PAUL KURTZ: When Must Humanists Speak Out? PAUL

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PAUL KURTZ: When must humanists speak out? f Celebrating Reason and Humanity SUMMER 2003 • VOL. 23 No. 3

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7725274 74957 Published by The Council for Secular Humanism THE AFFIRMATIONS OF HUMANISM: A STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES*

We are committed to the application of reason and science to the understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems. We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation. We believe that scientific discovery and technology can contribute to the betterment of human life. We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities. We are committed to the principle of the separation of church and state. We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual understanding. We are concerned with securing justice and fairness in society and with eliminating discrimination and intolerance. We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the handicapped so that they will be able to help themselves. We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, and strive to work together for the common good of humanity. We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other species. We believe in enjoying life here and now and in developing our creative talents to their fullest. We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence. We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have access to comprehensive and informed health-care, and to die with dignity. We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative standards that we discover together. Moral principles are tested by their consequences. We are deeply concerned with the moral education of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion. We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences. We are citizens of the universe and are excited by discoveries still to be made in the cosmos. We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, and we are open to novel ideas and seek new departures in our thinking. We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich personal significance and genuine satisfaction in the service to others. We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind faith or irrationality. We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest that we are capable of as human beings. *by Paul Kurtz

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free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 2 EDITORIAL FEATURES 5 When Should We 26 No Passing Speak Out? Tom Flynn Paul Kurtz SPECIAL SECTION WAR IN IRAQ OP-ED INHERIT MORE WIND: DARWIN DISCORD 9 On the Eve of War DEEPENS Richard Dawkins SUMMER 2003 VOL. 23, NO. 3 31 Introduction Tom Flynn 12 Secular Humanists ISSN 0272-0701 Can Disagree on 32 Creationism vs. War Scientism Edward Tabash Massimo Pigliucci 14 Permitting a War of 37 DNA, Intelligent Aggression Design and Misleading Ronnie Dugger Metaphors Mark R. Seely 16 Enlightenment vs. 40 The Premise Keepers Proliferation Steve Hirsch Victor J. Stenger 17 Planetary Humanism SPECIAL SUBSECTION and War and Peace WOMEN AND RELIGIONS Barry Seidman 44 Belief and Unbelief Among Nineteenth- Century Feminists OP-ED Melinda Grube 47 Child Abuse by 19 The First Amendment Religions Is for Fortune-tellers, Narisetti Innaiah Too 49 Why Marriage? Wendy Kaminer Richard Taylor 20 The Patriot 52 Council Conference a Whistleblower Capital Success Nat Hentoff John Gaeddert 22 Thinking About the Dead DEPARTMENTS Peter Singer 62 Saying My Promises 23 Public Solidarity Does Karl Wickstrom Not Help Humanism Christopher Hitchens 7 Letters

25 Little Boxes 29 Frontlines Vern Bullough 53 Church-State Update Another Try at Public School Prayer REVIEWS Tom Flynn 54 World Report 65 The Lunar Men: 67 The Black Humanist Has the Crucial War Five Friends Whose Experience: An Alternative Already Been Lost? Curiosity Changed to Religion Bill Cooke the World Edited by Norm R. Allen, Jr. Ed Buckner 55 Great Minds Pierre Bayle (1647–1706) by Jenny Uglow 68 Separation of Church Paul Edwards Jerry Kurlandski and State by Philip Hamburger 59 Faith and Reason William Sierichs, Jr. The Problem of Prayer Bruce Martin Wildish 69 Life Without God: A Guide to Fulfillment Without 61 Applied Ethics 66 The Blank Slate: The Modern Religion The Benefits of Selfishness Denial of Human Nature by Nicolaos S. Tzannes Tibor R. Machan Norm R. Allen, Jr. by Steven Pinker 62 God on Trial Stuart Jordan Religion, Death, and the Law William Harwood FI Editorial Staff FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published quarterly by the Editorial Board Editor-in Chief Council for Secular Humanism, a nonprofit educational corporation, Paul Kurtz P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226. Phone (716) 636-7571. Fax Robert Alley Editor (716) 636-1733. Copyright ©2003 by the Council for Secular Professor of Humanities Emeritus, Thomas W. Flynn Humanism. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be Univ. of Richmond, Virginia Managing Editor Deputy Editor reproduced without permission of the publisher. Periodicals postage Andrea Szalanski Norm R. Allen, Jr. paid at Buffalo, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. National Hector Avalos Associate Professor of Columnists distribution by International Periodicals Distributors, Solana Beach, Religious Studies, Vern Bullough, Richard Dawkins, California. 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free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 4 SECULAR HUMANISM AND POLITICS

EDITORIAL WHEN SHOULD WE SPEAK OUT? PAUL KURTZ

n the last issue of Free Inquiry, we published an editorial criticizing the morality of the preemptive war against Iraq. It was written before the war began and published after its start. ISeveral readers objected strongly to this. This raises the basic question: Should secular humanism as a movement ever take political positions? Surely individual humanists, as citizens in a democracy, may participate in the political process. They can vote for candidates and support the political part(ies) of their choice. Many humanists, to be sure, are intensely committed to a political point of view. But should secular humanist organizations such as the Council for Secular Humanism take positions on the burning political issues of the day? There are four cogent arguments against the Council’s becoming a political pressure group: First, as a nonprofit organization we are prohibited from supporting candidates and/or engaging in political propaganda. This prohibition applies to the Christian Coalition, the Roman Catholic Church, and other nonprofit agencies as well, all of which at least theoretically risk losing their tax-exempt status if they engage in political activity of that sort. If some other nonprofits wink at this principle, we embrace its propriety. Second, although secular humanists share a common set of beliefs and values, they may differ about any number of concrete political and economic measures. Third, for the Council to endorse specific party platforms or candidates for office, and/or to identify with one part of the political landscape, might alienate other sup-

“We have a responsibility to speak out on issues that we consider vital to our scientific humanist outlook . . . [and when our] cherished beliefs and values are at stake.”

porters who disagree. Protestants, Catholics, and Jews are found on all sides of the political spectrum; why not secular humanists? For that reason, this argument goes, we are wise to avoid any narrow political litmus test and welcome everyone into our (pardon the expression) big tent. Fourth, our movement is primarily educational. Our outlook and our mission are scientific, philosophical, and ethical. Politics is not part of our core mission. If even a hospital, supermarket, university, or art museum were to engage in partisan politics, many of its patrons would be offended. Those are powerful arguments. Surely we should not define ourselves primarily as a political pressure group. At the present time, at least, the positions we take should be prudential, leaving room for dissent. And yet, does all this mean that the Council for Secular Humanism should be absolutely nonpolitical, holding itself above comment on the issues of the day in antiseptic

Paul Kurtz, founder of the Council for Secular Humanism, is editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry and professor emeritus of philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. This editorial is based on an address delivered April 11, 2003, at the Council’s conference “One Nation Without God?” in Washington, D.C.

5 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 purity? Surely not. I would submit that to endorse and defend. not that humanists are nonbelievers in we have a responsibility to speak out on I submit—and I am speaking person- theistic religion—atheists, agnostics, or issues that we consider vital to our sci- ally here—that at the present moment skeptics—but that we are believers, for entific humanist outlook. Indeed, I would in American society, our cherished val- we believe deeply in the potentialities of submit that doing so is an important part ues and beliefs are indeed at stake. They human beings to achieve the good life. of our educational mission. are under threat. This being the case, Indeed, we wish to apply the virtues and then declining to speak out would be principles of humanist ethics to enhance “The Council has not an affront to our deepest convictions. the human condition. German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer If we indict the theological/messianic itself taken corporate (1906–1945) eloquently stated that he claims of the ancient religions for provid- positions. . . . should have protested earlier in the ing false illusions of salvation, then we 1930s, when the Nazis first began to also need to state that we are concerned Free Inquiry, however, implement their repressive policies. with improving the conditions of human Many Americans are today deeply dis- life, with improving the cultural, social, does take positions. turbed about political developments. economic, and political institutions in The magazine has They are frightened by what they view which human beings find themselves at on the domestic front as a drastic threat various times in history. The underlying autonomy of expres- to our cherished democratic civil liber- premise here is our emphasis on humanist ties, and internationally to the entire ethics: how we create a better life for our- sion. And the editors framework of international law and selves and our fellow human beings in have exercised free- order so painstakingly developed over the real world, here and now, and in the past decades. They are concerned about foreseeable future. dom of press.” the unilateral preemptive war under- Let me hasten to say that, although If we are not primarily a political pres- taken by the United States in Iraq, its we are concerned with moral and polit- sure group, under what conditions may abrogation of the test ban and Kyoto ical issues, we should not be identified we speak out on political issues? There treaties, its bypassing of the United simply with any political party or par- are no fixed guidelines. Nonetheless, I Nations, and its refusal to endorse the ticular candidates for office. We should wish to offer some criteria. Primarily, I International Court of Justice. guard against politicizing humanism. submit, we have an obligation to make In the face of such dangers, how can We have long argued in the pages of ourselves heard when vital moral issues are we hold silent? Free Inquiry that we should be open at stake. There is no sharp divorce between to Democrats and Republicans, liber- ethics and politics. If, as Clausewitz etting our theories straight is import- als and conservatives, libertarians and argued, the purpose of war is to fulfill Gant; but it is praxis, the practical con- social democrats, radicals and centrists, political purposes, then the purpose of sequences of our actions, that is the best Greens and Independents. There is no politics is to fulfill the ends and values test of our efficacy and influence. Purely single humanist response to every com- that we consider desirable—especially theoretical humanism is a mere abstract plex social or public issue that may when it impinges on our fundamental concept, without content, of no moment arise. Ideologically, secular humanists ethical values. for the real life of humans as lived; thus, may be laissez-faire free-marketeers or That there is an intrinsic continuity the relationship of humanism to praxis is democratic socialists; they may believe between ethics and politics is a classical central. (I have called this in my writings in the mixed economy or a federal world idea. It was first expressed in Athens, “eupraxsophy.”) government. And surely they may dif- most notably by Plato and Aristotle. The If “God is dead,” as Nietzsche pro- fer on taxation policies, public school theme reappears throughout the histo- claimed at the beginning of the twen- vouchers, affirmative action, same-sex ry of political thought. Machiavelli took tieth century, then at the dawn of the marriage, the legalization of prostitu- another approach, maintaining that the twenty-first century we must affirm that tion, immigration, foreign policy, defense goal of politics was to secure and main- “humans are alive.” The power of the spending, war and peace, and count- tain power. For Machiavelli, there were humanist message is that life itself is less ancillary issues. It is clear that certain policies that a ruler should adopt, intrinsically worthwhile, that we aspire there have been conservative humanists, many of them brutal, in order to achieve to achieve the best of which we are such as George Santayana and Antony political aims. I readily grant that gov- capable, including the expression of Flew; liberal democratic humanists such erning a nation is complicated, and that our highest talents and creative excel- as John Dewey, Richard Rorty, Betty technical rather than moral issues are lences, that we cultivate the common Friedan, and Sir Karl Popper; and social- often relevant. Nonetheless, the overall moral decencies, that our goal is exu- ist humanists such as Erich Fromm, aim of politics is to realize certain long- berant happiness. To achieve all this we Sidney Hook, and Svetozar Stojanovi´c. range moral goals deemed desirable. need to develop a just social order for They all should have a place within the Accordingly, secular humanists our own society, regionally, and on the “mansion” of humanism. should speak out and act when they planetary scale. We humans are respon- Accordingly, I would suggest that believe that their cherished values and sible for our own destiny: “No deity our primary focus is more fundamental: beliefs are at stake; they should seek to will save us; we must save ourselves” we are interested in cognitive and ethical persuade their fellow citizens about the (Humanist Manifesto II). principles that they consider important The key message of humanism is (Continued on page 63)

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

So tempting, I couldn’t help it. Kurtz and company may claim to “rec- All these points are arguable, and I ognize the wide diversity of political do not insist that my outlook necessarily viewpoints among secular humanists,” is correct. I do, however, take exception but that doesn’t stop them from appro- to the editors of Free Inquiry using this priating the “secular humanist” title publication as a forum to hawk their to support their own political views. political views. It gives the impression Apparently, Free Inquiry editors would that in order to remain card-carrying gladly control the moral stance of secular humanists we must despise the current humanists everywhere. How else could U.S. administration. one explain the fact that their editorial in Mark Vlosky the Spring 2003 issue effectively tells us Broomfield, Colorado that moral opposition to the war in Iraq is all but required by secular humanists? The editors have every right to speak In a spirit of open and honest dissent I their minds on current events, but to wish to voice opposition to Paul Kurtz on ground their views in a subjective defi- Iraq: “What especially bothers us is . . . nition of secular humanism is hardly fair a preemptive strike.” It is fine for him to to the rest of us. Perhaps for the edi- be against that war, but he needs to dis- tors being a secular humanist means abuse himself of a broad and sweeping abhorring all military action, but their generalization that preemptive war is apparent distaste for preemptive strikes Debating the War always and in all circumstances inad- sounds more like pacificism than secu- missable per se. Probably the greatest lar humanism, and their remarks should Left and Right mistake this country ever made was not have been presented as such. to launch a preemptive strike against It is easy to appeal to “humanism” for I’ve been detecting Free Inquiry’s tilt Hitler. We felt very smug and comfort- indignation against violence. Any school toward political side-taking for a while, able, while Neville Chamberlain trium- child could wonder how a person who but I tried to ignore it. Your Spring 2003 phantly declared “Peace In Our Time,” claims to value humanity can kill other issue, however, was so much politicized and Hitler invaded one country after humans. But it is much harder to face as to greatly offend. The editorial state- another. We subscribed to the notion of those ethical dilemmas in which killing ment condemning the Iraqi war, followed the America Firsters (remember them?): a few may save many more. Why does by Nat Hentoff and Laurence Britt’s “No Foreign Entanglements.” It was Kurtz the philosopher avoid the harder exhortations against U.S. self-protec- none of our business, was it? question and zero in on the simplistic tion policies, add nothing new to the What of the carnage of the Normandy anti-imperialistic politics of the Left? arguments already fulsomely aired in Invasion, Monte Cassino, the Battle of We live only a few decades removed publications better suited to the task. the Bulge, and so on, all of which could from a war that might have been averted For that reason I don’t want to rehash have been avoided? So much misery, so by a preemptive strike and which was the arguments supporting U.S. policies, much bloodshed, so many billions could ultimately ended on one front by two but simply to note they exist. have been saved, not to mention millions weapons of mass destruction. Was it It is tempting to point the finger saved from the gas chambers, if we callous disregard for human life that back at Paul Kurtz and observe that the had stopped Hitler in his tracks—yes, led to using nuclear bombs? Or the hope real incoherence lies with: (1) disclaim- preemptively. But would it have been that the deaths of some would save the ing our country’s exercising power to immoral to wage such a preemptive war? lives of many? Critics of preemption deflect dangers that are perhaps not Now, it is perfectly all right to oppose ought to ponder these things more seri- imminent, but intolerable; (2) arguing the war on Iraq, but let’s use other ously. that precedents in foreign policy, just arguments than that one. It took Pearl Peter Wall because they are new, are bad; (3) Harbor to drag us by the neck into the Madera, California proclaiming that, “The entire fabric of Second World War, and if it had not been collective security so carefully devel- for that tremendous mistake by Japan oped by the world community after the we would have sat on our hands while May I suggest the following addition to Second World War,” is being under- England, France, and you name it went the “Affirmations of Humanism”: “We mined by U.S. policies, rather than down the drain. The losses in Vietnam believe that those who seek to destroy admitting that the fabric just wore out were peanuts by comparison. The ques- these principles and possess the weap- after the Cold War; and (4) carping tion of Iraq is generating so much emo- ons to do so be persuaded to change about the president’s using the word tion that I feel reason is being jettisoned their views; but, if this proves to be evil, which of course has no explanatory while obfuscating the issue with irrele- impossible, then force must be applied power, but does nicely characterize, vant and confusing arguments. to stop them.” for instance, crimes against humanity Robert M. Gordon John H. Fishwick endemic to Saddam Hussein’s regime. Albuquerque, New Mexico Naples, Florida

7 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 I commend the editors of Free Inquiry make a strong case for it: their reason- shameless audacity. for their outspoken and thoughtful cri- ing is grounded in the most intrusive Nicholas K. Fowler tique. In a time when the major media form of governmental interventionism South Portland, Maine present a picture of virtually monolithic from which we need protection. This is support for the war that in no way the intervention of paternalism in the reflects the deep and widespread oppo- most personal and ultimate decision we Margaret Somerville responds: sition to it, and silences correspondents will ever make. For in them and their who take an independent view, it is fellow believers reside the authority and Dr. Nicholas Fowler is obviously an intense especially vital that humanists offer an power to dictate the circumstances of individualist. As such he would believe alternative judgment. If our government each of our own deaths. that personal preferences and values should reserves the right to replace without Ms. Somerville’s argumentation is trump societal interests; that is, if people provocation other governments it does a poorly veiled religious sermon about want to die through euthanasia they should not approve of, it is but a short step to the “mystery of death” and “our horizon have access to it, no matter how much apply this logic internally and take “pre- comes closer . . . until we finally cross harm to society would result. I believe that emptive” legal or illegal actions against over.” Cross over to what? Her Christian there must be a balance between the claims citizens whose philosophic views it finds vision of the River Jordan and heaven? of individuals and protecting the common offensive. But her most outrageous language is good and well-being of society, especially Gerald Christoff that “how we die cannot be just a mat- for the future. That requires us to reject Flushing, New York ter of self-determination and personal euthanasia and, therefore, the claims of beliefs. . . .” This is extraordinary arro- individuals to it. gance. Has she not heard of the primacy In the context of this journal, accusing Deadly Arguments of the individual conscience? Is there a me of having a Christian vision is probably greater exercise of conscience and free about the nastiest ad hominem insult Dr. None of the arguments against assist- will or a more personal freedom and Fowler can use. It is a common tactic to ed suicide (“Physician-Assisted Suicide, right than to decide for ourselves when, attack the person whose views are contrary Pro and Con,” FI, Spring 2003) made any where and how we die? to one’s own, rather than their arguments, sense to me, but the article by Wesley Mr. Smith’s cynical misrepresenta- when one has no arguments to rebut those Smith (“Why Secular Humanism Is tion of doctors, HMOs, and the Oregon of the other person. In fact, my views of Wrong”) indicating that assisted suicide experience deserves little comment. euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide is wrong simply because it might save His perception of a few abuses com- are not based on religious beliefs, but, as I individuals and society some money is pels him to denounce all right-to-die expressly point out in my article, on secular downright crazy. If I am in pain with legislation. By this illogic we should reasons—which is not to say that I do not a terminal illness and would like to be repeal all abortion laws because a have spiritual beliefs. able to leave something to relatives, small number of women suffer compli- Dr. Fowler is correct that the patient-phy- friends, or causes, rather than have all cations due to legal but incompetently sician bond is one of the most trustful found my remaining assets wasted away in the performed abortions. His statement, in the human community, which is precisely final and increasingly expensive down- “The truth is that no one need ever why we need to ban euthanasia and physi- ward spiral, why should I be forced to be die in agony,” does deserve comment. cian-assisted suicide. Indeed, were they to kept alive against my will? And wouldn’t We who are physicians must continue be legalized, in order to preserve that trust, it make more sense for HMOs to be able to improve ways of alleviating pain in they should not be carried out by physicians to provide better care for those who those who are dying and those who are but by some other authorized person — one have a good chance of recovering from going to die. But if Mr. Smith thinks we suggestion was a specially trained group medical problems and who can go on have the medical means to minimize of lawyers. Studies carried out after the for many more years of happy healthy all the indignities and pain, physical legalization of euthanasia in the Northern lives, rather than have to set aside a and mental, in all who suffer from the Territory of Australia (this legislation has large chunk of their asserts for those agony of terminal diseases and their now been repealed) showed that terminally who have no hope for recovery and are terrifying complications, then he is ill patients became afraid of physicians and, getting no joy from living? I suspect that living in a world of abstraction and importantly, the aboriginal population com- Mr. Smith is letting his religious beliefs wishful thinking. pletely eschewed the medical system with override his logic. The bond between patient and phy- very harmful results, especially in terms of J.W. Parks sician depends on more trust than the medical treatment of children and their Newport Beach, California many in the human community. The vaccinations. ultimate measure of that trust is the Dr. Fowler confuses the very serious patient’s fervent expectation that his or ethical and legal obligations that we have to In the Spring 2003 issue all four contrib- her physician will never permit him or relieve pain with euthanasia. (This confu- utors make convincing arguments for her to suffer intractable pain as death sion is often intentional on the part of advo- death with dignity legislation. Wesley approaches. If those opposed to right- cates of euthanasia. It is one way to promote Smith and Margaret Somerville (“The to-die legislation want to die in a state of their case. See M. Somerville, Death Talk: Case Against”), although arguing unrelieved pain, such is their choice. To against such legislation, inadvertently impose it upon the rest of us is an act of (Continued on page 63)

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

RICHARD DAWKINS

right into the Iraq trap. There was always a risk for bin Laden that his attacks on New York On the Eve of War and Washington might raise world sympathy for the United States, thereby thwarting his long-term aim of holy war write this on March 18, 2003, on the against the Great Satan. He needn’t eve of war, haunted by my country- have worried. With the Bush junta at man W.H. Auden’s lines in “Septem I the helm, a camel could have foreseen ber 1, 1939.” the outcome. And the beauty is that it Photo by Lalla Ward doesn’t matter what happens in the war. I sit in one of the dives Imagine how it looks from bin Laden’s On Fifty-second Street warped point of view: Uncertain and afraid If the American victory is swift, Bush As the clever hopes expire . . . will have done our work for us, remov- ing the hated Saddam Hussein with his I know that what I say can make no secular, un-Islamic ways, and opening difference—it will anyway be overtaken the way for a decent theocracy ruled by by events before it is published. All I can Ayatollahs or Talibanis. Even better, as attempt is the long view. a war “hero” the strutting, swaggering Whether or not the war in Iraq has any country to attack any other country Bush may actually win an election. Who nominally ended by the time you read this, it happens to dislike and is strong enough can guess what he will then get up to, and it will not be over. The Islamic world will to defeat. Who knows how this may play what resentments he will arouse, when be plunged into a seething stew of humili- itself out, if followed by North Korea, ated resentment, from which generations Israel, Pakistan, or India—countries he finally has something to swagger of “martyrs” will rise, led by new Usamas. that really do have weapons of mass The scars of enmity between Britain and destruction. her erstwhile friends in Europe may take Usama bin Laden, in his wildest years to heal. NATO may never recover. dreams, could hardly have hoped for this. As for the United Nations, quite apart A mere eighteen months after he boosted from the corrupt spectacle of the world’s the United States to a peak of worldwide leading power bribing and bullying small sympathy and popularity unprecedented countries to hand over their votes, it is since Pearl Harbor, the totality of that mortally wounded. The fragile semblance international goodwill has been squan- of a rule of law in international affairs, dered to near zero. Bin Laden must be painstakingly built up since World War beside himself with glee. And, Allah be II, is collapsing. A precedent is set for praised, the infidels are now walking

Divergent Views on War in Iraq

Covering a month-long war in a quarterly publication is difficult at best. Nevertheless, we feel it is important to air the views of secular humanists who have been vocal and articulate before, during, and after the war. While many opposed the war (as five FI editors did in the Spring issue), many others supported it. The secular humanist community includes doves and hawks, and many who recognize that very diversity as one of our movement’s strengths. In the pages that follow, we are pleased to present a selection of secular humanist opinion regarding the war in Iraq. The articles were written at various points in the crisis.

—The Editors

9 http://www.secularhumanism.org summerspring 2003 2003 Outpacing its origins as a dissenting publisher, today’s Center for Inquiry (CFI) movement has emerged as an educational resource, think tank, and advocacy organization. We have a bold plan to advance critical thinking, freedom of inquiry, and the scientific outlook through research, publishing, education, advocacy, and social services.

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about? We shall have so many mar- The official reasons for this war were help us; if he persists with his doctrine of the tyrs volunteering, we shall run out of equally applicable before 9/11, and before the last election. Yet, though it has certain- rightness of might after targets. Or, if the American victory is capturing Baghdad, he ly lurked, ever since the first Gulf War, in slow and bloody, things might be better could build a coalition the dark minds of some of the men behind in support of Kim Jong still. Admittedly, Bush will probably Bush,1 it never got a mention in his elec- Il. fall in 2004 and Saddam be seen as a tion manifesto, nor in that of his stooge Bush seems sincerely to see the world martyr, but never mind. The hatred that Blair. Indeed, of all major world leaders, as a battleground between Good and Evil a prolonged war generates will set us only Germany’s Gerhard Schröder has put (the capital letters are deliberate). It is the war to an electorate—he was against Us against Them, St. Michael’s angels it—and consequently he could claim to be against the forces of Lucifer. We shall the only one with a democratic mandate “The reason Bush smoke out the Amalekites, send a posse for what he is now doing. after the Midianites, smite them all, and As for my own country, even the can now get away let God deal with their souls. Some of minority who support Tony Blair’s pro- Bush’s faithful supporters even welcome with his war is that a Bush policy do so with the minimum of war as the necessary prelude to Arma enthusiasm. Max Hastings is a veteran sufficient number of geddon and the Rapture. We must pre- newspaper editor with a stalwart rep- sume, or at least hope, that Bush himself Americans see it as utation, dating back to even before the is not quite of that bonkers persuasion. Falklands war, as a right-wing hawk on revenge for 9/11.” most issues. If anybody among British opinion-formers could have been expected to stand with Bush, it is Hastings. “Some of Bush’s up for the foreseeable future, even if In the Telegraph, Britain’s most consis- the Americans elect a less gloriously tently right-wing newspaper, Hastings faithful supporters useful president. How could we have has written a remarkable piece, which is even welcome war hoped for more? worth quoting. A handful of the zealous faithful, mostly Some of us have always argued that this as the necessary pre- Saudis with a few Egyptians, armed only with is not a crisis about handling Iraq—it is box-cutters and deep religious faith, simul- about how the rest of the world manages lude to Armageddon the US. Our only superpower possesses taneously commandeered four large airliners the means to impose its will anywhere, and the Rapture. We and flew three of them, undisturbed by fighter without military aid from anyone. It aircraft or—mysteriously—by any immediate is vital that allies should dissuade the must presume, or at government attention at all, into large build- US from pursuing a unilateral foreign policy, which is why I, for one, reluc- least hope, that Bush ings with catastrophic loss of life. Praise be to tantly support British participation in Allah. But mark the sequel. It is almost too the war. . . .2 himself is not quite good to be true but, as a direct consequence of this attack, the entire might of the United Hastings explains how Tony Blair’s of that bonkers desperate efforts to salvage some sort of States Army, Navy, and Air Force is diverted persuasion.” away from us and hurled at a completely differ- respectability in international law were ent country, whose only connection with 9/11 fatally undermined by the Bush admin- is that its people belong to the same “race” and istration’s transparent intention to go to war whatever happened, following a religion as our glorious martyrs. But he really does seem to believe that predetermined military timetable. Whatever anyone may say about he is wrestling, on God’s behalf, against weapons of mass destruction, or about This was an irresistible invitation for some sort of disembodied spirit of Evil. Saddam’s savage brutality to his own others, notably the French, to throw Evil (like “Sin” and like “Terror,” the toys out of the pram. Mr Bush and people, the reason Bush can now get Bush’s favorite target before the current away with his war is that a sufficient his colleagues have casually insulted half the globe. . . . Watching [Donald Iraq distraction) is not an entity, not a number of Americans see it as revenge Rumsfeld] in diplomatic action re spirit, not a force to be opposed and sub- for 9/11. This is not only bizarre. It is minds one of an elephant taking a dued. Evil is a collection of nasty things 3 pure racism and/or religious prejudice, stroll in a Japanese bonsai garden. . . . that nasty people do. There are nasty given that nobody has made even a faint- Hastings hopes for a swift American people in every country, stupid people, ly plausible case that Iraq had anything victory that will leave the world “a mar- insane people, people who, for all sorts to do with the atrocity. It was Arabs that ginally better place without Saddam.” of reasons, should never be allowed to hit the World Trade Center, right? So But he notes: get anywhere near power. Just killing let’s go and kick Arab ass. Those 9/11 nasty people doesn’t help: they will sim- terrorists were Muslims, right? Right. Mr Bush has achieved the near-imply be replaced. We must try to tailor And Iraqis are Muslims, right? Right. possible, by creating an internation- our institutions, our constitutions, our That does it. al constituency for Saddam. Heaven

11 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 OP-ED

electoral systems so as to minimize the dure that would ensure a leadership of sible that money should translate itself so chance that they will rise to the top. In the highest quality. Yet, what has hap- directly and transparently into electoral the case of Saddam Hussein, we in the pened? At the end of all the primaries success, so that a successful candidate and party caucuses, after all the speech- must either be very rich or prepared to es and the televised debates, after a sell favors to those who are? Would you year or more of nonstop electioneering do business with a company that devoted “I am strongly bustle and balloons and razzmatazz, an entire year to little else than headhunt- pro-American, which who, out of that entire population of 300 ing its new CEO, from the strongest field million, has emerged at the top of the in the world, and ended up with George W. is one reason I am heap? George W. Bush. Bush? Think about it, guys. passionately anti-Bush. Those of us who marched through London, a million strong, to oppose Notes You didn’t elect him. Tony Blair’s craven support for the 1. Many of them are listed on the remark- Iraq war are sometimes accused of able Web site of the Project for the New You deserve better, American Century (http://www.newamerican anti-Americanism. I vigorously repudi- century.org/), which should be visited by only and so do the ate the charge. I am strongly pro-Amer- those with a strong stomach. ican, which is one reason I am passion- 2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/ rest of us.” ately anti-Bush. You didn’t elect him. main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2003/03/16/do1603. You deserve better, and so do the rest of xml. A somewhat similar point was made in an excellent article in Newsweek by Fareed us. Even if the Florida vote wasn’t delib- Zakaria: http://www.msnbc.com/news/885222. West must bear some guilt. The United erately rigged, Al Gore’s majority in the asp?vts=031620031350#BODY. States, Britain, and France have all, country, reinforcing his majority in the 3. Hastings might have added that under- from time to time, done our bit to shore Electoral College but for dead-heated mining the United Nations has long been an up Saddam and even arm him. Florida, should have led a just and end in itself, for some elements in Bush’s support base. See http://www.getusout.org/ And let us look to our own vaunted unpartisan Supreme Court to award the index.htm, http://www.contenderministries. democratic institutions. The population tie-breaker to him. Bush came to power org/UN/intrelations.php. of the United States is nearly 300 mil- by what I can only, if oxymoronically, lion, including many of the best-edu- call a constitutional coup d’état. Richard Dawkins is the Charles Simonyi cated, most talented, most resourceful, Forgive my presumption, but could Professor of Public Understanding of Science most ingenious, most humane people it just be that there is something a tee- at Oxford University. An evolutionary biol- on Earth. By almost any measure of ny-weeny bit wrong with that famous ogist and prolific author and lecturer, his civilized attainment, from Nobel Prize- U.S. Constitution? Is it really a good idea, collection of essays, A Devil’s Chaplain, counts on down, the United States leads for example, that a single person’s vote, will be published by Houghton Mifflin in the world by miles. You would think that buried deep within the margin of error September 2003. a country with such resources, and such for a whole state, can by itself swing a full a field of talent, would be able to devise twenty-five votes in the Electoral College, a constitution and an electoral proce- one way or the other? And is it really sen-

—as a member of the Council for Secular Humanism’s board of directors and as a contributing editor to Free Inquiry—is Secular Humanists that the issue of war with Iraq is one issue upon which secular humanists can disagree. The most conscientious and “atheistically correct” among us can Can Disagree on War take different positions on this question without violating our core humanist principles. Despite its great importance, Edward Tabash the issue of war with Iraq is ultimately tangential to a worldview based upon aul Kurtz and other Free Inquiry with a dictator as dangerous as Saddam rejection of the supernatural in a way editors apparently disapprove of Hussein. But I write under a disadvan- that issues such as government-spon- P war with Iraq under all circum- tage; by the time this is published, war sored prayer in public schools are not. stances (see his editorial in the Spring with Iraq may already have commenced, Ethical nonbelievers who approach 2003 issue and the slightly different ver- with consequences that I cannot now public policy questions with goodwill sion online). I disagree with his absolute anticipate. can honestly disagree on whether a rejection of military force when faced The critical point that I wish to make war with Iraq is justified. The same is

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

true with respect to the death penalty, against the Kurds—give him a longer of the effort to rid the tax rates, whether or not immigration reach than standard-issue local despots. world of religious extrem- should be restricted, and many other I believe that the Israelis were justi- ism, something which all issues. By contrast, a rational secular fied in destroying Iraq’s nuclear reactor secular humanists should person could not sensibly support gov- in 1981. Iraq’s use of Scud missiles on support. ernment promotion of religion or any Israel ten years later, though Israel was Dr. Kurtz fears that a government policy that favored believ- a noncombatant in the Gulf War, fur- preemptive strike against ers over nonbelievers. These are core ther confirmed the rectitude of Israel’s Iraq would so morally compromise the issues for secular humanists in ways that knocking out that facility. United States that it might encourage issues like war with Iraq are not. Much can be said about the short- India and Pakistan to go to war. Yet India sightedness of American dependence and Pakistan are each capable of backing upon Middle Eastern oil. However, down from their territorial disputes and “The issue of war with our failure to develop viable alterna- of making compromises on some final tive means of energy did not justify border arrangement that might avert Iraq is one issue upon Saddam’s attempt to seize the oil fields hostilities. For that matter, as of today of neighboring Kuwait in an effort to Saddam still has the ability to forestall which secular humanists make the world a greater hostage to his warfare by going into exile. In previous can disagree.” control over such a large portion of the days and months, he could have avoided world’s oil supply. war by fully opening up his arsenal to I also believe that President Ronald United Nations inspectors. If there is evi- Reagan—whom I rebuke for his attempt dence that a despot as dangerous as he is People who don’t believe in God to place Robert Bork, the most dan- possesses, or will soon develop, missiles constitute the most unjustly despised gerous religious right-wing fascist in capable of reaching other nations with minority in America today. Polls demon- American judicial history, on the U.S. chemical, biological, or nuclear materi- strate that more Americans would vote Supreme Court—was fully justified in als—and that indeed, Saddam has such against someone just for being an atheist launching a military assault on Libya dangerous materials—then world peace than for any other reason. Given this, in 1986. Moammar Qaddafi’s level of we nonbelievers must place the smallest support for terrorism was inarguably possible number of political obstacles diminished by this attack. “Nonbelievers must in the way of our working together to In the online version of his editorial, achieve a modern civilization in which Dr. Kurtz wrote that President George place the smallest public policy is untarnished by religious W. Bush desires to replace Saddam with dogma. a “puppet regime.” As much as I oppose possible number of Thus, before I share my own views the president on so many aspects of his political obstacles about possible military action against agenda, and as much as I fear that he Iraq, let me strongly emphasize that no yearns to create a religious right-wing in the way of our person’s standing with regard to the tyranny here in the United States, I do working together.” Council for Secular Humanism is affect- not believe he desires anything other ed in any way by his or her position on than to bring about an autonomous but this question. Whether you agree with militarily harmless regime in Iraq. and stability may actually be enhanced by Paul Kurtz et al. or with me, or have an I would suggest that war with Iraq a preemptive strike. entirely different perspective, the issue is really a step toward attaining our As I write in mid-March 2003, I reluc- of war with Iraq is not the type of issue dream of a more secular world. Saddam tantly support a preemptive military that goes to the heart of our secularism. may be personally nonreligious, and attack on Iraq, if a logical and empiri- There is probably no American alive his Baath party officially secular. But cal understanding of Saddam’s arsenal today who disagrees as strongly as I do his principal technique for maintaining indicates a substantial likelihood that with President Bush’s attempts to weak- power is to fan the flames of Islamic he has weapons of mass destruction en the wall of separation between church fundamentalism. Saddam’s manipula- and the ability to reach other countries and state. Yet I am closer to agreement tion of Islamic fervor results in the with these weapons. The reason I don’t with the president on Iraq. As a secular expansion of fundamentalist religion. support war more enthusiastically is humanist and a scientific skeptic, I value The longer he remains in power, the because I am still racked with doubts empirical accuracy. When I view the more entrenched Islamic fundamental- about the extent of Saddam’s military relevant evidence as objectively as I can, ism will become worldwide. threat. What tips the balance, for me, I personally cannot see Saddam Hussein So, when Dr. Kurtz charges (in the in favor of military action is that, given as just another dictator. He invaded the online version of his editorial) that the what is known about Saddam, it is more sovereign nation of Kuwait in 1990 and war against terrorism is essentially a likely than not that he has such weap- almost did it again in 1994. His decades holy religious war against Islam, I would ons and the ability to use them beyond of devotion to developing weapons of suggest instead that the war against his borders. If that is indeed the case, mass destruction—and his use of them terrorism may be a necessary component we cannot risk becoming sitting ducks

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while waiting for him to launch the first size again how important it is that the Edward Tabash is a constitutional and civil missile—or to sell or give such weapon- Council for Secular Humanism welcomes rights lawyer in Beverly Hills, California. ry to terrorists. nonbelievers of all stripes, regardless He is a contributing editor of Free Inquiry, Dr. Kurtz recommends disarming Iraq of their views on war with Iraq. The a member of the board of directors of the peacefully. Yet this may not be achiev- Council’s purpose is to help establish Council for Secular Humanism, and chair able without the credible threat of war. a society in which supernatural beliefs of its First Amendment Task Force. He has Even if war is averted, there is no reason play no part in the composition of public successfully argued for separation of church to believe that Saddam would voluntarily policy. Within such a broad realm of and state issues in legal briefs filed on the disarm except under the imminent threat thought and action, there is room for a Council’s behalf. Mr. Tabash is also the of war. Thus, even an agenda of peaceful wide range of differing opinions on many honorary chair of the Center for Inquiry– disarmament may depend on the stern political issues, including whether or not West. and genuine threat of military action. there should be American military action In conclusion, then, I must empha- against Saddam Hussein.

RONNIE DUGGER

work, calling our troops liberators instead of invaders, waved the flag while we bombed and conquered. Name even one Permitting a War of leading American newspaper that has editorialized against the United States committing aggressive war against Iraq or any other nation. Scrutinize waffling Aggression editorial after waffling editorial in the New York Times on the subject of whether oncerning Iraq, most mainstream believed lie that Saddam Hussein was to attack Iraq—the subject of aggressive American media now stand guilty behind Al Qaeda and 9/11. There is no war was never even mentioned, even in Cof failing to raise the issue of evidence for that. the Times’ last-moment editorial final- aggressive war. The major television networks have ly opposing invasion without U.N. sanc- On September 20, 2002, George W. focused on whether Iraq has weapons tion. The Washington Post crusaded in Bush told Congress that under his pres- of mass destruction, which was not the favor of this criminal war. The Wall Street idency the United States can and will real question in this war, and never on Journal, in its jingoistic ecstasy about attack nations of his selection even whether the United States should wage attacking Iraq, all but posted a list of the though they are not about to attack us. a premeditated war of aggression, Since that day the issue crying out for which is. Rupert public discussion and debate, dwarfing Murdoch’s tabloids all others in urgency and importance, is and his Fox net- whether the United States should wage wars of aggression. Beginning March 19, when, on Bush’s order the U.S. military began bombing Iraq and then invaded it from Kuwait, the United States did in fact commit an aggressive war in violation of the United Nations Charter. “All members shall refrain . . . from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state,” says the Charter, which became the law of the United States when our Senate adopted it, 89–2, in 1945. Under Article 51 of that Charter, attacking in self-defense is justified only “if an armed attack occurs” against a nation. Iraq had not attacked trai- the United States, contrary to the widely

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

tors who oppose it. Clear Channel and reports like these give us some of The causes appears Communications, which owns 1,214 U.S. that truth. On April 5, sixty tanks and to include citizen and radio stations, stopped airplay of a sing- other armored vehicles rolled through journalistic ignorance er who criticizes Bush and let a right- Baghdad, a city of five million. While or disregard of interna- wing disc jockey use air time to organize taking light casualties, by U.S. military tional law, the corporate pro-war rallies. estimates those forces killed between domination of main- And all this while, as the venerable two and three thousand Iraqis, not count- stream journalism, more Tom Wicker writes, the question, “Does ing civilians, although civilians were also cowardice than courage among the peo- a U.S. President really have the power killed. As a matter of policy the Pentagon ple and in the Congress, and knee-jerk to ‘make war at pleasure’?” is “seldom refused to provide any estimates of how nationalism. being asked by an American press that many innocents or how many Iraqi fight- seems sometimes to be playing on the ers we were killing and wounding, even administration team.” as we continued flying eight hundred to To be sure, the government no lon- one thousand bombing sorties every day ger bans reporters from the war zone of the war. “Instead of leading and propagandizes the American people If the UN had sanctioned the attack efforts to end nuclear with canned footage that turns out to be on Iraq, that might have made new misleading and manipulative, as Bush international law in favor of collective weapons on Earth, I did during Gulf War I. Commendably, action to disarm a state whose leader, the government under Bush II, wanting with the silent and consenting knowl- we are driving more our troops to be properly appreciated edge of the United States, had used nations to get them back home and expecting the war to be chemical weapons against Iranians and a triumphal “cakewalk” as Iraqis greeted Kurds. But without UN sanction, which to defend themselves us with flowers and outpourings of joy, the Security Council refused to give, the against us.” attached six hundred reporters to various attack on Iraq was a war of aggression, fighting units in exchange for the report- and the killings that we, Britain, and ers’ agreement to rules that protected the Australia committed are war crimes. troops and military secrets. Some of these The dismissal of NBC correspondent reporters pushed the U.S. military’s story Peter Arnett because of an interview But the outcome, the reality now— line, but many of them have given us hon- that he gave to official Iraqi media, the conversion of the United States into est reports on what they saw or learned, which raised serious journalistic issues, a nation waging aggressive war and and all risked their lives. also clearly demonstrated that, in a poised to launch new such wars on Iran, For example, two days after a suicide war, reporters are expected to behave Syria, and North Korea—is so all-affect- bomber in a car killed four U.S. troops, as citizens of their countries first and ing that we may take it as a sign that a Toyota packed with fifteen civilians reporters second. But Branigin and American democracy is in danger of barreled toward a checkpoint intersec- Filkins prove that courageous reporters death. Instead of leading efforts to end tion near Karbala, south of Baghdad. can send some of the most painful truth nuclear weapons on Earth, we are driv- U.S. Army guys poured half a dozen back home. And the very concept that ing more nations to get them to defend rounds into it, killing five children and our reporters are “embedded” with U.S. themselves against us. Probably, as you four or five adults. A soldier said the military units should help Americans read this, the American “killout” in Iraq driver had ignored two warning shots. see that we are all now embedded is over. But if we celebrate that crime William Branigin’s eyewitness report on together: per the dictionary at my hand, as a righteous victory, and Bush then the incident in the Washington Post on we are “fixed firmly in a surrounding orders more aggressive wars with the April l fingered a captain who had excit- mass” or “enclosed snugly or firmly” in apparent consent of Congress, the main- edly goaded his men to fire, but who, the waging of a war of aggression. stream media, and the majority of the when he realized what had happened, How could Bush have been permitted people, we will have damned ourselves blamed their platoon leader, roaring at to conjure up and declare an attack-first in history. him, “You just [expletive] killed a family doctrine of aggressive war as national because you didn’t fire a warning shot policy and then, in speech after speech, Ronnie Dugger, a reporter, writer, and soon enough!” According to a story by use Saddam’s villainy to shove us into social-structure activist, has written biog- Dexter Filkins in the New York Times launching an illegal and therefore mur- raphies of Lyndon Johnson (Norton, 1973) of April 6, in another such incident, in derous war against a nation one-twelfth and Ronald Reagan (McGraw-Hill, 1983), which six members of a family in a mini- our size? How could a free and dem- as well as other books and countless articles bus were killed at a checkpoint, “one ocratic people consent to our young in the New Yorker, Harper’s, the Nation, Marine, according to witnesses there, people and our weapons being used to the Atlantic, and so on. He was found- began to cry.” A Times story on April attack a nation that neither attacked ing editor of the Texas Observer and 14 tells of the killing of six daughters in us nor was poised to? How could our co-founder of the Alliance for Democracy. a single family by an American missile. mainstream media have so totally failed The truth of war is blood and death, us in this historic moral crisis?

15 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 OP-ED

far greater peril than any Cold War-era game theory scenario. “Kumbaya” campfire singers respond Enlightenment vs. that we have no right to condemn North Korea, Pakistan, Iraq, et al. because of our own nuclear arsenal. What they fail to understand is the distinction between Proliferation Enlightenment and anti-Enlightenment nations and the bearing that this has on whom is likely to wage indiscriminate Steve Hirsch nuclear war. Despite many differences, viable modern democracies (in other words, Enlightenment nations) have t is fortunate that the world’s time- ently finds itself the primary target of never gone to war against each other, line worked out such that Attila the Islamic fascists. Third-world fetishism nor even threatened to. The thought of the I Hun and his rapacious hordes were and envy of the United States’ affluence United States and Great Britain cross- long dead prior to the dawning of an age and power are largely to blame, but ing the Channel to invade France is the in which they might have gained access more important, what made the United stuff of late-night comedy. But Egypt has to nuclear weapons. It is also fortunate States great is the essence of the Islamo- warred with Yemen and Saudi Arabia, that Albert Speer thought nuclear wea fascists’ discontent. Over two centu- and Iran has warred with Iraq. Iraq pons so long-term and speculative a ries ago, our forefathers spoke of “life, invaded Kuwait and threatened Saudi liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” Arabia; Syria invaded Lebanon. Red and went on to create what is arguably China had “border conflicts” with USSR. the greatest Enlightenment document to A few decades earlier, Nazi Germany, fas- America’s date: the Bill of Rights. Our nation large- cist Italy, and imperialist Japan declared ly followed through to make this great war on the world, and so on. Enlightenment experiment succeed. Our good life and If one loves humanity and wishes for philosophy is the prosperity demonstrate to the world a great posterity, the difference between that America’s embrace of Enlighten Enlightenment and anti-Enlightenment deepest reason why ment virtues, our fierce commitment to is not just relative. It’s absolute. It is not individual autonomy and rights, yields jingoism for me to write that societies Islamo-fascists something far better than what those that protect natural rights are superior hate our country. opposed to Enlightenment have to offer. to those that don’t, just because I am When we peel back a few layers of the fortunate enough to be a citizen of one onion, we find that Enlightenment philos- of the former. But nonetheless, if one ophy—and its demonstrable validation insists on labeling me a jingoist for my project that he scuttled Nazi Germany’s via America’s incomparable success— pro-Enlightenment bent, I will wear the program. It is yet fortunate again that, forms the core of why the USSR hated badge as proudly as champions of mul- when the Soviet bear got its paws on us, and why today’s Islamo-fascists hate ticulturalism wear theirs. the A-bomb, the United States was there us. America’s Enlightenment values are Make no mistake: There is a great to counter. For Cold War-era U.S.A. a grave threat to the perverted values race afoot on this planet, and nothing less was not just a garrison of advanced they yearn to see metastasize. than humanity’s future rests on the out- weaponry; it was the world’s greatest Today’s enemies present a different come. What will pervade Islamdom first: sanctuary of a set of virtues elucidated threat than did the USSR. The Cold the hare-fast proliferation of nuclear, by Locke during the eighteenth-century War’s delicate counterbalance of deter- chemical, and biological weapons or the Enlightenment, virtues that all human- rence succeeded, albeit with some close tortoise-slow spread of freedom, individ- ists should hold dear. calls, for a number of reasons—not the ualism, and reason? These virtues—-individualism, free- least being that, since nuclear stockpiles The unfortunate reality at this point dom, and reason over collectivism, existed on only two sides, neither side in our world’s timeline is that, although authoritarianism, and superstition— could strike the other anonymously. there are some things we can do to assist and what Locke termed natural rights— Although the nuclear standoff is the tortoise, there is no magic rocket were the basis from which America’s becoming a many-body problem, human- booster that we can affix to its shell. Founding Fathers exalted “inalienable ity can still arrest widespread prolifera- Freedom, individualism, and reason will rights” and forged the new nation’s tion throughout the nations opposed to propagate no faster than the masses of plans. These virtues and rights, vital to Enlightenment values. But if we allow un-Enlightened souls can accept such human posterity, are in danger as never those nations to possess nuclear weapons drastic change. In the meantime, we before. alongside a robust community of terror- must rigorously comb that vast expanse The good fortune of our timeline ists eager to act as anonymous weapons of our Earth’s dark side, prepared to use has run out. The United States pres- delivery systems, we will be living amidst military force when necessary to stop

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

proliferation dead in its tracks. Terrorists try to murder us, and so, inter vention of our great No paradigm covers all nuances, but with these populations, there are two American experiment, the framework that I propound here of battles—one of ideas and one of blood. the hare of proliferation two competing forces racing throughout And whether we deliberately set out to would surely beat the Islamdom—Enlightenment virtue vs. evangelize Enlightenment virtue or not, tortoise of Enlighten WMD—should be of interest to those Internet and satellite broadcasts will ment. That is why we continue to influence Muslim popula- had no choice but to tions regardless of our intentions, albeit attack Iraq, and why I submit we have no slowly. Muslim youth see how we live choice but to continue to act in this vein. in the land of the free, and, when they Let us not forget that, while intrepid “It’s not jingoism express a desire for sweet freedom and secular humanists march into court- the good life, Islamists react violently. rooms with chins held high to declare for me to write that There is no quick and easy solution. war against Nativity scenes on fire- In the meantime, the race between house lawns, our freethinking brothers societies that protect Enlightenment virtue and WMD capabil- and sisters in the anti-Enlightenment ity is a race for man’s life. My bias is that world confront imprisonment, torture, natural rights are and execution. Next time Western I prefer humanity and pro-Enlighten humanists haughtily tell you that cul- superior to those that ment culture to be safe. Unfortunately, tural differences are relative, ask them don’t, just because that means that the West’s might will whether the dirty looks they’ve encoun- have to protect what is right for now. As tered for yakking up their atheism are I am fortunate enough a humanist, I can live with that. In fact, I only relatively different from forty lash- see no alternative for anyone who values es and a toss into the dungeon . . . or to be a citizen of Enlightenment culture. worse. The difference is night and day, one of the former.” The world ought not bet its future on anti-Enlightenment and Enlightenment the hope that our timeline will contin- . . . inferior and superior. ue to churn out dumb luck. There is a Hooray to the troops that protect the genuine, even dire, threat to humanity’s Enlightenment! future, but pacifists are too myopic to who champion reason. Anyone who has understand. France, Germany, and Bel Steve Hirsch is a businessman and investor ever debated religion knows that efforts gium play petty politics. Without the living in Florida. to change the minds of zealots and even moderates almost always fail. I ask the reader: What if that Mor mon you once argued with had been taught at Brigham Young that violent jihad against the West was righteous? You wouldn’t have had any greater a chance at changing the mind of a hypo- Planetary Humanism thetical jihadist Mormon than you did with the businessman from Salt Lake City. Well, the anti-Enlightenment world and War and Peace is filled with madrassas that teach this kind of evil, and that’s not a hypothetical. Madrassa graduates would like nothing better than to murder us. If you couldn’t Barry Seidman change the peaceful Mormon’s mind by trying to reason with him, know this: ome secular humanists do not we would call “secularism”—unless we You won’t change violent Islamist minds consider the war on Iraq a “core see Bush’s mission in the “holy lands” by reasoning with them. If reason is to Sissue” for the humanist movement as his personal mission for God, but spread to anti-Enlightenment nations, it to address. To them the foundation of that’s a different matter. To me, at the will take time; in many sad cases, it will secular humanism is atheism, with no core of secular humanism lies the hope take generations. political convictions implied. True, a of planetwide peace and cooperation. The Mormon countered your argu- healthy humanist movement should In pursuing this we must overcome not ments of reason with those of faith and never become so politically partisan as only the obstacles of religion but those so the debate concluded in an innocuous to ignore or denounce conflicting points posed by unjust warfare too. and probably friendly manner; it was a of view. Ethical nonbelievers can and A humanist response to “Operation battle of ideas. Attempts to reason with do disagree on a wide range of politi- Iraqi Freedom” must draw on humanist populations under Islamo-fascist rule cal issues. It’s also true that the Iraq ethics and morality, which offer far more outrages Islamists. crisis does not go to the core of what than mere atheism. While atheism as

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such carries no specific moral or ethical Then there is the conveniently “Bush’s unfounded content, secular humanism stretches fur- neglected rationale for going to war in ther, providing a powerful, affirmative, the first place: those infamous weapons claim of Iraqi links to evidence-based life stance that unques- of mass destruction (WMDs). Strangely 9/11 holds no water, tionably addresses the ethics of human enough, no such weapons were used behavior. I think that strongly implies a against U.S. or British forces, nor were and it’s difficult to need to oppose the war on Iraq. Some any found in Iraq as of this writing imagine what immedi- secular humanists believe otherwise, but in late April. Indeed, Bush’s prewar the ones I’ve had the opportunity to hear claims that Iraq possessed WMDs were ate threat Iraq might out tend to hold what I see as common forcefully refuted by the United Nations misconceptions. Perhaps by addressing inspection team—Hans Blix said that, have posed to the these misconceptions I can help to clarify if the war had been delayed just two United States.” the moral issues in play here. months longer, he might have been able to have given Iraq a clean bill of health. Additionally, we now know that much ciples by their consequences. Clearly of the administration’s case for Iraqi Bush’s push to war, and his conduct of “We must work toward WMDs hinged on a plagiarized eigh- that war, falls far short of these ideals. teen-year-old report on Iraq’s weaponry We must work toward a planetary a planetary humanism written by a college student! humanism with a worldwide system of with a worldwide sys- What is a secular humanist to think ethics promoting peace, mutual respect, about all this? In the Free Inquiry edi- and cooperation. We cannot continue tem of ethics promoting torial, “The Immorality of War Against with the old tribal- and faith-based prej- Iraq” (Spring 2003), Paul Kurtz and udices and their “Us vs. Them” mental- peace, mutual respect, other FI editors argued accurately that, ity. We cannot continue to accept out- and cooperation.” since the administration’s reasons for comes that engender economic success war were grossly fallacious, the war for some at the cost of so many others. must be considered unjust. Just War And we can no longer prop up dictators, Theory originated in the Roman Catholic sell them weapons of mass destruction, One such misconception is the belief Church, but is now broadly accepted by and tacitly approve the dictators’ use of that George W. Bush desires a govern- the international community. According them, as we did with Saddam Hussein ment in postwar Iraq that will control to the theory, a war is considered just during the 1980s. Why do we suddenly its own destiny—which its oil fields when it comes in response either to a become “humanists” when consider- will have a role in shaping. This simply direct attack or to an immediate threat. ing what these dictators do with these flies in the face of what he and his pre- Bush’s unfounded claim of Iraqi links weapons only after we gave them these decessors have done in Iraq over the to 9/11 holds no water, and it’s difficult horrible agents of death? past twenty years.1 Any idea that Bush to imagine what immediate threat Iraq As secular humanists, we share the is primarily concerned with the welfare might have posed to the United States. hope that humanist ethics will spread of the Iraqi people is refuted by the very Suppose for the sake of argument that throughout the world. Thus we need a war itself, and further ignores the plan Saddam’s brutal treatment of the Iraqi planetary perspective. We also need a for a postwar U.S. occupation of Iraq led people was reason enough for “regime broad-based, fully humanist commit- by Lieutenant General Jay Garner (who, change”—few if any secular humanists ment to justice and ethics, not just by the way, has close links to hawkish would deny that an Iraq without Saddam a narrowly, potentially amoral focus Jewish groups in Israel)—an occupa- Hussein is preferable to one under his upon our rejection of the supernatural tion the Iraqi people have since taken to control—does this laudable goal justify realm. Atheism, though correct, does the streets in the hundreds of thousands war on the scale waged by the United not inform us how to act or how to think; to protest. States? And does anyone suppose that it is instead a by-product of the action Concerning Iraq’s oil fields, Bush “regime change” was the primary goal of thinking. Viewed in light of my own has said he will keep them functioning Bush held in mind? humanist commitment, America’s war for the Iraqi people. Yet they will be I think a secular humanist analy- on Iraq was unjust and deserves con- rehabilitated primarily by Halliburton, sis of this war’s morality should begin certed opposition. Dick Cheney’s former company, from with Just War theory, then turn to the Note which the vice president receives one Affirmations of Humanism and Human million dollars a year. NBC anchor Tom ist Manifesto 2000, along with the “UN 1. For a sound review of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, see Steven Zunes, Brokaw may have captured the truth Declaration of Human Rights” and other Tinderbox (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage during April’s heavy fighting when he statements of international law. In the Press, 2002). suggested—accurately, if arrogantly— Affirmations, we find a call for “nego- that the Iraqis mustn’t blow up their oil tiation and compromise as a means Barry Seidman is executive director, fields because the United States “will of resolving differences,” for honesty, Community Outreach with the Center for own that country in a few days.” truthfulness, and for testing moral prin- Inquiry–Metro NY.

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

WENDY KAMINER

that they would “open Palm Beach to every con artist.” This was apparently not a prophecy but an assumption that The First Amendment Is licensing schemes can weed out the bad psychics from the good. Madame Rose’s underlying belief in for Fortune-tellers, Too the existence of good psychics (I imagine she considers herself one) is easy to mock. But while skeptics chortle over the fraudulence of all fortune-telling,

hat’s the difference between

self-proclaimed psychics who “Civil libertarians bridle

write books predicting future W at government restrictions events and self-proclaimed psychics

who read palms, tarot cards, or crys- on the right of people tal balls? The book-writing psychics

are endowed with virtually undisputed to indulge their beliefs

First Amendment rights, nationwide. in psychic power The storefront psychics may or may not

enjoy constitutional protection, or any (which are no more right to prophesy for profit, depending

on where they live. ing laws discriminate against gypsies. or less ridiculous than

Legislation governing fortune-tellers In San Francisco, the Board of Super belief in God).” differs from state to state, and, with- visors recently roiled its resident psy-

in states, from city to city. They may chics by proposing legislation that would be required to obtain licenses, allowed require them to obtain permits and post to practice unlicensed, or forbidden to rates, along with establishing consum- practice at all. In Oklahoma, Wisconsin, er complaint lines. One self-proclaimed Minnesota, and North Carolina, for “Goddess of Light and Direction,” aka example, fortune-telling is flatly pro- “Dionysia,” complained to the San Fran hibited by state law. In Arkansas and cisco Exam iner that the city was “capital- Mississippi, fortune-telling is regulat- izing on folks trying to make a living.” ed by local governments, which are But one of Dionysia’s empowered by the state to regulate or colleagues told the “suppress” fortune-telling, along with Examiner she sup- other businesses deemed unrespect ported the local able, like dance halls and poolrooms. regulation of psy- In Louisiana, localities may regulate chics, because the or “restrict” fortune-tellers. In Massa city should “crack chusetts, they may only practice their down on the people profession if they are licensed by a city who give us a bad or town. In California, a state appel- reputation.” Some late court rightly struck down prohibi- fortune-tellers in tions on fortune-telling under the First Florida reacted Amendment, in a 1984 case, but locali- similarly when the ties may still choose to license it. county commissioners of Psychics seem to differ in their reac- Palm Beach decided to tion to licensing requirements. Some allow fortune-tellers to want the professional credibility that practice unlicensed. One licensing confers; others simply want local seer, Madame Rose, to be left alone, or claim that licens- warned the commissioners

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civil libertarians bridle at government late court recognized in Spiritual Psychic It’s hard to know if licensing schemes restrictions on the right of people to Science Church v. Azusa. But, the court are effective in deterring intentional indulge their beliefs in psychic power added, “We would confront a very differ- scams. It might be better simply to pros- (which are no more or less ridiculous than ent question if this ordinance were limit- ecute individual instances of fraud when belief in God). We don’t license preachers ed to persons who fraudulently claimed they occur (and the victims are willing or require them to prove they’re not con- to possess powers of precognition they to report them). Focusing on the crimi- ning us (indeed, these days we offer them knew they did not have and who know- nal conduct of particular fortune-tellers public funds). Why should we license ingly took advantage of those who erro- and not the practice of fortune-telling psychics? Religious freedom means that neously believed they did.” Advocates in general respects the right to believe, seances enjoy the same constitutional of regulating fortune-tellers and other which includes a right to be deceived. protection as the sacraments. psychics claim they only want to pro- Politicians who believe in God (and vir- Still, the effort to single out only some tect gullible people from the con artists tually all say they do) shouldn’t presume psychics as frauds is not entirely mis- Madame Rose of Palm Beach may have to protect their constituents from guided—if you focus on the intent of the had in mind—psychics who intend to illusions. psychic, not the truth of his or her asser- defraud, by offering to take your money tions. Charlatans are not defined by the and “cleanse” it of some curse or by Wendy Kaminer is a lawyer and social critic. falsity of their beliefs but by their insin- promising that ridding yourself of a large Her latest book is Free for ALL: Defending cerity and their intentions to deceive. sum will help you lose weight or gain Liberty in America Today. Categorical bans on fortune-telling are romance and whatever else you desire. unconstitutional, a California appel-

NAT HENTOFF

win a war (not just against Saddam Hussein) and lose the Constitution, they will have lost everything. The Patriot Here is some of what we will lose in what the Justice Department blandly calls the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003. What must be kept in mind Whistleblower is that, while this legislation is Attorney General Ashcroft’s design, it is fully sup- n February 7, there appeared on ported by George W. Bush. Much of the the Web site of the Center for Democratic leadership in Congress—as OPublic Integrity an eighty-six-page well as the horde of Democratic presi- draft of the Justice Department’s pro- dential aspirants—have been silent on posed sequel to the USA PATRIOT Act. the disappearing Bill of Rights. It so radically subverts the constitutional Section 501 would strip Americans of rights of Americans—far more than even their citizenship for providing “material the original USA PATRIOT Act—and so support” to a group designated by the appalled a member of John Ashcroft’s administration as “terrorist.” If you were staff that he or she leaked it to Charles to send a check for an organization’s Lewis, head of the Committee for Public legal activities, without knowing of its Integrity. other actions (as many Americans did That very night, Charles Lewis to the African National Congress during revealed parts of that proposed law on the apartheid years), you could lose what Bill Moyer’s PBS television program, four-hour news cycle, which allows for Chief Justice Earl Warren called “the Now. As a result, some newspapers, but few follow-ups, even to stories that bear right to have rights.” hardly any television news operations, directly on Lance Morrow’s warning in Until this Justice Department propos- reported these new Ashcroft-directed the March 17, 2003, Time magazine: al, an American could only lose citizen- revisions of the Bill of Rights. But most- ship if he or she expressed a clear intent Keeping the Constitution will be as ly, it was only a one or two-day story. The vital to the American future as fending to abandon it. But under PATRIOT Act media is on the treadmill of the twenty- off terrorists. More so. If Americans II, the government need only “infer” your

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 20 OP-ED

intent to be without a country. You could aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm), Patrick Leahy of Vermont, ranking be imprisoned indefinitely, if the govern- this would eviscerate the Clean Air Act’s Democratic member of the Judiciary ment chose, as “an enemy combatant.” requirement that “corporations that use Committee, released this statement: “For Section 201 voids a federal court deci- potentially dangerous chemicals must months, and as recently as just last week, sion ordering the Justice Department to prepare an analysis of consequences reveal the names of hundreds of people of the release of such chemicals to sur- it “detained” in the roundup of nonciti- rounding communities.” “A secret govern- zens after September 11. As the Lawyers But, if Congress passed this part of Committee for Human Rights points out, the legislation, local residents will be ment is, by its nature, this would be the first time in American excluded from meaningful access to cru- history in which the government would cial information. Corporation disclosures ominous, and ours is “explicitly authorize secret arrests.” will be available only in government becoming precipitously Remember the mothers in Argentina reading rooms “in which copies could not witnessing, in dread silence, for “the be made and notes could not be taken.” ominous.” disappeared?” Moreover—and it’s a big moreover— Also, in addition to the extraordi- these documents will not include “such Justice Department officials have denied nary range of electronic surveillance and basic information as ‘identity or location to members of the Judiciary Committee other methods of tracking us in the USA of any facility or any information from that they were drafting another anti-ter- PATRIOT Act and subsequent unilat- which the identity or location of the facil- rorism package. . . . The early signals eral moves by Ashcroft, this sequel—in ity could be deduced.’” from the administration about its inten- Section 303—permits the government to So much for informing local residents tions for this bill are ominous.” “collect, analyze, and maintain DNA sam- of the plagues that might befall them. A secret government is, by its nature, ples” of suspected terrorists. Previously, Only government officials would have ominous, and ours is becoming precipi- the Federal Bureau of Investigation fuller access to this vital information. tously ominous. could lawfully collect DNA identification And “government whistleblowers who records only of people convicted of vari- reveal any information restricted under Nat Hentoff is a regular columnist for the ous crimes. If you gave an organization this section commit a criminal offense,” Village Voice, Legal Times, Washington or an individual on a government terror- the ACLU emphasizes, “even if their Times, and Editor & Publisher, a United ist list “material support,” you could be motivation was to protect the public Media syndicated columnist, and the author added to the ever-widening DNA pool. form corporate wrongdoing or govern- of Living the Bill of Rights (University of Georgetown University law professor ment neglect.” California Press). David Cole says that “mere association” Three days after this Justice Depart with such suspects could involve you. ment draft bill was leaked by a whis- Remember Operation TIPS, a Jus tleblower on Ashcroft’s staff, Senator tice Department plan that would have encouraged American truckers, delivery personnel, and others involved in our daily lives to spy on us for “suspicious” activities or speech? It was struck out of the Homeland Security Department bill by conservative Republican Dick Armey, also a libertarian. But PATRIOT Act II revives this additional way for the government to put us in its databases. As the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) warns, Section 313 provides “an incentive for neighbor to spy on neighbor . . . by granting blanket immunity to businesses that phone in false terrorism tips—even if their actions are taken with reckless disregard for the truth.” (Emphasis added.) Section 202 has a startling amendment to the Clean Air Act that could put you in the hospital. As reported in the ACLU’s nineteen-page section-by-section analysis of PATRIOT Act II (www.

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PETER SINGER

As we can see from the last two points, Solon believed that what happens to people after they die—what kind of Thinking About funerals they have and how their names are remembered—makes a difference in how good their lives were. This was not because Solon imagined that, after death, the Dead one could look down from somewhere and see what kind of a funeral one was given. have just published a book about my There is no suggestion that Solon believed maternal grandfather, David Oppen in any kind of afterlife, and certainly I Iheim. A Viennese of Jewish descent, don’t. But does skepticism about life after he was a member first of Sigmund Freud’s death force one to conclude that what circle and later of that of Alfred Adler. But happens after you die cannot make a despite his abiding interest in exploring difference to how well your life has gone? human psychology, he underestimated In thinking about this issue, I vacillate the Nazi threat and did not leave quick- between two incompatible positions: that ly enough after the Nazi annexation of something can only matter to you if it has Austria. Deported to the overcrowded, an impact on your awareness, that is, if underfed ghetto of Theresienstadt, he you experience it in some way; and that soon died. Fortunately my parents left dashes Croesus’s expectation by naming what matters is that your preferences be Vienna in time. They were able to go to an Athenian called Tellus. Taken aback, satisfied, whether or not you know of it, Australia where, after the war, I was Croesus demands to know the reason for and indeed whether or not you are alive born. this choice, and so Solon describes the at the time when they are satisfied. The key points of Tellus’s life. He lived in a former view, held by classical utilitarians “Does skepticism prosperous city, had fine sons, and lived like Jeremy Bentham, is more straightfor- to see each of them have children. He had ward, and in some ways easier to defend about life after death wealth enough. And he had a glorious philosophically. But imagine the following death, falling in battle just as the enemy situation. A year ago a colleague of yours force one to conclude was being routed. The Athenians paid in the university department in which you that what happens him a high honor: a public funeral on the work was told that she had cancer and spot where he fell. could not expect to live more than a year after you die cannot From this story my grandfather dis- or so. On hearing the news, she took leave tills Solon’s conception of a happy life without pay and spent the year writing a make a difference to as consisting of ten elements: book that drew together ideas that she how well your life has 1. A period of peaceful prosperity for had been working on during the ten years his country. you have known her. The task exhausted Many of my grandfather’s letters 2. A life that stretches far into the her, but now it is done. Close to death, she and papers have survived. One of them third generation. calls you to her home and presents you asks: What is a good life? Since David 3. One does not lose the complete with a typescript. “This,” she tells you, “is Oppenheim was a classical scholar, he vigor of a valiant man. what I want to be remembered by. Please discusses this question in the context of 4. A comfortable income. find a publisher for it.” You congratulate a classical text: the passage from the first 5. Well-brought-up children. your friend on finishing the work. She is book of Herodotus describing the visit 6. Assurance of the continuation of weak and tired, but evidently satisfied of Solon, the wise law-giver of Athens, one’s line through numerous thriving just with having put it in your hands. to Croesus, the fabulously wealthy king grandchildren. You say your farewells. The next day of Lydia. After entertaining Solon and 7. A quick death. you receive a phone call telling you that hearing about his travels, Croesus asks 8. Victorious confirmation of one’s your colleague died in her sleep shortly him: “Who is the happiest man you have own strength. after you left her house. You read her ever seen?” Croesus expects to hear that 9. The highest funeral honors. typescript. It is undoubtedly publishable, he, Croesus, is the happiest of all—for 10. The preservation of one’s own but not ground-breaking work. “What’s who is richer or rules over a greater and name through glorious commemoration the point?” you think to yourself. “We more numerous people than he? Solon by the citizens. don’t really need another book on these

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

topics. She’s dead, and she’ll never know Writing about my grandfather has said, what happens after one dies does if her book appears anyway.” Instead of forced me to think about whether it make a difference to how well one’s life sending the typescript to a publisher, you makes sense to believe that, in reading goes? I don’t think you have to believe drop it in a recycling bin. my grandfather’s works and bringing his in an afterlife to give this question an Did you do something wrong? More life and thought to a larger audience, I affirmative answer. specifically, did you wrong your col- am doing something for him and in some league? Did you in some way make her way mitigating, however slightly, the Note life less good than it would have been by wrong that the Nazis did to him. It is easy 1. Peter Singer, Pushing Time Away: My not seeking a publisher for her book? to imagine that a grandfather would like Grandfather and the Tragedy of Jewish Vienna Would her life have been worth more if to be remembered by his grandchildren, (New York: Ecco, 2003). you had taken the book to a publisher and that a scholar and author would like and it had appeared, gaining as much to be read after his death. Perhaps this Peter Singer is DeCamp Professor of Bioethics and as little attention as many other is especially so when he dies a victim of at the University Center for Human Values worthy but not ground-breaking aca- persecution by a dictatorship that sought at Princeton University. His books include demic works? If we answer that ques- to suppress the liberal, cosmopolitan Animal Liberation, How Are We to Live?, tion affirmatively, then what we do after ideas my grandfather favored and to Writings on an Ethical Life, One World, a person dies can make a difference to exterminate all members of his tribe. Do and, most recently, Pushing Time Away. how well his or her life went. I have here an example of how, as Solon

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

“Atheism can defend itself intellectually Public Solidarity Does against any majority of the credulous and Not Help Humanism usually has to do so.

found myself profoundly depressed by Where the decision of American atheists and is the moral value in Inonbelievers to hold a demonstration and rally, the Godless Americans proving that there are March on Washington, last November, and, although I live in the nation’s capi- more of us than they tal, I made no effort to add myself or my and we think?” family to the turnout. This refusal was for two reasons. First, I am bored by the them?). The press reported the rally idea of “Million Man,” “Million Mom,” chiefly as a curiosity and inevitably fixed or any other sort of manifestation—the upon side issues, such as the argu- “Great Peace March” of the 1980s was ment over whether Satanists ought to be an example—that asks to be taken at allowed to join in. (I’d say obviously not, face value and demands to be called by since they believe in the supernatural a name that it can’t live up to. This is Atheism can defend itself intellectually and have a deity of their own. I suppose self-sustaining but pointless publicity, and against any majority of the credulous a religious person would have to admit it evaporates in less than the time of and usually has to do so. Where is the that it’s better to believe in something an average news cycle. It is staged for moral value in proving that there are rather than nothing. It must be conceded no reason except the vain ambition of more of us than they and we think? that there is more empirical evidence for attracting media attention, and it also This would have been true if there the Devil and his works than there is for suggests the repulsive idea that there is had been many more people participat- any other object of worship.) safety in numbers. This might be true for ing, but in point of fact the event was My second objection is my more some ephemeral causes, but it is emphat- fairly thinly attended by comparison to, serious one. Atheist humanism has ically not true of any important idea. say, the Promise Keepers (remember no resemblance to a faith, let alone a

23 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 OP-ED

church. Any thinking person can accept of Canterbury spoke as if only Tony who coped by ignoring them. The sinis- its conclusions independently, without Blair and George W. Bush were men of ter element in this, combined with the any catechism, and these reasoned con- violence and Iraq was the victim. Even simplistic one, was profoundly off- clusions do not require the incessant the president’s own United Methodists putting. One might have hoped that the rituals of reinforcement that are neces- felt impelled to disown his so-called desertion of the clerics would make rush to war. And all this time, every George Bush desist from invoking the voice in Iraq was being stilled by terror endorsement of heaven for his own pol- and violence, and Saddam was able icy, but as ever it proves that one reli- “The Vatican to name mosques because of his own gious fallacy only reinforces other ones. received Tariq Aziz, monstrous cult of the personality. None This is why the great latent virtue of of the “peace” mantras even bothered freethinking godlessness—its stubborn one of Hussein’s most to mention this obvious fact, lest it refusal to be influenced by mass sug- disturb their simple-minded view that gestion or mass emotion—should not disgusting lieutenants, force must always be a “last resort.” be dissipated. What the “congregations” as if he were a I attended some of these marches as have, by way of fatuous togetherness, is a witness, and they felt to me exactly like not worth envying. peace-loving envoy.” devotional exercises, designed to mani- fest moral superiority by means of mass- Christopher Hitchens is a columnist for ing together. Indeed, the many Islamic Vanity Fair and this semester’s I.F. Stone sitated by a belief in the incredible bigots who attended made no secret of fellow at the University of California, or the impossible. Our state of mind their holy intentions, even if they caused Berkeley. His most recent book is Why needs no priesthood, no congregation, discomfort for the other pious marchers, Orwell Matters. no reassurance that we are all of one mind or one body. Leave that to the weak-minded and the insecure. As it happens, the more serious among the true believers have always maintained that their “faith” is a private matter, best pursued in lonely vigils or in wrestling with the evidence of things not seen. Such seems to have been the case from Maimonides to Cardinal Newman, even if these men could not quite do without cult and ritual the rest of the time. Humanism should not sink to the standard of rigor that is set by the faithful, let alone fall below it.

hile I am on the subject of W demonstrations, I hope I am not the only one to have been delighted at the attitude of the churches to the coalition’s struggle against Saddam Hussein. This battle, which is far from over as I write, has always seemed to me to be a just one. Perhaps for that reason, as well as doubtless for other ones, it received almost zero support from organized religion. And the marches were frequently swelled by priests, nuns, pastors, rabbis, Unitarian ministers, and other herders of other flocks. The Vatican received Tariq Aziz, one of Hussein’s most disgusting lieutenants, as if he were a peace-loving envoy. The Archbishop

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 24 OP-ED

VERN BULLOUGH

identify and pass as men, then the whole idea of putting people in little boxes is simplistic and erroneous. In fact, in Little everything we do we tend to be somewhat different from the others who are placed here is a tendency in our society in one particular box with us. When one to put people in little boxes. If one declares oneself a humanist, one must Tis a female, we put that person in expect demands for clarification: there is a box marked “female,” which makes a vast range of “humanists,” from secu- her different from a male. But how dif- lar humanists to people who believe that ferent? Obviously, there is a difference this term identifies them as having a spe- in genitalia and in reproductive capac- cial interest in the humanities. There are ity, but even with these distinctions there is a tremendous range of people within the classification of female. If people cannot be There is a similar range for those falling into the male box. As we begin to isolate classified reliably by out characteristics, we add more boxes gender, then neither to our classification scheme. In some increasing number of women feel that boxes we find an equal number of males they would be better off as men. Modern can they be fully and females, while in others the ratios surgery and the development of artificial are somewhat lopsided. But there are hormones have led to the development described by the label still representatives of both sexes in of a major industry of changing people’s “humanist.” every box, although in some there might sex. In Trinidad, Colorado, for several not be very many. decades in the last part of the twentieth Because so much of human potential century, the major industry in town was religious humanists. There are human- is independent of what our genitals are, a local surgeon who during his active ists who are libertarian, humanists who most of American society has adopted practice (up to the end of the 1990s) are socialists, and even humanists in the the term gender. Gender is a good term, performed approximately ten thousand past who were racists (such as James but it is also often misused. For exam- operations changing men into women. Hervey Johnson). In fact, humanists can ple, I can clearly respond “male” when The males had their testicles cut off; the be stuffed into all kinds of boxes. On asked for my sex, but, when asked for scrotums were formed into labia, the many issues, humanists may have more my gender, I can honestly say I am penile shafts changed into vaginas. Most in common with nonhumanists than they confused. I have some attitudes and men who underwent the surgery began do with their fellow humanists. Human feelings labeled “masculine” and some living and being accepted as women, ists after all are humans and not robots. which society has in the past labeled although they had to take regular doses The implications of this variation “feminine.” This in part is because of hormones. A lesser number of women in people and society is the fact that many of the things we call “masculine” have undergone surgery to become many of our enemies are on some issues or “feminine” are socially constructed males, and they also live and work and our allies. The American Civil Liberties and have been adopted by individuals are accepted as males. Interestingly, an Union recently found itself submitting because they wanted to conform to soci- increasing number of individuals feel an amicus brief in support of the same ety’s expectations. they do not need the surgery, and they cause shared by some Christian funda- But variation within the sexes is also begin living as the opposite sex with or mentalist organizations. The Jehovah’s biological. As barriers to rigid conformi- without hormone supplements. Many of Witnesses, successful in their fight not ty break down, we find more similarities those who have changed sex settle down to be forced to recite the Pledge of in behavior between men and women. with partners, and they are accepted as Allegiance or to celebrate Christmas, At the biological level, the only thing a married couples. Increasing numbers of would find themselves in agreement with female can do that a male cannot is give them are adopting children to become a many humanists on those issues. Wit birth, and even that is not theoretically somewhat unique exemplar of the possi- nesses might also find themselves plac- impossible.1 Females, on the other hand, ble role changes in American family life. -ed in a “civil libertarian” box for their cannot produce sperm. Many men feel What boxes do they fit in? struggle to be allowed to ring doorbells that they would be more comfortable If it is possible for males to identify in strange neighborhoods and try to as a woman than as a man, and an and pass as women and for females to convert the residents.

25 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 OP-ED

A year or so ago, Irv Rubin, the leader lumps us in the same box when we say in little boxes is not helpful, and it is also of the militant Jewish Defense League, we are humanists, we are not the same. erroneous. successfully brought suit against the The great potential of the humanist Note Burbank, California, City Council over movement is the willingness to let indi- its practice of opening meetings with a viduals express themselves in a vari- 1. Since on rare occasions a pregnancy occurs outside the uterus and the embryo is sectarian Christian prayer. Supporting ety of different ways. We believe that attached to intestines or other organs, it is his case was an amicus brief from the humans can make the world a better theoretically possible to implant a fertilized Council for Secular Humanism. This place in which to live and that we should egg in a male. Delivery, in either case, could same Rubin soon after was arrested by have concern and compassion for our only be brought about by surgical intervention. The likelihood of a full-term fetus devel- the Federal Bureau of Investigation for fellow humans, but we do not always oping in this way currently is astronomical, allegedly planning to blow up a mosque agree on how to do this. We can, howev- but who knows? in Culver City. He attempted suicide in er, usually work with fellow humanists jail and later died of his injuries. on a wide spectrum of causes, and on Vern Bullough is a senior editor of Free Rubin’s case illustrates the point many of these we can find allies among Inquiry and a laureate of the International of this essay. Humans collectively are people who are not humanists. It is also Academy of Humanism. extremely varied, and each of us is important for humanists to be able to unique. Though society at large often disagree with each other. To put people

ered on its slogan, “We are everywhere”; that’s the real reason attitudes changed. Fifty years later, it’s long past time No Passing that we secular humanists (and atheists, and agnostics, and so forth) emerge from our closets. Average Americans Tom Flynn who think they don’t know a single unbeliever need to realize that they know and like quite a few . . . the very hen Richard Dawkins urged realization gays and lesbians helped to unbelievers to come out of the force by outing themselves. W closet (“A Challenge to Athe Is the gay example a reliable guide for ists,” FI, Summer 2002), he knowingly us? I think so. Elsewhere I have observed echoed the gay movement’s historic ral- that the gay and unbeliever minorities lying cry. As secular humanists, atheists, have parallel dynamics. Membership in and other unbelievers work to improve some early activists over-interpreted it. either minority hinges on a cognitive or our standing in American life, we face Nonetheless it proved indispensable in attitudinal characteristic, not an overt challenges remarkably like those that helping homosexuals see themselves as physical marker like skin color; revealing faced gay and lesbian activists fifty years a minority, not as victims of a pathol- one’s membership is largely voluntary.1 ago. If we want to succeed as they did, we ogy, and in encouraging millions of Like gays, unbelievers must choose how might well emulate their methods. Americans to rethink their prejudices. overtly to announce their identity. The The gay movement engineered a stu- Surely nothing that was “engaged in by option not to announce it at all—that is, pendous reversal in American sexual 10 percent of the population” could be to “pass”—always beckons. attitudes. Circa 1950, homosexuality was as marginal as homosexuality was then There’s more. Like gays half a century universally reviled. Today, people ex imagined to be. ago, contemporary unbelievers have been pressing a broad variety of sexual ori- The Stonewall riots, pride marches, handed a landmark finding that we can entations are embraced by many Amer and equal-rights legislation all helped either justifiably exploit—or abuse. Our icans and accepted by most, excepting to shift attitudes. But the gay move- “Kinsey Report” is the City University of staunch conservatives. Gay interests are ment’s most powerful strategy was also New York study showing that a fast-grow- reflected in literature, political discourse, the simplest—its relentless call for gays ing 14.1 percent of Americans list their and popular entertainment. and lesbians to “out” themselves. Each religious preference as “none.”2 If you What made this happen? The gay person out of the closet made self-dis- wield this figure cavalierly, it seems to community achieved irresistible visibility. closure that much easier for the next. say that forty million American men, The Kinsey Reports (1948 and 1953) After millions came out, most Americans women, and children don’t believe in astonished the nation with their find- discovered that yes, they did know gays God.3 ing that 1 in 10 Americans was homo- and lesbians firsthand as valued neigh- Does this have shock value? You bet. sexual. That figure has been widely bors, coworkers, fellow students, fellow Is it true? Hell, no. Most people who challenged, and there’s little doubt that citizens. America’s gay minority deliv- state no religious affiliation still believe

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 26 OP-ED

in the supernatural. Many consider choice not to pass—and to keep mak- aris.pdf. themselves generically Christian. (Some ing that choice until not passing had 3.Some demographers oppose including sociologists even think we’re seeing just children in survey-based population esti- become less dangerous. Our movement mates. Why not count only adults? First, a by-product of demographic trends, not needs to send the same message. upbringing is the strongest predictor of life a real rise in disaffection from faith.) As individuals, we must seize every stance. Though conversion happens, most So let’s use the numbers honestly. It’s opportunity to out ourselves. As a Catholic children will be Catholic all their appropriate to invoke those forty million group, we need to become a more effec- lives, most Muslim children will remain Muslim, and so on. Second, including chil- “nones” when discussing the place of tive minority, willing to plead for our dren makes it simpler to derive group sizes sectarian Christian expression in public privileges, willing to inflict legal and from survey percentages—just multiply by life; many of the “generically-spiritual emotional costs when opponents violate the U.S. population, currently about 290 unchurched” feel as queasy as we do our rights. We need to make ourselves million (http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/pop- when city councils open their meetings clock). Third, the media frequently note more obvious, occasionally even at the that “no preference has become America’s with Christian prayer. In other contexts, price of making ourselves obnoxious. second-largest belief group, second only to we should cheerfully admit that hard- If we unbelievers were merely as vocal, Roman Catholics.” It makes sense to follow core unbelievers form only a part of the as sensitive, as any other recognized Catholic practice and include children to no-preference population.4 minority in this culture, more Amer support accurate size comparisons between these two groups. Still, even by conservative estimates icans would know that we exist. More 4. In 2000, when the “no preference” fig- the probable number of secular human- Americans would be aware of knowing ure stood at 11.24 percent, I wielded it proud- ists, atheists, and agnostics is vast. If people who live without religion. And ly (“By the Numbers,” FI, Winter 2000/01), only 8 percent of Americans disbelieve attitudes would change. but made clear that the “no preference” in God (an oft-used, if timid, figure), population included more than humanists, The first step is ours. More of us atheists, and agnostics. that’s twenty-three million American need to come out of the closet. More of 5. In 1996, the Council for Secular men, women, and children.5 us need to stride into the “No Passing” Humanism commissioned its own profession- That’s one big minority. zone. ally conducted telephone survey, and found If there are twenty-three million that 11.4% of respondents disbelieved in Notes God as traditionally defined. See “Religious serious unbelievers, that means we are Belief in America: A New Poll,” Free Inquiry, approximately two-thirds as numerous 1. See my “What Humanism Can Learn Summer 1996, p. 34. as either Hispanic- or African-Ameri from the Gay Rights Movement,” Secular Humanist Bulletin, Spring 1994, p. 6. cans. We’re four times as numerous as 2. Barry Kosmin, Egon Mayer, and Ariela Tom Flynn is editor of Free Inquiry and American Jews—eight times as numer- Keysar, American Religious Identification Study former coordinator of the First Amendment ous as religiously active American (ARIS) 2001, City University of New York. Task Force. Jews. In other words, we are sufficiently Available online numerous to demand and receive more a t respectful treatment. But we must take the first step. More of us need to come out of the closet. That’s the formula that worked for gays http:// www. and lesbians, indeed for every minority that improved its place in American life since World War II. “Come out of the closet.” Achieve irresistible visibility. Show that you’re everywhere. In two words, Don’t “pass.” When humanists and atheists stay in the closet, when they strive to “pass” among the Judeo- Christian majority, they reinforce the Christian illusion that every good American believes in God. If unbelievers are invisible, even moderates may conclude that unbelief does not exist—and thus, that unbelievers’ rights need not be respected. For unbelievers passing is easy, just as it was for gays. That’s why the gay movement invested so heavily in exhort- gc.cuny. ing its members to come out of the edu/ closet—to make that hard, dangerous studies/

27 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 Two-Main Session • 2 Week Course Main Session Faculty July 6–20, Amherst, New York Barry Beyerstein is associate professor of psychology and a member of the Brain Behavior Laboratory at Simon Fraser University. An expert The Psychology of Belief. Is seeing believing? How reliable is human cognition? What in pseudoscience in healthcare, Professor Beyerstein is associate psychological processes are involved in supernatural or paranormal beliefs? Topics editor of The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine. covered include: knowledge, truth, and belief; cognitive psychology of perception, memory and reasoning; cognitive psychology of religion and the paranormal. 3 credits. Paul Kurtz is professor emeritus of philosophy at SUNY-Buffalo, and the founder and chairman of the Center for Inquiry. He is Editor- Reason and Ethics. Can reason help us to make sound moral in-Chief of Free Inquiry magazine and is on the editorial board of judgments? What is the relationship between facts and values? What would make a Skeptical Inquirer magazine. Kurtz has published over 650 articles moral claim true or false? Topics covered include: historical survey of Western ethics, and reviews and authored or edited over 40 books, including The with an emphasis on rationalist and naturalist traditions; moral realism; religion and Courage to Become (Praeger/Greenwood, 1997), Science and ethics; evolution and ethics. 3 credits. Religion (Prometheus, 2003), and Moral Problems in Contemporary Society (Prentice-Hall, 1969). Practicum. Assistantships available at Center for Inquiry. Fields include communications, outreach, research, and editing. Robert C. Solomon is Quincy Lee Centennial Professor of Philosophy Evening & Weekend Entertainment. Sporting & outdoor activities; Philosophy Cafe; and Business at the University of Texas at Austin, and a member of music and magic performances; all expenses paid excursion to acclaimed Shaw the Academy of Distinguished Teachers. A specialist in post-Kantian Festival, Ontario, Canada. continental philosophy, he has also published extensively on ethics, business ethics, the emotions, and the history of philosophy. TRANSFERABLE UNDERGRADUATE CREDIT AVAILABLE Richard Wiseman heads the Perrott-Warrick Research Unit at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. His scientific research into unusual Workshops areas within psychology has been reported in over 40 academic journal articles, including Nature, Science, and Psychological Bulletin. Debater’s Toolbox Wiseman has published six books, most recently The Luck Factor July 25–26, Amherst, New York $69 (Century, 2003). A how-to for engaging in public debates about theism and naturalism, addressing theoretical, rhetorical, and strategic questions. Facilitated by Keith Parsons, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Houston-Clear Lake.

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free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 28 FRONTLINES

SIDE LINES Missionaries Move in to We Don’t Think So—In early May, New Hampshire lost its state symbol, and main tour- ‘Rebuild’ Iraq ist attraction, when the rock formation known as the Old Man of the Mountain crumbled and fell. Experts had predicted such a fate would befall the 700-ton, 40-foot-high stone profile as part While criticism of the Bush administration’s plans for post-war Iraq focus on the American of the natural cycle of freezing and thawing. companies awarded contracts for rebuilding the country’s infrastructure, there is another Nevertheless, efforts had been made over the aspect that has more long-term significance—evangelical missionaries who are being allowed years to put off the inevitable by installing cables to hold it together. But the mighty forces to provide humanitarian aid. of nature weren’t enough of an explanation Among them is the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), which hopes to have for some glum observers of the collapse. “I’m 25,000 evangelists go to Iraq. “That would mean a heart change would go on in that absolutely devastated by this,” said one. “It part of the world,” said Mark Liederbach of the Southeastern Baptist Theological makes you wonder if God is unhappy with what Seminary in a speech to the SBC. “That what’s we need to be praying for. That’s how is going on.” a Christian wages spiritual warfare.” Saved by His Fellow Man, Not God—Until last U.S. Baptist families have been asked to assemble “gift of love” food boxes that fall, Michael Braithwaite owned and operated would nourish a family of five for a month. Love World, a sex shop in Putney, Kentucky. Then he said God persuaded him to burn his The SBC is run by Billy Graham’s son Franklin. The association is not comforting $10,000 lot of sex toys, close the store, and to those concerned that the missionaries’ involvement in aid to Iraq will give the reopen it as a Christian bookstore named Mike’s appearance of a Christian attack on Islam. Franklin once dubbed Islam “wicked.” Place. But business was so slow that Braithwaite Although he has sought to cultivate a more tolerant image, he has not backed away considered closing for good. Then a couple from his organization’s goal of converting Muslims to Christianity. “I believe as we arrived from Ohio, bearing Bibles and religious books and other items worth $80,000 to stock work, God will always give us opportunities to tell others about his son,” Franklin his shelves. “Praise the Lord. It’s just heaven told Beliefnet. “We are there to reach out to love them and to save them, and, as sent,” said Braithwaite. a Christian, I do this in the name of Jesus Christ.” In fact, Southern Baptists are Pride Before the Fall—In a recent USA Today required to attempt conversions. survey, 75 percent of all Christians polled Evangelical zeal is not only a problem for the Iraqis. Pentagon officials are who believe in an afterlife said that they were investigating allegations that an Army chaplain refused to release water, which is in going to heaven. Only 1 percent thought they scarce supply in Iraq, to U.S. soldiers for bathing until they agreed to hear a sermon might go to hell, and 6 percent were headed and be baptized. for purgatory. Eighteen percent opted for the vague category of “Somewhere Else” and “Don’t Chaplain Josh llano had relayed his terms of distributing water to a Knight Know.” By contrast, 29 percent of non-Christians Ridder reporter, but later denied it. The reporter wrote that soldiers, some of whom said that they were going to Heaven, 2 percent had gone ten days without a shower, were told that they had to listen to a ninety-min- Hell, and 5 percent Purgatory. The biggest per- ute sermon and then be baptized—from a 500-gallon container Llano was reserving centage of non-Christians, 33 percent, said they for just that purpose. She quoted him as saying, “It’s simple. They want water. I have didn’t know what would happen after they died, and 32 percent said they would be “Somewhere it, as long as they agree to get baptized.” Llano’s résumé includes a stint at a military Else.” chaplain through the SBC’s North American Mission Board. Missionaries may find they have worries other than a cold reception to their over- Indian Exorcism Fair Attracts Thousands—The Indian village of Malajpur’s claim to fame is its tures in Iraq. At his trial, the accused killer of three workers at a Southern Baptist hos- two hundred Hindu priests who every year hold a pital in Yemen last year said he killed them because they were missionaries. “I acted month-long-fair to drive evil spirits out of people. out of a religious duty . . . and in revenge from those who converted Muslims from their On the event’s first day alone this year, 70,000 religion and made them unbelievers.” He added that women were being sterilized at the people made the pilgrimage. The clients are hospitals, a “violation of Islam.” Yemini law prohibits non-Muslims from proselytizing. mainly women with postnatal problems who are brought by their families to end their undesirable behavior. One husband charged his wife with using bad language, abusing the neighbors and the children, and refusing to wear clothes or I was born curious. I would rather read economic history than history, for speak in a normal voice. Psychiatrists say the example, because I liked explanations. And so if you wanted an explanation for women are suffering from treatable mental dis- life, it had to be about the molecular basis for life. I never thought there was a orders, but may show some improvement after visiting the priests because hysteria responds to spiritual basis for life; I was very lucky to be brought up by a father who had no authority. The priests’ treatment includes beatings religious beliefs. I didn’t have that hang-up. My mother was nominally Catholic, and rituals involving chanting, sprinkling with but that’s as far as it went. water, and walking around the temple, sometimes backward in severe cases. —James P. Watson, speaking on the fiftieth anniversary of his break- through work on DNA, in the April 2003 Scientific American.

29 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 FRONTLINES

Minister Convicted feel threatened and the gay community SIDE LINES has developed a false sense of security Over Gay Marriages because of new drugs that make the disease survivable. A Presbyterian Church court has rebuked The tactics include signs outside the Reverend Stephen Van Kuiken for per- Turning the Tables?—President George W. Catholic Churches that read, “Dear forming marriage ceremonies for same-sex Bush has been fond of using the word evil to Father, if Rome won’t let you talk about couples. He was acquitted on the charge describe countries and actions he disapproves contraception, then talk about condoms of. But now his own church is saying he’s the of ordaining as church elders and dea- one who is evil because of his policies, and cons homosexuals who will not promise instead.” it wants him to repent. United Methodist offi- chastity. cials recently took a full-page ad in Christian This was the church’s first trial on the Century magazine calling on Bush to “repent Sainthood for practice of same-sex marriages. Since from domestic and foreign policies that are Inquisition Queen? incompatible with the teaching and example 2000, Presbyterian ministers have been of Christ.” The church objects to Bush’s con- told that they can bless same-sex couples She wiped out vital Jewish communities templation of using nuclear weapons and his but not marry them. Van Kuiken, pastor actions of “redemptive violence” in Iraq. It of a Cincinnati, Ohio, church and a min- and launched the Inquisition. Yet Spanish also charges that his domestic policy belies ister for nineteen years, said he will con- clerics think Queen Isabella is worthy of his claims of being a “compassionate conser- tinue to officiate at same-sex marriages sainthood. vative.“ The president has so far rejected the and to ordain homosexuals. He plans to Jews and liberal Catholics are pro church’s call for a meeting. appeal his conviction to a Presbyterian testing, and even the Vatican seems Does He Lack Faith?—When television preach- commission that oversees Michigan and reluctant to proceed. Canonization is pro- er Pat Robertson was diagnosed with prostate Ohio churches. posed for 2004, the 500th anniversary of cancer recently, he didn’t turn to God to heal Isabella’s birth. The Spanish Church says him. Instead, he sought the best medical advice she is a good example for modern-day he could find and underwent surgery. Doctors AIDS Complacency Spanish Catholics for her accomplish- declared him cancer-free. Although Robertson ments in sparking a Spanish renaissance does not encourage his followers to avoid medical Alarms Swiss treatment or medicine, his books and program and spreading Christianity. are full of tales of people being cured by “mira- The Swiss are embarking on an aggressive Trouble is, Isabella and her husband, cles.” In one of his more outrageous claims, he campaign to combat rising numbers of King Ferdinand, achieved their goals by told of a man in Ghana whose amputated leg AIDS cases. driving Jews and Muslims out of Spain and regrew after his conversion. Switzerland once suffered the high- persecuting the ones who remained and Becoming Mainstream—Evangelical colleges are est rate of HIV infection in Europe. A didn’t convert. But, sainthood supporters modifying their behavior codes to allow prac- government campaign that used explicit are blaming Jews for negative reactions. tices enjoyed by most Americans, with caveats. materials to encourage safe sex drop “The worldwide Jewish lobby, which appar- Leading the trend is Wheaton College in Illinois, ped levels in the 1990s, but they are on ently has much influence in the Vatican, which will now allow faculty members to drink the rise again, up 25 percent in 2002. doesn’t look favorably on this beatifica- alcohol and smoke tobacco in private and without undergraduates present and students to attend Officials believe young people do not tion,” reported the newspaper El Mundo. college-sponsored and off-campus dances. The new Community Covenant drops the prohibition against gambling. The school’s original 1867 code banned playing cards, games of chance, and bil- liards and membership in secret societies. Some of those rules were later dropped, as well as a later one against watching movies and theater-going. Wheaton has justified its changes by pointing out that these rules were school traditions, not ordered by the Bible. Driving Out the Demons—New Mexico has asked American Association of State Highway and Transportation officials to change the name of route U.S. 666. They cited the demonic connotation of the digits and said that motorists were concerned that “the devil controls events” on the road. “We just don’t want to be associated with this” said one. The road winds and has a high accident rate. Colorado and Utah, which U.S. 666 also passes through, support the change and have suggested it be called “U.S. 393” instead.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 30 INTRODUCTION

Inherit More Wind: Darwin Discord Deepens

Tom Flynn Charles Darwin

fter Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, religious conservatives never altogether relaxed their opposition. From the conclusion of the 1925 Scopes trial until the late 1970s, the drums of reaction were muffled. But with the Religious Right’s rise to prominence, attacks on evolutionary theory quickly multiplied in strength and variety. Today, Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection is probably the target of more fundamentalist bluster than at any time since the early twentieth century. It is instructive to see how this latter-day crusade has devel- mise keepers”) use philosophical legerdemain not only to make oped. The new anti-evolution campaign’s opening gambit was “sci- room for God among the foundations of science, but to make entific creationism,” essentially an effort to portray large parts of Him seem necessary there. If the deity thus “justified” falls short of Genesis as “science,” accompanied by the demand that “creation the attributes most Christians associate with their God, that is a science” be taught side-by-side with evolution in public schools. price the premise keepers are apparently willing to pay in order Scientific creationism generated immense controversy during the to retain the supernatural in any form as a part of their cosmic 1980s, but its essentially religious thrust became transparently outlook. obvious to the courts. Still, the creationist impulse remains, and All of these theories have their weaknesses—fatal ones, from continues to inform today’s more subtle anti-evolution strategies. the secular humanist standpoint. For example, fine-tuning argu- Evolution opponents recognized that they must cloak their ments are vulnerable on two fronts. One can suggest that ours religious motives more artfully. Since the 1990s they have spent is merely one of a huge, perhaps infinite, number of parallel less energy arguing that “Let there be light” belongs in classrooms universes. The fact that our universe is perfectly configured to alongside the Big Bang. Instead they advance more complex argu- encourage the rise of our sort of life is less remarkable if it is one ments that at least appear to wear the mantle of science with less among trillions. On the other hand, one can simply observe that, palpable discomfort. if our universe had been configured other than as it was, then we Intelligent design (ID) theorists argue that some phenomena simply wouldn’t be around to wonder at it. Perhaps other kinds of in nature—especially those associated with life and intelligence— life suited to the conditions of that universe might arise, but not are too “irreducibly complex” to have arisen by natural selection. us—and on the long view, so what? From this perspective, even if Instead, advocates claim, they show clear evidence of having been the foundations of existence are as delicately balanced as fine-tun- designed by some higher intelligence. ID activists generally take ers claim, the implications are not at all profound. In fact, they’re care not to specify what intelligence they have in mind, but one simply trivial. can’t help noticing that the biblical Yahweh would handily fill their In this special section, three authors critically examine the requirements. principal “winds” of contemporary anti-evolutionism. Evolutionary “Fine tuning” theorists make a similar argument, based on biologist and FI columnist Massimo Pigliucci probes the shortcom- cosmology, not biology. They look at the deep-seated physical ings of creationism—and the weaknesses in the self-presentation of constants that define the nature of Nature and claim to find rela- science that creationists consistently exploit. Psychologist Mark R. tionships too delicate and too intricately matched to have arisen Seely probes the rhetoric of ID and the psychology that underlies it. by coincidence. And physicist Victor Stenger explores the sophisticated philosoph- Yet others (theorists whom Victor Stenger describes as “the pre- ical tactics of the “premise keepers,” asking whether their subtle attempts to find the deist’s god in the universe, if not the God of Genesis, are actually self-defeating.

Tom Flynn is editor of Free Inquiry.

31 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 Creationism Vs. The twin dangers of religious and scientific fundamentalism Scientism Massimo Pigliucci

hroughout the twentieth century there has been an ongoing battle for the minds of Americans. This battle, which doesn’t seem “First, American society is to be nearing an end at the dawn of the twenty-first century, sees Christian religious fundamentalism pitted against plagued by a variety of forms of modern evolutionary biology.1 I see four causes of the evolu- anti-intellectualism.” tion-creation “controversy.” First, American society is plagued by a variety of forms of anti-intellectualism. Second, some scientists have a tendency to slide into the ideology of scientism also readily accept hierarchies, but mostly based on power, when talking to the public. Third, we are doing a poor job in money, or sports achievements). science education. And fourth, we haven’t incorporated into Third is “unreflective instrumentalism,” the concept that our teaching novel insights into how the brain works. thought has no value unless it is of practical importance, which yields a disdain for theoretical inquiry and for intellectual A Tale of Two Evils: pursuit for its own sake. This attitude is rooted in rampant Anti-Intellectualism and Scientism capitalism, where an odd combination of the Protestant work The first component of the problem is reducible to a wide- ethic and material success are more esteemed than esoterica. spread anti-intellectual sentiment that characterizes the Fourth there is “unreflective hedonism,” that is to say, to American public at large (in contrast, for example, with the think requires hard work, so why bother? The mass media and situation in most European countries). The roots of anti-in- entertainment industries are the chief catalysts of this kind tellectualism in America run deep and have been the object of of attitude. Most news media essentially provide “pre-inter- several studies. The following summary is an elaboration on preted” information, discouraging independent and complex the work of Richard Hofstadter.2 thinking and making use instead of superficial sound bites. There are essentially five forms of anti-intellectualism, To paraphrase Neil Postman,3 we are a nation that is amusing which I shall briefly discuss in turn. The first is “anti-rational- itself to death. ism.” This is connected to religious fundamentalism, and it is Finally, we have that recent and very special form of anti-in- the idea that reason is cold and dull, and that skeptical inquiry tellectualism known as “postmodernism” or “deconstruction- threatens authority (usually, of the Church). At the base of ism,” recently imported from France, chiefly, with its American this kind of anti-intellectualism is a fear of moral relativism, exponents pushing it far beyond its original scope. This is the which in turn is really the fear that one’s absolute morals are idea that all knowledge is relative, that different cultural tra- no better than anyone else’s. ditions are equivalent, and that therefore science should not The second is “anti-elitism,” the idea that intellectual activ- enjoy any privileged status as a particularly effective method of ity is undemocratic. This is a populist political ideology, rooted inquiry. The bizarre thing about this type of anti-intellectualism in the American concept of democracy, which is much broader is that it originates from within academia, being pushed by the than the European one. In Europe, people living in democra- so-called academic Left, and flourishing within humanities and cies have little problem accepting the idea of intellectual hier- social sciences departments throughout the country. Perhaps archies based on knowledge and skill (notice that Americans the best critique of postmodernism ever published was the hoax perpetrated by physicist Alan Sokal in 1996.4 He managed to get Massimo Pigliucci is associate professor of evolution- a paper entitled “Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of ary biology at the University of Tennessee. He is the author Quantum Gravity” into a major postmodernist journal, Social of Tales of the Rational: Skeptical Essays About Nature Text. The problem was that Sokal had made up the entire man- and Science. Most of his ramblings can be found at www. uscript out of a senseless sequence of phrases spiced up with rationallyspeaking.org. impressive-sounding terms borrowed from mathematical the-

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 32 INHERIT MORE WIND: DARWIN DISCORD DEEPENS

ory and quantum mechanics. While a social critique of science is absolutely necessary because science is a human and therefore social activity, the problem with postmodernists seems to be that they literally don’t know what they are talking about. “Second, some scientists have a The second component aggravating the creation-evolution tendency to slide into the ideology of controversy, in my judgment, is the attitude that at least some scientists take when it comes to popularizing their findings and scientism when talking to the public.” the field of scientific inquiry in general. The word scientism has been used to refer to two different frames of mind, one of which is in my opinion correct. The other implies a degree of intellec- illustration in creationist booklets is a tree showing evolution tual arrogance that is unwarranted and dangerous. Scientism as directly causing all sorts of “evils,” from abortion to sex can be the idea that science is the most powerful method at our education, from hard rock to genetic engineering. The logic disposal to inquire about reality. I think this is eminently sensi- of such comparison is, of course, flawed. While evolutionary ble and clearly demonstrated by the innumerable achievements theory, especially in the guise of “social Darwinism,” can be of science that no other approach to knowledge has been able (and has been) invoked to justify all sorts of bizarre social to approximate even remotely. On the other hand, scientists and political ideologies, the link is tenuous at best. In fact, can succumb to an overreaching attitude characterized by philosopher Peter Singer has argued for a liberal and ethical too much confidence in what science can do. Scientism in this life based on the fact that humans evolved as social animals.5 second sense is rightly perceived as an arrogant stance, one On similar grounds, one would want to condemn genetics that betrays the very ideals of humble inquiry and awe before simply because Hitler wished to implement a eugenics pro- nature that characterize science at its best. gram, or abolish the study of physics because we built the Scientists should be the first to clearly explain to students atomic bomb. While scientists are certainly not exempt from and the public what science is and what premises it is based moral choices and the responsibilities that come with them, on. For example, the practice of science is built on several fun- science as an enterprise is indeed morally neutral (amoral, damental philosophical assumptions and axioms: realism, the not immoral). We wish to know about the structure of the idea that there is a unique and consistent reality “out there”; atom, and such knowledge is not good or bad per se. It is up naturalism, the supposition that the universe can be explained to humans (and usually politicians, the military, and religious entirely in terms of natural phenomena; Occam’s Razor, authorities more than scientists) to decide what to do with the idea that one should attempt to explain phenomena by that knowledge. As a related point, notice that most of the avoiding use of superfluous hypotheses; and Hume’s dictum, evils attributed to evolution have actually been around since a fundamental component of skepticism that requires extraor- well before Darwin and, therefore, cannot logically be blamed dinary evidence for extraordinary claims (i.e., a sliding scale on evolutionary theory. Others, such as sex education, moral of stringency commensurate to the novelty of the phenomena education, and humanism are hardly to be considered “evils.” being studied). Realism and naturalism are, of course, leaps of A second common creationist misconception is that evolu- faith, but very small ones compared to those required by any tion is a theory in crisis. Of course there are plenty of areas of religion or other method of inquiry proposed so far. active research in evolutionary biology, and there consequent- Scientists are often accused of arrogance and intellectual ly is disagreement among scientists on many specific topics. snobbism. Alas, the accusation is sometimes justified. While it This, however, does not constitute a crisis. The major (unwill- is true that we value intellectual achievement over other kinds ing) culprit here is the late Harvard paleontologist Stephen of efforts, and an argument can be made for the importance Jay Gould, who together with Niles Eldredge in 1972 proposed of brainpower in our society, there are at least three other the theory of punctuated equilibria.6 According to this theory, considerations. First, no society composed solely of intellec- evolution may occur rapidly around the time of origination of tuals would be able to function. Second, intellectualism is still new species (punctuation). After that, not much happens for a human—not a universal—value: there is no cosmic reason most of the time (equilibrium). While it is true that this theory why intellectual pursuits should be considered more import- has stirred much controversy and very fecund new lines of ant than any other activity. Third, let us not forget that the inquiry, not even Gould himself considered it a challenge to results of science are not always benign: witness the atomic Darwinism, so it is not clear why the creationists would. Notice bomb and nuclear proliferation. All of this should sober any that the “sudden” changes theorized by Gould and Eldredge thought of intrinsic superiority that scientists might harbor. do not happen overnight but during the course of hundreds of thousands of years. They appear instantaneous only from a A Few Of Creationists’ Greatest geological perspective. It is in the nature of science to proceed Mistakes by continuous open discussion of new ideas. This does not Let us proceed to look at some of the major logical fallacies mean that every time there is a disagreement we are about to of creationism. This is not intended as a laundry list (which witness a revolution. would have to be much longer) but as an illustration of the con- Creationists also love to say that evolution is “just” a theo- ceptual errors embraced by evolution deniers. Certainly one ry, our third misconception. They are using the word theory in of their most widespread and dangerous misunderstandings its vernacular (and diminutive) sense of a guess, a half-baked is the equation between evolution and immorality. A recurring idea. In science, however, theories are complex and well

33 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 First Stone Let me now turn to some faux pas that scientists make when “Most of the evils attributed to confronting creationists. Again, this is not an exhaustive list, but simply a series of points I wish some of my colleagues and evolution have actually been around fellow skeptics would consider more carefully. One of the spe- since well before Darwin and . . . cific cases that evolutionary biologists tend to overstate when confronted by creationists is the one concerning macroevo- cannot logically be blamed on lution. This is usually defined as evolution above the species evolutionary theory.” level, and it deals with major transitions between types of organisms. It is true that biologists are starting to understand at least some macroevolutionary events, for example, the evolution of whales from terrestrial ancestors. However, substantiated explanatory models of major aspects of nature. having found a remarkable series of intermediate fossils in That does not guarantee that they are correct, but it means the right place in the geological column still tells us very little that we cannot dismiss them by shrugging our shoulders at about how these transitions actually occur. We do not have a them. It is peculiar that nobody refers to the Copernican or good knowledge of the genetics of cetaceans, for example, and relativity theories as “just” theories. we understand even less about their developmental systems, When I say to creationists (and even to some of my friends the very ones that had to be altered in order to produce the and colleagues) that education is not a democratic process, I changes that led from terrestrial to marine mammals. Once sense that I hit a sore spot—which is the reflection of a fourth again, there is no contradiction between this limited knowl- fallacy. By undemocratic I mean that education is not about edge and the theory of evolution, but we do not know even teaching alternative opinions for the sake of variety or repre- close to what we would like (and sometimes pretend) to know sentation. It is about teaching the best of what we currently on such matters. know. The fact that what we now know may turn out to be A favorite topic of creationists is the origin of life, which wrong is just in the nature of things. We will change what is they ascribe to miraculous intervention and consider inex- taught if and when we know better. plicable by scientific means. Scientists tend to fall into old It is interesting to me that American parents do not seem clichés when they respond to this challenge, citing the famous to think twice before questioning what teachers teach their experiments on the so-called primordial soup conducted by children, as if they knew better. Since teachers are (suppos- Stanley Miller in the 1950s.8 Miller’s demonstration that some edly) trained for that specific job, it would be like advising a of the building blocks of living organisms can be obtained by brain surgeon on how to cut your brain if you have no degree completely chemical means if given the right conditions was in medicine! But the idea of “equal teaching” somehow strongly indubitably historically important. But it is a far cry from appeals to the American ideal of fairness. After all, what is saying that we know much about the origin of life. We actually wrong with teaching alternative theories if they are out there? don’t, despite plenty of theories on the subject.9 For one thing, The problem is that such practice is very much unfair to our most scientists now think that the conditions used by Miller children, unless the two theories are genuine alternatives being did not accurately reflect those on the primordial Earth, and considered by the scientific community. We do not teach “cre- new theories (one of which has been dubbed the “primordial ation science” (an obvious oxymoron) for the same reason that pizza”) suggest that life did not originate in an aqueous envi- we do not teach that the Earth could be round or flat, or that ronment but on solid substrates. our planet may be traveling around the Sun or vice versa. We This state of affairs is not surprising given that life originat- do not teach all these things (or creationism) because we know ed about four billion years ago under conditions that are diffi- better. Not doing so would be a great disservice to our children. cult to exactly define and that the process probably took several A recent argument advanced by some creationists is that million years. It is not only honest to admit this with creation- science is just another religion, and so it deserves no special ists; it is necessary, since they usually do their homework and status in our educational system: this is the fifth fallacy. This they will nail any biologist who tries to “bluff” his or her way out is an interesting twist, because so far creationist strategy has of the topic. Instead, we should point out that this is an exciting implied the opposite: that creationism is science, and there- field for young biologists to get into. For one thing, they can rest fore it needs to be taught in public schools. The latter is still assured that, should they make any major contribution to it, a the position maintained by the Institute for Creation Science. very well-deserved Nobel Prize would soon follow. Lawyer Phillip Johnson, on the other hand, has published Creationist arguments span the whole of science, not just several books charging that science is a philosophical position biology, and that is why they find some scientists unprepared. much closer to religion than its practitioners would like to An evolutionist does not necessarily know much about the Big admit.7 Yet, even a cursory analysis of the two reveals them as Bang, in the same way in which a cosmologist may be at a loss distinct from one other as one can possibly imagine. Just com- discussing the theory of natural selection. One of the classical pare teaching on authority vs. critical thinking, or knowledge challenges posed by creationists is based on the anthropic by revelation vs. the use of the hypothetical-deductive method principle (AP), which (in one of its many versions) is the idea and empirical data. that the universe is so finely tuned to sustain life that it must Let He Who Is Without Sin Cast the have been designed.10 The AP is flawed in many respects.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 34 INHERIT MORE WIND: DARWIN DISCORD DEEPENS

For example, it reaches conclusions based on the statistical improbability of the known set of physical constants while we only have one universe to study and don’t know how improb- “Realism and naturalism are, of course, able the values of such constants really are (i.e., AP theorists are basing their conclusions on a sample size of one, a no-no leaps of faith, but very small ones for any statistician). However, it is true that physics is only compared to those required by any now beginning to understand (with superstring theory, which represents a possible reconciliation of quantum mechanics religion or other method of inquiry and relativity theory11) why the elementary particles have the characteristics that they have. Once again, science is an ongo- proposed so far.” ing series of challenges, and our ignorance justifies neither supernatural nonsense nor intellectual arrogance. reality, our brains seem to be hardwired to skip the defer-col- Of course, it is easy enough for creationists to point out that lect evidence stage of the process and jump to conclusions. science has had its share of frauds and hoaxes, the famous While this—ironically—is very much an evolutionary phenom- Piltdown man (an alleged link between humans and chimps) enon (in the environment of our ancestors, there was no time being the most celebrated one, though more recent examples for in-depth studies, and fast decisions may have often made abound.12 Piltdown man turned out to be the jaw of an orang- the difference between life and death), it is no wonder that the utan combined with a human skull. It is indeed important for teacher’s battle is uphill from the beginning. scientists to acknowledge these occurrences and furthermore Scientists and educators should also take heart in and to use them as lessons to avoid similar mistakes or embarrass- advantage of the most recent discoveries concerning the ments in the future. Such hoaxes provide plenty of interesting physiology of the human brain.14 Studies of patients with split material to other researchers, such as psychologists and brains have allowed us to begin to understand the functions sociologists, not to mention philosophers of science. However, and relative roles of different parts of our thinking organ. The it is also good to point out that it is exactly the self-correcting, left hemisphere, usually referred to as the “rational” side, is peer-reviewed process on which science is based that uncov- actually the rationalizing one, what neurobiologists call “the ers the problem: even hoaxes and frauds can be used to illus- left interpreter.”15 It is in charge of holding onto one person’s trate how the scientific process works at its best. current paradigm and worldview, no matter what the evidence. Teaching Good Science By The left brain will distort or discard facts if they conflict with the currently held viewpoint (sound like anybody you know?). Understanding In fact, the left brain can literally make up stories if the the Brain evidence is scarce or contradictory. A typical experiment with The most important remedy to the sorry state of affairs outlined a patient characterized by a complete severance of the corpus above is to teach good science; to the public, to teachers, and callosum (which connects the two hemispheres in normal indi- to scientists themselves. This means to convey the idea that viduals) will make the point nicely. The subject was shown a science is an open-ended inquiry, not an exercise in magic in chicken leg visible only to the right half of the visual field (which which only experts can engage. Science is above all a process, is controlled by the left brain) and was asked to pick a corre- a method for finding things out, not simply a body of knowledge. sponding object. Logically enough, he picked a chicken head. Therefore, that body of knowledge can change, and this change The patient’s left field (controlled by the right brain) was then represents a natural component of scientific progress. shown a house with snow and, also logically, chose a shovel. Some advances in the teaching of science have been made. The individual was finally asked to explain why he picked a For example, recent years have seen a lot of emphasis on chicken head and a shovel. Notice that there was no communi- hands-on education in the classroom. This is indeed import- cation between the two hemispheres, and that the only hemi- ant, because science is about doing things with nature, and sphere that can respond verbally is the left one. Astonishingly, one of the most effective ways to learn something is to actually the left “interpreter” hemisphere made up a story (a theory) to do it. But in practice this is too often accompanied by a “minds explain the facts while being ignorant of half of them: the shovel off” attitude. Science requires serious intellectual exercise; it was necessary to clean the chicken excrement! is interesting, but it is not “fun, fun, fun.”13 We have to train These findings notwithstanding, people do change their our children to pay attention, to pause and reflect on what minds from time to time, and this is accomplished by an they are doing. Otherwise, scientific education will change interaction between the left and the right brain. The right from a dry theoretical exercise to an equally empty messing hemisphere continuously feeds (sometimes dissonant) infor- around with the microscope. mation to the other side. If the degree of dissonance reaches a Perhaps the major objective of teaching is to improve the threshold (which is presumably different for different individu- student’s ability to exercise critical thinking. Yet, critical als) one experiences a “Gestaltian” change: the abandonment thinking does not come naturally to human beings, and we of one viewpoint in favor of another. I hope every reader has as educators should take this into consideration. Ideally, we experienced this at least once in his or her life. This knowl- would like people to study a subject, form some kind of prelim- edge of brain physiology allows us to better understand how inary understanding of it, defer judgment until they can collect people’s minds work and to direct our efforts more toward or assess evidence, and finally come to an informed belief. In raising doubts and asking critical questions—to stimulate the

35 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 and honestly educate each other about the best that science has to offer. Anthropic principle theorists draw conclusions about the universe based on a sample size of one, a no-no for any statistician. Notes 1. Massimo Pigliucci, “A Review of W.A. Dembski’s The Design Inference,” in Chance, Necessity, and the New Holy War Against Science (2000): pp. 79–81 right brain—than to simply give long, convoluted lectures that 2. Richard Hofstadter, Anti-intellectualism in American Life (Westminster, Md.: Knopf, 1963). tend to be twisted or ignored by the left interpreter. 3. Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death (Ashland, Ore.: Another interesting finding of recent research on brains Blackstone, 1994). and learning that skeptics and teachers should take advan- 4. Lingua Franca, eds., The Sokal Hoax: the Sham that Shook tage of is the so-called pyramid of learning (for more infor- the Academy (Carencro, La.: Bison Books, 2000). mation, check the Institute for Applied Behavioral Science at 5. Peter Singer, A Darwinian Left: Politics, Evolution and Cooperation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999). http://www.ntl.org/). It turns out that different approaches to 6. Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould, “Punctuated learning are successful to a widely different degree. On aver- Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism,” in Models age, people retain 10 percent of what they read, 20 percent of in Paleobiology, edited by T.J.M. Schopf (San Francisco, Calif.: what they hear, 30 percent of what they see, 50 percent of what Freeman, Cooper and Co., 1972), pp. 82–115. 7. Philip Johnson, Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds they both see and hear, 70 percent of what they discuss with (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1997), pp. 82–115. others, 80 percent of what they experience personally, and 90 8. Stanley L. Miller, “A Production of Amino Acids Under percent of what they teach to someone else. The implications Possible Primitive Earth Conditions,” Science 117 (1953): 528–29. for our teaching methods are immediately obvious. 9. Massimo Pigliucci, “Where Do We Come From? We Still Have Few Clues to the Origin of Life,” Skeptical Inquirer Sept.- Of course, if everything else fails, one can always retreat to Oct. (1999): 21–27. the constitutionally sanctioned separation of state and church 10. Steven Weinberg, “A Designer Universe?” New York and deny the equal teaching of creationism on legal grounds. Times Review of Books, October 21, 1999. However, this must be considered the last and least appealing 11. Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory (New York, N.Y.: option. It is far better if people understand why creationism is W.W. Norton & Co., 1999). not a viable idea rather than be grudgingly forced to officially 12. Judith Newman, “Twenty of the Greatest Blunders in ignore it. To seek shelter behind the law is also dangerous Science in the Last Twenty Years,” Discover 21, no. 10 (October because laws can be changed, and, if we neglect to educate the 2000): 78–83. people, the day will soon come when the Christian Right will 13. Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder (Boston, Mass.: Houghton have enough votes to alter the Constitution. That is why a sim- Mifflin Co., 1998), pp. 22–24. ple defensive action on the part of scientists and educators is 14. Eric Jensen, Teaching with the Brain in Mind (Alexandria, not enough. As any sports fan will tell you, if you keep defend- Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, ing yourself without attacking, sooner or later the other team 1998). 15. Michael S. Gazzaniga, “Cerebral Specialization and Inter will score, no matter how good your defense is. So, please let hemispheric Communication,” Brain 123 (2000): 1293–1326. us make a concerted effort to pursue free inquiry and actively

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DNA, Intelligent Design What makes ID so intuitively appealing? and Misleading Metaphors Mark R. Seely

s our tools of exploration become more sophisticated, a correspondingly sophisti- “The very nature of the scientific enterprise cated level of complexity emerges in the objects being explored. The Hubble Space Telescope shows us ensures that our knowledge of the facts . . . a universe far more active than originally suspected, populat- will always run slightly ahead of our ability ed with phenomena that rival the best of science fiction. The recent mapping of the human genome has yielded a blueprint to account for them.” for the stuff of life that is enormously complex. This, along with the recent fruits of scientific pursuits in areas as diverse ing for its presence and structure through reference to well- as particle physics, paleontology, and neuroscience, has led to known natural forces: volcanic action, erosion, etc. But were I to an enhanced recognition of the complex order of the natural stumble across a watch, even if I knew nothing of watches, the world. In fact, the organization that is being revealed is so structure of its workings would force me to conclude that it was intricate that a few scientists are beginning to believe that it an artifact intelligently designed and created for some purpose. is, well, just not natural. It would be impossible for the chance operations of natural These scientists claim that, as our knowledge of the natural forces to first create and then assemble the complex array of world increases, it grows increasingly difficult to account for the natural world using naturalistic mechanisms. They think it improbable that a universe such as ours could be an accidental by-product of natural processes. In the words of biochemist Michael Behe, an “irreducible complexity” at the molecular level defies naturalistic explanation. This level of complexity and interdependence, the argument continues, suggests intelligent design. The purposeless mechanism of natural selection is not sufficient to explain the living world, and it seems very unlikely that something as elaborately wrought as DNA could have an ancestor that came into being as a result of a sequence of fortuitous collisions among protein molecules. The alternative is that the organization of things is not fortuitous, but the result of some kind of grand plan: life didn’t just happen willy-nilly, but was designed to be as it is. A new permutation of the idea of intelligent design, one that claims to be noncommittal regarding any kind of religious view, is becoming increasingly popular. But it is by no means a new idea; in gears and fact, it is at least as old as Plato. Perhaps its best- springs so known version comes from the late eighteenth century: that they William Paley’s watchmaker analogy. Briefly, if I found a worked rock lying on the ground, I would have no problem account- together with Mark R. Seely is an associate professor of psychology at such preci- Saint Joseph’s College, Indiana. sion. But if we look closely at

37 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 the natural world, we find systems of interaction, interrelation, as true in Paley’s day as in our own. Yes, our awareness of the and interdependence no less complex than the internal work- complexity of the world has greatly increased, but so has the ings of a watch. The wing of a bird, the human eye, the food complexity of the mechanisms that we postulate as explana- chain, the regular progression of the seasons—these things are tions. The very nature of the scientific enterprise ensures that surely the result of a creative intelligence. our knowledge of the facts, our awareness of the observable Even before Paley published his watch analogy, David details, will always run slightly ahead of our ability to account Hume had already developed a fairly thoroughgoing critique of for them. Empirical science first details the phenomena of interest, then tries to understand the mechanisms behind the phenomena. Recently, there has been a dramatic increase in our knowledge of some of the details; the lenses through which “Perhaps the modern resurgence of the we are able to observe the natural world provide us with a idea of intelligent design reflects a dizzying level of acuity. As a result, some of our long-functional explanatory mechanisms, at least in their present form, may simple failure to distinguish the target appear to be no longer entirely sufficient. But that does not mean that we are forced to concede intelligent design. What from the metaphoric vehicle.” it means is that the theorists have to hunker down and get to work on revisions. This is the way science has always worked. So the first part of Hume’s critique—the suggestion that any universe will appear designed, whether it was or not— the design argument.2 According to Hume, first of all, the uni- still applies. The second, however—the suggestion that the verse—any universe that consists of a collection of interacting machine metaphor is weak—may have been weakened itself, and interdependent parts, that is, any universe at all—will by the sheer productivity of our modern metaphors. The appear as if it were designed. The addition of natural selec- machine metaphor is at best a rough analogy: the world really tion to Hume’s suggestion makes it clear that complex inter- isn’t very much like a machine. But DNA is very much like a relations among constituent parts of a universe can develop kind of code. Because of this, the modern version of the design through time, and that the conciseness of fit among the parts— argument is potentially more appealing than was the machine for example, a bird whose beak is adapted precisely to fit the version of Hume’s time. shape of the flower from which it typically feeds, along with the In the modern version of the design argument, God is not flower that is shaped and colored to attract a particular kind a mechanic but a sophisticated computer programmer. DNA of bird—can suggest a pre-planned arrangement even though is like a computer code; life is what happens as this code is no such arrangement exists. Hume also suggested that the compiled in an organic system and executed within the envi- machine analogy itself was a weak one. The natural world is ronment for which it was designed. The danger in all of this not very much like a machine. The kinds of relationships found has to do with the temptation to take the metaphor too literally. in the natural world are typically not as clearly defined as the In Hume’s time, you didn’t have to be a watchmaker or know relations among the gears of a timepiece (though recently we exactly how the internal workings of a watch functioned in have found many that are this precise, and more). The kinds order to understand what kind of a thing a watch was, and of relationships found among constituents of the natural world you didn’t have to be a botanist in order to understand that are more in line with the relationships among the internal a plant was a thing of a different kind. But very few people structures of living organisms than those found in human arti- today understand the biochemistry behind DNA (or the phys- facts. Further, the analogy between the relationships among ics behind a black hole, the mountain-building effects of plate constituents of the natural world and the relationships among tectonics, etc.). Perhaps the majority—including many scien- the organs of a living creature cannot be used to support the tists—think DNA really is a kind of code. Popular descriptions intelligent design of the natural world in any case, because of DNA have included the terms blueprint and code so frequently living creatures are themselves part of the world’s organiza- that many have started seriously to assume the necessary tion that we are trying to account for in the first place. Finally, existence of a grand architect or cryptographer. Perhaps the Hume pointed out that even if the universe is patterned after modern resurgence of the idea of intelligent design reflects a an intelligent design—and is hence the product of an intelligent simple failure to distinguish the target from the metaphoric designer—that still provides no evidence of anything remotely vehicle, a failure to recognize that when we call DNA a kind of resembling the wise and good Christian God. (In Hume’s time, code we simply employ a highly functional analogy. and perhaps no less so in my own, most of those promoting the Design, of course, implies a designer. But more than that, idea of intelligent design have had a specific religious agenda design implies purpose. One of the things the materialist and a particular designer in mind.) explanations promoted by science surely lack is purpose. On How does Hume’s critique apply to the modern permutation the naturalistic view the universe has no purpose, it just hap- of the intelligent design argument, an argument now armed pened. There was a big bang, perhaps, and things just sorted with modern biochemistry and astrophysics? Proponents of themselves out the way that they did because of universal laws intelligent design claim that the complexity of the world and having to do with gravity and time and space. If you want to the number and subtlety of the adaptations among its constitu- know the “why” of things, you simply look to the “what” and ent parts outstrip anything that could possibly result from the the “how” of things. An adequate explanation in science is functioning of dumb naturalistic mechanisms. But this seemed merely a description formulated at a certain level of mecha-

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nistic (or probabilistic) detail; all questions in science, even antithesis of pantheism, but scientific explanation and discus- the ones that start out as “why” questions, ultimately reduce sion make extensive use of anthropomorphism: we say that the to “what” and “how” questions. actions of matter are governed by certain forces; quarks participate The ultimate reason for things is something about which in holding the nucleus together; electrons behave like both a par- science remains forever mute. According to science, nature ticle and a wave; tectonic plates join and separate in a constant doesn’t need any ultimate purpose. The lack of purpose, how- dance; the river carries sediment downstream; each body organ ever, can be a difficult thing for some of us to accept; we are, performs a specific job; prefrontal brain areas direct and control after all, purposeful, goal-directed creatures. The nature of motor activity. Thus, the idea of intelligent design might be, at our bias toward goal pursuit can lead us to act as if there were least partially, a result of the application of anthropomorphic an ultimate reason for things. Consider that we do not pursue thinking to the complex details of the natural world. our goals in a simple linear fashion, one after another; rath- “What is the purpose of the universe?” is a meaningless er, our goals are hierarchically structured. Our higher-order question according to the scientific worldview, but thinking goals require the formation and successful pursuit of numer- about the phenomena of the natural world in terms of inten- ous subgoals. In this way our nontrivial activity is directed at tional action and intelligently directed purpose, even when achieving goals that are not ends in themselves, but means to we are aware that our anthropomorphic metaphors are not even greater ends. A student studying for an exam, for exam- literally true, can disguise the question’s absurdity. ple, has the proximal goal of performing well on the exam. But It is unlikely that we will ever fully grasp our situation. performing well on the exam is not the ultimate end to which It may be in principle impossible to gain anything remotely his or her studying behavior is directed; it is a means to the resembling an accurate rendition of some true state of affairs end of getting a good grade in the class, which is a means to in the universe. For one thing, we are part of that universe, the end of graduating with a high GPA, which is a means for we represent but a small subset of the complexity of the world getting into graduate school, which is a means for getting a around us, and our conceptual apparatus functions according graduate degree, which is a means for getting a certain kind to some of the very operations it is trying to adduce. Our situ- of job, which is a means for. . . . ation is analogous to trying to see directly what our own eyes On the other hand, if the universe has no purpose, it is look like. As philosopher of science Hilary Putnam reminds us, easy to conclude that then our presence in the universe has we simply cannot get outside of our own skin.3 no purpose. If our lives have no ultimate purpose, then even The frustration produced by a powerful desire to know, our most worthy pursuits can’t be directed at any ultimate coupled with an epistemic situation that ensures the opacity of end. The lack of ultimate purpose at the upper end of the goal certain domains of knowledge, adds to the allure of the idea of hierarchy can filter down to our daily activities and lead to an intelligent design. Moreover, this idea brings with it the security existential crisis. But if the universe is designed, then it is easy of an implied ultimate purpose. Hume’s criticism of the design to conclude that we must be here for a reason—there must be argument, however, still applies today. The world is a more some ultimate purpose external to us. It is not necessary that complicated place now than it was two hundred years ago, we have any understanding of what this ultimate purpose is in and the complexity of our metaphors has likewise increased. order to avert an existential crisis; the mere fact that we believe Chances are the world will be even more complex two hundred one exists is sufficient. This state of affairs can serve to bias years hence, and it will be just as difficult to generate service- even the most objective evaluation of the necessity of intelligent able naturalistic explanations then, just as tempting to shrug design. our shoulders and say, “God did it.” But complexity does not Our goal-directed natures may enhance the appeal of mean intentionality. Adding a penetrating intelligence to the intelligent design in other ways as well. For example, because fabric of the universe is not necessary to account for the com- humans are purposeful beings, understanding the actions plexity that is revealed by our technologically sophisticated of others is typically a matter of discovering the purposes to observations, nor does not solve the problem of the universe’s which these actions are directed. Much of our social interaction existence. It merely compounds the mystery. If we allow that the involves consciously or unconsciously analyzing the motives universe or any component of the natural world was intelligent- and intentions of those around us—and we are very good at ly designed, then we not only have the nature of the design itself it; we evolved as social creatures. When we turn our attention to untangle, but we have the nature of the designing intelligence away from the social world toward the phenomena of nature, to account for as well. it only makes sense to use the conceptual tools that we can wield most effectively, namely, those tools we have acquired to deal with intentional behavior in the social world. The fact that these tools are frequently inappropriate may go unnoticed. Children and people in primitive societies live in a panthe- istic world: the objects of nature are thought to have their own Notes essences and often even minds of their own. Natural phenomena 1. Michael Behe, Darwin’s Black Box (Simon & Schuster, 1996). such as wind, rain, the change of seasons, and the movement of 2. David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (London: heavenly bodies are understood as manifestations of purposeful 1779). 3. Hilary Putnam, Representation and Reality (Cambridge: MIT behavior by intentional entities. But pantheism is perhaps only Press, 1988). a natural consequence of anthropomorphism—the metaphoric use of what we know best: us. Science is in many respects the

39 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 The Premise Faith in science and God Keepers Victor J. Stenger

huge body of literature now exists in which God still asserts creative control in the present world, but authors with strong theological and scientific premise keepers dispute exactly how much control and the credentials argue that traditional religion, mechanism God uses in interacting with the world. The prem- particularly Christianity, can be made consistent with all ise keeper God is also not the pantheist god—some abstract scientific knowledge. This new breed of scientist-theologians Platonic concept of perfection and order. Polkinghorne rejects seeks to retain the fundamental Christian premise of a person- Spinoza’s axiom Deus, sive Natura (God = nature), saying, al, loving, participating creator within a scientific framework. “That was Einstein’s God, but it is certainly not mine.”2 The I will refer to them as the “premise keepers.” God of the premise keepers is the God of the Bible, reinter- The old creationists take the Bible literally and are forced preted to assert his will within the natural laws, randomness, to conclude that much of science is wrong. A new brand of and chaos he purposefully wrote into creation. Whether that creationists claims that science is incomplete and requires fits the God worshiped by most Jews, Christians, and Muslims an external “intelligent designer” to explain the complexity of is another matter. the universe. By contrast, the premise keepers concede that Polkinghorne sees human experience as encouraging belief established science, built upon a framework of materialism in a divine mind, and in divine purpose behind the history of and naturalism, is empirically and theoretically sound and can the world. He laments: “If cosmic history is no more than the account for complexity by natural means. temporary flourishing of remarkable fruitfulness followed by The premise keepers embrace biological evolution as its subsequent decay and disappearance, then I think Macbeth basically correct, recognizing that what disputes may exist was right and it is indeed a tale told by an idiot.”3 Perhaps it is among evolutionary scientists pose no serious challenge to the just such a tale, whether Polkinghorne likes it or not. overall scheme. While a few premise keepers still trot out the fine-tuning cosmological argument for design in the universe Chaos Theology as a whole, most are willing to admit that modern cosmology Modern science has left theology in a quandary. The universe may be able to provide a viable model for a nonmiraculous ori- revealed by science shows humanity as an infinitesimal speck gin of the universe. And, while they disagree on many details, in space and time with random chance as an important factor more theological than scientific, the premise keepers general- affecting events.4 Where can God exert his influence in such a ly view God as not so much interfering with natural processes, universe? including chance, as working within them. As particle physi- As far as we know from current science, the development cist, Anglican priest, and 2002 Templeton Prize winner John of macroscopic complex systems, most notably the structures Polkinghorne puts it, God does not work against the laws of of living organisms, arises by processes of self-organization nature because “that would be for God to act against God.”1 and natural selection that include a large element of chance. Still, one can only wonder how much of Christianity remains At most, natural laws only place broad limits upon what can after its miracles are extracted. develop. Our present best guess is that the behaviors of mac- The God of the premise keepers is not the Enlightenment roscopic systems are emergent phenomena that result from a deist god who set things in place at the creation and has since blend of chance and constraint. Start them up again and they left us alone to live out his perfectly conceived divine plan. will not develop the same way because of the role of chance in randomly selecting the particular path out of many possi- Victor J. Stenger is emeritus professor of physics and astronomy ble paths a system will follow as it develops with time. This at the University of Hawaii and adjunct professor of philosophy includes, but is not limited to, the evolution of life and humani- at the University of Colorado. This article is based on a chapter in ty—making it quite a theological challenge to find any purpose the author’s latest book, Has Science Found God?: The Latest in it all without restoring determinism, natural or divine. Results in the Search for Purpose in the Universe (Prometheus Many theists see the very existence of chance as a grave Books, 2003). threat to their faith.5 The premise keepers take the opposite

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damental physical principles, reductionistic or holistic, were either hypothesized or uncovered in the process. One premise keeper argues that God would This is not to say that everything is predictable from elementary particle theory. As already noted, chance plays such never work against his own laws an important role in all physical phenomena that such predict- of nature. One wonders how much of ability is not to be expected. Christianity remains after its miracles Quantum Theology are extracted. Nancey Murphy and other theologians have raised objections to the use of classical chaos as a medium for God’s action.8 She notes that chaos is based on Newtonian mechanics and thus still a deterministic theory leaving no room for God’s action. view; they look to chance as just the place where God asserts However, quantum mechanics can ride to the rescue. his will. Polkinghorne and 2001 Templeton Prize winner, What I will operationally define as true randomness in an biochemist, and fellow Anglican priest Arthur Peacocke have otherwise deterministic chaotic system can come about when urged that interpretation. They think they have found room for the Heisenberg uncertainty principle prevents the initial vari- God to act within the framework of chaos theory.6 ables of the system from being measured with sufficient accu- The defining characteristic of chaotic systems is their racy for the evolution of the system to be predictably repeated. extreme sensitivity to initial conditions, which results in their In this way, the motion of a particle that is part of a chaotic appearing to behave unpredictably. This is known as the “but- system becomes intrinsically unpredictable even though the terfly effect” in which, metaphorically, the flap of a butterfly’s system itself is classically deterministic. wings might affect the weather a week or so in the future.7 Murphy argues that “God works within the smallest con- Besides the butterfly effect, chaotic systems exhibit other stituents of macroscopic entities, since these smallest con- interesting properties. Important for our purposes, they can stituents are entities of their own right. If we begin with this remain for some time in a quasi-stable state; but, then, a small hypothesis, it is not necessary—-in fact it is counterproduc- perturbation can drive them to a completely different state. tive—to argue for causal indeterminism at higher levels of The atmosphere is a good example. While the flap of a butter- organization (excluding the human level) since God’s will is fly’s wings probably won’t do it, some small air movement or assumed to be exercised by means of the macro-effects of abrupt temperature change in one place can abruptly drive the subatomic manipulation.9 weather over a large area from a quasi-stable calm state to a As we will see below, one of the major problems for the quasi-stable stormy state. premise keepers is to explain how God assured that humanity, Polkinghorne and Peacocke see chaotic systems as pro- or a reasonable facsimile, evolved consistent with Darwinian viding an opening for God to act in the world without having natural selection. If I interpret Murphy correctly, God could to violate any natural laws, or at least not violating them in have decided just when a potassium (K40) nucleus in the blood any noticeable way, which would have been observed by now. of some early mammal decayed and the beta electron from the Neither visualizes God as selectively injecting huge amounts of decay knocked another electron from an atom in its DNA, thus energy into various places in the universe needing his interven- producing one of the millions of mutations that eventually led tion, thus violently breaking the law of conservation of energy. to the evolution of Homo sapiens sapiens. Rather, in Polkinghorne’s scheme, he injects information. God provides a gentle nudge that moves a complex system along Evolution Theology the path he wishes it to go, taking advantage of the amplifying A number of believing scientists and science-savvy theologians effect of chaos. have woven Darwinism into their metaphysical schemes. They Peacocke’s vision of the role of chaos is different from have taken the apparent role of chance in complex systems to Polkinghorne’s, although Polkinghorne has not explicitly be gaps into which they can insert their God. In this they differ rejected the former’s approach. Peacocke does not imagine from the chaos and quantum theologians, who still envisage God interfering in any specific event but acting on the whole God as interfering with the process, albeit in an undetectable by a process called “top-down causality.” In a trivial example, way. if you rotate a wheel you are causing all the atoms of the wheel Biologist-theist Kenneth Miller is one of the more capa- to move in a circle. Thus Peacock follows modern holistic fash- ble voices defending evolution against the current wave of ion in claiming that that some principles exist that cannot be creationist assaults. He sees creationists as missing a very understood in the traditional scientific reduction of a system important feature of the randomness involved in evolution, to it parts. which they so abhor: In fact, bottom-up explanations for all physical systems, including chaotic ones (and the rotating wheel), are conven- The only alternative to what they describe as randomness tionally made. Reductionism—in which you analyze a system would be a nonrandom universe of clockwork mechanisms that in terms of its parts—does, in fact, recognize that parts can would also rule out active intervention by a supreme Deity. interact, creating unique systems that contain novel and Caught between these two alternatives, they fail to see that the unpredicted properties. The behavior of chaotic systems was one more consistent with their religious beliefs is actually the mainstream scientific view linking evolution with the quantum discovered by completely reductionist methods. No new fun- reality of the physical sciences.10

41 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 Of course, mere consistency with a specific religious belief random genetic variation as a means to explore and discover is not a very powerful argument for that belief. Randomness (in contrast to create) viable pathways and novel lifeforms so that the Creator’s intentions for the formative history of is equally consistent with a religion based on the Tooth Fairy, the Creation might be actualized in the course of time. . . . or no religion at all. The possibility space of viable and historically achievable Chance, or indeterminism, in science rescues theology from lifeforms is an integral aspect of the world that God created at Enlightenment deism. If the Newtonian world machine had not the beginning. Material systems need only employ their God- been dismantled by quantum mechanics, the only place that given functional capacities to discover some of the possibilities thoughtfully prepared for them. God can have acted in the world was at the creation. Miller agrees with physicist and 1999 Templeton Prize winner Ian But Johnson was not buying this. To, him, this “theistic Barbour that “Natural laws and chance may equally be instru- naturalism” is not Christianity. Rather it is science attempting ments of God’s intentions. There can be purpose without an to co-opt the revealed truth with nothing more than an updated 11 exact predetermined plan.” deism: Two kinds of purpose can still be conceived in this context. In one, described above, God asserts his purpose by When “science says” that natural selection can accomplish micro-managing the quantum events that induce the various wonders of creativity, that is the end of the matter. Religion choices on the path a system follows as it develops with time. cannot survive in a naturalistic academic culture if it opposes science, and so religion must accommodate to science on the best terms it can get. Effectively, that means that God must be exiled to that shadowy realm before the Big Bang, and He must promise to do nothing thereafter that might cause trouble between theists and the scientific naturalists. “Polkinghorne and Peacocke see chaotic systems as providing an opening While Johnson obviously wants to pick a fight with atheistic scientists, it seems the critical battle for him is not between for God to act in the world without having religion and science but between different viewpoints within to violate any natural law.” Christianity—between antiscience and pro-science theologies. Perhaps this is why so few atheistic scientists have taken Johnson’s bait; they see nothing of scientific merit to argue with him about. The New Schism In this case, things still come out exactly the way God wants, including the evolution of humanity. This still complements Sharp theological differences exist among the premise keep- the traditional belief that we are special creations, formed in ers and even greater disputes between them and other Christian thinkers. These various internal schisms are more “God’s image,” if not exactly physically, then at least spiritual- formidable than any that may separate them from scientists ly with his personal qualities of love and forgiveness. and bear little resemblance to those that have marked the The second possibility, which one hears from the evolution history of the Church. theologians, is that God does not micro-manage but allows For example, Polkinghorne and Peacocke differ substan- chance to operate. In this case, his purpose is served by any tially in their theologies. Polkinghorne holds on to rather path that is followed, including, it seems, a path that does not conservative beliefs, such as the virgin birth and Resurrection, lead to the evolution of humankind. Theologian John Haught while Peacocke questions many traditional teachings. After says that “a God whose very essence is to be the world’s open Peacocke was awarded the million-dollar 2001 Templeton future is not a planner or a designer but an infinitely liberating Prize for Progress in Religion, Christianity Today Editor-at- source of new possibilities and new life.”12 large John Wilson complained that what Peacocke preaches is In this theology, the accidental processes of nature are the not Christianity: “His theology . . . turns out to entail a rejec- means by which God allows freedom to exist in the universe. The tion of anything resembling Christian orthodoxy from the first future is in fact open and not predetermined by physics or God. century to the present.”14 Theistic Naturalism The work of the premise keepers has been strongly supported by grants and awards from the John Templeton A few years ago, physicist-theist Howard Van Till found him- Foundation, whose stated mission is to “stimulate a high stan- self enmeshed in a debate with intelligent design mouthpiece dard of excellence in scholarly understanding which can serve Phillip Johnson on the pages of the Christian journal First to encourage further worldwide explorations of the moral Things.13 Van Till described an evolution theology akin to that and spiritual dimensions of the Universe and of the human described above, in which God does not micro-manage: “The potential within its ultimate purpose.”15 Ultimate purpose is full array of functionally viable forms of DNA (and the crea- assumed, but Templeton scholars are free to speculate about tures thereby represented) [constitute] a ‘possibility space’ what it may be. of potential lifeforms—this possibility space itself, along with In their willingness to operate within a framework of scien- all connective pathways, being an integral component of the tific knowledge, these scholars find themselves in deep conflict world brought into being at the beginning.” God then employs with members of several other well-financed Christian groups that have also assembled in recent years to deal with issues

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of religion and science. The latter groups promote a more conservative Christian agenda with the goal of transforming both science and society so that they more closely align with their doctrinal interpretations of biblical teachings. In particular, the conservatives are aghast at the notion of unguided evolution of life on Earth. They view Darwinian evolution and the more general materialistic assumptions of science as the cause of what they perceive as the moral decay of modern society. They wish a return to the perfect, godly society that Notes existed before the publication of The Origin of Species by Means 1. John Polkinghorne, “Chaos Theory and Divine Action,” in W. Mark Richardson and Wesley J. Wildman, ed., in 1859. Religion of Natural Selection & Science: History, Method, Dialogue (New York and London: Leading the conservative movement in the United States Routledge, 1996), pp. 243–52. are fellows of the Center for the Renewal of Science and 2. John Polkinghorne, Belief in God in the Age of Science (New Culture, an arm of the Seattle-based Discovery Institute.16 Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998), pp. 85–86. CRSC fellows and their supporters accuse mainstream sci- 3. John Polkinghorne, Belief in God in the Age of Science, p. 21. 4. Taner Edis, “An Accidental World,” Free Inquiry, Fall entists of dogmatically refusing to accept the “new evidence” 2002, pp. 57-58. that signs of purposeful design in the universe can be found in 5. Dean L. Overman, A Case Against Accident and Self- scientific data from cosmology, cognitive science, and molecu- Organization (New York, Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997). lar biology. However, they do not press their case in scientific 6. John Polkinghorne, “The Metaphysics of Divine Action,” in R.J. Russell, N. Murphy, and A. Peacocke, eds., forums. Rather, they operate in the public and political arenas Chaos and Complexity: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action (Vatican where they strive to convince laypersons and politicians that City: Vatican Observatory, 1995), pp. 147–56; “Chaos Theory scientists need to abandon their “counter-intuitive” attach- and Divine Action,” in W. Mark Richardson and Wesley J. ment to materialism. Their practical goal is to include this Wildman, eds., Religion & Science: History, Method, Dialogue “new evidence” in science curricula in the name of “fairness.” (New York and London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 243–52; Arthur Peacocke, Theology for a Scientific Age (London: SCM Press, This is exemplified by what they have termed the “Wedge 1993); “God’s Interaction with the World: The Implications of Strategy.” Among their stated goals are: Deterministic ‘Chaos’ and Interdependent Complexity” in Chaos • To defeat scientific materialism and its destructive and Complexity, pp. 263–87. moral, cultural, and political legacies. 7. James Gleick, Chaos: Making a New Science (New York: Penguin Books, 1987). • To replace materialistic explanations with the theistic 8. Nancey Murphy, “Divine Action in the Natural Order: understanding that nature and human beings are created by Buridan’s Ass and Schrödinger’s Cat,” in Chaos and Complexity, God. pp. 325–57. • To see intelligent design theory as the dominant perspec- 9. Ibid. tive in science.17 10. Ian G. Barbour, Religion and Science (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1997), p. 216. Johnson and the design theorists of the Discovery Institute 11. John F. Haught, God After Darwin (Boulder, Colo.: have not yet succeed in their efforts to undermine Darwinism Westview Press, 2000), p. 120. and naturalism, at least within the scientific community. They 12. Phillip E. Johnson and Howard van Till, “God and might as well try to undermine the atomic theory of matter. Evolution: An Exchange,” First Things 34 (1993): 32–41. 13. John Wilson, “Examining Peacocke’s Plumage,” Intelligent design theory in its current form is filled with bla- Christianity Today (March 12, 2001). 18 tant misrepresentations and elementary scientific errors. 14. Templeton Foundation, www.templeton.org. The premise keepers deserve credit for working within 15. Discovery Institute, www.discovery.org. Follow links to established science instead of fruitlessly challenging it. They the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture where its have provided a place for a God in the interstices of quantum mission statement, list of fellows, and other information can be found. randomness. Although no God is necessary to create the won- 16. The CRSC “wedge strategy” currently can be found at ders of the universe, those who wish to believe in both deity http://www.public.asu.edu/~jmlynch/idt/wedge.html. This has and science might find the premise keepers’ God appealing. been removed from the CRSC Web site but its authenticity is At least, the premise keepers aid in the battle against fun- documented. See James Still, “The Wedge Strategy Three Years Later,” http://www.secweb.org/asset.asp?AssetID=200. damentalists of all religions. These fundamentalists rely on 17. A complete set of links to articles and books on both the scientific illiteracy of the general public and the timorous- sides of the issue can be found at the Web site Critical Thought ness of politicians to promote theology over biology and piety and Religious Liberty, http://www.freethought web.org/ctrl/intel over reason, in order to turn back the calendar to the age of ligent-design.html. faith, the age of theocracy—the Dark Ages. 18. David A. Staff, “Christian Orthodoxy on MAN: God’s Very Special Creation,” http://www.amesefc.org/sermons/ Still, Genesis says that God made “Man” in his image to sr080402.htm. rule over the rest of creation. Dr. David A. Staff, minister of 19. A complete set of links to articles and books on both the First Evangelical Free Church in Ames, Iowa, expresses sides of the issue can be found at the Web site Critical Thought the widely held, orthodox Christian view that Man is “God’s and Religious Liberty, http://www.freethoughtweb.org/ctrl/intel ligent-design.html. very special creation . . . [t]he object of God’s stunning, loving plan.”19 The premise keepers who reject guided evolution and accept that humanity is an accident have not yet succeeded in molding their God into the traditional God of Christianity.

43 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 Belief and Unbelief Among The Dark Side of Susan B. Anthony Nineteenth-Century Feminists Melinda Grube

he “triumvirate” of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan strong fight.”3 She did not write any such note to Anthony, who B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage were consid- had since the 1870s grown increasingly cozy with conservative ered the intellectual and charismatic leaders of the Christian suffragists. Despite her own agnosticism, Anthony National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). These three did not wish to antagonize groups of women she felt certain Tfriends worked tirelessly against religiously inspired sexism would have the energy and appeal to make suffrage a reality. throughout the last half of the nineteenth century. A woman’s Gage, in life a fearless, brilliant, and even arrogant cham- right to vote, to equality within marriage, to divorce, to speak pion of women’s rights, was not willing to compromise. “Our publicly, to keep her wages, and to an education and pursuit Association has been steered into an orthodox pit hole by of a career of her choice were all denied by the government Miss Anthony and her aids,”4 she wrote to her family with the support of the churches. After years of combating the from the International Council. Church indirectly by challenging laws inspired by its teach- -ings, Gage and Stanton decided to turn their attention to Christianity itself. While they anticipated and even invited the Though an agnostic, Susan B. Anthony Church’s reactionary response to their open challenge, they did not expect Anthony’s opposition. Although she, too, was did not wish to antagonize Christian a freethinker, Anthony believed Gage and Stanton danger- suffragists, women she felt would have ous to the movement. While her protests against their work were at first private and pleading, they became very political the energy and appeal to make and public. Anthony was the winner in this conflict, gaining suffrage a reality. power, prestige, and even wealth through her alliance with the Christian women’s movements on behalf of suffrage. Stanton retired from the movement, bitterly writing, “Much as I desire the suffrage I would rather never vote than to see the policy of Unlike Anthony, who carefully avoided offending the powerful our government at the mercy of the religious bigotry of such women of the Christian Right, Gage rewrote her own speech to women.”1 challenge “the pious way of the council—the ignorant nonsense Specifically, “such women” were the Women’s Christian of some of these women.” The new speech openly criticized the Temperance Union (WCTU) under the leadership of Frances Church and the assumed masculinity of God.5 To her children Willard. Willard was representative of powerful new groups she confessed, “Of course, but a small part of my radicalism of post-Civil War suffragists who wanted the vote to push appeared in that speech, only enough to rouse enquiry in those Christian values to the fore. Concerned with such issues as groveling material minds.”6 the abuses of industrialization, alcoholism, and increased In 1889 Anthony and Lucy Stone orchestrated a merger immigration, especially of persons from Jewish and Roman between the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and Catholic backgrounds, these women lobbied for temperance, the more conservative American Woman Suffrage Association censorship, blue laws, and even for changes to the Constitution (AWSA) with its alliance to Frances Willard’s WCTU. Stanton to recognize Christianity as the religion of the nation. At the and Gage were horrified by this move and wrote in protest. 1888 International Council of Women, a convention that would Anthony responded to them angrily in a letter to Olympia have lasting repercussions on the character and goals of the Brown, “I do not approve of their system of fighting the religious women’s movement, Frances Willard stated that the WCTU’s dogma of the people I am trying to convert to my doctrine of 7 one goal was “. . . that Christ shall be this world’s King. King of equal rights to women.” its courts, its camps, and its commerce; King of its colleges and Though disgusted with the merger and increasingly mar- its cloisters; King of its customs and its constitutions.”2 ginalized by the younger, more conservative suffragists in Gage’s note to Stanton following Willard’s speech expressed the new National American Woman Suffrage Association her great alarm. “You and I must stand firm; we have a great (NAWSA), Stanton remained to assist her dear friend Anthony tide to stem, a great battle yet before us. . . . Get ready for a with leadership of the newer, larger organization. Gage, on the other hand, left the organization to found the Women’s National Melinda Grube is a doctoral student in women’s studies. Liberal Union (WNLU), a feminist organization dedicated to

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 44 the discussion of principles of freethought and the separation own friends and partners is testimony to the enormous influ- of church and state. The federal government and Christian ence the Church had, even among freethinkers. groups opposed her immediately. The organization’s mail was While Stanton fared better than Gage, she never received the intercepted and read, sermons were preached against her, and fame and respect given her dearest friend and partner, Anthony. seven hundred Catholic orphans were ordered to pray for her In her autobiography she wrote sadly, “They have given Susan soul. Worse, Anthony forbade her followers from attending any thousands of dollars, jewels, laces, silks, and satins, and me crit- of the meetings of WNLU, calling it “ridiculous, absurd, sectari- icisms for my radical ideas.”12 From their positions as idealists an, bigoted, and too horrible for anything.”8 and intellectuals, it was difficult for Stanton and Gage to under- Oddly, years later when Stanton’s Woman’s Bible, with stand Anthony’s political approach to religion. For them, the essays by Gage, was published, Anthony took a stand to sup- issue of religion was primary. “When, in the early port her friend’s position against the Church. In response to NAWSA’s resolution to disassociate itself from The Woman’s “After her death in 1898, Bible, Anthony said, “When our platform becomes too narrow [Matilda Joslyn] Gage and her feminist, free for people of all creeds and of no creeds, I myself cannot stand upon it.”9 If anything could compete with her passion thought commitment to the for the suffrage movement, it was her love for Stanton. This - friendship led her to defend her friend but could not move her separation of church and state to change her opinion on the expediency of courting Christian support. Despite her statement on Stanton’s behalf, she con- were nearly forgotten.” tinued to lead the increasingly conservative NAWSA until her death in 1902. A Freethought Pioneer Gage published Woman, Church, and State in 1893, a document that masterfully challenged the Church by deconstructing its part of the Nineteenth Century,” Stanton wrote, “women began history from medieval Europe to nineteenth-century United to protest against their civil and political degradation, they were States. It contrasted European American Christian civiliza- referred to the Bible for an answer.13 When they protested against tion unfavorably with more matricentric indigenous cultures their unequal position in the church, they were referred to the like that of the Haudenosaunee Iroquois of New York State. Bible for an answer.” From their perspective, suffrage would She was especially concerned with the connection of religion be a shallow victory until the fundamental issue of religious and sexuality and linked Christian dogmas and doctrines with misogyny was addressed. As Gage wrote in Woman, Church, and the sexual abuse of women and children, sexual predation by State, “Had not man been trained by his religion into a belief that priests, unjust marriage and divorce laws, and legal and social woman was created for him, had not the church for 1800 years restrictions on women’s bodies, speech, and creative energies. and more preached woman’s moral debasement, the long course Her passages condemning the very active child sex trade in of legislation for them as slaves would never have taken place, nineteenth-century America led Anthony Comstock to charge nor the obstacles in way of change been so numerous and so her with obscenity. Gage welcomed opposition, believing it persistent.”14 would lead to greater publicity for her work. To her son she Much can be said about the damaging affects the Church wrote happily, “All it now needs is to get into the papal Index and its conservative proponents had on the growth and suc- Expurgatorius.”10 cess of the feminist movement. Given the enormous power of Unfortunately, after her death in 1898, Gage and her feminist Christianity on American politics to this day, it is not surpris- freethought commitment to the separation of church and state ing that Gage and Stanton are less beloved than those women were nearly forgotten. With few women wishing to discuss or who chose not to challenge Christianity. On the other hand, challenge religion for fear it would endanger suffrage, the ini- those who stand quixotically on behalf of humanity are often tially warm reception to her book began to wane. Even Gage’s remembered later with gratitude. It is the job of radicals to tireless leadership in the women’s movement since the early disturb the sensibilities, to raise eyebrows, and to horrify. It is 1850s was all but lost to history when Anthony, as the only sur- their job to boldly address the forbidden topics of polite society viving coeditor of The History of Woman Suffrage, published the so that less courageous tongues may be loosened in support of volumes without crediting Gage for authorship and or including that which is rational and humane. “Fear not any attempt to Gage’s role as founder of WNLU. A biography was not written frown down the revolution already commenced;” Gage wrote, about this remarkable woman until nearly a century after her “nothing is more fertile aid of reform, than any attempt to death and burial—beneath a stone upon which was written a check it.”15 Indeed, opposition is not the enemy of revolution, last challenge to Frances Willard and her followers. In response fearful silence is. to Willard’s famous quote that the sweetest words were mother, Although privately Anthony was an agnostic freethinker, home, and heaven, Gage’s stone was inscribed with her rebuttal, she was unwilling to sacrifice the future of suffrage to the “There is a word sweeter than Mother, Home, or Heaven, that idealism of her friends. She was unwilling to speak the truth word is Liberty.”11 That one of the primary authors of nine- as she knew it. Gage never forgave her. Stanton was more for- teenth-century feminist theory and organizers of the women’s giving of her friend, remaining close to her for the rest of her rights movement should be almost completely ignored by her life. In the end, however, even she could not dissuade herself

45 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 that the deeper integrity and creative drive of the movement lost. Perhaps Stanton was right when she commented sadly, had not been lost. Certainly, the women’s movement’s conser- “Others say it is not politic to rouse religious opposition. This vative approach and singular drive for suffrage delayed more much-lauded policy is but another word for cowardice.”16 intellectually charged radical expressions of feminism until the latter half of the twentieth century. Anthony’s approach may have eventually won the vote, but so much more was

Notes DuBois, The Elizabeth Cady Stanton—Susan B. Anthony Reader, p. 243. 10. Wagner, p. 62. 1. Ellen Carol DuBois, The Elizabeth Cady Stanton—Susan B. 11. Ibid., p. 66. Anthony Reader (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992), p. 191. 12. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Eighty Years and More (New York: Schocken Books, 1898), p. 191. 2. Sally Roesch Wagner, She Who Holds the Sky (Aberdeen, S.D.: Sky Carrier Press, 1998), p. 47. 13. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Introduction to The Woman’s Bible,” 3. Ibid., p. 46. in The Elizabeth Cady Stanton—Susan B. Anthony Reader, p. 230. 4. Ibid., p. 48. 14. Matilda Joslyn Gage, Woman, Church and State (New York, 5. Ibid., pp. 44–45. N.Y.: The Truth Seeker, 1893), p. 116. 6. Ibid., p. 46. 15. Wagner, p. 62. 7. Ibid., p. 54. 16. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Introduction to The Woman’s 8. Ibid., p. 56. Bible” in The Elizabeth Cady Stanton—Susan B. Anthony Reader, p. 9. Susan B. Anthony, “Response to NAWSA Resolution” in 230.

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free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 46 Child Abuse Children must be rescued from religion and restored to humanity by Religions Narisetti Innaiah

ur children are our own. They are ours to thrash or kill, if we choose; who are you to poke your nose in?” Yes, millions of parents still feel that way, in every part of the world. They justify harsh punishments “Owith dictums like “You can train a plant but not a tree,” or “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” Too many traditional reli- “Religions . . . gions encourage parents to regard children as their property— inspire and perpetuate or to believe that the more children they have, the better. “A child has not only a mouth but also two earning hands.” Where much of the abuse that do sayings like these come from? Which social institutions afflicts children around the globe.” underlie much of the child abuse endemic to the world today, yet are scarcely ever accused by name? Religions, of course. It is religions that inspire and perpetuate much of the abuse that afflicts children around the globe. Over the ages, religions have exploited the power of the bond between parents and children, fashioning priestly infrastruc- tures that touch every aspect of life, enmeshing families ever if they blossom into scientists or technologists. Education helps deeper in allegiance. In most cultures this entrapment begins at them carve out their careers, but they practice religion as they or soon after birth with the naming of the baby. Parents feel it always have. Before you believe in anything, science demands their duty to abide by religious customs, traditions and rituals. that it be subjected to inquiry, analysis, and proof. If something This, in turn, assures a livelihood to the priestly class. cannot be proven, it should not be blindly believed. But around Priests encourage parents to bring their children along the world, the educated exempt religion from the scientific scru- when they visit places of worship. Parents obey, often hoping tiny they apply to everything else. When religion and science that experiences in the temple, church, mosque, or synagogue conflict, most people follow religion and give science a pass. will help children develop faith in God and to practice ethical Religion stands revealed as a barrier to human development. conduct. Children are thus controlled right from birth, in all They do not apply the scientific temperament acquired in the countries and in all religions. Believing parents do not merely course of their education to matters of religion. indoctrinate their children on the virtues of their own religion. Beholden to their faiths or mired in tradition, parents They warn their young against embracing other religions, have too often stood mute, helpless spectators to the religious against following their customs and beliefs. Thus are the seeds abuse of children. Examples include denial of health care to of hatred sown, directly or indirectly, in impressionable minds. children, practiced by several Christian denominations; wide- Children are not born into religion; of necessity, they are spread sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic and other born not even knowing what religion is. Yet, the religion of their clergy; female genital mutilation as practiced under Islam and parents is attributed to them. By the time they start talking, some traditional African religions; cruel corporate punish- then writing, they can name their religion because it has been ment under Sharia law; ostracism of low-caste children, child named for them. Thus steeped in religion from childhood, most marriage, and temple prostitution under Hinduism; and male people find they cannot climb free of religion later in life. Many infant circumcision, originated by Judaism. If the civilized find it impossible to shed this ingrained religious influence, even world is sometimes outraged by such abuses, it has nonetheless kept quiet, afraid to confront religion head-on. Individuals Narisetti Innaiah is vice president of the Rationalist Association have dared to criticize religious child abuse, only to be ignored of India and a national executive member of the Indian Radical or ostracized as “atheists.” Humanist Association. He has published books and articles in Fortunately, some light shimmers along this dark horizon. English and Telugu on politics, philosophy, skepticism, and humanism. He translated into Telugu major works by humanist philoso- Proclaiming Children’s Rights pher M.N. Roy, Paul Kurtz, and others. On November 20, 1989, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child, proclaim-

47 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 Those who escaped from religion have contributed dispropor- tionately to progress and development in all ages. The urge to learn new things, to study, to conduct research, and to live in tune with nature . . . all of these things belong to a level above “The educated exempt religion. When children are inculcated in religion and compelled religion from the scientific to adhere to it, this thwarts brain development. It is a crime to warn children that they will lose their sight or fall ill if they scrutiny they apply to refuse to worship god or raise unpalatable questions—or it everything else.” should be. Brains that should blossom with each passing year are instead blunted. And the priests have no objection because a thinking soul is a threat to every religion. Religion should be taught on scientific lines in schools. Children should learn about all religions, their own and others. They should be taught that gods and demons, devils and ing elementary rights for children worldwide. One hundred apparitions, heaven and hell are all human creations, and ninety-one countries have so far adopted it. In many of them, that the world’s scriptures are all human works. They should so-called Children’s Charters have been established, building learn that life is supreme and it should be respected. Children key provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child should have the freedom to choose any religion or none once into local law. Still, the so-called Children’s Convention has they reach the age of maturity. not been ratified everywhere. Somalia, wracked by civil war For their part, parents should realize that religion ought and without a stable government, has not done so. Nor has the not to be ascribed to children as a hereditary trait. Indeed, United States. they should be kept at a distance from religion, just as parents The Children’s Convention covers all children below eigh- keep them away from prostitution, politics, obscenity, and teen years of age, recognizing legal rights whose respect is marriage. Taking children to temples, modifying their bodies incumbent upon parents, families, and governments. It forbids (whether temporarily or permanently) in accord with ritual, encouraging blind worship, and terrorizing them in the name discrimination based on caste, color, creed, or gender in safe- of a deity are no longer unacceptable. Parents need to appre- guarding children’s rights. Under the Convention, every girl ciate and accept that children have inherent rights. and boy, irrespective of territorial boundaries, enjoys freedom One hundred ninety-one countries have signed the of expression and the right to access information. Govern Children’s Convention and their parliaments have begun to ments are to safeguard children’s religious freedom, their adopt charters and other legislation to implement it. But it freedom of thinking, and their right to mix with others. Child rearing is recognized as the primary responsibility of parents, but governments must extend a helping hand when needed. Children are not to be treated as the personal property of “Children . parents, and they are not to be abused. . . should be kept at a Obviously the Children’s Convention describes the way things distance from religion, just as parents should be, not the way they are in most parts of the world. To its keep them away from prostitution, politics, credit, the United Nations has recognized that the Convention’s ideals are often violated. The United Nations Children’s Fund obscenity, and marriage.” (UNICEF) has launched a movement to safeguard children from abuse—but this movement is of limited effectiveness because it has tried to proceed without blaming religion. Religious influence is strong, even at the UN. For example, the Vatican has co-opted UNICEF, convening a recent conference at which religious leaders shed crocodile tears over children’s plight but took no substantial action. Child abuse rooted in religion was has yet to be adopted by a developed country like the United described in sanitized language as a “cultural crisis.” States because of religious opposition. Even parents hesitate UN agencies have recognized that children are being used to support the Convention, for fear of losing their grip on their as bonded labor, abused in wars, sexually assaulted, and children. Parents may have been brought up entangled in a more. They have striven to rescue victims in some places. But religious tradition. But they should not impose their rituals, they will not identify religion among the principal causes of customs, habits, and superstitions on their children as a abuse. Child abuse is impossible to resist when the principal forced legacy. Now is the day to break with this unhealthy perpetrator cannot—must not—be named. We cannot expect past. religions to condemn themselves. It is like handing our house Ultimately, human progress depends on the recognition keys to a thief with a request to stand guard. that all religions are ultimately opposed to human values. The very assertion that we live for God is contrary to human val- Children and Religion: ues. Children should be rescued from religion; only then can Some Immodest Proposals they be restored to humanity.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 48 Why The tie that binds need not be legal Marriage? Richard Taylor

as marriage become an anachronism? It would seem so. It is being replaced by cohabitation. The latest census shows that cohabitation between the sexes almost doubled in the decade surveyed, while tradi- “The question can surely be Htional marriage increased by a paltry 7 percent. On top of this, asked what business government marriagelike unions between persons of the same sex have can possibly have in choices so become more common and, except in some religious quarters, increasingly accepted. It has been estimated that there are private and personal as this.” now over five million unmarried couples living together. Not long ago, cohabitation between the sexes was considered totally unacceptable and immoral—adultery pure and simple. It is still a crime in some jurisdictions, and, while such statutes are not enforced, they are also not repealed, due to the influence of churches. Cohabiting couples are no longer banished from the professions, such as teaching, and are even surely be asked what business government can possibly have accepted without censure in most churches. in choices so private and personal as this? Cohabiting couples typically take upon themselves all the It is in fact government itself that is partly responsible for the responsibilities and advantages of marriage, such as sexual rise of de facto marriages, these being the unanticipated result fidelity, sharing of property, raising children, and so on. All of legal restrictions on the inheritance of pensions. A widow, that is missing is formal legality. Cohabitation has become so for example, is entitled to the benefits from her deceased hus- common that there have arisen strong advocates and a very band’s Social Security, and, of course, vice versa. But what if active nonprofit organization to promote it, the Alternatives she remarries? Should she still be entitled to those lifelong ben- to Marriage Project (http://www.unmarried.org). Indeed, there efits? It was thought not. So a compromise was reached. If she are liberal clergy willing to preside over a wedding—in a remarries before age sixty (fifty-five in the case of civil service church, with guests, witnesses, flowers, and a reception. Such pensions), then she forfeits those benefits forever. But if the “services of commitment” are fairly common for same-sex widow remarries even one day after that age, then they will con- couples, but a cohabiting man and woman can do the same. tinue for life. This rule is obviously arbitrary. It was apparently No marriage license needs to be obtained, and no certificate assumed that no one would want to marry someone that old. of marriage is issued. The minister omits from the service the The effect, however, was to place many widows under that age in a bind. Should they give up their pension rights or abandon words, “By the power vested in me by the state”; but not the words, “I now pronounce you man and wife.” The wife can take hope of remarriage? So they compromised. They entered into the husband’s surname if she wishes, and they can bestow that de facto marriages, and over time they became almost totally surname on any children born of the marriage. That will be the accepted. The sense of guilt that some such couples felt soon name on the birth certificates, and no question of legitimacy passed, and the customary legal documentation of marriage will arise. What the couple cannot do is use their relationship was seen to be for most practical purposes meaningless. to defraud. But then, financial fraud is forbidden to everyone. From this, of course, it was but a short step to the accep- Such couples do not, then, need the permission of govern- tance of de facto marriage at any age. College deans no longer ment to become a de facto married couple nor, what is equally take much notice of male and female students living together important, do they need such permission, in the form of a court in dormitories. Many men and women just out of college and proceeding, to dissolve the marriage. If the marriage fails starting professional training enter into such relationships they can simply go their separate ways. From a libertarian without stirring the least disapproval, even from their parents. viewpoint this is of enormous importance, for the question can In fact, cohabitation is fast becoming the normal route to formal marriage. Couples try living together, often for a Richard Taylor is the author of Virtue Ethics: An Introduction and considerable time, before tying the knot. This is in some ways other books. He is a contributing editor of Free Inquiry. very strange, for one can wonder why, if the de facto marriage has proved fulfilling and durable, they should then bother with

49 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 This gives an aura of sanctity and seriousness to the step being taken, but it adds nothing to the durability of the marriage. The tireless promotion of traditional marriage by conservative reli- “One can wonder why, if the de facto gionists is largely hollow. Religious people are just as suscepti-

marriage has proved fulfilling and durable, ble to friction, frustration, and deep unhappiness in marriage as anyone else. In fact, according to one study, the rate of divorce [couples] should then bother with legality in the so-called Bible Belt considerably exceeds the national and an often expensive and average (New York Times, May 21, 2001). So much for the claim elaborate wedding.” that those who pray together, stay together. There can, however, be a real threat to economic security in a de facto marriage in case the partners neglect to secure themselves with some simple property arrangements. For example, a judge is likely to view the female partner in such legality and an often expensive and elaborate wedding. a relationship as only a willing mistress without any claim to her partner’s property. Moreover, courts are increasingly tak- Is There Any Point to Legalisms? ing the position that marriage is a true partnership, like any There may, to be sure, appear to be reasons for making every- other, in which the partners are to be treated as equals what- thing legal. Laws can create benefits that are sometimes con- ever might be their different roles. This means that, in case siderable, but as we shall see, these can be secured just as well the marriage is dissolved, property will be divided equitably. in a de facto marriage by some simple property arrangements. Exceptions are made only for such things as pensions in which The blessings traditionally associated with marriage are one partner has invested prior to the marriage, tangible and such things as ongoing love and emotional support, the defeat intangible property that was inherited, and so on—property of loneliness, security, home life, sexual exclusivity, the oppor- that was gained entirely outside the marriage. Once married, tunity to raise children together, share property, and so on. however, husband and wife are considered to have contributed These can flourish no less in a de facto marriage. Couples who equally to whatever is accumulated, even if the income that represent themselves to the world as married are accepted as produced it was in fact earned exclusively by only one. If, for such. They are never asked to prove it. Employers raise no example, a wife’s role was to manage the household, and the doubts, and even insurance companies and government agen- husband’s to provide the income, then it is assumed that the cies usually take their word for it. resulting property belongs equally to both. The disadvantages of such an arrangement are that its This view of marriage was driven home by a New York partners cannot file a joint income-tax return, nor can they get appellate court in a case in which the wife was the wage family coverage for health insurance without risking a charge earner while her husband was in medical school. Soon after of criminal fraud. There is, however, usually little if any advan- he finished his training and entered into a lucrative practice tage in filing joint tax returns, and either partner can include he sued for divorce. The court took the view that his medical the children in his or her health insurance. degree was, in effect, a license to earn money, and that the What, then, about security? It is sometimes supposed that, wife had toiled just as hard to get it as he had, by her support- without marriage that is binding in law, one or the other parting him through those years. She was accordingly awarded a ner, or perhaps both, has only a fragile security. A “marriage” large portion of his entire future income. that rests only on mutual agreement is no real marriage and In another case a wealthy business executive filed for can be casually dissolved. The female partner is especially divorce, offering his wife $1 million as a final settlement. She likely to feel such insecurity and may badger her partner to attracted a great deal of media attention by demanding $10 mil- marry her, even after years of cohabitation. Men usually feel lion. She did not get all that, but the court did award her most of less threatened. it, the view being that she had earned it, just by being his wife. There is some truth in this criticism, which we shall exam- Finally, in a third case, a man left his wife without formally ine shortly, but first we must ask: Just how strong is the bond divorcing her, and entered into a lasting de facto marriage with of legal marriage? someone else. Years later, when he died, a court awarded the Not very strong at all. The legality of the arrangement first wife one-third of his estate and gave nothing to the de facto binds nothing. Half of such legally “binding” marriages end in wife, noting that the second marriage was without legal validity. divorce. How tight can the knot have been if that is the result? This being the trend, we can expect that partners, and A marriage is not made secure by the filing of documents, and especially men, are increasingly likely to prefer de facto mar- certainly not by vows, however solemnly uttered. Its strength riages rather than confront the possibility of some day being can rest on nothing but the unshakable love of its partners, at the mercy of a court. Women, on the other hand, are more which can flourish and grow in a de facto marriage no less likely to seek the financial security of legal marriage. than in a traditional one. Indeed, it may be even stronger, since no one is likely to feel trapped, and thus resentful, in The Future of Cohabitation a marriage that is kept alive and vibrant by the devotion and But need this be true? Can de facto marriage provide the same consideration of both partners. security while avoiding the pitfalls of traditional marriage? A traditional marriage is typically launched in a church, with It can go a long way. A de facto married couple can, for a sometimes elaborate ceremony presided over by a clergyman. example, put all their property in joint ownership from the

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 50 start. That, once done, settles for good the question of who relationship has little to be said in its favor and much to be owns what. They can also make a joint will, each naming the said against it. But perhaps most significant of all, de facto other as legatee, and such that the will can be modified only marriage has become so generally accepted, ethically, social- with the concurrence of both. They can establish trusts, exe- ly, and in every other way, that one can, indeed, wonder cute proxies, bestow powers of attorney on each other such whether traditional marriage still has any significant value that both can act in the other’s behalf in any matters of prop- at all. erty, name each other as beneficiaries of life insurance, and so on. Real estate, cars, and so on can be in joint ownership. If © Richard Taylor 2002 you own title to something, then it cannot be taken from you. And finally, a couple can, without formal marriage, execute a legally binding marriage covenant to cover any matter of security important to either, although this, unlike the other steps outlined, would be seen by many to cast doubt upon the love that they believe to be the basis of their relationship. We can conclude, then, that the legalization of a marriage One Nation Without God? AUDIOTAPES AUDIOTAPES Secularism, Society, and Justice

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51 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 Council Conference One nation without God? a Capital Success John Gaeddert

he Council for Secular Humanism came to Wash ington, D.C., in April for its international conference, “One Nation Without God? Secularism, TSociety, and Justice.” Attendees enjoyed three-and-a-half days of fascinating speakers and lively discussion at the luxurious Capital Hilton, just a few blocks from the White House. About three hundred attendees, speakers, and staff participated. In addition, the Council bestowed six national awards and raised more than $200,000 toward the New Future Fund capital campaign. On Thursday, April 10, Council Field Director DJ Grothe and Campus Freethought Alliance (CFA) Coordinator Austin Dacey held a pre-conference meeting with CFA representatives to share their experiences and exchange advice. The conference began in earnest on Friday. A morning media roundtable event featured noted writers Nat Hentoff, Christopher Hitchens, and Susan Jacoby. The Reverend Barry Attendees crowd in to hear “Will Islam Come Into the 21st Century?” at the Capital Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation Hilton (Washington, D.C.). of Church and State, gave a luncheon talk on the current church-state crisis with special emphasis on faith-based ini- Award for “Muslims and the West After September 11,” judged tiatives. Council founder and Free Inquiry Editor-in-Chief Paul the best article in Free Inquiry during 2002. Kurtz spoke on “Secular Humanism and Politics.” Concurrent • Barry Lynn, receiving the James Madison Award for afternoon sessions focused on religious-political extremism defense of religious liberty, and Nat Hentoff, receiving the and gay rights. Christopher Hitchens delivered Friday night’s Thomas Paine Civil Liberties Award, were unable to attend keynote address, enthralling the crowd with his razor-sharp the banquet and had accepted their awards at earlier events. wit and fielding a wide range of audience questions. Following the ceremony, Saturday Night Live alumna Julia On Saturday morning, Paul Kurtz chaired the dramatic Sweeney delighted the crowd with a hilarious account of her session, “Will Islam Come into the Twenty-First Century?” journey to atheism. Addressing the packed ballroom were noted author and Sunday’s panel on “Why I Would Never Vote for an Atheist” Qur’anic critic Ibn Warraq, physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy, and featured attorney and aspiring politician Edward Tabash; phy- activists Irfan Khawaja, Fatemolla, Azam Kamguian, and sician and attorney Michael Newdow, plaintiff in the “Pledge of Armen Saginian of Center for Inquiry–West. (An article based Allegiance” case; and Free Inquiry Editor Tom Flynn. As some on this session ran in the next day’s Washington Times.) attendees began their journeys home, others stayed to hear Afternoon concurrent sessions spotlighted international a panel discussion on “Democratization of Islamic Societies” humanism and new threats to secular education. chaired by the fiery Armen Saginian. Conference activities con- Saturday evening’s banquet was highlighted by the awards cluded with a celebration of Thomas Jefferson’s birthday. Doz ceremony. The recipients were: ens gathered at the Jefferson Memorial to bask in the sunshine • Ibn Warraq, receiving the Distinguished Secular and hear speeches by Robert M. O’Neil, director of the Thomas Humanist Award. Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, and • Eugenie C. Scott, receiving the Defense of Science Award. several others. • Taner Edis, receiving the Morris D. Forkosch Award for Audiotapes of the conference proceedings are available his Ghost in the Universe, judged the best secular humanist (see page 51). book of 2002. • Pervez Hoodbhoy, receiving the Selma V. Forkosch John Gaeddert is assistant director of public relations for the Center for Inquiry.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 52 CHURCH-STATE UPDATE

not hold that, if it is not the prevailing religion of a society, then irreligion must prevail. Islam considers Christianity a Another Try at Public revealed religion, vastly preferring it to atheism.” Some observers doubt whether the Christians most likely to seize the public square after a church-state melt- School Prayer down would extend this same tolerance toward Islamic Americans! Tom Flynn Around the Country . . . ˘ “Special Rights” Religion Law Loses One. U.S. district courts have entered hurch-State Update tracks con- Empowerment (CARE) Act of 2003 would conflicting opinions on the Religious tinuing developments in import- have allowed public funding of social Land Use and Institutionalized Persons ant federal, state, and local services in facilities festooned with reli- C Act (RLUIPA). Last issue we reported church-state issues. Each item is pre- gious symbols, and would have funded on a Ninth Circuit verdict that upheld ceded by an up arrow ( ) or a down recipient agencies that discriminated in ˘ RLUIPA; now Judge James C. Turk of arrow (¸), based on the story’s implica- employment on the basis of religion. the U.S. District Court for the Western tions for separation of church and state During months of debate these provi- District of Virginia has ruled RLUIPA and the rights of the nonreligious. sions were removed. The bill as passed unconstitutional in a case involving a expands tax incentives for individuals to Washington Wire . . . Jewish prison inmate demanding kosher support both religious and nonreligious food. At issue is whether RLUIPA con- ¸ Education Department Plumps for School charities without voiding charities’ obli- fers special rights on religious prisoners Prayer. New U.S. Department of Education gations under civil rights law. Church- and property owners not available to guidelines warn public schools to allow state activists exult that the most ex others. more religious expression or lose federal treme aspects of Bush’s “faith-based” funding. The guidelines call for “neither plan cannot get traction with legislators. ˘ VMI Can’t Require Prayer. The Fourth favoritism toward nor hostility against U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that religious expression,” but critics say the ¸ House Slaps Judges, Backs God in Pledge. the Virginia Military Institute, a publicly Education Department’s interpretation By a vote of 400–7 with fifteen mem- supported military academy, violated of current law is biased toward allowing bers voting “present,” the U.S. House the Constitution by requiring cadets to broader religious expression than courts of Representatives passed yet another pray before supper. permit. In particular, noted Barry Lynn nonbinding resolution that sharply crit- of Americans United for Separation of icizes the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of ˘ No Drought Aid for Churches. South Church and State, the “guidelines assert Appeals over its “under God” decision. Dakota’s Senate Appropriations Commit that students can lead prayers or give The resolution encourages Attorney tee killed a drought-relief bill that would sermons” at school functions such as General John Ashcroft to challenge the have paid a Christian church group graduations and athletic events. “The Ninth Circuit decision and insists that $250,000 to provide social services. Sena Supreme Court has never allowed that,” “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance tors said they recognized that the aid notes Lynn, and lower courts remain is merely patriotic, not a statement of would violate church-state separation. divided. Speaking at the Council for faith. House members voting “No” were Secular Humanism’s conference in Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.); Barney Frank ˘ Harry Potter Freed. In Arkansas, U.S. Washington, D.C., Lynn pledged legal (D-Mass.); Mike Honda (D-Calif.); Jim District Judge Larry Hendren overturned help to any school threatened with loss McDermott (D-Wash.); Jerrold Nadler a Cedarville School District policy requir- of Title I education funds because it (D-N.Y.); Robert Scott (D-Va.); and Pete ing parental permission before students follows settled case law rather than the Stark (D-Calif.). At this writing, it was could check out books in the popular Education Department guidelines. unclear whether or when Ashcroft would Harry Potter series. The policy had been appeal Newdow v. U.S. adopted in response to a complaint by ˘ Faith-Based Bill Passes Senate with Worst a Christian parent who considered the Provisions Stripped. By a vote of 95–5, ¸ Muslim Organization Slams Separation. magic in the Potter books “satanic.” the U.S. Senate passed a watered- The Muslim American Society of Falls down version of President Bush’s con- Church, Virginia, has released a position ˘ Juror Oath Overturned. South Carolina’s troversial “faith-based initiative.” As paper that endorses “religiosity in public Supreme Court ruled that jurors cannot introduced, the Charity, Aid, Recovery, life” in language strongly reminiscent be required to swear an oath to God of the Christian Religious Right. Court before being seated. Robert Woodham Tom Flynn is editor of Free Inquiry and decisions on church and state made irre- sued after being dismissed as a juror former coordinator of the First Amendment ligion the nation’s de facto “official belief when he refused to swear “so help me Task Force. system,” charged the Society. “Islam does God.”

53 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 WORLD REPORT

replacement publicly apologized for his church’s actions. And most recently, the former head of the Seventh-day Adventist Has the Crucial War Church in western Rwanda has been convicted of genocide. Rev. Elizaphan Ntakirutimana and his son actually led attackers to a church and hospital com- Already Been Lost? plex, where hundreds of Tutsi families, including some fellow Adventists, were Bill Cooke butchered. Muhammad, Miss World, and he U.S.-led war on Iraq has resulted gious instruction would take away from the Open Society in a hardening of anti-Western atti- more pressing needs: “We have a tough Here’s an under-appreciated aspect of the Ttudes and opinions among Muslims time trying to convince people that we 2002 riots in Nigeria that caused the Miss in the Middle East. While Western media must do this for the sake of the future . . . World contest to flee hastily to London: trumpeted coalition efforts to spare civil- to be more competitive.” the riots began when a female reporter ian targets, the provision of humanitarian commented that Muhammad would have aid, and relief of the long-oppressed Iraqi Religion in Rwanda Bears taken any of the young women contestants people, Muslim media ran horrific images Blame for Tragedy as a wife. Nigerian Muslim opinion was of Iraqi civilians killed and maimed by Rwanda’s genocidal massacres occurred already rubbed raw by the world media’s American missiles while going about their in 1994, but the roles played by various hostile attention to the recent imposition lawful business at the market. Rwandan churches before and during the of strict Sharia law over much of northern There is no reason to suppose that violence have yet to receive the attention Nigeria. Tension between Muslims and the Western image of the war is any they deserve. Two factors cry for wider Christians in the north had cost more more accurate than the Muslim view. Both notice. than three thousand lives, with Christians views represent some version of reality. First, Rwanda was heavily Catholic; hardly less guilty of terrible crimes than But the recent hardening of Muslim opin- hierarchs strongly opposed contraception their Muslim neighbors. But Muslims felt ion suggests that the coalition may lose education. This led directly to an unsus- added pressure after a Muslim woman, the most crucial battle of all: the battle tainable population growth rate of 4.2 Amina Lawal, was convicted of adultery for the hearts and minds of moderate percent, with dangerous overcrowding with the penalty of death by stoning. The Muslims. Next to that, military victory and heightened competition for food and suspected father had escaped any pun- over Saddam Hussein’s execrable dicta- arable land. Many observers were pre- ishment after denying his paternity on torship will count for little. dicting ecological and social catastrophe the Qur’an. Secularism Defended in in Rwanda before the genocide. A key principle of the open society Factor number two: shortly after is the need for all to live with and try Malaysia Rwanda achieved independence in 1962, to understand the beliefs and practic- Malaysia’s dismal record regarding sec- the Catholic hierarchy ended its long his- es of their neighbors, even when they ularism may soon change. At least one tory of support for the minority Tutsi seem offensive. But it is not in the spirit top-level Malaysian leader has recognized tribe, which had cooperated with Belgian of militant Islam, nor of its Christian what humanists have long known: that colonial rulers. The church switched opponents, to tolerate diversity. Instead, time given over to religious instruction is its support to the majority Hutus and the appropriate response was rioting time not spent preparing children for the strengthened that support over the next that cost two hundred people their lives. real world. Earlier this year, Malaysian three decades. Though some priests Whether Western apologists for religion Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad risked their lives to save Tutsis during like it or not, those riots are testimony to Badawi spoke out for secular education, the 1994 genocide, others followed estab- the power of a living faith. Something is calling it essential to the country’s future. lished allegiances. By 1999 twenty priests deeply wrong with a system of belief that Responding to criticism that Malay and nuns, among them a bishop, awaited resorts so quickly to rioting when some of sian education was insufficiently Islamic, trial in connection with the genocide, and its more hotheaded adherents feel offend- Badawi countered with his concern that two nuns had been found guilty of active ed, resulting in the loss of so many lives. too much emphasis on Muslim indoctrina- collaboration with Hutu militias. tion would lead non-Muslim Malaysians Nor was Catholicism unique in its cul- to abandon state schools. Moreover, he pability. At the height of the killings, the feared that excessive time spent on reli- Anglican Archbishop Nshamihigo publicly Bill Cooke is international director for the laid blame for the genocide on the Tutsis, Center for Inquiry and a senior editor of then being slaughtered by the thousands. Free Inquiry. Nshamihigo later fled the country; his

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 54 GREAT MINDS Pierre Bayle (1647–1706)

Paul Edwards

ierre Bayle was one of the most mulgated the so-called Edict

famous and thoroughgoing skep- of Nantes in 1598, which gave Edgar Fahs Smith Collection. University of Pennsylvania Library. Ptics of his day. This fact is dif- a wide measure of freedom ficult to reconcile with his professed to the Huguenots. During the Calvinism, the sincerity of which is reign of Louis XIV (1638– anybody’s guess. Some commentators 1715), Protestants began to maintain that it was completely genu- be persecuted again, and in ine. Frederick the Great and Voltaire 1685 the Edict of Nantes was thought that it was a cover so that Bayle revoked. Bayle remained in could live and write in peace. Simon Sedan until 1681 when Louis Blackburn, in the Oxford Dictionary of XIV ordered the closing of the Philosophy, takes the same view, quot- Academy. ing Bayle’s remark, “I am most truly a Bayle moved to Rotterdam Protestant; for I protest indifferently where he became professor against all systems and all sects.” In any of philosophy and history. He 2,600 pages. Within less than fifty years, event it is his skepticism, his defense of stayed in this position until 1693. He there were nine French editions as well the independence of morality from reli- was forced to resign after Pastor Jurieu, as two English translations. There was gion, and his advocacy of complete reli- a friend from the Sedan days, became a German translation by J.C. Gottsched gious toleration that greatly influenced enraged by Bayle’s liberal views and that appeared between 1741 and 1777. later freethinkers. charged him with atheism. During his Gottsched had the temerity to rewrite Bayle was born in the country vil- years at Sedan and later in Rotterdam, several “offensive” articles. Many, lage of Le Carla, France, now known Bayle wrote a number of books that though not all, articles were on philoso- as Carla-Bayle. Both his father and brought him great fame. He also found- phers and on philosophical and theolog- his brother were Protestant pastors. ed and edited Nouvelles de la république ical topics. Bayle knew that a number of At the age of twenty-one he was sent des lettres, one of the first truly interna- his ideas were highly offensive to tradi- to the University of Toulouse, which tional journals. Anthony Ashley Cooper, tional believers. He therefore adopted a was directed by Jesuits but had a high the Earl of Shaftesbury, one of the strategy that he hoped would weary and intellectual reputation. He there con- leading deists, has left us the following confuse his critics. Many of the articles verted to Catholicism, but after eighteen tribute: are quite short, but lengthy “Notes” are months returned to his Protestant faith. Whatever he might be in speculation, attached to them in fine print. Bayle Bayle was a superior student, and, in he was in practice one of the best of was at no time threatened with impris- 1675, at the age of twenty-eight, he was Christians, and almost the only man I ever knew who, professing philoso- onment, but several articles were con- appointed professor of philosophy at the demned by the Wallon Consistory of Protestant Academy of Sedan. phy, lived truly as a philosopher, with that innocence, virtue, temperance, Bayle’s (Calvinistic) church. Ostensibly Henry IV, the great champion of humility, contempt of the world and to appease the Consistory, Bayle added toleration, and also incidentally of ordi- interest which might be called exem- a number of “Clarifications” in the sec- nary workers and peasants, had pro- plary. Nor was there ever a fairer reasoner, or civiler, politer, wittier ond edition, which appeared in 1702. I Paul Edwards is emeritus professor of phi- man in conversation. could not discover much toning down, losophy and a Laureate of The Academy but Bayle always adopted the pose of of Humanism. This article is taken from The Dictionaire Historique et a shocked believer who discovers the his book God and the Philosophers Critique dangerous but unanswerable criticisms (Prometheus, forthcoming in 2004). A 1734 advanced by unbelievers.1 By far the most important of Bayle’s edition of Bayle’s Dictionaire is among There is an excellent summary of works, Dictionaire Historique et Critique, the older books in the Center for Inquiry Bayle’s approach in J.B. Bury’s History appeared in Rotterdam in 1697. It con- collection. of Freedom of Thought: sisted of two large volumes numbering The theological virtue of faith, Bayle

55 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 said, consists in believing revealed of selections in English are presently prevent the ill-usage of a gift if the only truths simply and solely on God’s in print which contain several of the way to do so were to break the arms authority. [...] The merit of faith and legs of its recipient, or to cast him most “offensive” of the articles.3 Thomas becomes greater, in proportion as into the bottom of a dungeon in irons, the revealed truth surpasses all the Jefferson recommended the Dictionaire but in that case, it would be much powers of our mind; the more incom- as one of the hundred basic books with better not to give the gift. However, if prehensible the truth and the more which to start the Library of Congress.4 one could prevent an ill-usage of it by repugnant to reason, the greater is changing the disposition of the heart the sacrifice we make in accepting Manicheism and the Problem and in giving the recipient an incli- it, the deeper our submission to God. nation toward good, one should do it. Therefore a merciless inventory of the of Evil Now this is what God could have done objections which reason has to urge The Wallon Consistory found Bayle’s easily if he had willed it. against fundamental doctrines serves discussion of the problem of evil par- 2 A little earlier, in a section entitled to exalt the merits of faith. ticularly offensive. This occurs in the “Reason Is Incapable of Unraveling the articles “Manicheans” and “Paulicians.” Some pious historians maintain that Question,” Bayle discusses the view Bayle’s statement is as powerful as any that men had to be allowed to sin if God in the philosophical literature. was to exercise his justice: “If man had It is his skepticism, If man is the creature of one principle remained innocent, God could not have perfectly good, most holy and omnipo- punished anyone and therefore could his defense of the tent, can he be exposed to diseases, to heat and cold, hunger and thirst, pain not have exercised his justice.” Bayle independence of and grief? Can he have so many bad has a crushing reply: morality from religion, inclinations? Can he commit so many No, we cannot make this supposition, crimes? Can perfect holiness produce because if no one would have been and his advocacy of a criminal creature? Can perfect good- worthy of punishment God could have ness produce an unhappy creature? exercised his attribute of justice per- complete religious Would not omnipotence, joined with petually by refraining from punishing infinite goodness, furnish his own anyone. Tell me what you think of two toleration that greatly work plentifully with good things, and princes, one of which lets his subjects secure it from everything that might fall into abject wretchedness in order influenced later free- be offensive or vexatious? that he may deliver them after they By any rational standards, Maniche have groaned in their misery for some thinkers. time, and the other who preserves ism—the teaching that there are two his subjects in a continual state of equally powerfully deities, one good prosperity. Is not the latter better and the other evil—is far more plau- and more merciful than the first? . . . Bayle’s declaration of belief is quite gen- sible than the Judeo-Christian view. One does not have to be deeply versed uine—that he was a fideistic believer Posing as a champion of the latter in metaphysics to know, as does the veriest villager, that it is a greater who was radically opposed to rational- Bayle mischievously offers the following istic religion, and not to belief as such. I goodness to prevent a man from fall- advice: “We must not engage with the ing into a ditch than to let him fall in find this quite incredible. Manicheians until we have first laid it and then pull him out after an hour, The Dictionaire was a huge success in down the doctrine of the exaltation of and it is better to keep a murderer from killing someone than to torture both editions. The original issue of 1,000 faith and the abasing of reason.” copies was sold out in four months, and him on the rack for the murders that Bayle discusses at some length what he has been permitted to commit. readers knew not to take Bayle’s pre- has come to be known as the free will tense of orthodoxy at face value. The defense. On this view the evil in the world He then adds one of his unusual compli- English deists Toland and Collins were is a consequence of man’s abuse of the ments to Manicheism: “All of this warns strongly influenced by this and other gift of free will: “There are those who say us that we should not enter into dispute of Bayle’s works. The same is true of that God permitted sin because He could with the Manicheans without establish- Mandeville, of whose extreme psycho- not have prevented it without compromis- ing first of all the dogma of ‘the elevation logical egoism Bayle would certainly ing the free agency of man, which was the of faith and the abasement of reason.’” have disapproved. Frederick the Great best gift that He had given him.” Bayle One of the most famous of Leibniz’s called the Dictionaire “the breviary of finds this totally unconvincing: publications, the Théodicée, is a direct good sense.” He had four sets of it in reply to Bayle. This is the book in which his library and arranged the publication We know by the natural light of our Leibniz makes the declaration that intelligence that it is in the essence of a cheaper two-volume edition. Hume of a benefactor to refrain from giving ours is the best of all possible worlds, greatly admired the book and studied it any gift which he knows would be the which was ridiculed by Voltaire both in with great care as a young man. Diderot ruin of the recipient. . . . We also know Candide and in the article “All Is Well” hailed Bayle as “the most redoubtable that it is the essence of a benefactor in his Philosophical Dictionary. I will not exponent of skepticism in either ancient to go to any lengths to assure that here try to explain the often obscure his gifts will procure the happiness of or modern times” and called it his the person whom he is honoring. If he details of Leibniz’s Théodicée. One con- inspiration for the great Encyclopédie. could confer upon the recipient of his stant theme is that, as Leibniz put it in a However, nobody admired Bayle more gifts the ability to use these gifts well letter to Bourguet, that “We can only see than Voltaire, who called him “the great- and then refused to do so, we would a very small part of the chain of things, say that he did not long retain the est dialetician of all times.” It may be characteristics of a benefactor. . . . I and that part, moreover, which displays of interest to mention that two volumes admit that one would not be obliged to the most evil and which is therefore well

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 56 suited to exercise our faith and our love World had.7 sur la Cométe (Miscellaneous Reflections to God.5 )—was published in 1682. Both Bayle and Hume argue that we on the Comet The is very diffuse and A comet that frightened superstitious Théodicée need not go outside the material world often difficult to follow, but fortunate- people had crossed the sky in 1680. A to account for the order we find in the ly Leibniz also published in 1710 an section of Bayle’s book is devoted to universe. The argument is expressed “Abridgement of the .” He there reassuring his readers that comets move Théodicée in one of the speeches of Philo, who enlarges on a theme that he had already through the sky according to fixed laws is Hume’s spokesman in the Dialogues developed in his justly famous essay “On and have no connection with the sins of Concerning Natural Religion: the Ultimate Origin of Things” (1697). human beings. In this book Bayle rejects “There are certain disorders in the Were I obliged to defend any partic- all miracles except those reported in the parts,” we are told, “which marvelously ular system . . . I esteem none more New Testament. He obviously did not enhance the beauty of the whole; just plausible than that which ascribes an believe in these either, but the book could eternal, inherent principle of order as certain dissonances, when properly in the world; though attended with not have been published without such an used, render harmony more beautiful.”6 great and continual revolutions and acknowledgment. The most interesting It should be remarked that the “marvel- alterations. This . . . is, at least, a and controversial part of the book is ous dissonances” would have to include theory, that we must, sooner or later, devoted to questions about the effects, Auschwitz and cancer. Furthermore, in have recourse to, whatever system if any, of religious belief and unbelief on we embrace. How could things have a musical composition we have access been as they are, were there not an morality. According to the conventional to the whole piece. Unfortunately we original, inherent principle of order view belief in divine reward and pun- have never observed the whole that is somewhere, in thought or in matter? ishment promotes morality and unbelief “marvelously enhanced” by such disso- And it is very indifferent to which of results in immorality. Bayle states this these we give the preference. nances as Auschwitz and cancer. Bayle conventional view at the opening of his died in 1706—four years before the pub- A major portion of the section of Bayle’s discussion. lication of the Théodicée. I doubt that it book is devoted to an imaginary discus- Man is naturally reasonable, he never would have made him abandon his view sion between a Stratonician (the athe- desires without a conscious motive, he that Manichaeism is more logical than ist) and a believer in a physical deity necessarily seeks happiness and flees Judeo-Christian theism. unhappiness, and he gives his pref- such as Jupiter: erence to the objects most agreeable Bayle, Hume, and the Order to him. Therefore, if he is convinced If nothing exists without having been that there is a Providence which gov- of the Universe produced by an intelligent cause, then erns the world, from whose workings Hume seems to have been particu- whence, a Stratonician would have nothing escapes, which rewards the asked, come the active virtues of the larly impressed by a section (para- virtuous with an infinite bliss and fire which compose your Jupiter? punishes the wicked with an eter- graph CVI) of one of Bayle’s last books, Have they been given according to a nal torment, he will infallibly follow Continuation des pensées diverses (A cause which preceded Jupiter? This after virtue and the flee vice. . . . If Continuation of a Miscellaneous Works) would involve a progress ad infini- he does not believe in Providence, he of 1705. Bayle’s discussion is prolix tum, and we should never arrive at a will regard his desires as his ultimate first cause. . . . You recognize ordered and somewhat convoluted as a result end and the rule of all his acts. He forces in nature which are neither the will scoff at what others call virtue of his usual pretense to be a friend sequel to nor the result of any knowl- and integrity and will follow only the of traditional theism. Hume summa- edge, although they are accompanied movements of his own lusts. If possi- rized Bayle’s argument in a note that, by knowledge. What is wrong with our ble, he will do away with all those who along with other of his papers, has admitting an order and a determinate displease him. He will perjure himself virtue in a nature which knows noth- for the slightest gain, and if his posi- been preserved by the Royal Society of ing? Once this order exists without tion puts him above human laws, as Edinburgh. It is dated by authorities on knowledge, it will go on so for ever. he has already placed himself above Hume as having been composed prior the remorse of conscience, there is no to 1741. This note contains a more lucid Bayle and Hume would probably add crime which we should not expect of statement of Bayle’s main contention that this order is a mystery which can- him. He is a monster infinitely more dangerous than those fierce beasts, than the one found in the Continuation. not be further explained. This ultimate those lions and mad bulls from which “mystery” has to be distinguished from Hercules delivered Greece. Strato’s Atheism the most dangerous the even more ultimate mystery that of the Ancient, holding to the Origin Experience shows that neither part there is anything at all; i.e., that there of the World from Nature, or a Matter of this correlation is correct: religious endued with Activity. Baile [sic] thinks is something and not nothing. I do not believers are not deterred from evil— there are none but the Cartesians can believe that calling either the order of from cruel and destructive behavior— refute this Atheism. A Stratonician the universe or the fact that there is could retort the Arguments of all the by their fear of divine punishment, and something and not nothing “mysteries” Sects of Philosophy. Of the Stoics, atheists are not immoral just because is particularly illuminating, but it is who maintained God to be fiery and they are not restrained by the fear of compound and of the Platonicians, certainly preferable to bringing in an penalties in a hereafter. The conduct of who asserted the Ideas to be distinct extra-cosmic Designer.8 from the Deity. The same question most human beings is not determined [which Strato might propose to all of Belief, Unbelief, and by the principles to which they pay them], Why the Parts or Ideas of God lip service. It is determined by secular had that particular Arrangement? is Morality sanctions and by what we nowadays as difficult [a question] as why the Bayle’s first major work—Pensées Diverses

57 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 call their character structure. People of every kind will be committed, but no to join so kind and true a religion.” who are cruel will act cruelly, whether more than in a society of believers. Today or not they believe in God and life after we have the benefit of knowing several death, and people who are basically countries where unbelief is dominant. I kind will not act cruelly even if they do have in mind the Scandinavian states and other countries in Europe. The majority of the population of these countries are Bayle extends unbelievers, and their rate of crime com- Notes toleration to Catholics pares favorably with those in which the 1. Anthony Grafton, The Footnote: old religions are still dominant. In one of A Curious History (Cambridge: Harvard and atheists. Only the “Clarifications” in the later editions Univ. Press, 1997), contains a fascinating chapter on Bayle’s use of footnotes. aggressive intolerance of the Dictionary, Bayle observes that “the 2. Ibid., pp. 135–36. worst villains are not atheists” and that 3. Historical and Critical Dictionary, cannot be tolerated. most atheists in history have been virtu- ed. Richard Popkin (Bobs-Merrill, 1965) There is nothing evil ous according to ordinary standards. He and Selections from Bayle’s Dictionary (eds. adds in his usual ironic way that “this E.A. Beller and M.P. Lee, 1952). 4. We are here primarily concerned or sinful about state of affairs is an indication of the with Bayle’s skepticism concerning reli- error as such. infinite wisdom of God and an occasion gious questions, but it should be mentioned for admiring his providence.” that he was also a skeptic in a broader not believe in divine punishment. Bayle sense. In the article on Zeno of Elea, in ‘Compel Them to Come In’ the Dictionary, he offers an elaborate and lists several historical figures who were highly sophisticated argument against the or were reputed to be atheists and who In 1686 Bayle published Commentaire reality of spatial extention. There is a lucid had a high reputation for morality. One Philosophique sur ses Paroles de Jésus Christ: summary of what has come to be known as amusing illustration concerns Contrains—les d’Entrer (A Philosophical “Bayle’s Trilemma” in Simon Blackburn’s Commentary on Christ’s Words “Compel Oxford: Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy a numerous sect of atheists formed in (Oxford Univ. Press, 1996), p. 38. Turkey, composed mostly of cadis and Them to Come In”). This was Bayle’s plea 5. Quoted by Harald Höffding in of people versed in Arabic literature, for religious toleration. It appeared two Volume 1 of A History of Modern Philosophy the partisans of this sect have an years before Locke’s more famous essay (New York: Macmillan, 1916), p. 366. extraordinary affection for one anoth- on the subject.10 6. Leibniz Selections, ed. P.P. Wiener er, that they render each other all (New York: Scribner’s, 1951), p. 518. kinds of good services, that they are Bayle uses many of the same argu- 7. The note is quoted on page 36 of civil and hospitable, and that if a guest ments, but extends toleration to Catholics the Kemp Smith edition of The Dialogues of their persuasion arrives they pro- and atheists. Only aggressive intolerance Concerning Natural Religion (New York: vide their guest with a most improper cannot be tolerated. In his book he begins Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1947). This recreation during the night, but in that by pointing out that all religious and meta- book also contains a translation by Kemp they do nothing of which the other Smith of the whole of Bayle’s text. Turks are not guilty. Therefore, if we physical conclusions are at best doubtful. 8. For a detailed discussion of these compare the life of the other Turks They are always as “fragile as glass.” But “ultimate mysteries” see the section on with that of these atheists, we will even if this were not so, Bayle adds, per- “Logical Positivism and Ultimate Ques find either that there is no difference secution would still never be justified. For tions.” between the two or that the former are 9. Vanini was burnt alive on the day less virtuous than the latter. there is nothing evil or sinful about error of his sentence (February 9, 1611). I as such. Hence all punishment of opinion, quote the following account from J.M. There is also the cased of the “detestable” all compulsion of conscience, is irrational Robertson’s A Short History of Freethought Vanini, “who was burned in Toulouse for and unjust. Today these arguments are (New York: Russell and Russell, 1957), his atheism, had always lived moderately, so widely accepted that they seem almost p. 291. and whoever would have accused him trite, but this was not the case in the Drawn in a hurdle, in his shirt, with a placard on of any criminal deviation, except in his seventeenth century and in many plac- his shoulders inscribed “Atheist and Blasphemer dogmas, would have run a great risk of es even later. It should be remembered of the Name of God,” he went to his death with a 9 high heart, rejoicing, as he cried in Italian, to die being convicted of slander.” Bayle does that Jews and suspected unbelievers were like a philosopher. A Catholic historian, who was not of course seriously assert that Vanini burnt at the stake all over the world until present, says he hardily declared that “Jesus was “detestable”—he was “detestable” to the seventeenth and in some places until facing death sweated with fear: I die undaunt- ed.” But before burning him they tore out his Christians because of his unbelief. the eighteenth century. In writing about tongue by the roots; and the Christian historian Bayle also devotes a section to the religious persecution Bayle loses his usual is humorous over the victim’s long cry of agony. question of whether there could be a calm. In his day Catholics used the biblical 10. Locke spent two years in Rot society of atheists. Voltaire answered text “compel them to come in” as a pretext terdam, but there is no record of a meeting this question with a qualified “yes,” hold- for the persecution of Protestants. This between him and Bayle. There is clear evi- ing that such a society is feasible but phase occurs in one of Christ’s parables dence, however, that he had a high regard for Bayle. In a letter to a friend in 1702 he inferior to a Christian society because as a pressing invitation to dinner. Now it wrote: “Pray give my service particularly the common people need the threat of was used as an excuse for compelling men to Mr. Bayle . . . I value his opinion in the punishment in the next world to be kept to enter a church whose doctrines they first rank.” (Quoted in Howard Robinson, in check. Bayle did not think that a did not accept. “Compel them to come in,” Bayle the Skeptic [New York: 1931], p. 89). society of atheists would be inferior to a Bayle wrote, “means to ravage, kill, and Christian society. He admits that crimes devastate, till the individual dare not refuse

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 58 FAITH AND REASON

theory: both ultimately make God mali- cious. If the goodness of God is to be upheld, and if we do not wish to enter The Problem of into semantic game-playing over the meaning of goodness,3 then it cannot be argued that God allows evil and pain, let alone that He inflicts it upon us, Prayer simply as a means to an end—even if that end is ultimately beneficial—as the mere act of doing so would compromise Bruce Martin Wildish His goodness (a fact that seems all the more obvious when one considers the awesome scale of the pain in the world). n religious philosophy the problem The second theory, sometimes called Moreover, the logic of both theories of evil and pain, called “theodicy,” the “greater good theory” or the “high- falls apart on the observation that so Iarises from the tension between sev- er order goods defense,” has been many of those on the receiving end of eral mandatory yet apparently mutually endorsed by numerous theists. The these pains lose their lives; the dead are exclusive propositions: great Christian apologist C. S. Lewis, obviously in no position to repent, better for example, adopted this position when 1. God is good. themselves, or learn a moral lesson. It he sought to explain pain by suggesting 2. God is all-powerful (almighty). is also obviously unjust to allow some that it was the means by which God 3. Evil and pain exist. individuals (e.g., those who suffer or achieved the willing submission and die) to bear punishments for the sins There can be no doubting the fact of redemption of an otherwise belligerent of others (e.g., the nation as a whole). the third point, and the first two have humanity. As he put it: “pain plants Of course, neither theory accounts for been fundamental to the theology of the flag of truth within the fortress of a so-called natural evils, e.g., natural 2 most major religious faiths since their rebel soul.” In other words, by allowing disasters, accidents, and other “acts of inception. Indeed, few people would see us to experience pain, God motivates us God,” which are themselves the source much point in believing in or worship- to surrender ourselves to Him, wherein of uncountable suffering and pain in ing a God who is not good, or one with lies our only hope of salvation and gen- the world. limited control over the natural world. uine happiness. Lewis also suggested For these reasons and others, most Hence the need for believers to rec- that pain is the means by which good- theists have turned to the free will argu- oncile the necessary attributes of God ness is realized: it provides opportuni- ment to reconcile the fact of pain with with a world that is, by all appearances, ties unavailable in other ways for the belief in a good God. The argument has characterized by indiscriminate evil and betterment of human character and the been expressed in various ways, but can pain rather than the rule of a good God. production of good deeds. be summed up in the following manner: Solutions to this problem have gener- The third theory overlaps the second humanity has been given the right of free ally fallen into four categories: to some extent, but reflects a more neg- intent and self-determination in order to ative perspective. It suggests that we 1. Evil and pain are a natural conse- make life meaningful. Evil and pain inev- suffer pain as a consequence of our own quence of humans having free will. itably result from our freedom of choice, sinful behavior. God, it is held, uses pain 2. God allows evil and pain as a means because certain individuals invariably as a disciplinary device, whether by to an end, which is ultimately good. elect to express their right of free choice simply withdrawing His protection and 3. Evil and pain are a consequence in a manner harmful to others. The only allowing us to reap the consequences of our own sinful behavior and are per- way to prevent evil and pain therefore of our actions, or by actively bringing mitted by God as a form of punishment. would be for God to constantly inter- harm upon us. The underlying thinking 4. Evil and pain are a mystery under- vene to prevent such individuals from here is that the fear of pain encourag- standable only to God. expressing their free will. es and promotes righteous behavior. At first glance this argument would We shall give no consideration here to This is known in biblical scholarship seem to escape the moral and logical the last of these theories—not because as “retribution theology,” and it can dilemmas posed by the arguments previ- it is undeserving of any consideration,1 be most clearly seen at work in the ously discussed, because it ascribes all but simply because once the problem has books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, responsibility for the pains of the world been declared an impenetrable mystery Samuel, and Kings (wherein the misfor- not to God, but to human beings. It also explanations become unnecessary—as tunes of Israel throughout its history has the benefit of being consistent with do all attempts to relate the problem to are explained as the result of its ongo- observation, since we certainly perceive other aspects of faith, such as prayer. ing sins and God’s attempts to force its ourselves as free-willed creatures, and people into a state of repentance). there can be little doubt that much of the Bruce Martin Wildish has published articles Few religious thinkers today endorse pain we experience in life arises from on skepticism, humanism, and religion. the preceding theory, for much the same some of our own choices and actions. reason that they reject the greater good Yet in spite of these observations, the

59 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 free will argument is not without its own thing that happens in the world—includ- the vast majority of prayers answered. problems. In the first place, the problem ing our actions—must occur by the con- So many people of faith would have of natural evil is still unresolved: appeals sent of God and must be in accord with us believe that God is routinely inter- to free will do not, for example, explain His will. Yet if this is the case then what vening in the daily lives of believers the the pain and suffering that arise from does it mean to say that human will is natural disasters such as earthquakes. free? The very freedom humans have More critically, there is a certain to do evil and cause harm, which must “The majority of theists ambiguity in the very idea of free will be contrary to the will of a good God, that enables advocates of this theory to implies that God has no such power and have turned to the free define the terms of the discussion in a thereby invalidates His omnipotence. will argument in order manner that is most convenient to them. This is not the place to review the many Consequences for Prayer to reconcile the fact of philosophical complexities of such sub- If the forgoing analysis has any mer- pain with belief in a jects as will, freedom, intent, or their rela- its, then traditional theology has so far tionship to morality, ethics, and respon- failed to provide an adequate solution good God.” sibility; suffice it to say that the free will to the theodicy problem. Yet in spite of argument presupposes a very particular this fact, all of the theories just men- world over to maximize the quality of conception of each of these subjects and tioned continue to enjoy varying degrees their lives, yet at the same time makes derives much of its force from this fact. of support among believers, the free no effort to mitigate the horrendous evils Consider for example the premise that will argument most of all. Likewise it and pains of the world because to do so an individual has been denied his or her is probably fair to say that virtually all would somehow deprive us of our free free will if God uses His powers of influ- believers, regardless of the manner by will. The illogic and perniciousness of ence to affect his or her behavior so as which they account for the existence this kind of thinking should be obvious. to ensure a particular outcome (e.g., to of evil and pain in the world, consider And the effort of believers to address prevent a tragedy). This would seem to prayer a perfectly legitimate practice in this obvious problem by appealing to the follow, if by free will one means nothing its own right and regard it as especially unique and incomprehensible wisdom more than the right of the individual to useful as a response to pain and trauma. of God only serves as an admission that act as he or she sees fit at all times. But it It is somewhat astonishing then that their views about prayer cannot be ratio- does not follow that an individual whose few believers have observed the fun- nally defended. actions have been selectively constrained damental contradiction at work here. has been robbed of his or her freedom. The efficacy of prayer5 is predicated on Notes One’s capacity for intent and choice is the idea that humans can affect God’s 1. This is after all, the view not invalidated by mere limitations or actions, and that God is willing and able, espoused in the book of Job, one restrictions on one’s actions, an import- if and when He so chooses, to intervene of the most literate and intellectually respectable contributions to the ant distinction that goes unrecognized by in the world on behalf of those doing the Hebrew Bible. Later editors of the the free will argument. praying. The act of prayer would be of book tried to conceal this fact by add- Likewise, the assumption that human little comfort if one fully expected God to ing to it the existing prologue and epi- beings are reduced to the status of sim- be consistently unresponsive. logue sections wherein the sufferings ple automatons if their capacity for free Yet the free will argument requires of Job are made the work of a minor deity in the court of God known as the action is in any way compromised is an one to assume just that. Since it accounts satan (not the Devil of later Judeo- extremely shaky one, to say the least. If for the pervasiveness of evil and pain Christian mythology). the only choices being subverted here by claiming that God allows humans to 2. C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain are those that lead to pain or harm,4 experience a world of their own making, (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. 1962), p. 95. why is having such choices important? good or bad, it can hardly accommodate 3. As, for example, when C.S. Is the essence and value of freedom to be the notion that God is willing to intercede Lewis insisted that we could not judge tied so intimately with the right to cause in the world at our behest in order to God’s conception of goodness by our harm or pain to others? By what possible serve our needs or spare us pain. The own, thus negating the argument that logic can it be argued that those with two positions presuppose entirely oppo- a good God would necessarily prevent evil and pain. The flaw in this kind of harmful intentions are not free of mind site state of affairs: one in which God thinking should be readily obvious. It and will unless they are permitted to act is active in the world to serve the wish- does not address the problem at all out their intentions? If no one is genu- es and address the concerns of human but instead evades it through careful inely free unless able to express oneself beings, and one in which He is not. The equivocation: it obscures the meaning of goodness in order to admit conduct in the doing of harm, then freedom itself existence of evil and pain cannot be that would otherwise be excluded. appears immoral. explained by appeal to a policy of non- 4. I leave it to God to work out the Finally, the premise that our wills are interference on God’s part if at the same logistics of how to do this. This should completely free would seem to stand in time we wish to cling to the notion that not pose a problem if He is indeed contradiction to the notion that God is God is willing to affect circumstances on omniscient and omnipotent. 5. We are speaking here of the omnipotent. If God is indeed all-powerful our behalf in response to prayer. This most common form of prayer, peti- and exercises supreme control over the point becomes all the more obvious when tionary prayer, wherein the penitent fate of the natural world, including that we recognize that it would be in the abo- makes some sort of request of God. of humanity, then it follows that every- lition of pain that we would expect to see

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 60 APPLIED ETHICS

right, too. This is unique, and it is best explained by reference to our freedom to choose. Not only is ethics dependent The Benefits of on this unique human feature we have, but so is disagreement, as well as diversity, cultural or personal. Selfishness If this is anywhere near what is true “To be selfish might Tibor R. Machan turn out to imply that any moons ago I encountered human being is indeed ignoble, lowly, a properly selfish Ayn Rand’s ideas, and one of and something to be restrained and person would be Mher more contentious ones dealt re-educated. But is that really how we with selfishness. Rand believed that one all are by nature? careful, prudent, ought to be selfish. Now, this seems an One reason Hobbes thought we are odd notion for a serious person to hold, is that he believed we simply follow the and as good at and Rand was nothing if not serious. Say laws of physics—classical mechanics, `a selfish and people think “cruel,” “thought- la Galileo and Newton—and strive with being human as less,” “mean,” “uncaring,” and so forth. no restraints other than the forces we one possibly can.” Why would anyone defend selfishness? find blocking us. Without such forces, we would just move ahead like particles of matter. Hobbes was a materialist; for him we are all just pieces of stuff moving “Given a robust, forward and overpowering whatever we about us, then why would it be so bad to can. be selfish? We would, of course, have to humanistic But physical matter does not think re-conceive our nature. Instead of the about how to act. It does not reflect Hobbesian idea that we just want power, understanding of on itself or ponder issues of right and we may have to consider that we choose one’s self, it could wrong. It is not free to decide whether to want one thing or another and that to do one thing or another. we aren’t hard-wired to want power. turn out to be a very People, however, are free. This con- But then we no longer have a self that’s fine thing, indeed, cept is probably difficult to fathom for bent on mischief. It is, rather, a self that those who believe that we are nothing (a) can choose what to do, and (b) may to be selfish, most special in nature, that we have the same well have a great capacity to excel, to of the time.” status as rocks or pebbles or trees, be good at being human. Selfish, now, driven by hard-wiring, with all notions would come to imply not nastiness but about freedom and decision and choice creativity, productivity, industriousness, just a myth, an ancient prejudice. But it rationality, and a whole lot of very good Well, to start with, the term selfish is simply undeniable, once it is thought things indeed. To be selfish might turn acquired much of its decidedly negative out. For one, we are unique in that we out to imply that a properly selfish per- connotation from English philosopher, not only make mistakes but are often son would be careful, prudent, and as Thomas Hobbes, who argued that the wilfully just wrong and, indeed, often good at being human as one possibly can. “self” of a human being is a pretty nasty do wrong. Even in considering what Language is not easily malleable but thing. “Brutish, nasty, solitary” is how I write here, there will be those who it does contain some almost perpetu- he characterized our lives and, by impli- dispute my words and think me silly for ally controversial notions—“freedom,” cation, us all, unless we are reshaped what I think. Why are so many people “democracy,” “justice,” “liberty,” and, up by others, the state, or something wrong, if not about this issue than about yes, maybe even “self” and “selfish.” Just foreign. By ourselves we are supposedly many others? (One always believes that because a given understanding of such interested in nothing but power and, others are wrong when one claims one concepts has taken center stage for a indeed, in overpowering others. is right, even if one thinks that “right” good while, it does not follow that it is the Clearly, if this is true, then the and “wrong” are silly notions. But then best understanding. And it seems to me those who disagree are wrong.) How is that, given a robust, humanistic under- Tibor R. Machan teaches at the Argyros all this possible? standing of one’s self, it could turn out to School of Business and Economics at One reason is that we choose to think be a very fine thing, indeed, to be selfish, Chapman University. He is the author of differently from one another. Humans most of the time. It would do, to quote Initiative—Human Agency and Society are the only animals in nature that Nathaniel Branden, who wrote a book (Hoover Institu tion Press, 2000). think and are, thus, often wrong—and about this, “to honor the self.”

61 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 GOD ON TRIAL

are applicable to the whole population. They are not laws respecting an establishment of religion. Since killing children Religion, Death, and by substituting prayer for necessary medical procedures is a criminal offense for Catholics, that makes it a criminal offense the Law “Since killing children by substituting prayer William Harwood for necessary medical procedures is a here are American states in or jury verdict that denies adherents of criminal offense for which Jehovah’s Witnesses and a minority religion or belief system the Catholics, that makes TChristian Scientists who kill their rights granted to practitioners of all other children by denying them lifesaving belief systems would be unconstitutional. it a criminal offense for blood transfusions or other medical pro- Christians are permitted to swear oaths cedures can escape the consequences of on the sacred book of their choice; there- Christian Scientists and their crime by pleading “freedom of reli- fore Jews and Muslims must be permitted Jehovah’s Witnesses as gion.” Currently, thirty-nine states’ civil to swear oaths on the sacred books of codes include religious exemptions from their choice, and nontheists permitted to well.” child abuse or neglect charges, while “affirm” rather than “swear” under the for Christian Scientists and Jehovah’s thirty-one allow a religious defense to a same penalty of perjury. Witnesses as well. Any law giving those criminal charge.1 In a study of 172 child But just as the First Amendment pro- religions the right to withhold lifesav- deaths where medical treatment was hibits denying to adherents of designated ing procedures from children is therefore withheld on religious grounds, it was religions rights granted to all others, so unconstitutional. Neither Congress nor a found that 140 children would have had does it prohibit granting to designated court can make such a law. at least a 90 percent likelihood of surviv- religions rights not enjoyed by all others. Even in parts of the world that have al with medical care.2 Laws criminalizing homicide by neglect no equivalent of America’s First Amend The 1996 Federal Child Abuse Pre vention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) did not include “a Federal requirement that a parent or guardian provide Saying My Promises a child any medical service or treatment against the religious beliefs of the Karl Wickstrom parent or guardian.”3 A senator from Indiana and a congressman from Penn Countless secular humanists have sought various ways to promote personal commitments as sylvania, both Republicans (so what meaningful substitutes for prayer. “Saying My Promises” is suggested as a hybridization of our thoughts for use by youngsters. else is new?), have actually argued that These general concepts are not wholly new, I hasten to note, and I especially acknowledge parents have a First Amendment right Family Matters reader Dawn DeGrazio for her input along these lines published previously. to withhold medical care from their I would envision “Saying My Promises” to be designed and printed in a published format children.4 Even in those states where suitable for hanging in children’s bedrooms and other locations. As you readily see, these promises homicidal child neglect is prosecuted, represent a beginning-level representation of our Affirmations, to be expanded upon for young defendants are allowed to offer the jury people as they develop. Behind this, of course, is our belief that the promulgation of sound human values need never a defense based on sectarian beliefs not be dependent on varying church dogma or outdated revelations. Our children can develop charac- held by other religions. Why? ter at its highest level through rational and critical thought. The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting I promise to myself and all others an establishment of religion, or prohib- iting the free exercise thereof.” Under . . . to be a good person. that amendment, any law, court ruling, . . . to help other people. . . . to help make the world better. William Harwood is the editor/translator . . . to care for my mind and body. of The Judaeo-Christian Bible Fully Translated (Booksurge.com) and the . . . to be true to my ideals and friends. author of several novels including Uncle Yeshu, Messiah, and The Autobiography Karl Wickstrom is a secular humanist residing in Florida. of God (Xlibris.com).

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 62 ment, nobody has ever suggested that screaming with outrage and demanding parents choose to let them die? Their Thuggs and Assassins, whose religions the same “right to life” for children whose silence is deafening. demand that they ritually sacrifice out- siders, should be able to violate laws pro- Notes Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, South hibiting homicide by pleading “freedom 1. Iowa and Ohio allow a religious Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, of religion.” Why should America, which defense for manslaughter. Delaware and West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Since 1990, does prohibit special rights to religion, West Virginia allow a religious defense for some similar laws have been repealed in the murder of a child. Arkansas allows a Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, be less strict? Freedom of religion does religious defense for capital murder. Oregon Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, not include the freedom to kill. And what allows a religious defense for homicide Oregon, and South Dakota. of the religions that are trying to force by abuse. States with a religious defense 2. Pediatrics, 101 (April 1998): 625–29. whole populations that disagree with for child endangerment, criminal abuse 3. Sec. 113, Rule of Construction. or neglect, and cruelty to children include 4. For additional information see www. them to grant a “right to life” to prehu- Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, childrenshealthcare.org man tadpoles with zero brainwave activi- Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, ty indicative of human thought? Are they Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New

(Letters cont’d. from p. 8) for Flynn’s bold statement to be widely any of those groups. It does not seem publicized: “If your life is yours, then it fair to require students to fund groups is no one else’s business if you choose to in which they are by charter disbarred The Case against Euthanasia and Phy- discontinue having experiences.” from achieving leadership positions. sician-assisted Suicide, McGill Queen’s Elizabeth A. Wood Kaminer’s argument would be valid if, University Press, 2001). I agree that we Freehold, New Jersey as she assumes, the groups were really must kill the pain, but we must not kill the “private,” but this term cannot apply to patient with the pain. Indeed, that is never groups that are communally funded. The necessary as total sedation, in the rare cases Discrimination groups could rent a hall in a church or where pain is otherwise unrelievable, should synagogue, pay for it themselves, and always be available to all who need it, as, Under Siege then legitimately restrict membership to of course, should fully adequate pain relief their hearts’ and souls’ content. treatment. No lawyer, I nonetheless disagree with Roger Plumsky Wendy Kaminer (“Religion Is Under Johnsonburg, Pennsylvania Congratulations on having the courage Siege, Really,” FI, Spring 2003) in her to publish Tom Flynn’s op-ed in support attack on the Rutgers University deci- Wendy Kaminer responds: of the right of an individual to choose sion against religious groups that insist to terminate his own life (“The Final that their leaders espouse religious val- Mr. Plumsky raises a good question, but Freedom,” FI, Spring 2003). We read in ues. I do not know what considerations there is, I think, a good answer to it. If other places about physician-assisted informed the Rutgers decision, but I Rutgers University were to deny a share of suicide for those suffering severe pain argue that, because presumably all stu- student fees to student religious organizations in a terminal illness, but it is time to dents pay some kind of “activity fee,” because of their religious ideals, it would be agree that it is each person’s right to or else some portion of their university engaging in viewpoint discrimination clearly decide when to die. Few others are fees is dedicated to the support of recog- prohibited by the First Amendment. Fees willing to admit that the person does nized campus groups, then all students must be allocated evenly to religious and not have to be terminally ill. It is time should be eligible to participate fully in (Continued on page 70)

(Editorial cont’d. from p. 6) so adversely affect human civilization exercised freedom of the press. I would in the present. We thus call for a New identify at least three areas in which we questions, in achieving, especially at the Enlightenment, a rediscovery and a reaf- have taken stands on political issues. present juncture, a cultural renaissance firmation of the highest values of which First, we have objected to the recent or cultural reformation. We should con- humans are capable. threats to our liberties on the part of centrate on that. We offer a distinctive the George W. Bush administration: the set of intellectual and normative values. here does this leave us on the Homeland Security and PATRIOT acts, We emphasize the importance of reason W key principle of politics? I think the suppression of civil liberties, the ero- and critical thinking, and we wish to that secular humanists need to speak sion of our liberties by moneyed interests use these methods in order to reformu- out critically about present trends and lobbies, the control of the media by late and refashion our values, and to in the United States. The Council for conglomerates with their smothering of raise the quality of taste and the level Secular Humanism has not in itself dissent, and the emergence of a plu- of appreciation in society. Humanism taken corporate positions—and will not tocracy based on wealth and property. is life-affirming; it is positive and con- do so unless there is a clear and present All of these trends will if unchecked structive. If applied, it would enable us danger to our very democratic liber- undermine our democratic institutions. to reform human culture by transcend- ties. Free Inquiry, however, does take We are especially concerned about the ing the ancient religious, racial, ethnic, positions. The magazine has autonomy growing apathy of the young in politics, and ideological dogmas of the past that of expression. And the editors have perhaps as a result of the pervasiveness

63 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 of mass media violence, sensationalism, crat) parties. Free Inquiry has indeed planet Earth, rising far beyond any nar- and mind-numbing entertainment. given space to alternative viewpoints, row focus on ethnic, racial, religious, or Second, we have questioned the cur- particularly about foreign policy. Later nationalistic chauvinism (see Humanist rent direction of American foreign poli- in this op-ed section, we present five Manifesto 2000). This underlies our sup- cy, with its broad-ranging antipathy to essays embodying a wide range opinion port for the development of global insti- a peaceful world order, to the United on the Iraq war, which includes both anti- tutions that can provide conditions of Nations, and to the development of insti- war essays and defenses of the war by peace, security, economic well being, cul- tutions of world government. Appar Edward Tabash and Steve Hirsch. Two tural education, and enrichment for every ently, U.S. foreign policy is to be driven of our marquee columnists, Christopher person on the planet. We are thus opposed by a greedy “National Security Strat Hitchens and Nat Hentoff, have voiced to any effort to encourage a world of egy” under which we may carry out pre- outspoken support for the war in other competing nationalistic rivalries; and we emptive strikes anywhere in the world. media and would be welcome to do so in believe in building a world community. Does this mean that a new and imperial Free Inquiry if they chose. pax Americana shall dominate the world, Free Inquiry’s masthead states that n conclusion, the secular humanist replacing the policies of deterrence and “opinions expressed do not necessarily I movement does not have a narrow the balance of power? Our unilateralism reflect the views of the editors or publish- political agenda nor a party platform. has offended our friends all over the er.” A free press is vital to our democracy Broadly speaking, we are committed world, for we have abandoned many of and the secular humanist movement. to the application of the method of intel- the ideals that inspired the American Thus there is editorial autonomy for the ligence to the solution of political and dream—ideals of individual freedom, editors and columnists. We recognize social problems. This is the purpose equality of opportunity, human rights, and cherish diversity of opinion. Unlike of the Center for Inquiry, of which the and democracy. the Vatican or the Southern Baptist Council is a part: to apply reason, sci- Third, and perhaps least controver- Convention, secular humanism has no ence, and free inquiry to all areas of sially for humanists, we have objected to compulsory dogmas. On the other hand, human concern, and to develop rational this administration’s egregious violation we do have a set of ethical principles that ethical and social alternatives. of the separation of church and state by is central to our humanist commitment. I We recognize that many socio-political championing faith-based charities and submit that the editors can and indeed problems are very complex and often dif- similar measures. It distresses us that do speak out on the following moral-po- ficult to solve. There are no simple solu- the president uses his office as a bully litical issues, as broadly drawn: tions. We appeal to committed naturalists pulpit to further the ends of Evangelical First, we are committed to free inqui- and secular humanists who accept our Christianity. Surely President Bush has ry, the free mind, freedom of research, basic scientific, philosophical, and ethi- the right to his own religious convictions, respect for civil liberties, and the cal premises, yet may sincerely disagree but it is disturbing when he and his admin- open democratic society. This entails with any of the above political choices: do istration invoke them to establish policies the right to believe, or not believe, in not abandon us, but rather argue your that threaten our secular democracy. In prevailing religious or ideological doc- convictions with equal intensity. our view, the Bush presidency has been trines. We object to any effort to censor Humanists bring to the bargaining captured by the Radical Right and an or prohibit dissent and restrict liberty. table a unique kind of optimism about the alliance of Protestant Evangelicals, con- Second, we defend the separation human prospect. We respect diversity of servative Roman Catholics, and Orthodox of church and state and the secular opinion, including differences among our- neoconservative Jews. This alliance is state. Accordingly we are strong critics selves. We believe that rational discourse bringing into being a new monotheistic of efforts to impose theocratic or qua- is preferable to violence and warfare, quasi-theocracy. Its moral-religious out- si-theocratic measures. that compromise is superior to conflict, look spills out into the political sphere in Third, in endorsing freedom of the that debate and deliberation comprise the nomination of arch-conservative judg- individual, we embrace the right of the best method for resolving differences. es, and also in such policies as the admin- privacy. This encompasses freedom of We should, as best we can, raise our istration’s opposition to any support for conscience, the right to control one’s voices loud and clear in the current mael- population assistance to the developing body, reproductive freedom, contra- strom of conflicting opinions. The secular world. A political posture that affects ception, euthanasia, abortion, and humanist position is an honorable one. It every aspect of American life has been sexual freedom between consenting is based on deeply held convictions, root- inspired by a theological-moral outlook; adults, all of which we have consis- ed in reason, and focused on an ethical and we have every right to protest. tently defended. concern to enhance, fulfill, and realize We have published these strong Fourth, as democratic humanists we human happiness, peace, and tranquility dissenting opinions about the current believe in equality of opportunity, equal on the globe. This point, though so bril- policies of the administration in Free access, and fair treatment of all indi- liantly apparent to us, remains a minority Inquiry magazine and on our Web site; viduals in society. We have supported position in the world today. Yet we need though some secular humanists have the rights of women, gays, handicapped to affirm it. objected and they have accused us of people, Blacks, Hispanics, nonbelievers, And in that sense, we need to need being left wing (which is unfair). The and other minorities. to take strong moral-political stances key editors who signed that represent Fifth, we believe in Planetary Hum when basic values are endangered. the Libertarian, Republican, Democratic, anism, which applies the principles of Independent, and Green (Social Demo ethics to all humans anywhere on the

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conformists put them outside much of Secular Humanists by Any English society. But this form of ostracism had its benefits. Uglow writes that ther ame this “apparent disadvantage . . . proved O N a real strength, since they were unham- pered by old traditions of deference and stuffy institutions” (p. xiv). Later the Enlightenment Origins author argues that their exclusion from the traditional English universities such as Cambridge and Oxford turned out to Jerry Kurlandski be, intellectually, a boon to the noncon- formists and, indeed, to all of British The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World, by Jenny culture. For instead of pursuing a cur- Uglow (New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2002, ISBN 0-374- riculum based largely on the classics, 19440-8) 588 pp. Cloth $30.00. Dissenters were forced to go to Europe or Scotland, where they studied topics such as history, politics, mathematics, and science. Many, including Priestley, he Affirmations of Humanism: For the most part, the Lunar Men would go on to found dissenting acade- A Statement of Principles,” were Dissenters, Protestants not mem- mies in England. “Twhich appears in every issue bers of the Church of England. Probably Whether by education or natural of Free Inquiry, is without question a not one of these five would have referred inclination, the members of the Lunar document of our time, a good number of to himself as an atheist. Looked at from Society were for the most part practical the principles reflecting, as they do, pres- our vantage point, however, it seems men, not philosophers. The ideas of ent-day concerns. Yet at least an equal that the brand of religious nonconformi- the Enlightenment that they put in- number of them seem more timeless, as ty espoused by many of them had little in to practice came from thinkers like if they could have been written centu- common with conventional Christianity. John Locke, Adam Smith, and David ries ago. Jenny Uglow’s The Lunar Men Yet even those who did not believe in Hume, and to a lesser extent from serves as a reminder of the debt secular an omniscient, omnipotent god actively the philosophes on the other side of humanism owes to the Enlightenment, involved in the daily affairs of the world the Channel. Although few if any of the main intellectual force of the eigh- clung to some notion of God. Priestley, the members of the Lunar Society ex teenth century. for example, thought that the chief aim pressed strictly atheistic views, this More a social club than a profes- of science was to uncover “the workings group of freethinkers and scientists fig- sional organization, the Lunar Society of Providence in nature” (p. 71). ures as an intellectual ancestor of athe- was composed largely of British ama- The book opens a window to a time ist organizations such as the Council teur scientists and professional tinker- when faith was considered as much a for Secular Humanism. As hinted at ers. The book’s subtitle, Five Friends defining characteristic of a person as the beginning of this review, many of Whose Curiosity Changed the World, refers his or her trade. Sometimes the Lunar the Council’s Principles follow quite to Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Men found themselves suffering dis- naturally from the commitment to rea- Charles, and a formulator of an early crimination for their religious views. On son, pursuit of scientific knowledge, form of the theory of evolution); Joseph discovering and pondering the implica- and allegiance to civil liberties that the Priestley (one of the discoverers of oxy- tions of fossils on the floor of a series Lunar Society’s members so whole- gen and a Unitarian leader); James Watt of caves in Castleton, Erasmus Darwin heartedly embraced. (inventor of the steam engine); Matthew added to the family crest displayed on The specifically religious slant on The Boulton (the manufacturer and engineer his carriage door the phrase “E conchis Lunar Society that this review takes does who financed Watt’s steam engine); omnia” (“Everything from shells,” in ref- Jenny Uglow a disservice. In fact the and Josiah Wedgewood (of Wedgewood erence to the idea that all life may have work makes great effort to present its pottery fame, known for his scientific evolved from mollusks). Certain influen- historical characters and their times in approach to the craft). The actual mem- tial people considered this blasphemy, full. It is not a terribly long book, but its bership roster list went well beyond that, however, and—lest his medical practice depth and breadth are impressive. The but these five formed the core of the club, suffer—he felt obliged to remove the author’s writing style remains concise, which lasted over thirty years, from the offending line. Similarly, Priestley was clear, and always engaging. Beautifully 1760s until it sputtered to an end some invited to serve as astronomer on James illustrated with evocative portraits, car- time after the French Revolution. Cook’s second voyage, only to have toons, and technical drawings, The Lunar his appointment blocked because of his Men is a book you will want to take off Jerry Kurlandski is a software engineer cur- religious beliefs. As Uglow points out in the shelf and page through even after rently involved in natural language process- another context, “Religion and politics having read it cover to cover. ing applications. He lives in Morristown, and science all swept together” (p. 75). New Jersey. Thus, their position as religious non-

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famous Blank Slate argument that “There Nature vs. Nurture: is nothing in the intellect that was not first in the senses.” Leibniz replied by repeat- he ontroversy ontinues ing the statement and adding “except the T C C intellect itself.” The Noble Savage is usually associated with Jean Jacques Rousseau, a Stuart Jordan brilliant writer whose stirring words have been invoked to stimulate both demo- The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, by Steven Pinker (New cratic political movements as well as York, N.Y.: Viking Press 2002, ISBN 0-670-03151-8) 439 pp. Cloth fascist and communist uprisings. The $27.95. Noble Savage thesis defines the human being as entirely “good” in his or her nature. However, according to this doctrine, this person has been corrupted by he question of how much our In response to the fascists’ horren- a bad society. The obvious solution, it is genes contribute to what makes dous actions, courageous political and often argued, is “revolution.” Darwinian Tus human continues to be highly social liberals stoutly opposed them. evolution makes the Noble Savage controversial within certain academic Understandably, but often without much concept untenable, unless one defines as well as many religious circles. In critical thought, many of these same lib- good as whatever has evolved. Pinker this book, without denying the clear erals attacked with equal vigor the entire demonstrates that, since evolution is a importance of either culture or personal body of biological science they associated response to a complex, often unpredict- circumstances as co-determinants, the with the repressors. Research into genet- able environment, our inherited capacity author demolishes three popular ideas ics was not popular on American univer- to respond flexibly to different challenges that attempt to deny the role, or to sity campuses for a least two generations and opportunities was essential for our reduce the role, of our biological human after World War II, even though it can be survival. Genes have given us a versatility nature. He also shows that the fears documented that most of the scientists in beyond any social doctrine. raised by abandoning these ideas are this field were political liberals, as well as Pinker’s demonstrations may be largely chimerical, concluding with the freethinkers and/or atheists. distressing to radical-liberals and athe- argument that only by understanding To reinforce their denial of, or at least ists who have replaced belief in a God our genetic heritage can we hope to their distaste for, human nature and to with hopes for a perfectible humanity. advance toward many of the goals most give their viewpoint academic standing, However, he also takes on religion by dis- progressive thinkers espouse. many liberal thinkers have made use of posing of “the Ghost in the Machine.” Of Before detailing specifics of this book, two concepts that modern biology (after course this ghost is really “the immortal it is useful to consider the historical Darwin) has completely discredited. The soul” and “the source of free will” in the context. Political reactionaries have long first is the notion of the tabula rasa, or the minds of the religious. Even many modern touted “human nature” as the stumbling Blank Slate. The second is the notion of theologians despair of finding this wraith block that frustrates attempts to improve the Noble Savage. Both concepts suggest in the natural world today, and ask us to the human condition. This argument has that, through proper education and social believe in it by taking “a leap of faith.” In been used repeatedly by traditionalists engineering, humanity should be able to response, Pinker notes the neurophysi- to defend an existing order, which has create Utopia and achieve “the perfect- ological evidence that, once a person is included many repressive regimes. The ibility of man.” B.F. Skinner’s operant aware of making a decision, the measured Nazis made use of a corrupted form of conditioning and the Marxist’s new com- electrochemical processes in the brain Darwin’s ideas to rationalize their racist munist man are among many proposed associated with that decision have already theories and genocidal practices. They applications, few of which are still taken occurred. If these results apply always, it mixed bad science with mythical and seriously today . . . except in certain doesn’t leave much for the ghost to do. mystical nonsense to gain and hold onto deeply entrenched academic circles. Having effectively struck down the power. Yet, they were highly successful The Blank Slate hypothesis states that conscious or subliminal beliefs of many for a while, raising the questions of how the mind of the infant starts out with no modern academics as well as many of and why they prevailed. Pinker argues genetically molded organizational struc- the religious, Pinker demonstrates that that biological factors, among others, tures, so essentially anything can be “writ- our genetic background gives us more contributed to this tragedy, noting that ten” upon it. Pinker makes numerous grounds for hope than despair. Our innate the least free person is the one unaware simple arguments refuting this concept. capacity for empathy, properly devel- of those influences that have at least He notes that the philosopher Locke— oped, usually can and does overcome our partly determined him. famous for advancing the Blank Slate most disturbing selfish impulses, which Stuart Jordan is a senior staff scientist at hypothesis—admitted that the tabula rasa themselves may be necessary under cer- NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and must also contain “the understanding” . . . tain conditions that can still arise in president of the Washington Area Secular but then failed to define what he meant by human affairs. Game theory shows that Humanists. it. Pinker quotes Leibniz’s rejoinder to a vengeance is usually destructive, though

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punishing cheaters is often a good idea. “memes” we develop, if based on firm book is written with humor and style, Reciprocal altruism is almost always knowledge, may yet permit us to go well and is wonderfully humanistic. good (and a strong genetic basis for our beyond the selfish genes that have so When physicist Richard Feynman affinity for justice and equal benefits strongly influenced our history to date. wrote President Reagan about the explo- in relationships) but a specieswide pro- Even one well-known religious leader sion of the NASA Shuttle Challenger in pensity for martyrdom would clearly be long ago observed that it was the truth 1986, he ended with the statement “You bad. And so on. In short, love, friendship, that would make us free. Current notions can’t fool nature.” Given that we are part science, art, love of adventure, delight of truth have just become more refined. of nature, I believe Steven Pinker’s book in nature, and much, much more are all Like many popular books this one can be summarized as “In a world of outgrowths of what we are by nature, could have been shorter, but I found it WMDs (weapons of mass destruction), and to better understand this is to better all fascinating. I especially recommend perhaps the time has come for us to promote it, and also to rub off more of the Parts I and II and the concluding section, stop fooling ourselves about ourselves.” rough edges that have caused humani- Part VI. The rest of the book focuses Sounds like good advice to me. ty so much excess suffering through the more on applications of the main ideas, ages. No less a committed sociobiologist including some issues that remain unset- than Richard Dawkins argues that the tled to date. Nevertheless, the entire

ly), but upbeat nevertheless. Allen’s own A Rich Resource for Humanists concluding contribution ends with words that capture the prevailing outlook of the authors in the book almost perfectly: Ed Buckner “Confident humanists refuse to give up. We will move forward and we will do The Black Humanist Experience: An Alternative to Religion, edited by Norm R. much good in the world. In the words of Confucius, ‘It is better to light one candle Allen, Jr. (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2003, ISBN 1-57392-- than to curse the darkness.’” 967-0) 167 pp. Cloth $24. Humor, in quick flashes or in more sustained passages, can be found frequently. Examples include Allen’s own f there are readers anywhere naïve The authors range from famous, description of his erotic reaction to enough to think that secular human- well-established philosophers, writ- the biblical description of the Queen Iism is exclusively or even mostly a ers, intellectuals, and activists such as of Sheba, Leo Igwe’s parting declara- “White” or European phenomenon, Norm Leonard Harris, Carolyn Dejoie, Leo tion to his bishop (“My Lord, I want to R. Allen, Jr.’s latest book will quickly Igwe, Charles Faulkner, and Anthony go and think”), and several passages broaden their understanding. This is Pinn to relative newcomers like Keenya in Patrick Inniss’s funny and engaging a lively, intellectually stimulating col- Oliver and David Allen (Norm’s broth- essay. Inniss wrote, among other gems,“- lection of essays in support of rational- er). The ideas and experiences recount- Forget the problem of the existence of ism and humanism and in opposition to ed cover a wide range. Many empha- evil, or God’s failure to relieve the suf- ignorance and despair. I was a friend, size personal journeys to rationalism fering of innocents. Why did he permit colleague, and great admirer of Allen’s and humanism, while others tend more that booger to swing on the tip of Father before I read this book, but the book toward abstract and theoretical exposi- Sherman’s nose?” That essay ends much constitutes a sufficient new ground for tions. What all the essays have in com- more soberly and seriously, and a bit anyone’s admiration. The Black Humanist mon is clear writing, interesting ideas, pessimistically, but it is worth your time Experience is a rich, well-organized and surprising details. for laughs and for insights. resource for humanists, especially sec- The most pessimistic essay is per- When a second edition of this fine vol- ular humanists. Framed perfectly by haps that by Leonard Harris, who seems ume comes out, the one addition I would Allen’s introduction and his own conclud- to be quite bleak in his concluding out- recommend is a subject index. As I read ing titular essay, the series of twenty-two look. But he may well have been more these essays (not in order, I admit) I was short essays offers thought-provoking, ironic than I understood. Another less struck by how often an idea touched on satisfying words at every turn. than glowingly optimistic effort is by by one writer was explored in a different Carolyn Dejoie, but her mournful, plain- way by another—and a subject index Ed Buckner is executive director of the tive cry for community seems ultimately would help a reader explore those con- Council for Secular Humanism; editor of the more underpinned with hopefulness than nections more readily. Secular Humanist Bulletin; compiler/edi- despair. Most of the essays are doggedly But don’t wait for the second editor, with Michael E. Buckner, of Quotations optimistic, full of the pains and peril of tion— is that Support the Separation of State and The Black Humanist Experience belonging both to a philosophical minori- well worth your book-buying dollars just Church; and author of the concluding chap- ty and an ethnic minority (sometimes as it stands. ter of The Fundamentals of Extremism: despised for both statuses simultaneous- the Christian Right in America.

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tion is very narrow. He acknowledges the Boomerang Attack on phrase “has had a range of meaning,” but argues it requires “a distance, seg- hurch tate eparation regation, or absence of contact between C -S S church and state. Rather than simply forbid civil laws respecting an establishment of religion, it has more ambitiously William Sierichs, Jr. tended to prohibit contact between religious and civil institutions,” and thus is Separation of Church and State, by Philip Hamburger (Cambridge, Mass. more than mere disestablishment (pp. Harvard University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-674-00734-4) 514 pp. Cloth 2–3). He uses his definition of separation $49.95. as the standard to measure other views. I think many people would disagree with his definition. Second, he ignores the godless, hilip Hamburger’s book would lation in the United States, combined religionless character of the 1787 U.S. be better titled Christian Disputes with secular trends, led to a growing Constitution, as well as the Treaty with PAbout the Separation of Church and “separation” movement. Yet Protes Tripoli of 1797, which denied the U.S. is State, as much of his research focuses on tants continued to exert influence on “in any sense founded on the Christian how Christians have wrestled over the government, particularly in schools; Religion.” Whatever Christians thought relationship. “separation” applied only to Catholics. about the need for religion in government, Hamburger, a University of Chicago He sees an informal alliance of nativists, a politically dominant faction among the law professor, offers a revisionist his- anti-Catholics, theological liberals, and Founders literally wrote it out of our tory of the concept of separation. Like secularists as the source of the modern government. Just because Protestants many revisionist works, his suffers a understanding of separation. He ties refused to accept it can’t change those flaw: he attempts to correct what he Justice Hugo Black’s use of Jefferson’s religionless founding documents. sees as an imbalance in the popular “wall” metaphor in the 1947 Everson v. Third, he treats separationists such understanding of separation and goes Board of Education ruling to Black’s ear- as Jefferson, his anti-clerical support- to an opposite extreme. lier association with the Ku Klux Klan’s ers, and James Madison as marginal He offers interesting, valuable anti-Catholicism and dogmatic support figures (ch. 7, p. 480), yet they won the research and some good insights on of separation. 1800 election, and they held office for the subject in arguing that modern his- Prior to 1947, Jefferson’s 1803 met- the next twenty-four years. It’s unlikely tories put too much weight on Thomas aphor was mostly ignored, even by the all pro-Jefferson voters were hostile to Jefferson’s famous “separation” letter. Connecticut Baptists that Jefferson Christianity and the clergy, but certain- Unfortunately, he downplays some sig- was supporting, Hamburger says. He ly Jefferson’s attitudes did not disturb nificant people and events that chal- argues Jefferson had a political motive, them that much. Even George Washing lenge his argument and displays one stemming from the bitter 1800 election, ton used a “wall” metaphor, in a 1789 let- bias. when New England Congregationalists ter that told Virginia Baptists he would Hamburger documents the develop- attacked his “atheism”; Jefferson was support “effectual barriers” against reli- ment of the idea of “separation” and the not in the mainstream on this issue, but gious repression. Jefferson clearly spoke “wall of separation” metaphor among spoke only for a handful of anti-clerical- for Founders who held a radically differ- Christians, beginning in the 1500s, as ists. “Although introduced for the tran- ent idea of religion-government relations a theological fight over how closely sient purposes of an election conflict, from that of Christians. political and clerical institutions should the Republican demand for a separation Fourth, Hamburger notes that many be joined. “Separatists” wanted the cler- of religion and government shook many Roman Catholics supported disestab- gy out of government and an end to New England ministers and resonated lishment, but acknowledges briefly that coercion on matters of conscience, but among the people, who would not entire- some Catholics—including popes— still held that religion was the basis of ly forget this concept or its anticlerical talked in theocratic terms that fright- government and society. In the theology implications” in 1800 (p. 129), but “even ened non-Catholics. In fact, from the wars, conservatives hurled “separation” this Republican advocacy of separation eighteenth to the early twentieth cen- as an insult, not as an accurate defini- was sporadic . . .” (p. 181), Hamburger turies, the popes generally denounced tion of “Separatist” opinions. claims. freedom of religion, conscience, the Hamburger says this view prevailed Hamburger makes a case that too press etc., and demanded that politi- into the 1800s, when Protestant hostility much weight has been put on Jefferson’s cal authorities obey them. Until 1870, to the growing Roman Catholic popu- letter, that the history of “separation” in the popes held temporal power over the United States is more complex and parts of Italy, which they exercised in a William Sierichs, Jr., is a copy editor with multilayered than commonly assumed. repressive, sometimes-brutal way, rein- The Advocate, the daily newspaper in Yet several aspects of his book are forced in 1849 by the armies of Catholic Baton Rouge, Louisiana. troubling. First, his definition of separa- Austria and France. One did not have

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to be a theological bigot to be ner- separation through a form of subtle (pp. 486–492), yet offers no practi- vous about the church as a movement. innuendo. cal suggestions. Indeed, his research Hamburger doesn’t seem to distinguish Using Hamburger’s voluminous re amply shows the abuses that religion criticism of the church’s actions and search and the points he downplayed, creates in government. Any mixing, policies from bigotry against Catholics an alternate scenario is plausible: no matter how generic, creates two as individuals. far-sighted thinkers in 1787 favored sep- classes of citizens, even if only the Indeed, Hamburger routinely iden- aration (as most people use the term), religious and nonreligious. Much of tifies separation, which he suggests but Christians resisted the idea until his research touches on how non-Prot- undermines religious freedom, with neg- decades of wrestling with the concept estants—particularly Roman Catho ative attitudes: anti-Catholic bigotry, persuaded many that only separation lics—were coerced or discriminated nativism, the Klan, political opportun- would work in a pluralistic democracy. against despite disestablishment. ism. Only rarely does he acknowledge Finally, Hamburger suggests reli- Thus he demonstrates the value of people who supported it from philosoph- gious freedom can be maintained under separation even as he attacks it. ical motives. He injects a bias against other relationships than “separation”

that religiosity is pre-wired in human Controversial Conceptions brains—that humans are born with a Gene of Religiosity (GOR). The GOR var- of Humanism ies in strength and depends on heredity and environmental factors. He maintains that the strength of the GOR in Norm R. Allen, Jr. skeptics could rise if religious fanatics threaten them. If moderately or deeply religious people feel threatened, the Life Without God: A Guide to Fulfillment Without Religion, by Nicolaos S. strength of their GOR is increased, and Tzannes (Baltimore, Md.: PublishAmerica, 2002, ISBN 1-59129-769-1) they go into a “genal condition,” where 157 pp. Paper $19.95. they are devoid of reason and act irra- tionally. The author argues that this gene evolved in hunter/gatherer societies and icolaos Tzannes teaches electri- Tzannes argues that a belief in the helped to unify tribes. Today, however, cal engineering at the University afterlife is groundless, ridiculous, and with the rise of multicultural societies, Nof Central Florida, where he stressful. He writes that Islam “prom- religion is no longer able to serve its chaired the department from 1986 to ises men who qualify that they will original purpose. Tzannes sounds like 1994. In Life Without God, he has “put ascend into heaven as a spirit and 72 a biological determinist and contends together a unified theory—a useful phi- virgins will be waiting for them, primed that “we all are what we are, and there is losophy of life readily understood and for action. Isn’t it stressful to know nothing we can do about it—we have no easily practiced” (p. 145). Like Center that you are offered 72 virgins but you choice in the matter” (p. 67, emphasis for Inquiry International Director Bill have—being a spirit—no equipment to in the original). Cooke, Tzannes believes that humanism . . . de virginize them?” (p. 26). Though the author claims that the does not have to be explained only on He discusses the problem of evil and evidence that religion is rooted in biol- the academic level. In the final analysis, vain Christian attempts to rationalize it. ogy is growing along with wider accep- the humanist life stance is quite simple. Bible believers claim that God punishes tance of this notion, many scholars The author spells out his philosophy people with catastrophes if they are insist that the interplay between nature of “Neo-humanism” with a series of sinful or disobedient. On the other hand, and culture is more complex than humorous dialogues with his wife and the omniscient God makes innocent peo- Tzannes apparently believes. Further acquaintances, in which he uses the ple suffer to test their faith. The author more, not all scientists accept the idea Socratic method. His primary goal “is to writes: “It makes no difference whether that there is a gene for religion. demonstrate the absurdity of religious you are a sinner or a model believer— On another controversial note, dogmas, beliefs and practices” (p. 9). He you could be struck down either way. Tzannes might be the first humanist to does not, however, use academic jargon And to make matters worse, you don’t argue that war is a major source of sus- to make his case. even know why—he never tells you tained joy and pleasure. He maintains either way” (pp. 38–9). Norm R. Allen, Jr., is the executive director that it is part of our survival “mission” Tzannes has a unified theory of African Americans for Humanism and the as human beings, for which we are to explain the notion that religiosity editor of The Black Humanist Experience programmed to pursue. He writes that derives from biology, the Genes and (Prometheus, 2003). “. . . [Patriotic] acts can be major ones Survival Principle (GSP). He believes (actual participation in the fighting)

69 http://www.secularhumanism.org summer 2003 REVIEWS

or secondary ones (working in hospi- effort for the perpetuation and success- on hedonism. He asserts that “if an activ- tals, munitions factories, contributing ful evolution of our species” (p. 94). This ity is pleasurable, it serves survival, and money to the war effort, rationing, even includes defending our territory “and if it serves survival it is pleasurable” (p. flag-waving). All these provide people— culture in the face of internal or exter- 144). He uses eating, sleeping, and sex as especially those who were unsuccessful nal threats” (ibid.). examples. However, if taken to extremes, in their other mission activities—with This is problematic to say the least. all of these pleasurable activities could happiness of unsurpassed dimensions” After all, slave owners in the South, rac- have dire consequences for individuals (p. 126, emphasis in the original). ists in Apartheid South Africa, German and societies—AIDS and other sexual- He says that these activities are, Nazis, and others all fought and died to ly transmitted diseases, for example. ironically, “undesirable and desirable preserve their much beloved culture. Tzannes does not give adequate atten- at the same time” (ibid.), and warns that Which course should humanists pursue tion to this objection. immoral leaders will exploit various when the culture in which they live is In the final analysis, Life Without situations to wage wars based on greed hostile toward humanist (or humanitar- God is a book worth reading, and it and so forth. He claims that, overall, ian) values? would provide much food for thought at “Our mission in life is to give our best The author’s Neo-humanism borders humanist discussion groups.

(Letters cont’d. from p. 63) Mendez-Acosta for his article about Juan Diego (FI, Spring 2003). Only when secular groups, without regard to ideology. I was a little boy, did I believe in the (The Supreme Court addressed this question Virgin of Guadalupe and all the other in 2000, in Board of Regents v. South nonsensical stories that made up her worth.) And, private student groups, like the mystique. Of course, back then, I also Christian Fellowship, do not lose their pri- believed in Santa Claus. vate status and associational rights merely by In one-and-a-half pages of lucid accepting some student fees, anymore than prose and unquestionable research, Dr. private universities lose their private status Mendez dismantled the myth that has when they accept federal grants. clogged, for centuries already, the cred- Stay Current! By the way, since being sued, ulous minds of otherwise alert, creative, Rutgers has seen the light and settl- and intelligent Mexicans and other Sign up for our electronic newslet- ed with the Christian Fellowship, acknowl- Latin-Americans. ter! If you have computer access and edging the group’s right to choose its leaders David Quintero an e-mail account, please go to the according to its ideals. La Puente, California Council for Secular Humanism’s Web site at www.secularhumanism.org and subscribe to our e-newsletter. You will find the sign-up box on our home Don’t Believe the page. Our e-newsletter will enable us to send you news about the Council Hype! between issues of Free Inquiry. Please convey my gratitude to Dr. Mario

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