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RONALD A. LINDSAY: Do We Want to Convert the Religious?

CELEBRATING REASON AND HUMANITY April / May 2011 Vol. 31 No.3

Facing Misery: Confronting Illness, Even Death, without a Prayer

JENNIFER HECHT CHRIS MOONEY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS ARTHUR CAPLAN SHADIA DRURY

NAT HENTOFF Introductory Price $4.95 U.S. / $4.95 Can. EDMUND COHEN 05 KATRINA VOSS

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The mission of the is to foster a secular society based Transnational on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. The Center for Inquiry is a supporting organization of the Council for , publisher of FREE INQUIRY. FI Apr May 11 cut_Layout 1 2/24/11 12:03 PM Page 3

April/May 2011 Vol. 31 No. 3

18 Facing Misery: Confronting Illness, Even Death, without a Prayer Introduction Tom Flynn

19 Hastening Death: Moral and Legal Perspectives Ronald A. Lindsay

23 You’ve Got No Right Cautionary thoughts on suicide and advanced chronic illness Jennifer Michael Hecht CELEBRATING REASON AND HUMANITY 25 Reader Essays

39 Caroline vs. Smallpox How one woman defeated man’s greatest enemy Luis Granados

43 Harold Camping and the Second Stillborn Apocalypse Edmund D. Cohen

EDITORIAL 15 Educating the Whole Student REVIEWS 4 Do We Want to Convert the Religious? Nat Hentoff 57 Multi-Secularism: A New Agenda Ronald A. Lindsay by Paul Kurtz 16 Mr. Smart, Heroman, and God Reviewed by Floris van den Berg LEADING QUESTIONS Tom Rees 7 The Future of Irreligion, Part 1 59 Investigating Christian Privilege A conversation with Barry A. Kosmin 17 Unreasonable Optimism and Religious Oppression in the Steven Doloff United States LETTERS edited by Warren J. Blumenfeld, DEPARTMENTS Khyati Y. Joshi, and Ellen E. Fairchild 11 51 Church-State Update Reviewed by Tom Flynn Political Tsunamis OP-EDS Edd Doerr 61 An Enlightened : 8 Who Stands for Us? Can an Atheist Believe Anything? Tom Flynn 53 Great by Geoff Crocker Huckleberry Finn, American Secularist Reviewed by Robert M. Price 9 Egypt: Islamism Meets Realism Reid Hardaway Christopher Hitchens 62 Fading Faith: The Rise of 54 Living without the Secular Age 12 Right Problem, Wrong Solution Is There a Place for by James A. Haught Arthur Caplan in Humanism? Reviewed by Edd Doerr John Shook 13 The Booger on ’s Finger POEMS Katrina Voss 55 Humanism at Large Dorothy Sutton A Revolutionary Syllogism: Logic 38 Arts and Sciences: Finding Design 14 Is Liberalism the Heir of Christianity? and the Declaration of Independence Shadia B. Drury Chris Edwards 60 Icarus Dreams of Darwin FI Apr May 11 cut_Layout 1 2/25/11 4:35 PM Page 4

Editorial Staff Ronald A. Lindsay Editorial Editor Thomas W. Flynn Associate Editors John R. Shook, Lauren Becker Managing Editor Andrea Szalanski Columnists Arthur Caplan, Richard Dawkins, Edd Doerr, Shadia B. Drury, Nat Hentoff, Christopher Hitchens, Wendy Kaminer, Tibor R. Machan, Tom Rees, Katrina Voss Do We Want to Convert the Religious? Senior Editors Bill Cooke, Richard Dawkins, Edd Doerr, James A. Haught, Jim Herrick, Gerald A. Larue, Ronald A. Lindsay, Taslima Nasrin Contributing Editors Roy P. Fairfield, Charles o we want to convert the reli- First, there is harmful behavior that is self- Faulkner, Levi Fragell, Adolf Grünbaum, Marvin gious? Should one of the primary regarding. Second, there is harmful behav- Kohl, Thelma Lavine, Dfunctions of organizations such as ior that consists of trying to force religious Lee Nisbet, J.J.C. Smart, the Council for Secular Humanism and the beliefs on others. Third, there is harmful Thomas Szasz Center for Inquiry be to persuade the reli- behavior not directly connected to the Ethics Editor Elliot D. Cohen Literary Editor Park Musella gious to abandon their beliefs? To answer imposition of religious beliefs that mani- Assistant Editors Julia Lavarnway these questions properly, we should first fests in patterns of conduct or support for Gretchen McCormack ask: What objectives would be served by certain policies that are seriously detrimen- Permissions Editor Julia Lavarnway converting the religious? tal to others. Art Director Christopher S. Fix The exact nature of religious Perhaps some may disagree, but I think Production Paul E. Loynes Sr. varies from person to person but usually that in almost all instances, beliefs that involves commitment to the existence of a produce disadvantageous self-regarding Council for Secular Humanism , including a deity. We be havior provide insufficient justification Chair Richard K. Schroeder who are not religious have (presumably) for concerted efforts to disabuse individu- Board of Directors Kendrick Frazier, David examined the relevant evidence and have als of such beliefs. Religion can and does Henehan, Dan Kelleher, found it insufficient to support the claims produce false hopes, but so do love and Angie McQuaig, Richard K. Schroeder, of the religious as they relate to the exis- dreams of playing professional football. I’m Edward Tabash, tence of a being or beings that transcend not saying that we should be indifferent to Jonathan Tobert, the natural world. Simply expressed, the those who are building their lives around Leonard Tramiel Chief Executive Officer Ronald A. Lindsay religious hold false beliefs. an . We should certainly confront Executive Director Thomas W. Flynn But so what if the religious hold false them with reality when the appropriate Director, Campus and beliefs? Does that by itself make any dif- occasion presents itself. But I am saying Community Programs (CFI) Lauren Becker ference to us? Undoubtedly, you and I may that the false hopes engendered by some Director, Secular Organizations for Sobriety Jim Christopher be mistaken about many things, such as religious beliefs are not a sufficient reason Director, African Americans the identity of the last Hapsburg monarch, for devoting significant time and effort to for Humanism Debbie Goddard the contents of the standard model of par- persuading the religious to give up their Vice President of Planning and Development (CFI) Sherry Rook ticle physics, or the maintenance record of beliefs. Director of Libraries (CFI) Timothy Binga Saabs. But these mistakes do not appear However, for many—but, importantly, Communications Director Michelle Blackley Database Manager (CFI) Jacalyn Mohr to appear to cause much consternation, not all—of the religious, belief is not pure- Staff Pat Beauchamp, Ed Beck, nor to inspire movements to combat delu- ly a personal matter. To the contrary, many Melissa Braun, Shirley sional admiration for Saabs. of the religious actively seek to convert Brown, Cheryl Catania, Eric Therefore, if we think it’s desirable to others. Moreover, they often seek to Chinchón, Matt Cravata, Roe Giambrone, Leah make an effort to persuade the religious impose their beliefs by enlisting the sup- Gordon, Jason Gross, to give up their beliefs, it must be because port of the government. This support can Adam Issac, Lisa Nolan, Paul Paulin, Dan Riley, some not-insignificant number of religious range from laws prohibiting individuals Anthony Santa Lucia, believers are motivated by their religious from abandoning their religion or criticiz- John Sullivan, beliefs to shape their behavior in ways ing it (such as the laws forbidding aposta- Christopher Szczygiel, Vance Vigrass considered undesirable or harmful. I sug- sy and blasphemy in some Islamic coun- gest there are three broad categories into tries) to laws that passively support reli- Executive Director Emerita Jean Millholland which such harmful behavior might fit. gion by allowing religious symbols to be

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displayed on public property. Whatever the lack thereof, may not make much dif- form government support for religion ference to a person’s moral character, it takes, it is wrong. It is a violation of free- can make a difference in the types of dom of conscience. Everyone should be behavior one considers morally appropri- FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published bimonthly by free to come to his or her own conclusions ate and, perhaps even more important, in the Council for Secular Humanism, a nonprofit educational about the existence of the supernatural the public policy one supports. Many— corporation, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Phone (716) 636-7571. Fax (716) 636-1733. Copyright ©2010 by without compulsion, prodding, or over- but, again, not all—of the religious aspire the Council for Secular Humanism. All rights reserved. No sight by the state. to base public policy on their religious part of this periodical may be reproduced without permission of the publisher. Periodicals postage paid at Buffalo, N.Y., and But notice that although religious beliefs. In the United States, religiously at additional mailing offices. National distribution by Disticor. beliefs surely motivate some of the reli- motivated individuals provide much of the FREE INQUIRY is indexed in Philosophers’ Index. Printed in the United States. Postmaster: Send address changes to FREE gious to use the government as a crutch support for continuing the ban on same- INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Opinions for their beliefs, other individuals who are sex marriage, restricting or eliminating expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or publisher. No one speaks on behalf of the Council for religious are staunch defenders of church- access to abortion, prohibiting stem-cell Secular Humanism unless expressly stated. state separation. Indeed, in the United research, teaching creationism in public TO SUBSCRIBE OR RENEW States, the individuals responsible for pro- schools, promoting abstinence-only sex Call TOLL-FREE 800-458-1366 (have credit card handy). viding us with constitutional guarantees education, and so forth. In other coun- Fax credit-card order to 716-636-1733. of religious freedom were all Internet: www.secularhumanism.org. religious to some degree Mail: FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. (although some, such as Subscription rates: $35.00 for one year, $58.00 for two years, $84.00 for three years. Foreign orders add $10 per Thomas Jefferson, were tepid year for surface mail. Foreign orders send U.S. funds drawn deists). In other words, it’s pos- on a U.S. bank; American Express, Discover, MasterCard, or “So what if the religious hold false Visa are preferred. sible for a person to be religious beliefs? ... Undoubtedly, you and I may Single issues: $5.95 each. Shipping is by surface mail in and also support a secular gov- U.S. (included). Single issues outside U.S.: Canada 1–$2.07; ernment. So if we are con- be mistaken about many things, such as 2–3 $4.81; 4–6 $7.00. Other foreign: 1–$4.60; 2–3 $10.56; 4–6 $13.95. cerned about combating pref- the identity of the last Hapsburg erential treatment for religion, CHANGE OF ADDRESS monarch, the contents of the standard Mail changes to FREE INQUIRY, ATTN: Change of Address, it’s not necessary to persuade model of particle physics, or the P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. the religious to become athe- Call Customer Service: 716-636-7571, ext. 302. ists; we need only persuade maintenance record of Saabs.” E-mail: [email protected].

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nonreligious. Belief in God does not make With respect to this category of harm, it ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS someone a bad person, nor does rejection seems it would be beneficial to persuade Complete submission guidelines can be found on the web at www.secularhumanism.org/fi/details.html. of the supernatural necessarily result in a the religious to change their beliefs, but we Requests for mailed guidelines and article submissions should virtuous life. Of course, humanists profess must be careful not to make a hasty over- be addressed to: Article Submissions, ATTN: Tom Flynn, FREE to embrace certain core ethical principles, generalization. Especially in Western coun- INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. but we humanists—just like our fellow tries, many religious persons do not seek to LETTERS TO THE EDITOR humans—do not always act consistently impose their views on others or to utilize Send submissions to Letters Editor, FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. with respect to the ethical norms we religious dogmas as the basis for public pol- For letters intended for publication, please include name, espouse. Indeed, some of the biggest hyp- icy (perhaps because there isn’t much room address (including city and state), and daytime telephone num- ber (for verification purposes only). Letters should be 300 words ocrites I have known are humanists who for dogma in their religious beliefs). Along or fewer and pertain to previous FREE INQUIRY articles. speak and write eloquently about human- with humanists, they believe that we should The mission of the Council for Secular Humanism is to advo- ist values. One’s metaphysics is simply not have a secular state and base public policy cate and defend a nonreligious lifestance rooted in science, a reliable predictor of one’s moral charac- on secular concerns and empirical evidence. naturalistic philosophy, and humanist ethics and to serve and ter. Accordingly, improvements in person- It is not so much religious belief in and support adherents of that lifestance. al morality cannot be a reason for per- of itself that is of concern to us but the suading the religious that their beliefs are of all too many of the religious in error. that their doctrines should be reflected in However, although religious belief, or the laws and regulations that govern us all

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and, furthermore, that they need not pro- sary to convert all, or even most, of the ly. Truth is an important value, and fidelity to vide any justification for their support for religious. We simply need to ensure that a the truth should operate as a constraint on a particular public-policy other than “God sufficient number of individuals are com- our conduct. On the other hand, we don’t says so.” If we are to have a truly demo- mitted to the principles of secularism. live in a philosophical debating society. Most cratic society, we need most of the people That might require persuading some reli- of us are primarily concerned with issues to break free of this mindset. There is one gious to become nonreligious—because such as whether women can continue to clear prerequisite for democratic discourse they would not accept secularism other- have the full range of reproductive rights, to be successful: the participants in that wise—but only relatively few. And that’s a whether the government can support stem- discussion must be able to understand, good thing, because most of us atheists cell research, and whether evolution will be evaluate, and debate reasons that others don’t find missionary work attractive or taught in public schools. In other words, we offer for their views. That is not possible if productive. are primarily concerned with issues that religious doctrine is offered as a justifica- I’ve spent a bit of time reasoning have practical importance and conse- tion for public-policy positions. You can- through the question of whether our focus quences. Prevailing in an argument on the not argue with someone’s faith. should be on religious conversion, not only existence of God is a good thing, but only So we do need the religious to accept because it is helpful for understanding the infrequently does it have significant conse- that discourse about public policy should mission of our organizations (you will note quences. Even the theists whose beliefs be framed entirely in secular terms, and that in neither the mission statement of have been exposed as intellectually bank- that decisions about public-policy should CFI nor the Council is there any reference rupt rarely abandon those beliefs or modify be based entirely on secular considera- to conversion of the religious) but also their behavior. because it places in appro- In deciding what tactics to use, two priate perspective the dis- things should be foremost in our considera- agreements between so- tion: our integrity and our objectives. As to “However, for many ... religious, called accommodationists the former, Myers is spot-on. We cannot and so-called confrontation- compromise on the truth. But there are a lot belief is not purely a personal matter. alists. As some of you know, of different propositions that are true, and To the contrary, ... they often seek at the thirtieth-an niversary which ones we choose to emphasize should to impose their beliefs by enlisting the conference of the Council be affected by our objectives. To provide a support of the government.” this past October, we had a concrete example: if I can convince a person panel discussion devoted to that the state has no business looking to this topic, with PZ Myers religious doctrine for guidance on abortion and Victor Stenger debating without addressing the question of whether Chris Mooney and Eugenie there is a God, why would I spend time and tions. For some, that may mean they must Scott on the ap proaches and tactics to be energy on the latter issue? Moreover, I may first stop believing in the supernatural used in dealing with the religious and their not particularly care whether that person, in because their religion so pervades their beliefs. [Highlights of this dialogue will be the privacy of her own home, prays for an thinking and their life that they cannot featured in the June/July 2011 issue of FREE end to abortion, provided she supports the conceive of reasoning about ethics and INQUIRY.—EDS.] All of the panelists defend- legal right of all women to decide for them- policy matters in secular term until they ed their views ably, but what struck me selves whether to bear a child. stop believing in spirits. Of course, these was how little difference there was among Jefferson, who is a source of wisdom on are precisely the religious individuals who them. Moreover, I came away from that many things, may have put it best when he are the most difficult to reason with, so the discussion thinking that even these differ- said, “It does me no injury for my neighbor odds of persuading them that their reli- ences might be diminished if we first con- to say there are twenty gods or no god. It gious beliefs are unfounded are low—but sider what our objectives should be prior neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” the probability is not zero. to deciding what tactics to use in dealing Except to the extent that the religious are To sum up: if religion were purely a with particular religious individuals and motivated by their beliefs to pick our pock- personal matter, the religious beliefs of institutions. ets or break our legs, their beliefs, as absurd others would be of little concern to us. During the panel discussion, Myers elo- as they may be, should not be a matter of What we are principally concerned with is quently defended the proposition that athe- significant concern. support for secularism. We want a secular ists should never be untruthful, state; we want nonbelievers to be treated either about their own beliefs or Ronald A. Lindsay is president and CEO of the Center for fairly and equally; and we want public pol- about the implications of sci- Inquiry and the Council for Secular Humanism. He drives a icy to be free of religious influence. To ence, including the facts about Saab. achieve these objectives, it is not neces- evolution. I agree wholehearted-

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Leading Questions

The Future of Irreligion, Part 1 A conversation with Barry A. Kosmin

Barry A. Kosmin is director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture and a sociologist and research pro- fessor in the public policy and law program at Trinity College in Connecticut. He is the nation’s leading expert on the growing per- centage of Americans who lack a religious identity, the so-called Nones. He’s been a principle investigator of the American Religious Identification Survey since it began in 1990. His publications include One Nation Under God: Religion and Contemporary American Society (with Seymour P. Lach - man, Crown Publishers, 1993) and Religion in a Free Market: Religious and Non- Religious Americans (with Ariela Keysar, Paramount Market Publishers, 2006). On a than doubled. That would suggest that Only 50 percent of the population be - recent episode of , the about fourteen million to thirty-four million longs to a religious congregation or claims Center for Inquiry’s podcast, science jour- adults, extrapolated from our sample, have to be affiliated with one. For questions nalist and host Chris Mooney spoke with no religion and don’t identify with any of such as, “Are you going to have a reli- Dr. Kosmin about how the country is the myriad of religious groups and organi- gious funeral?,” about 27 percent of the changing in regard to religion, why this zations in the marketplace of religion, population say they don’t particularly change is occurring, and its implications for which is apparently pretty well stocked. want one. Okay, so that’s a “no religion” secular advocacy and the separation of MOONEY: But they’re not all atheists, answer, but the number of people who church and state. right? want the clergy to see them off is larger KOSMIN: The Nones are an amalgam of than the number of people who say they CHRIS MOONEY: What direction is the nontheists and deists and people who have no religion, and it is much larger country headed with respect to its reli- don’t identify with any religion. You’ve than the number of people who say that gious identity? What does the American got the antireligious, the irreligious, the they’re atheists. These are kind of shades Reli gious Identification Survey and its find- religiously indifferent, deists, agnostics, of grey, if you see evangelicals as white ings about the so-called Nones tell us? atheists, anticlericalists, skeptics, secular- and atheists as black, or vice versa, BARRY A. KOSMIN: The United States ists, humanists, et cetera, et cetera. according to your disposition. But, there’s Census is precluded from asking questions “What is your religion, if any?” is a a thousand shades of grey in between, about people’s religion or religious identi- belonging question. Now, when you ask and there are a lot of people in that mid- fication. So, beginning in 1990 we’ve con- people a belief question such as, “Does dle ground, where they’re happy with ducted what we might call a “time series” God exist?,” that’s where you’re going to beliefs that may be slightly contradictory survey—the American Religious Identifica - find many more people being atheist. or haven’t even been worked out. tion Survey (ARIS). At three points in time, The atheist population of the country is MOONEY: We often hear about mem- we asked a very large number of people, pretty small. Atheists and agnostics gen- bers of the millennial generation that they anywhere between 50,000 and 114, 000, erally are less than 2 percent of the pop- say in surveys, “I’m not very religious, but a very simple question: “What is your reli- ulation, and we’re talking here about 15 I’m quite spiritual.” Are those the same gion, if any?” percent, so there’s a lot of people among kind of people as the Nones or something Since we started recording data in the Nones who may be believers, but different? 1990, the proportion of Americans saying they’re not belongers. A lot of these peo- KOSMIN: Well, that’s a belief question. “no religion”—what we might call secular- ple don’t belong and maybe believe, but If they answer, “Yeah, well, I’m kind of ist, nontheist replies—has gone up from 7 a large number of them don’t behave Buddhist and spiritual,” or say that they’re percent to 14 or 15 percent, so it’s more very religiously. (Continued on page 46)

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Tom Flynn OP-ED

Who Stands for Us?

n the day the 112th Congress was What’s most striking about Pew’s find- sume. The roster of six senators and con- seated, the Pew Research Center’s ings is who else goes unrepresented in the gresspeople who stated no religious affilia- OForum on Religion and Public Life 112th Congress. tion did not include Rep. Pete Stark (D- reported on its religious composition. Us. Calif.), who identified himself to Pew as a Pew’s press release reported that “the As you read the following, keep re- Uni tarian Universalist. Of course, Stark is 112th Congress, like the U.S. public, is minding yourself: I’m not reading some- the only serving member of Congress who majority Protestant and about a quarter thing Tom Flynn wrote. This isn’t an analy- in other forums has publicly affirmed that Catholic. Baptists and Methodists are the sis by Americans United or the Secular he is an atheist. As a result, the only open largest Protestant denominations in the Coalition for America. These are the words atheist in the House of Representatives did new Congress, just as they are in the of the mainstream, tending-toward-vanil- not appear among the six members of country as a whole.” la, generally faith-friendly Pew Re search Congress who would not identify a reli- Dig a little deeper, and things become Center: gious affiliation but rather is one of only less perfectly proportional. Pew judges The greatest disparity between the reli- two members counted under “Other that Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Jews gious makeup of Congress and the Faiths.” By the way, if you were counting are somewhat overrepresented. Hindus people it represents, however, is in the on Rep. (D-Mass.) or Sen. and Jehovah’s Witnesses go unrepresent- percentage of the unaffiliated—those Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to make the list, Pew who describe their religion as atheist, ed. But Buddhists and , Pew agnostic or “nothing in particular.” has them down as Jewish. declares, are “represented in Congress in Only six members of the 112th Con - Who are the six unaffiliated members roughly equal proportion to their numbers gress (about 1 percent) do not specify a of Congress? They are Rep. Judy Chu (D- in the adult U.S. population.” (One won- religious affiliation and none say they Calif.); Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.); are unaffiliated. By contrast, about one- ders how that judgment was reached for sixth (16 percent) of U.S. adults are not Reps. John W. Olver and John F. Tierney Muslim Americans when there’s so little affiliated with any particular faith. (both D-Mass.); Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D- Ore.); and Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.). That’s right. The absence Are any of them atheists, agnostics, or of nonreligious people in secular humanists? Are they spiritual seek- Congress is so glaring that in ers temporarily between churches? Were a press release that boiled a “. . . The only open atheist in the House their aides simply too busy to check a box nine-page report* down to under the religion question? I don’t know. of Representatives did not appear among fewer than three hundred If any would like to speak to the public on words, an authority no less the six members of Congress who would this issue, I’ll open space for them in the mom-and-apple-pie than the not identify a religious affiliation next issue. Pew Research Cen ter spent Of course, six is not enough. Let’s see: but rather is one of only two members roughly a quarter of those there are 435 representatives and 100 words lamenting it! counted under ‘Other Faiths.’” senators—16 percent of that is roughly If you’re a well-informed eighty-five members of Congress. That’s secularist, the underrepresen- what real representation would look like. tation of nonbelievers is actu- Does that seem too blue-sky? Then ally worse than you might as - consider that of that 16 percent of Amer - agreement on how numerous they are; *Available online at http://pewforum.org/ icans without religious affiliation, about a Government/Faith-on-the-Hill—The-Religious- figures from 600,000 to nine million have third are self-identified atheists and agnos- Composition-of-the-112th-Congress.aspx. For credentialed adherents, while mainstream a name-by-name breakdown, see http://pew- tics. Another third are what the demogra- estimates range anywhere between two forum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Issues/Govern and six million.) ment/religious_affiliation_2011.pdf. (Continued on page 47)

8 FREE INQUIRY APRIL / MAY 2011 secularhumanism.org FI Apr May 11 cut_Layout 1 2/22/11 10:05 AM Page 9

Christopher Hitchens OP-ED

Egypt: Islamism Meets Realism

don’t think that a single newspaper or gan as a sinister one, in that it expresses and intensified: these deformities are seen magazine article on Egypt has ever the totalitarian idea that one religion real- at their most vividly repulsive when har- Ifailed to mention the presence, in the ly is “the solution” in all matters, whether nessed to jihad. wings of Egyptian politics, of the Muslim public or private. But, when measured So we can certainly expect to see peo- Brotherhood. It’s one of those learned ref- against the , one can’t help notic- ple in Egypt, their foreheads bruised with erences that is de rigueur for every com- ing that it is also a rather pathetic slogan. piety, yelling that all will be well if only mentator and analyst. Yet it was notable, In what respect is Islam (in its Sunni ver- Sharia can be enforced. But one also sens- as both the Egyptian and the Tunisian sion, just for now) “the solution” to any es that many Egyptians, accustomed regimes began to crumble in January, that of the problems I’ve just listed? Is it possi- enough by the of a fake the local branches and equivalents of the ble that, with a part of themselves, the democracy and a pseudo-modernity to Brother hood seemed to be as thunder- leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood actually demand the real thing, are immune to struck as everyone else. True, some have understand this and are thus slightly reluc- such appeals. If you drew a graph of the suggested that the Islamists are playing a tant to take on the responsi- longer game and waiting for an opportu- bility of running this vast nity to seize control—as, under vastly dif- nation and society? ferent circumstances, they managed to do Of course, if experience in Iran after the revolution of 1979. was a teacher, then the It is notable that as the Tunisian and An alternative way of thinking about appeal of Islamist propa- this occurs to me. Consider the immensity ganda would necessarily be Egyptian regimes crumbled, the Muslim of Egypt’s problems. It has millions more much less than it really is. Brotherhood seemed as thunderstruck educated people than it can find work for Probably the most out- as everyone else. and an enormous class of peasants and standing instance of state laborers whose existence is a daily strug- failure on record is that of gle for mere survival. Egypt depends enor- Pakistan, which attempted mously for its economic viability on being to make religion into the able to offer hospitality to Western very definition of nationali- tourists (which is why Mubarak’s earlier ty and has suffered ever since from every Muslim world that showed a ranking by crackdown on Muslim fanatics who form of regionalism and tribalism (includ- prosperity and at least partial democracy, attacked visitors to the Pyramids and the ing the secession of Bangladesh after a it would match the degree of openness of Valley of the Kings was widely popular). horrific Muslim-on-Muslim slaughter in the different countries to secular influ- The peace treaty with Israel is resented by 1971) as well as staggering corruption, ence. Bosnia, Albania, Tunisia, Indonesia, many citizens, but no serious person deep poverty, and military dictatorship. Malaysia, and Turkey (these in no especial that Egypt could even hope to These problems do not stop many Paki- order) are relatively flourishing. Something fight another war with the Jewish state. stanis from demanding that the country similar could be said of the autonomous One in ten Egyptians is a Christian. Egypt’s become more theocratic rather than less. Kurdish area in Iraq. Whereas religious immediate southern neighbor, Sudan, has In neighboring Afghanistan, too, there are absolutism, whether in power or in its so- just seen the secession of a huge swath of people willing to commit murder in order called insurgent form, has beggared an its territory, led by Africans who want to to increase the already strong grip of fun- extremely wealthy country (Iran), come escape a brutal Islamic regime. This by no damentalism on a chronically backward close to ruining a potentially wealthy means exhausts the complexities. society. Religion in general suffers from country (Iraq), and reduced Afghanistan The slogan of the Muslim Brother - the absence of a self-critical faculty and and Somalia to a level of chaos and misery hood—in effect its only slogan—is “Islam from the dismal belief that faith is a virtue Is the Solution.” I certainly regard this slo- in itself and only needs to be redoubled (Continued on page 47)

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Letters

ing him correctly) I agree on this issue. The Real Challenge for the While no one should be taxed to pay for Catholic Church religious proselytizing, there is no compa- rably broad protection against being taxed Wendy Kaminer needs to push the envelop to support activities one finds merely a little further when she properly sticks that morally objectionable—and that’s as secular label on the Catholic Church things should be. There’s a clear justifica- (“Angry Atheists vs. The Catholic Church,” tion for this seeming inconsistency, and FI, February/March 2011). This institution, it lies in the religion clauses of the First whose raison d’etre is to defend the faith of Amendment, which restrict government its adherents, to promulgate the mystery of more harshly when it deals with religion the Trinity, and to declare the oneness of than when it deals with any other activity God has made absolutely no effort to men- or institution. Because the establishment tion or explain the absence of the Almighty clause, properly understood, forbids gov- in the global child-abuse scandal. Every ernment to levy taxes to fund religious apology from the Vatican is a secular apol- , Amer icans enjoy a right not to ogy. Either the offending priests are atypi- be taxed for that purpose. I wonder if cal of the clergy, or they need counseling, reader Moffett would agree with me that or their were concerned about public funding for abortion should be their civil rights, or there is some other sec- Freedom and Funding acceptable, since such funding would be ular explanation. But where does basic appropriated for a secular purpose (say, Catholic theology fit into the picture? While Tom Flynn and I do not share the health care). Christian taxpayers who con- Where was the intervention from a merci- same view on the purpose of the “wall” of sider abortion a sin may have strong moral ful God or Jesus that would have protect- separation between church and state, I do objection to being taxed for this purpose, ed the children from bodily harm? find myself agreeing with him in principle but that constitutes no establishment Is it possible that the Vatican is more and specifics in “One (National) Step Back, clause case against the government’s levy- worried about the theological implications One (Local) Step Forward” (FI, February/ ing such a tax. of this astonishing failure of their God to March 2011). As a strongly conservative intercede than they are about settling the Christian, I am in full agreement with the dozens of impending global lawsuits? statement “. . . No free man or woman The Pope on Condoms After all, if a loving and caring God won’t should be forced to surrender his or her protect his children from the perversions Christopher Hitchens’ column, “Lost in wealth to support the forcible imposition of his own priests, then how can the Translation,” in the February/March 2011 of religious creeds.” I do not want it im- Church ask their ebbing congregations to issue of FREE INQUIRY is, as usual, informative posed upon me, and I do not want it im - believe in the existence of God or in the and insightful. I submit, however, it is just posed upon others (and as a side note, it Church’s teachings? That’s why the as good or even better to regard the pope’s goes against the teachings of Christianity). Church fathers seem to prefer focusing on recent comments on condoms as a fit sub- It is a slippery slope, and the ramifications the secular issues of this monstrous scan- ject for irreverent humor, riposting them should scare anyone. But all that being dal. No clergy in St. Peter’s Basilica wants ironically rather than analyzing them seri- said, I do not believe that no free man or to deal with the very embarrassing ously. For example, in light of the pope’s woman should be forced to surrender his $64,000 question: Where was God in all recent remarks on condoms, a lot of mar- or her wealth to support those things that this mess? I would hope that the world ried Catholic women are now finding out they have moral opposition to. When press, including FREE INQUIRY, would have to their surprise that their husbands are Flynn finds a solution to our mutual prob- the courage to ask this question and push male prostitutes protecting them from the lem, let me know. I would love to hear it! the Church for a straightforward response. spread of disease. How ever, it’s still a big A. Nelson Moffett David Werdegar Vatican no-no to use condoms to prevent Sevierville, Tennessee Naperville, Illinois the spread of a common nine-month dis- ease! (Which is, of course, unintended Tom Flynn replies: pregnancy.) A tip of the hat to one of our conservative George Fish Christian readers, with whom (if I’m read- Indianapolis, Indiana (Continued on page 63)

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Arthur Caplan OP-ED

Right Problem, Wrong Solution

rancis Collins, director of the National eager to lower costs and escape red tape— one of the few successes in research over Institutes of Health (NIH), has an- is rapidly outsourcing clinical research over- the past two decades: finding treatments Fnounced a plan to create a new pro- seas, where ethical standards may be less for HIV by speeding access to trials. HIV gram to jump-start the development of new strict and the integrity of data less sound. activist groups insisted that patients dying drugs and therapies. The new National Given this bitterly disappointing state of AIDS and those infected with HIV be Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of affairs, it is understandable why the NIH given faster access to clinical trials. They will have the mission of trying to bring prom- might want to try kick-starting drug de- worked with researchers, review boards, ising basic NIH research closer to clinical tri- velop ment with a new program. But this and the Food and Drug Administration to als. To make this happen, cuts in other NIH effort by itself is likely to fail. expedite the process of clinical testing. It programs will have to be made. One pro- Why? First, the new Center has a worked. We now have a variety of drugs gram, the National Center for Research budget of only a billion dollars—not that that have changed HIV infection from a Resources, which awards grants to fund much when it comes to developing drugs, lethal disease to a chronic one. researchers and equipment, is on the chop- vaccines, or devices. Second, the NIH has Congress should move to enact legisla- ping block. Is this is a trade-off worth trying? little of the needed infrastructure in place tion that permits the terminally ill; those The push to find new drugs has stalled to facilitate moving from making discover- facing irreversible, gravely disabling physical badly over the past decade. Few new ther- ies in the lab to manufacturing safe prod- or mental impairments such as blindness or apies have emerged from the NIH’s research ucts. The final, most significant problem is dementia; or those whose serious chronic efforts involving mental illness, for exam- the poor rate of recruitment for domestic ple—with no real breakthroughs against clinical trials of new drugs and therapies. illnesses defy all current efforts at treatment Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, severe depres- Many promising trials simply cannot attract to assume greater risks as classes of poten- sion, or any other major disorders. Nor has enough Amer ican subjects, and creating tial subjects. It is time to extend the fast- much been made in the fight the new NIH program will do nothing to track model that worked for AIDS to other against Parkinsonism, diabetes, obesity, address that issue. classes of potential re search subjects. stroke, tuberculosis, lung cancer, multiple Ultimately, this is a problem of ethics. True, early stage clinical research is dan- sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, For far too long, the foundation of re search gerous and often nonbeneficial. But even Huntington’s, muscular dystrophy, sickle ethics in the United States has been the knowing that, some in the most dire cate- cell, or ovarian cancer, despite many billions assumption that subjects need to be pro- gories of the ill and dying may still choose to spent by the NIH on research and many bil- tected when involved in research. The become involved. By creating a new catego- lions more raised through charitable giving. rationale for this line of thinking dates back ry under which the seriously ill and dying can The pharmaceutical industry—which, to the infamous Tuskegee study and a long enter trials even when little or no animal given its profits, ought to be leading the parade of inexcusable abuses of human data are in place or when optimal dosing war against disease—is in a deep research subjects during the 1960s and ’70s. and mode of administration have yet to be rut. Despite spending more than the NIH Although subjects continue to need to determined—fully understanding, of course, on research, its companies have little to give , to know about conflicts of the grim realities of the gamble involved— show for their efforts. Their response has interest, and to rely on sound peer review our nation may be able to boost the pace of been merger after merger in hopes of cov- of the protocols they are asked to enter, research. A new NIH institute is an OK idea. far too many seriously ill Americans find ering up one molecular dry hole after A new ethic of research that can serve the another. Worse, in trying to milk the last the road to needed clinical trials hindered interests of those who have run out of treat- ounce of profit out of their trickling by too much red tape, bureaucracy, and ment options is a better one. pipelines, Big Pharma companies have be - paternalism. It is time to come entangled in a seemingly endless modify U.S. re search ethics Arthur Caplan is the Sidney D. Caplan Professor of Bioethics and series of patent wars, dubious marketing by creating a new class of the director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of campaigns, recalls, lawsuits, and enormous human subject. Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. fines. At the same time, the industry— We need to learn from

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Katrina Voss OP-ED

The Booger on Atheism’s Finger

humanist friend of mine recently Take the most exasperating example. my eighteen-year-old stepson graduated learned that his reputation had been “Hitler was an atheist” has become the high school having been taught that the Aunfairly tarnished many years ago great booger we can’t seem to shake off September 11, 2001, hijackers were athe- when he was in medical school. Some - our fingers. No, as our greatest representa- ists. Of course, my husband’s and my first how, his name had become associated tives have ex plained tediously, time and line of defense was simply to explain the with a bizarre and infamous prank. The time again: Hitler was at most an observant etymology of the word atheist (no + God) incident featured several of his male class- Catholic or at least a cynical manipulator of and then point out that people who kill mates, who, drunk on at least testos- distinctly Christian beliefs and biases. because they believe God will reward terone, sneaked into the morgue one night, Regardless, the very phrase “Hitler was an them for their efforts must, in fact, believe removed a cadaver’s penis, and placed the atheist” remains intact and, ap parently, in God. Where did my stepson hear this severed member into the pocket of a immortal. Google the phrase with no myth? His appalling answer: “From my female classmate’s lab coat that was hang- quotes and you will find more than 457,000 teachers.” Apparently, some teachers ing on a rack. The unsuspecting medical results (and a healthy 41,000 results with even in New York State are using the word student donned her coat the next morning, quotes). Ask even a fairly nonreligious per- atheist interchangeably with murderer, reached into her pocket for her key, and, son with no particular stake in the debate, terrorist, or simply evil. much to her horror, discovered instead the “Was Hitler an atheist?,” and he or she will “So-and-so was not an atheist” stories cold, disarticulated masculine unit. furrow his or her brow and reply, “Yeah, can be even worse. In the same way that My friend, now a successful pediatri- that sounds familiar.” cian, tells me he has no idea how he “So-and-so was an became known as one of the perpetrators atheist” stories need not be about monsters of the of the prank. Perhaps his name is similar “Urban legends, vague associations, to that of one of the real culprits. Perhaps distant past. Many are the story is pure fiction and a scorned ex- within chronological reach and blatant fabrications continue to color lover spun the tale ex novo in an act of ven - and apparently are created the atheist persona ... we find ourselves afresh whenever a new vil- geance. Whatever the case, my friend’s fel- associated—wrongly—with the evils low alumni shunned him for years, assum- lain surfaces. Surely, by ing him to be at worst a misogynistic, now, we have all heard of others.” necrophilic gore-monger or at best a brat that the Columbine killers with a bad sense of humor. Even now, were atheists and were despite the best alibis, denials, and explana- somehow motivated by tions he has put forth, his name and the unbelief to storm their high fateful event remain yoked in medical- school and blast bullets into the bodies of evildoers are associated with atheism, school lore. their classmates. Indeed, the killers shot at esteemed nonreligious (or not very reli- Those of us who call ourselves atheists least one of their victims as “punishment” gious) folk are repackaged as devout. Ein - have a similar predicament. Most of us are for answering “yes” to the question, “Do stein believed in a personal god. Darwin nice, well-behaved people, worthy of being you believe in God?”—or so the story repented on his deathbed. The Found ing sought out and retained as loyal friends, goes. Since its proliferation in 1999, the Fathers were observant Chris tians. And let trusted employees, and even noble politi- “Columbine killers were atheists” myth us not forget the more generalized, cians. And yet, our bad reputation seems has been publically dismantled. However, “everyone knows” statements about unshakable. Urban legends, vague associa- plenty of websites continue to report the atheists as a group. Everyone knows athe- tions, and blatant fabrications continue to “Do you believe in God?” incident as a ists are sad and morose. Everyone knows color the atheist persona; like my pediatri- fact of history, while many other websites atheists have no moral code. Everyone cian friend we find ourselves associated— refer to the Columbine killers as atheists (Continued on page 48) wrongly—with the evils of others. with no further explanation. Meanwhile,

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Shadia B. Drury OP-ED

Is Liberalism the Heir of Christianity?

n an effort to defend religion against edly owe an enormous debt to Christianity. serpent, who was telling them the truth. the well-aimed broadsides of Richard But do they? Is Genesis a celebration of Eating of the tree of knowledge did open IDaw kins and Christopher Hitchens, human freedom and individual autonomy? their eyes and did give them the knowl- some have argued that the “new atheists” I will argue that it most certainly is not. edge necessary to conduct their lives inde- are liberals who are disturbingly unaware In Genesis, God created Adam and Eve pendently. But it is precisely this intellectu- of the debt that their values owe to Chris - with to choose between obedi- al independence—this genuine freedom— tianity. In particular, John Gray and Terry ence and disobedience of his commands, that the church and its apologists have Eagleton maintain that the celebration of not between good and evil—a choice they always opposed. liberty and individuality has its roots in could not make because they lacked ade- St. Augustine, an authoritative figure Christian theology. In short, the corner- quate knowledge. Not wanting them to in both the Catholic and Protestant tradi- stone of liberalism has its source in acquire such knowledge, God commanded tions, maintained that the status of free- Christianity. I will explain why his argu- them not to eat of the tree of knowledge dom of the will in Genesis is precarious. ment is spurious. of good and evil. So their freedom, such as Augustine believed that God created Philip Pullman, one of the great anti- it was, amounted to listening to God and Adam and Eve free to choose between theists of our time, presents the heroine of remaining eternally dependent on him or good (defined as obeying God) and evil his Northern Lights (the original British title; listening to the serpent, who bid them to (defined as disobeying him). But in The Golden Compass is its North American acquire knowledge and start thinking for Augustine’s view, that freedom was short- and Holly wood film incarnation) as a child themselves. Because of their native intelli- lived; after the fall, Adam and Eve were no whose natural intelligence and goodness gence and curiosity, Adam and Eve were longer free but “in bondage to sin.” They make her the embodiment of courage, con- naturally attracted to the message of the were no longer capable of choosing the fidence, and intelligence in a world domi- serpent. If God wanted Adam and Eve to good but were chronically wicked—this is nated by the unsurpassed power of the evil remain in the childlike state of dependence the foundation of the doctrine of original Magisterium (a not-so-veiled reference to and obey him eternally, he should have sin. For Augustine, human nature is alto- the Catholic Church). The latter indoctri- made them without too much intelligence gether at odds with the moral law; any nates children and fills them with irrational or curiosity. As Karen Armstrong has right- goodness it exhibits is the result of super- fears and superstitions that make them ly pointed out in her work on Genesis (In natural assistance—fallen humanity can- gullible, cowardly, dependent, irrational, the Beginning), the fact that God created not take credit for any decency it may dis- and servile. The young girl manages to defy beings with intelligence and curiosity and play. So, even if we ignore the prohibition the evil Magisterium thanks to her intellect, then told them not to eat of the tree of on the tree of knowledge and consider courage, autonomy, and magnanimity. knowledge showed an abysmal lack of Adam and Eve free to choose between Pullman’s heroine is the sort of child insight. But on the other hand, it could good and evil (not just obedience and dis- that every parent would love to have. But have been intentional, in which case their obedience), the Christian tradition regards in “The Atheist Delusion” (Guardian, disobedience was itself part of the divine their liberty as short-lived. March 15, 2008), John Gray takes the plan. If the latter was the case, then pun- Part of the attraction of Islam, which is author to task on the grounds that liberal ishing them for their disobedience was dis- so perplexing for Christians, is its insis- atheists such as Pullman are “derivative of graceful on God’s part. tence that God created human beings free Chris tianity” because their celebration of In his Early Theological Writings, Hegel to choose between good and evil—an freedom and personal autonomy is biblical rightly maintained that had Adam and Eve ability that was not destroyed by the in origin. According to Gray, the primacy of obeyed God, they would have remained in events of the fall. We have it still. This is the freedom of the will has been the lega- an eternally puerile state—like children why it makes sense to hold human beings cy of faith since the story of Genesis. In who must depend on the commands of accountable for their sins on the Day of Reason, Faith, & Revolution: Reflections on their parents because they have not suffi- Judgment. The appeal of Islam is connect- the God Debate (2009), Terry Eagleton cient reason of their own to guide them. ed to its ability to make God somewhat makes the same case against Dawkins and According to Hegel, Adam and Eve did the (Continued on page 48) Hitchens—all these liberal atheists suppos- right thing in following the advice of the

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Nat Hentoff OP-ED

Educating the Whole Student

n my reporting on schools over the keenly aware that they are the ultimate which they are graduating and reaching years, I’ve become aware that some stu- guardians of their liberties against the high levels of achievement.” Idents have hearing problems that have government. (Especially these days, as I’ve And consider this from his 50-State made them appear shy or uninvolved. One been chronicling in FREE INQUIRY.) Report (2010): “More than twice as many day, after a while spent wondering about In a dramatic move to ensure that stu- black students (male and female) are clas- the continually silent girl in the back of the dents who need more help than prepara- sified as ‘mentally retarded’ in spite of room, I asked her to please come to the tion for endless standardized testing to be research demonstrating that the percent- front of the room. Soon, indicating that at successful and have meaningful futures get ages of students from all groups are last she could hear me, she became an it, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that approximately the same at each intelli- active participant in the class. On other Northern California’s Kaiser Permanente is gence level.” similar occasions, I’ve suspected that some investing $7.5 million in Oakland’s schools As for those who stay in school and students had vision difficulties. over the next three years to increase school- are not labeled “retarded,” a January 14, I have heard of rare schools with nurs- based health-care programs. Along with 2011, report by education researchers es on the premises, and, at last, more and funding wellness centers, the funding J. Losen and Russell Skiba, pub- more schools and districts are recognizing includes “a vision program that a vital element of education reform is ... exams and much- making sure that every student is wholly needed glasses for ele- present in the classroom—especially when mentary school children.” the students attend school in the parts of a As vital as students’ good “. . . A vital element of education reform is city where sizable numbers of children are health may be, Kaiser is making sure that every student is wholly eligible for free lunches. addressing another urgent present in the classroom....” The newest health-care center to need by supporting the debut in Chicago’s public school system is Oakland school district’s at Hibbard Elementary School on the African-American Male northwest side. According to a Chicago Achievement Program, thereby helping stu- lished by the Southern Poverty Law Tribune story, “It offers comprehensive dents who might otherwise not graduate. Center, finds that “In a national sample of health services and dental care to students A longtime national crisis—receiving more than 9,000 middle schools, 28.3 at no cost to families.” And listen to this: far too little , let alone recogni- percent of black males on average, were “Next semester it will begin offering men- tion as a national emergency—has be- suspended at least once during a school tal health services.” come what is mechanically called the year, nearly three times the 10 percent for Underlining the value of school health “racial gap” in student achievement in our white males. ... Black females were sus- centers, the Tribune story notes that at public schools. A significant majority of pended more than four times as often as Hibbard Elementary, “85 percent of the the young left behind in that gap—many white females (18 percent vs. 4 percent) students are from low-income house- for the rest of their lives—are black males. ... 175 middle schools in these districts holds” and “more than half are registered As John Jackson, president of the Cam - suspended more than a third of their black in All Kids, the state’s Medicaid program.” bridge-based Schott Foundation for Public male students [and 84 schools] suspended I write often on education, and I have Education, said last year at the fifty-fourth more than half the black males enrolled.” noted that during all the debates on annual conference of the Council of the Not all cities and school districts guar- meaningful, replicable education reform, Great City Schools: “You can’t separate a antee a dead end for most black males. students’ health needs are seldom men- 28 percent graduation rate in New York Education Week’s front-page report on tioned. Neither is bringing the Bill of City of black males with the fact that 50 November 3, 2010, “City’s Black Males Rights and the rest of the Constitution percent of black males in New York City Stay in School,” stated: “School leaders in into the lives of students—with real-life are unemployed.” He continued: “Cur - Baltimore have mounted an offensive over stories of why we’re Americans and what rently, the rate at which Black males are the past three years to keep more students it takes (and is going to keep taking) to being pushed out of school and into the make all citizens, including students, pipeline for prison far exceeds the rate at (Continued on page 49)

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Tom Rees OP-ED

Mr. Smart, Heroman, and God

et me introduce you to Mr. Smart everyone knows what they know. So they the child. In an improvement on Barrett’s and Heroman. Mr. Smart is really, think that their mum would know what’s original study, however, Lane and Steven- Lreally clever—so clever that he knows inside the tin, because they’ve seen the son looked at age ranges more closely. everything, like what’s inside a closed box. pebbles. They also think that God would This coupled with the inclusion of Mr. Heroman is not so smart, but he does have know what’s inside the tin. Smart and Heroman allowed them to ex - a special power: Heroman has X-ray Try this experiment with five-year-olds, plore changes in children’s thinking as they vision—he can see inside the closed box. and you get a different picture. Five-year- age in much more detail. Mr. Smart and Heroman played a star- olds know a little bit more about how the The youngest age group, just under ring role in a fascinating piece of research world works, and so they’ve learned that four years old, mostly think that every- recently undertaken by Jonathan Lane and Mum is not all-seeing. They know that one—Mum, a friend of their age, Mr. Henry Stevenson, a grad student and a Mum would be fooled and think that the Smart, and God—would know that the professor of psychology, respectively, at tin contained biscuits. However, five-year- crayon box actually has rocks in it. If the the University of Michigan. They were olds still think that God would know child knows it, then everyone knows it. interested in how children come to form what’s inside the tin. The middle group, around four-and-a- their ideas about magical beings. Barrett concluded that we are born half years old, are more likely to think that with an intuition of omnis- both Mum and the child would be fooled cience and have to learn that into thinking (wrongly) that the box holds “. . . Cognitive psychologist Justin Barrett humans are limited. We are crayons. Unexpectedly, the children in this born, in short, with a sense ...wanted to know how old children are middle group think that Mr. Smart would of the of God, and this also be fooled—and God, too! The one when they first come to understand that explains why Abrahamic reli- exception is Heroman. The four-and-a-half- God is all-seeing while humans are not. gions are so popular. year-olds reckon that Heroman could use his There is, however, a prob- special powers to see into the box, and so Barrett began with a biscuit tin.” lem with this interpretation. he’s the only one who wouldn’t be fooled. After all, there’s a big differ- The oldest group, averaging around six ence between Mum knowing years old, have pretty much figured it all The story starts a few years back with what I know (which is a kind of mind read- out. They know what the correct answers the cognitive psychologist Justin Barrett of ing) and Mum knowing everything, includ- should be—that Mum and the child would the University of Oxford’s Centre for Anthro - ing stuff I don’t know (omniscience). That’s be fooled but not Mr. Smart, Heroman, or pology and Mind. He wanted to know where Mr. Smart and Hero man come in. God. how old children are when they first come Lane and Steven son’s experiment was The discovery that children in the mid- to understand that God is all-seeing while up very similarly to Barrett’s. The experi- dle of the development range don’t under- humans are not. Barrett began with a bis- menter sits with the child and a box of stand omniscience, and by implication cuit tin. crayons in a room—except, of course, the don’t understand the mind of God, direct- Showing the biscuit tin to three-year- box is full of pebbles, not crayons. The child ly challenges Barrett’s conclusions. What olds, he asked them what they thought is shown the surprising contents, and then Lane thinks is happening here is that the was inside. “Biscuits!” they answered, but the box is closed again. The child is asked: youngest children are simply falling prey to they were wrong. He opened the tin and Who else will know what’s inside the box, if what’s known as “reality bias.” When showed them that it was, in fact, full of he or she comes into the room? Would pebbles. Then he shut it again. Next, he another child of the same age know? asked about what other people know or asked the kids if their mum would know Would Mum know? What about Heroman believe, these very young children tend to what was inside the tin. and Mr. Smart? What about God? answer by simply assessing reality and Now, the interesting thing about As you would expect from Barrett’s using that information to infer others’ three-year-olds is that they think that results, the answers depend on the age of (Continued on page 50)

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Steven Doloff OP-ED

Unreasonable Optimism

n a college English class that I was was describing the essential fighter-pilot American workers, deep down, still believe teaching, filled mostly with African mentality of the early NASA Mercury that individual gumption and resourceful- IAmerican and Hispanic students, a read- Program astronauts of the 1960s. They ness will get them what they need—or else ing assignment prompted a discussion of ignored the grim statistics on combat and they don’t deserve it. (And bar- ethnic minorities’ economic disadvantages experimental aviation and instead viewed gaining seems like just more socialism for in the United States. Assuming we were mission failure (death) under any circum- noncompetitive losers.) all on the same page, as a “liberal” I stances as the result of individual human But who knows? Maybe this trait of couldn’t resist weighing in and expressing error—avoidable by those endowed with a optimistic individualism is truly genetic. my own professorial indignation on the sufficient amount of a particular but some- The great majority of Americans are the subject. But one slightly older student what ineffable combination of steely confi- descendents of—or are themselves— (let’s call him “Roberto”), who until now dence and initiative: “the right stuff.” immigrants who believed enough in them- had said little during the semester, politely This willful trumping of circumstantial selves and their personal chances of suc- demurred. disadvantage by sheer faith in innate cess to jump headlong into a rough-and- “I don’t believe that,” he said. “I can’t resourcefulness harkens back to a more pri- tumble new world. So we are literally a believe that.” mal American ethos, that of the early New self-selected gene pool of risk takers, hard- “Why?” I asked. England Puritans. America’s first European wired to believe in Roberto’s door. “I was in the Marines,” he answered. settlers believed that those “They told me about ‘the door.’ Do you among them predestined know what I’m talking about?” to be saved also had “the “. . . For the first time I realized how No one did, so he explained: “In the right [spiritual] stuff” and Marines, they taught me that no matter were therefore divinely an American mindset—perhaps the what horrible situation I might find myself allowed to prosper in their American mindset—can place itself in, there will be a door that will let me out, new land. Those who did- in flat-out opposition to a logically and if I look for that door I will find it. If n’t have it failed. Simply you tell me that because I’m Hispanic I’m put, personal courage be - constraining reality, and that’s not screwed, I can’t accept that. I don’t care spoke salvation in this necessarily a bad thing.” what statistics you give me. I have a wife world and the next. and a kid and a , and this school is my It has often been noted door, and I believe we’re going to be okay. how this same faith in self-demonstrating To be sure, it is no coincidence that, as No offense, but you’re not helping me by salvation has, in a more secularized form, social critic Barbara Ehrenreich has ob - telling me that I’m disadvantaged being permeated the cultural DNA of American served, Americans have also been ex - Hispanic in America.” society ever since. Social commentators dur- ploited since the mid-nineteenth century A lively class discussion ensued, and ing the nation’s nineteenth-century industri- by a massive and massively profitable my own head spun. al boom idealized the innately proactive “positive thinking” industry. Today, de - The facts of minority disadvantage “self-made man” and stigmatized the will- spite the hard-nosed economic realists not withstanding, for the first time I real- deficient “born loser.” If economic socialism piping in the media and genuine suffering ized how an American mindset—perhaps remains an anathema in Amer ican public caused by the recession, Americans the American mindset—can place itself in discourse today—at least as an abstract remain awash in the monetized optimism flat-out opposition to a logically con- proposition—it is because our citizens just business. Whether fronted by megastar straining reality, and that’s not necessarily can’t grasp how personal self-affirmation self-help boosters like Oprah Winfrey, a bad thing. can be achieved through federal dispensa- alternative-medicine gurus like Deepak Roberto’s perspective reminded me of tion. (And also, why should slackers be Chopra, or corporate motivational speak- “the right stuff” that Tom Wolfe explored saved?) Similarly, if labor-union membership (Continued on page 47) in his 1979 book of the same name. Wolfe is at a record low, it’s probably because

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Facing Misery: Confronting Illness, Even Death, without a Prayer Introduction

Tom Flynn

n its October/November 2007 issue, FREE INQUIRY published a despair and ending with stories of unexpected recovery or of special section titled “Dealing with Dying.” Nineteen articles, death’s impact offset (at least in part) by the discovery of unex- Imost of them personal accounts by FI subscribers, explored var- pected resources of hope and encouragement. ious aspects of death and dying from the viewpoints of loved Different as these essays are from one another, several of them ones, sufferers, and a few who had cheated death. Response to visit one particular theme with stunning intensity: the immorality, the feature was overwhelming; in a departure from FI’s usual pol- the sheer wrongness, of a health-care system that all too often icy, the entire section was posted online and expanded with seven denies suffering patients the capacity to end their lives on their additional articles for which there hadn’t been room in the print terms and by the means they choose. It is not at all surprising that edition. (It’s still viewable at http://www.secularhumanism.org/in this idea recurs; some readers may be taken as aback as I was by dex.php?section=fi&page=dealwithdying.) the force, sometimes the rage, with which it finds expression. More than a year ago, FI began soliciting reader essays for a As with the 2007 feature, reader essays are preceded by a follow-up feature, which is now presented in the following pages. small number of tone-setting articles by familiar FI contributors. (As with “Deal ing with Dying,” the entire text will be available In this introduction, I will restrict myself to little more than set- online at secularhumanism.org.) For the current feature, we chose ting the tone. Longtime readers know that I have long advocated a broader focus, seeking uniquely nonreligious perspectives on for euthanasia, including but not limited to physician-assisted sui- serious or chronic illness, in addition to further reflections on cide, and for the recognition of suicide as a fundamental human death and dying. Some contributors to our 2007 feature reported right. I won’t beat those drums again here any more than I already feeling constrained by our preference for shorter essays, and so in have; in any case, there is little I could add to the aching power of this section a small number of contributors have been given the the reader essays when they touch upon this matter. opportunity to express themselves at somewhat greater length. Ronald A. Lindsay—CEO of the Council for Secular Humanism Secular humanists, atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers ap - and that most anomalous combination, a philosopher and an proach these matters from a singular range of perspectives. In attorney—examines the moral and legal implications of hastening contrast to believers in most traditional faiths, we are denied the false if sometimes powerfully consoling solace of prayer. We can- death to end suffering. He stakes out what might be considered a not blunt our outrage at being torn from savoring our health and centrist reform agenda, a program I suspect almost all humanists vigor by reflecting that it’s part of God’s plan or that any injustice can embrace even if some of them would chart a more radical we suffer can be recompensed in the afterlife. We cannot salve course, and he buttresses it with elegant legal and philosophical our pain by focusing on its tininess compared to the eternal sig- arguments. nificance we imagine our lives to possess as the handiwork of a Jennifer Michael Hecht’s essay “You’ve No Right” will be more deity. On the other hand, we are unfettered by the fear that our controversial, I expect. Writing with passion, she argues against a misery is deserved punishment for sin. We are spared the archaic right to suicide. Audaciously, she seeks to erect a wholly secular constraints that descend from believing we do not own our lives replacement for the old metaphysical view of each human life as but rather hold them in trust at the almighty’s sufferance. We are effectively infinite in value. She contends that the human commu- under no command to mistake pointless suffering for heroism or nity has a stake in your life and mine that should dissuade any of to impose it on others as a badge of our own righteousness. us from viewing our selves purely as private property. I invite read- Our ten reader essays are arranged approximately from dark- ers to enliven our letters column with their views pro and con on est to lightest, beginning with frank explorations of futility and this remarkable essay.

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FACING M ISERY: C ONFRONTING I LLNESS, E VEN D EATH , WITHOUTA P RAYER

Hastening Death: Moral and Legal Perspectives

Ronald A. Lindsay

lmost all of us want to continue living, and we will endure poor physical condition for months, if not years. It’s one thing much suffering, if necessary, to stay alive. But some are con- when a physician cajoles a patient to hang on for a few more Afronted with circumstances that they consider insufferable. days; it’s quite another when the patient is faced with seemingly Each day, hundreds in the United States and other Western interminable misery. countries hasten their own deaths, accelerating the day they oth- In any event, this right is now accepted, with great deference erwise would have died due to disease or decline. Some do this being given to patient’s wishes concerning the scope of treat- without any legal impediment and scarcely any moral objection, ment. The moral right to demand an end to treatment is ground- except perhaps from small numbers of religious fundamentalists. ed in a person’s right to autonomy (sometimes referred to as the Others hasten their deaths in ways legally prohibited—although right to privacy), which calls upon others to respect a person’s their peers may be carrying out the same actions legally just a few decisions about the course of her own life, provided others are not miles away. harmed by these decisions. Legally, at least in the Anglo-American In this article, I will discuss various ways in which people are world, the right has a basis in the common-law rule that individu- ending their lives, pointing out the methods that are generally als cannot be touched absent consent. legal—in particular, cessation of medical treatment. I will also Of course, not every patient is conscious at the time a decision address assisted dying and euthanasia, both of which remain ille- may have to be made to continue treatment. In that situation, gal most everywhere, with a few exceptions (the states of Oregon physicians and hospitals will rely on evidence of the patient’s and Washington both permit physician assistance in dying; desires, which can be found in advance directives or other docu- Belgium and the Netherlands permit physicians to perform ments or in the recollections of relatives and close friends. When euthanasia). I will argue that physician-assisted death and the patient has expressed no clear intent about life-sustaining euthanasia are morally permissible in certain circumstances, and I treatment, whichever relative or surrogate is in charge of treatment will also argue in favor of legalizing the former practice, again in decisions will make the call. Almost all litigated cases derive from certain circumstances. Due to space limitations, my focus will be this last category, that is, a situation in which the patient is uncon- on the United States, although I will make passing reference to the state of the law in a few other countries. scious and has not clearly expressed any wishes concerning life-sus- taining treatment. Relatives and friends will differ over “what Uncle Ending Medical Treatment Frank would have wanted.” The Terri Schiavo case illustrates the In the United States and most Western countries, a competent problems that can result. Nonetheless, although such cases are person has an absolute right to insist that medical treatment be emotionally wrenching for the participants and often attract media stopped or withheld, even if such treatment is considered essen- attention, they are actually quite infrequent and do not detract tial to keep the person alive. Moreover, a competent person’s deci- from the general principle that patients can refuse life-sustaining sion in this regard is almost always respected. This state of affairs treatment and, in this way, hasten their deaths. represents a significant change in medical practice from the 1950s The disputes that can arise when an incapacitated patient’s and 1960s, when the treating physician wielded significant intent is unclear emphasize the importance of making one’s wish- authority in deciding when to stop medical treatment. Part of the es known in advance of a serious illness. If you don’t want to wind explanation for the change, of course, is that improvements in up as a ventilated corpse, it would be prudent to execute an medical care now allow people to be sustained in exceedingly advance directive.

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Assisted Dying ly frail and have impaired mobility. One survey found that about 75 Of course, cessation of medical treatment as a means of hasten- percent of those Oregonians who obtained legal assistance in ing death is an option only for those who are dependent on life- dying were confined most of the time to a bed or chair. For some- sustaining therapy. There are many other individuals who may be one in such a situation, being denied assistance effectively results suffering but are not dependent on respirators, feeding tubes, and in that person being kept alive against his or her will. The terminal- other such devices. Do these persons have a right to hasten their ly ill have a much stronger liberty interest in assistance in dying own deaths? More important, do they have a right to assistance because, unlike the physically healthy, they need assistance to die. in hastening their deaths? A person’s terminal illness also provides some assurance that The latter question is more important because in all fifty states, his request for assistance in dying is not the product of some and in most Western countries, it is not illegal to end one’s own hasty, irrational decision. A person who is dying is beyond the life. Opponents of legalizing assisted dying have often seized on hope of any cure and is in an objectively verifiable condition. (The this fact, arguing that if a person is really suffering that much, he exceptional case of a mistaken diagnosis does not mean that a or she can end his or her own life without involving others. diagnosis of terminal illness is not objectively grounded, no more than the rare mistake regarding the existence of a pregnancy implies that pregnancy is not objectively verifiable.) These patients are not volatile individuals reacting to serious but passing problems, such as rejection by a lover or taunting from schoolmates. Instead, they face an inevitable death. Simply put, for those “In the United States and most Western countries, requesting assistance in dying, their choice is a competent person has an absolute right to insist between dying peacefully now and dying within a rel- that medical treatment be stopped or withheld, atively short time after what they regard as pointless suffering. even if ... essential to keep the person alive.” Therefore, there is a strong argument in favor of the position that assistance in dying is morally permissible for the terminally ill, at least in some instances. But should it be legal? Not every action that is morally per- missible is necessarily an action that should be legally Superficially, this argument has some merit. Respecting someone’s permissible. However, I believe a compelling case can be made for autonomy does not, by itself, imply that a person has a right to legalizing physician-assisted dying (a.k.a. physician-assisted suicide). assistance in carrying out her actions. The right to marry does not Legal Physician-Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill imply that the state has an obligation to provide a dating service. Furthermore, offering assistance in dying to those truly capable of First, let us consider the significance of the physician’s role and ending their own lives may improperly circumvent an important why it is important not just to allow assistance in dying but to psychological barrier to hasty, ill-considered decisions. authorize physician assistance in dying. The difference is not just the fact that the latter requires a physician to write a prescription. However, this argument overlooks certain realities. Ending The role of a treating physician is crucial in the context of end-of- one’s life without assistance is an option only for those with access life care. Legalizing physician assistance in dying allows the termi- to the proper means and the ability to use them. One crucial fact nally ill to discuss all aspects of their condition and treatment, acknowledged only infrequently by the opponents of assistance in including their anxieties and fears, with a knowledgeable and— dying is that the state and its licensed agents control access to one would hope—caring expert. Legalization encourages a frank medications that are efficient in bringing about a peaceful death. exploration of options, permitting a patient to make an informed You can’t get secobarbital without a prescription. Because the decision. Sensitive physicians will use the full extent of their train- state maintains control of the dispensation of barbiturates and ing and experience in assessing the patient’s condition and similar medications, a person must have access to firearms, knives, prospects for effective alternatives to hastening death, such as or other such means of death and possess the ability to use these palliative care. The physician’s expertise is important in evaluating, means effectively in order to kill oneself without assistance. in consultation with the patient, which alternatives might be fea- In the case of terminally ill patients (and hereafter, I will be sible. Similarly, the physician’s expertise is important for determin- focusing on the terminally ill unless stated otherwise), these condi- ing whether the patient is competent to make a decision concern- tions are likely to be absent. Many of the terminally ill are physical- ing the course of treatment.

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FACING M ISERY: C ONFRONTING I LLNESS, E VEN D EATH , WITHOUTA P RAYER

Moreover, assuming we want a regulatory scheme that en- they must be capable of making their own health-care decisions. courages persons to live as long as they find their lives worthwhile, A second physician must confirm both the diagnosis of a terminal a policy of permitting physician assistance in dying for the terminal- illness and the patient’s competence. As a prerequisite to receiving ly ill is much more likely to accomplish this objective than banning assistance, patients must make a series of voluntary, verifiable assistance in dying. A ban on physician assistance in dying pushes requests that confirm that the desire for assistance is durable: the the terminally ill who are concerned about future suffering to end patient must make two oral requests for assistance, separated by their lives while they still retain the capacity to do so on their own. at least fifteen days, and one written request that is signed in the Not only might some bring about their deaths while they still have presence of two witnesses. To help ensure that the patient’s deci- months left to live, but others may hasten their deaths unnecessar- sion is an informed one, treating physicians are required to inform ily because had they been able to consult with a physician and the patient of alternatives to a hastened death, such as comfort obtain the assurance that they could receive assistance when need- care, hospice care, and enhanced pain control. Moreover, a ed, they would not have found their condition unbearable. patient must be referred to counseling if either the prescribing or The evidence from Oregon, where physician assistance in dying the consulting physician believes he or she might be suffering has been legal since 1997, confirms that legalizing physician assis- from a psychological disorder that can cause impaired judgment. tance in dying actually encourages many to live longer and some Finally, the patient must ingest the prescribed drug; the drug is not to forego hastening their death altogether. Although about 15 in 100 dying Oregonians seri- ously consider hastening their deaths, and although many of them discuss this option with their physicians, only about 1 in 100 decides to request assistance, and only about 1 in 600 actual- ly receives a prescription for a lethal medication “The disputes that can arise when an incapacitated from his or her physician. Most strikingly, roughly patient’s intent is unclear emphasize the importance one-third of those who receive a prescription for a of making one’s wishes known in advance of a lethal medication never use the prescribed medica- tion to hasten death. The knowledge that escape serious illness. If you don’t want to wind up as a from intolerable suffering is always available can ventilated corpse, it would be prudent to diminish the felt need to hasten one’s death, and execute an advance directive.” allowing physicians to discuss all options with their patients promotes a thorough consideration of these options, including alternatives to hastened death such as hospice care. Almost all of us want to live as long as we are able to squeeze something worthwhile out of our lives; we will not choose death unless we believe there is no alternative, and we will not to be administered by a physician. (Similar safeguards are in place choose death now unless we believe the option of a relatively in the recently enacted Washington statute.) peaceful death otherwise may be closed to us. Perhaps as a result of these safeguards, the evidence for abuse in Oregon is virtually nonexistent. There is no persuasive evidence Arguments Against Legalization that a single patient has been coerced or that a single patient was The battle to legalize physician-assisted dying in Oregon lasted incompetent when requesting assistance. years; many arguments, both consequentialist and metaphysical, Three other arguments against legalization also rested on pre- were advanced by opponents of legalization. One set of these dictions of dire consequences. Opponents argued that following arguments—predictions that patients would be pressured or legalization, the quality of palliative care would decline (why both- coerced into asking to die—did have the salutary effect of shap- er helping someone who will die soon anyway?); that the “vulner- ing the final legislative language so that it contained formidable able”—variously defined as women, racial and ethnic minorities, safeguards against abuse. the disabled, the poor, or some combination of these groups— In Oregon, to be eligible for assistance, patients must have would be adversely affected in disproportionate numbers by legal- received a diagnosis from their attending physician that they have ization; and that after physician-assisted dying was legalized, a terminal illness that will cause their death within six months, and inevitably we would begin our fall down the slippery slope to

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legalizing assisted suicide on demand or nonvoluntary euthanasia. find repugnant, demeaning, or painful; and to die with dignity. None of these predicted consequences has materialized. With One hopes other states will follow Oregon and Washington’s lead. respect to a disproportionate effect on the vulnerable, the over- whelming number of persons receiving assistance in Oregon are Should We Legalize Euthanasia? white, well-educated, and financially secure, and their gender dis- Some believe the laws in Oregon and Washington do not go far tribution approximates that of the general population. With enough. In particular, some might maintain that patients who may respect to palliative care, there is evidence that the quality of pal- not be able to ingest the prescribed drug or who may not be suf- liative care has actually improved in Oregon since legalization. ficiently competent to carry out the act themselves should be able With respect to the dreaded slippery slope, there has been scant to have a physician administer a lethal injection. This method effort to expand the classes of persons eligible for assistance in would be an act of euthanasia as that term is usually defined; that dying or to loosen the regulations physicians and patients must is, someone other than the patient takes the final steps to bring follow in order for legal assistance to be provided. The wording of about the patient’s death. In both Belgium and the Netherlands, Oregon’s law remains virtually unchanged. physicians are authorized to perform euthanasia if they determine Of course, there are many who oppose legalizing assisted that the patient’s suffering is unbearable and hopeless. I agree that euthanasia may be morally permissible in cases in which the patient is competent, the patient’s desires are clear, and the patient is unable to bring about his or her own death, even with a prescribed “... Seventy-five percent of those Oregonians who drug. But, again, what is morally permissible obtained legal assistance in dying were confined most is not coextensive with what should be legal- of the time to a bed or chair. For someone in such ly permitted. The law is a blunt instrument a situation, being denied assistance effectively results that classifies permitted and prohibited acts by categories that may not capture the fine in that person being kept alive against his or her will.” distinctions relevant to moral judgment. Authorizing euthanasia opens the door to abuse by physicians. Whether the patient still wants to end his or her life may not always be clear at the point when the physician dying not because of supposed harmful consequences but must decide when to administer the injection. Dutch studies from because it allegedly violates the “sanctity of life principle.” Space the 1990s indicated that there were numerous instances of does not permit a full treatment of the sanctity of life argument euthanasia “without explicit requests.” (The situation has here. Suffice it to say that secular justifications for prohibitions on improved since then, in part because of statutory reform.) killing seem inapplicable in the case of assisted dying. Killing is Reasonable persons may differ on this issue, but I believe that presumptively immoral because it constitutes a serious harm, in in matters of life and death, caution is appropriate. Yes, we have particular to those who want to live but are killed. But in assisted an obligation to respect a person’s autonomy, but we also have an dying, the patient wants—indeed, yearns—to die. Furthermore, it obligation to act prudently in crafting laws that try to honor that is inconsistent to allow some patients to hasten their deaths obligation. through cessation of life-sustaining treatment while prohibiting others to hasten their deaths through the ingestion of a drug. Conclusion Some have tried to defend this distinction by labeling cessation of The past several decades have witnessed dramatic changes in the treatment a “letting die” as opposed to a “killing,” characterizing extent to which patients can determine the course of their med- the cessation of treatment as “passive.” But this is mere wordplay. ical treatment. Respect for patient autonomy should not end Removing a respirator from a patient is about as “active” a form when a patient is confronted with a terminal illness. Patients of behavior as one can imagine. Moreover, the intent in both sit- should have their desires about end-of-life care respected, even uations is often the same: the patient desires to hasten death when they request an end to life-sustaining treatment or ask for because he or she no longer finds his or her existence tolerable. assistance in hastening their death. It is starkly inconsistent with Legal physician-assisted dying allows patients to exercise a our moral obligations toward others to force an individual to stay measure of control over their final days; to escape conditions they alive and suffer.

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You’ve Got No Right Cautionary thoughts on suicide and advanced chronic illness

Jennifer Michael Hecht

ike most secular people, I used to believe that everyone has Other kinds of perceived kinship also apply, such that even the a right to choose death. As an atheist, I had no patience for reported suicide of a stranger will result in a rise in suicides among Lthe religious argument that God created your life, and only people of that person’s age and gender. Today we call it “suicidal he should end it. The legal argument against suicide seemed clusters,” “behavior models,” or “suicidal contagion.” What this bizarre: you cannot steal from yourself, so it shouldn’t be a crime adds up to, if you look at it from an ethical point of view, is that to take your own life. And, to my mind, the government has no despair suicide is wrong. If you want your niece to make it right to force me to live for its sake or for mine. I had never heard through her dark nights, you must make it through yours. a good secular argument against suicide. I suppose I also enjoyed This may sound harsh, but realizing that you are needed can the rebelliousness implied in defending suicide and the satisfac- reduce the despair that drives people to suicide in the first place. tion of acknowledging that life is brutal and deserves to be reject- If I am grateful that you haven’t killed yourself (and I am), that ed now and again. helps me to realize that you are probably grateful that I haven’t But I have changed my mind about the right to suicide. I’m mostly talking about what I call “despair suicide,” not end-of-life pain-manage- ment suicide, so it is not exactly the condition being addressed in this special section. Still, I think the dis- cussion is important for this conversation. Let me “One of the best predictors of whether one explain my case against despair suicide. may commit suicide is personally knowing someone In the past few years, I have lost two friends to despair suicide. Also, I have myself been, at times, who has....This means that many suicides miserable and suicidal. The friends I lost were very take someone with them, eventually.” successful writers, both women without children. We all got our PhDs at the same time at Columbia Uni versity, years ago. When troubled by suicidal thoughts, I had been glad to know I could not actu- ally follow through because I have two young chil- dren. But could it really be true that it is less important that a child- killed myself. Imagine the headline: “Atheists Are Taking Their less person survive? I started paying a lot of attention to what hap- Own Lives,” or imagine hearing such news about a half-forgotten pened in communities where suicides had occurred, and I also did friend, a former teacher, a favorite author, or even a stranger with a lot of reading and thinking. whom you later learned that you had shared something in common. I now believe that despair suicide is wrong. One of the best The more I wish we could have saved others from anguish and predictors of whether a person may commit suicide is personally annihilation, the more I feel your care for me. I and the other peo- knowing someone who has. The closer that person was to you, ple who go through dark times have to support one another—at the more at risk you are. This means that many suicides take least in the abstract. When you feel that we owe each other our someone with them, eventually. Suicide is also homicide—delayed lives, just making it through the day is an accomplishment for which homicide but homicide none the less. There is a great deal of soci- you should be proud, and I’d like you to know that you are being ological, epidemiological, and psychological data confirming the publicly and privately thanked. Thank you. To the sad person who is long-held suspicion that committing suicide influences others to reading this right now: thank you for staying alive. I’m thinking of commit suicide. The effect is strongest in the closest relationships. you. I’m staying alive, too, in part because I feel your thanks for that.

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You may be the kind of atheist who scorns the comforts of reli- a person suffering physical pain in an advanced, chronic, fatal ill- gion and anything that reminds you of those comforts, but consid- ness. If cancer is going to kill you this month anyway, and you er that there are other atheists who do not believe in the supernat- have said your good-byes and are in agony and want to be done, ural yet are delighted by the superlative aspects of the natural. I don’t even consider that suicide. It seems more correct to say that Human beings are made of meat, but we have if a person is imminently dying, a vial of morphine is a mere vari- and giggle when tickled, which is to say that our experience is not ation in the manner of death. purley rational. Reality has real wonder to it. Love and awe are However, there are a few points worth thinking about when it real. Reality for human beings is full of irrationality—we make comes to illness, in light of this argument against despair suicide. If guesses and mistakes and have imagination and emotion. Our physically healthy, depressed people feel that they are a burden, experience of being feeling creatures is real, and religion is partly think about what it feels like to those who are miserable, believe just a record of that strange truth. We need to keep some of the that they are not contributing anything, and, on top of all that they ideas of religion but let go of the supernatural. are presenting the many demands of illness. In our dark nights, when we feel miserable and alone, we Often, people believe that their particular contributions are must realize that we are not alone. We have each other. We can what cause others to love them, because when we are healthy, we lean back into the arms of humanity. I know it is difficult to believe feel that the point of life is being necessary. People who get sick that people know how to help you—and are willing to do so—but are often shocked by their new role and feel like a burden. They might not realize how much they are loved and wanted or how much the human community can embrace the wounded. They might not know how much their suicide would sadden and even endan- “. . .Ifthesickpersonwhofeelslikeaburdensays, ger others. ‘ItwouldbebetterifIweredead,’acaretakerwho Meanwhile, healthy people have their own overestimatesthemiseryofphysicaldisability delusions. Many people are so frightened by sick- ness and disability that they think no one who is so (forhisorherownreasons)mayagree,andthe affected could feel that life is worth living. That twomightdothewrongthingjustbecausethey reaction is more about their own deep fears and cannotenvisionanalternative.” psychological issues. So if the sick person who feels like a burden says, “It would be better if I were dead,” a caretaker who overestimates the misery of physical disability (for his or her own rea- sons) may agree, and the two might do the wrong at least we exist, right? The idea of having faith in humanity may thing just because they do not have a language for articulating an be a little poetic, but at least it is hope for something that is pos- alternative. I am suggesting that if disease is not already actively, sible. painfully killing a person, there is good reason for that person to Suicidal people often speak or write of being a burden. They hang on and not rush into death. may have been crying and withdrawing for some time. They may American lawyer, writer, and activist Diane Coleman has been decide that they aren’t contributing anything to society and that arguing against the legalization of euthanasia for decades now, they are wasting time, effort, and money and hating every day of for the entirely secular reason that the physically impaired deserve it (though perhaps not every minute of it). It seems like an easy the same protections as the hale and hearty. In 1996, Coleman equation: people might be better off without them. But that is a started the group Not Dead Yet, charmingly named after the huge miscalculation. It would hurt too many people if you killed scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail in which a man tries to yourself, so it is important for you to stay here and keep trying. toss a body on the cart and the body protests, “I’m not dead.” If your suffering is entirely psychological, you have to stay. I The cart driver brains him with a cudgel. Coleman is herself think we can help you, and I think you deserve to give yourself severely disabled. Several other groups are also devoted to this another chance. If you don’t, it will influence other sad, hurt peo- cause, such as the British organization Caring Not Killing. ple, who may also not give themselves another chance. Carrying on is a brave, good thing—monstrously difficult Furthermore, if you think about it, you can steal from yourself, though it is at times—and we do honor to it and to each other because the mood you are in when you take your own life is very when we respect it. Even without God’s big imaginary eyes watch- particular. It is not fair to let that one version of you end life for all ing, it matters what you do and that you live. Certainly there are the other sides of you. situations where what I am saying does not apply. You don’t have As I mentioned above, the situation is not at all the same for to be to see that some medical expenses may be too

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high, and in some cases a person would be morally justified in Historically, secular thinkers became so devoted to the idea of choosing to pull his own plug. There are going to be cases in a right to suicide because the opposition was the church—it said which burden and misery are good arguments for ending life. no to suicide, so we said yes. But this is too important a subject But projections of burden and misery are not good arguments. to leave in a sad and half-examined state. Viewed on its own If you are loved, it’s better that you allow yourself to be weak and terms, it is obvious that living is generally a better choice than sui- even humble and stay alive. If you do not think you live within a cide and that the reason for that truth has something to do with community of love, well, I know this is strange and even a little love, hope, mutual kindness, the lives of our children, the future crazy, but I love you, and I want you to stay here. I think others of our species, and the beautiful dream of meaning. can help you. If you are reading this and you don’t want my weird love from afar, then fine; but if you do, well, I love you for just that Jennifer Michael Hecht is the author of three history books, including the best- reaction, for just wanting you and me to survive and having hope selling Doubt: A History (HarperCollins, 2003), and two volumes of poetry. She currently teaches at and University. and love and being absurd and ridiculous and human. Dementia: A Living Death

Leonard Ewy

hen my mother’s body dies, her obituary will accurately thread on which the beads of man are strung which is necessary state her date of birth, but the reported date of her death to moral action.” Moral action depends on knowledge of good Wwill be a lie. The truth is that her has been dead for a and bad, joy and suffering, past and present, along with hope for long time. the future and the of the consequences of our past and Mom has dementia, probably Alzheimer’s disease. Her memo- present actions in that future. ry is lost. She awakens every day not only to a world of strangers Emerson, who himself lost his memory and succumbed to but as a stranger to herself. dementia late in life, said, “Without [memory] all life and thought Her condition has set me to thinking in a very personal way were an unrelated succession.” That is now my mother’s life—an about the nature of consciousness—the sum total of memory, unrelated succession. She knows no history. self-awareness, free will, and personal identity that many people, especially the religious, call “the soul.” If I ever had any doubt that the human soul is nothing more than the interaction of chemicals “Every specific lost function, faded and neuro-electrical impulses in our brains—processing our expe- riences and containing our memories—that doubt has been dis- memory, and regression of her identity can pelled by the amyloid plaques and tiny bits of tangled protein that be described in terms of [my mother’s] are insidiously corrupting those neural impulses and destroying my neural blight in a specific physical portion mother’s mind. Every specific lost function, faded memory, and regression of of the brain.It is an entirely physical her identity can be described in terms of neural blight in a specif- process that can be explained in ic physical portion of the brain. It is an entirely physical process naturalistic terms.” that can be explained in naturalistic terms. Yes, Mom’s soul is dying. I used to think of it as evaporating, but that isn’t the right metaphor. Evaporation changes a sub- Enlightenment philosopher Rene Descartes (1596–1650) stance from one state to another—such as liquid water to water claimed that by pure reason alone, he could prove that the world vapor. However, the water still exists as a gas. It is amorphous but consisted of two basic substances—matter and spirit. Matter, he very real. My mother’s soul, on the other hand, is fading away. It said, is the physical world that includes our bodies, and spirit is the has gone, but it has not gone anywhere else or changed into human mind or soul that can exist independently of the physical something else. world. As hard as he tried, he never proved it. The soul is but the mind’s awareness of its own identity The soul grows from nothing other than increasing complex through time—memory. In nineteenth-century essayist Ralph neurological connections in the brain, created and sustained by Waldo Emerson’s “Memory,” he wrote, “Memory is a primary and the body’s metabolic functions. The mind’s experience of living the fundamental faculty, without which none other can work; . . . the life of the biological body is the sole source of meaning and moral-

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ity. That is the only thing I can know. I have no use for faith in any- When I have spoken with friends and acquaintances about thing beyond that. What I do treasure is experiencing life and how my mother’s Alzheimer’s has eroded her soul, some have chas- sharing the life of others. I treasure awareness and tised me for “writing her off” or denying her the continuation of meaningfulness and memory—in other words, self-identity. her spirit. One day, as I looked at a pile of books and magazines I “Nothing,” wrote Emerson; “is at last sacred but the integrity of had accumulated while reading about Alzheimer’s and (later) gath- your own mind.” ering background for this essay, I noticed that the bookmarks I was To live life fully in this moment is to have memories of the past using had been made by Mom. She had a tradition of buying me and anticipation of the future. Without that, life and the soul books I had requested as gifts, and she always made a unique wither in continual chronological isolation, trapped in the infinite bookmark for each one. Usually it was made with laminated and meaningless present. There is no enjoyment of past loves and pressed leaves and flowers. Sometimes she would write something accomplishments, no regrets for past mistakes—everything that on it as well. One simply states, “It gives me great joy that you love makes life joyous, painful, ironic, and, ultimately, exquisite. to read.” Mom’s soul, metaphorically at least, does live on in those During the long dying of my mother’s soul, there was a phase bookmarks, in the person I have become, and in all of the people when she was aware of her mental decline. I remember her terror whose lives she has touched. That will have to be enough. upon discovering that fact and her anguish at not remembering the names of friends and loved ones and important events in her Leonard Ewy is a thirty-year veteran of professional firefighting and emer- past. She once said, “I sometimes forget who I am. Sometimes I gency medical services. just disappear.”

The Day I Finally Saw the Light

Erroll G. Treslan

Theodicy refers to answering the problem of evil. The term was you can” week that we both knew would never again happen in first coined by the philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz to quite the same way. describe how the existence of evil in the world does not conflict Our goal that morning was a simple one: to find some bighorn with the supposedly essential goodness of God. Christian apolo- sheep to sketch and photograph. We left a coffee shop at about gists spend an inordinate amount of time addressing this issue 9 A.M. and headed east on the Yellowhead Highway toward because the tremendous amount of suffering in the world natu- Edmonton. We drove for about half an hour before parking at a rally causes one to ponder why an all-loving god would allow it. picnic area beside a small lake. I can picture the scene as if I were The purpose of this essay is not to describe the intellectual gym- nastics performed by theologians who attempt to explain why, for example, their god would allow a tsunami to snatch a newborn child from the arms of his or her mother. The purpose of this essay “It was the kind of morning when you take is simply to explain how one man finally came to see the light.— a deep breath, stare up at the clear sky, Erroll G. Treslan and marvel at the beautiful world we live t was 7 A.M. on July 28, 2008. The dawn light had just begun in. It was also, in retrospect, not a bad day to stream into our tent as my then seven-year-old daughter and to die if you had to pick one.” II began to rouse at the base of Whistler’s Mountain near Jasper, Alberta, in the heart of the Canadian Rockies. It was the kind of morning when you take a deep breath, stare up at the clear sky, and marvel at the beautiful world we live in. It was also, in retro- there right now. It was hot for a morning in the mountains. We spect, not a bad day to die if you had to pick one. had not bothered to put on our sunscreen (I remember thinking It was the last full day of our whirlwind father-daughter camp- that my wife wouldn’t be pleased about that). We were sitting ing trip—a trip we had described as the trip of a lifetime before about fifty feet from the highway. Traffic was light that morning. we left home and one that didn’t fall short of its high billing. For I remember a few cars and some motorcycles passing by, most five days, we had been hiking, swimming, sightseeing, and gen- heading west toward Jasper and continuing on to the province of erally inhaling the experience. Kind of a “dance on the surf while British Columbia.

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We sat down at 9:30 A.M., and, despite not finding any bighorns, we spent the next two hours sketching scenery that was so striking it almost defies description. I took the photograph reproduced at right at 10:56 A.M. Shortly after that, we headed back to Jasper for lunch. We were a bit disappointed about not finding any sheep. As we left town, we noticed that Highway 16 was closed west of Jasper. “I bet there was a major accident in that direction,” I said as we drove by the blockade. I recall my daughter saying: “I hope nobody got hurt.” It wasn’t until the next day that I learned what had happened on Highway 16. The following excerpt from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) press release describes it in more detail than is probably necessary for the purpose of this story (I have omitted all surnames): Update Fatal Motor Vehicle Collision

Valemount, B.C. — July 29, 2008 Photo by Erroll G. Treslan The Canadian Rockies near Jasper, Alberta. Police investigators are now able to provide an update on the dynamics of a six (6) vehicle collision, which occurred on Highway #16, near Valemount on July 28, 2008. that morning. Katie would have passed the scene pictured above It has now been established that a 2007 Toyota Echo from New about thirty minutes before I took this photograph. The only sav- Brunswick was travelling westbound on Highway #16, approxi- ing grace in this incident (I hate that term) is that Katie probably mately one kilometre east of the Tete Jaune weigh scales, when it did not suffer long. crossed the centre line into the path of an eastbound 1999 Ken- worth tractor trailer unit from Alberta. It has been confirmed the My daughter made it home safe and sound—she is asleep up - vehicles collided in the eastbound lane. The collision damaged the stairs as I write this. The scrapbook I made for her of our trip makes steering of the transport truck, sending it off into a rest area where no mention of the tragedy that occurred that morning. She prob- it collided with four (4) parked vehicles. The commercial transport first collided with a 2002 Suzuki motorcycle from Manitoba, knock- ably remembers it as one of the best days of our vacation. It was. ing it into a pedestrian. The motorcycle was then forced into a 1993 If the Judeo-Christian God ever existed, he/she/it died for me Honda Civic from Alberta, also parked in the rest area. The Ken- that day. There is simply no explanation for why an all-loving, all- worth tractor trailer unit then collided with a 2002 Chevrolet Blazer, knowing, and all-powerful being would allow Katie to die in the from Saskatchewan, which was subsequently collided with a sec- ond motorcycle, a 1997 Honda, from Manitoba. horrific manner in which she did. There is similarly no explanation The driver of the Toyota Echo, Shirley (53 years) of Kilburn, (aside from driver error) as to why Katie passed away many decades New Brunswick died in the collision. The driver’s daughter and too soon, while my daughter has enjoyed two summers since then right front passenger, Tracey (31 years) of Kilburn, New Brunswick and I hope many more. Please don’t try to help me come to terms and her daughter Katie (8 years) also died in the collision. Allie (5 years) sustained serious internal injuries in the collision and was with this experience with platitudes like “It’s all part of God’s plan”; transported to the Children’s Hospital in Edmonton, where she “It’s not for us to know”; “God works in mysterious ways”; or remains in stable condition. “She’s in a better place now.” All those explanations are a crock, Terrible accidents happen everywhere, every day. But what struck and if the unimaginable suffering that occurs on a daily basis me about the events of July 28, 2008, is how dramatically different throughout the world does not convince you of that, nothing will. that day turned out for two little girls who came so close to each Of course, the events that transpired on Highway 16 on July other (probably less than fifty feet) and who probably had much in 28, 2008, were not unusual. Kids die of cancer, get run over by common. My daughter was seven; Katie was eight. Both undoubt- cars, drown in swimming pools, choke on sandwiches, get hit by edly liked Bratz, Webkins, and Nancy Drew mysteries and still slept stray bullets—you name it, and it will happen somewhere, some- with their favorite doll. Both probably owned a Mini DS and might time. Religious faith undoubtedly helps the parents who suffer have been playing the same game in the back seat that morning. these tragedies, but it does nothing to explain why they happen. Both were vacationing with their families and travelling the same The fact of these tragedies is, in my opinion, the ultimate disproof highway. Neither had any say about the vehicle in which they were of the existence of God. riding that day. I was driving a small SUV. As noted above, Katie’s Erroll G. Treslan is a Canadian litigation lawyer, a member of the Grey- grandmother was driving a Toyota Echo. But it really doesn’t matter. Bruce Humanist Association, and a columnist on irreligiosity for the Owen Neither stand a chance in a head-on collision with a tractor trailer. Sound Sun Times. Katie died along with her grandma and her mom at 11:25 A.M.

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Faith Can’t Save Us How God Made a Mess of Death

C. Jay José Segue

have a chronic illness. It’s not cancer, and it’s not heart disease: ather, Mother, and Dweezil took very different roads to I have a chronic mental illness. I frequently deal with suicidal death. All three were along in years and suffering as their Ithoughts. I have gone through periods when I’ve had thoughts Fends drew near, but Dweezil the cat got the best deal by far. of killing myself every single day. Once, it lasted for two and a half A vet solved his problems in seconds, and there were no dubious years. I’m kept alive by my boyfriend, my family, my psychologist, religious ethics to make a mess of it. my psychiatrist, and loads of medications. It’s all very precarious. My parents had been out of the religion loop all their lives: A shift in any of these supports could be fatal. they were not atheists, not agnostics, not humanists—just out-of- When my previous therapist, after four years of therapy for the-loopers. They eventually divorced and remarried—Mom to extreme depression, asked if I believed in God, I knew that I was another “religious disassociate” and Dad to a cafeteria Catholic in trouble. If my therapist was resorting to God, what hope was who viewed ethics as a menu and sent whatever she didn’t like there for me? I explained that I had no faith. I have no memory of back to the kitchen. ever believing in God, but I do remember a period when, being extraordinarily depressed, I tried to believe in something other God Created Quacks, Too than what I had in my life in order to try to relieve myself of suici- Cancer eventually claimed Dad, but it was alternative mumbo jumbo dal thoughts. I wanted to find solace in something that might help that pushed his treatable cancer past the point of no return. God me fight the darkness. I was often driven to self-injurious and self- would add a twist of the knife near the end. destructive behaviors. If only I could find some comfort outside of My father was emotionally vulnerable after his divorce from my myself! I know better now; I no longer think that a belief in a god mother and ripe for easy answers. He found them first in a paper- will be a substitute for my suicidal thoughts. back on home remedies by a New England physician who advocat- ed apple-cider vinegar as a cure-all; second, in Psycho cybernetics and I’m OK, You’re OK, two early tomes from the psychobabble industry; and third in the welcoming arms of his married, Catholic secretary. “When my previous therapist ... asked if I Dad believed in the benefits of apple-cider vinegar because the fellow prescribing it was a doctor. Later Dad switched to vitamin C believed in God, I knew that I was because Linus Pauling, who had won a Nobel Prize, said it was good. in trouble. If my therapist was resorting Next came comfrey (a relative of the dandelion), then megadoses of to God, what hope was there for me?” wheat germ, then a nonwheat diet with a mysterious exemption for his beloved pasta, and on and on with an assortment of nostrums and immortality potions from Prevention magazine. He’d avoided real health care for decades, which only reinforced his mindset. By the time pain forced him to consult a medical profes- Ironically, I’m a psychologist, which means that I sometimes sional, it was too late. He had delayed diagnosis to the point where work with individuals who have mental illnesses that cause suicidal his prostate cancer had become untreatable, yet he still found time thoughts. Some may question the wisdom of this. Others think that to get to a Laetrile charlatan in quack-friendly Nevada and then my condition can result in an enhanced understanding and sensitiv- receive shark cartilage treatments in Mexico. He wasted away in the ity to the feelings of my patients. I’ll leave it to others to decide. predicted time frame, but not before quacks succeeded in fleecing Struggling to help me, a friend once said, “Let go and let God.” him out of $15,000. I didn’t understand what this meant, and I still don’t. I also don’t The final twist came when God and my step-mom talked him understand what it means when people say God only gives you into a deathbed conversion to Catholicism. Dad confessed his sins what you can handle. I know I have far more than I can handle. and was baptized so they could both be buried in a Catholic ceme- I don’t think that disbelief in an afterlife affects my suicidal tery and be reunited in Heaven. Thus he died, another poster child thoughts. Am I more or less likely to act on these thoughts be cause for death with indignity. I have no faith? Who can say? So, I am left with no faith and fre- quent thoughts of wanting to end my life. A journey toward noth- The New Facts of Death ingness. But I still have my boyfriend, my family, my psychologist, Mother’s approach was very different. By 1991, she was a widow my psychiatrist, and my meds. I hope that this will be enough. and in reasonably good health when she read Final Exit by death- C. Jay, whose last name has been withheld by request, is a psychologist. with-dignity advocate Derek Hum phrey. We’d often discussed the pros and cons of Humphrey’s suggestions for checking out of life’s

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My Aura

Robert F. Allen

hotel. She’d had minor strokes, but her main worry was that a big was a boy of fifteen, escaping my suburban neighborhood on one would prevent her from voluntarily turning in her keys. “If foot and braving a highway to reach a neglected steel bridge that happens,” she said, looking at me as someone does when Ithat stretched over the Schuylkill River just outside Philadelphia. dispatching a person on a critical mission, “you’ve got to take care The twilight bled over the riveted beams, concealing the rusted of business.” I promised that I would. green-painted angles. I walked over the water, pulling a plaque The big one came in 1996; she lost her powers of speech, out of my pants where I’d hidden it, convinced I was finally far mobility, and cognition. In the hospital, doctors and physical thera- enough away to not be caught. I looked at this gift from my par- pists flocked to her side, but they were offering hope and sympathy ents in the haze beneath a bug-shrouded spotlight. There was a more than the prospect of meaningful recovery. Luckily, my mother silver medallion with a profile of Jesus and the host in relief. Below had prepared a document disavowing life support, which proved was a gold plate commemorating my First Holy Com munion and invaluable for keeping medically sanctioned hope-pushers at bay. bearing my delicately scratched name: ROBERT FRANCIS ALLEN, JR. Without this document, the law allows the medical community to Night was complete and upon me; I could no longer see where be as rapacious as the quacks when death comes a-knocking. the bridge met the land on either side. At first I pressed the doctors to carry out her wishes for deliv- erance. They stared back like zombies, unable to pursue any goal other than that for which they’d been hardwired. I finally found a sympathetic MD who filled me in on the new facts of death. A few years ago, he told me, he could have dispatched my mom without a ripple, but this was 1996, and God’s warriors were rag- ing against a hero who had put everything on the line. With torch- “I was the youngest of three children; es and pitchforks raised, the sanctimonious were clamoring for the head of Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Kevorkian had done right by over my oldest sister was away on a class trip. a hundred fatally ill people but made the mistake of making a I pleaded with God to return things to the show of it. Kevorkian’s media spotlight had the unfortunate side way they had been before.” effect of chasing medical practitioners who agreed with him into their bunkers. Mom was transferred to a hospice where I kept working to ful- fill her wish, to no avail. I was ready to put a pillow over her head, but I was assured that this would lead to a murder charge. When I learned that she was being given morphine, I told a sympathetic hree years prior, I had walked upstairs to the second floor of my nurse, “Mom likes morphine. Lots and lots of morphine.” She smiled home, responding to an odd moan I’d barely heard over the and assured me that she and Sister Morphine would keep mom T jabber of the television. I found my older sister in the corner where dreaming happy dreams. I had failed to execute my mother’s dying she had fallen, shivering violently. I repeatedly begged her to tell wish, but at least I could send her off riding a decent buzz. me what was wrong, screaming louder each time. Frothing spit We live under laws that forbid our loved ones the same mercy ran down her chin; her eyelids were fluttering over her white eyes. that we show our pets. The threat that those we love can be My mother barreled up the stairs, cussing. She ordered me to coerced into last-minute religious conversions only adds to the call my father at work, and I did, hardly able to explain the scene misery. Isn’t death tough enough? Do we really need such a piti- to him through my hysterics. My mother held my sister, furiously fully low ethical bar to make it tougher? Recalling a verb fashion- demanding that she tell her what had happened. My sister’s shak- able in the 1990s, a just society should “kevork” all restrictions on ing subsided, but she was oblivious to the mayhem around her. death with dignity. My father arrived, first calming my mother and me and then Please, when my time comes, kill me kindly, strip me of all flying into a rage at our fatuity. My sister regained consciousness needed parts, deliver my leftovers to an anatomy class, and I’ll die enough to mumble a few words. My parents aided her out to their happy knowing that in a few billion years our Sun will repossess car, bound for the emergency room, and I was left alone for the my atoms anyway. first time, ever. I was the youngest of three children; my oldest sis- ter was away on a class trip. I pleaded with God to return things José Segue’s mother used to read him bedtime stories from the Zetetic to the way they had been before. With Easter close at hand, I Scholar. He hasn’t been quite the same since. remembered the sacrifice that marked the season, thinking that

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this suffering would end and give way to peace everlasting. By not to our home. That summer, our family vacationed in Cape tomorrow, my sister would be dancing in front of the television Cod. I was thrilled by Provincetown and whale- and people- again, imitating Olivia Newton-John in Xanadu. I didn’t know that watching safely from behind my father’s protective arm. Walking my sister had epilepsy. alone on the beach one night, I met a French-Canadian girl in a I would witness my sister’s affliction take hold of her again and “Shit Happens” T-shirt and a punk hairstyle more outrageous than again; the same scene followed each time. The anxiety that mine, cut in direct defiance of her parents. She told me about gripped my family was only punctuated by the seizures themselves. Montreal and about how typical she was there. While kissing her, The house had to be silent. To my mother’s brittle nerves, every puff I thought that someday I could live elsewhere, possibly in Province- of air was my sister’s writhing body falling on the floor. Even laugh- town or even in another country. Our family returned home, ter was discouraged by the rage it would provoke in my mother. happy. We were sitting in the family room gazing into the televi- sion and eating pizza when a can of soda fell hissing across the floor from my sister’s shaking hand. My heart sank, as well as my dreams of an unburdened future. When the bedlam ended, my mother yelled at me: “Get off your ass and do something!” “There is no God!” burst from my mouth. I ran to my room. I looked at my wallpaper, chosen for “. . .Acanofsodafellhissingacross me when I could hardly speak. I fiercely took down the First thefloorfrommysister’sshakinghand. Communion plaque just before my father barged in. He restrained ...My motheryelledatme: me with an embrace when I tried to push past him. He told me that I didn’t mean what I said to my mother. I promised to apolo- ‘Getoffyourassanddo something!’ gize after I took a walk. “‘ThereisnoGod!’burstfrom mymouth.” rom the bridge, I hurled the plaque into the dark above the Fwater, grunting like an animal until the sound in my throat broke free: “I hate you!” The echo was brief. I awaited a reply, even the splash from below, but heard nothing. Walking home, I thought of the aura epileptics experience before a seizure that allegedly provides an insight they will not recall afterward. Each seizure showed that the adjusted medication level was Twenty-three years ago I began my rebellion against religion on still not yet correct, which led to my sister taking debilitating that bridge, trembling. I know now, having since traveled, read amounts of phenytoin and phenobarbital, thanks to “those widely, and studied biology, that the echo of my voice that I heard damned doctors.” The tension drove my father from the house, that night was the reply I awaited—my aura. I was a child then and who exaggerated the urgency of work. My eldest sister, graduat- should never have needed to assert myself against my family’s ed from high school and with a car (though not college-bound), unreasonable behavior, which only multiplied our distress, but I was with her boyfriend whenever possible. My mother and I were accept responsibility for my own subjugation, thereby casting it off. imprisoned in the house with my bedridden sister, who was prac- My sister’s epilepsy has been controlled for many years now (though tically comatose from the drugs weighing down her blood. its consequences linger), and I’m able to recall my “aura”; its insight My exhausted mother would leave me to mind my sister so she has shown me that enduring illness is not a battle against the could “get away.” While on duty, I would coax myself into sleep, specter of God, the suffering person, each other, the doctors, or blessedly aloof. Prior to this crisis, my family and I had been becom- even the insentient disease itself. As our neurons go about firing ing lapsed Catholics (my father was Lutheran). Now my mother and misfiring, any failure to address reality forces us to wander the pleaded with me to go with her to church because she “needed to landscape of despair alone, abandoning and even opposing our pray.” I did, hoping God would notice. I proved myself to be “so allies in family and in science. Such a departure is akin to taking the responsible.” I was asked to dispense medication to a patient four illness upon ourselves when we belong among the living, where years my senior (in later years, teaching my sister to drive and to comfort is needed and from whence cures emerge. write well enough to fake her way through school fell to me as well). God saw the symbiosis between my mother and me: the Robert F. Allen writes when he is not brewing beer, playing the concerti- seizures stopped, meaning the medication was finally balanced. na, generally complaining, or doing nonlethal science experiments in his During the three years after the first seizure, the medication kitchen with his children. was carefully reduced and life grudgingly returned to my sister, if

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FACING M ISERY: C ONFRONTING I LLNESS, E VEN D EATH , WITHOUTA P RAYER

When Crisis Is Chronic

Andrea Szalanski

t what point does an illness go from being a challenge in developing a separate, independent life—was interrupted during one’s life to becoming one’s life? The progress of the trans- my sophomore year in college. My father’s arteriosclerosis led to Aformation is so gradual, the change so nearly imperceptible, bypass surgery, which led to stroke, which led to paralysis of his that one barely has time to realize that while a short-term coping “good” side and gangrene and eventual amputation of his leg on strategy is helpful, a long-term plan is critical to the well-being of his “bad” side. Eleven years of confinement to a wheelchair fol- all involved. Few if any counseling programs that I’ve encountered lowed, in nursing homes, the VA hospital, and at home where my deal with the long haul. You make it up as you go along. mother cared for him. There was no hope for a cure or even Disabling degenerative illness was part of my family’s life for improvement—just for some relief from the boredom and monot- many, many years. We coped with little guidance or advice, few ony. Various crises cropped up that kept us on our toes and honed respites, and no cause for optimism. Given our family history and our patient-advocate skills—caregivers who didn’t show up, care- background, it would not have been surprising if religion had givers who stole, medical advice that was disinterested or inaccu- played a major role. But the most help came from ordinary people rate, insurance companies that needed to be kept honest. But in small acts of thoughtfulness and kindness. there were bright spots, too, and those stand out clearly against the blur of bad. There were friends and relatives who visited and helped give my father a change of scene or get him to important family events. Others brought little surprises to cheer us up. Still others helped with house repairs. Except for occasional visits from a priest, I have no memory of the church sending any of its con- siderable resources our way. Some of the facilities that my father “Few if any counseling programs that I’ve found himself in over the years were religious-owned, but it was encountered deal with the long haul. the lay volunteers who extended themselves the most. However, the church remained an important part of my par- You make it up as you go along.” ents’ culture (my mother regarded the selection of Karol Wojtyla as the first Polish pope a miracle), and however distant our rela- tionship had become, we did turn to the church for the milestone moments. Not wanting to make my mother’s already difficult life more stressful, I arranged to marry in the church, although the service would be without Communion (not easily done in Catholic My parents were first-generation Americans raised in the cul- tradition). This avoided my having to participate in a sacrament ture of the Polish Catholic Church. A beloved aunt became a . that I no longer believed in and accommodated the physical limi- A deference to the male priesthood was a continuing thread in my tations of my father, who could not sit through a long ceremony. mother’s life, though she seemed aware that as humans, priests It was arranged by the younger priest of the parish—when the (and the Catholic clerical structure) were imperfect. She reserved older one found out on the day of the ceremony, he almost her devotion and allegiance for God and the Virgin , and stopped it but unhappily relented. when I, an only child, was born with a life-threatening condition, After eleven years of being an invalid, my father died. That she dedicated my life to the Virgin in return for my survival. Every should have been enough for any family—which now included my May 1 thereafter we would visit a replica of the Fatima grotto to husband, who had become an equal partner in dealing with the place flowers before the statue. consequences of my father’s illness. But within a little more than Growing up I was a dutiful Catholic, never missing a weekend ten years, my mother’s health started a decline that lasted until her Mass and completing all the sacramental milestones. But in high death seventeen years later. It began with uterine and ovarian can- school we were taught to question and discuss. Although I set off cer and continued with a car accident and a series of falls, which for a Newman Center service that first Sunday away at college, I worsening osteoporosis guaranteed ended in broken bones every never made it, and I never attempted another trip. time. Each incident resulted in what should have been a temporary Our family’s normal course of change—my parents enjoying stay in a nursing home for rehab but turned into a struggle—my fewer responsibilities and looking forward to retirement; me mother against her family and the health professionals. Psychi-

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atrists assessed her competency: paranoid schizophrenia with nar- ident sleeping in my mother’s bed), the room’s rightful occupant cissism was their diagnosis. Although exaggerated, her behavior pushed her and she broke both wrists. She had just turned nine- was not new—it just finally had a name. But that development did ty. Within a few days, she began refusing food and drink. not solve the problem. Medication helped (when she took it). In a departure from normal practice, the facility allowed her to Facilities vacillated between declaring her incompetent and honor- stay and provided twenty-four-hour care with the support of hos- ing her wishes—they took whatever action worked best for them. pice. One aide tried to do more than watch by her bedside—-she They were more than willing to let her go home to an unsafe situ- offered comfort by constantly talking and singing. Unfortunately, ation just to get her out of their hair. As had been the case with my she chose prayers and religious songs. Although my mother was father, many of the facilities were religious-owned, but their oper- largely incommunicative at this stage, the look in her eyes remind- ations were often more poorly run and less compassionate than ed me of a trapped and helpless animal—her religion had always their secular counterparts. (During one of my mother’s stays at a been important to her, but its daily practice was a private matter. religious hospital, I discovered that she wasn’t eating because no I felt I needed to ask the aide to stop the prayers and the hymn staff member thought to elevate the head of her bed or unwrap singing, but she had only the best intentions—I did not want to her utensils. Her concerned roommate alerted us to the situation.) offend her or diminish her enthusiasm for making my mother’s last days as comfortable as possible. In the end I talked to a super- visor, and the behavior that was so distressing to my mother desisted. Fortunately, the quality of her care did not. She was dead within a week. Again we turned to the church for the final act—last rites and a church funeral. But again it was the “One aide tried to do more than watch people, not the church, who made it meaningful. The priest could by her bedside—she offered comfort not be bothered to hear much about my mother’s personal life so by constantly talking and singing. that he could incorporate those details into the service or to have any of us speak at the service—he told us that he needed to get it Unfortunately, she chose prayers over with so he could keep the Ash Wednesday services on sched- and religious songs.” ule. (The first visitor at the wake was startled, upon entering the funeral home, to hear him joking with the funeral director. “We put the ‘fun’ back in ‘funeral,’” he explained.) But long-lost relatives, friends, and coworkers sent food, flowers, money, and turned up for the wake and funeral, even though many had never met my mother. We have since worked at maintaining those connections. Through it all we were constantly on edge for “the call”—from The articles in this section focus on how seculars deal with chron- her if she had fallen at home; from the hospital if something had ic or serious illness—both their own and close others’—and other happened in public and she had been taken to the ER; from the car brushes with death. My own experience began before I had even salesman saying that once again she had taken a cab to the deal- heard of secular humanism, but it illustrates, once again, that crisis er and tried to buy a car even though she shouldn’t be driving; does not necessarily drive one to embrace religion. On the other from the police because she was again fighting with the neighbors. hand, crisis can reveal religion’s shortcomings and flaws. It is not reli- Finally, in her late eighties and after a bout with congestive gion that comes through when one needs help. Bad things of vari- heart failure and a period of forgetting to eat, she accepted place- ous magnitude happen in life to all people, for reasons often ment in an assisted living facility for people with dementia. Those unknown or not understood. But we have only each other to help us were probably the best of her later years. Regular medication and through—neither gods nor nor their earthly representatives meals put her on an even keel. Although she never did get along are going to miraculously change the course of events. In our case, with many of the other residents or occupy herself with self-direct- it was ordinary people who brought us genuine aid and comfort. It ed activities, she became a darling of the staff and was given a lot is the good memories of their actions that we have taken away from of attention. (In a perfect world, health aides would be among the our experiences and that stay uppermost in our minds. best-paid people on the planet.) Still, that system is also far from perfect—we still got “the call” many times, as health crises above a certain level had to be dealt with outside the facility. Andrea Szalanski is the managing editor of FREE INQUIRY and the editor of The imperfect system finished my mother off in the end: after the Secular Humanist Bulletin. She has worked for the organizations now having wandered into another resident’s room (something that known as the Center for Inquiry since 1983. happened quite frequently—on one occasion I found another res-

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FACING M ISERY: C ONFRONTING I LLNESS, E VEN D EATH , WITHOUTA P RAYER

Seculars Need Support, Too

Lori Griffith

our years ago, at age twenty-four, I was in high spirits be - pital for two weeks, so he was unable to comfort me as he always cause my boyfriend was about to finish his last trimester of had before. Some days the feelings of loneliness were overwhelm- Fcollege and move to the city where I lived so that we could ing. The stress of dealing with appointments, doctors running late, begin thinking about our future. We had met in high school and needles, feeding tubes, medications, and more caused me to lose had spent most of our relationship living two hundred miles apart. so much weight that my doctor became concerned for me. Every Everything seemed to be going well, except that the back of my time I would open another card or letter, I would feel hurt at the boyfriend’s neck had been hurting him for a few months. It kept realization that I had nowhere I could go to feel the sense of getting worse, but the doctors reassured us that it was only an belonging that a church offers. Even if I did have somewhere to go, infection or an inflamed lymph node. On April 6, he received the I did not have the time. I needed someone to help me. I needed call. It was nasopharyngeal carcinoma. At age twenty-two, he’d someone to make sure that I was taking care of myself. been diagnosed with cancer. It’s been four years, and my boyfriend is now fully recovered— I happen to live thirty minutes away from the hospital that his and my husband. Two years ago, I joined a local secularist group doctor highly recommended for treatment. I insisted without hes- and realized that there are other people who also want the same itation that my boyfriend live with me and that I be his primary community and sense of belonging that I needed. Over the past caregiver during treatment. The actual treatment would last only couple of years, I have dedicated my time and energy toward two months, and because he was young it was expected that he making such a community a reality. I recently started my own would tolerate the high levels of radiation and chemotherapy rel- social group for nonbelievers in the northeast corridor of Iowa atively well. As it turned out, he was extremely sick, not only dur- called the Corridor A-Team. We currently have more than eighty ing the treatments but for three months thereafter, because he members, and we hold a variety of social events for members could not tolerate his pain medication. every month. Although my experience as a primary caregiver for a Through it all, I regularly received cards, letters, and money from cancer patient was extremely difficult, I am thankful that it has members of the church in which he grew up. I considered myself inspired me to bring together this community. Every time I see a agnostic at the time, and these well-wishes only made me feel new person exchange phone numbers with another member or worse. All of my friends were my age and did not have much expe- hear of people getting together outside of the group, I smile. I rience with this sort of situation, so they tended to stay away out of realize that I have just made sure that one more nonbeliever will fear of upsetting me. Our families lived in another state and helped have a community standing behind him or her to help in facing as much as they could, but they couldn’t be there as much as any of both the trials and the joys of life. It makes it all worth it. us would have liked. I had recently gotten a new job, and I hadn’t had time to make new friendships with my coworkers. Lori Griffith coordinates the Corridor A-Team, a secular community group My boyfriend was so sick that at one point he was in the hos- in northeast Iowa. The Boy Who Awoke from Death

Mallory L. Craig

don’t believe in God, but I believe in hell. I’ve been there. It all tional thousand bucks despite the fact that we already had return began with a late-night phone call from my ex-wife, telling me tickets for later in the week—good capitalists! They sat us in wide, Ithat our eldest son had overdosed on drugs and was near death. soft, overstuffed leather seats—the only time in my life I ever flew She said that a buddy of his had found him and initiated CPR. first class. Yeah, we’re all born naked, but we ride to hell in luxury. When the paramedics arrived, they were able to jump-start his My sons were teenagers who had grown distant from one heart, but now our boy Paul was in the ICU of the local hospital another, so Luc felt obliged to feign indifference about his broth- in a coma, on a respirator, with total organ failure. er’s travails. While outwardly I attempted to maintain a fatherly air I was vacationing in Florida with our other child, Luc, visiting of calm rationality, on the inside my guts were dissolving into Grandma for spring break. We caught the first plane home to relentless, withering pain. Arizona the following morning. The airline charged me an addi- We arrived in the middle of the afternoon. Before leaving the

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airport, I sat down with Luc and tried to explain to him that Paul just need some rest, so go ahead and close your eyes and sleep.” had acted cruelly toward him these past few years only because He shut his eyes. I about fell over. I told the night nurse what had he was jealous and insecure; in fact his brother had never quit lov- happened, but she didn’t believe me. ing him. Luc didn’t say a word. As we stood up to go, I advised, The next day my older brother, Bill, a renowned Christian min- “Get ready—it won’t be pretty.” ister and author, flew into town.* I still remember when he got Paul lay enmeshed in a web of wires and tubes protruding from religion back in high school—the misfit debate-team nerd had every bodily opening, piercing his veins, and glued to his head, found a community to join. Over the subsequent years, his inex- with the whole tangled mess connected to racks of drip bags and orable transition from science-lover to science-denier was fasci- myriad beeping machines. They had him pumped full of liquids due nating, though heartbreaking, to witness. to his organ failure, which bloated him grotesquely, skin taut like a Bill wanted to know if he could pray for Paul. Since I was blow-up figure in a Macy’s parade. Instantly, Luc spun toward me already juggling an overabundance of concerns at that point— and buried his face into my chest, crying, clutching me tightly. police and paperwork, job, home, school, a slew of doctors—I After everyone left, I finally let go and wept a puddle on the dodged the fight and acquiesced, figuring it couldn’t do any floor alongside Paul’s bed. He was a sweet, naïve kid who had harm. He laid his palm on Paul’s forehead and began to summon made a dumb mistake, swallowing some pills at a party, wanting divine intervention. I couldn’t bear to watch so I left the room. to get high. After finishing the ritual, Bill offered no further assistance and instead immediately withdrew to his hotel. On his return the following day, my brother did find the time to lecture Luc, a gay sixteen-year-old, on why he should stay celi- “I imagine my brother believes he bate for the rest of his life. Bill then recommenced his prayer rou- delivered us a miracle. Grandma says tine with Paul. Pacing behind his uncle, Luc asked me, “Why is he that in our family, we’re just hard even here?” “I don’t know,” I muttered, shaking my head. Bill departed to get rid of.” town later that afternoon. Amazingly, over the ensuing two weeks, Paul was gradually weaned off the machines and made a complete recovery. The That evening the night nurse disclosed how they could tell by notoriously cautious neurologists were forced to use words not measuring the buildup of certain chemicals in his body that Paul typical to their vocabulary: extraordinary, incredible, unbelievable. had been clinically dead for between thirty and forty-five minutes Soon thereafter the medical bills came flowing in, finally totaling before he was found. Now only his heart was working, with the more than $350,000. Luckily, I had excellent health insurance or I machines doing everything else for him. When pressed for the would have been financially exterminated. cold hard truth, the nurse admitted that undoubtedly there was I imagine my brother believes he delivered us a miracle. brain damage. Still desperate for hope, I asked her about those Grandma says that in our family, we’re just hard to get rid of. incidents in which kids fully recover after being underwater for an Whatever happened, Paul is the one who did it, that much I know. hour or more. She told me that that situation was called a “whale Somehow he shut down, took a nap, and dozed through death. dive” and invariably involved hypothermia, but the circumstances God is dead, but Paul’s still going. didn’t apply in this case. Oh, great . . . I was facing the prospect In the end, life is time. Whether someone is good or bad, weak that my son would either awake as a brain-dead cripple or else or strong, famous or anonymous, even in a fateless world we are remain in a coma, and I would have to pull the plug on the each ultimately dealt only a limited and ever-diminishing number of machines and kill him. heartbeats. This really gets driven home hard while you listen to a At about three o’clock that morning, I was standing at Paul’s monitor slowly count, beep by piercing beep, the tenuous rhythm of bedside holding his hand, staring at him. I had been awake for your child’s heart through the hollow stillness of the night. forty-four hours straight by then, and, although my vision was But time is malleable. In hell, the minutes crawl by for hours, pretty blurry, I thought I saw Paul’s eyelids open slightly. Leaning while the days pass like seconds. But now, right now, is the moment closer, I peered into the narrow slits. What a horrible sight—his for us frantic little humans to step outside the whirlwind of daily life, eyeballs were pure yellow, including the iris. Nevertheless, I felt to let days pass like days again before it all just slips away. that he was watching me, so I whispered, “Listen, boy, if you see a white light, run like hell away from it! Come back to this world! Mallory L. Craig is a freelance writer, poet, and lyricist currently residing in You can make it. You gotta fight this thing. You can do it!” Flagstaff, Arizona. But I had no clue if he was aware of my presence or heard me—maybe eyelids always drifted open like that on a damn dead *William Lane Craig is perhaps today’s best-known Christian apologist. He corpse. To test it, I said, “Well, alright, most of all you has debated many leading nontheists on the existence of God.

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FACING M ISERY: C ONFRONTING I LLNESS, E VEN D EATH , WITHOUTA P RAYER

Jilting Mr. Death

Nick Cariello

o what’s it like, I’m often asked, to be alive more than six I must have been in denial, because those fifteen chilling words, years after I’m supposed to have died? Well, one thing’s cer- though uttered with utmost kindness, jolted me into the realiza- Stain: I’m older by the calendar. But I hope that I’m younger in tion that my date with Mr. Death was now very near. I managed attitude and outlook. And it’s gratifying to be still walking on plan- to nod to the nurse that I understood. I fell silent and I could hear et Earth, knowing my ashes had been scheduled to be scattered in my weakened heart slowly beating. I thought I saw the nurse’s a beloved mountain range near Tucson, Arizona, where I live. eyes misting. Emotion was etched on her face, and she soon left I wouldn’t still be here but for a fortuitous chain of circum- after patting my arm in sympathy. stances that meshed to save my life. Call it destiny. Or sweet Images began drifting across my mind. They were of the emaci- serendipity. Or just plain luck. ated faces of prisoners at Auschwitz with their haunted, deep-set My medical woes began with debilitating chills and fever. The eyes and ill-fitting, tattered gray clothing dangling from their skele- chills would often last as long as an hour, followed by a fever as tal frames. I thought, would I look like them when I neared the end? high as 104 degrees. I was hospitalized three times. Doctors were I shook off the unpleasant images as Loraine helped me to bed. concerned because of my age (then eighty-two) and were baffled That night a rare rain fell in Tucson. I recalled writer Dorothy despite many tests. Parker’s words: “Oh, let it be a night of lyric rain . . . when my bell I had been a combat Marine in World War II and had suffered is tolled. I have so loved the rain that I would hold last in my ears two attacks of malaria in New Zealand after fighting in the its friendly dim refrain.” Guadalcanal campaign. The symptoms that I was now suffering I also thought of the lyrics from one of my favorite songs, The were eerily similar. The hospital sent a blood sample to the Centers Rose: “It’s the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance/ for Disease Control in Atlanta to see if I was possibly suffering . . . and the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live.” from malaria after all those years. The results were negative. I didn’t sleep much that night as I contemplated my mortality. Finally, the frustrated doctors discovered that I had a bacterial I asked myself with gallows humor: Since I had never died before, heart infection. It was located on the leads of my pacemaker and how do I approach this rather unpleasant event? How should I on a heart valve. Two highly respected Tucson heart surgeons handle that final curtain call? refused to operate, claiming they had never performed such intri- A jumble of bizarre thoughts paraded crazily across my mind, cate surgery and knew of no one who could. They said I would such as “You really get only one chance at dying, and it’s like golf, probably suffer a stroke or heart attack or even die on the operat- no mulligans allowed.” I thought about Ernest Hemingway’s con- ing table because of the sheer complexity of removing the pace- tention that it didn’t matter how a man lived but how he died. maker leads buried in my heart. Should I engage in bravado, I wondered, and be ultra-sophisticat- My son Neal, who is a genetic toxicologist with a major phar- ed and flippant; should I be regretful and demand to know why life maceutical company, had twice flown in from North Carolina to is so unfair, especially to those much younger than I who must face comfort me and Loraine, my worried wife. Finally the crucial deci- their death? sion was made. With my reluctant permission, I was placed in a I mulled over Irish writer Nuala O’Faolain’s words in a novel: home hospice program to grimly await my demise. Outwardly, I “My one and only life has slipped away and I hardly even noticed.” tried to remain calm, but inwardly I was devastated. The hospice I heartily agreed and said to myself, “Yes, Nuala, you are so, personnel were most kind. They provided sleeping pills, pain med- so right.” ication, tranquilizers, and, most of all, comfort. Then I pondered: if, as Shakespeare wrote, “the entire world’s I am not religious. To the contrary, I’m a devout born-again skep- a stage,” then what role do I play now? That of Pagliacci, the trag- tic and wanted to confront this critical situation by myself with the ic clown? Or that of a martyr or a malcontent raging against fate? help of only my family. So I told the hospice people that I didn’t want I distinctly remember reviewing my philosophical take on life any part-time preacher or full-time minister, priest, or rabbi to come and its aftermath: I don’t believe in gods or goddesses, devils or calling. They readily acquiesced. demons, angels or archangels, hells or heavens, ghosts or goblins, I grew weaker. Late one afternoon when I was feeling ab so - witches or warlocks. And certainly not voodoo, tarot cards, or lutely wretched, I posed a question to the hospice nurse: “What other such nonsense. Our peculiar universe, I am convinced, is truly would be my options when my body begins to shut down?” indifferent. It doesn’t care if we prosper or perish, are happy or mis- The pretty nurse, probably in her late twenties, hesitated, erable, or are sick or well. The universe just chugs along. It just is. looked at me intently, and then said softly, “Well, we can sedate In my reverie, I suddenly, simply decided to accept whatever you indefinitely, but you must agree not to eat or drink anything.” came—and the thought had a wonderful calming effect. Like

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most people, I wasn’t afraid to die as much as I dreaded losing night was fitful and filled with strange, unrelated dreams. control and any shred of dignity. Later, my daughter-in-law, At 5:30 the next morning, a male nurse cheerfully and quickly Adriana, and my grandson, Nickie (then fourteen), flew out to see prepped me for surgery while my wife and son looked on. We me for the last time. At one point, Nickie had cried while we were embraced one more time, and as I was wheeled away to the operat- playing whist, and his mother inadvertently hadn’t allowed me to ing room I tossed back over my shoulder, “Hey, guys, wish me luck!” play a certain hand. Nickie, with emotion coating his voice, accused his mother: “This may have been the last hand Grandpa had had five pacemakers installed over the past twelve years— ever could win, and you took it away from him!” I told the weep- Iand six leads remained embedded in my heart. They were all ing boy that I was a born gambler and didn’t want special treat- infected. One doctor performed open-heart surgery while anoth- ment. Then we embraced and laughed and joked and cried and er meticulously removed the leads using a newly developed laser shared many poignant moments. They departed the next day. technique. Removal of the six leads was a Duke record. I awoke to hear Loraine and Neal saying excitedly, “Hey, they got them all out, they got them all!” After I left the hospital, we stayed at Neal’s home for five weeks. Loraine, whom I called my own private Florence Nightin - “The night before the operation, I told [my gale, patiently and skillfully gave me daily intravenous treatments son] that if I didn’t pull through he was not with a potent antibiotic to complete my recovery. She had mas- tered the technique after being taught by nurses. to blame himself, because the choice to Finally we went home. My emotions were churning. It was risk the surgery was solely mine.” great to be back and relatively healthy. And the Duke doctors found that I no longer needed a pacemaker. One morning shortly after returning home, I was enjoying coffee on the patio. A two- foot-long, blue and green plastic spinner hangs from the patio Meanwhile my son, Neal, with dogged determination, collect- roof, and it rotates in the slightest breeze. The spinner became ed my voluminous medical records. He and Loraine didn’t let me active just as three small yellow butterflies scooted over the back know what was going on because of the strong possibility of “no wall. They flew to the spinner and twisted and turned in aerody- hope.” In addition, I was in such a fog that I probably wouldn’t namic trickery for about a minute—all without colliding! have understood anyway. I laughed in delight and wondered why those butterflies didn’t After saying what could have been our last goodbye, Neal crash into each other. Was it “intelligent design”? Or was it because returned to Durham, North Carolina, where the famed Duke untold generations of butterflies had learned to maneuver tightly University Medical Center is located. As peculiar luck would have after banging their heads together innumerable times? it, a Duke pediatric heart surgeon had recently moved next door to Ah, I thought, let the theologians and scientists squabble over Neal. They discussed my case, and the doctor conferred with his that difficult question. Then the feeling flooded over me that it’s Duke colleagues. Specialists told Neal to bring me in for evaluation really a marvelous, magical world, full of wonders and colors and because they believed surgery, though extremely dangerous, could sounds that captivate and dazzle. After my “near-death” experi- save me. So after spending a month in the demoralizing hospice ence, I became determined on that glorious morning to really program, I made the flight (although I needed a wheelchair). After enjoy the brilliance of our red roses against the stark white wall, consulting with the Duke doctors, I agreed to undergo the perilous the lament of the mourning dove, the chatter of the cactus wren, operation. Neal and my tearful wife concurred with my decision. the stunning sunsets, and the luminous moon. And I vowed to Neal had told Loraine that he would have a difficult time if I did- enjoy good food, good wine, good books, good movies, great n’t survive, because he felt responsible for starting the process that friends, and my exceptional family. And especially butterflies. eventually led to the surgery. The night before the operation, I told Life, I salute you. Neal that if I didn’t pull through he was not to blame himself, because the choice to risk the surgery was solely mine. He answered Nick Cariello worked as a journalist for thirty years. In the past few years with tears flooding his grey eyes, “Dad, intellectually I could handle he has had six articles published in various war magazines about his com- it, but emotionally it would be difficult.” We embraced. Then bat experiences in World War II, for which he earned a Purple Heart. Loraine and Neal left. I asked for a sleeping pill, but my sleep that

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FACING M ISERY: C ONFRONTING I LLNESS, E VEN D EATH , WITHOUTA P RAYER

A Spinner’s Tale

Nancy Adams

artwheels, backbends, headstands, and piggyback rides way, clapping and crying as I spun down the hall. I was humbled were as much a part of my growing up as playing Barbie and by the hope they seemed to get from “the wheelies.” A nouvelle Cfighting with my sibs. My personal favorite was cartwheels, novena? Perhaps. but over time they went the way of Barbie—shelved and eventu- Phil died five weeks after Ann’s surgery, living long enough to ally forgotten. The Bicentennial, puberty, and college graduation see her through. My Grandma was next, dying one month after passed between my last spins and their reemergence. Phil. Packing the little black shift I’d just picked up from the clean- In June 1996, my sister Ann and Phil, her partner of twenty ers, I took more family leave days and headed back to Chicago, years, visited my husband, son, and me in Iowa. Having been diag- longing for a reunion not draped in drama and cloaked in grief. nosed with terminal cancer, Phil was technically on borrowed In the following months, Ann concentrated on regaining lan- time. One day, we planned to a magnolia tree (Phil’s favorite) guage and navigating the world as a single woman. The eventual and enjoy a bonfire at night, but Phil retired early. Ann and I passage of time brought with it strength, coordination, and a remained outside, trying to imagine her life without him. In even- determination to reclaim joy. On the morning of her one-year tual need of diversion, we began twirling and somersaulting and checkup, she attempted a cartwheel. It was 6:15 A.M., and on the then cartwheeling. Wobbly at first, we ended the night on solid dewy lawn outside the clinic, we did cartwheels together and per- ground. Still, sea changes in our lives had begun. fectly. We didn’t need an MRI to tell us—my sister was fine. If only Two months later, Phil witnessed Ann having a seizure while the story ended here. sleeping. After CAT scans and MRIs, she was referred to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Hosting a tumor and twisted vessels in her brain, she needed surgery for both. The tumor had priority, and should she have five good post-tumor years, the doctors would then address the “vessel problem.” As doctors removed a half-lemon-sized tumor from Ann’s “Ann lay in the recovery room. frontal lobe, my family huddled in the Neurology ICU Family Feeling helpless, I paced in front of Room. Midway through the vigil, we got a call from a cousin who wanted to check on Ann but who also thought we should know the hallway window of her room and ... that Uncle Bob had died that day, losing his own battle with a did a cartwheel.” brain tumor. We didn’t need to know that—not then. We were all too well aware of the vulnerability of the brain. Years earlier, my brother’s wife had died of a cerebral aneurysm while giving birth to their daughter Katie. Hours after learning about Uncle Bob, a compassionate and exhausted doctor informed us that Ann had suffered a post-op internal bleed and had been “taken back My mother’s brain hemorrhaged on November 15, 1997, the down.” Things were not looking good. anniversary of my grandmother’s funeral. Earlier that day, she and Okay, back to the cartwheels (sometimes my mind spins faster Ann had shared a cup of tea from Grandma’s finest china, and, than my body). Following the cessation of the bleed, Ann lay in toasting her memory, gave thanks that this difficult year had the recovery room. Feeling helpless, I paced in front of the hallway passed. But it hadn’t. My mom was diagnosed with terminal brain window of her room and . . . did a cartwheel. That led to anoth- cancer, and the rest of us were asked to partake in a study on the er. I told myself that one day we’d again do them together. I knew genetics of brain tumors. that when Ann opened her eyes, she’d see my legs flip and flail As the only family member living in a different area code, I was past the window and that would make her smile. spending far too much time on the road travelling to/from those I As often happens in such situations, my family bonded with loved/those who loved me, whom I needed/who needed me. On others bunking in the lounge, and over the days that we spent rare days when not in transit, I could be found hurling fine break- there I had several requests for cartwheels on behalf of loved ones. ables in my barn, for anger had settled in. A mother asked for one for her twenty-three-year-old daughter New Year’s Eve 1997 saw my father fall and break his leg and who was fighting for life after an aneurysm, saying it was exactly my niece Katie have what we thought was a seizure. Taking both to the sort of thing her daughter would do. Two sisters requested one the hospital, I wished for nothing more than to be back in Iowa. I for their father who’d suffered a stroke. They crowded in the door- needed my husband, son, and animals and my space and my work.

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Poem

Not this. But instead, the evening passed with Dad being fitted for a cast, Katie getting an EEG, and Mom still hospitalized. Had I the energy at midnight, I’d have had more than one drink—and more Arts and than likely I’d have smashed the goblet. My cartwheels of that winter were sloppy, heavy, and slow. Sciences: After several surgeries and both traditional and alternative treatments, my mother died on August 31, 1998. The night of the Finding Design wake, Katie and I were the last to leave the funeral parlor. Wanting to make sure she had as much time as she needed and yet not too Dorothy Sutton much, I struggled with how and when we’d make our exit. Enter After Richard Dawkins’s Unweaving the Rainbow, with gratitude. the cartwheel. I put my hand on Katie’s shoulder and tentatively suggested we secure the accordion doors, kick off the mourning The art of science, the science of art: shoes, and do one for Mom. Katie smiled. We did it. Perfectly. both to perceive and to mastermind these scattered patterns we call design. “Cartwheels are something to do when Mapping the paths we’ve traveled thus far I don’t know what to say or what else to see how they converge on this to do. They are about dying and spot. Seeing ways of saying it back living and rage and joy.” in a splendid rendering of the natural world. Heightened sensitivity, Fast forward. Because Ann had been tumor-free for five years, detecting connections, solving the doctors could now address that vessel problem. Armed with problems, coruscating beams of music the support of her new love, Mark, and a cartwheel or two in our to keep us in tune with the universe. hip pockets, we were ready. With her trademark courage, Ann braced herself for another round, and I hid tears while signing the Constant decoding of signs, insight, “Do not resuscitate” form as a witness. mind’s eye dilated to such a point, As Mark and I waited for word, we each did a cartwheel. Ann we see more than we’ve ever seen. Dappled patterns on the woodland made it through the procedure. Except for minor, intermittent floor seizures, she’s since had many trauma-free years. We do not take reflected in the pelage of a fawn. this for granted. I now believe that if I do one cartwheel a day, I’ll never forget The poet, the scientist, the artist, how to do one. They’ve served me well in this life and are a com- conditioned to expect more. forting constant in a world of change. Backyards, hospitals, and Everyday life a deep study, developing relationships. funeral homes aside, I’ve discovered a host of places that call for Lives bent towards exploration, their turn, including the Abstract Expressionist Gallery at the Met (monitors be damned), the terminal at O’Hare, shopping malls, seeking to meet in that medium cemeteries, and many streets in many cities. If the mood strikes where and there’s clearance for my legs, look out. disparate ideas intersect in graphic collusion. Collision, a Cartwheels are something for me to do when I don’t know spark. what to say or what else to do. They are about dying and living Message of precedent, beauty of new and rage and joy. They are the result of despair and a sign of hope. that had not struck our minds before. As I fly through the air, they keep me grounded. Dorothy Sutton is a professor of English Nancy Adams is an associate professor of psychology, an assemblage and creative writing at Eastern Kentucky artist, and a freelance writer on cultural affairs for a Midwest newspaper. University in Richmond, Kentucky. She A native Chicagoan, she now lives on acreage in Iowa with her husband, has published two collections of her son, and animal menagerie. poetry: Startling Art: Darwin and Matisse and Backing into Mountains.

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Caroline vs. Smallpox How one woman defeated man’s greatest enemy

Luis Granados

mallpox is caused by a virus with the scientific name of var- unfruitfulness, corruptions of the air, pestilences; they hover con- iola major. The virus affects only humans, not animals. Like cealed in clouds in the lower atmosphere, and are attracted by the Sthe common cold, it spreads through sneeze and cough emis- blood and incense which the heathen offer to them as Gods.” St. sions, bedding and clothing, or direct contact. After it enters the Gregory of Tours stressed the sinfulness of resorting to medicine nose or mouth, it heads for the lymph glands, whence it is given a instead of trusting in the intercession of saints. free ride throughout the body. What happens then is catastrophic: In 540, the church declared the entire field of Greek and fever, nausea, vomiting—then a rash of hundreds or thousands of Roman medicine to be heresy. On this point, Protestants and blisters, frequently starting on the forehead before covering the Catholics agreed. Martin Luther said that “Satan produces all the entire body. Sometimes the blisters merge together into sheets, maladies which afflict mankind,” and that “he poisons the air.” rotting off all the underlying skin when they harden. What the According to John Calvin, no medicine could change the course of virus does inside the body is just as bad—some victims die of thirst events that had already been determined by the Almighty. The when it becomes impossible for them to swallow. The eighteenth- Book of Chronicles tells the sad story of King Asa, who trusted to century British noble Lord Dalkeith succumbed after just two days; physicians rather than to the priests of Yahweh and therefore died. his limbs fell off while his body was being placed in its coffin. Smallpox was further assisted by the Christian bias against Like the common cold, smallpox is no respecter of class. It cut hygiene. How better to express appropriate humility before God down nobles and even monarchs—five in the eighteenth century than by living a life of degradation and filth? So thought some of alone. Smallpox is by far the worst infectious disease humankind the most admired saints in the early centuries of the church. St. has ever known: hundreds of millions have died from it, more than was glorified for never washing his clothes or changing from the Black Death and all the wars of the twentieth century his shirt; his entire holy body was covered with scabs and mange. combined. Surviving smallpox is no picnic either; it causes blind- Abasement of the flesh was strictly enforced by the Portuguese ness, loss of limbs, and horrible deformity, especially of the face. Inquisition, which ranked “bathing the whole body” as a crime of the magnitude of bigamy, denying the virgin birth, and witchcraft. Smallpox’s Faithful Ally Catholics reproached Erasmus for “having betrayed the Christian Smallpox developed an important ally in the first century C.E.: the norm in his pagan concern for the body” as they protested against Christian church. Humans have powerful intellects; from small- his “proposal of washing oneself every day, a disgusting northern pox’s perspective, it was critical that they not use them. idea incompatible with human dignity.” From earliest times, the Christian church taught that all useful knowledge was to be found in scripture and none in scientific The Beginning of the End research. Paul warned the Colossians: “Be on your guard; do not Though few would have predicted it at the time, the death knell let your minds be captured by hollow and delusive speculations, for smallpox sounded when the wars of the Reformation broke based on traditions of man-made teaching centered on the ele- out in the 1520s. Though England was spared at first, a Calvinist ments of the natural world and not on Christ.” The story of rebellion led by Oliver Cromwell broke out against the moderate Galileo is well-known: under threat of torture, he was forced to Stuart dynasty in the 1640s. The victorious Cromwell proceeded recant his discovery that the earth revolves around the sun. He to impose on England a decade of Calvinist theocracy. He closed spent the rest of his life under house arrest. theaters, alehouses, and racetracks; knocked down maypoles; and Knowing how the planets move satisfies our curiosity; know- ordered shopkeepers to stay open on all holidays that were pagan ing how the body works keeps us alive. Greek and Roman pagans in origin, including Christmas. Adultery became punishable by from Hippocrates to Galen did make important progress in apply- death, and in at least four cases this sentence was actually im posed. ing the scientific method to the study and treatment of disease. Not caring for bishops, Cromwell appointed eleven regional military But nothing could be more unchristian than to focus on natural commanders known as the “Major Generals” to enforce “the sup- causes for alleged supernatural phenomena. The fourth-century pressing of vice and encouragement of virtue” at the point of the church father Origen wrote: “It is demons which produce famine, bayonet.

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Ten years of theocracy was all England could stand. When Caroline blossomed into the most desirable princess of Cromwell died in 1658, virtually no one wanted his brand of gov- Europe. Not only was her intellect sharpened under the tutelage ernment to continue, and the Stuarts were quickly restored to the of Sophie Charlotte, but her long blond hair, fair skin, and what throne. Cromwell’s corpse was dug up, and he was posthumous- was described as “a bosom of exemplary magnitude” held a cer- ly executed by hanging and then decapitation. tain appeal as well. The Prussian king was thrilled when he made The reaction against Cromwell’s theocracy spawned a new for her the best match imaginable: the Archduke of Austria, who called “deism,” whose adherents did not deny was in line to become the Holy Roman Emperor. The Archduke the existence of God but doubted how much the experts knew was excited as well. All Caroline had to do was agree to become about him. A Christian clergyman put it aptly: “Deism is what is a Catholic. left of Christianity after casting off everything that is peculiar to it. This she would not do. Though an eminent Jesuit was dis- The Deist is one who denies the Divinity, the Incarnation, and the patched to Berlin to persuade Caroline that Catholics did not have horns, the princess gave up her chance at empire rather than swear obedience to the pope. The King of Prussia was livid. Bad enough that anyone should thwart his will, but for a slip of a girl to do so for the most foolish of reasons was more than he could bear. Caroline, contemplating a bleak spinsterhood “Smallpox developed an important ally in the at age twenty-two, went back to Ansbach. first century c.e.: the christian church. Humans One day, a gentleman caller arrived bearing a have powerful intellects; from smallpox’s letter of introduction identifying him as “Mr. de Busch.” He was duly entertained to music and elab- perspective, it was critical that they not use them.” orate suppers for several days. Caroline probably suspected the truth: Mr. de Busch was actually Prince George Augustus of Hanover, who if every- thing worked out right was third in line to the English throne. His claim traced back to his great- great-grandfather and was aided considerably by Atonement of Christ, and the work of the Holy Ghost; who denies the proscription of the Catholic branch of the family after the the God of Israel, and believes in the God of nature.” Glorious Revolution of 1688 and by the effects of smallpox itself One of the first published deists was the Englishman Charles on the royal family. George was smitten and remained so for the Blount, who—starting in the late 1670s—kept up a barrage of rest of his life. He and Caroline wed. criticism against all revealed religion and Christianity in particular. It was not at all a foregone conclusion that George and Caroline Blount argued that all true or correct belief has to be based on would make it to the English throne. Had Queen Mary borne chil- perceivable evidence. Though England’s deists were not a large dren rather than dying (of smallpox) in 1694, George would have group, they touched a nerve—one deist pamphlet aroused thirty- remained in Hanover. Had the son of her successor Queen Anne not five indignant refutations. Thomas Woolston and Peter Annet died (of smallpox) in 1700, the same result would have occurred. were imprisoned for their freethinking pamphlets; Woolston, who Nevertheless, Caroline’s luck held, and her father-in-law was branded England’s leading theologians “Gygantick Sons of Error, crowned George I in 1714. Nonsense, Incoherence and Confusion,” died in prison. The Influence of Deists Enter Caroline Upon arriving in London, Princess Caroline took up where her England was not the only country where religious warfare and its mentor Sophie Charlotte had left off, discreetly encouraging free- aftermath had exposed the moral bankruptcy of the God experts. thinking. The political realities confronting a new dynasty with a Throughout Europe, doubt grew among readers of Erasmus, tenuous hold on power constrained what she could do, but she Spinoza, and others inspired by them. In Germany, freethinking pushed the envelope as far as possible. For example, she honored prevailed at the salon of Sophie Charlotte, the first Queen of at court Newton, whose work was reviled by the Calvinists Prussia. Instead of jousting tournaments, she staged intellectual as “built on fallible phenomena and advanced by many arbitrary combats, with Jesuits pitted against Calvinists and agnostics presumptions against evident testimonies of Scripture.” against theologians, egging them on when the conversation Behind the scenes, Caroline worked assiduously to realign the became too agreeable. Drinking it all in was a young princess Church of England along more deist lines by advancing the careers named Caroline from the tiny Bavarian state of Ansbach. of clerics who advocated a milder, less intrusive religion in opposi- Her father had died at the age of thirty-two—of smallpox. Her tion to the fire-breathers. She especially took up the cause of Dr. mother remarried, but her stepfather died a few years later—of Clarke, a heretic who questioned the existence of the smallpox. Trinity itself. When she announced that “Dr. Clarke shall be one of

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my favorites; his writings are the finest things in the world,” the America, when smallpox ravaged a town, African slaves were of London paid her a visit to acquaint her with the truth of often untouched. Upon questioning, they revealed that inocula- England’s established religion. Furious, she told her assistant to tion was widely practiced in Africa. Everyone knew about inocula- “Send him away civilly: though he is very impertinent to suppose tion, it seemed, except for Europeans who lived under the thumb that I, who refused to be Empress for the sake of the Protestant of the antiscience Christian church. religion, don’t understand it fully.” Caroline hesitated. But after her daughter Anne was stricken She tried mightily to secure the repeal of the Test and by smallpox and barely survived, she swung into action. Employing Corporation Acts, which denied civil rights to those who failed to what she had learned of the scientific method, she conducted a toe the proper theological line. Ultimately, church hierarchy pre- field trial. Five prisoners from London’s Newgate prison who had vailed and repeal was delayed for another century. Still, Caroline never suffered from smallpox volunteered for the new procedure was one of the most influential royal spouses in English history; in the summer of 1721. All of them, as hoped, developed mild popular doggerel of the day ran: “You may strut, dapper George, cases—so mild that some skeptics doubted they actually had but ‘twill all be in vain; We all know ‘tis Queen Caroline, not you, smallpox. Five orphans were then inoculated, all of whom survived that reign.” (though it later turned out that one had lied about not having smallpox before, in order to get a reward). Inoculation Comes to Europe A sample size of ten, with one failure, would probably not sat- Caroline’s main assignment, though, was producing offspring to isfy today’s U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It was enough for ensure the continuance of the dynasty. At this she was quite tal- Caroline, though. With the king’s approval and no public announce- ented. Her first child, born after only eighteen months of mar- ment, in April 1722 she had Lady Mary’s doctor perform the proce- riage, had the good sense to be a boy. Eight more children fol- dure on her other two daughters. When they responded as hoped, lowed, only one of whom died at birth. she sent the doctor to the heir to the throne, then living in Hanover, Bearing children was one thing; keeping them alive, especial- and had him inoculated as well. ly faced with the menace of smallpox, was more difficult. Caroline There’s nothing like starting at the top. Royal acceptance gave had no need to experience smallpox’s horrors vicariously; she con- inoculation the most tremendous head start imaginable. As expe- tracted the disease herself six months after her son was born. So rience grew, doctors learned that inoculation carried risks; 1 to 2 did her solicitous husband, no doubt from her. Both survived the percent of those inoculated developed symptoms serious enough ordeal, though Caroline did so only barely, losing much of her to result in death. Still, that was better than the 10 to 25 percent physical beauty as a result. mortality rate smallpox normally carried, and demand for the pro- Thus Caroline, always fascinated with new ideas, listened cedure surged. intently to the reports brought back by Lady Mary Wortley from Turkey. Lady Mary had been the great belle of George I’s court; rumor had her bedding the king himself. That is, until smallpox ate away most of her face, after which she wore a veil in public. Still, she married well and accompanied her husband when “. . .InCopenhagen,duringtwelveyearsbefore he was appointed ambassador to Constantinople. theintroductionofvaccination,5,500personsdied There Lady Mary learned some interesting facts. Smallpox was not nearly as widespread in ofsmallpox;duringthenextsixteenyears,only158 Turkey as it was in England because of the adop- personsdiedofsmallpoxthroughoutallofDenmark.” tion of a peasant custom: deliberately infecting children with pus taken from smallpox sores in the hopes that they would contract a mild version of the disease. Everyone knew that smallpox never struck twice; surviving your first bout meant you were safe for life. Incredibly, Religious Opposition After consulting an English physician, the headstrong Lady Mary God experts quickly grew alarmed at this threat to their domi- decided in 1718 to try the procedure on her own son. An incision nance. Typical was London’s Rev. Edmund Massey, who preached was made on his arm, and pus from a recovering victim was a sermon in 1722 charging that inoculation was the work of rubbed into it—a procedure that came to be known as “inocula- Satan. This was evident from the Book of Job: “So went Satan tion.” As hoped, he developed a minor rash that disappeared forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils after a few days; the antibodies he developed protected him for from the sole of his foot unto his crown.” Satan had deliberately the rest of his life. (The results were not entirely positive, though; infected Job with smallpox; any doctor who similarly infected his once when he ran away from boarding school, the identifying scar patient with smallpox was mimicking Satan. of the inoculation helped the headmaster recover him.) Smallpox and other diseases were an earthly punishment for It wasn’t just Turkish peasants who practiced inoculation. In sin, a preview of the punishment sinners would receive in hell

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after death. “Diseases are sent, if not for the Trial of our Faith, for she flatly refused to be subjected to any sacrament. George was the Punishment of our Sins. Bad as the World is, it would be still shattered by her death: “I never yet saw a woman who was fit to worse, if the Wickedness of Mankind should be so successful as buckle her shoe.” to meet with no more Rebuke than it would willingly suffer.” Widespread inoculation would plunge the earth into a Gone for Good? cesspool of sinfulness: “Should all Restraints of this Sort be taken Large portions of the clergy continued to resist; a clever inocula- away, were there no fear of Punishment in this Life, nor belief of tor in Thessaly persuaded the local priests that the Blessed Virgin any in the next ... we may conjecture from present Disorders, had appeared and explained the procedure, making it acceptable how mightily they would encrease, and irremoveably be estab- as long as proper prayers were administered. In 1885, a smallpox lished; so that we have good Reason to bless and praise Almighty epidemic broke out in Montreal. The Protestant community was God for the wholesome Severities ordained for Offenders, without largely spared because it was vaccinated; the Catholic population which, the World would be a much more uncomfortable Place to was decimated because the priests insisted that vaccination was live in, than it is at present.” sinful. Abbé Filiatrault declared that “If we are afflicted with small- At bottom, what Massey couldn’t abide was the thought of pox, it is because we had a carnival last winter, feasting the flesh, men relying on themselves rather than on God. “Do we provoke which has offended the Lord; . . . it is to punish our pride that God the Lord to Jealousy? Or are we stronger than he? Shall we pre- has sent us smallpox.” Soviet efforts to vaccinate its population sume to rival him in any instance of Providence, find Fault with his against smallpox in the 1920s were confounded by Russian Administration, take the Work out of his Hands, and manage for Orthodox teaching that “vaccination is the seal of Antichrist.” our selves? A dangerous Experiment this! And not to be made In 1967, the World Health Organization launched a massive with Impunity, unless we thus pretend to be wiser, we prove our- campaign to render smallpox extinct, with great success. In 1974, selves mightier than he.” a Hindu god expert in the Indian state of Bihar refused to allow his Massey damned doctor and patient alike: “Let the Atheist, and followers to be vaccinated on the grounds that smallpox was the the scoffer, the Heathen and Unbeliever, disclaim a Dependance rightful scourge of God; in the end, he and his family were vacci- upon Providence, dispute the Wisdom of God’s Government, and nated by force. Final extinction was declared on October 26, 1979. deny Obedience to his Laws; Let them Inoculate, and be So smallpox is vanquished. Or is it? Two small samples of the Inoculated, whose Hope is only in, and for this Life! . . . Let us not virus remain, one in the United States and one in Russia, under sinfully endeavour to alter the Course of Nature by any presump- closely supervised conditions. In 2002, though, U.S. Vice President tuous Interposition. Let us bless God for the Afflictions which he Richard Cheney convinced himself that Saddam Hussein had sends upon us, and the Chastisements wherewith he intends to try somehow obtained smallpox as one of his weapons of mass or amend us; beseeching him to grant us Patience under them, and destruction and was preparing to devastate a now-vulnerable in his good Time a happy Deliverance from them.” American population. Cheney strenuously advocated a crash pro- Massey lost his battle. The practice of inoculation mush- gram to prepare hundreds of millions of doses to vaccinate the roomed, despite formal condemnation by the Catholic theolo- entire country. When the doctors who had led the eradication pro- gians of the Sorbonne. In a few decades an even safer procedure gram in the 1970s pointed out that even the minuscule propor- was discovered—vaccination—using a bovine virus similar to tion of vaccinations that resulted in complications would cost hun- smallpox that normally produced only weak symptoms in humans. dreds of lives and affect thousands of others, President George W. The effects were dramatic: in Copenhagen, during twelve years Bush took the rare step of overruling Cheney and limiting the pro- before the introduction of vaccination, 5,500 persons died of gram to the military and health-care workers. But by the time the smallpox; during the next sixteen years, only 158 persons died of doses were ready in 2004, it was clear that Saddam had no small- smallpox throughout all of Denmark. pox, so even that limited program was canceled. Bush himself was Caroline did not live to see the benefits of vaccination. In vaccinated, but Cheney chose not to be. 1737, she died from the complications of a previously ruptured Some subjects are too horrific even for London bookmakers to womb, after lingering for ten days in intense pain. At no point did take bets on. If smallpox ever does return, my money says that a she ask to see a priest, causing so much consternation in political God expert of some stripe will be involved. circles that the prime minister had to beg to allow the archbishop to visit her, to preserve appearances. “Pray, Madam, let this farce Luis Granados is a lawyer in Washington, D.C., and a student of religious history. be played. The Archbishop will act it very well. ... It will do the His God Experts blog, which appears on his own website and on Secular News Queen no hurt, no more than any good, and it will satisfy all the Daily, relates current headlines or anniversaries to scandalous episodes in wise and good fools, who will call us all atheists if we don’t pre- religious history. tend to be as great fools as they are.” Visits were one thing, but

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Harold Camping and the Second Stillborn Apocalypse

Edmund D. Cohen

adio evangelist Harold Camping, who predicted that the least two hours of airtime each weekday and manages his broadcast Second Coming would occur in September 1994, is now empire as he has done for fifty-two years. His process in arriving at Rpositive it will take place on May 21, 2011. Sixteen years the May 21, 2011, prophecy is a direct extension of his earlier work. ago—in the Winter 1994/95 issue of Free INQUIRY—I reported on that That makes his contention that this prediction rests on formal proof, earlier apocalyptic date-setting episode (that article is now available whereas the earlier one did not, mystifying. In all other respects, on www.secularhumanism.org). What follows is an update that however, his hermeneutic has changed profoundly. takes the story from the failure of that doomsday prediction to the Intricate and ingenious though they are, it is not useful to “home stretch” phase of its sequel, now in progress. delve too deeply into the voluminous chronological calculations In 1994, I facetiously observed that Camping had seemed to behind the Judgment Day predictions. The first time around, achieve something that has long eluded secularists and skeptics: Camping had arrived at May 21, 1988, as the day when the he derived a testable proposition from the Bible, and its failure mil- church age ended and the final tribulation began. Because 1994 itated toward proving Bible truth claims false. Although he dis- was the first jubilee year after that, Camping focused on it as the played much more confidence in that prediction at the time than likely year for Judgment Day. Dates with Old Testament ceremoni- he now lets on, he never claimed that it rose to the level of a for- al significance during that year—especially in September— mal proof. He left himself enough leeway to continue defending became possible alternatives. the premise after the prediction went bad. I was surprised—as he, himself, must have been—at how mild the backlash was and how readily his supporters allowed him to continue on, as if the 1994 date-setting fiasco had never happened. “After the Rapture ...Earth will supposedly This time, Camping emphatically proclaims that continue as an apocalyptic killing field, still peopled the prediction does rise to the level of a proof, by the surviving unsaved, for 153 days.” Q.E.D. He insists it is impossible for Judgment Day not to occur on May 21, 2011, and that the ques- tion is not even worth discussing. Whereas his first date-setting episode was able to expire with a whimper, this one cannot but become a watershed for Camping Because twenty-three years—8,400 days—is the longer of the and his broadcasting empire. two possible durations for the tribulation, Camping scrutinized May 21, 2011(which falls on a Saturday—the seventh day, the last ver the intervening sixteen years, his Family Radio has day of the week) as a promising alternative after the 1994 dates O“increased” to comprise fifty “parent” listener-supported had come and gone. He had mentioned 2011 in passing as a pos- radio stations in the United States, each with its complement of sible alternative year as far back as in his book 1994?, published range-extending translators. The network now has a “footprint” in 1992. The most interesting of the number-of-years connections comparable to National Public Radio. Camping’s flagship Open that fall into place around 2011 is the exactly 7,000 years since Forum call-in show has moved up to the 8:30 to 10:00 P.M. E.D.T. 4990 B.C.E., the year he had previously ascertained for ’s time slot, Monday through Friday. Family Radio has emerged as flood: God gave Noah seven days’ notice of the flood, and “one the preeminent Christian international shortwave broadcaster. The day is with the LORD as a thousand years, and a thousand years as prophecy is on the air in sixty-one regional and local foreign lan- one day.” Camping also sets great store by a complex calculation guages. Internet streaming and tract literature further extend the involving the symbolism of the numbers 3, 5, 10, 17, and 23 and message’s long reach. the scientifically respectable value of 365.2422 days in a year, to Little appears to have changed with Camping himself. At age produce 722,500 days: the exact number of days from April 1, 33 eighty-nine—thirteen years senior to Larry King—he skillfully fills at C.E.—Crucifixion day—to May 21, 2011.

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After the Rapture takes place on that day, Earth will suppos- ed as his peer, he has transmuted into a wholesale revisionist, edly continue as an apocalyptic killing field, still peopled by the downplaying and even discarding large hunks of his own previous surviving unsaved, for 153 days. On the “last day”—October 21, Calvinist doctrine. His study of the Bible, for all its continuing 2011 (a Friday)—the present universe is to be incinerated and sup- detailed finesse, has devolved into figuring out how to massage planted by new heavens and a new Earth. the language so as to allow the conclusions he wishes to reach. Teaching that the church age ended on May 21,1988, inevitably Whereas he used to attempt to synthesize all that the Bible has to puts Camping at odds with the rest of the fundamentalist Christian say—declarative content as well as allegorical, figurative as well as church establishment. From his radio pulpit, Camping thunders that literal—into a unified whole, Camping has now opted for a more all organized churches have been under Satan’s rule from that day limited, piecemeal, minimalist approach. He now reads the forward. He exhorts true believers to quit them. True believers descriptive content found in the Bible’s prophetic visions, parables, acquire an urgent, sacred duty to join with Camping, warning the and even the poetry as pertaining exclusively to the salvation plan. world of the oncoming apocalypse. Failure to see the “truth” in the Having so long stood out as a commentator who refrained from prophecy calls into question whether or not an individual is saved. projecting his own character onto his teaching, Camping has now Camping strenuously resists the obvious implication that only fol- replaced much of the Bible’s angry, menacing, sadomasochistic lowers of his will qualify to be raptured. (He estimates the number lore with his own benign, kindly, American-bred impulses. of the saved to be approximately one out of seventy of the people These changes in tack revolutionize his views about life after who have ever lived.) He often talks about the teachers and believ- death. Because Camping professes agnosticism regarding know- ers who have arrived at the May 21 prediction independently of ing any more about that subject than the Bible’s sparse declarative him. Inconveniently for him, there happen to be no such persons. statements reveal, he discards eternal punishment altogether. “Eternal fire,” he argues, refers to fire that incinerates totally and finally, not fire that goes on burning forev- er. Otherwise, tourists would be able to visit eternal fires still smoldering at the sites of Sodom and “Camping ...oftentalksabouttheteachersand Gomorrah. He makes the “death” that is declared to believerswhohavearrivedattheMay21prediction be the “wages of sin” out to be merely that—never independentlyofhim.Inconvenientlyforhim, again having conscious existence. Sometimes a death is just a death. therehappentobenosuchpersons.” Camping now resolves the tension between scrip- tures stating that who will become saved was deter- mined “before the foundation of the world” and ones that apparently leave it to be determined during the believer’s lifetime plainly in favor of the former— During the forty-eight years, give or take, when Camping was so much so that he now sees the Crucifixion and Resurrection as not engaged in a date-setting episode and just taught the Bible, pantomimic demonstrations carried out for the sake of the bibli- he did so with commendable objectivity. He debunked interpreta- cal narrative, not redemptive events taking place in real time. tions that perceived the Bible to be about social justice on Earth, All that makes for a Judgment Day scenario weirdly unlike pre- meeting the physical needs of the poor, prosperity, happiness, vious ones: in a worldwide earthquake, all the graves spring open, bodily healing, taking over government, and the like. At ejecting the remains of all the people who have ever died. The Camping’s hands, the bleakness and severity of the Bible’s core unsaved dead never resume conscious existence. Nothing resem- message of sin and stratified salvation came across intact and bling a judicial proceeding need take place on Judgment Day undiluted. It replicated what receiving biblical counseling from because everything has literally been decided forever. The worst John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, John Bunyan, or Cotton Mather that Judgment Day holds for the deceased unsaved is desecration must have been like. of their remains, because they have become forever mercifully Like all Christian fundamentalists in the 1960s and 1970s, unaware. (Romans 14:10–12 and 2 Corinthians 5:10 are scrip- Camping reflected Francis Schaeffer’s aspiration to see a genera- tures Camping must massage particularly heavily in order to har- tion of fundamentalist Christian intellectuals arise who would monize them with this scenario.) develop a biblical Weltanschauung—a biblical “worldview”—that The saved, both living and dead, are caught up in the Rapture. could subsume all valid human knowledge. Camping presented a They receive their new, glorified bodies at that point. (Their condi- plausible appearance of carrying that aspiration forward. Hardly tion during the 153 days before the new heavens and Earth are anyone else did more than pay lip service to it or recite it as a ready goes unexplained.) The living unsaved are left behind, in a future good intention. world crippled by the earthquake catastrophe and the sudden dis- It seems as though Camping wore himself out with that labo- appearance of all the living saved. Camping speculates that few rious, doomed effort. Isolated from anyone who could be regard- on Earth are likely to survive the first few days of that tumult.

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o their credit, Christian fundamentalists by and large have not ble taste. I see it as Camping’s version of Springtime for Hitler. Tbought into the May 21 belief. It has barely penetrated beyond How much more outrageous must Camping become in order to Camping’s personal following. The larger fundamentalist Christian provoke an outcry? community ignores it, preferring to regard it as irrelevant. So— The key to the whole ungainly story could lie in Camping’s what is this extravagant fable really about? Why is Camping doing stance toward natural science. In recent years, the terminology of this? Why now? Is there a payday in it for anyone? Could Camping formal, numerical proof has cropped up more and more in his be a fundamentalist-Christian Max Bialystock, with hidden motives parlance. It is easy to detect the frustrated quantitative scientist for guiding his Family Radio empire to suffer a surefire flop? behind all that fastidious analysis of biblical chronology. How Camping admits that even Family Radio’s staff is divided on much more satisfying could he have found a life devoted to inves- the May 21 question. (That staff recently decided against publish- tigating something real? What a productive natural scientist this ing a 2011 Family Radio pocket calendar after discussing the ram- man—with his meticulous attention to detail, facility with num- ifications of publishing one ending on May 21 or October 21.) The bers, and capacity for hard work—might have become had he prophecy is so facially preposterous that anyone damaged by rely- been influenced toward higher academic aspirations in his youth. ing upon it will have little prospect of convincing a court that the He has never really seemed to relish science-versus-religion reliance was reasonable. Around the world, unassuming people in polemics. He “protests too much” when he lambastes and carica- poorer countries and speaking only local languages are hearing tures scientists. Sometimes on Open Forum, he perfunctorily re - the prophecy of the world’s 2011 doom broadcast from the exalt- cites stock “intelligent design” talking points. What sour grapes. ed U.S.A. That is hardly calculated to increase America’s prestige— Could that be what is really amiss in his life without his even being much less that of the Christian gospel—in their eyes. No media aware? These date-setting episodes are all about what happens evangelism pitch could possibly give its public less reason to con- when a brilliant person’s urge to be creative and original is tribute than this one does. It has no donor exploitation angle. repressed. It crops out self-destructively. Following the money leads nowhere. This is a story about madness, not venality. The answers, if any, are psychological. My clearest recurring impression of Camping is his deep, un spoken longing that his way of life— wandering obsessively in circles in the Bible’s “‘Eternal fire,’ [Camping] argues, refers to fire semantic wilderness—will be concluded, finished, that incinerates totally and finally, not fire that goes ruled out for succeeding generations. In 1994, I speculated that he unconsciously desired to trigger on burning forever. Otherwise, tourists would be a scandal to discourage others from squandering able to visit eternal fires still smoldering at the their lives enmeshed in the futility of Bible-belief in sites of Sodom and Gomorrah.” the way he had. No one would have expected Family Radio’s listenership to prove so long-suffer- ing that it would simply disregard the episode and continue on blithely as if nothing had happened. Perhaps that constituency has something to teach the rest of us about tolerance for eccentricity. Long live freedom of Camping is poised to succeed in bringing a high-profile media speech! crucifixion upon himself. Most likely, he will find himself hastily By declaring certainty and approving a publicity campaign trying to walk the prophecy back at the moment of truth. He has (with billboards, print-media advertising, missionary junkets, and done that before. He might even be able to ease things back to touring RV caravans), Camping has raised the stakes. It is as if he status quo ante a second time. He can always appoint his own were deliberately tweaking the noses of the rest of the fundamen- hundredth birthday as the next scheduled apocalypse. For him to talist Christian establishment and the public, seeking to goad us face up to his obligation—incurred on precisely his own terms— all to react. to concede that he has unwittingly adduced evidence of the falsi- Such a motive would also explain Camping’s uncharacteristic ty of Bible truth claims is doubtless too much to hope for. We foray into gay-bashing. Over all these years, he has never been might as well enjoy the show. given to “hot button” rhetoric. His current tract, Gay Pride: Planned by God as a Sign of the End is, however, a full-throated Edmund D. Cohen is the author of The Mind of the Bible-Believer (Prometheus piece of hate literature. It was published under Camping’s name, Books, 1988). He has been a frequent contributor to FREE INQUIRY for twenty-five even though comparably short Family Radio tracts are usually years. unattributed. It is nothing but an attention-getting stunt in terri-

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Leading Questions The Future of Irreligion, Part 1: A conversation with Barry A. Kosmin continued from p. 7

Methodist, then they’d go into the religion KOSMIN: American history has been a malls are the new cathedrals in many ways, column. If they say “I have no religion, but kind of a rivalry between two traditions. and more people go to them on Sundays I’m quite spiritual,” it’s a different kind of There’s the Pilgrims’ tradition of creating a than go to church. Until 1934 there was no answer but linked. The overall rise in the theocracy, a city upon a hill, and then one baseball on a Sunday. Now, you don’t even number of people who reject religion— hundred years later there was a kind of reac- think about the fact that on Super Bowl who are irreligious but say that they’re tion to that when the founding fathers— Sunday churches close or rearrange their spiritual—is linked to another piece that Jefferson, Madison, Paine, Franklin—want- schedules. That’s the culture young people ed to set up a secular republic and, in fact, feeds the no-religion or the Nones cohort: are being socialized into. They’re not in the refuted this idea of a theocracy. So for two anticlericalism. When they say, “I’m spiri- world that de Tocqueville de scribed, in hundred years there’s been a kind of com- tual but not religious,” they may mean: “I which nothing moved on a Sunday—chains petition or culture war between these two like the world, and maybe there’s some- were put across the street to stop carriages. traditions in the United States. thing divine, but I don’t want anything to At certain points, one has been more MOONEY: You’ve said that a lot of this do with organized religion.” What is in powerful than the other in the political change happened during the 1990s, dur- effect recruiting this population of no-reli- sphere and among the general public, and ing the Bill Clinton era. Why? gion people is anticlericalism, a bad vibe we’ve had Enlightenments and anti- KOSMIN: We have to look at the social people have for very good reasons. Enlightenment bursts. Both of them are psychology and the political, generational, Because of religious clergy scandals, peo- American traditions that have been vying and economic forces that I’ve spoken about ple are distancing themselves from reli- with each other for a long time, and you see and ask: When do people risk change? gion. It’s a symptom, a feeling among the them play out at different places and times. When do they not feel threatened? The population, an undercurrent. For example, in the 1840s there was a big answer is in times of peace and prosperity. A MOONEY: When you released these find- debate in the House of Representatives good time for secularism and rationalism to ings, you got enormous press attention. about delivering the mail on Sundays, and develop is when societies are not in crisis. Why is America so obsessed with this? exactly the same arguments were being The end of the Cold War made a very big KOSMIN: First of all, it’s a kind of man- used then that are being used now. People bites-dog story. We’ve been told for the last were saying, “It’s a Christian nation, the difference. At the beginning of the Cold twenty years that there’s been this great reli- mail shouldn’t be delivered on a Sunday.” War, people had anxiety about facing god- gious awakening—the rise of the religious The secularists said, “We’re not, in fact, a less communism. That’s what brought men- Right, evangelicalism on the march, and all Christian nation, and Christianity is not an tion of God onto money and into the Pledge the rest of it—and now we see that an established religion.” So for many years the of Allegiance. The traditions of the Pilgrims equal and opposite reaction was also hap- mail was delivered every Sunday. were on top in the 1950s. Later there was a pening in the section of the population that MOONEY: In terms of this tension reaction against this. It was no longer unpa- was being turned off and was moving away between secularism and theocracy, you triotic to be godless. People were not anx- from organized religion. Remember, what seem to suggest that the Nones have the ious about material prosperity. They didn’t momentum, that they will continue to we’re talking about here is not politics but need supernatural assistance. During that expand in the future. Why is that your society in general, the whole American peo- period, people challenged organized reli- expectation? ple. We extrapolate our 2008 sample of gion, and there were social changes such as about 54,000 people to 208 million KOSMIN: First of all, the proportion of people who are secularly minded in terms the beginning of the Internet and the rise of Americans. It’s a much larger population of belief, belonging, and behavior is much feminism, or at least coed culture. There than the ninety million who voted. larger among young people than older were big advances in higher education, A great strength of our survey, and folks. So the under-twenty-fives are much which I think teaches people to be more one of the reasons people take notice of less religious in all different ways than the skeptical or at least challenging of tradition- it, is not just because we have a good over-eighties. There are other factors, such al authority. design but because ARIS offers a time as that younger people have been born A lot of those things were happening in series. The same questions asked in the into a different society that is much more same way and using the same method the 1990s, and that meant that the no-reli- materialistic. gion population that we now call the Nones over a twenty-year period gives us the Let me give you an example: the blue was growing at about one million people per ability to compare across geographical laws that were a carryover from that theo- year. Now, today it grows at about 750,000 areas and across time and gives the media cratic Massachusetts of the seventeenth hard data that can be shown graphically. century and restricted , drinking, per year. It’s not that it’s petered out, but it’s MOONEY: The people who went around shopping, and playing sports on Sundays not as vibrant as it was and that probably announcing that the United States is a have eroded over the last forty or fifty years, reflects our more anxious times. “Christian nation,” by their very act of even in the Bible Belt. We’ve got a 24/7 con- doing it so loudly, helped to push us into sumer culture now where one of the most To be concluded next issue. This interview being less of a Christian nation? popular pastimes is shopping. Shopping was transcribed by Blaize Barnicoat.

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Tom Flynn Who Stands for Us? continued from p. 8

phers call “hard seculars”—folks who Whether courageously or quixotically, of us won’t. That’s the story of how there don’t check the box for atheist or agnostic Eddie Tabash has run for state office in came to be African Americans in Con gress, but whose answers to questions California as an open atheist. (I won’t and Hispanic Americans, and Jews, and reveal that they live notably post-religious keep you in suspense: he lost, though he women. The demographics say it’sour turn. lives. Only a third of the unaffiliated are made a solid showing.) More atheists, As Charles M. Blow noted in his New York spiritual seekers, between churches, and agnostics, secular humanists, and other Timescolumn on January 8, “the unaffiliated the like. So a Senate and a House of freethinkers need to follow in his foot- are the fastest-growing religious category in Representatives in which Americans who steps. Even more of us need to run and America. Non affiliation is not un-American. live without religion were fairly represent- campaign, perhaps not as “atheist candi- Increasingly, it is America. Eventually, our pol- ed might have fifty-six members who are dates” but as candidates who make no itics will have to catch up.” atheist, agnostic, or hard secular. effort to conceal their unbelief. Cam - Where are you, secular humanist and We have six. And all we know about paigning alongside them, I hope, will be a other religiously unaffiliated candidates? them is that they’re “unspecified.” strong field of spiritual seekers, church- Your country is calling. The lesson I draw from this is simple. shoppers, and other religious nonaffiliat- More nonreligious Americans need to run ed. Let’s all be represented. for elective office—probably locally at first Will many of these pio- Tom Flynn is the editor of FREE INQUIRY, the executive director of to build their political bona fides. Running neering candidates lose? the Council for Secular Humanism, and the editor of The New for Congress can follow. Count on it. But one day, one Encyclopedia of Unbelief (Prometheus Books, 2007).

Christopher Hitchens Egypt: Islamism Meets Realism continued from p. 9

that almost defies description. machinations of Jews and Crusaders and both in their civic conduct and in their de - If one were really cynical, it might be export their uneducated but brainwashed mands. The air was not rent with screams tempting to say: let the Islamists try to run young zealots to spread violence else- about the greatness of God or the need for the show and prove to the world that they where. war with infidels. This suggests to me that are not up to the job. But as Iran has But this dire effect need not all be one the initiative does not lie with those who demonstrated, that would be irresponsible way. The rising generation has had a stupidly proclaim that all solutions are to be and cruel because it would condemn chance to make comparisons and to con- found in one book. countless people to be used up in an sider alternatives. For at least the first few experiment in failure. Moreover, theocrat- weeks—up until the time of Christopher Hitchens is a columnist for Vanity Fair and the author ic systems do not blame themselves when this writing—the citizens of of God Is Not Great (2007). His memoir, Hitch-22, was pub- their countries slide into civil war, poverty, Cairo showed a really ad - lished last year by Twelve/Hachette Books. and stagnation. Instead, they blame the mirable solidity and maturity,

Steven Doloff Unreasonable Optimism continued from p. 17

ers like Tony Robbins, the message has after the recent financial crises, odds are something about that) and then we will never been louder: if you believe—really that we (or more likely our children) will make more. believe—you can (diet, heal, profit, suc- again recklessly invest in pie-in-the-sky IPOs For better or for worse, there is clearly ceed, whatever), then you can! But as that pop like bubbles. We will again, if per- some fundamental expression of Amer- Ehrenreich has pointed out, the essential mitted, take out mortgages we should ican character in this disposition of peren- cheat of this message is not in the dreams rationally anticipate not being able to pay nial, reckless optimism. Not sure? Answer themselves but in the seductive ease, the off. And count on it: we will again crash me this: Do you or don’t you, in your gut, implied “wishing makes it so” means, by and burn, simply because we don’t believe expect America to come out of this reces- which these dreams may be realized. we will. Perhaps it is in the nature of how sion sooner rather than later and (eventu- If we Americans seem so susceptible to true liberty works. If we are really free in ally) get to Mars? I rest my case. these profiteering pied pipers of confi- America, then we must be free to be fools, dence, it may be because, ironically, they too. We will pay for our mis- Steven Doloff is a professor in the Department of Humanities and really had us at “Hello.” Despite all the takes (and yes, the burden Media Studies at the Pratt Institute. An earlier version of this article stark statistics, sober analysis, and smell- will fall much more on some appeared in the January/February 2011 magazine. the-coffee reality dispensed before and than others—we need to do

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Katrina Voss The Booger on Atheism’s Finger continued from p. 13

knows there are no atheists in foxholes. Of weds returned to our hotel room that by encouraging each other to “come out” course, our most intelligent and creative night debating the pros and cons of this to friends and family whose admiration spokespeople have made scrupulous and tactic and deciding (as newlyweds often we already have secured. When my pedia- elegant counterarguments that should dis- do) on what would be our official, mar- trician friend learned his reputation had solve most atheism-as-immorality non- ried-couple position: atheism was a good been sullied by the deeds of others, he sense in even the most obstinate (and stu- and proper word, we concluded; we never considered changing his name. Nor pid) minds. But atheism myths, like lurid should continue to support its use. did he bend over backward to undo the medical-school tales, have remarkable Now, I am not so sure. Harris may be false association. Instead, he worked that sticking power. right; the word may have been damaged much harder to become the humanitarian beyond repair. After all, many and wise doctor that he wanted his name well-meaning people (including to stand for. my own stepson until recently) Perhaps, in the end, building a positive seem unacquainted with the reputation is more important than disman- “‘Hitler was an atheist’ has become definition of the word, to say tling a negative one. Most important, we the great booger we can’t seem nothing of their grasp of the freethinkers, attached as we are to logic to shake off our fingers.” veracity of stories about famous and the scientific method, must realize that “atheists.” What’s more, myths reputations, connotations, and legends live and urban legends, whether in the murky realm of feeling. The most about medical school or athe- cogent refutation of an atheist myth is like ism, tend to accumulate layers a newspaper retraction buried in the cor- So how does one shake off a sticky, of exaggeration like hailstones cycling ner of a page, helplessly apologizing for a undeserved, bad reputation? One solu- through clouds. In time, the nucleus of sensational front-page story that long since tion, of course, is to change one’s name. truth becomes too deeply obscured. took on a life of its own. In 2007, my husband and I spent our hon- Then again, perhaps we are working eymoon at the Atheist Alliance Inter - too hard to erase bad (albeit national Conference in Washington, D.C. false) memories and not Katrina Voss worked for ten years as a bilingual broadcast mete- There, Sam Harris, with his hallmark tone hard enough to create new, orologist at Weather Channel Latin America and AccuWeather. of gravitas-with-a-touch-of-snark, made positive ones, for example She is now a science and research writer at Penn State’s Eberly the recommendation that atheists consid- through charity efforts clear- College of Science. er ditching the word atheism. We newly- ly labeled as “atheist” and

Shadia B. Drury Is Liberalism the Heir of Christianity? continued from p. 14

more reasonable and just. God, and they can’t even do that without Ask yourself if you would rather be the Long before the rise of Islam, Pelagius, supernatural assistance. So, the claim that sort of person who does the right thing eas- an English monk, criticized Augustine’s con- liberalism derives its esteem of human free- ily because it gives you pleasure and cept of “bondage to sin” on the grounds dom and autonomy from Christianity is because doing something malicious and that human beings cannot be held respon- entirely spurious. despicable would compromise your dignity sible for their actions if they did not have The liberal conception of morality is a and humanity—or the sort of person who freedom of the will before and after the fall. product of the Enlightenment. It is the must pray to God to triumph over the The Catholic Church de nounced Pelagius as antithesis of mindless obedience motivated demons within that make everything sordid a heretic (416 CE) and upheld the by fear of hellfire. , a classic and vile supremely appealing, since you are Augustinian interpretation of Genesis with champion of human freedom and autono- “in bondage to sin”? These are two pro- its “bondage to sin.” Far from denouncing my, argued that the Enlightenment was a foundly antithetical moral visions—one the doctrine, the leading figures of the triumph over puerility; it was a “task” by modern, the other medieval. One rests on Refor mation—Martin Luther, John Calvin, which humanity may achieve dignity the reality of human freedom and responsi- and John Bunyan—affirmed humanity’s through the autonomous recognition of the bility, the other on the fiction of original sin. “bondage to sin” despite its absurdity. For universal moral law inscribed in the heart Contrary to the claims of its neoconser- them, human autonomy spells ruin; human and followed freely out of a sense of duty, vative critics, liberalism is not a form of beings must blindly follow the dictates of not fear of punishment. moral relativism. It recognizes universal evils

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Nat Hentoff Educating the Whole Student continued from p. 15

in school and on track....Black male stu- ning of the school year offering ways for endnote for the constantly rising number of dents are driving a marked increase in the them to get their diploma. As a result, the dropouts who do not return to school is the district’s graduate rate and a decrease in its dropout rate has fallen significantly. This grim news from the Schott Foundation’s dropout rate—showing improvement at a could be a model for other school dis- Jackson: “The tragedy of the data is that the faster clip than the rest of the system.” tricts.” It’s easy to start: “A sort of ‘war three major districts that are most chal- At W.E.B. DuBois High School (an room’ has been set up in Houston’s central lenged have the highest black male enroll- evocative name in this context), Brandon education office to put together accurate ment. Philadelphia joins New York City in a Howard was often hours late for school on profiles of students not yet re-enrolled.” 28 percent male graduate rate and Chicago the few days he chose to come at all. I have been covering public education in graduates less than half its back males at 44 Realizing how far behind he was if he ever my hometown, New York City, since the late percent.” hoped to graduate, he said, “I dropped 1950s, and I am unaware of there ever How much of a role will the “racial out.” During my years of reporting on being such a “war room” or any concerted gap” play in the 2012 elections? schools, I have often asked education effort to find out why students drop out and departments if they tried to keep in touch what becomes of them. Some years ago, References with the dropouts. At best, some said they while doing a story on a prison for young Michelle D. Anderson, “Chicago Adding In- School Health Centers,” , were thinking about it. But in Baltimore, offenders who had committed serious December 23, 2010. after Howard dropped out, he was contin- crimes, including homicide, I asked a prison Jill Tucker, “Kaiser Permanente Puts Millions in ually urged to return. Howard says of his official for information about the inmates’ Oakland Schools,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 30, 2010. pursuers: “They got in contact with just backgrounds. A week or so later, he report- Stacy Teicher Khadaroo, “Key to School Drop- about anybody who had ties to me. She ed: “Over 80 percent are school dropouts. outs: Knock on Their Door,” Christian wouldn’t let up,” he says in tribute to Nothing unusual about that.” Science Monitor, September 11, 2010. Delores Berry-Binder, principal of W.E.B. New York’s third-term DuBois High School. chief executive, Michael And in Houston, school officials Bloom berg, glories in calling Nat Hentoff is a United Media syndicated columnist, a senior engage in an easily replicable rescue plan himself “The Edu cation May - fellow at the Cato Institute, and the author of, among other for those cities who do give a damn about or.” I have tried to find out if books, Living the Bill of Rights (University of California Press, students at risk. As a September 13, 2010, there has been any tracking of 1999) and The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Christian Science Monitor story reported: the “dis ap peared” students Resistance (Seven Stories Press, 2004). His latest book is At “School officials and volunteers in Hou - on his watch. I’ve yet to the Jazz Band Ball: Sixty Years on the Jazz Scene (University ston have been knocking on the doors of receive a believable re sponse. of California Press, 2010). students who didn’t show up at the begin- What is likely to be an

such as cruelty, dishonesty, ignorance, and most boring place because all the good peo- the cultivation of their natural intelligence bigotry. It also recognizes self-regarding ple are alike. It is no wonder that the and courage—courage to choose the right vices such as drunkenness and other forms Christian heaven is a testimony to the utter and the good in the face of formidable of self-indulgence. Its celebration of individ- failure of the imagination—its tasteless odds, such as the power and authority of uality is based on its recognition of the plu- harps, endless hosannas to the Almighty, the Magisterium. More often than not, reli- rality of the good. There is more than one and insipid monotony leave its occupants gious education cultivates sheepish, gullible, right way, more than one sort of decent life. with nothing better than the sadistic enjoy- and fearful children who cannot stand up to It is up to individuals to choose the right life ment of watching the damned writhe in hell. the dastardly clerical cunning that so many in view of their opportunities, abilities, and In short, Christianity is not a religion that sexually abused boys know so well. circumstances. But in the Chris tian imagina- celebrates either freedom or autonomy. In tion, there is no such plurality. Since “the the absence of these, all sorts of human good” is singular, all the good people must virtues fall by the wayside. No be alike; any deviation from the norm must one understands this better Shadia B. Drury is Canada Research Chair in Social Justice at be due to wickedness. This explains why, in than Pull man, who begs us to the University of Regina in Canada. Her most recent book is Dante’s Divine Comedy, Hell is the most stop terrifying our children to Aquinas and Modernity: The Lost Promise of Natural Law interesting place because all sinners are death as a means of making (Rowman & Little field, 2008). unique individuals. In contrast, Heaven is the them virtuous. Virtue requires

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Tom Rees Mr. Smart, Heroman, and God continued from p. 16

knowledge and beliefs. further. They’ve learned that some beings— They just can’t resist the urge to believe Children in the middle group, howev- gods and the like—have (or are supposed to adults. er, have developed enough to understand have) superhuman knowledge. This goes Lane concludes that childhood develop- that they can have secrets. They under- against their experience in the real world, ment runs in the exact opposite direction to stand that other people have limited but children are very willing to believe what what Barrett proposes. Rather than intu- minds and that they don’t necessarily they are told. Incidentally, that ties in with itively understanding the idea of omnis- know everything that you know. Soon some other recent research by Vikram cience, children naturally understand that all after, children develop an appreciation for Jaswal of the University of Virginia. He agents—people and magical beings—are the distinction between knowledge and found that when children are given mislead- limited in the same way as the people they ignorance: they begin to appreciate the ing cues by adults, they find it very difficult know. Realism, not belief, is natural. It’s the distinction between reality and belief; they to learn from their mistakes. They go on Abrahamic idea of an omniscient God that start to understand that others, misled by believing what they are told even though it’s has to be learned. inaccurate perceptual cues or outdated obviously wrong. In fact, they keep believing information, can hold false beliefs. They the adults even when it’s clear know that only Heroman is not ignorant, that the adults are deceiving Tom Rees is a medical writer and a lifelong humanist. His blog, because only he can see inside the box. them in order to trick them Epiphenom, covers the latest research into the psychology and The oldest children have advanced even out of something they want. social science of religion and nonbelief.

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Church-State Update

Political Tsunamis Edd Doerr

t has been nearly a decade since fanat- the people in our nation’s “last colony” and 14. Schools supported or aided by vouchers ics hijacked planes and crashed into the make all American taxpayers foot the bill. do not have to play by the same reasonable ITwin Towers and the Pentagon. As this is rules as those applicable to public schools, 4. Tens of millions of voters from coast to being written, multiple political tsunamis and they often resist being studied by experts. coast have rejected vouchers or their vari- guided by other fanatics are engulfing the ants in more than two dozen statewide ref- 15. Because public and nonpublic school U.S. Capitol and many state capitols. This erenda by, on an average, a landslide mar- attendance areas are rarely coterminous, column has space for dealing with only two gin of 2 to 1. providing transportation to a growing mul- of them: those aimed at forcing all tiplicity of public and nonpublic schools Americans to support faith-based private 5. Most of the voters who have rejected would increasingly choke our traffic arter- schools and those imposing faith-based vouchers live in states whose constitutions ies with big yellow buses and in crease restrictions on women with problem preg- prohibit tax aid to religious institutions. usage of fossil fuels. nancies who seek abortions. 6. School vouchers would separate children That is the case against the diversion The School-Voucher Tsunami along religious, social-class, ethnic, ideolog- of public funds to nonpublic schools. I ical, and ability-level lines, among others. would urge readers to express their views House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and on the matter to their federal and state Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) have intro- 7. The overwhelming majority of nonpublic lawmakers. duced legislation to revive the school-vouch- schools to be aided with vouchers are reli- I write, incidentally, as a graduate of er plan that was originally imposed on the gious (Catholic, Evangelical, Orthodox faith-based elementary and secondary District of Columbia by the Bush/GOP Jewish, Islamic, and the like), nearly all of schools and as a former teacher in both machine in the early 2000s but was ended which indoctrinate children with an often public and private schools. by Congress in 2010. This plan is a warm-up malignant patriarchalism. Many of them, be they evangelical, Orthodox Jewish, or for a massive nationwide voucher push. The Anti-Choice Tsunami Meanwhile, many state legislatures (Penn - Islamic, promote antiscience creationism Pretty much the same federal and state law- syl vania, New Jersey, Indiana, and Florida, and climate-change denial. makers who are pushing school vouchers are for example) are facing similar battles. 8. Vouchers are part of a nationwide cam- also working to impose faith-based restric- Let me lay out the case against these paign to weaken or wreck public education. tions on women’s reproductive choices. They plans to divert public funds to faith-based haven’t the strength to overturn the and other private schools. These objections 9. Vouchers are aimed at wrecking teacher Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling are numbered, but they are not in any par- unions and downgrading the teaching pro- that recognized (not created) the constitu- ticular order and are applicable across the fession to something resembling migrant tional privacy right of women to terminate country. labor. problem pregnancies, but they are seeking 1. How can lawmakers even think about 10. Vouchers would subject teachers to reli- to erect every possible barrier to a woman’s gious, ideological, and lifestyle tests. diverting public funds to nonpublic schools right to follow her conscience and judgment when our debt crises afflict all levels of gov- 11. Vouchers would force all taxpayers to on such matters. If women were proportion- ernment from Congress to states, counties, contribute involuntarily to the support of ally represented in Congress and state legis- cities, and school boards? sectarian institutions, in violation of every latures, the problem would go away. citizen’s right to support only the religious Some women choose to end pregnan- 2. The District of Columbia voucher plan is institutions of their free choice. cies that result from rape, contraceptive fail- opposed by the city’s elected mayor and ure, or ignorance. Some women choose to elected congressional delegate. 12. Vouchers violate the principle of separa- end pregnancies due to a medical threat to tion of church and state found in the United 3. District of Columbia voters defeated a a woman’s (or young girl’s) life or health, States and most state constitutions. similar school-voucher plan in the 1980s by changed life circumstances such as spousal the mega-landslide margin of 89 percent to 13. Vouchers have been tried in Mil wau kee, death, abandonment, plunge into poverty, 11 percent. How dare Republicans in Con - Cleveland, and Washington, D.C., and have or the threat of serious fetal abnormalities. gress want to override the clear wishes of not been found to improve education. There are now about 1.2 million abortions

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as part of the mother until birth. or replace many different organ systems, Faith-based opposition to abor- but what makes one a human person is a tion is odd considering most reli- functioning cerebral cortex. Faith-based gious folk regard persons as “cre- efforts to ascribe personhood to pre–twen- ated in the image of God,” which, “How can lawmakers even think about ty-eight-week fetuses and embryos are if it means anything, must refer more “materialistic” than the pro-choice diverting public funds to nonpublic not to flesh and bone and DNA views of humanists. but to the “godlike” capacity for schools when our debt crises afflict We should note that a very substantial consciousness and will. part of the religious community is pro- all levels of government from Here we might note what sci- Congress to states, counties, ence has to say on the subject. choice, typified by the Catholic, Protes - tant, and Jewish denominations and cities, and school boards?” During the Supreme Court’s 1988 term, I engineered an ami- groups in the Religious Coalition for cus curiae brief in an abortion Repro ductive Choice, on whose board I rights case, Webster v. Repro - was pleased to represent a humanist ductive Health Services, signed organization for thirty years. performed per year in the United States, by twelve Nobel laureates and The school voucher and anti-choice and comparable rates are evident elsewhere 155 other distinguished scientists. Among tsunamis can be stopped, but it will take a in the world. About 90 percent of abortions the points it made: “The neurobiological lot of effort and sweat. in the United States are performed before data indicate that the fetus thirteen weeks’ gestation. lacks the physical capacity Edd Doerr is president of Americans for Religious Liberty, past Opposition to reproductive choice is for the neurological activi- president of the American Humanist Association, and the author almost entirely faith-based, stemming from ties we associate with of over five thousand published books, sections of books, arti- the notion that human personhood begins human thought until some- cles, columns, book and film reviews, translations, letters, short at conception, a strange notion given that time after 28 weeks of ges- stories, and poems. He has made over two thousand speeches the Judeo-Christian Bible does not con- tation.” As Isaac Asimov put and radio and television appearances. demn abortion and, indeed, regards a fetus it, a person can do without

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Great Minds

Huckleberry Finn, American Secularist Reid Hardaway

ore than one hundred years have justification for an immoral system. Even vinces him to turn Jim in. “Conscience says passed since the death of one of the most liberal and conciliatory within the to me, ‘What had poor Miss Watson done MAmerica’s finest wits, Samuel fold recognize that these grotesque verses to you, that you could see her nigger go off Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain). His char- abound in the Scripture. Somehow, the right under your eyes and never say one sin- acters still live on in the national imagina- more secular morality evolves, the more gle word? . . . Why, she tried to learn you tion. They are stark images, as rough and so-called enlightened believers struggle to your book, she tried to learn you your man- ready as the everyman, and they shine light conform their tired religion to the progress ners. ... That’s what she done.” on the nature of what it means to be of modernity. For Twain, the difference is The book he is referring to is, of American. Of those characters, Huckle berry clear: Christianity is of the land; Huck is of course, the Bible. Jim is only a “nigger” Finn is the manifest expression of the the river. On the river, in the absence of because that is what the Bible says he is. American identity. But even this conception religious dogma, a black man and a white But Huck knows better and proves so by does disservice to the young river wanderer. boy are able to look at each other as two his actions. Nonetheless, that inveterate Huck Finn is larger than a country. He is all human beings. Huck need not pray for and unrelenting specter of religious guilt of us. We are attracted to his compassion, this—he experiences it. Jim doesn’t appeal dogs the boy and, for a second, convinces and we fear his demons. to a ghostly dictator for salvation—he him that Jim is less than a human being. Huck coexists with his demons—some finds it in the eyes of a friend. This is Huck’s religious “conscience” his own, some his culture’s—not the least One of the most striking and brave speaking; this is not Huck Finn. Dogma of which is religion. The crucifix found on episodes in Adventures of Huckleberry has convinced the young boy that Jim is a his father’s boot heel is perhaps the dark- Finn is Huck’s outright rejection of Chris - piece of property, mere chattel. The child est image Huck encounters. The sight of tianity. I suspect that the further we get in has done nothing more than internalize that grim stamp on the ground sends shiv- time from the novel, the more revelatory the message from the Good Book, ers through the boy, and rightly so. It sig- this episode will become in defining the “Servants, be obedient to them that are American identity: nifies precipitous abuse and potential cap- your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your tivity by an absent father. Sound familiar? I says to myself, if a body can get any- heart, as unto Christ” (Ephesians 6:5). Luckily, Huck is strong, and in one of the thing they pray for, why don’t Deacon Winn get back the money he lost on But despite all the propaganda that greatest affirmations of individual freedom pork? Why can’t the widow get back Christian society has thrust on him, Huck in American literature, the boy leaves her silver snuff-box that was stole? retains his humanity. Deep within himself, behind the tyrant father in favor of direct Why can’t Miss Watson fat up? No, says I to myself, there ain’t nothing in he finds secular reasons for protecting Jim: engagement with the natural world. it. I went and told the widow about it, human solidarity, friendship, empathy, Huck is the embodiment of the Ameri - and she said the thing a body could get shared tragedy. Huck, on the river, begins can impulse, and it is decidedly a secular by praying for it was “spiritual gifts.” to see himself in Jim—a lost soul in a one. The last line of Twain’s novel Adven - This was too many for me. [Chapter 3] morally corrupt world. Both slave and tures of Huckleberry Finn (first published in Huck has no use for religion. He is a child undergo severe abuse that goes the United States in 1885) should draw born naturalist. More important, Huck ignored by so-called Christian morality. admiration from every reader: at the becomes a progressive humanist. He does But as two humanists, Huck and Jim out- prospect that Aunt Sally will “sivilize me,” not need religion to guide his moral com- pace the weary and tired antagonism that Huck responds, “I can’t stand it. I been there pass. To the contrary, the further Huck with- religion shoves on humanity. In this re - before.” We can presume that civilizing draws from the Christian law of the land, spect, Huckleberry Finn is not merely for Huck would include religion, but part of the the truer his needle aligns. When Huck America—he is for all humankind. lesson we learn from Huck is that prayer is comes close to failing his friend, religion is at as passive as it is unsubstantial. It is part of fault, not the nature of the the Christian dogma that Twain con- boy. His mediated “con- Reid Hardaway is a freelance writer and a graduate student at demned as justifying the unforgivable science,” which is strapped to the University of South Carolina. He is currently researching institution of . The boy Samuel the conventions of civilization medieval literature and Arthurian legend. Clemens remembered reciting Bible verses and the moral tutelage of the in Sunday school that provided the moral Widow Douglas, nearly con-

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Living without Religion Is There a Place for

Environmentalism in Humanism? John Shook

here is no escaping the accusation with the natural world. In other words, time, many humanists have realized that anymore: humanism, we hear over human relationships are—and must humanism should seek the preservation be—mediated by the “environment.” and enhancement of all life, not human life Tand over, can’t help the environmen- These precepts operate prior to the tal movement. Sure, humanists can say humanist ethic....A failure to recog- alone. Over the centuries-long history of that they love the environment, want to nize these environmental precepts is, humanism, humanists certainly have de- “go green,” and treasure their animal according to environmentalists, equiva- manded that more and more of humanity lent to wanting to destroy humanity in friends. Humanists can even script such an environmental catastrophe. deserves moral dignity and ethical priority. devotion into their declarations and mani- Humanists have struggled in every century festos. Yet environmentalists frequently The editors conclude: to “expand the circle”—to enlarge the doubt that humanism can form a sound There is no such thing as eco-human- range of beings that deserve respect and basis for genuine environmentalism. Can ism, nor progressive environmentalism. humane treatment. Many humanists now- the principles of humanism really help pro- Given the working definition of hu- adays aren’t halting at the boundaries of tect environmental resources and the manism in their argument—one in which the human species. earth’s fragile ecologies? human values and relationships are Environmentalists can recognize how assigned primary impor- humanism is adding “humane-ism” to its tance—this tough conclusion list of priorities. Humanists may want to seems justified. It is ultimately become more humane by becoming ani- irrelevant whether humanists mal lovers, vegetarians, and environmen- “It is ultimately irrelevant whether can rewrite manifestos and tal activists, but the concerns of environ- mentalists go deeper. Humanism says that humanists can rewrite manifestos and feel feel motivated to save the environment. Could human- humanists are supposed to try to enhance motivated to save the environment. ism prevent catastrophe? To this life for “all”—but who counts among Could humanism prevent catastrophe?” environmentalists, hu man ism the “all”? Just some people, all people, or seems like just a slow alterna- more species than just ours? Does “all” tive to the fast death of unre- include the entire biosphere? strained globalization. If hu- Humanism has changed, and continues man needs ultimately come to change today. Varieties of humanism are Over at the website climate-resistance. first, the environment always loses in the competing for attention. Three versions are org, for example, there’s not much love for long run. A robust environmentalism, it noticeably vibrant in the secular world. humanism. An article titled “Eco-Human- seems, cannot grow from a narrow founda- ism?” (posted September 23, 2009) tion of humanist values. 1. Humanism means taking ethical responsi- squarely confronts the tough question: If But is humanism really as narrow and bility to create your own values, without reli- humans are part of the problem, can unhelpful as environmentalists fear? Let’s gious or philosophical guidance, for living humanism really be part of the solution? review humanism’s position. Humanism is your life. Humanists are atheists at liberty to This article answers that question uncom- a lifestance or ethical view that prioritizes enhance their lives however they can, promisingly in the negative: (1) this mortal life and (2) the ethical restrained only by political principles of ... There is a fundamental idea operat- responsibilities we must share to best equal rights and procedural justice. ing within environmentalism which is enhance this life for all. Humanism is often 2. Humanism means taking re sponsibility to incompatible with humanism. It pro- poses that our principle [sic] relationship confused with human-centrism, which conform your values to the community’s is not with each other, but with the nat- holds that only human beings have moral pursuit of the good life, independent of ural world. Accordingly, “duty to each value and ethical priority. Many definitions dogmatic authority. Humanists are free- other” exists principally as a duty to the and declarations of humanism do sound thinkers who participate in society’s quest to planet, and “societal cohesiveness” comes from without humanity, being precisely like human-centrism, especially enhance life for all by applying reason rather predicated on a sustainable relationship those dating from before 1980. Since that than religion.

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3. Humanism means ethically taking re - that resource management isn’t enough Type 3 hu manists can recognize how other sponsibility to center your values on pri- mostly aim their complaints about human- species and entire ecologies have value in mary virtues like compassion and benefi- ism at Type 1 humanism. themselves, regardless of whether humans cence to all, regardless of heavenly Type 2 humanism can be of more help. actually value them. All the same, human reward. Humanists are progressivists who Type 2 humanists take communal living values remain involved. Type 3 humanists push society toward fulfilling high moral seriously because trying to live the good orient and apply their values to the protec- ideals, while feeling accountable to the life with utter disregard to community wel- tion of everything that has value, and they future of life itself. fare is the opposite of ethics. By expanding enact these values in social and political Rather than needlessly worrying about the notion of community to its logical con- activism. Hard-core environmentalists who which version or combination is the “true” clusion, community-oriented humanists stress the “intrinsic value” of all life are humanism, let’s look at matters from the can see how human communities are thor- practically indistinguishable from Type 3 environmentalist perspective. oughly interlinked with the health of their humanists, so there doesn’t seem to be Type 1 humanism is of little help to ecological environments. Humans will not much open conflict between these groups. environmentalism. Type 1 humanists would flourish unless their environments flourish, We can leave environmentalists to not deplete Earth’s resources because that especially in the very long run, so any their decision about whether to ally with is an unintelligent way to manage matters. exploitation of nature must be very thor- one or more of these types of humanism. But valuing other species and ecologies is oughly justified. Many environmentalists When a humanist declares an interest in entirely a personal issue—protecting any- are humanists who can perceive how supporting environmentalism, look at the thing is optional for everyone. Those who human values must simultaneously be details. Which type of humanist is this per- have the money or power to exploit nature Earth values. Type 2 humanism receives less son, and what sort of environmentalism is in some way should have the right to do so criticism from environmentalists. being talked about? unless that use violates some other per- Type 3 humanism can be a lot of help to son’s rights. Type 1 humanism leads most environmentalism. Type 3 obviously toward the management model humanists take all life seriously of environmentalism: nature should be because life itself is the basis for John Shook is associate editor of FREE INQUIRY and director of wisely used and carefully modified to serve value and the human species is education and a senior reseach fellow at the Center for Inquiry. human needs. Environ mentalists who think no more special than any other. Humanism at Large A Revolutionary Syllogism: Logic and the

Declaration of Independence Chris Edwards

ome politically minded Christians, The problem with this view is that it ment becomes apparent—and the place having scoured the American Consti - amounts to an ahistorical reading of the that formal logical thinking, rather than Stu tion and found neither the word Declaration. Jefferson’s sentiment, in fact, belief in a vague divinity, has in American God nor the word of God, have settled on was not intended as a grand statement history is restored to its proper status. the reference to a “Creator” that ap pears about human rights but in the Declaration of Indepen dence as a rather as a logical syllo- wedge to drive home their larger point that gism. The Declaration is the United States is a Christian nation. like a page from one “The Declaration [of Independence] These Christians (who are, incidentally, well of Leonardo Da Vinci’s is like a page from one of Leonardo Da notebooks that must be represented on the history textbook adop- Vinci’s notebooks that must be held tion board in Texas) argue that because the held up to a mirror to be Declaration states that “all men” gain the read. The mirror to the up to a mirror to be read. rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- Declaration is the doctrine The mirror to the Declaration is the of the divine right of kings. piness from a “Creator,” failure to believe doctrine of the divine right of kings.” in such a creator then erases the founda- Once the Declaration is tions of liberty. Atheism, then, is not just held up to its reflection, the blasphemous but un-American. real purpose of the docu-

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The divine right of kings is a simple above others. That is, the rebels in the new, but it is one that has a proud history. concept that likely dates from the incep- Colonies no longer accepted the philo- America’s finest president, tion of human civilization. It’s the assertion sophical base of the king’s authority. Lincoln, seemed to base his entire that the ruler derives his or her right to The Declaration is the divine right American philosophy around this vision of govern from supernatural authority. In turned upside down. Jefferson’s syllogistic the Declaration. Consider what he said in other words, one person—the ruler—is God gave power not to one person but to one of his famous debates against elevated above everyone else simply all persons. Now we have a new base for Stephen Douglas: because he is the ruler. This leads to the a syllogism, one that looks like this: (1) All That is the issue that will continue in this following syllogism: (1) The king gets his men are given rights by God. country when these poor tongues of powers to rule from God. (2) Therefore, Given this new base, the philosophy of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. anything the king says or does is sanc- governance is radically altered. If all men It is the eternal struggle between these two principles—right and wrong— tioned by God. (3) Therefore, people have rights granted by a creator, then throughout the world . . . from the be - should serve and obey the king. what is the purpose of government? If ginning of time . . . The one is the com- In contrast, let’s look at the first government is not sanctioned by a higher mon right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings . . . No matter in two paragraphs of the Declaration of power, then it cannot grant rights to peo- what shape it comes, whether from a Indepen dence: ple. So, what is its function? Obviously, it king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the of We hold these truths to be self-evident, must be to protect natural rights. So we that all men are created equal, that now have the second part of the syllo- their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it they are endowed by their Creator with gism: (2) Therefore, governments exist to is the same tyrannical principle.* certain unalienable Rights, that among protect those rights. And finally the logical these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these conclusion of this syllogism, but one Lincoln’s words remind us that the sen- rights, Governments are instituted which is rarely spelled out, is: (3) There - timents in the Declaration’s syllogism run among Men, deriving their just powers fore, citizens are under no obligation to counter to any form of tyrannical logic, from the consent of the governed, whether it comes from government, reli- That whenever any Form of Gov - obey governments that violate their “God- ern ment becomes destructive of these given” rights and in fact are justified in gions, or coercive owners of labor. The ends, it is the Right of the People to overthrowing those governments. American principle is more revolutionary alter or to abolish it, and to institute a The reference to a creator here is in - and more antagonistic toward authority of new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its tended as a syllogistic base, something any kind than is commonly understood powers in such form, as to them shall that someone as schooled in logic and today. Far from being a religiously inspired seem most likely to effect their Safety rhetoric as Jefferson (and Adams and document, the Declaration of Indepen - and Happiness. Franklin for that matter) would have read- dence is a stunning example of how, at If the divine right syllogism was a ily understood as a necessary precondition our country’s birth, rigorous, logical, and building, then its foundation would be the for a logical argument. Hence, it should ethical reasoning were applied to derive premise that the king (of Britain, in this not be taken to refer specifically to a deity. concepts of justice. Our Constitu tion and case) obtained his powers to rule from Nor should it be inferred that one must our evidence-based system of law are God. Jefferson wastes no time in attacking believe in a rights-giving god in order to both built upon the core philosophy so this foundation by stating that “all men believe that humans have the right to succinctly stated in the Declaration. One are created equal.” This five-word phrase “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- won’t find God in the American Constitu - might be the most misunderstood state- ness.” One can obviously believe in the tion, but you will find careful reasoning. ment in history. Jefferson, who owned sanctity of human liberties without believ- Thank logic for that. slaves, is often called a hypocrite for hav- ing they were handed down by a divinity. ing written these lines. I won’t defend After all, it was disbelief in a tyrant-sanc- *James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Free dom: The Civil War Era (Oxford: Oxford Uni versity Jefferson the slaveholder, but Jefferson the tioning god that was the real rub between Press, 2003), 146. logician deserves better. In all likelihood, the American continentals when he wrote those words he was not and the Euro peans. Or one Chris Edwards is a frequent contributor to FREE INQUIRY and trying to make a grand humanistic pro- can just as easily posit, as Skeptic magazines. He is the author, under the pseudonym of nouncement. Instead, he was very proba- many do, that such a god is “S.C. Hitchcock,” of Disbelief 101: A Young Person’s Guide to bly creating a base for a syllogism. After directly in opposition to Atheism (See Sharp Press, 2009; to be released in Poland in all, the Declaration was a message to King human rights. 2011). His new book is Spiritual Snake Oil: Fads and Fallacies George III. The Continental Congress was This Declaration-as-syllo- in Pop Culture (See Sharp Press, 2011). telling the king that no man could be born gism interpretation is not

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Reviews

The Best of the Best: Paul Kurtz’s Philosophy of Humanism Floris van den Berg

umanism, like religion, is a human- made concept, and humanists are Haware of and appreciate this fact. Books on humanism can be separated into three categories: (1) a descriptive (historical Multi-Secularism: A New Agenda, by Paul Kurtz (New or systematic) outline of humanism (e.g., Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2010, ISBN Richard Norman’s On Humanism or Peter 9781412814195) 263 pp. Cloth $39.95. Cave’s Humanism); (2) a critique of human- ism (e.g., John Gray’s Straw Dogs); or (3) a forward-looking, agenda-setting philosophy of humanism (e.g., Corliss Lamont’s The Philosophy of Humanism). Multi-Secularism: A New Agenda by philosopher Paul Kurtz— actually the whole voluminous oeuvre of this author—falls into this third category. Multi-Secularism is a collection of ed philosophical stance. He uses the best of “There are various forms of religious essays—mainly his editorials from FREE human achievements—in science, human and non-religious beliefs in the world. On INQUIRY and Skeptical Inquirer from 2000 to rights, and philosophical concepts of rea- the one end of the spectrum are tradition- 2008, plus some essays that have been son, liberty, individuality, democracy, and al religious beliefs; on the other ‘the new published in other journals or books. In this tolerance—to create the best of the best. atheism.’ Not enough attention is paid to book, they combine to form a coherent His work is in the best tradition of humanism as an alternative. This State - humanist philosophy. Kurtz attempts to Enlighten ment philosophy, which, like sci- ment advocates non-religious secular Neo- create a comprehensive philosophy and ence, strives to be dynamic and improve. (In Humanism.” practice of humanism while always adapt- fact, Kurtz has called for a new En - Multi-Secularism includes the essay ing and up dating it. At present, it is no lightenment in his 1994 book Toward a “Neo-Humanism,” in which Kurtz eluci- longer communism that is its rival; religion New Enlighten ment. dates this new concept: “Neo-humanism is back on the cultural, social, and political Kurtz has coined many new terms in rejects theism and affirms the secular out- stage, and there are many new urgent his long career; multi-secularism is the lat- look. It is broad enough to encompass athe- problems (e.g., population growth and est. He has also issued several humanist ism, agnosticism, and humanist ethical val- environmental degradation) that human- manifestos, all of which have been ues. It is a large enough mansion to include ism must consider. Kurtz’s power does not endorsed by a long list of prominent scien- both nonreligious humanists and those who lie primarily in focusing on each of the tists, philosophers, and writers. In these consider humanism to function religiously building blocks of humanism but in com- manifestos, he sets the agenda bining them into “a public temple of rea- for what humanism is and how it son.” Kurtz thinks humanism through and relates to current world affairs. In creates a new humanist philosophy, at the 2010, Kurtz issued a “Neo- same time humanizing philosophy. Humanist State ment”: “Our The word new is often used by Kurtz, planetary community is facing “Paul Kurtz attempts to create a be cause that is to what he aspires: adapting serious problems that can only be comprehensive philosophy humanism to the changing world. Some solved by cooperative global people do not appreciate that accomplish- action. Fresh thinking is required. and practice of humanism while ment—this is similar to telling an architect Hu manity needs to reconstruct always adapting and up dating it.” that he or she didn’t do anything new human values in the light of sci- because he or she used building materials entific knowledge. We introduce that were already available. Kurtz’s secular the term ‘Neo-Humanism’ to humanism is a comprehensive, well-round- present a daring new approach.

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insofar as it celebrates human ideals and Nietzschean side of humanism, which has fering and pain whenever they can; not values. Neo-humanists do not believe in been taken up by the new atheists— only for other human beings but other God, yet they wish to do good” (73). Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris, and Grayling. sentient beings in the biosphere.” Here, Kurtz has managed to create a com- But humanism, according to Kurtz, is more he seems to move away from the anthro- prehensive lifestance and worldview that than the critique of nonsense (though this pocentric of humanism toward is a secular alternative to religion and an is a necessary constituent). He wants to sentientism. For sentientists, like Peter inspiring philosophy of life. Unfortunately, create a philosophy of life, an ethical, polit- Singer, the criterion of whether an entity humanism isn’t obvious to all. Kurtz wrote ical, and social framework for a better and has moral value is found in its capacity for a monograph titled The Transcendental more just world in which individuals can suffering. Humanists have a tendency to Temptation: A Critique of Religion and the flourish as individuals and be happy: “the care for fellow humans in the here and (1986) about the tendency to main thrust of humanism is not to simply now. A fundamental question is: Can too easily believe based upon insufficient espouse the negative—what we do not humanism be expanded from anthro- evidence. We clearly have an innate ten- believe in—but what we do. We should pocentrism toward sentientism, or should dency to be deluded—to borrow the term not begin with atheism or anti-supernatu- the concept of humanism not be stretched from Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion ralism but with humanism. I am a secular that much? humanist be cause I am Kurtz seems also to take the stance that not religious. I draw my it is possible to expand the moral scope of inspiration not from reli- humanism. However, he does not elaborate gion or spirituality but on this point; he only indicates this new from science, ethics, phi- direction, one that will probably alienate losophy, and the arts. I call some of those who call themselves human- “Kurtz has managed to create a it eupraxsophy; that is, the ists. A tension between ideas and pragmat- practice of wisdom as an ic concerns is visible in many of the essays in comprehensive lifestance and worldview alternative to religion. The Multi-Secularism. Although the book’s title that is a secular alternative to religion convictions of a humanist indicates that Kurtz seems to have opted for and an inspiring philosophy of life.” involve both the head and a promotional strategy, his fierce critique of the heart, cognition and religion and unreason and his willingness to emotion. These are our consider widening the scope of humanism rational-passional core show his reluctance to completely submit to beliefs” (234). market concerns. Why didn’t Kurtz put Humanism is not just an intellectual humanism in the title of position; humanism is humane. It is about this book? Perhaps he being friendly and living the good life. In the (2006). We seem to be hardwired to do thought using the word might scare off book’s last section, “Personal Reflec tions,” so. In his In Praise of Folly (1509), Erasmus potential friends among (liberal) believers Kurtz writes about his life. Thus his book is wrote that: “Man’s mind is so formed that who actually agree with most of the also, in part, an intellectual auto biography it is far more susceptible to falsehood than humanist agenda. To borrow a phrase from and a memoir. Kurtz pondered when in the to truth.” This observation described Eras- Paul Cliteur, Kurtz strives for a “moral hospital with serious heart problems: “I say mus himself, who, though critical of the Esperanto”: he wants to communicate that I am a humanist, meaning by that, that clergy, remained a Roman Catholic. Kurtz humanist ideas to as wide an audience as we should strive as best we can to do good, does a much better job of creating a possible. It seems Kurtz’s choice to adver- to try to help where we can, to compliment coherent and consistent philosophy. tise multi-secularism, in stead of humanism, other persons wherever possible. By this I Kurtz is an avowed atheist, but he is is pragmatic. Secu larism, adapted to cul- mean that we should express an affirmative somewhat reluctant to use that as a pri- tural differences (i.e., multi-secularism), attitude all the time, to try to improve the mary label for his philosophy. He wants might be a more viable strategy to strive situation, if we can, to look at the bright much more than to criticize nonsense; he for than outspoken, atheistic humanism. In side” (254). wants to create a better world. Humanism, a secular society, people can enjoy their according to Kurtz, has two dimensions. personal delusions, so long as On the one hand, there is the critical, neg- they don’t harm others. Floris van den Berg is a philosopher and the co-executive ative dimension: the freethinking tradition Kurtz writes: “[Persons of director of the Center for Inquiry in the Low Countries. His book of atheism and the critical approach to good will] are thus consider- Philosophy for a Better World is being published this year by paranormal, pseudoscientific, and other ate, thoughtful, caring; every Prometheus Books. nonsensical and false claims. This is the effort is made to reduce suf-

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Reviews

Consciousness-Raising for the Nonreligious Tom Flynn

emember consciousness-raising? Dismissing it as a trapping of the R1960s is too glib. It is the tool by which successive waves of activists sought (often successfully) to aid members of dis- Investigating Christian Privilege and Religious Oppression in advantaged groups in recognizing that they the United States, edited by Warren J. Blumenfeld, Khyati Y. were disadvantaged, in spotting practices Joshi, and Ellen E. Fairchild (Rotterdam/Taipei: Sense used by privileged groups to perpetuate Publishers, 2009, ISBN 978-90-8790-677-1 [cloth], 978-90- their unjust advantages, and in resolving to 8790-676-4 [paper]). 184 pp. Cloth $99; paper $39. resist the status quo. Name an American minority that’s improved its social position in the past few decades—African Americans, Latinos, women, Native Americans, LGBTs, and so on—each has spawned its own con- sciousness-raising literature. Early entrants that secular humanist activists—and anyone • Historically, traditional blue laws in the genre had to devote themselves to who cares about social equity for Americans blocked most Americans from persuading members of their particular tar- who happen not to be Christian—can learn engaging in commerce on days the get group that the social forms they’d from. Christian tradition designated as grown up with were neither benign nor The editors maintain that Christian holy. neutral but rather encoded social structures Americans enjoy, often but not always • Non-Christian religious groups con- that served the majority by duping or cajol- unconsciously, a position of illicit and tinue to be belittled when journal- ing majority members to “love their unjust social privilege structurally similar to ists and commentators assign words chains.” Members of a genuinely op- those enjoyed in earlier decades by whites like sect and cult to religious entities pressed minority could scarcely be ex pected vis-à-vis Americans of other races, men vis- that would earn more respectful ter- to resist social practices that they still à-vis women, straights vis-à-vis gays, and minology if Christian. embraced as cultural norms! The best- so on.* remembered book of this sort may be Betty The book’s first article, by coeditor • Employment, housing, and other Friedan’s 1963 The Feminine Mystique, Blumen feld, is a thundering catalog of the forms of overt discrimination which sought to convince women that the manifold ways in which “the dominant against non-Chris tians still occur, if “see Jane cook” housewifely stereotype group (in this instance, Christians) reiter- less openly these days. was worth rebelling against. ates its values and practices while margin- • In an under-acknowledged form of Investigating Christian Privilege and Reli - alizing and subordinating those who do cultural imperialism, public memori- gious Oppression in the United States, edit- not adhere to Christian faith traditions” als, from sites where police officers ed by Warren J. Blumenfeld (Iowa State), (4). In fact, manifold may be too mild a Khyati Y. Joshi (Farleigh Dickinson), and word. Here are just a few Ellen E. Fairchild (Iowa State), aims to play a of the indicators: similar role for non-Christian Amer icans, including the nonreligious. Where Friedan “Name an American minority that’s wrote a popular manifesto, the coeditors of *I do not mean by this to suggest that nonwhites, improved its social position in the past few this tome have assembled a scholarly women, LGBTs, or any other decades—African Americans, Latinos, anthology aimed principally (though not groups have completely suc- exclusively) at educators. That, along with a ceeded in overcoming op- women, Native Americans, LGBTs, couple of substandard selections, suggests pression. I only note that rel- ative to the nonreligious, and so on—each has spawned its that this rather pricy small-press book won’t each of these groups cur- own consciousness-raising literature.” be non-Christians’ “shot heard round the rently enjoys a substantial world.” But there is much in this anthology head start.

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died in the line of duty to the field to redefine America as a Christian nation. in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where Coeditor Joshi provides an incisive analysis valiant passengers brought down showing that the structures of Christian Icarus Dreams United Flight 93 on September 11, privilege mirror those associated with 2001, are almost invariably marked white privilege in American life. This is an of Darwin with crosses. Quick, was everybody important insight for scholars and activists on Flight 93—okay, except the ter- because both white advantage and the Dorothy Sutton rorists—Christian? means of resisting it have been exhaustively studied. Jennifer Harvey and Miriam Singer Communing with you, my gentle • Hardly anyone thinks of this—which offer capable examinations of same-sex friend is just why we need consciousness- marriage controversies and the Faith-Based Everyone sees you as sweet and calm raising—but what message does it Initiative, respectively, as mechanisms for I see you more as Eve, Apollo send to non-Christians that though furthering Christian privilege. many have forsaken the explicitly Prometheus, Poetry rolled into one From there, the entries are more of a Christian “AD” (anno Domini, “the I see you as Faust, the lust to explore mixed bag. Lisa Weinbaum gives a person- year of our Lord”) for the more neu- To experience it all, to know it now alized report on her experience in trying tral “CE” (Common Era), we still Awake, aware, through questioning (ultimately unsuccessfully) to compel Las count our years from the purported Reaching for knowledge, the stars, Cruces, New Mexico, to abandon its offi- birth year of Jesus Christ? cial logo—three Christian crosses. the sun. • Finally (and admittedly, a special irri- Sociological analysis and discussion of the Falling with me into the deep tant for me), what does it say that author’s personal tribulations make for an Where sleep the wounded, weary even Americans striving to be more uneasy combination. On the other hand, ones inclusive have simply relabeled that Mamta Motwani Accapadi and Jason You settled in to count the waves portion of the year dominated by Nelson offer fascinating discussions of a Christmas as “the holiday season”— controversy over Christ mas decorations in To tally fishes, investigate offering a patronizing tip of the hat a student center serving mostly non- To estimate algae in that pond. to non-Christian observances courte- Christian students and the dilemma of When they bound you to that rock ous enough to fall during the same teachers who seek to treat non-Christians The vulture tearing at your flesh time of year while they more harshly evenhandedly despite their personal You marveled at his wing span marginalize faiths whose feasts fall Christian orientations. Though written during less-favored seasons? principally for activists and educators, With what precision he did the job these essays are rich with examples of the His beak and talons evolved to do Blumenfeld makes a strong case that impact of Christian privilege on members Noted the feathers, barb and vane. Christian privilege is more pervasive than of religious outgroups. Coeditor Fairchild even most activists surmise—and that the I admire most your open mind closes with a statement of her own beliefs first step toward resisting such injustice is No, passion is your greatest trait consciously modeled on John Dewey’s learning to identify it efficiently. 1897 “Peda gogic Creed” that will proba- The way you go at it, beak and talon Hector Avalos, a frequent contributor bly be useful mostly to educators. The way you go at it, tooth and nail. to FREE INQUIRY, offers a solid summary of With a few caveats, this book is recom- No—honesty. No, close attention the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli between the mended as a resource for secular humanists To detail, you world’s greatest lover United States and the so-called Barbary eager to raise their own consciousnesses You greatest lover of the world. States, which stated that “the govern- and to build a more vivid mental picture of ment of the United States of America is what a truly, justly post-Christian society not in any sense founded on the Christian Dorothy Sutton is a professor of English may one day look like. religion.” Avalos views this as an accurate and creative writing at Eastern Kentucky picture of the sentiment regarding religion University in Richmond, Kentucky. She held among the founders, then treats it as has published two collections of her an index case for the way poetry: Startling Art: Darwin and Matisse history has been distorted Tom Flynn is the editor of FREE INQUIRY and the executive director and Backing into Mountains. by ideologues determined of the Council for Secular Humanism.

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Reviews

A Failure to Deliver Robert M. Price

uthor Geoff Crocker is, like this reviewer, an atheist and former Aevangelical Christian. Perhaps as a result of religious nostalgia, Crocker wants to supplement reductionistic An Enlightened Philosophy: Can an Atheist Believe Anything?, with a depth derived from biblical mythol- by Geoff Crocker (Hampshire, U.K.: O Books, 2011, ISBN 978- ogy understood as mythology. I expected 1-8-84694-424-6) 132 pp. Paper $13.95. to have to resist the temptation to make this review an exercise in cheerleading. Instead, I found the too-brief work rather disappointing. The promotional hype for An Enlightened Philosophy makes the book sound like it deals in some depth with its subject matter, supplementing mous 1 John [as tradition has it] to “the ing to see Crocker bemoan dogmas of atheism with deeper insights from Karen Apostle John.”) Charismatics are bubble- original sin, which hardly seem to make Armstrong and Campbell—neither headed enthusiasts, while Catholics are humanity a worse bunch of vermin than of whom, as far as I can see, makes an cruel totalitarians. Crocker makes them. He lists various appearance outside of the bibliography. But the religious are hardly the only virtues as catalogued by recent secularist (Armstrong’s absence, of course, is no loss.) wide swath of humanity that Crocker does philosophers, one supposes, to show by By far, the lion’s share of this long not like. Capitalists are also targets of his example (rather than by argument) that essay is a series of book reports in which wrath, as well as anyone Crocker outlines various competing view- who supported the inva- points on human freedom, materialism, sion of Iraq. Crocker’s metaphysics, virtue, and other huge issues smug leftism (not to imply “. . . Crocker outlines various competing but never quite comes to any conclusions; that leftism must be smug) viewpoints on human freedom, material- he is satisfied that whoever is right, there is irritating. In the manner remains no place for the God of tradition- of doctrinaire liberation ism, metaphysics, virtue, and other huge al supernaturalism. When he complains theologians, Crock er sug- issues but never quite comes to any con- that intelligent design “theory” is unjustly gests that the biblical clusions; he is satisfied that whoever is maligned without spelling out why, (Hebrew and Greek) words Crocker commits a hit and run that is most often translated as right, there remains no place for the God bound to undermine his credibility. “righteousness” should of traditional supernaturalism.” But Crocker is no friend of the rather be translated as Christian church. He has it in for the evan- “justice” (ap parently re - gelical denominations for very good rea- gardless of context) to sons, rightly insisting that despite their change the thrust of biblical teaching to a secularism is compatible with moral val- denials they are essentially Gnostics who social and collective emphasis from a self- ues. These virtues, he opines, ought to be require a slate of “right beliefs” as the ish, private devotionalism. Yes, it might, but considered “divine” to provide an ticket to salvation. They are pugnacious, is that what the authors intended, if absolute center of value homologous to narrow, intolerant, and fools to take Crocker even cares? Israel, he pontificates, the now-defunct God of theism. myths literally. (It strikes me as odd, how- would find peace only if it were to think for I am not clear on what most of the ever, that Crocker seems to take for grant- once about justice for the Palestinians. book’s cursory and often platitudinous ed traditional ascriptions of authorship, Surely Crocker cannot be so naïve and ill summaries of modern problems and crediting sayings in all four gospels to a informed about that situation. debates have to do with the supposed util- historical “Christ” [not even the less theo- With his long and unremitting laundry ity of ancient, especially biblical, myth. logical “Jesus”] and attributing the anony- list of historic human failures, it is surpris- When he finally gets to the supposed

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myths, it becomes apparent that Crocker for the primitive conception of a son of it may be found—in us. Feuerbach is grant- has no interest in myths. All he has to say God who came to Earth to redeem human- ed no mention in Crocker’s pages either. is that secularists, especially politically lib- ity by his blood sacrifice. Bultmann admit- Nor is Braithwaite, who argued, more con- eral secularists, might find occasional bib- ted that scientific psychology disallowed cisely and without the dead weight, that to lical phrases or allusions rhetorically help- the old belief that spirits holy or unholy be Christian is to read religious statements ful in arguing a case they have already de- could intervene in the human psyche. He primarily as moral motivators that school cided on prior grounds. knew miracles were superstition. But he and express one’s conscience in the (fictive) If one were interested in pursuing the insisted that myth—when rightly under- stories of Christian scripture (though the questions that the publisher’s publicist stood as the fictive articulation of a com- approach works just as well in any other promises are inside An Enlightened Philos- munity’s existential self-understanding— religion with any other scripture). ophy, one might better spend one’s time could be the vehicle for a new and more If you want something more modern with Rudolf Bultmann’s famous essay (not authentic human existence. Unlike Crocker, than the works I have mentioned, may I mentioned in this book) “New Testament Bultmann knew what myth is and how to suggest Don Cupitt (also unknown in and Mythology” (available in Kerygma and interpret it to unlock what it has to teach us Crocker’s manifesto) and his work Taking Myth, ed. Hans Werner Bartsch [Harper & about our lives (“demythologize” it). Leave of God (London: SCM Classics, Row, 1961]); Ludwig Feuerbach, The Feuerbach, in the nineteenth century, 1980, reprinted 2010), which gives all Essence of Christianity [various editions, contended that the true divinity belongs to these issues the treatment they so richly including a handy abridged version]; and the virtues that reside in the human heart, deserve. R.B. Braithwaite’s booklet, An Empiricist’s not in some imaginary deity View of the Nature of Religious Belief orbiting above the earth like Robert M. Price is professor of theology and scriptural studies [Cam bridge University Press, 1955]). an invisible satellite. He at Colemon Theological Seminary and a research fellow at the In 1941, Bultmann, a Lutheran theolo- charged theists with being Center for Inquiry. His latest book is Secret Scrolls: Revelations gian, freely admitted that the modern the real atheists because it is from the Lost Gospel Novels (Wipf and Stock, 2010). world held no place for a mythical deity or they who deny divinity where Observations on Religion and Secularization in America Edd Doerr

im Haught, no stranger to readers of this journal, is the longtime editor of Jthe Charleston Gazette in West Vir - ginia, a former press aide to the late Sena - tor Robert Byrd, and the author of seven Fading Faith: The Rise of the Secular Age, by James A. Haught books and too many columns, news articles, (Cranford, N.J.: Gustav Broukal Press, 2010, ISBN 978-1- and editorials to count. 57884-009-0) 167 pp. Paper, $16.00. Fading Faith is a wide-ranging sampling of his writing of recent years in FREE INQUIRY, the Gazette, and other venues on subjects such as the growing secularization of Amer - ica combined with the growth of the reli- gious Right and the hollowing out of what might be called the religious mainstream. Haught reminds readers of the violence and South Baptists to fight America’s racial segre- thuggery often linked to fundamentalist- gation.” (Haught cites an article by Robert tending religion. James Scofield in the Nov - He also touches on a topic that is all too ember 2009 Tikkun as his rarely discussed in this country: “Privately, source.) This has been my Edd Doerr is president of Americans for Religious Liberty, past many gifted ministers don’t believe the observation as well, one that president of the American Humanist Association, and the author supernatural dogmas of their churches. leads me to take a nuanced, of over five thousand published books, sections of books, arti- Nobel Prize-winning martyr Martin Luther balanced view of people wear- cles, columns, book and film reviews, translations, letters, short King Jr. and Coretta Scott King were skeptic- ing traditional religious labels. stories, and poems. He has made over two thousand speeches minded Unitarians in Boston before they Fading Faith is a breezy, and radio and television appearances. made a calculated decision to become Deep worthwhile read.

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Letters continued from p. 11

Surplus Wealth a Myth? less fortunate to pay a greater percentage The rich make proportionately more use of of their income for taxation? Would not civil courts and stock exchanges. Zoning Tibor Machan (“The Myth of Surplus the less fortunate then be bearing the and building departments limit what’s Wealth,” FI, February/March 2011) argues greater tax burden? Is it fair to create a sit- built on private land, and taxes pay for that in a democratic society no one has uation in which such people have less dis- that. Even the most successful aren’t sole the authority to take any money from its cretionary funds available as compared to generators of their productivity. Someone citizens and give it to someone in need. He the wealthy? Thus, is it fair to decrease the taught Bill Gates to read and calculate. seems to oppose any form of taxation, or opportunity for such people to accumu- Unexplained by Machan is why job at least progressive taxation. What he is late wealth? Further, one could rightly failure, downsizing, or overestimating the overlooking is that that those who have argue that it is not the less fortunate who value of houses, gold, or tulips should prospered from a political and economic are taking surplus wealth from the withdraw needed resources. Unlike Mo - system have an obligation to give some of wealthy but the wealthy who are taking nopoly players, the dead can’t join anoth- the gains back to the system that facilitat- surplus wealth from the less fortunate. er game. Yet Machan approves diverting ed those gains. Also, by extension, according to Machan, resources to future relatives or favorite In ancient Athens, anyone who had the less fortunate would be “effectively causes regardless of current unmet needs. made considerable money from the denied their right to liberty” by the Unearned wealth undermines moral justi- Athen ian system was obligated to return wealthy. In such an obviously unfair situa- fication for an individual’s absolute right to some of it, perhaps by financing a public tion—at least according to my value sys- dispose of enormous resources. well. One who had made a great deal of tem—the government would be providing If community doesn’t provide necessary money might be expected to finance a the wealthy with a greater opportunity to resources, how it is better than solitary public building, and one who had pros- accumulate wealth than it does for the not struggle? Wealth can be lost, not just pered enormously could be expected to so fortunate. acquired. The individual begrudging tax- finance a warship. Is it not fair to hold that Two logical end results of Machan’s supported food, medical, and housing those who have prospered with the Amer- argument coupled to past and current assistance today could need relief tomor- ican system owe to that system some rea- economic and political realities are (1) an row. sonable portion of that prosperity to be intolerable society as lived by millions Machan’s crescendo is the proposition used in such manner as the elected repre- throughout the ages and to some extent that strangers can’t define “surplus” for sentatives determine is beneficial to the depicted by Charles Dickens and (2) vio- another, even if the owner’s only use of citizenry and who will, in turn, return lent revolution, for example, the French money is for a psychological boost. I’d some of their prosperity? Revolution. suggest “more money than one can imag- Noel W. Smith Sheldon F. Gottlieb, PhD ine ways to spend” as a working definition Sarasota, Florida Boynton Beach, Florida of surplus. Trish Randall Vancouver, Washington Progressive taxation is based on the con- Tibor Machan makes a spirited but uncon- cept of fairness—considering that when it vincing defense of unfettered individual Tibor Machan replies: comes to taxes, few people would agree acquisition and disposal of money and To Noel W. Smith: No one can have unas- as to what is fair. Let us use as an example resource, without guarantee of subsis- sumed obligations. That places one into the situation in which every citizen must tence. involuntary servitude—serfdom in fact. pay a flat tax of $1,000 so as to assure the Like others defending absolute proper- You may implore folks to be generous, functioning of government. A person ty rights as necessary for liberty, Machan kind, helpful, and such, but when you making an annual salary of $10,000 ignores realities that make plutophilia an coerce them to part with their resources, would be paying 10 percent of his or her impediment to a just society. Machan you are promoting tyranny. Each of us is a income for tax, whereas a person making depicts taxation as “taking” from the sovereign citizen, and for a government to $100,000 would be paying only 1 percent. wealthy, ignoring taxes on middle and low gain our support we need to be asked and The situation worsens as income in - incomes, and conflates progressive taxes our consent needs to be given. creases. Assuming the same-sized family with funding welfare. Ignored is rich peo- To Sheldon F. Gottlieb: In most places and same degree of health, where is the ple’s disproportionate use of infrastruc- throughout human history, some people fairness? Which group is in a better posi- tures. A private jet requires the same owned others as slaves or serfs. This was tion to pay their tax? Is it fair to ask the attention from control towers as an airbus. morally wrong and needed to be abol-

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ished. Whatever support you need from thinks, portraying a literal situation, or least of which is the right not to be made to others, you need to ask for it. You have no whether she is using this metaphor to suffer. But until then, we must assume that authority to extract it, no matter what explore the conflicts of someone who is how and why people unite their genitalia (or your excuse. Even if morally someone used as a means to an end. And notwith- use science to manipulate the gametic prod- ought to be helpful and supportive, this is standing Voss’s lack of reservations regard- ucts of their reproductive organs) is a private something the person must choose to do, ing cord blood, the ethical and practical matter. Further, in a free society, we also otherwise it has no moral significance. issues remain. (In far more mundane non- should assume a priori that most people To Trish Randall: All these are rational- medical terms, the ethical lapse is quite don’t create children for the sheer joy of izations for some to oppress others, common; the child may be conceived to making them miserable. We must assume always, of course, for some noble pur- please a grandparent, to gain an inheri- that most people, most of the time, do, in pose. It’s a ruse. If the purpose is noble tance, to meet cultural or religious expec- fact, have their children’s best interests in enough, it will be convincing, and the sup- tations, etc.) The dystopia of custom-bred mind, at least until they prove otherwise. port will be forthcoming voluntarily. If not, donor siblings could come to pass, and it that’s the nature of liberty—as with free- might be better if it did. Given today’s hit- dom of speech, no one is authorized to or-miss technology, a “savior” child may The Labyrinth turn out to be genetically unsuitable, in command desirable speech, beautiful “The Labyrinth” by Philip Appleman (FI, which case—assuming the parents don’t speech or worthy speech or ban their February/March 2011) is majestic and pro- abort and try again—the child grows up opposites. All these shopworn excuses for found. The essay is clearly the culmination aware that he or she was inadequate from subjugating other people to what one of years of contemplation and deep feel- the first moment of existence. believes are worthy goals fail to establish ing. Thanks to Appleman for taking the A.C. Willment any enforceable obligations. Yes, this is a time to write it. I know that many are read- Ridgewood, New Jersey radical notion but it is right, nonetheless. ing and appreciating his effort. With its lyri- cal prose and deep insight, it is an essay Katrina Voss replies: Savior Children that I expect to reread and enjoy many While I cannot begin to understand the psy- times. Although I haven’t read My Sister’s Keeper, chological distress endured by the younger Lawrence Rifkin, MD I suspect Katrina Voss is guilty of an all-too- sibling of a person affected with autism, I Glastonbury, Connecticut common shortcoming among FREE INQUIRY can say that the suggestion that there are contributors: literal-mindedness (“Et Tu, correct and incorrect, acceptable and unac- Hollywood? FI, February/March 2011). ceptable, reasons to reproduce is both arro- “The Labyrinth” is so well written, rea- I assure her, there is such a thing as a gant and presumptuous. As Willment points sonable, and sensible, we wonder why “savior child”; the phenomenon isn’t limit- out, people reproduce for all sorts of rea- more people don’t see the logic of it. Why ed to literal organ plundering. As the sons (to produce an heir, to provide labor for are so many still so superstitious and younger sibling of an autistic, I can testify a farm, to save a failing marriage, “because benighted, not to mention downright big- to the psychological toll it takes on one to I’m not getting any younger and it’s now or oted and cruel in the name of religion? know your purpose in life is to compensate never,” “because God wants me to,” etc.). Thank you for this fine article. for your sibling’s shortcomings or to serve Although we may agree or disagree about Barbara Goldowsky as a consolation, a sort of therapy pet, or, the legitimacy of the many possible reasons, East Hampton, New York ultimately, the caretaker of last resort when ultimately, the decision to have a child, even no institution can be found to take your to have a specific child with specific genetic sibling. You were conceived and your life characteristics, is no one’s business but the Appleman’s article is a remarkable, compre- was framed for you from conception in parents’. Indeed, she may be correct that hensive piece of thinking and an eloquent terms of the services you would render to there are better and worse reasons to have piece of writing. It also seems like the chap- your sibling. (You had better love that sib- a child, even “correct” and “incorrect” ones. ter Darwin never got to write. Perhaps he ling, because no reasonable person will But so what? Even if we could all agree on never dared to, given the times in which he take up that burden knowingly and will- how to categorize (as correct or incorrect) all lived. If there is anything to be encouraged ingly, and having lived through it, you the possible reasons, what would be the about, I feel that we are winning the war, would not ask any potential partner— next step? Enforcement? Denying people even if the occasional battle seems to slip someone you love—to inflict it on him- or the right to reproduce if their stated “rea- through our fingers. We can thank people herself.) son” fails to pass muster? Of course, once a like Philip Appleman, Christopher Hitchens, I plan to read the book to see whether conscious creature exists, we, as a society, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins for de- author Jodi Picoult is indeed, as Voss have a duty to protect its interests, not the manding this conversation and then con-

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ducting it in ways that are intelligent, condemned, but whoever does not ‘Secular Humanism Is . . .’ thoughtful and elegant. I do not hesitate to believe stands condemned already be- cause he has not believed in the name As I understand it, David A. Noebel’s point express my opinions as I once did, and I find of God’s one and only Son. that, in many places and with many people, —John 3:18 (“Secular Humanism Is Evangelistic,” FI, we are not only not alone, our numbers are February/March 2011) is this: If the “reli- Do not be afraid of those who kill the gion” of secular humanism is taught in our increasing. Neither Appelman nor I will be body but cannot kill the soul; fear him around to see our point win the day for rather [i.e., me, Jesus] who can destroy schools, then creationism should be taught good, but it will happen. It must. both body and soul in hell. as well. First of all, our public schools don’t Dan Thomas Moran —Matthew 10:28–29 care about secular humanism, but they do Boston Massachusetts If you don’t believe that I [Jesus] am the care about teaching whatever is generally one I claim to be, you will indeed die in accepted as current knowledge in a given your sins.—John 8:24 field. They teach evolution, for instance, Mr. Appleman writes that the Roman It’s obvious that Christians use fear as an because you can’t understand modern biol- Catholic Church made the gravest error of essential tool in their quest to maintain a ogy without it. Secular humanism embraces all by opposing “the clear and urgent loyal following of indoctrinated devotees. evolution, too, but that fact is no more than need for sensible population limitation.” David Quintero incidental to the intents and purposes of our This statement is true when viewed from Temple City, California schools. the broad perspective of ecology. But if we But never mind all that. To accept restrict our focus to only humans, then Noebel’s argument, one has to agree that another sin of the Church may be even Wisdom “secular” means “religious” and that worse than opposing birth control. The rejecting theism is the equivalent of Re “The Unmaking of Wisdom, Part 2” by Church’s opposition to choosing euthana- espousing a theology. One might as well Andy Norman: reason is a means of infer- sia for oneself has caused millions or bil- believe that black is white, or, for that ring propositions that are consistent with or lions of people to suffer needlessly. In matter, that creationism is science. at least not contradictory to a given premise. addition to unnecessary physical pain, lack Wayne L. Trotta As a means of seeking valid ideas, it is only of choice for euthanasia also causes Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania as good as the validity of the given premise. tremendous emotional stress for both the The error of ancient Plato was in his ill person and his/her family. given (or assumed) premise. He posited that Ben Coke Sam Harris virtue, justice, and truth existed as an ideal Salt Lake City, Utah somewhere in the cosmos extrinsic from In his article “The Paragraph I Wish Sam human beings. Our attempts at such virtues Harris Would Write” (FI, February/March Christian Tactics represented only an approximation or a 2011), Lawrence Rifkin avers “Humanist “shadow” of this extrinsic ideal. This, of ethics . . . is inspired by compassion, car- It truly surprised me when I read what Jim course, was an absurdity. The existence of ing, and love” and these “fundamental Bado’s friend told him about Jesus and such an ideal realm could neither be verified values . . . actually motivate and inspire.” Christianity. (“When Atheists Meet Jesus,” nor refuted by practical experience. It was That these values (emotions, really) are FI, February/March 2011). Bado writes that simply a wild leap of faith and imagination. intrinsic to human nature I believe is prob- his friend Dennis, who serves as an assis- Nonetheless, several centuries later, ably a makeable case—that they inevitably tant pastor, told him that Jesus “would Plato’s “wild leap of faith and imagination” motivate right behavior is not. These emo- have never tried to bring someone to fit in perfectly with the Christian view of tions can just as easily be narcissistically church through fear.” And then his friend absolute truth by divine revelation. Again, directed towards the self. At bottom, we added, “That’s not the Christian way.” since such an intractable view could neither must deal with that most pervasive human I have to disagree. In reality, fear is a be verified nor refuted by practical experi- question, “What’s in it for me? What’s the Chris tian formula to prevent the faithful ence, its institutionalization by the Chris tian payback for my acting this way instead of from straying. Consider the following Gospel fathers aided the critical attitude of the focusing exclusively on my self-interest? passages, in which Jesus himself used the Hellenistic science, suppressed freedom of This is where I think humanist ethics fear of eternal damnation to convince his fol- inquiry, and created a dogmatic obscuran- trumps religious ethics. Absent the lowers that he was the son of God: tism that put Europe’s intelligence to sleep entrance-to-heaven motivation, we learn Whoever believes and is baptized will for a thousand years. Indeed, it was “The through research and reason that quality be saved, but whoever does not believe Unmaking of Wisdom.” of life improves when we can trust that will be condemned—Mark 16:16 John L. Indo our fellow citizens have our back, when Whoever believes in him [Jesus] is not Houston, Texas our default assumption is not that every-

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one is out there to take from us. We must Misotheism an adulterer. She no longer believes in her earn that trust, and the easiest way to do husband, nor has faith in their relation- that is to have others’ backs—by behaving Unlike Joyce E. Salisbury, the reviewer of ship, but that does not make her husband toward others with caring, compassion Bernard Schweizer’s Hating God: The nonexistent. One can believe God exists and love. But the values alone aren’t Untold Story of Misotheism (FI, February/ without loving or trusting him or her. March 2011), I find it easy to understand enough—we must be taught why. That’s Nietzsche said the gods were con- why Paine, Wiesel, West, et al. believed in our motivation. ceived as friends of spectacles of cruelty, God rather than becoming atheists. The William M. Diekmann and he questioned that this was only true situation is comparable to the feeling a Phoenix, Arizona of primitive gods. Misotheism would be wife has when she learns her husband is more natural to someone like Wiesel than atheism, albeit less comforting your re - viewer confused belief with faith—two different concepts.

Marian Henning

Spokane, Washington Soorrrry,ryy, meerkat!memee ee eer rk kat at t!

Onnlllyy humanshhu um ma ans ns canc an n read.re ea ad d. WRITE TO (Formerly Humanist in Canada magazine)

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Johan Galtung, professor of sociology, physics, Collège de France, Académie des University of Oslo (Norway) Sciences (France) Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel Laureate; professor of Steven Pinker, Harvard Col. Prof. and physics, California Institute of Technology Johnstone Family Prof. in Department of (USA) Psychology, Harvard University (USA) philosopher and author medical oncologist, “Hygeia” INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF HUMANISM Rebecca Goldstein, Dennis Razis, ACADÉMIE INTERNATIONALE D’HUMANISME (USA) Diagnos tic & Therapeutic Center of Athens S.A. The Academy is composed of nontheists who Adolf Grünbaum, Andrew Mellon Professor of (Greece) are: (1) devoted to the principle of free inquiry in Philos ophy of Science, University of Marcel Roche, permanent delegate to UNESCO all fields of human endeavor; (2) committed to Pittsburgh (USA) from Venezuela (Venezuela) the scientific outlook and the use of reason and Jürgen Habermas, professor of philosophy, Salman Rushdie, author, Massachusetts the scientific method in acquiring knowledge University of Frankfurt (Germany) Institute of Technology (USA) about nature; and (3) upholders of humanist eth- philosophy educator (Spain) ical values and principles. Margherita Hack, astronomer, astrophysicist (Italy) Fernando Savater, Herbert Hauptman, Nobel Laureate; professor Peter Singer, DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at the University Center for Human Values, HUMANIST LAUREATES of biophysical science, State University of New York at Buffalo (USA) Princeton University (USA) Pieter Admiraal, medical doctor (Netherlands) Alberto Hidalgo Tuñón, professor of philosophy, Jens C. Skou, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Shulamit Aloni, former education minister Universidad de Oviedo (Spain) (Denmark) (Israel) Christopher Hitchens, author, lecturer (USA) J.J.C. Smart, professor emeritus of philosophy, Ruben Ardila, psychologist, National University Donald Johanson, Institute of Human Origins Australian National University (Australia) of Colombia (Colombia) (discoverer of “Lucy”) (USA) Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate, playwright Margaret Atwood, author (Canada) Sergeí Kapitza, chair, Moscow Institute of (Nigeria) Kurt Baier, professor of philosophy, University Physics and Technology; vice president, Barbara Stanosz, professor of philosophy, of Pittsburgh (USA) Academy of Sciences (Russia) Instytut Wydawniczy “Ksiazka i Prasa” Etienne-Emile Baulieu, Lasker Award for Clinical George Klein, cancer researcher, Karolinska (Poland) Medicine winner (France) Institute, Stockholm (Sweden) Jack Steinberger, Nobel Laureate in Physics Baruj Bonacerraf, Nobel Prize Laureate in György Konrád, novelist; sociologist; cofounder, (USA) Physiology or Medicine (USA) Hungarian Humanist Association (Hungary) Thomas S. Szasz, professor of psychiatry, State Uni - Elena Bonner, author, human rights activist Sir Harold W. Kroto, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry versity of New York Medical School, Syracuse (Russia) (UK) (USA) Jacques Bouveresse, professor of philosophy, Ioanna Kuçuradi, secretary general, Fédéra tion Sir Keith Thomas, historian, president, Corpus Collège de France (France) Internationale des Sociétés de Philo sophie Christi College, Oxford University (UK) Paul D. Boyer, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (Turkey) Rob Tielman, professor of sociology, Universiteit (USA) Paul Kurtz, professor emeritus of philosophy, voor Humanistiek, Utrecht; former copresi- Mario Bunge, Frothingham Professor of State University of New York at Buffalo (USA) dent, Inter national Humanist and Ethical Foundations and Philosophy of Science, Valerii A. Kuvakin, philosopher, founding direc- Union (Netherlands) McGill University (Canada) tor, Center for Inquiry/Moscow (Russia) Lionel Tiger, professor of anthropology, Jean-Pierre Changeux, Collège de France, Gerald A. Larue, professor emeritus of archeolo- Rutgers–the State University of New Jersey Institut Pasteur, Académie des Sciences gy and biblical studies, University of (USA) (France) Southern California at Los Angeles (USA) Neil deGrasse Tyson, scientist, Hayden Planetarium Patricia Smith Churchland, professor of philoso- Thelma Lavine, Clarence J. Robinson professor (USA) phy, University of California at San Diego; of philosophy, George Mason University Mario Vargas Llosa, author (Perú) adjunct professor, Salk Institute for (USA) Simone Veil, former Minister of Social Affairs, Biological Studies (USA/Canada) Richard Leakey, author, paleo-anthropologist Health, and Urban Affairs (France) Richard Dawkins, author (Kenya) Gore Vidal, author, social commentator (USA) José M.R. Delgado, professor and chair, Jean-Marie Lehn, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Mourad Wahba, professor of philosophy, Department of Neuropsychology, University (France) University of Ain Shams, Cairo; president of of Madrid (Spain) Elizabeth Loftus, professor, University of the Afro-Asian Philosophical Association Daniel C. Dennett, director of the Center for California/Irvine (USA) (Egypt) Cognitive Studies, Tufts University (USA) José Leite Lopes, director, Centro Brasileiro de James Watson, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Jean Dommanget, Belgian Royal Observatory Pesquisas Fisicas (Brazil) Medicine (USA) (Belgium) Adam Michnik, historian, political writer, cofounder Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize winner; professor Ann Druyan, author, lecturer, producer (USA) of KOR (Workers’ Defense Committee) (Poland) of physics, University of Texas at Austin Umberto Eco, novelist, semiotician, University Jonathan Miller, OBE, theater and film director, physi- (USA) of Bologna (Italy) cian (UK) Harvey Weinstein, cofounder of Miramax (USA) Luc Ferry, professor of philosophy, Sorbonne Taslima Nasrin, author, physician, social critic George A. Wells, professor of German, Birkbeck University and University of Caen (France) (Bangladesh) College, University of London (UK) Yves Galifret, professor emeritus of neurophysi- Elaine Pagels, Harrington Spear Paine Professor Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino University ology, Université Pierre and Marie Curie; gen- of Religion, Princeton University (USA) Professor, Museum of Comparative Zoology, eral secretary of l’Union Rationaliste (France) Jean-Claude Pecker, professor emeritus of astro- Harvard University (USA)