Soldhagen and German Guilt > "6Rx--/- SPRING 1997, VOL

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OUI pOUCE KEEP GHT i MORE ON Soldhagen and German Guilt > "6rX--/- SPRING 1997, VOL. 17, NO. 2 ISSN 0272-0701 Five Xr Editor: Paul Kurtz Executive Editor: Timothy J. Madigan Contents Managing Editor: Andrea Szalanski Senior Editors: Vern Bullough, Thomas W. Flynn, James Haught, R. Joseph Hoffmann, Gerald Larue Contributing Editors: 3 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Robert S. Alley, Joe E. Barnhart, David Berman, H. James Birx, Jo Ann Boydston, Paul Edwards, 4 SEEING THINGS Albert Ellis, Roy P. Fairfield, Charles W. Faulkner, Antony Flew, Levi Fragell, Martin Gardner, Adolf 4 Tampa Bay's `Virgin Mary Apparition' Gary P Posner Grünbaum, Marvin Kohl, Jean Kotkin, Thelma Lavine, Tibor Machan, Ronald A. Lindsay, Michael 5 Those Tearful Icons Joe Nickell Martin, Delos B. McKown, Lee Nisbet, John Novak, Skipp Porteous, Howard Radest, Robert Rimmer, Michael Rockier, Svetozar Stojanoviu, Thomas Szasz, 8 The Honest Agnostic: V. M. Tarkunde, Richard Taylor, Rob Tielman Battling Demons of the Mind James A. Haught Associate Editors: Molleen Matsumura, Lois Porter Editorial Associates: 10 NOTES FROM THE EDITOR Doris Doyle, Thomas P. Franczyk, Roger Greeley, James Martin-Diaz, Steven L. Mitchell, Warren 10 Surviving Bypass and Enjoying the Exuberant Life: Allen Smith A Personal Account Paul Kurtz Cartoonist: Don Addis Council for Secular Humanism: Chairman: Paul Kurtz 14 THE FREEDOM TO INQUIRE Board of Directors: Vern Bullough, David Henehan, Joseph Levee, Kenneth Marsalek, Jean Millholland, 14 Introduction George D. Smith Lee Nisbet, Robert Worsfold 16 Atheism and Inquiry David Berman Chief Operating Officer: Timothy J. Madigan Executive Director: Matt Cherry 21 Inquiry: A Core Concept of John Dewey's Philosophy ... Larry Hickman Chief Development Officer: James Kimberly 22 Freely Ye Have Inquired? Skipp Porteous Associate Dir. of Development: Anthony Battaglia Public Relations Director: Norm R. Allen, Jr. 23 Family Friendly Libraries Robert Riehemann Chief Data Officer: Richard Seymour 24 A Humanist's Doubts About the Fulfillment Manager: Michael Clone Information Revolution Mario Bunge Typesetting: Paul E. Loynes, Sr. Graphic Designer: Jacqueline Cooke Audio Technician: Vance Vigrass 29 The Virtues of 'The Ethics of Belief': Web Page Designer: David Noelle Staff.: Linda Heller, Georgeia Locurcio, Anthony W. K. Clifford's Continuing Relevance Timothy J. Madigan Nigro, Etienne Rios, Ragjit Sandhu Executive Director Emeritus: Jean Millholland 34 National Character, Collective Guilt, and Original Sin— FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published quarterly by the Council for Secular Humanism, a nonprofit cor- The Goldhagen Controversy Edmund D. Cohen poration, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Phone (716) 636-7571. Fax (716) 636-1733. Copyright 01997 by the Council for Secular Humanism. 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Logic and Language, John Shosky Manuscripts, letters, and editorial inquiries should be addressed to The Editor, FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Editorial submissions must 64 NEWS & VIEWS be on disk (PC: 3-1/2" or 5-1/4"; Mac: 3-1/2" only) and accompanied by a double-spaced hardcopy and a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Acceptable file for- Cover art by Bruce Adams mats include any PC or Mac word processor, RTF, and ASCII. Cover photo by Guss Wilder Ill Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or publisher. No one speaks on behalf of the Council for Secular Humanism unless expressly stated. Council for Secular Humanism World Wide Web Page, HTTP://WWW.SECULARHUMANISM.ORG. E-mail address: TIMMADIGAN n AOL.COM. up in a padded cell at the outset of his public career. Yet the world put up with him." Letters to the Editor This is misleading: the Germans, not the world, were pro-Hitler and put up with him; the Germans, not the world, could have locked him up. Power does not exist Is Humanism a Religion? tions by directly stimulating the brain, I in a vacuum: it is people who put someone believe the science behind the machine to into the position of power, even absolute It seems obvious to me that humanism is be less than credible. First, Cotton (a power, whether by electing Hitler, idoliz- not a religion. The trickier problem is future subject) talks at length with ing Stalin, or surrendering an empire to the whether humanism has any sort of faith Persinger about the effects of the experi- fanatical bishops of an aggressive church dimension ("Defining Humanism," FI, ment. Then just before the experiment he in the fourth century of the Common Era. Fall 1996). Obviously, the answer is asked a series of questions that in them- Never forget that Mein Kampf was depends on what one means by faith. In a selves suggest possible outcomes of the published in 1925, long before the failed study of New Zealand rationalists and experiment. Finally, he is put in a room painter became Führer, and that it became humanists for a Ph.D. thesis, I have found very much like a deprivation chamber. No a bestseller in a Germany that had the that they have overwhelmingly shared the mention is made of a control group, nor is largest reading public of any country in notion that involves some acceptance of it suggested that Persinger's group evalu- the world. As Konrad Heiden, who wrote otherwise unverifiable revelations about ated the results without knowing whether the introduction to the American edition God or gods, and as such, have not the subjects were in the control group or of Hitler's book, put it, "That such a man wanted to use the term. This is intriguing the experimental group (i.e, double blind). could go so far toward realizing his ambi- in the light of a recent Ph.D. thesis in this It is my belief that the results of the exper- tions, and—above all—could find mil- country that contrived to portray human- iments would be the same even without lions of willing tools and helpers; that is a ism as a "path of faith." This work was the machine being turned on. phenomenon the world will ponder for heavily indebted to the theories of Wilfred Of course, it is valid to discuss the centuries to come." Cantwell Smith, who sees faith as a basic ethics of how such a machine should be human response of commitment to living. used if it could truly control the brain, but César Tort Ironically, it used Paul Kurtz's conception in this case I believe more scrutiny should Houston, Tex. of eupraxophy as evidence of faith com- be applied to the experiments themselves. mitment, ignoring Kurtz's strongly worded argument to the contrary. Ralph Davis I must take exception to Hans Askenasy's So, certainly one could find definitions Tampa, Fla. review. Goldhagen clearly sets forth his of faith that would include humanism, but thesis that ordinary Germans not only par- why bother, when other definitions have ticipated in the Holocaust but did so will- the advantage of corresponding with the Hitler's Germany ingly and, in many cases, enthusiastically. experience of humanists on the ground? And he documents this thesis with con- Humanism is not a faith because it Hans Askenasy's review of Hitler's vincing evidence. What Goldhagen pro- demands a sensible skepticism and open- Willing Executioners (FI, Winter 1996/97) vides is a case for the proximate cause of ness in the face of unseen things, not con- is not the first critical review of Daniel the Holocaust. What Askenasy seems to fidence in their existence because some- Goldhagen's controversial book I have be seeking is an ultimate (root) cause. one else has told us of them. It gets down read. A way to address this controversy is Once that distinction is made, it can be to the currently unfashionable fact that to compare the Nazi totalitarian society seen that the root cause is not the fact that faith and reason are fundamentally differ- with other equally murderous societies in non-Jews were also killed. It is not the ent operations. the twentieth-century world. Russians fact that Hitler was paranoid. And it is not weren't fully aware of what had been the fact that other European countries Bill Cooke, President going on in the Gulag (just as the average also killed Jews. But this last fact gives us New Zealand Rationalist German wasn't fully aware of Ausch- a clue. Association witz), much less did they endorse it. In his 1950 book Europe and the Jews, Auckland, New Zealand However, ordinary folk can indeed Malcolm Hay finds, traces, and carefully become ideologically mad. For humanists documents the root cause of the the major lesson of Western history should Holocaust. It is Christian anti-Semitism, The God Machine be, I believe, the decline of the Roman plain and simple. Empire. Was it partially caused by the fact It begins with the Gospel of John, I realize Ian Cotton's thesis ("Dr. that the society failed to defend itself suc- which contains, according to Dagobert Persinger's God Machine," FI, Winter cessfully against the hostile takeover by a Runes, over 100 anti-Semitic references. 1996/97) was to discuss the implications totalitarian cult? In his review, Askenasy of a machine that can produce hallucina- states that Hitler "should have been locked (Continued on p. 62)

Spring 1997 3 Seeing Things

vivid where vegetation and sprinkler Tampa Bay's heads are in close proximity to the glass. Along the low hedges, the stains appear to `virgin Mary Apparition' hover just above their tops; where the palms grow high, the stains follow. Guss Wilder even overheard such comments as, Gary P. Posner "That one looks like a lady," and "That looks like an Indian." his past December 17, a customer the adjacent six-lane U.S. 19 corridor was Upon closer scrutiny, the streaks of Tentering the Seminole Finance being brought to a full halt by several shimmering color appear to be fashioned Corporation building in Clearwater, policemen manning a hastily created from grainy, crusted buildups of debris. Florida, mentioned to employees that she pedestrian crossing. The building's parking The owner, Michael G. Krizmanich, says had just seen something extraordinary on lot was flooded with sightseers, who would that he had contracted to have the windows the south wall's exterior reflective-glass have had nothing to see were it not for the cleaned when he purchased the building windows. Shortly thereafter, she tele- floodlights of three television vans (of the one year earlier, but that the "Madonna" phoned a local television station with her seven present) being directed at the nine stains—which were present even then— report, and, by that night and for days to window panes comprising the three-story proved too stubborn for removal. In the come, all the Tampa Bay-area newscasts glass wall. But once Wilder knew where to lower-right of the nine "Madonna" panes is would lead with the story. It was not long look and what the image was supposed to a circular area where someone had made a before AP, CNN, ABC's "World News look like, its resemblance to the Madonna moderate inroad in scraping away the Tonight," the "Today Show," "American was actually quite evident even under unfa- staining, even if with great difficulty and a Journal," and other media had spread the vorable lighting conditions. displeasing, scratchy result. word such that, by the new year, several But I can attest firsthand that "Mary's" As for the precise mechanism of the hundred thousand visitors, some from beauty is infinitely more breathtaking in stain deposits and coloration, the St. other continents, would have occasion to Petersburg Times quoted local chemist witness in person the startling Christmas- "Any religious pilgrim, reporter, or Charles Roberts's view that the "rainbow" time apparition of the Virgin Mary. casual visitor need only to walk effect is due to water deposits and weath- As founder of the Tampa Bay Skeptics around the building to note that ering combining to create a chemical and editor/publisher of its quarterly the 'Mary apparition' is hardly the reaction, such as is commonly seen in old newsletter (which we send gratis to mem- only such colorful image present." bottles. Roberts, with forty years of expe- bers of the press), inquiries from the news rience analyzing glass, added that a bro- media began streaming in the following ken sprinkler head could have contributed day. Based upon the television and news- the light of day. Although lacking any to the higher areas of stain. (Wilder paper images that I had seen, in initial facial or other internal detail, from a dis- informs me that it is common practice interviews with five television, radio, and tance she appears to have perhaps been when transplanting mature palms to newspaper reporters, I offered the opinion hand-painted in iridescent hues. Her extend a temporary sprinkler to the grow- that the "apparition," a strikingly colorful, head/hood occupy the top row of three ing top to keep it moist until the tree takes 30-foot-tall likeness of the classic paint- panes and her neckline/shoulders the mid- root.) On "American Journal," Stephen ings of the hooded Madonna (in outline dle row, with her hands (whether empty or Hughes of the National Glass Association only), appeared likely the work of an full) overlapping the middle and lower offered that such stains, caused by the artist, as opposed to an entirely natural rows. (Believers have been overheard sprinklers' mineral residue accumulating phenomenon or a genuine "miracle." Boy, debating whether Mary's hands are folded in the glass's somewhat porous coating did I turn out to be wrong! in prayer, or holding the infant Jesus.) layer, are not at all uncommon. By the time a Tampa Bay Skeptics col- Any religious pilgrim, reporter, or In fact, a somewhat similar image is league of mine, Guss Wilder III (who casual visitor need only to walk around hiding behind a cluster of tall trees adja- served as our photographer), arrived that the building to note that the "Mary appari- cent to the building's west wall. Its grace- night for an on-site inspection, traffic along tion" is hardly the only such colorful fully swooping head/hood, like "Mary's," image present. Indeed, iridescent staining mimics the shape of the palm that largely Gary P Posner, M.D., an internist and of a similar nature is apparent around its obscures it. And this "western" image has medical software company executive, circumference wherever exposed reflec- founded Tampa Bay Skeptics in 1988. tive glass was used, and is particularly (Continued on p. 6)

4 Spring 1997 FREE INQUIRY a long and patient investigation" she was convicted of imposture, fined, and sentenced to six months' imprisonment.' Those Tearful Icons Another French case began in 1913 when a color print in the home of the Abbe Vachere began to bleed and weep. Joe Nickell When the abbe's superiors confiscated the picture, another of his prints began to ore and more frequently, we are see- phenomenon. She exhibited the stigmata, weep and bleed. Eventually he was Ming news reports of "weeping," received visits from the Virgin Mary, and excommunicated on the grounds that he "bleeding," and otherwise animated icons grew a miraculous cabbage that fed her produced fake miracles. Nevertheless, and effigies. Invariably, these are either in village for weeks, while she herself ate psychical investigator Everard Feilding, a Orthodox churches or in Catholic only consecrated wafers brought to her by devout Catholic, visited Vachere, who Churches or shrines (often in private angels. She also reportedly caused a pic- also began to hear voices bemoaning the homes)—places where there is a special ture of Jesus "to emit real blood." decline in religion. Feilding had the emphasis on religious images. It was a per- Apparently Tamisier coveted the immor- ceived overemphasis on icon veneration, tality of sainthood; instead, in 1851, "after (Continued on p. 7) felt to represent idolatry, that led to the iconoclastic crisis in the Byzantine empire from 724 to 843 C.E. Previously, miraculous powers were attributed to some icons, In the Eye of the Beholder and many of the faithful failed to distinguish between the artistic image and its R eligious imagery, like the pur- lage. A forensic report explained that divine prototype.' Eventually a theological rted picture of the Virgin Mary the phenomenon was caused by a compromise was effected,' but some on a window in Clearwater, Florida (see grimy window. abuses continued and with Protestantism article by Gary Posner on p. 4), is easily 199O: A thousand pilgrims a day came a "nervousness" about icons and seen. Usually it is simply the ink-blot or visit the bathroom of a Progresso, images that persists until today.' picture-in-the-clouds effect: the mind's Texas, auto parts store to view an image The issue is one of veneration of a tendency to "recognize" pictures in ran- of the Virgin in a gray stain on the floor. mere symbol on the one hand and of out- dom patterns. 1992: Religious enthusiasts see a right worship of an image as if it were the Here are a few other examples. portrait of Mary in a splotch on a tree in real model on the other. From a theologi- Los Angeles. A tree expert determines a cal standpoint the latter is idolatry.' There- 1978: In the skillet burns on a tor- fungus is responsible. fore, it is ironic that there should be reli- tilla, a New Mexico woman discovers 1995: Television viewers see face of gious tolerance of statues or other images an image of Jesus (although one jour- Jesus in a photo taken by the Hubble that are said to be animated—as by mov- nalist thought it more resembled boxer Space Telescope—showing stars being ing, weeping, bleeding, or the like. Leon Spinks). It remains enshrined in born in a gas cloud some six trillion Indeed, rank-and-file members notwith- her home. miles long. standing, the Catholic church frequently 1981: An image of Christ crowned 1996: An image of the Virgin carry- investigates and debunks such apparent with thorns and surmounting a cross ing the infant Jesus appears on a church occurrences. The animation invariably appears on the garage door of a Los wall in Yankalilla, South Australia. proves to be illusory or fraudulent. In Angeles home. It turns out to be shad- 1996: Jesus' image is seen in discol- short, there is little need for theological ows from a bush and sign cast by street oration of living room ceiling in a San disputes over animated effigies if the nat- lamps. Antonio home. (Woman's young son uralistic view is allowed to be repre- 1982: Profile of Jesus is seen in says it looks more like a bunny.) sented. foliage of a vine-covered tree in 1996: "Miraculous" image of Bogus weeping and bleeding effigies Holden, West Virginia. Said a sheriff's Mother Teresa is seen on a cinnamon have been reported since antiquity. One lieutenant, "I wouldn't know about any bun in a Nashville, Tennessee, coffee documented nineteenth-century case fea- signs, but in my opinion Jesus ain't shop which then placed it on display. tured a French miracle worker named going to come in no tree." 1997: Faces of Jesus and Mary Rose Tamisier. She was a walking exam- 1986: Image of Christ (or Elvis, as appear on a wall of the Holy Family ple of virtually every type of miraculous some tourists claimed) appears in Church in Bradford, Pa., apparently Fostoria, Ohio, in the rust stains on a caused by woodgrain patterns in the Joe Nickell is Senior Research Fellow of soybean oil tank. paneling. Some see different images, the Committee for the Scientific Investi- 1987: A picture of Christ appears such as a trio of angels or a sacred gation of Claims of the Paranormal and a on a window panel in an Italian vil- heart. frequent contributor to FREE INQUIRY. Spring 1997 5 6 safety issues. Thecityhasspentover souvenirs. apparition" T-shirts,photos, andother thrashing throughtheattendant public the "MiracleManagementTask Force,"is building's grounds,vendorshawk"Mary sing. Thebuilding'sowner,whostatedon mother," hasnoplanstorestricttheuseof his parkinglotasashrine.Justoffthe birth andaspecialblessingtoHis groups ofworshipersstoptoprayand stream offaithfulcomingandgoing, television hisviewthatthephenomenon is "ablessingandcelebrationofChrist's While therealwaysseemstobeasteady been collectedinalockbox,andisbeing donated toalocalchildren'shospital. as handwrittenexpressionsoffaithand other offeringstotheholymother,aswell suds andwaxrepresentsanothercontribu- pleadings forhealing.Almost$30,000has "Mary's" casemayhavecomefromthe behind candles,flowers,fruit,beads,and of thebuilding,happenstobeacarwash ing's southwallintoanaltar,leaving with openbays.Perhapstheoversprayof faithful toturnaledgealongthebuild- "clearly" maynotbethebestchoiceof "Mary" wascreatedintheabsenceofa glass, andsuggestedthattheoilin (Posner, exactly "Mary's"height—partiallyobscure words, sincepalmtrees—onealmost tor tothecolorationeffect. are theresultofnaturalprocessesrelatedto next-door neighbor,directlyfacingherside been interpretedbysomeastheapparition Catholic boy")fromCityGlass&Mirror of an"Eastern"religiousicon—the palms. produced similariridescentimagesfor interesting, andperhapspertinent—Mary's windows. Answer:Shewasn't!Withina local televisionbymixingoilandwateron Buddha. the otherwiseeasilyrecognizableimage. the proximityofvegetationandwater,how Pat Johnson(aself-described"good portation photographclearlyshowingthe published aFloridaDepartmentofTrans- image tobepresentin1994!Well, few daysofthestorybreaking, thirty-foot-tall palmtreeadjacenttoher A teamofClearwaterofficials, dubbed It didn'ttakelongforthethrongsof One maywonder,ifthewindowstains Guss cont'd. fromp.4) Wilder notedsomethingelse Times 34th Street.): ABC affiliate,proceededtorunthefol- help toknowthatU.S.19inClearwater is per daythroughouttheholiday season— cautionary admonitions,localclergy's "altar," andseveralpeople(includingone expressions ofdownrightskepticism,and was probablythemorningthat"Today" with amore"positive"viewpoint.This lowing thirty-secondspotmultiple times the northernextensionofSt. Petersburg's naturally producedstainhasactuallybeen present foryears,WFTS-TV28,thelocal including duringitsnewscasts. (Itmight its owntelevisionstaff'sreportingthatthe Mr. Krizmanich. answered "No,"andwasthenadvisedthat affiliate toldmethatthe"TodayShow" the showwouldinsteadfindsomeone officer) havesufferedminorburnsfrom ducer ifhebelievedinthe"miracle," candles. Butthecityhasatleastfoundone center), andanewtrafficsignalisbeing instead interviewedthebuilding'sowner, eight portabletoiletsisbeingremoved. way tosaveafewdollars—therowof However, whenhewasaskedbythepro- $40,000 sofarforcrowdcontrol(one morning duringitscoverageofthestory. vehicles, includingamobilecommand had beenpreparedtointerviewhimone have alsohadtodouseasmallfireatthe night, Wildercountedeighteenpolice installed toeasethepolice'sburden.Police wall. The "Buddha"apparition And despitetheCatholicdiocese's A reporterforTampaBay'sNBC-TV on thebuilding'swest

Guss Wilder III "apology" formy"upset,"hethenasked "interpretation." Afterofferingmean served toinflametheverypassionsthat without havingtoposethequestion. what Iwouldlikehimtodo.have were attemptingtodefuse,herejectedmy Catholic officials,andhisownreporters, fully enticingmanifestationofMother tion ofMotherMary,atleastawonder- to contemplate,ifnotawonderousappari- to flockthesideofaFloridaloanoffice Editor DavidMaystoaskwhyhewasair- Needless tosay,thespotcontinuedair. Nature. hoped thathemighthavefiguredout ing apromowhosemisinformationonly December 19,1996) any natural but "Idon'tknowhowtoexplain itin small, plasterwallhangingfrom sprinkler water.InLewis,Kan.,a caused bythesunreflectingoff be bloodliketears,witnesses said. office building.Itglowsandshim- what theybelieveisatwo-story Kinsley, saidhehasseentheicon cry, Virgin Maryhasshedwhatseemedto last Thursday;skepticssayitis mers turningfromgreentoblue, Father WilliamVogel,ofnearby verged onClearwater,Fla.,tosee vision oftheVirginMaryonan red. Theimagefirstbecamevisible Visions: Mexico withapaintedimageofthe she pickedClearwater,andit And thefaithful,andcurious,continue Street. own eyes.Somecametopray. came tobetouched.Some Virgin MaryappearedinTampaBay. Narrator: It'sourown When Icalled28NewsManaging healed. Butmostcametobelieve. from milesaroundtoseeitwiththeir for areason. News—WFTS. hard tobeyourfavorite.28TampaBay How theMedia Woman spectator:Maryishere,and Fades tostation'smotto:Working Narrator: Thousandsofpeoplecame Just beforeChristmas,avisionof Hundreds ofpeoplecon- Tell It way." (U.SA.Today, Miracle on34th FREE INQUIRY • (Tearful Icons, cont'd. from p. 5) archdiocesan committee reported its find- angles. A professor of religion at Catholic ings that no miracle was involved in the University stated, "The human capacity "blood" analyzed; it failed the tests for reported weeping. Unfortunately, the for self-deception is incredible."" human blood. The investigator next pro- report left unanswered whether the phe- Something quite different occurred in posed a test: He would dry the picture, nomenon was a deliberate hoax.' 1986 when an effigy began to weep at St. then seal it in a room. The abbe resisted, In 1985 a statue of the Virgin began Nicholas Albanian Orthodox Church in then acquiesced but allowed Feilding only first weeping then bleeding in the home of Chicago. Tears streamed down from the to lock rather than seal the door. Secretly, a Quebec railroad worker. Soon the phe- Virgin's eyes, while volunteers worked in however, the investigator placed a piece nomenon had spread to other nearby twelve-hour shifts to keep the church of paper in the hinge in such a way that it icons, statues, and crucifixes. Thousands open round the clock. The suspicions of would fall if the door were opened. Hours of pilgrims waited in the brutal winter skeptics increased when Bishop Isaiah, later, the picture was again wet but the cold to view the "miracle"—as many as chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Diocese paper was dislodged. Vachere suggested 12,000 in a single week. The local bishop who had arrived and officially recognized his sacristan might have given the door a went largely ignored as he implied the the phenomenon, stated that no scientific shake upon finding it locked and thus affair was a false miracle. Then, suddenly, tests or investigation would be made. "In have dislodged the paper. Feilding the Associated Press reported that the the Orthodox Church, we don't investi- thought this tenable, but on a visit years affair was "all a hoax—not even a very gate these matters," he said. later his wife believed she saw the elderly clever hoax." Newsmen from the One may see why. At one Greek abbe sprinkle water on the picture from a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation had Orthodox Church in Astoria, Queens, in nearby vase. been permitted to borrow an icon and had 1990 and at another recently in Toronto, In his book, Miracles, the late D. Scott it examined. The blood had been mixed icons wept under particularly suspicious Rogo postulated that the abbe's "unstable with animal fat so that when the room circumstances." In neither case did the mental disposition, his religious devotion, warmed from the body heat of pilgrims, flows actually emanate from the tear and his fascination with the stigmata" ducts. I investigated the latter for the isommum resulted in "a poltergeist attack that mim- Toronto Sun but the priest refused permis- "Indeed, rank-and-file members icked the appearance of a religious mira- sion for me to closely examine the icon or notwithstanding, the Catholic to sample the "tears." Even so, one news- cle." Thus Rogo failed to appreciate virtu- church frequently investigates and ally every clue that pointed to the obvious paper report mentioned the "fragrance" of debunks such apparent answer: pious hoaxing.' the liquid collected in a vial,14 and I could occurrences. The animation see from where one rivulet had been More recently, there is the case of the invariably proves to be illusory animated statue in Thornton, California. smeared that the substance had the or fraudulent." In 1981 the sculpted Virgin Mary not only appearance of oil.15 altered the angle of her eyes and the tilt of This is common with many of the her chin, churchgoers reported, but also the substance would liquefy and flow lachrymose icons, in many cases the tears wept and even strolled about the church at realistically. The owner confessed he had being described as a "fragrant oil." The night. The statue was frequently found used his own blood to produce the effects. reason may lie in the shrewd realization several feet from its usual location, stand- In the same year it was reported that a that water evaporates quickly whereas oil ing at the altar. A bishop's investigation, figure of the Virgin Mary in a grotto in may preserve a freshly weeping appear- however, found that the movement of Ireland was swaying. However, it was ance for many hours. Under the pretext of eyes and chin were merely due to varia- eventually learned that it was the people dabbing the eyes to collect the tears, more tions in photographic angles, while the who were unconsciously moving as oil may be applied if necessary. It is proba- weeping and perambulations were revealed by a stationary television camera. bly this simple expedient of applying oil— branded a probable hoax.' The power of suggestion was at work.'° rather than cleverly hidden tubes or hygro- In May 1984 a small wooden statue of Another example of illusion and sug- scopic chemicals—that explains most the Virgin, enshrined in the Roman gestion occurred on Good Friday in 1989. weeping effigies. The Thornton statue's Catholic St. John of God Church in At the Holy Trinity Church in Ambridge, tears were "oily and sticky," for example, Chicago, allegedly began weeping just Pennsylvania, a luminous, life-sized cru- and vegetable oil was reportedly used to two weeks after it arrived at the church. cifixion figure of Jesus reportedly closed fake a "weeping" stained-glass window at Within two days thousands were hasten- its eyes. Alas, a subsequent bishop's a New Orleans church in 1989.16 ing to the site, and street vendors were investigation included the analysis of Be that as it may, "salty tears" were hawking photos of the Madonna. Events before-and-after videotapes of the statue said to flow from the eyes of a small plas- took a surprising, violent turn two months and as a result commission members con- ter bas-relief of the Madonna in Pavia, later when a man entered the church and cluded there was "no convincing evi- Italy, in 1980. No one witnessed the initial fired three shots at the statue. (The twenty dence" that the reported miracle had weeping, only the flows in progress, and four-year-old vagrant was subsequently occurred. The clerics stated that they felt the owner seemed to be alone with the fig- found not guilty by reason of insanity.) the witnesses were sincere but could have Finally, after a year-long investigation, an been deceived by lighting and viewing (Continued on p. 61)

Spring 1997 7 Sagan quoted the Roman philosopher Lucretius: "Nature ... is seen to do all The Honest Agnostic: things spontaneously of herself, without the meddling of the gods" (p. 310). And he quoted the Roman historian Battling Demons of the Mind Polybius as saying the masses can be unruly, so "they must be filled with fears to keep them in order. The ancients did well, therefore, to invent gods and the James A. Haught belief in punishment after death" (p. 213). Sagan recounted how the medieval incere seekers of reliable knowledge comforting fantasy. [p. 204] church tortured and burned thousands of lost a friend when Carl Sagan died too women on charges that they were witches young at sixty-two. Like all good scien- If you want to save your child from who flew in the air, coupled with Satan, polio, you can pray or you can inocu- tists, the brilliant Cornell astronomer late.... Try science. [p. 30] turned into animals, etc. He said "this spent his life pursuing secrets of nature, legally and morally sanctioned mass mur- looking for facts that can be documented, Think of how many religions attempt to der" was advocated by great church tested, and retested. validate themselves with prophecy. fathers. Like some maturing thinkers, he Think of how many people rely on these "In Italy, the Inquisition was condemn- prophecies, however vague, however decided late in life to escalate his criticism unfulfilled, to support or prop up their ing people to death until the end of the of mystical mumbo-jumbo into an all-out, beliefs. Yet has there ever been a reli- eighteenth century, and inquisitional tor- no-holds-barred attack. His last book, The gion with the prophetic accuracy and ture was not abolished in the Catholic Demon-Haunted World: Science as a reliability of science? There o~cr`nu, sr - ro_r3nu~u~uud-nuu~rr~urru~ nu~n~r~n~r~nur r~r Candle in the Dart, urged intelligent peo- isn't a religion on the planet c7 that doesn't long for a com- "Like all good scientists, the brilliant ple to repudiate: Astrology, horoscopes, parable ability—precise, 5 Cornell astronomer spent his life 5 faith-healing, UFO "abductions," reli- and repeatedly demon- 5 gious miracles, New Age occultism, fun- strated before committed pursuing secrets of nature, looking 5 damentalist "creationism," Tarot card skeptics—to foretell future for facts that can be documented, reading, prayer, prophecy, palmistry, events. No other human 5 tested, and retested." institution comes close. [p. Icy s. ru~ncsomen doom nu- r3 Transcendental Meditation, satanism, 30] weeping statues, "channeling" of voices from the dead, holy apparitions, extrasen- Since World War II, Japan sory perception, belief in life after death, has spawned enormous "dowsing," demonic possession, "magical numbers of new religions powers" of crystals and pyramids, "psy- featuring the supernatural. ... In Thailand, diseases are chic phenomena," etc., etc. treated with pills manufac- Sagan's farewell message was simple: tured from pulverized Many people believe almost anything sacred Scripture. "Witches" they're told, with no evidence, which are today being burned in makes them vulnerable to charlatans, South Africa.... The worldwide TM [Transcendental crackpots, and superstition. Only the sci- Meditation] organization entific outlook, mixing skepticism and has an estimated valuation wonder, can give people a sensible grasp of $3 billion. For a fee, they of reality. promise through meditation He scorned supernatural aspects of to be able to walk you through walls, to make you religion. The Demon-Haunted World invisible, to enable you to abounds with comments like these: fly. [p. 16]

If some good evidence for life after The so-called Shroud of death were announced, I'd be eager to Turin ... is now suggested examine it; but it would have to be real by carbon-14 dating to be scientific data, not mere anecdote... . not the death shroud of Better the hard truth, I say, than the Jesus, but a pious hoax from the 14th century—a time James A. Haught, editor of the Charleston when the manufacture of fraudulent religious relics Gazette, is a Senior Editor at FREE was a thriving and prof- INQUIRY. itable home handicraft industry. [p. 46]

8 FREE INQUIRY Church until 1816," he wrote. "The last Dr. Paul Kurtz. The astronomer said CSI- spirit of searching for trustworthy evi- bastion of support for the reality of witch- COP serves a valuable public purpose by dence, to guide them through "the demon- craft and the necessity of punishment has offering the news media "the other side of haunted world." That's a noble wish for been the Christian churches" (p. 413). the story" in response to supernatural the young. The astronomer-author was equally declarations by "every levitating guru, I'm a friend of Sagan's sister, Cari scornful of New Age gurus, UFO buffs, visiting alien, channeler, and faith-healer. Greene, who donated bone marrow séance "channelers," and others who tout ... CSICOP represents a counterbalance, repeatedly in a desperate attempt to fend mysterious beliefs without evidence. although not yet nearly a loud enough off his marrow disease. Through her, I He denounced the tendency among voice, to the pseudo-science gullibility watched the family's pain. some groups, chiefly fundamentalists and that seems second nature to so much Although his unstoppable illness was marginal psychologists, to induce people much of the media" (p. 299). cruel, I'll bet the wise scientist didn't per- falsely to "remember" satanic rituals or Again and again in his last book, Sagan sonalize his misfortune, but saw it factu- other non-existent events they supposedly said wonders revealed by science are ally as part of the random lottery of life, experienced as children. more awesome than any claims by mys- which takes some victims early, some Sagan, a laureate in the International tics. He said children are "natural scien- late. Academy of Humanism, had been a tists" because they incessantly ask "Why Meanwhile, we who admired him can member of the Committee for the is the moon round?" or "Why do we have be grateful that his last act was a coura- Scientific Investigation of Claims of the toes?" or the like. He urged that young- geous battle against the many demons of Paranormal since its founding in 1976 by sters be inculcated with the scientific the mind. •

THE 2ND ANNUAL CAMP FOR SECULAR HUMANISTS' KIDS! CAIVIP QUES AUGUST 10 -16, 1997 A week of fun, exploration, and companionship for 8-12 year olds, Camp Quest takes place at a modern, fully equipped camp in Burlington, Kentucky, in the rolling, wooded hills of the Ohio River Valley, just 15 minutes from the Cincinnati airport. The adult volunteer staff includes experienced camp counselors, Red Cross trained lifeguards, scientists, artists, musicians, and craftspeople. During their week at Camp Quest the children will enjoy swimming, field trips, campfires and cook- outs, story telling and singing, crafts, plus workshops in natural sciences, including field biology and ecology, astronomy, and explorations of secular humanist values and ethics, and a magic show to challenge young skeptics. Last year's Camp Quest was a unique opportunity for children of secular humanist families from five states to enjoy the companionship of like-minded families and this year's camp promises to be just as successful. Unforgettable enrichment for the humanist child or grandchild in your life. Respond now to assure space. Cost per child: $255 all inclusive. Transportation available from Greater Cincinnati airport. Registration deadline is June 1, 1997, or until filled. For information and registration materials: CAMP QUEST c/o FREE INQUIRY GROUP, INC. PO BOX 8128, CINCINNATI OH 45208 • (606) 441-5875 • [email protected] Operated by The Free Inquiry Group, Inc. of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, a member of the Alliance of Secular Humanist Societies, and supported by the Council for Secular Humanism.

Spring 1997 9 Notes from the Editor

Surviving Bypass and Enjoying the Exuberant Life: A Personal Account Paul Kurtz

Open-Heart Surgery The diagnosis of my condition surprised me. As many of my friends know, I recently underwent open-heart surgery. am an exercise addict. I have been a mem- IAlthough I am now rapidly recovering, ber of a health club for twenty-five years, this near-brush with death has enabled me where I run, bicycle, swim, and work out to reflect on my condition; indeed, on the with weights, virtually on a daily basis. meaning of life. My recent heart problem Even when traveling, I try to book a hotel was precipitated by a visit to Mexico City with a gym so that I can work out or jog. in mid-November. We at FREE INQUIRY Also, I have been watching my choles- magazine worked hard with our Mexican terol for about a decade; perhaps not rig- colleagues in planning a World Humanist orously enough, though I managed to Congress, which was held under the aus- keep it under 200. For example, at the pices of the Mexican Ethical Humanist Mexican Congress, I had oatmeal, Association, the Academy of Humanism, skimmed milk, fresh fruits, and decaf- and the International Humanist and feinated coffee for breakfast. I was dis- Ethical Union. We were gratified that the mayed when I saw my colleagues wolf Congress went so well—the first ever down bacon and eggs, cream, fried pota- held outside of Europe and the United toes, and buttered toast. States. I was especially delighted to have What happened to me, I wondered? I given a keynote address at the Congress have had borderline blood pressure, and to have been the Master of which with medication has been kept at Ceremonies at the concluding gala ban- one artery blocked 90%, and the doctors about 120/80 for years. Moreover, I have quet and fund drive—with a string sextet recommended immediate corrective been a type A personality, with "timeitis" and a mariachi band! bypass surgery. and "deadlineitis." And I had also been However, I began to experience some A person's arteries apparently can be overweight ten to fifteen pounds—until difficulty in breathing, which I thought clogged by a fatty, fibrous, cholesterol- now. I am back to being slim and trim was due to the high altitude. The day after laden deposit called "plaque." Over long (relatively!). But more important, my returning I suffered some chest pains periods of time plaque builds up, thickens, chief risk factor, according to my cardiol- (angina pectoris); these lasted only two or and narrows the artery channels, a condi- ogist, perhaps has been genetic—my three minutes, but I decided that I had bet- tion known as arteriosclerosis. If suffi- father died of a heart attack at age fifty- ter go to the emergency room. My wife cient plaque accumulates to impede the nine, and several of my uncles on my rushed me to the hospital, and my cardiol- flow of blood through the arteries, father's side died of heart attacks. My ogist scheduled an angiogram the follow- restricted blood supply to the heart can mother is ninety-three, however, and ing Monday. The diagnosis was that I had cause angina or a heart attack. Medical going strong (she bicycles twenty minutes scientists have identified several risk fac- a day), and her parents, sister, and broth- Paul Kurtz is Emeritus Professor of tors for coronary heart disease: cigarette ers were long-lived. Philosophy at the State University of New smoking, lack of exercise, high blood My surgery was performed on York at Buffalo. He is editor of FREE cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, December 4, 1996, and the doctors tell me INQUIRY, President of Prometheus Books, obesity, diabetes, stress, a family history that it was successful. They also sug- and Chairman of the Committee for the of heart disease, being male, and increas- gested that, if I had not been exercising, I Scientific Investigation of Claims of the ing age. These risk factors are cumulative: might have had more arteries blocked, or Paranormal. the more an individual has, the greater the perhaps suffered a heart attack, which I danger of having a heart attack.' did not. (Some claim that running can add

10 FREE INQUIRY ten years to your life—though you have to ple, I drink a glass of red wine at dinner for an hour, five times a week and take a spend ten years running). five or six times a week. brisk walk the other two days. Indeed, I The heart receives its blood from the feel stronger than ever. I realize that there coronary arteries, which connect from the Existential Reflections are many people who are offended by my aorta (the main artery emerging from the advising exercise. They tell me that they heart) to the heart muscles. If these ay I share with you several general have great revulsion to exercising, and become clogged, normal blood flow can Mreflections about my heart surgery: every time the desire to do so arises, they be restored through bypass grafts that run First, I was surprised to learn how lie down until it passes. Not true in my from the aorta to the unblocked portions many people undergo bypass operations case. Incidentally, many doctors at the of the coronary arteries. These grafts, in annually (over 400,000 in the United hospital knew about the Skeptical Inquirer my case, were obtained from my mam- States alone). My good friend Steve Allen and the Committee for the Scientific mary artery (which supplies a portion of wrote me that he had had a similar proce- Investigation of Claims of the Para- the chest wall but is not vital to that area). dure. Milton Rosenberg (Professor of normal's great work in criticizing so- They also are obtained in many patients Psychology, University of Chicago, and called alternative therapies, and they told from the saphenous vein of the legs. WGN Radio host) called me in the hospi- me how grateful they were for our sup- During the operation, the patient's heart is tal to say that he had had two bypass oper- port. I told them how appreciative I was to usually stopped so that grafts can be sewn ations. Irving Louis Horowitz (Professor be able to benefit from state-of-the-art into place while circulation is maintained of Sociology at Rutgers University and medical therapy. Recognizing the fallibil- by a heart-lung machine. This was not editor of Transactions) called to tell me ity of all human endeavors, the fact is that necessary in my case. My operation pro- that he also had had two heart attacks and medical science has progressed because ceeded without complications. I came out open-heart surgery twice. Len Shore in its hypotheses are tested by clinical trials, of the anesthesia four hours later. My wife Minneapolis wrote that he had had a quin- replication, and peer review, and this is and son were at my bedside. I tried to say, tuple bypass operation in 1989 when he the chief advantage of its methodology. "I love you," but could not pronounce a was seventy-four and that he was playing Third, undergoing a fairly radical inva- word. The next morning, in the intensive- racquetball in thirty days, Ies Spetter (of sive surgical operation, and facing the care unit, the nurse bade me get out of the American Ethical Union) let me know possibility of my own demise, enabled me bed—I couldn't believe it—wash, shave that he had had bypass surgery at seventy- to put my life in some existential perspec- myself, and walk around, which I did! I five and is now back lecturing and writing tive. I have been so busy, working on so experienced some pain in the incision that again. Steve Barrett had bypass surgery a many projects, traveling, living life exu- required prescription pain killers to con- few years ago, he is now on a strict diet of berantly, literally bursting at the seams, trol, but after several days the discomfort only 10% fat, maintains a rigorous exer- that I have often not had the chance to was easily controlled by Tylenol. My cise program, and is doing fine. Many oth- savor the delicacies of life. I have not recovery continued, and I was discharged ers have similar tales. I was much encour- taken enough time to smell the daffodils. from the hospital. aged to hear these stories, although I (I should add that this latter insight was I have since resumed working again at sometimes feel like a piker with only one brought home to me by the dozens of the offices of the Center for Inquiry and bypass! Bypass surgery has become highly plants, flowers, and fruit baskets that Prometheus Books, and have begun an fashionable today (perhaps like orthodon- well-wishers sent me—"It smells like a intensive cardiac rehabilitation program of tic braces that so many teenagers endure). flower shop in here!" exclaimed a nurse exercise. I feel great! I have been chastened But it works in the majority of cases. upon entering my room.) In any case, my by my experience, however, and have Second, I was deeply impressed by the illness dramatically impressed upon me resolved to continue to exercise and to level of scientific expertise I enjoyed at the need to appreciate each moment of watch my cholesterol ever more rigorously, the Buffalo General Hospital Cardiac experience and how precious life is. I am to keep it under 150 if I can, with fat only Care Center, where the success rate is especially grateful for the love and affec- 15 or 20% of my diet. One should avoid 97%. The use of high technology (stress tion that my wife, family, friends, and col- saturated fats. With most packaged foods tests, angiogram, mugoscan, electrocar- leagues have shown to me during my now listing saturated fat and cholesterol diogram, etc.), the skillful use of medica- ordeal and recovery. values, this is relatively easy to do today. I tion, the dedicated cardiologists and sur- Although I did not have a typical "near also learned that I need to lower the level of geons, the highly talented nursing staff, death" experience, my bypass surgery has low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and and the follow-up care with home visits jolted me into the realization that I am not increase the level of high-density lipopro- by nurses, physical therapists, and nutri- superman, nor am I eternal. I can defy the tein (HDL). I eat pasta, fish, lean turkey or tionists and subsequent cardiac rehabilita- universe only so long, but at some time chicken and avoid red meat, milk, eggs, tion (all paid for by Medicare) is a testa- my Promethean stance—to challenge the and other animal products. I consume ment to the excellent health-care system fates while I can and to audaciously plenty of vegetables and fruit. I also take an that is now in place in the United States explore new directions—will be defeated, aspirin a day, a blood thinner, and medica- for those covered. if not by others then by my own demise. tion to control my blood pressure. And, last I found the cardiac rehab program a This existential reality brought home my but not least, following the French exam- special joy, and I now exercise vigorously own fragile mortality. What bottomless

Spring 1997 11 depths to contemplate. So no doubt there and skilled young people (we now have beings. They point to the evils of Nazism are limits to what a person can achieve. If over sixty on staff) to whom I can pass the and communism in the twentieth century. we are all finite, which we undoubtedly torch. I have used the entrepreneurial I maintain that human beings are capable are, then perhaps I had better get off the method, and I am thrilled when I see our of both good and evil; which tendency roller coaster, a modern-day metaphor for young people take the initiative in order to develops depends on biogenetic factors, the Sisyphus myth, enjoy the immediacies build new humanist institutions. Thus, I but especially on the environment and of the present, and not focus only on what hope that I can continue to devote my time education, and on the kind of society and can be attained in the future by strenuous remaining to help achieve the cause of sec- culture in which individuals live. Any effort. A person needs to put things into ular humanism and constructive skepti- group of people can become corrupted, some proper perspective, to reduce the cism—as long as I can; though, of course, but they can also learn to pursue authentic frenetic pace. Have I been oblivious to the at a slower measured pace, delegating humanistic virtues. call of death? Does my encounter with it authority as much as possible, and taking The recent intense debate about Daniel mean that my remaining years need to be more time to really smell the flowers. Goldhagen's book, Hitler's Willing made whole? Is not the fullness of life the Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the chief good that we sometimes forget in an The Virtues of Humanism Holocaust (see the review in FREE effort to achieve our plans and ideals? INQUIRY, Winter 1996/97 and Edmund Perhaps only such an unexpected hat is unique about secular human- Cohen's article in this issue on p. 34), encounter with death can focus one on the ism? Why should we care? I believe which describes conditions in Germany precariousness of life. As a freethinker, I that the world would be a better place if during the war, focuses on this contro- have no illusion about immortality or the the religious, transcendental, and paranor- versy. Goldhagen portrays ordinary afterlife. It is only this life that counts. mal myths that have dominated human German soldiers at the Eastern front who Therefore, every minute is meaningful, on history could be overcome, or at least were involved in the massacre of innocent its own terms, in and for itself. moderated and liberalized. I think that victims. He argues that the entire German One question that I pondered is humankind would benefit if reason were nation was responsible for the Holocaust, whether or not I should retire from my allowed to play a greater role in human and this he attributes to Germany's long- many activities. I have passed the prover- affairs. And above all, I think humankind standing anti-Semitism. bial three score and ten. I did retire from would be enriched if humanist virtues I was fascinated by his thesis, and the my university teaching job five years ago, could flourish. I am not a utopian, and I bleak picture that he paints of the human so that I could devote more time to build- surely do not think that it will be easy to condition—especially because of my own ing the secular humanist and skeptical build genuine humanist institutions, in experiences in the United States Army movements. Indeed, I had been working which free and autonomous individuals that liberated France and invaded harder than ever in that heroic can live creative lives, sharing experience Germany during the Second World War. I endeavor—writing, lecturing, editing, with others in more just and humane soci- remained in Germany for eighteen months publishing, helping build the Center for eties. But at least we should try to create a after the war in the army of occupation. I Inquiry, and developing new projects. genuine humanist world community. met hundreds of Jewish concentration I think that Bismarck did a great disser- I have recently completed a new book camp survivors, as well as ordinary vice in setting the retirement age at sixty- on humanist virtues, which I call The Germans and even SS troops. Countless five; for in my view some form of creative Courage to Become: The Virtues of numbers of Germans told me that they work is essential for one's continued vital- Humanism.2 In this book, I argue that there had rejected Hitler and the Nazis, but felt ity. This may not apply to everyone. (My are many humanist virtues. The key virtue impotent to actively oppose them. brother-in-law tells me that he enjoys in human life, in my judgment, is courage, Remember, Hitler received only one-third retirement in Florida because he does not the courage not simply to be, to persist in of the popular vote in 1933. Thus, I do not have to do anything.) In any case, I feel spite of adversity, but to become, to go on agree with Goldhagen's pessimistic that there is still so much that has to be and forge new frontiers and to achieve our appraisal. I think that the idea of collec- done; and I hope that I can go on as long highest aspirations and goals, and that this tive guilt is mistaken. I do not minimize as I can—perhaps die in the saddle with is essential for exuberance and the fullness the utter barbarity of those who carried my boots on, not with them off sitting by of life. Courage, however, needs to be out the Holocaust.' Most Germans were the fireplace. Having founded Prometheus guided by cognition and reason, and to be not involved in these infamous acts, did Books twenty-eight years ago (now the nourished by caring, an empathetic con- not know what was happening in the leading freethought, humanist, and skepti- cern for the needs of others. camps until perhaps the last years of the cal press in the world); CSICOP and the Perhaps I am naïve, but I still believe war, and many of those who heard about it skeptical movement (twenty-one years in the potential for goodness in the human could not believe it. Moreover, all too ago); and FREE INQUIRY, the Council for species. I am decidedly skeptical of the many soldiers were simply following Secular Humanism, and its various pro- doctrine of "original sin." Humanists are orders. As Stanley Milgram's chilling jects seventeen years ago, it is perhaps constantly asked whether this view of experiments at Yale on the authoritarian hard to let up. That is why I have human nature is overly optimistic, and and conformist personality revealed, attempted to build a cadre of hardworking whether evil lurks in the hearts of human under closely supervised and structured

12 FREE INQUIRY conditions, otherwise decent human God brought the house down. And it con- to build the humanist and skeptical move- beings are able to tolerate cruelty, much as tinued with the swearing in on the Bible ments as an alternative to regnant reli- they may be opposed to it .° of the president and the invoking of the giosity. The Council for Secular Human- If one indicts ordinary Germans name of God on innumerable occasions ism is now the largest such organization in because of Hitler's barbarism, what are throughout the day. This was the seventh America—though we surely have a long we to say about the millions of Russians inauguration in which Billy Graham took way to go in our educational mission. I who lived in the Soviet Union during part (exceeding the appearances of Chief reiterate, it is the positive ethical reach of Stalin's ruthless extermination of the Justice Marshall in the early days of the humanism that needs to be explicated, not kulaks, Tartars, and the millions in the republic who officiated at six inaugura- simply our attack on religious inconsis- Gulag. Were they equally complicit? tions). Later when interviewed by Larry tencies and mythologies. We need to What are we to say about those who lived King on Cable News Network, Graham demonstrate that life can be good and in the southern United States during the referred to Adam and Eve and the Garden meaningful without dogma or prayer, and period of slavery or took part in the of Eden in literal terms. What a sad com- that courage, reason, and caring have deep bloody Civil War, or of the Turks during mentary on the times that primitive reli- moral roots within human experience. the Armenian massacre? And what about giosity is so heralded. America is sup- those in Rwanda and Bosnia today? posed to be a secular republic, and the Notes Clearly, under brutal conditions and principle of separation of church and state repressive régimes, heinous crimes are is essential to the Constitution and Bill of 1. My thanks to Dr. Stephen Barrett (Nutrition Rights—though one would not know it Forum, vol. 9, no. 1) for supplying me with these and sometimes possible, and racial, religious, other technical details in this article. • ethnic, and ideological hatred can reduce from viewing American political life, 2. Forthcoming in July 1997 by Praeger/Green- victims to nonpersonhood and enable peo- where God and the Bible pervade the pub- wood, Westport, Connecticut. ple to torture and murder them. This is lic square. 3. A more balanced treatment of how a unit of ordinary German soldiers were transformed into especially the case in totalitarian societies I believe that secular humanist virtues cold-blooded murderers is found in Christopher R. where dissent is prohibited. are relevant to "the bridge into the twenty- Browning's book, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Yet, I submit that the common moral first century" that President Clinton so Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (New York: HarperCollins, 1992). Although many at first decencies are still widespread in human eloquently talks about; though the impor- protested and refused to take part in the shooting of civilization, and there are deep moral ten- tance of secular humanism to the future innocent men, women and children (perhaps 10 to dencies within the human species. needs to be defended in America today. 20%), in time they became inured to the brutal slaughter. Humanists at least believe that we must This is one reason why I have decided to 4. Stanley Milgram, Obedience to Authority: An nourish and cultivate the highest ethical continue my efforts as long as I am able, Experimental View (New York: Harper, 1969) • potentialities. Humanists need to emphasize the affirmative dimensions of humanist ethics, especially tolerance and caring, l and we should do what we can to help realize the humanist virtues. Moreover, tragedy we seek common ground above the racial, for the religious, and ethnic differences that divide humanity. l3

Secular Humanism in American Society

t is often not easy to be a secular SUPPORTER Ihumanist in American society today, A RIGNT-TO-DIE where freethought, atheism, and agnosti- WHO HAD USED A LITTLE 1a0 cism are a minority position, outspoken MUO MEDICINAL MARIJUANA nonbelievers are shunned, and where spir- HAS COLLIDED WITI•I A ituality and religiosity dominate the pub- DEATH PENALTY SUPPORTER lic forum. WHO NAD CONSUMED A LITTLE Ibo This latter fact is underlined by view- MUCH RED WINE FoR fIS ¡Eq►ZT coNDITIoN. ing the inauguration of President Bill 607H WERE KILLED INSTANTLY Clinton on television. The day began with BY `INE1R AIRBAGS. a visit from the president, the vice-president and their families to a Methodist/ Episcopalian black church in Washington, tNVfSTIGArORS ARE LIVEN/A/6 1t w.vt4vk P tu ,,.ß. 17IEaR ILLEGALLY RECORDED D.C., where the Reverend Jesse Jackson ßt5 ea),777 go41 ✓s mews Ré war FNAL CELL NOME CONVERSAY Ot' gave a talk, and pious hosannahs about Spring 1997 13 The Freedom to Inquire

Introduction George D. Smith

ll too often a person seeking informa- Discussion dissolves Ation is told not to ask questions, espe- into screams as those cially embarrassing ones. The power who think they know elites protect their stake in the game by what is right attempt supressing inquiry that might challenge to settle dispute with the status quo. This is especially ironic in force. In each case, a free society or in a religious organiza- commonly assumed tion that lauds freedom of choice only premises were when adherents choose "the right." placed above ques- Constraints on free inquiry may limit tion and anyone who advances in science, either when orthodox dared to disagree thought is threatened or when politics and with unexamined religion are invested in a particular way of beliefs met coercive thinking. sanction. Arthur Miller's dramatization of the This process of Salem witch trials has special meaning for enforcing the status our times. Portrayed in film for the sec- quo against free ond time in 1996, The Crucible recalls inquiry has recurred "The questions of others in more difficult times have both the McCarthy witch hunt for frequently in human contributed not only to advances in Communists in the 1950s and the reli- history. Among the civilization but to our present freedom to inquire:' gious right's pursuit of power in the most renowned bear- 1990s. In all three cases powerful politi- ers of the torch of inquiry were Socrates, knowledge within" or a "divinity." His cal forces acted without questioning their Jesus, and Galileo: each challenged com- focus on self-knowledge instead of the perceived wisdom. In seventeenth-cen- monly accepted viewpoints of their day at gods of the state, regarded as unifying tury Salem both clergy and politicians great personal cost to themselves. symbols of the democracy, was seen as looked for Satan within the souls of the Socrates lived in fifth-century Athens: heresy. His decision to excuse himself non-religious or anyone accused of soldier in the Peloponessian War, legisla- from civic duties and the support that strange behavior, and executed those tor, husband, father of three sons, philoso- some of his students gave to past conflicts whom they judged to be possessed. When pher versed in geometry and astronomy. against Athens further alienated him from Senator Joseph McCarthy accused out- His ideas, reflected in Plato's Dialogues the leaders of Greek democracy. Charged spoken advocates of free speech and asso- and the writings of Xenophon, form part with religious non-conformism and cor- ciation of being Communist subversives, of the philosophical foundations of rupting the youth of Athens, Socrates was their privacy was compromised by politi- Western culture. Impressed with the order sentenced to death in 399 B.C.E. cal surveillance and their explanations he saw in nature, he applied universal def- Jesus, known by his Jewish name were shouted down in televised hearings. initions and divisions to the natural world "Yeshua," was a teacher from Nazareth in In this decade, debate swirls around a and developed a system of inductive rea- Judea, a Roman colony at the edge of the woman's right to choose abortion or life soning. Defining the "soul" as character empire. Wandering with twelve followers for the fetus she carries. Pro-life activists and intelligence, he reasoned that happi- through settlements in and around shout their belief that they represent the ness depended on the goodness of one's Galilee, he preached religious reform, will of God even while they bomb med- soul. When one "knows" true goodness, taught by parable, and practiced healing. ical clinics and murder doctors. doing right is involuntary. He advanced Jesus claimed that God's love redeemed an early argument for freedom of con- everyone regardless of stature. He George D. Smith is President of Signature science. Socrates taught his aristocratic eschewed hypocrisy and indifference to Books, a major publisher of books on pupils (including Plato) to seek an inner the poor; he was well received by com- Mormonism. wisdom, sometimes called a "private mon people and opposed by Jewish privi-

14 FREE INQUIRY leged classes. Jesus' influence alarmed found themselves convinced by proof of always turn out to be verifiable, questions Jewish and Roman authorities, who called something that it was made then a sin to were asked. him a revolutionary. Regarded by some as believe." Galileo went to Rome to beg The basic principles of humanism the long-awaited Messiah, Jesus was church authorities to change their poli- emphasized a questioning attitude, objec- arrested by Roman soldiers, condemned cies. He was interrogated and placed tive analysis of perceived experience, and as a blasphemer by the Sanhedrin—a under house arrest for the last eight years the dignity of humankind. An intelligence political and judicial Jewish council, and of his life for having "held and taught" capable of critical scrutiny and self- was executed as a political rebel by the Copernican doctrine. inquiry was a "free intelligence." In his Roman procurator, Pontias Pilate. A reli- The tradition of exercising freedom to "Orations on the Dignity of Man," Italian gion developed around belief in his resur- inquire, of speaking truth to power, philosopher Pico della Mirandola asserted rection from the dead. became a primary theme of the that humanity had been assigned no fixed Like Socrates four centuries before Renaissance, when humanism was born. limit by God but was free to seek its own him, Jesus himself wrote nothing that has The fourteenth-century humanism of level and create its own future. With this survived. But early Christians recorded Petrarch exalted the individual's relation- focus on human thought and analysis, narratives about him beginning some fifty ship to God. Humanism advocated free humanism embraced the freedom to ask years after his death. Scholars consider his will and the capacity to understand and questions. Humanism led scholars toward parables to be most representative of what control nature. The mysteries of sun, the secular realm of science and mathe- Jesus himself may have actually said. He moon, stars, and planets; the Earth's matics, and the pagan literature of Greece taught ethical behavior beyond the letter capricious weather; and vast systems of and Rome; faith gave way to inquiry. of the law and left no room for the legal- plants and animals that had been incorpo- The Protestant Reformation broke up istic actions of the Pharisees. rated into religious worship were disen- the old social order while the printing Jesus preached a universal message tangled from legend and opened for ana- press advanced political diversity and that questioned social norms. He offended lytical examination, to be treated as stimulated discussion. The freedom of the established society in first-century subjects for human inquiry. individuals to think and act as they Palestine, and paid with his life. During the Renaissance, named for the believe has long been claimed as part of Galileo, a seventeenth-century profes- rebirth of knowledge from advanced cul- the social contract of societies that have sor of mathematics at the University of tures of the past, people searched for sought to replace the autocratic power of Padua in Italy, was an astronomer and ancient documents and became interested dictators with human freedoms expressed physicist whose discoveries contradicted in Aristotle and biblical writings. in various forms of self-government. the authority of the Catholic church. Augustine sought to combine ancient Documents such as the Magna Carta in Considered one of the founders of the Greek thought with Hebrew scriptures in England and the American Constitution experimental method, Galileo developed a Christian synthesis of Plato and Moses. sought to reserve for individuals certain the astronomical telescope, with which he This thirst for understanding began to rights, including the right to express their discovered the satellites of Jupiter and challenge subservient reliance on state own beliefs and the freedom to act upon learned that the Milky Way was composed teachings. Even if the answers did not those beliefs. of stars. From his observations and analysis, he affirmed the Copernican theory that the planets revolve around the sun, a concept that eventually replaced the flat- Earth view of the universe propounded by both Aristotle and the Bible. Although Galileo was a practicing Catholic and had been educated at a monastery near Florence, he could not deny what he knew, that the Earth revolves around the sun and is not the fixed center of the universe between Heaven above and Hell below, as taught by the church. When Dominican preachers denounced Galileo from the pulpit for this blasphemy, he wrote to church authorities in Rome to remind them of the respected tradition of interpreting scripture allegorically whenever it conflicted with scientific truth. Quoting church authorities, he warned that it would be "a terrible detriment for the souls if people Spring 1997 15 But the freedom to ask questions is "right to speak," he wants someone there where under normal conditions there is any never entirely won. The stewards of this to listen: Liberty is "a means of promoting disposition to regulate the press ... the freedom must actively engage issues, and the discovery of truth," and exists in a preservation and development of freedom those that achieve power must continually forum "where the speaker must respond to of opinion are not only a matter of adher- encourage the opposition to express their questions; in a gathering of scientists ing to abstract legal rights, but also, and views. Author and journalist Walter where the data, the hypothesis, and the very urgently a matter of organizing and Lippmann ("The Indispensable Opposi- conclusion are submitted to men compe- arranging sufficient debate." tion,"Atlantic Monthly, August 1939) por- tent to judge them; in a reputable newspa- Lippmann brings us back to Socrates. trayed contrary thought, not just as some- per, which not only will publish the opin- "The unexamined life, said Socrates, is thing uncomfortable that we must tolerate, ions of those who disagree but will unfit to be lived by man." Lippmann rea- but as a necessity for political freedom: reexamine its own opinion in the light of sons that "when men are brought face to "Were they pressed hard enough, most what they say." It is important to "expose face with their opponents, forced to listen men would probably confess that political misinformation by rumor where questions and learn and mend their ideas ... then freedom—that is to say, the right to speak are not heard," to counter "the whispering only is freedom a reality." Asking ques- freely and to act in opposition—is a noble campaign, the circulation of anonymous tions of opponents, even if politically dif- ideal rather than a practical necessity .. . rumors by men who cannot be compelled ficult or contrary to seemingly unques- each man claims his freedom as a matter to prove what they say." tionable conclusions, is important for of right, the freedom he accords to other Critical to the process of maintaining a both critic and defender of the status quo. men is a matter of toleration." If people free society is a free press. Says Lippmann: The questions of others in more difficult see freedom of opinion as an abstraction, it "When we reach the newspaper press, the times have contributed not only to may not work. Lippmann recalls Voltaire's opportunity for debate is so considerable advances in civilization but to our present purported statement: "I wholly disapprove that discontent cannot grow to the point freedom to inquire. • of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it," but observes that "most men will not defend to the death the rights of other men; if they dis- Atheism and Inquiry approve sufficiently what other men say, they will somehow supress those men if they can." This view relegates liberty of David Berman opinion as "a luxury, safe only in pleasant times when men can be tolerant because they are not deeply and vitally concerned." here has been a strong tendency Yet Lippmann finds "a much stronger Tamong historians, including the pre- foundation for the great constitutional sent writer, to see the debate between reli- right of freedom of speech," which is that gion and irreligion as one of conflict or "we must protect the right of our oppo- "warfare," especially as it developed in the nents to speak because we must hear what eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Yet they have to say." We don't tolerate the there is a more humane way of seeing it— freedom of our political opponents as we at least from the side of the unbeliever— tolerate "a howling baby next door," but namely as therapy. The idea that religion is "because freedom of discussion improves psychopathological is usually associated our own opinions, the liberties of other with the German radicals, especially with men are our own vital necessity." Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud. As an example, Lippmann recalls total- Thus for Feuerbach, God is an alienating itarian rulers who think they do not need projection of man's desires and fears; for the freedom of an opposition: "They exile, Marx, religion is not merely the "opium of imprison, or shoot their opponents," but the people" but also "a reversed world-con- then those in power "need to learn what the people are thinking" and send secret David Berman is Professor of Philosophy sciousness" that requires the narcotic rem- police among the crowd so they can at Trinity College, University of Dublin. edy; for Nietzsche, religion, at its core, is "remain in touch with public sentiment." This article is excerpted from his asceticism or disguised masochism; and So, "we have concluded on the basis of Introduction to Atheism in Britain, five for Freud, religion is social obsessional practical experience, which goes back to volumes of eighteenth and nineteenth neurosis, probably also a mass psychosis. Magna Carta and beyond, that we need century texts, recently published by What needs to be pointed out, how- the opposition. We pay the opposition Thoemmes Press, Bristol; distribution in ever, is that this approach was importantly salaries out of the public treasury." the U.S.A.: 22883 Quicksilver Drive, anticipated by Bentham and Grote in their Lippmann goes further. Beyond the Dulles, Virginia 2O166. Analysis of Natural Religion (1822),

16 FREE INQUIRY which may even have influenced some of Atheism in Britain, 1990). inevitably be resisted. As religion and the German radicals. For Bentham and However, there is more that should be neurosis did not arise rationally, so they Grote, religion is literally a mental illness said about the view of religion as mental are not likely to be eliminated by rational and for at least two reasons: (1) it is delu- illness in eighteenth and nineteenth-cen- means. As the Atheist could not safely sional, cutting off the believer from reality tury atheism. For convenience, I shall in avow or defend his atheism, so neither can and (2) it produces and works on gratu- what follows use the shorthand "Atheist" the Therapist usefully identify openly, or itous suffering. Religion is delusional, or "Atheism" to stand for the eighteenth directly attack, his client's pathology. they hold, because it is "extra-experimen- and nineteenth-century atheist (or athe- Either move would alert the censorship. tal" by which they mean that it "precludes ism). I shall also focus on psychoanalysis, For the Atheist it was literally a censor (or you from applying the process of refuta- as developed by Freud, as the form of the equivalent), backed up by the courts, tion, and thus from detecting any false- therapy by which to illuminate Atheism. that opposed his open irreligion and athe- hood whatever." As belief in God "cannot My main reason for using Psychoanalytic ism. According to some historians, cen- be founded on experience," so no empiri- "Therapy" or "Therapist" (for short), sorship was first developed by the cal evidence can either prove or disprove rather than one of its rival offshoots, is Inquisition to deal with objectionable His existence. Similarly, belief in divine that, not only did Freud see religion as a material on religious matters. design, a life after death, miracles, the neurosis or psychosis, but, as important, And where the press censorship was existence of witches, are all extra-experi- he saw psychological censorship as simi- justified on the grounds that atheism was mental. Yet to detach experience from lar to press censorship. blasphemous and would subvert the state, belief is to unhinge the mind, producing a My contribution here is to show how the psychic censorship views the patho- "thorough depravation of the intellect" or combining these two Freudian models— genic material as capable of subverting or "phrenzy." For no possible belief can be threatening the ego, because of its dis- rejected if extra-experimental belief is gusting or immoral character. And this accepted. "To him who believes in the "My contribution here is to show resistance by the censorship determines intervention of incomprehensible and how combining these two the course of the treatment by both the unlimited Beings, no story can appear Freudian models—religion as Atheist and the Therapist. So the incredible." pathology and censorship as Therapist works slowly and with tact. And Yet religion is not only delusive, it is psychology—something that this is also what we found above: the also "efficient only in the production of Freud himself nowhere does—can eighteenth-century works of atheism are needless and unprofitable misery." Thus give us a new and deeper view of strategically disguised and covert, with devotion to God is measured by the the history of atheism, enabling us many subversions, some almost too slight "amount and intensity of pain which you to see how the Atheist's treatment to notice. But as the Therapy proceeds, . .. gratuitously inflict upon yourself." of the religious illness involved more direct and powerful material comes Here Bentham and Grote list: fasting; subverting the censorship which out, provoking negative transference or celibacy; abstinence from repose; cleanli- was protecting the illness." hostility towards the Therapist; which is ness; gratuitous surrender of property, also what happened when Atheism time, labor, and honors. It is because reli- religion as pathology and censorship as became overt. Atheists, like Shelley and gion produces neurotic or unnecessary psychology—something that Freud him- Besant, were persecuted; those like suffering that Grote and Bentham, as good self nowhere does—can give us a new and Holyoake, Bradlaugh, Southwell, and Utilitarians, devoted a considerable deeper view of the history of atheism, Foote were imprisoned for blasphemy. amount of effort to destroying this irra- enabling us to see how the Atheist's treat- This is the stormy period in the history of tional, misery-causing "Jug" or Jugger- ment of the religious illness involved sub- atheism which showed that the earlier naut—which was their code name for reli- verting the censorship which was protect- self-censoring techniques of Collins and gion. ing the illness. For the Atheist and the Toland were not idle. Nor should the Analysis's approach to Therapist both have to deal with the same Another similarity in the two activities religion be regarded as sui generis. It is, obstacle: censorship, which they oppose is that Collins and most eighteenth-cen- for example, the concluding thesis in by the same basic principle. Freud calls it tury freethinkers published their works George Ensor's Jamus on Sion (1816), the "fundamental rule" that the patient anonymously, thus remaining opaque to where, citing one medical authority, Ensor must freely associate, a rule that has its their readers in much the same way that notes that "one eighth of the cases of clear historical counterpart in the principle the Therapist is meant to be an opaque insanity [at Bedlam] originated from a of free thought and free expression, which mirror to his patients, according to Freud. lively belief in Christianity." This Collins popularized in the Discourse of And as the Therapist often merely repeats approach also has its clear roots in the ear- Free-thinking (1713), where he argued that a word, phrase, or statement of his patient, lier British tradition of Shaftesbury, free thought is the sine qua non for arriv- so the Atheist often quotes from his reli- Collins, and especially Hume, who saw ing at truth in religious matters. gious opponents, although in both cases and opposed religion as pathological And yet Atheists, like Collins, and the aim of this apparently innocuous tech- under the (more acceptable) name of Therapists, like Freud, recognized that nique is to give the repeated material an superstition (see Berman, History of their demand for freedom of ideas would enhanced significance—by, for example, Spring 1997 17 emphasizing or italicizing a particular Matthew Tindal. In order to enforce my grant that there are two self-existing word or phrase. Collins uses this tech- claim, I want to consider other examples beings, namely matter and spirit, but this nique tactfully in the Discourse, as we here, where my approach will be the would also subvert creation. Indeed, it will see, in his insinuation of atheism; reverse of Freud's. For whereas he used will then be as plausible to hold that there Holyoake does it more aggressively in the idea of censorship to explain or illus- are any number of such beings—in effect, Paley Refuted (1851). trate unconscious mechanisms, I shall use a plurality of eternal, self-existing gods. his central idea of displacement to illumi- For if matter, which evidently exists, is he problem with a new model or anal- nate the self-censoring techniques of not sufficient, then why should just two ogy,, such as the combined Freudian Atheists. beings be sufficient? one that I am developing here, is in deter- Although Collin's Answer to Clarke Thus if we are to withstand pantheistic mining how widely it should be drawn. (1708) is mainly concerned with defend- materialism, On the one hand, and poly- The narrower it is taken, the less data it ing his materialist theory of mind, there is theism, on the other, we must, Collins con- can explain; but the wider an analogy an important discussion toward the end of tends, have some "Idea of the Creation of becomes the more it loses its grip on spe- the pamphlet whereby he presents his Matter ex nihilo." Having shown the cru- cific instances and concrete experiences— atheism by displacement. It occurs just cial importance of doing this, and the dire the more it becomes merely speculative or before the conclusion of the tract, in the consequences if we cannot, Collins then poetical, becomes language on holiday. I penultimate section (which freethinkers goes on to tell his reader that: suggest that Freud's account of religion as often reserved for esoteric communica- a social or communal neurosis is probably tion), where Collins casts an eye on to get an Idea of Creation, or a Conception how Matter might begin to sharper and more illuminating than the Clarke's Boyle Lectures of 1704, one of exist, "we must" (as the incomparable earlier accounts of Feuerbach, Marx, and the most influential eighteenth-century Mr. Locke [Essay book 4, chapter 10, Nietzsche, because Freud based his analy- proofs of the existence of God. Here section 18] with great modesty sis on detailed clinical experience. Freud is Clarke had inferred, according to Collins, expresses Himself) "emancipate our also cautious in making claims for his that because there exist "two beings of selves from vulgar Notions ... and then we may be able to aim at some dim and analogies, as we can see by comparing his different kinds" that God must have cre- seeming Conception, how Matter might account of the censorship analogy in the ated matter. Yet this need not follow, at first be made, and begin to exist by Interpretation of Dreams (1900) with that Collins claims, since perhaps neither cre- the Power of the Eternal First Being." in his later Introductory Lectures on ated the other, for both may have existed But as he [Locke] thought that "this Psychoanalysis (1915). from eternity. Hence creation ex nihilo is would lead him too far from the Notions, on which the Philosophy now In the earlier work, Freud stated that a problem for those like Clarke and the in the World is built," and that "it would "the phenomena of [press] censorship and other Boyle lecturers, who believe that the not be pardonable to deviate so far from of dream distortion correspond down to existence of God really is an important them"; so the small compass of this their smallest details ..." (1900); whereas question, "which otherwise [as Collins Treatise [the Answer] and the great in the later work, he is more restrictive, slyly notes] would be with few any labour of shewing the falshood of so many receiv'd Prejudices and Opinions arguing that press and dream censorship Question at all." Collins then ostenta- as is necessary to give an Idea of correspond in only two out of three tiously asserts that "out of the inclination Creation ex nihilo, must make it more important respects. That is, both forms of I have to see the Foundation of all pardonable in me (who own myself infi- censorship use (1) repression or expurga- Religion established on demonstration. nitely below him in Abilities) if I omit tion of material and (2) "softenings, ... I shall conclude this Debate with an for the present so useful a Design, or should leave it intirely to some of those approximations and allusions." But, as he Essay, showing a way how to demonstrate Gentlemen that are appointed annually then points out, "I know of no parallel in the existence of God." to preach at the Lecture founded by the the operations of the press-censorship to a In order to do this, and answer atheists, Honourable Robert Boyle. third manner of working by the dream- such as Spinoza—who has "endeavored censorship ... [that is] displacement of to reduce Atheism into a system"—it is This is a surprising conclusion. After accent." Displacement, as Freud else- necessary, Collins asserts, to "prove the promising a proof for the existence of a where says, involves a shift in the "central Creation of Matter ex nihilo; or which is god, Collins presents his readers with what point" In the "fresh grouping of material," all one, that matter is not a self-existent is, implicitly, an argument against the exis- either the essential elements appear as Being." For if it is self-existent, then "we tence of God. Collins's discussion offers a peripheral; or the psychical accent is Christians who believe in one self-exis- clear counterpart, I submit, to displace- shifted from an important element to tent Being, are obliged by our own rea- ment: the accent is confidently theistic, the another which is unimportant (1915). soning to allow Matter all possible real action and thrust is atheistic. Prima In fact, I think that Freud is being Perfections.... Because it is from the facie, he is a believer, "showing a way how unnecessarily cautious and restrictive Idea of self-existence, that we infer the to demonstrate the existence of God," here, and that there is a counterpart to dis- Perfections of God." In short, the theist's about which, in any case, there is really no placement in the work of the eighteenth- logic leads—once matter is allowed to be "question at all." Yet the logic of Collins's century freethinkers, as I have elsewhere a substance—to pantheistic materialism. discussion shows that he has produced a argued in detail in the case of Collins and Alternatively, Collins suggests, one might deadly serious argument for atheism.

18 FREE INQUIRY Of course, it might be said that Being; and Religion ... would be utterly placement—deliberately in order to prop- Collins's displacement is so undisguised lost"; whereas the second Prelate argues agate their irreligious view, without arous- that it is hardly a case of real displace- no less confidently that we do not have ing the suspicions of the censoring agen- ment; that, because his manifest meaning settled ideas of any of God's attributes. cies. is scarcely less apparent than his latent Collins's conclusion is that, since these I had previously quoted a number of point, his technique is rather like irony. eminent churchmen differ on such a fun- deliberately bungled statements from And there is some evidence for this claim; damental issue, we lay people have no Edward Gibbon's classic Decline and Fall thus one early reviewer of Collins's other rational choice but to think freely. of the Roman Empire, which, I tried to Answer described his discussion of the However, the submerged and indirect con- show, were unintentionally designed by creation of matter as "bare-faced clusion from these two statements of Gibbon to bring Christianity into disre- Atheism." Yet while Collins's atheistic Tillotson and King—which Collins does pute, not dramatically but by a series of intent was evident to that early reviewer, not, of course, draw—is that God is an little almost insensible moves. I men- and is clear to me, it has been missed unintelligible being and religion is lost. tioned too that printing errors were intro- and/or denied by nearly all scholars, most In displacing their irreligious ideas, duced into some books with the aim of notably by James O'Higgins in his schol- Atheists, like Collins, were consciously communicating subversive ideas, while arly Anthony Collins (The Hague, 1970); aiming to influence public opinion with- evading the censorship of the Inquisition hence it could not have been that apparent out letting the public be aware of it. In try- (1988). I think we can also see examples to most of Collins's contemporaries. ing to circumvent censorship they were, I of this tactic in the first edition of There is also considerable displacement suggest, consciously exploiting mecha- Collins's Discourse of Free-thinking, in Collins's Discourse of Free-thinking; nisms of the unconscious. The problem where in the "Errata" the reader is asked the most important, for our purpose, is they faced is similar to that of an uncon- to correct six (alleged) printing mistakes. where, as Berkeley notes, Collins "appears scious threatening idea or impulse that is Three of these were probably deliberate, to insinuate his atheism from the differing trying to find conscious expression but is the most important of which is: "P. 40, 1. notions of men concerning the nature and blocked by the psychic censor. Of course, 18 delete `If a Man be under an attributes of God...." Prima facie, how- such unconscious impulses do not deliber- Obligation to listen to any Revelation at ever, Collins's aim in this part of the ately try to circumvent the censor: their all"' (p. iv). By printing this in the list of Discourse is to defend the need to think operations are as unreflective as the tro- Errata—which face the first page of freely. To do so brings forward the oppos- pistic movements of plants. Yet they are text—Collins was, I believe, highlighting ing statements of various theologians—in still purposeful, as can be seen most eas- one of the main subversive questions of this instances that of two Archbishops, ily in the case of parapraxes. Thus forget- the Discourse: Is it necessary to believe John Tillotson of Canterbury, and William ting a friend's name may well reveal an any revelation? The erratum is like an epi- King of Dublin. The first asserts that if we unconscious antagonistic impulse towards graph: it straightaway puts the rejection of had "no . . . settled Notions of the that (supposed) friend. Similarly, I have biblical authority on the agenda, although, Goodness and Justice ... of God, [then] he argued elsewhere that the freethinkers, prima facie, it is withdrawing that as an would be altogether an unintelligible too, used parapraxes as they used dis- error. It is likely, too, that Collins's noto-

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Spring 1997 19

rious mistranslation of "idiotis evangelis- above, section 4) as well as those by covert and cautious that my deep interpre- tic" as idiot evangelists, which Richard Blount, Tolard, Hume, and others. After tations—as conscious offense mecha- Bentley "did not let him forget" was a denying that they are atheists, they present nisms aimed at unconsciously influencing deliberate error aimed at ridiculing the strong argument or evidence to support unwary readers—are likely to be evangelists (but one, in this instance, that the atheism they disavow. accepted, or at least entertained. For the appears to have gone wrong). And if this Of course, according to my adaptation main scholarly disagreement is about the is so, then several other translation "blun- of the Freudian model, Ensor, Radicati, extent or degree to which these free- ders" of a similar character are also likely and others were consciously using their thinkers were covert. Similarly in to have been deliberate. denials to arouse or insinuate unwelcome Therapy, it is assumed that the patient is Did Collins have these insidious aims ideas in such as way as to avoid censor- repressing significant material. Why else in his mistranslation and erratum? Here ship. In the case of Freudian Therapy, the would he be in Therapy? Where Atheism the reaction may be that I am reading too unwelcome ideas arise unconsciously in is clearly different from Therapy is that it much into his slips. Certainly, few critics the analysand (perhaps by way of free casts the Atheistic therapist in the active are likely to say that—like the displace- association) and are allowed to become role: he consciously uses techniques like ment quoted above—Collins's slips are conscious because they are being denied negation, displacement, and parapraxes to transparent or ironic. And yet freethinkers or negated. Ensor and the Atheists do all evade the censor with the aim of subvert- did slip deliberately, as can be clearly the work: they exhibit the unwelcome ing the religious illness. Whereas in shown in Ensor's Janus on Sion. I quoted idea already clothed in (protective) nega- Freudian Therapy, it is the patient who is a few of these in an earlier paper; here is tion. For them, negation is not a defence active: he speaks, thereby enabling his another, where Ensor warns his reader: mechanism; it is an offence mechanism. unconscious to express itself through "Let it not be supposed however that I Nor am I saying that all apparent slips, negation, displacement, and parapraxes, compare the ethnic tales [of the Egyptians] denials, and displacements in eighteenth to which the analyst listens. However, with sacred relation in Genesis; for though or nineteenth-century books on religion perhaps we are now in a position, after the Jewish narrative is as extravagant as should be read as I have read those of two or three centuries, to hear what the the accounts of the origin and infancy of Collins, Gibbon, and Ensor. It is because Atheist was trying to say and do with other nations it is verity itself; while they scholars agree that these freethinkers were words. • are miserable fictions." Surely the word extravagant here is a slip or mistake for something like extraordinary, and that Announcing the new Ensor slipped deliberately to enforce or activate thereby a skeptical attitude towards the Bible. FREE INQUIRY What we have in the above instances from Ensor and Collins is, typically for parapraxes, a compromise formation— Fifteen-Year between fear of a punitive censor and a desire to vent the truth openly. Ensor's statement also exhibits another formation Index of the unconscious—negation, about Includes title, author, and subject which Freud observes that it "is a way of index for volumes 1-15. taking cognizance of what is repressed"; so that "the content of a repressed image or idea can make its way into conscious- $14.95 plus $3.00 shipping and handling. ness, on condition that it is negated." Thus, mutatis mutandis, Ensor is able to introduce his subversive opinion of ❑ Visa ❑ MasterCard ❑ Check ❑ Money Order Genesis—that its tales are no different # Exp. Sig from those of other nations—by negating it. About a similar mechanism, Freud says Name that it is a "common type of reaction to repressed material which has become con- Address Daytime Phone scious: the 'no' with which the fact is first City State Zip denied is immediately followed by a confirmation of it, though, to begin with, only Mail to: FREE INQUIRY, PO Box 664, Amherst, N.Y. 14226 an indirect one." This is what we find in Ensor and also, I have argued, in Or use Visa or MasterCard and call toll free 1-800-458-1366 Radicati's denial of atheism (quoted 20 FREE INQUIRY are to continue to grow, must make the improvement of their inquirential skills a Inquiry: A Core Concept part of a program of life-long learning. The goal of successful inquiry is for Dewey more than a simple return to the of John Dewey's Philosophy prior status quo. Successful inquiry results in growth, and in the enrichment of the meanings of our experiences. Larry Hickman Unfortunately, however, we are often tempted to resolve problematic situations nquiry was one of the core concepts of in ways that stymie growth rather than IJohn Dewey's philosophy. A search of promoting it. Sometimes we regress to the new CD-ROM edition of Dewey's prior habits that involve what Dewey Collected Works reveals that he used the termed "parasitism, chronic fixations, term well over 2,000 times during his sev- abandonment of `higher habits,' [or] enty-year writing career, which ended accommodation to a less heterogeneous with his death in 1952. environment" (MW15:249). Dewey In books that he addressed primarily to thought that economic, political, and reli- teachers, such as How We Think (1910), gious experiences are particularly prone Dewey stressed the importance of inquiry to such lapses of experimental thought. in the education of young children. He Dewey contrasted disciplined experi- argued that children learn by doing things mental inquiry to other methods that have and trying ideas out, and not merely by historically proven to be of less value in the memorizing lessons and repeating them "Successful inquiry results in settlement of belief, such as luck, tenacity, back to their teachers. (Consequently, he growth, and in the enrichment of authority, and appeals to whatever seems a would probably have been less than the meanings of our experiences." priori "reasonable." The problem with enthusiastic about a current best-selling such methods is that whenever they are book which assumes that children learn to that resolution, or what he called "adjust- employed inquiry is cut short and intelli- be moral by reading about "the virtues.") ment," usually requires a mix of both alter- gence invariably suffers. Luck is not repro- In books that he addressed primarily to ation and accommodation. In any case, a ducible; tenacity lacks a social dimension; philosophers, such as Logic: The Theory problematic situation must be analyzed so authority discourages individual effort; and of Inquiry (1938), Dewey discussed the as to identify which of its elements are rel- appeals to a priori "reasonableness" technical aspects of inquiry. It was in this evant to the problem at hand, and then exclude experimentation. Reading this the work, in fact, that he gave us his most suc- those elements must be reconstructed so as other way around, we can see that for cinct definition of the term. "Inquiry" he to restore harmony and balance. Dewey inquiry is experimental; it requires wrote, "is the controlled or directed trans- Once we take note of a problematic sit- individual effort; it is situated in a social formation of an indeterminate situation uation, therefore, there is still a great deal context; and it is the best way so far into one that is so determinate in its con- that remains to be done. We must decide devised to secure what we determine to be stituent distinctions and relations as to precisely what problem is most pressing, the good things of life. Unlike all its alter- convert the elements of the original situa- develop proposals for its solution, deter- natives, inquiry is self-correcting. tion into a unified whole" (LW12:109).` mine which tools we will need to test our Finally, even though inquiry is objec- Dewey thought that inquiry is called for proposals, and then test them against the tive, it is not cold-blooded. Because both whenever we sense that something is inde- conditions that initiated the inquiry in the problems and resolutions are felt, some- terminate or out of balance. Such situations first place. Sometimes matters are even times profoundly so, inquiry has a rich may range from the trivial to the life- more complicated: as we go through this aesthetic dimension. Inquiry is conse- threatening. It is important to note, how- process we often change our minds about quently a feature of the arts as well as the ever, that Dewey avoided subjectivism: it what Dewey calls our "ends-in-view" and sciences. And the most general and con- is the whole experienced situation, and not about what types of tools are required to sistent exercise of the method of inquiry is just the experiencing subject, that is prob- achieve them. what Dewey termed "intelligence." lematic. We do not know in advance Dewey thought that inquiry is an whether we will need to alter things that observable behavioral process that is as Note are external relative to us, or accommodate natural as walking or chewing. He there- 1. Standard references to John Dewey's work are to the critical edition, The Collected Works of John ourselves to them. In fact Dewey thought fore rejected the idea that it is something Dewey, 1882-1953, edited by Jo Ann Boydston mysterious that goes on "inside the head." (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois Larry Hickman is Director of The Center Even so, training in the techniques of University Press, 1969-1991), and published as The Early Works (EW), The Middle Works (MW), and The for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois inquiry should be a part of the education Later Works (LW). These designations are followed University at Carbondale. of young children. And adults, too, if they by volume and page number.

Spring 1997 21 again, because, after free inquiry into its truth, it always proved itself reliable. A then-popular bumper sticker with Freely Ye Have Inquired? Christians read, "God said it, I believe it, that settles it." At that point I became absolutely gullible. Now, any skillful Skipp Porteous preacher or cult leader could use the Bible to convince me of practically anything. n 1966, I enrolled as a ministerial stu- Bible. In fact, Indeed, that's exactly what happened. Ident at LIFE Bible College in Los he said, it Within a few years I became involved in Angeles. LIFE is an acronym for Light- could be that some of the most extreme Christian fringe house of International Foursquare each of the groups. Convinced that we were living in Evangelism, an outreach of the Pentecostal six days God the very end of time, many in our group church started by the late Aimee Semple took to create sold or gave away all that they owned and McPherson. A handful Of FREE INQUIRY the cosmos moved to northern Canada or South readers are old enough to remember her. represented America to await the Lord's return. The Aimee died in 1944, the year I was born; ages, and not Canadian faction, which, by the way, de- but I doubt the two occurrences are related. actual days. spised Christmas because of its pagan ori- Attending LIFE was truly an exciting Of course, gins, sold Christmas trees to earn a living. prospect for me. I had recently "come back there were Years later, it dawned upon me what to the Lord" after a few delightful back- good arguments to oppose that theory too. really went on at Bible school, and how it slidden years. Now I was ready to put the Concerning other Bible stories, our affected my way of thinking. Rather than sins of the flesh behind me and get down to teacher explained how it appeared that the engaging in free inquiry, the Scriptures some serious study about eternal matters. sun stood still, how Moses parted the Red were manipulated to make them always In the beginning, I had some sincere Sea, and how a conjunction of Jupiter and true, and any opposing views false. doubts about the authenticity of the Bible. another planet looked like a single star This was deliberately done to inculcate Sure, it was a good book for instruction on that guided the Wise Men. us to follow the doctrines of Christianity Christian living, but surely it contained While the school strictly maintained without question. While we thought we inaccuracies. that Jesus was actually fathered by the were engaging in free inquiry, it was pure One of the first things that impressed Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, I learned deception. The teachers who taught us had me at Bible college (I realize the use of for the first time about the possibility of a learned in the same way, so they didn't the word college along with Bible sounds virgin getting pregnant through heavy pet- know they had been deceived, and that contrived, but that's what they called it) ting and limited sexual contact. now they were the deceivers. was the openness to discuss controversial We were taught that the Scriptures Today, however, there is still one Bible subjects. Evolution, for example, was were "God-breathed" or, in other words, lesson I retain and use in my debates with examined in great detail. We carefully divinely inspired. This concept, though, religious political extremists. In a class on considered what the mainstream scientists referred only to the original text as penned pastoral theology, a student asked, "When had to say, and then compared it with our in the original languages. Many of the does life begin?" Our teacher had us duti- biblical beliefs. supposed errors in the English Bible were fully turn to the Book of Genesis where No matter how well-crafted the scien- simply explained away as a mistranslation we read, "And the Lord God formed man tific argument was, in our classes the from Greek or Hebrew to English. of the dust of the ground, and breathed Bible always came out on top, with cre- Our study of the Bible and Christian into his nostrils the breath of life; and man ationism winning every debate. But, at doctrine was conducted in a controlled became a living soul." least we freely inquired about the subject. environment. Never did a teacher say, "Go So, the teacher concluded, a person Or did we? At the time, I thought we did. to the public library and read everything becomes truly human when taking the For instance, most Christian fundamen- you can find on Jesus and the Bible." first breath of life, which is always after talists believe the Earth is less than 10,000 In our classes, regardless of what bibli- birth. years old. How could this be when the cal story or doctrine we examined, I Several years later, in Roe v. Wade, the mass of scientific evidence says otherwise? learned that the Bible always had the cor- Supreme Court legalized abortion. After Our Bible teacher offered a plausible rect answer. Finally, I got to the place the radical religious right realized the explanation. The Bible doesn't actually say where I no longer questioned the sound- political and financial potential of this the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, thus ness of the Bible, because, in my limited decision, the movement rallied around the there is no conflict between science and the amount of study—under the tutelage of "pro-life" banner, declaring abortion as supposedly learned professors—the Bible murder of the unborn. Nevertheless, this Skipp Porteous is Director of the Institute was always faithful. flies in the face of what we were taught at for First Amendment Studies in Great I still remember the day when I LIFE Bible College. So, I guess it's true, Barrington, Massachusetts. decided not to ever question the Bible you can prove anything with the Bible. •

22 FREE INQUIRY others are your children. The belief that it should be possible to prevent a child from Family Friendly Libraries reading science, medical information, or competing religious views is patently absurd. If a parent wishes to thus restrict a child, handcuffing him or her to a bedpost Robert Riehemann will do as nicely. Yet, during the meeting, it was pointed out that the kind of restric- ecall your childhood. Imagine trying tions envisioned by FFL could prevent a RRto check out a book from your local "lt is certainly valid for any group child's access to books by or about library on the big bang or evolution. of people to organize and Bertrand Russell, Thomas Aquinas, Suppose that you were told that a parent approach their locally controlled Martin Luther, and Muhammad or infor- would have to check it out for you library with issues of concern. Yet mation about the big bang or evolution. because it was from the adult section. there are limits to the restriction This could be motivated by the parent's (Say it was The Eyewitness Visual Dic- of the rights of others, even if religious views only. Gounaud remarked tionary of the Universe by Dorling those others are your children." that such things are best left to the discre- Kindersley Limited or Fossils Tell of Long tion of parents. She emphasized after the Ago by Aliki.) It might even be necessary republic is thus torn! meeting that "anything goes" regarding to read from these books to complete a This speaker even suggested during restrictions by parents. Is this true? science homework assignment. Would lunch that such problems arose because your rights as a child and library patron homosexuals have occupied high places A s an intellectual giant among the have been violated? Not according to the in the library power structure. I was left ounding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson Attorney General of the State of Alabama, with the impression that homosexuals dealt with issues in almost every field. Jimmy Evans. The forms that are used to should be barred from such positions. Censorship was one of them. In the early permit such restrictions in the White (And while we are making homosexuals part of the nineteenth century, he bought a Smith Library of Alabama are before me. second-class citizens, perhaps we could volume by de Becourt entitled "Sur la They were sent to me after I attended the do something about the Jews, atheists, and Creation du Monde, un Systeme inaugural meeting for Family Friendly mentally impaired. I believe there is some d'Organisation Primitive." Interestingly, Libraries (FFL) in October 1995. historical precedent in Germany.) this volume instigated a criminal inquiry Ostensibly, this group is motivated by It is certainly valid for any group of as an offense against religion. In a letter to concerns over the sexual content of mater- people to organize and approach their his bookseller, N. G. Dufief, Jefferson ial available to minors. In particular, locally controlled library with issues of expressed his mortification that such a President Karen Jo Gounaud has described concern. Yet there are limits to the restric- thing could happen in the United States of material that is favorable to homosexuals tion of the rights of others, even if those America. He went on to say: as philosophically radical and not family friendly. Since I know that my extended family includes practicing homosexuals, I would like to see my children understand something of this lifestyle to permit them to include and welcome these members into their family. So I don't really see Gounaud's point. Yet the FFL inaugural meeting included a speaker whose only topic was the infiltration of homosexuals into the card catalogue. Indeed, now there are ways to obtain information about homosexuals without passing through the evaluative comments of "sexual perver- sion" or "sexual deviation." What a broad- side to morality, the very fabric of the

Robert Riehemann is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Mathe- matics at Thomas More College and a systems specialist at Cincinnati Bell Information Systems. He taught astronomy at Camp Quest '96.

Spring 1997 23 Is this then our freedom of religion? And Library Association in Lexington, restricted access list. Rather she would are we to have a censor whose impri- Kentucky. On request, she sent about 175 argue that they represent local community matur shall say what books may be sold, pages of material about FFL and the issues values. In this way, Gounaud would do the and what we may buy? And who is thus thinking for my children. Frankly, I would to dogmatize religious opinions for our involved. Most of this is naturally derived citizens? Whose foot is to be the mea- from the religious right since it was from rather see them think for themselves. sure to which ours are all to be cut or such groups that she obtained the seed stretched? Is a priest to be our inquisitor, money to create her organization. She Notes or shall a layman, simple as ourselves, included a two-page list of creation science set up his reason as the rule for what we 1.To Monsieur N. G. Dufief April 19, 1814, are to read, and what we must believe? It resources and about twelve pages of adver- from The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas is an insult to our citizens to question tisements for children's books promoting Jefferson edited by Adrienne Koch and William whether they are rational beings or not, Christian lifestyles. Her literature makes Peden, Random House, New York 1993. "Israel's" Demons, by Amos Elon, The New and blasphemy against religion to sup- 2. me doubt very much that she would rec- York Review of Books, vol. XLII, no. 20, p. 46, pose it cannot stand the test of truth and ommend that these books be placed on a December 21, 1995. • reason. If M. de Becourt's book be false in its facts, disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But, for God's sake, let us freely hear both sides, if we choose...:" A Humanist's Doubts About I wonder if such sentiments should apply to children in libraries. The alternative the Information Revolution seems to be the public funding of religiously motivated censorship, a fearful prospect. Recall that the assassination of Yitzak Mario Bunge Rabin was religiously motivated and evidently supported by rabbinical interpreta- ecular humanism is widely believed to tions of the Jewish religious laws known Sbe a purely negative doctrine that boils as halacha. It is not unreasonable, in my down to the denial of the supernatural. view, to believe that restricted reading and This is not so, as any fair sampling of the participation in a closed and segregated humanist literature will show (see, e.g., social group can contribute greatly to such Kurtz, ed. 1973; Storer, ed. 1980; Lamont a disaster. And this is exactly what the 1982; Kurtz 1988; Bunge 1989). Indeed, FFL permits: the policing of reading mat- secular humanism is a positive worldview ter by parents through the agency of the that may be summarized as follows. library. It should be stopped. An article on the Rabin assassination Mario Bunge, a former professor of theo- in the New York Review of Books by Amos retical physics in both his native Argen- Elon lends support to this idea. It details tina and the United States, has been a pro- the extremist circles that the self-con- fessor of philosophy at McGill University, fessed assassin traveled and also the nar- Montreal, for the past thirty years. He has row interpretation of halacha that "justi- written more than four hundred papers fied" the murder. Elon then quotes a and thirty-five books on physics, philoso- member of the National Religious Party phy of science, ontology, semantics, of Israel who publicly observed that, "It is ethics, systems theory, science policy, etc. an undeniable fact that nearly all violent His latest book is Finding Philosophy in right-wing extremists in Israel today are Social Science (Yale University Press, wearing skullcaps and are graduates of 1996), and his book with the biologist and In my view, secular humanism is com- religious educational institutions. We fellow humanist Martin Mahner, Founda- posed of five main theses. Cosmological: must ask ourselves where we have gone tions of Biophilosophy, is about to be Whatever exists is either natural or a wrong."2 Let's not permit the further seg- published by Springer. Bunge is a product of human manual or mental work. regation of religious fundamentalists in Laureate of the Academy of Humanism. Epistemological: It is possible and desir- the United States through the agency of He holds eight honorary doctorates and is able to find out the truth about the world the FFL. We are one nation and to stay the recipient of the Prince of Asturias and ourselves with the sole help of expe- that way, we need a free and open society prize in humanities and communication. rience, reason, imagination, criticism, and with free libraries. This article was first presented as a paper action. Moral: We should seek salvation In late 1996, Karen Jo Gounaud spoke to the recent World Humanist Congress in in this world, the only real one, through to the southeastern section of the American Mexico City. work rather than prayer, and we should

24 FREE INQUIRY enjoy living, as well as trying to help oth- oppressed, or the materialist and scientis- progressive, secularist and regressive, ers live instead of damning them. Social: tic professor who leads a sheltered life in religious and progressive, and religious Liberty, equality, and fraternity. Political: a peaceful country? I hope to be at the and regressive. While defending the freedom from and to height of the Reverend Ellacuría, attained religious worship and political allegiance, in spite of having taught an obscurantist Humanists Face the we should work for the attainment or philosophy, so that, on the day of the Information Revolution maintenance of a secular state and a fully Humanist Final Judgment, I will be for- democratic social order. given for not having risked my life fight- hat has all that got to do with the Not all humanists assign the same ing for human rights. Winformation revolution that is value to all five components. Typically, Second example: the late Ayn Rand, a changing everyday life in the industrialized whereas some humanists stress the intel- well-known novelist, home-spun philoso- countries? Much, because the humanist, lectual components, others emphasize the pher, and neoliberal ideologue, was an whether secular or religious, has something social ones. Which is just as well, for it is outspoken if shallow atheist, rationalist, to say about technological innovations, evidence that, far from being a sect or and materialist. But I submit that she was since some of these are beneficial, others party, secular humanism is a wide not a humanist because she preached noxious, and still others either ambivalent umbrella covering social activists as well "rational egoism" along with "savage cap- or indifferent. I have just suggested a thesis as freethinkers. italism"; moreover, she was a fascist sym- that will be rejected by technophiles as pathizer about whom Mussolini had a well as technophobes. The thesis is that Religious Humanism and movie made in the late 1930s. Secular technology, unlike basic science but like Antisocial Freethinking humanism teaches not only naturalism: it ideology, is not always morally neutral and therefore socially impartial. he humanist worldview is acceptable It is obvious that there are beneficial in part to believers in the supernat- "In particular, computers neither technologies, such as the ones used in the ural, as long as they are tolerant of non- explore the external world nor manufacture of kitchen utensils and effi- believers, and are willing to do something invent theories capable of cient pharmaceuticals. It is equally evi- to improve the state of the world. On the explaining or predicting any facts. dent that there are maleficent technolo- other hand, I refuse to call "humanist" an Hence, they displace neither the gies, such as those of mass murder and the atheist who could not care less for his fel- explorer nor the inventor. Nor do manipulation of public opinion. There are low humans. Let me give a couple of they replace the competent and also double-edged technologies, such as examples. dedicated teacher capable of stim- those employed in the manufacture of Some years ago, I shared a summer ulating curiosity and transmitting television sets, the organization of firms, course with the Jesuit philosopher Ignacio enthusiasm for learning.... Last, or the design of legal codes or public poli- Ellacuría. He taught the Catholic and but not least, no electronic device cies. Indeed, television may entertain and unscientific philosophy of his fellow is capable of autonomous moral educate, or it may habituate us to violence Basque, Xavier Zubiri, whereas I taught judgment. And this point is of and vulgarity. The legal craft can defend my own materialist scientific philosophy. particular interest to humanism, or condemn the innocent. And a public Knowing each other's views, we hardly whether secular or religious." policy may benefit the rich or the poor, spoke to one another until I was informed everyone or no one. that he was the rector of the Universidad also endorses the wise slogan of the Because technology is rarely neutral, it de El Salvador, a well-known center of French Revolution: Liberté, égalité, fra- is only natural that most people are either resistance against the savage military dic- ternité. These three values hang together technophiles or technophobes. However, tatorship that ruled the Republic of El like the sides of a triangle. Indeed, liberty most technophobes have no qualms using Salvador at the time. He spoke to me, with is only possible among equals; equality high-tech artifacts, and some technophiles a passion that amazed and moved me, of can exist only where there is freedom to worship technologies they do not under- the suffering of the campesinos and the fight for it; and every social system stand. An example of inconsistent techno- unselfishness and heroism of the guer- requires a modicum of solidarity. phobia is the existentialist who writes his rilleros. A couple of years later, Ellacuría, In conclusion, there are two kinds of nonsense on a word processor. And a case and five of his colleagues—among them a humanism: secular and religious. True, of blind technophily is that of the bedouin well-known social psychologist—were the latter is only half-humanistic, for it is whom my friend Dan Seni caught in the murdered by a death squad in the service centered in imaginary superhuman indi- act of kneeling before a computer—the of the dozen families that own the best viduals. But both kinds of humanism Westerner's newest deity. land of the country and control its govern- share a capital principle: that of solidarity, Information technology is an ambiva- ment. He and his fellow martyrs were reli- which in turn presupposes that we are all lent technology, because it concerns only gious humanists. Who is more entitled to basically equal, deserving equally to the processing and transmission of mes- a place in the humanist pantheon: the enjoy life, and equally obliged to help oth- sages, not their content or meaning. An priest and spiritualist philosopher who ers. Hence, with regard to humanism there information net may diffuse knowledge or died fighting for the poor and the are four kinds of people: secularist and propaganda, poems or insults, calls to Spring 1997 25 compassion or to violence. Because of tion. But information or message is not In fact, the problem of a worker in today's this ambivalence, humanists have some- the same as knowledge. Martin Heideg- knowledge industry is not the scarcity but thing to say about the information revolu- ger's sentences "The world worlds," the excess of information. The same holds tion: we have to find out what is good and "Language speaks," and "Time is the for professionals: just think of a physician what is bad about the information revolu- ripening of temporality," convey no or an executive, constantly bombarded by tion, as well as what is true and what is knowledge at all: they are empty strings information that is at best irrelevant. In false about the strident info hype. of symbols. And original research does order to learn anything we need time. And not consist in retrieving or even process- to make time we must use information fil- Information and Knowledge ing information, but in formulating new ters allowing us to ignore most of the problems and trying to solve them. information aimed at us. We must ignore he enormous role that information Computers are certainly helping find much to learn a little. And to craft such fil- Tplays in industrial societies has given new knowledge, but they cannot replace ters we need a naturalistic, comprehen- rise to the myth that the universe is made living brains. This is so only because sive, deep, and up-to-date worldview. of bits rather than matter. An instant's computers are designed and built by peo- Secular humanism should help here. reflection suffices to puncture this idealist ple to help solve problems, not to find or In sum, the new information artifacts fancy. In fact, an information system, such invent them. And problems happen to be facilitate the processing and communica- as the Internet, is composed by human the fountains of research. Moreover, a tion of knowledge but do not produce it. beings (or automata) that operate artifacts computer program can only tackle well- In particular, computers neither explore such as coders, signals, transmitters, the external world nor invent theories receivers, and decoders. These are all capable of explaining or predicting any material things or processes in them. Not "Blind technophily is just as silly facts. Hence, they displace neither the even signals are immaterial: in fact, every and dangerous as blank explorer nor the inventor. Nor do they signal rides on some material process, technophobia. For this reason replace the competent and dedicated such as a radio wave. humanists should advocate a teacher capable of stimulating curiosity In other words, it is not true that the symbiosis of technology and transmitting enthusiasm for learning. world is immaterial or in the process of with humanism." A good teacher can help shape an inquisi- dematerialization—or, as some popular ANN tive and creative brain. On the other hand, authors put it, that bits are replacing posed problems with the help of an algo- the most an electronic device can do is to atoms. We eat atoms, not bits. And when rithm. It is helpless in the face of an ill- supply some valuable information. A we get sick we call a physician, not an posed problem, or a well-posed problem powerful algorithm can help solve prob- electronic engineer. What is true is that E- for which no algorithm is known (or for lems of a particular kind far quicker than mail is replacing "snail-mail." But both which it is known that no algorithm is a legion of living brains, but it is not a the electromagnetic signal that propagates possible). In particular, there can be no multi-purpose organ like a normal brain. along a net and the letter carried by a algorithms for designing algorithms. In It is not insightful and creative, or even mailman are concrete items. The informa- general, there are no rules for inventing critical: it must accept obediently almost tion revolution is a huge technological new ideas. Only a living brain, and a well- anything it is fed. Last, but not least, no innovation with a strong social impact, appointed one at that, can invent radically electronic device is capable of but it does not require any changes in new ideas, in particular analogies and autonomous moral judgment. And this worldview: today's world is just as mate- high-level principles. Computers can only point is of particular interest to humanism, rial and changeable as yesterday's. combine or unpack known ideas, and even whether secular or religious. We laugh at the superstitious bedouin so provided they are supplied with the of my friend Dan's story, but forget that suitable rules of combination or inference. The Information Highway similar characters are at the helm of many Furthermore, computers work to rule a modern organization. What else is the in all senses of the word. They are neither he Internet is daily making more con- politician or civil servant who proposes to curious nor imaginative; they neither cut Tverts than political parties and swamp schools with computers, instead of corners nor understand metaphors; and churches, including Islam. The fervor of recycling teachers and motivating stu- they can neither craft projects nor evalu- some of its users is such that there is dents, upgrading labs and workshops, ate plans or findings. For a word proces- already talk of "infoaddiction" (or stocking libraries, and updating curricula? sor, the sentences "Dog bites man" and "webalcoholism") on a par with drug What if not a superstitious bedouin is the "Man bites dog" have the same value, addiction. Dr. Kimberly Young, a administrator who prioritizes the research since they have the same number of bits. researcher with the University of projects involving use of computers Likewise it is incapable of ranking Pittsburgh, has examined 400 Internet regardless of the importance and the orig- research projects; consequently it may addicts. She found that they spend as inality of research problems? lend its alleged authority to any wrong- many hours sitting in front of the screen All these modern bedouins equate headed project. as at work, and that they isolate them- information with knowledge, and research We all would like to know more and, at selves from their relatives and friends. with information or diffusion of informa- the same time, to receive less information. Besides, when deprived of access to the

26 FREE INQUIRY Net, they exhibit a withdrawal syndrome tion is replacing money as the universal use Internet to look for employment or similar to that experienced by drug means of exchange. Is this true? Only friendship, or at least to kill time. But, of addicts. minimally. To begin with, the E-network course, they cannot afford it. Fortunately such addicts are and will draws no difference between legal tender always constitute a small minority, and and counterfeit. Information technology Virtual Society? this for two reasons: restricted usefulness deals exclusively with information, and excessive cost. The former is that the regardless of relevance and value, truth new utopia was born in the mid- vast majority of the tasks we accomplish and right. This is why there are such A1980s: that of the electronic or vir- in daily life do not require the use of com- things as information overload and infor- tual society. This was to be a society in puters: think of learning to walk and mation swindle. which face-to-face human relations would respect other people, showering and get- You can publish anything you like in be replaced with screen-to-screen com- ting dressed, cooking a meal and hammer- your home page. There are no gatekeep- munication. We would all move from ing a nail, greeting the neighbor and imag- ers here because there are no standards physical space to the cyberspace. People ining a scene, playing ball and attending a and because the decision to publish is left would stop meeting in homes, coffee party. The second reason that the Internet to the user, without discussion with peers. houses, or town halls. Offices would work is and will remain an elite tool is that Anarchy in the net is total: anything goes, without paper. Classrooms, laboratories, access to it involves an expenditure fact or fancy, meaningful message or and workshops would become computer greater than the yearly income of most gobbledygook, stray item or system, rooms. Libraries would disappear. Sports people in the Third World—where four jewel or garbage. Because of such would be displaced by computer games. out of five people happen to live. extreme freedom of expression, the Not even cities would be left. Money However, undoubtedly the lives of an Internet will never displace refereed aca- would disappear, and all shopping would increasing number of people in the First demic journals and books. be done via the net. Maybe even family World revolve around the information relations would pass through the screen. network. Some of them do not feel alive For example, spouses would communi- "The information revolution is a unless they send at least ten E-mails a day, cate with one another through computers, huge technological innovation and do not spend some hours surfing and and virtual love would displace carnal with a strong social impact, but it updating their home page. How to explain love. Is any of this consistent with what does not require any changes in this new fad? There are six main motives. we know about the human need for phys- woridview: today's world is just as First, the Net procures a huge quantity of ical contact and face-to-face dialogue? material and changeable as information at low price: it is the most It has also been prophesied that the yesterday's." universal and cheapest of encyclopedias. generalized use of computers will abolish Second, using the Net confers prestige, it poverty and that the Internet will perfect is chic and a sign of youthfulness: those Nor is screen watching as inspiring as democracy—again, because only infor- out of it are rustics or fossils. Third, surf- reading. Even a high priest of the newest mation counts, and information is now ing is more comfortable than visiting cult admits that "Interactive multimedia universally available. But this is illusory. museums, attending concerts, plays, or leaves very little to the imagination [...] First, people with access to the Internet lectures, browsing libraries, traveling, or By contrast, the written word sparks will always constitute a tiny minority: teaching one's children. Fourth, anyone images and evokes metaphors that get information, even when worthless, is far can produce his or her own home page to much of their meaning from the reader's from free. Second, the rational debate that exhibit his wisdom or sense of humor, or imagination and experiences" (Negro- can be had in a well-moderated assembly else to relieve himself or herself or bore ponte 1996:8). is difficult through a medium where with impunity. Fifth, networking allows In short, the information highway leads everyone says what and when he or she- anyone to make a large number of to no definite place. Travelling along it one wants, without commitment to make con- acquaintances overnight and without may learn almost anything except skills cessions or bargains, or arrive at definite commitment. Sixth, the Net is a refuge and good habits; one may communicate conclusions. Third, the diffusion of arti- from job problems and domestic worries. with other members of the elite; and, above facts demanding special skills and com- Compulsive networking, like obses- all, one may escape for a while the petty paratively large expenditures increases sive television watching, is an electronic miseries of everyday life—by dint of load- social inequality. surrogate of religious worship. "Our Net ing them on to other people. But for the Plugging into the Internet enhances the in cyberspace, hallowed be Your name. great majority of people it does not meet power of those who wield real power, and Your kingdom come. Your will be done on any basic needs, for most of us do not work induces only a delusion of power in those earth as it is in Cyberspace. Give us this in the knowledge industry. Moreover, the devoid of real power—the ability to day our daily bits." global net will always remain inaccessible change other people's behavior even The info zealots assure us that the info to those most in need of it: the shipwrecks against their will. A further polarization, highway is leading a more equal, cohe- of society, that is, the people without rela- that between the plugged and the sive, democratic, and better-educated tives, friends, or connections, particularly unplugged, adds to the earlier polariza- society. The reason given is that informa- the jobless and the homeless. They could tions—those between haves and have-

Spring 1997 27 riots, white and dark, believers and infi- Internet zealot. "Let's go for a walk, dar- prudence in their use. Knowing as we do dels, etc. Thus, the information revolution ling." "Sorry, I am answering an E-letter." that social issues do not go away by step- further disempowers rather than empow- Later: "Shall we go to the theater?" "Are ping into virtual reality, we urge that they ers the underdog. Hence, it is false that the you mad? Can't you see that I am reading remain in the political agenda. And information revolution is enhancing eco- my E-mail?" Somewhat later: "Kitty needs because we know that information is at nomic democracy (see Menzies 1995). your help with her homework." "Sorry, I'm best a means to learning and at worst an The idea underlying the cybersociety surfing, and have just found a new exciting obstacle to it, we should prevent the dis- utopia is that communication is the only, home page. Tell Kitty to search the Internet placement of debates, labs, workshops, or at least the main, and gyms by com- social bond. This puter work. Let us myth was born in the distribute stickers 1960s. For example, to be placed on all Karl Deutsch (1966), computer terminals: a distinguished so- "This product is cial scientist, defined addictive and likely a people as a body of to weaken human individuals able to bonds, as well as to communicate with blunt imagination one another over and criticism. Dose long distances and it with intelligence, about a variety of moderation, and subjects. Likewise, social responsibil- the German sociolo- ity." gist Niklas Luhmann Blind techno- (1984), who strongly phily is just as silly influenced Jürgen and dangerous as Habermas's "theory blank technopho- of communicative bia. For this reason action," holds that humanists should social systems con- advocate a symbio- sist of communications and nothing but for the info she needs." Information has sis of technology with humanism. In communications. But if this were true then displaced formation. And your face does short: all the mail, telephone, and E-mail users not shine as brightly as my screen. would constitute a people. For better or for In short, the virtual or electronic soci- Humanism — Technology = Social worse a people is united by a variety of ety is just as impossible as Italo Calvino's Stagnation, bonds: communication is only one of imaginary cities. Still, our real societies Technology — Humanism = Social them. Moreover, communicating does not are being threatened by the electronic fun- Deterioration replace farming, manufacturing, trading, damentalists. Technology + Humanism = Social soldiering, or investigating. If anything, Progress global communication contributes, albeit Concluding Remarks minimally, to weaken the frontiers among References peoples. ecular humanists do not oppose all Bunge, Mario. 1989. Treatise on Basic Philosophy, Clifford Stoll, an astronomer, the 1.3 technological advancement. We ap- Vol. 8: Ethics. Boston: Kluwer. Deutsch, Karl. 1966. Nationalism and Social inventor of a predecessor of the Internet, plaud all useful innovations and we do not Communication, 2nd ed. Cambridge, Mass.: and a frequent user of this medium, is any- believe that machines can dominate peo- Harvard University Press. thing but a technophobe. However, in his ple, or that technology marches on by Kurtz, Paul. 1988. Forbidden Fruit: The Ethics of Humanism. Cambridge, Buffalo, N.Y.: Pro- book Silicon Oil Snake (1995) he warns itself. But we do not embrace technologi- metheus Books. against the newest fad. He holds that the cal novelties before examining their fore- , ed. 1973. Humanist Manifestos I and II. computer networks are double-edged seeable social consequences. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. Luhmann, Niklas. 1984. Soziale Systeme. Frankfurt: tools: While they facilitate access to In particular, knowing as we do that Suhrkamp. mountains of useful information, they also technological progress is likely to elimi- Menzies, Heather, 1995. Whose Brave New World? "isolate us from one another and cheapen nate some jobs, we suggest that part of the Toronto: Between the Lines. Ñegroponte. Nicholas. 1996. Being Digital. New the meaning of actual experience. They savings deriving from the use of comput- York: Vintage Books. work against literacy and creativity. They ers be used to shorten the workweek. Stoll, Clifford. 1995. Silicon Snake Oil. Second undercut our schools and libraries." Because we know that the E-network Thoughts on the Information Highway. New York: Anchor Books. One can easily imagine episodes like tightens some social links while weaken- Storer, Morris B., ed. 1980. Humanist Ethics. the following in any family containing an ing or even severing others, we advocate Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. 28 FREE INQUIRY The Virtues of 'The Ethics of Belief' W. K. Clifford's Continuing Relevance The following article was delivered as a paper at a conference sponsored by The Centre for Inquiry at Westminster College, Oxford, on July 27, 1996.

Timothy J. Madigan

t is wrong always, everywhere, and for any one, to believe Twillwill summarize the main points of "The Ethics of Belief' by anything upon insufficient evidence." So wrote William Clifford's example of a ship owner who allows a Kingdon Clifford (1845-1879) in his famous essay "The vessel badly in need of repairs to set sail nonetheless. He dis- Ethics of Belief," delivered originally to the Metaphysical misses from his mind any doubts as to the ship's seaworthiness. Society on April 11, 1876. The ship, laden with passengers, goes down in mid-ocean, Alan Willard Brown, who wrote a history of the Society, killing all aboard. Clifford writes: reports that the publication of Clifford's essay in January of 1877 "had created a storm of controversy among religious-minded What shall we say of him? Surely this, that he was verily guilty men."` Clifford, who at the age of twenty-nine had been the of the death of those men. It is admitted that he did sincerely believe in the soundness of his ship; but the sincerity of his con- youngest member ever elected to the exclusive debating group, viction can in no wise help him, because he had no right to was Professor of Applied Mathematics at University College believe on such evidence as was before him' London. He delivered three papers in all before the Society, whose members included such notables as Arthur James Balfour, Clifford adds that even if the ship had arrived safely to shore, William Gladstone, Thomas Henry Huxley, Henry Edward the owner would still be guilty. "The question or right or wrong," Manning, and Alfred Tennyson. Clifford adds, "has to do with the origin of his belief, not the An ardent Anglican in his youth and briefly a sympathizer to matter of it; not what it was, but how he got it; not whether it Catholicism, by the time he was invited to join the society turned out to be true or false, but whether he had a right to Clifford had become an outspoken agnostic. Attending the believe on such evidence as was before him."3 This might lead Society's meetings and participating in its heated discussions one to assume that Clifford's argument for evidentialism is were two of his great pleasures in life; he greatly regretted hav- essentially deontological—one has a duty to apportion one's ing to give up these activities after falling victim to tuberculo- belief to the evidence, regardless of the consequences. However, sis, which ended his life at the age of thirty-three. Of the three later in his essay Clifford switches to a more teleological posi- essays he was able to deliver to the Society, "The Ethics of tion. He declares that believing is not a private matter. Believing Belief' is by far the best known, and is still frequently antholo- for unworthy reasons not only weakens a person's powers of gized. It is considered to be the most forthright—or perhaps self-control, but also adversely affects one's community of pugnacious—expression of what is called "evidentialism": the inquirers. In rather alarming tones, he says that view that it is immoral to hold on to a belief for which one has no evidence. ... if I let myself believe anything on insufficient evidence, there Clifford has been rightly challenged on both deontological may be no great harm done by the mere belief; it maybe true after and teleological lines for this view. However, there is still merit all, or I may never have occasion to exhibit it in outward acts. But to his position, although I will defend it on lines that he himself I cannot help doing this great wrong towards Man, that I make myself credulous. The danger to society is not merely that it would no doubt have objected to. Clifford's essay, I will argue, should believe wrong things, though that is great enough; but that can best be defended along virtue ethics lines—as an attempt to it should become credulous, and lose the habit of testing things motivate individuals to use their reasoning abilities. Clifford's and inquiring into them; for then it must sink back into savagery.' evidentialism is an example of what his critic, William James, referred to as "an overbelief," in that he himself goes beyond He holds that this awesome responsibility lies not only with what the evidence seems to support regarding people's abilities statesmen, philosophers, or poets (i.e., the members of the to apportion beliefs to evidence. Metaphysical Society), but also with the rustics quaffing a few in the neighborhood alehouse; not forgetting the hard-working Timothy J. Madigan is Executive Editor of Free Inquiry. wives of artisans raising their children on beliefs that should knit a society together. "No simplicity of mind, no obscuring of sta-

Spring 1997 29 tion, can escape the universal duty of questioning all that we he was taught in child- believe."5 hood and purposefully There have been several criticisms of Clifford's essay, on both avoids the company of deontological and teleological lines. Roderick Chisholm offers a men or the reading of criticism along the former, when he writes that books that might call it into question, that ... it is at least conceivable that a man may have the duty to "the life of that man is accept a true proposition which he does not know to be true. For one long sin against example, a many may have the duty to believe that members of his family are honest or faithful without in fact knowing that they mankind."9 It seems are. Or a sick man, who has various unfulfilled obligations, may rather peculiar for an have the duty to accept certain propositions if, by accepting them, avowed agnostic to he can make himself well and useful once again.' make use of such phraseology. But such Clifford has also been taken to task along teleological lines. turns of phrase are not Richard Gale, in his recent book On the Nature and Existence of wholly ironic. In a God, considers Clifford's argument to be a version of act utili- sense, Clifford sought tarian theory, in that the long term consequences of nonadher- to use traditional lan- ence to evidentialism would be catastrophic to humanity as a W. K. Clifford guage as a means of whole. Rather facetiously, Gale comments that the passages in getting people to "The Ethics of Belief' that describe such horrendous conse- accept untraditional, even iconoclastic, ideas. quences should, for maximum effect, be read aloud whole Bernard Lightman, in his book The Origins of Agnosticism, "Pomp and Circumstance" is played in the background. He calls points out that the unbelieving members of the Metaphysical Clifford's position the "`plague theory' of epistemically unwar- Society all came from Christian households and tended to share ranted belief," and writes that the same values as the Society's Christian members. He writes that Like many an act utilitarian trying to fend off a desert-island unkept-promise counterexample, Clifford has greatly exagger- The agnostics all lived model lives of respectability.... The ated the deleterious consequences of allowing ourselves even a agnostic use of biblical language and ideas can be interpreted as single epistemically unwarranted belief, however trivial and dis- a purely polemical strategy since prose shaped by biblical style connected from the workaday world. To put it mildly, his plague and rich with allusions drawn from Holy Scripture had a power- theory has very dubious empirical credentials.' ful effect on the Victorian public."

While I do not agree with Gale that Clifford's argument is This would account for the apocalyptic tone of Clifford's essay, entirely based on utilitarian notions (remember his views on the as well as its vigorous call to duty. The Victorian virtues of hard ship owner), it is certainly true that Clifford's flamboyant lan- work and self-cultivation were ones he most assuredly believed guage in "The Ethics of Belief' leaves him open to such ridicule. in. An overachiever, he impressed all who came in contact with Even the phrase "plague theory" is not being unjust, for Clifford him by his meticulous concern for details, his long hours of work does compare an non-evidentially oriented individual to one (which may have contributed to his early demise), and his will- who, for the sake of a sweet fruit, deliberately runs the risk of ingness to follow an argument to its logical conclusion, even bringing a plague upon his family and his neighbors. However, when it was a conclusion he was not initially prepared to accept. this rhetoric also gives the essay much of its power. One of the main reasons Sir James Knowles initiated the Why is Clifford's essay still persuasive, especially if so many Metaphysical Society (which lasted from 1869 to 1880) was due of its arguments are rather obviously wanting? The best way to to his concern that a growing sense of disbelief among the edu- understand this is, I think, to place the essay in its context. It is cated elite would have deleterious impact on the morals of gen- not surprising that Clifford engages in so much rhetorical exag- eral society. Most of the members of the Society, whatever their geration, since his essay (as opposed to many of his more tech- personal metaphysical views, shared this concern; a good num- nical works) was written as essentially a secular sermon. He ber of the essays presented by the members dealt with the origins knew that, in addition to its presentation to the learned members of morality and how to inculcate virtues among the public. of the Metaphysical Society, it would be published in the widely Indeed, some of the agnostic members were willing to defend distributed journal, the Contemporary Review—the publication religious institutions for their ability to perform this service, of which, Alan Willard Brown speculates, led to the resignation even if they disagreed with the institutions' ultimate foundations. of the Review's pious editorial director, Alexander Strahan, who In his study of the time period, The Ethics of Belief: An Essay on felt that the Society's founder, Sir James Knowles, "was guilty of the Victorian Religious Conscience, James C. Livingston writes allying both himself and the review with the forces of atheism that: and materialism. ..."8 One of the notable features of "The Ethics of Belief' is its There was a surprisingly widespread belief among Victorian usage of explicitly religious terminology, such as the passage intellectuals, including freethinkers, that with the demise of where Clifford says of a man who never questions a belief that Christian doctrine there would be a serious crisis and decline in

30 FREE INQUIRY public morals. In a symposium in the first issue (1877) of The be darker than the darkest of past ages."15 The "plague theory" Nineteenth Century the question of "The Influence Upon Moral- once again rears its ugly head! ity of a Decline in Religious Belief" was debated by a dozen emi- One can easily see a Nietzschean element in Clifford's ethical nent writers, including Fitzjames Stephen, Huxley, Clifford, Frederic Harrison, Dean Church, R. H. Hutton, and W. G. Ward. writings. He, too, saw the death of God as an opportunity for a Clifford was the only contributor who did not predict moral new ethics, one based not on following the commandments of decline." metaphysical beings, but rather on self-cultivation. Unlike Nietzsche, however, Clifford was not an elitist. He would not If Brown is correct, Clifford may also have been instrumental have accepted Nietzsche's ideal of the overman, nor his distinc- in the founding of the Nineteenth Century, since it was the jour- tion between slave and master moralities. Clifford was a demo- nal that Knowles established after Strahan balked over publish- crat in his politics, and also an advocate of social reform. It is ing "The Ethics of Belief' in the Contemporary Review. interesting to compare his ethics of belief with that of David Knowles issued an advertisement and prospectus about the new Hume. John Passmore, in his essay "Hume and the Ethics of publication that boldly asserted its policy of maintaining an open Belief," claims that Hume would have been skeptical of forum for the expression of all responsible opinion; appended to Clifford's evidentialism as it applies to the common man: it were the names of 104 distinguished men who had consented to be contributors, including all the then-members of the The vulgar, he would then say, do not examine evidence; their Metaphysical Society, as well as Matthew Arnold, John Henry beliefs are entirely the product of "education." It is not wrong for them to believe on insufficient grounds; that is how they are Newman, and G. H. Lewes. But Clifford may also have been made. But the wise, if only as a result of experience, develop crit- instrumental in the Meta- ical principles, "general rules," physical Society's demise, for which enable them to proportion Brown adds that "We must their belief to the evidence ... the observe, however, that from "He wished to motivate all members of soci- wise resist the influence of their education, they resist vivid but time on some of the more con- ety to utilize their intellectual abilities to the implausible stories, they weigh servative members of the highest degree and—aware of the growing evidence. And if they do not this Metaphysical Society began to they act wrongly." attend less regularly and that doubts about traditional Christian beliefs the years of the Society's that had helped to gird society up to that "... In the jargon of our own decline lie not far ahead ... the time—he felt a personal responsibility to days," Passmore adds, "Hume popular idea of the Society as was an elitist." Clifford would a force undermining the faith use his own gifts to further the cause of have none of this. His essays on and principles of old England rationalism." ethics were written to exhort his became too widespread for intellectual contemporaries to social comfort."1z The Society break away from belief systems did not long outlive Clifford. that could no longer be rationally supported and to encourage all In his contribution to the symposium, Clifford admits that the people to cease relying upon superstitions and myths. If his lan- loss of theistic belief can be painful. With a touch of elegance, he guage were extreme and definitely uncharitable (an unpardon- says that "We have seen the spring sun shine out of an empty able sin for a logician) this was perhaps due to his sense of heaven, to light up a soulless earth; we have felt with utter lone- urgency and his own excitement over what he saw as a new liness that the Great Companion is dead. Our children, it may be phase in the moral development of the human species. hoped, will know that sorrow only by the reflex light of a won- As George Levine writes in his admiring essay about Clifford dering compassion. But to say that theistic belief is a comfort and and his fellow scientific naturalists, "Scientific Discourse as an a solace, and to say that it is the crown or coping of morality, Alternative to Faith": "Addressed to audiences who were, by all these are different things." reports, enthralled, Clifford's lectures are designed to destabi- In his view, the moral sense is something that all humans are lize, to turn the world on his head, so the new possibilities, alter- born with. It needs to be cultivated through common struggle natives to traditional notions of faith and order, might come in. and through adherence to the truth. "Virtue is a habit," he writes, Clifford was the Oscar Wilde of the naturalists." "not a sentiment or anism ... the spring of virtuous action is the social instinct, which is set to work by the practice of comrade- he question arises—Did Clifford really believe what he said ship."14 Tin "The Ethics of Belief'? Was he sincere in his evidential- Taking an evolutionary approach to knowledge (Clifford was ism? William James, in his review of Clifford's posthumously an admirer of Darwin's work and one of the first to apply published Lectures and Essays, perceptively states that Darwinian theories to ethics), he goes on to say that the theistic "Professor Clifford's fine organ-music, like the bands and theories are no longer appropriate means for binding people torches of our political campaigns, must be meant for our nerves together, as they are based upon outmoded hypotheses. He can- rather than for our reason." He goes on to take Clifford to task not resist adding that, should a revival of sacerdotal Christianity for his immoderate defence of evidentialism (something James occur. "It would come back accompanied by social diseases per- would do again in his own subsequent essays, "The Will to haps worse than itself and the wreck of civilised Europe would Believe" and "The Sentiment of Rationality"). He states that it

Spring 1997 31 was wrong of Clifford to cast a stigma upon beliefs that have ent fictions to cope with the world."21 moved the world. "What we complain of," James writes Ironically, perhaps, Clifford's evidentialism itself seems to be a version of such a creative fiction. Even if Clifford did not actu- is that Clifford should have been willing ... to use the conjuring ally believe that all people, regardless of their station, could live spell of the name of Science, and to harp on Reverence for Truth as means whereby to force them on the minds of simple public up to the ideal he set, he felt that by assuming they could do so listeners, and so still more unsettle what is already too perplexed. one showed them respect and helped motivate them to fulfill Splintered ends, broken threads, broken lights, and, at last, bro- whatever intellectual capacities they did in fact possess. ken hearts and broken life! So ends this bright romance!" It is not so strange to suggest that Clifford adhered to an "as if" philosophy. Nicholas Rescher rightly points out that when it Clifford, if he had been alive to defend himself, would no came to evidentialism: doubt have criticized James for having too little respect for the ability of "simple public listeners" to grasp the truth and handle In actual fact Clifford did not adhere to this hyperbolic standard its implications. Still, Clifford's view is itself an example of what throughout his epistemology. Rejecting the prospect of certainty James calls an "overbelief "—there is no overwhelming evidence in the area of scientific knowledge, he took the line that man's scientific "knowledge" of nature rests of various principles that that the common people—or uncommon intellectuals for that are not in the final analysis justified on cognitive grounds at all matter—can live such examined lives. but must be accounted for in terms of natural selection. The prin- James pays Clifford the honor of giving him the benefit of the ciple of the uniformity of nature is a prime example, and "Nature doubt as to his ability to live such a life: is selecting for survival those individuals and races who act as if she were uniform; and hence the gradual spread of that belief But even the distant reader must allow that Clifford's mental per- over the civilized world."22 sonality belonged to the highest possible type, to say no more. The union of the mathematician with the poet, fervor with mea- t is indeed a great loss that Clifford died so young, without sure, passion with correctness, this surely is the ideal. And if in Ibeing able to explicate more fully his ethical views. Matthew these modern days we are to look for any prophet or savior who Arnold, a contemporary with a much more pessimistic attitude shall influence our feelings towards the universe as the founders and renewers of past religions have influenced the minds of our toward the Victorian Crisis of Faith, wrote of Clifford's attacks fathers, that prophet ... must have what Clifford had in so extra- on Christianity that "One reads it all, half sighing, half smiling, ordinary a degree—that lavishly generous confidence in the wor- as the declamation of a clever and confident youth, with the thiness of average human nature to be told all the truth. ..."20 hopeless inexperience, irredeemable by any cleverness, of his age."23 And Alan Willard Brown, in his history of the One can still see the twinkle in James's eye. Metaphysical Society, adds that I will not echo Heidegger by remarking that "Only a Clifford can save us now." But I do admit to an admiration of both the Even Clifford, who died of tuberculosis in 1879 at the age of 33 man and his essays, especially "The Ethics of Belief." While I would, in the opinion of many, have outgrown the rather febrile find it hard to think that Clifford literally believed all he wrote in dogmatism of his psycho-physical materialism to become a wor- thy supporter of the tradition of his friend and correspondent that essay, I nonetheless grant him his sincerity. He wished to William James... 2A motivate all members of society to utilize their intellectual abilities to the highest degree and—aware of the growing doubts In this context I cannot help but mention Nietzsche's lines about traditional Christian beliefs that had helped to gird society from Thus Spake Zarathustra: "Verily, that Hebrew died too up to that time—he felt a personal responsibility to use his own young whom the preachers of slow death honor.... As yet he gifts to further the cause of rationalism. knew only tears and the melancholy of the Hebrew, and hatred of Clifford was, for instance, instrumental in founding the the good and the just—the Hebrew Jesus.... Believe me, my Congress of Liberal Thinkers, in 1876, an international gather- brothers! He died too early; he himself would have recanted his ing of freethinkers that aimed to liberate people of all classes teaching, had he reached my age."25 Tradition tells us that Jesus from dogmatic beliefs. Unfortunately, he was too ill to attend of Nazareth also met his end at the age of thirty-three. the initial meeting himself and the organization—perhaps the I suspect that, had Clifford lived to a ripe old age, he would first such attempt to unite freethinkers on a global level—did not have become an ally of William James, but would rather have not survive him. developed a philosophy akin to that of Bertrand Russell—the How might one best understand Clifford's evidentialism? I bête noir of pragmatists everywhere. I will, therefore, give the myself find it to be a type of "as if" thinking, to use the term final word to Russell, from his introduction to Clifford's posthu- coined by the German philosopher Hans Vaihinger in his book mously published The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences: The Philosophy of 'As If' (1924). This book defended the notion of creative fictions—propositions that are known to be false but Clifford was much more than a mathematician ... he saw all which nonetheless are the means to some definite end if treated as knowledge, even the most abstract, as part of the general life of if they were true. In his entry on Vaihinger in The Encyclopedia mankind, and as concerned in the endeavour to make human existence less petty, less superstitious, and less miserable. He of Philosophy, Rollo Handy writes that "Vaihinger's theory of fic- lived at a time when optimism was not so difficult as it has since tions can be regarded as a denial of the view of W. K. Clifford and become, and when hope for the future seemed justified by the others that belief should always be proportionate to the evidence. history of the previous two hundred years.... Difficult as it is to Intellectually, practically, and morally we need false but expedi- maintain the beliefs that inspired the best men of the nineteenth

32 FREE INQUIRY century, there is, I still think, every ground for regarding the old 14. Ibid. virtues of tolerance and enlightenment as the basis for the hopes 15. Ibid., p. 393. that are possible?` 16. John A. Passmore, "Hume and the Ethics of Belief," in David Hume- Bicentenary Papers, edited by G. P. Morice (Edinburgh University Press, 1977), p. 89. Notes 17. George Levine, "Scientific Discourse as an Alternative to Faith," in Victorian Faith in Crisis, edited by Richard J. Helmstadter and Bernard Lightman 1. Alan Willard Brown, The Metaphysical Society (New York: Columbia (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1990), p. 257. University Press, 1947), p. 180. 18. William James, Collected Essays and Reviews (New York: Longmans, 2. W. K. Clifford, Lectures and Essays, 2nd Edition (London: MacMillan and Green and Col, 1920), p. 143. Co., 1886), p. 340. 19. Ibid., p. 145. 3. Ibid. 20. Ibid., pp. 138-139. 4. Ibid., p. 345. 21. Rollo Handy, "Vaihinger, Hans," in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol- 5. Ibid., p. 343-344. umes 7 and 8, edited by Paul Edwards (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 6. Roderick Chisholm, Theory of Knowledge (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: 1967), p. 223. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966), p. 12. 22. Nicholas Rescher, Pascal's Wager (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of 7. Richard Gale, On the Nature of Existence of God (New York: Cambridge Notre Dame Press, 1985), p. 144. The quote he gives is from W. K. Clifford's University Press, 1996), p. 356. essay "Philosophy of the Pure Sciences," p. 209 of the above cited work. 8. Brown, p. 181. Rescher erroneously attributes it to Clifford's work The Common Sense of the 9. Clifford, p. 346. Exact Sciences. 10. Bernard Lightman, The Origins of Agnosticism (Baltimore: The Johns 23. Quoted in A. O. J. Cockshut, The Unbelievers (London: Collins, 1964), p. Hopkins University Press, 1987), p. 120. 67. 11.James C. Livingston, The Ethics of Belief: An Essay on the Victorian 24. Brown, p. 90. Religious Conscience (Tallahassee, Florida: American Academy of Religion, 25. Friedrich Nietzsche, The Portable Nietzsche, edited and translated by 1974), p. 36. The symposium actually was published in the second issue. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Penguin Books, 1968), p. 185. 12. Brown, p. 182. 26. Bertrand Russell, introduction to W. K. Clifford, The Common Sense of 13. Clifford, p. 389. the Exact Sciences (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946), pp. ix-x. Help put FREE INQUIRY on the shelves at your favorite library! Is FREE INQUIRY available at the public or college library you visit most? If not, one reason might be money. Library bud- Please enter my/our 5-YEAR GIFT SUBSCRIPTION to FREE gets are tighter than ever. You can help to put the world's INQUIRY for the library indicated below at the special rate of just best-respected secular humanist magazine within reach of $75. (Please use separate sheet of paper to add other names.) library users! Purchaser's Name Before they'll decide to shelve a periodical, librarians want to know that there's interest in the title ... and that Purchaser's Address the library can depend on receiving each issue. This special City State Zip offer makes it easy for you to do both! STEP 1. Visit the chief librarian. Express your interest Library Name in FREE INQUIRY and ask that the library shelve it. Library Address STEP 2. Offer a gift subscription. With this special offer you can give your library a five-year subscription - Attention Une the longest we offer - for just $75 (per-issue cost 30% below the regular three-year subscription rate). City State Zip The secular humanist movement depends on contacting Number of subscription(s) Amount enclosed: $ - and involving - new people by every possible means. Urge your library to carry FREE INQUIRY. Offer to underwrite All contributions are tax-deductible. I enclose my payment by [ ] check or M.0. payable to FREE INQUIRY [ ] Visa [ ] MasterCard a subscription for the first five years. And let us know how you fare! Card # Exp published by the COUNCIL Signature Vree Inq d FOR frj SECULAR Return to Council for Secular Humanism, PO Box 664, Amherst HUMANISM NY 14226-0664 or fax charge orders to 716-636-1733.

PO Box 664, Amherst NY 14226-0664 • Toll Free 1-800-458-1366 • Fax 716-636-1733 • E-MAIL [email protected] Spring 1997 33 National Character, Collective Guilt, and Original Sin The Goldhagen Controversy

Edmund D. Cohen

arly in 1996, a young Harvard Goldhagen demonstrates that members of EGovernment and Social Studies police battalions could opt out of killing teacher published his dissertation. Hitler's civilians without prejudice to themselves. Willing Executioners by Daniel Jonah Few did. Instead, they generally outdid Goldhagen' was touted as a groundbreak- what was ordered in their cruelty and bru- ing work, shedding startling new light on tality. Goldhagen correctly points out that the role of ordinary Germans in the mass refusal by Germans within the uniformed murder of the Jews of Europe' It received services to brutalize Jews during World War ecstatically favorable initial reviews. The II as well as punishment for such refusal cover kudos included review snippets were all but nonexistent. For those con- from several major daily newspapers and fronted with the assignment of killing an imprimatur from Elie Wiesel. defenseless Jews, the typical response was In early spring, longer reviews by to rationalize that killing to be justified and experts in the field portraying the book as then go on to develop actual enthusiasm for significantly flawed but still worthwhile the gruesome task. However, by no account began to appear.' Numerous feature sto- were persons directly involved in perpetrat- ries recounted devastating criticism ing the Holocaust more than a fraction of a Goldhagen's book was subjected to by percent of the German population.' senior Holocaust experts and the German Other aspects of the Holocaust press .4 More and more the book came to Goldhagen tells well include the distorted be portrayed as fundamentally flawed and concept of work arising from Nazi doc- misleading, the product of its author's vis- trine about the Jews. From all other types ceral personal hatred for the Germans.' "Is it possible that reluctance to of internees, the Nazis sought to extract What was it about this book that so deal forthrightly with the economically valuable work adding to the beguiled a major publisher and many significance of the Christian war effort. Amelioration of living condi- early readers, and kept it on the New York religion in the formation of tions and rations just enough to allow the Times hardback best-seller list for eleven anti-Semitism and the internees to be productive workers was weeks? What does it take to keep discus- Holocaust—no less on his critics' the usual result. But even at times when sion about a topic so fraught with emotion part than on Goldhagen's—did need to supply the war was most pressing, as the Holocaust sober and reasoned? Is it more to bring about this sad the Nazis put Jewish prisoners to per- possible that reluctance to deal forth- spectacle than first appears?" forming pointless busy work, meant only rightly with the significance of the to increase the suffering and degradation Christian religion in the formation of anti- tral focus is Police Battalion 101. Police preceding their deaths. Also, Goldhagen Semitism and the Holocaust—no less on battalions were elements of the so-called documents how the SS conducted Jewish his critics' part than on Goldhagen's—did Order Police (Ordnungspolizei). These prisoners on long, circuitous death more to bring about this sad spectacle were actually light-duty military outfits marches for no conceivable rational pur- than first appears? composed of recruits who were overage or pose. The German officials' delusional otherwise not considered fit for regular and irrational hatred for the Jews is illus- f nothing else, Hitler's Willing Execu- army duty. Men with extensive Nazi Party trated by example after example. tioners ably tells the specific historical connections were unlikely to be found in The problem with Goldhagen's book is events Goldhagen studied in detail. Its cen- these unprestigious police battalions. in his interpretation and analysis—his Police Battalion 101, like many others, extrapolation of the attitudes of Nazi offi- Edmund D. Cohen is the author of The was assigned to rounding up, deporting, cialdom to the German public at large— Mind of the Bible Believer (Prometheus and sometimes killing Polish Jews. From not his documentation of specific events. Books). the written records and correspondence, Goldhagen begins by declaring it his mis-

34 FREE INQUIRY sion to dispel purported widespread mis- ing a popular stereotype as he claims to, before Hitler is likewise neglected. The conceptions about the Holocaust: Goldhagen reinforces the prevalent periodic outpourings of anti-Semitic writ- stereotype. While he does not overtly pre- ings and agitation—sometimes even the This revision calls for us to acknowl- sent a theory of collective guilt or repro- formation of anti-Semitic political par- edge what has for so long been gener- bate national character, he seeks to furnish ties—throughout the nineteenth century ally denied or obscured by academic and non-academic interpreters alike: an academically respectable Ersatz for are emphasized. But the way those mani- Germans' antisemitic beliefs about Jews these.' He engages in the one kind of eth- festations usually followed in context as were the central causal agent of the nic broad-brushing not seen as an offense reactions against advances in Jewish posi- Holocaust ... not only of Hitler's deci- against political correctness. tion and integration in German society and sion to annihilate European Jewry Goldhagen's central premise—and the the consistent relegation of anti-Semitism (which is accepted by many) but also of the perpetrators' willingness to kill and aspect of his book that drew the heaviest to the political losing side until Hitler are to brutalize Jews. The conclusion of this fire from the Holocaust Studies establish- underplayed. Jews simply could never book is that antisemitism moved many ment and many other critics—is that have risen to the positions of prominence thousands of "ordinary" Germans—and Germany was a uniquely and unmitigat- they held, in the pre-Hitler Germany would have moved millions more had edly anti-Semitic place for generations Goldhagen portrays. Neither could that they been appropriately positioned—to slaughter Jews. Not economic hardship, prior to Hitler. His thesis calls for Germany Germany have had the right stuff for not the coercive means of a totalitarian to have been far more anti-Semititic than reconstruction as the tolerant, self-sustain- state, not social psychological pressure, any other major European country or the ing democracy Germany is today. not invariable psychological propensi- United States. He presents no comparative German society during the Third Reich ties, but ideas about Jews that were per- information to back up the claim. is also cast in a false light through vasive in Germany and had been for decades induced ordinary Germans to The contrasting generally accepted Goldhagen's systematic omissions. Since kill unarmed defenseless Jewish men, view—supported by overwhelming infor- he would have us believe that Nazi atti- women, and children by the thousands mation—is that German anti-Semitism tudes were solidly in place before Hitler, systematically and without pity.' before Hitler was comparable to that he makes scarcely any mention of the found in other countries. After using his Goebbels propaganda ministry, or of Nazi Is that indeed the form typically taken education° or censorship. by misconceptions about the Holocaust? The most glaring distortion comes out While responsibility displacement argu- "Goldhagen will forever have to of Goldhagen's failure to fathom what mentation may frequently appear in the share with the Holocaust deniers totalitarianism is. Throughout the book, academic literature and in the legal par- the accolade that they triggered a Goldhagen refers to the "public conversa- lance of war crimes trials, I must say that worthwhile discussion by tion" leading to the framing of Nazi poli- in more than thirty years of encountering putting out faulty scholarship cies. He describes the Nazi political sys- this topic—both here and in Germany—I requiring refutation into the tem as "both dictatorial and consensual," have rarely heard anyone take the tack marketplace of ideas." and he even refers to "Hitler's often non- Goldhagen indicates in an attempt to interventionist leadership style."" For excuse Holocaust perpetrators. When plurality election victory to become Goldhagen, the deprivation of the public's someone does attempt to play down the Chancellor in 1933, Hitler mounted a eventual right to vote leaders out of office terribleness of what the Germans did, it is coup'd état and turned a parliamentary and the vicious repression of dissent are nearly always Holocaust denial rather state into a totalitarian dictatorship. Years only minor or perhaps cosmetic consider- than displacement of responsibility to of intense and sophisticated propaganda ations. For him it somehow makes no real which they resort. "I vas only followink instilled an anti-Semititic belief system difference if public policy is formally orders"-especially if said in a "Hogans' different from the diverse but widespread made by a very few unaccountable people Heroes" accent—reliably gets a knowing anti-Semitic ideas preceding it in a bane- in a closed, "top-down" process, and back laugh from almost any North American fully pliant public at large. talk is relentlessly suppressed. Totali- gathering. That is why would-be defend- Goldhagen gives face plausibility to his tarianism and democracy are but different ers of the Nazis avoid that strategy. thesis by neglecting or heavily downplay- alternatives for translating the popular Goldhagen's main thrust consists of dis- ing vast areas of necessary information. will into public policy in Goldhagen's pelling the wrong misconception—knock- From his book one gets no inkling that lofty Ivy League view. For him it is appar- ing a straw man down. Germany had a flourishing literary and ently only a myth that there have ever The popular misconception one does academic culture brought to a halt by the been nations where public policy was continually encounter is stereotyping of Nazis, with comparatively little anti- really contrary to popular will. Germans—seeing no dimension to Semitism and no major author as anti- Goldhagen finds a semblance of con- Germans other than as Nazis. The stereo- Semititic as Ezra Pound or T. S. Eliot. One firmation for this naïve view in instances type arises from attitudes understandably gets no idea of the extensive participation of successful internal protest against Nazi adopted while fighting the Germans in of Jews in that culture. The generally policies. He stresses a 1942 incident when two world wars. That is how Goldhagen favorable and improving position of Jews Bavarian Catholics mounted demonstra- perceives them as well. Far from correct- in German society for many decades tions blocking replacement of crucifixes Spring 1997 35 with Hitler portraits in public school preposterous Nazi doctrines as "hallucina- with different implications and different classrooms. Also the "T4" euthanasia pro- tory," when he obviously means "delu- culpabilities. Lumping them together gram was brought to a standstill by mas- sional." His only attempts to illustrate serves a rhetorical purpose only. sive complaints from relatives of the pro- the mental life of the Nazis consist of lists posed victims.12 While the disinclination of their beliefs. Instead of taking us inside oldhagen never attempts to distin- of those same Germans to protest in the perpetrators' experience, Goldhagen Gguish those manifestations of pre- behalf of Jews as well detracts from their portrays them as incongruously pure and Hitler anti-Semitism that are peculiar to valor, these protests involved great risk to decent except when committing atrocities. Germany or originated there from those those who mounted them and did demon- (He apparently perceives human nature as with outcroppings and antecedents in sev- strate admirable bravery. Those protesters requiring elaborate intellectualizations eral countries and in different languages. got away with behavior normally receiv- and rationalizations for people to bring Attempting to do so myself, only two ing draconian punishment. It is one thing themselves to brutalize one another.) He episodes strike me as exclusively German. for protests at fortuitous moments to would have us believe that the Germans' In 1542, Martin Luther published the achieve their aims, and another for the racial prejudice against Jews was so pamphlet "Concerning the Jews and their right to them to be anchored in law or cus- evenly applied as to preclude the sexual Lies." It reflects the deep and abiding tom. The former did not qualify Nazi coercion of Jewish women by men in the anger that Christian evangelists have regu- tyranny as in any way "consensual." With German uniformed services.' larly evinced after a campaign to convert that distortion Goldhagen avoids even Throughout the book Goldhagen uses Jews to Christianity has met with princi- considering the element of being beguiled the coined term eliminationist to charac- pled resistance and rejection. Luther por- by totalitarianism after an unsatisfactory trayed the Jews as "vermin," "a plague," experience with parliamentary democracy "The problem with Goldhagen's and "a pestilence." He advocated the con- as a motive more immediate than anti- book is in his interpretation and fiscation and destruction of their property, Semitism for Germans to embrace Hitler. analysis—his extrapolation of the the banning of their religious observances, attitudes of Nazi officialdom to the and their expulsion from the country. This serious problem that has not received German public at large—not is the sole instance of a vicious, hard- uch attention in print is Gold- edged attack on the Jews coming from a his documentation of hagen's pretensions to behavioral science major figure in German history or litera- specific events." methodology. There is an implicit claim ture before Hitler. The pogrom Luther throughout, that the book has a psycho- sought to instigate did not take place. logical or anthropological dimension that terize anti-Semitism. By it he means Although Luther's diatribe is by far the makes it more than a mere history or acceptance of the premise that there is most important single document in political science work. such a thing as a "Jewish problem"— German anti-Semitism, Goldhagen heav- Early on, Goldhagen proposes a three- some bad outcome or outcomes necessarily underplays it—as if he were reluctant dimensional classification model for com- ily resulting from contact of Jews with to offend contemporary Lutherans. He paring different manifestations of anti- gentiles. To "solve" the "problem," Jews gives a fairly full account of medieval Semitism." If actually used, the model have to be eliminated or removed in some Catholic anti-Semitism and then skips to could be the basis for a valuable social way. The possible means of elimination the nineteenth century." psychology study. But he does not con- are assimilation, expatriation, and exter- The term anti-Semitism (Antisemitis- nect it with anything else in the book. It is mination. The terminology tacitly applies mus) was coined in 1879 by Wilhelm only there as filler. only to gentiles, since it is obviously not Marr.20 Man was one of several self-styled Goldhagen claims that his book over- Goldhagen's intention to classify secular disciples of Feuerbach and Nietzsche,21 all is arranged as the test of a social sci- Jewish liberals (proponents of assimila- taking those philosophers' criticisms of ence hypothesis. But what he sets out is a tion) and Zionists (proponents of expatri- the rhetoric of submission and self-abne- statement so broad that no set of facts ation) as "eliminationist antisemites." gation in Christianity as their starting could fail to fit it—a nondisconfirmable Goldhagen concludes that assimilation point. Man wanted to blame the Jews for "hypothesis." and expatriation are only intermediate placing what he regarded as the yoke of He also claims to approach the Holo- steps in a progression that necessarily cul- Christianity on the necks of Europeans. caust like an anthropologist studying a lit- miriates in exterminationism. The impres- These fanciful anti-Semites were never tle-known preliterate people This seems sion is conveyed that the three are really more than a marginal influence. Their par- to justify his arbitrary disregard for the vast approximately the same thing, and even ticular libel never became part of the Nazi published record of pre-Hitler Germany— liberal assiminationists are made to seem canon. Of the myriad libels against the since a preliterate people would have no only marginally less bad than extermina- Jews, this was the only one definitely published record to consider. tionists. The bearer of latent, unexamined invented in Germany.' And then there are the frequent men- traditional anti-Semititic attitudes is made tions of "cognitive models," "mind-sets," to appear about the same as the fully azi anti-Semitism appears on the sur- and other psychology buzzwords.1ó indoctrinated Nazi Holocaust perpetrator. Nface to have little connection with Repeatedly, Goldhagen refers to the more But the three are distinctly different views religion. There is little in the Nazi's own 36 FREE INQUIRY documentation pointing to such a connec- As if disappointed that abandoning Nazi experience one sees democratic tion. On one level, Nazism adopted a Christianity meant no longer being able to institutions and the rule of law in a differ- hodge-podge of conspiracy theories that derive silent gratification from the ent light. Those institutions might easily had long been in circulation. On another prospect that those whom one demonizes be less robust than they seem. Unlike reli- level, it was a form of racism, taking the would be tormented eternally in Hell, the gions and totalitarian political ideologies, Jews as a distinct race with distinguishing Nazis made the replication of Hell on there is no eschatology purporting to physiognomic features. The two levels earth for the Jews—even if it could only guarantee the continuation of democratic meet in the notion of a Jewish race genet- be for a little while—their highest priority. institutions or the attainment of some per- ically preprogrammed to engage in cabals The method of batch execution by poison fect end state. It becomes possible to against the gentile population. gas—death-dealing at a distance without imagine the society around one undergo- The Nazis were no friends of touching—preceded by treatment calcu- ing a malignant transformation through Christianity. They tacitly recognized (as lated to maximize suffering, torment, and the complicity of one's intellectually pas- the other totalitarians, the Communists degradation rivaling crucifixion on a cross sive and morally cowardly friends and also did) that their system was a quasi- and followed by incineration of the bodies neighbors because that actually happened religion that could not coexist with an is at once full of biblical symbolism and in Germany. When extremists attempt to organized, supernaturalistic religion. without resemblance to anything in the gain political power, it is essential to Nazism ultimately takes the paradigm of secular literature or history of Germany.24 oppose them early. Non-participation is the Christianity it displaced, and reassigns The match of the particular group cho- no honorable option. the roles in its allegory. sen to bear the brunt of the Nazis' scape- By making Germany's experience with The paradigm of one ethnic group cho- Hitler strictly a matter of national culture sen by God and blessed, encountering oth- Goldhagen implies that no comparable "Jews simply could never have ers not similarly chosen and cursed—even thing could happen anywhere else. He risen to the positions of exterminating other groups that get in its could not have written as he did had the prominence they held, in the way from time to time—comes of course pervasiveness of anti-Semitism and anti- pre-Hitler Germany Goldhagen from the Old Testament. But the covenant democratic attitudes in such places as portrays. Neither could that between God and Israel is not kept, so in France, England, and the United States in Germany have had the right stuff the New Testament the followers of Christ, the 1930s had any immediacy for him. By for reconstruction as the tolerant, who are not an ethnic group but rather con- collapsing the distinction between law- self-sustaining democracy sist of remnants of all the world's ethnic based representative democracy and total- Germany is today." groups, become God's chosen people in itarianism, he forecloses learning any- place of the Jews. When the Nazis take the thing pertaining to politics or government paradigm up, the "Aryans" become the goating and the form taken by their "final elsewhere from the Hitler era. A haz- chosen people, and to the Jews are ascribed solution to the Jewish problem" to bibli- ardous complacency—or perhaps a need- not only the role of nonchosen, cursed cal Christianity is obvious and speaks for less sense of futility—follows from Gold- group, but the role of Satan as well. Each itself. Any attempt to understand Nazism hagen's argument. usurper of the chosen-people mantle says without fear or favor must consider the Second, an unforeseen later repercus- in effect to the others preceding it, "You're influence of Christianity—albeit Chris- sion of the Holocaust has been the emer- not God's chosen people—we are!" tianity in pilfered and corrupted form. gence of a significant social movement Nazism also adapts from Christianity Some risk of offending contemporary organized around denial that the Holo- its notion of a messiah with a divinely religious sensibilities must be run to caust happened. After World War II, it is appointed eschatological mission to play study it properly. The failure to incorpo- impossible to be a fascist or an anti- out. The suffering servant of all, transfig- rate the question reduces Holocaust Semite without a certain defensiveness ured by struggle, is Hitler. Instead of Studies to an exercise in euphemism and and embarassment. So, closet fascists and "Original Sin," it is the "Jewish problem" circumlocution. anti-Semites have found an outlet in pseu- from which Hitler is divinely mandated to doscholarly revisionist history claiming redeem his people. Note well how a sup- t is truly remarkable that so much atten- that the Holocaust either did not happen, posititious solution for a nonexistent prob- Ition has been paid to a book with no or is exaggerated—a hoax supposedly lem is used as a rhetorical ploy in each better aspiration than to agitate a genera- perpetrated by the evil Jewish cabal.25 scheme. He rules with a rod of iron while tion of Jews and Germans born after These Holocaust deniers, together with setting up his thousand-year reign. The World War II—Goldhagen's generation— armed militias, mock common law courts sign he triumphs under is a twisted cross. to relate to each other nourishing the pre- neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan, and so-called The most disturbing parallel is the way ceding generation's sense of grievance. It Identity Christians, make up a populous that Nazi policy for obliterating the is as if some contrarious scholar set out to alienated extremist "Hate Group Right" in Jewish people—after passing through a write a book about the Holocaust devoid North America. Its formidable energy and number of other iterations—finally settled of any useful lessons for a later time or general ferment are the likely harbinger of on coming as close as is terrestrially pos- another situation. future trouble. sible to emulating New Testament Hell.' What are those lessons? First, after the Holocaust denial operates very much Spring 1997 37 like neurotic denial of troublesome per- prejudice—especially the ones in former duced those achievements. In former East sonal issues. If the denier finds Nazis Yugoslavia—we learn that prejudiced atti- Germany today, one can visit the ruined attractive, then he would have it that they tudes do not simply go away while inac- sites of great long-ago accomplishments are unfairly maligned. There is an under- tive or suppressed. They remain dormant trodden down by fifty-seven disastrous tone of fundamentalist Christian apologet- unless concerted effort is made to discuss years of totalitarianism: Leipzig, Weimar, ics, tacitly appreciating that the occur- them, work them through, and replace and Dresden, among others. If one lets rence of the Holocaust has raised a them with good information. This has one's imagination work, one can get a compelling new objection to the proposi- been done at great effort in the United glimpse of the vibrant scene and the extra- tion that a just and omnipotent God rules States as to racial prejudice as well as anti- ordinary people inhabiting it that might the universe. If the Holocaust did not hap- Semitism, and in post-Hitler Germany as have been if history had taken a different pen, the objection goes away. to anti-Semitism. Wherever traditional turn. Even after visiting Sachsenhausen Paradoxically, the Holocaust deniers prejudices have been overcome, it has and Buchenwald, and contemplating their have had a salutary effect. Before they been through the effort and sacrifice of meaning, what seemed infinitely tragic came on the scene, it seemed that people of good will. The notion that one turns out not to be the entire tragedy. Then Holocaust commemoration tended to could do or ought always to be doing one imagines how one man stopping one include political subtexts that—to say the something to alleviate ethnic prejudice bullet or slipping on one banana peel may least—might or might not have spoken for seems somehow lost on Goldhagen. be all it would have taken for the vibrant actual mute Holocaust victims. Ten years scene glimpsed momentarily in imagina- ago one could legitimately question oldhagen fails to show why all those tion to have been real. whether or not Holocaust commemoration Gpre-World War II commentators who That is the German contradiction at its was serving any forward-looking purpose. thought Germany a relatively unlikely most stark. Goldhagen evades it with his The Holocaust deniers exemplified place for a serious outbreak of anti- ridiculous broad-brushing. Even in our how the average mind recoils from the Semitism ought to be second-guessed. He day of grade inflation and deconstruction- concentrated horror of those events and provides no help for contemporary com- ism, Goldhagen's basic education cannot naturally tends to slough them off. mentators who share the earlier ones' be so lacking as to let him be unimpressed Because the Holocaust has its special blind spots. If one has too much staked on by the ruined greatness he so easily dis- property of fading from mind sooner than a theory of human nature emphasizing misses. With such a wide chasm between other historical events, and because there innate goodness, Nazis are inexplicable. the content discussed and the underlying is a busy community of liars denying that Goldhagen's antagonists do indeed make issues that really drive the discussion— it took place and needing to be refuted too much of social influence and group between text and subtext—it appears that Holocaust Studies found its proper mis- pressure as explanations for the failure of clarity about the Hitler Holocaust will take sion. The Holocaust deniers brought home innate human goodness to mitigate Hitler. a lot longer than fifty years to achieve. to the rest of society the urgency of pre- But Goldhagen evades the same problem In August 1996, Goldhagen went to serving testimony while the last in a different manner by setting the Germany to promote the German transla- Holocaust survivors still live. Holocaust Germans somehow fundamentally apart tion of his book.27 He was interviewed in commemoration in the nineties has taken from the rest of humanity. It is as if he every conceivable publication, and on a dignity and sense of forbearance that were getting even for the Germans' appeared on every imaginable talk show. had earlier been lacking 26 Manichaean stigmatization of the Jews In the larger German cities, he debated Hitler's Willing Executioners will with an opposite Manichaean stigmatiza- some of his critics in concert halls before inevitably open up opportunities for the tion of his own. While he is busy doing audiences who paid admission. He Holocaust deniers' bad-faith critiques, and that, the rest of us continue to be appalled received much polite applause, and the complicate the task of refuting them. by how easy it is proving to be anywhere press accounts report no untoward inci- Goldhagen will forever have to share with in our present world to recruit the like of dent 2s Undoubtedly, his tour helped con- the Holocaust deniers the accolade that the police battalions. temporary Germans to clarify the issues they triggered a worthwhile discussion by Also, academics would typically rather and identify the boundaries of this grave putting out faulty scholarship requiring not give credence to a geopolitical indeter- topic. Often it takes a sensationalist, refutation into the marketplace of ideas. minism so loose as to permit a completely crassly exploiting a topic that others more Third, we now have the benefit of a changed historical outcome because of one admirable than he treat with reverence, to body of experience that includes the dynamic individual. That issue may be make that happen. How sad. Holocaust, allowing us to reflect on the closest to the core of the difficulty. very nature of prejudice and of the reme- Students of any academic field know Notes dies for prejudice. The overthrow of the that German accomplishments in their 1.New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. political status quo in a nation can just as respective subjects—in all the science, art, 2. Goldhagen, himself, claims, "Explaining why easily provide an opportunity for a con- and literature of that day—were the sine the Holocaust occurred requires a radical revision of centrated outburst of prejudice as it can for qua non before Hitler, and that we are all what has until now been written. This book is that revision," p. 9. its diminution. From post-cold war out- very much the poorer for the destruction 3. Cf., Gordon A. Craig, "How Hell Worked," bursts of wholesale murder motivated by and scattering of the communities that pro- The New York Review of Books, April 18, 1996, p. 38 FREE INQUIRY 4ff. and V. R. Berghahn, "The Road to honorable label, instead of the derogatory one it the unending spinning of fundamentalist Christian Extermination," The New York Times Book Review, betimes became. This parallels the coining of the end-times scenarios involving either the conversion April 14, 1996, pp. 6-7. term Fundamentalism by Curtis Lee laws in 1920 of all the Jews or their extermination in a final cata- 4. The U. S. Holocaust Research Institute and its entry into the language with the opposite of clysm after they are all gathered in Israel. Conference, held on April 8, 1996, in Washington, the intended connotation. 25. See Deborah Lipstadt, Denying the Holo- D.C. (broadcast live on C-SPAN II) resulted in major 21. Nietzsche vehemently opposed the anti- caust: the Growing Assault on Truth and Memory Holocaust Studies experts, including Yehuda Bauer, Semites. Richard Wagner, however, did espouse (New York: Free Press 1993). Christopher Browning (the other major expert on their cause. 26. The film Schindler's List seemed to set a sub- Nazi police battalions), Konrad Kwiet, Lawrence 22. For a timeline of significant developments in dued tone that continued in the ceremonies accom- Langer, and Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm, ganging up on anti-Semitism, see Paul E. Grosser and Edwin G. panying the opening of the National Holocaust Goldhagen with reproach after reproach. Goldhagen Halperin, Anti-Semitism: Causes and Effects (Rev. Museum, replacing an earlier unfortunate tendency acted the part of a man with head bloodied but ed.; New York: Philosophical Library, 1983). toward bellicosity and exploitation. unbowed delivering his rebuttal. 23. Cf. Matt. 25:41, 46; Luke 3:9, 17; 12:47-48; Vivid images with a minimum of rhetoric seem 5. The Philadelphia Inquirer was typical in its 16:24; John 15:6; 2 Thess. 1:6-10; Heb. 10:27; Jude best. The 1995 skating programs of Paul Wylie and changing view. Its first coverage was an utterly cred- 7; Rev. 2: 8-11, 14:10, 19:20, 20:4-6, 9-10, 12-15, Katarina Witt—to the Schindler's List musical ulous Sunday review by Susan Miron, a freelance and 21:8. score—especially impressed me as a tasteful writer: "Hitler's Partners in Genocide," March 24, 24. The word holocaust Is a synonym for the expression with no ulterior motive and not unduly 1996, p. K1 ff. But it counterbalanced that review in expression "burnt offering," found several dozen commercial. two feature stories: Julia M. Klein, "Book Blaming times in the Old Testament. It denotes the burning of 27. Hitlers willige Vollstrecker. Ganz gewöhn- Ordinary Germans for Holocaust Draws Praise, an animal—usually a lamb—as a sacrifice for pre- liche Deutsche and der Holocaust. Berlin: Seidler Scorn," April 21, 1996, p. El ff. and Barbara sentation on God's altar. Only after World War II did Verlag, 1996). Demick, "Holocaust Book Raises a German Storm," "Holocaust" become a proper noun denoting the Note that the German title translates as "Hitler's April 26, 1996, p. M. Nazi genocide of European Jewry. willing executors ... ," inverting the book's theses. 6. See Goldhagen's review of the numbers of The grave and reverential connotations of the It seems to speak of the German People as Hitler's perpetrators, pp. 166-168. He establishes tens of word have seemed well fitting. But its use encour- passive instruments, when Goldhagen's thesis is that thousands with evidence, and guesses at the larger ages attempts to put the real events into a theological Hitler was merely the tool of the German People's numbers. The population of Germany at the begin- context. This inevitably leads to absurd and offen- collective will—as Hitler himself claimed. ning of World War Il was approximately eighty sive results, arising from the impossibility of recon- Der Spiegel ran a second cover story on the million. ciling the persecution and extermination of the Jews Goldhagen controversy in its August 12, 1996, issue. 7. P. 9. of Europe with the omnipotence and goodness of The cover line read "Hitler: Executor of the Will of 8. The German press clearly understood God. That reconciliation would require attributing a the People?" picking up on the misleading German Goldhagen's thesis to be collective guilt and repro- righteous purpose to God in decreeing or at least title. A page was devoted to examples of inaccurate bate national character. Der Spiegel, the premier condoning the Holocaust. In an Orthodox Jewish translation in the German edition, softening some of weekly news magazine, made the controversy its context, that reduces to God's righteous wrath on a Goldhagen's most controversial assertions. Gold- cover story on May 20, 1996. The cover art has people who collectively fail to observe his rules per- hagen was accorded the rare privilege of being inter- Hitler greeting a crowd in the foreground, with the fectly. To the Zionist, it reduces to God's righteous viewed personally by the magazine's senior editor infamous Auschwitz train reception terminal in the wrath on Jews who do not emigrate to Israel, or who and founder, Rudolf Augstein. Goldhagen obdu- background, and the cover copy, "New dispute about persist in speaking languages other than Hebrew. rately evaded Augstein's most pertinent questions. collective guilt—The Germans: Hitler's Willing The notion that God deliberately used the Holocaust The two men talked past each other. Accomplices to Murder?" See also, Heinrich to achieve his purpose of regathering and reconsti- 28. See Josef Joffe, "Goldhagen in Germany," Jaenecke, "Die Deutschen: ein Volk von Anti- tuting the Jewish People in Israel has become an The New York Review of Books, November 28, 1996, semiten ? " Stern, July 18, 1996, pp. 128-132. Israeli civil religion of sorts, distinct from Judiasm. p. 18 ff. See also Alan Cowell, "Author Goes to 9. He does refer to defamatory portrayals of Jews See Tom Segev, The Seventh Million, trans. Haim Berlin to Debate Holocaust," The New York Times, in two Nazi era childrens' books. Watzman (New York: Hill and Wang 1993). The September 8, 1996, p. 4, and Mary Williams Walsh, 10. P. 132. notion of the Holocaust as God's devious way of "Holocaust author draws applause in Berlin," The 11. P. 133. accomplishing an eschatological purpose feeds into Philadelphia Inquirer, September 6, 1996, p. A32. • 12. Goldhagen stressed these more in National Public Radio interviews summarizing his thesis, than in the book itself. 13. Pp. 35-36. 14. This is made clear in "Appendix 1—A Note Foster humanist growth for years to come. on Methods" pp. 463-468. The "hypothesis" is also stated in the quotation with Note 7, above. FREE INQUIRY in your will. 15. P. 28 ff. Provide for 16. Aaron T. Beck, the founder of Cognitive Psychotherapy, a school of psychotherapy popular in Please remember FREE INQUIRY (Council for Secular Humanism, Inc.) the eighties, wrote a testimonial letter in support of when planning your estate. Your bequest will help to maintain the vital- Goldhagen to The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 5, 1996, p. E4. ity of humanism in a society often hostile toward it. 17. See pp. 28, 140, 422, 446, and 594. There are We would be happy to work with you and your attorney in the other malapropisms. Repeatedly, Nazi anti-Semitic doctrine is referred to as having been "common development of a will or estate plan that meets your wishes. A variety sense" for Germans—begging the question as to of arrangements are possible, including gifts of a fixed amount or a per- what common sense is. See Chapter 3 generally. On p. 74, assimilationism is described as "philosemitic centage of your estate; living trusts or gift annuities, which provide you antisemitism." On p. 402, the subjection of Jews to with lifetime income; a contingent bequest that provides for FREE death marches by the SS is referred to as "chaperon- INQUIRY only if your primary beneficiaries do not survive you. ing." And on p. 152, we learn that Heinrich Himmler was a "pragmatist." On pp. 178, 204, and 321, the For more information contact Paul Kurtz, Editor of FREE INQUIRY. "immiseration" of the Jews is referred to: there is no All inquiries will be held in the strictest confidence. such English language word. 18. See p. 169. 19. Goldhagen does give a full account of the Write to: failure of the German churches as institutions to P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226. Or call 716-636-7571. oppose the Third Reich. 20. Marr expected "Antisemitism" to become an Spring 1997 39 11110 Pm> CATCH UP ON WHAT Catholic Primate 'iccepts Evolution -~ f0.ME5 RIPS R MARO &MGE YOU'VE MISSED IN THEY APED WITtlUT REtsEON

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New Book-Burners; New Evidence on the Shroud Spring 1986, Vol. 6, no. 2-Faith-Healing- Population Control vs. Freedom in China; of Turin; Agnosticism; Science and Religion; Miracle or Fraud? The Effect of Intelligence on Academic Freedom at Liberty Baptist College; Secular Humanism in Israel. U.S. Religious Faith. Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon; Who Spring 1981, Vol. 1, no. 2-The Secular Winter 1985/86, Vol. 6, no. 1-Is Secular Really Killed Goliath? Humanism in Norway. Humanist Declaration; New England Puritans and Humanism a Religion? An Interview with Adolf Fall 1983, Vol. 3, no. 4-The Future of the Moral Majority; On the Way to Mecca; The Grünbaum; Homer Duncan's Crusade Against Humanism; Humanist Self-Portraits; Interview Blasphemy Laws, Does God Exist? Prophets of Secular Humanism; Should a Humanist Celebrate with Paul MacCready; A Personal Humanist the Procrustean Collective; The Madrid Con- Christmas? Manifesto; The Enduring Humanist Legacy of ference; Natural Aristocracy. Fall 1985, Vol. 5, no. 4-Two Forms of Human- Greece; On the Sesquintennial of Robert Ingersoll; Winter 1980/81, Vol. 1, no. 1-Secular Humanist istic Psychology; Philosophy of Science and The Historicity of Jesus. Declaration; The Creation/Evolution Controversy; Psychoanalysis; The Death Knell of Psycho- Summer 1983, Vol. 3, no. 3-Religion in Amer- Moral Education; Morality Without Religion; The analysis; New Testament Scholarship and Chris- ican Politics; Bibliography for Biblical Study. Road to Freedom.

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ENHANCING LIBRARY REGIONAL OUTREACH RESOURCES hr' The -F<.,\ Alliance of The Center for ( . _ T~,~ Secular Inquiry's libraries r ~ , Humanist of humanism and Societies freethought and (ASHS) helps American philo- autonomous local groups exchange views sophical natural- and learn from each other. Yet humanists ism will preserve have long desired a more direct Council the world's hu- presence around the country. With the manist and phi- establishment of The Center for losophical literature for scholars today Inquiry—West (Los Angeles); The Center and tomorrow. Expanded funding is nec- for Inquiry—Midwest (Kansas City); and essary to acquire additional volumes and The Center for Inquiry—Critical Studies in expand library services. Electronic infor- Religion, Ethics and Society (Oxford, Center for Inquiry Institute session. mation technologies will make the England), giant steps have been taken in Libraries' collections more accessible at this direction. Additional regional Centers are planned with expanded calendars of the cost of substantial investment in activities. infrastructure. Center for Inquiry • P.O. Box 664 • Amherst, NY 14226-0664 • Tel. (716) 636-7571 • Fax (716) 636-1733 On Witchcraft Witch-Children—Then and Now The Myth of the Innocent Child Hans Sebald

uestioning children's innocence is accusations. Children played a pivotal Qnot popular. In a world that agonizes role, linking the power of the inquisitor to over perennial betrayal, cruelty, war, the fates of a variety of people. It is this mass slaughter, and other failures of nexus that demands careful examination, humanity, we passionately long for exem- an examination that, for whatever reason, plars of unadulterated goodness—and the has been widely neglected by writers of child, like some sacred icon, has been tra- history books. ditionally placed upon an imaginary altar The question arises whether this type so that we might revere virtues lacking in of child behavior was merely an expres- ourselves. This is the benchmark of sion of an aberrant Zeitgeist, of an era of romanticism: to seek virtue and beauty in theological fanaticism, or whether it was groups, places, and times that are remote an expression of a timeless condition and relatively unknown. found in the child's psyche. Alas, "the innocence of the little ones" Evidently the children's destructive is a phrase of dubious veracity, since his- behavior cannot be seen neatly encapsu- torical events suggest otherwise. Nowhere lated in an erring era, because the classi- has this optimism stumbled over more "Again, children reign over the cal Salem syndrome is anything but past obstinate obstacles than during the great nexus between prosecutor and history; it is an ongoing process. Again, witch-hunts of the sixteenth and seven- children reign over the nexus between defendant. This time the accused teenth centuries. During those not-so-dis- prosecutor and defendant. This time the tant years vast numbers of children gave are not called witches but accused are not called witches but moles- free rein to imagination. They played back molesters, and new panics of ters, and new panics of epidemic propor- the image of the witch, as it existed in the epidemic proportions are tions are underway. cosmology of their time, and substantially underway." There are, of course, significant differ- contributed to the witch-hunts. In har- ences between the two maniacal hunts. mony with supernatural assumptions of Most important, child molestation is an the Christian worldview, children About two dozen victims. Immediately unfortunate fact of life. It's not fictional, it denounced and brought to the stake afterward, the Salem authorities admitted happens. On the other hand, witchcraft uncounted thousands of innocent people, to miscarriage of justice, openly apolo- was a figment of the theological imagina- including neighbors, peers, and even gized, and tried as much as possible to tion. Even though there were no witches, members of their own families. make amends to the victimized families. the accusations proceeded with the air of Compared to the European extent of The defaming children, however, were absolute certainty. the witch-hunts, Salem was a minor never punished for their lethal role. A similar air of certainty appears to episode, limited to a panic raging merely In Europe, where not one country was prevail in many cases of child molestation a year (1692) and costing the lives of spared the scourge of the hunt, no official claims. Persecution-eager persons fre- retraction has ever come forth, no church quently seem to forget that such claims Hans Sebald is Emeritus Professor of has ever officially admitted that the witch- can be true or false. Perhaps a better Sociology at Arizona State University. hunts had been a mistake. understanding of child psychology can This article is based on and partly In a majority of the witch panics, help in discerning truth from invention. excerpted from Hans Sebald, Witch- European as well as American, it was chil- Modern situations in which children Children: From Salem Witch-Hunts to dren who were responsible for starting the can wreak tragedy include court proceed- Modern Court Rooms (Amherst, N.Y: hysteria, fueling it with the wildest of alle- ings where they are stimulated to tune into Prometheus Books, 1995). gations, and completing it with lethal a theme and harmonize with it. They often

44 FREE INQUIRY pick up cues how to harmonize with lead- research I examined several hundred so- children then and now have made claims ing questions—questions that are not called confessions by persons accused as of diabolic crimes. meant to be leading but cannot withstand witches. Among them are numerous "con- The ultimate escalation of mythomania the intuitive exploitation by perceptive fessions" by children, consisting more of is not only telling stories and believing children. accusations of other people's alleged them, but acting them out. There are innu- This is where the concept of "Mytho- wrong-doing than of personal confession. merable historical episodes exemplifying mania" comes into play. It is also known A classic example is the case of a nine- this type of mythomaniacal enactment, by the technical term Pseudologia phan- year-old boy from Bamberg in southern with the classic case being "possession." tastica and refers to a person's compul- Germany. Let's call him "Witchboy." This The state of being "possessed" signifies sive lying and making up fantastic stories. street urchin stood trial for witchcraft in the escalation from being a mythomane to The need to coin this phrase originated 1629, after he had lingered in prison for being a demonopath, a person claiming to with experts in forensic medicine who fre- more than a year. Couched in the rich be suffering from demonic torments. quently observed children giving false imagery of what the contemporary mind The demonopath is far from being a testimony. Psychiatrists discovered that a understood as witchery, he skillfully inter- passive victim of his or her affliction and mythomane may initially lie deliberately weaved fantastic details into a supernat- was often the active initiator of witch pan- and consciously, but gradually comes to ural tapestry, including the description of ics, playing an aggressive role in the pros- believe in what he or she is saying. The familiars (demons in disguise of domestic ecution of witches. Also, the demonopath vast majority of persons engaging in such animals, usually the stereotypical black is far from being a historical relic. The case confabulation were children or the men- cat or dog); the raiding of wine cellars by of Anneliese Michel deserves mention, if tally retarded. Interestingly, experts have magical means; the minute depiction of for no other reason than to demonstrate the found that lying by children does not nec- the witches' night flight; the ointments need to think in terms of historical continu- essarily indicate a chronic pathology and needed to accomplish such; the bonus ity instead of discrete historical eras. is not classified as mental illness, whereas illustration of an accident while in flight: This twenty-two-year-old woman was in adults it is. Children are usually moti- his companion riding with him on the a student at the University of Würzburg vated to tell mythomaniacal stories on the pitchfork fell off, landed in the River and in the late 1970s exhibited symp- basis of unmitigated maliciousness, the Main, but was able to magically scurry on toms—including spasms, writhing, speak- need for attention, or precocious sexual the surface to shore, where he, "Witch- ing in devilish tongues—construed by her appetites. In situations where mytho- boy," made an emergency landing to pick devout Catholic family as diabolic posses- manes are motivated by attention-seeking, him up and resume the flight to the sion. The archbishop of Würzburg con- they are particularly susceptible to sug- witches' sabbath; his reporting the meta- curred with their diagnosis and entrusted gestion. With a flair for figuring out what morphosis of his peers into creatures; and two priests, who had prior experience in is expected, they set out on their mytho- most significantly, his denunciations of performing the Great Exorcism from the maniacal journeys, during which com- scores of people of witchery crimes, such seventeenth-century Rituale Romanum, pelling auto-suggestion evolves, with the as poisoning, conjuring up bad weather, with ridding the young woman of the storytellers programming their brains to and attending the witches' sabbath. Devil. To the embarrassment of the confer reality status to the stories. If modern readers, steeped as they are church, the victim died of starvation dur- The substance with which children built in present-day empirical science, should ing the procedures, for the exorcists had their imaginative structures most often for one moment maintain the idea that added the discipline of fasting to the other consisted of what they gleaned from adult such childish prattle must have been means of driving out the demons. Insult conversations. Mythomaniacal children absolutely incredible to the inquisitors, let was added to embarrassment when an seek suggestions; their radar, as it were, is me assure you that they believed every investigation and a trial found the two constantly scanning the social horizon for word of it. There is evidence for that: they priests guilty of negligent manslaughter.2 cues to spin stories that would net them acted on it. At least one of the persons There are at least two conditions that recognition. Theirs is the skill to quickly denounced in Witchboy's story was con- intensify the aggressiveness of mytho- evaluate what they overhear and recognize sequently burned as a witch. manes in general and demonopaths in spe- how they can use it to their advantage. cific: group reinforcement (they often enact This skill, in addition to verbal expres- n order to understand the credulity of their roles collectively) and an accepting siveness, enables mythomanes to tune Ithe inquisitors we must understand the audience. In fact, there are no such things into a theme with persuasive loquacious- power of certain tenets of Christian theo- as private demonopaths; they are public ness. Through confabulation and strategic logy, foremost the existence of the Devil, figures who will perform only when they gossiping they can humor people's biases who is seen not as an abstract psycholog- feel they can captivate an audience. and expectations with such effectiveness ical or theological principle, but as a real The example of Michel revealed the that their utterances are accepted as true entity that can personify itself.' full complement of a performance of "pos- revelations. Obviously, there is more continuity session": star, manager (the priests), and The Inquisition capitalized on chil- than discontinuity in history. The specific audience (family, relatives, neighbors). dren's mythomaniacal talent and used case is the figure of the Devil, and this Intense collective reinforcement was them as victimizers. During archival figure pertains to this essay insofar as observed among the Salem girls. A

Spring 1997 45 crescendo performance took place when by the very people she abused. tendency when divorce, custody, or visita- they attended the hearing of Goody Cory, The key element in mythomania and tion disputes were involved.' whom they accused of having bewitched demonopathy is suggestibility. Observers While research into the actual forensic them. When Martha Cory tried to defend on the modern scene have witnessed the problems proved to be extremely difficult, her innocence and assured the court that creation of mythomaniacal profusion dur- a number of psychologists have chosen she was a God-fearing "Gospel woman," ing numerous court hearings dealing with laboratory situations in an attempt to iden- one of the girls yelled "Gospel witch," a claims of child molestation. They noticed tify the principles underlying children's cry that was immediately taken up by the how a biased and one-sided climate was vulnerability to influence and manipula- rest of the girls. At the same time they created through the unconscious col- tion. While the findings are far from com- imitated every move the woman made. laboration of the questioner and the child, plete, several insights have been gained. The significance of the two behavior whereby the child emerged as if a proven Suggestibility varies with age. Psy- forms, echolalia (compulsively repeating victim of perverse crime. chologist Maria Zaragosa found that sounds in an echolike fashion) and echo- In the majority of cases, concerned young children (under eight) have greater mania (compulsively imitating bodily adults, particularly parents, showed difficulty than older children and adults in movements or gestures), was the collec- anxiousness to know all about the distinguishing between imagined events tive method serving to reinforce the indi- assault—its nature, time, place, motive, and those they actually experienced. vidual girl's behavior—in fact, one and so on. The child may initially have "Given the greater tendency to confuse should not even refer to individual behav- been bewildered and embarrassed by all imagination with perception, young chil- ior; it was group behavior. The girls the questions—a reaction interpreted by dren might also be more likely to confuse behaved identically; they all had the questioner, or the court in general, as a items that were merely suggested to them regressed to a common emotional-vis- sign of shame. Right away the child was with those they had actually perceived."' ceral denominator. inundated with encouraging words and If, however, intrusion of extraneous The basic ingredients of such role leading questions. The- child followed the information and the posing of leading enactments are taken from two sources: lead and would answer in such a way as to questions are avoided—thus creating a sort the cultural context (beliefs, traditions) meet the more or less obvious expecta- of cognitively sterile environment for the and the social context (direct involvement tions of the questioners. The hearing child—children's recall of factual material in social interaction). What that means in would turn into a veritable rehearsal of a has been found to be amazingly accurate, regard to children is that they take the story that the child now learned by heart. approaching in quality that of adults. concerns of the day, interweave them with In future rehearings, the child stuck to the Research data show that "children are cultural images, and then mold stories version now imprinted in his or her mind. capable of being good eyewitnesses, but from which they can derive personal The only changes the child might make that their recall appears to be more vulner- benefit. In the process, they take advan- consisted of adding new material con- able to various distorting influences in the tage of the credibility accorded them and forming to this version. interview situation than does adult recall."5 pursue personal goals, such as prestige, As we enter the twenty-first century, Once a child begins a course of con- praise, rebellion, revenge. These personal children's suggestibility has gained fabulation, a process of self-brainwashing goals are rarely recognized as such by the importance as increased claims of child snaps into action. Self-brainwashing dif- children; they are largely on the uncon- molestations and child abuse in the United fers from brainwashing, as the former scious level and are rooted in a variety of States have aroused parental and legal starts with voluntary confabulation and emotions and needs. concerns. Many of the events presumably gradually assumes truth value in the mind The Salem girls Abigail and Betty, had taken place within the context of of the narrator. The latter starts with members of a Puritan preachers's family, occult practices, the alleged scenarios external pressure to persuade a person to for example, got away with insulting what teeming with demonic figures, including change his or her mind and ends with a probably constituted the most sacred thing witches. One case, after lengthy investiga- new orientation. in the home, the Holy Bible, by scornfully tions and hearings, was finally resolved Psychologist Paul Ekman's studies flinging it across the room. Here is a con- because the "abused" children had focused on the truth-value of children's vergence of the cultural, social, and per- referred to a teacher who appeared in a verbal behavior.6 His survey findings from sonal elements: the Bible as a sacred item witch's costume at an Halloween party. the 1980s in the United States show that in the culture of the Puritans, the family The majority of the cases included most children are inclined to experiment context with parental authority, and per- claims of sexual abuse. Research by psy- with lies. Among the examples is one that sonal feelings of resentment against chologists David Raskin and Phillip unwittingly mirrors a dialogue that could authority, sacred and parental. The result Esplin found that children involved in have been lifted straight from a witch trial. was the eruption of that resentment with parental abuse cases often took advantage A little girl, Lori, decided one day to use impunity under the protection of enacting of their power in court proceedings to fab- her bedroom wall for trying out new "the role of the afflicted." Betty Parris, ricate, or at least vastly exaggerate, sexual crayons. Her upset mother shouted: "Lori, brought up by the strictest of fathers, abuse in order to punish or to side with did you draw on your wall?" "No," Lori finally found a way to strike back. Her one or the other parent. The researchers answered, completely straight-faced. "Well skillful acting granted her celebrity status noted that such distortion was a strong then, who did?" the mother pressed on. "It 46 FREE INQUIRY wasn't me," the girl insisted. "Was it a lit- the first group was asked broad and non- usually the one that is more successful in tle ghost?" her mother asked sarcastically. specific questions about the procedure, manipulating the children. "Yeah, yeah," Lori replied. "It was a only eight mentioned the vaginal checks, This brings to mind a disturbing paral- ghost." Lori could not be swayed from that and when the children were shown lel between patterns of past witch-hunts "confession," and her mother finally joined anatomically correct dolls, six pointed to and present court proceedings. In both what she considered funny role-playing by the vaginal area. But of the girls who had scenarios children were often asked to saying: "Well, tell that little ghost not to do undergone a merely general checkup, report on their family life, especially it again or she'll be sorry."' three claimed they also had had vaginal or whether it incorporated immoral (hereti- While the modern mother's words anal examinations; one child even said cal) elements. And in both situations chil- were said in sarcastic levity, the same that "the doctor did it with a stick."t0 dren catered to the inquisitiveness of the words could have been uttered by Renais- It is obvious what sort of disasters such authority figures in order to be appreci- sance inquisitors in absolute seriousness. fantasies can cause in real life. They are ated and to feel important.14 This vignette tells us that children will reflected in court statistics that have New players have entered the battle- lie when feeling threatened—and they assumed nearly epidemic proportion. A field and now profusely populate service- will lie within the framework at hand, number of cases from the 1980s and 90s oriented postmodern society: counselors, particularly if it was initiated by powerful illustrate the star roles of children in lawyers and therapists. They are the authority. Psycho-dynamics, largely of an human tragedies. inquisitors of postmodern civilization unconscious nature, will sway the child's and, for hefty fees, will belabor the sug- verbalizations into a direction from s mentioned earlier, we are not gestibility of the child. There are even which he or she expects the least unpleas- ssuming that all accusations made heretofore unheard-of specialists among ant consequences. by children are false; child molestation is them, "memory therapists," who will help Additional studies on the truth value of a sad fact of life. The real problem is to patients, young or old, to recover long- children's verbalizations have been con- distinguish the false from the true claims. lost memories of such traumas as incest, ducted at the Institute for the Study of This distinction is often tragically satanic ritual, and human sacrifice. Child Development at the University of delayed, if at all ever made. Often inno- It goes without saying that if an adult's Medicine of New Jersey. It was discov- cent persons have been punished so dra- suggestibility can suffer such misguid- ered that already at age three a majority of conically that the rest of their lives were ance, what about children's? Misguidance children will lie in certain situations. left in shambles. The irony usually is that at a young age may result in an impres- When the liars were challenged, only 38% in hindsight the children's claims should sion that no counselor or college course of them admitted to having lied, with boys have been recognized at the very outset can ever delete. more likely than girls admitting their dis- for what they were: hoaxes or bizarre Increasing numbers of schools for honesty.' Another study found that decep- delusions. Their accusations were so fan- young children have become the target of tion can usually be detected by uncon- tastic, as we shall see, that it baffles one's child molestation charges. One dealt with scious body movements that differ from mind that anyone should have taken such a San Diego Sunday school teacher, Dale the person's normal movements. How- absurdities for the truth. Akiki, whom nine children accused of ever, such differentiating body language Most of the trials involve day-care cen- rape, sodomy, and torture. The drawn-out was missing in "pathological liars or those ters, preschools, and divorce/custody dis- court hearings heard the children's claims who simply feel no remorse about lying."9 putes, with charges of sexual abuse a fre- that the teacher had killed a baby, sacri- Findings of this nature bear on the credi- quent part of the custody quarrels. ficed rabbits, and slaughtered an elephant bility of children's testimony and accusa- According to estimates, the charge is and a giraffe. The Superior Court finally tions in more than one way. First, they raised in about 5% of child-custody concluded that the children weren't cred- remind us that a majority of children do cases." A 1988 study by the Association of ible and released Akiki—after two and a lie; second, they proffer the disturbing Family and Conciliation Courts con- half years spent behind bars." fact that liars and truth-tellers cannot eas- cluded the charges probably are false up Another recent case involved a teacher ily be told apart. to 40% of the time. Dr. Ralph Underwager at a New Jersey day-care center. Margaret A revealing study identified some of of the Institute of Psychological Therapies Michaels, twenty-five, was convicted on the dangers that may arise from children's in Northfield, Minnesota, researched the 115 counts of sexually assaulting twenty reports. Psychologist Karen Saywitz of psychological profile of the accusers and pupils at the Wee Care Day Nursery in Harbor-University of California at Los discovered that 75% of them were Maplewood during the 1984-1985 school Angeles Medical Center and Gail afflicted with severe personality disor- year. The children ranged in age from Goodman of the State University of New ders." Regardless of their problems, they three to five at the time of the alleged York at Buffalo interviewed seventy-two usually are successful in using sex- abuse and were six to eight when they tes- girls, ages five and seven, about routine molestation charges as a strategy to obtain tified. Michaels was convicted despite her medical procedures they had received. custody and to achieve revenge against lawyer's demonstration that the children's Half were given full examinations, ex-spouses. The children become pawns stories were fantasies created through sug- including vaginal and anal checks; the rest in the process, and the opponents vie for gestive questions asked by overzealous were given just general physicals. When their cooperation. The party winning is investigators and that there was no med-

Spring 1997 47 ical evidence of abuse. The jury, however, below the school; seeing a teacher fly; have a surefire weapon."20 believed the parents, who said "they having been given red or pink liquids to In conclusion, this modern "surefire observed marked changes in their chil- make them sleepy. Reminiscent of the weapon" is the equivalent of the witch dren's behavior while they were in denunciations made by children at witch accusation of past times; again it is based Michaels' care. They reported that some trials during past centuries, the preschool on the testimony of children, a testimony children experienced nightmares, devel- children identified a number of members whose truth value is hard to prove or dis- oped a fear of the dark, showed aversion to of the community as they were driven prove, and a testimony still too often peanut butter, and exhibited increased around town and asked to point out credulously accepted. interest in sex play."16 The convictions molesters. The children pointed out com- were ultimately overthrown; otherwise the munity leaders, store clerks, gas-station Notes accused could have received a sentence attendants; one child picked out photos of 1. This tenet is still officially upheld. Joseph amounting to hundreds of years in prison. actor Chuck Norris and Los Angeles City Cardinal Ratzinger, second in authority to the pope A most destructive version of the genre Attorney James Hahn. and prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the successor institute to the Holy took its fateful course in 1983 at a Rather than discrediting the testimony Inquisition), made a public statement in 1984, say- preschool in Manhattan Beach, Cali- of the children, the district attorney in ing, ". .. for the Christian belief, the Devil is a mys- fornia." Two teachers at the McMartin Los Angeles pressed ahead with the terious, yet real, a corporeal and not symbolic presence. A mighty reality he is, the prince of this world, Pre-School, Peggy Buckey, sixty-three, prosecution and presented eighteen chil- as the New Testament calls him...." Quoted in and her son Raymond, thirty-one, were dren to the grand jury, which in March Georg Siegmund, Von Wemding nach Klingenberg, accused by Judy Johnson, the mother of a 1985 returned indictments against Stein am Rhein, Chistiana Verla& 1985, p. 6. 2. See details in Hans Sebald, Witch-Children: two-and-a-half-year-old boy, of having Raymond Buckey, his mother, sister, From Salem Witch-Hunts to Modern Court Rooms, molested her son. Thereupon a public hys- grandmother, and three preschool teach- (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1995) pp. teria spread, resembling the case in old ers. They were arrested with full 58-60. 3. David C. Raskin and Phillip W. Esplin, Salem, and soon forty-one children were (national and international) publicity. In "Assessment of Children's Statements of Sexual involved and 208 counts filed against January 1986, charges against five of Abuse," in John Doris, ed., The Suggestibility of seven individuals. those jailed were unexpectedly dropped Children's Recollections (Washington, D.C.: Amer- ican Psychological Association, 1991) pp. 153-164. Johnson's complaints against the teach- as a new district attorney took over and 4. Maria S. Zaragosa, "Preschool Children's ers grew bizarre. She accused Raymond declared a complete absence of evidence. Susceptibility to Memory Impairment," in John Buckey of various sexual perversities. However, Peggy Buckey and her son Doris, ed., The Suggestibility of Children's Recollec- tions (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Later, as the investigation was still under- Raymond remained incarcerated and suf- Association, 1991) pp. 27-39. way, Johnson was found to be an acute fered the longest criminal trial in 5. Helen R. Dent, `Experimental Studies of paranoid schizophrenic. She died of alco- American history. It was not until 1990 Interviewing Child Witnesses," in John Doris, ed., The Suggestibility of Children's Recollections hol-related liver disease. But by then the that they were acquitted-after they had (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Asso- prosecution had stirred up enough other spent two years and five years, respec- ciation, 1991) pp. 138-146. witnesses and felt no need to revise the ini- tively, in jail. 6. Paul Ekman, "Would a Child Lie?" Psy- chology Today, July-August 1989, pp. 62-65. tial witness's testimony. The police had The California episode was exploited 7. Ibid., pp. 63-64. written to two hundred parents announc- by the mass media and produced a tremen- 8. Michael Lewis et al., "Deception in 3-year- ing their investigation of sexual abuse at dous repercussion across the nation-not olds," Developmental Psychology 25 (1989): 439-443. the preschool, thereby fanning the hysteria one of caution, as one might have 9. Rebecca L. Jahn, "Detecting Deception," and encouraging more children to come expected, but one of ever larger numbers Research at Arizona State University 8 (Fall 1993): 6. forth with lurid tales of abuse. of children imitating similar claims. 10. Quoted by Jerome Cramer, "Why Children Lie in Court," Time, March 4, 1991, p. 76. An administrator-turned-therapist soon "Nationally, the attention generated by the 11. Quoted by Robert Dvorchak in, "Custody established that 369 of the 400 children case set off an explosion of reports claim- Fights Use Sex Charge as Weapon," Arizona she interviewed had been abused. Her ing sexual abuse of children, increasing Republic, August 22, 1992, pp. 1-A8. 12. Ibid., p. A8. technique was blatantly suggestive: she such reports from 6,000 in 1976 to an esti- 13. Ibid. gave emotional rewards to the children mated 350,000 in 1988."19 The main 14. Cf. Hartwig Weber, Kinderhezenprozesse, who accused the teachers, and rebuffs to responsibility for the explosion must be Frankfurt, Insel, 1991, p. 243n. 15. Associated Press, "Man Not Guilty of those who did not. "What good are you? placed on the mass media, which wal- Molestation," Mesa Tribune, November 20, 1993, p. You must be dumb," she said to one child lowed in lurid detail. The perils created by A7. who knew nothing about the game Naked the media's suggestive force include that 16. A United Press International report in the Arizona Republic, April 16, 1988, p. A8. Movie Star.18 The collection of stories she increasing numbers of parents and author- 17. See details: Paul Eberle and Shirley Eberle, presented to the authorities as being cred- ities will use the malleable power of chil- The Abuse of Innocence: The McMartin Preschool ible accounts included: children digging dren to bring about testimonies that serve Trial (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1993); Vern L. Bullough, "The Salem Witch Trials and the up dead bodies at cemeteries; being taken the biases and schemes of partisan adults. Modern Media," FREE INQUIRY 10 (Spring 1990) p. for rides in airplanes; killing animals As someone warned: "Some parents, 6; Margaret Carlson, "Six Years of Trial by Torture," (including a horse) with bats; observing determined to damage each other in a di- Time, January 29, 1990, p. 26-27. 18. Ibid., p. 26 devil worship; being buried alive; seeing vorce, are throwing abuse charges around. 19. Ibid. p. 27. naked priests cavorting in a secret cellar Those bent on destroying a reputation 20. Ibid. 48 FREE INQUIRY his aim is fourfold: to (1) investigate children's roles in witch trials throughout his- Children, Witches, Demons, tory; (2) illustrate relevant social dynamics through description and analysis of the previously unknown early seventeenth- and Cultural Reality century case of "Witchboy," in Bamberg, Germany, site of fierce witch persecutions and the area of Sebald's own upbringing and later research; (3) apply insights from Phillips Stevens, Jr. child psychology to understanding aberra- tions in children's behavior; and (4) indi- lively and creative imagination in cate parallels between historic witch-hunts hildren has always been regarded as that focused on people believed empow- a sign of their good health, and throughout ered by Satan to fly, transform themselves, the world adults enrich children's imagina- and indulge in all manner of unspeakable tions with magical folktales and encour- crimes against innocent people, and cer- agement of beliefs in supernatural beings, tain modern child sexual abuse cases, both good and evil. Imagination helps both some also aptly named "witch-hunts." cognitive and social/moral development in Sebald is bothered by the persistent the child; for adult agents of socialization, image of children as naïve and innocent. encouraging children's beliefs in powerful To be sure, they were believed to be the supernatural beings who can punish or favorite victims of witches; and child reward has obvious uses. The content of molestation is real and timeless. But, he the child's imagination is cultural, and the says, children have as often been victim- child learns acceptable cultural limits to its izers, and quite clever and ruthless ones at elaboration and use. Usually if the prod- that. His chosen metaphor for social ucts of children's imaginations offend nor- dynamics is dramaturgical, in which chil- mative sensibilities it is evidence of some "Witches and demons were real, dren learn and act out personally advanta- problem in the children's mental/emo- and horribly evil, in the culture of geous roles. tional development. late medieval Europe; moreover, Over twelve chapters he does a good But at certain times and under certain their major attributes: social job of accomplishing his four aims. The social/cultural conditions the most fantas- subversion, nocturnal flight, familiar book covers a lot of ground and provides tic claims of children are not only accepted animals or spirits, abduction of valuable analysis and insight into a great as fact, but can directly instigate radical children, cannibalism and number of well-documented cases. The collective social action. Results can vampirism, illicit sexual behavior, literature on European witchcraft beliefs include the establishment of miraculous and an association with death, are and witch-hunting is tremendous, but still places, foci of religious pilgrimages—or universal in cultural conceptions of Sebald is able to make original contribu- persecutory movements and witch-hunts witches and other evil beings:' tions to it. His presentation and discussion that destroy reputations and even lives. In of the 1629 case of "Witchboy," based on several modern child sexual-abuse trials in cerned with this negative dimension of his translation of previously unstudied which defendants were defamed and some children's fantasizing, focusing specifi- German documents he discovered in the convicted solely on the bizarre and horri- cally on instances from the past 400 years extensive witchcraft collections at Cornell ble testimony of children, parents and of Western history in which children made University, is especially valuable; the case child protection advocates have rallied fantastic allegations about bizarre and hor- makes an important contribution to under- under the slogan, "Believe the Children." rible, often supernaturally inspired, acts standing the contemporary demonology Defendants in such cases are presumed committed by others—and in many of of witchcraft. guilty, publicly labeled as monsters, often these cases their allegations were fervently And this book joins the too-few others denied the right to confront their accusers, believed. The context is the witch-hunt, that reveal central elements of the recent and, because of the nature of the "evi- medieval and modern. Hans Sebald, emer- satanism scares that have gripped much of dence," they may have no defense. itus professor of sociology at Arizona the modern world, and sexual child sexual Witch-Children: From Salem Witch- State University, brings to the problem a abuse cases, including some in which Hunts to Modern Courtrooms by Hans background of research and writing on "satanic ritual abuse" was alleged, to be Sebald (Prometheus Books, 1995) is con- European witchcraft and magical beliefs, modern manifestations of the same sort of including original data from his native hysteria that rose and fell through late Phillips Stevens, Jr., is Associate Pro- areas of Germany (1978), and on the social medieval Europe and early America. The fessor of Anthropology at the State psychology of adolescence (1992). methods of modern therapists and University of New York at Buffalo. In his Introduction Sebald states that lawyers, operating from a pre-determined

Spring 1997 49 agenda, have been disturbingly similar to ting or compliant play-acting of socially, phenomenon. Noteworthy among them those of Inquisitors. Sebald brings a new emotionally, or sexually deprived or is Felicitas D. Goodman, an American and unsettling perspective to the central obsessed individuals. His examples are all anthropologist who claims that she can "prove" that this was a case of true pos- role of children in such legal cases as European and American. We can know session and that new types of demons those involving Dale Akiki in San Diego, from others of his writings that Sebald is are presently active. When Goodman the Buckeys in Los Angeles, and Margaret aware of incidences of these phenomena in talks of demons, she doesn't mean it Kelly Michaels in Newark, New Jersey, other regions of the world, but this book symbolically; she depicts them as active (though he does not mention the night- makes no mention at all of cross-cultural "entities." Goodman was one of the first authors to publish an evaluation of the marish cases against day-care workers in studies that reveal the near universality of Michel case and made an impression on Edenton, North Carolina, still continuing beliefs in similar kinds of witches and pos- German readers by flaunting her acade- after seven years). The book is well-writ- sessing spirits, the role of culture in shap- mic credentials (including a doctorate ten and makes fascinating reading. ing concepts of "reality," and the funda- from Ohio State University). Good- The subtitle, From Salem Witch-Hunts mental importance of altered states of man's writing contributed to the divi- sion and confusion of a German public to Modern Courtrooms, seems somewhat consciousness in both. By ignoring anthro- that was not—and still is not—sure misleading, since many of Sebald's cases pological contributions Sebald's analysis what to think of the event. [pp. 59-60] occurred well before the Salem events, and explanations are not only too narrow and his discussion of Salem is brief; but it in scope, but ethnocentric in attitude. In Nowadays such allegations might is apparently justified by his application the rest of this essay I will offer some bring libel suits against authors and pub- of the label, "the Salem syndrome" to alternative, even some radically contrary, lishers. Sebald's only citation for anything cases in which allegations by hysterical views of Sebald's material. in these lines is a footnote identifying the young children resulted in the quick and German and English editions of severe prosecution of adults. I noted How About Demons? Goodman's book and a 1985 German pub- another inconsistency: much of his dis- lication that supports Goodman's explana- cussion of older cases that he has studied sm an anthropologist with interests in tion of possession, and is "remarkable" is supported with careful scholarly docu- A uch of Sebald's subject matter, I for using as a foreword a statement by mentation; but he cites newspaper and must address these issues. The most seri- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger reiterating the popular magazine articles for much of his ous problem is his dismissal of claims of official Roman Catholic position that the documentation of peripheral or modern demon possession as simple play-acting Devil is "a real and personifiable being." I cases. This is risky scholarship, as such or, when accompanied by apparently clin- do not know what Goodman said to any- news items have passed through several ical symptoms, as demonopathy, a "form one, nor popular reaction to her research, filters, both cultural and individual, and of insanity" (p. 205). His attitude toward nor have I read the German edition of her the details are rarely subjected to verifica- the phenomenon of possession is book (1980). I have read the English edition before publication. expressed in his brief summary of the tion, The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel Sebald's whole discussion comes from official account of the tragic 1976 case of (1981), and I can say that its tone is quite a paradigm of incredulous disbelief, Anneliese Michel, a 22-year old univer- humble, and nowhere is there any claim to which he presumes is shared by his read- sity student in Würzburg, Germany, who "proof' of "true possession" or the reality ers. He tells us several times throughout suffered for a long time under what her of supernatural "entities;" indeed, she the book that it is incredible, but true, that family and priests believed was demonic explicitly states (p. 223) that "truth" is not the ravings of children were believed. possession but psychiatrists diagnosed as the issue, nor, even, is belief in demons. And his approach to beliefs in witchcraft "a pathology composed of epilepsy on the This problem is absolutely central to the and demon possession seems paradoxi- physiological level and high-fidelity role- cases Sebald discusses, and to a full cal. He acknowledges that "mythomania- playing on the social psychological level" appreciation of religious experience and, cal" children are creating tales consistent (p. 59). Anneliese received both medical indeed, of a fundamental aspect of human with "the cosmology of their times," and and ritual treatment; she died during an nature; and so we should take some space he identifies many of the relevant compo- especially severe exorcism, and the cause to consider it. nents of such beliefs, the socio-cultural of death was officially listed as starvation. Felicitas Goodman was a student of conditions under which they become In 1978 her priests and parents were Ohio State anthropologist Erika credible, and even the neuro-biology of accused of negligent manslaughter (they Bourguignon, whose pioneering cross-cul- the altered state of consciousness cultur- allegedly starved her to expel the tural study of beliefs in spirit possession ally explained as "possession." He even demons), and the priests were sentenced (1973; and see 1989), showed that the pos- acknowledges that some such beliefs per- to jail terms. Sebald concludes his discus- session state is nearly universal in reli- sist in the world today. sion of the case as follows: gious ritual, and is a cultural explanation But, using as his yardstick the premises for an altered state of consciousness of modern "empirical science," he repeat- Despite the tangible, natural explana- (ASC) that, under certain circumstances, tion of the woman's affliction and the edly emphasizes the blatant falsity of such mass media's nationwide presentation any healthy human being can achieve, beliefs, and asserts that the behaviors they of it, many believers have persisted in without psychotropic drugs. Perhaps it is can generate are merely the attention-get- seeing the episode as a supernatural semantics that inhibits general recognition 50 FREE INQUIRY of this fact. No one doubts the operation of lent spirit—a god, a family ancestor, or a ing, or really painful—it is confirmation of ASCs, and many are freely called nature spirit; or the Christian God in the the reality of the supernatural. "trance," e.g. hypnotic, meditative, yogic; form of the Holy Spirit—let's recognize Anthropology is the study of people— even the states that can characterize kids at that Pentecostalism is the fastest growing anthropos—and seeks understanding of rock concerts, or in front of a television, or form of religious worship in the world the nature of their cultural reality, through compulsive gamblers working slot today, as Harvey Cox has recently (1995) their perception; theos and daimon may be machines. The conditions psychiatrists shown. Religious ASCs are most often part of that reality. Further, anthropology have long known as fugue or "dissociative actively sought, and are usually enhanced seeks to understand the rules by which states," implicated in the flood of recent by any of a variety of stimulants: percus- other cultural systems work, and recog- diagnoses of "multiple personality disor- sive rhythm, physiological stimulation or nizes the impossibility of achieving that der" (alleged in some cases, as Sebald deprivation, and, as Sebald notes, a ritual aim if the standards for conceptualization, indicates, to have resulted from satanic or context and an audience (though he is measurement, and judgment are one's other abuse in early childhood; (see wrong to assert that an audience is neces- own. This is the cardinal doctrine of cul- Bourguignon 1989); the experience psy- sary). Or entry into the state can be stim- tural relativism. We don't have to approve chologists have called "flow" (Csiks- ulated by prolonged physical debilitation of the other's system, but we must recog- zentmihalyi 1990); or the variety of hyste- or intensely negative emotions, such as nize its validity within its cultural context. rias Sebald recognizes, are all variants of despair or grief, or some neuro-physiolog- Anthropologists therefore describe other this altered neurophysiological state. Wild ical disorder—or combinations of these; belief systems in "the ethnographic pre- distortions of perception, including sen- and the experience may be not only nega- sent"—e.g., "demons are ..." rather than sory hallucinations, are normal to the tive but painful and physiologically dele- "demons are believed to be...." experience (note this word) of many terious. If spirit possession is culturally Anneliese Michel was raised in a ASCs, as are a wide variety of motor possible, as it is in nearly all the world's deeply religious household, and schooled behaviors similar to epileptic seizures; religious traditions, the negative ASC in a rigidly pre-Vatican II Catholic envi- euphoria and anesthesia frequently charac- may be experienced as possession by an ronment. Jesus and the saints could appear terize the state, and sometimes total amne- evil spirit, a demon, often recognizable as to and counsel people directly. But the sia and frequently utter exhaustion follow the personification of a culturally popular legacy of her region's zealous persecution it. An interesting aspect of such ASCs is image of evil, such as, in Western lore: of witches shaped local conceptions of that under certain conditions they are con- Cain, Judas, Nero, Hitler, Charles supernatural evil. She was certain of the tagious, they can spread rapidly among Manson, the Ayatollah Khomeini, reality of Satan and his command of members of a group of like-minded peo- Saddam Hussein, or Satan himself. demons that could possess people, and ple, and even beyond the group. The comfortable, ritually controlled among the most terrible of Satan's per- Both the behavior and the content of ASC is brought to an end also in a cultur- sonifications for the people of this area of the experience during the ASC are largely ally prescribed way. Demon possession, Bavaria was Adolf Hitler. Moreover, the culturally conditioned, shaped by cultural brought on by possibly a complex variety two priests assigned to her case, Father expectations, and religious belief provides of involuntary factors, causing the Apt and Father Renz, who spent many the most common explanatory idiom— brain/mind to switch from its normal mode hours with her, were both also strongly indeed, ASCs are integral to religious rit- of processing cultural data to an agitated conditioned by their regional and Roman ual for almost all of the world's peoples. mode that can become chaotic in a hyper- Catholic tradition, and Goodman's inves- Religious ASCs can include trance states sensitive individual, may be extremely tigations suggested that they also were in which visions, or voices, of supernat- tenacious. Drugs may calm things down, neuorologically hypersensitive; in their ural beings are perceived; "the gift of at least temporarily; but people around the written reports to their bishop they stated tongues," the Pentecostal phenomenon of world have known for millennia that the that frequently in their ministrations to glossolalia; "ecstasy," in which the soul ritual of exorcism can be effective. It Anneliese they, too, sensed demonic pres- leaves its body on a variety of adventures works by helping the person get back into ences and even smelled their awful that are vividly described by the person a culturally logical mode of cognition. It stench. And, as her condition worsened, later, the method used by a shaman to works through the same ethos of cultural Anneliese did experience "new types of negotiate with spirits; or "possession" in beliefs and social support that were opera- demons." No longer perceived as cultural which the soul is displaced by a spiritual tive upon entry into the state; it works personifications of evil—Cain, Judas, being that enters the body from outside. because it deals with the same realities the Nero, Hitler, Lucifer—she was now tor- Nearly everyone can enter such a state, person is experiencing. Realities? Think mented by grotesque images recognizable adults or children, but because of varying about it: an hallucination is real to the per- only as faces—horrible, grimacing faces neurophysiologies, emotional sensitivi- son experiencing it; neuroscience has with no cultural precedent, referred to in ties, etc., some people experience ASCs known for a long time that the brains of the records as Fratzen. more readily and far more intensely than schizophrenics record real perceptual Felicitas Goodman first investigated others. Women adepts in possession ritu- stimulation: sight, sound, touch, odor. For glossolalia (1972); and she found in als far outnumber men, the world over. the person in a religious ASC the experi- Anneliese Michel's taped utterances pat- The possessing being may be a benevo- ence is not only real—and really comfort- terns similar to those of others in acknowl-

Spring 1997 51 edged ASCs. Her study of Anneliese, we accounts of Caribbean belief and ritual. rence of the condition, the demonopath might note, was published shortly after the Satan and witchcraft were real in Salem. must be defined as a psychotic, if we cognitive sciences had realized the signifi- In England and colonial America witches judge reality by standards of empirical cance of endorphins and how they are trig- controlled demons, called imps, provided science" (p. 205). "Empirical" means gered, for understanding the ASC (see, them by Satan, which could be sent into grounded in experience! "Empirical sci- e.g., Prince 1982); and it was received their victims; so an understanding of ence," as it is defined today, is a con- eagerly and is still held as an early, pio- demon possession offers a resolution to struct of our culture; the very nature of neering exemplar. It is also regarded as the mystery of the hysterical children, and "reality" itself is cultural. Certainly the good anthropology—although it is a bit other cases Sebald discusses. vast majority of the world's peoples rhetorical in places, as, following anthro- Witches and demons were real, and today don't judge "reality" by Sebald's pological convention, she reconstructs and horribly evil, in the culture of late standards. We might attempt to change identifies with events in Anneliese's life. medieval Europe; moreover, their major the worldviews of those hundreds of mil- And, after studying the autopsy report and attributes: social subversion, nocturnal lions who believe in demon possession; some pharmacological investigation, flight, familiar animals or spirits, abduc- but it is not only of no use, it is counter- Goodman suggests that Anneliese may tion of children, cannibalism and vam- productive and arrogant to apply our have died not from starvation, but from a pirism, illicit sexual behavior, and an standards in aloof judgment of other cul- reaction to the antipsychotic drug association with death, are universal in tures, other ideas of "reality," especially (Tegretol) prescribed for her. Based as it is cultural conceptions of witches and other those of other periods of history whose on a wealth of ethnological data (she notes evil beings. Clearly here is something beliefs we cannot change. that "it is regrettable that the Court con- deeper than culture, something fundamen- Of course children can and do lie, and sulted clinical rather than cross cultural tal to human nature. Sebald gets close to they can come to believe their own lies. psychiatrists," 1981:238), which has recognizing this, discussing Jungian Sebald says that mythomaniacal children grown considerably over the twenty years archetypical interpretations of some of elaborate on topics overheard in adult since, Goodman's reconstruction of this these witch attributes—but still discounts conversations; actually, the bases for their case is entirely plausible. Still, she them as prescientific fantasy. elaborations are facts that they were reminds the reader that her reconstruction Although beliefs in flying, transform- directly taught. Their tales are believed is "a hypothesis, a construct, as the opin- ing witches have died out in Europe and when they express themes considered to ions of the experts had been" (p. 249). In America (but persist in other areas), pos- be real. There may be many situational her analysis of the Michel case she gives sessing demons are real to many millions and social psychological reasons why careful, detailed explanation of the phe- of people today. The Roman Catholic children's fantastic accounts are believed; nomenon of possession from both cultural church, which sets the religious and moral but basically children are believed and clinical perspectives. agenda for hundreds of millions of people because they are children, and apparently Subsequent to Anneliese Michel, worldwide, has remained steadfast in its threatened, and because the defense and Goodman wrote three more books on proclamation of the physical reality of protection of children is instinctive in all anthropological contributions to under- Satan, and it has retained the Roman ritual animalian species. standing ASCs and their implications for of exorcism and has continued to autho- World anthropology reveals that there religious belief and fundamental human rize its use, even up to the present day. are, indeed, universal standards of human nature, all published by a reputable acad- Other Christian churches have authorized behavior, of right and wrong, of human emic press (1988a, 1988b, 1990). One of exorcisms recently. dignity. But in assessing cultural ways of these, How About Demons? Possession In following his dramaturgical meta- defining and maintaining those standards, and Exorcism in the Modern World phor Sebald acknowledges that the stage concepts of reality, experience, and sanity (1988b), re-issued in paperback, gives is cultural, the script conforming to "the must be considered relative. summary accounts of the cases of cosmology of the time," but he has no Anneliese Michel and others, and more on patience with a relativistic approach to References the anthropological approach to spirit pos- cultural ethos; he asserts, "rather than Bourguignon, Erika. 1989. Multiple Personality, session and similar cultural phenomena. facile escape into historical relativism, Possession Trance, and the Psychic Unity of this book exercises a value approach in Mankind Ethos 17, 3:371-84. which respect and dignity for all human . 1973. Religion, Altered States of Con- Reality, Experience, and Sanity sciousness, and Social Change. Columbus, beings are the guiding principles" (p. Ohio: 0hio State University Press. Cox, rom the data available, it seems likely 20). This is a fine humanistic sentiment, Harvests. that the Salem children were experi- but as applied to other cultural systems it Cox, Harvey. 1995. Fire from Heaven: The Rise of F Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of encing a collective ASC. Their first entry is based in naïve ethnocentrism. People Religion in the Twenty-First Century. Reading, into the state was probably not sponta- sharing periods of history also share Mass.: Addison-Wesley. neous, as some theorists have assumed; it unique cultures; isn't cultural relativism Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. 1990. Flow: The Psy- chology of Optimal Experience. New York: is well known that they met frequently in compatible with humanism? But, he HarperCollins. the Parris kitchen with the Barbadian says, "Despite the sociocultural causa- maid Tituba, who regaled them with lurid tion and the situationally limited occur- (Continued on p. 61) 52 FREE INQUIRY The Incredible Flimflams of Margaret Rowen Part 3: The Comic Pratfalls of Robert Reid

Martin Gardner

From time to time, as we all know, a sect appears in our midst announcing that the world will very soon come to an end. Generally, by some slight confusion or miscalculation, it is the sect that comes to an end.

—G. K. Chesterton, in The Illustrated London News (September 24, 1927)

n the first of three articles on Margaret Rowen (FREE INQUIRY, Spring 1996) 1 gave a history of the Reform Seventh-day Adventist Church, a breakaway movement started by Mrs. Margaret Rowen, a Los Angeles housewife who claimed to be the God-chosen successor of Ellen White. The history ended with Mrs. Rowen and two accomplices going to prison for trying to murder Dr. Bert Fullmer, her chief disciple. My second article (FREE INQUIRY, Fall 1996) traced Dr. Fullmer's disenchantment through the pages of his periodical The Reform Advocate. This, the third and final article of the series, is the comic account of Robert Reidt, a Long Island, New York, Rowenite and his little band of disciples. No one knows how many Adventist followers Margaret Rowen managed to ensnare in the United States alone. Some historians estimate the number as about a thousand, others twice that many. Whatever the case, her influence stretched from California to New York, where it found its most vociferous discipline in the person of Robert Reidt. The New York Times (February 5, 1925) described Reidt as a thirty-three-year-old German-born "pale-faced fat little man" with a "buxom" thirty-year-old German wife, and four "pallid, frightened-looking little children." Calling himself the "Apostle The total eclipse of the sun at 9 A.M. January 24, 1925, ten days before of Doom," Reidt said he had been predicting the imminent Mrs. Rowen's date for the return of Jesus. The photograph was made from High Bridge Park, New York City, overlooking the Harlem River. Second Coming of Jesus and the end of the world for fourteen Rowenites took this event to fulfill a prediction made by Jesus in Matthew years. A former Seventh-day Adventist, he accepted Mrs. 24:29. Rowen's date of February 6, 1925, for Jesus' arrival, not only because God had revealed this to her in a vision, but also because As the hour of midnight approached, Reidt said, there would he himself had had similar visions. be a sign in the heavens visible only to the faithful—a little black cloud "no larger than a man's hand." It would be Jesus and a A well known debunker of supernatural claims, author Martin band of angels on their way here from heaven, a region just Gardner is a frequent contributor to FREE INQUIRY. beyond the constellation of Orion. The cloud would descend on the Earth and transport 144,000 of the saved to a hilltop in the

Spring 1997 53 woods near San Diego. that it is "immanent." On February 6 the Times printed a letter During the next seven days, Reidt preached, the Earth would pointing out that, contrary to what Haynes had written, be destroyed by fires, diseases, pestilences, and hailstones. The Adventists had set dates in the past, and that the church's views unsaved would perish as mountains topple and bury them. Stars were responsible for Rowenism. would fall from heaven as predicted in Matthew 24:29. The other On February 6, the day of doom, the Times reported that hun- sign predicted in the same verse, the darkening of the sun and dreds of persons had motored to Reidt's tumbledown shack in moon, was taken to have been fulfilled by a total eclipse of the East Patchogue to see how he and his disciples would react if sun that took place on January 24. The eclipse had been visible nothing happened. Brother Downs is said to have sold his last in the eastern states just ten days before Reidt's Doomsday. possession, a bicycle. After the seven days of destruction, according to Reidt, God's Reidt emerged from his shack to announce that the world powerful "searchlight" would shine on San Diego, and the would not end at midnight. At midnight he and followers would 144,000 "brides of the Lamb" would be beamed up to start their see in the east the little black cloud that indicated Jesus and the journey to heaven. The trip would take exactly seven days. On angels were on their way. It would take seven days for them to the Sabbath (Saturday) Jesus and his band of angels and the reach the Earth. A week of terrible destruction would then occur, redeemed would rest on the surface of Jupiter. Reidt was too and the 144,000 saints would take seven more days to get from ignorant of astronomy to know that Jupiter has no surface. How San Diego to heaven. There would be many stops along the way much of all this was taken from Mrs. Rowen's writings and how to pick up saints from other planets. much added by Reidt I do not know. Reidt had recently shaved and was wearing neatly pressed Reidt and his family lived in an unpainted, ranshackle shack trousers. Brother Downs was "resplendent" with a new blue in East Patchogue, Long Island, New York. When a Times necktie. Mrs. Reidt had on a brown silk dress. reporter interviewed him on the day before doom, twelve of his Downs announced that Jesus would be escorted by angels, led followers were praying softly in a dim back room. The Times by Gabriel. They would march on Earth with feet of fire, and the described them as shabbily dressed, but with shining eyes. For Earth would be filled with music never heard before. To empha- the last few days they had been fasting and praying. size the role to be played by music, Reidt produced an old zither Reidt's wife and four children had no doubts about the on which he strummed, saying he would be playing it soon for approaching end of the world. The children were two boys, the angels. His music, the Times said, "was not so good." Robert, twelve, and Walter, nine, and two blue-eyed girls, On February 7, the Times reported the events of the previous Esther, six, and Ernie, ten. Taunts by schoolmates had made night. Reidt not only had failed to see the little black cloud, he them miserable. could not even locate Orion. There was only a bright, gibbous Reidt's top disciple, Willard G. Downs, of Yaphank, New moon rising in the east, waning from the total eclipse it had pro- York, was described as a "grizzled" fifty-seven-year-old former duced eleven days earlier. A subdued Reidt faced a battery of farmer and carpenter, tall, angular, with long hair and an more than a hundred persons, standing in the mud and snow sur- unkempt gray-brown beard. His trousers were baggy. Ten years rounding his shack. Numerous reporters and motion picture cam- earlier he had converted from Methodism to Adventism. When era men were on hand. A tired Reidt retired at midnight, saying he quoted Scripture his eyes flashed like lightning and his voice he would address a meeting at 10:00 the following morning. rolled like thunder. Brother Downs was in a back room arguing about Scripture with Another Rowenite follower was Miss Katharine B. Kennedy, a young Italian Roman Catholic. Some prankster boys in the of Valley Stream, Long Island. She was described as a middle- neighborhood caused a flurry of excitement when they burned a aged spinster, who was a Baptist until seven years before, when cross in the woods nearby. she became a Seventh-day Adventist and a Rowenite. Other fol- The Times painted a dismal picture of the scene. "The shack lowers in Reidt's back room included Arthur Rupp, twenty-three, is two miles from any house. It stood alone, melancholy and a recent Reidt convert, and a family of four blacks, also from ghostly, in fields of dwarf oak and winter-blighted shrubs. Every Valley Stream. window was curtained and the house might have been tenantless Reidt claimed twenty-five disciples in Long Island. Most of except for the fragments of prayers that came to those waiting in them, including Reidt, were said to have sold their possessions the moonlight outside." so they could pay all their debts before being taken to Paradise. "Oh, Jesus, we are ready," were the words of Reidt himself. An earlier story in the Times (January 24) reported similar sales The next morning about 150 people showed up at the shack, of homes and property by Rowenites in Washington state, including a policeman assigned to keep order. Reidt's twelve dis- Baltimore, Boston, Los Angeles, and other cities. In Greece, ciples were nowhere to be seen. He said they were home await- New York, a town near Rochester, farmer Elzear T. Smith killed ing the arrival of Jesus in seven days. Reidt said he had sold his his pigs, sold his cow and furniture, and "wound up all his shack, his furniture, and his Ford car.The card had foot-high let- earthly affairs" to await the end of the world. ters painted on its sides announcing the world's end in February. On February 3, the Times printed a letter from Carlyle B. It was rumored that the sales were contingent on the end of the Haynes, a prominent Seventh-day Adventist, in which he world occurring. referred to the Rowenites as a small fanatical group totally rejected by the Adventist church. The church, wrote Haynes, did n February 7 the Times interviewed Mrs. Rowen's mother, not set a date for the second advent of Jesus, but only preached Obrother, and other relatives living in or near Philadelphia.

54 FREE INQUIRY They had moved there a few years earlier from Los Angeles. The before the end of 1925, probably in September. He said he left mother, Mrs. Mathilde Wright, said that, when she last visited East Patchogue because of threatening letters, giving up a good her daughter in Hollywood in 1923, she was appalled by her job in the painting and decorating business. A photograph on the daughter's visions and prophecies, and thought she should be front page of Newark's Star Eagle (February 11) showed the lit- spanked. Margaret's three children had been completely won tle prophet with a leather Bible in his left hand, his right arm over by their mother's views. Mrs. Wright felt sorry for them. upraised, and his "blue eyes shining." He had visited several Whenever they saw a dark cloud they would run to her and say, newspaper offices in Newark, but refused to say how long he "Granny, does that mean the world is coming to an end soon?" intended to stay in town. Mrs. Wright called herself a good Methodist. She described The Newark Evening News of the same day reported that the her daughter as "not four feet tall and almost as wide." Nothing apostle of doom was penniless. He and his wife and four children was said about Mr. Rowen. He remains a curious blank in our were hiding out in two furnished rooms, still fearful of death story. I do not even know how he made a living. threats. "His pockets stuffed with tracts and booklets of the Six other brief news items about the Rowenites appeared in Reform Seventh-day Adventist doctrine, a battered, cheap Bible the February 7 Times. Another Adventist spokesman denounced next to his heart, Reidt is a pitiful figure. His clothes are shabby, Rowenism. Miss Katherine Kennedy, of Valley Stream, was but he still expects to exchange them some time soon for the pure quoted as saying that, if nothing happens in the next week or white robes of an angel. Meanwhile, friends who remembered two, she would lose her faith in Sister Margaret. The six Valley him when he taught a German Adventist Sunday School class in Stream area Rowenites included one Herman Steubbe, a fifty- Newark prior to 1920 are aiding the destitute family." year-old Methodist living on Washington Avenue in nearby The unsinkable Reidt did not surface again until January 2, Roosevelt. 1926, when the New York Times disclosed that he had sent a let- Karl Frederick Danzeisen, a forty-nine-year-old farmer in ter to New York City's Mayor Jimmy Walker. It requested per- Temperance, Michigan, was mission to broadcast a new date reported to have shot his wife, for a divinely scheduled then killed himself with another "No one knows how many Adventist follow- calamity. However, instead of bullet. The recovered wife said ers Margaret Rowen managed to ensnare in the entire world being he was "terror stricken" over the United States alone. Some historians esti- destroyed, Reidt now predicted the world ending on February 6. that on February 6 New York In Lincoln, Nebraska, twelve mate the number as about a thousand, others City would be destroyed by fire Rowenites were said to be twice that many. Whatever the case, her from heaven. Evidently Reidt awaiting the black cloud and the influence stretched from California to New had decided that Mrs. Rowen searchlight. They had sold all was right about the month and their worldly goods. Mrs. York, where it found its most vociferous dis- day, but wrong about the year Rowen, at 112 Gower Street, cipline in the person of Robert Reidt." and the extent of the doom. Hollywood, was sticking by her Nothing was said about the prophecy. Second Coming of Jesus. On February 8, the New York Times revealed that Brother Reidt's letter to Mayor Walker included these stirring words: Downs had had a dream in which an angel, perhaps Gabriel, told I, as far as personal comfort and safety are concerned, would him that believers in North and South Dakota had seen the little rather be pursuing my trade as a painter and decorator than to black cloud. Why had he and Reidt not seen it? Brother Downs hear the mocking of the unbelieving world and suffer the had the answer. Satan had used the magnesium flares of motion reproach that is my daily lot. But I love my fellow man, no mat- picture cameras to blot out the eastern sky. ter of what creed and color. I know that I will be a lost man for On the previous day, Downs had become so angry with the all eternity if I will not do all in my power to warn the people of the destruction that is so sure to come. camera men that he threw water over one of them, but now he We do not want the blood of a single person on our con- and Reidt were agreeable to more movie making. For the cam- science. Convinced in our very souls that it is a message from eras, Downs hung around his neck a sandwich board that said: God, we have promised our Creator to do our level best in warn- "Prepare to meet thy God. Seventh-day Sabbath is the Seal of ing the people of New York. We would be glad for any assistance God. Sunday is the Mark of the Beast. Amos 3:7." These state- that your esteemed office could render. We want to reach the people some way or other. We are not after money or honor. These ments were all good Seventh-day Adventist doctrine. things we are and always have been willing to obtain by honest Reidt and his family vanished on February 10 from East toil. We beg you to make it possible for us to use the city's broad- Patchogue. No one saw them leave. He had been hissed the night casting station or any public place or park for the purpose of before when he spoke on the stage of a local theater. The orches- reaching the masses. tra had added to the hilarity by playing the song "California, Here I Come." I leave it to the reader to decide if these are the words of an On February 12, the Times learned that Reidt and Brother honest but deluded man or the remarks of a charlatan. Downs had popped up in Newark, New Jersey. The apostle of Two days later the Times reported that Rowenite Collin N. doom paraded down a business street wearing a sign announcing McCloud, a member of the Reform Seventh-day Adventist the coming end of the world. He now predicted this would occur church and one of Reidt's apostles, was arrested in Roosevelt,

Spring 1997 55

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Long Island. He had been driving Reidt's old battered car, the so- the city would be destroyed shortly after midnight by a huge ball called Chariot of Doom, without 1926 license plates or a driver's of fire that would fall from heaven. Everyone would be killed license. Reidt was said to be living in Baldwin, Long Island, within a twenty-five-mile radius. Reidt said his new prophecy apparently alone. McCloud's address was 6 Charles Street, in was based on the Old Testament's Book of Ezekiel. "I wouldn't Roosevelt. give five cents for the Woolworth building," he said. By now he McCloud had been arrested at 2:30 A.M., when two Roosevelt had become a figure of fun whose predictions frightened nobody. patrolmen heard the loud noise of the "chariot" rattling through Three strikes and you're out. the town's quiet streets. The apostle was accompanied by two A Times headline of February 14 was "Reidt Wrong Again on teenage girls who said they were just "joy riding." McCloud Doom Forecast." He is said now to be back in East Patchogue. spent the night in jail. The car was found to belong to a man There is no mention of his family. Was he living alone? Nothing named Christian who lived in Brooklyn on 47th Street. Reidt more about him appeared in the Times. It would be interesting to showed up at the police station to obtain his car, which the police know what finally happened to the crazy little Rowenite and to had impounded. He claimed he had bought the car two months his long suffering wife and young children. • earlier, but was unable to produce a bill of sale. Before he left to get the bill, a police lieutenant said. "You don't need the car any more because you said you were going up to heaven in a chariot GAY & LESBIAN HUMANIST of fire on February 6, and that's only a few weeks off." Gay & Lesbian Humanist is unique: the only publication world- According to the Times of January 27, Reidt intended to wide that looks at lesbian and gay life from a humanist perspective. broadcast his warning over a radio station in Bay Shore, Long Island. Two days later the newspaper revealed that he and two Issued quarterly by the Pink Triangle Trust, G&LH has interna- disciples had strode into City Hall to warn Mayor Walker that on tional news, articles, and reviews, with regular contributions February 6 the city would first be leveled by "great earthquake, from journalists writing for the gay press and Humanist maga- followed by seven days of terrible conflagration. The apostle of zines in the U.K. and U.S. doom was now said to reside in Baltimore, Maryland. Contents of the latest issue include: Mayor Walker was too busy to see Reidt. While the prophet • Gay and Humanist happenings in the U.K., the U.S., Ulster, was standing in a corridor, hoping to see the mayor, Democratic and The Netherlands Alderman Charles A. McManus asked Reidt to postpone the date • Gay Humanist affirmation ceremonies in the U.K. • AIDS, animal rights, and bad science. of the Big Apple's destruction because February 6 was his birth- • How Gore Vidal became a Humanist Laureate. day. "You'll have a chance to celebrate during the fire," Reidt • CD and book reviews. replied. Of course nothing happened on February 6. The rotund Reidt, The annual subscription rate, including airmail postage and packing from the U.K. is $18, payable by check or credit card after discovering errors in his calculations, revised them for the to: Council for Secular Humanism, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY third time. On February 11 he was back in Manhattan to speak 14226. In the U.S. call 1-800-458-1366. over radio station WRNY, at the Hotel Roosevelt, warning that

56 FREE INQUIRY doubt the supernatural," he writes. "So it is hardly surprising to find a high ratio of religious skeptics among major thinkers, Reviews scientists, writers, reformers, scholars, champions of democracy, and other world-changers." "The advance of Western civilization Those with Courage to Doubt has been partly a story of gradual victory over oppressive religion. The rise of humanism slowly shifted society's focus Robert Sherrill away from obedience to bishops and kings, onto individual rights and 2000 Years of Disbelief, by James A. "stayed up most of the night praying over improved living conditions. Much of the Haught (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus and over again, repeating one simple sen- progress was impelled by men and Books) 334 pp., cloth $26.95. tence `Please don't let it rain tomorrow."' women who didn't pray, didn't kneel at And behold! It didn't! altars, didn't make pilgrimages, didn't he world is full of believers. Many This persuaded Simon that if he prayed recite creeds...." Tare total believers, like the hundreds hard enough, God would grant his wishes, Haught's survey of dissenters comes who travel each year to Villa Union, a tiny so long as he limited his appeals only to down to the present day, but it starts with town in desolate, far-western Argentina, "the most important events in my life." the so-called Golden Age of Greece— to touch the mummified body of an infant Now seventy years old, he still feels which must not have seemed very intel- who died in 1966. Some claim that as a pretty much the same about the availabil- lectually golden to men like Socrates, result of their visit to the wrinkled corpse, ity of supernatural help. "Although these whose death sentence was based on, their lives were magically changed for the are all childish fantasies," he writes, "I among other things, a charge of "not wor- better; diseases were cured, lotteries were feel they are very important and healthy shipping the gods whom the state wor- won. Efforts are underway to persuade the ones." Echoing the Argentine rustic, he ships," or Protagoras, who was banished Catholic church to declare the baby an adds, "You have to believe in something." from Athens for saying he didn't know if official saint. A municipal official of Villa But—and this is a crucial but—he now the gods exist. Union told a New York Times reporter who admits that because in old age he has This—the perils of bucking the reli- dropped by recently, "We all have to grown a bit "skeptical about the existence gious establishment—is one of the major believe in something." of a God—except when I need him badly themes of Haught's brief history of dis- If by "something" he means something —I tend to trust myself the most." sent that prepares readers for the hundreds relating to a supernatural being whose Simon's now-and-then skepticism of quotes to follow. The doubters' intel- existence is beyond scientific proof and takes us to the outer boundaries of faith, lectual honesty has often carried a very must be accepted solely by faith, an and from there it requires only a few more heavy price, ranging from social or politi- omnipotent creator who sometimes short steps to reach the mental state in cal ostracism, to flogging, to imprison- rewards the faithful by interfering with which God is excluded not some of the ment, to death. The Western world quit nature and performing miracles—if that's time but all of the time. For most believ- executing infidels 250 years ago, but in what he means, then he is in abundant ers whose faith has begun to fade, those the Islamic world disbelief is still punish- company. Many millions of people around are fearful steps—too fearful—and they able by death. "In Saudi Arabia in 1992, a the world of many faiths would whole- draw back. man was beheaded in the marketplace at heartedly agree with him. Qatif after being convicted of `insulting Many others would agree with him, but The Golden Age Allah, the Holy Koran and Muhammad not wholeheartedly. They are part-time the Prophet."' believers, like Neil Simon, Broadway's ut as James A. Naught, editor of the In recent decades, Christian fundamen- most successful playwright. In his just- BCharleston Gazette, makes lumi- talists have been so adept at intimidating published memoirs, Simon tells us that, nously evident in 2OOO Years of Disbelief: politicians and public school officials and for his high school graduation, his mother Famous People with the Courage to media owners that "No politician could be sacrificed hard-saved money to buy him a Doubt—a fascinating study into which elected if he admitted atheism. Newspapers white shirt, white pants, and white shoes. Haught has poured three decades of and mainstream magazines rarely print The newspaper predicted rain for gradua- research—a great many of the world's agnostic articles. Television programs sel- tion day. Knowing that a downpour would finest minds over the centuries have not dom contain direct denials of God." ruin his mother's gift, Simon says he been afraid to continue down the path to Former President Jimmy Carter was atheism or agnosticism. recently asked if he thought an atheist Robert Sherrill is a Florida-based author Haught's admiration for this group is could be a good president. He said yes, and social critic. clear from the very first page. but "If someone runs for president as an "Intelligent, educated people tend to admitted or confessed or proud atheist, I

Spring 1997 57 think they would have a difficult time throughout the ages used its influence in without evidence." being elected." He went on to say: "I opposition to the freedom of woman." don't think it's appropriate in our society Thomas Jefferson: "In every country And Still .. . to have as a prerequisite to holding public and in every age, the priest has been hos- office any particular faith, including even tile to liberty. He is always in alliance t is impossible to convey the over- a professed faith in God." with the despot, abetting his abuses in whelming impact of the hundreds— It's lucky that enough people in this return for protection to his own." probably close to two thousand—quotes country felt that way two hundred years Napoleon Bonaparte: "How can you in this book by selecting out a few for a ago, or the United States would have been have order in a state without religion? For, review. The effect of the 322 pages of without the services of some of its most when one man is dying of hunger near these strong, unyielding, often blasphe- important founders. As Haught points out, another who is ill of surfeit, he cannot mous (by orthodox society's standards), not one of the first six presidents was an resign himself to this difference unless sometimes bitterly humorous, fearless orthodox Christian. Most of the founders there is an authority which declares 'God opinions—thundering down on the reader were Deists, "who doubted that Christ was wills it thus.' Religion is excellent stuff like golfball-size hailstones in a storm— a god" and equated God with "the power for keeping common people quiet." is, well, awesome to say the least. behind nature, as discerned by science." • Christianity is a haven for hypocrites, And yet Haught has kept everything Not all "disbelievers" agree on all sometimes very dangerous ones. under control by an intelligent orderli- points, but a sampling of quotes from Ambrose Bierce, in his Devil's Dic- ness, organizing his disbelievers by 2OOO Years of Disbelief illustrates the tionary: "Christian. n. One who follows eras—the Renaissance, the European opinions of the majority. Here are some the teachings of Christ insofar as they are Enlightenment, the American Rational- categories of skepticism, and remarks: not inconsistent with a life of sin." ists, etc.—then featuring the leading • The Christian-Judaic God does not Mark Twain: "Man is the religious ani- spokespersons of dissent (with a brief, exist, and if He did exist as described in mal.... He is the only animal that loves sharp biography of each) followed by a the Bible, He would certainly not be a his neighbor as himself and cuts his host of other commentators getting space good role model. throat, if his theology isn't straight. He for only a few jibes each. Naturalist John Burroughs: "The God has made a graveyard of the globe in try- I confess there is a serious conflict of of the Puritans ... was a monster too hor- ing his honest best to smooth his brother's interest in my reviewing this book, for I rible to contemplate." path to happiness and heaven." am notoriously an admirer of Jim Haught H. L. Mencken: "The chief contribu- Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer: as editor, investigative reporter, science tion of Protestantism to human thought is "The fruits of Christianity were religious writer, and critic of organized religion. its massive proof that God is a bore." wars, butcheries, crusades, inquisitions, The reader of this review should keep that Lawyer Clarence Darrow: "I don't extermination of the natives of America, in mind when weighing my judgment. believe in God because I don't believe in and the introduction of African slaves in Better yet, disregard my judgment and Mother Goose." their place." make your own. I am confident that any- Thomas Alva Edison: "Religion is all (For more on the subject of religious one who reads 2OOO Years of Disbelief— bunk." brutalities, see Haught's earlier book, even priests and preachers and deacons— • The notion that there is a life after Holy Horrors: An Illustrated History of will get a refreshing rush of adrenalin death, and particularly of a heaven and a Religious Murder and Madness.) from the candor on its pages even if they hell, is poppycock. • There is no "supernatural"; there is hate its conclusions. George Bernard Shaw: "Heaven, as only nature and its process, all of which is As one who was reared in a fundamen- conventionally described, is a place so ultimately within the grasp of the human talist church but long ago decided that too inane, so dull, so useless, so miserable, brain, which is to say within the grasp of many guys from Torquemada to Oral that nobody has ever ventured to describe science. Prayer is self-delusion. The "mir- Roberts to the politically intoxicated Billy a whole day in heaven, though plenty of acles" that Jesus performed in the New Graham had turned organized religion people have described a day at the sea- Testament are no more believable than the into a very bad joke, I greatly enjoy such side." "miracles" credited to the mummified piquant opinions as Alfred North Legendary botanist Luther Burbank: Argentine baby. Whitehead's, "I consider Christian theol- "The idea that a good God would send Bret Harte, writer: "The creator who ogy to be one of the great disasters of the people to a burning hell is utterly could put a cancer in a believer's stomach human race.... It would be impossible to damnable to me—the ravings of insanity, is above being interfered with by prayers." imagine anything more un-Christlike than superstition gone to seed! I want no part Ivan Turgenev, novelist: "Whatever a theology. Christ probably couldn't have of such a God." man prays for, he prays for a miracle. understood it." • Preachers and organized religion are Every prayer reduces itself to this: `Great And Mark Twain's, "The Church among mankind's worst oppressors. God, grant that twice two be not four."' worked hard at it night and day during nine Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who launched The nineteenth-century scientist centuries and imprisoned, tortured, hanged, the struggle for women's rights in Thomas Henry Huxley: "The deepest sin and burned whole hordes and armies of America: "The Christian church has of the human mind is to believe things witches, and washed the Christian world

58 FREE INQUIRY clean with their foul blood. Then it was dis- that there will be no life after this one, I recent New Yorker article, after reminding covered that there was no such thing as can offer no substantive counter-argument, us that according to classical myth "a witches, and never had been. One doesn't but I certainly hope they are wrong, for I small but highly selective neighborhood in know whether to laugh or to cry. Who dis- would like to have an eternally extended Hell" has been set aside for cynics, Joseph covered that there was no such thing as a chance to hear Haught and these other Epstein goes on to say that "if superior talk witch—the priest, the parson? No, these brassy, brainy people continue their con- is your idea of a good time, it's not really never discover anything." versation, expanded into other subjects. such a bad place to end up, this neighbor- And Aldous Huxley's, "I'm all for For their disbelief they will, of course, hood. `Heaven for climate,' as J. M. Barrie sticking pins into episcopal behinds." all wind up in Hell, but that's OK. In a once wrote, 'Hell for company."' • I was also pleasantly stimulated by the dissenters' bold attacks on God, reminding me of Milton's unrepentant Satan ("Better to rule in Hell than serve in The Latest from Quine on Heaven"), whom all scholars acknowl- edge is the real hero of "Paradise Lost." But on this point—perhaps with my Logic and Language orthodox background taking over—I was not nearly so attracted to those who wanted to kill off God as I was to those John Shosky few who were more modest in their opinions about what's out there—particularly From Stimulus To Science, by W.V. matical Logic (1940, revised 1951); Albert Einstein, who said: Quine (Cambridge: Harvard Uni- Elementary Logic (1941, revised 1966); Set "I believe in mystery and, frankly, I versity Press, 1995) 114 pp., $22.95 Theory and Its Logic (1963, revised 1969); sometimes face this mystery with great cloth. Methods of Logic (1950, fourth edition fear. In other words, I think that there are 1982); and Philosophy of Logic (1970). many things in the universe that we cannot illard van Orman Quine, Edgar In 1961, Quine published his famous perceive or penetrate, and that also we WPierce Professor of Philosophy, essays, "On What There Is" and "Two experience some of the most beautiful Emeritus, at Harvard, is best known for Dogmas of Empiricism" (found in From a things in life only in a very primitive form. his groundbreaking work in logic, linguis- Logical Point of View). In these influential Only in relation to these mysteries do I tics, theory construction, epistemology, and devastating articles, Quine attacked consider myself to be a religious man...." and empiricism. Quine's work is often logical positivism and reductive methods My favorite among the doubters is his- associated with American pragmatism, of philosophy, forcefully demonstrating torian Will Durant, who trained to become which may be more a matter of geography that linguistic synonymy and phenome- a Catholic priest but gave up because of than actual lineage. His deeper roots draw nalism were both inherently flawed posi- doubts about the existence of God and from the rapid and exciting growth of tions. Quine again showed the intertwin- because of contempt for the theological logic in the last 150 years, principally ing relationships between language and establishment. Nonetheless, he credits engineered by Boole, Frege, Peano, epistemology in his well-known Word and religion with having supplied the moral Whitehead, and Russell. Object (1960) and in a highly readable code that was indispensable for the cre- Logic was his main area of study as a volume, The Web of Belief (1970, with J. ation of civilization. What makes him so graduate student at Harvard. Quine had a S. Ullian). He argued that human knowl- appealing is that he calls for more toler- distinguished graduate career there from edge relies on a vast "web" of linguistic ance and modesty from the high priests of 1930 to 1932, remarkably completing his propositions and conventions, intertwined science, who demand faith in quarky stuff course work and dissertation in two years. with sense experience, and cognitive whose existence is no more provable—as He made a quick name for himself in activities. Science, particularly physics yet—than God's. Europe from 1932 to 1933, participating in and psychology, is an indispensable com- In a commencement speech, he told the discussions of the Vienna Circle and ponent of any philosophical attempt at graduates: "Those of you who specialize through his contacts with logicians in explaining the external world. Culture and in science will find it hard to understand Poland. Upon returning to Harvard in language are also essential components of religion, unless you feel, as Newton and 1933, Quine's first publications made the explanation, but the inter-relations Voltaire did, that the harmony of the complexities of mathematical logic more between language, experience, and cul- spheres reveals a cosmic mind, and unless cogent and useful in books like Mathe- ture undermine objective efforts to tran- you realize, as Pascal and Rousseau did, scend our individual circumstances to that man does not live by intellect alone. John Shosky is Assistant Professor of understand the external world. We are such microscopic particles in so Philosophy at American University in As one can see, Quine's output during vast a universe that none of us is in a posi- Washington, D.C., and vice president of the 1960s and early 1970s was prolific tion to understand the world...." the Bertrand Russell Society. and powerful. Quine has continued his As for the doubters' majority opinion logical, mathematical, and philosophical

Spring 1997 59 contributions; lately in smaller, more with expansive comments on the role of in symbolic logic. I don't want to imply accessible publications like the collection psychology and modal logic in our knowl- that From Stimulus To Science is less Theories and Things (1981) and The edge of the world. insightful or probing than other efforts by Pursuit of Truth (1990, revised 1992). He I highly recommend this volume. Quine. For those approaching Quine for has been honored with two magnificent Quine has made a lasting mark on the first time, or for those who have often volumes of essays on his work, The American philosophy. He is surely the turned to this "quintessential linguistic Philosophy of W. V Quine (edited by Hahn most important American philosopher of philosopher" (Barrett and Gibson's apt and Schilpp in 1986 for the Library of this century. No one can claim to under- description) this book will demonstrate Living Philosophers series) and stand the history of philosophy in our time why philosophy is an endlessly fascinat- Perspectives on Quine (edited by Barrett without a deep knowledge of Quine's ing, enduring enterprise. Here we have and Gibson in 1990). work. But while some of his other works wonder, conjecture, analysis, and discov- may be more formidable, requiring a ery. If you get the chance, share the bril- rom Stimulus to Science is his latest background in philosophy and sustained liance, daring, and courage of a first-rate Feffort—a compact, brisk, and up-to- concentration, this short book is very philosopher exploring the human condi- the-minute discussion of Quine's linguis- accessible, aside from a few formulations tion through logic and language. • tic, logical, and epistemological views. The book is an "outgrowth" of the Ferrater Mora Lectures given during Announcing a new journal, published by the Quine's 1990 visit to the Universitat de Girona, in Catalonia, Spain. In these lec- CENTER FOR INQUIRY: tures, Quine re-examines the development of empiricism and logic, showing how the WESTMINSTER COLLEGE OXFORD two merged with Whitehead and Russell in 1910, and then with the early Carnap in The J Journal for the Critical 1928. With Carnap, sense experience was linked to a phenomenalism that we Study of Religion, Ethics, abstract from experience. The results could be logically constructed and sys- and Society tematized to explain "our knowledge of the external world," to borrow Russell's Edited by R. Joseph Hoffmann and a distinguished board of editors. phrase. One alternative explanation to This new biannual journal will publish articles about religion from a Russell and Carnap is naturalism, the broadly humanistic perspective. belief that what we study through the sci- Volume 1, Number 1, Winter/Spring 1996 contents: ences is all that there is in the world. Quine borrows from both approaches, "Laughing and Dreaming at the Foot of the Cross," by explaining how sense experience is com- Justin Meggitt bined with scientific and mathematical "Modern Spiritualities," by James Penney abstraction to posit general theories about the world. These theories, called "obser- "Reasons of the Heart," by Peggy Moran vation categoricals," are then tested, with "Becoming Spiritual: Learning from Marijuana Users," by disconfirmation refuting the theory. Belief Bernard C. Farr structures are formed based on experience "Teilhard and Tipler," by H. James Birx and observation categoricals, with key observation categoricals functioning as "The Smorgasbord Syndrome," by Margaret Chatterjee important "checkpoints" in our broader Introductory offer to readers of FREE INQUIRY $ 35.00 web of belief. Logic and mathematics have an important role to play in creating Subscribe today: and explaining our notion of implication, Prometheus Books where we learn to draw out information 59 John Glenn Dr. about the world from our belief structure. Amherst, N.Y. 14228-2197 Religious Sy Logic also helps to explain how we find mbols classifications based on similarity and dis- or ?lodern .Sjjiritualitics tinction. Language acquisition is best use MasterCard or Visa and call toll-free understood from the vantage point of a Becoming Spiritual holistic belief structure. Quine integrates his notions of meaning, reference, denota- 800-421-0351 tion, and synonymy into this discussion

f0 FREE INQUIRY (Tearful Icons, cont'd. from p. 7) "pious imagination," that enables the checks and gems.23 faithful to see the face of Jesus in the skil- ure whenever it wept. Soon, suspicious let burns of a New Mexican tortilla or to Notes persons peeking through the windows and perceive a portrait of the Virgin Mary in 1. Mircea Eliade, ed. The Encyclopedia of Religion (New York: Simon and Schuster Mac- from a hidden hole in an adjacent apart- the shape of a fungus on a tree in Los millan, 1995), vol. 7: "Iconoclasm" and "Icons." ment saw the lady apply water to the bas- Angeles. With hoaxed effigies the motives 2. Ibid. relief with a plastic water pistol.[' range from pious frauds intended to renew 3. Ibid., vol. 12: "Protestantism." 4. Ibid., vol. 7: "Idolatry." In 1992, statues that wept at St. the faith or to convey some message (such 5. Joe Nickell, Looking for a Miracle (Amherst, Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Lake as a lament of the Persian Gulf War, in the N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1993), pp. 58-59. Ridge, Virginia, captured national atten- case of the Chicago weeping icon) to 6. D. Scott Rogo, Miracles (New York: Dial, 1982), pp. 164-71. tion. The priest, Reverend James Bruse, crass monetary gain. In Toronto, believers 7. Nickell, Looking for a Miracle, pp. 52, 67-68. had been listed in the Guinness Book of were charged a $2.50 admission fee to see 8. Ibid., pp. 52-53. World Records in 1978 for riding a roller the weeping icon which I suggested to the 9. Ibid., p. 58. 10. Ibid., p. 64. coaster for five days. Most of the weeping Toronto Sun represented "more carnival 11. Ibid., pp. 52-53. statues were located in the private office of sideshow than miracle." It turned out that 12. Ibid., pp. 52-53. Father Bruse, who also claimed to exhibit the priest at the church had previously 13. Ibid., pp. 54-55; Scott Magnish, Philip Lee- Shanok, and Robert Benzie, "Expert Unmoved by the stigmata. Upon learning the facts, I been defrocked and excommunicated for Crying Icon's Tears," Toronto Sun, September 4, publicly challenged Bruse to permit exam- working in a brothel in Athens.20 It also 1996, p. 4. ination of the weeping statues under con- turned out that he was the same priest 14. George Christopoulos, "Greek Icon `Crying Tears,'" Toronto Sun, September 2, 1996, p. 2. trolled conditions.'8 I was ignored. who had presided over the Astoria, 15. Magnish et al., "Expert," p. 4. Among other recent cases, one in Queens, church when it was visited by the 16. Nickell, Looking for a Miracle, pp. 56, 67. Sardinia-which helped launch the epi- weeping phenomenon and when, a year 17. Abstract provided by Luigi Garlaschelli from Gabriele Moroni, Pavia magica e misteriosa (Pavia, demic of weeping effigies that occurred in later, it was stolen under suspicious cir- Italy: EMI edizioni, n.d.), pp. 39-44. Italy in 1995-is particularly instructive. It cumstances, only to be returned minus 18. Joe Nickell in Weston Kosova, "Why Is This shows that detection of weeping and bleed- $800,000 in gems that had decorated it." Woman Crying?" Washington City Paper, April 24, 1992, p. 28. ing icons may be becoming more sophisti- Still, the faithful want to believe. 19.Abstract provided by Luigi Garlaschelli from cated than the techniques used to fake Stated one woman at the Toronto church: Umberto Aime, "Il miracolo era solo un bluff," La them. In this case a small statue was weep- "I don't care if there's a pipe and a hose Nuova, January 17, April 24, 1992, p. 28. 20. Macnish, "Expert," p. 4. See also Kathleen ing blood, and samples were clinically ana- behind that picture.... You either believe Goldhar, "Church of `Weeping' Virgin Headed by lyzed. The DNA was definitely that of the in miracles or you don't. I believe." Defrocked Priest," Toronto Star, September 4, 1996. Replied a Toronto Sun columnist, who 21. George Christopoulos, "Priest's 2nd statue's owner, Mrs. Christina Ilot. Her `Miracle' $800GS from `Crying' N.Y. Icon Stolen," attorney explained, "Well, the Virgin Mary quoted her, "Amen. And pass the collec- Toronto Sun, September 8, 1996, p. 2. had to get that blood from somewhere."" tion plate."22 In one week, some 35,000 22. Rosie DiManno, "Moolah Everywhere as the Where the animated effects are due to people were estimated to have witnessed Pious Mob Weeping Madonna," Toronto Sun, September 4, 1996, p. A7. misperception (like the "swaying" statue the weeping icon, with "donations" reach- 23. George Christopoulos, "Priest's 2nd in Ireland) they may be attributed to a ing a reported $300,000-some of it in Miracle," p. 2.

(Children, Witches, Demons, cont'd. from p. 52) FREE INQUIRY Holders Goodman, Felicitas D. 1990. Where the Spirits Ride Storing your issues of FREE INQUIRY on your bookshelves will be easier with the purchase of the Wind: Trance Journeys and Other Ecstatic a vinyl holder. Each holder has gold-colored ornamentation, a slot for labeling, and can Experiences. Bloomington: Indiana University accommodate four years of FREE INQUIRY and the Secular Humanist Bulletin. Press. . 1988b. How About Demons? Possession $11.95 each, postage and handling included and Exorcism in the Modern World Blooming- ton: Indiana University Press. ❑ Check or money order enclosed ❑ Charge my Visa or MasterCard . 1988a. Ecstasy, Ritual, and Alternate Reality: Religion in a Pluralistic World. Bloom- Exp. Date ington: Indiana University Press. . 1981. The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel. Signature Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. Anneliese Michel und ihre Dämonen. . 1980. $ Total for holder (s) Der Fall Klingenberg in wissenschaftlicher Sicht. Stein am Rhein, Switzerland: Christiana-Verlag. Name Prince, Raymond, ed. 1982. Shamans and Endorphins. Ethos, special issue, 10, 4. Street Daytime phone Sebald, Hans. 1992. Adolescence: A Social Psycho- logical Analysis. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: City State Zip Prentice-Hall. 1978. Witchcraft: The Heritage of a Heresy. Mail to: Free Inquiry, Box 664, Amherst, N.Y. 14226, or call toll-free 1-800-458-1366 New York: Elsevier. •

Spring 1997 61 (Letters, Cont'd. from p. 3) crassly dehumanizing and unsatisfactory. rules for a psychology that avoids "moth- I suggest that humanists who examine the eaten dogmas" of mentalism, fictitious It continues through St. John Chryso- work of J. R. Kantor, M. Merleau-Ponty, neurology, and religion: (1) adhere to stom's words addressed to the Jews: "God K. U. Smith, and J. J. Gibson, among oth- specifically observed events and draw hates you." It continues through the ers, will be encouraged over the possibil- constructs (inferences, theories, etc.) from Inquisition. And it can even be found in ity of capturing the uniqueness of human them, (2) avoid confusing constructs with Martin Luther, who said, "All the blood psychological processes while never events, (3) draw constructs from events kindred of Christ burn in Hell, and they departing from humanistic and scientific rather than imposing them on the events, are rightly served even according to their guidelines. (4) take an adequate sample of events so own words they spoke to Pilate." Dennis J. Delprato that the interrelationships of events may Clearly, a Holocaust can and will hap- Saline, Mich. be revealed including their field nature, pen again, unless a new New Testament (5) avoid "explaining" events at the can change the thinking of two thousand wrong level of organization. years of Christianity. Mario Bunge's critique of the pope's embrace of evolution could be much more Noel W. Smith David Linker effective had he employed a scientific Professor of Psychology Pipersville, Pa. psychology. He refers to "the mind-body State University of New dualism preached by the theologians and York at Plattsburgh philosophers who willfully ignore modern Plattsburgh, N.Y. The Pope and Evolution psychology," but has his own array of mentalisms that draw from an unscientific In arguing against the "dogma that the psychology and neurology. For example: New Age Physics human soul is immaterial and eternal, so "Everything mental is neurophysiologi- that it is free from the shackles of matter cal." Not only does he support mentalisms Upon reading Victor J. Stenger's "New and the accidents of evolution," Mario but confuses concrete psychological Age Physics: Has Science Found the Path Bunge, in "The Pope, Evolution, and the events with fictitious neurology. No one to the Ultimate?" (FI, Fall 1997) I actually Soul" (FI, Winter 1996/97) advances has observed the production of "percep- found Stenger's article to be disturbing in another dogma. The writer capitulates to tion, attention, emotion, imagination, con- its acerbity. I find it ironic that a man of anti-humanistic brain dogma in an jecturing, and decision-making [as] brain science will be as critical of a scientific attempt to give naturalistic standing to functions" or the "neocortex [as] the hypothesis as your garden-variety funda- psychological events such as perceiving, organ of intelligence." What we have mentalist Christian. In criticizing the attending, emoting, imaging, conjectur- observed are electro-chemical impulses efforts of Roger Penrose and Fritjof Capra ing, and decision-making. Is the only that participate in such events along with (amongst others), it appears that Stenger route to a scientific approach to mentality many other participants. Nor do imaging is criticizing the creative essence of sci- the reductionistic one of making the brain techniques show the "brain mechanisms ence itself. In entertaining metaphysical the seat and cause of psychological of speech, reading, writing." What they concepts today, these men could very well events? Indeed, is it not the case that one show is increased activity of certain brain be opening the door to serious scientific effectively dehumanizes human knowing, areas when such activities are occurring. discovery in the future. feeling, loving, etc. by reducing these They do not show "mechanisms" (linear Stenger's statement regarding psychic acts to neural biochemistry and impulses? causes) and cannot, for speech, reading, phenomena, "No other scientific hypothe- The most advanced theorists and and writing are complex interactions of a sis has continued to be advanced after researchers in human behavioral science larger organization of events of which failing to be confirmed for such a period no longer find it necessary to rely on one neurons are just one component. A grow- of time," is just plain nonsense. side of the spiritual-material and mental- ing body of research shows that both the Throughout history there have been cases physical dualism to describe thinking, fruitfulness and the necessity of taking of hypotheses awaiting experimental con- knowing, perceiving, feeling, and so on account of a multiplex field of interac- firmation for extended periods of time. exclusively in naturalistic terms. The key tions. Psychological events are at a differ- Democritus theorized upon the existence conception that replaces lineal cause is ent level of organization than those of of the atom hundreds of years before con- participation. The brain is a participant in biology, that of whole organisms interact- firmation was found. all psychological behavior, along with ing with things around them in a setting or Stenger also exhibits the annoying other bodily factors. What psychological context and with an accumulating history habit of extrapolating/insinuating intent acts would a brain maintained outside a of interactions. and meaning from the theories of others body and social world exhibit? The When Bunge says that "novelties do without presenting their evidence/argu- field/system answer is, "None." not come from mindless repetition of ment. How he can state that the role of The development of humanism needs moth-eaten dogmas" he should apply this consciousness in reality being asserted by nothing more than a view of human expe- to his own orthodoxy that only gives sup- his holistically inclined colleagues leads rience that is neither supernatural nor port to the superstitions he attacks. Five the individual to a point of being the cen- 62 FREE INQUIRY ter of the universe in a pseudo-religious On Belief Feminist Thought context is beyond me. To further insinuate that the "pop physics" nature of the Re Thomas Flynn's review of Thought Mary McGreevy in her book review of work of his colleagues is being done sim- Contagion: How Belief Spreads through Ellen Klein's book Feminism Under Fire ply in order to sell books and make Society, the New Science of Memes: I ("Feminism Challenged," FI, Winter money is outrageous. Far from enhancing found it sadly ironic that the book's first 1996/97) informs the reader that scientific a perspective of personal importance, unflattering review came from FREE progress—presumably before the advent quantum holism suggests the interrelated- INQUIRY. of female subjectivity—was a male- ness of an infinite system, placing the First, I do not claim to offer anything defined and male-created search for individual in a position of no more like hard science in the book. For careful objective truth. As an example of the importance than any other strange attrac- definitions, event diagrams, and differen- alternate "feminine" viewpoint, she refers tor. The impression that holism leaves is tial equations of believer populations ver- to the movie Rashomon and various that individuality is illusory. How this is sus time, see http://www.mcs.net/—aaron/ depictions of the rape scene. being used to encourage the neurosis of mememath.html. This is not "breezy, Aside from the fact that different individuals seeking a bigger role in the breathless zealotry," though. Rather, it is viewpoints of such a traumatic scene nei- cosmic picture escapes me. material that the publisher deemed too ther support nor refute her thesis, why technical to go even in an appendix. (It didn't she use for an example such truly Mike Bayless appears as "Thought Contagion as Abstract significant scientific advances as quan- Sacramento, Calif. Evolution" in the Journal of Ideas, 1991.) tum theory, the theory of gravity, the the- When a publisher stops Stephen Hawking ory of relativity—to name a few? Surely, from showing his equations, do you if we are to believe that past scientific Brontë Speaks pounce on him for not offering proof, or do discoveries were sexist in nature and you look up his technical papers to check somehow led to oppression of women by It was good to see Emily Brontë quoted in his work? Memetic evolution theory is a male-dominated culture, we should at your Winter 1996/97 issue ("Breaking the among the most quantitatively testable of least analyze significant scientific discov- Last Taboo," by James A. Haught), but all social science theories, but readers not eries to discern such manipulation. What sad that you rather distorted her meaning, satisfied with lay-accessible books need to does a rape scene in a movie have to do in my view, by presenting her out of con- read journal articles. with such things? text. She did indeed say: The scientific purpose of putting such a It would be interesting to learn how profusion of examples into a single volume people searching for subjective truth in Vain are the thousand creeds That move men's hearts, unutterably is to provoke new research in a way that which "facts are not the issue" can dis- vain; my theoretically intensive paper cannot. I cern male domination in the discovery of Worthless as withered weeds, attempted to express this call to research at the DNA helix, the digital transmission of Or idlest froth, amid the boundless the end of chapter 7, but would have done information, the internal combustion main well to express it earlier in a preface. engine, etc. I am perhaps the first person to devote Feminists have not discovered but she immediately goes on a career to memetics, so the demand that "revealed truth," there was plenty of such To waken doubt in one all hypotheses come pre-proved strikes "truth" around in the dark ages. Not only Holding so fast by thy infinity. me as inappropriate. Would it have been are they uninformed about science, their So surely anchored on fair for a reviewer of The Origin of history is a little weak! The steadfast rock of Immortality. Species to say that Darwin held an "apparent hope that readers won't notice how lit- R. E. Brown In other words, she ridicules creeds and tle proof he offers for his grand claims"? Southlake, Tex. sees them as likely to rouse doubt rather It is too bad, also, that the review did than faith, but affirms that in her own case not even mention that the book offers an this will not happen—she will not let entirely new, evolutionary explanation to Errata creeds rob her of her faith in an infinite the origins of religion by natural selection being and in immortality. It should be rather than divine creation. The oversight The last line of "Hitler's Jewish Genocide said, however, that Emily Brontë very sel- becomes dumbfounding on seeing the and Goldhagen Holocaustbabble" by dom writes something that expresses her memetic evolution example that Flynn Hans Askenasy in FREE INQUIRY, Winter own opinion straight out, and it may well does choose as a "reason" for reading the 1996/97 was inadvertently dropped. It be she is adopting a persona in this poem book: the case of the backwards baseball reads "Executioners: `Unhistorical socio- as in so many others. cap not even mentioned in its pages! Only babble. "' infectious religiosity can benefit. Robert Barnard, Chairman Letters should be sent to: FREE INQUIRY, The Brontë Society Aaron Lynch Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664 West Yorkshire, England Chicago, Ill. Spring 1997 63 News & Views

Committee for the Scientific Scientific Examination of Religion, will who gained his masters degree in library Examination of Religion examine the foundations, claims, and prac- science from the State University of New Appoints Executive Director tices of Islam and its holy book, the Koran. York at Buffalo, has been working exten- Ibn Warraq, author of Why I Am Not a sively with the CFI Library since the Hector Avalos, Professor of Religion and Muslim, will chair the new committee. Its death in August of Gordon Stein, the Philosophy at Iowa State University, is the members include Western scholars of Library's first director. His responsibili- new Executive Director of the Committee Islam and academics from Islamic coun- ties include expanding the library's hold- for the Scientific Examination of Religion tries. The other founding members of the ings, increasing the speed of processing (CSER). CSER, a subcommittee of the committee are Professor Hector Avalos, and cataloguing new books, and making Council for Secular Humanism, examines CSER Executive Director; Professor R. the library catalogue available over the religious beliefs and claims in the light of Joseph Hoffmann of Oxford University; Internet. scientific inquiry. and Professors Mourad Wahba and Mona The Center for Inquiry Library consists The inter-disciplinary committee in- Abousenna of Ain Shams University, of three distinct collections: freethought cludes specialists in biblical scholarship, Cairo, Egypt. Ibn Warraq (a pseudonym) and humanism; skepticism and the para- archeology, linguistics, psychology, philos- will be a visiting scholar at the Center for normal; and American philosophical natu- ophy, and the social sciences. In the 1980s, Inquiry, Amherst, for three months in the ralism. Each library is intended to be the CSER organized several groundbreaking Spring of 1997. best of its kind in the world. The library conferences exploring the historical evi- The Committee for the Study of currently holds 16,000 volumes, and is dence regarding Jesus and the origins of Koranic Literature is one of several initia- planned to hold 50,000 volumes. the Old and New Testaments. CSER has tives that arose from a meeting of Middle- also produced studies of faith healing and Eastern humanists and secularists at the the truth behind satanic cult scares. World Humanist Congress in Mexico City New Secular Humanist Professor Avalos will continue CSER's in November 1996. Pamphlet Series studies of the Judeo-Christian tradition, —Matt Cherry while increasing its examination of other The Council for Secular Humanism has world religions. CSER has already produced the first pamphlets in a new launched a subcommittee for the study of Center for Inquiry Develops series titled Secular Humanist Viewpoints. Islam and the Koran, and it plans to estab- Research Capability The pamphlet series aims to stimulate lish a group of Hindu scholars. The com- wider debate and understanding of topical mittee will also apply scientific tech- A series of eminent Visiting Scholars will issues among secular humanists and the niques to explore the psychology of belief be staying at the Center for Inquiry— general public. and the sociology of religion. International in 1997. The first three schol- Eight Secular Humanist Viewpoints Professor Gerald Larue, Professor ars will be: Ibn Warraq, author of Why I are currently available: Emeritus of Biblical Archeology at the Am Not A Muslim; Professor H. James • "Affirmations of Humanism: A University of Southern California, will Birx, Executive Director of the Alliance of Statement of Principles"; continue as the President of CSER. CSER Secular Humanist Societies and author of • "Are the Ten Commandments will work closely with the Centre for many books on theories of evolution; and Relevant Today?" by Gerald A. Larue; Inquiry: Critical Studies in Religion, Svetozar Stojanovic, Professor of Phi- • "The Case Against Prayer in Public Ethics, and Society at Westminster losophy and Social Theory at the Uni- Schools: An Open Letter to Christians at College, Oxford. Professor R. Joseph versity of Belgrade. The Visiting Scholars Graduation Time" by Victor Bernard; Hoffmann, the head of the Oxford center, program is an important step in the Center • "A Declaration of Interdependence: has long been a leading figure in CSER. for Inquiry's long-term development as an A New Global Ethics" by the Inter- educational and research center. national Academy of Humanism; • "Health, Wellness and Secular Humanist Scholars to Examine Humanism" by Donald B. Ardell; Islam and the Koran New Director of • "A Humanist Divorce Ceremony" by Libraries Appointed Vern Bullough and Bonnie Bullough; The Council for Secular Humanism has • "Is There Life After Death?" by formed the Committee for the Study of The Center for Inquiry is pleased to Thomas Flynn; Koranic Literature. The new group, a sub- announce the appointment of Timothy • "Taking a Scientific Approach in committee of the Committee for the Binga as Director of Libraries. Binga, Everyday Life" by Susan Presby Kodish 64 FREE INQUIRY and Bruce I. Kodish. the great potential of humanist centers." by representatives of the humanist and Secular Humanist Viewpoints are freethought community. The quest to available for a cost of $1.00 each, $2.50 —Matt Cherry restore and improve scientific literacy in for 6, $4.00 for 10, or $12.00 for 100, our society, and to demonstrate that the postage included if sent within U.S.A. and rationalistic scientific method is a valid Canada. Please send orders to: Secular Making the World Safe approach to all aspects of our daily lives, Humanist Viewpoints, PO Box 664, for Humanism is another personal odyssey of mine, and I Amherst, NY 14226-0664. am grateful to FREE INQUIRY for assisting According to the latest issue of Money me in this endeavor." Hale has donated his —Matt Cherry magazine, Amherst, New York, is the $250 prize to the Southwest Institute for safest city in the United States. "A bucolic Space Research, an independent research suburb of 107,000 residents just outside and educational organization he founded Center for Inquiry Meetings Buffalo," according to Money, it posted in New Mexico three years ago, whose Attract International Attention the lowest rates for both overall violent primary goal is to assist regional and crime and burglary. "In Amherst, just one national educational institutions in pro- A series of talks, parties, and films has in 1,259 people was a victim of violent moting science education and science lit- been attracting large audiences and inter- crime last year." Amherst is also the home eracy for school children. national attention for the Center for of FREE INQUIRY magazine, the Skeptical Inquiry — International. Since September Inquirer magazine, and Prometheus 1996, two meetings a month have been Books, the world's leading proponents of Freethinkers, Inc., Disbands held for the "Friends of the Center for living a good life without superstitious or Inquiry" at the Amherst, New York, head- religious beliefs. Could there be a causal One of the oldest Alliance of Secular quarters of the Council for Secular connection here? Perhaps living in Humanist Societies, Freethinkers, Inc., of Humanism and the Committee for the Amherst is the reasonable thing to do. Orlando, Florida, has disbanded. We wish Scientific Investigation of Claims of the to give special thanks to its founder, Paranormal. Topics as diverse as prostitu- Andree Spuhler, who did an outstanding tion, Mother Teresa, and extraterrestrial Forkosch Award Winners job of organizing the meetings and keep- life have ensured high turn-outs and lively ing the organization going for nearly a debates. And unique events, such as the The editors of FREE INQUIRY magazine decade. Her graciousness, hospitality, and mock Birth-of-the-Earth Party to celebrate annually give two awards for the best strong defense of secularism are greatly the 6,000th anniversary of the alleged book and article promoting humanism. appreciated. Creation of the Earth, have attracted pub- The awards are named after Morris and licity in media across the world. Selma Forkosch, who gifted an endow- Notable meetings have included: a film ment fund for this purpose. The Morris The Council for Secular Humanism showing and party to celebrate the fic- Forkosch Award for best humanist book is planning a survey of adoption tional birth of HAL, the computer in for 1996 was given to Ibn Warraq for his practices. We are particularly inter- 2O01: A Space Odyssey; a showing of work Why IAm NotA Muslim, a hard-hit- ested in religious barriers to adop- Hell's Angel, Christopher Hitc hens 's ting analysis of Islam's long-standing bat- tion imposed by adoption agencies. exposé of Mother Teresa; and talks by tle against freethought. Warraq accepted Many agencies are run by religious Bangladeshi author and fatwa-target the $1,000 prize at the International groups such as those affiliated with Taslima Nasrin and Pieter Admiraal, a Humanist and Ethical Union Congress in the Catholic church, Jewish agen- leading spokesperson and practitioner of Mexico City. The Selma Forkosch Award cies, or particular Christian denom- voluntary euthanasia in The Netherlands. for best humanist article for 1996 was inations, but many simply claim to The Friends of the Center for Inquiry has given to astronomer Alan Hale, co-dis- be nonprofit adoption agencies yet also hosted joint meetings, notably with coverer of the Hale-Bopp Comet, for his demand letters of recommendation the Pro-Choice Network of Western New article "The Unlimited Cosmos—A from clergy or refuse to deal with York. The largest meetings have attracted Personal Odyssey," which appeared in the freethinkers. Some are even tax sup- over 150 attendees. Tom Flynn, Director Summer 1996 issue of FREE INQUIRY. ported but still discriminate against of the Center for Inquiry, comments, "Our Hale, who participated in the Center for non-believers. Send any information program of local meetings has exceeded Inquiry Institute workshop "Myth and you have on the matter and any recall our expectations. Our state-of-the-art Magic in the Sky: Astronomy, Religion, ommendations you might share to facilities, exciting range of events, and and the Paranormal," February 14-16 in the: Council for Secular Human- vigorous promotions have ensured Tucson, writes that: "I wish to thank the ism, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, N.Y. increasingly large audiences, bringing in editors of FREE INQUIRY for awarding me 14226-0664. many people new to humanism and skep- the Forkosch Award. I am honored to have ticism. The success of these meetings, in a received it, and I am gratified to see the —Vern Bullough relatively small city like Buffalo, shows high esteem placed upon science writing Spring 1997 65

The International Academy of Humanism The International Academy of Humanism was established to recognize distinguished humanists and to disseminate humanistic ideals and beliefs. The members of the Academy, listed below, are nontheists who (1) are devoted to free inquiry in all fields of human endeavor, (2) are committed to a scientific outlook and the use of the scientific method in acquiring knowledge, and (3) uphold humanist ethical values and principles. The Academy's goals include furthering respect for human rights, freedom, and the dignity of the individual; tolerance of various viewpoints and willingness to compromise; commitment to social justice; a uni- versalistic perspective that transcends national, ethnic, religious, sexual, and racial barriers; and belief in a free and open pluralistic and democratic society.

Humanist Laureates: Pieter Admiraal, medical doctor, The Netherlands; Steve Allen, author, humorist; Shulamit Aloni, Education Minister, Israel; Ruben Ardila, professor of psychology, Universidad de Colombia; Kurt Baier, professor of philosophy, Univ. of Pittsburgh; Sir Isaiah Berlin, professor of philosophy, Oxford Univ.; Sir Hermann Bondi, Fellow of the Royal Society, Past Master of Churchill College, London; Yelena Bonner, human rights defender, Commonwealth of Independent States; Mario Bunge, professor of philosophy of science, McGill Univ.; Jean-Pierre Changeux, Collège de France and Institut Pasteur; Patricia Smith Churchland, professor of philosophy, Univ. of California at San Diego; Arthur C. Clarke, novelist, Sri Lanka; Bernard Crick, professor of politics, Univ. of London; Francis Crick, Nobel Laureate in Physiology, Salk Inst.; Richard Dawkins, New College Fellow, Oxford University; José Delgado, chairperson of the Dept. of Neuropsychiatry, Univ. of Madrid; Jean Dommanget, Royal Observatory, Belgium; Umberto Eco, educator and author, Italy; Paul Edwards, professor of philosophy, New School for Social Research; Luc Ferry, professor of philosophy, Sorbonne and Univ. of Caen; Sir Raymond Firth, professor emeritus of anthropology, Univ. of London; Betty Friedan, author and founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW); Yves Galifret, professor of physiology at the Sorbonne and director of l'Union Rationaliste; Johan Galtung, professor of peace studies, Univ. of Oslo; Stephen Jay Gould, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard; Adolf Grünbaum, professor of philosophy, Univ. of Pittsburgh; Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel Laureate in physics, California Institute of Technology; Jurgen Habermas, professor of philosophy, University of Frankfurt, Germany; Herbert Hauptman, Nobel Laureate and professor of biophysical science, SUNY at Buffalo; Donald Johanson, Inst. of Human Origins; Alberto Hidalgo Tuñón, president of the Sociedad Asturiana de Filosofía, Oviedo, Spain; Sergei Kapitza, physicist, Institute of Physics and Technology; George Klein, cancer researcher, Sweden; Gyorgy Konrad, novelist, Hungary; Thelma Lavine, Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Philosophy, George Mason Univ.; Jole Lombardi, organizer of the New Univ. for the Third Age; Jose Leite Lopes, director, Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas; Paul MacCready, Chairman, AeroVironment, Inc.; Adam Michnik, historian and writer, Poland; Jonathan Miller, author, director, United Kingdom; Taslima Nasrin, novelist, medical doctor, Bangladesh; Conor Cruise O'Brien, author, statesman, Ireland; Indumati Parikh, president, Radical Humanist Association of India; John Passmore, professor of philosophy, Australian National Univ.; Octavio Paz, Nobel Laureate in Literature, Mexico; Wardell Baxter Pomeroy, psychotherapist and author; W. V. Quine, professor of philosophy, Harvard; Marcel Roche, per- manent delegate to UNESCO from Venezuela; Max Rood, professor of law and former Minister of Justice in Holland; Richard Rorty, professor of philosophy, University of Virginia; Carl Sagan, astronomer, Cornell; Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., historian; Leopold Sedar Senghor, former president, Senegal; J. J. C. Smart, professor of philosophy, Australian National University, Australia; Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate in Literature, Nigeria; Svetozar Stojanovic, professor of philosophy, Univ. of Belgrade; Thomas Szasz, professor of psychiatry, SUNY Medical School; V. M. Tarkunde, chairman, Indian Radical Humanist Association; Richard Taylor, professor of philosophy, Union College; Sir Keith Thomas, president, The British Academy; Rob Tielman, copresident, International Humanist and Ethical Union; Peter Ustinov, actor and director; Mario Vargas Llosa, novelist, Peru; Simone Veil, former president, European Parliament, France; Gore Vidal, novelist; Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., novelist; Mourad Wahba, professor of education, University of Ain Shams, Cairo; Steven Weinberg, Nobel Laureate in Physics; G. A. Wells, professor of German, Univ. of London; Edward O. Wilson, professor of entomology, Harvard. Deceased: George O. Abell, Isaac Asimov, Sir Alfred J. Ayer, Dame R. Nita Barrow, Brand Blanshard, Milovan Djilas, Bonnie Bullough, Joseph Fletcher, Sidney Hook, Lawrence Kohlberg, Franco Lombardi, André Lwoff, Ernest Nagel, George Olincy, Chaim Perelman, Sir Karl Popper, Andrei Sakharov, Lady Barbara Wooton.

Secretariat: Vern Bullough, professor of history, California State Univ., Northridge; Antony Flew, professor emeritus of philosophy, Reading Univ.; Paul Kurtz, professor emeritus of philosophy, SUNY at Buffalo editor of FREE INQUIRY; Gerald Larue, professor emeritus of archaeology and biblical studies, Univ. of Southern California at Los Angeles; Jean-Claude Pecker, professor of astrophysics, Collège de France, Académie des Sciences. President: Paul Kurtz. 3/97

1 YES, I wish to become an Associate Member of the Council for Secular Humanism3/97 Become a Council Associate Member today. Associate Members will receive (exclusively) the redesigned, expanded Secular Humanist Bulletin (the membership newsletter) and a 10% discount on registration fees for conferences and seminars, audiotapes and videotapes, and a select list of books. Enclosed are my dues for: ❑Annual single membership, $18 ❑Annual family membership, $29 ❑Two-year single membership, $33 ❑Two-year family membership, $49 ❑Three-year single membership, $45 ❑Three-year family membership, $72

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City State Zip Return to: Council Memberships, Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664 Or call toll-free 800-458-1366. Fax charges to: (716) 636-1733. American community. point of view. - er t SLa7► Center for Inquiry Libraries Robert G. Ingersoll Gor Collects works on secular humanism, freethought, and philosophical naturalism. Memorial Committee Roger Greeley, Honorary Chairman COUNCIL .o...CML*. MUM.M,.M Committee for the Scientific ( Dedicated to running the Robert G. Ingersoll birth- Examination of Religion (CSER) place museum in Dresden, N.Y., and to keeping The Center for Inquiry is adjacent to the State Gerald A. Larne, President Ingersoll's memory alive. University of New York Amherst campus. It also has affiliated centers in Boulder, CO; Kansas City, MO; Hector Avalos, Executive Director Los Angeles, CA; Moscow, Russia; and Oxford Examines the claims of Eastern and Western religions James Madison Memorial University. It includes: and of well-established and newer sects and denomi- Committee nations in the light of scientific inquiry. The commit- Robert Alley, Chairman Council for Secular Humanism tee is interdisciplinary, including specialists in biblical Keeps alive James Madison's commitment to the Paul Kurtz, Chairman; Timothy J. Madigan, scholarship, archaeology, linguistics, anthropology, First Amendment and to liberty of thought and con- Chief Operating Officer; Matt Cherry, the social sciences, and philosophy who represent dif- science. Executive Director fering secular and religious traditions. The Council for Secular Humanism is a not-for- profit, tax-exempt educational organization dedicated Inquiry Media Productions Secular Organizations for to fostering the growth of the traditions of democracy Thomas Flynn, Executive Director Sobriety (SOS) and secular humanism and the principles of free Produces radio and television programs presenting James Christopher, Executive Director skeptical and secular humanist viewpoints on a vari- inquiry in contemporary society. In addition to pub- A secular alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous with lishing FREE INQUIRY magazine, the Council spon- ety of topics. more than 1,000 local groups throughout North sors many organizations and activities. It is also open America. Publishes a newsletter available by sub- to Associate Membership. Associate Members Center for Inquiry Institute scription. receive the Secular Humanist Bulletin. Vern Bullough, Dean Offers courses in humanism and skepticism; sponsors Secular Humanist Aid and The Internl. Academy of Humanism a three-year certificate program and periodic work- Paul Kurtz, President shops. Relief Effort (SHARE) The Academy of Humanism was established to rec- Assists victims of natural disasters through secular ognize distinguished humanists and to disseminate International Secretariat for efforts. humanistic ideals and beliefs. Growth and Development Matt Cherry, Executive Director Campus Freethought Alliance African Americans for Humanism Works closely with individuals and groups in various Derek Araujo, Harvard University, President Norm Allen, Jr., Executive Director parts of the world, especially in developing coun- Promotes humanist chapters on college campuses Brings the ideals of humanism to the African- tries, and assists them in spreading the humanist throughout the United States.

Alliance of Secular Humanist Humanist Association of St. Petersburg, 13336 Gulf 7571; Capital District Humanist Society, PO Box Blvd. #304, Madeira Beach, FL 33708 (813) 399- 2148, Scotia, NY 12302 (518) 381-6239; Secular Societies (ASHS) 9322; Free Inquiry Society of Central Florida, PO Humanist Society of New York, PO Box 7661, New H. James Birx, Executive Director Box 196481, Orlando, FL 32791 (407) 424-9076 York, NY 10150 (212) 861-6003 The•Alliance of Secular Humanist Societies is a net- GEORGIA: Atlanta Freethought Society, PO Box NEVADA: Secular Humanist Society of Las Vegas, work created for mutual support among local and/or 813392, Smyrna, GA 30081-3392 (770) 641-2903 240 N. Jones Blvd, Suite 106, Las Vegas, NV regional societies of secular humanists. If you are HAWAII: Hawaii Rationalists, 508 Pepeekeo Pl., 89107 (702) 594-1125 interested in starting or joining a group in your area, Honolulu, HI 96822 (808) 235-0206 OHIO: Free Inquirers of Northeast Ohio, PO Box please contact PO 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664, ILLINOIS: Peoria Secular Humanists, PO Box 994, 2379, Akron, OH 44309-2379 (216) 869-2025; (716) 636-7571, FAX (716) 636-1733. Normal, IL 61761 (309) 452-8907; Free Inquiry Free Inquiry Group, Inc., PO Box 8128 Cincinnati, Network, PO Box 2668, Glen Ellyn, IL 60138 OH 45208 (513) 557-3836 ARIZONA: Arizona Secular Humanists, PO Box (603) 469-1111 OREGON: Corvallis Secular Society, 126 N.W. 21st 3738, Scottsdale, AZ 85271 (602) 230-5328 KENTUCKY: Louisville Association of Secular St., Corvallis, OR 97330 (541) 754-2557 Humanist ARKANSAS: Arkansas Society of Freethinkers, Humanists, PO Box 91453, Louisville, KY 40291 Association of Salem, PO Box 4153, Salem OR 1700 W. Dixon Road, Little Rock, AR 72206 (501) (502) 491-6693 97302 (503) 371-1255 888-9333 LOUISIANA: Shreveport Humanists, 9476 Box- PENNSYLVANIA: Pittsburgh Secular Humanists, CALIFORNIA: Secular Humanists of the East Bay, wood Dr., Shreveport, LA 71118-4003 (318) 687- 405 Nike Dr., Pittsburgh, PA 15235 (412) 823- PO Box 5313, Berkeley, CA 94705 (415) 486- 8175 3629 0553; Secular Humanists of Los Angeles, PO Box MARYLAND: Baltimore Secular Humanists, PO SOUTH CAROLINA: Secular Humanists of the 661496, Los Angeles, CA 90066 (310) 305-8135; Box 24115, Baltimore, MD 21227-0615 (410) Low Country, PO Box 32256, Charleston, SC Atheists and Other Freethinkers, PO Box 15182, 467-3225 29417 (864) 577-0637, Secular Humanists of Sacramento, CA 95851-0182 (916) 920-7834; San MICHIGAN: Secular Humanists of Detroit, PO Greenville, Suite 168, PO Box 3000, Taylors, SC Diego Association of Secular Humanists, PO Box 432191, Pontiac, MI 48343-2191 (313) 962- 29687 (803) 244-3708 927365 San Diego, CA 92122 (619) 272-7719; 1777 TEXAS: Agnostic and Atheist Student Group, M.S., Humanist Community of San Francisco, PO Box MINNESOTA: Minnesota Atheists, PO Box 6261 4237 Philosophy, Texas A & M Univ., College 31172 San Francisco, CA 94131 (415) 342-0910; Minneapolis, MN 55406 (612) 484-9277; Uni- Station, TX 77843; Secular Humanist Association Secular Humanists of Marin County, PO Box 6022, versity of Minnesota Atheists and Unbelievers, 300 of San Antonio, PO Box 160881, San Antonio, TX San Rafael, CA 94903 (415) 892-5243; Santa Washington Ave. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 78280 (512) 696-8537 Barbara Humanist Society, PO Box 30804, Santa (612) 731-1543 VIRGINIA: Central Virginia Secular Humanists, PO Barbara, CA 93130 (805) 682-6606; Siskiyou MISSOURI: Kansas City Eupraxophy Center, 6301 Box 184, Ivy, VA 22945 (804) 979-2508; North Humanists, PO Box 223, Weed, CA 96091 (916) Rockhill Rd., Kansas City, MO 64124 (816) 822- Virginia Secular Humanists, PO Box 725, Lorton, 938-2938 9840; Rationalist Society of St. Louis, PO Box VA 22199 (703) 971-0971; Frederick Secular CONNECTICUT: Northeast Atheist Association, 2931, St. Louis, MO 63130 (314) 772-5131 Humanists, PO Box 217, Lovettsville, VA 20180, PO Box 63, Simsbury, CT 06070 NEW HAMPSHIRE: Secular Humanists of (301) 698-0671 FLORIDA: Secular Humanists of South Florida, Merrimack Valley, PO Box 368, Londonderry, NH WASHINGTON, DC: Washington Area Secular 1951 NW 98 Ave., Sunrise, FL 33322 (305) 741- 03053 (603) 434-4195 Humanists, PO Box 15319, Washington, D.C. 6532; Atheists of Florida, Inc., PO Box 530102, NEW JERSEY: New Jersey Humanist Network, PO 20003 (202) 298-0921 Miami, FL 33153-0102 (305) 936-0210; Box 51, Washington, NJ 07882 (908) 689-2813 WISCONSIN: Milwaukee Freethought Society, Humanists of The Palm Beaches, 860 Lakeside Dr., NEW YORK: Western New York Secular Human- 10975 N. Oriole Lane, Mequon, WI 53092 (414) N. Palm Beach, FL 33408 (407) 626-6556; ists, PO Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226 (716) 636- 242-0788. "HUMANISM: THE NEXT GENERATION" THE FIRST ANNUAL CAMPUS FREETHOUGHT ALLIANCE CONFERENCE Thursday, May 29 to Sunday, June 1, 1997 at the Center for Inquiry, Amherst, New York This exciting event will focus on ways to promote the cause of humanism more appealing to a wider audience. Come and humanism among all generations, but particularly those of college meet the next generation of humanist leaders from North age. There will be workshops, hands-on presentations, poster ses- America and around the world. sions, and cultural events. This conference will be co-sponsored by the Council for Secular Humanism, the Humanist Association The Campus Freethought Alliance was founded in August of Canada, and the Bertrand Russell Society. of 1995, and has received extensive attention from The New York Times, The Associated Press, The Religious News Service Youthful and diverse speakers will address how to make and dozens of local papers. CONFERENCE PROGRAM THURSDAY, MAY 29 SATURDAY, MAY 31 7:00 PM — Midnight: Welcoming Reception 9:00 AM — NOON: Plenary Session: "Threats and Opportunities of the Twenty-First Century" FRIDAY, MAY 30 NOON — 2:00 PM: Luncheon 9:00 AM — NOON: Plenary Session: 2:00 PM — 5:00 PM: Concurrent Sessions "Humanism for New Generations" 6:00 PM — 11 PM: Banquet NOON — 2:00 PM: Luncheon 2:00 PM — 5:00 PM: Concurrent Sessions SUNDAY, JUNE 1 6:00 PM — MIDNIGHT: Trip to Niagara Falls, Canada (optional) 9:00 AM — NOON: Workshops and Summations

[ ] YES! I (we) will attend "Humanism: The Next Generation" Hotel Information — Mention "FREE INQUIRY Conference" for [ ] Registration(s) for person(s) $75US/$100CDN each $ these special conference rates [ ] Friday Luncheon for person(s) $22ÚS/$28CDN each $ at the Buffalo Marriott Hotel, [ ] Friday Night Trip to Niagara Falls, Ontario for person(s) $50US/$65CDN each $ 1340 Millersport Highway, Amherst, NY (716) 689-6900. [ ] Saturday Banquet for person(s) at $35US/$46CDN each $84 Single/Double. Includes [ ] MC [ ] Visa or [ ] Check or Money Order Total $ complimentary Airport Shut- tle. Red Roof Inn, I-290 and Millersport Hwy N., Amherst, Exp. Date Card Number NY 1-800-843.7663. $69 Single/$79 Double. Ask for Signature Block Number B104000365. (required for charges) Hampton Inn, 10 Flint Road, Amherst, NY (716) 689-4414. Name Daytime Phone $65 Single/Double. Includes complimentary Airport Shuttle Address and Continental Breakfast. Super Eight Motel, 1 Flint City State Zip Code Road, Amherst, NY (716) 688- 7811. $49 Single/$52 Double. Residents of the United States, please make checks payable to FREE INQUIRY, Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226. To Motel 6, 4400 Maple Road, charge by phone call 1-800-458-1366 or FAX to 1.716.636-1733. For residents of Canada, please make cheques Amherst, NY (716) 834-2231. payable to the Humanist Association of Canada, PO Box 3736, Station C, Ottawa, Ontario K1Y 4J8. For further $36 Single/$42 Double. details, contact Tim Madigan at 1-716-636-7571 (e-mail: [email protected]).