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 38 The Religiosity of 5 Two Competing George W. Bush Moralities: The Edmund D. Cohen Principles of Fairness 41 Response contra ‘Gott Mit Uns’ Discrimination Paul Kurtz June / July 2004 Vol. 24, No. 3 Against Atheists ISSN 0272-0701 Margaret Downey Op-Ed 44 Response 13 What Use Is Atheism Is Indeed a Religion? Part 1 Civil Rights Issue Richard Dawkins Edward Tabash 15 When Mel Had a Hammer Departments Christopher Hitchens 9 Letters 16 Back to the Future 23 Frontlines/ Wendy Kaminer Sidelines Andrea Szalanski 17 The Harm That Religion Does 46 Church-State Update Peter Singer Tom Flynn 18 Socrates and 46 World Report Bill Cooke Religious Morality Massimo Pigliucci 47 Living Without 20 Leo Strauss and the Religion The Pursuit of Happiness Grand Inquisitor Lili Artel Shadia Drury

48 Faith and Reason True Patriotism Features Norm R. Allen, Jr. Upgrading Humanity: Should We Become Reviews Posthuman? 50 The Passion of the Christ 24 The New Directed by Mel Gibson Perfectionism Paul Kurtz Austin Dacey 27 From Regenerative Medicine to Human Design Gregory Stock

31 Thumbs Up Edward Tenner

34 Mann Versus Machine Ben Hyink 54 The Da Vinci Code 36 Humanism for By Dan Brown Personhood: Against Robert Price Human-Racism James Hughes FI Editorial Staff FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published bimonthly by the Editorial Board Editor in Chief Council for Secular Humanism, a nonprofit educational corporation, Paul Kurtz P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Phone (716) 636-7571. Robert Alley Editor Fax (716) 636-1733. Copyright ©2004 by the Council for Secular Professor of Humanities Emeritus, Thomas W. Flynn Humanism. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be University of Richmond, Virginia Managing Editor Deputy Editor reproduced without permission of the publisher. Periodicals postage Hector Avalos Andrea Szalanski Norm R. Allen, Jr. paid at Buffalo, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. National Associate Professor of Columnists distribution by International Periodicals Distributors, Solana Beach, Religious Studies, Vern Bullough, Richard Dawkins, California. FREE INQUIRY is indexed in Philosophers’ Index. Printed Ronnie Dugger, Nat Hentoff, Iowa State University in the United States. Postmaster: Send address changes to FREE Christopher Hitchens, Wendy Kaminer, Joe E. Barnhart Tibor R. Machan, Massimo Pigliucci, INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Opinions Peter Singer expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or Professor of Philosophy, Senior Editors publisher. No one speaks on behalf of the Council for Secular North Texas State University Vern L. Bullough, Bill Cooke, Humanism unless expressly stated. H. James Birx Richard Dawkins, Martin Gardner, Professor of Anthropology, James A. Haught, Jim Herrick, Gerald A. Larue, Canisius College Taslima Nasrin TO SUBSCRIBE OR RENEW Associate Editor • CALL TOLL FREE 800-458-1366 (have credit card handy). George Bishop Wendy McElroy Professor of Political Science, • Fax credit-card order to 716-636-1733. Contributing Editors University of Cincinnati Jo Ann Boydston, Paul Edwards, • Internet: www.secularhumanism.org Albert Ellis, Roy P. Fairfield, Rob Boston Charles Faulkner, Antony Flew, • Mail: FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226- Author, Americans United for Levi Fragell, Adolf Grünbaum, 0664. Separation of Church and State Marvin Kohl, Thelma Lavine, Lee Nisbet, J. J. C. Smart, • Subscription rates: $35.00 for one year, $58.00 for two years, Barbara Forrest Svetozar Stojanovic, $84.00 for three years. Foreign orders add $10 per year for surface Associate Professor of Philosophy, Thomas Szasz mail. Foreign orders send U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank; Visa, Southeastern Louisiana Univ. Editorial Associate MasterCard, or American Express are preferred. Austin Dacey Stewart Guthrie Editorial Assistant • Single issues: $5.95 each. Shipping is by surface mail in U.S. Professor of Anthropology, David Park Musella (included). Canadian and foreign orders include $1.56 for 1–3 Fordham University Art Director issues and $3.00 for 4–6 issues. By air mail, $3.00 for 1–3 issues Lisa A. Hutter and $7.20 for 4–6 issues. William Harwood Production Author, Mythology’s Last Gods Christopher Fix, Paul E. Loynes, Sr. CHANGE OF ADDRESS • Mail changes to FREE INQUIRY, ATTN: Change of Address, Stuart Jordan Cartoonist Webmaster Senior Staff Scientist, Don Addis Terese Rozelle P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Contributing Illustrator • Call Customer Service: 716-636-7571. Brad Marshall Alfred Kisubi Cover Photo Illustration • E-mail: [email protected] Philosopher, Poet, Christopher Fix BACK ISSUES University of Wisconsin • Back issues through Vol. 23, No. 3 are $6.95 each. Back issues Lena Ksarjian Vol. 23, No. 4 and later are $5.95 each. 20% discount on Committee on the History of Culture, Council for Secular Humanism orders of 10 or more. Call 800-458-1366 to order or to ask for University of Chicago Chair a complete listing of back issues. Paul Kurtz Ronald A. Lindsay REPRINTS/PERMISSIONS Lawyer, Philosopher Board of Directors • To order reprints of articles or to request permission to use any Vern Bullough, Jan Loeb Eisler, (Chair) part of FREE INQUIRY, write to FREE INQUIRY, ATTN: Timothy J. Madigan Jonathan Kurtz, Joseph Levee, University of Rochester Press Kenneth Marsalek, Jean Millholland, Permis­sions Editor, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Edward Tabash WHERE TO BUY FREE INQUIRY Michael Martin Executive Director Professor of Philosophy, • FREE INQUIRY is available from selected book and magazine David Koepsell Boston University sellers nationwide. Director, Educational Programs (CFI)

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free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 4 Two Competing Moralities:

EDITORIAL The Principles of Fairness PAUL KURTZ contra ‘Gott Mit Uns!’

he cultural divide in America today cuts deep, separating two contending concep- tions of morality. Those who believe that there is a need for a moral reformation Tbased on the principles of fairness confront “evan- gelical foot soldiers” convinced that God is on their side (“Gott mit uns!”) in an all-out battle between good and evil. The first form of morality is humanistic and secular. Its chief aim is to realize human happiness in “the city of humankind.” It wishes to rely on reflective intelligence in resolving moral dilemmas. It emphasizes tolerance and the negotiation of dif- ferences. It holds that men and women are respon- sible for their own destinies and that they can, with some measure of goodwill, achieve meaningful and enriched lives for themselves and their communities. It advocates the civic virtues of democracy and the extension of universal human rights to all persons on the planet. The second form of morality is traditional religious morality, which has taken on an extremist evangelical and fundamentalist twist in recent years. It is focused on the “City of God” and the coming, apocalyptic end of civilization as we know it. Rooted in religious faith, allegedly revealed to our forebears who lived in a nomadic

“... this apocalyptic interpretation of human history and cosmic destiny … would be difficult to take … seriously, if not for the fact that it is taken so seriously, by tens of millions … who hold considerable political and economic power.”

and agricultural culture of the past, it declares that humans are “sinful” and that their ultimate duty is to obey the moral Commandments, divinely delivered. Since we are dependent upon God for salvation, human beings in themselves are inca- pable of achieving moral virtue. There are absolute commandments that a person must believe in and follow. Evangelical doomsday prophets today declare that the end times are approaching. They view the wars in the Middle East as signs of divine deliverance. Those who believe in Jesus as their savior will be saved by the divine Rapture, those who do not will be, as in Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’s best-selling novels, “Left Behind” to suffer terrible punishment. Secular humanists are skeptical of this apocalyptic interpretation of human history and cosmic destiny. It would be difficult to take this dramatic tale seriously, if not for the fact that it is taken so seriously by tens of millions of well-meaning Americans who hold considerable political and economic power. Secular humanists turn instead to modern science for their interpretation of the cosmos and the place of the human species within it. Science explains the emergence of the human species as a product of evolution; it seeks to explain the universe in natural, causal terms. Secular humanists’ moral outlook is not weighed down by anthropocentric concepts

Paul Kurtz is editor in chief of Free Inquiry, professor emeritus of philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and chair of the Center for Inquiry.

5 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 of sin, guilt, redemption, and salvation. Homogamy, Anyone? ognize marriages between two individu- It is optimistic about the potentialities als, no matter what their gender. Mature One issue caught in today’s cultur- for improving the human condition. adults should be permitted to work al divide is same-sex marriage. Some Fortunately, many liberal religion- out their own living arrangements, and conservative religious moralists seek ists are equally disturbed by fundamen- if they choose to join together should to enact a constitutional amendment enjoy the same rights—economic, talist doomsday prophecies, and they that would prohibit it. They insist that political, and social—as persons in reli- are sympathetic to the principles and marriage must be between one man and giously sanctified marriages. Liberal values of humanist morality. Although one woman, as is divinely sanctified Episcopalians, Methodists, Jews, and they are surely influenced by the Old by the Bible; further, they believe that Catholics empathize with this view- and New Testaments, they tend to inter- heterosexual marriage is threatened by point. There is considerable evidence pret Scripture in nonliteral terms. They gay marriage. realize the complexities of decision that homosexuality is genetic (for exam- making and are less doctrinaire in their ple, homosexual behavior is found in approach to the moral life. Humanists other species). Given this, civil society hold that there are widely shared moral ought not to discriminate against same- virtues (the common moral decencies sex pref­­erences. The right of privacy and also basic values (the ethical excel- “Present state laws be­tween consenting adults is at stake. lences) that both religious and nonre- specifying who may marry Nor should society fear the creation of ligious people respect. Humanists and new or extended marital forms. The liberal believers share a commitment to are grossly unfair to reality of modern society is already tolerance and the civic virtues of democ- that the nuclear family represents only the nonreligious: a minority of households, and de facto racy. They agree that there are uni- there is pluralistic diversity in rela- versal human rights, though these are secular humanists, tionships. Romantic affairs and a high not to be found in the Bible. And they atheists, and agnostics.” divorce rate are omnipresent among are dubious of intransigent religious heterosexuals. Partly in response to the absolutes. They agree that religious AIDS epidemic, large numbers of gays piety by itself is no substitute for using have abandoned promiscuity and have human intelligence, fallible as it may be, sought stable relationships—in defense to solve moral problems. Both human- of marital bonds, as it were. ists and liberal believers wish to apply This dispute over marriage is rather Incidentally, I prefer the term civil modern science for the betterment of puzzling, since religious denominations union rather than marriage (though I the human condition. Unfortunately, often disagree vehemently about the would accept either), for what is at issue their views are often drowned out by institution. Conservative Roman Catho­ is equal protection under the laws for all loud evangelical-fundamentalist voices. lics oppose divorce under any circum- adult couples: equal rights in property, The dispute between extremist reli- stances (although not annulments), and taxation, inheritance, insurance, retire- gious moralists (orthodox and funda- they defend the unnatural state of cel- ment, health care, visitation rights, etc. mentalist) on the one side and secu- ibacy; liberal Protestants, Jews, and Homogamy (same-sex unions) seems lar humanists and liberal religionists religious humanists will allow divorce to me to best describe the relationship on the other takes many forms today. under certain conditions and are more of two individuals of the same sex, sim- Extremist religious moralists consider receptive to sexual expression gener- ilar to heterogamy for heterosexuals. I America to be “one nation under God” ally. Muslims also approve of divorce; think that a constitutional amendment (they equate patriotism with religious in addition, they have sanctioned polyg- banning same-sex marriage or civil faith). Both secular and religious liber- amy. Women are considered inferior to unions would be an unfair violation of als fear theocracies; they cherish the men and devoid of basic human rights human rights. First Amendment and the separation of in most parts of the Islamic world. Present state laws specifying who church and state. Judaic-Christian religions have defend- may marry are grossly unfair to the Extremist religious moralists oppose ed monogamy and are opposed to polyg- nonreligious: secular humanists, athe- abortion, euthanasia, contraception, amy or bigamy. Yet the Old Testament ists, and agnostics. States issue mar- and women’s rights. They consider condones patriarchy, concubinage, and riage licenses. However, the only offici- homosexuality sinful. They are all too polygamy: Abraham had many concu- ants allowed to conduct a marriage cer- often xenophobic about the rest of the bines and wives. Rachel bore Jacob no emony are those authorized by religious world. They object to any questioning of children, so she gave him her slave-girl institutions or governmental officials their absolute certainties, whether from Bilhah, who bore him sons. Jesus appar- (a justice of the peace, judge, mayor, science, reason, humanism, democracy, ently never married and bade his disci- etc.). Regulations differ state by state, the United Nations, or the World Court. ples to leave their wives. Paul admon- but in the United States, approximately Secular humanists believe in individual ished wives to obey their husbands. So forty-five states of the union offer no freedom, the right of privacy, and the much for traditional biblical morality provision for couples to have a binding building of a world community—convic- and its anti-family and anti-woman atti- public marriage ceremony officiated by tions that, fortunately, most religious tudes! a private secular organization of their liberals share. Secular humanists today would rec- choice, such as a university, fraternal

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 6 organization, or humanist organization. humanists and their liberal religious Bowl, and they object to the use of I have conducted humanist wedding allies wish to use science to improve vulgar expletives by Howard Stern, ceremonies for many couples, but these the human condition. Such repressive but where are their criticisms of are not legally recognized in New York policies could block efforts by biogenetic the excessive violence in television, State. To solemnize their vows in the scientists to eliminate disease, reduce radio, movies, and throughout the eyes of the law, the couple must have suffering, and extend life. Shades of the mass media? another wedding with a priest, minister, censorship of Galileo and Darwin! (The 2. Nor do traditional religious moral- rabbi, or public official in attendance. potentialities for transhuman improve- ists criticize the resort to violence This constitutes egregious discrimina- ment of the species are debated further by state or federal governments. tion. European countries recognize civil on in this issue of Free Inquiry.) Capital punishment is opposed ceremonies; why not the United States? by many liberal humanists and Public ceremonies performed by the religionists on moral grounds. Council for Secular Humanism (which Trad­itional religious moralists is an educational organization) are not attempt to justify the death penalty recognized in most states. The Church “There are numerous by appeals to the Old Testament’s­ of Scien­tology, Baptists, Jehovah’s Wit­ principle of retribution. Susan nesses, Mormons, Hindus, and Muslims actions and policies Jacoby, in her new book, Free­ are recognized, but not secular institu- condoned by extreme thinkers: A History of American­ tions. Talk about unfairness! Secularism (New York: Metro­­­ religious moralists that politan Books, 2004), cites Antonin Religious Censorship of secular humanists find Scalia in a 2002 speech: “Death Science is no big deal,” he said, and then A second area of contention today is the abhorrent, especially advocated the death penalty on dispute regarding biogenetic research. those that violate the constitutional and divine grounds. Traditional religious moralists once Virtually all of the European­ opposed artificial insemination; yet mil- principles of fairness.” democracies have prohibited the lions of happy children and parents have death penalty. The World Court benefited from these procedures. Today, recently criticized the United they seek to ban cloning research of any States for sentencing fifty-one kind, therapeutic or reproductive. This Mexican citizens to death without is not only short-sighted, but hypocriti- allowing them to consult their own cal. The same conservatives who oppose Traditional religious moralists have embassy; capital punishment is governmental regulation in the economy often sought to block scientific progress illegal in Mexico. now clamor for it in science. on the basis of little more than fear of the 3. Many religious traditionalists have Leon Kass, chairman of the Presi­ unknown. In my view, any limits placed defended preemptive wars, a poli- dent’s Council on Bioethics and a pro- on research should come from within the cy deplored by many of America’s fessed devotee of the Old Testament, scientific community, not from the pro- friends and allies. Extremist reli- vigorously opposes embryonic stem-cell tests of extreme religious moralists who gious moralists are all too eager research. That there should even be a are willing to use governmental power to to express self-righteous patriot- presidential council in the first place bludgeon scientific inquiry. ic, nationalistic, and chauvinistic is highly questionable, especially since slogans in support of the use of he rinciples of airness this body, which is biased, has become T P F military force. the chief exponent of censorship. The double standard of traditional reli- 4. Traditional religionists who loathe (Indeed, a dissident liberal member of gious morality is apparent. I need hard- sexual transgressions have large- this body was recently fired.) In an ly point out that the Vatican, which ly ignored greed and avarice. All op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal opposes same-sex marriage and cloning too often, wealth is considered as (“Reproduction and Responsibility,” research as immoral, at the same time synonymous with virtue (consider April 2004), Kass called for a series confronts a celibate priesthood, a sig- just two examples, Pat Robertson of “legislative moratoria” to prohibit nificant minority of whose members and John Temple­ton). Tradi­tion­ various “new reproductive techniques.” have practiced pedophilia. alists carefully ignore­ the saying In particular, Kass wishes to ban any There are numerous actions and pol- attributed to Jesus that it is rare for research on embryos older than ten icies condoned by extreme religious a rich man to enter into heaven. This to fourteen days. Presumably, he is moralists that secular humanists find corruption has spilled over into the reflecting the Roman Catholic doctrine abhorrent, especially those that violate political system, where campaign of “ensoulment” that has recently been the principles of fairness. I will mention contributors and lobbyists influence adopted by fundamentalist Protestants. some of them: the legislative process, undermin- If and when this legislation is brought 1. The demands for censorship of sex- ing environmental protection and to the Congress, it would exacerbate ual displays are today prominent. other regulations essential for the the cultural war; for traditional reli- Traditional religious moralists rail common good. gious moralists believe this research against Janet Jackson for having 5. Another point of contention—on on embryos is sinful; whereas secular bared her breast during the Super moral grounds—is traditionalists’

7 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 failure to show concern for the munities and attract the poorest sectors and applaud the defenders of wealth welfare of the disadvantaged, the of society. The social and psychological and the status quo. In contrast, secular poor, or even the middle class at costs of gambling, such as dependency, humanists have an altruistic concern the same time that the elephantine debt, domestic violence, family break- for the happiness of all human beings compensation of corporate execu- downs, bankruptcy, and suicide and within the planetary community. Liberal tives is extolled. A basic principle other deaths, is overlooked in the effort religious allies have common cause with of fairness in our democracy is to advertise and promote casinos. I, of secular humanists in the criticism of at stake. The CEO’s of the two course, believe in a free market; howev- xenophobic, authoritarian nationalists. hundred largest companies earned er, I also believe that consumers should Last but not least, America’s growing on average $9.2 million in sala- be warned about the pitfalls of slot legions of evangelical foot soldiers are ries, bonuses, and stock options machines—it is rare that anyone can now awaiting the Second Coming of in 2003. (Of course, some received make a fast buck, unless he or she stops Jesus and the Rapture, or so we are told far more.) Although stock options by the best-selling authors of the Left granted were down from the previ- Behind novels. They are convinced that ous year, cash payments to CEOs God will save only their brand of evan- increased­ 14.4 percent, where- “I am not defending social- gelical Protestants (and perhaps those as the increase in the average ism … the domination of the conservative Roman Catholics to the worker’s pay was only 2 percent. right of Attila the Hun). They will “leave Moreover, in 2003 there was an entire economy by the behind” all others who do not accept 1 increase in unemployment. In government. What I am their form of creedal fascism. Like the addition, the amount of taxes earlier defenders of the Aryan race, they paid by corporations has steadily talking about is the insist that God agrees with them, and declined. From 1996 to 2000, 63 application of simple that all other Christian denominations, percent of U.S. corporations paid Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, sec- no corporate income tax at all, moral principles of ular humanists, atheists, agnostics, and while 94 percent paid taxes equal freethinkers—the bulk of humankind— to less than 5 percent of their equity and fairness.” will be condemned to hell. Unless you net income. Traditionalists accept are prepared to believe in our way, say sharp disparities in income and these true believers in our midst, you wealth in America today, are will- deserve to go to hell! This means that of ing to provide lower tax rates for after a big win. the six billion people on the planet, only capital gains and dividends as I am surely not defending any form of a relatively small number will enter the distinct from money earned from Puritan repression but merely pointing kingdom of heaven. labor or work, and refuse to enact out the distorted priorities of the tradi- an increased minimum wage. All tional religious moralists. Bill Bennett This attitude is similar to that of this is typical of their uncaring was the czar of conservative morality Islamic terrorists who insist that only attitude. All of it fulfills, as I’ve in America, attempting to defend the those who accept the Qur’an as revealed argued before, the sacred princi- old time religious morality, yet he lost by Muhammad will go to heaven—true ples of “evangelical capitalism.” a fortune in gambling and smoked like believers who are prepared to detonate This is further illustrated by the a fiend. What is the point? That one themselves and kill as many people as continued decline of progressive person’s virtue becomes another’s vice. they can in the name of Allah. A new income tax rates, the determined In defending the principles of fair- form of moral intolerance has descend- effort to repeal the estate tax ness or social justice, I am not defending ed on the world. Gott mit uns was a entirely, and the amassing of large socialism, as one critic has character- frightening paean to patriotism, intol- speculative fortunes in the stock ized my criticism of evangelical capital- erance, violence, and hatred sung by market and real estate. In his ism. The term socialism referred­ to the fascist storm troopers of another era as disturbing book, Wealth and nationalization of the means of produc- they marched off to “redeem” the world. Democracy (New York: Broadway, tion and/or the domination of the entire What will happen to love, compas- 2002),2 Kevin Phillips points out economy by the government. I believe in sion, and caring grace, extended to all that the United States is well on the vitality of the free-market capitalist humans in the community of human­ its way to becoming an entrenched system. What I am talking about is the kind, no matter what their religious plutocracy. application of simple moral principles of beliefs; what will happen to the com- Get-rich schemes are in abundance. equity and fairness. mon moral decencies and the princi- State-sponsored lotteries, I Want to The two moralities that I’ve out- ples of fairness and equity—if they get Be a Millionaire game shows, and the lined above may be contrasted in the their way? building of gambling casinos illustrate light of Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages Notes the skewing of values. Gambling casinos of moral growth and development.2 are going up almost everywhere in the Traditional religious moralists are apt 1. “Executive Pay: A Special Report,” New York Times, April 4, 2004. United States, no doubt in the hope that to be authoritarian; they set great store 2. Lawrence Kohlberg, The Psychology they will improve the local economies. in the traditional sacred cows, condone of Moral Development (New York: Harper Yet they often appear in depressed com- injustice, extol the wielders of power, & Rowe, 1983).

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 8 HEADINGLETTERS SUBHEAD

would have been better for everyone for CFI to sign up, turn up the Brights, and Humanist Laureate Peter Ustinov Dies accept what risk that might entail. Tom Flynn writes that “No one wrote He was internationally known for his many talents and good works; less well known was that Peter Ustinov was a critic of religion and a supporter of the work of the or spoke in favor of the proposal.” Council for Secular Humanism. Well, I just have. Maybe, partly because Ustinov died on March 29 at the age of eighty-two. He was an Oscar- and of the disparaging articles, no one Grammy-winning performer, novelist, film director, and activist for children’s wel- thought it was worth writing to FI in fare. For thirty years he served as an ambassador for the United Nations Children’s favor of the proposal—maybe because Fund. His accomplishments were recognized by his birth country of Great Britain they spent the time participating on the when he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1990, although he never liked to be brights.net instead. addressed as “Sir.” Shortly before his death, the University of Vienna announced the I suppose I should also say that I formation of the Ustinov Institute, dedicated to studying prejudice and its effect on could never call myself an atheist, agnos- people, politics, and conflict resolution. Ustinov also made contributions to the progress of humanism. Prometheus Books tic, or secular humanist. The popular published four of his books, including Ustinov Still at Large, a compilation of arti- definitions of atheist and agnostic both cles he had written for The European. He was a friend of Paul Kurtz, a Humanist involve too much belief for me. So does Laureate of the International Academy of Humanism (sponsored by the Council secular humanist, and it comes with for Secular Humanism), and an honorary associate of Britain’s Rationalist Press some other baggage that I don’t feel Association. like carrying around. (So I disagree with Ustinov detailed some of his concerns about the problems facing the world and “if you are a Bright, you are a secular their sources in an interview published in the Summer 1995 Free Inquiry. He identi- humanist” in “The Council’s Position.”) fied prejudice as one root of trouble: “Unfortunately, prejudice comes from education I suppose I could have been “godless,” and family life and all the things that are praised by religious orthodoxy.” but that gives God too central a role. I He said that he thought religious belief was “inherent in human nature.” But he noted that, “I have much more faith in an agnostic or an atheist who helps an old lady felt better with freethinker, but the noun across the road than the man who is racing to church and pretends not to see her.” Bright, being a single syllable, with its simple definition with no place for God and mentioning only absence of certain kinds of beliefs, seems to fit me just right. there are a lot of people willing to blow Richard M Kandarian me to bits because of this dim idea. Cundiyo, New Mexico Believing “Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose again the third day” is, bluntly, dim. In our desire to be tolerant I have been reading with interest but and nonconfrontational, we sometimes little comprehension the discussion of go too far in giving equal time to stupid the Brights. I had hoped that Futrell ideas. How would we ever make prog- and Geisert, would clarify both the ress in astronomy if we had to treat the movement and the controversy. They idea that the sun revolves around the only added to my confusion. If a rose is earth with respect and refrain from a rose, does it follow that a Bright is a criticizing it? Bright? (I simply adore these enlight- Paula L. Craig ening metaphors.) To find the answer, Falls Church, Virginia I went to the Brights Web site, as was suggested in the article. Gross repeti- tion, little enlightenment. I learned more After reading “A Rose Is a Rose” by of what the Brights are not than what Mynga Futrell and Paul Geisert (FI, they are: April/May 2004), I looked up the Web This movement is not an atheist move- site and signed up. I like the idea very ment, nor a humanist, freethinker, much. I’m not sure I’d have chosen skeptical, rationalist, objectivist, igth- More ‘Bright’ Ideas Bright as the moniker, but I have a feel- eist, materialist, or secular humanist ing it was a good idea. movement, nor any other manifes- I read the Richard Dawkins article on tation of extant organizations and I want to take exception to Tom Flynn’s philosophies. statement that the term Brights left the subject, and that’s how I first became most Free Inquiry readers cold (Turning acquainted with the idea. It made me It appears that Brights are simply a Down the Brights, FI, April/May 2004). I smile. Then I read articles in FI dispar- collection of individuals “whose world- certainly hope it gains wide use. Some aging the idea. I wondered why. Now I’ve view is naturalistic (free from supernat- people object to Brights on the ground read “Turning Down the Brights” and ural and mystical elements).” They are that it implies that non-Brights are dim. “The Council’s Position.” I don’t under- not unbelievers or nonbelievers be­cause Well, what’s wrong with that? Believing stand these responses, and my attempts they believe in many naturalistic things, “there is no God but Allah, and Moh­ to understand them have involved which, it seems to me, makes them in ammed is his prophet” makes as much hypotheses casting negative feeling, like the least rationalists, if not a rationalist sense as believing in Santa Claus. Yet shadows, on CFI. I can’t help think it movement. More confusion.

9 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 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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free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 10 If I was bright enough to be a Bright, both sentences as if they were one (“its”) Need I say more? I would not be confused. I would under- in order to make his point. Not fair. As for Philip’s own prose, may I stand that what we are not makes us Kostelanetz would turn Said into a suggest that “hypocrite” is not quite what we are or maybe just the opposite. hypocrite because he values “transpar- right either. Try self-deceived. Gimme Then I might join the movement, assum- ency” in writing while employing long, a break, buddy. ing I would be eligible, considering my complex sentences. But murk is not a intellectual limitations. function of length. One can find many Regardless, there is an organization sentences in George Orwell’s classic that I commend to those of you who, “Politics and the English Language” with respect to questions of atheism, of equal length and convolution. The West, Secular theism, agnosticism, or even brightness, Kostelanetz would not, of course, fault respond,­ “Why bother?” or, more explic- Humanism, and such a master of prose for lack of trans- itly, with its motto: “None of the Above,” namely, the Society of Nulli­fidians. parency. (I’m reminded of Robert Bly’s Islam Namdrief M. Yaj silliness: “Using subordinate clauses The two lead articles in the April/May Society of Nullifidians betrays a tendency to fascism.”) 2004 Free Inquiry tell us significantly Los Angeles, California Why does Kostelanetz not display the opening sentence of Said’s mem- more about the secular humanist move- oir, Out of Place: “All families invent ment than about Islam or Islamism. Together, they perfectly illustrate the After reading several articles about their parents and children, give each of them a story, character, fate, and even want of sophistication about, even installing the term Bright into the avoidance of, questions in the social a language”? Or the book’s last sen- humanist vernacular, I find this term sciences and politics, even while that’s tence: “With so many dissonances in simplistic, inelegant, and condescend- balanced by a progressive internation- ing. I would like to suggest using the my life I have learned actually to prefer alism. Irfan Khawaja explicitly argues word Delta as the name to replace being not quite right and out of place”? that our concern should be the religion Bright in referring to secular-humanist Obviously, those two don’t comport with of Islam, rather than the religio-political groups. This could be used in the forms Kostelanetz’s determination, whatever movement known as Islamism and that Deltist or Deltite. (I prefer the former.) the facts, to prove Said a liar by means we should avoid sociological and politi- For those in favor of marketing, of a textual analysis that reads so much cal issues in favor of philosophical ones. Delta comes with a handy symbol (∆), into so little and so unconvincingly that This in effect suggests that we don’t evocative of stability, balance, and sym- his essay reeks of axe grinding. concern ourselves with what produces metry, that also tosses a nod to the Let Free Inquiry further the ongoing terrorism, but only with whether people Greeks, founders of many secular ide- evaluation of Edward Said, but let it believe things without evidence. If he als. Delta, as a finite increment of a vari- maintain a certain journalistic standard means to say that secular humanists able in mathematics, would represent in doing so. By the way, why flag the can convince significant numbers of the humanist commitment to science essay as “Media Scan” when no media Muslims to give up their religion by confronting them with philosophical and and yet imply a knowable variable that are in fact scanned? (Are two sentences can change incrementally, not unlike evidential objections, then I wish him published in a London periodical in 1998 the genetic changes of evolution or luck. But I predict little success and “media?”) the careful advancements of scientific increasing antagonism between the U.S. research. I like the idea of using a sym- Philip Dacey and the Muslim world. bol for a variable reflecting that nothing Lynd, Minnesota Ibn Warraq is typically a bit more is carved in stone and that change will politically sophisticated in his analysis, come within an understandable range. even while his policy recommendations Speaking for myself, I like the sound of Richard Kostelanetz responds: reveal his lack of training in political “the Delta Fellowship.” science. Warraq is on the right track Cynthia Johnson Be fair to me, brother poet Phillip, in admitting that it has been the failure Rumford, Rhode Island whom I respect as well; but I don’t and incompetence of secular, milita- dispute the length of Said’s sentences. rist regimes which led to the growth What I can dispute, however, is the of Islamism. Without the freedom to In Defense of Said quality of the opening sentence from govern themselves, Muslim populations Said that you quote above. Shouldn’t have turned, over the last two decades, it be something closer to “all individ­ to extremist forms of religious politics, I very much respect Richard Kostela­netz uals?” I don’t understand how “fami­ just as peoples in the developing world as a poet and critic and also believe that lies” invent,­ unless they are perceived turned in earlier decades to Marxism Edward Said’s weaknesses and failures as fantasizing in unison, which is in response to oppression. Warraq sug- need public scrutiny, but Kostelanetz rare in families known to me, though gests that perhaps some political lead- (“Edward Said Remem­bered,” FI, April/ perhaps not in Said’s Palestine. ers might begin “guid[ing] their peoples May 2004) only manages to be self-de- Secondly, Said’s concluding sentence, toward democracy” and civil society. featingly intemperate and injudicious. as you quote it (“being not quite right Unfortunately, the dictators and mil- As to that “convoluted sentence,” and out of place”), is also messy, itarist authoritarians like U.S. allies Kostelanetz actually quotes two sentenc- being unclear about whether the neg­ Mubarek and Musharraf are the very es from Said, and then, in deploring the ative “not” refers to “out of place” as reason that democratic reform is stifled. mixing of different dictions, draws from well. Did Said reread what he wrote? Warraq misses the mark in asking what

11 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 the “West” can do to encourage political vices in a complex, technological, indus- times larger), to which I suppose he rights and freedoms—or at least as a trialized society that can be sponsored replied, “Well, so much for reincarna- first step, what we’re doing to deny them for a citizenry much more efficiently by tion” (and, ipso facto, for afterlives). to other peoples and what we’re doing to a centralized government. Then we moved on to exactly what discourage reform in the Muslim world. Further, by sponsoring the provision constitutes personal identity. We never Daniel Consolatore of these services efficiently to all citi- answered this one, even after many Washington, D.C. zens, a wise central government fosters beers. I know that I was born once, and, the creation of societal wealth in those not being religious, I don’t consider that Irfan Khawaja responds: sectors where capitalism is both effi- a miracle at all, just a simple, natural cient and dynamic. happening. So, how would it be any Daniel Consolatore suggests that my An example is social insurance that more miraculous for it to happen again, essay fails on two related counts: it facilitates the mobility of labor by being at some indefinite time in the future, lacks sophistication about social sci­ both universal and nonselective. Social albeit under different circumstances, ence, and it lacks a sense of realism Security and Medicare are enormously presumably? And what would it take about how to deal with Muslims. I don’t efficient and successful. Neither is per- for the subject of that future birth to find either criticism cogent. The first, fect, but both are technically far superior be me? Note that I’m not talking about as he must realize, merely bypasses to the alternatives. If Medicare could anything supernatural or religious or the thesis of my essay. As for the sec­ be extended in some form to cover all spooky here, nor would continuity be ond, the relevant question is whether citizens, it would be much easier to deal required. All I’m asking is could the Muslims would, if presented with the with the short and intermediate human same thing we know already happened best arguments against theism, apos­ disruptions of free trade in a world at least once—my birth—happen again? tasize from Islam in significant num­ where the other five billion or so humans I suspect not, but wonder if others bers. In my view, they would do so for rapidly learn to compete for jobs and have reflected on this. It might at least the same reasons that I did and other markets with those of us lucky enough to make for a more interesting discus- Muslims have: religious delusions pro­ live in societies that were exposed to “the sion than the Pope’s crackpot doctrines. duce cognitive dissonance that only Enlightenment” and its many tangible as You’ll never win an argument with those reason can resolve. Consolatore may well as intangible benefits. people! The religious just have too many disagree, but I doubt that his opinions Government is difficult, but it is nec- answers, while I have few. on this topic derive from the findings essary and inherently bad only when Wayne Saunis of any social science, sophisticated or those who are charged with the respon- Houston, Texas otherwise: there is no social science sibility of carrying it out are inherently that could even in principle confirm “bad” or, perhaps worse, fixated on or disconfirm predictions about “what dogmatic slogans rather than pragmatic significant numbers of people would solutions that, however imperfect, make freely come to believe if they were pre­ things better. sented with good arguments and were Sam Taylor From the Editors free to believe what they wished.” Duck, North Carolina The crucial difficulty is, as he rec­ Susan Jacoby’s article “Religious ognizes, political: most Muslims are Correctness and the American neither free to encounter arguments Press” (Free Inquiry, April/May against theism nor free to express a 2004) was adapted from a talk she commitment to atheism. That is what Born-again gave at the Council for Secular has to change. But I would insist that Humanism’s conference in Wash­ the rationale for the change ought Atheism? ington, D.C., in spring 2003 entitled explicitly to be the promotion of athe­ “One Nation Without­ God.” “The Silver Bullet Question That Kills ism, not the reform of Islam. Nothing the Immortal Soul,” by James H. Dee is to be gained by reforming falsehood; (FI, April/May 2004) addressed an inter- much is to be gained by refuting it. esting topic and was good as far as it went. But after refuting the Pope’s silly soul-infusion theory (which might have WRITE TO FI required one paragraph), I was a little Send submissions to Just Say No bit disappointed he didn’t move on to Norm Allen, Jr., Letters Editor, other ideas about the continuity or rep- FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, to Libertarian Amherst, NY 14226-0664. etition of personal identity. Fax: (716) 636-1733 Capitalism A former neighbor and I used to E-mail: [email protected] discuss philosophical topics over a beer For letters intended I am beginning to find fundamental- occasionally, and once, he read a paper- for publication, ist Capitalist Libertarians as tiresome back book on various afterlife theories. please include name, as fundamentalist Marxists, Muslims, Of these, he found reincarnation the ad­dress, city, and state, and daytime phone number Christians, Jews, Hindus, and “post- most plausible, but was convinced it (for verification purposes only). modernists.” (I apologize if I have left would require “a transfer of elements.” Letters should be anyone out.) I pointed out that his body contained 300 words or less These knee-jerk ideologues ignore none of the elements which composed and pertain to previous FREE INQUIRY articles. the pragmatic reality that there are ser- it at birth (not to mention being many

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

RICHARD DAWKINS

“I do not think What Use Is Religion? we have religion because our religious ancestors Part 1 reduced their stress levels and hence survived longer. I don’t think s a Darwinian, the aspect of reli- that’s a big enough gion that catches my attention A is its profligate wastefulness, its theory for the job.” extravagant display of baroque useless- ness. Nature is a miserly accountant, grudging the pennies, watching the clock, Photo by Lalla Ward punishing the smallest waste. If a wild animal habitually performs some use- less activity, natural selection will favor rival individuals who instead devote time to surviving and reproducing. Nature cannot afford frivolous jeux desprits. Ruthless utilitarianism trumps, even if it doesn’t always seem that way. “Anting” is the odd habit of birds such as jays of “bathing” in an ants’ Though the details differ across cul- nest and apparently inciting the ants to tures, no known culture lacks some invade their feathers. Nobody knows for version of the time-consuming, sure what the benefit of anting is: per- wealth-consuming, hostility-provoking, haps some kind of hygiene, cleansing the fecundity-forfeiting rituals of religion. feathers of parasites. My point is that All this presents a major puzzle to anyone uncertainty as to the purpose doesn’t— who thinks in a Darwinian way. We nor should it—stop Darwinians from guessed why jays ant. Isn’t religion a believing, with great confidence, that similar challenge, an a priori affront anting must be good for something. Religious behavior in bipedal apes occupies large quantities of time. It devours huge resources. A medie- val cathedral consumed hundreds of man-centuries in its building. Sacred music and devotional paintings largely monopolized medieval and Renaissance talent. Thousands, perhaps millions, of people have died, often accepting tor- ture first, for loyalty to one religion against a scarcely distinguishable alter- native. Devout people have died for their gods, killed for them, fasted for them, endured whipping, undertaken a life- time of celibacy, and sworn themselves to asocial silence for the sake of religion.

13 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 OP-ED

to Darwinism, demanding analogous ancestors reduced their stress levels physiology and neuroanatomy. There is explanation? Why do we pray and and hence survived longer. I don’t think nothing wrong with proximate expla- indulge in costly practices that, in many that’s a big enough theory for the job. nations. They are important, and they individual cases, more or less totally Other theories miss the point of are scientific. But my pre-occupation is consume lives? Darwinian explanations altogether. I with Darwinian ultimate explanations. Of course, the caveats must now refer to suggestions like, “Religion sat- If neuroscientists find a “god center” come tumbling in. Religious behavior in the brain, Darwinian scientists like is Darwinian business only if it is me want to know why the god center widespread, not some weird anoma- evolved. Why did those of our ancestors ly. Apparently, it is universal, and the who had a genetic tendency to grow a problem won’t go away just because the “Darwinian questions god center survive better than rivals details differ across cultures. As with who did not? The ultimate Darwinian language, the underlying phenomenon have to direct attention question is not a better question, not is universal, though it plays out differ- a more profound question, not a more ently in different regions. Not all indi- toward the level at which scientific question than the proximate viduals are religious, as most readers genetic variations neurological question. But it is the one I of this journal can testify. But religion happen to be talking about here. is a human universal: every culture, might exist.” Some alleged ultimate explanations everywhere in the world, has a style turn out to be—or even avowedly are— of religion that even nonpractitioners group-selection theories. Group selection recognize as the norm for that society, is the controversial idea that Darwinian just as it has a style of clothing, a style selection chooses among groups of indi- of courting, and a style of meal serving. isfies our curiosity about the universe viduals, in the same kind of way as, in What is religion good for? and our place in it.” Or “Religion is accordance with normal Darwinian the- There is a little evidence that reli- consoling. People fear death and are ory, it chooses among individuals within gious belief protects people from drawn to religions which promise we’ll groups. The Cambridge anthropologist stress-related diseases. The evidence is survive it.” There may be some psycho- Colin Ren­frew, for example, suggests not good, but it would not be at all sur- logical truth here, but it’s not in itself that Christianity survived by a form of prising. A non-negligible part of what a Darwinian explanation. As Steven group-selection because it fostered the a doctor can provide for a patient is Pinker has said in How the Mind Works idea of in-group loyalty and brotherly consolation and reassurance. My doctor (Penguin, 1997): love. The American evolutionist David doesn’t literally practice the laying on of . . . it only raises the question of why Sloan Wilson has made a similar sug- hands. But many’s the time I have been a mind would evolve to find comfort gestion in Darwin’s Cathedral. instantly cured of some minor ailment in beliefs it can plainly see are false. Here’s a made-up example, to show by a reassuringly calm voice from an A freezing person finds no comfort in another way in which a group-selection intelligent face surmounting a stetho- believing he is warm; a person face-to- theory of religion might work. A tribe face with a lion is not put at ease by the scope. The placebo effect is well-docu- conviction that it is a rabbit. (p. 555) with a stirringly belligerent “god of bat- mented. Dummy pills, with no pharma- tles” wins wars against a tribe whose cological activity at all, demonstrably A Darwinian version of the fear-of- god urges peace and harmony or a tribe improve health. That is why drug trials death theory would have to be of the with no god at all. Warriors who believe have to use placebos as controls. It’s form, “Belief in survival after death a martyr’s death will send them straight why homeopathic remedies appear to tends to postpone the moment when it to paradise fight bravely, and willingly work, even though they’re so diluted is put to the test.” This could be true give up their lives. So their tribe is more that they contain the same amount of or it could be false—maybe it’s another likely to survive in intertribal selection, the active ingredient as the placebo version of the stress and placebo theory steal the conquered tribe’s cattle, and control—zero molecules. — but I shall not pursue the matter. My seize their women as concubines. Such Is religion a medical placebo, which only point is that this is the kind of way successful tribes spawn daughter tribes prolongs life by reducing stress? in which a Darwinian must rewrite the that go off and propagate more daugh- Perhaps, although the theory is going question. ter tribes, all worshipping the same to have to run the gauntlet of skeptics Psychological statements to the tribal god. Notice that this is different who point out the many circumstances effect that people find some belief agree- from saying that the idea of the warlike in which religion increases stress rather able or disagreeable are proximate, not religion survives. Of course it will, but in than decreases it. In any case, I find the ultimate explanations. As a Darwinian I this case the point is that the group of placebo theory too meager to account am concerned with ultimate questions. people who hold the idea survive. for the massive and all-pervasive phe- Darwinians make much of this dis- There are formidable objections to nomenon of religion. I do not think tinction between proximate and ulti- we have religion because our religious mate. Proximate questions lead us into (Continued on page 56)

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

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

As Jesus is nailed to the When Mel Had cross, the hands wielding the hammer are those of a Hammer Mel Gibson himself.

sion of the year’s most stupid and lurid and exploitative motion picture. Instead, everything was focused upon the need for s the major chords of the bat- good relations between Christians and tle over Mel Gibson’s Gospel- Jews, with only a few stern figures from A porn movie The Passion of the either congregation being willing to make Christ were beginning to die away, I an issue of the actual doctrinal dispute or was abruptly struck by a minor one. of its historical implications. During the scene in which the limbs The “facts” of the matter are easy to of Jesus are being bloodily impaled comprehend. Even though the Romans on the cross, I was intrigued to learn, were nothing like as tender and compas- the hands that we see wielding the sionate and hesitant as Gibson portrays hammer are the hands of Gibson him- them (after all, this same bloody empire self. Sometimes an actor who wants to is destined to adopt Christianity as direct, and sometimes a director who an official religion once Constantine wants to act, Gibson could not keep assumes the throne), and even though himself from playing some part in the the Jewish authorities had nothing like would have been no popular majority bloodiest story ever filmed. the power that he ascribes to them, it for putting anybody to death by torture. Nor was this just a modest adoption remains the case that the Jewish cleri- But this thought is so simple, and also of manual labor (or perhaps humble cal leadership of the time was eager to so moral, that it was given absolutely no carpentry) on his part. The choice of chance to enter into the fevered discus- hand-role, apparently anonymous and (Continued on page 57) unassuming but actually very conceit- ed and presumptuous, is significant. It is the view of true Christian believers that all of us helped to officiate at the Crucifixion, and that all of us share in the guilt of the atrocity. For Gibson, who takes this even more literally than most, it was thus essential that he take part in the torture and murder that his movie otherwise seems to condemn. Thus is the trick exposed. A film plays aggressively upon natural sympathy for the victim while actually promoting the idea that a pre-ordained and prophesied human sacrifice is also the fault of people who were not born when it took place. Thomas Paine long ago satirized this sinister foolishness in his Age of Reason, pointed out that if everybody in Jerusalem had been a Quaker (as his own father had been), the human race would have been damned because there

15 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 OP-ED

WENDY KAMINER

“... exercise your First Back to the Future Amendment rights and you won’t simply be haunted by phantoms of prosecutors past; you’ll be targeted by their living oon after the 9/11 attacks, when counterparts.” the Bush administration was sum- Smarily imprisoning immigrants who had no apparent connection to by phantoms of prosecutors past; you’ll terrorism and asserting virtually unac- be targeted by their living counterparts. countable power to spy on citizens and Meanwhile, Rhode Island Governor noncitizens alike, Attorney General Donald Carcieri may have been visit- Ashcroft famously sneered at the fears ed recently by the ghost of Woodrow of civil libertarians. We were scaring Wilson, who enthusiastically signed the people with “phantoms of lost liberty,” infamous Sedition Act of 1919; it pro- he scoffed. hibited “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, His metaphor was inadvertently or abusive language about the form of appropriate. When the Federal Bureau government of the United States, or the of Investigation subpoenaed records of Constitution of the United States, or the an antiwar protest at Drake University military or naval forces of the United in February of this year, the ghost of Lawyer’s Guild prepared to challenge States.” In February 2004, Carcieri Richard Nixon seemed to hover over them in court. But the message to anti- proposed a homeland security act for us, taking names and serial numbers war protesters and other dissidents was Rhode Island that would have expanded of Americans who had the temerity to clear: exercise your First Amendment upon state laws enacted in 1919 that protest what they regarded as an unjust rights and you won’t simply be haunted and unnecessary war. (Continued on page 57) Federal subpoenas were served on Drake University, the National Lawyers Guild, which had organized the event, and four individual activists, includ- ing the leader of the Catholic Peace Ministry and a member of the Catholic Worker House. The subpoenas appar- ently sought information on the people who attended the antiwar forum, called “Stop the Occupation! Bring the Iowa Guard Home!” Why were they issued? Federal officials claimed they were investigating an effort by one person to scale a security fence the day after the event. Given this very flimsy excuse for seeking information about people engaged in legal political advocacy, it was not entirely surprising that the U.S. attorney general retreated and with- drew the subpoenas when the National

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

PETER SINGER

“It is not . . . the fact that The Harm That another nation is lead- ing the United States in Religion Does research on stem cells that matters. . . .What does matter is that, without

ver since August 2001, when U.S. funding for stem cell President Bush announced his research, the global effort E shaky compromise policy on fed- eral funding for research on stem cells, in this area moves American scientists have been charging that the policy severely impedes prog- forward more slowly, ress in this promising new area. Bush’s because one leading policy allowed federal funding only for research using stem cell lines that were player is absent.” in existence on the date of his speech. Thus, he maintained, such funding would not encourage anyone to destroy human embryos to obtain stem cells, because if they did so, the newly created stem cell lines could not be developed or studied with federal funding. critics had been saying, South Korean On August 9, 2001, Bush claimed that scientists revealed that they had made “more than sixty genetically diverse embryonic human clones from adult stem cell lines already exist.” Finding women. One of these cloned embryos these stem cell lines proved difficult, had developed long enough to permit however, and many of them turned stem cells to be extracted. The tech- out not to be suitable for research. nique would, in principle, make possible In September 2002, Dr. Curt Civin, a the development of individual stem cell stem cell researcher at Johns Hopkins lines, taken from those who are ill and University, told a congressional commit- would benefit from the stem cells. There tee that “embryonic stem cell research would then be no problem of rejection, is crawling like a caterpillar” and that for the stem cells used in treating the stem cells were available “only to those illness would be a perfect genetic match persistent and patient enough to jump with the cells of the person in need through a series of hoops and endure of the treatment. Such research could lengthy waits.”1 Subsequent reports not be done with federal funding in the put the number of stem cell lines that United States. satisfied federal guidelines for funding There are good grounds for being and were useful for research at eleven. cautious about producing new human Senator Arlen Specter, a Republican beings by cloning. Even if we disregard from Pennsylvania,­ asked President the often hysterical fears of armies of Bush to “expand” his earlier decision identical clones, at least in our present and make more cell lines eligible for state of knowledge, there is too great a research with federal funding. The pres- risk of the cloned human having serious ident did not respond to this request.2 abnormalities. But the Korean scien- Last February, as if to confirm what (Continued on page 58)

17 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 OP-ED

MASSIMO PIGLIUCCI

Socrates and Religious “The point of Euthyphro’s dilemma is that the gods Morality are irrelevant to the question of morality, because they are

very semester at the University either capricious of Tennessee, a colleague in the (and therefore not moral EPhilosophy Department invites me to play the devil’s advocate in her themselves), introductory class. I mean that almost literally, since many of these students or they refer to an have never seen a live atheist, and some independent standard of have to be persuaded not to walk out of the classroom when I come in. I try to morality that is accessible sport my most charming Italian accent and convince them that I’m unlikely to to humans as well.” have eaten any babies for breakfast, but then I get to the business of challenging their minds. After all, philosophy is all about critical thinking. One of my favorite challenges is invariably misunderstood and under- estimated and yet often causes people’s light bulbs to visibly go on when they finally get it. It is the most powerful argument ever produced to show that morality and religion are independent of one another and a formidable weapon in the critical-thinking toolbox of the secular humanist. The challenge was articulated originally by Socrates in one of the most beautiful and important works of Western literature, a short dialogue by Plato called the Euthyphro. In the dialogue, Socrates is on his way to the law courts of Athens to answer the charge of impiety (for which he was later famously condemned to death). On his way, he meets Euthyphro, a self-professed theologian who is going to charge his own father with murder. Socrates is surprised and asks for the details of the story, which are rath- er murky. This leads Socrates to ask Euthyphro how he knows that what he is about to do is right. Euthyphro answers

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

that it is right because the gods want it follow the arbitrary whims of a powerful are either capricious (and therefore not (and, of course, he knows exactly what god, but they remain whims nonethe- moral themselves), or they refer to an the gods want). It is at this point that Plato less. There is always the possibility that independent standard of morality that has Socrates deliver a line that should be one is following a very powerful but evil is accessible to humans as well. This is, considered the single most powerful blow god. In the case of Christianity, the Old of course, tremendously liberating, and to theistic morality: “Is what is holy holy Testament especially is notoriously full quite possibly one of the most important because the gods approve it, or do they of situations in which God approves contributions of philosophy to the wel- approve it because it is holy?” of slaughtering innocents, stoning chil- fare of humanity. Euthyphro is confused by Socrates’ dren, ethnic cleansing, and so forth (so Secular humanists should pose much for the “good book”). Euthyphro’s dilemma to anybody who One can avoid the first horn of cares to listen, but beware: the real rea- Euthyphro’s dilemma by saying—as son Socrates had to drink hemlock was “Admittedly, it may many more sane religious people do— that he was corrupting the Athenian that God cannot possibly wish some- youth. That is, he died because he was be wise to follow the thing that is not good. But that, Socrates trying to teach critical thinking to the arbitrary whims teaches, impales the theologian on the new generation. I am so glad that mod- second horn of the dilemma, for now we ern universities have invented the ten- of a powerful god, don’t need gods to be moral: if morality ure system. exists outside of the gods, we can do but they remain without the middle man (or woman) Further Reading whims nonetheless.” and go straight to the source of ethical Plato, Euthyphro. Available in a variety of behavior. translations and on several Web sites, Of course, what the source of moral- including: http://etext.library.adelaide. edu.au/aut/plato.html ity is turns out not to be a straight- http://graduate.gradsch.uga.edu/archive/ question, and so apparently are most forward matter, for both the religious Plato1.htmlhttp://socrates.clarke.edu/ people (including students) the first and the nonreligious. But Socrates’ (or APLG0150.HTM. time they hear the argument. But let it Plato’s) argument clearly tells us that sink in for a moment, and it grows on invoking the divine alone simply won’t Massimo Pigliucci is professor of you to the point of being unbearable. do. It is important to realize that this is evolutionary biology at the State Uni­ The dilemma that Socrates poses to not an argument against the existence versity of New York at Stony Brook. Euthyphro is this: either what is good of God. Although Socrates was allegedly His latest book is Denying Evolution: (“holy”) is such because God says so, punished for his atheism (“impiety”), he Creation­ism, Scientism, and the Nature or God has no choice but to approve of actually refers to the gods continuously of Science (Sinauer, 2002). Many of something because it is good. In the first in his teaching. The point of Euthyphro’s his ramblings can be found at www. case, the good becomes an arbitrary dilemma is that the gods are irrelevant rationallyspeaking.org. concept. Admittedly, it may be wise to to the question of morality, because they

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19 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 OP-ED

SHADIA B. DRURY

Leo Strauss and the Leo Strauss, guru of the neoconservatives, Grand Inquisitor regarded religion as a political tool intended for the mass-

here is a certain irony in the fact es but not for that the chief guru of the neo- the superior few. Tconservatives is a thinker who regarded religion merely as a political tool intended for the masses but not for the superior few. Leo Strauss, the to the rest of humanity. And this is a German Jewish émigré who taught at recipe for tyranny, not freedom or dem- the University of Chicago almost until ocracy. his death in 1973, did not dissent from There have always been those Marx’s view that religion is the opium who deluded themselves into thinking of the people; but he believed that the that they were akin to gods who are people need their opium. He therefore entitled to rule over ordinary mortals. taught that those in power must invent But no one has described this mental- noble lies and pious frauds to keep the ity more brilliantly than Dostoevsky, people in the stupor for which they are Second, the use of religion as a political when he created the figure of the Grand supremely fit. tool encourages the cultivation of an Inquisitor. In his short story of the same Not all the neoconservatives have elite of liars and frauds who exempt title, Dostoevsky imagined that Jesus read Strauss. And those who have rarely themselves from the rules they apply has returned to face a decadent and understand him, for he was a very secretive thinker who expressed his ideas with utmost circumspection. But there is one thing that he made very clear: liberal secular society is untenable. Religion is necessary to provide political society with moral order and stability. Of course, this is a highly questionable claim. History makes it abundantly clear that religion has been a most destabilizing force in politicsæa source of conflict, strife, and endless wars. But neoconservatives dogmatically accept the view of reli- gion as a panacea for everything that ails America. Using religion as a political tool has two equally unsavory conse- quences. First, when religious beliefs become the guide for public policy, the social virtues of tolerance, free- dom, and plurality are undermined, if they are not extinguished altogether.

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

corrupt Church. As head of the Church, elitism as well as in its misanthropy. sacrifice their lives for it. He recom- the Grand Inquisitor condemns Jesus This shows that while one need not be mended a rabid nationalism and a mil- to death, but not before having a long a religious thinker to be misanthrop- itant society modelled on Sparta. He and interesting conversation with the ic, religion is an excellent vehicle for thought that this was the best hope for a condemned man. Jesus naively clings to implementing misanthropic policies in nation to be secure against her external the belief that what man needs above all public life. enemies as well as the internal threat of else is freedom from the oppressive yoke decadence, sloth, and pleasure. A policy of the Mosaic law, so that he can choose of perpetual war against a threatening between good and evil freely according enemy is the best way to ward off polit- to the dictates of his conscience.1 But the ical decay. And if the enemy cannot be Inquisitor explains to him that truth and “With the neoconservatives found, then it must be invented. freedom are the sources of humanity’s For example, Saddam Hussein was greatest anguish and that people will and the Christian Right in an insignificant tyrant in a faraway land never be free because “they are weak, power, Americans can without the military power to threaten vicious, worthless, and rebellious.”2 He America. And he wasn’t allied with the declares that people can be happy only forget about the pursuit Islamic fundamentalists who attacked if they surrender their freedom and bow the World Trade Center in 2001. But the before miracle, mystery, and author- of happiness and look neoconservatives who control the White ity. Only then can people live and die forward to perpetual House managed to inflate the threat to peacefully, “and beyond the grave, they gargantuan proportions and launched will find nothing but death. But we shall war, death, the nation into a needless war. Even keep the secret, and for their happiness and catastrophe.” though they are not hardcore Straus­ we shall allure them with the reward of sians, neoconservatives share Strauss’s heaven and eternity.”3 The Inquisitor view that wealth, freedom, and pros- explains that the “deception will be our perity make people soft, pampered, and suffering, for we shall be forced to lie.”4 depraved. And, like Strauss, they think But in the end, “they will marvel at us The Grand Inquisitor presents his of war as an antidote to moral decadence and look on us as gods.”5 ruling elite as suffering under the and depravity. And this should make us To say that Strauss’s elitism sur- burden of truth for the sake of human- wonder if they purposely launched the passes that of the Grand Inquisitor ity. So, despite his rejection of Christ, nation into a needless war because they is an understatement. Undeniably, the Grand Inquisitor is modeled on the were convinced of the salutary effects of there are strong similarities. Like the Christian conception of a suffering God war as such. Grand Inquisitor, Strauss thought that who bears the burden for humanity. In There is a strong asceticism at the society must be governed by a pious contrast, Strauss represents his rul- heart of the neoconservative ideology elite (George Bush the second and the ing elite as pagan gods who are full that explains why it appeals to the Christian fundamentalists who support of laughter. Instead of being grim and Christian Right. Neoconservatism dove- him fit this role perfectly). Like the mournful like the Grand Inquisitor, they tails nicely with the views that human- Grand Inquisitor, Strauss thought of are intoxicated, erotic, and gay. And ity is too wicked to be free; too much religion as a pious fraud (something they are certainly not too concerned pleasure is sinful; and suffering is good that would alarm the Christian fun- about the happiness of mere mortals. because it makes man cry out to God damentalists who are allied with the They have little pity or compassion for redemption. With the neoconserva- neoconservatives). And even though for them. On the contrary, the pain, tives and the Christian Right in power, Strauss was sympathetic to Judaism, he suffering, and tragedies of the mortals Americans can forget about the pursuit nevertheless described it as a “heroic provide them with entertainment. of happiness and look forward to per- delusion” and a “noble dream.”6 Like The Trojan wars and similar tragic petual war, death, and catastrophe. And the Grand Inquisitor, he thought that atrocities were festivals for the gods, in the midst of all the human carnage it was better for human beings to be intended for their pleasure and amuse- and calamity that such policies are victims of this noble delusion than to ment. Nietzsche thought that only when bound to bring, the Olympian laughter “wallow” in the “sordid” truth.7 And like suffering is witnessed by gods did it of the Straussian gods will be heard the Grand Inquisitor, Strauss thought become meaningful and heroic. Soaring by those who have ears to hear it. In that the superior few should shoulder high, Strauss discovered that there are short, the Straussian elite makes the the burden of truth and in so doing, no gods to witness human suffering; and Grand Inquisitor look compassionate protect humanity from the “terror and finding the job vacant, he recruited his and humane in comparison. hopelessness of life.”8 acolytes.9 The fact that so many of the most All the similarities between Strauss Strauss thought that the best way for powerful men in America are self-pro- and the Grand Inquisitor notwithstand- ordinary human beings to raise them- claimed disciples of Leo Strauss is rath- ing, the Straussian position surpasses selves above the beasts is to be utterly er troublesome. For example, Abram the Grand Inquisitor in its delusional devoted to their nation and willing to Shulsky, the director of the Office of

21 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 OP-ED

Special Plans, which was created by a common enemy could save a people Palgrave Macmillan, 2004). Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, from becoming soft, pampered, and 2. Ibid., p. 30. was a student of Strauss. Shulsky was depraved. Strauss would have admired 3. Ibid., p. 40. 4. Ibid., p. 31. responsible for finding intelligence that the ingenuity of a color code intended to 5. Ibid., p. 30. would help to make the case for war in inform Americans of the looming threats 6. Leo Strauss, “Why We Remain Jews: Iraq. We know now that the intelligence and present dangers, which in turn Can Jewish Faith and History Still Speak to was false and misleading. Shulsky tells makes them more than willing to trade Us?” in Leo Strauss: Political Philosopher us that he learned from Strauss that their liberty for a modicum of security. and Jewish Thinker, Kenneth L. Deutsch and Walter Nicgorski, eds. (Lanham, 10 Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of “deception is the norm in political life.” Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 1994), p. 61. defense and assistant to Vice President But deception cannot be the norm in 7. Ibid., p. 61. public life without subverting democ- Dick Cheney, is also a self-proclaimed 8. Leo Strauss, Philosophy And Law: racy and robbing people of the oppor- follower of Strauss. Like many of Essays Toward the Understanding of tunity to deliberate freely in light of the Strauss’s students, he is animated Maimonides and His Predecessors, Fred Baumann, trans. (New York: Jewish Pub­ facts. by a sense of missionæa mission to save America from her secular liberal lication Society, 1987), p. 18. Another important Straussian close 9. Leo Strauss, The Rebirth of Classical to the Bush administration is William decadence. And what better solution Political Rationalism: Essays and Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard is there to secular liberal sloth than a Lectures, Thomas L. Pangle, ed. (Chicago: and chairman of the Project for the war effort? I am inclined to give these University of Chicago Press, 1989), pp. 107– New American Century, in which the powerful students of Strauss the benefit 08. neoconservative foreign policy is clear- of the doubt by assuming that they have 10. Gary J. Schmitt and Abram N. Shulsky, no idea of the sinister depths to which “Leo Strauss and the World of Intelligence ly outlined. Kristol wrote his thesis on (by Which We Do Not Mean Nous),” in Machiavelliæa theorist who was much Strauss’s political thought descends. Kenneth L. Deutsch and John A. Murley admired by Strauss for everything And I think that by revealing aspects (eds.), Leo Strauss, the Straussians, and except his lack of subtlety. Strauss of Strauss’s dark philosophy, I may the American Regime (New York: Rowman endorsed Machiavellian tactics in pol- dissuade some of them from following & Littlefield, 1999), p. 410. iticsænot just lies and the manipulation Strauss too blindly into the abyss. of public opinion but every manner of Shadia B. Drury is Canada Research unscrupulous conduct necessary to keep Notes Chair in Social Justice at the the masses in a state of heightened alert, 1. Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Grand University of Regina, where she is afraid for their lives and their families Inquisitor with Related Chapters from The professor of philosophy and politi­ Brothers Karamazov, Constance Garnett, and therefore willing to do whatever cal science. Her most recent book is trans. (New York: Library of Liberal Arts, was deemed necessary for the secur- 1948). I am very suspicious of this interpret- Terror and Civilization: Chris­tianity, ity of the nation. For Strauss as for ation of the message of Jesus. See my new Politics, and the Western Psyche (Pal­ Machiavelli, only the constant threat of book, Terror and Civilization: (New York: grave MacMillan, 2004).

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free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 22 FRONTLINES

Canada Takes Conservative SIDE LINES Stance on Reproductive Moneymaking Passion — In mid-April, The Technologies Passion of the Christ ranked in the top spot for popularity at a time in its run when most movies fade and earned $350 million, making it the In a move that surprised observers who perceived Canada to be on a pro- eighth-biggest box-office hit of all time. Sales of gressive path in social policy, the Canadian Parliament in March passed related merchandise were also expected to gen- legislation that will put severe restrictions on both scientific research and erate cash. There is a Web site of official licensed products, which can be ordered online or pur- patient care. chased at many Christian stores. The offerings The bill is called “An Act Respecting Assisted Human Reproduction” (known include “Witness Cards,” lapel pins, pendants, as C-6), and it makes it a criminal offense to engage in therapeutic cloning, to mugs, framed photos from the movie paired with maintain an embryo outside a woman’s body for more than fourteen days, to Bible verses, and the movie soundtrack. Perhaps the most interesting item is The Passion Nail™, a genetically manipulate embryos, to choose the gender of offspring, to sell human “replica” of one of the nails used to affix Christ to eggs and sperm, and to engage in commercial surrogacy. It also requires that in the cross. The Web site, www.sharethepassion- vitro embryos be created only for the purpose of creating human beings or for ofthechrist.com, sells the nails in various sizes improving assisted human reproductive procedures. and materials to serve as pendants, key rings, and zipper pulls for Bible cases. “As the bio-Luddite camp continues to exert its influence in the Unites States, as evidenced by Bush’s recent maneuvering, I’m inclined to think that Passion Gone Awry —The Easter show put on it’s influencing and tainting Canadian sensibilities,” wrote commentator George by Glassport Assembly of God in Pennsylvania Dvorsky.* “For a country that’s about to legalize same-sex marriage and decrim- wasn’t what the audience expected. Perhaps inspired by Mel Gibson, the performers decided inalize marijuana, reactive legislation such as C-6 is puzzling. that the focus of the holiday should be on the “This blind acceptance of mixing ethics and medical science with religion crucifixion of Christ. But they left in the Easter is unacceptable, and it has got to stop,” he wrote. “It’s time to dismiss it and Bunny and conveyed their message by whipping ac­knowledge the efficacy and validity of real and accountable secular bioethics. the bunny and breaking his eggs, which were supposed to be used in a hunt. Other charac- In biology as in politics, citizens have the right to be free from the pressures of ters included a drunken man and a self-mutilat- organized religion.” ing woman. Parents and children left the show Meanwhile, in the United States, the outlook for improvements to the govern- upset and in tears. ment’s stance on stem-cell research worsened with the dismissal of two scientists The World Reacts to The Passion—In France, from the President’s Council on Bioethics. One was Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn of three Jewish brothers asked a court to ban the the University of California, a leading cell biologist working with the structure film, which they feared would incite anti-Semitic of chromosomes. She has charged that Council chair Dr. Leon Kass has “ques- violence. Mean­while, a leading Shiite cleric in tioned modern medical and biomedical science and taken the stance of a ‘moral Kuwait encouraged authorities to allow the film to be shown because it “reveals crimes commit- philosopher,’ often invoking a ‘wisdom of repugnance’ —in other words, rejecting ted by Jews against Christ.” science, such as research involving embryonic stem cells, because it feels wrong to him. I remain convinced that this type of visceral reaction should launch, rath- Fatal Passion? — At least two people have er than end, debate.” died during or after viewing The Passion. A Presbyterian pastor in Brazil who had booked the entire theater for his congregation suffered * ”The Separation of Church and Bioethics,” www.betterhumans.com, March 31, 2004 a heart attack and died during the show. In the United States, a woman in Wichita, Kansas, passed out while watching the crucifixion scene and later died. “Catholic politicians who do not wish to follow the teaching and doctrine of the Church should find a more wishy-washy church. Or consider Troublemaking Passion — Police were called to the home of a Statesboro, Georgia, cou- Buddhism. Having grown up in the Catholic Church, am I concerned ple when they began fighting after seeing The that such pressure will lead to a greater bias against Catholic politicians? Passion. Both were charged with simple battery Not as concerned as I am that there is not a single skeptic, atheist, and released on $1,000 bail. The woman had injuries to her face and arm, and her husband or agnostic in all of Congress.” was wounded in the hand with scissors and had his shirt ripped off. The wall suffered a hole from — Letter writer to the St. Louis Journalism Review, commenting a punch thrown by the husband. The point of on a story about U.S. Catholic bishops’ monitoring and contention? Whether God the Father in the Holy Trinity was human or symbolic. sanctioning politicians whose votes and policy statements conflict with Church teachings.

23 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 uppose you were offered a photographic memory, per- “posthuman future” has ensued. Unfortunately, it has often fect pitch, ultraviolet-spectrum vision, heightened disease lacked the clarity of computer-mediated vision. S resistance, customized skin and eye color, and a one- One obstacle to discussion is that transhumanism is not thousand-year life-expectancy. Would you accept? Now suppose just a philosophy; it is also a grassroots movement. The you were told that by doing so you would cease to be human. movement, which has gathered force in the last ten years and Would this make you less willing to accept? If you’re like me, coalesced around organizations like the Extropy Institute, you’ll answer “Yes” to the first question and “No” to the second. the online magazine BetterHumans, and the World Trans­ I could stand the improvements, and if they make me more than humanist Association, is a motley crew of serious academics, “human,” so what? If you answer “Yes” to the first question but journalists, and scientists, cyber self-help gurus, nanotech say that leaving humanness behind would actually make you venture capitalists, polyamorists and gender-benders, cryon- more willing to accept, you may be a “transhumanist,” the new ics freaks, and artificial intelligence geeks. Like other icon- breed of perfectionists who aim at collective self-improvement oclastic movements, organized transhumanism attracts its through direct modification of “human nature.” share of sheer goofiness. The co-founder of Extropy Institute, According to Nick Bostrom, a young philosopher at Oxford a Southern California body-builder and Ayn Randian named and a leading transhumanist: Max, had his last name changed from O’Conner to More, because “I was going to get better at everything, become Transhumanists view human nature as a work-in-progress, a 10 half-baked beginning that we can learn to remold in desirable smarter, fitter, and healthier.” The co-mingling of serious ways. Current humanity need not be the endpoint of evolution. theory and policy consideration with a grab bag of techno-uto- Transhumanists hope that by responsible use of science, tech- pian projects makes for easy targets for the biocons, diverting nology, and other rational means we shall eventually manage to the debate from core substantive issues. become post-human, beings with vastly greater capacities than present human beings have.1 Whereas humanists for centuries have settled for trying to perfect humanity, transhumanists want to transcend it. “Transhumanism has roots in secular humanist thinking, yet “An increasingly public debate is more radical in that it promotes not only traditional means of improving human nature, such as education and cultural over our ‘posthuman future’ has refinement, but also direct application of medicine and tech- ensued. Unfortunately, it has often nology to overcome some of our basic biological limits.”2 Every day, real scientific breakthroughs suggest that lacked the clarity of trans­humanist hopes are no longer merely the stuff of William computer-mediated vision.” Gibson’s science-fiction novel Neuromancer. Life spans of laboratory mice have been doubled; transgenic animals are commonplace3; jellyfish genes have been inserted into the hair follicles of mice to make them glow4; a network of snail brain cells has been connected to a silicon chip, perhaps speeding the day when microchip implants can control artificial limbs, restore sight, and revive memory.5 Highly prominent cultural commentators like bioethicist Leon Kass,6 political scientist Additionally, the prominence of organized transhumanism Francis Fukuyama,7 environmentalist Bill McKibben,8 and in the debate reinforces the illusion of an all-or-nothing choice even Sun Microsystems cofounder Bill Joy have begun calling between the bio-Luddites and the Borg. Grand Zarathustran for caution, or even preemptive prohibition of human “germ- dreams of becoming posthuman may leave you cold, though line” genetic engineering (transhumanists label such attitudes you might nonetheless favor some of the specific developments “bioconservatism”).9 An increasingly public debate over our being proposed. You might be for life extension and gene therapy while being indifferent to whether nanotechnology Austin Dacey directs the program in Science and the Public at the Center will ever materialize and opposed to colonizing Mars. Unfor­ for Inquiry. tunately, this moderate, piecemeal approach is seldom repre-

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 24 sented by the ideological camps now squaring off. the primacy of change and mutation.

Our Genes, Our Selves? What would it mean to become posthuman? That depends on what “being human” amounts to. There is what might be Incrementally changing the genome is a way of changing the called a moral sense of humanity defined by conventional species, not creating a new one. values, somewhat of the kind Captain Kirk tried repeatedly to The identification of human nature with the germ line also explain to Mr. Spock on the original Star Trek. There is also a gives too much credit to genes. It makes sense to say that what vaguely biological notion of humanity, and it is this notion that is human nature is universally or species-typically inherited; has gotten the most ink. Biocons have made the permissibility that is, somehow given or reliably present in each generation, of direct intervention in the germ line a touchstone issue, and thanks to the activities of the previous generation. But devel- opmental and theoretical biologists now recognize that genes are not the only thing inherited in this sense.12 Gene transcrip- tion, protein assembly, and ontogeny are possible only in an “Like other iconoclastic environment of extra-genetic structures (chromatin, cellular organelles, the womb) that must be provided by the previous movements, organized generation no less reliably than DNA. On this view, plenty of transhumanism attracts its share non-germ-line interventions count as interventions in “human nature”: the introduction of new prenatal nutritional regimes, of sheer goofiness.” for instance. To imagine that the clear, bright line around our

many transhumanists have followed them in framing the debate in these terms.11 It is bad philosophy to identify the human essence with the human genome in its present state. To do so is to buy into the antiquated notion that a creature’s nature is immutable or unchanging. This intel­ lectual­ vestige of the eternal, Platonic “species essence” was undermined by Darwinian biology and its insis- tence on

25 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 nature must be drawn at the boundaries of the chromosomes We need to know precisely what we should want more of and is to be in the grip of an outmoded gene-centered ideology. why. If the question is what kinds of persons ought there to Many of the things that appall critics (like selecting embry- be, it won’t do merely to observe that there is nothing sacro- os by sex or chasing after earthly immortality) and thrill trans- sanct about the human germ line. We need an argument for humanists (like computer implants or undermining traditional the eclipse of certain conventional values by new values. In dualisms of artificial-natural and male-female) have nothing this light, the focus on becoming biologically nonhuman can in principle to do with genomic tinkering. Anyway, significant be seen as a red herring. Presumably, the fundamental point stretches of the genome are probably “junk”: self-promoting of posthumanism is that the humanness of a trait is simply irrelevant to whether it ought to be valued or pursued. Understood as the body of intellectual and moral ideas that united Renaissance classicists, Enlightenment rational- ists, and twentieth-century scientific naturalists, Western humanism was a great and necessary thing. But its moment “Clearly, it is certain effects may have passed, if only because its anthropocentrism on people and culture that are worth caring about, not the rearrangement of Notes 1. Nick Bostrom, “Human Genetic Enhancements: A Trans­ our biochemistry per se.” humanist Perspective,” Journal of Value Inquiry (forthcom- ing). 2. Ibid. 3. Stephen S. Hall, Merchants of Immortality: Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extension (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2003). 4. Maggie Fox, “Green Glowing Mice May Mean Gene genes that contribute nothing to the phenotype, and so could Therapy for Hair,” Reuters, September 12, 2002. 5. Jill Mahoney, “Study Using Snails Raises Long-range be altered to no effect. Clearly, it is certain effects on people Hopes for Repairing Sight and Restoring Memory,” Globe and and culture that are worth caring about, not the rearrange- Mail, February 20, 2004. ment of our biochemistry per se. 6. Leon R. Kass, Life, Liberty, and Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics (San Francisco, Calif.: Encounter Who Teaches the Overman? Books, 2002). The hard task for transhumanists, then, is the one they hav- 7. Francis Fukuyama, Our Posthuman Future: Con­ en’t yet taken head-on: making a positive and widely appealing sequences of the Biotechnology Revolution (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2002). moral case for their particular vision of the excellent person 8. Bill McKibben, Enough: Staying Human in an and the good society. What can be said to those who have Engineered Age (New York: Times Books, 2003). no desire to give up their traditional human values; delight 9. Bill Joy, “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us,” Wired, April in old-fashioned analog conversation a la Parisian café cul- 2000. ture; aesthetic pleasure in the “natural” male and female 10. Ed Regis, “Meet the Extropians,” Wired, October 1994. bodies of a Balanchine ballet; surprise at the genetic lottery 11. See Bostrom, “Human Genetic Enhancements”; James Hughes, “Embracing Change with All Four Arms: A Post- of no-tech conception and child-bearing; satisfaction in strug- Humanist Defense of Genetic Engineering,” Eubios Journal of gling through a mathematical problem with no calculator; or Asian and International Bioethics 6, 4 (June 1996): 94–101. the Romantic embrace of death as integral to a whole life?13 “I 12. “Darwinism and Developmental Systems,” Paul Griffiths, go straight to the question of why on earth we would want to Russell Gray, and Susan Oyama, eds., Cycles of Contingency: do this in the first place,” says Bill McKibben. Developmental Systems and Evolution (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press), pp. 195-96. All of this enhancing and souping up presupposes a goal or an 13. In 2003, the President’s Council on Bioethics issued aim. What is that goal? What is it we’re not intelligent enough an anthology of ninety-five “rich and wise writings—stories, to do now? It’s not to feed the hungry—that has to do with poems, memoirs, and more—to help us appreciate what makes how we share things. Fighting disease? We’re making steady us human.” In it, behavioral genetics takes backseat to Homer, progress in conventional medical science with the brains that Shakespeare, Whitman, and Tolstoy. we have right now.14 14. Erik Baard, “Cyborg Liberation Front: Inside the Movement for Posthuman Rights,” Village Voice, July Maybe no answer will satisfy the Bill McKibbens. But nei- 30-August 5, 2003. ther should anyone settle for Max More’s: it is not enough to say that humans should go for more of whatever they go for.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 26 any of the public figures who are trying to shape policy its own biology is what troubles so many people. Clearly, med- in the life sciences these days—from Francis Fukuyama icine and health care will be transformed in the process. But Mand Leon Kass to the perennial Jeremy Rifkin—are the new technologies will do much more than that. They will troubled by recent advances in biotechnology. They are not change the way we have children, alter how we manage our alone; their angst is shared even by some of the scientists at the emotions, and even modify the human life span. Far sooner vanguard of this research. As we push further into uncharted than people imagine, these core technologies will take us to territory by deciphering and laying bare the workings of life, it the very question of what it means to be human. is worth asking just what it is that so worries us. Research in genomics, proteomics, genetic engineering, The enormity of coming developments in molecular biol- and regenerative medicine will be at the heart of these devel- ogy seems obvious, but their magnitude doesn’t require that opments, and they will be subject not only to fickle public we respond with fear. We are hardly the first to appreciate enthusiasm and angst, but to a tide of regulation, litigation, the prospects for impending revolutionary developments in and political conflict. science. In 1780, Benjamin Franklin showed a very different attitude when he wrote to the great English chemist Joseph Priestley, “The rapid progress true science makes occasions my regretting sometimes that I was born so soon. It is impos- “It is hard to imagine … sible to imagine the heights to which may be carried, in a that a human will not thousand years, the power of man over matter.” Franklin was less bothered by impending changes from one day be cloned.” the next millennium of scientific discovery than by not being around to witness these amazing possibilities. Today, at the comparatively short remove of 225 years from that letter, the thousand-year span of his forecast seems conservative. But if The Big Picture Franklin could come back and see the extraordinary technol- Two unprecedented revolutions are underway today. The first ogies that have arisen since his death, I suspect that it would is the silicon revolution: the telecommunications, computers, please him no end. artificial intelligence, expert systems, and the related tech- When we look at the possibilities embodied in the Human nology that is ever more shaping our lives. We have begun to Genome Project, emblematic of those in proteomics, systems breathe into inert sand—the silicon—at our feet a level of com- biology, and molecular biology in general, we see that this plexity rivaling life itself. And our world will never be the same. research is poised to carry humanity to destinations of new The second revolution, a child of the first, is the one in imagination. Genetics and biology are at our core. As we learn molecular biology. As we plumb the workings of life and to adjust and modify these realms, we are learning to change unravel our biology, we are seizing control of our evolutionary ourselves. We have already used technology to transform the future. Our science has slammed evolution into “fast forward,” world around us. The canyons of glass, concrete, and stain- and no one can say where the process will ultimately carry us. less steel in any major city are not the stomping ground of The only reason the world has not yet shifted beneath our feet our Pleistocene ancestors. Now our technology is becoming so is that we have barely begun. Even with all the world’s seem- potent and so precise that we are turning it back on ourselves. ing changes, today is but the calm before the storm. Before we’re done, we will likely transform our own biology as The human genome project is a good example. We have a much as we have already changed the world around us. list of the human genes. We have libraries of their common The sense that humanity is at the threshold of reworking variants. We have micro-array technology to screen for these variants at ever lower prices. And we are developing the bio- Gregory Stock is director of the Program on Medicine, Technology, and informatics capabilities to make sense of the tsunami of such Society at the University of California at Los Angeles’s School of Public information about to sweep over us. Health. He explores the topics raised in this essay more fully in his The impact of these developments will be enormous, because 2002 book, now available in paperback from Mariner Press, Redesigning genes do matter. They are not our destiny, but they carry tre- Humans: Choosing our Genes, Changing our Future (http://research. mendous information about our predispositions and vulnerabili- mednet.ucla.edu/pmts/redesign.htm). ties in life and about who we are. As a good rule of thumb—and this information comes from twin studies, not genomics—with

27 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 adequate childhood environments such as those generally found Austadt, for example, a mainstream biogerontologist from the in today’s developed world, between a quarter and three quar- University of Idaho, believes that the first person to live to be ters of the variation in most traits across the human population 150 years old is already alive. can be explained by genetics. For most of the traits we see as People often tell me that they don’t think it would be a good critical to our identities—our temperament, whether or not we idea if we were able to extend the human life span. They are are risk takers, aspects of our personality, our mental capabil- worried that there are too many people on the planet already, ities—our genes are a huge window into who we are. And now that there would be environmental consequences, that life we are drawing back the curtain. would lose its meaning, that extending one’s life would be self- ish, or even that all those extra years would be boring. Then Consequences of the Biotech Revolution they often whisper, “But put me on the list.” The greatest immediate consequences of genomics in our lives This project to dramatically extend the human life span will flow from the widespread, inexpensive, reliable personal is greatly at odds with the present goals of biogerontology, genetic testing that will arrive over the next five to fifteen which are not to buy us more life but essentially to condense years. Such information may prove extremely challenging to our period of morbidity so that we could live healthy lives and us, both as individuals and as a society, but it hardly warrants then, within a very narrow period, rapidly deteriorate, like a the deep angst about biotechnology evident today. Our real salmon that has spawned. But the full achievement of this goal fears come from more distant possibilities that could be far would be a nightmare, profoundly at odds with our true aspira- more difficult and divisive. tions. Imagine how unprepared we would be to leave this world The first is the reshaping of our biology. That doesn’t mean if we lived vitally until eighty and then, within a month or so, that we are somehow going to develop another pair of arms died. Not only would this be excruciating, it would leave gap- or a set of gills. Other aspects of our biology are much more ing wounds behind, for sickness and decline prepare us and important to us. What if we could unravel the processes of those around us for our departure. I suspect that, given the aging and learn to retard or even reverse critical aspects of choice, most people would prefer both a longer and a healthier it? This is a key focus of regenerative medicine, and success life than either one by itself. would affect virtually every aspect of human society: family Another area where biotechnology is challenging us is relationships, educational structures, the passage of wealth reproduction. This is not surprising given that the passage of and power from one generation to the next, and the shapes life from one generation to the next is so central to people’s per- of various social institutions. The potential collapse of social ceptions of who they are. As we understand the constellations security is the least of it. Nor is this pseudoscience. Steven of genes that influence our identities, potentials, vulnerabilities, and temperaments, we will want to make choices about the Approval of Applications of Geneticechnolog T genetic constitutions of our children. Setting aside familiar low- tech methods of mate selection such as arranged marriages and PGD (p remiplantation geneticdiagnosis ) to avdoi serious geneticdisease 74 romantic love, and various coming refinements like computer 73 dating, we can anticipate the arrival of three high-tech proce- In vitro tiliferzation dures to consciously choose our children’s genes. 74 70 The first is reproductive cloning. Reproductive cloning will PGD to ensurechil d is a good tissue/blood m atch likely occur within five to ten years, long before mainstream 69 medical professionals view the procedure as safe, and it will 69 be claimed to have occurred on numerous occasions before Prenatal testingd iseasefor 67 it is actually achieved, as in the case of the Raëlian scam in 66 December of 2002. But when reproductive cloning does occur, it PGD to avdoi a tendency todiseases k eli cancer 56 is hardly going to be a cataclysmic event. Given the challenges 64 of the procedure, it will necessarily occur on a very small scale,

Genetic engineeringoi dto disease av and there will be a long lag before it is seen as safe enough 57 by any but a few driven souls. A few babies may be harmed, 61 of course, but it is hard to see how the creation of a delayed PGD to choose d’chils sex 22 identical twin is going to bring down our civilization. And it is 33 hard to see how fears of cloning could possibly justify stopping Percentw ho apprveo Prenatal testingd esirforb ale traits embryonic stem cell research, which seems to hold such prom- 13 ofgenetic technolog 27 for health-r elated ise. Our real concern should not be that some fringe group will benefits attempt to clone a child somewhere, but that fears about this PGD to ensurechil d hasd esirbale characteristics 18 will be purposely fanned by those who wish to control the future 26 Men of reproductive medicine and biotechnology in general. Genetic engineeringeate tod esircr bale traits Women Another means of selecting our children’s genetic consti- 14 tutions is embryo screening or “preimplantation genetic diag- 25 nosis (PGD).” In this already common procedure, a single cell “Publicwar A eness andttitu A esd About Genc etiTechnology” ,surveyepar pr ed byin Prceton Survey Resche Associatesor fthe etiGencs dan Publiolic Pcy terCen, October 2002. is removed from a six- or eight-celled embryo in vitro and a

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 28 genetic test is performed on it. The results are used to decide have always used technology to try to enhance our lives. We whether to implant that embryo or discard it in favor of anoth- plant. We build. We mine. We hunt. We dam. And, for as long er. PGD has been in use for ten years to prevent babies from as we have been able, we’ve altered ourselves as well. We cut being born with serious diseases such as cystic fibrosis. Such our hair, straighten our teeth, pierce our bodies, tattoo our screening procedures are far more important than cloning, and skin, fix our noses. We use drugs to ease pain, lose weight, they will come into widespread use once in vitro fertilization stay awake, go to sleep, or just get high. The idea that we will progresses to the point where it is feasible to freeze immature long forgo better and more potent ways of modifying ourselves oocytes. Then, a woman could have a simple ovarian biopsy is every bit as much of a denial of what the past tells us about to collect thousands of eggs, freeze them, and bank them, so who we are as to imagine that we would use these technologies that years later she could thaw and mature them in vitro and without fretting about them. fertilize them with her partner’s sperm. If she believes in letting Worrying about these new technologies has considerable nature take its course, she might choose one of the resultant survival value, but efforts to ban them will not succeed. And embryos at random for implantation, but I suspect it will be far if we draw up regulatory guidelines that are too restrictive, it more common to first screen the banked embryos for genetic will merely shift research elsewhere, drive it from view, and diseases or even temperament and personality traits. Such reserve the technologies themselves for the wealthy, who are technology will greatly impact human reproduction as it spreads in the best position to circumvent restrictions. Such policies from the infertile who are already using IVF to the affluent who thus would mean both relinquishing control over these new are worried about genetic disease and then to the population at technologies by handing them off to others and delaying what- large, and as the technology morphs from a simple screen for ever benefits emerge from them. disease towards screenings for lesser vulnerabilities like severe depression and then for traits of personality and temperament. A s Moreover, the technology will likely become so potent that the biggest pressure may be to make it available to everyone rather than to ban it. The ultimate means of changing human repro- duction, of course, is through direct germline intervention—direct alteration of the genet- ics of the first cell of the human embryo. This would be the beginning of conscious human design. I examine this at length in my book, Redesigning Humans (Mariner, 2002), and won’t discuss it further here, other than to say that technologies like human artificial chromosomes, which will be required, are not nearly as far away The first genetically modified pet, the fluorescent zebra fish or GloFishTM, as most people imagine. Direct germline interventions will is now available in most U.S. markets. emerge quite naturally from the sophisticated screening tech- nologies that will become feasible in the decades ahead. with so many other extensions of human power, no matter Moving Forward how much debate occurs there will be no consensus about changing human reproduction, expanding human potential, In the manipulation of human embryos for purposes of screen- extending human longevity, using drugs to alter human emo- ing and enhancement, not everything that can be done should tions, or simply screening human embryos. To some, changing or will be done. But international polls show that 25 to 80 per- human reproduction is an invasion of the inhuman. It violates cent of parents in every country examined say that they would their views of what is most sacred. To others, such advances enhance the physical or mental capacities of their children represent the flowering of our humanity, a chance to tran- through these technologies if they could do so safely. Given scend aspects of our biology in ways other generations could that significant numbers of people everywhere regard such only dream of. technology as beneficial, that it will be feasible in thousands of Weighing the possibilities of regenerative medicine are easy laboratories throughout the world, and that its use will be so for those in these extreme camps. Christian fundamentalists difficult to monitor, the question is not whether such technology will oppose them with all their fiber, and “transhumanists” will will arrive but when and where it will and what it will look like. embrace them wholeheartedly, pushing to have regenerative Humanity will go down this path for two reasons. The first technologies introduced as rapidly as possible. The people most is that there is no need to pursue the technology directly. It conflicted by the prospects of changing human reproduction are will emerge from the basic biomedical research now underway those who are involved in the work of bringing it about and are at our most prestigious institutions. concerned about some of its applications. The second reason we will proceed is that we’re human and Ian Wilmut, for example, who cloned Dolly the sheep and has

29 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 probably done more than anyone to bring about mammalian sense when it comes to making choices about these things cloning, is deeply troubled by the possibility of its application in their own lives—far more, perhaps, than the government to humans. It is hard to imagine, though, that a human will not committees whose members do not suffer the consequences of one day be cloned. These technologies will arrive. They will help the mistakes that they make. But progress in these realms will many people, and they no doubt will cause injuries as well. Such not be smooth, and people will get hurt. That is the way both is generally the case with new technology. Our challenge in biological and technological evolution work. the United States will not be how we deal with cloning, genetic Another fear is that of the philosophical implications of screening, or any specific technology, but whether we have the these coming possibilities. People worry that they may change courage to continue to face the possibilities of the future and our sense of who we are. This is probably the least valid basis accept the risks inherent in such exploration, or whether we for making public policy about new biotechnology, because pull back in fear and relinquish this effort to other braver souls our sense of what it means to be human will so obviously be changed by a broad range of technological advance in the years ahead. If we could stop biotechnology dead in its tracks, other technologies would still reshape our society. When we contemplate the future, we should remember that our great We may not like our future, grandparents would not be comfortable in the world of today, and yet most of us would not want to live in their time. So it but our descendants will.” will be with our future. We may not like it, but our descendants will, and they will likely look back at the present era as prim- itive and uninviting. The biggest fear, though, is that we will have to relinquish in other regions of the world. control, or rather, acknowledge that we don’t really have con- The political choices we make today will be very important, trol over humanity’s future. The long-term consequences of not because they will determine whether these new technol- the self-directed evolution now underway are not something ogies arrive, which is not in question, but because they will we can plan, because our course hinges too much on the char- determine our ability to influence the development of these acter of future technologies we cannot yet glimpse and on the technologies. For example, Germany has banned work on values of future humans we cannot yet hope to understand. embryos and now exerts no influence in that realm. It is ironic that accepting the technological path I’ve described is a deeply spiritual choice. Embarking on this voyage to we-know-not-where is a far greater act of faith than Our Fears trying to barricade against it by insisting that we should not Let’s return to the question we began with: What are we really play God. And, of course, we already do play God in so many afraid of? Critics are not particularly concerned that these ways, from using antibiotics to flying airplanes. technologies—including those of regenerative medicine—will I have mentioned the greatest fears of those who would fail or that someone somewhere will be injured by them. That hold back coming advances in regenerative medicine and would be a relief in many ways, because then the technologies other realms of biotechnology. But in my view, the dangers would fade away or at least be greatly slowed. from these advances pale beside the risk that we will succumb The real worry is that these technologies will succeed so to our fears and pull back, delaying beneficial might-have- gloriously that they will create a host of seductive possibilities beens. Think of the millions of cases of illness that would have we can’t resist. What strikes fear into the hearts of critics is resulted from policies that delayed the arrival of the polio that we as individuals and as a society will see so much benefit vaccine for a decade. in these technologies that we will embrace them. Then, critics We have entered a new millennium, and, long before the will have to face their real fears. next, future humans will look back at our era. They may see Their first is fear of ourselves. They worry that we (or it as a challenging, difficult, turbulent time, which of course it rather, someone else) will abuse these technologies. But here, is, but I think they will primarily see it as the unique, extraor- I take comfort from the protections that come from liberal gov- dinary, glorious instant when the very foundations of their ernments and open markets. Together they act against both lives—better and longer lives with better health and greater the grand social engineering projects that totalitarian regimes choices—were laid down. It is a remarkable privilege to be sometimes inflict on their citizenry, and the many bizarre dan- here to observe this critical transition in the history of life. gers that often populate bioethical debate. The former violate But of course, we are more than observers; we are also our guarantees of personal freedoms, and the latter have too the architects of a broad set of changes that will soon few potential users to inspire commercial development that reshape human life and our understanding of it. In my view, figures significantly in our future. we should be proud of this. But don’t think for a moment that Society has navigated technological change before and these shifts will not challenge us, because we are also the will muddle through once again. These new biomedical tech- objects of these changes. nologies are not like nuclear weapons, where one mistake In 430 B.C.E., the Athenian historian Thucydides seemed can vaporize millions of innocents. In truth, we need to make to have foreseen our challenge and our calling when he wrote, mistakes and learn from them to gain the wisdom to handle “The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision these new possibilities wisely. Most people will show common of what is before them, glory

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 30 veryday technology sometimes reshapes the body; the tures, by 2002; the nation was founded by a cyborg. Nor was feet of shod people are different from the feet of those Washington an isolated case. Thomas Jefferson’s polygraph E who have always walked barefoot. More important, it (not a lie detector but a linkage and second pen automatically helps shape how we use our bodies. Technology, and the tech- tracing a duplicate of his writing) and semireclining work niques of using it, have co-evolved over millennia. chair and Benjamin Franklin’s bifocals were also giant steps The most challenging open question is whether mind, body, in human-mechanical hybridization. (John F. Kennedy contin- and machine will fuse in some radical new way over the next ued the cyborg tradition as one of the first political adopters generation. For over fifty years, waves of enthusiasts have of the robotic signature machine, a giant and distinctively proclaimed the dawning of a new age of augmented humanity. American step in the cloning of gesture.)2 But they are far from agreed on the mechanism. For some, the Without antiseptics or antibiotics, wounds in the Civil War intimacy is limited to even more portable and powerful ver- demanded extensive amputation and created an innovative sions of the devices we take with us now: computers that might artificial limb industry. Today, responsive advanced prosthet- be as easily carried as cell phones and personal digital assis- ics, wheelchairs, vision implants, and other assistive devices tants (PDAs) now are, and viewed through special eyeglass exceed the nineteenth century’s wildest dreams; there is even displays. Spectacles could also transmit the emotional states litigation in the United States on whether a teenage swimmer of users so that a speaker, for example, could detect a group’s with an artificial leg was unfairly barred from wearing a flip- interest or boredom. There are already sneakers that can per on it [in a competition]. But the first choice of medicine transmit or record information on a runner’s performance, and dentistry is still the conservation of natural materials and and even civilian motorcycle helmets with intercoms and navi- gation aids built in. Other enthusiasts scorn mere wearability; they are having sensors and transmitters surgically implant- ed in their bodies, as some deaf children and adults have been fitted with cochlear implants that restore hearing. The “In Japan today, there are so many cyborg or human-machine is probably the most powerful and new data entry devices that young persistent idea, perhaps because it seems a logical next step from technological symbiosis. Politically the cyborg movement people are called oyayubi sedai, the extends from Paul Verhoeven’s original RoboCop film to the Thumb Generation.” work of Donna Haraway and Chris Hables Gray, who see the connection between human and machine as an emancipatory strategy against rigid economic and gender roles.1 But is the body really becoming more mechanized? George Washington never wore wooden teeth, and his last set of den- abilities. The trend has gone from spectacles to contact lenses tures—made of gold plates inset with hippopotamus teeth, to laser surgery; dentistry has moved steady from dentures human teeth, and elephant and hippo ivory, hinged with a to prophylaxis and conservation of endangered natural teeth. gold spring—was as good as the craftsmen of this time could And some dental researchers believe that adults may be able produce. He still suffered great discomfort, eating and speak- to grow replacement teeth naturally, just as children teethe. ing with difficulty. Yet perhaps this reserve only enhanced his Other regeneration, including the recovery of function for dignity. In any case, it should not be surprising that one in ten paraplegics and quadriplegics, may follow. And no robot can Americans had an implant of some kind, not including den- match the performance of a trained assistant dog.3 Edward Tenner is senior research associate at the Jerome and Dorothy The body remains surprisingly and reassuringly conserva- Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the tive. The zori design is still used for some of the most stylish National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution in sandals for women and men. Even the majority of athletic shoes Washington, D.C. He is the author of Why Things Bite Back: Technology with the most technically advanced uppers and soles still use and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences. This article is an excerpt a system of lacing at least two hundred years old. The most from Our Own Devices: The Past and Future of Body Technology (New York: advanced new office chairs still rely on the hundred-year-old Knopf, 2003). principle of a spring-mounted lumbar support, for all their additional adjustments. Recliners still place the body in the

31 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 same contours as the library chairs of the nineteenth century; The biggest surprise for the thumb is electronic. In Japan interest in built-in data ports and other technological enhance- today, there are so many new data entry devices that young ments is fading, according to industry sources. Not only has people are called oyayubi sedai, the Thumb Generation. In the QWERTY arrangement resisted all reform movements, but Asia and Europe, these users have turned voice recognition on even alternatives to the flat conventional keyboard are expen- its head, sending short text messages to friends, thumbs jump- sive niche products, partly because of innovators’ marketing ing around their cellular keyboards. By 2002, there were over difficulties, but also because few users are willing to relearn 1.4 billion of these transmissions each month in the United techniques in the absence of discomfort. A century after the Kingdom alone. One British researcher, Sadie Plant, has found piano started to lose its prestige and markets, it remains the that thumbs all around the world are becoming stronger and master instrument with its familiar keyboard. Computers help produce advanced progressive eyeglasses without the apparent breaks of bifocals, but wearers still hold glasses on their heads with the folding temples introduced in the eighteenth century. The latest NATO helmet echoes the outlines of the medieval sallet. But then, our foot bones and vertebrae and fingers and “... it should not be surprising that eyes and ears and skulls have not changed much, either. Even one in ten Americans had an implant automatic transmissions rely on a familiar tactile principle, a knob or handle and lever; push-button shifting is largely a mem- of some kind, not including dentures, ory of the Edsel. And the twenty-first century’s automobiles are by 2002; the nation was founded by a still directed and controlled by wheels and pedals—familiar from early modern sailing ships and wagons—rather than the cyborg.” alterative interfaces that appeared in patents and experimental cars. Meanwhile, many technological professionals study body techniques that may need few or no external devices: yoga, martial arts, and the Alexander Technique. Even the Christopher Columbus of wearable computing has misgivings about integrating himself with today’s “smart” more skillful. Some young Japanese are now even pointing technology. Steve Mann [interviewed in this issue] holds a and ringing doorbells with them. As Plant told the Wall Street Massachusetts Institute of Technology doctorate in computer Journal, “The relationship between technology and the users science and teaches in Canada; he was photographed wearing of technology is mutual. We are changing each other.” The a helmet equipped with a video camera and a rabbit-ears major laboratories did not predestine the thumb as the succes- antenna as early as 1980. In his book Cyborg, he acknowledg- sor to the index finger, though they did help make the thumb’s es being “increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of a cyborg usefulness possible. The full capacities of the digit were dis- future,” where privacy is sacrificed for pleasure and conve- covered through the joint experimentation of users, designers, nience to a degree he compares to drug addiction.4 and manufacturers. And its new role is an expression of the Today’s real advanced cyborg technology is actually nei- intimate relationship described by Frank Wilson, writing of ther utopian nor apocalyptic. Virtual-reality helmets are still the “twenty-four-karat thumb”: “The brain keeps giving the not playthings but professional tools demanding rigorous hand new things to do and news ways of doing what it already training in physical and mental techniques to prevent disori- knows how to do. In turn, the hand affords the brain new ways entation and lapses in judgment. At the other extreme of com- of approaching old tasks and the possibility of understanding plexity, miniature keyboards on cellular telephones and other and mastering new tasks.”6 devices are surprisingly influential. They have been shifting In learning new body skills, we have sometimes neglected the balance of power of the human hand from the index finger others. Scores of resting positions known to anthropologists to the thumb. We have seen that C.P.E. Bach elevated the are being replaced by a single style of sitting; humanity has thumb’s role in playing the musical keyboard 250 years ago, been losing not only languages but body techniques. Infant and that the pioneers of touch typing rediscovered the fourth feeders compete with the emotional and physiological rewards and fifth fingers but banished the thumb to tripping the space of nursing. Sneakers assist fitness programs, but some may bar. Now the thumb is enjoying a second renaissance. interfere with older people’s sense of balance. The reclining The thumb is coming back to computing with pen- and chair, originally sold partly as a health device, has become an pencil-like devices, such as the styli used with PDAs. Even a emblem of the dangers of sedentary living. The piano’s high radical new mouse, developed by the Swedish physician and plateau of development in the nineteenth century prepared the ergonomist Johan Ullman, is gripped and moved around the way for the player piano and ultimately for recorded music. desk with a pen-shaped stick, using the precision muscles of Typewriter and computer keyboards have eliminated much the thumb and fingers rather than twisting the hand and tiring of the grind of learning penmanship, but also the pleasure the forearm, in Dr. Ullman’s analysis. As for pencils them- of a personal hand. The growth of public education has been selves, they have had some of their strongest unit sales yet, accompanied by an increase of myopia and eyeglass wearing. increasing by over 50 percent in the United States in the 1990s.5 And the helmet can promote as well as ward off danger. While

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 32 augmenting our powers, these devices increase their power workers who wanted a say in the development of technology over us. in their industries, but was ultimately embraced by corpora- Our challenge of advanced industrial societies is a degree tions worldwide.8 of standardization that threatens to choke off both new The thumb keyboard has a sad aspect, the threat to hand- technologies and new techniques. The remedy is a return to writing traditions, whether Asian or Western. But it also has the collaboration between user and maker that marked so a positive side as a mark of human resourcefulness. Thus the many of the great innovations, whether the shaping of the thumb may be the best symbol for a new technological opti- classic American fire helmet or the development of the touch mism based on user self-reliance, a proletarian digit resurgent method by expert typists and typing teachers. And research in the digital age. The index finger signifies authority, marking even in the most advanced technical processes confirms the regulations and warnings in texts, wagging and lecturing in importance of users. In the 1980s, the economist Eric von person: the Rules. The thumb connotes the practical knowl- Hippel studied change in high-technology industries such as edge men and women have worked out for themselves: the Rules of Thumb. And it represents tacit knowledge, the skills we can’t always explain: as in the Green Thumb. Most of all, when extended in the almost lost art of hitchhiking, the thumb shows the right attitude toward the future, open and coopera- “In learning new body skills, tive but with a firm sense of direction. we have sometimes neglected

others. Scores of resting positions Notes known to anthropologists are being 1. Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto,” in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New replaced by a single style York: Routledge, 1991), pp. 149–81; Chris Hables Gray, Cyborg Citizen (New York: Routledge, 2001). of sitting; humanity has been 2. Reidar F. Sognnaes, “America’s Most Famous Teeth,” Smithsonian, 2, no. 11 (February 1973), pp. 47–51; Robert losing not only languages Cohen and J. Scott Orr, “Often the Patient Is the Last to Know,” Newark Star-Ledger, August 11, 2002; Dean E. but body techniques.” Murphy, “Betraying John Hancock,” New York Times, February 4, 2001. 3. Justin Bachman, “Boy’s Attached Fin Roils the Waters,” Newark Star-Ledger, August 16, 2002; Clare Wilson, “Cutting Edge,” New Scientist 175, no. 2355 (August 10, 2002): 32–35. the manufacture of scientific instruments and semiconductors 4. Steve Mann with Hal Niedzviecki, Cyborg: Digital Destiny and Human Possibility in the Age of the and the assembly of printed circuit boards. He found that Wearable Computer (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2001), up to 77 percent of innovations were initiated by users and pp. 4–5, 149–51. recommended that manufacturers identify and work with a 5. Phil Patton, “New Mouse Takes Shoulder off the vanguard of “leader users.” We have seen how nineteenth-cen- Wheel,” New York Times, April 12, 2001; Ann Carrns, tury musicians worked with piano manufacturers, and how “Hard Hit by Imports, American Pencil Icon Tries to Get a the typewriter entrepreneur James Densmore tested his ideas Grip,” Wall Street Journal, November 24, 2000. 6. Tactical Display for Soldiers (Washington, D.C.: with the court reporter James O. Clephane. Even rank-and-file National Academy Press, 1997); Geoffrey A. Fowler, “In the operators are able to help modify equipment and systems in Digital Age, ‘All Thumbs’ Is Term of Highest Praise,” Wall the interest of safety and productivity. Cognitive psychologists Street Journal, April 17, 2002; Libby Copeland, “Thumbs who study work are rejecting an older model of a single, best Up: After Eons Spent in Its Siblings’ Shadow, the Dumpy set of procedures and learning from the way in which work- Digit Finally Counts,” Washington Post, June 24, 2002; ers modify equipment to help do their jobs better. As Kim J. Frank Wilson, The Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain, Language, and Human Culture (New York: Pantheon 7 Vicente puts it, “Workers finish the design.” Books, 1998), p. 146. Design should be not only user-friendly but user-challeng- 7. Eric von Hippel, The Sources of Innovation (New ing. The piano keyboard is rightly celebrated as an interface York: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 1–25, 102–16; manageable for the novice and inexhaustible for the expert. Kim J. Vicente, Cognitive Work Analysis: Toward Information interfaces should also invite the beginner while Safe, Productive, and Healthy Computer-Based Work (Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum), pp. 109–38. offering the experienced user the chance to develop new 8. John Markoff, “Kristen Nygaard, 75, Who Built techniques rather than attempting to anticipate every desire. Framework for Modern Computer Languages,” New York Participatory design, introduced by the mathematician and Times, August 14, 2001. computer scientist Kristen Nygaard, began with Norwegian

33 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 Sometimes called “the world’s first cyborg,” Dr. Steve Mann FI: What do you think is the fundamental motivation to has been inventing, designing, and building wearable become a cyborg? Why are you doing this? computers for more than twenty years, dating back to his Mann: I think we as humans like to adapt ourselves to a high-school days in the 1970s. He brought his inventions better form of living, perhaps, and so we enjoy things such as and ideas to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in shoes, clothing, personal effects as extensions of the mind and 1991, initiating what was to later become the MIT Wearable body. We tend to evolve ourselves into another state of being. Computing Project. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Time, Newsweek, Scientific American, and other publications, and has appeared on numerous television stations and networks, including NBC, ABC, CNN, and the “Q: Do you consider yourself to Discovery Channel. He is currently a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the be a human? University of Toronto. Mann is the author of the textbook A: (Pauses.) I don’t know. Can Intelligent Image Processing and Cyborg: Digital Destiny and Human Possibility in the Age of the Wearable Computer, a we go to the next question?” popular account of his life as a cyborg.—Eds.

Free Inquiry: Do you consider yourself to be a human? Steve Mann: (Pauses.) I don’t know. Can we go to the next FI: You have written extensively on how ubiquitous surveil- question? [Laughs.] lance results in tamer but more regularly enforced laws and FI: Is it a logical consequence of your philosophy that we uncritical acceptance of intrusion into people’s privacy. What are all cyborgs—that pacemakers, prosthetics, glasses, cloth- effects could ubiquitous WearComps [wearable computers] ing even, make us cyborgs? have on society? Also, you lament the fact that service channels Mann: Yes, I think in many ways, we’ve become cyborgs, in our commercial and civil institutions are becoming perva- through clothing, jewelry, personal effects, wearable comput- sively automated, so how might WearComps help to preserve ers, pocket organizers, cell phones, pagers, all those things we what you call “humanistic intelligence” in our exchanges? have attached to us, we’ve entered into a cyborg world. So many of us, as I described in my book, are already cyborgs. FI: Then is it true but trivial to declare yourself one? Or is there some greater meaning to the declaration? Mann: I guess maybe there are varying degrees of being inter- twined with the technological pros- theses that create us. As we invent new forms of technologies to which we can adapt, we create new kinds of technological space around us— we invent these new kinds of tech- nologies, and then we use them. Ben Hyink is a student at Northwestern University and is active in the transhumanist and humanist movements. He conducted this interview while interning at the Center for Inquiry.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 34 Mann: Ubiquitous surveillance has resulted in a higher progress in your paper, “On the Bandwagon: Beyond Wearable probability of getting caught, and in my book, Cyborg, I talk Computing.” about the theory of proximate constancy of getting caught Mann: The challenge is that a lot of people would rather versus the severity of punishment, relating to surveillance. be sheep; a lot of people would rather be imprisoned so that Ubiquitous surveillance tends to result in micromanagement, they don’t have to make decisions. People like software that a feedback loop that dehumanizes the individual, and I talk restrains them and gives them fewer choices. Certainly, if you instead about this alternative theory that I call “humanistic read Jean-Paul Sartre, you can get this sense of existentialist intelligence,” which arises from having the human being in notion of choice as being dramatic, and sometimes it’s easier the feedback loop of a computational process in which the to be restrained. That is one of the core issues I’m trying to get human and computer are inextricably intertwined. The goal of at in my book Cyborg. WearComp is to facilitate humanistic intelligence. FI: Projective geometry, projective harmonic compo- nents, photographic video feedback—the technologies behind WearComp are truly interdisciplinary. What background might enthusiasts want to obtain to work on WearComp technolo- gies? “Systems like closed-source Mann: That really pertains to my other book. Budding enthusiasts may want to check out Intelligent Image software that discourage an understand- Processing, which is more technical in nature and focuses on ing of how things work run counter to the scientific elements. FI: How is WearComp doing commercially? Is it only a nov- the principle of science elty for Tokyo teenagers at the moment? By which paths might and should be opposed.” the mainstream gradually adopt WearComp? Mann: Well, it’s sort of twisted there a little bit because a lot of novelty, teenager-type technologies have caught on already. Blogging and cyborg logging or “glogging” have caught on with the younger crowd. It depends on how broad FI: In a previous interview, you recommended that we all learn to program so as to escape total control by certain soft- ware companies, whose interest lies in keeping us dumb by not allowing us to operate our principal cognitive tools. What “Technology should promote are our principal cognitive tools? Mann: I would say our cognitive tools fall under the head- natural curiosity.” ing of “science.” Curiosity is really the cognitive tool that 010101010111010101110101010 I’m talking about here—technology should promote natural curiosity. I think that we should promote scientific inquiry and an ability to understand how things work; and that an you consider the definition of WearComp. understanding of how things work is healthy and science is FI: Lastly, any thoughts to leave the readers of Free Inquiry healthy, and therefore systems like closed-source software with regard to WearComp’s human augmentation in general? that discourage an understanding of how things work run Mann: I think it’s really mediation more than augmentation counter to the principle of science and should be opposed. that we maybe want to focus on, because I think that while FI: How do you perceive the relationship between what people often focus on the notion that technology can augment you are doing—extending human capabilities—to the broad them, but I also describe myself as a “cyborg luddite” and projects of humanism and transhumanism? I don’t necessarily embrace all technologies. I think that we Mann: Humanistic intelligence is related to some of these need more mediating technologies, devices that mediate our other ideas in the sense that there is a shared concern for pur- experiences and modify our perceptions. For example, why suit of happiness, knowledge, well-being, and the application would you want eyeglasses that filter things out? Well, the of reason. There is certainly the notion of ethics and morals visually impaired, people who suffer from visual information rolled into it. The existentialist notion of self-determinism and overload, could benefit greatly by simplified representation of mastery over one’s own destiny are core to humanistic intelli- the world—it’s easier to understand in a computer-mediated gence, as well as the upholding of science and curiosity. Look world. Digital eyeglasses are a kind of mediation. I say in at the technologies to eliminate aging. The growing population my book: “If the eye is the ‘window to the soul,’ why not put of elderly can certainly benefit from the EyeTap technology. shades on the window to the soul?” Certainly, from a philo- People with limited mobility can be helped with WearComps as sophical framework, there are a lot of interesting elements of well as some of the other inventions we’re working on. computer-mediated reality, and from a scientific point of FI: You have written about the potential for popular hype view, there are a lot of interesting challenges that remain in to distract attention from true scientific and technological trying to design, build, invent, and manufac-

35 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 n February 2004, the Bush administration found pro-life the brain-dead are vulnerable human beings facing slaughter. bioethicists to replace two members of the President’s Champions of personhood see fetuses and the brain-dead as I Commission on Bioethics who had defended the use of pre- and post-persons, lives without interests. Only persons embryos in stem cell research. In the case of Florida resident have interests, such as women wanting to control their bodies, Terri Schiavo, the Religious Right continues to fight to keep the disabled and sick looking for therapies from stem cells, “alive” a permanently unconscious woman whose husband and families waiting to bury their dead. Advocates of person- would like to pull the plug. The Great Ape Project is fighting to hood take seriously the claims of great apes and cetaceans to ban experimentation on chimpanzees and gorillas. Technology some rough moral parity with humanity on the basis of their critics like Langdon Winner, Francis Fukuyama, and Bill cognitive complexity, while human-racists reject rights for McKibben warn that humanity is threatened by an emergent nonhumans out of hand. posthumanity, while the National Science Foundation encour- Now that we are on the cusp of transcending the human ages the cross-fertilization of nanotechnology, biotechnology, condition, of living longer, healthier, and smarter than our and the information and cognitive sciences (NBIC) towards the ancestors, the human-racists insist on divine prohibitions and goal of “improving human performance.” dire consequences for our hubris. In their essay “Protecting All these issues are connected as part of a broad politi- the Endangered Human,” for instance, bioethicists George cal struggle between advocates and opponents of two basic Annas and Lori Andrews call for an international treaty to humanist propositions. First, humanists believe that what make it a “crime against humanity” to improve genomes in is of value in human life is our capacity for thought, feeling, ways that children could inherit. Inheritable genetic modifica- and conscience, our “personhood,” and not our biological tion, they say, “can alter the essence of humanity itself (and characteristics like gender, race, or genome. Second, human- thus threaten to change the foundation of human rights) by ists believe we should be free from superstitious taboos and taking human evolution into our own hands and directing it religious authority in our use of reason and science, that toward the development of a new species, sometimes termed we should be able to freely use our human powers to reach the posthuman. . . . Membership in the human species is cen- our fullest potential. In previous eras the struggle over these tral to the meaning and enforcement of human rights.” propositions emancipated slaves and gave women suffrage. But the humanist tradition does not fetishize biological The anti-humanists insisted that women and Africans were humanness, and human rights do not depend on biological biologically incapable of equality with white men, while the humanists insisted that women and Africans had the same capacities for thought and feeling, and therefore the same right to citizenship. In the emerging biopolitics of the twenty-first century, the struggle will be to determine which kinds of life have rights and citizenship. For human-racists, fetuses and James Hughes, Ph.D., teaches health policy at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and serves as Secretary of the World Transhumanist Association, a nonprofit organization devoted to encouraging the use of technology to transcend the limitations of the human body. His weekly radio program, Changesurfer Radio, can be heard at changesurfer. com. He writes a biweekly column for Betterhumans. com, and his book Citizen Cyborg: Transhuman Technology and the Challenge to Democracy will be available in October from Westview Press.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 36 similarity. Not all biological humans are persons (fetuses, the of human affairs, than that it brings human beings themselves brain-dead), and biological humanness is irrelevant to person- nearer to the best thing they can be?” Creating institutions hood. John Locke defined a person as a “thinking intelligent to fulfill the promise of the Universal Declaration of Human being that has reason and reflection and can consider itself as Rights would be a great step toward this goal. But reaching itself, the same thinking thing, in different times and places.” our fullest potential also requires access to technology, from As humanists facing the challenges of contemporary biotech- the printed word and electricity to vaccinations and birth nology, we need to embrace a transhuman understanding of control. With democracy and human rights, we push back the humanist project and humanist values, a humanism beyond the social and economic constraints on our personhood. With human-racism. technology, we push back the natural constraints. Humanists and transhumanists need to wage a global campaign to radicalize the idea of human rights in the com- ing decades. We need to assert our rights to control our own bodies and brains, whether we choose to change our genders “With democracy and human rights, or medicate our brains. We need to assert that the measure of a society’s fairness is how universally available it makes we push back the social and eco- the prerequisites for achieving our fullest potential. We need nomic constraints on our person- to defend the right to enhance ourselves—whether through education and exercise or genetic engineering and cybernetic hood. With technology, we push implants. We need to extend these “human rights” and citi- back the zenship not only to all humans, regardless of nationality, but to all persons, ape, human, posthuman, or machine. We need natural constraints.” to build the global institutions that can protect the rights of persons and expand the freedoms they enjoy. To the degree that we succeed in our campaign for per- sonhood over human-racism, we will fulfill the dreams of our humanist forebears like Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, who The transhumanist works toward the fullest flowering of wrote in the “Oration on the Dignity of Man” that you, as a all persons’ potentials, freeing them from the domination of human, “with no limit or no bound, may choose for yourself other people, ensuring that they are educated, housed, and the limits and bounds of your nature . . . to you is granted the fed, and that they are empowered to control their own lives. power, contained in your intellect and judgment, to be reborn John Stuart Mill said, “What more can be said of any condition into the higher forms, the

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37 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 The Religiosity of Is the personal presidential? George W. Bush Edmund D. Cohen

ntil recently, I had not seriously thought that this way, definitely goes over the line into the realm of magical supernaturalism or superstition could be an issue thinking and delusion. Neither he nor Karl Rove has come for- of concern as regards the second Bush presidency. ward to correct or to clarify Mansfield’s account. UGeorge W. Bush is, to be sure, a practicing fundamentalist The president and Robison enjoy a very close relationship. Christian who begins each day meditating on the fustian prose Both the White House and Robison downplay it, and the main- of Oswald Chambers’s My Utmost for His Highest. But he is stream media have not caught onto it yet. Robison visited with also an Ivy League graduate, the scion of an old Republican the president in the Oval Office in spring 2001, fall 2002, and establishment family, and the chosen front man for the conser- perhaps at other times. Robison has been a guest repeatedly vative Republican Party establishment. Surely that establish- and perhaps frequently at the president’s ranch in Crawford, ment must have vetted its candidate well enough to rule out Texas. Of “Bush’s unique friendship with James Robison . . . ,” nominating an unstable religious eccentric. When he speaks Mansfield writes, “[t]he two have prayed together while hiking in churchly terms, surely he is only employing regional idiom Bush’s ranch or talked about faith, gun in hand, while waiting and one cannot take him literally. Or can one? for game to approach.”4 When then-Governor of Texas Bush was seeking the pres- Robison was the featured speaker at the prayer breakfast idency in 2000, a story circulated that he had phoned the preceding Bush’s inauguration as Texas governor. In February televangelist James Robison and said to him, “I’ve heard the 1999, then-Governor Bush appeared on Robison’s televangelism call. I believe God wants me to run for president.”1 Even that show, Life Today—his only appearance on that kind of televi- struck me as nothing more than standard Bible Belt hyperbole. sion program. Of the frequent phone conversations between What changed my mind is Stephen Mansfield’s unauthorized the president and Robison, Darren Barbee, writing in the Fort 2004 campaign hagiography, The Faith of George W. Bush.2 In it, Mansfield sets out an account of events following upon that phone call, based on an apparently recent interview with Robison: On the day that the evangelist entered Bush’s office, he was surprised to find political strategist Karl Rove there as well, and even more surprised at what Bush was about to say. “My life is changed,” the governor said. “I had a drinking problem. I won’t say I was an alcoholic, but it affected my relationships, even with my kids. It could have destroyed me. But I’ve given my life to Christ.” Robison, who had heard rumors of Bush’s conversion, was struck by the sincerity he sensed. He was not prepared, though, for what came next. “I feel like God wants me to run for pres- ident,” Bush said. “I can’t explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to happen, and, at that time, my country is going to need me. I know it won’t be easy, on me or my family, but God wants me to do it.” “In fact,” Bush continued, “I really don’t want to run. My father was president. My whole family has been affected by it. I know the price. I know what it will mean. I would be perfectly happy to have people point at me someday when I’m buying my fishing lures at Wal-Mart and say, ‘That was our governor.’ That’s all I want. And if I run for president, that kind of life will be over. My life will never be the same. But I feel God wants me to do this, and I must do it.” The president’s prophetic profession, if it really was expressed Edmund D. Cohen is the author of The Mind of the Bible- Believer (Prometheus Books, 1986) and a frequent contrib­ utor to Free Inquiry.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 38 Worth Star-Telegram, reported: spirits are as obvious and despicable as those responsible for the tragedy of September 11 and other atrocities. Seducing In the new century, his cell phone rings with George W. Bush spirits are often subtle, sophisticated, and in some ways attrac- on the line asking Robison to tell him how he came across in a tive. They can control professors, politicians, artists, and even speech. More recently, the president and the . . . televangelist religious leaders including Jesus’ own disciples . . . . The enter­ have talked about the war in Iraq, about the greed that con- tainer, teacher or leader who undermines the relevance of sumed Enron and about the battle for America’s heart. absolute principles is no less demonically manipulated “I want you to tell me, spiritually, what do you sense?” Bush than the terrorist. [Italics added.]8 has asked the Euless [Texas] televangelist.5 Robison also believes that God communicates specific mes- James Robison sages to believers by intervening in their thought processes: To try to understand President Bush, we cannot help but scru- I was driving down the road with my wife one day when I heard God speaking in my mind and my heart. It was not an audible tinize Robison. Now sixty years old, Robison is the product of voice, but it was nonetheless real. I heard Him say, “I really the rape of a forty-year-old woman who tried but was unable to like the way you come to me. You don’t just come to me with secure an abortion. After a hard-scrabble childhood, Robison a list of requests and concerns. Instead, you crawl up into my rose in Southern Baptist circles. As a young man, he became a arms, lay your head on my shoulder, and rest. I like that.” 9 big draw on the revival circuit. [Italics in original.] Since his 1968 entry into television, his popularity as a Without friends in the corridors of power, Robison would televangelist has waxed and waned. The scale of his current tel- be a mere buffoon. But with the president of the United States evangelism operation is modest. He has long been a high-profile presumably absorbing his preposterous teaching, there is a figure on the Religious Right, and has usually been present when problem, to say the least. How vulnerable might President high-ranking Republicans met with top Religious Right leaders. Bush actually be to such mind-rotting bunk? I contend that we Through the years, he has strayed from Southern Baptist doc- are seeing its effects each day, in the largest and most over­ trine and become a de facto Pentecostal or Charismatic. He has arching policies of the Bush administration. been through a phase of holding himself out as having special power to heal the sick by his praying. Iraq By Robison’s own account, he was often a “dark-visaged, Conspicuous by its absence from recent public discourse angry preacher,” railing against other preachers whom he has been any plausible theory as to how it came to pass that considered too liberal, too greedy, or too lustful. In 1979, he President Bush entered office with his mind already made up was put off the air for strident anti-gay rhetoric. He came to invade Iraq. The reasons the administration has contrived to attribute his much-criticized, angry demeanor, as well as for that invasion post hoc are less than credible. turmoil in his personal life, to the activity of demons. After Iraq in the last days of Saddam Hussein was far from the undergoing what he regarded as a successful exorcism per- most troublesome of WMD-capable rogue nations. Vitiated by formed by lay exorcist Milton Green, a kindler, gentler James years of embargo, Iraq had neither molested any of its neigh- Robison emerged. “Deliverance” or demon exorcism became bors nor shown any proclivity to resume doing so. Iraq had little part of his stock-in-trade. truck with Islamist terrorists. At a time when running Islamist In 1982, Robison befriended Texas millionaire T. Cullen terrorists to ground was supposedly America’s paramount for- Davis. Davis had been acquitted of the murder of his wife’s eign policy objective, the president diverted massive resources lover and his stepdaughter in 1977. In 1979, Davis was acquitted in order to invade a country with—for that region—a most again, this time of attempting to procure the murder for hire un-Islamic regime. Iraq under Saddam repressed Islamists of fifteen people, including the judge who had presided in his within its sphere of control more harshly than a regime with divorce case. Davis owned over one million dollars worth of decent regard for human rights could have done, and permitted Asian religious art treasures made of jade, ivory, and gold. He no young males to be indoctrinated in madrasas. wanted to contribute them to Robison’s ministry. Robison opined The possible ulterior motives that have been advanced—to that the objects were idols and had to be destroyed in obedience revenge Saddam’s attempt on the life of the elder President 6 to Deuteronomy 7:25. Davis and Robison broke the art objects to Bush, or to drum up business for Texas oil interests—could pieces with hammers and dumped the shards into a lake. scarcely have prompted a decision so momentous. Irrational According to Robison, there are but two worldviews: reasons must have played a large part in the genesis of this Biblical Christianity and Relativism. Biblical Christianity rep- otherwise incomprehensible policy. It can be no mere coinci- 7 resents the “Absolutes.” By “Relativism,” he means complete dence that the war waged for no sufficient reason—perhaps lack of criteria for distinguishing right from wrong or truth even by mistake—happens also to be the one waged against from falsity. All those who are not Bible-believers are ipso a nation and a tyrant that, for the Christian fundamentalist facto Relativists. For Robison, liberal Democrats, Islamist decision maker, resonate with biblical prophecy. terrorists, and all others who are not Christian Bible-believers Loathing for “Babylon” is a continual preoccupation count as Relativists and are therefore all interchangeable with throughout the Bible. The Bible’s Babylon references typi- one another. cally pertain to the captivity of the Israelites during the reign What the myriad deceptively different forms of Relativism all of Nebuchadnezzar and their liberation when Cyrus, King have in common is unseen direction by demons or evil spirits: of Persia, conquered Babylon and let the Israelites return Evil powers in the realm of darkness can affect and even con- to Jerusalem. Many such references appear to point to the trol the actions of people. . . . The Bible refers to these powers re-emergence of horrid Babylon near the end of time and to its as evil spirits, tormenting spirits, unclean spirits, seducing dramatic annihilation before Christ’s return. spirits, deceiving spirits, spirits of bondage and murder and destruction. It is important to realize that not all destructive Saddam liked to style himself as Nebuchadnezzar’s suc-

39 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 cessor. At the location of ancient Babylon, south of Baghdad, ly expects Christ to come back more quickly than our country Saddam built a nationalistic ancient Babylon theme park. can go bankrupt. There he planned to replicate the fabled hanging gardens. Both of these policies will predictably fail, not far into the Saddam identified far more closely with the glories of the dis- second term President Bush seeks. While it is devoutly to be tant, pre-Islamic past than with Islam. hoped that Iraq will succeed in forming a decent and stable A fundamentalist Christian decision maker is inevitably government, the chances are not good. The realistic expecta- handicapped at seeing Saddam dispassionately for the glori- tion is for Iraq’s politics to be dominated by Farsi-speaking Shiite ayatollahs not long after sovereignty is transferred. After that, Iraq will likely break up much as Yugoslavia did. As for the president’s fiscal policies, “if the Lord tarries” they will “George W. Bush is, to be sure, a practicing quickly and with absolute arithmetic certainty prove unsus- tainable. What can the president be thinking? What could fundamentalist Christian. . . . But he is also possess him to act so as to undercut his own contemplated an Ivy League graduate....” second term in office? For now, President Bush is on his best behavior, look- ing toward the 2004 election. Once re-elected, how might he change? The President Bush we know today is a far cry from fied street thug that he is. The demons, devil, and Antichrist the moderate, bipartisan Governor Bush who ran for president, crowding the imaginary landscape get in the way. Of course styling himself a “uniter, not a divider” and professing a plat- one will overestimate Saddam’s capabilities wildly, if one form of humility in foreign policy with no nation building. In a imagines him to be some sort of preternatural being, to whose second term, would we see a higher-profile Robison given the aid legions of ectoplasmic allies will come. After all, ectoplas- run of the White House, perhaps to emerge as an American mic allies do not respect United Nations embargoes. Rasputin? Would Bush devote the powers of his office to ful- Imagine the conversation that Robison and President Bush filling prophecies that he thinks are supposed to precede the might have had about the Iraq war and Bible prophecy. The return of Christ? Does the president fantasize about being in vituperations against Babylon in Revelation 17 and 18 would office when Christ returns—of receiving Him in the Oval Office, surely have been discussed: and being told, “Well done, my good and faithful servant” in the And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven Rose Garden just before being taken up into the clouds? vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither: I will I hope we never find out. shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. . . . And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. . . . I saw another angel. . . . And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage Notes of every unclean and hateful bird . . . and she shall be utterly 1. Tony Carnes, “A Presidential Hopeful’s Progress,” burned with fire. . . . And a mighty angel took up a stone like Christianity Today, October 2, 2000. a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with 2. Stephen Mansfield, The Faith of George W. Bush violence shall the great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall (Lake Mary, Florida: Charisma House, 2003.) be found no more at all.10 3. Ibid., p. 109. Robison gives a somewhat similar but far less damaging account of the conversation in his current No doubt Robison would have been capable of counseling book, The Absolutes: Freedom’s Only Hope (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House, 2002), pp. 232–33. Robison says the his presidential pupil to run out and invade “Babylon” with meeting took place in August 1998 and Mrs. Robison was the same flippancy he displayed when counseling Cullen Davis also present. to smash the art treasures and throw them into the lake. The 4. Mansfield, p. 156. See also Robison’s own account of big question is whether or not President Bush was capable of such a visit, The Absolutes, pp. 130–31. 5. Darren Barbee, “The Evolving James Robison,” coming by his idée fixe about invading Iraq in such a manner. Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, June 11, 2003. See also Jodi Enda, “Bush Takes His Personal Faith a Step Beyond Under the Influence Predecessors,” Knight Ridder Tribune Washington Bureau, April 13, 2001. There have been many accounts of the president’s danger- 6. “The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with ously inflated confidence in his own hunches and gut feelings. fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, He trusts his gut in preference to mastering the tedious infor- nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an mation needed to craft reasoned policy decisions. It would be abomination to the Lord thy God.” 7. Robison’s “Absolutes” are nothing but mainstream only a short leap further for him to persuade himself that those American civic values: “People Matter Most,” ”Greed hunches and gut feelings come from God. Did not God give him Destroys,” “Character Counts,” etc. The chapter on “People a sign and perform a wonder in making the Florida count come Matter Most” (The Absolutes, pp. 83–99) could pass for a discussion of secular humanism! Robison finesses the ques- out the way it did? tion of how these “Absolutes” arise from the Bible. (They A similar explanation might apply to the president’s disas- are, for the most part, at odds with what I understand the trous combination of unrestrained spending and strangling Bible to be teaching.) 8. Ibid., p. 15. revenues through lopsided tax cuts for the affluent. Maybe 9. Ibid., p. 44. Bush thinks he will get a dispensation from the laws of arith- 10. Revelation 17:1, 5; 18:1,2, 8, 21. metic—like the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Or maybe he runs up deficits as if there were no tomorrow because he real-

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 40 RESPONSE

Discrimination Against The facts Atheists Margaret Downey

Civil Rights n pl : the nonpolitical rights of a citizen; esp: the rights protect minorities against majority rule. I reported that, with of personal liberty guaranteed to U. S. citizens by the 13th and 14th respect to the atheist community, the United States was not in amendments to the Constitution and by acts of Congress.1 compliance with the 1981 United Nations “Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.”3 During 1998, Dr. Abdelfattah Amor, Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance to the Office of the United Nations High n “Atheism Is Not a Civil Rights Issue” (Free Inquiry, Commissioner for Human Rights, toured the United States February/March 2004), DJ Grothe and Austin Dacey and visited some of the families mentioned in my report. In his Iwrote: To our knowledge, there is no such thing as “atheist bashing.” If there were cases of such harm, one would expect to hear Gray, Tennesse: Carletta Sims joined a financial firm in June about them in the media and the courts, or at least in the 2001. Shortly afterward, two Baptist coworkers took offense common knowledge of unbelievers. So, where are the cases? upon learning that Sims was an atheist. Management granted On many occasions we have put this question to leaders in the the coworkers’ request to be assigned workspaces further nonreligious community and have never been presented with a from Sims. When Sims complained about a picture of Jesus single compelling example. left on her computer, management discharged her. Sims I greatly respect Grothe and Dacey, but in light of my own filed suit, seeking $250,000; U.S. District Judge Thomas Hull research I believe that they provided a misleading percep- ruled that “religious discrimination (or preferential treatment tion of the nonreligious community and its predicament. For of Christians) can be inferred.” In January 2004, the major almost a decade, I have been documenting acts of discrimina- bank that had since acquired the firm settled with Sims for an tion against the nonreligious through the Anti-Discrimination undisclosed amount. Support Network (ADSN), a committee of the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia. Ada, Oklahoma: A Baptist student told a local newspaper she In 1995, the United Nations Non-Governmental Organiza­ wouldn’t take professor William Zellner’s classes because he tion Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief invited me to was an atheist, triggering a flurry of abuse. Zellner received submit information on discrimination against atheists by the harassing notes and telephone calls, some threatening. His car Boy Scouts of America (BSA). The committee’s mission was to was vandalized, for a time on a daily basis. A local church sold record and monitor incidents of intolerance around the world. “I am praying for Dr. Zellner” buttons. His children experienced I was told that my findings would be published in the commit- shunning and beatings from religious children. tee’s final report only if the cases I documented were grievous by its standards. The committee quickly recognized that Minneapolis, Minnesota: First-grader Michael Bristor, an Scouting’s discrimination against atheists was no less severe atheist, was denied an honor roll certificate when he refused than its far more widely reported discrimination against gays. to participate in an unconstitutional “prayer time” at a public A synopsis of my findings was included in the committee’s published report.2 school. For three years, administrators ignored the family’s Shortly afterward, the same UN committee asked me to complaints until a lawsuit was filed. assess other incidents of discrimination—in particular, what forms of discrimination were of greatest concern within the U.S. atheist community. During the following year, I conduct- ed numerous interviews and discovered multiple instances of discrimination. In 1998, I delivered a personal report to the findings he noted atheism’s “non-acceptance by the society committee, noting that bigotry against atheists was relatively in which religion remains a very strong point of reference in common, much of it based in popular misunderstandings of social, cultural and identity terms.” Nonetheless, he suggested the U.S. Constitution’s secular character and its intent to that the situation faced by atheists in American society was

41 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 “satisfactory.”4 Compared to the deadly violence that threat- physical and mental abuse, job loss, cruel media stereotyping, ens some oppressed minorities in other countries, this may be and other instances of discrimination. I believe they would true; still, discrimination against unbelievers falls far short of have been satisfied that “atheist bashing” really exists and is the American ideal. I resolved to strengthen my efforts to doc- ument discrimination against atheists, which had never before been attempted in a formal manner. Caro, Michigan: In December 2001, Anonka—an open atheist “Before atheists, humanists, and freethinkers who maintains a museum of Christian religious atrocities— appeared before the Tuscola County Board of Commissioners­ can prove discrimination to the satisfaction to challenge a nativity scene placed on public land. Commis­ of society in general, we must first prove sioners responded angrily, saying she had no right to be present and proceeding to ridicule her. Anonka and her fam- it to ourselves.” ily suffered repeated harassment including annoyance calls, threatening calls and letters, and vandalism. In February 2004, the county settled in U.S. District Court, agreeing to pay an In 1999, I developed the Discrimination Narrative Collection undisclosed sum and to issue a “public expression of regret.” Form (DNCF), an easy-to-complete incident description form which I released to every national humanist, freethought, and Pocopson, Pennsylvania: My own atheism came to promi- atheist organization. The Council for Secular Humanism was nence when I became involved in a legal challenge to a Ten first to publish the DNCF, in its newsletter Secular Humanist Bulletin.5 In 2000, I mass-mailed the form to atheist, human- Commandments plaque on the wall of the Chester County, ist, and freethought groups nationwide. In addition, I circu- Pennsylvania, courthouse. Neighbors organized a shunning lated it at every movement conference I have attended since campaign, some area merchants refused to do business with 2000. At those events, I heard many personal accounts of me, and I received hundreds of threatening letters and phone discrimination. But persuading victims to put their experience calls. (The depth of public animus against me became a on paper was sometimes difficult. subject of local news and magazine coverage.) I was forced One would think that any atheist who had experienced dis- to close my interior decorating business because of death crimination would be eager to submit an affidavit. Instead, the threats that compelled me to stop visiting the homes of persons fear of suffering further discrimination as a “whistleblower” unknown to me. was widespread. Some victims told me that they did not want to go public lest still more hatred come their way. This is the Calgary, Alberta: An eleven-year-old boy (name withheld) trauma of discrimination, just the sort of intimidation that dis- experienced daily physical attacks and threats against his life courages discrimination reports and makes it difficult to find by schoolmates—notably the sons of three local pastors—after plaintiffs for needed litigation. protesting intercom readings of the Lord’s Prayer in a public These obstacles notwithstanding, I eventually compiled school. He was repeatedly body-checked into hallway walls hundreds of incident reports (selected reports are summa- and attacked in the rest rooms. One pastor’s son stalked him rized in the sidebars to this article). The actual case reports with a butcher knife in an empty portable classroom. Despite reside in an ADSN master file that is not available to the gen- the seriousness of this incident, no action was taken. The boy’s eral public. A narrative collection is available as a hardcopy parents transferred him to another school for his own safety. that interested parties may purchase from ADSN. This is the only way to obtain this data, which has never been available online.6 Therefore, the payment record makes it possible to track who has the narrative collection and how it is used. Dacey and Grothe do not appear in my records as recipients getting worse. of the narrative collection. Nevertheless, I feel that Grothe and Dacey have done our Still, even without access to the material in my files, dis- movement a service by demonstrating the need for unbelievers crimination against atheists is easily documented. National to come forward and document their experiences of unfair atheist and freethought publications frequently report on treatment. Before atheists, humanists, and freethinkers can atheists losing their jobs, facing abusive family situations, prove discrimination to the satisfaction of society in general, being subjected to organized shunning campaigns in their we must first prove it to ourselves. Otherwise we court the risk communities, receiving death threats, and the like. That Grothe that activists who decry discrimination will be dismissed as and Dacey overlooked—or elected to dismiss—these accounts “whiners,” even within our own ranks. I only hope that Grothe concerns me, especially because they claim to have researched and Dacey’s claim that known cases of discrimination are cases of discrimination prior to coming to their conclusions. insufficiently compelling will not lead On the other hand, it is no surprise that Grothe and Dacey aggrieved atheists to resign them- do not find mainstream media coverage that substantiates selves to genuine abuse. discrimination against the atheist community. (I am constantly amazed how seldom the two little words and atheists see print Margaret Downey founded the Anti-Discrimination when journalists cover BSA discrimination against gays.)7 Support Network in 1993. She attributes her activism to Had Grothe and Dacey contacted me before writing their growing up in a multicultural family in highly preju­ article, I could have opened my files and shared accounts of diced southern society in the 1950s. Ms. Downey is also the

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 42

Notes recruit in public schools, enjoy public financial support, or 1. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth receive free use of public lands. BSA enjoys all of these on a Edition, 1993, p. 210. regular basis, plus thousands of hours of donated labor by 2. Kevin Boyle and Juliet Sheen, eds., Freedom of teachers, administrators, and parent groups. On the other Religion or Belief: A World Report (New York and London: hand, if Scouting truly is “private” as defenders suggest, Routledge, 1997), p. 162. In my findings I warned that if the then the large amount of United Way unallocated funds BSA’s religious bigotry was not stopped, prejudice against Scouting receives is questionable. Ordinarily such funds are nontheists would intensify. Seven years later, that prediction channeled to organizations that serve the entire community has been realized. BSA recently determined that because without prejudice. Unitarian Universalists (U-Us) publicly disclaim prejudice 3. http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/d_intole.htm. against atheists or gays, U-U’s will no longer be recognized 4. Abdelfattah Amor, Civil and Political Rights, by BSA’s religious council and will be ineligible for a reli- Including: Freedom of Expression, Addendum, Visit to gious merit badge. I can’t help wondering if the Buddhist the United States of America, United Nations document E/ community will be the next target. CN.4/1999/58/Add.1, 1998-DEC-9. Grothe and Dacey question whether the BSA represents 5. Secular Humanist Bulletin, Fall 2000, p. 21. a genuine example of discrimination against the nonreli- 6. The ADSN narrative collection is divided into the gious. They are correct to note that “. . . most experts agree following categories of discrimination reports: students and that Scouting is not a ’public accommodation’ in which teachers; work; oaths, ceremonial deism; media; family and everyone has a right to be included.” But Scouting’s claim to community; politics and government. be a private organization is at odds with the many ways in 7. When the Anti-Discrimination Support Network which it functions as a public organization. BSA continues to co-sponsored a 2003 press conference and two-day protest receive benefits that should only be afforded to truly public with Scouting For All, not one newspaper mentioned BSA’s organizations. It holds a rare congressional charter which anti-atheist membership policy. Though Scouting displays describes it as an educational (not religious) organization. the same discrimination toward gays and atheists, the vast Private religious organizations should not be permitted to majority of press accounts mention only BSA’s antigay stance.

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43 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 RESPONSE

Atheism Is Indeed a Struggling for equality before the law Civil Rights Issue Edward Tabash

n “Atheism Is Not a Civil Rights Issue,” DJ Grothe and Ever since the famous Supreme Court rulings of 1962 Austin Dacey deny that atheism is a civil rights issue. and 1963 that ended teacher-led prayer and Bible readings They reject the idea that nonbelievers should focus on in public schools, in poll after poll Americans have favored Ielecting other nonbelievers to political office. I disagree on returning government sponsored prayer to public schools by both counts. a minimum margin of 69 percent to 27 percent.444 In many surveys, the percentage favoring restoration of school prayer Is Atheism a Civil Rights Issue? exceeds 75 percent.445 One test of whether a minority group’s struggle for equality is In other words, an overwhelming majority of Americans a civil rights issue is whether majority attitudes toward that rejects the offer of fairness that atheists and secular human- minority reflect unreasonable prejudice or a desire to deny full ists have always proposed. We don’t want government to favor legal rights to its members. By this standard, atheists’ efforts us over others; we just want government to be neutral, so that to achieve legal and social equality indeed constitute a civil both believers and nonbelievers will be equal before the law. rights movement. Consider that, in 1958, a Gallup poll revealed We want government to stay out of the God controversy, so that 53 percent of American citizens would vote against a that the official structure of society equally embraces both Black candidate for president on grounds of race alone. In a believers and nonbelievers. We want government to be silent 1999 Gallup poll, that figure had declined to 4 percent.144 That on the question of God’s existence and on matters of worship. same 1999 Gallup poll revealed that a larger percentage of Even a moderate conservative like U.S. Supreme Court Justice American citizens, 49 percent, would vote against an atheist Sandra Day O’Connor has endorsed this position, asserting on grounds of atheism alone than would vote against some- that the First Amendment prohibits all branches of govern- one for any other reason.244 Even though this is the lowest ment from treating people differently based upon “the God or comparative percentage of people who said they would vote gods they worship or don’t worship.”446 against someone just for being a nonbeliever, in absolute In contrast, most Americans yearn for government to take numbers, it is still a higher percentage than is applicable to sides in the dispute over whether God exists. And so, we any other historically disfavored group. atheists and humanists find ourselves dependent on a con- Given current attitudes, new laws that overtly discriminate stitutional mandate of equality before the law, the immediate against atheists would pass easily, and any such existing laws survival of which depends upon a dangerously narrow margin of just two votes on the Supreme Court. A shift of these two votes would establish a five-vote majority on the Court sufficient to abolish the present requirement of government “Each time . . . any court has struck neutrality between religion and nonbelief. So far, President down government preference Bush has succeeded in appointing judges to the lower federal courts who openly favor a Christian theological basis for our for religion over nonbelief, legal system. These judges, unfortunately reflecting attitudes an overwhelming majority of held by most Americans, maintain that the Supreme Court has been wrong in its unbroken line of decisions that require the public has opposed the decision.” government to treat belief and nonbelief equally. Since the majority in our nation regards nonbelievers with disdain and craves an end to government neutrality between would eagerly be enforced—save only for the United States religion and nonbelief, the struggle of atheists in the United Supreme Court, which has held consistently since 1947 that States is indeed a civil rights issue. But that’s not the worst of it. no branch of government can favor believers over nonbe- Mainstream Americans don’t simply reject atheism. Far too many of them also revile atheists, secular humanists, lievers.443 Enlightened as this position may be, it has never enjoyed majority support. Quite to the contrary, each time the and other unbelievers as persons. In reflecting upon my own Supreme Court, indeed any court, has struck down govern- narrow loss in my 2000 bid for a seat in the California legis- ment preference for religion over nonbelief, an overwhelming lature, I have written that nonbelievers are the most unjustly .447 majority of the public has opposed the decision in question. despised minority in the United States today.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 44 History and current events confirm how sharply nonbeliev- one of our colleagues in freethought makes a bid for office and ers are loathed. Consider the torrent of hatred today directed has a significant chance of winning, we should try to give that toward Michael Newdow, the courageous plaintiff in the candidate our support even if we do not agree with him or her effort to remove “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance on every issue. We nonbelievers can be a contentious lot, often that public school children are expected to recite. Far from withholding our backing from anyone with whom we disagree being unusual, the negative public response toward Newdow on even just one issue. As a practical matter, we will never find typifies the rage with which most Americans respond when a candidate with whom we agree on everything. My sugges- anyone from our community demands that official government tion, then, is for atheists and secular humanists to try to give pronouncements be as equally inclusive of us as they are of a viable candidate from our own community greater leeway on everyone else. Or consider a historical example. In February 1964, when the landmark Civil Rights Act was being debated in “Since the majority in our nation regards Congress, the House of Representatives passed a measure by a vote of 137 to 98 that explicitly excluded atheists from nonbelievers with disdain and craves an end protection under the new law that would otherwise abolish to government neutrality between religion and employment discrimination.458 Fortunately, the measure failed in the Senate. Still, just forty years ago, the same House of nonbelief, the struggle of atheists in the United Representatives that declared it illegal to engage in employ- ment discrimination against African Americans was willing States is indeed a civil rights issue.” to give employers free rein to go on discriminating against people who didn’t believe in God. I submit that bigotry against a person just because that topics not directly germane to the equal rights of nonbelievers individual rejects unproven supernatural claims is every bit as and church-state separation. Each of us should try to support destructive of the quest for a just and enlightened society as is that candidate, unless he or she holds a position on some issue bigotry against someone on grounds of race or ethnicity. that violates one of our core individual beliefs. To the extent that a clear majority of Americans, let alone The gay community, women, African Americans, and other an overwhelming majority, wants government at all levels to minority groups have learned the importance of civil rights officially favor religion over nonbelief—to the extent that more activism, and of electing their own to political office. Since the Americans still view atheism as a disqualifying characteristic in mood of the country is so antagonistic toward atheists, our a political candidate than they do any other factor—I submit that own quest to secure and preserve equality before the law is we nonbelievers are in just as much danger of suffering open clearly a civil rights issue. As such, just like any other unjustly discrimination as is the gay community. Even though there have despised minority, we must learn how to elect a number of our not yet been any notable physical attacks on atheists—just for own to the halls of power. being atheists—discrimination does not have to be accompanied by overt violence in order to pose a grave threat to a minority Edward Tabash is a member of the Board of Directors of group’s struggle for full equality. Further, if President Bush the Council for Secular Humanism and is a constitutional succeeds in restructuring the Supreme Court so as to create a lawyer in Beverly Hills, California. In 2000, he was the majority willing to nullify church/state separation, open discrim- only known secular humanist/atheist to have been a viable ination against atheists and secular humanists may become the candidate for a seat in a state legislature. active and enforceable law of the land. Accordingly, the efforts of atheists, secular humanists, and Notes other nonbelievers to secure and preserve their equality before the law is every bit as much a civil rights struggle as is that of 1. Laurie Goodstein, “And Now for Something Completely Different,” New York Times, August 12, 2000, sec. 4, p. 1. the gay rights movement. 2. Ibid. 3. Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Tp., 330 Should Atheists Elect Their Own? U.S. 1, 15 (1947). One of the most important advances members of any unjustly 4. “Bush, Lieberman Religion Has Little Influence, despised minority can make is to begin electing members of Americans Tell Quinnipiac University National Poll; Large their own community to political office. Consider how pathet- Majorities Favor School Prayer, God In Pledge,” press release, June 12, 2003, available online at http://www.quin- ically contemporary politicians pander to religion—for exam- nipiac.edu/x6355.xml. ple, when every United States senator gathered on the Capitol 5. Michelle Marie Southers, “School Prayer,” National steps to support “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance after Parliamentary Debate Workshop background briefing, the initial Ninth Circuit finding favorable to Newdow was online at http://www.willamette.edu/cla/rhetoric/workshop/ announced. Clearly our best protection against legislation DebateResearch/michellesouthers.doc. 6. Board of Education of Kiryas Joel v. Grumet, 512 hostile to nonbelievers would be to get some atheists elected U.S. 687, 714 (1994) (O’Connor, J., concurring). to Congress and state legislatures. 7. Edward Tabash, “Electing Atheists to Political Office,” In their article, Grothe and Dacey reproach what they The Secular Web Kiosk, August 2001. http://www.secweb. portray as my stance that atheists should vote for an atheist org/assert.asp? Asset ID-122. candidate solely because of his or her atheism. My actual 8. 110 Congressional Record 2607–11, February 8, 1964; Brian F. Le Beau, The Atheist, Madalyn Murray position is that, given the dearth of nonbelievers currently O’Hair (New York: New York University Press, 2003), pp. holding significant political office in the United States, when 105–08.

45 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 ˘ Government Funds for Religious ¸ Ohio to Teach Intelligent Design. CHURCH-STATE UPDATE Study Denied. By a 7–2 margin, the By a 13–4 vote, Ohio’s State Board of Tom Flynn U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state of Education voted to adopt a tenth-grade Washington’s denial of state scholarship biology curriculum that encourages funds to students studying for the min- classroom discussion of so-called intel- ? The Pledge in Court Again. On March istry. Remarkably, Chief Justice William 24, atheist attorney Michael Newdow rep- ligent design theories as an alternative H. Rehnquist wrote the majority opinion to Darwinian evolution. In adopting the resented himself before the U.S. Supreme that ringingly endorsed church-state sep- Court in Newdow v. United States, chal- curriculum the board ignored a fer- aration. Conservatives hoped a win in vent plea from the National Academy of lenging “under God” in the Pledge of Locke v. Davey would create momentum Sciences. Allegiance. Solicitor General Ted Olson to change state constitutions with church- led the government team arguing for state provisions stronger than those in the the phrase to be retained. The Council Bill of Rights. ˘ North Carolina Judge Recognizes for Secular Humanism’s significant Nonbelievers. District Judge James M. amicus curiae brief can be viewed at ? Courts Conflict on RLUIPA. Federal Honeycutt, a Southern Baptist, stunned http://www.secularhumanism.org/new- appeals courts handed down contra- officials by ordering God—or at least dow.secularhumanism.pdf. dictory rulings on the 2000 Religious God talk—out of his Greensboro, North Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Carolina, courtroom. Citing rising diver- ¸ Bush Appointee Takes Bench. Acting Act (RLUIPA), which exempts churches sity, Honeycutt said, “the burden should while the Senate was in recess, President from zoning regulations and accommo- not be on . . . individuals to speak up George W. Bush appointed Alabama dates prisoners’ free exercise of religion. and request an oath that does not men- Attorney General William Pryor to the Critics say RLUIPA creates unconsti- tion God or use the Christian Bible.” federal appellate bench. Pryor, a darling tutional special rights for the religious. Rick Lanier, a former county commis- of the Religious Right, had been unable The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sioner, is not amused. In comments agreed, ruling that RLUIPA had “the to win Senate confirmation. He opposes notable for their implied assumption primary effect of advancing religion” in church-state separation and has argued that the American Revolution occurred three cases brought­ by prisoners in Ohio. in 1704, Lanier said that “we’ve been that the First Amendment is not fully A conflicting ruling came from the U.S. binding on the states. a Christian nation for three hundred Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which years, the thing that bothers me is, are Tom Flynn is editor of Free Inquiry. upheld RLUIPA in a case involving an we conforming to a minority?” inmate denied kosher meals.

WORLD REPORT High Court and the Supreme Court of When the Ban Becomes Absurd India. He was also an active humanist, Bill Cooke working with M. N. Roy in the radical When an eleven-year-old girl of a humanist movement and founding the Muslim family came to school in France wearing a small bandanna, the teach- Pseudoscience in South Africa Indian Radical Humanist Association in 1969. Tarkunde was an outspoken ers, prompted by the recent ban on Humanists often cite science and reason defender of democracy and human religious paraphernalia, shut the as valid ways to see the world. This is rights during the period known as the whole school. The girl had already more than empty rhetoric, as this prac- Emergency, when civil rights were cur- been expelled from another school for tical example illustrates. At a time when tailed in India by then-prime minister refusing to remove her full headscarf. at least one in ten South Africans is HIV- Indira Gandhi. Tarkunde’s best-known Philippe Hemez, a local school board positive, the South African minister of book was Radical Humanism (1983). official, criticized the teachers, acknow­ health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimangagain, ledging that their overreaction was has insisted repeatedly that a diet of Dr. Shaikh Stands Up for more the problem than the action of the eleven-year-old Muslim girl. We can garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice is all Freedom one needs to fend off AIDS. Worse, she expect more absurdities such as this in has openly attacked scientific journals At a meeting in Geneva of the UN the wake of the counterproductive ban that have suggested that there is a link Commission on Human Rights in April, the French government has imposed. between HIV and AIDS, or that unprotect- Dr. Younis Shaikh described the blas- ed sex is not a good idea. Pseudo­science, phemy laws in his home country of How Do We Know? anyone? Pakistan as a source of national shame. As reported in the previous issue, Dr. When asked why he assassinated Death of Eminent Indian Shaikh was imprisoned for three years Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindt, Humanist on charges of blasphemy, which in Mihail Mihailovic told police he was Pakistan carry the death penalty. He acting in accordance with the voice Vithal Mahadev Tarkunde, a founding was quietly released last November and of Jesus Christ, who was speaking in laureate of the International Academy promptly left the country. Dr. Shaikh his head. There is an interesting prob- of Humanism, died on March 22 at age told the commission that the real vic- lem here. How do we know what he’s ninety-four. Tarkunde rose to prominent tims of militant Islamism are Muslims saying isn’t true? How can we be sure positions on the Bombay (now Mumbai) themselves, whose lives and faith are Mihailovic is mad, when others who tell Bill Cooke is international director of impoverished under the pressure of the us Jesus spoke to them the Center for Inquiry–International. archaic Sharia law. are hailed as exem- plars of morality?

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 46 LIVING WITHOUT RELIGION

ily members, affirming each other; for marital partners, respecting each other; all happening in small increments. But The Pursuit of are these truly specimens of happiness or are we still wandering the groves of pleasure? I do not wish to imply that pleasure Happiness is ersatz happiness. Pleasure is a sepa- rate entity, valid for its own sake. Happiness tends to be elusive. A Letter to Thomas Jefferson Orpheus loses Eurydice, his beloved wife. He goes to Hades, the land of the dead, to reclaim her. He can take her Lili Artel back to the land of the living on one con- dition: he must not look back at her until n the whole, I do not take issue take a reading. Am I happy—yet? We he has cleared the underworld. Orpheus with the ideas in your Declara­ used to have mood rings that clued us in can’t contain himself; he looks back. Otion of Independence. But I do by changing color. It’s remarkable that Was he anxious to test whether he was have a bone to pick with you. I under- no one has come up with a comparable happy—yet? Wraithlike Eurydice must stand that initially it read “Life, Liberty, gadget that could register whether a and Property.” You changed Property state of happiness has been attained. to “the Pursuit of Happiness.” That’s the Aye, there’s the rub. Happiness does bone—“the Pursuit of Happiness”—I not actually exist as a state. It’s intan- wish to pick. gible and comes closest in its nature to Not that I’d prefer property to be pulsing butterfly wings amongst flower “Each morning when we raised as the highest good for our petals or the whirring of a humming- nation. But you opened a Pandora’s Box bird’s wings as it delves for nectar. wake, we take a reading. Am of possibilities for disappointment, even Happiness comes in particles-in-mo- I happy—yet?” despair, with your phrase “the pursuit tion known as moments. Each moment of happiness.” is a bead with its own shape, color, and texture. No bead is like any other. Only when there are enough to string together into a rosary you can finger do your nerve “The difficulty with endings register happiness. remain in Pluto’s realm. The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge The difficulty with happiness is happiness is knowing wrote in The Improvisatore: “The knowing you’re happy. It may not be you’re happy.” happiness of life . . . is made up of min- possible to gauge happiness while we’re ute fractions—the little, soon-forgotten experiencing it. John Stuart Mill, in charities of a kiss, a smile, a kind look, a his wisdom, put his finger on it. “Ask heartfelt compliment in the disguise of a yourself whether you’re happy and you playful raillery, and the countless other cease to be.” We’re too engaged and Happiness as a desideratum I do not infinitesimals of pleasurable thought need distance, perspective. Perhaps we object to. How can I when a great mind and genial feeling.” can only know happiness in retrospect. and soul like the Dalai Lama agrees with Is it merely pleasure or truly happi- I suspect that happiness is in great you: “The meaning of life is happiness.” ness? How can we tell? Strolling by the part a sleight-of-hand illusion, a mirage. In your words: “. . . they are endowed sea restores my soul. The relentless res- “Happiness writes white. It does not show by their creator with certain inalien- tiveness of the waves, the frothy crests up on the page” (Henri de Monther­­lant). able rights,” one being the “Pursuit of of the breakers, their curves mimicked Another difficulty: we’ve stereotyped Happiness.” You’ve led Americans to by a stretch of clouds low to the hori- happiness. Only good feelings are indi- believe devoutly—a matter of faith rath- zon, the sandpipers, like wound-up toys, cators of happiness. If we hear someone er than belief—that we’re entitled to running to the lacey edge of the spent singing, we think that person is happy. happiness. Life and liberty constitute wave—if asked I’d say: “I’m happy,” but What about the blues? Transcendence the crown, but happiness is the bedaz- what I’m experiencing may be merely over misery through creativity can bring zling jewel in the crown. mucho pleasure. happiness, but the sorrow has to be Each morning when we wake, we A sampling of possibilities for happi- lived through first. We can’t skip that ness: for a writer, the mot juste coming interim stage. Lili Artel is a writer of poetry and without having to scour the thesau- Happiness as an American inalien- prose and sculptor who lives in rus; for a worker, job performance; for able right often causes self-destruc- Hayward, California. friends, listening to each other; for fam- tive behavior. In an attempt to get our

47 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 endorphins to kick in, we may over- are different levels of happiness needed miles per hour. The carrot is dangled dose on chocolate or more tragically on to match the different stages a human before us, and we become jackasses drugs. A delusional effect of the entitle- being passes through on the journey bent on finding happiness in baubles, from birth to death. grown-ups’ toys or easy fixes. It may be the other word in the To seek happiness may well be the “What we’ve been prom- phrase—“pursuit”—that I find problem- purpose of life. The Dalai Lama, who ised is the atic. What we’ve been promised is the laughs so easily, has cultivated a calm right to run after right to run after happiness, not happi- mind so happiness can take root there. Or ness per se. That may keep us fit, but for more aptly put by a friend: “I sit still and happiness, not what? For happiness? Hardly. We get wait for happiness to catch up to me.” caught up in the running, never reach- Another friend pointed out a distinc- happiness per se.” ing the goal, or if happiness is found, tion. Happiness comes from the outside. then we’re too exhausted to enjoy it. But what comes from within is joy. What ment attitude is that we want to acquire Often we’re lured by the material good- you should have offered us Americans happiness with a long-term warranty. ies, become slaves to the advertising I find spates of happiness are usually cabal. We buy the latest model sports as an optimum, sir, is to know joy. brief. It’s a good thing, because there car to pursue happiness at one hundred

FAITH AND REASON

In truth, America, like every other nation, has its good and bad points. It is a land of great opportunity, scientific True Patriotism progress, impressive technology, athlet- ic excellence, musical talent, and so on. However, it is also a land of poverty, dis- crimination, and police brutality. Most Norm R. Allen, Jr. Americans love the nation despite its faults. Others profess to hate it despite its strengths. As quietly as it’s kept, one might love he most sacred of sacred ously unpatriotic. Paradoxically—and­ American cows is Old Glory— hypocritically—freedom of thought and Tthe American flag. Indeed, it is freedom of expression come to appear more sacred than the Bible, the cross, disgracefully anti-American. or any other symbol of American piety. To most Americans, the flag rep- “... in a climate of war, There are no major movements afoot resents freedom and democracy. To oth- to elevate religious symbols above the ers, it stands for White supremacy, U.S. exercising one’s First Amendment. But millions of Amer­ imperialism, aggressive militarism, and First Amendment icans—and not a few opportunistic pol- the like. Frederick Douglass believed iticians—would like to see the Constitu­ that though African Americans had right to disagree is tion amended to protect the flag from done so much to make America great, desecration. “every star in” the American flag “was considered dangerously The flag is a symbol of patriotism, a against us.” unpatriotic.” supposed virtue that most people seldom Similarly, shortly after September challenge. The question of one’s patri- 11, 2001, Katha Pollitt wrote a column in otism rarely comes up except during The Nation in which she linked the flag preparations for war. No one questions to militarism and Christian fanaticism. the patriotism of those willing to go to She would not allow her thirteen-year- the United States and hate the flag. war whenever the commander-in-chief old daughter to fly an American flag out One need only look to the Christian reli- deems it necessary. But in a climate of their living room window. Rabid pro-flag gion to understand this. Most Christians war, exercising one’s First Amendment zealots harshly criticized Pollitt; some apparently identify with the Cross or right to disagree is considered danger- inundated her daughter with unsolicited crucifix. Others, however, find the sym- American flags. To many patriots, try- Norm R. Allen, Jr., is the executive bol distasteful. They say it is like hang- ing to force patriotism down Americans’ director of African Americans for ing a small gun or a small electric chair throats is both a wonderful virtue and a Humanism. around one’s neck to commemorate the time-honored practice.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 48 loss of a loved one. Should Christians Symbols certainly have great value to Black Southerners who joined the with such views be deemed un-Chris- those in positions of power and influ- North during the Civil War betrayed the tian? Similarly, if a person loves the ence. South. Southerners considered Blacks United States but associates the flag Symbols often divide people, stifling who defended the Confederacy to be with injustice, is that person necessarily dissent and free inquiry. Some people loyal.) Had the Revolution failed, George un-American? use the flag as a gag during wartime— Washington and company would all have Whether one accepts the flag is a much as religious fanatics beat people been killed as unpatriotic traitors. Are very superficial way to determine one’s over their heads with the Bible. This disgruntled Americans only unpatriotic commitment to the United States. Love must be why Luis Buquel wrote: “God until they win? It seems as though patri- for and devotion to one’s country is and Country are an unbeatable team; otism and loyalty are in the eye of the what being patriotic means. The flag they break all records for oppression beholder. As Andy Rooney once observed: might be a symbol of one’s love for the and bloodshed.” “Patriotism is only a virtue if the person Patriotism is one of the most overrat- who has it lives in your country.” Few ed human virtues, and it often trumps Americans praise the patriotism of Hitler, more noble ones. Moreover, it is amazing Saddam Hussein, Iran’s ayatollahs, or what some “true” patriots get away with. other perceived enemies of the United “As quietly as it’s kept, For example, though he followed unlaw- States. Unlike other virtues, patriotism is ful orders, lied to Congress, and shred- severely limited by geography. one might love the United ded documents, many Americans con- Too much patriotism is like too much sidered Oliver North a great American religion—or religious fanaticism. It often States and hate the flag.” hero. Though his actions did not seem to leads to xenophobia, intolerance, reac- square with good Christian behavior, he tionary forms of nationalism, authori- received the support of many Christians. tarianism, and fascism. Patriot­ism is at Who were the real patriots during its best when it is tempered with reason the Revolutionary War? The Founders and compassion. It shouldn’t require wanted to break with Britain. The symbols or a desire for war. If patriots United States, but it is not the only sym- British considered them traitors. Those sincerely believe that a war is just and bol—nor is it necessarily the best. who opposed the split were consid- necessary, they should support it. If Many freethinkers are wary of any ered loyal to the monarchy. In their they believe it is wrong they should symbols. After all, no one in the free- eyes they were the patriots. (Similarly, oppose it. That should be all thought or humanist movement tries to force symbols on others. If one wants to wear the happy humanist symbol, the

“... symbols tend to elicit emotional—rather than intellectual—responses. That might be why so many freethinkers are reluctant to use them.”

pansy used by French freethinkers, or another identifying mark, so be it. But no one questions one’s humanism if one has no use for symbols. Moreover, symbols tend to elicit emotional—rath- er than intellectual—responses. That might be why so many freethinkers are reluctant to use them to promote free- thought. On the other hand, just think how difficult it would be to manipulate large numbers of people without them.

49 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 REVIEWS

the Romans. All the Gospels say is that a large crowd sent by the priests came to the garden to arrest Jesus. There The Passion as a Political Weapon was a scuffle, and Jesus told his disci- ples to lay down their swords. (Here, as Gibson’s film is extra-biblical and elsewhere, Jesus does not seem to be a part of his own cultural and religious deceptive Jewish milieu; both he and his followers are consistently characterized as rene- gades and “other” than their social envi- Paul Kurtz ronment.) Matthew 26:57 states: “Jesus was led off under arrest to the house of The Passion of the Christ, directed by Mel Gibson Caiaphas the High Priest.” Mark 14:53 (USA Newmarket Films, 2004) 127 minutes. reads: “Then they led Jesus away to the High Priest’s house.” Luke 22:54: “Then they arrested Him and led Him away.” John’s version in 18:12: “The troops and the credulous, this is more than an The Culture War with their commander and the Jewish exercise in poetic license; it is artistic he Passion of the Christ is not police, now arrested Him and secured and historical dishonesty. simply a movie but a political Him. They took Him first to Annas . . . 1 T club; at least it is being so used A Distorted Version the father-in-law of Caiaphas.” against secularists by leading conserva- of the Bible tive Christians. TV pundit Bill O’Reilly clearly understands that Mel Gibson’s Gibson has claimed that his film is film is a weapon in the cultural war “a true and faithful rendition of the “Unfortunately, freedom now being waged in America between Gospels.” This is hardly the case. On traditional religionists and secular pro- numerous occasions, Passion presents of inquiry has rarely been tagonists. Newt Gingrich chortled that extra-biblical material that distorts the applied to the foundations the movie may be “the most important biblical account. Gibson uses poetic cultural event” of the century. James license with abandon. of the ‘sacred texts.’ Dobson of Focus on the Family and a Commentators have pointed out bevy of preachers heralded it as “the that Gibson distorts the character of Indeed, until recently greatest film ever made.” The Passion Pontius Pilate, making him seem to be severe punishment of of the Christ reinforces a reality sec- a tolerant,­ benevolent, and fair-minded ularists dare not overlook: more than judge—when independent non-Christian religious dissenters was ever before, the Bible has become a historical texts indicate that he was a the norm in many parts powerful political force in America. The mean-spirited political opportunist. The interjection of religion into the public film also portrays Pilate’s wife, Claudia, of the world.” square (in fact, it was never empty) by as a kind of heroine. She is sympathetic powerful religious and political forc- to Jesus and thinks his punishment is es has ominous implications. James unjust; there is some textual basis for Madison, framer of the Constitution, that in the Bible. But Gibson goes beyond Yet in one gruesome scene, as rightfully worried about factions dis- this in his portrayal; at one point in the Jewish troops bring Jesus back to rupting civil society, and religious fac- film, Claudia acts kindly toward Mary Jerusalem, heavily bound and subject to tions can be the most fractious. and Mary Magdalene, approaching them continual beating, they throw him off a Director Mel Gibson’s film portrays with a gift of linen cloths. Gibson has bridge. There is no account of this in the the arrest, trial, crucifixion, and death Mary use them to wipe pools of blood Gospels. It is tossed in to underscore the of Jesus with graphic brutality. It stirs from the spot where Jesus was flogged by brutality of the captors. sympathy for Jesus, who, half naked, the Romans. Nowhere are these scenes If Jesus’ abuse by the Jewish guards suffers violent sadomasochistic whip- found in any of the four Gospels. Church did not come from the Scriptures, where pings at the hands of his persecutors; it historian Elaine Pagels has said that it is did Gibson borrow it? It comes from the has engendered hostility to Jews, sec- “unthinkable” that Jewish women would supposed revelations of a Catholic nun ularists, and separationists who have have sought or received any sympathy or and mystic, Anne Catherine Emmerich. dared to question Gibson’s allegedly succor from the Romans. Indeed, much of The Passion is taken scripturally accurate account. Nor do the Gospels provide any from Emmerich’s book first published in In fact, The Passion of the Christ support for the severe beatings Jesus 1833, known in English as The Dolorous lays down a gauntlet challenging basic receives from the Jewish soldiers and Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The democratic secular values. It also pres- guards who arrest him in the Garden of current edition proudly asserts on its ents fantasy as fact, and for the unaware Gethsemane prior to those inflicted by jacket that it is “the classic account of

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 50 REVIEWS

Divine Revelation that inspired” the Mel has the high priests watching the brutal ten Son to die for our sins; thus, all Gibson motion picture.2 flogging (while a feminine incarnation sinners are responsible, not simply the Emmerich, a passionate devotee of Satan looks on with them). Nowhere Jews of ancient Israel. Mel Gibson has of the practice of meditating on the is this described in the Bible. Gibson himself blamed all sinners for the cruci- “sacred wounds of Jesus,” describes in thus goes far beyond the New Testament fixion. If this is the case, the crucifixion the book how, after Jesus was arrest- account, implying that the Jews and their of Christ had to happen, and was for ed, he was tightly bound, constantly leaders were complicit in the brutal beat- that matter foretold by Him. Why God struck, dragged, and made to walk with ings of Jesus. was willing to allow His only beloved bare feet on jagged rocks. Let us focus The New Testament account next Son to suffer a horrible death is difficult on a bridge, which they soon reached states that the high priests and crowd to fathom, but according to Christian and which Gibson depicts in the film. in the square before Pilate called for the apologetics it was preordained so that Emmerich states, “I saw our Lord fall crucifixion of Jesus, and when given the those who believed in Christ could be twice before He reached the bridge, choice, selected Barrabas to be freed saved. Thus it was God—not the Jews and these falls were caused entirely by over Jesus. This is fully depicted in the barbarous manner in which the sol- Gibson’s Passion. diers dragged Him; but when they were The film, however, is silent about half over the bridge they gave full vent the fact that Jesus, his mother, Mary, to their brutal inclinations, and struck Peter, James, and the other disciples, “Is The Passion of the Christ Jesus with such violence that they threw as well as the supporters in the crowds anti-Semitic? Yes, flagrantly Him off the bridge into the water. . . . If were themselves Jews. In Emmerich God had not preserved Him, He must and Gibson, the Jews come off as the so, in my judgment. have been killed by this fall” (p. 71). main enemies of Jesus, provoking the I refer here to this scene only to show Romans not only to crucify him but to The Passion repeats the that Gibson went far beyond the texts of torture him and inflict maximum suffer- description of the Jews the Gospels and inserted nonscriptural ing. I think the point in the film is even events, mostly drawn from Emmerich. more anti-Jewish: it’s that Pilate tries portrayed in medieval art Remember that these are the subjective to placate the Jews with the beatings, and Passion Plays, visions of a psychic-mystic rendered but they won’t be satisfied—some real more than 1,800 years after the events bloodthirstiness here! which provoked in no they concern. I went to see the movie a Is The Passion of the Christ anti-Se- small measure anti-Semitic second time to see if any credit line is mitic? Yes, flagrantly so, in my judg- given to the Emmerich book at the end ment. The Passion repeats the descrip- pogroms and persecutions of the film. I could find none, a glaring tion of the Jews portrayed in medie- suffered by the ‘Christ killers’ omission. val art and Passion Plays, which pro- A good deal of the focus of The voked in no small measure anti-Semitic for centuries.” Passion of the Christ is on the flogging pogroms and persecutions suffered by (scourging) of Jesus. Two Gospels state the “Christ killers” for centuries. Much simply that Pilate “had Jesus flogged and has been said about the fact that Mel handed over to be crucified” (Matthew Gibson’s eighty-five-year-old father, alone or the Romans—who was respon- 27:26, Mark 15:15). John’s description Hutton Gibson, is a Holocaust denier. sible for the crucifixion of Jesus. One agrees (19:1–2): “Pilate now took Jesus He has been quoted as saying that might even say that if this was part of and had Him flogged.” Luke’s account Vatican II was “a Mason plot backed a divine plan, the Jews should get the (23:16) has Pilate saying: “‘I therefore by the Jews.” Mel Gibson removed from credit for carrying it out! propose to let Him off with a flogging.’” the subtitles of the original version of What the Gospels state matter-of-fact- his film the statement from Matthew Is the Biblical Account ly and without narrative elaboration is (27:25–26): “The blood be on us, and Reliable? luridly expanded by Emmerich: First they on our children,” though apparently it used “a species of thorny stick covered remains in the spoken Aramaic text. Is the account of Jesus as described with knots and splinters. The blows from To his credit, Pope John Paul II in in the New Testament—in this case these sticks tore His flesh to pieces; his 2000 made an historic apology, declar- of his trial, crucifixion, and death (let blood spouted out. . . .” (p. 135). Then she ing that the Jews of today cannot be alone his birth, ministry, and resurrec- describes the use of scourges “composed held responsible for the death of Christ. tion)—an accurate account of histor- of small chains, or straps covered with Still, The Passion debuts at a time when ical events? I doubt it. This negative iron hooks, which penetrated to the bone anti-Semitism is growing worldwide, appraisal is drawn from a careful, schol- and tore off large pieces of flesh at every especially in Europe and throughout the arly, and scientific examination of the blow” (p. 135). Moreover, nowhere do Islamic world. New Testament accounts. the Gospels describe who watched the According to scripture (especially The key point is the fact that the flogging. Emmerich states that “a Jewish the Gospel of John), Christ died on the authors of the Gospels were not them- mob gathered at a distance.” Gibson cross because God sent His only begot- selves eyewitnesses to the events

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described in those documents. If Jesus such a fuss about having Jesus born sects contended for dominance. First died about the year 30 c.e. (this is in Bethlehem. Accordingly, the Gospels was Rabbinic Judaism, which followed conjectural, since some even question should be read as works of literary art, the Torah with all its commandments whether he ever lived3), the Gospel spun out of the creative imagination, in and rituals (including circumcision according to Mark was probably written order to fulfill passionate yearnings for and dietary laws). Drawing on the Old in the 70s of the first century; Matthew salvation. They are the most influen- Testament, Rabbinic Judaism held that and Luke in the 80s; and John anywhere tial form of fiction that has dominated the Jews were the “chosen people.” Once from 90 to 100 c.e. They were thus writ- Western culture throughout its history. slaves in Egypt, they had escaped to the Whether there is any core of truth to them Promised Land of Palestine. Someday is questionable; for it is difficult to verify after the Diaspora, the Jews would be the actual facts, particularly since there returned to Israel, and the Temple would is no mention of Jesus or of his miracu- be rebuilt. The second sect was early lous healings in any extant non-Christian Jewish Christianity, which attempted “Gibson thus goes 5 literature. Tradition has it that Mark to appeal not only to Jews but also to far beyond the heard about Jesus from Peter. Eusebius pagans in the Roman Empire. It could New Testament account, (260–339 ce) is one source for this claim, do so effectively only by breaking with but Eusebius wrote some three centuries Rabbinic Judaism. This is the reason implying that the Jews after the death of Jesus. In any case, for increasing negative references in Matthew and Luke most likely base their the Gospels to “the Jews” (especially in and their leaders accounts on Mark.6 The three synoptic John), blaming them for the crucifixion Gospels are similar, though they contra- were complicit in the of Jesus. Christianity was able to make dict each other on a number of signifi- great strides in recruiting converts and brutal beatings of Jesus.” cant events. Scholars believe that some competing with other sects, such as the of these were derived from still another Mithraic religion. But it could only do so literary source (Q, for quelle in German, by disassociating itself from Rabbinic or “source”) that has been lost. Judaism. It developed a more univer- Another historical fact to bear in sal message, which, incidentally, was mind is that the Gospels were writ- ten some forty to seventy years after the already implicit in the letters of Paul ten after a protracted war between death of Jesus. The Gospels are based (written some fifteen to twenty years the Romans and the Jews (66–74 c.e.), on an oral tradition, derived at best which saw the destruction of Jerusalem after the crucifixion of Jesus): the new from second- and third-hand testimony Christians did not need to be circum- and of the Temple (70 c.e.). Hundreds of assembled by the early band of Jewish thousands of Jews were killed in these cised nor to practice Judaic dietary Christians and including anecdotal wars and many more were dispersed laws. accounts, ill-attributed sayings, sto- throughout the Mediterranean world. Thus, the biblical texts drawn on in ries, and parables. The Gospels’ claims Jerusalem was eventually leveled in 135 The Passion of the Christ should not are not independently corroborated by c.e. The synoptic Gospels were influ- be read literally as diatribes against the impartial observers—all the more rea- enced by the political conditions at the Jews per se, but rather as the record son why some skepticism about their times of the various authors who wrote of a dispute among two Jewish sects factual truth is required. They were not the Gospels, not during the years of competing for ascendancy—between written as history or biography per se— Jesus. John’s Gospel, written somewhat traditional and Christianized Judaism. and the authors did not use the methods later, reflected the continuing growth of If one reads the four Gospels side by of careful, historical scholarship. Rather, Christianity in his day. The other book side, as I have done numerous times, they were, according to biblical schol- attributed to John, Revelation, which is one finds many omissions and contra- ar Randel Helms, written by missionary so influential today, predicts the apoca- dictions. Evidently, their writers never propagandists for the faith, interested lyptic end of the world, the Rapture, and knew Jesus in his own lifetime. Each in proclaiming the “good news” and in the Second Coming of Jesus. This book, Gospel was crafted post hoc to satisfy endeavoring to attract and convert oth- in the view of many scholars, reflects the immediate practical needs of the 4 ers to Christianity. Hence, the Gospels the ruminations of a disturbed person- new Christian churches then develop- should not be taken as literally true, but ality. We have no reliable evidence that ing. They were contrived by human are a form of special pleading for a new these events will occur in the future, yet beings, who were motivated by the ideological-moral-theological faith. hundreds of millions of people today are transcendental temptation to believe in In writing the Gospels, the authors evi- convinced that they will—on the basis Christ as the Son of God and the Savior dently looked back to the Old Testament of sheer faith. of mankind. The Gospels thus are his- and found passages that were suggestive Let us consider another part of the torically unreliable, and insofar as The of a Messiah who would appear, who was historical context in the latter part of Passion of the Christ used them, it is born of a young woman (or a virgin), and the first century, when most of the New also. But Gibson goes even beyond the could trace his lineage back to David— Testament was composed. Two Jewish Gospels, as I have indicated. which is why Matthew and Luke made

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The Establishment of development of science and the demo- The so-called books of Abraham— Christianity cratic revolutions of our time was the the Old and New Testaments and the hegemony of Christianity weakened. Qur’an—need to be scrutinized using I submit that there are two important The secularization of modern society rational and scientific analysis. And the inferences to draw from this analysis: brought in its wake naturalistic ideas results of these inquiries need to leave first, the union of a religious creed with and humanist values. the academy and to be read and digest- political power can be extremely des­ The union of religion and political ed more widely. Unfortunately, freedom tructive, especially when that creed is power has generated terrible religious of inquiry has rarely been applied to supported by the power of the state or conflicts historically, pitting Catholics the foundations of the “sacred texts.” the empire. It was the conversion of against Protestants, opposing Jihadists Indeed, until recently, severe punish- the Emperor Constantine (around 312 versus Crusaders, and triggering con- ment of religious dissenters was the c.e.) that led to the establishment of stant wars among Christians, Jews, norm in many parts of the world. Christianity as the official religion of Muslims, Hindus, and others. God save Given the tremendous box-office suc- the Roman Empire, some three centu- us from God-intoxicated legions that cess of Mel Gibson’s film, there are ries after the crucifixion of Jesus. The have the power to enforce their con- bound to be other Jesus movies pro- “Nicene Creed,” which was the product victions on those who disagree! All the duced—for Jesus sells in America! The of the counsel of Nicaea (convened in more reason to laud the wisdom of the Passion of the Christ unfortunately 325 c.e.), said that Jesus was crucified authors of the American Constitution may add to intolerance of dissenters; under Pontius Pilate. It also declared who enacted the Bill of Rights, including and this may severely endanger the fra- Jesus the divine Son of God “in one the First Amendment, prohibiting the gility of social peace. It may further help substance” with the Father. The deci- establishment of a state religion. sion of which books should be included to undermine the First Amend­ment’s in the New Testament was political, Freedom of Inquiry prohibition of the establishment of reli- gion, which has been the mainstay of determined by the vote of the bish- The second inference to be drawn is ops attending the council of Nicaea. At that the origins of the Christian leg- American democracy. This indeed is the this and other church councils, various end have for too long lay unexamined, most worrisome fallout that the Gibson apocryphal books revered by particu- buried by the sands of time. The New film is likely to produce. lar Christian communities were omitted Testament was taken by believers as from the canonical scriptures. So much given, and no one was permitted to Paul Kurtz is the editor-in-chief of question its sacred doctrines allegedly for historical objectivity. Free Inquiry, professor emeritus of based on revelations from on high. But The Emperor Julian (331–363 c.e.), a philosophy at the State University of skepticism is called for—the same skep- nephew of Constantine and a student of New York at Buffalo, and chair of the ticism that should also be applied to the philosophy, became skeptical of Chris­ Center for Inquiry. tianity and was prepared to disestablish alleged revelations received by Moses the Christian church, which he probably on Mount Sinai and other prophets of would have done had he not been mur- the Old Testament. Orthodox Jews who Notes dered, most likely by a Christian soldier accept the legend of a “chosen people” 1. These translations are from The in his army. In any case, Christianity and the promise that God gave Israel to New English Bible (Cambridge, U.K.: prevailed and the great Hellenic-Roman the Jews likewise base this conviction Cambridge University Press, 1961). civilization of the ancient world eventu- on uncorroborated testimony. Today, 2. Anne Catherine Emmerich, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord ally went into decline. But this occurred we have the tools of historical scholar- ship, biblical criticism, and science. We Jesus Christ, tr. ed. Klemens Maria in no small measure because of political can draw upon two centuries of sophis- Brentano (El Sobrante, California: factors: the grafting of the Bible with the ticated scholarly and scientific inqui- North Bay Books, 2003). I am indebted sword and the establishment of an abso- ries. We can apply circumstantial evi- to my colleague Joe Nickell for point- lutist Christian creed, intolerant of all ing the book out to me. dence, archaeology, linguistic analysis, 3. See: George Wells, Did Jesus other faiths that disagreed and willing and textual criticism to authenticate or to use any methods to stamp out heresy. Exist? (Amherst, New York: Pro­ disconfirm the veracity of ancient liter- metheus Books, 1980). By the fifth century, more and more ary documents. Regrettably, the general of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire 4. Randel Helms, Gospel Fictions public is almost totally unaware of this (Amherst, New York: Prometheus became members of Christian church- important research. The case is sim- Books, 1988). es, which replaced pagan religions. ilar for the revelations of Muhammad 5. R. Joseph Hoffmann, Jesus Christianity reigned supreme across and the origins of Islam in the Qur’an. Outside the Gospels (Amherst, New Europe, North Africa, and the Middle Since they are similarly uncorroborated York: Prometheus Books, 1984). East. The latter two were overrun by by independent eyewitnesses, they rest 6. John Dominic Crossan, Who the Muslims in the seventh and eighth on similarly questionable foundations. Killed Jesus? Exposing the Roots of centuries, but feudal Europe remained There is again a rich literature of skep- Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story stolidly Christian as it entered into tical scrutiny. But most scholars are of the Death of Jesus (San Francisco: the so-called Dark Ages. Only with the fearful of expressing their dissenting Harper, 1995). Renaissance, the Reformation, and the conclusions.

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inal Priory for the same reason that The Da Vinci Hoax Masonic Lodges claim (spuriously) to be descended from the Knights Templar.1 This is like Ralph Cramden’s Raccoon Lodge claiming the ancient secrets of Robert M. Price Solomon. As for the Secret Dossier, AKA the Priory Documents, these have The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown (New York: Doubleday, 2003, ISBN 0385504209) been exposed as modern fakes perpe- 454 pp. Cloth $24.95. trated by the same political sect as part of its attempt to fabricate a venerable pedigree.2 Once these facts are known, ooks that claim to “blow the lid supplying a background of plausibility Brown’s whole house of cards collapses. off Christianity” by means of for the great secret that forms the prize The Priory of Sion hoax (of which B new discoveries, real or imag- that all his characters seek: the fanci- Dan Brown appears to be a victim, not ined, find an avid public. Many of those ful speculation that Jesus Christ and an accomplice) was made popular twen- readers might be called sophomoric Mary Magdalene married and gave rise ty years ago through a tedious pseu- skeptics: having learned proper suspi- to the Merovingian dynasty of France do-documentary tome called Holy Blood, cion toward their inherited Christian with present-day heirs. Surely the whole Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard 3 faith, they remain uncritical about the premise of the book is that this supposed Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. (Brown’s assertions of those who would substi- knowledge is a carefully guarded secret, scholarly character Lee Teabing is tute any other hypothesis, often equally in fact the secret of the ages. Yet as we a scrambled version of the names of wild. Despite their admirable curiosity, shall see, this “secret” is well known to Baigent and Leigh.) These gents argued these seekers just do not know how to scholars—if only as a hoax. Apparently that the Templar Knights were sent by it is only the definitive proof, in the form separate fact from fiction. Their imag- the ultra-secret Priory of Sion on a top-se- of first-century documents salvaged from inations have been much stirred by cret mission to retrieve the legendary the ruins of the Jerusalem Temple, that Dan Brown’s best-selling novel, The Da treasure of Solomon’s Temple. They suc- await disclosure. What exactly is the Vinci Code. It is a fictional narrative, ceeded beyond their wildest dreams, dis- secret? The truth or the proof? Brown covering also the aforementioned cache but its author claims it is based on fact. seems to shift from one foot to the other That, too, alas, is part of the fiction. of documents telling the real story of the and back again. Holy Grail, which turned out not to be a A Novel Idea False Facts chalice but rather the secret of the royal The Da Vinci Code is certainly a blood line of Jesus. Fortified by these Despite its shortcomings, The Da Vinci riches and the highly volatile secret of page-turner. Its brisk narrative is span- Code is astonishingly popular. We may Jesus and his queen Mary Magdalene, the gled with sudden twists, deft turns of hope that this betokens rising public Templars and the Priory of Sion bribed phrase, sparkling metaphors, and res- suspicion that there is a deeper truth and blackmailed their way to centuries of onating observations. Yet the book has to Christian origins than what the church- grave shortcomings. es teach. If readers hunger for the inside prominence, all the while protecting the First, there is no real protagonist. story, they aren’t getting it in The Da descendants of Jesus and Mary among The ostensible hero is a Harvard profes- Vinci Code. But Brown assures them the Merovingian dynasty. In turn, the sor; no Indiana Jones, our man is mere- that they are. Right up front he promises: Merovingian heirs, notably Crusader ly a passive intra-narrative incarnation “The Priory of Sion—a European secret Godfrey de Bouillon, mindful of the mes- of the reader, figuring out occasional society founded in 1099—is a real orga- sianic destiny implied in their very DNA, puzzles simply because the narrative nization. In 1975 Paris’s Bibliotheque sought to regain their lost glory, final- requires their solution before the action Nationale discovered parchments known ly establishing the short-lived Crusader can continue. Too often, those solutions as Les Dossiers Secrets, identifying Kingdom of Jerusalem. pop into the text in italics capped by numerous members of the Priory of Sion, Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln were exclamation points, cueing the reader including Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, little encumbered by inductive histori- in the manner of a sitcom laugh track to Victor Hugo, and Leonardo da Vinci” (p. cal method. Much as their disciple Dan feel astonishment and a sense of (illuso- 1). None of this is quite true. Brown would do decades later, they ry) discovery. Here are the inconvenient facts: constructed their hypotheses in novel- Second, much of the resolution of While there was indeed a medieval istic fashion, linking odd bits of data the plot depends on a series of arbi- monastic order called the Priory of Sion from medieval chronicles by means of trary mechanical reversals, with this (Zion), it was absorbed by the Jesuits one speculation after another: “What or that character suddenly revealing in 1617. The name was revived in 1956, if A were really B?”; “What if B were unsuspected good or evil dimensions appropriated by a far-right French polit- really C?”; “It is not impossible that . . .”; or hitherto-unhinted connections with ical faction led by Pierre Plantard, an “If so-and-so were the case, this would other characters. The reader is jerked anti-Semite and Vichy sympathizer who certainly explain that and that.” about by a chain of mere fiats on the fancied himself the rightful Merovingian Admittedly, had the Templars discov- part of the omnipotent author. heir to the throne of France. Plantard’s ered proof that Jesus and the Magdalene Third, Brown trips over himself in group claimed connection with the orig- were husband and wife, this might

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account for their considerable clout. much. Throughout Holy Blood, Holy mystery religions and utopian communi- But what are the chances that this is the Grail, Baigent and company recounted ties, we cannot dismiss the possibility. explanation? their attempts to authenticate a sheaf Still, possibility is not probability, as of modern, privately printed documents, it seems to have become for upholders The Knights Who Say… the Secret Dossier or Priory Doc­ of the Teabing hypothesis. Conservative Who were the Templar Knights? They uments. We have seen that these were apologists and New Age paperback writ- were a monastic order, the Poor Knights the hoaxes planted by Pierre Plantard’s ers alike have a sad way of leaping from of the Temple of Solomon, founded sect. And only this false source lists da possibility to unjustified belief. “If there between 1110 and 1120. Their sworn Vinci as one of the Grand Masters of the might be space aliens, we can assume duty was to protect Christian pilgrims secret order. Thus there is no da Vinci there are.” “If the traditional view of on their way to and from Jerusalem. connection at all. Gospel authorship cannot be definitively Over the years, they acquired consid- What of Brown’s claim that Mary debunked, we can go right on assuming erable fortunes and power, laying the Magdalene appears next to Jesus in da its truth.” No, you can’t. And though groundwork for modern banking as they Vinci’s Last Supper? There is nothing Jesus might have had sex with one or used their vast funds to bail out the to it. The figure is surely intended as many women or men, the mere possibil- crowned heads of Europe. Finally, in John, son of Zebedee. In view of church ity is of no help. He might have been a 1308, Philip the Fair, King of France, traditions that imagined John penning space alien, too. Some think he was. But subjected the Templars to a ruthless his Gospel as an old man at the close historians don’t. inquisition, stripping them of their mon- of the first century, it was traditional to Second, would it be a theological eys, the real object of his covetous picture John as a callow youth among scandal if Jesus could be shown to have lust. What was the pretext of the per- the disciples of Jesus. In Renaissance mated with a woman? The Teabing secution? It is difficult to tell, as we painting, this means he winds up look- hypothesis so asserts. One of the gross can never know the degree to which historical errors in The Da Vinci Code tortured wretches eagerly signed any ing effeminate, as Jesus himself would is the claim that, in the interests of impe- crazy-sounding confession shoved in were he not sporting a beard. rial propaganda, Constantine and his front of them. The beleaguered Templar O Negative vest-pocket bishops abruptly re­placed Knights “confessed” to blasphemies the hitherto-prevailing understanding including the worship of a goat-headed We have several times had to get ahead of Jesus as a simple mortal with the demon statue called “Baphomet” and of ourselves by mentioning the tan- mythic view of Jesus as a god who only kissing its anus, as well as ritual homo- talizing notion that Jesus Christ and seemed to be human. As any seminary sexuality, trampling the cross, and elic- Mary Magdalene were married, and freshman knows, Constan­tinian/Nicene iting oracles from a still-living severed that their union would have issued in orthodoxy stipulated that the Word head! Actually, “Baphomet” is, contra the Merovingian dynasty beloved by the made flesh (John 1:14) shared the same Baigent and company, almost surely an modern French far Right. How does divine nature as the Father, not that he Old French spelling of “Mahomet” or the Teabing hypothesis (if we may was no longer to be considered human. “Muhammad.”4 This in turn means that so denominate­ it, using the name of In any event, it is in no way clear that the accusations against the Templars Brown’s scholarly character to stand for for Jesus to have had sex or begotten reflect not actual Gnosticism or even Brown’s recycling of the fanciful pseu- children would have been incompatible diabolism, but garbled French beliefs do-scholarship of his mentors) make with either his sinlessness or his divine about Islam. this connection? There are a number of character. In any case, the Templars became individual issues tangled up here. Third, what would any of this have lionized in later folklore as adepts who First, is it possible for Mary and to do with the actual fifth to eighth cen- guarded heretical secret doctrines they Jesus to have been married or at least tury Merovingian dynasty—Clovis and had discovered, perhaps in the form of to have been romantically involved? Of his storied heirs? Our authors appeal to rediscovered manuscripts, during their course it is. As all discussions of this fourth-century French legends that Mary years in Jerusalem. Baigent, Leigh, and issue point out, the apocryphal Gospel of Magdalene eventually arrived in a boat Lincoln sketched fanciful links between Philip says, “Now Mary was the favorite on the shores of Gaul. In later versions the Templars and other arcane groups of the Savior, and he often used to kiss she arrives with the Holy Grail. We usu- beloved by modern occultists, such as her on the lips.” Indeed, if there is any ally think of the Grail as the communion the French Cathars (or Albigensians) historical basis to the Gospel portrait of cup of the Last Supper, as in medieval wiped out in the Albigensian Crusade in Jesus traveling with unattached women epics where Joseph of Arimathea brings 1209. Twenty years later, Brown follows (Mark 15:40–41; Luke 8:1–3), we must the Grail to Brittany, whence it is taken in their esoteric footsteps. even consider whether, a la the suspi- to England to figure into the Arthurian cions of husbands alienated from their Sweet Dreams and Flying mythos. But in fact the Grail is variously wives who had left them to follow the Machines in Pieces on the described. Wolfram von Eschenbach pic- Christian apostles in the Apocryphal­ tured it as an engraved emerald tablet Ground Acts, Jesus had been using the group like those mentioned in the Hermetic What on earth does the great name of of women as his harem. And in view of documents, where such artifacts are the Leonardo da Vinci have to do with the parallel cases from the whole history of vehicles of esoteric revelations (even- Templars, Mary Magdalene, etc.? Not

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tually reflected by the Golden Plates ciations, and it is easy to see how the self making one’s own “canonical” list! of Joseph Smith, also influenced by confusion might have arisen. Brown’s Da Vinci Code, I must admit, Masonry).5 The Teabing hypothesis would not be on my list. echoes Baigent and company, suppos- Hoax or History? ing that the Holy Grail (San Greal) is You Decide Robert M. Price is a member of the really the Holy Bloodline (Sang Real), If engagement with the sources and Jesus Seminar and professor of the dynasty of the Messiah, to which the impostures of the Templar/Magdalene Biblical Criticism at the Center for Merovingians belonged. hoax teaches us anything, it may be Inquiry Institute. Whence comes the legend of Mary that modern Gospels cut from the cloth Magdalene’s advent in the south of sheer imagination are in principle of France? It is possible that it stems not so different from the venerable four Notes from the activity of Carpocratian that we have long known. After all, the 1. Robert Richardson. “The Priory of missionaries in the region (chronicled methods we have used here to account Sion Hoax.” Alpheus: Site for Esoteric History. http://www alpheus.org/html/ by Irenaeus, circa 180 c.e.: Against for the one text work pretty much the articles/esoteric_history/richardson1.html. Heresies 1:25:1–3). They claimed to same way when we study the others. If 2. As such, they are only the most have received choice revelations from a “Gospel” fires our imagination, per- recent in a long chain of Templar-related haps it has done its proper work. But forgeries. See Richard Partner, The Mary Magdalene, as did many early Murdered Magicians: The Templars Gnostics. But even if they did, that does some are better than others. One of and their Myth (New York: Oxford not imply Mary’s own presence there. Professor Teabing’s revelations to Dan University Press, 1982), pp. 103, 135, 140, Brown’s readers is that there were in 146, 161–63. Another attractive possibility is the 3. Baigent, Michael, Richard Leigh, the early church some eighty gospels suggestion of Dr. Robert Eisenman that and Henry Lincoln. Holy Blood, Holy to pick from. That is not much of a Grail (New York: Dell Publishing, 1982, the legend of Mary Magdalene, bearer stretch; casual scrutiny of the table of 1983). of a royal bloodline, taking refuge in 4. Partner, p. 138. contents in J.K. Elliott’s Apocryphal Gaul is a scrambled memory of the 5. John L. Brooke, The Refiner’s Fire: New Testament will yield at least some The Making of Mormon Cosmology, fact that the disgraced Herodian heirs, sixty-five texts that could reasonably 1644–1844 (New York: Cambridge Herod Antipas, Herodias, and Salome, be denominated as gospels. But not all University Press, 1994). 6 6. Robert Eisenman, e-mail to the were exiled to the same region. These gospels are on the same level. One only present writer, November 2003. are royalty with New Testament asso- need read them, and one will find one-

( What Use Is Religion? cont’d. from page 14) she can beat in a fight and which will phenomena like dominance hierarchies group-selection theories. A known oppo- beat her. In a well-established domi- don’t in themselves vary genetically, nent, I must beware of riding off on nance hierarchy, little overt fighting because groups don’t have genes. Or a hobby horse far from this column’s is seen. Stable groupings of hens, who at least, you’ll have your work cut out arguing some peculiar sense in which a subject. Mathematical models arguably have had time to sort themselves into group phenomenon could be subject to come up with very special conditions a pecking order, lay more eggs than genetic variation. under which group selection might work. coops whose membership is continually My point, of course, is that religion Arguably, religions in human tribes set changed. This might suggest an “advan- up just such special conditions. This is tage” to the phenomenon of the dom- may be like the dominance hierarchy. an interesting line of theory to pursue, inance hierarchy. But that’s not good “What is the survival value of religion?” but I shall not to so here. Darwinism, because the dominance may be the wrong question. The right Could religion be a recent phenome- hierarchy is a group-level phenomenon. question may have the form, “What non, sprung up since our genes under- Farmers may care about group produc- is the survival value of some as yet went most of their natural selection? Its tivity, but, except under very peculiar unspecified individual behavior, or psy- ubiquity argues against any simple ver- conditions that don’t apply here, natural chological characteristic, that manifests sion of this idea. Nevertheless, there is a selection doesn’t. itself, under appropriate circumstances, version of it that I want to advocate. The For a Darwinian, the question “What as religion?” We have to rewrite the propensity that was naturally selected is the survival value of the dominance question before we can sensibly answer in our ancestors was not religion per hierarchy?” is illegitimate. The proper it. I shall pursue the point in my next question is, “What is the individual se. It had some other benefit, and it column. only incidentally manifests itself today survival value of deferring to stron- ger hens? And of punishing lack of as religious behavior. We’ll understand Richard Dawkins’s most recent book religious behavior only after we have deference from weaker ones.” Darwin­ is A Devil’s Chaplain: Reflections on renamed it. It is natural for me as a ian questions have to direct attention Hope, Lies, Science, and Love (Hough­ zoologist to use an analogy from nonhu- toward the level at which genetic vari- man animals. ations might exist. Aggressive or defer- ton Mifflin, 2003). He is the Charles The “dominance hierarchy” was first ring tendencies in individual hens are Simonyi Professor of the Public discovered as the “pecking order” in a proper target because they either do, Understanding of Science at Oxford hens. Each hen learns which individuals or easily might, vary genetically. Group University.

free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 56 ( When Mel Had a Hammer are held to be guiltless, it will be even One would not have to do this if cont’d. from page 15) more difficult to accuse everybody else in Christianity were a private belief, main- condemn Jesus of Nazareth, or someone general. And Mel Gibson, a member of a tained in the home and the family or like him, for heresy. (The whole story fundamentalist Catholic splinter-group, even the catacombs. But its adherents are strangely insecure. They cannot exists on the edge that separates myth feels this danger of heresy very acutely. be content with the good news they from history, but let’s agree for now It may be absurd and nasty to indict say they have heard, to the effect that that something of the sort occurred. the Jews for this horrible first-century they have been personally saved by a Orthodox Jews in subsequent ages cer- crime, but it’s no more absurd and nasty than it is to say that “we are all guilty” vicarious atonement on the part of a tainly affirmed that their sages had been total stranger from a lost epoch. No, for it, as Christians do. (And by the way, right to silence this false Messiah.) they have to share and impose the good if we are “all” guilty, this must presum- This proves what all humanists know, news, and they have to allot blame to which is that, if one sect feels strong ably extend to the Jews as well.) One of those who, on Christian testimony and enough, it will try for a monopoly and will the reasons a morally serious person argument, were merely enacting their attempt to enforce it by violence. What’s must reject Christianity is this: in return part in a chronicle of a death fore- new there? It would be just as easy, if for your coerced confession to a crime told. Thus, Gibson’s hands may seem not indeed easier, to show Christians you could not possibly have committed, to be accepting his own responsibility, attempting to destroy the faithful and it offers you absolution for all the crimes but they are in fact trying to nail it meek spokesmen of Judaism. However, that you actually have committed! You somewhere else. This is why “culture after a lapse of about nineteen hundred can accept the meek offer made by the war” is the least of it, and why we must years, the Roman Church finally conced- passive sacrificial lamb, or you can suf- be ready to fight old battles with the ed that the guilt for the death of Jesus fer the pains of hell much longer than he same determination that the fanatics could not be extended to all Jews in sub- did. This is personal responsibility? One and psychopaths are mobilizing before sequent ages. Common sense, you may doesn’t just turn the other cheek away our eyes. say. So why did this common sense take from such morally blackmailing aggres- so long to assert itself? I propose that, in sion; one repudiates it with indignation Christopher Hitchens is a columnist the minds of the Christian faithful, there and in the name of reason as well as for Vanity Fair. He is at work on a lurks a fear that, if the Jews in general compassion. study of Thomas Jefferson.

( Back to the Future cont’d. from page 16) appear intended to intimidate or coerce the Court would have to rewrite First a civilian population or to influence gov- Amendment law in order to uphold criminalized mere advocacy of anarchy. ernment policy by intimidation or coer- prohibitions on the mere teaching and As the Rhode Island American Civil cion. As many civil libertarians have Liberties Union observed, these laws advocacy of unpopular, subversive, or observed, this definition of terrorism are “incredibly archaic”: the criminal- arguably dangerous political ideas. The could easily be applied to any political ization of mere advocacy was declared Court would have to take us back to demonstration at which a single act unconstitutional by the Supreme Court the World War I years, when Emma of violence or even disorderly conduct decades ago. Goldman was deported for opposing occurs: in other words, someone who But the governor of Rhode Island the draft and criticizing the government upends or throws a garbage can during was undeterred. His proposal would during wartime, and Eugene Debs was a protest march could be guilty of ter- have resurrected provisions making it a sentenced to a ten-year prison term for rorism and sentenced to life in prison. crime to “teach or advocate anarchy” or making an antiwar speech in which he Many protest movements or marches the violent overthrow of the government told people they were “fit for something could be viewed as efforts to influence or to affiliate “with any organization better than slavery and cannon fodder.” teaching and advocating disbelief in or government policy by intimidation or coercion. (Civil-rights activists in the The governor of Rhode Island was opposition to the government.” To these dragged back to the future by immedi- clearly unconstitutional provisions, 1950s and ’60s could have been con- ate and vociferous criticism of his bill, Carcieri would have added language sidered terrorists under a law like the which he hastily withdrew. It’s too soon making it a crime to teach or advocate Patriot Act.) Many protests, marches, “acts of terrorism.” and movements involve acts of civil to tell if he and other elected officials How would Carcieri define terror- disobedience that could be construed will stay there. ism? The governor borrowed the very by political opponents as dangerous to vague, expansive definition of terror- human life. Wendy Kaminer is ism included in the U.S.A. Patriot Act: We don’t know what the Supreme a lawyer and social critic. Her latest domestic terrorism is there defined as Court might or will say about the book is Free for ALL: Defending Liberty acts dangerous to human life that vio- Patriot Act’s controversial definition in America Today (Beacon Press, 2002). late state or federal penal law and of terrorism, but we do know that

57 http://www.secularhumanism.org June / July 2004 ( The Harm That Religion Does making the same point. Yet Monsignor opposition to the destruction of these cont’d. from page 16) Sgrecia’s much more explicit equation early embryos, federal funding would of the Holocaust with the destruction of be available for research in this area. tists were not interested in producing very early embryos, basically groups of If anyone ever tries to tell you that, a human child. Their interest was only cells incapable of feeling anything at all, for all its quirks and irrationality, reli- in developing the early embryo to the appears to have drawn no protests. One gion is harmless or even beneficial for blastocyst stage, the point at which can only wonder why not.) society, remember those 128 million stem cells could be obtained. At that It is not, of course, the fact that anoth- Amer­icans—and hundreds of millions stage, the embryo does not have any of er nation is leading the United States in more citizens of other nations—who its subsequent anatomical features, like research on stem cells that matters. might be helped by research that is a backbone, limbs, or a head. It is not Science is not the Olympics, and getting being restricted by religious beliefs. recognizably human or even mammali- worried about national rankings in sci- Mean­while, just be glad that Christians an and, lacking even the most vestigial entific research is absurd. What does in South Korea do not have the political brain or nervous system, could not pos- matter is that, without U.S. funding for clout that they have in America. sibly be a conscious being. stem cell research, the global effort in Nevertheless, the announcement by this area moves forward more slowly, Notes the South Korean scientists led to the because one leading player is absent. usual chorus of denunciation from con- 1. Sheryl Stolberg, “Stem Cell Research Is We need to remember how import- Slowed by Restrictions, Scientists Say,” New servative religious leaders. “You can’t ant this area of research is. A fact York Times, September 26, 2002. kill human life in the hopes of finding 2. Nicholas Wade, “Specter Asks Bush to sheet issued by the White House—yes, medicines to save other lives,” said Permit More Embyronic Stem Cell Lines, “ President Bush’s White House—has Monsignor Elio Sgrecia, vice president New York Times, April 23, 2003. stated that: “Many scientists believe that 3. Reuters, as reported on CNN of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for International, February 13, 2004, http://edi- Life and a papal advisor on matters of embryonic stem cell research may even- tion.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/02/13/vat- bioethics. Then he added: “That would tually lead to therapies that could be ican.clones.reut/. be a repeat of what the Nazis did in the used to treat diseases that afflict approx- 4. White House, “Fact Sheet: Embryonic Stem Cell Research,” August 9, 2001, 3 concentration camps.” imately 128 million Americans.” The fact http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releas- (A note in passing. When People sheet goes on to mention possible treat- es/2001/08/20010809-1.html. for the Ethical Treatment of Animals ments for Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, [PETA] drew some parallels between and heart attacks, as well as advances Peter Singer is the Ira W. DeCamp the Nazi Holocaust and the mass in basic biology and testing the safety Professor of Bioethics at Princeton slaughter of animals, many Jewish and efficacy of new medicines.4 In other University. His new book is The organizations protested, even though words, the stakes are huge. President of Good and Evil: The Ethics PETA’s comparison quoted the noted No observer of American politics can of George W. Bush (Dutton, 2004). Jewish writer, Isaac Bashevis Singer, doubt that, if it were not for religious

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free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 58 of “Lucy”) (USA) Sergeí Kapitza, chair, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology; vice president, Academy of Sciences Transnational (Russia) George Klein, cancer researcher, Karolinska Institute, Affiliates of the INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF HUMANISM Stockholm (Sweden) ACADÉMIE INTERNATIONALE D’HUMANISME György Konrád, novelist, sociologist; cofounder, The Academy is composed of nontheists who are: (1) Hungarian Humanist Association (Hungary) devoted to the principle of free inquiry in all fields of Sir Harold W. Kroto, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (UK) human endeavor; (2) committed to the scientific out- Ioanna Kuçuradi, secretary general, Fédération look and the use of reason and the scientific method in Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie (Turkey) The Center for Inquiry–International­ acquiring knowledge about nature; and (3) upholders of Paul Kurtz, professor emeritus of philosophy, State is affiliated with the following humanist ethical values and principles. University of New York at Buffalo (USA) organizations around the world: Gerald A. Larue, professor emeritus of archaeology and HUMANIST LAUREATES biblical studies, University of Southern California at Asia Pieter Admiraal, medical doctor (Netherlands) Los Angeles (USA) Indian Rationalist Association, Shulamit Aloni, former education minister (Israel) Thelma Lavine, Clarence J. Robinson professor of philos- New Delhi, India Ruben Ardila, psychologist, National University of ophy, George Mason University (USA) Colombia (Colombia) Richard Leakey, author and paleo-anthropologist (Kenya) Atheist Centre, Vijayawada, India Kurt Baier, professor of philosophy, University of Jean-Marie Lehn, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (France) Europe Pittsburgh (USA) Jolé Lombardi, organizer of the New University for the Instytut Wydawniczy “Ksiazka i Prasa” ul, Etienne-Emile Baulieu, Lasker Award for Clinical Third Age (Italy) Medicine winner (France) José Leite Lopes, director, Centro Brasileiro de Warsaw, Poland Baruj Bonacerraf, Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology or Pesquisas Fisicas (Brazil) Russian Humanist Society, Medicine (USA) Paul MacCready, Kremer prize-winner for aeronautical Moscow, Russia. Sir Hermann Bondi, professor of applied mathematics, achievements; president, AeroViroment, Inc. (USA) King’s College, University of London; Fellow of the Adam Michnik, historian, political writer, cofounder of KOR South and Central America Royal Society; Past Master of Churchill College, (Workers’ Defense Committee) (Poland) Asociación Mexicana Etica Racionalista London (UK) Jonathan Miller, OBE, theater and film director, physi- AC, Elena Bonner, author, human rights activist (Russia) cian (UK) México City, México Jacques Bouveresse, professor of philosophy, Collège de Taslima Nasrin, author, physician, social critic Asociación Ediciones de la Revista France (France) (Bangladesh) Paul D. Boyer, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (USA) Conor Cruise O’Brien, author, diplomat, University of Peruana de Filosofía Aplicada, Lima, Vern L. Bullough, distinguished professor, University of Dublin (Ireland) Perú Southern California (USA) Indumati Parikh, M.D., president, Radical Humanist Middle East Mario Bunge, Frothingham Professor of Foundations and Association of India (India) Philosophy of Science, McGill University (Canada) John Passmore, professor of philosophy, Australian The Institute for the Secularization of Jean-Pierre Changeux, Collège de France, Institute National University (Australia) Islamic Society (ISIS) Pasteur, Académie des Sciences (France) Jean-Claude Pecker, professor emeritus of astrophysics, www.secularislam.org Patricia Smith Churchland, professor of philosophy, Collège de France, Académie des Sciences (France) Averroes and Enlightenment University of California at San Diego; adjunct pro- Steven Pinker, professor of brain and cognitive science, International Association, fessor, Salk Institute for Biological Studies (USA/ MIT (USA) Cairo, Egypt Canada) Dennis Razis, medical oncologist, “Hygeia” Diagnostic­ & Sir Arthur C. Clarke, author, Commander of the British Therapeutic Center of Athens S.A. (Greece) Africa (in cooperation with African- Empire (Sri Lanka) Marcel Roche, permanent delegate to UNESCO from Americans for Humanism) Bernard Crick, professor of politics, Birkbeck College, Venezuela (Venezuela) Action for Humanism, Ogun State, Nigeria University of London (UK) Max Rood, professor of law; and former Minister of Francis Crick, Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology, Salk Justice (Netherlands) Rational Centre, Accra, Ghana Institute (USA) Richard Rorty, professor of philosophy, University of The Uganda Humanist Association, Richard Dawkins, Charles Simonyi Professor of Public Virginia, Stanford University (USA) Kampala, Uganda Understanding of Science, Oxford University (UK) Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., professor of history, City José M. R. Delgado, professor and chair, Department of University of New York (USA) Oceania Neuropsychology, University of Madrid (Spain) Léopold Sédar Senghor, former president of Senegal; mem- New Zealand Association of Rationalists Daniel Dennett, director of the Center for Cognitive ber of the Académie Française (Senegal) & Humanists, Auckland, New Zealand Studies, Tufts University (USA) Jens C. Skou, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (Denmark) Jean Dommanget, Belgian Royal Observatory (Belgium) J. J. C. Smart, professor emeritus of philosophy, International Umberto Eco, novelist, semiotician, University of Australian National University (Australia) International Humanist & Ethical Union, Bologna Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate, playwright (Nigeria) London, Great Britain Paul Edwards, professor of philosophy, Brooklyn College, Barbara Stanosz, professor of philosophy, Instytut Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS), City University of New York (USA) Wydawniczy “KsiÅÛka i Prasa” (Poland) Los Angeles, United States Luc Ferry, professor of philosophy, Sorbonne University Jack Steinberger, Nobel Laureate in Physics (USA) and University of Caen (France) Svetozar Stojanovi´c, director, Institute for Philosophy Antony Flew, professor emeritus of philosophy, Reading and Social Theory, University of Belgrade University (UK) (Yugoslavia) Betty Friedan, author, founder, National Organization for Thomas S. Szasz, professor of psychiatry, State University­ of Women (NOW) (USA) New York Medical School, Syracuse (USA) Yves Galifret, professor emeritus of neurophysiology at V. M. Tarkunde, senior advocate, Supreme Court; chairman,­ the University P. and M. Curie; general secretary of Indian Radical Humanist Association (India) of Ain Shams, Cairo; president of the Afro-Asian l’Union Rationaliste (France) Sir Keith Thomas, historian, president, Corpus Christi Johan Galtung, professor of sociology, University of Oslo College, Oxford University (UK) Philosophical Association (Egypt) (Norway) Rob Tielman, professor of sociology, Universiteit voor Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel Laureate; professor of physics, Humanistiek, Utrecht; former copresident, International­ Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize winner; professor of phys- California Institute of Technology (USA) Humanist and Ethical Union (Netherlands) Adolf Grünbaum, professor of philosophy, University of Lionel Tiger, professor of anthropology, Rutgers—the ics, University of Texas at Austin (USA) Pittsburgh (USA) State University of New Jersey (USA) Jürgen Habermas, professor of philosophy, University of Sir Peter Ustinov, actor, director, writer, Commander of George A. Wells, professor of German, Birkbeck College, Frankfurt (Germany) the British Empire, 1975 (UK) Herbert Hauptman, Nobel Laureate; professor of bio- Mario Vargas Llosa, author (Perú) physical science, State University of New York at Simone Veil, former Minister of Social Affairs, Health, University of London (UK) Buffalo (USA) and Urban Affairs (France) Alberto Hidalgo Tuñón, professor of philosophy, Gore Vidal, author, social commentator (USA) Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor, the Universidad de Oviedo (Spain) Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., novelist (USA) Donald Johanson, Institute of Human Origins (discoverer Mourad Wahba, professor of philosophy, University Agassiz Museum, Harvard University (USA)