LEAH MICKENS : CFI’s Fight against Religious Privilege

CELEBRATING REASON AND HUMANITY October/November 2016 Vol. 36 No.6

TERRORISTS END everyday 2019 WORLD AS Daily Apocalypse WE KNOW IT

APOCALYPSE ... WHEN? A Point-Counterpoint between MICHAEL SHERMER and PHIL TORRES

STEPHEN LEDREW responds to TOM FLYNN STEPHANIE SAVAGE savages health-care clergy

80% 1.5 BWRDAVID PD KOEPSELL mourns lost tomorrows

O/N 08

11 OPHELIA BENSON SHADIA B.DRURY GRETA CHRISTINA RUSSELL BLACKFORD Published by the Center for Inquiry in association 7725274 74957 with the Council for Secular Humanism 2 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.orga program of the Center for Inquiry OCTOBER | NOVEMBER 2016 Volume 36 No.6 CELEBRATING REASON AND HUMANITY

APOCALYPSE . . . WHEN? 30 HOW A CREATIVE HUMANIST MINORITY SHAPED THE NATION, PART 2 18 POINT Follow the Trend Lines, The World’s Oldest Prejudice: Not the Headlines: Terrorism Is Not The Center for Inquiry’s Fight against an Existential Threat Religious Privilege Michael Shermer Leah Mickens 22 COUNTERPOINT It Matters Which 37 Jesus Probably Did Not Exist Trend Lines One Follows: Why Terrorism Raphael Lataster Is an Existential Threat Phil Torres 41 Religion and Suicide Richard G. Dumont 28 REBUTTAL‘Just You Wait!’ The Doomsayers’ Answer to 43 Saving My Life by Saving My Soul? Failed Predictions Stephanie Savage Michael Shermer 45 A Response to a Review 29 REBUTTAL There’s No Time to Wait Stephen LeDrew Phil Torres 48 A Response to Stephen LeDrew Tom Flynn

EDITORIAL LOOKING BACK 58 HUMANISM AND CULTURE Can the Future Be What 4 The Great Agnostic Would Be Proud 16 It Used to Be? Tom Flynn David Koepsell LETTERS 17 OP-EDS REVIEWS 7 Sense and Sensibility Ophelia Benson DEPARTMENTS 60 Righting America at 50 DOERR'S WAY the Creation Museum 8 Not (Just) a Tragedy! Five Stars for Church of Spies ? by Susan L. Trollinger and Fanatics and Their Atrocities Really? William Vance Trollinger, Jr. Russell Blackford Edd Doerr The Grand Canyon, Monument 11 The Foxification of American 52 GREAT MINDS to an Ancient Earth: Can Noah’s Democracy, Part 1 Coming Together: How Baron Flood Explain the Grand Canyon? Shadia B. Drury d’Holbach Made Atheism edited by Carol Hill, Gregg Davidson, a Movement Tim Helble, and Wayne Ranney 12 Rituals and Traditions Dale DeBakcsy Reviewed by Wayne L. Trotta Greta Christina 54 Selections from Le Bon Sens POEM 14 The Christian Moral Code, (Good Sense) 55 Hoarding Part 4: Hell and Achievement Baron d’Holbach by Brooke Horvath Mark Rubinstein New York was once fertile ground for TOM FLYNN all sorts of social and cultural exper- Editor Thomas W. Flynn EDITORIAL imentation. The area encompassing Managing Editor Andrea Szalanski Rochester and Syracuse was, essen- tially, the Southern California of the Columnists Ophelia Benson, Russell Blackford, Greta Christina, nineteenth century. Edd Doerr, Shadia B. Drury, For reasons ranging from institu- Nat Hentoff, Faisal Saeed tional capacity to sheer coincidence, Al Mutar, Mark Rubinstein The Great Agnostic the past twelve months turned out to Senior Editors Bill Cooke, Richard Dawkins, be very special for aficionados of the Edd Doerr, James A. Haught, Great Agnostic and for students of Jim Herrick, Ronald A. Would Be Proud Lindsay, Taslima Nasrin freethought history generally. Here’s a rundown: Contributing Editors Roy P. Fairfield, Charles f you’re an admirer of nineteenth- Faulkner, Levi Fragell, • Late in 2015, the previously un- century freethought orator Robert Adolf Grünbaum, marked grave of Ingersoll’s brother, Marvin Kohl, Lee Nisbet Green Ingersoll, it’s been a red- four-term U.S. congressman Ebon letter year. Assistant Editors Julia Lavarnway Clark Ingersoll (1831–1875), re- Nicole Scott I ree nquiry As many F I readers know, ceived a headstone. Ebon Inger­ the Council for Secular Humanism, Literary Editor Cheryl Quimba soll lay in Washington, D.C.’s Oak Free Inquiry’s copublisher, operates Permissions Editor Julia Lavarnway Hill Cemetery, and it is unclear why North America’s only freethought mu- Art Director Christopher S. Fix his grave was never marked. Ebon’s seum at Ingersoll’s birthplace. The Production Paul E. Loynes Sr. burial provided the occasion for Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Mu- what is probably Robert Ingersoll’s seum stands in Dresden, New York, most impassioned graveside ora- Center for Inquiry Inc. in the heart of New York State’s Fin- tion. The new stone, featuring a line Chair Edward Tabash ger Lakes region. The Museum has from that speech—“In the night of Board of Directors Brian Engler been open to the public on week- death, hope sees a star”—was the Kendrick Frazier ends each summer and fall since Barry A. Kosmin single-handed work of an Ingersoll Y. Sherry Sheng 1993. The Council also sponsors the admirer previously unknown to us: Leonard Tramiel Freethought Trail, a collection of his- Gerrie Paino of Berea, Ohio. Ms. Honorary: toric sites relating to radical-reform Rebecca Newberger Paino purchased the stone and saw Goldstein causes including freethought, wom- to its design and installation. She Susan Jacoby en’s rights, abolition, nonreligious reached out to Jeff Ingersoll, dis- Lawrence Krauss utopianism, and anarchism. Ranging tantly related to the Great Agnostic Chief Executive Officer Robyn E. Blumner from formal museums to historic sites and the volunteer chair of the President Ronald A. Lindsay both marked and unmarked, all Free- Council’s Robert Ingersoll Memorial

Director, Campus and thought Trail sites lie within one hun- Committee, to provide a family Community Programs Debbie Goddard dred miles of the Ingersoll Museum. member’s permission, required to Director, African Americans Why? It turns out that West-Central modify Ebon’s gravesite. for Humanism Debbie Goddard

Vice President for Philanthropy Martina Fern

Director of Libraries Timothy Binga

Communications Director Paul Fidalgo

Database Manager Jacalyn Mohr

Webmaster Matthew Licata

Staff Pat Beauchamp, Melissa Braun, Shirley Brown, Lauren Foster, Roe Giambrone, Cody Hashman, Nora Hurley, Marc Kriedler, Stef McGraw, Paul Paulin, LEFT: Mark Manzari of New York Leak Detection surveys the old Myrick family plot at South Anthony Santa Lucia, Diane Tobin, Vance Vigrass Cemetery (Cazenovia, New York) using ground-penetrating radar. RIGHT: Dashed lines mark detected human remains. The two at the top align with existing head- Council for Secular Humanism stones; the third set of remains, not associated with any headstone, is strongly presumed to be that of Mary Livingston Ingersoll. Photos courtesy Sara Chevako. Executive Director Thomas W. Flynn

4 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org • In December 2015, officials in • Spring 2016 saw two develop- Cazenovia, New York, with whom I ments. First, the Center for Inquiry had conferred, located the resting launched a targeted campaign to place of Mary Livingston Ingersoll. raise the funds for a proper grave- Mary, the mother of Robert, Ebon, Free Inquiry (ISSN 0272-0701) is published bimonthly by the Cen- stone for Mary Ingersoll. (True to ter for Inquiry in association with the Council for Secular Humanism, and their siblings, died in Cazenovia, form, Gerrie Paino gave the $1,000 P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Phone (716) 636-7571. where the family had but recently Fax (716) 636-1733. Copyright ©2016 by the Center for Inquiry and “seed gift” that kicked off the cam- the Council for Secular Humanism. All rights reserved. No part of this moved, on December 2, 1835. She paign.) In fairly short order, $5,000 periodical may be reproduced without permission of the publisher. was thirty-six. Her husband, the Rev­ Periodicals postage paid at Buffalo, N.Y., and at additional mailing was raised, enough for a headstone offices. National distribution by Disticor.Free Inquiry is indexed erend John Ingersoll, lacked the in Philosophers’ Index. Printed in the United States. Postmaster: Send address changes to Free Inquiry, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY money for a proper burial, and the 14226-0664. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views family would move again mere of the editors or publisher. No one speaks on behalf of the Council for months later. Knowledge of Mary’s Secular Humanism unless expressly stated. resting place was lost. TO SUBSCRIBE OR RENEW Call toll-free I had shared this puzzle with 800-458-1366 (have credit card handy). Internet: www.secularhumanism.org. Town of Cazenovia historian Sara Mail: Free Inquiry, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Chevako, who in turn involved the “West-Central New Subscription rates: $35.00 for one year, $58.00 for two town’s highway supervisor, Timothy years, $84.00 for three years. Foreign orders add $10 per York was once fertile year for surface mail (Canada and Mexico); $14 per year Hunt. They deduced that Mary ground for all sorts outside North America. Send U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. was probably interred in South bank; American Express, Discover, MasterCard, or Visa are of social and cul- preferred. Cemetery, a former private cem- Single issues: $5.95 each. Shipping is by surface mail in U.S. etery now operated by the town. tural experimentation (included). For single issues outside U.S.: Canada 1–$3.05; Perusal of old records turned up a 2–3 $5.25; 4–6 $8.00. Other foreign: 1–$6.30; 2–3 $11.40; . . . essentially, the 4–6 $17.00. redrawing of the cemetery’s map from the 1950s: a margin note stated Southern California CHANGE OF ADDRESS Mail changes to Free Inquiry, ATTN: Change of Address, P.O. that Mary had been buried on of the nineteenth Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Luther Myrick’s family plot. Myrick century.” Call Customer Service: 716-636-7571, ext. 200. “As was a local preacher, an early aboli- E-mail: [email protected]. tionist like Rev. Ingersoll, and a man BACK ISSUES humanists and rational- of some means. It made sense that Back issues through Vol. 23, No. 3 are $6.95 each. Back issues Vol. 23, No. 4 and later are $5.95 each. 20% discount ists, how do we decide Myrick would donate a gravesite at on orders of 10 or more. Call 800-458-1366 to order or to the difference between his colleague’s time of need. ask for a complete listing of back issues. The old Myrick family plot was and a formal dedication. Second, REPRINTS/PERMISSIONS selfishness surveyed and staked. Mark Manzari Jeff Ingersoll—before his retire- To request permission to use any part of Free Inquiry, write to Free Inquiry, ATTN: Julia Lavarnway, Permissions Editor, and self-preservation? of New York Leak Detection donated ment, a contractor specializing in P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. how do we decide the use of ground-penetrating radar. historic building restoration—fab- WHERE TO BUY FREE INQUIRY Late in December, Man­zari located ricated a new front porch attached Free Inquiry is available from selected book and magazine the difference a single unmarked burial on the to the main (two-story) wing of the sellers nationwide. As humanists” Myrick plot. Mary Ingersoll’s resting Ingersoll Birthplace. The compan- ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS Complete submission guidelines can be found on the web at place had been found! ion to a porch Jeff had added to www.secularhumanism.org/fi/details.html. Requests for mailed guidelines and article submissions should be addressed to: Article Submissions, ATTN: Tom Flynn, Free Inquiry, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send submissions to Letters Editor, Free Inquiry, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664 or e-mail aszalanski@center forinquiry.net. For letters intended for publication, please include name, address (including city and state), and daytime telephone number (for verification purposes only). Letters should be 300 words or fewer and pertain to previous Free Inquiry articles.

The mission of the Council for Secular Humanism is to advocate and defend a nonreligious life stance rooted in science, naturalistic philosophy, and humanist ethics and to serve and support adherents of that life stance. LEFT: Local officials and Ingersoll admirers gather for the dedication of Mary Livingston Ingersoll’s new gravestone. Speaking is Jeff Ingersoll, volunteer chair of the Robert Green Ingersoll Memorial Committee. RIGHT: New headstone for Mary Livingston Ingersoll, dedicated on May 30, 2016.

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 5 This undated photo (perhaps 1910) shows the Ingersoll birthplace with two front porches, already in poor condition. Note the “gingerbread” at top of the columns on the porch attached to the two-story wing.

TOP: This undated photo (perhaps 1910) shows the Ingersoll birthplace TOP: The first dedication of the Frederick Triebel Ingersoll Statue in with two front porches, already in poor condition. Note the “gingerbread” Glen Oak Park, Peoria, Illinois, was on October 23, 1911. Ingersoll’s at top of the columns on the porch attached to the two-story wing. widow is seated at the right of the plinth. BOTTOM: New porches (left, installed 2003; right, installed 2016) closely BOTTOM: Peoria’s Ingersoll Statue, now restored, was rededicated on replicate porches from the period photo. August 11. “The Freethought Trail has grown from the building’s smaller wing in 2003, Triebel statue of Ingersoll (1911), marked sites to eighty-five, a new sixty marked and the new porch restored the build- which overlooks Glen Oak Park in record. ing’s appearance to match a photo- Peoria, Illinois, was badly deterio- unmarked sites to graph thought to date from about rated and needed extensive repairs. The period from (roughly) 1865 eighty-five, a new 1910, when the Birthplace sported (Why Peoria? Ingersoll first rose to to 1919 is known as the Golden Age the most attractive of several porch prominence as a Peoria attorney, of Freethought. Who knows, maybe record.” someday freethinkers will look back treatments for which there is historic and it was there that he raised a on this as a golden age of freethought documentation. The porch project Civil War regiment.) By “extensive history. was funded by a grant from the repairs,” I mean taking down the I can’t end without reminding read- James Hervey Johnson Charitable statue to ship it to a bronze foundry ers that the Robert Green Inger­soll Educational Trust. in Philadelphia, where, after 106 Birthplace Museum will be open each years facing the elements, it was al- Saturday and Sunday through the end • On Memorial Day (May 30), the most wholly remanufactured. FFRF of October. If you’ll be in or near the Mary Ingersoll gravestone was for- raised and expended more than Finger Lakes region, your visit would mally dedicated at a ceremony in $27,000 to make this happen. On be most welcome. More information is Cazenovia. Speakers included Town August 11 (Ingersoll’s birthday), I available at http://www.secularhuman of Cazenovia Supervisor Bill Zupan, had the honor of attending the stat- ism.org/Ingersoll and at http://www. Sara Chevako, Jeff Ingersoll, and ue’s rededication in Peoria. Speakers freethought-trail.org. me. included Dan Barker, Annie Laurie Gaylor, Margaret Downey, and many • Throughout this period, our friends others. at the Freedom From Religion Tom Flynn is editor of Free Inquiry, director of the Foundation (FFRF) were wrangling a • Finally, during the past twelve Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum and the massive Ingersoll project of their own. months, the Freethought Trail has Freethought Trail, and executive producer of the video The imposing full-length Frederick grown from sixty marked and un- series American Freethought.

6 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org tries, or that there is a massive wealth want is a matter of likes and dislikes— OPHELIA BENSON gap between blacks and whites in the of what Hume called “the passions.” OP-ED United States—but doing so won’t by We can rationally want different things, itself change the minds of people who and evidence doesn’t necessarily re- think wealth inequality is a good thing solve disagreements on the subject. because it rewards hard work and en- Some of us want more equality; others terprise. Differing opinions on political want more meritocracy. Some want and ethical issues are based on differ- freedom from religion; others want re- ent intuitions about what is good, and ligion to permeate every aspect of life. Sense and what we mean by good, and what it is Whatever the issue is, it has to matter right to call good, and those intuitions to us. We don’t make policy about Sensibility are not easily shifted by data. things that don’t matter to us. This applies to pretty much any And even when we do all agree policy issue you can think of. Even that a particular issue matters, we the ones that seem purely technical eil deGrasse Tyson tweeted to and empirical involve goals; if they his 5.43 million followers on didn’t, they wouldn’t be policy. Global June 29: “Earth needs a virtual N warming is massively technical and country: #Rationalia, with a one-line Constitution: All policy shall be based evidence-based, but what (if anything) on the weight of evidence.” I’m a big we decide to do about it does indeed fan of Tyson’s, but I think that tweet is a depend on what we human beings “Humans are not good illustration of why we can’t solve want. If you look at climate change as all of our problems just by handing purely a factual matter, then it’s just an so constituted as to over government to The Scientists. interesting process that we’re seeing be able to function in unfold. Watching glaciers calve is quite 1. “Rationalia” isn’t. Humans are not a dramatic spectacle, as are floods, a world of pure so constituted as to be able to func- hurricanes, typhoons, mudslides, ava- rationality.” tion in a world of pure rationality. lanches, forest fires—nature’s own hor- 2. A one-line constitution is not desir- ror movies. Those of us who think it’s able. not good enough to view it as a spec- 3. If you’re going to boil a nation’s tacle are relying on evidence-based goals down to one line, that’s the wrong line. Perhaps what Tyson meant to say was that governments should not make policy that flies in the face of evidence. That, of course, I agree with, second, and decorate with gold stars. Governments absolutely should seek the best evidence and shape legisla- tion accordingly. It’s just that that’s not all governments should do—it’s not the only criterion legislators should predictions but also on our thoughts don’t all agree on what to do about use. It’s necessary but not sufficient. and feelings about those predictions. it. We have conflicting ideas and prin- Policy doesn’t just flow from the Rising sea-levels will swallow coastal ciples, such that pointing to evidence weight of the evidence without human cities and displace millions of people, doesn’t always trigger a unanimous intervention, like a mountain stream and that’s a bad thing. Rivers fed by policy response. Statistics on crime flowing downhill. There are additional Himalayan glaciers will dry up and prompt some legislators to suggest steps. Evidence can’t by itself tell us there will be massive famines in south- more prisons and harsher sentencing what we should be doing, because ern Asia, and that’s a bad thing. De- and others to suggest improvements that word should depends on what we sertification will spread and crops will to schools and housing. Further statis- want—our goals and values. For in- fail, and that’s a bad thing. There are tics can be presented to support each stance, you can present evidence that facts, and there are our feelings about side’s proposals, but foundational wealth inequality has been widening in the facts, and policy-making depends ideas and principles don’t always give the United States for decades, or that on both. way to statistics. wealth inequality is worse in the United Policy is the implementation of Think for instance of the most fa- States than in other developed coun- what we want as a society, and what we miliar sentence in all of American gov-

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 7 ernment, the first sentence of the France has suffered numerous at- second paragraph of the Declaration RUSSELL tacks by homicidal ideologues, in- of Independence: “We hold these BLACKFORD cluding the Charlie Hebdo murders in truths to be self-evident, that all men January 2015 and the Paris attacks in are created equal, that they are en- OP-ED November of the same year. During dowed by their Creator with certain the latter, suicide bombers and gun- unalienable Rights, that among these men killed 130 people and injured are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of many more (seven of the attackers Happiness.” First of all, what jumps Not (Just) a also died). However, the most mon- off the page is the staggering dishon- strous such occasion to date occurred esty, or hypocrisy, or at least lack of Tragedy! in the United States on September self-awareness—they held these truths 11, 2001, with nearly three thou- to be self-evident, and yet many of Fanatics and sand deaths and twice that number them owned slaves. Yo, guys—if you wounded. Much more recently in the really did hold those truths to be United States, in June 2016, Omar self-evident, what’s with the slave-own- Their Atrocities Mateen massacred forty-nine people ing? You didn’t seem to think your before being killed himself at the slaves had an unalienable right to Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. liberty. And then there’s the restriction The Boston Marathon bombing in of these rights to only the male half of very week, it seems, we’re con- April 2013 killed “only” three victims humanity. fronted by the news—and with but left many others injured. But less visible than that, to us more Eit, the horrible images—of large- My own country, Australia, was than two centuries later, is that in the scale murderous acts carried out by shocked as events unfolded during wider world hardly anyone did hold individuals or small groups possessing the Sydney Siege on December 15– those truths to be self-evident. Even no state sanction. As I write, one week 16, 2014, which culminated in three with all the hypocrisy and blindness, has passed since the Bastille Day deaths (including that of a jihadist the claim was outrageously radical at attack in Nice, on France’s glorious gunman). Many more Australians were the time. The bit about “self-evident” Côte d’Azur. In this case, more than killed in the Bali bombings of Octo- is amusingly brazen in a world of kings ber 12, 2002 (eighty-eight Australians and peasants. among a total of 202 dead, plus That’s the issue in a nutshell: differ- another two hundred injured). These ent people hold different “truths” to bombings took place at Kuta Beach, a be self-evident. The brother of Qan­ popular destination for Western tour- deel Baloch, for example, considers ists. Further attacks occurred in Bali it self-evident that his sister deserved “In contemplating three years later, resulting in another to be murdered for posting twerk-sel- all these horrors, twenty deaths. Similarly notable are fies on social media. Other people I’m struck by the the Madrid train bombings of March consider it self-evident that she de- 2004 (192 dead, plus thousands of served to go on being alive. What evi- accumulating magni- injuries) and the London bombings of dence could we offer Waseem Ahmed tude of suffering, July 7, 2005 (fifty-six dead, including Azeem to convince him that he did a misery, and waste four jihadist perpetrators, plus hun- terrible thing in killing his sister? dreds of injuries). Evidence alone is not enough. of human life.” And the list goes on. . . . I mean Compassion, generosity, solidarity, and no disrespect to any readers affected other social emotions are also neces- by events that I have not singled out sary for any country human beings can eighty people were massacred (and for mention. To this point, I’ve fo- thrive in. hundreds were injured) by Mohamed cused upon attacks on Western coun- Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a Tunisian with a tries and tourist districts favored by French residency permit. The killer Westerners, but of course there have drove a nineteen-ton truck through a been large-scale terrorist atrocities in large crowd of holiday revelers, mow- many parts of the world. In Septem- ing down men, women, and children ber 2004, nearly four hundred people Ophelia Benson edits the Butterflies and Wheels web- and leaving behind a path of suffering died during the terrible events of site. She was formerly associate editor of The and carnage before he was eventually the Beslan school hostage-taking in Philosopher’s Magazine and has coauthored several shot dead by police officers. Video Russia. Many more have died in mur- books, including The Dictionary of Fashionable footage of the aftermath is available derous attacks of one kind or another Nonsense (2004), Why Truth Matters (2006), and on the Internet, and it is shocking, in Africa and the Middle East, on the Does God Hate Women? (2009). troubling, heartbreaking. Indian subcontinent, and elsewhere.

8 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org I’ve also focused on attacks com- tivated fanatics such as Breivik, and oric that will heighten fears, incite monly attributed to jihadists, by which other big-thinking murderers are not panic, and further inflame anti-Muslim I mean Islamist extremists who sub- merely lamentable—not even gravely prejudice. That said, the atrocities of scribe to an ideology of personal vi- and deeply so. They provoke under- religious and political ideologues are olence in service to their religion or standable condemnation and anger. willed, carefully premeditated acts. If god. It should, of course, be acknowl- we want an honest cultural conversa- edged that motivations are unclear in tion about violence and terror, these some of these cases (perhaps even acts are best labeled as precisely as with respect to the Bastille Day at- possible. We can speak without em- tack, although it currently appears that barrassment about Nazi atrocities and Bouhlel was radicalized, not long be- Stalinist atrocities, and we ought to fore his rampage, by jihadist mento- speak honestly and accurately about ring and propaganda). Likewise, we jihadist (or extreme-Islamist) atrocities. should acknowledge the numerous When it appears that a politician or a large-scale killings unconnected with “Notwithstanding my well-meaning journalist is deliberately jihadists or any form of Islam. Perhaps feelings of sorrow and avoiding such straightforward label- the most notable, so far this century, pity, I’m often annoyed ing, it can appear sanctimonious and was the campaign of mass murder per- even indecent. petrated by the right-wing ideologue (or more than that) I do, of course, advocate taking Anders Breivik in Norway on July 22, when politicians refer time before being too certain of a par- 2011. In the United States, we cannot to murderous acts of ticular attacker’s motivation. Mistakes ignore seemingly random and sense- are often made in a rush to judgment, less shootings such as that at Sandy terrorism as ‘tragic’ or and this applies to a wide range of Hook Elementary School in December as ‘tragedies.’” situations. But premeditated acts of 2012. murder motivated by religious or polit- In contemplating all these horrors, ical fanaticism are never merely “trag- I’m struck by the accumulating magni- edies” or “tragic.” Let’s be more hon- tude of suffering, misery, and waste of est; let’s stop using those words. human life. Cynics sometimes dismiss such events as insignificant against the background of death and mayhem In the case of jihadist terrorism in from warfare, “ordinary” homicides, particular, there’s an appearance of and (though there are complexities many mainstream politicians and jour- here) the world’s huge annual toll of nalists downplaying this while reach- Russell Blackford is a regular columnist for Free Inquiry suicides. But the cynics can’t have this ing for language that sounds noble and holds an honorary research position in philosophy all their own way. Mass murders have and sorrowful—yet detached. At one with the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. His immense and dreadful consequences level, this may appear justified. I can many books include Freedom of Religion and the for those immediately affected; in ad- understand an urge to avoid rhet- Secular State (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012). dition, they disrupt and traumatize entire communities and societies, cre- ating environments of fear. Notwithstanding my feelings of sorrow and pity, I’m often annoyed “Premeditated (or more than that) when politicians acts of murder refer to murderous acts of terrorism as “tragic” or as “tragedies.” Per- motivated by haps I’m being slightly unfair: presti- religious or gious dictionaries such as the Oxford political fanaticism English Dictionary provide several definitions for each of these words, are never merely including definitions that amount to ‘tragedies’ “deeply lamentable” (for tragic) and or ‘tragic.’” (in the case of tragedy) something like “a deeply lamentable sequence of events.” The Bastille Day attack, for example, was obviously a trag- edy within that definition. Still, the actions of jihadists, politically mo-

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 9 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 fi nancial 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 e-mail her at [email protected]. There’s no obligation. has emerged in the vacuum. Failing tions, makes some valid criticisms, and SHADIA B. DRURY to project strength through military contains disturbing half-truths. Did the OP-ED might, he has exhibited weakness, Obama administration give Iran bil- emboldening America’s enemies. Now lions of dollars as a reward for agree- America and the world must contend ing to stop its nuclear program? No. with an existential threat to Western Iran was allowed access to billions of civilization. its own assets, which had been frozen What remains somewhat murky by U.S. sanctions. The Foxification is whether the shortcomings of the Is Obama’s reluctance to use the Obama administration are a result of phrase radical Islamic terror an indi- incompetence or something much cation that he is in cahoots with the of American worse—treason. The latter has been terrorists? No. He explained that he is perpetually insinuated ever since reluctant to use the term because he Trump led the “Birther Move ment,” Democracy, thinks that Islam is a religion of peace which figured prominently on Fox. It that is being hijacked by violent and was an effort to delegitimize Obama’s Part 1 deranged individuals. He has also ex- presidency before it began. Against all evidence to the contrary, Fox seems plained that most Muslim Americans convinced that the president is not an are upstanding citizens who fight in American born in Hawaii but a Muslim the armed forces, sacrifice their lives born in Kenya. here is something captivating It follows that the enemy has infil- about watching Fox News. It trated the American government at Tmakes one feel privy to a forbid- the highest level—what a terrifying den and muzzled voice of reason and specter of treachery and sedition! It truth. It projects the thrill of revela- explains why the administration has tion—uncovering a reality that stands signed a treaty with the Islamic state in marked contrast to the homogeneity of Iran that is win-win for Iran, which “What remains some- of a world governed by self-censorship has received billions of dollars (des- what murky is whether and “political correctness.” Unfiltered tined for terrorists bent on attacking the shortcomings of the and uncensored, Fox unflinchingly de- the homeland) in exchange for making livers what is suppressed or mocked no concessions worth noting. It also Obama administration by the “liberal media” and the ruling explains why Obama and his adminis- are a result of incom- liberal elite. There is no doubt that it tration refuse to call the biggest threat petence or something has set the stage for the rise of Donald facing the nation by name—“radical Trump and his conspiracy theories. Islamic terror”! much worse—treason.” So, what is the covert reality that With nothing less than the au- Fox is determined to expose? Day thority of Newt Gingrich, the former after day, week after week, month after Speaker of the House, Fox reminds its month, and year after year, for the last audience that Hillary Clinton and the for their country, and cooperate with eight years Fox News has been telling rest of the liberal elite want to allow law enforcement to identify potential its audience that Barack Obama is the even more Muslim refugees from Syria threats from radicalized individuals. Is worst president that the United States to enter the United States. There is no this a good explanation? Not really. has ever had in its history—barring way of knowing how many of them Fox makes a legitimate criticism: none. One after another, self-styled might be terrorists. Nor do we have Obama should call a spade a spade. “experts” repeat this “fact.” They any idea if these Muslims intend to in- blame him for the violence in Iraq, the tegrate and become Americans or are To say that Islam is a religion of peace resurgence of the Taliban in Afghani- bent on instituting Sharia law through- that has nothing to do with terrorism is stan, the civil war in Syria, the prolifer- out the country. The Islamicization of like saying that Christianity is a religion ation of terrorist organizations around Europe has already happened; there of love that had nothing to do with the world—as if these problems had are “no-go zones” in London and Paris the Crusades or the Inquisition. Mus- nothing to do with the previous pres- where women without head scarves lims must admit that even though their ident, whom they championed. No, do not dare venture. The United States religion was historically more tolerant the chaos belongs to Obama. Why? is about to suffer the same fate. than Christianity and its adherents had Supposedly, it is because Obama with- Even though Fox News is almost a history of living peacefully with Jews drew troops too precipitously from fact-free, it cannot be dismissed out of (something Christians cannot boast), it is Iraq and Afghanistan. As a result, ISIS hand, because it asks important ques- going through a very regressive period

secularhumanism.org OctOber/nOvember 2016 Free InquIry 11 during the twenty-first century. Being in clear message: The United States is denial will not help Muslims save their a melting pot; people who want to GRETA CHRISTINA religion from opprobrium by standing live there must respect the values en- up to radical imams and expelling them shrined in the Constitution—no mat- OP-ED from their midst—not just in North ter when their ancestors came to the America and Europe but around the country. However, religious radicals world. However, to claim that radical are not the only problem. Islamic terror is an existential threat Fox is right in thinking that Amer- is a gross exaggeration. Although ican liberalism is also part of the repugnant, Islamic extremists have problem. Unhappily, American liber- Rituals and so far killed an insignificant number als have lost their nerve. They have of Americans in comparison to those foolishly embraced Canadian ideas Traditions killed by rampant gun violence. Yet of multiculturalism. They think that Fox is a vociferous opponent of any telling newcomers that they must gun control. assimilate is some sort of cultural co- lonialism. But it is not. It is cultural co- ’m still thinking this one through. lonialism to invade foreign countries On the one hand: Most human and impose on them American-style Ibeings seem to have a need for rit- governments and values. It is not ual and tradition. Whether it’s having colonialism to defend these values the same breakfast every morning or at home, where they belong. A free the same Thanksgiving dinner every country does not have to be suicidal. year, they give us a sense of continuity Is Fox right in criticizing Obama and stability in a chaotic world. They “In the world of Fox, for weakness? No. Is Fox right in as- give us something to look forward suming that military might is the best to. (I’m writing this in July, and I’m the evil of the enemy is way to subdue enemies? No. Fox already looking forward to the South- incomprehensible and never mentions Obama’s robust ern cornbread dressing—dressing, totally gratuitous.” drone program in Afghanistan, Iraq, not stuffing—that my mother-in-law Libya, Somalia, and elsewhere. It is an makes every Thanksgiving and which unrelenting display of military might. I only get to eat once a year.) They Yet, far from intimidating enemies, it mean we don’t have to constantly emboldens, enrages, and inspires reinvent the wheel: we don’t have them. Is it incomprehensible for peo- to start every social interaction with ple to be incensed at the specter of a first-principles conversation about Is Fox right in thinking that Muslim what everyone needs, wants, and immigrants threaten American lib- little children mowed down by drones while playing outside or when walk- expects. And they give us a feeling erty? That depends on another ques- of being part of something bigger. tion: Do Muslims come to America ing to school? Is it incomprehensible for people to be furious enough at When we carry out our great-grand- for the freedom it affords, including parents’ traditions and hope that our religious freedom, or do they come the random terror of U.S. drones that some are willing to don a suicide vest great-grandchildren (literal or meta- to spread Sharia law? The same ques- in order to inflict the same random phorical) will do the same, it makes us tion can equally well be asked about terror in the Western societies that feel like a link in the chain of history. the radical Christians (such as the Pu- support U.S. terrorism? In the world Rituals and traditions provide struc- ritans) who were the earliest settlers. of Fox, only weakness emboldens ture, a skeleton for our lives. And The answer in both cases is the same. enemies. In the world of Fox, the evil as humanists and realists, we should Some came for religious freedom, of the enemy is incomprehensible recognize the reality of basic human while others hoped to impose their and totally gratuitous—like the Devil’s needs. religion on the new world. Some of revolt against God. It is no wonder On the other hand: The living these radical Christians are still try- that Fox resonates so profoundly with bone of tradition can easily turn into ing to make the United States into a stone—dead stone walls that don’t a Christian audience. “Christian nation.” support us but imprison us. We’ve all Bent on seeing Muslims as the encountered the implacable barrier “other,” Fox fails to recognize the Shadia B. Drury is professor emeritus at the of trying to change a tradition that similarity between radical Muslims University of Regina in Canada. Her books include isn’t meeting people’s needs anymore and radical Christians. Both threaten Terror and Civilization (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004) only to be told, “We’ve always done the liberties enshrined in the Con- and Aquinas and Modernity (Rowman & Littlefield, it this way”—as if that were an in- stitution. Both need to be sent a 2008). contestable argument that ended all

12 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org conversation. Rituals can turn empty: we’ve all encountered traditions whose meaning nobody remembers anymore. Nobody can remember why we do them, or why anyone ever did them, other than “We’ve always done it this way.” And tradition is often used as a weapon to resist change—includ- ing changes toward greater equal- ity. Same-sex marriage was staunchly opposed by people who claimed they were defending “traditional mar- riage” (never mind that marriage has changed dramatically over decades and centuries), and many sexist cus- toms are defended purely because they’re traditional. So as rationalists and realists, free- thinkers and humanists, how do we participate in traditions and rituals that support us without feeling impris- Some of us need more flexibility; some oned? How do we respect and sup- need more stability. For a lot of us, port other people’s need for traditions, those balances are different with dif- even if we don’t share them? How do ferent traditions: we might be flexible we have the bone without the stone? about Thanksgiving but highly ritualis- The obvious answer is that we tic about Halloween or birthdays. And should have rituals and traditions, “Rituals and traditions we’re going to disagree about which but they shouldn’t be inflexible. They provide structure, a parts of a tradition are the necessary should serve us, not the other way core and which are the frills that can around. They should adapt as we skeleton for our lives.” be adapted or dispensed with. For change. some people, the turkey is the import- That’s a good basic principle. But ant part of Thanksgiving traditions; there are a couple of problems. A big for others, the dinner has to be on one is that when it comes to ritual and and it always starts with a prayer— Grandma’s old china; still others are tradition, “We’ve always done it that while others are vegans, atheists, or deeply attached to particular songs way” is—well, it’s sort of the point. It’s have a hard time getting to Aunt Sa- and music; and others will be crushed a terrible defense for moral values or die’s house three bus rides away? if the dinner is not on Thanksgiving law and public policy. But the whole I’m not sure I have an answer. But if Day itself. point of ritual and tradition is that I do, it’s in the very recognition of the We’re going to have conflicts over something is done the same way, or at problem. If our traditions and rituals all of this. It will help if we can recognize least a similar way, every time. That’s are going to be functional, we have to that “We’ve always done it this way” one of the central defining traits. If we recognize that stability and flexibility isn’t always the right answer—and nei- tinker with traditions too much, they are both part of the package. Tradi- ther is “We have to change with the no longer provide continuity, stability, tions are valuable because of things times.” Both of these principles are im- the sense of being a link in a chain. being done the same way every time portant. And even though they conflict, They just become things we like to do. and because of how different people neither one can survive, flourish, or be There’s nothing wrong with that, obvi- interpret them. They shift over genera- useful without the other. ously, but it doesn’t fill the same need. tions; they adapt to new geographies; The other problem is that different and they adjust when families blend. From the author: These ideas were people have different needs. Many of A sense of continuity doesn’t have to developed over many conversations at our rituals and traditions are social. come from doing things exactly the the Godless Perverts Social Club. What do we do when some of us have same way every time: it can come from more of a need for sameness and oth- a core of stability, with small, gradual ers need more flexibility? What do we changes to the details being made Greta Christina is an author, blogger (at The Orbit), and do when some of us feel comforted over the years. speaker. Her latest book is The Way of the Heathen: because Thanksgiving is always at And we have to recognize that Practicing Atheism in Everyday Life (Pitchstone Aunt Sadie’s house, it’s always turkey, not everyone has the same needs. Publishing, 2016).

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 13 There is an obvious tension, if not Hell cannot be dismissed as merely MARK RUBINSTEIN a contradiction, between the idea of a a metaphor or an allegory. For centu- OP-ED loving god and a god who would con- ries, all religious Christians believed, demn unbelievers to Hell. We humans and many still believe, it to be a merci- know better. Even if we considered less reality. Augustine took it seriously. sending human beings to Hell for In his City of God (21:9) he asks, “And a day, this would violate the Eighth who is not terrified by this repetition, Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and by the threat of that punishment which prohibits cruel and unusual pun- uttered so vehemently by the lips of The Christian ishment. Christians are ironically more the Lord [Jesus] himself?” In his The moral than the God they worship! Reasonableness of Christianity, John Moral Code, That sadistic god has shamefully taken Locke, the great seventeenth-century full advantage of his vast power over English philosopher, also took Jesus Part 4: his helpless created creatures and ar- ranged a system of eternal torture. Hell and And this is the being whom Christian- ity would have you praise and worship! While ending up in Hell happens to Achievement most people, you become convinced that it won’t happen to you because “Hell . . . makes its first you do what Jesus tells you. When biblical appearance your loved ones die, you are assured in the Gospels, where that all is well. Hell is reserved for HELL other people. When you die, you will Jesus mentions it at see them in Heaven. I guess that is least thirty-six times.” What punishment does Jesus promise OK: your fate and that of those whom will be your fate should you not repent you love are all that really matters. and worship God through him? Hell Others can literally go to Hell, being as we think of it today does not really held unjustly in multiple-jeopardy and appear in the Hebrew Bible; it makes punished forever. at his word, writing that Jesus con- its first biblical appearance in the Gos- Hell plays a role in branches of Hin- firmed the “unspeakable rewards and punishments of another world.” Even pels, where Jesus mentions it at least duism and Buddhism, but souls do not the Deist Thomas Jefferson could not thirty-six times. Later in the New Testa- reside there eternally. These religions shake free from the myth of Heaven ment, it appears at least seven times, always give you another chance, in the and Hell, and he included these threats most menacingly in the book of Rev- next reincarnated life. In her book The spoken by Jesus in his conflated “per- elation. As Matthew (22:14) promises, History of Hell, Alice Turner concludes, sonal gospel.” In The Problem of Pain, the road to Hell is paved for the many “. . . no other religion ever raised Hell C. S. Lewis, the popular modern re- and cramped but wide; the way to to such importance as Christianity, ligious philosopher and writer, came Heaven, reserved for the few, is com- under which it became a fantastic un- up with another work-around: Hell, modious but narrow. derground of cruelty.” though it lasts forever, is not really that bad. Hell may primarily involve “de- “Hell may struction” and “privation,” rather than exclusively torture. What a relief! primarily involve If you believe that Jesus, God tem- porarily in human form, says that he will ‘destruction’ punish men and women with Hell for and ‘privation,’ disobedience or just disbelief, then, as many Christians in positions of power rather than have demonstrated, it is easier to make torture part of your repertoire. In “Why exclusively I Am Not a Christian,” a lecture de- torture. What a livered in 1927, Bertrand Russell is disturbed by what he says is a “serious relief!” defect” in Jesus’s moral character: I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane

14 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org can believe in everlasting punish- profound achievements of their past— and prepare themselves mentally for ment. . . . I must say that I think particularly its hard-won scientific and the imminent end. The morrow will that this doctrine, that hell-fire is artistic artifacts. Instead, you are con- take care of itself. a punishment for sin, is a doctrine John Calvin, the revered French of cruelty. It is a doctrine that put tinually told to repent, believe, and cruelty into the world and gave the pray. Achievement is not just ignored; theologian of the Reformation, cap- world generations of cruel torture; in the opposite form of praise of pov- tures this lop-sided emphasis perfectly: and the Christ of the Gospels, if erty, it is discouraged—perhaps even Let the aim of believers [Christians] you could take Him as His chroni- seen as dangerous because it can be in judging mortal life, then, be that clers represent Him, would certainly while they understand it to be of have to be considered partly re- a precursor to arrogance, a vice that in the Gospels takes center stage as itself nothing but misery, they may sponsible for that. (“Why I Am Not with greater eagerness and dis- a Christian,”The Basic Writings of something to be avoided at all costs. patch betake themselves wholly to Bertrand Russell, New York: Simon While you prepare for the promised meditate upon that eternal life to & Schuster, 1961) judgment and the coming Kingdom come. When it comes to a compari- of Heaven that Jesus is introducing, son with the life to come, the present ACHIEVEMENT you are told that every other concern life can not only be safely neglected but, compared to the former, must Christianity gives priority to prepara- should be set aside. Before family and be utterly despised and loathed. For, tion for the next world over living in community comes following Jesus, if heaven is our homeland, what this one. This has an immediate cor- even if that means denying your par- else is the earth but our place of ollary: education, hard work, compet- ents, abandoning your wife and chil- exile? If departure from the world is dren, leaving your job, and giving up entry into life, what else is the world itiveness, and intellectual, artistic, and but a sepulcher? And what else is it physical accomplishment are virtues your possessions. We should not be for us to remain in life but to be missing from almost the entire New surprised that the New Testament fails immersed in death? (Institutes of Testament. History becomes some- to address society-wide moral issues the Christian Religion, Philadelphia: thing to be created rather than to of economics and government since, Westminster Press, 3:9:4) be learned. Christianity sees history in the earliest Gospels, the Kingdom before the birth of Jesus as irrelevant of Heaven is expected to arrive at Mark Rubinstein is a retired professor of finance for the to the present. What happened be- any moment. Freedom, democracy, University of California at Berkeley who now writes on fore is a mistake and a waste of time the rule of law, human rights, and free early Christianity and humanism. This column continues to consider. Nothing suggests that markets are beyond the scope of the his series on the Christian moral code, which will con- humans should preserve proofs of the Gospels. Individuals need only wait clude in the next issue of Free Inquiry.

Earn your master’s degree in Science and the Public through the University at Buffalo and the Center for Inquiry! 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.

For details, visit www.gse.buffalo.edu/online/science Questions? Contact David Koepsell, at [email protected].

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 15 LOOKING BACK

35 Years Ago in Free Inquiry “. . . The book censors are starting to organize, the moral crusade has begun, and the hunt for secular humanists is on. . . . “What makes them so dangerous is that secular humanists look like you and me. Some of them could be your best friends without your knowing they are humanists. They could come into your house, play with your children, eat your food, and even watch football on television with you, and you’d never know that they have read Catcher in the Rye, Brave New World, and Huckleberry Finn. ”Of course there are some who flaunt their humanism and will brag they’re for abortion and against prayers in public schools. You can throw them out of the house. “But for every secular humanist who will tell you where he or she stands on a fundamentalist issue there are 10 who keep their thoughts to themselves and are working to destroy the American family. . . .”

—Art Buchwald, “Secular Humanists: Threat or Menace?” Free Inquiry Volume 1, No. 4 (Fall 1981) Editor’s Note: Humorist Art Buchwald (1925–2007) was a long-running columnist for The Washington Post. He received a Pulitzer Prize in 1982 and was elected to the American Institute of Arts and Letters in 1986.

25 Years Ago in Free Inquiry “. . . Free Inquiry: What position do you take regarding terminal patients who are dying? “Dr. Jack Kevorkian: In my view the highest principle in medical ethics— in any kind of ethics—is personal autonomy, self-determination. What counts is what the patient wants and judges to be a benefit or value is his or her own life. That’s primary. “Now, if a patient is suffering from some sort of debilitating condition and says ‘I want to end my life. It’s no longer worth going on,’ value is diminishing. The patient should go to a medical person, as this is primarily a medical problem. . . . “FI: Do you think there ought to be a law legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide? “JK: There should simply be a law stating that these are medical prob- lems. . . . In cases of medicide and assisted suicide, the doctors should call upon consultants and together with them cover every aspect of each case. “But it is the doctors in consultation with the patient who should make the final decisions concerning medicide and assisted suicide. . . .” —Paul Kurtz interviewing Dr. Jack Kevorkian, “Medicide: The Goodness of Planned Death,” Free Inquiry Volume 11, No. 4 (Fall 1991) E ditor’s Note: Medicide was Dr. Kevorkian’s coinage for what is now called “physician aid-in-dying.” It was the title of his 1991 Prometheus book. Kevorkian served eight years in prison for administering a lethal injection to a consenting patient suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease. He died in 2011.

16 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org LETTERS

ROBYN BLUMNER: IS INTOLERANCE OF INTOLERANCE INTOLERANT? of the Center for Inquiry (CFI), in (regarding Muslims or ex-Muslims violence we see today is a con- her editorial has further alienated but also what we are seeing in sequence of global capitalism, CELEBRATING REASON AND HUMANITY August/September 2016 Vol. 36 No.5 any humanists who still hold on to America recently) is not about re- imperialism, and colonialism, hope that the organization, which ligion—though of course religion with religion substituting as ready is now more ideologically aligned provides justification and inspi- justification. with the anti-theism of the New ration for the myriad horrible ac- Wowzer. Atheism than scientific human- tions over the last few decades— I guess I’d first point out that if ism, can somehow right itself. but about socioeconomics and there is any country that benefits HOW A CREATIVE HUMANIST While her comments on Saudi politics. That is, global capitalism, from global capitalism, it is Saudi MINORITY RESHAPED AMERICA Leah Mickens Arabia—America’s closest friend imperialism, and the continued Arabia. The people of that nation FAISAL SAEED AL MUTAR in the Middle East outside of the fallout from colonialism. won the world’s lottery by sitting A Plan to Fight Back against Radical Islam GRETA CHRISTINA and TOM FLYNN Zionist (read “terrorist”) state of This is not humanism. This is on one of the largest reserves of What Does Atheism Mean? 80% 1.5 BWR PD A/S 08 REMEMBERING ROBERT G. INGERSOLL Israel—are pretty much on tar- hatred and true intolerance. And oil. Rather than be destabilizing Introductory Price $4.95 U.S. / $4.95 Can. 09 VALERIE TARICO or stoking socioeconomic frus- JOE NICKELL get, her misrepresentation of this sort of thinking will never pro- Published by the Center for Inquiry in association 7725274 74957 MARK RUBINSTEIN with the Council for Secular Humanism the “Left” and her insults thereof vide viable, humanistic solutions. tration, the international oil trade seem to confirm what I believed Here in the real world, things are has provided Saudi citizens some almost a decade ago . . . that a bit more complicated. We won’t of the highest living standards in this organization has finally put avoid the continued violence until the world. humanism into the dustbin of we (Americans, British, French, If Seidman’s point is that Kudos on Redesign history. etc.) look in the mirror and decide global capitalism has helped fuel Blumner’s portrait of the Left violence by allowing Saudi Arabia I just began reading my copy it’s time to remake ourselves and (by which I believe she means lib- to grow so rich that it has been of the August/September 2016 stop trying to remake (or incarcer- erals and progressives because able to export its fiercely conser- Free Inquiry, and I wish to thank ate or assassinate) those we’ve no one on the actual Left would vative form of Islam, Wahhabism, you for the changes you made to terrorized for over a century. hold such binary “identity poli- which has led to violent jihad, the magazine’s format. Especially Barry F. Seidman tics”) as borderline-pathological okay, I buy that. Around the change number 3 as listed on Oak Ridge, New Jersey might instead resemble what she world, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, page 6 [having the op-eds finish sees in the mirror each morning. Central Asia, etc., wherever there in their entirety at the front of the Robyn Blumner responds: That she is so obviously unable has been a weak central govern- book]. This has been a long time to differentiate between criticism As a reminder to readers, my ment and a large Muslim popu- coming, and I very much appre- of Islam and Islamophobia ought piece for FI condemned Saudi lation, Saudi Arabia has financed ciate it! to give great pause to any mem- Arabia’s intense intolerance madrassas that teach the repres- Gary Campbell ber of CFI. This inability is more toward women’s equality and sion of women and the marginal- Reno, Nevada recognizable as a feature of the anyone not Muslim. I noted that ization of people of other faiths. Right (religious and secular), not Saudi Arabia, rather than be the From these “schools” come stu- Center or Left (though I admit least chagrined by these out-of- dents with anti-enlightenment Intolerance of Intolerant Centrists like Ben Affleck don’t step cultural norms, lashes out at values, little understanding of sci- Policies necessarily help us build an intel- any criticism of them as an attack ence and critical thinking, and a lectual dialogue). Very few (if any) on its country’s sovereignty. The taste for religious extremism if not Robyn E. Blumner’s kickoff edi- individuals on the Left (anarchists, take-away of the piece was an militarism and martyrdom. torial (“Is My Intolerance of Marxist socialists, communists) expression of disappointment Seidman’s global West Your Intolerance Intolerant?” and probably not very many in and head-scratching confusion as bought the oil and has to own FI, August/September 2016) is the Center “defend” the parts to why some (note, I said some) that level of complicity. But it excellent. Saudi Arabia should of Islam that are regressive . . . on the political Left denounce was Saudi Arabia on its own not be a friend of the United certainly not those of us who are criticism of backward Muslim that decided to use the money States until it adopts better pol- atheists. tenets as an attack on Muslims to spread a rigid and ossified icies toward women—primarily— Blumner appears to be ig- in general. To my mind, this dis- religion. And once again we are and non-Muslims. Americans are norant of the long relationship torted hyper-cultural sensitivity back to religion playing a cen- excusing a great deal of barbaric between the global West and the does the international cause of tral role in current conflicts, not a behavior to keep gasoline cheap. Muslim world. Her analysis lacks humanism no favors. peripheral one. I’d rather walk or ride my bike. what most Americans’ views do Now, Barry Seidman takes As to the future of CFI, this We should learn from our mis- . . . historical perspective. Blum­ me to task for . . . everything. might not reassure Seidman, but takes in South Africa. We were ner doesn’t seem to understand According to Seidman, my col- I am deeply committed to pro- close to the apartheid establish- how and why the Muslim world is umn demonstrates that CFI has gressive, humanist values and to ment there for way too long. exploding now or how the condi- lost its way and walked back its seeing CFI remain a leader in pro- Ted Schaar tions for the rise of fundamental- humanist values. He says I don’t moting them here and abroad. I Brookfield, Wisconsin ist and otherwise mentally unsta- understand the history of the am also a fan of New Atheism ble individuals came about in the “global West and the Muslim and believe atheism’s reliance region. She probably can’t see world” and, to school me in Robyn E. Blumner, the new CEO that the crux of all this violence what’s what, he explains that the (Continued on page 63)

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 17  POINT

APOCALYPSE . . . WHEN? Follow the Trend Lines, Not the Headlines:

Terrorism Is Not an Existential Threat Michael Shermer

e’re fortunate to be living in the most most meaningful aspects of human existence—implies a peaceful, most prosperous, most progres- threat to our very existence as a civilization or species. Users “Wsive era in human history,” President Barack of the phrase imply that if ISIS, for example, was successful Obama told an audience in Hannover, Germany, on Mon- in its global jihad to bring about Sharia law, it would mean day, April 25, 2016, in conjunction with his announcement the end of Western civilization and possibly the extermina- that he was sending 250 more American special operations tion of all who do not succumb and convert. troops to Syria because of the ongoing terrorist activities in If ISIS or any of the other terrorist organizations grounded that war-torn country. “If you had to choose a moment in in Islamism were successful in prevailing, I agree that it time to be born, any time in human history, and you didn’t would be an existential crisis. But are they, in fact, likely to know ahead of time what nationality you were or what gen- succeed? No. I will demonstrate why below, but first I want der or what your economic status might be, you’d choose to acknowledge that even if ISIS isn’t an existential threat, today.” 1 Obama went on to recount what a number of us this doesn’t mean that it is not a threat of some sort. have been saying for years about the long-term progress of humanity (see, for example, Steven Pinker’s magisterial The Better Angels of Our Nature 2 and my own The Moral Arc 3), noting that “it’s been decades since the last war between Existential Threat major powers. More people live in democracies. We’re wealthier and healthier and better educated, with a global economy that has lifted up more than a billion people from extreme poverty.” Such optimism is heartening, coming as it does from someone whose inbox undoubtedly sags from the daily

barrage of bad news with which he and his Cabinet must 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 deal. Although Obama clearly erred when he called ISIS a “JV team,” his military responses thus far have been com- Figure 1. The rise of “existential threat” as a descriptor. mensurate with the actual threat that ISIS—or any other Google Ngram search for the phrase “existential threat” 1950–2008. terrorist organization—poses.

What Is an Existential Threat? You hear the phrase “existential threat” a lot these days. A Who Is Existentially Threatening Us? Google Ngram search shows that it didn’t come into use until the late 1950s, most likely in describing the growing As most people know, it has become politically incorrect to threat of global thermonuclear war, and it crawls along the associate “Islam” or “Muslims” with terrorism, out of fear bottom of the curve through the 1960s, 1970s, and early that such an affiliation could lead to indiscriminate bigotry 1980s. Then, around 1983, its use takes off in a steady up- against the entire religion of Islam and against all Muslims. ward trend line to 2001, after which it spikes dramatically Thus was born the pejorative descriptor “Islamophobia,” upward in a hockey-stick–like increase, clearly in response applied to anyone who associates terrorism with the re- to the events of September 11, 2001 (see figure 1). ligion. Maajid Nawaz is a case in point. A former Islamist What does existential mean when modifying a threat? radical jailed for his activities, Maajid is now an Islamic Its derivation from the French philosophy of existentialism, reformer who artfully tries to strike the right causal balance, which deals with existence—most notably, the deepest and as in this Facebook post:

18 Free InquIry october/november 2016 secularhumanism.org

PB Free InquIry OctOber/nOvember 2016 secularhumanism.org APOCALYPSE . . . WHEN?

One cannot say ISIL are “Islam,” just like one cannot say our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with they have nothing to do with Islam. They have something each other.”6 Evil may be a good adjective for describing to do with it. When we refer to Stalin, we don’t disassoci- something or someone you really don’t like, but it only ate him entirely from Communism though Trotsky hated what Stalin did and paid with his life. Naming ideologies is clouds our understanding of human behavior. Everyone a crucial first step in being able to refute them. Islam is a has a motive and a point of view, including people we call religion. Islamism is the desire to impose Islam over soci- “evil.” In a study of fifty-two cases of Islamic extremists ety. Jihadism is the use of force to spread Islamism. It is this who have targeted the United States, for instance, the desire to impose Islam, i.e., Islamism, that we must refute.4 political scientist John Mueller concluded that terrorist Semantic precision is a core component of science. To motives are multivariate in nature and include instrumen- that end, the historian and publisher of Middle East Quar- tal violence and revenge: “a simmering, and more com- terly, Daniel Pipes, articulates the difference between Islam monly boiling, outrage at U.S. foreign policy—the wars and Islamism: in Iraq and Afghanistan, in particular, and the country’s support for Israel in the Palestinian conflict.” Ideology in Islamism is an ideology that demands man’s complete the form of religion “was a part of the consideration for adherence to the sacred law of Islam and rejects as much most,” Mueller continues, “but not because they wished as possible outside influence, with some exceptions (such as access to military and medical technology). It is imbued to spread Sharia law or to establish caliphates (few of the with a deep antagonism towards non-Muslims and has a culprits would be able to spell either word). Rather they particular hostility towards the West. It amounts to an effort wanted to protect their coreligionists against what was to turn Islam, a religion and civilization, into an ideology. commonly seen to be a concentrated war upon them in the Middle East by the U.S. government.”7 Pipes notes that the word Islamism is appropriate here There are practical motives as well, as the anthropol- because it centers it as an ideology, not unlike fascism. “Is- ogist Scott Atran has documented. Suicide bombers and lamism turns the bits and pieces within Islam that deal with their families, for example, are showered with status and politics, economics, and military affairs into a sustained and honor, and most “belong to loose, homegrown networks systematic program.” A program to do what? “Islamism of family and friends who die not just for a cause, but for offers a way of approaching and controlling state power. each other.” Most terrorists are in their late teens or early It openly relies on state power for coercive purposes.” As twenties, especially students and immigrants “who are such, Pipes concludes: especially prone to movements that promise a meaning- Islamism is, in other words, yet another twentieth-century ful cause, camaraderie, adventure, and glory.”8 radical utopian scheme. Like Marxism-Leninism or fascism, 2. Terrorists are not that organized. Politicians like to it offers a way to control the state, run society, and remake portray terrorists as part of a vast global network of the human being. It is an Islamic-flavored version of total- itarianism.5 top-down, centrally-controlled conspiracies against the West. But as Atran shows, terrorism is “a decentralized, Again, I will concede the point that if an Islamist organi- self-organizing, and constantly evolving complex of so- zation did manage to grab the controls of state power and cial networks,” often organized through social groups sweep across the world with arms and armies conquering and sports organizations such as soccer clubs.9 countries—like Hitler or Stalin—then we would be facing 3. Terrorists are not diabolical geniuses. The 9/11 Com­ an existential crisis. But the evidence leads me to conclude mission Report described al-Qaeda terrorists as “sophis- that nothing like this is in the offing. ticated, patient, disciplined, and lethal.”10 But according to political scientist Max Abrahms, after the decapitation Reasons Why We Need Not Fear Terrorism of the leadership of the top terrorist organizations, Terrorism is a form of asymmetrical warfare by nonstate ac- “terrorists targeting the American homeland have been tors against state actors and their innocent noncombatant neither sophisticated nor masterminds, but incompetent civilians. It functions, as its name suggests, by evoking ter- fools.”11 Examples include: ror, which naturally arouses our moral emotions of revenge • 2001 airplane shoe-bomber, Richard Reid, who was and justice. This, in turn, confounds clear thinking about unable to ignite the fuse because it was wet from rain terrorism. As such, it is good to review what we really know and his own foot perspiration; about terrorism, which has now been the subject of consid- • 2009 underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, erable social-science research. Here are five reasons why I who succeeded only in setting his pants ablaze, burn- do not think terrorism poses an existential threat. ing his genitals and getting himself arrested; 1. Terrorists are not pure evil. President­ George W. Bush • 2010 Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, who was wrong when he said that the 9/11 terrorists hated managed merely to torch the inside of his 1993 Nissan us for “our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, Pathfinder; and

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 19 • the 2013 Boston marathon bombers, who were insurgencies.” Chenoweth added that “this trend has been equipped with only one gun for defense and had no increasing over time—in the last 50 years civil resistance has money and no exit strategy beyond hijacking a car become increasingly frequent and effective, whereas vio- with no gas in it. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev used it to run over lent insurgencies have become increasingly rare and unsuc- his brother, Tamerlan, and followed that with a failed cessful. This is true even in extremely repressive, authoritar- suicide attempt inside a land-based boat. ian conditions where we might expect nonviolent resistance to fail.” In fact, Chenoweth notes, “campaigns that relied 4. Terrorism does not cause mass deaths. In comparison to solely on nonviolent methods were on average four times homicides in America, deaths from terrorism are in the larger than the average violent campaign. And they were statistical noise, barely a blip on a graph compared to often much more representative in terms of gender, age, the 13,700 homicides a year. By comparison, besides race, political party, class, and urban-rural distinctions.”17 the three thousand deaths on 9/11, the total number of How does this nonviolent strategy translate into political people killed by terrorists in the thirty-eight years before change? If your movement is based on violence, you are totals 340. The number killed after 9/11 and including necessarily going to be limiting yourself to mostly young, the Boston bombing is thirty-three, and that includes strong, violence-prone males who also have a propensity the thirteen soldiers killed in the Fort Hood massacre by for boozing and brawling, whereas, Chenoweth explains, Nidal Hasan in 2009.12 That’s a total of 373 killed, or 7.8 “Civil resistance allows people of all different levels of phys- people per year. Even if we include the three thousand ical ability to participate—including the elderly, people with people who perished on 9/11 and the fourteen killed in disabilities, women, children, and virtually anyone else who San Bernardino, that brings the average annual total to wants to.”18 70.4 persons, compared to 13,700 homicides annually. 5. Terrorism doesn’t work. In a study of forty-two foreign

terrorist organizations active for several decades, Max 80% Abrahms concluded that only two achieved their stated 70% goals—Hezbollah achieved control over southern Leb- anon in 1984 and 2000, and the Tamil Tigers took over 60% Nonviolent parts of Sri Lanka in 1990, which they then lost in 2009. 50% 13 That results in a success rate of less than 5 percent. In a 40%

subsequent study, Abrahms and his colleague Matthew Success rate Violent Gottfried found that when terrorists kill civilians or take 30% captives, the likelihood of bargaining success with states 20%

is significantly lowered, because violence begets vio- 10% lence, and public sentiments turn against the perpetra- 0 tors of violence. Further, they found that when terrorists 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000-2006

did get what they wanted, their goals were more likely to be money or the release of political prisoners, not Figure 2. Nonviolent campaigns for political change. political objectives.14 Finally, in terms of the overall effec- The success rate of campaigns for political change since the 1940s com- paring violent and nonviolent methods reveals that violence is a failed tiveness of terrorism as a means to an end, in an analysis strategy, and nonviolence is the method of choice. of 457 terrorist campaigns since 1968, the political sci- entist Audrey Cronin found that not one terrorist group Violent vs. Nonviolent Campaigns for Political Change had conquered a state, and that a full 94 percent had 70 failed to gain even one of their strategic political goals. 60 And the number of terrorist groups who accomplished all of their objectives? Zero. Cronin’s book is titled How 50

Terrorism Ends. Her conclusion: It ends swiftly (groups 40 survive only five to nine years on average) and badly (the 15 30 NONVIOLENT NONVIOLENT

death of its leaders). NONVIOLENT NONVIOLENT 20 VIOLENT Violent vs. Nonviolent Political Change VIOLENT 10 centage of successful campaigns VIOLENT VIOLENT Terrorism is meant as a form of violent political change. NONVIOLENT Per 0 The political scientists Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan SuccessPartial Failure have documented the relative success and failure of violent Success vs. nonviolent campaigns for political change since 1900.16 Figure 3. Progress in nonviolent campaigns for political change. Results: “From 1900 to 2006, nonviolent campaigns world- The percentage of successful campaigns for political change comparing wide were twice as likely to succeed outright as violent violent and nonviolent methods.

20 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.orgsecularhumanism.org APOCALYPSE . . . WHEN?

Finally, nonviolent campaigns of political change are lines instead of the headlines in assessing whether or not far more likely to result in democratic institutions than are terrorism poses an existential threat to our civilization. It violent insurgencies. “The data are clear,” Chenoweth doesn’t. concludes: “When people rely on civil resistance, their size Notes grows. And when large numbers of people withdraw their cooperation from an oppressive system, the odds are ever 1. Quoted in Jessica Chasmar, “Obama: We’re Living in ‘Most Peaceful’­ Era in Human History,” Washington Times, April 26, 2016. 19 20 21 in their favor.” Figures 2 and 3 show these remarkable 2. Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature (New York: Viking, trends. 2011). 3. Michael Shermer, The Moral Arc (New York: Henry Holt, 2015). What About Nuclear Terrorism? 4. Maajid Nawaz, Facebook Page Post, February 18, 2015. 5. Daniel Pipes, “Distinguishing Between Islam and Islamism,” Middle Osama bin Laden said he wanted to use nukes if he East Forum, June 30, 1998. could get them, and Homeland Security Secretary Tom 6. Quoted in Manuel Perez-Rivas, “Bush Vows to Rid the World of ‘Evil- Ridge pressed the point in calling for more support for his Doers,’” CNN Washington Bureau, September 16, 2001. agency: “Weapons of mass destruction, including those 7. John Mueller and Mark G. Stewart, “Hapless, Disorganized, and Irrational,” Slate, April 22, 2013. containing chemical, biological or radiological agents or 8. Scott Atran, “Black and White and Red All Over,” Foreign Policy, April materials, cannot be discounted.”22 But as Michael Levi of 22, 2013. the Council on Foreign Relations reminds us, “Politicians 9. Ibid. love to scare the wits out of people, and nothing suits that 10. The 9/11 Commission Report, 2004. Available at xvi. http:// www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf. purpose better than talking about nuclear terrorism. From 11. Max Abrahms, “Bottom of the Barrel,” Foreign Policy, April 24, 2013. President Bush warning in 2002 that the ‘smoking gun’ 12. Ronald Bailey, “How Scared of Terrorism­ Should You Be?” Reason, might be a mushroom cloud, to John Kerry in 2004 conjur- September 6, 2011. ing ‘shadowy figures’ with a ‘finger on the nuclear button’ 13. Max Abrahms, “Why Terrorism Does Not Work,” International Security 31 (2006): 42–78. and Mitt Romney invoking the specter of ‘radical nuclear 14. Max Abrahms and Matthew S. Gottfried, “Does Terrorism Pay? An jihad’ last spring, the pattern is impossible to miss.”23 Empirical Analysis,” Terrorism and Political Violence, 2014. But most experts agree that acquiring the necessary 15. Audrey Cronin, How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and materials and knowledge for building either weapon is far Demise of Terrorist Campaigns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011). 16. Maria J. Stephan and Erica Chenoweth, “Why Civil Resistance Works: beyond the reach of most (if not all) terrorists. In his book The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict,” International Security 33, No. On Nuclear Terrorism, Levi invokes what he calls “Murphy’s 1 (2008): 7–44. See also Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan, Why Civil Law of Nuclear Terrorism: What can go wrong might go Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict (New York: wrong” and recounts numerous failed terrorist attacks due Columbia University Press, 2011). 17. Stephan and Chenoweth, 2008. to sheer incompetence on the part of the terrorists to build 18. Erica Chenoweth, “Nonviolent Re­­sistance,” TEDx Boulder 2013. and detonate even the simplest of chemical weapons.24 Available at http://goo.gl/xqTy5P. In this context, it is important to note that no dirty 19. Ibid. bomb has ever been successfully deployed resulting in 20. Graph rendered from data in Stephan and Chenoweth, 2008, op cit., Chenoweth and Stephan, 2011, op cit., and Chenoweth, 2013, op cit. casualties by anyone anywhere, and that according to the 21. Ibid. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission—which tracks fissile 22. Quoted in Michael S. Levi, “Panic More Dangerous than WMD,” materials—“most reports of lost or stolen material involve Chicago Tribune, May 26, 2003. small or short-lived radioactive sources that are not useful 23. Michael S. Levi, “Fear and the Nuclear Terror Threat,” USA Today, March 24, 2011, 9A. for a RDD [radiological dispersal device, or dirty bomb]. 24. Michael S. Levi, On Nuclear Terrorism (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Past experience suggests there has not been a pattern University Press, 2009). of collecting such sources for the purpose of assembling 25. “Fact Sheet on Dirty Bombs,” United States Nuclear Regulatory a RDD. It is important to note that the radioactivity of the Commission, December 2012. Available at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ doc-collections/fact-sheets/fs-dirty-bombs.html. See also http://www.policy combined total of all unrecovered sources over the past almanac.org/world/archive/dirty_bombs.shtml. 5 years would not reach the threshold for one high-risk radioactive source.”25 In short, the chances of terrorists successfully building and launching a nuclear device of any sort is so low that we would be far better off investing our limited resources in defusing the problem of terrorism in other areas. Michael Shermer is the publisher of Skeptic magazine, a monthly columnist for As President Obama noted in his Hannover speech, Scientific American, and a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University. He is the such optimism “may surprise young people who are author of The Moral Arc, The Believing Brain, Why People Believe Weird Things, watching TV or looking at your phones and it seems like Why Darwin Matters, The Mind of the Market, How We Believe, and The Science of only bad news comes through every day.” It is a testimony Good and Evil. His two TED talks, viewed nearly seven million times, were voted in to Obama’s intelligence and foresight to follow the trend the top one hundred of the more than two thousand TED talks.

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 21  COUNTERPOINT

APOCALYPSE . . . WHEN? It Matters Which Trend Lines One Follows:

Why Terrorism Is an Existential Threat Phil Torres

lthough we averted a nuclear nightmare dict,” the report states, “these hypothetical consequences during the Cold War, we now face proliferation suggest alarming vulnerabilities. Restoring normalcy to of a scope and complexity that demands new economic relations would be daunting, as would meeting “A 2 strategies and new approaches,” President Barack Obama the sweeping demands to compensate all of the losses.” remarked at a 2009 United Nations Security Council summit As Michael Shermer noted in his article, Osama bin on nuclear weapons. “Just one nuclear weapon exploded Laden once called it his “religious duty” to acquire and use in a city—be it New York or Moscow; Tokyo or Beijing; Lon- weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), including nuclear don or Paris—could kill hundreds of thousands of people. weapons, and in a recent issue of its propaganda magazine And it would badly destabilize our security, our economies, Dabiq, the Islamic State fantasizes about getting a nuclear and our very way of life.”1 weapon from Pakistan—which has a history of nuclear mal- Obama is right: even a single nuclear weapon being feasance—shipping it across the Atlantic to South Amer- detonated in a major urban area would have global re- ica and then smuggling it through the “porous borders” percussions. As a RAND corporation “scenario analysis” of Central America into the United States. As the article explores, a nuclear weapon being detonated in Los Ange- states, this may sound “far-fetched,” but it’s “infinitely more les could not only kill 60,000 people instantly and expose possible today than it was just one year ago.” And many some 150,000 more to radioactive contamination, but nuclear terrorism experts agree: the issue isn’t whether such millions could attempt to flee the region. Even more, “the an attack will occur but when. As a 2005 survey of eighty- economic effects of the catastrophe are likely to spread five national security experts reports, “60 percent of the far beyond the initial attack, reaching a national and even respondents assessed the odds of a nuclear attack within international scale.” Global trade could be severely dis- 10 years at between 10 and 50 percent, with an average of rupted, local labor supplies in port cities could dwindle, 29.2 percent.”3 Almost 80 percent of participants identified and the largest insurance companies in the country could terrorists as the likely perpetrators of such an attack. While go bankrupt. “While exact outcomes are difficult to pre- an attack did not, of course, occur before 2015, we may have to thank the same thing that got us through the Cold War without a nuclear holocaust: luck. Does this mean that terrorism constitutes an existential threat? It depends on how one defines that term—and, to be sure, many pundits and politicians use it hyperbolically to refer to scenarios that would, in some vague sense, be “bad.” For the present, let’s go with Shermer’s definition of terrorism as “a threat to our very existence as a civilization or species.” This being the case, one could make an argu- ment that nuclear terrorism might constitute an existential threat, given the likely social, political, and economic ef- fects of a nuclear attack. In fact, while the number of terror- ist attacks, totaling more than 140,000 between 1970 and 2014, has declined over the past few decades, the lethality of attacks—that is, the number of victims per incident—has increased. And according to the most recent data, “the number of lives lost to terrorism increased by 80 percent in 2014, reaching the highest level ever recorded at 32,658.”4

22 Free InquIry october/november 2016 secularhumanism.org APOCALYPSE . . . WHEN?

By comparison, 18,111 died of terrorism in 2013. As a ll of this is worrisome on its own, but it becomes even Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) document from 2000 pre- Amore so when one peers into the future. There are sciently notes, terrorism attacks “will become increasingly several reasons for thinking that, even if terrorism today sophisticated and designed to achieve mass casualties. We doesn’t constitute an existential threat to Western civiliza- expect the trend toward greater lethality in terrorist attacks tion, it very likely will by the end of the century, or perhaps to continue.”5 So do I, as we’ll explore below. in the next few decades. Below are three reasons for antic- The underlying cause of this historical shift away from ipatory anxiety about the future of terrorism—about how it smaller attacks and toward less frequent but more cata- could continue to shift toward greater lethality, as the CIA strophic displays of violence concerns at least two factors: article above noted. media coverage, which insofar as terrorism is a form of communication enables the message to reach more peo- 1. Environmental degradation. ple, and religion. In fact, the Global Terrorism Index affirms How does one become a religious fanatic? What are the that religious extremism is now the primary driver behind root causes of religious extremism? The first point to rec- global terrorism, with Islamic groups such as Boko Haram ognize is that radicalization doesn’t occur in a vacuum. in Nigeria and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria leading the way. This is germane because secular terrorists are less likely to engage in indiscriminate violence against noncombatants. In contrast, terrorists mo- tivated by religious ideologies often see “Obama is right: even a single nuclear themselves as engaged in a cosmic struggle that has only one acceptable outcome: the weapon being detonated in a major urban total destruction of God’s enemies and the area would have global repercussions.” triumph of his will. This is especially the case with apocalyptic terrorism, which has come to dominate the ideological landscape in the Middle East since the 2003 United States–led preemptive invasion of Iraq, in part because The societal conditions in which one finds oneself can many Sunnis and Shi’ites in the region saw the war as an nontrivially inflate the probability that religious moderates unambiguous fulfillment of prophecy. come to accept extreme ideologies. Once accepted, these For the apocalyptic terrorist in particular, not only is ideologies can then influence, shape, and determine one’s there a cosmic struggle between good and evil, but the behavior in the world—a fact that Sam Harris has correctly culmination of world history—typically marked by an Armageddon-like battle—is imminent. This belief, when ensconced deep in one’s psyche, can produce in the true believer an exaggerated sense of moral urgency, leading him or her to pursue catastrophic violence in the service of catalyzing The End. For such individuals, revenge becomes a “divine calling.”6 The apocalyptic warrior doesn’t merely want a fight but a fight to the death. Or, to borrow a met- aphor from former CIA Director Jim Woolsey, terrorists of this ilk “are not seeking a place at the table, but are seeking to blow up the table and kill everyone sitting there.”7 The point is that apocalyptic terrorism is the most dan- gerous form of terrorism because it shifts all value expec- tations from the worldly to the otherworldly, and in doing so it devalues present life in favor of the afterlife. As bin Laden declared in a 2006 audio recording, “As for us, we have nothing to lose. One who swims in the sea does not fear the rain.”

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 23 emphasized—leading the “true believer” to engage in ible,” meaning that literally hundreds of future generations acts of horrific violence that would otherwise be morally will be affected, for up to ten thousand years. Yet another unthinkable. History is replete with examples in which soci- article in Nature argues that biodiversity loss could result in etal stress and the resulting cultural disorientation pushed a permanent, catastrophic collapse of the global ecosystem groups or individuals into extremism. As James Rinehart on a timescale of decades. The fact is that human activity writes, “terrorist attacks exemplify the presence of serious, has already initiated the sixth mass extinction event in life’s unresolved conflicts within a society.”8 3.5 billion-year history, and the global population of verte- In the case of apocalyptic terrorism, Mark Juergens- brates declined by a whopping 52 percent between 1970 meyer points to three “conditions that make it likely for and 2010. Readers are welcome to extrapolate this trend cosmic war to be conceived as being located on a worldly into the future. stage.” The first concerns the crisis being “perceived as a It follows that climate change and biodiversity loss could challenge to basic identity and dignity.” In other words, if significantly fuel terrorism in the future by pushing societies it’s understood as a conflict of “ultimate significance,” then to the brink of collapse. In fact, multiple high-ranking U.S. it’s more likely to “be seen as a transcendent crisis with spir- officials such as John Brennan and Chuck Hagel explicitly itual implications.” The second occurs if “losing a cultural agree with this prognosis, as does the Department of identity and tradition to the crisis would be unthinkable,” Defense.10 (And we haven’t even explored the possibility meaning “the elimination of a whole culture and way of life that environmental degradation could fuel ecoterrorism, that was thought to be immortal.” This could produce a as Frances Flannery argues.) Terrorism will likely become worse as human activity forces global-scale changes to the climate and biosphere.

2. Disruptive technologies. Another way to satisfy Juergensmeyer’s conditions is to induce widespread societal changes through the introduction of new “Secular terrorists are less likely to engage in technologies. The fact is that numerous technological revolutions in the past have indiscriminate violence against noncombatants.” proven to have been highly disruptive, forcing the involuntary restructuring of so- ciety. Such changes have, consequently, threatened cultural identities and traditions, thereby creating the very conditions that fertilize apocalyptic thinking. According to sense that the struggle is “taking place on a transhistorical­ many observers, we’re in the early stages of a new tech- plane.” And the third occurs if “the crisis cannot be averted nological revolution: the genetics, nanotechnology, and or relieved in real time or in real terms.” That is to say, “if robotics (GNR) revolution. Unlike past revolutions, this one the crisis is seen to be hopeless in human terms, beyond is expected to have far more profound effects than ever any human ability to control or contain it, it is likely that it before. Indeed, it will be both world-transforming and may be reconceived on a sacred plane, where the possi- person-transforming, meaning that it will radically change bilities of change and transformation are in God’s hands.” not only the technological milieus in which the human Each of these conditions could increase the probability of organism is embedded but the human organism itself. an apocalyptic worldview emerging within a group, and all The result will be completely new environmental condi- three together “strongly suggest” that such an ideology tions in which increasingly cyborgish humans will exist. Tech- will take shape.9 nology and biology are merging, and this will challenge our The point is that slow-motion catastrophes of climate very notion of humanity, which stands at the center of many change and biodiveristy loss will very likely satisfy these religious traditions. According to such beliefs, humans are conditions by resulting, for example, in decade-long me- metaphysically distinct from the rest of the animal kingdom ga-droughts, more extreme weather events, sea-level rise, by virtue of our unique possession of an immortal soul, desertification, the spread of infectious disease, species which will survive death and eventually join God in a new extinctions, dwindling populations, ecological collapse, heaven on Earth. But what is to become of this traditional mass migrations, social upheaval, economic disruptions, “anthropology” if life-extension technologies enable hu- and political instability. According to the Intergovernmen- mans to live indefinitely long lives? If we radically enhance tal Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the consequences of the human mind? If we redesign our genomes to make us climate change will be “severe,” “pervasive,” and “irrevers- taller, faster, or smarter? If we manage to upload our con-

24 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org APOCALYPSE . . . WHEN?

sciousness to a computer, perhaps through a “whole-brain been the occasion for the rise of demagogues, strange sects emulation”? And what happens if we leave Earth and es- and radical new religious movements,” some of which pref- tablish colonies on exoplanets throughout the galaxy, given erentially interpret current affairs through an active apoca- that Earth is seen as the theological center of the universe? lyptic telescope.12 And what is the GNR revolution if not a If we create a species of artificial intelligences—call them “catastrophe” in the relevant sense? What is the termina- “spiritual machines”—that exhibit human-level intelligence tion of the human era and the simultaneous inauguration of and emotions? Or even if we find evidence of life in other the posthuman era if not a “catastrophe” for long-standing solar systems? conceptions of “man created in God’s image”? As the nano­ Unless a “defeater” of progress such as an existential technology guru Eric Drexler puts it, we need to prepare for catastrophe prevents the enterprise of innovation from con- “catastrophic success,” as world- and person-transforming tinuing, we can expect profound and pervasive changes to technologies emerge on the global market. the social, political, and economic underpinnings of human civilization. What’s even more important to note, though, 3. Destructive technologies. is the very same factor that makes climate change an en- So far, we’ve focused on the various agents who might have vironmental catastrophe: the rapidity of these transforma- some motivation for engaging in acts of violence, given sit- tions. Consider the different situations in which Christianity uational factors that could foment religious extremism. But has existed. Imagine telling a first-century Christian that agents are impotent without tools to serve as the means someday there will exist smartphones, computers, and jet to their ends. This leads us to yet another trend relevant planes. As Arthur C. Clarke once declared, “Any sufficiently to whether terrorism will emerge as an existential threat, advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” if it isn’t one already in the Atomic Age: namely that the Thus, for this first-century believer, it may be impossible to number of destructive technologies is increasing over time, imagine his or her faith existing in such a radically different as is the potential destructiveness of these technologies. world of inscrutable “magic.” Yet the Christian faith—with While every generation has identified itself as living in a its dated allusions to geocentrism, shepherding, and “uniquely” dangerous moment in time, nearly all of them the Emperor Nero (encoded by the num- bers 666 and 616)—managed to adapt in piecemeal fashion. When changes are slow enough, single generations tend not to no- tice them, and ancient memes can survive within a population. “Apocalyptic terrorism is the most dangerous form But the GNR revolution will almost cer- tainly unfold at an exponential rate, accord- of terrorism because it shifts all value expecta- ing to something like a universal Moore’s tions from the worldly to the otherworldly.” law. The result will be immense changes to both our world and ourselves on increas- ingly short timescales. And this will make it far more difficult for rigid ideological sys- tems to make sense of the human condition as it evolves have been wrong. This is precisely what Pinker and Shermer into a posthuman condition marked by new forms of civi- show in their masterful books of “voluminous erudition,” lization populated by creatures who are more artifact than namely The Better Angels of Our Nature and The Moral organism. Perhaps this will ultimately lead to the extinction Arc, respectively.13 But what’s missing here is that our sit- of religious belief, but it seems more than likely that such uation today really is dangerous in unprecedented ways, changes will be met with spasms and seizures of apocalyp- and it will only become more dangerous moving forward tic resistance as the identity and dignity of thought-tradi- as science and technology become democratized and non- tions collide with techno-cultural forces that threaten their state actors acquire the same destructive capabilities once very existence. As Rinehart writes, “the injection of a new monopolized by states. order or hierarchy into a society . . . has frequently engen- On the one hand, we live today with immensely danger- dered millenarian expectations.”11 Indeed, apocalyptic ous chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) movements have, in the past, “found their most receptive weapons. We’ve already discussed nuclear weapons, a audience in those areas that were undergoing rapid social problem that the nuclear terrorism expert Joe Cirincione and economic change. Such change brought cultural shock argues is, if anything, growing. As Cirincione puts it, “We and disorientation, disrupted the existing socioeconomic [experts] are fearful. And you should be, too.”14 But there order, and had a powerful impact on traditional life.” are also dangers stemming from chemical and biological Or to quote Juergensmeyer, “catastrophes have often weapons, both of which have been employed by apoca-

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 25 lyptic groups such as the Islamic State, Aum Shinrikyo (in synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and even artificial in- Japan), and the Rajneesh movement (in the United States). telligence (AI) could empower terrorists in unprecedented Of particular concern here is the possibility of spreading ways.16 At the extreme, these technologies could selec- pathogenic germs to sicken or kill people. As Kofi Annan tively target specific groups of people, humanity as a once declared, bioterrorism is “the most important, un- whole, or even the entire biosphere. Whereas apocalyptic der-addressed threat relating to terrorism.”15 Nonetheless, groups motivated by a conviction that “the world must the weapons currently available are insufficient to destroy be destroyed to be saved” could effect only so much de- truly large populations, much less trip humanity into the struction in the world of yesteryear, advanced technologies eternal grave of extinction. But one could imagine them could enable groups of the future to bring about an event having the same global consequences as a single nuclear of omnicidal proportions. This is partly why Sir Martin Rees, weapon exploding in Los Angeles. A terrorist attack in- an Astronomer Royal and cofounder of the Centre for the volving CBRN weapons could precipitate an economic Study of Existential Risks at Cambridge University, gives recession, new global conflicts, and other large-scale re- human civilization a fifty-fifty chance of making it through percussions. the current century intact. The religious fanatics of the fu- This being said, by the end of the twenty-first century, ture won’t use a shovel but rather a bulldozer to dig mass the CBRN dangers of today—including nuclear weapons— graves for their enemies. could be the least of our concerns. Future anticipated Even more, not only are the products of these fields technologies associated with the fields of biotechnology, becoming exponentially more powerful, but they’re also becoming increasingly accessible as well. This means that more and more individuals will gain more and more power to modify the macroscopic world (perhaps by changing the microscopic worlds that underlie it). The next-gener- “Technology and biology are merging, ation Ted Kaczynski won’t rely on cabin-made bombs to and this will challenge our very notion terrorize society; he or she will set up a five-hundred-dollar “biohacking” lab and synthesize a pathogen that, for ex- of humanity, which stands at the center ample, combines the lethality of rabies, the incurability of of many religious traditions.” Ebola, the contagiousness of the common cold, and the incubation period of HIV—a possibility discussed by a 2015 Global Challenges Foundation report. Or, he or she might

“The point is that the power and accessibility of advanced technologies will vastly multiply the number of agents capable of wreaking unprecedented havoc on society.”

26 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org APOCALYPSE . . . WHEN?

design at weaponized nanoscale assassin—a self-replicat- near future, it could take only a single individual or group ing nanobot of some sort—that destroys every organism under the spell of religious delusions to relocate humanity with the genetic signature of Homo sapiens, leaving only from the category of “extant” to “extinct.” And even if a pillar of dust behind. (This is related to the “gray goo” terrorism doesn’t work as a vehicle for political change, as scenario.) Shermer correctly points out, so what? The relevant issue The point is that the power and accessibility of ad- is whether the terrorists believe that violence works, and if vanced technologies will vastly multiply the number of they do, how lethal their attacks could become given the agents capable of wreaking unprecedented havoc on soci- tools available. ety. As of 2015, lone-wolf attacks in the West were on the Humanity has conducted many extraordinary experi- rise, accounting for about 70 percent of terrorism-related ments since Copernicus launched the scientific revolution in deaths. And as Flannery points out, “the core membership 1543. We’ve discovered the gas laws, confirmed Einstein’s of al-Qaeda was most likely only around 500–1,000 [in general theory of relativity, and found the Higgs boson. But 2011]. Unfortunately, a very small number of people can do the greatest experiment of all is civilization itself. And we an enormous amount of damage.”17 This fact will be signifi- may not have to wait for long to find out whether this ex- cantly amplified in the foreseeable future if our best current periment succeeds or fails. projections are even remotely accurate. Notes 1. “Remarks by the President at the UN Security Council Summit on Nuclear Non Pro­liferation and Nuclear Disarmament,” The White House, September 24, 2009. 2. Charles Meade and Roger Molander, “Considering the Effects of a Catastrophic Terrorist Attack.” RAND Corporation Tech­nical Report, 2006. 3. Dan Farber, “Nuclear Attack a Ticking Time Bomb, Experts Warn,” CBS News, May 4, 2010. 4. “2015 Global Terrorism Index: Deaths From Terrorism Increased “In the near future, it could take 80 percent Last Year to the Highest Level Ever; Global Economic­ Cost of Terrorism Reached All-Time High at US$52.9 Billion,” London: Institute only a single individual or group under for Economics & Peace, November 17, 2015. 5. “Global Trends 2015: A Dialogue About the Future With Nongov- the spell of religious delusions to ernment Experts,” National Intelligence Council, 2000. Available at https:// goo.gl/W3a1WN. relocate humanity from the 6. Frances Flannery, Understanding Apoca­­­­ ly­ p­ tic­ Terrorism (New York: Routledge, 2016). category of ‘extant’ to ‘extinct.’” 7. “Testimony of R. James Woolsey,” Febru­­ary 12, 1998. Available at https://goo.gl/v2SLf1. 8. James Rinehart, Apocalyptic Faith and Political Violence: Prophets of Terror (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). 9. Mark Juergensmeyer, “Radical Reli­gious Responses to Global Ca- tastrophe” (forthcoming). See also Terror in the Mind of God (Berkeley: ur present situation is genuinely unique. Not only are University of California Press, 2003). ancient superstitions still prevalent, but a 2015 Pew 10. See Phil Torres, “We’re Speeding Toward a Climate Change O Catastrophe—and That Makes 2016 the Most Important Election in a poll projects that they will become even more ubiquitous Generation,” Salon, April 10, 2016. in the future as the global percentage of nonbelievers de- 11. Rinehart, Apocalyptic Faith. 12. Juergensmeyer, “Radical Religious Responses.” clines from 16.4 percent to 13.2 percent. By 2050, about 13. See John Gray, “John Gray: Steven Pinker Is Wrong about Violence 8.1 billion of the 9.3 billion people inhabiting our planetary and War,” Guardian, March 13, 2015. spaceship will subscribe to some form of religion. As Alan 14. Joe Cirincione, “Nuclear Terrorists Threat Bigger Than You Think,” CNN, April 1, 2016. Cooperman puts it, “You might think of this in shorthand 15. “In Lecture at Princeton University, Secretary-General Calls for as the secularizing West versus the rapidly growing rest.”18 Progress on Both Nuclear Disarmament, Non-Proliferation,” United Na- Meanwhile, environmental degradation and rapid tech- tions press release, November 28, 2016. 16. Indeed, a sufficiently advanced artificial intelligence could pose nological change will almost certainly contribute to pre- a terrorist threat itself. cisely the sort of conditions in which terrorism thrives— 17. Flannery, Understanding Apocalyptic Terrorism. including its most virulent manifestation, apocalyptic 18. “Event: The Future of World Religions,” Pew Research Center, 2015. Available at http://goo.gl/9aP6vO. terrorism. Making matters worse, these agential risks could become coupled to various technological risks, resulting in attacks involving nuclear devices, engineered pathogens, Phil Torres is an author, Affiliate Scholar at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging nanoweaponry, self-replicating nanobots, and weaponized Technologies, founder of the X-Risks Institute, and freelance writer with articles in AI (a possibility not discussed above). Even if terrorists are Skeptic, Free Inquiry, The Humanist, Salon, and The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. not highly organized diabolical geniuses motivated by pure His most recent book is The End: What Science and Religion Tell Us about the evil—to borrow Shermer’s phraseology—so what? In the Apocalypse (Pitchstone Publishing, 2016).

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 27  REBUTTALS

‘Just You Wait!’

The Doomsayers’ Answer to Failed Predictions Michael Shermer

f I had to summarize Phil Torres’s thoughtful analysis of the time horizon out far enough, and the laws of proba- the existential threat of terrorism in a phrase, it would be bility must strike against us. But this assumes that human I“Just you wait!” So sixty-eight national security experts behavior is subject to the same laws as those governing of the eighty-five surveyed in 2005 gave the bookmaker’s the roll of dice, which it isn’t. It also discounts game-theory odds of a terrorist nuclear detonation on American soil by strategic efforts during the Cold War such as mutual as- 2015 at an average of 29.2 percent (and a range of 10 to 50 sured destruction, negotiation, and tit-for-tat reciprocity, all percent), but since that didn’t happen, what do such failed of which were in play during the Cuban Missile Crisis and predictions mean? The oddsmakers are wrong? Fissile really did forestall nuclear armageddon. But luck had little material is hard to procure? Nuclear weapons are difficult to do with it. Kennedy and Khrushchev and their respective Cabinets reasoned their way to a solution to untie the knot- ted rope each side had helped to tighten. And it sells short the heroic efforts of our intelligence agents who have, to date, prevented the terrorist apocalyptic nuclear scenarios in the offing. Where Torres and I are in agreement is over the religious “Move the time horizon out far enough, motives of today’s Islamist terrorists, with their apocalyptic visage of a world under Sharia law. That should and does and the laws of probability must strike concern me, given the power of beliefs to drive actions. But against us. But this assumes that let’s not forget the motives of the secular terrorists of the bad old days of the 1970s, when their attacks were nearly human behavior is subject to the same a daily feature on the nightly news, and during which there were so many different organizations that Monty Python laws as those governing the roll of could spoof them in Life of Brian’s routine about the “Peo- dice, which it isn’t.” ple’s Front of Judea” versus the “Judean People’s Front.” Marxism is a faux religion, and as such Torres’s descriptors “cosmic struggle between good and evil,” “culmination of world history,” and “exaggerated sense of moral urgency” apply equally well to yesterday’s Marxist terrorists as they to build? Our national security agencies are doing their do to today’s Islamist terrorists. job? Terrorists are too incompetent to pull it off? No, says History is our database, and as such there is much rea- Torres. The only reason we escaped the projected decade son for optimism in the decline of violence and the bending unscathed by nuclear fallout is . . . luck! Plain old dumb of the moral arc, as Steven Pinker and I each track in our luck, the same reason we narrowly escaped thermonuclear respective books. Still, what Torres has outlined is not im- doomsday for the forty-five years of the Cold War. possible, and even though the threat is not governed by The “luck” explanation implies that it is only a matter of iron laws of probability, it is under the sway of human emo- time before the die come up snake eyes (or double sixes, tion and irrationality—so there is ample reason we must if you prefer) and mushroom clouds rise above our cities. remain vigilant. The undisputed terrorist threat today is Isla- This is a “just you wait” explanation that doomsayers offer mist jihadists , and as such it is they from which we must when their predictions fail. It’s a timeframe problem—move never divert our attention.

28 Free InquIry october/november 2016 secularhumanism.orgsecularhumanism.org APOCALYPSE . . . WHEN?

There’s No Time to Wait Phil Torres

irst, I’d like to thank Michael Sher­mer for his im- combined motive, means, and opportunity to commit a mensely thought-provoking article about the threat of nuclear attack. We have been lucky so far, but who among Fterrorism. Distorted thinking about apocalyptic sce- us trusts luck to protect us in the future?”1 Similar claims can narios is far easier than clear thinking, and that makes ex- be found throughout the scholarly literature, and it is this changes such as the current one tremendously important. literature that I’ve drawn upon in building my argument. As This being said, I believe that Shermer’s criticism is mis- the Irish Republican Army (IRA) eerily declared after nearly guided for several reasons. He claims that my analysis is killing Margaret Thatcher: “We only have to be lucky once. reducible to “just you wait,” since it “implies that it is only You have to be lucky all the time.” a matter of time before the die come up snake eyes. . . . As for the Cold War, I don’t discount the strategic deci- Move the time horizon out far enough and the laws of prob- sions of Kennedy and Khrushchev. But neither do I ignore ability must strike against us.” But this isn’t my position. My the many chance events that led to a peaceful resolution. argument doesn’t say, “Sure, the apocalypse didn’t happen Was it not luck that two thermonuclear bombs failed to det- last November, but don’t get complacent, people! The new onate after being released by a B-52 that crashed in Golds- date is next March!” Rather, I identify three phenomena— boro, North Carolina? Was it not luck that Stanislav Petrov environmental degradation, disruptive technologies, and happened to be in the right place at the right time to stop destructive technologies—that all point toward a future in a retaliatory attack on the United States after early-warn- which the threat of terrorism, especially apocalyptic terror- ing systems malfunctioned? Was it not luck that the 1972 ism, could significantly grow. This is an empirical argument Great Daylight Fireball was deflected off the atmosphere based on checkable evidence and logical inferences. I don’t rather than barreling into North America with the force of a know if its conclusion will turn out to be true, but that’s not small nuclear bomb (thereby resulting in a false alarm)? As the point: the best that any one of us can do in life is to an “Editor’s Note” in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists hold the most reasonable beliefs possible about the past, states, “We look back at the 1950s and the decades that present, and future. I believe my argument is reasonable; followed with wonder. There were terrible wars, local wars, therefore, it ought to be taken seriously. brutal wars, but no global nuclear holocaust. Dumb luck? 2 Shermer also writes that I attribute the fact that a nuclear Undoubtedly.” The point is that (a) I’m not certain that attack has never before occurred to mere luck. As he puts it, luck deserves all the credit, and (b) there is good reason for “No, says Torres, the only reason we escaped the projected thinking that luck played some role in preventing a nuclear decade [of 2005 to 2015] unscathed by nuclear fallout is catastrophe. . . . luck! Plain old dumb luck, the same reason we narrowly Shermer writes that “what Torres has outlined is not escaped thermonuclear doomsday for the forty-five years impossible.” This is true. But my position goes a step fur- of the Cold War.” But this misstates my view. In the original ther: not only is it possible that terrorism morphs from a article, I wrote: “While an attack did not, of course, occur semi-existential threat today to a full-blown risk tomorrow, before 2015, we may have to thank the same thing that got but given the best available evidence about the climate, us through the Cold War without a nuclear holocaust: luck” biosphere, and exponential development of advanced (italics added). The key word here is may, as it indicates technologies, this outcome may be quite probable. So, yes, uncertainty combined with plausibility. Am I sure that luck is “all the more reason we must remain vigilant.” to thank for a good outcome? No, not at all. Do I think that Notes there are reasons for suspecting that luck played a nontrivial 1. A. Graham and A. Kokoshin, “The New Containment: An Alliance role? Yes, definitely. Against Nuclear Terrorism,” in First To Arrive: State and Local Responses Why? Because many experts say so. Consider, for ex- to Terrorism, edited by Juliette Kayyem and Robyn Pangi (Cam­bridge, ample, the following statement from Graham Allison and Mass.: MIT Press, 2003). 2. M. Moore, “Pugwash at 40,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 53, no. Andrei Kokoshin in an article about nuclear terrorism: “The 4 (1997): 2. The article adds that “the non-use of nuclear weapons had a lot mystery before us is not how a nuclear terrorist attack could to do with scientists who, over the years, successfully made the case that possibly occur, but, rather, why no terrorist group has yet these weapons . . . had truly made war between great powers ‘unthinkable.’

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 29 How a Creative Humanist Minority Shaped the Nation, Part 2

The initiation of the idea of this project and partial funding for its research and writing was provided by Gordon Gamm. These articles explore secular humanism’s outsized role in influencing society-wide social-reform efforts in the twentieth century. Part 1, which appeared in the August/September 2016 issue, focused on the fight for reproductive freedom, voluntary euthanasia, and civil liberties. Part 2 highlights the contributions of the Center for Inquiry (CFI) and the Council for Secular Humanism, now a CFI program.—The Editors The World’s Oldest Prejudice: The Center for Inquiry’s Fight against Religious Privilege

Leah Mickens

uring the middle decades of the twentieth century, ist engagement had spawned so prolifically. Many of these American humanism focused much of its energy “core” social-justice concerns had to do with resisting the Don social-justice issues that stood close to its core influence of religious privilege. interests but were nonetheless separable from them. Religious privilege is so pervasive that most people The abortion-law repeal/decriminalization movement, the are not even aware that such a phenomenon exists, much voluntary euthanasia movement, and the early efforts for less that it constitutes a problem. In the United States, for African-American civil rights clearly justified mid-century example, religious organizations receive a wide range of humanists’ commitment of time and energy, in part be- gratuitous advantages not available to more secular orga- cause traditional Christianity played so large a role in the nizations: organized resistance to those reforms. Nonetheless, these issues were sufficiently discrete from humanism’s core that • Extensive exemptions from federal, state, and local taxa- this period (described in the previous article) was largely tion. A widely quoted study first published in Free Inquiry characterized by enthusiastic humanist activists helping to in 2012 estimated the combined annual cost of all such launch reform movements that soon developed specialized exemptions at $71 billion. advocacy organizations of their own. Thus, abortion-law • Dispensations from the obligation to obey generally ap- reform and, later, abortion-rights activism became primarily plicable rules and laws viewed as contrary to “nonnego- associated with organizations such as Planned Parenthood tiable” religious dogmas. This trend began with passage and NARAL rather than, say, the American Humanist Asso- of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) ciation. Similarly, the voluntary euthanasia movement be- in 1993 and the passage of numerous state RFRAs in its came associated with organizations such as the Euthanasia wake, and it culminated in 2014’s U.S. Supreme Court de- Society of America and the Hemlock Society, and the early cision in Hobby Lobby v. Burwell, creating a new right for civil rights movement with the National Association for the business owners with strong religious beliefs to operate Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Urban their businesses in ways that discriminate on the basis of League, with the inadvertent effect of masking the indis- religion. pensable roles that Unitarians, Ethical Culturists, and inde- • The extension of special land-use privileges, including pendent humanists had played in laying the foundations for limited immunity from local zoning laws, available only all three movements. to religious organizations. The basis for most of these By contrast, beginning in the late 1970s, organized abuses rests in the federal Religious Land Use and Institu- humanism began to focus more intensely on social-justice tionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), passed in 2000 to restore issues “closer to home,” as it were—issues that engaged provisions of the federal RFRA that the U.S. Supreme humanist activists and their core interests more directly and Court had ruled unconstitutional. around which strong humanist, freethought, and atheist • Growing insistence that “sincerely held religious be- organizations were more likely to develop than the inde- liefs,” no matter how bizarre or counterfactual, must be pendent organizations that mid–twentieth-century human- respected by public institutions. Problem areas range

30 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org from religious resistance to public schools teaching the Religious believers daily bombard us with their faith claims. true age of the universe and the theory of evolution to They surely have a right to believe in whatever they a burgeoning, “politically correct” sense that objective want. . . . But some dogmatic religionists are intolerant and wish to impose their views on others. Part of their criticism of religious beliefs and teachings is socially un- growing influence may be attributed to the fact that the acceptable. views they express often go unchallenged . . . doctrinaire religions must be taken seriously, for they have a powerful The idea that religion provides tangible benefits to soci- influence on the lives of countless people. That is why we ety—whether by providing social services or creating a believe that religions should not be immune to free inquiry more virtuous citizenry—is so commonplace that those or critical scrutiny. who suggest otherwise are often viewed as subversive mal- Since 1980, the Council and, later, CFI have not only chal- contents by religionists who consider themselves in other lenged religious privilege from an intellectual perspective in respects progressive, and sometimes even by other athe- the pages of Free Inquiry magazine but also through various ists. (In a 2015 book, Australian atheist commentator C. J. “real world” initiatives. This essay will examine three of the Werleman launched just such a criticism against so-called organizations’ key antireligious privilege projects: New Atheists who contend that religion lacks social value.) However, religious privilege is a very real and serious • the establishment of Secular Organizations for Sobriety/ problem, one that goes beyond the usual disagreements Save Our Selves to challenge Alcoholics Anonymous’s about nativity scenes and crosses on public property that religion-based stranglehold on alcohol rehabilitation pro- provide fodder for American culture-war skirmishes. grams; The major mass social-justice movements described in • supporting humanist activists in the developing world; “Creative Minority Report: How the Humanist Movement and Changed America” (Free Inquiry, August/September 2016) • lobbying against making “defamation of religion” a had largely ended by the time the Council for Democratic human rights offense at the United Nations. and Secular Humanism was established in 1980. (In 1996, the organization shortened its name to the Council for Sec- ular Humanism. In 2015, it became a project of the Center for Inquiry [CFI]. In the interest of clarity, it will henceforth be referred to simply as “the Council.”) If the mid-century humanist agenda had largely been completed, the Council “Religious privilege is a very found itself perfectly situated to fight against the scourge of real and serious problem, one that religious privilege—and a newly muscular religious Right— goes beyond the usual disagreements as those continued to develop in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. about nativity scenes and crosses on The situation in 1980. In 1980, tensions between the public property.” United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were increasing due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, furthering an already deeply established apocalyptic view that America was locked in a fight to the death against the forces of “godless communism.” People who openly ques- tioned religion in the United States were considered unpatri- Secular Organizations for Sobriety/Save Our Selves otic subversives at worst, immoral cranks at best. The Secu- The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism es- lar Humanist Declaration was published in the premier issue timates that 16.6 million adults aged eighteen and up and of Free Inquiry (Winter 1980/81). It elicited many negative 697,000 adolescents aged twelve to seventeen have an reactions, not just from the “usual suspects” on the religious alcohol-use disorder. Roughly 88,000 people die each year Right but also from moderate conservatives and liberals who from complications due to excessive drinking, making alco- felt that criticizing religion was unpatriotic, questionably hol-related causes the third most-common type of prevent- moral, or in poor taste. For example, John P. Roche—an able death in the United States. Alcohol-related deaths kill academic who described his politics as “Social Democrat” 10 percent of working-age adults aged twenty to sixty-four, and had advised the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. John- which costs the American economy $223.5 billion per year. son administrations—complained that “The Declaration is Given how many lives are negatively impacted by alco- at least as dogmatic as the pronouncements of the Moral hol abuse, one would think that there would be a strong Majority, except it is the reverse mirror-image. . . . Consider- impetus to implement medically accurate best practices ing the intellectual gravity of those who signed it, the odd to help those struggling against alcohol-use disorder. Yet aspect of the Declaration is its frenzied tone.” Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) remains the most popular and In the second issue of Free Inquiry, Paul Kurtz, the widespread approach to alcoholism rehabilitation—as of founder of Free Inquiry magazine and the Council, de- 2000, 90 percent of American addiction facilities used AA’s fended the right to criticize religion in an editorial: signature Twelve Step method. AA requires members to

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 31 accept evangelical Christian religious dogma in the vague tual” program that can be adapted to the specific needs hope that a “Higher Power” will cure them of their drinking of anyone regardless of his or her religious beliefs. Atheists problems. In 1987, the Council helped to launch Secular and agnostics are encouraged to “fake it until they make Organizations for Sobriety/Save Our Selves (SOS) as a for- it,” often with the absurd suggestion that they designate mal project to provide a secular, evidence-based alternative an inanimate object as their Higher Power so they can work to AA. (SOS became a project of CFI when it merged with through the Steps. In essence, AA prescribes a simplistic the Council in January 2015. In early 2016, SOS became an religious solution for the complex problem of addiction, independent nonprofit organization.) telling desperate people that all they need to do is surren- To understand why SOS is necessary, one has to ex- der their lives to God and everything else will fall into place. amine the roots of AA itself, which is heavily based on the The genesis for SOS came in a 1985 Free Inquiry article teachings of an evangelical revival group called the Ox- written by James Christopher, titled “Sobriety Without Su- ford Group Movement. Founded by Frank Nathan Daniel perstition,” in which Christopher, a former California adver- tising executive, described how being an atheist in AA had Buchman in 1921, the Oxford Movement had as its goal impeded his own recovery process. Christopher received hundreds of letters from readers who also struggled with alcohol and desired a secular sobriety program. He started the first SOS group in 1986 in North Hollywood, California, with only a single telephone and an answering machine. The Council began its formal support of SOS in October 1987; among other things, the infusion of resources al- “AA requires members to accept lowed SOS to publish a new quarterly newsletter. Within six years, over one thousand SOS groups had been founded evangelical Christian religious dogma in the United States. Today there are also SOS groups in in the vague hope that a ‘Higher Europe, Asia, and Africa. Power’ will cure them of their SOS takes a radically different approach than AA to recovery from substance abuse. The primary focus of SOS drinking problems.” is to empower individuals to lead clean and sober lives, not to promote a religious or philosophical agenda. In contrast to AA, there are no “steps” or any other kind of pre-de- termined program that a person must adopt. Participants make “personal recovery plans” to provide a roadmap for to create an international moral reawakening by emphasiz- maintaining sobriety in the present and the future. This ing the individual’s helplessness in the face of sin and the plan can be altered depending on the goals and needs of need to rely on God to overcome personal vice and social the person creating it. The SOS approach is based on the problems. AA founder William Wilson encountered the concept of “cognitive sobriety,” in which the achievement Oxford Group Movement while he was convalescing at the of sober living—not having a relationship with a “Higher Charles B. Towns Hospital for alcohol-induced delirium in Power” or changing one’s values or identity—is the primary 1934. He became so enthusiastic about its teachings that goal of the individual in question. SOS meetings, both he borrowed them with minimal alterations to create AA. face-to-face and online, help members clarify what they want out of a sober life and learn techniques from other re- Wilson was always clear about the connection between the covering alcoholics that will enable them to stay committed Oxford Group Movement and the AA philosophy; in his to alcohol abstinence. There are no sponsors for new mem- 1957 book Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, Wilson bers, as it is believed that this practice has the potential to credited the Oxford Movement as the inspiration for the devolve into “guru worship” and emotional dependency. famous Twelve Steps and admitted that he would have SOS is committed to building self-esteem and self-worth in preferred to make the religious content in AA even more its members by giving themselves credit for becoming and overt, but “these ideas had to be fed with teaspoons rather staying sober, whereas AA requires its members to credit than by buckets.” their recoveries to a nebulous Higher Power. While SOS The medical establishment was initially skeptical of AA, members accept that they are alcoholics, as do AA mem- dismissing the group’s “Big Book” in a 1939 issue of the bers, the former believe that they deserve to have a “good Journal of the American Medical Association as “a curious life” sans alcohol and have the ability to have one, if they combination of organizing propaganda and religious exhor- choose to work at it, while AA maintains that alcoholics are tation. It is in no sense a scientific book. . . .” Attitudes soon “powerless over alcohol” unless God (or a Higher Power) changed, and mainstream medicine became supportive of intervenes. AA while simultaneously downplaying the religious nature In addition to establishing local groups, SOS works to of its program. Today, the popular press (and a great many challenge AA’s effective stranglehold over the legal system. recovering addicts) agree that AA is a nonsectarian “spiri- Many individuals are forced to attend AA or other twelve-

32 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org step programs as part of a DUI sentence or as a way of grained religiosity of the American public, which is already satisfying drug and/or alcohol treatment requirements primed to believe that any problem can be overcome if while in prison. Failure to attend AA meetings, even if one one prays to God hard enough and has a sincere desire has a legitimate philosophical objection to the religious to change. However, the AA method puts more emphasis content, is often interpreted as noncompliance by judges on submitting to God than it does on establishing a sober and prison officials and can lead to additional penalties, life, which automatically places it in conflict with the needs fines, or jail time. In some jurisdictions, even suggesting and desires of many suffering from alcohol-use disorder. that an alternative to AA exists is enough to brand one as While some afflicted individuals may respond to AA, others a troublemaker. Consequently, SOS has worked to have its might benefit from another approach, such as SOS, Smart program recognized as a legitimate alternative to AA so Recovery, drug therapy, or even “detoxing” on one’s own that atheists, agnostics, and religionists who don’t believe without the help of a support group or doctor. No person in AA’s brand of spirituality can fulfill their court-appointed struggling to overcome an addiction should have to “fake” rehabilitation requirements without being penalized. SOS’s anything in order to regain control over his or her life. Nei- first legal challenge to the AA monopoly occurred in 1987, leading the state of California to permit SOS to be used as an alternative for those sentenced to mandatory participa- tion in a drug or alcohol education program. Since then, SOS has used the establishment clause to argue, often successfully, that AA and other twelve-step organizations are religions and that state sponsorship of such programs amounts to a government endorsement of sectarian reli- “No person struggling to overcome gious organizations. There is a growing legal consensus that forcing pris- an addiction should have to ‘fake’ oners to participate in religiously based rehabilitation anything in order to regain control programs such as AA is unconstitutional. In the 1996 case over his or her life.” Kerr v. Farrey, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the constitutional rights of a Wisconsin prisoner, James Kerr, were violated by threats to send him to a more restric- tive prison and deny him parole if he refused to attend a Narcotics Anonymous meeting—the only drug-education program offered at the correctional institution in question. ther should a recovering alcoholic have to give all credit for The court eventually ruled that “the state has impermissibly his or her recovery to a nebulous Higher Power when he or coerced inmates to participate in a religious program” and she is the one doing all the work to stay sober. That both that Kerr had the right to refuse participation in Narcotics are considered necessary by AA’s many supporters in the Anonymous (an affiliate of AA) because the group’s content medical establishment, the legal system, and the public at was fundamentally religious, not medical, in nature. Simi- large speaks volumes about the pernicious nature of reli- larly, in Warner v. Orange County Probation Department, gious privilege in medical situations. which came before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Supporting Humanists in the Developing World 1997, it was decided that forcing an atheist to attend AA meetings as part of a sentence for drunk driving violated While the early twenty-first century has seen unprecedented the establishment clause, especially since the plaintiff was gains in acceptance of atheists and secular-humanist values denied “a reasonable choice of therapy providers, so that in the West, the same is not true in the developing world. he was not compelled by the state’s judicial power to enter There, blasphemy laws, the presence of powerful religious a religious program.” The more recent case of Munson institutions, and intense social pressure to manifest religious v. Norris, decided in 2006 by the Eighth Circuit Court of belief severely curtail the ability of humanists to disseminate Appeals, concluded that the constitutional rights of James their views. The need for secularism and humanist values Munson, a paroled sex offender, were violated by the Ar- is arguably greatest in the developing world because the kansas Department of Corrections when it forced him to global poor have the most to lose when superstition, reli- pray during a court-appointed sex offender rehabilitation gious dogma, and pseudoscience are promoted as fact. program in a fashion contrary to his religious beliefs. The Council and CFI have long supported humanists in It is hoped that the growing legal momentum to have the developing world. As early as 1984, CFI founder Paul twelve-step programs formally recognized as religious will Kurtz visited Gabon, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa encourage additional jurisdictions and institutions to pro- to examine the state of humanism on the African continent. vide secular alternatives to individuals assigned to court-ap- Writing in the Fall 1984 Free Inquiry, he described encoun- pointed drug/alcohol education programs. tering individual humanist activists but finding little humanist The unwarranted success of AA and its related family of organizational activity in the countries he visited except for twelve-step programs can be attributed to the deeply in- a single embattled South African group. At the time, Kurtz’s

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 33 organization had no capacity to offer significant assistance. ics not only enables Ugandans to make better choices but That changed in 1989, when Kurtz and Norm Allen Jr. or- discourages them from patronizing folk magicians peddling ganized African Americans for Humanism (AAH), originally bogus cures. A sister organization of CFI–Uganda is the to support humanist activism in African-American commu- Humanist Association for Leadership, Equity and Account- nities. Free Inquiry published An African American Humanist ability (HALEA), which works in the slums of Kampala to Declaration almost at once. By early 1991, it was decided to educate the populace about the dangers of falling into su- expand AAH’s mission to include outreach in Africa. Allen perstitious belief patterns, provides information on employ- made a two-week tour of Ghana and Nigeria, seeding new ment and educational opportunities, and funds programs humanist groups. A 1994 African tour by Free Inquiry Senior to keep young people engaged in meaningful activities Editor Vern L. Bullough and his wife, Contributing Editor and away from criminal enterprises. Bonnie Bullough, deepened many of these contacts. Another important campaign undertaken by CFI’s Af- Ultimately, AAH helped to facilitate the formation of hu- rican affiliates concerns fighting against the widespread manist groups in Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanza- belief in witchcraft. While Westerners tend to believe that nia, Kenya, Senegal, and South Africa. AAH has also helped witch trials belong firmly in the less-enlightened past, in organize pan-African humanist conventions that allowed sub-Saharan Africa thousands of individuals, mostly women African humanists from all across the continent to network, and children, are exiled from their homes or even killed debate, and enjoy the company of like-minded individ- because they have been accused of witchcraft. CFI–Kenya uals. At the first such conference in October 2001 at the has been working to educate Kenyans, especially in rural areas, about the baseless nature of witchcraft accusations. It teamed with the Moi Freethinkers, a student skeptic organization at Moi University, to stage debates about the dangers of superstitious beliefs. Despite the demonstrable harm that belief in witchcraft causes to individuals, families, and communities, African religious conservatives condemn the humanist fight against superstition and supernatural “Today, CFI branches in Kenya, beliefs, claiming that to deny the existence of witches runs Uganda, and Zambia remain active, contrary to history, tradition, and common sense. For exam- ple, Emeka Esogbue, a Nigerian writer, criticized CFI–Nige- directly addressing the problems ria’s then-spokesman Leo Igwe’s anti-witchcraft campaign: associated with extreme poverty and Although . . . Leo Igwe assumed that witchcraft is not ingrained superstition.” real by erroneous assumptions, faulty arguments, and allusions, what he failed to understand is that true victims of witchcraft experiences will vehemently disagree with him because they felt it. . . . To say that witchcraft is a belief that does not imply truth, validity or reality of what is believed in is like attributing same to the various secret societies that are known to exist all over the world because University of Ibadan, Nigeria’s most prestigious university, witchcraft in the African society is nothing but a society the topics included how advances in biotechnology might where adherents gather after secret initiations have taken alleviate hunger in Africa, how to advocate for humanism in place. Anybody who has been privileged to listen to a cultures that do not recognize the freedom to dissent, and witch who willingly confessed to evil and iniquitous acts how humanist values might help defuse tensions between brought on anyone will not share in the beliefs of those Muslims and Christians. who see witchcraft as mere beliefs. During the early twenty-first century, much of the Coun- Unsurprisingly, Igwe has found himself on the receiving end cil’s international work was taken over by CFI. New and of physical and legal violence from Nigerians who profit from existing African humanist groups were reorganized as CFI the perceived existence of witchcraft, including a vicious mob branches. Today, CFI branches in Kenya, Uganda, and Zam- assault committed by two hundred members of the Liberty bia remain active, directly addressing the problems associ- Gospel Church and an unsuccessful legal suit by Helen Uk- ated with extreme poverty and ingrained superstition. One pabio, pastor of that church, that was meant to silence his of the main projects at CFI–Uganda is disseminating med- criticism of her witch-hunting “ministry.” ically accurate information about HIV/AIDS, sexual health, CFI has launched the Freethought Emergency Campaign and contraception, a crucial task given that 7.2 percent of to aid atheist bloggers in the Islamic world, who are being the adult population of Uganda is infected with the disease. targeted for death and/or imprisonment by Islamists. These As in many sub-Saharan African nations, Uganda is awash in efforts have their roots in the campaigns to support Salman superstitious beliefs about HIV/AIDS, many of which center Rushdie after the Iranian government placed a fatwa on his around ways to use witchcraft or other forms of magic to head for writing The Satanic Verses in 1989 and a similar prevent or cure HIV infections. Having access to correct effort to aid humanist author Taslima Nasrin, whose writings information about HIV/AIDS and other health-related top- lead to mass demonstration and death threats in her native

34 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org Bangladesh in 1993. After a string of 2015 assassinations that HRC moved a resolution to renew the mandate of the Spe- killed atheist bloggers Avijit Roy, Washiqur Rahman, Ananta cial Rapporteur on Freedom of Speech, an office that has Bijoy Das, and Niloy Neel in Bangladesh, CFI used the fund traditionally been devoted to ensuring freedom of speech. to help bring Nasrin to the United States because credible However, a coalition consisting of Islamic nations, China, threats against her life had been issued by al-Qaeda on the Russia, and Cuba advanced a rival resolution that would Indian subcontinent, the same group that had claimed re- change the mission of the Special Rapporteur to make it sponsibility for Das’s murder. Given the ways that blasphemy in charge of monitoring “instances in which the abuse of laws and social pressure limit the ability for atheists to speak the right of freedom of expression constitutes an act of openly in many Islamic societies, online arenas are often the racial or religious discrimination.” Although the European only spaces available for nonbelievers in Muslim nations to Union, the United Kingdom, India, Brazil, Bolivia, Guate- express their doubts and their dissatisfaction with the status mala, and Switzerland opposed this change, the resolution quo. The deliberate targeting of atheists bloggers is intended put forth by the Islamic nations and their coalition passed, to silence all forms of religious dissent. effectively creating a “blasphemy taboo” at the UN and Part of the reason religious privilege is so difficult to giving “rights” to religions while diminishing the rights of confront in the developing world is because religionists individuals. in these countries have decided to intertwine their piety Opposing these efforts to define “blasphemy” and “of- with nationalist and/or tribal affiliations. Rejecting religion fense to religious sensibilities” as human-rights offenses is in favor of humanism is thus seen as an abandonment of CFI’s mission to the UN. It advocates for secular values as one’s heritage or as a sign that one is a “dupe” of Western a nongovernmental organization under the UN Economic governments who want to reimpose colonialism by im- and Social Council. In September 2008, CFI and the Inter- porting “foreign values” such as secularism, atheism, and national Ethical and Humanist Union (IHEU) issued a joint humanism. But the extreme examples of religious privilege statement condemning the “defamation of religion” con- seen in the developing world, such as deferring to folk cept as a threat to human rights. The statement noted that magic and superstition to solve problems, attacking those there were already ample protections against religious ha- with unpopular opinions, and allowing religious organiza- tred in existing UN documents, and so there was no reason tions carte blanche to spread misinformation, serve only to to give religions special protections, especially when such diminish the quality of human capital by hindering people’s protections are used to silence religious minorities, atheists, ability to access proper education, medical attention, or agnostics, and skeptics. While the “defamation of religion” even accurate information about how the world works. resolution passed in the General Assembly and the HRC, CFI’s efforts to spread reason and science in the developing the objections of CFI and the IHEU, as well as those regis- world provide a much-needed corrective to the aggressive tered by other Western countries, made it clear that there religiosity found in these countries. was no consensus about granting special rights to religions. The pushback was such that in 2011, the HRC unanimously Challenging Religious Privilege at the United Nations agreed on a new resolution based on a proposal written Since its inception in 1945, the promotion of universal by the Pakistani delegation that dropped the language of human rights has been an integral part of the United Na- “defamation of religion” and instead promoted the right tions’ (UN’s) mission. However, Islamic member states have of individuals to choose their religion and/or belief system been working to undermine the right to free expression by freely. The new resolution was still problematic; it called lobbying to have “defamation of religion” classified as a for states to foster “religious tolerance,” which could be human-rights offense. The Organization of the Islamic Con- interpreted to support government censorship of critics of ference (OIC), an international organization of fifty-seven religion and did not mention a right to be free from religion. countries with significant Muslim populations, has asserted Still, it was a step forward from the rhetoric of “defamation that the dictates of Islam demand that Muslims receive of religion.” Later that year, the UN Human Rights Commis- special rights, namely, the right to be free from religious sion forthrightly came out against blasphemy laws as being criticism. The OIC has issued parallel “human rights” docu- an infringement of free speech and contrary to existing ments, such as the Universal Islamic Declaration of Human international law on the subject. Rights (1981) and the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in While it is doubtful that the OIC nations and their al- Islam (1990), both of which undermine the idea of universal lies will cease their efforts to have defamation of religion human rights found in the UN’s Universal Declaration of classified as a human-rights offense, constant pushback is Human Rights, particularly in the areas of free speech and needed to prevent it from becoming a reality. Claiming that women’s rights. religions, rather than individuals, have rights places dogma Since issuing the Cairo Declaration, the OIC and its above criticism if that criticism injures the feelings of believ- allies at the UN have worked to make criticism against ers, even when their beliefs are harming society. Although religion in general and fears about “Islamophobia” in the UN continues to uphold the universality of freedom particular the primary concern of the UN Human Rights of speech at the moment, scores of countries around the Committee (HRC). The OIC’s greatest victory occurred on world have blasphemy laws on their books that continue to March 28, 2008, when a delegation from Canada at the restrict the speech rights of atheists and religious minorities.

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 35 Conclusion http://www.centerforinquiry.net/uploads/attachments/un_defamation. pdf. That religious dogmas should be open for critique like any Esogbue, Emeka. 2010. “Witchcraft: Reality or Belief?” May 24. Accessed other idea was a radical notion in the Ronald Reagan era June 26, 2015, at http://www.articlesbase.com/culture-articles/witchcraft- when Free Inquiry was founded and remains so to this day. reality-or-belief-2441928.html. While it is not unusual for objectors to religious privilege to Flynn, Tom. 1990. “Announcing Center for Inquiry.” Free Inquiry 10, no. 2: 24. ———. 2014. “Annus Horribilis.” Free Inquiry 34, no. 6: 4–7. be stereotyped as affluent Westerners who are tone-deaf to Granados, Luis. Undated. “The Parade of Privilege: How Government Favors the psychological and social benefits that religion suppos- Religion.” Humanist News Network. Accessed June 28, 2015, at http:// edly provides for the poor, the people who are most victim- americanhumanist.org/HNN/details/2012-06-the-parade-of-privilege- how-government-favors-religi. ized by religious privilege tend to be poor people of color, Kerr v. Farrey, 95 F. 3d 472 Court of Appeals (7th Circuit 1996). especially women, whose opportunities are needlessly lim- Kurtz, Paul. 1980/81, “A Secular Humanist Declaration.” Free Inquiry 1, no. 1: ited by powerful religious leaders and institutions. Since 3–7. most societies typically grant special privileges to one or ———. 1981. “On Criticizing Religion.” Free Inquiry 1, no. 2: 1, 48. ———. 1984. “Humanism in Africa: Paradox and Illusion.” Free Inquiry 4, no. two particular religions, the people most often punished by 4: 44–48. blasphemy laws are other religionists, whether those be- ———.1990. “African-Americans for Humanism.” Free Inquiry 10, no. 2: 4–5. longing to the majority group who profess a different opin- ———. 2001/02. “Bringing Secular Humanism to Africa.” Free Inquiry 22, no. ion than the religious establishment or members of unpop- 1: 53. Kurtz, Paul, Austin Dacey, Norm Allen Jr., and Hugo Estrella. 2008. “Restoring ular minority sects. Nonetheless, the danger that blasphemy Universal Human Rights at the United Nations.” Free Inquiry 28, no. 5: 4–5. legislation poses to humanists, atheists, and other unbeliev- Lindsay, Ronald A. 2015. “Nothing Should Be Immune from Criticism.” Free ers in many countries of the world is very real. Confronting Inquiry 35, no. 6: 17–8. Metevia, Duaine. “Building Recovery: A Newcomer’s Guide to SOS.” it is an emergent challenge for CFI. SOS International Newsletter, The Newsletter of the Secular Organizations for Sobriety 18, no. 3. Munson v. Norris, 435 F. 3d 877 Court of Appeals (8th Cir. 2006). National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. 2015. “Alcohol Facts and Statistics.” March. Accessed June 29, 2015, at http://www. niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/alcohol- Further Reading facts-and-statistics. Ongere, George. 2010. “Anti-Witchcraft Campaign Continues at CFI Kenya.” “An African-American Humanist Declaration.” 1991. Free Inquiry 11, no. 3: The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. July 19. Accessed June 26 at 13–15. http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/entry/cfi_kenya_african_human- Allen Jr., Norm. 1989. “The African-American Community Needs Secular ism_and_its_agenda/ Humanism Now.” Free Inquiry 9, no. 4: 42. ———. 2014. “CFI-Kenya Report: African Humanism and Its Agenda.” ———. 1991. “Humanism and Religion in West Africa.” Free Inquiry 11, no. Center for Inquiry: Free Thinking Blog. July 8. Accessed June 26, 3: 7. 2015, at http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/entry/cfi_kenya_african_ ———. 2001/02. “Report from Nigeria: Sub-Saharan Humanists Convene in humanism_and_its_agenda/. an Historic Meeting.” Free Inquiry 22, no. 1: 52–54. Robbins, Martin. 2009. “Face to Faith: Christian and Islamic Extremists Are Araujo, Derek. 2011. “U.N. Human Rights Council Abandons ‘Defama- Exporting Dangerous Ideas.” The Guardian. August 7. tion of Religions Concept.” Reasonable Doubt with Derek Araujo. Roche, John P. 1981.“Is the Declaration Dogmatic?” Free Inquiry 1, No. 2: 6. March 26. Accessed June 28, 2015, at http://www.centerforinquiry. Sergeant, Don. 1984. “Humanism in South Africa.” Free Inquiry 4, no. 4: 49–51. net/blogs/entry/un_human_rights_council_abandons_defamation_of_ Smith, Richard T. 1992. “A Proposal to Expand Effective Alcohol and Sub- religions_concept/. stance Abuse Recovery Programs Throughout the United States.” Barron, James. 1996. “Saying A.A. Is Religious, Court Lets Inmate Skip It.” The Submitted to the Alex Stern Family Foundation. September 4. Paul Kurtz New York Times. June 12. Papers. Center for Inquiry Library and Archives, Amherst, N.Y. Bullough, Vern L., and Bonnie Bullough. 1994. “Ghana and Humanism: Re- Sobriety Handbook: The SOS Way, An Introduction to Secular Organizations port of a Visit.” Free Inquiry 14, no. 3: 46–48. for Sobriety/Save Our Selves (SOS). 1997. Oakland, California: LifeRing Bufe, Charles. 1991. Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure? San Francisco, Press. California: See Sharp Press. Szalavitz, Maia. 2014. “After 75 Years of Alcoholics Anonymous, It’s Time Center for Inquiry. 2015. “Amid Death Threats from Islamists, CFI Brings to Admit We Have a Problem: Challenging the 12-step Hegemony.” Secular Activist Taslima Nasrin to Safety in U.S.” Center for Inquiry. Pacific Standard. February 10. Accessed July 2, 2015, at http://www. June 1. Accessed June 30, 2015, at http://www.centerforinquiry.net/ psmag.com/books-and-culture/75-years-alcoholics-anonymous- newsroom/amid_death_threats_from_islamists_cfi_brings_secular_ time-admit-problem-74268. activist_taslima_nasri/. Warner v. Orange County Dept. of Probation, 115 F. 3d 1068 Court of Ap- Cooke, Bill. 2013. “CFI World Report: An Update on Our International Out- peals (2nd Circuit 1996). reach Efforts.” The Course of Reason: A CFI on Campus Blog. March 12. Werleman, Courtenay J. 2015. The New Atheist Threat: The Dangerous Rise Accessed June 26, 2015, at http://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/ of Secular Extremists. Dangerous Little Books. blog/entry/cfi_world/. White, William L. 2013. “What Is SOS? The History of Secular Organizations “Court-Ordered Participation in A.A.” Freedom From Religion Foundation: for Sobriety—Save Our Selves: An Interview with James Christopher.” Church/State FAQ. Accessed June 30, 2015, at http://ffrf.org/outreach/ AA Agnostica. September 1. Accessed June 30, 2015, at http://aaag- item/14012-court-ordered-participation-in-aa. nostica.org/2013/09/01/what-is-sos/. Cragun, Ryan T., Stephanie Yeager, and Desmond Vega. 2012. “How Secular Winston, Kimberly. 2015. “After Death Threats, Bangladeshi Atheist Relo- Humanists (and Everyone Else) Subsidize Religion in the United States.” cates to US.” Washington Post. June 2. Free Inquiry 32, no. 4: 39–46. Dacey, Austin, and Colin Koproske. 2008. “Islam and Human Rights: De- fending Universality at the United Nations.” CFI at the United Nations. September. Accessed June 27, 2015, at http://www.centerforinquiry.net/ uploads/attachments/ISLAM_AND_HUMAN_RIGHTS.pdf. Leah Mickens is an independent scholarly researcher who is currently a PhD student Dacey, Austin. Undated. “Joint statement to the Human Rights Council at Boston University in the Graduate Division of Religion. She has previously con- Ninth Session.” CFI at the United Nations. Accessed June 28, 2015, at ducted archival work at major repositories of Southern U.S. history.

36 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org Jesus Probably Did Not Exist

Raphael Lataster

iscussions over the existence of the “historical Jesus” must be prefaced with the statement Dof fact that they reflect disagreements among atheists. Believers, who uphold the implausible and more easily dismissed “Christ of Faith” (the divine Jesus who walked on water), are not invited. This also means that questioning Jesus’s historicity is not necessarily an antireligious or anti-Christian endeavour. Some overea- ger atheists may indeed wish that Jesus did not exist so that they can more easily argue against the meatier Christian claims, but that is certainly not the case for impartial scholars. To me, this is a purely historical ques- tion. If I were to debate with Christians about the Christ of Faith—and I do—then I will happily start with the assumption that some sort of historical Jesus did exist. The problem is that numerous secular scholars present countless different portrayals of the so-called historical Jesus. Scholar John Dominic Crossan rightly describes this as “an academic embarrassment.” From Crossan’s view of Jesus as the wise sage to the revo- lutionary Jesus imagined by several scholars to Bart Ehrman’s apocalyptic prophet, about the only thing New Testament scholars seem to agree on is Jesus’s historical existence. But can even that be questioned? As I elaborate in my academic thesis and associated popular book, There Was No Jesus, There Is No God, there are no early sources for the historical Jesus per se; the sources concern the clearly fictional Christ of Faith. That is, the sources describe the “magical” son of God. (The historical Jesus who was just a mere mortal is a later construct of secular New Testament scholars who wish to find the “real Jesus” hidden beneath the layers of myth and embellishment.) Even the “early” sources were compiled decades after the alleged events they describe. They are all the work of Christian authors eager to promote Christianity. This gives us little reason to trust them. For example, the authors of the Gospels fail to name themselves, describe their qualifications, or show any criticism of their foundational sources—which they also fail to identify. Filled with mythical and nonhis- torical information and heavily edited over time (forgery was quite rampant), the Gospels certainly should not convince critics to trust even the more mundane claims made therein. The methods traditionally used to tease out rare nuggets of truth from the Gospels are ludicrous. The “criterion of embarrassment” says that if a section would

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 37 be embarrassing for the author, it is more likely authentic, ambiguous reference to a recent and earthly Jesus), even since it would hardly be likely for the author to make it up. though such a mention could have bolstered his claims. Unfortunately, given the diverse nature of “Christianity” Curiously, Paul describes only his “Heavenly Jesus.” Even and “Judaism” back then (things have not changed all that when discussing what appear to be the resurrection and the much) and the anonymity of the authors, it is impossible to last supper, Paul’s only stated sources are his direct revela- determine what truly would be embarrassing or counterin- tions from the Lord and his indirect revelations from older tuitive, let alone if that might not serve some evangelistic Jewish literature. Paul actually rules out human sources purpose. For example, Mark’s “embarrassing” descrip- (Galatians 1:11–12), meaning that he is deluded or deceit- tion of Jesus’s family finding him to be “out of his mind” ful—not ideal in a witness to history. (Mark 3:21) actually reinforces the important themes that a Also telling are the sources we don’t have. There are prophet is disrespected at home (Mark 6:4) and that Jesus’s no existing eyewitness or contemporary accounts about true followers are his mother and siblings (Mark 3:31–35). Jesus. All we have are later descriptions of Jesus’s life The criteria of “vividness” and “least distinctiveness” events by non-eyewitnesses, most of whom are obviously embarrassingly contradict one other. The former says that biased. Little can be gleaned from the few nonbiblical more detailed descriptions make the passage more likely and non-Christian sources, with only Josephus and Tacitus having any reasonable claim to be writing about Jesus within one hundred years of his life. And even those sparse accounts are shrouded in controversy, with disagreements over what parts have obviously been changed by Christian scribes (the manuscripts were preserved by Christians). Fur- thermore, Josephus and Tacitus were both born after Jesus allegedly died, so they could not have been eyewitnesses either. Most likely, they have received information about “About the only thing New Testament Jesus from the very people we have reason to distrust: scholars seem to agree on is Jesus’s Christians. Furthermore, these passages seem to be suspi- ciously ignored for several centuries by numerous Christian historical existence. But can even figures who were interested in proving their views about that be questioned?” Jesus to be accurate. This heavily suggests that the pas- sages were forged, probably around the time they start ap- pearing in the historical record—centuries after the events described in the Gospels. Agnosticism over the matter already seemingly appro- priate, recent developments have made me more assertive: authentic, while the latter says that brief and off-the-cuff • While some Christian scholars such as John Dickson and remarks are more likely authentic. It sounds as if these Michael Bird were obviously upset, mainstream secular scholars want to make everything authentic! The criterion scholars purporting the historical Jesus have largely re- of “Aramaic context,” which says that the use of Aramaic mained silent, as if they, taking a leaf out of the Roman makes it more likely that the Aramaic-speaking Jesus was Catholic Church’s book, are hoping that this will all blow behind the passage, is similarly unhelpful. Jesus and his over. closest followers were surely not the only Aramaic-speakers • More skeptical secular scholars—usually in history and in in first-century Judea. Furthermore, this seems to conflict my own field of religious studies—have actually lent me somewhat with the similar criterion of “Greek context.” their support, either privately or outwardly. These include The criterion of “multiple independent attestation” is Christopher Hartney, Hector Avalos, Richard Carrier, and valid in principle, since it correctly says that the more inde- many referees and editors. pendent witnesses to an event there are, the more we can • As such, I have since managed to do the “impossible,” believe the overall story. However, this criterion can hardly namely, publish several journal articles on this idea that be applied properly here, given that the sources are few so many biblical scholars consider “refuted” and “dead.” and clearly not independent. If only scholars would apply a In fact, one such article, “It’s Official: We Can Now Doubt transparent and probabilistic method that weighs up prior Jesus’ Historical Existence,” peer-reviewed, has just been and consequent probabilities . . . well, more on this later. published in Think (Summer 2016), by Cambridge Univer- First, we shall move on from the Gospel sources. sity Press, one of the world’s largest and most prestigious Paul’s Epistles, written earlier than the Gospels, give academic publishing houses. even less reason to declare with certainty that Jesus must have existed. Paul suspiciously avoids mentioning Jesus’s Never before has this “radical” idea seemed so reasonable earthly actions and teachings (there is not even one un- and acceptable.

38 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org ll this led me to teaming up with historian Richard doesn’t work if you are a Christian or a denier of the his- ACarrier to write Jesus Did Not Exist, which begins with torical Jesus. Christians can use this approach to “prove” a discussion on why the debate should not be limited to the truth of Jesus’s resurrection, and the mythicists can use specialists in the New Testament and why it may even this approach to “prove” that Paul, Peter, or someone else be ideal to involve investigators more removed from the “made it all up.” But the approach is seemingly okay if sources. (Even secular New Testament scholars tend to be you’re on the winning team. directly or indirectly funded by Christians. No wonder so Next we come to the late Maurice Casey, whose “case” many take Jesus’s historicity for a paradigm, much as theo- is even worse than Ehrman’s. Like Ehrman, Casey relied on logians approach the question of whether God exists.) This nonexisting sources to prop up the obviously unreliable actually aligns with neuroscientific research on “hot cogni- Gospels. But he also managed to offend readers with tion”: people—unfortunately and ironically—tend to think vulgarity, anti-religiosity, libel, and homophobic slurs. For less rationally about topics that really matter to them. For example, he refers to proper academics as “scholars” example, the New Testament experts generally need at least (scare quotes included) simply because they disagree with a historical Jesus to remain relevant and employed. The likes him; he belittles one critic for being left-leaning and gay. It of Carrier and me are not so financially or emotionally em- should be suspicious that insults and imaginary sources are bedded to Jesus’s existence. At worst, if absolute proof that the best that such scholars can offer when it comes to the Jesus existed appeared, I’d have to change a single slide in apparently easy task of proving Jesus’s historicity. Unfortu- my lecture presentations on early Christianity. nately, that’s it when it comes to recent scholarly arguments The bulk of the book gave us the opportunity to ex- from secular experts for the historical Jesus’s existence. amine the recent arguments put forth by scholars on both sides of the debate. First up is Bart Ehrman, whose case partly relies on his inexplicably monolithic views concerning Judaism. To Ehrman, Jews would not have imagined for themselves a suffering messiah. I argue that he errs de jure, since we only know a little about what a fraction of the Jews of the time believed (which he is aware of) and that he errs de facto, since some of the Jewish intertestamental litera- ture (that appearing between the hallowed Old and New “The methods traditionally used to Testaments) does indeed describe a suffering messiah. Ehrman also relies heavily on hypothetical foundational tease out rare nuggets of truth from sources such as Q, M, and L. These are hypothesized sources the Gospels are ludicrous.” that don’t currently exist and may never have existed. Scholars have long been aware that the later Gospels of Matthew and Luke build on Mark, the earliest Gospel. (We can overlook the later and even more theological—cough, cough—Gospel of John.) And they’ve long suspected that the material Matthew and Luke share that is not found in Mark comes from an- other source that is now lost. Q, M, and L are hypothesized Moving on, Carrier and I reiterate the poor state of sources imagined to explain the unique material found in the available sources and move the discussion forward in Matthew and Luke. Not all scholars believe these sources describing how the earliest sources—especially the Epis- existed, especially as simpler explanations (such as that tles of Paul but also James and Hebrews—indicate that Matthew built on Mark and Luke simply copied from Mat- the original belief in Jesus concerned not a man who had thew, without copying everything) have been offered. But recently trod Earth but a purely celestial being who sent whether such sources existed or not is kind of beside the revelations to figures such as Paul and Peter. Like Moroni point. It’s what the likes of Ehrman do with them that is so, (think Mormonism); Gabriel (think Islam); and YHWH (think well, unscholarly. Judaism). This celestial messiah was killed by demons in an Apparently, the Gospels can generally be trusted—after upper realm, as Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians 2:6–10, we ignore the many, many bits that are completely untrust- which further claims that the demons would not have done worthy—because of the nonexisting sources behind them. so if they knew who Jesus really was. Note that humans— Who produced these imaginary sources? When? What did the murderers, according to the Gospels—would still have they say? Were they reliable? Were they intended to be killed Jesus, knowing full well that his death results in their accurate historical portrayals, enlightening allegories, or salvation (which would effectively make them Christians) entertaining fictions? Ehrman can’t tell you, and neither and the defeat of the evil spirits. can any New Testament scholar. I dub this uncritical and That mainstream scholars increasingly recognize that inconsistent approach “Ehrman’s Law”: If you don’t have some Jews before and around the time of nascent Chris- the evidence you wish you had, just make it up . . . but only tianity already believed in a celestial messiah (as even if you’re on Team Ehrman. Imaginary evidence somehow Ehrman now concedes and as implied by the crucial and

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 39 oft-overlooked Jewish intertestamental literature—after all, earlier writings is unforgivable under the view that Jesus is Jews weren’t exactly doing nothing during the centuries historical, though it is perfectly reasonable, and even to be between the Old and New Testaments)—and given that expected, if the alternative Celestial Jesus theory is correct. the first Gospel, Mark, is an allegory of Paul’s earlier writings In other words, it is more likely that Jesus was an entirely (acknowledged by such scholars as Dykstra, Tarazi, Goulder, “mythical” figure that was later historicized and not a mun- and Adamczewski) only bolsters this theory, as it explains dane historical figure who was later mythicized. how the “Celestial Jesus” came to be historicized over In other words, Jesus probably didn’t exist. time. Suddenly, it all makes sense. Disillusioned Jews gravi- tated toward a spiritual solution, a Celestial Messiah, partly his initially unpopular and controversial view is becoming because they couldn’t physically defeat their enemies. Paul Tincreasingly accepted by laypersons and scholars alike. and other early “Christian” authors are among those Jews. The tide is turning. And the only “argument” that the typi- Mark allegorizes Paul, converting Paul’s Celestial Jesus into cal New Testament specialist presents against all this is that an Earthly Jesus, while the later Gospels embellish the story there are nonexisting sources that prove that much in the with further historical fictions. Gospels is historically accurate (namely, the nonsupernatural No wonder we have failed to find the historical Jesus. bits, though mainstream scholars even concede that many He never existed. of those are fictional). They must have forgotten to consider my own nonexist- ing sources, which prove that Jesus didn’t exist! That’s a joke, of course. Nobody should be utilizing imaginary sources with such certainty. In nowhere but the insular and parochial field of New Testament research is such a “method” deemed appropriate. I’ll leave it to you to con- sider the logic of proving that Jesus exists by appealing to sources that don’t. If you’re anything like the appreciative attendees at a recent historical conference in Sydney (also “If absolute proof that Jesus existed at a recent religion conference at Oxford University) where I thoroughly blasted this unrestrained use of hypothetical appeared, I’d have to change a single sources, you’ll probably find it absurd. Almost as absurd as slide in my lecture presentations on the view that Jesus was literally resurrected by God. early Christianity.” Further Reading Cusack, Carole M. 2013. Review of There Was No Jesus, There Is No God: A Scholarly Examination of the Scientific, Historical, and Philosophical Ev- idence & Arguments For Monotheism, by Raphael Lataster. Literature & Aesthetics 23, no. 2: 144–46. Hartney, Christopher. 2014. Review of There Was No Jesus, There Is No God: A Scholarly Examination of the Scientific, Historical, and Philo- sophical Evidence & Arguments For Monotheism, by Raphael Lataster. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review 5, no. 1: 171–74. But we don’t just describe this Celestial Jesus theory. Lataster, Raphael. 2013. “Bayesian Reasoning: Criticising the ‘Criteria of Authenticity’ and Calling for a Review of Biblical Criticism.” Journal of We put it to the test: a proper probabilistic/Bayesian test. Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences 5, no. 2: 271–93. Summarized crudely, the prior probabilities work against ———. 2013. There Was No Jesus, There Is No God: A Scholarly Exam- historicity because Jesus happens to be portrayed in a ination of the Scientific, Historical, and Philosophical Evidence & Argu- ments For Monotheism. Charleston, S.C.: CreateSpace Independent way overwhelmingly characteristic of fictional characters. Publishing Platform. For example, Jesus fulfills many criteria that—together— ———. 2014. “The Fourth Quest: A Critical Analysis of the Recent Literature overwhelmingly apply to purely mythical figures. He is on Jesus’s (a)Historicity.” Literature & Aesthetics 24, no. 1: 1–28. ———. 2015. “Questioning the Plausibility of Jesus Ahistoricity Theo- portrayed as having had a miraculous birth, a mysterious ries—A Brief Pseudo-Bayesian Metacritique of the Sources.” Inter­ childhood, and his body as having gone missing after his mountain West Journal of Religious Studies 6, no. 1: 63–96. death. Not all literary figures who score high on these crite- ———. 2015. “The Gospel According to Bart: The Folly of Ehrman’s Hypo- thetical Sources.” Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the ria are fictional, but most are, leading to a low (but nonzero) Australian Historical Association, Sydney. July 7. prior probability. Lataster, Raphael, and Richard Carrier. 2015. Jesus Did Not Exist: A Debate The consequent probabilities, relying on the more direct Among Atheists. Charleston, S.C.: CreateSpace Independent Publish- ing Platform. evidence, could in principle overcome the low prior proba- bility, but unfortunately they don’t. As described above, the sources are too problematic and often support the alterna- Ralphael Lataster is a teaching fellow in Studies in Religion at the University of tive view. For example, the Gospels generally work on both Sydney, Australia. His main research interests include Christian origins, philosophy of theories (since they are mixtures of myth and what is at least religion, and alternative god-concepts such as pantheism and pandeism. He is the now purported to be history), while the lack of even one un- coauthor of Jesus Did Not Exist: A Debate Among Atheists (2015) and the author ambiguous mention of a recent and Earthly Jesus in Paul’s of There Was No Jesus, There Is No God (2013).

40 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org Religion and Suicide

Richard G. Dumont

There is but one truly philosophical problem, and that is the stock-market crash and Great Depression of the early suicide. twentieth century come to mind. —Albert Camus • Fatalistic suicide is the opposite of anomic suicide. It occurs when an individual is overregulated and subject ince suicide is so obviously an individual act, it is not to oppressive rules, regulations, and discipline. The 1978 surprising that most explanations for it have been mass suicide at Jonestown provides a dramatic example Sindividualistic, be they theological, philosophical, psy- from recent history. On November 18, 1978, Peoples chiatric, or psychological. In contrast, sociologists tend to Temple founder Jim Jones led hundreds of his followers focus on groups as units of analysis, from small groups of in a mass suicide by drinking a punch poisoned with cy- two or three people to communities such as cities, counties, anide. regions, and nation-states. Regarding phenomena such as suicide, sociologists tend to calculate suicide rates for the ecological units of interest. A suicide rate is generally calculated as the number of suicides per 100,000 peo- ple. In 2013, for example, the suicide rate for the United States was 10.3, with 5.5 for females and 12.6 for males. “The purpose of the current The United States ranked thirtieth out of 109 nations. First was Greenland, with its rate of 83.0 (45.0 for females and study is to replicate Durkheim’s 116.9 for males). The five countries with the lowest rates analysis, utilizing the fifty U.S. were Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, states and Washington, D.C., Haiti, and Nepal, each of which had rates of 0.0.* Among U.S. states, suicide rates ranged from the highs of 29.6 for as the units of analysis.” Wyoming, 23.0 for Alaska, 22.6 for Montana, 21.3 for New Mexico, and 21.0 for Utah to the lows of 9.5 for Rhode Is- land, 8.7 for Massachusetts, 8.3 for New York, 7.4 for New Jersey, and 5.7 for Washington, D.C.† French sociologist Êmile Durkheim published his Le Suicide in 1897. In that work, which is considered a classic in Western sociology, Durkheim divided suicides into four A number of reviews of Durkheim’s research on suicide principal types: have been written since its publication, some negative, some positive, and some more or less neutral. • Egoistic suicide results from feelings of not belonging, Durkheim has been accused of committing an ecolog- of not being integrated into a group or community. Such ical fallacy, which occurs when one incorrectly infers the feelings involve meaninglessness, apathy, despair, or de- value of data at the individual level from the ecological unit pression. As will be observed below, egoistic suicide is of analysis. For example, just because in several German the research subject of the current study. provinces Protestants had higher suicide rates than Cath- • Altruistic suicide is, in many ways, the opposite of egois- olics (as Durkheim found), it does not necessarily follow tic suicide. It can occur when individuals are dominated empirically that Protestants are the ones actually dispropor- by group goals and beliefs. Japanese Kamikaze pilots of tionately committing suicide.‡ World War II provide a vivid example. • Anomic suicide is related to rapid and dramatic changes and upheavals in society and/or the economy. Images of ‡See the following sources, for example: David A. Freeman, The individuals jumping from skyscrapers during the time of Ecological Fallacy (University of California, 2002); H. C. Selvin, “Durkheim’s Suicide: Further Thoughts on a Methodological Classic,” in Êmile Durkheim, ed. R. A. Nisbet, 1965, 113–36; and Gurol Irzik *Source: World Health Organization. and Eric Meyer, “Causal Modeling: New Directions for Statistical †Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Explanation,” Philosophy of Science 54, no. 4 (December 1987): 509.

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 41 Another criticism of Durkheim’s work has been advanced and had fewer rites and rituals. Accordingly, Protestants by Frans van Poppel and Lincoln H. Day, who argue that the were more likely to be victims of egoistic suicide. differences in suicide rates are due to the differences in how The purpose of the current study is to replicate deaths were categorized by the two groups. Specifically, Durkheim’s analysis, utilizing the fifty U.S. states and Wash- deaths by suicide would be more likely to be recorded as ington, D.C., as the units of analysis. Additionally, our suicides by Protestants than by Catholics.* analyses will distinguish between evangelical and mainline Other reviewers, such as Inkels, Johnson, Gibbs and Protestants along with the unaffiliated. Furthermore, we Martin, and Berk, have written in support of Durkheim’s will consider historically black churches. Data for this study methodology. For example, Bernard Berk has written that derive from the same base utilized for the writing of my two Durkheim “intended his theory to explain variation among recently published books, Economic Inequality and What social environments in the incidence of suicide, not the YOU Can Do About It (2012) and When Hate Happens, So suicides of particular individuals.”† Does Other Bad Stuff (2013). The data on religious affilia- tion come from the Pew Forum on Public Life 2009, U.S. Purpose Religious Landscape Survey.‡ As noted, Durkheim calculated and compared the suicide rates of Protestants and Catholics in a number of German Findings provinces. In each instance, he found that provinces having Although not all of the findings are statistically signifi- higher percentages of Protestants had higher rates of sui- cant, they are uniformly consistent with Durkheim’s original cide than those having higher percentages of Catholics. By theory and are, thereby, supportive of it. Table 1 displays way of explanation, Durkheim invoked the concept of social the principal findings of this study. integration. Due to its hierarchical form of organization, obligatory church attendance, and numerous attendant Conclusion rites and rituals, the Catholic Church bound its members We have examined the relationships between several reli- to a greater degree to the Church and to one another than gion variables and suicide rates, guided by Durkheim’s was the case for Protestants, who were more egalitarian theory of suicide. The relationships of suicide rates between evangelical Protestants, mainline Prot- estants, and the unaffiliated were in the predicted positive direction, al- Table 1. Correlational relationships between religious affiliation and suicide rates though none were statistically signifi- cant. Regarding the relationships be- tween suicide rates and the percent of Religious Affiliation r Interpretation Catholics and the percent of members in historically black churches, however, Evangelical Protestants .252 The higher the percentage of evangelical Protestants, Durkheim’s theory was more strongly the higher the suicide rate. confirmed and supported. It may be hypothesized that members of histori- Mainline Protestants .118 The higher the percentage of mainline Protestants, the higher the suicide rate. cally black churches, because of a his- tory of discrimination and oppression Catholics -.415* The higher the percentage of Catholics,the lower against African Americans, are bound the suicide rate. more closely to one another and to Unaffiliated .244 The higher the percentage of unaffiliated, the higher their churches than would otherwise the suicide rate. be the case. Historically Black -.342* The higher the percentage of members of historically black churches, the lower the suicide rate.

*Statistically Signigicant at p=.05

‡Available online at: http://religions.pewforum.org/reports and at *Frans van Poppel and Lincolin H. Day, “A Test of Durkheim’s http://religions.pewforum.org/maps. The specific source for suicide Theory of Suicide—Without Committing the Ecological Fallacy,” rates is the Mental Health Association of America, “State Rankings on Suicide Rates,” 2008. American Sociological Review 61, no. 3 (June 1996): 500. †Bernard Berk, “Macro-Micro Relationships in Durkheim’s Analy­sis of Egoistic Suicide,” in Sociology Today, eds. R. K. Merton, L. Broom, and L. S. Cottrell (New York: Basic Books, 1959); B. D. Johnson, Richard G. Dumont is a retired sociologist whose last two positions were president of “Durkheim’s One Cause of Suicide,” American Sociological Review the University of Maine at Fort Kent (1989–1996) and University of Maine System 30 (1965): 875–86; and J. P. Gibbs and W. T. Martin, “A Theory of Status professor of sociology (1996–2000). His ongoing research interests include economic Integration and Its Relationship to Suicide,” American Sociological Review 23 (1958): 14–147. inequality, hate groups, and death and dying.

42 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org Saving My Life by Saving My Soul?

Stephanie Savage

he day of my awakening was almost as surreal as the But there is one religious group for whom my feelings coma-dream I awoke from. One minute, I was bat- have hardened—hospital and nursing home clergy. I’m sure Ttling office equipment that had come to life and was they help many of the faithful, but the ones I’ve dealt with attacking everyone in sight, as possessed machinery is wont don’t seem to know how to help nonbelievers. to do. The next minute, my mother was telling me that I had The priest was at least well-meaning. But a serially men- been in a coma for six weeks and had nearly died. dacious hospital chaplain was nothing of the sort. I’m not sure which was more unbelievable. “Seriously?” The chaplain probably thought his actions were for the I said, or at least I tried to. I had had a tracheostomy, so I greater good. But he forced my loved ones into conten- couldn’t speak. tious situations as I lay near death. Isn’t comforting the I had been transferred to a Catholic nursing home only loved ones of those in dire conditions such as mine part of five days before, though I didn’t know that yet. Like me, my his mission too? My encounter with him after my awakening mom is an atheist. Here we were, two atheists of Jewish merely made me uneasy, but I was outraged by the disre- extraction in a nursing home called All Saints. No Saints wasn’t available, apparently. Eventually, the nursing home’s priest learned of my awakening and stopped by. I would’ve squirmed except that I was so weak I could barely lift my head. “May I hold your hand?” he asked me. I nodded. To be honest, even I wouldn’t have wanted to hold a hand as red as mine under its bandages. The redness was caused by sores from my autoimmune disease. It was the “Here we were, two atheists of treatment for my dermatomyositis that had caused the im- Jewish extraction in a nursing home munosuppression that had indirectly led to my contracting Legionnaires’ disease and then coma-causing sepsis. called All Saints. No Saints wasn’t The priest smiled beatifically at me, then said, “God is available, apparently.” good.” I struggled to keep my eyes from rolling. Can I go back into my coma now? But things got worse. His smile barely broke as he said, “Have you thanked God for your life?” If I could speak, would I have said, “Thank you for not killing me, God, even though I don’t believe in you”? Since spectful behavior he displayed toward the secular beliefs of I couldn’t, all I could do was furiously shake my head. my loved ones (as well as my own) while I was unconscious. I wish I could’ve seen his face well. I didn’t have my (Note: I came by this information secondhand. I was too glasses on, but from what I could make out, his face went busy being comatose to witness these events.) slack. There was a long moment of pained silence. He soon My boyfriend, Keith, admitted me into the hospital took his leave of this ungrateful atheist, but not before say- after I became lethargic and confused from what turned ing, “May I pray for you?” out to be Legionnaires’ disease. Keith was interviewed by I reluctantly nodded yes. After all, prayers are really for a hospital administrator who asked what my religion was. the pray-er. He told her that I was an atheist, and she put “Atheism” As I’ve written before in Free Inquiry (“Without a Prayer on the line for “Religion.” (Yes, I know that atheism isn’t a of a Chance,” October/November 2015 and “Sympathy religion—you can take that up with the woman who filled for the Devil-Believers,” February/March 2016), even as I out the form if you like.) Keith informed them that I wouldn’t was healing from my six-week coma and multiple strokes want any clergy. I would’ve thought that would be obvious. on both sides of my brain, my attitudes were broadening I didn’t want a shaman shaking chicken bones over me toward believers—at least regarding my Christian friends, either. who were praying for me and lending me invaluable emo- You would think that having my “religion” listed as tional support during my difficult recovery. atheism would’ve hung a giant “No Solicitations” sign over

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 43 my bed. Yet that didn’t stop the hospital’s chaplain, whom successful surgery. And who do you think ambled into my I’ve nicknamed the Prevaricating Preacher (or PP for short). room? Now, remember, my records still listed my religion The first time PP walked into my room while Keith was as atheism. But that didn’t deter PP when he was dealing there, Keith told him, “Stephanie is an atheist.” with my secular loved ones (I didn’t learn about their experi- “Oh, okay, I won’t bother her,” PP replied. “What do ences with PP until months later), and he wasn’t about to be you believe?” stopped now that I was awake. I suppose it’s possible that “I’m an agnostic.” he didn’t remember me, but this was less than two months “Good, there’s still hope for you.” PP wasn’t joking. after his multiple confrontations with my loved ones. The second time PP visited, Keith said, “We talked I can’t remember why I was alone when he came into about this before. Stephanie is an atheist, and you said you my room, but there was no one to stop PP when he ap- wouldn’t bother her.” proached my bed. “May I pray for you?” he asked. “Sorry, I didn’t know.” I grudgingly nodded. But my mind flashed back to the Keith shot back, “Isn’t there something in the Bible All Saints priest. Why was I being subjected to this again? about lying?” Keith isn’t generally a contentious person, I didn’t want to be rude, but didn’t my desires enter into but he was operating on little sleep and even less food as this? Before he could start, I shook my head violently. he shuttled from work, to the hospital, to home, and back This time I had my glasses on and I could see his expres- again. sion clearly. PP looked as if I had slapped him. He finally “I won’t bother her again,” PP assured him. But that was took the hint and left. another lie. Unbeknown to Keith, PP continued to visit me. I’ve com- hat could possibly have accounted for PP’s intrusive pared his behavior to that of a cat. To a cat, “No” means Winsistence on praying over me, which was tantamount “Don’t do it when I can see you.” to religious malpractice for a hospital chaplain? After all, On another occasion, PP marched up to my bed while what would be the purpose of asking a patient’s religion if Keith’s mom, Joella, was visiting and said, “I’m going to her beliefs weren’t going to be respected? Of course, one pray now.” An Episcopalian, Joella isn’t opposed to prayer, can never know what’s going on in someone else’s mind. but PP never even presented the prayer as optional. Still, I have a theory. He also sidled to my bedside when my mom was there, PP’s prayer gives a hint at his way of thinking. Here was and this is what upsets me the most. There she was, watch- this poor woman dying before her time. The only thing that ing her only child possibly dying in front of her. Then in could save her life was God’s grace. Yet, that was denied walks this hospital chaplain asking to pray for her atheist her because she and her loved ones were misguided non- daughter. believers. Like me, my mom feels a bit uncomfortable around Perhaps he thought that he was in much the same situ- Christian clergy. Maybe because we both tend to have ation as a doctor whose patient refuses medical treatment knee-jerk, smart-ass reactions to anything religious, she for religious reasons. Our stubborn refusal to pray for God’s tries to be careful and not offend. But I think it goes deeper grace meant that only he could intervene with God to save than that. We have an unconscious, instinctive wariness my life. He was going to be my savior whether my loved stemming from our ancestral persecution, though we are ones liked it or not. now far removed from that world. Sorry, PP. I didn’t see the light, yet was I healed none- That’s why, when PP first asked my mom if he could pray theless. for me, she said yes, even after she told him we were athe- I think the real problem was that PP had a fundamental ists. He intoned a generic sort of prayer, then left. lack of respect for nonbelievers. Would he have prayed to But the ever-persistent PP came by yet again. My mom Jesus over a Jew or spoken of Heaven to the family of a repeated that we were atheists. “Keith told me that,” he dying Hindu, perhaps offering them a bit of beef jerky for said, leaving out his promise not to bother me again. “May good measure? I pray for her?” PP was a nondenominational chaplain whose job was “Okay,” she said without affect. to minister to a culturally diverse suburban Los Angeles “May you take the Lord’s light in your heart and be hospital. But he didn’t view the beliefs of those without healed,” PP prayed. My mother saw red, outraged at his at- religion as equally deserving of his respect. His mission was tempted conversion. Knowing my mom, I’m sure her anger to comfort the afflicted and their families, not afflict them couldn’t have escaped his notice. So he stopped coming with further emotional hardship. around, right? Nope. And for that I can’t forgive him. The third time, she refused his request to pray. That apparently did it. Like the Hulk, you wouldn’t like my mom when she’s angry. Joella reported that PP didn’t try again with her either. Stephanie Savage was a published fiction writer before a serious illness caused her Fast-forward to six weeks later, after my awakening. I to change her focus to writing about her experience and its aftermath. Besides in was rushed back to the hospital to fix a hemorrhage caused Free Inquiry, her secularist writing has appeared in American Atheist and Skeptical by my gastric tube. I was waking again, this time from my Inquirer. Her blog Miracle Girl appears on Patheos Atheist.

44 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org A Response to a Review

Stephen LeDrew

begin by thanking Tom Flynn, true to the spirit of free- tial, but it’s worth reflecting on, as it reveals a great deal dom of inquiry, for giving me the opportunity to respond about the ideological forces at work within popular atheism Ito his review of my book, The Evolution of Atheism: and organized secularism. The charge of “postmodern- The Politics of a Modern Movement (“Noble Experiment, ism” is frequently made by atheists when confronted by Flawed Result,” FI, April/May 2016). As an atheist and a challenging idea or statement, which begs the question longtime reader of Free Inquiry, it’s a pleasure to have this of whether anyone involved with the atheist movement discussion in these pages. actually has any idea what postmodernism is (to be fair, few While Flynn’s review was very critical, I can point to an academics have a grip on this question either, which has led area where he and I can agree (mostly), though he seems to most of us to drop the term altogether, while New Atheists take it as a point of disagreement. Like Flynn, I believe that still cling to this conceptual remnant of the 1990s). the New Atheism is not really new in any significant way, at least in terms of the content of its arguments, which are a mash-up of selected bits of Enlightenment rationalism and Victorian Darwinism. Instead, it is a recent manifestation of the scientific atheism that emerged in the nineteenth century. Despite my clear outline of its intellectual roots, Flynn criticizes me for treating the New Atheism as “unprece- “Flynn suggests that I approach dented” and “earthshaking in its novelty” and describes the secular movement as if it first me as a naive “young analyst for whom the freethought world began with Sam Harris” with a “disturbing lack of his- appeared in 2004 and have no idea torical understanding.” Flynn suggests that I approach the it existed before then. I find this secular movement as if it first appeared in 2004 and have criticism odd.” no idea it existed before then. I find this criticism odd given that the title of the book refers explicitly to the historical de- velopment of atheist thought (which gets an entire chapter) as well as that of the secular movement (which also gets a chapter) and that its stated purpose is to situate the New A fine example is Sam Harris’s tweet on June 20, 2016, Atheism within the historical context of atheist thought and of a definition of Islamophobia offered by the Council of activism. American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which to Harris “reads Flynn insists that I contradict myself by saying at points like a Sokal-hoax text,” referring to physicist Alan Sokal’s that the New Atheism really is new, and he provides one publication of a nonsense article in the cultural studies piece of evidence: a passage in which I explain the New journal Social Text to make the point that “postmodernism” Atheism as a response to the attacks on September 11, is simply gibberish. The definition basically says that Islam- 2001, and postmodernism. Flynn counters that many others ophobia is ideological justification for imperialism (that is, in the secular movement had commented on postmodern- sowing fear of Islam and Muslims justifies imperialistic pur- ism well before that time. But my explanation of what the suits and oppressive policies regarding the Middle East), a New Atheism responds to does not include a claim that fairly common and straightforward idea. There is certainly they are the only ones to ever respond to it. It simply iden- a good deal of nonsense going on in the humanities, but tifies their motivations. CAIR’s definition of Islamophobia is not nonsense and is in On the topic of postmodernism—one of the most no way postmodern. abused and misunderstood words to appear frequently in The fact that people such as Harris and Richard Dawkins atheist discourse—Flynn remarks that the book is marred by keep referring to the Sokal hoax—which happened twenty a “ponderous postmodern style all too familiar in the social years ago—in their critiques of academic postmodernism il- sciences today.” This might seem relatively inconsequen- lustrates how grossly out of touch they are with what is actu-

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 45 ally going on in the social sciences. But more to the point, it tion and correct any factual errors he perceives, and there is an excellent example of how the label of postmodernism, are indeed some errors (regrettable but unavoidable in a as used by atheists, has lost all meaning. It has devolved work such as this), but most of them are of little conse- into a general pejorative applied to writing that makes any quence to my argument. For example, he writes at length attempt at a sophisticated analysis and is in any way critical about Paul Kurtz and the transition in his views that led of any of the tenets of popular atheism. This often mindless him to vocally reject “militant atheism.” In Flynn’s account, deployment of the term postmodernism is, ironically, an Kurtz was “unnerved” by the politics of the Bush years, and impediment to rational debate, since its purpose is to grant this was the motivation for his “cold shoulder” to atheism the one who deploys it immunity from complex arguments. beginning around 2004 but is not representative of the Such is the case in Harris’s tweet about CAIR’s Islamophobia sum total of his views, taking into account the full span of definition, which his cultish followers dismissed as “ob- his years as a secular activist and thinker. But this makes no tuse academic postmodernism”—evidently because they sense. Is Kurtz not permitted to reject his previous views? couldn’t understand the relatively straightforward point Flynn’s position here would be like saying that because it made. It seems that Harris didn’t understand it himself, Christopher Hitchens was a Marxist longer than he was a which is quite an admission for someone who represents liberal, he should really be considered a Marxist, and we himself as a sophisticated intellectual. It is, though, not shouldn’t give too much credit to his relatively late conver- surprising to those who know better (including Noam sion to liberalism (or neoconservativism, as some might put Chomsky, who, in an e-mail exchange Harris inexplicably it). I doubt Hitchens would have approved of this view. publicized with enthusiasm, repeatedly described Harris’s Whether Kurtz had a genuine change of heart or ad- arguments as “ludicrous and embarrassing,” while Harris opted his new anti-atheism position for strategic reasons seemed oblivious to the fact that Chomsky was calling him is actually not terribly relevant. To those outside the closed an idiot). walls of CFI, the only thing that matters is what people in the organization stand for publically. My interpretation of Kurtz’s critique of atheism may be colored by the evolution of my own views. When I first encountered the New Athe- ists shortly after publication of The God Delusion, I was sympathetic to them—but like so many others, I became disillusioned as it became apparent that much of what the New Atheism was offering wasn’t much of an improvement “The label of postmodernism, as used on the dogmatism and bigotry found in some forms of religion. I identified with Kurtz because I too felt that the by atheists, has lost all meaning.” proper goals of secularism and secular humanism were be- trayed by this ignorant, dogmatic, elitist ideology. Now CFI has clearly chosen a side. Merging with the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science cer- tainly brings a close association with the biggest name in atheism, but it’s also a name that has turned off scores of At the bottom of the critiques of postmodernism and younger activists who see Dawkins as an aging elitist who is obscurantism, and their explicit endorsement of reduction- increasingly known more for his offensive comments about ism, is the New Atheists’ desire that you believe things are feminists and Muslims than his laudable early work to pro- much simpler than they actually are. Harris’s declaration that mote science. While CFI does good work and represents all you need to do to understand terrorism and conflict in an important cause, atheists and secular activists are con- Muslim countries is to read the Qur’an is a toxic mix of intel- fronted with the question of whether a shared position on lectual laziness and outright ideological manipulation. Har- metaphysics is a sufficient basis for participating in organi- ris, Dawkins, and others like them specialize in giving easy zations that embrace politics and values that are antithetical answers to complex questions while discouraging the kind to their own. of effort required for a more sophisticated understanding of To some extent, this has been answered by the emer- the issues. A case in point is the New Atheists’ junior-high- gence of groups spearheaded by feminists and racial school-level understanding of terrorism and conflict in the minorities who have been turned off by the conservative Middle East. The idea that Islam is irrelevant to the problem nature of much of the secular movement. As I argue in my of terrorism is only as foolish as the idea that everything book, the New Atheism has the peculiar distinction of being except Islam is irrelevant. a radical movement to preserve the status quo. It defends the structures of power and authority that define modernity, ost of Flynn’s review concerns my comments about which are perceived to be threatened not only by religious Mthe Center for Inquiry (CFI), which is understandable, extremism but also by challenges to the privileged position though it does give a false impression of the focus of the of white men (both in the movement and society more book. Flynn is naturally compelled to defend his organiza- broadly) brought forward by feminists and minority groups.

46 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org While CFI has taken admirable steps to address the issue inent feminist atheists have identity-politics tunnel vision of diversity, the lingering stench of Ronald Lindsay’s offen- and rarely mention economic justice. It may be up to black sive and astonishingly brazen attack on feminism at the atheists to bring class and capitalism back onto the radar. 2013 “Women in Secularism” conference will be difficult to wipe away. The situation is certainly not helped by formally will conclude by addressing the first criticism Flynn brought attaching the organization to the Dawkins brand. As author Iagainst my book, which is that my definition of atheism is of the notorious “Dear Muslima” letter, not to mention his incorrect, according to the supposed agreement of a se- endorsement of the vile and embarrassingly stupid “Femi- lected group of “specialists.” It’s true that some have made nists Love Islamists” video, Dawkins is even more hostile to a distinction between weak and strong atheism, which re- feminism than Lindsay. fers to lacking belief in God versus denying the existence of While diversity and equality with respect to gender God. I suggest that weak atheism is really about the same and race have appropriately been brought center stage in thing as agnosticism and that strong atheism is atheism atheist discourse, the issue of class is still a glaring omission, proper, but any debate about what definition of atheism and it’s an issue that Dawkins and his fellow New Atheists are especially blind to. For an illustration, we can look back to the Atheist Bus Campaign, an early instance of activism designed both for mobilization and evangelism. Beginning in London with Dawkins’s enthusiastic vocal and financial support, buses carried an advertisement bearing the slo- gan, “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” In all the commentary about this campaign, somehow no one ever noted its implicit classism. The idea “While CFI does good work and rep- that if one could only drop all the anxiety about pleasing resents an important cause, atheists God, one would then be free to simply relax and enjoy life and secular activists are confronted is perhaps obvious to someone freed from material anxiet- ies, but people who are struggling to make ends meet and with the question of whether a shared support their families have more pressing concerns than position on metaphysics is a sufficient the origin of the cosmos. Rent comes before metaphysics. basis for participating in organizations The uncritical celebration of capitalism among many atheists is perhaps the most striking—and least noted— that embrace politics and values that aspect of the movement in its current form. In true nine- are antithetical to their own.” teenth-century fashion, capitalism is defended through the ideology of evolutionism. Take Michael Shermer, a Spen- cerian of the highest order, who advocates cutthroat social Darwinism, presenting social welfare and economic regula- tions as a constraint on prosperity (and thereby making the novel case that humanism means not giving a damn about should go in the dictionary is not interesting to me. One of poor people). After the deregulation of financial markets the major arguments of my book is precisely that there is no led directly to the 2008 crash, and a full-blown depression single correct definition of atheism, so the idea of a “lay was avoided only by state intervention and an injection of misdefinition” (as Flynn describes my own) is an absurdity. public funds, it is astounding that people such as Shermer The term atheism is constantly under negotiation by differ- still exist. But such is the power of ideology. Flynn notes ent groups in different social and historical contexts, who in his review that he is no longer a strict libertarian but deploy it in relation to various epistemological and political became a Keynesian after 2008, which is certainly progress positions and as an identity marker. The “evolution of athe- from the delusion of neoliberalism and the religious vener- ism” in my book’s title refers in part to how the meaning of ation of capitalism that still plagues secularism. atheism has developed historically and how atheism has The only people right now who are directly addressing never been simply a lack of belief in God or a denial of class and economic justice in any significant way are black God’s existence but has always been attached to an array atheist groups and public figures such as Sikivu Hutchinson, of often contradictory ideologies and identities. Contrary to who bring their unique perspective on the intersection of standard definitions, atheists are believers. We all are. class, race, and religion in processes of domination and exploitation. As far back as the nineteenth century, major atheist thinkers and organizations clearly perceived that Stephen LeDrew is visiting assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, religion was ideological support for an unjust social order. Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, and previously postdoctoral fellow This idea is lost in the bourgeois liberal constitution of much at the Centre for the Study of Religion and Society, Uppsala University, Sweden. of today’s mainstream atheism, which is a movement by He is the author of The Evolution of Atheism: The Politics of a Modern Movement (Oxford University Press, 2015). and for the middle and upper classes. Even many prom-

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 47 A Response to Stephen LeDrew

Tom Flynn

begin by thanking Stephen LeDrew for responding so problem is that Kurtz did not do that. He seldom, if ever, thoughtfully to my review of his book. I will focus on only acknowledged that his views had changed; surely he never Itwo concerns: LeDrew’s response to my analysis of his shared the process Hitchens-style. book’s treatment of the Center for Inquiry (CFI) and an im- LeDrew is correct that the public tends to judge public plication of one of his discursive comments that again, for figures by their statements. Nonetheless, historians may me, calls into question his grasp of movement history prior take interest in the testimony of those inside CFI at the to the twenty-first century. time. Starting in 2000, when I assumed the editorship, I did the initial edits on most of Kurtz’s editorials. It was a Regarding CFI very interactive process, and often I would flag a particular In my review, I examined LeDrew’s discussion of matters statement with a margin note along the lines of “In XYZ pertaining to CFI at substantial length. LeDrew calls this issue five years ago, you took a different view on this. Care “understandable” but expresses concern that it gives “a to add a sentence about why the change?” Obviously, he false impression of the focus of the book.” He has a point. seldom acceded to these requests; moreover, when I en- The fraction of my review that treated LeDrew’s discussions gaged him in discussion he usually minimized the disjunct of CFI was considerably larger than the fraction of LeDrew’s between his old views and his new ones. I came away with book devoted to that subject. That said, I noted my interest the strong impression that Kurtz was either unaware or, at in a “Caveat lector” note attached to the review’s head- best, hugely reluctant to articulate how profoundly some of line—and I was writing for Free Inquiry, whose readers are his opinions had shifted. unusually interested in matters pertaining to CFI. I sincerely I think LeDrew misstates my argument when he summa- hope that no one came away misled as to the focus of Le- rizes, “Whether Kurtz had a genuine change of heart or ad- Drew’s book. opted his new anti-atheism position for strategic reasons is More substantive, I think, is LeDrew’s disagreement over actually not terribly relevant.” I was not questioning Kurtz’s how to interpret the change in the thinking and writing of motives but rather—and I say this with all due respect for CFI founder Paul Kurtz. (To review: circa 2004, Kurtz moved his enormous contributions in creating the organizations away from earlier views relatively inclusive toward atheism that became CFI and shaped late twentieth-century Amer- and adopted a perspective that distanced secular human- ican humanism—the quality of the thinking underlying his ism from so-called “militant atheism.”) LeDrew comments: opinions in 2004 and later. In my review, I asked whether In Flynn’s account, Kurtz was “unnerved” by the politics of Kurtz’s newer views represented the Bush years, and this was the motivation for his “cold . . . his best and most representative thinking? Or should we shoulder” to atheism beginning around 2004 but is not interpret it as a miscalculation by an aging titan whose mind representative of the sum total of his views, taking into was beginning to be overwhelmed by events? . . . account the full span of his years as a secular activist and Whatever the reasons, Kurtz’s attitude toward atheism thinker. But this makes no sense. Is he not permitted to re- during hs final five years at the helm of Free Inquiry—which ject his previous views? Flynn’s position here would be like LeDrew mistakes for “Kurtz’s vision of secular humanism,” full saying that because Christopher Hitchens was a Marxist stop—seems anomalous and unrepresentative of his oeuvre. longer than he was a liberal, he should really be consid- ered a Marxist, and we shouldn’t give too much credit to I stand by that. his relatively late conversion to liberalism (or neoconserva- tivism, as some might put it). Regarding History Of course, Paul Kurtz had every right to change his views; I found LeDrew’s discussion of the “implicit classism” in the moreover, as author of the lead editorial in each issue Atheist Bus Campaign, and by extension in the movement of Free Inquiry, he had ample opportunity to announce generally, surprising. LeDrew is mystified that others com- when and why he did so if he chose. LeDrew rightly cites menting on the Bus Campaign did not call this out; I’m puz- Hitchens, who wrote reams of self-analysis when he aban- zled that LeDrew scents an issue here. Of course atheism doned Marxism—and again when he broke from the Left is “classist,” in the limited sense that those compelled to to champion U.S. involvement in George W. Bush’s Iraq pursue mere subsistence generally don’t have the luxury to War. Arguably, this is the most responsible course for a inquire deeply into God’s nonexistence. The same can be public intellectual: if you change your mind on a significant said regarding religion, or at least conscious efforts to inno- issue, acknowledge the change and share with your public vate in religion. In his classic 1950 account of West-Central the analysis that compelled your adjustment in views. The New York State’s Burned-Over District, historian Whitney R.

48 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org Cross took it as a given that early in the nineteenth century, never numerous; it could hardly be otherwise in a society it would be the second-generation settlers of New York’s where the religious majority was very large. western frontier, not the pioneers who preceded them, It followed that until about 2000 (in the United States) who would engage in bold religious and social experimen- and 1970 or so (in Europe; a bit later in Canada and Oce- tation: “The second wave of Yankee migrants,” he noted, ania), Western atheism inevitably skewed in favor of what “had become more accomplished and substantial . . . than today might be denounced as “privilege.” Movement their predecessors.” Those “who had achieved a degree of members tended to skew: worldly position could well look to their eternal welfare.”* In other words, it is hardly news that either adopting new • intellectual (for obvious reasons); religious views or renouncing them altogether is a cogni- • wealthier (partly because the hardheadedness required to tively and emotionally costly process largely unavailable examine and perhaps renounce one’s religion can incline to individuals confronting the starkest levels of adversity. also toward financial success, and partly because those (Though, given the rigors of frontier life circa 1830 or so, the too disadvantaged to undertake such an inquiry could level of material comfort required to make exuberant flights not do so); and of metaphysical inquiry possible is apparently flexible.) • older (owing mostly to a large number of individuals who Neither atheism nor freethought nor secular humanism didn’t have time for such an inquiry or felt unable to bear is a live option for those trapped at the bottom of the the negative social consequences it might bring until Maslovian hierarchy of needs. As LeDrew observes, “Rent retirement). comes before metaphysics.” Critics such as Sikivu Hutchin- son, whom LeDrew cites approvingly, see this as a problem; We should not be surprised that one of Free Inquiry’s most I view it as simply a fact. popular cover features in recent years—so popular that it Some critics belittle free inquiry into religion as inherently has become an ongoing staple in the magazine—is “The unjust because it—inherently, structurally—excludes the Faith I Left Behind,” a collection of often-harrowing first-per- poorest. Some dismiss it as a “First World problem.” But son accounts of how a childhood faith was overturned. never forget, First World problems are genuine problems In the United States, much has changed since the turn for those who inhabit the First World. The fact that some of this century. Atheism’s perceived social acceptability has lack the luxury of worrying about gods and creeds does not grown. With the “rise of the Nones,” the number of po- make such concerns less real or less pressing for those who tential recruits for our movement who hail from irreligious do enjoy that luxury. Nor is it immoral for those whose life or religiously indifferent households—in other words, who circumstances make metaphysical inquiry possible to en- have so much less to cast off—has vastly increased. Today, gage in it when they find its questions compelling.† younger people enter the movement in larger numbers, Once again, I wonder how thoroughly LeDrew under- many at little or no social cost. While veterans of the “bad stands our movement’s history prior to, say, the year 2000. old days” still dominate movement demographics, they Why? Because for most of the nineteenth and twentieth are gradually being replaced by younger activists whose centuries, atheism (and, for that matter, the various flavors experiences of being an atheist or a humanist are hugely of humanism) overwhelmingly recruited individuals who different from anything their elders knew. had grown up in a more-or-less traditional religious setting LeDrew’s invocation of “classism” makes me wonder and had in the course of their own lives discarded that iden- how deeply he understands this. In fairness, however, tity. Openly questioning one’s inherited beliefs often carried I must note that in becoming more atheist-friendly, the significant social cost; renouncing them altogether could be United States has been about a generation behind Canada crushingly expensive. Moreover, the more oppressive and and two or three generations behind Western Europe. Le- totalizing a particular individual’s religious upbringing hap- Drew is Canadian-born and educated, pursued a postdoc pened to have been, the greater the burdens associated in Sweden, and is now back in Canada as a visiting assistant with thinking one’s way out of it. While the movement also professor. He has always lived where this sea-change in atti- included second- and third-generation atheists, they were tudes toward atheism is older news. Perhaps this influences his perspective. *Whitney R. Cross, The Burned-over District: The Social and Intellectual Nonetheless, I think it is a significant aspect of the evo- History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800–1850 lution of atheism that, at least in the United States, we’re (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 195.) moving so conclusively away from a model in which only †It may, however, go some way toward explaining why so many atheists those most willing and able to tolerate social opprobrium have felt that their atheism was not directly anchored in a specific commitment to social justice, much less to a particular blueprint of the were likely to enter the movement. With increasingly rare just society toward which they should strive. Of course, many atheists exceptions, ours is no longer a refuge of the besieged. supplement their rejection of the supernatural with various social, Amid LeDrew’s ample and sometimes quite valuable dis- political, and ethical commitments that may—or may not—be wholly cussions of the movement’s implicit politics, I wish he’d ex- independent of the process that led them to reject supernaturalism. plored these issues more deeply. Secular humanists specifically can be understood as nonbelievers who have overlaid their atheism with humane value commitments, though even then, the kinds of commitments secular humanists embrace and Tom Flynn is the editor of Free Inquiry the visions of the just society they uphold tend to be diverse.

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 49 DOERR’S WAY

Five Stars for Church of Spies ? Really? Edd Doerr

n July 20, 1944, Wehrmacht­ Germany, the Nazi government’s first What is troubling about Riebling’s officer Claus von Stauffen­ international treaty. book is not what is in it so much as Oberg, who lost a hand and an Mark Riebling, an authority on in- what is not in it. It does not discuss eye fighting in North Africa, entered telligence and counterterrorism, traces the centuries of Vatican clericalism, the briefing room in the “Wolf’s Lair” the assassination plot and the years- authoritarianism, anti-Semitism, oppo- in Rastenburg, East Prussia, shook long resistance movement to the sition to democracy and church-state hands with Adolf Hitler, sat down near Hitler dictatorship in his 2015 book, separation, and the consequences of him, and placed his bomb-laden brief- Church of Spies: The Pope’s Secret all that. It does not discuss the Cath- case under the conference table. Von War against Hitler (Basic Books, 384 olic Center Party’s vote in Germany’s Stauffenberg eased away, told Gen- pages, including one hundred pages parliament in early 1933 to give Hitler eral Keitel that he needed to make of notes and sources). With access to plenary power, a move opposed only a phone call, and hurried out of the previously unpublished or untranslated by the Social Democrats. It does not building. As he was being driven back documents from German, Vatican, and discuss Church aid to escaping war to his plane, he heard the powerful other sources, Riebling traces the re- criminals at the end of the war. sistance to Hitler by Germans and As most of the actors in this drama by Pope Pius XII, previously Cardinal are Catholics, let’s see what prominent Eugenio Pacelli, from the early 1930s Catholic authors have written on the to the end of the war. Riebling details matter. Pius’s involvement with the plotters in British Catholic journalist John Germany and their use of the Vatican Cornwell’s well-researched 1999 book to maintain contacts with the British Hitler’s Pope (Viking), using his unprec- “The author makes the and later the American governments. edented access to Vatican and Jesuit The author makes the case that Pius archives, wrote that Pius case that Pius was one was one of the good guys, along with of the good guys.” various German officers and Catholic was dedicated to centralizing and Church officials who worked in intri- strengthening papal power at the expense of internal church democ- cate ways, unsuccessfully, to get rid racy (and) is seen as uninterested in of Hitler and make peace with the the fate of non-Catholics or even Western Allies. non-German Catholics who stood explosion. He contacted his cocon- The book is a real page-turner; in Hitler’s way. As a Vatican diplo- spirators in Berlin and told them that it reads like a spy thriller. It’s easy to mat in Germany, Pacelli (later Pius Hitler was dead. But he wasn’t. He was see why reviewers and Amazon com- XII) worked to stifle the indepen- only slightly injured. Within hours, the menters gave it five stars. But does dence of Catholics in Germany and then engineered Hitler’s first for- Nazis had rounded up and executed the book tell the whole story, the com- eign policy triumph, the 1933 Reich von Stauffenberg and most of those plete story—the accurate story? Concordat. . . . (Pius) and church involved in the Valkyrie assassination Before answering those questions, officials in Germany never seriously plot. let’s frankly note that everything is interfered with the Nazi program This story is well portrayed in the complicated; nothing is simple. Most of getting rid of Europe’s Jews, 2008 American-German film Valkyrie. of the players in this drama are Cath- unlike may courageous individual By coincidence, the failed attempt to olics, and Catholics are astonishingly Catholics including church officials in France and the Netherlands. kill Hitler occurred on the eleventh diverse, spanning the whole spectrum anniversary of the completion of a from Left to Right and every shade and Cornwell’s book is fair, nuanced, and concordat between the Vatican and color in between. More on that later. balanced.

50 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org HUMANISM AT LARGE

Prolific American Catholic writer olic theologian John T. Pawlikowski, a traditions) are all over the map. On Garry Wills, in his 2000 book Papal priest who is a founding board mem- the issues just mentioned, most Cath- Sin: Structures of Deceit (Doubleday), ber of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial olics are not in sync with the Vatican called out the Vatican for an Orwellian Museum, has said that “We know that and Church leaders. Most Catholics “selective manipulation of history” in Pius did some things that were good, ignore what their church’s top leaders Pius’s but they tended to come rather late, say about contraception and abortion, never explain(ing) his silence on the they were mostly behind the scenes about tax dollars for church-run private Holocaust, since he claimed there and were relatively minor gestures,” schools (note that enrollment in Cath- was no silence to be accounted for, and that the Vatican was “discrediting olic K–12 schools in the United States that he spoke up on the tragedy itself by associating with this kind of has declined from 5.5 million fifty years not once but on several occasions. questionable scholarship.” Deborah ago to about two million today and On August 3, 1946, for instance, for reasons having nothing to do with he noted that “We condemned Dwork, professor of Holocaust History on various occasions in the past and director of the Strassler Center finances), and about the population the persecution that a fanatical an- for Holocaust and Genocide Studies problem. Catholic politicians range ti-Semitism inflicted on the Hebrew at Clark University, said that Krupp’s in their views on church-state sepa- people.” That is a deliberate false- research was “amateurish, worse than ration from where John F. Kennedy hood. He never publicly mentioned amateurish—risible.” Rabbi Eric J. was in 1960 to where Rick Santorum is the Holocaust. His silence on the today—from the liberalism of Demo- subject was a matter of grave con- Greenberg, then-director of interfaith cern to many people, affairs at the Anti-Defamation League, crats in Congress to the conservatism of people such as Gingrich and Jeb called Krupp’s work “a campaign of such as British ambassador to the Vat- Bush and Rubio. Catholics on the misinformation.” ican Francis Osborne. Supreme Court have ranged from lib- Catholic historian José M. Sanchez eral William Brennan (the key justice wrote in his 2002 book, Pius XII and behind Roe v. Wade) and Sonia So- the Holocaust (Catholic University of tomayor through moderate Anthony America Press), that the historical re- Kennedy (the swing vote in the great cord cuts both ways on the matter of June 2016 win for reproductive choice the Holocaust. However, he does note in Whole Woman’s Health v. Heller- that “Of all the criticisms of Pius during “Most Catholics are not stedt), to the likes of Antonin Scalia World War II, his behavior toward in sync with the Vatican and Clarence Thomas. Organizations the events in Croatia are the most and Church leaders.” range from Catholics for Choice to Bill damning. There were no extenuating Donohue’s Catholic League. Thinkers circumstances that could have led him range from Dan Maguire and Hans to keep silent, for he was dealing Küng to a bevy on the Far Right. with a government that proclaimed Our social, political, economic, and itself Catholic, and there was no fear environmental problems today are so The past is past, but we can and of retribution that might result from a serious that progressive-tending men should study it, and we can and should papal protest.” Sanchez, incidentally, and women of all sectors of the life- learn from it. Today is 2016, and we is the author of the important 1987 stance/religious spectrum must work have whole sets of serious problems book, The Spanish Civil War As a Reli- together to make this a better, livable before us. To mention just a few that gious Tragedy (University of Notre Dame world. Press), which I strongly recommend. I have touched on in these columns: Then there is Daniel Jonah Gold­ the ongoing war on women’s universal Author’s Note: Shortly after I submit- hagen’s comprehensive twenty-four- access to contraception and safe, legal ted this column, the July 29 New York page article, “What Would Jesus Have abortion; the drives to undermine Times printed an op-ed by Gerald Done: Pope Pius XII, the Catholic public education and to divert public Posner, author of the important 2015 Church, and the Holocaust,” in the funds to divisive sectarian private book God’s Bankers: A History of January 21, 2002, issue of The New schools through vouchers and tax Money and Power at the Vatican. Titled Republic. Goldhagen reviews ten key credits; and the failure to get serious “The Vatican’s Holocaust Secrets,” books on this issue. about anthropogenic climate change the op-ed called on Pope Francis to Incidentally, author Riebling is and its concomitants, fueled by human “order the release of the Vatican’s listed as a “contributing scholar and overpopulation. In all three of these sealed Holocaust-era archives.” historian” in Gary L. Krupp’s 332-page areas, the top echelons of the Catholic book, Pope Pius XII and World War II: Church, joined by conservative leaders The Documented Truth (Xlibris, 2012), of an assortment of other religions, are Edd Doerr is the president of Americans for Religious a product of the Pave the Way Founda- on the wrong side. Liberty and a former president of the American tion, which Krupp heads. The book may But back to the point I noted ear- Humanist Association. He is a columnist and senior be said to “whitewash” Pius XII. Cath- lier: Catholics (and people of other editor of Free Inquiry.

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 51 GREAT MINDS

Coming Together: How Baron d’Holbach

Made Atheism a Movement Dale DeBakcsy

hen did atheism change credulous nation today, a good por- from the solitary affair of a tion of the credit has to go to the man Wfew isolated thinkers scrawl- who gave atheism its first free space to ing away in nervous anonymity into test its legs. a social movement, freely proclaimed We’d have cause to thank d’Hol- and promoted by a close-knit group bach if that sponsorship were all he of confident freethinkers? The seven- did, but he also happens to be the au- teenth century had its share of prom- thor of the eighteenth century’s most ising skeptical beginnings—England’s controversial atheist and determinist Great Tew Circle, with which Hobbes volume, The System of Nature, pub- was peripherally involved, and the lished anonymously (like all his works) magnificent flowering of skepticism in 1770. Whereas Voltaire, always one that was Dutch radicalism under van bon mot from the slammer, adopted den Enden, Spinoza, and the Koer­ deism as his public philosophy (and baghs. But for pure, unadulterated, likely his private as well), d’Holbach, We-Are-Atheists-Hear-Us-Roar unity through his Dutch publishers and un- and pride, there was one beginning derground distribution network, held and one place to be: Thursday eve- nothing back in his books, calling nings at Baron d’Holbach’s joint. Christianity­ a morally dangerous mud- There you could find Diderot or dle created by self-interested priests Hume or (reluctantly) Rousseau hold- and supported by political tyrants to ing forth with absolute freedom of manipulate and stultify the oppressed expression with a dozen other eager masses, a chimerical tissue not under- radicals about the nonexistence of stood by its most avid devotees that God and free will, the moral turpitude devalues life to satisfy manufactured of organized religion, and the tyranny needs. of divine monarchy. Visitors from for- him an income that he divided entirely This wasn’t a deism that threw out eign lands sat dumbstruck at the sight between aiding France’s developing metaphysics but kept first causes and of a group of men discussing aloud, philosophe talent and improving the free will. This was unadorned atheism together, ideas that in their home na- lives of the peasantry around his sum- speaking its full voice—God as an tions would invite arrest or worse. mer estate of Grandval. Through his incoherent social construct who had The man at the center of this, the support, a flotilla of freethinkers wrote already consumed a tragic amount first openly avowed social network of and throve, creating a tradition of of humanity’s time and concentration atheists, was Paul Heinrich Dietrich, anticlerical thought that was able to that might have been spent actually Baron d’Holbach (1723–1789), and he survive in France while British and improving the lot of the living. was something of a Maecenas and German skepticism dove for cover The book was vehemently decried Prometheus rolled into one. D’Hol- under the onslaught of Romanticism. usually as untrue but often as true bach’s extensive landholdings gave If France is Europe’s least religiously but too dangerous to utter. Frederick

52 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org the Great had taken up the royal pen He had a vast and varied store of We have more juicy stories to to combat one of d’Holbach’s earlier memory and used it to write articles tell about d’Holbach’s mother-in-law works and its lambasting of self-serv- for Diderot’s Encyclopedia, bringing (Madame d’Aine—she merits looking ing monarchy, and now Voltaire joined the advanced metallurgical and geo- up) than about him, and so he has in the criticism of the System, shocked logical theories of the Germans to the slipped our notice and gratitude in at its boldness—and if his acidity is any French and thereby to the world. In spite of the boldness with which he, gauge, a touch jealous of its courage the midst of the general salaciousness first among philosophers, declared and free conviction. That the most of eighteenth-century France, both his atheism’s moral and intellectual right celebrated enlightened despot (who first marriage—cut tragically short by to be. He has become the philosoph- had, let’s not forget, Julien Offray de la his wife’s death in childbirth—and his ical equivalent of a Starbucks gift card Mettrie, the determinist’s determinist, lifelong second marriage were models that we misplace for long periods and at his court) and most feared satirist of of domestic happiness that served to occasionally forget about entirely but their age both thought d’Holbach had show, as Ingersoll revealed to a later are always happy to discover again gone too far was a sure sign to him time and distant place, that atheism when rummaging about history’s deep that he had yet gone far enough. He didn’t necessarily mean moral degen- pockets and crannies. condensed the System into a popular eration. D’Holbach brought us together, and concentrated masterwork of early dared us to think beyond newly re- atheism, Good Sense. spectable deism, and made a move- It was a fortuitous step as, for all his ment where before there were only intellectual daring, d’Holbach suffered men. Through him, we learned that from the great literary sin of repetition. humans, even though we are biolog- Reading him, you get the sense of ically determined machines, can and somebody so excited by the cut and have created everything that is great importance of his ideas that he keeps about our moral sense and can discard approaching the same notion from dif- without harm the theology that has ferent vectors—now as a parable, now “Having studied the brutally piggybacked our best princi- ples of social responsibility for so long. as a satire, finally as a disquisition— long and tenacious We could finally face up to our natures and can’t bring himself to omit any of and plan for the future as humans them. Having studied the long and te- grasp of religion on the rather than creations, as agents who nacious grasp of religion on the public public mind, he formed might err but no longer sinners who mind, he formed his paragraphs into his paragraphs into must sin. battering rams, hammering away at Thanks, Baron. the same fundamental points over and battering rams.” over again rather than allowing himself Further Reading to get lost in metaphysical minutiae. Baron d’Holbach is, unfortunately, still mainly Christianity is a grotesque moral fraud, found hanging out in the corners of books about other people. Both the Furbank and Wilson bi- he urges, and he will not let the point ographies of Diderot give over five or so pages settle politely in the background. He to him and his place in organizing early atheism, repeats and bludgeons and mocks as well as his contributions to science. Max Cush- All of d’Holbach’s works were anon- ing’s study Baron d’Holbach: A Study of Eigh- in short bursts of paragraphs that for teenth Century Radicalism in France is a century their variety of voice and emotional ymous, and his life was lived in study, old now and is more a list of published works psychology recall Nietzsche one hun- conversation, and the appreciation of and a collection of rare letters than a biography nature. As a result, we don’t have pa- proper, but until something better comes along, dred years before the fact. it’s your best shot. thetic tales of prison, as haunted the or a man whose voice was so insis- lives of Diderot and Voltaire, or the Ftent and clear, his life is a puzzle. dramatics of morbid creative sensibil- We know virtually nothing of d’Hol- ity that make Rousseau so darkly com- bach’s youth other than that he was a pelling, whereby to mark the stages propertied German who fell early and of his life. He was a quiet hero to his completely under the spell of Paris, villagers, an author who cared nothing where he became Paul-Henri Thiry for publicity or renown, and a patron Dale DeBakcsy is the author of The Cartoon History of and established his famous Sunday who liked nothing so much as arrang- Humanism, Volume One (The Humanist Press, 2016). and Thursday evening salons while ing the necessaries for his dear friends He is a frequent contributor to Free Inquiry and also associating with basically every sig- to talk their hearts’ content and their writes regularly for Philosophy Now, American Atheist nificant thinker and artist of his time. minds’ rage. Magazine, and Skeptical Inquirer.

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 53 GREAT MINDS EXCERPT

Selections from Le Bon Sens (Good Sense) Baron d’Holbach Translated by Dale DeBakcsy

Section XXVI by man. By what right then can God goodness, reason, and fairness, only ith the object, doubtless, of become angered by beings whose to create rocks and plants, and not Wmuddying the waters, theolo- very nature prevents them from having sensible creatures, such as men whose gians have undertaken to tell us noth- any idea of the divine essence! God desires in this world can lure them into ing about what their God is, and rather would evidently be the most unjust endless punishments in the next? A only ever talk about what he isn’t. By and bizarre of tyrants, if he punished God so perfidious and malicious as force of negations and abstractions, an atheist for not knowing what he to create just one person, and then they imagine they’ve made a perfect himself made it impossible to know. to leave him exposed to the peril of and real being, and even that this damning himself, cannot be regarded being couldn’t help but be one of pure as a perfect being, but only as a mon- reason. A spirit is that which has no ster of injustice, malice, and atroc- body; an infinite being is one which is ity. Far from creating a perfect God, not finite; a perfect being is one which the theologians have only formed the is not imperfect. In good faith, is there most imperfect of beings. someone who can make real notions Following theological notions, God from such a pile of privations and non- “To pretend that the resembles a tyrant who, having punc- ideas? Can something that excludes divine attributes are tured the eyes of most of his slaves, all ideas be anything but nothingness? throws them all in a dungeon where, To pretend that the divine attri- above the reach of the to amuse himself, he observes their butes are above the reach of the human spirit is to movements unseen through a slit, and human spirit is to admit that God is admit that God is not who cruelly punishes all those who, not made for men. If one assures that while walking, collide into each other, in God all is finished, one avows that made for men.” but richly rewards the small number of there cannot be anything in common those whose sight he didn’t impair, for between him and his creations. To say having the adroitness to avoid their that God is infinite is to overwhelm comrades. These are the ideas that man, or at least to render God useless the dogma of predestination gives us Section LIV for humanity. of divinity. “God,” they tell us, “made men ivine justice, such as religious the- intelligent, but not omniscient, which Doreticians fashion it, is without a Section LXXII is to say capable of knowing all.” One doubt a quality most fitting for mak- heologians tell us repeatedly that concludes from this that he did not ing us love the divinity! According to Tman is free, even as all their prin- give us faculties ample enough to modern theology, it appears that God ciples conspire to destroy human lib- know the divine essence. In that case, created most men with a view toward erty. In desiring to justify divinity, they it is demonstrably clear that God nei- sending them to eternal torments. actually accuse it of the most black of ther could be nor wanted to be known Wouldn’t it be more conformable to injustices. They suppose that, without

54 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org grace, man necessarily does evil; and pleasure; but man really only prefers yet they also assure us that God will passing pain in view of procuring for punish them for not having the grace himself a greater or more enduring POEM to do good! pleasure. In that case, the idea of a With the slightest of reflection, much greater good simply determines one is forced to recognize that man him necessarily to deprive himself of a is determined in all his actions, and less considerable one. Hoarding that free will is a chimera, just like in the system of the theologians. Does Section CLI Brooke Horvath a person get to choose to be born morality which contradicts human to these parents or those? Does he Anature is not fit for man. “But,” you For years before he died, grandfather kept, get to choose to absorb or not the say, “Human nature is so depraved.” stacked in his basement, every can, every opinions of his parents and teachers? Of what does this pretended depravity lidless jar and pastry tray that came consist? Is it the passions? But aren’t If I were born of idolatrous or Muslim his way—bags (paper and plastic) stuffed parents, would it really be my choice passions the essence of man? Mustn’t with bags, grimy pyramids of crusted bottles. to become Christian? Nevertheless he seek what he desires, what he loves, He had already filled one workroom wall, the serious divines assure us that a just and what he believes will be useful to God damns without pity all those who his happiness? Mustn’t he detest and floor to ceiling, with cigar boxes heavy did not have the grace to know the shun whatever he finds disagreeable with carefully sorted screws, bolts, washers, Christian religion! or grievous? Illuminate his passions drill A person’s birth is not at all a mat- as useful; attach his well-being to his bits, hex wrenches, solder, sandpaper, and ter of his choice; nobody asked if he needs; use sense and knowledge to such. wanted to come into the world; nature turn him from what might cause him to didn’t consult him on the country and do wrong to himself or others, and you Easy to guess what he saw coming, parents he’d be given; his acquired will have a virtuous and reasonable harder to say why so many torn “Man comes to his end ideas, opinions, his true notions or being. A man without passions will be sacks, bent trays, and pickle jars would equally indifferent to vice and virtue. false, are the necessary fruits of the ed- be required. Perhaps it was just habit, without having had, Sacred divines! You repeat to us ucation that he received and of which a grasping refusal to acknowledge the end from the moment of every moment that the nature of man he was not the master; his passions and of needing, wanting, using—why, I guess, birth to that of death, an his desires are the necessary results of is perverted; you tell us that all flesh my father still holds onto a boat a temperament that nature gave him, corrupts the true path; you tell us that instant of freedom.” and the ideas that were impressed nature has given us nothing but law- he keeps in the garage and hasn’t upon him; during the whole course of less instincts. In this case, you accuse put in the water for fifty years. his life, his desires and actions are de- your God who either couldn’t make Perhaps grandfather hoped that what was termined by his liaisons, his habits, his our nature preserve our primitive per- coming affairs, his pleasures, his conversation, fection, or didn’t want to. If our nature by the thoughts that he is involuntarily became corrupted, why did God not could be put by for a while. presented with, in a word by a mob of repair it? Immediately the Christian After he died, we found our presents events and accidents that are outside assures me that human nature is re- to him—sweaters, gloves, ties—still swathed paired, that the death of his God has of his control. Incapable of seeing the in tissue in boxes under his bed, reestablished our integrity. How then, I future, he knows neither what he will as though he’d concluded that his life ask, is it that human nature, even after want or do in the instant immediately the death of a God, is still depraved? was already over, or that a next after the one he finds himself in. Man Was it therefore a complete waste that might require new clothes. As though believing comes to his end without having had, your God died? What has become of that those who have saved will be. from the moment of birth to that of his omnipotence and his victory over death, an instant of freedom. the devil, if it’s true that the devil still Man, you say, wants, deliberates, retains the dominion that, according to chooses, and determines; and you you, he has always exercised over the conclude that his actions are free. It Earth? is true that man wants, but he is not the master of his urges or desires; he Brooke Horvath is the author of three poetry collec- can only desire that which he judges tions, the most recent being The Lecture on Dust advantageous to himself; he cannot Excerpted from the 1881 Librairie Anti- (Harmony Series, 2007). His poems have appeared in love pain or detest pleasure. Man, Clericale edition, which reproduced Poetry, Sewanee Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, they say, sometimes prefers pain to Baron d’Holbach’s 1772 edition. Free Inquiry, and elsewhere.

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 55

The emotional reaction to having been defrauded and fields, which have convinced us. But we can find these betrayed is the only thing in the atheist arsenal, to my people and start them on a path to do so. knowledge, capable of countering the emotional reasons Forty years experience in the business of screening through for their adherence to Christianity in the first place. the mass market for signed petitions, contributions, sub- Of course, we also have the massive, but much more scribers, coupon redeemers, vacations, new car buyers and complex, evidence from history, philosophy, social science, much more, convinces me that we can get those — interested psychology, archeology and pure science — This grows in hearing more about man-made religion — to ask for it. A every day and is all carefully explained, first in scholarly proven way is to run ads in mass media, which arrest atten- works and then in popular media. tion, arouse interest and provide the means to ask for help. Already that has proved sufficient to convince the ma- Further, I have already tested what I am here writing jority of neuroscientists that Free Will is an illusion. If that is about and it works. so, it too is lethal for Christianity, which must have guilt for This is not the place to elaborate on just how to do this Jesus and His crucifixion to have any meaning whatever. and how doable it is. A suggested plan, and all of the exam- Unfortunately, all this is by no means easily communi- ple ads I published in Free Inquiry (over twenty) are docu- cated, even to the college-educated, much less the masses. mented in a self-published ‘book’ called DIVINE HATE, Which may be why Christopher Hitchens, in his last mes- available on Amazon. sage to atheists urged that, “We must learn new ways of Of greater relevance to my claims, combating this lethal delusion [religion] in the public DIVINE HATE includes all the ads sphere…” published in The Sunday New York Do you agree that at the very least, the secular Times and The South Bend Tribune community should add these simple and lethal arguments along with the responses they elicited to our arsenal? And then aggressively look for opportunities — good and bad. These take claims to deploy them whenever possible in talks, debates and from theory to real world results. writings? Who am I? An ordinary atheist with They will put us on the moral high ground, force no relevant academic credentials; in Christians onto the defensive and humiliate them with the his ninth decade; who has thought task of explaining how “it really is loving and kind of God about the subject all my life; and am close enough to the end that He ordered the murders of infants and created a ‘lake to be fully mindful of the dire warnings men have concocted of fire’ for eternal punishment of ‘His children’ — because for my eternal fate. I hate the idea that so many good people it was, after all, for their own good.” Yes, good, even for are terrorized by Hell, having been defrauded by sham pre- those in eternal Hell. tensions of love…and such moving hymns as: “softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me…” — not But, I suggest we can and should do much more. mentioning that if we don’t answer, we go to Hell forever! Why not an ongoing, educational outreach program Will you please e-mail me your opinion of what I have to the masses? These simple and devastating ideas are ideal said, especially your opinion of: for such use. 1. The Before the Beginning Argument — God as the Not to convert the ‘immovables’ but to inform the First Cause of Sin. ‘vulnerables’ — those already on the weak end of the faith spectrum, but unaware of all the solid reasons why they are 2.The Jesus is Jehovah Argument — responsible for all right. In doing that, a by-product will be that the hard core the horrors of Jehovah. gets a mighty jolt of cognitive dissonance. 3.An on-going Outreach Program, — to take these sim- The ‘vulnerables’ include the young, naturally aggressive ple and easily explained cases to the masses, to find for justice; the LGBT community; divorcees; others co-habit- those who will ask for more information. (Please just ing; and more — all indignant and already unbelieving assume this is doable by one or more of our secular- when told by the pulpit they are sinners. atheist organizations as a Special Project.) On their own, most will never see or readthe scholarly, Just send an email to [email protected]. Be more difficult and comprehensive volumes in so many assured I will attend to every one.

Paid by Fellow Feather – [email protected] HUMANISM AND CULTURE

Can the Future Be What It Used to Be? David Koepsell

see the tension between a time when The various manifestoes—includ- Star Trek (for example) has given way the future looked incredible—when ing the Humanist Manifestoes—that to the dark and hopeless doom of The Ianything seemed possible—and a formed the cornerstone of political Walking Dead. creeping despair about tomorrow that and social movements of the early Without the hope offered by arises in part out of conflicting philos- twentieth century are drawn in the myths, the belief in some purpose or ophies associated with naturalism and spirit of possibility. The reality of the salvation reverts to us as humans, with humanism. Even during the Cold War, history of the twentieth century—in- our limited resources but unlimited when nuclear Armageddon loomed cluding two world wars and the Cold imagination. We can save ourselves as a very real possibility and lurked War—might have dimmed our hopes from the impeding collapse of our in the corners of our fears, many of for the future if not for the rather star; we have a few billion years to us still held onto a vision of a bright, incredible opportunities opened up do so. Or we can resign ourselves to shiny, peaceful future where science by the sudden collapse of the Soviet our eventual demise, even dream and and technology, as well as new social Union, the spread of liberal democ- hope for it. While we can acknowledge orders, could achieve nearly anything. racy, and what some thought might be our imperfections, we can attempt We still have a choice as to how to the “end of history”—the culmination through reason and creativity to over- of the historical dialectic and the vic- come them and to strive toward not tory of liberty. Of course, none of this necessarily perfection but increasing came to be, and within a decade after improvement in all our spheres of “Somehow, the darker the Cold War from the ashes of our activity. angst arose new threats to peace and The movie Tomorrowland was a alternative has freedom, not least of which is Islamic box-office failure by standard measures, pervaded our popular fundamentalism and terror. This new which should not surprise us in light culture, which has war was latched onto by those whose of its subject matter. The story it tells livelihoods were threatened by peace. predicts its failure, frankly. But in my become steeped in a It formed the continuation of a new view, Tomorrowland is a gem. Its theme vision of dread and war—an apparent war of cultures— is summed up at the end, in a speech hopelessness.” and a hot one at that, fueled by and by the villain Governor Nix, played by fueling in part our persistent fears of Hugh Laurie. Here is an excerpt: the end of the world. What reasonable human being In the twentieth century, popular wouldn’t be galvanized by the po- culture still had a place for hope in a tential destruction of everything face the future, and there is little rea- better future (with notable exceptions, they’ve ever known or loved? To son to think we cannot still embrace of course). Many of us felt a deeply hu- save civilization, I would show its the anything-is-possible future many manist desire and belief in betterment, collapse. But how do you think of us grew up with. Yet somehow, the if not perfectibility, on both personal this vision was received? How do darker alternative has pervaded our you think people responded to and social scales. By contrast, the the prospect of imminent doom? popular culture, which has become beginning of the twenty-first century They gobbled it up like a choco- steeped in a vision of dread and hope- appears to mark a nearly complete late eclair! They didn’t fear their lessness. The apocalypse beckons in descent into nihilism and defeatism. demise, they repackaged it! It can nearly every form of media—from Apocalypse porn has emerged in all be enjoyed as video games, as TV books to television to movies—and our media, and a telling element is shows, books, movies—the entire world wholeheartedly embraced increasingly in young-adult fiction and the centrality of some lone hero who the apocalypse, and sprinted fantasy as well as traditional superhero emerges from the ashes to grasp for toward it with gleeful abandon. comics and movies. The future isn’t whatever might be left of humanity. Meanwhile, your Earth was crum- what it used to be. The bright, shiny, possible future of bling all around you. . . . So, yes,

58 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org you saw the iceberg, warned the ourselves, better our societies, and interrupt her teachers’ nihilistic doom- Titanic, but you all just steered for better our futures. We cannot be lone saying with a simple question, the core it anyway, full steam ahead. Why? warriors amid the aftermath of human- of our humanist ideals. Her simple Because you want to sink. You gave ity; we must attempt to be humans question is this: “Can we fix it?” up. That’s not the monitor’s fault. That’s yours. working together to avoid that future. We must think we can, and then try. Nature cares not whether we come or In sum, it is easier to embrace our go, but we should if there is any mean- doom than to do something about it. ing at all to our present existence. That This essay is adapted from an entry on It takes vision, hard work, and determi- meaning is up to us, wholly contingent the Center for Inquiry’s Free Thinking nation to fight against entropy, decay, upon our own personal and collective blog. and our own folly, to work together will. If we resign ourselves to utter for something better for ourselves and meaninglessness, then yes, the end our society. But this is what embracing will come . . . eventually, either through humanism demands. nature’s indifference or through our David Koepsell is an author, philosopher, attorney Deeply entwined with our philo- own mindless actions. The future used (retired), and educator whose recent research focuses sophical ascription to a naturalistic to be better, though, and it can be on the nexus of science, technology, ethics, and public universe is the understanding that only again, and it should be. We can save policy. He has provided commentary regarding ethics, we can make sense of the world for tomorrow. Earlier in Tomorrowland , society, religion, and technology for various media out- ourselves. Part of that project requires the film’s hero—the teenaged student lets. He is the director of education for the Center for us to act: to do what we can to better Casey Newton—desperately seeks to Inquiry. As a Matter of Fact, You Can Have It All.

Now you can purchase a full run of FREE INQUIRY back issues—every issue ever published, from Vol. 1 No. 1 (1980) to today, in the permanence of the original print. Over 160 issues in all—at an impressive 50 percent savings.

Normally priced above $940, now you can own a complete back set for only $475. This price includes shipping and handling to U.S. addresses!

Please send______FREE INQUIRY back issue sets at $475.00 each. Total amount enclosed: ______Name______

Address ______City ______State ______ZIP ______

Daytime phone ( ) ______E-mail ______

(Shipping and handling to U.S. addresses included. For shipping quotes outside the U.S. call (800) 458-1366 during business hours Eastern Time.)

Check enclosed (U.S. checks only drawn on U.S. bank and denominated in U.S. dollars. Payable to the Council for Secular Humanism.)

Charge my: American Express Discover MasterCard Visa

Credit card # ______Exp. ______/ ______

Signature ______Mail to: Council Products Council for Secular Humanism P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Credit-card orders may be faxed to (716) 636-1733 or called in toll-free to (800) 458-1366 from 9 AM to 5 PM Eastern Time.

secularhumanism.org OctOber/nOvember 2016 Free InquIry 59 REVIEW

Nature Refutes Creationists’s Claims Wayne L. Trotta

n 1994, as one of the leaders of An- swers in Genesis, Ken Ham was a cre- Righting America at the Creation Museum, by Susan L. Iationist media kingpin. But something Trollinger and William Vance Trollinger Jr. (Baltimore: Johns was missing. Years earlier, he had found Hopkins University Press, 2016, ISBN 9781421419510). himself standing in front of an ape-man 327 pp. Hardcover, $26.95. exhibit in a secular museum, and ever since that day his cry to the Lord had been: “Why can’t we have a creation museum that teaches the truth?” The Lord must have heard Ham’s plea, be- cause, according to Righting America at the Creation Museum by Susan L. Trollinger and William Vance Trollinger Jr., by the summer of 2015, the Cre- The Grand Canyon, Monument to an Ancient Earth: Can No- ation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, ah’s Flood Explain the Grand Canyon? edited by Carol Hill, had enticed nearly two and half million Gregg Davidson, Tim Helble, and Wayne Ranney (Grand visitors at $29.95 a head (plus $7.95 for Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2016, ISBN 9780825444210). a ticket to the Stargazer’s Planetarium). 240 pp. Hardcover, $26.99. As the Trollingers observe, one is tempted to dismiss the Creation Museum as a surreal oddity, as some- thing freakish, preposterous, irrele- vant, and even wacky. As a political force, however, the Creation Museum matters, because it “seeks to shape, what it says, and anyone and everyone believes his or her interpretation to be prepare, and arm millions of American can understand it: “If the infinite God, the right one is essentially holding that Christians as uncompromising and fear- who created language, cannot move he or she knows better than the Holy less warriors for what it understands to people to write His ‘God-breathed’ Spirit. be the ongoing culture war in America words so all people . . . can understand For our authors, however, this raises . . . and all Americans ought to under- them, then there is something dread- a question: If, to be understood, the stand what is going on there.” fully wrong.” The logic is inevitable. A Bible does not require interpretation, Susan L. Trollinger is an associate perfect God would give his creatures why do we need a twenty-seven million professor of English and William Vance nothing less than his perfect word in dollar museum? Good question, and Trollinger Jr. is a professor of history, both at the University of Dayton. The terms perfectly understandable to any more of the same follow. More than a Trollingers trace the origins of the and all. If Genesis tells us that God tour, Righting America is about as thor- Creation Museum back to fundamen- created the world in six twenty-four- ough and detailed a text-based analy- talism’s basic principles of biblical iner- hour days about six thousand years sis of the Creation Museum as anyone rancy and literalism. Museum founder ago, then that is what Genesis means. could want. This book is a perceptive Ken Ham, for example, maintains that Further, if God’s word is absolutely critical analysis of the museum’s pur- we don’t need anyone to tell us what transparent, then interpretation is not poses, methods, and potential impact. the Bible means, because it means only misguided, it is sinful. Anyone who Ham makes a distinction between

60 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org what he calls “observational” and standard of epistemology. Ranney have pulled together a beauti- “historical” science. Observational Despite Ham’s commitment to his ful book containing over two hundred science is the more trustworthy, as it version of observational science, the photos and illustrations that provides a is based on direct, repeatable obser- Creation Museum resorts to more than readable and enjoyable introduction to vations made in the present, while all a little analogical evidence whenever geology while completely dismantling other science, including creationism convenient. In the Post-Flood room, flood geology as an explanation for the and Darwinism, is of the much less a video titled “Canyons” confronts Grand Canyon. reliable historical variety. In this way, the visitor with footage of rivulets of Flood geologists maintain, for Ham puts young-Earth creationism on rainwater cutting miniature canyons example, that the canyon was formed an equal footing with evolution. Both into wet soil, a process anyone might within the five thousand or so years are speculative history, and both are observe in his or her own backyard. The since Noah’s flood as rushing waters based on untestable assumptions. The argument is that the waters of a global cut their way through layer after layer point is driven home about one-quarter flood, such as the one that flood geol- of flood-deposited sediments. The of the way into the museum when the ogists defend, could similarly have cut problem with this is that soft sedi- visitor encounters the Starting Points canyons, including the Grand Canyon, ments would tend to collapse as the room, where he or she is confronted into the Earth’s surface in a rather short water sliced its way downward, leaving with the question: “Same Facts, but period of time. Unfortunately, the gradually sloping banks to each side of Different Views . . . Why?” Stepping argument is entirely eroded by the first around a corner, the visitor gets the placard visitors read when entering the answer: “Different Views because of flood geology section of the museum. Different Starting Points.” Our choices It tells them, “The present is not the key are but two: we either start with God’s to the past,” thus dismissing the central word or we will be prone to misinter- principle of modern geology and, coin- pret the facts, because all other starting cidentally, discrediting any assertion “As the Trollingers points are based in human reason and that what happens in one’s backyard observe, one is tempted are, therefore, arbitrary. At the heart of can support a case for a global flood, to dismiss the Creation this is, in the authors’ words, a “radical much less a biblical creation. Indeed, binary” that takes us from the Bible to Ham’s own cherished observational Museum as a surreal a young Earth, to the truth, and, finally, science—repeatable observations oddity, as something heaven, or, on the other hand, from made in the present—would be simi- freakish, preposterous, reason to an old Earth and evolution, larly powerless to provide any support then to sin and corruption, and, ulti- for a once-upon-a-time global flood’s irrelevant, and even mately, straight to hell. capacity to create canyons in a matter wacky. As a political The assertion that the creation- of years. force, however, the ist and the evolutionist are dealing with the same facts is, to put it mildly, redible geological scientists, of Creation Museum debatable. In reality, creationists cope Cwhatever faith or no faith, make matters.” with the evolutionist’s facts primarily the plausible assumption that the sub- by ignoring every mountain of them. stances and processes that formed, and And the claimed equivalence between continue to form, Earth’s crust obeyed the assumptions of creationism and the same physical laws in the past that the river. To take one example, for the those of natural science merely serves they are subject to today. This is the six hundred-foot cliffs of the canyon’s to demonstrate a sad ignorance of primary theme of a new book writ- Redwall Limestone to have formed, the methodological naturalism. Further, ten in response to the claims of flood water had to have been chiseling into given Ham’s conviction, as reported in geology regarding the Grand Canyon. already solidified rock, a process that Righting America, that biblical creation Titled The Grand Canyon, Monument would have taken millions—certainly can never be challenged, even by his to an Ancient Earth: Can Noah’s Flood not thousands—of years. trusted observational science, it would Explain the Grand Canyon?, the There are numerous problems for seem that the biblical account is not book is the work of eleven different flood geology, most of which flood just the only proper starting point but specialists in geology, biology, and geologists either ignore or concoct also the only correct ending point, no paleontology. Eight of the authors hypotheses of questionable plausibil- matter what points lie in between. At identify as evangelical Christians, two ity to explain. The formation of Mount the Creation Museum, it seems, the as agnostics, and one as an atheist. Ararat, for example, would require that, confirmation bias is alive and well, and Contributing editors Carol Hill, Gregg in a mere 150 days, sediments and question-begging emerges as the gold Davidson, Tim Helble, and Wayne dead animals would be deposited by

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 61 the flood and then turn into fossil-rich place-names of present-day Meso­ or many Christians and non-Chris- rock into which magma then extrudes potamia, which rests atop some six Ftians, the best way to get closer to itself, creating a 17,000-foot volcanic miles of sedimentary rock. But since God is to understand his creation. mountain range that cools at a miracu- the Garden existed before the flood, Secular humanists may disagree with lous rate and just in time for Noah’s Ark how could its topography have re­ believers about many things, but we to land on it. Whew! mained unscathed through an other- would certainly agree with any who Problems and questions keep wise global catastrophe? Isn’t it more assert that the best way to know our mounting. Why in the canyon is there likely that the Garden would now be world is to let nature speak for itself. no mixing of land and marine animals under, not on top of, six miles of sed- That takes courage. At the Creation Museum and among the ranks of flood as should have occurred in the tur- imentary rock? bulence of a massive flood? Why do geologists, the preference is to put The formation of the canyon is a we find preserved dinosaur eggs and their own words in nature’s mouth to highly complex matter involving “ris- tracks of small animals that should have ensure that it tells them only what they ing and falling sea levels, land uplift been destroyed or erased by ravaging want to hear. Millions of Americans and subsidence, periods of deposi- flood waters? Why do we find abun- blindly support this, fearful that what’s dant evidence of freshwater fish in tion and erosion, faulting and folding at stake is the loss not only of their post-flood lake deposits when flood- of rock, and the carving of the canyon culture but of their place in eternity. born saltwater should have killed them by the Colorado River and its tributar- The combination of fear, ignorance, off long before? ies.” For all its complexity, however, large numbers, and high stakes, as the It’s tough to resist the temptation the canyon’s origins do not require Trollingers intimate, is too explosive to to pick a favorite. Mine is the Garden elaborate, fantastic, or catastrophic be dismissed. of Eden puzzle. As it is described explanations. They require only an in Genesis 2, the Garden of Eden’s unbiased application of the same locale is in near-perfect harmony with physical and chemical laws we see in Wayne L. Trotta is a psychologist and frequent the geography, natural resources, and operation in the canyon today. reviewer for Free Inquiry.

For in-depth interviews with the most fascinating minds in science, religion, and politics, join Point of Inquiry cohosts Lindsay Beyerstein JOSH ZEPPS and Josh Zepps at pointofinquiry.org. LINDSAY BEYERSTEIN

Josh Zepps (cohost) is a new media Lindsay Beyerstein (cohost) pioneer; a journalist serving as a is an award-winning investigative founding host and producer at the journalist and staff writer for In online talk network HuffPost Live, These Times. Her work has appeared following hosting stints with such out- in places such as The New Republic, lets as Bloomberg TV, the Discovery Reuters, Slate, Salon, Ms. Magazine, and Channel, and as an anchor for CBS’s The New York Press. Wait to see what Peabody Award-winning Channel One stories she tells with her guests on News. Point of Inquiry.

62 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org LETTERS continued from p. 17

on evidence and critical think- The campaign should even- archaic or obsolete meanings and for the Right, while atheism/ ing, and humanism’s use of those tually urge all countries, including for entries are noted. The online agnosticism are of and with the tools to determine what is best Muslim countries, to make free- Merriam-Webster dictionary Left and the majority of secular for humankind and the Earth we dom of speech and religion (and defines atheism: people are progressive. inhabit, are not only compatible all other human rights) the law of Spencer Harper 1. archaic: ungodliness, but mutually reinforcing. their land, which, because Allah Atlanta, Georgia wickedness I look forward to sharing asks Muslims in each country to 2. a: a disbelief in the existences more of my thinking in many obey that country’s law, thereby of a deity; b: the doctrine there more FI issues to come. would allow observant Muslims Greta Christina and Tom Flynn is no deity in that country to enjoy and sup- expended a lot of words debat- port human rights knowing they Concurring with Tom Flynn, ing whether atheism meant A Plan to Fight Islamic were following the will of Allah. nowhere do current definitions either no belief in God or really Christianity learned human rights imply any connection between no belief in God, without defin- Terrorism from the Enlightenment after cen- atheism and social-injustice agen- ing what they meant by “God.” Re: Faisal Saeed Al Mutar’s “A turies of opposing them. In the das. Until a viable consensus im- It seems to me that whether or Plan to Fight Back” (FI, August/ same way perhaps, conservative poses a “new” semantic usage not one is an atheist depends on September 2016). The problem in Islam worldwide can learn human on atheism, nonbelievers are such a definition. For example, I America: While liberal American rights and how to incorporate under no obligation to conform think it reasonable to believe that Muslims do show their loyalty them into the faith from a very to fiercely politicized constraints something, in some way or other, and patriotism for this country, vocal liberal American Islam. of thought, word, and deed. caused the universe to come into they do not speak out strongly Walt McClure Jim Valentine existence. If someone wants to and unequivocally about free- Edina, Minnesota Woodland Hills, California call this something “God,” and dom of religion and freedom of if that is the extent of their defi- speech. Liberals cede the voice nition, then I would agree with of Islam here and abroad to the So-called strong atheism is simply them that God exists, or did exist, extremists. Because they do not too dogmatic—unbecomingly so and I would not, therefore, be an hear a clear and organized liberal Defining Atheism for anyone calling themselves atheist. If, on the other hand, Muslim voice, liberal Amer­ican “rationalists”—and really is the God is defined as in Richard Muslims feel alone and without I found Greta Christina’s use of mirror image of religionism. A Swinburne’s book The Existence support and rightly fear to speak the terms strong atheist and fantastic or unlikely proposition of God, that is, a spirit “who is out for fear of violent retaliation weak atheist to be of little use need be no more disprovable eternal, is perfectly free, omnipo- by extremists in their own com- in understanding what I mean than provable (though keeping in tent, omniscient, perfectly good, munities. This allows extremist when I say I am an atheist (“What mind Sir Karl Popper’s well-known and the creator of all things,” Muslims to hide among moder- Does Atheism Mean,” FI, August/ admonition). then I would disagree that such ate Muslims, using blanket terms September 2016). I always ex­­ Christina’s points on the a being exists on the grounds of such as Islamophobia to exploit plain that I have not found any flux and evolution of language insufficient evidence, and I would American tolerance while seek- evidence for a god or gods are well-taken, and this is no- be an atheist. ing to subvert human rights and during my seventy-plus years where truer than of English, lest It would be interesting to covertly proselytize Muslim youth on Earth. One definition that we should all still be addressing find out what it is, exactly, that and adults to extremism. Tom Flynn provides in his essay each other as “thee” and “thou,” Christina and Flynn do not be- Muslims must go on the (“What Doesn’t Atheism Mean?”) and writing lowercase ss to look lieve in. offensive! They must mount would include me and everyone like fs and using many more si- Dick Page a sustained, organized media else who says they are atheist: lent es to spell the ends of some Naperville, Illinois campaign featuring prominent “an atheist is anyone who does words. While I tend toward what Muslims and non-Muslims. not affirm the proposition ‘at least Christina calls the “dictionary Congregations must be urged one god exists.’” argument” for word definitions I was appalled to read the state- to choose only imams and com- Lamar W. Hankins because I feel a certain protec- ment by Tom Flynn in his recent munity leaders who believe in San Marcos, Texas tiveness for language due to my op-ed that “politics is not sci- the message, and local imams love of it, I can see the desire and ence; we can’t be sure that a and leaders must be urged to need of some people to make given system is best in the way make the message a steady part Contrary to popular belief, language work better for them. that we can flat-out know that of their remarks to their congre- dictionaries do not authorize I’d like to know how Flynn evolution is a fact or that vac- gations and communities and “meanings” for words. They squares this political relativism cines work.” In fact there is such their public statements to the engage scholars, linguists, and with the matters under discus- a system: it’s called “the scientific media. This will embolden local social scientists to pursue ongo- sion. While it’s true that not all method.” It has long ago been liberal Muslims to actively speak ing research in order to com- shades or varieties of leftism used to establish that evolution out and mutually support each pose definitions consistent with have proven humane, which of is a fact and that vaccines work other and the message openly, social consensus on semantic any of those of the Right have? (with rare exceptions, depend- and it will isolate extremists in the parameters of word usage in The Right is religious (not neces- ing on the vaccine). These facts community. language communities. Often sarily Christian) and religion is of were only later politicized by cer-

secularhumanism.org October/November 2016 Free Inquiry 63 tain right-wing groups, as were orientations in the same way that E. Jeff Justis by Valerie Tarico: abortion rights. fluoridation of drinking water, they stand foursquare for things Oxford, Mississippi Tarico is right; abortion needs to global warming, etc. Flynn’s mis- like evolution . . . or nontheism. be considered a normal form of take (perhaps unintentional) was This is why I am leery when some contraception that no woman to include these facts under the atheists contend that their identi- Valerie Tarico’s ten reasons why should be ashamed to utilize. “politics” rubric to start. I and ties as atheists necessarily require she is pro-abortion is the best arti- If Francis in some manner most other secular humanists a particular political or ideologi- cle I’ve ever read! May I offer an criticizes this horrific treatment accept the scientific method and cal stance, whether left-liberal (like eleventh reason? The total num- of women, then the core conten- reject the distortions forced on Greta Christina), libertarian, capi- ber of abortions worldwide since tion of his Church that a woman established facts for political or talist, socialist . . . the list goes on. the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision having an abortion is gravely evil religious reasons. is 1.5 billion. The United States will collapse. Unless the Church Clement H. Kreider Jr., MD portion of that is 57 million. The of Rome does the right thing Wall, New Jersey More than ‘Pro-Choice’— worldwide population today is and abandons its supernatural- 7.4 billion. If it were not for the istic-founded efforts to control Tom Flynn replies: ‘Pro-Abortion’ 1.5 billion women who had those women’s pregnancies, it will not I applaud Valerie Tarico’s rea- abortions, today’s worldwide be possible for most nontheists Remind me to write more clearly soned, philosophical essay “Why population would be at least 8.9 to closely embrace any pope. next time. I meant that passage I Am Pro-Abortion, Not Just Pro- billion people. Population scien- Gregory Paul to make the very point for which Choice” (FI, August/September, tists say that would have been Baltimore, Maryland Clement Kreider argues: It is pre- 2016). She confessed her ambiv- catastrophic and overwhelmed cisely because of the scientific alent feelings on learning that her the world’s capacity to feed, method that we can know so con- first pregnancy was unhealthy, but clothe, shelter, and provide health fidently about evolution, vaccines, Counting the Nonreligious wisely she and her husband were care and jobs for that many more climate change, and the like. That resolute in terminating that preg- people. Right now there are 900 The review by Wayne Trotta of is why when politicizers blur the nancy. So many times, selfishly I million people who go to bed American Secularism (FI, August/ facts about these issues, we can propose, couples feel it is their hungry every night. Also, about September 2016) quotes some rebut their distortions so forth- duty to support that potential 50 million people worldwide are statistics from the book that I rightly. (For different reasons I sentient being regardless of the living in refugee camps, fleeing believe cannot possibly be true include naturalist nontheism along- consequences after birth. from terrorists. Those numbers (although I wish they were). The side well-grounded scientific find- As a retired orthopedic sur- would be at least doubled if there book states that the percentage ings as being “reliably proven”; geon, in my professional life I were 8.9 billion people. of United States citizens who obviously, religious believers­ will had the privilege of treating many So to all you pro-life zealots consider themselves nonreligious disagree with me on that.) children born with congenital de- out there, I say mind your own is 28 percent and goes on to In contrast, politico-economic fects. When we interact with such business when you try to dic- state that “some ninety million and ideological questions—broad­ly, children and when they become tate to other women what they Americans today are religiously questions of the form “What does a part of our lives, we are grati- should do with their bodies. You unaffiliated.” The ninety million the optimally just society look like?” fied by their presence and want know nothing about their circum- seemed way out of line, even and “How can we best get there to do everything conceivable to stances and reasons for having an far-fetched, so I did five min- from here?”—don’t have firm sci- help them achieve their individual abortion and could not care less utes of research looking at the entific answers. At least, not yet. goals, regardless of their disabil- what happens to the babies after most recent U.S. Census Bureau One day the social sciences may ities. But we should not forget they are born. All you want is for Statistics. Here’s what I found: evolve to the point that they can that it is they who must endure the women to give in to your de- tell us what the just society looks their disability, not us. Is it not mands. What makes you the rul- • At the end of year 2015, there like with the same confidence that, compassionate to consider abor- ers of the female race? were 322.7 million Americans. say, biology now informs us about tion as necessary to prevent the John Sodofsky • 20.2 percent of those were evolution. Until that day comes—or further development of a known East Falmouth, Massachusetts ages zero to fifteen and are if it comes, since some doubt it defective embryo that, if allowed too young to have made up ever will—we lack firm scientific to develop further, will have to their minds that they were guidance on politico-economic and deal with a disability in its own A Pope We Can nonreligious. ideological questions. They are conscious life? A disabled person Believe In • Subtracting the 20.2 percent matters of opinion. That’s not to might argue: “My defect, my de- from the 322.7 Americans say such questions are not urgent; formity, has made me who I am.” I’m going to object to the effort leaves us with 257.5 million they are. Often they are (with a nod This, however, is more a tribute by Nicholas S. Molinari (“Francis: Americans who are old enough to William James) forced options. to the great adaptability of a A Pope Atheists, Agnostics, and to be considered in the survey. Participating in society can com- sentient human being than to an Freethinkers Can Believe In,” Using the U.S. secularity per- pel us to choose certain political, unwillingness to change what one August/September 2016) to pro- centage of 28 percent quoted economic, and ideological com- perceives cannot be changed. mote the concept that Francis is in the book, that gives us 72.1 mitments. But when we do so, we Rather the question is: Would the pope that atheists, agnostics, million Americans who are should admit that we are choosing, we, as conscious beings, willingly and freethinkers can support. nonaffiliated. unavoidably, without the unequivo- accept a severe disability in our- True, Francis is a whole lot better It’s easy to see where the cal counsel of science. selves? Is it not a selfish act to than the likes of Benedict, John author’s number of 90 million For that reason, in my view, (a) allow a known defective embryo Paul, Paul, Pius, and Pius, and came from. The authors simply humane nontheists may cred­ibly to develop further when we could he may be the best pope since multiplied the total number of embrace a variety of politico-eco- have altered that destiny, since John. But saying that is not saying Americans (322 million) by 28 nomic and ideological perspec- we now have the ability to pre- a whole lot. percent and came up with the tives and (b) organizations such as dict the outcome of many sperm The socio-sexual-moral ele- 90 million number, which is com- the Center for Inquiry are probably /ovum unions, some of which phant in the room that Molinari pletely misleading—dare I say wise to avoid endorsing specific should never have occurred in does not mention is one ironically politico-economic and ideological the first place? detailed in the very same FI issue (Continued on page 66)

64 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 secularhumanism.org

FI June July cut_FI 5/2/12 4:39 PM Page 67

LETTERS continued from p. 64

bogus. to write “xx percent of American want to make a valid comparison . . . just not!?” Our apologies. I point this out only because adults.” Dave Olshanski’s point of, say, the number of Americans The gremlins have been chas- I undoubtedly will see the 90 mil- that discussions of religious iden- with no religious preference tised and more secure cages lion number quoted in the future tification should exclude children to Americans who are Roman have been ordered.—The Editors in your magazine as well as other because they are too young to Catholic, you’d better include publications. That number is in- have formed their own world- the Nones’ children because the correct. Americans aged zero to views has much to recommend Catholic data will include their WRITE TO FREE INQUIRY fifteen should not be included in it, except for the fact that most children. the statistics. I only wish the num- data on religious affiliation is not Send submissions to ber was that high. compiled that way. Many reli- Andrea Szalanski, Dave Olshanski gious denominations report their Erratum Letters Editor, FREE INQUIRY, We are committed to the application of reason and science We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence. The Villages, Florida own memberships in terms of P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. to the understanding of the universe and to the solving men, women, and children, and Gremlins took over Free Inquiry’s Fax: (716) 636-1733. We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be computers and rewrote the last of human problems. The Editors reply: the practice remains common allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual sentence of Malcolm Friedman’s E-mail: [email protected]. (though not universal) in objec- We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have The language in the review was tive measurements of religious article “A Little Question for Our In letters intended for publication, please in fact straightforward. When identification. On the one hand, Believer Friends” in the August/ include name, ad­dress, city and state, ZIP code, to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, access to comprehensive and informed health care, citing demographic data, “xx it is presumptuous to count as September 2016 issue. It should and daytime phone number (for verification and to look outside nature for salvation. and to die with dignity. percent of Americans” means adherents of any denomination have read: “Or could it be that it’s purposes only). We believe that scientific discovery and technology We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, Americans of all ages, children or life-stance group persons too not actually omnipotent, loving Letters should be 300 words or fewer and pertain included. If only adults are being young to have decided for them- and compassionate, or maybe to previous Free Inquiry articles. can contribute to the betterment of human life. integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics counted, it would be appropriate selves. On the other hand, if you even (God forbid a million times) 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. Now Available from Inquiry Press 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. THE HARM DONE BY RELIGION separation of church and state. We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences. The Best of FREE INQUIRY, Vol. 3 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 Edited by Ronald A. Lindsay, Andrea Szalanski, understanding. discoveries still to be made in the cosmos. Nicole Scott, and Tom Flynn We are concerned with securing justice and fairness We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, This new anthology collects thirteen outstanding essays in society and with eliminating discrimination and we are open to novel ideas and seek new surveying the harm done by religion—to individuals, peo- and intolerance. departures in our thinking. ples, and societies—by a variety of faith traditions and at We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to varied times and places, very much including … but not We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a limited to … the here and now. disabled so that they will be able to help themselves. source of rich per sonal significance and genuine satisfaction We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based Christopher Hitchens | Richard Dawkins | Peter Singer in the service to others. on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual Barbara Smoker | Gregory Paul | Lisa Bauer | James A. orientation, or ethnicity and strive to work together for We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather Haught | Kristi DeMeester | Beth Birnbaum and others than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of chronicle the harm done by religion. the common good of humanity. 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, Discover how toxic faiths work their social and intellectual it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless evils. Celebrate victims who have overcome the impair- beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind suffering on other species. ments inflicted by misplaced faith. It’s all in The Harm faith or irrationality. Done by Religion, from the credos to the damage done. 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 173 pages | $10 includes shipping

Send check or money order (payable to free Inqury) to Harm Done, P.O. Box 664, Amherst NY 14226-0664. For a parchment copy of this page, suitable for framing, please send $4.95 Or visit www.secularhumanism.org, choose Shop from to FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, New York 14226-0664 top menu, click on Books.

66 Free Inquiry October/November 2016 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 $4.95 to FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, New York 14226-0664