Summer 1988 e Vol. 8, No. 3 $3.75 Entering Our New World • Humanism in the TwefltyFirst Century • Onïy if we invest our fates into . a fierce love of this • • planet and all the life on it, only if

• we raise a commitment •to individual dignity and wisdom high above all religions and • ideological beliefs, can• humanity as a whole - hope to reach safe ground . Ark —E. O. Wilson •

•

• A Symposium

Gina Allen • Levi Fragell • Ronald Lindsay Robert Rimmer Renate Bauer Anna Marie Franchi Tim Madigan Elie Schneour Ruth Bennett Yves Gali&et Delos McKown Matthew les Spetter Bonnie Bullough Henry Gordon Lester Mllbrath Svetozar Stojanavic Bern Bullough Roger Greeley • Lester Mondale Harry Stopes-Roe Mario Bunge • Herbert Hauptman • John Money • Richard Taylor Joe Chuman Robert Hohnes Henry Morgentaler Robert Thompson • Jose Delgado Lester Kirkendall Indumati Parikh Harry Wagschal Albert Ellis Marvin Kohl Jean-aaude Pecker E. O. Wilson Roy Fairfield Paul Kurtz Howard Radest Sherwin Wine Antony Flew Lisa Kuhmerker Jonathan Reichert SUMMER 1988, VOL. 8, NO. 3 ISSN 0272-0701 Contents

3 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 38 ON THE BARRICADES 62 IN THE NAME OF GOD

ENTERING OUR NEW WORLD—HUMANISM IN THE 21st CENTURY: A SYMPOSIUM 14 Introduction by Paul Kurtz. With Gina Allen, Renate Bauer, Ruth Bennett, Bonnie Bullough, Vern Bullough, Mario Bunge, Joe Chuman, José Delgado, Albert Ellis, Roy Fairfield, Antony Flew, Levi Fragell, Anna Marie Franchi, Yves Galifret, Henry Gordon, Roger Greeley, Herbert Hauptman, Robert Holmes, Lester Kirkendall, Marvin Kohl, Lisa Kuhmerker, Ronald Lindsay, Tim Madigan, Delos McKown, Lester Milbrath, Lester Mondale, John Money, Henry Morgentaler, Indumati Parikh, Jean-Claude Pecker, Howard Radest, Jonathan Reichert, Robert Rimmer, Elie Schneour, Matthew les Spetter, Svetozar Stojanovic, Harry Scopes-Roe, Richard Taylor, Robert Thompson, Harry Wagschal, E. O. Wilson, Sherwin Wine

40 Kicking the Religion Habit Thomas Vernon 44 A Case of Immaculate Abortion? Gary P. Posner, M.D. 46 Another Physician Refuses to Cooperate Gary P. Posner, M.D. 48 Threats of Futility: Is Life Worth Living? Kurt Baier

BOOKS 53 Was Socrates a Humanist? Paul Kurtz 55 Unity in Diversity? Tim Madigan

56 The Secular Requiem Richard Chon

Editor: Paul Kurtz Senior Editors: Vern Bullough, Gerald Larne Associate Editors: Doris Doyle, Steven L. Mitchell, Lee Nisbet, Gordon Stein Managing Editor: Andrea Szalanski Executive Editor: Robert Basil Assistant Editor: Tim Madigan

Contributing Editors: Robert S. Alley, professor of humanities, University of Richmond; Paul Beattie, Unitarian Church, Pittsburgh; Jo-Ann Boydston, director, Dewey Center; Paul Edwards, professor of philosophy, Brooklyn College; Albert Ellis, director, Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy; Roy P. Fairfield, social scientist, Union Graduate School; Joseph Fletcher, theologian, University of Virginia Medical School; Antony Flew, philosopher, Reading University, England; R. Joseph Hoffmann, chairman, Department of Philosophy and Religion, Hartwick College, Oneonta, N.Y.; Sidney Hook, professor emeritus of philosophy, NYU; Marvin Kohl, philosopher, State University of New York College at Fredonia; Jean Kotkin, executive director, American Ethical Union; Ronald A. Lindsay, attorney, Washington, D.C.; Delos B. McKown, professor of philosophy, Auburn University; Howard Radest, director, Ethical Culture Schools; Robert Rimmer, author; Svetozar Stojanovic, professor of philosophy, University of Belgrade; Thomas Szasz, psychiatrist, Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse; V. M. Tarkunde, Supreme Court Judge, India; Richard Taylor, professor of philosophy, Union College; Sherwin Wine, North American Committee for Humanism

Editorial Associates: Jim Christopher, Fred Condo Jr., Thomas Flynn, Thomas Franczyk, James Martin-Diaz

Executive Director of CODESH, Inc.: Jean Millholland

Systems Manager: Richard Seymour Typesetting: Paul E. Loynes Art Director: Alain Kugel Audio Technician: Vance Vigrass Staff: Steven Karr, Jacqueline Livingston, Valerie Marvin, Anthony Nigro, Alfreda Pidgeon

FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published quarterly by the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH, Inc.), a nonprofit corporation, 3159 Bailey Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14215. Phone (716) 834-2921. Copyright ©1988 by CODESH, Inc. Second-class postage paid at Buffalo, New York, and at additional mailing offices. National distribution by International Periodicals Distributors, San Diego, California. Subscription rates: $20.00 for one year, $35.00 for two years, $48.00 for three years, $3.75 for single copies. Address subscription orders, changes of address, and advertising to: FREE INQUIRY, Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215-0005. Manuscripts, letters, and editorial inquiries should be addressed to: The Editor, FREE INQUIRY, Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215-0005. All manuscripts should be accompanied by two additional copies and a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or publisher. Postmaster: Send address changes to FREE INQUIRY, Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215-0005.

perience" lays the necessary foundation in the Letters to Editor child to carry these beliefs into adulthood. The psychological and sociological influences in all cultures encourage, reinforce, and channel this process into the belief system of the specific culture. An Indian View ourselves, without waiting to have solutions offered to us. Eric Schauer When I visited the United States in July and Salem, Ore. August 1985, as an Indian Radical Humanist, Edward A. Nol I made it a point to watch morning television Birmingham, Mich. discourses by the American televangelists and the Indian godmen settled in the States. I William Bainbridge presents his thesis in a found Jimmy Swaggart to be the most nutshell: "Religion can require a person to abusive, bigoted, and demagoguic of them William Bainbridge's article does raise many await delivery in the afterlife or in some other all—especially in his denunciations of the points for further discussion. To the extent plane of consciousness attainable by the humanists and the United States Supreme that this sociological work is good science, faithful." Religion also reflects the level of Court for the spread of immorality and weaknesses (if any) will occur in the theo- intelligence and education of its believers— pornography. Now that Swaggart has been retical assumptions and in the evidence. compounded by sociopolitical conditions and caught red-handed by Marvin Gorman, a To state that religion is inevitable is to wishful thinking. rival evangelist, indulging in an act of claim that humans want something more What does Bainbridge expect of a coun- pornography with a prostitute in a motel, than reality. Clearly the human imagination try that will not adopt the Equal Rights and now that he has confessed before the will always be creating a variety of concepts Amendment or enact an adequate gun- Assemblies of God leadership that he has had and scenarios that have no basis in nature. control law, engages in such escapades as "a near life-long obsession with pornog- These need not have a religious character nor Vietnam and Nicaragua, turns its foreign raphy," will he take back his words against need they be bad. We can expect an unending policy over to Oliver North, and elects, the humanists and the Supreme Court? succession of pleasurable novelties from the sometimes overwhelmingly, people like Among the Indian godmen, I listened to arts, for example. But more fundamental Nixon and Reagan? We do not need such Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who is supposed than trying to prove that people must have books such as those by Allan Bloom and to have liberated Americans caught in the religion is to examine what people's hang- E. D. Hirsch to tell us that the American rat race of life by his Transcendental Medi- ups are about reality. Of course, many of mind is closed and that this is a nation of tation (TM). In one of his discourses on us would like the impossible opportunity to cultural illiterates: The American mind is as television he said, "TM can solve all human live our lives over again and better; but, closed to religion as it is to history, problems. You sit in your house and get the instead of becoming obsessed, we can simply philosophy, literature, and the other arts. apple from your garden by practicing TM." learn from past experience. Does this make sense to anyone? There are more alternatives to religion Howard A. Burton One thing common among the American than science and politics. Overlooked are the Riverside, Calif. televangelists and the Indian godmen is that creative arts, sex, and philosophy— huma- they are both experts in making a fast buck nism in particular. by turning religion, God, and morals into commerce. John Mauldin Pueblo West, Colo. The First Easter M. A. Rane Bombay, India I was much taken by John Naland's evalua- tion of "The First Easter" (FI, Spring 1988). I believe that the basic answer to the ques- I agree with him on most points and found tion "Why have humans traditionally pos- particularly interesting his argument for the Is Belief Inevitable? sessed religion?" is not to be found in human primacy and authenticity of Mary Magda- psychology or sociology, but rather in an lene's experience of the empty tomb. How- William Sims Bainbridge ("Is Belief in the aspect of human biology that—among ever, I think there is a better candidate than Supernatural Inevitable?" FI, Spring 1988) others—distinguishes humans from animals. Joseph of Arimathea for one who would have suggests that "we will not find science's ulti- I refer to the vastly longer period of nurture reasons to remove Jesus from the tomb. mate answers [as a challenge to and substi- required by the human child and the result- I should think a Jewish high priest, or tute for religion] very pleasing. They are not ing period of total dependence, which lasts someone with similar authority, would have likely to give the human individual a central for years. The work of Jean Piaget in the reason for doing so. He might think that role in the scheme of things, nor to offer 1930s has shown that children up to about Jesus' followers could form a new heretical him a solution to all his problems." Bain- thirty months ascribe omniscience and om- cult, using the tomb as a shrine. Thus, he bridge seems to have ignored that it is exactly nipotence to their nurturer(s), powers that might order the body removed and dumped the absence of a central role for the human are ascribed to god(s) in all religions. The in a common grave, or even buried in lime, individual in the scheme of things that confers young child learns that these powerful beings which was a frequent means of disposal for the ability to study nature and observable can remove pain, can create pleasant feel- those executed. reality without the need for supernatural ings, but can also get angry and punitive— Unlike Joseph, who might have had an support. Only then can we develop the exactly like adults' god(s). opportunity and try to correct the early confidence necessary to solve our problems This extended period of "religious ex- (Continued on p. 58) Summer 1988 3 Entering Our New World: Humanism in the Twenty-First Century

A Symposium

he achievements and breakthroughs of the twentieth are prepared to focus on new directions and think boldly about century have created a new world. Medical science and the future. The pace of scientific and technological discovery Ttechnology have wiped out many diseases, improved our and the consequent social, economic, religious, and political health, and increased our life spans. New methods of disruptions will no doubt intensify, and with that new problems manufacture and production have reduced poverty and made will beset us. Our most valuable allies in confronting these possible a better life for more and more people. Illiteracy rates problems are imagination and courage. have declined and the right to education for all children is How should we cope with the future? What new policies now recognized virtually everywhere. Instant communication and attitudes should we adopt? The building of a new global (radio, television, and satellite transmission) and improved ethic for the whole of humankind—should surely be high on means of travel (automobiles and airplanes) have begun to unify the list of priorities. the planet into a single, yet diversified culture and to enable These important themes will be discussed at the forthcoming even the most isolated corners of the globe to participate in Tenth Humanist World Congress. In preparation for that sig- the developments of world civilization. Space travel, the nificant event, we have invited a number of distinguished computer information revolution, biogenetic engineering, and humanists from all walks of life to think creatively about the superconductivity now offer unparalleled opportunities for future and to identify the most important issues that will likely human progress and betterment. At the same time, however, be facing us in the twenty-first century. wars, social convulsions, revolutions, ecological and environ- The new global ethic that is emerging takes the building mental damage, and the population explosion continue to of a world community as perhaps the highest of ethical ideals. trouble us. This means that each of us is part of an interdependent world What promises and dangers await humankind in the twenty- civilization and that we have an ethical obligation to protect first century? The future is unpredictable, since no one can and enhance the dimensions of human freedom and welfare foretell with certainty what dazzling new discoveries or dreadful not only for those now living but for future generations yet conflicts may emerge. It is important, however, that we evaluate unborn. probable trends and developments and that we —Paul Kurtz

4 FREE INQUIRY Social workers who have observed homeless children find them malnourished and more prone to physical ills than their Who Will Inherit peers. Those in shelters and out are deprived of sleep and often exposed to violence, drugs, and danger. "Their faces are marked by fear and sadness," said one observer. the World? Homeless children and children in poverty often lack the clothes they need to go to school, the food and rest they need to be attentive in school, and the environment they need to study at home. All too often they have no safe place to play. While we spend our wealth on Chrysler and defense con- Gina Allen tractor bail-outs, all the while complaining about welfare- mother cheats, let us keep in mind some very important facts, again provided by the Children's Defense Fund. Our only he adults of the next century, to whom we will leave national welfare program for needy children, Aid to Families the world, are today's children. How are we preparing with Dependent Children, reaches only half the children living Tthem for their future responsibilities as custodians of in poverty in this country. Our program for preschoolers who the planet? Not very well, I fear. Children are our most im- need an educational head start—called, appropriately, Head portant resource, the hope of the future, and we are neglecting Start has been cut back until it's available to only one-fifth and abusing them at the expense of their future and that of of the children who are eligible and would benefit from it. the world. A national day-care program, which would permit mothers Around the globe—from Ireland to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, who must work to find and hold jobs, or get job skills through Israel, Mozambique, South Africa, Nicaragua, and El Salvador training, is nonexistent. This lack affects most mothers in today's children are learning violence and war, both as participants economic climate, which makes it necessary for both parents and victims. A whole generation is being scarred in body and to work to stay above the poverty level. The result is "latch- mind by the experience. They are being orphaned, maimed, key" children, unsupervised for much of the day. uprooted, bombed, beaten, tortured, "disappeared," and robbed If we are going to build a world community for the future of their childhood, security, and education. we must reorder priorities today. That means putting children Children are starving around the world, too. In magazines, ahead of missiles, which become obsolete. Children don't be- newspapers, and on television you've seen the pictures of starv- come obsolete. Those who live, maimed by our neglect or ing babies in Ethiopia. In Mozambique the present food crisis assisted by our concern, will be tomorrow's citizens and leaders. has taken almost a hundred thousand lives, many of them They will inherit the world. It is our responsibility today to children. World health authorities warn that 97 percent of the prepare them for the large responsibility that awaits them tomor- children who survive this famine will grow up mentally and row. • physically impaired. And what of children in this wealthy country, the United States? They don't share the wealth. According to the Children's Gina Allen is an author, feminist, and humanist. Her novel Defense Fund—whose statistics are known to scholars, journa- The Forbidden Man received an Anisfield-Wolf Award from lists, and politicians as highly reliable—children under fifteen the Saturday Review of Literature. make up the largest poverty group in the nation. Poverty kills ten thousand children a year and maims many more. Among industrialized nations we are among the last in keeping babies alive through the first year after birth. In large part that's because so many mothers are poorly nourished and receive no prenatal care or instruction despite the fact that Overpopulation and men at the highest levels of government today preach the "right to life," a misnomer. They mean the right to be born, not the right to be born to a mother prepared physically, medically, Human Value and mentally to bear and nurture a baby, not the right to survive after birth, not to the right to food and shelter while growing up. Children have low priority in this rich nation. We spend billions on shelters for missiles but drag our heels on providing Joe Edward Barnhart low-cost housing for children and their families. Among the growing number of homeless in the country—an estimated three million—are eight hundred thousand children. The number of n The Self and Its Brain one of the world's leading homeless children has increased by 25 percent in a year, and philosophers, Karl Popper, specifies overpopulation as "the children continue to be the fastest growing group among the gravest of all social problems of our time." I suggest that homeless. the gravest problem in general for the next century will be

Summer 1988 5 the tendency to treat human individuals as nothing more than being destroyed with no thought to the innumerable species servants of the "transcendent," whether this "transcendent" be we are extinguishing and the oxygen supply we are threatening, the state, a god, or a subsidized utopia. I don't want to imply, and the way we are polluting our water, air, and soil with however, that all states, theisms, and utopias reduce individuals hardly a public cry. My own biggest worry is the storage of this way. If the supply of means to human satisfaction or nuclear waste, which is of special concern to all Europe but freedom is depleted, human beings will themselves tend to will surely become so to Third World countries as well, since become the means of something "transcendent." Life in itself nuclear technology is being exported there without anyone will have no value. giving a damn about long-range consequences. Overpopulation may be defined as the simultaneous increase After ecology, nothing presses more than the need for peace. in human-subsistence needs with a decrease in the available We must reach for world-scale disarmament and solve follow- means of meeting those needs. The ironic consequence to this up problems, like securing work for employees in the arm- process: more humans, less humaneness. People bred in poverty aments industry (without causing new ecological drawbacks) produce more children than do the relatively prosperous, and and establishing an effective conflict-management system to these children will tend to function increasingly as a way of prevent or solve quarrels between nations. increasing their parents' chances of security in old age. This Then there's work. Some countries will run out of paid, process of generating children as a means to parental ends productive laborers, while in others people will not have the apparently can only be curtailed by replacing poverty with chance to find work or earn livable wages. Due to missing prosperity. or weak trade unions, workers in many nations will continue Governments around the world have apparently become to suffer under economic systems where wealth is unfairly distri- major hindrances to economic development in countries where buted. As has been shown in Europe, trade unions can be a poverty abounds. Subsidies from prosperous nations tend to enrich the recipient governments, i.e., to sponsor organized criminals who are in the so-called protection business. I suggest "Perhaps we shall have to enlarge the catalogue of that the biggest global challenge of the next century will be human rights to include the right not to know one's that of developing free markets and freedom to travel so that genes or the right to have access to information with- individuals may earn currency directly from employers with out being forced to bind oneself to some data-network neither the employers nor the workers being exploited by an system." essentially nonproductive class that pretends to protect its nation's other citizens. Perhaps the next biggest challenge will be that of encouraging relatively self-supporting individuals to major force in securing for working people a half-fair share accept and enjoy the fruit of their labors without surrendering of the production surplus and in winning civil rights. In the their self-defense to ministers of a "transcendent" entity mis- future, these unions will have to champion ecological causes labeled The Great Protector. • and work to convince people to overcome the parochial interests of one's family, factory, and country and to develop the idea of an overall solidarity—a concept that is the backbone, really, Joe Edward Barnhart is a professor of philosophy at North of everything I've discussed here. Without such a sense of Texas State University and a member of the Committee for solidarity, production will continue to be oriented toward short- the Scientific Examination of Religion. He is the author of term profit, and new technologies will be fostered without many books, his most recent being Jim and Tammy: considering the health or danger to society as a whole. Charismatic Intrigue Inside PTL. The issues of civil rights and technology will become more tightly intertwined. Centralized bureaucracies may very well employ modern computer information systems to threaten people's rights to self-determination and privacy. Perhaps we shall have to enlarge the catalogue of human rights to include Pressures of Ecology, the right not to know one's genes or the right to have access to information without being forced to bind oneself to some data-network system. Peace, and Work Humanism calls on us to think in terms of the consequences of our technological and ecological actions. We want to continue to pursue the goal of individual freedom, but we cannot lose sight of what makes individuality possible: living together on Renate Bauer one globe. •

e are creatures of the earth, so nothing is more Renate Bauer is Secretary, Bund Freireligiosen Gemeinder pressing to us than the problem of ecology—in all Deutschland, West Germany, and a member of the Board of Wits facets, including the way we waste unrenewable Directors of the International Humanist and Ethical Union. resources for short-term profit, the way our rain forests are

6 FREE INQUIRY add the aged population's other vulnerabilities—many are poor, physically weak, and fearful—and the fact that our youth- The Demographic oriented society is prejudiced against its parents' and grand- parents' generations—it becomes clear why older persons have so difficult a time lobbying for their own interests. Imperative Very little attention has been paid in our culture to the positive side of aging, to the benefits, to what the aged bring to a family, a community, a city in which they reside. Much more research and thinking is needed to determine the positive contributions made by the elderly. I personally believe that Ruth Bennett those communities that fail to integrate their aged populations adequately are in serious trouble. From my observations, young people become seriously demoralized when they see that, after ging will be one of the most challenging—and poten- a lifetime of work, old people are not respected, or worse, tially divisive—issues of the coming century. Through- are treated miserably. "What's the point?" they ask. out the world, the aged (65+) population is the fastest A Age divisions may well replace class divisions on the politi- growing age group, with the 85+ subgroup the fastest growing cal and social scene unless we make a conscious effort to stop of all. We can now keep the very old (and frail) alive longer this process of segregating the generations. Old people might than has ever been true in history. Humanity will become old— not wish to support schools with their taxes; and young people this is what has been called "the demographic imperative." might want to abandon the social security system. Against a Staying alive sounds like a great idea, but there are compli- backdrop of ageism it is not hard to tell who will win. However, cated implications, not the least of which are the costs to society, as the aged grow increasingly numerous and better educated, costs that have become a hot political issue in the United States they will constitute a mighty political and social force. And we and elsewhere. That aging is so routinely linked with costs, will not be able to ignore them, as we often do children, because however, tells us more about our current thinking than it does most of the aged vote. about the issue. Our cultural themes need to be changed in order for us What the public and the aged seem unaware of is that they to adjust to the demographic imperatives. Caring is something have a say in framing these issues and in making decisions about them. In fact, most of what determines life expectancy for the majority of people—that is, whether we have an aging population of considerable size and how well that population "That aging is so routinely linked with costs tells us lives—is sociopolitical in nature. Society ultimately decides who should live, who should die, and when one dies; nature does more about our current thinking than it does about not determine how we use our resources. A simple example the issue." is preparation for and declaration of war. These actions are not biologically determined. Once nations have decided to use most of their resources to wage war, a lot of events tend to we do quite naturally; we need only to extend that feeling to follow, including the probability that those countries that have cover the life span. In other words, we should encourage experienced a lot of war and whose men have experienced a intergenerational friendships. More generally, we need to lot of combat will be neither healthy nor long-lived. The fact encourage a different approach to research. We need to reverse that humans are programmed to live to around one hundred the trend against humanistic research, research that focuses less years of age means very little. on costs than on human needs. Humanistic studies in the next Right now, many of the elderly do not know how to exert century should concentrate on discovering and evaluating a powerful influence on political issues. Why? For one, they different methods for reducing ageism and the isolation it tend to be isolated from the mainstream of society. As of 1987, engenders, experimenting with innovative psychosocial 8 million of our 28 million elderly lived alone; most of the programs both inside institutions and beyond their walls, testing rest lived with elderly spouses in isolated pairs. Five percent methods for reducing the strains and burdens of middle-aged of the elderly are segregated in institutions, and it is impossible persons, and discovering less totalistic models for institutions. to say how many others are ghettoized in segregated housing It is my intent to encourage and conduct such research, on or "old folks" communities. the assumption that what is good for the aged will ultimately There are many other reasons for the elderly's lack of polit- be good for all of us. • ical influence. Most of the aged population (two thirds of those over 65 and three quarters of those over 75) are women, and that further reduces their capacity to influence states of con- Ruth Bennett is the director of graduate education for Colum- sensus. The natural allies of the female elderly are their care- bia University's School of Health, Division of Geriatrics and givers—who tend to be middle-aged women—but that group, Gerontology. • too, has very little influence over political choices. When you

Summer 1988 7 and the recognition that humans by their nature must live together in tolerant communities. Good Church People To my way of thinking, these goals are essentially ethical ones on which all humanists can agree, although I recognize that individual humanists might disagree about the ways of reaching them. I would argue that we need to extend the concept of individual liberties throughout the world to include not only Bonnie Bullough freedom of speech, belief, and personal integrity, but the right to have a say in the political structure in which a community is organized. This approach emphasizes the necessity of demo- s a child I was socialized to believe that all good church cratic societies, an ideal that I hope all humanists hold dear. people treated their fellow human beings kindly. When Both individuals and the communities in which they find them- A I first saw good church people failing to live up to selves should also be obligated to extend freedoms to include this standard I was shocked and disappointed. Over the years freedom from want, the right to an education, and the establish- I did a running correlation of the level of one's religiosity and ment of minimum standards of living—since without these kinds the level of one's kindness-1 decided that there was no of rights individual freedom often becomes meaningless. The correlation between religion and kindness. I also found, how- right of individual expression should not be restricted by gender, ever, that good church people are no meaner, as a group, than race, ethnicity, sexual preference, physical disability, or any other people. Figuring this out allowed me to forgive the of the many other differences that distinguish one individual churches, but I was not motivated to join one of them. from another. The young, the old, the sick, the pregnant, the Now that I have joined the humanist movement, I hope helpless, and the weak should be given the support and the that we can do better, if only because we are faced with fewer care they need, and each person should feel responsibility for barriers to rational action. We have less fear and fewer super- others in the human communities. This requires a system of stitions, so we have more emotional energy. We are free to justice that is fair and not arbitrary, that deals not only with be kind to our fellow human beings if we want to be. infringements on individual rights by other persons but com- The world is now facing two great new plagues: AIDS and munities upon the rights of individuals and upon other massive environmental insults due to the spread of dangerous chemicals and radioactive substances. In addition, the old "It is not enough for one or two or even eight or ten plagues of racism, dictatorship, poverty, and sexism are still of the larger political communities to achieve most of with us. I hope that the humanist movement can rise to the these aims, since the issues will remain until all do challenge with open-minded and rational attempts to solve these ,, so. problems. I would hope that we can bring more kindness and tolerance to the effort than good church people have brought Everyone, it goes without saying, should be able to develop in the past. • to their full potential within their abilities and their desires so long as they do not threaten the integrity or rights or others. Bonnie Bullough is dean of nursing, State University of New Moreover, individuals should have the freedom to live or die York at Buffalo. She is the author of many books, including as they choose and have control over their own bodies and Social-Psychological Barriers to Housing Desegregation and minds. The Law and the Expanding Nursing Role. It is making a world like this that furnishes the issues. Obviously, such a community does not exist today, although some of the larger communities more closely approach my ideal than others. It is not enough, however, for one or two or even eight or ten of the larger political communities to achieve most of these aims, since the issues will remain until all do so. This Humanist Goals requires a commitment by humanists to plan and work for such goals by combating superstititon, dogmatism, irrationality, inequality, discrimination, and prejudice wherever we find it, and by putting forth concrete plans and objectives to achieve our vision. Doing this will be the major challenge to humanism Vern L. Bullough in the next century. •

n attempting to build a world community in the next Vern Bullough is dean of natural and social sciences and a century, humanists will have to deal with a number of distinguished professor at the State University of New York issues. A summary of our most important goals: the right College at Buffalo and a senior editor of FREE INQUIRY. He of free expression for each individual human being, the necessity is the author or editor of more than twenty books on history, of providing opportunities to individuals to develop their unique sexology, neurology, and other fields. capabilities, the need to accept differences among individuals,

8 FREE INQUIRY on military expenditure contributes powerfully to unemploy- ment. The Thirteen Riders 9. Inadequate health care. Most people in the world have no access to modern medicine—which cannot do much for the undernourished anyway. of the Apocalypse 10. Debt. Many governments have contracted huge debts that will fall on the shoulders of our progeny. The United States alone has a national debt of $2.5 trillion and a foreign debt of more than $500 billion and on the rise—not to speak of the fiscal debt, a mere $200 billion, due almost entirely to military overexpenditures and tax cuts for the so-called deserving rich. 11. The widening gap between North and South. The in- Mario Bunge dustrialized countries keep on exploiting the southern hemispheres (for minerals, forestry, foodstuffs, cheap labor, etc.), which in turn are doing little to correct their own ur cunning politicians know how to divert the public mismanagement. gaze from our most burning issue, by drumming on 12. The decline of culture. With more and more highly 0dramatic but relatively minor issues like terrorism, trained brains devoted to weapons design and the maintenance espionage, drugs, and AIDS. Consequently, most of us over- of oppressive and parasitic bureaucracies, science, technology, look the most important issue of all, the survival of mankind. the humanities, and the arts are declining, whereas junk culture We do not realize that our rulers are leading humanity into has become a growth industry. a new Dark Age, or worse—the extinction of all life on Earth. 13. Growing immorality in public affairs. An increasing Although I have not been trained as a doomsayer, watching fraction of humankind is ruled by crooks who, pretending to the newscasts and keeping up to date with such sources of work as civil servants, cater only to special interests. information as the yearbooks World Military and Social What can be done to prevent the twenty-first century from Expenditures (Washington, D.C.: World Priorities) and State becoming the grave of humankind? Reverse all of the negatives of the World (New York: W. W. Norton) suggest to me that noted above. A single measure, like upgrading public education the critical issues for the twenty-first century are but a continua- or increasing agricultural productivity, won't suffice, because tion and aggravation of the following trends: all the subsystems of society—its economy, polity, and culture— 1. The arms race. Unless we are vigilant, the arms race hang together. What we need is systematic social engineering may go on even after the entire nuclear stockpile has been on a planetary scale. But we want it peaceful and gradual rather dismantled—at the tune of $1.8 million per minute than violent and sudden, if we wish to avoid still more chaos 2. The rapid depletion of nonrenewable resources. These and suffering. And there is only one way left: to work for include oil (which may last another twenty years or so) and the establishment of the United States of the World. Only a all of the critical industrial metals. world government that represents all nations and abstains from 3. Environmental degradation. This is the result of air interfering with their internal politics could plan for the survival pollution, acid rain, and the dumping of toxic chemicals and of our species. But the design and implementation of such a nuclear waste. plan should not be left in the hands of politicians, bureaucrats, 4. Shrinking and misuse of arable land. Desertification or even technocrats, for it would affect us all: What we need is occurring due to deforestation and overcultivation, not to is participative planning. To attain this end, the current political mention the use of much good land to cultivate raw materials apathy found the world over, favored by governmental for alcoholic beverages and junk food. overcentralization without participation, as well as by 5. Overpopulation. The population of the vast majority widespread corruption in high places, will have to be shak- of countries continues to grow at a rate of about 2.5 percent en. How? Through grass-roots participation in political parties per year. Before attaining zero population growth, India will and nonprofit organizations in the service of the public interest. have reached 1,700 million, China 1,570 million, Nigeria 532 No other rational way is in sight, and there is very little time: million, Bangladesh and Brazil about 300 million each, and The thirteen riders of the Apocalypse are galloping fast into Mexico and Ethiopia 200 million inhabitants each—or, more the next century. • precisely, moribunds. 6. Hunger and thirst. An estimated 770 million people are not getting enough food for an active working life, and twice as many do not have safe water to drink. Mario Bunge is the Frothingham Professor of Logic and Meta- 7. Militarization. More than half of the "developing" physics at McGill University, Montreal. He is the author of (actually declining) nations are ruled by the military, who are more than thirty books and three hundred articles on theo- consistently being armed and trained by the superpowers, retical physics, the philosophy of science, metaphysics, and particularly the United States. science policy. His latest book is Philosophy of Psychology 8. Unemployment and underemployment. Only three out (with Ruben Arda). of five people in the Third World are fully employed. Emphasis

Summer 1988 9 8. The creation of "mass men" and the dulling of creative individualism is a problem distinctive to our technological, Disparity postmodern society. Bureaucratization, the standardization of culture—indeed, the sheer bigness of our institutions—threaten dehumanization in virtually all aspects of life. If life is to be and Violence worth living in the next century and beyond, social structures need to be found that can support increasing billions of human souls while preserving the personalism found in more intimate and accessible relationships. •

Joseph Chuman Joseph Chuman, leader of the Bergen County Society for Ethical Culture, is a board member of the International Humanist and Ethical Union. he most critical issues confronting humankind in the next century are extensions of those we confront in our T own time and for which consensual solutions are yet to emerge. Below is a list of those I find the weightiest. 1. First and most critical is the threat of thermonuclear war between the superpowers. This remains the most critical Neurobiology and because it is the most comprehensive. In other words, it is the only problem on which the survival of the entire human race— indeed, of all advanced life on Earth—depends. Future Values 2. Only slightly less dangerous, but even more vexing, is the proliferation of nuclear arms among the smaller powers. While it is possible to envision treaties between the United States and the Soviet Union scaling back their nuclear arsenals, the acquisition of nuclear capability by a growing number of José Delgado nations, many politically unstable, presents a threat to global safety of menacing proportions. pectacular advances in science and technology will prob- 3. The disparity of wealth between the First and Third ably accelerate through the twenty-first century. Great Worlds sustains economic injustice on an international scale and foments antagonism between the industrial and disenfran- Sbenefits should be expected in industrial development, chised nations. Such disparities also provide putative justifica- microelectronics, informatics, agriculture, outer-space explora- tion for the maintenance of totalitarianism within developing tion, health care, and other aspects of human activity. There countries. are, however, several unsolved problems, including the 4. The failure of the world community to resolve the detrimental consequences of many of these new developments, problem of hunger, particularly in Africa, Latin America, and the hostilities among different groups of human beings, the Asia, remains one of the most shameful of all moral issues increasing poverty in many areas of the world, and widespread confronting this century and, we can be assured, the next. The social injustice. question of moral responsibility for chronic hunger is high- Perhaps the main problem is the very orientation of our lighted by repeated studies that show that starvation is essen- present civilization, which is devoted more to industrial and tially a question of equitable distribution and not of production. missile development than to human development. 5. The deprivation of fundamental freedoms in 75 percent We are facing a dangerous contradiction between human of the world—including the right to be free from government- fate and human control, an imbalance between material and sponsored torture, murder, and "disappearance"—remains an mental evolution, a perversion of ethics and social values. We ethical blight as well as a threat to peace. The persistence of need a new approach in order to solve new problems; tradi- the grossest forms of abuse will continue to present a profound tional philosophies and ideas will hardly be suitable for the challenge to activists. It also confronts the humanist with next century. Our urgent task is to locate and evaluate both troubling philosophical questions as to human nature and the motivations that are shared by all mankind and the divisive realistic responses to enduring evil. elements that lead to human conflict and destruction. 6. As with hunger and economic inequities, runaway popu- A practical application of neurobiology can help us recog- lation growth plays a destabilizing role in much of the Third nize our common values and improve our social relations. World. It entrenches the status of a growing underclass, de- Biology, after all, is similar in all people—including blacks and stroys aspirations, and forecloses the humanist vision of a good whites, Jews and Arabs, the poor and the rich. In contrast, life for all. political and religious factors separate groups and nations by 7. The despoliation and pollution of lands, water, and air encouraging antagonism and warfare. It is not who you are is an increasing threat to human survival and no doubt will born but what you are taught that can make or destroy your remain so until international cooperation is developed. potential. lo FREE INQUIRY To apply a neurobiological orientation, we will need to study logical positivism and had little to do with mysticism and many influences, including the neurological imprinting of cul- religion. Psychotherapy was not scientific, but at least it aimed tural values in early life and the way individuals establish frames to be. of reference in their memory. As the influence of logical positivism waned, however, and Due to neurobiological determinism, the brain does not as "scientific" psychoanalysis and behaviorism failed to produce deal "directly" with material reality—only with codified sym- the miracle-cures that they first overenthusiastically promised, bols, originating in objects and subjects, that impinge on the the "human potential" movement in psychotherapy flowered sensory receptors, where they are transduced into new electrical and transpersonal psychology reared its mystical head, bringing and chemical codes. The circulation of this intracerebral in- with it devout endorsements of "therapeutic" techniques like formation is transmaterial because it is continuously changing shamanism, past-life therapy, A Course in Miracles, rebirthing, its material carriers through neuronal pathways, but it preserves Tarot Card reading, Higher Power programs, exorcism, and its symbolic meaning. The decoding of these codes leads to the deification of trance-channeling gurus. sensations and perceptions. The decoding mechanisms are re- Now, I cannot insist that people's pious belief in religious lated to individual frames of reference acquired by personal and magical therapies does only harm and no good, for many experience (education, training, and indoctrination) and are ignorant and gullible people have over the centuries clearly independent of genetic determination. Decoding of messages helped themselves overcome anxiety and depression by having may be influenced by cultural environment and also by aware- blind faith in all kinds of claptrap. Obviously, there is a very ness and will power. Awareness of these processes, common low degree of probability that you have a fairy godmother; to everyone, may liberate individuals from automatic behavior but, if you powerfully believe you do have one and that she and cultural dictatorship. will help you accomplish great deeds, your patently false belief These possibilities are not utopian, because they are based in this kind of drivel can sometimes actually enable you to on the most natural reality: human nature. The expected results succeed. The false confidence that this belief provides may could make a psychocivilized world a reality by the twenty- actually enhance your courage and drive, which may in turn first century. lead to real achievement. The improvement in both personal satisfaction and human The problem with transpersonal therapy is that it is based relations that I predict will not be won by insisting on "higher on absolutism, dogma, and an antiscientism that itself often morality" or heroic sacrifice. The only requirement: a greater underlies emotional disturbance. As indicated in rational- understanding of reality and an awareness of its behavioral emotive therapy (RET), people do not disturb themselves by consequences. • holding strong preferences and high standards but by trans- muting these into perfectionistic shoulds, oughts, and musts. Thus, they rigidly insist, "Because it is highly desirable that Professor José M. R. Delgado is director of the Institute for I perform well and win others' approval, I always, under all Neurobiological Studies in Madrid, Spain. He was at the Yale conditions, have to do so." Since no such absolutist guarantees Medical School in the United States for more than twenty exist, people sooner or later make themselves anxious, years and has published 450 papers dealing mainly with elec- depressed, and hostile. trical and chemical control of the brain. He is also a member Science is flexible, not rigid. It has only theories, not dogmas. of the Academy of Humanism. It leads to openness, skepticism, change. If we humans were thoroughly scientific and undogmatic, RET holds, we would rarely make ourselves neurotic. Transpersonal psychotherapy may well promise us pie in Mysticism in the sky and temporarily soothe some of our emotional woes. But it will frequently lead us up the garden path to reliance on dogmatically assumed (and quite unfalsifiable) gods and Psychotherapy gurus. And it will thereby undermine our reliance on our truly human resources, on our possibility of self-control and self- acceptance, and on our propensity for scientific skepticism and flexibility. Albert Ellis So far, as the twentieth century comes to a close, trans- personal, mysticism-oriented psychotherapy is making great eing a psychologist, I shall deal only with psychological strides and is often overshadowing scientific psychotherapy. Will issues here. And, since even these are too many to cover this trend continue in the next century? I hope not. But my in the short space I have at my disposal, let me hopes are not exceptionally high. • concentrate on a few crucial issues in my own special field, psychotherapy. The biggest issue of all, to my mind, is the problem of Albert Ellis is the director of the Institute for Rational Emotive science versus mysticism in psychotherapy. In the early part Therapy and the author of The American Sexual Tragedy, of this century, when clinical psychology was establishing itself A Guide to Rational Living, and many other books. as a separate discipline, psychologists mainly subscribed to

Summer 1988 11 have taken the edge off commercial television. But is there any sure therapy? On Illusion Typical Americans, of course, would probably advocate that we develop some kind of "pill" or gimmick, like 3-D glasses, to clear our vision. Or perhaps some entrepreneur could develop and Disillusion a line of products that would include Illusion Shields, Illusion Scramblers, and Illusion Transformers. This would be the "quick fix" that might not only start a new multimillion-dollar industry but save citizens from the "work" they might have to expend to protect themselves from being "taken." And it is important, too, to observe that the sense of sight is not the Roy Fairfield only one wherein illusion takes over and where thoughtful analysis and common sense leave off. For instance, note the rom Plato to Polyani one of the most enduring philo- impact that rock-and-roll in popular music and the minima- sophical and practical questions to confront humans lists in classical music have had in "fooling the ears." The fast- Fconcerned the nature of illusion and ways to overcome its deleterious effects. I venture to predict that it will be a central issue of the twenty-first century. One need only reflect for a moment to appreciate the extent "Perhaps some entrepreneur could develop a line of of technological "advances" in the past quarter century to under- products that would include Illusion Shields, Illusion stand galloping illusion (some might call it "deception"). A Scramblers, and Illusion Transformers. That would recent CBS report on advertising revealed that the average be the quick fix...." citizen is exposed to five thousand ads per day, 3 percent of which are "remembered" and 90 percent "wasted." Anybody familiar with the fine arts in the twentieth century is well aware that Saul Bass made a significant point when he defined art as "looking at one thing and seeing another." M. C. Escher, food industry and the gourmet cook have one thing in com- the Dutch etcher and probably the finest illusionist of this mon: "Fool the tongue!" One could go on to illustrate that century, enabled us to see water running uphill and soldiers the senses of touch and smell have similar "enemies" or "friends," walking down the up-staircase. In Never on a Sunday, the hero, as one prefers. And, surely, we all know enough about magic, Homer, tried to explain theatrical death to the reforming prosti- ESP, and other efforts to stimulate the five senses, as well tute, but she was not to be fooled by the "dying" actors and as the "sense" of "intuition," to know that research and educa- actresses; she saw them take their bows after the play was over tion in this area could keep an army of statisticians and and knew that they "all went to the seashore" in their real professors busy for six lifetimes. lives. And the cartoon character Ziggy recently approached Central questions: Can the rate at which illusion dominates his dinner table to say, "It was only a matter of time . . . our lives be slowed, or will technology continue its bulldozing my alphabet soup is spelling out little advertisements." ways to govern our thinking, our buying, our opinions, our In short, the technological and communication revolutions very dreaming? Do educators at any level dare revise their have, to use McLuhan's observation, "massaged" the "mes- curricula so that Illusion 101 may reach parity with Math or sages." And, living in a sensate culture, we are frequently victims History 101? Will folk in the twenty-first century be any more of both outer and inner illusions. My own propensity toward sophisticated in "seeing through" the mumbo jumbo of authori- doggerel led me to remark: tarian ideologies than residents of other civilizations and cen- turies? How can the people of the next century reverse the Give us this day manufacture of guilt, probably the "greatest" product of Judeo- Our daily illusion Christian forces, guilt that makes television evangelicals, credit- You opt for order card purchasing, and other illusory activity possible? I'll take confusion! Illusion promises much, but frequently it delivers little; hence, disillusion follows. But, will Marilyn Ferguson's recom- Now, confusion may not be so "bad" as long as one is mendation in her book, The Aquarian Conspiracy, be successful aware of the challenges that lack of order presents. Paralleling if implemented? Is an "illusionectomy" enough? • the English poet's view of spring following winter with delightful inevitability, one might also conclude: When illusion dominates, can disillusion be far behind? Solutions? It may be that we have not yet reached the Roy P. Fairfield is the author of Person-Centered Graduate saturation point. Perhaps illusion must become even more Education, editor of The Federalist Papers, and a contributing dominant before we experience a healthy social reaction; in editor of FREE INQUIRY. He has taught at Antioch College, short, maybe we have to get sicker before we get better. Already, Ohio State University, and the Union Graduate School. cable television and the videocassette recorder may

12 FREE INQUIRY if they can and are allowed, whenever such a transformation begins to look even remotely likely. Certainly—with the tiny, Freedom and rule-proving exception of Grenada—no country that has once joined what is significantly self-described as "the socialist camp" has ever been allowed to leave. Yet very many have since 1960 Despotism in one way or another been recruited to that unpacific camp. It is this expansion, combined with the growing absolute and relative strength of the Red Army and the Red Fleet, that Antony Flew constituted that massive shift in "the correlation of forces" upon which Brezhnev and his successors, in speeches for internal consumption, continued menacingly to congratulate themselves. f there is no catastrophic, irreversible, final defeat in the All this, and perhaps still more the increasing reluctance next dozen years—which is always possible but scarcely to resist Marxist-Leninist expansionism shown by parties that likely—the main world goal will remain, for me and my in my young days were solidly loyal, provide some small com- friends and our successors, what it has been throughout my pensation for not being able very confidently to expect to see entire adult lifetime: to defend and extend the frontiers of free- • dom. (Clearly, no Marxist-Leninists or other friends of the the twenty-first century. Soviet Union, despite their claims to be fellow humanists, are any friends of mine, or of freedom!) Antony Flew, professor emeritus of philosophy at Reading The Politics of At the political level the first essential distinction is between University in England, is the author of two kinds of despotism—of regimes, that is, in which the rulers Procrustes, God, Freedom, and Immorality, and other books. are neither constitutionally limited nor accountable to the ruled. He is a member of the Secretariat of the Academy of One kind is more traditional: It was exemplified by the mon- Humanism. archies on the European continent during the eighteenth century and is embodied today by most of the world's military dictator- ships. Under regimes of this kind the rulers exercise monopoly control in the limited sphere of what is perceived as purely Does Humanism political; but otherwise they leave their subjects alone. The other kind of despotism is totalitarian. Here everything becomes political, and rulers claim and exercise the right to total, all- Have a Future? intruding control over the entire subject society. Since 1945 totalitarianism has become practically equivalent to Leninism. Indeed, Lenin's monstrous and sinister achieve- ment was precisely to invent and establish over a sixth of the Levi Fragell surface of the earth a distinctive, hi-tech, twentieth-century, imperialist form of totalitarianism. In this the entire economy he twentieth century is the first era in the history of is socialized and the entire society is subject to the absolute humanity when a significant number of people have power of a nominally collective leadership exercising all- Tcalled themselves "nonreligious." If David B. Barret is comprehensive, total control through an indoctrinated and right in his World Christian Encyclopedia (Oxford University indoctrinating monopoly party. Press, 1982), only 0.2 percent of the world's population were Suppose that, for this perspective, we review the years that nonreligious in 1900, whereas in 1975 the figure was 20 percent. followed the Inaugural Address of President Kennedy, in which This may be one of the most important cultural and social he called America and her allies to serve the great cause to changes of our time, even if the recent figures have doubtlessly which I and my friends (but not, it seems, his party) remain been boosted by the fact that entire national states call them- committed. The first thing we notice is a further important selves "atheist." No one can deny that only parts of the Euro- difference between Leninist and more traditional despotisms. pean and American populations today hold religious beliefs It is that the latter promise possibilities of evolutionary change or that the Western world a hundred years ago was almost toward less authoritarian alternatives. These possibilities have completely Christian. in recent years been quite richly realized. In Greece, in Spain, Such extensive changes of values and attitudes during just and now in most countries of Latin America, military rulers a couple of generations have caused turbulence and confusion, have given way to elected civilians: rulers who are not merely affecting people's personal lives, family traditions, ethical atti- voted in but—much more important—who may in due course tudes, and existential emotions. In the search for a new basis be voted out. many have turned to political dogmatism, paranormal escapism, Leninist regimes are crucially different. It appears that with- and nihilistic hedonism. out external assistance these simply cannot be radically trans- Where does humanism stand in this picture? formed. (This, too, is a tribute to the evil genius of Lenin!) Humanism, which introduced itself as "The Alternative" Indeed, under what was belatedly christened the Brezhnev more than 50 years ago (Humanist Manifesto, 1933), is at the Doctrine, other Leninist regimes will take preemptive action, closing of this century almost nonexistent in the world arena.

Summer 1988 13 The only country in the world where as much as 1 percent Dès sa naissance, le libéralisme s'est fondé sur ce qu'on of the population are organized humanists is Norway, a very a appelé un paradoxe: il devait, pour que soit joué le libre small country on the outskirts of civilization. jeu des acteurs sociaux, s'appuyer sur le contrôle de la santé I realize that many call themselves humanists without being et de l'éducation (voir l'Angleterre de la première révolution members of humanist organizations. But passive sympathy does industrielle). Les pays qui se sont ensuite réclamés d'une not write books, change laws, create alternative ceremonies, inspiration fortement libérale ont été amenés à prendre des or offer counseling. mesures limitant le "laisser faire" économique et social. Le When UNESCO in 1965 published a book on the "life libéralisme, on le sait, est créateur d'injustice s'il n'y a pas de stances" of the world (Religions and the Promise of the Twenti- régulation. De plus, les lois du marché jouent avec les acheteurs, eth Century, Mentor Books) the editor included a chapter on par tous les moyens de la persuasion publicitaire. Environné modern humanism—written by the honorable British humanist de messages contradictoires, le citoyen est réduit au rôle Harold Blackham. Would this have been done today? I doubt d'usager, soumis aux modes et aux manipulations en tous genres, it. Organized humanism is struggling for its survival at the pour sa vie privée comme pour sa vie sociale. end of the twentieth century. This is the unpleasant truth we Quelle société construire et selon quelles priorités? Voilà have to face—and do something about. • sans doute le défi majeur, qui ne sera relevé qu'au prix d'une même volonté de justice et de liberté. Quelle liberté pourrait Levi Fragell is the executive director of the Norwegian s'accomoder d'injustice? Humanist Association and cochairman of the International La paix entre les peuples et à l'intérieur des peuples est Humanist and Ethical Union. The Norwegian organization has nécessaire à un tel enjeu. Le conflit armé est le contraire de 35,000 members. la liberté, le contraire de la justice. Mais la non-guerre n'est pas non plus forcément la paix. Il faut avant tout s'attaquer aux violences, aux haines et aux incompréhensions comme celles de la xénophobie et du racisme. Justice et Liberté L'éducation est donc le premier espoir des humanistes. S'entendre sur ses objectifs, ses méthodes, le rôle des différents acteurs, reconnaitre la diversité et la complémentarité de fait Anne-Marie Franchi de ces acteurs, dont l'enfant n'est pas le moindre; bâtir les projets compte tenu des expériences; lutter par la volonté de rencontre "Les hommes naissent et demeurent libres et égaux en dignité contre less préjugés; surtout reconnaitre en chacun l'égale et en droit." dignité: voilà quelques unes des voies nécessaires. • —Declaration Universalle de 1948 Anne-Marie Franchi is vice president of the Ligue Française ette affirmation est un engagement et non un constat. de l'Enseignement et de !'Education Permanente. The League Elle trace l'une des pistes qui préparent l'avenir et is the largest association of teachers and parents in France. Ccontribue à définir l'humanisme. Le sens social et politique du terme égalité est celui d'équité, ou de justice, à plus forte raison quand il s'agit de dignité et de droit. Les hommes naissent déjà inégaux, en raison du rôle Entering the Future du milieu et de l'histoire familiale. Quelle égalité entre l'enfant né pendant un conflit, ou enlevé à ses parents, et l'enfant qui sera entouré de soins compétents et attentifs? Backwards Vouloir l'égalité revient à créer ses conditions, à multiplier les nouvelles chances pour tout enfant en difficulté. L'exclusion la plus insupportable, c'est celle qui frappe les enfants. A Yves Galifret l'intérieur d'une même nation, on distingue et sépare très tôt ceux qui feront ou non partie des élites. La persistance de rying to define the critical issues in the next century l'illettrisme lié à la pauvreté dans les pays occidentaux dotés is a rather difficult task, and more so—if at all possible— d'un système d'éducation généralisée est un de ces défis pour Tif the issues considered are ethical ones. demain qui ne seront pas relevés, si nous ne nous obstinons I would like briefly to evoke some of these difficulties, since pas dans la recherche de justice. it is better to be aware of them than to find easy satisfaction Les idéologies et leurs propagandes ont longtemps voulu in soothing speeches. opposer égalité et liberté, transformés en "égalitarisme" et Our task is akin to futurology, and experience has shown "libéralisme." Le bloc dit socialiste a voulu monopoliser les that futurology is a perilous exercise: The speed of the evolution espoirs d'égalité, promettant la liberté pour demain. Il a recréé and multiplication of the "branches" in the "possibility trees" une classe dominante dont les membres ne sont remplacés qu'au make it difficult, if not impossible, to make serious predictions. prix de luttes internes parfois dramatiques. Il n'y a, en fait, We remember, for example, that the first Club of Rome did au nom pourtant de la libération de l'homme, ni liberté ni not predict the oil crisis of the 1970s. justice. Pas de citoyens, seulement des gouvernés. With regard to ethics, the problem is complicated by a

14 FREE INQUIRY redoubtable preliminary: What will our criteria of evaluation be? We can, of course, stick to the level of sociological descrip- Thinking and tion: evolution of the proportion of nonmarried couples or of voluntary single mothers, of the age of the first sexual intercourse, etc. These are not really ethical concerns, which the Paranormal are normative. And the main question arises: Who will define the norm? And, supposing that a norm is set, who will see to its applica- tion? It is wise to remember what Montesquieu said: "We can- Henry Gordon not achieve by means of laws what ought to be obtained by principles." In other words, we cannot impose by decree what belongs to the realm of individual or collective conceptions, he potential problems facing humankind in the next which are the bases of customs and values. century are, of course, too numerous to mention. It Voluntarism is not very efficient in politics, but it is even Tseems to me that the most important factor to consider less efficient in ethics. Nevertheless, the remaining key difficulty is the capability of the human brain to cope with the various is the formulation of ethical rules. Where do morals come from? issues as they develop—which brings us to the basic problem: The Jewish-Christian religions have their Commandments; Can men and women learn to think rationally and critically their ethics is a consequence of faith in God. According to and make judgments based on objective and logical assessments? Kant, the existence of a moral law thrusts itself upon us as We have only to look at the area of belief in the paranormal an absolute fact, a "categorical imperative" of which we have to realize that we are a long, long way from this utopian state. an immediate consciousness. This imperative, wrote Kant, is Every poll taken in recent years, whether in our universities part of the harmonious organization of nature that can only or among the general public, has indicated that a large be the work of God; God in this case is a logical consequence percentage of the population accepts the validity of astrology, of ethics. Both the Bible and Kant leave the rationalist extrasensory perception, UFO visitations, channeling, and all unsatisfied. the other nonsensical claims. In his book La Morale et la Science des Moeurs, the philoso- We have made tremendous advances in science and tech- pher and sociologist Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (1857-1939) noticed nology in the last several decades. But it is quite evident that, that the theoretical foundations of ethics are irreconcilable; on as far as superstition-based beliefs are concerned, man's mind the other hand, the various practical ethical systems are very has never shifted out of first gear. similar and are in agreement as far as one's main duties and As long as these irrational beliefs are passed along from obligations are concerned. This is proof that we do not derive one generation to the next—and they are—the human thinking our ethical rules from given principles but we devise them. apparatus will not develop to the extent necessary to deal with Values do not exist by themselves, they are created by man. upcoming problems. It is paradoxical that our young people But how? are being taught the sophisticated intricacies of modern tech- As Gabriel Gohau—whose reflections have inspired this nology but are still unable to distinguish the difference between article—writes: "Ethics is a social creation; the rules are progres- science and pseudoscience. These are the people who will be sively built, as is our scientific knowledge, by induction. And, shaping the world of tomorrow. They, and their children, are as in the elaboration of scientific theories, true heuristic rules the ones who will have to cope with the environmental, eco- do not exist. The newness takes its significance only after the nomic, and human problems we have inconsiderately be- event: All holds together once all is built." queathed them. Our problem, right now, is to decide how we Before the important meeting of the IHEU in Buffalo this can help them learn and apply the art of critical thinking. How? summer, maybe it is necessary to insist on the difficulty of There is really only one vehicle: through the educational system. our endeavor and recall the words of Paul Valéry: "We enter Beginning in the secondary schools, the curriculum should the future backwards." include a course on the subject of critical thinking—no matter Will we be able to find, and put in the right places, the how brief. But these skills can be developed further in the colleges necessary driving mirrors? You must wish us luck. • and universities. The results would be quite dramatic. It has been said that the establishment probably frowns on this concept—why educate masses to be too critical? We must combat this awful cynicism. Why admit defeat before making a strong attempt to sell the idea? Keep in mind that the willingness to accept outrageous Yves Galifret is emeritus professor of psychophysiology at claims is not confined to those who are stupid, unbalanced, Pierre et Marie Curie University in Paris, executive secretary or uneducated. The number of educated, literate, and intelligent of l'Union Rationaliste, a member of the Comité Française people who believe in paranormal phenomena is surprisingly pour 1 Etude des Phénomènes Paranormaux, a fellow of high. One could list any number of celebrated authors, scien- CSICOP, and a member of the Academy of Humanism. tists, inventors, industrialists, artists, politicians—going back 150 years—who accepted and supported the belief in ghosts,

Summer 1988 15 in spiritualism, and in every kind of supernatural occurrence. are challenges that must be met and overcome. The alternative Evidently they never attended courses in critical thinking. You is breeding ourselves into oblivion. may say that many of them lived in a different age. No matter. Governing our planet as one nation will require the strength- There are just as many, if not more, of these high-profile people ening of the United Nations or its successor by some form in our enlightened and sophisticated age. of world government. The problems of our planet are interde- Whenever I sit on a panel that includes psychics or other pendent. It is not simply East vs. West, the Soviets vs. the purveyors of the paranormal—in a television studio or on the United States, or the Third World vs. both. No, it is humanity lecture platform—I scan the audience, most of whom are usually vs. stupidity, ignorance, greed, selfishness, and narrow loyalties. believers. One thought keeps occurring to me: These are the We must see ourselves as managing this planet in concert or people who elect the legislative and administrative officials destroying it and humanity by refusing to accept the fact that whose decisions direct our globe. we are one family, indivisible, under stress, with liberty and It's a sobering thought. • justice for all! Overcoming negative addictions embraces much more than the alcohol and drug problem. There are addictions to worth- Henry Gordon is an author, journalist, magician, and lecturer. less notions about "God" that are at the heart of our being He is a Fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investiga- able to emancipate ourselves and to become an inner-directed tion of Claims of the Paranormal, chairman of the Ontario and self-motivated species. There is a primitive sexual addiction, Skeptics, and a member of the Order of Merlin of the Inter- somewhat defused by the fear of AIDS, that nevertheless needs national Brotherhood of Magicians. He writes a regular column revising in order to elevate our sexual behavior above that for the Toronto Star. of rabbits. AIDS should not be the reason we promote "safe sex." It is respect for the human personality and the stability of the family as the basic unit of society that demands a more responsible sexual ethic than we have experienced since the advent of the pill. Rocking The Boat Waste, water, and want are all related, of course, to our present mismanagement of population. Pure water will be critical in the next century. Desalinization of sea water on a massive scale is imperative. The disposal of waste will be critical by the year 2000. The frenzied entrepreneurs (led by the late Roger Greeley pioneer Ray Kroc) have put junk food within the reach of almost everybody. That's the "good" news. The bad news is that these fast-food wizards have contributed to the stockpile t was not hard to list the challenges I perceive. It's serving of nonbiodegradable waste that already overtaxes our facilities them well within a six-hundred-word limitation that is for its disposal. (The problem of nuclear waste, of course, is difficult. The issues: defusing the population bomb; gover- the most serious and challenging form of waste confronting ning the planet as one nation, one people; overcoming negative humankind. We need more exploration of solar and other non- addictions; waste (nuclear and otherwise), water, and want; polluting sources of energy.) Finally, "want" (economic justice) the criminal justice system; the health-care establishment cannot be properly addressed without first defining what a given (mental and physical); education, science, and the future; and area can support in terms of human numbers. Efforts such assuming full responsibility for human destiny (theism as the "We Are The World" fund may make the sponsors and dethroned!). Obviously, for a humanist this final item is the participants feel good, but they only exacerbate the problems top priority, which underlies our ability to face the others. If they ineffectually address. we continue, as a species, to pretend that there is any help Last on my list is "education, science, and the future." for humanity outside of itself and the natural universe, we cannot Without education, all is meaningless and lost. Yet we have meet effectively the challenges confronting us in the twenty- never made a serious commitment to public education. The first century. Maintaining an infantile dependence upon the method of financing it is at best chaotic and unjust and at whims of a nonexistent deity is a grave threat to the future worst a moral delinquency. Beyond the three Rs, we must see of the human race. Such a naive dependence on "God" prevents to it that science is not straight jacketed by biblical nonsense. humanity from assuming its full responsibility, in partnership The idea, for example, that evolution "must be taught with with nature, for human destiny. an eye to Christian beliefs" is simply absurd and a gross violation Humanism must continue to air the unpopular (though of academic freedom. scientifically sound) causes, concepts, and attitudes that under- Undoubtedly, some will find these observations confronta- write the massive, revolutionary changes in values that must tional and controversial. There must be, however, a healthy precede any substantive changes in meeting the challenges I competition of ideas if we are to survive, let alone progress. have listed. Who else but the humanists are able to attack the idols of Defusing the population bomb, for example, requires a the tribe, the primitive notions that condemn avant-garde wholesale revision in our thinking and values about "life." thinking and proposals whenever they disturb the status quo? Eugenics are more than esoteric philosophical puzzles; they Humanists need not seek out what they have in common with

16 FREE INQUIRY the "religious liberals." Ecumenicism must always remain each day from malnutrition, starvation, or preventable disease. secondary to the pursuit of the truth and the championing Yet 2.5 billion dollars are spent each day on armaments that of sound but unpopular positions. can never be used if humankind is to survive. What kind of "Sit down, you're an alarmist, and you're rocking the boat, foolishness is this, and how long can it continue? I think it Roger!" some may say. Frankly, this is exactly what needs is easy to define the issues, the problems, and the goals; but to be done. • how do we go from here to there? I wish I knew. •

Roger Greeley edited the recently published book The Best Herbert A. Hauptman is research professor of biophysical of Humanism (Prometheus). He is a Unitarian minister and sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo and dean of the Humanist Institute. a recent Nobel Laureate for his work on crystal structures.

How Long Can Progress or Wisdom? this Continue? Robert L. Holmes Herbert A. Hauptman o problem of the twenty-first century will be greater n my opinion, the most important issues confronting than that of education. Overpopulation, world hunger, humankind in the next century are: Nwar, and the devastation of the environment will pose 1. How to prevent the abuse of power by powerful more immediate threats. But the way way we educate our young, nation-states exemplified by American intervention in Grenada and how they in turn educate their young, will determine through and Central America and Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, the next several generations how all these other problems are to cite only three of the more recent examples. This is a tough dealt with. problem necessitating, I believe, nothing less than a radical Each generation starts from scratch in learning about life change in the nature of nation-states as they presently exist, and the world. Education is a continuing process by which probably even their elimination, and replacing feelings of nation- humankind, devoid of instinct, renews itself in its ongoing alism by the realization that we're all in the same boat. Only engagement with the world. to the extent that people everywhere are better off do we as But the model of education as the mere transmission of individuals benefit. knowledge is inadequate. It implies that the community or 2. How to root out and destroy, once and for all, the twin society or humankind in general possesses a storehouse of evils of racism and religious bigotry, abominations that cause information and that the problem is simply one of transferring much of the pain and suffering humankind still endures. It this storehouse to the young—and, as the stockpile grows, of is unthinkable that humankind can tolerate another century sorting out what is important from what is unimportant and of such behavior. transmitting only that. 3. How to secure permanent worldwide peace and the recog- The imparting of knowledge is important, and decisions nition that it is only through universal disarmament that this must be made about what is worthwhile and what isn't. What goal can be reached. Peace negotiations usually fail because is far more important, however, is to encourage—and I stress of the illusion that to be successful the participants must the word encourage, because it can't be taught in any usual negotiate from a position of superior strength—an obvious sense—the pursuit of understanding, without which knowledge impossiblity, since clearly the two sides cannot both negotiate is often useless or even dangerous. Wisdom, in short, as the from such a position. And so the arms race continues to ancients taught, is far more important than knowledge; and accelerate; although the recent INF treaty may prove to be its cultivation, or the cultivation of the conditions under which a breakthrough, I remain skeptical. it can flourish in the right persons, is the proper aim of education. 4. How to eliminate the inequities that currently exist Not only should we be trying to define for future generations between those living in the Third World and those living in what is important, we should be cultivating in them precisely the developed countries and, for that matter, even among those the capacity to challenge what is deemed important in the current living in the most prosperous nations. world and to seek out ways of life that may be better than 5. How to end human rights violations. those they have inherited from us. These issues are clearly tightly interrelated. The problems This will require redefining what constitutes progress. The they raise must, I believe, all be solved together or not at all. endless manipulation and degradation of the environment can For example, some 40,000 people throughout the world die no longer be justified by waving the banner of progress. Nor

Summer 1988 17 can development of ever more powerful weapons of destruction express power. My own belief is that the desire for loving or the continual acceleration of technological development. acceptance is stronger; but the desire to express power is not Progress can no longer be measured in purely quantitative terms. far behind. However, this latter desire can be expressed through A clue to another perspective is found in Plato, who saw giving and exemplifying loving attention, just as it can be used the good as exemplified in human affairs through the attain- to express domination. This is not to suggest that we should ment of harmony, both within the individual and within the attempt to eliminate the need for expressing power; it would society at large. If we extend this to include the world com- munity and the natural world as well, it suggests a new ideal, a qualitative yardstick, if you like, in which progress is thought of as the attainment of ever higher degrees of harmony among "No longer will ethical formulations be conceived as persons, communities, societies, and of all of humankind with coming from some supernatural source, from some the natural world. What is bigger, faster, and more profitable heavenly deity; rather, they will rest upon the concepts should be thought of as progressive only to the extent that it contributes to the approximation of this ideal. To instill an that motivate our interpersonal relationships." appreciation of this, and to encourage cultivation of ways to promote such harmony, will be one of the priorities of educa- tion in the twenty-first century. • be futile to try. But we can redirect it by having parents and family members provide opportunities for loving expression Robert L. Holmes is a professor of philosophy at the University to others, and through the building of communities that will of Rochester. in the end include everyone. This concern needs to be at the heart of all studies concerning our human associations. To be aware of these two points means to revise our concept of ethical considerations. No longer will ethical formulations be conceived as coming from some supernatural source, from Putting Our some heavenly deity; rather, they will rest upon the concepts that motivate our interpersonal relationships. Ethical/ moral conduct will be that behavior and those associations that help Environment build and maintain the loving and caring relationships so important to joyous living. The behavior and the associations that prevent them will be regarded as unethical and immoral. In Order As this concept is accepted, spiritual growth will come, not through an adherence to a god, but through knowing what is within the human spirit and nurturing that aspect of human Lester Kirkendall outreach. We must learn how to resolve conflicts and settle differences umans need to regard themselves as a part of the global through negotiation and compromise rather than through the environment. As an animal species we have found exertion of force. This approach must go beyond individuals Hourselves in a position of control when it comes to and their personal relationships to include the international altering the environment, but many of our alterations have community. We must now reflect upon the world situation promoted neither our own existence nor the maintenance of and be concerned with achieving a unified world organization other animal species. We have preyed upon less-advanced forms that enhances friendly and caring exchanges between people of animal life, mistreated the forests, eroded the soil, and and governments worldwide. We have the beginning of this polluted the atmosphere. This pollution has extended into in the United Nations; but it must be strengthened, so that space—the ozone layer is now seriously depleted. Humankind's it can mediate disputes between nations and see that its decisions negative effects on the environment are magnified by its failure are enforced. This will require a diminished emphasis on to control population growth. The period of time between the national power and prestige. The continually abrasive relations doubling of numbers in the total population is becoming shorter between nations—between the United States and the Soviet and shorter. The attention of humans, and here I refer to all Union, for example—must be assuaged. humankind, must first be directed toward understanding our These, I hope, are developments that will come within the behavior as human beings and developing an awareness of the next century. • objectives toward which we strive. We must also help individuals build a sense of identity that is based on service to others rather than on the accumulation of material goods and the display of wealth. This, too, will Lester A. Kirkendall is the author of A New Bill of Sexual require a penetrating understanding of our nature. Two major Rights and Responsibilities and many other works. He is the components appear in everyone's behavior. One is the desire leading humanistic sexologist in world. to be lovingly accepted by others; the other is the desire to

18 FREE INQUIRY and contented life. Similarly, they seem to understand that a life that is, on balance, unhappy is not necessarily an empty Wisdom, Death, and one. It still may possess opportunity for great moments of satisfaction. Exiting from an unhappy life is, therefore, one thing; exiting from an irreversibly meaningless existence is the Quality of Life another. Life itself—that is to say, bare subsistence—is not in itself valuable. What gives life value is not its mere existence but its quality. Those who have mastered knowledge about death Marvin Kohl and dying further distinguish between a life devoid of any quality, one almost devoid of quality, and one just tipped on he next century should provide us with greater mastery the negative side of the scale. Under the influence of what may over nature, especially in matters of life and death. The broadly be called quality-of-life points of view, they urge that question is: How wise will our mastery be? sanity and wisdom consist not in the pursuit of life but in Wisdom is generally considered to be the way knowledge the pursuit of a quality life and conversely that, where a life is held and actually used. We typically distinguish between the is irreparably blasted by the most loathsome forms of disease person who knows only about knowledge and the person who and degradation, it may be desirable to exit. Despite the great lives wisely because he or she has a mastery of a certain kind variety of justifications offered, quality-of-life advocates of knowledge and has successfully implemented that knowledge. basically agree that suicide and voluntary euthanasia are some- For example, a thoughtful individual may know what the times excusable, permissible, virtuous, or obligatory. Indeed, important things of life and the limits of human power generally the quality-of-life group might well be called "Promethean," are, but he or she may have neither the will nor sufficient since it is hostile to the idea of just letting nature take its course control over his or her life to be able to actually live wisely. and insists that humanity should consciously and intelligently Similarly, a person may have species-bound and idiosyncratic control its own destinies. The essence of the quality-of-life knowledge about the important things in life and not be able position is that we are not being wise (to say nothing about to rank them or decide what must be given up when one cannot being humane) when we do not distinguish between and actively "have it all." Another way of saying this is to assert that wisdom respect differences, especially radical differences, in life quality. requires knowledge about the important things in life (species- When an adult correctly judges his or her own life to be ir- bound factors), the important things in an individual's life reparably devoid or almost devoid of quality and wants to (idiosyncratic factors), and knowledge about the "rules of the die, it is difficult to understand why wisdom would prohibit life game," especially about what can and cannot be done. it. In fact, when such judgments are correctly made, when Wisdom is a matter of degree. someone is allowed to die or to take his or her own life because It is extraordinarily difficult to have full wisdom about he or she truly would be better off dead, it is difficult to under- matters of life and death. Yet, if theoretical wisdom means stand why that gentle peace is not enjoined by wisdom. • reflecting on important matters in the right way, and if death is an important matter, then serious reflection about matters of life and death is incumbent upon all of us, even if we cannot Marvin Kohl is a professor of philosophy at the State University achieve the kind of complete mastery we would like. of New York College at Fredonia and the author of Beneficent What, then, does a moderately wise man or woman know Euthanasia, The Morality of Killing, and other books and about death? First, that death exists and places an important articles on matters of life and death. limit on every individual life. This means not only that we will all die but that we should not waste time with trifles or confuse the urgent with the important. "The significance of death," John Kekes has written, "is not merely that it puts an end to one's projects, but also that one's projects should be selected and pursued in the light of the knowledge that Our Children this will happen." Second, a wise man knows that life is precious and that, except in certain special circumstances, it is a benefit to its possessor. Correspondingly, he knows that death is usually an Lisa Kuhmerker evil and that it may be rational to fear and intelligently act to prevent accidental and other forms of unnecessary death. s adult participants in the critical events of our time, Insofar as one can establish such a thing, wise people understand and as care-givers and educators of children who will that human life is worth protecting, worth preserving, and Agrow into these roles in the coming years, we must generally worth living to its end. They also understand that plan and act simultaneously on a variety of levels. We must one can be happy with a life that is far from ideal and that function personally, locally, nationally, and internationally. being abnormal, handicapped, disadvantaged, or disabled does Our skills and our inclinations will influence the way we not necessarily mean that one cannot lead a relatively full, busy, apportion our time among these priorities. There will be times

Summer 1988 19 in our life cycles when all or most of our time will be focused in one direction. There will be times when the full realization Human Engineering: of our mutual interdependence will make us stretch beyond our immediate concerns. Yet even during the times when our locus of activity is most narrowly conceived, we need to keep Confronting the in mind that survival on our planet requires human concern for justice and care on all four levels. No matter how "favored" the status of the country in which Choices we make our home may be, we are all vulnerable to nuclear holocaust. Similarly, the economies of the world are so closely entwined that no national economy, no industry, and no indi- vidual family's security is truly or totally assured. Every tech- nological advance brings with it the risks of misuse and the Ronald A. Lindsay chaos of potential breakdown. To a greater or lesser degree, each subgroup or minority within a nation is in danger, because n describing what I believe to be the most important issue twentieth-century history has taught us that international public or set of issues that will face us in the next century, I opinion will not—and, perhaps, cannot—protect us from pre- am making a critical assumption—namely, that human judice and genocide. beings have a future. Food and energy shortages, environmental What implications do these realities have for the nurturance disasters, or self-destruction through nuclear war may deprive and education of our children? us of the possibility. Nonetheless, I believe it is more probable than not that humankind will survive into and through the "We owe our children honesty. If we are vulnerable next century. in our interdependence, this is a reality we can deny Whether we will be able to make the most of the opportuni- neither through words nor silence." ties that are likely to be available is another question. Getting people to make decisions on the basis of reason We owe our children honesty. If we are vulnerable in our rather than impulse or an unreflective commitment to tradi- interdependence, this is a reality we can deny neither through tional norms has always been a problem and will continue words nor silence. Most primary, however, is the need for to be a problem. However, this problem will become even more children to develop trust in their care-givers, in themselves, acute with respect to those advances in science and medicine and in the processes of interaction and conflict-resolution. This that will provide us with the opportunity to alter the genetic is not a new discovery. We know what children need; if children characteristics and behavior of human beings. Indeed, con- yet remain "in need," it is not for lack of our knowledge. fronting and making reasoned decisions about the choices The cutting edge of educational research and practice in resulting from this new technology will be one of our greatest the coming years should be the most broadly conceived kind challenges. of civic education. This civic education should not be confused The temptation to avoid critical thinking about the implica- with history or with information about branches of government tions of this new technology should not be underestimated. and electoral procedures. This civic education should be gen- Already, numerous religious leaders have urged the proscription uine, guided participatory democracy in the place and time of all genetic engineering. That some religious groups would all children are legally mandated to share: the school. call for a complete ban of this new technology is not unex- The secondary school is too late for this initiation into pected, of course, as anything that allows human beings to participatory democracy. Children as young as six years of shape their destiny usually elicits snarls from such groups. But age can take part in the governance structure of the elemen- there is adamant opposition to the new technology from secular tary school, if the issues are part of their everyday experience. quarters as well. For example, Jeremy Rifkin, the gadfly activist It is the time when children begin to understand and care about and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, has rules and when their basic ideas about fairness, care, and virtually made a career out of preaching against genetic en- responsibility are shaped. The best way to prepare our child- gineering. Moreover, these views find resonance in the instinc- ren for an uncertain future is to initiate them, early in their tive reactions of horror and revulsion felt by many when they lives, into the process of cooperative action and conflict are asked to contemplate the possibilities of genetic engineer- resolution. • ing or techniques for altering behavior. Humanists should be wary of such instinctual reactions. Professor Lisa Kuhmerker is a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard If there is one fundamental tenet of humanism, it is that decisions Graduate School of Education and on the adjunct faculty of are to be made on the basis of free inquiry and reason rather the Boston University Department of Education. Recently than intuition. retired from the City University of New York, she was the Any sort of general and undiscriminating ban on human founder of the Association for Moral Education and is the engineering is likely to deprive future generations of important publisher' editor of the Moral Education Forum. benefits. Moreover, there are no significant ethical differences between certain forms of human engineering that are likely

20 FREE INQUIRY to be available to us in the future and what we already do to modify human nature or behavior. Many parents go to great expense to improve their children's lot through medical care, Of Humanists schooling, and an "enriched" home and social environment. The efforts of these parents are usually applauded, not censured. and Humor It is difficult to see, then, the basis for objections to certain forms of human engineering, such as genetic alterations that would eliminate debilitating physical handicaps, or drugs that would improve an individual's mental functions, like memory. Tim Madigan If we can eliminate a person's handicap, or even mere underachievement, through the use of drugs or genetic manipu- he philosopher Henri Bergson said of laughter that "it lation, we should not be stopped from doing so because of is a social sanction against rigid behavior." I must misplaced concerns that we are "playing God" or interfering Tshamefacedly admit that I know of his definition not with the "sanctity of life. "Playing God" is an obscure phrase, through reading his works but from hearing it spoken during but presumably it connotes interference with natural processes, a television interview by the comedian John Cleese, of "Monty in which case human beings have been "playing God" for Python" fame—surely an impeccable source. Regardless of centuries, usually with acceptable results. And penicillin inter- where it is found, Bergson's point is an important one, especially feres with the "sanctity of life" as much as the removal of the in regard to humanism. The ability to see the humor in human gene responsible for Huntington's chorea. (Bacteria are life situations is crucial. It is laughter that can bring down the forms, too.) walls of intolerance and cause us to reexamine our doctrinaire This is not to discount the potential dangers of human positions. In fact, one could add the following to the engineering. Unregulated human engineering, or human en- "Affirmations of Humanism" (published on the back cover of gineering under the control of a dictatorship, could lead to this magazine): We humanists are able to laugh at ourselves. a dramatically unpleasant reshaping of our world. But we have And, as we enter the twenty-first century, this is an ability to balance the risks against potential gains. Moreover, banning that needs to be cultivated. genetic engineering or behavior modification is unlikely to As national coordinator for the local FREE INQUIRY groups, reduce these risks significantly, since the unscrupulous will carry I have had the opportunity to meet many professed secular out their programs regardless of any such prohibition. humanists. What particularly strikes me is the great sense of Naturally, we should not wholeheartedly embrace each new humor most of them possess; meetings of humanists have more technique of human engineering, even if the immediate benefit than their fair share of mirth. When you think of it, this is seems clear. Each new proposal for altering human nature or not surprising. Because humanism has no dogma, we don't behavior will have to be evaluated carefully to determine have to get upset over "sacrilegious" remarks. Because it has whether our long-term interests will be served by its imple- no absolutes, we don't have to worry about breaching taboo mentation. Depending on the type of alteration proposed, we subjects. Because it doesn't claim to have all the answers, we may want assurances that the technique will be available to don't have to get perturbed when its principles are called into everyone. Consider a drug or a form of genetic manipulation question. that can raise an individual's IQ by 25 percent—a benefit with Irreverence is an important humanist trait. We don't vener- no obvious drawbacks, except that it would place at a disad- ate anything, in the sense of feeling awe mingled with fear. vantage those without access to the technology. Veneration impedes questioning, and humanists are, if nothing It is, of course, impossible to list here all the factors that else, inquisitive beings. We wish to understand the world we will have to be considered in making the difficult choices about find ourselves in, which means that no subject is off-limits to applications of the new technology. My point here is to empha- us. Why did the chicken cross the road? size that choices will have to be made, and they had better Above all else, we humanists recognize the foibles of all be made with a humanistic moral code as a guide. If we rely rational beings. For this reason we can never make gods out on religious dogmatism or our instincts to guide us in this of humans, as our opponents claim we do. How can one worship revere anyone new, challenging terrain, we will be lost. • so silly a race? We can respect but we cannot (with the possible exception of the guy who yelled out, "The British are coming, the British are coming!"). I do not claim that all humanists are laugh-riots. I've met a few sourpusses in my travels (you know who you are), who act as if a good belly laugh would split them asunder. Nor do I Ronald A. Lindsay is by training both a philosopher and a claim that only humanists can laugh at themselves. One of my lawyer. With graduate degrees in philosophy and law from best friends, and the wittiest person I know, is a devout born- Georgetown University and the University of Virginia, he is again Christian. Still, he can chuckle over the vagaries of the currently in private legal practice in Washington, D.C. He world, and even over his own church's creeds (although this has argued cases on behalf of secular humanism before the has been known to get him into hot water with his fellow federal courts. parishioners). Humor is essential to our well-being. We live in a world

Summer 1988 21 with many problems and much adversity, both natural and I would dwell hereafter on a psychological affliction that man-made. Of course I don't advocate laughing at everything otherwise may be overlooked, a kind of aftershock lingering at all times (for example, I do not find anything amusing in long in the Western psyche. The "scientific creationists" are the Police Academy films, truly a tragic waste of valuable cellu- instructive in this regard. loid). Some things are, indeed, deadly serious. But one should By the mid-1800s, the reality of evolution had not only note that to laugh at a subject is not necessarily to denigrate been discerned by Darwin and Wallace, but each had indepen- or ridicule it. What laughter at its best does is put things into dently supplied fruitful theories for understanding how it human perspective. How much better it would have been if happens. Yet 130 years later "scientific creationists" aggrieve Abraham slapped his knee and chortled: "You want me to American public education, beleaguer legislators, and clog do what to my first-born son? What a sense of humor you've courts with their antique idea of "special creation." It is not got, Big Guy!" Friedrich Nietzsche wrote "I would believe only that such folk can accept no new ideas (thus avoiding future in a god who could dance." I would amend that to "I would shock) but that they can jettison none, no matter how naive, believe only in a god who could take a joke." that they believe conduces to salvation. On behalf of traditional The righteous ask, "Is nothing sacred?" We humanists reply wisdom dogmatized, the "scientific creationists" and their ideo- "Precisely!" It is the people whose hearts have been hardened logical ilk are willing to fight and blight anything, including by certainty who find it most difficult to let loose and guffaw. science, that threatens the safety afforded by their world-view. They are unwilling to challenge their own convictions, and they The ominous question is this: What is happening in science detest anyone who pokes fun at their beliefs. But one can be today (or happened yesteryear) that will convulse pious ideo- philosophical about life without being grim. Lest we forget, logues in the twenty-first century similarly? Whatever it is, it Charles Dodgson, the noted logician, was also the author of will conscript those of us who can reconcile ourselves to the such hilarious works as The Hunting of the Snark and Alice results of advancing intellect to contend with those who cannot. In Wonderland (under the nom-de-plume Lewis Carroll). And We will be to them and they to us as acrimonious aliens, sharing it is a little-known fact that Morey Amsterdam once held the the same planet but not the same world. Chair of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge—until someone made Several candidates threatening to be to the twenty-first him let go of it. century what the evolution controversy has been to the twen- Steve Allen, the famous entertainer and social critic, says tieth leap to mind. Consider the following. No matter the ap- in the introduction to his book Funny People: "Without laugh- proach to modern cosmology, it augurs ill for adherents of ter life on our planet would be intolerable." I heartily concur. the god of Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, Paul, and It is the duty of humanists to slay sacred cows with the sword Muhammad. Indeed, how odd the god the Jews do choose— of laughter. As we head toward the next century, we should and the Christians and the Muslims. Moreover, the more we be ever mindful of the importance of humor as a self-corrective understand our brains by "chemicalizing" their functions, the method of keeping us from becoming stern absolutists. Or, more the person is "biologized," and the greater our success in the stirring words of Henry "Shecky" Bergson: "Take my in mapping the human genome, with its myraid markers of dogma, please!" • predilection and vulnerability, the more difficult it will be to see human beings as a little lower than the angels. A little Tim Madigan is national coordinator of the secular humanist higher than the animals, but of their kind, is more like it! group movement and assistant editor of FREE INQUIRY. Furthermore, some studies in neuropsychology indicate that our brains select among alternatives before delivering to consciousness intuitions of choice. If so, what of the vaunted "free will" upon which so much of Western religion, morality, Unwanted Knowledge and jurisprudence is based? With notions of deity held hostage to cosmology, with the alleged spark of divinity in us deeply doubted, and with free will at risk, what stock can be placed Delos McKown in intimations of immortality? Precious little, if any, it would seem. The "scientific creationists" are symptomatic of a culture hree specters of the twentieth century will still haunt humankind in the twenty-first century: atomic war and at war with itself over the acquisition of knowledge it does Tits calamitous aftermath, the chemical and nuclear not want and can scarcely absorb with equanimity, if at all. befouling of the biosphere, and the pullulating of our species— The twenty-first century will likely witness, as never before, resulting variously in desertification, famine, and the devastation the battle of science with soteriology, of free inquiry with of tropical rain forests. We will not all suffer equally. Famished religious dogma desperately held and tenaciously masses in desertified areas may well avoid the acid rains af- maintained. • flicting the affluent, and those who subsist from hand to mouth, until dying young, will not, when old, clamor for the scarce Delos McKown is chairman of the Department of Philosophy and costly means of prolonging life every possible day. at Auburn University and author of the recently published Turning from the planet's Ethiopias and Bangladeshes to novel With Faith and Fury. technically advanced societies, with North America ever in mind,

22 FREE INQUIRY how to control them. That requires of the human species a feat of learning and governance with which we have no prior Controlling Science experience. It will require superb wisdom and balance to maintain freedom and democracy as we try to reign in these powerful technologies. Can we be that foresighted and wise? and Technology We must surely try. The cost of failure will be slavery and/ or the extermination not just of ourselves but of our species— and millions of other species. • Lester W. Milbrath Lester W. Milbrath is a professor of political science at the umanists have always supported free inquiry. Since State University of New York at Buffalo. science appears to be the epitome of free inquiry, how Hcould anyone with humanist values propose to control science and technology? Science and technology actually are more than inquiry— they are power. Every technology is deployed to give humans Wise Consumption a power they did not possess. The power science and technology convey leads people to promote their development and deploy- ment. Since that requires big money, they end up being nur- tured and controlled by the dominant powerful institutions in Lester Mondale society, which use them to maintain and enhance their domina- tion. Power has become the key theme in all modern societies— ssuming that the world's mass reproducers, holy and we think we are free, but we are really all servants of power. otherwise, won't multiply us out of standing room; The sheer power of modern technologies is an even more Athat the governing machos, "standing tall," won't blast important reason for learning to control them. The discovery us out of existence; and that the world will not become a and utilization of nuclear energy is the most prominent example technological utopia, with "flying cities, freight-carrying dirigi- of sheer power—it holds all the world hostage to fears of bles ... and arctic farming," with pundits urging "Go Moon, destruction. Recombinant DNA technology promises equal or young man! Go Moon!"; I believe the most important issues greater power. It holds out greater possibility for good than facing us in the next century will have to do with consumption. nuclear energy, but it is even more difficult to control, because At present it is consumer consumption that pushes the Gross its development and deployment are scattered and unsuper- National Product to boom-time levels, making nations strong visable. Nanotechnologies are just over the horizon—they have and everybody seemingly prosperous and happy. On the other the potential for even greater power for good and evil than hand, with credit card malaise, higher interest rates, and taxes, either nuclear energy or recombinant DNA. we have recession, unemployment, and embittered protest at These are just three prominent examples of the power for the polls. The law of life, as commercially evangelized these both good and evil embodied in modern science and technology. days, is "Consume or be damned!" These technologies have enabled human population to explode. This law is fallible, then, on more than one count. First, They have enabled burgeoning numbers of people to become there is the forbidding consequence of unlimited consumption Homo Colossus in their use of the earth's resources, to domi- carried into the next century; the average American now con- nate nature, to cast their wastes everywhere, and to perturb sumes seven times more food and twenty times more of the the biosphere. Humans cannot live without a viable ecosphere, world's natural resources than does the average Asian. Imagine yet our very hubris in wielding science and technology threatens the progressive devastation of American and world resources the ecosphere and our existence. when Americans go from seven to eight or nine percent of Technologies have another ominous feature: They shape the food; from twenty to twenty-five percent of the natural our social structure, our economy, our politics—even our values resources; or when Asians (with multiplying Africans, Mexicans, and mores—in very permanent ways. Consider the impact of and Central Americans) try to match our consumption of both! the automobile or television on modern society. We should The fallibility of the law of consumption is demonstrated think of technologies as akin to legislation in their shaping further in the failure of consumption, even when billionairish influence, but they are even more permanent—we can repeal in acquisition, to assuage the desire to consume or really to legislation but we cannot repeal a technology. Ironically, we improve our self-esteem. Because she is so comic and pathetic, typically consider and debate relevant issues at great length Imelda Marcos provides an excellent illustration. Why did she before adopting a new law; yet we almost never debate the believe she needed three thousand pairs of shoes? Why did long-run impact of a new technology on society, the environ- she lack the self-esteem to have concluded with a practical fifty ment, and our values. We become prisoners of the decisions or one hundred? Would ten thousand have been sufficiently of a tiny group of people to develop and deploy. enhancing? We cannot just cancel a technology or halt the search for An annual 100 billion advertising dollars, along with three- new ones—no society sufficiently controls the human enter- thousand commercial messages per day (my authority is George prise to be able to do so. Our only hope is to try to learn Will), are appropriated to tempt, tease, and cajole the American

Summer 1988 23 consumer into taking after Imelda. That leaves us with people may be expected that there will be a new science of evolutionary who are starved for the sustenance of things mental: among engineering that, by means of "designer genes," will permit the them, the vision that gives to daily work its due of importance molding of new and highly specialized variants of Homo sapiens, and the zest of ennobling tasks. Consumption on a truly human as many and as diverse in number as the limits of the science- level must have a mind, as Andrei Sakharov has written, to fictional imagination permit. Science fiction will also permit bringing about conditions that help "to preserve all in mankind cross-species hybridization. that is human: the joy of spontaneous work with knowing hands Barring the emergence of completely unanticipated demo- and a knowing mind, the joy of mutual help and good relations graphic influences or events, population statistics in the twenty- with people and nature, and the joy of learning and art." first century will be contingent on the magnitude of population More specifically put, for the next century, let as consume increase from neglect or repudiation of birth control on the as Emerson's "Wise One": one hand and the magnitude of population depletion by the AIDS epidemic on the other. The resultant population shifts Go where he will, the wise one is at home. will differ geographically and by age. The social and political His hearth the earth—his hall the azure dome. responses to these shifts will be regionally and culturally Where his spirit leads him, there's his road... . variable. If the present antisexual counterreformatory responses to the gains of the so-called sexual revolution win ground, the Compared to the world's Imeldas, the wise one is incredibly sexual dictatorship of a self-defined moral elite will replace rich, his standard of living high on the scale of values that the still-utopian ideal of a genuine sexual democracy. give us genuine self-esteem and make us human. He doesn't The engineering of a tyranny of sexual dictatorship could crave to become a billionaire. be under the aegis of women or men, or both. For their own For the twenty-first century the rule is to be the wise con- elite, they might license AIDS-free breeding colonies, possible sumer ... or else! • on space stations. Among the elite, they would distribute male and female roles in conformity with the obligations and privileges of age, power, and breeding. Among the masses, the Lester Mondale is a Unitarian minister emeritus and former ideal of equality of sexual and erotic rights for men and women, president of the Fellowship of Religious Humanists. He is children and adults, would be heresy. The ratio of sexuoerotic the brother of former Vice President Walter Mondale. pathology to health would be contingent on the severity and pervasiveness of antisexual tyranny. Those manifesting path- ology would be interned, brutalized, or exterminated, unless, perhaps, the advances of neuroscience allowed the reengineering of their sexual brains into an arbitrarily defined state of orth- Technology, odox conformity. Otherwise, an epidemic of sexuoerotic path- ology would increase exponentially in each succeeding genera- tion. Should a critical mass of rebellion eventually build up, Sex, and Gender the wheel of sexual revolution might once again be set in motion. A less dismal scenario, designed specifically for the age of the AIDS epidemic, would be to give universal approbation to masturbation, renamed as "erotic hand practice." Computer- John Money assisted videotapes would be able to supply an on-screen image of a compatible partner who would respond erotically, as he prophet forecasts yesterday's doomsaying into the directed, to one's own image projected live on the screen from future, whereas the utopian forecasts a triumphant a videocamera. These pictures would supplant the underwear Ttomorrow. What prophets and utopians fail to recog- pages of the Sears Roebuck catalogue, or any other commercial nize, however, is that the future is shaped not only by continui- or media erotica, as stage properties in masturbation fantasies. ties from the present but also by unforecasted interventions— For adolescents, it would permit the development of virtuoso in either of two great categories. One category is technological, hand practice as well as provide an interim period of safe sex the other is demographic. New technology and its artifacts may in preparation for the greater complexities and responsibilities be either borrowed or invented. New demographics may be of safe sex within a love affair and of procreative sex within the outcome of migration or changes in the birth/ death ratio. a marriage. • Insofar as major technological changes may be contingent on serendipitous scientific discoveries, they and their effects will be reckoned with when they occur, but not in anticipation. On the basis of today's technology, it may be expected that John Money is professor of medical psychology and pediatrics there will be advances, for example, in pregestational sex selec- and emeritus director of the Psychohormonal Research Unit tion, male contraception, infertility correction, extrauterine at The Johns Hopkins University and Hospital. One of the pregnancy (for males as well as females), and assembly-line leading sexologists in the world, he is the author of Destroying procreation by cloning somatic cells, not only the egg-sperm Angel and Venuses Penuses, among other works. combination. Once the human genome has been mapped, it

24 FREE INQUIRY Reason and Power The New Sword of Damocles Henry Morgentaler

ow are we going to deal with the enormous power that humankind has accumulated, a power so awe- Indumati Parikh H some that it could lead to the destruction of all human life in a nuclear holocaust should reason and compromise not n a short period of twelve years we shall enter the new prevail? We need to be concerned with many kinds of power. century with our hearts full of hope and apprehension. The power of modern medicine, for example, has helped control We will be leaving behind us a century that witnessed and eliminate much illness, but it has also created overpopula- unprecedented expansion—an explosion of knowledge and tion, famine, and misery. Moreover, the byproducts of technol- technological advances that has given unlimited potential for ogy, like chemical contaminants, are polluting the environment the emancipation, as well as the virtual extinction, of the human and poisoning our air, water, and atmosphere. Unless we learn race. to control and use wisely this enormous power, we may very We in India join all Third World people by entering the well sink down into a morass of poverty, famine, dictatorship, new century with more fear than hope, more frustration than and torture—in a world where life is short, nasty, and brutish. aspiration. We should not become so despondent, however. Or, worse, our species could become extinct. Rather, we should prepare ourselves to face the issues squarely, However, should we be able to use our intelligence and with courage and determination, and to act on the basis of creativity in a caring and loving way, we might use our power strength and rational thought. to create a real paradise on earth, where people enjoy abun- I could make a long list of issues that will be crucial in dance and the freedom to live healthy, meaningful lives. the next century, but we must realize that they are all symptoms Without creating and fostering new moral and philosophical of one disease. Only a critical, comprehensive understanding attitudes, we will fail dreadfully in this quest. What are these of them will take us nearer to their solutions. attitudes? A sense of responsibility to oneself and to others; Unchecked population growth and the spread of consumer- the recognition of the brotherhood and sisterhood of all people, ism are Last disturbing the ecological balance in several of regardless of race, creed, or ethnic origin; a nurturing of the nature's subsystems. Too many are ignorant of simple facts qualities of love and caring; and the intelligent use of personal and collective resources. Such a new philosophy of life, based on love and reason, is our only hope to eliminate the threat of war, to deal with conflict by tolerance and compromise, "We in India join all Third World people by entering and to find intelligent solutions to present and future problems. Such an approach is humanistic. the new century with more fear than hope, more It is up to us all to create a community where children frustration than aspiration. We can only hope that are wanted, desired, and loved, so that they can become caring we will carry an undaunted faith in the native wisdom and responsible members of society. This is only one of the of our people to take their destiny in their own hands applications of our knowledge of psychology that makes us and save themselves." favor family planning, birth-control, sex education, the right to abortion, and reproductive freedom. We must fight religious fanaticism, which hinders population control and fosters hate, war, and destruction. The deities and fossilized traditions of the past will not of life; appalling poverty is still accepted as inevitable fate; resolve the dilemmas I've mentioned in our favor. A humanistic the educated middle class still runs away from realities to take commitment to reality and compassion will. • shelter under an ever-widening umbrella of superstitions; false beliefs and religious ritual are manifestations of rapidly spread- ing feelings of helplessness and frustration. The last decade Henry Morgentaler is a physician who won a tremendous and a half has witnessed an astonishing rise of religious funda- victory this year for reproductive freedom in Canada after a mentalism, casteism, and interregional strife all over my coun- twenty-year battle when the Supreme Court of Canada struck try. These tendencies are fed and fueled by politicians inside down its restrictive abortion law as unconstitutional. Morgen- as well as outside of India, and they have further divided an taler has been active in the Canadian humanist movement for already fragmented society. All political parties have proved the last twenty-four years and was the first president of the themselves bankrupt in terms of ideologies and programs and Humanist Association of Canada. have corrupted social life so much that honest living has become practically impossible. On an international level, big nuclear

Summer 1988 25 powers continue to fight their battles by instigating smaller One possibility, a dangerous one indeed, is the continual communities or nations. If backward, fundamentalist powers and exponential increase of the global population, especially get hold of nuclear weapons, there is every possibility of their in the less-developed parts of the world. This situation creates use on an insane whim. This is the most dangerous sword a lack of balance in resources and is therefore coupled with hanging over the head of the world. an increase of the economic gap between the "rich" and the When one adds new technologies and faster systems of "poor." Conflicts will be a permanent danger; and terrorism communication to the problems sketched above, the extent of might well appear to some to be the only possible reaction mental and physical adjustments needed to live in our new against inequalities, as desperate a solution as it may be. century can hardly be gauged. The use of supertechnology will How can we limit population growth? If we override the probably add to the already existing colossal unemployment spontaneous and free decisions of people, are we not violating that has already undermined our precariously balanced econ- human rights? One may think that we can solve the disequi- omy. New biological inventions will unsettle sex and family librium only by transfers of populations, by a flow from over- relations. Old values will have to be drastically overhauled. populated areas (the Ganges Delta, for example) to low-density This will not be an easy task even for the educated classes; regions (Australian "deserts")—but would not such an attempt for our ignorant millions, it will be still more difficult. to solve some problems be another violation of human rights? We can only hope that we will carry into the new century Therefore, the key word for twenty-first century humanism an undaunted faith in the native wisdom of our people to take may not be freedom. Can we retain fraternity and solidarity? their destiny in their own hands and save themselves. • In our part of the world—the industrialized countries— there is a good chance that, before the end of the twenty-first century, science might solve our energy problem (fusion energy Indumati Parikh, M.D., is president of the Radical Humanist is more likely to be successful on a large scale than solar energy). Association of India. Medical sciences will have achieved major victories against cancer and AIDS. Chemistry will have multiplied the ways to transform natural products into food. But these successes might not benefit everybody. Like the conquest of space, our boldest endeavors may touch only a few. So another part of the French Revolution's ideal might The Ideal of Fraternity have to be abandoned. Equality, too, will appear as an old dream of the past. Will we be left with fraternity? How to exert it? In our Western world, certainly by readily accepting a diminution in our personal level of living—and Jean-Claude Pecker by showing others that tribal reactions are not offering any solution, that nationalisms of all sorts and religions of all kinds t is impossible, in our meteorological daily experience, are only a way to divide humanity. This task may now appear to predict the weather more than three or four days in to be terribly difficult. But one is allowed to hope. • I advance. The reason for this impossibility is clear. Al- though we probably know all the physical processes involved in weather, the number of parameters to bring to our equations Jean-Claude Pecker is a distinguished professor of astrophysics is so large, and the solutions so sensitive to the choice of these at the College de France and a member of the Académie des parameters, that no long-range prediction is indeed possible. Sciences. He is also a member of the Academy of Humanism. The meteorological problem is relatively simple when compared to that of the human brain. Although every single biological process can be entirely determined, the tremendous complexity of the whole thing can still give us the feeling of freedom. Looking at billions of individuals—namely, at humanity—as we enter the twenty-first century, it is still more difficult to What Will Persist predict. Hence, I cannot pretend to base the following statement on inescapable events, unavoidable progress, or necessary catastrophes. We keep, at every moment, our liberty within an unpredictable universe. Our liberty of choice, however, is sharply limited by the Howard B. Radest liberty of choice of other human beings, and by the evolution of the earth. It is possible only to state one's attitudes based, have trouble enough seeing into the next week let alone as they are, on our hopes and fears. I am a French citizen, the next century. But, I suggest that the future will not so one should not be surprised to see that I am still claiming be all that different from the past. To be sure, techno- a humanist attitude, supporting freedom, equality, and fraternity logy will grow more complicated, population will increase, and (liberté, égalité, fraternité) as the perfect ideal. But I am aware conflict will persist. And, beneath it all, the problems of living of some dangerous possibilities. a decent, responsible, and interesting life have persisted.

26 FREE INQUIRY Our ancestors fresh from the cave, our own parents, and enlightenment would have failed; for its genius is that it can all the generations in between have struggled with our issues, never be over. So, a hundred years hence, a similar assignment too. Hunger, fear, illness, and disaster will remain the human will need to attend to the same agenda. And that is as it should condition. But so will love, color, song, and insight. Knowing be. • what to do and what to do well will continue to be a puzzlement. In short, we are not—and ought not think of ourselves—alien to what has gone before. And we will not be alien to our Howard B. Radest is director of the Ethical Culture Schools own children and grandchildren. and dean of the Humanist Institute. He is a former executive 1 suspect that large numbers, pluriform cultures, complica- director of the American Ethical Union. ted organizations, and concentrations of power will tempt us to hide from one another, to avoid community responsibility. Power will take form as benevolent manipulation, and organiza- tions will appear as loving slavery. The move for things to be done for "my good" by others—impersonal others, like the state and the corporation—will increase along with the ability The Arms Race to achieve and enforce. The confusions that must accompany an environment grown more crowded will justify surrounding freedom by constraint. Rule by the few for the good of all in Space will be a typical temptation. An equal temptation will be to make freedom itself an absolute, to confuse ego with autonomy. Set against this rather conservative view of the next decades, I would expect some very familiar issues to be ahead of us. Jonathan F. Reichert Still before us is the problem of democracy, the establishment of a moral and political community within which human beings ith the drug, crime, education, racism, poverty, and can take control of their own lives. The danger, as I see it, other social problems that our mass media remind is that democratic forms—votes and legislatures and consti- Wus of daily, it may be difficult for anyone to accept tutions—will, even more effectively than now, subvert demo- my contention that the most critical issue confronting the world cratic practice. The equal danger is that we will desert democracy in the next century is the arming of outer space. We stand because its forms become oppressive and its failures frustrating. at a historic moment, a moment that may not last more than Breaking through toward freedom will be all the more difficult. a few more years, where we will decide whether space will Next, I see still the issue of schooling, the process by which be filled with every kind of imaginable weapon or whether people are empowered to freedom. Again, I think we will be we have enough political resolve to outlaw the arming of outer even more likely in the years ahead than we are now to replace space. The United States will probably make that choice for education with training and to confuse skill with wisdom. The the world. With so much political leverage, it is imperative needs of a technically sophisticated society will seem to justify that it make the right choice. this move. We will talk easily about an educated society when The present administration does not call its program "arm- all we mean by it is a functioning society. Getting to the risk- ing space." It speaks of a massive "research" program called filled, unpredictable, existentially varied process that is Strategic Defense Initiative—SDI, more commonly known as schooling will be blocked by claims of know-how masking as Star Wars—whose aim is to make nuclear weapons impotent knowledge. and obsolete. But the program can better be described by Dr. Finally, science and technology will still appear in all their Robert Bowman, former director of the United States Air Force ambivalence. The notion that inquiry is a glorious "entertain- Direct Energy Weapons Laboratory (1978-1980): "Star Wars ment" will conflict with the idea that "knowledge is power." has nothing to do with defense. It is a blatant attempt to regain The resulting tension has been the motive of scientific develop- absolute military superiority through the development of new ment. But, as is already evident, the tension is likely to be offensive weapons ... disguised as a defense." resolved in favor of mere power. Paradoxically, the reputation The world is standing on the edge of a very steep and long of science will probably increase while true scientific activi- slippery slope. Once the arms race begins in earnest with the ty languishes. The scientific impulse will grow narrow and un- first deployment of Star Wars weapons, we will be over the exciting. edge. The Soviets will move next with their own, then the I suppose, then, that the key issue of the twenty-first century French, Chinese, and British. Then the United States will build will be to sustain the genius of the eighteenth while accounting counterweapons to neutralize the Soviet SDI, and the Soviets for the things we have learned since. But then, democracy, will deploy anti-United States counter-countermeasures and so schooling, and science are found in their processes and not on. Each generation of weapons will be more automatic and their products. Their persistence as issues and opportunities operate on a shorter fuse; each will respond more quickly and should not surprise us. The regret that I feel, as the end of with less human intervention. In short, the world will be on a a century draws near, is that I will not be here to see how computerized hair-trigger. the drama proceeds. But I do not regret the fact that the struggle The costs of these systems will be staggering, but both sides for enlightenment is not over. Were the struggle ended, then will pay the bill because their national pride, as well as their

Summer 1988 27 perceived national security, depends upon it. We will not only kind's historical roots and with little or no sense of social mortgage our treasury, but also our precious and scarce scien- obligation—will "impose their vulgar views on the world without tific talent pool. This will soon lead to a major shift in economic respect or regard for others." world leadership. Ortega y Gasset pointed out that the population of Europe But we do have some very clear choices, choices that, if had increased from 140 million to 460 million between 1800 made decisively by the United States, will undoubtedly persuade and 1914. It's now close to 800 million; and, partially because the world to follow. We can and we should support a worldwide of the overflow from Europe, the population of the United ban of all types of weapons in space. Such a treaty, negotiated States has nearly tripled. His concern (and today still very much through the United Nations, has the virtues of both simplicity ours) was, in his words, "that at such a rate it is difficult to and verifiability. Such a treaty will not depend on the trust saturate the population with the traditional culture. It leaves of our current or future adversaries. It will be technically and the impression of primitive man suddenly rising in the middle politically straightforward and thus understood and appreciated of civilization. In schools it becomes impossible to instruct the by the general population. Cheating will be difficult, if not masses in the techniques of modern life; it has been found impossible. One cannot "sneak" into space. Entering outer space impossible to educate them. They have been given the tools requires large launch vehicles and launch facilities, all of which for an intense form of existence, but with no feeling of their are easily visible to reconnaissance satellites. If an adversary great historic duties; they have been hurriedly indoctrinated did succeed in putting weapons in space, they would be easily with the pride and power of modern instruments but not their tracked and observed. Thus a ban on all space weapons is spirit. A new generation is getting ready to take command absolutely verifiable and in the interest of all humanity. It is of the world as if it were a paradise without traditional and an important first step to readdressing the arms race and pre- highly complex problems." venting it from starting in outer space. While the domination of mass man that Ortega y Gasset Do we want to live in a world where space is armed to predicted has not destroyed civilization yet, it is evident that the teeth, where our surveillance, communication, and the process is at work. Mass men and mass women have elected navigation satellites are all vulnerable to instant attack, where or kept in power leaders of their nations who are partially our cities can be shot at with space weapons, where orbiting educated, who have little or no historical perspective or sense weapons from foreign powers pass overhead every hour of every of "one world." We are all on board a "spaceship earth" that day, where computers control our destiny—our very survival? is rapidly becoming a ship of fools being piloted by men and Or do we wish to use space for scientific experiment, for women who, in Ortega y Gasset's words, "believe themselves exploration of the cosmos, for observation of our planet, in fabulously capable of creation but do not know what to create. cooperation with other nations of the world? The heavens were Lord of all things but not lords of themselves, they feel lost made for wonder, not for war. But the choice is ours. • amidst their own abundance. With more means at its disposal, more knowledge, more techniques than ever, it turns out that the world goes the same way as the worst of worlds; it simply drifts." Jonathan F. Reichert is associate professor of physics at the Leaving aside politics, law, art, religion, and the world of State University of New York at Buffalo and director of a business—none of which offer a world vision and sense of newly formed graduate group, Nuclear War Prevention human purpose except the accumulation of money and things— Studies. mass man champions "the right to life," even when the creation of human life is often an irresponsible act. Nevertheless, mass man insists that the resulting human has irrevocable human rights and financial entitlements. On top of that, mass man revels in a kind of pseudodemocracy that runs roughshod over minorities and "liberals" who deviate from the "right-thinking The Revolt majority." Presumably, mass man exalts science and those who have pioneered the discoveries and inventions that have made mass of the Masses man possible. But television and computers have only rein- forced the superficiality of mass man and mass woman's education and understanding of their individual responsibilities to each other. Mass man has defined his own raison d'être: Robert H. Rimmer to be entertained and to consume. Having no time for anything else, mass man is scientifically illiterate. With little or no knowledge of molecules, cells, genetic engineering, or environ- ore than a half century ago, José Ortega y Gasset mental and bioethical problems, mass man and mass woman wrote a philosophical essay, "Revolt of the Masses," can be easily swayed by charlatans and the obsolete moralities Mputting his finger on what is still the most critical of religion. issue of the century. For the first time in history, the vertical A faint echo of Ortega y Gasset's worries surfaced in 1987 invasion of"mass man and woman"—with no interest in human- in Allan Bloom's book The Closing of the American Mind,

28 FREE INQUIRY which reveals, very pedantically, how our universities are no communities reflected a strong, albeit slow and imperfect, striv- longer giving students an understanding of the past or a vision ing for direct human intercourse. The appearance of the tele- of the future. But Bloom offers no solutions; he doesn't even phone allowed faster communication, but the effort to meet seem to be aware of Ortega y Gasset's prophecy. E. D. Hirsch face to face at either the church or general store began to in his book Cultural Literacy also deplores the growing inability wither—and, with it, the sense of community. of Americans to communicate with each other in any depth Radio and television, together with the automobile and or to think beyond their own vulgarities. Hirsch's solution the building of highways, made communication easier yet and doesn't seem very helpful: He lists about four thousand evocative opened the hopeful vistas for a global perspective over limited words covering ideas or subjects that "every American should parochial ones. The irony is that these technological develop- know." ments generated instead a global parochialism, called "nation- The problems caused by the revolt of the masses could alism," which has been in great part responsible for the fill a book. Are there any solutions? I don't have the space appalling modern carnages, the worst by far in human history, to elaborate them, but humanists had better find them before and which remains today perhaps the most intractable problem they disappear in the deluge. One approach is to declare, bluntly, facing humanity in the next century: a collective inability to that the world really is a class society and then carefully define extend one's horizon to the world community and the the new class—a relatively small minority who can lead our individual's place in it. society. This would be much more than another humanist The inescapable paradox of our time is that we have the manifesto. The Academy of Humanism should define the kind means to communicate and to know each other better and of education the superior man or woman must have. It must, at the same time, dare to transform humanism into a religion— "We seem to have used technological resources to a mystery religion, perhaps ... with the Double Helix supplanting the Cross. Such a religion could eventually find isolate ourselves from our fellow human beings." a few million believers, thus giving humanists some chance of survival. • more efficiently than ever before, yet we collectively seem to have used technological resources to isolate ourselves from our fellow human beings. Television, the videocassette recorder, Robert Rimmer is the author of The Harrad Experiment and and the compact disc player have given us high quality, other best sellers. He is a contributing editor of FREE INQUIRY. professional entertainment in the home, so we have abandoned the village square and corner cafe. Theater, concerts, and opera cater to an increasingly affluent, and thus an ever-smaller, population, and this imperils the survival of these artistic forms. And, concurrently, the increasing vulgarization and Isolation in a commercialization of the communication forms, with their focus on the id, isolate the receiver further from his environment. The Walkman is the metaphor of our age. We Communication have become a passive world of listeners, with little of substance perceived beyond the confines of our private universe. It seems inevitable, therefore, that such inward movement Society is a fertile ground for those able to exploit the media for narrow objectives, unchallenged and unchallengeable on merit or reason. The spectacle of our current presidential contest is Elie A. Shneour but one vivid example. Broad issues of civilization and culture now rest on such considerations as abortion, prayer in the he Industrial Revolution of the last century and the schools, and restriction of freedom of access to unfettered multipronged post-industrial revolutions of this and science and literature. We face a world of isolated, self-satisfied, Tprobably the next centuries have generated a paradox culturally illiterate nuclear strangers, able to manipulate the of extraordinary size and scope. This paradox runs counter immediate-gratification environment with technology, but to the facile statements usually made about the consequences without insight into the social nature of man or the civilizing of technological advances and, arguably, presents us and our impact of rational human discourse and insight-building progeny with the most serious crisis of our time. This crisis challenge. Building a "world community" of humanism in the pervades nearly all aspects of human endeavor. Unrecognized, twenty-first century will only be possible if we are able to it has generated irrelevancies by visible and vacuous religious overcome the problem of human isolation today. • and secular gurus. It surfaces as concerns for population growth, nuclear bombs, superstitions, and varied zealotries. Until fairly recently, it took considerable effort of will to Elie A. Shneour is the director of the Biosystems Research interact with fellow humans, scattered as they were in extended Institute (San Diego) and chairman of the Southern California rural areas. But a most intimate sense of community neverthe- Skeptics. less existed; and, although isolated in the modern sense, these

Summer 1988 29 greed on the one hand and of irrational mass movements on the other. The sense of powerlessness and isolation of the A Functional individual leads linea recta to the antirational "isms" of our time and produces the hunger for "magnetic" or "charismatic" leadership. A more equitable, integrated, socioeconomic order Internationalism will lessen the social neuroses now so prevalent both in families and in individual lives. A more equitable distribution of wealth will increase social Matthew Ies Spetter stability and create a greater variety of work opportunities. This will require planning for coordinated global economic azadous as it is to step into the prophetic role, it seems policies—which is what many multinational corporations al- to me that three main areas of social and personal ready do, successfully—planning, that is, not as an ideology Hconcern will have to be dramatically confronted in but merely as a tool, among others, to safeguard the dynamics the next century: of the economy. Such planning would include more worker I. The transformation of the quest for mere arms control participation in the decision-making process and in profit- into a functional internationalism; sharing. Such sharing would not just be monetary, but also 2. The restructuring of urban civilizations in such a way cultural, so that more education and more skills become avail- that individuals regain a sense of belonging to social total- able to ever larger numbers of people. ity; and As internal and world stresses lessen and are replaced by 3. An evolution toward a more classless society, in which a conscious guidance to benefit the aspiration of peoples every- each man and woman has the opportunity for social, economic, where, outworn ideologies will be replaced by functional inte- and spiritual development. gration. The care for the young, the sick, and the aged will These concerns are humanist ones, based on the belief that no longer seem like charitable notions; they will be readily sane and decent norms can be derived from human experience. undertaken moral obligations. • Our philosophy is wider than the oft-repeated slogan "Man is the measure of all things." Ours comprehends that, in addition to embracing rational and empirical methods, there is a fullness Matthew les Spetter is associate professor of social psychology of life to be gained in which courage, compassion, love, beauty, at the Peace Studies Institute of Manhattan College and leader and goodness have a central place as well. of the Riverdale Society for Ethical Culture. In 1987 he was In a world where functional—not ideological—interna- awarded the Elliot Black Award for his activities on behalf tionalism is the norm, individuals can live and work with a of world humanism. He is a board member of the International hope that is neither sentimental nor metaphysical. This will Humanist and Ethical Union. require the growing realization that, in order to manage the world for the greatest good, humankind needs to attain a funda- mental mastery over those impulses that until now have locked us into the emotional stalemate of self-destructiveness. To be sure, the military concept of national security is untenable, and Beyond Statism the perpetual mobilization of men and resources is acceptable no longer. They have led to exhorbitant taxation, which has deprived individuals of the fruits of their labor. Svetozar Stojanovic When peace is no longer an interlude between wars and the chronic eruptions of mass-delusions have been left behind, nthropologically, ontologically, historically, morally, a faith in living will become possible—based not upon the ma- and theologically speaking, we have been in an ab- nipulation of anxieties but upon a deeper understanding of Asolutely new situation since 1945. If we start counting our commitment to this world. Human autonomy, far from from that year, we are now in our forty-third year. being a "given," can only be claimed in a social order that Mention should be made, in this context, of the obsolescent rejects regimentation and submission. Yet the paradoxes of any problem of human evil. The accent should be shifted now from social order have an impact upon its members. Social stresses the topic of evil to the unconcern, indifference, nonchalance, frequently are reflected in the profound emotional anxiety we and carelessness of man and mankind. Confronting us is a see everywhere around us, anxiety that can make self-assertion new, most dangerous form of collective self-delusion. Because or social participation almost impossible. the human race's self-destruction can happen quite by chance, It is to alleviate such suffering that an evolution toward one can easily be a fatalist and say that in the final analysis a more classless socioeconomic order will be of tremendous there is nothing effective that can be done to save us from importance. Humankind cannot hope to progress unless the doom. individual can perceive his or her own social existence as sig- But the problem needs to be posed differently. It is ironic nificant. Both the utilitarian optimism and the vitalistic ideo- but true that the most radical utopia proposed right now is logies of the nineteenth century have led to a weakening of the survival of humankind. Is there any utopia more minimal social bonds, thereby opening the floodgates of unrestrained than that? A negative utopia—a dvstopia—would be an Earth

30 FREE INQUIRY from which people had eliminated themselves. by definition statism in self-transformation cannot go that far. What is the purpose of politics today and in the future? That would be revolution, not reform. Traditionally speaking, politics concerns power over people, The statist class is now at a historical turning point: In society, and nature. Now, as 1 said, politics is confronted with order to preserve selective stategic control over the state and man's powerlessness in the face of chance. The legitimacy of the means of production, it will ultimately have to sacrifice governments, authorities, states, and politics appears quite total, supercentralized, and detailed control. This liberalization different in this light. A policy that is not preoccupied with would be in the objective interest of a good part of the ruling the question of mankind's survival cannot be legitimate. class, not to mention the general population of the communist Moreover, the philosophical dispute between existentialism and statist countries. I expect by the end of our century the struggle essentialism is largely passé. In our day and age man's existence for the liberalization of statism will be completed in Eastern and essence are open to the whims of contingency. Europe and the USSR. On the agenda at the beginning of I call for a new, transpolitical philosophy: contingentialism. the next century, then, will be the transition from liberalized There is the real possibility and even probability that the circle statism to democratic socialism. However, that cannot happen of human contingency will close once and for all: from man's without great social conflicts. • biological contingency in the universe to the contingency of human survival. Christians who are nonchalant about the real danger of Svetozar Stojanovic, professor in the Center for Philosophy the human race's self-destruction are no better than irresponsible and Social Theory, University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, is the atheists on the other side of the ideological divide. We do not author of Between Ideals and Reality, In Search of Democracy need a Strategic Defense Initiative but a Strategic Historical in Socialism, and From Marxism and Bolshevism to Gor- Initiative for the salvation of humankind. bachev's "Perestroika." Atheists should give deep thought to whether the notion of a completely profane world gives us any chance at all of avoiding the apocalypse. is it possible to have an atheism for which the continuation of the human species would be a sacred cause? The Dynamic he world today is dominated by two systems with gigantic Tconcentrations of power: democratic capitalism and com- munist statism. The latter is inferior (except in the military of Morality sense), and it feels itself to be so deep inside. In communist statism one group, the statist ruling class, has structural monopolistic control over the state and, through the state, over Harry Stopes-Roe the means of production. if the statist ruling class would lose monopoly ruling status in politics, it would not be in the position Humanism speaks to many critical issues. I will choose (like the bourgeoisie) to dominate politically through the one: the dynamic of morality. economy, because in the statist system there is no real division The most fundamental difficulty of life is that it between politics and the economy. must be lived: One cannot postpone one's decision and live Would it be accurate, however, to evaluate communist only hypothetically. Human beings meet this difficulty with statism as "the dead end of history"? Communist states in enthusiasm, for they actively wish to live. More than that, they Europe (excepting Albania) have successfully carried out in- wish to live well. It is fortunate, therefore, that human beings dustrialization and modernization; so we cannot speak of a have the power and wish to understand, so that they are able "dead end" in that sense. Of course, the price paid for such to live well. industrialization and modernization has to be assessed, taking But things are not as simple as that. Our power of under- primarily into account the enormous human sacrifices ("pyra- standing means that we can question and be uncertain. This, mids of sacrifices," as Peter Berger would say). coupled with our concern to live well, means that we can have The basic question to be asked now is the following: Having our satisfaction in life shattered by doubt. And this doubt may completed industrialization and modernization, has the statist be justified. system become the impediment to further economic and social Hence the two problems I address. The first is social and development? Can it be seriously reformed? One thing is already psychological—namely, how is it possible to maintain a satis- pretty clear: Statism is not as dynamic as democratic capitalism. factory moral confidence? We need a society that will maintain The latter is more quickly and successfully heading toward the both the moral sensibility of its members and also the life stances post-industrial, information age. that support and guide that sensibility—for morality depends We have already witnessed that statism is feasible. Its on a life stance. The second problem is factual and continued viability, however, depends on its ability to radically epistemological: Where and how can we find valid grounds transform itself. We could call such reformed statism "statism for our confidence? We must find a satisfactory life stance, with a civil and bourgeois face." Admittedly, a comprehensive a view of the universe and our place in it that tells us what civil society calls for a completely pluralistic state. However, is ultimately important.

Summer 1988 31 How can one respond to these questions? I will consider those confronting these ethical dilemmas that they might better only the maintenance and development of the quality of life be resolved not by appealing to "moral principles" but by in one's community, which depends on the morality and ideals considering total human benefit, pure and simple. that prevail in the community. If you do the wrong thing, people Trying to resolve ethical problems by applying immutable may suffer. If you seek to "do the moral thing," you may in principles is the product of the Judeo-Christian tradition, which fact do a very immoral thing—if your understanding of morality originally represented moral obligation as obedience to God's is wrong. Here I must stress two points. First, we do not know will—as expressed, for example, in biblical commandments. the difference between right and wrong in many vital situations. Moral obligation is still thought of this way, even by those For example, is abortion always murder (as some Christians who no longer think of it as being divinely sanctioned. It is claim), or is it sometimes right? Second, I must stress that fairly obvious to anyone who thinks about it that the most in other, even more vital, areas, moral judgments can be time-honored moral rules—such as those forbidding homicide, maintained with confidence—for example, the importance of theft, and adultery—were invented to promote peace and safety, fair dealing and respect for other people. for their connection with these is quite obvious. They were We need an open society; but this concept and ideal is then ascribed to a divine source in order to vest them with much more complex and difficult than is commonly realized. authority, that is, to provide an incentive to obey them. But The heart of an effective open society is a multiplicity of life if this is so, human well-being is the ultimate basis of morality stances, each of which has confidence in itself and an under- after all, and reason would require that, instead of compromis- standing and respect for the concerns and confidence of the ing human benefit in order to preserve fidelity to moral rules, others. All cooperate in maintaining the shared values; and the rules themselves should be modified or, indeed, abandoned each argues for its own values where there is disagreement. altogether whenever human well-being would thereby be pro- We may reach a life stance shared throughout a community— moted. This new approach to medical ethics will frustrate those perhaps throughout the world—insofar as one emerges clearly who want to be able to judge what is morally right and wrong. as fitting reality the best. But that is no loss. What is gained is vastly more worthwhile, The open society in this strong sense is a distinctively human- namely, an appreciation of human needs and how best to fulfill ist concept. Humanists must argue effectively for it. We believe them. that humanism is well founded, but it will only be able to Consider, for example, these fairly simple situations that serve the world as a leading life stance if humanists work hard would be thought by everyone to present problems of medical for it. It may be that a world in which humanism is more ethics: widely and deeply influential would be a better world. • 1. A comatose patient develops a severely swollen testicle. May surgery be undertaken to relieve that condition? 2. An infant is born so severely brain-damaged as to have Harry Stopes-Roe is former president of the British Humanist a life expectancy of about two years. May vital organs be re- Association. He teaches philosophy at Birmingham University. moved in order to save another infant who might then enjoy a long and fulfilling life? 3. A patient's Parkinson's disease can be arrested by the transplantation of living brain tissue. May such tissue be taken from an aborted fetus? To answer yes to any of these questions violates well-esta- Painful Medicine blished moral rules. The first situation asks whether a patient's right to informed consent to surgery should be honored, the second whether someone should be killed in order to improve the life of another, and the third whether a person's most basic Richard Taylor right to his own brain needs to be respected in case someone else needs or wants that brain. mong the most critical issues facing Western culture If, on the other hand, one views such situations not in terms in the next century will almost certainly be ethical issues of what is "right" or "wrong" but in terms of long-run human Ain medicine. They are painfully with us now, and the well-being, the answer to each is quite clearly a "Yes." manner in which their resolution is invariably sought can only What is required of medical ethics is, accordingly, not the have the effect of exacerbating them. attempt to discover, through the application of moral principle, Ethical problems arise in many ways, but in medicine they what is or is not "morally right," especially when the answer usually emerge from a single source: the attempt to apply to to such a question is likely not to exist. What is required, rather, new situations rules that have no rational justification in those is a concern for human needs. And these can usually, to some situations. Thus new rules are invented only, in time, to confuse extent, be ascertained empirically. Indeed, they are more often and befuddle new situations to which they cannot be rationally than not perfectly obvious. applied. Medical ethics, then, comes to consist largely of Just from what little has been said here it can be seen that, generating one rule after another, each considered to be some- until this humanistic approach is substituted for the moralistic how higher or better than those it displaces, but doomed, in one that we have inherited from a religious tradition, the the end, to their same fate. It does not sufficiently occur to problems of medical ethics are going to become far worse,

32 FREE INQUIRY to the point of lending themselves to no solution at all. This differences. This is the crisis of understanding that can be defined follows from the fact that medical technology is today con- differently for everyone on the planet. It ranges from leaders stantly creating situations not heretofore dreamt of, situations forcing their own self-righteous beliefs on some followers to to which it is not merely idle but pernicious to try applying the potential annihilation of the entire planetary society by rules of morality that arise from commonplace situations. nuclear destruction. This crisis is individually identified when Recently a woman, acting as a surrogate for her own daughter, a person, aware of the Space Age reality, can no longer willingly gave birth to triplets. Who is their mother? Are those children return to earlier forms of local awareness—"lesser realities"— her sons and daughters, or her grandchildren? The concept based institutionally on some superstition or inconsistent fan- of motherhood was once quite clear. It is not now. And who tasy that is apt to change solely at the whim of local authorities. is the father of a child born within wedlock, but artifically A resolution of this insidious crisis is fundamental to all issues conceived? Is it the men who begets? Or is it, as Thomas Hobbes facing humankind in the foreseeable future, and any attempt maintained, the man who nourishes? And what will be said to identify piecemeal issues becomes an ineffective attempt at of a woman who, exercising her constitutional right to an abor- plugging holes in the dikes of ignorance. Thus we must docu- tion, offers the organs of her as-yet-unaborted fetus for medical ment a new-found vision. experimentation? Should she be entitled to reimbursement for As the spatial perspective moves our view from the surface these organs? of the earth to a remote point way above its surface, our earth- The impulsive, almost automatic response to such questions based myopia disappears. We can see all former parameters is to try to think of what would be "right" or "wrong," to simultaneously, from far away as well as from close up. Physical draw analogies to familiar situations in which the answer has differences are minimized—only natural demarcations remain— already long been established, imagining that the problems are while similarities and interconnections abound. With the thus "resolved." But, of course, they are more often than not evolution of the Space Age, this new awareness has stimulated just made worse by that approach. With respect to the last the ecological movement, raising public consciousness about illustration just offered, someone is sure to ask why an the physical environment and human rights worldwide. From affirmative answer would not justify, by analogy, hiring women this intellectual quantum jump we have begun to realize that, to become pregnant so that we could buy up their aborted given such planetary interconnections, extending into Earth's fetuses or, going just a step further, buy up their full-term infants biosphere and physical-chemical core, what we do to any one in order to dismantle them for "parts." But that approach is part of it could ultimately affect us all. the road, not to moral enlightenment, but to darkness. We Since our awareness of the spatial vantage point is so recent, shall not shed light on such problems until we abandon the any attempt to assign blame for past localized inconsistencies moral approach, which is at bottom the approach of religion, and/ or misdirections is both meaningless and unproductive. in favor of the humanistic one, which always asks, simply, what Like the ecological shell that identified ecology as the course of action is more likely to promote human well-being dynamic balance of organisms interacting with their thermo- in the long run. • dynamic energy environment, a new outer shell, an egological one, or "egoshell," is now being called for to deal with informa- tional dynamics of individuals within their natural environment. Richard Taylor is Levitt-Spencer Professor of Philosophy at Such a conceptual energy/ human resource balance, identified Union College and the author of Good and Evil, Action and as "egology," would deal with the networking that could inspire Purpose. and Freedom, Anarchy, and the Law. mental fitness for an individual enlightenment and, in addition, minimize undesirable input overspecialization by balancing planetary individualism within planetary interdependence. With the accumulation of information reaching critical levels during the lunar-landing interval, a reorganization of know- Egoshell ledge, patterned after the shell-like awareness of nature, appears to be needed. Fortunately, computers, with their built-in tree- branching capability, can categorize the interrelated information that is currently viewed as an overload, transpose it shell-like Robert A. Thompson to make it understandable and consistent, and provide a common knowledge-base shared through education to find very age is marked by its physical tools. But the Space solutions to our social problems. Age is unique in that the spatial vantage point itself Human history, perceived as an uninterrupted progression F. has become a tool. It is a mental breakthrough, the toward the integration of cultures—the regular creation, with- beauty of our time, permitting us to contrast our outward- out breaks, 9f a one-world culture out of many localized world- looking dreams with an inward-focused reality that can in- views—provides the precedent for a spatial Weltanschauung dividually redirect the future for all of humankind. that is well within the grasp of everyone today. Without such From this spatial platform, ideological gaps that separate a consistent world-view, the lifestyle crisis, fueled by the end- nations and individuals appear to stretch into giant chasms; products of misinformation, will continue to burn brightly. The and our transportation and communication systems, instead most beneficial means of resolving the lifestyle crisis may thus of solidifying humanity, have tended to accentuate inherent be to turn our use of space away from military applications

Summer 1988 33 and toward a global cultural network. Less expensive to build growth of technology have converged to produce a world where and maintain, and vastly more individually useful on a daily economic cooperation to produce various products has led to basis than a global military shield would be, it could give political alliances unthinkable only one generation ago. At the everyone access to their own spatial world, allowing each indi- same time, a growing consciousness of the deteriorating ecolog- vidual to take the responsibility for his or her own actions, ical and environmental balances necessary to sustain life on and ensure world peace through mutual understanding rather the planet has led to the formation of political parties, like than mutually assured destruction. • the European-based Green Party, that support a form of ecolog- ical and holistic thinking unknown in Western culture till now. With mass communication and electronic networks already Robert A. Thompson, chairman and president of Spatial- World shaping a "global village" (as Marshall McLuhan predicted more Corporation, is coauthor, along with his wife. Louise, of the than twenty-five years ago), an "information society" is replacing recently published Egoshell. He participated in the 1987-1988 the "industrial ethos" that has dominated modern society since American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Distin- the nineteenth century. Inevitably, this information society will guished Lecture Program. drastically change modern man's working and leisure habits and create new priorities and political movements. Will our worldwide information network allow us to realize our dreams of a world community and a politically integrated planet where cooperation and diplomacy replace conflict? The Future Another significant idea that will surely influence our future: small-group power and decentralization. Some years ago the World Future Society sponsored a major conference with the and Futurism title "Thinking Globally, Acting Locally." Surely, E. F. Schu- macher's classic Small Is Beautiful will remain as one of the most powerful books ever written about modern industrial society. Decentralization and small-scale planning are trends Harry Wagschal that might play a major role in undoing the fragmentation and alienation inherent in modern industrialized societies. uturist literature provides us with an invaluable tool Unfortunately, the very forces that have produced such for examining existing trends and the kind of world dynamic and imaginative thinking about modern society have F that might exist in the twenty-first century. As Fred also led to disturbing trends towards primitive fundamentalism Polak has so eloquently pointed out in his Images of The Future, in most Western and Middle Eastern countries. The emergence if we are to survive we must begin to invent viable images of fanatical television evangelism and the attempt to return and discover the best ways to utilize them. to a kind of medieval religiosity remains distinct threats to Now, there are grave difficulties involved in talking about humanist and rational thinking everywhere. Humanists must emerging trends and future images; technology seems to have continue to combat these forces. In "Secular Gods and a life-force of its own, and modern countries often disagree Humanism," I suggested that ethical culture schools, general education, humanistic rituals, and cable television might begin to play an important role in disseminating the humanist ethic to the general public. "The very forces that have produced such dynamic Ivan Illich, Theodore Roszak, and others have framed a and imaginative thinking about modern society have rich source of educational and social alternatives that could also led to disturbing trends towards primitive funda- materialize humanist ideas in all walks of life and prevent both mentalism." nineteenth-century industrial technology and fundamentalist theology from stopping the emergence of a "New Age" where reason and human values prevail. The challenge of major dramatic changes in both modern and nonindustrialized coun- as to what constitutes "values" and "meaning" in life. Even tries will test the mettle of humanist thought on the planet. with all these major difficulties, however, we can delineate With sufficient imagination, political will-power, and persis- certain positive "features" or "trends" that might eventually lead tence, the search for a world community might one day produce to a viable "image of the future" for Western culture. that reality. • From my own reading of futurist literature and significant social criticisms, I have determined various features that repre- sent powerful models for thinking about future trends and the possibility of a world community in the twenty-first century. Harry Wagschal is professor of sociology and humanities at Surely one of the most important transformations occurring Dawson College in Montreal, Canada. He has written books presently is a shift towards global interdependency, economi- on social innovation, education, and futurism. He has also cally and politically. John Naisbitt, in his best-selling book, written numerous articles for publications in North America, Megatrends, has shown quite clearly how economics and the Australia, South America, and Western Europe.

34 FREE INQUIRY Our Brethren Species Dissenters from Science

E. O. Wilson Sherwin T. Wine t the top of my list is nuclear war, which may be he twenty-first century, like the twentieth, will be part superceded in importance by nuclear terrorism as small of the age of science. Its dramatic features will be more Anations or political factions acquire weapons. Hatreds Tand more predictive power and more and more human born of tribal rivalries, apocalyptic visions that service these control of the human and natural environments. Collectively, rivalries, and even simple error in the heated environment could the human race will achieve powers that were formerly assigned flip us all into the nightmare. only to the gods. Next in importance, if you care about the long-term welfare But these powers will be distributed unevenly among in- of humanity and not just about where our next meal is coming dividuals. There will be the masters of science, who will design from, has got to be species extinction. The accelerating destruc- and manage the technological wonders that emerge. And there tion of tropical forests alone, which is proceeding at the rate will be the users of science, far more numerous, who will enjoy of about 100,000 square kilometers—or 1 percent of the entire the fruits of scientific inquiry without understanding it at all. cover of the world—each year, is eliminating biological diversity This rapid scientific advance will pose many social prob- wholesale. Conservatively estimated, the present destruction lems, which are only beginning to surface. continued during the next several decades will result in the Democracy, for example, will be difficult—even futile—if loss of over one-quarter of the species of organisms on Earth. the voters are empowered to make decisions on technical issues The reason is that, although tropical forests cover only 7 percent they cannot fully comprehend. The new technologies of fertility, of the land surface, they contain more than half the species medicine, genetic engineering, and artificial intelligence are so of plants and animals. The average life span of a species and complex that evaluating their use requires information and its evolutionary descendants is one to ten million years. This ability that few citizens can readily possess. How will citizens means that during the average lifetime of a reader of this essay be able to determine their own vested interests? humanity will eliminate a heritage far older than the human The rate of change in information and gadgetry may very species. The decline is in fact the greatest since the end of the well accelerate to the point where "future shock" indeed sets Age of Dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The potential value in. Perhaps human beings are not infinitely malleable and cannot of these doomed species is incalculable, as sources of pharma- adapt to any provocation. We could see substantial numbers ceuticals, new agricultural crops, petroleum substitutes, nitrogen of people experiencing scientific "burnout" and finding fixers, recreation, esthetic pleasure, and spiritual strength. Fewer themselves unable to cope with increasingly unfamiliar en- than half of the species of organisms even have a technical vironments. name—they are in effect still unknown to science—and fewer The planners and designers of the new systems will derive than 1 percent have been studied with any care. Their loss enormous pleasure from the stimulation of their work and from through reckless habitat destruction is the one environmental the powerful consequences of their labor. But the passive users change now ongoing that is irreversible. of these new opportunities may discover that leisure hangs heavy on their lives and that the absence of significant work yields uclear war and species extinction: How do we change boredom. In an increasingly automated world the only available Nhuman behavior to avoid these twin catastrophes? The jobs might be very brainy or very menial. answer I carry around in my heart is the reason I am a secular As in the twentieth century, so in the twenty-first. Many humanist. I believe that only if enough people understand people will continue to live in the "magical" world of pre- themselves to be a part of nature (an extraordinary mammalian scientific thinking. They will encounter all the technological species but a mammal nonetheless), only if we invest our fates goodies without having the vaguest notion of the thought into a fierce love of this planet and all the life on it, only processes and cultural premises that make them possible. if we raise a commitment to individual dignity and wisdom Change and uncertainty will create intolerable anxiety for many high above all religions and ideological beliefs, can humanity other men and women. After all, the age of science requires as a whole hope to reach safe ground. • a temperament that may be rarer than we would desire. Large numbers of traumatized people will find structure and comfort in traditional religions and in new cults of fantasy that enable them to feel eternal and certain even when the universe is not. A scientific world breeds its own dissenters. • E. O. Wilson is Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University and the author of numerous articles and books, including On Human Nature (1978), Sociobiology: The Sherwin T Wine is the founder and president of the North New Synthesis (1975), and The Insect Society (1971). He is American Committee for Humanism and author of Judaism a member of the Academy of Humanism. Beyond God.

Summer 1988 35 CATCH UP ON WHAT YOU'VE MISSED! !'e P. NOW, Use Card to Order. Personal Paths to Humanism

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(A 20% discount will be given on orders of 5 or more copies of the same issue; 40% on orders of 10 or more.) FREE INQUIRY Summary of Major Articles Winter 1980/81, Vol. 1, no. 1 - Secular Humanist Declaration. Democratic James Simpson, Larry Briskman. Humanism and the Politics of Nostalgia, Humanism, Sidney Hook. Humanism: Secular or Religious? Paul Beanie. Paul Kurtz. Abortion and Morality, Richard Taylor. $3.50 Free Thought, Gordon Stein. The Fundamentalist Right, William Ryan. Winter 1982/83, Vol. 3, no. 1 - 1983-The Year of the Bible. Academic The Moral Majority, Sol Gordon. The Creation/ Evolution Controversy, Freedom Under Assault in California, Barry Singer, Nicholas Hardeman, H. James Birx. Moral Education, Robert Hall. Morality Without Religion, Vern Bullough. The Play Ethic, Robert Rimmer. Interview with Corliss Marvin Kohl, Joseph Fletcher. Freedom Is Frightening, Roy Fairfield. The Lamont. Was Jesus a Magician? Morton Smith. Astronomy and the "Star Road to Freedom, Mihajlo Mihajlov. $3.50 of Bethlehem," Gerald Larue. Living with Deep Truths in a Divided World, Spring 1981, Vol. 1, no. 2 - The Secular Humanist Declaration: Pro and Sidney Hook. Anti-Science: The Strange Case of Paul Feyerabend, Martin Con, John Roche, Sidney Hook, Phyllis Schlafy, Gina Allen, Roscoe Gardner. $3.50 Drummond, Lee Nisbet, Patrick Buchanan, Paul Kurtz. New England Spring 1983, Vol. 3, no. 2 - The Founding Fathers and Religious Liberty, Puritans and the Moral Majority, George Marshall. The Pope on Sex, Vern Robert Alley. Madison's Legacy Endangered, Edd Doerr. James Madison's Bullough. 0n the Way to Mecca, Thomas Szasz. The Blasphemy Laws, Dream: A Secular Republic, Robert Rutland. The Murder of Hypatia of Gordon Stein. The Meaning of Life, Marvin Kohl. Does God Exist? Kai Alexandria, Robert Mohar. Hannah Arendt: The Modern Seer, Richard Nielsen. Prophets of the Procrustean Collective, Antony Flew. The Madrid Kostelanetz. Was Karl Marx a Humanist? articles by Sidney Hook, Jan Conference, Stephen Fenichell. Natural Aristocracy, Lee Nisbet. $3.50 Narveson, and Paul Kurtz. $3.50 Summer 1981, Vol. 1, no. 3 - Sex Education, Peter Scales, Thomas Szasz. Summer 1983, Vol. 3, no. 3 (special issue) - Religion in American Politics Moral Education, Howard Radest. Teen-age Pregnancy, Vern Bullough. Symposium: Is America a Judeo-Christian Republic? Paul Kurtz. The First The New Book-Burners, William Ryan. The Moral Majority, Gerald Larue. Amendment and Religious Liberty, Sen. Lowell Weicker, Sam Ervin, Leo Liberalism, Edward Ericson. Scientific Creationism, Delos McKown. New Pfeffer. Secular Roots of the American Political System, Henry Steele Com- Evidence on the Shroud of Turin, Joe Nickell. Agnosticism, H. J. Blackham. mager, Daniel Boorstin, Robert Rutland, Richard Morris, Michael Novak. Science and Religion, George Tomashevich. Secular Humanism in Israel, The Bible in Politics, Gerald Larue, Robert Alley, James Robinson. Bibli- Isaac Hasson. $3.50 ography for Biblical Study. $5.00 Fall 1981, Vol. 1, no. 4 - The Thunder of Doom, Edward Morgan. Secular Fall 1983, Vol. 3, no. 4 - The Academy of Humanism. The Future of Humanists: Threat or Menace? Art Buchwald. Financing of the Repressive Humanism, Paul Kurtz. Humanist Self-Portraits, Brand Blanshard, Barbara Right, Edward Roeder. Communism and American Intellectuals, Sidney Wootton, Joseph Fletcher, Sir Raymond Firth, Jean-Claude Pecker. Inter- Hook. A Symposium on the Future of Religion, Daniel Bell, Joseph view with Paul MacCready. A Personal Humanist Manifesto, Vern Bul- Fletcher, William Sims Bainbridge, Paul Kurtz. Resurrection Fictions, lough. The Enduring Humanist Legacy of Greece, Marvin Perry. The Age Randel Helms. $3.50 of Unreason, Thomas Vernon. Apocalypse Soon, Daniel Cohen. 0n the Winter 1981/82, Vol. 2, no. I - The Importance of Critical Discussion, Sesquicentennial of Robert Ingersoll, Frank Smith. The Historicity of Jesus, Karl Popper. Freedom and Civilization, Ernest Nagel Humanism: The Con- John Priest, D. R. Oppenheimer, G. A. Wells. $3.50 science of Humanity, Konstantin Kolenda. Secularism in Islam, Nazih Winter 1983/84, Vol. 4, no. 1 - Interview with B. F. Skinner. Was George N. M. Ayubi. Humanism in the 1980s, Paul Beanie. The Effect of Education Orwell a Humanist? Antony Flew. Population Control vs. Freedom in on Religious Faith, Burnham Beckwith. $3.50 China, Vern and Bonnie Bullough. Academic Freedom at Liberty Baptist Spring 1982, Vol. 2, no. 2 - A Call for the Critical Examination of the College, Lynn Ridenhour. The Mormon Church: Joseph Smith and the Bible and Religion. Interview with Isaac Asimov on Science and the Bible, Book of Mormon, George Smith; The History of Mormonism and Church Paul Kunz. The Continuing Monkey War, L. Sprague de Camp. The Authorities: Interview with Sterling M. McMurrin. Anti-Science: The Irra- Erosion of Evolution, Antony Flew. The Religion of Secular Humanism: A tionalist Vogue of the 1970s, Lewis Feuer. The End of the Galilean Cease- Judicial Myth, Leo Pfeffer. Humanism as an American Heritage, Nicholas Fire? James Hansen. Who Really Killed Goliath? Gerald Larue. Humanism Gier. The Nativity Legends, Randel Helms. Norman Podhoretz's Neo- in Norway: Strategies for Growth, Levi Fragell $3.50 Puritanism, Lee Nisbet. $3.50 Spring 1984, Vol. 4, no. 2 - Christian Science Practitioners and Legal Summer 1982 Vol. 2, no. 3 (special issue) - A Symposium on Science, the Protection for Children. Rita Swan; Child Abuse and Neglect in Ultrafunda- Bible, and Darwin: The Bible Re-examined, Robert Alley, Gerald Larue, mentalist Cults and Sects, Lowell Streiker. The Foundations of Religious John Priest, Randel Helms. Darwin, Evolution, and Creationism, Philip Liberty and Democracy: A Symposium, Carl Henry, Paul Kurtz, Father Appleman, William Mayer, Charles Cazeau, H. James Birx, Garrett Hardin, Ernest Fortin, Lee Nisbet. Joseph Fletcher, Richard Taylor. Biblical Views Sol Tax, Antony Flew. Ethics and Religion, Joseph Fletcher, Richard Taylor, of Sex: Blessing or Handicap? Jeffrey J. W. Baker. Moral Absolutes and Kai Nielsen, Paul Beattie. Science and Religion, Michael Novak, Joseph Foreign Policy, Nicholas Capaldi. The Vatican Ambassador, Edd Doerr, A Blau. $5.00 Naturalistic Basis for Morality, John Kekes. Humanist Self-Portraits, Fall 1982, Vol. 2, no. 4 - An Interview with Sidney Hook at Eighty, Paul Matthew les Spetter, Floyd Matson, Richard Kostelanetz. $3.50 Kurtz. Sidney Hook: A Personal Portrait, Nicholas Capaldi. The Religion Summer 1984, Vol. 4, no. 3 (special issue) - School Prayer, Paul Kurtz, and Biblical Criticism Research Project, Gerald Larne. Biblical Criticism Ronald Lindsay, Patrick Buchanan, Mark Twain. Science vs. Religion in and Its Discontents, R. Joseph Hoffmann. Boswell Confronts Hume: An Future Constitutional Conflicts, Delos McKown, God and the Professors, Encounter with the Great Infidel, Joy Frieman. Humanism and Politics, Sidney Hook. Armageddon and Biblical Apocalypic, Paul Kurtz, Joseph FREE INQUIRY Back Issues (continued) Edward Barnhart, Vern Bullough, Randel Helms, Gerald Larue, John Priest, Reincarnation: Are Past-Life Regressions Evidence for Reincarnation? James Robinson, Robert Alley. Is the U.S. Humanist Movement in a State Melvin Harris; The Case Against Reincarnation (Part I), Paul Edwards. of Collapse? John Dart. $5.00 Protestantism, Catholicism, and Unbelief in Present-Day France, Jean Fall 1984, Vol. 4, no. 4 — Humanist Author Attacked, Phyllis Schlafy, Sol Boussinesq. More on Faith-Healing: CSER's Investigation, Gerald Larue; Gordon. Humanists vs. Christians in Milledgeville, Georgia, Kenneth Sala- An Answer to Peter Popoff, James Randi; Popoffs TV Empire Declines, din. Suppression and Censorship in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church: David Alexander; Richard Roberts's Healing Crusade, Henry Gordon. Is Ellen White's Habit, Douglas Hackleman; Who Profits from the Prophet? Secular Humanism a Religion? A Response to My Critics, Paul Beanie; Walter Rea. Keeping the Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls, John Allegro. Diminishing Returns, Joseph Fletcher; On Definition-Mongering, Paul Health Superstition, Rodger Pirnie Doyle. Humanism in Africa: Paradox Kurtz. $3.75 and Illusion, Paul Kunz. Humanism in South Africa, Don Sergeant. $3.75 Winter 1986/87, Vol. 7, no. 1 — The New Inquisition in the Schools, Paul Winter 1984/85, Vol. 5, no. 1 — Are American Educational Reforms Kurtz. Naturalistic Humanism, Corliss Lamont. God and Morality, Sidney Doomed? Delos McKown. The Door-to-Door Crusade of the Jehovah's Hook. Secular Humanist Center Founded, Tom Flynn. FREE I NQUIRY's Witnesses: The Apocalypticism of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Lois Randle; Fifth Annual Conference. Anti-Abortion and Religion, Betty The Watchtower, Laura Lage. Sentiment, Guilt, and Reason in the Manage- McCollister. A Positive Humanist Statement on Sexual Morality, Robert ment of Wild Herds, Garrett Hardin. Animal Rights Re-evaluated, James Francoeur. The Growth of Fundamentalism Worldwide: A Humanist Simpson. Elmina Slenker: Infidel and Atheist, Edward Jervey. Symposium: Response, Paul Kurtz. Unbelief in the Netherlands, Rob Tielman. Dutch Humanism Is a Religion, Archie Bahm; Humanism Is a Philosophy, Thomas Humanism, G. C. Soeters. Belief and Unbelief in Mexico, Mario Mendez- Vernon; Humanism: An Affirmation of Life, Andre Bacard. $3.75 Acosta. How the Old Testament Was Written, Gerald Larue. The Case Spring 1985, Vol. 5, no. 2 — Update on the Shroud of Turin, Joe Nickell. Against Reincarnation (Part 2), Paul Edwards. $3.75 The Vatican's View of Sex, Robert Francoeur. An Interview with E. 0. Spring 1987, Vol. 7 no. 2 — Personal Paths to Humanism: What Religion Wilson, Jeffrey Saver. Religion and Parapsychology: Parapsychology: The Means to Me, B. F. Skinner; Biology's Spiritual Products, E. O. Wilson; "Spiritual" Science, James Alcock; Science, Religion and the Paranormal, Meeting Human Minds, Steve Allen; The Night 1 Saw the Light, Gina John Beloff. The Legacy of Voltaire (Part I), Paul Edwards. The 0rigins of Allen; An Evolutionary Perspective, Paul MacCready; Testament of a Christianity, R. Joseph Hoffmann. $3.75 Humanist, Albert Ellis. Psychology of the Bible-Believer, Edmund Cohen. Summer 1985, Vol. 5, no. 3 — Finding Common Ground Between Believers Biblical Arguments for Slavery, Morton Smith. The 'Escape Goat' of Chris- and Unbelievers, Paul Kurtz. Render Unto Jesus the Things That Are tianity, Delos McKown. Free Thought and Humanism in Germany, Renate Jesus', Robert Alley. Jesus in Time and Space, Gerald Larue. Interview Bauer. The Case Against Reincarnation (Part 3), Paul Edwards. CSER's with Sidney Hook on China, Marxism, and Human Freedom. Evangelical Faith-Healing Project Update: The Happy Hunters, David Alexander; An Agnosticism, William Henry Young. To Refuse to Be a God, Khoren Encounter with Pastor David Epley, Kate Ware Ankenbrandt. 'New Age' Arisian. The Legacy of Voltaire (Part 2), Paul Edwards. $3.75 Gurus, Robert Basil. $3.75 Fall 1985, Vol. 5, no. 4 — Two Forms of Humanistic Psychology, Albert Summer 1987, Vol. 7, no. 3 — Japan and Biblical Religion, Richard Ruben- Ellis. Psychoanalysis: Science or Pseudoscience? Grünbaum on Freud, Frank stein. Was the Universe Created? Victor Stenger. Science-Fantasy Religious Sulloway; Philosophy of Science and Psychoanalysis, Michael Ruse; The Cults, Martin Gardner. The Relativity of Biblical Ethics, Joe Edward Barn- Death Knell of Psychoanalysis, H. J. Eysenck; Looking Backward, Lee hart. The Case Against Reincarnation (Part 4), Paul Edwards. Personal Nisbet. Jesus in History and Myth: New Testament Scholarship and Chris- Paths to Humanism: A Secular Humanist Confession, Joseph Fletcher; tian Belief, Van Harvey; A Liberal Christian View, John Hick. The Winter Free from Religion, Anne Nicole Gaylor; Surrender to Life, Rita Mae Solstice and the Origins of Christmas, Lee Carter. $3.75 Brown; As If Living and Loving Were One, Ashley Montagu; Growing Up Winter 1985/86, Vol. 6, no. 1 — Symposium: Is Secular Humanism a Agnostic in Argentina, Mario Bunge. Letter to a Missionary, Ronn Nadeau. Religion? The Religion of Secular Humanism, Paul Beanie; Residual Reli- The Cult of Objectivism, Nathaniel Branden. Tyranny of the Creed, John gion, Joseph Fletcher; Pluralistic Humanism, Sidney Hook; On the Misuse Allegro. $3.75 of Language, Paul Kurtz. The Habit of Reason, Brand Blanshard. An Fall 1987, Vol. 7, no. 4 (special issue) — Fundamentalist Christians Schools Interview with Adolf Grünbaum. Homer Duncan's Crusade Against Secular —A National Scandal: The Truth and Consequences of Fundamentalist Humanism, Paul Kurtz. Should a Humanist Celebrate Christmas? Thomas Christian Schooling, Alan Peshkin; Reading, Writing, and Religion, Mary Flynn. On Being a Pedestrian, Robert Wisne. $3.75 Beth Gehrman; Children Are Not Chattel, Kathy Collins; Selections from Spring 1986, Vol. 6, no. 2 (special issue) — Faith-Healing: Miracle or Fundamentalist School Textbooks; The World According to Reverend Fraud? The Need for Investigation, Paul Kurtz; "Be Healed in the Name of Barney Lee. Is the Sexual Revolution Over? Paul Kurtz, Rob Tielman, and God!" James Randi; A Medical Anthropologist's View of American Sol Gordon. The Imagination: A Double-Edged Sword, Linda Emery. Peter Shamans, Philip Singer; 0n the Relative Sincerity of Faith-Healers, Joseph Popoffs Broken Window, David Alexander. A Common Moral Universe? Barnhart; Does Faith-Healing Work? Paul Kunz. God Helps Those Who Sidney Hook. Human and World Care, Benjamin Spock. Argument Without Help Themselves, Thomas Flynn. The Effect of Intelligence on U.S. Reli- End, Michael Ruse. $3.75 gious Faith, Burnham Beckwith. $3.75 Winter 1987/88, Vol. 8, no. 1 — Voices of Dissent within the Catholic Summer 1986, Vol. 6, no. 3 — The Shocking Truth About Faith-Healing: Church: The Bishops and the Ambivalent Bomb, Francis X. Winters; Deceit in the Name of God: What Can Be Done? Paul Kurtz; Peter Popoff Making Ends Meet, Ernest L. Fortin; Humanism, Religion, and Authority, Reaches Heaven Via 39.17 Megahertz, James Randi; Peter Popoff: Miracle Daniel C. Maguire; The Vatican and the Catholic Couple, Robert Francoeur; Worker or Scam Artist? Steven Schafersman; Behind the Scenes with Peter Catholicism and Change, Robert Basil. Breaking with the Old Humanism Popoff, Robert Steiner; W. V. Grant's Faith-Healing Act Revisited, Paul ... Eupraxophy, Paul Kurtz. The Humanist Identity, Levi Frage!!. Nin- Kurtz. Further Reflections on Ernest Angley, William McMahon, James compoopery and Nothingarianism, Beverly Ear/es. Secular Humanism in Griffis. Salvation for Sale: An Insider's View of Pat Robertson's 0rganiza- American Political Culture, God and the Holocaust, Adolf Grünbaum. tion, Gerard Straub. Belief and Unbelief Worldwide: Religious Skepticism Psychic Astronomy, Martin Gardner. $3.75 in Latin America, Jorge Gracia; Science, Technology, and Ideology in the Spring 1988, Vol. 8, no. 2 — The First Easter, John K. Na/and. Psycho- Hispanic World, Mario Bunge; Religious Belief in Contemporary Indian pathology and Religious Belief: Is Religiosity Pathological? Albert Ellis; Is Society, M. P. Rege; Humanism in Modern India: An interview with V. M. Belief in the Supernatural Inevitable? William Sims Bainbridge; The Narcis- Tarkunde, Tariq IsmaiL The Revolt Against the Lightning Rod, Al Seckel, sistic Guru, Ronald O. Clarke. Special Section on Judaism: Israel's Ortho- John Edwards. $3.75 dox Jews—The New Holy War, Uri Huppert; An Interview with Sherwin Fall 1986, Vol. 6, no. 4 — Humanist Centers: New Secular Humanist Wine; The Threat of Israel's Religious Right, Tom Flynn. A Tale of Two Centers, Paul Kurtz; The Need for Friendship Centers, Vern Bullough; Secular Humanisms—The Alabama Textbook Case, Randall D. Eliason. Toward New Humanist Organizations, Bob Wisne. The Evidence Against The Resurrection Debate, Frank T. Miosi. Secular Humanist Bulletin Back Issues of the Secular Humanist Bulletin, published quarterly and free with a subscription to FREE INQUIRY, are also available. Each additional copy is $1.00, plus $.50 for postage and handling. Discounts are available on bulk orders. FREE INQUIRY • Box 5 • Buffalo, NY 14215-0005 • Tel.: 716-834-2921 of this research illegal—a direct threat to On the Barricades academic freedom and scientific inquiry. Number of Unchurched Triples

News and Views A recent Gallup poll has found that 41 per- cent of the American population—or about 90 million people—are "functionally unin- volved" in any religious community. While they might identify themselves as Catholic, Protestant, or Jew, these "functionally un- involved" people don't attend church services FREE INQUIRY Challenges Billy Hand's infamous (and now overturned) deci- or other religious activities. Graham to Debate sion in the Alabama textbook case, in which The Gallup poll also found that the he termed secular humanism a religion, these number of Americans who say they have It is hard to imagine a more jarring, instruc- critics have accused a public institution of no religious preference at all has tripled over tive juxtaposition: Billy Graham coming to sponsoring a "religious" conference. the past thirty years—from 3 percent of the Western New York for what his organization In light of this controversy, FREE population to 9 percent. calls a "historic series of New York crusades" INQUIRY challenges Billy Graham to a debate while just down the road a congress of the when the evangelist travels to Western New John Allegro (1923-1988) world's most illustrious humanists convenes. York. "So far, Graham has emerged from The two world-views will confront each the recent spate of televangelist scandals FREE INQUIRY mourns the passing of John other dramatically this August. "It is quite unscathed," notes Joe Edward Barnhart, Allegro, who died February 17, 1988. Alle- by accident that the International Humanist author of a biography on Graham and a gro, the author of many brilliant books on and Ethical Union (IHEU) Congress will be speaker at the conference. "But people would the Dead Sea Scrolls and the myth of Jesus, in full swing by the time Billy Graham's think less highly of him if they found out was a lecturer in Near Eastern and Old crusade comes to town," said IHEU Co- what he really believes. His theology is per- Testament Studies at the University of Man- chairman and FREE INQUIRY Editor Paul verse, a modern obscenity that should be chester, England, and a member of the Kurtz. "But we consider it a happy accident. rated XXX. Here, for example, is a man Committee for the Scientific Examination After all, many of the greatest humanists who has said that all Jews and Muslims are of Religion. in the world will be at the congress---people going to hell and that they deserve to, who Allegro was also a member of the ori- like Steve Allen, Betty Friedan, Mathilde has used his religious authority to try to win ginal team of scholars selected to translate Krim, courageous Yugoslav dissident Sve- political power. Yet he blames humanists and and edit the Dead Sea Scrolls—a remark- skeptics for all the world's evil. We think able collection of documents, found between tozar Stajanovic, "situation ethics" philo- it is time that he be called on his beliefs 1947 and 1952, that have given us a close sopher Joseph Fletcher, poet Robert Gree- by the people he has unjustly slandered— look at the Essenes and the religious at- ley, and more than eighty others—from all the scientists, the thinkers, the artists." mosphere of early Christianity. He was a parts of the globe. These are people who persistent, articulate critic of those scholars are working creatively for a livable, imagin- Religions Attack Genetic Research who have hesitated to publish their results. ative future. The ideas and religious dogmas (As of this writing, the vast majority of the that Graham evangelizes for, on the other A panel of theologians has joined Pope Paul Scrolls have not been published.) Allegro's hand, were shaped by and for a premodern, II in urging a moratorium on patenting writing was notable for its eloquence, rigor, prescientific world—and we need more than genetically altered animals, calling it "a mat- and passion—indeed, he was an editor's that ancient vision to make it through the ter of deep philosophical and spiritual con- dream. In his last article for FREE INQUIRY twenty-first century." cern." The panel, sponsored by the New he wrote, "Organized religion is a contra- Indeed, the IHEU World Congress Creation Institute of Missoula, Montana, diction in terms, and the tyranny of the creed (which will be held from July 31 to August the National Council of Churches, the an intolerable restraint on the freedom of 4, 1988) will address that theme: "Building Humane Society, the Presbyterian church, the spirit." His work and his life were spent a World Community: Humanism in the and other groups, released a statement that fighting for that spirit. Twenty-First Century." Some of the sessions read in part: "The ethical, environmental, include: "Biogenetic Engineering and the socioeconomic, and theological ramifica- Ingersoll Home Declared a National New Human Being"; "Ethics of the Future"; tions of genetic engineering and patenting Landmark "Sex and Gender"; "Science, Pseudoscience, are profound.... It portends a fundamental and the Paranormal"; and "Religions of the change in the public's perception of, and FREE INQUIRY is delighted to announce that Future." attitudes toward, animals, which would be the birthplace of Robert G. Ingersoll, the Some fundamentalists and other con- regarded as human creations, inventions, great freethinker and patriot, has been desig- servative religionists have already tried to and commodities rather than as God's nated a"national landmark." As of February halt the conference, charging that the State creation or subjects of nature." 12, 1988, the house has been listed on the University of New York at Buffalo, the site Religious institutions have been almost National Registrar of Historic Places by the of the conference, has violated the Constitu- unanimous in their disapproval of genetic United States Department of the Interior. tion by allowing humanists to meet there. engineering, and they have been actively (It had been added to the New York State Taking their cue from Judge W. Brevard lobbying Congress for a bill making much Registrar of Historic Places in December 38 FREE INQUIRY 1987.) Special thanks are due to Virginia explicitly to freethought in this country is Contributors of $25 or more will receive a Gibbs, the Historian of Yates County, New long overdue. The Robert G. Ingersoll Com- specially printed, parchment copy of "Inger- York, for her persistent efforts to put this mittee is working to establish this memorial, soll's Vow," and donors of $500 or more measure through. and it needs your help. Please send your tax- will have their names inscribed on a bronze The Robert G. Ingersoll Memorial Com- exempt contributions to: plaque, which will be hung in the front foyer mittee has received almost $14,000 and has of the renovated Ingersoll house. already begun the necessary work to keep The Robert G. Ingersoll Memorial the beautiful but extremely feeble house Committee from collapsing into its basement. Much Box 5 Edwards's Series Honored more assistance is needed, of course, as the Buffalo, NY 14215-0005. Committee begins transforming the house The Selma V. Forkosch Award for the best into a humanist memorial and freethought essay published in FRET INQUIRY during Call for Nominations museum. There will be a special rededication 1987 has been granted to Paul Edwards for ceremony, led by Committee Chairman his definitive, four-part series, "The Case The Morris D. Forkosch Endowment fund Philip Mass, on August 5, 1988, at the Against Reincarnation." Edwards, a profes- will award an annual prize of $1,000 for the house - located in Dresden, New York, on sor emeritus of philosophy at Brooklyn best book published on humanism over the the shores of Lake Seneca, one of the famous College, is the editor-in-chief of the Enere- previous year. The committee charged with New York Finger Lakes. The ceremony will lopedia of Philosophy and the author and selecting such a book hereby solicits he held in conjunction with the International editor of numerous books and articles. He nominations. The author, title, publisher, Humanist and Ethical Union World will receive a $250 prize. The Selma V. and, if possible, a copy of the book, should Congress. Forkosch Award will be awarded annually be sent to the "Morris D. Forkosch Award," In a nation whose principles of democ- from an endowment established by Morris c/o FREE: INQUIRY, Box 5, Buffalo, New racy and freedom were established in large D. Forkosch. York 14215-0005. measure by freethinkers, a memorial built

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LOS ANGELES, CA NASHVILLE/ CHATTANOOGA, TN CHICAGO, IL SYRACUSE, NY Vicki Martin Leon Felkins Jim Zaluba/ Ralph Blasko Bert Pooth 6611 Princeton Ave., #530 Route 3, Box 187 807 Madison St., Suite 103 Box 59, University St. Moorpark, CA 93021 Tullahoma, TN 37388 Oak Park, IL 60302 Syracuse, NY 13220

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FREE INQUIRY will list future groups as they form. In addition, there are two secular humanist computer networks we encourage you to use: FREETHINKERS NETWORK (Compuserve ID No. 75216,2000) SECULAR HUMANIST BULLETIN BOARD (Telephone No. 615/455-8623)

Summer 1988 39 on various factors, including the thorough- ness of one's earlier indoctrination, one may become fearful of losing an accustomed support. A project of self-emancipation may Kicking the Religion Habit thus be seen initially as entailing a serious deprivation. To have a religious faith usually means being in a dependency-relation with a supposed divine being, a relation mediated by a fellowship of human believers. To leave this shelter and strike out on one's own can Thomas Vernon be frightening. Still, as one learns to swim, one becomes aware that the life-preserver was not really needed, and, in time, one sees ohn Stuart Mill, echoing a sentiment manist, 1 taught philosophy at the University that what one thought was a life-preserver Jexpressed by Plato, observed that the of Arkansas until being promoted to was really a weight. question of whether one state of affairs is "emeritus" in 1981. I entered the ministry under the naive better than another can be adjudicated only misconception that, as a minister, it was my by a person who has experienced both. At eligion is like drug addiction: When you duty to "learn the score" about life and lead this stage of American history one seldom Religion to kick the habit, you're likely my congregation in the search for truth. encounters a secular humanist who became to tremble through some withdrawal symp- After several years as a minister, however, such without having passed through an toms. Since my emancipation was a gradual it dawned on me that a major function of earlier stage characterized by some degree one, however, mine were not as painful as churches is protecting people from the truth. of religiosity. I know many such people, and some others'. I was fortunate: The arduous This is not to say that one who has broken I find them unanimous in regarding their enterprise of preparing myself for a wholly the religious habit is thereby freed from all present state as greatly preferable to their new career helped to distract me from the illusions, but a major step has been taken former one. I suspect that those whose feeling of loss that I experienced. New when one gives up the belief that we live careers have developed in the opposite direc- occasions teach new duties, and new duties in a "we're-in-good-hands" universe in which tion are rather few; 1 have never met such speed the process of freeing one from old the excellent is permanent and souls are im- a person. loyalties and habits. mortal. My own case is a little unusual. 1 was If someone asks me what, having given Perhaps the most important reinforce- involved in religion not as a layperson but up religion, I am going to "put in its place," ment provided by religion is the support of professionally. l was trained for the ministry, am apt to reply, with Voltaire, that, having a caring fellowship. This quitehuman value from 1935 to 1938, in a very fine graduate gotten one monkey off my back, I am not is not something a secular humanist must school, the Divinity School of the University about to replace it with another. Moreover, do without. We are on our own does not of Chicago. Even so, 1 was ill-prepared for leaving religion places one in an aching void; mean 1 am on my own. The secular humanist the kind of world I was to encounter, the one does not lose a religious faith; rather, soon discovers stalwart companions and world of institutional Christianity. Before one frees oneself from it. We do not speak finds himself or herself surrounded by what many years had passed, 1 began to wonder of a freed slave as having "lost" his or her the Baptists call "a cloud of witnesses." We why none of my teachers had warned me slavery, or of a reformed alcoholic as having humanists may be a minority, but we are of what it is like "out there." After four years "lost" his or her neurotic-compulsive not—at least not yet—a secret, underground as a Baptist minister, l sought refuge in what behavior. movement. Even a singular secular humanist 1 mistakenly took to be a liberal denomina- If one has been imbued from infancy with alone in a small, rural, "god-fearing" com- tion, the Congregational church. In the a set of religious beliefs and practices, and munity can make morale-building contacts twelve years that followed, I found myself if one is somehow brought to consider the by mail or phone. All one has to do, in the becoming more and more "liberal" (i.e., possibility that one's religion is intellectually words of a familiar television ad, is "reach skeptical of traditional, biblical claims) and and morally unacceptable, then, depending out and touch someone." • the denomination becoming more and more Give a subscription to FREE hard-line, due largely to the influence of the INQUIRY to relatives, friends, and "neo-orthodox" and "ecumenical" your library. movements. Please enter a one-year gift subscription at $20.00 for: When the Central Association of the Name Michigan Congregational Conference put me on trial for heresy—and convicted me— Address I escaped briefly into the freer air of Uni- City State Zip tarianism. By then, however, I had given up Additional gifts of FREE INQUIRY can be purchased at a 30% discount on the regular organized religion as a hopeless cause and subscription price. (Please use a separate sheet.) 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Rege (Professor of Philosophy, Vice-President, Indian Secular Levi Fragell (President, Human-Etisk Forbund, NORWAY) Society, INDIA) Anne-Marie Franchi (Vice-President, Ligue de l'Enseignement, Jonathan Reichert (Professor of Physics, State University of New York FRANCE) at Buffalo, USA) Robert Francoeur (Professor of Biology, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Armin Rieser (President, Bund Freireligioser Gemeinden Deutschland, USA) WEST GERMANY) Betty Friedan (Author, founder of National Organization for Women, Elie Schneour (Ph.D., Director, Biosystems Research Institute, USA) USA) William Schulz (President, Unitarian-Universalist Association, USA) Vera Galanter (IHEU United Nations Representative, USA) Eugenie Scott (Director, National Center for Science Education, Yves Galifret (Professor of Physiology, Sorbonne, and Director, L'Union USA) Rationaliste, FRANCE) Al Seckel (President, Southern California Skeptics, USA) Victor Garadja (President, The Institute for Atheism, University of James Simpson (Professor of Food and Resource Economics, Moscow, USSR) University of Florida, USA) Henry Gordon (Magician, Author, Columnist, CANADA) Matthew les Spetter (Leader, Riverdale-Yonkers Society for Ethical Roger Greeley (President, Humanist Institute, USA) Culture, USA) William Greiner (Provost, SUNY Buffalo) Gordon Stein (Ph.D., Editor, The Rationalist, USA) Herbert Hauptman (Nobel Laureate, Professor of Biophysical Science, Svetozar Stojanovlc (Professor of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, State University of New York at Buffalo, USA) YUG0SLAVIA) Randel Helms (Professor of English, University of Arizona, USA) Harry Stopes-Roe (Former President, British Humanist Association, Clyde Herreid (Professor of Biology, State University of New York GREAT BRITAIN) College at Buffalo, USA) Richard Taylor (Professor Emeritus, Union College, USA) Jim Herrick (President, Rationalist Press) Robert Thompson (Director and Chairman, Spacialworld Corporation, R. Joseph Hoffmann (Chairman, Biblical Criticism Research Project) USA) Robert Holmes (Professor of Philosophy, University of Rochester, USA) Rob Tielman (Professor of Sociology, University of Utrecht, THE NETHERLANDS) R. A. Jahagirdar (Justice, Indian Supreme Court) Victor Timofeyev (Vice-President, The Institute of Atheism, University of William Jones (Director of Black Studies Program, Florida State University, USA) Moscow, USSR) Harry Wagschal (Professor of Sociology, Dawson College, CANADA) Taco de Jonge (IHEU Director of Youth Programs, THE NETHERLANDS) Wendell Watters (Professor of Psychiatry, McMasters University, Smt. Kumud Joshi (Governor, State of Andhra Pradesh, and President, CANADA) National Institute of Social Action, INDIA) Sherwin Wine (Chairman, North American Committee on Humanism, Carol Khan (Author) USA) Faith-Healing Investigation Project A Case of Immaculate Abortion?

Gary P. Posner, M.D.

n May 1986, a reader brought to FREE INQUIRY's attention hours before there was undeniable proof of a live pregnancy a miraculous claim made by Marvin E. Eastlund, M.D., there. Now there was nothing! ... After a careful exploration I a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist in Fort Wayne, of the uterus, I was still dumbfounded" (emphasis added). He Indiana. The claim was contained in a lengthy letter Eastlund called one of his partners. "We agreed to stop the procedure wrote to Dr. James C. Dobson, whose radio ministry—"Focus at this point and obtain another ultrasound. That ultrasound on the Family"—is carried on Christian stations all across the showed an empty uterus! The pathology report confirmed that country. Dr. Dobson reprinted Eastlund's letter in his mailing the tissue I removed was degenerating, `burned-out' placental of April 4, 1986, to his listeners of record, at least one of whom tissue" (emphasis added). also subcribes to FREE INQUIRY and shares our skeptical Concludes Dr. Eastlund: "I witnessed a miracle! God heard approach toward such claims. my prayers and intervened and took that baby home with Him, In his letter, Dr. Eastlund discusses his deep religious faith thus freeing me from the act of destroying that baby. There and his opposition to abortion. But, "faced with the choice was no other explanation for that finding. Even some of the of saving one life over another" for the first time in his career, nonbelieving physicians who were familiar with the case agreed Eastlund found himself in a dilemma that apparently had no with me. ... The patient then underwent the remainder of solution. His patient was diagnosed as having a "hydatidiform her chemotherapy and experienced a very successful recovery mole pregnancy," a potentially malignant condition of the from her cancer." placenta. Failure to treat the mother would leave her with a FREE INQUIRY editor Paul Kurtz started to correspond with high risk of developing choriocarcinoma, a virulent malignancy Dr. Eastlund on June 4, 1986. Kurtz asked two crucial questions: usually fatal within a year. As Eastlund states in his letter, Could Eastlund confirm that the original ultrasound study had "To allow the pregnancy to continue would ... [give] the been performed "just a few hours before" the abortion? And mother a certainty of death in a few months. To treat the was it possible that some other natural process had already cancer would possibly abort the pregnancy and most certainly destroyed the fetus? cause gross deformities if the baby survived. To abort the Eastlund answered Kurtz's letter on October 6, 1986, and pregnancy would allow further treatment but also kill the baby. provided many details not included in his letter to Dr. Dobson. We did not know what to do. She felt, as I did, that abortion Upon his initial diagnosis of the molar pregnancy, he wrote, was wrong." he "performed a D&C and emptied the uterus." He then followed The patient, Eastlund, and Eastlund's expert consultants established protocol for monitoring HCG [hormone] titers, and agreed, after struggling with the options, that the pregnancy placed the patient on oral contraceptives, which he says she had to be terminated. And, because his loyal, long-time patient continued to take "during the entire time I was treating her." did not wish to be operated on by anyone else, Eastlund agreed The patient's HCG level fell, but not to zero as expected. to perform the abortion himself. His anguish is evident in his "Approximately six months" later, "the titers began to rise again letter, as he describes how he "prayed and received the peace [with] the uterus beginning to enlarge.... I [performed] another of mind that this was the proper step." He then relates how D&C finding more [benign] molar tissue." But again, the HCG "I scheduled the procedure and remember vividly standing at level only partially resolved, which indicated the continued the scrub sink just before the surgery, agonizing over this presence of potentially malignant tissue. decision. Just a few hours before, I had obtained an ultrasound After seeking advice from national experts, Eastlund con- of the pregnancy showing a live fetus with a beating heart sulted the hospital's oncologist, who administered two rounds and what appeared to he a normal pregnancy in progress" of chemotherapy. "After the second round the HCG titer began (emphasis added). to rise again. Her uterus was enlarging ... [and] plans were Immediately prior to the procedure, Eastlund writes, "I to proceed with a third D&C. She was still faithfully taking asked once again for guidance from God." He then proceeded the birth control pill.... In the work-up prior to the D&C to dilate the cervix and explore the uterine cavity. "To my an ultrasound was obtained ... [which] showed a live relief and, I must admit, surprise, the uterus was empty! Just pregnancy ... consistent with nine weeks gestation. Fetal heart motion was seen on the real-time ultrasound.... The uterus, however, measured about fourteen weeks size on exam." The Gary P. Posner is a medical doctor and a member of CSER's D&C was thus postponed, pending resolution of this moral Faith-healing Investigation Project. dilemma. The patient was ultimately readmitted for the abortion. As

44 FREE INQUIRY recounted in his letter to Kurtz, "In the two weeks of time Dr. Eastlund concludes his letter by pointing out that "I from the ultrasound showing a live pregnancy to the procedure, am a scientist as well as you. I approach my medical practice I had examined my patient several times ... [and there was from the scientific viewpoint. I believe in God and believe He no] evidence of passing tissue ... [no] cervical dilatation .. . is in control of life. This world He created is one of immense no bleeding. Her uterus continued to be enlarged as expected order and structure.... Medicine is much the same. I have with a developing pregnancy. The evening before surgery an tried to explain this case from every other scientific viewpoint ultrasonic doppler was used to detect the fetal heart. The next and argument. I have no way to explain my findings except morning I proceeded with the surgery.... I had one partner by a miraculous event. My consultants likewise have termed who ... had witnessed the ultrasound done two weeks before. it as such." He asks Kurtz, "Can you explain this event in He and a radiologist both saw the fetus and the beating heart" any other way besides a miracle? ... I appreciate your interest (emphasis added). A post-operation "ultrasound showed an and would appreciate your thoughts." empty uterus. The uterus still was very soft and about fourteen Before my consultant and I could hope to offer Eastlund weeks size at the time of the D&C." any persuasive alternative explanation, we first needed access After receiving Eastlund's response, Kurtz asked me to to the available documentary evidence. We had questions con- investigate this fascinating report of a medical/ religious miracle. cerning the ultrasounds; the presence of a live nine-week fetus Although I am a practicing physician, my specialty is not in a woman who had been "faithfully" taking oral contracep- obstetrics and gynecology, so l enlisted the aid of a board- tives since her first D&C more than six months earlier, and certified OB/GYN colleague. who more recently had undergone a second D&C followed Our analysis of Eastlund's letters leads us to conclude that by two rounds of toxic chemotherapy; the exact time-frames the pre-abortion "ultrasound" described in the earlier letter to and dosages of the chemotherapy; the significance (if any) of Dobson had actually been performed two weeks prior to the a fourteen-week-size uterus both at the time of the ultrasound abortion, not "just a few hours before." His wording to Dobson showing a nine-week-size fetus and again two weeks later; the about having "obtained an ultrasound ... showing a live fetus type of abortion performed (forceps or suction); the quantity with a beating heart and what appeared to be a normal preg- of tissue recovered (Was all of it sent to pathology?); the ability nancy" and another ultrasound that "showed an empty uterus" of Eastlund's consultants to confirm their reported agreement describes the visual images of a fetus and uterus, images given with the "miraculous event" conclusion; and the pathologist's by "real-time ultrasounds" or "sonograms" obtained from a unusual terminology—to describe placental tissue as "burned hospital's radiology department. It also corresponds to East- out" is odd, in the opinion of my consultant. lund's descriptions of the real-time ultrasounds in his letter to I submitted to FREE INQUIRY a list of material needed for Kurtz. In stark contrast to these visually descriptive phrases, our review: copies of the official reports from the ultrasounds, we learn in the letter to Kurtz that the evening before surgery the chemotherapy, the surgery, and the pathology lab, as well Eastlund merely used an ultrasonic doppler listening device as the names and mailing addresses of those consultants who (in essence an electronic stethoscope) to listen for the fetal heart- purportedly agreed with Easlund's "miracle" conclusion. Kurtz beat. My consultant strongly affirms this to be a much more wrote to Eastlund on November 26, 1986, to request these items, subjective exercise, open to possible misinterpretation, and one and sent a reminder note on January 6, 1987. In his reply which is not "obtained," but rather is performed by oneself. of January 12, Eastlund states "I will try to answer all your Thus, the answer to Kurtz's first question—could Dr. questions in the very near future"—but he also expressed Eastlund confirm that the ultrasound had been performed just concern for the first time about the nature of CSER ("Is this a few hours before the abortion?—appears to be "No." With for publication? What is the purpose of your organization? regard to Kurtz's second question, Eastlund can offer no What will you do with the information that I send to you?"). alternative, "natural" explanation. He does not believe that the Months passed without any further correspondence. fetus could have been miscarried in the intervening two weeks, I was asked by Kurtz to revive the dialogue; and, in a letter based upon his examinations of the patient. As for some other to Eastlund dated June 18, I addressed all of his questions, natural explanation for the fetus's disappearance, Eastlund once again requesting his promised further assistance in our states, "I have never seen . . . [a] known abortion ... [in investigation. Having received no response after many weeks, which] the patient absorbed the tissue with nothing being passed. I submitted a rough draft for an article on the case. FREE At eight to nine weeks the tissue ... is of large enough volume INQUIRY executive editor Robert Basil then wrote to Eastlund that complete absorption is most unlikely. I have never seen on September 21, enclosing a copy of my draft. degeneration to such an extent where the fetus and almost Eastlund responded three days later. He complained about all the placental tissue has disappeared.... There was a question CSER's attitude of "skepticism and denial" toward the "very that the chemotherapy had destroyed the pregnancy. If more fact" of God's existence, my own tendency to "ridicule," my time had elapsed that would be a viable argument. However, lack of a "totally unbiased position," and the failure in my we had evidence of a viable pregnancy after two rounds of initial draft to sufficiently detail Eastlund's rationale for reach- chemotherapy.... I would say it is very doubtful that the ing his conclusion. Eastlund wrote, "I certainly made every cancer, chemotherapy, or other natural cause would have attempt to explain this case from every parameter of scientific already destroyed the fetus." (Question: Why even explore these investigation.... I had to arrive at a final diagnosis for the possibilities if "undeniable proof" of a living fetus had been hospital chart . . . [which] certainly had to have adequate established only "a few hours before" surgery?) explanation and proof in order to be accepted by the medical

Summer 1988 45 reviewers. I feel Dr. Posner was unfair in not telling the entire cooperation in an investigation that he grew to perceive (cor- story. He conveniently left out much important data ... so rectly) as a highly skeptical one was, in retrospect, an unrealistic that his conclusions would not be challenged." (Actually, I expectation. Indeed, his emotional and religious investment in offered no firm "conclusions." I ended the draft this way: "the this "miraculous event" is of such magnitude that it can fairly documentation of the precise chronology of events is crucial be conveyed only in his own words. 1 quote from Eastlund's to objective inquiry. Until Dr. Eastlund is forthcoming with original letter to Dr. Dobson: While scrubbing just moments this documentation, labelling this case a proven "miracle" would before the surgery, "I probably prayed more earnestly than seem to be a leap of faith rather than a scientific exercise.") I ever have before ... to forgive me of this sin I was committing. Dr. Eastlund also addressed "the apparent discrepancy of I asked Him to stop me if this was not His will. I offered the ultrasound performed hours before the D&C procedure. my life for the baby's. I told God to take my life right at [ Posner's] comments and emphasis added suggest that I changed that moment and not let me take the life of that baby. Nothing my story and was lying about this case. He further suggests happened and I finished scrubbing." And, following the pro- that listening with a Doppler instrument is not scientific and cedure, "I had never felt so close to God before. He answered thus the conclusions from this exercise is [sic] open to doubt. the petitions of my patient and me and saved us both tre- He fails to add to his article for the reader's sake that the mendous guilt by doing the abortion [Himself]. He led us along Doppler instrument is indeed an ultrasonic instrument." (Note: the path to the point where we could only receive the guidance I referred to it as an "ultrasonic doppler," just as I do in this from Him after we fully submitted to Him. He then took control final draft.) and performed in such a way that no human could obtain any glory from what He did.... We both grew immeasurably Yet, despite his obvious displeasure, Dr. Eastlund once again in our faith through this whole experience." professed willingness to cooperate further. In the same letter Although Eastlund's narrative to Dr. Dobson was primarily to Basil he makes the following pledge: "If you desire the actual a religious one, his letter to Kurtz was not. In fact, he requested reports of the documents ... I will be willing to submit these that we offer a scientific alternative. Within the context of reports with the name removed from the document [to ensure science, the burden of proof required to substantiate Dr. East- confidentiality]. If you cannot accept this proposal then we lund's extraordinary hypothesis would have been met, in the are at an impasse." On October 13, I wrote to Eastlund and opinion of myself and my consultant, had a real-time ultra- accepted his offer, once again requesting the names and ad- sound actually been performed just a few hours before surgery, dresses of his corroborating consultants. I also attempted to providing undeniable proof of a fetus within the uterus. Without allay some of his concerns with the following pledge of my such objective, independently verifiable proof, and given my own: "I shall be scientifically objective and led by the weight lack of access to the medical records and consultants, I can of the evidence. We will gladly consider any suggestions that offer only speculation as possible alternative scenerios to you may have to improve the article, and Bob Basil assures account for the pregnancy's demise. However, neither I nor me that you will be afforded an opportunity to respond [to my OB/ GYN consultant can find any compelling reason to the article for publication], should you so desire." I received conclude that God must have performed an "immaculate no reply. abortion" on this patient, or that any other paranormal Perhaps the securing of Dr. Eastlund's good will and full explanation need be invoked. •

Another Physician Fails to Cooperate

ne of my patients, Joppa Wiese .. . onever have survived his heart failure had not documented any of their so-called Oin my opinion experienced a 'miracle' without the Lord's intervention. It was healing miracles. in that he was literally at death's door and indeed an act of God." A discussion of this "verifiable miracle" following [an] event at church the state of The above testimonial by Wayne Stub- also appears in a recent issue of the Hunters' his health was improved to an extent that blefield, a medical doctor from Chatta- Ministries newspaper. According to the was unexplainable by the laws of modern nooga, Tennessee, was contained in a letter article, Wiese, age sixty, suffered from "con- medicine.... When he was initially seen from him dated July 14, 1987. This letter gestive heart failure ... severe diabetes and by me his congestive heart failure was as was presented to Paul Kurtz by Charles emphysema." Dr. Stubblefield reportedly severe as any patient that I have seen in and Frances Hunter, a faith-healing couple had told Mrs. Wiese: "Your husband is twenty years and nothing short of a heart known as the "Happy Hunters," during a dying. His heart has enlarged to eighteen transplant would have kept him alive... . September 9, 1987, debate with Kurtz on centimeters across—and it is leaking. It is Mr. Wiese will return to work on the WKBW-TV in Western New York, in re- too late for a transplant. What you need twentieth of July and without a doubt could sponse to Kurtz's complaint that the couple is a miracle from God." His blood pressure (Continued on page 61)

46 FREE INQUIRY Threats of Futility Is Life Worth Living?

Kurt Baier

hen we reach the age at which we begin to reflect in his mentor's .work, becomes a friend, and later labors hard on our lives, and on human life in general, many to produce an interesting and successful festschrift for him. Wof us are struck by the inordinate amount of unde- Events like this certainly can mean a lot to a person; provided served yet unavoidable suffering in life, the forced abandon- there are enough of them, they can make one's life satisfying ment of all projects, the irreparable sundering of all associa- and significant, even if it also brought much suffering, drudgery, tions, and the bitter rupture of all attachments in death. We and humiliation. may then come to doubt whether there are many lives, or indeed Many of us, however, cannot count on such significant any, that offer sufficient compensation for these evils. Without appreciation to give meaning to our lives. In the first place, such compensation, are any of these lives worth living? Would such events are to a great extent out of our control and unre- it have been better for many people not to have been born? lated to what we deserve—so, how can they accurately gauge Or, having been born, should such people commit suicide rather our life's worth? Other teachers, for example, might be able than endure their lives to the bitter, "natural" end? Many believe and conscientious, yet not find gifted and congenial students; that if only life had meaning, this sad conclusion would not or, if they do, these students might not show their appreciation, follow. I want to examine the sense in which life could have and so on. Thus, to determine whether one's life has meaning meaning and whether it would not be worth living unless it according to this sense is clearly an unfair gamble. did. Is life more than "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"? Does human life as such have Life's Hidden Meaning a hidden meaning, which we cannot discover by observation, which we need to have revealed to us? If this were the case, ell, then, what facts about a life give it meaning? I dismiss everybody's life, whatever its content, would necessarily have Was inadequate such facts as that Thomas Jefferson and meaning, even if this meaning were hidden. Suppose, to take John Adams, close friends again in their old age, died within the belief with which we are most familiar, that human lives a few hours of each other on the fiftieth anniversary of the are indeed more than the short stretch between birth (concep- Declaration of Independence, in the drafting of which both had tion) and death, with all the hardships, adversities, and drudg- played such an important role. For surely this fact— eries to which that stretch is prone. Suppose that our present extraordinary, improbable, and intriguing as it is—does not give human life can lead to another stage in our "total" life, in their lives a hidden meaning, is not evidence that the events which we are happy and fulfilled, free from all suffering and of their lives were predestined, i.e., that they were meant to hardship, but that we can enter on this further blessed stage write the Declaration of Independence. And even if it were, only if we pass certain tests of endurance, acceptance, and it is not clear that this kind of astonishing coincidence could probity in the earlier stage. If that were so, our lives would adequately compensate those who (unlike Jefferson and Adams) have a hidden meaning that could not be discovered by ordinary needed such compensation for an otherwise miserable life. observation, and that hidden meaning would make sense of We require a more relevant sense of meaning, something our suffering and our death, for suffering and death would that involves events that mean a lot to the person, as, in my be necessary conditions that prepare us for the blessed afterlife, profession for instance, when a gifted student takes an interest a life in which meaning would be everywhere apparent. Of course, if there is no such life after death for which our passage through this vale of tears is merely an experiment to test our valor and worthiness, then our life lacks such hidden meaning; it really is meaningless—that is, it is what it seems to be. "We Kurt Baier is a professor of begin in the madness of carnal desire and the transport of philosophy at the University voluptuousness, we end in the dissolution of all our parts and of Pittsburgh. He read a the musty stench of corpses," writes Schopenhauer. Saint FREE version of this paper at Augustine cannot bring himself to praise even these brief sexual 's 1987 conference at INQUIRY enjoyments, noting bitterly that "inter faeces et urinas American University in nascimur"—between feces and urine we are born. But he would Washington, D.C. agree with Schopenhauer's assessment of life on this Earth, that the road from the beginning to the end "goes, in regard to our well-being, and enjoyment of life, steadily downhill:

Summer 1988 47 happily dreaming childhood, exultant youth, toil-filled years the happy afterlife; who wants to spend the rest of eternity of manhood, infirm and often wretched old age, the torment hunting buffalo? There is nothing wrong with being vague of the last illness and finally the throes of death—does it not when we imagine the afterlife, because we can admit we do look as if existence were an error the consequences of which not know what this life will be like. Nevertheless, we must gradually grow more and more manifest?" think of it in the same way as we think of good earthly lives: But does it follow that if life is meaningless in this sense, It will be full of the things that in this condition we regard then it is not worth living, that it would be better for us to as good and free of the things we regard as bad. And it is be dead or not to have been born? precisely in this way, by virtue of the ample presence of good We need not take this most widely touted and feared threat things and the total absence of bad ones, that this blessed of futility very seriously. To see this, it is enough to note two life is superior to our earthly lives. things. The first is that, surely, some lives are better, some There is no logical connection between a life being worth worse than others; we know quite well what would make our living and having a hidden meaning in the sense explained. earthly life better or less bad, know how we could make it It would be worth living, even if it had no such meaning, so, and even know what would turn a bad life into a good but were more like the blessed life for which our earthly life one. If we examine a given life, we can often say what would is supposed to be an indispensable preliminary. There is have made it a good, bad, better, or worse life, even as we therefore no truth in the often-made claim that the scientific grant that, in this sense, it may be like every other human world-view threatens our belief in the worth of our lives because life, a meaningless one. And, if a person has led a life that it deprives human life as such of a hidden meaning, because we would agree is or was a good life, then we would surely it offers us no reason to believe that individual human lives agree that it would not have been better for this person never are anything more than the stretch from conception to death. to have been born, that it would not have been better for Thus there is no connection between the hidden meaning of this person to commit suicide rather than to continue living our lives and their being worth living, unless no earthly lives to the natural end. Of course, a person may live a good life in themselves can be worth living and unless they can be made up to a certain point, after which it becomes so bad that it worth living only if their miserableness is outweighed by a ceases to be worth living. In such a case, it may well be best blessed afterlife that we can enjoy only if we go through this for the person to end it, but it would still not be true that miserable life first. But that is to take for granted what is, it would be better had this person never been born or had after all, at issue—namely, whether the lives of all of us are ended it earlier. so miserable that none are worth living. The second objection to note is this: Even if life as such Of course, what I say implies that some, perhaps many, has a hidden meaning, what makes a given life worth living human lives may not be worth living. This is most unfortunate, is not that meaning. For, if it were true that life as such has indeed tragic for those in that position, and a decent society, a meaning, then all lives have the same hidden meaning. Yet and decent people, would do everything in their power to enable we know that not all lives are worth living, let alone equally these unfortunates to make something of their lives. It may so. The life of Judas would have the same hidden meaning be thought that if human life had such a hidden meaning, as that of the other apostles, and everyone else for that matter: all lives would necessarily be worth living. However, we have Like everyone's, his life would also be a test of his worthiness. already noted that this is not so, for the lives of those who Hence, Judas's life is not worth living not because it lacks do not pass the test may not be worth living since they may a meaning in this sense but because it does not pass the test have to spend their eternal afterlife in hell. In any case, those of worthiness, passing which would allow him to enjoy the looking for a hidden meaning that makes sense of our suffering blessed life in the beyond. may well wonder why a well-meaning deity would have made What makes an earthly life worth living, even in this view, the blessed life dependent on a period involving such misery, is not its hidden meaning but the worth of the blessed life and why those who fail to pass the test should be doomed after death whose content is so wonderful that it can adequately to eternal torment. Is this not unnecessarily cruel punishment? compensate us for the miseries of this life. That blessed life does not in turn require a hidden meaning involving a further The Meaningfulness of a Life life whose worth could give us reason to want to lead the blessed life and so to want to go on living the miserable earthly here is, however, a further sense of the meaning of life life. It is the content itself of that supposed blessed life after Tin which, it might be thought, the meaningfulness of a life death that makes our ordinary earthly lives worth living. So, is a condition of its being worth living. In that second sense, we can tell what makes that life worth living without postulating a life's having meaning does not imply that there must be an a hidden meaning for it. answer to the question of what that meaning is. All we can But now note that those religions, like Islam or those of determine is whether the life is meaningful or not and, if so, some American Indians, that have candidly described the whether it is more or less meaningful than some other meaningful blessed life after death in some detail have modeled it after life. In this sense, life as such need not have a meaning, and what their adherents regard as ideal earthly lives. They have not all lives need be meaningful; among those that are, some no difficulty conceiving of an ideal life—they fill it with the are more so than others. A life of outstanding achievement, good things from their ordinary lives and free it from the for example, is more meaningful in this sense than one of bad things. Of course, we may smile at their depictions of mediocre achievement, and a life of mediocre achievement is

48 FREE INQUIRY more meaningful than one of failure. In this sense, meaningful and only if the good things in it outweigh the bad. In fact, means much the same as valuable, important, or significant. I believe, it is the other way round: We can tell correctly whether In this sense of meaning, it does not matter whether the we find our life worth living without having first ascertained achievement means much to the person, though no doubt it whether the good things outweigh the bad. But not conversely; often will, nor is it hidden, that is, unascertainable by observation. for there are no independent scales on which we could weigh When we assess lives, we often do so in respect of contribu- the good things and the bad in our life and see which outweighs tion, either by achievement, such as scientific discoveries or works which. We need not first discover that the good things outweigh of art, or by the good the person has done to others. We then the bad before we can tell whether it would be correct for us judge such lives as more or less meaningful because they are to find our life worth living. For we can infer that the good more or less valuable, for by the value of a life we usually things outweigh the bad from the fact that we find our life understand its merit assessed on the basis of the benefits a person worth living. has directly or indirectly conferred on others. (Only economists Could we in other ways be mistaken in finding our life worth take the value of a life to be the dollar value a person puts living? I can think of only one, that we are overlooking or on his life, the amount of dollars for which he would be willing not adequately attending to some of the relevant aspects of our to run a given risk of losing it.) lives: for example, the happiness we derive from our family At other times we compare lives on the basis of the extent life, our work, our participation in the community, and so on. of its impact or influence on the lives of others; we assess such But we could make another sort of mistake. We could be lives as more or less important. The lives of Churchill, Roose- mistaken in thinking that we find it so when in fact we do velt, Hitler, and Stalin were probably more important than are not. Let me give an example. Suppose I am severely deformed yours and mine. Of course, important lives are not necessarily and suffer from many grave handicaps because I am, say, a valuable, but they are in this sense meaningful. case of spina bifida. All the same, I am prepared to go on Now, many lives are not valuable or important and are not, living and am not prepared to commit suicide. I may then think in this sense, meaningful. But, again, this need not imply that that I find my life worth living; that is, that I am (at least) they are not worth living. Of course, some people may not find prepared to live it over again just as it is. And in this I may their lives worth living if they are not meaningful, in the sense be mistaken. For although I may not wish my life to end now of valuable or important. But others will. or indeed ever, I may wish I had never been born, which would Many who think that their lives can be worth living only imply that I am not prepared to live it over again exactly as if they are meaningful in this sense and whose lives are neither it was. valuable nor important hope that they nevertheless are mean- There is an important difference, not often recognized, ingful in this sense because they are human lives. They are, between these two cases. It is one thing to want to go on living understandably, shaken by the claims of the theory of evolution, rather than terminate one's life or have it end now. It is quite which seems to assert that humankind has no special signifi- another to decide from a vantage point outside one's life but cance or meaning, that the human race is simply one of the in full knowledge of what it would be like—as in Plato's Myth many biological species, which, like most or all others, is doomed of Er—that one would want to lead that life (again) rather than to eventual extinction. To many it is a blow to their pride that not live at all, that one would want to have the self that one our species is not singled out by an especially exalted destiny; now is, develop a second (or even a first) time rather than there they feel robbed of the vicarious importance or value their not be that person (a first or a second time) with all that this otherwise unimportant and valueless lives would have. involves, including one's handicaps, sufferings, and humiliations. What can we say about such meaningless lives? Are they Having lived one's life long enough to have acquired the fear worth living if they are found worth living by those who live of death and the desire for the perpetuation of one's self, one them? Are they not worth living if they are not found so? And may prefer to go on even at the miserable level to which one what is it to find a life worth living? These questions are too is condemned rather than have it end. But this is different from complex to receive a full treatment in this article, but the limited deciding to enter on this sort of life, to be prepared to live answers I give should suffice for our purposes here. it over again. But it is the latter and not the former that is What is it to find a life worth living? I assume, without involved in finding one's life worth living. Hence, one can be argument, that we can say a person really is finding his life mistaken in thinking one finds one's life worth living when in worth living if, and only if, supposing it were up to him to fact one only wants it to go on. live his life over again, exactly as it was, he would be prepared, It will perhaps be said that no one can ever make this decision. or even glad or eager, to do so. I shall also assume that the After all, Plato's story of Er is a myth. True, but the question question of whether one has correctly found one's life worth it raises makes sense and is important. Indeed, some of us have living has generally been misconceived. It is often thought that to make decisions to which the answer to this question, whether finding one's life worth living should be the outcome of an someone would find life worth living, is highly relevant, perhaps investigation analogous to finding out whether a thing is worth decisive. Suppose we have produced such a severely deformed its price. In the latter case one can indeed discover that one and handicapped fetus or neonate, then we decide, at least was mistaken in thinking that, say, the television set one bought implicitly, whether or not that being will grow up to become was worth the price one paid for it. One might have got the a person who will have a life considerably worse than average. same set more cheaply in other stores. One might therefore think, The decision we must make is of the same general sort as that for instance, that one correctly finds one's life worth living if envisaged in Plato's Myth of Er. If we have compassion for

Summer 1988 49 the being we have begotten, or if we know that we are likely is not so because it lacks meaning but because he finds it not to beget such a being, we surely should take into account whether worth living. this being would, as best we can judge, find his or her life worth Is it ever morally wrong not to find one's life worth living? living in the sense just explained. I cannot think of a case. For on what grounds could we be Summing up, we can say that we may mistakenly think morally required to find our life worth living, that is, to be that we find our life worth living because we fail to distinguish prepared to live it over again? For we find it not worth living "being prepared to live it over again" from "not wishing it to either because of what we have done or because of what has end or not wanting to end it." But this does not mean that befallen us. If the former, surely we should not be morally we are mistaken in finding our life worth living—it is a mistake expected to want to do these very things over again. And if about whether we find it worth living. the latter, we cannot be morally expected to want the same But what is the relation between finding one's life worth things to befall us again. (Of course, this does not mean that, living and its really being so? Can it fail to be so when one even if it is morally right for us to find our life not worth finds it so? One example presents itself. Hitler may have found living, and even if it really is not, then it must be morally his life fulfilling, exciting, exhilarating, and full of achievements; permissible for us to commit suicide, for we may have important and for these reasons he might have found it eminently worth responsibilities for the living, say, our young children, which living. Many of us, of course, would dispute that conclusion. require us to stay alive to be able to discharge them.) Hitler's was an evil life; it therefore would be morally wrong Is it ever prudential or in other nonmoral ways contrary for him to be prepared to live it over again just as it was— to reason not to find one's life worth living? This is the most and not simply because he failed to achieve his goal. If we difficult question. Clearly, each person has an interest in being think it was an evil life, we should at least hesitate to consider able to find his life worth living. But what can one do to find it a life worth living. And if it really was an evil life, then it one's life worth living? I postpone this question to the next was not really worth living, however much Hitler found it so. section. One difference, then, between finding one's life worth living and its really being so should be clear. We find a life worth The Futility of Our Endeavors living on the basis of the extent to which it holds the things we want to get out of it. But when we judge someone's life— turn now to the third threat of futility. This threat comes and therefore our own—to be really worth living, we judge it I from the view both that our earthly life is the only one we by more objective criteria. We consider not only whether it con- have and that the human situation in which we are compelled tains what the person judges to be a sufficient amount of the to lead this life is such that it cannot be worth living. I shall things he wants to get out of his life and whether or not he examine only those denigrations one encounters most frequently is mistaken about that amount, but also whether he has ade- in the human situation—that life is futile, vain, pointless, because quately considered the moral requirements he is subject to— whatever we do and however hard we try to improve our life those that impose constraints on the ways in which he may the important things we dislike and fear are inexorable, or try to secure for himself the things he wants to get out of life. because we cannot possibly attain enough of the good things Thus, the claim that a life is really worth living may be and to outweigh the terrible evils that life inescapably brings, or often is used to imply the additional satisfaction of that second because there is nothing in human life that has real value, for criterion. Note, however, that as we construed the case, Hitler everything soon turns to dust and ashes. was not mistaken in finding his life worth living. He was, rather, The first charge—that all our activities, efforts, and endeavors wrong to be prepared, glad, or eager to live such an evil life are futile, in vain, pointless—is made eloquently by the author again, morally wrong not to wish that he had not done, or of Ecclesiastes, sometimes thought to have been Solomon. that he could undo, the many evils he has inflicted on others. Utter futility! Utter futility! All is futile! What real value is What about the converse question: Can we be mistaken in there for a man in all the gains he makes beneath the Sun? thinking that we find our life not worth living? As before, we One generation goes, another comes, but the earth remains can be mistaken in thinking this because we may be unclear the same forever.... All is futile and the pursuit of wind; about what this question means. We may think that our life There is no real value under the sun.... The pursuit of wisdom, is not worth living because we think it cannot be unless it has too, is pursuit of wind for as wisdom grows, vexation grows; meaning (in the sense of being valuable or important) and we to increase learning is to increase heartache.... Merriment, believe it does not. A person who mistakenly thinks this will mirth, revelry, wealth, possessions, the enjoyment I got out also tend to think mistakenly that he therefore finds his life of them, all futile and pursuit of wind. And so is the pursuit not worth living. Similarly, a person who thinks this will also of justice and righteousness—for the same fate is in store for tend to think that life cannot be worth living even if he finds all: for the righteous and the wicked; for the good and pure it so. This, too, will be a mistake because, as we have seen, and for the impure; for him who sacrifices and for him who does not.... That is the sad thing about all that goes on he may in fact find his life worth living even if it lacks meaning under the Sun: that the same fate is in store for all—death. in the sense of value and importance and because this lack is Even a live dog is better than a dead lion.... The dead know no good reason to think it is really not worth living despite nothing; they have no more recompense, for even the memory his finding it so. It is only in those cases in which a person of them has died. Their loves, their hates, their jealousies have really finds his life not worth living unless it is meaningful in long since perished; and they have no more share till the end this sense that his life is not worth living. But, of course, this of time in all that goes on under the Sun.

50 FREE INQUIRY But does that make all our endeavors futile or pointless? Wise men, such as the author of Ecclesiastes, give us a Surely, there are many things we do that are not futile, that Baedeker through life. They tell us about the things that are are effective and successful. All is futile only if all our actions worth a journey (three stars), those that are worth a detour aim at eternally perpetuating our lives. But surely this is not (two stars), and those that are worth exploring when we pass so and would be wholly irrational if it were so, given that by (one star). Ecclesiastes thinks that many of the things to we know very well that we cannot attain this goal. We might which other wise men give stars do not deserve any. But there well claim that life is not worth living if all our activities really is one thing to which he gives stars, the pleasures of youth. are futile, in vain, doomed to failure, but we have no reason Of course, like other travel guides, Ecclesiastes can tell us only to think that simply because there is one end—eternal life— what he has found worth doing and how much it cost him that we cannot attain. If our lives are no more than the stretch in terms of time, effort, and money. The proof of such guides between conception and death, then to ask whether our lives is in the living. And, surely, the dejected hedonist of Ecclesiastes are worth living is to ask whether we can, within the limits is mistaken. Some of us, perhaps all, can cultivate tastes that set by morality, get something worthwhile out of the life can be catered to when "fleeting youth" and "black hair" have available to us or whether we should make an end of it right gone, when "the ladies that peer through the windows have now or at least recognize that it would have been better if grown dim," though it would no doubt be foolish to believe we had never been born. that even these more enduring enjoyments will be available Nor are all other ends necessarily worthless just because to us in our dotage. The real question that faces us in our we cannot achieve eternal life. If there are some things that declining years is whether we have already reached the fag are worth doing forever, or again and again, then surely they end of our life and, if so, how best to snuff it out. are worth doing while we can do them. Indeed, having dismissed We have already noted that Ecclesiastes at first seems to all our endeavors as futile, the author of Ecclesiastes ends give another sort of guide, not one that tells us what sorts his lament with a melancholy paean to the simple but fleeting of things get stars and how many, but one that tells us whether joys of life: traveling through life at all is worth the effort, the answer "Go eat your bread in gladness, and drink your wine in to which seems to be that it is not, that it would be better joy; let your clothes always be freshly washed, and your head not to be born. But, as we have seen, he also takes the line never lack ointment. Enjoy the happiness with a woman you that it is better to be alive than dead, perhaps better to be love, all the fleeting days of life that have been granted to alive than not to have been born, for he really does seem you under the sun—all your fleeting days. For that alone is to give three stars to some things life holds for us. what you can get out of life and out of the means you acquire Others, by contrast, tell us that there are indeed things under the sun." Thus, the writer does not really conclude that that would be worthwhile but they are few and hard to reach. life is not worth living, that it would be better not to have For the cards are stacked against us in such a way that we been born or that one should commit suicide. For the worst have no chance of catching enough of the few good things is to be dead since it holds nothing and life holds so much: there are to compensate us for all the inevitable evil that is "How sweet is the light, what a delight for the eyes to behold our lot. Thus, in Schopenhauer's view, suffering and pain are the sun! O youth enjoy yourself while you are young! Let real, impressively present to us, more so than pleasure, and your heart lead you to enjoyment in the days of your youth. they are the rule rather than the exception: "Just as we are Follow the desires of your heart and the glances of your eyes conscious not of the healthiness of our whole body but only and banish care from your mind and pluck sorrow out of of the little place where the shoe pinches, so we think not your flesh! For youth and black hair are fleeting." of the totality of our successful activities but of some Here, then, we have someone who does not really claim insignificant trifle or other which continues to vex us." Our (as at first glance he seems to) that there is nothing in this lives could be worth living but only if pleasure, happiness, life that is intrinsically worthwhile and rewarding or that it the things of value outweighed and compensated us for the is impossible to attain it. On the contrary, he highly praises pain and suffering we have to endure. But do they? On this the simple pleasures and recommends that we seek and enjoy issue Schopenhauer offers us "a quick test of the assertion them. His real message is a warning against frittering away that enjoyment outweighs pain in this world, or that they are our irrecoverable youth in unrewarding efforts to gain wisdom, at any rate balanced." "Compare," he says, "the feelings of acquire wealth, or combat injustice. The complaint he has about an animal engaged in eating another with those of the animal life is not really that it holds nothing worthwhile but rather being eaten." that these wonderful things cannot be enjoyed forever, for An amusing but surely not an appropriate test. Let us grant he is quite uncertain about an afterlife: for argument's sake that no animal that devours another derives So I decided to face the fact that men are beasts. For in respect enjoyment sufficient to outbalance the pain suffered by the of the fate of man and the fate of beast, they have one and devoured animal. But what does this show about human lives? the same fate: as the one dies so dies the other, and both have After all, we no longer eat one another. Perhaps we do not the same life-breath; man has no superiority over beast, since derive sufficient enjoyment from eating beef to balance or out- both amount to nothing. Both go to the same place, both came weigh the suffering we impose on cattle in our abattoirs. That from dust and both return to dust. Who knows if a man's may show that the life of cattle is not worth living, but does life-breath does rise upward and if a beast's breath does sink their suffering necessarily detract from our enjoyment of eating down into earth? beef? Perhaps it should, and then that is a moral argument

Summer 1988 51 for vegetarianism or at least for improving our slaughterhouses. life in which he is engaged in work of great importance, even But, until we feel the pain of the animals with sufficient empathy it it means that he will contract a crippling and painful disease to outweigh the enjoyment of eating them, Schopenhauer's that will eventually kill him. And there simply is no objective utilitarian, intersubjective pleasure-pain calculus is simply calculus to show that he is mistaken. beside the point. To sum up. I examined three threats to the commonsense More seriously, the argument rests on an example in which belief that human lives can be, and that indeed most are, worth one creature's enjoyment is contingent on another's pain, as living. The first is that this can be so only if the existence if all our enjoyments were of this sort. Surely, even a moment's of mankind has a hidden meaning that makes sense of the reflection shows this to be plainly false. inordinate suffering, the fleetingness of what is worthwhile, As far as I can see there is simply no good reason to think and the amount of drudgery in our earthly lives, but that that the human situation is such that no one can experience science tries to persuade us that life has no such hidden throughout his life enjoyment sufficient to outweigh the pain meaning. I tried to show that our lives can be worth living he has to endure. One reason for this is that there may be even if human life as such has no hidden meaning, namely, enjoyments we find so intense or so desirable or so fulfilling when we find the worthwhile elements to more than compensate that we are willing to endure enormous hardships, pains, or for the bad things, and that the hidden meaning, if there is deprivations to experience them. Another is that the question one, can do no more than promise just that, namely, adequate of whether an enjoyment adequately compensates for a pain compensation in the afterlife for the bad things in this life, is surely a matter for the individual to answer, not something and compensation of the same general sort that many of us that we can calculate objectively for all humans or, indeed, find in this life. for any human being. And, surely, though our attention may The second threat of meaninglessness is more serious. Some be riveted on the "little place" where the shoe pinches or on of us, perhaps the best, will not find their lives worth living some other "insignificant trifle," we do not therefore find our unless they are valuable and/ or important. But this is a self- life not worth living. And those complainers who, like imposed burden. We can, and many of us do, find our lives Schopenhauer, think they do, are usually mistaken—they worth living even though they are not very meaningful or sig- usually take as good care of their lives as those who think nificant in the sense of being valuable or important. And those it is the most precious thing they have. of us who regard the worth of our lives as being dependent More important, what makes a life worth living cannot on this type of meaningfulness can at least do something to be determined for all people by such a crude pleasure-pain contribute to the lives of others and thereby achieve some calculus. A person may regard as eminently worth living a value and importance. The third threat is the most serious. Although the claims of the pessimists that no lives can be worth living rest on Help Further the Cause shoddy arguments, undoubtedly to many people their lot may seem so awful that they will find their life not worth living. of Humanism. Their plight is indeed very real and calls for generous help Please remember FREE INQUIRY in your will. from all the fortunate ones among us. We must not fob them Won't you consider making a provision in your will off with stories of pie in the sky. But neither can we honestly for FREE INQUIRY and the Council for Democratic and fob them off with stories of human ability and willingness Secular Humanism? This will ensure vital support to remedy all their hardships. We all must come to accept for the defense and development of humanism. Although humanists do not believe in immortal- the fact that no social order, however just and compassionate, ity, they know that the good work they do will sur- can ward off evils and that the best we can do is to prevent vive them. By leaving a percentage of your estate to some, alleviate others, and provide for all as much equal access FREE INQUIRY (CODESH, INC.), you will be furthering to the good things as possible. For the remaining suffering, the ideals of humanism. drudgery, humiliation, frustration, disappointment, and We would be happy to work with you and your boredom, we must learn to find compensation in the good attorney in the development of a will or estate plan that meets your wishes. things life has offered us, and we can be helped to appreciate Besides a will, there are many other possibilities, what life holds for us by the reflection in Ecclesiastes that such as living trusts and charitable gift annuities even a live dog is better than a dead lion, that the main reason from which you receive an annual income from the the fleetingness of the good things in life makes us sad is that transfer of property now. Or you might make a con- they really are good, and that we can count on nothing after tingent bequest, by which FREE INQUIRY (CODESH, death. The sadness that lies in the thought that life ends in INC.) will receive a gift only if your primary bene- death shows, not that nothing in life is worth having but, ficiaries do not survive you. For more information, contact Paul Kurtz, Editor on the contrary, that death may bring to an end something of FREE INQUIRY. that would be well worth continuing; that it must end does not show that it is not worth having while it lasts. P.O. Box 5 • Central Park Station However, those who think, on due reflection, that death Buffalo, New York 14215 • 716-834-2921 All inquiries will be held in the strictest confidence. will be a blessed release from the wheel should bear in mind that they need not fear that it would be cowardly or for other reasons wrong to bow out. •

52 FREE INQUIRY with fairness apply the political norms of Books the present world to historical figures without a good many qualifications is questionable at best. Stone accuses Socra- Was Socrates a Humanist? tes of condoning the tyranny committed by his former pupils Critias and Charmides. Yet another disciple of Socrates, the unscrup- ulous Alcibiades, who betrayed Athens to Paul Kurtz the Spartans, identified himself with the democratic, not the oligarchical, faction. If The Trial of Socrates, I. F. Stone (Boston: philosophical quest. The decision to convict we followed Stone's method consistently, Little Brown, 1988), 288 pp., $18.95. him was by a narrow vote. The accusers— should Aristotle, who defended the demo- Anytus, Meletus, and Lycon—proposed the cratic constitutional polity as the best form death penalty. In accordance with Athenian of government, be blamed for the later courageous, well-known dissenter on law, however, Socrates was allowed to make excesses of his pupil Alexander the Great, A the contemporary American political a counterproposal—which he did, but only who forged an empire? Should the eigh- scene has turned his muckraking to Socrates, mockingly. He was sentenced to death. The teenth-century philosophy of David Hume perhaps Western civilization's first great last days of Socrates are eloquently depicted be dismissed because he was a political humanist hero. in the Crito and Phaedo. Socrates' friends conservative? The trial and death of Socrates is one offered him an opportunity to flee, but this Socrates contended that he was not pri- of the most dramatic and puzzling events in he refused to do, affirming his loyalty and marily a political person and that he rarely the history of free thought. The father of obedience to the laws of Athens. In the last involved himself in practical political affairs. philosophy was accused of three things: hours he expressed his conviction that no On two occasions he did oppose actions of "speculating about the heaven above and the evil can befall a good person. After a sad the Athenian government that he thought earth beneath and making the worse appear farewell, he drank the hemlock. were unjust—once against the "tyranny of the better"; "being a corrupter of youth"; and Our knowledge of Socrates is based upon the thirty" and once against the democrats. being "an atheist who denied the existence four primary sources: Plato (who idealized Moreover, Critias, one of the thirty tyrants, of the gods of the state, but had a religion Socrates and devoted much of his dialogues had banned Socrates from engaging in dia- of his own" (Plato, Apology). to the explication of his philosophy); Xeno- lectical dialogue—i.e., the teaching of techne Was Socrates blameless or guilty? Was phon (who also knew Socrates personally logon, the art of reasoned discourse—with there a hidden political agenda behind these and whose picture of Socrates is perhaps anyone under thirty. Socrates held that the charges? In a provocative and in many ways more realistic); Aristophanes (the comic poet worst form of government was tyranny, the infuriating book, I.F. Stone maintains (as who satirized him as an uncouth figure in best being an aristocracy based upon talent others have in the past) that Socrates was The Clouds and in other plays); and Aristo- and the rule of reason, not power or vio- being silenced by the Athenian democracy tle (who, as a pupil of Plato, added several lence. Yet it is apparent that both Socrates because he had been friends with oligarch- important insights about the historical and Plato were critics of democracy, which ical, murderous despots who had seized Socrates). they viewed as extreme license, and they power in 411 B.C.E. (the "dictatorship of the Stone has recently cultivated a passion defended a social order in which those best four hundred") and in 404 B.C.E. (the for Greek thought, and he is to be com- qualified, the "philosopher kings," would "tyranny of the thirty"). When democratic mended for his pluck in taking up such a rule. factions were able to restore Athenian difficult field so late in life. His efforts have There have been other criticisms of democracy in 401 B.C.E., they declared an not, however, made him a trustworthy Plato's antidemocratic views. Karl Popper, amnesty for all political opponents as an scholar. After sifting through many of the in his influential book The Open Society and attempt to heal the wounds of civil strife. primary sources and commentaries, Stone Its Enemies, accuses Plato of presenting the Because Socrates was identified with the has come up with an unduly harsh and first totalitarian justification for the closed oligarchical enemies of democracy and it was unconvincing indictment of Socrates: He society. He attacks The Republic especially, feared that he might inflame a counter- accuses him of being an enemy of Athens for promoting the repression of freedom as insurgency, the new leaders bade him be and its people and of lacking any compas- an ideological ideal, a line that all subsequent silent. But he refused, and so he was hauled sion for the lower classes. Stone thinks that totalitarian utopians have followed. And into court in 399 B.C.E., to face a jury of the charges of "impiety" and of "corrupting John Dewey, in The Quest for Certainty, five hundred of his fellow citizens, as chosen the young" were only masks for a justified criticized Plato's doctrine of "eternal by lot. fear of his antidemocratic views, minimizing essences" as an expression of an aristocratic According to Plato's account Socrates the view that it was Socrates' freethinking class society that sought to maintain itself was unable during his trial to persuade his about religion that incensed the Athenians. in power. fellow Athenians that the charges were false. Not that Stone thinks that Socrates should Thus one can surely read Plato's political Indeed, he taunted those who would judge have been silenced—or made a martyr to and social ideas with distaste, for there is him, insisting that he was "the wisest of men" free speech—only that the indictment against little room for democratic freedoms or dis- (because he knew how ignorant he was) and Socrates was not entirely without founda- sent—though there are those who maintain that he would never be silenced in his tion. that, for Plato, The Republic was less a Unfortunately, Stone has viewed Soc- blueprint of a utopian society than it was Paul Kurtz is professor of philosophy at rates through his own political lens, judging his exemplification of the ideal of justice— the State University of New York at Buffalo. him from the vantage point of a twentieth- order, balance, and reason—by which we can century left-wing liberal. Whether one can measure existing states. Moreover, Plato

Summer 1988 53 defended one form of egalitarianism— tain whether the father was guilty of equality of opportunity—by which he premeditated murder or of the lesser charge thought "the best" could rise to the top; he of neglect (or manslaughter), and he points defended equality of the sexes; and he tried out that even the Homeric myths are to get rid of favoritism based on privilege, contradictory as to what the gods would do. family, or wealth. In any case, Socrates wonders what a truly It is often difficult to distinguish the pious human would do. Euthyphro can give historical Socrates from Plato—especially in no clear answer. Socrates' key point is that the middle and. later dialogues. Plato was intelligent ethical choice depends upon a great philosophical genius in his own right, reflective analysis, not upon unthinking and he went on to develop his own philoso- obedience to dogmatic religious dictates or phical theories—such as the theory of upon "what is dear to the gods." Socrates, ideas—that diverged from the views of unable to define "piety," exposes the many Socrates. We should not overlook the fact contradictions within a morality based on that Plato's Republic is a treasure-house of obedience to divine dictates. Central to his creative ideas. And Allan Bloom is surely ethical position, by the way, was the view correct when he argues in The Closing of that one should never knowingly inflict evil the American Mind that students would do or harm on another person. Ethics, for well to study this great classic for its philo- Socrates, was an autonomous field of inquiry sophical insights. preceding religious morality and based on Stone's frontal assault on Socrates is reason. Yet all that Stone infers from this insensitive to the central philosophical dialogue is that Socrates was insensitive to themes of Socratic or Platonic thought. the plight of the lower classes and that Stone evidently has difficulty in following Euthyphro was right to prosecute his father. the dialectical arguments of Socrates as The fundamental ethical message of expressed in Plato's dialogues—he labels Socrates is thus overlooked by Stone. them "a wild goose chase" and "tiresome Socrates begins as a skeptic, raising ques- investigations," revealing his failure to ap- tions about the meaning of our most basic preciate the subtleties of philosophical ethical ideas: "goodness," "truth," "beauty," analysis. Worse, he dismisses Socrates' treat- "virtue," "justice," and "courage." Often ment of the fundamental problems of philos- he does not reach a satisfactory final defini- ophy as "distantly abstruse and obscurely tion, though he may know what "piety," metaphysical," "best left to be wrestled with "virtue," or "truth" are not. But it is the by candidates for Ph.D.s." process of inquiry that is essential. For A good illustration of Stone's lack of Socrates the unexamined life is not worth philosophical sophistication is his mis- living. One must go beyond the vague and reading of Plato's Euthyphro, a dialogue that incoherent ideas of conventional morality to 1 regularly assign to undergraduate students a deeper critical exploration. Each person in my "Introduction to Philosophy" course. potentially has the capacity for rational This dialogue is one of the most powerful growth. For Socrates, the fulfillment of our critiques of religion ever written, an effort potential and the achievement of inner to demonstrate that we cannot deduce ethics harmony and order are the fundamental and democracy impossible." On the con- from conventional expressions of piety. It principles of the good life. trary, Socrates maintained that "virtue is illustrates Socrates' lampooning of the The key function of education, then, knowledge," that what we should seek to prevailing Homeric mythology and the should not be indoctrination or the practice cultivate above all else is the love and prac- radical character of his own philosophical of rhetoric (as was widely employed in tice of wisdom. Socrates considered himself critique. It is also in the Euthyphro that Plato Athens, and which Stone defends) but the to be a gadfly and midwife; his primary task depicts Socrates awaiting trial for impiety. careful dialectical process of examination. .was to stimulate us to intellectual discovery Socrates encounters the young Euthyphro, This idea no doubt raised considerable and ethical growth. who is bringing charges in court against his consternation among many of the leading There is certainly much in the Socratic own father. A day laborer who worked on citizens of Athens, like Anytus, one of his philosophy that a modern writer might the family farm has struck and killed a serf accusers, whose son studied with Socrates. reject—his intimations of reincarnation or in a drunken fit. The father bound the (Anytus had withdrawn his son from premonitions of immortality, for example, laborer and left him in a ditch unattended Socrates' influence because of the skepticism or his view that he has a special diamon while he sent a messenger to Athens to ask that Socrates seemed to be engendering. or "inner voice." Nonetheless, Socrates has the interpreters of religion what should be Incredibly, Stone approves of this parental had a profound impact on the history of done with him. Before the messenger can censorship.) culture. Any simplistic indictment of his return, the laborer dies from hunger and Stone maintains that Socrates used his work, based primarily on ideological exposure; so, Euthyphro accuses his father skills as a logician and philosopher for a grounds, unnecessarily politicizes and of murder. Socrates is perplexed by the son's special political purpose—"to make all the vulgarizes his ethical philosophy and fails response. Euthyphro, a religious absolutist, leading men of the city appear to be ignorant to appreciate his enduring contributions to claims that he is doing what "the gods fools." He complains that the "negative dia- the development of philosophy and to the dictate." Socrates counters that it is uncer- lectic of Socrates would have made equality birth of humanism. • 54 FREE INQUIRY silence liberal Catholic theologians like Unity in Diversity? Charles Curran and Hans Kung. Neuhaus is something of an antimodernist in his own right—exulting, for example, in John Paul II's recent revival of belief in angels and demons. "It is a curiosity of our time," he writes, "that precisely when the sciences— Tim Madigan biology, astronomy, physics, theoretical mathematics—are stretching our minds toward mystery, much academic theology The Catholic Moment: The Paradox of the haus's own Lutheran church) in attempts to seems set upon the dulling down of human Church in the Postmodern World, by find common theological ground. According consciousness. The social sciences, the most Richard John Neuhaus (New York: Harper to Neuhaus, such dialogues are the key to dismal of dismal pseudosciences, are taken & Row, 1987), 292 pp., $19.95. uniting the various branches of Christianity. to be an explanatory framework by which It is not enough merely to work together— we can make some sense of revelation." His Once a Catholic, by Peter Occhiogrosso what should unite the churches, he says, is critique of the social sciences may have some (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987), creed, not deed. While it is fine for the validity, but surely one should hesitate before 371 pp., $18.95. churches to practice a plurality of worship, claiming that "the devil is the cause" of they should be joined in their obedience to today's problems. Moreover, one would n The Catholic Moment: The Paradox the gospels, the same sort of obedience ad- hope that the sciences are doing more than I of the Church in the Postmodern World, vocated by John Paul II and Cardinal "stretching our minds toward mystery"; they Richard John Neuhaus makes this provoca- Ratzinger. In other words, there should be should be helping us understand the world tive assertion: Given its massive organiza- unity in diversity. we live in. tional abilities and its deep sense of history, What exactly is the purpose of this unity? For all his considerable erudition and the Roman Catholic church is in a unique According to Neuhaus, churches must band good humor, Neuhaus is in complete agree- position to lead Christianity into a more together to fight the pernicious influence ment with the conclusions of a recent forceful role in world affairs. What is par- of—you guessed it—secular humanism. Catholic synod, which asserted that the ticularly noteworthy about Neuhaus's claim "The greatest threat to the world," he writes, church's task is "to cooperate for a return is that he himself is not a Roman Catholic. "is not political or economic or military. The of the sacred so that we will overcome the He is. in fact, a Lutheran theologian, and greatest problem in the Church is not insti- secularism of our time." He lays down the since 1984 he has been the director of the tutional decline or disarray. The crisis of this gauntlet: Roman Catholicism must lead all prestigious Rockford Institute Center on time and every time is the crisis of unbelief." of Christianity in an all-out battle against Religion and Society, whose aim is to Neuhaus goes on to attack what he calls "The the forces of secular humanism. In regard "advance a religiously informed public Blanshard Thesis," named after the distin- to religious pluralism—surely a key notion philosophy for the American experiment." guished author and humanist Paul Blan- of "the American experiment"—Neuhaus Once considered a liberal (he marched with shard, whose 1949 book American Freedom supports the view of the Catholic theologian Martin Luther King and was a leading figure and Catholic Power pointed out the dichot- John Courtney Murray, who held that in the antiwar movement of the early 1970s), omy between the American view of demo- "pluralism, especially religious pluralism, is Neuhaus is now generally regarded as a cracy, which promises freedom of choice, contrary to the divine will but is apparently neoconservative. When one reads this book and the Catholic view of government, which written into the script of history. Ultimately, it's easy to see why. He has a strong liking demands allegiance to an infallible and whether in joy or in sorrow, every knee will for authority, especially the centralized centralized hierarchy. Neuhaus does his best bow and every tongue confess that Jesus authority of the Vatican, and he professes to discredit Blanshard, whom he rather Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father admiration for Pope John Paul 11 and for uncharitably labels "a thorough-going anti- (Phil. 2). But that time is not yet." For a Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Catholic." According to Neuhaus, the secular humanist, such a conception of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Catholic faith, if properly revitalized—that religious pluralism has disturbing implica- Neuhaus argues that, because of the is, if it returns to its age-old doctrines—will tions, as does the notion of a Christian changes in the church since Vatican II, actually enhance freedom and democracy in church diversified yet unified in its opposi- Catholicism can have a profound impact the world. tion to those who refuse to get down on upon "the American experiment" in plura- This point is rather farfetched, and Neu- their knees or wag their tongues to the glory listic democracy. He recognizes that such haus does not do a very convincing job of of Jesus Christ. democratic pluralism was principally devised arguing it. Especially suspect is his claim that Before one becomes too worried about by Protestant (and deistic) thinkers—that it the Catholic faith is uniquely positioned to Catholicism rallying all of Christendom to was, in fact, originally anathema to the lead Christianity in the postmodern world. this task, one should read Peter Occhio- Catholic way of doing business. But Vatican Ever since Pope Pius X condemned "mod- grosso's Once a Catholic, an entertaining, 11 was a turning point. The church now has ernism" (read "democracy") in 1907, the sometimes thoughtful collection of remi- had considerable dialogue with Protestant church has looked with disfavor upon any niscences from famous American men and sects (none more fruitful than with Neu- movement that tries to reconcile freedom of women who were raised in the Catholic faith. thought with church dogma. Vatican I1 may Some of them, like Michael Novak and Tim Madigan is assistant editor of FREE have softened this suspicion, but it still exists, Christopher Buckley, have remained practic- INQUIRY magazine. and this is well exemplified by the efforts ing members of the Church, but the majority of Neuhaus's hero, Cardinal Ratzinger, to (Continued on p. 61)

Summer 1988 55 generally ascribed to their composers, not The Secular Requiem their librettists, a quibbling point perhaps, if as a trifling inconsistency it wasn't part of a larger pattern of trifling inconsistencies that add to an impression of intellectual Richard Chon sloppiness and disingenuousness. In fact, the Requiem is misconceived in aspects both large and small. When I say t doesn't take a conspiratorial imagina- presence in that hazily defined yet very that I'm not talking about the musical I tion to have sussed out the cultural palpable creed that determined the values for contribution of Mr. Grana, who is an able significance of Kurt Vonnegut's Requiem, a the liberal left. Vonnegut's whimsical, roseate if somewhat obstruse composer. It's the choral work composed by Edgar David prose made pacifism and moral decency seem Requiem as religious polemics, as a repres- Grana to texts by Vonnegut, whose recent like natural facts—which they probably entation of humanist thinking, that interests premiere was filmed for an upcoming PBS aren't. Aside from that, Vonnegut's vision is me here. (Truth be told, Vonnegut's text documentary on the celebrated author. to a great degree fatalistic, which gives it an might well have been set to music by It was a media event, an unabashed bit edge, a beautiful sweet pang; you get the sense committee or chimpanzee and probably of humanist propaganda, the kind of set-up when reading Slaughterhouse Five that not would have received no less attention, though that would have sent Spiro Agnew into only is the banality of evil inevitable and at in the latter case it might possibly have apoplexy. For here was a requiem not sung certain moments simultaneously pathetic and received more. As it is, he met Grana quite in prayerful devotion to God but to more comic, but that the facts of our existence are accidentally, while the two were serving jury or less secular themes. ("More or less" be- bound by an ineluctable and unchangeable duty together.) cause the Requiem was presented under the causality from which we cannot escape. You Vonnegut has explained the background auspices of the Unitarian Universalist church, cannot change your life once you've lived it, to his Requiem in an article in the December an organization noted for its uneasy balanc- the Tralfamadorans tell Billy Pilgrim, so try 1985 issue of the North American Review, ing of institutional piety and secular hum- to focus on the good parts. Implicit in this entitled "The Hocus Pocus Laundromat." anism.) You might even think of it as a small- is a philosophy that balances both moral After having heard Webber's Requiem, Von- screen slap at the televangelists, a broadside responsibility and a sort of fatalism, an negut examined the Latin text upon which by the godless Eastern liberal media estab- existential resignation that avoids the trap it was based and found himself horrified by lishment shot across the airwaves in defiant of nihilism—a prescription many people the ideas contained in it: specifically, that of reply to the Falwells and Swaggarts of the found eminently sensible in the turgid swirl the Day of Judgment, and the notion that world. of the early 1970s. a wrathful God not only could send even Liberal-bashing, you say? I for one don't So if I happen to criticize Kurt Vonne- a repentant soul to hell but that one should mind liberal-bashing, since it makes the breed gut's Requiem harshly at times, it's not be- be glad for such dispensations. Vonnegut's tougher. I'll admit it, I'm a "liberal" myself, cause I'm unsympathetic to his art or to his main point, from which the title of the article which I hope still means that I am a believer basic philosophical orientation. It's just that derives, is that by setting ideologically ob- in doubt, certain that self-criticism constitutes I believe that humanists, skeptics, and others jectionable texts in Latin, musicians unwit- the malleable but ultimately resilient core of would do well to scrutinize the behavior of tingly perpetuate the ideology. It's an liberal thought. their leaders, especially in moments of high objection similar to that made by the leaders I also happen to be a member of the media public exposure. As it happens, the Vonne- of Reformation, though to my mind it's not who covers music and the arts. 1 was, in fact, gut Requiem is so half-baked an endeavor so crucial a point. After all, singers do assigned by my newspaper to review the as to make freethinkers appear soft-headed, generally know what they're singing, and Requiem 's premiere. I should mention as well sententious, and not a little foolish. It was, their texts are usually translated for the that, like just about every member of my frankly, embarrassing. audience in program notes. But to the degree generation, I am (or was) a Kurt Vonnegut that you want to accept Vonnegut's premise, fan. As a high school student, I polished off rr oday Vonnegut's presence on the scene you have to agree that by processing texts Slaughterhouse Five and Breakfast of is certainly less pervasive that it once was. through the "Hocus Pocus Laundromat" of Champions over the course of two consec- If he hasn't fallen completely off the best- Church Latin, the powers that be isolate it utive spring afternoons, and was tickled by seller lists, he certainly isn't the cynosure of from scrutiny—which has the additional Vonnegut's refreshing dismantlings of narra- conscience he was a decade ago. You won't consequence, in Vonnegut's words, of tive strategy, inspired by his righteous anger, find Palm Sunday or Slapstick on the under- "singers doomed to careers of bellowing and comforted by the gentle warmth of his graduate bookshelves of the 1980s. Vonnegut bullshit in public places." voice, whose rich presence was inextricable has become, ironically, stuck in time. And Vonnegut decided to rectify the situation from his stories. if his Requiem is any indication, it's because by revising the Requiem text. He retained In the 1970s Vonnegut's books formed his polemical powers have lost their sting and some portions of it but replaced others with an integral part of the zeitgeist. His novels his moral vision its intelligence and discern- a prayer asking that the Day of Judgment were read by people who never read any- ment. He's cruising on his reputation now, never come and that the dead be granted thing else—truly the mark of a popular which isn't good enough for the battles that eternal rest. In Vonnegut's cosmology, the author. Vonnegut's novels were a substantial have to be fought. Big Sleep is just that, an extended and in- It's unusual for Vonnegut to have received definite nap from which we will not be top billing for the Requiem. True, he did awakened. Richard Chon is a musician and a writer in a manner conceive of it himself, after The "Hocus Pocus Laundromat," it who focuses on the arts. having heard Andrew Lloyd Webber's should be said, is written in a preening, Requiem in 1985. But musical works are maddeningly flip tone. Irascible one-liners

56 FREE INQUIRY and obscure sarcasms cloud what to human- as unsavory. Requiem to papist conspiracy or to some ists and agnostics are crucial philosophical I can actually sympathize with Vonnegut insidious hegemonic influence. It is an edifice issues, issues that need explaining, not danc- a bit on this. We all know that the artist built out of personal necessity (the composer ing around. Vonnegut apparently feels that stands apart from the crowd. I can under- was desperately ill and destitute, and surely as a celebrity author, he has no need to resort stand why he'd be so ambivalent—to snidely could sense the end was coming), containing to clarity. The soggy, obfuscatory feel one let the air out of humanist pretensions and a highly individualized poetry. Mozart, who gets from the article applies as well to the preserve his own intellectual chastity. spent a good many frustrating years in the Requiem. For one thing, Vonnegut set the Vonnegut could have been saying that he service of the scheming and duplicitous Arch- revised text back into Latin, an act of willful refuses to march in anyone's damned parade, bishop of Salzburg, knew the despotic power perversity that makes absolutely no sense, and he doesn't object to tweaking freethinkers of religious authority firsthand, was in fact unless one believes the author felt compelled while at the same time eating out of their a Freemason (probably the closest thing to to be wildly ironic just for its own sake. In hands, just to prove a point. Except that if a freethinker in Europe at the time), but in fact, I kept wondering in the back of my you want to let the air out of somebody's spite of this was nevertheless profoundly mind whether this whole thing wasn't just pretentions, you've got to puncture them first, spiritual in a personal (not in a public or a big put-on. which he never got up the nerve to do. The institutional) way. Vonnegut writes: "My original impulse audience never got the razzing Bronx cheer Until now, skepticism has attended more after 1 had written my revision was to have it deserved, which means either that Vonnegut to the fields of science and epistemology than it translated into Church Latin as quickly is a gleefully malicious, ungentlemanly to aesthetics—although, almost by definition, as possible, and to destroy all copies of the purveyor of bad faith who took the money our greatest artists, writers, and musicians original, in order to spread confusion and and ran, or that he has fallen just as have created great and new work by being consternation among all those who would uncritically and pathetically under his own skeptical of received dogmatisms. What made surely be avid to mock and denounce it line spell as the audience has. many of us so excited by the idea of by line." How much of this is said tongue So what will it be, the lady or the tiger? composing a secular requiem was that here in cheek you can go figure. What is clear I could bring up other points of contention, was someone who was addressing skepticism is that Vonnegut's decision to use Latin is such as that Vonnegut has offered an al- itself in a musical work, was attempting to a contradiction that flies in the face not only ternate cosmology to the Christian model invest an artistic form normally associated of his own reasoning but also of what most instead of taking the intellectually more with religion with the secular viewpoint of self-respecting and freethinking humanists respectable position of suspending specula- our age. would expect. That is, Vonnegut relinquishes tion over something he cannot know. Or The oddest thing is that Vonnegut knows the high ground by adopting the tactics of that because the Requiem is essentially a that the dismantling of religion has not his oppressors, and the extremest irony is work of revisionism it's not so much a removed yearning for ultimate knowledge that he actually gets away with it. Instead requiem as an anti-requiem, that it has the and solace. He understands this transcen- of correcting what he argues is deceptive deficiency of always having to refer to some- dental impulse very well, and his novels are merchandising, Vonnegut takes a much more thing outside of itself for its meaning; this constantly addressing it. One of the most insidious tack and makes a more disturbing secular humanist would prefer his own moving passages in Breakfast of Champions point about marketing: that you can get away poetry, not some hybrid descendant of the occurs at the end of the book, when Vonne- with obvious contradictions by simply Christian version. gut (the narrator who is introduced as a pretending they're not there, and that people But the fundamental problem with the character in his own fiction) confronts his will blithely swallow them. As it happened, Requiem lies not in the particulars of Von- main protagonist, Kilgore Trout, and informs the Requiem at its premiere received a negut's religious beliefs but in something that, Trout that he is his creator, leaving Trout standing ovation, which I believe was as much as an artist, he is ostensibly better qualified stunned senseless with the knowledge. After an act of self-congratulation on the audience's to know about, which is the work's emotional a moment, as Vonnegut is departing, Trout part as anything else, what with national origin and trajectory, the feelings that made runs after him, crying out, "Make me young, media present shining their arc lights into its creation necessary. To argue about make me young, make me young!" everybody's face. It was abundantly clear that theology misses the point entirely. We don't It is the tension between the novel as self- a Heisenbergian process was underway, that think of Mozart, Verdi, or Brahms as conscious literary artifice and the novel as the presence of camera crews changed the religious intellectuals—or even as men of bearer of truth that makes that passage so event itself. particularly outstanding faith. But their excruciatingly beautiful. Caught between The underlying point here, I think, is that requiems are more profoundly satisfying than material circumstance and the blank wall of the rag-tag audience of granolas, lefties, Vonnegut's can ever hope to be, because they eternity, how many of us don't wish for the Unitarians, humanists, and other Doubting aren't primarily expressions of dogma so knowledge of the location and ultimate des- Thomases found it in themselves to festoon much as responses to the pain of bereavement tination of our souls? How many of us Vonnegut with an uncritical adulation that or the fear of death. These are essential, wouldn't weep in thanks at the sight of the might have made the Baghwan Rajneesh original emotions, the kind that precede creator? I'm not talking about guilt or ab- blush. Or, to put it more explicitly, Vonnegut religious belief—and the requiems of Mozart, solution here—but about reckoning. Would became a nebulous guru figure, a rumpled Brahms or Verdi comfort us precisely because that Vonnegut had so sure a grasp of the Twain upon whom the audience could pro- they speak to them. Vonnegut's Requiem, in genre of musical text, a construction with ject its smug sense of superiority, the ringer contrast, originates not out of grief but out different angles, as he has of the craft of of course being that all the time Vonnegut of the fires of skeptical outrage. In that sense fiction. Maybe then we'd have a work of art was not deserving of their adulation. For as well, it is a requiem once removed. that didn't just carp about organized reli- humanists to indulge in such feel-good I don't think you could ascribe the hushed gion's deficiencies, but one that was in fact dynamics and crowd psychology strikes me and mysterious opening bars of Mozart's truly sublime. • Summer 1988 57 (Letters, cont d. from p. 2) As someone who has made his life's work FREE INQUIRY does not try to protect the the study of this and other questions of early sensibilities of its readers. Christians' false impression, the high priest Christian history and thought, I find it re- would have little reason to suspect that he markable when someone manages to "dis- had unwittingly fostered a Resurrection cult. cover" a fact that has been staring everyone Certainly, the Christians would have had in the face but, for some strange reason, has every reason to keep their new movement never been recognized. I am referring, of Miscegenation and Peace secret and away from the attention of course, to Mr. Miosi's review of Did Jesus Paul Kurtz writes in "The Twenty-First authorities. Rise from the Dead? His "John the Baptist Even if the movement had grown to three Theory" adds an important element to the Century and Beyond: The Need for a New Global Ethic" (FI, thousand by Pentecost, seven weeks later it debate: In the Weltanschauung of Jesus' Spring 1988) that "we should encourage the mingling of peoples still might not have come to the attention Judea, resurrection was not believed to be in every way we can. Intermarriage and mis- of Jewish religious leaders. When it finally a unique event. The biblical fact that some did, they would have been powerless to thought that Jesus was the resurrected John cegenation can unify the world more solidly than conventional politics." This statement produce the corpse of Jesus. Furthermore, presents a picture that is remarkably paral- finds little in history to support it. J. A. they might have underestimated this early, lel to post-Crucifixion beliefs about Jesus. Rogers in his three-volume work, otherworldly movement as a serious religious The literalist cannot deny the biblical ac- Sex and Race, shows that miscegenation has been the or political threat. count; people did believe this. The literalist normal pattern for humanity since its can only say that this belief was false; and, beginning on Earth—and where is the unity, Nicholas J. Yonker essentially, every argument that the literalist where is the peace? Corvallis, Ore. gives to demonstrate why this belief was false No matter how much intermixing of the becomes, in turn, an argument against the races takes place, every man and woman will demonstrable truth of the resurrection of be an individual and different in nature. Jesus. The literalist is indeed in a "Catch 22" Nothing is equal in the universe. situation. This is to commend John K. Naland for his I must say that I think Miosi's theory William F. Bell careful analysis of the "First Easter." But I is not only the most powerful argument that Van Vleck, Tex. question taking the gospel story seriously to has been made against the attempt to any degree. Naland proceeds on the assump- demonstrate the resurrection of Jesus by tion that the story reflects an actual event. rational and historical analysis, but, in Research has convinced me, however, that showing what the Judeans of the time of Jesus the story is a variation of an ancient drama, were prepared to believe about resurrection, Prostitution a Social Ill? at one time staged as a pageant, conceived it also directly points the way to what was as an allegory to perpetuate a sacred idea. likely to have actually happened. He is to I am writing to express my rebuttal to cer- In fact, that very thing takes place in our be congratulated. tain views expressed by contributor Betty time at Oberammergau, Germany. McCollister ("Our Transitional Species," FI, The drama, which eventually gave rise B. J. Drajus Winter 1987/88) regarding commercial sex. to a legend (such as the present one that, South Bend, Ind. In her article she mentions as an aside, with- in some people's minds, confuses John out any evidence offered to support her Wayne's movie roles with real, patriotic ideas, that prostitution is both an "objec- heroism), is a variation of others attributed tionable social ill" and "uniquely human." to "pagan Christs" like Osiris, Prometheus, Judicious Editing? She is wrong on both points. and Mithra, who were also saviors martyred First, the practice of sex for hire is not for humankind's sins. The dramas followed While reading Albert Ellis's article "Is Reli- a human practice alone. According to a standard formula, which included virgin giosity Pathological?" (FI, Spring 1988) I was investigative journalist J. R. Schwartz in a birth (sired by a god) and/or royal descent about to shout "Amen"—until I was shocked book about legal prostitution in the United (one wonders why Christians don't see the and saddened by the unnecessary use of States and in the book Women and Pros- contradiction in their claim for both), per- obscenities. Why would he, as the writer, and titution by Vern and Bonnie Bullough, higher formance of miracles, betrayal, and a sacrifi- you, as the editor, allow the valid ideas and primates have been observed trading food cial death. arguments he presented to be demeaned by and favors for sex. I need say no more on Christianity thus represents a transition the use of such words as "slobhood" and this point. from drama to legend to article of faith. And "turd"? Obscenities were not necessary to get My most serious objection to McCol- with faith, one can believe anything. the message across. It is your job to protect lister's remark, however, is her assumption the sensibilities of your readers without that exchanging sex for money is necessarily Stuart C. Burdick subjugating the exciting ideas your articles "bad." I shall use one example to illustrate. Coos Bay, Ore. contain, and this can be done by judicious For those of us who are severely disabled, editing. prostitution is often the only available sex release (except for autoeroticism, of course). Jo Frohbieter-Mueller Are we to feel guilty for expressing a normal Evansville, Ind. human (and animal) desire? Or are we to practice asceticism because nature has not 1 would like to compliment you on your endowed us well physically? Commercial sex Spring 1988 issue, particularly with regard can be useful to the disabled, and this fact to the two articles on the Resurrection. Robert Basil, executive editor, responds: alone should give some pause to those who 58 FREE INQUIRY

would condemn all prostitutes and their The best definition of religion I know excesses? More than just scientific funda- customers outright. is Bertrand Russell's in The Practice and mentalism, which James Nathan Post has It is absurd to lump the simple practice Theory of Bolshevism: "a set of beliefs held suggested can be "as narrow a mind-space of exchanging money for sex into the same as dogmas, dominating the conduct of life, as the biblical turf" (Letters, FI, Fall 1987)? category as juvenile delinquency and drug going beyond or contrary to evidence, and Spinoza wrote: "The multitude—ever addiction. Where is the logic here? Some- inculcated by methods that are emotional prone to superstition and caring more for thing that is a matter of personal sexual or authoritarian, not intellectual." Unfortun- the shreds of antiquity than for eternal choice (or necessity) and is not harmful is ately, much of religious humanism seems to truths—pays homage to the books of the evil only in the minds of some theists and satisfy this definition. Why? Because it does Bible rather than to the Word of God. The of those who wish to control other people's not meet the basic requirement of humanism Word of God has not been revealed as a sex lives. (Most of the apparent harm deriv- as "a commitment to reason and the use of certain number of books, but was displayed ing from prostitution is due to the laws that science as ways of understanding nature and to the prophets as a simple idea of the Divine seek to repress it, not from the actual prac- resolving human problems," to quote Russell mind, namely, obedience to God in single- tice of giving money for sex.) again. So, secular humanism needs to dis- ness of heart, and in the practice of justice 1 was appalled to find a statement of such tance itself from religious humanism. Re- and charity.... Since men's habits of mind ignorance, prejudice, and intolerance in a ligion seems to be incurably imperialist, and differ, so that some more readily embrace journal of humanism. It is precisely this kind the only way to stop it from taking over one form of faith, some another, I conclude of attitude that humanists should vigorously is to keep it at arm's length. that everyone should be free to choose for oppose: It is hostile to individual freedom himself the foundation of his creed, and that and to personal choice and necessity. Robert Davis faith should be judged only by its fruits; each West Hollywood, Calif. would then obey God with his whole heart, Kenneth A. Davidson while nothing would be publicly honored Tucson, Ariz. save justice and charity." I support FREE INQUIRY because I think Can secular humanism be more than an secular humanists practice justice and charity ethical philosophy that reacts to theism's better then most, certainly better then their Betty McCollister responds:

Mr. Davidson's point is valid so far as it ABLE goes. I agree that there is a place for prosti- t ot A AOL releas tution and have always thought it would be N ce the ders. worthwhile to regulate it (as I believe some eW announce ry Mur O W r and countries now do). Booksis pleasof Silt n t Story is behind the However, the fact remains that most ous pages °t pd ticediarie s `c thousands letters,isturbing Holman and hand, e prostitution—as currently practiced—is a Based its unravel forger, Mark document dismal, degrading, and exploitative business d en ry's bargainin . Ht m nn. S Alien D. most plea indeed, especially the truly frightful way in ~lHntury'ofm nns e ex ó re by leading Arne ican ce elt as F6t techn experts.fron` an artist who eludedetude, e w which runaway children and (perhaps more and polygraph sulted cators, a 6 re csfat often in other countries) starving street curators,thenti historians, ln ry au nn's illing confession 10 be e contÎr glo children are forced into it and treated horri- r e . álem8 n er: bly. There is no valid comparison between Hofmann spectacular forgeries. Th St orate tea Murders ut this kind of thing and higher primates (in- ecMost en Forgerydmurder playedcovet-up. -ug aohis Moreton trust, a cluding humans) agreeing to trade sex for s the greed, and favors. A twelve-year-old boy or girl who of deception, religion, backdrop eN¡n9 is picked up by a pimp, put on drugs, and art of come ic h sold has not made a "personal sexual triumph of the class choice." torytem pant SW ens9aimea s Holiday «e ° der, author f asterp ece thor of is'." Atexan analysis G. Transition: A superb in -day „An invesüABmerCa's ints: he Rise mpbisot the Latter Mo 30 Ot Morm A History 0-19 or9ery on 1tin9 Saints, 189 the Mermoof he w 11 omP8 uthotMas On Breaking with the a te T horough Gart m0untains. Wthe nd ea mhei Salt Lake C,Mi. Thethe intima peoPieAfr tnág,2\ne h ¡on, lte m ~laea „ Old Humanism ma;egtic ntfe11 9 tured s yea i ttentions frauds e u a Murder rs feat a Holm n With 9 f Hofmann' .,DeeGóedraventk snOd geed akn9 nerbook„ ol I support Paul Kurtz's contention that secu- taeSSuiS 0 the hostrt A. J ones,ales urde,fofgeF10 eM1ssex ac.,auth° eles lar humanism must make a clean break from m Los Ang of ,treaty $illitosÎ Mf MY Triai the "old" humanism—which, despite its Meó ~ks 501-531-1483 world-view, adheres to a religious organiza- g Avihtobott St9^a°e tional model—and develop a thoroughly age nonreligious approach. It is, after all, a rather cloth s strange position to throw out the concept 400 os 51795 of God but retain conventinal religious structures.

Summer 1988 59 fundamentalist brothers and sisters as a humanist in the very same position the paragraph in Galatians (3:28) to underscore group. But where's the "fire in the heart?" believer occupied. Reason: Once you take the Christianity's alleged contribution to both the When Buddha was asked whether he believed position of denying supernatural claims, you women's movement and the abolition of in God, he said, "If your house is on fire are open to the challenge, "Prove it!" And slavery. This in spite of the fact that, with and your children are in it, do you run around any skeptic ought to know that that can't few exceptions, the entire Christian estab- asking if the person who set the fire had red be done. lishment endorsed the antithesis of these ideas hair?" Salvation is urgent. But humanists are not obliged to either for nearly two thousand years, often using Most of us might agree that salvation is prove or disprove supernatural claims. The contrary biblical references to sanctify their the overcoming of what Spinoza called obligation of proof remains with the claim- position. "human bondage"—passivism, ignorance. ant. Of course, many of them realize that, In similar fashion, Mr. Maguire gener- But toward what knowledge and action does these days, the burden of proof in such ously credits Judeo-Christianity for stimu- the examined life lead? Is it not toward matters is difficult to shoulder; so, they often lating science and technology (with man and universal love and justice? seek to shift it onto others, saying something God recently made partners in the evolution- To be fully credible, secular humanism like, "Our claims have validity because you ary process!), fostering socialism, resisting would have to refute Spinoza, which it can- cannot prove they are not true." We ought despotism, and so on. In each case he not do. It rightly honors reason. Secular not to allow them that position. tenuously connects these ideas to some humanism can go that far. And it is far. It A more consistently skeptical conception contemporary interpretation of dubious could go even further if it also honored what would say: We believe we are in no position Christian intentions. Spinoza called intuitive science, which has to either affirm or deny that religious experi- It is no wonder Judeo-Christian theolo- nothing to do with psychic imagination. ences derive from the supernatural, and we gians consider their belief system so superior Intuitive science arises from perfect liberty will maintain skepticism regarding such to others. They simply ignore the need to of mind, a result of freedom from human claims until those who make them are able meaningfully judge Christianity in the light bondage. to present demonstrable and generally con- of the actual behavior of Christians through- vincing proof. In the absence of such proofs, out history. The admitted fact that "histori- Larry Johnson no one ought to be held accountable for his cal Christianity has not incarnated its ideals" Goleta, Calif. or her doubts, nor should personal conduct is reduced to a mere technicality. Mr. or public policy necessarily be guided or Maguire's remedy, of course, is more dictated by religious experiences that lack Christianity. clear and convincing proof of their truth- But, after two thousand years, is it still fulness. reasonable to expect that Christian societies A more consistently skeptical, undog- are capable of implementing the values they matic stance would bring this part of the claim to be their exclusive property? I sub- Defining Secular Humanism Declaration closer to the neutralism Mr. mit that the catalog of so-called epoch- Burke believes is acceptable to most turning ideals theologians use to define In his article, "Two Concepts of Secular Americans. Judeo-Christianity has never been more than Humanism" (FI, Spring 1988), Richard philosophical window-dressing—all well and Burke finds differing concepts in the Secular Harry White good, but forever beyond the grasp of Chris- Humanist Delcaration: a neutralist position, Chicago, Ill. tian societies. The reason for this ironic which holds that "a moral person is not failure is obvious and inescapable. Christians necessarily, religious," and skeptical atti- are not committed to values per se; they are tude, which, he feels, ought to be distin- committed to a concept of a God whose guished from the former because it is not "divine will" ultimately shares the same input acceptable to the majority of Americans. channel as man's own self-serving imagina- I find the skeptical conception prob- tion. Atheists have a perfectly simple ex- lematic for additional reasons. The statement planation for this coincidence, but Christians is at odds with itself; not only does it allow have no way (or desire) to distinguish be- believers the offensive, but it places human- How Benign Is tween the two. In the end Christians are ists in an indefensible position. forever at the mercy of their own self-interest, The statement as it appears in Mr. Burke's Church Authority? which they disguise as God, and which article reads as follows: "As secular huma- transforms their needs into God's needs .. . nists, we are generally skeptical about It is often said that we judge ourselves by their country into God's country ... their supernatural claims. We recognize the im- our ideals and others by their actions. This wrath into God's wrath ... their will into portance of religious experience.... We deny, simple truth is clearly manifested in Daniel God's will. however, that such experiences have anything Maguire's description of the "enriching," So, when all the soul-searching is done, to do with the supernatural." To deny that "beneficent" influence of Judeo-Christianity it is not surprising that the act of annihi- religious "experiences have anything to do on Western cultures ("Humanism, Religion, lating the inhabitants of an entire city is not with the supernatural" is not consistent with and Authority," FI, Winter 1987/ 88). necessarily a violation of the bibilical com- the previously stated skepticism regarding Once again we find a liberal theologian, mandment not to kill. As we stand "at the such matters. To maintain skepticism with after conceding the intellectual bankruptcy brink of chaos," I believe Western culture regard to any claims one must recognize that of biblical literalism, still attempting to sal- has had about all the Judeo-Christianity it he or she can neither affirm nor deny their vage the Bible's transcendental authority by can stand. veracity. retroactively linking mankind's moral pro- Furthermore, the denial, as it were, lets gress to any scriptural passages that seem James Markland the believer off the hook and places the to fit. Thus, Mr. Maguire points to a single New York, N.Y. 60 FREE INQUIRY (Another Physician, cony/. from p. 46) was reportedly 250/ 1 I4—extremely high. to verify any miraculous claim—and that FROM THE Sometime shortly thereafter, at the therefore "I am highly skeptical of any such SUBSCRIBER Hunters' June 1987 healing service in claims, but remain open-minded to the Chattanooga, "Wiese experienced a miracle possibility (however remote) that one may SERVICE of God at the meeting—after coming forward turn out to be verifiable." I noted that this and 'falling under the spirit,' suddenly he case was already in the public domain and DEPARTMENT could breath deeply. He went to the doctor's requested that Stubblefield provide me with Difficulties with your subscription often can office the next day, and when his doctor saw the relevant medical records so that CSER be avoided by simply knowing how a maga- him he turned white and almost fainted, and could begin an "independent attempt to verify zine works. said 'What happened to you?' ... Tests that a real medical/ religious miracle has Here are answers to some questions you revealed his blood pressure was 127/82 indeed taken place." may have about your subscription to FREE [normal], the doctor heard a strong heart- Having received no response, 1 wrote to I NQUIRY. beat, and the X-rays showed the heart had Dr. Stubblefield again on January 2, 1988, Inquiries extending my best wishes for the New Year come down in size and the lungs had cleared." When writing to us about your subscrip- At Kurtz's request, on October 8, 1987, and requesting the courtesy of a reply from tion, please attach the current mailing label. I wrote to Dr. Stubblefield, enclosing copies a fellow physician. To date, months later, It helps us to identify your account and of the Hunters' article and his own testimon- I have yet to receive one. provide much faster service. ial. 1 informed him that, despite many investigations, CSER had not yet been able —Gary P. Posner, M.D. Address change If you plan to change your address, please notify us six weeks before the change, due to our advanced addressing schedule. Expiration Date If you'd like to check on your expiration date, simply look at your mailing label. The (Madigan, cent 'd from p. 55) date of the last issue of your subscription appears as the middle four digits of the top lock. Some of the strayers have retained much society if you don't have a secret language? line (e.g., 8806 = June, 1988). of their affection for the church of their birth. I hate [the Mass] in English. I once went Missing or late issues Bob Guccione, the notorious publisher of to Notre Dame in Paris and the guy said Penthouse magazine, tries to diminish the the Mass in French. Who the hell needs it? You will receive the first issue of your I want it in Latin—I need an anchor." subscription within eight weeks of order re- significance of his break with the church. ceipt. "Although my personal morality may be All of the people interviewed in Once quite different from the establishment a Catholic seem to have pretty much adapted Duplicate copies morality of the Catholic church," he writes, the church's teachings to their own needs, If you receive two copies of an issue, "the dynamics are not so far apart. My if they follow them at all. This would horrify compare mailing labels. Any difference, attitude toward sex is very definitely a moral Neuhaus, whose great fear is of "Catholics however minor, could cause the problem. becoming like everybody else." But such Please send us both labels and tell us which attitude." (One wonders what Cardinal one is correct. We'll correct the situation at Ratzinger would say about that.) Other assimilation, wrote Paul Blanshard, was the once; however, due to our addressing sched- "fallen away Catholics," like Frank Zappa only way Catholicism and democracy could ule, this problem may linger for one or two and Christopher Durang, author of the possibly harmonize. "We must continue to issues. If this happens, please pass the addi- scathing play Sister Mari' Ignatius Explains hope that Paul Blanshard, and those Roman tional copies on to a friend with our com- It All for You, are much more bitter about Catholics who have come to agree with Paul pliments. Blanshard, are wrong," writes Neuhaus. their Catholic upbringing. Says Zappa: Duplicate bills/Renewals Once a Catholic's vignettes show quite Occasionally, we receive subscriber pay- clearly that the Catholic faith in America 1 would advise anybody who has the ments and renewal instructions after we is badly fractured. If this church, which ap- chance to escape from an organized reli- have sent second notices. If this happens to gion right now to get his ass out as fast pears to be losing practicing members at an you, simply disregard the second notice. as possible. The reason I say that is that alarming rate and which is having difficulty basically every religion has revealed itself in recruiting new clergy, will be the leading Invitation to subscribe to be a real estate scam, especially in the voice in combatting unbelief, secular hu- We often purchase the mailing lists of United States.... A wise man once said manists have little to worry about. other magazines and organizations, and you may receive an invitation to subscribe to that the only difference between a cult and It is interesting to note that Neuhaus's FREE INQUIRY if your name is on one of a religion is the amount of real estate they previous book, The Naked Public Square: these lists. Please simply disregard this un- own. Religion and Democracy in America, an- avoidable duplication. nounced that Christian fundamentalism About the only common element shared by would lead the fight against creeping un- FREE INQUIRY both believers and nonbelievers in the book belief. If nothing else, he knows who his Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215-0005 enemy is. All things considered, he may have is a dislike for the Mass being said in the (716) 834-2921 vernacular. Says New York Daily News an uneasy suspicion that this may be, after columnist Jimmy Breslin: "Why have a secret all, the secular humanist moment. •

Summer 1988 61 tornado would strike on January 3, then on In the Name of God January 24. The Simses now say God de- layed the tornado to give time to spread the warning. No new date has been set. Religion or Manslaughter known her conduct was criminal when there's "It'll be pretty soon, "said Mr. Sims. "It's a statute that says it isn't?" the defense nationally known now." (New York Times) Christian Scientists appealed to the Cali- attorney asked. (The Sacramento Bee) fornia Supreme Court on March 8 to halt Dried Up and No Place to Go the manslaughter prosecution of a Sacra- Blowin' in the Wind mento mother for her daughter's meningitis Authorities found a man's decomposed body death... . at a house occupied by children and other When Laurie Walker resorted to faith- Annie Sims, the preacher's wife, delivered the relatives, some of whom claimed the deceased healing to cure 4-year-old Shauntay in 1984, prophecy at a prayer meeting late in man was "doing much better" and would she was exempted from prosecution by a 1976 December: awaken after his dealings with God. state law that protects Christian Scientists "The Lord said He was going to send "i understand they were seeing a voodoo if they substitute prayer for medical treat- a tornado, and many shall die, "she recalled, man," Pickens County Coroner Herbert ment, attorney Tom Volk told the court. saying that God spoke through her during Lathan said of the deceased man and his But Justice Stanley Mosk questioned the the prayer service. "He was going to send relatives... . law's constitutionality, and Deputy Attorney His fury and vengeance on the people." The coroner said the body "was just dried General Cliff Thompson argued that it So seventeen members of the Repairer up.' doesn't protect manslaughter. of the Breach Church of God in Christ "He was pretty well decomposed at the Paraphrasing a U.S. Supreme Court de- gathered at their small church, a converted time and the odor all around the trailer was cision, Thompson argued, "Parents may be two-story frame house, on January 3 to await pretty strong," Sheriff David Abston said. free to martyr themselves but not to martyr the wrath of God. They have been waiting "Some of the kids playing in the yard were their children. ':. . ever since. wearing face masks, like in an operating In the Sacramento case, Shauntay Walker They have sacrificed jobs and education, room." showed flulike symptoms on February 21, as well as the respect of family and friends Asked if there were any supernatural 1984. Her mother, a state worker, asked an who question their sanity. They also have elements or voodoo involved in the treat- accredited Christian Science practitioner to been challenged by the power of the state. ment, the deceased man's sister told the pray for Shauntay. The practitioner did so Five members have been removed under Tuscaloosa News, "i don't like to use that and also arranged on four occasions for a court order—though two of them have re- word. I'm not working for the devil—I work Christian Science nurse to care for the child. turned after undergoing forced psychiatric for God. Shauntay began breathing irregularly examinations. Two children were taken from "All I could do was minister to him. He's during the evening of March 8 and, despite their mother and returned to school, and a in God's hands now." (AP) prayers by her mother and the practitioner, 51-year-old man was ordered to undergo died within ninety minutes. kidney dialysis treatment... . Nude Angels and the Church of Love "How could Shauntav's mother have Mrs. Sims, 39, first prophesied that the

A lonely hearts scheme called the "Church JUPiTER RISIN6 INDIUM AN A'SPN:IOus JuJCiuRE of Love "bilked millions of dollars from more Fop YouR 8 6 SPiLoi! than 31,000 men in three countries by promising they could retire to a paradise tended by nude "angels, "federal prosecutors recently revealed. The alleged victims were told they could retire to a "valley paradise"where they would be cared for and "have all their wishes and dreams fulfilled" by "Mother Maria and the Angels of Love, "prosecutors said. Men who responded to an initial mailing were sent nude or semi-nude photographs of IT'S TIME WE RETARµ TO the "angels," but neither the angels nor the FAITH IN oVR TRADITIONAL retreat existed, and the pictures were of RELIGIOUS VALUES IN AMERKA. models hired by the defendants, investigators said. "These were lonely human beings who saw something too good to be true," said YAY United States Attorney Bill Roberts, who announced a grand jury indictment charging a middle-aged Iowa couple and a 24-year-

,hrlfilfalll V.I;It. pitt y old Illinois woman with mail fraud in the case. (AP)

62 FREE INQUIRY Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH) The Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH) is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt educational organization dedicated to fostering the growth of the traditions of democracy, secular humanism, and the principles of free inquiry in contemporary society. In addition to publishing FREE INQUIRY magazine and the Secular Humanist Bulletin, C0DESH sponsors the Academy of Humanism and the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion. The Academy of Humanism The Academy of Humanism was established to recognize distinguished humanists and disseminate humanistic ideals and beliefs. The members of the Academy, listed below, are nontheists who are (I) devoted to free inquiry in all fields of human endeavor, (2) committed to a scientific outlook and the use of the scientific method in acquiring knowledge, and (3) upholders of humanist ethical values and principles. The Academy's goals include furthering respect for human rights and freedom and the dignity of the individual, tolerance of various viewpoints and willingness to compromise, commitment to social justice, a universalistic perspective that transcends national, ethnic, religious, sexual, and racial barriers, and belief in a free and open pluralistic and democratic society. Humanist Laureates: Isaac Asimov, author; Sir Alfred J. Ayer, Oxford; Sir Hermann Bondi, professor of applied mathematics, Univ. of London; Bonnie Bullough, dean of nursing, SUNY at Buffalo; Mario Bunge, professor of philosophy of science, McGill Univ.; Bernard Crick, professor of politics, Univ. of London; Francis Crick, Nobel Laureate in Physiology, Salk Inst.; Joseph Delgado, chairperson of the Dept. of Neuropsychiatry, Univ. of Madrid; Milovan Djilas, author, former vice-president of Yugoslavia; Jean Dommanget, director, Royal Observatory of Belgium; Sir Raymond Firth, professor emeritus of anthropology, Univ. of London; Joseph Fletcher, theologian, professor emeritus of medical ethics, Univ. of Virginia Medical School; Yves Galifret, professor of physiology at the Sorbonne and director of l'Union Rationaliste; John Galtung, professor of sociology, Univ. of Oslo; Stephen Jay Gould, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard; Adolf Grünbaum, professor of philosophy, Univ. of Pittsburgh; Donald Johanson, Inst. of Human Origins; Franco Lombardi, professor of philosophy, Univ. of Rome; Jolé Lombardi, organizer of the New Univ. for the Third Age; André Lwolf, Nobel Laureate in Physiology and professor of science, Collège de France; Paul MacCready, Kremer Prize winner for aeronautical achievements; John Passmore, professor of philosophy, Australian National Univ.; Jean-Claude Pecker, professor of astrophysics, Collège de France, Académie des Sciences; Wardell Baxter Pomeroy, psychotherapist and author; Sir Karl Popper, professor emeritus of logic and scientific method, Univ. of London; W. V. Quine, professor of philosophy, Harvard; Max Rood, professor of law and former Minister of Justice in Holland; Carl Sagan, astronomer, Cornell; Andrei Sakharov, physicist, Nobel Peace Prize winner; Svetozar Stojanovic, professor of philosophy, Univ. of Belgrade; Thomas Szasz, professor of psychiatry, SUNY Medical School; V. M. Tarkunde, chairman, Indian Radical Humanist Association; Richard Taylor, professor of philosophy, Union College; Alberto Hidalgo Tuñón, president of the Sociedad Asturiana de Filosofía, Oviedo, Spain; G. A. Wells, professor of German, Univ. of London; Edward O. Wilson, professor of sociobiology, Harvard; Lady Barbara Wootton, former Deputy Speaker, House of Lords. Deceased: George O. Abell, Brand Blanshard, Lawrence Kohlberg, Ernest Nagel, George Olincy, Chaim Perelman. Secretariat: Vern Bullough, dean of natural and social sciences, SUNY College at Buffalo; Antony Flew, professor emeritus of philosophy, Reading Univ.; Sidney Hook, professor emeritus of philosophy, New York Univ.; Paul Kurtz, professor of philosophy, SUNY at Buffalo, editor of FREE INQUIRY; Gerald Larue, professor emeritus of archaeology and biblical studies, Univ. of Southern California at Los Angeles. Executive Director: Steven L. Mitchell. Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER) The Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion was developed to examine the claims of Eastern and Western religions and of well- established and newer sects and denominations in the light of scientific inquiry. The Committee is interdisciplinary, including specialists in biblical scholarship, archaeology, linguistics, anthropology, the social sciences, and philosophy who represent differing secular and religious traditions. Committee members are dedicated to impartial scholarship and the use of objective methods of inquiry. professor of Gerald Larue (Chairman), USC at Los Angeles; Robert S. Alley, professor of humanities, Univ. of Richmond; Michael Arnheim, ancient history, Univ. of Witwatersrand (South Africa); Joseph Barnhart, professor of philosophy, North Texas State Univ.; Paul Beattie, president, SUNY Fellowship of Religious Humanists; H. James Birx, chairman of Anthropology/Sociology Department, Canisius College; Vern Bullough, College at Buffalo; Joseph Fletcher, Univ. of Virginia Medical School; Antony Flew, Reading Univ. (England); Van Harvey, professor of religion, Stanford; Sidney Hook, New York Univ.; Paul Kurtz, SUNY at Buffalo; William V. Mayer, director, Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, Univ. College; George of Colorado; Delos McKown, professor of philosophy, Auburn Univ.; Lee Nisbet, associate professor of philosophy, Medaille Univ. of London; Steven L. Mitchell Smith, president, Signature Books; A. T. Steegman, professor of anthropology, SUNY at Buffalo; G. A. Wells, (ex officio). Biblical Criticism Research Project (CSER Subcommittee) The Biblical Criticism Research Project was founded to help disseminate the results of biblical scholarship—studies in comparative religion, folklore, scientific archaeology, and literary analysis. It investigates the claim that the Bible is divinely inspired; the historical evidence for Jesus and other Bible personalities; the role of religious myth, symbol, and ritual; and the possibility of basing morality upon reason and experience instead of biblical doctrine. The Research Project's goals include compiling bibliographies of the best sources of information about the Bible, publishing articles and monographs about different facets of biblical research, and convening seminars and conferences. R. Joseph Hoffmann (Chairman), professor of philosophy and religion, Hartwick College; David Noel Freedman, professor of Old Testament, Univ. Interdisciplinaire d'Etudes of Michigan; Randel Helms, professor of English, Arizona State Univ.; Robert Joly, professor of philosophy, Centre James Robinson, director, Inst. for Antiquity Philosophiques de l'Université de Mons (Belgium); Carol Meyers, professor of religion, Duke Univ.; and Christianity, Claremont College; John F. Priest, professor and chairman, Dept. of Religion, Florida State Univ.; Morton Smith, professor of history, Columbia. Faith-Healing Investigation Project (CSER Subcommittee) David Alexander, special investigator; Robert S. Alley, Univ. of Richmond; Luis W. Alvarez, professor emeritus of physics, Univ. of California; Stephen Barrett, M.D., consumer health advocate; Bonnie Bullough, SUNY at Buffalo; Shawn Carlson, Lawrence Berkeley Labs; Joseph Fletcher, Univ. of Virginia Medical School; William Jarvis, chairman, Dept. of Public Health Science, Loma Linda Univ., California; Richard H. Lange, St. Petersburg, Florida; Wallace I. Sampson, M.D., M.D., chief of nuclear medicine, Ellis Hospital, Schenectady, N.Y.; Gary Posner, M.D., Stanford; Robert Steiner, chairman, Occult Committee, Society of American Magicians; Rita Swan, President, Children's Health Care Is a Legal Duty, Sioux City, Iowa. Coordinating Council: Joseph Barnhart, Paul Kurtz, Gerald Larue, and James Randi, conjurer and principal investigator of the Project. The Affirmations of Humanism: A Statement of Principles and Values • We are committed to the application of reason and science to the understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems. • We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain the world in super- natural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation. • We believe that scientific discovery and technology can contribute to the betterment of human life. • We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities. • We are committed to the principle of the separation of church and state. • We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual understanding. • We are concerned with securing justice and fairness in society and with eliminating dis- crimination and intolerance. • We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the handicapped so that they will be able to help themselves. • We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race, religion, nationality, creed, class, or ethnicity, and strive to work together for the common good of humanity. • We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other species. • We believe in enjoying life here and now and in developing our creative talents to their fullest. • We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence. • We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have access to com- prehensive and informed health-care, and to die with dignity. • We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative standards that we discover together. Moral principles are tested by their consequences. • We are deeply concerned with the moral education of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion. • We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences. • We are citizens of the universe and are excited by discoveries still to be made in the cosmos. • We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, and we are open to novel ideas and seek new departures in our thinking. • We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich personal significance and genuine satisfaction in the service to others. • We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind faith or irrationality. • We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest that we are capable of as human beings.