Laglb9cciidec 7C): the Proceedings of the South Place Ethical Society Vol
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lAgLb9cciIDec 7c): The Proceedings of the South Place Ethical Society Vol. 102 No. 9 £1 October 1997 ' mturimrt Photo: Norman Barrac Prof. Paul KURTZ (SUNK Bnffalo, US), (left) and Pref. Valery KUVAKIN (Moscow). watch as Jim HERRICK (London) affixes a plaque for a new "Center for Enquiry" at Moscow State University , on 4 October 1997. RUSSIAN HUMANISM ON THE MOVE Seventy years of state-sponsored anticlericalism did not eliminate the need for open- minded consideration of the fundamental questions of humanist philosophy. The Russian Humanist Society, founded in 1991, organised its first International Conference at Moscow University on 2-4 October 1997. entitled Science and Commonsense in Reforming Russia. Accommodated in the gigantic, 50 year old edifice of Moscow State University were humanists from Germany. Slovakia, Poland, Holland, Norway, Britain and the United States, besides the majority . contingent from Russia itself. Sessions were addressed by humanists from the above countries. One of the main topics of discussion was the rather large incidence of believers in the paranormal and religion in Russia today. A bevy of students from the School of Journalism attached to the University acted as translators. These journalist students were by no means all ultra-rationalists themselves, many believing in telepathy, precognition, and UF0s. Nevertheless, they were extremely interested in debating these questions and were prepared to change their minds. Guests were made very welcome by their hosts. Useful contacts between the participants resulted and we look forward to exchanges of journals and further visits should ensue. CAN WE SURVIVE OUR OWN DEATHS? Antony Flew 3 PSYCHOLOGIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE Laurence Brown 13 WHO WROTE THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS' Norman Golb 15 VIEWPOINTS M Chisman. J Nichols. M Pertiu, K Papas 22 ANNUAL REUNION, 1997 23 SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY Conway Hall Humanist Centre 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. Tel: 0171 242 8034 Fax: 0171 242 8036 Officers Hon. Representative: Terry Mullins. General Committee Chair Diane Murray.Vice-Chair: Barbara Ward. Hon. Treasurer: Graham Lyons. Hon. Registrar: Ian Ray-Todd Editor, Ethical Record: Norman Bacrac. Note: Lecturers were not appointed by the A.G.M. of 28 September. The question of a panel of Lecturers is under review. SPES Staff Administrative Secretary to the Society: Marina Ingham Tel: 0171 242 8034 Librarian & Programme Coordinator: Jennifer Jcynes. Tel: 0171 242 8037 Hall Manager: Stephen Norley. Tel: 0171 242 8032 for Hall bookings. Assistant Manager: Peter Vlachos. Steward: David Wright. New Members Marina Ingham, Ilse Meyer Obituary We regretfully report the death of SPES member P. R. Roberts. Cosette Pretty Cosette Pretty (whose death was reported in the Sept. ER), a member of the Society for quite a long time, died in July. She will be remembered by old members for her participation in many of the Society's activities, including rambling both in the countryside and on city walks, as well as thc warmth she showed everytime she met her many long time friends at Conway Hall. Forever lively and active in many directions, Cosette eventually 'retired' to Robert Morton House in 1986, while only marginally slowing down and losing none of the enthusiasm for living. She was a much loved mother and grandmother and a very memorable personality to all who knew her. L.L.B. SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY Registered Charity No. 251396 Founded in 1793, the Society is a progressive movement whose aims are: the study and dissemination of ethical principles based on humanism, thc cultivation of a rational and humane way of life, and the advancement of research and education in relevant fields. Wc invite to membership all those who reject supernatural creeds and find themselves in sympathy with our views. At Conway Hall there are opportunities for participation in cultural activities including discussions, lectures, concerts and socials. Thc Sunday Evening Chamber Music Concerts founded in 1887 are renowned. We have a reference and lending library. All members receive the Society's journal, Ethical Record, eleven times a year. Funerals and Memorial Meetings are available. Please apply to the Secretary for membership, LID p.a. The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Society. 2 Ethical Record, October 1997 CAN WE SURVIVE OUR OWN DEATHS? Professor Antony Flew Based on a Lecture to the Ethical Society 20 July 1997 Whether we are to live in a future state, as it is the most important question which can possibly be asked, so it is the most intelligible one which can be expressed in language. Yet strange perplexities have been raised about the meaning of that identity or sameness of person, which is implied in thc notion of our living now and hereafter, or in any two successive moments. Joseph Butler ( I 692-1752)' It is because the idea of a life after mortal death, and above all the threat of an eternal life in torment, appears so immediately intelligible, and so overwhelmingly formidable, that Butler and so many others have not bcen and are not greatly distressed by the indefeasibility in this life of "the religious hypothesis." For they could be confident that in that infinite future all would be made plain. The solution to the Problem of Evil would be revealed, wrongs would all be righted, and thc divine justice vindicated. The promise of such eschatological verification is, of course, paradoxical. Unbelievers are eventually to learn the grim truth, but only when it will be too late for prudent, saving action. To our protests that we never knew, and could not have known, the response will be that made to a parallel protest by an old-time Scots Judge: "Well, ye ken noo!" If however it is the believers who are mistaken, then they will never be embarrassed by a posthumous awareness of their error, any more than we can expect to enjoy the satisfaction of saying to them, "We told you so!" For, as the Epicureans used to urge, it will be for us mortals after death as it was before we were born: If it is going to be wretched and miserable for anyone in the future, then he to whom the bad things may happen has also got to exist at that time. Since death prevents that possibility..., we can know that there is nothing to be feared after death, that hc who does not exist cannot be miserable. It makes not a jot of difference.... when immortal death has taken away his mortal life.' Setting the Problem: The Great Obstacle Surely Butler was right. "Whether we arc to live in a future state, as it is the most important question which can possibly be asked, so it is thc most intelligible one which can be expressed in language." Surely we can understand the fears of those warned of thc fate of the damned and thc hopes of warriors of Allah expecting if thcy die in Holy Wars to go straight to the arms of the black-eyed houris in Paradise. Of course wc can: they both expect - and what could be more intelligible than this? - that, if they do certain things, then they will in consequence enjoy or suffer certain rewards or punishments. And, if this future life is supposed to last forever, then clearly the question of whether or not we shall have it (and, if so, the consequent problem of ensuring that we shall pass it agreeably) is of quite overwhelming existential importance. For what are three-score years and ten compared with all eternity? Now wait a minute. the sceptic protests. Surely something crucial is being overlooked. For this future life is supposed to continue even after physical Ethical Record, Octobet; 1997 3 dissolution, even after the slow corruption in thc cemetery or the swift consumption in the crematorium. Of course we can understand the myth of Er' or stories of Valhalla. But to expect that after my death and dissolution such things might happen to me is to overlook that I shall not then exist. To expect such things, through overlooking this, is surely like accepting a fairy tale as history, through ignoring the prefatory rubric: "Once upon a time, in a world that never was ..." That first exchange gets us to the heart of the matter, by establishing two fundamentals. One of these is that the essence of any doctrine of personal survival (or personal immortality) must be that it should assert that we ourselves shall in some fashion do things and suffer things after our own deaths (forever). It is this, and this alone, that warrants, or rather constitutes, what John Wisdom so correctly characterised as "the logically unique expectation."' It is important to emphasise that this is indeed of the essence: both because some doctrines employing the word immortality have from the beginning not been of this kind - Aristotle on the alleged immortality of the intellect, for instance - and because others, which started as genuine doctrines of personal immortality, have been so interpreted and reinterpreted that they have surreptitiously ceased to be anything of the such. (These latter have thus suffered "the death by a thousand qualifications."5) It is also, it seems, sometimes necessary to point out that personal survival is presupposed by, and is no sort of alternative to, personal immortality.' For, as was famously said with regard to another remarkable claim to survival: "It is the first step which counts." The second fundamental is this. Any doctrine of personal survival or personal immortality has got to find some way around or over an enormous initial obstacle. In the ordinary, everyday understandings of the words involved, to say that someone survived death is to contradict yourself, while to assert that we all of us live forever is to assert a manifest falsehood, the flat contrary of a universally known universal truth: namely, the truth, hallowed in the traditional formal logic, that "All men are mortal." Possible Routes Around or Over That Obstacle We may distinguish three sorts of ways in which we might attempt to circumvent or to overcome this formidable barrier, although the route-finding image becomes awkward when we notice that most living faiths have incorporated elements of more than one.