Sex Education Moral Controversy Engulfs America To- Day

SUMMER 1981 VOL.1 NO.3 $3.00

The Crusade Against Sex Education Moral controversy engulfs America to- day. The so-called moral traditionalists Sex Education are pitted in battle against liberals and libertarians. Many traditionalists Pro: Peter Scales believe that morality is being destroyed by secular humanism, and they have Con:Thomas Szasz launched a crusade to impose on all Americans a moral code grounded in biblical decrees: abortion is murder, homosexuality an abomination, divorce a sin, pornography a crime, and so on. These fundamentalist disciples of vir- tue ignore the fact that millions of their Myths About fellow Christians differ with their literalist interpretation of the Bible — Teenage Pregnancy which has been used in the past to justify various kinds of moral chauvinism, from slavery to the divine right of kings. Religious zealots claim to have a monopoly on virtue. They are working to remove books they consider "Scientific" Creationism noxious from public schools and libraries, to legislate the prohibition of abortion, and to reintroduce prayer in Contradictions of Genesis the public schools. One of the overriding complaints of moral traditionalists is public school sex education. They maintain that a "do your own thing" philosophy is being in- culcated in the schools by a humanist What is Agnosticism? conspiracy — spearheaded by the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States (SiECUS). Humanists H.J. Blackham are blamed for the high divorce rate, the increase in crime and violence, and the alleged epidemic of teenage pregnan- cies. (Actually, teenage pregnancy has not increased but has been on the decline since 1960. See Dr. Vern The 700 Club's Bullough's article in this issue.) Genuine public debate on moral issues is a sign of a healthy democracy, Anti-Humanist but when it degenerates into name- calling it is counterproductive. Secular "Documentary" humanism is based on ethical prin- ciples. Although humanists are com- mitted to individual moral freedom, they are aware of the need to elevate the (continued on Back Cover)

ISSN 0272-0701 SUMMER 1981 VOL. 1 NO.3

EDITORIAL The response to FREE INQUIRY has 1 The Crusade Against Sex Education — Paul Kurtz been overwhelming. We are gratified LETTERS by the many favorable notices in the 3 from Antony Flew, Sidney Hook, Valentin Turchin and others press and by the support from our ARTICLES readers expressed in the hundreds of 6 Sex Education letters we have received. For: Education for Sexuality — Peter Scales We regret that we do not have Against: A Libertarian Critique — Thomas Szasz space to publish all of the excellent 10 Moral Education in a Fundamentalist Climate — Howard Radest articles that have been submitted, 12 Myths About Teenage Pregnancy — Vern Bullough but we continue to welcome con- 14 The New Book Burners — William Ryan tributions from our readers. 18 The Moral Majority: An Immoral Minority — Gerald Larue The Popper/Skinner debate con- 20 Liberalism as the Morality of Freedom — Edward Ericson tinues in this issue, a further demonstration that secular 23 Scientific Creationism: Axioms and Exegesis — Delos McKown humanists have strong and often dis- 28 New Evidence: The Shroud of Turin Is a Forgery — Joe Nickell parate opinions. 31 What is Agnosticism — H.J. Blackham Vern Bullough's article about 34 Reflections on Science and Religion — George Tomashevich teenage pregnancy and Isaac 37 The Struggle for Secular Humanism in Israel — Isaac Hasson Hasson's account of the struggle of TELEVISION secular humanists in Israel we think 38 The 700 Club's Anti-Humanist "Documentary" — Paul Kurtz are very provocative, and as ex- FILM amples of the accelerating controver- 40 Polanski's Tess — Hal Crowther sy over sex education, several BOOKS different points of view are presented. 41 Szasz on Sex Therapists and Educators — Bonnie Bullough We are especially pleased to 42 Alleged "slECus-Humanist Conspiracy" — Lester Kirkendall publish in this issue articles by 43 The Family as Sex Educator — Lee Nisbet Edward Ericson and Howard 45 CLASSIFIED Radest, two leaders of the Ethical Culture movement. The American 46 ON THE BARRICADES Ethical Union, which they represent, has had a longstanding commitment Editor: Paul Kurtz to the ideals of humanist philosophy. Associate Editor: Gordon Stein Contributing Editors: FREE INQUIRY is published quarterly by the Council for Democratic and Secular Lionel Abel, author, critic, SUNY at Buffalo; Paul Beattie, president, Fellowship of Religious Humanism (C0DESH, Inc.), a non-profit Humanists; Jo-Ann Boydston, Director, Dewey Center; Laurence Briskman, lecturer, Edinburgh corporation, 1203 Kensington Ave., Buf- University, Scotland; Hal Crowther, film reviewer; Edd Doerr, managing editor, Church and State; falo, N.Y. 14215. Albert Ellis, director, Institute for Rational Living; Roy P. Fairfield, social scientist, Union Copyright © 1981 by The Council for Graduate School; Joseph Fletcher, theologian, University of Virginia Medical School; Antony Flew, Democratic and Secular Humanism. philosopher, Reading University, England; Sidney Hook, professor emeritus of philosophy, NYU; Subscription rates: $12.00 for one year, Marvin Kohl, philosopher, State University College at Fredonia; Ernest Nagel, professor emeritus of $20.00 for two years, $27.00 for three philosophy, Columbia University; Cable Neuhaus, correspondent; Lee Nisbet, philosopher, Medaille years, $3.00 for single copies. Address sub- College; Howard Radest, director, Ethical Culture Schools; Robert Rimmer, author; William Ryan, scription orders, change of addresses, and free lance reporter, novelist; Thomas Szasz, psychiatrist, Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse; V.M. advertising to: FREE INQUIRY, Box 5, Tarkunde, Supreme Court Judge, India; Sherwin Wine, rabbi, founder, Society for Humanistic Judaism Central Park Station, Buffalo, N.Y. 14215. Manuscripts, letters, and editorial inquiries Editorial Associates: should be addressed to: The Editor, FREE H. James Birx; Marvin Bloom; Vern Bullough; James Martin; Steven L. Mitchell; George INQUIRY, Box 5, Central Park Station, Buffalo, N.Y. 14215. All manuscripts Tomashevich; Marvin Zimmerman should be accompanied by three additional Editorial Staff copies. Opinions expressed do not Jean Millholland, necessarily reflect the views of the editors executive secretary; Richard Seymour, manuscript editor; Jane or publisher. Dellinger; Doris Doyle; Victor Culotta; J. Quentin Koren; Patricia Kurtz; Lynette Nisbet; POSTMASTER: Permission to mail at se- Margaret Wells cond class postage rates is pending at Buf- falo, N.Y. Send change of address to: Free Art & Layout: Inquiry, Box 5, Central Park Station, Buf- Gregory Lyde Vigrass, director; Joellen Hamer falo, N.Y. 14215.

2 i er Cultural Freedom, which John Dewey, Nor- man Thomas, and I had organized, as "Fascists and allies of Fascists." In my LETTERS TO THE EDITOR view, the principles of ethical humanism were violated by the many "left-wing" causes Lamont passionately supported over the years. Lamont insisted that he was a fer- Popper/Skinner Debate vent believer in liberalism, democracy, and Sir Karl Popper (FI, Spring 1981) explains to a declaration is generally understood in tolerance, but he continued to support the two reasons why, though he "largely en- the first case as connoting an approval of the Soviet Stalinism. Lately he has been given to dorses the contents of the Secular Humanist meaning or content; and in the second case, occasional references to his "mistakes" Declaration," he nevertheless "cannot sign an approval of the specific formulation as about the Soviet Union, but he has made no it." I fully agree with what Sir Karl says un- well. Of course stubborn differences over the major disavowal. der both of these heads. However, after formulation reveal that differences in mean- In my view Lamont, even more so than some hesitation, I reached the conclusion ing or content are involved. It is clear that, Skinner, lives very comfortably with that I should sign the Declaration — and in objecting to the "tone" of the Declara- violations of the law of contradiction. But did. tion, Sir Karl is also objecting to something the responsibility for the contradictions and Sir Karl's first reason was that you had overstated or understated. The only question confusions is his. I have never resigned from both invited and received the signature of is whether differences over these matters are a worthy cause or a committee merely on someone who Sir Karl and I are both agreed sufficiently substantial to' override agree- the ground that his presence compromised had no business to sign a liberal and ment over other matters he largely endorses. the cause. Both Lamont and I endorsed democratic manifesto. I myself have similar Since the statement as published clearly Humanist Manifesto II in 1973. scruples about the adhesion of my indicates that those who approved it were Professor Skinner has never supported sometimes Calgary colleague Professor Kai endorsing it without agreeing with "all its any totalitarian tyranny. I suspect that, if he Nielsen. As a Chomskyan radical — sup- specific provisions," I am puzzled by the were convinced that such support were en- porting Castro in Cuba, the Muscovite fact that Sir Karl withheld his public en- tailed by his psychological and/or social Communists in Vietnam, and every similar dorsement. I know that some who endorsed principles, he would abandon these prin- cause — Nielsen must, when he signed, have the statement had even stronger differences ciples. I am not a student of Skinner's been construing the word democratic in that than he had with some of its formulations. I, writings, but on the basis of discussion with factitious sense in which the Soviet Occupa- for one, would have been satisfied with the him at the Humanist-Catholic Dialogue I tion Zone describes itself as the German insertion of his rendering of Voltaire's dic- think he suffers more from philosophical Democratic Republic. tum into the text of the Declaration even naivete than from sophisticated deviltry or But, surely, it is no more reasonable to though I am unhappy with the implication inhumanity. I would never invite Plato or refuse to sign a declaration because of such that tolerance follows from human fallibility Santayana, who both believed that the ma- scruples about fellow signatories than it and that it is a natural right. From my point jority of mankind was either too stupid or would be to refuse to vote for one's preferred of view, even if one were infallible, tolerance too vicious to be entrusted with self- candidate because some of those voting with would still be a moral virtue, and not government, to sign the Secular Humanist you would really be more at home in the op- because it is a "natural" right. But I would Declaration. But, if they offered to do so, I posite camp. Contrast the case of not make an issue over these things in this would not withdraw but would use their en- associations with manifestos and context and would gladly endorse Voltaire's dorsement to impugn the consistency of demonstrations where the sponsoring statement as it stands. their positions. It seems to me that the en- organization is through and through dis- One other comment with respect to Sir dorsement of a person like Dora Russell, ingenuous and corrupt — "peace" cam- Karl's second point. There are others who whose views on Stalin's regime were not un- paigns that are in truth tools of Soviet im- had difficulty with its tone. Some have like those of Lamont's, should have stuck in perialism, pretend civil liberties associations regarded it as too militant and abrasive. Its Sir Karl's craw more than that of Skinner. that are actually dominated by Marx- tone, however, must be judged by the Inherent in the conception of the fallibility ist/Leninist and other enemies of freedom, current climate of opinion in the United of man is the possibility that one may and so on. States and the revival of religious fundamen- rethink or qualify, or even abandon, one's Antony Flew talism in several regions of the world. previous positions. If Skinner endorsed the University of Reading Anything less than a vigorous response Secular Humanist Declaration, let us Berkshire, England would have sounded too defensive. welcome him and, on the proper occasion, It is Sir Karl's first point that raises for show that the principles of that Declaration I have read with interest the letter from Sir me the more important issue. It is an issue are incompatible with the views expressed in Karl Popper declining to sign the Secular that I, and not I alone, have found his books. There are too few of us in the Humanist Declaration, whose "content" he troublesome for some forty years, ever since world to exclude those whose public support largely endorses (FI, Spring 1981). Before I wrote the article "Corliss Lamont — of our Humanist Declaration seems incom- commenting on the two reasons he gives, I Friend of the G.P.U." for the Modern patible with views they have previously ex- should like to say that my signature to the Monthly in 1938. Lamont had become a pressed. Declaration was intended to be a general en- defender of the Moscow Trials, had declared Sidney Hook dorsement and that my advice to Paul Kurtz John Dewey, one of the leaders of humanist Hoover Institution was that he solicit endorsements rather than thought, to be a Red-baiter, and through the Stanford University signatures. The distinction between an en- offices of the Soviet-American Friendship Stanford, California dorsement of a declaration and a signature Society attacked the Committee for (continued on next page)

3 Summer, 1981 Sir Karl Popper's letter provides his own and insult, or that notorious, nonsensical, Professor Skinner. My first introduction to contradiction that negates his reasons for scatalogical Mozart? Would behavioristic his approach occurred when I was a not signing the Secular Humanist Declara- intervention in such "questionable" freshman at Columbia and was required to tion. Popper states that one, he won't sign processes have translated these energy read Walden Two. I have since followed just because Skinner signed, and two, because systems into more socially meaningful or about everything he has written, including the Declaration hasn't a statement about acceptable work? Should such people have his most recent autobiography.. . tolerance and the allowance for error or benefited from some form of control or It is my intent to provide an intellectual fallibility. modification? ... My view is holistic. focus for the school, to raise current issues The second contradicts the first, and the Nothing in Western thought can be said to of importance, and to provide a model of an first proves his disbelief in the second. In stand in the way if properly understood and individual who believes human beings are other words, the man is pompous. He can- utilized. responsible for their destinies. The fact that not accept Skinner's right to be wrong, par- my position on responsibility is articulated ticularly though, Skinner's right to assert Sylvia Goldberg in your humanist declaration indicates just that Popper may have been wrong. Bronx, New York how much my present thinking parallels the Popper cannot follow the Secular secular humanist approach. I look forward Humanist Declaration not because it isn't Professor Skinner may be many things, but eagerly to future issues. sound, but because somebody he doesn't like he is certainly not an enemy of freedom, I am willing to endorse the Secular has signed it and because Popper's own pet democracy, or human dignity. He probably Humanist Declaration ... as a secondary paragraphs aren't included. has done more to advance the causes of school educator I represent an important Well, hell, who does believe everything human freedom, democracy, and human group. somebody else has created? But, we sign on dignity in the area of education than most in Thanks again for your publication and often simply because at this stage of the in- the field. your positive and strong point of view. quiry, what has been produced by somebody Jefferson, and many others among the else has more logic to it than anything else founders, realized the critical impact of Steven J. Danenberg we have found to date. Perfection isn't mine education upon democracy and what Headmaster or Popper's, but why deny solid reasoning "democracy" would mean without a sound The Williams School simply because our personal pet peeve hasn't and universal system of public education. New London, Connecticut been aired or supported? Skinner's contribution to the practical fields Of course, if Popper understood the of education by way of learning theory — in English language and the logic inherent in teaching children how to read, how to write, Buchanan's "Majority" the Declaration [he would see that] and how to spell — has probably freed more I have the irresistible impulse to personally tolerance is implicit in it, not because of people from the worst form of human rebut Patrick Buchanan's article (FI, Spring specific wording but through its basic con- slavery imaginable: ignorance and illiteracy. 1981), where he says: "Shouldn't society clusions. The Declaration itself is a state- It is not possible, here, to cite all of the reflect in its laws, customs, and traditions ment for tolerance. Sign me up. almost infinite variety of other practical the values and views of the majority?" This Robert P. Curran applications of his work. Nor is it the case majoritarian argument is too sophomoric to Managing Editor that the impact of his efforts has been suit a man of Buchanan's background. Ashtabula Star-Beacon , Ohio isolated to aggregate results. The practical problem is one of es- I'm glad that B.F. Skinner has signed the tablishing exactly who is the majority. When Critical attention to a segment of Skinner's Secular Humanist Declaration but regret it comes to enacting public policy, we need reply to Sir Karl Popper (FI, Spring 1981) that some friends of humanity have been un- to find a majority by other means than reveals exactly why he considers him "naive, duly influenced by their bigotry rather than somebody's blatant assertion that he is it. ignorant, and arrogant." Skinner says: "As being influenced by what the Declaration Even a professional poll is not sufficient to a behavorist I contend that we merely infer says. I don't suppose it ever occurs to some establish a majority for legal purposes. In that a person has a purpose, deliberates, people that what the Declaration says may this country, we have elections. makes plans, and so on, and that we infer it be inconsistent with what those who sign it To have an election to decide which from physical facts about behavior. What believe at the time they sign it. religion shall be orthodox would be repug- the person feels as purpose, deliberation, a nant to Americans. And so, religious elites plan, and so on, are concurrent states of the Ronald E. Mohar in many municipalities establish themselves body. The notion that these are nonphysical Syracuse, New York arbitrarily by simply claiming to be the was imposed upon Western civilization by "Moral Majority." Apparently, they think the Greeks and has always caused trouble. I have received a copy of the premiere issue that such a method is more compatible with ... People are more likely to enjoy feelings of FREE INQUIRY and I am very impressed. I "the American Way." of freedom and worth when they control first became aware of your magazine Indeed, perhaps it is "the American each other directly rather than through in- through an article in the New York Times. I Way," since Americans rarely object to hav- stitutions in which either punitive or used that article in discussions in my Senior ing God imposed on them in a public prayer economic power is concentrated ...." Seminar and I am presently using sections or in the Pledge of Allegiance. Yet these Perhaps this question would seem a bit of "A Secular Humanist Declaration" from same red-blooded citizens would tell you to simplistic, but I feel it is appropriate to the premiere issue to stimulate very good go to hell if you asked them (even nicely!) on Skinner's reductive treatment of human discussion. Frankly, B.F. Skinner's the street whether they believed in God ... . nature. What would the behavioral sciences signature on the Declaration is the factor have done with the famed Beethoven of which originally stimulated my interest. I Ken Malpas egomania, temper tantrums, sloppy dress, have always been a great admirer of Fanwood, New Jersey

4 Turchin's Call for a Consensus on Higher Values An open letter to In Valentin Turchin's review of Solzhenitsyn Senator Jeremiah Denton at Harvard (FI, Spring 1981), he says that Chairman, Senate Subcommittee he agrees with Solzhenitsyn's belief in "society's need for a consensus on the ul- on Security and Terrorism timate, highest goals and values of June 1, 1981 humanity." He further says: "A consensus on higher values need not contradict human Dear Senator Denton: rights or the democratic form of govern- ment. It may exist and be institutionalized in On January 12, 1981, I wrote to you asking if you had been quoted correctly by Patrick a democratic society." Buchanan in his syndicated column published the previous week in newspapers But such institutionalization of a consen- throughout the United States. I have not yet received a reply. sus on higher values would contradict In his column, entitled "America's Coming Religious War" (FI, Spring 1981), human rights and a democratic form of Buchanan said: "... To be exact — and to quote Sen. Jeremiah Denton of Alabama — government. For it would deny by law the what Kurtz is about is an 'un-American and unconstitutional' drive 'to establish secular rights of those who do not accept such a con- humanism as a state religion.' " sensus to believe and act otherwise. This is As I said in my letter to you, I have always defended America, the Bill of Rights, and the basic difference between a democratic the Constitution of the United States and am strongly opposed — as you are — to the es- and non-democratic society: a society is tablishment of a state religion, whether secular humanism or any other. Hence, the at- democratic because its governmental in- tack on me, and on secular humanists, was unfair and unwarranted. stitutions attempt to be as value-free as In light of your recent appointment as Chairman of the new Senate Subcommittee on possible. Also, since a consensus of values Security and Terrorism, your views about secular humanism are very important. I trust has not yet been reached and it is very that as a newly elected member of the Senate you will conduct your duties in the spirit of doubtful that it ever will be, such an aim is, fair play and that the work of your committee will not be based on the views about to say the least, utopian. The only practical secular humanism that have been attributed to you. There are millions of Americans who alternative is to allow continual debate share the secular-humanist point of view. They are loyal Americans who support the about most values and the actions which Constitution and cherish civil liberties. result from them until it produces a I hope you will clarify your position as soon as possible. tolerance for most values, which, practically speaking, is equivalent to a consensus. Im- Sincerely yours, posing values on democratic governmental institutions which not everyone accepts, Paul Kurtz then, is a form of tyranny. For Turchin and Editor, FREE INQUIRY Solzhenitsyn to think otherwise indicates they do not really understand the meaning of a democratic society. democracy very strange (although popular). the only real altérnative to irrationalism and Harry Kerastas You write: "A society is democratic because fundamentalism. If you read the religious Bridgeport, Connecticut its governmental institutions attempt to be press, you must be aware that some of the as value-free as possible." This is the kind of strongest attacks against extremism come "democracy" that is fully implemented in from established religious groups. The Valentin Turchin Replies: the Soviet Union. Believe me, the Politburo National and World Council of Churches Institutionalization does not necessarily (which is both government and law in that have endorsed positive and liberal causes for mean enforcement by law. Science is in- country) is as value-free as you have ever many years. Main-line Protestant bodies stitutionalized in this country, is it not? You dreamt of. have a generally good record in their can see it, for example, from the fact that We apologize for the misspelling of Valentin positions on peace, civil rights, the environ- the tax money that you give to the govern- Turchin's first name in our Spring issue — ment, and other causes that we share. Even ment is used, in part, to teach science and Ed. the Catholic Church, which tends to conser- make scientific research. Does it contradict vatism on many matters, has a fairly good your human rights? Or does the existence of Liberal Christians and record of support for labor and (today at a consensus about, say, Newton's law of Fundamentalism least) fighting oppression and a feudal gravity jeopardize your human rights? Is it Permit me several comments about your system in Latin America. And the Jewish "a form of tyranny"? You accept the endeavor in launching the publishing of community has a strong tradition of support necessity of a concerted, institutionalized, FREE INQUIRY. In some ways I agree with for liberal causes. human effort to discover the laws of what you are doing. I believe in the use of The Moral Majority has been under such planetary movement, but deny this necessity critical intelligence to resolve problems of attack from within the established churches with respect to discovering the meaning of value; I believe that happiness is possible that its future is uncertain at best. I myself life. Why? Do you find the latter insignifi- here and now; I believe in working for social am identified with what is known as the cant or very simple as compared to the justice; and I am committed to freedom and "social gospel" movement in America, former? democracy as ideals. But let me share my which has a long tradition of working for As to your categorical statement that I do reservations about your approach. justice in the nation and the world. not understand the meaning of a democratic Perhaps my primary reservation is that A tactical error would cut progressive- society, I find your understanding of your implication is that secular humanism is minded persons off from some natural allies: (continued on page 44) Summer, 1981 5 I think it's time that you and I, as decent Americans, put an end to this filth and perversion once and for all ... the liberals and humanists are slowly "sneaking in" perverted and anti-moral sex Sex education — Reverend Jerry Falwell.

For: Education for Sexuality

Peter Scales

John Stuart Mill would have called them "moral police." education" has for too long been misunderstood to mean lear- The recent resurgence of attacks on "sex education" has been ning about the physical act of having sex. It has been cast as fueled by a self-styled Moral Majority that sees in these at- "how-to-do-it" education that reduces human sexuality to tacks a vehicle for securing and maintaining both funding and animalistic teaching without a moral basis. Educators have political influence. But these moral majoritarians also actually been accused of encouraging children to practice perceive in sex education a genuine threat to the values that what they learn in the classroom, even to the point of raping protect their chosen social order. In addition to the near in- their sisters! Even supporters of "sex education" have been fallibility of parents and religious teachings, these values in- guilty of focusing primarily on the physical acts of sexual clude the sinfulness of homosexuality, the abomination of relating and the possible dangers associated with those abortion, the pagan decadence of premarital sex, and the behaviors (e.g., unwanted and unplanned pregnancy, abor- depravity of a "unisex" society. They see themselves not as tions, and contracting sexually transmitted diseases). Educa- prudes but as protectors of "Christian" righteousness. At a recent meeting of the Memphis school board, the board presi- dent, a proud John Birch Society officer for many years, "Our education for sexuality can strengthen the dignity, brought a crowd of several hundred to its feet when he equality, and worth of each individual that ultimately unites declared that "the people I know are not against sex — humankind ...." they're against sex without morality." In the process of defen- ding "Christian" values (even to the point of suggesting proper "Christian" positions on such issues as the Panama tion for sexuality, on the other hand, implies a much broader Canal and the military budget), these people have violated context, and an interest not merely in discrete acts or basic Christian principles of honesty, tolerance, and charity, behaviors but in the entire process of relating to the world as as well as fundamental democratic traditions separating the a man or woman. It includes the understanding of motives religious and the secular and protecting freedom of speech. and meanings that imbue relationships, and the heightening of Much of the energy for their efforts is derived from mis- our ability to be intimate and loving. At the Uppsala con- representing the moral basis of today's sex education, indeed, ference, the participants noted that human sexual functioning from attributing to all who do not share their prejudices a actually begins before birth, in the uterus, and that "sexuality perverse preoccupation with "irreparably damaging" the reflects our human character," manifesting itself "in every "moral fiber of our children." dimension of being a person." They observed that the What is the moral basis for today's sex education? In the development of gender identity, the sense of maleness or summer of 1979, a group of sex educators from around the femaleness, is an inevitable process related at the most fun- world met in Uppsala, Sweden, to define a series of principles damental level to our overall sense of self-identity, personal basic to education for sexuality. In these principles lies the security, and emotional well-being. The further development moral foundation for contemporary education for sexuality. of gender role throughout life, the process of learning about Although more cumbersome, this term, "education for sex- intimacy, establishing loving, caring relationships with people uality," is preferable to the term "sex education." "Sex of all ages, and tolerating the wide range of possible ex- pressions of sexuality either add to the firm foundation of Peter Scales, Ph.D., writes and speaks frequently on sexuali- security from which we relate to the world or heighten the un- ty, relationships, and politics. He lives and works in Denver, certainty and suspicion with which we function. In Erikson's Colorado, where he is a senior social/political scientist for sense, these experiences, so intimately connected to our sexual Mathtech, Inc., and a consultant to many other groups. selves, contribute heavily to a sense of basic trust or mistrust, (continued on page 8)

6 Education

Against: A Libertarian Critique

AMEMNIE Thomas Szasz

"We actually describe a sexual activity as perverse if it has Actually, the term sex education conceals far more than it given up the aim of reproduction and pursues the attainment of reveals. It conceals the specific social, educational, and pleasure as an aim independent of it." This opinion—that the economic policies used to implement sex education; the moral aim of human sexuality should be the begetting of babies—was values secretly encouraged and discouraged; and, last but not put forward, not by the pope, but by the man widely regarded least, the problems that derive inexorably from involving the as the greatest sexual revolutionary of our century—Sigmund American public school system—and hence the state and Freud. federal governments—in defining what constitutes education in William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the great sexual human sexuality. The upshot is that many thoughtful and well- revolutionaries of our era, maintain the opposite view—name- meaning persons now endorse sex education (especially in ly, that the aim of human sexuality should be the procuring of public schools) as a good thing. They should, instead, oppose it pleasure. If a person doesn't derive pleasure from heterosexual as one of the most deplorable consequences of the combination or homosexual acts, then he or she suffers from "anorgasmia." If autoerotic acts are not pleasurable, then the person (who is always a woman) suffers from "masturbatory orgasmic in- "Sex education ... is a mass of misinformation, mis- adequacy"—which Masters and Johnson define as follows: A representation, and outright fraud ...." woman with masturbatory orgasmic inadequacy has not achieved orgasmic release by partner or self-stimulation in either homosexual or heterosexual experience. She can and does reach orgasmic expression during coital connection. of liberal-statist politics with medicalized morals. These two views highlight the procreational and Engaging in certain sexual acts (as well as refraining from recreational perspectives on sex. Which is correct or "true"? some or all such acts) serves important individual and social Which should sex educators teach? Obviously, the traditional needs, such as the expression of love, the creation of families, Judeo-Christian sexual ethic, which Freud disguised and pleasure, domination, torture, ritual, escape from boredom, rationalized as "psychosexual health," and its inversion, which companionship, monetary gain, self-definition, and the preser- Masters and Johnson disguise and rationalize as "sexual ade- vation of the group. The "proper" aim of human sexuality is quacy," are mutually incompatible as moral prescriptions. thus a matter of cultural and moral convention. And the Although the need for sexual expression can be very intense in masturbatory therapy of Masters and Johnson is, quite simply, human beings, the satisfaction of this need—unlike the the inversion and medicalization of the cardinal sin of self- satisfaction of the need for food, water, and sleep—is not es- abuse of traditional Judaism and Christianity. How, then, can sential for individual survival. Therein, in fact, lies the reason "sex education" be taught in American public schools without why the gratification and curbing of sexual desire serve such it violating the beliefs of either the religionists or the sex- diverse purposes in various cultures and religions. And therein, ologists—not to mention the rest of us? too, lies the reason that so-called sex education, as presently To be sure, teaching evolution has also offended some practiced, is a mass of misinformation, misrepresentation, and religious sensibilities. But that problem pales in comparison outright fraud. with the problems posed by sex education. How the solar system, the earth, and mankind arose were matters of religious mythologizing long before they became subjects for scientific Thomas Szasz is professor of psychiatry at the Upstate theorizing. But cosmological and evolutionary processes are Medical Center, Syracuse University. His most recent book. not things that we, as individual human beings, do; we can only Sex by Prescription, is reviewed in this issue. observe, reflect, and speculate about them. And "sex" is at (continued on page 9)

Summer, 1981 7 Peter Scales (continued from page 6) how to express our sexuality and the growing awareness that a sense that affects our relationships and, ultimately, the it can be abused and expressed in hurtful, limiting ways do we societies we create. develop our appreciation for the need to express it in a Calderone has written that the "human privilege of being manner that enhances, extends, and dignifies human ex- sexual carries with it the equally human obligation of self- perience. To those who see in choice a subversion of morality, determination as to how to be sexual." The humanist and the the true evil is not education for sexuality per se but the ex- moral majoritarian hold widely divergent views of how to be tent to which in this education we are teaching the value of sexual, views that embody the differences in their respective analysis, inquiry, judgment, skepticism, dissent, and moral outlooks. For the humanist, sexuality is a positive force tolerance, and even encouragement of diversity in living. that emerges in natural curiosity and is later reflected in our Ironically, research suggests that the most sophisticated need to give and receive intimacy, a force that must be fully moral reasoning is associated with a sexual "permissiveness" integrated into our whole personality; for the moral ma- standard that is based, not on acts, but on the lack of ex- joritarian, sexuality represents a powerful negative force to be ploitation and the presence of mutual choice involved. These controlled and separated from the rest of living. For the individuals evaluate not only the quality of their overall humanist, sexuality is a dynamic, evolving entity that is inex- relationship but also the situation they are in together. In tricably entwined with our concept of self and the quality of these more fluid, complex, process-oriented circumstances, all our relations with others, an entity through which all the com- the human faculties of perception and discrimination, judg- plexities of contemporary living are filtered; for the moral ment and critical intelligence, compassion and emotion majoritarian, sexuality is more a challenge to order and awareness must be marshaled if choices are to be made that authority than it is an opportunity for growth, a threat to promote the dignity, equality, and worth of each individual. custom that must be subdued by resolving its complexities to The enhancement of these human faculties lies at the heart simple dictates about right and wrong, checklists by which of our beliefs about the goals of contemporary education for people can be morally graded. To the humanist, sexual sexuality. Self-esteem, including sexual self-esteem, is crucial. decisions are couched in terms of the positive aspirations we Too often individuals grade their sexual lives in an effort to strive for; to the moralist, the basis of these decisions is assess their normality, and a person who feels unworthy is reflected in commandments declaring what to strive against, liable to exploit others in pursuit of that feeling of worth. in the avoidance of Evil even more than the promotion of Only when people feel secure in their full worth is the poten- Good. To the moralist, the greatest sin of all is the suggestion tial lessened for using sexuality as a means of feeling that rote adherence to absolute standards of behavior may not worthwhile. A full discussion of the wide range of sexual be as useful a guide for decisions as the ability to grapple with choices that are "normal" helps accomplish this goal. Along circumstance and situation in the crucible of human with self-esteem, we wish to promote esteem for others, a high relationships through which all cherished values must ul- regard for their individual worth and their right to their own timately be tested. The most important difference between the expressions of sexuality. And, contrary to the charges of the moral humanist and the moral majoritarian is that humanists moral majoritarians, research shows that education for sex- define morality in the process of relating rather than in the uality, even though quite limited in scope and suffering from specific acts that we may perform. censorship, seems to increase not "permissiveness" in people's Some years ago, Kirkendall described a series of bases for values that guide their own behavior but, rather, tolerance for moral decision-making that are rooted in this process of in- others whose values are different. To us, this seems to be a terrelationship. The essential value of our lives, he observed, valuable goal that helps maintain our democratic society. We was reaching out to others. In this view, moral behavior seeks believe that people can discriminate more in their to "unite humanity" in part by establishing bonds of "caring relationships, can make distinctions in the kinds and depths of and mutual respect" that have as their authority a relation they wish with various people so that each "penetrating and comprehensive insight into the needs, relationship heightens rather than blunts the capacities of aspirations, and motivations of people." Moral decisions are each person for further intimacy and genuineness. We believe those that promote trust, integrity, dissolution of barriers that people must not only be able to make decisions on the between people, cooperative attitudes, faith and confidence in kind of moral basis described here, but must also be able to people, enhanced self-respect, individual fulfillment, and a communicate those decisions effectively to others in order to zest for living. What these standards imply, as opposed to successfully act on the values they have developed. Finally, we standards that define certain acts as moral or immoral, is that believe that curiosity and inquiry are necessary to encourage we are faced with countless choices to make in our relating, all these goals and that freedom of information and speech is choices that can isolate us or bring us together, promote ex- essential to ensure that decisions and choices are based on the ploitation or caring, prejudice or tolerance, mutual distrust steady designs of intelligence, not the accidents of ignorance. and suspicion or mutual trust and openness. The moral ma- What seems additionally immoral to us, as Gordon describ- joritarian above all values obedience more than choice. The ed in developing a Sexual Bill of Rights, is to confine the moral basis of today's education for sexuality lies in our belief coming generations in the repressions and mythologies of the that it is only in the process of exercising a choice that each of previous ones and to mislead people into thinking that they us discovers and learns to treasure our particular moral will not face difficult choices that may confuse and trouble values. Only with the freedom and responsibility to choose (continued on page 10)

8 Th-410,1e Thomas Szasz (continued from page 7) once something we are and something we do. Accordingly, sex consistent with her insistence, at a lecture, that she is "not education could be instruction in the anatomy and physiology suggesting the distribution of ... contraceptive information to of the sexual organs or about the facts of reproduction, fertili- teenagers." Taken literally and seriously, this means that ty, contraception, abortion, or venereal disease. Or it could be Calderone believes that even 19-year-old married adults should instruction about approved and disapproved sexual practices, be denied access to contraceptive information. That is sex the dangers of teenage pregnancy, and the threat of the popula- education? tion explosion. Still, we might ask: Have the sex educators abused their Clearly, only the purely biological aspects of sexuality are a mandate, or is the idea of providing sex education in the public matter of science. And biology has always been, and should be, schools inherently faulty? The evidence—which I have set forth taught in schools. But biology is an insignificant element in sex in detail in my book Sex by Prescription and summarize in education, which is concerned with human sexual behavior. what follows—points to the latter direction. And human sexual behavior is never morally neutral: it is It would be possible, of course, to teach students the known either good or bad. For example, as recently as 1939, a U.S. facts about the biology of sex. But doing so would constitute Public Health Service manual admonished that "masturbation "biology education," not "sex education." What sex educators ... is destructive because it breaks down self-confidence and want is not to impart information but to influence behavior. self-control." Today a planned parenthood pamphlet aimed at Sex education is teaching morality. Christian sex theorists teenagers advises that "if the [sexual] feeling and tension have thus stigmatized sexual pleasure as a sin and glorified bother you, you can masturbate. Masturbation cannot hurt chastity as a virtue. Modern medical sex theorists are doing the you, and it will make you more relaxed." same sort of thing: they are stigmatizing lack of sexual The basic presumption about sex education—the attribu- pleasure as a disease ("anorgasmia") and glorifying copulation tion that has made it possible to mobilize popular opinion and as a treatment ("surrogate sex therapy"). But the fact is that political support for it—is the same misleading claim that un- sex is neither inherently sinful nor sick, virtuous nor derlies many social policies in modern technological societies: therapeutic. Sexual ignorance can be replaced by sexual infor- namely, that the matter at hand is a health problem. As the mation. Sexual values can be replaced only by other sexual Moonies chant their mantras, so sex educators chant phrases values. like "sex is a health entity." Who can be against health? Only a madman—or a "right winger," which, in the rhetoric of Mary "The last thing we need is to have the state program our Calderone, the founder of SIECUS (the Sex Information and sex lives ...." Education Council of the United States), comes to much the same thing. Calderone, the Joan of Arc of the sex-education movement, never tires of claiming sex for health, as is evident In addition, sex education—not as an idealized abstraction in this statement: "Fundamentally, sex has always been but as a practical reality—suffers from another fatal flaw, preempted by the religions, and everybody kept hands off. By related to its context rather than its content. Because the putting it into the area of health, where it scientifically belongs, public-school system is a tax-supported institution that by recognizing its role in physical, mental, and social well- possesses subtle, and not so subtle, powers to coerce parents as being, we immediately freed it for objective, less emotional well as children, it carries in its bosom the danger of politiciz- study." Calderone's objectivity is illustrated by her identifying ing whatever it touches. The risk of thus corrupting education the opponents of sex education as antiscientific fascists. "Sex becomes a reality as we move from the hard natural sciences education," she has declared, "is the best issue the right wing toward the soft social sciences—reaching its apogee with sex has discovered in years, and they're exploiting it for all it's education. Thus the basic trouble with sex education is that it worth." This is perhaps the most colossal example of guilt by replaces biology and ethics with a particular sexual association since the days of Joe McCarthy. Calderone's logic ideology—which is neither that of the Christian fundamen- implies that, because the "right wing" is against sex education, talists nor that of the readers of FREE INQUIRY, but is rather sex education must be a good thing and we should go for it. By that of the "healthy sex as mental hygiene" of the ever meddl- that logic, because the Ku Klux Klan is against communism, ing, liberal-statist social worker. In short, it is precisely we should be for it. because sex education in the public schools is inexorably a The sex educators have thus managed to convince many political matter that its proponents find it necessary to deny its people that, in opposition to the bigoted "right-wingers" who moral dimensions to affirm its medical pretensions. stand for sexual repression, they stand for sexual liberation. The propaganda of the sex-education lobby and its un- Ironically, that claim, too, is an utter falsehood. Indeed, Mary critical acceptance by the leading opinion-makers of our socie- Calderone has characterized herself as the very opposite of a ty have made it appear that anyone who opposes sex education sexually liberated person. "What kind of sexual persons would is against both sex and education. But that is simply not true. we like our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, to Because all public education is an affair of the state, the ad- become?" she asks. And she answers: "We would hope that vocates of sex education support, above all else, an expansion they are not to be: furtive, leering, guilt-ridden, pathetic, com- of the scope and power of state intervention in our personal pulsive, joyless. In other words, not like ourselves!" It seems lives. In a world where we are increasingly controlled by the only fair to take Calderone at her own word and to conclude state, the last thing we need is to have the state program our that her self-characterization is correct. That conclusion is also sex lives for us, too. Copyright 1981 by Thomas Szasz •

Summer, 1981 9 Peter Scales (continued from page 8) them, to pretend that act-specific absolute values provide un- varyingly correct, firm, and satisfying guidelines for behavior, in short, to prepare people for a world that does not exist in reality, only in the minds of those who have forgotten their own inconsistencies and hypocrisies. We delude ourselves and harm our own relationships as well as commit a grievance Moral Education against future generations when we dishonestly insist that only one kind of sexual relationship in one kind of situation is moral. All the while, we can observe the hatred and anger of some married couples and the joy and love of some unmarried ones; the failed and abusive wrangling of some heterosexual relationships and the dignity and beauty of some homosexual Howard B. Radest ones; the tragedy and sorrow of some childbearing couples and the fulfillment and happiness of some who are childless; The attack on the schools as hotbeds of secular humanism the pain and affront to human dignity of discrimination based would be funny if it were not so misleading. What is really go- on gender, and the fullness of spirit of those who can freely ing on is an attack on democratic moral values and liberal experience their whole selves and to whom opportunity is civilization. In addition, the persistent anti-intellectualism in closed, not by the circumstances of birth, but only by ambi- American culture has reappeared as an attack on modern tion and ability. science. At a school in New Jersey, I recently gave a talk to several Part of the evidence for the alleged capture of the schools hundred young people. I read a series of questions they had by secular humanists is the teaching of evolution and human submitted on the subject of abortion, starting with the general sexuality. Another reason for the attack is the anxiety produc- question "Is abortion okay?" A resounding "No!" shook the ed by the fragmentation of the public life into a motley collec- walls of the old assembly hall. The next question added some tion of private interests. The label "secular humanism" is part- complexity, however, and it was here that these students ly a scare tactic aimed at stirring people up about "atheism," began to teach themselves, for the question asked was "Is "relativism," and "permissivism." More basically, it is a dis- abortion okay if the woman has been raped?" By this time, ingenuous effort to identify democratic scientific and civic the responses, the nos and the yeses alike, were less forceful, values as sectarian, even though they are, and have been, wide- and the signs of confusion could be seen on the faces of the ly held. If this strategy succeeds, then alternative sectarian young and the experienced teachers who sat among them. By claims could be advanced under the guise of toleration (e.g., as the final question, which was "Is abortion okay if the woman in the teaching of creationism and evolution as equivalent is married, loves her husband, and they just don't feel they "theories"). can have another child?" the response had metamorphosed The point of attack is most often the school's role as into a melange of uncertainness. Steadily, each person had moral educator or moral education as a discipline. Students become trapped in the conflict between the simplicity of their and teachers bring the outside world into the classroom every initial response and the increasing complexity and demand for day. Moral education, which is part of good teaching in any discrimination and distinction occasioned by their emotional subject as well as a developing discipline, cannot avoid atten- reactions to changed circumstances. The point of this exercise ding to that world. For example, in teaching the values of par- was not to change their minds or to belittle anyone's deeply ticipation in public life — as in a history class or in a serious held moral beliefs, their parents, or their religious teachings. discussion of student government — we find ourselves confron- It was merely to suggest, as did Socrates, that the unexamin- ting the increasing domination of private interests. In conse- ed life is not worth living, that untested beliefs are not very quence, civic education — which has been part of moral educa- deep at all, that beliefs based on simple custom, and not on tion for thousands of years — easily deteriorates into mere personal choice, do not reflect the solidity and endurance of rhetoric. The lesson that is taught and learned from this im- qualities that are integrally part of our whole being; that plicit curriculum is cynicism. On the other hand, if civic educa- beliefs based on mere custom suffer the fragility and tion is taken seriously in the school, the teaching is more in the fickleness of someone else's preferences, temporarily mouthed direction of a politics of social criticism. Then those who are as if we owned them but as ill-fitting as a borrowed suit. The well served by a society of private interests feel threatened and point of the exercise was finally to suggest to these young peo- react aggressively. ple that one of the essential obligations of the human condi- The assumption of moral education is that it will, at the tion is to determine through the demands of experience which very least, lead the students to a refinement of their existing are the values we hold most dear, and, through the question- values (i.e., "values clarification") or perhaps to adopt new ing, uncertainty, and internal struggles that lead to our own ones. In other words, students are expected to grow ethically. deepest beliefs, to appreciate others' most profound moral Granting that our expectation of this continuity of learning and convictions, though they be different from our own. In this Howard Radest is the director of the Ethical Culture Schools way, our education for sexuality can strengthen the dignity, and co-chairman of the International Humanist and Ethical equality, and worth of each individual that ultimately unites Union. humankind. •

10 Fiiee lncLuir3/ knowledge and education. Others, such as human dignity, go to the very nature of a democratic society. A curriculum that neglected teaching such values would therefore be wrong- headed. In other words, I would not accept the claims of a fascist or a racist in the same way that I would accept the in a Fundamentalist Climate claims of a fundamentalist, although I think both are seriously mistaken. This distinction, to be sure, is never neat. For example, in a community with an increasing number of teen-age pregnan- cies, sex and family-life education have both public and in- timate dimensions. Yet we do have a tradition of protecting in- timate values. This has guarded religious conviction while allowing us to study the place of religion in history and practice is far from being realized, this assumption invites at- literature. Since we have this precedent, we might look to it for tack from those who find the very idea of change in ethics an guidance in the more general area of moral-education affront to their values. To treat ethics as an educational theme curricula. is thus wrong, and even evil, from that point of view. It is just Moral education, however, is much more than not appropriate to study ethics comparatively and critically, to curriculum. As education, it inevitably generates another kind admit to ethical doubt or skepticism, or to apply what is learn- of opposition, which should not be confused with arguments ed about human development to ethics as is done in other about its content. We have learned that critical thinking and studies. Too many of us — not just fundamentalists — are the development of cognitive skills are essential to moral caught in the "quest for certainty." We want the student to education (e.g., the work of Dewey, Piaget, and Kohlberg). But learn a fixed and unchanging set of values that will be so now, these imply the development of independence and the rejection forever, and everywhere. The school's reply must be that their of imposed authority. The process of education from the task is to educate and not to indoctrinate. To fundamentalists earliest years is the gradual move from dependence to moral whose belief structure is inherently out of tune with education autonomy, from inequality to equality, from obedience to self- itself, that reply is a call to open warfare. discipline. It might be prudent, particularly today, to opt for "At stake in the problem of moral education ... is the in- neutrality in the schools. There seems, superficially, a certain wisdom in asking the schools to be silent when faced by such tegrity of schooling. Since schooling is the method of in- public disarray. There seems even to be a certain democratic structing the next generation, in a quite literal sense the validity to neutrality that is supported by the notion of a future itself is at stake." respectful pluralism. Unfortunately, if schooling is to move If we take this developmental view seriously in ethics, then beyond the teaching of disembodied skills, issues of moral (and we must acknowledge that moral error along the way is aesthetic and political) values are unavoidable. Hence, if we necessary to learning and cannot be treated as sin, and we must were to opt for neutrality, we would have to understand that learn that critical reflection will raise questions about treasured this would reduce schooling to mere mechanics. It would make values and that alternative outcomes are likely. In other words, schooling not only insufferably dull but stupidly blind as well. our habitual views of morality are challenged by the very For example, the moment we teach reading and writing we are process of education. I am afraid that, as a result, an irrecon- caught up in issues of value, which we would be dishonest to cilable conflict has developed between fundamentalist and deny. (For example, language always has some content and is educationalist views. It is this conflict that must be faced and not merely formal; and we need to know what languages to not the easier one about "sex education" or about "one teach, as in the debate over ethnic languages, bi-lingualism, the worldism." This conflict, alas, does not permit of compromise, introduction of "foreign" languages, and so on.) It is no acci- since it goes to the very meaning of schooling itself. dent then that fundamentalism in education (which afflicts At stake in the problem of moral education, then, is the many more than the fundamentalists) and the move "back to integrity of schooling. Since schooling is the method of instruc- basics" is allied with a reawakened moral and religious fun- ting the next generation, in a quite literal sense the future itself damentalism. is at stake. Nor can we forget the connection between an But what shall we do about the sincerely held claims that educated citizenry and a democratic society. It is rather sad the schools are violating conscience? In a general way, certain that it has taken a fundamentalist attack to begin once again to religious and familial values may be seen as intimate and not turn attention to schooling and to initiate once again a liberal public. There are rights of privacy worth defending, and moral interest in defending the schools. It is always dangerous to ap- education should move cautiously. I am not convinced of the proach schooling in a mood of crisis. However, if the present moral advisability of mandatory sex and family-life education challenge to the schools calls liberals back to their basic values, in the schools, and the rights should be protected of those who then, ironically, we may even be grateful for it. We may be could not conscientiously participate in voluntary study of even more grateful when we are reminded that the agenda of these subjects. On the other hand, certain values are essentially liberal civilization is worth defending and is not — as too many public. Some, such as telling the truth, go to the very nature of seem willing to grant — impoverished and out of date. •

Summer, 1981 11

"... teenage pregnancy is down, not up. It is much lower now that it was in 1960 .... If this is the case, why all the fuss?" Myths About Teenage Pregnancy

Vern L. Bullough Teenage sexuality has become a media event. Everyone from Parenthood organization is one of the groups most responsible the advocates of the Moral Majority to the editors of the Na- for publicizing teenage pregnancy. tion have commented upon it. Newsweek concluded its cover Still another explanation is the recent concern within the story on teenage sexuality by stating that "If the drift toward medical community about the hazards of teenage pregnancy: sexual precocity continues, the virginal adolescent will soon be these pregnancies are regarded as having a higher risk than an anachronism." those of women in their twenties, but teenage pregnancies are Superficially the statistics are overwhelming. Predictions far less risky than those of women in their middle and late thir- are that one out of every ten teenage girls will become pregnant ties. this year. The Moral Majority places the blame for this on the However, it is a fact that among the teenagers of today who influence of secular humanism on today's moral standards. have children fewer are married than were in the past. The Other explanations have ranged from the alleged earlier number of out-of-wedlock births among present teenagers has maturation rate of today's teenagers to the pervasive portrayal risen from 15.3 per thousand in 1960 to 24.0 per thousand in of sexuality in the mass media, from women's liberation to the 1976, a 57 percent increase. (See Table 2.) Rates for successive development and distribution of contraceptives, from the ex- years have been about the same. Still, illegitimacy does not ploding divorce rate to the decline of parental and institutional seem to be a major problem, since, to put the figures another authority. way, more than 975 babies out of every 1,000 born to teenagers All of these critics ignore the basic fact that teenage are born to married women. pregnancy is down, not up. It is much lower now than it was in Table 2 1960 and, in fact, has been on a downward spiral for the past Illegitimacy Rate: Number of Out-of-Wedlock two decades. (See Table 1.) By 1976 the number of teenage Births per 1000 Births Table 1 Age Year No. per M White Black Births Pet Thousand Women 15-19 Years of Age (Married and Unmarried) 15 to 44 1960 21.6 1976 24.7 1940 54.1 1960 89.1 15 to 19 1960 15.3 1976 53.5 1976 24.0 31.4 67.3 Data based on Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics of the Data based on Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics of the no. 61, Sept. 26, 1980. National Center for Health Statistics, no. 61, Sept. 26, 1980. National Center for Health Statistics, pregnancies had dropped to the level that existed in 1940; and When all the statistics are examined, it seems clear that though there has since been a slight increase, the number is much of the publicity is concerned not with teenage pregnancy still far below the 1960 level. If this is the case, why all the fuss? but with teenage sexuality, and if we put it in these terms, the One possible explanation is that, since birth rates for women of nature of the "problem" changes. There are even some positive all ages have dropped off, the percentage of total births ac- factors. The most obvious one is that today fewer teenagers are counted for by teenagers has increased. Fourteen percent of all being forced into marriage. The median age at first marriage births in 1960 were to teenagers as compared with 18 percent in has risen from 20.3 in 1960 to 21.1 in 1977. The percentage of 1976, but this figure has begun to decline as a new baby boom women married in their teens rose to a high in 1960 and has among older women gets under way. since declined. (See Table 3.) In sum, the average age of Another explanation for all the publicity about teenage marriage for women has been gradually increasing since 1960, pregnancy is that it is a result of the deliberate policies of birth- and almost no young woman is forced to marry at age 14. As control agencies to encourage teenagers to take advantage of late as 1960, 1.1 percent of women were married at this age. the contraceptive information they offer. In fact, the Planned We do not know how many of the women who married in their teens in the past were pregnant, but estimates range as Vern Bullough is president of the Society for the Scientific high as 50 percent. We do know that the first baby of a Study of Sex. teenager arrived on the average of 10 months after marriage. This meant that the overwhelming majority of young married

MIOG 12 Q0R' women had babies before their first wedding anniversary. are available, girls are far more likely than their mothers and Inevitably, many of these young women felt trapped, and grandmothers to engage in premarital sexual relations with in- though large numbers ultimately were divorced, many others dividuals other than their future husbands. The problem, then, took out their frustrations on their husbands and children. is not teenage pregnancy, but the fact that the double standard Although society is less willing to force pregnant teenagers into is being challenged, and we have not yet come to terms with marriage, there are still few satisfactory alternatives. this. Teenage males appear to be about as sexually active as Adoption has always been one solution for the young un- they always have been, and girls are now approaching the boys Table 3 in their level of sexual activity. They still have a long way to go Percentage of Women 15-19 to match the males, however. Years of Age who are Married Whether this sexual activity is good or bad might well be Year debatable, but biologically it is predictable. Premarital coital 1920 29.7 rates will remain high unless and until the marriage age is 1930 29.8 again lowered—a not particularly desirable remedy—or until 1940 27.0 society renews its old distinction between good women (wives 1950 37.6 and mothers) and bad women (prostitutes). There are, 1960 40.3 however, some factors that tend to make the rate of teenage 1976 26.4 pregnancy higher than it need be. Many pregnant teenagers I Data based on Statistical Abstract of the U.S. (102nd ed., Washington, have met are using pregnancy as a way of asserting their in- D.C. 1981). dependence, of demonstrating that they too are grown up. married mother, but it is now being downplayed by both socie- Many of them lack affection at home and want something of ty and welfare agencies. This has meant that many young their own to love. Not surprisingly many regard their babies as mothers must look to public assistance programs for help. In a toys. Unfortunately these teenage misconceptions about paren- random sample of 255 women on family welfare roles in 1977, ting disappear with reality, although they continue to be an in- and where there was no male in the household, 50 percent fluence on young pregnant women. applied for assistance when they became pregnant, and 45 per- Although many critics blame teenage promiscuity on the cent did so after their first child was born. This group was widespread dissemination of contraceptives, teenagers who predominantly black and Spanish-speaking; but as become pregnant do not use contraceptives, usually because "illegitimacy" among whites begins to approach that among they know nothing about them or are seriously misinformed. blacks, a growing number of white American teenagers are on The obvious answer is to make information, accurate informa- welfare in all areas of the country. Although most women tion, more available. Unfortunately, our society has not yet would prefer to keep their babies, for many black and accepted the fact that teenagers are biologically ready to have Hispanic-speaking women the only alternative is to place them children. Instead, we pretend that if we do not tell them about in foster homes. One of the major reasons the teenage mother contraceptives they will not know about sex. The result is turns to welfare is the dearth of job opportunities for those pregnancy and abortion. Abortion has increased among lacking education and skills. In fact, it is becoming more and teenagers. Three out of every ten abortions are given to more difficult for teenagers to enter the labor force, and ex- teenagers, but this figure would be larger if abortion informa- tremely difficult for a teenager with a small child. tion was readily available. The accessibility of such informa- In the popular discussions of teenage pregnancy, the claim tion could cause a radical drop in teenage births—of as much is often made that teenagers today are maturing earlier and as 50 percent, according to some estimates. However, if we that this causes them to become sexually promiscuous. There is outlaw abortions, or make them increasingly difficult to ob- a widely circulated myth that the age of menarche for girls has tain, if we do not provide basic education about contraceptives, dropped from 17 to under 13 over the past century. This is and if we make it difficult for young people to enter the labor society's way of saying that matters are out of its hands and market, or even to marry and support themselves, and if we that the causes of the problem are biological. But, in fact, leave welfare as the only alternative for most teenage pregnant biology has not changed that much. Although historically the women, then the number of teenage pregnancies will not average age of menarche has been 14 it has declined to about diminish. 13 in the United States during the past fifty or sixty years. It is important to keep in mind that teenagers today are There have always been a significant number of girls 12 and 13 probably not much more sexually active than earlier who have babies. They just disappear from their classroom and generations; rather, teenage sexuality is less likely to be from the lives of their classmates. legitimized by marriage for young women, and young men are As we prolong the age of adolescence by putting off more likely to turn to their own peer group for sex than to marriage and family responsibilities, we tend to ignore the fact prostitutes. Teenage pregnancy is not a sign of growing that a 13- or 14-year-old female has strong sexual urges. Socie- decadence in our society; it is the result of the fact that ty has always accepted such urges in young males, for whom teenagers are biologically ready for sex, as they always have prostitutes and other outlets were readily available, but has been. Society, by refusing to recognize this, has made it a refused to accept the same hormonal drive in young women un- problem. On the subject of sex, modern sophisticated less they happened to be married. Now that the marriage of Americans have buried their heads further into the sand than teenage girls is somewhat delayed, and now that contraceptives Victorian America ever did.

Summer, 1981 13 The New Book Burners

William F. Ryan When I spoke to Kathy Russell, director of the Washington The book is based, its editors claim, on the actual diary of a County Public Library in Abingdon, Virginia, she told me that fifteen-year-old drug-user. Its authorship is anonymous. Its her nemesis, the Reverend Tom Williams, had expanded his contents are the almost-daily ups and downs of a bright and list of allegedly dirty books to some two hundred titles. That terribly disturbed teen-age girl over the course of a single year. very night — February 23, 1981 — he held a meeting at his In her search for acceptance and friendship, she is Mickey- Emmanuel Baptist Church to muster the local vigilantes of Finned twice with drugs — the illegal and frequently lethal decency. In attendance were his right-hand man, Bobby variety still called "psychedelic" in 1971. She slides into severe Sproles, chairman of the County Board of Supervisors, and the drug dependency, runs away from home twice, is committed to Reverend Donnie Cantwell, chairman of the Virginia chapter a mental hospital for most of a summer, and fears for herself of the Moral Majority. and her family when she tries to stay drug-free and yet remain "The meeting last night was packed out," Sproles said to in the same high school in the same town, surrounded by the me the next morning. "Three hundred people, probably more. same dopers and juvenile psychopaths who had ruined her life. A very fine meeting. We don't have any plans to take the Her family is affluent, and the account of her homelife reveals library to court. Our position is simply that we object to the no basis for maladjustment, mistreatment, or lack of love. Her issuance of pornography with tax dollars. We'd like to put it to sexual encounters seem always the side-effects of losing control a referendum locally. We're only interested in Washington with marijuana or heavier opiates. She seems never to seek out County, where we pay taxes." sexual abandon, and her "diary" — whether it is the truth or, And the Reverend Williams was right on track. "We're just as I suspect, a fiction — contains no erotic detail or titillation simply formulating plans to use the political process to correct of any sort. The sad account abruptly and quite chillingly ends our problem," he commented to me. "People should register to with an editor's note to the effect that the diarist was found vote for county supervisors who identify themselves with this dead in her home just days after the last entry was written. She moral issue. I'm sure that those familiar with authors could died of an overdose, presumably of tranquilizers. A suicide? An determine what books in the library are obscene. In my ex- accident? A murder by former comrades in the teen-age un- perience, authors who write pornography write nothing else. It derground who feared exposure at her hands? At the close of should be handled by the library board, eight people appointed the book, the terrible questions remains. The title, incidentally, by the Board of Supervisors. I'm sure the library board must is taken from Grace Slick's forgettable lyrics to "White Rab- change. But that will happen when we elect people to the Board bit," a big-selling record in the late 1960s. At the time of the of Supervisors with a sense of decency and moral standards. It record's unfortunate popularity, the life-style portrayed in Go could be solved simply if the present Board of Supervisors Ask Alice had great appeal for those American teenagers who would act responsibly." longed for a bizarre existence within a subculture, all but gone For the Reverend Tom Williams, the responsible acts as the 1970s waned and thoroughly debunked by such bohe- would be the appointment of a new library board to mian elders as Gershon Legman as early as 1967. systematically remove books written by Harold Robbins, The point: so-called "flower power" and "peace-and-love Sidney Sheldon, Jacqueline Susann, and a gallery of others. hippiedom" have been hosed off contemporary American life, Harry Dean, executive director of the Virginia Moral Ma- across class lines and across the map. But the drugs remain. jority, has offered Williams assistance to organize — on a local We know more about them, and we have no good excuse to use basis. them or act messianic about them. Still they proliferate. Kids A slim paperback from Avon Books could well be the most in grade school can score on pot and reds and KW more easily hated — and the most vulnerable — of the modern-day "youth then they can swipe booze from the household liquor cabinet. runs wild" novels on the New Right's hit-list. First published in So the book Go Ask Alice remains, and for good reason. As a 1971 by Prentice-Hall and adapted for television as one of literary scholar, I found it no treasure. But I read it and gulped. ABC's "Wednesday Movie of the Week" attractions, Go Ask When I closed the book at the last page I knew that probably Alice is enjoying a record of praise and persecution far beyond few teen-agers who read it cover-to-cover would ever be the understanding of any rational and unbiased critic of either tempted to take drops again. Its redeeming social value, literature or social trends. therefore, is beyond dispute. Moreover, any truly responsible parent would recognize that the rationale for publishing Go William F. Ryan is a free-lance reporter and novelist. He has Ask Alice and offering it to young people in classrooms, recently been associated with the National Voter and the City libraries, or in stores, is absolutely in keeping with what the Paper of Baltimore. U.S. Supreme Court would call contemporary community standards.

14 Qo~ In view of the foregoing argument, the sinister purpose is of public libraries. This novel has an appeal broad enough to not in Go Ask Alice — a truly ironic title! — but in the book's span generations, regions, and social classes. Moreover, The attackers, and in full measure in its loudest attackers on the Learning Tree need not rely on any tradition of black novels fundamentalist Right. and novelists in the United States. It can stand on its merits Edward B. Jenkinson, in Censors in the Classroom, has cited alongside almost anything by Philip Roth or Joyce Carol the banning of Go Ask Alice in public schools and libraries in Oates, as much as it can be compared to renderings of black the east and midwest since 1976. Of particular alarm is the case experience by Richard Wright or Jean Toomer. in Warsaw, Indiana, where eleven high-school English teachers The Gordon Parks novel could nonetheless be forgotten — were fired in 1978 for refusing to stop the use of Go Ask Alice lost in the high-velocity shuffle of American letters and and such other worthwhile novels as Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar publishing, as is the fate of most contemporary fiction. If The in their curricula. High-school students in Warsaw have sued Learning Tree has a lasting reputation, its distinction could the school board, with the help of an attorney, to reinstate Go well rely on the fierce and unwarranted ill will fueled by mis- Ask Alice and several suspended courses, claiming a violation guided vigilantes of decency and the moral life. of their First Amendment rights. But that suit has been In his work on classroom censorship, Dr. Jenkinson traces repeatedly dismissed in U.S. District Court. the suppression of The Learning Tree as far back as May 1973, When Ron Marr, Canadian fundamentalist and editor of when a fault-finding school-board member in Asheville, North The Christian Inquirer, was still calling his organization the Carolina, took it upon herself to remove four books from a Council for National Righteousness, he wrote a pamphlet en- high-school library and to then dispatch a check to the prin- titled The Unbelievable Truth About Your Public Schools. On cipal to cover the cost of the volumes. One of the four was The the first page he scourged Go Ask Alice under a section headed Learning Tree. Jenkinson also cites a case in early 1978, when "Dirt, Sex, Drugs in School Books." Then, "with sincere a group calling itself Citizens United for Responsible Educa- apologies to every clean mind," he reprinted a passage from tion (CURE) was unsuccessful in its campaign to have The the book, but deleted two sentences from the original. Those Learning Tree removed from high-school libraries in two sentences might have made the context somewhat clearer. Rockville, Maryland. The right-wing cotillion had charged The sampling from Go Ask Alice tells of when the diarist and that the novel contained "denigrating racial epithets toward her runaway friend, Chris, are lured to a party at the home of both blacks and whites" and "cheap, explicit passages on sex." their wealthy employers in San Francisco. The two teen-age Only adults who can't or won't read contemporary fiction in girls are drugged into a stupor against their will and raped by any genre would sincerely accuse The Learning Tree of explicit rich deviants who are flying on "speed." The Reverend Marr passages on sex. The erotic experiences of the boy Newt are doesn't bother to explain any of the context, or the naivete of subtly and poetically told. Gordon Parks obviously found lurid the runaways, or the motivation for the diarist's setting down detail unnecessary for his account of a male youth's self- what took place. He leaves out what would be obvious to discovery and loss of innocence. As for the complaints of anyone who read the actual book — that the fifteen-year-old vulgar language, racial epithets, and the like — again, they are girl uses such words and phrases as shitty, rotten, stinky, examples of a collective herd-neurosis unable to cope with dreary, fucked-up life and cocksucker and sonsofbitches and words, words within a fictional context. And, again, it is the low-class shit eaters because she is feverish, angry, and fearful- motives of the censors that are suspect, rather than those of ly on the edge of total nervous collapse. author or publisher. The sinister purpose comes into sharper The Reverend Marr's scare tactics — using vulgar words to focus with the current fracas over the Parks novel. upset those who are so neurotically righteous that such words In April 1980, two parents in Spokane County, Washington, alone keep them from reading books — are cosmetic to any complained about the use of The Learning Tree in a clear thinker. Moreover, his motives are clearly printed on the sophomore English reading program at Mead High School. A same pages as his ravings about "secular humanism" and public hearing was called and two hundred people crowded in. "atheism" and the rest. He doesn't want tax dollars to buy An ad hoc committee of five was selected to review the facts students' copies of Go Ask Alice. and submit a recommendation to Mead School Superintendent Gordon Parks, at age sixty-eight, is one of the most widely Eugene Regan. acclaimed artists in the United States. A full list of his awards "I selected the committee," Regan told me recently. "Three for photography, motion-picture direction, and musical com- board members, three staff. They evaluated the book and position would stagger the compilers of Who's Who volumes designed an alternative plan. The Learning Tree is supplemen- and celebrity registers. In 1963, Harper and Row published tal reading for sophomore English classes. The teacher can Gordon Parks's autobiographical novel, The Learning Tree, a make the selections. If the youngster elects not to read it, we moving account of a black youth's growing up in the rural now furnish an alternative program. The Moral Majority eastern Kansas of the 1920s. In 1968, Parks wrote the script found this unacceptable as a plan and took us to court in and produced and directed the film rendition of The Learning August 1980. Michael Farris was their private attorney. Since Tree for Warner Brothers. then he has ascended to executive director of Moral Majority The movie's appearance was the occasion for the release of of Washington." the Fawcett Crest paperback edition of The Learning Tree, Subsequently, Michael Farris made headlines for the state which made this fine book accessible to teen-agers in public chapter of the Moral Majority by demanding that public high-schools and in multiple copies in the young-adult sections libraries in Washington open their records. The Moral Majori-

Summer, 1981 15 ty wanted to know who was checking out a sex-education film labeled as "blasphemy." The third sample is an admittedly entitled Achieving Sexual Maturity. The state librarian refused bawdy chapter opening in which young boys are peeping at Farris's request, and the Moral Majority suit was dismissed on young girls' exposed flesh from under the bleacher seats in a February 23. When approached by reporters after the hearing, ballpark. Humorous, but harmless I think. Farris labeled the Farris said that he had won, even though the suit will not be section "Vulgar Scene." The pages immediately following he reactivated. The publicity he had generated was victory in labels profusely as "vulgar language and description of vulgar itself. Farris told the press that he would see that indecent acts," a drunken car theft as a "steeling [sic] scene" and a literature was removed from the schools. circled "Goddam" on the printed page as "profane word." The Learning Tree, at this writing, is still in court. On Farris's letter to me, dated March 3, 1981, is far more in- December 31, 1980, Farris filed a formal complaint against the teresting. book in U.S. District Court for Washington's Eastern District "My observation is that the public schools censor objec- in behalf of three plaintiffs designated as "taxpayers." Only tionable material from the curriculum," he wrote. "The stan- one of the three, Carolyn Grove, is named as a parent as well. dards employed by the public schools are far more restrictive The five persons named as defendants are members of the than the First Amendment would permit as pertains to society Mead School Board. The complaint alleges that The Learning in general. Tree contains: "For examples, books portraying all men as doctors and all a. swearing women teachers are censored for being sexist. The Little Black b. profanity Sambo series has been censored for being racist. Certainly c. obscene language these types of materials are protected by the First Amendment, d. explicit description of premarital sexual intercourse yet the ACLU and the press has [sic] raised no hue and cry e. explicit description of other lewd behavior over the removal of these kinds of texts from the public f. specific blasphemies against Jesus Christ schools. g. excessive violence and murder "Apparently, to them, it depends on whose values you tram- Among the bill of particulars — and I quote: "Plaintiffs have ple on. Books that trample on liberal values can be censored, strong, religiously based convictions against using their tax those that trample on Christian values are protected by the dollars to promote or glorify swearing, profanity, obscene First Amendment. language, explicit descriptions of pre-marital sexual inter- "In other words, the First Amendment allows more in socie- course, explicit descriptions of other lewd behavior, ty than is allowed, or should be allowed, in our public schools. blasphemies against Jesus Christ, and excessive violence and "Given that premise, the question is how do we decide what murder [italics added].... Plaintiffs believe the teaching of is appropriate to use as required reading material in the public this book tends to inculcate the anti-God religion of humanism schools.

which is antithetical to Plaintiffs' beliefs and which violates the "... The Learning Tree ... has no place in our public free exercise and no establishment of religion clauses of the schools as required reading material. Remember this is not a First Amendment." question of what is permitted but what is required. The Farris complaint further states that his Moral Majority "The First Amendment also requires neutrality to religion clients are entitled to damages to be proved by trial, to at- and religious people in the public school. This book is not torneys' fees, to court costs, and to a permanent injunction neutral. Just as Madalyn Murray O'Hair was able to remove against further use of The Learning Tree in the Mead school required Bible reading, so too this book offensively coerces the district. conscience of Christians required to read it." Counsel for the school board defendants is Gerald Gesinger, The Farris argument isn't entirely without merit. But, as deputy prosecuting attorney for Spokane County and an Superintendent Regan specified to me, the Parks novel was elected official. I spoke to Gesinger on March 10. "We will supplemental reading and an alternative plan was devised for prepare a pre-trial motion to dismiss the complaint," he told students to substitute other literary works for The Learning me. "The Washington Education Asssociation is affiliated Tree, within the same sophomore English reading curriculum. with the National Education Association, and they have in- Given that Mr. Regan wasn't making up his solution for my dicated that they are going to intervene. The American Civil benefit, and wasn't lying when he told me that the alternative Liberties Union will enter as amicus curiae. No brief has been plan was unacceptable to the Moral Majority, the "what is per- filed so far and no trial date set. We will hopefully try for hear- mitted" and "what is required" distinctions of Mr. Farris ing on a motion to dismiss in the next four to six weeks." could be quite afield of the actual circumstances in his case. Responding to a query from me, Michael Farris enclosed I continue to be curious about how serious a thrust toward photocopied pages from the paperback edition of The Learning censorship is resulting from the muscular Christianity of the Tree. He marked off a section of dialogue, early in the book, Moral Majority. Judith F. Krug, director of the American when twelve-year-old Newt is being prodded by his chum Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee, has Beansy to describe his first sexual experience (which Newt said that censorship cases have increased alarmingly in number doesn't describe very well at all!). A few pages later, Farris un- since last spring. "The North Carolina Moral Majority is ac- derlined a paragraph in which Newt's older brother, Clint, is tive in censorship, more so than other state chapters," she told drunk beyond control and yelling that Jesus Christ is "the me. "But the adversary is not the Moral Majority per se — it's long-legged white son-of-a-bitch!" This paragraph, Farris the anti-intellectualism per se. People who are afraid to think

16 or will not think. I find it rather amusing that self-styled con- servatives have decided that, in the name of God, they can dic- tate how a person makes choices about what to read. It amounts to fascism." Dorothy Massie is a Human Relations Specialist with NEA's Teacher Rights division. "I would agree with Judy Krug," she said to me, "except I know that the censorship ac- Board of Censors tivity from the Right has spanned all of last year. The North Carolina affiliate of Moral Majority has launched a project on a statewide basis in schools and libraries. On the surface it's newspapers. On February 23, when most of the smoke was dirty words, explicit sex, depressing material, women's history, drifting away from the controversy, I spoke to Steve Mills, the or minorities. I suspect a facade with all this. I am beginning to station manager. think that in the ultimate, it will be a church-state conflict. I "The controversy stemmed from our airing the program at get the impression that the pro-family people who criticize the time that we did — when we needed funding," Mills told secular humanism really want tuition tax credit for Christian me. "We are in a difficult position because of the licensing of schools. The attack is on public school education. And I the station. Before we went to the Virginia General Assembly, believe racism underlies it. And I see a continuing spread of at- we sent out letters to our contributors, asking them to write to tacks on sex education everywhere." elected officials. One of the people who received our letter was So does Dr. Sol Gordon, America's most visible sex upset about the Sol Gordon broadcast. This is the Bible Belt. educator. He wrote to NPR, got a transcript of the tape, and sent it on to Early this year, the fate of a National Public Radio station, Lacey Putney, an Independent delegate from a county near sorely in need of public funds to survive, may have been sealed Lynchburg. I appeared before the House Appropriations Com- — in a sarcophagus. On the afternoon of January 17, WVWR- mittee. I was questioned by Delegate Putney, who said he had FM, the NPR affiliate at Roanoke's Virginia Western Com- received a number of complaints from constituents who didn't munity College, aired a tape of "Myths of Human Sexuality," want the station to be funded with their tax money — because a lecture first presented to the students at the University of of the broadcast. I said we had a commitment to provide Texas and taped by NPR Station KUT there. The author and programs that are topical in nature. We don't want to offend speaker is Dr. Sol Gordon, professor of psychology at anyone — however, we do provide controversial material. Syracuse University and director of the Institute for Family Putney admitted that he had never listened to the station Research and Education. before. Sol Gordon is an entertaining speaker and an idealist for sex "The Roanoke Times carried a front-page story written out education — good sex education. He personally feels that of the Richmond bureau. They missed a few things. They much of what passes for sex education in schools — where it reported that I said we would never air such things like that truly exists at all — is worse than inadequate. Gordon's again. I did say we would use more discretion. The problem irreverence is toward the taboos and ugly shibboleths that have was that we aired it around 1:00 P.M. A local TV critic defend- haunted the knowledge of sexuality since the subject was first ed us but claimed that Putney was just doing his job. Five whispered aloud. He does not stand for promiscuity or even letters to the editor came in support of us. The radio-TV editor premarital sex, as his Bible-hoisting detractors have claimed later wrote a follow-up on the mail he received about it. One for a dozen years. He merely stands for frank, open, letter came from a woman from CAUSE — Citizens Against courageous discussion, the banishment of mirages and phan- Unacceptable Sex Education. She claimed that Sol Gordon toms disguised as true erotic experience. He has never en- had called himself `polymorphous perverse' and she had inter- dorsed abortion out of hand — contrary to much exurban and preted that description as `child molester.' backwoods opinion — because he has never been "We had requested $179,000 to run the station for another philosophically sure that it should be applied on the scale that year. We received $60,000 and were told to sell the station by some of its champions would like to guarantee. His most December 31. We must identify new owners, and we haven't salient message is a talisman for anyone who claims to be done that yet. It's been a problem whether we should be run by fighting in Heine's "liberation war of humanity" — that a community college system at all." human love relies on a multitude of human possibilities and Steve Mills only regrets that Delegate Putney didn't hear the that human sexuality doesn't top the list. Sol Gordon talk. "After the broadcast," Mills said, "we had The God-fearin' folks in the Roanoke listening area didn't requests for transcripts from the City of Lynchburg Health hear the message as well as Dr. Gordon and others would have Department and from Randolph Macon College. We've gotten hoped. Worse, the Saturday broadcast — the fact of it — was a number of letters in support of Dr. Gordon — and us. Dr. used as a cudgel over the heads of station personnel when Gordon appeared at the Roanoke Hotel at the invitation of the WVWR came to the Virginia General Assembly on Monday, Junior League. Some people wanted to ban the Junior League February 2 — at funding time. after that." What transpired in Richmond during those budget dis- Ironically, the WVWR affair transpired almost in the cussions involving WVWR and its future was reported in backyard of Jerry Falwell's Lynchburg bastion of the Moral different, ways on different wire services and in different Majority. The feelings harbored by them good clean folks

Summer, 1981 17 about sex education are no secret. "I believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But I "We are coercing the conscience of boys and girls and usur- also believe in responsibility. Kids coming out of the public ping the right of parents when we require them to watch men schools today know how to use condones [sic], smoke dope, having erections, women displaying their genitals and both sex- and have intercourse, but they can't read. To me the inability es masturbating as does the film `Achieving Sexual of a child to read and especially the inability tó write articulate- Maturity,' " reads Michael Farris's letter to me. ly, poses a far greater threat to our society than any imagined "Sex education does not work for the purposes of preventing threat of censorship." venerial [sic] disease or pregnancies," he goes on. "Teenage Somewhere embedded in that deathless prose could well be a abortion and pregnancy rates have doubled in Washington statement about why the Moral Majority dislikes the process State in the last six years despite declining population of school of self-discovery and would prefer that public officials ban any age children and despite increased sex education. guidance for students toward that discovery — specifically, the "The Michigan Department of Public Education has recent- guidance to be found in The Learning Tree and in the texts and ly concluded that sex education can only be honestly justified talks of Sol Gordon. The answer to that one: the Moral Ma- on the basis of teaching teens how to have a happy sex life. jority and their ilk are very bothered by what they understand They have concluded that sex education does nothing to relieve as values clarification. They should be, considering the the problems of teen-age pregnancy and venerial disease. problems they have clarifying their own. "I would submit that sex education, as it is being taught to- So if you have any further questions, class ... better go ask day, is a contributing factor in the rise of these problems. Alice. • The Moral Majority: An Immoral Minority

Gerald Larue "The Moral Majority" — what an arrogant title! The label tributing editor of Eternity magazine ("The magazine for smacks of pride and authority and of the same sort of haughty committed Christians, applying all of God's Word to all of exclusiveness that many Protestants find in the Roman life"), wrote in the December 1980 issue, "When Jerry Catholic claim to be "the true church." Just as millions of Falwell is quoted in Newsweek as saying he won't apologize Christians will deny the Roman Catholic claim, so millions of for the palatial home and the affluent lifestyle because they Americans will challenge the claims of the so-called Moral are only signs that he is obeying God, who financially rewards Majority (MM). In fact, there is much to suggest that it is those who obey Him, I cringe. I want to run to my poor neither a majority nor particularly moral. friends, my suffering acquaintances in the Third World and The M M bases its claim to be a majority on certain Gallup cry out, `It isn't so.' " Bayley goes on to say that persons like polls of those who claim to have had a born-again experience, Jerry Falwell "don't represent me," and he disassociates assuming that all such persons must accept the MM's inter- himself from those who use the label "evangelical" and says pretation of the Bible and society. There is no clear-cut data to he will use only the term "Christian" to describe himself. It is support this idea. Millions of Christians who belong to important for Bayley and others like him to put distance mainline churches affiliated with the National Council of between themselves and the MM. In other words, the MM Churches and who claim to have had born-again experiences represents only itself — a rather vocal minority. are not associated with the MM, nor are millions of Roman Is it moral? There is a certain expediency in the morality Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians. Certainly millions represented by the MM. There was a time, not too long ago, of Jews and millions of non-church people who are deeply com- when blacks were not allowed in the hallowed halls of these mitted to moral and ethical positions are not members or af- same fundamentalist churches. They now attack the Equal filiates of MM. Rights Amentment, press for stricter regulations against Nor are all "born-again" evangelical Christians willing to homosexuals, and would stop all governmental support for be listed as potential MM members. Joseph Bayley, a con- abortions. It is possible to understand the attitude of the MM toward homosexuals, because the MM uses the Bible as a guide and Gerald A. Larue is professor of biblical history and the Bible is opposed to homosexuality. In fact, in one passage archaeology at the University of Southern California. (Lev. 20:13) it is commanded that homosexuals be killed. One wonders just how far the MM is prepared to go in their literal

18 interpretation of scripture. We progress slowly in our Western proclaims. The MM stands as judge and jury. There are no "biblical" reaction to sexual issues. It was not so many years situational aspects involved—there are only stark dichotomies of ago that the American Psychiatric Association listed homosex- good and bad. Here again the MM represents only a narrow uals as pathological deviants (polymorphous perverse), until, spectrum of religious opinion. Among those not represented by through growing enlightenment concerning human behavior, the MM are the American Baptist Convention, the American psychiatrists began to recognize differing sexual behavior Lutheran Church, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), patterns as variants of whatever it is to be "normal." The the Church of the Brethren, the Lutheran Church in America, Bible-thumping fundamentalists lag behind the psychiatrists the Presbyterian Church in the U.S., the Reformed Church in and will continue to do so for as long as they seek guidance America, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter from writings produced in the Judeo-Christian communities Day Saints, the Southern Baptist Convention, the United between 2,000 and 3,000 years ago. Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, the United Not all Christians accept the MM attitude toward homosex- Presbyterian Church-USA, Women of the Episcopal Church, the uals. Several denominations have ordained homosexuals, and Young Women's Christian Association of the USA, and many most do not single out such persons for condemnation in their more. None of these endorse abortion as a substitute for birth congregations. The Metropolitan Church of Los Angeles and control. None are enthusiastic about abortion per se. All are con- its kindred churches elsewhere in America are composed large- cerned with human rights. All call themselves Christian. The ly of homosexuals and lesbians, and the minister is a homosex- MM does not represent them. ual. These churches find a gospel of love and understanding Perhaps the greatest hypocrisy is to be found in the response and acceptance more persuasive than the legalistic of the MM to the New Testament teachings on divorce. In pronouncements of the Bible. Luke 16:18, Jesus is reputed to have taught that "everyone who There can be little doubt that the opposition to the ERA also divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery." For stems from a particularistic interpretation of the Bible, most Christian churches, this outmoded way of thinking has although part of the opposition rests on the belief that the ERA been dropped. But the MM claims to live by the Bible. If the is a humanist endeavor. In the Bible, women are never ac- MM is serious about taking the Bible as a guide, clearly, accor- corded the status of males. They are told to keep silent in the ding to this teaching, President Reagan is an adulterer. One churches in Corinth, to be subject to their husbands in hears no such accusation from the MM. In fact, ministers in Colossians 3:18 and I Peter 3:1-6, because the man was the the MM churches will marry divorced persons and thus, accor- head of the household (Eph. 6). They are forbidden to teach ding to the New Testament, contribute to adultery. Nor do and are told to dress modestly without jewelry in I Timothy 2. they label divorced and remarried persons in their con- Just how seriously do the MM churches take these teachings? gregations as adulterers. To do so would not be expedient. To Again, expediency is the key. Women do work in the church do so would alienate members and cut off the money that and on occasion are invited for a few brief moments into the members contribute to the various MM causes. Hypocrisy, pulpits — but they are not ordained as they are in many non- which according to the New Testament was condemned by M M churches. No comment is made on dress and one sees the Jesus, is defined as "a feigning to be what one is not; the acting flash of jewelry everywhere. What the MM proposes is to grant of a false part; a deception as to real character and feeling, es- women certain freedoms but to deny them equality. pecially in regard to morals and religion." It is the only term The most flagrant denial of women's rights appears in the that comes to mind as descriptive of the MM. In other words, abortion issue. The MM would deny any government funds for the MM is not so moral after all. abortion. Here again they do not represent the majority of The MM continually betrays the Bible they claim to follow. Christians, despite the fact that their position is like that of the They call for prayer in public schools as if individuals cannot Roman Catholic Church. As the records of any abortion clinic pray in their homes or elsewhere. But the New Testament will show, many Roman Catholics seek abortion and no doubt records Jesus insisting that his followers avoid the practices of members of churches represented by the MM also have abor- those, whom he called "hypocrites," who made their prayers in tions. The cruelest part of the MM attack is in inducing guilt public. Instead he required his disciples and hearers to go into a trauma. They call abortion (which, like miscarriage, is the ex- room by themselves and to pray in a secret place, a private pulsion of a premature fetus) "murdering babies," a cruel and locale (Matt. 6:5-6). heartless distortion. No rational person will argue that abor- The MM has recognized the expediency of having a cause tion is the best of all solutions for unwanted pregnancies. But and a scapegoat. The cause is biblical morality for "immoral what are the alternatives? The number of children between the America." The scapegoat is humanism. The result is a great ages of nine and sixteen who are impregnated as a result of deal of clamor, but little examination of the issues. Humanists, rape, molestation by near relatives, and sexual experimenta- like many others in America, have deep concerns for moral tion without proper knowledge of procreational facts is steadily and ethical values. They do not base their judgments and inter- increasing. To insist that these adolescents give birth, despite pretations of society on writings that were current in the an- medical evidence that points to a higher maternal death rate cient past. Society is in process. By seeking to maximize the and damage to these youthful bodies which are not really freedom of each person while protecting the life and well-being mature enough for child-bearing, is anything but moral or of each person and providing a nourishing environment in ethical. To force parenthood on immature girls symbolizes a which each individual may develop, humanists fulfill their callousness that denies the very gospel of love that the MM highest ethical potential.

Summer, 1981 19 Liberalism and the Morality of Freedom

Edward L. Ericson

A spokesman of the Evangelical New Right has said: "The bracketing of liberals and radicals, whose philosophical and godless minority of treacherous individuals who have been per- religious ranks must include such figures as John Locke, mitted to make national policy must now realize that they do Jefferson, Madison, and Thomas Paine — not to mention not represent the majority. They must be made to see that such latter-day liberals as Lincoln and Justice Holmes — with moral Americans are a powerful group who will no longer those whom Mr. Robison classifies as "perverts, leftists, and permit them to destroy our country with their godless, liberal Communists," so defies reason as to be impervious to argu- philosophies." ment. This pronouncement appears in Jerry Falwell's introduc- But if we must choose between Falwell's conception of the tion to Richard Viguerie's recently published book, The New Bill of Rights and Jefferson's, or between Robison's notion of Right: We're Ready to Lead. In that same introduction, the the foundations of the American Constitution and Madison's, Reverend Falwell declares America today to be "depraved, the choice should no, be difficult to make. The urgent decadent, and demoralized," a condition which he attributes problem we face springs from the widespread indifference, or to "godless, spineless leaders" and the influence of "atheistic even ignorance, to the philosophical foundations of our social humanism." In short, his message, like that of other and religious liberties. Those foundations are embedded in the spokesmen of the New Right, is that the nation has been historic liberal philosophy. demoralized and corrupted by a minority of "treacherous in- Liberalism should not be understood as a merely partisan dividuals" guided by the godless philosophy of humanism and or political creed, even though many people use the word liberalism. almost exclusively in these terms. There are many political I should like to examine the concept of liberalism as the factions and programs that historically have been labeled as morality of freedom. The manner in which Mr. Falwell and liberal, but as every historian of ideas recognizes, their con- his friends rail against "godless" liberalism convinces me that tent changed from period to period and from place to place. they know nothing about the history of human freedom or the Nor should liberalism be considered the opposite of conser- moral philosophy of liberalism that provides the foundation vatism. Some forms of conservatism are indeed authoritarian of our American system of democracy and free religion. Their or even totalitarian, and therefore anti-liberal. But in societies determined ignorance is their own affair, but when they con- such as ours, and generally throughout the English-speaking fuse and miseducate a whole generation of Americans about world, the dominant social heritage is anti-authoritarian, that the historic sources and moral foundations of our civil and is, based on historic liberal social principles. religious freedoms, they make it necessary for us to contest So there is nothing frivolous or Pickwickian in observing their specious arguments — and their inaccurate history. that most conservatives in the United States and other Another preacher of the social mythology of the New Right democracies are within the tradition of the liberal philosophy. is the Reverend James Robison, whose attacks on humanism Winston Churchill, for example, led the Conservative Party in and liberalism equate these historic pillars of freedom with Britain, but on the great constitutional issues of British law social degeneracy. In a statement that even in the company of Churchill stood with the liberal tradition of John Locke and the radical right is outstanding as a classic of arrogant the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which put away the simplemindedness, Mr. Robison declared himself "sick and autocratic power of kings ruling by divine right and advanced tired of hearing about all the radicals and the perverts and the the idea of government based on the consent of the governed, liberals and the leftists and the Communists coming out of the government by social contract. closet." While Churchill's party had assimilated these changes It was news to learn that liberals had ever been in the sometimes grudgingly, the fact remains that British Conser- closet, or had any reason to hide there, at least since the vatives were as deeply offended by the rise of modern decline of the Spanish Inquisition and the medieval practices totalitarianism in the form of fascism as any English or of book-burning and burning heretics at the stake. The American liberal or radical democrat. In similar fashion, progressive liberals and humanists like Bertrand Russell and Edward Ericson is a Leader of the New York Society for John Dewey, together with such political figures as Franklin Ethical Culture. Roosevelt — and even democratic socialists of the character of Harold Laski and Norman Thomas — recoiled from the

20 totalitarian party of Lenin and Stalin, rejecting the pretension is the basis of morality and ethics? The orthodox religious by a revolutionary elite of the historic right to capture power answer had always been divine revelation. We can know the and govern by autocratic means. good only as God has revealed it to us through his prophets. What is modern totalitarianism but the divine right of Moses had received his tablets of the Law on Sinai. In Chris- kings resurrected in a new and more dangerous guise as the tian ethical thought, God had revealed his moral law through right of a self-chosen minority to install itself as the vanguard a succession of seers culminating in the advent of Christ. The of history? Liberalism stands historically against all such Scriptures, interpreted by an authoritative church, were the pretensions to power, whether they are mounted from the left final depository of moral truth. or from the right. Although most of the liberal thinkers of the late- What is the basis of our insistence that the American seventeenth and eighteenth centuries believed in a Supreme democratic tradition is rooted in liberal philosophy — a Being as the first cause, and were either deists or liberal heritage so pervasive that it is also the inheritance of the true Christians, they turned their backs on the ancient authorities conservative, but not of the autocratic right-winger, who is of the Scriptures and the priesthood as the revealers of moral more nearly fascistic than genuinely conservative? Although truth. They recognized that ancient holy books could be falli- the roots of liberal philosophy extend to ancient times and ble and sanction old superstitions and that priesthoods were can be seen in many of the heresies of the Middle Ages, it is often corrupt and power-hungry. from the Renaissance and the period of the Reformation that In effect, they said, "We have no need for such a we see clearly the beginnings of modern liberalism. hypothesis, which would keep us enslaved to ambitious The philosophy of John Locke is often considered the zero hierarchies and priesthoods posing as the interpreters of milestone on the grand highway to a fully developed divine truth. The only revelation of the moral law we re- philosophy of liberalism — taking his great Essay Concerning quire," they argued, "is Nature and human reason. By study- Human Understanding, published in 1689, as the starting ing Nature, including the social nature of humankind, we can date. This, of course, followed by one year the removal of the learn the truth and equip ourselves to live as morally free last of the Stuart kings in the Whig revolution of 1688 — and beings." the Whigs were the spiritual forebears and shapers of the This was a bold declaration of spiritual independence, and American revolutionary philosophy in both its liberal and its on this foundation liberalism and humanism were constructed conservative aspects. in their modern form. Without this clear and bold step in Both Senator Robert Taft, the principled conservative moral philosophy there would have been no Thomas Jeffer- Republican leader of a generation ago, and Governor Adlai son, no Declaration of Independence, and no Bill of Rights. Stevenson, the liberal Democratic standard-bearer, Those who dismiss philosophy as obscure and stuffy fail to represented contrasting aspects, different accents, of this old recognize the explosive power of a nuclear idea. Whig tradition, the mother lode of the liberal philosophy as Jefferson accepted this moral philosophy of liberalism the morality of freedom. because it set the mind free. He believed that as our The British Whig, therefore, is the common ancestor, the knowledge of psychology and social behavior increases we founder of the tradition that makes today's authentic conser- are better able to understand nature, including moral nature. vatives and genuine liberals members of the same family, We would do well to be familiar with this school of moral children of the same lineage. This history goes far to explain philosophy today, if we are to understand and thus be in a why Americans of differing economic and social philosophies position to defend our liberal heritage, the philosophy of have been able to maintain a democratic system, with human freedom. peaceful changes of administration, throughout the conflicts Where do we find the basis of our morality, our sense of and tensions of two hundred years. decency and compassion? Does it come from God by special The path from John Locke and the Whig revolution of revelation contained in sacred books? We find it within our 1688 to Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of 1776 is a own natures, said this school of thinkers stretching back from straight line in both thought and practice. Behind the social Jefferson to John Locke and even earlier. One of the most in- and political history of the American Revolution stood the fluential of these philosophers, the Earl of Shaftesbury, in- moral and intellectual revolution that we have been describ- sisted that the moral sense is part of our makeup as human ing, the revolution of liberalism in philosophy and religion beings. It is inherent in our natures. Sympathy for others is its from which Jefferson, Madison, and the other major natural foundation. From social feeling for other life we architects of American freedom drew their inspiration. develop and refine our morality — if it is a true and genuine What force did these philosophers of the seventeenth and morality. eighteenth centuries unleash that so mightily transformed Shaftesbury, who was a religious freethinker, considered history? Essentially they did an about-face from the doctrine religion to be harmful to moral development if it taught us to of human nature that had prevailed for most of Christian despise human nature or claimed to ground morality on a history. They denied that human nature is essentially evil; doctrine of future rewards and punishment. If people behave they affirmed the human capacity for self-government; and in an approved way in order to avoid punishment either here they provided the moral foundation for a reasonable belief in on earth or in hell afterward, said Shaftesbury, they are not human freedom and progress. behaving as moral beings. They are acting as slaves or sub- How, they asked, do we distinguish good from evil? What jects out of fear, and in so doing they are denied the chance to

Summer, 1981 21 be fully human as morally conscious beings. It is when we know and do the right out of a love for the morally worthy act, the generous compassionate act, that we become in the proper sense moral beings. No priesthood or ancient source of miracles reveals this knowledge to us. We find the foundation of moral behavior within ourselves, in our inherent capacity to feel the pains and fears of others and to extend sympathy and caring to our fellow beings. This philosophy of ethics has been called the "moral sense" school of moral philosophy, and Shaftesbury is often considered its

founder. ss ss

More than a generation later, toward the middle of the ra Vig

eighteenth century, another important moral philosopher G. G.

appeared who agreed with Shaftesbury in rejecting the notion by by

that morality can properly be based on an expectation of ing

divine rewards and punishments. Indeed, David Hartley ob- w Dra jected so strongly to the doctrine of eternal punishment that Thomas Jefferson he abandoned his studies for the Anglican priesthood at Cam- bridge and became a physician instead. Although he remained Jefferson, the story of the brilliant philosophical circle that a liberal member of the Church of England and shared with made up Jefferson's intellectual community. the deists a belief in God as the first cause, he saw no need to I have given a brief sketch of the growth of the liberal base his moral philosophy on scripture or ecclesiastical philosophy as the distinctive morality of freedom. When the authority. partisans of the religious New Right denounce that He agreed with Shaftesbury that morality is properly un- philosophy as godless and morally perverse, we must derstood as resting on the human capacity for sympathy for remember that their ideological ancestors were shouting the others, for what today we would call altruism; but Hartley same abuse at the likes of Thomas Jefferson and John Locke, disagreed with Shaftesbury's belief that this moral sense is in- two and three hundred years ago. Joseph Priestley's herent or instinctive. Hartley argued that what we know as laboratory and library were burned by a mob representing the the moral sense is the outcome of our social experience as in- "moral majority" of that generation. Progress and freedom fants and children. To show how this develops he returned to are always godless to the lovers of darkness and superstition. a conception of the mind that John Locke had offered. Before Jefferson answered them for all time: "Reason and free in- we experience sensations, said Locke, the human mind is a quiry are the only effectual agents against error. Give a loose blank. Through the experience of the senses and the associa- rein to them, they will support the true religion by bringing tion of impressions into ideas the mind takes form. This, said every false one to their tribunal, to the test of their investiga- Hartley, is also how our moral conceptions develop. Begin- tion. They are the natural enemies of error only." ning in early infancy with immediate concern for our own It is that test of reason and free inquiry that the liberal selfish needs, we grow, if we are loved, into an awareness of philosophy values and respects. Authoritarianism, in both its others and a feeling of sharing in their welfare. Out of our religious and secular guises, fears and hates the searchlight of sympathetic relationships we develop a moral consciousness, human reason and inquiry and throughout history has sought a feeling of obligation to others. Thus, as Jefferson observed to extinguish that light — and for good reason, because later, an atheist can be, and often is, as morally good as any authoritarianism knows that its shabby claim to represent the believer. voice of God cannot be sustained, except where truth is blind- In this manner the liberal philosophers, following Locke, ed and reason silenced. attempted to discover some general principle that would unify The challenge to our heritage of liberalism embodied in the moral experience in the same way that Isaac Newton's laws Evangelical New Right must be answered. We cannot assume of gravity unified physical nature. Both efforts were denounc- that unopposed this new assault on philosophical and religious ed by the orthodox and the fundamentalists of their day as freedom will fade away. Eternal vigilance is the price of liber- godless, Newton for attempting to explain the motion of the ty. heavens by physical principles and John Locke and his During his campaigns for the presidency, Jefferson was successors for attempting to provide psychological principles denounced by the religious authoritarians of his day as an to explain the natural origin of the moral feelings. atheist and a Jacobin — the equivalent of being called a Hartley's view was adopted by Joseph Priestley, the secular humanist today. Jefferson replied in a letter to a chemist and the discoverer of oxygen, who was also a dissen- friend, with reference to the religious leaders who were moun- ting clergyman of liberal theological and social views. ting this attack upon his person and philosophy: "They Priestley profoundly influenced his close friend and admirer, believe that any portion of power confided in me, will be ex- Thomas Jefferson. The philosophical friendship between erted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly; Priestley and Jefferson is superbly told by the American for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility historian Daniel J. Boorstin in The Lost World of Thomas against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." •

22 "Scientific" Creationism: Axioms and Exegesis

Delos McKown

Like many an old favorite "Brand So-and-So" in TV com- tion model in any public school that teaches the general mercials, biblical creationism is put out these days in a new theory of evolution; and, in the twenty-seven states having and improved version, or at least the package is new. It's not statewide text adoptions, creationist pressure is being applied. called biblical (or divine) creationism anymore. Now it's call- Furthermore, numerous lawsuits have been filed against in- ed "scientific" creationism, and it's selling very well in the dividual school systems alleging that where the general theory United States. Given the enduring appetite that many people of evolution is being taught the godless religion of secular have for the product and the vigor with which it is being humanism is also being taught and that this is being done promoted, the reader should not wonder at its successes. with the blessings of state and federal governments, thus es- Consider (and shudder if you will): Currently, there are tablishing a religion in defiance of the First Amendment. over fifty creationist (anti-evolutionist) associations in the None of the above is meant to suggest that scientific country. The leading groups are the Creation Research Socie- creationism is about to achieve parity with the general theory ty (CRS) of Ann Arbor, Michigan; the Institute for Creation of evolution in public education, nor to suggest that the Research (ICR) of the Christian Heritage College (under the various creationist groups (with their vigorous promotional jurisdiction of the Scott Memorial Baptist Church) of San ploys involving media techniques, workshops, conferences, Diego, California; and the Creation Science Research Center conventions, form-letter suggestions for writing to papers and (CSRC), also in San Diego. Furthermore, San Diego is the politicians, and so on) are about to brainwash an entire na- home of Creation-Life Publishers, a private corporation that tion. Temporarily, at least, and recently, the creationists have produces and distributes ICR books, pamphlets, didactic car- been balked in Georgia and Iowa. Meanwhile, however, toon strips, and audio-visual materials in abundance, and at South Carolina has acted to permit local option in the matter. low cost. Among these is a text called A Two-Model Ap- Since scientific creationists do not give up easily, if at all, proach to Origins. Like the ICR, the CRS (in addition to other successes of this sort must be expected. publishing its Quarterly) also has sponsored a text, Biology: More worrisome, to me at least, than the activities A Search for Order in Complexity (plus a teacher's manual), catalogued above is the legal position mapped out for the published by the Zondervan publishing house in Grand scientific creationists by Wendell R. Bird (a theistic Rapids, Michigan. Dr. John Newton Moore, co-editor of this evolutionist in his benighted youth, since reformed) in his arti- text, has taught a course in creation science for college credit cle "Freedom of Religion and Science Instruction in Public to students in general education science at Michigan State Schools" in the Yale Law Journal (January 1978, pp. 515- University. Similar content is being taught in the University 570). In adumbrating the constitutional situation, attorney of North Carolina system and at the University of West Bird reminds us that the establishment clause of the First Virginia, where there is also a course in how to teach teachers Amendment demands substantial but not absolute separation to teach creation science in elementary and secondary schools of church and state. It does not, for example, prohibit all (after all, it does demand a special cast of mind). Moreover, a recognition of our theistic heritage in public education, nor petition to teach scientific creationism has been circulated at reference to a creator or maker of heaven and earth, nor Auburn University (in Alabama), where a professor of teleological discussion. aerospace engineering has expressed hope that an inter- So saying, attorney Bird argues (1) that public school in- disciplinary course in creation science may be taught in the struction in the general theory of evolution abridges the foreseeable future. In some fifteen states, bills have been in- believing student's right to the free exercise of religion if it is troduced that would require equal time for the so-called crea- taught exclusively (thus elevated to fact), undermines religious conviction, violates religious practices, and compels un- Delos B. McKown, Ph.D., is department head and professor of conscionable declarations of beliefs (answers on examinations one must suppose); (2) that public school instruction is coer- philosophy at Auburn University. He is the author of The Classical Marxist Critiques of Religion: Marx, Engels, Lenin, cive through prescribed courses, conditioned beliefs, teacher Kautsky. influence, and peer pressure; (3) that the state has no compell- ing interest in presenting information concerning human origins or in presenting the general theory of evolution ex-

Summer, 1981 23 elusively; and (4) that the state could find less burdensome, 3. Human souls survive the death of their bodies in a state yet sufficient, means of teaching the theory. of everlasting bliss or damnation. To Bird, the constitutional (or, perhaps, the casuistic) 4. There is knowledge. remedy consists in giving equal time to scientific creationism 5. Functionally, knowledge is of three types: saving with its alternative model of origins. Whereas biblical knowledge (of the biblical God), which conduces to creationism is a religious position that would violate the First eternal bliss; damning knowledge (any heretical or false Amendment, scientific creationism is a scientific position belief), which leads to eternal torment; and natural (here one perceives a new package for "Brand So-and-So") knowledge (i.e., knowledge of this world), which leads that benefits no religion as such (for religion, read to neither. "denomination"). Lest the reader fear that scientific 6. The biblical God exists and has acted, acts now, and creationism, as an alternative to the general theory of evolu- will act as the Bible specifies. tion, might open the floodgates to many alternative religious 7. Among the modes of self-disclosure to human beings theories, Bird notes that the courts have already held it un- that the biblical God employs are the divine autographs reasonable to give equal time to all religious theories of known as the Holy Bible. origins. Thus, the public schools would be left with only two 8. Barring minor human errors in textual transmission, models, the evolutionary model of godless secular humanism the Bible is inerrant and self-consistent, even if (a disguised religious position) and the model of scientific sometimes paradoxical or beyond human comprehen- creationism (which just happens to conform with literalist sion. readings of Genesis but is not religious). 9. Any biblical text that might seem to be false or incon- Attorney Bird concludes with a caveat: Since the Constitu- sistent (or that exceeds the believer's credulity) can be tion does not require the individual states to provide public accepted confidently as true and consistent even though schools, and since states have the authority to remove instruc- it may need to be allegorized, parabolized, or otherwise tion in an academic discipline, a state could eliminate piously altered to conform to the standards of inerran- troublesome material from the curriculum — if it should cy and consistency already posited. become too litigious, for example. Thus, the biological 10. Any information, belief, knowledge, theory, or dis- sciences or aspects thereof might simply disappear from the covery inconsistent with saving knowledge is not mere- public schools in one or more states. ly false but potentially or actually damning, even It may come as a surprise to many scientists, and as a rude demonic in origin. shock even to multitudes of theistic evolutionists (those who, Il. A soul's eternal felicity is best served by saving whether scientist or not, have reconciled divine creation with knowledge but not at all by damning knowledge or evolutionary mechanisms), to learn that the general theory of neutral knowledge. evolution is a dogma of the godless religion of secular 12. Neutral knowledge may jeopardize the soul of anyone humanism and, ipso facto, religious. Even more taxing on who becomes boastful in the acquisition or possession one's credulity is the contention that God's miraculous crea- thereof. tion of the earth and the universe (about 10,000 years ago), 13. Exclusive and thoroughgoing reliance on natural modes his equally miraculous creation of each species of living thing of human inquiry is vainglorious, seriously jeopardizing by fiat, and the Noachian flood (also miraculous one must the soul that will not humble its natural powers and suppose) are all and equally constituents of a scientifically seek divine guidance or correction. respectable model of origins. 14. Genesis 3:17b asserts increasing entropy (from the time In these (latter?) days of naturalism and relativism, much specified forward) and renders evolution after the crea- emphasis has been placed on the transience and tenuousness tion impossible, the two being contradictory. of scientific models, attention being focused on the notion 15. The flood, recorded in Genesis 7:11 ff., was a planetary that such models, or paradigms, do not so much conflict with catastrophe that has invalidated all uniformitarian one another directly as they first eclipse and then replace one assumptions relative to ante-Noachian times and con- another. Although the scientific creationists pose today as the ditions and has rendered unreliable all scientific aggrieved allies of elemental fairness and simple justice (in techniques or data relative thereto. their plea that their paradigm be given equal time with the 16. There are and can be no data that actually contradict general theory of evolution), who is so naive as to disbelieve the preceding axioms singly, severally, or in toto. that they hope one day to eclipse that "dogma of secular humanism"? But what, precisely, is thelscientific paradigm Corollaries with which they would eclipse and then replace the godless, I. Since the biblical God has done what the Bible says of but religious, model of evolution? To make their paradigm him (axioms 6-8), having created the world in six or- complete and explicit, perhaps for the first time in print, I dinary days (Gen. 1:5-31), having created each type of liv- have axiomatized it and drawn four pertinent corollaries. ing thing by fiat, and having bidden each to bring forth after its own kind (Gen. 1:12, 21, 24), the origin of species Axioms of Scientific Creationism cannot have been evolutionary, whether conceived 1. There are souls. theistically or atheistically. 2. Human beings are, or have, souls. 2. Since no species evolved into another species prior to the

24 1 c~YPG o a institution of increasing entropy (corollary 1) and since The Book of Genesis no tran- none could have done so thereafter (axiom 14), 1 CHAPTER 1. given you every herb bearing seed, TN the beginning God created the which is upon the face of all the earth, sitional forms between species have been found in the heaven and the earth. and every tree, in the which is the 2 And the earth was without form, fruit of a tree yielding seed: to you fossil record or elsewhere, nor can any be found, there be- and void; and darkness was upon the it shall be for meat. face of the deep. And the Spirit of 30 And to every beast of the earth, ing none. God moved upon the face of the wa- and to every fowl of the air, and to ters. every thing that creepeth upon the 3. Despite putative scientific evidence to the contrary, the 3 TAnd God said, Let there be earth, wherein there IS life, I have light: and there was light. given every green herb for meat: and age of the earth cannot be calculated apart from 4 And God saw the light that tt was it was so. `ood: and God divided the light 31 And God saw every thing that geneological and historical information internal to the Bi- from the darkness. he had made, and, behold, it was very 5 And God called the light Her, good. And the evening and the morn- ble (axioms 8, 15). and the darkness he celled Night. ing were the sixth (lay. And the evening and the morning 4. Since God created the earth (Gen. 1:9-10) before the sun, were the first day. 2 CHAPTER 2. 6 ¶ And God said, Let there be a moon, and stars (Gen. 1:14-19), it follows that they are firmament in the midst of the HIS the heavens and the earth waters, and let it divide the waters T were finished, and all the host of younger, if only by one day, than the planet, despite any from the waters. them. 7 And God made the firmament, and 2 And on the seventh day God divided the waters which were under ended his work which he had made; scientific conjectures or contentions to the contrary (ax- the firmament from the waters which and he rested on the seventh day were above the firmament: and it was from all his work which he had made. iom 16). 3 And God blessed the seventh day, so. And God called the firmament and sanctified it: because that in it Clear though the axioms are (to all who are conversant Heaven. And the evening and the he had rested from all his work which morning were the second day. God created and made. ' with Judeo-Christian theology) and rigorously drawn though 9 ¶ And God said, Let the waters 4 ¶ These are the generations of the under the heaven be gathered to- heavens and of the earth when they the corollaries are, the paradigm of scientific creationism may ggether unto one place, and let the dry were created, in the day that the fatal appear: and it was so. LORD God made the earth and the still bemuse the reader. Thus, some may find the following ex- 10 And God called the dry land heavens, Earth; and the gathering together 5 And every plant of the field be- egesis helpful in rounding out the system and seeing it whole. of the waters called he Seas: and fore it was in the earth, and every God saw that it was good. herb of the field before it grew: for At first blush, axioms 1, 2, and 3 may seem superfluous, 11 And God said, Let the earth the LORD God had not caused it to bring forth grass, the herb yielding rain upon the earth, and there was not yet without these axioms scientific creationism would lose all seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit a man to till the ground. after his kind, whose seed is in itself. 6 But there went up a mist from vitality, its paradigm being no more than an intellectual upon the earth: and it was so. the earth, and watered the whole 12 And the earth brought forth face of the ground. rass, and herb yielding seed after his 7 And the LORD God formed man curiosity, like the creation myth of the Akkadians, for exam- kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose of the dust of the ground, and seed was in itself, after his kind: and breathed into his nostrils the breath ple. It is in the alleged fact that postmortem weal and woe God saw that It was good. of life; and man became a living 13 And the evening and the morning soul. await the human soul (whatever a soul is and however a were the third day. 8 ¶ And the LORD God planted a 14 ¶ And God said, Let there be garden eastward in F.'dén; and there human being is or possesses one) that counts. Scientific lights in the firmament of the heaven he put the man whom he had formed. to divide the day from the night; 9 And out of the ground made the creationists dread eternal hell as greatly as they yearn for and let them be for eigne, and for sea- LORD God to grow every tree that sons, and for days, and years: is pleasant to the sight, and good for everlasting bliss. food: the tree of life also in the 15 And let them be for lights in the midst of the garden, and the tree of Axiom 4 is meant to say less than it might seem to some to firmament of the heaven to give light knowledge of good and evil. upon the earth: and it was so. 10 And a river went out of E'dén to 16 And God made two great lights: water the garden: and from thence say. It is not intended to settle ancient and obdurate the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he it was parted, and became into four epistemological puzzles by announcement or superciliously made the stars also. heads. 17 And God set them in the firma- 11 The name of the first is Pi'son: demote such assertions as, "There is faith," and, "There is ment of the heaven to give light upon that is it which compasseth the whole the earth. land of Hfv'i-Iah, where there i.º gold; belief." It merely says that there is information available to 18 And to rule over the day and 12 And the gold of that land is good : over the night, and to divide the light there is bdelliunr and the onyx stone. human beings the consequences of which are made explicit in from the darkness: and God saw that 13 And the name of the second river it was good. is Gi'hon: the same is it that com- 19 And the evening and the morning passeth the whole land of E-thl-é'pi-A. axiom 5. were the fourth day. 14 And the naine of the third river 20 And God said. Let the waters is Hld'de-kél: that is it which goeth Concerning axiom 5, it should be noted that neither the bring forth abundantly the moving toward the east of As-sfr'f-d. And creature that hath life, and fowl the fourth river is E0-phrA'tés. God of the Koran (Allah) nor the God of the Bhagavad-Gita that may fly above the earth in the 15 And the LORD God took the open firmament of heaven. man, and put him into the garden of (Krishna), to take but two examples, will do. Allegedly, sav- 21 And God created great whales, Edén to dress it and to keep it. and every living creature that moveth. 16 And the LORD God commanded ing knowledge issues only from the God of the Holy Bible which the waters brought forth abun- the man, saying. Of every tree of the dantly, after their kind, and every garden thou mayest freely eat: (Yahweh or Jehovah). Nor will natural piety, probity, sobrie- winged fowl after his kind: and God 17 But of the tree of the knowledge saw that it was good. of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of ty, and the like suffice; neither will good works of a merely 22 And God blessed them, saying, it: for in the day that thou eatest Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the thereof thou shalt surely die. secular sort. Heretical or false are any beliefs, religious or waters in the seas, and let fowl multi- 18 ¶ And the LORD God said, 11 is ply in the earth. not good that the man should be otherwise, incompatible with those accepted by biblical 23 And the evening and the morn- alone; I will make him an help ing were the fifth day. meet for him. literalists, that is, by Christian fundamentalists. So-called 24 ¶ And God said. Let the earth 19 And out of the ground the LORD bring forth the living creature after God formed every beast of the field, his kind, cattle, and creeping thing. and every fowl of the air; and liberal Christians, or Modernists, may be liberal, or moder- and beast of the earth after his kind: brought them unto Ad'Ar to see what and it was so. he would call them: and whatsoever nistic, or both, but are not Christian. Neutral knowledge con- 25 And God made the beast of the Ad'Am called every living creature, earth after his kind, and cattle after that was the name thereof. sists of any kind of secular information, historical, scientific, their kind, and every thing that creep- 20 And Ad'Am gave names to all eth upon the earth after his kind: cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and literary, or practical, that is not inconsistent with saving and God saw that it was good. to every beast of the field; but for Ad'Am there was not found an help 26 F And God said. Let us make knowledge and does not, therefore, imperil the soul. man in our'image, after our likeness: meet for him. and let them have dominion over the 21 And the LORD God caused a deep Axiom 6 could hardly be plainer, nor is axiom 7 anything fish of the sea, and over the fowl of sleep to fall upon Ad'Am. and he slept: the air, and over the cattle, and over and he took one of his ribs, and but pellucid. Thus it is not their contents that need explicating all the earth, and over every creeping closed up the flesh instead thereof; thing that creepeth upon the earth. 22 And the rib, which the LORD God but, rather, the way they function together, each contributing 27 So God created man in his own had taken from man, made he a wo- image, in the image of God created man. and brought her unto the man. half to the circle of faith and each certifying the truth of the he him: male and female created 23 And Ad'Am said, This is now he them. bone of my bones, and flesh of my other. To say that Jack really did steal the giant's gold 28 And God blessed them, and God flesh: she shall be called Woman. said unto them. Be fruitful and because she was taken out of Man. multiply and replenish the earthan, d 24 Therefore shall a man leave his because it is written that he climbed the beanstalk is but a subduemultiply, and have dominion over father and his mother. and shall the fish of the lea, and over the fowl cleave unto his wife: and they shall pale reflection of this redoubt of religion, the Book certifying of a air, and over every living thing be one flesh. that moveth upon the earth. 25 And they were both naked. the the God who certifies the Book! man and his wife, and were not 29 1 And God said, Behold, I have ashamed. Axiom 8 necessitates that all apparent inconsistencies in the

Summer, 1981 25 Bible are just that — apparent. This, however, points up Scientists are not innocent of controversy, nor are they various curiosities in the two biblical accounts of creation. In strangers to intellectual combat. To illustrate, consider three the first chapter of Genesis, a primeval watery chaos (v. 2) cosmologies of our time: (A) the big-bang theory involving antedates the creation of light (v. 3), sky (v. 6), and earth (v. the once-only explosion of a primordial atom extruding all 9). Thereafter, God created the first living things, seed- matter into infinite space forever; (B) the steady-state theory bearing grasses, herbs, and fruit trees (v. 11). Next came sun, involving the spontaneous occurrence of matter in direct moon, and stars (v. 14-16). Then came fish and fowl (v. 20). proportion to its annihilation; and (C) the pulsating-universe On the final day of creation, cattle and creeping things came theory involving the explosion of a single atom containing all forth (v. 24), and, last of all, humankind, male and female (v. matter, followed by its extrusion into space, followed by its 27). But, not so, according to the second chapter of Genesis. retrieval gravitationally into a single' atom, followed by Gone is the primeval watery chaos, replaced by a parched another explosion, and so on, world without end. Partisans of earth containing as yet no living thing (v. 5). Then a mist each view have defended it more or less spiritedly while at- arose watering the whole face of the ground (v. 6), and God tacking rival views with relish. Furthermore, controversies made man of moistened earth (v. 7). Next, God planted a gar- have ebbed and flowed as to what is evidence and what the den in Eden and placed the man therein (v. 8). In due time, evidence, such as it is, implies, but at no time have the every tree pleasant to see and good for food came forth, in- adherents of any one view seen their opponents as more than cluding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (v. 9), a blind, muddled, mistaken, or, perhaps, a bit bullheaded. Cer- specimen of a species we no longer seem to possess. Having tainly they have not discerned the hand of Satan in rivals' put the man in the garden to tend it, God announced that it theories, nor have they believed postmortem weal and woe to was not good for the man to be alone and resolved to make a result from cosmological theorizing. It is here, however, that suitable helper for him (v. 18). Thereupon, God formed every the scientific creationists add something new to science, for to beast of the field and fowl of the air and brought them to them the cosmologies above (together with the general theory Adam to see what he would call them (v. 19), as though that of evolution) are not merely mistaken but are satanically in- exercise in nomenclature would help determine which would spired ideas used by the faithless to brainwash and pervert the be the most suitable helper. (Adam does not appear to have innocent, including schoolchildren, the souls of perverter and named the fishes, but, then, no fish would have made the perverted alike being imperiled by the very ideas at stake. So grade as a gardener.) Perceiving that none of the creatures much for axiom 10. named was altogether suitable for gardening (or whatever), It must be presumed that God can save whomever he will, God made woman from one of the man's ribs (v. 22) and, even a theistic evolutionist or other heretic. Still and all, dam- thus, prefigured cloning. ning knowledge is perilous, and neutral knowledge useless to To the profane eye, the two creation stories in Genesis con- salvation; hence the modest declaration of axiom 11. tain numerous inconsistencies, but these are only apparent. If Axioms 12 and 13 are fraternal twins and should be treated you, incredulous reader, should still demur and maintain that as such. The seventeenth chapter of Acts records St. Paul's (when taken together as inerrant) the two stories are hopeless- vexation over the idols of Athens. Encountering him in the ly paradoxical or incomprehensible, you will likely be told marketplace (still fuming no doubt), some Stoic and that though it may seem so to finite minds, to God's infinite Epicurean philosophers, wanting to hear what the visiting mind the two are true and consistent throughout. Moreover, it "seedpicker" (in the Greek, literally) would say (v. 18), took may be suggested, warningly, that there are some things un- him to the Areopagus to address them. Judging from the safe for finite minds to try to fathom. report that some mocked him while others deferred judgment Although the secular reader's credulity may, long since, (v. 32), it cannot have been a thoroughly successful day. But have been exceeded, the true believer's credulity has not, all of Paul took vengeance on such people in the first chapter of which introduces axiom 9, which contains the prescription for First Corinthians, and, by implication, on today's secular treating that condition should the need arise. Fortunately (for scientists and philosophers. Therein, one is led to believe that pedagogical purposes), the first chapter of Genesis contains God finds boasters insufferable, particularly those who boast information that far exceeds the credulity of many, if not all, of worldly wisdom (v. 26-30). Citing Isaiah (in v. 19) to the believers and forces them to use axiom 9's prescription. The effect that God will destroy the wisdom of the wise and information at issue is that from horizon to horizon and all thwart the cleverness of the clever, Paul puts wise men (i.e., across the top of the sky there is a vast body of water (v. 7). philosophers, broadly conceived) and rhetoricians (including Moreover, some of the rain, at least, that falls to earth comes logicians) on notice that their wisdom is foolish (v. 20). Since not from clouds but from beyond the orbit of the moon and in God's wisdom the worldly wise did not know the biblical the station of the sun, to say nothing of the stars, for they are God through natural knowledge, it pleased him to save all in the sky (v. 14), whereas the waters in question are above believers through the foolish message of the cross of Christ (v. it. Nor is this an unsupported inference: Genesis 7:11 and 8:2 21), which message Paul had delivered on the Areopagus and affirm it. To date, the author has encountered no believer who elsewhere. Indeed, God chose that moronic message for the gladly subscribes to this view, yet inerrant Scripture demands very purpose of shaming the wise (v. 27). In First Corinthians it. Such, then, is the motivation for allegorizing, parabolizing, 3:18, the saint avers that, if anyone is wise in (and of) his or otherwise piously altering the text(s) so that the believer's time, he should become a fool that he may be (truly) wise, credulity may not be stretched beyond its limits. that is, a candidate for salvation. The moral is obvious: The

26 arkrOvf boastful wise of our age (for example, evolutionists) ought to agnostic evolutionist whether that is appropriate or not, become as morons; for then the two creation stories in agreeable or not, to the individuals involved. The scientific Genesis, for example, would make sense to them and they creationist could not care less, for his is the true religion, all could qualify for salvation. others being false. Axiom 14 does not mean that the unaided Bible reader Second, there is no occasion in the scientific creationist's could have divined entropy prior to Clausius' introduction of life more triumphant than the one when his theory is con- the term in 1850 (or in ignorance of it today), nor that such a firmed (he thinks) through successful prediction. "If God reader could spontaneously intuit S = K log W (Boltzmann's created each species by fiat and commanded it to breed true, formulation of the measure of disorder) merely by reading there wouldn't be any fossils of transitional life-forms, would Genesis 3:17b, wherein it is said that God cursed the earth there?" he asks rhetorically, and then continues, "And there (following the fall of man). Axiom 14 merely means that God aren't any, so that proves the point." Scientific creationists do knew that increasing entropy was to be a fact from that time not appear to know, or to acknowledge, that deductive forward (until his creation of a new heaven and a new earth) arguments in the form of "If p is true, then q is true; q is true, and that progressive randomness and the simultaneous loss of therefore, p is true," are invalid. One might as well argue, available energy would deprive natural processes of the power adopting Plato's creation myth in Protagoras (320c-322d) as to evolve, that is, to go from the simple to the more complex axiomatic, that if Epimetheus rather than Prometheus (hind- and from the disorderly to the orderly. That God chose to sight rather than foresight) had been left in charge of dis- reveal his knowledge of entropy (even if darkly, in Genesis) tributing such attributes as great speed, natural armor, or long before Clausius and Boltzmann attests not only to the in- such built-in weapons as sharp teeth or claws and such in- errancy of the Scriptures but also to their prescience, thus teguments as feathery, furry, or scaly skin to the animals and heartening the scientific creationist in his lonely battle with man, then man would be left "naked, unshod, unbedded, and legions of profane scientists who see no inconsistency between unarmed." And, sure enough! That is man's natural condi- entropy and organic evolution. tion. So it must be Epimetheus, or somebody as bad, who Although axiom 15 'does not date the Noachian flood bungled the distribution of attributes and integuments. To relative to the creation or to these latter times, scientific return to the original example, the alleged absence of tran- creationists put the creation at no more than about 10,000 sitional forms in the fossil record could also be used as years ago, making the flood relatively recent. Profane science, plausibly to support panspermia (the idea that life came to on the contrary, has suggested such mind-boggling time spans earth from a natural but extraterrestrial source) as to support as ten or more billions of years as the age of the universe, the creationist position. four and a half billions of years as the age of the earth, and If the idea of divine creation by fiat is to be taken as an em- two or more millions of years as the age of hominids. pirical hypothesis and held to be confirmable, then one must Although these dates have been arrived at in a variety of know what would constitute unambiguous evidence for it and ways, they share a common assumption, namely, that certain for no other hypothesis. Even if it were true that no tran- physical processes occurring today occurred at roughly sitional forms exist either in the fossil record or elsewhere, similar rates in remote times. But this assumption founders one could still not conclude that the biblical God (Why that on the flood, which was so catastrophic that extrapolation one and not another?) had probably created each species of from today's uniform processes to anything that happened living thing by fiat, only that it might have been the case that prior to that time is impossible. For example, carbon-14 some deity or other did it. Furthermore, if that hypothesis is dating of human remains back to the time of the flood may be really subject to confirmation, then it is also vulnerable to dis- reliable in some cases, but no techniques indicating dates confirmation. In short, one would need to know what would prior to that alleged event are reliable. Thus all hopes for a pre-deluge geology or archaeology must be abandoned, the Bible alone furnishing information about such times. Scien- tific doubts about the flood itself or about the alleged catastrophic effects of it are unfounded. After all, when God tells a story any part of it confirms any other part of it. Unlike other sciences, creation science cannot be discon- firmed, according to axiom 16, nor does it require more con- firmation than it already enjoys, God himself certifying its truth. Thus, whereas other sciences are relative, dubious at times, modifiable, and of human or even of satanic origin, it is absolute, certain, static, and divine. Of the four corollaries, three observations suffice. First, the scientific creationist shares the mentality underlying the religious division of humankind into Jew and Gentile, Chris- tian and heathen, Shi'ite Moslem and infidel, true believer and all others. Thus, the Christian evolutionist is read out of the true faith and lumped together with the atheistic or

Summer, 1981 27 serve as evidence against the idea as well as what would serve in favor of it. Here the scientific creationist shows his true colors (the antiscience in his makeup); for, as corollaries 1 and 2 show, he has rejected in advance any possibility of dis- New Evidence: The confirmatory evidence. If any is offered, such as a fossil taken by some experts at least to signify evolution, he will automatically deny that it is a transitional form and will also cast aspersions on its dating if it is said to be older than the is a Noachian flood. Third, scientific creationists do all in their power to make the evolutionist pay the full price of his paradigm. Without Joe Nickell defending evolution (with or without abiogenesis) any more than defending panspermia (directed or undirected), or any Could it be a "self-portrait of Christ" imprinted on his burial other conceivable means for life's earthly origin, this piece has cloth—what one glib writer called "the first Polaroid in attempted, rather, to make the scientific creationist pay the Palestine"? Or is the image of a bearded, six-foot-tall, ap- parently crucified man merely "cunningly painted," as a full price of his paradigm. Nowhere is that price higher than medieval bishop claimed? in corollaries 3 and 4. To learn the age of the earth, for exam- Is the controversial Shroud of Turin authentic or spurious? ple, one has but to date the Noachian flood (a most dubious Relic or graven image? Recent microchemical tests have now occurrence, like the amazing beanstalk that Jack climbed) provided the long-awaited answer. To put these tests into and then reckon back, using the ages of the antediluvian perspective, however, some background data is in order. patriarchs (very shadowy figures at best, if individuals at all), The earliest mention of the shroud was in 1389 in a letter toward the days of man's miraculous creation. Finally, having from Pierre d'Arcis, Bishop of Troyes in northern France, to established that date, one reckons back three more days and Clement VII, the Avignon Pope. D'Arcis claimed that, when presto! there is the answer, the sun, moon, and stars, of the shroud was first exhibited (circa 1356) in nearby Lirey, it course, being one day younger than the earth and two days provoked skepticism among "theologians and other wise per- sons." As a result, the bishop Henri de Poitiers had conducted older than mankind. This should astound all noncreationist an investigation. Henri, said d'Arcis, uncovered a scandal: astrophysicists, geologists, paleontologists, and physical "Pretended miracles were worked, certain men being hired to anthropologists. But let the lost be astounded — and con- represent themselves as healed at the moment of the exhibition founded! of the shroud." But d'Arcis added: "Eventually, after diligent Such, in conclusion, is the paradigm of scientific inquiry and examination, he [Henri] discovered the fraud and creationism, and such is the new and improved "Brand So- how the said cloth had been cunningly painted, the truth being and-So" being offered for public consumption in general and attested by the artist who had painted it." (My emphasis.) promoted in particular for forced feeding in the elementary Following Henri de Poitier's investigation, the shroud had and secondary schools, and even in higher education. Is the been hidden away; but it had surfaced again, prompting d'Ar- product really new and improved? No, it's the same old tripe cis to lay the facts before Clement. D'Arcis, who had con- ducted a further investigation, stated: "I offer myself here as that so exercised William Jennings Bryan in Dayton, ready to supply all information sufficient to remove any doubt Tennessee, in 1925. Is it, then, that the package alone is new? concerning the facts alleged." In contrast, the owners of the Yes, due in particular to that eye-catching but bewitching shroud, the de Charny family, refused to say how they had ac- word scientific in "scientific creationism," which would seem quired the purported relic. to distinguish it from plain old biblical creationism. Does this That refusal argues in favor of the bishop's claim that the mean that the package is misleading? Yes, by proclaiming it shroud was the handiwork of a confessed forger. So does other scientific, the package makes the product a fraud. evidence. First, there is no New Testament mention of an im- The questions and answers above raise other questions, aged shroud. (Indeed, John describes—in the case of Lazarus questions whose answers will be fraught with significance for as well as Jesus—not a single length of linen but burial clothes, our civic and religious lives. In constitutional terms, who may with a separate cloth called the "napkin" covering the face.) A buy this product and use it on children as the buyer sees fit? mid-1350s artistic origin for the shroud is further suggested by the lack of historical record at that time (the bishops had Has the state no legitimate concern that creationist fictions wondered where it had been for 1300 years) and also by the are now being taught as scientific facts to credulous children resemblance of thefigure'to those of gothic art. in private Christian schools? Respecting the public schools, However, in 1898, when the shroud was first photographed, who may or must buy this product and use it equally with its a startling new discovery was made, a discovery that renewed chief rival? Who may disregard it safely, or must reject it the claims for authenticity. As he developed his photographic decisively, teaching as science, rather, that which results from plates, Secondo Pia was astonished to see positive images. natural human inquiry alone, inquiry innocent of revelations Clearly, that meant the images on the cloth itself were true and of the miraculous, to say nothing of the supersensuous and the divine? Such are the questions (moral, legal, and Joe Nickell teaches at the University of Kentucky and is close- pedagogical) that scientific creationists are forcing the rest of ly associated with a group of scientists doing independent us to ask — and answer. It is not, after all, the sort of product research and evaluation of the Shroud of Turin's authenticity. one can simply take or leave on a private basis. •

28 r Shroud of Turin Forgery

negatives. And surely, the thinking went, no medieval forger Herbert Thurston, were tireless critics. Art expert Erwin could have created such "photographic" images. Panofsky dismissed what he termed the "notorious" Shroud of Self-styled "sindonologists" (sindon is Greek for shroud) Turin on iconographic grounds. And the modern attempt to began to hypothesize about how the negative images might account for the shroud's lack of provenance, by equating it have originated. The first hypothesis supposed that the images with the legendary Veronica's Veil (which, in any case, bore resulted from simple contact between the cloth and a body only a facial image), got short shrift from historians such as Sir covered with sweat, oils, and burial spices. However, ex- Steven Runciman. Recently, a distinguished New York perimentation dispro,ved the notion. Several investigators pathologist, Dr. Michael M. Baden, countered the so-called (myself included) showed that seriously distorted images are "medical" evidence, flagellation marks and all. One telltale in- produced when cloth is wrapped about a fully three- dication of forgery, he noted, is the appearance of the scalp dimensional form (body or statue) and then stretched flat wounds: "When the scalp bleeds," Dr. Baden stated in Medical again. Also, not all of the "body" areas that had imprinted World News (Dec. 22, 1980), "it doesn't flow in rivulets; the would have been touched by a simple draped cloth. blood mats the hair." And writing in L'Histoire (February Because of the latter fact, many sindonologists began to 1980), French biologist and shroud critic Marcel Blanc theorize that the image-forming process must have acted reported that his calculations placed the location of the nail across a distance, and thus was born the "vaporograph wounds in the palms, not in the wrists as sindonologists claim theory." This held that ammoniacal vapors (from morbid The decade of the 1970s saw the first scientific tests of the sweat) reacted with burial spices on the cloth (compared to a shroud. An official commission (1969-1976) was appointed in sensitized photographic plate) to produce a vapor "photo." secrecy. When that fact was leaked to the press by a disgruntl- Unfortunately, vapors diffuse rather than travel in straight ed sindonologist, it was denied by Turin church authorities, lines, and all that would be produced would be a blur. who later "were forced to admit what they had previously Finally, in recent years, a number of sindonologists have denied" (Robert K. Wilcox, Shroud, Macmillan, 1977, p. 44). postulated a miracle: Perhaps a burst of energy at the moment Finally, in 1976, the commission report was published. of resurrection somehow "X-rayed" or "scorched" the image A number of threads had been removed from the "blood" onto the cloth! This hypothesis would withstand an objection areas and were tested by the commission's forensic experts. to the previous hypotheses—that is, that no burial cloth in the The tests were negative for peroxidase, species, blood- history of the world has ever exhibited such images. Now the grouping, and so on. Reddish granules were found in the sindonologists had a ready explanation for this: The images on "blood" images on the threads, but these would not even dis- the shroud were unique because Christ's resurrection was uni- solve; and the forensic scientists suggested the "blood" stains que. Moreover, as with vaporography (except for the substitu- were probably due to painting. Two other commission experts tion of magical rays for vapors) a "short burst of radiation" offered a suggestion as to the negative "body" imprints: They would act across a distance, and, in theory at least, could ex- thought these had been produced by some artistic printing plain the shroud images. (As we shall soon see, however, this technique using a model or molds. hypothesis too could be disproved.) Later, sindonologists played down this damaging evidence If they were not unanimous as to the cause of the images, and the skepticism, while on the other hand someone circulated sindonologists seemed to agree that the images exhibited an erroneous report. It alleged that pollen fossils found on the realistic details—flagellation marks, nails in the wrists (rather fibers conclusively placed the cloth in first-century Palestine! than the palms), and so forth—details that a medieval forger (Actually, the pollens could have originated during or after the would not have been expected to supply. fourteenth century and, since pollens are windborne for great Skeptics were not convinced. They noted that the "blood" distances — from Florida to New York, for example — the stains were suspiciously still red and "picturelike"—consistent presence of the pollens means very little, as many sin- with artistry but not with the transfer of real blood to cloth. donologists agree.) Besides, wouldn't wet blood have caused the cloth to adhere to Further tests were begun in 1978 by scientists from a group the body? And how could dried blood (as on the arms) have known as the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP), transferred at all? Then there was the linen cloth: It was in whose leaders are on the Executive Council of the Holy Shroud amazingly good condition for its reputed age; and it was of a Guild, a pro-authenticity organization . particular, complex, three-to-one herringbone twill weave, no Some of STURP's tests were inconclusive at best, but one samples of which are known to date from the first century. was certainly instructive: Ultraviolet fluorescence photography Distinguished scholars joined in the skepticism. Catholic revealed that, while known scorches from a 1532 chapel fire theologians, notably Canon Ulysse Chevalier and Father fluoresced, the "body" images did not fluoresce, the obvious

Summer, 1981 29 inference being that the images are not scorches as theorized. ding medium, and he observed that particles of the pigment Thus the "scorch" hypothesis went the way of the "contact" were indeed "held together with, most likely, an organic and "vaporography" hypotheses, leaving the sindonologists binder." His tests for such binders as egg albumen, starch without any viable hypothesis of image formation. paste, milk casein, and drying oils (e.g., linseed, walnut, etc.) Another STURP approach involved two scientists attemp- were negative; however, his direct chemical tests were positive ting to conduct a belated series of tests on a single sample, for a collagen (gelatin) tempera, known to have been used in vaguely identified as coming "from one of the blood areas." the Middle Ages. Although it has been claimed otherwise, the results did not McCrone considered the possibility that an artist had touch- confirm the presence of hemoglobin. The STURP results were ed up a preexisting (genuine) image, but he is now persuaded recently reviewed by forensic analyst John Fischer, a court- that "the entire image has been applied to the cloth by a highly acknowledged expert in the microchemical identification of skilled and well-informed artist." Specifically, since there are blood stains. Fischer concluded that the spectroscopic test had no brush marks, McCrone believes the tempera paint was been (as the scientists admitted) inconclusive and that a further rubbed on. chemical test was merely indicative of some kind of I concur. Earlier, in the November/December 1978 issue of porphyrinic material. The test was not specific for the Humanist and in the November 1979 Popular hematoporphyrins (and therefore not specific for blood) and Photography, I reported on my own successful experiments in from a forensic standpoint, says Fischer, the results mean very creating shroudlike negative images. The technique is similar little. Besides, by failing to use a good micro technique, the to that used in doing a rubbing of a grave slab. Briefly, it in- scientists spoiled their sample so that further tests were im- volves molding wet cloth to a bas-relief and, when it is dry, possible! rubbing on pigment. I originally used a mixture of myrrh and In all, thirty-six samples were taken from the shroud by aloes (the burial spices mentioned in the Gospel of John). But pressing sticky tape on the cloth and then mounting the various I have since experimented with making medieval-style red tapes onto microscope slides. Thirty-two of the samples, taken ochre tempera (like that identified by Dr. McCrone) and us- from image, off-image, and "blood" areas, were submitted to ing it for such rubbing images. Dr. Walter McCrone of the McCrone Research Institute in The rubbing technique not only duplicates the Chicago. McCrone is a distinguished microscopist, an author "photographic" aspect — the negative imagery — of the of The Particle Atlas, and is famous for proving Yale's shroud, but it reproduces the nonphotographic aspects as well. "Vineland Map" a forgery. (For example, there are areas within the outlines of the figure Using polarized light microscopy, McCrone discovered — that have not printed at all.) The technique has "inherent edge- on the "body" and "blood" images only — a considerable blurring properties"; and the gradation of tones and their amount of iron oxide "identical in appearance (color, arrangement gives the illusion of an image-forming process pleochroism, shape, size, crystallinity, refractive indices, and having acted across a distance. When herringbone-twill-weave birefringence) to the particles of hydrous and anhydrous iron fabric (like that of the shroud) is used, still other characteristics oxide particles, collectively known as iron earth pigment, used are produced (e.g., a tendency toward tonal striping in relation since the days of the caveman." to the weave). And there are numerous other similarities. Before considering McCrone's additional findings, it is This technique was well within medieval capabilities. In fact, amusing to note the response of some sindonologists to the rubbings had been used in Europe some two centuries before presence of the iron oxide. STURP's Ray Rogers was quoted the shroud suddenly appeared at Lirey. And the technique is by UPI as saying: "One theory was that keeping the shroud in consistent with the suggestion of the commission experts, men- an iron chest might have caused accumulations of iron oxide tioned above, that some artistic printing technique was particles to gravitate to the image area, if there was anything in employed. Rubbing is a simple form of printing. the image area to attract iron." This suggestion caused con- Radiocarbon dating of the shroud is, of course, warranted; siderable thigh-slapping among skeptics. Another example? but it is still being refused — even though a tiny sample the size According to a New York Times article, STURP's Dr. John of the tip of one's little finger would yield sufficient material Adler "believes that the shroud naturally absorbed iron oxide for several tests. in water during the linen's formation." Still, the evidence to date — of tempera paint on the image In any case, McCrone made it clear that the particles he areas, together with a demonstrable technique for producing observed were not due to rust; nor, incidentally, were they a shroudlike images, plus the report of the forger's confession product of blood. They were "pure hematite crystals," he told and other evidence -- should leave little doubt in the minds of a September 1980 meeting of the British Society for the Turin reasonable people that the so-called "Shroud" of Turin is a Shroud. (Hematite was a source for medieval iron oxide medieval fake. pigment.) At this writing I am not aware of any official response from McCrone subsequently published two reports on his fin- STURP to Dr. McCrone's findings. However, according to the dings, which amounted to a double-barreled charge against Catholic Herald, this overwhelming new evidence has produc- authenticity. (See The Microscope, vol. 28, 1980, pp. 105-128.) ed at least one sindonological casualty: The Reverend David In addition to the iron oxide pigment — generally known as Sox, long-time sindonologist and secretary of the British red ochre or Venetian Red — McCrone found a significant Society for the Turin Shroud, now doubts the alleged relic is amount of artist's vermilion. He further discovered trace authentic and has resigned his position. amounts of such other pigments as rose madder, orpiment, and By way of contrast, when I told an acquaintance that an in- ultramarine, which suggested the shroud was created in an ar- ternationally known expert had shown the image had been tist's studio. done in tempera, he replied that that did not necessarily mean Moreover, McCrone discovered that in association with the the shroud was a fake. "God," he said, "can work with red ochre was a yellow stain that had the properties of a bin- anything he wants to." •

30 Fie Lnq ii3/' Many modern skeptics deny that they are atheists, insisting that they are agnostics. What is the meaning of agnosticism? We have asked H.J. Blackham to share his reflections with us — Ed. What is Agnosticism?

H. J. Blackham Winds of Doctrine As a definition of the limits of knowledge, "agnosticism" was the best preparation for the most complete competence needs to be understood historically. Summarily and roughly, attainable. There was no institution devised by man that the philosophy at the time of Plutarch (first century A.D.) offered power of speech had not helped to establish (Antidosis). The six positions: on the one hand, a dogmatic Idealism or art of rhetoric and the art of thought were the same. The Materialism; on the other, skepticism, pragmatism, eclec- ability to deliberate and decide was the most versatile and ticism, or fideism. The names of Plato and Democritus can be useful of all abilities. This was to recommend and to teach put at the head of the dogmatic traditions; Pyrrho has lent his method instead of doctrine, an open approach which, if it did name to fundamental skepticism; Isocrates made immensely not turn opinions into doctrines with the claim of knowledge, influential a pragmatic view of philosophy; and Plutarch in the manner of the schools, provided a foundation for higher himself was the preeminent representative of a rational and education and intellectual culture, a literary humanism oc- ethical eclecticism. Perhaps Tertullian, if not Saint Paul, cupied with large human affairs and concerns and addressed represents the constraints of fideism after Christian faith concretely to manifest problems with all the seriousness, but came into contact and conflict with Greek gnosticism. not necessarily with the detachment and never with the The case for each of these positions was spelled out in ver- dryness, of the philosophic spirit. Isocrates was the most il- bal argument. Plato, in the Sophist (246-247), generalizes the lustrious teacher of his time and made his school "the image permanent irreconcilable conflict between Idealists and of Athens." The pupils of Athens, as he said, became "the Materialists as a Battle of Gods and Giants, which transcends teachers of the rest of the world" (Panegyricus). the differences of particular schools. He acknowledged the However, the arguments of a discourse were not tautologies difficulties of the Idealist position; but he confidently assumed that could be ended with a Euclidean flourish: Q.E.D. The that they could not be insuperable, because knowledge was wits exercised in such performances were capable of produc- not to be had on other terms. He believed in the immortality ing a plausible argument on the other side that might be made of the rational soul and the real existence of the objects of its to seem not less persuasive. Indeed, Protagoras had laid it knowledge, which must be intelligible Ideas or Forms, in- down that there are two sides to every question and an op- dependent of sense perceptions. Protagoras had already posing argument to any proposed, and he taught how to attack sounded the agnostic note, it may be said, with his "of all and refute any proposition. Since he also first introduced the things the measure is Man," and explicitly: "As to the gods, I Socratic method of dialogue and drew attention to distinc- have no means of knowing either that they exist or that they tions of tense and mood and to divisions of discourse, he do not exist." But it is Isocrates who opposed the whole bent pioneered development of the technical resources of argu- of academic philosophy in his development of the rationaliz- ment, as well as exploiting for profit the tricks of the trade. ing Enlightenment of the sophists, a rationalism critical of Thus eristic theory and techniques, and what was sometimes and ready to ridicule "pure reason," the "phronesis" or idea called "methodics," became central to philosophy; and a high of wisdom, which was the nuclear element in the development proportion of a philosopher's output was in this category, in- of Plato's thought. This attainable intuitional knowledge was cluding even collections of refutative arguments, solutions of for Plato not only a view of all time and all existence sub controversial questions, materials for argument, unscientific specie aeternitatis but also the indispensable source of the proofs, and the like. Diogenes Laertius listed many such right ordering of personal life and public affairs. Isocrates works among the writings of Aristotle and Aristotle's pupil argued that no such knowledge was attainable that would suf- and successor, Theophrastus. Aristotle himself distinguished fice for all occasions and all purposes. Instead, he maintained, between methods for attaining knowledge, principally cultivation of the art of discourse, relevant to the whole life of philosophical analysis, and methods of arguing in favor of the civilized man and dealing with great causes and large ideas, probable, principally dialectic. With all this development of technical resources and H.J. Blackham is former president of the British Humanist refinements in argument in classical philosophy, there was no Association and the author of many books on humanism and knock-out device to determine a definitive outcome. On the philosophy. scientific side, there were systematic collections of obser- vations in the search for causes, particularly in Aristotle's in- numerable notebooks. But it is not too much to say that the

Summer, 1981 31 manipulation of arguments and the collection of evidence I had rather believe all the fables in the Legend, and (save of the kind needed in legal prosecution or defense) the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal remained different disciplines and separate interests in frame is without a mind. And therefore God never classical philosophy. wrought miracle to convince atheism, because His or- At the same time, the effect on higher education of dinary works convince it. It is true that a little Isocrates' advocacy and successful practice of the art of dis- philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism; but closure as the primary intellectual discipline can hardly be ex- depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to aggerated. It was a discipline that prepared men for public af- religion: for while the mind of man looketh upon se- fairs and public employment. Themes for exercises were taken cond causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, from literature, history, and moral philosophy to train men and go no farther; but when it beholdeth the chain of for pleading in the courts, arguing for causes in political them confederate and linked together, it must needs assemblies, entertaining cultivated audiences, or simply mak- fly to Providence and Deity. Nay, even that school ing up their own minds. This was the foundation of the which is most accused of atheism doth most literary humanism so conspicuously successful in the Roman demonstrate religion; that is, the school of Leucippus world at the time of the "Second Sophistic" (first two cen- and Democritus, and Epicurus. For it is a thousand turies A.D.) and in Europe during the Renaissance. times more credible, that four mutable elements, and one immutable fifth essence duly and eternally The First Turning-Point placed, need no God; than that an army of infinite small portions, or seeds unplaced, should have In the second half of the sixteenth century, Montaigne read produced this order and beauty without a divine himself into the classical inheritance for a different purpose marshall. ["Of Atheism"] — on a course of free inquiry. He discovered the interminable Thus the clear-sighted Bacon, looking backward and forward inconclusiveness of argument and the sterility of verbal and setting the minds of his contemporaries on the bright philosophy, and he ended with the ultimate doubt: Que sais-je? prospects opening up for empirical investigation and the Blown, like Augustine, by the winds of doctrine, he could not technological manipulation of nature, had not in his own feel safe in any of the positions; even skepticism was too un- mind set science free from metaphysical assumptions and in- justifiably conclusive. Pascal, reporting to his confessor on his terests. reading, told him that he most respected Epictetus and Mon- taigne and, in summarizing their opinions for him, he said God on Trial that Montaigne had shown that the surest way to understand a discourse was to take it as it appeared and refrain from any During this "century of genius," which produced the first examination, which would at once reveal difficulties and raise spectacular fruits of modern science, those working in the doubts. This is the professional routine of the philosopher and fields of investigation did, like Bacon, assume that they were shows how brittle is the most careful discourse and how piecing together the divine design, enabled, as Kepler said, to treacherous verbal answers are to free inquiry. "think the thoughts of God." Studying together, fraternally, A little later, Francis Bacon, who, like Montaigne, was the works of God, they were more blessed than students of the painfully aware that the whole legacy of classical philosophy Word of God, who had taxed each other with heresy and was a discouragement to learning, set himself the task of soaked in blood the centuries beginning anno Domini. Science reviving hope with a vision of the future inspired by the early was another road to God, a second, less disputable revelation. successes of empirical methods of testing hypotheses. The Professional scientists, led by Newton, were amateur loose, but reasonable, appeal to experience had to be refined theologians. Since there was an order in nature that was being as an appeal to a specifically devised experience constructed unraveled, it was only reasonable to assume, with Bacon, that to test a particular theory. Within its limits, this was a it was the work of a rational, purposive intelligence that link- decisive way of settling theoretical disputes. Novum Organum ed and sustained the whole. The onus was on anyone who (1620) spelled out the new method of learning, which was to thought otherwise to face the odds and justify his own displace the literary humanism of Isocrates as the foundation irrationality. John Locke, who enthusiastically welcomed the of a positivist culture, obtaining knowledge piecemeal and new regime of empirical investigation and sought to provide cooperatively, provisional, corrigible, progressive, to be its theoretical credentials, and who downgraded philosophers applied to "the relief of man's estate." Bacon, godfather of from architects of knowledge to under-laborers on the site of the Royal Society and acknowledged master of the building operations, caring for the tools and preparing the philosophes in Diderot's Encylopédie, left the winds of doc- ground, also was witness for the reasonableness of religious trine to blow where they listed and gave his attention to belief and excluded atheists from his republic of toleration — cultivation of the soil. In particular, his organum was a on the ground that they were not bound by an oath. God was replacement of the magisterial Metaphysics of Aristotle and necessary politically as well as intellectually. made way for the atomic model of Democritus. All the same, This general assumption that the new. learning of science he did not set aside or put in question the assumption of would not only establish positive knowledge but also bring its theism. On the contrary, he counted on the new learning to proofs to the overbeliefs that had been justified by unscientific fortify belief: proofs lasted till the end of the eighteenth century. It has been

32 Ttsw;R-wkir said that during this period "God was on trial." to a supreme intelligence. Biological studies were sooner to encounter doubts and difficulties for a teleological view. The Second Turning-Point 'When the evidence produced by Darwin, and his theories, showed the possibility of an order in nature that was not pur- The critical philosophy of David Hume, reinforced later by posive, a turning-point was reached. The ambiguity of Kant (who said that Hume had awakened us from "dogmatic "reason" in the interpretation of nature became apparent. slumbers"), put in question the status and character of There were reasons for what had happened, but not necessari- positive knowledge. He pointed out that it was simply ly any reason. The absurdity of unbelief in a supreme reason knowledge of regular sequences and coexistences as presented (with or without capitals) was exposed as an unwarranted to our observation of phenomena and did not carry or imply assumption. It was at this point that T.H. Huxley, Darwin's knowledge of causes, powers, natures, essences, or purposes. advocate, invented the word "agnosticism" (1869) to reinstate This began the dissociation of science from metaphsyics, sur- the position of Protagoras. The onus was shifted from the rendering any claim on its behalf to answer general questions. shoulders of the unbeliever to justify his perversity, to the With the steady progress of the sciences and the analytical shoulders of the believer to justify his belief, to show why he attention of philosophers to what scientists were doing, it should be taken seriously. became abundantly clear that science was capable of dealing (2) More indirectly, and on all fronts, scientific evidence only with questions arising in the course of a line of research has demolished the world in which traditional theological that were formulated in a way to provide answers that could beliefs originated and developed. To bring them out of their be tested. Loose questions, general questions, first and last context, to demythologize and reinterpret them is a delicate, questions, the traditional metaphysical questions, were not of maybe gratuitous, task for modern theologians; so their sur- a kind with which science was, or would ever be, competent to vival is more remarkable than impressive. Argument will go deal. During the period of trial science not only had not prov- on, as always, and becomes ever more refined or ed the existence of God, it had not even been able to do sophisticated; and when religious beliefs are concerned, argu- anything to reinforce the assumption. Laplace declared that ment is not the whole matter and, for many, not the main he had no need of that hypothesis, and of course he had none. matter. Intellectually, however, a disregard for religious His statement was really about the irrelevance of that beliefs does not have to be justified, as once it had, with its hypothesis to scientific business, not about its truth claim. back to the wall. The boot is on the other foot. Historically, Thus, to look back at Bacon's statement in "Of Atheism," "agnosticism" does not merely mean a suspension of judg- God's ordinary works as studied in the sciences did not "con- ment. Rather, it means intellectual justification for a dis- vince atheism," since they were preoccupied with "second regard of theology. • causes scattered" and went no farther. He had begged the question when he went farther to say that Providence and Deity were necessary to link them in a chain, a rational order. WE INVITE YOU Auguste Comte, too, anticipated the issue when he announced TO SUBSCRIBE at the end of his Cours philosophique in 1851 that the ser- vants of Humanity, theorists and practical persons, had Subscription Rates irrevocably displaced the slaves of God and taken the One Year $12.00 management of earthly affairs into their own hands, to con- struct at last the true providence: moral, intellectual, and Two Years 20.00 material. Comte said he was not an atheist because that was Three Years 27.00 to take theology seriously, whereas the ages of theology and metaphysics were past and done with, succeeded by the Single Issue 3.00 positive sciences. On the side counter to Bacon in this respect, Payment enclosed ❑ Bill Me ❑ Comte claimed too much for the competence of science. But the overweening claims of theology were being checked, the Name onus on the unbeliever to justify his perverse irrationality reversed. Address Logically, there was a return to the position of Protagoras after the lapse of more than two millennia. Science could not City State Zip cope with metaphysical questions. They belonged as before to Add $2.00 for Canadian the about, the about of interminable inconclusive argument. Add $3.00 outside U.S.A. Had science, then, made no difference? If metaphysical theories were irrelevant to the sciences, were scientific fin- dings equally irrelevant to metaphysical theories? Even abstract arguments rely on evidence. The answer can be given Box 5, Central Park Station in two main installments. Buffalo, New York 14215 (1) The physical sciences in their earlier stages seemed to offer models of harmony and design, eminently attributable

Summer, 1981 33 Reflections on Science and Religion

George V. Tomashevich

The conflict between science and religion, which has been evi- acceptance of statements on faith. In science, self-revision dent for several hundred years, continues unabated. Today it is usually leads to self-improvement and progress; in religion, it manifest in the disputes between the proponents of literalist in- usually leads to "heresy" and "perdition." terpretations of the Bible, who defend theories of creation, and Politically and economically, both scientists and religionists representatives of the scientific theories of evolution. What is have been associated with every segment of the spectrum of the appropriate relationship between science and religion in preferences, from the far right to the far left; but, for the most general, and especially in this context? part, scientists tend to be more receptive to change than Science is an admittedly imperfect, but self-critical and self- religionists. While both scientists and religionists may, as a correcting, method of testing hypotheses by experimentation, rule, favor the established and familiar, both at various times verification, and validation. It seeks systematically related have fought for the new and unfamiliar, even to the point of bodies of factual knowledge that are conducive to statistically martyrdom. probable prediction. Both scientists and religionists may be either "conservative" Religion makes a scrupulous distinction between the and repressive or "liberal" and permissive regarding sexual "sacred" and the "profane." It seeks to propitiate, supplicate, matters, but, generally speaking, scientists tend to be more and humor "spiritual" powers that are supposedly superior to open about the subject and more at ease with it. human beings and are believed to regulate and control the un- Irrespective of their profound epistemological differences, iverse and human destiny. Usually associated with myths of both science and religion can serve humane or inhumane social origin and eschatological beliefs in a world to come, religion causes, both can lead to liberation or enslavement, and both prescribes moral rules of behavior that allegedly lead to salva- can relieve or inspire anxiety and fear. As adaptive devices, tion as a relief from, and a reward for, suffering endured here both science and religion are not the ends, but only the means, and now. Religious rituals, legends, and prophecies often in- of human behavior, which may be subject to manipulation and spire culturally significant works in architecture, sculpture, abuse. Either can be socially useful or harmful, therapeutic or painting, literature, music, dance, and other art forms. traumatic, constructive or destructive. Science depends upon research; religion, upon revelation. In general, religion is "warm" and science is "cold." Insofar Science is typically naturalistic; religion, typically super- as questioning and skepticism tend to upset the status quo, naturalistic. Science is expected to be anti-dogmatic, flexible, science is less comforting and emotionally less satisfying than and dynamic; religion is often inflexible and static. Science is a religion. Those thirsting after ultimate certainty and security never-ending quest for truth, albeit incomplete and imperfect; are not likely to be satisfied by the methods and conclusions of religion is the observance and worship of supposedly complete science and its practitioners. Science seeks knowledge about and perfect truth revealed once and for all. this world, wherever it may lead. Religion seeks "salvation" Science is predominantly rational; religion is predominantly from it, even at the price of illusion. emotional. Science is anti-mythological and anti-magical; Though from vastly different perspectives and for religion is usually associated with myth and magic. Science is significantly different reasons, both science and religion deal tentative, even about the proved; religion is "certain," even with the cosmological problems of the world's beginning and about the unproved. To science, doubt is a virtue; to religion,it its end, its infinity or finiteness in space and time. Some is frequently a sin. Science encourages questioning; religion religionists believe in creatio ex nihilo; others, along with most (with the exception of some Buddhist groups) encourages scientists, do not. To some people the world is absurd without religion; to others it is absurd without science; and to still George Tomashevich is professor of anthropology at the State others it is absurd and pointless despite both of these. Some University College at Buffalo. religionists, such as Teilhard de Chardin, accept the evidence

34 Fixee Inviiy for evolution, but many, or most, continue to reject it in favor disputes, since science and theology are abstractions incapable of special creation. of quarreling. The crux of the matter in all these tragic cases It is sometimes mistakenly argued that, while religion is was the church's dogmatic and authoritarian insistence on its ethically committed, science is ethically neutral. In fact, even if supernaturally "justified" and theologically rationalized science itself could be conceived in "value-free" terms, its part- monopoly of "divinely entrusted" truth. time practitioners, the scientists, as full-time human beings, In his ardent wish for peace and harmony between them, could not. The goals, methods, and applications of science are Pupin tried to convince himself that "science and religion, the very much a matter of ethical concern among scientists; and, if physical and the spiritual realities, supplement each other." At they do not always reach an easy consensus, neither do the the end of his work, he ventured to predict that "if the signs of theologians. the times do not deceive then there is a universal drift toward On such problematic issues as birth control, artificial in- this mental attitude. This drift I call the New Reformation." semination, abortion, cloning, genetic engineering, and psy- Unfortunately, history has not yet confirmed this wishfully chological conditioning "beyond freedom and dignity," scien- optimistic prediction. Even the almost universal separation of tists and secular philosophers are almost as divided as the church and state has not always produced a harmonious and clergy. Besides, a number of scientists are religious in one sense unproblematic interaction between organized science and or another, and a number of the ordained are scientists. organized religion. In 1925, as a result of the infamous "Scopes Monkey Trial" II in Dayton, Tennessee, a young high school teacher lost his job More than half a century ago, Michael Pupin, a noted Colum- for teaching evolution. Throughout the trial, William Jennings bia University physicist and Pulitzer Prize winner, pondered Bryan, the fiery fundamentalist orator, insisted on the ex- the delicate and difficult relationship between science and clusive "validity" of a literal interpretation of Genesis, while religion as mental attitudes and social institutions. The atheist lawyer Clarence Darrow stoutly defended the theory of problems he considered then are still with us today. evolution in the name of science and reason. In The New Reformation (1923-1927), Pupin stressed that In 1950, in his encyclical Humani Generis, Pope Pius XII the scientific method is based on "observation, experiment and stated: "The teaching of the Church leaves the doctrine of calculation." Science, he said, "appeals to the language of Evolution an open question, as long as it confines its nature and to human experience as the only court of appeal" speculations to the development, from other living matter and pays no attention to authority, so that its characteristic already in existence, of the human body." But he adds: "There feature is "individualism, that is, freedom from autocratic must be a readiness on all sides to accept the arbitrament of the opinion." Church, as being entrusted by Christ with the right to interpret Pupin believed that the autocracy of the medieval church, the Scriptures, and the duty of safeguarding the doctrines of which opposed scientific inquiry and sought to discourage the the faith." This document, telling the scientists how far they empirical approach to nature, resulted from its desire to might go and insisting on the "right" of the church to act as the protect man's intellectual, aesthetic, and spiritual activities ultimate arbiter on matters clearly beyond its competence, from the social chaos of a barbarized continent. He pointed out speaks for itself. Pupin probably would not have liked it. Ac- that the scientific theories of the ancient world were not a part cording to Pius XII, philosophy and science should still be an- of the Christian gospel of simple faith whose mission was "the cillary to theology. This brings to mind Schopenhauer's caustic spiritual and not the physical world." He was of the opinion suggestion that what is keeping modern Christians from bur- that at that time the church "had many good reasons to pre- ning their opponents at the stake is not necessarily love but tend that it had the kr-)wledge of all things worth knowing not possibly the lack of secular power. The same suggestion only in theology but also in philosophy and in science." reappears in Nietzsche. Unfortunately, thils attitude led to the suppression of the Ox- In 1972, California passed a law making it mandatory that ford lectures of Rober Bacon, a thirteenth-century experimen- the religious account of creation be included with the theory of tal investigator of nature, whose intellectual dissidence was evolution in all biology textbooks used in the first eight grades punished by fourteen years' imprisonment. Such tragedies oc- of the public schools in that state. Most of the political curred, according to Pupin, because "physical truth had a pressure that brought about this law came from Protestant fun- small value in the eyes of the doctrine that regarded human life damentalists. This law puts ancient myths and legends on the as a preparation only, for the supernatural life to come." same plane as factually documented scientific theories in gross Pupin criticized the church's monopoly over the Holy Scrip- disregard of the difference between poetic metaphor and literal tures, its association with feudal aristocracy, often against the truth. peas'ints, and its uncharitable treatment of such dissidents as III ' Wycliffe, John Huss, Giordano Bruno, and Galileo. After eath, Wycliffe's body was disinterred, burned, and thrown Today, religious fundamentalists are continually increasing int,. ;le river; Huss and Bruno were burned at the stake; and public pressure in favor of creationism. In the words of Sir Galileo was confined to house arrest. But Pupin maintained Julian Huxley: "In spite of the lull in the storm, the final battle that all this "was primarily a clash between persons and not between the medieval and the modern systems of thought is yet between science and theology." I find this view unconvincing. to be fought out.... The main issues, in spite of all smooth Personalities and politics undoubtedly played a part in these words, remain unreconciled." Clearly the clash between these

Summer, 1981 35 different systems is a matter of ideology, quite apart from tion. Tolerance only makes sense on the basis of reciprocity. politics and personalities, benevolence or malevolence. The Science and religion are not persons, only their practitioners practical problem posed by this clash is one of developing a and followers are. As personified generalized abstractions, mutual tolerance between religionists and scientists rather than science and religion cannot be either tolerant or intolerant. one of presenting a cosmetically arranged and intellectually Tolerance can be practiced only by their representatives, who, dishonest reconciliation of their mutually exclusive assump- as fellow human beings, ought to treat one another with decen- tions, methods, and conclusions. cy, courtesy, patience, and forbearance, while continuing to In my opinion the conflict continues in large measure disagree as honestly and generously as possible. Human beings because many theologians of this century are no more flexible may profoundly differ about most of their beliefs and or scientifically educated than were their predecessors — such propositions and still be able to recognize, respect, and honor as Bishop Wilberforce, whose vitriolic verbal collision with their common humanity and dignity as well as their freedom to Thomas Huxley was a nineteenth-century cause célèbre. agree or disagree. An unintentionally humorous result of a well-meaning Contrary to Pupin's hopeful prediction of a half-century attempt at a "compromise" between science and religion was ago, in certain parts of the world (especially in the Soviet Philip Gosse's 1856 work Omphalos (The Navel), a precursor Union) entire museums are dedicated to distorting and to Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859). A slandering the role of religion in the history of mankind, selec- member of a fundamentalist sect called the Plymouth tively concentrating on its negative aspects and totally dis- Brethren, Gosse was impressed by science but felt obliged to regarding its positive contributions to the development of our follow a literal interpretation of the Bible, especially concer- civilization. Such an approach overlooks the fact that, however ning the antiquity of the world. According to Omphalos, the illusory the object of its ultimate concern may seem to some of world is less than six thousand years old; according to us, religion is a complex phenomenon that cannot, without serious self-deception, be reduced to mere bigotry and supersti- tion. "What is keeping modern Christians from burning their Consequently, we must criticize those nonbelievers who in- opponents at the stake is not necessarily love but possibly sult, ridicule, and violate the rights of religious believers and the lack of secular power." preachers, just as we must criticize some religious fundamen- talists who insult, ridicule, and violate the rights of agnostics, astrophysical and geological evidence, however, it is billions of atheists, and scientific researchers. years old. Gosse was particularly perturbed by paleontological It is possible to respect some of the ethical teachings of the proofs of the antiquity of life, which were in plain contradiction Judeo-Christian and other religious traditions without accep- to the literal claims of the Bible. In order to reconcile the two, ting a literal interpretation of their mythological he proposed that the world is both as old as is shown by science rationalizations, such as the stories of creation and of the and as young as is claimed by the Bible, that God created the Great Flood, which were adopted by the Hebrew writers of world with a built-in past, including all the fossilized Genesis from much earlier Assyro-Babylonian and Sumerian prehistoric plants and animals in their proper places. This sources. reminds one of Tertullian's credo, quia absurdum (I believe There are certain vocal and influential fundamentalists to- because it is absurd). day who would, if they could, condemn and legally prevent the In this debate, we cannot ignore the shocking examples of teaching of alternative scientific explanations as man's inhumanity to man committed by modern totalitarian "blasphemous" and sacrilegious. It is especially dangerous secular states, sometimes carried out in the name of ostensibly when such attempts intrude in the process of public education. scientific and even anti-religious ideologies. These acts are all Pupin called such fanatics "an influential party of irrecon- the more appalling because they were perpetrated with the aid cilables in the Protestant church of our modern democracy." of prostituted, perverted, and dehumanized science. Many of Unfortunately, such "irreconcilables" exist in almost all these transgressions more than match the crimes of the Inquisi- religious and ideological camps. Fanaticized religion can tion. Recall the gas chambers and the Nazi pseudoscientists become an opiate for the masses, but, we should caution, so who performed surgical experiments on political prisoners and can fanaticized secular, anti-religious ideologies. who dementedly looked for nonexistent hematological The uneasy relationship between science and religion is evidence of so-called non-Aryan blood, and Stalin's sinister neither a complete dichotomy nor a perfect antithesis. Given purges and grotesque meddling in genetics through Lysenko the impressive achievements of modern science, one can affirm and in linguistics through Mar. In this context, who hears that it is here to stay. But so, no doubt, is religion. Neither anything these days about the great Soviet geneticist, Vavilov, science nor religion can or should seek to eliminate the other. who is said to have perished as a victim of the period of the Given humankind's profound emotional needs, religion cannot "cult of personality," the official Soviet euphemism for disappear, it can only be transformed — to paraphrase Saint- Stalin's notorious murders? Simon. If it is to be transformed, it can best be done by ap- These are graphic demonstrations of the need for tolerance. preciating both the developments of modern science and the Freedom of thought and conscience, which includes the need for tolerance and accommodation. In the meantime, we freedom of religious orientation, implies the right to believe as may have to settle for the possibility that it is an illusion that well as not to believe; it is a precious achievement of civiliza- mankind can live without illusions. •

36 themselves and with all peoples, and for The Struggle for Secular liberation now and in the future from historical chains — the antithesis of religion Humanism in Israel and nationalism of any kind. Not every secularist is a humanist. There Isaac Hasson exists a secular nationalism that replaces A basic assumption of the secular-humanist tablishments in Israeli legislation: the in- God in Heaven with other "gods." This view stipulates that a coercive nationalist troduction of religious legislation as state secular nationalism fully shares the prin- regressive process is sweeping over the State legislation; the appointment of rabbis to ciples of religious nationalism concerning of Israel. This process is anchored in, and police the population; the Halachic laws of land, territory, boundaries, the worship of combined with, nationalist perceptions at matrimony (obligatory for all Jews in the holy past and the historical distortions the heart of the Jewish orthodox religion. In Israel); the kosher dietary laws, whose that such worship generates, and the notion fact, the overwhelming majority of the peo- significance is no longer understood by of a supreme ("chosen") people, a notion ple, including most of those who are alleged- anyone; the Sabbath restrictions; the that secures the conviction that Jews are en- ly secular, subscribe to this religion. For this prohibitions on autopsy; the abortion law; titled to abolish the culture, and even the ex- reason, there is a need to deal with the sub- the inequality in military service; and so on. istence, of another people. ject from a secular perspective, which, in- There is a need to act against the intellectual In Israel's situation today — which is .one cidentally, does not deny other points of and political coercion of the authoritarian of extreme nationalism and religious regres- view. orthodox Rabbinate and to develop a sion — every initiative for a secular society The secular-humanist view argues that widespread cultural struggle to promote that includes secular nationalists would God is a creation of the human spirit. It democratic and rational conceptions among necessarily come at the expense of the denies the assumption that God wrote, or the people. struggle against religious nationalism and dictated, the Bible or any other script. It The political-intellectual coercion by the would negate the struggle against religious denies that a divine right of any kind was orthodox Rabbinical establishment, whose coercion. A secular-humanist movement in given to any people to rule over any abundant funds come from tax moneys and the State of Israel today can only be partial territory. Therefore, God could not have from donations from Orthodox Jews and ad hoc, since it is limited to the extent determined any territorial boundaries and throughout the world, creates backwardness that cooperation with secular nationalists could not have chosen any people as within Israeli society. The ideology of a against religious coercion is possible. supreme or as masters over another people. separate people and the feeling of isolation Jewish settlement in the country and the Furthermore, "divine revelations" of the of the Jews have given birth to the slogan: legitimate aspiration for national political past, which serve as the basis for education "A people that abides alone and heeds not independence arose out of human, social, predicated on the assumption of the holy the Gentiles." Combined with the notion of and historical needs and pressures borne by value of history, prove nothing but the con- the "chosen people," it leads to the conclu- that period. Therefore, the loss of all trary — namely, the existence of supersti- sion that "Israel in God will be secure." This proportion and the march toward religious tion. Any orientation based on the past faith in a heaven-sent security, together with territorial messianism in the name of divine prevents humanity from solving its problems the dogma that political solutions don't covenant, the "Covenant of the Pieces" in the context of the present and impairs its work, strengthens the irrational religious- (Gen. 15), the distortion of historical facts capacity to progress toward a better future. nationalist elements in Israeli Jewish socie- that are significant to this country, and the The secular-humanist conception is that ty. It expedites the transformation of that disregard of existing reality, all ultimately the Bible was written by many different peo- society, including its secular members, into generate, within us as well as among the ple at various stages in history. Since people a regressive nationalism that lacks tolerance nations of the world, doubt as to the logic of cannot develop an ethical system and social toward itself and understanding toward its our existence. Some Israelis draw this con- norms except in relation to their own minorities and toward those outside its clusion and withdraw from everything or perceptions and the requirements of their boundaries. else reject everything. The majority of the period, and since social life is subject to con- This regressive process in Jewish society people fall into complete apathy. Others tinuous change, it follows that every legal in Israel is not new, but today it has reached decide to join the crowd, dragging the people and ethical system, however advanced and new heights. The struggle against it must into the race, running amok into absurdity appropriate it may be for its time, is not focus both on the religious coercion in every- and inevitable destruction. necessarily acceptable in other periods. day life and on the political development The reality of an Israeli society based on Therefore, the imposition of ancient legal that such coercion entails. The ineffec- an archaic religious mysticism wedded to a and ethical systems on an existing society tiveness of combatting religious coercion virulent nationalism must be perceived under the claim that these are eternal laws alone has already been demonstrated by past before the task of political reconstruction and precepts transforms these laws and failures. The struggle for democracy in can begin. The role of a secular-humanist precepts, and their proponents, into an un- Israel, for human rights and human freedom, movement as a non-Parliamentary body is ethical force and into obstacles to social and and for decent relations among peoples, is to educate toward first principles not related political progress. identical to the struggle against the coercion to electoral considerations or provisional Secular humanists reject, on principle, the of religious-nationalist perceptions over solutions. Nevertheless, the Israel Secular involvement of orthodox religious es- everyday life. This is not a struggle for the Humanist Association will struggle for the mere prevention of anything, nor is it simply separation of religion from the state, against Isaac Hasson is a member of the Israel a struggle for secularism; rather, it is a religious coercion, and for a democratic con- Secular Humanist Associaion. This article struggle for humanism — the use of human stitution and, where possible, will cooperate has been adapted from the Israel Humanist reason for the understanding and improve- with any other body that demonstrates Review. ment of social relations among the Israelis similar interests. •

Summer, 1981 37 Television The 700 Club's Anti-Humanist "Documentary"

Paul Kurtz

An anti-humanist TV film entitled passionate viewer that the "700 Club" "Humanism: Let Their Eyes Be Opened," is programs are totally one-sided presen- now appearing on television throughout the tations. The roles played by Pat Robertson country. Originally produced for the "700 and his co-host are those of preachers asser- Club" by the Christian Broadcast Network ting that Jesus will save the world. Inter- (CBN), it has been aired several times on mingled with the Holy Gospel are constant this worldwide network and on many local high-powered sales pitches for funds and affiliated stations. Thousands of copies of constant testimony to the efficacy of "faith the film have been sold or made available to healing": "I had cancer, and am now cured, churches, schools, clubs, and other local Pat," reports one viewer. "My arthritis has groups. completely disappeared since I took the I am portrayed on this film as a "leading word of the Lord," says another. Right-wing Lion and that with this interview he hoped to humanist spokesman" and perhaps because, political messages are also sandwiched in make a more accurate presentation to Chris- as such, I am the main target, I have receiv- during the show and justified by biblical in- tian audiences. I agreed to the interview. ed scores of sympathetic letters and phone junctions. Two weeks later he called again and calls from viewers who protested the grossly Does the Fairness Doctrine apply to volunteered an apology for not fully iden- unfair representation of the humanist posi- religious broadcasting in America? There tifying himself as an associate of Pat tion. Many have urged me to make formal are now hundreds of television and radio Robertson and the Christian Broadcast charges against CBN of intentional mis- stations advocating CBN's holy message Network. He explained that he had once representation. full-blast, attacking and condemning their met with Madalyn Murray O'Hair for an in- Although the film purports to be a assorted foes — agnostics, atheists, liberals, terview and that when he mentioned CBN documentary account of humanism, it socialists, do-gooders — without contrasting she refused to be interviewed on camera. He presents only a distorted caricature. Accor- or dissenting points of view ever being thought that I might do the same. I told him ding to the film, humanism is the chief heard. The propaganda is not simply that I appreciated the clarification and was villain in American society, and is responsi- religious, but moral, political, and economic still willing to give him the interview provided ble for the breakup of the family, the as well. he agreed to present my views fairly. He degradation of American values, drug The Fairness Doctrine is rarely applied assured me that he would. I thought it would abuse, pornography, teenage pregnancy and today, and never is it applied to religious be a significant milestone since CBN had con- licentiousness, the murder of unwanted in- programming. In an incredible decision in sistently excoriated humanism and had never fants (abortion) and old people (euthanasia), the early sixties, the FCC ruled that religion as far as I knew actually had a humanist on the increase of violence, and the decrease of was "not a controversial matter of public any of its shows. test scores in our schools. It repeats the fun- importance" and hence a citizen could not Quesenberry arrived in Buffalo one sunny damentalist litany of charges: Humanist request balanced presentation. However, the day with a crew of two. He told me that he Manifesto II and situation ethics are wicked unremitting attacks on secular humanism was aware of the Fairness Doctrine and theories undermining God and country, the are an even more serious matter since in- again assured me that he intended to film me humanists have taken over the schools, and dividuals and organizations are being in order to give a more equitable presenta- America will follow the path of the Roman defamed and libeled and surely should have tion of humanism on CBN. Empire to sin and destruction. the right to respond. Quesenberry supported President Carter It is obvious even to the most dis- My participation in the CBN film began in the election campaign last year, and he last year when I received a call from Larry apparently accepts many of the views of Quesenberry, who identified himself as a humanists on social and moral issues. Pat Paul Kuntz, editor of FREE INQUIRY, is professor of philosophy at the State Univer- television producer. Quesenberry asked if I Robertson is an ardent Reaganite, and sity of New York at Buffalo. would grant him an interview. He said that, Quesenberry was not sure that Robertson in his judgment, the Christian fundamen- would agree to use the film of my interview. talists had been unfair to the humanist posi- I spent more than seven hours in in-depth 38 Rol FLEQ-Af discussions with Quesenberry on the new tamer filled with aborted fetuses. Deleted the sole basis of moral choice apparently campus of the State University of New from the film were my qualifications that believe that the sum and substance of York at Buffalo. I maintained the following abortion should not be used indiscriminately morality are absolutes—"Thou shalt" or general position: (1) Humanism is one of as a method of birth control, that the deci- "Thou shalt not"—and are insensitive to the the oldest philosophical and ethical sion to abort should be a reflective one, and subtle nuances involved in many moral traditions of Western civilization. that whenever possible abortion should be decisions. They gloss over the fact that even (2) Humanists base morality on human done in the first trimester. those who use the Bible as a guide may dis- reason and experience, not on the Bible. Quesenberry asked what I thought about agree about fundamentals. Religious be- (3) Humanism affirms that there are basic telling the truth. Was it an absolute? I lievers have differing opinions on divorce, ethical principles and values of enduring replied that I believed that truth telling was abortion, and other moral issues. human significance, (4) that we ought to be a general ethical principle that we ought to The CBN film is not so much an attack on concerned with human hapiness, social abide by. "Always?" he asked. I said that humanism per se as it is on philosophical justice, and moral responsibility, and there might sometimes be exceptions and ethics—philosophers since Socrates and (5) that, because of competing values and gave the example of not informing a person Aristotle have attempted to apply reason to principles, moral choices are often difficult who has suffered a massive heart attack of the moral life, and the implication of this is to make and decisions depend upon reflec- the seriousness of his condition if his reac- not unbridled hedonism or licentiousness as tive inquiry in concrete situations. tion to the information might endanger his fundamentalist critics aver. Thus the film (6) Humanists believe in a free and recovery. The impression that the film con- demonstrates an anti-intellectual approach democratic society that encourages the veyed was that I believed lying was justified. to ethics and a failure to comprehend the development of moral responsibility and in- When I said that I believed in defending complexities of moral choice. Far from dividual autonomy. (7) They emphasize the the autonomy of moral choice against offering a balanced view of humanism, the preciousness and dignity of the individual repressive social institutions, this was film presents a blatant distortion. personality and are opposed to repressive followed by pictures of pornographic When I confronted Larry Quesenberry forces in society that attempt to undermine bookstores, young people taking drugs, and with my dismay, he told me that he had done freedom. gay discos. I was arguing for diversity in a his best but that the film had to present a Quesenberry asked me a number of pluralistic society, but I also made it "Christian viewpoint." He strenuously ob- questions: What did I think of abortion, clear—and this was left out of the film—that jected to the extreme bias of the show, par- euthanasia, pornography, homosexuality, moral education is essential in a free society ticularly in the comments made before and divorce? I tried to present a balanced and that individuals should be encouraged to after the film, and the generally very narrow philosophic position. I focused on the princi- develop an appreciation for enduring moral, point of view presented by CBN and the ple of tolerance, arguing that it was essential intellectual, and aesthetic values. Following "700 Club." To show his displeasure, in a pluralistic society, and expressed the my aborted statement, commentators inter- Quesenberry resigned from the organiza- hope that his Christian friends would extend posed: "Humanists believe in `doing their tion. humanists the right to dissent from their own thing.' Humanists believe in situation This incident raises a question: Do the views. ethics, where anything goes." "For hundreds of religious television and radio Quesenberry had assured me that he humanists, there are no rights and wrongs." stations have an obligation to the public to would do what he could to present my views This was followed by a photograph of a present balanced positions? Or does the fairly to the CBN audience, and he did—at lifeless young man, the obvious victim of a First Amendment principle of separation of first. The students at CBN University, an af- drug overdose. church and state—to which humanists are filiate of the TV network, published in their The crude distortion of humanist ethics committed—mean that, although all other magazine Focus a portion of the interview continued with an attack on "values broadcasters must be guided by the Fairness verbatim, without any editing, although it clarification" programs in the schools. Doctrine, religious programming is totally was followed by extensive criticism. I was Onalee McGraw, a vociferous critic, exempt? And should they also be exempt delighted to see that they had presented a referred to a hypothetical moral problem when they discuss controversial political view differing from their own. Then pieces discussed in many classrooms as the issues, economic issues, and moral issues of the interview began appearing as spots on "lifeboat problem": If there are 18 people that are not simply religious? Granted that the TV network, invariably quoting me out on a lifeboat that cannot stay afloat with their religious views should be free of of context. Eventually a "700 Club" more than 12 aboard, who should be thrown governmental regulation, should this program featured the film that included the overboard? Among those in the lifeboat are freedom apply to the maligning and im- interview. a religious figure, a black militant, a doctor, pugning of others? Preceding the showing of the film, at least and a pregnant woman. Given the growing power of the electronic thirty minutes of the program were devoted To raise the issue in class proves, churches and their use of radio and TV for to editorial comment by Pat Robertson, in McGraw said, that humanists believe in no ulterior political and social ends, do they which he bitterly attacked the humanists. truths and no enduring values. She had com- thus enjoy a privileged position in society These attacks were repeated after the film. pletely missed the point. Moral dilemmas virtually immune from criticism? Surely The technique used in the film was to show a are often used by ethics teachers (not religionists have every right to advocate clip of a response from me during the inter- necessarily humanists) not to indoctrinate their position, but the efforts of religious view and then follow it with a graphic scene students into anything but as pedagogical preachers to use the public airwaves to ad- perverting my meaning or holding it up to devices to illustrate the need for patient vance positions of moral, economic, and ridicule. For example, I said that I believed moral inquiry in situations where all of the political concern without the obligation to in freedom of choice for women and the choices may have evil consequences. Such present response or dissent must trouble all right to abortion. This was immediately exercises can develop moral sensitivity. those who are concerned with defending a followed by a photograph of a trash con- Those who believe that the Bible should be free society. •

Summer, 1981 39

the foreground. But the background always Film seems about to swallow them up. It is more enduring, more profound, more beautiful than they are. Polanski's This triumph of perspective puts certain inadequate critics to sleep. They are, I think, part of a grotesque subspecies formed by Tess television, stale air, and protracted urban captivity. Their reality comes in squares—windows, doors, buildings, screens, and especially mirrors. Their im- ages have no depth and the only things

Drawing by G. Vigrass larger than human beings are dead things. Naturally the human element is ex- Hal Crowther aggerated. I call it the Three-Camera Syn- drome, from the degenerate TV soap operas The best films tend to smoke out the worst God all His trespasses. Hardy's poem "The and sitcoms that provide one of their few critics. Roman Polanski's Tess was the best I m percipient" windows on the world. These things examine English-language film released in the world That with this bright believing band every bland, witless face in closeups ad last year, in my opinion, and its principal I have no claim to be, nauseam and magnify every mating and detractors made up a rogue's gallery of the That faiths by which my comrades stand betrayal into a cataclysm. The melodrama most vain and myopic characters who pose Seem fantasies to me, has no background, no context, and ul- as connoisseurs of the cinema. And mirage-mists their Shining Land, timately no purpose. Is a strange destiny. The beauty of Tess is that Polanski, for The three-camera world never touches the whatever reasons, chose to hold modern in- is one of the great ornaments of agnostic real world at any point, and its captives are terpretation and directorial egomania to a literature. Today's belligerent, simplistic, lost to the poetry of a film like Tess. The minimum and present Tess of the d'Urber- sloganeering Christianity would be far more melancholy Hardy was a child of the villes pretty much as he found her in repugnant to Hardy than the mute deep- Romantics, and it was the Romantics, the Thomas Hardy's century-old novel. That rooted faith he rejected in his own time. Tess good ones and the sloppy ones, who rescued put critics in the position of trying their is a product of the fate-haunted pre- English literature from the arid coffee-house fangs and claws on Hardy himself. He isn't Christian world of Hardy's deepest instincts. classicism of the eighteenth-century and invulnerable. But it was gratifying to watch She receives no comfort from Christ or his gave us cloud formations once again. the flounderings of the one-note political vicars. It isn't really so strange that Polanski, a types trying to adjust their tunnel vision to a I can't forgive any critic who views a film stateless jet-setter fleeing a criminal world and a time when their little specialties through a mail-order eyepiece instead of the warrant, should prove such an eloquent and were nonexistent. eyes he was born with. One who presumed to faithful adaptor of Hardy's novel. As an ex- We've read the Marxist interpretations of offer the "humanist" interpretation of a mo- ile, he has no need to ape the current three- Hardy, far-fetched in some of their assump- tion picture would be just as suspect. But camera fashions, and ample opportunity to tions but near the mark when they con- the worst of all are those who not only write ponder the Hardyesque twists and turns of sidered his romanticization of the peasantry from a box but seem to live in one as well. his fate. As husband of the late, murdered and his loathing of the bourgeoisie. Now we I came across a film critic—I won't Sharon Tate, he's had his share of tragedy. have the modern feminist criticism, far dignify the magazine she writes for by nam- In this age of narcissism it may take just afield, I'm afraid, because the feminist ing it here—who wrote that Tess is best such a painful apprenticeship to give an ar- writers are unable to accept the nineteenth- suited to "cloud-formation freaks" in its tist the kind of sympathy and humility that century realities that placed a sentimental audience. It's the same criticism, in another produced Tess. moderate like Hardy in the vanguard of sex- formula, that was leveled at Terrence However he arrived at it, it's one of a ual liberalism. They won't forgive him for Malick's Days of Heaven and Stanley kind. Nastassia Kinski, Polanski's creation giving Angel Clare a secónd chance to Kubrick's Barry Lyndon—probably the two entirely, as an actress and as a woman, is a repudiate his double standard. They chide most exquisite, unforgettable American high-cheekboned beauty with a blend of in- him for declining to continue the torments of films of the past decade. "Like an art history nocence and allure that only the young the seducer Alex d'Urberville into hell itself. lecture," someone wrote. "Beautiful but Ingrid Bergman could equal. She's a But the simple truth is that Hardy's Tess, empty." bewitching Tess, on a level that the word with her bloody carving knife, was the first What these three films have in common is "performance" doesn't seem to describe. feminist heroine rural England ever had. spectacular achievement in cinematography The settings and costumes are superb and A modern Christian criticism is equally and a wonderful, heretical refusal to fill the the photography, in varieties of natural light amusing. There were Christians galore in screen with an actor's lips and nostrils when that have rarely been attempted, may never Hardy's England, but he wasn't one of them there's a doomsday sunset or a forest of be equaled once TV takes over. It's one last and he didn't share their eagerness to forgive cherry blossoms just over his shoulder. Like trip in a time machine, to a green old Hardy's novels, Polanski's Tess puts the England that isn't even there anymore. It Hal Crowther, critic, columnist, and human characters in their proper scale in the was filmed in Brittany because Dorset had screenwriter, is editor of Spectator, Raleigh, landscape. There are no gratuitous closeups. lost so much rustic charm. I pity anyone North Carolina. Tess and the others play out an extraor- who has such a musty indoor soul that Tess dinary human drama, properly accented, in doesn't stir it. •

40 Etree In u(

possible to argue that the medical model Books may not be an appropriate conceptualiza- tion for sex problems without implying that the physician is somehow malicious. Szasz on Sex Therapists Physicians do, or can, show concern for a broad range of human pain and suffering. They can learn about causality that is not and Educators physiological and about therapies other than drugs and surgery. Szasz's hostility is sur- prising since the putative knowledge he brings to the sex field is a result of his psy- Bonnie Bullough chiatric training and practice. The logical question to be asked is, Why does Szasz Sex by Prescription, by Thomas Szasz just as foolish. He suggests that masturba- pose as an expert in the field of sexuality and (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press, 1980), tion is a behavior about which physicians then denounce other physicians who have $10.95. have no expert opinion. He finds them perhaps learned more about sexuality than Thomas Szasz's newest polemic, aimed at similarly foolish about other aspects of sex- he has? sex therapists and sex educators, has been uality. He has great fun with the statements These two deficiencies in Szasz's book greeted by a storm of protest. People who of Charles Socarides, who in 1973 argued might be overlooked were it not for his at- chuckled and cheered their way through his against removing homosexulaity from the tack on Mary Calderone in one of the final attack on psychiatry in The Myth of Mental list of official psychiatric diagnoses because chapters. He apparently found it difficult to Illness are totally negative in their appraisal the step would victimize homosexuals by produce anything negative to say about of this work. This reviewer's perception depriving them of their medical protectors. Mary Calderone, because this chapter lacks comes from a close association with sex When Szasz moves on from psychiatrists the clever digs that characterize the rest of researchers, and, although it is their ox that to others, Masters and Johnson become the the book. He merely claims that sex educa- is now being gored, I think their reaction is targets. They are attacked for their pom- tion is somehow repressive and makes the based on more complex reasoning than this. pous writing style, their use of surrogates, following statements with emphasis: "The Szasz's vitriolic wit is still intact. He can and the superficial quality of the research promoters of sex education trying to reduce still spot incongruities and human frailties, reported in their recent work on homosex- teenage pregnancy are not really interested which makes him a perceptive critic. His uality. As Szasz points out, they announced in protecting teenagers from getting preg- ability to locate the jugular—or, perhaps in to the press that homosexuality was not a nant; they are interested in protecting socie- this case, the gonads—is as sharp as ever. disease but that they could nevertheless cure ty from teenage pregnancy!" He begins by noting that the historically it in two weeks. Equally puzzling is Szasz's accusation negative sex attitudes of the Western world All of these points are cleverly made and that Mary Calderone sought to move sex out are being replaced by a pro-sex ethic that all have at least some validity. Even the of the realm of religion and into the field of may be just as damaging. A rich, full sex most loyal member of the sex research, sex health. He makes the point, but without the life is being touted as so important that education, and sex therapy establishment is impact he seems to be straining for. He is hordes of people who would have been willing to admit that there are a few hustlers reduced to calling her "confused and perfectly content in the good old days are in the field, and some admit that there are hypocritical." now being driven to seek the expensive and more than a few. The medical model as con- People in the sex field respect the Sex In- ineffective therapy of physicians who know ceptualization for sex problems has been formation and Education Council of the no more about sex than the average person. criticized in the literature and discussed at United States (slecus), which Dr. Szasz decries this medicalization of sex. As scholarly meetings for at least a decade. Calderone heads, and they are devoted to examples of the trend he cites the current Careful reviews of the latest Masters and her. Her reputation is that of a dignified, practice of using the term sexual dysfunc- Johnson work turned up the same deficien- intelligent, dedicated crusader for rationali- tion to describe a broad array of human cies noted by Szasz. Yet, as a critic, he gets a ty in the field of sex education. She has problems, including premature ejaculation, failing grade. Why? Because he seems un- withstood attacks from the Right to Life concern about one-sex preference, and the aware that most of the criticisms in this groups without rancor. Her stature will not failure to achieve orgasm either all or part work have been published by others and yet be diminished by Szasz's criticism, but his of the time. he gives credit to none of these writers. Thus has been, and this attack has probably cost Szasz points out that Sigmund Freud, he has clearly violated one of two scholarly him the respect of most his potential Benjamin Rush, and Karl Menninger all practices: Either he did not avail himself of audience. • believed that masturbation was both a cause the scholarly literature on the subject, or he and a dangerous manifestation of a sick made use of the library but failed to give Bulk mind. By current standards they were clear- credit for what he borrowed, and he is FREE INQUIRY is available for classroom ly wrong. However, Szasz finds contem- therefore in trouble with the sex research es- use by schools, clubs, societies, and porary psychiatrists who favor masturbation tablishment. churches. Special 40% discount for 10 or The second offensive characteristic of more copies. Please add $3.00 for postage. Bonnie Bullough is the dean of nursing at Szasz's book is his obvious hostility toward the State University of New York at Buffalo physicians and, by extension, toward all sex and the author of many books and articles .x 5, Central Park Station educators and therapists. He does not uffalo, NY 14215 about nursing and sex research. acknowledge the fact that most of those who work in this field are not physicians, and it is Summer, 1981 41 assume the viability of these threats by es- tablishing linkages, in most of the cases Alleged "SIECUS-Humanist highly tenuous and unconvincing ones. What are some of the issues in addition to sex education, humanism, and subversion Conspiracy" that concern the author? They include "population control, legalized abortion, homosexuality, pornography, sensitivity Lester Kirkendall training, and even drugs .... [The] range of The SIECUS Circle: A Humanist Revolution, listed, I among them. To be included in such influence wielded by the SIECUS complex [is by Claire Chambers (Belmont, Mass.: an ebullient group is quite satisfying. incredibly broad]" (p. xv). Western Islands 1977), 506 pp., $6.95. The SIECUS Circle suggests that SIECUS is After examining some of the publications This portentous 506-page book took several on center stage, but the publisher's preface written by "slEcus-selected authors," i.e., years to write, according to the publisher's explains that the book is: authors listed in SIECUS bibliographies, it preface. This seems no exaggeration as one ... not exclusively—nor even primarily—about was found that reads one jam-packed page after another. the Sex Information and Education Council of the ... a great many promulgate the situation Max Rafferty, a former state superintendent United States. It is about the SIECUS circle, the ethics philosophy, omitting any reference to network of humanist individuals and of schools in California, endorses The spiritual values; many explicitly or by in- organizations that is seeking to transform ference equate man with the animals. Others SIECUS Circle, saying: "The sheer amount of America into a secular and collectivist state. The frequently pit child against parent, encourage dogged rooting after facts is awe-inspiring influence of this network is enormous; the in- a negative outlook toward traditional family .... I have never seen a better researched fluence of its humanist philosophy is greater still. life, promote population control, and utilize il- A Madalyn Murray 0'Hair would have been book." It is a well-researched book, but in lustrations and phraseology that border on the powerless to remove prayer and Bible reading pornographic. [Footnote, p. 143-144] numerous places research has been discard- from the government schools if the Supreme ed and unsubstantiated statements are used Court of the United States had not drunk deeply Karl de Schweinitz's Growing Up, design- instead. The dedication acclaims its loyalty at the humanist fountain .... ed for the primary grades, is evaluated as be- "to the preservation of Christianity and the . 0rganized humanism, as The SIECUS Circle ing "replete with evolutionary concepts and thoroughly demonstrates, has launched an attack shows an irrepressible urge to tell too much God-given principles upon which our Nation on America through education and religion. Yet was founded." While these precepts are in- the insidiousness of this attack has not yet been too soon" (p. 147). Sidonie M. Gruenberg's nocuous enough, they are in this volume par- grasped by one patriot in one hundred .... Yet The Wonderful Story of How You Were ticularized by an author with antediluvian how many [parents] are aware of the humanist in- Born "subtly promotes the concept of fluence in the United States history courses and evolution as it forcefeeds the initimate views. textbooks their children are required to study? This book, as I see it, is actually a con- . How many are aware of the humanist in- details of sex to young children in adult ter- tinuation of attacks made by the John Birch fluence in the life science courses taught in the minology" (p. 115). Comments made about Society in the late 1960s and the 1970s. schools their children attend? masturbation are heavily faulted, such as It is the sincere hope of the publisher that this when authors Helen Southard and Marion Chapter 4 recognizes that such a connection book will serve to alert many thousands of readers might be made and seeks to sustain the to the humanist network that threatens America. Lerrigo claim that the only harmful effects charges made then that those supporting sex 0nly an informed people can hope to retain—and "are the `guilty feelings' that may result; no education, or any of a number of other be worthy of—that freedom with which our nation attempt is made to discuss the moral movements, as I shall point out later, are has been blessed. ramifications" (p. 161). However, communists, communist supporters, Part 2, some 250 pages in length, lists Chambers claims that discussion of "alter- atheists, or anarchists. This chapter cites thirty-four organizations that are "affiliated native codes of conduct ... is riddled with more than forty prominent persons who or otherwise associated with SIECUS." This false premises and fallacies .... Man, since have been "involved in subversive activities, includes the American Medical Association, the very beginning of time, has been exposed all of whom are connected in some way with the Child Study Association of America, the to moral alternatives, arising from his own sex education and/or sensitivity training" Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, carnal nature, which challenge his spiritual (p. 134). But, now, to the contaminating the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the conscience. The tempting alternatives come communists, atheists, and anarchists, has National Council on Family Relations, the naturally, from within; they do not need to been added another befouler—the humanist. National Education Association, and the be ferreted out by pseudo-psychologists to This explains the significance of the subtitle, United States Catholic Conference. It is entice him further." Situation ethics as ad- "A Humanist Revolution." clear that in the opinion of the author the vanced by Humanist Joseph F. Fletcher and Throughout the book people's names are "SIECUS network" extends much beyond "Basis for Moral Judgments," by Humanist often preceded by the word Humanist; for these thirty-four organizations. Lester A. Kirkendall, were both severely example, it is Humanist Erik Erikson, and In the beginning of this review I noted criticized. so it is for Linus Pauling, Mary Calderone, that the author had done a lot of research. Reference was made earlier to linkages Lloyd Morain, Julian Huxley, Lewis Mum- Perhaps a sounder appraisal would be that a made throughout the book. The author uses ford, Carey McWilliams, Karl A. Men- lot of searching was done for quotations that this device to discredit SIECUS or to destroy ninger, Margaret Mead, and Benjamin would enable her to draw the conclusions the credibility of the organization or the in- Spock. "The Humanist Coterie" is discuss- she intended to make anyway. Two dividual being scrutinized. When the ed on pages 56-60, and 125 "Humanists" are procedures were used to illustrate the threat Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is being that humanism posed to the total world discussed (p. 209-217), Take the High Road, Lester Kirkendall is professor emeritus of structure. One was to editorialize on various by A. J. Bueltmann, is reviewed, and the family life at Oregon State University and a issues and point out the dangers posed by author complains that the bibliography co-founder of SIECUS. humanistic concepts. The second was to "leads the adolescent back to SIECUS. Of ten

42 books listed, three are by SIECUS directors .... [One] is Love and Sex in Plain Language by Eric W. Johnson ... a close The Family as associate of Humanist Mary Calderone and vice principal of the Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, a school for Sex Educator Quakers." So the Lutheran Church, Buelt- mann's book, Eric W. Johnson, his book, and the Quakers are linked, and this permits Lee Nisbet the author to conclude: The Family Book About Sexuality, by Mary Despite the noble aspiration expressed in the S. Calderone, M.D., and Eric W. Johnson transforms education into mere instruction Concordia series—that of "helping all ages to in avoidance and self-restraint. Sexuality, grow toward responsible Christian sex- (New York: Harper & Row, 1981), 330 pp., uality"—and despite numerous pages offering illustrated, $14.95. however, is not a disease that we catch and, commendable thoughts and advice, the books In my memories of childhood experiences in unlike drugs, sex is not something we con- have serious flaws, as noted, which render the sex "education," the adults involved are not sume. The problems surrounding sexuality program inappropriate for mixed classroom cast in a flattering light. As a youngster and have nothing to do with sexuality itself, but use. It would seem that a truly Christian program should concern itself primarily with adolescent, my ignorance about sexuality in Calderone's and Johnson's words "are the the spiritual, moral, and scriptural aspects of was enhanced by "adult" avoidance, ig- fear and guilt our society attaches to the ex- sex, in keeping with Christ's teachings, rather norance, and outright lying about the sub- pression of human sexuality as a result of ig- than continually focusing attention on ject. The old saw about the blind leading the norance." drawings and descriptions of sexual organs and their functions in minute detail. In view of blind is an apt characterization of my ex- The authors' approach, which accepts the this defect, the Concordia series hardly seems perience. fact of our sexuality, is therefore unabashed- appropriate even for use in the home, between In fact, I received my sex education in the ly moral. It aims at helping a young person parent and child. streets from young ignoramuses and liars learn how to assume "responsibility for This resort to linkages appears repeated- who sociologists call peers. "Tom says you one's actions and their consequences." To ly. Thus "Humanist G. Brock Chisholm, have to f-- a girl to have a baby." "You accomplish this goal, a young person must former head of the World Health do not!" "Yes you do!" "Well maybe you first learn what being sexual means. Organization" is linked to "his close friend, do, but that's not what you call it." I watch- Calderone and Johnson define sexuality very the notorious Alger Hiss" (p. 6). As noted ed the big guys "feel up" their girlfriends, broadly to include our "thoughts, ex- on page 32, "Socialist-Humanist G. Brock and they taught me how to "neck" with a periences, learnings, ideas, values, im- Chisholm wrote the preface of Kirkendall's girl. They introduced me to "rubbers" and aginings, as these have to do with his being Premarital Intercourse and Interpersonal lectured on the psychology of females. Com- male or her being female." Sexuality is any Relationships ... notorious for its case pared to all of this, school, as usual, was a behavior in which gender is physically, histories of 668 premarital intercourse ex- waste. When I was sixteen, the gym teacher emotionally, or intellectually involved. periences ... reported in `living color.' " introduced a class in "hygiene" to the sub- Therefore, genital sexuality, the obsession of The linkages could be much prolonged. ject of menstruation with this humor: "On my our society, constitutes only a small part of Hostility to efforts to control population wedding night, it was just my luck to have our sexual behavior. growth was voiced in opposition to the Com- the game called on account of a mushy The young person's relationship with self mission on Population Growth and the field." There were, of course, no girls to be and others, where gender is an issue, is the American Future. "[The] twenty-four embarrassed by the wisdom of this educator. subject of sex education. The objective of sex member Commission was stacked with in- The movies on the ravages of syphilis were education should be to help young people dividuals dedicated to the population control impressive. Oh, the good old days! And then learn how to make decisions concerning movement, and/or associated with the one- there were "porno" novels, which provided their sexuality that will be beneficial to them world, Humanist-Socialist cartel." This in- hours of masturbatory fantasies. This fiction as well as those with whom they interact. cluded Senator Alan Cranston of California, seemed far more positive than the hygiene Sexuality seen as part of their lives, "honorary president of World Federalists class even though the sexual athletes therefore, "has no morality special to itself, since 1952, population control advocate, and manufactured by Buster Hyman and his but morality or immorality lies in the way Communist fellow traveler. Cranston's ties associates inevitably met dreadful endings at each of us uses sexuality in our life re- with the Left can be traced back as far as the hands of the law and assorted vigilantes. lationships." 1941, when he received an appointment to I don't think my youthful sex education This approach requires that the following the U.S. government's Red-infiltrated Of- was or is unique. Calderone's and Johnson's conditions be met. (I) Knowledge about the fice of War Information. An investigation approach, however, strikes me as more subject matter must be acquired in order to made by the Federal Bureau of Investigation humane, intelligent, and moral than the one separate fact from fiction. To this end The revealed, among other things, that Cranston I encountered. Youthful sexuality, in their Family Book About Sexuality provides in- moved 'in Communist circles,' and that his view, should not be treated as something formation on a variety of sexual topics, in- `friends seemed to be fellow travelers .. . analogous to a disease or a mind-altering cluding reproduction, birth-control techni- with Communist sympathies.' " drug. Treating sexuality as a problem ques, homosexuality, the family's role in Undoubtedly many issues raised in The sexuality, sexual problems, sex-education SI EC US Circle are controversial however one Lee Nisbet, a contributing editor of FREE programs, the nature of sexuality itself, and looks at them, but Claire Chambers links INQUIRY, is associate professor of an "encyclopedia" of definitions and sexual them all together and sees them from the philosophy at Medaille College. terms, and more. (2) The young people in perspective of the Ice Age. question must be free to express their points

Summer, 1981 43 of view, their values, and their feelings. No about sexual issues that are at wide programs in the schools, a disastrous mis- dogma should be forced on them. Their variance with their own. To do so would take is in the making. "The family" is not, points of view should be respected, as should require considerable training for most peo- despite contemporary romantic their freedom to make their own decisions ple. Reading a book would not suffice. enthusiasms, a unit standing apart from and accept the responsibility for those This viewpoint may sound cynical; but on socioeconomic phenomena. Today's decisions. Calderone and Johnson stipulate the basis of what many of my students con- families need help from a variety of in- these conditions when they discuss a proper fide in me and the opinions I hear in class, stitutions to deal with a demanding, ever- sex-education course for schools. open, tolerant, and informed conversation changing world. Cutting families off from I agree with the authors on all of the on sexual issues between students and this support in sexual matters by drawing a above, and therefore, ironically, I am forced parents appears to be a minority experience. hard and fast line between family concerns to disagree with their reason for writing this For exceptional parents who are willing and school concerns is not only intellectually book: their belief that "a family is the best and able to meet the conditions the authors indefensible but downright harm- setting for learning how to develop and use have set up, this book will be valuable. ful—especially to families. Schools and one's sexuality." I don't believe that the con- However, I think this approach will leave other social institutions are legitimate and ditions prescribed by the authors for proper the vast majority of children right where necessary supports for individuals and sex education could be met by most they are regarding sexuality—floundering families, not only in disseminating informa- American families. In fact, not only do most alone. tion but also in providing the basic American parents lack accurate knowledge Sex education, now more than ever, knowledge needed for the formation of about sexuality, but they also lack an in- belongs in the schools. The Family Book values. Historically, this has been the proper terest in obtaining this knowledge. Many About Sexuality would be a useful supple- role of public schools in America. In my would find it extremely difficult to discuss ment to the kind of comprehensive sex- view, youthful sexuality should not be ar- sexual issues in the manner the authors education program the authors themselves bitrarily separated from the broader social suggest they should. I find it hard to have promoted and a valuable source of in- concern of fostering the development of a believe, for example, that most parents formation for young people. However, if the tolerant, literate, and well-informed could deal adequately with the situation book represents a retreat by the authors public—a prerequisite for a prospering when their children express ideas and values from the battle for strong sex-education democracy. •

(continued from page 5) camel's nose back out of the tent; this Additional Endorsements of the the ecumenical movement, the black church pressure must be rapid, powerful, and un- Secular Humanist Declaration (always a major force in the black com- relenting. munity), most Jews, and countless numbers I propose establishment of a national Andre Bacard, director, Modern Studies of progressive church workers and leaders. boycott of all materials produced by any Group, Stanford, California. But, you may reply, do not agnostics and publishing house which has altered its Robert Boothe, professor emeritus, Califor- atheists have a right to their belief, and the biology (or other science) texts in response nia Polytechnic State University. right to try to convince others of their to creationist pressure. This threat is severe E.A. Cherniak, professor of physical beliefs? The answer is certainly yes. In fact, enough to call the scientific community to chemistry, Brock University, Ontario, although I hold to a Christian position set aside its own sectarian differences, Steven J. Danenberg, headmaster, The myself, I would view you as more of an ally because if the creationists have their way, no Williams School, New London, Connec- than an enemy. (In fact, I do not see you as branch of science will be left untrammeled. ticut. an "enemy" at all.) So in some respects I My hope is that FREE INQUIRY will serve as Marcel Fresco, professor of philosophy, wish you well. If the choice were between the catalyst for what could become a chain University of Leiden, Holland. you and the right-wing fundamentalists you reaction within the scientific community. I Wim Hagen, astrophysicist, Holland. abhore, I would be on your side. feel that other scientific/humanist Garrett Hardin, professor emeritus of C. Emory Butron, Ph.D. publications should make their mailing lists human ecology, University of California. Huntsville, Alabama available in a joint effort to circularize every Lyman H. Legters, professor of Russian and librarian and every teacher of science from East European studies, University of National Boycott high school through graduate school. Washington. Definitive action is needed to counteract the Biologists certainly should be willing to Edgar L. Mangelsen, president, San Diego militant irrationalism of the creationists. I'd become coordinators and leaders of the Humanist Chapter. be delighted (well, at least willing) to let proposed boycott, and could be counted Abe Solomon, president, Maharashtra them gather into their fold whatever adult upon to persuade their colleagues to par- Rationalist Association, vice-president, converts they could wean away from the ticipate. Indian Secular Society, India. astrologers and the UFO nuts. But when Prof. Norman E. Tandy W. Warren Wagar, professor of history, they coerce supposedly ethical text Winchester, New Hampshire State University of New York publishing houses into adopting their twad- dle, they are inflicting a reactionary SECULAR HUMANIST DECLARATION ideology upon tender minds not yet endorsed by 58 leaders of thought, is or more copies at 40% discount (plus equipped with the intellectual skills now available in handsome booklet necessary for rebuttal. And at this point it's $3.00 for postage). form. time to put our foot firmly down. Box 25 $1.95 each (plus $1.25 for postage and The publishers in question are clearly be- handling) Central Park Station ing stampeded by economic pressure. A Order in bulk: special discount for 10 Buffalo, NY 14215 counter-pressure must be applied to push the

44

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Summer, 1981 45 That look of bland innocence on the face of many humanists often conceals more aggressive opinions than they may be ready to acknowledge. It won't hurt to remind them, occasionally, that they haven't won any really decisive battle yet. (Buffalo ON THE BARRICADES Courier Express — syndicated. William A. Rusher is publisher of National Review)

Establishing Secular Humanism A California judge's verdict that schools should not teach Darwin's theory of evolu- tion dogmatically did not really settle anything. It did raise an important question that isn't often discussed — have the courts and those opposed to prayers in schools Science in Arkansas succeeded in establishing secular humanism, The Arkansas House overwhelmingly pass- religion's position on good and evil and eter- which amounts to a state religion, in the ed a bill that would require public schools to nal reward and damnation. When heaven public schools? teach, along with the theory of evolution, the was straight up and hell straight down, the It appears that those who have used the theory that a supreme being created man. world was simpler. You don't hear people courts so zealously to remove all religious Lawmakers shouted down attempts to say "up in heaven" anymore. Now that influence from schools have paved the way dilute the bill and passed it by a vote of 69 to we've been to the moon, kids aren't afraid of for a secular humanist religion. This state- 18. The measure, which would apply to all going to hell and you can't do a thing with financed religion worships humanist dogmas public elementary and secondary schools, them. (Arizona Daily Star, March 26, 1981 - such as the belief that man himself is the sole has already been passed by the Arkansas syndicated) judge of what is moral or immoral by such Senate. standards as whether something "feels The bill would not require a particular William Rusher: good" or "doesn't hurt anyone else." textbook or class lecture to present a balanc- God's Usual Way of Doing Things One of the problems that results from the ed view. But an entire course — biology, The more I study that recent California case state supporting secular humanism is cited anthropology, chemistry, or any other deal- on teaching evolution in the public schools, by Dr. Daniel D. McGarry, retired professor ing with the history of man — would have to the more convinced I become that an impor- of history at Saint Louis University, in his present "balanced treatment to creation- tant issue was at stake, was almost totally treatise, Secularism in American Public science and evolution-science." overlooked, and was correctly adjudicated Education: "The immorality that is The bill would limit instruction in both almost by accident in the court's decision. spreading through our American society is theories to "scientific evidences" and says As widely depicted in the press and on largely due to a weakening of traditional that classes or books "must not include any television, this was a clear cut battle between religions from our schools, with a resultant religious instruction or references to the theory of evolution and the theory that monopoly of secularism in American public religious writings." (The New York Times, God created man — and God lost.... But education." The goal of humanists, says Dr. March 17, 1981) there is more here than meets the eye. Belief McGarry, is to "substitute for traditional in the theory of evolution is not in the least religions a religion of humanity, in which inconsistent with a belief in the existence and man replaces God as the supreme entity." Andy Rooney: omnipotence of God. On the contrary, The inculcation of anti-religious values by Has Arkansas Gone Far Enough? evolution seems to me entirely consistent humanists in schools is not the intent of the Some tightening up of school curricula with God's usual way of doing things. No First Amendment which says: "Congress might be in order. The state of Arkansas, doubt He could have created man instan- shall make no law respecting an establish- always a leader in matters like this, decreed taneously — as science now tells us the un- ment of religion, or prohibiting the free ex- that teachers will have to give equal iverse itself was created. ercise thereof ...." It is ironic that the in- emphasis to both the biblical story of the But to atheists — including the secular terpretation of the First Amendment has creation of man and to science's theory of humanists who abound in our day — evolu- produced almost exactly the opposite effect evolution. The question is, has Arkansas tion is more than merely the mode of God's of what the amendment calls for. It has vir- gone far enough? Are we going to have operation: It is itself a sufficient explanation tually established secular humanism as a religion in our schools or aren't we? This of the development of life. They have, of national religion in public schools and is be- equal time arrangement carries with it the course, a perfect right to their belief. But ing used to discredit and injure traditional suggestion that doubt about the instant crea- what would you bet that some of them who religions it purported to protect. If allowed tion of man by God is theoretically possible. are teachers don't quietly suggest to their to continue, this trend ultimately could Science in our schools has done a lot of students that, since evidence points to the result in a totally secularized society and the damage. It's always questioning everything. evolution of life, it is possible and even virtual elimination of traditional religion in Science is basically agnostic. The scientific desirable to do without such excess baggage the United States. (Editorial, St. Louis exploration of space has complicated as a belief in God? .. . Globe-Democrat, March 16,1981)

46 Pornographic Mimesis Wycoff 's sentiments were echoed by Rev. recognizes unexplained phenomena, but Without question all porno pushers and por- Charles Mcllhenny, a San Francisco rejects miracles and divine intervention to no lovers see Dr. Falwell and the Moral minister long opposed to gay rights. reward or punish people. Most of the above Majority as extremely dangerous. Imagine Mcllhenny, who is active in Californians for is the secular part, considered dangerous by how they would feel if he were to succeed in a Biblical Morality, proposed that homosex- the Moral Majority. There's more. getting a decency in literature amendment uals be stoned to death after a "biblical Humanists just don't buy all the pat answers passed that ruined their $4 billion a year state" is created in the nation. (The Ad- to all the persistent and vexing questions. business? vocate, March 19, 1981) They assume people are still learning, grow- Of course, women would appreciate ing, changing, and, yes, evolving. Falwell because pornography is the leading Nickie McWhirtner: suspect secular humanists comprise the cause of the increase in forcible rape. A Secular Humanists, the True Majority true majority of Americans, whether they decency in literature law might even help I don't know what to call members of the realize it or not. As for morality, it still begs' make streets safe again, even at night. In ad- religious political coalition known as the definition. (San Jose Mercury, March 18, dition, parents of children caught up in "kid- Moral Majority. That's because I am un- 1981 — syndicated) die porn" (probably in excess of 500,000 convinced these people comprise a majority right now) would love him for protecting of anything other than themselves and Herbert Stein: their children. So would the parents of because the word "moral" always begs Un-American and Subversive thousands of little girls who are being definition. "I keep having this terrible dream, Doctor, 1 molested by sex-crazed pornography To be moral is to embrace and attempt to dream that I have been hauled up for in- readers. live by a body of principles or laws. These terrogation by the HKAC." The list could go on and on — but certain- principles are thought by their adherents to "HKAC? What's that?" ly these obvious dangers make Jerry Falwell separate right from wrong, human goodness "It's the House Keynesian Activities a man to be feared — or so many in the from evil, and virtue from vice. The prin- Committee." press, media, and governmental ciples are typically based on some authority "Is there really such a committee?" bureaucracy would have us believe. Be sure which followers believe to be highly con- "There sure is in my dream. I expect there of this, Americans haven't seen anything nected. Implicit in most moral systems, will soon be one in what is sometimes called yet! Liberal humanists have set him up as however, is the idea that there is only one real life too. Keynesian has become a term their No. 1 target and will do anything to valid set of answers to all questions having of disrepute again. It has taken on a mean- discredit him. (Tim LaHaye, Moral Majori- to do with life and the proper living of same. ing like humanist or permissive or Darwi- ty Report, March 16, 1981) The rules are unchanging and forever. Hin- nian. That is, people who have no clear idea dus, Moslems, Christians, Jews — every of its meaning nevertheless think of it as Glass Houses in Sodom devout member of every devout group suggesting something un-American and sub- Right-wing Christian fundamentalists — in- believes he or she has found the one true versive." (The Wall Street Journal, April l3, cluding one leader who has advocated that body of knowledge. 1981) the government execute homosexuals — are Along with the Ayatollah Ruhollah reportedly preparing to launch a major anti- Khomeini, people affiliated with Moral The Diabolical Enemy gay campaign in San Francisco, as a first Majority have evidently fallen into this Edward McAteer, national president of the step toward broader campaigns in Califor- decidedly uncharitable frame of mind. Roundtable, said that he hoped to have state nia and throughout the nation. MMers have identified the chief villains in organizations in all 50 states by the end of During a week-long series of investigative our society as secular humanists. this year. He also said that he wanted to reports titled "The Moral War" and As I understand it, a humanist is someone have local chapters in 300 communities by produced by San Francisco television sta- who believes human beings are remarkable the end of 1982, so that his group would be tion KRON, Richard Zone — founder of In creations endowed with minds, wills, and able to influence "public policy concerning God We Trust, Inc. — declared, "We would capacities which, as far as we can see, exceed moral issues" on a broad scale. love to see San Francisco turned around those of all other living creatures. A Other groups have similar plans. For ex- because we feel that it would change every humanist contends that chief among these ample, Ronald S. Godwin, vice president major city in the country that has a problem remarkable capacities is the capacity to and chief operations officer of Moral Ma- (with homosexuality). If we can do it in San reason. jority, said "One of our top priorities is to Francisco, we can do it anywhere." Reasoned change of all kinds is possible, move from what I call the media period to Besides Zone's organization, two other in this view. People can change their in- the organizational period. By /982, I'd like similar groups may take part in the up- dividual lives. People can bring about to have 50 self-sustaining, functioning state coming campaign — Moral Majority and change in their environments and societies. affiliates active down to county level." Californians for a Biblical Morality. Dean People can also change their minds about The Reverend Charles Mims, Jr. of Wycoff, head of Moral Majority in Santa what they know, or think they know. They Louisville, KY, Roundtable's minorities Clara County, opined, "I agree with capital can search, question, discover, evaluate, and chief, said that blacks shared their views. punishment, and I believe that homosexuali- re-evaluate. Nothing is ever fixed or forever Divisions between the races, he said, came ty is one of those that could be coupled with in the humanist view. All of life is thesis, an- because "the diabolical enemy, humanism, murder and other sins ... it would be the tithesis, synthesis. has built fences" between races. (Adam government that sits upon this land who A humanist does not believe much, or at Clymer, The New York Times, April 12, would be executing the homosexuals." all, in predestiny, fatalism, or magic. He 1981) •

Summer, 1981 47 (continued from Front Cover) standards of conduct in society and to cultivate moral responsibilty, especially in the young. Is there a single humanist position on sex education? Obviously not. Dr. Mary Calderone, the director of SIECUS, believes that the proper place for sex education is in the home. Unfortunate- ly, however, when sex education is left to parents, it is often neglected, leaving children no alternative but to pick up such information, or misinformation, the new quarterly devoted on the proverbial streets. What should to the ideals of secularism and freedom be taught, how it should be taught, and when, are meaningful questions, and there is ample room for debate; but some parents are so deeply offended by WE INVITE YOU TO SUBSCRIBE the idea of sex education in the schools Subscription Rates that they want nothing at all to be taught on the subject and unfairly ac- One Year $12.00 cuse teachers who do discuss it of cor- rupting their children. For example, the head of Morality in Media in Western Two Years 20.00 New York, a foe of sex education, believes that everything about sexuality Three Years 27.00 that parents need to discuss with their children can be covered in fifteen (Single Issue $3.00) minutes! Most humanists agree that public school courses in sex education should O Payment Enclosed be voluntary, that they should not be required for students whose parents op- O Bill Me pose them. Some humanists, such as psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, argue against sex education programs. Szasz's Name objections are different from those of the traditionalists, who, although they speak out vociferously against Address governmental control, especially in the economic area, paradoxically exclude moral freedom from their list of City State Zip freedoms as they lobby for state and federal laws enforcing their own version Add $2.0O for Canada of morality. As a libertarian, Szasz is Add $3.0O outside U.S.A. committed to individual freedom and would exclude the state and also the "medical-psychiatric establishment" from such a private matter as sex education. Many humanists disagree with Szasz and feel that, on moral and Box 5, Central Park Station utilitarian grounds, sex education Buffalo, New York 14215 should be an option available to students and parents as a matter of free choice. There is no one humanist view on sex education, as there is not on many other issues, but humanists do agree that there is a need for free inquiry on this and all other moral and social questions. • — Editor