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FI Editors Speak Out! F Celebrating Reason and Humanity SPRING 2003 • VOL WAR IN IRAQ: FI Editors Speak Out! f Celebrating Reason and Humanity SPRING 2003 • VOL. 23 No. 2 Introductory Price $5.95 U.S. / $6.95 Can. THE AFFIRMATIONS OF HUMANISM: A STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES* We are committed to the application of reason and science to the understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems. We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation. We believe that scientific discovery and technology can contribute to the betterment of human life. We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities. We are committed to the principle of the separation of church and state. We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual understanding. We are concerned with securing justice and fairness in society and with eliminating discrimination and intolerance. We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the handicapped so that they will be able to help themselves. We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, and strive to work together for the common good of humanity. We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other species. We believe in enjoying life here and now and in developing our creative talents to their fullest. We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence. We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have access to comprehensive and informed health-care, and to die with dignity. We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative standards that we discover together. Moral principles are tested by their consequences. We are deeply concerned with the moral education of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion. We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences. We are citizens of the universe and are excited by discoveries still to be made in the cosmos. We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, and we are open to novel ideas and seek new departures in our thinking. We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich per sonal significance and genuine satisfaction in the service to others. We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind faith or irrationality. We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest that we are capable of as human beings. For a parchment copy of this page, suitable for framing, please send $4.95 to FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, New York 14226-0664 * by Paul Kurtz free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 2 EDITORIAL FEATURES 5 The Immorality of The Tom Flynn War Against Iraq SPECIAL SECTION Paul Kurtz PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE, PRO AND CON OP-ED 28 The Court of Wisdom Convenes 9 Religion Is Under SPRING 2003 VOL. 23, NO. 2 Paul Kurtz Siege—Really! ISSN 0272-0701 29 Was Dr. Kevorkian Wendy Kaminer Right? 10 The Ethics Keith Taylor of Belief 31 Why Secularism Peter Singer Humanism Is Wrong Wesley J. Smith 13 Wondrous Humanity Tibor Machan 33 The Case Against 14 No Free Lunch for Margaret Somerville Intelligent Design 35 The Case For Massimo Pigliucci Richard T. Hull 15 Will the People 37 Women and Religions: Revolt to Save the A Status Report Democracy? The Editors Ronnie Dugger 38 She Was a Teenage 17 1984 Is Here! Martyr Nat Hentoff Shari Waxman 19 A Humanist’s Open 41 Atheist in a Bunker Letter to Hollywood Bill Cooke Chris Volkay 45 Juan Diego 20 Fascism Anyone? Mario Mendez Acosta Laurence W. Britt 47 Jesus in Smallville 23 Priests, the Church, Robert M. Price and Special Treatment 50 Preserving Our Free- John G. Rodwan, Jr. thought Heritage Redux Tim Binga 24 The Final Freedom 52 The Suspension of REVIEWS Disbelief and the Origin of Culture 65 Denying Evolution Carl Coon by Massimo Pigliucci Shawn Dawson DEPARTMENTS 66 When Religion Ronald Gross Becomes Evil 7 Letters 60 Science and Religion by Charles Kimball Flipping a Quantum Coin Frank L. Pasquale 26 Frontlines Taner Edis 67 How to Be an Atheist 55 Church-State 62 The Humanist Activist Update by Denys Turner Secular Humanists Return Presidential End-Run William Faris to Washington Yields Faith-Based Victory DJ Grothe 68 Sacred Choices Tom Flynn 63 Humanism and the Arts by Daniel C. Maguire 56 World Report Nikos Kazantzakis Vern L. Bullough Iran Moves Toward (1885–1957) 69 Unmarried to Each Other Secularism James A. Haught Bill Cooke by Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller 70 Humanism at Large Tom Flynn 57 Great Minds Hello, God(s) Socrates: Mentor for Humanists Jan Willem Nienhuys FI Editorial Staff FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published quarterly by the Editorial Board Editor-in Chief Council for Secular Humanism, a nonprofit educational corporation, Paul Kurtz P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226. Phone (716) 636-7571. Fax Robert Alley Editor (716) 636-1733. Copyright ©2003 by the Council for Secular Professor of Humanities Emeritus, Thomas W. Flynn Humanism. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be Univ. of Richmond, Virginia reproduced without permission of the publisher. Periodicals postage Managing Editor Deputy Editor paid at Buffalo, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. National Hector Avalos Andrea Szalanski Norm R. Allen, Jr. Associate Professor of distribution by International Periodicals Distributors, Solana Beach, Columnists Religious Studies, California. 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