Psychotherapy: Science Or Pseudoscience?

Home , Albert Ellis, Free Inquiry, Inedia

r 1 Fall 1985 Vol. 5, No. 4 $3.75 Psychotherapy: Science or Pseudoscience?

Freud and Psychoanalysis H. J. Eysenck -- Frank Sulloway Michael Ruse Lee Nisbet

Albert Ellis Two Forms of Humanistic Psychotherapy Christian Belief vs. New Testament Scholarship Van A. Harvey John Hick

Also: Abortion, Pornography, Homophobia Euthanasia and Religion Free incoutrAr

FALL 1985, VOL. 5, NO. 4 ISSN 0272-0701 Contents 3 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 43 BIBLICAL SCORECARD 12 ON THE BARRICADES 57 IN THE NAME OF GOD EDITORIALS 6 Religion and Secularization in Europe and America, Paul Kurtz. 7 Is Humanism a Religion? Does It Matter? Tom Flynn. 8 America's Founders Rejected Orthodox Christianity, William Edelen. 9 Try Praying at Home, Art Buchwald. 10 Abortion and Free Choice, John George. Another Commission on Pornography, Vern Bullough. 11 Homophobia for All, John Cole. ARTICLES 14 Two Forms of Humanistic Psychology, Albert Ellis Psychoanalysis: Science or Pseudoscience 23 Grünbaum on Freud: Flawed Methodologist or Serendipitous Scientist? Frank J. Sulloway 28 Philosophy of Science and Psychoanalysis, Michael Ruse 31 The Death Knell of Psychoanalysis, H. J. Eysenck 33 Looking Backward, Lee Nisbet Jesus in History and Myth 36 New Testament Scholarship and Christian Belief, Van A. Harvey 40 A Liberal Christian View, John Hick

45 The Winter Solstice and the Origins of Christmas, Lee Carter VIEWPOINTS 49 Euthanasia and Religion, Gerald A. Larue 51 New Problems in Medical Ethics, Vern L. Bullough BOOKS 53 Interpreting the First Amendment: Religion, State and the Burger Court, by Leo Pfeffer, Ron Lindsay 55 A Source of Bewilderment: The Miracle of Theism, J. L. Mackie, Steven L. Mitchell 58 CLASSIFIED

Editor: Paul Kurtz

Associate Editors: Doris Doyle, Steven L. Mitchell, Lee Nisbet, Gordon Stein

Managing Editor: Andrea Szalanski

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

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

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

Systems Manager: Richard Seymour Typesetting: Paul E. Loynes Layout: Guy Burgstahler Staffa Jacqueline Livingston, Alfreda Pidgeon

FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published quarterly by the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH, Inc.), a nonprofit corporation, 3151 Bailey Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14215. Phone (716) 834-2921. Copyright ©1985 by CODESH, Inc. Second-class postage paid at Buffalo, New York, and at additional mailing offices. National distribution by International Periodicals Distributors, San Diego, California. Subscription rates: $16.50 for one year, $29.00 for two years, $38.00 for three years, $3.75 for single copies. Address subscription orders, changes of address. and advertising to: FREE INQUIRY, Central Park Station, Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215-0005. Manuscripts, letters and editorial inquiries should be addressed to: The Editor, FRee INQUIRY, Central Park Station, Box 5, Buffalo, N.Y. 14215-0005. All manuscripts should be accompanied by two additional copies and a stamped, addressed envelope. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or publisher. points as possible. The responsible editor did try subsequently to find a way to report on the substance of events that took place at the conference, but concluded that time- LETTERS TO THE EDITOR liness was lacking. Fifth, again had you bothered to contact me, you would have found that the general topic of the conference was not startling news to those of us at the Free Press. We have in the past, as recently as Bible Criticism Blackout in Detroit? last December, published a comprehensive piece examining various points of view deal- Editors note: Following the "Jesus in History come and go, just does not base its decisions ing with the history involving Jesus Christ. and Myth" conference at the University of about news coverage on whether something I'm confident other occasions will arise for Michigan in Ann Arbor in April, sponsored "might offend the little old ladies in Detroit," us to write still more about some of the by FREE INQUIRY, we published an editorial, or anywhere else. I can attest to that since viewpoints that came up in the Ann Arbor "Press Blackout on Criticism of the Bible," my daily communications from readers give symposium. commenting on the failure of two Detroit- ample evidence of offense having been given. Finally, I feel it's worthwhile to stress area newspapers (the Detroit Free Press and At the same time, the Free Press—and I— one more thing. One of the most difficult— the Ann Arbor News) to report the con- do care very much about presenting a news and important—tasks facing dozens of ference, even though Free Press staff reporter report that is as fair, balanced, and accurate editors here is to decide, each and every Jane Seymour had submitted two separate as is humanly possible—a process which at day, what topics can be covered with limited stories to her editor. Ms. Seymour told FREE some times does indeed anger readers. In staff and space. This means having to exer- INQUIRY that these stories on the highly con- the long run, we find our readers appreciate cise judgment that involves a number of troversial and innovative conference were a great deal our attempts at honesty and, factors, including interest to readers, relative rejected by her editors and that she was told sometimes, courage. importance of various topics, balance, fair- that they might "offend the little old ladies Second, the reporter with whom you ness, and accuracy. It also means being able in Detroit." talked says she doesn't recall having used to make decisions based on an editor's best Copies of the editorial were sent to the "little old ladies" phrase; she feels she judgment, not various pressures from indi- David Lawrence, publisher of the Detroit would never do so. It is impossible for me viduals or groups with some kind of special Free Press, and Kent Bernhard, the executive to arbitrate any dispute about what was or interest—whether they be readers who have editor. We received the following responses. what wasn't said, and it's impossible to been with us for decades, or someone seeking understand all the motivations involved. It news coverage. I'm glad you took the time to share your does indeed seem that the reporter did not Thanks for letting us hear from you. editorial with us... . have as clear an understanding of—or did 1 simply don't believe that any stories not adequately communicate to you—the Kent Bernhard on any topic are rejected at this newspaper reason that her story was not published. Executive Editor because it might "offend" readers. Yes, we Third, the story did not appear in this Detroit Free Press do worry about tastefulness, but that should newspaper because the editor involved in have nothing to do with a report on this the assignment decided that it did not meet Paul Kurtz replies: conference. This newspaper has been a part this newspaper's high standards, a decision of Detroit for more than a century and a with which the reporter says she is in agree- Free Press editor Kent Bernhard denies that half and has been and will continue to be a ment. The article was incomplete. It lacked the reason his paper failed to publish a story newspaper with a great deal of courage; balance. It did not meet our standards of on the "Jesus in History and Myth" con- sometimes it has paid a short-term price for fairness. Sometimes being fair entails asking ference was the fear of offending "the little that courage. a reporter to do more reporting. Sometimes old ladies of Detroit." We stand by our This newspaper's most precious asset is it means not publishing a story that cannot statement of what Ms. Seymour told FREE its credibility, its willingness to tell the truth be made to be fair. (For the record, we do INQUIRY—though it is difficult at this point even when it might hurt us in the short run. not pride ourselves on being a liberal news- to verify what was said. Thus, I'd be amazed if any journalist for paper. We pride ourselves on keeping our But Mr. Bernhard gives other reasons this newspaper would not do a story on the news columns free of bias or perceived bias.) for the lack of coverage—namely, that the basis you suggest... . Fourth, had you bothered before pub- reporter's story "lacked balance," did not lishing your piece to contact me, I would meet his newspaper's "standards of fairness, " David Lawrence have told you what I told another reader and "needed a better focus" and "more con- Publisher who was curious about our decision. We text." I thought newspapers were supposed Detroit Free Press decided that this particular story needed a to cover news events! In point of fact, better focus and more context. We wanted although its main thrust was no doubt to obtain more balance by interviewing bib- liberal biblical criticism, this conference did I am happy to take this opportunity to lical scholars with views that differed from air disagreement on a wide variety of ques- clarify a few things. those at the conference. In addition, there tions. (See the different positions taken by First, I want to stress very clearly that were severe space limitations. In retrospect, Van Harvey and John Hick. Their papers the Detroit Free Press, which in its 154 years we should have found a way to make space. has seen a number of societal phenomena We should be reflective of as many view- (Continued on p. 4)

Fall 1985 3 (Letters, continued from p. 3) that it is possible to develop a rational ethical Jews, Protestants, atheists. We must see philosophy independent of any religious humanism as the element that binds us all are published in this issue.) The conference faith." Some do; it is true. But some don't. together. Humanism is our common bond, was unique in that a powerful issue rarely And then you mention five men, all so-called not the exclusive badge of angry, disen- heard discussed in America was being humanists—Hume, Voltaire, Paine, Freud, chanted, frightened clergymen or professors debated: our knowledge of Jesus and and Sartre. All of them, even Sartre, left of philosophy and English like ourselves. whether "official church doctrine" is correct. room for awe, for what E. O. Wilson (FI, I am genuinely frightened of what is We of course believe in balance and Spring 1985) in his last line called "ponder- happening. We have lunatic fundamentalists fairness in news reporting, but does this ing." You seem increasingly to object to taking over our schools, our libraries, our mean that the Detroit Free Press does not pondering, to the natural tendency of science cities. The problem is biological. The morons cover any event where a particular point of to be tentative, humble, cautious, to Edding- are producing 12 children per couple, and view is not balanced? What about meetings ton, Compton, Einstein, and most scientists the bright are producing only 1.4 children. of church officials? Does each and every of the past and present who allow for "some But we cannot afford the luxury of thinking story about a minister, priest, bishop, or intelligence or organizing force" in our only we are humanists. We must allow those rabbi carry a dissenting point of view? I universe, as Wilson put it. Allow this. Be who want the label to study our causes, doubt it. Skeptics and humanists would be tolerant. Be scientific of spirit. Accept the goals, dreams, and hopes. We can't win over very glad to provide dissenting or contrasting mystery of science and life. our enemies by refusing to allow them to viewpoints to provide "balance" to the over- Most of us feel that humanism, more share in our ideas and banners because they whelming number of pro-religious stories than it is logic, is tolerance, pluralism, believe in God or prayer. Would you tell appearing in the press. breadth of inclusion and vision. John XXIII E. O. Wilson he was not a true humanist We do not think that the Free Press, or declared himself a humanist. So did Paul because he sees "organizing intelligence" in indeed most papers, have covered the topic VI. I see increasing those who identify, our universe and in physical reality at the of biblical criticism adequately. We saw the Protestant and Catholic, with the humanist. atomic level? Let us demonstrate our Free Press story about Jesus that appeared Let us not chase them away! tolerance by being tolerant. We must wel- last year, which was basically favorable to Let us not quarrel with those who wish come all who want to share humanist goals. the traditional viewpoint. Moreover, we to join us. Andre Bacard (FI, Winter We must set about to improve the received copies of the correspondence 1984/85) says we humanists bicker ourselves human race, upgrade it biologically, lift it between Mr. Bernhard and a reader who to death in petty internal squabbles; we to higher ground, not fight against other attended the conference and who was also become cantankerous, petty, and intolerant. human beings. Falwell is not wicked; he is distressed at the failure of the Free Press to We become criticism and negativity, cynical just stupid and greedy, but we must lead cover it in its pages. The reasons Mr. Bern- sneering and mockery. We are always him out of it. hard gave were the same as in his letter throwing rocks. Let us fight for some posi- above, and they seemed weak. Hence our tive cause. Those who are not against us are Tom Madison editorial response. for us. We need friends among Catholics, Oshkosh, Wis. We have no desire to castigate the Detroit Free Press, which we consider a fine ~Q~ t~QE e9.s\ature newspaper, but only to address the problem ~ 3 GOLD IT. 7 of unbalanced reporting of religious issues NAT'S JUST BEEN by the news inedia throughout the land. A RULED AN UNWONSTITIONAL story questioning traditional claims of the VIOLATION OF ME FIRST divinity of Jesus or the divine inspiration of AMENDMENT, the Bible is rare indeed. One of the major functions of FREE INQUIRY and the Com- Tºn mittee for the Scientific Examination of e Religion is to provide a dissenting point of view and to keep alive the spirit of criticism. We believe that the press should be more balanced by presenting alternative viewpoints about biblical claims. afr

Humanism, a Common Bond ~a~e 1H' ~u ' a~a ~ 1 1 think the now five-year-old new magazine FREE INQUIRY is one of the best magazines Vti e1s in our country. I like its general direction. As a former Presbyterian minister, a current k .u• professor of English, and for thirty years now a rationally detached Episcopalian, I am, however, distressed to see you repeatedly pinning yourself into a corner with a too emphatic either/or: humanist or God c follower. THOU SHALT NOT LET IT ALONE.) /~ ~~i1 You say secular humanists "maintain THAT'S ONE Of DIN, ISN'T IT 9 l

4 FREE INQUIRY "Common Ground" systems, and to learn the roots of religion Solving the Jesus Puzzle and its impact upon our society (and its I read with astonishment Paul Kurtz's recent potential threat to the world), maybe you Much as I applaud R. Joseph Hoffmann's solution to the problems caused by absolute should pussyfoot less and assert your posi- attempt to clarify the documentary basis of faith and conviction and militant atheism tion in a stronger manner. Christianity ("The Origins of Christianity," ("Finding a Common Ground Between In closing, I just wish to add that reli- FI, Summer 1985), I have one grave reserva- Believers and Unbelievers," FI, Summer gious fanatics have closed minds (they do tion. 1985). He has decided that being a fallible not wish to be confused by the facts) and Some humanists are skilled at showing believer or skeptic is the road to peaceful atheists hunger for knowledge. That they the discrepancies, even conflicts, in the bib- coexistence. I am positively aghast with this are no longer agnostics simply indicates they lical text. It is an easy game to play, but it conclusion. have removed themselves from the fence that can give the impression (as does Hoffmann) As a member of American Atheists Paul Kurtz is comfortably straddling. It is a that the Gospels are entirely unreliable and (founded by Madalyn Murray O'Hair), I can pity that we disagree on this point, as we that they contain no trace of a historical assure you that atheists do not resist inquiry have more in common with each than with Jesus (the position of G. A. Wells). Hoff- or debate. We relish it. We inquire, investi- fallible religious believers or skeptics and mann does appear to allow the possibility gate, compare, read, test, and do all other could probably achieve more if we weren't that there was a man called Jesus, although things necessary to form intelligent opinions. so hung up on labels. he seems to think that we can determine no After a while one accepts that things don't more about him. fall up; one and one equals two and wishes Arlene J. Gamer Certainly the portrait of Jesus has built are not granted by intoning certain incanta- Newton, Mass. up over many years, but processes exist that tions to the sky. can reveal the original picture. 1 claim that I'll wager Paul Kurtz no more believes Toward a New Enlightenment not only does the evidence point to the in a god or gods, after-life, divine interven- existence of a historical Jesus but that a tion, papal infallibility, Bible errancy, etc., I am disappointed to find that Henry Darcy basic "life" of this man can be extracted than I do or Madalyn Murray O'Hair does. has no interest in finding common ground from the pile of Gospel debris. Indeed, 1 Where we split is on the question of between science and religion (Letters, FI, follow Albert Schweitzer, who did not (as coexistence. If Mr. Kurtz wishes to fence- Summer 1985), but am pleased that Paul Hoffmann claimed) believe that the historical straddle in order not to offend the reli- Kurtz (in the same issue) is much more Jesus "is lost to us forever"; he noted that gionists, then say so. It's not a crime (but in favorably disposed to the idea. It seems to "the historical Jesus will be to our time a my opinion a bit cowardly). The main dif- me that the antagonism between science and stranger and an enigma" (quite a different ference between "militant" atheists and skep- religion that we have inherited from the Old conclusion). But Jesus was no stranger or tics is that atheists have formed their opin- Enlightenment is the result of much mis- enigma to Schweitzer, who understood how ions based on evidence and have arrived at understanding on both sides and that we Jesus' life could be explained in the light of the conclusion that god is a figment of man's need a New Enlightenment such as Paul eschatology. Jesus may be a puzzle, but, with primitive imagination. Show us some credi- Kurtz proposes in "Finding a Common an effort, the puzzle can be solved. ble evidence. We'll listen. We therefore lead Ground Between Believers and Unbelievers." Necessarily, searches for the original our lives devoid of religious practices. The If the philosophes of the eighteenth Jesus must reject much accumulated tradi- argument that we can't prove there is no century had had access to the scholarship of tion, and it helps to know how this tradition god is silly. We can't prove there is no Santa E. J. Dijksterhuis in his Mechanization of has emerged. However (to take one exam- Claus, tooth fairy, Loch Ness monster or the World Picture, they would have been ple), it is naive to assume that Jesus could Bigfoot, either. However, we don't allege the much more appreciative than they ever were not have forecast the downfall of Jerusalem; existence of entities with magical, mystical of the Christian contribution to the Scientific he could have read Daniel's prophecy of the powers. Revolution. destruction of the city (Dan. 9:26), and It is not only insulting to say that "mili- What compels us to a long overdue repeated it. This does not exclude the possi- tant believers and dogmatic atheists are bed- rapprochement is the threat posed by bility that, after 70, the text was elaborated, fellows in their psychological attitudes"; it is Marxism-Leninism both to science and to as at Luke 21:20, where the reference to also untrue. We push no "beliefs" on anyone, religion. One must tremble at the thought Daniel's prophecy, with its special signifi- believe in the pursuit of knowledge, and pri- that we face an adversary armed to the teeth cance for Jews, has been replaced by a sign marily seek to keep religions from enacting who does not recognize the existence of that anyone could understand, and which legislation that they believe would be good "sin." Search for it if you will in The Great probably did originate in the events of 70. for our nation if it is based on religious Soviet Encyclopedia. doctrine. Just remember, if religion were ice Finally, the readers of FI will be espe- Steuart Campbell cream, Christianity would be but a flavor cially interested in the important recent Edinburgh, Scotland and the King James Bible would be but the initiatives taken by Pope John Paul II in recipe book for making Christians. Multiply extending a hand of friendship and appre- May I expand Prof. Hoffmann's brief all the religions known to man with their ciation to the world scientific community. reference to the interpolation into the text corresponding recipe books and you can see These are recorded in a letter, "Einstein and of 1 John 5:7 f. He rightly says that it has why an atheist thinks religion is silly. the Vatican," in the July 1985 Physics Today served as a prooftext for the Christian doc- I enjoy FREE INQUIRY because it is a by Prof. Irving M. Klotz of Northwestern trine of a triune God. Now when one speaks source of true, factual information, and I University. of the Trinity, one is apt to think of three have just renewed my subscription. However, deities. The essence of the matter, however, if one of the goals of the magazine is to Lawrence Cranberg is that the three are one, and this is what educate others, to make them question belief Austin, Tex. (Continued on p. 58)

Fall 1985 5

he decline of religiosity in Europe is Tillustrated by two recent polls con- EDITORIALS ducted by the Princeton Research Center (Gallup). The first shows that Europeans are far less likely to "pray, meditate, or contem- Religion and Secularization plate" than are Americans. in Europe and America Prayer in America and Europe Do you take some moments of prayer, meditation or contemplation or something like that?

Don't Yes No Know Paul Kurtz Country % % % United States 86 14 Republic of Ireland 81 18 1 hen I visited Europe this past sum- way, an American freethinker. Its stately Northern Ireland 73 25 1 Wmer I found our Western European halls and corridors are adorned with statues Italy 72 26 2 friends and allies—humanist and nonhu- and paintings of famous freethinkers, includ- Spain 69 27 4 manist alike—aghast at the growth of funda- ing Thomas Paine, Bertrand Russell, and Norway 61 38 1 mentalist religion in the United States. Many George Bernard Shaw. West Germany 59 29 12 find it incomprehensible that Jerry Falwell, My address was sponsored by Britain's Belgium 56 32 12 Netherlands 56 36 8 Jimmy Swaggart, Pat Robertson, and their humanist, secular, and freethought groups, Great Britain 50 50 confederates in the Congress—Senators and I was delighted that their influential Finland 49 42 10 Hatch, Denton, East, Helms, and others— leaders were in attendance. My topic was Denmark 48 50 2 wield so strong an influence on America. "Fundamentalism vs. Humanism in France 44 54 2 We often hear it said by conservative America." I outlined the attack on secular Sweden 33 66 2 religionists that America is on a moral humanism by fundamentalist groups in this A second poll reinforces this disparity decline and that the forces of secularism and country over the past several years and the in attitudes toward religion. humanism are responsible. However, secu- prospects for the future. larist and humanist influences in many ways In my opening statement I said that, Comfort from Religion are far more advanced in the countries of on my first visit to London in 1944, my Western Europe, and the influence of reli- most memorable experience was coming Do you find that you get comfort and gion has been on the wane; yet these societies upon the speaker's corner at Hyde Park. strength from religion, or not. are thriving and enjoy a high quality of life. Every Sunday speakers gather there and No My first trip to Europe was in 1944, at stand on soapboxes to deliver orations on a Yes No Opinion the height of World War II, as the guest of variety of topics. I remember how impressed Country % % the United States Army. As a young GI, I I was by the wide range of viewpoints so had landed in England in mid-1944 and was passionately espoused. On one box might United States 79 17 4 Republic of Ireland 79 17 5 thrown a few months later into the Battle of be a Marxist, on another a pacifist. 1 found Northern Ireland 70 22 7 the Bulge then raging on the French-German it especially intriguing when one pacifist Italy 63 30 7 border. I returned to Europe in 1958, and I urged England to lay down its arms, turn Spain 57 34 9 have gone back every year—especially since the other cheek, and welcome the Germans Belgium 47 32 20 my wife is French and yearly visits to Paris as brothers—this was at the height of the Great Britain 46 49 5 and the Côte d'Azur are a must. buzz-bomb attacks on London. Although I West Germany 44 39 14 This year, an added reason for my visit disagreed with many of the speakers, Hyde Netherlands 43 44 13 was an international conference on "Investi- Park reinforced my conviction of the Norway 40 38 22 gation and Belief," sponsored by the Com- importance of democracy and the need to France 37 57 6 mittee for the Scientific Investigation of defend it against those who seek to limit it. Denmark 29 60 II Sweden 27 Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). The Every time I return to London I visit Hyde 63 10 conference was held at University College Park, and each time my wife cautions me, In England, traditional religious beliefs London and drew more than 200 skeptics "Please don't tell the same story again about and practices have declined and church from Europe, America, and Australia. Hyde Park!" I did repeat it to our English attendance is very low. According to another While in London I delivered an address friends, because it seems to me to be at the Gallup poll, 27 percent of the British popu- at Conway Hall in Red Lion Square. This very center of what secular humanism is lation explicitly identify with agnosticism is the meeting house of the South Place about: a commitment to freedom of inquiry or atheism. The number of people who pray Ethical Society, an organization founded in in all areas of human interest. is very low (50 percent) in comparison with 1893 and committed to ethical principles The British find Americans highly the United States (86 percent): and only 46 based on humanism and the cultivation of a advanced in many areas, but they look with percent of the British claim to find comfort rational life. Conway Hall, built more than disapproval at the corrosive influence of bib- in religion, compared with 79 percent of a century ago, is named for Moncure Con- lical religion on American life. Americans. Perhaps this is due to the fact

6 FREE INQUIRY that Britain has an established church—the Italy has the largest communist party The polls also indicate that fewer Church of England—and that religious edu- in Western Europe, and part of the political Italians pray (72 percent) or get comfort cation is compulsory in the schools. People opposition is no doubt religious. However, from religion (63 percent) than do Ameri- apparently find a surféit of religion boring. it has gone largely unnoticed in this country cans, perhaps a sign of a new Italian secular "If we wish to restrain religious fervor in that the Italian government last year reached rennaisance. the United States," someone in the audience an agreement with the Holy See that did remarked, "perhaps we should support the away with all but a trace of the privileged he moral of my story is that the influ- establishment of a state church!"—an insti- position of the church. It included a ban on Tence of secularism continues to develop tution that right-wing fundamentalists compulsory religious education in state-run in various parts of the world in spite of com- apparently would sanction. schools and ended the special status that plaints by theological reactionaries—from the Roman Catholic church has enjoyed as Falwell to Khomeini. These encouraging y sojourn in France this year the state religion. The agreement provided developments are no doubt made possible Mincluded a press conference for that Vatican City will be an independent by the advances in science and technology, CSICOP, arranged by the Comité Francaise entity, that Rome will no longer be "the an increase in the standard of living, and pour l'Etude Phenomenes dits Paranormaux Holy City," and that members of the clergy the cultivation of education, free inquiry, in Paris and hosted by l'Union Rationaliste, living outside Vatican City will lose many and democratic institutions, which have all an organization of French scientists, skep- of their tax benefits. In Italy, a nation where contributed to the weakening of the hold of tics, and rationalists. France is reputedly a 90 percent of the people are Roman ancient faiths and superstitions. Some in our Catholic country-85 percent of the popula- Catholic, abortion and divorce were legalized midst no doubt would like to repeal the tion were baptized in the Roman Catholic in the 1970s against strong opposition from modern world, but fortunately they will find church. Still, secularization has been pro- the church. this a difficult task. • ceeding rapidly. (I have seen this process at work in my wife's family, where of a dozen immediate relatives only her grandmother attended mass with any regularity, and even Is Humanism a Religion? she in the year before her death, at the age of ninety-four, confessed some skepticism about the "afterlife.") Does It Matter? The polls indicate that in France only 44 percent of the people pray, meditate, or contemplate, and only 37 percent find comfort in religion. Another recent study (1980) Tom Flynn shows that only 37 percent of the French Catholic population attend mass or other celebrations; only 65 percent of the Catholics entral to conservative attacks on secu- Fred Edwords, executive director of the claim to believe in God, and only 50 percent Clar humanism is the notion that American Humanist Association, reflected in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If one humanism is a "religion of man" whose goal the confusion on the issue in a recent open includes the Protestants, Jews, and other is to overturn Christian values among the letter to Phyllis Schlafly. Criticizing the religious minorities in the sample, the per- young and replace them with the values of anti-humanist provisions of the so-called centages decline further. The Roman an alien, human-centered religion. This Hatch magnet-school amendment, Edwords Catholic church in France is facing a deep argument carries substantial force in the wrote: "The point is that one religion, or crisis: from 1930 to 1960 there were on the popular mind, which already considers philosophy, has been singled out for a special average of 1,400 ordinations of priests each humanism a religion. Many Christians view ban. Further, everyone is allowed to define year, but in the period from 1975 to 1980 humanists as competitors in the spiritual that religion or philosophy except the adher- there were never more than 150 ordinations marketplace, vying for souls in opposition ents themselves." Edwords's game attempt in any one year. Religious skepticism is to the true faith. to broaden the discussion by calling human- widespread. I have been assured by my Humanism remains vulnerable to this ism a "religion, or philosophy" fails to mask French colleagues that very few people take type of attack because of its own history his concession to Schlafly's main point: that the Bible very seriously any more. and because of the ambivalence in its ranks. humanism is a religion. Indeed, he later Something similar can be seen develop- Humanist Manifesto I was virtually a Uni- admits: "Humanists who see Humanism as ing even in Italy, the bastion of Roman tarian document, and liberal religionists were their religion would not contest" Schlafly's Catholicism. I spent only a few days in Italy prominent among the signers of Humanist claim. this time. The occasion was an appearance Manifesto II. At the same time many There are important reasons to present on a national TV program on parapsy- humanists call themselves religious, while secular humanism as a thrust clearly distinct chology carried by RAI-TV. The topic being some adherents of liberal religion consider from phenomena we might call "religious." discussed that evening—rather favorably, I their faith "humanistic." Finally, humanist One is linguistic; other, even more compel- might add—was reincarnation. I presented writers often fail to establish firm demar- ling reasons are practical. the skeptic's position, claiming that there cations between humanism and religion. Let us begin with the linguistic objec- was insufficient evidence for reincarnation. tion. Humanists generally agree that human- The Catholic church had objected to the kind cannot look to some god for succor theme of the program, because reincarnation Tom Flynn is co-editor of the Secular but instead must find the basis for a moral is contrary to traditional Catholic doctrine— Humanist Bulletin. life on our own. Accordingly, to define yet the program was aired. humanism as a religion one's definition of

Fall 1985 7 "religion" must encompass even the outright The fundamental distinction between religion In light of this—yet without implying rejection of God. Liberal commentators have and humanism must be protected because it any disrespect for the legions of profoundly defined religion without reference to the reflects a concern for clarity and honesty in religious men and women in whom human- supernatural. To them, "religion" means any the use of language, because it makes clear ism is rooted and who today adhere to its enterprise whose intent is to relate the indi- humanism's basic separateness from religion precepts—it is imperative that secular vidual to the universe, to ponder ultimate and thus enhances its attractiveness to capa- humanists present themselves as exponents questions of purpose and destiny, or to guide ble, energetic inquirers from whose ranks of a philosophical/ethical position that, an individual's moral transactions with must come the movement's future leaders, though alien to religion, is not an alien reli- others. and because in the final analysis a nonreli- gion. This does not require unceasing hostil- Yet other writers assert that this defini- gious humanism (properly understood as ity toward religion in general; it requires tion ignores the word's meaning in everyday such) is a far more difficult target for the only our making clear that, whatever religion language. In common usage "religion" means fundamentalist demagogues who would is about, secular humanism is about some- only enterprises concerned with God or gods, erode our freedom. thing else. • the supernatural, and similar essentially asensuous events. Expand the definition of religion far enough to encompass secular America's Founders Rejected humanism and you have made the definition so diffuse that "religion" now intrudes on Orthodox Christianity territories better characterized as "philosophy" or "ethics" or even "art." The linguistic objection warns that the William Edelen word religious should be reserved for enterprises that touch at least tenuously on the ho made the following statement? and a malignant spirit." Jefferson wrote that otherworldly, lest a useful distinction W"I do not not find in orthodox prayer in public schools should be strictly between religion and disciplines like philoso- Christianity one redeeming feature." voluntary and always in an area apart from phy and ethics pass from the language. (Choose one.) the classroom. "Humanism is a religion" becomes a contra- A. Leah Coash James Madison wrote: "During almost diction in terms, because any true humanism B. Ronald Reagan fifteen centuries the legal establishment puts man first, either relegating God to C. Thomas Jefferson known as Christianity has been on trial, and irrelevance or discarding him entirely. You chose C. Right? what have been the fruits, more or less, in Many of those doing all the bellowing all places? These are the fruits: pride, indo- hatever the linguistic argument's today claim that "humanists" include all lence, ignorance and arrogance in the clergy. Wmerits, there remain sound practical those who don't want prayer in public Ignorance, arrogance and servility in the reasons not to call humanism a religion. It schools; who don't believe that the Bible is laity, and in both clergy and laity, supersti- is advantageous for fundamentalists to the "word of God"; who don't believe that tion, bigotry and persecution." present humanism as a competing faith that, Jesus was the "son of God"; and who don't George Washington refused to take though diametrically opposed to their own believe that Christianity is the one "true" communion. He refused to kneel in church, creed, is nonetheless of the same order. Their religion. when he went. He was called "only a Uni- followers have inherited a profound cultural They should read more history. By their tarian, if anything" by Episcopalian minister understanding of ways to deal with such an definition, our Founding Fathers were James Abercrombie. enemy. At the same time, if humanism is unadulterated "humanists" (and that would Article Eleven of Washington's Treaty perceived as a religion, thoughtful skeptics also include Abraham Lincoln). of Tripoli begins: "The government of the who reject religion may reject humanism too, The God, the Bible, and the Jesus of United States is not in any sense founded depriving the movement of needed new orthodox Christianity was to them an on the Christian religion." When looking viewpoints and enthusiasm. abomination, a scandal, and the antithesis for servants, Washington emphasized that Finally, and most ominously, a human- of profound and deep spirituality. And yet any good person would be fine "be they ism that is religious is subject to the same they all had a very intense private and per- Mohammedan, Jew, Christian, or atheist." constitutional curbs by which humanists sonal sense of the mystery that we call His adopted daughter wrote: "My father was themselves have striven to restrict the "God." But it was not the orthodox "God," not one of those to act or pray so that he excesses of conventional religions. If human- in any sense. 'might be seen by men.' He communed with ism is a church, then it must be kept separate Thomas Jefferson wrote: "Question with his God in secret." from the state: This is the fundamental legal boldness the existence of God. I do not John Adams left the Congregational insight underlying the Hatch amendment. If believe any of the Christian doctrines. The church to become a Unitarian. He wrote: we can persuade the public that humanism greatest enemies of Jesus [are the doctrines "The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient is a philosophy, not a religion, we reduce and creeds of the church]. It would be more cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels the possibility that the new generation of pardonable to believe in no God at all than do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, conservative jurists can use against us the to blaspheme him by the atrocious writings Oaths, Doctrines and whole carloads of First Amendment protections on which we of the theologians. John Calvin was a demon other foolish trumpery that we find Chris- depend. tianity encumbered with." We conclude that humanism for the Abraham Lincoln: "The Bible is not my latter 1980s must be aggressively secular—a William Edelen is pastor of the Community book and Christianity is not my religion. I materialistic, human-centered viewpoint Congregational Church in McCall, Idaho. could never give assent to the long compli- wholly divorced from the religious enterprise. cated statements of Christian dogma." Lin-

8 FREE INQUIRY coin would never be baptized; he would do not believe in the doctrines and dogmas keep it to a minute. They could pray as never join a church; he would never make of orthodox Christianity, and who do not long as they liked, provided they are not any profession of faith. His own wife said: believe that prayer should be in public late for classes." "My husband is not a Christian but he is a schools, then it is quite obvious that our "God doesn't listen unless they pray in religious man, I think." great nation was founded by brilliant their school," Alabaster shouted. My Webster's New Collegiate Dic- humanists—and our legacy is humanism. "Alabaster, your problem is that you tionary defines "humanism" and "humanist" (The sources for this column are: In think every religion calls for prayer while very simply as: "The study of humanities; God We Trust, by Norman Cousins; George standing up. This is not true. Some demand an attitude of thought centering upon human Washington, by Paul Boller; Man and God that you kneel and bow your head forward. interests or ideals." That is my definition, in Washington, by Paul Blanshard; The Others insist that you sit straight up, and too. Jefferson-Adams Letters; Thomas Jefferson, there are some that instruct you to prostrate Now, for those wanting other defini- edited by Merrill Peterson; The Complete yourself in a certain direction. Once you tions: If—and I repeat, if—they claim that Madison, edited by Saul Padover; and The bring prayer into the schools you must allow "humanists" are those human beings who Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.) • those participating to do it their own way. And as soon as you permit that, you split up the children into religious factions until the classroom turns into Beirut." Try Praying at Home I could tell Alabaster wasn't convinced. "The only way now to get God into the schools is through a constitutional amendment," he said. "He'll never get there as long Art Buchwald as an atheistic bunch of old men sit on the bench." "God is in the schools already. It may labaster was furious as he came in the prayer, with a strong tilt toward the church not be God according to you, and it isn't Akitchen door. of your choice." God according to me, and it isn't God "They've gone too far," he shouted, "That's because we know the truth," he according to Ronald Reagan. But it is God, waving the newspaper in his hand. "The retorted. and for the good of the country that's the Supreme Court won't let my kids pray in "Religious truth lies in the church and way it should always be." school." the home. The minute you bring it into the "You should be burned at the stake," "I'm sorry to hear that," 1 said. "Why classroom all hell breaks loose." Alabaster said. don't you let them pray before they leave "How can you prevent tiny little kids 1 knew he was upset so 1 didn't get home in the morning?" from asking God's divine guidance every angry. "I'm sorry you lost this one, "They don't have time," he said with morning before class begins?" Alabaster. The only thing left to do is for fury. "They have to get dressed, eat breakfast "Why can't they do it on the way to your kids to get up a little earlier so they and do their homework. The first chance class? It wouldn't hurt to pause one minute can pray at home. It will be good for the they have to pray is when they get to their for a prayer. They wouldn't even have to entire family." • classroom." I scanned the article. "The court isn't taking away the voluntary minute allotted to meditation. It just struck down the words `voluntary prayer' at the end of it." wE REfUSE 'f0 PUT OUR "Why should we let our kids have a CNILDREUS' PRECIOUS minute of silence just to meditate? If they HANDS can't use it for prayer then I say forget about ßFS5UA it." HUMMN15TS!... "Maybe that's why the Supreme Court ruled against you. It's really a question of separation of church and state. I believe PRAYER what the court was saying is that the government cannot force prayer on children in a SCNJOLS! public place." "That isn't what they were saying at all," he retorted. "They are saying that God can't be in our classrooms and the secular humanists have taken over our schools, and THEIR %`" communism has won again, and this ruling ETERNAL SOULS, is just what the Soviets have ordered." SURE "You read all of that into the decision?" "That and a lot more." "Why don't you admit it, Alabaster? You don't want voluntary silent prayer in 1 E ' z- rHr c aßsE,E,z the schools. You want voluntary spoken if/1111110M

Fall 1985 9 before the twentieth week, the pain argument is dubious. 2. The obstetricians further agreed that Abortion and Free Choice a 12-week-old fetus would not react to a suction tube or open its mouth to scream. 3. The film places the number of illegal abortions in 1963 at 100,000. Experts on John George the subject call this estimate too low and remind us that no accurate data exist. But .. ideals demand that the practice of small minority of anti-choicers turning to Dr. Christopher Tietze, the respected abortion shall be exterminated with a violence, a tactic condemned by the great demographer, estimated between 200,000 strong hand." [Quoted by Malcolm Potts, majority who hold that position. and 1,200,000 abortions for that year, with in Abortion (1977).] One tactic that a solid majority of anti- the actual number probably closer to the choice—or, as they prefer, "Right-to-Life or upper level. A panel of experts in 1955 sug- fair-sized minority of Americans would "Pro-Life"—people do approve is the satura- gested the same figures. Aagree with the foregoing statement tion of our nation with The Silent Scream, Where does all of this leave democratic even when informed of its source—Adolf a highly emotional and dramatic 28-minute secular humanists? No doubt the abortion Hitler. They would continue to hold this film narrated by Bernard Nathanson, an views of this small group are rather like position when confronted with the fact that atheist who would probably call himself a those of the general public but even more not only was Nazi policy anti-choice but so humanist. But Nathanson seems to have for- so. What does this mean? Simply that the was that of Stalin's Russia. And today gotten much—such as the often tragic, public, while not liking the idea of abortion, communist Albania, China, and Rumania sometimes fatal, consequences of illegal is decidedly pro-choice. Poll after poll over all adhere to anti-choice policies, with China abortion—and has chosen to ignore the con- the past ten years confirms this. Democratic being unique in its use of forced abortion. siderable number of inaccuracies in The secular humanists are no doubt pro-choice It is important to keep in mind that in Silent Scream. Three examples should suf- in even higher percentages. But can a demo- nearly all free nations the woman has a fice. cratic secular humanist be anti-abortion? Of choice. In most unfree nations she does not. 1. The American College of Obstetri- course. But, like tens of millions of Ameri- The emotion-charged abortion battle con- cians and Gynecologists released a statement cans, one may hold this view and still be tinues to rage in the United States, with a that the fetus does not experience pain early strongly pro-choice. Ah, but what of the in pregnancy. Five out of five obstetricians democratic secular humanist who is anti- John George is professor of political science interviewed by CBS Morning News agreed choice? Such people no doubt exist but and sociology al Central State University, with this. (The "Silent Scream" fetus was would constitute a small segment of demo- Edmund, Oklahoma. supposedly 12 weeks old.) Since more than cratic secular humanism given its commit- 99 percent of U.S. abortions are performed ment to individual liberty. •

subject them to intensive sessions of violent pornography. Two issues are being confused Another Commission on here, violence and pornography; and the sample selection is in no way representative, nor does it represent the consumers of Pornography pornography. Another way is to study sex offenders and their reading habits, but one then runs into the problem of the accuracy of their recollection and their willingness to Vern Bullough cooperate. Comparative studies of Denmark or other areas where pornography is wide- favorite teacher of mine years ago used last Commission on Pornography that there spread and the incidence of violence is low Ato proclaim that there were "lies, damn is little danger in permitting the dissemina- are misleading when compared with the lies, and statistics." Though I eventually tion of pornography and that to censor it United States, because the two countries are realized that the expression was not unique would seriously weaken the First Amend- not really comparable. Interviewing cus- to her and the statement itself was mislead- ment. tomers in porn shops is not the answer ing, it does serve to remind me that social- Since the last report was issued and either, since much more detailed studies need science research, which often relies upon disowned by the president who commis- to be made of them. statistics, is dependent upon the type of sioned it, there has been very little additional Even simple questions are difficult to questions asked. The same question stated serious research on the topic, and none that answer, such as the extent of dissemination in slightly different ways will bring different challenges the opinions put forth at that of the more offensive and illegal answers. This comes to mind because a new time. However, there has been a lot of anti- pornography—namely, that involving chil- Commission on Pornography was recently pornography rhetoric and a few seriously dren and adult sexual activities. Expert appointed by Attorney General Edwin flawed studies. Much of the difficulty with opinion says it is not widely prevalent, but Meese. The Commission, at least on the sur- the topic is in finding a way of researching the media insist that it is a billion-dollar face, looks to be politically biased, and if it, of asking the right questions. The easiest business, a figure pulled out of thin air. there was consultation it was not with any way to do research is to get opinions of Those who try to study its dissemination of the so-called experts in the field, at least college students, who are not the normal and its audience, such as Professor Al Katz not with those experts who hold with the purchasers of hard-core pornography, and of the law school at the State University of

10 FREE INQUIRY New York at Buffalo, find themselves am skeptical of the results of the new Com- pitfalls awaiting them. Still, new observers arrested. Katz, in fact, had found that some mission, regardless of its political views, and researchers might give new insights; but of the material he located dated from which is supposed to report next year. If to really look at the topic we need a variety decades ago, that much of the new material the opinions of the Commission are to be of wide-ranging, many-faceted studies from was produced out of the country, mainly in based upon data rather than rhetoric, then scholars of diverse points of view, and these the Orient with Oriental children, and that a lot of research has to be done. Some of studies must be subjected to criticism by apparently many of those involved in its dis- the grants announced so far have gone to experts. So far, there is no indication that semination were government agents trying individuals who know nothing about por- this will happen and numerous indicators to entrap would-be purchasers and sellers. nography or even social-science research and that the Commission will concentrate on All of this is by way of saying that I who thus are unaware of the problems and rhetoric rather than reality. •

—the only sin is to feel guilt or shame Homophobia for All —that Jesus was gay —that the Bible endorses lesbian and homosexual behavior —that there are no values. In San Francisco we actually saw John Cole homosexuals sharing a public platform in Union Square with transvestites, com- oliticians try to be all things to all If you send him $25 or more he will munists, unionized prostitutes, Central American terrorists, punk rock anarchists, people. One technique is to trade send you a photo album documenting the P people who would legalize marijuana, and endorsements with religious leaders. The "perversions" in store for America unless other radicals. symbiosis produces people like Jerry Falwell his myopic vision triumphs. As a preview, . It's that scary and simple!!! who exploit the prominence this buys. he sends three color-photos in a sealed They have their eyes on our schools Despite pretenses of pleasantry, Falwell and envelope with his fund-raising appeal. (Lest ... our churches ... our government .. . lesser lights have underlying hate lists legiti- the reader salivate—or reach for a check- and our precious children.... And they mized by political prominence. While open book—it should be noted that the photos have their eyes on our children. racism may be out of style, gay-baiting seems are rather innocuous: a couple of sacrilegious to be acceptable still. transvestites and two men almost kissing!) As an anthropologist I can recognize a cul- Falwell's May 31, 1985, fund-raising But, clearly, Falwell is offering a "photo tural backlash, or at least the fanning of appeal is typical of his approach. He asks album" that he apparently considers obscene flames to create one. Just as in the increas- for contributions to support a nationwide in exchange for "contributions"! (Should he ingly vicious abortion "debate," a minority denunciation of the tragic and frightening demand an investigation of himself?) Does is trying to pass as a majority. Unfortunately, disease AIDS, which he terms "the gay he have model releases from his photo sub- repetition can be convincing after a while, plague." That's right—not a penny for jects? especially when the bigoted pronouncements research or treatment, just a fear campaign Falwell pulls out all the stops. He has seem to come from the White House and to induce Congress to legislate such things discovered a secret plan by homosexuals to other respected institutions. as mandatory blood-screening for everyone take over America, including subplans to I hope this does not provoke too many at every physical checkup and jail-terms for take over political parties and the schools, people to send Falwell $25 in order to get people who have sexual relations "after being and thus "our children." (He says gays can- filthy pictures of "over 2000 homosexuals, diagnosed as having AIDS." not reproduce, so they have to capture "our" communists, and other radicals," as adver- Although one of the most cynical, this children.) What about the Protocols of the tised. Perhaps someone should lodge a pro- is far from Mr. Falwell's first foray into Elders of Zion, for heaven's sake? Once you test with the post office about obscenity and gay-baiting. It may even be calmer than his begin to play cabal, where do you balk? false advertising. This campaign, in which August 1984 appeal for funds, which was a Those of us who remember the witch- the Democratic Party is attacked for endors- masterful example of demagoguery and hunting 1950s should smell a resurrected rat. ing gay rights and ignoring traditional scapegoating. It was the most blatant homo- It is chilling to think that it is happening at values, is a tax-deductible charity, so it even phobic diatribe I can remember seeing all, let alone that it is staged by a presidential lacks the loose limits of the PAC system. emerge from a supposedly civilized source. confidant. You don't have to be gay to oppose With overwhelming innuendo and a palpable A fair sampling of Falwell's August 9, viciousness, not only because of humane leer, Falwell manages to link gays, com- 1984, letter: concern but also because we straights or munists, labor unions, and a host of other Jews or Methodists are next. But it is easy demons. to remain silent in the nondefense of unpop- Militant homosexuals are plotting a ular minorities. dangerously different future for America! The bottom line is not sexuality but [Falwell's emphasis, his opening line, and the apparent political endorsement of bigotry John R. Cole is an anthropologist and his alliterative nonstatement! Nowhere in formerly taught at the University of North- four pages does he give any actual infor- that this represents. Remember the absolute ern Iowa and the University of Massachu- mation.] uproar about Jesse Jackson and Minister setts. He is executive director of the Com- Militant homosexuals plan to take Farakhan? Where is the uproar about Fal- mittee for the Scientific Investigation of over both major political parties. well, and others of his kind, whose influence Claims of the Paranormal. Militant homosexuals plan to con- is much more widespread and elective in vince this generation and the next that: spreading hate? •

Fall 1985 11

Sharia, the 1,300-year-old Muslim Code. Although defenders of the law privately ON THE BARRICADES claim that the Koran is "a man's document," they do not do so publicly. A man is per- mitted to have up to four wives, while a News & Views woman can have only one husband, and a female child's share of an inheritance is only one-half that of a male's.

Belief in Jesus Remains Strong

Fifteen-year-old Atheist does not have belief in a Supreme Being, According to the Princeton Religion Expelled from Boy Scouts then they cannot be a member of the Boy Research Center, belief that Jesus Christ is Scouts of America," he wrote. God has held firm for the past thirty years. A I5-year-old Boy Scout was expelled from Here are the responses to the following the organization because he did not believe questions asked in a Gallup survey: in God, according to the boy's mother. Egypt Divided by Court Do you believe that Jesus Christ ever While being interviewed for promotion Ruling on Wives actually lived? Do you think he was God to the rank of Life Scout (one step below or just another leader like Muhammad or Eagle Scout), I5-year-old Paul Trout of Egypt's Supreme Court struck down a Buddha? Charlottesville, Va., was asked about his women's rights law recently and touched off 1952 1965 1983 religious views. an angry debate in Cairo, putting President % % `Yn Paul responded to the local review Mubarak's government in an embarrassing God 74 72 70 board that he did not believe in a Supreme position. Another religious Being but had complete belief in self and The court abolished the "personal leader 12 14 II self-reliance, and he added that he respected status" amendments of 1979. Although Son of God, other 3 6 the rights of others to believe in a Supreme polygamy has never been banned by Egyp- Don't know 7 7 4 Being if they wanted to. tian law, the amendments ruled that a man Jesus never lived 1 1 2 His controversial answers moved the must officially inform his wife if he took a Don't know whether board to ask Chief Scout Executive Bill Love second wife. If the first wife objected, she Jesus lived 3 3 7 what to do. could divorce him within a year and receive "Youth and or adult members of the alimony, custody of the children, and an Law Suit Contests Boy Scouts of America must meet certain apartment in which to live. Hatch Amendment membership requirements. One of these Islamic fundamentalists and other con- requirements is belief in a Supreme Being," servatives have praised the decision and Several noted scholars and writers, including Love wrote to Trout's parents. "If a person claim that the law was inconsistent with the Isaac Asimov, B. F. Skinner, Corliss Lamont, and Joseph Fletcher, have joined School Prayer been examined in the crucible of litigation, several public-school teachers and stddents the Court has unambiguously concluded in challenging the constitutionality of the Hatch Amendment, which bans the use of FREE INQUIRY applauds the Supreme Court that the individual freedom of conscience federal funds to teach secular humanism in decision (6 to 3) that struck down an Ala- protected by the First Amendment embraces the right to select any religious magnet schools. bama law permitting a moment of silence faith or none at all. This conclusion derives In a law suit filed on August 7, 1985, in for prayer or meditation in the public support not only from the interest in Federal District Court in New York City, schools. We reprint below portions of the respecting the individual's freedom of con- attorneys for the National Emergency Civil decision written by Justice Paul Stevens. science, but also from the conviction that Liberties Committee argued that the Hatch religious beliefs worthy of respect are the Amendment is constitutionally infirm Just as the right to speak and the right to product of free and voluntary choice by because it is designed to impose a govern- refrain from speaking are complementary the faithful, and from recognition of the components of a broader concept of indi- fact that the political interest in forestalling mentally defined orthodoxy on local public- vidual freedom of mind, so also the indi- intolerance extends beyond intolerance school systems at the behest of particular vidual's freedom to choose his own creed among Christian sects, or even intolerance religious groups. is the counterpart of his right to refrain among "religions," to encompass intoler- Asimov, Skinner, Lamont, and Fletcher from accepting the creed established by ance of the disbeliever and the uncertain. all declared that they were secular humanists the majority. At one time it was thought As Justice Jackson eloquently stated in and that their writings now used in the pub- that this right merely proscribed the Board of Education v. Barnette (1943): lic schools might be banned by the amend- preference of one Christian sect over "If there is any fixed star in our con- ment. another, but would not require equal stitutional constellation, it is that no offi- Corliss Lamont declared that "the law respect for the conscience of the infidel, cial, high or petty, can prescribe what shall we are challenging ... is the first federal the atheist, or the adherent of a non- be orthodox in politics, nationalism, reli- Christian faith such as Mohammedism or gion or other matters of opinion or force wedge in the fundamentalists' campaign to Judaism. citizens to confess by word or act their turn the public schools from places of But when the underlying principle has faith therein." instruction to places of indoctrination." The law suit rests on three legal claims: first,

12 FREE INQUIRY that the Hatch Amendment is a violation of ment and the American way of life are tist Church in St. Paul. Lessons in the Scrip- under attack by a system whose philoso- freedom of speech; second, that it tends tures now precede the business of precinct phy is at direct odds with our own. Our caucuses. In March 1984, says Mrs. Mueller, toward the establishment of religion; and, American Government is founded on the "we just won everything, including the state third, that it is too vague and provides no concept of the individuality and the dignity definition of "secular humanism." of the human being. Underlying this con- central committee in the Third Congressional cept is the belief that the human person is District and the Fifth, we're good in the Spain Legalizes Abortion important because he was created by God Sixth, and not quite solid in the Fourth." and endowed by Him with certain inalien- The Christian-Republican strength In spite of bitter protest by many doctors able rights which no civil authority may varies from state to state, but in many and the threat of excommunication by the usurp. The inclusion of God in our pledge southern and Rocky Mountain states it has Spanish Roman Catholic church, abortion therefore would further acknowledge the established a strong alliance with right to dependence of our people and our is now legal in Spain. The new law, signed life, anti-ERA, and other conservative Government upon moral directions of the July 5th by the socialist government of groups. Creator. At the same time it would serve was enacted Senator David F. Durenberger, taken Prime Minister Felipe González, to deny the atheistic and materialistic con- unaware by the strength of the religious after nearly two years of court battles. cepts of communism with its attendant Whereas all abortions were illegal prior subservience of the individual. [House movement, commented: "In Minnesota and to this legislation, the operation is now legal Report No. 1693, United States Code and other parts of the country, we seem to be in cases of rape, a malformed fetus, or Congressional Administrative News (1954) narrowing the structural base of the party. danger to the mother, and is performed free p. 2340.] That is, the organization itself is gradually of charge in public clinics. being taken over by those who have strongly The National Council of Bishops issued The House report claimed that the inclusion held views and little tolerance for people in a declaration saying that anyone "who of "under God" did not infringe upon the political life who hold different views." cooperates physically or morally" in the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of Durenberger feels that the movement in the operation will be "automatically excom- religion and that these words acknowledged party has become so strong that the evan- municated." "Decriminalization is a morally the guidance of God in our national affairs. gelicals will determine the 1988 Republican unjust and pernicious decision," the bishops Nevertheless, it was a major revision of the presidential nominee. said. original pledge.

Pledge of Allegiance GOP Christians Marching Onward

What are the real traditions of the United According to the Washington Post, Sharon States. The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag Mueller, who at one time was given short now reads: shrift by the GOP, is now the leader of the conservative-evangelical Christian takeover 1 pledge allegiance to the flag of the United of Minnesota's Republican Party. States of America and to the Republic for When Mrs. Mueller went to her first (( which it stands, one Nation under God, Republican precinct caucus in 1978, almost indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. no one would talk to her. "I tried to volun- teer for things," Mrs. Mueller said. "What I The pledge was written by Francis Bellamy didn't know was that there was kind of a of Boston, Massachusetts, when President shut-out policy.... There was liberal and Benjamin Harrison called for the celebration moderate control. They had their people of the 400th anniversary of Christopher involved; they had their people doing the Columbus's discovery of America, and was work." first recited in 1892 by public school children Now Mrs. Mueller is the driving force as they saluted the flag at the National in a grass-roots Christian movement that is Celebration. changing the politics of the Republican Party The original version of the pledge read: in Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Oklahoma, Alaska, and other states. I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the GOP officials estimate off the record Republic for which it stands, one Nation, that 15 to 20 percent of Republican delegates indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. in 1988 will be members of the Christian movement. Holding the Religious Right "My flag" was replaced by "the flag of the together is the fervent opposition to abor- United States of America" thirty years after tion, the fight for prayer and the teaching the pledge was first published. of "scientific creationism" in the schools, and In 1954, during the Cold War era, the desire to eliminate "man-centered secular Congress added the words "under God," humanism" from politics and education. saying: Instead of in union halls, Republican political meetings in Minnesota are now At this moment of our history the prin- being held in places like the Jesus People ciples underlying our American Govern- Church in Minneapolis and the Temple Bap-

Fall 1985 13 Two Forms of Humanistic Psychology Rational-Emotive Therapy vs. Transpersonal Psychology

Humanistic psychology has been a major force in the past decade and a half. Albert Ellis believes that one aspect of it, transpersonal psychology, is basically mystical and anti-scientific and also anti-humanistic. In the following article, Ellis presents an alternative form of psychotherapy, rational-emotive therapy, which he originated and which he maintains avoids the religious excesses of transpersonal psychotherapy.

Albert Ellis

ranspersonal psychology (TP) has become enormously between the two systems and the different kinds of therapeutic popular in the United States during the past fifteen results they produce. Tyears and now may well be the main influence on Transpersonal psychology covers a multitude of theories humanistic psychotherapists and psychologists. As has been and methods and is often wrongly confused with humanistic often pointed out, transpersonal psychology largely stems from psychology. Some of the main tenets of TP are: Eastern rather than Western philosophy, but it is also strongly 1. A higher form of consciousness exists that transcends influenced by ancient Greek, Hebrew, and Middle East mystics, normal sensation and cognition. Hegelian philosophy, and the transcendentalists of the 1840s 2. There are universal, all-encompassing forms of energy (like Emerson and Bronson Alcott) who brought some of the and light that we can tap into to cure ourselves of most physical Asian philosophy to America. and mental ills. Rational-emotive therapy (RET) is a school of psycho- 3. All living and inanimate things merge into one funda- therapy that I orginated in 1955 after I became disillusioned mental Unity. By understanding and blending with this undi- with practicing psychoanalysis and with trying other modern vided Oneness, we can overcome our human limitations, get forms of psychotherapy. Although it employs existential phi- directly in touch with God, eradicate all our problems and losophy and uses some of the ideas of the ancient East— handicaps, and achieve boundless bliss. particularly those of Confucius and Buddha—it is mainly a 4. It is good to surrender our personal identity or ego and Western, scientifically oriented form of psychotherapy, and reach a state of mindlessness, egolessness, detachment, and most of its principles and practices are opposed to mysticism, desirelessness—nirvana. occultism, transcendentalism, supernaturalism, and religiosity. 5. By following transcendental teachings we can achieve RET significantly differs in many ways from Transpersonal perfect knowledge, peace, unity with the universe, joy, and Psychology and its offshoot, transpersonal psychotherapy. In physical and mental well-being. what follows, I will discuss some of the major differences 6. God-like leaders, gurus, masters, or "Holinesses" can be found who understand transcendental teachings, have miraculous powers, and are able to diagnose and cure human ills Albert Ellis, a clinical psychologist, is executive director of the magically. Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy. He is the author of 7. There are holy scriptures—like the Bible, the Upanishad, many books, including The American Sexual Tragedy and A the Kabala, and H. P. Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine—that reveal Guide to Rational Living. the Sacred Truth about the world and are to be devoutly followed.

14 FREE INQUIRY 8. The universe is ruled by a superhuman God or Supreme surrender their desires and goals and supposedly merge their Being, our acknowledgment and worship of whom guarantees identities with the inanimate objects of the universe. It sub- perfect enlightenment, peace, and happiness. scribes to an individual's complete submission to a hypothe- 9. Paranormal experiences—like ESP, psychokinesis, astral sized Supreme Deity, bowing to this god's interest and whims projection, fortune telling, UFOs, witchcraft, and psychic and refusing to determine or actualize his or her own goals. It surgery—exist and can be obtained by adopting a transpersonal places the love and devotion to God or a "Higher Conscious- outlook. ness" above intimacy with other humans. It champions living 10. By tapping into transcendental and higher conscious- life on earth with a view to achieving happiness in a highly ness sources, we can create miracles and magical results that unlikely afterlife or heavenly existence. It fosters censorship, benefit us enormously. oppression, fascism, violence, terrorism, religious war, and 11. Afterlife experiences, reincarnation, and the immor- genocide—all fanatically perpetrated in the name of some tality of our souls have been empirically proven. authoritarian supreme power who commands that his or her 12. Absolute Reality can be found; and when we find it zealous followers subjugate and destroy their opponents and we reach absolute, invariant, unchangeable, ineffable Truth. thereby achieve sanctification in a conjectured heaven. It deni- 13. We are ruled by inexorable karma or fate and there- grates human consciousness in favor of the alleged achieve- fore cannot decide our own destiny or make our own choices ment of "Divine Consciousness." It pleads for the achievement or decisions. of "ultimate values" and "ultimate meaning," not to mention 14. We not only have a body and mind but also an inef- absolute perfection and truth. It spurs its adherents to achieve fable and immortal soul or spirit whose disembodied essence perfection—which for highly fallible mortals is anti-humanistic. will persist forever. Its obsession with superhuman, subhuman, and nonhuman 15. We all have a God within us who enables us to be entities denigrates the importance of what is uniquely and perfect, to ward off harm, and to miraculously cure ourselves distinctly human. of ills. One of TP's main goals is for humanity to achieve what J. F. T. Bugental (1971) calls the search for the hidden God The Goals of Psychotherapy within ourselves. But this is the essence of what Christopher Lasch calls the evil of the "me-generation": autistic self- sychotherapy has many goals, none of which are beneficial absorption to the point of shutting out other humans. Humans Pfor all clients at all times but many of which are generally accepted as being reasonably good for many or most clients much of the time. These goals can be either abetted or undermined by rational-emotive therapy and transpersonal psychology. Rational-emotive therapy is frankly humanistic and expressly teaches its clients many of the principles of secular humanism. It particularly holds that people must achieve a balance between acknowledging and developing their personal identity and individuality while living harmoniously within their social group and cultivating (especially in today's nuclear- powered world) social interest. RET also teaches that, while people had better humanistically cherish and protect lower animal life and the ecology in which we live, human interests (including survival and happiness) come first and are at least a little more important than the interests of inanimate objects and of hypothetical gods. It fully accepts the fallibility of humans and resists all notions of individuals becoming subhuman or superhuman (Ellis 1962; 1973; 1983; 1985). Transpersonal psychology professes to be humanistic and endorses many of the principles of organizations like the Asso- ciation for Humanistic Psychology and the Division of Human- istic Psychology of the American Psychological Association. In several important respects, however, it is exceptionally anti- humanistic. Transpersonal psychology places the awareness of inanimate objects on a par with human consciousness. As Arthur Deikman (1972, p. 1) avers: "The awareness of a tree is not different from our own, it is continuous with it like awareness is the origin of the entire system." It advocates egolessness, Albert Ellis nirvana, or selflessness—a state in which humans completely

Fall 1985 15 are uniquely immersed in cultural and social mores, precon- TP adherents believe in "Absolute Truth," which they allege is ceptions and conceptions, self-direction, and interpersonal con- self-experienced and cannot be disproved by any empirical data cerns. If Bugental and his fellow transpersonal therapists had or logical analysis. their way, they would help to dehumanize, decerebrate, and In spite of science's inability to confirm telepathy, pre- desocialize "earthians"—and render them much less humanistic! cognition, psychokinesis, clairvoyance, fortune-telling, out-of- body phenomena, psychic surgery, exorcism, and monsters, TP Advancement of Scientific Thinking often devoutly and unqualifiedly upholds their existence. It continually resorts to definitional and tautological statements— ational-emotive therapy, perhaps more than any other such as Hegel's statement about "Spirit's discovery of Spirit as Rmajor school of psychotherapy, endorses scientific think- Spirit" (cited in Wilber 1982)—that contain no empirical ing and uses it in several important ways. It holds that people referents but are accepted as truths. It persistently and stoutly disturb themselves with anti-scientific, absolutistic, dogmatic, posits unfalsifiable hypotheses that cannot, as Karl Popper has rigid, unrealistic, and illogical thinking. Neuroses would be shown, be scientifically checked. For example: "The fundamental source of individual being ... is beyond ordinary awareness; mystics call it the Self or Truth or Knowledge" (Deikman "Rational-emotive therapy teaches people how to 1982, p. 6). TP claims that pure knowledge, totally devoid of approach themselves, others, and the universe scien- any sensory or empirical element, or even of cognition, can tifically, and how to use rational problem-solving somehow be known. methods to alleviate emotional difficulties and enable It frequently resorts to hoaxes, such as Castaneda's many them to lead happier lives." mystical books about the teachings of Don Juan, a sorcerer who never existed; Uri Geller's spoon-bending; and the claims of psychic surgery. It is almost always devoid of one main almost impossible if people accepted ever-changeable hypotheses ingredient of science—fiercely skeptical scrutiny. It relies on about themselves, others, and the world around them, and if charismatic gurus and supposedly divine leaders for truth they did not resort to faith unfounded on fact or to fanatical revelations. religiosity. Transpersonal psychology frequently makes use of pseudo- RET teaches people how to approach themselves, others, scientific arguments, like the favorite claim that, because and the universe scientifically, and how to use rational modern physics includes the Heisenberg principle of uncertainty problem-solving methods to alleviate emotional difficulties and and Einstein's theory of relativity, "Absolute Unity" exists and enable them to lead happier lives. It especially tries to help highly improbable magical beliefs and superstitions are valid. people to be skeptical, check their own hypotheses, give up It removes psychotherapy from the realm of science and devoutness and rigid allegiance to absolute or ultimate truths, encourages clients to take their guidance from the intuitive and to be flexible and compromising in their approaches to mind and from other sources "with names like higher mind, life. It applies the scientific method to RET itself and encour- spiritual guidance, deeper self, God, collective unconscious, ages controlled experiments that test its validity and lead to Universal Intelligence, or Divine Self' (Brown 1984, p. 18.). It greater efficacy of its techniques (Ellis and Harper 1975; Ellis continually excoriates science as "materialistic," "technological," and Grieger 1977). "superficial," "mechanical," and "soulless." Transpersonal psychology, on the other hand, is unscientific in innumerable ways—in fact, its world-view seems to be Free Choice Versus Authoritarianism the very essence of anti-scientism. It is dogmatic, believing it knows the absolute "Truth" with a capital T. It eschews con- ET assumes that there are many techniques to help people scious analysis and deliberation in favor of subjective experi- Rto help themselves with and without therapy, but that the ence, and it deifies knowledge acquired through so-called pure most elegant, comprehensive, and thorough personality modifi- intuition. cation is achieved through a profound philosophic or attitudinal TP distorts our view of the nonhuman world and anthro- change—particularly by surrendering absolutistic demands and pormorphically (and fanatically) endows it with consciousness focusing on strong desires and preferences. and other human qualities. It contradicts observed reality and TP agrees with RET that cognitive change is required but alleges that there are no physical limitations to inner vision. presents inelegant methods, such as relinquishing one's identity It insists on a unified, total cosmic reality and refuses to and becoming attached to the "Absolute" and to spiritual separate living organisms and inanimate objects into analyzable dogmas. TP also views such methods as prayer, ESP, medita- parts, as science does. It combats scientific teaching and tion, yoga, faith-healing, and exorcism as emotionally curative. espouses fundamentalist and creationist views, which it presents RET sees these transpersonal-oriented forms of treatment as as being as valid as accepted scientific theories. being at best palliative and at worst iatrogenic. TP claims that knowledge of some of the most important RET is one of the few popular therapies that, along with aspects of reality is "attainable only by means of mystical Carl Rogers, teaches unconditional self-acceptance; most other insight" (Griffin 1984, p. 116). It uses vague, undefined, over- therapies teach conditional self-acceptance or self-esteem. This generalized terminology and concepts that Alfred Korzybski means that RET shows people how to fully accept themselves has shown are incompatible with sound scientific investigation. whether or not they accomplish anything in life; whether or

16 FREE INQUIRY not others (including their therapists) approve, respect, or love Although most mystical and devout sects are peace-loving, them; and only on the condition that they choose to acknowl- many are authoritarian, politically rebellious, and warlike. edge and accept themselves and not because of external influ- These latter, fanatically religious groups have instigated ences. numerous acts of political oppression and terrorism during the TP strongly asserts that people can accept themselves only past decade. Child-beating, including public whipping, is regu- if and when they achieve so-called Higher Consciousness; larly practiced by several Christian fundamentalist sects. Some acknowledge and worship some god or supreme being; merge devoutly religious groups—like the followers of the Ayatollah with the universe and achieve complete Unity with all inanimate Khomeini in Iran—actually establish state religions. They jail, matter and living things; reach a state of mindlessness, detach- torture, and kill opponents of their regimes, wage suicidal and ment, or nirvana; behave well in their present life so that they genocidal wars, and aggressively try to politicize and to convert will be properly reincarnated in future existences; and rigidly the people of other countries. conform to the deified teachings of some charismatic leader or Secular religionists—like the devout and dogmatic rulers guru. in the Soviet Union, communist China, and the Palestine TP's self-acceptance is, therefore, highly conditional and often impersonal. It teaches people that they can have a good "Transpersonal psychology is unscientific in innumer- self by not having a personal identity at all! It allows them to fully accept themselves by belief in the grace of some god or able ways—in fact, its world-view seems to be the absolute—but it hypocritically fails to inform them that they very essence of anti-scientism. It is dogmatic, believ- themselves choose to have this devout belief, and thereby choose ing it knows the absolute Truth, with a capital T." self-acceptance through a hypothetical intervening variable that they choose to invent! RET specializes in teaching tolerance and the end of Liberation Organization are in many ways just as abusive of bigotry and damnation. It is one of the few current psycho- human rights as are the theological and spiritual religionists. therapies that characterizes strong feelings of anger as gran- For, like the pious transcendentalists, they also believe in diose and disturbed. This helps people to minimize and sur- absolutistic thinking, the sacredness of government, and the render their feelings of hostility and rage toward others. infallibility and holiness of their leaders. Although TP sometimes teaches forgiveness and grace, it Extreme cultists and religionists, following transpersonal is mainly through its devotees' identification with the "Absolute" philosophies and denigrating human life on earth (for some or with God (or one of his or her sons or prophets). In many supposed afterlife), sometimes encourage their followers to kill ways it actually fosters extreme religiosity, fanaticism, and themselves when faced with adversity. Thus Jim Jones induced bigotry—as does any creed that "knows" the "Universal Truth," more than twelve hundred of his fanatical followers to drink is highly sectarian, relies on pure intuition, and cannot be scien- cyanide-laced Kool-Aid in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978. tifically verified or falsified. Religious and transpersonal cults frequently refuse to obey

Fall 1985 17 the laws of their communities, engaging in many illegal activities f all the differences between RET and TP, those regarding and overtly practicing civil disobedience. A member of the Oanger, damnation, and violence are the most important. Northeast Kingdom Community Church in Vermont, when For although devout religious ideologies have led to irreparable asked about his fellow cultists' beating their children and refus- conflicts and done immense harm in the past, our state of ing to send them to school, passionately exclaimed: "We are weaponry allowed us to survive. In today's nuclear age, this is doing this to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. All the of course no longer true. Also, as J. Raloff (1984) has shown, rest of the world is the kingdom of Satan" (Butterfield 1984, other deadly weapons, like lasers and particle beams, are now p. 16). being developed that would permit slaughters to an extent Devil-worshiping cults—like the Satanic cultists in North- undreamed of in the past. I have noted elsewhere that mystical port, Long Island, who ritually killed a 17-year-old boy and and religious groups, with nuclear and other weapons at hand, burned and tortured animals—keep springing up in different could deliberately wipe us all out. Others have now joined me sections of the United States, often inspired by the works of in this view. Paul Warnke (1984, p. 8) writes: "A tyrant or Carlos Castaneda and other TP aficionados. religious zealot could, for a time, make himself king of the nuclear hill." Let me be very clear about this. With mystical, religious, "Transpersonal psychology largely stems from and political zealots all over the world already resorting to Eastern rather than Western philosophy.... It pro- innumerable acts of terrorism with conventional weapons, it is fesses to be humanistic. In several important respects, only a matter of time before a small group of such fanatics will however, it is exceptionally anti-humanistic." be able to manufacture nuclear weapons (or something similar). Probably within the next hundred years or so such a group— righteously and fervently believing that it has the one and only Religious and mystical fanaticism often leads fervent fol- "Secret Doctrine" and "Universal Truth" and that its members lowers to sacrifice their limbs and lives for "holy" causes. will be deified and go to heaven while false believers will sink Terence Smith (1984) reports that in Iran young boys, aged 12 to hell when the end of the world arrives—will likely deliberately to 17, were trained by martyrs in the "holy war" against Iraq. push the nuclear or other button and send us all to eternity. If Whipped up into a fanatical fervor, they hurled themselves on I am right about this—and I hope that I am not—it seems barbed wire or marched into Iraqi mine-fields in the face of clear that fanatical mysticism and religiosity, if not effectively machine-gun fire to clear the way for Iranian tanks. "Across checked by RET and other effective, scientifically oriented the backs of their khaki-colored shirts was stenciled the slogan: forms of psychological treatment, will destroy itself and the 'I have special permission of the Inman to enter heaven' " rest of us at the same time. (Smith 1984, p. 21). Many religious and transpersonal cults endorse the bib- ET holds that as far as we know there are no absolute lical prophecy that Armageddon will soon arrive. "Only those R certainties but only high degrees of probability that who accept the Lord, Jesus Christ, will be saved. All others— various things can be known or accomplished. It encourages those who worship in the name of other religions or who clients' security by accepting insecurity and ambiguity and embrace no religion—are doomed to everlasting punishments giving up unrealistic demands for certitude. and torture" (Negri 1984, p. 27). TP insists that it is good for people to have incontrovertible Several cults, like the Neo-American church, have been faith and dogmatic conviction in unchangeable absolutes. To accused of sexually abusing children in religious rituals. "Hun- "prove" that they actually achieve certainty, devotees of trans- dreds of pictures showing sexual abuse of children were found personal psychology utterly convince themselves, in spite of the in Harrisburg [Pennsylvania], the police said" ("Inmate Said to nonexistence of confirmatory data, that there is no doubt about Head Cult Mixing Sex and Religion," p. A13). the existence of ESP, ghosts, fortune-telling, psychic surgery, The leaders of several psychotherapy cults that follow elves, fairies, astrology, voodoo, and other paranormal "experi- TP like Synanon and Scientology—have been indicted and ences." convicted of stealing, blackmail, break-ins at government As I noted in a previous article about TP, scratch the offices, and other illegal and violent acts. surface of religionists, "true believers," and mystics and you Large and persistent religious wars are still waged in many will almost always find people who superficially "let go" and parts of the world—for example, in Cameroon, Nigeria, India, "be themselves" but who really feel they have to control them- Lebanon, and Israel. selves and the universe (Ellis 1972). Terrorism inspired by religious and mystical creeds and RET holds that, while humans do not have perfect free extreme nationalism (which itself is a main form of devout will but exhibit behaviors, including emotional disturbances, religiosity) has become widespread in recent years and shows that are partly determined by their biological tendencies to no signs of waning. Terrorism is "a tactic of indiscriminate think irrationally and to act self-defeatingly, they also have violence used against innocent bystanders for political effect" strong innate tendencies to think about and to decide their (Colby 1984, p. 15). The ideology behind most terroristic attacks emotional destiny. RET particularly tries to help clients accept is a fanatical allegiance to a religious or nationalistic cause; I responsibility for their problems and decide to work at changing contend that this kind of ideology is created and promulgated themselves. by passionate mystical beliefs. TP to some extent emphasizes self-change and free will.

18 FREE INQUIRY But it also frequently affirms that we are ruled by inexorable that magic and miracles exist, and then, when no evidence is karma or fate and therefore cannot really control our physical found for such theories, to resort to desperate rationalizations, or mental destiny. And TP leans toward conformism, ultracon- lies, hypocrisy, and hoaxes to substantiate them. Almost the servatism, and rigid allegiance to tradition and the past. entire core of TP, with its emphasis on life after death, precog- RET emphasizes three types of insight into clients' emo- nition, and magic and witchcraft, constitutes a set of neurotic tional problems: (1) People largely create their own disturb- defenses against people's unwillingness to accept the grim reality ances by accepting or inventing absolutistic demands on them- of humanity's fallibility and limitations; to accept that we live selves, others, and the world, and for their own well-being they in a difficult and often hostile world and are definitely, at least must discover them. (2) No matter how and where they ori- in this century, going to die. TP softsoaps reality in a highly ginally made themselves disturbed, they live in the present and Pollyannaish manner and thereby encourages defensiveness. It had better see what they are still doing to disturb themselves claims that by prayer and spiritual enlightenment we can attain and how. (3) Only their steady work and practice are likely to "absolute peace," "all wisdom and intelligence," solutions to make and keep themselves undisturbed. Awareness and insight will help, but not too much. TP, unlike RET, holds that the achievement of mystical "Rational-emotive therapy is mainly a Western, insight and a state of higher consciousness and heightened scientifically oriented form of psychotherapy, and awareness will by itself lead to almost miraculous personality most of its principles and practices are opposed to changes. mysticism, occultism, transcendentalism, super- RET teaches that all humans are fallible and that they can naturalism, and religiosity." be expected to make many errors and commit innumerable undesirable acts. It teaches clients to fully accept—and never damn or denigrate—themselves and others together with their "the problems of any government regardless of the nature of fallibility. the problem—political, economic, social, or religious" TP is often perfectionistic, talks about the God within (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi 1983a, p. A14), "utopia for all man- each individual, tells clients, "You are perfect the way you are," kind" and perfect health and longevity for the individual and and insists that if people accept "Absolute Truth"—capital A, the nation (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi 1983b, p. B20), and a post- capital T—they can eliminate virtually all human ills and ponement of the aging process (Silva Mind Control, 1984). failings. A number of fundamentalist and transpersonal sects Quite a kettle of perfectionism! grandiosely believe, moreover, that only they know God's truths RET helps people free themselves from authoritarian, fas- or the "Secret of it All" and that the rest of us mere mortals cistic, ultratraditional, ultraconforming, and ultraconservative will remain forever ignorant and, come Judgment Day, will be ways of thinking and behaving. While it favors discipline and severely punished. high-frustration tolerance that lead to long-range hedonism, it RET firmly espouses long-range hedonism and teaches disfavors needless rules and restrictions on human thoughts, people to strive for the pleasures of today and tomorrow and feelings, and behavior. TP often encourages authoritarian ideas not to give in to their natural tendencies to indulge in low- and behavior because of its dogmatic allegiance to traditional frustration tolerance or what I have called "discomfort anxiety." mores and laws and to "sacred" scriptures. Thus it fosters the TP sometimes espouses pleasure (as well as peace) on earth— authoritarianism of Gods and gurus. It establishes political and as in the notable case of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his religious censorship—as when the' Muslim government of followers—but more often it endorses discipline as an end in Malaysia banned the New York Philharmonic from playing itself or as a means by which devotees of transpersonal creeds Ernest Bloch's "Schelomo" because of its subtitle, "A Hebrew can purify their souls, rise above sensory gratification, and Rhapsody." It places and keeps in power reactionary political presumably ascend to a beatitudinous but quite nonsensual governments like Khomeini's regime. It harks back to ancient heaven. Even Rajneesh, however, abjures desire and says that scriptures like the Bible, the Koran, and the Upanishads and without it there is no need for the future. Khomeini's devout tries to vigorously enforce moral codes that are often centuries Shiites uphold his forbidding alcohol, cosmetics and Western behind the times. entertainment. The fundamentalist Christian commune, Stone- RET tries to help people strike a balance between self- gate, in Jefferson County, Michigan, encourages its members interest and social interest. In this respect, it largely endorses to beat their children with a slim wooden rod for hours at a the views of Alfred Adler and encourages people to become time as punishment for fantasizing and for minor sex explora- interested in others but also to have enough interest in them- tion. Puritanism still reigns supreme in a devoutly religious and selves to prevent extreme self-sacrifice. TP, as has been pointed transpersonal world. out several times in this article, often makes people autistic and RET helps people surrender their neurotic defenses— so self-centered that they are not really interested in their own especially rationalization, hypocrisy, dishonesty, avoidance, happiness. At the same time, it removes them from social compensation, aggression, identification, and grandiosity. It interest and drives them into devotion to God, to worship of helps rid them of the shame, guilt, and self-criticism, that the Absolute, to fanatical homage to the ritualistic transpersonal motivate these defenses. TP frequently bolsters people's defenses sect, to prayer, to delusionary unity with the inanimate by encouraging them to set up unprovable hypotheses, e.g., world—all of which are really opposed to the betterment of

Fall 1985 19 humanity and to healthy social interest. TP also encourages cannot. TP is largely fatalistic, promulgates a strong belief in belief in karma and fatalism, which seriously interfere with karma, and often leads to self-defeating passivity and lack of social action for human betterment. Atheists like Jean Paul social and individual action. Sartre and Bertrand Russell, once they see that life has no intrinsic meaning and that the universe appears to have no Techniques of Psychotherapy interest whatever in helping (or hindering) humans, frequently decide to give their lives meaning by engaging in social activism lust as RET and TP differ significantly in many respects in tl regard to their goals, so do they also importantly differ about what they consider to be the most valuable techniques of therapy. Although RET is one of the most cognitive and philosophic of current psychotherapies, it holds that deep and lasting emotional changes rarely take place unless clients not only think scientifically but also forcefully and repetitively act against their disturbed thoughts and feelings. It consequently has always favored activity homework assignments and in vivo desensitization among its main techniques. TP, when it is really transcendental, largely sticks to cognitive, meditative, suggestive, and other thinking and experiential methods and fails to use a planned behavioral program designed to alleviate specific phobias, obsessions, compulsions, and other symptoms of disturbance. When it does employ behavioral methods—like yoga exercises—it tends to make them compulsive rituals and to fail to distinguish between their harm- ful and beneficial aspects (e.g., it fails to investigate headstands that lead to back and neck injuries and extreme dieting and fasting that cause serious health problems). Rational-emotive therapy, as the name implies, has always focused on emotions and emotional disturbances; it almost invariably includes, along with 'its cognitive and behavioral methods, a number of highly evocative, dramatic, and forceful techniques. But RET is also highly selective about what emotive techniques it employs and is highly skeptical of the effectiveness of many emotive methods—such as the deliberate escalation and expression of anger or the overt expression of love by therapists for their clients—that many other therapies enthusi- astically endorse. TP tends to abjure many of the important aspects of therapy and to concentrate almost exclusively on pure con- and fighting against political oppression and warfare. But trans- templation, meditation, and prayer. Or else it goes to opposite personal notions in the neo-Hegelian tradition, especially the extremes, as in the practices of the Sufis, of the Hare Krishna, idea that there is a higher level of reality and a "Divine Purpose" and of the followers of Rajneesh, in sponsoring exceptionally to all that happens, lead to social complacency. emotive outbursts that border on psychotic states and that RET hypothesizes that mentally healthy individuals usually sometimes drive some devotees at least temporarily over the have considerable social concern and interest and are con- brink. It also abets fanatical devotion to religious causes that siderate and fair to others but that they do not unduly sacrifice frequently lead to rabid proselytizing and other forms of emo- themselves for other people or various causes. For, if we con- tional instability. sistently put others before our own interests, we implicitly While RET clearly differentiates between appropriate and assume that they will do the same for us—which is rarely true! self-help feelings (those of sorrow, regret, and disappointment TP abets errant self-sacrifice by encouraging people to give when people are frustrated or suffer losses) and inappropriate their all for God, natural law, their cult, and their supposedly feelings (anxiety, depression, rage, self-pity, and worthlessness God-like leader. As Sri Swami Rama (1982, p. 3) stated, "The when people fail or are rejected). TP makes no such distinctions. moment one becomes selfish, the mind changes its course and Peculiarly (and contradictorily), while TP ostensibly advocates starts flowing downward to the lower grooves." Yes, to the the most contemplative (and often schizoid) kind of "higher" grooves of enjoying oneself and others! existence, it also deifies emotional and experiential processes RET holds the views of St. Francis, Reinhold Niebuhr, and makes them the very core of "higher" mystical knowledge. and Alcoholics Anonymous that clients had better work hard RET contends that one of the best methods of alleviating to change the frustrations and annoyances of life that they can anxiety and depression is to engage in a vital, absorbing change and to fully accept—or gracefully live with—those they interest—such as a career, raising a family, or devotion to a

20 FREE INQUIRY secular cause. But it shows the client how to select his or her humanistic psychologists. But RET tries to be scientific and own interest or cause and how to avoid any obsessive- actually teach people to be scientists and to set up hypotheses compulsive addiction to it. On the other hand TP endeavors to about themselves and the world that are only just that: induce virtually all its adherents to become compulsively hypotheses, rather than indubitable facts or dogmas. TP, on involved in a single "Supreme Cause." the contrary, purports to know, really know, "Absolute Knowl- RET holds that emotional upsets tend to cause or exacer- edge" and "Absolute Truth" and insists that such truth will bate physical ailments and also that somatic problems often unquestionably change people's lives for the better and cure lead to or aggravate emotional difficulties. It therefore encour- them of practically all their physical and emotional ills. Both ages people to overcome their addiction to smoking, drinking, systems of psychotherapy seem to work to some degree; but overeating, and avoidance of exercise, and to keep in good which works best for whom under what conditions should be physical condition. But it does not deify the importance of scientifically investigated and established. How the results, good fitness, of holistic health maintenance, or of other health- or bad, of these two systems will ever be fully substantiated I abetting activities; and it combats fanaticism of all kinds, am not sure. But I am certain that it will not be by appealing including health fanaticism. to Absolute, directly experienced Truth. TP, probably because of its sacredization of direct experience, its extremist tendencies, and its enormous reluctance to check any theory with scientific investigation, frequently sub- References scribes to frenetic health views and practices-particularly those that go under the rubric of holistic medicine. Thus it sometimes Brown, E. A. 1984. Intuition and inner guidance. Association for Humanistic sacredizes fitness, as if that by itself will significantly affect Psychology Newsletter, May:18. people's disturbances. And it usually endorses faith-healing- Bugental, J. F. T. 1971. The search for the hidden God. Voices, 7(1):33-37. Butterfield, F. 1984. Sect members assert they are misunderstood. New York completely ignoring that, when it does work, it is most probably Times, June 24:16. because people believe it will and not because the shamans and Colby, W. E. 1984. Taking steps to contain terrorism. New York Times, July faith-healers truly have any magical powers. Transpersonal 8:E21. devotees also ignore the great harm that faith-healing does by Deikman, A. 1972. The meaning of everything. Association for Humanistic getting people to stay away from conventional medicine. Thus Psychology Newsletter, April:1-4. Deikman, A. 1982. The Observing Self: Mysticism and Psychotherapy. Ruth Carter Stapleton died of cancer at the age of 54 after she Boston: Beacon Press. said she would forgo medical treatment and rely on God to Ellis, Albert. 1962. Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy. New York: help her. And when Beverly Galyeon was told she had a malig- Citadel. nant breast tumor and that she might be able to live another . 1972. What does transpersonal psychotherapy have to offer the art five to ten years if she had immediate surgery, chemotherapy, and science of psychotherapy? Voices, 8(3): 10-20. . 1973. Humanistic Psychotherapy: The Rational-Emotive Approach. and radiation, she refused to do so and died a year later at the New York: McGraw-Hill. age of 40. . 1983. The Case Against Religiosity. New York: Institute for Rational RET, somewhat like systems theory, subscribes to inter- Emotive Therapy. actionism and to what Albert Bandura calls "reciprocal deter- . 1985. Overcoming Resistance. New York: Springer. minism." It holds that cognitions, emotions, and behaviors sig- Ellis, A., and R. Grieger (Eds.). 1977. Handbook of Rational-Emotive Therapy. New York: Springer. nificantly overlap, interact with, and affect one another. If we Ellis, A., and B. A. Harper. 1975. A New Guide to Rational Living. No. change any of these processes, we tend to modify the other Hollywood: Wilshire Books. two. It also theorizes that environmental and biological human Griffin, N. 1984. Bertrand Russell's crisis of faith. Russell, 4(1):101-122. factors reciprocally affect one another. It therefore is a compre- "Inmate Said to Lead Cult Mixing Sex and Religion." 1983. New York Times, December 4:A16. hensive system of therapy that logically uses cognitive, emo- Komaki, H. 1984. Eternal Happiness of All Spiritual Beings of the Infinite tional, and behavioral methods of personality change. Universe. Santa Monica, Calif.: Komaki Foundation. TP takes interactionism to implausible extremes and posits Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. 1983a. Governments invited. New York Times, the "Absolute Unity" of all things, including human thoughts, October 10:A14. feelings, and actions. At the same time, it contradicts itself by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I983b. Maharishi technology of the unified field. claiming that we can experience pure thought, pure feelings, New York Times, December 12:B20. McCorkle, L. 1969. How to Make Love. New York: Grove. and pure intuition and that, when we do so, we achieve "higher" Negri, M. 1984. Why biblical criticism by scholars is imperative. Humanist, states of consciousness and being. It uses many methods of 44(3):27-21. psychotherapy (including some unique RET methods!), but it Raloff, J. 1984. Building the ultimate weapons. Science News, 126, 42-45. often does so in contradiction to its own theory. Rama, Sri Swami. 1982. Karma is the maker. Himalayan News, September/ October:3. Rosicrucians. 1984. He has inner vision. New York Times, June 3:44. Conclusion Silva Mind Control Method. 1984. Silva Mind Control advertisement in Landmark, I10):4-5. t is obvious that rational-emotive therapy and transpersonal Smith, T. 1984. Iran: Five years of fanaticism. New York Times Magazine, psychology (as well as transpersonal psychotherapy) are February 12:20-34. P. C. 1984. Review of Jonathan Schell, The Abolition. New York incompatible in many important ways. Both are supposedly Warnke, Times Book Review, July 8:8-9. aspects of humanistic psychology; both employ a number of Wilber, K. 1982. The pre/trans fallacy. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, common techniques that are also used by many other kinds of 22(2):5-43. •

Fall 1985 21 Psychoanalysis: Science or Pseudoscience?

Is psychoanalysis a pseudoscience? Karl Popper asked Does it have any scientific credentials at all? How are we to judge its truth or its value? Does it help to cure neuroses? Adolf Grünbaum, professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, has written an important book, The Foundations of Psychoanalysis, which attempts to reappraise the work of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis. Because of its significance, we invited four scholars to review both Grünbaum's thesis and the status of Freud's theories. It is clear that Freud has had a major influence on modern humanistic thought; hence the importance of this critical discussion. We hope to have Adolf Grünbaum's response to this symposium in a future issue.

22 FREE INQUIRY Grünbaum on Freud: Flawed Methodologist or Serendipitous Scientist?

Frank J. Sulloway

dolf Grünbaum's Foundations of Psychoanalysis offers of jargon philosophical terms like scientificity, instantiate, path-breaking insight into the logic, evidence, and epistemic, and probative. For example, a typical short Grün- Aproof associated with Freudian theory. It is a magis- baum sentence, picked virtually at random, reads: "This multi- terial book about a magisterial thinker—a thinker whose ideas ple ingression renders the seemingly consilience probatively continue to fascinate us as much as they have frustrated us in spurious" (p. 129). Like all Grünbaum sentences, this one makes our attempts to validate them. Fortunately, from his perspective perfect sense in context; but it exemplifies the way in which his as a philosopher of science, Grünbaum has sought to clarify text must often be "decoded" before it can be "read." Moreover, this vexing issue of validation. Along the way, he has illumi- the combination of Grünbaum's needlessly complex and esoteric nated various conceptual and philosophical problems associated language, his convoluted arguments, and his relentlessness of with "proof" in psychoanalysis in a way that no one else has critique is enough to alienate all but the most dedicated readers. done. In fact, this is the worst-written book I have ever finished. It is In the course of his analysis, Grünbaum shows us that Sigmund Freud was paradoxically much more attuned to methodological issues than his critics have usually appreciated but that he was by no means as methodologically astute as he ADOLF GRÜNBAUM clearly wished (and claimed) himself to be. Moreover, Freud's TH€ FOUNDATIONS conceptual oversights turn out to have fundamental consequences for his psychoanalytic claims. He may now be seen as °F PSYCHOANALYSIS someone who, despite a remarkable ability to convince, has utterly failed to prove his case in accordance with the accepted canons of scientific demonstration. While this conclusion will not come as a surprise to some, the manner by which Grün- baum arrives at this judgment is full of new and valuable insights. Grünbaum's reappraisal of Freud has recently received wide attention in the press, and deservedly so. The New York Times carried a story on the book on January 15, 1985, and Behavioral and Brain Sciences is devoting a forthcoming issue to a peer review of the book by more than forty contributors. In spite of this general accolade, Grünbaum's book will proba- nevertheless estimony to the remarkable power of his ideas, bly not be as widely read as it should be. The volume, quité which somehow manage to survive these literary shortcomings, simply, is not an easy read. To absorb Grünbaum's careful that I have actually read the book several times and will doubt- argument one must wade through a tedious, labyrinthine, and less return to it again. For those readers who will perhaps pick highly arcane prose that is marked by an astonishing overuse up the book, only to bog down somewhere within the 94-page "Introduction," I can only say "Persevere!" for the rewards are

Frank J. Sulloway, a MacArthur Fellow in the Department of great in the end. Psychology and Social Relations at Harvard University, is author That Freud is wrong (or that he has simply not proven his of Freud: Biologist of the Mind. case), that his logic is faulty, and that his data are suspect are hardly new criticisms of psychoanalysis. Yet Grünbaum man-

Fall 1985 23 ages to make all of these points within a fascinating context of what Grünbaum terms the "Tally Argument," which holds that argument that sheds new light on an old debate. He begins patients are only permanently cured of neurosis by working with a critique of the view, made popular by Jürgen Habermas through those repressed conflicts that "tally" with what is real (1971) and Paul Ricoeur (1970), that psychoanalysis is not a in them (1916-17, 16:452). False insights fall to the wayside in natural science but rather a form of hermeneutics. The her- the course of analysis, Freud insisted, as do the temporary meneutic reading of Freud holds that psychoanalysis is a vehicle therapeutic effects of suggestion. The Tally Argument, Grün- for understanding meanings (or reasons), not causes. Her- baum maintains, provided Freud with a valid methodological meneuticians argue that psychoanalysis is not really a science reason for eschewing the usual epidemiological controls of cause and effect, like physics or chemistry, because it deals (prospective, longitudinal studies and statistical comparisons with historical and context-dependent truths over which the with untreated control groups) that are essential in validating patient has a sort of cognitive monopoly. "Psychological other medical theories and treatments. truths," or rather meanings and reasons, therefore replace the causal explanations of the physical sciences within the hermeneutic reading of Freud. "The Tally Argument holds that patients are perma- The lure of this hermeneutic, ascientific interpretation of nently cured of neurosis only by working through Freud has been considerable indeed. When informed that psy- those repressed conflicts that `tally' with what is real choanalytic ideas do not display the rigor and testability of in them." scientific theories, the hermeneutician need only retort that psychoanalysis is not a science and is therefore immune from such reproaches. But as Grünbaum cogently argues, such an inter- Freud subsequently undermined his whole Tally Argument pretation trivializes Freud's theories to such an extreme that it in the 1920s, when he began to recognize two sources of con- renders them virtually meaningless. Furthermore, the retreat tradictory evidence: (1) that neurotics can spontaneously recover from causes to meanings is inherently obfuscatory, since the without the help of psychoanalysis and (2) that analyzed and aims, intentions, and motives of the hermeneutic reading of apparently cured patients can relapse into their former neuroses Freud take on their "meaning" precisely through their implica- or even acquire new ones. By admitting to these kinds of tion of psychological causation. Only through a sort of "weasel unfriendly evidence, Freud was effectively abandoning his locution," then, does the hermeneutic interpretation of Freud former claims that psychoanalytic and only psychoanalytic succeed in explicitly denying causal models while implicitly treatment is the "necessary condition" for complete therapeutic affirming them. Above all, Grünbaum shows, the hermeneutic recovery. Given this clinical and conceptual retreat, Freud was approach misunderstands not only Freud—who clearly meant left with no real defense against the accusation that his cures his theories to be considered as a bona fide part of natural were merely placebogenic—the product of suggestion. More science—but also the nature of science. than three decades of research on this problem, beginning with The next major victim of Grünbaum's philosophical dissec- Eysenck's (1952) famous paper on psychotherapeutic efficacy, tion is the eminent philosopher Karl Popper (1962), whose have tended to support this general criticism by showing that various negative pronouncements about psychoanalysis have psychoanalytic therapy is no more (or less) successful than exerted considerable influence. Popper initially reached his most other psychotherapies and that no therapy at all, given famous demarcation criterion between science and nonscience time, is virtually just as effective, owing to the spontaneous (or metaphysics) by comparing successful theories in the remission of many neurotic conditions. physical sciences, like Einstein's theory of relativity, with The remainder of Grünbaum's book develops the conse- Marxism and psychoanalysis. The latter two doctrines, Popper quences inherent in the collapse of Freud's Tally Argument. concluded, are essentially unfalsifiable—there is no conceivable Like a house of cards, virtually the whole of psychoanalytic state of affairs they cannot account for. Grünbaum shows, on theory is shown to fall with the demise of this central premise. the other hand, that Popper's personal convictions about the Thus Freud predicated the superiority of his new method of unfalsifiable nature of psychoanalysis reveal his own utter analysis—the famous free association technique—upon the ignorance of the theory upon which he ironically based his therapeutic superiority of his general clinical approach. Without definition of science. Not only is psychoanalysis falsifiable, the Tally Argument, on the other hand, this method can no Grünbaum demonstrates, but it also underwent many con- longer claim special epistemic status. Rather, it becomes equally ceptual changes in Freud's own lifetime that can only be under- plausible, with Grünbaum and Judd Marmor, to view free stood as the product of new information contradictory to association as a problematic component of the self-fulfilling Freud's previous views. nature of most psychoanalytic hypotheses. "Depending upon the point of view of the analyst," Marmor (1962, 289) has riinbaum's demolition of the hermeneutic and Popperian written in this connection, "the patients of each [competing Ginterpretations of Freud paves the way for his main psychoanalytic] school seem to bring up precisely the kind of thrust—a reappraisal of the current epistemological status of phenomenological data which confirm the theories and inter- psychoanalysis. In this connection, he demonstrates that Freud pretations of their analysts! ... Freudians elicit material about was acutely aware of many methodological issues that his the Oedipus Complex and castration anxiety, Jungians about opponents have repeatedly raised as fundamental objections to archetypes, Rankians about separation anxiety, Adlerians about his theories. Freud's principal answer to these objections was masculine strivings and feelings of inferiority...."

24 FREE INQUIRY As long as psychoanalysis cannot claim to be the ultimate of his critique, what real proof is there for any of the major of psychotherapies, other of its central concepts and theories theories of psychopathology? So why pick on Freud? Was he also lose credibility. Proof that repressions have pathogenic any worse than his colleagues in failing to supply data from consequences is entirely dependent, for example, upon the control populations? Indeed, given the considerable practical superior cure rate supposedly entailed in bringing such repres- difficulty of undertaking such studies in the early years of sions into consciousness and working them through. Otherwise psychoanalysis (when financial resources presumably did not the cure could well be placebogenic—the product of an expecta- exist for such epistemological luxuries), the methodological fault tion that certain psychoanalytically "relevant" memories, once clearly lies more with Freud's followers than it does with Freud. brought back into consciousness, will cause therapeutic In short, to judge Freud properly in the light of Grünbaum's improvement. Without the Tally Argument it is necessary to critique, it would be helpful to see him within the context of show not only that all neurotics have undergone pathogenic what others have done in the past hundred years to establish experiences appropriate to make them ill but also that the vast proof for their own pet theories within psychiatry and clinical majority of non-neurotics have not undergone such experiences. psychology. In particular, individuals who have not been subjected to On the other hand, there are times when Grünbaum seems psychoanalytically "pathogenic" experiences should never to let Freud off the hook much too easily. The Tally Argument become neurotic. Such control studies, at least by psycho- appears to me to be one such instance. There is something analysts have not been conducted; and studies by analysts have unconvincing about the claim that Freud had a valid license, at completely failed to reveal the hypothesized differences between least prior to the 1920s, to forgo proper epidemiological control the childhood experiences of neurotics and those of healthy studies. Suppose two rival psychoanalysts, such as Freud and control populations (Frank 1965). Adler, were each to claim the Tally Argument as methodological justification for their theoretical beliefs. Suppose, ot only Freud's clinical theories, but his extensions of furthermore, that both Freud and Adler did have markedly Nthem to the realm of general psychology, are fraught with superior cure rates, which might well occur temporarily within difficulties according to Grünbaum's further critique. Both any new and promising school of psychotherapy. And also Freud's theory of dreaming (that dreams are motivated by suppose that evidence for spontaneous remission of unanalyzed repressed infantile wishes) and his theory of slips (that they neurotics and the relapses of analyzed neurotics was not yet represent conflicts between conscious intentions and repressed available to undermine the Tally Argument. Would we be pre- desires) are based on the analogy of symptom formation in neurosis. Insofar as Freud never argued that therapeutic gains result from correctly interpretated dreams or slips, Grünbaum Tr considers this extension of Freud's basic theory into these other C psychological domains to be a sort of "misextrapolation" of his a quarterly thinking. Grünbaum also argues that Freud's theories of slips and devoted to the ideals of dreaming run counter to more recent theories and evidence in these domains. For example, the fact that dreaming is triggered secularism and freedom on a regular and periodic basis by the pontine portion of the We invite you to subscribe brainstem tends to challenge Freud's view that all dreams are motivated by repressed infantile wishes (which presumably ❑ 1 year $16.50 reside in the cerebral cortex). Furthermore, there is no evi- ❑ 2 years $29.00 dence that normal individuals or fully analyzed patients, who ❑ 3 years $38.00 supposedly have fewer repressions, dream any less than ❑ ❑ unanalyzed neurotics, which would clearly be expected on New Payment enclosed ❑ ❑ Freud's theory (Hobson and McCarley 1977; Hobson, in press). Renew Bill me In the final analysis, Grünbaum concludes that evidence D Visa ❑ MasterCard for Freud's theories is "remarkably weak" and that any attempts Acct. # Fxp Date to confirm them must be extraclinical, owing to the contaminated nature of the intraclinical setting. Somewhat surprisingly, Name he does not infer that psychoanalysis is disproven in any major (print clearly) sense. Rather, he maintains that much of it may be "serendipi- Street tously" true but that there is simply no way of knowing this without proper longitudinal and statistical studies of neurotic City State Zip and normal populations. 0utside U.S. add $4.00 for surface mail, $8.00 for airmail. Grünbaum's critique of psychoanalytic theory, brilliant as (U.S. funds on U.S. bank). it is in so many of its components, is not without seeming weak- FREE INQUIRY nesses and lacunae. When I first read his book I was astonished Central Park Station • Box 5 • Buffalo, New York 14215-0005 to find that nowhere did Grünbaum discuss the relevance of Tele: 716-834-2921 his central thesis for the general field of psychiatry. In the wake

Fall 1985 25 pared to grant that Freud and Adler were both right—holding to Grünbaum's broader strategy. In this connection one must as they did such contrasting theories just because their thera- appreciate that Karl Popper, having grossly misunderstood and peutic effectiveness was much higher than normal and just maligned Freud in his own anti-inductivist philosophy of sci- because they swore that their cures always involved recovery of ence, is the real villain of Grünbaum's Foundations. Grünbaum repressed memories that "tally" with what is real to them and therefore has a double task. He, like Popper, seeks to render a their patients? And if Adler's cure rate just happened to be a major blow to the credentials of psychoanalysis as a science. bit higher than Freud's, would we now accept the Tally Argu- But, without first rescuing Freud's reputation from the tarn- ment as proof of the superiority of his theory over Freud's? I ished state in which Popper left it, any demonstration of Freud's think not. shortcomings would necessarily seem like a hollow victory over The analytic situation, including the kinds of "memories" an already slain "paper dragon." Grünbaum's solution to this that are recovered in analysis, is so extensively contaminated dilemma—a sort of compromise between his anti-Popperian by suggestion and other influences—as Grünbaum himself and critical psychoanalytic stands—is to use the Tally Argument repeatedly insists—that purely intraclinical results could not as a vehicle for rehabilitating Freud into a worthy subject for philosophical critique. In the process, Grünbaum appears to have closed his eyes to some of the problems inherent in this argument. Perhaps for the same reason Grunbaum is also remarkably uncritical of Freud's failure, in the 1920s and 1930s, to acknowledge the Tally Argument's weaknesses and to replace it with something better. Freud's nonchalance in this regard almost suggests that he personally valued such methodological considerations more for their ex-post-facto propaganda effect than for intellectual guidance. Similarly, Grünbaum's final conclusion that Freud might be "serendipitously" right after all in much of his psychoanalytic reasoning suggests his desire to portray Freud in a more positive light than his own philosophical critique would lead us to expect. True, Grünbaum was probably anxious not to alienate unnecessarily his psychoanalytic readership. But Grünbaum's rather optimistic stance also seems to sidestep the whole key issue of why Freud believed what he did and also how likely it really is, given his methods, that his theories are serendipitously true after all. Grünbaum's book, although it does not address these two issues, clearly has direct bearing upon them.

s we already know, Freud personally believed that thera- Apeutic success, a key component of his Tally Argument, vindicated his various psychoanalytic hypotheses. But, if every major form of psychotherapy produces improvements in about two-thirds of the patients treated, the theory-seeking analyst risks becoming like a Skinnerian pigeon who has been condi- tioned by his successes to repeat elaborate superstitious rituals

Courtesy of Sigmund Freud Copyrights in an effort to obtain further food. Virtually any hypothesis, as long as it is reasonable, can be confirmed by therapeutic success. possibly be allowed as the sole arbiter of such an epistemo- What, then, made Freud initially pick one hypothesis over logical dilemma. What "tallies" in analysis is inevitably a sub- another? jective and theory-laden issue. The Tally Argument may be The logic of Grünbaum's book leads to reaffirm the funda- said to offer a certain persuasion value, but it is certainly not a mental importance of Freud's intellectual milieu in arriving at scientifically sound procedure for subjecting one's hypotheses intuitively plausible hypotheses that then found abundant con- to possible refutation or for deciding between two or more firmation in therapeutic success. Indeed, the most characteristic rival theories. features of his theory have their intellectual roots in the medical, Although Grünbaum never explicitly endorses the initial physicalistic, and psychological assumptions of late nineteenth- merit of Freud's Tally Argument, he describes Freud's logic as century science (Ellenberger 1970; Sulloway 1979). "a cardinal epistemological defense" and "magnificent, if true" A good example is the extreme importance that Freud and, by failing to criticize, appears to give Freud the benefit of attached to sexuality in his theories, an emphasis that clearly the doubt. So why is Grünbaum seemingly anxious to have us reflects his post-Darwinian heritage and his search for a consider this argument, at least prior to the 1920s, as a brilliant physicalistic and quantitative basis for neurotic symptoms. Yet methodological solution on Freud's part to the problem of we have no more reason to believe that Freud was right in his control studies? I think this lenient attitude is somehow related purely sexual interpretation of the psychoneuroses than he was

26 FREE INQUIRY in his now-outmoded theory of the actual neuroses. Similarly, taught us that dreaming is not a quasi-neurotic symptom and Freud's commitment to the pertinacity of early impressions, that the bizarreness of dreams need no longer be seen as a including his trauma theory, only makes sense in terms of his product of nightly repression. The history of science has begun prior researches in childhood cerebral paralyses and his to illuminate the often hidden rationale behind many of Freud's familiarity with the virtually identical embryological paradigm assumptions and hypotheses and, by pointing to their outmoded of developmental arrests. We nevertheless have good reason to nature, has helped us to understand both Freud's errors and doubt that this embryological formula applies so neatly to the logic of his times. Now Adolf Grünbaum, in an indisputable mental development, given the gradual nature and extreme philosophical tour de force, has swept away the Popperian and plasticity of postnatal cerebral development and learning hermeneutic mythologies about Freudian theory and has sub- (Kagan 1984). stituted a methodological critique of his own that caps the Freud's theory of psychosexual development, which lies at revisionist assessment of Freud. If Freud and his school are the heart of his theories of the neuroses, the unconscious, and reeling from the onslaught, they should nevertheless take heart the source of dreams and slips, was clearly predicated upon the at their own good fortune in having Grünbaum as a critic. For now-outmoded biogenetic law. This law, enunciated by if psychoanalysis is going to have a scientific future, this kind Darwin's German follower Ernst Haeckel, held that "ontogeny of philosophical serendipity may well be more valuable than all recapitulates phylogeny." Freud conceived of human develop- of the clinical serendipity that supposedly still awaits us in ment as being organized around oral, anal, and genital (oedipal) Freud's own theories. stages of sexual development because sexuality was thought to have evolved phylogenetically in this sequence (1905, 198). References Indeed, Freud's whole postulation of infantile sexuality as "polymorphously perverse" was dependent upon this same Ellenberger, Henri F. 1970. The Discovery of the Unconscious: The assumption (Freud 1985, 212, 223; letters of December 6, 1896, History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry. New York: Basic and January 11, 1897). Insofar as Freud held that all neuroses Books. are repressed perversions, his theory of the neuroses is inex- Eysenck, Hans J. 1952. "The Effects of Psychotherapy: An Evalua- tricably linked to his theory of normal human development. tion." Journal of Consulting Psychology, 16:319-324. It is always possible, of course, that faulty logic and out- Eysenck, Hans J., and Glenn D. Wilson. 1973. The Experimental moded scientific assumptions can lead one to a correct theory. Study of Freudian Theories. London: Methuen. But it is not highly probable. Moreover, repeated attempts Frank, G. H. 1965. "The Role of the Family in the Development of have already been made to test Freud's belief that the pattern Psychopathology." Psychological Bulletin, 64:191-205. Freud, Sigmund. 1905. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. In of weaning from the breast, for example, or a child's toilet- The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of training experiences, correlate directly with characterological Sigmund Freud. 24 vols. Vol. 7. Translated from the German traits and neurotic symptoms. This literature, reviewed by under the general editorship of James Strachey. London: Eysenck and Wilson (1973), has utterly failed to corroborate Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis, 1953-74. Freud's theory. Such a failure vindicates a Popperian position . 1916-17. Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. In on Freud, even if it does not vindicate Popper's personal views Standard Edition, 15-16. on the untestability of psychoanalytic hypotheses. In addition, . 1985 [1887-1904]. The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud such negative findings suggest that Grünbaum's own methdo- to Wilhelm Fliess, 1887-1904. Translated and edited by Jeffrey logical critique of psychoanalysis leaves far less room for Moussaieff Masson. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard serendipity on Freud's part than Grünbaum would have us University Press. believe. No doubt Freud was serendipitous on numerous points Grünbaum, Adolf. 1984. The Foundations of Psychoanalysis: A Philosophical Critique. Berkeley: University of California Press. (it would be astonishing if he were not). But, when it comes to Habermas, Jürgen. 1971. Knowledge and Human Interests. Trans- many important aspects of human development that are central lated by J. J. Shapiro. Boston: Beacon Press. to Freud's clinical theories, the extraclinical evidence is already Hobson, J. Allan. In press. "Repressed Infantile Wishes as the Insti- in and has failed to confirm Freud's views. It is too bad that gators of All Dreams: Commentary on Chapter 5 of Founda- such findings, which complement Grünbaum's general thesis tions of Psychoanalysis, by Adolf Grünbaum." Behavioral and about Freud, were omitted from his review of the literature. Brain Sciences. Hobson, J. Allan, and Robert W. McCarley. 1977. "The Brain as a n the final analysis Grünbaum's critique should be appre- Dream State Generator: An Activation-Synthesis Hypothesis ciated as part of the multipronged and multidisciplinary of the Dream Process." American Journal of Psychiatry, reassessment of Freud that has taken place over the past several 134:1335-1348. decades. From the field of psychology we have become aware Kagan, Jerome. 1984. The Nature of the Child. New York: Basic Books. that human development is less fanatically sexual than Freud Marmor, Judd. 1962. "Psychoanalytic Therapy as an Educational believed and that development itself is far more plastic and Process." In Psychoanalytic Education, vol. 5, pp. 286-299. multidetermined. From clinical psychology we have learned Edited by J. Masserman. New York: Grune and Stratton. that neuroses can be cured just as satisfactorily (and with less Ricoeur. Paul. 1970. Freud and Philosophy. New Haven: Yale time and expense) by alternative clinical methods. Moreover, University Press. contrary to Freud's claims, such cures are just as enduring as Sulloway, Frank J. 1979. Freud, Biologist of the Mind: Beyond the psychoanalytic ones. Neurophysiology, on the other hand, has Psychoanalytic Legend. New York: Basic Books. •

FREE INQUIRY 27 Philosophy of Science and Psychoanalysis

Michael Ruse

orne people rise above the rest of us, capturing the popu- activities centered between your legs, but there are few of us lar imagination. There is a quality about them and their for whom they are not (in one way or another) matters of Swork that somehow transcends the normal, the purely ongoing and thought-consuming interest. human. Julius Caesar is preeminently such a figure. He has a In fact, there was really nothing personal in the neglect of glow—a romance and fascination—that lifts him far beyond Freud by the philosophers of science. With the notable excep- the run-of-the-mill military conqueror, however successful. tion of those who grappled with the problems of modern Coming down closer to our own age, I suppose in their very physics—often those who had come to philosophy from physics, different ways Napoleon and Abraham Lincoln likewise qualify precisely because of these problems—the philosophers preferred as men apart and above—men whose very being in some sense to stay away from real science of any kind. Knowledge of promotes curiosity. (As an Englishman, I rather regret that the Boyle's law was enough to enter the fraternity, and even that Duke of Wellington did not top Napoleon in glamour, but it was hardly necessary. Teachers and pupils usually devoted their was not to be. Admiral Horatio Nelson comes much closer, time to white swans, black ravens, and red herrings, when they which rather suggests that a violent and unnatural end might were not giving their efforts to even more arcane topics like add to immortality.) "grue" emeralds (which are, if you please, colored "green before Science also has not merely its geniuses and colossi but time t, and blue thereafter," and to be distinguished from figures whose life and work fascinate. Charles Darwin, mysteri- "bleen" objects, which are "blue before time t, and green there- ously ill all of his adult life yet producing the definitive evolu- after"). tionary theory, is one. Einstein is probably another. And I blame for the most part the North American graduate certainly, without a doubt, there is Sigmund Freud. The Vien- education system for this appalling state of affairs. After ÿou nese Jewish physician who peered into his own mind and found have staggered through umpteen courses, comprehensive exams, such a hotch-potch of rape and incest and violence and fear and God knows how many language tests, the last thing you and love and filth and hope and represssion, and who then want to do is to take some time off to learn some science. You proclaimed that such a gallimaufry of emotions is in our minds want to get your thesis done and to get a job and to mine your also, was no ordinary man. Whether charlatan or genius—and work for one or two quick articles to get tenure—and, before in the opinion of some the jury is still out, and in the opinion you know where you are, you are an associate professor and of others the jury was never out—Freud was a thinker whose forty. Looking back, you see how your whole career has been ideas disturb. based on a technical paper you wrote for a course, and for Books, plays, films, even television series, pour forth. And which you got an "A." yet the one group that you might have expected to have grap- Fortunately, some topics have proven too trivial and bor- pled endlessly with the Freudian corpus has been almost uni- ing even for philosophers of science. In recent years, much formly silent—a stillness broken just occasionally, generally prodded by such seminal thinkers as Thomas Kühn, who have with a few violent sneers. I refer to my own group, namely, the insisted that you cannot talk about science unless you know professional philosophers of science. You might think it is our some science, the community has been turning increasingly to job (and joy) to weigh and evaluate theories and that conse- the subject about which it is supposed to be philosophizing. quently Freud's work would have been scrutinized from end to Parenthetically, my own subfield, the philosophy of biology, end—more so than that of anyone else in this century, if only has seen a veritable blossoming in the past decade. It is perhaps, because the old man wrote so clearly and provocatively on therefore, not so surprising—although it is very welcome—to such absorbing topics. You may feel ambiguous about those find that a leading philosopher of science, one who has distinguished himself previously by grappling with real science Michael Ruse is professor of philosophy at the University of (physics), has now turned his attention, full time and full force, Guelph in Ontario, Canada. to Freud and his work. Thus, today, we have before us, by Adolf Grünbaum, Andrew Mellon Professor of Philosophy

28 FREE INQUIRY and Research Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pitts- get out of the scientific framework, and obviously therefore we burgh, the full-length work The Foundations of Psychoanalysis: cannot really have been in such a framework in the first place. A Philosophical Critique. As Grünbaum points out, this is all ludicrous, showing the most elementary fallacies. (Perhaps there was something to all et it be said, loud and clear: This is good, tough-minded of those theoretical courses about swans and ravens after all!) Lphilosophy, by a man who knows his subject thoroughly. Events come about through laws working on initial conditions. To say that Grünbaum's work is a quantum jump on anything If I do not hit the ball with a certain force, no amount of that has gone before may seem like faint praise, given what I Galilean law-making will score a homer. Analogously, if I am have just had to say about philosophy of science. Let me there- crazy, this is not just because of the laws but because of events fore say simply that work by philosophers of science on Freud in my past. Self-realization, brought about through therapy, has now achieved fully professional status. No one will be able alters the initial conditions. A child who has been excessively to write again on the subject without referring to Grünbaum— toilet-trained might grow to be a compulsively tidy adult. A nor will they want to. I think it fair to say that there are two main parts to Grünbaum's discussion. First, he is concerned primarily with "Having defended Freud against the criticism of the arguments of others. Second, he is concerned to put forward others, having argued that Freud is embarked on a arguments of his own. Let us take these parts in turn. legitimate enterprise, Grünbaum is concerned to show As hinted above, those people with a philosophical turn of that the psychoanalytic edifice rests on very shaky mind who have deigned to comment on Freud have usually empirical evidence indeed." done so purely with the intent of showing that his work simply does not measure up to what we expect of a seminal scholar. Grünbaum goes after these people with a cleansing rigor that is grown-up, thus trained in childhood but with awareness of this a joy to watch. fact and its consequences, need not be so compulsive. In arguing First he takes apart the hermeneuticists, continental thus, Freud affirms the scientific nature of his system, rather thinkers like Jürgen Habermas and Paul Ricoeur. In order to than denying it. do this, Grünbaum begins by showing exactly what Freud thought he was doing and, even more important, what Freud After his critique of the continental thinkers, Grünbaum did not ever claim to be doing. Contrary to what many critics Aturns to the English-speaking writer who has probably have said—about Freud just wanting to provide a method of done more than any to give Freud a bad name. I refer of vague insight and understanding—Grünbaum argues that Freud course to Sir Karl Popper. In a well-known critique, repeated wanted to produce science. And by "science" Freud meant several times in his writings, Popper excoriates psychoanalytic what most of us mean by "science," that is, subsumption theory as the apotheosis of pseudoscience because it fails beneath natural regularities—namely, laws. abysmally the (Popperian) criterion of demarcation between However, the last thing that Freud was committed to was science and nonscience. Supposedly, on Freudian premises some kind of all-out ontological reductionism, where every literally anything is explicable. Freud's work, therefore, is simply mental event must be reduced to molecules in action. Freud not "falsifiable"—nothing would show it wrong. Hence, because treated his subject in a contained way, and left the ultimate it explains everything, it explains nothing. Freudianism is just connections, if such there be, to others. not genuine science. With these (Freudian) purposes clearly in view, Grünbaum Quite apart from problems with falsifiability as a criterion literally savages the hermeneuticists. Consider, the following of demarcation, Grünbaum has little trouble in showing that passage by Habermas. Popper's argument is based on a travesty of Freudianism and collapses entirely when faced with the real thing. As Grünbaum In technical control over nature we get nature to work for us says: through our knowledge of causal connections. Analytic insight, however, affects the causality of the unconscious as such. Even a casual perusal of the mere titles of Freud's papers and Psychoanalytic therapy is not based, like somatic medicine, lectures in the Standard Edition yields two examples of falsi- which is "causal" in the narrower sense, on making use of fiability. The second is a case of acknowledged falsification, to known causal connections. Rather, it owes its efficacy to over- boot. The first is the paper "A Case of Paranoia Running coming causal connections themselves. [Quoted by Grünbaum, Counter to the Psychoanalytic Theory of the Disease" (S.E. p. 12, from Knowledge and Human Interests.] 1915, 14: 263-272); the second is the lecture "Revision of the Theory of Dreams" (S.E. 1933, 22: 7-30, especially pp. 28-30). What is going on here? According to Habermas, Freudian- [p. 108] ism cannot be a proper science because proper science depends on causal law, whereas in Freudian therapy the aim is to elimi- It is hard to deny the tone of Grünbaum's commentary. nate or dissolve the causes, thus in some way to avoid or Popper is not merely misguided in his critique of Freud. He is transcend them. When I find that my excessive cleanliness irresponsibly misguided. Freud was a serious man, dealing with comes from strict toilet-training, then I am on the way to serious questions. He deserves better from us philosophers. negating the causes and to being cured. Thus the very aim is to Which brings us next to the second part of Grünbaum's

Fall 1985 29 work, in which he turns to arguments of his own. Having patient committed a parapraxis as part of a direct denial. defended Freud against the criticism of others, having argued Indeed, when a masochistic patient is averse to the analyst's that Freud is embarked on a legitimate enterprise, Grünbaum therapeutic efforts, an incorrect construction will not affect his symptoms, but a correct one will produce "an unmistakable is concerned to show that the psychoanalytic edifice rests on aggravation of his symptoms." [p. 276] very shaky empirical evidence indeed. At the heart of Freud's hopes of confirmation, Grünbaum finds a line of reasoning Unfortunately, as Grunbaum shows, this argument is worth that he labels the "Tally Argument." It was a defense based on little. There is, throughout, "a shared contaminant: the analyst's this argument that was Freud's protection against his critics. influence." More particularly: "For each of the seemingly inde- Let me quote Grünbaum in full. pendent clinical data may well be more or less alike confounded by the analyst's suggestion so as to conform to his construction, It was this defense—or its bold lawlike premise—I maintain, that was all at once his basis for five claims, each of which is at the cost of their epistemic reliability or probative value" (p. of the first importance for the legitimation of the central parts 277). of his theory. These five claims are the following: And so we come to the end of Grünbaum's case, with the old Scottish verdict: "Not Proven." (i) Denial of an irremediable epistemic contamination of clinical data by suggestion (ii) Affirmation of a crucial difference, in regard to the his is an important book. I have said that, and so let me dynamics of therapy, between psychoanalytic treatment Tconclude with some points of a rather more critical nature. and all rival therapies that actually operate entirely by First, no one could say that The Foundations of Psychoanalysis suggestion is easy to read, a point made more striking by the above- (iii) Assertion that the psychoanalytic method is able to vali- mentioned ease of reading Freud himself (to be contrasted with date its major causal claims—such as its specific sexual the more arguable ease of understanding Freud). Grünbaum's etiologies of the various psychoneuroses—by essentially style is technical and rather crabbed, and few concessions are retrospective methods without vitiation by post hoc ergo made to the reader. propter hoc, and without the burdens of prospective studies Second, following on the first point, I for one would have employing the controls of experimental inquiries appreciated a clear initial statement of the Freudian ideas under (iv) Contention that favorable therapeutic outcome can be discussion. We are not looking at everything—for instance, warrantedly attributed to psychoanalytic intervention without statistical comparisons pertaining to the results nothing is said about the whole notion of bisexuality, on which from untreated control groups so much of Freud's sexual theorizing depends. Again, Grün- (v) Avowal that, once the patient's motivations are no longer baum might rightly object that he has taken on enough in one distorted or hidden by repressed conflicts, credence can volume to satisfy any reasonable person. Need a discussant of rightly be given to his or her introspective self- Newton's gravitational theory necessarily consider the particle observations, because these data then do supply pro- theory of light? But, while this is true, perhaps precisely because batively significant information. [pp. 127-128] it is difficult to put Freud's various ideas on a clear logical map, it would have been helpful to have had an initial guide Thus laid out, for all to see, Grünbaum rips through the sorting out the various strands and explaining which must be defenses. The theory of repression, so-called "Freudian slips," considered and which can be left. dream content, free association, retrospective testing, and much As it is, we are plunged right into polemic, and this does more, are held up to the light of day and are found wanting as not cease until we end with a final fanfare of Popper-bashing. practiced by Freud and his followers. (I confess that I feel toward Popper rather as Kant felt toward For me, one of the most interesting parts of Grünbaum's homosexuality: If you draw people's attention to it, then they discussion centers on what the nineteenth-century philosopher might start doing it; but, if you do not draw attention to it, of science William Whewell called "the consilience of induc- they might do it without realizing the grave moral dangers.) tions." What convinces us that a scientific theory really is My third point is one that Grünbaum himself acknowl- true—not necessarily correct in every last detail, but essentially edges, but which is in some respects the most important. When on the right track toward an understanding of reality? More you have finished the book, your main question is: "Why than anything, such conviction follows on the realization that bother?" Grünbaum has defended Freud against the critics, but hitherto-disparate areas of understanding unite beneath shared then he puts the boot in even more firmly himself! As Grün- premises. Pointing toward a common source persuades us that baum acknowledges, this is not the end of the matter. There we face no coincidence but true reality. could be other, experimental evidence for the Freudian corpus. Freud was sensitive to this methodological fact and argued But surely the question of worth must be answered at some that there is consilience at the center of his work. In particular, level. Agree, for instance, that you are not going to test the Freud claimed that the analyst can be sure that he or she is on Freudian hypothesis about dominant mothers leading to homo- the right path when things that the patient says can be matched sexual sons by listening to the sons whining on the couch (even by other independent evidence. less, by asking the analysts, as Irving Bieber and his associates thought they could do). The question still remains: Is there As a particularly striking example of a further clinical datum something to the Oedipus complex or is it all a matter of that is thus inductively consilient, he recalls a case in which the hormones? •

30 FREE INQUIRY The Death Knell of Psychoanalysis

H. J. Eysenck

dolf Grünbaum's examination of the philosophical investigation that seems to have hitherto gone entirely unno- foundations of psychoanalysis ranks with three other ticed. He has labeled this pivotal defense the Tally Argument, Amajor investigations of Freud's work: Henri F. Ellen- and it is this Tally Argument that Freud uses essentially to berger's The Discovery of the Unconscious, Frank J. Sulloway's support his major contentions, including the denial of an irre- Freud: Biologist of the Mind, and G. Zwang's La Statue de mediable epistemic contamination of clinical data by suggestion; Freud. It differs from the others by being less concerned with the affirmation of a crucial difference, in regard to the dynamics historical facts and developments, psychological considerations, of therapy, between psychoanalytic treatment and all rival or sociological ones, and by concentrating on the logic of therapies that actually operate entirely by suggestion; the asser- Freud's arguments and their acceptability. It is a long overdue tion that the psychoanalytic method is able to validate its major attempt to go beyond the simple-minded assertion by Karl causal claims by essentially retrospective methods; the conten- Popper that psychoanalysis (like Marxism and astrology) was tion that favorable therapeutic outcome can be warrantedly pseudoscientific because it did not make falsifiable assertions. attributed to psychoanalytic intervention without statistical Grünbaum has little difficulty showing that Popper's statement comparisons pertaining to the results from untreated control is either meaningless or untrue and that, while the scientific groups; and the avowal that, once the patient's motivations are status of psychoanalysis does not stand up to simple Baconian no longer distorted or hidden by repressed conflicts, credence inductivist principles, it does survive very well the Popperian can rightly be given to his or her introspective self-observations. criterion! Clearly, if these claims could be validated, they would Grünbaum first defends Freud from the hermeneutic indeed establish Freudian psychoanalysis once and for all as a onslaught, that is, from those who suggest that Freud's efforts truly scientific method, and as the only scientific method in to make psychoanalysis scientific were mistaken and that it psychology. Unfortunately, as Grünbaum makes clear in his would have been much better had he never attempted to align merciless dissection of the Freudian argument, the Tally Argu- psychoanalysis with Naturwissenchaft but had instead placed it ment fails in its entirety, and hence leaves Freud exposed to with the Geisteswissenchaften. Grünbaum has little difficulty in the arrows of his critics without even a fig leaf to cover his showing the inconsistency and, indeed, the absurdity of this nakedness. The destruction of the Tally Argument shows Grün- view; he sides completely with Freud in suggesting that the baum the philosopher at his best, and the development of his effort had to be made of creating a genuine science of psycho- critique is an excellent example of how philosophy can aid the analysis and that those who now smirkingly talk about Freud's scientist in coming to grips with the logic of a given argument "scientistism" have simply misunderstood what he was attemp- underlying a scientific (or pseudoscientific) discipline. ting to do. One of the inevitable consequences of Grünbaum's argu- Grünbaum then asks: "Did Freud vindicate his method of ment is a point that has often been denied by followers of clinical investigation?" As he points out, Freud gave a cardinal Freud, namely, that the success of psychoanalysis as a treatment epistemological defense of the psychoanalytic method of clinical is an absolutely vital sine qua non of any attempt to prove the validity of Freudian theories. When I first demonstrated in H. J. Eysenck founded the Department of Psychology at the 1952 that there was no evidence to show that Freudian psycho- Institute of Psychiatry in London, where he has been a pro- therapy did better, as far as psychoneurotic patients were con- fessor for more than thirty years. cerned, than other types of therapy—or no therapy at all—this conclusion was at first vehemently debated and, indeed, con-

Fall 1985 31 sidered outrageous. Nowadays it is regarded as commonplace, dreams and (b) that his interpretation of these dreams strength- and the evidence is very strong, from more than five hundred ened his theory. In actual fact, Freud never analyzed his studies, that with the exception of behavior therapy all types of patients' dreams at all, and such analyses as he made completely psychotherapy or placebo treatment have pretty much the same disproved his own theories. kind of effect. (Behavior therapy seems to do significantly It is well known that if dreams are not written down better!) With this realization came the claim that the disproof immediately after awakening they soon become forgotten and of the effectiveness of psychoanalysis as a method of treatment distorted to such an extent that they bear little relation, when could not be generalized to discredit psychoanalysis as a general later recalled, to the actual dream. Freud consciously and con- theory; it was claimed that, while the theory might be correct, sistently allowed his patients to tell him their "dreams" days or treatment might nevertheless for various reasons be unsuccess- even weeks after they occurred and without making any notes; ful. The importance of Grünbaum's argument is that it destroys it has been established that using this methodology makes it the very basis of this way of looking at the relationship between impossible to talk about interpretation of "dreams." And, therapy and theory. If the therapy does not work, Grünbaum regarding the interpretation of these dreams, it is clear that points out, then the theory is fatally wrong. And if, indeed, they bear no relation to Freud's own theory, namely, that they alternative methods, such as behavior therapy, do work, then this is really the death knell for psychoanalysis as a theory. "In academic psychiatry and psychology, criticism This argument has never been so strongly and powerfully presented before, and it follows logically from the disproof of has been mounting over the past twenty or thirty Freud's Tally Argument. years and interest is much more now in biological and behavioral methods of treatment."

represent repressed infantile sexual material. In every case, the dreams quoted in his book on interpretation are found to relate to perfectly conscious material of a wishful kind that has no particular relation to any assumed infantile sexual repressions. It is probable that the empirical-experimental look at Freudian concepts and methods is as destructive of his claims as are Grünbaum's purely logical and textual criticisms, but Grünbaum has left this type of investigation to others and has rigidly restrained himself to look at the philosophical and logical foundations of Freud's work, with only occasional glimpses beyond. This was probably a wise course to adopt; it makes for a very clear and concise target, and does not invite irrelevant comebacks of a nonphilosophical nature. Grünbaum's logical argument is detailed and exemplary in its clarity, and he makes a good case for the claim that many earlier writers, philosophers as well as psychoanalysts, have either misunderstood Freud or given too little weight to his arguments. Grünbaum's style is perhaps a little heavy, although not unduly so by philosophical standards. In attempting to nail down the argument properly, he has not hesitated to use the proverbial sledge-hammer; whether the target of this destruction deserves such a whole-hearted effort is of course a question readers must be left to answer for themselves. My own view would be that Freud is no longer taken seriously in academic circles and that the factual destruction of his work by experi- mentalists and clinicians is now pretty complete. There are of course still philosophers and others who are Courtesy of Sigmund Freud Copyrights tempted by the fairy tales Freud so invitingly told; but, in academic psychiatry and psychology, criticism has been mounting t is noteworthy that Grünbaum accepts much of what Freud over the past twenty or thirty years, and interest is much more Isays and claims, and he bases his destruction of Freudian now in biological or behavioral methods of treatment and the theory entirely on a logical analysis of Freud's own statements. theories supporting these than in the vagaries of psychoanalysis. He is not concerned, as others have been, with looking at Grünbaum may persuade philosophers that even from the independent facts and pointing to the strange inconsistency purely logical point of view there is little to be said for this type between Freudian claims and the facts of the case. Thus of old-style mythology. Empiricists have been aware of this for Freudians seem to assume (a) that Freud analyzed his patients' a very long time indeed! •

32 FREE INQUIRY Looking Backward

Lee Nisbet

dolf Grünbaum's The Foundations of Psychoanalysis be false. It is clearly the case that any hypothesis concerning a will disappoint those who wish to see Freud proclaimed particular neurotic symptom would be disconfirmed if the Aas an arch-practitioner of pseudoscience. It will also neurotic symptom does not permanently disappear after iden- disappoint those who believe that there exists any scientific tification and exploration of the formerly repressed memory. confirmation of Freud's personality theory or of the benefits of Freud, therefore, did put his theory on the firing line of inquiry classic psychoanalytic treatment. It will not, however, disap- when he argued that only the correct psychoanalytic insight point those who wish to understand clearly what Freud was could permanently remove the neurotic symptom. trying to do, how he went about it, and the enormous concep- The problem is, as Grünbaum argues, that classic psycho- tional and clinical difficulties that he was not able to overcome. analytic treatment is insufficient as a scientific procedure to Grünbaum argues that at the core of Freud's work was prove that such treatment in itself is causally necessary for the the idea that psychoneurosis is the outcome of a repression of neurosis to disappear. As Grünbaum observes, Freud was well the memory of a deeply disturbing experience. This repressed aware that in "free association" the analyst's "guidance" could memory leaves the person with unresolvable mental conflicts be said to make the free associations anything but free. The and thereby incapable, in varying degrees, of satisfying his patient comes to know well what kinds of memories the analyst existing needs: wants. Further, "memories" of events in no way constitute substantial evidence that such events actually occurred or The very occurrence of repression—in the psychoanalytical occurred in the way the patient claims. Therefore, even if the sense of banishing a thought from consciousness and/or deny- neurotic symptom disappears after analysis, this does not prove ing it entry—is a necessary condition for the cardinal and that analysis of the repression was the cause of the cure or that protean causal role that Freud attributed to it. [p. 188] a particular "repression" was the cause of a particular symptom. It could well have been a placebo effect. To provide more con- Notice that Grünbaum emphasizes that, for Freud, repression clusive proof of Freud's personality theory and clinical pro- is a necessary but not sufficient condition of a psychoneurosis. cedures, control groups of similarly neurotic patients would Not all repressions lead to neurotic symptoms. have to be used. Here the studies Grünbaum cites that have Freud's theory committed him therefore to explain all used control groups are particularly damning. These studies psychoneurotic symptoms in terms of their origins. Neurotic indicate that recovery rates among neurotic persons having no symptoms, he believed, can be removed permanently only by treatment whatsoever are the same as among those persons discovering—or better, recovering—the original trauma through undergoing analysis. the method of free association. The patient in the psychoanaly- Further, other approaches, such as behavioral therapies tical session simply says what comes to mind and the analyst that eschew analysis of "unconscious repressions" altogether do guides him in the recovery of the memory of the event that the just as well if not better in permanently eliminating neurotic client has "forgotten." If symptom "S" is caused by the repres- symptoms. Worse yet, as Grünbaum documents, Freud himself sion of memory "Y," when that memory is exhumed, painfully admitted near the end of his career that neurotic symptoms in explored, and its past implications fully understood by the many of his patients did not permanently disappear after patient, then "S" will permanently disappear. (If analysis. S/Y— YQ — S.) There are other issues that may shed more light on the Freud, using this method, provides a testable theory of origins of Freud's theoretical and clinical difficulties. Although neurosis. Karl Popper's assertion that Freud's work is untestable it is true, as Grünbaum and others have argued, that Freud's pseudoscience is shown by Grünbaum's foregoing analysis to personality theory and clinical methods are logically separable from his metapsychology—this latter conceptional scheme Lee Nisbet, associate professor of philosophy at Medaille Col- mightily influences the former. Specifically, in his metapsy- lege, is an associate editor of FREE INQUIRY. chology Freud reveals his dualism and retrospective essential- ism. Freud believed that the human being has a limited, fixed

Fall 1985 33 set of essential needs (sexual and aggressive instincts) that mining the person's behavior. Freud thus converts what is operate independent of the actual requirements of any existing original or native in human behavior into fixed "motives," environing situation. These permanent needs define what the which because they are original are "unconscious." Further, person essentially is, and if the environment frustrates or blocks since these "unconscious" motives (sexual, aggressive) are for these essential in-dwelling needs the person becomes neurotic Freud potentially socially destructive, they must continually be in varying degrees. Essential needs or wants, then, for Freud "repressed" before reaching the conscious level, leading the per- are independent of the environment; they are limited, son to develop socially acceptable, relatively unexciting sub- unchangeable, and absolutely insistent of expression. No stitute behaviors to achieve compensational satisfactions. This wonder that in his clinical work Freud continually focuses on "beast in the machine" metapsychology, in my view, fixes "original" repressions, for his metapsychology emphasizes that Freud's clinical investigations into a limiting, always what is "original" or native in the person is primary in deter- backward-looking approach. Since Darwin, research in the natural sciences has shown that the behavior of organisms is adaptive relative to changing BOOKS FOR HUMANISTS conditions. Those organisms that cannot adapt die. In man, a A. FOR ADULTS: language-using and ultimately science-using creature, adapta- RATIONAL LOVE tions have been translated into the further capacity to adapt 1978 paperback $7.00 "It is easily the best book on the subject that I have ever read." Albert Ellis. and transform changing conditions to his own liking. What Ph.D., Exec. Dir. Institute of Advanced Study in Rational Psychotherapy "explains" unsuccessful human behavior then is not, as Freud B. FOR YOUNG HUMANISTS (grades 4-12) and Teacher/Adult Resource would have it, unconscious repression of fixed instincts or Books: essences but, rather, the inability to judge prospectively the ETHICS 1978 paperback 80 pages $6.50 consequences of an act relative to shifting wants and needs in An extensive clarification of the uses and misuses of ethical terms. For a changing environing situations. What "neurosis" is, then, is not free description send SASE. Reviews will be sent also. the outcome of repressions of native drives but rather the GOOD AND BAD ARE FUNNY THINGS: A RHYMING BOOK. ETHICS FOR CHILDREN inability to develop judgment of what acts are required to 1978 paperback 90 pages $6.50 renew a changing present. In the style of Dr. Seuss books. This means that when we view motives and behavior as EMOTION: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS 1978 paperback 80 pages $6.50 prospective and when we are willing and able to subject learned "The best book of the five whether for children or for young people, may behaviors of the past to the criteria of relevancy and effective- well be Emotion.". Ed Cell Philosophical Investiations ness in light of changing needs, we have an adequate conceptual TIME: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS 1978 paperback 80 pages $6.50 foundation for an effective psychotherapy. "Neurosis" is viewed "Here Shibles does a good job of confronting the reader with some of the here as the condition wherein a person habitually prevents unresolved philosophical puzzles about the nature of time." Louis Katzner, Teaching Philosophy himself, through unawareness of present need, from renewing HUMOR: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE that present. 1978 paperback 166 pages $10.00 "I found them all quite interesting and distinctly rational. I particularly I think Freud is correct when he pictures the neurotic as liked Emotion." Albert Ellis one who resolutely backs into the future. Freud's failure, how-

To order send check and .50 for postage to address below. (40% of proceeds ever, is that his metaphysical, metapsychological retrospectivism will be contributed to this organization.) directs his inquiry only backward rather than toward the The Language Press examination of how a client's feelings, anxieties, fears, resent- P. 0. Box 342(FI) as deliberate self- Whitewater, WI 53190 ments, and anger function in the present U.S.A. imposed defenses against renewing the ever-changing present through new behavior. It is the fantasized future we fear when we are neurotic, not the past. The neurotic present is simply our past failures and their attendant fears projected into a fantasized future. Analysis of a person's history, therefore, is A phone book-size collection of mani- relevant and useful only when it is directed toward helping festos, demonstrations, and scandals. A 733-page political pot pourri of interviews, make present behavior meet present need. photos, and eyewitness accounts of the New behavior—novel, experimentally self-revising behav- era that turned the dreams and schemes ior, not simply explanations of past defeats—is the goal and of the late '60s into the bizarre realities of the '80s. BLACKLISTED NEWS: Secret the leading idea of an effective psychotherapy. Man is a Histories from Chicago to 1984 by the new historical animal. The present is experienced through habits YIPPIE! book collective is a steal for $13.95 (includes postage). Checks to BLACK- formed in the past. Freud seemed to forget, however, that man LISTED NEWS, Box 329, Canal Street Sta., is also a vividly imaginative animal who faces an objectively New York, NY 10013. novel, indeterminate, and precarious future. This blindness on YES! Send copies of BLACKLISTED NEWS to: Freud's part leads directly to making the kinds of mistakes Name Adolf Grünbaum so brilliantly documents. These mistakes,

Street Address however, when understood, can help us refine psychotherapeutic inquiry. For this reason we owe Freud and fair-minded critics City State Zip FI like Adolf Grünbaum our thanks. •

34 FREE INQUIRY Transaction SOCIAL SCIENCE AND MODERN Society

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Fall 1985 35 The following two papers were presented at the symposium "Jesus in History and Myth," sponsored by FREE INQUIRY and held at the University of Michigan in April 1985. All of the papers from that conference will be available. in book form in early 1986 in Jesus in History and Myth, edited by professors Gerald A. Larue and R. Joseph Hoffmann (Prometheus Books). The conference is now available on audiotapes (see page 37). New Testament Scholarship and Christian Belief

Van A. Harvey

nyone teaching the origins of Christianity to college opinion of New Testament historians has had so little influence undergraduates or divinity students cannot help but on the public? The philosophical issue is also complicated but Abe struck by the enormous gap between what the it basically has to do with the important question concerning average layperson believes to be historically true about Jesus of the role of presuppositions in professional historical inquiry. Nazareth and what the great majority of New Testament The conservative Christian student believes with some justifica- scholars have concluded after a century and a half of research tion that the conclusions of biblical scholars are simply a func- and debate. For, despite decades of research, the average person tion of their secular beliefs. Liberal New Testament scholars, it tends to think of the life of Jesus in much the same terms as is said, create skeptical interpretations of the New Testament, Christians did three centuries ago: the humble manger birth in while orthodox scholars create believing interpretations. Thus Bethlehem; the flight into Egypt to avoid the wicked King it is not a case of objective scholarship versus faith; rather, it is Herod; the baptism by John the Baptist, who recognized Jesus simply a case of one faith colliding with another. to be the long-promised Messiah; a three-year ministry in which Now these social and philosophical issues, in my opinion, Jesus' claims to divinity are met by the hostility of the Jews, have ethical implications, because we are not dealing here with who conspire to have him tried and crucified; and the burial in a mere difference of opinion about matters of fact; we are a garden tomb after which he rises from the dead. dealing with two normative policies concerning how one ought So far as the biblical historian is concerned, however, to go about reasoning about matters of historical fact. We there is scarcely a popularly held traditional belief about Jesus have a conflict between two ideals concerning how historical that is not regarded with considerable skepticism. It is not beliefs should be acquired and maintained. These two ideals surprising, therefore, that any professor who today relies upon quite naturally find expression in two different tables of virtues contemporary New Testament scholarship concerning the and vices. We are dealing, in short, with a conflict between two origins of Christianity is met by considerable student hostility "ethics of belief." and resistance. Whereas students of medieval or American Anyone familiar with philosophical discussion of these history normally regard the teacher as an expert to be trusted, matters will immediately recognize how complex and subtle students of the origins of Christianity suspect that the teacher these issues are, and I certainly cannot do them justice in the is a skeptic undermining their religious faith. space allotted to me. Consequently, I am going to concentrate This gulf between the historian and the traditional Chris- on only one of them—the conflict between the two ethics of tian believer raises a number of important social, philosophical, belief. Moreover, I will attempt to be provocative and argue and, as I shall hope to show, ethical issues. The social issue, from the standpoint of someone who believes that there is an although complex, may be put briefly in this way. Why is it implicit ethic in historical inquiry that conflicts with that of that in a culture so dominated by experts in every field, the traditional Christian belief.

Van A. Harvey is professor of religion at Stanford University first became aware of the moral dimension of this problem and the author of The Historian and the Believer, among I many years ago when, as a young theologian concerned many other books. with the integrity of Christian faith in a secular world, I turned to certain nineteenth-century intellectuals who had wrestled

36 FREE INQUIRY profoundly with the same issue. These intellectuals both civil servants who preside over the institutions that determine attracted and frightened me. They attracted me because they the nature of civilization, have a special responsibility for everything took Christian faith so seriously, believing as they did that its that molds the consciousness of a people. Consider language, loss could be catastrophic for Western culture. Moreover, they for example. The clerisy believed that nothing determines the were themselves wistful for faith—drawn by its symbolic power quality of civic discourse more than the way language is and its metaphysical comfort in a world rapidly being demysti- employed, because the discriminating use of language is crucial fied by the sciences. But these intellectuals frightened me for the molding of those habits of reasoning and judgment because they regarded their own wistfulness not as a virtue but upon which society depends. The future of a culture depends as a temptation to their intellectual integrity. Unlike their upon the level and precision of public debate, and the health of Christian contemporaries, they believed that faith, not doubt, a culture can be measured by the lucidity of those debates leads one into temptation; that it is not faith that requires through which the citizenry comes to judgment concerning its severity of conscience but skepticism and rational inquiry. destiny. The viewpoint of these intellectuals is not best expressed by stating that they rejected Christian historical claims because they believed these claims to be false; rather, their position is "Why is it that in a culture so dominated by experts best expressed by saying that they thought it was morally reprehensible to hold certain types of claims to be true "on faith." I in every field, the opinion of the New Testament say "certain types of claims" because they believed it was only historians has had so little influence on the public?" wrong to hold "on faith" those propositions the truth of which could be adjudicated by some scholarly discipline. Not all Christian claims of course are the object of some sort of scholarly discipline in which there are widely accepted standards The discriminating use of language and the patterns of for judging their truth or falsity. There is no such discipline, reasoning it makes possible are not, it was argued, natural for example, that has as its sphere of inquiry Christian claims endowments. They are acquired in the same way that habits of about the triune nature of God. But some Christian claims— character are acquired, namely, by self-discipline and training. for example, those concerning the activities and teachings of Consequently, the clerisy exercises its responsibility for culture Jesus—are historical claims and, as such, are also the object of directly in its responsibility for those institutions in which the highly specialized types of intellectual inquiry. Our nineteenth- educated classes receive their training, which is to say, the century intellectual, I am suggesting, believed that it was schools. The aim of the schools is not merely to impart morally reprehensible to insist that these claims were true on information; it is, rather, to inculcate those character traits or, faith while at the same time arguing that they were also the to use Aristotelian language, those virtues that underlie and legitimate objects of historical inquiry. make possible the discriminating use of the mind. A child must It is a measure of how distant we are psychically from the learn through self-discipline the virtues of withholding prema- nineteenth century that most of us have a difficult time even ture judgment, of considering the evidence before assenting to understanding how this issue could be couched in moral terms. a claim, of respecting alternative opinions, and of expressing We can understand why someone might believe that certain one's opinions in a modulated and lucid fashion that conveys statements about Jesus are false, but we cannot understand one's awareness of the degree of certainty to which one is why someone should reject those claims on the ground that it entitled. The child must also learn to despise certain vices, is morally irresponsible to hold them "on faith." First of all, we above all, the vices of intellectual sloth and credulity, because do not understand how assenting to historical claims has any- these undermine all those qualities that are the foundation of thing at all to do with moral integrity. We can understand why an educated public. As one important interpreter of Victorian someone might find certain claims difficult to believe, but to life, G. M. Young, once expressed it, the Victorian intellectual argue that one has a duty not to believe any such claim seems believed that children should be taught that they had no more odd. Second, most of us are basically relativistic about matters right to an opinion for which they could give no reason than a of belief in general and historical beliefs in particular. We live pint of beer for which they could not pay. in a culture in which people differ radically from one another It is a great irony that many educated people probably as to what they can and do believe. Some believe that Mozart half-believe that it is arrogant and elitist to think that intel- was poisoned, that Shakespeare was not the author of the lectuals have any special responsibility for the health of culture. plays that bore his name, that Kennedy was assassinated on An irony because at the very time that the ideal of public orders from the CIA. Indeed, even historians differ among education has triumphed in our society, the ethic that propelled themselves about Joan of Arc, Luther, and the causes of World and nourished it has collapsed. But as a young Protestant War II. "What has any of this to do with morality?" we ask. theologian, I regarded this Victorian ethic of belief not as a In order to understand why we do not understand our manifestation of arrogance but as a last vestige of the Protestant nineteenth-century forebears in this respect, it is important to doctrine of vocation. Luther and Calvin had taught that one see that Victorian intellectuals believed that they had a special served God and neighbor not by becoming a priest but by obligation for the health of culture or, as they would have fulfilling the duties of a secular vocation. One is called by God expressed it, "civilization." The "clerisy," to use Coleridge's to be a judge or a carpenter or a businessman. And, if one is term for those educationalists, writers, lawyers, scientists, and called to be a judge, then one obeys God by becoming an

Fall 1985 37 expert in the law; if a carpenter, by becoming an excellent Just as a classicist will listen with respect only to the opinions craftsman in wood; if a businessman, by becoming a first-rate of another classicist on questions concerning the authenticity entrepreneur. So, too, one fulfilled one's duties as an intellectual of the portrait of Socrates in the late Platonic dialogues and by acquiring those virtues of the self-disciplined mind. not, say, to the opinions of an American historian, so, also, the Now it is characteristic of the intellectual vocations that New Testament scholar discounts the opinions of laypersons they presuppose a rather general set of habits or virtues, on the regarding the New Testament because they lack not only those one hand, and a rather specific set, on the other. Scientists, tools essential to scholarship—Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew, Form judges, engineers, journalists, humanists—all of them have the and Tradition criticism, knowledge of ancient Near Eastern obligation to be honest and to make use of modes of reasoning religions—but also those less easily defined but important quali- that permit the assessment and criticism of arguments and the ties of judgment that characterize those who acquire distinction conclusions to arguments. All of the intellectual enterprises, in their scholarly disciplines. In short, the result of the pro- one might say, require the general dispositions to acquire fessionalization of knowledge has been to render amateur most evidence before coming to judgment and to submit one's con- of the traditionally held beliefs of the average layperson and the conservative Christian. "New Testament scholarship now is so specialized I do not believe that the historic significance of this pro- fessionalization of knowledge of the Bible should be under- and requires so much preparation and learning that estimated. Indeed, it constitutes an enormous wrench in the the layperson has simply been disqualified from consciousness of Western humanity. Hitherto, the Bible, and having any right to a judgment regarding the truth especially the New Testament, has provided the fundamental or falsity of certain historical claims." text that has shaped the morality and ethics of Western culture. Since the Reformation, it has been assumed in Protestant countries that any literate person could pick up the Bible, understand clusions to the criticism of one's peers. But intellectuals increas- it, and assent to its various claims. Evangelical Christianity, ingly work in specialized communities of inquiry, each of which which rests on this basic assumption, presupposes that just has their own rules and procedures. The historian's use of such reading and understanding is the basis of conversion. It evidence and reasoning, for example, is different from that of should not be surprising, therefore, that the emergence of a the biologist, the neurologist, and the physician. In other words, specialized scholarly discipline that implicitly rejects this claim the obligations of the intellectual are role-specific, and it is should give rise to hostility and resentment. New Testament because these procedures are role-specific that we can speak of scholarship threatens to alienate the Western consciousness the unique expertise of the medieval historian in contrast to from one of its most cherished assumptions. that of the urban sociologist, of the cultural anthropologist in But I have said that the moral issue between scholar and contrast to the neurologist, of the historian of Greek philosophy believer can be expressed in two ways: The first, which I have in contrast to the logician. already indicated, is that the scholar does not think that the layperson is entitled to an opinion about the historical Jesus. iven this role-specific nature of intellectual inquiry, we are The second is even more serious. It is that the scholar believes Gnow in a better position to return to the issue with which that the ingression of traditional Christian belief into the inquiry I began. The gulf separating the conservative Christian believer concerning the truth of the historical claims of the New Testa- and the New Testament scholar can be seen as the conflict ment tends to corrode the habits and virtues of historical judg- between two antithetical ethics of belief. Viewed from the moral ment itself. standpoint of the scholar, the issue may be put in two ways, This argument, of course, needs to be spelled out carefully, both of which are morally offensive to the conservative Chris- and I have attempted to do so elsewhere. But basically the tian believer. The first of these is that New Testament scholar- issue is this: Whereas the average person feels no subjective ship now is so specialized and requires so much preparation need to have an opinion about the Seventh Letter of Plato, the and learning that the layperson has simply been disqualified traditional Christian, by contrast, identifies faith with certain from having any right to a judgment regarding the truth or claims about the historical Jesus. The Bible is believed to be falsity of certain historical claims. In so far as the conservative divinely inspired, and this, in turn, guarantees the legitimacy of Christian believer is a layperson who has no knowledge of the all the assertions within it. To be skepticial about these claims, New Testament scholarship, he or she is simply not entitled to therefore, is to be skeptical about faith itself. It could be argued, certain historical beliefs at all. Just as the average layperson is as certain liberal Christian theologians have, that this need not scarcely in a position to have an informed judgment about the be the case, that the Christian could view the religious value of Seventh Letter of Plato, the relationship of Montezuma to the Jesus story to consist not in its historical veracity, its truth Cortez, or the authorship of the Donation of Constantine, so as fact, but in its religious content. One might argue, as the the average layperson has no right to an opinion about the theologian Paul Tillich has done, that the religious truth of the authorship of the Fourth Gospel or the trustworthiness of the New Testament consists in the understanding of life mediated Synoptics. through the picture of Jesus, whether that picture is historically This conclusion, which initially sounds so outrageous and true or not. But the Christian who believes historical proposi- arrogant, is really nothing more than the extension of the atti- tions "on faith" cannot accept this view. He or she takes an tudes of the scholarly community to its own fledgling members. "infinite interest," to use Kierkegaard's language, in the

38 FREE INQUIRY "approximation process" of historical research. But the result, as Kierkegaard pointed out, is for the believer to become "comical," that is, to be infinitely interested in that which in its Audiotapes of "Jesus in History maximum still always remains an approximation. Kierkegaard also saw, but was less interested in, the fact that this view leads and Myth" Are Now Available to fanaticism, which is to say, the corruption of historical judg- Keep a permanent record of FREE INQUIRY's ment itself, because the believer cannot be disinterested as the annual conference held on April 19 and 20, 1985, scholar must. It was just this fanaticism that repelled our at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. nineteenth-century intellectual. He believed that historical inquiry requires "subjective lightness," a methodological skep- Session #4 $8.95 Session #3 $8.95 ticism concerning sources and the testimony of alleged wit- "Introduction" Paul Kurtz "The Apocryphal Jesus, the nesses. When the Christian interjects faith or "subjective heavi- "Jesus in History" Gospel Tradition, and the R. Joseph Hoffmann, Development of ness" into the historical approximation process, it inevitably G. A. Wells, Christology" Gerald Larue, undermines what R. G. Collingwood argued was the funda- Morton Smith, Randel Helms, Robert M. mental attribute of the critical historian, skepticism regarding George Mendenhall, Grant, R. Joseph Hoffmann, testimony about the past. Paul Beattie, Robert Alley Rowan Greer But it is not only the autonomy of the historian that Session #2 88.95 Session #4 S8.95 traditional faith undermines. Christian faith, when it is identified "Historical Problems" "Theological and with specified historical beliefs, corrodes the delicate processes Vern Bullough, John Allegro, Philosophical of historical reasoning itself. The reason for this, as F. H. David Noel Freedman, Implications," Bradley once pointed out, is that all of our assertions about the John Dart, Delos B. McKown, past contain an element of judgment. Even the simplest judg- Ellis Rivkin, Tikva Antony Flew, Van Harvey, Frymer-Kensky John Hick ment about the past is far from simple but presupposes a Friday Evening Banquet S6.95—Gerald network of beliefs. In fact, we bring to every assertion what Larue, Paul Kurtz Bradley called "the formed world of our existing beliefs." Thus what we call a historical fact is really an inference, and an Save !0% by ordering the complete set. inference is justified only against the background of our critically interpreted present experience. It is against the back- Please send me the following tapes: ground of this critically interpreted experience that the historian can make all of his or her carefully modulated claims—that Session #1 $8.95 Session #3 $8.95 such and such is possible, improbable, or certain. The problem Session #2 $8.95 Session #4 58.95 with traditional Christian belief is that, in contrast to all other Banquet 86.95 texts, it sets aside our present critically interpreted experience Postage and handling S1.50 per session or 54.50 if three when it comes to interpreting the New Testament. It assumes or more sessions are ordered. that in this case alone what our critically interpreted experience Total tells us is "impossible" is not only possible but probable and certain. "Heavy" assent is given to propositions that, in the OR light of present experience, deserve only light assent if not Please send me the entire conference set. skepticism; claims with a very low degree of probability are converted into propositions that solicit heavy assent. Conse- Complete Set $38.50 quently, there is no way for the critical historian to enter into Postage and handling 55.00 the lists of argument, because the background of our common Total S43.50 beliefs that makes adjudication possible is set aside. The scholar's basic moral ideal of balanced judgment based on ❑ Cash ❑ Check evidence and argument is undermined. ❑ Visa/MasterCard: No. Exp. date The moralization of the reasoning process, like that of the political, has its own dangers of fanaticism. Of that I am aware. Every normative ideal can be the vehicle of self-righteousness Name and arrogance. But it is even more dangerous to the community to assume that how one acquires one's beliefs is simply a matter of individual taste. And for that remnant few for whom the Address nineteenth-century ideal still reigns, certain words of Nietzsche still possess a measure of moral nobility. The "wrestle for truth," City State Zip Nietzsche wrote, "requires greatness of soul: the service of truth is the hardest service. What does it mean, after all, to have integrity in matters of the spirit? That one is severe against Return to: FREE INQUIRY one's heart, that one despise `beautiful sentiment,' that one Central Park Station • Box 5 • Buffalo, NY 14215 makes of every Yes and No a matter of conscience." •

Fall 1985 39 A Liberal Christian View

John Hick

ost readers of FREE INQUIRY I presume would a label not only for people who believe that the universe is describe themselves as secular humanists. This article God's creation but also for those who insist that biological Mis written from a somewhat different point of view, evolution has not occurred. I too am a creationist in the sense that of a Christian. I started out a long time ago as a very that I believe that the universe is God's creation, but I believe conservative Christian—indeed, a fundamentalist Christian, that God's creative work is progressive and continuous and though I have grown out of that. But I think it worthwhile to that biological evolution is a part of it. And so I am sorry that say that the fundamentalist wing within Christianity does serve the word creation has become linked with the obscurantist an important purpose. Fundamentalism, or extreme conserva- rejection of evolution. The kind of creationism that I and other tive evangelicalism, can be an important phase through which liberal Christians espouse is neither scientific nor antiscientific. to pass, though not a good one in which to get stuck. The The purview of science only goes back some fifteen billion conservative evangelicals do have the zeal to sometimes jolt years to the big bang. And, if the big bang should turn out to young people out of an unthinking, self-centered materialism, have been an absolute beginning, then science has nothing to and this can be very good. What is not good, of course, is for say beyond it, though of course religion does. people to remain in that mold and become not simply enthusi- Now let us turn to the Jesus of history. Was there a first- astic young evangelicals but retarded adult ones. century person called Jesus or Joshua ben Joseph who was the From the liberal Christian standpoint, which I now occupy, founder of the Christian religion? This question of course has I would like to ask two questions in connection with the subject the rider that, if there was, he did not intend to found the of Jesus in history and myth. The two questions are: What do Christian religion, since he believed that the end of the present the liberal Christian and the secular humanist have in common? age and the present order of history was going to come very And where do we part company? We have in common, first, soon. He could not possibly have had any idea of founding a an opposition to the so-called creationists who are trying to religion that was to exist for twenty centuries, or indeed for turn the clock back in the teaching of science in the schools, one century. But the idea that there never was such a person and also an opposition to the people who are trying to impose goes back, I suppose, some one hundred and fifty years and Christian worship in the schools. So far as I am concerned, has not been persuasive to more than a very small minority of this opposition is in the interests not only of secularists but those who have studied the matter carefully. Its status among also of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, et al. This is a historians is no higher than, and I would think in fact lower pluralistic country, and for that reason, quite apart from any than, the theory among Elizabethan historians that Francis other, there ought not to be required Christian worship in the Bacon wrote the plays of Shakespeare. And, if I might offer a nation's schools. piece of friendly advice—and it is meant as genuinely friendly I spoke of the creationists. Notice how tricky language is. advice—to the secular humanist movement, it would be: Don't It seems to me a shame that the word "creationist" has become identify too closely with this kind of eccentric view. For the theory that Jesus never existed is not really a very probable one; and, further, the issue is, to say the least, not today at the cutting edge of research concerning Christian origins. And I would extend the same advice to seeing the Dead John Hick, professor of Sea Scrolls as a stick with which to beat Christianity. The systematic theology at the Dead Sea Scrolls are enormously important; but primarily, it Claremont School of The- would seem, in enlarging our understanding of the varieties of ology, is the author of The first-century Judaism. The idea that they have transformed the Philosophy of Religion and understanding of Christianity so as somehow to discredit it is editor of The Myth of God not easy to sustain. Incarnate. The Nag Hammadi find is also extremely important, particularly it would seem for the understanding of the develop-

40 FREE INQUIRY ment of Christianity beyond the New Testament period. I teach Now this original, biblical "son of God" language is entirely at the Claremont Graduate School. Let me blow a little trumpet innocent, so to speak, entirely acceptable and understandable here for that institution. It was there, as those who have worked in the context of the ancient Near East. We use the metaphor with the Nag Hammadi material know, that these texts have today in an extended form when we say, for example, that all been worked upon, translated, and edited by my colleague human beings are children of God. This is a metaphorical way James Robinson and his team. of saying that all human beings are valued by God. But the fateful development that created what was to become orthodox o I really think that we are stuck, whether we like it or Christian belief for many centuries occurred when this poetry Snot, with the figure of the historical Jesus. Of course we do hardened into prose and the metaphorical son of God, with a not see him directly, but through thick layers of first-, second-, small s, was transmuted into the metaphysical God the Son, and third-generation Christian faith. Some very interesting with a capital S. The philosophers then developed the explana- papers have appeared that have pointed out the various theo- tory theory that Jesus had two complete natures, one human logical and sociological interests that entered into the growth and the other divine, and that in his divine nature he was of and transmission of the New Testament tradition. It is clear, I the same substance as God the Father, while in his human think, that what we have is not just straight reporting but nature he was of the same substance as humanity. remembering in faith, with all the differences that faith makes to the remembering. But nevertheless it has been possible to "What do the liberal Christian and the secular give an approximate date to most of the documents, to set them in a probable chronological order, and to observe certain humanist have in common? And where do we part trajectories in the growth of the tradition. And when you have company?" a documented forward trajectory you can to some extent reverse it and extrapolate back to the starting point. You have to do Now I hold, as do many liberal Christians today, that a this very cautiously. You can do it only to a limited extent. But Christian does not have to accept those philosophical and theo- the growth of the tradition does seem to point back to a logical theories of the third and fourth centuries. I think that historical person who was Jesus. we can base our Christianity upon Jesus' teachings concerning We can say that Jesus lived in the first third of the first the reality and love and claim of God, and upon the love ethic century and that he was a Jew—indeed, his Jewishness is that has developed out of it. This provides a framework for life becoming more and more fully recognized. He was evidently a regardless of how much or how little detail we know for sure charismatic preacher and healer. And it would seem, from the about Jesus' life. cluster of stories and parables and sayings that are associated Christianity has, like every other religion, developed its with his name, that he must have had an extraordinarily intense own mythology. This mythology is at its height in the beautiful and compelling sense of the reality and presence of God; also imagery that centers around the festivals of Christmas and that he expected God's kingdom to come very soon on earth, Easter. And I would suggest that mythology is not necessarily wiping away the whole present order of society. And, further- a bad thing; it is not to be scorned. Indeed, there is today a more, in the parables and sayings that are attributed to him, rediscovery of the value of myth in human life. A considerable there is a very strong emphasis upon self-giving love, agape. literature is growing up about its positive uses. Myths are not Furthermore, it seems clear that some of his disciples had literally true, but they may nevertheless be mythologically true; visions of him after his death. And when his followers, going that is to say, they may evoke in the hearer practical dispositions out in the enthusiasm of the transformed life that had come that are appropriate to the ultimate subject matter of the myth. upon them, tried to make his existence meaningful to others They may be a good way of communicating the claim of the they clutched at images that were there—floating, so to speak, transcendent upon us. in the air of their culture. There was the image of the son of Having said that Christianity provides a good framework man of Danielic phrophecy, who was to come again in clouds for the religious life, I do not go on to say that it provides a of glory, and there was the image of the Messiah. However, it better framework than is provided by Rabbinic Judaism, or does not seem very probable that Jesus applied either of these Islam, or Hinduism, or Buddhism, and so on. Rather, for images, or any other titles, to himself; rather, other people many of us it is the framework into which we were born, which came to apply them to him. has therefore formed us in its own image, and which accordingly Negatively—and this is very important—it seems pretty suits us better than a framework that is alien to us. Accord- clear that Jesus did not present himself as being God incarnate. ingly, I do not seek to convert people of the other great world He did not present himself as the second person of a divine religions to Christianity, though I would be very happy if I trinity leading a human life. If in his lifetime he was called "son could convert secular humanists to any one of the great world of God," as is entirely possible, it would be in the metaphorical religions—whichever one happened to be most suitable to the sense that was familiar in the ancient world. In this sense, particular individual, because they all provide windows onto kings, emperors, pharaohs, wise men, and charismatic religious the transcendent. They all lead to what religion is ultimately all leaders were very freely called sons of God, meaning that they about, namely, the transformation of human existence from were close to God, in the spirit of God, that they were servants self-centeredness to Reality-centeredness. and instruments of God. The ancient Hebrew kings were regu- Having referred to the other great world religions, let me larly enthroned as son of God in this metaphorical sense. mention a parallel between the historical Jesus, known as the

Fall 1985 41 Messiah or the Christ, and the historical Gautama, known as Christianity with the modern world. The contemporary issues the Buddha. It occurs to me that it would be quite possible for in the philosophy of religion are very different from those of someone to come along and question the existence of the the eighteenth century. They include such topics as the episte- historical Buddha. It would be possible to suggest that maybe mology and sociology of knowledge, and the place of interpre- there was no such person; certainly one cannot strictly prove tation, and thus of faith, in all world-views and also in historical that there was. But, just as the trajectories of the physical knowledge; the study of interesting developments in contem- universe, when you follow them backward, lead to the postu- porary scientific cosmology; the problem of the apparently con- lated big bang, so the trajectories of Buddhist development flicting truth-claims of the different world religions; the episte- lead back to the spiritual big bang of a man who had attained mological question of foundationalism; fascinating new forms enlightenment; and so also the trajectories of Christian develop- of the ontological argument; the application of Bayesian proba- ment point back to the spiritual big bang of a man who was bility theory to theism; the encounter between Christianity and overwhelmingly conscious of the dynamic presence of God. Marxism. These are some of the live issues today; and there And I think that it is religiously important that we know some- are so many live issues that there seems to me no need to thing, even if something rather general and minimal, about the continue to spend a lot of time on dead ones. lives of Gautama and Jesus. It adds something important to Let me end by asking: If one takes this kind of liberal the Buddhist message of the transcendence of ego to know that Christian stance, is one still a Christian? Well, if you see this man Gautama, who attained that total transcendence of Christianity as a body of propositions that have to be the same ego that is nirvana, did not then retreat from the world to in the twentieth century as they were in the fourth century, enjoy this bliss but spent the next forty years of his life stren- then probably not. But of course Christianity has never been as uously traveling around India teaching other people, helping unchanging and monolithic as both conservative believers and them to attain to that which is beyond the ego state. Thus, if conservative unbelievers like to think. It has always been an we knew nothing about the man who gave the teaching, we actively developing tradition. And it has always been internally would be impoverished. And, likewise, it seems to me that it pluralistic. Even in the earliest period there was a plurality of adds something important to the Christian message of the Christologies. There are different trajectories moving out of the reality and love of God, and of the claim of love upon all New Testament, and today, with the collapse, or partial col- human life, to know that the person who so powerfully taught lapse, of ecclesiastical authority, these differences are flourishing this lived, as did Gautama, in relative poverty, that he gave his again. time and energies to others, and that he was willing to accept But I think it is noticeable that some secular humanists the rather grisly death that came to him. would rather like Christians to stick with the ancient, out- dated forms of Christianity that arose in long-past phases of everting now to the role of one giving friendly advice, in Western culture. They want us to hold as absurd beliefs as Rwhich I suggested that secular humanism should not possible, presumably because then it is much easier to fight become the last refuge of eccentric theories about Jesus, I also against these beliefs. But I suggest that they would do better want to suggest that secular humanists should not spend too not to join the fundamentalists in trying to deny to Christians much time fighting yesterday's battles. It was, for example, the right to go on thinking, developing their tradition in the back in the eighteenth century that the argument from miracles light of modern knowledge and in relation to the contemporary to the truth of Christianity was flourishing. Today it can no world. So my final piece of friendly advice to secular humanists doubt be found among some of our evangelical brethren, but it is to avoid the tempting role of the fundamentalist disbeliever does not play a large part in the ongoing encounter of who aligns with the fundamentalist believer in trying to stop the process of Christian development. And I end, literally now, with a footnote about the Bishop RELIGION AND SOCIETY IN INDIA of Durham, David Jenkins. You may perhaps know, and it is this that makes news about the bishop particularly significant, by A. B. SHAH that he ranks fourth among the Anglican bishops in England, after the archbishops of Canterbury and York and the bishop A collection of 13 thought provoking of London. Of course it is a delightful joke that he said that he essays on a wide range of subjects did not believe in Christianity and then proceeded to attack Margaret Thatcher for being un-Christian. But I imagine that Obscurantism in India Meaning of Secularism your common sense has already told you that that can't be for India- Cow slaughter and Hinduism Tradition and Modernity in India- Islam and literally true. What he denied was the physical virgin birth. He Humanism Why a Uniform Civil Code? etc. said that it has symbolic significance but is not a literal physio- logical fact. He also denied the bodily resurrection of Jesus, Hard Cover. Pp. 227 Price $12.00 Post-free saying that Jesus lived beyond death, but not in a physical sense. Now it takes a fundamentalist, whether a Christian one or an anti-Christian one, to conclude that in saying this the INDIAN SECULAR SOCIETY bishop was disavowing Christianity. Personally, I think that he 850/8A Shivajinagar, Pune 411 004 was right in what he said about the virgin birth and the resurrection, and also in what he said about Mrs. Thatcher! •

42 FREE INQUIRY BIBLICAL SCORECARD Are the Ten Commandments Original and Unique? Tom Francyzk

he Ten Commandments are Honor you father and your murder.... I have not committed Tafforded an esteemed position in mother, that your days may be long adultery.... I have not stolen.... Western civilization. Modified ver- in the land which the Lord your I have told no lies.... I have not sions can be found adorning public God gives you. lusted.... buildings, and the Decalogue was cited You shall not kill. when proclaiming 1983 "The Year of You shall not commit adultery. The Egyptian verses were recited the Bible" in the United States. The You shall not steal. at funerary rites long before Moses You shall not bear false witness general public thinks the "Ten" are was born. All evidence aside, it is more against your neighbor. original and unique to the Bible. Bible You shall not covet your likely that the dominant Egyptian apologists perpetuate this myth, while neighbor's house; you shall not civilization would have influenced the theologians do little or nothing to covet your neighbor's wife, or his relatively primitive Hebrew tribes, dispel it, though many of them know manservant, or his maidservant, or rather than the converse. (Can you better. Since most people know only his ox, or his ass, or anything that imagine Moses going back to tell the modified versions, here is the is your neighbor's. [Exod. 20:2-17; Pharoah what he found on Mount Decalogue as written in the Revised a slightly different and longer ver- Sinai?) Standard Version of the Bible: sion can be found in Deut. 5:6-21.] Egypt was not the only major civilization to influence the Hebrew I am the Lord your God, who It is easy to see where the empha- tribes. Babylonian culture considerably brought you out of the land of sis lies and why the modified versions changed Hebrew religious thought, Egypt, out of the house of bondage. are more popular. Wives have attained especially during the exile. Among the You shall have no other gods before a status considerably higher than many similarities between Torah and me. houses, slaves, oxen, asses, or other the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi You shall not make for your- property; now they cannot be coveted self a graven image, or any likeness (circa 1700 B.C.E.) is a picture at the of anything that is in heaven above, in a separate commandment. Few top of the Hammurabi stele that shows or that is in the earth beneath, or people hear of a jealous god or know the king receiving the Law from the that is in the water under the earth; of the "second" commandment's curse god Shamash much as Moses received you shall not bow down to them on future generations for the sins of a the Law from Yahweh. Which legend or serve them; for I the Lord your father—a curse later refuted by the are we to believe, the later Hebrew God am a jealous God [jealous of prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel (Jer. story or it's predecessor? Of course other gods?], visiting the iniquity 31:29-30; Ezek. 18:19-20). Back to the there is a third possibility: Both fables of the fathers upon the children to main point. were concocted to establish patriarchal the third and the fourth generation The Ten Commandments authority—if it worked for the Baby- of those who hate me, but showing achieved their written form in the steadfast love to thousands of those lonians, why not for the Hebrews? The B.C.E., who love me and keep my com- Torah circa 450 although oral, biblical legend of the Flood has a mandments. possibly also written, tradition of the parallel in the Sumerian "Epic of You shall not take the name Decalogue may go back to 1000 B.C.E. Gilgamesh" (circa 3100 B.C.E.), which of the Lord your God in vain; for Even if the legend of Moses is true reached the Hebrews through Baby- the Lord will not hold him guiltless and he supernaturally "received" them lon. But that is a topic for another who takes his name in vain. during the Exodus, this could not have "Scorecard." Remember the sabbath day, to occurred before 1280 B.C.E., during the The "Biblical Scorecard" does not keep it •holy. Six days you shall nineteenth Egyptian dynasty. The claim that the ancient Hebrew scribes labor, and do all your work; but "Negative Confessions" of the Egyptian consciously adapted Egyptian or the seventh day is a sabbath to the Book of the Dead appear in the Papy- Lord your God; in it you shall not Babylonian scriptures to suit "the Lord do any work, you, or your son, or rus of Ani, which is dated circa 1450 their God," although that is a possi- your daughter, your manservant, or B.C.E., during the eighteenth dynasty. bility. There is no doubt, however, that your maidservant, or your cattle, Oral and written tradition date some the Hebrew tribes were greatly influ- or the sojourner who is within your form of the "Confessions" to the earli- enced by the "higher" civilizations that gates; for in six days the Lord made est dynastic period (circa 2700 B.C.E.). surrounded and dominated them. heaven and earth, the sea, and all There is no doubt that the Book of The history of religion is the same that is in them, and rested on the the Dead predates the Torah! From as history in general; it follows a cin- seventh day; therefore the Lord E. A. Wallis Budge's translation of tinuum. Anyone who claims that the blessed the sabbath day and hal- Ani's papyrus, we have the following Ten Commandments (or the Bible) are lowed it. passages: original and unique hasn't read other scriptures. Hail to thee, great god, lord of the right and truth.... I have not Author's note: The dates given Tom Franczyk is co-editor of the plundered god.... I have never above are commonly accepted by most Secular Humanist Bulletin. cursed god.... I have not minished scholars. Although some of these dates oblations.... I have not committed are disputed, the chronology is not. • See What You've Missed In Past Issues of FREE INQUIRY Use reply card attached to order back issues

Summary of major artides: Winter 1980/81 — Vol. I, no. I: Secular Humanist Declaration. Democratic Summer 1983—Special 68-page issue — Vol. 3, no. 3: Religion in American Humanism, Sidney Hook. Humanism: Secular or Religious? Paul Beattie. politics Symposium: Is America a Judeo-Christian Republic? Paul Kurtz. Free Thought, Gordon Stein. The Fundamentalist Right, William Ryan. The First Amendment and Religious Liberty, Sen. Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., The Moral Majority, So! Gordon. The Creation/ Evolution Controversy, Sam J. Ervin, Jr., Leo Pfeffer. Secular Roots of the American Political H. James Birx. Moral Education, Robert Hall. Morality Without Religion, System, Henry Steele Commager, Daniel J. Boorstin, Robert Rutland, Marvin Kohl, Joseph Fletcher. Freedom Is Frightening, Roy P. Fairfield. Richard B. Morris, Michael Novak. The Bible in Politics, Gerald Larue, The Road to Freedom, Mihajlo Mihajlov. Robert S. Alley, James M. Robinson. Bibliography for Biblical Study. Spring 1981 — Vol. I, no. 2: The Secular Humanist Declaration: Pro and Fall 1983 — Vol. 3, no. 4: The Academy of Humanism. The Future of Con, John Roche, Sidney Hook, Phyllis Schley, Gina Allen, Roscoe Humanism, Paul Kurtz. Humanist Self-Portraits, Brand Blanshard, Barbara Drummond, Lee Nisbet, Patrick Buchanan, Paul Kurtz. New England Wootton, Joseph Fletcher, Sir Raymond Firth, Jean-Claude Pecker. Inter- Puritans and the Moral Majority, George Marshall. The Pope on Sex, Vern view with Paul MacCready. A Personal Humanist Manifesto, Vern Bu!- Bullough. On the Way to Mecca, Thomas Szasz. The Blasphemy Laws, lough. The Enduring Humanist Legacy of Greece, Marvin Perry. The Age Gordon Stein. The Meaning of Life, Marvin Kohl. Does God Exist? Kai of Unreason, Thomas Vernon. Apoca lypse Soon, Daniel Cohen. 0n the Nielsen. Prophets of the Procrustean Collective, Antony Flew. The Madrid Sesquicentennial of Robert G. Ingersoll, Frank Smith. The Historicity of Conference, Stephen Fenichel!. Natural Aristocracy, Lee Nisbet. Jesus, John Priest, D. R. Oppenheimer, G. A. Wells. Summer 1981 — Vol. 1, no. 3: Sex Education, Peter Scales Thomas Szasz. Winter 1983/84 — Vol. 4, no. 1: Interview with B. F. Skinner. Was George Moral Education, Howard Rodest. Teen-age Pregnancy, Vern Bullough. Orwell a Humanist? Antony Flew. Population Control vs. Freedom in The New Book-Burners, William Ryan. The Moral Majority, Gerald Larue. China, Vern and Bonnie Bullough. Academic Freedom at Liberty Baptist Liberalism, Edward Ericson. Scientific Creationism, Delos McKown. New College, Lynn Ridenhour. Special Feature on the Mormon Church: Joseph Evidence on the Shroud of Turin, Joe Nickell. Agnosticism, H. J. Blackham. Smith and the Book of Mormon, George D. Smith; The History of Mor- Science and Religion, George Tomashevich. Secular Humanism in Israel, monism and Church Authorities: Interview with Sterling M. McMurrin. Isaac Hasson. Anti-Science: The Irrationalist Vogue of the 1970s, Lewis Feuer. The End Fall 1981 — Vol. I, no. 4: The Thunder of Doom, Edward P. Morgan. of the Galilean Cease-Fire? James Hansen. Who Really Killed Goliath? Secular Humanists: Threat or Menace? Art Buchwald. Financing of the Gerald A. Larue. Humanism in Norway: Strategies for Growth, Levi Fragell. Repressive Right, Edward Roeder. Communism and American Intellectuals, Spring 1984 — Vol. 4, no. 2: Christian Science Practitioners and Legal Sidney Hook. A Symposium on the Future of Religion, Daniel Bell, Joseph Protection for Children, Rita Swan; Child Abuse and Neglect in Ultra- Fletcher, William Sims Bainbridge, Paul Kurtz. Resurrection Fictions, fundamentalist Cults and Sects, Lowell Streiker. The Foundations of Reli- Randel Helms. gious Liberty and Democracy: A Symposium, Carl Henry, Paul Kunz, Winter 1981/82 — Vol. 2, no. 1: The Importance of Critical Discussion, Father Ernest Fortin, Lee Nisbet. Joseph Fletcher, Richard Taylor. Biblical Karl Popper. Freedom and Civilization, Ernest Nagel. Humanism: The Con- Views of Sex: Blessing or Handicap? Jeffrey J. W. Baker. Moral Absolutes science of Humanity, Konstantin Kolenda. Secularism in Islam, Nazih N. and Foreign Policy, Nicholas Capaldi. The Vatican Ambassador, Edd Doerr. M. Ayubi. Humanism in the 1980s, Paul Beattie. The Effect of Education A Naturalistic Basis for Morality, John Kekes. Humanist Self-Portraits, on Religious Faith, Burnham P. Beckwith. Matthew les Speller, Floyd Matson, Richard Kostelanetz. Spring 1982 — Vol. 2, no. 2: A Call for the Critical Examination of the Summer 1984—Special 68-page issue — Vol. 4, no. 3: School Prayer, Paul Bible and Religion. Interview with Isaac Asimov on Science and the Bible, Kurtz, Ronald A. Lindsay, Patrick J. Buchanan, Mark Twain. Science vs. Paul Kurtz. The Continuing Monkey War, L. Sprague de Camp. The Religion in Future Constitutional Conflicts, Delos B. McKown. God and Erosion of Evolution, Antony Flew. The Religion of Secular Humanism: A the Professors, Sidney Hook. Armageddon and Biblical Apocalyptic, Paul Judicial Myth, Leo Pfeffer. Humanism as an American Heritage, Nicholas Kurtz, Joseph Edward Barnhart, Vern L. Bullough, Randel Helms, Gerald E. Gier. The Nativity Legends, Rande! Helms. Norman Podhoretz's Neo- A. Larue, John Priest, James Robinson, Robert S. Alley. Is the U.S. Puritanism, Lee Nisbet. Humanist Movement in a State of Collapse? John Dart. Summer 1982—Special 72-page issue — Vol. 2, no. 3: A Symposium on Fall 1984 — Vol. 4, no. 4: Humanist Author Attacked, Phyllis Schlajly, Sol Science, the Bible, and Darwin: The Bible Re-examined, Robert S. Alley, Gordon. Humanists vs. Christians in Milledgeville, Georgia, Kenneth S. Gerald Larue, John Priest, Ronde! Helms. Darwin, Evolution, and Crea- Saladin. Suppression and Censorship in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church: tionism, Philip Appleman, William V. Mayer, Charles Cazeau, H. James Ellen White's Habit, Douglas Hackleman; Who Profits from the Prophet? Birx, Garrett Hardin, Sol Tax, Antony Flew. Ethics and Religion, Joseph Walter Rea. Keeping the Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls, John M. Allegro. Fletcher, Richard Taylor, Kai Nielsen, Paul Beattie. Science and Religion, Health Superstition, Rodger Pirnie Doyle. Humanism in Africa: Paradox Michael Novak, Joseph L. Blau. and Illusion, Paul Kurtz. Humanism in South Africa, Don Sergeant. Fall 1982 — Vol. 2, no. 4: An Interview with Sidney Hook at Eighty, Paul Winter 1984/85 — Vol. 5, no. 2: Are American Educational Reforms Kurtz. Sidney Hook: A Personal Portrait, Nicholas Capaldi. The Religion Doomed? Delos B. McKown. The Door-to-Door Crusade of the Jehovah's and Biblical Criticism Research Project, Gerald Larue. Biblical Criticism Witnesses: The Apocalypticism of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Lois Randle; and Its Discontents, R. Joseph Hoffmann. Boswell Confronts Hume: An The Watchtower, Laura Lage. Sentiment, Guilt, and Reason in the Manage- Encounter with the Great Infidel, Joy Frieman. Humanism and Politics, ment of Wild Herds, Garrett Hardin. Animal Rights Re-evaluated, James James R. Simpson, Larry Briskman. Humanism and the Politics of Nostal- Simpson. Elmina Slenker: Infidel and Atheist, Edward D. Jervey: Sym- gia, Paul Kunz. Abortion and Morality, Richard Taylor. posium: Humanism Is a Religion, Archie J. Bahm; Humanism Is a Philoso- phy, Thomas S. Vernon; Humanism: An Affirmation of Life, Andre Bacard. Winter 1982/83 — Vol. 3, no. I: 1983—The Year of the Bible. Academic Freedom Under Assault in California, Barry Singer, Nicholas P Hardeman, Spring 1985 — Vol. 5, no. 3: Update on the Shroud of Turin, Joe Nickell. Vern Bullough. The Play Ethic, Robert Rimmer. Interview with Corliss The Vatican's View of Sex, Robert T. Francoeur. An Interview with E. 0. Lamont. Was Jesus a Magician? Morton Smith. Astronomy and the "Star Wilson, Jeffrey Saver. Religion and Parapsychology: Parapsychology: The of Bethlehem," Gerald Larue. Living with Deep Truths in a Divided World, "Spiritual" Science, James E. Alcock; Science, Religion and the Paranormal, Sidney Hook. Anti-Science: The Strange Case of Paul Feyerabend, Martin John Beloff. The Legacy of Voltaire (Part I), Paul Edwards. The Origins of Gardner. Christianity, R. Joseph Hoffmann. Spring 1983 — Vol. 3, no. 2: The Founding Fathers and Religious Liberty, Summer 1985 — Vol. 5, no. 3: Finding Common Ground Between Believers Robert S. Alley. Madison's Legacy Endangered, Edd Doerr. James Madi- and Unbelievers, Paul Kurtz. Render Unto Jesus the Things That Are son's Dream: A Secular Republic, Robert A. Rutland. The Murder of Jesus', Robert S. Alley. Jesus in Time and Space, Gerald A. Larue. Interview Hypatia of Alexandria, Robert E. Mohar. Hannah Arendt: The Modern with Sidney Hook on China, Marxism, and Human Freedom. Evangelical Seer, Richard Kostelanetz. Was Karl Marx a Humanist? articles by Sidney Agnosticism, William Henry Young. To Refuse to Be a God, Khoren Hook, Jan Narveson, and Paul Kurtz. Arisian. The Legacy of Voltaire (Part II), Paul Edwards. Greece, and all of northern Europe, operated on a solar calendar, with the new year starting on the winter solstice. When The Winter Solstice the Romans invaded Greece in the fifth century B.C.E., they realized the advantages and the Origins of Christmas of a solar calendar. In 153 B.C.E., New Year's Day was moved to January first, since Janus was the two-face god of doorways and new beginnings. Lee Carter Finally, in 46 B.C.E., Julius Caesar switched from a lunar to a solar calendar. He divided the year into 365 and one-quarter very December we experience the seasons. When the Northern Hemisphere tilts days, with twelve "moons," or months, all FJgreatest media blitz of nonsense and toward the sun, we have summer here in of which had either 30 or 31 days, except balderdash outside of a presidential election. America, while those in the Southern February, which had 28—and 29 every Newspapers and broadcasters repeat their Hemisphere are having winter, and so on. fourth year. New Year's Day was still on obligatory editorials about the deplorable From our point of view, as summer January first. "commercialization" of Christmas. They approaches the sun comes up a little earlier The major festival of the year in ancient moan that "we seem to have lost the true each morning, moves a little farther north Rome was called the "Saturnalia," and it meaning of Christmas and perverted it into each noon, and sets a little later each centered around the winter solstice. When a pagan holiday," and so on. evening. Finally, at some point, the sun stops the Julian calendar was first devised, the The pope prays for peace. Charlie its northward migration and turns around solstice fell on December 21. But the Julian Brown again goes in search of the "true and begins heading south for the winter. calendar had an error of eleven minutes. meaning" of Christmas. Tiny Tim again When the sun reaches the northernmost The year is actually 365 days, 6 hours, 11 leads old Scrooge on the path to righteous- apogee, that is called the summer solstice: minutes and a few seconds. So by the third ness. And we are treated to the further and it is the longest day of the year. The century C.E. the solstice had crept forward adventures of Rudolph, the Littlest Angel, word solstice comes from two ancient words; to December 24. The Saturnalia was always the Grinch, and the Little Drummer Boy. If Sol, which was the name of a sun god, and held during the week preceding the solstice. Christmas had not existed, Walt Disney slice, which meant "still." So it is the day So by the third century, the festival was would have created it. when the sun stands still. The winter solstice, being held from December 17 to 24. We have been told hundreds of times therefore, is the shortest day of the year. It At this time, the emperor Aurelian that Christmas is a celebration of the begin- naturally follows that midway between the established an official holiday called "Sol ning of Christianity and that it all started summer and winter solstices, there comes a Invicti"—meaning unconquered sun, in on the evening of December 24, exactly one time when days and nights are equal in honor of the Syrian sun god, "Sol," and thousand, nine hundred and eighty-five years length. And these are called the equinoxes. also in honor of himself, since the emperors ago, in a stable in the little town of "Equi" means "equal"; and "nox" means were regarded as the divine incarnation of Bethlehem—and everything will be slanted "nights." These celestial points give the year Apollo. This holiday was held on December to convey the impression that Eyewitness four corners. It takes about six weeks for 24 and 25. And it more or less established News was there to cover it. changes in the sun's position to have an December 25 as the official solstice. All other There isn't a word of truth in any of effect on the weather systems of the world. religions that worshipped sun gods also this mythology. So how did this winter cele- So, instead of the winter solstice marking accepted December 25 as a fixed date for bration called "Christmas" actually come the middle of winter, it is used to designate their celebrations. And the major festivals about? the beginning of cold weather. The vernal of the Egyptian earth-mother, Isis, were held If it didn't originate nineteen-hundred equinox marks the beginning of the spring on December 25, January 6, and March 5. and eighty-five years ago, when did Christ- thaw. The summer solstice marks the begin- The earliest Christians assumed that Christ mas start? It goes all the way back to the ning of hot weather, and the autumnal equi- was born and was resurrected on the same formation of our solar system. It just hap- nox marks the beginning of harvest. day—March 25—which was assumed to be pens that our little planet—the third one Ancient people were very dependent on the vernal equinox. Later Christians cele- out from a minor star named Sol—spins on the seasons. That is why all cultures in all brated the birth of Christ on January 6, an axis that's tilted at a slight angle to its parts of the world have held their major along with the festival of Isis. By the fourth orbital plane around the sun. This means religious festivals on these four occasions. century, many Christians were referring to that for half of the orbit the upper half of December 25 as the day of the "unconquered the planet faces the sun, and during the other n the days of the Roman republic, the son"—spelled S-O-N—in defiance of the half of the orbit the lower half faces the Icalendar was numbered from the found- emperor, and January 6 was then called sun. This causes our solar year to have four ing of Rome—which, according to the "Epiphany," when either the magi were sup- present calendar, would be 753 B.C.E. And posed to have visited or Christ was baptized, March 15, called the Ides of March, was or maybe both. Lee Carter teaches Theater Arts and Mass designated as New Year's Day. However, In 325 C.E. which is when the Catholic Communications in Los Angeles. This arti- this was a lunar calendar rather than a solar church was officially organized, it decreed cle is adapted from two of a series of radio calendar; so the months rotated throughout that the resurrection of Christ was deter- programs Dr. Carter wrote for KPFK-FM the year. One year March 15 might be in mined by the vernal equinox—which is still in Los Angeles. the summer, and a few years later it would celebrated today as "Easter," named after be in the winter. the goddess of spring. In 350, Pope Julius I

Fall 1985 45 There isn't a word of truth in any of the traditional mythology. So how did this winter celebration called "Christmas" actually come about?

decreed that the nativity should be celebrated biblical accounts. There is the Muslim calen- the bonfire, however. He was either cruci- on the same day as all other sun gods, dar, dated from the time Muhammad left fied, hanged, or beheaded. namely, December 25. But many churches the city of Mecca. And future calendars may In Egypt, the death and the resurrection did not want to be associated with the pagan well be dated from the time we first set foot of Osiris were celebrated during the solstice religions; and to this day the Eastern Ortho- on the moon. by leaving gifts in the tombs of the dead. dox church celebrates the birth of Christ on They also brought date-palms into their January 7—the day after Epiphany. n view of the connection between the homes to symbolize the theme of life trium- New Year's has been celebrated at every solstice and the new solar year, it became phant. time of the year by various cultures. Months obvious that the babe in the manger and In Central America, the pre-Columbian have varied in number and length. And the babe in the diaper with a New Year's Aztecs had an interesting recipe for Christ- weeks have varied from four days to ten banner around his chest are really the mas cookies. They were not made for chil- days in different cultures. same—a symbol of the reborn sun-god. The dren, but of children! For their New Year In the fourth century, Emperor Con- sun god was always the most important in celebration, they made up a huge fruitcake stantine established our seven-day week— any polytheistic culture, and the winter mixed with the blood of children who had based on Jewish tradition. solstice always marked his death and resur- been sacrificed to the sun god. They made In the sixth century, Pope John counted rection, or rebirth. Some of the major gods this cake in the shape of a life-sized man backward to the presumed date of Christ's who celebrated their birthdays on December representing the sun-god, named Huitzilo- birth, calculated from the reign of Pontius 25 were Marduk, Osiris, Horus, Isis, Mithra, pochli. On the solstice, the symbolic god- Pilate, and renumbered all the years in Saturn, Sol, Apollo, Serapis, and Huitzilo- figure was then torn apart and eaten, some- history as B.C. and A.D. The year 753 A.U.C. pochli. what like the Christian "eucharist" cere- (ab urbe condita, meaning after the founding In Mesopotamia, Marduk was the chief mony. of Rome) was then called A.D. 1. B.C. and god. He was a sun god who battled against In northern Europe, the Druids and A.D. are now being replaced, at least by secu- the forces of cold and darkness. The world Vikings built huge bonfires on hilltops. The larists, by B.C.E. ("before the common era") had to be renewed each year. So a new king purpose was to give additional strength to and C.E. ("of the common era"). was supposed to assume the throne each the sun god in his nightly battle with the Throughout the early Middle Ages, year—this new king would be free from sin. forces of cold and darkness. When the sun most of Europe disregarded Roman practices In theory, the old king was killed and finally did come up a little earlier on the and continued to start the year with the sent to the underworld to help Marduk in day after the solstice, there was a great cele- equinox—March 25. England, however, the battle. But, in practice, a good king was bration. retained the practice of starting the year on hard to find. So a criminal was selected as a In Rome, the most popular religion the solstice—December 25. surrogate sacrifice. among soldiers during the time of Julius By 1582, the eleven-minute error in the During the end-of-the-year festivities, Ceasar was called "Mithraism." According Julian calendar had thrown the year ten days they recited their creation myth. Then they to their holy books, Mithras killed the cos- out of sync with the sun, which was very held military exercises symbolizing the great mic white bull. When he did so, the bull upsetting to the Catholic church, since the battle that was going on between the sun became the moon, and the Mithrá s cloak calendar determined all their feast days. At and the forces of darkness. Their surrogate became the night sky and stars. The blood that time, the pope was the most powerful king was crowned and accorded all the of the bull gave birth to all life on earth. person in the world. So Pope Gregory had honors of royalty. But, on the day of the After the creation, Mithras withdrew the authority to establish his "Gregorian" solstice, both the surrogate king and an to heaven until he returned as a savior to calendar. He deleted ten days from that year, effigy of the god of darkness were burned in mankind. The "Acts of Thomas," the which pushed the solstice back to December a huge bonfire. "Oracles of Hystaspes," and the "Chronicle 21 once again. But, by then, the connections After the bonfire, the people exchanged of Zugnin" are books that tell the story of with Christmas had long since been forgot- gifts, held feasts, and visited friends and Mithras. They tell how a star fell from the ten, so it remained on December 25. Then relatives. This was called the "Zagmuk" sky when Mithras was born, how shepherds Gregory modified the rule about how often festival. witnessed the birth, and how Zoroastrian leap-year must occur so the calendar The Persians and Babylonians held a priests, called "Magi," followed the star to wouldn't drift out of sync again. The similar celebration, which they called the worship him. The priests had prophesied the Gregorian calendar also retained the Italian "sacaea." The main difference was that coming of a savior for many years; so they tradition of January first as New Year's Day. masters and slaves all exchanged roles. For brought golden crowns to the newborn England and America finally accepted the one day, the slaves were allowed to com- "King of Kings." The shepherds told them Gregorian calendar in 1752. mand, and the masters obeyed. And, in that a blinding beam of light came down The Christian calendar, however, is not addition, they selected two criminals who had from the sky and cut into the side of a rocky the only one. There is the Chinese calendar, already been condemned to death. Then they cliff. This beam of light carved out the figure dated from the founding of the Chin flipped a coin and gave one of them amnesty. of Mithras, who emerged full-grown and dynasty. There is the Jewish calendar, dated The other was treated as the mock king, armed with a knife and a torch—the god of from the creation of the earth according to and then executed. He was not tossed on war and light.

46 FREE INQUIRY As a sun god, his birth naturally was wealthy parents who had left him a fortune. complete control over the government, and celebrated on December 25, which was called But his Christian beliefs dictated that he all drama was forbidden, except for three the Mithrakana. should give it all to the needy. His most types of plays: (1) miracle plays—about the Mithraism was a "macho" religion. Only famous story is about a poor father who lives of the saints and their miracles, (2) men were admitted—and they had to prove had three daughters, but he had no dowry mystery plays—acting out stories from the their toughness. Their initiation ceremonies for them and was going to have to sell them Bible and the "mysterious ways of God," (3) were a cross between Marine bootcamp and into slavery. St. Nicholas heard of their morality plays—contemporary stories a Hell's Angels beer-bust. They met secretly plight and one night he tossed a bag of gold illustrating some principles of Christian in caves at night. Their regular ceremonies into the window of the first daughter. With doctrine. consisted of baptism, whipping, bondage and this money she was able to buy a husband. Children loved to perform miracle plays obedience training, blind-folding, escaping But nobody knew where the money came about their favorite, St. Nicholas. They the bonds, finding their way out the cave, from. The next night he did the same thing would march through the streets in a parade, and a simulated death and resurrection. They for the second daughter. On the third night, led by St. Nicholas on his horse, wearing periodically held a communal holy meal. his red bishop's robes and his mitre, as he And on December 25 they held a drinking dispensed coins, candy, and trinkets to chil- contest. dren in the crowds. This pageant still takes place in Austria. But in America the bishop's s you have already deduced, many of red robes have been redesigned into a kind Aour modern myths are descendants of of pants-suit, the mitre has been replaced these previous festivals. But our most imme- by an alpine stocking-cap, and we call it the diate ancestor was the Roman Saturnalia. Santa Claus parade. Saturn was an Italian fertility god, and therefore the god of agriculture. But as the n northern Europe there was a god named science of astronomy and calendar-making IOdin, Woden, or Wotan. He was a gradually improved, people began to lose warrior god at first, but later became a god their fear of the approaching darkness. So of wisdom and the creator of man. In order the bonfires gradually gave way to candles to learn the secrets of the universe, Odin and decoration with evergreens. The had to suffer, die, and be resurrected. So he Saturnalia lasted from December 17 until had himself crucified on a tree, where he the solstice, on December 24. This was a hung for nine days. At the end of that time, time of feasting, drinking, gift-giving, family he had someone finish him off by sticking a reunions, slaves and masters exchanging spear in his side. After this sacrificial death, roles, and general merriment. he was resurrected. And he came back from The Saturnalia was the most important the Great Beyond with the runic alphabet festival throughout the Roman Empire, and and the ability to read and write. it had been going on for thousands of years Odin wore a large floppy hat and rode even before the emperor Aurelian established a white horse. He was accompanied by a the day after the solstice, December 25, as a band of robbers, demons, and cut-throats. state holiday. So, when you hear someone Santa Claus by Thomas Nast And during a thunderstorm you can still say that "we ought to get back to the true hear them galloping past. meaning of Christmas," just remember that the father hid in the bushes to see who was Odin and his army arrive every year the original meaning is a pagan celebration leaving the gifts. Sure enough, St. Nicholas around the end of October in what is called of nature. And, when they go on to tossed the last of the bags in the window the "Raging Rout." If November arrives denounce the "creeping commercialization and, when the father tried to thank him, he during good weather, the next year will be a of Christmas," remember that the week of made the father promise never to tell where good one. But if the weather is "raging" the feasting and gift-giving, climaxed by Sol the money came from. But he did. year will be bad. During the Raging Rout Invictus, naturally meant business for St. Nicholas was frequently depicted as the army of Odin plays many dirty tricks— merchants—so for more than four thousand carrying these three bags of gold. And, as and this is the origin of our Halloween tradi- years the winter solstice has been "com- the patron saint of merchants, this symbol tion of pranksters. mercialized." of three golden spheres eventually became December 6 commemorated the death "Santa Claus" is a contraction of "St. the symbol of the pawnbroker—a merchant of St. Nicholas. And on that day, the Norse Nicholas," who was archbishop of the sea- who would give you assistance and protec- goddess Perchta inspected all the households port of Myra, in Asia Minor, during the tion when you needed help. to see that everything was shipshape for the time of the Nicean Council. He died on Another famous story tells of a man long winter. The housewives cleaned their December 6, 326. Since he was bishop of a who sent his two sons to get the bishop's houses and set a meal for Perchta. If she seaport, he became the patron saint of blessing. But, while they were sleeping in a approved, it would bring good luck for the sailors—and therefore of all travelers, most hotel, the innkeeper crept into their room, year. If the wife failed inspection, it brought of whom were merchants. Later he was killed them, and stole their money. God had bad luck. Odin always accompanied Perchta adopted as the favorite saint of the Russian communicated these events to the bishop in on these tours of inspection. And since he Orthodox church and, eventually, of fisher- a vision. So the saint resurrected the two arrived on St. Nicholas Day, Odin gradually men as far away as Lapland and the Arctic boys, whereupon the innkeeper confessed his became identified with St. Nicholas. Ocean. sin and begged forgiveness. In northern Europe, then, St. Nicholas Legend says that he was the son of In the Middle Ages, the church had wears a broad-brimmed hat and rides a white

Fall 1985 47 horse. He arrives on the evening of Decem- Mexican children also receive their evil god, Loki made an arrow and tipped it ber 6. He is accompanied by the Christ child, present on Epiphany. with mistletoe and gave it to Hodar, the St. Peter, and one small angel. When he In France, children receive gifts on blind god of winter, who accidentally shot enters the house he gives all the children an Christmas Day. But adults exchange presents Balder. Immediately the sun ceased to shine, examination. If they have been good, they on New Year's. and all the gods tried to revive him. After are rewarded with gifts; if not, they get a In Germany, when a baby was born, it three days, he was resurrected from the dead bundle of switches. was customary to give any older children a and the sun shone once again. Friggá s tears In Holland, children still put their shoes present to keep them from being jealous of of happiness became mistletoe berries, and outside the door on December 6, stuffed the attention paid to the new baby. This she kissed each person who walked under with hay for St. Nicholas's horse. If they present was called a "child's foot." The it. She decreed that the mistletoe would have been good, the horse eats the hay and Christ child was considered to be a new baby never again harm anyone. And that anyone St. Nicholas fills their shoes with presents. brother to all children—so all children who walked under it should get a kiss. In the Scandinavian countries, children received presents. A figure called "Father The Druids took mistletoe even more believe that elves and gnomes leave the gifts. Christmas" sometimes distributed these gifts. seriously. There was an elaborate ritual for And these are distributed on December 13, Or sometimes it was a child dressed as an gathering it that sometimes included human the feast day of St. Lucia. She was a Sicilian angel and representing the Christ child. sacrifice. They also considered it to have maiden who was noted for her kindness to Russia avoids endorsing anything magical properties. And it was worn as a the poor. So in the morning, a girl dresses related to Christianity. So January 1 is their good luck charm and placed over doorways in a white gown and wears a crown of day for feasting, family reunions, and gifts to ward off evil spirits. Again, those who candles. She is called "Lucia Bride." She from "Grandfather Frost." entered through the doorway received a kiss wakes each member of the family by singing December 26 is St. Stephen's Day, and as a seal of friendship. them a carol and presenting a gift. on this day, in England, the village priest In some European countries, families The American version of Santa Claus would open the "poor box" of the church made a pyramid-shaped framework and dates back to 1822. Dr. Clement Moore was and distribute money to the needy. This was covered that with various types of greenery a professor at a theological seminary in New called "Boxing Day," and it gradually and decorations. Then they placed their York. He had heard stories about the visits became customary to give Christmas boxes presents under the pyramid. from St. Nicholas as he practiced in northern to servants, tradesmen, et al. The Christmas tree itself has no definite Europe. These stories had been told to him origin. Trees have been decorated and by a Dutch friend, who was chubby and ecorating houses with evergreens was venerated since prehistoric times. Through- jolly, had a white beard, and smoked a long Duniversal throughout the world—for out the ancient world it was noticed that Dutch pipe. Inspired by his friend and his obvious reasons. During the apparent death wherever a sacrificial victim had been buried, stories of Nordic elves and flying reindeer, and resurrection of the sun, evergreens are trees and shrubbery flourished. So, where Dr. Moore wrote a poem, as a Christmas a symbol of eternal life. sacrificial blood was spilled, sacred groves present for his children. It was called "A In northern Europe, it was thought that grew. It was felt that these sacred trees con- Visit from St. Nicholas." A friend got his evergreens were a potent talisman for ward- tained the spirits of the victims. So when permission to publish it in an upstate New ing off the witches and demons of the Raging someone wanted a favor from the gods, they York newspaper. It was then picked up by Rout. So wreaths and boughs of evergreens offered presents to the tree. other publications and widely circulated. In were placed everywhere. Even the smoke In the Mediterranean area, the Cybelene 1863, Thomas Nast, a famous political car- from burning evergreens chased away evil cultists had a procession through the city toonist, drew an illustration for the poem in spirits. So farmers would carry a brazier of during 'which they carried the sacred pine Harper's Illustrated Weekly. Dr. Moore had smoking branches around the house, making tree on which the god Attis had been cruci- described him as "dressed in fur from his sure that all their livestock were blessed with fied. This tree was then taken to the Cybe- head to his foot." But Nast remembered that "holy smoke." lene temple, where it was decorated. Attis a bishop was supposed to be dressed in red. In addition to greenery, incense, and was another sun god, who was born of a So he drew him in a red suit that was only lights, another good method of scaring away virgin, crucified, and then resurrected each trimmed in fur. evil spirits was with noise—shots, horns, spring. Epiphany, January 6, is still the most bells, gunfire, and—eventually—firecrackers. During the Saturnalia, Romans important festival day in some countries. It This was particularly important on New trimmed trees with trinkets and small masks was originally one of the feast days for the Year's Day, to be sure the new year started of the Bacchus, also known as Jesus Egyptian earth mother, Isis. On that day, in out with good luck. Dionysus. Sometimes they placed twelve Greece, the bishop tosses a cross in the Certain evergreens, like holly and candles on a tree, presenting the signs of the harbor, and boys dive for it. Whoever mistletoe, were considered to have all sorts zodiac, with an image of the sun god at the retrieves it is assured of good luck through- of magical properties. And many legends top. The Roman poet Virgil once wrote a out the year. are connected with them. The wreath of description of how these trees were decorated In Spain, children put their shoes out- holly was supposed to represent the crown and hung with toys. side, stuffed with hay and carrots for the of thorns worn by Christ and the red berries The Druids and Vikings also decorated camels of the three kings on their way to represented the drops of blood. trees, by hanging gilded apples and animal- Bethlehem. In the morning, the fodder would According to Norse legend, the son of shaped cookies on it in honor of Odin and be gone and they would find gifts in their Odin and Frigga was named Balder. He was his son Balder. shoes. the god of sunshine and light. He had had a During the Middle Ages, December 24 In Italy, children put out their shoes on premonition of death, so his mother asked was called Adam and Eve Day. And the Epiphany Eve, hoping that "Befana," their every element of nature to promise not to "tree of life" was carried through the town, female Santa Claus, would leave presents. harm him. But she forgot the mistletoe. The decorated with apples. •

48 FREE INQUIRY touch, was painful, but he told them not to worry about that. He sat with one of the attendants supporting his head. A doctor VIEWPOINTS began to give him oxygen, but with a wave of his hand he motioned him away" (p. 61). He died peacefully shortly afterward. Kaplan also called attention to the ten precepts of Buddhism, two which read:

Euthanasia and Religion I resolve not to kill but to cherish life.

I resolve not to cause others to use liquors What are the attitudes of traditional religions or drugs which confuse or weaken the mind, nor to do so myself, but to keep toward euthanasia? Gerald Larue conducted a poll in 1984 to find out. He shares his findings my mind clear.

with us. Kaplan wrote, "No matter where you are in your last hours, insofar as you can control your circumstances do not allow your mind to be weakened by drugs or other treatments which numb or impair the clarity of your consciousness. If your pain becomes too intense, let your doctor or attendant ease it with drugs which do not render you unconscious. Your state of mind at the time you draw your last breath is crucial, for upon this hinges your following rebirth" (pp. 80 f.). Gerald A. Larue Most Christian groups do not oppose passive euthanasia. They sanction the abandonment of life-support systems that n 1984, I conducted a survey to ascertain continues to exist throughout eternity, and function only as "heroic measures" on the the attitudes of different religions toward that its karma, both good and bad, is car- part of the healing profession and that do euthanasia.' My primary tool was a two- ried with it into the future. From this, it not really benefit the patient either by reliev- page questionnaire that posed questions per- follows that one's suffering does not end ing pain or by curing the disease but, on the taining to both passive and active euthanasia, by physical death but that it vanishes only contrary, simply prolong the life and the defined these terms with reference to specific when one changes that karma for the suffering of a patient who would otherwise cases, and sought to discover the anticipated better. Thus Buddhism provides the means die. In such cases, some respondents wrote to change one's bad karma.... effects that participation in euthanasia might that it became a matter of letting God (or Of course I agree that it is unbearable have on funeral rituals and on one's karma nature) take over. to see a loved one in extreme pain. In Almost all religious groups opposed or on one's role in an afterlife. such a condition, that person feels he has active euthanasia, sometimes on the basis of As one might suspect, the responses no reason to live, so he wants to be were varied. In some religions, both passive allowed to die. The people close to him the commandment "Thou shalt not kill." The and active euthanasia are forbidden. In will think that they should allow his wish exceptions are Humanists and members of Nichiren Buddhism, for example, to hasten to be granted out of their own sense of the Ethical Culture Societies. Indeed, some death or to shorten the period of suffering compassion. But isn't this too materialistic of the respondents acknowledged having could affect the karma of both the sufferer a view of life? Moreover, the truth of life participated in active euthanasia. The and the one who gave assistance. George reveals that death is not the final solution humanist position is given in Humanist to the problem of suffering. The people Williams, general director of Nichiren Shosu Manifesto II: "To enhance freedom and dig- who cannot bear to see their loved one Soka Gakkai of America, provided an nity the individual must experience a full suffer from pain will be able to stop their range of civil liberties in all societies. This "unofficial" viewpoint based upon "many own suffering by allowing the person to concepts of Nichiren Shosu Buddhism": die, but the karma of suffering still exists ... includes a recognition of an individual's within that person's life. The only possible right to die with dignity, euthanasia, and It is taught in Buddhism that a human solution is to infuse that person with the the right to suicide." life does not end by physical death but life-force to change his own karma for the In 1974, "A Plea for Beneficent Eutha- better. nasia," signed by leading humanists, Gerald A. Larue is emeritus professor of appealed to "an enlightened public opinion archaeology and biblical history at the Philip Kaplan, who edited The Wheel to transcend traditional taboos and to move University of Southern California, Los of Death (New York, 1971) records the tale in the direction of a compassionate view Angeles. This article is adapted from a paper told by Sri Ramana Maharshi concerning toward needless suffering in dying.... On he presented at the Fifth World Congress Sri Bhagavan (Maharshi), who was offered the basis of a compassionate approach to of the World Federation of Right-to-Die a palliative to relieve lung congestion; he life and death, it seems to us at times difficult Societies in Nice, France. refused it. He asked to be sat upright. "They to distinguish between passive and active knew already that every movement, every approaches. The acceptance of both forms

Fall 1985 49 of euthanasia seems to us implied by a fitting tion, expulsion from the religious com- to be heroic or a masochistic desire to respect for the right to live and die with munity, and even death. Therefore, when heighten his martyrdom. The document does dignity."2 an organization as extensive and as powerful not make clear the relationship between the Some groups would alter burial rituals as the Roman Catholic church issues a mystical redemptive suffering associated with for those involved in active euthanasia, but "Declaration on Euthanasia," although some Jesus' death in Christian theology and the most would not. Professor Stanley S. points may be debated in theological semi- pain experienced by those in the terminal Haraka, who teaches Orthodox Christian naries and in philosophy classes, most stage of cancer or some other affliction. Ethics at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox believing Catholics go along with its teaching Although many religious groups see no School of Theology, in Brookline, Massa- without questioning. Where there is devia- merit in suffering and encourage the use of chusetts, suggests that burial patterns might tion, as there is now by Catholics who are pain-relieving drugs, there are some who be affected: "If the act of `active' euthanasia opposed to the church's rulings on birth utilize theology as a spiritual palliative for were understood clearly as an act of suicide, control and abortion, those who break the those in pain. One fundamentalist minister the Church cannot by Canon Law bury the rules can be deprived of the rituals of the told me that, when his wife was undergoing individual unless it is shown through com- church until they mend their ways (which, a long and painful pregnancy, he "comforted petent medical certification that the person in the case of birth control, can conveniently her" by reminding her that Jesus had suf- was mentally ill in doing the act. The chance be delayed until menopause). While indi- fered even greater pain for her sins. He said is that the person who had announced pre- viduals are in violation of the church's teach- that he would use this same message at the viously the intention to commit `active' ings, they cannot help but feel guilt and bedside of a terminally ill parishioner in euthanasia would not be buried from the fear—guilt for acting against divine rules and intractable pain. church." fear that by some unforeseen accident they It has become clear through the reading It is important to recognize that behind might die outside a state of grace and be of the responses to the questionnaire, from each position lies a belief system that in condemned to hell. perusing documents provided by respon- traditional religions is based on a mythology, So powerful is the grip of such religions dents, and from consulting articles in reli- a sacred story, a religious fiction, and that on their followers that there is little encour- gious journals, that in most instances the this belief system conditions responses. The agement to engage in free thought. The issue of euthanasia is confronted from a fundamental belief is that in some special ancient Deuteronomic formula "Hear and theological or academic stance rather than way the divine has penetrated the realm of obey" is operative, and one need only read from direct contact with pain and suffering. the secular, or that the deity has broken the curses in Deteronomy 28, or in the It is all too easy to formulate a position on into the sphere of human life, to reveal Revelation to John, to become aware of the the basis of the Torah, the Talmudic acceptable life patterns and legal regulations threat of divine punishment for disobedience. halakha, and what the rabbis have said. It governing life and death. Each religion has When suffering comes to believers is too simple to look to the traditions set by its own hero figure, whether it be Buddha, during a terminal illness, it can be explained the church fathers and, from this wisdom of Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Mary Baker as an opportunity to come into touch with the past, to draw guidelines for the present. Eddy, Joseph Smith, Madam Blavatsky, or the sufferings of Christ, or perhaps it will be Some liberal Protestant churches, while con- Emanuel Swedenborg. Out of the mythos argued that there is some spiritual merit in tinuing to look to the Bible for spiritual or sacred story emerge rules and laws to suffering. For example, the Roman Catholic guidance, confront the issue of euthanasia control and direct the lives and the living of church's "Declaration on Euthanasia," issued for the terminally ill in intractable pain from true believers. The guiding principles are in May 1980 by the Sacred Congregation a humane or person-oriented posture rather believed to have been supernaturally revealed for the Doctrine of Faith, declares: than simply trying to find what the Bible and to represent the divine will for humans. may or may not have recorded. This concept is not new. It goes back at According to Christian teaching, however, One wonders what the theologians and least to the twenty-first century B.C.F., when suffering, especially suffering during the theoreticians might say if someone they King Ur Nammu proclaimed laws for the last moments of life, has a special place in loved was writhing in pain, gasping for Sumerian city of Ur and claimed that these God's saving plan; it is in fact a sharing in breath, crying out for release from a life Christ's Passion and a union with the were in accord with the revealed will of Utu, that has become a living hell of torment redeeming sacrifice which he offered in the sun god, and to the nineteenth century that drugs and medical knowledge are not obedience to the Father's will. Therefore B.C.E., when King Lipit Ishtar said his laws one must not be surprised if some Chris- able to relieve. Theology and theological emanated from Enlil the wind god. Still tians prefer to moderate their use of pain- discussion are fine in the classroom and from later, Hammurabi enunciated laws provided killers, in order to accept voluntarily at the pulpit; they have no relevance and no by Shamash, the Babylonian sun-god. The least a part of their sufferings and thus place at the bedside of the suffering termi- same pattern occurs in the Jewish scriptures, associate themselves in a conscious way nally ill patient. 1 was moved by some infor- with Moses receiving laws from the Hebrew with the sufferings of Christ crucified. [Cf. mation that reflected the anguish engendered deity Yahweh. Jesus becomes the revealer Matt. 27:34.] in believers when someone they loved was for the Christians, Muhammad for the dying in pain. 1 could hear the pain in the Muslims, and Joseph Smith for the Mor- The scriptural reference is to Jesus tasting a voice of one Science of Mind clergyman with mons. Each scriptural collection of laws mixture of gall and wine prior to being cru- whom I talked on the telephone when he makes the claim of divine approval. Each is cified and refusing to drink it. Gall is a bitter, made reference to someone close to him who supposed to represent the final, authentic toxic herb (Hebrew: Rosh; Greek: chole) that was in such a predicament. Yet he did not will of the deity. is said to have a vile taste; so it could have return the questionnaire, perhaps because Deviation from revealed truth is heresy; been on the basis of taste alone that Jesus he might compromise his theological posi- and heresy, during varying periods of rejected the mixture, rather than its having tion. history, including modern times, has been been a turning away from a narcotic pallia- The survey has made clear that those punished by social rejection, excommunica- tive or because of some misguided impulse of us who press for fair and just legislation

50 FREE INQUIRY to make active euthanasia possible for the terminally ill have a long way to go. Most religious organizations support passive euthanasia. There is no battle here except New Problems in Medical Ethics how to bring about the removal of a life- support system once it has been activated. Many respondents referred to the "Living Will" as an instrument of instruction to guide the medical profession, the legal profession, Vern L. Bullough the clergy, and the family concerning the wishes of the person who is dying. Perhaps, with the active support of the clergy, such he death of Karen Ann Quinlan after the specialists involved can enter the Guiness documents will assume real significance in Tten years in a coma, the birth of sep- Book of Records for their contribution to the near future, because at present they are tuplets in California, the mounting concern the most expensive birthing event in in many cases, if not in most, politely over substance abuse, from alcohol to drugs history—at least so far. Scores and scores ignored. to cigarettes, and the establishment of DRGs of specialists were and, at this writing, still Perhaps at some future time the sacred (Diagnostic Related Groupings) are seem- are involved. scriptures of the various religious groups, ingly unrelated topics. They comprise a new A high proportion of patients in the and the sayings and the teachings of the problem in medical ethics—one brought country's various veteran's hospitals are fathers of the different faiths, will be reex- about because cost is a factor. The result is there not because of war-related injuries but amined and reinterpreted so that sanction a new kind of ethical determinant that will, because they are alcoholics, have drug prob- may be found for the support of active consciously or unconsciously, play a role in lems, or suffer from diseases brought on by euthanasia. Such a pattern of continuing decision making. a lifetime of smoking. The escalating costs reinterpretation is evident in many religious While money has always been a factor come as the alcoholic begins to deteriorate groups. For example, on Friday, June 9, in determining the kind of health care one physically and the treatment of various 1978, Spencer W. Kimball, president of the received, with the richest usually receiving health problems begins, usually at the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day the best, the issue now extends far beyond expense of the taxpayer. The same is true of Saints, and two counselors announced that individual wealth. In the United States, as substance abusers in general. the Mormon Church would no longer bar the government, through Medicare, Medi- The list could go on, but a sign of the blacks from the Mormon priesthood. The caid, Veteran's Administration, and other changing times is the Diagnostic Related rejection of blacks was based on the passages programs, becomes more and more a factor Groupings, which have been implemented found in sacred Mormon documents: the in health care, the health and habits and by the U.S. government. DRGs, for the Book of Moses and the Book of Abraham. actions of other people affect each indi- uninitiated, are prepayment guarantees for The change was attributed to a new revela- vidual's tax bill. specific diagnoses. If the patient leaves the tion. Kimball, after many hours of prayer Though Quinlan's family early withdrew hospital sooner than the established norms in the Upper Room of the Mormon Temple her respiratory support, she was still kept would predict, the hospital makes money. If in Salt Lake City, received the new interpre- alive by intravenous feeding and through a recovery is slower, and the patient stays in tation. Similarly, changes have come in other nursing plan that called for regular turning, the hospital longer, it loses money. Not all religious groups. Out of the continuing reex- bathing, and massage, all of which cost diagnoses are covered, but the potential for amination and reinterpretation of sacred money, taxpayers' money. To maintain her making a fast dollar is hard to ignore. The scripture, some churches and synagogues life in a coma for ten years, even with mini- immediate result has been an emptying of have ordained women and homosexuals. mum nursing care, cost hundreds of thou- hospital beds. Many patients would be better Indeed, certain groups appear to be engaged sands, if not millions, of dollars. off with longer hospital stays, while others in feminizing the patriarchal deity of the The California woman who took fer- thrive with the new policy. Unfortunately, Bible! Thus the time may come too when a tility pills to become pregnant—and then as with the move of two decades ago to scriptural basis for acceptance of active proceeded with the pregnancy when it discharge vast numbers of mental-hospital euthanasia may be discovered. For the became known that seven fetuses were patients, the cost-cutting cuts both ways. present, on the basis of my limited research, involved and that the chances of survival of Just as in the mental-health field, however, it is only possible to say: (1) There is growing a majority of them, let alone all of them, it can be predicted that it will take some support in some Jewish, Roman Catholic, were astronomical—made a decision that time for the pendulum to swing back to a and Eastern Orthodox churches and in most ultimately cost taxpayers millions of dollars. more moderate stance. In the meantime, Protestant groups for passive euthanasia. (2) Even delivery preparations cost well into six home-health-care industries are a growth There is almost unanimous opposition to figures. Though the couple may still finan- stock, since 'for most patients it is cheaper active euthanasia. cially benefit by selling their story, as may to be treated in their homes than in hos- some of the various participating specialists, pitals. Home care, however, causes a great Notes their financial remuneration will be much deal of family disruption and personal less than it would have been had all seven tragedy. Anyone who is aware of the grow- 1. The full report of this survey appears in of the babies survived. Still, the couple and ing number of home-bound patients cared Euthanasia and Religion, published this year by for by loved ones knows of the growing The Hemlock Society, P.0.B. 66218, Los exhaustion of the spouse or the children (or Angeles, CA 90066. Vern Bullough is dean of natural and social in some cases the parents) as the medical in Beneficent Euthanasia, ed. 2. Published sciences at the State University of New establishment sits on its hands or observes by Marvin Kohl (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus, York College at Buffalo. from the sidelines. 1975). •

Fall 1985 51 The point of this illustration is to the incidence of drunken driving decreased education, and encouraging behavior emphasize that if the government is con- disproportionately to the number of modification for alcoholics, chain smokers, cerned about health-care costs, and 1 think eighteen- to twenty-one-year-olds in the and dope addicts? Should we not spend more we as taxpayers should be, and is taking population. Most states also require motor- on preventive care for the poor, since we steps to lower such costs by establishing cycle riders to wear helmets, theoretically to know their hospital treatments take longer DRGs—which, if not abused, are a step in protect them from head injuries but also to because they now lack such care? Should the right direction—then by implication cut down on the expense of medical care we not also spend more of our resources on other areas of costly health-care are deserv- for the victims of such injuries. In effect, we better health-care for infants since our ing of examination too. In a sense, large have taken the first steps in factoring eco- national infant death-rate remains an inter- segments of American society have com- nomics into our health-care decision-making. national disgrace? mitted themselves to doing this by empha- Is the next step to outlaw all driving after Whether we like it or not, economics sizing wellness and prevention on a larger drinking, as they have in Sweden, or to tax has entered into our health-care decision- scale than ever before. liquor at ever higher rates? Should we estab- making. It is hoped that we will begin to Though some economists and research- lish new taxes for other drugs because sub- think about it, talk about it, and arrive at ers in health care have worked out cost- stance abuse is such a major factor in disease some conclusions about where we as indi- benefit ratios, taking into account even the and illness and, ultimately, in the cost of viduals stand. Our new technologies, ranging resulting quality of life (open heart surgery, health care? Should we urge abortion for from mechanical hearts to artificial kidney for example, is a loser), we have been reluc- every woman who is found to be carrying machines, from fertility drugs that raise the tant to utilize such factors in our decision- seven fetuses, or simply let the spontaneous number of multiple births to life-support making. Instead, we as humanists have abortion take place without medical inter- systems that can keep a brain-dead person emphasized that death should be an indi- ference? Should we have stopped feeding alive for years, have raised a host of new vidual decision, and we join the Hemlock Karen Ann Quinlan intravenously because problems, not the least of which is the Society and similar groups advocating Death it cost so much? Obviously these questions potential of economic issues' being involved with Dignity. But this may no longer be have no easy answers. If they do, I certainly in more and more decisions because we are enough. do not know what they are. But if these the ultimate payers. We have now become, Most states, after prodding from the kinds of cases are so costly to the taxpayer, if we were not before, our brother's (and federal government, have raised the drinking should we not be giving better preventive sister's) keeper. Will we be George Orwell's age to twenty-one because it was found that care, providing more effective health- "Big Brother" or are there alternatives? •

Announcing . . rw 15 o The ENCYCLOPEDIA of UNBELIEF re- //'es edited by Gordon Stein leatl on biseoUlt Preface by Paul Edwards The Encyclopedia of Unbelief provides a detailed survey of include Isaac Asimov, Hazel Barnes, Germaine Brée, Paul agnosticism, atheism, freethought, humanism, skepticism, Edwards, Antony Flew, Paul Kurtz, Richard Martin, Martin and unbelief as they have appeared historically and on the Marty, Kai Nielsen, and James Randi, among others. contemporary scene. It includes biographies of the promi- Gordon Stein is associate editor of Free Inquiry. He is the nent men and women associated with freethought, for editor of An Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism. example, Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant in England, Voltaire and Diderot in France, V. I. Lenin in the Soviet 750 pages (2 vol.) Cloth $99.95 Union, and Clarence Darrow, Robert G. Ingersoll, and (15% discount if ordered before Oct. 1) Thomas Paine in the United States. The influential philosophers and psychologists whose Yes! Please send me copies of The Encyclopedia of Unbelief at writings contributed to the growth of religious skepticism the special 15% pre-publication discount price of $84.95. I am and unbelief are also discussed: Giordano Bruno, Spinoza, including $4.00 for postage and handling. Locke, Hume, Kant, Comte, Spencer, Haeckel, Feuerbach, ❑ Payment enclosed Dewey, Santayana, Freud, Reich, Russell, Sartre, A. J. Ayer, ❑ Sidney Hook, and others. Charge my MasterCard or VISA The history of organized freethought is covered country Account g Exp. by country. There are articles on major philosophical issues Signature related to unbelief such as the existence of God, immortality, miracles, and the relation between ethics and unbelief. Name The Encyclopedia of Unbelief also presents perceptive essays Address on unbelief within the world's important religions: Bud- City/ State Zip dhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Taoism. This two-volume reference work is well cross-referenced. PROMETHEUS BOOKS 700 East Amherst Street/Buffalo, NY 14215 It includes five comprehensive appendices. Contributors 800-421-0351/In NYS: 716-837-2475

52 FREE INQUIRY ent). Pfeffer candidly admits that the title is somewhat misleading, for two reasons. To begin, Burger, unlike some prior chief BOOKS justices, has not succeeded in fashioning a working majority of the Court's members that would reliably follow his lead on most significant issues. In contrast, his predecessor, Earl Warren, did have a majority of the Court behind him, at least on most civil liberties issues. Thus the phrase "the Burger Interpreting the First Amendment Court" functions more as a convenient way to group together the decisions of the Court over the past decade and a half than it does as a designation of a specific trend in the Court's decision-making under Burger's guidance. Secondly, the decisions of the Court during the past sixteen years have exhibited a "split personality," especially in the area of church/state issues. As Pfeffer puts it, RELIGION, S'ENTE during the 1970s there was a "Burger Court t:VD 111E I," which generally adhered to the view that BURGER COURT there should be a strict separation between church and state, as shown by a number of decisions the Court handed down disallow- Ronald A. Lindsay ing various schemes to funnel public money into parochial schools. However, a few years ago, "Burger Court II" appeared on the Religion, State and the Burger Court, by scene. "Burger Court II" has in some cases Leo Pfeffer (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus punched holes in the wall between church Books, 1984), 310 pp., cloth $22.95. and state, upholding, for example, government-funded legislative chaplaincies, eo Pfeffer's most recent work on extensive first-hand knowledge of the twists tax deductions that aid private (meaning, (church/state issues demonstrates that and turns of church/ state litigation. As but for the most part, parochial) schools, and he is still a virtually unrivaled master of one example, Pfeffer describes the somewhat publicly sponsored nativity scenes. Many church/ state law. In the approximately 300 confusing positioning of the parties and observers believed that the Court was pages of Religion, State and the Burger amici in the Walz v. Tax Commission (1970) heading toward a major revision of First Court he manages not only to analyze most case, in which the Supreme Court ultimately Amendment law, one that would sacrifice of the leading cases that have been decided upheld the tax exemption for churches. As the rights of minorities to majoritarian reli- under the religion clauses of the First he recounts the tale, Americans United for gious pressure. (The euphemism that is pre- Amendment but also to provide enough Separation of Church and State (then known ferred by the Reagan Administration, and background material, including insightful as Protestants and Other Americans United other organs of the Religious Right, for this historical observations, to enable the reader for Separation of Church and State), an trend is "accommodationist." One would to make his own judgments about the organization usually noted, as its name have thought that the Constitution was Court's decisions in this area. indicates, for its dedication to maintaining designed to "accommodate" the views of One reason Pfeffer is able to accomplish "a wall of separation between church and minorities, but in the newspeak of the Reli- so much in relatively few pages is that he state," decided at the last minute that it not gious Right, the purpose of the First has, for more than three decades, served as only would not submit an amicus brief it Amendment is to "accommodate" the reli- counsel for one of the parties of amici curiae had already prepared in support of the party gious prejudices of the majority.) Indeed, in a large number of significant church/state challenging the tax exemption but would many thought that this revision would take cases. Thus the book is in some sense a actually submit an amicus brief supporting place during the current term in light of the biography: In tracing the evolution of the the government. As Pfeffer observes, it is "a fact that the Court agreed to review a Court's decisions, Pfeffer is also reliving some fair guess that the explanation for the number of significant church/state cases. of his own battles. The result is a happy organization's turnabout lay in the reality These cases have just recently been one. Instead of a dry, plodding treatment of that its major constituency and financial decided, some months after Pfeffer's book numerous judicial opinions, the book pre- contributors were to be found among Prot- went to press, and the decisions of the Court sents a lively, intimate discussion of estant clergymen and congregations who also justify the caution Pfeffer shows in predicting church/state issues that draws on Pfeffer's would suffer financially were Walz [the party future actions of the Court. These recent challenging the exemption] to prevail." decisions reveal that, for the time being at As the title of Pfeffer's book suggests, least, the wall of separation remains intact. Ronald Lindsay is an attorney in Washing- his major emphasis is on the decisions of In two cases, the Court struck down pro- ton, D.C. the Supreme Court during the tenure of grams that supported parochial schools by Chief Justice Warren Burger (1969 to pres- having public school instructors sent into

Fall 1985 53 the parochial schools for the teaching of First Amendment is provided by Justice and of colonial America during the previous remedial or advanced education classes. In Rehnquist's bitter dissent in Wallace. Utiliz- centuries. In 1789, neutrality among Protes- another case, the Court concluded that a ing a pseudo-scholarly approach, Rehnquist tant, or among Christian, sects was arguably Connecticut law that provided employees argues that the framers of the Constitution sufficient to serve this underlying purpose. with an absolute right to take their Sabbath merely intended "to stop the Federal However, in a nation with as diverse a reli- day off was unconstitutional because the Government from asserting a preference for gious composition as ours is today, including statute in effect commanded that "religious one religious denomination or sect over a substantial, albeit relatively small, number concerns automatically control ... all secu- others" and did not mean to require of atheists and agnostics, religious strife can lar interests at the workplace" and took "no "government to be strictly neutral between only be avoided by maintaining neutrality account of the convenience or interests of religion and irreligion." Rehnquist's "evi- among all religions and between the religious the employer or those of other employees dence" for his contentions is principally and nonreligious. Or, as the Wallace major- who do not observe a Sabbath." Finally, in negative in nature; because the framers did ity aptly stated, today "the political interest perhaps the most controversial of the four not specifically state that the First Amend- in forestalling intolerance extends . . . to cases, Wallace v. Jaffree, the Court found ment was designed to promote neutrality encompass intolerance of the disbeliever and Alabama's moment of silence statute to be between believers and nonbelievers, Rehn- the uncertain." In short, Rehnquist and the unconstitutional on the grounds that it had quist thinks they would not today interpret other "accommodationists" employ an been motivated by a desire to encourage the First Amendment to promote such a exceedingly limited reading of history to prayer and therefore clearly had a religious neutrality. What Rehnquist and others like support the exceedingly limited respect they rather than a secular purpose. The Wallace him overlook is that the framers quite have for the individual's freedom of con- decision is an especially encouraging one for naturally only emphasized neutrality among science. religious skeptics because it in no uncertain religious sects—in fact, only neutrality Leo Pfeffer's trenchant analysis of the terms concludes that the First Amendment among Protestant sects—because the country Burger Court's decisions demonstrates that guarantees not only government neutrality in 1789 was much more religiously homo- he understands the underlying purposes of among religious sects but also neutrality geneous than it is today. One of the under- the First Amendment. It's a pity that he is between the religious and nonbelievers. The lying purposes of the First Amendment was unlikely to be on Reagan's short list for Court stated: unquestionably to eliminate the religious Supreme Court appointments instead of the strife that had marred the history of Europe inevitable Rehnquist clones. • At one time it was thought that this kind [of religious freedom] merely proscribed the preference of one Christian sect over LEADER another, but would not require equal respect for the conscience of the infidel, THE NEW YORK SOCIETY FOR ETHICAL CULTURE the atheist, or the adherent of non- seeks individual with humanistic religious philosophy and experience in Christian faith such as Mohammedism or the ministry, social action, community service. Administrative ability Judaism. [However,] the Court has unam- essential. biguously concluded that the individual Compensation commensurate with experience. freedom of conscience protected by the First Amendment embraces the right to Address inquiries to: select any religious faith or none at all. The Leadership Recruitment Committee This conclusion derives support ... from 2 West 64th Street, New York, N.Y. 10023 recognition of the fact that the political interest in forestalling intolerance extends Affirmative Action Equal Opportunity Employer beyond intolerance among Christian sects—or even intolerance among "religions"—to encompass intolerance of the disbeliever and the uncertain. "UNUSUALLY WELL WRITTEN FICTION. . Nonetheless, despite the fact that the WELL OFF THE BEATEN PATH. Wallace decision constitutes a ringing endorsement of the principle that the pro- BEAUTIFULLY BEATS THE DRUM FOR tections of the First Amendment extend to UNCONDITIONAL SELF ACCEPTANCE freethinkers, there remains the possibility .WORTHWHILE LITERATURE" that both its holding and its rationale will be short-lived. As was made clear during Albert Ellis, Ph.D. the 1984 presidential campaign and, as Institute for Rational Living, NY Pfeffer's book reminds us, several of the FROM justices, including four in the Wallace NEW LOTUS PRESS majority—Blackmun, Brennan, Marshall, and Powell—are in their mid- to late- THE TALES OF seventies. If Reagan is given the opportunity ORDER YOUR COPY to replace two or three of them the Estab- ATAVAN SEND $9.95 (Calif. res. add .60) lishment Clause of the First Amendment AND $2.55 FIRST CLASS could become a dead letter. THE CLARION HERITAGE POSTAGE & HANDLING TO. An indication of the way in which a PART ONE LOTUS PRESS Reagan-packed Court might approach the P.O. BOX 800. LOTUS. CA 95651

54 FREE INQUIRY claims that require support that reformula- tion is not possible without doing damage to either the desired conclusion or the A Source of Bewilderment reasoning that led to it. Thus the first half of The Miracle of Theism is an attempt to reevaluate the traditional arguments of the faithful in an effort to ascertain what support, if any, can be Steven L. Mitchell given to the theistic position. The few deduc- tive arguments offered by believers are shown to beg the question or to hide within The Miracle of Theism, by J. L. Mackie stantive criticism, and (3) support the con- their ranks suppressed premises that ulti- (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), 268 pp., tention that both individually and collec- mately force the desired conclusion. In addi- $29.95. tively pro-theist arguments do not suffici- tion, the overwhelming number of arguments ently warrant the conclusion drawn—i.e., in support of theism are nondeductive; they he title of this very thoughtful book— that God exists. Though a self-professed appeal to the best explanation: In the face T The Miracle of Theism—may at first atheist, Mackie states in his Preface that he of current experience, the arguments offered seem to suggest a positive stance toward intends to strive, as best he can, to give "a are thought by theists to point to the truth belief in a supreme, all-powerful, all- full and fair hearing to the opposing case." of God's existence as the most adequate knowing, and omnipresent God—a Being In the hope of presenting theistic argu- explanation of that experience when com- whose existence is as inexplicable as the ments for the existence of a supreme being pared with competing alternatives. Mackie parting of the Red Sea, the Virgin Birth, or in the most forceful manner possible, Mackie insists that when confronted with (and com- the raising of Lazarus from the dead. While devotes considerable attention to both pared with) naturalistic commonsense J. L. Mackie does indeed consider theism to exposition and critical appraisal. In a man- explanations for the same phenomena, be miraculous, he intends the title to be a ner not unlike that of other critics of theism, theistic arguments diminish in probability bit of irony. Early on, he points out that he discusses various standard arguments to the point of incredulity. there are at least two senses of the term offered by believers: arguments based upon Given the overwhelming critical miracle, one denoting a purposive interfer- miraculous interference in the natural order, appraisal of theism's efforts, and its subse- ence with the natural laws, and the second augmented by personal testimony from wit- quent failure, to establish an existing deity, suggesting a phenomenon that is thought to nesses; Descartes's notion of God as a clear the way is clear for nonbelievers to place be surprising because we are, at the time, and distinct idea, self-evident to anyone their religious counterparts on the defensive. unable to offer a rational explanation. upon reflection; ontological arguments (i.e., In Chapter 9, the problem of evil is set forth Theism's "continuing hold on the minds of that to have a concept of God is to admit to demonstrate that the concept of god with many reasonable people," says Mackie, "is his existence); cosmological arguments that the powers attributed to him or her cannot surprising enough to count as a miracle" in seek to move from the existence of the world remain intact in the face of evil in the world. the latter sense (p. 12). In other words, to the presence of a creator-god; arguments Either one must conclude that no such god Mackie considers it a source of wonder, if that insist on God as the foundation of all exists or that the attributes ascribed are not bewilderment, that theism has main- moral values and, hence, that without him greatly exaggerated, which comes to mean tained its hold, throughout its long history, ethical strictures would fall away, leaving the same thing. The conceptual contortions over presumably rational people. the world doomed to eternal chaos; the con- and doctrinal revisions necessary to maintain Many who have read about the history tention that human consciousness is the a deity in the presence of evil do little to of theism and are witnesses to its con- product of divine intervention in the material convince skeptics that their doubts about temporary manifestations marvel at the world rather than the complex evolutionary the existence of a supreme being are ill- faithful millions who swear allegiance to one result of electro-chemical processes in the founded. Exposing the cracks in theism or more religious convictions that fail to brain; and the argument from design (i.e., a serves to "open several possibilities for provide well-grounded arguments when well-organized world could not have come revised religious views," says Mackie, but scrutinized by rational, inquiring minds. The about by chance but must have been the the price of revision could be high, because history of theism is replete with attempts to result of some purposive, intentional deity). each of the changes that might make theism offer arguments on behalf of the claim that For each example, Mackie carefully more coherent also does away with some of a personal creator-god exists. In this work, presents the strongest case for theism and its attraction (p. 176). the author has taken it upon himself to set then pits it against the strongest skeptical Mackie suggests several proposed revi- forth some of the more well known attempts. view. Often the theistic position is found sions of traditional theism in an effort to Mackie s program is a simple three- wanting, but this is not to say that the posi- retain the believer's commitment to a pronged approach: (1) outline the strongest tion of the nonbeliever is necessarily vindi- supreme being. One prospect is to consider available arguments for theism and do like- cated in any unqualified sense. On the con- religious experiences "intrinsically valuable wise for the skeptical position, (2) expose trary, there is confusion, unclarity, and and all-important" as indicators that God the relative merits of both views without presumptuousness to be found in the skep- exists as the source of this raised conscious- exempting nonbelievers from important sub- tical camp as well. But the problems facing ness. As genuine experiences, religious the skeptic are made manageable by the experiences therefore must be experiences Steven L. Mitchell is the executive director dictates of reason: reassessing the available of something—this is to state a fact about of the Academy of Humanism and an asso- information and reformulating arguments the nature of consciousness, and about the ciate editor of FREE INQUIRY. accordingly. It is precisely because theists logic of the language we use to communicate have carried as presupposition the very our experience. But to proceed to the con-

Fall 1985 55 clusion that the object of our consciousness Two points must yet be raised; one is for the existence and persistence of religious must be God rather than something we know of perennial concern and the other a source belief in their own times. We in twentieth- not what is clearly unwarranted: of growing intellectual interest. The first is century America must look at our own soci- the replacement of theism with atheism and ety for the answer to this rising tide of . . . If the religious experiences do not the moral implications of such a substitution. theism, and especially the extraordinary yield any argument for a further super- The second point concerns the need to better popularity of conservative fundamentalism. natural reality, and if ... there is no other understand the mind-set of contemporary On an intellectual level one might utilize good argument for such a conclusion, then believers: What influences them to hold doc- the concept of scientific paradigms first set these experiences include in their content trinal views in the face of overwhelming forth by T. S. Kuhn. Kuhn suggests that beliefs that are probably false and in any evidence to the contrary? case unjustified. [p. 186] scientific paradigms shift when previously Much concern has been voiced that, if established scientific views find themselves the concept of a living, personal god is relin- confronted with more and more disconfirm- Speculation about the persistence, main- quished, then all morality will be devoid of ing instances. When this occurs, adherents tenance, and expansion of religious experi- foundation (and force), thus opening the of the previous paradigm may choose to ence and belief in the face of telling criticism floodgates for social anarchy and grotesque abide by the scientific method and modify has revived interest in the natural history of tyranny. Nonbelievers are not naive enough their theory to account for the data, or they religion—the efforts by social scientists, to think that, if the absolutistic morality of may become recalcitrant, in which case psychologists, historians, and philosophers theism is rejected, the road is somehow clear efforts are made to disregard the conflicting to understand and explain the phenomenon for rational moral discussion and decision- data by insisting that it does not really count of religious belief. making. Absolutism is not the sole moral against the theory. As the counterinstances If appeal to religious experience fails to haven of believers. Mackie concedes that the mount, some fanatic adherents of the pre- support traditional theism, then possibly one brutality of communism is a classic case in vious paradigm will virtually ignore contra- can simply rely on faith—belief without point. the rational, free-thinking individual dictory evidence and remain true to their reason. But this would mean that it is intel- must be on guard against moral terrorism theory even though it no longer depicts lectually acceptable (i.e., rational) not to in whatever guise it may assume. reality. These fanatics are eventually passed require reasons for doctrinal claims. Such a From the time of the Crusades and the by and forgotten. Unfortunately, the con- view flies in the face of critical intelligence, Inquisition, through the many holy wars that temporary believer is not a passing phe- free inquiry, and the rational dictates of the ripped through Europe, theism has earned nomenon who can be dismissed as passé. scientific method. To be sure, belief plays a its bleak reputation for cruelty and destruc- He has established himself as a part of the large role in rational inquiry, but it is tem- tion in the name of moral righteousness. It social and political landscape. When faced pered, reevaluated, and reformulated as has never been more clearly evident than in with overwhelming scientific evidence, the intersubjective evidence warrants. In recent years (and months) with the rise of believer merely retreats to the black hole of Mackié s words, "We must be willing not the vicious Shiite Muslim regime of Kho- faith where the light of reason does not only to frame hypotheses and test them but meini and the killing of innocent people and shine. also to give tentative acceptance to hypoth- the destruction of property in the name of On a more pedestrian level, I believe eses which have some plausibility and have the Islamic Jihad. Mackie focuses on the we must examine the social, political, and received some confirmation through testing" moral alternative to such fanaticism by con- psychological elements that have nurtured (p. 209). Such is not the case with theism. trasting it with the "long tradition of an the current upsurge in theism. We are a If theists cannot rely on their veil of essentially humanist morality, from Epicurus nation of high technology, yet many people ignorance known as faith to support their to John Stuart Mill . . . centred on the are scientifically illiterate. We have a poli- claim for the existence of a supreme conditions for the flourishing of human life tically democratic and pluralistic govern- being—at least not without falling head first and stressing intellectual honesty, tolerance, ment, yet we suffer from apathy. Our libra- into the pit of unreason—then can religion free inquiry, and individual rights" (p. 260). ries overflow with books on self-help and be sustained without adhering to the literal, This humanist tradition "can more easily personal relationships, and we remain inter- factual assertions of theistic doctrine? If so, appreciate the merits of compromise and personally inept. We spurn the old, ignore then is religious belief different from non- adjustment, or of finding, for the areas of the young, and find ourselves in various religious belief in that it resists disconfirming contact, . . . a common core of principles stages of personal and professional dissatis- evidence? The answer to both questions is on which they can agree" (p. 261). It is faction. The many thousands of people yes, provided the believer is willing to con- exactly at this point that theism sinks into caught up in this social malaise are globs of tort his notion of belief and to pay the price the mystery of the heavenly host. amorphous clay with which the soothing exacted for this diluted form of belief. One My final point harks back to the pre- voice of a dedicated pulpit master can mold can certainly interpret religious statements vious mention of the natural history of reli- and shape the future believers of America. of belief to be "expressing moral views and gion. In light of the flood of critical analysis The outcast, the displaced, and the purpose- sentiments and resolves, and what ... they and evidence supporting the contention that less are told that they are loved, cared for, support is a way of life which makes sense theists have not provided adequate support and wanted. The only price asked is that in its own right" (p. 226); but then one for their metaphysical assertions, why is the they give themselves to God, or to Jesus cannot in the same breath express belief in body of true believers swelling beyond the Christ. When one is emotionally bankrupt, a personal god without placing this object wildest expectations of religionists? Why is this seems a small price to pay. of belief on a par with relativistic senti- it that the more convincing the evidence If the "miracle" of theism is ever to be ments, and this is hardly the stuff of which against theism, the more profoundly those laid bare, those who embrace free inquiry proofs for God's existence are made. The beliefs are held? As Mackie points out, and critical intelligence must define and price to be paid is admitting that the doc- Hume, Feuerbach, Marx, Engels, and others make tangible the emotional, and social trinal assumptions have no objective referent. have sought to provide detailed explanations benefits of humanism as an alternative. •

56 FREE INQUIRY board members. He withdrew his daughter from school and started teaching her at home. Last week, he announced that he IN THE NAME OF GOD would ask the Education Department to intervene. "We think something rotten is going on," said Pedry, who formed a Wyoming chapter of Coalition of Concerned Parents Circumventing the Supreme Court based morality in schools you will ultimately About Privacy Rights in Public Schools. teach humanism or atheism. There is no "We're actively trying to get the word out ... On June 4, 1985—by a 6-3 vote—the alternative. The humanists have not only about the Hatch Amendment. ".. . Court declared that even [a moment of declared that they are going to triumph over The amendment prohibits schools from silence] is illegal—if the teacher suggests that the rotting corpse of Christianity, but that conducting psychological tests on students prayer is one option for the students. humanist teachers will become activists in without parental consent.... (Keith Rich- I was absolutely devastated. This is one proclaiming their values in the classroom. burg, LA Times/ Washington Post News of the most severe defeats God-fearing We cannot allow that to happen. The time Service) Americans have suffered at the hands of the has come when Americans need to become Supreme Court... . much more involved in schools, in school Israeli Pigs Are Endangered Species On Wednesday morning, June 5, after boards and in the decisions of the boards or a near sleepless night—I called my dear councils of education in each state. Israel's estimated one million pork-eaters are friend, Senator Jesse Helms—at his home It is absolutely imperative for the future under siege. Two laws pending before near Washington, D.C. The Senator was of our nation that young men and young Parliament—one supported by Prime outraged. women be trained in the principles of the Minister Shimon Peres—would make the But the Senator also sounded very whole Bible, in the principles that undergird sale of pork illegal. determined. He advised me that he had a our freedoms as a nation, in the historic "I think there are three countries in the concrete plan which could overrule the continuity of our country and in the funda- world where there are such laws, " said the Supreme Court in this infamous ruling... . mental values that have made this nation manager of Israel's biggest pork factory, He then told me of Senate Bill 47. This great. (Pat Robertson, in the Saturday Sar-Shalom Eyal. "The first is Libya, the bill allows the U.S. Congress, by a simple Evening Post.) second is Saudi Arabia, and in Iran they majority to vote to take the "prayer" issue are trying to push through such a law but out of the hands of the federal courts... . Minister Uses Violence to Discipline haven't yet. Senator Helms believes he already has "Israel is going quicker than Iran," he a majority vote, in the Senate, favoring SB A minister accused of using sex, degradation said. "We have our Khomeinis too." 47. (Jerry Falwell, in a recent fund-raising and violence to keep his parishioners in line The pig is forbidden by Jewish dietary letter) was convicted of a series of criminal acts, laws—that is, its meat is non-kosher— and his wife, two children and seven other because, unlike the cow, it does not chew its Drama at Baptist Convention followers were found guilty of lesser offenses. cud. Swine are specifically mentioned in the The Rev. Wilbert Thomas Sr., 55-year- Bible: "Of their flesh shall ye not eat," It takes only a minute or so to realize that old founder and self-ordained bishop of the Leviticus says. "They are unclean to you." the Southern Baptist Convention is a very Christian Alliance Holiness Church, was Many secular Israelis, who make up at different gathering from the kind a political convicted of 18 of 22 criminal counts, least two-thirds of the population, have reporter expects... . including conspiracy, atrocious assault and acquired a taste for bacon, ham, pork ribs, When hard-sell fundamentalist W. A. battery and sexual assault. He could receive pork salamis and sausages. And they have Criswell got up to speak Monday night, he up to 110 years in prison. been consuming them in ever-increasing held 20,000 pastors spellbound with accounts Mr. Thomas's wife, Bertha, 55, was volume... . of 100-year-old heresies and the corruption convicted of conspiracy and lewdness. Nine The present Israeli government is a of great Baptist institutions at the hands of of Mr. Thomas's followers were convicted fragile coalition of two major political blocs, Freud and Darwin and the Higher Critics. of aggravated assault.... (Associated Press) Labor and Likud. Because it could fall apart Only when the crowd had grown com- at any moment—a situation in which each pletely still did Criswell thunder at them: Promoting the Hatch Amendment big party would want to form its own coali- "Will God judge atheistic, communistic tion with the smaller religious parties—the Russia? Will he also not judge secularistic, David Pedry, a Caspar, Wyo., geologist, big major parties must strive to keep on hedonistic, humanistic America?" ... (Jeff discovered some things about his local good terms with the Orthodox... . Greenfield, United Press Syndicate) school district that he didn't like. "Our law is not to forbid people to eat His daughter had been asked to read pork, "said Rabbi Avraham Shapira, leader New Morality in Education Judy Blume novels, which Pedry considers of the Agudat Israel party, an Orthodox "secular-humanist pornographic garbage for group. "We are very democratic here. What We are going to see a new,morality in edu- kids." Then he found out that teachers had we want is people not to be able to sell cation. You cannot educate children in a set up a suicide prevention workshop, which pork. It hurts every religious man when he moral vacuum. There is no way that you Pedry feared would allow teachers to deter- passes through a city in Israel and he sees a can teach without teaching some system of mine whether his daughter could be suicidal. shop with pork in the window." . . . moral values. If you do not teach the Pedry petitioned the governor, seeking (Thomas L. Friedman, in the New York Judeo-Christian or some other religiously an investigation. He appealed to local school Times)

Fall 1985 57 (Letters, continued from p. 5) lous cures? Thousands of exotic cases are dation, Box 3349, Arcadia, CA 91006. described each year; nothing resembling The J0HN ALLEGR0 S0CIETY offers: Intro- the interpolation (in words that Prof. Hoff- what is described by the author (other than duction $1, Synopsis Booklet $4 autographed: mann omits) purports to establish. It is the the case of the obstruction) exists in the THE CH0SEN PE0PLE $30, Reedville, VA only New Testament text to do so. I quote literature. 22539-0206. the Authorized Version, putting in brackets But then Dr. Beloff believes miracles SIX RURAL C0MMUNITIES invites visitors/ and italicizing the words that have no have "dried up." This coincidence is rather members. Sane alternative lifestyles! equivalent in the original Greek text: convenient for anyone desiring acceptance Equality. Cooperation. Peace. Self- of the existence of psi without needing to supporting. Write ($1.00 postage): Egali- For there are three that bear record [in trouble himself with scientific proof. How- tarians, Twin 0aks-FQ45, Louisa, VA 23093. heaven, the Father, and the Word, and ever, such capriciousness does provide the Atheist information packet free. AMERICAN the Hoer Ghost: and these three are one. rest of us with a word to describe a "natural" ATHEISTS P.0. Box 2117 Austin, TX 78768- And there are three that bear witness in phenomenon that interferes with other 9989. earth), the spirit, and the water and the natural forces yet is not a permanent part blood: and these three agree in one. BERTRAND RUSSELL S0CIETY. Informa- of the natural landscape. The word is magic, tion: FI, RD1, Box 409, Coopersburg, PA and Dr. Beloff believes in it. 18036. Interpolations of this kind often originate because a scribe has written an interpretation BOOKS Evan R. Kaiser, M.D. or expository expansion of the text on its ATHEIST AND CHRISTIAN lovers clash New York, N.Y. margin, and a later scribe, thinking that the tumultuously over philosophic differences in words in the margin belong to the text, Carl Shapiro's award winning contemporary novel, favorably discussed in the New York inserts them into the copy he is making. Times, "No Candy, No Flowers." Softbound, $7.50 ppd. Independent Publications, Box G. A. Wells CLASSIFIED 162, Paterson, NJ 07513. London, U.K. RATES "GUYANESE SEED 0F S0UL" A New How- Per word (single insertion) To Cookbook of Delicious Caribbean Style Religion and the Paranormal 10-word minimum 50 cents Cuisine. Send $9.95 to R & M Publishing 10% discount for placement in 3 con- Co., Holly Hill, SC 29059. John Beloffs "Science, Religion, and the secutive issues Increase your intelligence and freedom Paranormal" (FI, Spring 1985) was a fine Payment for insertion must accom- through FUTURL0GICS. 144-page book. demonstration of FREE INQUIRY's commit- pany copy. Send $4.95 U.S. to: STP, Box 166, West Jordon, UT 84084. ment to uncensored debate and to the value All classified ads are accepted at the of such debate. Dr. Beloffs arguments discretion of the publisher. THE VANISHING G0DS, a history every illustrate an important general inadequacy For additional information and rates person should read; 6x9 HB, 256 pp. $10.95. in the paranormal case: dependence on for classified display advertising, write: 0rder autographed copy from author; money back guarantee. If not satisfied return historical anecdote. FREE INQUIRY book—purchase price will be refunded. 0r Box 5, Central Park Station Dr. Beloff contends that the major issue send SASE for book review, etc. G.M. Fox, is one of corroboration—that if more than Buffalo, N.Y. 14215-0005 5313 Bakman Ave., Box 235, North Holly- one observer recorded the identical event wood, CA 91601. (in his examples the event is always one of THE CLARION HERITAGE "An unusually human levitation), then one is compelled to SECULAR HUMANIST well-written and interesting work of fiction accept the honesty and accuracy of the DECLARATION that is well off the beaten path. It beautifully account. But corroboration among docu- Endorsed by 58 leaders of thought. Now beats the drum for unconditional self- ments manufactured hundreds of years ago available in handsome booklet form. acceptance, rather than specious self-esteem does not rule out fraud by an individual or that is based on highly conditional religious $2.95 each (plus $1.25 for postage and claptrap. I am delighted to see that this novel group, "honest" fabrication for religious handling) proves that the principles and practices of ends, or mass hysteria (which is, at least, a rational-emotive therapy (RET) can inspire phenomenon well documented by modern Order in bulk: 10 or more copies at highly readable and worthwhile literature." science). The reader suspects the author of 40% discount (plus $3.00 for postage). Albert Ellis, Ph.D., Author of A New Guide attempting to run around end on the to Rational Living. $12.95 ppd. Lotus Press, obviously necessary proof, which is experi- S.H.D. Box 800, Lotus, CA 95651. mental observation. Box 5 Central Park Station Dr. Beloffs examples of "medical cures" "JESUS WHO?" Buffalo, N.Y. 14215 The greatest mystery never told! A new are especially unfortunate. Space does not hard cover book connecting the Dead permit a detailed critique of each case, but ASSOCIATIONS Sea Scrolls to Jesus and Christianity. suffice it to say that lay descriptions of diag- Send $16.00 to Phoenix Unlimited, Suite New England Atheists. Meet other Atheists, noses from 1730 and 1911 simply are inade- 104, 36365 Grand River Ave., Farmington, stay informed. Send $1.00 to AMERICAN Michigan, 48024-1429. quate and that the spontaneous relief of an ATHEISTS, P0 Box 147, East Walpole, MA apparent intestinal obstruction is hardly 02032. AMERICANIZING AMERICA by Frank Rood, miraculous. Does Dr. Beloff really believe HELP ELECT FREED0M! Freedom-support- $3.00 ppd. There is hope. 611 - 2nd Street, that the unparalleled case-scanning and ing, non-party P.A.C. seeks contacts, cor- St. Petersburg, FL 33701. intensive investigation of the modern medical respondents, tax-deductible contributions. 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58 FREE INQUIRY

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Fall 1985 59 The Academy of Humanism The Academy of Humanism was established to recognize distinguished humanists and disseminate humanistic ideals and beliefs. The members of the Academy, listed below, are nontheists who are (1) devoted to free inquiry in all fields of human endeavor, (2) committed to a scientific outlook and the use of the scientific method in acquiring knowledge, and (3) upholders of humanist ethical values and principles. The Academy's goals include furthering respect for human rights and freedom and the dignity of the individual, tolerance of various viewpoints and willingness to compromise, commitment to social justice, a universalistic perspective that transcends national, ethnic, religious, sexual, and racial barriers, and belief in a free and open, pluralistic and democratic society.

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

Secretariat: Vern Bullough, dean of natural sciences, State University of New York College at Buffalo; Antony Flew, professor of philosophy, Reading University, (England); Sidney Hook, professor emeritus of philosophy, New York University; Paul Kurtz, professor of philosophy, SUNY at Buffalo, Editor of FREE INQUIRY; Gerald Larue, professor emeritus of archaeology and biblical studies, University of Southern California at Los Angeles. Executive Director: Steven L. Mitchell. Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER) The Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion was developed to examine the claims of Eastern and Western religions and of well-established and newer sects and denominations in the light of scientific inquiry. The Committee is interdisciplinary, including specialists in biblical scholarship, archaeology, linguistics, anthropology, the social sciences, and philosophy, who represent differing secular and religious traditions. The only criterion for membership on the Committee is commitment to impartial scholarship and the use of objective methods of inquiry. Gerald Larue (Chairman), emeritus professor of archaeology and biblical studies, University of Southern California at Los Angeles; John Allegro, former lecturer in Near Eastern and Old Testament studies, University of Manchester (England); Robert S. Alley, professor of humanities, University of Richmond; Michael Arnheim, professor of ancient history, University of Witwatersrand (South Africa); Joseph Barnhart, professor of philosophy, North Texas State University; Paul Beattie, president, Fellowship of Religious Humanists; H. James Birx, chairman of Anthropology/ Sociology Department, Canisius College; Vern Bullough, dean of natural and social sciences, State University of New York College at Buffalo; Joseph Fletcher, theologian, former professor of medical ethics, University of Virginia Medical School; Antony Flew, professor of philosophy, Reading University (England); Van Harvey, professor of religion, Stanford University; Sidney Hook, professor emeritus of philosophy, New York University; Paul Kurtz, professor of philosophy, State University of New York at Buffalo; William V. Mayer, director, Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, University of Colorado; Delos McKown, professor of philosophy, Auburn University; Lee Nisbet, associate professor of philosophy, Medaille College; George Smith, president, Signature Books; A. T. Steegman, professor of anthropology, State University of New York at Buffalo; G. A. Wells, professor of German, Birkbeck College, University of London (England); Steven L. Mitchell (ex officio), executive director, Academy of Humanism.

Biblical Criticism Research Project (CSER Subcommittee) The Biblical Criticism Research Project (Subcommittee) was founded to help disseminate the results of biblical scholarship—studies in comparative religion, folklore, scientific archaeology, and literary analysis. It investigates the claim that the Bible is divinely inspired; the historical evidence for Jesus and other Bible personalities; the role of religious myth, symbol, and ritual; and the possibility of basing morality upon reason and experience instead of biblical doctrine. The Research Project's goals include compiling bibliographies of the best sources of information about the Bible, publishing articles and monographs about different facets of biblical research, and convening seminars and conferences. R. Joseph Hoffmann (Chairman), associate professor of biblical studies, University of Michigan; David Noel Freedman, professor of Old Testament, University of Michigan; Randel Helms, professor of English, Arizona State University; Robert Joly, professor of philosophy, Centre Interdisciplinaire d'Etudes Philosophiques de l'Universite de Mons (Belgium); Carol Meyers, professor of religion, Duke University; James Robinson, director, Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont College; John F. Priest, professor and chairman, Department of Religion, Florida State University; Morton Smith, professor of history, Columbia University; Steven L. Mitchell (ex officio), executive director, Academy of Humanism.