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The Morality of Unbelief

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The Morality of Unbelief antichoice groups. Recently, because of the began performing them here more or less States. rehearing of the abortion issue by the on demand after a desperate Hungarian Despite this, no issue today is as hotly Supreme Court and the advent of RU486, refugee had persuaded him to terminate her debated as abortion rights. Opposing it is a pregnancy; soon women were being referred loosely knit coalition of religious funda- the so-called abortion pill developed in France, antichoice activity has intensified. to him by a local abortion-support unit, and mentalists of various types—conservative he continued to help them until he was Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Mor- In a last-ditch effort to change public arrested in 1964. His case became the first mons—who have defined life as beginning opinion, prolifers have adopted the tactics to make a frontal attack on the abortion at conception and themselves as its of the civil-rights movement and flung it laws. In 1969 he was acquitted in the U.S. guardians. They have declared a holy war into the face of the liberal supporters of District Court and the decision made the on all health professionals who participate abortion. If they succeed they may be able nation's capital the only area in the United in abortions, all women who seek them, and to prevent the entry of RU486 into the States where completely legalized abortions all supporters of the right to choose. They United States since, once the pill becomes were available. His acquittal, along with that demonstrate, burn clinics, and carry out available, abortion becomes a private issue. of Dr. Leon Belous, a founding member of successful single-issue political campaigns. If RU486 cannot be obtained with the bless- Californians for Therapeutic Abortions, gave It is a mistake to underestimate the poli- ing of the federal government, however, a new vigor to the movement. In 1970 Hawaii tical power of these groups. Ronald Reagan black market will develop and abortion will became the first state to legalize what came was the governor of the State of California again go underground. to be called abortion on demand. when the Beilinson law was passed—he It is to be hoped that the antichoice By 1969 the National Association for the signed it. The 1980 presidential campaign, movement will fail, but if it is successful, Repeal of the Abortion Laws had come into however, quickly converted him into a the United States will certainly have more existence, urging abortion on demand. By vigorous antichoice defender. The most lawbreakers than it has now. Interestingly, June 1972, a Gallup Poll indicated that 64 damaging aspect of this was his insistence the same individuals who are opposed to percent of the American population, in- that most of the justices he appointed agree advances in civil rights seem to be opposed cluding 56 percent of those who identified with him on this issue. to abortion; they shift their strategy from themselves as Catholics, agreed that the Many of the activists who helped to one issue to the other as they ride the tides decision to abort should be made solely by achieve abortion rights rested on their laurels of publicity. Humanists have been in the a woman and her physician. Conservative after 1973, so that although public-opinion forefront of the fight for abortion, not only organizations such as the American Bar polls continue to show majority support for in the United States but in Canada and Association and the American College of the prochoice position, prochoice activity has Europe. We must now recommit to the It is one we will win. • Obstetricians and Gynecologists agreed. been meager relative to the activities of the struggle. A number of cases were working their way up the ladder to the Supreme Court but the one that arrived at the top first was Roe v. Wade. "Jane Roe" of Dallas County, The Morality of Unbelief Texas, had instituted action in federal court in March 1970 seeking a declaratory judg- ment that the Texas criminal abortion statutes—which had not been modified for Tom Flynn a century—were unconstitutional and pre- vented her, an unmarried and pregnant Even when a man's belief is so fixed that Next, the believers ready the second part woman, from terminating her pregnancy he cannot think otherwise, he still has a of their one-two punch. If the humanists choice in regard to the action suggested through an abortion performed by a com- happen to criticize any religious practice, by it, and so cannot escape the duty however extreme, on moral grounds, the petent licensed physician under safe, clinical of investigating on the ground of the conditions. She claimed that the Texas strength of his convictions.... For it is believers accuse them of hypocrisy. "I statute violated the First, Fourth, Fifth, not possible to so sever the belief from thought you were pluralistic!" they cry. Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Al- the action it suggests as to condemn .the "How dare you impugn anyone's morality one side without condemning the other. though the District Court gave her declara- simply on the basis of their beliefs!" tory relief, allowing her to have an abortion, —William Kingdon Clifford Stated that way, the absurdities in this it stopped short of issuing an injunction stratagem are obvious. Still, in actual discus- against the enforcement of the Texas sta- sions many humanists—especially those who tutes. In 1973, however, the Supreme Court ave pity on secular humanists. When are not trained in philosophy—find effective declared the Texas laws unconstitutional and Hthey engage religious believers in responses elusive. recognized that a woman's right to choose moral debate, the result is often a double Though I am not a philosopher, it is my abortion was part of her fundamental right bind. contention that belief without empirical to privacy. First, many believers dismiss humanists justification is morally illicit, as is the as immoral on the basis of their unbelief. willingness to act on such an unjustified robably no Supreme Court decision in This handy way to win the argument before belief. Furthermore, far from being inherent- this century has been so important to it begins has a certain homespun logic to it. ly immoral, unbelief is an inherently moral attempts to secure the liberty, equality, and If one starts out by assuming a transcendent position. health of women as this 1973 decision. It lawgiver—whose existence the debate is sup- Secular humanists tend to be pluralists; transformed abortion from a clandestine and posedly intended to explore—how can any- most agree that individuals have the right sometimes dangerous ordeal into one of the one who does not believe in Him, Her, It, to believe just about anything they wish. safest medical procedures in the United or Them lead a moral life? The content of belief is a matter of personal FREE INQUIRY 6 choice that we defend vigorously, though supported beliefs that predispose them to immoral act of the highest order. It is the others may choose to embrace beliefs we unacceptable behavior—if we can speak uncritical believer, not the skeptic, whose consider unjustified and foolish. Still, even meaningfully about moral accountability for epistemological stance is immoral. doctrinaire pluralists distinguish between the the content of one's motivating beliefs. I freedom to assent to almost any proposition, believe that we can. The forgotten skeptic and the morality of assenting to a particular I would propose the following general proposition whose content all but guarantees rule for gauging accountability for beliefs. ew of the points I have made here are that the person who accepts it will behave If one acts on one's beliefs in such a way new. They were made far more elo- in ways that may compromise the freedom F as to affect others, one can be held morally quently in 1877 by William Kingdon Clif- of others. accountable for one's decision to accept the ford, a professor at University College, Lon- As the saying goes, "The right to throw motivating belief according to: don, whose name is not as well known my fist ends at the tip of your nose." Though among humanists as it ought to be. In his it is my right to subscribe to any creed, how- (I) how profoundly actions based on that elegant essay "The Ethics of Belief," Clifford ever bizarre, in the privacy of my own head, belief may influence the lives of others, wrote: that does not necessarily give me the right and (2) how accurately that belief does—or to impose the consequences of my belief does not—correspond to the way Belief . is desecrated when given to upon others. If I want to give certain of my things really work in the natural world unproved and unquestioned statements, beliefs concrete expression in the commun- as empirical study reveals it to us. for the solace and private pleasure of the ity, I owe it to the community to weigh believer; to add a tinsel splendour to the plain straight road of life and display a those beliefs more carefully than I might According to this rule, if we propose to bright mirage beyond it; or even to drown examine those with which I do not expect act in ways that have grave consequences— the common sorrows of our kind by a to influence others. say, if we plan to blockade an abortion clinic self-deception which allows them not only If I do expect to treat a certain idea as a because we are right-to-life advocates, or to cast down, but also to degrade us..
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