic," since the question of God's definition, in two parts. First, ... religion is and successful attacks on them by Americans existence is ever less interesting to me. an individual's (whole) response to (all of) have been negligible. It is important for Fletcher is wrong to state that religious life. It is the core of attitudes and values out humanists to be conscious of the fact that secularity is a contradiction in terms. As I of which a person lives. Second, a religion many humanist values are cherished by large pointed out in my article, the word secular possesses an institutional and community numbers of people who do not label them- comes originally from secularis, which means aspect." With regard to my definition of the selves "humanists." Let's not present our- "the present era," and it was used to refer to "secular," after listing the ten principles of selves as some kind of isolated cult when, in priests working out in the world. In the secularism that made up the Secular fact, we represent some of the best ideas nineteenth century George J. Holyoake used Humanist Declaration of 1980, I wrote, "As and the main currents of thought in the the word secularism as a term to separate I look at these ten principles . I find that Western world. Humanism is far less of a the concerns of this world from the "other- these are the core of attitudes and values fly-by-night cult than is the fundamentalism worldly" concerns of religion as he knew it; out of which I want to live my life." of Jerry Falwell. Consider the people with he wanted the needs of the workers judged Fletcher is wrong to insist that the whom Falwell totally disagrees: Newton, by earthly rather than theological or meta- writing of a definition is "essentially nega- Darwin, Freud, Bertrand Russell, Thomas physical standards. However, religion has tive" and to charge me with the "fallacy of Jefferson, to mention only a few of them! always claimed as part of its function a con- indefinition." A definition tells what some- I am in agreement with the pluralistic cern for what we think of today as secular thing is; it does not tell what it is not. Such approach to humanism of Sidney Hook aspects of life. The practical religionist can- a procedure would make the development when he writes, "The strategy of combating not be driven from daily life by being told of any definition needlessly laborious. It the thrust of fundamentalism and super- that the secular is not part of his religion, would forever be charged that one's defini- naturalism ... should not rely on surrender- because it is. In this regard I agree with tion of something was incomplete because ing the use of the term religion by those Sidney Hook that "English 'as she is spoke' there was yet one more thing in the cosmos naturalists who wish to regard themselves that it was not. One of the oldest rules of as religious." What is important is that we Paul H. Beattie, minister of the First Uni- definition-making, going back to Aristotle's maintain a free society and that the cham- tarian Church in Pittsburgh, is president of Topica, is that you should not define some- pions of free inquiry and the scientific the Fellowship of Religious Humanists and thing by its opposite. For example, the method work together for a better human co-editor of the magazine Religious definition of north is not that it is the op- present and future. Religious humanists, Humanism. posite direction of south. While it is true secular humanists, ethical humanists, natur- that mathematical reasoning can define alistic humanists, and just plain humanists

52 FREE INQUIRY agree far more than they differ; and, of those to the human experience, as Terence once people, and many of his apologists spoke of differences, whether or not one chooses to put it, "Nothing human is foreign to me." him in much this way; yet he sent millions use the word religion in a naturalistic sense As part of this inclusiveness we ought to be to their deaths through the collectivization as a modifier of one's humanism is a minor open to the naturalistic interpretation of reli- of farm land and the development of sense- matter. gious terminology by writers outside as well less slave-labor death camps. Let us beware This brings me to my friend Paul Kurtz, as within the humanist perspective. of the kind of stereotypic thinking that sees who has a deep impulse to develop a form Paul Kurtz writes: "One can participate only the negative side of religion and the of humanism, "secular humanism," that in various communities—moral, social, eco- evils of religious terminology but only the self-consciously eschews any and all connec- nomic, intellectual—but they need not all positive claims of humanism. tions with religion. He claims that such an be reduced to religion. One may even com- Paul Kurtz says that he does not want approach can better argue for separation of memorate rites of passage—birth, gradua- to engage in "definition-mongering"; how- church and state. However, 1 doubt that. tion, marriage or divorce, retirement, even ever, he comes close to doing that. He thinks We should remember that people who had death—in a purely secularized fashion." I that I am attempting to "impose a religious a positive view of religion (Roger Williams, agree with him, but then he adds, "To insist definition on all forms of humanism." Al- the circumspectly Unitarian Thomas Jeffer- that this implies a religion is to read far though that is not my aim, I have pointed son, and the Baptists of Jefferson's time) more into it than what is intended." While out that humanism may very well flourish, were the very people who worked most ef- my definition can be extrapolated to suggest reach more people, and change their lives in fectively for separation of church and state that all human beings have a religion— an enduring way when it is propagated in America; and their effort led to the most whether good or bad, whether self- through primary communities like churches significant experiment in this regard ever consciously recognized or not—I have no and ethical societies. I do insist that, while undertaken. The program of the "anti- desire to see people in a religious perspective my humanism is secular in much of its value religionists" during the French Revolution when they do not wish to be so categorized. content, it is religious in the sense that I was a dismal failure because they alienated I do not insist that rites of passage like have defined religion. What is more, most people like Thomas Paine, a great critic of marriage imply a religion. However, Feuer- of the humanists whom I know who call the churches who had a positive view of bach was right to insist that religion is based themselves religious humanists also identify religion. It seems to me that on the definition on human need, and so it would be natural their humanism with the core values of secu- of humanism Paul Kurtz is becoming an for nonreligious secular humanists to re-label larism. I am not accusing Paul Kurtz of "anti-religious secular humanist," while I am many feelings and actions that in the past being covertly religious; if he says he is not speaking for those humanists who are either would have been part of religious life. Is the religious or does not have a religion, I have pro-religious or neutral toward religion and aspiration toward high ideals or the fervent no desire to get him to use the word. While willing to judge any religion or religious desire to work for social justice of many my definition is broad enough to include expression by its fruits. I do not think it is a humanists utterly different from the prayer him and while he seems to me to be one of good strategy for humanism to see only the of a Jew or a Christian who seeks the the most religious individuals I have ever dark and sinister side of religion. Religion motivation to be kind and good? Much that known (in Dewey's sense of the word reli- can breed a Torquemada or a St. Francis, a is good in humanism finds an echo in reli- gious), I do not wish to urge religion upon Stalin or an Ashoka, a Khomeini or a Con- gion at its best, even when the humanist him. This is a small semantic difference be- fucius. How much shall we secularize our wishes to eschew all connection with religion tween good friends who agree on many other views? Shall we eschew Mozart's Requiem or the use of the word religion. On the other issues that are of much greater importance. because it developed from religious inspira- hand, something similar to what religion He must remain a secular humanist who tion? When we appreciate it, are we being calls "the demonic" is also seen in systems eschews religion and religious terminology, secular or religious? Both secularism and that claim to be secular and humanistic. and I shall remain a religious humanist who humanism are stronger when they appreciate Stalin probably thought of himself as a champions many of the values of secu- similarities as well as differences with regard humanist building a brighter future for his larism.

Beattie, they too have their values, of course, Diminishing Returns but they do not fuse or confuse values with "religious" feelings or aspirations. Beattie holds sturdily to what we may Joseph Fletcher call the Buddhist position, that is, there is no God or gods but nevertheless we ought great help to me all my life has been It seems to me that we have reached to be seeking or aspiring to something be- Athe "law" of diminishing returns. So that point in the Beattie-Fletcher-Hook- yond the limits of finite human knowledge often as we go down the line on a given Kurtz exchanges about whether secular (ein metaphysische etwas), much as Tillich project or in a serious discussion we come humanism is or is not a religion. Beattie displaced God with "the ground of all being" to a point where further effort becomes persists in his belief that it is; the others in his theological system. Tillich was a self- counterproductive, or at least unproductive. deny it. For the most part the discussion styled religious man. hangs on a definition, which to say the least Beattie too embraces "religion without Joseph Fletcher, the 'father of situational has a built-in low potential. Beattie wants God." Fletcher, Hook, and Kurtz refuse to ethics," is a theologian and professor emeri- religion to mean values (see what he says use the device of redefinition. Like religion- tus at the University of Virginia Medical about this), but his critics think religion ists as a whole, whose belief we reject, we School. always connotes some belief in or yearning refuse to turn the word religion into what for a supernatural or divine reality. Like everybody using the King's English under-

Fall 1986 53 stands it to mean—God, a deity, unfalsifiable faith, or, in any case, "a power and reality greater than man's." For example, Beattie gets a clap on the back when he says he wants to live his life On Definition-Mongering "out of" the ten principles of the 1980 Secu- lar Humanist Declaration, but I see no reason to call it "religion." Indeed, there is every reason, historically and philosophical- ly, why it should not be called religion. Paul Kurtz Humanists can be either religious or secular, one or the other, but there is no profit in trying to claim, as Beattie does, that what is t is painful to have to differ with so other redefiners of "secular humanism" say secular is religious. Humanists can wear I valiant a friend and colleague as Paul if someone were to contend, conversely, that either hat they choose, but to argue that Beattie, but 1 am reminded of Aristotle's all religious theists are secular humanists, each hat is really the other one is absurd. remark in the Nichomachean Ethics, just that devout Roman Catholics, Orthodox Finally, Beattie's definition makes every- before his criticism of Plato's theory of ideas, Jews, Protestant fundamentalists, and fer- body religious. One need only to read it to that his commitment to truth must outweigh vent Muslims were by definition secularists see at once that this is so. In his view, to be his devotion to his friends. and humanists? They would vehemently pro- human and to be religious are one and the I applaud Paul Beattie's championing of test the imputations of the equation of same thing. But on the contrary and in fact the principles of secular humanism. A sig- theism with secular humanism, for this Beattie's "religious secularism" or "secular nificant number of educated citizens today would be definition by fiat, under which the religion" is internally contradictory. Some- share secular-humanist beliefs and values: a normal uses of language break down. Every- times a bold redefinition succeeds, but for commitment to reasoned debate, the defense thing would be like everything else—one big the most part, as in this case, it simply of science, rational morality, tolerance, muddle. widens the reaches of the semantic swamp, separation of church and state, and others. Am 1 being excessively anti-religious in and language loses its utility. No doubt this But, again, 1 think it a fundamental my stance? Surely I recognize that some reli- is why mystics and those who play with misuse of language to equate religion with gious institutions, beliefs, and practices speculative metaphysics have always down- secularism when the latter refers to different historically have had positive social and played language and upgraded the limbic aspects of experience. This is linguistic moral effects, such as the founding of charit- system at the expense of the cerebral cortex. definition by capricious legislation, a form able institutions and hospitals and the solace As Kierkegaard used to say, and quite of definition-mongering. Anyone has the given to the sick and bereaved. Yet there rightly, when everybody is religious nobody right to misuse language if he so wishes, but are all too few critics in modern society who is; if it's that easy, it's insignificant. Beattie there is something basically unethical about are willing to point out the correlative nega- seems to me to have turned the word religion such gross distortion. There is not simply a tive effects and destructive roles of many into what the Greeks called a "panchreston," "small semantic difference" between Beattie's religions—past and present. Since all reli- that is, a word or concept that (like "God") contention that secular humanism is a "reli- gious institutions are human institutions, is so broad and inclusive it covers everything gion" and my insistence that it is not. It is they should not be immune to criticism. That in general but nothing in particular. He has an apparently irreconcilable difference on a is the salient feature of the secular humanism de-defined it. key issue. One would not call a "table" a I defend: free inquiry about all human prac- Beattie oversimplifies when he denies that "chair," because people sometimes sit on tices, including religions. definition is negative. "A definition," he says, "tables." One would not call a "cat" a "dog" can be both useful and constructive. "tells what something is, it does not tell what just because they are both domestic pets and In response to another point Beattie it is not." But in fact, as we all know, it have tails. Similarly, why call secular raises, Thomas Paine did not have simply a does both. To define white excludes black humanism a religion? "positive" view of religion, as Beattie implies. (without ruling out the possibility of gray); It is not that people who insist that secu- The Age of Reason was an attack on the definition separates big from little, correct lar humanism is not a religion are "anti- Bible and clericalism and a rejection of from incorrect, personal freedom from chat- religious," for there is something far more revelatory religion. And, yes, I can enjoy tel slavery, and—to come to an end—religion fundamental at issue. Conservative religious Mozart's Requiem (Milton's Paradise Lost, from nonreligion or the secular. theists are continuing their intemperate Dante's Inferno, etc.) for their dramatic and Further argument about the nonquestion attacks on secular humanists, and their aesthetic qualities. Yes, I am aware of the "Is secular humanism a religion?" would obloquies are based primarily on a similar dreadful demonic aspects of Stalin's gulag; produce only more redefinition and indefini- confusion in terminology and an uncon- but I would hardly call Stalin a humanist, tion. We have reached the point of dimin- scionable corruption of language. Nor is it since he was a sworn enemy of human ishing returns. Instead, I propose that we a minor semantic matter when we insist that freedom. just go on enjoying Paul Beattie as he is, a secular humanism, as distinct from religious This point especially needs to be re- Unitarian minister, editor of a religious humanism, is a philosophical, scientific, and iterated: one can lead a good life and con- humanist journal, and a brilliant, thought- ethical viewpoint but not a religion. The tribute significantly to social betterment provoking human being. I dare say he will public schools and other institutions in our without benefit of clergy, creed, or religion. not, not ever, be so egregious about his posi- society would suffer if this distinction be- Although Paul Beattie may choose to call tion in this debate that he would change his tween secularism and religion were obscured. his form of humanism a religion, I beg him journal's name to Religious Secular Let us turn the tables to see the difference not to err by tarring secular humanism with Humanism. • more clearly. What would Paul Beattie and the same brush. •

54 FREE INQUIRY her previous life histories. "Since we have all experienced many, many incarnations (in Books many forms since the beginning of time) the unlimited higher self scans the blueprint of the soul's history and chooses the emotional The Other World of experiences which relate to karmic trouble spots." Or, as she puts it in another place, Shirley MacLaine "The purpose of living is to clear the soul's conflict. The purpose of getting in touch with past-life experience, then, is to isolate the areas of emotional discord so that the conflict in relation to today's incarnation Ring Lardner, Jr. can be understood." There is, to say the least, a statistical problem in all this. According to the best You Can Get There From Here, by Shirley tailed medical advice and dietetic cures by estimates, there are approximately ten times MacLaine (New York: W. W. Norton Co., means of instant consultation with "special- as many people living today as there were 1975), 249 pp., cloth $12.95. ist" entities standing by on the ethereal in the year 1600. There are no reliable figures plane. before that, but obviously the total keeps "Don't Fall Off the Mountain," by Shirley A guide named John, speaking through shrinking as we go back in time, whether MacLaine (New York: Bantam, 1983), 292 Ryerson, revealed to MacLaine that the our final destination is the year 4004 B.C.E., pp., paperback $4.50. human mind is more powerful than nature with a world population of two, or a few itself and has the capacity to create natural million years earlier when Donald Johan- "Out on a Limb," by Shirley MacLaine (New disturbances like earthquakes and floods. son's Lucy was facing areas of emotional York: Bantam, 1983), 367 pp., cloth $15.95, "Gravitational influences and planetary har- discord quite remote from our own. In any paperback $3.95. mony are affected by the minds of beings case, there can't be too many of us today on every planet," he said. While each popu- who once dwelt, as did Miss MacLaine, in "Dancing in the Light," by Shirley MacLaine lation presumably confines such manifesta- both Atlantis (where the census figures are (New York: Bantam, 1985), 421 pp., cloth tions to its own planet, this is not expressly especially unreliable) and ancient Egypt. $17.95. stated. There are other contradictory elements Another spiritual entity, Ramtha from in reincarnation theory. If one takes Miss mong many discoveries in her long Atlantis (where he and Miss MacLaine were MacLaine's word for it, no child can justi- Aspiritual odyssey, Shirley MacLaine brothers during her sojourn on the late con- fiably say, "I didn't ask to be born" or "I learned that "the whole process of measure- tinent of that name), was a forceful, mascu- didn't pick my parents." Children do pick ment and evaluation was an exercise in line fellow. His strength enabled him, while them, she informs us, and the sooner you futility unconsciously designed to keep us in occupying the body of a female medium, a tell them so, the better. As Chris Griscom, the muck and mire of our own limited think- "beautiful blonde ... about five feet four the acupuncturist/psychic-therapist, put it: ing. . . . There was, as yet, no way to inches tall and not particularly strong," to "If we taught our children that they chose measure the activity of the soul, simply be- lift Miss MacLaine, who describes herself us as parents, the child would learn early on cause it was energy that functioned on an as a "heavy, muscled woman weighing to take more responsibility for his fate." invisible and undetectable dimension, some- usually between 130 and 140 pounds," and Each of us, it seems, decides before each thing like the subatomic particles I was carry her around a room with ease. "Some- new life which souls from our past lives we learning about." It was "the dimension of time later I watched him [her?] lift a 200- want to mix it up with again and which no-height, no-width, no-breadth, and no- pound man." family we'd like to be born into. mass, and as a matter of further fact, no- Ramtha would also ask for wine while It seems odd in view of such a principle time." possessing the same woman, and even get that Miss MacLaine writes about one pre- One of her counselors, "a nice young drunk. The alcohol physically consumed by vious existence: "I was an infant lifted by an man named Kevin Ryerson had found, some the medium under his control would distort eagle and deposited with a primitive family years ago, that he had the talent to attune the speech of the spirit visitor, but his hang- in Africa, where 1 became frustrated because his body frequencies to spiritual beings .. . over was left for the blonde host to cope they were not as advanced as I." You have [who] used the electromagnetic frequencies with. to wonder what led her to choose them in of Kevin's body as a channel through which Besides hearing about her past incarna- the first place. they could communicate with us on the earth tions from the guides assigned to her case, plane from the astral plane where they re- Miss MacLaine learned to relive them under s there any reason to take any of this sided." These beings could tell her about the ministrations of an acupuncturist who I seriously? I think there are several. Miss her past incarnations by consulting "the used the needles to "stimulate memory pat- MacLaine's four volumes of autobiography Akashic Records," Akasha being "the col- terns locked in the cellular memory of the are not the ghost-written revelations of a lective unconscious of mankind, stored in physical body." In her two books on the movie star incapable of doing the job for ethereal energy." They could also issue de- subject, Out on a Limb and Dancing in the herself. The first two are literate, interesting Light, she recalls more than thirty separate accounts of her career, her marriage, her Ring Lardner, Jr., is the author of several past lives and suggests that these are just a political activism, and especially her travels books and award-winning screenplays. random sample. And she doesn't feel herself in Africa and Asia. There is only a slight to be unique in the number and variety of hint of mysticism in the first one and none

Fall 1986 55 at all in the second, You Can Get There mundane concerns of daily living. She of incidents for which, if you take them at From Here, which deals with the perils of agreed, and near their destination they came face value, there is no rational explanation. television, her extremely active part in the upon signs announcing in Spanish: "Highest I have no doubt at all that she believes McGovern presidential campaign of 1972, Railway Point in the World" and "UFO steadfastly in everything she tells us, but I and her visit to China the following year. I Contact Point." also have to note that she is a good story- met her at that time and spent the better It was there that she learned about teller with the storyteller's impulse to drama- part of an afternoon discussing a film project David's girlfriend, a gorgeous extraterrestrial tize and personalize. Returning to the first with her. She was smart, articulate, charm- from the Pleiades named Mayan, who had two, premystical books, one cannot help ing, and, as far as I could judge, eminently sought him out years before to deliver the being impressed by her role as, in her own sane. Her Academy Award and commercial message that he in turn was to seek out words, "a traveler, not a tourist." She de- success with Terms of Endearment have Miss MacLaine to get her to write a book liberately sought out places and people off since restored her to the very top rank of that would dispense spiritual enlightenment the beaten track, and she stayed in locations Hollywood stardom. A dancer and singer to a heedless world. that interested her for longer periods than a as well as an actress, she is one of the few And this astonishing disclosure led in casual visitor would. Despite these factors movie stars who can do television specials turn to the realization that since nothing there is, in Don't Fall Off the Mountain, a and fill theaters all over the world with her occurs without a purpose, she, Miss Mac- series of episodes, each by itself merely one-woman stage shows. Laine, must have deliberately chosen a pub- improbable, that in cumulative effect are Most significant, she has made a five- lic career for herself as a movie star and distinctly difficult to believe. hour mini-series version of Out on a Limb then a writer so she could command the —Paddling a canoe in a canal near for ABC television that will be shown this highest possible audience for the truths it Bangkok, she saw a three-month-old baby year. Playing herself and with two of her was part of her Karma, or destiny, to reveal. fall out of another canoe two hundred feet psychic channelers playing themselves, she At the core of this story are two inescap- away and drown because its Buddhist will reenact her discovery of reincarnation able facts: that David told her these things, parents refrained, for philosophical reasons, and her conversion to a variety of related and that she believed them. from saving its life. metaphysical concepts. Incidentally, there is I have no complete or satisfactory ex- —Among the Masai tribe in Kenya, in a one aspect of this production that makes planation of her credulity. In her books it is village close enough to civilization for the me curious to see it. Will the mediums go notable that from moderate skepticism at chief to speak English, she showed the into a real trance and bring us whatever first she becomes increasingly naive and even women the first mirror they had ever seen, spirit messages they happen to be tuning downright perverse in the way she turns nor- and they looked behind it to see who was into at the moment of the shooting? Or will mal thought processes around. She tells us hiding there. they, for movie-making purposes, have to that one of her favorite books in childhood —Beneath her Calcutta hotel window, a pretend they are in a state of trance and was The Sands of Karakorum, about a crippled girl of eleven publicly accused the reproduce as best they can the voice and Western couple in the Gobi desert. One of man who had cut off her hands to qualify words from another world as they remember her past-life reminiscences under the needle her as a beggar, and the crowd around the them? And, if the latter, how good will they takes place in that very location. What this pair reacted by tearing the man to pieces be at faking what is normally channeled demonstrates to her is that she was originally before Miss MacLaine's very eyes. through them while they are unconscious? drawn to the book because it brought back —On a visit to Bhutan for contemplative For weightier reasons, I deplore what recollections of that faraway incarnation. purposes, she was stalked by a man-eating will probably be a deft, entertaining, and Similarly, the dreamlike appearances of peo- leopard, became involved in a coup that persuasive presentation of the case for rein- ple from her present life—father, mother, overthrew the government, and barely sur- carnation, and the effect of that presentation brother, ex-husband, lovers—in her regres- vived an adventurous flight from the on the large percentage of the American sions into the past existences are explained country. people who will see it. Who will gain and by the doctrine that part of everyone's If it is permissible to suspect that she who will lose from such a palatable concoc- Karma is the constant reworking of one's might have, in one or more of these in- tion of anti-scientific propaganda? relationships with kindred souls. stances, edited the facts a bit to improve the To begin to answer that question, we It also emerges from all her writing, both story, one is better prepared for the various must consider how the particular book on during her rational period and later on, that supernatural happenings she recounts. Might which the mini-series is based came to be she was abnormally subject to the two major she not have been even more tempted to written. Fortunately, we have the author's compulsions that promote susceptibility to embellish a few details in support of the own version of the matter. A friend named parapsychological beliefs: death-dread and mystical cause to which she is so devoted? • David, who had already devoted a great deal the need to find a purpose in everything. of time and effort to her spiritual education, She keeps quoting not only Einstein but revealed to her that UFOs had been guiding every other scientist whose words she can civilization on earth for thousands of years— turn to the idea that there must be a sublime "You can fool too it was a UFO, for instance, that parted the intent governing the universe. Since there is Red Sea for the children of Israel and no justice in our lifetimes, the reasoning many of the people too sustained them in the wilderness for forty goes, and the concept of an everlasting much of the time." years. He invited her to go with him to the heaven and hell is hard to accept, there is a village of Llocllapampa on the Mantaro natural appeal in the idea that we face con- James Thurber River, 15,000 feet up in the Peruvian Andes, sequences in future lives for what we did or where flying discs from other planets are didn't get right in this one. in Fables for Our Time such an everyday event that people don't Like other works of this kind, Miss Mac- pay as much attention to them as to the Laine's two latest books contain a number

56 FREE INQUIRY pating in church politics and writing in detail about her thoughts, she never returned to anything like a normal diet. She described Saintly Starvation herself as a glutton and sought to overcome this weakness by fasting and avoiding sleep. As she conquered her body she achieved a mystical union with Christ. She died of Bonnie Bullough starvation in her early thirties. Bell points out that the parents and con- fessors of the holy women he studied disap- Holy Anorexia, by Rudolph M. Bell two are remarkably similar. Although in proved of their extreme deprivations, so he (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), medieval times both men and women parti- interprets their behavior as an act of re- 280 pp., $22.50, cloth. cipated in a certain amount of masochistic bellion against male authority figures. He behavior in the name of religion, starvation may be right; there is also an element of udolph M. Bell, a Rutgers University in order to achieve a mystical union with rebellion in anorexia nervosa. However, it R historian, has written a fascinating Christ was seen primarily in women. seems that the key to both types of behavior book focused on the behavior of 261 Italian Half of the forty-two Italian women who is that they are culturally supported be- women who were canonized as saints be- became saints in the thirteenth century ex- haviors carried too far. Human beings have tween the thirteenth and twentieth centuries. perienced "holy anorexia," and a significant a great capacity to become carried away with Specifically he was interested in the parallels portion of those in the next three centuries activities that seem beneficial at first, but he saw between the current wave of anorexia did so as well. Eventually the pattern are destructive when taken to the extreme. nervosa and the fasting for religious purposes lessened, but it was not until the eighteenth The young holy women were noticed for carried out by the saints. Bell calls the reli- century that the ideal for female holiness their deprivation, as the young anorexic is gious fasting "holy anorexia." changed to that of service to society instead noticed for her slender waistline. Authority Anorexia nervosa is a condition most of self-deprivation and punishment. figures may complain a bit but they also often seen among well-to-do adolescent girls Some of the detailed case studies in the give attention, and that attention serves as and young women from reasonably intact book offer significant insights into holy reinforcement. families. These young women start out with anorexia. Even though she was an infant Medieval religious women had few op- ordinary weight-reduction diets but go on during the bubonic plague of 1348, St. portunities to rise in the church administra- to starve themselves to debilitation or even Catherine of Siena experienced a rather tive structure. In order to be outstanding, a death. The dieting pattern is sometimes ordinary childhood. Her older sister died in woman religious had to choose a path that broken by episodes of bulimia, which can childbirth when Catherine was fifteen years was open to her. include binge eating followed by induced old. From that point forward she dedicated It is not clear what Bell's work tells us vomiting. Amenorrhea and other symptoms her life to religion. She sought solitude, about anorexia nervosa, but I think the of extreme malnutrition are common. reduced her diet to grains and vegetables, message could be that we need to emphasize Despite all contrary objective evidence, many and inflicted pain on herself through flagel- other avenues of achievement for young anorexics will insist they are fat. They lation and other punishments. Although she women and focus less on the importance of usually resist all efforts at treatment. In fact, carried out an active religious life, partici- being slender. • admonitions to eat made by concerned family members and friends tend to reinforce the self-deprivation behavior instead of dis- couraging it. The prognosis for cure by psy- Gift subscriptions to FREE INQUIRY chotherapy is guarded. However, if the vic- tim is able to survive the young adult years, Give a subscription to FREE INQUIRY to relatives, friends, spontaneous recovery may occur. and your library. The cause of this strange pattern is not certain, although certain cultural and psy- Please enter a one-year gift subscription at $18.00 for: chological factors are clearly implicated. Anorexia tends to occur in societies in which Name there is plenty of food and slimness for females is valued. It may be that the cultural Address emphasis on slender women as sex objects is the reason that the behavior is primarily City State Zip seen among women. Additional gifts of FREE INQUIRY can be purchased at a 30% discount on the regular In Holy Anorexia, Bell argues that, al- though modern anorexia nervosa is not subscription price. (Please use a separate sheet.) exactly the same as the behavior he studied Total $ - - ❑ Check or money order enclosed in the documents describing the saints, the Charge my ❑ VISA ❑ MasterCard Exp ❑ Bonnie Bullough is dean of the School of Please send a gift card in my name. Nursing at the State University of New Return to: FREE INQUIRY, Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215-0005 York at Buffalo. 716-834-2921

Fall 1986 57 North of the Rio Grande, the seeds of Viewpoints Enlightenment were planted, and they flour- ished. English political philosophy, common law, and democratic institutions, taking deep Papal Pronouncements root, became hardy. Protestant piety and personal responsibility, individualism and social pluralism, economic enterprise and political initiative all blossomed together. Delos B. McKown The intertwining of these characteristics and values in varying ways and degrees produced two secular, democratic, and progressive 30, 1986, Pope John Paul Il latter rules a particular nation. This is as nations, Canada and the United States. In Øn dliveredMay himself of yet another encyc- clear to knowledgeable Catholics as to these great nations, civil liberties have flour- lical—his fifth. This effort, Dominum et anyone. ished, public education has spread far and Vivificantem, consists on the one hand of In 1948, Gustav A. Wetter, S.J., pub- wide, and science, technology, and the arts suitably abstruse ruminations on that "hid- lished Il materialismo dialettico sovietico. By have reached lofty pinnacles, as have per- den God" who is the Holy Ghost; on the the time it came into English (as Dialectical sonal affluence and general well-being. other hand, it is a rousing attack on atheism, Materialism: A Historical and Systematic These societies are not, of course, uto- materialism, and Marxism, all pictured as Survey of Philosophy in the ), pias; they only seem to be so when compared enemies of that mysterious Ghost who makes its concluding chapter had been expanded with what one finds from Mexico to Pata- the Godhead a threesome. The encyclical to include a reference to a review of the gonia. Not every social evil, of course, is to also brims with references to Satan, who Italian original. This review (from be found in equal degree everywhere below made Marx think his atheistic thoughts, no L'Umanita, the organ of the Italian Social- the Rio Grande, there being happy excep- doubt, and who clouds the minds of con- Democratic party) "credited" Catholics with tions and blessed enclaves. However, histor- temporary skeptics. a special capacity for understanding Bol- ically speaking, one finds weak governments It is not surprising that the reigning shevik philosophy. Rather than bridling at there (if democracies), frequent military primate should have set his own populous the mere suggestion, Wetter blithely notes takeovers followed by dreary or Draconian theism over against the stripped-down that he had already drawn similar con- dictatorships, political prisoners aplenty, the universe of various believers; nor is it sur- clusions—and with good reason! widespread torture of such prisoners, and, prising that he should have misconstrued Indeed, as Paul was to Jesus, so Lenin not infrequently, their outright murder. the relationships of assorted atheists to the was to Marx (and wherever Paul is this day, Meanwhile, various populations pullulate figments of his own faith. It is not true, as surely Lenin is with him). As Neo-Thomism beyond the carrying capacity of their regions he alleges, that the human species becomes is to the Catholic church, Dialectical Materi- or countries, grinding poverty prevails, ig- unintelligible to people just because they do alism is to the Communist party. As John norance and illiteracy abound, injustice not believe in God; nor can it be shown that Paul II is to the Body of Christ, so Mikhail mounts upon injustice, and political corrup- philosophical materialists "exclude" God Gorbachev is to the Workers of the World. tion thrives openly. from anything, "rebel" against God, or "re- Each institution (church and party) sets its Holy Mother Church, of course, cannot ject" God understood as something objec- faithful "free," really "free," by dominating be blamed for all this, but in South America tively real and regnant over the universe. their thoughts. Each strives for doctrinal she did have a virgin continent on which to Here Catholicism's dominant male mistakes purity, each uses indoctrination to keep its work her wiles. There the Enlightenment did his own articles of faith for matters of fact true believers corralled, and each protects not divert attention from either the sacred and, in trying to promulgate theological them from error. What the lies of Satan are or the sweet bye-and-bye. There mischievous truths, palms off what amounts to false- to the church, the lies of ideologists are to Protestants did not replace the pope's hood—not that this is anything new in the the party; and what heresy is to the one, authority with the Bibles's; nor did they set history of dogmatic asseveration. revisionism is to the other. In each case, reformers ablaze with the Hebrew prophets. Naturally, the present pontiff (who exhi- power is the bottom line, authority and There English political philosophy made bits world-class credulity) opposes all who hierarchy its instruments. Even more could scant headway, if any at all. So what went deny his doctrines. Naturally, he inveighs be said, but it hardly seems necessary, one wrong? Are we to assume that the Devil is against a dogmatic system (Marxian Com- attempt at jamming dogma down people's simply a much more effective deceiver south munism) that vigorously, vocally, and some- throats being much like another. of the border or that sin is inherently more times viciously attacks his own. Naturally, After his doughty but misdirected round- virulent there than here? he seeks to undo those who would deny his house against Marxian Communism, a secu- Instead of fulminating against atheists authority and diminish his power. Ho hum. lar sibling of his own "sacred" hierarchy, it and secularists as such, the primate might What's new? What is new (or really old but was doubtless a relief for the Vicar of Christ better fulminate against any and all kinds often forgotten) is how much alike the to let his thoughts trail off harmlessly into a of tyranny over the human mind, including Catholic church and the Communist party reverie of hide-and-seek with that elusive his own despotism. Instead of singling out are, especially when the former is the domi- God, the mysterious third person of the Marxist oppression, odious though it is, he nant faith in a given culture and when the Trinity. If he had not, his attention might might better seek out, and pluck out, the have been claimed by other unacknowledged historical roots of oppression in the organi- Delos B. McKown is head of the Depart- but very real and rather disagreeable siblings, zation whose head he is. Were he to put his ment of Philosophy at Auburn University the often dictatorial, authoritarian states of mind to such tasks, he would have little time and the author of With Faith and Fury Latin and South America, thoroughly left for speculating about the Holy Ghost, (Prometheus Books). Catholic in culture. or Sacred Gas, as Bentham once put it. •

58 FREE INQUIRY Yahweh: A Morally Retarded God

William R. Harwood

ocieties create their gods in their own is best evaluated by comparing it to the monstrous, could only be incomprehensible, Simage. Inevitably, therefore, cultures behavior of a modern-day Yahweh. (The never unjust. That the atrocities were of that were perfectly sane and virtuous by the quotations are from the author's The purely human origin, and that the god ac- standards of five thousand, or four thou- Judaeo-Christian Bible Fully Translated.) cused of ordering them perhaps did exist, sand, or two thousand years ago, but insane did not cross his mind. It certainly did not and evil by the standards of today, created When Yahweh your gods has settled you occur to him that Yahweh could not exist, gods that were likewise insane and evil by in the land you're about to occupy, and because if he ever had existed he would have the standards of today. That would have driven out many infidels before you .. . long before tortured himself to death from not occurred had the gods been allowed to you're to cut them down and exterminate the sheer joy that he derived from hurting them. You're to make no compromise with evolve with their creators. Unfortunately, the living things. them or show them any mercy. [ Deut. 7:1] invention of writing led to the depiction of The Deuteronomist created a racist god capricious, temperamental, xenophobic, Instead, this is how you're to deal with that did not regard the murder of gentiles genocidal, morally retarded gods in sacred them: You're to destroy their altars, smash as immoral. The priestly author, whose scrolls in which their every atrocity and their stone phalluses, chop down their writing first appeared in the hands of the irrationality was not merely acknowledged wooden vulvas, and burn their sacred High Priest Ezra in 434 B.C.E., expanded on but unequivocally applauded by their equally icons. For you are a nation consecrated that concept and described a god so xeno- vicious and irrational creators. The conse- to Yahweh your gods. Yahweh your gods phobic that Jews who showed any toleration quence was that, while the god-worshipers has chosen you to be his special nation, for gentiles could expect to be exterminated: who created them continued evolving, their ahead of all nations on the surface of the land. [Deut. 7:5] gods' moral evolution ceased as soon as their A Yisraelite man was seen bringing a Midyanite woman to meet his family, in concept of right and wrong was frozen in a You're going to exterminate them in a "bible"—in the case of the Jewish and Chris- full view of Mosheh and the Yisraelite massive genocide until they're eliminated. community as they wailed at the entrance tian gods, more than two thousand years [ Deut. 7:23] to the Tent of Meeting. Fiynkhas the ago. By categorizing fiction composed by a priest, the son of Eteazar ben Aharon, saw morally retarded culture as "revealed truth," When your Führer has settled you in the them and left the assembly. He picked up Judaism and Christianity have been to this land you're about to occupy, and driven a spear and followed the Yisraelite man day saddled with gods that conform to the out many inferior races before you, you're to his tent and there speared them both moral standards of long ago but not to those to gas them down and exterminate them. through, the Yisraelite man and the of today. You're to make no compromise with them woman, through her genital orifice. Thus In the reign of King Solomon, c. 950 or show them any mercy. Instead, this is the pestilence that had struck the Yisrae- how you're to deal with them: You're to B.C.E., the myth-historian known as the lites was halted. Those who died in the destroy their synagogues, smash their epidemic numbered 24,000. [Num. 25:6-9] "Yahwist" justified genocide by making the mosques, chop down their wooden crosses, savage conquest of Judah a consequence of and burn down their phylacteries. For you It is not uncommon for modern-day patriarchal inflicted upon the con- are a nation of Supermen, a Master Race Christians, confronted by the foregoing hor- quered peoples' ancestors by the god of the chosen by nature to rule over every inferior ror stories, to rationalize that the god of the victors. Two hundred years later, the Elohist race on the surface of the land. You're to Old Testament was indeed bloodthirsty and further absolved his ancestors of guilt by exterminate them in a massive genocide. vengeful, but that their New Testament god having Yahweh personally order the exter- [Adolf Hitler (paraphrased)] is not like that—while simultaneously main- minations that the volcano-god's Chosen taining that the Christian Yahweh is the Nation had piously carried out (Josh. Yet at the same time that the Deuterono- Jewish Yahweh. That rationalization is 8:26-7). The Deuteronomist, writing in 621 mist was justifying the atrocities of Joshua tantamount to an acknowledgment that their B.C.E., confirmed Yahweh's culpability, but and Kind David by having their brutality paramount god used to be a homicidal psy- put into the mouth of Moses the explanation retroactively ordered by Yahweh, he also chopath, but has morally evolved. In fact of that Yahweh's no-survivors policy was de- ordered, "Be compassionate to foreigners, course they are right. The only problem is signed to prevent the worshipers of an for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt" that a god whose morality can evolve to opposition god from passing on their (10:19). How the Deuteronomist could keep up with his worshipers is clearly re- heresies to true believers (Deut. 20:16-18). preach universal compassion while simul- vealed to be a human invention. For an The Deuteronomist's god ordered the taneously applauding and justifying genocide objective existing god that was perfect then rampaging Jews to behave in a manner that and enslavement is difficult to understand. and is perfect now, such moral evolution is Perhaps, like a growing number of modern- by definition impossible. Either the god day god-worshipers, he was genuinely horri- Yahweh is the epitome of absolute evil that William R. Harwood is the author of fied by the atrocities of the past, but was the Judeo-Christian Bible portrays or he Yahweh and Jesus: Mythology's Last Gods. able to hypnotize himself into the belief that does not exist. Fortunately, the latter alter- the tribal god's orders, no matter how native is the true one. •

Fall 1986 59 The Rev. Charles Stanley, head of the 14.3 million-member Southern Baptist Con- vention, said in an interview in the San IN THE NAME OF GOD Francisco Examiner that the Bible is "very clear on homosexuality." "It is a sinful lifestyle, according to the Scripture, and I believe that AIDS is God On Angels and Devils members of their families were victims of indicating his displeasure and his attitude demonic possession. "They were no longer toward that form of lifestyle, which we in Rome—Pope John Paul II is perceived as free to do their work," said Franco Pera- this country are about to accept," he said. [a modern pope]. So it may have come as a dotto, Turin's vicar-general. "Moreover, the surprise to some that he has lately been talk- work is trying. It is very stressful. Exorcists "Homosexuality has been going on for a ing at considerable length about angels and must have a strong and well-balanced per- long time, but as it has become an acceptable devils and the Holy Spirit... . sonality. "(Denver Post) lifestyle in the minds of many people, we The Pope startled several thousand lis- have AIDS," he said. "Why not AIDS 50 teners gathered for his weekly audience years ago, 100 years ago?"(UPI) [recently] by insisting that angels exist. It is just that they have been misunderstood, he A New Christian Manifesto said. White Supremacy for God "The angels are those creatures which Washington—A group of conservative and Hayden Lake, Idaho—Hundreds of white are unseen, " the Pope said. "They are invisi- politically active Protestants, announcing its supremacists, many of them armed and from ble, for they are purely spiritual beings." new organization this week, declared the an assortment of Ku Klux Klan and similar John Paul acknowledged that "confusion Bible holds the answers to all social, political U.S. and Canadian groups, met to denounce at times is great" on the subject of angels and other issues facing the world. non-whites, Jews and the federal govern- and that believing in them is not a central The new group, the Coalition on Revival, ment. tenet of the faith. issued a "Manifesto for the Christian Meeting at the remote compound of the Still, he rebuked "materialists and Church" in Fourth of July ceremonies at Aryan Nations Church in the heavily rationalists" who try to deny their existence the Lincoln Memorial. forested hills of northern Idaho, they called and said angels were "collateral yet insepara- The 4,000-word document says "the Bible for the establishment of a whites-only nation ble from the central revelation." presents God's own world view, which is in the Pacific Northwest and the destruction The Devil has also been a big subject of consistent and practical and answers all of of non-whites and non-Christians. discussion in the Vatican all year [since it] the basic life questions of man." "Our goal is the destruction of them," laid down guidelines on how exorcisms The coalition said "all Bible-believing said Pastor Thomas Robb of the Church of should be conducted. Christians must take a non-neutral stance Jesus Christ, Harrison, Ark. The Pope himself made clear that he in opposing" abortion, adultery, homo- "There is no middle ground, we'll take certainly believes in Satan in his encyclical sexuality, pornography, prostitution, drug no survivors," he told about 300 listeners. on the Holy Spirit earlier this year. It was abuse, racial discrimination, "state usurpa- "It's us or them. "(News Wire Services) full of references to Satan, including his tion of parental rights and God-given liber- various aliases such as `father of lies" and ties," "statist-collectivist theft from citizens the "genius of suspicion." For page after through devaluation of their money and page, the Pope made clear that Satan, like redistribution of their wealth" (that is, the Secular Humanists Condemned the good angels, is a force to be reckoned progressive income tax), atheism and evolu- with.... (New York Times) tion taught as a monopoly viewpoint in Washington—The Supreme Court and Con- public schools and communism, Marxism, gress, with the exception of some individuals, fascism, Nazism "and the one-world govern- are "damned by God almighty"for allowing ment of the New Age Movement.".. . abortions to continue, a prominent television Exorcisms Up in Italy In addition to its "manifesto" the coali- preacher said yesterday. tion is also preparing 17 "world view" state- Cheered on by a crowd of more than Turin—The devil had his way here for two ments it says will outline the biblical view 1,000 at the National Religious Broadcasters years, but the party's over. The Roman on economics, law, government, the arts, convention, the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart also Catholic church in this northern Italian city medicine and other areas of social and poli- said that non-believing "secular humanists," has finally filled the post of official exorcist. tical concern. (UPI) some masquerading as Christians, have The demand is so great that not one but taken over the nation's schools, news media seven priests were chosen to do the job. They and even many churches, causing such have their work cut out for them. scourges as abortion, pornography and ac- Cases of demonic possession have been And God Created AIDS .. . quired immune deficiency syndrome. piling up since the last exorcist retired be- "Child molestation and child abuse—you cause of poor health two years ago. The San Francisco—The president of the nation's can chalk that up as well to this philosophy parish priests are neither equipped nor largest Protestant denomination says God that is being espoused today," he said, de- authorized to deal with the problem... . created acquired immune deficiency syn- fining secular humanism as a godless religion Previous exorcists were overwhelmed by drome to show displeasure with America's whose practitioners believe "anything goes." the hundreds of people claiming they or acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle. (AP)

60 FREE INQUIRY (Letters, Continued from p. 4) I have always believed that the primary human beings—their nature and place in the an endless number of other perversions. responsibility of philosophers should be to universe. There are many varieties of How could these devil-worshipers ever expose false and outmoded ideas, whether humanism, both religious and nonreligious, believe that the earth orbits the sun when the they are religious or nonreligious in nature. with tenets broad-based enough to embrace Holy Word plainly states that the sun stood Religion has no real claim to being a sacred Jewish and Christian humanists. still so that human killing could continue cow, untouchable and unquestionable, and Most early humanists were religious. and, again, that the sun moved back several any such claim is purely gratuitous. Religion Noted humanists of the past include Michel- degrees in the sky to prove to an ancient should either stand or fall on its own angelo, Voltaire, Ben Franklin, Thomas king that he would not die of boils. How do foundations. Paul Kurtz has brought home Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo the devilish secular humanists explain that? to all of us the true purpose of philosophy, Emerson, Mark Twain, and Albert Einstein. How dare humanist scientists produce new namely, the search for the truth using the Self-proclaimed current humanists include strains of grain and crossbreed animals so principles of free and open inquiry. FREE philosopher Sidney Hook, zoologist Stephen that supporters of evolution can use these INQUIRY, in my opinion, is the finest publica- Jay Gould, author Isaac Asimov, and Soviet to bolster their arguments? This is a horrible tion of its type to appear on the scene for dissident Andrei Sakharov. evil. quite some time. It has brought philosophy As a stalwart champion of liberty and We should not test drugs on animals down from its ivory tower in the world of freedom, humanism is anathema to any either. We have absolutely nothing in com- academia into the realm of the real world totalitarian (communistic or fascistic) system. mon with white rats. If a drug kills or heals and daily life, where its practical applica- The World Book Encyclopedia says our a rat and also kills or heals a human, it is tions can be of great benefit to all those Declaration of Independence is a humanistic only a miraculous coincidence. It is also a who are "probing skeptical inquirers." document. coincidence that we and some animals have Fanatical atheism, such as that offered Considering the importance it has played in common: two eyes, stomachs, livers, four by the , is certainly no in the forming of this country, it would be limbs, two sexes, brains, skin, blood, and answer to the fanaticisms of fundamentalist naïve if any school board thought it possible, teeth. This is all coincidence. To doubt that Christianity. Kurtz's idea of the "common or academically sound, to eliminate secular is to be damned. ground" and the use of "probing skeptical humanism from the classroom. We should all go to the Holy Bible for inquiry" is the most rational and logical our education. It says, "Thou shalt not suffer approach that can be adopted as a compro- Nick Pacino a witch to live." What reasonable person mise between these two extremes. I applaud Festus, Mo. can doubt the existence of witches, spirits, his efforts as an island of reason and ration- and ghosts when the Good Book tells us ality in a sea of superstition, ignorance, and clearly that these are facts? gullibility. Freedom in Israel Lastly, I wish all true Christians the blessings of heaven, and secular humanists Ronald C. Tanguay David D. Van Strien's letter (Letters to the the horrors and anguish of eternal, ever- Saugus, Mass. Editor, FI, Spring 1986) on Sidney Hook's lasting damnation. Let's put the Bible back "Pluralistic Humanism" (FI, Winter in the classrooms, and kick the secular 1985/86) distorts the situation in Israel con- humanist devils out. ceptually and factually and, regrettably, re- Secular Humanism No Threat flects an uninformed view. Non-Jews in Mark Spitzer Israel have, in fact, more religious freedom Dickinson, N.D. I take exception to the often-heard comment than Jews. They generally run their religious that "the U.S. Supreme Court has defined affairs as they see fit. The Jews, on the other secular humanism as a religion." This is an hand, are subject in personal matters, such incorrect reading of the facts in the case of as marriage and divorce, to the unconscion- The Spirit of Free Inquiry Torcaso v. Watkins (1961). The Court stated able legal authority of the Orthodox stream in an informational footnote: "Among reli- of Judaism, whose concept of pluralism is Recently, I had the pleasure of listening to gions in this country which do not teach fundamentally authoritarian in practice. One the audiotapes from FREE INQUIRY's con- [my emphasis] what would generally be con- need not be surprised at the growing disdain ference on "Jesus in History and Myth," sidered a belief in the existence of God are for institutionalized religion and, conse- held at the University of Michigan at Ann Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular quently, the increasing social polarization in Arbor on April 19 and 20, 1985. I was Humanism and others." At that time the Israel. This intolerable situation must be greatly impressed by the spirit of mutual Court's mention of "Secular Humanism" was distinguished from the legitimate political- tolerance and respect in which the conference a reference to an actual church in California military needs of the State of Israel to sur- was undertaken, and especially by the phi- that called itself "Secular Humanist." vive in a violent and hostile region. Although losophy of the "common ground." After a Obviously, the Court was not defining a Israel's level of civil liberties is far from ideal, regretful one-year membership in the Amer- religion, nor indicating any lack of "belief' in the circumstances its record of tolerating ican Atheists and contantly reading about in God. Most dictionaries clearly define reli- dissenting views is light-years ahead of its the exploits of the Moral Majority, it was a gion as any system of faith in and worship neighbors'. For Israelis, Jews, and Arabs, to breath of fresh air to see a group of New of a superhuman power, a god, or gods. openly oppose their government's policy is Testament scholars, theologians, and The term secular humanism has no spe- not to invite a bullet in the head, whereas to humanists come together for the purpose of cific meaning. Secular merely refers to oppose the Palestine Liberation Organiza- exchanging ideas and opinions within a worldly goods or behavior, not opposition tion's policies in the occupied territories is framework of enlightened mutual toleration to God. Humanism is a way of viewing the for Arabs generally to invite a premature and respect. world that emphasizes the importance of end to their lives. This tragic situation should

Fall 1986 61 be obvious to any objective student of the region. If anyone has relied on tendentious Classified propaganda, it appears to be your corre- spondent Mr. Van Strien and not, the object of his criticism, Dr. Sidney Hook. AT LAST! Also, contrary to Van Strien's opinion, A THINKING CLASSIFIED there is no provision in Israel law for "loss RATES of nationality" (citizenship?) when a Jew in PERSON'S NOVEL.. Israel converts to another religion. He still Per word (single insertion) remains an Israeli. Has Mr. Van Strien for- ONLY AN 10-word minimum 70 cents gotten the Brother Daniel case? 10% discount for placement in 3 con- INNOVATIVE, secutive issues. Gabriel Glazer AWARD Payment for insertion must accom- Chairman, International Relations pany copy. Israel Association for Secular WINNING All classified ads are accepted at the Humanistic Judaism discretion of the publisher. NOVELIST COULD For additional information and rates WRITE THE MOST for classified display advertising, write: Addendum FREE INQUIRY DARING BOOK Box 5, Central Park Station Buffalo, N.Y. 14215-0005 The article "The Revolt Against the Light- OF THE DECADE: ning Rod" by Al Seckel and John Edwards in the Summer 1986 FREE INQUIRY origin- "Slayer of the ally appeared as "Christianity vs. the Light- ASSOCIATIONS ning Rod" in an Atheist United leaflet. Sacred Cow" (Atheist United, 14542 Ventura Boulevard, Learn about Atheist freethought and activism Suite 211, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403.) A Contemporary in the Midwest. FREE Information. Write Freethought Novel INDEPENDENT ATHEISTS, Box 4123, 0ak Park, IL 60303- 4123. by Carl Shapiro BERTRAND RUSSELL S0CIETY. Informa- tion: FI, RD1, Box 409, Coopersburg, PA There's plenty of action, drama, 18036. romance, suspense, and intellectual Steadfast Activist at 84 "EVANGELICAL AGN0STICISM!" excitement in this dynamic 28-chapter by CORLISS LAMONT Free information and logo. story about an outspoken Manhattan SEA, Box 515fi, Auberry, CA 93602. e A New Basic Pamphlet, No. 24 atheist who hits the jackpot in the New Dr. Lamont, author, educator, philosopher, York State Lotto. Needless to say, J0HN ALLEGR0 S0CIETY. $10 "Introduc- tion" tape—plus! Reedville, VA 22539-0206. and staunch fighter for civil liberties, human- members of the religious hierarchy and ism, and peace, reviews his long life. He gives many of their more fanatical cohorts THE MILLENIUM FELL0WSHIP: Are you an engaging account of his main interests, his are shocked, after a major newspaper looking for a caring, supportive, extended dissident beliefs, and the battles he has won community practicing humanism in everyday interviews the 39-year-old millionaire, against Joseph McCarthy, the CIA, the FBI, life? Write: The Millenium Fellowship, P0 Box and other U.S. government agencies. Also and he airs his iconoclastic views un- 63, Reading, MA 01867. sections on poetry, sports, and awards. abashedly. The events which follow, the unforgettable characters, and the Six Rural Communities invite visitors/mem- 0rder your copy today. bers. Sane alternative lifestyles. Equality. startling, tension-packed climax, make Send 500 in coin or check to Cooperation. Peace. Self-supporting. Feder- this compelling novel impossible to ation of Egalitarian Communities, c/o Twin BASIC PAMPHLETS put down (in more ways than one!) 0aks-FQ626, Louise, VA 23093. $1.00 appre- Box 42, New York, NY 10025 ciated. Special prices on bulk orders: 10 copies $3.50; 20 SOFTCOVER copies $6.50; 50 copies or more, 40% discount. BOOKS $15 AMERICANIZING AMERICA by Frank Rood, Enclosed Is my check for $ POSTPAID (U.S.A) $3.00 Ppd. There is hope. 611 - 2nd Street, Please send copy (copies) of Basic (N.J. add 6% tax) St. Petersburg, FL 33701. Pamphlet, No. 24 All Copies Are Autographed THE BEST MEDICINE by Butler, Rayner. The skeptic's health encyclopedia. Book- Name INDEPENDENT stores or call Harper and Row (800) 638-3030. Address PUBLICATIONS AG0RAPH0BIA? Perplexed by irrational P.O. Box 162, Park Station fears? Comprehensive new book answers City Paterson, N.J. 07513 your questions. Free information. Dept. FI, P.0. Box 65, Palo Alto, CA 94302. State Zip THE VANISHING G0DS, a history every person should read, 6 x 9 HB, 256 pp. $10.95.

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Fall 1986 63 The Academy of Humanism The Academy of Humanism was established to recognize distinguished humanists and disseminate humanistic ideals and beliefs. The members of the Academy, listed below, are nontheists who are (I) devoted to free inquiry in all fields of human endeavor, (2) committed to a scientific outlook and the use of the scientific method in acquiring knowledge, and (3) upholders of humanist ethical values and principles. The Academy's goals include furthering respect for human rights and freedom and the dignity of the individual, tolerance of various viewpoints and willingness to compromise, commitment to social justice, a universalistic perspective that transcends national, ethnic, religious, sexual, and racial barriers, and belief in a free and open pluralistic and democratic society.

Humanist Laureates: Isaac Asimov, author; Sir Alfred J. Ayer, fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford University; Brand Blanshard, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Yale University; Sir Hermann Bondi, professor of applied mathematics, King's College, ; Mario Bunge, Frothingham Professor of Foundations and Philosophy of Science, McGill University; Bernard Crick, professor of politics, Birkbeck College, University of London; Francis Crick, Nobel Laureate in Physiology, Salk Institute; Joseph Delgado, professor and chairperson in the Department of Neuropsychiatry, University of Madrid; Milovan Djilas, author, former vice-president of Yugoslavia; Sir Raymond Firth, professor emeritus of anthropology, University of London; Joseph Fletcher, theologian, professor emeritus of medical ethics, University of Virginia Medical School; Yves Galifret, professor of physiology at the Sorbonne and director of l'Union Rationaliste; John Geltung, professor of sociology, University of Oslo; Stephen Jay Gould, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University; Adolf Grünbaum, professor of philosophy, University of Pittsburgh; Alberto Hidalgo, president of the Sociedad Asturiana de Filosofia, 0viedo, Spain; Donald Johanson, Institute of Human Origins; Franco Lombardi, professor of philosophy, University of Rome; Jolé Lombardi, organizer of the New University (laic) for the Third Age; André Lwolff, Nobel Laureate in Physiology and professor of science, College de France; Paul MacCready, Kremer Prize winner for aeronautical achievements; Jean-Claude Pecker, professor of astrophysics, College de France, Academie des Sciences; Sir Karl Popper, professor emeritus of logic and scientific method, University of London; W. V. Quine, professor of philosophy, Harvard University; Max Rood, professor of law and former Minister of Justice in Holland; Carl Sagan, astronomer, Cornell University; Andrei Sakharov, physicist, Nobel Peace Prize winner; Thomas Szasz, professor of psychiatry, State University of New York Medical School (Syracuse); V. M. Tarkunde, chairman, Indian Radical Humanist Association; Richard Taylor, professor of philosophy, Union College; G. A. Wells, professor of German, Birkbeck College, University of London; Edward O. Wilson, professor of sociobiology, Harvard University; Lady Barbara Wootton, former Deputy Speaker, House of Lords. Deceased: George O. Abell, Ernest Nagel, George Olincy, Chaim Perelman.

Secretariat: Vern Bullough, dean of natural and social sciences, State University of New York College at Buffalo; Antony Flew, professor of philosophy, Reading University, (England); Sidney Hook, professor emeritus of philosophy, New York University; Paul Kurtz, professor of philosophy, State University of New York at Buffalo, editor of FREE INQUIRY; Gerald Larue, professor emeritus of archaeology and biblical studies, University of Southern California at Los Angeles. Executive Director: Steven L. Mitchell. Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER) The Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion was developed to examine the claims of Eastern and Western religions and of well- established and newer sects and denominations in the light of scientific inquiry. The Committee is interdisciplinary, including specialists in biblical scholarship, archaeology, linguistics, anthropology, the social sciences, and philosophy who represent differing secular and religious traditions. Committee members are dedicated to impartial scholarship and the use of objective methods of inquiry.

Gerald Larue (Chairman), professor emeritus of archaeology and biblical studies, University of Southern California at Los Angeles; John Allegro, former lecturer in Near Eastern and 0ld Testament Studies, University of Manchester (England); Robert S. Alley, professor of humanities, University of Richmond; Michael Arnheim, professor of ancient history, University of Witwatersrand (South Africa); Joseph Barnhart, professor of philosophy, North Texas State University; Paul Beattie, president, Fellowship of Religious Humanists; H. James Birx, chairman of Anthropology/ Sociology Department, Canisius College; Vern Bullough, dean of natural and social sciences, State University of New York College at Buffalo; Joseph Fletcher, theologian, professor emeritus of medical ethics, University of Virginia Medical School; Antony Flew, professor of philosophy, Reading University (England); Van Harvey, professor of religion, Stanford University; Sidney Hook, professor emeritus of philosophy, New York University; Paul Kurtz, professor of philosophy, State University of New York at Buffalo; William V. Mayer, director, Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, University of Colorado; Delos McKown, professor of philosophy, Auburn University; Lee Nisbet, associate professor of philosophy, Medaille College; George Smith, president, Signature Books; A. T. Steegman, professor of anthropology, State University of New York at Buffalo; G. A. Wells, professor of German, Birkbeck College, University of London (England); Steven L. Mitchell (ex officio), executive director, Academy of Humanism.

Biblical Criticism Research Project (CSER Subcommittee) The Biblical Criticism Research Project (Subcommittee) was founded to help disseminate the results of biblical scholarship—studies in comparative religion, folklore, scientific archaeology, and literary analysis. It investigates the claim that the Bible is divinely inspired; the historical evidence for Jesus and other Bible personalities; the role of religious myth, symbol, and ritual; and the possibility of basing morality upon reason and experience instead of biblical doctrine. The Research Project's goals include compiling bibliographies of the best sources of information about the Bible, publishing articles and monographs about different facets of biblical research, and convening seminars and conferences.

R. Joseph Hoffmann (Chairman), assistant professor of New Testament studies, University of Michigan; David Noel Freedman, professor of Old Testament, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; Randel Helms, professor of English, Arizona State University; Robert Joly, professor of philosophy, Centre Interdisciplinaire d'Etudes Philosophiques de l'Universite de Mons (Belgium); Carol Meyers, professor of religion, Duke University; James Robinson, director, Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont College; John F. Priest, professor and chairman, Department of Religion, Florida State University; Morton Smith, professor of history, Columbia University; Steven L. Mitchell (ex officio), executive director, Academy of Humanism.

Faith-Healing Investigation Project (CSER Subcommittee) David Alexander, Southern California Skeptics; Robert S. Alley, professor of humanities, University of Richmond; Luis W. Alvarez, (professor emeritus of physics, University of California); Stephen Barrett, M.D., consumer health advocate; Dr. Bonnie Bullough, R.N. (dean, School of Nursing, SUNY at Buffalo); Dr. Joseph Fletcher, professor emeritus of medical ethics, Univerity of Virginia Medical School; William Jarvis, chairman, Department of Public Health Science, School of Allied Health Professionals, Loma Linda University, California; Richard H. Lange, M.D., chief of nuclear medicine, Schenectady, N.Y.; Wallace I. Sampson, M.D., Stanford University; Al Seckel, Executive Director, Southern California Skeptics; Robert Steiner, Chairman, Occult Committee, Society of American Magicians; Dr. Rita Swan, President, Children's Health Care Is a Legal Duty, Sioux City, Iowa.

Coordinating Council: Dr. Paul Kurtz, Gerald Larue, and James Randi, conjurer and principal investigator of the Project.