Fall 1989 Vol. 9, No. 4 $4.00

Libertarianism or : Where Do Secular Humanists Stand?

R. W. Bradford David Gordon Edward Hudgins Kai Nielsen Richard Schmitt Robert Sheaffer

Militant Blasphemy vs. in of Britain The Moscow Atheist/Humanist Dialogue

Also: The Pseudo-Problem of Creation in Physical by Adolf Granbaum The of Abortion • and • Eulogy to

FALL 1989, VOL. 9, NO. 4 ISSN 0272-0701 Contents

3 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 38 ON THE BARRICADES 65 IN THE NAME OF GOD 4 NOTES FROM THE EDITOR or Socialism: Where Do Secular Humanists Stand? ARTICLES 5 New Gods for Old: In Defense of Libertarianism R. W. Bradford 8 The End of the Secular Century Murray N. Rothbard 9 Building Bridges to : Libertarians, Conservatives, and Humanists Edward Hudgins 12 Making a Case for Socialism Kai Nielsen 14 and , or Socialism? Antony Flew 16 Humanism and Socialism Richard Schmitt 19 Socialism is Incompatible with Humanism Robert Sheaffer 21 Humanism and Political Tibor R. Machan 22 Libertarianism Versus Secular Humanism9 David Gordon 24 Militant Atheism Versus Freedom of Conscience 33 Sex in the Union Bonnie Bullough and Vern Bullough 36 Eighth Annual Conference a Success 41 Eulogy to Sidney Hook Ernest Benjamin Hook 48 The Pseudo-Problem of Creation in Physical Cosmology Adolf Grünbaum 44 VIEWPOINTS The Future of Abortion, Tom Flynn / Humanism and Altruism, Tim Madigan 58 READERS' FORUM 60 BOOKS Gnostic , Randel Helms / Books in Brief

Editor: Paul Kurtz Senior Editors: Vern Bullough, Gerald Larue Executive Editor: Tim Madigan Managing Editor: Mary Beth Gehrman Special Projects Editor: Valerie Marvin Contributing Editors: Robert S. Alley, of , University of Richmond; Jo-Ann Boydston, director, Dewey Center; Paul Edwards, professor of , Brooklyn College; Albert Ellis, director, Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy; Roy P. Fairfield, scientist, Union Graduate School; Joseph Fletcher, theologian, University of Virginia Medical School; Antony Flew, philosopher, Reading University, ; R. Joseph Hoffmann, chairman, Department of Philosophy and , Hartwick College, Oneonta, N.Y.; Marvin Kohl, philosopher, 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 Schools; Robert Rimmer, author; Svetozar Stojanovic, professor of philosophy, University of Belgrade; , psychiatrist, Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse; V. M. Tarkunde, Supreme Court Judge, ; Richard Taylor, professor of philosophy, Union College; Sherwin Wine, North American Committee for Humanism Associate Editors: Doris Doyle, Steven L. Mitchell, Lee Nisbet, Gordon Stein, Andrea Szalanski Editorial Associates: Robert Basil, Jim Christopher, Fred Condo Jr., Thomas Flynn, Thomas Franczyk, James Martin-Diaz, Philip Mass, Molleen Matsumura Executive Director of CODESH, Inc.: Jean Millholland Chief Data Officer: Richard Seymour Typesetting: Paul E. Loynes Audio Technician: Vance Vigrass Staff: Brent Bailey, Steven Karr, Lisa Kazmierczak, Anthony Nigro, Alfreda Pidgeon, Ranjit Sandhu

FREE (ISSN 0272-0701) is published quarterly by the Council for Democratic and (CODESH, Inc.), a nonprofit corporation, 3159 Bailey Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14215. Phone (716) 834-2921. Copyright ©1989 by CODESH, Inc. Second-class postage paid at Buffalo, New York, and at additional mailing offices. National by International Periodicals Distributors, San Diego, . Subscription rates: $22.50 for one year, $39.00 for two years, $54.00 for three years, $4.00 for current issue; $5.00 for back issues. Address subscription orders, changes of address, and to: FREE INQUIRY, Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215-0005. Manuscripts, letters, and editorial 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, P.O. Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215-0005. More on secular

As you know, the unchurched receive scant Letters to the Editor mass-media attention. We seem to have been almost invisible to journalists, , and sociologists (as well as to politicians and the general public) until as recently as 1970. Who wants Swaggart off the air? Another requirement for the of Falwell and other preachers have given us blasphemy is that the god so offended some negative publicity during the past two decades, and we began to show up in polls In the March issue of Penthouse, a Louisiana possess enough political power to make the and census reports after 1975. housewife described in graphic detail her insult a criminal offense. It is unlikely that The worst result of this exclusion from sexual romps with Jimmy Swaggart. The a representative of God would have come public is that we have not known following Sunday Jimmy wept while he to the defense of Zeus, although several have denounced the article as a total lie, contain- come to the defense of Allah, a god with our own strength. ing "not one word of ." God had told quite some political leverage. Wotan, on the Estimates of church membership are him to sue Penthouse for millions of dollars. other hand, might have been willing to come usually based on church-supplied statistics, A week later, on "Larry King Live," Jimmy's to the aid of his Olympian confrère in which are likely exaggerated. The 1988 attorney expressed pity for the poor distress. Men, all-too-eager to follow the Please Almanac states that demented woman and said that the lawsuit example given by their god, have applied there are 142.9 million church members. The would be announced within thirteen days. the divine dictate handed down to them: You population of the is 243.8 Several months have since passed, and scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. In million; this means that only 58.6 percent there is no sign of a lawsuit. Not long ago any event, if there is one lesson to be learned are "churched." Jimmy wept while he told listeners that his from all this, it is that it is wise to choose We outnumber those who identify them- entire ministry would go down the tube and carefully the god one blasphemes. selves as Democrats (about 35 percent) or millions of sinners would go to hell unless Republicans (about 30 percent). The 35 he was sent massive amounts of . Is Henry Darcy percent who don't identify with either party Jimmy responsible for the dire financial Austin, Tex. may be us, though some of us, of course, straits he is in? Of course not! It is all the are Democrats or Republicans. We are devil's work. Satan, Jimmy said, is conduct- already, it seems, numerous enough to ing the "greatest campaign in " against Paul Kurtz that "the right to compete on equal footing with the present the spreading of the gospel. If you don't send blaspheme is a human right that must be —if we organize. him money at once, Jimmy made clear, you protected." be obeying Satan. It is beyond Jimmy's A human right? It is not in the United Charles M. Selby comprehension that it might be God, not Nations Declaration of Human , Christmas Valley, Ore. Satan, who wants him off the air. which specifies that everyone has a right to Instead of sending Jimmy money, write express opinions subject to respect for the CODESH off to a rousing start him a letter. Ask him when he plans to sue "rights of others" and the just requirements Penthouse. of public order and . In other words, We wish to thank the thousands of there is no "right" of outrageous conduct. readers who responded to our invitation Martin Gardner Kurtz goes on to equate blasphemy with to join the Council for Democratic and Hendersonville, N.C. criticism. His editorial critizes Mohammed- Secular Humanism as Charter Associate anism severely but he does not blaspheme. Members. CODESH publishes FREE There's a world of . INQUIRY, and sponsors the Academy of On blasphemy Kurtz implies that only "true believers" Humanism, the Committee for the Scien- of find criticism of their "sacred tific Examination of Religion (CSER), Is there such a thing as blasphemy ("In Praise beliefs" to be offensive. I consider Rushdie's Secular Organizations for Sobriety of Blasphemy," Summer 1989)? book quite offensive, and I am not such a (SOS), the Robert Ingersoll Memorial The word "blasphemy," by its very true believer. Committee, secular humanist community , is meaningless outside the confines Rushdie's Satanic Verses is not a book groups, and many other activities. of religious parlance. According to my of scholarly criticism. First and foremost it CODESH is a strong and influential dictionary, blasphemy is "(a) the act of is merely a novel, written to sell and make humanist group, and has ambitious plans insulting or showing contempt or a lack of money. The crux of the , as I to extend the influence of secular hum- for God, (b) irreverence toward understand it, is that he hit below the belt, anism not only in North America but something considered to be sacred or in- engaging in unfair, indeed scurrilous com- worldwide. violable." Therefore, the existence of ment. No one would object to critical CODESH can only realize its ideals blasphemy requires either in an thinking; we desperately need more of it. But by enlisting the support of anthropomorphic god or a prior agreement insulting and slurring one's ideological those who share in them. We invite those as to the definitions of "sacred" and opponent, and questioning his , of you who have not done so to become "inviolable." What may—or may not—be is not criticism; it's reprehensible conduct. Charter Associate Members by filling out considered a lack of civility or of good the membership form on page 66. should not be called blasphemy; nor should Louis Worth Jones the critical evaluation of religion. San Mateo, Calif. (Letters continued on p. 63) Fall 1989 3 Notes from the Editor

Libertarianism or Socialism: Where Do Secular Humanists Stand?

his issue of FREE INQUIRY debates a diversity are encouraged. of fairness emerges. Humanists believe that Tcentral question: Is secular humanism Free inquiry is the starting point of the must attempt to ensure equality of wedded to a specific ideological political humanist moral agenda. Humanists support opportunity for all ; they are program or economic agenda? We are the full range of civil , and insist that opposed to unfair discrimination based on presenting papers pro and con on libertar- no can legitimately abrogate race, religion, gender, nationality, ethnicity, ianism and socialism, and ask readers to the right of . The struggle to defend class, or creed. Thus, they wish to help those decide for themselves. political democracy has been long and who, through no fault of their own, are Libertarians maintain that the liberty of difficult. Fortunately, a worldwide consen- unable to help themselves—the mentally or the is a basic human and sus about its merits seems to be emerging, physically handicapped, for example—by that anyone who betrays it is unworthy of perhaps due in part to the lessons learned satisfying basic needs and maximizing the name humanist. Socialists insist that from the totalitarian challenges that opportunities for universal and humanism is interested primarily in human occurred earlier in this century. Democracy cultural enrichment. Included in this is the welfare and the greatest good, and that it means due process of the . are guarantee of whenever possible, expresses an egalitarian concern for all enacted by majorities, but the rights of Social Security, and health care. persons within society. Libertarians cherish minorities must be respected as well. of choice, and they consider Humanists are not anarchists, for it is he real dispute concerns how best to oppressive social , particularly difficult to live without some rules—but at Tachieve these worthy goals. The liber- the state, to be the chief enemy of human the same , as many liberties as possible tarian claims to be sensitive to the needs of rights. Socialists are concerned with satis- ought to be to the citizens. Humanists others, and maintains that a free will fying basic human needs, particularly for the have defended moral freedom and the right better provide for individual needs because poor and disadvantaged, and they wish to to privacy: Individuals should have control it is based on incentive rather than on a use the state to achieve a more equitable over their personal lives as long as they do . Socialists and liberal demo- . Different political and eco- not harm others. Decisions regarding career, crats say that can a nomic policies follow from these premises. and , sexual relations constructive role in guaranteeing social Is humanism to be identified with libertar- between consenting adults, abortion, eutha- . ianism, socialism, neither, or both? nasia, and so on should be questions of Humanists may be found on both sides The contrast is often made between two private conscience. Humanists believe in of this issue. I submit that the humanist ethical —liberty and equality— cultivating reasonable standards of moral should not be ideologically fixated on an both of which, it is said, we cannot have conduct based on some measure of responsi- either/ or situation. In Europe humanists at the same time. The more we increase one bility. tend to be socialists. In America a growing dimension, the more likely we are to decease A controversial issue concerns economic percentage tend to be libertarians. Social the other. Unbridled liberty leads to festering freedom: To what extent should the state policies should perhaps be considered hypo- . In the name of the egality, regulate commerce, , distribu- theses to be tested or modified in the light tyrannies may suppress freedom. tion, and the of goods and of their consequences. Today most Western Is there any way out of this impasse? services? I think that most humanists today socialists are opposed to the complete Permit me to offer some clarifying remarks. are skeptical of total planning by the state, of the . From the standpoint of humanism, both that is, , as unworkable and They believe in a and in liberty and equality are desirable ideals. It undemocratic. Yet some form of taxation, utilizing free-market mechanisms, though is not a question of either/ or, but rather one , and redress of inequalities is they insist that the state be sensitive at all of balance. in either direction essential in our complex economic and social points to the will of the electorate. The should be avoided. system. veteran secular humanist Sidney Hook, who Humanism begins with the basic liber- That there should be a private sector and considered himself to be a democratic social- tarian of freedom: freedom against a is not at issue. What is at issue ist or social democrat, has emphasized that repression by the church, state, economy, is the degree to which they may function. what is essential to humanism is democracy. or any authoritarian social ; free- Many socialists and The real issue then is not so much dom of thought and conscience in an open, believe that the state can play a useful role versus socialism per se, but whether or not democratic society in which individuality in satisfying the needs that the private sector democratic processes and are may be expressed, and and does not fulfill. In this regard the principle safeguarded in a free society.—P.K.

4 FREE INQUIRY New Gods for Old: In Defense of Libertarianism

R. W. Bradford

eople have abandoned their in God, only to for failing to God. Water is turned to wine, the sun worship another . stands still in the sky, oceans are parted so that "God's chosen p Throughout the ancient and medieval era, the " can pass to safety, an acorn can grow into an elephant overwhelming mass of people believed that there existed a if God wills it. Events occur that are impervious to noncorporeal -working entity, exempt from the laws . These exceptions to the laws of nature are of nature and of . This they called "God," and called "," and lie at the core of religious belief. expended considerable time and energy thinking about him, At the same time, there grew another : a belief worshiping him, and propitiating him. that each human being can understand , that by using God was understood by faith; that is, by willful belief in his senses and his , he can fathom the world and improve the absence of . Those who worshiped him lived in the lives of himself and his fellows. By applying his mind, a strange world, filled with things whose changed with each human being can understand how things in the world the whims of God. They believed that each human being work, control his own and life, and prosper in this possesses an eternal , and is sentenced to eternal torture world. According to this tradition, man gains knowledge by , not by faith. There are no miracles in this realm: R. W. Bradford is the publisher of Liberty magazine. He is all entities are what they are, bound by the laws of nature, an investment advisor and has written about precious metals of logic, of reality; an acorn grows into an oak tree, not into and rare coins for such publications as Barrons, Personal an elephant, because of its nature. Finance, and Predictions. Energized by this new , people applied their to seemingly inexplicable events, and discovered

Fall 1989 5 . Fire, it was learned, was no miracle: it was a fealty of its subjects. chemical reaction. The wind, which had frightened primitive But this secularization of had drastic consequences people, was a force that could be harnessed to propel boats for political leaders: they no longer could appeal to any power to faraway places, where different people were happy to trade higher than their own abilities, and they were expected by items that you held dear for items that you produced with Enlightenment thinkers to use reason, not religion, to persuade little effort. Harvests could be improved by rotating crops, people of the justice of their activities. With their fertilizing, and the selective breeding of seed stock. desanctified, allegiance to the state became very difficult to Faith became obsolete; belief in God was discredited. obtain from reasonable people, especially if the rulers Reason and science began a long gradual ascent. We are themselves exerted power that was obviously arbitrary, viewing this record of from a late twentieth-century favoring some people over others. perspective. Unfortunately, this perspective also reveals Thus political leaders and theorists frantically sought ways another, very ominous trend that has come to occupy a large to incorporate religious forms and attitudes in the ostensibly place in . It would seem that what many people secularized state. They solved this problem by attributing to did is exchange their ancient god for a more up-to-date variety. the state virtually all the qualities of God. The state is Like the old god, this new god claims a on omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. It is exempt from the "good" and the "right." It is moral by definition. It confers the laws of nature. It is to be beseeched for its favors. Its meaning on a seemingly chaotic world. It is exempt from wrath against unbelievers and recalcitrants is vengeful. the laws of nature. It is publicly worshiped by its commun- Perhaps the first high literary expression of this new faith icants. It has an extensive that harasses those who is Moliere's Tartuffe, in which the lies of religious express doubts about its miraculous powers. Its sacred texts are penetrated by the all seeing, all knowing, benevolent despot, demand respect. Louis XIV. None of the despots of Europe, benevolent or The new god is the state. otherwise, whether Louis XIV or, in the next century, , , or Napoleon, was The state prepared to let the old of religion challenge the new. How successful have the shrewd innovators been? We have We live under a king who hates deceit, only to look at today's predominant political attitudes to find A king whose eyes see into every heart out. And can't be fooled by an impostor's art. For most people, the state is a mysterious entity that can The keen discernment that his greatness brings perform miracles. We see markets plagued by periodic Gives him a piercing insight into things; can disconcert his readiness, inflationary trends and failures. So let the state And his firm reason always shuns excess. prevent all of this by controlling the money supply, regulating He honors all the best of humankind; banks and other financial institutions. Despite centuries of But zeal for never makes him blind: material progress, there still are poor people. So let the state The that for the truly good he fosters establish minimum-wage laws and a system of -funded Does not prevent his hatred for impostors .. . Let's go and kneel before the throne, charitable payments so that will no longer exist. Many And praise him for the bounties he has shown. of our young people are ruining their lives with crack, we observe, just as our parents or grandparents observed that —from Moliere's Tartuffe, many of the of their era were ruining their lives with first performed in 1669 alcohol. Let us solve this problem by outlawing crack, by bringing the full force and majesty of government to battle rom the beginning of civilization, political leaders closely drugs on every front. Fallied themselves with religious leaders. The state None of these state actions has achieved its goal. Inflation supported organized religion in a variety of ways: it subsidized has been worse, and business depressions last longer in this the church with tax money, it required a profession of faith century of the "scientific" control of financial institutions than from its subjects, it outlawed acts tabooed by the church. they did in the past century, when the state made hardly any The church supported the state by convincing the faithful efforts to control the economy. According to the state's own that loyalty to the state was required by their god. statistics, the number of poverty-stricken individuals in the The great replacement of the worship of God with the United States has actually increased since fighting poverty worship of the state was a reaction to the secularization became a state program. Crack is gaining popularity at the produced by the . The horrors of same time as the rights of all citizens are being trampled by religious warfare in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries an increasingly expensive police and attack on resulted at length in the relegation of religion to the drugs. marketplace of ideas, where various were compelled Time and time again, state programs fail to achieve their to gain adherents only through peaceful , not goals. And time and time again, those who point out the through the coercive power of the state. failure of state programs are denounced as political heretics As the old religion fell into disrepute, the church could or cranks. The state itself is never blamed, and its omnipotence no longer deliver the political loyalty of . The leaders never challenged. of the state needed a new way to maintain the support and Our elected representatives act as clergymen, exhorting us

6 FREE INQUIRY to greater service to the state ("civic "), just as the preacher because it is a system under which individual human exhorts us to serve God. We engage in the of voting, can optimize their potential, maximizing their and as though our votes made a difference; the act of voting is according to their own values. The power of the an affirmation of our fealty to the state. The good citizen state is opposed because it leads to human misery and poverty. votes in off-year elections as well as in presidential ones, just The libertarian first flowered at about the same time as the good Catholic attends Mass on weekdays as well as that gained ascendancy in the West. In its early days, on Sundays. Politicians act as intermediaries on behalf of advocates of liberty and opponents of state-worship were called the faithful, pleading that the state confer one or another liberals. From and in the eighteenth benefit on them; just as a priest might offer to pray to God on behalf of a parishioner. (The politician, like the priest, The state is omniscient, omnipresent, and is sometimes paid for dispensing these indulgences.) Even the cadences of the politician's speech recalls the preacher's. omnipotent. It is exempt from the laws of Like the church, the state operates a system of schools nature. It is to be beseeched for its favors. to indoctrinate youth in its . Whether called Its wrath against unbelievers and recalci- "government," "," or "citizenship education," catechism exercises differ from those of the old religion only in the nature trants is vengeful.... The power of the of the irrational beliefs propagated. state leads to human misery and poverty. The new god has its sacred (presidential inaugurations, , and so forth), its sacred texts (the century, through and in and the laws), its rites of passage (first vote, the nineteenth century, to H. L. Mencken, Albert J. Nock, first legal drink), even its sacred objects. When a guest on and in our own century, their understanding a Soviet television program recently suggested that perhaps of the state grew. The term "" has been expropriated one day Lenin might be removed from his mausoleum in by moderate statists (the analog of Reform Jews or mainline Moscow and buried, Aleksei P. Myasnikov, a Central Protestants), but the tradition continues today in the works Committee member, responded thus: "What was said . . . of like and James Buchanan about the most sacred thing—about Lenin—is worse than and social thinkers like and Richard Taylor. incomprehensible." Even in the United States, every president Just as the old god required a response from those is granted a memorial library grander than the tomb of committeed to reason and science, so the new god requires Mausoleus, and the U.S. has a sacred character. Just a response today. Just as the irrationalities of the old god as it would be unthinkable for a priest to use undistributed crippled untold lives and fostered the Dark Ages, so the new communion wafer to feed pigeons, so recent events make it god is crippling lives today. At its most consistent, worship clear that most citizens regard any despoiling of the state's of the state takes an absolute form resulting in totalitarian flag as a sacrilege. states like Hitler's , Stalin's , Mao's , Like the old god, the new god is not bound by the laws 's Cambodia. It took some time, but it is now obvious of nature. What other human enterprise can spend more than that the totalitarian state cannot deliver the goods: absolute its income year after year without a ? statism is not practical; it results in misery instead of happiness. The U.S. state has not balanced its budget in more than a Statism in its unadulterated form has foundered on the decade; its tripled under the fiscal conservative Reagan, rocks of reality; statism advocates now propose adulterating as voters continued to demonstrate a preference for high state statism with a modest measure of liberty. Today statism is spending and low state . more entrenched than ever in its moderate, interventionist The state regulates what we eat, drink, and smoke because form, which tolerates a certain amount of human liberty and it "knows" what is best for us. It sees into the intimate details diversity (which are grudgingly recognized as necessary for of our homes and bank accounts to protect us from evil drug material well-being), but which must be controlled by an ever- pushers, pornographers, and gamblers (though curiously, more-powerful state. state-sponsored gambling is considered virtuous). If our state The growing power of statism is underscored by the has not yet achieved omniscience, omnipotence, and that the power of the American state, as measured by the omnipresence, it is only because we have not yet achieved percentage of that it spends, grew sub- the needed to arrive at these blessed conditions. stantially during the Reagan years, despite his widespread per- ception as a critic of the state. In the past five years, for A new secular humanism example, the American state has been granted the power to search your person without a warrant; to confiscate all of ibertarianism is the belief that the role of the state in your upon accusing you of a , leaving you I_Apeople's lives should be radically reduced or eliminated to use a state employee as your defense counsel; to require altogether. But libertarianism is not an article of faith; it is that you present proof of citizenship when applying for a the conclusion of an elaborate chain of reasoning. job. The libertarian idea is profoundly secular and profoundly The struggle against the irrationalities of the old god has humanist: secular in its insistence on the rational and scientific; largely been won; the struggle against the irrationalities of humanist in the value it places on human life. Liberty is valued the new god has just begun. •

Fall 1989 7 The End of the Secular Century

Murray N. Rothbard

he storm over provides a vivid and retreated into the hills and rural fastnesses of America, and dramatic illustration of one of the great of our into the life of marginal social and economic classes. It was Tera: that the Age of Atheism is ended. During the then easy for sophisticates to dismiss hard-shell Christianity 1960s trend theologians proclaimed that God is dead; but as merely a of hillbilly snake-charmers. now we find that God is still (or again?) very much alive, And not only Christianity. The secularist twentieth century and that it is atheism for which rites must be conducted. also dealt a grave setback to Islam. Moslem regimes were We have to realize that the secularist age, even though generally secularist and heedless of Islam; the gravest blow seemingly inevitable and eternal at the time, was only a brief came when the Kemal Ataturk regime, after I, glitch in the history of mankind. was born in the brutally forced a Western-style "modernization" on Age of Enlightenment, in the eighteenth century; it was given by virtually suppressing Islam and outlawing such Moslem great impetus by Darwin in the late nineteenth century, and practices as the chador (the veiled dress for women). it came into its own and dominated Western culture from In every civilization, religion had always been the dominant the 1920s through the 1960s. In the United States, force in people's values, goals, and very lives. In the twentieth had slowly but surely been transformed from century, it was possible for secularist to ignore a militant pietism of the mid-nineteenth century into a secular, this overriding fact, and to claim that modern science had barely religious, form of left-liberalism. Preachers would put an end to these "superstitions" of the past. But now, since deliver sermons about the of the or the 1970s, secularism is rapidly going down the tubes, in the aid to the homeless interlarded with a few small sentimental United States and throughout the world. Religion is back, references to "God" or "." During the early 1960s a friend and with a vengeance—literally and figuratively. Fundamen- talism has made a remarkable comeback in the United States, of mine rented a room in the home of the Protestant chaplain, and Islam, both Sunni and Shi'ite, is back with a roar. No and told him, "It seems that you and I have identical views longer is it possible to ignore the importance of religion in on religion. The only difference is that I call myself an atheist, human life and culture. whereas you call yourself a Protestant minister." Even though much fuss about the Rushdie affair has been As for pre-Vatican II Catholics, they were scarcely made in the United States, England, of course, has really integrated into American cultural and life. They been the center of the storm. England, arguably the least were considered a strange breed, a throwback to the Dark religious country in the , is the adopted home Ages, who really believed that stuff. of the ex-Moslem Salman Rushdie and was the original Bill Buckley likes to tell a story of his meeting, as a young publisher of his book. A fascinating article from in man, with , with Rand telling him: "Come, come, the L. A. (Dan Fisher, "Multicultural Takes Bill, surely you are much too intelligent to believe in God." Beating in Britain," March 1, p. 10), reports a rising tide Ayn Rand, however, was not alone in this of anti-foreign and generally xenophobic attitudes in England compounded of arrogance and naïveté. She was, character- in the wake of the Rushdie controversy. Apparently, in 1966, istically, simply more blunt about it. The dominant secularist Labor Party Home Secretary Roy Jenkins (now a leader of attitude in American culture was precisely that: the only people the Social Democrats) forth a new policy toward Britain's who could believe in God or Christianity were credulous and racial and ethnic minorities: acceptance of cultural diversity, half-witted . And American life of the 1920s through instead of trying to mold all minority groups into one 1960s seemed to confirm this notion. For, after their defeat homogenous British product. But now, in the wake of increased at the Scopes trial, conservative fundamentalist Protestants Moslem and the Rushdie controversy, Right and Left alike are rapidly rejecting cultural diversity and talking Murray N. Rothbard is S. J. Hall Distinguished Professor again about a stern approach toward imposing one "British of at the University of Las Vegas, . His culture and its values." books include Man, Economy, and the State; America's Great The trouble is that was adopted in Depression; and What Has Government Done to Our Money? Britain, and to a large extent in the U.S., by secularists whose benign and naive view of cultural differences is of happy ethnics

8 FREE INQUIRY wearing their quaint folk costumes and going through their government has been nationalized: for the British taxpayer charming little folk dances on national holidays. What they is now being forced to shell out an enormous sum for possible left out of this Disneyfied view of life is real cultural differences lifetime protection for Rushdie and his wife. But why shouldn't and conflicts, and especially the serious commitments of they pay for their own privately arranged protection? Even militant religion. In short, clashing attitudes toward liquor, monarchists surely do not expect to commit government police the role of women, religious blasphemy, and all the rest. forces to extraordinary and expensive measures to protect Cultural diversity is a noble ideal but, to paraphrase Mao, any one person indefinitely. Now that Rushdie's inscrutable it is no tea party; it is an often serious and rugged business, novel—previously the victim of bad reviews—has been made and secularists had better start wising up to this basic fact. into a runaway best seller by Moslem threats; he is certainly There are some interesting and ironic twists to the Rushdie in a position to privatize his own defense. affair that have gone unnoticed. One is that the Ayatollahs The long-term strategic lesson for secularist libertarians of and other angry Moslem leaders have issued their pronounce- the resurrection of religion in the modern world should be ments, not as government officials, but as leaders of private crystal clear. The prospects for the eventual victory of liberty, religious communities. No Moslem government, in or in the United States and in the rest of the world, are excellent; elsewhere, has sent any hit men to get Rushdie; in a sense, the prospects for the triumph of atheism are nil. Secularist enforcement of the Moslem death penalty has been libertarians should stop trying to convert the religious to the "privatized," although methinks it is not the sort of dubious glories of atheism, and should start trying to convert that Bob Poole and others have in mind. At them to the cause of liberty. • the same time, the defense of Rushdie by the British Reprinted with permission from Liberty magazine. Building Bridges To the Right: Libertarians, Conservatives, and Humanists

Edward Hudgins

he modern secular in the United off potential allies and sympathizers who might be open to States began in the third decade of this century as a rational approach to life but who do not think that this Ta movement of the political left. Humanists rejected necessarily entails supporting Michael Dukakis or Jesse revealed religion in favor of reason as the only means to Jackson. Libertarians, on the other hand, often pay insufficient knowledge, and accepted the betterment of man as the goal attention to the fact that the preservation of freedom ultimately of , economics, and politics. During that period—and depends on a certain moral order and on supporting social to this day—many humanists believed that a "rational" institutions. As a secular humanist and a libertarian I maintain approach to public policy meant government regulation of that each movement can be strengthened by working with the economy, a welfare state, or even socialism. the other. In addition, cooperation between the two Today, however, the secular humanist movement is finding movements offers an opportunity to build bridges to some more and more libertarians among its ranks. While joining of the supporters of the religious right by demonstrating that the humanists in advocating personal , freedom and reason can help us to deal with many of the , and sexual conduct, libertarians also believe that the social evils with which the right is legitimately concerned. government should leave economic matters to the individual. Libertarians, in the tradition of their classical liberal predeces- Defining the movements sors, believe in laissez-faire capitalism. The gradual mingling of secular humanists and libertarians, though not without its ibertarians as a group are united in their acceptance of problems, is good for both groups. At this time in the Lthe political principle that the only legitimate function development of both movements, each side needs the other. of government is to protect the life, liberty, and property of The leftist leanings of many secular humanists often scare individuals. They believe that individuals should be free to do as they please so long as they do not violate the equal Edward Hudgins is director of the Center for International rights of other individuals through the initiation of force. If at the Heritage Foundation. He has written the government wishes to limit freedom, it bears the burden extensively on international trade and Third World of proof. Limits can only be justified in light of the protection development. of rights. All libertarians thus believe, with secular humanists, in personal rights and social freedom. One's lifestyle, sexual

Fall 1989 9 preferences, taste in books and movies, thoughts, words, and leftists blindly praised the Soviet regime, Hook denounced religious beliefs or lack thereof are none of the government's the of Stalin. In his later years Hook moved away business. There is some division among libertarians on the from socialism but never made the libertarian leap to support abortion issue, but the small minority who oppose the woman's a completely free market. Yet at that time Hook supported right to abortion base their on libertarian principles, the power of the state to control the economy, that is, to arguing that the fetus is a human life and thus must be regulate material exchanges between cosenting adults. This protected. he justified in the name of humanist principles. Unlike many secular humanists, libertarians also believe Today, many secular humanists are of the American that all voluntary economic transactions and exchanges political left and support contemporary liberal causes that between consenting adults should be legal and are none of involve state actions. They believe that the government should the government's business. Libertarians support the free actively seek to eliminate poverty or bring about what they market as the only means to a prosperous and peaceful society. deem to be a more "equitable" distribution of , by taxing The role of government is not to redistribute wealth from the prosperous and giving handouts to the poor. They support one group to another, or to grant economic favors or impose a variety of for , such as minimum-wage penalties to encourage or discourage certain choices in the laws, mandated health- and child-care benefits, prohibitions market. The government's role is to protect . on plant closings, racial and gender hiring and promotion Libertarians are somewhat divided on foreign-policy issues. quotas, and wages based on the government-determined None like but most, though not all, oppose U.S. "comparable worth" of the jobs involved. Libertarians would military commitments and adventures overseas. For example, reject such policies, at the very least as inefficient means to many want the United States to pull out of NATO and bring the end, if not as morally unjustifiable. the troops home from . Others disagree. These The 1973 Humanist II calls for a world are more over the best tactics for national defense community with international laws and judicial institutions than over fundamental principles. that transcend national borders. While libertarians support Not all libertarians are secular humanists. Some are complete and open immigration, they find the idea religious. Yet Ayn Rand—whose novels and of a naïve and a threat to freedom, since provide a powerful defense of reason, most countries in Africa, America, Eastern Europe, and rational self-, and laissez-faire capitalism—is one of large parts of Asia are of one sort or other. the principle influences on the movement. Rand was a vocal The II calls for worldwide " and uncompromising atheist who maintained that a knowledge planning concerning readily depleting resources." Libertarians of objective reality and human happiness can be achieved deny that this is a matter of concern: There is no limit to only by adherence to reason and to the free and unhindered the earth's resources if resourceful human beings are free to exercise of the human mind. She advocated a free-market exploit them; shortages usually occur due to restrictions on system and personal freedom primarily on moral grounds. the free market. The second manifesto also speaks of the need Many libertarians also are influenced by 's to promote economic growth in less developed countries philosophy, with its emphasis on a rational and empirical through "massive ... economic assistance." Libertarians would rather than mystical approach to knowledge and life. Finally, point out that statist and socialist policies and lack of private many libertarians take their defense of freedom from John property rights are the real cause of poverty. They would Locke's theory that natural rights are not given by God through maintain that wealth must be created, not stolen and divine but instead arise from man's nature as a redistributed. rational being and are discovered through the same rational capacity. Not all libertarians accept the natural-rights Problems with the movements justification for . Some argue pragmatically that only personal liberty and free markets allow prosperity espite their differences on economic issues, libertarians or allow most people to achieve their various individual Dand secular humanists would both benefit from greater objectives. Even so, these libertarians are also using a rational dialogue, and from cooperation in and sensitivity to matters approach to questions of ethics and politics. of mutual concern. Each movement has faced certain problems of tactics that such cooperation might help to solve. he American secular humanist movement, dating from Libertarians face the problem of how to preserve individual the issuance of the Humanist Manifesto in the 1930s, rights in a society made up of individuals who often are not comes from a different intellectual tradition. The great Sidney consistent advocates of freedom. Libertarians believe that as Hook perhaps best represented the movement in those days. long as individuals do not initiate force against others, they Hook believed that human reason is the only means by which have the right to live their personal lives as they see fit. humanity can understand the world. Free and critical inquiry Individuals are free to follow the principles of Aristotle or was his life's passion. He believed that the good of humanity Rand, Moses or Jesus or Mohammed, Jerry Falwell or the on earth, not in some projected heavenly , should be Bakkers or the Ayatollah Khomeini, Timothy Leary or Hugh the principle concern of ethics. In politics Hook supported Hefner. Yet some of these world views explicitly endorse democracy and the rights of people to freedom in social areas limitations on personal freedom. And some of these life-styles such as speech, sex, and lifestyle. During a period when many can produce in their adherents the sort of moral character

10 FREE INQUIRY that will not hold back in violating the rights of others. A and rites of passage in life, and to provide support drug addict seeking to rob you at gunpoint—or seeking welfare communities. The understanding of humanism as a euprax- payments, food stamps, and government rehabilitation ophy, that is, knowledge of good or right action or conduct, funds—is unlikely to respond to a recitation of 's is important to promoting this development. The four main Second Treatise. The libertarian would maintain that this is characteristics of humanist eupraxophy are: (1) reason, why we have constitutional limits on government, separation evidence, and critical inquiry as a means to truth and right of powers, checks and balances, a federal system, a bill of conduct; (2) a cosmic or world view based on this method; rights—a representative rather than a directly democratic (3) an ethics dedicated to enhancing humanity's life on earth; regime. Yet in the end the system responds to the will of and (4) a political community based on democracy and the people. And when enough people, for a long enough period personal freedom. of time, seek to limit the personal or of others, they usually succeed. Indeed, this is how we have The need for cooperation arrived at the situation we are in today. Libertarians are correct to promote respect for individual ecular humanists and libertarians clearly can further their rights, pluralism, and tolerance. They are correct to point Scommon goals through dialogue, cooperation, and greater out that those who would use the power of the state to restrict emphasis on issues of mutual concern. Humanist attempts one group's freedom forge a weapon that in the end could to promote rational, pluralistic culture through voluntary be used against them. Yet these arguments work only on people institutions strengthen the foundations of personal freedom. with enough self-discipline and reason to restrain their passions Indeed, rational individuals who take responsibility for their long enough to think ahead and consider their long-term self- actions will be in less need of government economic handouts, interest. Freedom in the long-term is best assured in a culture thus removing the burden on economic freedom. Libertarians based on a rational approach to life, in which critical inquiry, should welcome such cultural changes. And the efforts of respect for and logic, and the search for libertarians to limit the powers of government and to truth are widespread. Even the libertarian armed with all of emphasize the importance of personal autonomy are clearly the best evidence and arguments in the world would not get in the interest of secular humanists. very far in Lebanon or Iran. But an obvious question arises: What about the differences Since libertarians support the right of individuals to act between secular humanists and libertarians in the economic or believe in any manner, rational or irrational, in their realm? I would suggest that the focus of dialogue and personal lives, some have tended to shy away from the need cooperation be the area of consensus. In their effort to to promote a rational culture. Adding to the libertarians' cooperate, secular humanists will put less emphasis on apprehension is that when contemporary conservatives or contentious matters of economic policy, and libertarians will liberals speak of the need for cultural or ethical changes in put greater emphasis on the creation of a culture and society society, they often see the government as the agent of reform. that supports individual freedom. And usually the "reforms" are worse than the problem. My own place of employment, the Heritage Foundation, Washington's foremost conservative think-tank, gives me an he secular humanist movement has run into its own interesting perspective on how people of the various ideological tactical difficulties. The first is with its tendency to lean camps on the right can cooperate and work together. toward the political left. On social issues, if "left" means Libertarians are well represented at Heritage. So are traditional favoring the freedom of individuals to live their personal lives conservatives who support the right of the government to without interference from government , then this intervene in some areas of personal morality, for example, is a defining characteristic of the movement. What is incidental to censor pornography or ban abortion. Often, though, these to secular humanism—and, libertarians would argue, in conservatives favor not a on these issues but to the principles of respect for individual human rather state and local standards, which they see as in rights—is the support by many humanists of an active accordance with our federal system. I, a secular humanist government role in the economy. and libertarian, have former Attorney General Edwin Meese Secular humanism thus is viewed by some people as a as a colleague! kind of package deal. To be an advocate of a rational approach Heritage policy-analysts focus mainly on economic and to life, to reject religious revelation, and to favor personal foreign-policy issues in their policy papers rather than on the freedom in the social realm is assumed by many to imply more emotionally charged social issues. In these areas there support for a welfare state and for substantial government is a consensus, for example, on the virtues of the free market. regulation of the economy. Needless to say, this Heritage does provide an outlet for discussion of social issues can drive away potential supporters and audiences. in its quarterly journal, Policy Review, and in its much-used In the past, secular humanists have emphasized personal lecture hall. All shades of views on the right can have their freedom and the intellectual criticism of religion and . say. For example, I have debated the president of the Today, they also are beginning to recognize the need to develop Moral Majority over the virtues of secular humanism. Recently institutions to perform functions that have generally been the I participated in a debate entitled "Freedom Foundation: monopoly of churches; for example, to help raise children Man's Reason or God's Revelation?" Among ourselves we in an ethical manner, to commemorate important discuss our differences; such exchanges often

Fall 1989 11 lead each to a better appreciation of others' point its nature. Secular humanists and libertarians, while correctly of view. saying that the government should not be concerned about I do not suggest that secular humanists and libertarians these matters, often fail also to define the issue and address abandon discussion of political differences. That would be the concern of the audience. The religious right can therefore impossible as well as undesirable among such idea-oriented "win" the public relations by default. and dynamic individuals. What I suggest is that each movement Yet at the base, most of these evils are not caused primarily place greater emphasis on the areas of common interest. by external material factors. Rather, they result from the failure of people to exercise reason and self-discipline, to see meaning Don't write off the right in their own lives, to derive a sense of personal efficacy and self-esteem from their own creative activities. But these are ecular humanists and libertarians, by focusing on just the issues that secular humanists can best address. strengthening the rational foundations of a free society, Humanism has a long moral tradition, both in the West and also have an opportunity to appeal to some of the supporters the East. Aristotle and asked what is the good life, of the religious right. Conservatives, religious and otherwise, what is the best road to human happiness and fulfillment, have quite legitimate concerns about the evils in our society and what social institutions can best lead to these ends? today. Drug addiction is a waste of human potential. Teen Humanists can be philosophical entrepreneurs by addressing suicide is a senseless tragedy. Sexual indulgence or promiscuity the concerns of conservatives and the religious right on their to the exclusion of all else in life usually do not lead to a own grounds. We can show that superstition and an deeply fulfilling human existence. unquestioning acceptance of tradition will not result in a better The public appeal of religious-right leaders is due in part society and better people. We can continue the creation of to the fact that they are calling attention to real social problems. a culture based on the recognition of humanity's rational But though they see that problems exist, they often misunder- nature and the dignity of the individual. We can offer an stand their nature. They might denounce premarital sex, alternative that will recognize the legitimate concerns of the promiscuity, and divorce, while the real human tragedy is average, decent religious or conservative citizen. And the inability of individuals to form lasting, long-term, loving libertarians should understand that such private, nongovern- personal relationships. The audiences of religious-right leaders mental efforts will go a long way to preserve the foundations perceive that a problem exists, but also are fuzzy concerning of freedom in American society. •

Making a Case for Socialism

Kai Nielsen

ecular humanists (to state the obvious) are either atheists justice, democracy, and respect for persons. These ideals have or agnostics. Being an atheist or an agnostic is a different conceptualizations and, where they clash, different Snecessary condition for being a secular humanist; but weightings; between more pessimistic humanists and less it is surely not a sufficient condition, for Nazis and other pessimistic ones, there is a dispute about whether the quest Fascists and elitist authoritarians have been atheists or for the appropriate mix of these fundamental values creates agnostics. But they surely were not humanists. Thus the clashes that admit no rational resolution.' Humanists can and rejection of belief in God and similar is a necessary— do differ over all of these issues. The question is not which but not the only—condition for being a secular humanist. of them are genuine humanists—they all are. But which child What are the other features that must be part of what it of the Enlightenment, chastened by the Counter- is to be a humanist? Enlightenment and attuned to contemporary , has best They are the dominant set of values and associated out- worked out the of the Enlightenment? Who has looks, inherited from the underlying ideas of the Enlighten- best explicated, best analyzed, and best revealed the underlying ment, that by now have become distinctive of liberal culture, rationale of these fundamental values (if indeed they have including equality, liberty, autonomy, well-being (welfare), one) to show that they are not just an accidental jumble emerging out of certain historically determinate circumstances? Kai Nielsen is professor of philosophy at the University of Who can coherently fit them together in such a way that Calgary in Alberta, Canada. His many publications include they will hold the allegiance of reflective and tolerably well- Why Be Moral? and Philosophy and Atheism. informed people? There can be right-wing libertarian humanists defending

12 FREE INQUIRY laissez-faire capitalism; liberal humanists who are social at least in the weak sense of "one man, one vote." This enhanced democrats; socialist humanists, including Marxists, Marxians, equality of power- applies to the industrial sphere as and Anarchists; and socialists of a less determinate stripe. well as to the political sphere, and makes for greater equality F. H. Hayek, Milton Friedman, , David of condition. And whatever inequality of condition remains Gauthier, Ralf Dahrendorf, Sidney Hook, , Isaiah that is at all socially alterable, will have to be democratically , , , , sustained. Unless this is so it is morally unacceptable to Georg Luckacs, Jurgen Habermas, Jon Elster, Joshua Cohen, democrats. Indeed, even then it may not be justified.2 So a G. A. Cohen, , and Jean-Paul Sartre are will be more egalitarian than a capitalist one. all humanists. Again, the relevant question is not which of these intellectuals are genuine humanists, but which of them t is commonly believed, at least in capitalist , that has the best grip on . Who can best rationalize I although capitalism may not do as well as socialism in the central values of Western civilization and integrate that the area of equality, it certainly does better in the areas of rationalization with a good understanding of liberty and autonomy. I wish to challenge that familiar claim. and with the underlying structure and fundamental dynamics First we need to realize that any society, having norms, of society? constrains behavior and limits liberty in some way or other. Societies need not be democratic to be genuinely capitalist— Given the prohibitions and injunctions of societal mores, no witness and South Africa—though for that one is free to do just as he or she wants; but a society without Marxists are good at explaining, capitalist societies are norms is impossible. So the question is whether capitalism typically democratic. In capitalist societies, the major means or socialism constrains behavior more or in more harmful of production are privately owned and controlled, whereas ways. Socialism does prohibit capitalist acts—or at least most in socialist societies they are publicly owned and controlled. capitalist acts—between consenting adults. But that simply This is not identical with ; moreover, public means that it constrains buying and selling. It says nothing control builds democracy into the very definition of socialism. at all about the really crucial , namely, However, a few publicly owned firms, even very large ones, such as freedom of speech, of voting, of movement, of do not socialism make; public ownership must be society- conscience, and the like. There is no systematic reason at wide. Air Canada and Petro Canada do not make Canada all why socialism should not be at least as hospitable as a socialist society or even a society on the way to socialism. capitalism to such freedoms. That existing socialist systems was not a socialist of the north, an have not welcomed them says more about the fact that these old mole working from within. systems emerged from societies that lacked a parliamentary Public ownership and control only catches part, though tradition, were economically backward, and were attacked an essential part, of what socialism means. A socialist society by capitalist powers than it says about socialism itself. is also a : a society in which there is no Capitalism, too, has been hostile to civil liberties in times possibility of being anything, the handicapped apart, but a of stress. There is, however, no reason whatsoever for socialism worker—in the broad sense of the word—or someone who to be hostile to civil liberties; there are very good reasons once was a worker or will become a worker. In a capitalist for it to protect them, given its commitment to democracy. society there are two principal classes: the capitalist class, which Here I speak of models of democracy roughly according to owns and controls the means of production and buys labor- Marx. power in a market, and the , which Socialism also comes out better than capitalism with respect sells its labor-power in a commodity market. In a socialist to democracy. Capitalist societies, with a few exceptions, tend society no one can buy and sell labor-power. The means of to be . In them, however, democracy can only production—that is, the means of existence—are commonly be political democracy. , full democracy owned and controlled. Everyone in the society stands in the in the workplace where work is under public control, is ruled same relation to the means of production, and in that very out by private ownership and control of the means of fundamental sense a socialist society is a classless society. production. The very essence of capitalism excludes full public control, and indeed, often rules out any public influence in enuine socialism best comports with the central values investment, production decisions, and the like. Thus a capitalist Gof Western civilization, and has more potential than society limits democratic decision-making more than a socialist capitalism to integrate human nature with the underlying society does. Genuinely socialist societies—not statist structure of a society. Let us start with equality and liberty. tyrannies—are both political and industrial democracies. A classless society with and control Capitalist societies are at best political democracies and thus through the usual democratic mechanisms is much more by their very nature are less democratic than socialist societies. egalitarian than a capitalist society in which a small group Capitalist societies, as Marx realized, wondrously controls the means of production, directs labor, and makes developed the and thus brought more wealth crucial decisions about how the society is to be ordered while into the world—unequally distributed though it is—than the rest of the population, having sold its labor-power, existed before the advent of capitalism. This cannot be denied. essentially takes orders or stands in a passive role while public- But with the development of the productive forces there is policy decisions are made. In a socialist society, no reason that socialism cannot build on that. With more and power are shared. Everyone has equal access to them, rational planning than is possible in capitalism and with an

Fall 1989 13 economy structured to meet human needs, socialism can keep firmly in mind that in comparing socialism and capitalism enhance human well-being more than capitalism can. This we are comparing empirically feasible models.3 is not a matter of having a "command economy," but of having To be a humanist one need not be a socialist or even a both a market and a plan; it is not a matter of either, but welfare-state liberal. There are even humanists in good of both. Furthermore, in socialist society, though not in standing who are very conservative indeed; but were they to capitalist society, a plan is arrived at democratically with the adequately rationalize into a sound political sociology the underlying rationale of equitably meeting human needs. ideals of the Enlightenment shared by all humanists, they Libertarians may object that this type of democracy comes would also be socialists. into conflict with individual rights and thus with autonomy. But that claim is not justified. A commitment to autonomy is a commitment to self-direction; what would most Notes notoriously limit that would be limitations on civil liberties, but they are not touched by socialism. What is touched is 1. See , "0n the Pursuit of the Ideal," New York Review of Books (March 17, 1988), pp. I1-18, and his Four Essays , the freedom to buy and sell, including to buy and sell labor. (0xford, England: 0xford University Press, 1960), which present a powerful This hardly affects people living self-directed lives, but even statement of a pessimistic humanism. For a less pessimistic humanism if it did, it would mean trading off a lesser liberty for a greater directly opposing Berlin on key points, see Andrew Collier, "Scientific one, given the extensive domination that goes with the Socialism and the Question of Socialist Values" in Kai Nielsen and Steven Pattern (eds.), Marx and Morality (Guelph, 0ntario: Canadian Association inequities of power inherent in capitalist society. for Publishing in Philosophy, 1981), pp. 121-151, and Kai Nielsen, "Coming A society that is freer, that protects rights more extensively, to Grips with Marxist Anti-Moralism," The Philosophical Forum XIX:1 that is more equal, and that makes for a greater welfare for (Fall 1987), pp. 1-22. 2. Kai Nielsen, "Arguing for Equality," Philosophic Exchange (1986), more people is certainly a more just society than one that pp. 5-21, and "On Not Needing to Justify Equality," International Studies lacks those qualities. Socialism does all of these things more in Philosophy XX:3 (1988), pp. 55-71. 3. That in comparing capitalism and socialism we must either compare extensively than capitalism does—so genuinely socialist socie- models or existing systems, but not mix the two, is powerfully argued ties are more just than capitalist societies. It is important to by Andrew Levine in Arguing for Socialism (London: Verso, 1988). •

Liberty and Democracy, or Socialism?

Antony Flew

f we are to employ the expression "secular humanists" democracy. to include all of those whose approach to all issues of Certainly these stipulations are necessary. But still they thought and behavior is through and through secular, are not sufficient. We also must spell out how these two key this-worldly and man-centered, then it must embrace in its words are to be construed. First, freedom: Our prime concern application not only Paul Kurtz and me, Sidney Hook and is, or should be, for the liberties of individuals. We must Thomas Szasz, but also (to say nothing of his never forget that emancipations from, for instance, more appealing but unfortunately much less influential colonial rule may be achieved at the of drastic diminution namesake, Groucho) and J. S. Mill, and in the rights and liberties generally available to the former V. I. Lenin. It is obvious that in that most comprehensive colonial subjects. (In this interpretation, anti-colonialist understanding, all manner of quite different and even "freedom fighters" often are—like firefighters and crime- altogether antithetical political and social stances become fighters—fighters against rather than for!) Second, democracy: compatible with secular humanism; but for our purposes, again, with all-too-abundant colonial and post-colonial experi- secular humanism is committed both to freedom and ence in mind, we have to insist that for us the criterion of democratic legitimacy must be not whether some regime was Antony Flew is professor of philosophy at Reading University voted in, but whether in due time it may be voted out. in England. His books include God, Freedom and Immortality; Both of these qualifications are critical to our problem, Politics of Procrustes; and Thinking Straight. for without them almost any political agenda can be made to consist with secular humanism. Suppose, however, that

14 FREE INQUIRY they are both made and aptly understood. Then many of leader failed to persuade the Labour Party those usually accepted, without or question, as card- conference to limit its socialist ambitions. Clause IV of its carrying secular humanists will have to be identified as constitution, since amended only insubstantially, stated that opponents, and therefore repudiated. Obviously all Marxist- its aim was to enforce "public ownership of all the means Leninists and all systematic supporters of Marxist-Leninist of production, distribution and exchange." Gaitskell, in an movements and causes must fall under the consequent unacknowledged borrowing from Lenin, proposed that the embargo, for none of them can be allowed to be, in our party should confine socialism to " properly -looking understanding, democrats.' It is of the economy.") equally notorious that there are no individual liberties for Again, anxiety about the practical incompatibility of full any "enemies of socialism" once those whom such people call socialism with individual liberties and political democracy was comrade have established themselves in absolute and certainly one of the main reasons why in the early Roy constitutionally irremovable power in and over any state. Jenkins, a former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, joined But now, what about ? Certainly it with three other ex-Labour Members of in is true, and too often forgotten, that Lenin's October coup founding the . Having enjoyed many was achieved against a that was organizing elections; and that, after those elections had We have to insist that the criterion of returned a huge non-Bolshevik majority, the dissolved the resulting Constituent Assembly by force, and democratic legitimacy must be not whether forthwith proceeded to what was to become Lenin's some regime was voted in, but whether in monstrous legacy—the totalitarian . due time it may be voted out. Yet is it not possible, at least in a long and firmly established democracy, to reach full socialism gradually and democrat- ically, and still retain or even perhaps extend and improve political discussions with the late Sidney Hook since we first our treasured democratic institutions? met more than thirty years ago, I am inclined to say that There is a strong case for concluding that it is not possible, it has been primarily for this same reason that most recently that economic pluralism is a necessary, though of course not he was more correctly described as a social democratic than sufficient, condition of political pluralism. This case was as a democratic socialist. perhaps most famously argued in F. A. Hayek's The Road The and the profundity of Hook's commitment to .2 The most decisive refutation of this or any other to both liberty and democracy was, of course, altogether thesis of impossibility is the production of an actual counter- beyond question. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of example. But, although a great many states are now almost many who continue to support the Labour Party; for, though fully socialist, in not one of these has an administration been that party still remains as much as ever a creature of the removed from office as the result of a general election. trade unions, the leading personnel in both party and unions Certainly the Institute of - in Moscow are very different now from their predecessors in the first is happy to recognize that, in a favorite Soviet phrase, "This postwar decade. Even when the transformation had only just is no accident." In 1971, with its eyes most immediately upon begun, C.A.R. Crosland, a leading Minister and Labour Party Chile and France, the Institute sketched a program for intellectual—who was regarded as being very much on the achieving, through "" or "broad left" tactics, right of the party—insisted that "complete state irreversible Communist domination: "Having once acquired is without question incompatible with liberty and democracy. "3 political power, the working class implements the liquidation Unfortunately, and I fear significantly, even he gave no of the private ownership of the means of production... . indication of the point, if any, at which he would have to As a result, under socialism, there remains no ground for leave a party committed by its constitution to precisely that the existence of any opposition parties counter-balancing the aim, and in practice insisting on ever more and never less ." With , South Africa, , and state ownership and control of . So it is to be pre- many other fallen or threatened countries in mind we should sumed that Crosland was, for whatever reasons, at one with remember that the future one-party monopolists will not always publicize their Leninism, or even be organized as a ... the virtuous young lady of Kent Communist Party from the beginning. Who said that she knew what it meant Since World War II, anxiety on this count has been one When men took her to dine of the reasons why some persons and even some political Gave her cocktails and wine; parties have abandoned democratic socialism in favor of She knew what it meant—but she went. nonsocialist . For instance: At its Bad Godesberg conference in 1959 the German Social Democratic Notes Party—which for Marx and Engels and even for Lenin until 1. Former servicemen will recall the prudential : "No names, no 1914 had been the model Marxist party—decided to jettison pack-drill." All too many names, however, can be found in Paul Hollander's the socialist ideal in favor of Ludwig Erhard's more prosperous Political Pilgrims (0xford, and New York: 0xford University Press, 1981). 2. London: and Kegan Paul, 1944. and productive "social ." (As an Englishman 3. C. A. R. Crosland, Social Democracy in Europe (London: Fabian I must ruefully reflect that in that same year the Labour Party Society, 1975), p. 2. •

Fall 1989 15 Humanism and Socialism

Richard Schmitt

hat must we do to build a genuinely free society constitute a party; there is no set of clearly stated principles for all? A hundred years ago many thinkers were to which a humanist must subscribe. While many humanists Wquite confident that they knew the road to universal today are secularists, for instance, there are also religious human liberation. Today that confidence is being shaken. humanists. But although there are no humanist , the Certainly in the socialist world, the old have been belief in human freedom and the demand for free institutions rapidly melting away. has just decided to allow a comes close to being an unalterable humanist principle. It plurality of political parties; the Poles are actively considering is difficult to imagine a or Stalinist humanist. elected legislative bodies. The Soviets recently voted party According to the Secular Humanist Declaration: functionaries out of office, while the Chinese are experimenting with capitalist economic reforms. In the socialist world, a free society should also encourage some measure of economic orthodox Marxist views about the road to liberation—long freedom.... This means that individuals and groups should out of reach of —are now under attack. The be able to compete in the marketplace. ... The right to private property is a human right without which other human promise of Marxist orthodoxy to bring humankind into a rights are nugatory (Italics added). more democratic society, where basic needs are met and everyone is free to develop to the fullest, has not been kept, Capitalism—the marketplace, the right to private property— and socialists understand that more and more clearly. are not only desirable freedoms in a free society, they are In the capitalist West, by contrast, complacency prevails. fundamental—because without them, other human rights are Capitalism is seen as the guarantor of freedom, and, however "nugatory." Capitalism is a necessary condition for a free political theorists differ otherwise, they are all at one on this: society. Free political and legal institutions call for capitalist economic If that appears to be a strong claim, it is by no means institutions. I want to cast doubt on this consensus by arguing unusual. In fact there is a solid consensus among political that while capitalism may provide economic freedom under philosophers that agrees with the Secular Humanist a textbook model, it does not do so in actuality. What is Declaration. Thus believes that in the eyes more, what economic freedom capitalism provides is of the liberal, the best society, one that is genuinely free, allows purchased at the enormous cost of widespread political oppres- each member to follow his or her conception of the good sion. Nor is it clear how we should understand the central life as long as all others are allowed the same freedom. The concept of "freedom." institutions of a society should not favor one conception of Once we see that capitalism is not an obvious guarantor the good life over others. In order to build such a society, of freedom, we can then join enlightened thinkers in the socialist world and ask the most important of all political There are no better mechanisms available, as general political questions: What institutions will guarantee everyone the institutions, than the two main institutions of our own political greatest possible freedom? economy: the economic market, for decisions about what At the very center of humanism are claims that human goods shall be produced and how they shall be distributed beings are free and rational. Freedom, the ability to think ... and . ) and choose independently of external and internally distorting forces is the precondition of . But rationality, in Milton Friedman echoes this claim: "Capitalism is a its turn, makes freedom possible. Only if they are rational necessary condition for ."2 Rawls agrees with are human beings truly free. This was the of the that, as does Nozick.3 A free society, everyone seems to believe, humanists, it was the doctrine of Kant, and it requires a free market—that is, a capitalist . is the belief of present-day humanists. Humanism does not If we look a little more closely, however, we see that this consensus conceals some major disagreements. Friedman's Richard Schmitt is professor of philosophy at Brown capitalism is a in which individuals contract University. He has written about Phenomenology, Existen- freely with other individuals. Government does no more than tialism, and Marxism, and his latest book is An Introduction keep law and order. The major problem for this free-market to Marx and Engels: A Critical Reconstruction. system is "monopoly—which inhibits effective freedom by denying individuals effective alternatives to the particular

16 FREE INQUIRY exchange."4 Friedman's capitalism is competitive capitalism, the further claim that Marxists make, that the where no one has a sufficient market share to enable her of countries that are capitalist use their governmental power or him, singly, to affect by buying and selling less or to bolster dictatorial regimes as long as that seems in the more. The role of government in the free society is minimal. interest of the capitalists. The Somozas, who held Nicaragua It is restricted to acting "as an umpire."5 as a personal fiefdom for forty years under the protection Others are willing to allow government a more extensive of the U.S. government, are only one example of that. The role. For Nozick, transfers of property that are illegal call connection between this sort of government policy and the for rectification and the government is, thus, in some cases, large corporations is harder to make believable to the liberal allowed to redistribute holdings in order to rectify previous who is skeptical of these Marxists views. But it behooves the fraud, blackmail, or theft. Dworkin allows the government liberal who is dedicated to rational inquiry not to be blind the right to redistribute resources in order to "sharply limit, to these claims. Liberals have yet to produce an at least, the inequalities in welfare" that occur in a capitalist that the coincidence between U.S. foreign policy that favors economic system.6 Finally, Rawls' market system is actually dictatorships, as it has done for a long time, and the compatible with public ownership of means of production.? of large capitalist enterprises is purely accidental. Which of these versions of capitalism is a necessary Nor have capitalists been unambiguous in their dedication condition for freedom? The widespread agreement we thought to freedom inside their home countries. The largest German we had found before turns out to be largely verbal. Humanists capitalist firms did not hesitate to build plants near must surely be very clear about what sort of capitalism they extermination camps where inmates, many of them Germans, endorse as a necessary condition for freedom. If they are not, could be worked to death. Labor costs were low; profits high: they open themselves to the accusation of merely repeating uncritically the current clichés of American propaganda. ... such famous German firms as I. G. Farben, the Krupp Some of these of capitalism seem clearly Werke and Siemens-Schuckert Werke [the U.S. equivalents unacceptable. Friedman acknowledges that monopoly inhibits would be Dupont, U.S. Steel, and G.E.] had established plants the effective freedom of exchange and is therefore "a problem." in Auschwitz as well as near the Lublin death camps. Cooperation between the S.S. and the business men was But monopoly is nonetheless real. The large multinational excellent; Hoess of Auschwitz testified to very cordial social conglomerates dominate the capitalist . The relations with the I. G. Farben representatives.8 Friedman-Nozick version of capitalism, if it ever has existed, does not exist today. Any arguments that that version of I. G. Farben was said to have invested more than a million capitalism is necessary for freedom have only indirect bearing 1975 dollars at Auschwitz, a construction project that required on the world in which we live. 170 contractors.9 If we want to be serious about the need for capitalism in a free society, we need to look at the connection between During World War II, the great German pharmaceutical actually existing capitalism and freedom. corporation, Bayer A. G. of Leverkusen, made extensive use The reasons for claiming that capitalism is a necessary of death-camp inmates for their experiments on human condition for a free society are not difficult to see: Capitalism— beings.10 text-book capitalism, that is—is said to provide a certain economic freedom by allowing private ownership of property, The poison used in the gas chambers was manufactured by freedom to choose one's occupation, and freedom to enter German chemical concerns—capitalist enterprises all of them. the market. It is debatable whether freedom belongs to all Examples could easily be multiplied. The ones cited might members of the society to the same extent, but for the time be considered exceptions. But such a claim needs proof; it being let us recognize that these claims of liberals and is not self-evidently true. Until such a proof has been provided, humanists have a prima facie plausibility. liberals should pause before they repeat the ritualistic assertion The question is, however, whether capitalism, while it that there can be no freedom without capitalism. There is provides some economic freedom on the one hand, is not very strong evidence that, on the contrary, capitalists use their also a severe threat to political freedom. We must, I believe, economic power in order to curtail the political freedom of answer that question in the affirmative. all those who are not capitalists. As a consequence, we must The capitalists of the Western developed countries have ask whether the economic freedom that capitalism provides repeatedly interfered in foreign countries and have either is worth the bitter for which capitalism is a sufficient helped to install dictatorships to replace popularly elected condition. The price that is paid for the economic freedom governments (as ITT did in 1973 in Chile), or have supported of capitialism may well be much too high. and profited from dire oppression of the majority by the Nor is this all. Capitalism curtails the freedom of the minority (as the large mining concerns, for instance, or U.S. majority by the very mechanisms that are reputed to provide companies like IBM and are doing in South us with economic freedom. It is a well-known fact that in Africa). the United States, people of color are much more likely to These are pretty clear-cut and powerful examples of direct be poor and much less likely to be rich than whites. Their support by capitalists for depriving large numbers of people chances of being unemployed are much greater than those of their freedom and a significant number of people of their of whites, as are their chances of having low-paying, unskilled very lives. More complex and therefore harder to argue is jobs. The chances that single mothers and their children have

Fall 1989 17 of being poor are much greater than that of any other group. is the difference between those? Women still earn only two-thirds of what a man earns for doing a comparable job. The Rational Man would normally [be willing to] choose One might explain these by claiming that people of to make a choice among the alternatives facing him in the color and women do not play the capitalist game as well offer situation, whereas normally he would not [be willing to] choose to make the choice among the alternatives facing as white males, that they are less able, industrious, and so him in the threat situation.13 on. Hence their disproportionate poverty cannot be blamed on capitalism. While there are clearly people who believe that, Any transaction that I enter willingly is one in which I act a convincing, rational case for that belief has still to be made. voluntarily. It is clear, on the contrary, that the capitalist system In this view of freedom, even people of color, whose job systematically encourages uneven distribution of economic opportunities are severely restricted by racism, act voluntarily returns. Men of color and women have a disproportionate because taking a job that pays poorly is still preferable to likelihood of being poor. This indicates a restriction of freedom starving. Women who hire themselves out at two-thirds the in two ways. pay that a man gets for the same job are not being coerced (1) If there are two groups in an economic system whose because, after all, no one is putting a gun to their heads. members are equally able and industrious, and one group They are glad to get the work and the money. consistently is much worse off than the other, the suspicion If that is what we mean by freedom, then capitalism does arises that worse-off group is prevented from availing itself indeed provide us with freedom. But that argument for of relatively more profitable opportunities. We know, of capitalism appears almost too good. The conception of course, that this is true. People of color are systematically freedom seems tailor-made. We define freedom as just the kept out of occupations, or out of the trajectories that end in those occupations. We also know that the same is true sort of that capitalism provides, and then of women. find much to our surprise that capitalism provides freedom The capitalist system, as it actually functions, involves a in that sense. It is true by definition that freedom requires good deal of coercion to restrict and to drive capitalism. The claim is tautological. down wages. Racism and sexism are the names we give to Do we need to accept that concept of freedom? It is difficult those forms of coercion. What is more, while morally to accept with a straight face the claim that persons who reprehensible, playing on racist fears is often good business. are victims of racism and sexism are free. Restricting trade unions to whites helps to keep up wages Accordingly, many thinkers embrace a more generous for whites; closing jobs to persons of color or to women conception of freedom that includes not only the absence of increases the relative supply of applicants for the jobs that physical coercion or the threat thereof, but also the capacity are open to them, and thus serves to depress wages. To the to use the formal or legal freedoms one has. In this view, extent that they are good business, capitalism encourages persons require opportunities to avail themselves of freedom sexism and racism, and deprives a majority of American to trade, or to become educated, or to , or to speak citizens of some of their freedom, specifically, their economic out. Being free is more than being left alone; it also includes freedom. Here capitalism appears as a sufficient condition some capacities for free activity. of lack of economic freedom. Humanists should, in addition, remember their , (2) Even if the preceding point is not granted, we must which speak of freedom as the opportunity to develop fully still admit that the inequalities in income that capitalism brings in all directions: a free person is one who is at the top of in its wake amount to inequalities in freedom—economic as his or her powers, able to be as richly and intricately human well as social and political. The range of options of the poor as possible. This conception of freedom is a far cry from is limited when compared with those of others in the society. the Friedman/Nozick definition of freedom as the absence The poor are less free. Capitalism is not a necessary condition of the harshest coercion. It is the conception of freedom of of freedom for everyone, even within the United States. the that earned for his early writings the scornful Whether or not one accepts that claim depends, of course, epithet of "humanism" from the Stalinists. on what one means by "freedom." We encounter here one Which of these conceptions of freedom should we adopt? of the central questions in the entire "capitalism and freedom" The question is significant. Freedom is not a natural condition, debate, namely: what do we mean by that word "freedom"? but an aspect of social organization. Societies are not natural; Friedman and Nozick operate with a simple conception they are human creations. Our choice of the meaning of of freedom: A person is free insofar as she or he is not coerced. freedom thus is not determined by objective matter of fact "Freedom as a value ... has to do with the interrelations about the universe, but expresses the sort of society in which between people." 1 The fact that a person has a limited number we choose to live. The choice of the Friedman/Nozick of alternatives is of no relevance to the question of whether definition is a choice of capitalism as it exists—including its she or he is free, as long as alternatives are not limited by racist and sexist and other oppressive strategies. The humanist means of coercion.l» What is meant by "coercion"? Nozick tradition has a more generous view of human society and develops that notion at considerable length. The upshot is of human beings. It must therefore be wary of assuming, that a person is coerced when she or he acts under a threat, without question, that capitalism is a prerequisite for a free but not when someone makes her or him an offer. What society.

18 FREE INQUIRY The widespread consensus that a free society must, inter in the capitalist world must do the same. It is time that we alia, be capitalist is too problematic to be maintained. Different took the question seriously: How can we build a society where defenders of that thesis have rather different conceptions of all are free? It is time that we admitted that we do not have capitalism, as well as of freedom. While there is some abstract an answer to that question. plausibility that capitalism provides us with economic freedom, capitalism restricts political freedom for the majority; economic freedom is paid for by the oppression of the majority. Notes What is more, under the conditions of capitalism as it actually 1. R. Dworkin, "Liberalism," reprinted in M. Sandel, ed., Liberalism exists, even economic freedom is assured only for a minority. and Its Critics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974), p. 66.. To what freedom do we aspire? Different thinkers define 2. M. Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom (: University of that concept in very different ways. Only if freedom is defined Chicago Press, 1962), p. 10. 3. J. Rawls, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, very narrowly is capitalism, defined in equally narrow ways, 1971), p. l0. See also R. Nozick, , State and (New York: a precondition for freedom. What institutions will yield us Basic Books, 1974). a more generous freedom is at the moment not at all clear. 4. Friedman, p. 14. 5. Friedman, p. 15. The debate over the connection between economic systems 6. Dworkin, p. 69. and political freedom has traditionally been conducted as if 7. Rawls, p. 66. there were only two alternatives: capitalism and socialism. 8. H. Arendt, Eichman in (New York: Viking, 1965), p. 79. 9. R. Rubenstein, The Cunning of History (New York: Harper If we reject capitalism as a basis for a free society, must we Colophon, 1978), p. 58. then endorse socialism? I pointed out at the beginning that 10. Rubenstein, p. 53. people in the socialist world are finally freeing themselves 11. Friedman, p. 15. 12. Friedman, p. 12. from this traditional and are, thus, thinking more 13. R. Nozick, "Coercion," in S. Morgenbesser, et al., eds., Philosophy. concretely about the problem of building a free society. We Science and Method (New York: St. Martin's, 1969), p. 463. • Socialism is Incompatible with Humanism

Robert Sheaffer

umanism is often defined as simply the absence of If we examine the big picture, and have the courage to theism in the realm of morals; that is, the belief that be ruthlessly honest with ourselves—even if that means Hsince no codes of morality can credibly be traced thinking or saying things that might upset our friends—we back to a divine origin, we humans must create our own cannot escape the conclusion that humanistic values are best moral codes, without the benefit of a celestial anchor. Though realized in societies that allow individuals to buy and sell this is clearly a part of humanism, as a definition it is goods freely, and that they fare worst under socialism. Indeed, incomplete; under it, Stalin qualifies as a humanist. the realities of socialism—with or without a "human face"— Humanists recognize that humanism additionally implies are utterly incompatible with the professed goals of humanism. a concern for the of the lives we lead. Humanism, Many humanists see socialism as a vital element of as conceived and practiced, implies a feeling of magnanimity humanism; indeed, at one time, most humanists believed this. and fairness toward one's neighbors. It allies one with what The allegedly warm and caring values of socialism would is best in the human against what is worst. replace what were perceived as the "greedy and cold" values Humanists wish to maximize human autonomy and dignity, associated with capitalism, and a paradise on earth would to allow each individual the greatest degree of freedom blossom forth as soon as this occurred. While there are more consistent with securing the rights of others, and to maximize than a few warm-and-fuzzy thinkers for whom this is still one's opportunities for obtaining those material benefits that true, no intellectually honest person today can deny that the are necessary for living a good life—especially decent food, is a sorry tale of economic failure and housing, and medical care. crimes against humanity. This is now recognized even in Moscow and (if not yet at Harvard and Berkeley). Robert Sheaffer is a lecturer and author whose books include All of the glowing promises made by socialists have turned The UFO Verdict and, most recently, Resentment Against out to be mendacity and : the realities of socialism Achievement. are stagnation, shortages, , and the . Even socialism's warmest promise of "free health care for the people"

Fall 1989 19 has turned out to be a cruel fraud: life expectancy in the (After all, under capitalism the had to earn its today is shorter than in Guyana, , and place at the bottom!) And when in any society absolute power , and is still falling. Cuba's claimed reductions in is seized by the angriest failures, it should surprise no one infant mortality, even if true, still lag far behind those of that what follows is plunder instead of , and Panama, Chile, and Barbados. All socialist governments have revengefulness instead of magnanimity. This is why socialism, freshly revalidated the accusation that brought when unchecked, invariably leads to sickening and inhuman against the French two hundred years ago: ; the resentful seek not merely to confiscate the wealth They have "bought poverty by crime." of those they envy, but to punish them for having enjoyed But this dismal scenario cannot be blamed on errors in it. the way that socialism was pursued, or on seventy-two The twentieth century, if it thinks of "envy" at all, conceives consecutive years of bad weather in Russia: It is intrinsic to of it as something trifling and inconsequential. We say "I the itself. (Some Christians likewise make the envy you," as if "envy" were a synonym for "admiration." ridiculous claim that their religion's dismal two-thousand-year But those living before the flowering of socialism knew envy history of intolerance and persecution is because "true to be something far more malicious than this—the word derives Christianity" still has never been tried!) Rather, it is because from the Latin invidere, signifying the "harmful stare" of the the ideology of socialism is grounded in the resentments- of envious as they contemplate with envenomed eyes the success those who have failed in open economic competition. It is of others more disciplined and industrious than themselves. a phenomenon of angry failure confronting visible success; In virtually every society, the "evil eye" feared by the socialism is nothing more than resentment against the most superstitious is associated with envy; those who envy us stare successful achievers in the the society. Nothing infuriates a with so much malice that it seems to some that this very socialist as much as the sight of someone else's hard-earned gaze possesses the magical power to inflict harm. Ovid and wealth, and the prevention of individual success is at the very Shakespeare knew envy to signify not "admiration," but an top of socialism's agenda. that renders one sick, green, and repulsive. To envy Thus it should not surprise us that, in any society, when means not merely to covet others' possessions, but to desire the most productive people are systematically arrested and to harm them out of spite; the envious derive pleasure from murdered (or, under diluted forms of socialism, driven scratching a Mercedes. That is why incidents of vandalism elsewhere by high taxes and expropriation), productivity must are highest in poor neighborhoods; those who own no property fall dramatically. When the value system of disciplined envy anyone who owns anything worth having. achievers is declared to be "exploitative" and criminal, no "Socialism" is simply "envy" writ large, and elevated to one dares to follow their example; people learn instead to a moral ideal. It brands the most productive as criminals, emulate the irresponsibility that characterizes the proletariat, and makes heroes of those who have difficulty achieving whose value system has been declared politically "correct." anything at all. The full potential of the human race can never be liberated under such a warped ideal. Free Inquiry But what explains the stranglehold of socialism on modern Western ? That the ideals of socialism are parallel to those of Christianity is not difficult to see. Both consider devoted to the ideals of the enemy to be the achiever who produces far more than secularism and freedom is consumed, investing the difference, while both promise a We invite you to subscribe coming millennium in which such achievers will be punished, whether in this life or the next. Clearly, in the morality of ❑ 1 year $22.50 socialism we have the remains of Christianity after its major ❑ 2 years $39.00 superstitions have been exorcised, the grimy residuum at the ❑ 3 years $54.00 bottom of the pot when the Holy Ghost and all of that religion's Subscription includes the Secular Humanist Bulletin lighter spirits have been evaporated by the light of reason. ❑ New ❑ Check or money The humanist holds the highest possible attitudes of ❑ Renew order enclosed benificence and fairness toward the human race. One settles ❑ Visa ❑ MasterCard for nothing less than the best possible environment for Acct. tt Exp. Date promoting human health, prosperity, and freedom: capitalism. The humanist must strive to conquer one's antihumane , Name (print clearly) especially the one Cicero proclaimed "the most common and Street universal vice": envy. Socialism, in whatever form, wages war on the most intelligent, disciplined, and productive portion City State Zip of humanity, in the name of the least. Disputes between the Outside U.S. add $6.00 for surface mail, $12.00 for airmail. (U.S. funds on U.S. various factions of socialism boil down to whether achievers bank). should merely be penalized, or expropriated, or murdered. FREE INQUIRY, Box 5 • Buffalo, New York 14215-0005 Such base enviousness is unworthy of anyone who professes Tele: 716-834-2921 the highest aspirations for humanity. Socialism is incompatible Call TOLL-FREE 1-800-458-1366 outside New York State. with humanism. •

20 FREE INQUIRY Humanism and

Tibor R. Machan

t has been said that humanism cannot be identified with Today there is a kind of schizophrenia about matters of a or candidate or with a specific economic political economy. Intellectuals, including many humanists, doctrine. There is a good deal of truth to this claim. tend to favor the collectivist conception of humanity. Ethically Considering that humanism's deep roots link it with diverse this is traditional—secular and religious ethics tend toward figures from to Marx, each of whom embraced the notion that we are all of of one piece, and ideally humanity different conceptions of the philosophy, this should not be would be a huge love-fest with all loving all unconditionally. surprising. For instance, to Marx, who saw humanity as a At conventions of political scientists and philosophers in the body or an "organic whole," humanism would naturally imply United States, book exhibits still favor tracts sympathetic a collectivist political-economic outlook. When one considers toward socialism and and declaring the evils humanity a concrete universal—that is, a natural collective— of liberalism and . The love affair that led many then one would regard a society healthy and sound only if intellectuals to swallow either for its championing of its institutions accommodate that position. If, however, one Das Volk, or communism for its aim of creating a worldwide sees humanity as consisting of individual beings, each of whom is far from over, though it is a bit defensive. is capable of being whole even while others may not be, then But almost all attempts to implement this ideal have resulted a society's institutions must accommodate this basic fact. in massive tyrannies and inefficient social and economic So though humanism gives us a clear enough clue as to systems. Thus we witness worldwide disenchantment with what some think should be our focus of attention—namely, socialism. At a recent conference in Hungary, Eastern-bloc humanity—it is far from the whole story we need in order economists openly wondered why anyone in the West still to guide ourselves politically and economically, let alone in takes socialism seriously, and noted that there are more other, more specialized areas of our lives. In addition, Marxists in the West than in the Soviet bloc. Even in the humanism has for many thinkers served as a point of contrast, East, governments are experimenting with privatization— distinguishing those who draw on as the source of returning to the private sector various projects that enthusiams ethical guidance from those who stress the natural life of with socialism of one or another kind had placed under state human beings as that source. But here again, there is a lack management. of clear determination as to just what is the correct or best So now there is ambivalence about the merits of perspective on human nature. collectivism. Capitalism is still widely regarded as cruel and None of this means that when rounded out, humanism callous, unable to show compassion and generosity to the must remain numb on political and economic questions. extent believed to be necessary for political economic systems. Though philosophical or ethical outlooks need not be explicitly But it is also admitted, even by rhetorical liberals who are committed to any of a variety of political positions, they cannot turning into fiscal conservatives, that somehow the dream escape implicating themselves once certain details are filled easily turns into a nightmare, and at any rate the collectivist in. dream is too expensive and capitalism delivers the goods. For example, if it turns out, as many libertarians think, Does this say anything of importance to humanists? for that the human essence is not, as Marx said, "the true one thing, humanists are not seriously bound to traditions, collectivity" but, on the contrary, "the true individuality" of unlike conservatives and other admirers of collectivism. (Yes, man, then humanism does imply political and economic Virginia, collectivism has mostly conservative origins—see, for answers in which we all have an interest. If, however, Marx example, , Hegel, Rousseau, T. H. Green, and George is right that our nature is to be species-beings—parts of a Will.) Humanists might appreciate that despite the longevity larger collective entity, namely, humanity—then the political of the collectivist ideal—that is, the preference for understand- and economic answers will have to accommodate this basic ing humanity as a concrete universal, at least once it is fully fact. realized—it may be worth reconsidering the matter. It may be important for humanity—understood simply as human life Tibor Machan is professor of philosophy at Auburn Uni- on earth—to rethink what really should be our standard of versity, Alabama. He is senior editor of Reason magazine; human values: individualism or collectivism. he has published widely, and his most recent book is Liberty I regard the correct version of humanism to be indivi- and Culture. dualistic. But this should not mislead anyone into thinking that I wish to resurrect 's idea of the human

Fall 1989 21 individual—the atomistic, isolated, utility-maximizing ego. I And while this justifies certain kinds of intolerance in personal believe that a neo-Aristotelian idea makes the best sense; that and social relationships, at the political and legal levels the is, that human beings are essentially rational, self-moving dominant principle is of individual rights. I do not need to beings who can, as a matter of their choices, fully realize accept philandering or prostitution as morally proper to themselves within society. This is as fully humanistic as one understand and act on the principle that no one may force could want, barring some dream about collective human another to comply with any possibly correct moral view. nature. And this would also favor a political economy of Economically this individualism rejects the imperialistic capitalism, with strong protection of individual rights to life, Homo economicus idea of human behavior but accepts that liberty, and property. prudent men and women will generate a substantial I wish to stress that this view of individualism is fully commercial society, and that freedom of trade will most prob- compatible with humanism as a limited vision of gaining our ably help to supply people with what they ought to want, guidelines from an understanding of the natural human being. without denying that it also often supplies them with what In ethics, therefore, this individualism avoids . they ought not to want. • Libertarianism Versus Secular Humanism?

David Gordon libertarianism is a that addresses the state has a duty to provide for the poor, one will have the problem of when the use of coercion is justified. to reject the libertarian principle that denies welfare rights. I Libertarians believe that individuals have moral But simply because libertarians do not accept the teachings rights—including the right to own property—that limit the of particular religions certainly does not require them to reject proper use of force. People can form protection agencies for belief in God. defense against aggression and for the enforcement of Another complication is that some libertarians adhere to contracts, but such agencies may not use force except for the philosophy of the Ayn Rand. The denial that judicial and police functions. In particular, according to this God exists is one of her main tenets, and her disciples, called view, people do not have welfare rights that allow them to Objectivists, must be atheists. But her system is just one of compel others to transfer money to them. Some libertarians, a number of possible foundations for libertarianism; and as but by no means all, think that a protection is justified long as one accepts what libertarians believe to be the correct in monopolizing the use of force in a territory, thus forming political principles, one counts as a libertarian. Thus, while a state. Those libertarians who allow a minimal state do not Objectivists must be atheists, libertarians need not. think it should have the right to tax or even to secure money However, the question facing us is not libertarianism's to perform its legitimate functions. compatibility with atheism; it is its compatibility with secular Are libertarianism and secular humanism compatible? If humanism. But a response to the first question is an essential the question were phrased in a slightly different way, the answer preliminary to the second. would be simple. If the issue were "Are libertarianism and Secular humanism, as I understand it, agrees with atheism atheism compatible?" a mere yes would be enough. Nothing in rejecting belief in God as and Christianity about libertarianism entails that God exists; atheism and traditionally conceive of him. Unlike atheists, some humanists libertarianism are obviously consistent, though libertarians are need not reject all religious belief: some "liberal" religious not required to be atheists. The two views deal with different thinkers who disagree with orthodox theism might be classed problems, and the question of their compatibility is on the as secular humanists but not as atheists. same order as, "Can stamp collectors be Republicans?" What positive beliefs are characteristic of secular human- This point applies equally well if one asks, "Can one who ism? Humanists look on ethics as aimed at the advancement believes in God be a libertarian?" Here, however, the issue of human welfare, and take an optimistic attitude toward the is a bit more complicated, in that particular religions may potential of human beings for progress. They place great have inconsistent with libertarianism. If, for example, emphasis on civil liberties and look on the influence of one agrees with certain proponents of liberation theology that organized religion with misgiving. One gathers that the enthusiasm of most secular humanists for the Roman Catholic David Gordon is a post-doctoral scholar at the Social Phi- church is under strict control. losophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University. In addition, humanists take positions on particular social He has contributed to Mind, Analysis, and other philosophy issues. They generally favor a prochoice position on abortion journals. and and oppose, for instance, the teaching of in public schools. Many favor an end to tax

22 FREE INQUIRY exemption for churches; and practically every American use of compulsion, to libertarians it is a matter on which secular humanist endorses the "wall of separation" reading the state should have no say. Again, most libertarians agree of the First Amendment's religion clauses. that abortion and euthanasia should not be legally forbidden. Are these positions compatible with libertarianism? Once (A minority of libertarians oppose abortion on the ground more, our topic presents no difficulty, except in regard to that the fetus is a person and entitled to full libertarian rights.) specific policy measures. Humanist attitudes toward ethics and The libertarian approach to these questions, however, differs human beings seem entirely consistent with libertarianism. from that of the secular humanist. Libertarians have no official Their favorable attitude toward civil liberties such as freedom position on whether abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, and of religion and speech is not only compatible with so on are morally right; their sole concern lies in rejecting libertarianism but required by it. the use of force in these areas. Secular humanists, on the Before turning to some possible sticking points, one other hand, often directly address the morality of these issues, objection demands consideration. So far, I have claimed that not just the ethics of enforcement. libertarianism is consistent with both atheism and secular An area where the two positions do not quite see eye- humanism. But positions can be consistent and still clash with to-eye is, oddly enough, the issue of teaching creationism in one another. The great British idealist philosopher J. M. E. public schools. It is not that libertarians are creationists; rather, McTaggart was both a firm atheist and a regular participant they do not accept public education. This should come as in services of the . He was not guilty of no surprise, if one recalls the characterization of libertarianism any logical inconsistency—he admired the church because of given at the start of the essay. Educating people does not his strong attraction to ritual and tradition. Most people, fall within the scope allotted minimal state or protection agen- however, would think the combination distinctly odd. Is there cies. Instead, all schools in a libertarian society would be anything strange about accepting both secular humanism and private; in such a society parents who wish creationist instruc- libertarianism? tion for their children would be perfectly free to obtain it. It seems to me that there is not. Looked at historically, I am not suggesting that secular humanists favor banning many well-known American opponents of organized religion, creationist teaching in private schools. But many humanists such as , , and Lysander regard with disfavor the instruction (or as they see it the Spooner, also are regarded by libertarians to be precursors. ) of children with fundamentalist religious views. James J. Martin's valuable survey of the nineteenth-century For this reason, they tend to look with a skeptical eye on individualist anarchists, Men Against the State, leaves little private schools and welcome public education based on room for doubt about the close association of free thought nonsectarian values. with individualism. No direct clash exists even here. Libertarians are not Unfortunately, not all of these writers are well-known; required to like or creationism, and probably Herbert Spencer, however, ranks as a major figure in both the vast majority do not. Neither is it the case that secular the humanist and libertarian traditions. The near-omniscience humanists on the whole favor banning private schools. There of Macaulay's schoolboy is not required to know Macaulay's does seem to me to be a distinct difference of opinion, though, role as both a classical liberal and a freethinker, and David in how this question should be answered: Is it more important Hume, while ranking foremost among religious skeptics, that children receive a liberal, "progressive" education, or that elaborated a defense of property rights that some libertarians people be able to obtain the education they choose for their today find persuasive. To continue to list name after name children? would serve little purpose; but throughout continental Europe, One other point can be dealt with very briefly, since its nineteenth-century classical liberals were generally regarded treatment parallels what has been said about education. Since as vigorous opponents of the . libertarians do not believe in taxation at all, the issue of tax So great is the historical affinity between humanism and exemption for churches does not arise. that there is a danger of pushing our point But taxes are very unlikely to go away, however much too far. There is nothing odd about being both religious and libertarians may think them improper. Should churches be a libertarian. The great nineteenth-century French advocate exempt from taxes when others have to pay them? This of laissez-faire economics Frédéric Bastiat thought that a free- question, though surely important, has not aroused much market economy expressed God's will; and Acton, a discussion among libertarians and there is no "standard" champion of classical liberalism, was also a devout Roman response to it. Similarly, I am unable to say what libertarians Catholic. Turning to another issue, libertarians can be as believe ought to be taught in public schools. Most would pessimistic as they wish. Schopenhauer's political opinions probably favor having public institutions resemble the free were to a large extent in the classical liberal mold. market as closely as they can; but this is a mere conjecture. So far, so good. A few difficulties, in my opinion not insur- Libertarians and secular humanists could both gain from mountable, come up when one considers the social policies discussions of issues like these. that most secular humanists favor. Even here, a large measure In general, then, those who find themselves attracted to of agreement exists between the two groups. Libertarians, like both libertarianism and secular humanism can readily adopt secular humanists, oppose the use of force to require people both positions. The fit between the two is not absolutely to follow religious doctrines that deal with personal morality. problem-free, but it is about as good as one can get between For instance, so long as sexual conduct does not involve the two independently motivated doctrines. •

Fall 1989 23 Union? Had the Soviets succeeded in replacing religion with viable secular alternatives? These questions have intrigued Militant Atheism Versus me because of the staying power of religious orthodoxy and the growth of quasi-religious Freedom of Conscience paranormal and occult belief systems in Western countries. Were similar psycho- sociological processes at work in Soviet Reflections on the Moscow society—after seventy-two years of an official atheist ideology that used the vast Atheist/ Humanist Dialogue powers of the totalitarian state to suppress religion? The dialogue was held at the Institute for Scientific Atheism—a gleaming new Paul Kurtz building, completed in 1984 during the Brezhnev era. The interior was well- he Soviet Union has embarked upon a Institute, and Victor Timofejev, associate appointed, with beautiful chandeliers, mar- Tradical shift in its policies concerning director, had attended the Tenth World ble columns, parquet floor, and carpets. religious beliefs. If these new policies Humanist Congress in Buffalo in 1988, the As we were taken to our meeting room, continue, they could very well spell an end theme of which was "Building a World Timofejev pointed out a large center hall, to the decades of repression of religion that Community: Humanism in the Twenty-First just beyond a high statue of Lenin overlook- have marked Soviet society since the 1917 Century." As a consequence they invited a ing the entrance. (With some humor, he told Russian ; indeed, they could lead delegation of Western humanists to convene us that this hall had been used by the Russian Orthodox church in 1988 to celebrate the to a revival of religious fervor. in Moscow; this meeting was entitled "A millenia of the founding of Christianity in In the past, the Communist Party of the Dialogue Between Humanists and Atheists: the Soviet Union.) Our dialogue was Soviet Union has waged unremitting warfare Differences and Similarities." Twelve repre- convened in a large, ornate room, and simul- against religion. It has persecuted religious sentatives and two observers from six taneous translation was provided by the believers, confiscated church , Western countries participated. Included Russians. executed or exiled tens of thousands of were the three IHEU co-presidents—Levi The Institute was founded in 1963 to carry clerics, and prohibited believers to engage Fragell of Norway, Rob Tielman of the out "scientific research" into religion. It was in religious instruction or publish religious Netherlands, and me; Vern and Bonnie considered to be the Soviet Union's "think materials. It has also carried on militant pro- Bullough of the United States; Harry Stopes- tank" for atheism, and was sponsored by atheist propaganda campaigns as part of the Roe of Great Britain; Steinar Nilsen of the Central Committee of the Communist official ideology of the state, in an effort Norway; Armin Rieser of Germany; Anne- Party. Joining Garadja and Timofejev at the to establish a "" committed Marie Franchi of France; and Nettie Klein, dialogue were five other members of the to the ideals of . Cur de Ronde, and Ernst von Brakel of the Institute; J. M. Smolentsev, chair of the is now in the process Netherlands. There were twelve Soviet Department of Ethics at Moscow State of dismantling such policies by permitting participants, and one from Poland. University; Lev N. Mitrokhin, deputy direc- greater freedom of religious conscience. If There have been fundamental and until tor of the Institute for Philosophy of the his reforms proceed unabated, they could now irreconcilable differences between hu- Academy of Sciences and a member of the have dramatic implications for the entire manists and atheists, particularly Marxist- editorial board of the magazine Voprosy Communist world, for the Soviets may be Leninists. The defining characteristic of Filosofi (Problems of Philosophy); Eugenija moving from militant atheism to tolerant humanism is its commitment to human Jablokova, chair of the humanism. The primary reason for this freedom and democracy; the kind of atheism Department at the Academy for seems to be that the urgent need to practiced in the Soviet Union has consis- Sciences; and Alicija Kutchinska of the restructure the failing Soviet economy must tently violated basic human rights. Human- Academy for Social Sciences in Poland. An enlist the aid of all sectors of Soviet society, ists believe first and foremost in freedom of important observer at the dialogue was including the religious. But it is also a natural conscience, the free mind, and the right of Karen Melik-Simonian, deputy director of concomitant of and . dissent. The defense of religious liberty is Nauka i Religiia (Science and Religion), These are the conclusions I drew after as precious to the humanist as are the rights published by Znanie (the Knowledge attending an intensive dialogue with the of unbelievers. Society). Science and Religion was founded Soviets in Moscow during the first week of in 1947 and is now considered to be the July 1989.1 The dialogue was cosponsored lthough I had visited several Commu- Soviet Union's most important journal by the International Humanist and Ethical Anist countries in the past (China, dealing with scientific critiques of religion. Union (IHEU) and the Institute for Scientific Poland, , , Cze- It has more than a half million subscribers. Atheism of the Soviet Academy of Social choslovakia), I had never been to the Soviet The first meeting was chaired by Garadja. Sciences. Victor Garadja, director of the Union. Thus it was with a great deal of I read the opening paper, highlighting the interest that I awaited this dialogue. Were similarities and differences between human- Paul Kurtz is professor of philosophy at the perestroika and glasnost genuine? What ism and atheism, particularly Marxist State University of New York at Buffalo, would they mean for secularism and hu- atheism. I pointed out that humanists and and editor of FREE INQUIRY. manism worldwide? Had the "transcendental atheists share some common ground in that temptation" been overcome in the Soviet both are skeptical of belief in God and divine

24 FREE INQUIRY salvation. There are serious differences, moral values. But the philosophical question and we were told that Frolov's daughter was however, that we should not overlook: For emerges: How do we substantiate values? also studying Huxley's form of humanism. humanists it is not enough to reject theism; There is a danger of ethical , where Huxley, the first president of UNESCO, was one must give reasons for one's criticisms. complete freedom runs riot. Freedom is not one of the founders of the IHEU. In Religion Dogmatic atheism—insofar as it merely an end in itself. Values are often irrational; Without Revelation, he maintains that proclaims a priori its disbelief in God—is we cannot use reason alone to justify our humanism is the next stage in human de- insufficient. Many humanists prefer the term values, but we must seek an ontological basis velopment, and that humanistic religion will nontheist to atheist, and some call them- for them. Humanity needs stable social replace theistic systems. The Soviets pointed selves agnostics or skeptics. Accordingly, the norms guided by the need to fulfill the out that classically, many humanists, such key concern is not whether or not one essence of life: to become all that we are as , were religious. believes in God, but the grounds for one's capable of . Harry Stopes-Roe of the British Hu- position. Doctrinaire atheism can be as The humanists present agreed that the manist Association attempted to clarify this narrow-minded as dogmatic theism. (Many central issue, once one recognizes that God point: Humanism presents a life-stance, he atheists in the West no doubt agree with the does not exist, is that human beings are alive said, though it is nontheistic. Both religious need to make a carefully reasoned case for and living in the here and now, and that and secular humanists reject belief in God atheism.) The central point at issue is not we need to develop a positive morality. The and consider humanism to be both a cosmic abstract atheism, but the next stage; and this Marxists have said that socialism is the way; outlook and a way of life. I reiterated the is where humanism moves beyond negative humanists have insisted that this must not point that in my view humanism is a atheism to propose a positive ethical out- be at the price of freedom and autonomy. eupraxophy, not a religion; it emphasizes a look. We need to enhance both humanist values naturalistic and scientific view of nature, I introduced the term eupraxophy to and ethical principles, but these should never and, not unlike Marxism, it focuses on show that humanism provides both a cosmic be compromised by the exigencies of power, and conduct. outlook and set of normative ethical as they were by . Eugenija Jablo- A central concern expressed in the principles. Indeed, humanism distinctively expresses a "life-stance" or way of life. Its fundamental desire is to preserve and en- If Gorbachev's reforms proceed unabated, they could have hance human freedom; it emphasizes indi- dramatic implications for the entire Communist world, for vidual autonomy in all of its dimensions, from civil liberties and moral freedom to the the Soviets may be moving from militant atheism to tolerant right of privacy. Humanists differ with humanism. But could these radical shifts instead lead to Marxist-Leninists on several points. They believe, for instance, that ethical principles a revival of religious fervor? have a transcultural and universalistic range, no matter what the social system. They kova pointed out that we should not forget discussion was whether human beings can should not be sacrificed at the altar of ideal the Christian principle of agapé, or altruistic live without religion. Are there basic needs ends, nor should they be considered mere love, in any complete ethical theory. I added and functions that only religion satisfy and reflections of the underlying economic and that Anglo-American philosophers in the that cannot be lost? Lev Mitrokhin reviewed social structure. twentieth century have been profoundly the attempt by Soviet atheism to supplant One important question that emerged in concerned about the epistemological basis religion, particularly by providing rites of our discussion was, What is the ethics of of morality. It is widely held today that passage. It introduced "naming celebrations" humanism? In commenting on my paper, although ethical principles are relative to in place of baptism, and civil and Garadja said that the central issue must human interests, needs, and values, in funerals to replace the usual religious concern the foundations of ethics. He developing our ethical standards we appeal ceremonies. These had been designed to pointed out that Marx recognized abstract to criteria that need not be subjective, but serve as substitutes for orthodoxy, but had atheism to be insufficient; Marxist atheism that have some rational basis and may be they succeeded? It was difficult to get was deformed by Stalinism, and Marxists tested by their consequences in experience. accurate statistics from the Soviets. We need to restore moral values to their proper Ivan Frolov, chairman of the Academy of gained the general impression that although sphere. We must go on to another positive Sciences of the USSR Council for - many members of the Communist Party and direction—but true ethics, Garadja said, sophical and Social Problems, recently their believe that loyalty to the state could best be realized in a Communist published a book called Man—Science— requires the abandonment of orthodox society. Can we find common ground, he Humanism: A New Synthesis, in which he religious ceremonies, many of them still hold asked, with religious theists? The essence of argued for a new moral philosophy of human such ceremonies in private. Although civil humanism, he thought, was to improve life that would be humanistic in its princi- ceremonies are widespread, virtually 100 social conditions for the betterment of ples.2 In it Frolov attempts to fuse Marxism percent of Soviet Muslims and perhaps 50 humanity. with what he calls "real humanism"; the book percent of the Russian Orthodox continue Vladislav N. Sherdakov also focused on is of special interest because Frolov is an to hold religious ceremonies. Clearly, one the problem of ethics. It is not true that influential figure today in the Soviet Union, problem is that militant atheism has been atheists are noble, and believers ignoble, he being one of Gorbachev's three secretaries. rejected by a significant percentage of the said; we must recognize that during Stalin's The relationship of humanism to religion public because it is identified with the time basic human values, including the was raised by several Soviet participants, brutalities of earlier Soviet regimes. sanctity of life, were violated. Atheism can who asked, "Is humanism a religion?" One Another theme discussed at the dialogue be anti-humanist, and the world can see that. professor said that she had read virtually concerned moral freedom for the individual, Thus we must find a solid foundation for everything that Julian Huxley had written, with an emphasis on sexual autonomy. Vern Fall 1989 25 and Bonnie Bullough presented a paper on individuals or seek to legislate moral strictly controlled. Indeed, the Soviet Union this topic entitled "Humanism and Sexual- conduct. One of the charges heard from lags behind Western countries by some fifty ity" (see accompanying article). They pointed right-wing fundamentalists in the West is years in regard to such matters. out that the right to privacy is a basic that atheism and humanism have `cor- After the there was humanist ethical principle; the state ought rupted" sexual morality—yet in most a good deal of sexual freedom, but Stalin not to interfere in the personal lives of Communist nations, sexual expression is clamped down; one Russian participant Inside the Bureaucratic Quagmire

he dialogue got off to an amusing through and board the plane anyway. "I don't have a room," I said. start. The visa applications of the T Seven minutes before the departure "No problem. We can get you a room Western delegation were being handled time our travel agent ran to the gate, out for one or two hours." by the Wagon Lits, a large travel agency of breath, with our visas! And so we were "How much?" in Utrecht, where the IHEU is head- off. But why the delay? Was it due to "One hundred dollars for each," they quartered. Rob Tielman and Cur de bureaucratic bungling on the part of the replied. Ronde of the Netherlands had visited the embassy, or were the Soviets having "Hmm. Can you get me a room for Russian Embassy in the Hague six weeks second thoughts about our visit? all night?" I asked. before departure and had been assured We arrived in Moscow and retrieved "It can be arranged," they said. "But by the secretary of the embassy that there our baggage, only to encounter another it will cost $150 extra." would be no trouble with receiving visas: disappointment. There was no welcoming I looked at my weary companions We had an official invitation from Boris delegation, though we had been led to strung out all over the hotel lobby. Popov, the Rector of the Soviet Academy believe there would be. And so we hailed "Look," I said, "can you get me seven of Social Sciences. However, departure taxis and directed them to the Hotel rooms? We will pay you $150 a night plus time was approaching and our visas had Kosmos; en route we found, much to our your commission. We are all very tired. not yet been issued, nor were there any chagrin, that our hotel vouchers were not That's all I need." indications from the Russian embassy included in the visa packets we had They replied, "We shall see what we when or indeed if we would actually received from the Soviet Embassy. Later, can do," and left. They never returned. receive them. Our travel agent said this the embassy would say this was the travel Meanwhile, we decided to try the hotel was the embassy's fault. We sent him to agent's fault. At any rate, we weren't too director once again. We were part of an the embassy almost daily to try to correct worried, since the travel agent had official delegation, we said, and we were the situation, but he was met with only assured us that he had made prior desperate. We implored her. Had there blank stares. reservations at the hotel. been any cancellations? We even threat- The day before departure, still with We arrived at 10 P.M., by now quite ened to contact the Dutch and American no visas in sight, Rob Tielman urgently bedraggled. The hotel had no record of Embassies. At last, at 1:30 A.M., the called upon the secretary of the embassy our reservations, and since we did not director said that she had unexpectedly in the Hague for an . The have prepaid vouchers or any Intourist found seven rooms, but only for one secretary apologized: There was no number, they said that there was nothing night. We had to prepay in cash and they problem with our entering the Soviet that they could do. The hotel said this said we must vacate first thing in the Union, except that all of our visa was the fault of our delegates from the morning. Much relieved, we dragged applications had been lost. He doubted Netherlands; later, Intourist would say it ourselves off to bed. that we could complete new applications was the hotel's fault. We would have to The Hotel Kosmos, a "luxury" hotel in time for the next day's departure, and sleep in the lobby that night and most built in 1976 under a contract with the all other flights were booked. He told us likely the next, because, we were told, French, is said to be the best in Moscow. that we had to have all of our documents there were no rooms available anywhere Although comfortable, it was in a bad at the embassy by 9:00 the next morning, in Moscow. Since it was late at night, state of disrepair. The refrigerator did not and not a moment later. We busily no one could be reached at the Institute work in my room; many of the televisions summoned a passport photographer to or at the Academy. Surely we were in were also broken; and the single piece open shop and by 10 P.M. had completed no mood to carry on a dialogue bright of soap that each of us was given was our new visa applications. The next and early the next day. Extensive discus- so small that it could barely be seen. morning our representative was at the sions with the hotel management proved The next morning we departed for the Russian Embassy well before the fruitless. We thought the worst: The Institute hoping to sort things out with appointed time; alas, the embassy per- Soviets did not wish to continue with the the hotel later. (We eventually did, but sonnel did not arrive until 10:30 A.M. Our dialogue. only after protracted negotiations plane was to leave at 12:50 P.M., and the In the hotel lobby, I was approached between the parties concerned.) The Hague was forty-five minutes from by two beautiful Russian prostitutes— dialogue was set for 10 A.M., but we Schipol airport outside of . prostitution is illegal in the Soviet Union, arrived an hour late. We apologized for Tielman again called the Russian they nonetheless ply their trade in the our tardiness and our hosts greeted us Embassy. At 11:30 A.M. we were told that large hotels. at the door and expressed deep regrets the visas were "still being typed by the "Do you want to make love?" one at our difficulties. "It was Intourist's staff." We decided to check our luggage asked. fault," they said. •

26 FREE INQUIRY observed privately that authoritarian regimes need to regulate the sexual behavior of citizens in order to maintain control over their lives. Though laws are beginning to change, for many years the Soviet Union and other Communist countries have legislatively repressed sexual behavior. Many forms of sexual expression between consenting adults—including homosexual- ity, prostitution, and pornography—until recently were considered criminal acts. The state even looks askance at sex educa- tion.Karen Melik-Simonian observed that the Soviets have examined several sex- education textbooks used in American schools, but consider them to be "too pornographic" for young people. It was evident that the Russian partic- Bonnie Bullough in Red Square. ipants were embarrassed about discussing sexual questions. The humanists present religious sects was another issue discussed in religious affairs from the start, and has were dismayed at the puritanical attitudes at the dialogue. Rob Tielman and Levi not been neutral. It has waged an anti- of the Soviets; for instance, it is even Fragell both delivered papers on religious religious athiest campaign, using all the force considered indecent to mention masturba- pluralism and the state. They pointed out of the state to achieve its ideology. This tion in public. I chuckled when I heard this, that there are two traditions in Western policy, as I already noted, may be in the as I had just come from France, where countries. The first is the strict separation process of changing. billboards depicting nude men and women of church and state that exists in the United The Soviet Union is made up of fifteen are used for advertising cologne and other States. Here no public monies are to be used federated , each of which is in- products. Perhaps one reason for Soviet to establish a religion; the state is not to habited mainly, if not exclusively, by a major reticence about sexuality is that although prohibit the free exercise of religion nor to ethnic group; in each of these areas, religion Freud has been a major influence in Western establish one sect over another. The second is inextricably intertwined with ethnicity, countries, he had been proscribed in the tradition is the pluralistic model adopted by language, and culture. Though the , Soviet Union as contrary to Marxist several Western European countries. In such Byelorussia, the Baltic Republics, Armenia, ideology. Marxism appears to have more in states—Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Bel- , Uzbek, Azerbaijan, and other areas common with the Moral Majority than with gium, and West Germany—there is no are part of the Soviet Union, they are still secular humanism in its attitudes toward sex. discrimination between religious and non- divided along religious lines, which provide One Soviet delegate sounded much like the religious institutions: all are supported a strong basis for ethnic . conservative columnist Patrick J. Buchanan equally. The state funds humanist organi- During the thirteenth and fourteenth when he said that the behavior discussed at zations as well as churches, contributing to centuries, the Mongols ruled large sections the dialogue was offensive and "bestial," and educational counseling and other services. of Russia by means of the Koran and the he asked what he should tell his grandchild- Nettie Klein, the secretary general of IHEU sword of Islam. Christianity was introduced ren about sexuality. and a humanist counselor, reported that the circa 988, when Prince Vladimir was We made it clear that in talking about Dutch government supports more than five baptized. The largest nationality in the sexual freedom we were referring to adults, hundred humanist counselors who serve in Soviet Union is the Russian, comprising not children—though Vern Bullough noted hospitals, prisons, the army, and other more than 50 percent of the population and that there is some disagreement in Western institutions, much the same as religious historically allied to the Russian Orthodox countries regarding the proper age of chaplains; and that the government funds church. As the czars succeeded in conquering . We also pointed out that although Catholic, Protestant, and humanist schools. a huge land mass, they attempted to absorb humanists defend sexual freedom between State sponsorship appears to make quite a the dissident national groups with their consenting adults and the right to privacy, difference. In many Western nations human- different religions into the Russian they do not believe in promiscuity for its ists have had to wage a protracted (though by wedding state power to what had become own sake, but instead support moral largely successful) campaign to ensure equal the official church of greater Russia, the responsibility. The task of a democratic and rights for nonbelievers. In some pluralistic Russian Orthodox. In their attempt to pluralistic society is to encourage tolerance, countries, such as Norway and the Nether- Christianize and thus unite Russia, the czars we said, but also to raise the level of taste lands, humanists now make up 25 to 30 unleashed against the large Jewish and appreciation. We emphasized that there percent of the population. population in the recently acquired Polish are ethical norms, such as sincerity, mutual territories, and constant efforts were made, , and the building of mature relation- he relationship of the state to the without much success, to convert Muslims. ships between adults. The underlying issue, Tmultiplicity of religious nationalities in Although the recent bloody uprisings in we said, is not sex education in isolation, the Soviet Union is an especially complex Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and other but moral education and moral growth— problem. Though some Soviets at the republics have surprised Westerners, such the development of an appreciation of ethical dialogue maintained that the separation of strife has been a constant unresolved responsibilities. church and state exists, it is clear that this historical problem in the Soviet Union. Be- How to deal with the multiplicity of is not the case, for the state has meddled cause Muslims, Roman Catholics, Jews, Fall 1989 27 Buddhists, and Protestants sometimes find embitter ."3 again decreed several anti-religious mea- it difficult to coexist, religious warfare has Nonetheless, persecution was intensified sures, and by 1945 atheist propaganda was been endemic to Russia throughout its long in subsequent decades, and the Communist intensified, especially against the Roman history. Party used a wide range of tactics to force Catholic church in Poland, Lithuania, and When the Bolsheviks came to power in submission to its edicts. In 1925 the "League the Ukraine. Although the Orthodox church 1917 they believed that they had to break of Militant Godless" was formed, which was allowed to publish a few religious the power of the churches, which fervently organized atheist lecturers, films, museums, journals, the Roman Catholic church was resisted the Revolution. The Bolsheviks "propaganda trains," and public demonstra- permitted no publications. concurred with Marx's belief that religion tions to "unmask religious frauds." By 1930 After the death of Stalin there was a was the "opiate of the people," that religion the group had recruited three million temporary reprieve in the war against was inevitable as long as one class oppressed members; by the mid-1930s there were five religion. In 1954, however, Khrushchev re- another, and that when true socialism was million nominal members and 50,000 local newed the campaign. By 1966 more than ten realized religion would disappear. Lenin groups. Children eight to fourteen years old thousand churches had been closed; 7,500 went further, arguing that religion had to were enrolled in groups of "Godless Youth." Orthodox churches and only three Orthodox be actively combated since the dominant These were disbanded before the war, though seminaries remained open. The number of class had used it to oppress workers and the League of Communist Youth (Kom- Baptist churches had dropped from 5,400 peasants. In this process, the highest ideals somol) continues its atheist indoctrination to 2,000; the number of mosques fell from of morality were those that helped to fulfill to this day. 1,300 to about 450 (there had been 30,000 the ultimate goals of the Revolution, and In 1929 a new constitution was adopted. on the eve of the Revolution); and the this justified the use of terror by the "Freedom of religious propaganda" was number of synagogues dropped from 450 in of the proletariat. changed to the right to "profess religion." 1959 to 97. Anatoly Lunarcharsky, the Anti-religious propaganda was now consi- minister of education under Stalin, is reputed hortly after seizing power, the Bolshevik dered legal, but "religious propaganda," or to have said in 1928, "Religion is like a nail— Sgovernment imposed Draconian mea- evangelism, was not permitted. In 1936 yet the harder you hit it, the deeper it goes in." sures: Church marriages and divorces would another constitution reiterated this point: It is now conceded that Khrushchev's harsh no longer be recognized, the "painless "Freedom for the performance of religious campaign was counterproductive. liquidation" of monasteries was ordered, rites" was recognized, but religionists were In 1977 the constitution was again re- churches were closed and put to other uses, forbidden to proselytize. A Law of Religious vised. Article 52 states: Associations was also enacted in 1929; it clerics lost their rights as citizens and could Citizens of the USSR are guaranteed free- not participate in politics, and the teaching banned the religious instruction of children dom of conscience; that is, the right to of religion was banned in both public and by anyone except their parents. To convene profess or not to profess any religion, and private schools. In 1918 the Russian Repub- a Sunday-school or catechism class was a to conduct religious worship or atheistic lic installed a new constitution, which criminal offense. All religious groups had propaganda. Incitement of hostility or to be registered. Some churches were allowed hatred on religious grounds is prohibited. seemed to safeguard the separation of church In the USSR, the church is separated from and state and to defend freedom of con- to function, and were leased buildings free the state and the school from the church. science. It stated in part: of charge from the state; but more and more were shut down and it became extremely Legal experts say that this marks an To secure for the working man true difficult for religious groups to gain official advance, since it "guarantees" rather than freedom of conscience, the church is recognition from the state through simply recognizes freedom of conscience, separated from the state and the school from the church, and freedom of religious registration. and "anti-religious propaganda" is replaced and anti-religious propaganda is recog- These attacks on religion were exacer- with the more neutral "atheistic propa- nized as the right of every citizen. bated during the Stalinist years, but the ganda." It is also very important that Article purges were indiscriminate, affecting atheists 34 of the new constitution considers all In actual practice, however, from 1918 and believers alike. A participant at the dia- citizens to be equal before the law, regardless to 1921, continued logue reported that during this period the of "origins, social and property status, race unabated. In the midst of a , the head of an atheist organization in the Soviet or nationality, sex, education, language, or Russian Orthodox church was accused of Union shared a cell in with a bishop attitude toward religion" (italics added). supporting the White armies that were of the Orthodox church! The same campaign After the fall of Khrushchev, the Council attempting to overthrow the regime. All was waged against Jewish synagogues, for Religious Affairs was established to church property was nationalized, and it is Muslim mosques, and Buddhist temples— regulate religion. During the Brezhnev years estimated that tens of thousands of bishops, thousands were closed and priests, rabbis, the anti-religious and pro-atheist policies clerics, and laymen were killed or and mullahs were persecuted. In reality there were again pursued, but on a less intensive imprisoned. was no separation between church and state, scale. The Council has the power to decide Many nonbelievers welcomed their for the state controlled all religious insti- whether a religious association (constituting heretofore unrecognized right to engage in tutions. twenty or more believers) has the legal right anti-religious activities. Unfortunately, the Virulent anti-religious campaigns were to exist, for all such groups must first register rights of believers were not equally respected. suspended during World War II. In 1941 with the Council. In 1918 Lenin said, "It is necessary to fight Stalin met with three officials of the Russian What is the attitude of humanists about against religious prejudice extremely cau- Orthodox church at the Kremlin, and sought the use of the state to advocate atheism and tiously; those who offend religious feelings to enlist the patriotic support of believers to persecute religion? The answer is clear: bring much harm. It is necessary to fight to repel the Nazi invaders. It turned out to outright opposition. Here humanists part by means of propaganda and education. If be a very shrewd strategem. company with militant atheists. Although we we inject ridicule into the struggle we can In 1944, however, the Central Committee are skeptical about religious claims, we are 28 FREE INQUIRY I was surprised to see a special documentary about religious icons. For the first time, lay volunteers and clergy are permitted to visit hospitals and mental institutions to provide counseling. The churches are also permitted to engage in charitable activities, which here- tofore had been illegal. Sixth, churches are now allowed to in- struct in the faith, to hold catechism classes, and to conduct Sunday-school classes for children, though separate church schools have not been authorized. Finally, a new law is being prepared for presentation to the Supreme Soviet in the fall. Although I was not able to see the final draft, I did see two drafts that are now circulating.4 It appears that the new law will make de jure what we observed to be in effect de facto. It extends freedom of conscience, allowing both believers and nonbelievers to propagate religious or atheistic views, and "to carry out religious or atheist education." The humanist delegates speak with a member of the clergy at the Russian 0rthodox Both drafts of the law grant to religions the monastery, Zagorsk. important right to `juridical personality," opposed to any infringement on the rights Many Russians entered and kissed the cross which was taken from them in 1918 and of religious believers. We stand uncompro- of an imposing prelate, who had a huge beard never fully restored. They also allow the misingly for the defense of religious liberty; and a high hat and black cassock. Though establishment of adult study groups to the right of churches to own property; the I do not believe in the mythology or the organize Sunday schools and catechism right to practice religion, to preach, to advo- of the church, I felt saddened by the classes in private or work places. cate, and to publish religious views; and the cruel efforts of the Party over the years to They give greater latitude to churches to right to educate children in a religion without prevent ordinary believers from exercising publish and disseminate their views, and they the infringement of the state. Humanists be- their right to freedom of conscience. recognize the right of conscientious objectors lieve in using the methods of critical Second, we visited the colorful Arbut not to be conscripted into the armed forces. , education, and debate to per- Street, where the authorities now permit the What the final version of the law will say suade people, rather than resorting to com- expression of free speech. There were dozens remains to be seen. pulsion or tyranny. of small groups of people milling about; All of these changes have been confirmed many were passionately discussing political by high Soviet officials. Konstantin Khar- ew winds of doctrine are now blowing issues. There were also various religious chev, the former chairman of the Council Nstrong in the Soviet Union, and there groups. Surprisingly, Hare Krishnas were for Religious Affairs, has clearly indicated are signs that new freedoms are being chanting away, much the same as in the West, that religious policies were being revised at extended to believers during this period of and self-proclaimed evangelists were prop- the highest levels. In an interview in the New glasnost and perestroika. agandizing the Bible. Large groups of York Times (October 30, 1986) he said that First, we were told by members of the curious bystanders listened intently. "for the first time in the Soviet Union .. . Institute for Scientific Atheism that two Although the number of Hare Krishna the believer is being portrayed as a positive thousand churches have been reopened devotees was fairly small, it is significant that person, as a good person, as a person with during the past two years, that seven new the government has permitted them to high moral qualities." In an interview in the seminaries will open in the fall, and that the proselytize. We also noted two women with Soviet newspaper Isvestia (January 27, publication of limited editions of the Bible signs petitioning for the rights of the 1988), Kharchev admitted that numerous and the Koran has been permitted. The Ukrainian Catholic church. forms of tyranny and repression had been Russian Orthodox church is even allowed Third, although it had been strictly used against churches and believers: "There its own printing press and facilities for forbidden since the Revolution for prelates was massive and unjustifiable closing of producing films and records. This new policy to be elected to the Soviet Parliament, at buildings, tyranny in respect to clergy, was confirmed by our visit to Zagorsk, a the recent election several representatives of and neglect of the legal rights of believers beautiful ancient monastery just outside of the church who were not members of the and their religious feelings. Today it is im- Moscow, where we met with several officials Communist Party were elected to the possible to recall these things without grief." of the Russian Orthodox church. The Supreme Soviet. These include the Russian On the occasion of the thousandth monastery was restored for the millenial Orthodox patriarch Pimen; Metropolitan anniversary of the conversion of Russia to anniversary of Christianity, and is now a Titirim, the head of church publishing; Christianity, Mikhail Gorbachev received a showcase for foreign visitors and Soviet Leningrad Mitropolitan Alexia; and Arme- delegation of Orthodox metropolitans. Their citizens. I stopped in briefly while a religious nian Catholicos Vaskin I. meeting was televised throughout the Soviet service was being conducted in one of the Fourth, stories about religion have been Union. The , 1988 issue of Isvestia chapels. Lovely choral chants were being featured in the press, and evangelists have reported that Gorbachev said, "The mistakes sung by eight women standing to the side. even been seen on television; one evening that were made in the treatment of the church Fall 1989 29 member of the Institute laughed and said there are only a thousand--and most of these are connected with the Institute for Scientific Atheism! The older generation of Bolsheviks hated religion and the Orthodox church. But today most people find atheistic propaganda boring. The impression that we got is that most nonbelievers are at best only nominally so. Many members of the Party and the Komsomol are disillusioned with Commu- nist ideals, and apparently have turned back to religion. There are reports of many young Communists who wear crucifixes and display religious icons at home—obstensibly for aesthetic reasons. A careful piecing together of the data suggests that in areas where Russian is the dominant nationality, perhaps 25 to 35 percent of the population is religious. In the non-Russian areas, re- ligiosity is much higher. Some estimates go as high as 60 percent. In Muslim regions, The "Gang of Fourteen" at the Institute. Standing, back row: Vern Bullough, Rob Tielman, religion is inexorably intertwined with the Levi Fragell, Harry Stopes-Roe, Nettie Klein, Ernst von Brakel, and Steinar Nilsen. Middle cultural life. In the issue of Le Anne-Marie Franchi, row: Paul Kurtz, Bonnie Bullough, Cur de Ronde, Ank von Brakel, Monde, Gorbachev complained about a and a Russian interpreter. Seated, front: Anne Karine Winter and Armin Rieser. "revival of Islamic fundamentalism" in the and believers in the 1930s and subsequent Soviet life in the future. An editor of the Soviet Union. It has been very difficult for years are being rectified.... The new law journal published by the Institute reassured atheistic propaganda to make significant of freedom of conscience that is being drafted all assembled that the Party had not inroads among Muslims, who now number will reflect the interests of religious orga- abandoned its belief in atheism, but that approximately fifty million. The Soviet nizations. All these things are the real fruits Soviet society will become fully atheistic and Union has the fifth largest Muslim popu- of new approaches to church-state relations religion will wither away "only after true lation in the world, and the rate of pop- in conditions of perestroika and democrat- socialism is achieved in the future." ulation growth among Muslims is two to ization of Soviet society." He added a three times that of Slavic and European paradoxical but perhaps necessary state- ne basic question that we attempted to populations. In some areas, such as Byelo- ment: "We are now restoring in full the Ohave answered at the dialogue was, russia and the Ukraine, the 60 percent figure Leninist principles regarding relations with "What is the incidence of religious belief in is no doubt too high; yet in Armenia, religion, the church, and believers." the Soviet Union, and how widespread is Georgia, and the Baltic Republics, being Victor Garadja, in an interview in Science atheism?" The official response in the past committed to one's ethnic religious roots is and Religion (January 1988), spelled out the was that only 10 percent of the Soviet citizens a form of anti-Russian and anti-government new policy: "Being atheists, we can and must were believers. When we asked Victor sentiment. find a common language with believers, and Timofejev, he told us that 70 to 80 percent A representative of the Polish Institute we must reach mutual understanding with of the population are atheists. Our guide to for Scientific Atheism who was at the them in the approach to the cardinal Zagorsk, a member of the Institute, said that dialogue explained the growth in influence problems of the contemporary world... . officially the 19 million members of the of the Roman Catholic church in Poland And it is precisely because we want to Communist Party and the 34 million youth with the following anecdote: An elderly man strengthen such mutual understanding and of the Komsomol are supposed to be atheists. was seen standing in a crowded church. cooperation that we are decisive opponents But we have long since discovered that "Why don't you kneel in prayer?" asked of those who seek means of setting believers official Soviet statistics are often out of line a woman next to him. in opposition to nonbelievers and sowing with reality. Only now, during the Gorba- He replied, "Because I don't believe in discord between them on religious grounds." chev era, is a truer story being revealed. Still, God." It became abundantly clear from our it is difficult to find detailed figures about "Then why are you in church?" she asked. discussions at the Institute that the Party the levels of belief and nonbelief; and reliable He answered, "Because I don't believe in has indeed decided to de-emphasize its anti- sociological studies of public opinion have the government!" religious propaganda and to tone down its not been published. By careful analysis of It is not unreasonable to speculate that atheistic stance. The crucial issue for the official and unofficial accounts we can per- the number of religious believers in the Soviet Union, we were told by Garadja, is haps piece together a more accurate picture. Soviet Union is somewhere between 30 and to restructure the economy so that it can Lev Mitrokhin said that since the Revolu- 45 percent; the latter figure is probably more provide Soviet citizens with a better standard tion there has been extensive public distaste accurate. It has been suggested that 10 of living. In order to achieve this goal, the for militant atheism because a large sector percent of the population professes atheism, state needs to enlist the help of believers and of the population identifies it with the but that a large number of believers and nonbelievers alike; thus the churches will be repression of the past. When I asked how nonbelievers may be persuaded in either asked to play a more prominent role in many truly committed atheists there are, a direction. Interestingly, these figures on 30 FREE INQUIRY religious belief are higher than those of many abroad (if he or she can get out), buy a VCR reform. Soviet intellectuals have warned that countries in Western Europe, where church or a computer, bring it back, and sell it for Gorbachev's days may be numbered unless attendance ranges from three percent in up to forty times its worth. he receives large-scale investment to 12 percent in France and 14 We heard from many quarters that the from the West. They believe that there is percent in Great Britain. Even in the United Soviet Union has its own Mafia, an under- considerable opposition to his policies from States, according to a recent poll, 46 percent ground black-market economy run by an the hard-line bureaucrats within the Party of the population is unchurched, though only illegal network involving many of the top who worry that their priviledged status is 8 to 10 percent clearly identify themselves ministers. One can buy virtually anything endangered. One pessimist told me that he as secularists. in the Soviet Union for a price. Recent believes the shortages are contrived by Party I noted evidence of a large reservoir of government figures indicate that the black- conservatives to topple Gorbachev. Efforts paranormal beliefs among the . market economy runs to eighty billion rubles to develop initiative by creating small For example, we found astrologers and a year. The country now has a budget deficit independent , for example, have psychics displaying their wares on Arbut of one hundred billion rubles a year (at the been stalled by the threatened ministers. Street. One Soviet writer in Leningrad tells current official exchange rate that is $160 Meanwhile, the long-suffering public is tired me that "paranormal pandemonium" has billion), or 12 percent of the gross national of promises. They are aware of the affluence broken loose all over the Soviet Union since product. Its foreign debt is $50 billion and of other countries, and they want results Gorbachev came to power. is mounting fast. The total foreign exchange now. It is apparent that the Soviet system Is the persistence of religiosity in the is only $24 billion a year, of which $18 billion has not been able to keep pace with the Soviet Union due to the policies of repression is used to service the foreign debt. As in economic advancements and technological and the failure of Communist ideals to many Third World countries, exports are of other nations. Much of its arouse dedication, or is there something far primarily raw materials, and account for 60 industrial base is obsolete. Massive restruc- more profound at work here—perhaps the to 80 percent of the Soviet economy. Defense turing is necessary, but is there enough time? "transcendental temptation"? spending, recently disclosed for the first time, If Gorbachev fails and the hard-liners win, is far higher per capita than in any other it is likely that a new wave of repression nother important question regards the Western —though Gorbachev has said and perhaps remilitarization will ensue. Areasons for the fundamental shift in that it will be cut over the next two years I don't mean to paint an excessively Soviet policy toward religion. Our discus- by 14.2 percent. Westerners have welcomed dismal picture. No doubt the Soviet Union sions at the Institute indicated that the this, but some critics say that Gorbachev's has made significant achievements during number-one priority is the need to stimulate hand has been forced by the grave economic the past seventy-two years. But when its and restructure the economy. It is clear even crisis. People within the Soviet Union progress is measured against that of other from our brief visit that the economy is complain that the standard of living is worse industrial societies, there are large gaps still experiencing a crisis. Despite a massive than it was during the Brezhnev era; even to be overcome—not only in the area of military superstructure and an expensive the poor standard of living that Westerners consumer goods and services, but in human space program, Russia is in many ways a observe in Moscow and Leningrad is much rights, democracy, and freedom. backward Third World country; the per higher than it is in provincial areas. The poor I believe it is for these reasons that the capita income is lower than those of other economy, combined with a loosening of the Communist Party has decided to shift its industrialized nations. An estimated forty KGB's grip on citizens, has caused the crime policies away from orthodox militant million people live below the poverty level. rate to soar recently. atheism and Marxism to permit some Thirty million pensioners live on a monthly The Soviets have constructed an elabo- measure of political, intellectual, and income of only sixty rubles (about $96), rate bureaucratic system that is difficult to religious liberty. which certainly does not buy much food. The government shops are empty, shortages are everywhere, and basic staples are virtually rationed. One can buy many things in the free markets, to which peasants from the countryside flock to sell their produce at lucrative prices. The average Russian complains about the inflation rate, which is mounting fast, particularly for luxuries. Soviet hospitals are so undersupplied that patients must bribe orderlies in order to obtain the bare necessities, such as bandages and bedpans. Graft and curruption are endemic. As in other Eastern European Communist countries, the most precious commodity is foreign currency, particularly the U.S. dollar—the Russian people have lost confidence in their own currency. We were offered six rubles for every dollar in the hotels and ten rubles on the streets, and some say that the going rate is as high as eighteen rubles for a dollar. With dollars or Two Soviet women hold a sign that reads, "We are demanding the legalization of the Ukranian other foreign currencies, a person can go church." Fall 1989 31 Will this mean a movement in the freedom of conscience. The director of the a global community. On the other hand, is direction of humanism? That, no one can Institute said that it could not be actively there a viable alternative at the present predict; but there are hopeful signs that involved in such a development, because all juncture of humankind? humanism may begin to have an influence. of its energies at present are absorbed in The Soviets are groping for new answers and working with religious groups to restructure new formulae. The government killed off the the economy. Paradoxically, members of the Notes Soviet free market and repressed the literary, IHEU were delighted to hear this—for if artistic, and philosophical for humanism is to thrive, it must be a grassroots I. The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) has in the past conducted four so long that today's Soviet populace seems movement independent of the official Party dialogues with Marxist humanists. The first was to lack the sparks of creativity. Refusing to line or the imprimatur of the state. If, planned during the "" in 1968, but allow the development of an , according to Soviet law, believers and non- was not convened until September 1968 in the government stifled new ideas, and the believers now enjoy equal rights, why not (after the Russian invasion of ) nation has stagnated. It has withdrawn from permit of independent and was concomitant with a meeting of the Four- teenth International Congress of Philosophy. the world community, and desperately humanist organizations? Since for a church Philosophers from many Western countries and wishes to rejoin it. to be recognized in the Soviet Union, only most Eastern European countries and observers twenty individuals must register with the from the Soviet Union were present. This stormy ecular humanism draws upon science government, we asked why the government dialogue was co-sponsored by the IHEU and the and for the benefit of has not extended the same right to humanist Yugoslovian "Praxis Belgrade Eight" group of dissidents, who defended human freedom and humankind, a point close to the heart of nonbelievers. Why not allow groups of twen- were critics of Marxist regimes that had repressed traditional Marxists. But it insists upon the ty or more people who are committed to democracy. Three subsequent dialogues were centrality of freedom in any society; it is ethical and social humanist ideals to organize held: in 1969 in Herzog Novi, Yugoslavia; in 1970 committed to a pluralistic society in which humanist groups? at MIT in Boston; and in 1973 in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia. In addition to Western humanists, As we left the dialogue several individuals diverse intellectual, scientific, philosophical, these involved Marxist humanists from Yugos- economic, religious, and moral liberties approached us to say that they were in- lavia, Czechoslovakia, and . These had flourish. No single or party can terested in organizing humanist groups even no "official" Party sponsorship. or should be allowed to guide the destiny if the Institute for Scientific Atheism was The 1989 dialogue in Moscow was the first of an entire nation. Only a democratic not. Members of the faculties of ethics and to be officially sponsored by an agency of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of process in which political and civil liberties philosophy at the University of Moscow and the Soviet Union. It was in many ways similar are enjoyed, in which those who rule are individuals associated with Knowledge to the official dialogue that the IHEU has had governed by laws, and in which dissent and Society and with the journal Science and with the Vatican, the most recent of which was the legal right of opposition are protected, Religion have expressed an interest in held in Amsterdam in 1988 (see the Winter 1988/ can best safeguard the rights of citizens. This furthering humanist activities and organiza- 89 issue of FREE INQUIRY for an account). The similarities between the Vatican dialogues and the means that the monopoly of power exercised tions, and in working with other humanists Moscow dialogue are striking. The Central by the Marxist-Leninist Party must be in the IHEU. Committee of the Communist Party has an transformed still further, and that the people The IHEU already has invited the Soviet authority much like that of the Roman Catholic must have the genuine right to elect their delegates to the Eleventh Humanist World Curiae, and the representatives of both were Congress to be held in Brussels in August limited in what they could say; they did not feel own officials and to determine the kinds of free to deviate from the policies declared from policies that they wish to implement. The 1990, and the Soviets said that they would On High. At the latest dialogue with the Vatican, only hope for the Soviet Union, in my invite several humanists and skeptics to the church seemed much more authoritarian and judgment, is the continuation of the reforms return for further dialogues. the participants more constrained to follow the that Gorbachev has so valiantly initiated. Whether democratic humanism will doctrinal line laid down by papal decrees; at the Vatican/ humanist dialogue convened in 1970 (the Gorbachev's doctrine, as enunciated in a continue to develop in the Soviet Union and first to take place after Vatican II), there was 1988 speech to the United Nations, declares: elsewhere, only time will tell. I visited China more opportunity for liberal ideas to be "Freedom of conscience is a universal in 1988 and came away with great expec- expressed. The Moscow dialogue was similar to principle that ... applies to both the capitalist tations for the development of freedom— the earlier Vatican exchange, for Gorbachev's new and socialist systems." but as we know all too well, the policies had relaxed the rigid guidelines defined by the Party, and a freer and more relaxed The last paper presented at the dialogue movement for democracy in Beijing during atmosphere prevailed. I have had the unique was by Cur de Ronde of the Netherlands. the spring of 1989 was brutally and tragically position of being the sole person to have He stressed the need for and opposed crushed. One can only hope that the same participated in all of these dialogues! unilateral disarmament by either side, but thing will not happen in other Marxist For a published account of the papers and said that we could de-escalate the countries, and that the efforts now underway discussions at the second Marxist/ humanist dialogue see the book Tolerance and Revolution, only by continued mutual negotiations. But to democratize Soviet life will continue. The a Marxist/Non-Marxist Humanist Dialogue, this presupposes that the present favorable implications of these changes are enormous, Paul Kurtz and Svetozar Stojanovic, eds.; co- climate of world opinion will continue to not only for the future of humanism, but published by (Buffalo, N.Y.), flourish. Armin Rieser of Germany re- for the entire global community. and the Philosophical Society (Serbia, Belgrade, Yugoslavia), 1970. Humanists welcome these new develop- iterated the need for establishing the condi- 2. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1986. tions for peace by building goodwill, to ments in the direction of humanist ideas and 3. Quoted in Paul D. Steeves, Keeping the which the Russian participants agreed. values. We believe that we ought to co- Faith: Religion and Ideology in the Soviet Union Finally, we suggested to our Soviet operate with those in the Communist bloc (New York and London: Holmes Meier, 1989), counterparts that they work toward the who are genuinely interested in bringing p. 91. 4. See John Anderson's appendix to development of humanist organizations and about a more peaceful and democratic Candle in the Wind: Religion in the Soviet Union, Eugene humanist centers, which could help the world. Perhaps we ought not be unduly B. Shirley and Michael Rowe, eds. (Washington, Soviet Union to fulfill its desire to expand optimistic about the prospects for building D.C.: Ethics and Public Policy Center, 1989). • 32 FREE INQUIRY humanists at the dialogue did their part by emphasizing to a group of influential Soviets the need to deal with the widespread sex- Sex in the Soviet Union related problems existing in the Soviet Union. Rape seems to be endemic and under- reported. Prostitutes are everywhere (at least in the summer—in the winter they are handi- capped by the difficulty of finding rooms Bonnie Bullough and Vern Bullough to carry out their activities). The number of known AIDS cases is increasing. Pornog- uring the early part of this century, had managed to overcome. The continued raphy is a major item on the . Dthere existed an international sex- existence of harsh legal penalities against Abortion is widespread, and although no research organization, which split into two most sexual activities, however, belied these official statistics have been released, in the camps in the 1920s. The more radical group claims. Soviet sex education was almost larger cities it is estimated that there are at argued that sex reform—which at that time nonexistent, and information about contra- least four abortions for every live birth. included divorce, the use of contraceptives, ceptives simply was not available. Even Glasnost allowed us to talk about sex with the possibility of abortion, and sex educa- today, the condoms that are available in the the Soviets, and it might also encourage posi- tion—was not possible until the society itself Soviet Union are of poor quality, the Pill tive change in this area; for instance, the was reformed, as had happened in the Soviet is unavailable, the IUD is just now being criminal code is now being revised, and it Union. The other group, which included introduced, and spermicidal jellies are not is hoped that the sections most hostile to Havelock Ellis, argued that sex reforms were in common use. The standard means of con- sexual activity might be removed. However, possible without forcing a radical reorgani- traception is abortion. Even under Gorba- there is also a chance that even greater zation of society. The internal struggle chev, Stalinism dominates the sex code. restrictions—if they are possible—will be among the sex reformers helped to destroy It was in this setting that we recently in- introduced. One of the participants in the dialogue the international group and to set back sex troduced a discussion of sex into a meeting of the Soviet Academy of Social Sciences. was Alicja Kutchinska, Deputy Director of research on much of the European continent. The initial reaction was stunned silence. the Institute of Religious Studies of the Anyone who has visited the Soviet Union After our colleagues had overcome the shock Academy of Social Sciences in Warsaw. She during the past forty years, however, knows of talking about masturbation, prostitution, said that in Poland one result of the new that the radical sex reformers were in error— homosexuality, contraception, and various openness could be the elimination of the one all of the reforms initially proclaimed were other topics, the dialogue became more in- sexual freedom that Soviets have—the undone by Stalin, who institutionalized the teresting. All of the Soviet delegates to the freedom to get an abortion. She reported traditional Christian hostility toward sex discussion agreed that the Soviets were ig- that the Catholic clergy there hope that this into the Soviet law code. In the process, norant about sexuality and needed to do will be one of the first orders of business Stalin exemplified the truism that a major something about it. When it was pointed out of the new Polish state. To that end, seventy- key to the control of a population is the to them that their justifications of the pro- two Catholic intellectuals recently proposed control of its sexual practices. The revision hibitions were the same as those of tradi- legislation that carries stiff penalties, includ- of the Soviet law code carried out under tional Christianity, one of the participants ing mandatory three-year prison sentences Stalin was harsh. Article 154 of the criminal replied that their beliefs regarding sexuality for both women and physicians found guilty code, for example, punished homosexuals were simply a part of traditional Russian of participating in abortions. A similar reac- with imprisonment of from three to eight culture, and had nothing to do with religion. tion can be anticipated in the Soviet Union. years; for a time, even abortion was illegal. As this was discussed, however, it became On our visit to the major seminary of the Any variation from the standard male- apparent that it was past Soviet authorit- Russian Orthodox church at Zagorsk, superior position of intercourse with one's arianism that lay at the base. One woman Brother Michale, a representative of the sem- legal spouse was looked upon by Soviet indicated to us privately that though she had inary and of the Russian patriarch, indicated literature and law of the 1930s as a read our paper, she could not bring herself that the Russian Orthodox church agrees punishable form of bourgeois deviationism. to discuss its contents with her husband, her with John Paul's stand against both Soviet authorities under Stalin proclaimed father, or her grown son. One simply does abortion and contraception, and with that all signs of bourgeois in not discuss sex in the Soviet Union; in effect, Rome's position on other matters of sexual matters had been eliminated, that "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" is sexuality. prostitution no longer existed, that homo- the prevalent attitude—and sex is evil. Our It is possible that glasnost may allow for sexuality had disappeared, that there was no paper was mild; it avoided four-letter words some basic modifications in Soviet legal rape, no exhibitionism, no child molestation, and did not discuss the Soviet propensity stances inherited from Stalin toward various no transvestism. Problems of sex had to simply get down to the business of aspects of ; but it is not yet disappeared; concern with sexuality, it was satisfying the male, avoiding such things as clear whether the result will be more open- said, was a bourgeois issue that the Soviets foreplay. In general, there seems to be a lack ness or a new wave of repression, with the of awareness of the importance of satisfying Soviet state and church working together. Bonnie Bullough is Dean of Nursing at the the erotic needs of the female partner. The humanist delegation pointed out alter- State University of New York at Buffalo. There are, however, some beginnings of natives to the Soviets, and indicated that for Vern Bullough is Dean of Natural and Social change in the Soviet Union. One psychiatrist the most part their attitudes toward sexuality Sciences at the State University of New York recently established a sexual therapy clinic, had for too long gone unexamined. It is to College at Buffalo. the first in . The need for sex be hoped that such an examination will soon education is beginning to be discussed. The begin. •

Fall 1989 33

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C.. We aistenc41 BACK ISSUES Use Card to Order. A 20% discount will be given on orders of 5 or more copies of the same issue; 40% on orders of 10 or more. Summer 1989, Vol. 9, no. 3 - Interview with Sidney Hook on the Future Fundamentalist School Textbooks; Is the Sexual Revolution 0ver? Paul of Marxism, Tibor Mochan; Mechanic of Death: The Case of "Ivan the Kurtz, Rob Tielman, and Sol Gordon; Peter Popoff's Broken Window, Terrible," Joe Nickell and John F. Fischer; Don't Call Me Brother, Austin David Alexander; Human and World Care, Benjamin Spock; Argument Miles with Edmund D. Cohen; Humanism in the Black Community, Norm Without End, Michael Ruse. $5.00 Allen; The Enlightened Humanist: Bhagwan Shree , Robert H. Summer 1987, Vol. 7, no. 3 - Japan and Biblical Religion, Richard Ruben- Rimmer; The Marriage of Church and State in Ireland, Wendy M. Gross- stein; Was the Universe Created? 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REE INQUIRY'S eighth annual confer- INQUIRY that dealt with euthanasia; the Fence, entitled "Living Without Religion: Robert G. Ingersoll Award was presented The Good Life vs. the Afterlife" and held to Philip Mass, chairman of the Ingersoll in San Francisco July 27 to 30, was a rousing Committee; and the Distinguished Humanist success. More than 450 people attended the Award went to Paul MacCready, president various sessions, which included such topics of AeroVironment, Inc. Awards were also as "Dealing with Death, Grief, and Eutha- presented to Bonnie Bullough, Vern Bul- nasia," "Moral Education,""Humanism and lough, Vincent Sarich, and Richard Taylor. Happiness," and "Humanism and Sexual- The first annual Sidney Hook Freedom ity," as well as Eastern and Western religious Award was, of course, presented posthum- Tim Madigan views on the afterlife and the humanist ously to Sidney Hook. Accepting the award response. for Hook was his wife, Ann. Audience participation was encouraged, The weather was beautiful throughout the and workshops were held on "Enhancing conference, and everything went without a Personal Effectiveness" and on secular fault—though a few days later there was an humanist community groups. Also, in earthquake in the Bay Area measuring five conjunction with the conference, the Secular on the Richter Scale. If Someone Up There Organizations for Sobriety (SOS) held its was hoping to weaken the secular humanist first national meeting. SOS groups help movement by claiming a few of its members, substance abusers to "recover without reli- he was a few days late and a few shocks gion," encouraging individuals to develop a short. personalized recovery program that fits their All in all, the conference showed beyond particular needs regardless of religious the shadow of a doubt that one can lead beliefs or cultural background. The work- a moral life without religion—and have a shop dealt with such topics as how to start lot of fun in the process. • Molleen Matsumura an SOS chapter, effective meeting formats, community outreach proposals, and spread- ing the word about SOS. The conference brought together recovering alcoholics and addicts from across the country and abroad; health-service professionals also attended, attracted by the group's innovative approach to addiction treatment. at the FREE INQUIRY conference included a violin recital by James Dahlgren of the San Francisco Opera, and a visit to the and Thistle Shop, where the political satirist Paul Krassner, and Don Stevens, co-founder of the Comedy/ Humor Writers Association of the Gerald A. Larue, Professor Jean Millholland Bay area, treated the audience to their Emeritus of Archaeology insightful wit. and Biblical Studies at the The conference received a good deal of University of Southern tiro hilmmot 140, California, received the ,. •r., I,ee Ycluoy iRü, Al wd Contererrce positive media coverage: stories appeared in wmq WrttwW Relupon Selma V. Forkosch Award. . -nl Ide es the Alte,l,,, the San Francisco Examiner, the San I ht C,ut,It laugh vs. Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland Tribune, The After Laugh and the Associated Press. Several radio and with television interviews were also run. No doubt Paul Krassner the entire Bay Area is buzzing about the word "eupraxophy." This advertisement for the the Realist b Awards were given to those who have comedy show, featuring Paul A Satirist made outstanding contributions to human- Krassner and Don Stevens, indicates that the event was Is this man ism throughout the years. The Selma V. Proof Coo? sold out, proving conclusively umMUN o, Ch Forkosch Award was presented to Gerald that humanists do have a A. Larue for editing the special issue of FREE sense of humor. 36 FREE INQUIRY FREE INQUIRY 1989 Conference Tapes Living Without Religion THE GOOD LIFE VS. THE AFTERLIFE FREE INQUIRY-sponsored conferences are packed with information and ideas. These tape- recordings are the only complete, permanent record of them. The cost of a complete conference set includes shipping and handling, and represents a 10% savings. - AUDIOTAPES -

THURSDAY, JULY 27 SATURDAY, continued ❑ "Humanism vs. Religion: Two Contrasting Ways ❑ "Moral Education," Molleen Matsumura, Pearl of Life," Paul Kurtz, Gerald Larue, and Tim Oliner, and Annemarie Roeper. $7.95 Madigan. $6.95 ❑ "Humanism and Sexuality," Bonnie Bullough, Vern Bullough, Robert Birle, and Priscilla FRIDAY, JULY 28 Alexander. $7.95 ❑ ❑ "Eastern Religious Views on the Afterlife," "Awards Banquet: Humanism and Critical Gerald Larue, David Powers, Robert B. Tapp, Thinking," Paul MacCready, Philip Mass, Vin- and Jock Hearn. $7.95 cent Sarich, Vern Bullough, Bonnie Bullough, and Richard Taylor. $6.95 ❑ "Western Religious Views on the Afterlife," Joe E. Barnhart, Vern Bullough, Randel Helms, and SUNDAY, JULY 30 Shawn Carlson. $7.95 ❑ "Enhancing the Humanist Message," Mary Beth Gehrman, Paul Kurtz, Gerard Straub, William SATURDAY, JULY 29 Perttula, Tim Madigan, and Molleen Matsu- mura. $7.95 ❑ "Humanism and Happiness," Marvin Kohl, Joe E. Barnhart, and Richard Taylor. $7.95 FRIDAY and SATURDAY LUNCHEONS ❑ "Dealing with Death, Grief, and Euthanasia," ❑ "Religion and Politics in the 1990s," Robert Verle Muhrer, Tom Franczyk, and Gerald Alley, and "Eupraxophy: Ethics Without Reli- Larue. $7.95 gion," Tim Madigan and Tom Flynn. $7.95 ❑ Complete set at 10% savings. $68.00 includes postage and handling. • Other FREE INQUIRY Conferences ❑ Tenth Humanist World Congress: "Building a World Community," State University of New York at Buffalo, 1988. Audiotapes, $150.00; Videotapes, $89.00 $ ❑ "Secular Humanism and Roman Catholicism: Confronting the Contemporary World," American University, Washington, D.C., 1987. Audiotapes, $49.00 $ ❑ "Ethics in Conflict: Biblical vs. Secular Morality," University of Richmond, Virginia, 1986. Audiotapes, $39.00; Videotapes, $89.00 $ ❑ "Jesus in History and Myth," University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, 1985. Audiotapes, $39.00 $ ❑ "Armageddon and Biblical Apocalyptic: Are We Living in the Last Days?" University of Southern California at Los Angeles, 1984. Audiotapes, $19.00 $ ❑ "Religion and American Politics," National Press Club, Washington, D.C., 1983. Audiotapes, $26.50 $ • U.S. and Canada postage and handling $1.50 a set, $6.00 maximum. Foreign surface mail $1.50 a set, $8.00 maximum. Foreign air mail $3.00 a set, $30.00 maximum. Please pay in U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank o Check enclosed ❑ MasterCard ❑ Visa # Exp. Date Signature NAME (print clearly) ADDRESS Daytime telephone # CITY STATE ZIP CODE

Complete and mail this order form to: FREE INQUIRY • Box 5 • Buffalo, NY 14215-0005 Or call toll-free 1-800-458-1366. In N.Y. state 716-834-2921. my protection to Islam and other religions, rather than renounce it for his own. A large Muslim demonstration was• then organized On the Barricades to take place in central London on May 27 to demand the extension of the blasphemy law to Islam. While disagreeing with that demand, secular humanists would naturally uphold the right of anyone to demonstrate peaceably Muslim Violence in Britain in support of it. However, not only was the Muslim demonstration far from peaceful; the blasphemy issue was largely lost in Barbara Smoker violent incitement to murder. No attempt was made by the Muslim leaders themselves retain, with a total population of some ings, but has compromised by removing the or by the agencies of law and order in this Bfifty million, now has more than a display at night to protect those who live country to prevent the parade from setting million Muslims, mostly from above the shop. off from Hyde Park with model gallows from immigration within the past quarter of a Though Christianity is protected in which swung effigies of Salman Rushdie, century. Thousands of those in their early Britain by the country's medieval blasphemy with placards and banners calling for his twenties were raised in Britain as moderates, law, Muslims have no such recourse to the murder, and with thousands of demonstra- but now espouse fanatical Islamic funda- law courts when their religious susceptibil- tors yelling "Kill, kill, kill!" mentalism—probably because they feel ities are hurt; because of this, Islamic At secular humanist meetings during the marginalized by society at large and psycho- violence on our streets has been excused. few weeks before the demonstration, I asked for volunteers to mount a counter- logically alienated from it. A number of British public figures, including Therefore, they were ready to respond leading churchmen and some of the most demonstration. Response was negligible, so I arranged to join in with a new group of fervently to the call of the late Ayatollah liberal-minded Members of Parliament, are mainly Asian women calling themselves Khomeini for the assassination of the misguidedly calling for an extension of the Women Against Fundamentalism. In the secularist author Salman Rushdie—a British blasphemy law to every major religion. The event, I happened to miss them, but by citizen of Muslim origin—for daring to write secular humanist movement, on the other chance met my secularist friends, Christine a novel, The Satanic Verses, critical of Islam. hand, together with one or two enlightened and Nicolas Walter, standing on the route The book has been publicly burned in politicians, is pressing for this archaic of the so-called march (which proved to be several parts of the country, the author and criminal offense to be abolished altogether. his family have had to go into hiding, his more of a stampede), opposite Hyde Park The legal justification for the existing corner. publishers have also received death threats, blasphemy law is to prevent "breaches of and booksellers and libraries have been Although there were only the three of the peace" caused by the abuse or ridicule us at that location, we represented, in our forced to withdraw the book. Several of people's strongly held beliefs. Needless to memberships, the whole of the humanist bookshops have been firebombed. The say, we atheists have always had to put up movement—primarily, however, the 's bookshop in with abuse and ridicule from Christians, but National Secular Society and the Rationalist London has continued to display in its have not breached the peace on that account. Press Association, the Free Speech Move- window the dust jacket of the book, despite On the contrary, we have always favored ment, and the Campaign against Blasphemy threats, broken windows, and police warn- the robust exchange of ideas. Are believers Law (set up jointly by the National Secular so much less tolerant and peaceful than Society and the Rationalist Press Associa- Barbara Smoker is president of the National atheists that they cannot be trusted to keep tion at the time of the Gay News blasphemy Secular Society in London, England. the peace when abused or ridiculed? trial in 1977). We had brought home-made The British government was, for extrane- banners—mine proclaiming, "Free Speech," ous reasons, slow and and theirs "Free Speech for All." half-hearted in its con- We had deliberately rejected the idea of demnation of the notori- more provocative slogans, such as "Religion ous Iranian death sen- Breeds Intolerance"—but our studied mod- tence on Salman Rush- eration made no difference. As soon as they die, and members of the caught sight of our banners, demonstrators major political parties rushed at us, grabbed and ripped the ban- joined in abject apologies ners, and proceeded to push, punch, and kick for the hurt feelings of us. Nicolas was knocked to the ground, but Muslims in this country. I backed up the steps of the So did spokesmen for all monument and managed to remain standing. of the major religions; for Fortunately, a few people (including some instance, the Archbishop middle-aged Muslims) came to our rescue. of Canterbury, head of The press also helped, by coming up for the international Angli- statements—whereupon our attackers began can communion, urged grabbing and tearing the reporters' note- Barbara Smoker and Nicolas Walter. the extension of blasphe- books—and someone with a microphone 38 FREE INQUIRY began interviewing me. One of the men still either unable or unwilling to control their it were to apply to all monotheistic religions, jostling me, having previously kicked me on fanatical supporters, they should surely be this classification would exclude the leg, now added insult to injury by refused public open-air demonstrations in but would include the Mormons and the pinching my buttock. I turned on him with the future, while archbishops and politicians Moonies! a trenchant "Don't do that!" which, I should be willing to allow the same If present attempts in Parliament were learned later, was heard by thousands of robustness of debate on religion as on any to succeed in extending blasphemy protec- listeners to the London Broadcasting other controversy—that is, short of incite- tion to Islam, this still would not result in Company's news report. ment to violence. Other civilized countries the hurt feelings of Muslims being assuaged Some humanists have said that counter- manage without a blasphemy law, so why in the courts instead of through violence demonstrations are not the way to deal with not Britain? Public order needs protection; on the streets—for any prosecution thrown the situation: they seem to think it is enough religious sentiment does not. out would still lead to zealots taking the to preach to the converted in urbane It is true that the present situation, in law into their own hands, in the same hot- humanist meetings. But if we can no longer which the Church of England alone is headed way as over Rushdie's Satanic stand on the streets of our capital city to protected by this medieval law, is unjust; Verses. But it would result in unofficial defend freedom of expression, Britain is but the obvious solution is to abolish the censorship, since any writer who dared to back in the eighteenth century—the cross blasphemy law altogether (as was recom- mention Islam except in the most respectful merely replaced by the equally bloody mended by the Law Commission), not to terms would have difficulty finding a crescent. extend it. Anyway, to which religions would publisher, for fear of heavy legal costs— Since the Muslim leaders are apparently it be extended? If, as has been suggested, if nothing worse. •

The Battle of the Book Nicolas Walter

he Salman Rushdie case began in Britain two groups of outsiders—an alien religious Twhen The Satanic Verses was first (and racial) minority, and the semi-alien left- published in London in September 1988. The wing intelligentsia. Salman Rushdie himself book has been on the best-seller lists ever belongs to both groups—the former by since, less because of its quality—most origin, having been born in Bombay into purchasers have found it very difficult to an anglicized Muslim family, and the latter read—than because of its treatment of some by adoption. His ambiguous position in sensitive religious topics. It has also been British society has confused the issue. He on a most-hated list, again less because of was already well known before the case, not its content—it hasn't been seen, let alone only as a literary figure but also as a political read, by most of its opponents—than figure, who became famous (or infamous) because of the fuss deliberately started by for claiming on television that Britain was Muslim leaders in a few provincial cities. a totally racist society for which the white This grew from a local campaign into a establishment was entirely to blame—a claim national one, and then into an international that became ironic when he had to seek movement against the book, culminating in protection from the establishment against the death sentence on the author and some members of his own race. publishers by the Ayatollah Khomeini in As Barbara Smoker points out, the with Rushdie personally but also February 1989. campaign against the book has continued. has advocated a program including such This unexpected phenomenon led to The campaign for the book has also secularist demands as the abolition of the , a national campaign, and an continued, with quieter results. An Interna- blasphemy law and of state-funded denom- international movement in defense of the tional Committee for the Defence of Salman inational schools. And Women Against author and publishers of the book, raising Rushdie and his Publishers, based at the Fundamentalism, an offshoot of the same the whole issue of freedom of expression in London office of the international human , has made the same demands, with religious matters. This predictable pheno- rights organization Article 19 and supported particular emphasis on the position of menon has actually been rather fragmented by several civil liberties and writers' organ- women in religious communities. Indeed, the in Britain, where the whole business some- izations, organized a World Statement on case is raising the profile of what is seen times looks like a private quarrel between the case, which was signed in March by as "secularism" in the Asian community, just several hundred people and reissued in July as the Gay News case raised the profile of Nicolas Walter is managing director of the with 12,000 signatures; it has also issued a humanism in the homosexual community Rationalist Press Association, convenor of pamphlet against the blasphemy law. twelve years ago. the , and press officer Two other organizations appeared in A public reading of passages from The of the Committee Against Blasphemy in March. Voices for Salman Rushdie, a Satanic Verses, which was one of the first London, England. coalition of socialist, feminist, and anti-racist acts of the American campaign, came very groups in London, has not only expressed late in Britain. Not until July 2 did the South

Fall 1989 39 Place Ethical Society organize such an event at Conway Hall in London. Ten intellectuals (including Rushdie himself on a video recording) read extracts to an audience of The People, Yes 150, and there was none of the trouble that had been feared. Two days later, Voices for Salman Rushdie held an Unholy Night there to celebrate American . The humanist organizations have issued Martin Gardner statements at various stages of the cam- don't know whether any Chinese paigns, and several individual humanists when the silent workers in pure science or political leaders have read Carl are considered inferior to public utility have taken part in various activities. The I Sandburg, but there are passages in his manipulators Committee Against Blasphemy Law issued is this the time for the young to begin masterpiece The People, Yes that are a Statement Against Blasphemy Law signed movements, amazingly relevant to the populist revolt in by more than two-hundred well-known to question the ways of hypocritical elders China. I live in Hendersonville, North in the long night streets of snakeline lights? people in May, and plans to reissue it later Carolina, near the goat farm in Flat Rock with many more signatures. Meanwhile, it • * * where this remarkable poet, , is campaigning against the proposal to The people laugh, yes, the people laugh. folksinger, and democratic socialist lived. extend that law to cover religions other than They have to in order to live and survive Last night I turned once more to the pages Christianity, and for the proposal to abolish under lying politicians, lying labor of The People, Yes. Here are the passages skates, lying racketeers of business, the law instead. The government and the I found most moving: lying newspapers, lying ads. main political parties agree with the first The people laugh even at lies that cost point but not with the second. Bills are being them toil and bloody exactions. In the long night streets of snakeline lights introduced into the Houses of Parliament. For a long time the people may laugh, when there is bitter crying for leadership until a day when the laughter changes The argument continues, and the humanists and no leadership steps forth key and tone and has something it are taking the lead. is it because the masses and the intelligentsia didn't have. As I write, there are plans for more both are a wornout soil so thin and acrid Then there is a scurrying and a noise of demonstrations to impose the views of they cannot fling up leaders? discussion and an asking of the When the creative breath blows not over question what is it the people want. Muslim fundamentalists on our society, just the waters Then there is the pretense of giving the as the views of Christian fundamentalists and elders are filled with hypocritical effluvia, people what they want, with jokers, were imposed for so many centuries. Once trick clauses, delays and continuances, more the secular humanists must dust off Martin Gardner is the author of The New with lawyers and fixers, playboys and their ideas and bind up their wounds, and ventriloquists, bigtime promises. Age: Notes of a Fringe-Watcher, and many Time goes by and the gains are small for climb back onto the barricades of free other books. the years go slow, the people go slow, thought and free speech for all. • yet the gains can be counted and the i laughter of the people foretokening revolt carries fear to those who wonder how far it will go and where to block it. * * * In fire, chaos, shadows, In hurricanes beyond foretelling of probabilities, In the shove and whirl of unforeseen combustions The people, yes, the people, Move eternally in the elements of surprise, Changing from to bayonet and back to hammer, The hallelujah chorus forever shifting its star soloists. * * * What are these dialects deep under the bones whereby the people of ages and races far apart reach out and say the same clay is in all, bringing out men whose eyes search the earth and see no aliens anywhere, pronouncing across the barriers the peculiar word: "Brother"?

And those beautiful lines, so often quoted, that close Sandburg's book:

In the darkness with a great bundle of grief the people march. This cartoon not funded by National for the Arts In the night, and overhead a shovel of the stars for keeps, the people march: rI wEAsgl Kart S4'1D. I TNINK 7IIE AQn$r STOP ©'wI THt EN*FAlO ÑEAA HAS (APTVREb SoMEriiitt ' ir! "Where to? what next?" •

40 FREE INQUIRY In Memoriam Eulogy to Sidney Hook The editors of FREE INQUIRY regret to report the death of three eminent humanists. Paul Beattie was at the height of his Ernest Benjamin Hook powers both professionally and person- ally when he met with his untimely death et no one think that because this service the truth, I knew that if there was ever a at the age of fifty-three following heart Lof remembrance is being held in a critical time, he would sacrifice it in a surgery. A contributing editor to FREE spacious house of worship, that Sidney moment to save those he loved. Indeed, it INQUIRY since its inception, Beattie was Hook died in the odor of sanctity, a convert was this inconsistency in him that I found president of the Fellowship of Religious to any religious creed! Dad died as he lived, so attractive after I grew up. Earlier, in older Humanists and shared with his wife, a humane skeptic, a secular humanist, and childhood and adolescence, I confess I was Lucinda, as co-editor of its an opponent of , true to the end to disturbed by how he could be so apparently journal. Beattie was minister at the First his beliefs in the primary importance of truth rational, but nevertheless praise my sister or Unitarian Church in Pittsburgh, and a and creative intelligence in human affairs. me for some achievement far above its merit. leader of the Unitarian Universalist In the last days of his illness, while half- I could sense how sometimes he would movement that urged that the church asleep, Dad expressed the thought that stretch things for those he loved, befriended, not be politicized. He fearlessly fought Schopenhauer was right about the bleak or felt compassion, how he would let his for human rights and was a foe of truths of human existence. But then, aroused hopes ride higher than calm reason should totalitarianism of any sort. 1 think by his own voice, as well as by a allow, how he would struggle beyond reason Also dead, at seventy-eight, is Sir reflection upon this view, he followed with to find some happy thought or expression Alfred J. Ayer, a member of the the thought that there was still hope for when his heart was moved. It was only when I was much older that I realized this is the Academy of Humanism and a former humanity through the application of creative greater wisdom, and how many more president of the British Humanist intelligence to the problems of men and eminent but less wise, less noble thinkers Association. Ayer was one of the most women. I think that what he meant was that lacked this quality. influential philosophers of our time; his Schopenhauer was right at a primitive level At the end, his thoughts were of his book Language, Truth, and Logic is a about the biological animal nature of human family. He wanted us to go on with our lives classic work in philosophy. His lively beings, but was right at a higher and not fuss unnecessarily over him and his wit and insightful mind will be sorely level about the use of intelligence, culture, inevitable death. Of course, since we loved missed. and wisdom in dealing with the harsh facts and cherished him, we found that difficult Finally, FREE INQUIRY is profoundly of human existence, and that only here lies to do. Even at that moment there was spark sorry to note the passing of Sidney the reasonable hope of humanity. of ironic humor when he said, "Well, next Hook at the age of eighty-six on July At another point, he burst out: "The time I will arrange matters better." 12, 1989. Hook was a contributing truth, the truth, the truth is the only He was never afraid of death, but rather editor of FREE INQUIRY, a member of important thing. Only the truth matters, no the Academy of Humanism, and a impatient for it, so as to put an end to the matter how much it may hurt." What he disruptions in our lives. As a physician I charter Associate Member of the is saying, I think, is that however attractive Council for Democratic and Secular have seen death often, but never one such are the myths about death and afterlife, or as my father's, for he confronted death Humanism. He was stalwart contribu- any other myths for that matter, human tor to these pages and a powerful voice squarely in the face. Shortly before he died, beings can only hope to find freedom and he coughed once. "Is that the death rattle?" for democracy and secular humanism. happiness by facing truths, however harsh. Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at he asked. "Well, rattle on, rattle, rattle, rattle, And I think that perhaps he also was telling rattle, rattle, rattle." If the grim reaper of New York University, a Fellow at the us something more concrete, something that Hoover Institute at Stanford, and a death was then in the room, visible only to we did not want to hear—that he was dying, former president of the American him, I can only say that death did not rattle and though it hurt, we had to accept that Philosophical Association, Hook was him—rather, he rattled death. truth. the author of more than 1,200 articles The last time I saw him, he lay as if he But remember this, when he said that the and books and had a major impact on were sleeping tranquilly, just as I saw him truth was the only important thing, he was social and political life in the United so often in life; indeed, sometimes with a talking about the world of ideas and beliefs, States. His life work remains a tribute half-opened book or journal in his lap and not about the world of human behavior in to courage and reason. The summer the light on as he slept. And I could not which love, wisdom, ethics, and intelligence 1989 issue of FREE INQUIRY ran Hook's believe that he would not wake again. I sat are also important. For, as much as he loved final interview, an extensive dialogue wishing, more than ever before, for an with Tibor Machan regarding the future afterlife, so that he could live on happily, of Marxism. His son, Ernest Benjamin Ernest Benjamin Hook is professor of public and knowing that he would not want me Hook, delivered the following eulogy health at the University of California at to believe that, but also knowing that he at a memorial gathering at Stanford Berkeley and also professor of pediatrics at would sympathize nonetheless. I could not University. The text has been edited the University of California at San believe he was gone. Indeed, I suddenly slightly for publication. Francisco. realized only yesterday that when I left him in his room in the hospital for the last time,

Fall 1989 41 were all first drafts, that was really extraordinary. It was a cruel blow that in his last few days his right hand was stopped by the pinched nerve of a carpal tunnel syndrome, despite the compassionate efforts of his surgeon. But his mind remained as alert and active as ever and, in fact, shortly before his death, he dictated to Bob Hessen—who so nobly has given of time and effort—the last arrows of his quiver. Some years ago we were talking about what kind of work people do and what makes them happy. As for himself, Dad said, it was not technical philosophy or academic exegesis that he really enjoyed, although he could do it. His delight was in something else. "I like a good fight," he said to me. Indeed, while his expository writings were always lucid and insightful, it was his polemical writings, exchanges with his critics Mrs. Ann Hook accepts an award on behalf of her husband at FREE INQUIRY'S eighth that brought forth the burst of passionate annual conference, in San Francisco. but reasoned argument in which he soared. 1 turned off the light—I turned off the light saw when my sister was born. But he never Dad loved polemics. It was in the just as my mother would often do when she told me that he loved my mother not simply intellectual exchange, the thrust, the cut, the found him sleeping. because she was, and indeed remains, parry of words and ideas that he was really But if my at the time of his beautiful, but for who she was and what happy, and in which he excelled. A neighbor death are sad ones, my first of him, she is, that is, for her , her joy in life, of his at Pearce Mitchell apartments at at least the very first I can date precisely, and her courage, which has remained Stanford told me that one sunny day a few is of a joyous moment at the start of a life— indomitable, no more so than during those years ago he asked Dad, "Sidney, what will my sister's. I remember an afternoon in late difficult last days. you do if after you die, you discover you August 1938 when, almost two-and-a-half My admiration for my father grew as I were wrong, that there really is an afterlife years old, I stood with my grandmother on grew older. There was a kind of wizardry when you are called to judgment by the a balcony outside the Brattleboro Memorial in his quick and ready ability for clear, logical Almighty?" Dad, he told me, replied Hospital in Vermont. Dad bounded out of expression. As a child I often watched him immediately, "I will simply say, `Forgive me a door and called out to both of us together, as he wrote at his big oak desk by the window Lord, but you did not give me enough as if I too were an important adult: "It's in our living room on Third Street in evidence!' " If any further verbal exchange a girl, it's a girl! What I remember most Brooklyn. It was only when I grew older takes place about that evidence, I am sure vividly is the joy in his voice, in his springing that I realized how remarkable a process it that not only will he enjoy it immensely but stride, and in his animated face as he said was. It was as if the words were preformed that even with that opponent Dad will have that. I did not understand what it meant in the inkwell, and his hand was simply the a draw—at least a draw. Of course, as you to have a sister but I knew by the look on medium, the instrument by which the text can imagine, I am a biased judge and his face and the note of his voice that was transferred from his pen to the pages who sits in his corner. something wondrously happy had occurred. of those blue-covered NYU examination But despite his zest for intellectual Perhaps others did not see this side of booklets in which he wrote everything then. exchange, I have no doubt that if given a him as much, because my memories of these His sentences emerged well formed, his choice between the enjoyment of the battle uninhibited moments suffused with his paragraphs coherent. I thought that all on behalf of his ideas or a simple quick happy tranquil glow were primarily about adults wrote this way. How I envied him victory over human myths, he would have the joy he took in his family. Often they this facility as I grew older. chosen the quick triumph of his ideas, were just about simple things—a homecom- I remember five years ago, one cool however much he might have chafed at ing, or some petty achievement of mine or summer evening in South Wardsboro, having no more battles to wage. For though Susan's as we grew up. We never doubted Vermont, around a stove in the living room he was a happy polemicist and also a that he loved us and also my mother. when he sat talking with a former foe, now dedicated rationalist, at rock bottom he was Dad was a passionate man, not only a friend, who was a professional writer. Dad a moralist, and his polemical fire was the about ideas and the world but also in his said that he had never had the patience to expression of moral indignation at the love for my mother. I remember one day revise his work extensively after he wrote. obtuse, foolish, or malicious views of his last fall when we walked slowly together on He always published his first drafts, only opponents, especially if they might have per- the Stanford campus past a throng of female slightly amended. They were almost always nicious consequences. students. He said to me, "You know, I see adequate, he said, and he did not have the Dad, of course, had numerous adversar- many beautiful girls here, but I've never seen temperament to polish his prose more than ies over the years and maintained interesting anyone more beautiful than your mother was was necessary. I could see how amazed his and evolving relationships with many of when I first met her." And he had in his friend was at this discovery. He admired them. Some he respected even when he tired face that spark of happiness that I first Dad's writing, he said, but the fact that they disagreed with them. Indeed, the book that, 42 FREE INQUIRY in my childhood, he called his best, Reason, those foolish or pernicious views long ago. by the rules of the game, to those who tilted Social Myths and Democracy, he dedicated Indeed, many so-and-so's have changed their with him on the ethical battlefield of ideas to "the memory of a noble adversary." I once views and now agree with him. But even and who gave him happiness because he asked him who that was. It was Leon about others, he spoke more softly. He could do happy battle with them. Trotsky, with whom, by 1940, the date of sounded more like a dispassionate or What more can I say? Only that I once publication, he profoundly disagreed. occasionally sympathetic historical observer, asked him many years ago what kind of And I suspect that he loved his exchanges rather than, as he had earlier, an engaged obsequies he wanted. Keep things simple, with more than any. What partisan of the truth against their social he said. If there's to be music, let it be fun all that was, he once said. myths. Of course, for some of those foes Mozart. And if any poetry, ask Ernest, for with whom he still battled, some even as he knows about those kinds of things. He y mother reminded me the other day recently as last week, he retained his moral meant, of course Ernest Nagel, his oldest Mthat once in our home in Brooklyn indignation. Indeed, it was these last battles, and wisest friend. Unfortunately Ernest is we were awakened in the middle of the night along with his love and concern for my no longer alive, so I called Sidney Nagel, by the doorbell ringing and the door being mother, that kept the spark of vitality warm one of his sons. He mentioned Shakespeare's banged. To a child such interruptions can in him during his last year. poetry as one of his father's and indeed, be frightening. It was an urgent telegram Let me hazard a guess as to why his Dad himself quoted Shakespeare several from an impatient man with whom Dad had judgment softened about some of his times during his last days. There is in the been debating only hours earlier. It read opponents of times past, even if he didn't play Cymbeline a lament addressed to an simply: "Dear Sidney, you were right and change his views about their ideas: The zest, apparently dead youth, which, modified I was wrong," signed so-and-so. May all the energy, the enthusiasm of battling for somewhat, seems appropriate. intellectual disputes end so cordially. And the truth filled him with delight. After the more importantly, may all sleeping families fray was over, I think he retained often a You never feared the heat of the sun and frightened children everywhere in the fond memory of the event. And after many Nor the furious winter's rages. Now your worldly task is done, world have such an anticlimatic ending to years, the memory of his enjoyment of those Home you've gone and taken wages. the harsh banging on the door in the middle exchanges suffused his thoughts of those of the night. opponents and spilled over to his later You never feared the frown of great But not all of his foes were so principled, feelings for them. And so I say in his Nor the mighty 's stroke. and the humor of some controversies took memory, let us not only his colleagues, Hear no more the din of state, Now that the reed is as the oak. time to ripen, although he enjoyed them his friends, his supporters, and his well- wishers who stood with him through so many immensely. Recently in his in You never feared the lightning flash 1 found some old papers, which years, let us thank his adversaries, those who Nor the roaring thunder-stone I sent out to him at Stanford. One of them were the anvil to his hammer blows. But You feared not slander, nor censure rash. was a clipping dated February 15, 1935 from of course only some of them—for as anyone 0nly death has overthrown. the newspaper of Washington Square college who has lived in the twentieth century must know, there are those foes whom we can All lovers, all, all lovers must, at N.Y.U., where he then taught. He roared Yield to this and come to dust. with delight when he telephoned to thank never salute. Hail then not only to those who But our love, your hopes, me for sending this reminder of an episode fought the good battles on his side, but to your wisdom will long forgotten; for there on the front page his honest, humane foes, to those who fought Remain with us, though you are still. • was an article reporting that Professor Sidney Hook had just been denounced on Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS) campus, as, of all things, "a slimy revolu- tionary and a reptile"—a reptile, moreover, The Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS) offer a personalized recovery "of the worst sort." How we laughed together program for alcoholics and addicts, stressing a nonreligious approach. over that! He was even more amused when SOS has grown rapidly since its inception in 1986, and now has ninety I observed that almost certainly the reporter groups in the United States and one in Canada. had gotten the quote wrong, for given the The group publishes a quarterly newsletter, available for only $12, nature of the group that attacked him—and including postage and handling. Additional contributions are tax deductible. I won't dignify them by mentioning their name or their ideology here—almost cer- ❑ Please enter my subscription to the SOS newsletter tainly what his denouncer had actually said ❑ I do not wish to subscribe, but enclosed is my tax-deductible was that Sidney Hook was a "slimy counter- reptile." There's all the dif- contribution of $ ference in the world! It seems that student Total $ ❑ Check enclosed was no more accurate then than ❑ MasterCard ❑ Visa # Exp it is today. I remember vividly the passions Dad Name expressed at home about some of his battles. Address But recently I was surprised to find that his judgments about many individuals had City State Zip cooled. Tell me about so-and-so, I would 'Box 5 • Buffalo, New York 14215 ask on occasion to stoke up a fire of energy Return to: SOS Subscriptions, C/O FREE INQUIRY in him. And I discovered that he was more 716-834-2921 tolerant about so-and-so, who had expressed Fall 1989 43 adoption of a strict anti-abortion policy. Yet by 1970 the climate had changed to the point where the entire AMA adopted abortion Viewpoints guidelines that were strongly pro-choice. The vigor and depth of pro-abortion advocacy in the pre-Roe years can be seen in the lively debate that went on in the philosophical literature—and also in the largely successful The Future of Abortion initiatives of Planned Parenthood, NOW, and other organizations to liberalize abor- Tom Flynn tion laws state by state, building consensus as they went. bortion rights in America are under conservative reaction of the 1980s has done Roe made all this moot. Beyond question, Aunprecedented fire. The immediate little to turn back wider tolerance of by settling the issue quickly the Supreme struggle to preserve the remaining legacy of nontraditional family structures and living Court decision prevented tens of thousands Roe v. Wade is urgent. But secular humanists arrangements. Gains in the area of "death of unwanted births and saved hundreds of have historically served as catalysts on the with dignity" seem secure so far. Why is it womens' lives. But by settling the issue too frontier of social change. Perhaps there's no that abortion, almost alone among the quickly, it kept Americans from reaching any better time than the present to look beyond "successes" of the new morality, is coming sense of closure regarding the larger moral Missouri v. Webster toward the long-term unglued? issues. We are paying today for this act of goal. No matter what setbacks the next few First, we must acknowledge that most judicial controversius interruptus. years may bring, most secular humanists still Americans never became comfortable with Surely, it will be a significant contribution agree that an ultimate goal is abortion for the idea of abortion. Recent polls show that if today's secular humanists can help to free any woman who requests it. We need to look most of us still disapprove of abortion the abortion debate from the mire of past immediate disappointments and focus per se; we simply respect a woman's right emotionalism and theology into which it has on forging a new, rational consensus on to choose. That is, most Americans are less sunk after sixteen years of enforced stag- abortion—one that can give secular hu- willing than they once were to act on their nation. manists an agenda for moral into vague conviction that abortion is wrong. But In doing this, we might begin by admit- the next century. the conviction remains. Why? ting that Roe v. Wade left a lot to be desired, I believe that this consensus should not Ironically, part of the blame may lie with even before it was gored on the horns of stop at affirming the right to choose. It must what pro-choicers long considered their Webster. For example, it "does not recognize also assert the moral acceptability of strongest bulwark: the 1973 Roe v. Wade the unlimited right to do with one's body abortion per se. We need a platform that decision. Roe may actually have retarded the as one pleases." It also states that a "woman's can take abortion's defenders off the movement toward a more enlightened right to terminate her pregnancy is not defensive, one that can shift the burden of national consensus on abortion. absolute, and she is not entitled to terminate proof to the other side. "The truly ethical Roe v. Wade settled the abortion battles her pregnancy at whatever time, in whatever question," writes Joseph Fletcher, "is not of the 1960s and 1970s in an unstable and way, and for whatever reason she alone whether we can justify abortion, but whether ultimately undesirable way: by government chooses." Finally, Roe allows the state fiat. By enforcing a pre-emptive victory for "important interests in protecting potential we can justify compulsory pregnancy."1 those in favor of abortion rights, it brought A secular, humanistic platform regarding life" that civil libertarians should justly find the grass-roots debate about the subject to abortion would buttress the contention that frightening. a premature end. The important questions, a woman—indeed, any individual—is Another weakness in Roe v. Wade is its such as "When does a fetus become a human entitled to full control over her body. And acceptance of "viability" as the criterion for person?" were never really thrashed out. So deciding when the state acquires an interest it would define human personhood in a way we arrive at today's situation, where abortion in preserving the fetus. By implying a high that limits the ascription of moral agency rights exist only by court order because moral value for "potential" human life and so that fetuses clearly do not qualify as advocates never got the chance to build a tying the limits of choice to the philosophi- persons in the moral sense. This would mean broad-based constituency for them. And as cally suspect benchmark of "viability," Roe agitating for acceptance of a functional Webster shows, what nine can do, v. Wade imposed two serious criterion for personhood, applicable to post- nine Justices can undo just as quickly. on the abortion debate. We who favor choice born humans who meet minimum behavioral When we look back at the years before were wrong ever to have felt secure; the right and neurological standards. Roe, it is clear that a movement to build to abortion always stood on twisted legs. Humanists might well ask why this battle a true national consensus favorable to Both "potentiality" and the viability needs to be fought over again. Secular abortion on demand was gaining momen- benchmark had already been widely criti- humanism played a significant role in the tum. Sixteen states had already liberalized cized in the philosophical literature before "new morality" movement of the 1960s and their abortion statutes in the years prior to Roe. Let's begin with a discussion of the 1970s. Abortion was only one of several Roe. Many adapted the ALI Model Penal so-called potentiality principle. agenda items that the new morality seemed Code, which in turn drew on New York The argument from potentiality is fraught to have implemented effectively. The State's pioneering reform legislation. with difficulties. Basically, it maintains that Between 1967 and 1970, the American since a fertilized ovum has the potential to Tom Flynn is co-editor of the Secular Medical Association (AMA) reversed itself develop into a human being who will then Humanist Bulletin. on abortion: In 1967, the AMA's Committee possess a right to life, the fetus now on Human Reproduction had advocated commands the same right to life on grounds

44 FREE INQUIRY of its future potential. Under this argument, conceived. (This argument assumes, of bankrupt, and if the viability principle, which to abort a fetus is murder as surely as is course, that the fetus is not a moral agent, underlies many moderate agruments in favor smashing your brother's head with a brick. a point to which we will return.) of abortion through the first or second The pitfalls in this argument are readily Viability, the benchmark used in Roe to trimester, is vacuous, then clearly we need apparent. For one thing, to argue it determine when the state can interfere in a a broad social consensus on more solid consistently one must oppose not only woman's abortion decision, also stands on criteria for deciding when and why abortion abortion, but as well. It's shaky ground. As a moral principle, viability may be acceptable. Numerous scholars have difficult to draw a coherent moral line suffers from relativity. It is a product of already proposed and closely analyzed such between preventing the union of sperm and extramoral forces like technology (what a criterion. This definition accepts "person- ovum, and destroying a fetus. Both prevent society is capable of doing) and economics hood" as the moral watershed after which the of a potential human life with (what society is willing to expend resources it is morally unacceptable to terminate a equal effectiveness. Thirty years ago, most to do). If a given fetus is said to have a human life. But it defines "personhood" in Catholics and many other Americans right to life, this right arises from geogra- functional neurological terms. considered birth control immoral on just phical and historical accident, not from any The humanist view of personhood holds these grounds. Today, few accept a prohi- unique characteristic of the fetus.3 This is, that a human individual's status as a "moral bition on birth control, but the argument at best, a strange way to do morality. person" cannot be assumed. It must be from potentiality continues to imply its proved. Termination, by abortion or other necessity. ecause viability is technologically and means, is unacceptable only after an Eike-Henner W. Kluge, who in 1975 Beconomically determined, it provides at individual begins to exhibit behaviors, skills, found most abortions morally unacceptable, best a short-term justification for abortion and neurological activity associated with still found the potentiality principle a worthy rights. It is arguable that technology for moral agency. A broad consensus has object of satire. Consider this classic reductio maintaining fetuses outside the womb has emerged regarding what these characteristics ad absurdum: changed enough even since Roe to compress are. In the interest of fairness, I draw again the "window of viability." Today's Court ap- from Kluge, so that we may see what even ... let us consider an ordinary physical parently accepted this argument in Webster, a writer opposed to abortion will admit object—say, a chair. The chair, as it exists, when it approved a provision of the Missouri constitutes the requirements for moral is of course an actual chair. It is also clear law that requires doctors to test for viability personhood. that the pieces of wood out of which the after twenty weeks, four full weeks earlier chair is constructed are not themselves an Requirements for Moral Personhood: than the twenty-four week standard accepted actual chair prior to their construction: • Constitutional potential to become a They are a potential chair. But by parity in Roe v. Wade. Of course, as medical tech- moral agent of reasoning, the same thing holds true nology continues to advance, artificial womb • Capability to form a symbolic for the tree from which the wood came. technology is foreseeable that would make awareness of reality . . . The only difference between its any minimally healthy fetus viable from the • Capability for self-awareness potentiality and that of pieces of wood is • Capability for language^ that the potentiality of the tree is one step moment of conception. Surely we cannot further removed from actualization than accept viability as a benchmark for limiting The humanist ethicist Joseph Fletcher is the potentiality of the pieces of wood. abortion rights if it can so easily meta- expresses a similar, functional view: Nor need we stop with the tree ... the morphose into a justification for banning seed from which the tree grew, together abortion altogether, as soon as technology Before cerebration comes into play, or with the various mineral nutrients that reaches a certain point! when it is ended, in the absence of the finally resulted in the tree, the wood, and synthesizing or thinking function of the ultimately the chair, are all together a When we view the issue this way, the need cerebral cortex, the person is nonexistent; potential chair.2 for secular humanists to advocate a new, or, put another way, the life which is rational moral consensus is clear. If the functioning biologically is a nonperson.5 Michael Tooley, a philosopher who potentiality principle, which underlies most approves of abortion, refutes the potentiality conservative arguments against abortion, is Here are the outlines of a morality of principle from the opposite direction. He argues that if our decision to prevent a given Help Further the Cause of Humanism. state of affairs can be blameless, then our decision to eliminate that same state of Please remember FREE INQUIRY in your will. affairs after it has come into being must be Won't you consider making a provision in your will for FREE INQUIRY and the Council equally blameless, so long as our motivation for Democratic and Secular Humanism? This will ensure vital support for the defense is the same. Motivation is important here; and development of humanism. for example, Tooley argues that to refrain Although humanists do not believe in immortality, they know that the good work from saving the life of a person one would they do will survive them. By leaving a percentage of your estate to FREE INQUIRY (CODESH, INC.), you will be furthering the ideals of humanism. like to see dead—say, to stand by while the We would be happy to work with you and your attorney in the development of person drowns when it is within one's power a will or estate plan that meets your wishes. to save him or her—is morally equivalent Besides a will, there are many other possibilities, such as living trusts and charitable to murder. It is the converse of that argument gift annuities from which you receive an annual income from the transfer of property that applies to abortion. If we accept a now. Or you might make a contingent bequest, by which FREE INQUIRY (CODESH, INC.) woman's decision to prevent conception will receive a gift only if your primary beneficiaries do not survive you. through birth control, as most Americans For more information, contact Paul Kurtz, Editor of FREE INQUIRY. today do, we have no consistent grounds for P.O. Box 5 • Central Park Station • Buffalo, New York 14215.716-834-2921 objecting if the woman chooses for the same All inquiries will be held in the strictest confidence. reasons to abort a fetus after it has been Fall 1989 45 abortion toward which secular humanists most secular humanists are repelled by the Fletcher's noble statement—much less to put might urge their fellow citizens. It is a spectacle of severely malformed babies being it into broader practice. morality that embraces and celebrates the obdurately maintained—regardless of their Viewed in the short-term, the prospects high status of the human person, yet it own , their parents' anguish, or the for abortion rights may look bleak. But that accepts that personhood is a state humans cost—simply because they happened to be simply makes the long-term challenge grow into, perhaps months or even a few born. sharper. Secular humanism can make an years after birth. Personhood should be I believe it is incumbent upon secular important contribution, helping to revive the ascribed only to individuals who display a humanists to reintroduce rational inquiry longer-term toward an present capability for achieving true personal into the abortion debate. Then, I submit that ethic of abortion on demand. We must not status, symbolic awareness, awareness of we need to follow that rational line wherever let today's bumpy passage blur our vision self, and the acquisition of language. it leads. Death with dignity was considered of that goal. If we define personhood in this way, it "unthinkable" when humanists and other is clear that abortion does not represent the moral leaders began to agitate for it thirty Notes killing of a moral person because no fetus, years ago. Today, though society still has at any stage of pregnancy, meets the criteria 1. Joseph Fletcher, Humanhood: Essays in a lot of work to do regarding the practice Biomedical Ethics (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, for personhood. Viability and potentiality and implications of beneficent euthanasia, 1979), p. 138. stand exposed as the red herrings they are. a solid foundation for this formerly "unthin- 2. Eike-Henner W. Kluge, The Practice of All other things being equal, every abortion kable" concept has been laid. It may be that Death (New Haven: Press, 1975), is acceptable. Neither the state nor any part of our challenge as secular humanists pp. 15-16. person has either the right, or any reason, 3. op. cit., pp. 31-32. at the dawn of the next millennium is to 4. op. cit., pp. 90-95. to gainsay a woman's choice to demand advocate for a functional definition of 5. Fletcher, p. 134. abortion. And the burden of proof is shifted personhood. 6. See Michael Tooley, "Abortion and Infan- to opponents of abortion to demonstrate— Ten years ago, Fletcher wrote: "If we ticide," in Philosophy and Public Affairs, vol. 2 no. 1, Fall 1972. if they can—when or why any limits ought adopt the sensible view that a fetus is not to be placed on a woman's right to seek this 7. Fletcher, p. 138. a person, there is only one reasonable policy, See also Germain G. Grisez, Abortion: The particular medical procedure. and that is to put an end to compulsory Myths, The Realities and The Arguments (New I do not suggest functional personhood pregnancy."7 It is perhaps symptomatic of York: Corpus Books, 1970); Daniel Callahan, Abortion: Law, Choice and Morality as the basis for a secular humanist moral the intellectual stagnancy that has overtaken (New York: agenda without awareness of the strategic Macmillan, 1970); A. F. Guttmacher, ed., The the abortion debate since Roe v. Wade that challenges it will pose. We who advocate this Case for Legalized Abortion Now (Berkeley, CA: no one has yet found a way to improve on Diablo Press, 1967). • view will face stiff opposition, including some from within humanist ranks. Critics will charge that a functionality criterion for personhood permits not only abortion on demand, but also early infanticide. The is correct; we can no more Humanism and Altruism advocate abortion on demand, without accepting infanticide under certain circum- stances, than a right-to-lifer who employs Tim Madigan the potentiality principle can consistently oppose abortion while accepting birth The first duty of man is to become self- one's own knowledge, , manners, supporting; his next duty is to help customs, or beliefs. (2) Specifically, grati- control. someone else. Tooley is among a large number of writers fication of the self." who finds infanticide acceptable under a —Robert G. Ingersoll Keeping in mind that this is a debatable functional criterion of personhood—at least subject, one could say that socialists infanticide within a few months of birth and hen discussing the relationship of generally adhere to an altruistic ideal, in the presence of severe birth defects.6 After Whumanism to socialism and to liber- libertarians to an egoistic ideal. The question all, a three-month neonate is no more likely tarianism, the role that altruism plays in each is, where do humanists generally stand on to display the signs of functional personhood of these systems is of deep concern. the matter? than is, say, a twenty-week fetus. The burden In his Dictionary of Philosophy, Peter of proof falls to the critics to explain how Angeles defines altruism as "(I) The efore addressing this, let's examine why it can be unacceptable to destroy the neonate promotion of the good of others. (2) A Bsocialists and libertarians often take if it is acceptable to destroy the fetus, given selfless and benevolent love for humankind opposing sides in regard to altruism. the same motivations. and dedication toward achieving the well- Socialists, for the most part, hold that class Infanticide goes against the grain of many being of people and society." distinctions and economic inequalities keep people. But if we're interested in forging a The term is often contrasted with "ego- human beings oppressed, and hinder the hardy moral consensus that can withstand ism," which Angeles defines as "(1) In achievement of and . the attacks of time and circumstance, we general, excessive self-love and preoccupa- From a political and economic standpoint, need to take the long view. We need to tion with oneself, and excessive reference to they believe individualism to be the cause distinguish between ideas to which we object of the disproportionate distribution of because they are demonstrably wrong or Tim Madigan is executive editor of FREE wealth. , the noted irrational, and ideas that simply evoke INQUIRY. socialist , writes in his essay negative emotional responses. I suspect that "Reflections on the Future of Socialism" that 46 FREE INQUIRY "Socialism is, at its root, the effort to find Rather, they are a statement of principles Samuel Oliner, this is not merely a theo- a remedy in social terms for the affront to and values to which most humanists gener- retical question—his entire family was reason and mortality in the status quo... . ally adhere. As such, they are open to murdered by the Nazis in Poland, and as Socialism is the expression of a collective constant amendment, for humanism is by a child he was hidden by a Polish Christian hope for mankind, its idealization of what its very nature open-ended and forward- woman in the attic of her home throughout it conceives itself to be capable of."2 looking. the war. The Oliners' research seeks to lay It is this notion of "collectivism" that In addition, it is by no means certain that out the historical and social context of sends shivers down the spines of most altruism and are incompatible. altruistic behavior, and to determine how freedom-loving libertarians. Perhaps the Angeles has another definition in his moral communities can cultivate this virtue. most ardent opponent of collectivism in Dictionary that seems applicable to the Notwithstanding the approbation usually recent times was the writer Ayn Rand, who humanist position: Egoistic altruism is "The awarded to altruistic behavior, one can still dedicated her life to fighting all attempts to view that self-interest is compatible with understand Rand's fears of a collectivist quell the spirit of individualism. She proudly benevolent actions and motives. It is possible approach to such actions. For instance, while labeled herself an egoist, and made no bones to satisfy our own interests in the act of we can admire individuals who donate blood about her feelings toward altruism. In her seeking the best interests of others." Most for the good of their fellow human beings, introduction to The Virtue of , humanists do not take an either/ or position, we should be wary of attempts to compel she proclaims that "Altruism declares that but believe that by helping others we increase all able-bodied men and women to give any action taken for the benefit of others our own sense of self-worth. Of course, blood as often as they can. The fear of is good, and any action taken for one's own ethical dilemmas often arise: "Do I take that enforced altruism is a very real one, benefit is evil."3 Thus, any action one takes last piece of cake, or let my aged grand- especially for those who love liberty and who that does not have as its intention the mother have it?" "Should I buy myself a new believe in the importance of personal betterment of one's fellow human beings is television, or should I give the money to responsibility. considered to have either no moral content ?""Must I sacrifice myself by jumping The question of the relationship between or to be immoral. Rand advocates an ethics on this hand grenade and thereby save my humanism and altruism remains open. I based on selfishness—but not, she is quick fellow soldiers, or can I run like hell and would like to hear from our readers on this, to point out, the selfishness of "If it feels let them fend for themselves?" These since I know that many of you have strong good, do it." She holds that there are rational dilemmas are very real, but humanists tend opinions on the matter. Therefore, we are principles by which we should guide our to decide what actions to take by following adding to the "Reader's Forum" the ques- lives. To her, morality consists of rational a situational approach, rather than a strictly tion: "Should humanists be altruistic?" self-interest, a self-interest that collectivism doctrinaire approach. Perhaps the matter depends upon how one seeks to destroy. chooses to define altruism—so be sure to Though Rand is admired by many A t any rate, selfless actions do occur give us your definition of that debate- libertarians, there are those in the libertarian and they are not to be scoffed provoking term. We look forward to your camp who disagree with her views. Likewise, at. Consider the work being done by Samuel responses. there are socialist theoreticians who would and Pearl Oliner of Humboldt State Uni- quarrel with Heilbroner's definition of versity in Arcata, California. They are the Notes socialism. Nonetheless, it is interesting to Directors of the Altruistic Personality and note that Rand and Heilbroner, both Prosocial Behavior Institute and the authors I. Peter Angeles, Dictionary of Philosophy (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1981). of The Altruistic Personality, which exam- atheists, are committed to the proposition 2. Robert Heilbroner, Between Capitalism that human reason is crucial to the moral ines the question, "What leads ordinary men and Socialism (New York: Vintage Books, 1970), system one should follow. It is easy to see and women to risk their lives on behalf of pp. 113-114. why their views—even though mutually others?"4 Specifically, the book examines 3. Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness: A those individuals who rescued Jews in Nazi- New Concept of Egoism (New York: Signet exclusive—are so attractive to humanists Books, 1964), p. viii. who profess no faith in the hereafter, and occupied Europe, without any compensation 4. Samuel P. 0liner and Pearl M. 0liner, The who hold that rationality is the basis for our and with full knowledge of the consequences Altruistic Personality (New York: The Free Press, coming to grips with the myriad of problems should their actions be discovered. To 1988). • that face us in this world. Where, then, should humanists stand in ecular humanism is not a religion, wisdom and science, which is usually nar- regard to altruism as an ethical ideal: for according to Paul Kurtz, but a eupraxo- rowly specialized in its focus. Eupraxophy S provides both intellectual or against? Some of our more libertarian- phy. This new term intro- duced by the author is de- conviction and commit- minded readers have strongly objected to the rived from Greek roots: eu ment. Humanist eupraxo- fourteenth principle of "The Affirmations of (good), praxis (practice), EUPRAXOPHY phy, in particular, provides Humanism" listed on the back page of FREE sophia (scientific and philo- (1) a method of inquiry, (2) INQUIRY: "We believe in the common moral sophical wisdom), mean- LIVING a cosmic outlook based on decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truth- ing, literally, "good wis- WITHOUT the sciences, (3) a norma- fulness, responsibility." By listing altruism dom in conduct." The au- tive ethical , and (4) a social polity. It pro- in this catalogue of moral virtues, they ask, thor wishes to go beyond RELIGION "philosophy" which pro- vides an alternative to re- are we not thereby repudiating everything ligious faith. for which libertarianism stands? vides the love but not BY PAUL KURTZ 159 pages • Cloth $15.95 First of all, the Affirmations do not make necessarily the practice of up a creed that all humanists must strictly PROMETHEUS BOOKS obey. (How could someone who disobeys Call toll free 1800) 421-0351 • In N.Y. State call (716) 837-2475 • Add $2.50 postage and handling; N.Y. State residents add sales tax. be "excommunicated" from humanism?) Fall 1989 47 The Pseudo-Problem of Creation in Physical Cosmology

Adolf Grünbaum

arious writers confuse the genuine question "Does the The physical cosmologist Jayant Narlikar (1977) is physical universe have a temporal origin, and—if so— instructively articulate in his confusion of the question of the Vwhat does physical cosmology tell us about it?" with origin of the universe with the pseudo-problem of its creation. the quite different pseudo-problem "Was there a creation of And having conflated these two different questions, he feels the universe, and—if so—what light can science throw on entitled to complain that "most cosmologists turn a blind eye" it, if any?" Thus, the cosmologist Hermann Bondi (1961:140, to the latter: 152) tells us that in "theories of creation in the past only," such as the big bang , "the problem of the origin The most fundamental question in cosmology is, "Where did of the universe, that is [sic], the problem of creation is .. . the matter we see around us originate in the first place?" being handed over to " (143). As Bondi sees it, This point has never been dealt with in the big bang the steady-state theory propounded by him and Thomas in which, at t = 0, there occurs a sudden and fantastic violation of the law of conservation of matter and in 1948 brings "the problem of creation ... within the scope energy. After t = 0 there is no such violation. By ignoring of physical inquiry" (140), if only because it postulates the primary creation event most cosmologists turn a blind continual "creation" such that "no events in the past are eye to the above question (136-137). required that have no counterpart now" (152). Therefore, Bondi claimed heuristic scientific superiority for the steady- Narlikar had set the stage for this formulation of his question state theory vis-à-vis its big bang rival: as follows:

The of continual creation is more fertile in that So we have the following of a big bang Universe. it answers more questions [about the origin of matter] and At an epoch, which we may denote by t = 0, the Universe yields more ... results that are, at least in principle, observable. explodes into existence.... The epoch t = 0 is taken as the To push the entire question of creation into the past is to event of "creation." Prior to this there existed no Universe, restrict science to a discussion of what happened after creation no observers, no physical laws. Everything suddenly appeared while forbidding it to examine creation itself (152). at t = O. The "age" of the Universe is defined as the cosmic time which has elapsed since this event... . Although scientists are not in the habit of discussing the In diametrical opposition to Bondi, the physicist Herbert creation event or the situation prior to it, a lot of research Dingle rejects as perpetually miraculous the violation of has gone into the discussion of what the Universe was like matter-conservation by the "continual creation" of new immediately after its creation (125). hydrogen atoms in the steady-state theory. And he sees that violation as overtaxing our credulity even more than does During the past three decades, the astronomer Bernard the biblical creation out of nothing: "It [the Bondi and Gold Lovell (1961, 1986) has given an explicitly theological twist theory] exempts us from having to postulate a single initial to the most fundamental cosmological questions by making miracle on condition that we admit a continuous series of two major claims: (1) There is an inescapable problem of miracles" (quoted by Loren Eiseley in Scientific American creation in both the steady-state and big bang cosmologies, 189, July 1953, 81). But, as against Dingle, the physicist Philip but neither of them is capable of offering a scientific solution Morrison opines that it is the big bang theory, rather than to it, and (2) a satisfactory explanatory solution "must its steady-state rival, which purportedly requires a greater eventually move over into metaphysics for reasons which are reliance on supernatural miracles (Letter, Scientific American, inherent in modern " by postulating divine September 1953, 14). creation (1961:125). As Lovell sees it, "the major issue" between the competing steady-state and big bang models of the universe Adolf Grünbaum is the Andrew Mellon Professor of is "whether creation is occurring now and throughout all time Philosophy and Research Professor of Psychiatry at the in the past and in the future, or whether the fundamental University of Pittsburgh. material of the universe was created in its entirety some billions of years ago" (118-119). As for the big bang theory, he declares

48 FREE INQUIRY explanatory bankruptcy. Having assumed that in the classical, big bang theory, the creationist reading of it is, of course, pre-quantum versions of this theory, one can meaningfully not just that the big bang itself followed upon a state of so- speak of "the time before the [big bang]," he feels entitled called nothing. Instead, this transition could not have occurred to reason that "One must still inquire ... how the primeval quite naturally but required an external cause supplied only gas [of the big bang] originated. Science has nothing to say by God. On that view, ever since then, God has been thus on this issue" (98-99). And why does he think that science unemployed, as it were, for about twelve billion years, because is thus silent? Because the purported creation of matter at the big bang model of the general theory of relativity features the "definite moment" of the big bang is "beyond human the conservation law for matter-energy, which obviously investigation" (117). Yet, in his view, the supposed problem precludes any nonconservative formation of physical entities. of creation "can tear the [human] individual's mind asunder" Most recently, however, the plasma cosmology originally by its gnawing, inescapable intellectual challenge (125). developed by Hannes Alfven, which assigns a critical cosmic Therefore, Lovell repeatedly chides those whom he calls role to hot, electrically charged gases, has posed a major "materialists" for indifference, neglect, or evasion of the challenge to the gravity-dominated big bang cosmology (The problem (112, 122, 125). New York Times, February 28, 1989, Cl). By featuring a But what of the steady-state theory? Though Lovell (1961) universe that has existed forever, without any beginning, endorses Bondi's investigative tribute to it vis-à-vis its big bang plasma cosmology altogether obviates even the temptation rival, he contends that nonetheless it too "has no solution to invoke divine creation ex nihilo. Such preclusion of creation to the problem of the creation of matter" (117), because it will become important, if plasma cosmology turns out to provides no "information about the nature of the energy input supplant the big bang theory in response to recent observa- which gave to the created [hydrogen] atom" (124). Yet tional findings that presumably contradict some of the latter's Bondi explicitly denies that there is any "energy input" in evolutionary tenets. the sense of the principle of energy conservation, which is The question of creation, I shall argue, is just as ill-posed denied by the steady-state theory. As he put it, "It should in the context of the recent rival physical cosmologies as was be clearly understood that the creation here discussed is the the following sort of problem, which agitated philosophers formation of matter not out of radiation but out of nothing" until the middle of the eighteenth century: Why do ordinary (1961:144). And the crucial point will turn out to be that, material objects not simply vanish into nothingness? As Philip in the steady-state theory, such nonconservative matter Quinn has remarked, there were thinkers until at least the accretion is claimed to transpire without any kind of external eighteenth century (Jonathan Edwards, to name just one) who cause, because it is held to be cosmically the spontaneous, took this question very seriously. Thus, in "Meditation III," natural, unperturbed behavior of the physical world! René Descartes simply assumed, at least tacitly, that when I shall argue that the genuine problem of the origin of a physical system is closed, it will simply not obey matter- the universe or of the matter in it has been illicitly transmuted conservation spontaneously and quite naturally without into the pseudo-problem of the "creation" of the universe or external intervention. Having made that assumption, he was of its matter by an external cause. driven to suppose that an external cause supplied by God's At present, the big bang theory is in vogue, whereas the activity was required at every instant of time to prevent matter Bondi and Gold steady-state theory is largely defunct on from lapsing into nothingness. Ironically, whereas Lovell calls empirical grounds. Indeed, the so-called "inflationary" early God to the rescue as the cause of the continual nonconservative expansion, grand unified theories, and quantum cosmology hydrogen production in the steady-state universe, Descartes have modified these earlier twentieth-century cosmologies. Yet (1967) assigns that same indispensable causal role to the deity it is instructive philosophically to examine Lovell's argument just to keep contingently existing material objects from for divine creation in the context of the earlier two rival theories vanishing into thin air: despite their replacement by the current models. As it turns out, the philosophical issues have remained essentially the It is as a matter of fact perfectly clear and evident to all same, although the technical details have changed consider- who consider with attention the nature of time, that, in order ably. Thus, my thesis is two-fold: If the big bang theory— to be conserved in each moment in which it endures, a as modified by quantum theoretical considerations governing substance has need of the same power and action as would be necessary to produce and create it anew, supposing it did two vacuum states close to the big bang phase (Hawking 1988, not yet exist, so that the light of nature shows us clearly chapter 8)—is true, it provides no support at all for Augustine's that the distinction between creation and conservation is solely old philosophical doctrine of divine creation out of nothing a [conceptual] distinction of the reason [rather than of (ex nihilo). And if, alternatively, the steady-state theory had ontological causation] (168). been true, it would have provided no support for the claim that the nonconservative matter accretion asserted by it Bernard Lovell's recent paper "Reason and Faith in requires an external cause such that God is busy creating Cosmology" (1986) is a technically updated version of the hydrogen atoms around the clock through all past and future philosophical argument that he had developed in more detail eternity. By the same token, if there were nonconservative in his earlier book (1961), which was based on his 1958 lectures energy formation in an "inflationary" universe, while the over the BBC entitled "The Individual and the Universe." energy density remains constant, no external—let alone Just what are the (tacit) assumptions that inspire Lovell's supernatural—cause would be warranted. In the case of the and Narlikar's particular questions? And are these assumptions

Fall 1989 49 warranted in the contexts of the theories to which they address (or matter-energy conservation) in a closed finite system on their questions? I contend that they are not! And if not, then a macroscopic scale qua spontaneous, natural, unperturbed there is no basis for Lovell's claim that, since neither the big behavior of the system, then Descartes is empirically wrong bang nor the steady-state theory answer his creation questions, to assume that such conservation requires the intervention they are unsatisfactory without divine creation. Indeed, as of an external cause. And, if he is thus wrong, then his claim we shall see, his questions rest, in each case, on assumptions that external divine intervention in particular is needed to that are denied by precisely the theories to which he is keep a table from disappearing into nothingness is based on addressing them. And instead of justifying his presupposed a false . More generally, if the presupposition assumptions against these denials, he simply takes them for of a philosophical or scientific question is false, then the granted without argument. In this way, he assumes rather question is at best misleading and is at least ill-posed or than shows that good theories need to answer the questions pointless. he addresses to them. Thus, an analysis of the particular assumptions that inspire After all, a question cannot be regarded as a well-posed Lovell's major questions will show that they are ill-posed in challenge merely because the questioner finds it psychologically just this way. He used these misguided questions to give an insistent, experiences a strong feeling of puzzlement, and altogether unwarranted theological twist to the rivalry between desires an answer to it. This is completely obvious in the the steady-state and big bang theories of cosmogony. In case of asking a man when he last beat his wife. If, in fact, particular, Lovell's aforecited statement of "the major issue" he does not beat his wife, then it is not a well-posed question between them as one of the timing of creation is not at all to ask him whether or when he stopped beating her. And a philosophical refinement or deepening of the question if the question is nonetheless put to him and he denies beating whether the big bang or the steady-state cosmology is true. her at all, it is illegitimate to accuse him of evading the question or of indifference to it. It would be legitimate to challenge The traditional creation argument the man's denial of wife-beating by offering evidence that he does beat her after all. Such evidence would legitimate the n order to deal with the recent creation issue in , question. Thus, the debate on whether the man has answered I must first offer an analysis of an old argument for divine the question is pointless, until the underlying assumption of creation or so-called first cause that all of us have encountered wife-beating is validated. Similarly, if—as we first learned from in the history of philosophy quite independently of the chemist Lavoisier—there is indeed matter conservation sophisticated astronomical theories. It is a version of the

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50 FREE INQUIRY "cosmological argument" for the that is both cannot be attributed to the causal role played by the activity familiar and most germane to our concerns. There are, of the agent. Thus, even if we were to assume that agent- however, various other versions (see Rowe 1975 and Craig causation does differ interestingly from event-causation, we 1979), and I do not claim that my charge of pseudo-problem must recognize that ordinary agent-causation is still only a applies necessarily to all of the questions addressed by them. transformation of matter (energy). Thus, I am disregarding the view of timeless causation set forth by Augustine in Book XI of his Confessions, which et me now point out a whole series of , divided was accepted by subsequent medieval theists, but which I find into groups, that the defender of the old creation either unintelligible or incoherent. hypothesis commits in deriving conclusions from his stated The relevant creation argument proceeds from the premise premise. I am going to discuss a whole series not in order that there is a question as to where everything came from, to employ "overkill" on the argument, but because I regard or of "how" the world came into being, or as to who or all of these fallacies to be quite instructive for our purposes what caused everything. Thus the question more or less tacitly in their own right. assumes some sort of temporal beginning for the physical Group 1. Even for those cases of causation that involve universe, preceded temporally by a supposed state of conscious agents or fashioners, the premise does not assert nothingness. And the aim of the argument is to show that that they ever create anything out of nothing; instead, we cannot understand the supposed beginning or origin of conscious fashioners merely transform previously existing the world without the assumption that there was a creation materials from one state to another. The baker creates a cake out of nothing by a creator. More specifically, the argument out of flour, milk, and butter. The parents who produce an claims to establish the necessity for postulating creation by offspring do so from a sperm, an ovum, and the food supplied starting out with the premise that things have "causes" in by the mother's body, which in turn comes from the soil, the senses granted by common sense or ordinary science, or solar energy, and so forth. Similarly, when a person dies, even by the skeptical common sense of a hard-headed engineer. he or she ceases to exist as a person. But the dead body Thus, the starting point is the premise that "Everything does not lapse into nothingness, since the materials of the has a cause," to the extent to which causes are acknowledged body continue in other forms of matter or energy. In other in explanations of ordinary experience or of scientifically words, all sorts of organized wholes (biological organisms, explained phenomena. for example) cease to exist only as such when they disintegrate From the premise that everything has a cause, two and their parts are scattered. But their parts continue in some conclusions are then claimed to follow: The physical universe form. as a whole had a beginning a finite time ago as a result of Since the concept of cause used in the conclusion of the an act of creation out of nothing by a single, conscious external argument involves creation out of nothing, we see that it is cause or agent. And that external cause or creator is then plainly different from the concept of cause in the premise. claimed to be the personal God of the biblical theistic tradition. And for this reason alone, the conclusion does not follow Let me now comment on the basic premise of the argument. from the premise deductively—nor is it even supported by Fortunately, our purposes do not require the ambitious it inductively. Indeed, if the principle of conservation of energy attempt of giving an adequate analysis of the concept or or mass-energy were to have unrestricted validity, there could concepts of cause as used in the explanations of ordinary not have been any temporal process of creation out of nothing, or natural experiences. Instead, our examination of the since there could then not have been any time at which the argument from creation requires only that we attend to certain amount of matter-energy was less than now. But let us note relevant aspects of that concept of cause. that even an unrestricted conservation principle does not rule Note first that there are a vast number of cases of causation out a cosmological model featuring a first moment of time, by physical forces and, more generally, of causally connected that is, a model featuring an instant that has no temporal natural events in which no human or other conscious agents predecessor. Why not? Because the conservation of matter are involved. Earthquakes and the melting snow on or energy requires only that at all existing times, the amount uninhabited mountain tops in the spring are causal chains of matter-energy has to be the same. Such conservation does of events, but no conscious agents are involved. Similarly not require that every instant have a temporal predecessor. for the freezing of a lake, for example. But there are other Indeed, one of the big bang models does feature a first instant cases, such as the production of statues, cakes, and dresses, along with energy conservation, if one can include the so- in which conscious fashioners like sculptors, bakers, and tailors called singularity in its space-time.' are causally involved as agents. What will be important for Furthermore, we saw that only some cases of causation the argument, however, is that in many instances of causation, involve conscious agents. Hence it again simply does not follow there simply is no involvement of conscious agents. from the premise, nor is it supported by the premise, that Second, consider cases of causation that do involve the prior to the evolution of conscious organisms on earth or intervention of conscious fashioners or agents, such as the elsewhere, a supposed first state or any other state of the baking of a cake. In such a case, the materials composing total physical universe should be attributed to the intervention the cake owe their particular state of being in cake form partly of a conscious agent. to acts of intervention by a conscious agent. But clearly, the Worse yet, even if some conscious agency were needed very existence of the atoms or molecules composing the cake in every individual case of causation in daily life and science—

Fall 1989 51 which it is not!—it would hardly follow that there is some Another way in which people are tempted to insist on a single conscious agency that was required causally for the bounded past involves the commission of a similar to occurrence of the supposed first state of the total physical the one illustrated by my earlier trivial example of motherhood. universe. This commits the elementary fallacy of The reasoning starts with the claim that such macroscopic objects "composition" and is just as invalid as the following argument, as the earth, trees, people, mountains, and individual stars are which derives a false conclusion from a true premise: Since first fully formed as such by causal processes from earlier, more every human has a mother, there is some one woman who primitive states. Thus such macro-objects each have their own was everyone's mother. (Formally speaking, this inference respective beginnings in time in at least the following sense: fallaciously commutes a universal quantifier with an existential For each of them, there is a time before which it did not exist one.) in its final form, but did exist as of then or since then. Incidentally, without additional theory, the correctness of this The genuine problem of the origin of matter- claim of temporal origin is by no means obvious in regard to all elementary particles, for example, some of which might energy or of the universe has been fallaciously conceivably have existed in their present form throughout all transmuted into the pseudo-problem of crea- past time. But let us grant the claim for macro-objects. Since tion out of nothing by an external cause. The there may well be an infinite number of them, it then still does not follow that there must have been a single time at which, initial "true" and "false" vacuum states of or whereafter, all such objects in the universe originated. quantum cosmology do not indicate biblical This conclusion of a bounded past would follow, if the number of macro-objects in the universe were finite, because divine creation ex nihilo at all. a finite number of them must have originated at only a finite number of times. But the defender of the inference has offered Group 2. As we know, the big bang theory of cosmogony no reason for assuming that there are only a finite number relies on specific observational evidence to justify its postulation of macro-objects in the world! And even if there were, this of a finite cosmic past of the order of twelve billion years, would not preclude that these objects could have originated such that there simply did not exist any instant of time before in their usual form as a result of an infinitude of prior then. But there is nothing at all in the concept of transformations, from matter or energy existing earlier in other as such that warrants the claim that all causal chains must forms during an unbounded past! For example, in the case ultimately originate in the finite past from a cause that is itself of the so-called pair creation of a particle and its anti-particle, uncaused. The gratuitous assertion that causality as such requires such as a positron and an electron, their rest-mass formation such an uncaused cause induces the conclusion that the universe as such occurs by the conversion of other forms of energy— must have had a first instant of time, rather than featuring such as a gamma ray—into them. a past in which every instant had a temporal predecessor. But Besides, if literally everything—including the universe as a causality as such is fully compatible logically with physical causal whole—has a cause to which it owes either its state of being chains that extend infinitely into the past (both ordinally and or even its very existence, it becomes imperative to ask for metrically), instead of having a common temporal origin in the cause of God's state of being or even existence. Why should a bounded finite past.2 he be an uncaused cause? As Schopenhauer has observed, those The belief that the existence of causes for physical events who try to exempt God from their universal causal assertion requires a bounded past can originate fallaciously in several treat causation like a hired carriage that is dismissed upon ways. Let us consider some of the most likely sources of this reaching its desired destination. error. One such source is the psychological experience of time Group 3. At this point, the argument is sometimes on which people draw when they are presented with the following abandoned in favor of claiming that creation out of nothing hypothesis: For any physical state whatever, there is at least "passes all understanding" and that scientific theories of one earlier physical state that is its partial or total cause. When cosmogony leave much to be desired in the way of providing a person thinks of the ever earlier causal antecedents one-by- answers to well-conceived questions. To this I say: If the creation one, that person soon experiences thought-fatigue. People just hypothesis is indeed beyond human understanding, then it tire of thinking about ever-earlier events. As we know, since cannot even be meaningfully taken on faith without evidence, each act of thought requires a minimum positive amount of and it becomes completely hopeless to try to give any causal time, it is impossible to review the members of an infinite set argument for it. After all, if the hypothesis itself is beyond in thought one-by-one in a finite time (Grünbaum 1968: 52, human understanding, then even the person who is willing to 67-68). In this way, thought-fatigue may fallaciously induce the believe it on faith admits that he or she does not know what conclusion that physical causal chains cannot possibly extend is to be believed. Our human species may well be limited by into an unbounded past, and that physical causation occurred intrinsic intellectual horizons of some sort, just as theoretical only over a bounded past, so that there had to be a first moment physics, for example, cannot be understood by dogs. Yet the of time. This fallacy gains added plausibility from an unconscious fact remains that one can meaningfully believe only a claim appeal to our memory, which contains a large, though finite, whose content one understands, even if one is willing to believe number of bits. But scientific understanding can do much better without evidence on sheer faith. If the belief-content is than such intuitive, experiential picturing of the past. incomprehensible, what is it that is being believed?

52 FREE INQUIRY Therefore, if creation out of nothing (ex nihilo) is beyond rest-mass of these photons may well be zero, this gamma human understanding, then the hypothesis that it occurred radiation is obviously much more than just "nothing." cannot explain anything. Even less can it then be required to Nevertheless, even the distinguished philosopher of physics fill explanatory gaps that exist in scientific theories of wrote that the particle and its anti-particle cosmogony. Indeed, it seems to me that if something literally disappear "into nothing" (1956: 265). Evidently, the phrase passes all understanding, then nothing at all can be said or "pair annihilation" obscures the fact that the energy of the thought about it by humans. As Wittgenstein said, "Whereof orginal positive rest-mass of the particles reappears in the one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." Dogs do not resulting gamma radiation, although the term "annihilation- bark for example, about relativity theory. Thus, any supposed radiation" is not similarly misleading. Corresponding remarks hypothesis that literally passes all understanding is simply apply to the transformation of gamma radiation into an meaningless to us, and it certainly should not inspire a feeling electron-positron pair: Such pair-production is certainly not of awe. To stand in awe before an admittedly incomprehensible a case of pair-"creation" out of nothing. hypothesis is to exhibit a totally misplaced sense of intellectual This energy conservation in the theory of particle reactions humility! It is useless to reply to this conclusion by saying that contrasts sharply with the explicit postulation of its violation the creation hypothesis may be intelligible to "higher beings" in the now abandoned steady-state cosmology of Bondi and than ourselves, if there are such. After all, it is being offered Gold. Unfortunately, as we recall, Bondi himself uses the term to us as a causal explanation! "creation" misleadingly to describe this denial of energy So much for the reasons that lead me to regard the traditional conservation in that cosmology: "It should be clearly first-cause version of the "cosmological" argument for divine understood that the creation here discussed [in the context creation as multiply unsound. We are now ready to examine of the steady-state theory] is the formation of matter not out Lovell's attempt to base a new creation argument on the two of radiation but out of nothing" (1961:144). Alas, the term most influential physical cosmologies of the twentieth century: "creation" suggests misleadingly that Bondi was postulating the steady-state theory, on the one hand, and the "big bang" the operation of a creator or creating agency. But, more cosmogony, on the other. fortunately, he goes on to use the much better term "formation." In the Bondi and Gold theory, the formation The new creation argument of new matter cannot be conservative, because they assume that the density of matter is constant over time even as the alleged philosophical defects of the steady-state theory. universe is expanding, that is, their theory features the l/First, First, I need to comment on the unfortunately misleading conservation of density but not of matter! But I urge that uses of the words "creation" and "annihilation," which are this violation of matter-energy conservation be described by carried over from theology into the contemporary literature means of such words as "matter increase," and "accession of physics and philosophy of science. The semantic caveat or accretion of matter," rather than by the term "creation." I shall issue will apply to both of the received rival twentieth- century cosmologies, though not to the new rival plasma s indicated earlier, the current observational credentials cosmology. Aof the steady-state cosmology are generally held to be The word "creation" suggests a creating agency as well poor. Yet the steady-state theory has the merit of making as a process in which something new is being produced. And many daring predictions that can be and, to some extent, the traditional theological assertion of divine creation out of have been tested. For example, it demands that the nothing makes two further claims: (1) Before the created thermonuclear reactions in ordinary stars should be able to objects existed, the only entity that existed was God. In short, produce the heavy elements, such as uranium, out of what there was nothing besides God. (2) God was the agency was originally hydrogen. And, indeed, this demanding responsible for the change from the so-called state of "nothing" prediction was very fruitful for the development of the to the state in which other sorts of entities existed. These theoretical understanding of nuclear reactions in stars. As notions are conveyed by the theological overtones of the term another example, the theory predicts that the age distribution "creation." In English at least, this term is also used in other of the galaxies should be uniform for distant galaxies no less contexts in which it conveys the formation of something new, than for near ones. There seems to be an emerging consensus but need not suggest that the new object came from "nothing." among astrophysicists that the theory is not viable for reasons But especially in the description of processes that conform of the following sort: (1) If the red shift from quasars is indeed to energy conservation laws, the use of the terms "creation" a bona fide Doppler shift, then the presumed known and "annihilation" can be very misleading. distribution of quasars is actually contrary to the theory, and Take, for example, the phrases "pair creation" and "pair hence counts as refuting evidence against it. (2) There is the annihilation," which are familiar from the theory of particle evidence of the 3 degrees Kelvin microwave background reactions. In that theory, these phrases are employed to radiation which, though not necessarily contrary to every describe energy-conserving processes featuring the inter- version of the theory, is fairly hard to accommodate in it transformation between radiation and a particle-pair (Peebles 1971: 24; Weinberg 1972: 617-618). Yet that radiation consisting of one kind of particle and its anti-particle. Thus, was predicted by Gamow's version of the big bang cosmogony. when an electron and a positron collide, their rest-mass is Thus, given the availability of a rival evolutionary cosmogony, converted into two photons of gamma radiation. While the the number of adherents of the steady-state theory is dwindling

Fall 1989 53 rapidly to the point that now "only few will still defend it" and Gold rejected matter conservation on the huge (Rindler 1977: 202). But earlier a somewhat less pessimistic cosmological scale as the inevitable natural career of externally note was sounded by Weinberg (1972: 464, 617-619). And, undisturbed physical systems. Instead, as we recall, they as John Leslie has pointed out to me, most recently Narlikar postulated density conservation in an expanding universe, (1988: 219-225) has claimed that the currently popular so- which requires nonconservative matter accretion. And just called "inflationary" model of the universe is an updated form as it is a matter of empirical fact whether uniform motion of Fred Hoyle's version of the steady-state theory, as distinct requires a force as its external cause, so also is the question from the Bondi and Gold original with which we have been whether the natural, spontaneous, unperturbed behavior of concerned. The affinity between the new inflationary and old physical systems conserves the quantity of matter or, rather, steady-state theories derives from the fact that the new theory its density. After all, our scientific conceptions as to which features the conservation of energy density as the universe state of affairs is the spontaneous, natural, and unperturbed inflates very rapidly. This feature is the counterpart of the one are no better than the scope of their supporting evidence. conservation of matter density in the old steady-state versions. And, as the shows all too clearly, as our To gain perspective on Lovell's philosophical complaint evidence grows, so also these conceptions need to be changed that the "steady-state theory has no solution to the problem by stretching our intellecual horizons. of the creation of [new] matter" (1961: 117), let us first look If matter conservation is indeed the natural, unperturbed at the lesson that can be learned from the history of science course of things, even on a cosmological scale, then the steady- in regard to the evidential warrant for postulating external state theory is physically false. On the other hand, if large- causes for the deviant behavior of physical and biological scale density conservation is the spontaneous, unperturbed, systems (Grünbaum 1973: 406-407). natural state, as a matter of empirical fact, then Lovell is According to Aristotle, an external force is needed as the not entitled to his stubborn dogmatic insistence that, in every cause of a sublunar body's nonvertical motion. In his physics, theory, matter conservation must be held to be the natural the demand for such a disturbing external cause to explain state! Yet just that inconsistence is the basis for his demand such motion arises from the following assumption: When a for an external supernatural cause to explain the matter sublunar body is not acted on by an external force, its natural, increase required by density conservation in an expanding spontaneous, unperturbed behavior is to be at rest at its "proper universe. Thus, as we saw earlier, he complains that the steady- place," or—if it is not already there—to move vertically toward state theory makes no provision for "the energy input which it. Yet, as we know, Galileo's analysis of the motions of spheres gave rise to the created [hydrogen] atom" (1961:124; my italics). on inclined planes led him to conclude that the empirical No wonder, therefore, that, in his view, the nonconservative evidence speaks against just this Aristotelian assumption. As matter-production postulated by Bondi and Gold poses a Newton's first law of motion tells us, uniform motion never "problem of creation" so acute that it "can tear the individual's requires any external force as its cause; only accelerated motion mind asunder." To prevent such mental disintegration, he urges does. Any of us who has sat helplessly in a car as it glided that "we move over into metaphysics" (125) and characterize along a wet road with essentially constant velocity while hydro- the matter-increase causally as a miracle by saying that "the planing can appreciate that Galileo and Newton were right. creation process is a divine act which is proceeding But, if so, then the Aristotelian demand for an explanation continuously" (117). Thus, in that sense, Lovell is prepared of any nonvertical sublunar motion by reference to an external, to accept the steady-state cosmology if observation were to perturbing force begs the explanatory question by means of confirm it empirically. Ironically, he overlooked that Descartes a false underlying assumption, rather than asks a well-posed had claimed divine intervention to explain matter conserva- legitimate question as to the "why" of uniform nonvertical tion, after assuming a state of nothingness to be the unper- sublunar motion. By the same token, Galileo and Newton turbed natural state of the world. In a steady-state world, could only shrug their shoulders or throw up their hands matter accretion would seem quite natural to humanoids who in despair if an Aristotelian had told them that he had a live long enough to observe it many, many times. solution to the "problem" of the external cause of such uniform We see that the hypothesized matter-increase in a steady- motion, whereas they did not. It would, of course, be legitimate state universe is turned into a divine miracle only by the for the Aristotelian to try to offer empirical evidence that gratuitous, dogmatic insistence on matter-conservation as Newton's first law is false despite Galileo's on cosmically the natural state, no matter what the empirical an inclined plane. But begging the question hardly constitutes evidence. Those who share Lovell's view of miraculousness such evidence. cannot justify a criterion of "naturalness" that would turn I claim that an Aristotelian who would reason like Lovell the continual accretion of new matter into something "outside could just as well say the following: If a sublunar body moves the natural order" instead of just being itself a part of that nonvertically while not being subjected to an external physical very order. I therefore conclude that Herbert Dingle's rejection force, then we must explain this motion—even if it is uniform— of matter accretion as miraculous was ill-founded.3 Thus, as the result of external supernatural divine intervention. Let Lovell, the theist, and Dingle, the atheist, made identically me justify this claim. the same mistake of thinking that the matter-increase would Just as Galileo and Newton rejected, on empirical grounds, be miraculous, although they made opposite uses of that the Aristotelian idea of rest or vertical motion as the naturally mistake in their attitude toward the steady-state theory. inevitable, unperturbed states of sublunar bodies, so also Bondi Philosophically, they are brothers under the skin in this

54 FREE INQUIRY context. Thus, both Dingle and Lovell overlook the following of time, when it has not yet begun. But, in the big bang key point: Just as a theory postulating matter conservation model under consideration, there were no such earlier instants does not require God to prevent the conserved matter from before t = 0 and hence no instants when the big bang had being annihilated, so also the steady-state theory has no need not yet occurred. Lovell is quite unaware of these facts when at all for a divine agency to cause its new hydrogen to come he speaks mistakenly of a "metaphysical scheme before the into being! beginning of time and space" (1961: 106). Similarly, there The argument that I have developed on the basis of the is no basis for Narlikar's lament that "scientists are not in history of physics from Aristotle to Bondi and Gold could the habit of discussing ... the situation prior to it [the big likewise be based on the history of inquiry into the natural bang]" (1977: 125). possibility of the spontaneous, unperturbed generation of To suggest or to assume tacitly that such prior instants living substances from inorganic materials. After Pasteur's existed after all is simply incompatible with the physical work led to the denial of that possibility in an oxidizing correctness of this model and thus implicitly denies its atmosphere, Oparin and Urey asserted it for a reducing soundness. Since Aristotle believed that a first instant of time atmosphere over much longer time periods (Grünbaum 1973: is inconceivable (Physics, Book VIII, 251b), he implicitly denied 571-574). even the logical possibility of the model, and therefore also its physical possibility. It is now clear that the physical The Big Bang theory correctness of this model is also implicitly denied by anyone who asks any of the following questions: "What happened T et us now turn first to the alleged problem of "creation" before t = O?" "What prior events caused matter to come into i 4posed by the pre-quantum version of the big bang theory, existence at t = 0?" and "What caused the big bang to occur as treated by Lovell, Narlikar, and even Bondi. When that at t = 0?" In just this vein, Lovell asks "how the primeval theory is being contrasted with its steady-state rival, it is often gas originated" and then complains that "science has nothing called "evolutionary." And it tells us that, before the chemical to say on this issue" (1961: 98-99). But each of these questions elements were formed, an explosion of primeval matter presupposes that t = 0 was preceded by other existing moments resulted in the present expansion of the universe. That of time. Yet just this assumption is denied by the very model explosion is called the "big bang." It may perhaps still be to which these questions are being addressed! an open question whether the big bang might somehow be Therefore, we can now draw the following conclusions: accommodated in a mathematically meaningful fashion in an If Narlikar and Lovell take the given big bang model to be Einsteinian universe such that the big bang is not a singular physically true, then the questions they have addressed to boundary of space-time. In one such sketchily envisioned it are illegitimate, because then these questions are based on model, the big bang would have been preceded by an infinite a false presupposition. Of course, they are indeed entitled sequence of prior contractions and expansions, like those of to reject the model by giving cogent reasons for postulating a musical accordion. But quite apart from current technical the existence of times before t = 0. But, failing that, it is doubts about the eternally oscillating model of the universe, altogether wrong-headed for them to complain that—even it does not even provide a point of departure for the argument when taken to be physically adequate—this model fails to from creation ex nihilo. Therefore, I shall now consider just answer questions based on assumptions that it denies as false. the particular models that at first glance seem to warrant As we saw, Newton's laws of motion cannot be expected to the sort of questions asked by Narlikar and Lovell. answer a question calling for the specification of an external These models have been claimed to allow two cases, which cause (force) of uniform motion. And a man who never beats I shall discuss separately. But I must note at once the caveat his wife cannot be expected to answer the question: "When issued by Torretti that only the second of these cases is a did you start (or stop) beating her?" bona fide one of general relativity, whereas the first is not This question-begging presupposition of instants before (1979: 328-329; 1983: 210-219; 1984: 197). I nonetheless deal t = 0 is also made in another form by asking in the context with the latter as well, because Narlikar and others have of the pre-quantum models, "How did the matter existing invoked it to claim, as we saw, that t = 0 is a bona fide instant at t = 0 come into being?" The model to which this is addressed at which "the primary creation event" actually occurred features the conservation of matter-energy. Thus, it asserts (Narlikar 1977: 136-137). that, at all existing instants of time, the total matter-energy Case 1 features a cosmic time interval that is closed at content of the universe was the same. To ask how this matter the big bang instant t = 0 and, furthermore, this instant had came into existence in the first place is to presuppose not no temporal predecessor. In this case, t = 0 was a singular, only earlier moments of time, but also the nonexistence of temporally first event of the physical space-time to which all any matter at those supposed earlier times. Yet precisely these of the worldlines of the universe converge. This means that are denied by the matter conservation asserted there simply did not exist any instants of time before t = 0! by the model. Therefore, Narlikar was simply dead wrong But it would be (potentially) misleading to describe this state when he wrote: "in big bang cosmologies ... at t = 0, there of affairs by saying that "time began" at t = 0. This description occurs a sudden and fantastic violation of the law of makes it sound as if time began in the same sense in which, conservation of matter and energy" (1977: 1136-137). Even say, a musical concert begins. And that is misleading, precisely the term "sudden" tacitly trades on times prior to t = O. And because the concert is actually preceded by actual instants these illegitimate ways of begging the question generate the

Fall 1989 55 so-called problem of creation! By the same token, it was wrong story of the big bang expansion of the universe. Relying on for the physicist Orear to say that the big bang model features that account, we note first that there are two sorts of vacuum: "sudden creation" (1963: 243). "true" and "false" (36). The former features empty space and Besides Narlikar and Lovell, even Bondi writes that there "energy fluctuations," though it is devoid of matter and energy is a problem of creation in the big bang model of general proper. The latter, on the other hand, contains energy without relativity, though not in his own steady-state model (1961: matter. Referring to the initial true vacuum state, Weisskopf 74, 140). But the big bang model simply denies that any matter recalls the biblical statement "The world was without form at all comes into existence nonconservatively. It appears, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep" (36). therefore, that with respect to the big bang theory, Bondi But, as we shall see, the clear affinity between that vague fell into the same error as Lovell and Narlikar. But so did biblical statement and the assertion of an initial true vacuum the atheistic British astrophysicist Bonnor (1964: 111-112), who in the technical sense of particle physics turns out to be rejects the model of Case 1 partly because he mistakenly altogether unavailing to the proponent of divine creation out believes that it supports a theological interpretation of of nothing! cosmogony. The initial true vacuum state does not last. There is a Recall that the oscillating "accordion" universe mentioned transition from it to the false vacuum: "Everything, including at the start of this section is irrelevant to our concerns, since the true vacuum, is subject to fluctuations—in particular to it does not even provide a point of departure for the creation energy fluctuations. The field that provides energy to the false ex nihilo argument. vacuum is absent in the true vacuum, but not completely. I should emphasize that if, as in the version of quantum There must be fluctuations in the field. Thus, at one moment cosmology I shall outline shortly, the "big bang" is no longer a small region somewhere in space may have fluctuated into held to comprise all early past time (t is greater than or equal a false vacuum" (36). to 0) but to start later, then it may well no longer be misguided In a follow-up letter (New York Review of Books, vol. to ask what caused the big bang, as in Davies (1984, chapter 36, no. 4, March 16, 1989, 43), Weisskopf addresses the 12). But, in that quantum version, general relativity turns out following question posed by several readers: to tell us why there is an "inflationary" expansion, thereby obviating any explanatory resort to an external divine cause! How can energy fluctuations occur in a true vacuum that Case 2. This subclass of big bang models differs from is supposed to be free of energy and matter? those in case one by excluding the mathematical singularity at t = 0 as not being an actual moment of time. Thus, their And he replies: cosmic time interval is open in the past by lacking the instant ... I did not explain this because it would have been difficult t = 0, although the duration of that past interval is finite, to do so in ordinary language... . say twelve billion years or so. But just as in Case 1, no instants No doubt the statement I made, if applied to the true of time exist before t = 0 in Case 2. And, despite the equality vacuum, contradicts the idea of total emptiness. In this sense of finite duration of the time intervals in the two models, the common concept of a vacuum is not valid. The recognition the crucial difference between Case 2 and Case 1 is the of fundamental fluctuations in empty space is one of the great following: In Case 2, there is no first instant of time at all, achievements of . In some special cases just as there is no leftmost point on an infinite Euclidean the existence of such fluctuations has been established by line that extends in both directions. And in both Case 1 and experiment. And that is the basis of the idea that indeed Case 2, the nonexistence of time before t = 0 allows that matter something can come out of nothing [italics supplied]. has always existed, although the age of the universe is finite in either case. And this assertion is true because, in this context, Thus, according to quantum theory, this sort of emergence the term "always" refers to all actual past instants of time. of energy, which is ex nihilo only in a rather Pickwickian Nevertheless, even in Case 2, the finite age of the universe sense, proceeds in accord with pertinent physical principles, has tempted some people to make the tacit false assumption rather than as a matter of inscrutable external divine causation. that there were after all moments of time before the big bang, As is known from Einstein's general theory of relativity, an assumption incompatible with both models. And once this a false vacuum "is bound to expand suddenly and explosively, question-begging assumption is made, the door is open for filling more and more space with false vacuum." Just this all the same illegitimate, ill-posed creation questions that I "inflationary" expansion, which is far more rapid than the undermined à propos of Case 1. rates familiar from the classical conceptions of the expanding We are now ready to see that despite the replacement universe, "is supposed to be the Big Bang!" (37). of the classical big bang theory by quantum cosmology, the When a specified large size is attained, the inflationary philosophical issues with which we have been concerned, as explosion stops, and a true vacuum emerges, but, by one well as their resolution, remain essentially the same. microsecond later, the energy contained in the false vacuum shows up as light as well as in the form of various particles Quantum cosmology and anti-particles. In this sense, a "mechanism" for matter- formation is envisioned by this current theory. Thereafter, n a very recent paper, Weisskopf (1989) gives an account our universe goes into the previously familiar, relatively "slow" Iof quantum cosmogony that links up with the above classical expansion. Some 300,000 years later, atoms are formed when

56 FREE INQUIRY protons and helium nuclei capture electrons. In due course, because every instant of it has a temporal predecessor. But such a past the stars are born from the hot hydrogen and helium gases, need not be of infinite duration, since it could be metrically finite in years or other units of time. In a metrically infinite past, the number of units and so, subsequently, are galaxies. of time is infinite. For precisely the reasons I developed à propos of the 3. I pointed out the pitfalls of the miracle concept in this context in classical big bang at t = 0, there is no warrant at all for invoking a letter in Scientific American, December 1953. In a private communication to me (dated December II, 1953), Professor Bondi wrote that, in his view, an external cause—let alone a divine one—for the initial true my point in the letter "was in great need of being stated." He added: vacuum. Hawking (1988) reaches the conclusion that there "Naturally I found it particularly enjoyable that you discussed the matter is no problem of creation, because at that stage, the very with reference to an unsound criticism of our [Bondi & Gold] theory." 4. The reader is referred to the papers by Bondi, Bonnor, Davies, Ellis, distinction between space and time becomes mushy, as does Gale, Gamow, Linde, McMullin, Narlikar, Rees, and Tryon in Leslie (1989) the notion of an initial singular instant of time. A fortiori, for discussions relevant to this debate. there is no warrant for seeking an external cause of any sort for effecting the various successive transitions from the true vacuum to the false one, then to the "inflationary expansion," Bibliography and finally to the more familiar slow expansion that features Bondi, H. (1961) Cosmology. 2nd ed. (New York: Cambridge University the formations outlined above. After all, all of these transitions Press). are matters of natural physical laws. Besides, such physicists Bonnor, W. (1964) The Mystery of the Expanding Universe (New York: as Hartle and Hawking (1983: 2961-2962) and Vilenkin (1983: Macmillan). Craig, W. L. (1979) The Cosmological Argument (New York: Harper 2851) speak misleadingly of certain primordial physical states & Row). as "nothing," even though these states are avowedly only "a Davies, P. C. W. (1984) Superforce (New York: Simon and Schuster). realm of unrestrained quantum gravity," which is "a state Descartes, R. (1967) Meditation III, in Philosophical Work by Descartes, Vol. 1, edited by E. S. Handane and G. R. Ross (New York: Cambridge with no classical space-time" (Vilenkin, 1983: 2851). And if University Press). the very notion of physical time becomes problematic in Grünbaum, A. (1968) Modern Science and Zeno's Paradoxes, 2nd ed. fundamental physics, as urged by John Wheeler, then even (London: Allen & Unwin). . (1973) Philosophical Problems of Space and Time, 2nd ed. the temptation to misinvoke divine creation ex nihilo is (Dordrecht & Boston: Reidel). altogether undercut. Hartle, J. B., and Hawking, S. W. (1983 "Wave Function of the Universe," In his 1986 paper, Lovell refers to an updated big bang Physical Review D, Vol. 28, pp. 2960-2962. Hawking, S. W. (1988) A Brief History of Time: From the Big-Bang to model that features an initial quantum vacuum state, followed Black Holes (New York: Bantam Books). by the expansion. He says, in effect: If we call t = 0 a state Hawking, S. W. and Ellis, G. F. R. (1973) The Large-Scale Structure of of "nothing," then this model provides a scientific justification Space-Time (New York: Cambridge University Press). Leslie, J. (ed.) (1989) Physical Cosmology and Philosophy (New York: of Augustine's theory of creation out of nothing. But in the Macmillan). discussion after his oral delivery of the paper at a 1986 Locarno Lovell, A. C. B. (1961) The Individual and the Universe (New York: New congress, I offered my arguments above against his reasoning: American Library [Mentor Book MD330]). . (1986) "Reason and Faith in Cosmology." Italian translation: Why, I asked, should the transition from the vacuum state "Ragione e Fede in Cosmologia." Nuova Civilta Delle Macchine 4, to the expansion require any external cause at all, let alone Nos. 3/4 [15/ 16], 101-108. a divine one? I was delighted that, in Lovell's reply, he then Narlikar, J. (1977) The Structure of the Universe (Oxford: 0xford University Press). expressed agreement with me (Lovell 1986:109).4 . (1988) The Primeval Universe (0xford: ). More generally, I conclude that neither the big bang Orear, J. (1963) Fundamental Physics (New York: Wiley). cosmogony nor the steady-state cosmology validates the Peebles, P. J. E. (1971) Physical Cosmology (Princeton: Princeton traditional cosmological argument for divine creation. But, University Press). Reichenbach, H. (1956) The Direction of Time (Berkeley: University of as we see, that argument dies hard. California Press). Rindler, W. (1977) Essential Relativity, 2nd ed. (New York: Springer). Rowe, W. L. (1975) The Cosmological Argument (Princeton: Princeton University Press). Acknowledgment Torretti, R. (1979) "Mathematical Theories and Philosophical Insights in Cosmology," in Einstein Symposium Berlin, edited by H. Nelkowski, thank Paul Davies, Richard Gale, Allen Janis, John Leslie, Philip Quinn, I et al. (New York: Springer), pp. 320-335. and for reading earlier versions of this essay and making . (1983) Relativity and Geometry (New York: Pergamon Press). helpful suggestions. John Wheeler kindly supplied two of the references. . (1984) "Kosmologie als Zweig der Physik," in Moderne Naturphilosophie, edited by B. Kanitscheider. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, pp. 183-201. Footnotes Vilenkin, A. (1983) "Birth of Inflationary Universes," Physical Review D, Vol. 27, No. 12, pp. 2848-2855. I. Hawking and Ellis give a brief, nontechnical characterization of the Weinberg, S. (1972) Gravitation and Cosmology (New York: Wiley). concept of singularity as follows: "One can think of a singularity as a Weisskopf, V. (1989) "The 0rigin of the Universe." Bulletin of the American place where our present laws of physics break down [because important Academy of Arts & Sciences 42, pp. 22-39. Reprinted in The New physical quantities are ill-defined or infinite there]. Alternatively, one can York Review of Books, 36, No. 2, pp. 10-14. think of it as representing part of the edge of space-time, but a part which is at a finite distance instead of at infinity" (1973:3). Thus, at this "edge," the world-lines representing the space-time careers of mass-points, photons, and other elementary physical entities originate or come closer together. Copyright 1989 by Adolf Grünbaum. All rights reserved. This paper is For a more technical account, see Hawking and Ellis (1973, chap. 8), and based on the author's invited presentation to the international conference Torretti's (1983, Section 6.4) important caveat regarding the inclusion of on "Truth in Science" at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome, a first event in the space-time. on October 13 and 14, 1989. It is reprinted from Philosophy of Science 2. A past that is devoid of any first instant of time is ordinally infinite, 56 (Sept. 1989, pp. 373-394) by permission of the editor. •

Fall 1989 57 accurately, a devout antitheist. Eventually my bitterness faded and I Readers' Forum simply became an atheist; I didn't give religion or philosophy much thought. But when I entered graduate school, a strange thing happened. Perhaps because I had never capped the process of deconversion from Growing Toward Unbelief Christianity by replacing it with a thorough philosophical basis, my atheism became How did those of you who were previously religious grow toward unstable. With the gentle nudging of a well- your present viewpoint? meaning acquaintance, I decided that it was possible to accept the teachings of Jesus while rejecting the "dogma and irrelevant I was raised in a moderately religious intellectual honesty and depth. trappings" of organized religion. I thought household, attended church regularly, and Inevitably, by using the scientific, histor- the central tenet of Christianity was love. was inspired by the Christian faith to lead ical, and philosophical methods, I learned I practiced a sort of Christianity for just an exemplary moral life. I was motivated of the blatant absurdities, atrocities, incon- over a year, to the chagrin of my atheistic by the dream of heavenly immortality, but sistencies, and contradictions of the Bible, friends. I never rejoined the company of the terrifying threat of hellfire also kept me and rejected my belief in God—and I'm all organized religion, but spent a fair amount in check. The heinous concept of eternal tor- the better for it! of time reading and rereading the Gospels, ture frightened me to no end. How could Today I use my "God given" talent and and discussing religious thoughts with I possibly be the perfect saint the Bible said intellect to convince people to steer clear of Christian acquaintances. I had to be? Nowhere did I see a morally God and to embrace secular humanism. In January 1986, Harlan Ellison was perfect human being, even in the Bible. speaking at a nearby meeting of the Southern I was lucky enough to live in a household Norm R. Allen Jr. California Skeptics. At the literature table that was only moderately religious. Both of Bladensburg, Md. was a copy of FREE INQUIRY. Prior to that my parents were voracious readers with open time, I was quite unaware of organized minds. Religion never took precedence over I attended private schools until eighth grade humanism. I didn't know it then, but a sea logic in the never-ending search for truth. and received a fair amount of religious change in my philosophy had begun. My parents and grandparents taught me indoctrination in them. I insisted that I be I was beginning to realize that life is a always to ask questions and, even more permitted to attended a public high-school, human adventure based on human values. importantly, to demand logical answers to and my parents acquiesced. Much of my In the summer of 1986, a young friend those questions. More religious people, on experience there was fairly lonely, although of mine suffered a freak accident that the other hand, often taught that there were not intolerable. It was a great relief to me damaged the cervical portion of his spinal no logical answers to the most important to be accepted into a small group of Christian cord. Through incredible bravery and per- questions regarding the existence of God. boys who met (unconstitutionally) for prayer sistence he has given lie to the prognosis that My mother taught me at an early age every morning. Although the others he would be forever bedridden, and is now to think for myself. If I asked her the belonged to different than I did, for attending the University of California. meaning of a word or concept, she would ten minutes a day, I belonged to their group. Today he says that the single most important tell me to go to the dictionary or the ency- High school came to an end, of course, thing to him during his recovery had been clopedia, even though she usually had the and I carried my Bible to college—which the support of his friends and family. answers. When she told me that I should was the end of my Bible, my faith, and any At almost the same time, my favorite always love and seek out the truth, unlike ideas of devoting my life to God. uncle was stricken by multiple sclerosis, and some Christians, she honestly meant it. And College exposed me to many belief only the love of family and friends saved the most important thing I learned from my systems, which showed me that the Judeo- him from utter despair. parents was to value the opinions of those Christian myth was just one of many used Then another disaster occurred: that of with whom I disagreed at least as highly as by human beings, in their smallness, to cringe the Challenger Seven space shuttle. Though the opinions of those with whom I agreed. from the cold greatness of the universe and I did not know the individuals killed in that This idea also runs contrary to Christian try to control it by projecting their values tragic event, it touched me as personally as theology, which, by and large, has no respect upon it. I came to understand that human though I had. for Plato's belief that "the thought is beings, not a deity, are the authors of These three shocking events made me meaningless without the counterthought." goodness and evil, and that to believe realize that the existence of the Christian The maternal advice that ultimately otherwise is to denigrate human love. deity was completely irrelevant to human pushed me away from God was very College also exposed me to several experience; these events would have liberating. When I asked my mother how activities that were a lot more fun and occurred regardless of whether I believed in I could be sure which religion was true or interesting than religion. Once I understood that god, and, indeed, regardless of whether if there was a God at all, she told me to that religion was a lie, I became bitter about such a being existed. simply explore all religions and having been systematically duped for nearly So I had come full circle. Philosophically, and choose the one that was best for me. eighteen years. Paradoxically, I bore a I was just where I had been five years earlier, She said that if I became an atheist she would grudge against what I no longer believed in. albeit with more tears shed. still love me. All she demanded of me was I was a devout atheist—or, perhaps more The central tenet of Christianity is not

58 FREE INQUIRY love, which is a human emotion, but faith That was too far, he said; it could be weeks prolonged exposure to the concept of in God, which is an error of logic. The human before we reached it. "We have to have an guaranteed, absolute that is the impulse to compassion and its salutary airfield operational eight hours after the cornerstone of biblically based religions. In beneficence convinced me that what had initial landing," the major told me. I said, these religions doubt is not tolerated because been lacking from my previous position of "The only possibile way we can do that is it is seen as a stepping stone to dissent, and— atheism was a positive commitment to by going through the village of Tsujido." The especially in conservative church circles— people. That is the basis of humanism. major told me to go ahead with the plan dissenters are devils in need of exorcism or Religious faith is sometimes expressed in to wipe out an entire village. exile. Fanaticism is little more than a tool humanitarian sentiments and acts, but there The word seeped down from the top that used to quash doubt. is always the denigrating presence of God, in the landings and fighting we might lose The path from religious beliefs to human- whose love is manifested through the a million men and have to kill twenty million istic beliefs is so untrammeled because it is mechanism of human beings, in the religious Japanese. I wondered if we could keep our seen not only as dangerous but also as a model. Worse, in cases like the adversity sanity in that kind of slaughter. dead end. But once you've traveled down faced by my young friend, the religious In early July, the civilian head of our the road for a while, you gradually see that interpretation is often that God sends unit stopped at my desk and said, "We want the exact opposite is true: The road is safe adversity as a "test" of the faithful. The to land on Kyushu some time around the and ends only where you want it to end. concept of an omniscient being needing to first of September, and on Honshu ninety Humanists are more understanding of the perform experiments on his creations is both days later. I'd like you to pick the dates." religious than the religious are of humanists. sickening and absurd—human beings are After he left I thought, "Why me? I have I suppose that is because it is tough to generally kinder even to laboratory animals. to set the dates of the most horrible carnage understand something that you fear—and Atheism alone is also dissatisfactory; in history. Why do I have to do it?" I think many really fear humanism. They want the mere rejection is no basis for action, only that was when I became a qualified hum- comfort of certainty—not the burden of for inaction. The true poison of religion is anist, only I did not know the name. seeking rational explanations. They want that, upon rejecting it, it leaves one believing Then came the raids on Hiroshima and supernatural meaning—not natural conse- there is nothing left. Nagasaki, and the mid-August surrender of quences. They want easy answers—not Only in combination can reason and Japan. Sacrificing those two cities probably proof. They want a divine kingdom without compassion really work to the benefit of both saved more than twenty million lives, pain—not a planet where suffering is a those who adhere to them and the people including mine. President Truman was our normal part of life. They want and around them. . He had said, "Our boys will walk miracles—not facts and reality. They want Fred Condo, Jr. ashore." We did not believe it in June, but eternity—not time. How do we assuage their San Dimas, Calif. it was true in August. fears? We can't—not with words or theories, November 29, 1945—Thanksgiving anyway. But we may be able to with the After college, I joined the Army, and was Day—was the date I had set for the landing example of our lives, lives that are filled with sent to Leyte and Manila. I was noncombat at Tsujido. A force of two made the invasion. caring, sharing, understanding, and loving. but in an active battle zone. My assignment I felt compelled to go there. It was a beautiful Lives that are fully human and fully alive in Engineer Intelligence was to evaluate the fall day; the water was a deep blue and snow- can be a beacon that beckons others to give conditions on the enemy air fields, including capped Mt. Fuji loomed large in the west. our path a try. those for Operation Olympic, which was to The soil and terrain were exactly as I had Gerard Straub take place on Kyushu Island in December reported. The villagers went about their Carmel, Calif. 1945. There was only one decent landing site tasks, only mildly interested in the two on Kyushu—Ariaki Wan, a bay on the American soldiers. It hardly seemed possible Editor's Note: We want to know your southeast side of the island. There were they had been condemned to obliteration on opinions regarding specific issues of interest about a million Japanese troops waiting that day. to humanists, such as: there for us. I was becoming more humanist John A. Wolfe Manila, as I visualized the slaughter that our men What children's books have helped you faced. In August, I proposed that we bypass to teach your children humanist values? Kyushu and instead take the little offshore Outgrowing my religious beliefs began with island of Tanega—this would keep the a first step that is so simple and obvious What sort of answer would you give to is secular Japanese army on Kyushu tied up as surely that it is often overlooked and under- someone who asks, "What humanism, anyway?" as if we had landed, since they would think estimated: I asked a question; I entertained that Kyushu was next. We would save on a doubt. I firmly believe that the essential What is altruism? Should humanists be men and materials. Tanega appeared to be step in moving away from the prison of altruists? undefended, and we could get a fighter field magical, mystical thinking to the freedom operational by December. of reason is learning that doubt is not only We welcome your letters on these topics, Meanwhile I was also working on acceptable but vital. and encourage you to suggest topics for Operation Coronet, the big one in Honshu. Many skeptics seem unable to fathom future Readers' Forums. Please type and I told my commanding officer that there was how otherwise reasonable people can swal- double-space all copy. Send to Readers' no suitable airfield south of Atsugi, which low what organized religion dishes out. But Forum, Mary Beth Gehrman, editor, P.O. was fourteen kilometers from the beach. these skeptics underestimate the impact of Box 5, Buffalo, New York 14215. •

Fall 1989 59 John, The Hypostasis of the Archon, and On the Origin of the World. In these, Gnostics composed a cosmogony and a Books salvation history quite different from the one invented by the orthodox. In The Hypostasis of the Archons, for example, Gnostics produced a radical re- interpretation of Genesis. Arguing from Gnostic Christianity Ephesians 6:12 that the archas (archons, "rulers') of "this dark world" are "cosmic powers" of "evil in the heavens," the author Randel Helms presents his own myth in which Eve becomes a heroine who outwits the evil Archons, the The Nag Hammadi Library in English (New heretical mirror, of Judaism or earliest serpent speaks as the "instructor" guided by York: Harper & Row, $24.95) and The Jesus Christianity, among those who had lost the "female spiritual principle" who encour- of Heresy and History: The Discovery and confidence in Yahweh Sabaoth, Creator and ages the gaining of knowledge by the eating Meaning of the Nag Hammadi Gnostic Lord of History, and who had decided that of the fruit, and the consequent expulsion Library (New York: Harper & Row, $10.95). Yahweh was in fact an inferior deity, fallen from the Garden shows that the Archons and malicious. That first-century Judaism "have no blessing since they too are beneath I n December 1945, an Egyptian and Christianity were not monolithic is clear; the curse." That curse will continue "until named Ali, digging for indeed, there were probably more widely the all-powerful man who was to come"— fertilizer, discovered a large sealed clay pot divergent Christian in the first the Savior. What appears to be a radically buried near the village of Nag Hammadi, three centuries than there are today, after feminist reinterpretation of Genesis appears north of Luxor and just west of the Nile. the orthodox triumph of the fourth century in another Gnostic , On the Hoping for treasure and overcoming his fear that largely succeeded (it was thought) in Origin of the World. Here, Eve is the creation that the jar contained an evil jinn, he broke wiping out the "heretics" and their literature. of Sophia ("Wisdom," who was with God it with his mattock, finding instead twelve That there were early Christian sects in the beginning, according to the Book of leather-bound volumes plus eight leaves identifiable as "Gnostic" has also long been Proverbs), while Adam is the botched crea- known, but before Nag Hammadi, almost from a thirteenth, containing a total of fifty- tion ("an inanimate vessel, since he had taken nothing of their writings was thought to have two separate religious tractates written in the form like an abortion') of the Archons, who survived; about all we knew of the Gnostics earliest centuries C.E.—aside from the Dead are unable to animate him. Sea Scrolls, the most important find of was what their enemies, whom we now call orthodox Christians, said about them. ancient religious texts ever made. When Eve saw her male counterpart Because of wars, political upheavals, Gnostics claimed to possess knowledge prostrate she had pity upon him, and she scholarly rivalries, and unexpected deaths, (Greek ) revealed in secret to them (or said, "Adam! Become alive! Arise upon the texts were not fully published in facsimile to such original Christians as John, James, the earth!" Immediately her word became until 1977 and in English until 1978. Neces- Thomas, or Mary Magdalene) by the accomplished fact. For Adam, having resurrected Jesus. This secret knowledge arisen, suddenly opened his eyes. When sary work continued, and now a third and he saw her he said, "You shall be called definitive edition has appeared—The Nag alone granted salvation, since the Gnostics 'Mother of the Living.' For it is you who Hammadi Library in English, edited by maintained that the orthodox tradition had have given me life." James M. Robinson. Harper & Row also got it wrong and worshiped a dead Jesus published a companion volume for nonspe- of the flesh, while they had the true Learning of this, the Archons become cialists, The Jesus of Heresy and History: "spiritual" knowledge. Now, with Nag "greatly troubled," and decide to humiliate The Discovery and Meaning of the Nag Hammadi, we can begin to learn what they and degrade Eve by raping her: Hammadi Gnostic Library, John Dart's "knew." revision of his earlier book, The Laughing First of all, they "knew" that the God Now come, let us lay hold of her and cast Savior. Anyone interested in the richness and of the Hebrew Bible was not really God. our seed into her, so that when she be- comes soiled she may not ascend into her strangeness of early Christian thought in one He was a "malicious grudger" who "refused Adam from eating the tree of knowledge"; light. Rather those whom she bears will of its "heretical" modes will want to know be under our charge. But let us not tell about these books. "What kind of god is this?" ( of Adam, for he is not one of us. Rather let Before the Nag Hammadi texts were Truth, Nag Hammadi ix, 3). This malicious us bring deep sleep over him. And let us known, scholars believed that Gnosticism grudger, who does not want us to "know," instruct him in his sleep to the effect that she came from his rib, in order that his was a perverse counter-current that swept, created the flawed and corrupt physical uni- verse; he is variously known as Saklas ("fool" wife may obey, and he may be lord over from unknown origins, across Mediterra- her. nean thought in the early centuries C.E., in Aramaic), Samael ("god of the blind") and Yaldabaoth (perhaps "begetter of infecting areas of Judaism, Christianity, and Eve, however, being a "force," is able to Sabaoth," that is, father of Yahweh). even . Now it appears that outwit the Archons; she "laughed at their We also know that "The world came Gnosticism may have begun as a sect, a decision": about through a mistake" (Gospel of Philip). Randel Helms is professor of English at Gnostics described this mistaken creation She put mist into their eyes and secretly Arizona State University, and author of the with strange reinterpretations of Platonic left her likeness with Adam. She entered recently released book Gospel Fictions. myth and Genesis, as in the Nag Hammadi the tree of acquaintance [knowledge, works The Apocryphon [Secret Book] of "gnosis"] and remained there. 60 FREE INQUIRY Thus, for Gnostics it was the creation that in your own eye. When you cast the beam was the Fall, the instructor and animator out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to cast the mote from your brother's of life is female, eating the fruit of gnosis eye."( Thomas 26) NEW FROM was the first positive human act, the serpent was a good teacher, and knowledge is of The more recent, and more sensible, view PROMETHEUS the essence of deity—as the Apocryphon of is that Thomas "almost always appears to John puts it, Jesus declares that "I am the have preserved a more original form of the BUILDING A thinking of the virginal Spirit." The Christian traditional sayings" (Nag Hammadi 125); in WORLD COMMUNITY aspect of this side of Gnostic creation other words, Thomas brings us closer to the Humanism in the mythology becomes clear in this latter work, historical Jesus (or at least to earliest Jesus- Twenty-First Century in which the evil Archons create the physical sayings collections) than even the New edited by Paul Kurtz body of Adam in order to imprison the good Testament does. in cooperation with Levi Fragell and Rob Tielmann particles of light that came from the true An additional scholarly value of Thomas Is it possible to build a world com- God; they then create Eve and sexual desire is that, being a collection of sayings only, munity for the next century that in order to make humans reproduce and thus it gives us excellent indirect evidence for the spread out the particles of light and make avoids war, ecological devastation, existence of the hypothetical document Q, and racial and religious enmity? escape back to the realm of light more diffi- a sayings collection that was a major written Can mankind develop a new global cult. Jesus had to come down and imprison source for the authors of the Gospels of ethic? More than fifty notable himself in a body to remind us that we con- Matthew and Luke, and thus it helps to speakers addressed these ques- tain the light of God and can return to the buttress some of the main conclusions of tions during the Tenth Humanist realm of light. twentieth-century critical scholarship, which World Congress in 1988; this is a Such creation myths may well have had has argued that the Gospel writers used provocative compilation of their response. Included are papers by a Gnostic-Jewish origin that only later be- written and traditional oral sources and were Jean Claude Pecker, José Delgado, came overlaid by Gnostic-Christian revision. not eyewitnesses of Jesus. But other important Gnostic works are Henry Morgentaler, Lin Zixin, Thomas bespeaks a kind of mystical, Betty Friedan, and Mathilde Krim. clearly Christian in origin, though presenting pantheistic, world-renouncing Christianity Each provides a unique vision of a salvation history totally different from the in which the "solitary" who gives up the the future as we stand poised at one invented by the orthodox, being based world, even family, and who recognizes that the brink of the next century. on the Gnostic theory that the "world came "That which you have will save you if you 420 pages • Cloth $29.95 about through a mistake." This line comes bring it forth from yourselves" is the ideal • • • • • • • • • • • from the Gospel of Philip, a work declaring Christian. The Christian's model is Jesus, UNHOOKED that the aboriginal calamity was the inven- who said: Staying Sober and Drug-Free tion of sex. Adam was originally andro- lames Christopher gynous; his division into sexes caused of all It is I who am the light which is above In this eagerly awaited sequel to our trouble. them all. From me did the all come forth, the bestselling How to Stay Sober, and unto me did the all extend. Split a James Christopher recounts the When Eve was still in Adam death did piece of wood, and 1 am there. Lift up evolution of SOS (Secular Orga- not exist. When she was separated from the stone, and you will find me there. nizations for Sobriety) and vividly him death came into being. If he enters details case of recoveries again and attains his former self, death The Jesus of Thomas becomes a pan- will be no more. through the cognitive program theistic presence, and "He who will drink based on self-reliance, reason, and from my mouth will become like me. I myself compassion. Excerpts from letters Sex being the problem, "every act of sexual shall become he." Furthermore, "Whoever to SOS are presented; reflecting intercourse which has occurred between finds himself is superior to the world." To frustration and hope, they clearly those unlike one another is adultery"; there- find yourself, renounce the world and all speak to the need for a secular fore "Christ came to repair the separation possessions—"disrobe without being alternative to A.A. Christopher which was from the beginning and again invites the reader to sit in on a ashamed and take up your garments and unite the two, and to give life to those who fictionalized SOS meeting and, in place them under your feet"—and you will, died as a result of the separation and unite a separate section, offers fresh, in a sense, become Jesus. Gnostic salvation them." Jesus Christ came to end sex! effective strategies for achieving in Thomas is not a matter of washing in Perhaps the most impressive and impor- and maintaining both sobriety and the blood of the Lamb, accepting the atoning tant of the specifically Gnostic-Christian Nag self-respect. sacrifice on the Cross, but a matter of Hammadi texts is the Gospel of Thomas, 150 pages learning who you really are, that "the Cloth $19.95 • Paper $13.95 which may well predate the New Testament kingdom is inside of you," that "it is you Gospels; it contains supposed teachings of who are the sons of the living father." This Call toll free (800) 421-0351 Jesus that appear to be closer to the earliest is an impressive theology, but it certainly In N.Y. State call (716) 837-2475 forms of Jesus-sayings tradition than those is not "Christian" in the orthodox sense; found in the canonical Gospels. The earlier PROMETHEUS BOOKS early Christianity turns out to be far richer view of Thomas was that it simply contained 700 East Amherst St. in theologies than we had known. Buffalo, NY 14215 altered versions of sayings cribbed from the That there were Christians in the first Add $2.50 postage and handling for first book, New Testament—for example: $1.25 for each additional book $7.00 maximum). three centuries who used not the Gospels N.Y. State residents add sales tax. #20003 Jesus said, "You see the mote in your of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John but the brother's eye, but you do not see the beam Gospels of Philip, Mary, and Thomas needs Fall 1989 61 to be more fully known; that those Gnostic situating meaning within the human psyche," tion will be loath to accept, is that the Christians were the losers in a political modern Gnostics reveal both their modernity canonical New Testament is only a small struggle that saw the triumph of orthodox and their relationship to the Gnostic belief selection of early Christian literature, chosen Christianity as the religion of the late Roman that the sparks of lie within each by the triumphant strand of Christianity for Empire and the persecution of the "heretics" person, not without: "the kingdom is inside theological and political reasons, and that also needs to be more fully known. We now you." When William Blake declared that the thus, in the longest view, such works as the have the sacred writings of some of those human imagination is the "Eternal Body of Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John lost Christian communities. With these in Man ... that is, God himself," and that may take us no closer to the "historical Jesus" hand, we can see that Gnosticism never "All reside in the human breast," he than do the Gospels of Thomas or Philip entirely died out. In a brilliant afterword to spoke as a modern-day Gnostic, for his or the Dialogue of the Savior; all of them The Nag Hammadi Library, "The Modern theology and his creation myths were very are early Christian polemical tracts intended Relevance of Gnosticism," Richard Smith much like those in the Apocryphon of John to secure particular theological in- traces the Gnostics' influence from the and The Hypostasis of the Archon. Blake terpretations of Jesus and of Christianity. Manichees of the fourth to the twelfth cen- would have agreed with the Nag Hammadi As John Dart puts the matter in The Jesus turies, to their apologists in the Enlighten- Teachings of Silvànus: "Knock upon your- of History and Heresy: "The Jesus of myth ment, , Voltaire, and Edward self as upon a door and walk upon yourself and pure was proving to be Gibbon, to their nineteenth and twentieth as upon a straight road," and with the pervasive in the New Testament Gospels. century heirs, the Gnostics Blake, Yeats, Dialogue of the Savior: "The lamp of the The Nag Hammadi Library gave the world Jung, and Hermann Hesse. As Smith notes, body is the mind." more details about the [Gnostic] Jesus of these writers all agree that "meaning is not One of the main lessons of the Nag Ham- heresy, but it also provided valuable clues to be discovered in the manifest world. By madi Library, and one the orthodox tradi- to the Jesus of history." •

normal" topics, The Magic Detectives teaches valuable thinking skills to young Books in Brief people. Thirty subjects—including faith- healer Peter Popoff, the Shroud of Turin, and the "reincarnation" of Bridey Murphy— are presented as strange mysteries to be Unhooked:: Staying Sober and Drug-Free by Christopher is honest and straightforward, solved through careful attention to clues James Christopher (Buffalo, N.Y.: Pro- presenting workable, no-nonsense strategies within the text. Nickell encourages young metheus Books, 1989) $19.95 cloth, $13.95 for coping with real problems in the real readers to look for the pieces of evidence paper. For those who read Christopher's first world—without turning back to the bottle. that support or contradict one another, and book, How to Stay Sober: Recovery With- The books contains a section of letters from then come up with their own solutions; he out Religion, this sequel provides an eagerly those who have found recovery without provides a scientific explanation at the end anticipated update; for those who did not, religion, a recreation of a meeting of the of each section. Simply put, this is a good it marks an excellent place to start on the Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS), book. It can help to develop reasoning ability often torturous road away from chemical and a "References and Resources" section and to promote critical thinking, reinforcing addiction. Specifically geared toward those that will prove invaluable to alcoholics and rational over irrational thought, and science who feel alienated by the spiritual approach their loved ones. (M.B.G.) over superstition. The presentation is taken by AA and other recovery groups, effective, the cases interesting and diverse, Unhooked emphasizes the humanistic The Magic Detectives by Joe Nickell the text easy to follow, and above all, the concept that sobriety is up to the individual, (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1989) 80 purpose important. (B. B.) and that by making it the number-one pages, illustrated. $7.95 paper. By taking priority, the addict can lead the good life advantage of children's fascination with Abortion Rights and Fetal "Personhood" that begins with independence from alcohol. UFOs, ghosts, monsters, and other "para- edited by Edd Doerr and James W. Prescott (Long Beach, Calif.: Centerline Press, 1989) 149 pages. $12.95 paper. In May, 1987, Spring Seminar Americans for Religious Liberty held a conference in Washington, D.C., to bring May 3-6,1990 together experts from various disciplines to discuss the question of fetal personhood. The Scientific Examination of Religion This book consists of the papers presented at that conference. The subject is approached Gerald A. Larue, Professor Emeritus of Archaeology and Biblical Studies, from legal, biological, and sociological University of Southern California, and Chairman of the Committee for the viewpoints. Included are biblical and legal perspectives on the status of the fetus, a Scientific Examination of Religion; and Joe E. Barnhart, Professor of Philosophy, cross-cultural look at the personhood of University of North Texas, and a member of the Committee for the Scientific fetuses and of children, and personhood Examination of Religion. from a neuroscientific perspective. The series of essays goes into the matter of abortion Enrollment is limited. For details, contact Tim Madigan at FREE INQUIRY, Box logically and intelligently, and resolves the 5, Buffalo, New York 14215, or telephone 716/834-2921. abortion debate most certainly in favor of women's right to choose. (B. B.) 62 FREE INQUIRY (Letters, continued from p. 3) have been denied civil liberties when he was disease, hunger, mental illness, and all the asked to leave the United States. In any case, rest here on earth? It seems to me that Why publish the Bhagwan? the editors of FI published the short series abortion should be considered a sacrament in the spirit of fair play, in response to a rather than a . Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a religious has- criticism of Rajneesh's views published On the other hand, in the past, those who been in this country and hasn't been a player earlier. We have confidence that our readers followed Calvin made such comments as "the for several years. He was disgraced and will fairly evaluate both sides of this path to hell is paved with the skulls of deported four years ago and his followers interesting debate. unbaptized babies." I would think that with have largely disbanded. His chief assistant, such an attitude we would not be expected Ma Sheila, is currently in prison for a variety to have more reverance toward the unborn of charges and I understand the Indian tax Abortion views and unbaptized than does God himself. authorities are looking into his affairs. When he was active here Rajneesh was With the Webster decision, it appears that Gaila Noble thoroughly investigated by dozens of news- the Court wishes to return the issue of Phoenix, Ariz. papers and magazines and was the subject abortion to the American public. What will of numerous television programs. There is the public do? Immediate reactions suggest at least one book that investigates his that the country is in for years of wild Humanism and blacks movement. But four years after his depor- political scenes and high-tempered , tation, the Bhagwan is old news! Worse than fueled perpetually by the complexities of the Cheers to Norm Allen! His article, "Hum- that, he is irrelevant to the socio-religious issue. anism in the Black Community" (Summer scene in this country. Given that, I was There is a solution, I believe, that most 1989), is thought-provoking indeed. He astounded to see eight pages of FREE humanists would support. A national refer- contends that nonwhites do not pursue INQUIRY'S limited space devoted to three endum on the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision secular humanism because it is rooted in articles on him (Summer 1989), including should be declared, and only women should Eurocentric thinking. Well, by golly, he may one allegedly written by Rajneesh himself, be allowed to vote on the issue. Women have be right. I have often wondered why groups as though he were something current. the major interest; men have a one of humanists, freethinkers, Unitarians, Ronald O. Clarke's article on the that should be confined to suggesting to atheists, and so on rarely include blacks. Bhagwan, published in FI last year, three wives, lovers, and female friends how they I have also wondered what we can do years after Rajneesh was deported, was feel about the matter. attract blacks into our ranks. I am still interesting as a retrospective piece and had A simply majority would carry the issue puzzled. What to do? value for that reason; but to devote eight with a proviso that a national referendum pages for Robert Rimmer's nonsense (a again be held twenty years later. This twenty- Secular Humanist thinly disguised commercial for his books), year pause will allow for possible changes Bhagwan's response to Clarke's article (utter in attitudes due to social, economic, medical, drivel), and Bob Basil's critique of Rajeesh's environmental, religious, and population article (completely unnecessary and mildly changes. insulting, as the readers of FREE INQUIRY should be able to recognize nonsense without Walter L. Schwartz having it pointed out to them) seems a Orlando, Calif. complete waste of severely limited humanis- tic resources. What has any of this to do For the anti-abortion zealots who insist they with humanism and spreading the humanist know more about the world than the rest message? of us, I have a suggestion. Maybe a group of rationally thinking people should get David Alexander together and block the entrances to the Long Beach, Calif. churches involved in these "rescue" opera- tions. The motto might be, "If we can just Paul Kurtz responds: save one mind, it would be worth it."

The fact that we carried these articles does Hal Harris not constitute an endorsement, of the , Tex. Bhagwan's claims. The inside cover of FREE INQUIRY clearly states that "opinions Please check on the official stand of the Hedge your bets .. . expressed do not necessarily reflect the views Catholic church as to where unborn babies . . . order FREE INQUIRY's secular of the editors or publisher." We surely do go. I inquired of a nun and she told me humanist calendar for 1990. Includes not approve of the guru-like position of the that at the moment of conception a fetus major secular holidays, important past Rajneesh, and find his eighty plus Rolls is considered to be a human. If the fetus events, and the birthdays of prominent Royces and the cultish character of his is miscarried, aborted, or dies at birth, the secular humanists. With illustrations by entourage ludicrous. Nonetheless, he does child's soul goes directly to God. So why Tom Toles, and lots of room for your have some interesting ideas. He is a critic would Catholics object to abortion? If the personal notes. $6.00 includes postage and of repressive religion, he is interested in a unborn child goes directly to God, what kind handling. To order, call toll-free 1-800-834- new morality and defends " "and of a person would instead condemn that 1366 (In New York State call 716-834-2921). the pleasures of the good life. Rajneesh may child to living amid poverty, sickness, Fall 1989 63 carried out in the light of Marxist princi- follower of the religion called Judaism" Allen suggests that we examine history ples or in defiance of them? Of course, strikes me as narrow and simplistic. Many in a less biased manner. Certainly! But I both invoked the name of Marx, but this is not the first time that the doctrines of Jewish people share the conviction that we think more is needed. Can Allen—can of a movement have been are historically, genealogically, culturally, anyone—suggest specific steps we should transformed, refuted, and "betrayed" by and traditionally—but not religiously— take to attract blacks into our ranks? those who have invoked his or her name. Jewish. Granted, a Jewish identity is difficult to Douglas P. Tracy Accordingly, from this viewpoint, the define in secular terms, besetting a Jewish Toledo, Oh. socialism to be feared by free enterprisers atheist with many obscure emotional forces. is not that of modern Russia or China, but There are such criteria as (since 1948) I'm wondering if Norm Allen is really aware that of a collectivist movement in the affluent nationality and the need for preservation of of what a humanist is. western countries—humanly unlikely, if not clan, participation in its life, coming to its The answer to this is debatable, but for impossible! Marx must have been kidding aid when it is threatened, and internalizing most secular humanists it is simply choosing us, and himself as well. its standards. I would add a sharing in the humanity over the supernatural. I think it history and fate of the Jewish people and is safe to say that most of us did not come Norman C. Smith adherence to the cultural and humanistic to this place in a group—we came to this Asheville, N.C. values set forth in their teachings, both place as individuals who saw no merit in secular and sacred. While I regard the Jewish religion, but knew we were going against the God, Yahweh, as a , this is my grain. We stand by ourselves, at times Humanistic Judaism heritage. I could no more deny that heritage wishing we could just let it go but knowing than I could believe in a supreme being. in our guts there is no turning back. The Spring issue on ethics is what we I don't know how much Smith has read Being a humanist could be one of the humanists need. But I have a problem with about the "culture" he seems to scorn. I have "hardest rows to hoe." It is a bonus that Harry Daum's article "An Atheist Handles spent many hours tracing the crepuscular we feel secure in our thinking and are not Life." Though I'm happy for Daum that he pathways of arcane Talmudic lore, soaring questioning ourselves constantly. Seeing the has a "choose life" attitude in the face of on the mystical transports of the Kaballah, inconsistencies in the thinking of religious his battle with cancer, I think he is doing chuckling at the earthy exuberance of the people is hard to take; but since many of the secular humanist movement a disservice Hasidim. And one need not be a theist to us have been there ourselves, we know why by clinging to his Jewish faith and to atheism be uplifted by biblical literature. Harold they believe as they do, and we also know when the two are incompatible. Bloom, in Ruin the Sacred Truths, refers that they have to arrive where we are by He describes the secular Jew as a non- to "the unresolvable aesthetic issue of poetry taking the long road, alone. We may be able believer who is still uplifted by the Jewish and belief. If you wish, you can insist that to throw in an idea here and there, but that culture. Yet the culture and the religion are all high literature is secular, or, should you is all. inseparable. True, a humanist may find desire, then all strong poetry is sacred." Allen says that humanists are intellectu- inspiration from any book or source, but No, Mr. Smith, there is no oxymoron als. My first reaction to this was negative, a Jew is a follower of the religion called in my Jewish atheism. I invite you to examine but on thinking it over I see that he is right. Judaism. The Jews are not a separate race your own values and think about expanding They do not set out to be so, but so much any more than the Christians are. the humanism of your secular humanism. • reflection does it to them. One cannot be both Jewish and a secular Mr. Allen, Ill bet there are a lot of black humanist at the same time. Clutching to a humanists. We value people, all people, religious tradition is what religious human- Oops! We goofed wherever and whoever they are! ists do. Though they may view the world as secular humanists do, they "play religious" Thomas Szasz's letter, which appeared Mary Lou Wright by redefining the terms. Unitarians, for in the Summer 1989 issue, was a Battle Creek, Mich. instance, go to "church" on Sunday and hold personal letter sent to the editor and "worship services." I don't approve of was not intended for publication. We pretending to be what I'm not, and I think regret any embarrassment that we may Hook on Marxism it is misleading and therefore morally wrong have caused Dr. Szasz. He would like to do so. There are no secular Jews any more to clarify his statement that "People Sidney Hook makes an interesting commen- than there are atheist Christians. Let's be love to hate too much and that, I tary on the current situations in the Soviet counted as secular humanists, atheists, think, is what religion is all about: Union and China: agnostics, rationalists, or freethinkers. We legitimizing hatred." In no sense have plenty of good names of our own; we should this be interpreted as a full You couldn't have socialism, according to don't need to borrow the theistic names. statement of Szasz's views on religion; Marx, in an economy of scarcity. He he has a strong passion for pluralism (Marx) maintained that the attempt to Stuart N. Smith of ideas and the right of all points of introduce a collectivist economy in a view coexist in society. What he was country where scarcity was the rule, would Gaithersburg Md. do nothing but socialize poverty. It would objecting to was the exclusivity and bring back the classes and class struggles Harry Daum responds: intolerance of religion; he wishes to and, in his own words "all the old crap make it clear that religion has func- of previous societies." If you take that tions beyond those that he delineated literally it raises a question: Were the I am puzzled by Stuart Smith's objection Bolshevic Revolution of 1917 and the to my status as both a Jew and an atheist. in his letter.—EDs. Chinese actually His dogmatic assertion that a Jew "is a 64 FREE INQUIRY Lost in space In the Name of God Many American adults suffer from "cosmic illiteracy," with nearly half surprised to find out that the sun is a star. A nationwide survey of 1,111 adults found that only 55 percent knew the sun is a star, only 37 percent Finally, scientific proof Renaissance pornography believed the sun will eventually burn out, and only 24 percent knew that the universe The Reverend Barry H. Downing firmly Italian art restorers probably will strip the is expanding. The study, conducted by maintains that UFOs are real and that they loincloths from many figures in Michelange- researchers from the Massachusetts Institute have key religious significance. He details lo's "The Last Judgment" in the Sistine of Technology and Northern Illinois Uni- his ideas in a new paperback edition of his Chapel, says Fabrizio Mancinelli, director of versity, concluded that "Only a third of book, The Bible and Flying Saucers (Berkely Vatican work. The nudes in the American adults have a minimally accepta- Books). painting, completed in 1541, scandalized Pope ble understanding of the universe. "(The San "What is clear through the biblical Pius IV. He ordered artist Daniele da Volterra Diego Tribune) material is that God's will for the Jews, and to paint loincloths on some of the figures eventually for all mankind, was `revealed' about two decades later. (The San Diego by beings from another world, "he writes. Tribune) Where's the Charmin? "Usually these beings look very much like ordinary human beings (they almost never The Israeli army reprimanded a soldier in have wings).... " Even the Bakkers the occupied West Bank for using pages of Downing says that recognizing the the Koran as toilet paper. An army spokes- existence and operations of these creatures Television evangelist Jim Bakker relaunched man said the soldier admitted using pages could do much to strengthen faith and renew his television ministry in May from a nearly of the Moslem scriptures in the Arab village confidence in biblical accounts. deserted shopping center on the outskirts of of Deir Ballut, but said he does not read "It would establish scientific plausibility Orlando, Florida. Bakker, his wife and co- Arabic and had not realized what the book for the whole biblical field," he says. "It host Tammy, and a handful of followers was. (The San Diego Tribune) would reinforce faith and make it possible wasted no time in videotaping a prayer of in a scientific context. "(AP) thanks for the "miracle" of their new home, the little-used South Orlando Shoppers Sin no more World. "Orlando seems like it's the crossroads A captive audience of the world," Bakker told reporters inside It seems the Vatican has an image problem the vast, empty space filled with loose wires on the home front. Young appear A dental hygienist and born-again Christian and dangling pipes. "The thing I like about more and more to be ignoring the pope. An who was dismissed for preaching to patients it is it's a place where it seems like everyone indication of a profound change in outlook cannot expect to receive is welcome. "(The Californian) was revealed by the results of an opinion benefits, the Michigan Court of Appeals has poll among young people in Italy that rated ruled. Dr. J. B. Mulder Jr. had dismissed the gravity of "mortal " from zero to Sharlyn Vanderlaan of Grand Rapids in Jump for Jesus ten. They voted as follows: homosexuality, 1986 after she ignored at least a dozen warn- 4; adultery, 3; abortion, 2; missing mass, 1; ings to stop preaching while she worked. "A Even exercise can be religious. So says premarital sex, 0; and birth control, O. The dentist has the right to expect his dental Today's Christian Woman magazine in Italian birthrate is now one of the lowest hygienist, whose work is often painful and "Turning Your Back Yard into a Playground in the world, at 1.3 and still falling. (Human- requires the patient to be verbally and for Family Devotions." The magazine ist Association of Canada Newsletter) physically submissive, to behave in a manner advises readers to "Think how many years which does not add more discomfort," the you have followed Jesus. Then do a jumping three judge appeals panel said. (AP) jack for each year. " (Fresno Bee) Blasphemous shoes

The Canadian Bata Shoe Company has a Funky Winkerbean store in Dkaka, , that recently offered slippers with a logo that AND EUERO GAME WE 5ORT OF PUT5 A DAMPER resembled the Arab characters GET OUR HEADS KICKED ON AN4 THOUGHTS OF A IN ! RELIGIOUS VOCATION, for "Allah." Moslems consi- DOESN'T IT? dered this blasphemy, and ran- f- sacked the store, killing one and injuring at least fifty persons. In an effort to break up the mob scene, police charged with steel- tipped bamboo sticks, r fes, and tear gas. (Washington Report)

Fall 1989 65 A special invitation to you to become a Charter Associate Member of the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism

Dear Subscriber:

We invite you to become a Charter Associate Member of the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH). Secular humanism is an authentic and positive way of life that provides ethical guidelines for a good and meaningful existence independent of religion. It is time to further the growth of the awareness of humanism, and to strengthen the bonds by providing a solid basis for identity with a dynamic national secular humanist organization.

That is why we are inviting you to become a Charter Associate Member of CODESH. We believe it is important to establish a thoroughly secular network that creates a tie of fellowship between like-minded individuals and groups nationwide and throughout the world, and that defines and clarifies the humanist movement. But we can succeed only if we work together to emphasize the importance of values based on science and reason—values that will enhance our lives in the here and now and allow us to become all that we are capable of being.

For only $15 a year ($25 for families), Charter Associate Members will receive the Secular Humanist Community Report and the Robert Ingersoll Report. In addition, you'll receive a 10 percent discount on the registration fees for FREE INQUIRY conferences and seminars, on FREE INQUIRY audiotapes and videotapes, and on a select list of books that have grown out of the activities of FREE INQUIRY and CODESH. Each Charter Associate Member will also receive a personalized wallet-size membership card.

Perhaps most important, by becoming a Charter Associate Member, you will join with thousands of others who realize the need to keep alive the ideals of secular humanism. Unless strong alternatives are developed, there is no guarantee that the battles for freedom and secularism that we win today will be preserved tomorrow; for each age brings with it new forms of irrationalism and dogmatism. Only by building viable secular humanist organizations can we hope to ensure the growth of humanist values in the future.

Won't you join us today? We look forward to your participation.

Sincerely,

Paul Kurtz

YES, I wish to become a Charter Associate Member of the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism

Enclosed are my dues for: ❑ A one-year single membership, $15 ❑ A one-year family membership, $25 Also enclosed is my additional contribution of: ❑ $ (Donor) ❑ $100 or more (Supporter) ❑ $25 or more (Endorser) ❑ $500 or more (Sustainer) ❑ $50 or more (Sponsor) ❑ $1,000 or more (Benefactor) ❑ $5,000 or more (Patron) Total $ ❑ Check enclosed ❑ MasterCard ❑ Visa Acct. # Exp

Name Address City State Zip Return to: Jean Millholland, FREE INQUIRY, Box 5, Buffalo, N.Y. 14215-0005 • (716) 834-2921 Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH) The Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH) is a not-for-, 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, CODESH 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 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: Steve Allen, author, humorist; Isaac Asimov, author; Kurt Baier, professor of philosophy, University of Pittsburgh; Sir Isaiah Berlin, professor of philosophy, Oxford University; Sir Hermann Bondi, Nobel Laureate in mathematics, Churchill College, 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.; José 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; Paul Edwards, professor of philosophy, Brooklyn College; Sir Raymond Firth, professor emeritus of , Univ. of London; Joseph Fletcher, theologian, professor emeritus of medical ethics, Univ. of Virginia Medical School; Betty Friedan, author and founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW); 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; Murray Gell-Mann, professor of physics, California Institute of Technology; Herbert Hauptman, Nobel Laureate and professor of biophysical science, SUNY at Buffalo; 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 Lwoff, Nobel Laureate in Medicine and professor of science, Institut Pasteur; Paul MacCready, Kremer Prize winner for aeronautical achievements; Mahailo Markovié, professor of philosophy, Univ. of Belgrade; 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; , professor of philosophy, University of Virginia; 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. Deceased: George O. Abell, Sir Alfred J. Ayer, Brand Blanshard, Sidney Hook, Lawrence Kohlberg, Ernest Nagel, George Olincy, Chaim Perelman, Lady Barbara Wooton.

Secretariat: Vern Bullough, dean of natural and social sciences, SUNY College at Buffalo; Antony Flew, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Reading 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 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.

Gerald Larue (President), USC at Los Angeles; Robert S. Alley, professor of humanities, Univ. of Richmond; Michael Arnheim, professor of ancient history, Univ. of Witwatersrand (South Africa); Joseph Barnhart, professor of philosophy, Univ. of North Texas; Vern Bullough, SUNY College at Buffalo; Joseph Fletcher, Univ. of Virginia Medical School; Antony Flew, Reading Univ. (England); Theodor Caster, Professor Emeritus of Religion, Columbia University and professor of religion, University of Florida; Van Harvey, professor of religion, Stanford; Sidney Hook, New York Univ.; Robert Joly, professor philosophy, Université de Mons (Belgium); Paul Kurtz, SUNY at Buffalo; Ron Lindsay, attorney, Washington, D.C.; William V. Mayer, director, Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, Univ. of Colorado; Delos McKown, professor of philosophy, Auburn Univ.; John F. Priest, professor of religion, Florida State University; James Robinson, director of the Institute for Christianity and Antiquity, Claremont College; George Smith, president, Signature Books; Morton Smith, Professor Emeritus of History, Colombia University; A. T. Steegman, professor of anthropology, SUNY at Buffalo; G. A. Wells, Univ. of London. Biblical Criticism Research Project (CSER Subcommittee) R. Joseph Hoffmann (Chairman), professor of philosophy and religion, Hartwick College; David Noel Freedman, professor of Old Testament, Univ. of Michigan; Randel Helms, professor of English, Arizona State Univ.; Robert Joly, professor of philosophy, Centre Interdisciplinaire d'Etudes Philosophiques de l'Université de Mons (Belgium); Carol Meyers, professor of religion, Duke Univ.; James Robinson, director, Inst. for Antiquity 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, M.D., chief of nuclear medicine, Ellis Hospital, Schenectady, N.Y.; Gary Posner, M.D., St. Petersburg, Florida; Wallace I. Sampson, 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 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, gender, nationality, creed, class, or ethnicity, and strive to work together for the 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 . • 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 of violence and as a source of rich personal significance and genuine satisfaction in the service to others. • We believe in rather than , 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, 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.

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