How Morality Evolved Doug Mann

Home , Center for Inquiry, Evolution of morality, Free Inquiry, Organized secularism

HANNAH WALLACE: CRISIS IN TURKISH EDUCATION

CELEBRATING REASON AND HUMANITY February/March 2019 Vol. 39 No. 2

HOW MORALITY EVOLVED DOUG MANN

LINDA KAY KLEIN Dissects the Christian Purity Movement

F/M 17 $5.95 CDN $5.95 US $5.95 Tom Flynn | Faisal Saeed Al Mutar 03 Robert M. Price | S. T. Joshi Poetry by Max Jacob Published by the Center for Inquiry in association 0 74470 74957 8 with the Council for Secular Humanism For many, mere atheism (the absence of belief in gods and the supernatural) or agnosticism (the view that such questions cannot be answered) aren’t enough. It’s liberating to recognize that supernatural beings are human creations … that there’s no such thing as “spirit” or “transcendence”… that people are undesigned, unintended, and responsible for themselves. But what’s next?

Atheism and agnosticism are silent on larger questions of values and meaning. If Meaning in life is not ordained from on high, what small-m meanings can we work out among ourselves? If eternal life is an illusion, how can we make the most of our only lives? As social beings sharing a godless world, how should we coexist?

For the questions that remain unanswered after we’ve cleared our minds of gods and souls and spirits, many atheists, agnostics, skeptics, and freethinkers turn to secular humanism.

Secular. “Pertaining to the world or things not spiritual or sacred.”

Humanism. “Any system of thought or action concerned with the interests or ideals of people … the intellectual and cultural movement … characterized by an emphasis on human interests rather than … religion.” — Webster’s Dictionary

Secular humanism is a comprehensive, nonreligious life stance incorporating:

A naturalistic philosophy

A cosmic outlook rooted in science, and

A consequentialist ethical system in which acts are judged not by their conformance to preselected norms but by their consequences for men and women in the world.

Secular humanism incorporates the Enlightenment principle of individualism, which celebrates emancipating the individual from traditional controls by family, church, and state, increasingly empowering each of us to set the terms of his or her own life.

The Council for Secular Humanism is North America’s leading organization for nonreligious people who seek to live value-rich lives. Free InquIry is its magazine.

Welcome! To learn more, visit http://www.secularhumanism.org

For many, mere atheism (the absence of belief in gods and the supernatural) or agnosticism (the view that such questions cannot be answered) aren’t enough. It’s liberating to recognize 16 The Science of the Evolution of Morality 30 Understanding Ayaan Hirsi Ali: that supernatural beings are human creations … that there’s no such thing as “spirit” or Doug Mann A Ciritical Examination “transcendence”… that people are undesigned, unintended, and responsible for themselves. Mark Kolsen But what’s next? 24 Pure Anguish 34 Saint Peterasty Linda Kay Klein Robert M. Price Atheism and agnosticism are silent on larger questions of values and meaning. If Meaning in life is not ordained from on high, what small-m meanings can we work out 37 Science vs. Religion (Redux?): among ourselves? If eternal life is an illusion, how can we make the most of our only lives? 28 From Darwin to Jihad: The Erosion of Turkey’s How (Not) to Discuss/Debate the Subject As social beings sharing a godless world, how should we coexist? Secular Education System Sheldon F. Gottlieb Hannah Wallace For the questions that remain unanswered after we’ve cleared our minds of gods and souls and spirits, many atheists, agnostics, skeptics, and freethinkers turn to secular humanism. EDITORIAL 44 CUNO’S CORNER 55 HUMANISM AT LARGE 4 Humanism’s Chasm Rules for Playing the Race Card What Did the Lions Eat Secular. “Pertaining to the world or things not spiritual or sacred.” Tom Flynn Steve Cuno on Noah’s Ark? Douglas Whaley Humanism. “Any system of thought or action concerned with the interests or ideals of OP-EDS 45 GREAT MINDS Hot and Wild Sufficiency: REVIEWS people … the intellectual and cultural movement … characterized by an emphasis on 7 Walking on Eggshells: Epicurus, the Mehness of Death, 58 The Human Instinct human interests rather than … religion.” Discussing Extremism in the West and the Pleasures of Enough by Kenneth Miller Faisal Saeed Al Mutar — Webster’s Dictionary Dale DeBakcsy Reviewed by Gregory S. Paul

8 The Failure of Fusion Power 47 Selections from the Letter to Secular humanism is a comprehensive, nonreligious life stance incorporating: 60 Neither Ghost nor Machine: Gregory S. Paul Menoeceus The Emergence and Epicurus A naturalistic philosophy 9 The Long View Nature of Selves by Jeremy Sherman S. T. Joshi 49 HIGH HERESY A cosmic outlook rooted in science, and The Likelihood of Reviewed by Kenneth Nahigian LOOKING BACK Religion Being True A consequentialist ethical system in which acts are judged not by their conformance 11 Michael Meyerson 62 Behold, He Said, by Tom Flynn to preselected norms but by their consequences for men and women in the world. LETTERS 51 THINKING OUT LOUD Reviewed by James Morrow Death: The Great 13 Blackboard Eraser POEMS Jeremiah Bartlett Secular humanism incorporates the Enlightenment principle of individualism, which 51 Love and Time celebrates emancipating the individual from traditional controls by family, church, and DEPARTMENTS Max Jacob 52 THE HUMANIST SOAPBOX state, increasingly empowering each of us to set the terms of his or her own life. 42 DOERR'S WAY Perceptions of Humanism 66 Romantic Allusions Arizona’s Big Win for Public Schools, Dan Davis The Council for Secular Humanism is North America’s leading organization for nonreligious Church-State Separation to Mardi-Gras Edd Doerr Max Jacob people who seek to live value-rich lives. Free InquIry is its magazine. 54 MEDICAL MUSINGS The Biology of Addiction Tree of Life John Frantz Welcome! Ted Richer To learn more, visit http://www.secularhumanism.org

CFI Mission: The Center for Inquiry strives to foster a secular society based on reason, science, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. Our Vision: A world where people value evidence and critical thinking, where superstition and prejudice subside, and where science and compassion guide public policy. Our Values: Integrity, Courage, Innovation, Empathy, Learning, and Wonder. A program of the Center for Inquiry, Inc. embrace the thoroughgoing natural- TOM FLYNN ism of a life stance such as atheism or secular humanism. Still, let’s suppose EDITORIAL (very conservatively) that only 10 per- Editor Thomas W. Flynn cent of Nones live without a hint of the Managing Editor Nicole Scott supernatural. (I presume the true figure Columnists Ophelia Benson, Russell is substantially higher.) Still, even at the Blackford, Greta Christina, Edd Doerr, Shadia B. Drury, Humanism’s 10 percent level, that suggests that Sarah Haider, Faisal Saeed 7.567 million Americans are atheists, Al Mutar, Gregory S. Paul Chasm freethinkers, or secular humanists. Yet Senior Editors Bill Cooke, Richard Dawkins, across our nation, no “movement” or- Edd Doerr, James A. Haught, Jim Herrick, Ronald A. Lindsay, ganization boasts even 100,000 mem- Taslima Nasrin ere is one of organized hu- bers. Moreover, membership numbers manism’s most persistent puz- Contributing Editors Levi Fragell, have held relatively steady, or at best Adolf Grünbaum, zles: In an America where the grown modestly, for many years. (Even Marvin Kohl, Lee Nisbet number who live without re- if an organization’s membership has Assistant Editor Julia Lavarnway Hligion has snowballed, why hasn’t the Literary Editor Ted Richer doubled, that’s a drop in the bucket membership of national “movement” compared to the potential for growth Permissions Editor Julia Lavarnway groups—atheist, agnostic, freethought, the number of Nones suggests.) Art Director Christopher S. Fix and secular humanist—kept pace? There isn’t just a gap between the I’ve been covering the “Rise of “Rise of the Nones” and the member- Center for Inquiry Inc. the Nones” since 1990, when Barry ship growth of national secular orga- Chair Edward Tabash Kosmin (now a Center for Inquiry [CFI] Board of Directors David Cowan, Richard Dawkins, nizations; there’s a chasm. In reason’s Brian Engler, Kendrick Frazier, board member) and his colleagues name, why? Barry A. Kosmin, Y. Sherry Sheng, at the City University of New York J. Anderson Thomson Jr., I’ve been looking everywhere for Leonard Tramiel released their first American Religious Honorary: the answer—and I had a lot of places Rebecca Newberger to look. Goldstein Susan Jacoby I’ve enjoyed multiple vantage CEO and President Robyn E. Blumner points from which to watch our move- Senior Research Fellow Ronald A. Lindsay ment’s dynamics. As a journalist, I got “In an America where to cover the Rise of the Nones and then Corporate Counsel Nicholas J. Little the number who live the explosion of original sociological Director, Government Affairs Jason Lemieux without religion has research about the nonreligious that Executive Director, RDFRS Robyn E. Blumner snowballed, why hasn’t followed. As executive director of the Chief Financial Officer Barry Karr Council for Secular Humanism, I got

Coordinator, Secular Rescue Matthew Cravatta the membership of to know hundreds of active members of face-to-face humanist and atheist Director of Public national ‘movement’ Engagement Stephanie Guttormson groups ... kept pace?” groups around the country. During the Vice President for Philanthropy Martina Fern same years, I enjoyed opportunities to meet young atheists and humanists Director of Libraries Timothy Binga through the Council’s Campus Free- Communications Director Paul Fidalgo Identification Study. They announced thought Alliance and more recently CFI Database Manager Jacalyn Mohr that “Nones”—persons whose reli- On Campus. System Administrator Cody Hashman gious preference, when presented a list Last spring, CFI CEO Robyn Director of Digital of creeds, was “none of the above”— Blumner and I attended a scholarly Product and Strategy Marc Kriedler had risen to a then-unprecedented colloquium in Greece that attracted Director, Teacher Institute for 8 percent of the U.S. population. Of some of the world’s top social sci- Evolutionary Science Bertha Vazquez course, it kept on rising. Today, it’s es- entists studying religious unbelief. I Staff Pat Beauchamp, Melissa timated that 23 percent of Americans shared with them the ideas I’d syn- Braun, Lauren Foster, Roe Giambrone, Alexander of all ages are Nones. (The number thesized based on what I’d observed Nicaise, Paul Paulin, is sharply higher among the young.) from my assorted vantage points. The Michael Powell, Vance Vigrass There are about 329 million Americans, responses I received made me think Council for Secular Humanism so that 23 percent equates to 75.67 I might just be on to something. (Or Executive Director Thomas W. Flynn million Nones. Granted, many Nones they were just humoring me.) are spiritual seekers or other sorts of So here goes. I think organized supernaturalists, eclectic and other- secular humanism has reached a dra- wise. Only a minority among them matic turning point. I speculate that the

4 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org chasm between the breakneck growth now, almost five years later, “The Faith of the Nones and the near-stasis of I Left Behind” is the back-of-the-book movement organizations actually re- department that boasts Free Inquiry’s Free Inquiry (ISSN 0272-0701) is published bimonthly by the Cen- flects an abrupt change in the sorts deepest backlog of already accepted ter for Inquiry in association with the Council for Secular Humanism, of people who connected with move- articles. P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Phone (716) 636-7571. Fax (716) 636-1733. Copyright ©2019 by the Center for Inquiry and ment atheism and humanism in de- Make no mistake, most Boomer the Council for Secular Humanism. All rights reserved. No part of this cades past and those who do so—or unbelievers cherish their deconversion periodical may be reproduced without permission of the publisher. Periodicals postage paid at Buffalo, N.Y., and at additional mailing don’t bother to do so—today. And I experiences. (In this, they are like free- offices. National distribution by Disticor.Free Inquiry is indexed in think this offers a possible explanation thinkers of previous generations, reach- Philosophers’ Index. Printed in the United States. Postmaster: Send address changes to Free Inquiry, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226- why secular movement organizations ing back at least into the early and mid- 0664. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the have grown so much more slowly than dle nineteenth century.) By and large, editors or publisher. No one speaks on behalf of the Center for Inquiry or the Council for Secular Humanism unless expressly stated. the nonreligious population itself. Boomer unbelievers are endlessly curi- TO SUBSCRIBE OR RENEW Consider Free Inquiry. Its readership ous about other people’s deconversion Call toll-free 800-458-1366 (have credit card handy). skews older. These days, most FI read- experiences. Moreover, that fascination Internet: www.secularhumanism.org. ers are Baby Boomers. Most grew up in extends to intense interest in a panoply Mail: Free Inquiry, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. a more-or-less traditional religious faith. of religious subjects. What creeds do Subscription rates: Print: $35.00 for one year, $58.00 for two years, $84.00 for three years. Foreign orders add $10 Most of them thought their way out the world’s religions teach, and how do per year for surface mail (Canada and Mexico); $14 per from under their childhood condition- we know they are untrue? What psy- year outside North America. Digital Rates: $18.95 for one year, $32.95 for two years, $44.95 for three years. New ing; many did that slowly, fearfully, and chological mechanisms predispose us subscribers only; existing subscriptions cannot be converted. alone, only discovering that there was to believe in impossible and fantastic Send U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank; American Express, Discover, MasterCard, or Visa are preferred. such a thing as “movement” atheism things, and how can we guard against Single issues: $5.95 each. Shipping is by surface mail in U.S. or humanism after becoming post-re- them? Since the world’s religions are (included). For single issues outside U.S., Canada: 1, $3.05; ligious. Indeed, many thought (rightly untrue—that is, since nothing super- 2–3, $5.25; 4–6, $8.00. Other foreign: 1, $6.30; 2–3, $11.40; or wrongly) that they didn’t know a sin- natural ever informed their develop- 4–6, $17.00. gle other unbeliever until after achiev- ment—what did drive their history? CHANGE OF ADDRESS What interplay of purely human and Mail changes to Free Inquiry, ATTN: Change of Address, P.O. ing unbelief themselves. (It’s true that Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. some freethinking Boomers grew up physical influences led them to assume Call Customer Service: 716-636-7571, ext. 200. in nonreligious households, but they their present forms? Many Boomer E-mail: [email protected]. make up a relatively small minority.) unbelievers have an appetite for such BACK ISSUES For most formerly religious Boomers, topics that seems limitless. Back issues through Vol. 23, No. 3 are $6.95 each. Back To examine Free Inquiry is to con- issues Vol. 23, No. 4 and later are $5.95 each. 20% discount the passage toward unbelief wasn’t just on orders of ten or more. Call 800-458-1366 to order or to arduous and lonely, it was perilous too: clude that its hardcore readers, non- ask for a complete listing of back issues. when Boomers were young, being an religious as they are, are nonetheless REPRINTS/PERMISSIONS unbeliever carried substantial stigma. obsessed with religion—and most are. To request permission to use any part of Free Inquiry, write In the cohorts that have followed to Free Inquiry, ATTN: Julia Lavarnway, Permissions Editor, Therefore, following one’s reason away P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664, or email jlavarn from religious belief wasn’t just an the Boomers, that obsession—and that [email protected] act of intellectual integrity; it required personal background—are far less ap- WHERE TO BUY FREE INQUIRY courage. For those reasons, Boomer parent. Younger cohorts were born into Free Inquiry is available from selected book and magazine sellers nationwide. unbelievers tend to view their decon- an era of greater religious diversity and versions from childhood faiths among more open tolerance. Today’s young ARTICLE AND POETRY SUBMISSIONS people—at least, those of them born Complete submission guidelines can be found on the web at their proudest achievements and as www.secularhumanism.org/fi/details.html. Requests deeply central to their humanist or in the United States—were born into a for mailed guidelines and article submissions should be culture in which the Rise of the Nones addressed to: Article Submissions, ATTN: Tom Flynn, Free atheist identities. Inquiry, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Small wonder, then, that one of the was already underway. Among them, Poetry submissions: Ted Richer, Literary Editor, Free Inquiry, only a minority had grown up in a tra- P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664; or email to nscott@ features that has struck the most pow- centerforinquiry.org. ditional religion they found demanding erful chord with Free Inquiry readers was or repressive—precisely the opposite LETTERS TO THE EDITOR “The Faith I Left Behind.” Beginning in Send submissions to Letters Editor, Free Inquiry, P.O. Box 664, the February/March 2014 issue, this ini- of their elders! As I noted in a recent Amherst, NY 14226-0664 or email [email protected]. review of a sociology-of-unbelief book, For letters intended for publication, please include name, tial collection of FI readers’ first-person address (including city and state), and daytime telephone deconversion stories ran in four suc- “Significant numbers of the new unbe- number (for verification purposes only). Letters should be 300 words or fewer and pertain to previous Free Inquiry articles. cessive issues, comprising twenty-eight lievers did not grow up in a demanding articles. Those essays—plus fourteen religious tradition and had no personal The mission of the Council for Secular Humanism is to advo- experience of self-emancipation from a cate and defend a nonreligious life stance rooted in science, naturalistic philosophy, and humanist ethics and to serve and more that there hadn’t been room to * print—were gathered together into a childhood faith.” support adherents of that life stance. successful little book titled, yes, The * Tom Flynn, “The Sociology of Irreligion Faith I Left Behind. And the decon- Grows Up” (review of Organized Secularism in version stories kept coming—so that the United States: New Directions in Research,

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 5 Here, I think, we find the roots of ing or even whether the Qur’an explic- probably done the best job of realign- the chasm. A majority of younger un- itly incites violence. They’re not going ing itself to meet the coming genera- believers are profoundly unlike those to be snatching up Free Inquiry (literally tions—but at best, it is meeting them who preceded them. Most have had or digitally) and paging toward the halfway. CFI combines classic human- little experience with—and, surely, lit- back of the magazine to read the latest ist and skeptical interests with a strong tle sense of oppression in connection “Faith I Left Behind” installment first. scientific viewpoint. It organizes a with—a childhood religion. Vastly more If I’m right about this, it’s a vast campaign to rescue endangered sec- among the young grew up irreligious or generational shift. Most atheists, hu- ular advocates from countries where in a household where what one did or manists, and freethinkers older than religious fanaticism is rife, a focus that didn’t believe about the supernatural age forty-five or so have very differ- appears to engage younger people simply wasn’t a big deal. Being an athe- ent motives—and a markedly different otherwise apathetic about religious ist, agnostic, humanist, or freethinker psychology—than their younger coun- matters. It conducts legal activism carried little stigma. Most in this cohort terparts. Yet the existing national orga- state by state to win equal rights knew plenty of others who saw the nizations are finely attuned to serve a for nonreligious celebrants—not as world as they did, so for them being an public that’s fascinated with religious a First Amendment (that is, church- unbeliever was neither dangerous nor controversy and views any opportunity state) issue but rather on grounds particularly special. (That’s not to say to associate with like-minded people of equal protection. (Other national that unbelievers obsessed with religion as a welcome—and rare—respite from organizations have experimented a society that generally discriminates with equal-protection litigation also, against the nonreligious. mostly in hopes that conservative That’s just not how most younger judges would be friendlier toward it unbelievers see things. This 180-de- than toward Establishment Clause lit- gree reversal in motivations and in- igation.) CFI also undertakes varieties “Even if an organiza- of activism that no purely humanist or tion’s membership has terests between older and younger nonreligious individuals is, I think, the atheist organization could tackle, such as an ambitious lawsuit challenging the doubled, that’s a drop in chasm we face. I suspect it’s the main way CVS markets worthless homeo- reason, while millions of newcomers the bucket compared to pathic medications side-by-side with entered the ranks of the nonreligious the potential for growth science-based medicines. over the past three decades, only a tiny The chasm is sobering to contem- the number of Nones fraction engaged with one or more of plate. Since the nineteenth century, the existing national organizations. It’s suggests.” organized freethought has focused on the reason, to quote my review again, serving hardy, lonesome iconoclasts “the movement as old-timers have who had thought their way out of known it is not delivering what most oppressive childhood creeds, were re- and angry about their childhood hood- newcomers are looking for.” It offers an signed to a lifetime of discrimination winking no longer exist; from its origin explanation why younger unbelievers in 2006, the New Atheist movement because of their way of thinking, and seem to attach so little importance to sought out rare interludes among the recruited quite a few young activists the separation of church and state, as meeting that description. Nonetheless, like-minded as a primary source of multiple studies have revealed. It’s hard solace. If you’re a Boomer like me, you based on the surveys and my personal for people who care little about religion experience, such “angry unbelievers” belong to (probably) the last gener- and have never known discrimination ation of nonreligious Americans who make up a minority among young because of their unbelief to get worked unbelievers, in much the same way as may come anywhere near fitting that up about Mr. Jefferson’s Wall. profile. unbelievers who’d grown up without Finally, the idea of the chasm helps religion compose a minority among What does the future of organized us understand another reason younger secularism hold? Right now, I’m not unbelieving Boomers.) unbelievers may not be looking to For all these reasons, religion is sure anyone knows. What a voyage of join atheist or humanist organizations: nowhere near as weighty a concern for discovery lies before us! when unbelief is just one aspect of your most younger unbelievers as it was for identity rather than central to it and their elders. As a cohort, they tend not when you have never knowingly expe- to care about a new interpretation of rienced social disapproval on grounds the Dead Sea Scrolls or in what order of your life stance, you may see few the various characteristics attributed to benefits from aligning yourself with a Tom Flynn is editor of Free Inquiry, executive director Jesus first appeared in Christian think- life stance–centered movement in the of the Council of Secular Humanism, editor of The first place. New Encyclopedia of Unbelief (Prometheus Books, edited by Ryan T. Cragun, Christel Manning, and Lori L. Fazzino). FI, October/November Among the national movement or- 2007), and author of the novel Behold, He Said 2018. ganizations, the Center for Inquiry has (Double Dragon, 2018).

6 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org ligion, a culture, and a group of more these critics feel that to protect their FAISAL SAEED than 1.2 billion individuals who live all reputations, they must bash the far AL MUTAR over the planet, most of whom are not Right and Trump in a hysterical way at members of terrorist organizations or every opportunity, whether relevant or OP-ED have any relationship to terrorism in not, just to demonstrate that they are general. not right-wingers or advancing some The third factor is race. The Middle right-wing agenda. “I am not right- East has a much different racial history wing! I am not right-wing! Please look Walking on than North America. While it has also at my skin! I am brown too!” had its history of brutal practices, Which is why many critics of Islam Eggshells: including the enslavement of native sound hysterical these days: On the Africans, most Middle Easterners are one hand, they have to fight accusa- either not familiar with that history or tions that they are spreading “hatred” Discussing simply don’t associate extremism with and “Islamophobia”; on the other people of a darker skin color. hand, in the eyes of critics on the far Extremism in the As a result, accusations of “Islam- Right, they look as “Muslim” as any ophobia” and “racism” hardly ever other Muslims and are either viewed West arise when Islamic extremism is dis- with mistrust or as tools, either of cussed in the region. Islam is a majority which undercuts their effectiveness. am approaching my sixth year since religion; therefore, statements critical For all these reasons, it’s tremen- I landed in the United States as a of Islam are not perceived as an “at- dously difficult for North American refugee from Iraq. tack” on a vulnerable minority group. critics of Islamism to engage in dis- I (Granted, minority religions have few course that stands the chance of mak- Since then, there have been so many changes—gaining eighty pounds rights in the region, but that’s another ing a difference. As I’ve maintained in is the most obvious of them—but I can matter.) So in the Middle East, there previous essays, if the Middle East is say now that I can speak with some is no such thing as the dynamic we to change for the better, this change authority when I engage in discussions so often see in North America, where has to come from its people fighting about extremism, and in particular even valid criticisms of a minority re- for their rights by themselves. If for- Islamist extremism, in North America. ligion or group are viewed as attacks eign allies offer their support, that is Since my arrival in the United States, I by the majority group (white people) well and good, but those who live have been consulting, attending, and on a minority group (brown people), amid the conflict should not rely on speaking at institutions in more than triggering defensive attitudes among salvation from outside. thirty states and provinces and at minority-rights advocates determined events reflecting pretty much all sides to take the side of the underdog. of the political spectrum (except the The fourth factor is the existence Faisal Saeed Al Mutar is an Iraqi-born far Right and the far Left, of course). in North America (and especially the award-winning human rights activist, satirist, I never thought I would say this, United States) of the far Right, many of speaker, and writer. He is an advocate for uni- but discussions about Islamist extrem- whose adherents genuinely hate peo- versal human rights, secularism, and the free ism where I came from (the Middle ple of different skin colors and faiths. market of ideas and is enthusiastic about the East in general and Iraq in particular) This creates the reaction one might intersection of technology and advocacy. He is tended to be far more honest and expect, a form of “Right-Wing-Phobia also the founder of multiple online platforms nuanced than the ones in which I’ve Phobia” among critics of extremism in that together have more than 400,000 sub- taken part in North America. the Muslim community. Far too often, scribers and millions of visitors. I attribute this to multiple factors. First, interlocutors in the Middle East are in constant contact with the enemy. (In Iraq, Islamists won May’s “Discussions about Islamist parliamentary elections, and Jihadists extremism where I came from … took over more than a third of the tended to be far more honest and country). Second, Middle Easterners are understandably more familiar with nuanced than the ones in which the religion of Islam, its history, and I’ve taken part in North America.” its various divisions. In contrast, most Americans and Canadians knew little about Islam until 9/11 and the subsequent terrorist attacks. To put it mildly, this is not the best introduction to a re-

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 7 hamism and Hinduism would finally easy to get it to undergo a chain GREGORY S. PAUL fade away, leaving only atheism, along reaction in a reactor. The tricky part is OP-ED perhaps with the philosophical Bud- keeping the reaction from going hay- dhism for which Clarke maintained a wire when things go bad, as they did fondness until the virulent strife that at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and afflicted his beloved Sri Lanka. Fukushima. Obviously that didn’t happen, al- One of the reasons fusion is so safe though secularism has made remark- is because far from it being possible The Failure of able strides and continues to do so in for it to go wild in a reactor, it is incred- our time. Why is that? ibly difficult to get fusion going in the Fusion Power Clarke similarly casually assumed first place. Sustained thermonuclear that fusion power would solve the reactions so far occur only under the planet’s energy problems and thereby fantastic pressure-temperature condi- create a quasi-utopia. An engineer, tions at the centers of stars. Getting Clarke thought that much as produc- such reactions to happen elsewhere s a young Royal Air Force offi- ing power via fairly risky and crude to the degree that one obtains more cer, Arthur C. Clarke helped de- heavy-metal atom-splitting fission had energy out than is put in—and to Avelop a radar landing system as been solved by science and engi- do so on a sustained, commercially part of a team with Louis Alvarez, who neering, it was only a matter of time viable basis—may not be feasible. then aided the Manhattan project, before the more difficult but very safe, Major government-funded projects, later helped determine when the three effectively infinite power source of largely centered on using hypermag- shots were fired at president Kennedy, fusion came online. That would effec- netic fields to squeeze hydrogen into and then proposed that a meteor im- tively eliminate the need to tap into helium, have been creeping along pact wiped out the dinosaurs. Shortly any other major energy sources, while for decades. Some private projects after World War II, Clarke explained aborting global warming and pollu- have been initiated in the hope of how satellites in geosynchronous orbit tion. Had elegant hydrogen-to-heli- jump-starting the effort, in some cases could be used for global communi- um-fusing reactors gone commercial by using lasers to shoot hydrogen cations. One of the most prominent in the final quarter of the 1900s, such pellets into fusion, but who knows hardcore science-fiction authors of the low-cost, high-benefit energy could whether they will succeed. era, and always my favorite—I was have laid the foundations for a much Lacking fusion reactors, we have lucky enough to have limited commu- more prosperous, peaceful, and, yes, had to continue to rely mainly on fossil nication with him around the turn of atheistic planet than the one we are fuels that are largely located in regions the century—Clarke cocreated 2001: stuck with. of ill repute—such as Texas and Okla- A Space Odyssey. That has not happened because homa, where in my last column I noted while fission is pretty easy to achieve that oil money has literally helped on planet Earth, fusion is extremely pay for the power and influence of difficult. Blame the laws of physics. the Christian version of the religious Controlled fission is so easy to achieve Right, and the Middle Eastern Gulf “While fission is pretty at normal surface conditions that back regions where it ended up funding vir- easy to achieve on planet in the Precambrian, when uranium was ulent Wahhabist mosques and schools Earth, fusion is extremely more highly enriched, natural reactors around much of the world that helped spontaneously formed in concentrated spread hyper-violent forms of Islam. difficult. Blame the laws uranium ores. Because once-abundant It has further become apparent that of physics.” uranium 235 has mostly decayed over a nation rich in oil almost always the hundreds of millions of years since falls into massive corruption that se- then, the uranium that is left over has riously damages the development of In the fifties and sixties, Clarke to go through intensive processing the overall economy and democracy wrote a number of novels set on to enrich the metal until it has a high in favor of nationalist, ethnic, and re- Earth during the late twentieth and/ enough percentage of U-235 to be ligious strife. or twenty-first centuries, including fissible in reactors. Although that is a Even worse, the absence of cheap Childhood’s End, The Deep Range, quite difficult physical process, it was fusion power has probably seriously and Dolphin Island, that shared a feasible enough that U-235 could be hindered the development of econo- common premise. A rational atheist, produced in the large amounts to mies around the world. A major body Clarke assumed that as modernity and power reactors starting in the 1950s of research in which I have participated middle-class prosperity at long last and ’60s, when slide rules were still has established that mass religiosity is pervaded a peaceful world, deeply in common use. Once sufficiently en- a psychological means by which the supernaturalistic faiths such as Abra- riched uranium is on hand, it is pretty individuals within a population cope

8 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org with the stresses and anxieties that occur hard with that stick. when most live in a dysfunctional society S. T. JOSHI Then there’s the environment. I that does not deliver secure prosperity. OP-ED can remember a time when Lake Whenever a nation is sufficiently well-run Erie occasionally caught fire because that the majority of inhabitants enjoy of the oil slicks coating its surface. secure, middle-class lives, then religiosity What a revelation the first Earth Day implodes, as it already has in Western (April 22, 1970) was! Who knew that nations. There are no exceptions to the we couldn’t heedlessly keep using pattern in which socioeconomic success The Long View up the planet’s resources without consistently leads to a rise in atheism at ultimately paying a penalty? That the expense of theism. Nor is it likely same year President Richard Nixon (a to be a coincidence that the rise of the et’s step back a bit. Republican, in case you’ve forgotten) nonreligious around the planet from 30 At a time when we are con- established the Environmental Pro- to 40 percent over a dozen years closely stantly bombarded with infor- tection Agency, and the results have tracks the rise of the middle class. Ergo, L been revolutionary. mation (true, false, biased, or fabri- a fusion-fueled world economy, expand- cated), it can be difficult to take note The animal-rights movement has ing faster than it does today and with of broader social and cultural devel- emerged from nonexistence to a less environmental degradation than we opments that have radically changed significant force in the humane treat- are suffering, should have inspired even the simple act of living in the United ment of the creatures we share this more spectacular decreases in theism States at this moment in history— Earth with. I can remember a time than the world has enjoyed. and, in my view, changed it for the when casual cruelty to animals was The failure of fusion power has had better. Having recently entered the so widespread—especially among lethal consequences. Since the end of ranks of sexagenarians, I have found teenage boys—that it was hardly the Cold War drastically reduced mass myself reflecting on how different remarked upon. One of my friends lethal violence from atheistic Commu- things are now from that remote pe- would seize his cat, whirl it around nists, a few million have died in war-level riod—the summer of 1963—when, as his head, and fling it violently to the conflicts that generally share a strong re- a wide-eyed five-year-old immigrant floor. For him it was all great fun! I ligious component tied to bad economic from India, I attempted to take stock was too cowardly to make even the circumstances. Defective socioeconom- of the country, halfway across the ics aggravated by drought contributed globe from my native land, where my to the Syrian Shiite-vs.-Sunni strife that parents had brought me. has in turn destabilized Europe with the The civil rights movement of the influx of refugees. Christians are going 1960s, set against the grim backdrop “Look at any film or after Muslims, and vice-versa, across of the Vietnam War, was painful and television show of fifty poverty stricken sub-Saharan Africa. In bloody, but it did achieve signifi- Russia, the Orthodox Church backs dic- or sixty years ago to cant gains in the fairer treatment tator Putin as the economy stagnates. of persons of color and other pre- see how a bland and Buddhists target Muslims in an econom- viously scorned minorities. And an unthinking misogyny ically moribund Burma. entire treatise could be written on the Clarke lived long enough to be dis- was deeply rooted in the strides women have made in social, tressed when his dream of thermonu- political, and legal equality. One only culture.” clear power was not coming to pass and has to look at any film or television the unpleasant theo-social consequences show of fifty or sixty years ago to see slightest protest at the time. Today, if were becoming all too clear. It is a lost how a bland and unthinking misog- he had done that, I would have made opportunity that can never be fully re- yny was deeply rooted in the culture sure to give him a swift kick where it covered. Even if efficient hydrogen-fus- as a whole and pop culture in partic- counted most and render him inca- ing plants can be made practical in the ular. An episode of Bewitched from pable of having children. fairly near future, it will take decades for 1970 featured little Tabitha Stephens Many people much younger than enough reactors to be constructed to complaining about a puppet show in I have seen a wholesale revision of make a big difference in terms of rational which Punch repeatedly beat Judy our understanding of gay rights. If rather than faith-based socioeconomics with a stick—whereupon her mother anyone in 1990 had suggested that and the environment. Samantha immediately branded her a gays and lesbians would be allowed “women’s libber”! The upshot of the to marry in twenty-five years, I would Gregory S. Paul is an independent researcher, episode was not that Punch should have replied with derisive ridicule. analyst, and author. His latest book is The give up his violent abuse of his wife; I can remember a time when I un- Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs (Princeton apparently the best we can hope for thinkingly absorbed the prevailing University Press, 2010). is that Punch hits Judy a little less culture’s prejudice toward gays. But

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 9 then I went to New York and actually in a devastating annihilation of Nothing I’ve said here should be met some gay people—and what do its (always hollow and hypocriti- taken as an argument for political, you know? My prejudice fell away like cal) claims to moral uprightness. religious, or social passivity. I’m no an ill-fitting cloak. The idea that evangelicals are now Pollyanna, and I am well aware of the It is a sad fact that orthodox reli- nothing but one more political dangers of backsliding (pardon the gion has stood in the way of many of pressure group—analogous to the religious metaphor). There is no short- these developments. I have witnessed NRA or the pharmaceutical indus- age of recent evidence that we have with appalled bemusement the rise, try—is thoroughly entrenched in a long way to go on all the issues I’ve decline, and fall of the religious Right. the public mind. outlined, but I think we need to take Fall? Yes, fall! (Disclosure: This was 3. Some evangelicals are simply throw- a realistic view of the immense prog- written shortly before the mid-term ing in the towel. Read The Bene- ress that has been made. However elections on November 6.) It may well dict Option (2017) by the politi- viciously the forces of reaction seek be that the last election was the last cal and religious conservative Rod to drag us back to the bad old times hurrah of this pestiferous movement, Dreher. The book is a scream. For when women, gays, persons of color, for we are witnessing signs of its de- you see, Dreher is so despondent and others were consigned to the mise everywhere: over the rampant secularization margins of society, there are too many 1. In great numbers, young evangel- of society that his only solution vested interests leading us forward. icals are sloughing off the stiff- is for the dwindling numbers of When corporations (yes, corpora- necked dogmatism of their par- the faithful to gather into tightly tions!) are increasingly taking a role in ents. Some are even embracing knit communities to protect their promoting fairness, you know an im- the fight against climate change faith—although he envisions occa- portant threshold has been reached. (on the principle of being good sional forays into the wider world So, despite recent setbacks, the “stewards of the Earth”) and other to “evangelize barbarian peoples” wind is at our backs. We will prevail— causes relating to social justice. I (that would be us). Pull your kids and deserve to prevail. suppose we should embrace our out of public schools, deny them allies wherever we can find them. television and the internet, and so S. T. Joshi is the editor of Atheism: A Reader 2. The religious Right’s close embrace on and so forth! All I have to say to (2000) and other works on atheism, agnosti- of President Trump has resulted Dreher is: Good luck with that. cism, and freethought.

Earn your master’s degree in Science and the Public through the University at Buffalo! Explore the methods and outlook of science as they intersect with public culture and public policy. This degree is ideal for enhancing careers in science education, public policy, and science journalism—and prepares you for positions that involve communicating about science. This unique two-year graduate degree program is entirely online. Take courses from wherever you are in the world at your own pace! Courses include: Science, Technology, and Human Values; Research Ethics; Critical Thinking; Scientific Writing; Informal Science Education; Science Curricula; and History and Philosophy of Science.

Science and the Public Co-Developed by UB Graduate School of Education and the Center for Inquiry

For details visit: https://ed.buffalo.edu/teaching/academics/masters/science-public.html

10 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org LOOKING BACK

35 Years Ago in Free Inquiry

“... the question of the sacrifice of innocent life in war ... I find an extremely difficult problem. Temperamentally I am inclined to the simple view (to misquote one of the late Michael Flan- ders’s characters) that ‘killing people is wrong,’ but I have to recognize that, until mankind finds some reasonable way of settling differences other than by military force, the appalling damage that one Hitler can do to millions of innocent persons makes it difficult to maintain that other innocent lives must never be risked in order to stop the likes of him. But there I must leave the matter, cherishing the hope that the human race will soon find a better way of settling disputes than the idiotic process of multiplying the production of lethal instruments as the only way of preventing their use.” —Barbara Wootton, “Reflections of a Lifelong Agnostic,” Free Inquiry, Volume 3, No. 4 (Fall 1983)

Editor’s Note: Barbara Wootton, Baroness Wootton of Abinger (1897–1988) was a British criminologist and sociologist. In 1958, she was appointed to the House of Lords under the Life Peerage Act, becoming one of its first woman members. An ethical utilitarian and an early advocate for physician-assisted suicide, she nonetheless opposed abortion on other-than-religious grounds and was removed as a vice president of the then–British Humanist Association.

25 Years Ago in Free Inquiry

“… If Jesus did not say most of the things attributed to him, he might have said anything one would wish to attribute to him. If our picture of Jesus is marred by so much wear and tear, so much varnish and so much new paint that the original image is irrecoverable, then he might have looked like anybody. ... The Jesus of the Westar project and the new new quest is a talking doll with a questionable repertoire of thirty-one sayings: pull a string and he blesses the poor.”

—R. Joseph Hoffmann, “Jesus Through the Looking Glass: An Update on the Who-Was-Jesus Movement,” Free Inquiry, Volume 14, No. 1 (Winter 1993–94)

Editor’s Note: R. Joseph Hoffmann is a historian of early Christianity who cohosted Free Inquiry’s influential 1985 conference “Jesus in History and Myth” at the University of Michigan. He has held academic positions all over the world, including as director of the Center for Inquiry Institute and cofounder of its Jesus Project (2007–2009). In this article, Hoffmann commented on the “new new quest for the historical Jesus,” then of current interest among scholars. The “Westar project” he mentions became better known as The Jesus Seminar.

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 11 Imagine a future where science and reason serve as the foundation for our lives.

A future where free expression is guaranteed everywhere around the world.

A future where old sectarian divisions have been overcome by the common bond of secular ideals.

This is the future CFI is working toward. Together, we can achieve it. It’s never too early to consider a planned gift—a legacy of reason.

Call today to reserve your copy of our new gift-planning brochure—a helpful guide through the many options available to you.

Then speak to your trusted financial advisor or attorney. It’s as simple as that. IT’S EASY Call Martina Fern today at1-800-818-7071 x426 for your copy of this valuable information, or email her at [email protected] There’s no obligation.

12 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org LETTERS

KAVANAUGH AND THE COURT: I am writing about Tom Flynn’s important as those he listed: God cle: “The Age of Theism Is Over.” Eddie Tabash | Robyn E. Blumner | Nick Little | Tom Flynn editorial. I found it a bit casual is perfect, unchanging, and has No more executions and incar- about a rather big issue. I am in always existed. October/November 2018 Vol. 38 No. 6 cerations of the brave and clear- CELEBRATING REASON AND HUMANITY favor of suicide for people who, What does “perfect” mean, headed by religionists abusing for example, have unending pain anyway? The Hebrew and Greek the state, no more discrimination that cannot be treated or for words in the Bible, which are against anything without (a) god(s) those who are in situations such usually translated as “perfect” David Mountain anywhere. Greatly disappointed, as Auschwitz. mean complete, faultless, whole, however, was I by a spoiler right But most people who are finished. Believers usually also at the beginning: “the title says, considering suicide deserve a claim that God has always ex- theism should now be considered good psychiatric evaluation and isted. God never changes, so he a failed understanding of the uni- a chance to talk to reasonable, must have always been perfect.

O/N 17 $5.95 CDN O $/N5 .1975 US International Blasphemy Rights Day feature $5.95 CDN $5.95 US verse.” That’s not what the title 111 Ghluam Kabir: Escape to Exile intelligent, experienced, caring Believers can cite scriptural pas- | 0 8 Sarah Haider Russell Blackford 74470 74957 told me! Dee’s conclusion that 0 74470 74957 8 Published by the Center for Inquiry in association Ophelia Benson | S. T. Joshi with the Council for Secular Humanism people who might give them sages to support all these claims. Imagine a future where science and reason some ideas about what might But why would a perfect theology is the baby talk of adults serve as the foundation for our lives. help improve the situation. god create a universe? Imagine did not bother me. Actually, Signature of Freedom Also, what suicide does to God in the eternities before he I was pleased by the mention of After reading Tom Flynn’s edito- the people who are left is ter- created the universe. What was Plato’s Euthyphro Dilemma with rial (“The Signature of Freedom,” rible. he doing? Remember, he was its two fundamental choices, of A future where free expression is guaranteed FI, October/November 2018), Carl Saviano, MD perfect. He needed nothing; he which one, indeed, renders divin- everywhere around the world. I wanted to respond because, Northampton, Massachusetts wanted for nothing. He was per- ity superfluous. But today that although it could be argued fectly content, since if he was not necessity to choose can and must that the right to suicide might content with just himself, it would be formulated in more general indeed be the ultimate right and Tom Flynn responds: imply that he was needing some- and systematic terms. The option A future where old sectarian divisions have been “signature of freedom” as Tom Carl Saviano is right that “what thing else. It would be inconsis- is, then, either the recognition Flynn describes it, it still may be suicide does to the people who tent with the idea of perfection to of the primacy of one or more are left is terrible.” But I suspect overcome by the common bond of secular ideals. an enormous mistake and loss use the verb want with a perfect gods and/or demons or the pri- that much of suicide’s negative being as the subject, as in “God for the individual and for others. macy of one or more values and/ impact on survivors is not inher- wanted to create mankind ... .” For many individuals, there is no or norms. The former position is ent in the act but rather reflects Merely saying that amounts to doubt that committing suicide is This is the future CFI is working toward. Together, we can achieve it. the social stigma surrounding an admission that God was not theocentrist, the latter I like to call the result of a momentary lapse it. Contemporary culture offers perfect—he lacked something. “normistic.” The choice between of reason or a sudden poorly It’s never too early to consider a planned gift—a legacy of reason. those left behind few tools for What was this perfect being them lies at the root of a basic thought out decision due to an coming to accept, much less doing? Since he had not yet cre- distinction between worldviews, emotional shock. There is no affirm, a friend or loved one’s ated anything, there was nothing and of what we will be talking doubt that for many, prevent- choice to stop living. At the same for him to be acting upon or even about: our domain of discourse. Call today to reserve your copy of our ing their deaths is a huge moral time, it serves up an endless contemplating. He was the only The theocentric issue is the same new gift-planning brochure—a helpful guide good. Unless we can devise a smorgasbord of concepts that thing that existed. Was he just for theists and atheists alike, the way to know in advance whether encourage survivors to blame thinking? About what? He can future of God or gods being at this choice was rational or instead through the many options available to you. the deceased—and, too often, only have been thinking about stake. Self-labeled atheists or drug impaired or brought on by a themselves—for the “horrible himself. (Can you be perfect and “antitheists” forget that all their crisis that would eventually pass, I thing” that happened. As for narcissistic?) continued attempts at proving believe it is best to err on the side Gary Dantone’s compromise pro- He would have simply re- that God does not exist and how Then speak to your trusted financial advisor of prevention. posal, I would welcome it if some mained the perfect, complete, bad theism is merely serves the The compromise would be to way could be found to achieve it or attorney. It’s as simple as that. solitary being that he was frozen, domain of the theocentrist dis- decriminalize, remove the stigma, starting from our dysfunctional immobile, in an eternal solitary course, while meanwhile the and not necessarily brand suicide present situation. Fortunately, state. other domain misses out on any as a mental illness while at the as I noted in my editorial, more It seems that the existence of comparable zeal for the evolution same time offering all the assis- accepting attitudes toward suicide the universe, rather than being tance to prevent it, even if, at the appear to be building among the evidence for the existence of of a new, now normistic para- time, the individual protests. The young. God (as many believers assert) is digm. This is the main intellectual IT’S EASY reason the Age of Theocentrism concession would be to allow instead evidence that the perfect a form of assisted suicide that god they believe in does not is not over yet. It is theists who Call Martina Fern today would not be abused by others exist and never did. keep it alive and atheists who and not be the result of a rash Age of Theism Richard Packham keep it kicking. at1-800-818-7071 x426 decision-making process by an Roseburg, Oregon M. Vincent van Mechelen individual. That would be the James H. Dee’s excellent article Amsterdam, The Netherlands for your copy of this valuable information, best of both sides of the argu- (“The Age of Theism Is Over,” ment. FI, October/November 2018) I almost sighed from sheer relief or email her at [email protected] Gerry Dantone listing the untenable definitions when I received FI’s October/ Cofounder and former of “god” in the monotheistic November 2018 issue and saw There’s no obligation. coordinator for CFI Long Island religions omitted a few, just as the title of James Dee’s arti- (Continued on p. 64)

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 13 Is There A Christopher Hitchens Associate Who Will Help Implement His Plea?

In His Very Last Message To Atheists, Hitchens Wrote: “WE MUST FIND NEW WAYS OF COMBATING THIS LETHAL DELUSION [RELIGION] IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE”

Must—new ways—in the public sphere. He knew this was The other, after only the third ad had run, said they were his last message and we must believe it was carefully considered. ‘the topic’ at his weekly Minister’s Meeting! One wonders what Has anyone paid the slightest attention? I am aware of only the their reaction, after fourteen in a row? Or, to the nine which ran? same old ways. Where are his friends? Where are his friends when someone tries to do something new? Most others who wrote were complimentary and none of the objectors was uncivil. Before Hithens issued that advice, I had tried a new way by showing examples of atheist advertisements written for the It was awful that the full power of all fourteen successive general public. I published about 25-30 ads, mainly in Free ads was never learned. But, that made clear that such censorship Inquiry, to demonstrate to fellow atheists how short, arresting, would doom any future effort involving public media. interesting and challenging ads could be presented to the public in language they could understand, making cases they had never So I tried another new way: Making the Case Against Free heard before. These were not expected to be effective with any Will—I mean by Free Will what Christians claim—that we all more than those in the public already on the weakest end of the have equally the capacity (except children, those forced, and in- faith curve. competents) to make deliberated moral choices entirely free of the influences of our brains and bodies and all the experiences These were based on 45 years of experience writing to the we have ever had, and the interactions between biology and general public to generate donations, subscriptions, petitions and experience which have made us who we are. sales of all kinds for national clients. My real objective was to interest one of our existing atheist organizations to see the merits “Entirely free” is crucial, because sin cannot be due even and, at least, develop a plan for testing its effectiveness. in part to anything beyond the control of the sinner. Thus, Free Will is the magic faculty which amounts to a Passport to Hell, if I was disappointed, not by the content of the responses free will is not used correctly before death. received, but that they were few, and none were from existing atheist organizations. If Free Will is not true, it is the Achilles Heel of Christianity! So I took them to the public directly, most as full pages For Christianity it must be true, there must be deserved every Sunday for fourteen straight weeks in The South Bend Trib- guilt to need a Savior! une (to challenge the worthies at Notre Dame University). Nine of these were published. Then the backlash got too intense for Since we have fast-advancing science on our side, Free Will the publisher so the remaining five scheduled ads were summar- is far easier to combat than ever before. ily cancelled. You can see and download any or all of them at It is a virtual certainty that nothing new in philosophy can theingersolltimes.com and click to the location. be expected to defeat Christianity or Free Will after two thou- Perhaps the most disheartening result of this unprecedented sand years of standoff. experiment, which I thought would be of great interest to athe- But just the opposite is the case for science! With the ists everywhere, was that only one of the many notables who evidence presently in hand, the majority of neuroscientists are received the actual newspaper ads encouraged me; and no one convinced that free will is an illusion. They are joined by famed and no existing atheist organization even asked about the reac- Drs. Sam Harris; Jerry Coyne, biologist, U. of Chicago; Robert tion in South Bend! Sapolsky, neuro-endocrinologist, Stanford U.; and Sean Carroll, SENSATIONALLY SIGNIFICANT, justifying the whole effort, physicist, Cal-Tech; all of whom have been quite vocal in their was what I thought of responses from just two ministers in South efforts to explain to the general public why free will is scientifi- Bend: cally untenable. Of course, there are many more scientists in psychology and the social sciences who also find the present sci- One said he was scheduling two whole Sunday sermons ence quite sufficient. to deal with the ads! If any in his church had not read or paid attention to them—or, even if they had—this could not be better It is even better. Since there are still a huge number not for us. A trusted third party rebuttal is next to an endorsement! yet convinced, even among the well educated, Dr. Sapolsky has Imagine the meme tic possibilities of such notoriety? good news. Unlike philosophy with little new to say, he reports

14 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org in his book, BEHAVE, that of the science papers bearing on this The case against any kind of free will is already devastating: subject which are projected to be published through 2020 (98,229) from only 3 in 1920, almost 89% will have been pub- • As mentioned above, the evidence we already have lished just since 2000! This is due mainly to fantastic advances has convinced the majority of neuroscientists that is merely in technology and methods, also expected to grow dramatically. an illusion. His book of 717 pages is packed with evidence already devel- • Dr. Sapolsky cautions those not yet convinced to wait, oped and substantiated about the decisive role of chemical dis- new evidence is coming in every month at an increasing charges in the body that Free Will is simply impossible. rate. For all these reasons, I suggested in a 2016 Free Inquiry ad • Some of the greatest scientists and philosophers of all the establishment of a Center for the Sciences on Free Will—a time wrote against it: Darwin, Einstein, Feynman, Crick, non-profit think tank to focus on free will. In the hard sciences, Hawking, Planck and more; Spinoza, Voltaire, Russell, biology, neuroscience, endocrinology, genetics, etc., probably Schopenhauer, and more. little, if any, research is conducted directly at free will. More likely, findings are made in pursuit of other knowledge, which • It has crucial elements which are self verifiable— in fact bears on the question. In the social sciences, particularly everyone knows he/she had no choice about being, brain, psychology, sociology, abnormal behavior, etc., the case may be body, time and place, ad infinitum. They know the power otherwise. of these influences on themselves. • Eternal punishment, enabled by free will, is repugnant In both the hard and soft sciences, work is being done all to the human instinct for sympathy. Steven Pinker, public over the world. So this Center would be charged with gathering, teacher extraordinaire, Harvard Professor of Psychology, classifying, evaluating studies made using the scientific method says in his new book, “ENLIGHTENMENT NOW,” “You from all over which bear on free will. Then use them in an up- have been endowed with a sense of sympathy—the ability to-date presentation, in non-technical language, of the scientific to like, love, respect and show kindness…and because your case against free will (after also including the effect, if any, of reason tells you none of this is particular to you, you have any credible evidence in favor of free will). It would also, as the responsibility to provide to others what you expect funds permitted, actively disseminate this information. It would from them.” not conduct research nor include any philosophical arguments. • It provides the real reason not to hate: truly under- At least, that would be my idea of its function. But that standing that there, but for LUCK, go I. would be up to the science organizers to determine. The only thing my offer below would require would be focus solely on findings • The common sense case is almost irresistible and is from empirical studies made using standard scientific methods. easily stated; beautifully so by the English author, Raoul Martinez, in his highly acclaimed 2017 book, CREATING I offered to donate $50,000 to establish the legal and FREEDOM. You can listen to a 21 minute précis in a TED organizational framework for the FW Center and obtained the Talk at: http://www.creatingfreedom.info/ promise of legal help from an outstanding lawyer-authority to do the work—most of you would know of him—with decades Where will the money come from? I roughly estimated of experience in non-profits. that maybe $600,000 a year would permit a real start, with an Executive Director ($200M), 2 staff ($200M), Office ($200M), I made this offer to an internationally known and all under supervision of an uncompensated Board. From there celebrated scientist-atheist who has aggressively and very publi- the role and the budget could expand as funds were found. cally shown why the idea of Free Will is an illusion. He re- sponded with praise for the purpose and expressed interest, With the Templeton Foundation funded with billions asked if I had suggestions. I sent my proposal for a think tank, cannot one or two million be raised from millionaire atheists, and then after weeks, no further word. Other prominent scien- existing atheist organizations—for whom killing Free Will is far tist-atheists, some known friends of Hitchens, never commented. more important than even atheist-scientists—and a relatively few individuals? I simply do not want to let this die! Not with science on our side, and on an issue so crucial to killing the foundation of It depends on who asks whom. With the enthusiastic Hitchens’ “lethal delusion”—always the greatest enemy of endorsement of our best, surely it can be done. We simply need science and reason. the will!

Does This Not Respond to What Hitchens May Have Meant By a “New Idea to Combat This Lethal Delusion in the Public Sphere”?

Please tell me what you think: [email protected]. Paid ad.

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 15 The Science of the Evolution of Morality

Doug Mann

ince Charles Darwin published The Descent of Man, mysterious exception to evolutionary theory that required his second major book about evolution, in 1871, re- supernatural intervention to emerge, as claimed by propo- Ssearchers have made many discoveries that flesh out nents of “theistic evolution.” In contrast to such supernat- Darwin’s little-known ideas about the evolution of morality. uralism, a naturalistic view of the theory of evolution helps Recent papers in Free Inquiry by Ronald Lindsay and James us to see the parallels and the high degree of continuity Hughes have touched briefly on the evolution of morality, between our species and others. but there’s much more to this important story. In this article, The evolution of human morality is entirely explained by I will review key steps in the evolution of morality during the competitive and reproductive advantages of a highly three phases of the evolution of life on Earth and discuss structured, cooperative social life within groups whose implications for organized religion and its relationship to members are of the same species. Humans represent one morality. of only about twenty small branches of the vast evolution- Darwin knew that his theory of evolution by natural se- ary tree of life that display particularly high levels of social lection faced several daunting explanatory challenges to be organization. When did this advantageous but rare level of understood and accepted by scientists and the public. For social organization first appear in the evolutionary history example, in On the Origin of Species, published in 1859, of life on Earth, prior to the recent evolution of our own Darwin described a general process for the seemingly im- species? And how is the emergence of a high level of social probable evolution of “organs of extreme perfection,” such organization in humans intertwined with the evolution of as the human eye, whereby simple forms of the evolving morality? eye might provide a benefit to survival. Darwin knew of few During each phase of the evolution of life on Earth, intermediate forms to list in support of his explanation, but individual hereditary variations that influenced social behe was right; scientists have since discovered a series of steps representing the evolution of the eye in a variety of havior encountered a variety of environmental and social current species, from simple light-sensitive spots, to spots selection forces. In primates, the most successful behav- within cups, to cups partially closed to form a “pinhole ioral variations in terms of survival and reproduction slowly camera” proto-eye, to eyes with very simple lenses, and strengthened and eventually resulted in the remarkable so forth. self-domestication of our species, shaping our minds and The story of the intuitively improbable evolution of bodies and producing powerful traits such as empathy, human morality is analogous to the story of the evolution reciprocity (a desire to exchange and repay favors), and the of the eye, in that science has subsequently discovered strong desire for social affinity and the approval of others. many intermediate steps that flesh out Darwin’s broad but This process of evolutionary self-domestication culminated conceptually correct view of the origins of morality. In The in the individual prosocial traits and cultural rules of behav- Descent of Man, Darwin provided a general description of ior that we refer to as “morality.” This story begins with the how morality evolved, with the advantageous foundations evolution of life on Earth almost four billion years ago and of morality emerging in social animals, in particular among moves forward in three distinct phases, culminating in the our primate ancestors. Darwin’s explanation—and subse- emergence of human sociality and morality as they exist quent scientific discoveries—show that morality is not a today.

16 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org The First Phase: The Slow Genetic Evolution of High Sociality and nest maintenance, and nest defense. This distinctive level Pre-Moral Traits of social organization has been highly successful since its In On the Origin of Species, Darwin summarized the theory emergence. Today, ants and termites represent less than 2 of evolution by natural selection as follows: percent of the total number of current insect species, but ants and termites constitute more than half of the world- As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a fre- wide total body weight of living insects. quently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any There are obvious parallels between “true social” being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable insects and the social lives of humans, according to ento- to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying con- mologist Edward O. Wilson. Humans often live and work in ditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and large, complex hierarchies while conforming to specialized thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its roles and cooperating with large numbers of both familiar new and modified form. people and strangers, and some cultures have even featured types of reproductive caste systems (although not The advantages of a cooperative, highly organized social life to help a species succeed “under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life” are many, but there was no guarantee that the process of evolution by natural selection would result in any particular social structure emerging among the diverse forms of life that “The evolution of human morality is entirely gradually evolved. It’s now understood that Dar- explained by the competitive and win’s “strong principle of inheritance” is made possible by genes carried on strands of DNA, and reproductive advantages of a highly struc- that random errors occurring in the DNA copying tured, cooperative social life.” process may make an organism “vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself.” How- ever, the small hereditary variations that prove to be advantageous typically take a very long time and a the genetically wired reproductive roles found in the tech- multitude of generations to result in significant changes to nical definition of a eusocial species). Furthermore, human a species. Life first appeared on the Earth about four bil- beings often display considerable levels of altruism and lion years ago, and a full 3.8 billion years, or 95 percent of self-sacrifice toward kin, familiar community members, and the evolutionary history of life, would pass before genetic even strangers. mutations accumulated in a few species in a way that pro- Although the behavior of “true social” insects foreshad- duced a high level of cooperative social organization. ows the evolution of human morality in terms of conformity The rise of the social insects: The power of instinctive to social roles that require self-control and self-sacrificing cooperation behavior, there are limits to this analogy. Insect behavior is instinctive, with a limited set of hard-wired behaviors Insects began to appear on Earth about 400 million years made possible by a relatively simple nervous system. Fur- ago, but it wasn’t until 150–200 million years ago that the earliest termites and ants evolved. These were the first thermore, the evolution of “true social” insect species is insects that evolutionary biologists refer to as “eusocial” explained by the fact that all the insects in a colony are or “true social” species. These species have a distinctive genetically related to each other, so a self-sacrificial act by set of characteristics: the life of a colony is based around a soldier ant benefits the survival and reproduction of the a nest where multiple generations of the species live and genes the soldier ant carried. (In evolutionary biology, such take care of offspring; there are sharply defined, specialized insect behavior demonstrates “inclusive fitness” and the roles for different subgroups or “castes” of the colony; and benefits of “kinship selection” or simply “nepotism.”) sexual reproduction is limited to specialized castes. For Nevertheless, the “true social” insects illustrate an im- example, a colony of ants may have one or more actively portant truth about morality: the immense advantages of reproducing queens in the nest, along with princesses (vir- cooperative social life organized around specialized roles gin queens who will mate with drones to establish new col- can be achieved only through self-control and the altruistic onies), drones (the reproductive males), and sterile workers and self-sacrificing behaviors that are also central to human and soldiers. The characteristics of such species, under the morality. But how did self-control and altruism evolve in right conditions, produce significant advantages in forag- organisms with much more complex brains and behavior ing for food, reproduction, care of offspring, food storage, than those of ants and termites?

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 17 Mammals and their helpless offspring: The power of generalize to mates, kin, and community. The attachment attachment system played an important role in the evolution of pre- moral traits in our closest evolutionary relatives. Mammals begin to appear in the fossil record about 200 million years ago. Hormones such as oxytocin and vaso- Primate bands with dominant leaders: The power of pressin that were important in the reproductive systems of coalitions reptiles gained additional functions in the evolution of the About sixty-five million years ago, a mass extinction event “self-care system” in mammals. The self-care system pro- contributed to the demise of the dinosaurs, enabling mam- duces feelings of pleasure and comfort when a mammal is mals, including the early primates, to evolve freely and well-fed and feelings of pain and stress when a mammal is spread rapidly. By about eight million years ago, an evo- hungry or threatened. lutionary branch emerged that included gorillas, chimpan- Warm-blooded mammals have the advantage over zees, and the ancestors of Homo sapiens. All the species cold-blooded reptiles of being able to move and feed at found in this evolutionary branch have been highly social in any time of the day or night, but they also require about nature. Chimpanzees, who—along with bonobos—are our ten times as much food as a reptile of the same size. High closest genetic relatives, live in loosely organized bands energy needs required problem-solving flexibility in early that have a “dominance hierarchy” structure with an alpha mammals, and mammalian brains slowly began to enlarge. male at the top of each band’s social order. However, the However, larger brains meant births at early stages of de- alpha male’s power is constrained by coalitions of less powerful chimpanzees. Chimpanzees have a complex social life and engage in problem solving to manage frequent conflicts. They have traits of self-control and deference to authority that Darwin saw as important “3.8 billion years, or 95 percent of the precursors to morality, according to moral evolutionary history of life, would pass before psychologist Dennis Krebs. The emotional attachment system that genetic mutations ... produced a high level evolved between mothers and offspring of cooperative social organization.” in earlier mammals also plays an important role in the social lives of bands of chimpanzees, according to primatologist Frans de Waal. Chimpanzees appear to care for others velopment and, therefore, longer periods of helplessness in the band, particularly kin and “friends.” For example, and dependency in mammalian offspring. According to chimpanzees in coalitions groom each other and comfort philosopher Patricia Churchland, it took about seventy a coalition member who has been in a fight, accompanied million years for the mammalian self-care system to evolve by a rise in oxytocin levels. Chimpanzees appear to sense into a robust attachment system between mothers and the emotional states of others in the band and may there- offspring. The hormones oxytocin and vasopressin play fore possess a form of what we call sympathy or empathy important roles in both the self-care system and the at- in humans. Chimpanzee social life demonstrates the effect tachment system. The attachment system produces plea- of the attachment system when it is generalized to the ex- sure and feelings of well-being and comfort in the close, tended family and others in the band. nurturing relationship between mothers and offspring and Chimpanzees demonstrate at least two other behaviors feelings of distress and pain when the other shows signs of that are also precursors of morality. Although chimpanzees distress. do not have the sophisticated sense of fairness and justice The importance of the evolution of the attachment that humans possess, they do engage in “reciprocity,” system in mammals to the eventual evolution of human where approximately equal favors are exchanged despite morality cannot be overstated. The evolution of highly a significant time lapse between the first favor and the social insects is a powerful demonstration of the benefits return favor. For example, chimpanzees are more likely to of instinctive altruistic and self-sacrificial behavior, but the groom others or share food with those who provided the evolution of the attachment system in mammals was a vital same or similar favors hours before. Also, chimpanzees step toward the possibility of high sociality supported by are well aware of the implicit rules of behavior in a band. individual altruism and self-sacrifice in much more complex When chimps are caught breaking a rule by an authority organisms, such as our species. In brief, the attachment figure, they typically stop with minimal protest and take up system is the biological basis for caring for others that, once another activity. Chimpanzees, therefore, possess several firmly established between mothers and offspring, could traits that are crucial building blocks of morality.

18 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org Genus Homo and big brains: The power of social of a group, according to psychologist Michael Tomasello. complexity Prehumans in these foraging partnerships developed role In The Descent of Man, Darwin held that human morality expectations and rules, feelings of responsibility for the derives directly from the traits of our primate ancestors and other partner, and mutual respect. In Tomasello’s “inter- other social animals: dependence hypothesis,” this sort of cooperation and teamwork, with clear roles by which partners contributed As man is a social animal, it is almost certain that he would equally, evaluated each other’s performance, and chose inherit a tendency to be faithful to his comrades, and obedient to the leader of his tribe; for these qualities are foraging partners accordingly, became the foundation for common to most social animals. He would consequently the strong sense of fairness and justice that would emerge possess some capacity for self-command. He would from in Homo sapiens. The stage was set for our ancestors to an inherited tendency be willing to defend, in concert with develop, commit to, and enforce rules that applied equally others, his fellow-men; and would be ready to aid them in to all members of the group. The emergence of effective any way, which did not too greatly interfere with his own groupwide rules was intertwined with three major develop- welfare or his own strong desires. ments: the emergence of culture about 250,000 years ago, Around 2.6 million years ago, several species of pri- intensive social selection for altruistic behavior, and the mates now classified as genus Homo emerged. Some of evolution of the human conscience. these ancestors began to make simple stone hand axes. At the same time, the Pleistocene Epoch began, which included a series of glaciations and warmer periods, requiring our primate ancestors to move and adapt. Over the next 2.4 million years, the brain volume of genus “Ants and termites constitute more Homo would triple, from about 450cc in the earliest species—the same brain volume found than half of the worldwide total body in chimpanzees—to 1350cc in our species, weight of living insects.” Homo sapiens, in the most rapid evolution of complex tissue in the history of life on Earth. One well-supported explanation for the rapid evolutionary growth of the brain is the “social brain The Second Phase: Gene-Culture Coevolution and the Emergence hypothesis,” which holds that as the size of primate bands of Human Morality grew and social life became correspondingly more com- Culture is fundamentally about the creation and transmis- plex, much higher demands were placed on primate brains sion of ideas, knowledge, skills, and rules, and therefore it in terms of memory and social skills. Across species of pri- depends on “social learning.” Social learning has two com- mates, brain volume positively and strongly correlates with ponents: 1) the ability to learn by imitation or instruction, average social group size. Among our prehuman ancestors, coupled with 2) the ability to change and improve what both potential mates and groups favored individuals who one has learned. Starting at least 2.5 million years ago, could fit in and cooperate, requiring ever more sophisti- some of our ancestors made simple hand axes by flaking cated social skills, which in turn selected for the develop- stones, but these simple tools were produced without any ment of larger brains. The traits that helped prehumans changes for more than two million years, so production of to cooperate and conform to roles within groups are the these tools did not demonstrate the second component of building blocks of morality. They are found in basic form in social learning. However, by 250,000 years ago, our ances- chimpanzees and were refined and expanded during the tors were able to produce a great variety of improved and evolution of genus Homo. specialized spear points for hunting and share and build By about 1.5 million years ago, prehumans were begin- on these skills by demonstration, imitation, and, crucially, ning to learn to maintain fires to serve as campsites. With a by refinement and variation. The development of a sophis- fire as the focus of a campsite, the campsite became like a ticated variety of spear points had a significant impact on nest, with various roles emerging to maintain the fire, care subsequent human evolution and, by demonstrating the for young, defend the campsite, and gather food, analo- first clear evidence of social learning, marked the begin- gous to the nest-based roles of social insects. These spe- ning of culture. cialized roles in prehumans had obvious advantages but The emergence of culture was a novel and momentous also made group life more complex, with greater demands development in the evolution of life on Earth. In the words on individuals to learn and conform to multiple roles. of evolutionary biologist Mark Pagel: By 400,000 years ago, prehumans had become de- Having culture means we are the only species that ac- pendent on methods of foraging (hunting and gathering quires the rules of its daily living from the accumulated food) that required cooperation by two or more members knowledge of our ancestors rather than from the genes

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 19 they pass on to us. Our cultures and not our genes supply therefore changed the shape and capabilities of our ances- the solutions we use to survive and prosper in the society tors’ bodies. of our birth; they provide the instructions for what we eat, Culture accelerated the long process that resulted in the how we live, the gods we believe in, the tools we make self-domestication of our species. The specific cultural se- and use, the language we speak, the people we cooperate with and marry, and whom we may fight or even kill lection forces that eventually produced human morality also in a war. changed our ancestors’ brains. In terms of brain structure, culture continued the selection for complex brains capable To Pagel, we live in “cultural survival vehicles” that proof managing the increasingly demanding requirements of tect us but also shape and control us. social life. Sexual selection as well as group enforcement of basic rules of behavior selected for traits of individual self-control and conformity, which are prerequisites for morality as well as for stable, beneficial group life. Domestication of a species can affect bodies as well as brains. In a recent exam- “How did self-control and altruism evolve in ple of selection favoring domesticated be- organisms with much more complex brains and havior, dog breeders who chose puppies behavior than those of ants and termites?” for breeding based on their docile and friendly behavior noticed several unexpected effects on the dogs’ bodies after a few generations of selective breeding: the Gene-culture coevolution shaped our bodies and brains dogs’ tails became curly, ears were longer, and the faces of Culture was (and still is) such a powerful selection force and adult dogs retained some puppy-like characteristics. Selec- influence on human behavior that it had a lasting effect tion for docility had produced neoteny, the persistence of on human bodies and brains. In other words, the powerful some juvenile physical features in the adult form. Similarly, interaction between genetic traits and cultural selection social selection among our ancestors for strong social skills, forces produced “gene-culture coevolution,” as described for the tendency to form lasting emotional attachments, by Peter Richerson and Robert Boyd. To build on the previ- and for social conformity produced not only larger brains ous example, the early cultural development of specialized but flatter, more expressive faces with larger eyes. spear points made large-game hunting possible, which The familiar illustration of an early primate morphing could provide large amounts of high-quality food; however, into an upright modern human in a few steps illustrates the large game hunting with spears requires more in the way cumulative effects of primate genetic evolution and subse- of endurance and coordination than brute strength. Over quent gene-culture coevolution that persistently selected thousands of generations, reliance on large-game hunting for social skills and prosocial traits. The very shapes of our selected for slender bodies with greater endurance and brains, bodies, and faces are a testament to the survival

20 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org value of high sociality, which requires morality for its full “free riders” because they attempt to maintain good rep- expression. utations, which have many benefits, while breaking important rules. Constant judgmental gossip plays an important Hunter-gatherer life shaped morality and produced the moral function in these hunter-gatherer tribes, helping to human conscience catch free riders and unify the tribe against them. Free rid- By 150,000 years ago, and possibly even earlier, members ers are the natural enemies of rule-followers and altruists, of Homo sapiens were the same as modern humans in and they must be caught and disciplined if the tribe is to general appearance. These ancestors lived in nomadic survive and social order is to be maintained. hunter-gatherer tribes. Thousands of generations of life in Boehm describes this battle between altruists and free these hunter-gatherer tribes strengthened human prosocial riders and its consequences for the evolution of moral rules traits, accelerated the evolution of language, and formal- and the human conscience among our late Pleistocene ized the basic moral rules of group living. This manner of ancestors: life also led to the evolution of the human conscience, ac- … [H]umans began to make use of social control so inten- cording to evolutionary anthropologist Christopher Boehm. sively that individuals who were better at inhibiting their A crucial period for the evolution of morality was the late own antisocial tendencies, either through fear of pun- Pleistocene, from 125,000 to 45,000 years ago, when our ishment or through absorbing and identifying with their ancestors, using a sophisticated array of spears and other group’s rules, gained superior fitness. [“Fitness” in this context refers to advantages in survival and reproduction, weapons, became increasingly reliant on the hunting of not to physical fitness.] By learning to internalize rules, hu- animals for the largest part of a tribe’s food supply. A suc- mankind acquired a conscience … . The rules individuals cessful hunt provided a rich supply of protein and fat, but internalize are the cultural products of groups that gossip the results were intermittent and uneven; several hunters moralistically on an ongoing basis. That’s how moral codes might go out for an entire day and only one might return originate, stay in place, and are refined. with meat. Equitable sharing of meat from a successful hunt The moral codes found in studies of hunter-gatherer among a tribe’s members became essential for the tribe’s tribes include the same prohibitions found in the moral survival. codes of all human cultures. According to Boehm, “… all The necessity of egalitarian meat-sharing was an im- human groups frown upon, make pronouncements against, portant crucible for the evolution of morality. Boehm has and punish the following: murder, undue use of authority, personally studied or reviewed others’ detailed obser- cheating that harms group cooperation, major lying, theft, vations of the social lives of about fifty current nomadic and socially disruptive sexual behavior.” hunter-gatherer tribes that probably live much as their But there is more to the human conscience than the late-Pleistocene ancestors did. These tribes have elaborate ability to learn moral rules. Darwin viewed the connection mechanisms of social control to promote and enforce egal- between moral rules and emotions as a central feature of itarian food-sharing. For example, successful hunters are the conscience. He observed that the human moral sense expected to be humble about their skill; someone not from was frequently expressed by blushing with shame when an a successful hunter’s family is assigned to distribute the individual’s violation of a moral rule is discovered by others, food evenly throughout the tribe; and the tribe monitors but that other animals, including other primates, did not the results of a day’s hunt, gossiping so that any attempted display this visible reaction. Darwin wrote to ask acquain- cheating concerning food-sharing is detected quickly and tances from all around the world whether people in the known widely, so that the entire tribe can form a united local culture blushed with shame when caught in a violation front to confront a hunter who may be trying to hoard of a moral rule of behavior. Through this pioneering piece game for himself or his immediate family. Also, tribal elders of cross-cultural research, Darwin found that blushing with frequently encourage generosity in terms of food-sharing shame occurred among humans across all cultures. and other forms of helping. Darwin had investigated a central feature of the human In other words, these hunter-gatherer tribes require conscience: a universal connection between well-learned hunters and others to engage in altruism, in that each tribe rules of behavior and powerful positive and negative emo- may contain several unrelated kinship groups; egalitarian tions such as moral pride, guilt, and shame. Recent stud- food-sharing therefore requires giving food to non-kin with ies of normal American children show that blushing with no immediate or specific expectation of a comparable shame begins at about two years of age. However, studies amount of food in return. Every member of a tribe must of psychopaths have shown that although they learn moral actively participate in enforcing rules such as food-sharing rules easily, they have no positive or negative emotional to suppress “free riders” who, openly (in the case of bullies) reactions to following or breaking moral rules and there- or secretly (in the case of cheaters and liars), break rules fore break them with impunity. The lack of such emotional and undermine the rule-followers and the stability of the connections to moral rules justifies the conclusion that psy- tribe’s social order. Cheaters and liars are serious types of chopaths lack a conscience.

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 21 The human conscience, therefore, has two major com- Long before the advent of agriculture about 11,000 ponents: 1) internalized rules, whereby well-learned moral years ago, all the core features of human morality were in codes become part of one’s cultural identity; and 2) power- place within hunter-gatherer tribes. Deeply evolved proso- ful emotions associated with moral rules, whereby positive cial traits, including the conscience, helped individuals to emotions such as pride are generated by following rules, follow a tribal culture’s moral rules well enough to maintain and negative emotions such as guilt and shame arise when social order, despite urges that could cause individuals to moral rules are broken. engage in deceptive or overt selfish behavior. However, the The human conscience emerged from previously success of agriculture presented new challenges to human evolved traits. Darwin felt that both social instincts and morality in the third phase of its evolution. higher mental capacities were necessary for the evolution of a conscience: The Third Phase: The Recent and Rapid Cultural Evolution of Morality The following proposition seems to me in a high degree probable—namely, that any animal whatever, endowed The emergence of agricultural practices about 11,000 years with well-marked social instincts, the parental and affilial ago marked the beginning of a rapid increase in both the affections being here included, would inevitably acquire worldwide human population and the size of settled human a moral sense or conscience, as soon as its intellectual communities. The “religious” beliefs of hunter-gatherers powers had become as well developed, or nearly as well were mostly animistic, involving capricious spirits that were developed, as in man. uninterested in human moral behavior, along with some burial practices that suggested belief in an afterlife. However, these animistic beliefs were of little help in maintaining social order when communities began to grow beyond the small size of tribal groups that had enabled members to monitor each other’s moral behavior so effectively. “Chimpanzees ... possess several traits that According to psychologist Ara Noren- are crucial building blocks of morality.” zayan, organized religions that feature supernatural “watchers” that monitor and enforce morality in larger, more anonymous human populations emerged well after the advent of agriculture. The larger the population, the Darwin’s “parental and affilial affections” depend on our more likely that a culture’s predominant religion features a ancient mammalian attachment system to enable individu- god that monitors and enforces morality, thus counteract- als to form a deep bond to a culture and a culture’s moral ing the weakened role of interpersonal moral monitoring rules. The strong desire for parental approval, with corre- that was sufficient in small hunter-gatherer tribes. sponding positive and negative emotions when parents are Viewed this way, organized religions featuring supernat- pleased or displeased, became a strong “affilial” desire for ural moral watchers are a functional product of cultural evo- the approval of one’s cultural group; positive and negative lution but with a complex relationship with morality. On one emotions attached to internalized moral rules provided an hand, organized religions helped societies to scale up, cod- evolutionary means to gain and maintain that approval. ify and teach moral rules, and serve as important markers The large brains of Homo sapiens provided individuals of cultural identity. On the other hand, organized religions with the power to learn and navigate the complex social have served as a justification for conflict between different life of a culture and follow rules well enough to maintain cultures and have accentuated the “us vs. them” side a good moral reputation within the culture of one’s birth. of human tribalism, as described by philosopher Joshua The gradual evolution of language, a product of both Greene. Furthermore, religious moral rules have been genetic and cultural evolution, made the transmission of added that have little to do with the essentials of human knowledge, including social rules of behavior, much more morality that were established during the hunter-gatherer efficient. Through thousands of generations of tribal life, tribal period of human evolution; these “add-ons” often cultures rewarded and selected those who learned intricate have to do with notions of what is sacred or profane, which social and moral rules and emotionally internalized those is one of the five or six foundational topics covered by rules as part of each individual’s cultural identity. Thus, our moral systems throughout the world today, according to species domesticated itself, achieving a remarkable degree social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. (For brilliant if profane of social conformity to each culture’s moral rules and prac- commentary on organized religion’s accretions to moral tices, through the evolution of the human conscience. rules, watch the brief “Ten Commandments” routine by the

22 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org late comedian George Carlin; the references include a link.) made it possible for humans to build and maintain highly Furthermore, religion’s function as a means of social control complex but generally orderly societies, enabling our has often been used to oppress women and persecute gay self-domesticated, hyper-social species to spread through- people and other social subgroups. out the world. Organized religion, itself a product of cul- Why has organized religion been such a mixed bag in tural evolution, is a latecomer to the evolution of human its effects on morality? One clue is that the things being morality and is demonstrably not essential to social order in transmitted in cultural evolution are human ideas, not today’s world. Secular humanists have every reason to view human genes. Genetic mutations produce small variations that require many generations to produce significant changes in a species. In contrast, any idea that “sticks” in human minds and gains broad acceptance can become a significant force in cultural evolution, widely affecting human “The powerful interaction between genetic beliefs and behavior, including moral beliefs and traits and cultural selection forces produced practices. Therefore, cultural evolution, although rapid and powerful, is not necessarily very adap- ‘gene-culture coevolution.’” tive in terms of human well-being. For example, there are tribes living today in Papua New Guinea in which witchcraft is held to be the explanation for crop morality as a deeply evolved and entirely human endeavor success and failure, so neighbors are viewed with suspicion that must continue to change and adapt—in a way that is when their crops are conspicuously more successful than informed by the best of science and reason—for the good those of others, particularly by someone whose own crops of humanity. failed. These superstitious beliefs, a product of cultural Further Reading evolution, create an endless cycle of suspicion, accusations, Boehm, Christopher. Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and violence, and misery. In addition, within the past five years Shame. New York: Basic, 2012. women have been murdered in several cultures in Papua Carlin, George. “The Ten Commandments,” Complaints and Grievances. HBO Special, 2001; see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE8ooM- New Guinea and Africa on suspicion of being witches who BIyC8. have caused illness and death in others. Historically, belief Churchland, Patricia. “The Neurobiological Platform for Moral Values,” in witchcraft has appeared in a number of Western cultures Behaviour 151 No. 2–3 (2014). Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, and religions, often with deadly consequences. The prod- or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. London: ucts of cultural evolution, including religious beliefs and Murray, 1859. associated moral rules and practices, can be harmful to ———. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. London: Murray, 1871. human well-being. Greene, Joshua. Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap between Us Cultural evolution since the advent of agriculture has and Them. New York: Penguin, 2013. produced an estimated ten thousand religions and many Haidt, Jonathan. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. New York: Pantheon, 2012. corresponding versions and extensions of the central Hughes, James J. “Enhancing Virtues: Fairness,” Free Inquiry 37:3 (2017). themes of morality. A large majority of these religions Krebs, Dennis. The Origins of Morality: An Evolutionary Account. New York: are no longer practiced, and just a few highly successful Oxford, 2011. Lindsay, Ronald. “How Morality Has the Objectivity that Matters—Without religions and moral codes predominate in today’s world. God,” Free Inquiry 34:5 (2014). However, at least in the Western world, religions are rapidly Norenzayan, Ara. Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation and losing their status as essential pillars and arbiters of the Conflict. Princeton: Princeton, 2013. Pagel, Mark. Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind. New morality of society. As noted by Norenzayan and others, York: Norton, 2012. several largely nonreligious Scandinavian countries are the Richerson, Peter, and Robert Boyd. Not by Genes Alone: How Culture happiest, most orderly, and most prosperous countries in Transformed Human Evolution. Chicago: Chicago, 2005. Tomasello, Michael. A Natural History of Human Morality. Cambridge: the world. Harvard, 2016. Waal, Frans de. “Natural normativity: The ‘Is’ and ‘Ought’ of Animal Behav- Conclusion ior,” Behaviour 151 No. 2–3 (2014). ———. Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved. Princeton: Human morality is a natural phenomenon that beautifully Princeton, 2006. demonstrates the central principles of the theory of evolu- Wilson, Edward O. The Meaning of Human Existence. New York: Norton, 2014. tion by natural selection. The lengthy evolutionary history of morality, which includes both genetic and cultural evolution, explains the unique power of moral rules, in that the Doug Mann, PhD, is an experimental psychologist and former medical school human conscience connects deeply evolved traits and professor. Research on empathy in the doctor-patient relationship led to his emotions to well-learned cultural rules of behavior. Morality post-retirement interest in moral psychology and the evolution of morality.

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 23 Pure Anguish

Linda Kay Klein

In the 1990s, a “purity industry” emerged out of white evangelical Christian culture. Purity rings, purity pledges, and purity balls came with a dangerous message: girls are potential sexual “stumbling blocks” for boys and men, and any expression of a girl’s sexuality could reflect the corruption of her character. This is the “sex education” Linda Kay Klein grew up with. After she nearly died by ignoring her worsening Crohn’s disease in an attempt to prove she was a woman of the spirit and not of the flesh, she began to question the purity ethic. Ultimately, Klein spent twelve years interviewing women from backgrounds like hers, revealing widespread sexual dysfunction, bizarre coping mechanisms, and PTSD-like symptoms. Here is a sample: seeing Olivia Newton-John in the last scene of Grease, the one where she leaves her poodle skirt at home, walks into the carnival in black spandex and grinds her cigarette out with the toe of her shoe, making John Travolta drop to his knees and sing. “Why are you smiling like that?” she asked. “I don’t know, Katie,” I said. “You’re on fire tonight.” It was the mid-2000s. An era when some single Chris- tian women, having been too long told their life purpose could only be fulfilled in partnership with a man, took to saying: I’ve got a man, thank you. His name is Jesus. These women may have been virginal in the material world, but their dates with Jesus could be hot-hot-hot, and they could be hot too so long as he was around.

*** Despite the fact that Jesus was himself a thirty-something-year-old single man, prolonged singleness is frowned upon in evangelical purity culture. Author Joshua Harris esus has never been more real, present, and per- sums the attitude up in his book Sex Is Not the Problem sonal,” Katie told me, her hand wrapped around a (Lust Is), writing: watered-down White Russian at a local dive bar in “J Here’s my advice: Get married. Unless God has removed our hometown. Her voice was steady and sure. She leaned your desire for sex and has given you a clear vision to over the small table and added in a near whisper, “I’ve serve Him as a single person, then assume that you’re never had a lover so good.” supposed to get married and either make yourself ready I cocked my head. I was pretty sure that Katie, who I or begin pursuing it… . We’re not just called to guard the had known since youth group, had never had a lover of any marriage bed; I think more Christian singles should be I kind—good or not. But tonight, Katie looked and sounded running toward it! sexier than I had ever seen her. We’d been friends a long When single evangelicals were asked by Claire Evans at time and I rarely saw Katie in anything but a boxy blue London School of Theology,1 “Do you think Christians postal service uniform or baggy jeans and an oversized view singleness as being equal or inferior to marriage?” T-shirt. Now her voluptuous body was barely hidden be- 75 percent of the men said Christians view singleness as hind a lacy black camisole and tight black jeans. She had inferior. That seems like a big number! Until you hear that curled her long dark hair into ringlets and done her makeup immaculately, tracing her eyes with black liner. It was like 1. Formerly known as London Bible College.

24 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org 98 percent of the women feel this way.II Even within this wanted to have sex, she went out salsa dancing instead. pro-marriage context, men can get away with being single She came home feeling sweaty, alive, uninhibited, and un- well into their adulthood (some even jokingly calling them- afraid of her sexuality in a way that made her feel closer to selves “Bachelors to the Rapture”) in a way that women herself, to the world around her, and to God. rarely feel is permitted. The same year I spoke with Katie about her experience When researcher Dr. Kristin Aune asked, “What are the with dating Jesus, Agnieszka Tennant, columnist and for- main issues facing single Christian women today?” the mer associate editor and editor at large for Christianity most common answer single evangelical women in the Today, wrote about the work-around: United Kingdom gave was “the church’s attitude towards In a popular book, I learn of women who set up date III single women.” The second most common answer was nights with Jesus. Christie enjoys her Friday nights by “men, sex, and dating.” Many women supplemented their going to Barnes & Noble “to drink coffee with the Lord answers by saying they felt that the church pressured them and to read whatever book from the Christian living sec- to get married. Several said they felt that they were viewed tion he guides me to” or by cooking a wonderful meal and as a threat to married people in the subculture. One even setting the table for two, then “talking to God as if he is actually sitting there at my table with me, because I know said it can be difficult to know how to “function” in the that he is.” … subculture “without the leadership and ‘covering’ of a husband.”IV My friend’s mother took part in a “tea with the Lord,” during which she and the other women wore their wed- Generally speaking, married people between the ages ding gowns—those, at least, who managed to squeeze of twenty-one and twenty-five are more likely to attend into them—and fancied themselves as brides of Christ. An church than those who are not married,2 and the gap be- influential Kansas City church teaches thousands of people tween the two populations is widening with time.V Though the so-called Bridal Paradigm, which encourages a qua- the same percentage of married people who were attend- si-romantic relationship with Christ. And who among us ing church between 1972 and 1976 were also attending hasn’t detected an eerie resemblance between a contemporary Christian song and a pop diva’s breathy rendition church between 1998 and 2002, the number of single of a sensual love ballad? … people dropped significantly.VI There are surely multiple reasons for this, but I don’t think it is a leap to assume the church’s negative attitude toward single people is one of them. Meanwhile, purity culture does not permit women to solve their singleness by taking matters into their own hands and going out and getting a man (and certainly not “A ‘pure’ woman must wait going out and getting any other kind of romantic partner). patiently for God to bring A “pure” woman must wait patiently for God to bring the right man to her. All she can do is prepare herself. Say, the right man to her.” work through any sin that might be preventing God from bringing the gift of a relationship to her. Many purity advocates teach that women aren’t very sexual, and so don’t need a way to vent their repressed I don’t question the devotion of anyone who says she loves Christ intensely, whatever language she uses sexual energy in their single years. But that’s not what I to express it. But I have little patience for taking biblical hear in my interviews. Dating Jesus was just one of many metaphors too far and giving one’s relationship with God work-arounds I heard about from women who wanted to an air of irreverent chumminess. Somehow, the scenario in remain pure but couldn’t deaden their sexual, romantic, which “his princess” shaves her legs for a date with Jesus 3 and relational impulses. seems to leave little room for fear of God. One woman went on a yearlong “fast” during which she The first time I read Tennant’s article, I laughed with starved herself of romantic and sexual thoughts the way recognition at her reference to the sappy romanticism of one might starve oneself of food during a traditional fast. modern Christian music, and uh huh’ed her dismissal of Every date was turned down; every desire was shut down; dating Jesus. But the more I listened to Katie and others and every insecure “Does this guy like me?” was caught, talk, the less I laughed. Because I began to notice—when stopped, and replaced with prayer, meditation, and read- my friends were dating Jesus, they were awesome: strong, ing the Bible. confident, and doing right by themselves in ways that I’d Another woman made celibacy sexy. Every time she never seen them do before. I looked across the table at Katie and smiled. 2. Right now, around 80 percent of Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine are single, and nearly half of adults under the age “I’ve never seen you this confident,” I told her. of thirty-four have never married. Between people getting married later “Well, the guys I dated before make God look good,” in life, and the increasing rate of divorce, the connection between marriage and church attendance (and singleness and not attending church) 3. When giving me permission to cite this article in late 2017, the author provides an important insight into the rising number of people who con- asked that I inform my readers that she has not been a Christian for a sider themselves religiously unaffiliated. decade.

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 25 Katie answered, her winking face lit up by the multicolored would want them to thrive. So they gave themselves per- lights hanging above us in the bar. “Anyway, for me sex is mission to pursue science, $50 to take themselves out for all in my mind. I’m a twenty-six-year-old virgin. I had my first the evening, and whatever else they needed. boyfriend, Joe, a few months ago, and he was my first kiss. Though the dating Jesus trend has waned in popularity, “But God is giving me my dreams gift-wrapped with a the idea of taking one’s frustrated sexual, romantic, and re- chocolate on top. Jesus is saying: ‘By the way, I love you. lational energy and turning it into something more useful— Put on your dress because I’m taking you out and the limo like the pursuit of spiritual endeavors—remains popular. I will pick you up at seven. And the flowers are for you. And have personally taken plenty of conscious dating breaks I put $50 on your dresser. Hugs and kisses.’ I feel like a during which my life looked a lot like these women’s: I jour- honeymooning bride oozing love for God. You know how naled; I prayed; I meditated; I went on spiritual retreats with when you love someone, you want everyone to meet him? God; and I held my sexuality close. I would be the first to That’s how I feel.” say that celibacy served me well in these seasons, and that “What are the dreams he’s giving you gift-wrapped with I came away better emotionally and spiritually as a result of a chocolate on top?” I asked, reading her words back to it. But as time passes and one season turns into two, then her. three, then four, and perhaps a lifetime, its sweetness can “Science!” Katie exclaimed as though I should have begin to sour. known. “I first started thinking about myself as dating Jesus *** right after my breakup with Joe. A guy sitting next to me at a coffee shop was filling out applications for college and Ten years after Katie told me about dating Jesus at the bar it made me think about applying to colleges and trying that night, she was still single. I sat down with a just-as-at- to get scholarships myself. I thought, ‘I’m talented; I’m tractive, but much more casually dressed Katie at her creative. Why am I working some dead-end job?’ I wasn’t kitchen table to talk about it. Now a science researcher, calling out to God. But I just felt like God was there. Now I asked Katie if she remembered telling me about dating I’m a science major. I was scared out of my mind to do it, Jesus and the role it played in her choice to pursue science but I feel like everything is making sense.” in her midtwenties. She said she didn’t. She remembered dating Jesus at other points in her life, but not this one. By then, Katie had tried so many different ways to make her singleness bearable that the experience wasn’t even worth remembering. The buzzer rang on the oven and “Many purity advocates teach that women Katie stood up. “Should we check it and see if it’s aren’t very sexual ... . But that’s not what ready to eat?” she asked as she opened I hear in my interviews.” the oven door and pulled out a chicken dish heaped with seasoned cheese and cream of mushroom soup. “Ready!” she announced to me as “So,” I began, trying to connect everything Katie just she surveyed the dish. “Ready Freddy!” said, “Your relationship with Jesus gave you the strength to As we ate, she told me that she had approached sev- change your life.” eral different religious leaders over the years about how to “Right,” Katie answered definitively. balance her desire to be a good Christian woman with her I cocked my head. “He doesn’t sound like a bad boy- need for sexual expression. friend, actually.” “They didn’t seem to understand what I was going In some ways, the modern-day evangelical trend of through or how to help me, and there weren’t books about dating Jesus can be compared to the historic Catholic that,” she said. “There were books about how to dress trend in which women joined convents to avoid gender modestly or, I don’t know, books on ‘okay, once you are expectations. Dating Jesus allowed Katie to move on with getting married, here’s what sex is and how to enjoy it with her life within a context that insisted that, after serving your husband.’ But I was like, ‘Just give me the man. I know God, her top priority ought to be getting married. Another how to enjoy it,’” she laughed. woman told me she often thought back longingly to the In fact, enjoying it was Katie’s biggest problem. year in which she dated Jesus, though she now had a great No matter how hard she tried, Katie couldn’t stop her earthly partner. She told me she was closer to God while sexual feelings, her sexual thoughts, and, most upsetting dating Jesus than in any other period of her life but that she of all, her sexual expression through masturbation. She was also more independent. Women dating Jesus asked set her fork down and looked at me seriously. “I began to themselves what the ideal boyfriend (which Jesus would feel like, ‘This is probably something terrible in me and I’m obviously be) would want for them. And the ideal boyfriend just—” she struggled for words. “I must be the only terri-

26 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org ble, black-hearted, black-minded person. I must be weird; “It’s like, ‘this is a procedure,’” Katie continued. “‘This I’m a freak of nature; I must be a man.’” Katie was tripping is a procedure, and we are going to try to separate it from over the purity culture stumbling block that tells girls they anything dark and horrible.’” are to blame for their inability to meet a set of nearly un- “What do you mean by dark and horrible?” I asked her. attainable standards, not the standards themselves. Katie “Fantasizing about somebody that I find attractive or even questioned whether she had been sexually abused or somebody that I’ve been in intimate situations with before, inappropriately exposed to sexual content as a child and and just recalling those feelings of being with them. Or had repressed the memory, as she couldn’t think of any imagining somebody touching me or saying things to me other reason why her sexual feelings wouldn’t go away, as that I want to hear that make me excited. It’s complicated,” the purity movement demanded they must. Katie summed it up. “I think masturbation is a comfort “I couldn’t understand why I, as a girl, would desire thing. The pleasure, the happy endorphins. It’s a way for sex so much when, supposedly, girls don’t struggle with me—if I’m feeling super tired or super insecure—you get that. You know,” Katie gestured to me, “in the evangelical the good feelings and you feel better or relaxed, or what- world, sex is the deepest, darkest sin for a woman. There’s ever.” an expectation that sex—or, anything to do with sex, so “It’s a form of self-care,” I suggested. masturbation included—is only to be enjoyed within the “But then there’s the loathing that comes afterward. The context of marriage. fantasy helps you to get excited, and that gives you that “But like eating or breathing or needing sleep, mas- physical reaction of happy endorphins, but then comes the turbation feels more like a need than a want,” Katie said, self-loathing.” forgetting her chicken. “There is no sexual outlet for me so “When you describe the clinical masturbation, it almost I obsess over it. What is my outlet? What is a ‘pure’ outlet? sounds like you are trying to avoid shame by stripping sex- I constantly talk to God about it: ‘God, you made my body uality of pleasure.” this way. What’s up?’ “Yes. Totally, yes,” she agreed. “I think that it’s hard to “There are times after I masturbate when I’m like, ‘Oh separate what may truly be …” Katie trailed off. “I do be- well. It’s just part of life and it’s that time again and what- lieve in sin,” she began again. “And I do believe in a sin nature. But to what extent is true joy and pleasure robbed ever,’” Katie continued. “Then other times I feel bad and I of me because I’m calling it sin when maybe … it’s not?” beat myself up. I think, ‘I should be able to choose, but it She shrugged, picked her fork back up, and took a bite out just feels like I can’t. It must be a slavery to sin that I’m just of her now cold chicken. not holy enough to overcome. It must be a lack of faith in me that I can’t overcome this.’ Guilt is a familiar friend to Notes me. I beat myself up about everything, so that’s just stan- I. Joshua Harris, Sex Is Not the Problem (Lust Is): Sexual Purity dard. I feel more comfortable with guilt than with pleasure in a Lust-Saturated World (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2003), or happiness. It seems like a natural state of being to me.” 111–112. II. Kristin Aune, Single Women: Challenge to the Church? “When are you more likely to feel one way or the (Carlisle; Waynesboro, PA: Paternoster Press, 2002), 19. other?” I asked. III. Aune, Single Women, 23. “Well, it can go to a lustful place, or it can kind of be IV. Aune, Single Women, 24–25. somewhat clinical. Depending on how I approach it, I think V. Rebecca Traister, “The Single American Woman,” New York Magazine, February 2016. I can feel more or less shameful.” VI. Robert Wuthnow, After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- “What’s the difference between clinical and lustful mas- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion turbation?” I asked. (Princeton, NJ; Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007), 55. “Well, I’ve noticed as I get older how attached it is to certain times of the month, to hormones—” Copyright © 2018 by Linda Kay Klein. From the forthcom- I made a really? face. ing book PURE: Inside the Evangelical Movement that “Oh my gosh yes!” Katie insisted. “It’s just—it just is. I Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke just don’t need it most of the time. Then right before my Free by Linda Kay Klein to be published by Touchstone, a period or right around ovulation, those are the times when Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Reprinted by permission. it’s almost like a physical need. My body’s like, ‘Go make peace.’ And I say, ‘Okay, it is now this time of the month. It’s time to masturbate in the shower, where it’s clean and I will not think about any particular man. This is just all physical touching and whatever.’ Trying to keep it separate from that enjoyment you get when you are with somebody and the excitement of being with somebody.” I nodded, Linda Kay Klein is the founder of Break Free Together, a program committed to remembering interviewees who told me about thinking helping people release sexual shame and claim their whole selves. She has spent about their laundry or trying to go into a Zen place of noth- over a decade working at the intersection of faith, gender, sexuality, and social ingness while masturbating so they wouldn’t feel as much change. She earned an interdisciplinary master’s degree from New York University shame about it afterward. focusing on American evangelical Christian gender and sexuality messaging for girls.

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 27 From Darwin to Jihad: The Erosion of Turkey’s Secular Education System

Hannah Wallace

urkey’s secular education system is under threat. Ac- children will be taught about the concept of Jihad. Govern- cording to a 2018 Washington Post article, an educa- ment officials have been quick to stress that the meaning Ttion official called for all school children to be taken of the term in modern parlance has been misappropriated. to local mosques for morning prayers before lessons. While Jihad in classrooms will, instead, be taught in its nonviolent it may be a seemingly incongruous demand in a country variant. This is despite the Speaker of Turkey’s National As- known for its secular constitution, it represents grow- sembly, only this year, using the term to describe a military ing confidence on the part of those pushing a religious offensive against the Kurds. An increase in lessons devoted agenda. This follows controversial changes to the school to religious studies is also on the agenda. curriculum introduced last year. These changes include the These moves represent a worrisome trend for those omission of evolution theory from the high school curric- concerned about the continuing encroachment of religion ulum and compulsory gender-segregated prayer rooms into the education system. For many, it is a microcosm of in all new public schools. In the place of evolution theory, debate between secular and liberal sections of society and conservative elements pushing for greater religious influence. While 99 percent of citizens describe themselves as “Muslim,” the country has long remained loyal to its founding secular principles. The architect of the Turk- ish republic, Mustafa Kemal Atat- “Controversial changes to the school curriculum urk, set out to establish a modern … include the omission of evolution theory from the Western-oriented nation in the high school curriculum and compulsory gender segre- early 1920s. To achieve this aim, sweeping reforms were imple- gated prayer rooms in all new public schools.” mented that limited the influence of religion in public life. However, under the leadership of Recep

28 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AK Party, there has been a only target of the government’s reforms. The purge of gradual erosion of practices and ideas associated with the civil servants following the failed coup of 2016 included West. These have been replaced with piety and religious thousands of teachers and academics. The coup arguably conservatism. Erdogan has long spoken of his ambition to provided the pretext for removing many dissenters against “raise a religious youth.” As a result, education has become the reforms. Those targeted included leftists, liberals, and the battleground for ideological influence among younger secularists. One of the victims of the emergency decree generations. following the coup told the Middle East Eye that she was Statistics reveal an exponential increase in the number “blacklisted on the social security system as a terrorist [and] of religious schools during Erdogan’s reign. In the past fif- can’t get a job anywhere else,” adding, “not even in the teen years, the number of such schools has increased from private sector because employers are afraid.” 450 to 4,500 across the country. Despite educating only a The government has refused to back down after much minority (11 percent) of the country’s children, the budget criticism of its reforms. According to a 2017 article in the for religious schools is disproportionately high. So-called Telegraph, a senior government official defended the deci- Imam Hatip schools were originally founded to educate sion to remove Darwin’s theory of evolution, describing the religious leaders and preachers. They now educate chil- theory as “controversial” and beyond the comprehension dren for whom—given the cost of private schooling and the conversion of general public schools to religious ones—a religious education is the only option. While general subjects are studied in Imam Hatip schools, around half of the curriculum is devoted to studying the Qur’an and Arabic. Equally worrisome is the de- “Erdogan’s consolidation of power has taken the cline in educational achievement that has country in an authoritarian direction.” coincided with the proliferation of these schools. International tables show a decline in performance in subjects including math and science. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s of students of high-school age. This is despite its being Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) widely regarded as the scientific basis for understanding rankings for 2015—the most comprehensive study of inter- the origin of life. Orhan Yildirim, head of one of the biggest national student assessment—showed Turkey second from teachers’ unions in the country, was critical of the changes. the bottom among thirty-five OECD countries in mathe- He told the BBC: “This curriculum is a coup d’etat targeting matics, science, and reading scores. The results marked a education in Turkey. You don’t have to have guns to make a continual decline since 2012. coup. If you strike a country’s education as such, then it will Erdogan himself was the product of an Imam Hatip be impossible for it to catch up with prosperous nations.” education. For many within his core support base—largely The overhaul of the education system continues to be derived from rural and conservative sections of the coun- met with protests by those who remain committed to fight- try—a greater focus on religious education represents a ing for a scientific, secular education system. They are car- progressive step. Religious education had long been a rying out the battle for Turkey’s secular soul in the class- target of secular loyalists. This included a ban on students room. wearing the headscarf in school and the eventual banning of religious schools. Under Erdogan’s leadership, Ottoman nostalgia has Further Reading replaced progressive secularism. The country’s path to Cagaptay, Soner. “In Long-Secular Turkey, Sharia Is Gradually Taking Over.” Washington Post, February 16, 2018. illiberalism is a far cry from the optimism of many liberals Sharma, Suraj. “’They Don’t Want Us to Exist’: Turkish Teachers Fight Coup who helped bring Erdogan and the AKP to power in 2002. Purge.” Middle East Eye, July 18, 2018. Online at https://www.middlee- Erdogan was initially viewed as a liberal reformer by many asteye.net/news/teachers-turkey-crackdown-coup-they-do-not-want- us-exist-nuriye-gulmen-semih-ozakca-368078997. in Turkish society; he was expected to provide a bulwark Staff. “Turkish Parliament Speaker Kahraman Calls Afrin Operation ‘Jihad.’” against the threat of military coups and increasing free- Stockholm Center for Freedom, January 28, 2018. Online at https:// doms for marginalized groups. stockholmcf.org/turkish-parliament-speaker-kahraman-calls-afrin-operation-jihad/. Over the years, however, Erdogan’s consolidation of power has taken the country in an authoritarian direction. This has coincided with an increasingly religious agenda, Hannah Wallace is the author of From Darwin to Jihad: The Erosion of Turkey’s marked by an increase in the role of Islam in the educa- Secular Education System and is a politics graduate, a proficient German speaker, a tional system. researcher on terrorism and insurgency, and a writer for various foreign policy publi- However, the school curriculum has not been the cations.

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 29 Understanding Ayaan Hirsi Ali: A Critical Examination

Mark Kolsen

ne of America’s most prominent atheists, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, has been severely criticized, even threat- Oened, for her views regarding Islam. Critics say she has misinterpreted the Qur’an, inaccurately characterized Muslims, and promoted “Islamophobia” in the United States. They further posit that she does not understand that Islam is a religion of peace, not war, and that only a radical fringe threatens the West, a minority that can be contained by military means. In her argument that Islamic doctrine must be “reformed” (delineated in her book Heretic), Hirsi Ali has also been characterized as a delusional wishful thinker. One humanist critic has even suggested Hirsi Ali must think Muslims are “stupid,” incapable of making the same (atheistic) choices she has made. Criticism of Hirsi Ali has been especially sharp because of her support of Donald Trump and his administration. In her most recent book, The Challenge of Dawa: Political Islam as Ideology and Movement and How to Counter It, she endorses the broad goals outlined by Trump in a Youngstown campaign speech from August 2016. In that speech, Trump said that Americans must “take on the ide- Ayaan Hirsi Ali such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who, in the words of Peter Beinart, “has “Why does an atheist like Hirsi Ali a history of making dangerously mis- leading statements about Muslims,” and devote so much time to ... policy recommendations whose ally, Frank Gaffney, seems to think that identify her more with right-wing than that Muslims secretly control the U.S. left-wing thinkers?” government. Like Pompeo, Hirsi Ali has recommended that the Muslim Brother- hood—the alleged orchestrator of U.S. Islamists—be declared an international ology of radical Islam. Our administration will be a friend terrorist organization. Many of her vague recommenda- to all moderate Muslim reformers in the Middle East, and tions about the ideological scrutinizing and surveillance of will amplify their voices.” Concomitantly, Hirsi Ali criticizes mosques, prison and military chaplains, as well as refugees Barack Obama’s previous “narrow focus” on combating and immigrants—all aimed to determine “their loyalty to only Islamist extremism, an approach that, in her words, the United States”—present the specter of trampling on “has proved both costly and ineffective.” the First Amendment rights that she claims to champion. Being a friend to “all moderate Muslim reformers” Why does an atheist like Hirsi Ali devote so much time seems fair enough, but some of Hirsi Ali’s concrete policy to criticizing Islam, advocating its reform, and making pol- recommendations seem to align her with right-wing bigots icy recommendations that identify her more with right-wing

30 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org than left-wing thinkers? How was it possible for Christopher gence, and a reaffirmation of the values of order, discipline, Hitchens, and now Sam Harris, to call her their “personal work, mutual help and human solidarity.” By secularism hero”? Huntington means both “godlessness” and the separation Part of the explanation lies in Infidel, her autobiograph- between church and state, which Islam rejects. ical account of growing up as a Muslim in Somalia. Having Huntington’s argument also explains why, in Latin been “cut” as a child in preparation for an arranged mar- America, Protestantism has replaced Catholicism and why riage she barely escaped and having seen many Muslim Christianity has supplanted Buddhism in South Korea. In women suffer under Islam (even in Holland, where she Latin America, Protestantism has spread among the poor fled and lived for a time), Hirsi Ali is deeply committed to because, in contrast to Catholicism’s “passivity,” it better sparing other women from the same fate. Despite death meets “the basic needs of the person—human warmth, threats, she continues to speak out. But personal experi- healing, a deep spiritual experience.” In cases such as this, ence only partially explains her viewpoint and commitment: religion becomes (in the philosopher Debray’s words) not to fully understand Hirsi Ali, I think one must understand an “opium for the people but a vitamin for the weak.” Samuel P. Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations and the Religion’s resurgence is not confined to the poor. Hun- Remaking of the World Order, an extremely influential tington says Islam has spread most rapidly “in advanced book to which Hirsi Ali often refers. and seemingly more secular Muslim societies” (Algeria, Huntington argues: Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia), among people who are In the first half of the twentieth century intellectual elites generally assumed that economic and social moderniza- tion was leading to the withering away of religion as a significant element in human existence … . The emerging society would be tolerant, rational, pragmatic, progressive, humanistic, “The Muslim revival is ‘not a rejection of modernity,’ and secular. it is rejection of the West’s ‘secular, relativistic, Instead, Huntington argues, “a degenerate culture … a proud statement that global revival of religion has occurred “We will be modern but we won’t be you.”’” … . In society after society it manifests itself in the daily lives and work of people and the concerns and projects of governments.” Huntington believes that this revival is most “dramatically evident “modern oriented, well educated, and pursue careers in in former communist states,” especially in Russian cities the professions, government and commerce.” As with Hin- where “churches are the busiest places in town.” In Central dus in India, religion for these Muslims means (in the words Asia, there were 160 mosques and one madrassa in 1989; of historian William McNeill) “the repudiation of European by 1993 there were 10,000 mosques and ten madrassahs! and American influence upon local society, politics and The Islamic surge has involved some fundamentalist politi- morals.” Huntington stresses that among these peoples, cal movements but is “basically an extremely broad-based, the Muslim revival is “not a rejection of modernity,” it is mainstream cultural movement.” rejection of the West’s “secular, relativistic, degenerate According to Huntington, the primary cause of the culture … a proud statement that ‘We will be modern but “global religious resurgence” is, ironically, the social, eco- we won’t be you.’” nomic, and cultural modernizations that were supposed to In the larger context of his book, Huntington’s argument cause the death of religion. Huntington believes that mod- is alarming. He offers very powerful evidence that, at least ernization has created a global identity crisis, especially since 1920, the West’s power and influence has been de- in countries such as India, China, and South Korea, where clining and will continue to decline well into the twenty-first millions have moved into cities and mass communication century. Of course, economic development in China and has penetrated village life. He says: other Asian countries primarily challenges Western power, People move from the countryside into the city, become but “social mobilization and population growth” in Muslim separated from their roots, and take new jobs or no job. countries—especially among the fifteen to twenty-four age They interact with large numbers of strangers and are group—is the engine powering what Huntington calls the exposed to new sets of relationships. They need new sources of identify, new forms of stable community, and “Islamic Resurgence,” an event he compares to the Prot- new sets of moral precepts to provide them with a sense estant Reformation in Western societies. He again stresses of meaning and purpose. Religion, both mainstream and this Resurgence “is mainstream, not extremist, pervasive, fundamentalist, meets these needs. not isolated,” an attempt to make Islam not just a religion Huntington says that the religious resurgence is also “a but a way of life by reconstructing society from the top to reaction against secularism, moral relativism and self-indul- the bottom and implementing sharia as the law of every

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 31 land. As such, the Resurgence presents a very powerful the average Muslim mostly ignores the Qur’an and has not threat to the West and has, ever since the 1979 Iranian Rev- reflected critically on its meanings. When a young Muslim olution, manifested itself in a “quasi war” and a “growing questions his identity and asks “What does it mean to be clash” between Islam and the West. But not only with the a Muslim?,” he or she turns to self-appointed “scholars” West: Huntington offers substantial evidence that “Wher- who provide literal interpretations of these tenets with little ever one looks along the perimeter of Islam, Muslims have or no historical context to moderate their meaning. These problems living peaceably with neighbors … . Muslims “scholars” are part of Muslim networks marketing dawa, make up about one fifth of the world’s population but in the call to become, and act like, a Muslim. A young Muslim the 1990s they have been far more involved in intergroup who answers the call and “understands” the tenets can violence than the people of any other civilization. The evi- quickly become radicalized. A conflicted young Muslim dence is overwhelming.” who has lived a Western lifestyle and ignored obligatory prayers may especially be motivated by knowing that martyring oneself will wipe out all past sins and provide immediate happiness in heaven. Hirsi Ali recognizes that not all Muslims are “Islamists” or “jihad- “Hirsi Ali especially believes that ... Westerners ists.” But throughout her writings and presentations, she offers weighty must understand the primary ‘cause’ of this conflict and wide-ranging evidence that, per and, ultimately, Islamic violence: Islamic doctrine Huntington, the Muslim “threat” is itself, as stated in the Qur’an.” not confined to a lunatic fringe. To cite just a few examples: Convinced by the Qur’an’s teaching that happiness lies in the afterlife, some Mus- lim parents will encourage, and then Hirsi Ali shares Huntington’s outlook and conclusion: celebrate, their children’s “martyrdom.” What Western namely, that “[t]he underlying problem for the West is parents would do the same? On college campuses where not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civili- Hirsi Ali has spoken, Muslim students will completely lack zation whose people are convinced of the superiority of empathy when she offers examples of Muslim women get- their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their ting beaten. In fact they will become enraged when she power.” Hirsi Ali especially believes that to mitigate the cites verses in the Qur’an justifying these beatings. Or con- threat Islam poses to the West, Westerners must under- sider a Pew study of 2013 that showed that in twenty-five stand the primary “cause” of this conflict and, ultimately, of thirty-nine countries surveyed, a majority of Muslims Islamic violence: Islamic doctrine itself, as stated in the wanted their countries governed by sharia law. In countries Qur’an. Throughout her works and public presentations, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and among she has stressed that the Qur’an does not simply express Palestinians, more than a quarter of Muslims surveyed said a “religion,” as Westerners know the term, but a political that acts of violence are sometimes justified. In the United ideology that, she says, includes five “pernicious tenets”: States, only 86 percent thought violent tactics were rarely if 1. The Qur’an is the final word of God; ever justified: “only” because the other 14 percent consti- 2. Muslims should strive not for happiness on this planet tutes more than 400,000 Americans! but in the afterlife; In every act of terrorism, Hirsi Ali sees Islamic doctrine 3. Sharia, a comprehensive system of laws, should govern coming to life. She is highly critical of those “on the left” the spiritual and temporal realms; who view terrorist acts as aberrations and caution against 4. Ordinary Muslims are obliged to command right and a reactive intolerance of most Muslims: it is, she argues, forbid wrong; and Islam—as stated in the Qur’an—that is intolerant of tradi- 5. To counter infidels refusing to convert, Muslims should tional Western values such as free speech and the sepa- engage in jihad, or holy war. ration of church and state. As long as there is an inconsis- tency between the doctrines of the Qur’an and the words Why do these five tenets seriously threaten Western of peace-loving Muslims, the threat to Western values will freedoms, especially its traditional separation between exist, and more acts of terrorism can be expected. Quoting church and state? Because, Hirsi Ali argues, unlike the Karl Popper, Hirsi Ali says tolerance has its limits, and West- Catholic Church’s bishops or pope, Islam has no “profes- erners have the right to be intolerant of values threatening sors of Islam” to interpret these tenets; rather, every man their own, just as they were intolerant of fascism during is a self-appointed interpreter of the Qur’an. However, World War II. Muslim immigrants to Western nations must unlike the Christian moderate, who may read the Bible and be strictly scrutinized, with priority given to those showing select only those parts that agree with his or her values, “loyalty” to the United States. The government should in-

32 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org crease its surveillance of mosques or other Muslim groups examples of jurists who have cast doubt on fundamentalist preaching dawa. Beyond intolerance, the only other “solu- interpretations of the Qur’an. tion” for Westerners is to follow Trump’s Youngstown words Given the historical and intellectual difficulties in con- and work to “reform Islam.” veying these various interpretations to Muslims, it is easy to Reform Islam? Here Hirsi Ali’s thinking hits roadblocks. agree with Sam Harris that moderates such as Nawaz have When it comes to actually reforming the Qur’an’s five per- an “almost impossible” task. But there is also no doubt that nicious tenets, she merely suggests that “the administra- Hirsi Ali and reformers such as Nawaz have persuasively tion should ally itself with genuine Muslim moderates and argued that a fundamentalist interpretation of the Qur’an reformers, not with ‘nonviolent’ Islamists.” It should also presents a real threat to the West, a threat not confined to engage in a cyber-war with those online groups preaching a radical fringe. dawa and “use broadcast institutions overseas (e.g. Voice And at least one government—Denmark’s—appears to of America) to fight the war of ideas by disseminating a be taking Hirsi Ali’s arguments seriously. In July 2018, the counter-dawa message, highlighting the work of Muslim Danish parliament passed laws to curb potential violence reformers … .” and encourage greater assimilation of Muslim immigrants Who are the “genuine Muslim moderates and reform- living in Danish ghettoes. Among these laws, poorer Mus- ers”? Hirsi Ali is speaking of people such as Maajid Nawaz, lim children must attend classes on Danish culture and a former Islamist who now runs Quilliam, “the world’s first values for twenty-five hours each week. Parents are also counter extremism organization.” In Islam and the Future of forbidden to send their children abroad for “re-education” Tolerance (a book Hirsi Ali has endorsed), Nawaz explains in Islamic nations. The government believes that if families to Sam Harris what moderates can do to change, or at least challenge, “the rigidity of ideological dogma” that Hirsi Ali sees as the primary cause of the Muslim threat. Nawaz speaks from deep experience: in “Reading Radical will give pause to anyone Radical, he details his own transition doubting Hirsi Ali’s view that dawa and the from a deeply aggrieved sixteen- Qur’an can quickly radicalize young Muslims.” year-old to an Islamist and then to an advocate of a secular, liberal, human-rights perspective. Reading “do not willingly merge into the country’s mainstream, they Radical will give pause to anyone doubting Hirsi Ali’s view should be compelled.” To discourage potential violence, that dawa and the Qur’an can quickly radicalize young the law authorizes local officials to increase surveillance in Muslims. Muslim ghetto neighborhoods. More laws are forthcoming. Unlike Hirsi Ali, Nawaz believes that Islam is a religion Are these laws “harsh,” as the New York Times has of peace “because the vast majority of Muslims do not stated? Perhaps, but Sweden offers evidence that admit- believe it is a religion of war.” However, he agrees with ting Muslim immigrants without cultural “education” can Hirsi Ali that the Qur’an is a major cause of Islamic violence have explosive consequences. This past summer, I spoke and needs to be reformed. To Nawaz, the problem is that with many Swedes about the violence in Gothenburg and Muslims need to understand that historically, jurists have the rise of the anti-immigrant right wing throughout Swe- interpreted the Qur’an in different ways, and that the fun- den. Generally, they criticized their government for only damentalist interpretation is not the “correct” one. Texts, addressing the economic needs of Muslim immigrants and he says, “don’t speak for themselves”; their meaning, he felt that Muslims needed to understand what it means “to argues, is a function of “the relationship you have with the be a Swede.” They predicted that unless the government text.” There is no one “correct interpretation” of any text. addresses cultural differences, violence would increase. Nawaz hopes to persuade Muslims that the Qur’an, In the end, although Hirsi Ali’s views may irritate liberals including its “pernicious tenets,” can be interpreted in and/or those who advocate that government respect all various ways. For example, with regard to the afterlife, var- religious beliefs, she understands, in theory and practice, ious Muslim jurists have seen a contradiction between the why Islam is a dangerous religion. Her willingness to advo- Qur’an’s depiction of God as “infinitely merciful” and hell cate her controversial but well-founded position, despite as “infinite punishment” for those who don’t accept dawa. persistent death threats, explains why Christopher Hitchens Nawaz says that, in contrast to the fundamentalist interpre- and Sam Harris, as well as other New Atheists like me, con- tations, the student of one famous jurist, Ibn al-Qaayim, sider her a hero. “took the view that hell is not really eternal. He focused on particular passages in the Qur’an, after God’s description of ‘eternal hellfire,’ where caveats such as ‘except as God wills’ and ‘everything terminates except his grace’ appear.” Mark Kolsen lives in Chicago and has been a regular contributor to American Atheist In his discussion with Sam Harris, Nawaz points to other Magazine.

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 33 Saint Peterasty

Robert M. Price

he Roman Catholic Church reached the point of cri- if the corruption is so deep, so far-reaching, so high up the sis some years ago. The ever-expanding scandal of ladder that it is no longer a question of getting rid of a few Tpriestly sexual abuse and, just as bad, the intricate (thousand) bad apples? Suppose the Church hierarchy, the and systematic cover-up by the highest authorities has institution itself, has become the abuser? deepened the shadows in which lay Catholics have pain- It has happened. Even the Pope has been credibly fully struggled. What should they do? Leave the Church for charged with covering the butts of offending priests, as Eastern Orthodoxy or Episcopalianism? Not a bad idea, it well as those of bishops who protected the wolves instead seems to me, but then I’m not a Catholic. But if I were, here of the lambs. You know, hosting the game of Musical Mo- are some of the factors I’d consider. lesters. What should Catholics think? What should they do? The situation is complicated by the nature of the Cath- Let’s ask Saint Augustine. He was the theologian-bishop olic Church as an institution. If one were dealing with a of Carthage in the early fourth century who defined im- Protestant congregation in which a clergy sex scandal had portant aspects of Catholic belief and practice as they still been revealed (and they have been, many times), it would exist today. Some of his influence was good, some bad be a simpler matter. Fire the minister if you can (or make (and the verdict will vary according to whom you ask): pre- destination, infant baptism, and more. Here, I am thinking of his “solution” to the Donatist Controversy. As you may already know, the last serious persecution of Manicheans and Christians was that commanded by the pagan “Suppose the Church hierarchy, the institution itself, emperor Diocletian at the end of the has become the abuser?” third century, just before the Christian Constantine became Caesar. The trouble was this: during the persecution, a number of bishops knuckled under, renouncing their faith, embracing Cae- him undergo “counseling,” which I have always suspected sar-worship, and handing over copies of scripture to be was a euphemistic “Get Out of Jail Free” card provided burned. When the danger passed and clergy were in short by a sanctified Good Ol’ Boys club). Sometimes the loyalty supply, some of these fair-weather bishops showed up at of the congregation to a beloved minister makes church church waving a white flag with a lot of explaining to do. members reluctant to believe the charges against him, no Many managed to get their old jobs back after suitable matter how well-founded; either that or it makes them too penance involving public embarrassment. (The penance forgiving. In these cases, one’s recourse would be simple: had to be pretty serious—after all, what these yellowbellies quit the church or split the church. had done was to buy a one-way ticket to the Inferno ac- But the Catholic Church is, by ancient design, a closely cording to Mark 8:38!) integrated, massive, and rigidly hierarchical institution. Others, however, were rudely told to hit the road. These Only so could it ensure uniformity of doctrine, morals, and guys had forfeited any right to administer the sacraments. discipline. It ought to be able to employ this great machine It would be the worst kind of farce. It must make a mockery to stamp out abuses such as clergy sex predation. But what of the sacraments. Even worse, any sacraments they had

34 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org administered before their persecution and apostasy must the Body and Blood by divine grace. The power of God, be declared null and void! It is no surprise that churches not the personal sanctity of the priest, is the electricity; the throughout North Africa took sides, resulting in a schism. priest is but the wire along which it travels. So if the priest The stricter group was named for one of its chief leaders, should turn out to lack holiness or even moral integrity, it Donatus Magnus. This is where Augustine came in. He tried wouldn’t affect the sacrament. The sinful priest would be to come up with a theoretical basis for reconciling the fac- in trouble with God, but he wouldn’t be ruining things for tions. It didn’t go over big. Augustine really just defended his unsuspecting parishioners. This makes a lot of sense: it the Catholic side and hoped the Donatists would come on is God, not the priest, who is saving and sanctifying you. board. They didn’t. Here’s what he suggested. But there is an unintended possible consequence of He was apparently less concerned with the hat-in-hand bishops than with the laity who worried that the absolu- tions they had received, their church marriages, and their babies’ baptisms would all be negated, at considerable peril to their souls. Both priest and “Even the Pope has been credibly charged people, Augustine reasoned, would with covering the butts of offending priests, be served by his proposal. as well as those of bishops who protected Let’s take a couple of steps back. First, why are priests ordained at all? the wolves instead of the lambs.” They are to administer sacraments, and to enable and entitle them to do this they themselves must receive the sacrament of ordination. Second, what is a sacrament? What is it about a sacrament that requires an ordained priest to administer it? Here is a major point of difference between Catholics and Prot- estants. The latter regard the ministry as a sacred task, yes, but essentially a profession. The Protestant minister has no greater access to God than the layperson. He is simply trained and skilled for pastoral duties, exactly analogous to a physician or a lawyer. The Catholic priest of course receives much the same training, but the nature of the sacraments adds a crucial element to priesthood. The minister knows his Bible and how to baptize, how to preside over the Lord’s Supper, how to perform weddings and funerals, and the like. A layperson who studied up could pinch-hit for the minister if needed. But one must be an ordained priest to administer the Catholic sacraments because these rites are understood as “means of grace.” Some Protestants use this term, too, but the Catholic belief is that “grace” is a supernatural saving power. (I’d say it’s like the Holy Spirit but without the personhood.) It is this grace that makes it possible for baptism to cleanse one from Original Sin, which transforms the communion elements into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and effects the absolution of sins. These acts are metaphysical and miraculous, not just symbolic. Moreover, the priest does not do these things in virtue of his own personal holiness. Likewise, even a saintly layperson dares not administer the sacraments (though there are special cases). The ordained priest is set apart and equipped for his role by his own sacramental anointing. Augustine reasoned that since the sacraments are divine works—not human ones, not “works of the flesh”— their value does not depend upon the character of the priest who administers them. The bread and wine become

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 35 this thinking. It takes only a step or two in the wrong direc- Remember the gospel parable of the Wicked Tenants tion and you have a whole clergy establishment in which a (Mark 12:1–12)? The religious authorities are portrayed as sacramental system of divine grace independent of human a group of sharecroppers who refuse to turn over to the morality exists side by side with an immoral libertinism. The landowner his share of the harvest, beating up his repre- two come to coexist more and more comfortably. And that’s sentatives and sending them home empty-handed, finally where we are today. If this were not so, we would have to even lynching his son, thinking that with him out of the imagine some insidious secret cabal seeking to infest and way, they will be in line to inherit the vineyard, by virtue of subvert a Church that once valued personal sanctity. That occupation, once the old man dies. But they have counted would indeed be bad enough, but I think it is worse if the the owner out too quickly: he sends in armed enforcers to Church hierarchy has, by itself, come to accommodate itself kill the sharecroppers. Then he replaces them with better, to immoral libertinism as an acceptable norm. more trustworthy sharecroppers. Even so, says Jesus, God Now let’s ask Dostoyevsky’s advice. We find it in his is about to take from the corrupt Temple authorities their great novel The Brothers Karamazov. Alyosha, a pious oversight of the sanctuary and its rituals. Did that happen? monk, attempts to win his profane brother Ivan back to Yes; the parable was written after the fact, blaming the Mother Church. But no sale. Ivan tells Alyosha that he Jerusalem priesthood for the Roman destruction of the city cannot reconcile God’s ostensible justice with the mani- and the Temple in 70 CE. fest suffering of innocent children. The moment you offer If you applied this parable to the rulers of the Catholic some sophisticated rationalization for God allowing such Church, what would it look like? Not violent destruction atrocities, you are becoming his accomplice-after-the-fact. at the hands of outside powers. At least, I hope not. Let me shift over to a different biblical precedent: the withdrawal of a pious community from a religious body deemed corrupt and the formation of an alternative “church in exile.” A prime case would be that of the Za- “A sacramental system of divine grace independent of dokite covenanters of the Dead Sea human morality exists side by side with an immoral Scrolls, who disdained the Herodian libertinism ... . And that’s where we are today.” Temple and its priesthood for perceived unorthodoxy and moral corruption. They organized their own counter-community with its own version of the Torah-prescribed rituals. You are saying, in effect, “It’s okay with me! There’s a good This is what I humbly suggest happens today. reason for it, even if I can’t say what it is.” I think of this As long as you continue to identify with the disgustingly scene every time Cardinal Dolan or Bill Donahue disgraces corrupt institution of the Catholic Church with its lecherous himself by splitting hairs to try to mitigate the seriousness and hypocritical hierarchy, are you not making excuses for of the scandal. How can they live with themselves? And it? By protesting that the Church is yours, not that of these when His Popishness himself asks (cheap) forgiveness for Wicked Tenants, aren’t you just making it easier for them the tsk-tsk “outrage” over the scandal, I think of Claude to continue doing what they have always done? If you Rains in Casablanca: “I am shocked, shocked, to find ped- offer that excuse for remaining, I even wonder if you really erasty going on here!” Also the moment in Moliere’s play understand what Catholicism is! It is a top-down operation, Tartuffe when the live-in charlatan tearfully confesses his not a bottom-up one. charlatanry, which of course only makes his gullible suckers I’m not saying become a Presbyterian. Start a schism adore him all the more. like the Donatists, the Old Catholic Church, and the Polish But of course the Church is not the same as God. Or National Catholic Church. Preserve your traditions, your is it? I take a lesson from Emil Durkheim, who suggested rituals, your doctrines. Have your bishops choose a new that God, the gods, and totem animals are projections, Pope, an “Antipope” as they used to call them in times of mystifications of the communities that believe in them. In schism. You don’t have to hate anybody. Take your leave the present case, “God” functions as a decoy: “Oh, sure, prayerfully and amicably. we have shortcomings, but don’t blame God!” The institu- Better schism than stigma. tional nature of the Catholic Church, I think, really makes it impossible to distinguish between the two. The ground This essay was adapted with permission from Robert M. rules include the belief in a Pope who speaks infallibly when Price’s blog Zarathustra Speaks. he wants to, together with every Catholic’s obligation to believe and obey this “vicar,” or stand-in, for Jesus Christ. Robert M. Price is the author of Beyond Born Again, The Incredible Shrinking Son of Especially revealing is the belief that there is “no salvation Man, The Case Against ‘The Case for Christ,’ and other books. He is also the host outside the Church.” of the podcasts The Bible Geek and The Human Bible.

36 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org Science vs. Religion (Redux?): How (Not) to Discuss/Debate the Subject

Sheldon F. Gottlieb

f I were not a rational human being averse to the su- One question that comes to the fore: If the scientific pernatural, I might be less painfully aware that I live in a worldview is the correct one and if many Western religions Iworld obsessed with subjects that should long be dead, truly have accepted evolution, then what societal mecha- buried, and in many cases forgotten. Surely one such is the nisms keep this old, sterile contention between science and question of whether science and religion are compatible or religion needlessly roiling? in conflict. The answer points primarily to people, in their scien- On one level, it is ridiculous that we must even think tific ignorance and their unwillingness to accept fact and about this subject. Notwithstanding that the official po- reason over belief, revelation, and unreason. I say primarily sitions of various major religions have become friendlier because there are always those scientists who are “believ- toward evolution in recent years, society remains torn over ers” and whose positive opinions on whether or not there the subject of science and religion.1 Are the two in eternal conflict? Are they reconcilable? By now, the whole subject of science vs. religion (SvR) should have been dead and buried in a place where Kaddish (the Jewish prayer for the dead) “By now, the whole subject of science vs. could not be said over it. Yet the question won’t religion ... should have been dead and buried go away: Are they reconcilable? Much as the Tem- pleton Foundation (see below) and others seek in a place where Kaddish (the Jewish prayer to blur the issue, strict religious views about the for the dead) could not be said over it.” physical, chemical, and biological nature of Earth and the universe are irreconcilable with scientific views. Nowhere is this clearer than on the subject of biological evolution. Yet the SvR debate blunders on, is a god, or whether science and religion are reconcilable, exerting deadly influence and raising havoc (primarily with are taken as factual truth. Of course religionists revert to the educational system, secondarily with the legal system authority, not empirical data, to buttress their arguments and politics). Anyone who has taught either high school that religion is a valid way of knowing about the natural and biology or non-majors Bio 101 at the university level ex- supernatural worlds and the only way to answer questions periences the needless turmoil created by religion. The that science cannot. Thus, to such people, opinions—not National Center for Science Education (NCSE) can attest established fact—from famous scientists who are religious to the veracity of my observations, because defending the represent something more than just an opinion. I say “of integrity of science education—that is, defending science course” because religion has always resorted to authority and evolution—is the primary reason for its existence. (I to support all its social (including moral) and political po- discussed my university experiences teaching evolution in sitions; religion has not and does not test its fundamental two demographically different American communities in tenets (more below). In the past, believers referred to sci- the first chapter of my book The Naked Mind.)2 entists who lived in a different time and place, one in which religion played a more prominent and coercive role in so- 1. Glenn Branch, “Understanding Gallup’s Latest Poll on Evolution.” ciety. Didn’t Darwin hold off in publishing his magnificent Skeptical Inquirer (September/October 2017). 2. Sheldon F. Gottlieb, The Naked Mind. Flagstaff, Ariz.: Best Publishing research and insights into the workings of nature because Co., 2003. he feared the reaction of the Church? If not for competition

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 37 from Wallace, to the best of my knowledge it is unlikely that ple and projects designed to show that religion and science Darwin would have even published his work in his lifetime. are reconcilable. As an aside, such support demonstrates In recent years, believers have lionized Dr. Francis Collins, the importance of money in influencing the hearts and head of the National Institutes of Health, a former atheist interests of people. who became a committed Christian, who supports the con- Organizations such as Templeton exist in part to sow cept that faith in science and in God are not incompatible. intellectual confusion. Advocates (among them no small In understanding religion and science and the false de- number of Templeton grantees) often allege that science bates—SvR and “Is there a god?”—one has to confront the and religion are both based on underlying assumptions. fact that the origins of religion are similar to the origins of Both can be understood as being based on faith, this argu- science: initially, both were once steeped in ignorance, fear, ment goes—although the faith in religion is quite different and superstition.3 In the evolution of human thought, reli- from the faith in science.4 Still, the fact that assumptions gion and science diverged in their ways of understanding and faith are involved implies that on some level, science the world. Religion postulated the existence of one or more is no different from religion; science is just another belief supernatural deities to explain natural phenomena; the ce- system, one among many from which a person can select. lestial beings possessed powers that controlled the work- One could choose religion instead. Therefore, it is just a ings of the world. Science sought to overcome ignorance question of which belief system one chooses. and fear by obtaining objective knowledge by means of This confusion exploits the difference between what the word faith means in science and what it means in religion. It is important to differentiate between them. Faith is defined as the willingness, especially when first “If many Western religions truly have accepted considering a subject, to accept evolution, then what societal mechanisms keep this old, something as true despite a sterile contention between science and religion lack of evidence, or even in the face of evidence to the contrary. needlessly roiling?” The first part of that definition lends itself to testing: evidence for or against a given idea can be looked for and amassed, measuring and testing. While religious thought stagnated, whereas I am not sure what, other than omission or denial, continued successful learning about the natural causes of can be done to overcome evidence to the contrary. natural phenomena validated the assumptions underlying There are six fundamental interrelated assumptions on science; support for scientific methodology grew. which science is based. The first was beautifully and suc- Unfortunately, the religious stagnation in scientific cinctly formulated by the bacteriologists Evelyn L. Oginsky thought not only has raised havoc with modern educa- and Wayne W. Umbreit: “The unknown is knowable and tion—particularly science education—but also has great we are capable of knowing the unknown.” The “we” refers and adverse social and political effects. It is absurd that the to the collective intelligence, wisdom, and knowledge of so-called “science” of 5,000 years ago should be consid- the human species. The second is that there is order in ered more reliable than the science of today. I wish I could nature, and the third is that the collective human intellect say that no one knowledgeable in history could deny this. is capable of discovering that order. The last three will be But I cannot, because there are people who deny it: their discussed briefly below. Underlying these axioms are the rejection is not based on evidence but rather on a vile, per- ideas that the human senses can observe accurately and verted, hateful political ideology supported by abject lies. that human intellect and judgment can deal with the obser- But that is a different subject for another day. vations and discover their order by a process called reason, Other driving forces for keeping the false discussion such as by integrating and coordinating the observations alive include first, organizations that provide grants and into coherent patterns. awards to individuals working to reconcile science and In science these assumptions must be validated; it is the religion and, second, the influence of religion on early validation procedures that are important in differentiating childhood education. between such faith as scientists and religionists, respec- Perhaps the most important of the offending organiza- tively, entertain. The continuous testing and retesting of tions is the John Templeton Foundation, which has spent science is sustained by continuous successful experiences: (and spends each year) millions of dollars supporting peo- over centuries, unknown aspects of the natural world have

3. Richard Sneed, “What Is Religion?” Mobile, Alabama: The Harbinger 4. Sheldon F. Gottlieb, “What Is Science?” Mobile, Alabama: The Har- (April 8, 1997). Available online at http://www.theharbinger.org/articles/ binger (April 8, 1997). Available online at http://www.theharbinger.org/ rel_sci/sneed.html. articles/rel_sci/gottlieb.html.

38 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org become known and, in many cases, their physical bases Issues of science can be resolved only in the “labora- understood: such repeated successes not only justify con- tory”—not by majority vote by the public, by the Justices of tinuing credence as to the faith of science but also give the Supreme Court, in untested beliefs presumably stated rise to technologies that provide creature comforts, greater in books claimed to be “holy,” or in the people-developed health, rapid and comfortable transportation, expansion tenets of a faith based on revelation. There are exceptions of the economy, a more efficient military, and expansion to this statement. The one exception I am concerned with of personal freedoms. Since, over time, no violations have is evolution. There have been several high-profile lawsuits been uncovered, scientists have concluded that the under- against the teaching of evolution without also teaching its lying assumptions of science are valid. This substantiates religious counterpart, creationism (irrespective of the guise the conclusion that science is an honest, self-correcting under which it is presented, such as intelligent design). To intellectual activity. the best of my knowledge, no judge has ever thrown one of It is in understanding the scientific method that the these cases out of court while saying that the courts do not other three assumptions become important: causality, uni- solve issues of science. Instead, the courts remain involved formity in time and space, and common perception. because this issue is framed in terms of education and/or Causality in essence states that there is no result in na- the First Amendment, and those are in the public domain. ture without a preceding cause. Further, it means that the Their subject matter may be answerable only by science, data collected about the causes of natural phenomena are yet the decisions are based on answering the questions reliable; the evidence has not been distorted to provide “What is science?” and “What is religion?” Unfortunately, false clues. If humans cannot trust the evidence provided the fact that the courts can be so influential on a scientific by the universe, then the search for objective knowledge becomes futile and no scientific knowledge gathered can be true. Religionists have difficulty with causality because the majority of humans in Western society think in terms of a personal god who will suspend the laws of nature just to satisfy their selfish needs or wants in response to an activity called “It is absurd that the so-called ‘science’ of prayer. If a belief system that denies causality 5,000 years ago should be considered more and posits that a god can behave according reliable than the science of today.” to whim and caprice were true, humans would live in a world of perpetual ignorance. Uniformity in time and space refers to the concept that natural laws do not change with time and distance: the fundamental forces at work in na- issue means that scientists and the general public must ture today are the same as they were yesterday and will be be concerned about the philosophical make-up of the tomorrow, and they hold at any point in the universe. This members of the judiciary. For example, the late Supreme principle is very important in science. Court Justice Antonin Scalia in Edwards v. Aguillard (the Common perception refers to the idea that all human 1986 case concerning Louisiana’s Balanced Treatment Act) beings perceive natural events in fundamentally the same permitted his religious beliefs to dominate his thinking. I way; that is, when encountering the same stimulus, we ex- deduce this from his dissent, in which he supported the pect our senses to agree. concept that religious and scientific views should be taught In contrast to science, religion does not—and cannot— simultaneously as co-equals. Scalia’s views vary widely from continuously and carefully test and retest its underlying as- those promulgated since the scientific revolution of the sumptions. It would be anathema to do so. Religion could seventeenth century, when Francis Bacon and his contem- not tolerate learning that its assumptions are invalid. Reli- poraries promoted the idea that if one wants to understand gion is not a self-correcting discipline. Further, the tenets, nature one must consult nature and not the writings of dogmas, and catechisms of religion, over thousands of ancient authority figures. years, have not truly added positive benefits to the health The primary assumption in Western religions is that and welfare of human society. there exists a god that is endowed with certain powers. Also, and very importantly, unlike faith in religion, faith There is no way of testing the truth of that assumption—it in science has not and does not lead to social and political cannot be measured, quantified, verified, or falsified. pathology, resulting in the unnecessary subjugation, tor- Nor can any deductions be derived therefrom, including ture, maiming, and murder of millions of innocent people the made-up supernatural world associated with a god. because they think differently. Unfortunately, the findings Though science may have nothing to say about the super- of science and technological developments have been and natural, it has much to say regarding some of the concepts still are being used by religion to execute its murderous put forth in the name of the supernatural. designs. An interesting aspect of any discussions or debates on

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 39 these subjects is the language that is used. In my teaching interact unless required. This is not a hard-wired separation, days, when students or debate opponents would say to me but a functional separation. When the compartments are “I believe …” I would stop them and say, “I am not inter- forced to interact, the ensuing interaction leads to cognitive ested in what you believe. This is the USA and you are free dissonance. Because of their ties to their religious beliefs, to believe whatever you want. The First Amendment guar- for whatever reason(s), I find that such individuals primarily antees that. I am interested in what you know and how you tend to protect their beliefs and convince themselves that know it. The fact is that you have a belief, but that which they really have succeeded in combining the two; they sim- you believe is not necessarily fact.” Any would-be defender ply refuse to see the reality of differences. But what about of science who engages in a discussion/debate on the basis those scientists who are believers and also know the differ- of belief—that is, in the language of religion—automatically ences yet still hold fast to their religious beliefs? Without loses. Discussion/debate on these issues must be carried knowing the individuals, without having discussed aspects out using the language of science. of the subject with them, I cannot provide a knowledgeable When challenging someone to go beyond statements answer. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to discuss any of belief, I would point out that scientists accept or reject such issues with someone who states “I am a believer.” ideas based on evidence, not belief. I came to insist that Those four words are conversation stoppers. my interlocutor provide the evidence on which he or she Before critics accuse me of shortchanging religion by not accepted or rejected, say, any religious or scientific aspect discussing its value to society, specifically “any aspect of life of evolution. I insisted that if someone didn’t believe in that science cannot resolve,” that was never my intention. evolution (note the religious terminology) he or she must To restrain critical emotions I will state that there are those tell me the evidence evolution was rejected. After all, if who hold the view championed by Stephen Jay Gould I am required to provide the evidence for my accepting that science and religion should confine their activities to their respective realms of human behavior: science should concentrate on the factual realm of the nature of the natural world, whereas religion should concentrate on an equally important but utterly different realm of purpose, meaning, and values— “‘I am not interested in what you believe. ... subjects on which religion claims science I am interested in what you know and might shed light but can never resolve.5 Each should stay in its own realm and not how you know it.’” interfere in the realm of the other. Yet it has been my experience that religion interferes more in the realm of science than vice versa; therein lay all the public discord. evolution as fact, then my students or debate opponents While on the subject, I have some observations and must be required to provide evidence to the contrary. I do a few questions. For the most part, from what I have not accept biblical references or reference to God as being observed throughout my life that some people claimed equivalent to empirical scientific evidence. to have derived purpose, meaning, and values from the Further, one must understand that in science, knowl- concept of a deity; others claim to do so from human expe- edge is cumulative and builds on preexisting knowledge; rience. In either case, the answers all seem to be opinions, scientific knowledge and theories are tentative and always not facts: the religious view presumably is based on priestly subject to revision depending on the best available evi- interpretations (and visions) of a specific deity and sup- dence; the language of science involves the correct use of posedly sacred writings, whereas the nonreligious view is language, precision of terminology, and the avoidance of grounded on the concepts developed in ever-changing so- confusion. For example, the scientific definition of the word cieties driven by advances in science and technology. Why theory differs greatly from its usual lay usage. All this is as not let people decide for themselves what their individual distinct as it could possibly be from the way religion treats purpose(s) in life are? Who really knows what any god wants its dogma. from, or for, us? There is no way we can prove God wanted What about those individuals who claim that in their it. Why should religious opinions be more valuable than worldview science and religion are not incompatible? I human experience? cannot speak for all people; I do not feel competent in psychology to speak about people I have never met. I can only n the title of this essay, I mentioned how (not) to debate report to you what I have learned from the people I have this subject. Throughout this essay, I referred to specific met and with whom I have discussed this situation. The Idifficulties that also pertain to debating—or defending only explanation that I have ever considered plausible is a decision not to debate—this subject. Based on years of that these individuals have compartmentalized their minds, 5. Stephen Jay Gould, “Nonoverlapping Magisteria,” Natural History 106 striving not to let the religious and science compartments (1997).

40 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org public and university classroom experience, I would advise public discussion concerning evolution—to beard the sci- people to avoid debating science vs. religion, so as not ence vs. religion lion in its den—I would like to share one to give the tired notion that the conflict is real any further closing observation. Whenever I spoke on a controversial credence. Whether you accept it or not, the truth is that issue or attended an event at which others were doing such debates are designed for pro-science, pro-evolution so, I consistently observed that audiences for such events advocates to lose. As I mentioned above, it is very difficult tended to be composed of three groups of people: to overcome any argument in which one position is based 1. Those who support the speaker’s position and are usu- on those conversation-stopping words “I believe.” In an ally present to learn something new or have their views hour or less, it is virtually impossible to provide audience reinforced; members with sufficient scientific background in astronomy, 2. Those who oppose the speaker’s position, for whom no biology, chemistry, geology, physics, paleontology, philoso- amount of fact or reasoning would change their minds; phy, and statistics to appreciate the magnificent concept of they attended to challenge the speaker or to learn if evolution. All too often, I found that the people defending there were new ideas that they had to learn to contend science/evolution were knowledgeable about their area of with; and expertise but, inevitably, deficient in their knowledge of the 3. The fence-sitters who really came to learn. These were ancillary disciplines. Trying to explain the differences be- the people who had not yet made up their minds, who tween science and religion requires an inordinate amount were amenable to fact and reason and could be influ- of time. Even books specifically written for public consump- enced. tion demand hours to read, let alone understand. It has To engage these three groups most productively, I been my experience that at the end of either a quarter or came to rely on a three-pronged approach. First, I spoke a semester of classes in which evolutionary thought is used primarily to the fence-sitters (Group Three), trying to en- to underlie the basic biology being taught, most students courage them to think about what was being said and its come away still unconvinced. It is extremely difficult to social/political importance. By doing so, I hoped to attract overcome the religious inculcation to which too many in them to the scientific viewpoint and a rational approach the audience have been subjected to since birth. Also, un- to understanding the universe. In so doing, I also met fortunately, too many of these events take place in church my second objective, reinforcing the views of those in environments in which the audience is already hostile to- Group One while hoping that I was providing them with ward pro-science or pro-evolutionary concepts. (Although some new information or insights. My final objective was I did participate in several such encounters, my primary to challenge those in Group Two through the information experience has been with the print and electronic media.) and arguments I provided the fence-sitters (Group Three). On to the obvious question. Why did I participate Are religion and science compatible? Certainly not. (fortunately not too often) in such public discussions—the I consider this an open and shut case and so should all very sort of discussion I now advise readers such as you to elected and appointed officials, including members of the avoid? I have three reasons: judiciary. So too should members of the general public. 1. Earlier in my life, I did not have the insights that I have Irrespective of who one is, what one’s credentials are, and gained over the years. If I knew then what I know now what beliefs one holds, there should be no question that ... . religion and science are vastly different and have different 2. In my classroom teaching, I introduced elementary as- ways of looking at the world. Not only are they impossible pects of evolution and so was obliged to defend my to reconcile, but, very importantly, unsubstantiated reli- views over the objections raised by some students (and, gious views on the nature of the natural world must never occasionally, the threats of lawsuits conveyed to me by be given any credence when developing science curricula students from their parents). for public schools, when drafting standards for the teach- 3. During Alabama’s contentious textbook debates of the ing of science, or for any other issue pertaining to the mid-1980s,6 I wrote numerous letters to the editor and nature of the natural world and public policy concerning op-ed pieces published in area newspapers. I found science. myself obligated to take on the anti-evolutionists. At The time has finally come—actually, the time is long the time, I also was an avid letter-writer on other issues, overdue—to say Kaddish over SvR issues. Let us leave with emphasis on the Middle East, which added to my them dead and buried in some obscure grave forever- notoriety. In contrast to more typical faculty members, I more. was never an ivory-tower recluse. I always considered it part of my duties to help educate the public and took that obligation very seriously. Despite my caveats, should you decide to engage in a

6. Alabama was briefly ground zero in a legal dispute over how public schools should treat science and religion in relation to teaching the theory of evolution. See Paul Kurtz, “The New Inquisition in the Schools,” Free Sheldon F. Gottlieb is a retired physiologist and professor of biological sciences. He Inquiry (Winter 1986/87); and Ronald A. Lindsay, “Judge Hand Erred in Holding That Secular Humanism Is a Religion,” Free Inquiry (Fall 1987). is the author of The Naked Mind (Best Publishing Company, 2003).

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 41 DOERR’S WAY

Arizona’s Big Win for Public Schools, Church-State

Separation Edd Doerr

n November 6, Arizonans evangelical, Methodist, Presbyterian, of Benjamin Franklin’s wisdom when he voted sixty-five to thirty-five Jewish, Muslim, and so on) would wrote: “When a religion is good, I con- Oto crush an effort to expand fragment our school population along ceive it will support itself; and when it the state’s tax-credit voucher plan to religious, ideological, ethnic, socioeco- does not support itself, and God does divert public funds to mostly church- nomic, and other lines while increasing not take care to support it so that its run private schools. That makes it the school costs overall. adherents are obliged to call for help thirtieth (!) state referendum between Within hours of the voucher de- of the civil power, it is a sign, I appre- 1966 and 2018, from Massachusetts to feat, the Goldwater Institute and the hend, of its being a bad one.” California and from Florida to Alaska, extremist right-wing American Feder- Meanwhile, in Europe in which millions of voters have shot ation for Children (AFC) announced down every effort, large or small, to that they would “double down” on On November 5, Washington Post for- compel taxpayers to support private efforts to get the Arizona legislature eign affairs correspondent Rick Noack schools by an average of two to one. to push vouchers again. Now get this: published a report on the enormously This landslide Arizona vote was The AFC was headed by none other popular new film in Poland Kler (Pol- clearly a serious setback for President than billionaire heiress DeVos until a ish for clergy) titled “A Blockbuster Donald J. Trump, Vice President Mike few days after Trump was “elected” Polish Movie about Abusive Priests Pence, Education Secretary Betsy in 2016! What outrageous contempt Triggers New Accusations.” With the DeVos, and large numbers of federal for the voters, for the public schools, online version of the article, Noack and state Republican lawmakers. for religious liberty, and for at least the ran a chart showing the percentages These victories are important be- spirit of Article 2, Section 12 of the Ar- by which people in various countries cause diverting public funds to private izona constitution, which states that in western and eastern Europe favor schools (of which over 85 percent are “No public money or property shall church-state separation. While I have sectarian indoctrination institutions be appropriated for or applied to any not been able to track down the that denigrate women’s rights and religious worship, exercise, or instruc- source of the poll, the results seem often science) is an attack on the re- tion, or to the support of any religious reasonable. Here they are: ligiously neutral public schools that establishment.” Sweden, 80 Poland, 70 serve 90 percent of the kids in the Voucher vultures such as DeVos, Finland, 77 Croatia, 69 United States—and on the principle Trump, Pence, and far too many Re- Denmark, 76 Estonia, 68 of church-state separation that safe- publican lawmakers regularly sneer at Czech Republic, 75 France, 68 guards everyone’s religious liberty. the wisdom of Madison, Jefferson, and Further, tax support for the more than other Founders who wrote church-state Spain, 75 Netherlands, 68 two dozen different brands of private separation into our Constitution in the Belgium, 72 Hungary, 67 schools (Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, 1780s. They all need to be reminded Slovakia, 72 Greece, 62

42 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org Along with that poll Noack ran a Pew Research study from 2015–2017 on the percentages of persons identified as Catholics in a number of Euro- pean countries: (See back cover for details.) Poland, 87 Slovakia, 63 Croatia, 84 France, 60 YES! I’d like to give _____ digital gift subscription(s) to FREE INQUIRY! Italy, 78 Spain, 60 Your name ______Portugal, 77 Hungary, 56 Austria, 75 Switzerland, 55 Your FI subscriber account number ______Subscribers: Your account number is printed above your name on this back cover. Lithuania, 75 Belgium, 49 Ireland, 75 Germany, 43 Your address ______Your city/state/ZIP ______Of course, these figures tell nothing Your email (required) ______about anyone’s beliefs, church attendance, or political opinions.  I wish to make this gift anonymously.

And in Spain Credit card # ______

On October 26, Katholiek Neiwsblad, Exp. ______/ ______Code______a Catholic weekly in the Netherlands, reported that Spain’s moderate Social- ist government plans to inventory all Signature(s) ______of the Catholic Church’s real estate in Recipient #1 the country. Spain’s Catholic bishops “vehemently” oppose the plan, fear- Subscription term  1 year, $18.95  2 years, $32.95 3 years, $44.95 ing a possible “clandestine confisca- Recipient 1 name______tion” and a revival of “the old spirit of anti-clericalism.” María García of the Recipient 1 address ______Observatory for Religious and Con- Recipient 1 city/state/ZIP:______science Freedom claims that there has Recipient 1 country, if not U.S. ______been an increase of unspecified violations of religious freedom in Spain and Recipient 1 email (required) ______that the Church property inventory is part of a “campaign to drive religion Recipient #2 out of the public domain.” Subscription term  1 year, $18.95  2 years, $32.95 3 years, $44.95 Anyone at all familiar with the history of Spain will recall the expulsion or Recipient 2 name ______forced conversion of Jews and Muslims Recipient 2 address ______there after 1492, the brutality of the Inquisition, the Church’s long domi- Recipient 2 city/state/ZIP: ______nance in the country, its siding with po- Recipient 2 country, if not U.S.:______litical conservatives, and the fact that civil wars in Spain were often accompa- Recipient 2 email: (required) ______nied by anger and violence directed at the Church. Note also that according For additional recipients, please attach another sheet. to Rick Noack (above), 75 percent of Spaniards favor church-state separa- Total for all gift subscriptions $ ______tion. This could get very interesting. To order: Mail this form along with your check payable to FREE INQUIRY or your credit-card Stay tuned. information to: FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. (Checks must be denominated in U.S. or Canadian funds and drawn on a U.S. or Canadian bank.)

Edd Doerr is a senior editor of Free Inquiry. He If you prefer, you may fax this coupon with payment information to 716-636-1733. headed Americans for Religious Liberty for thirty-six years and is a past president of the American Humanist Association.

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 43 CUNO’S CORNER

Rules for Playing the Race Card Steve Cuno

ot long ago, a champion of hu- Team Alike should have thought about to play it. The second is that there is manity set me straight. Some- that before showing up looking differ- only one instance in which its use is None in our monochromatic, ent. valid: Never. This protects Alikes from melanin-deficient lunch gathering had The object of the game depends on spurious charges of racism, which, as mentioned race, and before I could whether you think the game is fair or any Alike can tell you, most charges of think better of it I had naively blurted rigged. Alikes, who view the game as racism are. It also helps neutralize in- something about racism not being fair, play with the object of maintaining convenient statistics about Differents’ a good thing. The above-referenced the status quo. Differents, who think abysmal odds with respect to arrests, champion politely pointed out my the game is rigged—against them, of sentencing, violence, health, longevity, error. The real problem, he explained, hiring, pay, education, and housing, is that They play the Race card. (I didn’t which Differents bring upon them- add the italics and capital T. They were selves or which they would bring upon as audible as the rattling coming from themselves if the statistics weren’t all the pale heads around our table nod- made up, which, I’m told, they are. ding in enthusiastic agreement.) Trouble is, as every Alike knows, Dif- You can imagine my chagrin upon ferents have innate disregard for rules, realizing that, my whole life, I’d mis- “You can imagine my so they merrily plunk down Race cards taken a parlor game for something seri- chagrin upon realizing willy-nilly anyway. That’s what the other ous. I wondered how many points I had six cards, dealt only to Alikes, are for. lost through incorrect play, how many that, my whole life, I’d Alikes would be lost without the opportunities to advance I’d missed mistaken a parlor game Complaining about the Race Card card. through ignorance. Well, never again. for something serious.” It nullifies any use of the Race card. I resolved to learn the rules so that I Caution: If you play a Complaining could compete with the best of Them. about the Race Card card within ear- Tracking down the rules proved a shot of a Different, you may spend an challenge. Hoyle’s makes no mention uncomfortable few minutes in a penalty of the game. Google is rife with com- box wearing a Caught Looking like a plaints about misplay but devoid of course—play with the object of lev- Racist Even Though You Swear You’re rules as to correct play. Undaunted, I eling things out. This often results in Not hat (sold separately). If someone was able to infer a good many of the silly misunderstandings where Alikes tweets a video of you playing a Com- rules by watching the pros go at it. accuse Differents of trying to gain an plaining about the Race Card card, you Here, for the benefit of fellow naïfs, are unfair advantage and Differents accuse may forfeit a turn. The only way to es- the fruits of my research. Alikes of trying to maintain one. cape either penalty is to produce an I There are two teams, Alikes and There are seven kinds of cards, all Can’t Be a Racist Because One of My Differents, and the selection process of which are distributed at the outset Friends Is a Different card. couldn’t be simpler or fairer. You’re an of the game. The Race card is the best Don’t be fooled into thinking that Alike if other Alikes think you look like known, and because it’s the most pow- Alikes start out a number of spaces them. You’re a Different if they don’t. erful, two strict rules govern its use. The ahead and move more spaces per turn. Differents who would prefer to play on first is that only Differents are allowed This myth is readily dispatched by the

44 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org There’s No Such Thing as Privilege That usually settles the matter, but, for it if you think you’re up to the chal- card. “Alikes have earned the head when necessary, it is unbeatable when lenge, but don’t be surprised if some- start and extra spaces, which don’t paired with a Because That’s the Way It one stops you cold with a Don’t Be exist,” explains the small type on the Has Always Been card. Such a Libtard card. back of the card, “If Differents put as I saved the two most important much effort into the game as they put rules for last. The first is Only Alikes into whining, they would catch up in liken racism to a game. The second is Steve Cuno is the as-told-to author of Joanne no time.” Admittedly, the rules forbid There’s no rule that says anyone has to Hanks’s memoir, It’s Not About the Sex My Ass: catching up, but that’s what keeps the play. The latter is not as easy as it Confessions of an Ex-Mormon Ex-Polygamist game fair and exciting. sounds. Not playing requires a strong Ex-Wife. A recovering marketing writer, Cuno lives In the event of a dispute, Alikes can sense of fairness backed by commit- and writes in Utah. Why they let him stay is pull out a We Make the Rules card. ment, intelligence, and vigilance. Go beyond him.

GREAT MINDS

Hot and Wild Sufficiency: Epicurus, the Mehness of Death, and the Pleasures of Enough Dale DeBakcsy

hunk of cheese. who you ask, means either a philoso- name of philosophy and certainly not A glass of watered-down phy devoted to a Dude Bro worldview a proper topic of contemplation for a A wine. of 110 Percent Exxxtreme Pleasure religious soul, and there, excepting a The company of a good friend. Always, or A Guy Who Enjoys Food a few hot pockets of dusty philosophy That, according to the most influen- Lot and Will Tell You about How Much nerds and humanist historians, it has tial philosopher of the Hellenistic Age, He Enjoys Food. A Lot. Both of those largely remained. is pretty much the summit of human conceptions of Epicureanism, however, Nothing, however, was further from happiness. Epicurus of Samos (341 are fundamentally holdovers from the Epicurus’s point than the round-the- BCE–270 BCE) inherited an Athens Middle Ages, when nothing was so for- clock orgy-mongering of which he is that had been broken by the Macedo- eign to the reigning system of thought accused. Born in Samos to Athenian nian might of Alexander the Great and as Epicurus’s matter-of-fact philosophy parents, he traveled to Athens at the a philosophical tradition that had been that death is final and not to be feared, age of eighteen to fulfill his two-year hobbled by the abstract metaphysical the gods don’t intervene in the world, military obligation, only to join his par- excesses of Plato. Over the course of and metaphysical speculation is almost ents in exile in the city of Colophon his long life, he crafted a powerful re- entirely worthless. after the death of Alexander the Great turn-to-Earth approach to philosophy Rather than argue against Epi- and the ensuing chaos caused by the and science that it took humanity the curus’s individual criticisms of theoreti- dissolution of the Macedonian Empire. better part of two millennia to redis- cal Platonic approaches to science and Athens had fallen, never to rise again, cover, appreciate, and ultimately miss thought, these medieval theologians and Epicurus had a ring-side seat for almost the entire point of. decided to bury the whole Epicurean the final blows. As we tend to do. system as an unlearned excuse for de- Other philosophical schools wit- Epicurean today, depending on bauchery and excess unworthy of the nessed the Athenian Crash and came

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 45 away from it with hard-scrabble lessons home called the Garden, which was ping moments when Epicurus comes about the need to manfully submit to known for its core philosophy of equal- achingly close to modern descriptions the crush of fate. Skepticism and Sto- ity—man or woman, aristocrat or slave, of physical phenomena two thousand icism both developed as means of all were welcome, and all were encour- years before the fact. coping with an Empire that was crum- aged to address each other as friends In his time at Colophon, Epicurus bling and an intellectual system that in their journey to lead a more pleasant was exposed to the atomistic philos- had become so divorced from reality life. Though the Garden gained noto- ophy of Democritus, whereby the as to be effectively useless—Stoicism riety as a place where licentious orgies movements and interactions of tiny through a cult of disaffected virtue and surely must be happening well-nigh indivisible particles careening through Pyrrhonian Skepticism through a disin- constantly, its students revered it as a the void created the world as we know terested tranquility motivated by a mis- place of simple communion and bal- it. Though he modified Democritus’s trust of being able to know anything anced intellectual effort, causing Epi- viewpoint somewhat to accommodate meaningful beyond appearances. cureanism to last as a functioning phil- some notion of personal agency, it was osophical school far beyond its more through the lens of atomism that he austere contemporaries. viewed the span of the universe’s his- So, yes, freedom from fear of death tory, hypothesizing that myriad other and the gods, love of friendship as a hu- worlds must exist and that, on some man’s central need, and a championing of them, through sheer chance, atoms of sufficiency over excess—wonderful, combined in a way to make life possi- very modern, full marks. But what I love ble, as they did on ours. There is noth- “Nothing ... was further most about Epicurus is something that ing in our origins that requires the di- from Epicurus’s point we as humanists tend to overlook in vine, merely what we would today call than the round-the-clock our mad dash to embrace his ethical a statistical combination of an unfath- and moral modernity: his physics. One omably large number of elementary orgy-mongering of which of the hallmarks of pre-modern (and, particles stumbling occasionally into he is accused.” some would say, current) science was the creation of life, but most often into a tendency to make definitive state- the production of inanimate masses. ments about which of several explana- Epicurus died at last in 270 BCE, the tions of a phenomenon is definitely the center of a vast circle of friends and a right one based not so much on the thriving materialist conception of the This was not Epicurus’s solution. He data at hand but on which explanation cosmos. He had written some three looked reality hard and steadily in the fits best with one’s personal system of hundred works during his life, of which eyes and found, hey, it ain’t so bad. natural philosophy. today we have only three complete let- We die, but nothing of us survives that To this tendency Epicurus responds ters, two collections of maxims, and a death, so really we’re not around when in the Letter to Pythocles, “When one smattering of questionable fragments; it happens, so why worry? The gods accepts one theory and rejects an- but the ideas of Epicurus were made probably exist, but they have nothing other which is equally consistent with immortal two centuries after his death to do with anything on Earth, meaning the phenomenon in question, it is by another figure beholding a crum- that supplicating them, praising them, clear that one has thereby blundered bling world, the Roman poet Lucretius and fearing them are all equally point- out of any sort of proper physics and (c. 100 BCE–55 BCE). His De Rerum less and so can be dropped from one’s blundered into mythology” (section Natura is one of the treasures of the life with no repercussions. Life comes 87, transl. Inwood and Gerson). late Roman Republic, an Epicurean with pain, but pain can be lived with, Not content to merely state this journey through the cosmos rooted in and to be really happy all you need to principle, Epicurus spends the rest the startling insights of atomism, which do is secure a few basic things. Don’t of the letter showing how it works in manages to say astoundingly accurate seek fame or indulge in luxury, because principle, going through several differ- things about solar formation, particles they bring more anxiety for their loss ent meteorological phenomena and that transmit genetic information, the than they bring pleasure in their attain- explaining how each has several dif- slowing of light when not in a vacuum, ment. Have sex if you want, but don’t ferent possible explanations, none of and a half dozen other eerily modern get too crazy with it, because that way which we can judge among the data hypotheses beside. He raised Epi- lies addiction, which also produces currently at hand, and about which we curus’s jovial theories shared among more stress of a longer duration than must therefore reserve judgment until friends to the level of epic art, and the sex itself alleviates. we discover more, no matter how diffi- today it is hard to think of Lucretius’s Basically, seek what you need; cult it is to refrain from picking the one sweep without hearing the laughter enjoy it with full appreciation for what that lines up best with our personal from Epicurus’s Garden urging it on. it is; and seek friends, not gods. When philosophy. The whole letter is a tour It is probably too late to return to he returned to Athens armed with this de force of scientific restraint pep- Epicurus’s model of cheese-and-friend– philosophy, he set up a school at his pered with more than a few jaw-drop- based sufficiency. Technology and afflu-

46 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org ence have made us great chasers of FURTHER READING: There are two and science. For a nice sourcebook Fame and Stuff, most likely to our anx- common Epicurus Readers available, in the differences between Stoicism, ious detriment, but just as you can’t un- one featuring translations by Eugene Skepticism, and Epicureanism, I’d pick squash a frog, you can’t unmake the O’Connor (Prometheus Books, 1993) up Hellenistic Philosophy: Introductory consequences of a vastly intercon- and the other by Brad Inwood and L. Readings also by Inwood and Gerson nected world afloat on the ubiquity of P. Gerson (Hackett Publishing, 1994). (Hackett Publishing, 1988). cheap plastic and cheaper bandwidth. They both have largely the same But as long as we keep Epicurus in our texts, both comprehensibly translated, rotation of People We Think About, but the introductory material differs. there is a chance we might insert a small O’Connor focuses on the biographi- Dale DeBakcsy is the author of The Cartoon mantra into our knee-jerk online retail cal and historical background of Epi- History of Humanism, Volume One (The Humanist therapy lifestyle: Wouldn’t I be happier curus, while the Inwood/Gerson has an Press, 2016). He is a frequent contributor to FI’s just buying a hunk of smoked gouda intro by D. S. Hutchinson that’s more Great Minds column and also writes the weekly and calling over a pal? an analysis of his place in philosophy Women in Science series at WomenYouShouldKnow.net.

GREAT MINDS EXCERPT

Selections from the Letter to Menoeceus Epicurus From The Epicurus Reader, edited and translated by Brad Inwood and L. P. Gerson. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1994.

picurus to Menoeceus, greetings: is absent we do everything in order to merely anticipated. So death, the most Let no one delay the study of have it. frightening of bad things, is nothing to Ephilosophy while young nor weary Get used to believing that death us; since when we exist, death is not of it when old. For no one is either too is nothing to us. For all good and yet present, and when death is pres- young or too old for the health of the bad consists in sense-experience, and ent, then we do not exist. Therefore, it soul. He who says either that the time death is the privation of sense-expe- is relevant neither to the living nor to for philosophy has not yet come or that rience. Hence, a correct knowledge it has passed is like someone who says of the fact that death is nothing to us that the time for happiness has not yet makes the mortality of life a matter for come or that it has passed. Therefore, contentment, not by adding a limitless both young and old must philosophize, time [to life] but by removing the long- “Get used to believing the latter so that although old he may ing for immortality. For there is nothing that death is nothing stay young in good things owing to fearful in life for one who has grasped to us.” gratitude for what has occurred, the that there is nothing fearful in the ab- former so that although young he too sence of life. Thus, he is a fool who says may be like an old man owing to his that he fears death not because it will lack of fear of what is to come. There- be painful when present but because the dead, since it does not affect the fore, one must practice the things it is painful when it is still to come. For former, and the latter do not exist. But which produce happiness, since if that that which while present causes no the many sometimes flee death as the is present we have everything and if it distress causes unnecessary pain when greatest of bad things and sometimes

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 47 choose it as a relief from the bad things for life itself. The unwavering contem- fearless in the face of chance. So when in life. But the wise man neither rejects plation of these enables one to refer we say that pleasure is the goal we do life nor fears death. For living does not every choice and avoidance to the not mean the pleasures of the profli- offend him, nor does he believe not health of the body and the freedom of gate or the pleasures of consumption, living to be something bad. And just the soul from disturbance, since this is as some believe, either from ignorance as he does not unconditionally choose the goal of a blessed life. For we do and disagreement or from deliberate the largest amount of food but the everything for the sake of being nei- misinterpretation, but rather the lack of most pleasant food, so he savors not ther in pain nor in terror. As soon as pain in the body and disturbance in the the longest time but the most pleas- we achieve this state every storm in the soul. For it is not drinking bouts and ant. He who advises the young man to soul is dispelled, since the animal is not continuous partying and enjoying boys live well and the old man to die well is in a position to go after some need nor and women, or consuming fish and the simple-minded, not just because of the to seek something else to complete other dainties of an extravagant table, pleasing aspects of life but because the good of the body and the soul. the same kind of practice produces a And this is why we say that plea- good life and a good death. sure is the starting-point and goal of One must reckon that of desires living blessedly. For we recognized some are natural, some groundless; this as our first innate good, and this and of the natural desires some are is our starting point for every choice necessary and some merely natural; and avoidance and we come to this by and of the necessary, some are neces- judging every good by the criterion of “Pleasure is the sary for happiness and some for free- feeling. And it is just because this is the ing the body from troubles and some first innate good that we do not choose starting-point and goal every pleasure, but sometimes we of living blessedly.” pass up many pleasures when we get a larger amount of what is unconge- nial from them. And we believe many “For there is nothing pains to be better than pleasures when a greater pleasure follows for a long which produce the pleasant life, but fearful in life for one while if we endure the pains. So every sober calculation which searches out who has grasped that pleasure is a good thing, since it has a the reasons for every choice and avoid- there is nothing fearful nature congenial [to us], but not every ance and drives out the opinions which one is to be chosen. Just as every pain are the sources of greatest turmoil for in the absence of life.” too is a bad thing, but not every one is men’s souls. such as to be always avoided. For who do you believe is We believe that self-sufficiency is better than a man who has pious a great good, not in order that we opinions about the gods, is always might make do with few things under fearless about death, has reasoned all circumstances, but so that if we do out the natural goal of life and under- not have a lot we can make do with stands that the limit of good things is few, being genuinely convinced that easy to achieve completely and easy those who least need extravagance to provide, and that the limit of bad enjoy it most; and that everything nat- things either has a short duration or ural is easy to obtain and whatever is causes little trouble? groundless is hard to obtain; and that Practice these and the related pre- simple flavors provide a pleasure equal cepts day and night, by yourself and to that of an extravagant life-style with a like-minded friend, and you will when all pain from want is removed, never be disturbed either when awake and barley cakes and water provide or in sleep, and you will live as a god the highest pleasure when someone among men. For a man who lives in want takes them. Therefore, be- among immortal goods is in no respect coming accustomed to simple, not like a mere mortal animal. extravagant, ways of life makes one completely healthy, makes man un- hesitant in the face of life’s necessary duties, puts us in better condition for Reprinted by permission of Hackett the times of extravagance which oc- Publishing Company, Inc. All rights re- casionally come along, and makes us served.

48 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org HIGH HERESY

The Likelihood of Religion Being True Michael Meyerson

ormonism is a sect of Chris- and air-tight, because they were to be archaeological, and scientific evidence tianity that has expanded to buried time and again by mountainous that concludes that the original settlers Minclude even more incredible waves on a journey across the ocean. of the Americas were not Semitic and stories than those found in standard They were to take flocks and herds from the Near East but Mongoloid Christianity. In addition to believing with enough food supplies for a year. people, who crossed the Bering bridge in the absurdities of the Old and New Eight such boats were built, each with during the most recent Ice Age to be- Testaments, Mormons need to believe a tight-fitting door. Once construction come the ancestors of today’s Indige- in the absurdities of the Book of Mor- was complete, the brother of Jared (the nous American population. mon, the Doctrines and Covenants, Book of Mormon does not disclose his The Book of Mormon is mainly con- and the Pearl of Great Price as well as name) explained to God that the de- cerned with the Nephite and Lamanite the sayings of a never-ending stream sign had not allowed for air and light tribes. Mormons believe that soon after of prophets. Philosopher and neurosci- and that without them they would be the death and ascension of Jesus, he entist Sam Harris makes the point that unable to breathe or see in the vessels. appeared in the Americas to visit the however unlikely it is that Christianity is God advised them to make a hole in true, it is nevertheless more likely to be the top and another hole in the bottom Nephites and Lamanites. Impressed true than Mormonism, because there of each boat so that when they needed are fewer unlikely phenomena posited air in the rolling vessels they could by mainstream Christianity than by open whichever hatch happened to be Mormonism. I’m sure non-Mormon on top. God also provided a solution Christians would agree. Certainly the for the lack of light by touching several “Brigham Young, the Mormon tradition offers a great wealth stones that then shone in the darkness. prophet who succeeded of absurdities. Devout Mormons believe this story Consider some examples: Mor- and are unconcerned about its improb- Joseph Smith, taught mons believe that Joseph Smith, their abilities. How could a few primitive that the moon and sun first prophet, was directed by an angel, men using basic tools build wooden are inhabited.” Moroni, to find buried gold plates that submarines capable of transporting were inscribed in “reformed Egyptian” people and animals and a huge stock with the religious history of an ancient of food and water for an ocean trip of by his visit, the tribes became Chris- people. Smith translated these writings 344 days? How would they keep the tian, but in 300–400 AD the Lamanites into English using “seers” consisting food from spoiling, and how would turned away from Christianity. God re- of two stones—Urim and Thummim. they deal with the human and animal sponded by punishing the Lamanites. Smith then returned the gold plates waste? Water in troughs for the animals to Moroni, making them unavailable would be flung around the vessels. He caused their skins to turn black so for others to inspect. The “translation” The Book of Mormon tells us that that they would become “loathsome” was published as the Book of Mormon in around 600 BC the Jaredites were and cursed the offspring of unions be- in 1830. joined by three tribes of Israelites who tween the newly black Americans and The book describes how in ca. 2400 had also crossed the ocean to the white Americans (2 Nephi 5:21–23). BC God instructed the Jaredites, a tribe Americas; these four tribes from the The tribes engaged in centuries of war- living in Mesopotamia, to build boats Near East were the original settlers of fare, which finally ended after a great according to his design. The boats the American continent. Mormons hold battle in upstate New York on the hill were to be small and light, leakproof to this belief in defiance of historical, of Cumorah in 385 AD. The Nephites

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 49 were vanquished and disappeared several New Testament impossibilities original sin and saved from eternity in from “history.” According to the Book such as a man walking on water, turn- Hell. The introduction of multiple su- of Mormon, the Lamanites became the ing water into wine, and a virgin birth. pernatural entities into Christianity not American Indians. Consider only the creation story only adds more unlikely phenomena Like other Christians, Mormons found in the first book of the Old Testa- to the belief system but further com- believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy ment—Genesis. Here we read that the plicates matters because Christianity Ghost. In addition, they believe that world was created by God in six days insists on holding to the Judaic belief God the Father used to live on Earth as (approximately six thousand years ago). in only one god. Christianity addresses a human and is married. God also has a God made the first person, Adam, and this issue by consolidating God and the father who also has a father and so on. from one of his ribs he made Eve. God new supernatural entities, Jesus and There are several other gods in whom instructed Adam and Eve not to eat the ghost, into a fourth supernatural Mormons also believe. In fact, Smith fruit from a certain tree. A talking snake entity called the Trinity. Judaism is van- taught that in the beginning it was a tempted Eve to eat from the tree. She council of gods that planned the cre- did this and gave some fruit to Adam to ation of the world and its inhabitants. eat. When God found out that they had Brigham Young, the prophet who eaten the forbidden fruit, he cursed the succeeded Joseph Smith, taught that snake, the Earth, and Eve and banished the moon and sun are inhabited. the couple from the Garden of Eden. “The introduction of This infantile and absurd explanation of multiple supernatural how the world and life came about has no further significance for Judaism. entities into Christianity The same cannot be said for Chris- not only adds more “[Hell] is immeasurably tianity. Christianity has grafted onto this unlikely phenomena worse than any punish- Old Testament creation story a new to the belief system sin, a new punishment, a new place of ments described in the torture, and new supernatural entities. but further compli- Old Testament.” The new sin is that because of Adam’s cates matters because misdemeanor in having eaten the for- Christianity insists on bidden fruit, all subsequent humans Mormons take part in an endow- are sinners from birth (original sin). The holding to the Judaic ment ceremony at which they are given new punishment for the new sin is that belief in only one god.” special underwear embroidered with all humans are destined to spend eter- Masonic symbols (Smith was a Freema- nity in a new place of torture, a fiery son). The garments provide symbolic furnace called “Hell.” The new pun- ishingly unlikely to be true, but, to ex- protection from temptation and evil. ishment is immeasurably worse than tend Harris’s argument, whatever prob- Some also believe that the underwear any punishments described in the Old ability you assign to Judaism being has supernatural powers providing pro- Testament, which mercifully ended with true, the increased number of unlikely tection from physical dangers. At the the death of the transgressor(s). supernatural phenomena in Christianity same ceremony, participants are taught According to Christianity, this state means that you have to assign a lesser gestures and passwords that, follow- of affairs remained unchanged for probability to Christianity being true. ing death, enable them to pass angels about four thousand years until God, in Jews would agree. guarding the way to heaven. an attempt to rectify this now very com- Harris is correct. The more unlikely But we needn’t dissect ridiculous plicated situation, further compounded phenomena within a belief system, the Mormon doctrines in detail; there’s the matter. God sent a subdivision of less likely it is that the belief system can a more fundamental way to critique himself, a ghost, to visit Earth and im- be true. Go back further in time and it them. We need only extrapolate back- pregnate a betrothed Palestinian virgin, should be clear that the sun being di- ward from Mormonism to consider Mary. Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is vine is more likely to be true than any Christianity and Judaism. the son of God and is also God—and subsequent religion’s beliefs. It makes Christianity evolved from Judaism. is therefore his own father. God/Jesus sense that those in need of a religion Christianity has added to the Judaic arranged to have Jesus sacrificed so should revert to sun worship. The world Old Testament a further book of in- that by his death Jesus could atone would also be a much better place if credible stories—the New Testament. on behalf of mankind for the sin that they did so. In addition to supernatural Old Testa- none of us committed. Jesus’s sacri- ment phenomena such as the parting fice meant that we could all be saved of the sea, a widow’s son being raised eternal punishment. There is, however, from the dead, or a river turned to a catch—only those who accept Jesus Michael Meyerson is a radiologist, skeptic, tennis blood, Christians must also believe in and believe this story are excused their hacker, and writer.

50 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org THINKING OUT LOUD POEM Love and Time Max Jacob

Death: The Great Blackboard Eraser (originally dedicated to Michel Leiris)

Revue Européenne, August 1923 Jeremiah Bartlett Les Pénitents en maillots roses, 1925

When a white arm slips off its glove You recall an absent love When like a breeze in a field of wheat A skirt rustling near your feet o me, one of the more in- female—no one who is deceased Brushes against your dancing shoe triguing aspects of life—in remembers even the slightest de- Something lightly troubles you. Tparticular, “intelligent” life— tail of his or her life on Earth, as is that once a life has ended it is the memory has simply vanished, When someone sings to the harpsichord as if it never happened, at least to ceased to exist. Even if that were Every note and every chord the one who lived it. The reason is not the case, it would not be long Speak of her, only of her. simple: As the memory is housed (in cosmological terms) before ev- Autumn and the dying leaves that stir in the brain and the brain would be erything that one had learned and The train car carrying you away dead and hence no longer func- experienced while on Earth was Recall a kiss you shared one day tioning, any and all memory of forgotten; indeed, much of the in- In Algiers on holiday! one’s life on Earth must cease to formation received by the brain is Look at yourself in the mirror well! exist the instant that death occurs. forgotten long before a life ends. All that’s left of what was dawn As memory is an intrinsic part of life, That is the nature of memory. Is evening and the vesper bell. it follows that without life there is no Only a handful of uncommon What has Time, to love unknown, memory. Granted, there are those people are capable of remembering Done to Eleonore who believe the opposite: that life, everything they feel or experience While leaving you sick and sore? and with it memory, somehow con- while alive; for everyone else, mem- tinues to endure in some form or ory is as capricious as it is ephem- Fine love, oh Mediterranean Sea other after physical death. But this eral. As noted, some people believe I’ve kept from all your gentleness is belief, not fact, and as such can- that life—and with it memory—con- And from your sweet old-fashioned dress not be empirically proven. Or, to tinues on after one’s life on Earth has Nothing but a mocking memory. be more precise, that argument has ended; others believe that the Pompom of broccoli green, rose-red, not been proven so far; whether it human spirit returns, perhaps in Venus was born in your bed could ever be proven is uncertain. some other guise, to live again. Under an apple-green baldaquin! As of now, however, any “life” after These, however, are beliefs, not the one on Earth remains a matter facts; as far as is known at this time, In Ocean, she’d have been a man. of faith or belief. human lives are finite and given one What this means in practical to a customer. There are no do- terms is that the memory of one’s overs; neither is there any verifiable Max Jacob (1876–1944) was a French poet, novelist, play- life resides solely in the memories proof of a life beyond the one on wright, and painter, close companion to Picasso. He helped of those who are still alive. George Earth. As it is, we must assume that to create Modernist poetry in France, and his most famous Washington does not remember life has meaning only while it is book is the collection of radical prose poems, Le Cornet à that he was the father of our coun- being lived. And even then, that dés (The Dice Cup), published in 1917. A Jewish convert to try and its first president, nor does meaning is filtered through the in- Roman Catholicism, Jacob died in the Nazi transit camp of Adolf Hitler remember that he was tellect and personal experiences of Drancy outside of Paris in March 1944. This poem was a heartless monster responsible for the one who is determining its rele- translated by Rosanna Warren, who is a poet, translator, and the deaths of millions of his fellow vance and value. Like snowflakes, professor of Comparative Literature in the Committee on human beings. Prince or pauper, no two meanings are exactly alike. Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Her most recent beggar or king, saint or sinner, And like snowflakes, once life and collection of poems is Ghost in a Red Hat (2011). Published master or slave, benevolent or ra- meaning are gone, they are gone with thanks to Mme Sylvia Lorant-Colle and Éditions pacious, genius or cretin, male or forever. Gallimard.

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 51 THE HUMANIST SOAPBOX

Perceptions of Humanism Dan Davis

greatly enjoyed the dialogue be- the fourth century BCE (Protagoras: divine dictator (punishable by eternal tween historian Yuval Noah Harari “Man is the measure of all things”). He torture). Iand philosopher A. P. Norman (“The maintains that this concept is broad One fundamentalist perception of Meaning and Legacy of Humanism,” enough to encompass an assertion secular humanism was expressed in the FI, April/May 2018). Who would have that “humanity is the ultimate source April 12, 2018, issue of The Stream, an thought that a debate over the defi- of authority and that serving the needs online journal that describes itself as nition of a single word could be so of humanity and perfecting humanity follows: “The national daily champion- interesting and thought-provoking? are the ultimate aims or ‘the supreme ing freedom, smaller government and Apparently the definition of humanism good.’” The shadow side of such an human dignity [sic]. The Stream offers varies not only according to personal assertion is its potential use as a sup- a rich and lively source for breaking perception but also according to aca- porting argument for evils such as Na- news, Christian inspiration and conser- demic discipline. zism and Stalinism. vative commentary while challenging Norman responds that Harari’s char- the worst in the mainstream media.” acterizations are dangerous because The relevant article, by Senior Ed- they could “easily frighten religious itor Tom Gilson, is titled “Secular Hu- know-nothings into scapegoating humanism’s Awful Inhumanity.” Gilson manists” and “exacerbate anti-intel- applies his own unique style of rea- lectual fervor” (which, of course, would soning, distilled to the points below, be nothing new). He argues for secular to conclude that secular humanism is “Ultimately, the two humanism as the latest iteration of hu- morally bankrupt (the observations in scholars ... are primar- manism’s evolution, which, in addition parentheses are my own): ily arguing over whose to relying on science and reason, is 1. Secular humanists are atheists. (Ap- now expanding its moral concern to parently there are no non-atheists definition should be all sentient beings and the planet itself. among us.) generally accepted.” He asks Harari to “cede the term hu- 2. Some secular philosophers have ar- manism to self-identified humanists,” gued that atheism “means” there’s a request unlikely to be embraced by no such thing as thinking. (Gilson is historians as a whole even if granted obviously conflating atheism with by Harari himself. Ultimately, the two his peculiar interpretation of deter- Harari defines humanism as “a scholars seem to have little or no dis- minism.) worldview that sanctifies humanity and agreement about philosophical or 3. Since some secular philosophers sees humanity as the ultimate source ethical principles; they are primarily have argued that atheism means of authority.” He suggests that secular arguing over whose definition should there’s no such thing as thinking, all humanism is a small subset within that be generally accepted. atheists must be hard determinists category that may not sanctify human- On the surface, a religious funda- who “don’t believe in thinking.” (I ity at all but instead views authority as mentalist’s definition of humanism can’t even guess how he makes this “inherent in science.” would not be too different from Hara- leap.) According to Harari, most histori- ri’s: a sanctification of humanity as the 4. Therefore, acceptance of secular ans regard humanism as a belief that ultimate source of moral authority. Fun- humanism requires renouncing the morality and ethics are determined by damentalists, of course, regard their existence of human choice and humans rather than mythical beings, god as the ultimate source of moral thought. (I must have forgotten that a concept with historical and philo- authority and therefore see any form part of the Secular Humanist Oath.) sophical antecedents dating back to of humanism as a repudiation of their 5. Gilson writes, “Princeton ethicist

52 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org Peter Singer says we have a duty to from the definition of humanism en- among us have been noisy enough to avoid ‘speciesism.’ We’re no differ- tirely, since it seems to have evolved create a perception, particularly among ent from any other animal, he says; beyond its title? religionists, that their position is shared in fact, an 18-month-old child has I believe we should change the by all secular humanists. It doesn’t help less mental power—and therefore name of our life stance to one that that most of the religionists embracing less worth—than a chimp.” (Peter better reflects its principles. Giving this perception, such as Tom Gilson of Singer said it; Peter Singer is a sec- ourselves a new name would take a The Stream, have a murky understand- ular humanist; therefore, all secular concerted effort, but it would not be ing of determinism at best. humanists must believe it. Similarly, without precedent. Awhile back, the According to Gilson and his ilk, Jeff Sessions and Sarah Huckabee term gay only meant happy and care- we’ve all accepted the theory that Sanders, in their capacity as con- free. Non-straight males adopted the every choice and event is inevitable, spicuously pious Christians, have term as a non-pejorative title, and so- predetermined by antecedent causes said their “holy” book justifies re- ciety accepted this usage within a sur- and conditions comprising links in an moving babies from their parents to prisingly short period. eternal causal chain. The Gilsonites be warehoused in chain-link enclo- Probably the hardest aspect of a self-righteously suggest that we’ve em- sures; therefore, all Christians must braced this theory because it precludes condone this despicable practice.) the existence of free will and thereby 6. Secular humanist atheism is “hu- absolves us of having to take responsi- manly impossible” yet “still they bility for our actions. prefer it to God—any God, even Most of us are aware, of course, that the gracious God of the Bible, “We’re all still not all secular humanists are absolute whose supreme love gives us determinists, and even the hard-liners the real worth and dignity that an secular rationalists. take pains to explain how they can— empty universe cannot.” (Obviously Let’s consider adopting and do—accept responsibility for their he’s referring to the god of the Bi- that name.” actions. (Admittedly, I’m generally con- zarro Bible, the only version depict- fused by these explanations.) Many of ing God as something other than us, including me, believe genetics, the monster described by all the experience, and prior conditioning other versions.) name change would be deciding upon create a probability that our responses Gilson’s twisted logic and inane the new moniker. The term bright has to given stimuli will be predetermined, conclusions are weirdly reminiscent of been proposed and largely rejected. I while still believing that elements of Nazi propaganda regarding Jews. If once favored naturalist (as in nothing is randomness and free choice can, and his levels of distortion and delusion are supernatural) but then realized people sometimes do, affect outcomes. anywhere near typical, our prospects might confuse us with forest rangers The extent to which predetermined for peaceful coexistence with funda- or nudists. My current candidate is ra- factors control our behavior is not mentalism are close to nonexistent. tionalist, as proposed by Norman, or, quantifiable and probably never will Those of us who aren’t historians, even better, secular rationalist. These be. The debate over this issue is un- philosophers, or fundamentalists per- titles have the advantages of clarity resolvable, a secular equivalent to the ceive humanism as anywhere between (unlike humanist) and the absence of a theological argument about how many “Who cares?” and some version or human-centric connotation. They also angels can dance on the head of a pin. combination of the viewpoints de- eliminate the historian/philosopher Proclaiming that the matter is settled scribed above. Even in the case of terminology conflict. Fundamentalists, seems more than a little pretentious Norman’s perception (which probably of course, will continue to demonize and only provides ammunition to our approximates that of most Free Inquiry us regardless of our chosen name, but detractors. readers), the “human” component is stepping away from the “humanist” In any case, we’re all still secular ra- problematic. A few of us (me included) designation will at least confuse them tionalists. Let’s consider adopting that are uncomfortable identifying our- further and provide one less target for name. selves as secular humanists simply be- their outrage. cause the term comes across as too hu- As noted above, Norman is con- man-centric, an impression enhanced cerned that Harari’s definition of hu- by Harari’s definition. manism provides an argument for As Harari suggests, Norman’s ver- those who would further demonize us. sion of secular humanism doesn’t sanc- In the same vein, perceptions of hu- tify humanity at all but instead looks to manism can’t be fully examined with- Dan Davis is a misanthropic but generally decent science and reason for authority. Why, out addressing the determinism de- curmudgeon. He has no relevant academic cre- then, shouldn’t this version be removed bate. Apparently the hard determinists dentials.

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 53 MEDICAL MUSINGS

The Biology of Addiction John Frantz

et us speculate about the ten- biology and genetics have strong ex- allowance was insufficient to support dency we have to become ad- planatory power in helping us under- her habit. Neither of them was aware of Ldicted to substances such as al- stand the world in which we live—and the connection. The headache of caf- cohol, caffeine, and cocaine. Caffeine in which we must survive, if we survive feine withdrawal is intense and not re- is our primary example. Can there at all. lieved by morphine in doses adequate be any countervailing advantage as- Soon after settling in Wisconsin to relieve the pain of war wounds. This sociated with the ability to become in 1955, I was introduced to real cof- is illustrated by a lady with severe ab- addicted? Yes. Addicts tolerate fatal fee-drinking. A Norwegian patient dominal pain from pancreatitis. After doses of the substances to which they asked me if he could drink coffee. He several days of intravenous feeding, are addicted without even getting thought I was joking when I told him she got a severe headache not relieved sleepy. Imagine vegetarian animals “Sure, just hold it to less than sev- by the large doses of morphine she enteen cups per day.” His face fell, was receiving. A more detailed history because he drank almost twice that revealed that she normally drank iced much. Then there was a barber who tea all day long. Intravenous caffeine complained of headaches every Thurs- relieved her headache instantly. day for ten years. After a rather exten- Decades ago I was explaining caf- sive get-acquainted conversation, the feine withdrawal headaches to another cause of this unusual complaint was teenage patient. Along the way I men- “Addicts tolerate fatal revealed. He had not been a coffee tioned that chocolate contains theo- drinker prior to marriage and finishing bromine, an alkaloid differing from doses of the substances barber school. He drank the beverage caffeine by only one methyl group. to which they are heavily now but had never learned Despite its similarity to caffeine, I told addicted without even how to make coffee for himself. Thurs- her, theobromine is not known to be day was his day off, and there was no addictive. She brightened up and getting sleepy.” business partner or wife to offer him mentioned that when she was three, coffee. He followed my advice to carry she had a puppy who ate everything two thermoses of coffee everywhere that she did—including large amounts he went on his day off, and his Thurs- of chocolate. When she found out that day headaches ceased. dogs could be fatally poisoned by a surviving a drought because they be- Headache as the withdrawal small amount of chocolate, she won- come tolerant of toxic chemicals in a symptom of caffeine addiction is not dered why her dog had never been plant that is also surviving the drought. sufficiently known. For instance, the poisoned. My explanation about caf- If there were few or no other plants to mother of a teenage daughter once feine must have been quite cogent, eat, addiction would be a small price brought the young lady into my office because she inferred promptly that to pay for the ability to thrive by eat- because of a sudden onset of severe theobromine tolerance—brought ing such a plant. Opium poppies have headache. The crucial information: the about by her dog’s having consumed edible leaves, tasty seeds, nutritious mother had recently told the daughter slowly increasing quantities of choc- bulbs—and morphine throughout the that she would have to buy her own olate during puppyhood—explained plant. These principles of evolutionary (caffeinated) soft drinks, but the child’s her pet’s survival.

54 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org This episode led me, much later, to isode. (Drinking Afghan tap water fre- It may be pertinent that some species develop my thinking about the survival quently causes dysentery in foreigners of insects have evolved to look like the of the many insects that eat poisonous who have not grown up exposed to the toxic species to get a free ride. (Inci- food to avoid being eaten. Did we in- many bacteria that contaminate virtually dentally—and apropos of nothing in herit addiction from a common ances- all of the local water.) Today I drink a cup particular—small doses of caffeine are tor of mammals and insects, one that of coffee only occasionally, and I dislike fatal to snails and slugs.) had evolved the ability to eat poison- tea. Nonetheless, if I have one cup of ous food and store the poison without coffee at lunch several days in a row, I John Frantz, MD, graduated from the University of being harmed? Was that trait harmless can depend on developing a headache Rochester Medical School in 1946 and served in enough that later evolution would not at about 4:00 p.m. on the first day I do the U.S. Army Air Force as a research scientist. select against it? Apparently it was. not have coffee—a headache that can He practiced medicine for over sixty years, includ- From 1968–1970, I served overseas be relieved only by caffeine. A former ing in the Peace Corps, which he served with his in the Peace Corps. Though I wasn’t addict becoming re-addicted unnatu- wife, Mary Hodge Frantz, MD, and their three fond of tea, I drank much tea instead rally rapidly is called tachyphylaxis. school-aged daughters. Writing for his patients of water. That way I could get boiled Presumably, addiction has sufficient and the general public was an important “hobby” water without creating a political ep- benefits that it was not bred out of us. that has continued since his 2005 retirement.

HUMANISM AT LARGE

What Did the Lions Eat on Noah’s Ark? Douglas Whaley

oah had no idea how old he “cubit” was—and things seemed to be had never questioned him before— really was, but since he was progressing better than expected. That well, okay, they’d made sure he was Ncertainly the oldest person he was good, because the weather was sober when he first described the knew it seemed like he must be six changing. Ominous clouds presaged whole venture, but then his descrip- hundred, so that’s what he claimed as ugly storms approaching like troopers. tions of God’s wrath and the coming his age. Eventually he’d really come to But this morning Noah was startled deluge had set them to working like a believe that number. It’s what he told by a deputation of family members, dedicated ant colony. his eventual biographer. come to him in a body and obviously When the bad dreams started com- bearing a prepared message. Seth, his ing, the ones about God Almighty de- oldest, was the leader, but his other stroying the world with a great flood sons, Ham and Japheth, were at his and commanding the construction of side, and their wives and the oldest of a great ark, he didn’t want to believe the children made up the rest of the “But have you ever it at first, but God in those dreams pack. captured and then was very angry and very insistent. So Seth spoke. “Dad, we’ve been Noah, terrified, had done what he was talking, and I’m afraid we have to face herded fourteen told. The dreams contained detailed the fact that this whole venture is a giraffes and dragged instructions, hazily remembered as failure. It’s time to admit that while we them back here all the most dreams are, and he’d had to fill tried, we should throw it all up and go in the blanks creatively. But now, amaz- back to working the farm while there’s way from Africa?” ingly, the ark was more or less built—it still time to get in a harvest.” —Ham had taken forever to figure out what a Noah was astounded. The family

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 55 In a voice that betrayed nothing of Noah pointed at the temporary zoo Seth jumped back into the fray with, his advanced age, Noah thundered, area where the animals were housed. “And, Dad, even if we make it through “What do you mean?” “There they are!” this big storm you say is coming and Seth, stepping back slightly but de- Ham jumped in. “No, Dad, they’re offload the animals, what then? How termined to explain, persevered. “We not! Sure, yeah, we’ve got enough could they all possibly thrive?” just can’t make this ark thing work! of the domestic animals, but the wild “What do you mean?” asked Noah, Sure, we went out and gathered all ones … not a chance! Take the gi- sick of these questions. the animals we could capture, but lots raffes. They’re a clean animal so we “Well, for example, what will the of others we simply couldn’t find, and should have seven pairs, fourteen in all. lions eat on their first day free? And the ones that we did corral aren’t all But have you ever captured and then the other carnivores? Whole species of childbearing age. We’re supposed herded fourteen giraffes and dragged will be gobbled up before they can to have seven couples of clean animals them back here all the way from Af- propagate!” and two couples of unclean animals, rica? Well what we have left is seven of Noah raised his hands. “Stop, stop! and, well, we just don’t have anything them, not fourteen, and those seven Enough thinking! God will provide, I like those numbers.” consist of six males and one female. told you. No more questions!” Nobody in the giraffe pen is a happy As if on cue, there came a tre- camper.” mendous thunderclap and rain began Seth added, “And there are so pouring. Everyone scrambled and fran- many species we don’t have any of, tically began loading animals onto the much less the required number. What ark, which swayed dramatically in a ris- will God think about that?” ing wind. Noah paused, considering. Hmm. The first few days on the ark, bob- “Well … well, God will provide … I bing and swinging in circles during the “‘Hey!’ ejaculated Ham, suppose. Don’t worry, guys. Species storm, were chaotic, and it was all the proud of his prowess as go extinct all the time. Let’s just forget small crew could do to keep the whole a carpenter. ‘None of us about the dinosaurs, okay? Ugh! Who shebang afloat. On the third day, find- needs them?” ing meat for the carnivores achieved know how to steer it, “Fine,” ventured Japheth, “but a temporary fix when the tigers some- but I’m damned sure it what about food? Right now we’re how got into the unicorn pen, slaugh- won’t sink.’” having trouble feeding our menagerie, tering all the inhabitants but leaving and once we’ve packed everybody a pile of meat that lasted for a short into the ark, things will be ten times period. worse. We simply don’t have room In the end the meat problem solved for the provisions we’ll need if we’re itself. Hundreds of corpses banged up stuck on board for more than a day or against the ark and were easily hauled two. After that the animals will have to aboard. It was messy and awful cut- be fed to one another, defeating the ting up bodies, but that problem was whole purpose.” solved by culling the ample floating “Start with the lions,” Ham ven- mass for babies and small children, tured. “They eat lots of meat, and that which were then dumped whole into meat consists of the other passengers, the relevant carnivore pens. including us if other sources dry up. It’s It was horrible work that they all the same with all the carnivores.” hated, but, as Noah told his little band, “God will provide,” Noah mum- “God will provide.” bled again, eyes closed, trying not think about it. Genesis “Not good enough, Father Noah,” insisted one of the wives, the one with Chapter 6 the big mouth. “We need answers be- . . . fore we climb onto that floating leaky 5 And God saw that the wickedness shack!” of man was great in the earth, and that “Hey!” ejaculated Ham, proud of every imagination of the thoughts of his prowess as a carpenter. “None of us his heart was only evil continually. know how to steer it, but I’m damned 6 And it repented the Lord that he sure it won’t sink … as long as we don’t had made man on the earth, and it hit a mountain or anything.” grieved him at his heart.

56 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org 7 And the Lord said, I will destroy of life, from under heaven; and every upon the earth; and the waters in- man whom I have created from the thing that is in the earth shall die. creased, and bare up the ark, and it face of the earth; both man, and beast, 18 But with thee will I establish my was lift up above the earth. and the creeping thing, and the fowls covenant; and thou shalt come into the 18 And the waters prevailed, and of the air; for it repenteth me that I ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, were increased greatly upon the earth; have made them. and thy sons’ wives with thee. and the ark went upon the face of the 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes waters. of the Lord. … 19 And the waters prevailed ex- 13 And God said unto Noah, The ceedingly upon the earth; and all the end of all flesh is come before me; for high hills, that were under the whole the earth is filled with violence through heaven, were covered. them; and, behold, I will destroy them 20 Fifteen cubits upward did the wa- with the earth. “Noah raised his hands. ters prevail; and the mountains were 14 Make thee an ark of gopher ‘Stop, stop! covered. wood; rooms shalt thou make in the 21 And all flesh died that moved ark, and shalt pitch it within and with- Enough thinking!’” upon the earth, both of fowl, and of out with pitch. cattle, and of beast, and of every 15 And this is the fashion which thou creeping thing that creepeth upon the shalt make it of: The length of the ark earth, and every man: shall be three hundred cubits, the Chapter 7 22 All in whose nostrils was the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height . . . breath of life, of all that was in the of it thirty cubits. 2 Of every clean beast thou shalt dry land, died. 16 A window shalt thou make to the take to thee by sevens, the male and ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it his female: and of beasts that are not above; and the door of the ark shalt clean by two, the male and his female. thou set in the side thereof; with lower, 3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, second, and third stories shalt thou the male and the female; to keep seed make it. alive upon the face of all the earth. … Douglas Whaley is an emeritus professor of law 17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring 5 And Noah did according unto all at The Ohio State University, a prolific blogger, a flood of waters upon the earth, to that the Lord commanded him. … and the author of the atheist thriller Imaginary destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath 17 And the flood was forty days Friend (2008).

You can make a lasting impact on the future of secular humanism . . . when you provide for Free Inquiry in your will.

The Council for Secular Humanism and Free Inquiry are leading voices of dissent and discussion in fields ranging from religion to church-state separation, civil rights, and ethical living. You can take an enduring step to preserve their vitality when you provide for Free Inquiry in your will. Your bequest to the Council for Secular Humanism, a program of the Center for Inquiry, Inc., will help to provide for the future of secular humanism as it helps to keep Free Inquiry financially secure. Depending on your tax situation, a charitable bequest to the Council may have little impact on the net size of your estate—or may even result in a greater amount being available to your beneficiaries. We would be happy to work with you and your attorney in the development of a will or estate plan that meets your wishes. A variety of arrangements are possible, including: gifts of a fixed amount or a percentage of your estate; living trusts or gift annuities, which provide you with a lifetime income; or a contingent bequest that provides for Free Inquiry only if your primary beneficiaries do not survive you.

For more information, contact: Martina Fern, vice president for philanthropy, at (716) 636-7571, ext. 426. All inquiries are held in the strictest confidence.

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 57 REVIEWS

Why No God Cares If Ken Miller Has Free Will Gregory S. Paul

lthough Kenneth Miller, a pro-evolution cell and molecu- The Human Instinct, by Kenneth Miller (Simon and Schuster, Alar biologist, is within the mod- 2017, ISBN 978-1476790268). 304 pp. Hardcover, $26.00. ern liberal, science-friendly wing of Roman Catholics, in the end he is a creationist in the sense that he believes there really is a supernatural creator deity. As such Miller had been working to reconcile the speculative existence of the Catholic god with the natural origin of his special creation, Homo sapiens. In The Human Instinct, Miller focuses on the alleged presence of human free will, which unlike our having at least some reason and es- logical implications that badly need Evolutionary creationist Miller pecially consciousness, is a matter of addressing to assess the big picture. wants us to accept as plausible that the major dispute. In doing so, Miller does I am not going to engage in a creator relied upon Darwinian natural what theists frequently do: he com- detailed discussion on the non/real- selection to create free will–possessing partmentalizes the subject in a way ity of free will. As interesting and beings whose post-death souls are that makes the critical contradictions ultimately important as the question worthy of, and disposed to dwell in, its within the proposition that a good and is, my provisional opinion is that the everlasting paradise. A critical prob- data are not yet sufficient to answer lem is that even if bioevolution can the question. That said, if we do have generate big brains that have the free- free will, it is not all that much to write dom to choose, how the heck does home about. We are all so tied up a creator know what it’s going to get by assorted compulsions and addic- out of a free-wheeling, goalless sys- tions of genetic and experiential origin tem with no predetermined outcome? “Miller does what regarding desires, fears, and needs. It’s Miller agrees with the widely held con- theists frequently do: not much of a gift from a creator. clusion that if most dinosaurs had not What I am going to focus on is why gone extinct sixty-six million years ago he compartmentalizes Miller’s not-out-in-the-open ultimate (primarily because of a random giant the subject.” agenda shows that people have a real asteroid impact), it’s very unlikely we choice in what to do—from deciding mammalian primates would be writing on unhealthy bacon and sausage ver- and reading about whether we have sus yogurt for breakfast to whether free will. What Miller does not come or not to accept the grace of Christ. close to doing is explaining how evo- fair creator exists less obvious. In par- This is not only defective because it is lutionary randomness is in accord with ticular, Miller is prone to claiming that over-compartmentalized, it is a waste the Holy Trinity’s project to have clever he addresses deity-related subjects of time, because the state of the creatures ardently petition a third of its as a scientist rather than from a theo- planet makes it impossible that any divinity for its mercy. logical perspective, even though his creator cares whether or not humans It is true that evolution churns out arguments often have important theo- have freedom of choice. lots and lots of convergent organisms,

58 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org but during that same time it so far has biological sort produced by natural This would fiercely violate the absolute come up with just one human-level evolution. There is nothing particularly need for human free will. intelligence. This is strong evidence divine about that either, so what is the The problem is that one way or that intellectualism is not one of the point of the contradictory compart- another—whether it be Ken Ham’s things that natural selection selects for mentalized argument? Miller comes special creation, Michael Behe’s intel- on a common basis. Miller tries to get across as muddled and inconsistent, ligent-design creation, or Ken Miller’s around the improbability of deity-wor- which is not surprising because he is evolutionary creation—any creator shipping apes being a low statistical trying to pound the obsolete square has out of callous and cruel crimi- probability by speculating that perhaps peg of faith-based supernaturalism nal negligence or outright delibera- octopi could become smart enough to into the round hole of what is our sci- tion created a horrific planet infested have free will. Is Miller serious? Dating ence-based natural world reality. with one deadly disease after another. back 300 million years in the fossil Now, about human free will and a Meanwhile, the creator not even both- record, octopi have never shown indi- creator of the universe caring about ered to equip children with adequate cations of developing the sort of high it. Although the compartmentalizing immune systems to defend them- intelligence that primates took a much Miller does not go into it, free will has shorter time to produce. Probably in become of colossal importance to the part because the boneless cephalo- thesis that we are the creation one way pods do not live in the terrestrial hab- or another of a benign super deity, itats that are likely best suited—if not which is probably an important reason critical—for the evolution of tool- and Miller has written a book defending religion-inventing organisms. There is the existence of human mental choice. an air of theological desperation in this That in turn is because there is a huge wild proposition. and obvious problem with the notion “If we do have free will, Nor does Miller appreciate the that we are the creation of a god that it is not all that much to scarcity of geological time for mindless is anywhere close to perfect in its write home about.” evolution to fiddle around cooking up goodness. Namely, its project to put high-order intelligence without trying. human souls into an eternal utopia has With the sun getting hotter all the unfolded at the heavy price of tremen- time, about 10 percent each billion dous suffering both for nonhumans (as years, the planet will not be able to I discussed in the June/July 2018 FI) avoid extreme global heating that will and for people. make what we’ll experience in coming The leading theological effort to selves against their toxic habitat. On centuries like sleeping through a New explain away this colossal mess con- top of that, the human reproductive Orleans summer night without air con- tends that because the creator is a fair system is an inane Rube Goldberg ditioning—very bad but not outright entity rather than an absolute dictator, scheme guaranteed to produce bad lethal. The details are unclear, but in it does not want the human souls that results most of the time. half a billion years or so solar heating worship it forever in its perfect heaven As a result, of the 400 billion Homo will become so intense that the oceans to be automatons that did not choose sapiens conceptions to date, about will evaporate and even the poles will to do so. There are patent yawning three quarters have died before birth be so hot that only small heat-resistant holes in this argument that I detailed and half of the around 100 billion creatures will survive. Seeing as how in a 2009 article in Philosophy and born have been ruthlessly tortured to it took 4.5 billion years with a lot of Theology. death by childhood diseases. Also, statistical luck to unintentionally come To be able to make an informed, Christianity did not show up until half up with human brains, to think that intelligent, free will choice on their of those were born, and since then sans people, something else such as eternal fates—and thereby avoid most people have heard little or noth- octopi could become similarly smart being unfairly denied heaven via the ing about its scriptures. This has left a in the additional half billion years is a grace of Christ through lack of oppor- mere ten billion or so mentally capable big stretch. tunity to make said choice—every sin- humans who know about the word of Miller makes it clear that he is gle human soul that is conceived must an Abrahamic god. So there can be concerned that if people think the grow up to be a mentally healthy adult not the slightest doubt that any cre- human brain is a computer, they will with solid knowledge of the message ator is a barbaric, immoral entity that not think that it is something special; of Christ. Otherwise, one or more is is in no manner prolife or particularly it lacks a connection with the divine. going to unfairly be denied heaven, concerned about human free will. He even cites C. S. Lewis on the topic. or if he or she ends up there without That being hard fact, Miller’s effort Yet he acknowledges—he has to, in choosing the option, he or she will to demonstrate that evolution is com- view of the science-based side of his be stuck worshipping God forever patible with a creator allowing free will thesis—that brains are machines of a whether he or she wants to or not. to evolve in humans, even if correct

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 59 as it may well be, is pointless when it because there is no logical or decent and intelligent design creationists, but comes to the faith-based speculation way to explain how a good god could he has refused offers to engage with that that creator is a loving moral entity allow the horrific deaths of billions atheist critics of his efforts, saying he intent on making sure all humans have and billions of kids, which wrecks free does not see a purpose in doing so. In free and informed choice on having a will theodicy, so they don’t even try. other words, he does not see that it pleasant afterlife. Not even close. Instead, merely mentioning the sub- serves his agenda to do so. Readers of Miller makes no mention of this ject alerts the world to how a benign The Human Instinct may wish to keep problem, nor has any theologian or creator cannot exist. And in the end that in mind. scriptures. I know because I have done religion is propaganda. I sent a PDF of a literature search. (If anyone knows my Philosophy and Theology paper to of a theodicy argument that explicitly Miller and other leading theologians discusses the mass death of non- and received nary a word in reply, Gregory S. Paul is an independent researcher, ana- adults, please send a letter to the including in the theological literature. lyst, and author. His latest book is The Princeton editor.) Why do they ignore an issue Why? Because they have no answer. Field Guide to Dinosaurs (Princeton University Press, of such enormous import? Obviously Miller has debated fundamentalist 2010).

The Source of Self Kenneth Nahigian

t was not what I expected but something better. In this book, psycholo- Neither Ghost nor Machine: The Emergence and Nature Igist Jeremy Sherman turns a light on of Selves, by Jeremy Sherman, foreword by Dr. Terrence the mystery of goal-oriented behavior Deacon (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017, in a mechanistic world. What is the ISBN 978-0-231-17332-2). 312 pp. Hardcover, $90.00; source of purpose? How do aims arise softcover, $30.00. from aimlessness? Can brute causes produce Selves with active intentions? This is not the classic question of the origin of private experience (qualia), what philosopher David Chalmers called the Hard Problem. In Sherman’s glossary, a Self can be as simple and insensate as a bacterium. Standing its own level, free markets tend toward protocell development have not yet well outside the magic lantern of con- price equilibrium, and refracted light convincingly reduced telos to causal- sciousness, he looks at bodily behav- “chooses” the path of least time ity. And while formal papers in the ior only. But this lay-presentation of (Fermat’s principle of light). The goal- hard natural sciences eschew verbs a model developed by neuroscien- like behavior that engages Sherman such as want, try, and choose as a sort tist Terrence Deacon (who provided is autonomous self-regeneration and of bastard mysticism, softer sciences the book’s foreword) answers more self-preservation, the kind that’s intrac- such as economics, sociology, and practical questions—the question of tably difficult to explain in terms of psychiatry just can’t get by without life’s origin and why goal-behavior can raw billiard-ball causality, nudging us them. even exist. almost irrevocably toward the vocab- Unfortunately, the book is a tough Of course, our mechanical world in- ulary of “want” and “seek,” what read and difficult to distill. Sherman’s cludes many goal-focused processes, Aristotle called telos. Decades of proposal begins with the natural and not all are mysteries. Water seeks research in artificial intelligence and emergence of processes that conflict

60 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org and constrain each other in a way and tends to hammer his points with are cavils. Neither Ghost nor Machine that is mutually preserving and adap- laborious repetition and stylistic affec- is a worthy read that bridges the tive, “bootstrapping” against entropy. tations such as “for-ness,” “about- chasm between chemistry and psy- Imagine a mix of naturally occurring ness,” and “re-presents,” the latter to chology and offers a fresh direction for catalysts that self-copy, given a bath of remind us that symbols are a sort of research in abiogenesis. suitable reactants, but also generate redundancy. Also, this first edition has capsids, proteins that self-assemble a light dusting of typos—for example, into shells. Reasonably enough, some the index misspells the name of my of those shells (dubbed autogens) favorite modern cognitive philosopher, Freethinker Kenneth Nahigian, a Bright, is a part of might enclose the catalyst mix by lucky Douglas Hofstadter, though fortu- a Sacramento-based philosophical think tank con- chance then go dormant. But later an nately the main text gets it right. These sisting of him, three cats, and some shrubbery. autogen might break open, again in a bath of reactants, and the catalysts ADVERTISEMENT go back to work, producing more autogens. Bingo: a self-reproducing AMERICA’S SUICIDE, Second Edition system, a kind of protocell. by Michael H. Davison

Major themes expanded in this book: • The human race cannot survive without moral principles. • The religious foundation of morals in the United States has crumbled. In consequence our nation flounders in a great moral crisis. • Crumbled especially but not only by science, the religious foundation of moral “Each stage is perfectly principles cannot survive the advance of thought. natural ... with no ghost • Into the no man’s land vacated by the retreat of traditional religion has rushed a secular religion masquerading as liberal, progressive, compassionate and haunting the machine.” just. • This allegedly new but in reality ancient doctrine has all the characteristics of the theistic religions it strives to displace: the same intolerant dogmatism, the same adherence to undemonstrable principles, the same persecution of doubters and infidels, the same proselytizing of the true faith, the same presumption of moral superiority and righteousness. Earlier faiths rested their It is not a selective system, though, claims to power on beliefs in God or gods, the current ones on socialist not a purpose-driven one. Sherman pretentiousness. Either ideology can only extend our term of ignorance and then posits capsid shells that bond lethal conflict and the beliefs trump truth. to the reactants, so the autogen • Our political problems are not at root political and cannot be resolved by becomes “stubbly” and more likely politicians or political and social theorists no matter how well intentioned. to break when reactants are present. They are psychological, rooted in the human condition and poor self This is a selective autogen. The next awareness, and addressable only by difficult, painful and abhorrent individual step involves natural sugar polymers self examination. (polysaccharides) that bond weakly to • We desperately need a rational secular foundation for morality and that, the catalysts, so that an autogen’s tragically, we do not have. I propose that we initially set our moral principles breaking would release them in an on the premise of not trying to defeat evolution as we are now doing. As we organized sequence. Now it is a tem- gain more knowledge of ourselves and genetic engineering, we should very plate autogen, a system that not only gradually over many generations improve the human species toward ever greater intelligence, self awareness and longer, healthier, happier and more self-copies but passes its unique char- fulfilling lives. For the first time in history we would free ourselves from acteristics to the next generation. It is pretentious, arbitrary and oppressive religious and political authority, the the very germ of evolution. eternal curse hanging over individuals who yearn to be free. Each stage is perfectly natural, per- • fectly mechanical, and leads to the One chapter focuses on President Trump, how the media treat him, and the 2018 mid term elections. seed of seeking: a system that moves toward goals or ends, with no ghost • The last chapter opens a window to a view of what a rational and minimally haunting the machine. It is a fascinat- contentious nation would look like. ing first answer to a mystery that has Dapa Publishing, LLC ISBN 978-0-9792437-3-8 tickled philosophers for centuries. Available on Amazon and bookstores early in 2019. The (minor) handicap is that Sherman is not the most lucid writer

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 61

Knocking Our Cosmic Socks Off James Morrow

hesitate to accord Tom Flynn’s deliri- ously erudite oeuvre the familiar label Behold, He Said, by Tom Flynn (Double Dragon Publishing, 2018, I“cult books,” since cults are among ISBN 9781790470907) 778 pp., Hardcover, $27.99. the many human follies this witty and adroit novelist takes to task. In any event, the coterie of discerning fans who embraced Galactic Rapture (2000) and Nothing Sacred (2004) will be de- lighted to learn that the irrepressible trendrider Gram Enoda is finally back, along with 113 additional characters (some familiar, some not), plus the usual 42,000 human-inhabited planets “So that was your mission,” cosmology, mathematics, and philoso- that form the sprawling background of Enoda said incredulously. “High phy most worth having conversations these cosmological comedies. command wants us to—what, wonk about, from string theory to the user how the socks came back?” Early in Behold, He Said, we’re illusion, chirality to lateral gene-ex- told of a Terran sage called Stanlee, a She nodded gravely. “Gram, change, Gödelian incompleteness to clue that prepares us for the Marvel- the Confetory is hugely concerned cybernetic teleology. Reading Behold, inflected central narrative, which is, about this. Imagine the implications He Said is like perusing a kind of psy- for lint theory alone that such a of course—how could it be other- thing even could happen … .” choactive spreadsheet whose entries wise?—saving the galaxy. To dramatize consist not of data but ideas. This is this quête du millénaire, the author As the novel unfolds, we learn much Flash Gordon for intellectuals, and I transports his readers into a zone of about the theory of lint: subatomic applaud it. gloriously entangled plot threads. vibrating strings that “writhe ener- Although Flynn gives us a full mea- (Imagine a brigade of Theseus dop- getically in all available dimensions.” sure of fanciful settings and invented pelgängers solving multiple labyrinths (Flynn writes with his tongue so firmly civilizations, I would argue that Behold, to track down a herd of Minotaurs.) embedded in his cheek that I fear his He Said achieves its charm not so much The most amusing of these through- condition may ultimately require med- through world-building as word-build- lines finds the human race experienc- ical attention.) We’re also apprised of ing. On page after page, the author ing the unexpected Milky Way–wide “dustbunnies,” elusive entities prone lavishes neologisms, bons mots, and restoration of a certain kind of dual- to taking universes displaying “stench other linguistic felicities on his readers. istic apparel essential to the bipedal symmetry” and linking them to their Sometimes the game takes the form of lifestyle. We learn the details when subatomic opposites, though the bun- simple syllable substitutions, as when Senator Pamela Grice discusses the nies can be snared only by coax- “ontology” becomes “offtology” and phenomenon with Gram Enoda and ing them out of their favorite hiding the Templeton Prize becomes the an intelligent machine boasting moral places, a type of black hole called a Temperdung Prize. (Free Inquiry read- personhood. “sofa.” Unlike most other practitioners ers will recall that Richard Dawkins of satiric science fiction, such as Robert once sardonically defined this award as “As near as anyone can tell, and to Sheckley, Frederick Pohl, Douglas the extent that the event times can “a very large sum of money” bestowed be correlated across the Galactic Adams, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Flynn is annually and reflexively on scientists lens, it happened everywhere at ex- committed to articulating his absurdist who are “prepared to say something actly the same moment.” Her face constructs in a disciplined, quasi-alle- nice about religion.”) Deadpan puns darkened as she made one more gorical facsimile of actual scientific lan- abound. When a primitive poison connection. “Sfelb, it happened to guage. He does not settle for clinically dart–throwing weapon called a pfitt me. I got my sock back.” depressed robots or chronosynclastic is fired at a tribal chieftain, the warrior “Still have it?” Computer asked. infundibula. Before wrapping it all up Lubvit reports that the worst has hap- “No, I threw it out—I’d trashed (and appending—good news—a cliff- pened: “The pfitt hit the Shan.” And its orphaned mate shortly before it hanger), Flynn invokes a large subset the neologisms just keep on coming: reappeared.” of those radical innovations in physics, bubbleprint, detex, experient, flashi-

62 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org dent, imposer, koscon, linties, pelfrag, on stage throughout Behold, He Said By contrast, consider this excerpt punitorium, resonon, strel, transphotic, (beyond Teilhard, they all seem to have from an edgy exchange that Flynn vibrion—116 in all. Readers will find read Frank J. Tipler’s classic of crank constructs between Nataleah, an LDS themselves grateful for the glossary at teleology, The Physics of Immortality), wife of African aspect, and a journal- the end of the book. Flynn is ultimately having none of it, ist named Meryam Mayishimu. The Eyeballing the pages of Behold, He and I expect he would agree with “The harem member is the first to speak. Said, one quickly realizes that, as with Phenomenon of Chardin,” the takedown “… Mormonism was a religion of Galactic Rapture and Nothing Sacred, of everyone’s favorite cleric-paleontol- Terran whites. You’ve learned your the author relies heavily on dialogue ogist that Peter Medawar published Book of Mormon; remember Third to tell his story. While this technique is thirty-one years ago in The Art of the Nephi 2:14–16? One small group ostensibly a lackadaisical way to make Soluble. of the evil, dark-skinned Lamanites had shifted their loyalty to the righ- prose fiction happen—a novel is not a The Phenomenon of Man is anti-scien- teous, white-skinned Nephites, and play—I’m willing to give Flynn a pass, tific in temper (scientists are shown what happened next?” because the exchanges are so rollick- up as shallow folk skating about on ing, as in this conversation between a the surface of things), and, as if that “‘And their curse was taken from them,’” Meryam quoted, Mormon mountebank and a member were not recommendation enough, it was written by a scientist, a fact “‘and their skin became white like of his harem: which seems to give it particular unto the Nephites; And their young … Alrue made magical gestures, authority and weight. … men and their daughters became waggling fingers thick as sausages. exceedingly fair … ’ Forjeler, that’s [His book] is written in an all “O great God, deliver me from still in there? I thought those old but totally unintelligible style, and racist verses were removed long mine interment. Make bare Thy this is construed as prima facie ev- before the Galactic Encounter.” holy arm!” idence of profundity. It is because “Only some of them,” Nataleah Alrue directed a fierce gaze Teilhard has such wonderful deep explained. up into the filth-streaked glasteel thoughts that he’s so difficult to ceiling. “Deliver us your saints from follow—really, it’s beyond my poor Science-fiction author Philip Klass brain but doesn’t that just show that awful monster, our captivity!” (not to be confused with the late, great he shouted. “Send forth also the how profound and important he power of Thine other mighty arm. must be? UFO skeptic Philip J. Klass), who wrote Visit these walls with destruction!” under the name William Tenn, once He spread his arms. “O Heavenly Flynn also maintains his nerve wryly defined his preferred genre as Father, stretch forth yet one more before another troublesome set of “the mass literature of the very few.” mighty arm!” supernaturalist teachings, the malev- One could speculate that Tom Flynn’s olent protocols of the Church of Jesus Zuzenah, his eldest wife, novels, with their hearty page counts, stepped to the center of the circle. Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). In bedrock contrarianism, and unflagging “No arms left,” she breathed. recent years, four immensely tal- celebration of rarefied theories, will ented writers for the theater have “Pardon?” always remain a minority pleasure. And been drawn to the LDS phenomenon, yet, as this loopy series itself reminds “You’ve already asked God to and yet in the case of both Angels us, anything—within reason—is possi- bare one mighty arm, then stretch in America (1992) and The Book of ble. Meanwhile, we few—we happy forth the second. Is that not all of Mormon (2011) the tone is closer to them?” few, we band of blasphemy buffs—are bemused appreciation than acerbic free to revel in each new installment, Alrue frowned. “God is God. satire. Now, I’m fairly certain that if imagining that their creator might have He can have as many arms as He Tony Kushner had written his master- the last laugh. wants. Now be quiet, woman. I’m piece after our republic learned, via supplicating.” the Proposition 8 debacle of 2008, just Behold, He Said is also available in What I most admire about Behold, what a hideously homophobic insti- e-book form at a lower price. He Said is its manifest impatience tution the golden plates of Cumorah with what the mathematician Jacob ushered into the world, he might have Bronowski called, in The Ascent of tweaked his text accordingly. As for Man, our culture’s “loss of nerve” in Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt the face of glib mystical discourse Stone’s hit musical, while it skewers and “falsely profound” questions. some of the more notorious episodes Consider the case of Père Teilhard in LDS history (one lyric mocks the Science-fiction satirist James Morrow has twice won de Chardin, a scientist whom many Elders’ convenient 1978 revelation the Nebula Award, twice the World Fantasy Award, thinkers—churchgoers and secularists that black people are probably human and twice the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire. His criti- alike—would credit with convening a beings after all), the show periodically cally acclaimed novels include The Last Witchfinder, unique and valuable theological-phil- goes mushy on Mormonism, a foible celebrating the birth of the Enlightenment, and osophical conversation. Although a culminating in the mawkish final song, Galápagos Regained, a faux-Victorian Darwinian cult of brainy “Omegists” appears “Tomorrow Is a Latter Day.” extravaganza.

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 63 LETTERS Continued from p. 13

Humanist Case against I have just finished reading an Richard F. Stratton engrossing. article by Anne Applebaum in The San Diego, California Yes, the patriotism that our Patriotism Atlantic (“A Warning from Eu- children and young people are While I generally agree with rope,” October 2018, pp. 53–63) As an infantry company com- taught in our nation’s history “The Humanist Case against in which she describes the same mander who fought for and helped classes is, bluntly speaking, noth- Patriotism” as presented split between what I called “prin- win the freedom of seventeen mil- ing but propaganda that has en- by David Mountain in your cipled patriots” and “nationalists” lion South Vietnamese, only to abled untold numbers of commis- October/ November 2018 issue, in several European countries as see my nation give them to the sars to silence those who have the I am inclined to think that my well as in the United States. That North Vietnamese Communists, temerity to mention any wrong- American patriotism is different. shows how foolish I was to feel I, unlike David Mountain, author doing, which our government has It is grounded in my commitment that my American patriotism is su- of “The Humanist Case against committed. to the humanist principles enunci- perior to any of the others. But in Patriotism,” know the differ- Fostering young people to ated by our Founding Fathers in his article, David Mountain does ence between freedom and become patriots should not be the Declaration of Independence not note that distinction at all. slavery. Damned right I get the goal of teaching history. If the and the Bill of Rights. These prin- Homer Edward Price teary-eyed listening to our truth is concealed to make stu- ciples are universal, and American Sylva, North Carolina National Anthem performed dents unaware of America’s moral patriots ideally seek to extend correctly and seeing our Flag of blemishes, they’ll be robbed of them, first to all Americans, Freedom. Mountain should get the intellectual oxygen they need regardless of race, gender, or I heartily applaud David down on his knees in apprecia- to make sound political decisions. national origin, and second to Mountain’s article on the case tion for men and women like us Thus, our nation’s history will all humans in any country. While against patriotism. Way back in who fight and give our lives for no longer be an academic sub- these ideals have been perverted 1953, I was fresh out of the mil- our freedom and the freedom of ject. Instead, it’ll be a cult whose and besmirched by the neocon- itary and full of unquestioning others, including him. Freedom is devotees will become pliable servatives who inspired the 2003 patriotic fervor, although I was not free. I have watched my men zombies in the hands of their mas- invasion of Iraq, they remain the beginning to have my doubts die and held one in my arms as he ters. Sadly, there are already many basis of principled criticism of about religion. I happened died during a firefight on April 8, people who proclaim their patrio- American policies that violate the to read Man and His Gods by 1969. tism for no other reason than what human rights of anyone. A good Homer Smith, with a foreword And damned right there is their teachers and textbooks have example of this came from the by Albert Einstein. Whenever such a thing as good patriotism taught them to believe … that our late John McCain, the last princi- anyone tries to say that Einstein as well as bad, a distinction that government is good, noble, just, pled patriot in the leadership of was religious, I tell them about his Mountain does not draw. In his charitable, altruistic, and unselfish. the Republican Party. In his oppo- approving foreword of an atheis- world, all patriotism is bad. He What a pity! Those naïveties sition to the use of torture against tic work that even took the mythic could not be more wrong! He are unaware that in Iran, Cuba, suspected Muslim terrorists, he position in regard to Christ. should ask his fellow Brits about Nicaragua, Guatemala, the Philip- said, “It is not about who they are; While I loved the fact that something called the Lend Lease pines, ad nauseam … our govern- it is about who we are.” “We” are Einstein was in accord with Pro- Act, when we came to England’s ment eagerly supported the dic- the American patriots whose very fessor Smith, a distinguished support while they were standing tators who brutalized the people identity is rooted in the princi- renal physiologist, I wasn’t too on their shores with pitchforks, living in those nations. ples on which our republic was happy with his added opinion awaiting the onslaught of the Ger- David Quintero founded. Barack Obama used that in addition to religion, ex- mans. But he is much too young Monrovia, California similar language when he was aggerated nationalism had done to know anything about that, in president, saying, “We are better much harm to the world. He was addition to that information not David Mountain conflates patrio- than that,” in the face of the NRA questioning patriotism! I didn’t supporting his thesis. tism with religion (“The Humanist enabling mass shootings. like it then, but it got me started But the unforgivable act of Case against Patriotism,” FI, It is not clear to me whether thinking and questioning—and I Mountain is to equate my pres- October/November 2018) and David Mountain distinguishes behave really done a complete 180 ident with Putin, et al., not once urges humanists to reject it. tween patriotism and nationalism, since then! I get annoyed with but several times. My president But humans are social animals, but let me suggest that the latter politicians who always have a flag and the United States are liter- hardwired by our origin as hunt- term, which carries the ethnic pin someplace on their suit or ally standing in the way of dicta- er-gatherers to belong to groups. connotation of the word nation, dress. As much as I loved the mil- torships such as Putin’s that kill Our social instinct leads us be applied to the attitude Don- itary back then, I am absolutely people such as Mountain after a to favor those we know and has ald Trump and his followers, who dismayed now with our basically takeover. He is too naive, biased, made our identity dependent on reflexively champion the interests garrison state and hundreds of immature, or stupid to know the language, ethnicity, and cul- of white Christian Americans, and bases around the world. or admit it. What a brilliant igno- ture of the group we are randomly particularly male white Christian A successful democracy is ramus! born and/or raised in. Americans, above all others, and by nature dependent upon an Congratulations on show- The group impulse is strong who care nothing about American informed citizenry. People who ing your true colors! Call on them even for inconsequential matters. principles (with the exception of don’t question are not informed. to protect you the next time dan- Why else do fans of a winning the Second Amendment). If you take the attitude that our ger threatens. sports team feel superior to the I am not unaware of the deli- foreign policy is always right, re- Dr. Clyde H. Morgan, LTC, loser’s fans? Fans come long dis- cious irony of my argument. Like lying on patriotism, you aren’t in- IN-MP, USAR, Ret. tances to see games in cities they all patriots, I feel that my form of formed. David Mountain is to be Brandon, Mississippi left years ago but still consider patriotism is better than any of the congratulated for his excellent “home.” Otherwise irrelevant others! and long overdue piece. David Mountain’s article is truly sports contests unleash powerful

64 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org emotions because they reinforce convinced only a supranational unshakable faith and tired man- that many more patriots will give a sense of group solidarity. regime makes sense. Eliminating tras, it’s refreshing to see it dis- their beliefs a similar level of con- For millennia, the human im- the national borders physically, of cussed here with intelligence and sideration and critical examination. pulse toward group identity has course, would be rather impossi- open-mindedness. Finally, a few words ought to proven ineradicable. Patriotism ble to achieve. Even a world-wide I do not distinguish between be said about patriotism and the is just another expression of the sense of “oneness” may just be patriotism and nationalism. Per- military. Not once in my article was need to belong to something fa- idyllic. If all of the principles of haps I should have been more I critical of servicemen or -women. miliar, powerful, and protective. secular humanism, as outlined by explicit. Mr. Price and Dr. Thomas The fact that condemnation of na- Patriotism needn’t be a bad Paul Kurtz, were part and parcel both provide competent distinc- tional pride is so often interpreted thing. As John B. Judis said in of, say, the United States, I sus- tions between the two, but I’m as disrespect for the armed forces the New York Times on October pect even Mountain and other afraid these will have to join the shows how inseparable patriotism 15, 2018, “the perception of a progressive humanists would lit- hundreds of other distinctions and militarism have become. De- national identity is essential to de- erally love that, i.e., a “patriot.” between them that have been spite this, and as I alluded to with mocracies and to the modern wel- Nationalism, on the other hand, made over the past 150 years. We the story of the Belgian lieutenant, fare state, which depends on the can be a deadly influence and has can define them how we like, but there are many accounts of troops willingness of citizens to pay taxes been responsible for far too much nowhere in the real world does throughout history who reject pa- national pride fall into our neat to aid fellow citizens whom they destructive history. triotism and yet continue to fight categories of good and bad, civic may never have set eyes upon.” Marvin Thomas, MD with increm dible courage and Humanists have many battles and ethnic, peaceful and aggres- Blacklick, Ohio selflessness. I kindly suggest Dr. to fight; let’s not fight human na- sive. It’s far too messy for that, and Morgan take a look at some of ture. We must distinguish what I would like to congratulate David I think this compels us to treat it these accounts, including those is legitimate and justifiable in Mountain on his wonderful article as a single phenomenon. Nev- from Vietnam, where many sol- nationalism from what is small- in the October/November issue. ertheless, separating nationalism diers bitterly dismissed national minded, bigoted, and ultimately Bravo! For many years I have from patriotism remains very pop- pride as “a joke.” contrary to the national interest. been ranting about the similarities ular among politicians because it Once we appreciate this Under the current adminis- between patriotism and religion, provides them with a convenient tration, it’s more important than pointing out that religion and scapegoat for the crimes of patri- perspective on war, we can see through the myth that patriotism ever to stand up for our national patriotism tend to superimpose otism. is needed to fight for morally wor- identity as a country dedicated to their fundamentalist, exclusiv- I completely agree with Dr. thy causes. As young and naive the high principles on which it was ist mentality on each other, cre- Bonchek when he writes that founded—equality and freedom ating a symbiotic relationship in “patriotism is just another ex- as I may be, I do appreciate that for all—even if they sometimes which one feeds off the other. This pression of the need to belong to freedom must be fought for and exceed our grasp, and even if is especially true in the United something familiar, powerful, and that sometimes the fight will be- some of our citizens wrap them States. My solution to the prob- protective.” But the argument come physical. Had I been alive in up in the flag with God. lem would be to find a way to take that we therefore shouldn’t reject 1939, would I have picked up my Lawrence I. Bonchek, the emotion out of patriotism by patriotism, as it would be a battle pitchfork and fought in the Second MD, FACS, FACC thinking of citizenship as an almost against human nature, could be World War? I like to think I would businesslike, contractual relation- made for any other group identity, have—not out of any love for my Lancaster, Pennsylvania ship like the one that we have such as religion, ethnicity, or race. country but due to the overwhelm- with an employer. I see citizen- As with these other group ing moral case for resisting the It would appear that, to some ship in the following way: I agree identities, it’s true that patrio- Axis. We don’t need patriotism to extent, David Mountain, in his to obey all laws and pay all taxes tism can inspire good—although fight for what we believe in. piece “The Humanist Case due in my country of residence. In there’s no scientific evidence to against Patriotism,” may be con- return for this, the country agrees support the oft-repeated claim flating patriotism with nationalism. to grant me citizenship or resi- that national pride encourages Webster defines patriotism as dency and all the benefits that go people to vote or pay taxes. (If that WRITE TO FREE INQUIRY “love or devotion to one’s coun- with it, such as police protection, were true, then why did roughly a fire department, social security, try” while nationalism is defined 45 percent of self-professed U.S. Send submissions to health care, the use of roads, and as “a sense of national conscious- patriots fail to vote in the 2016 Nicole Scott, so on. Approaching citizenship ness exalting one nation above election?) Letters Editor, FREE INQUIRY, in this unemotional, contractual all others and placing primary However, I maintain that patri- P.O. Box 664, Amherst, manner guarantees that a coun- emphasis on promotion of its cul- otism and humanism are ultimately NY 14226-0664. ture and interests as opposed to try and its citizens/residents will incompatible. The principles of Fax: (716) 636-1733. those of other nations or suprana- receive everything they need to humanism must necessarily be tional groups.” Thus, one can cer- thrive but will prevent irrational, clipped and cramped to conform tainly love his country without nec- blind patriotism. Admittedly, we to the more parochial worldview of Email: [email protected]. essarily thinking it is better than all are a long way from achieving this patriotism. As a humanist, I believe In letters intended for publication, others. Only what’s occurring in it, kind of mentality on a large scale. the most coherent response to this please include name, address, city as far as that person is concerned, Robert Cirillo problem is to abandon patriotism and state, ZIP code, is quite good for most, if not all, of Amsterdam, The Netherlands altogether, although I appreciate and daytime phone number its citizens. While, obviously, this there are other approaches. I ap- (for verification purposes only). could be reactionary, it certainly David Mountain responds: plaud Mr. Price’s humanist-influ- Letters should be 300 words or fewer could also be just the opposite—a In a world where national pride enced patriotism, even if I do not and pertain to previous Free Inquiry articles. very liberal order. Perhaps he is is so often expressed in terms of agree with it entirely, and I hope

secularhumanism.org February/March 2019 Free Inquiry 65 FI June July cut_FI 5/2/12 4:39 PM Page 67

POEMS Tree of Life Romantic Allusions to Ted Richer Mardi-Gras

1. Max Jacob once I came … (Action, vol. 1, n. 2, March 1920; Le Laboratoire cen- We are committed to the application of reason and science We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence. tral, 1921) to the understanding of the universe and to the solving in my dream We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be of human problems. … allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual No, Monsieur Gambetta, Bolivar’s taken his leave to Paradise We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have We saw his top hat and his meteorite to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, access to comprehensive and informed health care, … Under the jet of the gas lamp’s flare and to look outside nature for salvation. and to die with dignity. when you came with me Pierrot companion and cascade. 2. His smock at the end of the quay betrayed We believe that scientific discovery and technology We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, I’m dining at home tonight. can contribute to the betterment of human life. integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics the closer I came inside to the Garden The Seine has seen kings roll to the guillotine. is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that … Night’s horrors spy you from gothic dead-end streets. standards that we discover together. Moral principles are democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights in my dream O bicycle, your saddle is a velvet mask. tested by their consequences. from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities. … Love’s opera boxes shivered in the Eastern breeze. We are deeply concerned with the moral education If we must die, Madame, hear me. Farewell! We are committed to the principle of the the closer you became of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion. Hemlines and hearts plummeted to the ground separation of church and state. 3. And one curled one’s little finger to drink in style. We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences. and when I walked all through Paradise My life is a tango, my heart a grand-guignol. We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual We are citizens of the universe and are excited by … Fate! A halo of fear hovers over Notre-Dame! understanding. discoveries still to be made in the cosmos. you came closer still It’s a whip, you fool, what you took for a fencing foil Forgive him, Gerald, in the name of our love, forgive We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, 4. We are concerned with securing justice and fairness I want no more kisses from you in society and with eliminating discrimination and we are open to novel ideas and seek new yet when I stood near the Tree of Life Ah! When will you escape the penitentiary of love. and intolerance. departures in our thinking. … Women offered themselves like bitches in heat. We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to and looked all around At times, after midnight, the Seine resembles Hell. Come! Monsieur Beelzebub, I challenge you hard. disabled so that they will be able to help themselves. theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a … I’ll crack you like a soft boiled egg. En garde! source of rich per sonal significance and genuine satisfaction We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based in my dream One or the other of us must leave this earth, in the service to others. on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual … He said! And there spread the immense, blank ennui of orientation, or ethnicity and strive to work together for We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather a moonless night. in Paradise the common good of humanity. than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of … ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place We want to protect and enhance Earth, to preserve of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, I was alone it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind suffering on other species. faith or irrationality.

Max Jacob (1876–1944) was a French poet, novelist, playwright, and painter, We believe in enjoying life here and now and in We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest close companion to Picasso. He helped to create Modernist poetry in France, developing our creative talents to their fullest. that we are capable of as human beings. and his most famous book is the collection of radical prose poems, Le Cornet à dés (The Dice Cup), published in 1917. A Jewish convert to Roman *by Paul Kurtz Catholicism, Jacob died in the Nazi transit camp of Drancy outside of Paris in March 1944. This poem was translated by Rosanna Warren, who is a poet,

translator, and professor of Comparative Literature in the Committee on Social . For a parchment copy of this page, suitable for framing, please send $495 Thought at the University of Chicago. Her most recent collection of poems is to FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, New York 14226-0664 (2011). Published with thanks to Mme Sylvia Lorant-Colle Ted Richer is the literary editor of Free Inquiry. Ghost in a Red Hat and Éditions Gallimard.

66 Free Inquiry February/March 2019 secularhumanism.org FI June July cut_FI 5/2/12 4:39 PM Page 67

We are committed to the application of reason and science We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence. to the understanding of the universe and to the solving We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be of human problems. allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, access to comprehensive and informed health care, and to look outside nature for salvation. and to die with dignity.

We believe that scientific discovery and technology We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, can contribute to the betterment of human life. integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that standards that we discover together. Moral principles are democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights tested by their consequences. from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities. We are deeply concerned with the moral education We are committed to the principle of the of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion. separation of church and state. We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences. We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual We are citizens of the universe and are excited by understanding. discoveries still to be made in the cosmos.

We are concerned with securing justice and fairness We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, in society and with eliminating discrimination and we are open to novel ideas and seek new and intolerance. departures in our thinking.

We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to disabled so that they will be able to help themselves. theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich per sonal significance and genuine satisfaction We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based in the service to others. on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity and strive to work together for We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather the common good of humanity. than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place We want to protect and enhance Earth, to preserve of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind suffering on other species. faith or irrationality.

We believe in enjoying life here and now and in We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest developing our creative talents to their fullest. that we are capable of as human beings.

*by Paul Kurtz

. For a parchment copy of this page, suitable for framing, please send $495 to FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, New York 14226-0664