An Exclusive Interview

Spring 1993 Vol. 13, No. 2 $6.25

E.O. Wilson on Biodiversity An Exclusive Interview

an NM? Williamson SPRING 1993, VOL. 13, NO. 2 ISSN 0272-0701 Contents Editor: Paul Kurtz Senior Editors: Vern Bullough, Gerald Larue 3 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Executive Editor: Timothy J. Madigan Managing Editor: Andrea Szalanski 4 EDITORIALS Contributing Editors: Robert S. Alley, Joe E. Barnhart, David Berman, Notes from the Editor, Paul Kurtz / The 'Judeo-Christian' Myth, H. James Birx, Jo Ann Boydston, Bonnie Bullough, Skipp Porteous / The Rhetoric of Sin, Vern L. Bullough Paul Edwards, Albert Ellis, Roy P. Fairfield, Charles W. Faulkner, Antony Flew, Levi Fragell, Adolf Grünbaum, Marvin Kohl, Jean Kotkin, Thelma 10 The Center for Inquiry Library: The Freethought Lavine, Ronald A. Lindsay, Michael Martin, Delos and Secular Humanist Collection Paul Kurtz B. McKown, John Novak, Howard Radest, Robert Rimmer, Svetozar Stojanovic, Thomas Szasz, V. M. DOES HUMANISM ENCOURAGE HUMAN CHAUVINISM? Tarkunde, Richard Taylor, Rob Tielman, Sherwin Wine 12 Introduction Timothy J. Madigan Associate Editors: 13 Humanism and Environmentalism John Passmore Doris Doyle, Thomas Flynn, Steven L. Mitchell, Lee Nisbet, Gordon Stein 14 Us and Them, Nature and Humanism Eugenie C. Scott 15 The Ignorance of Arrogance Richard Goss Editorial Associates: Thomas Franczyk, Roger Greeley, James Martin- 16 Ecocentric Ethics James Lawler Diaz, Molleen Matsumura, Warren Allen Smith 18 Humanism in a Biocentric Chairman, CODESH, Inc.: Paul Kurtz Universe Frank Cullen and Ingrid Newkirk Director of Public Relations: Steve Karr 19 Humanism and Speciesism R. W. Bradford Chief Development Officer: James Kimberly 20 Intrinsic Value for Nature—An Incoherent Executive Director, African-Americans for Basis for Environmental Concern Bernard E. Rollin Humanism: Norm R. Allen, Jr. Environmentalism as a Humanism Robert C. Solomon 21 Executive Director, Secular Organizations for 23 Primary Responsibility to the Earth Elaine Stanfield Sobriety: James Christopher 24 Humanism Is for Humans Jan Narveson Chief Data Officer: Richard Seymour

25 Universal Speciesism Tad Clements Typesetting: Paul E. Loynes 28 On Biodiversity An Exclusive Interview with E. O. Wilson Audio Technician: Vance Vigrass 32 Is the U.S.A. a Christian Nation? William B. Williamson Staff: 35 Homosexuality: Right or Wrong? Michael Ruse Georgeia Locurcio, Anthony Nigro, Ranjit Sandhu FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published BIBLICAL CRITICISM quarterly by the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH, Inc.), a nonprofit corpora- 38 Who Was John the Baptist? Frank T Miosi tion, 3965 Rensch Road, Buffalo, NY 14228-2713. Phone (716) 636-7571. Copyright ©1993 by 46 Confucius, The First `Teacher' of Humanism? Gerald F. Rogers CODESH, Inc. Second-class postage paid at Buffalo, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. National distribution by International Periodicals Distribu- VIEWPOINTS tors, Solana Beach, California. FREE INQUIRY is The Disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Failures available from University Microfilms and is indexed 50 in Philosophers' Index. of the International Community, Svetozar Stojanovic Subscription rates: $25.00 for one year, $43.00 for two years, $59.00 for three years, $6.25 for single 53 REVIEWS issues. Address subscription orders, changes of address, and advertising to: FREE INQUIRY, Box 664, Skepticism and Eupraxophy, Michael Martin / Libertarianism with Buffalo, NY 14226-0664. Foundations—But Is It Libertarianism? Thomas Flynn / Gore Manuscripts, letters, and editorial inquiries should be addressed to: The Editor, FREE INQUIRY, Box 664, Vidal's Golgotha, Robert Gorham Davis / Jesus Gets a Life, Buffalo, NY 14226-0664. All manuscripts must be Thomas Franczyk / Books in Brief typed double-spaced and should be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the 62 READERS' FORUM editors or publisher. Postmaster: Send address changes to FREE INQUIRY, Box 664, Buffalo, NY 66 IN THE NAME OF GOD 14226-0664.

slow, painful deaths due to medical neglect, is usually considered a mitigating factor. Letters to the Editor Greg Erwin Aylmer, Quebec Canada

The Family Rendering Protagoras' aphorism, "Man New Ideas in Metaphysics is the measure of all things," as "Humans Throughout his powerful and challeng- are the measurers of all things." This Your articles about the Big Bang ("Does ing article on "The Black Family" (FI, changes it from a possible value- the Big Bang Prove the Existence of Fall 1992) Charles Faulkner emphasizes judgment into a simple declarative God?" FI, Winter 1992/93) debunked hostile racist discrimination—"the syste- statement. Humans measure (with the exaggerated claims of some religious matic denial of job opportunities" to greater or lesser accuracy) scientific or astrophysicists. But if all the matter of black males—as the primary factor historical "facts" and define values they the universe was packed into an ex- making "it difficult for them to become think should be used to guide their tremely dense point, where did it come good fathers." He maintains that "Dis- individual and collective lives. With this from? And if the extremely hot temper- crimination has had the effect of demor- clarification, Protagoras deserves to be atures made it explode, how was that alizing the black male" and has led to considered the founder of what I prefer heat formed? It seems to me that, so far, "more disillusionment and emotional to call "naturalistic humanism." neither religion nor science has come up turmoil than any other element in the with a satisfactory explanation or proof lives of black males." Bob Stebbins of the existence of a god or of the be- Remarkably Faulkner makes no Richmond, Ky. ginning of the universe. mention either of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and subsequent legislation or of Satanism M. V. Perdomo the establishment and activities of the Miami, Fla. Equal Employment Opportunities Com- In "Satanism as a Social Movement," mission. I will leave it to his fellow (FI, Winter 1992/ 93), Cynthia Kisser The Big Bang has an observable para- Americans to take issue with this tacit makes some very interesting remarks, digm, the supernova. In a supernova, the assumption of the ineffectiveness of these but what is her point? Is Satanism per gas envelope of a star stops expanding surely strenuous efforts to eliminate se a crime? If not, what would satanic (the mass of the star must be greater hostile discrimination against blacks. belief have to do with a crime? Is such than a critical amount) and contracts But a foreigner may perhaps be permit- a believer any more guilty than a under the force of gravity. At some point ted to point out that if that assumption Methodist or a Jew who commits the the contracting mass has such a large is correct then it is not sensible to call same crime? Me thinks she hopes to energy density from nuclear reactions on Americans to "begin now to imple- criminalize belief. among atoms (or subatomic "particles") ment a powerful program to eliminate that an explosion occurs. This may be racism" without first inquiring why P. M. de Laubenfels considered a mini big bang. I believe the previous programs failed. Corvallis, Ore. universe does something similar when it stops expanding, begins contracting, Antony Flew Cynthia Kisser has missed the point. In undergoes a big crunch, and then big Reading, England commending laws that punish people for bangs again. their beliefs, rather than their actions, The problem with this model for the Defending Secular Humanism she betrays the entire humanist tradition universe has been the so-called missing of American law. The action of child mass, or dark matter. Reputable astron- Adolf Grünbaum's "In Defense of abuse, or animal abuse, or assault, omers say that there was no doubt that Secular Humanism" (FI, Fall 1992) murder, and so on is the crime that the sufficient dark matter has now been might be strengthened by two very minor laws must describe and prescribe pun- "found" to close the universe. Gravity modifications: (1) Acceptance rather ishments for. Beliefs may be factors to drives both processes and there is no than rejection of the term agnostic. It be considered as motives or mitigating need for mystery or new physics in the does little harm to admit that whatever circumstances, but that is all. Big Bang model (although some new affirmations or denials we may prefer It is distressing that a Satanist reactions will probably show up). concerning metaphysical matters, reli- (which, in practice, will include many gious believers and nonbelievers (if they minority religions) may be subjected to Richard L. Field, Ph.D. are thoughtful in each case) stand on additional sanctions because of belief, Mechanical Engineering- similar ground. Neither has knowledge, whereas the fundamentalist Christianity Thermal and Fluid but rather something like what is meant of those who have beaten their children Houston, Tex. by "faith" in a nontheological sense. (2) to death in exorcisms, or let them die (Letters, continued on p. 64) Spring 1993 3 Notes from the Editor

Paul Kurtz

Has a Third World War, with International Islamic Conference, but respect for freedom of conscience, Islam, Begun? only Turkey may be said to have even without limitation or fear of punishment. a modicum of democratic freedom. A free society will permit a wide range he dramatic growth of fundamen- of political opinions to flourish, and it Ttalist Islam is engendering conflicts he liberal democratic humanist will encourage political parties to throughout the world. These are likely agenda, I submit, offers the best emerge. Freedom of conscience, how- to intensify in coming decades unless defense against such conflicts and a basis ever, must also apply to moral and there are profound changes in the Islamic for genuine progress. First, the state religious convictions. Here fundamental- mentality. Hence the question can be should be secular, allowing for pluralism ists are violently opposed. But unless raised: Has a third world war, between to develop. Unfortunately, the Koran freedom of belief is recognized in these Islam and the democratic world, begun? grounds legal structures on religious domains, there can be no fully function- There are many flash points at pres- revelation. It leaves little or no recourse ing democratic society. ent: Western confrontations with Iraq; for heretics who do not accept Muham- The United States and other Western anti-Western passions in Iran; Western mad as the prophet of Allah. powers went to war with Iraq to liberate occupation of Somalia (for human- Recent efforts in India by the Hindu Kuwait from Iraqian occupation. Yet itarian purposes but also to defend oil Janata Party to declare India a Hindu democratic institutions have not yet been state is no doubt a reaction to Muslim permitted to emerge by the ruling fields newly discovered by Western theocracies. It would be tragic if India, oligarchy. Saudi Arabia, the bastion of companies); Hindu-Muslim communal which was founded as a secular state, sheik oil wealth, allows very little riots in India; the brutal war being waged were to move the clock back. Similarly political dissent and there is almost no against Christians and animists by a unwise is the movement in the United moral and surely no religious liberty. radical Islamic regime in Sudan; and the States to define America as a "Judeo- "The Committee for the Preservation of violent provocations of the Hezbollah, Christian" nation. Likewise for the Virtue and the Prevention of Vice" is the only viable militia left in Lebanon, efforts of those who wish to reestablish the guardian of Islamic "moral virtue." which is opposed to any peace talks with Croatia, Poland, and other countries in Abdullah Mohammadi, director of the Israel. There are also major confronta- Eastern Europe as Roman Catholic religious police in Gidda, capital of Saudi tions between Islamic fundamentalists states. The war in Yugoslavia is symp- Arabia, claims, "We are fighting against and regimes in Algeria, Pakistan, Egypt, tomatic of the problem. Atrocities have an influence of vice." What this means and the West Bank of Palestine, and been committed on all sides by diehard in practice is that the theater and many there is a resurgence of Muslim funda- religious nationalists, and no one is Western books and magazines are mentalism in the former Soviet Union. without guilt, as Serbs, Croatians, and banned and women's rights are denied, The growing presence of Muslim minor- Bosnians kill each other with impunity. (women and men are segregated in the ities in Britain, France, Germany, and The New York Times recently reported workplace, schools, and restaurants). other Western countries is also a sur- that many Serbs living in Bosnia are "Immoral" behavior by definition in- prising development, because for a long fearful that Bosnian Muslims wish to cludes alcohol use, gambling, adultery, time the Muslims of the West were silent establish a theocracy. It quotes a Serbian homosexuality, begging, prostitution, majorities. As they increase in popula- Muslim student of philosophy in pornography, and wearing "suggestive" tion size, provocations on both sides may Sarajevo, Edin Lazovic (a pseudonym), clothing. These repressive policies are intensify: witness the death sentence to the effect that, "Muslims are trying rooted in Wahabism, a puritanical against Salman Rushdie; the popularity to drive all Serbs out of Bosnia and to Islamic sect which is embraced by the of Malcolm X, Louis Farakhan, and make an Islamic fundamentalist state." ruling Saudi family. The key point of Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman and the Muslims, he fears, plan to use their democratic humanism, by way of con- Muslim movement in the cities of the higher birthrate to gain a majority, up trast, is that men and women ought to United States; or the campaign of terror from the 44 percent of the population be free to follow their own convictions, against innocent Muslims in Germany they now constitute: their goal is to religious and moral, so long as they do by fascist skinheads. legislate the Koran as the basis of the not harm others. This means that neither There are presently forty-six sover- political and social order. the state nor mosque has the right to eign states that are members of the Second, democratic humanism entails impose its code on belief or conduct.

4 FREE INQUIRY Third, and no doubt of great impor- dom of conscience as a basic human itarian church sought to impose its tance, is the right of an individual or right. outdated theological worldview on group to question the dicta of the Koran. If the current conflicts with fanatic science. It was only after scientific Unfortunately, the most heinous crime Muslim fundamentalists all over the progress became so overwhelming in so for a "true" Muslim is to blaspheme world are to abate, and if we are to learn many areas that the pope had no Allah or Muhammad, and that means to live in peace, then some appreciation alternative but to exonerate Galileo. that heretics and unbelievers have no for the ideals of democratic humanism— It is rather amusing to read the pope's rights. For the fundamentalist Muslim tolerance, pluralism, and dissent—need rationalization about the Galileo case. the Koran must be accepted as Holy to be further developed. The battle for He argues that today, after Einstein and Writ. Anyone who doubts or denies this human rights ought to be pressed for- in terms of contemporary cosmology, the can be repressed. The democratic hu- ward vigorously. question of whether the Earth or the sun manist maintains that freedom of inquiry is the center of the universe is not as into religious claims is a basic human Galileo and Papal Fallibility important as it was once thought! This right. There is, I submit, at present a observation, he assures us: compelling need to permit "Koranic e are pleased that the Roman criticism." Until that right is ensured for Catholic church's Holy Office has ... is not directed against the validity both Muslims and non-Muslims alike, finally lifted its condemnation of Galileo. of Galileo's position in the debate; it the further development of democracy One of the heroic figures in the develop- is only meant to show that often beyond two partial and contrasting per- remains in question. ment of modern experimental science, ceptions there exists a wider percep- Galileo was condemned in 1633 by the tion that includes them and goes atters are not hopeless, however, Inquisition for propounding the Coper- beyond both of them. for Islam has a rich intellectual nican theory, which placed the sun rather heritage. Indeed, Muslim scholars kept than the Earth at the center of our solar This kind of double talk is hardly alive for many centuries the study of the system. He was forced to abjure and convincing. For while it is true that our classics of Greece and Rome—long placed under house arrest. His persecu- scientific conception of an expanding before they were revived in Europe. tion stands forever as a blot on free universe with billions of galaxies has What Islam has lacked is a secular inquiry. extended our knowledge about the Renaissance, a Protestant Reformation, The Roman Catholic hierarchy is nature of the universe, the Church's a scientific revolution, and especially an glacial in its resistance to change. But opposition to the Copernican theory Enlightenment. why did it take 360 years to rectify this remains as an historic symbol of theo- There is a beginning appreciation of grave injustice? Perhaps one reason is logical repression. It was not a unique this in many Muslim countries today, that it is difficult for an institution that anomaly, however, for the Church has and there are restive, though small, claims to be infallible to admit that it consistently opposed many discoveries minorities of educated people who would was ever in error. on the frontiers of science that were like to be liberated from the authori- In a recent speech, Pope John Paul thought to threaten orthodoxy. The tarian vice. Indeed, over the years we II has attempted to justify the Church's battle between its authoritarian dogma at FREE INQUIRY have received numer- position in the Galileo case. To quote and human freedom continues today— ous letters from people in Saudi Arabia, the pontiff directly: in biology, psychology, biogenetic Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, and engineering, sexology, and especially From the beginning of the Age of elsewhere in the Muslim world who morality. It is the same old tale of agree with the ideals of democratic Enlightenment down to our own day, the Galileo case has been a sort of disapproval of new developments—all in humanism. They express a longing to "myth," in which the image fabricated the name of God, as interpreted by the have contact with those who believe in out of the events was quite far re- Vatican, of course. humanism and to engage in free inquiry. moved from reality. In this perspec- The pope offers still another rational- tive, the Galileo case was a symbol But in many cases they are fearful for ization for the Galileo case: their lives. Perhaps it is unrealistic at this of the Church's supposed rejection of scientific progress or of "dogmatic" point to call for the emergence of obscurantism opposed to the free Another lesson that we can learn is outright secular humanism, atheism, and search for truth. This myth has played that the different branches of knowl- agnosticism in Islamic lands. At the very a considerable cultural role. It has edge call for different methods... . least we should attempt to moderate the helped to anchor a number of scien- The error of the theologians of the repressive policies of those regimes, to tists of good faith in the idea that there time, when they maintained the was an incompatibility between the democratize and humanize them, and centrality of the earth, was to think spirit of science and its rules and that our understanding of the physical above all to develop an appreciation for research on the one hand, and the world's structure was in some way the right of freedom of conscience. This Christian faith on the other. imposed by the literal sense of Sacred is particularly the case since the Univer- Scriptures. sal Declaration of Human Rights, now The pope's denial that there was a accepted by virtually all of the nations conflict between the Christian faith and No doubt fundamentalists will take of the world community, names free- science is simply untrue. For the author- umbrage at Pope John Paul II's sugges- Spring 1993 5 tion that the literal interpretation of the its archaic theological worldview and the to lead "a rebellion against President Bible could not be used to describe the philosophical and moral dicta that it still Clinton because sodomy is against God's physical world structure. So this argu- attempts to impose on others. law, just like baby-killing is against God's ment, at least, leaves some room for law." freedom for science to pursue research Gays and Lesbians in the Military Surely not all of the opposition to without fear of theological censorship. gays in the military is religious, and But it is also a dodge, for to interpret ome of the opposition to President many people express a genuine concern scripture metaphorically or symbolically SBill Clinton's decision to end dis- that to lift the ban would undermine avoids the difficulty of dealing with the crimination against homosexuals and combat effectiveness. What is often patent falsehoods encountered through- lesbians in the military is based on the overlooked is the fact that gay people out the Bible. What is ignored is the basic argument that these sexual orientations have always served in the military as fact that the Bible is a human document are forbidden by the Bible. Indeed, the draftees or enlistees, many with distinc- containing the scientific, philosophic, Christian Right has begun a Holy War, tion. Plato thought that comrades in political, and moral views that prevailed using homophobia as its chief rallying arms would be invincible because of in the Middle East at that time; it does cry against liberalism and secular their bonds of friendship. No doubt he not contain sacred revelations from On humanism. Pat Buchanan recently had Achilles and Patroclus of the High. declared: "Gay rights activists seek to Homeric legends in mind. While it is Pope John Paul II concludes his substitute, for laws rooted in Judeo- difficult to corroborate the sexual apologetics with a familiar specious Christian morality, laws rooted in the proclivities of historical personalities argument, namely that there exist "two secular humanist belief that all consen- (virtually all of whom were forced to realms of knowledge": sual sexual acts are morally equal. That remain in the closet), there is some belief is anti-biblical and amoral; to write evidence that Alexander the Great, ... one that has its source in revelation, it into law is to codify a lie." Randall Hadrian, Julius Caesar, Richard the and one that reason can discover by Terry, militant head of Operation Lion Hearted, Frederick the Great, itself by its own power. To the latter Rescue, which until now has battled British General Horatio Kitchener, and belong especially the experimental sciences and philosophy. The distinc- against abortion, has added opposing Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery tion between the two realms of knowl- acceptances of gays in the military to (Allied hero of El Alamein and Nor- edge ought not to be understood as his battle plans. "We are avalanching mandy during World War II) were either opposition. The two realms are not members of the Congress with phone homosexual or bisexual. If the disciples altogether foreign to each other; they calls and letters," said Terry, who labels of moral purity had their way, they have points of contact. The method- ologies proper to each makes it possi- his new political movement "The Resist- would likewise have been excluded from ble to bring out different aspects of ance." Terry claims that he is attempting the military. reality.

It is this latter contention that, I lTS NOT A QVESTioN 0F submit, is basically flawed; for the same SEXWAL ORIENTAT/ON, /7-3 methods that are used in ordinary life A QWESTioN or BEHANI0R . and science to evaluate claims to truth are applicable to the claims of religion and morality. And these methods should be used to evaluate pronouncements of papal authority or of biblical revelation—neither of which should be immune to critical inquiry. Indeed one should ask for evidence or reasons that the claims of revelation from whatever source are divinely given. If it is the case EXPECTiNG14ATCERTA/N PEOPLE that all such revelations are historically IN CERTAIN SITUATIONS WILL conditioned and reflect the views of CoNTROLT1{EMSELVES 15 WNREAUSTIC. fallible human beings, then the Church has no right to seek to impose its views of science, morality, education, or politics on others. The chief lesson of the Galileo affair is that the Church is as fallible and as prone to error as all other human institutions. The Church was grievously mistaken about Galileo, and it is equally mistaken today about TOLES 01993 The Buffalo News. Reprinted with permission of UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE. All rights reserved.

6 FREE INQUIRY In World War II blacks were not the caliber of personnel. Although it is wrong to exclude people considered fit for combat service. They If one wishes to purify our institu- because of race, ethnic origin, gender, usually were assigned to rear guard or tions, why not begin with the celibate or sexual orientation a priori from quartermaster units. There was no inte- priesthood, where an estimated one-third any field of service, this does not mean gration in the military at that time for are homosexual? What about amateur that promiscuous conduct should be fear that black persons were "morally and professional sports, where many gay permitted while on duty. Discipline and intellectually unfit" to serve next to men and women have excelled? The idea is essential for military effectiveness Caucasians, and that they would disrupt that all gay people are "faggots" or and this applies to both heterosexuals combat effectiveness. President Harry S "dykes" is a caricature. Many gay men and homosexuals. Many nations of the Truman changed that by executive order are masculine in appearance and demea- world do not ban homosexuals from in early 1948 against near-solid oppo- nor, and many gay women feminine. service—Germany, France, Japan, sition by military leaders. Today the inte- They have performed admirably in Canada, The Netherlands, Israel, etc.— grated U.S. armed forces are not any football, baseball, basketball, tennis, and and their armies are none the worse less mighty. There were similar argu- other sports. Indeed, gay people have for it. For the United States to end ments a decade ago for totally excluding entered into and served in all walks of the war against gays in the military women from military service. Today this life. will not necessarily undermine the has changed. There is no evidence that In regard to the military, a distinction fabric of America's fighting forces, nor ending the fifty-year-old ban on gay and must be made between sexual orienta- destroy American civilization—as some lesbian persons in the military forces will tion (which may be genetic) and conduct diehard right-wing fundamentalists now either weaken military discipline or lower (for which individuals are responsible). warn. •

named his group the "Christian Coali- The 'Judeo-Christian' Myth tion," not the Judeo-Christian Coalition. And lest there be any confusion among "the faithful" as to whom the Skipp Porteous term truly applies, Jimmy Swaggart, writing in The Evangelist, used the term n increasing number of Christian handbook used by the religious right, Judeo, but added "Christian" in Apoliticians are employing the term people who embrace "Judeo-Christian parentheses. Judeo-Christian in their speeches to values" are those who oppose abortion, Christian politicians employ "Judeo- general audiences. In the last few years homosexuality (they call it sodomy), Christian" in their external appeals I've read variations of the phrase ad "pornography as an art form," and "sex because they know that overt expres- nauseum: "Judeo-Christian traditional education that neglects chastity and sions of anti-Semitism are political values"; "Judeo-Christian political condones free distribution of condoms." suicide. effort"; "Judeo-Christian theism"; Robert Simonds, head of the An examination of Christian history "Judeo-Christian Republicans"; "Judeo- National Association of Christian Edu- fails to support the hypothesis that Christian lifestyle of Bible-believers." cators, a group dedicated to electing Christianity has its roots in Judaism. In This curious construct, while not new, candidates who hold "Judeo-Christian" fact, Christianity borrows more of its gained currency in the early 1980s. At values to school boards, writes, "Amer- customs from paganism than from that time, the sectarian rhetoric of the ica is great because devout Christians Judaism. Two of Christianity's central Reverend Jerry Falwell's Moral Major- and courageous politicians have used holidays, Christmas and Easter, have ity alarmed the Jewish community. To biblical values to shape our political their roots in paganism. And Sunday ease Jewish concern the Falwell camp institutions." "America," he adds "is not worship is pagan, not Jewish—even began to employ the term Judeo- the product of secular humanism, Jesus kept the Sabbath on the seventh Christian, saying that, after all, Chris- atheism, or any other false religion. day. The question remains, "Isn't tianity is based on Judaism. Cynically, America is the fruit of God's eternal truth Christianity derived from the teachings the forces of exclusion embraced a in Christ, the Ten Commandments. of Jesus, who was Jewish?" No, Jesus terminology of inclusion. never intended to start a new religion. When the religious right uses "Judeo- When speaking exclusively to Chris- Paul founded Christianity, using a Christian" to whom does the term tians, however, Simonds drops the mythical Jesus as a basis. actually refer? According to Charles R. "Judeo": "The Christian religion (the If people need to link Christianity Phillips, author of a popular political Bible) is the basis for all morality (right with its roots, then "Pagan-Christian" is and wrong)." the proper term. "Judeo-Christian" is Skipp Porteous' commentaries on the In 1989, the Reverend Pat Robertson false and misleading. While "Judeo- religious right appear regularly in FREE formed a powerful new political organ- Christian" may be used to placate Jews, INQUIRY. ization. Although he continually preach- they should be aware that the use of the es on "Judeo-Christian values," he term does not include them. •

Spring 1993 7 The Rhetoric of Sin Vern L. Bullough

erhaps the only tenet of religious Their purpose in denouncing the ills decry changes from their own imagined pfaith that televangelists share in of society and in making full-fledged past. This means that humanists contin- common is the belief in the importance attacks on contemporary science and ually have to be alert to distinguish myth of the conversion experience—of being philosophy is not to solve the problems from reality. They have to counter the born again. As the evangelists define this, in any kind of genuine political or false rhetoric, point out the missing data, it means surrendering one's life to Jesus economic sense since that is something identify the exaggerations, and effec- by giving up personal will. The key to that in their minds only a supernatural tively communicate to the public that not this surrender of personal will is that of power can do. Rather, they use their all change is bad and that some may struggling away from something. In the rhetoric to gain power for themselves or indeed be positive. fundamentalists' rhetoric that something their movement. I once saw a bumper Still, the rhetoric of sin has had a long is sin, and the converse is a striving sticker that emphasized this inaction by history. The Bible is full of it, from toward something better: salvation. This proclaiming "Though a Sinner, I am Genesis to Revelations. It was the main process has sometimes been summarized Saved." message of prophets such as Isaiah, by the statement that a person's "extrem- The entire conversion experience is Samuel, and Ezekiel. In fact it is the chief ity is God's opportunity." focused on the surrender of the auto- weapon that churches have used This emphasis on conversion is the nomy of the human ego in order to to instill fear, to gain adherence, and to basis for evangelist rhetoric. To the accept the dictates of some higher power compel conformity—and in the process unsaved the world must be made to with whom the televangelists claim to to maintain their power. To surrender appear terrible, out of control, and communicate. Humanists need to recog- one's ego to a higher power—the key beyond any rational solution. According nize that much of the televangelists' to conversion—ultimately is to deny to the Old Testament prophets, who criticism of societal ills is simply the responsibility, and to imply helpless- knew well what we now call the "psy- rhetoric of sin and has little correlation ness. To be effective, however, we need chology of conversion," the "evils" of the with the real world. Reality, however, not only recognize this false rhetoric world must be continually magnified is not the issue. The power of the message but combat false prophets and of sin and guilt is that it apparently and portrayed as beyond human control. modern Jeremiahs when we encounter touches a responsive chord for large them in the marketplace. There surely To emphasize this, the televangelists numbers of people. So effective are the is a lot wrong with the world, but the have become the modern Cassandras, televangelists that their message of crisis rhetoric of sin offers no solutions to the denouncing in thundering terms various has become commonplace in the popular problems we face. It is in the last analy- ills of society, real or imagined. In the media. It may even appeal to some sis a denial of our own moral respon- process they appeal to many individuals humanists, particularly older persons, sibility and an escape from human who are fearful of change, who find it who often have a similar tendency to freedom. • difficult to cope, and who want a return to the "good old days." In today's world this means that they fear the growing power of women, the demands of gays and lesbians, the so-called disintegration Ingersoll Museum to Open of the family, and the dangers of pornography, all of which are added to After several years of renovation work, the Robert G. Ingersoll the traditional litany of sins that they Museum in Dresden, New York, is now ready to be open to also continually rail against. The forces the public. The museum, located in the lovely Finger Lakes of the Satan, they claim, have regrouped region, will honor nineteenth-century America's greatest orator under the banner of secular humanism, and freethinker. It will be open to the public Wednesdays liberalism, pragmatism, and modern through Sundays, June to October, from NOON to 5:00 P.M. The science. museum is in need of artifacts and funding support. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, or want further Vern L. Bullough is a Distinguished details write to: Timothy J. Madigan, P.O. Box 664, Buffalo, Professor at the State University of New NY 14226-0664. York College at Buffalo.

8 FREE INQUIRY A Statement from the Academy of Humanism `World Overpopulation and the Environment' In the aftermath of the United population growth. The results of internationally Nations Conference on the Environ- Studies in demography indicate conducted studies of human popula- ment and Development, it should be that global human population could tion growth should be duly reported recognized that the main problem in the near future change its rate of to the world community at all levels, facing humankind on a global scale growth, and ultimately level off. This and disseminated through the world is the rapid increase of its population. change in the pattern of multiplication media so as to become common The global population explosion is already well established in devel- knowledge to all people. Thus, the should be seen as a singular event in oped countries and can be expected issues of population growth should be the history of humanity. That is why to occur in the developing nations. integrated into human consciousness attention should be drawn to this However, this levelling off is a slow worldwide. The rapid growth in phenomenon. We cannot evade the process, and the danger of population population should be seen by the consequences or escape our respon- growth has damaging effects. Unfor- world community as the single most sibilities. Our attitudes should be tunately, this basic change in the important factor determining our developed on a personal and societal human predicament is not deeply general well-being, affecting the use level, both nationally and internation- understood and its importance was of our planetary resources and placing ally. However, the sensitivities in- not recognized at the Rio Conference. stress on its environmental capacity. volved may be great, as these issues As a group of concerned individuals, Only by reconciling our growth in an touch upon the most profound feel- we propose that a concerted effort extended harmonious setting can we ings of human beings. In spite of this, should be undertaken to resolve this face and finally resolve the global we must react to the challenge of our interdisciplinary problem. problem.

—Prepared by Jean-Claude Pecker, Professor of Astrophysics, College de France; Sergei Kapitza, Professor, Academy of Sciences, Moscow

Endorsed by: Milovan Djilas, former Vice-President, Kurt Baier, Professor of Philosophy, Bonnie Bullough, Professor of Nursing, Yugoslavia University of Pittsburgh, U.S.A. State University of New York at Buffalo Johan Gattung, Professor of Sociology, Mario Bunge, Professor of Science, Vern Bullough, Distinguished Professor, University of Oslo, Norway McGill University, Canada State Univ. of N.Y. College at Buffalo Gerald Larue, Professor Emeritus of Sir Hermann Bondi, Past Master, Jose Delgado, Professor and Chair, Archaeology and Biblical Studies, Churchhill College, Great Britain Department of Neuropsychiatry, University of Southern California, Francis Crick, Professor of Physiology, University of Madrid, Spain U.S.A. Salk Institute, U.S.A. Yves Galifret, Profesor Emeritus of Pieter Admiraal, Medical Doctor, Max Rood, Professor of Law, Neurophysiology, University P. and M. The Netherlands The Netherlands Curie; General Secretary, L'Union Adolf Grünbaum, Professor of Steve Allen, Entertainer, U.S.A. Rationaliste, France Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh, Herbert Hauptman, Professor of Paul Kurtz, Professor Emeritus of U.S.A. Biophysical Science, State University of Philosophy, State University of New New York at Buffalo, U.S.A. York at Buffalo Richard Taylor, Professor of Philosophy, Hartwick College, U.S.A. Edward O. Wilson, Curator in Indumati Parikh, President, Radical Entomology, Museum of Comparative Humanist Association, India Paul MacCready, Chairman, AeroVironment, Inc., Monrovia, Zoology, Harvard University, U.S.A. John Passmore, Professor of California, U.S.A. Philosophy, Australian National Univ. W. V. Quine, Professor of Philosophy, Marcel Roche, Emeritus Researcher, Harvard University, U.S.A. Additional Signers: Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Rob Tielman, Co-President, Mourad Wahba, Professor of Cientificaa, Venezuela International Humanist and Ethical Education, Univ. of Ain Shams, Egypt G. A. Wells, Professor of German, Union, The Netherlands Donald C. Johanson, President, University of London, Great Britain Jean Dommanget, Professor of Institute of Human Origins, U.S.A. Antony Flew, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy, Belgium Simone Veil, Deputy to European Phil., Reading Univ., Great Britain Svetozar Stojanovic, Professor of Parliament, France Raymond Firth, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Belgrade Joie Lombardi, Organizer, New Anthropology, University of London, José Leite Lopes, Director, Centro University for Third Age, Italy Great Britain Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas, Brazil

Spring 1993 9 The Center for Inquiry Library: The Freethought and Secular Humanist Collection

Paul Kurtz

here is a rich tradition of freethought states of disrepair. half for the prompt acquisition of Tand humanist literature. Many Our plans are to construct a new and approximately 5,000 books and period- thousands of such books and journals up-to-date library facility on our present icals to be added to the 12,000 now in have been published over the centuries. property, adjacent to the State Univer- the collections. Many of them are being lost to future sity of New York at Buffalo, Amherst In addition, we hope to establish an generations, because, regrettably there campus—the largest campus of the endowment fund of $800,000, which will does not exist anywhere in the world a largest university system in the United provide an income of approximately library devoted exclusively to collecting States (with a total enrollment of almost $60,000 to staff the library and provide these materials. Where partial collections 400,000 students). an acquisition budget. exist they are scattered throughout This library facility will include state- The total funding required is $1.3 libraries in a random way; and they are of-the-art computer cataloguing and million. CODESH's share would be half always in danger of being discarded as scanning-and-retrieval equipment. It of this: $250,000 for the library and libraries constantly cull their collections. would be made available to scholars, $400,000 for an endowment, for a total By way of contrast, there are literally students, and the lay public worldwide, of $650,000. thousands of libraries in the world that by electronic mail and interlibrary loans We invite interested readers and are devoted to religion, theology, spiritu- of photocopied material. friends to support this effort. It is possi- alism, or pseudoscience. It is time that The library will include specialized ble to name a library carrel, bookshelves, the freethought, humanist, and skeptical collections in philosophy, especially on a reading room, a collection, or even the community takes steps to preserve its naturalism and pragmatism, and also on library itself by appropriate gifts. priceless heritage. the history of freethought and biblical We welcome contributions of books With this in mind the Council for criticism. We expect initially to collect and journals, and also hope to be a Democratic and Secular Humanism approximately 140 journals on free- repository of the papers of distinguished (CODESH), publisher of FREE thought, humanism, and skepticism. humanists and skeptics. All donations INQUIRY, in cooperation with the Com- The Center for Inquiry Library will are tax-exempt. mittee for the Scientific Investigation of also include the CSICOP collection of For further information about this Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), literature on skepticism and the gifting program and tax savings, please publisher of the Skeptical Inquirer, paranormal. fill out and return the form below, or decided in 1991 to construct a new The total capital needs for this library contact us directly at P.O. Box 664, Center for Inquiry library. It will seek will be $500,000, one-half to build, furn- Buffalo, NY, 14226, or call 1-800-458- to assemble the best books, journals, and ish, and equip the library and the other 1366. reference works available in these fields. Our plans are to build a 3,000-square- foot library as part of a new headquarters building. This initially would house up ❑ YES, I would like more information about donating to 25,000 books, with space for expan- to the Freethought and Secular Humanist Collection. sion to an eventual 50,000. It will also include complete sets, wherever possible, Name of the several dozens of humanist and freethought journals published world- Street wide. I have personally visited most of the City State Zip centers for humanism, atheism, and freethought around the world and have Day phone Evening phone found their small libraries and archives inadequate, and in many cases in sad

10 FREE INQUIRY "The Price of Reason"

"If there is anything on which social critics and philosophers of all camps are firmly agreed, it is that modern society is in an intolerable state of disarray. "General conditions involving political corruption, sexual excess, criminality, funding of military terror, financial greed, and overriding selfishness are nothing new...." —Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, and Morality

In today's heated debates about moral values, we humanists, both secular and otherwise, have a contribution to make. This small but growing minority of rationalists and freethinkers has much to say that is not being heard or heeded. The humanist movement must have a home. That's why I was happy to accept the co-chairmanship of the Price of Reason campaign now being conducted by FREE INQUIRY's corporate father, CODESH, Inc. This new home will feature facilities that have been badly needed for a long time: It will have the world's largest freethought library, starting with some 12,000 volumes. It will have seminar and meeting rooms, where the exchange of advanced and rational thought will be facilitated in one convenient location. And it will have its own radio and TV production facilities, so as to spread the enlighted word about humanism to all parts of the globe. And finally, it will be located in Amherst, New York, conveniently situated one-tenth of a mile from the largest campus of the largest state university system in the United States (the State University of New York). It is only 15 miles from Canada, where another rapidly growing humanist movement is setting an example for the entire world to witness. I have committed myself to be helpful in the Price of Reason campaign. I would like you to do the same. Please use the postage-free business reply card located near this ad, and indicate your interest so that we can all benefit from a stronger humanist movement.

Sincerely,

Steve Allen 3/93 FREE INQUIRY Symposium Does Humanism Encourage Human Chauvinism?

hilosopher Peter Singer, one of the approach. We must extend our ethical fically to human beings. While there are Pprime movers in the growing animal reach beyond our own species. certainly great similarities between rights movement, has coined the term There are basically two types of bio- humans and other primates, how close speciesism to denote a prejudice toward centric approaches. The so-called Gaia is the comparison to snails and sunflow- the members of one's own species as principle (named after the Greek Earth ers? Does the analogy break down at against the interests of members of other goddess) says that we must take into any point, and if so, where? species. While admitting that it is an consideration the interests of the bio- As for the environmental individual- unattractive word, he nonetheless feels sphere itself in all our actions. Our istic approach, much depends on just that it gets across the point he is trying actions must be based on what benefits how one defines "reverence" or "respect." to make: speciesism is analogous to the whole of life. This is the ultimate Even Schweitzer, while he may have felt racism and sexism, and is as morally version of utilitarianism. The other ap- saddened by his actions, advocated unacceptable. proach is called "environmental individ- killing the typhus disease. As Orwell The point that Singer raises is perti- ualism": we must take into consideration might put it, all life is equal, but some nent to the philosophy of humanism, the good of not only species in general, life is more equal than others. which takes a naturalistic stance. Tra- but each individual member of a species. A frequent criticism of the anthro- ditional theists have often argued that The prime example of this view is Albert pocentric attitude is that human beings there is nothing wrong with human Schweitzer's "reverence for life" philos- have no right to determine the course beings asserting a privileged attitude, ophy: all things that are alive are of events for other species. But it is still since we alone are created in God's deserving of esteem, and must be treated an open question whether or not it is image, and all other forms of life are with respect. even possible to transcend a human- here to serve us. (This attitude, by the Each approach has its problems. centered outlook. In fact, one might way, is now being challenged by theists Taken to its ultimate extreme, the Gaia argue that it is those who take a bio- who maintain that God wishes humans principle could be used to justify the centric approach who are guilty of arro- to be stewards, or protectors, of life on extinction of those species that cause gance. Unless we can become like Doctor Earth—thereby showing the malleability untold suffering for other species. The Doolittle and learn the languages of all of scriptural interpretation). Humanists, whole of life might benefit by the other species, who are we to take up their on the other hand, recognize that homo removal of certain of its parts. This proxy in moral matters? Is not this an sapiens exists thanks to the process of outlook is best expressed in occultist example of playing God? Perhaps the evolution, and differs from other life- Aleister Crowley's brief poem: anthropocentric outlook has greater forms by degree, not by kind. Does this humility. At any rate, humanists in par- Kill off mankind imply, therefore, that we must incorpor- ticular should be sensitive to anthropo- And give the earth a chance. ate these lifeforms into our ethical centric vs. biocentric arguments. Since Nature may find system? And if we do not, are we guilty we don't postulate a heaven to come, In her inheritance of speciesism? nor a savior, we recognize that protecting Some seedlings of a race Singer takes an evolutionary the planet and life on it is our concern. Less infinitely base. approach to ethics. He argues that just Furthermore, evolution shows us that all as it was once inconceivable for whites Martin W. Lewis, in his new book Green of life is interconnected, and the destruc- to consider other races as equal in virtue, Delusions: An Environmentalist Cri- tion of one species could well cause harm and for men to consider women as tique of Radical Environmentalism to countless others. The following arti- nonsubservient, so we have reached a (Duke University Press, 1992) refers to cles give a broad view of the differing new conception in our ethics. He main- this as "antihumanist anarchism." In positions of humanists on this issue. tains that we must move from an addition, the comparison of speciesism anthropocentric (human-centered) ap- to racism and sexism seems rather Timothy J. Madigan proach to a biocentric (life-centered) nebulous. The latter two relate speci- Executive Editor

12 FREE INQUIRY

Humanism and Environmentalism

John Passmore

umanism and environmentalism threaten, on this view, the continued is also true that other species will benefit. Hboth come in a variety of shapes existence of every form of life. At the When, too, the environmentalist seeks and sizes. There is an extreme form of very least, they should revert to the to preserve areas, or species, of great humanism that is incompatible with even hunter-gatherer stage of human devel- beauty or of scientific interest, the the mildest form of environmentalism; opment, living as other animals do, but moderate humanist does not object. The there is an extreme form of environmen- their total disappearance from the more difficult cases arise when what is talism that is incompatible with even the Earth's surface would be the ideal in question is the preservation of species mildest form of humanism. The inter- solution, provided that it could be that are not obviously useful or esting question is whether there is a accomplished without the loss of other obviously beautiful and of wilderness. In modest form of environmentalism that species. Moderate humanism, respond- these cases, too, the environmentalist is completely compatible with a modest ing to this, is not obliged to deny that may appeal for humanist support by form of humanism, and is, indeed, many human beings have been, are, and arguing that the species and the habi- demanded by it. will always be greedy, power-ridden, and tats that are at risk could turn out in What do I understand by an extreme destructive. But at the same time it points the long run to be useful as genetic form of humanism? One that thinks of to the creativeness of human beings, to sources or as supplying medically useful human beings as confronting what it what they have added to the world by drugs. calls "the natural world" in the spirit of their presence, not as hunter-gatherers The value of diversity and of the an antagonist, as something to be but in virtue of their development of "wilderness experience"—to these, too, domesticated, exploited, reshaped so civilization. Freud was a humanist even the environmentalist might appeal. And that in the end wherever human beings though he recognized the discontents of not in a manner that the moderate look they will see their own faces civilization; Gibbon even although he humanist should immediately dismiss. reflected, whether in manufactured saw in history a record of the vices and Many humanists like myself enjoy both goods, in farms, in parks, or gardens. follies of mankind. the bustling life of cities and the stillness Only then, it is argued, will human beings It will now be sufficiently apparent of a wilderness, human and plant be totally free—when nothing else is free, why I began by asserting that extreme diversity, works of art and natural when nature is wholly subdued, totally humanism is incompatible with even the beauty. Why not? Nevertheless, difficult at the service of humankind. Such mildest form of environmentalism and issues do arise when other human needs, humanism is wholly inconsistent with extreme environmentalism with even the or desires, conflict with preservation. It even the minimum of environmentalism mildest form of humanism. What form is in these special cases that the moderate or, to use the now preferred word, would be taken by a moderate humanism humanist and the moderate enviromen- ecologism. For that insists that human and a moderate environmentalism that talist may clash. How such clashes are beings live, move, and have their being are quite compatible with one another to be resolved, what moral issues then as members of complex, interacting, and can even join forces? In relation to emerge, is too large a question to be ecosystems; that since human beings are many of the concerns of humanists this taken up now. neither omnipotent nor omniscient any is a very easy question to answer. When attempt at total control over such the environmentalist demands the reduc- John Passmore is emeritus professor of systems could only lead to total disaster tion of pollution, supports recycling, philosophy and a researcher in the and any major irreversible intervention stresses the importance of reducing History of Ideas Programme at Austral- should be undertaken only with caution. population growth, asks for the setting ian National University in Canberra, What about extreme environmental- aside of areas as national parks, there Australia. He is the author of Man's ism? That is misanthropic. It sees human is not the slightest reason why the Responsibility for Nature and many beings simply as destructive forces. moderate humanist should object; what other books. He is also president of the Particularly now that human beings have is in question is human health, human Australian Academy of Science and a discovered science and technology, they welfare, human enjoyment even when it member of the Academy of Humanism.

Spring 1993 13 Us and Them, Nature and Humanism

Eugenie C. Scott

oes humanism exclude the mem- infer that there is no material basis for bership of Homo sapiens in a wider the belief of some of us that humankind D "If humanists do indeed consider ecosystem? I believe it does just the is a superior form deserving complete opposite: it requires a recognition of our that humankind is a product of authority over all other living things. kinship with nature. evolution ... then surely we have a Might we not, realizing this kinship, Let me explain. Anthropology shows different relationship with nature move to a more modest view of our place us that human beings tend to rank other than those who believe Homo in nature, rather than, as under the old individuals in importance, value, or sapiens was specially created to revelatory doctrines, believing ourselves mode of treatment based on kinship. As rule over all other creatures." superior and omnipotent? Evolution tells the Bedouin say, "Me against my us where we came from, and describes brother; me and my brother against my our history as a species. It shows us how cousin; me, my brother and my cousin nor stating that it is the only possible very similar life on Earth truly is. (As against the world." system that could have evolved nor that my friend biochemist Bill Thwaites says, Modern societies do not differ from it is the best system. "You've seen one eukaryote, you've seen Obviously, if human beings discrim- tribal ones in this regard. We tend to them all.") I think the facts of science inate in their altruism among members treat other citizens differentially depend- require us to evolve a relationship with of our species, members of other species ing on how much they are like us, which the rest of nature that more accurately will be treated with even less consider- is really just an expression of the tribal reflects our common history. Far from ation. By definition they are even more society's concern with kinship. In the big being a philosophy of speciesism, "them" than is the most remote human cities, we don't have complex extended- humanism should reflect this under- being. The idea of "dominion over kin relationships anymore, but we do standing from science, if scientific nature" is not restricted to Christianity; have same/ different and us/them. Peo- human philosophical/ religious systems reasoning truly is an important source ple give neither resources nor affection almost uniformly place humankind of our philosophy. randomly, without concern .for the above animals. Origin myths of tribal A recent book by the philosopher nature of the recipient, and we are more people abound with special creation of James Rachels, Created from Animals: likely to give to those more similar to humans apart from animals, or being The Moral Implications of Darwinism ourselves. When hurricanes hit, Amer- created last and put in charge of the rest. (Oxford University Press), uses our icans give first to Florida and later to As a species, we (with some exceptions) kinship with all other life to develop a Bangladesh. apparently feel free to exploit nature as system of morality. The traditional basis We are not alone in this tendency; we wish, whether as pre-contact Amer- of human morality is that I should treat it grows from our primate or even indians driving herds of horses and you well because you are made in the mammalian past. "Us/Them" is prob- buffalo over cliffs, or modern Brazilians image of God, or have a special "dignity," ably a product of natural selection: I burning down the Amazon rain forest. or in some other way differ from all other share more genes with people who are What might a humanist make of this? creatures. Darwinism undermines that like me, so if I aid them, I will be insuring Humanists tend to look to science rather picture. Rachels proposes "moral indi- more copies of "my" genes into the next than revelation to understand the vidualism": where characteristics of an generation. Biology can and does oper- universe, and science tells us that our individual, rather than membership in ate to produce altruism, but it is not species does not teeter at the top of the a class, whatever that class might be, generalized. Altruism is most frequently scala natura but is instead a product of become the criteria for establishing expressed towards "us," with "them," the same evolutionary processes that moral rules. The heart of this view is however defined, as much farther down produce hares, hornets, and horseradish. to consider relevant characteristics in the line. If we look only at DNA, it is difficult establishing moral rules. Thus it is Note, before I go on, that I am to tell us from modern apes. We are part immoral to deny admission to law school describing the situation, not praising it, of a web of life, and from this we might to someone just because he is black, but

14 FREE INQUIRY

not immoral if the person cannot reason. able hearts for an aged man near death? view that humanists should evaluate. If The ability to reason is a characteristic Rachels's inclusive morality, I believe, humanists do indeed consider that relevant to attending law school, whereas can be seen as an extension of our general humankind is a product of evolution, race is not. human tendency to be more altruistic is part of the network of living things, Similarly, it is immoral to put a toward those who are more similar to and has been produced by the same chimpanzee in a barren enclosure with us than those more distantly related. The mechanisms that have produced all other no stimulation, but unobjectionable to criteria by which Rachels makes moral living forms, then surely we have a dif- put a shrimp in the same situation. decisions tend to be those of importance ferent relationship with nature than those Chimps have characteristics of intelli- to sentient mammals: intelligence, sensi- who believe Homo sapiens was specially gence, the need for stimulation, etc., that tivity to pain, consciousness. It is not created to rule over all other creatures. are relevant to caging, whereas shrimp a point of view that strong animal rights Humanism should reflect this view. do not. Theoretically, if one considers philosophers will approve of, though ani- the characteristics of the individual, mal welfare supporters might. It is also Dr. Eugenie C. Scott, a distinguished rather than membership in a class, one a point of view that right-to-lifers, oppo- anthropologist, is executive director of might have a situation where a non- nents of euthanasia, or opponents of the the National Center for Science Educa- human would require preferential treat- right to die or to commit suicide will tion. She is also a Fellow of the ment to a human. How many chim- find difficult. Committee for the Scientific Investiga- panzees should die to provide transplant- I think Rachels provides a point of tion of Claims of the Paranormal.

The Ignorance of Arrogance

Richard Goss

hen I was a boy, my two grand- Bush administrations. Conservatives, it about the true nature of humanism. Wmothers would get together and seems, are not conservationists. There is "a strong anti-Nature . . . discuss the deplorable state of the world, Alas, the author was not content just element in humanism," he writes. punctuating their gloomy perspectives to sound the alarm. Throughout the Humanists are said to believe that "all with, "Isn't everything awful!" The rest book one is reminded again and again problems are soluble by people," and of the family referred to their confabs who the culprit is. It is not the profit that "if a discovery or a technology can as meetings of the I.E.A. club. David motives of capitalism, nor the careless be used for evil purposes, it will be so Ehrenfeld's book, The Arrogance of disregard of the environment by com- used." Who ever read any such pro- Humanism, reminds me of my grand- munism, nor economic development, nouncements in the humanist literature? mothers' I.E.A. club. nor ignorance, nor overpopulation. No, Unhappily, gross distortions like these Written only six years before 1984, the blame is laid squarely at the doorstep seriously weaken Ehrenfeld's thesis that it may be no coincidence that the most of humanism, of all things! the world is going to hell in a hand frequently cited author in the book is At first one might expect Ehrenfeld basket. He has set up a false straw man, George Orwell. Ehrenfeld addresses the to mean humanity at large, or even and then has proceeded to demolish it. worsening state of the world, from civilization, with all of the technological The reader searches in vain for depletions of soil and fisheries to animal progress this implies. On the contrary, solutions in this pervasively pessimistic and plant extinctions, to DDT and the he specifically refers to the philosophy book, but all one finds are criticisms. TVA, to robotics and social violence. As of humanism per se, backed up by a The author deplores attempts to demys- a litany of what has gone wrong, the dictionary definition, the core of which tify problems by applying reason over book is a moving and provocative is "a supreme faith in human reason." emotion. Such arrogance as to presume account whose purpose was "to remind He does not even do us the courtesy of to expand our knowledge or abilities he the world of our failures." Ehrenfeld's assigning the proper title of "secular equates with the Devil. And this man, predictions about the pejorative trends humanism" and for all his obsession with who has earned an M.D. at Harvard, of the human predicament have been all the subject he cites only one reference as well as a Ph.D. in ecology, calls too frequently confirmed by the anti- to humanism in the bibliography. himself a scientist! environmentalist policies of the Reagan- Clearly, he has misinformed himself If he yearns for the simpler life of

Spring 1993 15

yore, why doesn't he offer constructive criticizes humanists for playing God in Richard J. Goss is emeritus profes- advice on how the overuse of the world's their attempts to achieve a world he sor of biology at Brown University. He limited resources can be reversed, on devoutly hopes for, but neither asks nor is currently studying issues at the how pollution can be halted, on how the answers the most important question of interface between science and reli- population explosion can be muffled? He all: If we don't play God, who will? gion.

Ecocentric Ethics

James Lawler

prominent idea of the film Medi- outlook fails to take into consideration cine Man is that in destroying the the fact that ecocentric ethics remains rain forests of Brazil ignorant human "The human progeny of Mother an ethics of human beings. Only human beings may unwittingly be destroying a Earth have not only produced new beings can adopt the protective and cure for cancer. A certain narrow, forms of life, but are now uniquely enhancing relation to nature recom- utilitarian form of humanism measures responsible for the continued mended by ecologists. Thus, even for the morality of the destruction of the ecocentric ethics, human beings remain existence of earthly life as a whole. rain forests by calculating its costs for in some sense central. strictly human welfare. Yet, through the It is time for humankind to consider Citing René Dubos, who argues that film's portrayal of the splendor of this acknowledging responsibility for in preindustrial societies the natural miracle of nature, together with its Earth the Daughter—Earth the environment was in fact enriched by savage destruction to satisfy human Child in need of human care." human beings, Callicott believes that a greed, an opposite idea emerges: human- post-industrial society can do so once kind in its self-centered arrogance, in its again. Everything must be done now, "speciesism," is a destructive plague on tic stage, just as the latter envelops more Callicott pleads, to ensure that the the face of the Earth. primitive national tribal or familial material for such a work is not irrevo- J. Baird Callicott has defended an ethics. In the same way that one's cably depleted by the depredations "ecocentric ethics" in opposition to obligations to one's family are not brought on by current industrial and humanistic or anthropocentric ethics.' contradicted by one's obligations to a agricultural practices. Human interac- He rejects the view that environmental fellow human being in a famine-stricken tion with nature need not, he argues, concerns can be adequately reflected country in Africa, so one's obligations necessarily be destructive. This concept through a humanism that measures the to other human beings are not negated of an ecologically positive role for destruction of the natural world solely by obligations to the natural ecology. A humanity contrasts with the more by its effects on human beings. Such a respectful relationship, such as that radically anti-human ecocentric trends, humanism fails to come to terms with which hunter-gatherer American Indian for which the best that humans can do ecological science, according to which tribes maintain toward the species they for the planet is to withdraw as much human existence participates in a hunt and kill, ensures preservation and as possible from life on this Earth. "kinship" relation with the other organ- enhancement of the natural world Instead, in the guise of presenting an isms and natural systems of this planet. without sacrificing the human one. ecocentric viewpoint, Callicott leans Callicott avoids extremist formulations Implicit in Callicott's interpretation, toward a secular version of the biblical of ecocentric ethics, rejecting the pro- nevertheless, is the idea that, while humanism for which humankind, having posal to reduce 90 percent of the human ecocentric ethics is not an anti- stewardship of nature, is endowed population in order to enhance this humanistic ethics, humanism without (whether by God or by Nature) with an beauty and variety of nature. He does the correction provided by this higher ecological mission unlike any other. not regard humanistic and ecocentric vantage point is incapable of encompass- It is true that narrowly utilitarian ethics to be radically antithetical. ing fundamental ecological concerns. humanism has been insufficiently eco- Ecocentric ethics is a further stage in the This moderate ecocentrism remains logical. But Callicott's ecocentrism too evolution of ethics. It does not negate opposed to humanism as a comprehen- is insufficiently ecological. Humanity's but rather envelops the earlier humanis- sive philosophical theory. But such an kinship with nature is complex, double-

16 FREE INQUIRY sided. Ecocentric ethicists stress the against nature itself, is capable of ments. The rape of the land and the Native American idea of Earth as the thwarting such a cosmic misstep. people for gold, begun five hundred Mother. But as humanity has tech- Kantian humanism was hampered by years ago, is daily reenacted, causing nologically come of age it has produced a mechanistic conception of nature. agonizing spasms in the stratosphere. new ecological offspring and has Hegel's dialectical theory of interaction acquired enormous ecological fecundity. demonstrated that the effect can be the It is not enough to recognize what cause of its own cause. The universe is Notes humanity owes to Earth. Earth too owes causa sui, cause of itself, a self- 1. J. Baird Callicott, "The Search for an something to its most powerful and determining process, out of which Environmental Ethic," in Tom Regan, ed., problematic species. Post-industrial human intelligence arises as an inevitable Matters of Life and Death: New Introductory expression of nature. Hegel recaptured Essays in Moral Philosophy, (McGraw-Hill, Inc. ecological ethics cannot overlook Random House, New York, 1993), pp. 322- humanity's profound impact on earthly the idea of the coextensiveness of spirit 382. geography and biology. Thousands of with matter defended by Spinoza against 2. Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Cartesian dualism: Deus sive Natura; Metaphysic of Morals, (Harper Torchbooks, New years of human life on this planet have York, 1956), p. 88 [52, Second German edition; introduced a new dimension in the God or, in other words, Nature. Fol- 421, Royal Prussian Academy edition]. world's ecology, an irreversibly human lowing Hegelian dialectics, Marx sim- 3. From Karl Marx, "Economic and Philo- dimension. The "biosphere" has given ilarly wrote of "consistent naturalism or sophic Manuscripts of 1844," in Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Collected Works, vol. 3 rise to a "noosphere," to the integration humanism."3 In the naturalistic human- (International Publishers, New York, 1976), p. of intelligent human activity in the ism or humanistic naturalism of Marx, 336. the key to overcoming the alienation 4. James Lawler and Zaid Orudjev, "Marx- biological system of life on the planet. ism, Humanism and Ecology," in David Goicoe- This idea was developed in the 1920s between human beings and nature chea, John Luik, and Tim Madigan, The Question both by the French Catholic paleontol- consists in the solution to the problem of Humanism; Challenges and Possibilities, Chardin and by the of the alienation of human beings from (Prometheus Books, Buffalo, 1991), pp. 162- ogist Teilhard de 169. pioneer of Russian scientific ecology, one another.4 The answer to the riddle 5. From Karl Marx, "Introduction" to A Vladimir Vernadski. The human proof the Sphinx, that mysterious confusion Contribution to the Critique of Political Econ- of human and natural forms, remains omy, in Karl Marx, Federick Engels, Collected geny of Mother Earth have not only Works, vol. 28, p. 42. produced new forms of life, but are now the same as in the time of Oedipus. Just uniquely responsible for the continued as "the anatomy of man is a key to the existence of earthly life as a whole. It anatomy of the ape,"5 so, before it is is time for humankind to consider really possible to envelop the human James Lawler is professor of philosophy acknowledging responsibility for Earth problem in the ecological one, it is at the State University of New York at the Daughter—Earth the Child in need necessary to solve the human problem. Buffalo. He is the author of the Exis- of human care. Today it is no longer thinkable to tentialist Marxism of Jean-Paul Sartre Utilitarian ethics is not the only postpone the ecological problem for the (Griner) and IQ, Heritability and Racism version of humanist ethics. The struggle human one. The extent of ecological (International Publishers).

between enlightenment and romanticism alienation at the end of the twentieth Ziggy e1984. Ziggy and Friends dist. by Universal Press in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century century does not permit any Syndicate. All rights reserved. Germany gave rise to a complex, multi- separation of these two Ziggy dimensional conception of the relation issues. The fires of the rain between reason and nature, between forest are set by impover- humanism and naturalism. Already in ished peasants using archaic Kant, the basic ethical imperative agricultural techniques to consists in acting "as if the maxim of eke out a precarious exist- your action were to become through ence for a few years before your will a universal law of nature."2 A the shriveled earth forces mode of behavior that destroys nature them to move on. Following cannot be willed as a universal law of behind this protective cover nature. If human beings claim a special of human hunger, rich cattle place in nature, it is not necessarily ranchers move into the des- because of narrow egotistical speciesism troyed lands to produce beef or some arbitrarily selected superiority for North American fast- to other species. It is the fact that human food chains, and interna- beings are the only subjects capable of tional mining companies taking conscious responsibility for the excavate minerals over laws of nature. A comet from space, a jungle-destroying roads built blind accident of nature, can extinguish with world bank loans, life on this planet, while a conscious act financed under the aegis of of humanity, upholding natural law notoriously corrupt govern-

Spring 1993 17 o4d

Humanism in a

Biocentric Universe BH

Frank Cullen and Ingrid Newkirk

n their book, Shadows of Forgotten in enlightened self-interest. Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are, I "lt is base hubris, no matter how it It is base hubris, no matter how it Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan write, "A may be packaged, to assume that only sharp distinction between human beings may be packaged, to assume that humankind has intrinsic value and thus and animals is essential if we are to bend only humankind has intrinsic value is entitled to live life appropriate to its them to our will, make them work for and thus is entitled to live life best nature while other forms of life are us, wear them, eat them—without any appropriate to its best nature while tools, playthings, or rubbish. Where disquieting tinges of guilt or regret." other forms of life are tools, conflicts are perceived they should be They go on to describe, among other playthings, or rubbish." resolved in the interest of both compet- examples of the difficulty in drawing itors, not simply on the basis of chau- such a distinction, an experiment in vinism or might. And if the Gaia which rhesus monkeys forced by scien- impose a godhead but, when it comes hypothesis is anywhere near appropriate, tists to deliver shocks to their cagemates to temporal activity, it agrees with the the sum of creation is only as viable as secular community and legitimizes in order to receive food rations starved the well-being of its parts. humankind's leasehold on everything it themselves for up to two weeks rather Currently, there is more argument sees and (therefore) wants. than pull the switch. about the particulars than about the need The second question seems to be We humans have explained the order to extend our ethics. In general, each which philosophies are capable of ethical and nature of the universe to ourselves, phase of history has extended the cut- extension. Let the moral motivation in our own concepts. We have no off point, and temporary setbacks seem come from where it may, whether alternative. Secular humanism and most built into the cyclical dynamic. Exclu- through rational thought or transcen- of the major religions accept that sions have been made on every possible dental divinings. Moral certainty at its humankind looks at the world as if our basis: heredity, ethnicity, nationality, least is a guess limited by the human species were the centerpiece, much as a gender, race, class beauty, intelligence, vessel; at its best it is the common ground child regards its world. ("The dewdrop of those useful philosophies that have sexual predilection, belief system, skin knows the sun only through its own tiny nurtured and endured. color, and size. They continue to be made orb"—Rabindranath Tagore.) Other Since humans are sorely challenged on the basis of species, and the same religions and philosophies can and are to conduct our society's affairs ethically, arguments are vetted and retooled to reinterpreting their doctrines to ac- how can we be expected to respect all support anthropocentrism. (Surely?) knowledge the interdependent associa- forms of life? It would be sorry of us On an immediate level, the issue is tion of manifest life and to admit the to believe that the greatness of the kinship. How can humans fixate on a inherent value and rights of each member challenge absolves us from commitment. few variations in DNA and claim both community. One's belief is one's deeds. The act of exclusion and superiority? As ecologists, To us, the question seems not to be living ethically is an end in itself, with and people who believe that valuing the whether humanism—or religion—is or without an expectation of reward. individual is the first step in respecting philosophically unable to adapt to the Moral certainty forbids and permits. the species, we claim kinship. For those new paradigm of a biocentric universe, Yet often we may not be able to who require a kinship test, we remind but whether either humanism or religion understand what action will produce you that we share identical breathing, is willing to scrap the mythic status it good. In those events we can only do eating, sleeping, and reproductive activ- has accorded humankind within the our earnest best. All we really know is ity with a host of species. universe. that we should be wary when we are Darwin demolished the first chau- Like a child, our history on this planet asked to rationalize harm. In a biocentric vinistic defense. One by one other argu- has been a challenge to match our universe, ethical extension and right ments have dissolved with inquiry and appetites with compassion, our actions actions mean more than good steward- observation. Many animal species, not with responsibility. Theology may ship and considerably more than acting just mammals, share abilities we thought

18 FREE INQUIRY made humankind singular: language, the ability of individuals within these Once the sky was a canopy for gods tool-use and tool-making (although species to employ human language—and fashioned in the image of humankind humans may be the only animals to hence human concepts and abstract and the Earth was a turtle's back. Later borrow tools and not return them), even thought—yet has failed to dismiss the and elsewhere, it was a Eurocentric, four- love and nurturing of a partner and evidence, whether "signed," as in the case cornered thing awash in seas that spilt family. Altruism has been observed in of chimpanzees and gorillas, or spoken, over the edges into an eternal abyss. most species, whether exalted or de- as by grey parrots. (While we have Maybe the Gaia concept isn't quite right. spised. In its public service appeal to recently "discovered" that rats and Maybe biocentric is not an adequate parents the Spanish Child Welfare elephants communicate subsonically, in concept. Maybe it isn't enough to accord Society, in fact, uses video footage of the case of dolphins, at least, Dr. John all sentient beings rights. But, as a chart adult lions, hippopotamuses, and Lilly advises us that they "speak" at for humanity, biocentrism, the Gaia birds—all protecting, gushing over, and speeds and frequencies far too fast and theory, and the rejection of speciesism teaching their offspring—before remon- high for us to fathom except, perhaps, take us a step or two beyond the flat- strating, "For once, we're asking you to by computer.) worlders. behave like animals." We offer a counter challenge: Is there One is tempted to twit the chauvinists any similarly scrupulously tested evi- Frank Cullen, writer and educator, is the with the fact that animals such as dence that any human has been able, originator of the lecture series "New gorillas, chimpanzees, and grey parrots in turn, to understand and communicate Ethics for a New Era." Ingrid Newkirk can understand, and in some cases use, in the language and concepts of another is the founder and national director of human language. And experiment after species? People for the Ethical Treatment of experiment has been devised to challenge Who knows what the full reality is. Animals.

Humanism and Speciesism believe that we humans can pursue and achieve, at least partially, happiness, knowledge, prosperity, and fulfillment on this Earth. I further believe that it R. W. Bradford is desirable and morally appropriate for us to work toward these goals. As human s humanism a form of speciesism? The I am not convinced that such deliberate beings, we live within a social environ- Iquestioned posed by FREE INQUIRY'S invective has a role to play in intelligent ment as well as a natural environment. editors is not as simple as it appears at controversy. Both occur without human design and first blush. For one thing, it suggests that One can try, of course, to reconstruct are evolutionary in character, and we are there are many forms of speciesism, its meaning without the overtones of only beginning to understand the com- while plainly there are not. For another, moral opprobrium. Speciesism, we plicated dynamics of each. Environmen- it suggests that the concepts of human- might say, is the view that one particular tal integrity is a high priority for all of ism and speciesism have similar episte- species ought to be at the center of one's us, and a healthy natural environment mological status, which plainly they do values. But this is clearly nugatory, for is critical to achievement of the hu- not. who proposes any ethical system cen- manistic goals I pursue. But the notion Humanism is the view that human tered on the prosperity of any species that we ought to measure the rightness beings are capable of achieving happi- other than humanity? or wrongness of our own actions against ness, knowledge, prosperity, and fulfill- Are the radical environmentalists, the standard of the health and well-being ment without recourse to the super- who use the term speciesism to denounce of all living things in general, or against natural, and ought to pursue these goals. those with whom they disagree, correct the standard of the "health" of the planet Speciesism is an expletive, used by in their worldview? Ought human beings in general, is just plain silly. radical environmentalists to express act indifferently to the health, happiness, moral opprobrium at the values of those prosperity, and fulfillment of themselves Note who believe people ought to act on behalf and other human beings? Or should we 1. Speciesism was coined by Peter Singer, a of themselves and their fellow beings, as hold human values as our goal and moral vegetarian, as a term of opprobrium for people opposed to other living beings or to the compass? These are interesting questions who do not grant equal moral status to animals. Singer coined the term as an analog to racism entire system of living beings.' It is not which merit serious discussion. But and sexism. Speciesism has since been approp- a moral worldview, but rather a way of devising insults to intimidate those with riated by radical ecologists, who use it to refer denigrating a moral worldview. Species- whom one disagrees does not stimulate to any belief or behavior pattern that fails to grant equal status to any living species, or to the ism is to ethics what nigger is to race: that discussion. ecosystem, or to "Mother Earth" herself. an ugly expression of hatred, an attempt My own view, as you might imagine, to prevent discussion by intimidating and is that the humanist view is superior to R. W. Bradford is editor of Liberty insulting those with whom one disagrees. the radical environmentalist view. I magazine.

Spring 1993 19 Intrinsic Value for Nature — An Incoherent Basis for Environmental Concern

Bernard E. Rollin

n the dialectic of social values, it is overzealous environmental ethics the- typical for issues that have tradition- orists have done. The way to fit such "Attempting to ground ally been neglected to eventually evoke objects into the moral arena is to stress extreme and overzealous attention. environmental concern upon a their fundamental instrumental value for Concern for the environment provides high-sounding but incoherent humans and animals, not to incoherently an example of just such a set of extremes. conceptual base does not serve confer intrinsic value on things without After a long period wherein environmen- society or the environment well; it awareness. We need to preserve clean air and water and ecosystems because we— tal despoilation and preservation were simply assures that environmental essentially ignored, the opposite extreme and animals—cannot live without them, has emerged, and the environment has concerns will be dismissed when not because they have some special, been reified and deified as the locus of their stylishness wears off and the mystical status in their own right. the highest moral concern and intrinsic underlying moral basis is seen to Indeed, emphasis on the alleged value, allegedly overshadowing the lack solidity." intrinsic value of nature can lead to what moral status of "mere" individual has been aptly called "eco-Facism"; sentient beings. subordination of the interest of "mere" not equal. Despite—or perhaps because of—the sentient individuals to the alleged Similarly, those thinkers like myself, singular popularity, even trendiness, of interests of ecosystems. (I say "allegedly" who have attempted to raise the moral such a position, it is essential that its because only sentient beings can have and legal status of animals in society philosophical basis be closely scrutin- interests, except perhaps in a hyperbolic ized. Attempting to ground environmen- from mere property and tools for human and metaphorical way.) Some environ- tal concern upon a high-sounding but use to objects of moral concern whose mental ethicists have tried to argue that incoherent conceptual base does not interests ought to be protected, have ecosystems do have interests, since they serve society or the environment well; done so by stressing the presence in behave in a homeostatic way and restore it simply assures that environmental animals of inescapably morally relevant states of equilibrium. To argue in this concerns will be dismissed when their similarities to humans. Most impor- way, however, is to imply that thermo- stylishness wears off and the underlying tantly, we have stressed the presence of stats and toilets also have interests that moral basis is seen to lack solidity. sentience in animals as the key to moral should be preserved for their own sake, As Plato in essence pointed out, all considerability; their ability to expe- since they too have homeostatic, self- moral progress proceeds from unpack- rience what we all consider to be morally adjusting properties. ing, sharpening, or drawing unnoticed relevant states of consciousness such as Some environmental ethicists have implications from previously accepted pain, distress, fear, anxiety, loneliness, tried to give independent moral value to moral principles—new ethical insights boredom, joy, pleasure, etc. Humans are natural objects on the grounds that they are not created ex nihilo, but "recol- morally considerable because what we possess grandeur, sublimity, complexity, lected." Moral progress for minorities, do to them matters to them; this is also or similar properties. Such a move, first women, and other disenfranchised the case with animals. And such mat- of all, involves confusing ethics and humans, for example, was occasioned in tering gives sense to the notion of aesthetics, and again, provides no reason society when it was realized that full intrinsic or inherent value—conscious for treating natural objects as possessing enfranchisement was a logical conse- beings can (inherently) value or disvalue value independent of sentient beings, let quence of principles already accepted in what happens to them, even if no one alone more value than sentient beings. the social ethic. Progress in civil rights, else does. Once again, a form of instrumental value for example, occurred when society was On the other hand, it is senseless to in natural objects is mysteriously and led to draw the inevitable conclusion accord intrinsic moral value, let alone illegitimately transmuted into alleged from premises it already accepted: all the highest intrinsic moral value, to intrinsic value. humans ought to be treated equally; nonsentient nature—mountains, ecosys- Environmental ethicists of the sort we blacks were human; and separate was tems, rivers, wilderness areas—as some have been criticizing will doubtless

20 FREE INQUIRY criticize our position as trivializing the more responsive to arguments about not and director of Bioethical Planning at importance of natural objects. Such an fouling their own nests than they would Colorado State University at Fort objection is, however, ill-founded. We do be to quasi-mystical, high-blown state- Collins. He is the author of Animal not trivialize the importance of a healthy ments about rocks having rights. Rights and Human Morality (Prome- environment by saying that we or theus Books) and The Unheeded Cry: animals cannot survive without it. Bernard E. Rollin is professor of Animal Consciousness, Animal Pain, Indeed, most people are likely to be far philosophy, physiology, and biophysics and Science (Oxford).

Environmentalism as a Humanism

Robert C. Solomon

Tike all noble causes, environmental- humanity and human values as such— i Jism invites—no, seems to require— but a belligerent dismissal of the rights "The charge of speciesism is, self-righteousness. There is the predict- and interests of "useful" animals and the able insistence on self-sacrifice. There is I think, a specious one." nonhuman world in general in the name the familiar attitude problem: Greener of convenience and "utility." In the if not more Tao than thou. But where the most superficial analysis, "folks like Scriptures, our ancestral humans are aspiring religious saints and pundits us"). Speciesism emerges in such con- famously promised "dominion" over the compete to see who can be higher, the frontations not as a species of humanism, Earth, and in a vulgar version of appropriate metaphor for the Green but as an a priori dismissal of the rights evolutionary biology, it is pointed out Competition is rather "depth" and and interests of the nonhuman in favor that, naturally, "each looks after its "deep." And so we have "deep ecology," of often vulgar conveniences and self- own." "The Peaceable Kingdom"— and the seemingly interminable question, interest. But against virulent anti- where the lion lies down with the lamb— "How deep is deep?" How far down can humanism, there is no easy, rational only succeeds until dinner time. Nature environmentalists go, in order to escape reply. The common ground of most is "red in tooth and claw," and why, the humanism and speciesism? Perhaps the ethical arguments—compassion and skeptics and cynics ask, should we ultimate depth, proclaimed by at least concern for other human beings, some pretend otherwise? The rational a few Earth Firsters and some of their sense of justice and mutual well-being— response, "because we are rational," just counterparts (in Europe and Australia, is undermined, "dug under" by the anti- doesn't seem to be persuasive enough. for instance) is the extreme anti- humanists. The premises have disap- What, the skeptics and cynics ask, is the humanist stance that fully embraces the peared, and ordinary humanists and motive? Apart from questions of utility, view that humanity is the problem. utilitarians find themselves in the same long-term self-interest, and some sense Accordingly, humanity would best be impossible position in which they once of aesthetics or sentimentality, why eliminated. And so we hear praise for found themselves when arguing with the should we do anything else than look the AIDS virus and hosannas for the apocalypse-minded prophets of immi- after "our own?" reappearance of smallpox or anything nent doom and selective salvation. What The problem in environmental else that threatens the survival of the can you say to someone for whom the debates, as in so many real-life practical most ecologically troublesome species in death of billions of people is a fair trade, philosophical disputes, is an excess of the history of the planet. whether for Heaven or for the integrity polarization of the key ethical terms. Against such virulent anti-humanism, of the Planet? There is the harsh distinction between there are the predictable reactionary Such virulent anti-humanism is altruism and self-interest—yielding some responses from those who would defend extreme, of course, but it builds on ways fascinating sociobiological arguments less than global thinking: the right to of thinking that are all too common in but clouding the issue. There is the self- own an RV, the supposedly traditional the environmental debate. The charge of righteous rejection of all "utilitarian" family, the consumer society in general, Speciesism is, I think, a specious one. arguments for the environment in favor perhaps (in the abstract) the human As I suggested above, it is rarely a of what one might call "reverence" species (which usually means, on even humanism—an enthusiastic defense of arguments. And there are two competing

Spring 1993 21 conceptions of nature, as a mere resource sometimes radically, different from one business and social responsibility. So, "out there" for the taking, albeit to be another. And for all of the apologems too, the polemical distinctions, between conserved as any finite necessity, and as first of religion then of biological science, the love of nature and the exploitation precious in-itself, filled with the wisdom the moral differences between the so- of nature ("reverence" and "utilitarian- of homeostasis and a "balance" of nature called human and nonhuman are not ism") distort and disguise the complex that is invisible only to the short-sighted much more than what we make them issues of environmentalism and make and the aesthetically deprived. to be. True, some human beings have mutual understanding and cooperation Gregg Easterbrook has written, per- developed the capacity for formulating impossible. "Deep" ecologists who wage versely but wisely, that we do not need all-inclusive moral principles. But what war against one another and reject ail to take care of nature, thank you; nature conceivable technological solutions to is and always will be capable of taking environmental problems do the environ- care of herself. It is an old Sartrian point: "Competition for the high moral mental movement no favors but only nature cannot be destroyed; what falls ground is not the way to isolate environmentalism from the very under the heading of "destruction" is environmental reform." possibility of cooperative reforms (e.g. only what we (or some other conscious The Ecologist, vol. 18, no. 4/ 5, 1988). beings, including God or gods) have It is in response to such divisive polemi- if morality rather consists in fellow- come to care about. What we can cizing that the reactionary accusations feeling, affectionate attachments, good conceive and what concerns us, neces- of environmentalists as "elitists" gain upbringing and not the abstract fruits sarily, is the conservation of a peculiarly plausibility, e.g. Tucker, Progressive and of Practical Reason?' Those who would human habitat, a world in which we can Privilege (New York: Doubleday, 1982). abandon speciesism sometimes urge live comfortably and in harmony with Competition for the high moral ground upon us another perspective. But what those aspects of nature we choose to is not the way to environmental reform. could it be? What are the alternatives? privilege. Even there, the division Perhaps only what philosopher Tom between nature and human nature is Notes particularly self-serving. Consider Fred- Nagel has famously called "the view from erick Turner, echoing David Hume two nowhere," or what former Chemical 1. I am thinking here not only of the well- centuries before: "The theory of evolu- Bank President Tom Johnson has nicely known debate between Lawrence Kohlberg and described as "the moral superiority of Carol Gilligan but several centuries of differences tion implies that human history is also between rule-governed moral theorists (Imman- a part of nature, and that nature itself the uninvolved." Or, perhaps, it is that uel Kant, in particular) and "moral sentiment has always been a mess: everything supposedly detached view from some theorists," for whom the intellect in-itself gives nonspecifiable point in the galaxy, like no assurance of virtue. interfering with everything else, every- 2. E.g. Bill McGibben's "death of Bambi" thing changing, everything being used those junior high school charts of the attack on everything human coupled with an up, everything irreversible, waste every- solar system, from nowhere in particular. outrageously sentimentalized Disney version of To deny an essential moral difference nature in his The End of Nature (New Yorker where—the good old second law of Books, 1989). thermodynamics. Life is a mess— between human and nonhuman is not sucking, secreting, competing, breeding, to deny the human.2 dying—and human beings—desirous, One of the themes of my own work Robert C. Solomon is a professor of aspiring, quarrelsome, proud, acquisi- in ethics is the self-defeating nature of philosophy at the University of Texas tive, and embarrassingly self- those overly antagonistic dichotomies at Austin. He is the author most recently conscious—are what nature produced between "self-interest" and "altruism," of Entertaining Ideas, Popular Philoso- when it had the chance to do so" between personal values and ethical phical Essays 1970-1990 (Prometheus (Harper's Magazine, November 1989). values, between "the bottom line" of Books). Whatever else it may be, environmentalism need not and should not be an anti-humanism, a rejection of the human perspective. It should be an appeal to CALVIN & HOBBES what is best and most human in us, our Do IOU BELIEVE IN 114 NOT SURE, MAN aesthetic and spiritual sensitivities, our THE DEVIL? YOU KNOW, NEEDS THE HELP. YOU JUST (AMC TALK A SUPREME EVIL BEING TO ANIMALS ABOUT ability to step back from our narrow DEDICATED TO THE THESE THINGS. projects and our prejudices and appre- TEMPTATION, CoRRUPT1oN, AND DESTRUCTION OP MAN? ciate and empathize and cooperate in a world that is bigger and greater than ourselves. What is wrong with speciesism? I think that it is only intellectual laziness that still allows otherwise perceptive .. Oak— people to talk in exclusionary terms about "humanity." People are different, Calvin and Hobbes C1992 Watterson. Dist. by UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. 22 FREE INQUIRY Primary Responsibility to the Earth

Elaine Stanfield

umanists are people of goodwill, More. In trying to reach the religious community, she subtitled her book Hright? And religious people also so "I see our responsibility not just regard themselves and often are, right? Human Population Regulation and Humanists are people-oriented and say to people, but to the Earth, Christian Ethics. I met Susan on a whale- personal rights are the most important. as primary." watch trip in San Ignacio, where the Religious people also tend to forget that forgiving grey whales not only allowed other things than people matter. So the Earth's feelings. When John Muir us to pat them, but proudly showed us their babies. It's a mystery, after all the where do environmentalists come in? spoke with reverence about the red- killing, why they still want to be friends Pathetically last—on the hindtit so to woods and the giant sequoia trees, he with us. It was a mystical, life-giving, speak. spoke with eloquence: "The Sequoia awesome experience that will live with But the survival of the planet depends gigantea is nature's forest masterpiece, me the rest of my life. on concern for our fellow-creatures on it belongs to an ancient stock, has a It's time to join forces, time to act. this Earth, who actually constitute our strange air of other days, a thoroughbred It's time to stop patting ourselves on the own survival—protection of the eco- look, inherited from long ago." This is back for being people of goodwill, get system that is our life support. Concern what we are destroying in order to house off our butts, and start doing something that people are now outnumbering those the overpopulation of heedless breeders values: Not "human values," but Earth for our planet, starting with joining and called man. Cleveland Amory wrote a values. working for population and environ- book called Man—Kind? which told in We environmentalists believe that it mental groups. Belonging to the human- horrendous detail of our inhumanity to could be more important to save an ists is just not enough. Not when excess the animals. elephant than any number of brain- children in Rio are actually being killed Even Helen Keller, forgiving of her damaged, crack-addicted babies, rapists, by government agencies. Not when a terrible infirmities, said: "That the sky wife-batterers, child abusers, or murder- third of India's unwanted children are is brighter than the earth means little, ers, all of whom are overpopulating this brain damaged. Not when the U.S. unless the earth itself is appreciated and fragile planet, polluting, destroying, and Academy of Sciences along with the making war. Sexual abuse is rampant, enjoyed," and subsequently Franklin Royal Society of London can come out our air unbreathable, our water poisoned Delano Roosevelt, a man not especially with this joint statement: "If current as in the process we kill the precious renowned for such sensibilities, said, "The predictions of population growth prove birds, and dolphins, and beasts. nation that destroys its soil destroys itself." accurate and patterns of human activity Our topsoil is vanishing and our Now, since I have little patience with on the planet remain unchanged, science agriculture is less viable every year. So religion, most especially organized and technology may not be able to I see our responsibility not just to people, religion, I expect it goes without saying prevent either irreversible degradation of but to the Earth, as primary. that the religion dictated by the pope the environment, or continued poverty Yes, we women are nurturers, but is evil. He and Mother Teresa trotting for the world." Not as the Population there is a lot more to nurture today than around the world telling exhausted Bomb keeps ticking, and Paul Ehrlich's in the past, when women were kept women it is their duty to keep on having statement is ever more true that we are barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen. children and not use birth control sawing off the limb on which we sit. Television seems to spend most of its amounts to a disregard for Mother No. Not today. Not in this era. time worrying over people's feelings. Earth. If there were truly respect and (Just tune in any talk show, Oprah, reverence for God's creation, even the Elaine Stanfield has been an advocate Donahue or any of the multiple that simplest mind should be able to compute for the environment and population seem to produce new progeny every day.) that "Be fruitful and multiply" was said control since she read Malthus in 1935. We wish they would spend less time as a kind of blessing for another era, She serves on numerous boards, includ- worrying about who is fucking who, and and today we've already done that. See ing Californians for Population Stabil- show just a little bit of consideration for Susan Bratton's book Six Billion and ization (CAPS).

Spring 1993 23

Humanism Is for Humans

Jan Narveson

umanism is for humans. This, ancestors, and (I hope!) ourselves. They being supplied with the abundant help Happarently, is more than you can will be able to cope. The human species available from the super-productive say for many current ecological advo- has made a decent or better than decent countries. cates, who seem to be telling us that trees, life for itself in an incredible variety of Housing? Cars? Energy? No problem! canyons, boa constrictors, whales, and "ecologies"—think of the Inuit, the Not only are there ample resources goodness-knows-what are to be pre- inhabitants of the rain forests, the folks available, even with the current technol- ferred to people. They surely don't mean who live in huts on stilts in Bolivian ogy, for supplying everybody who can it, I would hope. In my view, and I'm lakes, and more. Each of these and the afford them with cars, but also there is sure in yours, the point of whatever we innumerable others made the best use no reason why the poor of the world do is to make the best possible lives for they could manage of the resources they should not ere long be able to share in ourselves, our loved ones, and humans had at hand, and if they left a changed the wealth, even as the Taiwanese and in general. If that involves eating ham- ecology for their successors, the succes- the South Koreans, not to mention the burgers and sawing trees into book- sors then went out and did their best Japanese, have done already. They will, shelves, so be it. with that, and so on. It is astonishing that is, if their governments will let them, Many current environmentalists, how contemporary humans can over- and us, make the appropriate arrange- though, don't really dissent from hu- look the resourcefulness of their fellows ments. Which decidedly does not mean manism. They claim, instead, that we in all of this recent cant about ecology. that their governments should try to humans must cut down all sorts of things But the point is that there is good provide them with these goodies. That's that we like in order to keep the world news, except for disaster-talk aficiona- exactly the sort of course of action that safe for the rest of the human race. dos. For there is no disaster, now or in is sure to prevent this desirable result. Sustainability has become the buzz- the offing, sooner or later. The five The "appropriate arrangement" intended word, the implication being that life as billion of us on the globe at present live, is that you pay for what you get, and we currently know it and enjoy it is not by and large, better than the two billion thus, for most of us, that you work for sustainable. of a hundred years ago, and the ten a living. But that's all it takes. There is, Even if that were in some sense true, billion a hundred years from now, if to repeat, no resource problem of it would matter how long, wouldn't it? there are that many, can and hopefully consequence for the globe. Suppose that we can sustain our current will do better than we do.! There's There is, to be sure, a bias that people lifestyle for, say, ten thousand years, and absolutely no reason why this should not with rudimentary ways of life must prefer after that it'll be downhill for the rest; happen except for the unfortunate ours, and that only some kind of injustice whereas if we start right now to live like predilection of our fellows for killing is keeping the Bantu from driving around our nineteenth-century ancestors, then each other—and/or clamping down on in Hondas. That seems to me pretty that'll be sustainable for twenty thou- each other's aspirations, for assorted dubious, frankly; but I'm only talking sand. Should we be impressed by that? political (including ecological) reasons. about resources, and not about the Would we then have good reason to Politics is in truth the main enemy of Meaning of Life and its implications for retreat to log cabins and woodstoves? our species. sports-car or VCR ownership. (One thing wrong with that—instruc- Back in the sixties and seventies when The main thing that those who think tively wrong—is that woodstoves pro- all of this got going, the doomsaying set otherwise leave out of the equation is duce immensely more pollution than a were predicting massive starvation by know-how, technology. There are a few good modern gas or electric range, 1990. Instead, food production per things that we might conceivably run low especially if the electricity comes from capita in the world has increased steadily, on eventually, at least from traditional nuclear generators!) to the point where the only people sources. But so what? Resourceful But the answer is no. Future gener- starving in the world right now are humans are even now figuring out how ations will consist, after all, of rational people whose governments (and/ or their to do the same things better without animals, resourceful people like our political enemies) prevent them from them. Eventually there will be electric

24 FREE INQUIRY cars (already approaching practicality), over resources. Is it a good reason? No. tion, global warming, etc., are pretty whose ultimate power source will be The intelligent thing to do is to get to much in the same class as the version nuclear-generated electricity (of which work showing how the available resour- in the New Testament: hyper-inflated there is a fabulous potential amount; and ces can enable all parties to live well— extrapolations of individually modest then, some day, we will likely learn to no matter who owns them. Those who and soluble problems, many worth a harness the fusion reaction, with its own them do better by selling them to paragraph but none offering a scientific absolutely unlimited potential). those who do not, and those who do basis for the day's common oracular Humans are, of course, faced with a not do better by working for those who pronouncements. vast array of particular problems, some do. Not all of us will end up being Bill I am aware that people are deeply of them ecological in nature. We work Cosby and earning a hundred million disappointed, even offended, by good away at these piecemeal, as need be: dollars a year, but even the lowliest news. I find this by far the most re- specific diseases, for instance, will be janitor will be better off in his well- markable thing of all in the current brou- researched while others kill a lot of cleaned hall than dying of shrapnel in haha. What's wrong with things being people. There are no panaceas. But there a pitched battle with the hated people in pretty good shape for our fellow are also no Great Plagues in sight, except on the other side of the hill. And he'll humans, with every prospect of their get- for those whose glasses are, shall we say, likely retire on an income that his fightin' ting better still if we can keep our wits quite spectacularly dingy. Unless, as I forebears never enjoyed for a moment. about us? I'm baffled at that; but mean- say, you include politics within the scope What the current ecological move- while, the message here is simply that of ecological dangers. In that case, we ment is about is the capacity to enjoy whether you like it or not, that's how do indeed have plenty to worry about. a North American/ European lifestyle, it is! Humankind's potential for forming up and to do so into the indefinite future. Note sides and getting a nasty war going is, What is unique about it is its claim that 1. Julian Simon, Population Matters (Tran- indeed, possibly unlimited. That's one of we can't do this for technological saction Publishers, 1990). the places where humanism comes in. reasons. It isn't so. Unless and until It has the potential to persuade a lot something really unforeseen comes Jan Narveson is professor of philosophy of people that there is literally nothing along, what we have had so far in the at the University of Waterloo in Canada. to fight about. way of basis for disaster-prediction is He is the author of The Libertarian Idea One of the major reasons why people pure pseudoscience. The apocalypse- and many articles in professional fight, though not the only, is for control soon scenarios due to pollution, deple- journals.

Universal Speciesism

Tad Clements

f by "speciesism" is meant favoring biotic world. Humans, considered as a global environment. If such an unwise Ione's own species above others, then species, are no exception. In spite of speciesism leads to the decline or speciesism is universal in nature. Natural many natural checks and balances (such extinction of our species, along with selection through evolutionary mechan- as epidemics and famine) and various many others, the underlying largely isms leads to decline or extinction of any destructive, self-defeating human activ- unconscious processes will nonetheless species if its population fails to promote ities (such as war and other unrealistic have been driven by speciesism. the long-range success of that species. ways of coping) humans have usually Does humanism, of the secular or Whatever the mechanisms employed— tried to do whatever seemed to favor the scientific kind, endorse human species- parasitism, predation, symbiosis, or human species above all others. We have ism? Should it? And what should be the whatever—the bottom line for every failed to pursue our species' well-being position of humanism, so conceived, species is success as a species. So in a rational and realistic manner, and concerning acceptable and unacceptable speciesism—preferring, whether con- as a result find our species facing ways of treating nonhuman animals? sciously or not, one's own species—is the ecological disaster from our population One of the most widely circulated and natural state of affairs throughout the explosion and careless degradation of the influential works on this kind of human-

Spring 1993 25 ism is Corliss Lamont's The Philosophy rights do not claim such rights for lice of Humanism. On page 12 of the sixth "The claims that all life is sacred and tapeworms. edition (and essentially the same thing Granted that we should avoid such appears in other editions) he defines and that animals have inviolable extremes, the question remains: How "Humanism" as "a philosophy of joyous rights strike us as implausible. should we treat nonhuman organisms? service for the greater good of all Indeed, even those who make Although it is only part of the answer, humanity in this natural world and advo- such claims do not, in practice at we must begin by recognizing that our cating the methods of reason, science, least, accept them. Thus, for species is a part of nature, of a global and democracy." Similar definitions and instance, as a practicing physician, ecosystem. This recognition implies that descriptions appear in many other works rational and realistic assessment of the promoting secular, scientific humanism. pathogenic microorganisms were complex, ecological relationships is Therefore, secular or scientific human- not sacred to Schweitzer, and essential. Careful ecological studies may ism does endorse human speciesism— defenders of animal rights do lead us to conclude that our relationship it seeks to promote the good (the well- not claim such rights for lice to some forms of life (such as the cholera being and success) of humanity. So the and tapeworms." bacterium and the tsetse fly) should be answer to the first question—whether hostile, perhaps even aiming at their humanism of this kind endorses human extinction, while our ideal treatment of speciesism—is affirmative. morally wrong because of any alleged other life forms should be quite different. The second question—whether this moral rights nonhumans possess; such Situation ethics, firmly grounded in kind of humanism should endorse actions are wrong only because they ecology, would demand that each case human speciesism—isn't as easily an- might lead to cruelty toward fellow be carefully assessed on its own merits. swered, however. Moral philosophers humans. Surely most of us reject such Furthermore, such a moral stance would are generally (but not universally) agreed a callous attitude toward nonhumans, not exclude our species, for it may well that prescriptive utterances cannot be especially those that most closely resem- be the case that our own unregulated deduced (some would say even derived ble us (our attitude toward fleas, ticks, reproduction may turn out to be far in any sense) from descriptive state- and cockroaches may be quite different), worse than cholera and sleeping sickness. ments. Without getting into this philo- even though it may be difficult to adduce sophic issue, which would exceed the persuasive reasons for rejecting it. scope of this paper, we must still ac- The position of people like Schweitzer Tad S. Clements is emeritus professor knowledge that this is a different ques- is equally unacceptable to most of us. of philosophy at the State University of tion than the former matter-of-fact The claims that all life is sacred and that New York College at Brockport. He is consideration. animals have inviolable rights strike us the author of Science and Man: The Should humanism commit itself to as implausible. Indeed, even those who Philosophy of Scientific Humanism and human speciesism? My answer, without make such claims do not, in practice at Science Versus Religion, and co-editor extended argument (because of space least, accept them. Thus, for instance, of Religion and Human Purpose. He has limitations) is affirmative, because the as a practicing physician, pathogenic also written numerous articles and been alternative to human speciesism (when microorganisms were not sacred to involved in many environmental, hu- wisely pursued) is human suffering and Schweitzer, and defenders of animal manistic, and freethought organizations. perhaps extinction. (This assumes of course that human survival and freedom Foster Humanist Growth for Years to Come. from suffering are good.) But how is this goal to be pursued and what implications Provide for FREE INQUIRY in your will. does its pursuit have for our treatment of nonhuman organisms? Please remember FREE INQUIRY (CODESH, Inc.) when planning your estate. Your In addressing this last question let's bequest will help to maintain the vitality of humanism in a society often hostile begin by noting that there are two toward it. extreme positions that humanists of the We would be happy to work with you and your attorney in the develop- scientific kind tend to avoid, and which ment of a will or estate plan that meets your wishes. A variety of arrangements I think persuasive reasons can be given are possible, including gifts of a fixed amount or a percentage of your estate; for avoiding. One of these is represented, living trusts or gift annuities, which provide you with lifetime income; or a for example, by Thomas Aquinas and contingent bequest that provides for FREE INQUIRY only if your primary bene- Immanuel Kant, the other by Albert ficiaries do not survive you. Schweitzer and by some contemporary For more information, contact Paul Kurtz, Editor of FREE INQUIRY. All inquiries defenders of animal rights. The former will be held in the strictest confidence. view, in its most extreme form, insists that we have no moral obligations P.O. Box 664, Buffalo, New York 14226-0664 whatsoever to nonhumans. Even idle Telephone: 716-636-7571 3/93 torture of nonhuman animals is not

26 FREE INQUIRY INSTITUTE FOR INQUIRY CODESH/CSICOP Summer Session 1993 Wednesday, June 9-Saturday, June 12, 1993, Buffalo, New York at the State University of New York at Buffalo The Institute for Inquiry is jointly supported by the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism and the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, two scientific and educational nonprofit organizations. The Institute offers courses to develop knowledge and appreciation of skepticism, rationalism, freethought, and scientific modes of inquiry. The Summer Session will offer two courses: "Humanism, Religion, and Mental Health," with Wendell Watters, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, McMaster University and author of Deadly Doctrine: Health, Illness, and Christian God-Talk; Anthony Picchioni, Licensed Professional Counselor; Barbara Eisenstadt, private consultant and international trainer; and Newton Joseph, paraprofessional psychotherapist. "Investigating UFOs: Facts, Fallacies and Frauds," with Robert Sheaffer, columnist for the Skeptical Inquirer, and author of UFO Verdict: Examining the Evidence; Robert Baker, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Kentucky at Lexington; and James McGaha, major in the United States Air Force (retired). Wednesday, June 9 Friday, June 11, continued 9:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.: Investigating UFOs 7:00 P.M.- 9:00 P.M.: Dinner and Discussion 12:30 P.M.- 2:00 P.M.: Luncheon Saturday, June 12 2:00 P.M.- 5:30 P.M.: Humanism, Religion, and Mental Health 9:00 A.M.-10:30 A.M.: Investigating UFOs 10:30 A.M.-12:00 P.M.: Humanism, Religion, Thursday, June 10 and Mental Health 9:00 A.M.-11:30 A.M.: Investigating UFOs 12:00 P.M.- 6:00 P.M.: Canadian Trip (optional) 11:30 A.M.- 1:00 P.M.: Luncheon A visit to the Shaw Festival at 1:00 P.M.- 3:30 P.M.: Humanism, Religion, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, to and Mental Health see George Bernard Shaw's play Saint Joan. 4:00 P.M.- 6:00 P.M.: Reception at the Center for Inquiry Headquarters Sunday, June 13 Friday, June 11 9:00 A.M.- 7:00 P.M.: Ingersoll Museum (optional) 9:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.: Investigating UFOs A visit to Dresden, New York, to see the Robert G. Ingersoll 12:30 P.M.- 2:00 P.M.: Luncheon Memorial Museum, honoring 2:00 P.M.- 5:30 P.M.: Humanism, Religion, 19th century America's and Mental Health greatest freethinker. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — Please register me for: "Humanism, Religion, and Mental Health" (CODESH) ❑ "Investigating UFOs" (CSICOP) ❑ Registration fee for person(s) for ❑ 1 course ($125 per person) ❑ 2 courses ($225 per person) $ Luncheons: D Wednesday ❑ Thursday ❑ Friday for person(s) $10.95 each ❑ Dinner: Friday for person(s) $16.95 each $ ❑ Saturday Excursion (includes theater ticket, bus trip, and box lunch) for person(s) $59.00 each ❑ Sunday Excursion (includes bus trip and lunch at Belhurst Castle) for person(s) $40.00 each $ ❑ Check or Money Order enclosed (U.S. funds on U.S. bank, payable to CODESH) Total $ Charge my ❑ MasterCard ❑ Visa # Exp Sig

Name Address Daytime phone number City State 7ip Send to: Institute for Inquiry, P.O. Box 664, Buffalo, NY 14226-0664 FAX charges to 716-636-1733, or call toll-free 1-800-458-1366 3/93 1 On Biodiversity An exclusive interview with Edward O. Wilson Prolific author and lecturer Edward O. Wilson is professor of entomology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. He is known as the father of sociobiology. The following interview was conducted by FREE INQUIRY executive editor Timothy J. Madigan.

FREE INQUIRY: In your new book, The Diversity of Life, you state that environmental problems are innately ethical. Could you explain what you mean by this? Edward O. Wilson: Environmental problems are essentially ethical because the solutions we attempt depend on our self- perception as a species, and on the future we envision for ourselves and our descendants. And from these considerations flow our prescription of what is good for humanity and for the environment. FI: There are some critics of humanism who would say that in fact humanists are only interested in what is good for humanity, and that therefore we look at environmental issues with a sort of crude utilitarianism. In other words, if certain species are not beneficial for human beings then they are expendable. How would you respond to the claim that humanists are only concerned with the environment in regard to how it affects human beings? WILSON: Humanism can embrace both anthropocentrism, which holds that the fate of the Earth should be determined with reference to what is good for humanity, and biocentrism, which holds, first, that humanity is part of the larger living world and, second, other species have rights which, if not equal to human beings, are still worthy of consideration. I view humanism as probably providing the ultimately soundest basis for an environmental ethics directed to the long-term security of both the world environment and biodiversity within it. The reason is that, having originated by evolution as a species within the living world, we are forever intimately a part of it. It follows that we need to save much of it in a natural state in order to provide ourselves an environment that is physically and psychologically secure. FI: In the last chapter of The Diversity of Life you actually nature best and in greatest detail by viewing ourselves as call for a new ethics and speak of the importance of a new evolutionary products in which the mind, although undeniably approach based upon a naturalistic humanism. What do you unique in the history of evolution, nevertheless has biological mean by this call for a new ethics? roots that can only be understood by references to the deep WILSON: I've been attempting to develop the notion of genetic history of humanity and of our pre-human ancestors. a naturalistic ethics directed to the environment since the The relationships that we develop toward each other are based publication of Sociobiology in 1975. I attempted to test and on that long history of genetic socialization, and our ethics strengthen the argument in On Human Nature in 1978, has arisen from that deep history as well. Therefore, a sound Biophilia in 1984, and now in The Diversity of Life. The ethics has to take into account our biology and our genetic argument goes essentially as follows: we can understand human history, both of which are far more complex and difficult

28 FREE INQUIRY to understand than hitherto apreciated within the traditional aesthetic, or in a new sense, spiritual. venues of moral reasoning. Once deep history has been FI: You talk about the importance of understanding penetrated and better understood, it should allow a much "biodiversity." Can you explain what you mean by that term? more objective evaluation of moral codes. This naturalistic WILSON: Biodiversity is the sum total of diversity at every approach, which is certainly not new to me but goes back level of organization, from the variety of genes within single to evolutionary biologists of the nineteenth century, has special species, to species (that are the pivotal unit of taxonomic applicability in our approach to the environment. It inclines classification), and thence on upward to larger and larger us to recognize that humanity evolved in close association assemblages, to whole ecosystems. with other life-forms and has an innate tendency to affiliate FI: In regard to preserving biodiversity, you make a with them, by the multifarious aesthetic pleasure they provide distinction between a cost-benefit analysis and a safe minimum and the environments—places to live and search—we innately standard approach to conservation. What is that distinction? regard as optimal. This affiliation I've called "biophilia," and WILSON: One of the fundamental points of disagreement it is now developing into a serious area of science and within the domain of environmental ethics is the distinction scholarship. In the Fall of 1993 a book will appear called between the two. Cost-benefit analysis would put a measurable The Biophilia Hypothesis, edited by Stephen Kellert of Yale value on these two criteria. Those who attempt it are willing University and myself, in which authors of different disciplines to concede that species mostly have great value, such that examine the idea that there is indeed an innate relationship the cost of saving them will be outweighed in most instances between human beings and the natural environment. If this approach is strengthened by further empirical examination, "I think that humanists are exceptionally well as I expect it to be, then the naturalistic basis of an environmental ethics should prove to be the soundest one qualified to argue a moral basis for saving in the long run. the environment. FI: What does "biophilia" literally mean? WILSON: It means "love of life," and I chose the word by the value that we can assign to their preservation. At first, to embrace phenomena that might be more appropriately this seems to make sense, because we do operate in a cost- called "biophobia." For example the demonstrated genetically benefit world and it is eminently anthropocentric to think based aversion to snakes has led to the near-universal in those terms. But there is a major flaw to the argument, employment of serpents in metaphor and religious symbolism namely that no one has ever been able to fully assess the as objects of power, dread, magic, and veneration. Another value of even one species, and the more that species are known example of biophilia that has been studied in some depth as individuals, the more valuable they become from the point includes the ideal environment. There is now a substantial of view of their ultimate practical, scientific, and aesthetic amount of evidence to suggest that human beings respond potential. When all these things are put together and some strongly to certain rather narrowly defined natural environ- attempt is made to imagine how future generations will value ments. Physiological stress as mediated by the autonomic them, then the entire exercise becomes futile. And that is the nervous system is reduced most rapidly by the viewing of main reason for turning to what is called a "safe minimum certain habitats and not others. And the preferred place of standard," which is essentially to do what ever it takes to residence across many if not most cultures—whenever choice save every species as a living biological entity, to keep it, can be made—is an African-like savanna, atop a high preserve it, to allow future generations with greater knowledge promontory overlooking water. This may seem farfetched, (and, we hope, wisdom) to enjoy it and make full use of yet it is born out by a number of psychological tests and its enormous potential. by the evidences of the choice of the rich and powerful around FI: You were calling for the preservation of rain forests the world, from Park Avenue penthouses to the sites of temples long before it became an issue in the popular consciousness. and parliaments in other countries. Consider, if you will, the One of the issues that you have been talking about is to locate landscape design and vistas of the most important official what you call the world's "hot spots" and protect them. buildings and monuments in Washington, D.C.. WILSON: The hot spot concept is very important. FI: You stress the connection between ethics and aesthetics, Conservationists and biologists recognize that it no longer an appreciation of beauty. Does this tie in to your call for suffices to identify species here and there that are endangered a new ethics, that to protect the environment is not simply and to set out to save them. In that respect, the Endangered a matter of cost-benefit analysis, i.e., let's save these particular Species Act of the United States, which has been one of the plants because we might get some medical benefit from them, most enlightened and successful of all pieces of environmental but also a sense that they are naturally beautiful? legislation in history, falls short. So many species can still WILSON: I feel that an entire tier of arguments is now slip through the net it provides, species that are simply not sufficiently developed to promote the saving of natural yet recognized as existing, much less being in danger. ecosystems, and in virtually every domain that one can think Furthermore, if we work species by species, the cost of of with reference to long-term planning. They are basically expanding such programs to include all endangered species three in number: utilitarian, as a source of food, pharma- will become enormous, and we simply don't have time to ceuticals, and other products; ecosystems services, creating do it that way in any case. By far, the better procedure is and maintaining soil, water, and the very air we breathe; and to identify those ecosystems in the world that have the largest

Spring 1993 29 number of endangered, endemic species—that is, species found WILSON: It is astonishing to me that the very idea of a in the particular ecosystems under assault. Then, attempt to population policy still seems to be something of a taboo. save these hot spots. In short, give highest priority to the Nothing can be more crucial to the future of nations than ecosystems that do contain the largest number of endangered a population policy, by which I mean a democratic consensus species. We now know that many of the world's hot spots of optimum numbers and geographical distribution. That are located in rain forests, and especially the last patches of optimum will depend on the image each country has of itself. nearly destroyed rain forests. Rain forests are thought to Does it wish to be primarily industrial and draw on resources contain more than half of the species of plants and animals from other countries and depend upon highly efficient trading on Earth, even though they only cover about 7 percent of policies? Would it like to remain primarily agrarian, with large the land's surface, and are disappearing at the rate of about expanses of natural ecosystems? The best population level 1.8 percent of their cover each year. and with it the ideal geographic distribution will certainly FI: That leads to the topic of human population growth, depend in the eyes of its citizenry and the rest of the world and the danger it presents to biodiversity. You say in your on what kind of resources each nation in turn has, what its book that "humanity is ecologically abnormal" in regard to past history has been, its geographic location, and the kind its population growth. of cooperative arrangements it can can work out with other WILSON: No other animal species five kilograms or larger parts of the world. Countries such as many of those in the with partly carnivorous habitats has ever come remotely close Third World with vast resources in biodiversity and year- to present-day humanity in sheer biomass (dry weight of round growing seasons should seriously consider receding to protoplasm). The effects of this profligacy on the environment and maintaining small populations and large expanses of are staggering. We are co-opting somewhere between 20 natural areas, both for the health of their people and their percent and 40 percent of the sun's energy fixed by economic advantage. photosynthesis, which means that humans are taking over FI: How do you think that the masses of people can be the area where plants are grown, replacing vegetation with convinced about this? What sort of ways can we really try human structures and wasteland. So, we've already greatly to change people's views on this topic? diminished the capacity of natural ecosystems to sustain us, WILSON: By education, of course. And I'm optimistic on and along with this, we are existinguishing the diversity of those grounds. Realize that we are about to go through a the world at an accelerating rate. At the present time, I estimate terrible bottleneck in which world population will stabilize that extinction in the rain forests due to reduction in habitat or at least slow substantially at somewhere between 10 and alone (never mind the components of loss due to the 15 billion people, or more than twice the number we have introduction of exotic organisms and partial disturbance of today. Note, too, that energy demands of the developing the forests) is in the range of about .5 percent of species countries are going to increase enormously. In other words, annually. Furthermore, the human species has become a a much greater load is going to be put on the planet's resources geophysical force, as most people are now aware. We are and biological diversity than exists today. It's a grim picture. not only reducing the remainder of life in bulk and variety But at the same time there is evidence around the world of rapidly, we are also altering the very composition of the awakening environmental awareness. The Rio Conference is atmosphere in ways that destroy the protective ozone layer one example. Here is another: recently, 1,500 of the leading and very probably is warming the Earth's climate with scientists around the world, including a majority of the living potentially catastrophic effects. Nobelists, issued a warning to the world on these most pressing FI: This leads to a problem that you mention in the book. issues of population and environment. There is a growing You call it "the awful symmetry," namely that the richest perception of the intimate connection between conservation nations preside over some of the smallest biotas, whereas the of resources, including biodiversity and economic develop- poorest nations are considered to be the stewards of some ment, as opposed to the old zero-sum view of conservation of the largest. What sort of challenges does this present? versus jobs. And there has been a veritable mushrooming WILSON: The nations with the greatest biological treasures of Green movements around the world in the form of political are the ones least interested in and least able to care for them. movements, of new conservation organizations, and coopera- This was a major concern at the Rio Conference in June tive arrangements between business ventures and environmen- 1992: how to develop a biodiversity treaty that fosters talist initiative. So eventually, I believe sooner than later, there cooperation between north and south. The principles were will be a sufficient awareness of what the major environmental well spelled out, and, to my relief, biodiversity at long last problems are and what we must do to moderate population moved onto the center stage in discussions of the world growth to save at least a part of the biodiversity and to avoid environment. The Biodiversity Treaty, signed by almost all a great deal of human suffering than would otherwise occur. the nations, agreed to bring some of the wealth, foreign aid, One of the most encouraging signs that I have seen is the and investment capital from the north into the south for the one reported by Robert McNamara in his United Nations preservation and use of biodiversity. But I have to admit that address in 1991, namely the estimation that if all of the women practical results have been very meager so far. in the world, and especially in the developing countries, who FI: In fact, another point you raise is that every nation wished to have knowledge of and access to birth control, has an economic and a foreign policy, but the time has come but do not yet have it, were in fact given it, the world population to speak of a population policy. would probably stabilize at more than 2 billion less than

30 FREE INQUIRY

hitherto projected. for the reasons that I just gave. To summarize, the evolutionary FI: Following along that line, are you also optimistic about view of human origins connects us far more intimately and the influence of a naturalistically based ethics upon existing solidly with the natural environment than does any other supernatural belief systems? I'm thinking for example about philosophical view of human existence. the Catholic church, which is opposed to promoting knowledge FI: I was moved by your statement in The Diversity of of birth control for very metaphysical reasons. Life that "every species makes its own farewell to the human WILSON: One of the reasons for my optimism is in fact partners that have served it so ill." How has the destruction the greening of religion. A great many religious leaders have of biodiversity affected you personally? expressed an interest in incorporating moral reasoning about WILSON: The more I've learned about habitat destruction the environment into their teachings. Last year there was an and species extinction from other scientists, and from my own important meeting held in the United States Senate under observations, the greater the sense of urgency and anxiety the auspices of several key environmentalist senators, including I've felt. We simply can't wait any longer to do whatever now Vice President Al Gore, in which religious leaders and we can to contribute to knowledge and education about the scientists discussed these problems and the possibility of situation. Also, I feel that though they are discouragingly small finding a common moral ground. That included leaders of in number, the humanists in this country nevertheless include Judaism, many Protestant denominations, and the Roman a lot of people with conviction about the human responsibility Catholic church. This has been something I and other scientists to the biosphere, and they are a potent group. at Harvard have continued to discuss this year with members FI: While we are small in number, we're disproportionate of the School of Divinity in an ongoing symposium on religion in our influence, and what you talk about in your book are and the environment: that the environment is the one area the very sorts of issues we should be getting much more on the near side of metaphysics (that is, an area in which involved with. we can temporarily put aside metaphysics) in which both WILSON: I agree with you, and I meant what I said earlier, religious thinkers and humanists can come to an agreement. that this is an area where people who are religious and It should be possible to find common, pragmatic courses of humanists actually can meet. And you may eventually find action that have a strong moral underpinning without agreeing a partial conversion of theologians and religious leaders due on all the metaphysical precepts. I believe also that the leading if nothing else to the urgency of the problem. As long as natalist religions will gradually evolve away from their current the walls aren't crumbling down around them, they can remain position when they see more and more clearly its terrible as strictly metaphysical as they want and produce fiats about consequences. Someone once said very wisely that the great human reproductive behavior forever, but when things start problems of history are never solved, they are merely forgotten. falling apart and they recognize, as any sane person must, FI: Getting back to what you said earlier in regards to the connection between population expansion, energy use, and humanists, since they by and large have no problem with potentially catastrophic environmental trends, then they have accepting the theory of evolution and don't find anything to adjust. That's the way philosophy and religion have evolved distasteful or upsetting about seeing humans as fully part of through history. a natural setting, what do you think that humanists specifically FI: 1 suppose we have to hope that they all get revelations can do to help in this issue of protecting biodiversity? from their various gods to tell them to change their WILSON: I think that humanists are exceptionally well metaphysics. qualified to argue a moral basis for saving the environment, WILSON: Don't be surprised if that happens! •

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Spring 1993 31 Is the U.S.A. a Christian Nation? Pluralism in the United States

William B. Williamson

hen I was editing the book An Encyclopedia of entitled "Americans Facing Toward Mecca," which has as Religions in the United States and writing the its subtitle, "The fast-growing Muslim community is invisible W introductory chapter, "Religion in the United no longer." The authors wrote that "a steady trickle of States," I had the recurring question: Just how Christian is homegrown converts have been joining a flood of immigrants the United States? Or better still, just how Judeo-Christian to create a sizable American Islamic community." The article is it? Further, I thought, is the decline of the "mainline" is illustrated by a picture of a mosque in Washington, D.C., churches more than made up by the growth of the where the worshipers were "overflowing" the rather large fundamentalist-pentecostal churches? And do the statistics temple. Further, the article quoted a spokesman for Islam support the claim of the religious right that the United States who declared, "We'd like people to start thinking of the United is a "Christian nation?" States as a Judeo-Christian-Islamic society." His wish is not Therefore, when I was asked to write an article for FREE a pipe dream! INQUIRY on this subject I immediately accepted the challenge. The following is a listing of the non-Judeo-Christian Fresh from contacts with some ninety religious groups, I religious groups in the United States as I have given them already had done much of the research. In what follows I in my book, plus additional groups. Relevant statistics are have added to my research several leads developed from given as known. newspaper and magazine sources, as well as from a study 1. The Baha i faith-1,600 spiritual assemblies and done at the City University of New York, "The National Study approximately 110,000 members. of Religious Identification." 2. Buddhism—It is said that if a person considers him/ Also, at the suggestion of a friend, I consulted a fine book herself a Buddhist, he/ she is a Buddhist. Approximately 1 by Terry Muck, Alien Gods on American Turf (Crossroad, million members. 1991). Muck is the editor of the conservative journal a. Buddhist Churches of America-62 temples, 70 clergy, Christianity Today, but he has written an evenhanded account and 100,000 members. of one phase of my article. In the bookjacket copy he asks, b. Church of Perfect Liberty-50,000 families reported. for example: "Did you know: at the current growth rates, c. Nichiren Soshu of America-150 chapters, 300,000 Islam will pass Judaism as the second largest religious faith members. in the U.S.; of approximately 1,500 religious groups in the d. Zen Buddhism—Approximately 2,000 members with U.S. 600 are non-Christian; our armed forces have Buddhist many more seekers and students at several centers in the United chaplains; etc.?" Muck's book, while written for Christians, States. is both friendly and empathetic with so-called alien groups, 3. Eckankar—There is a policy of not releasing statistics, and in his Prologue he tells the story of a young Christian, but an estimate of approximately 50,000 members has been the son of a Southern Baptist minister, who on marrying made. an Indian girl who was a Hindu found Hinduism very much 4. Ethical Culture Religious Humanist groups. to his liking and embraced that faith as "a religion that actually a. Ethical Culture Movement-20 societies, and 3,000 allowed one to live out the best in the teachings of Jesus; members. Christianity didn't" (p. 11). b. Fellowship of Religious Humanists-700 members. Further, I was referred to a May 23, 1988, Time article c. Society for Humanistic Judaism-2 Rabbis, 4,000 members. William B. Williamson is emeritus professor of philosophy d. American Humanist Association—Counselors are at Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania. He is the editor considered ministers (3,200 members). of An Encyclopedia of Religions in the United States. 5. Noncreedal churches a. Unitarian Universalist Association-200,000 members.

32 FREE INQUIRY At least half the churches are considered non-Christian. b. Society of Natural Science-21 churches, 75 members. c. United Church of Religious Science-125 churches, 400 Nonbelievers, Atheists, Agnostics, clergy, 200,000 members. Freethinkers, Humanists 6. Hinduism—A trustee of a Washington, D.C. temple esimated there are 1 million Hindus in the United States. According to a Gallup poll, 9 percent (25.4 million a. Divine Light Mission—Estimate of 60,000 members in persons) identify themselves as either atheist, agnostic, 25 centers. or of no religion at all. Some 40 percent of Americans b. International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers-400 centers, 2,500 monks and priests, 2,000 members with many claim that they are unchurched or belong to no religious denomination. seekers and students. Organized nonbelievers in the United States come c. Krishna Consciousness-38 temples, 5 Ashrams, 50,000 members. under various categories. We list below only some of them. d. Self-Realization Fellowship—Second-oldest Hindu group in the U.S., but statistics are not available. e. Transcendental Meditation-400 centers and approx- American Atheists, Atheists United, Atheist Network—total approximately 2,000. imately 1 million persons have taken the basic course. American Rationalists-1,229 (subscribers to journal). f. Vedanta Society-17 centers, 110 monastics, and 2,500 Freedom From Religion Foundation-3,700 members, many members, but 8,500 persons are on the mailing list. more on mailing list. 7. Islamic Groups in the U.S.-843 mosques/ centers and Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism-20,000 approximately 51/z million members. subscribers to FREE INQUIRY magazine (30 local groups). Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the a. Al-Hanif, Hanafi Madh-Hab Center—Statistics un- Paranormal-40,000 subscribers to the SKEPTICAL known. INQUIRER magazine (not anti-religious, but skeptical). b. American Muslim Movement (Black Muslism)-1965 The Truth Seeker circulation 1,500. statistics: 70 temples, 200,000 members (1992 estimates in the Prometheus Books, Inc., largest freethought secular humanist millions). and skeptical press in the world 110,000 readers. c. Sufi Order Founded by Pir-O-Marshid Inayat Kahn- 100 centers, 5,000 members, and many more seekers and Total nonbelievers: 178,429. students. 8. Scientology-200 congregations/centers, 3 million —THE EDITORS members and 125 church-sponsored groups reported. 9. Spiritualism—National Spiritualist Association of Churches-142 churches, 5,658 members. heads' as Western religions do. Our relation to community 10. Theosophical Society-150 centers, 5,500 members. groups is good to excellent, except when `Japan-bashing' is 11. Religious groups not listed in my book: going on: mostly only the Christian fundamentalists seem a. Confucianism—Approximately 100,000 members. ideologically intolerant of us. But what else is new?" b. Native American Church—Approximately 225,000 Lanny Ross of the Rochester Zen Center wrote that his members. center gains about 5 to 10 percent in membership each year. c. Sikhism—No data available. He added, "We are seen locally as a community asset, a good d. Sikh Dharma-150 centers, 300,000 members. neighbor, and a community resource, in social and educational e. Health, Happy, Holy organization-250,000 members, activities, and in solving neighborhood problems." 5,000 members living in ashrams. Ronald B. Precht, the Director of the Baha'i Office of f. Universal Life Church—The "ordaining" church, its External Affairs, called my attention to the fact that the Baha'i founder has ordained millions of clergy, many of whom started following in the United States "is as diverse as the American "free" churches. population . . . approximately one-quarter to one-third of 12. Occult religous groups. .. . Baha'i population consists of African Americans and a. American Council of Witches—Estimated 10,000 to American Indians.... [While] in the past the Baha'i Faith 100,000 members. was greatly misunderstood.... Today most scholars .. . b. Rosicrucianism—No data available. and religious leaders ... have a basic understanding of Baha'i ... [and] the Baha'i Faith generally is accepted in the U.S." Total Non-Judeo Christians: 12,715,933 Precht called Baha'i "the second most widespread religion in the world, after Christianity." rank answers were given to my questions about the growth Kent Livingston, Director of Communication Services for and health of each group in the United States and local Eckankar, wrote, "The acceptance of our group by community reaction to the various groups. For instance, my source of and other groups is encouraging. There is no universal information about the Buddhist churches of America, Richard tolerance, but as members of the community get to know Schellhase, Director of Development, wrote: "We experience us, caution is replaced with acceptance." phenomenal interest and modest growth. We don't `count Dr. Peter Lawrence Gill, the founder of the Society of

Spring 1993 33 Natural Science, reported that the growth of the society is it is a "universal technology . . . [which] improves clarity slow mainly because it insists on the refutation of many widely of thinking by extending awareness, [and reduces] mental and accepted religious beliefs that harm persons psychologically physical stress by providing deep rest to the mind and body. rather than heal them and that are based on "highly inaccurate ... This is my experience." Pronchik is a Roman Catholic. views of both human nature and reality." However, Dr. Gill Nancy Kenny, representing the Vedanta Society, wrote that did report that "[We] are well accepted in our communities the society's membership had grown slowly but steadily. She because we eschew blatant, upsetting confrontations...." said that the Vedanta societies "do not proselytize" and that I was especially happy to receive a favorable reply from most seekers "hear of Vedanta through word of mouth or a major Hindu group. A reporter from the Philadelphia through its well-known literary movement." Kenny also Inquirer put me in touch with a Washington, D.C., Hindu reported that in the last twenty years "about 500 various temple trustee, Mr. Krishnamurthy. He pointed out that non- educational, inter-religious, scientific and non-denominational Indians do not become Hindus the way non-Arabs may organizations have [had] Vedanta representatives to lecture." become Muslims or non-Japanese (or other Asian nationals) Interestingly enough, Kenny's major claim is similar to Zen may become Buddhists. Krishnamurthy declared that persons Buddhism's, that seekers "request information on activities who seek to know more about Hinduism will probably always and books" rather than come to "join" a specific religious remain seekers, welcome to worship and join in educational organization. She added, "Beyond this, the growth of the and social activities with Hindus, but unless things change Vedanta movment can perhaps be assessed in terms of how dramatically, they will not become Hindus. its ideas have penetrated into the American mainstream." Another memorable resource person was the Senior Research Analyst of the American Muslim Council, Fareed he above information, statistics, and observations about H. Nu'man, who furnished in a telephone interview con- the health and growth of non-Judeo-Christian religions siderable information, demographic and substantive, about in the United States suggests—no proves—that the pluralism Islam in the United States. Nu'man also sent me a copy of that we were talking about fifty years ago is now a reality. his initial report, entitled "Muslim Population in the United And intelligent observers of the national religious scene must States: A Brief Statement." In his "Overview," Nu'man accept this most obvious phenomenon as a fact and not simply reported that Muslim scholars "accept an estimate of from the speculation or wishful thinking of a liberal. Of course 5 to 8 million members of the Islamic faith in the United the strident voices of two of the main speakers at the 1992 States based on the documentation from the staff of A.M.C." Republican Convention tried to uphold the premise that the Nu'man also wrote that in the United States, there are three United States is a Christian nation. The Baptist televangelist categories of Muslims: immigrants, American converts to Pat Robertson's "grand plan" for the United States calls for Islam, and those born to members of the first two groups. an American Protestant theocracy (the rule of God—no doubt He noted that 47.2 percent of the total Muslim population the Old Testament Jehovah), but he fails to recognize that of the United States is African-American. Overall, Nu'man's the United States is pluralistic. I have documented it and study reveals a healthy, growing religious group that is have referred to a growing number of studies, polls, and works obviously worthy of "special status" among the religions of of journalists and scholars. However, Pat Buchanan's call for the United States. a Christian "jihad" (a holy war for "Christian values') is worthy The International Society for Krishna Consciousness only of the contempt intelligent Christians (and members of responded to my appeal for information with enthusiasm. all religious groups as well) will give it. Fortunately, while Anattuma Dasa, Director of Communications for ISKCON, history will record that Buchanan spoke, men and women reported that, while the increase in the numbers of full-time of goodwill, peace, and love will utterly repudiate his ideas, devotees in Ashrams has slowed, "most of [our] growth has and his speech will quickly be forgotten as unworthy of the been congregational." He added, "We are expanding from best national religious thought. • a sect to a denomination." Further, Dasa reported that ISKCON was being well received in its many communities because of its "increased emphasis on community involve- ments, [e.g.] children's programs, cultural activities, lay advisory boards, etc." A good example of ISKCON's social A Humanist/Mormon interaction is in Philadelphia where "two large 'Hare Krishna Dialogue Food for Life Shelters' house, feed and help retrain men enrolled in a prison half-way program," as well as minister September 24-26, 1993 to the homeless. Dasa concluded, "Generally, acceptance of University Park Hotel, Salt Lake City, Utah ISKCON is on the rise nationwide." Topics to be discussed: John C. Pronchik, of the Philadelphia office of the Academic Freedom, Feminism, Secular vs. Reli- Transcendental Meditation Program, wrote to assure me that gious Interpretations of Scripture. "For the most part people know us and think well of us." He admitted that there are many who are ignorant and fearful For further details, contact, Timothy J. Madigan, of the program, especially the fundamentalists. However, P.O. Box 664, Buffalo, NY 14226-0664. Pronchik declared that TM "supports all religions," because

34 FREE INQUIRY Homosexuality: Right or Wrong?

Michael Ruse

he notorious Kinsey studies of American sexual and his school are correct, the very structure of our language behavior (the male study was published in 1948 and is determined by heredity. But the actual language we speak— Tthe female study in 1953) shocked the shockable and English, French, Japanese—is a function of upbringing. surprised even the unshockable. No one had realized what Finally, at the opposite pole are those who argue that sexual a fetid maelstrom of sexual lust bubbles beneath the orientation has no cause at all! More precisely, what they comfortable and calm Norman Rockwell surface of argue is that sexual orientation—heterosexual or homosex- conventional family life. And no aspect of the studies caused ual—is all a "social construction," that is to say it has no greater upset than those parts centering on sexual inclination true reflection in objective reality. Strongly influenced by the and activity directed toward members of one's own sex. ideas of the late Michel Foucault, people of this school suggest Homosexuality (from the Greek, meaning "same sex," rather that terms like homosexuality were inventions (in this case than from the Latin and meaning "human or man's sex") by the medical profession) to control and rule certain segments is apparently a very common phenomenon indeed, especially of society implicity or explicitly. The only function of such among males. Up to half of us (males) have had some erotic terms is to support the power that some people claim over same-sex encounter at some point in our lives, and a full others. 10 percent are more or less exclusively homosexual, more Arguments can be given for and against all these causal or less all of our lives. The figures for females are significantly positions. I mention them to underline the point that even less, although there is now some suspicion that they might now we really cannot say definitively why some incline sexually be rising. one way and others incline another. Yet, there are two points Speculation about the causes of homosexuality predate that can be made with reasonable conviction. First, Kinsey. Roughly speaking—very roughly speaking—there are homosexuality does not seem to be an infectious disease in two main schools of thought. On the one hand, there are the sense that (say) measles is, where exposure (especially of those who think that homosexuality might be a function of children) would lead to lifelong intuitive inclination. Certainly, in a society like that of ancient Greece where homosexuality biology, in some broad sense. The genes could be involved, was accepted there would probably be more open activity, for instance, but there also might be a connection to hormones, but the actual number of homosexuals would not increase. which in turn might or might not have something to do with Second, homosexual inclination is not really a matter of heredity. On the other hand, there are those who think that choice. How one acts is, of course, a matter of personal homosexuality has its genesis in environmental factors— freedom, with the proviso that obviously someone with a atypical family dynamics, for instance, or the influence of homosexual inclination is much more likely to act homo- older classmates or teachers. sexually, all other things being equal (which they rarely are). Then, cutting across these approaches, there are those who Deliberately thinking about members of the opposite sex is would argue that the full picture must acknowledge both not going to make a homosexual change. (As Simone de biology and culture. They claim that biology sets background Beauvoir noted some years ago, females tend to be less rigidly conditions and constraints, but that culture fills out the specific fixed in their sexual orientation than either heterosexual or details. Sexual orientation, therefore, is somewhat like homosexual men.) language skill. It is clear that the ability to speak any language Against this background, let us turn to the question of at all is a function of our innate nature, and, if Chomsky values. Traditionally, people have looked to religion for insight—in the Western world to Judaism and Christianity. Michael Ruse is professor of philosophy at the University As it happens, these religions have a fair amount to say about of Guelph and author of several books including Homosex- sex in general and a number of things to say about uality: A Philosophical Inquiry (Blackwell), and But Is It homosexuality in particular. They say so much, and in Science? The Philosophical Question in the Creation/ contradictory ways, that one can obtain whatever message Evolution Controversy (Prometheus Books). one wishes—a point borne out by the fact that among believers one finds a spectrum of opinions, from liberals like Quakers

Spring 1993 35 who think that sex in itself is good to conservatives like those good reasons for thinking it not entirely well taken. On the in higher places in the Vatican who dislike sex, particularly one hand, humans (thanks to their evolution) have gone a homoerotic sex. long way to decouple the actual physiology of reproduction In the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, there from practices involving their genitalia. Heterosexual are explicit prohibitions against same-sex activity—and if one intercourse, for instance, serves and promotes the end of pair takes seriously Jesus' injunctions against adultery in the heart, bonding (a necessity, given our species' need of extended child then same-sex inclination seems a subject for condemnation care), just as much as it does the actual act of fertilization. also. Yet, measured against this are scholarly interpretations There are biological reasons to think that homosexual activity suggesting that the prohibitions are not against homosexual might also have a similar function. activity as such, but against homosexual activity using On the other hand, there is extensive evidence suggesting prostitutes (often in a ritual pagan setting) or against such that species after species contains within it "natural" (that activity between those whose natural inclinations are is, not just in zoo populations), homosexual activity. Indeed, heterosexual and who are thus perverting themselves for added it is hardly too much of an exaggeration to say that no sexual pleasure. extensively studied species has failed to reveal it. However, I prefer a more human-oriented approach to questions of personal behavior, and these are offered by the modern moral "Once you recognize that the religious answers philosophers. are not helpful, and that the arguments about Kant argued that the supreme principle of morality (his naturalness are not valid, then the case for Categorical Imperative) demands that you treat others as ends not as means. The Utilitarians had a group perspective, the unexceptional moral status of homosex- promoting the "Greatest Happiness Principle": Act so that uality follows readily." you will promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number, and conversely the least unhappiness for the greatest number. In addition, it is pointed out that in both the Old Testament As it happens, historically, Kant condemned homosexu- and the New—especially in the gospels—much emphasis is ality, but since his case rested primarily on the now exploded given to exhortation that one ought to love one's neighbor unaturalistic case, we can ignore his own personal conclusions. as oneself. This, it is argued, opens the way for homosexual This said, it seems to me that both Kantian and Utilitarian activity, at least of a sincere, loving kind. Significantly, Jesus point to the shared conclusion that, in itself, there is not only did not feel it incumbent upon himself to come out against nothing wrong with homosexual activity, but it can be perfectly homosexuals. (I will agree that neither Judaism nor morally healthy. Lovers in such a relationship can respect Christianity seems to have much room for randomly directed, each other as ends and be happy, no less than heterosexual promiscuous homosexuality, but the same seems true of lovers. (I will ignore arguments about the joys of having heterosexuality.) children, if only because one can put in the clause that homosexuals are much more likely to be happy in a freely t would seem, therefore, that in our quest for standards chosen homosexual relationship than in a heterosexual Iby which to assess homosexuality, we have to turn to relationship, whether the latter be freely chosen or not.) philosophy—not the philosophy of the theologians (Aquinas Note that, while I do not want to claim less for judged homosexuality worse than rape, on the grounds that homosexuality, I am not trying to claim more. My suspicion the latter only violated a human being whereas the former is that both Kantian and Utilitarian have trouble with the violated God), but the philosophy of the great secular thinkers. moral status of unrestrained sexual promiscuity, heterosexual From Greek times, we have Plato (and Aristotle, although or homosexual. The fear of AIDS—and the obvious he had little to say on the subject). From the modern era, immorality of behavior that clearly puts health at risk—apart, we have the systems of the great German philosopher I doubt that any moral system would find (say) the gay bath Immanuel Kant and of the British moralists, the Utilitarians. scene admirable. Beginning with Plato, given the Greek context in general Also, the usual restrictions about coercion hold true. Rape and given the specific fact that he himself probably had a is rape, whether it be vaginal, anal, or oral, whether it be homosexual orientation, one might expect to find that he heterosexual or homosexual. Also, it would be unthinkable regarded such inclinations and practices favorably. Nothing in any standard moral system to suggest that sex with children could be further from the truth. As a well-born Greek, Plato is permissible—not, I hasten to add, that there is any evidence always regarded anything lustful—giving way to the senses— to suggest that sexual orientation and pedophile indications with suspicion. But he condemned homosexual activity are causally linked. This is not to say that laws against absolutely, in an argument that was to carry great weight homosexual (but not against heterosexual) activity between for posterity, and which is still effective today: it is, said Plato, adolescents or post-adolescents should be left standing. "unnatural." Animals and birds do not couple with members of their own sex. Neither should we. It involves the use of o be honest, once you recognize that the religious answers our organs in ways that nature never intended. Tare not helpful, and that the arguments about naturalness Powerful though this argument has been, there are today are not valid, then the case for the unexceptional moral status

36 FREE INQUIRY of homosexuality follows readily. But there is one more point between a sense of disgust and morality. What of the man that must be tackled. Many will feel that I have omitted who defecates in his bed and then sleeps in it? I find such mention of the most salient fact about homosexual behavior, a practice disgusting, but I hesitate to call it morally wrong. namely the sense of disgust that it evokes in right-minded, You might argue that the practice is degrading and violates morally healthy people. Sodomy, it is felt, is on a par with one's obligations toward oneself—Kant would argue this. But gross bestiality or necrophilia and as such must be rooted the example can readily be altered to escape the objection. out and condemned unequivocally. I find the thought of eating sheep's eyes rather disgusting, In reply, let me make a number of points, starting with and yet I am told in parts of the world they are considered the fact that this argument is usually asymmetrical. If male a delicacy. Even if one persists in judging homosexual activity homosexuality ought be condemned, then so ought lesbianism. immoral, it does not thereby call for legal remedial action. But, paradoxically, those very people (males) who are loudest in their cries about the disgusting nature of male homosexuality free society means letting people do what they want are often precisely those who find lesbianism highly erotic. Abecause they want to, and not because society approves. Second, standards might change with shifts in the cultural The law can and should be involved when there are societal wind. I suspect that it was not long ago that many regarded ill-effects. Legal prohibitions against homosexuality bring in oral sex between heterosexuals with disgust. There is a general their wake evils of their own, notably blackmail. feeling, one toward which I must confess some sympathy, The West, perhaps Europe more than America, has come that moral judgments ought not to depend on quirks of societal a long way since the original Kinsey reports were published. attitude. Murder is wrong, whether anyone thinks so or not. Still, people with an openly homosexual orientation are barred It was wrong at Auschwitz, whatever the opinion of the guards from the military in many countries, prosecuted in not a few was. The same is not true of something directly connected states, and are the butts of jokes and contempt in even to a culturally variable notion of disgust. supposedly liberal circles. The war against prejudice can be Third, we should also be wary of drawing ready connections won, but battles remain to be fought. •

EUROPEAN HUMANIST CONFERENCE Please plan to attend DEMOCRACY, FREE INQUIRY'S HUMAN RIGHTS, 15th Anniversary AND HUMANISM Conference "The Future Ethics of the Twenty-First Century" "FUNDAMENTALIST Sunday, July 25-Friday July 30, 1993 Organized by the German Freethinker Association Berlin ASSAULTS ON (with the backing of the European Humanist Federation and the International Humanist and Ethical Union), this conference will focus on the exchange of experiences LIBERTY" between Western and Eastern Europe, with the aim of supporting the spread of the humanist life-stance in Eastern European countries after the collapse of Communism. This November 12-14,1993 objective appears all the more urgent in view of the fighting Hyatt Regency Airport Hotel in former Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union, and the growth of nationalist and racist ideologies in many Eastern Orlando, Florida European countries. Topics to be covered include: "Europe—Continent of Human Rights'?"; 'Wealthy West— Poor East A Permanent Perspective for Europe"; Flow of Refugees in Europe—An Issue for Humanist Solidarity"; "New Impetus for Nationalism'; and "The Rebirth of Religion in Eastern Europe." There wilt be translations provided in For details, write to: several languages. Parallel to the congress will be an FREE INQUIRY international youth camp with participants from many countries. The camp will be held July 17-31. For more P.O. Box 664 information: Buffalo, NY 14226-0664 Congress Secretariat c/o Deutscher, Friedenker-V1erband, HobrechtsiraBe 8, D-1000 Berlin 44, Germany Tel. +49 30 623 70 33/34 • FAX +49 30 624 27 23 3/93

Spring 1993 37 Biblical Criticism Who Was John the Baptist? An examination of the Bible reveals a picture that is at odds with popular notions.

Frank T. Miosi

ho do people say that I am?" debatable, but it cannot be contested that, from the earliest GCW Such a simple question Jesus posed to his days of Christianity, significant groups of Christians remained disciples! And not surprisingly, their recorded thoroughly unconvinced that Jesus was divine, or, if divine, answer was also quite simple. Jesus' disciples gave a what the importance and meaning of this was to the Christian straightforward report of the opinions of his contemporaries message. Indeed, the extent of the current debate on the (more likely, groups of his contemporaries). They said that question of Jesus' divinity pales in comparison to the raging he was variously thought to be: John the Baptist, Elijah, controversy that took place in the time of Jesus and for the Jeremiah, or one of the prophets (Matt. 16:14; Mark 8:27- first few centuries after his death. This is not a fiction of 28; Luke 9:18-19). When the Gospel writers report Jesus asking the hyperactive academic imagination; it is at the historical this question, it is obvious that they are not really concerned core of Christian understanding. It is not an academic with his answer. It is used, instead, for dramatic effect—to conclusion but historical fact—with whatever claim to truth set up the critical question where his own disciples can testify that carries—that there never has been a single Christianity, who they think he is: the Son of the Living God (Matt. 16:16); much less a single Christian view on the nature of Jesus, the Christ (Mark 8:29); the Christ of God (Luke 9:20). Perhaps and indeed the closer we come to the time of Jesus the more we should pay more attention to what the disciples reported. varied the opinions. According to them, Jesus was not viewed by his contempor- In this article, I would like to examine another New aries as the divine Messiah, as the divine Son of God, or, Testament person of whom the same type of question was certainly, as the God of Israel made flesh. And even though asked—John the Baptist (John 1:22). I hope to show that even though John's answer was much more direct than that their opinion differs from that of others, their response is of Jesus, Christians still have managed to completely confuse in agreement in making absolutely no specific reference to his identity and role. Indeed, as we move through this the divinity of Jesus. investigation, it will become evident that John's was the first The New Testament believer would, of course, be much voice in the debate to which we have just referred, and it more satisfied if, instead of the opinions of others, Jesus himself was a dissenting one as regards the traditional Christian view would have clearly answered his own question with some of Jesus. unequivocal statement such as, "I am God made flesh, the only divine Son of my heavenly Father." But Jesus, as reported umerous references to John exist in the Apocrypha; there in the Gospels, had the uncanny knack of consistently evading Nis a fairly extensive account of him in Josephus; and, the issue. This trait has left the texts so open to interpretation of course, scholarly speculation abounds with the recent that a substantial number of scholars are convinced that he emphasis being on John and his possible connection to the was not and never claimed to be God, the divine Son of Qumran community.' We will not concern ourselves with these God, and that any statements to that effect found in the New extra-biblical sources, however. We will attempt, instead, to Testament are editorial, both from the point of view of those describe John and his actions solely from those New and who authored the New Testament texts and of those who Old Testament sources on which the traditional understanding selected these particular texts to comprise the canon. of John is based. Each reference to John will be subjected The opinions of modern scholarship are, of course, to a close and critical reading in order to determine whether the sources do indeed say what Christian tradition leads us Frank T Miosi has an M.A. in Religious Studies and a Ph. D. to believe they say, and, if not, to point out that fact and in Egyptology. He is currently the Executive Director of the offer an alternative and, therefore, a nontraditional Learning Centre in Toronto. interpretation. When speaking about John the Baptist in Christian

38 FREE INQUIRY gatherings, I regularly ask those present to describe John. Interpretation Who do they think he was? The response is usually arrived at through a group process and is predictable. It runs thus: By the time that John was born, Elizabeth, Zachariah, Mary, and John knew that Jesus was the Lord, and that John was Elizabeth and the priest, Zachariah, were an elderly, childless to prepare the way for Jesus with the people. couple. Zachariah was visited by the angel Gabriel, who announced that God had specially chosen them to bear a Discussion son who was to preach to the Jews about the coming of Jesus, convince them to repent from their sinful ways, and This entire picture fails in view of the rest of the Gospel baptize them—generally, to get the people prepared for the arrival of Jesus, the God incarnate, the only Son of God, accounts. No other passage in the New Testament indicates the divine Messiah. Mentioned, too, is that the pregnant that there was any family relationship between Jesus and John. Elizabeth is visited by her cousin Mary, now pregnant herself Throughout their entire ministries, neither Jesus nor John— with Jesus. Upon their meeting, John jumps in Elizabeth's nor any of their disciples—ever refer to their blood relation- womb in prenatal recognition of the presence of Jesus-God. The story continues with the birth of John, the finer details of which may or may not be recalled, and moves directly "John did not prophesy the coming of a divine to the adult John—the locust-and-wild-honey-eating desert preacher and baptizer, telling all who would hear him to repent Messiah, the Son of God, or the God of Israel. and that Jesus, the Lord God and Messiah, was about to Even though there is an attempt in some of the come. Rarely is anything said about what else John preached. From this point, the story concludes abruptly with two Gospels to show that John recognized Jesus as last details. Jesus comes to the Jordan, where John bap- the object of his prophecy at the time of Jesus' tizes him in the knowledge that he is God the Messiah; then John is arrested by Herod, who is seduced into beheading baptism, most post-baptism accounts that men- him. tion John and/or John's disciples show that Jesus This is the standard picture with slight variations dependent was still not recognized as 'the Coming One.' " upon the level of biblical literacy of the group. The picture is remarkable for its consistency, for its inaccuracies, for the ship. This fact is remarkable: there are no editorial statements material that it omits, and, as I hope to show, for the fact that confirm this relationship; neither John nor Jesus ever that this is precisely what the New Testament authors (or refer to it; there is no report that a single disciple of either their sources) wanted people to think despite the fact that one refers to it; and it is not even hinted at in any of the the actual situation was otherwise. non-Gospel texts. This is even more compelling when combined with another e must now analyze some of the more critical elements fact: John is never described as specifically naming Jesus as Wof this picture, first by precisely defining and sourcing being the one about whom he was teaching or for whom the traditional Christian position, and, then, coming to our he was preparing the way. A closer look at the texts leads own interpretation based on a close, literal reading of all to the conclusion that John had no idea who Jesus was pre- relevant biblical material. baptism. Matthew tells us nothing about the conception, lineage, and birth of John. He makes it appear that John knew who The Pre-Baptism Relation Between John and Jesus Jesus was when he reports that John did not want to baptize Jesus but rather to be baptized by him (Matt. 3:14-15). This Christian Position certainly seems to be recognition at sight, but Matthew himself casts doubt on this description when he reports that sometime 1. John's father, Zachariah, knew that John's mission was after the baptism John sends some of his disciples to Jesus to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord (Luke 1:17). to ask if he is "the one who was to come, or should we expect 2. Mary knew that she was to give birth to the Son of someone else?" (Matt. 11:2-3). We are left with two God (Luke 1:35). diametrically opposed pictures in Matthew. There is only one 3. Mary and Elizabeth were relatives; therefore, John and way that these two situations can be compatible: John changed Jesus were relatives (Luke 1:36). his mind about Jesus after the baptism. In other words, 4. John jumped in his mother's womb at hearing the voice Matthew's two accounts are compatible only if John "lost of the pregnant Mary (Luke 1:41). the faith." The weight of evidence is, however, that John never 5. John's mother, Elizabeth, knew that Mary was mother had the faith in the first place. of her Lord (Luke 1:42-43). Mark presents a very concise picture. His Gospel says 6. Upon John's birth, Zachariah prophesied that John nothing about the conception and birth of John or Jesus, would be a prophet and would "go before the Lord to pre- nothing about their being related or John's lineage, and his pare a way for him and to give his people the knowledge only meeting between the two is quite brief: "At that time of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins" (Luke 1:76- Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by 77). John in the Jordan" (Mark 1:9).

Spring 1993 39 Although the John-Jesus relationship we are discussing through baptism, after which time John's formal mission was comes from Luke, it is surprising to note that Luke reports over, and Jesus' public ministry commenced. no meeting between the two. The supposed prenatal meeting, which became a frequent theme of Christian iconography is Discussion by no means certain, for the texts do not specifically say that Mary was pregnant at the time. Gabriel tells Mary that "the It might come as a surprise to many but these seemingly certain Holy Spirit will come upon you" (Luke 1:35), not that it biblical facts can be contested by reference to the same source has already done so. And Elizabeth's famous line, "Blessed material. is the fruit of your womb" (Luke 1:42), is semantically timeless: We have seen that both Matthew and Mark are in it can refer to a past, present, or future condition. Instead, agreement about John's baptism of Jesus. Matthew says: Luke also recounts the same post-baptism scene noted in Matthew, where John sends his disciples to Jesus to ask: "Are Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to else?" (Luke 7:19-20). be baptized by you and do you come to me?" Jesus replied, Luke's Gospel is, then, quite curious. At its very beginning, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented. As soon as Jesus he takes great pains to define for the reader the identity and was baptized, he went up out of the water. (Matt. 3:13- role of both John and Jesus. He then tells a story in which 16) there is absolutely no mention of any direct contact, of any formal recognition, between them. Instead, John is described Mark's brief account says: "At that time Jesus came from as trying to find out just who Jesus was. The same contradiction Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan" therefore applies with Luke as was seen in Matthew, and, (Mark 1:9). again, there is no answer except that John lost the faith or If one were to focus on Luke and John, however, a different that the story is wrong. story would emerge. Luke never specifically mentions that The Fourth Gospel also says nothing about John's lineage John baptized Jesus. In fact, Luke does not record that the or the conception and birth of either John or Jesus. This two ever met. In the third chapter, Luke gives the New Gospel reports that John saw Jesus on two consecutive days, Testament's most detailed description of John's activities and and on each occasion John is quoted as referring to Jesus preaching. He ends this section by mentioning John's rebuke as the "Lamb of God" (John 1:28, 1:36). Fortunately, the of Herod and his incarceration. It is only after this that Jesus' Gospel does indicate that John had seen Jesus at least once baptism is mentioned: "He (Herod) locked John up in prison. before this. John says that he "would not have known" Jesus When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized until he saw the "spirit come down as a dove and remain" too" (Luke 3:20-21). on him (John 1:32-33). There was a time, then, when John John's Gospel is even more curious. He, too, has a fairly did not know that that Jesus was the one about whom he long section in which he describes the Baptist's activities, so had been preaching; there was a time when he was not it is not for lack of space that, while the Fourth Gospel records preparing the way specifically for Jesus. John seeing and speaking about Jesus, it not only does not record that John baptized Jesus, but it also does not state Conclusion that Jesus was ever baptized (John 1:29-36). With Luke appearing to contradict both Matthew and Mark, the most The entire Luke story not only is not supported by the other that can be claimed is that the biblical evidence makes John's Gospels, it is actually contradicted by them and by Luke baptism of Jesus probable at best. himself. John had no idea, pre-baptism, that Jesus was the We have seen that Matthew prefaces Jesus' baptism with one about whom he was preaching and for whom he was a statement that is the only New Testament reference to John preparing the way. and Jesus talking to each other: " 'I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me.' Jesus replied, 'Let it be so The Baptism of Jesus now, it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness' " (Matt. 3:14-15). This would appear to be a direct reference Christian Position to John's recognition that Jesus was the one about whom he was preaching. Neither Mark nor Luke describe John as 1. John baptized Jesus (Matt. 3:13-16; Mark 1:9). making, pre-baptism, a single direct statement that he 2. John formally recognized Jesus as the Lord (Matt. 3:14). recognized Jesus as the topic of his preaching, although in 3. Jesus' official ministry then commenced (Matt. 4:17; both cases the texts are sequenced in a manner that leads Mark 1:14; Luke 3:23). the reader to conclude that Jesus was the fulfillment of John's prophecy: John is introduced, his preaching and baptism are Interpretation described, Jesus comes onto the scene, and he commences his work. It is the story sequence in these Gospels and not John was preparing the people for the coming of the Lord. the actual content that sets the reader up into thinking that Having reached an appropriate level of success, Jesus decided John recognized Jesus. to commence his active mission by having John identify him The Fourth Gospel, however, specifically states John's

40 FREE INQUIRY recognition in two passages. "The next day John saw Jesus his own mission. coming toward him and said: `Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. This is the one whom I Conclusion meant when I said, "A man who comes after me surpassed me because he was before me" ' (John 1:29-30). The next If, at his baptism of Jesus, John did recognize that Jesus day John was there again with two of his disciples. When was the fulfillment of his prophetic work (which is highly he saw Jesus passing by, he said, `Look, the Lamb of God' " unlikely), he changed his mind almost immediately. John (John 1:35-36). continued his preaching and baptizing; he collected more Despite the curious deficiencies of Mark and Luke, the disciples, many, if not most, of whom remained with him three testimonies from Matthew and John should be sufficient instead of following Jesus. to demonstrate that John acknowledged Jesus pre-baptism Up to this point, every statement that we have made about as the one about whom he was preaching. The matter is, John the Baptist has been based directly upon close readings however, not that easy in view of what is not found in any of various New Testament passages. The results of this analysis of the Gospels. do not support the traditional understanding of John the 1. John does not stop preaching, baptizing, and enlisting Baptist. These documents also contain enough information new disciples (John 3:23; 4:1). that we can develop a basic picture of John's preaching. 2. John did not become one of Jesus' apostles, nor was he ever called a follower or disciple of Jesus. John the Prophet 3. John still has his own disciples after Jesus commences his mission (Matt. 9:14, 11:2, 14:2; Mark 2:18, 6:29; Luke Christian Position 5:33, 7:18, 7:24; John 3:25). 4. It is not said that John told his disciples to leave him 1. John was a prophet (Matt. 11:9, 11:14, 14:5, 17:12-13, and follow Jesus. 21:26; Mark 9:11-13, 11:32; Luke 1:76, 7:26, 20:6). 5. Only two of John's disciples are specifically named as 2. He prophesied the Kingdom of God (Matt. 3:2; Luke having left John to follow Jesus of their own accord (John 16:16) and the coming of the divine Messiah, God, the Son 1:37-40). of God (Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:7; Luke 1:76, 3:16; John 1:7, 6. As we have mentioned before, two of the Gospels state 1:26-27, 3:28; Acts 13:25). that John sent his disciples to Jesus to ask him specifically 3. Jesus was the realization of John's prophecy (Matt. 3:17; who he was (Matt. 11:2; Luke 7:18-20). Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22; John 1:29, 1:34, 3:35; Acts 19:4). Each of these points, when considered individually, is inconsistent with and damaging to the position that John Interpretation formally recognized Jesus at or after the baptism as the object of his prophecy. When considered collectively, they present John was a divinely inspired prophet who prophesied the a picture that is completely contradictory to the traditional coming of the Kingdom of God to be brought by the divine Christian belief, and short of ignoring them, I can find no Messiah, the Son of God; and Jesus was indeed the fulfillment interpretation that would make them compatible. of this prophecy. The traditional position that Jesus' mission started with John the Baptist seems certain. Mark starts his Gospel with Discussion "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark 1:1). Immediately after this, John is introduced An understanding of John's prophecy as given to us in the and Jesus does not begin preaching the good news until after New Testament must begin with the realization that the writers he is baptized and John is imprisoned (Mark 1:14-15). Luke of the New Testament are firm and insistent in the position tells us that Jesus "was about thirty years old when he began that John was a prophet and was regarded as such by his his ministry" (Luke 3:23), and this was after his baptism. Peter contemporaries. His father, Zachariah, said: "And you, my is quite clear on this: "You know what has happened child, will be called a prophet of the Most High" (Luke 1:76). throughout Judea beginning in Galilee after the baptism that In editorial sections of the Gospels, we find the authors telling John preached—how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with us that the "people" regarded John as a prophet. Herod was the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing wary of him because of this (Matt. 14:5), and the Pharisees good and healing all...." (Acts 10:37-38). He confirms this were trapped in their response to Jesus' question whether when he states the condition for selecting someone to replace John's baptism was from heaven or from men, because they Judas: "Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men were afraid that, if they said the latter, the people, believing who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went John to be a prophet, would stone them (Matt. 21:26; Mark in and out among us, beginning from John's baptism to the 11:32; Luke 20:6). The Fourth Gospel is the only one that time when Jesus was taken up from us" (Acts 1:21-22). Indeed, does not directly call John a "prophet," but this is likely the if there is one consistent and unequivocal impression in the idea that the author intended to convey when saying: "There New Testament regarding John and Jesus, it is that John comes a man who was sent from God; his name was John. was preaching and baptizing before Jesus, Jesus was exposed He came as a witness to testify concerning that light" (John to John's preaching and baptized after which Jesus began 1:6-7). Jesus took this one step further. He tells us that John

Spring 1993 41 was a prophet and more (Matt. 11:9; Luke 7:26); he was indeed with the holy spirit and with fire" (Matt. 3:11; see also: Mark the prophet Elijah (Matt. 11:14, 17:12-13; Mark 9:11-13). 1:7-8; Luke 3:16; John 1:26-27; Acts 13:25). This being's The traditional Christian position, then, is well-founded ferocity is further characterized: "His winnowing fork is in on this point. There is just one problem. When John was his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering the directly confronted with this issue, he denied it unequivocally. wheat into his barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Matt. 3:12; Luke 3:17). Now this was John's testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem We have discussed above that in the Fourth Gospel, the sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not Baptist twice identifies Jesus as the fulfillment of his prophecy; fail to confess, but confessed freely, "I am not the Christ." and both times "come" is the critical term: "He (or, a man) They asked him, "Then who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about who comes after me surpassed me because he was before me" yourself?" John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, (John 1:15; 1:30). Paul also described John as "telling the "I am the voice of one calling in the desert, Make straight people to believe in the one who was to come after him, the way for the Lord." (John 1:20-23) that is, Jesus" (Acts 19:4), with the addition of Jesus in this passage being a clarification made by Paul and not attributable In other words, John would not accept any of the reported to John. public opinions of his identity. Instead, he reached back into It is certain, however, that the Gospels want to paint the the Old Testament, to the words of Isaiah (Isa. 40:3) and picture that Jesus was indeed the fulfillment of John's defined himself through his role and preaching: a voice prophecy. One way of doing this was through the words of admonishing the people to "Make straight the way for the Jesus, who is often reported as telling his disciples how Lord." Of course, this characterization of John is not unique important John was, who he was, what he prophesied, and to the Fourth Gospel. It is curious that, when it occurs in leading people to conclude that it was he about whom John the other three Gospels, it is always in an editorial context; was preaching. We must note that in this context Jesus is the words are not purported to be said by anyone (Matt. never quoted as directly saying: "I am the object of John's 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4). preaching." He defines John's preaching, then he immediately For the present, let us take the New Testament charac- refers to himself. The connection is actually made by the hearer terizations at face value. Despite what John was willing or and the reader, not by Jesus. not willing to admit, his contemporaries thought of him as Another method used is that of "contextualizing." This being a prophet. This being the case, the question must be was done in two ways. The first was to editorially insert an asked, what did he prophesy? Our concentration here is on Old Testament prophecy before or after some action or the prophetic statements—predictions of or references to statement of Jesus, thereby forcing a specific interpretation. events to come, as distinct from his more general teachings, The second method was to attribute an unspecified idea or which we will discuss shortly. statement to a specific person in a specific context in order John's prophetic statements in the text are quite clear and to demonstrate or reinforce a desired interpretation. We have consistent, and can be divided into two categories: the already seen one example of this in connection with the passage statements about events or what was to come, and statements from Isaiah 40:3, which the Fourth Gospel places in John's about individuals. mouth while the first three Gospels use it editorially. Another John is once reported to have spoken about a coming example relates to Jesus' baptism. The first three Gospels kingdom: "In those days, John the Baptist came, preaching report a post-baptism statement made by a "voice from in the desert of Judea and saying: `Repent for the Kingdom heaven": "This is my son, whom I love; with whom I am of Heaven is near' " (Matt. 3:1-2). This is indirectly supported well-pleased" (Matt. 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:32). The source by Jesus, who is reported by Luke as saying: "The Law and for this is not attributed—neither John, nor Jesus, nor any the prophets were proclaimed by John. Since that time, the of those present were mentioned as having heard or reported good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and it. These are editorial insertions, and they are noteworthy everyone is forcing his way into it" (Luke 16:16). for the use of the term son, which is not used by John in John also prophesied a time of trouble: "You brood of any of his prophecies as contained in these Gospels. vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?" The Fourth Gospel is another matter. Even though this (Matt. 3:7; Luke 3:7). He supported this through the following Gospel makes no mention of Jesus' baptism, it too contains metaphor: "The axe is already at the root of the trees, and a version of this statement, but makes it a sign given to John every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down by which he can recognize the one about whom he is preaching. and thrown into the fire" (Matt. 3:10; Luke 3:9). "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and The second element of John's prophecy is closely related remain on him. I would not have known him except that to the first. It must be supposed that the axe will be wielded the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The by, and the coming wrath will be caused by, "The One Who man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain Was to Come" (Matt. 11:3; Luke 7:19). This same being is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.' I have seen and referred to through use of the word come is found in another I testify that this is the Son of God" (John 1:33-34). context: the powerful baptizer. "I baptize you with water for The Fourth Gospel, then, dispenses with any allusions or repentance, but after me will come one who is more powerful interpretations. Here John specifically identifies Jesus as the than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry; he will baptize "Son of God," and elsewhere he is reported as using the same

42 FREE INQUIRY term indirectly referring to Jesus (John 3:35, 3:36). John also lest I come and smite the land with a curse" (Mal. 4:5-6). calls Jesus the "Lamb of God" (John 1:29,1:36). Yet, our This would seem to support the identification of John with previous observations still apply. John does not renounce his Elijah, but Malachi's prophecy more fully describes the work preaching; he does not stop baptizing; he does not stop of the prophet Elijah, and it is this text that settles the matter assembling disciples; he does not become an apostle or even as to what John preached and how he saw himself. "Behold, an active disciple of Jesus; and John still sends his disciples I send my messenger to prepare the way before me ... the to ask Jesus "Are you the one who was to come, or should messenger (or angel) of the covenant in whom you delight, we expect someone else?" (Matt. 11:3; Luke 7:19). behold, he is The One Who Comes, says the Lord of hosts (Mal. 3:1).... For he is like a refiner's fire and like a fuller's Conclusion soap; he will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver (Mal. 3:2-3).... For behold, the day comes, burning like an oven, John was thought to be a prophet by many of his contem- when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the poraries. He prophesied the kingdom of heaven, the coming day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of wrath, the chopping down of unproductive trees which were hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch" (Mal. thrown into the fire. John also prophesied the Coming One 4:1). who would be a baptizer with the Holy Spirit and with fire, Malachi's prophecy is clear. The Lord will send the Coming and who would winnow, gathering the wheat to himself and One, the messenger, the prophet Elijah, who will refine the burning the chaff. people to get them ready for that great and terrible day of He did not prophesy the coming of a divine Messiah, the the lord (the coming wrath) when the evildoers will be burnt Son of God, or the God of Israel. Even though there is an up, leaving neither root nor branch. It is no wonder that attempt in some of the Gospels to show that John recognized John refused to be identified as Elijah. John was obviously Jesus as the object of his prophecy at the time of Jesus' baptism, reiterating the prophecy of Malachi. He denied being and most post-baptism accounts that mention John and/ or John's his reported actions could not logically be construed as being disciples show that Jesus was still not recognized as "the those of Elijah, the messenger of the covenant. He simply Coming One." was not the one about whom he was prophesying. There is an effort in the Gospels to see Jesus as the In addition, if we compare the warnings that are made fulfillment of John's prophecy, but there is nothing in the in Malachi with those contained in the direct quotations of reported actions of Jesus that in any way makes him the John in the New Testament that can be categorized as his definition of John's Coming One who brings the wrath, who teachings rather than prophecy, we find that John was also throws the unproductive trees into the fire, who baptizes with preaching the same message as Malachi. He was trying to the holy spirit and fire, and who burns up the chaff with prepare the people for and warn them about the Coming unquenchable fire. If the Gospel accounts are accurate both One. as to what John prophesied and as to the gospel of love that Malachi says: Jesus preached, it is no wonder that John did not acknowledge —The messenger will purify the sons of Levi and refine Jesus. them like gold and silver, until they present right offerings to the Lord (Mal. 3:3). John and Malachi —The Lord will be a swift witness against: sorcerers, adulterers, those who swear falsely, those who oppress the In attempting to identify John, it is critical to recall two New hireling in his wages, those who oppress the widow and the Testament passages relating to him. After referring to John orphan, those who thrust aside the sojourner (Mal. 3:5), and as a prophet, Jesus states that he is even more than that: he admonishes people to bring the full tithes into the storehouse "This is the one about whom it is written: `I will send my (Mal. 3:10). messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before John's preaching rephrases many of these statements. He you' " (Luke 7:27; Matt. 11:10; see also Luke 1:76). In Luke's berates Herod because of his adulterous relationship with his version of the conception of John, Gabriel defines his mission brother's wife (Matt. 14:4; Mark 6:18). He advises people with in the following way: "And he will go on before the Lord extra tunics and food to share with him who has none (Luke in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the 3:11). Tax collectors should collect only what is owed (Luke fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom 3:12-13). People should not extort money, nor should they of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the accuse others falsely (Luke 3:14). Lord" (Luke 1:17). John, like Malachi, is warning people about the coming These are key elements in helping to identify both John wrath, and telling them to repent, to change their ways, so and the "being" about whom he prophesied, and the that they will not get caught in the refiner's fire of the Coming identification is clearly found in the Book of Malachi, the One. The Lord of Israel, through Malachi's prophecy, defines last Old Testament prophet. Gabriel's prophecy from Luke this Coming One as the messenger (or angel) of the covenant is obviously tied to the last verse of Malachi: "Behold, I will and identifies him as the prophet Elijah. send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day The Malachi-John link leads to two conclusions. First, any of the lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers attempt to see John as the messenger of the Lord as prophesied to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, in Malachi is incorrect. Malachi's messenger is the Coming

Spring 1993 43 One, Elijah; John himself only preaches the Coming One and many people were listening to and following him instead of flatly denies that he is Elijah. John. Are we to understand that the Pharisees had some sort Second, the traditional Christian attempt to see John as of unwritten rule to the effect that John had to have more preaching the coming of the Lord, God, Jesus, cannot stand disciples than anyone else, or that he had to be the most close scrutiny. John is preaching the Coming One, and is prominent itinerant preacher? I think not, and the mention never reported as preaching the coming of God. If Jesus had of them here is a bit of a diversion. It is much more likely been recognized by John, he would not have been recognized that Jesus left in order to avoid a potential or actual problem as the Lord, as the divine Son of God, as understood by with John and his disciples, and not with the watchdogs of Christians, he would have been recognized as the messenger, the Pharisees. Elijah, the Coming One-refiner. Of course, as we have seen from the New Testament's post-baptism reports of the actions of John and disciples, John appears to have gone to his "He was not the Christ, the Messiah, Elijah, or untimely death without having accepted Jesus. a prophet. Knowing that his message was not original, John forcefully denied any attempt to John and Jesus Reconsidered identify him using these titles. He was, instead, One reported prophecy of John deserves particular mention, a holy man who sensed that Malachi's prophecies not because of its content or its uniqueness but because of were about to be realized and dedicated his life the light it possibly sheds on the relation of John to Jesus. to preparing the people for this. Unfortunately, The first words of John reported by Matthew are: "Repent for the Kingdom of God is near" (Matt. 3:2). The first words he was beheaded before his work could bear of Jesus reported by Mark were after the imprisonment of its full fruits." John, and Jesus' preaching was almost verbatim that of John: "The time has come. The Kingdom of God is near. Repent The similarity of Jesus' message to that of John's is obvious and believe the good news" (Mark 1:15). in many of Jesus' teachings. For example, if Jesus were not In taking this report at face value, I would speculate that named as the speaker, the following passage could easily be Jesus was a follower of John, who was baptized by him, and attributed to John. "Once again, the kingdom of heaven is who split off from the Baptist to start his own movement like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all which was initially similar to, if not identical with, that of kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up John. In short, Jesus, for reasons that are lost to us, decided on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good to set up a parallel and competitive ministry. fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will The Fourth Gospel can certainly be seen as supporting be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate this interpretation. the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth" Jesus and his disciples went out into the Jordan countryside, (Matt. 13:49-50). where he spent some time with them and baptized. Now John was also baptizing.... This was before John was put into There are other instances that point to the similar and prison. An argument developed between some of John's competitive nature of the ministries of John and Jesus. The disciples and a certain Jew after the matter of ceremonial introductory verse to the "Lord's Prayer" says: "One day Jesus washing. They came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, that was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his man who was with you on the other side of Jordan—the disciples said to him, `Lord, teach us to pray just as John one about whom you testified, well he is baptizing and everyone is going to him." (John 3:22-26) taught his disciples' "(Luke 11:1). Unfortunately, we will never know how similar John's prayer was to that of Jesus. While And later: Jesus' disciples compared themselves to John's regarding prayer, the situation was quite the opposite when it came The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing to fasting. "Then John's disciples came and asked him, 'How more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do who baptized but his disciples. When the Lord heard of this not fast?' " (Matt. 9:14; Mark 2:18; Luke 5:33). A definite he left Judea and went back to Galilee. (John 4:1-3) "edge" between the two groups can be sensed behind these encounters. This is certainly an odd response on Jesus' part. Jesus is John may have been Jesus' main rival, but one must wonder reported as preaching John's message; he then is described about the number, influence, and message of other as baptizing to such an extent that John's disciples were contemporary "prophets." It is probable that the Israel of perturbed and reported it to John. Finally, when Jesus finds this period was replete with numerous holy men, each out that he is attracting more disciples than John (when he preaching his own messianic vision, and all in competition appears to be having great success), he decides to clear out for disciples and prominence. In such an environment, it is and return to his home province of Galilee. We are told, possible to understand why Jesus would have made his in essence, that his activities were too successful, that too dramatic statement: "No one comes to the Father except

44 FREE INQUIRY through me!" (John 14:6). This could well be an exhortation The admission is remarkable: Apollos, a follower of John to the people that his was the most powerful message and the Baptist, spoke accurately about Jesus, but his ideas required that the messages of his various rivals were subordinate or some "Christian" adjustment. wrong. Its purpose was to give him the proverbial "competitive Not only is John's preaching reinterpretated, but the advantage." The expression "through me" would then be prophecy upon which it is based is reinterpreted. Malachi synonymous with "through my message." It would be quite and John plainly preached that Elijah, the Coming One, would bound to Jesus' time and circumstance, and not have the be sent to prepare the people for the great and terrible day universal and timeless meaning that it has held for many of the Lord. The New Testament tries to see John as Elijah, Christians over the centuries. and the Coming One as Jesus, the Lord, God, the only son Returning to Jesus and John, further evidence for the strong of God. There is no better demonstration of this than the similarity in their messages can, I believe, be found in the fact that all four Gospels describe Jesus' "triumphal" entry contemporary speculation that is reported to have existed into Jerusalem as being celebrated by the people who shout about the "true" identity of John and Jesus. We have already a passage from the Psalms (Ps. 118:26): "Hosanna! Blessed seen that both were regarded to be prophets or Elijah. Even is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" (Matt. 21:9; Mark more telling is that some people considered Jesus to be John 11:9; Luke 19:38; John 12:13). But Elijah, the Coming One the Baptist reincarnated (Matt. 14:2, 16:14; Mark 6:14, 8:28; and the messenger are the same person. Malachi says this Luke 9:19)—a fact that I have argued elsewhere is critical clearly as does John when his words are considered in to the understanding of the resurrection of Jesus. The most themselves outside of their artificial editorial context. obvious explanation for why such an identification was made Returning to our two salient questions as to the identity is that there was little or no difference between the deeds of John and Jesus, we find that John's recorded response and words of Jesus and John. is consistent with his actions and words. He was not the Christ, I would further speculate that this relationship between the Messiah, Elijah, or a prophet. Knowing that his message John and Jesus was so well known by contemporaries that was not original, John forcefully denied any attempt to identify it could not be avoided by the New Testament writers. John him using these titles. He was, instead, a holy man who sensed had to be mentioned by them, and it was such an that Malachi's prophecies were about to be realized and embarrassment that they (or their sources) had to inventively dedicated his life to preparing the people for this. Unfortu- rework the story so as to preserve Jesus' uniqueness. Jesus nately, he was beheaded before his work could bear its full became the object of John's prophecy. This is done by fruits. editorially telling the reader that this is so in introductory As for Jesus, the enigmatic quality of his response to this Gospel texts, and by putting this in the mouths of Jesus and question still remains. The Gospels accounts appear to be his followers after John is off the scene. But the real actions adamant about the fact that Jesus saw himself as the realization and preaching of John were so familiar that it was too flagrant of John's prophecy. Having reexamined and reinterpreted to change these. They existed side-by-side with the revisions John's prophecy, maybe we should give Jesus his due. Perhaps, and, on close analysis, they subvert them. despite what John and his disciples thought, Jesus did indeed An excellent example of this reinterpretation is the believe himself to be John's and Malachi's Coming One, the treatment of John's baptism of Jesus. Mark mentions it but messenger of the covenant. He was crucified before he could does not report any recognition of Jesus by John. Matthew, commence the coming wrath. sensing the embarrassment, reports what is apparently a private conversation between the two, in which John attempts Notes to avoid giving baptism in deference to Jesus' superior position, 1. The literature on John the Baptist is substantial. Any study should but is talked into doing it for what is apparently no good start with the remarkably insightful work of John Meagher, Five Gospels reason. Luke talks eloquently around the issue, but makes (Minneapolis: Winston Press, 1983). 0ther works of note are: L. F. Badia, it a point to mention Jesus's baptism only after John is in The Qumran Baptism and John the Baptist's Baptism (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1980); E. Bammel, "The Baptist in Early prison. John does not refer to it at all. He is so intent upon Christian Tradition," New Testament Studies 18 (1971), pp. 95-128; J. divorcing Jesus from the act of baptism (which must have Becker, Johannes der Täufer und Jesus von Nazareth (Neukirchen-Vluyn: been unique and inimitable to John) that, although Jesus' Neukirchen Presse, 1972); M. E. Boismard, "Les Traditions Johanniques concernant le Baptiste," Revue Biblique 70 (1963), pp. 5-42; M. S. Enslin, disciples were being baptized, he tells us that Jesus himself "John and Jesus," Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 66 did not perform the ceremony. (1975), pp. 1-18; M. M. Faierstein, "Why Do the Scribes Say That Elijah A very interesting vignette found in Acts actually describes Must Come First?" Journal of Biblical Literature 100 (1981), pp. 75-86; J. H. Hughes, "John the Baptist: The Forerunner of God Himself," Novum this reinterpretation taking place. Testamentum 14 (1972), pp. 191-218; C. H. Kraeling, John Baptist (New York: Scribner, 1951); W. S. LaSor, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1972); J. P. Meier, "John came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, well-versed in the the Baptist in Matthew's Gospel," Journal of Biblical Literature 99 (1980), pp. 383-405; F. T. Miosi, "The Resurrection Debate," Free Inquiry 8, 2 Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord; (1988), pp. 54-57; S. Mowinckel, He That Cometh (0xford: B. Blackwell, and he spoke with great fervour and taught about Jesus 1959); J. Reumann, "The Quest for the Historical Baptist," Understanding accurately, knowing only the baptism of John. He began to the Sacred Text, ed. J. Reumann (Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson Press, 1972), speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila pp. 181-199; C. H. Scobie, John the Baptist (London: SCM Press, 1964); heard him, they invited him to their home and explained W. Wink, John the Baptist in the Gospel Tradition (London: Cambridge to him the way of God more adequately. (Acts 18:24-26) University Press, 1968). •

Spring 1993 45 Confucius, The First `Teacher' of Humanism?

Gerald F. Rogers

f Confucius, it was once asked: "Is he the one who others, and who desiring attainment for himself helps others knows that what he does is in vain yet keeps on trying to attain. To be able to draw a parallel in dealing with others 0 to do so?" Now, I do not know if Confucius ever is indeed the way to achieve jen (human-heartedness)." felt a sense of hopelessness in the self-appointed task of trying The Affirmations of Humanism also avow, "We believe to rectify the character of other men; but since he was a in common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, dedicated teacher, had he been there to reply I think he would truthfulness, responsibility. . . ." All of these virtues are have said: "Yes, I am the one who is true to himself." embodied intrinsically in six major Confucian concepts very In his mid-fifties and thereon till a few years before his closely related to jen: shu (altruism), li (propriety), chung death (in 479 B.C.E. at the age of seventy-three) Confucius (faithfulness), hsin (sincerity), yi (correct conduct), and chih wandered about the Chinese states, seeking out and instructing (wisdom)—none of which is paramount, but rather all con- those of all classes who were eager to learn. Confucius said: joined in a bonded sense to jen (love for one's fellow man). "To learn and frequently practice what one has learned— These virtues stand and serve in relationship to jen in much is this not a pleasure?" As for himself, he said: "To be able the same way that scientific methods stand and serve as science to acquire new knowledge while reviewing the old, qualifies itself. In fine, all the virtues are but the continuing daily practice one as an instructor of men. Knowing through silent reflection, of jen—and that is why it is so difficult to define the precise learning without satiety, and teaching others without becoming sense of jen, unless jen be called "perfect virtue." weary—these are the merits I claim." The Affirmations of Humanism state: "We believe in the Confucius was sustained in his purpose by a genuine sense cultivation of moral excellence." Most certainly Confucius saw of "human-heartedness." In Confucian conception, this is the the necessity of moral growth. His philosophical approach doctrine of jen—its Chinese written character a composite is purely humanistic, emphasizing moral standards of of man and two, suggestive of one man carrying another, excellence in the cultivation of one's personal life. He envisaged a symbol representing humanity. When asked about the nature a social order based on the force of moral ideals. Confucius regarded man as inherently a social creature who is bound of jen, Confucious said: "There is one central idea that runs by kinship to his fellow men and destined in human heritage through all my teachings—love men." to live his life in the family and society of men. Confucius Humanism is the axis that runs through all his teachings. said: "It is impossible to herd with birds and beasts. If I do It is the harmonious reference from which all symmetry in not live with my fellow men, with whom should I live?" his system of ethical precepts is rationally attained. Throughout Confucius was inclined to see the better part of man's nature, all of his teachings, Confucius is clearly saying, as he did but as a practical matter he understood the need for explicit specifically on one occasion: "Without jen (benevolence) a moral instructions. Confucius said: "In my early dealings with man can not long endure adversity, nor can he long endure men, I used to listen to their words and take their deeds prosperity. A man of jen rests in jen, a man of wisdom finds on trust. Now I am obliged to give ear to what they say, it beneficial." and then keep a watchful eye on what they do." The Affirmations of Humanism, drawn up by the Council Unfortunately, Confucius was not explicit in defining the for Democratic and Secular Humanism, avow that "We affirm moral nature of man; consequently, the divergence in humanism ... as a source of rich personal significance and Confucian thought that later came about concerning the innate genuine satisfaction in the service of others." (See the back quality of man's moral nature has not been resolved. Mencius, cover.) Likewise, Confucius said: "A man of jen (charity) is the Confucian scholar (372-289 B.C.E.) who was born about one who in seeking to establish himself finds a foothold for a hundred years after the death of the First Teacher (as Confucius is called and revered by the Chinese people), asserted Gerald F. Rogers is a poet, writer and philosopher (as he that man's nature was innately compassionate, rather than says of himself, not `famous or infamous"). He is a member self-seeking. Therefore, in his system of values, Mencius of the South Broward Humanist Club. He lives in Wilton stressed yi (righteousness) as the prime virtue. Mencius said: Manors, Florida. "What one upholds in one's heart is jen; what one upholds in one's conduct is yi." Whereas, Hsun-tzu (315-236 B.c.E.)

46 FREE INQUIRY a late contemporary of Mencius and a scholar in his own things—such is the middle path taken by Chun-tzu (the ideal right, took the opposite view. Hsun-tzu taught that man is man). selfish by nature, and thus inherently evil. He stressed li (proper In this regard, Confucius said: "Chun-tzu bases his character conduct) as the prime virtue. Hsun-tzu said: "Man by birth on righteousness, conducts himself according to propriety, has desires. When these desires for gain are not satisfied, he expresses himself in modesty, and becomes complete in cannot but pursue their satisfaction. When the pursuit is carried sincerity; such is Chun-tzu." out without restrain or limit, there cannot but be contention." Thus, Confucius precedes Aristotle in the vision of the I believe that the congenital nature of man is neither good "magnanimous man"—the Chun-tzu, who by cleaving to the nor evil. Man is born not with sin, nor in sin, nor is man "Golden Mean" (doing nothing in excess) "helps the people endowed with pure virtue; man is born just to be, and he to succeed in what is good, but does not help them in what simply is—and the capacity for both goodness and badness is evil. Perfect, indeed, is the virtue which is in accord with is constituted in his being. It is best to keep in mind that the doctrine of Chung Yung. For a long time few have had goodness and badness are human judgments that relate the capacity for it." primarily to the actions of men toward other men, and only The central idea in Aristotle's ethics is that the inherent secondarily to the good or bad effects of natural phenomena goodness of a thing lies in the realization of its specific nature; on man. Nature truly knows no evil but only the immutable thus, the best and noblest that man can be lies in the complete order of the cosmos, which is awesome but always impersonal. and habitual exercise of the functions that make him a human The calamities and misfortunes of men are of no concern being. Confucius viewed fulfillment of man's nature as the to nature; this I think Confucius knew. Reason ought tell happiness achieved by the daily practice of jen; thus, the best us: man's ultimate concern is man—and to bring out the best and noblest in man is jen, the completeness of man's humanity in social man requires cultivation. Confucius said: "There are in the exercise of "perfect virtue." Confucius said: "Is jen really sprouting crops which never come to ear; there are others, so far away [from man's nature]? I desire jen, and see it is which having come to ear, never ripen to grain." I believe by." the vital question is not the natural disposition of the seed, Some, who are at a distance in thought and time, misguided but the rectification of its growing character. Confucius said: conservatives and liberals alike, might accuse Confucius and "The real fault is to have faults, and not to tend them." Aristotle (as well as Plato and Socrates) of upholding the When Confucius was asked: "Is there a single word that aristocratic status quo of their cultures. Of course, since all one can live by all one's life?" he replied, "Is not shu individual and societal knowledge reflects a level of progressive (reciprocity) such a word? Do not do to others what you accumulation, they were encumbered by the aristocratic elitism do not want done to yourself." Again, he said, "What you of their times; nevertheless, their views were of a radical elitism do not wish to yourself, do not do to others. Then, neither of a virtuous kind—their elitism was enshrouded in the idea in the country or in the family will there be any resentment of the ideal. They envisioned benevolent men, who, having towards you." Certainly, these expressions of the "Golden attained wisdom, would inevitably rise to the top, bringing Rule" clearly illustrate the excellence of Confucian thought forward rationality and thus harmony to the social order and Confucian morality. necessary for men to live together in sufficiency and in peace. In passing, I note: Confucius lived five hundred years before Such upright, compassionate men will, as Confucius said: Christ. While not to diminish or deny Christianity's humanistic "First practice what they preach, and preach what they morality (I refer to Renaissance ideas of fulfillment in this practice." life) Confucius, living before and thus preceding Socrates, In the fullest realization of the best that man can be, Plato, Aristotle, and Christ, derived his ethical principles from Confucius said: "There are nine things which occupy the the study of the ancients, and from the realistic observations thoughts of Chun-tzu: In seeing he sees clearly; in hearing of human desires, human needs, and human passions. When he hears distinctly; in his looks, he is kind; in his manner, Confucius was asked: "What do you think of requiting injury he is respectful; in his speech, he is sincere; in his work, he with kindness?" He replied, "How will you then requite is serious; when in doubt, he asks questions; when in anger, kindness? Requite injury with justice, and kindness with he considers the consequences; and when he sees gains, he kindness." thinks of righteousness." The Affirmations of Humanism also state: "We believe in If read closely, the Lun-Yu (The Analects), from which the fullest realization of the best and noblest that we are capable I have quoted Confucius, is a statement of the highest degree of as human beings." In the Chung Yung (The Doctrine of of moral excellence, attainable by any man making an effort; the Mean, one of the Four Books added to the earlier Chinese sufficiently attainable in just the trying. Confucius said: "Is Five Classics) Confucius is quoted as saying: "I know now there anyone who is able even for a single day to apply his why the Tao (the righteous path) is not observed. The wise energy to jen? Well, I have not seen a man whose energy mistake the Tao for something higher than what it is; and was not equal to it. Should there be any such man, I have the foolish overlook it; and the unworthy fall short of it." never met him." Thus, for Confucius, the best and noblest men are those who Some of the Affirmations that I have extracted and grouped walk the pathway of "perfect virtue"; that is, the way of Chung together, avow, "We believe in securing justice and fairness; Yung, the "Golden Mean"; the way of balance, harmony, In eliminating discrimination and intolerance; in nourishing and natural law; the way of the cosmic, universal order of reason and compassion; and, in supporting the disadvantaged

Spring 1993 47 and the handicapped." All of these virtuous goals are a part if viewed in a secular light conveys the obligation, the duty, of a longed-for past social order for which in both despair and the responsibility of continuing and completing the good and hope Confucius sighed: "The practice of the Great Tao, works of one's forefathers. and the eminent men of the Three Dynasties—this I have In the Hsiao Ching (The Classic of Filial Piety), in the never seen in person, and yet I have a mind to follow them. chapter on mourning for one's parents, Confucius said: "When When the Great Tao prevailed, the world was a common- parents are alive, the are served with love and reverence; when wealth; men of talent and virtue were selected, mutual they are dead, they are mourned with grief and sorrow. This confidence was emphasized, and brotherhood was cultivated. is the performance of man's supreme duty, fulfillment of the Therefore, men did not regard as parents only their own mutual affection between the living and the dead, and the parents, nor did they treat as sons only their own sons. Old accomplishment of the filial son's service to his parents." people were able to enjoy their old age; young men were Moreover, Confucius viewed the social structure as an able to employ their talents; juniors respected their elders; aggregation of families. Therefore, he perceived social helpless widows, orphans, and cripples were well cared for. harmony as arising from the natural love and caring within Men had their respective occupations, and women their homes. each family in that he visualized multiple happiness as diffusing They hated to see wealth lying about in waste, and they did into community harmony. This occurs by virtue of personal not hoard it for their own use. They hated not to use their cultivation, in the manner that the goodness of yi (self- energies, and they used their energies not for their own benefit. discipline) extends to the sincere practice of li (social discipline). Thus, evil schemings were repressed, and robbers, thieves, Thus, jen (true humanhood) is fulfilled by the reciprocal quality and traitors no longer appeared, so that the front door of shu (consideration for the feelings of others) by which the remained open. This was called Ta-tung (Grand Unity)." given expression of it multiplies to produce unity. To be sure, Confucius was an idealist, but he was also Some (so-called) modern Western minds, specifically the a pragmatist; for in his teachings he taught common sense, anti-shoulds and the anti-absolutes, may simply dismiss his rather than unattainable idealism—in that tumultuous age, circular, ethical system as merely representing the despotic Hsiao K'ang (Minor Peace) was more attainable than a wishful commands of heads of households, which is ultimately sigh for a utopian dream. With insightful wisdom, he pointed extended to include and justify a paternalistic government. to the Tao (the moral law) as the proper path to achieve Such a benevolent and moralizing government is viewed by an enlightened height. He emphasized jen (true manhood) them as repressive to individual initiative and personal as the way from the low to climb high. He stressed hsiao freedom. In truth, I surmise, what they really fear is curtailment (filial piety) as the true path going to a distance from nearby. of unconscionable profits and gains and condemnation of In keeping with the First Teacher's thoughts, Mencius said: immoral and licentious behavior. Be assured, Confucius did "Jen is man's secure abode, and yi (righteousness) his true not in his ethical system confuse liberty with license. I am road. Alas for those who desert the secure abode and dwell sure Confucius would affirm that freedom can never be not therein! Alas for those who abandon the true path and absolute: it is always bounded by duty and responsibility— follow it not!" Hsun-tzu said: "Unless steps and half-steps and it is best served when one's actions serve all men. are accumulated, no one can cover a thousand li (a great Now, any doctrine that by its statement of principles, and distance)." Thus, through learning and perseverance, "one who by its practices is authoritarian will bring upon itself resentment abides by li (proper conduct) never goes astray." by those excluded from participation and status. Admittedly, The Affirmations of Humanism avow: "We are deeply the Confucian ideal of an ordered and regulated society is concerned with the moral education of our children...." not based upon a relationship of equals. Realistically, in any Confucius said: "Filial piety is the basis of virtue and the social structure, one finds one's place and does one's living. source of culture." Therefore, moral education proceeds from As for equality, Tsun-tzu said: "When division is equal, there the natural bonds of parenthood, continuing through love is no distinction; when power is equal, there is no unity; when and fidelity in marriage, fostered by kindness in the parents the multitude is equal, there is not order.... For two superiors toward their son, and by reverence in the son for his parents, cannot serve each other; two inferiors cannot order each other." deference to elders, and veneration of one's ancestors. Nonetheless, Confucian concepts when examined closely, Confucius said: "A youth should be filial at home and fraternal and objectively, have a subtle sense of egalitarianism. In the abroad. He should be earnest and sincere, feeling an affection Shu Ching (The Book of History) it is said: "They are only for all and a disposition for jen (true humanhood)." equal in that they are not equal." Thus, all men have the Thereby, in a masterful concept based on the natural act same natural attributes, but have different abilities and talents. of human pairing, Confucius expresses the kindred sense of Some men apply themselves and others do not. Some men humanity—hsiao (filial piety)—as not only giving one a true have a great light, most have a lesser light. So from each feeling of personal worth by the practice of proper relationships expect according to capacity, to all attribute proper status, in one's family, but also as giving one a feeling of fellowship and mutual respect between non-equals will flow. When one by the practice of proper relationships in one's community. is ordered to do what one wants to do, should there be Confucius said: "There is nothing better than filial piety to objection? When one does what is proper to do, is there teach the people love for one another." objection? As on a tight ship, all crewmen have their stations Furthermore, hsiao as giving a youth an awareness of and want to do their duty, hence there is not resentment of continuity with the past by the practice of "ancestor worship" the good captain's orders." Confucius said: "One who governs

48 FREE INQUIRY by virtue is comparable to the polar star, which remains in part, I wanted Confucius to speak for himself. (3) Many people its place while all the stars turn toward it." think of Confucianism—if at all—as the alien religion of an Certainly, the concept of hsiao does not preclude ancient culture. Therefore, I want to deny that tag of religion, progressive change, though it properly inhibits any change and show Confucian humanism as being in basic agreement for the sake of change, so as to assure that long-term goodness with the contemporary Affirmations of Humanism. will not be abandoned for short-term gratification. Respect Also, some people seem only to know of the "inscrutable" for one's parents which ultimately transforms into proper Confucius: he being frequently quoted in Charlie Chan films respect for all authority does not in gross cases mean blind on late-night television. Mention Confucianism to them, and obedience, nor does it preclude the right of dissent. Compare they can still hear an educated Mr. Chan, speaking in pidgin what Confucius said: "In serving his parents, a son may gently English, saying to Number One Son: "Confucius say, man remonstrate with them. If they refuse to listen to his argument, who sleep in day, at night bay at moon and accomplish he should remain reverent and obedient. Even if he is nothing!" belabored, he should not complain." On the other hand, Yet, in that made-up saying, there is good advice; and in Confucius also said: "If a father has a son to admonish him, its fashion it conforms to the spirit of the practical wisdom the father will not commit gross wrong. In case of gross wrong, of Confucius. As an example of this spirit, I will now group the son should never fail to admonish his father against it. together in a composite paragraph some actual sayings of Hence, where there is gross wrong there should be the First Teacher. admonition." Confucius said: "By nature men are nearly alike, but Applying this principle to government, Tsun-tzu said: through experience they grow wide apart. [Therefore] when "Choose men of worth and merit, advance those who are you see a man of worth, think of attaining his excellence. sincere and reverent, and encourage filial piety, and brotherly When you see an unworthy one, then look within and examine reverence; shelter the orphan and the widow, and help those yourself. In education there is no class distinction. [So] learn who are poor and in need; then the common people will be as though you would never be able to master it; hold it as satisfied with the government. Only when the common people though you would be in fear of losing it. [Indeed] study without are satisfied with the government is the prince secure in his thought is labor lost; thought without study is perilous. position." It is said that, The prince is like the boat; The [Remember] clever words and flattering looks seldom speak people, like the water. Water can support the boat, but it of jen (humanity)." also sinks it. Now, Confucius said: "Excess and deficiency are equally uch are the sayings of Confucius! In this essay, I can at fault." Having this principle in mind, I have tried to adhere but touch the surface of Confucianism; perhaps it has to the Mean (a balanced way) in keeping to the theme of been sufficient to arouse curiosity and to stimulate further this essay without having an excess of deficiency in conveying interest. I think that you will find that the humanistic force the humanistic character of Confucian philosophy. of Confucianism by its rational thinking does not lend itself Yet, keeping a proper sense of balance has been very difficult to myth making, nor to the apotheosis of Confucius himself. for these reasons: (1) In our culture many people, though It may be that I have tinged my interpretation of well educated in Western thought, have little or no knowledge Confucianism with a modern brush. But I believe the evident of Confucianism. Therefore, it is necessary to explain focal truths in the wisdom of Confucius are timeless, and need only points in some detail. (2) Many people are misled by the to be expressed in today's language and to have their goodness later works of Confucian revisionists who have infused reaffirmed by their true practice in today's unhappy, inhumane mysticism and abstract speculations into Confucian thought, societies. Confucius said: "Where there is a will, there is a contrary to its original naturalism. Therefore, for the most way." It is the will, and not the way, that is wanting. •

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Spring 1993 49 Viewpoint The Disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Failures of the International Community Svetozar Stojanovic

Yes, Bosnia is a land of hatred. That extended from Bosnia to all of Yugo- so, what kind of Yugoslavia, Titoists is what Bosnia is. And by a strange slavia and from its religious to its prevented any serious discussion on the contrast, which actually is not all that national and state-building or, rather, genocide against the Serbs (and the Jews strange and could by careful analysis be easily explained, there are few state-disintegrating, traditions. Since its and Gypsies, too). countries in which there is so much inception in 1918, Yugoslavia has One of the main causes of the hard faith, such a lofty strength of essentially been an unsynchronized and dissolution of Yugoslavia could be found character, so much tenderness and contradictory creation. It was set up in the system of communist statism. amorous passion, such a depth of around two independent Serb states, Upon coming to power, the communists feeling, loyalty, and unswerving devotion, so much thirst for justice. Serbia and Montenegro, victors in eliminated what little "civil society" and Yet, beneath all this, in the murky World War I. The Serb people invested market that had been inherited from depths there lie hatreds, whole hur- a lot in Yugoslavia, confident that capitalist Yugoslavia. Partial de- ricanes of constrained hate that grows unification could only be achieved within Stalinization in the second half of the and awaits its hour... . a broader, South-Slav framework. sixth and during the seventh decade He who lies awake at night in Sarajevo can hear the sounds of a The two other components, the resulted in some revival of the market Sarajevo night. There's the heavy and Croats and the Slovenes, joined Yugo- and, to a small extent, some other aspects unmistakable striking of the clock on slavia of their own free will, but came of a civil society, but it was suppressed the Roman Catholic cathedral: two from a foreign and defeated country, by Tito's opting for anti-market a.m. After less than one minute (forty- Austria-Hungary. In contrast to the "national-republican economies" and five seconds to be exact) there's the slightly weaker but still penetrating Serbs, many Croats immediately dem- "republican statehoods" of the 1970s, sound from the clock of the Orthodox onstrated an almost obsessive aspiration which continued into the 1980s as well. church striking its two a.m. Only a to form an independent state, particu- Since the state party (communist) and little while later, there's the hoarse, larly because the first Yugoslavia was set the party state, divided into national- distant voice of the clocktower near up on unitary and not federal principles. republican constituent parties, formed the Bey's mosque as it strikes eleven o'clock, the spectre-like Turkish hours The same aspirations latent at first, but the backbone of the system, it was only according to the peculiar reckoning of since overt—were also cherished by the natural that the disintegration of the time in far-off strange parts of the Slovenes, the Macedonians, and the Yugoslav state would occur at the world! ... And these differences are Islamized South-Slays in Bosnia and national seams. sometime overtly, and sometimes Herzegovina. covertly, akin to hatred and sometimes even identical with it. There is no doubt that due to their he 1974 constitution transformed territorial diffusion and their state- TYugoslavia into a contradictory and —Ivo Andric, in a 1920 letter building role, the Serbs were objectively self-destructive federal-confederal mix- an "obstructive factor." Hence the ture. Federal organizations, as a rule, his prophetic text of No Andric, a Serbophobia of such magnitude and the consisted of an equal number of repre- TNobel prize-winning writer, can be efforts to break up Yugoslavia and form sentatives of federal units independent independent national states instead. of their size and population who made Svetozar Stojanovic is former co-president When the communists took over in decisions by consensus. The nonfunc- of the International Humanist and Ethical 1944-1945 none of the national com- tionality and unsustainability of such an Union, professor of philosophy at the munities—not even the Serbs who had order was disguised by the charisma of University of Belgrade and the University of been subjected to genocide in the new Tito, who would order "consensus" of Kansas, and the chief advisor to the president "Independent State of Croatia"—were the federal units whenever he lost of Yugoslavia (which now comprises Serbia allowed self-determination. Instead of patience. and Montenegro). asking whether Yugoslavia was really When he died in 1980, the hitherto possible again after the genocide and if constitutional decoration for his will

50 FREE INQUIRY became the real decision-making system, national and multi-religious states. But they would provoke an inter-national which resulted in the complete paralysis one who counts on only his own and inter-religious war because the Slav of the Yugoslav state. Vital decisions separatism is like a buyer of a Russian Muslims would interpret the recognition were vetoed by the federal units. Then "babushka" doll who believes that he will as tacit acceptance of a unitary order the republics, one after another, started find just one more doll inside. Even of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whereas the undermining Yugoslavia's order by before he has touched it, another doll Serbs would take up arms fearing that adopting their own laws and measures is already appearing from inside. much more elementary rights than their in a contravention of federal ones. Having decided to support the dis- right to self-determination (including the Finally, during the 1990 and 1991 membering of Yugoslavia, the West right to life) were endangered. The republican multi-party elections (federal started from a contradictory position; on response was that the West would elections were prevented), separatist the one hand, it supported secession proceed as planned precisely in order to forces started winning. invoking the right of nations to self- prevent such a war by its authoritative That is how those who advocated a determination, while on the other, it recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina. decentralized, but viable federation, were insisted that the existing internal boun- If the West requested that the Serbs defeated. We were convinced that there daries in Yugoslavia be preserved. The in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina was no solution to our crisis without West wasted no time in "resolving" this renounce in practice their right to state combining and balancing at the federal contradiction by recognizing the right to self-determination because of important level two principles of representation and self-determination only of the existing pragmatic-utilitarian reasons (primarily decision-making: the general-civic and territories-republics as integral units. to avoid a dangerous precedent which the nationalistic. After all, the wisdom This satisfied the Slovenes, the Croats, would be introduced by changing the of statesmanship lies in skillfully joining the Slav Muslims, and the Macedonians, internal boundaries of Yugoslavia, par- different principles of social organiza- but not the Serbs. Was it not unprin- ticularly bearing in mind the former tion. A new constitution should retain cipled to accept and even support the USSR where such a precedent could national rights that could not be nullified change of internationally defined have apocalyptic consequences), then by any kind of vote. The second borders of Yugoslavia, but, at the same this people should not have been guarantee would be the right to veto, time, to persist in demanding that its satanized and punished but amicably which would be retained by the repre- internal boundaries (between the consti- persuaded to make such a sacrifice, and sentatives in the chamber of federal units. tuent republics) be preserved at any cost? given special international guarantees in However, it would encompass only a The war between the Serbs and the addition to the cantonization of Bosnia small number of precisely defined issues Croats in the former Yugoslav republic and Herzegovina. of essential importance for preserving of Croatia in 1991 did not teach the It surprises me that there is so much national equality, whereas all other Western countries the lesson of caution anti-Serb racist hysteria in Germany and matters would be decided on by a two- in dealing with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Austria, because it is known that in thirds or simple majority, depending on On the contrary, they were in a hurry World War II Nazi Germany and Nazi their importance. It was also suggested to recognize its secession (in April 1992). Austria shared the responsibility for the that some federal institutions should be Although the leaders of the Slav Mus- genocide against the Serbs in Pavelic's moved from Belgrade to other centers. lims in those areas would not consent "Independent State of Croatia." Has it Superficial observers pay too much to a referendum of the citizens of the already been forgotten that Bosnia and attention to the quarrelling republican rest of Yugoslavia, on the country's fate, Herzegovina, which is presently the scene leaders—who are almost without excep- after the secession of Slovenia and of a tragedy, was a part of the state in tion former communist officials—in Croatia, lest they be outvoted by the which numerous Muslim Ustashi also their attempt to explain what has Serbs, they held their own referendum took part in the genocide against the happened in Yugoslavia. I do not deny (together with the Croats) contrary to Serbs? In all honesty in this context I the effect of "communicating vessels" in the will of the Serbs (who had already have to mention and condemn again the politics, but rather stress that we are not held their own referendum and decided vengeful crimes of some Serbian royalist able to seriously understand the influ- to stay in Yugoslavia) and decided to warring units against innocent Muslim ence of national leaders unless we take secede from Yugoslavia—which the civilians at that time. into account favorable circumstances as West agreed with. well as the support of the people. I believe I have the right to criticize doubt that any regime in the Federal Until recently, an integral and strong the West since I had previously warned IRepublic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Yugoslavia was in the interest of the their official representatives not to recog- Montenegro) would survive if it were West. This policy was reversed as soon nize Bosnia and Herzegovina as inde- forced to give up its serious concern for as the USSR became weak and started pendent and sovereign states before the such a large number of Serbs in the to disintegrate. A broad international agreement was reached (under their territories that have seceded. Likewise, avalanche of nationalism and separatism mediation and pressure) among all the it is difficult even to imagine, let alone is at work. A crisis is arising of the three constituent peoples (Slav Muslims, really expect, that the Serbs in Bosnia, hitherto type of state organization and Serbs, and Croats) on its cantonization. sovereignty, particularly in multi- I tried to convince them that, otherwise, (Yugoslavia, tont ä. an p. 63) Spring 1993 51 Books for Young Readers by Prometheus on Critical Thinking and Moral Education

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The Tree of Life Bellybuttons Are Navels How Do You Know It's True? The Wonders of Evolution Mark Schoen, Ph.D. Discovering the Difference Between Science and Ellen Jackson Illustrated by M.J. Quay Superstition Illustrated by Judeanne Winter Introduction by Mary Steichen Calderone, M.D. Hy Ruchlis Many children's stories and books have This beautiful story initiates adult-child dis- Introduces science as a way of thinking, addressed the idea of biblical creation, but the cussion of acceptance of the body, sexual describes the nature of superstition, warns number of works on human evolution, especial- anatomy and abuse awareness, and sex-pos- against magical thinking, and shows how aston- ly for young children, have been few indeed. itive roles. Ages 3 to 8. ishing events can be analyzed and explained. The Tree of Life fills this void. Lavishly illustrat- 'An easy, accurate inhoducrion to anatomy." —,Booklist Ages 12 to 15. ed and geared for children ages 4 to 9, The 44 pages (18 Full-Color Illustrations) 100 pages (Illustrations) Tree of Life shares the excitement and the joy ISBN 0-87975-585-7 • Cloth $16.95 ISBN 0-87975-657-8 • Paper $12.95 of evolution in an easy-to-read, fun manner. Ellen Jackson (Santa Barbara, CA) is a Maybe Right, Maybe Wrong Facts About Sex freelance writer and former kindergarten teacher. A Guide for Young Thinkers For Today's Youth 40 pages (Illustrated) • ISBN 0-87975-819-8 • Cloth $14.95 Dan Barker Sol Gordon Illustrations by Brian Strassburg Illustrated by Vivien Cohen Science in a Nanosecond This book affirms a child's ability to think and to This easy-to-read book discusses reproduction, Illustrated Answers to 100 Basic question "Why?" offering tools for critical thought, sex, and values in plain language, answers Science Questions while painlessly teaching "situation ethics." common questions and provides information on James A. Haught Ages 7 to 12. sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. Illustrated by Gary T. Hahn 72 pages (Illustrations) 50 pages • ISBN 0-934978-01-8 • Paper $8.95 Why is the sky blue? Why are there seasons? ISBN 0-87975-731-0• Paper $13.95 What is the Milky Way? How fast does the A Better Safe Than Sorry Book Earth rotate? What holds an airplane up in the Maybe Yes, Maybe No A Family Guide for sky? These and 95 more questions are ad- A Guide for Young Skeptics Sexual Assault Prevention dressed in a breezy style that conveys basic Dan Barker Sol and Judith Gordon scientific information. For ages 10 & up. Illustrated by Brian Strassburg Illustrated by Vivien Cohen "A must-buy." —Mphasis In this introduction to skeptical curiosity, young Written for children from 3 to 9 years of age, as 110 pages (B&W Illustrations on each page) readers learn that they are capable of figuring well as for parents and professionals, a tra- ISBN 0-87975-637-3 • Paper $13.95 out what to believe and of knowing when there ditionally uncomfortable topic is discussed in a isn't enough information to decide. manner designed to help children feel good Old Tales for A New Day .. simple, straight-forward and easy to read and about themselves. Includes a guide to help par- Sophia Lyon Fahs and Alice Cobb enjoy." —Humanist in Canada ents feel less awkward in their role as primary Illustrated by Gobin Stair 80 pages (B&W Illustrations) sex educators. The myths and legends of this multicultural col- ISBN 0-87975-607-1 • Paper $12.95 44 pages • ISBN 0-934978-13-1 • Paper $8.95 lection will appeal to children ages 9 to 15 and stimulate critical thinking. The stories highlight Girls Are Girls and oys Are Boys Did the Sun Shine Before You Were modern topics, resolving conflict; sharing re- So What's the Difference . Born? sponsibilities; goals; and more. Sol Gordon Sol and Judith Gordon 201 pages (Illustrations Throughout) Illustrated by Vivien Cohen Illustrated by Vivien Cohen ISBN 0-87975-730-2 • Paper $14.95 This nonsexist sexuality-education book ex- This sex-education primer for ages 3 to 7 helps plains human reproduction, the physical differ- parents communicate facts about the family and What About Gods? ences between boys and girls, and why these how it grows. Chris Brockman differences have no effect on a person's career 48 pages (B& W Illustrations Throughout) A skeptical treatment of religion in a book choice or other interests. Ages 8 to 12. ISBN 0-87975-723-X • Paper $8.95 designed to be read by or to children. "It is so good, so needed." —San Diego Tribune 32 pages • ISBN 0-87975-106-1 • Paper $8.95 48 pages (B&W Illustrations Throughout) ISBN 0-87975-686-1 • Paper $9.95 To order, call toll-free (800) 421-0351 (24 Hours) Prometheus Books • 59 John Glenn Drive • Buffalo, NY 14228-2197 Payable in US funds. Payment must accompany all orders from individuals. Please include $3.50 postage and handling for the first book, $1.75 for each additional book ($12.00 maximum). New York State residents add applicable sales tax. Please allow 3 - 6 weeks for delivery. In Part 3, "The Paranormal, Religion, and Fantasy," Kurtz uses skepticism as Reviews inquiry to evaluate critically both paranormal beliefs and religious beliefs such as the belief that sick people can be cured by faith healers or that reincarnation is true. He also briefly Skepticism and Eupraxophy criticizes the classical arguments for the existence of God. Maintaining that it is essential to apply the methods of Michael Martin skeptical inquiry to these areas, he points out that human psychology makes this The New Skepticism, by Paul Kurtz with the ancient versions of the Sophists, difficult. Human beings have a "trans- (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, Pyrrhonists, and Carneades, among cendental temptation": a temptation to 1992) 250 pp., cloth $24.95. others, he traces the origins of modern accept occult and supernatural explana- skepticism back to the Renaissance and tions. In addition, they have a strong ew philosophers writing today im- Reformation and to philosophers such wish to know the future and powerful Fpart to their readers a comprehen- as Descartes and Hume. The historical desires for health, eternal youth, sexual sive interpretation of the world; fewer survey ends with a discussion of the gratification, wealth, and glory. These still elucidate an attractive worldview skepticism of postmodernism and the drive them "to subvert their senses and that is compatible with atheism, falli- pragmatism of Peirce, Dewey, Hook, reason and to accept popular delusions" bilism, and a commitment to objective and Rorty, thus setting the stage for a (p. 249). Kurtz raises the question of values and yet is sensitive to the tragedy discussion of skepticism as inquiry. whether it is possible or desirable to live and fragility of human existence. In this Although Kurtz calls this latter "the new without any myths or illusions. His wide-ranging book, The New Skepti- skepticism," he admits that it is an answer is that although people "need cism, Paul Kurtz does all of these things "outgrowth of pragmatism" (p. 28). The ideals by which to live, as individuals and much more. crucial difference between this form of and in society, they should have some The basic Deweyan theme of the book skepticism and earlier kinds, he says, is realistic footing in empirical probabili- that is played out in different ways in that it "is positive and constructive. It ties. Thus skeptical inquiry needs to go its four parts is that human beings can involves the transformation of the on" (p. 273). and should use a broadly conceived negative critical analysis of claims of In Part 4, "The Judgments of Prac- knowledge into a positive contribution tice," Kurtz argues that skeptical inquiry scientific method—referred to as "skep- to the growth and development of can and should be applied to ethics and ticism as inquiry"—in all areas of human skeptical inquiry. It is basically a form politics. Rejecting ethical nihilism, life. Although life is short and uncertain, of methodological skepticism, for here subjectivism, and recent forms of ethical although humans are driven by irrational skepticism is an essential phase of the skepticism, he advocates a form of desires and tempted by fantasies and process of inquiry; but it does not and ethical skepticism that is "continuous myths, experience has shown that the need not lead to unbelief, despair, or with our quest for knowledge in all fields use of this method is the best course of hopelessness" (p. 28). of human endeavor" (p. 288). On this action. Kurtz's basic message is cau- Kurtz criticizes what he takes to be view ethics is concerned with praxis. It tiously optimistic, affirming the possibil- a basic assumption of skeptics from is a contextual inquiry that does not seek ity of rational change and improvement. Pyrrho and Sextus down to Descartes ultimate principles but evaluates hypo- Parts 1 and 2 of The New Skepticism and Hume in Part 2, "Inquiry and theses that provide practical guidance in set skepticism as inquiry in historical per- Objectivity." This assumption, which he the light of a fallible valuation base— spective, contrasting it with and show- calls "the egocentric predicament," is that our common moral wisdom and basic ing its advantages over other varieties. "we cannot get outside the sticky stuff human needs. Thus, ethical reasoning Parts 3 and 4 apply it to two critical of experience" and that "we are locked involves act-duction, by which Kurtz areas of human life: paranormal/ super- within an inner world of ideas" (p. 77). means that "we infer the actions that are natural belief and ethical/ political issues. Kurtz maintains that skepticism as the most appropriate—we act-deduce— In Part 1, "Skepticism in Perspective," inquiry is not committed to this predic- given the valuation base at hand" (p. Kurtz distinguishes skepticism as inquiry ament: it escapes it by the use of objective 298). In this section Kurtz also says that from other forms. After offering a criteria that are applied in testing skeptical inquiry is especially needed in historical review of skepticism starting knowledge claims. The intersubjective the area of politics in order to expose corroboration of a hypothesis gives us "unexamined political abstractions, Michael Martin is professor of philos- good grounds, he argues, for believing ideological fictions, and fantasies" (p. ophy at Boston University. that we have avoided the confines of our 305) such as Marxism, natural law and subjective sense impressions. natural rights, extreme doctrines of

Spring 1993 53 laissez faire, and postmodern nihilism. beings. For readers of FREE INQUIRY, says nothing about them being de- He maintains that human rights as including the reviewer, his view is not ceived by the popular media as to the enumerated by the United Nations only congenial, it is attractive and United States' role in promoting state Declaration of Human Rights are appealing. There simply is no non- terrorism. justified in terms of their practical result: religious philosopher writing today with Second, his treatment of some impor- for example, societies that violate such such a sweeping and comprehensive tant issues concerning religious belief will rights have more injustices and cruelties perspective. Nevertheless, my admira- disappoint careful, sophisticated readers than ones that do not. Ending his book tion for his work is tempered by two for his critique of arguments for the with a plea for a comprehensive unified considerations. existence of God are superficial at best. view of nature and the human species First, I wish that Kurtz had directed This would not be troubling if Kurtz had based on the principles of skeptical his skeptical methods to political issues supplied footnotes directing readers to inquiry, Kurtz calls the quest for this closer to home. For example, although more extensive treatments, but he does view "eupraxophy." Combining the love he raises questions about Nazism, not. Indeed, the book contains a minimal of wisdom and of good ethical practice, communism, and extreme laissez-faire number of references and many of these eupraxophy would be sensitive to the capitalism, he does not scrutinize the are to the author's own works. tragedies and uncertainties of human United States' support of dictatorships Despite these problems, however, The life. in various parts of the world. While he New Skepticism makes an important and A brief review can hardly do justice bemoans the fact that people are valuable contribution to the philosophy to Kurtz's vision of the world and human beguiled by advocates of the occult, he of skepticism. •

Libertarianism With Foundations But Is It Libertarianism? Tom Flynn Anarchy, State and Utopia, a path- Idea he examines libertarian theory The Libertarian Idea, by Jan Narveson blazing attempt by a Harvard philos- anew. Starting from first principles, he (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, opher to construct a rigorous justifica- sets out to discover whether it is possible 1992) xiv + 336 pp., indexed, paper tion for libertarianism. On the plus side, to weave a logically sound defense of $19.95. Nozick proved that strict libertarianism libertarianism that does not end in still had room for—in fact, required— untestable intuitions about the "natural he love-hate relationship between a minimal state, a boon for libertarians rights" of the individual. secular humanists and libertarians eager to distance themselves from the Narveson's analysis leads him to has a long history. Anarcho-syndicalists scruffier anarchists. On the minus side, propound a surprisingly moderate and laissez-faire activists were fellow Nozick built his whole grand edifice on libertarian philosophy. With Nozick, nontheists, but their politics differed the "natural rights" of the individual, a though for different reasons, he accepts sharply from the almost monolithic position that ultimately relied on intui- the minimal state. He condones one Progressivism of early- and mid-century tion. This led a contemporary reviewer individual restricting another's freedom humanists. By the 1960s, Sidney Hook to brand Nozick's a "libertarianism of action in a surprising range of cases. and his followers were chipping away without foundations." The effect of He quails from defending pornography, at humanism's reflexive identification Nozick's work was nonetheless to bring accepts public ownership of roadways, with the left-wing agenda. Even today libertarian ideas a new respectability in rejects landowners' rights to use their few secular humanists take libertarian- mainstream discourse. land however they please, and endorses ism seriously. Yet humanists remained skeptical. a social obligation to help the less Before 1974, we were in good com- The sticking point was natural rights. fortunate. Libertarian hardliners may pany. Academe considered libertarian- How are natural rights bestowed? By question whether "the libertarian idea" ism little more than an aberration of the what means, and to what end? The actually survives Narveson's mighty far right. Then came Robert Nozick's ascription of inherent natural rights to effort to reconstruct it. Secular human- individuals struck skeptics as tenden- ists, in contrast, may find The Libertar- Tom Flynn is an Associate Editor of tious at best. ian Idea the first account of liber- FREE INQUIRY and head of Inquiry Enter Jan Narveson, professor of tarianism they can identify with, if not Media Productions. philosophy at the University of Waterloo accept altogether. (Ontario, Canada). In The Libertarian The book is divided into three sec-

54 FREE INQUIRY tions. In the first, Narveson redefines who associate libertarianism with cal- n The Libertarian Idea Jan Narveson such elementary libertarian concepts as lousness toward the unfortunate will challenged himself to define liber- liberty, coercion, rights, the difference welcome Narveson's friendlier con- tarianism and answer its critics with- between interference and nonassistance, struction; strict libertarians may think out invoking some murky theory of and many more. All human rights are he's giving away the store. He proposes individual rights. Since libertarianism traced to property rights. a "silver rule" under which mutual aid and the natural-rights tradition are The second section contains Narve- is both rational and morally required: historically inseparable, Narveson is son's effort to justify libertarianism forced to define fundamental liber- without resort to natural-rights intui- In the world we live in, no one can tarian concepts in radically new tions. He proposes a contractarian reasonably expect to get along totally ways. Sometimes the results stray far without the assistance of others, over justification of libertarianism, and cites and beyond what he or she may have from libertarian orthodoxy as Karl University of Pittsburgh moralist David contracted for in his or her market Hess or Murray Rothbard might Gauthier to show that rational agents dealings. present it. Now and then one suspects using rational methods can avoid the Narveson of gilding the lily to en- worst pitfalls of self-interest. Narveson An exacting analyst, Narveson none- hance libertarianism's social ac- can thus argue that a practical libertarian theless hates to let a one-liner get away. ceptability. Yet all in all, one must be polity could function without the need Pedantry and punditry collide in surpris- deeply impressed by Narveson's achieve- for either strong central authority or ing and sometimes delightful ways, as ment in recasting the libertarian unrealistically virtuous citizens. when we read that the strict egoist who idea—most of it, anyway—in terms In the final section, Narveson exam- refuses to aid the needy on principle that do not require adherents to ines particular cases in the application "needs a couple of earfuls. He's out to accept a "theology" of self-evident of libertarian thought. Political liberals lunch!" rights. •

Jerusalem led by—as Timothy describes him—"oily James, kid brother of our Gore Vidal's Golgotha Lord." "I am lying stark naked on a wooden Robert Gorham Davis table. I have golden hyacinthine curls and cornflower-blue forget-me-not eyes and the largest dick in our part of Asia Live from Golgotha: The Gospel identifying him before the authorities as Minor." That dick, alternately termed According to Gore Vidal, by Gore Vidal the Messiah, but then, by a further plot "dong" or "whanger" gets little rest in (New York, N.Y.: Random House), 232 reversal, gets crucified anyway, though the remainder of the book. Two-faced pp., cloth á22.00. he, the "real" Jesus, is anti-Christian, at or three-faced where sex is concerned, least by Christian as opposed to Judaic Paul has the hots for Timothy as do a hat can secular humanists make conceptions of the Messiah. host of other males. Timothy prefers Wof this ingenious, occasionally Whether humanists will learn any- female flesh, specifically that of the witty, occasionally trivial and tiresome thing from Vidal's novel or be glad they biblical Priscilla, but he is willing to novel—or should we call it a vaude- read it is another matter. Vidal has set barter his own body for favors—in order ville—by America's most multi-talented out to be as offensive as possible, to step to travel with Paul, or to win entrance religion-baiter? Merging present and on as many Christian and Jewish toes to great houses from their libidinous past in the manner of H. G. Wells's The as he can. If the pope were anything like eunuch staffs. Time Machine, Gore Vidal's Live from the Ayatollah Khomeini, Vidal would Nero himself subjects Timothy to a Golgotha plays such startling games with now have a huge bounty on his head. sadistic "date-rape," confessing that early Christian history that humanists To be fair, Vidal warns us as early ordering legal executions has palled on who know their Bible may want to read as paragraph two what we are about to him. He dreams of being a secret serial him for the sheer boldness of his re- encounter. His narrator, Saint Timothy, killer in another kind of society. Vidal inventions. In Vidal's version, for Bishop of all Macedonia and titular spares us no details of the rape, a self- instance, Jesus betrays Judas with a kiss, Bishop of Ephesus, recalls himself at indulgence on his part, since it plays no fifteen being prepared to set out on significant role in the novel. Robert Gorham Davis is professor missionary travels with St. Paul. Though As these examples suggest, Live From emeritus of English at Columbia Uni- Timothy's father was Greek and only his Golgotha, a short book, contains more versity and for many years was a mother Jewish, Saint Paul had Timothy sex proportionately than any of Vidal's principle reviewer for the New York circumcised (the "most famous circum- previous works, but displays little human Times Book Review. cision in the world") to satisfy the sympathy and no real love, either for demands of the Judaizing Christians in man or God. In fact, the book is

Spring 1993 55 thoroughly inhumane, casual about reversal of the situation at the Tower future is to get him to be anchorman suffering and death, disdainful of of Babel. For that matter, in what idiom and narrator in the project of recording humankind generally. Since, except in of Hebrew or Egyptian and with what and transmitting the Crucifixion "live." its mockeries, the novel is unserious, accent did God speak to Moses, and in This they discuss with the callousness beheadings or crucifixions become by what script did his finger write the Ten that pervades the book and provides contagion unserious too. Most of Vidal's Commandments on a tablet of stone? much of its humor. A U.S. manufac- chief characters are cynical dupers, and If the tablet had not been lost or mislaid, turer, for instance, offers to provide in the case of "religious freaks" both we would know. "user-friendly" nails for the cross. What dupers and duped at once. Vidal does not attempt to explain how viewers back in the United States will Time travel dominates the action. these insubstantial holograms from the really be seeing is not live but on edited Since Shirley MacLaine popularized twentieth century could, early in the tapes. "How long," one of the media "channeling," Vidal tells us, "all sorts of novel, deliver to Timothy a television set visitors asks," can you keep the viewers idiots" have been going back to directly that received current 1990s programs, the staring at someone just hanging there?" experience life in previous centuries. words of the programs completely Time can be taken up with interviews. Shirley herself turns up as a principal understandable. Timothy's wife likes Mary Magdalen will be asked whether dancer at the Temple of Diana of the especially the "Sunday Hour of Power prostitution should be decriminalized; Ephesians. Mary Baker Eddy, addicted and Prayer." "Phil Donahue stuff . . . a ratings to gin daisies, makes several appearances Then late twentieth-century scientists grabber." and is last seen, just before the cruci- invent a "de-molecularizer" that can As with many too stereotyped car- fixion, addressing a group of women, dissolve a flesh and blood human into toons in the New Yorker, the book's one of them the Virgin Mary. his constituent atoms and completely humor depends on making characters Technical discoveries make it possible reconstitute him in some earlier period out of folk-tales or earlier history talk for the American media world to visit along with his clothes and equipment. in modern jargon and allusions. Besides Timothy in 67 C.E. as "holograms," three- Now Timothy has a steady stream of mere incongruity, such humor has little dimensional images that somehow can visitors. Sensory experience is possible point. Some of the socially ambitious talk and be understood whether in first- for them as it was not for holograms. women in the narrative— Vidai calls century Ephesus, Jerusalem, or Rome. They can smell, for instance, the rotting them "solipsisters"—show off by speak- In the beginning these visitors from bodies of the crucified that line the public ing "faux gallique" French—this in first- modern times are insubstantial, seen only highways. century Ephesus or Rome! by those they single out. Others can walk Representing competing media Petronius Arbiter begins to hold through them without knowing it. It is organizations, one of them secretly bridge evenings. Paul engages in vaude- all based, presumably, on Christ's controlled by the Japanese, the visitors ville routines, juggling and performing manifestation to chosen disciples after have a double purpose in visiting soft-shoe dances to hold his audience's the resurrection, or to Saul-Paul on the Timothy. They are bedeviled by a attention while he is sermonizing. Nero "Jerusalem-Damascus Freeway," as computer hacker who is wiping out the tries to learn some of Paul's dance steps Vidal always calls it, or the appearances original Christian texts in a way that but has to stop when Paul is beheaded. of the Virgin Mary to Catholic school- causes all later printed versions to Instead of driving the money-changers girls at Lourdes and Fatima. disappear, blotting out Christianity or arbitragers out of the Temple, Jesus Not only does Timothy understand completely. This process Vidal also takes over its extensive financial oper- the show-biz jargon of his visitors but leaves unexplained, though he no doubt ations. His followers quarrel over employs it with relish in his own has in mind how nearly successful early supply-side economics and when to narrative. Whatever language he pre- Christians were in obliterating the lower interest rates. sumably is writing in is garnished with Gnostic writings of Marcion and other The mysterious hacker, destroying the Americanisms apparently of Vidal's heretics. Christian past, turns out to be Jesus choice, some deliberately sentimental The visitors from the future want himself, who has incarnated himself as and out of date: "Sashaying around," Timothy to write down all his relevant Marvin Wasserstein, an employee of "Big Fellah in the Sky," "Pitch me a slow memories, his "gospel," and then hide General Electric. The Christians have it one," "O.K. Kiddo," "murmured sweet the text in his church so that it can be quite wrong about his intentions when nothings," "Us'n'l show you a real good found by late 1990s archaeologists once he returns in 2001, which will be a time." the hacker has been exposed and got rid catastrophic time for all mankind except Of course the Bible itself, along with of. Timothy "more into fund raising than Jews. Along with most of his followers, Greek classics like the Odyssey, rarely theology" finds this hard to do, even and like Begin and Shamir, Jesus is a suggests that characters speaking differ- though Paul, whom he always called just Jewish zealot, a terrorist. St. Paul he ent languages have any difficulty under- "Saint," was for so long his lover. dismisses as "that "goy-loving creep standing each other. At the original Now that computer wizards can Solly." Pentecost foreign visitors to Jerusalem reassemble present-day heavy equipment understood what the ecstatic Christians, at any point in the past, the second ore Vidal is a central figure in speaking in tongues, were saying, a neat purpose in visiting Timothy from the GWilliam F. Buckley Jr.'s recent 56 FREE INQUIRY book In Search of Anti-Semitism " `Sol baby,' said Mossad, 'hit this characters. because of an article he contributed in pigeon.' And I did. With rocks yet. We When readers of Live from Golgotha 1986 to the 120th-anniversary issue of got him like we got Count Bernadotte. finish they will have to turn to their the Nation. There he said that Norman own de-synthesizers and restore what Podhoretz of Commentary and his wife The Paul made to talk this way has was there before Vidal scrambled it. Midge Decter and other Jews allied with no relation to the Paul who wrote Unfortunately, they have learned them were not Americans but Israelis. Romans and the other genuine Pauline nothing. Vidal can make his alter Though unwilling to live in their favored epistles. That Paul, virtual creator of ego, the rascally slangy Timothy, a country, they "made common cause with Gentile Christianity, was one of the charming though unlikely narrator. our lunatic right" to ensure that nearly greatest rhetoricians of Western litera- But Vidal's satire on television moguls a third of our federal budget goes to the ture. His brilliance left its mark on minds is too trite and predictable to teach us Pentagon and Israel to support Israel in as diverse as those of Augustine, Cole- anything, and his travesty of early "its never ending wars against just about ridge, and Karl Barth, whose book on Christianity so outrageously broad as to everyone." Many other unfriendly cracks Paul's Epistle to the Romans had be irrelevant to those holding present- followed about Israel and its U.S. Jewish volcanic effect on twentieth-century day Christian beliefs and unilluminating supporters. Protestantism. None of this is of the to those who have already rejected In reply Podhoretz wrote that Vidal's slightest interest to Vidal or to his them. • piece was the "most blatantly anti- Semitic outburst to have appeared in a respectable American periodical since World War II." Both Podhoretz and Buckley noted that though the editor of Jesus Gets a Life the Nation, Victor Navasky, was himself a Jew, he published Vidal's article with Thomas Franczyk no apologies at the time or later. Before issuing his reply to Vidal, Podhoretz Jesus: A Life, by A. N. Wilson (New would have hardly resembled the char- asked twenty-two contributors to the York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1992) 269 acter portrayed in the Gospels. No unambiguous personage named Jesus Nation, many of whom had appeared pp., cloth $22.95. in the anniversary issue, how they felt emerges from available sources. Historians and theologians who about the Vidal piece, but received There is much else that Jesus did. If almost no response. He and Buckley it were all to be recorded in detail, compile a "life" of Jesus pick and choose concluded that the Left could consider I suppose the whole world could not portions of the Gospels they like and anti-Semitism an evil when it came from hold the books that would be written. discard those which they don't. Basically, the Right but could fall silent when one Wilson likes the Gospel attributed to —John 21:25 (NEB) of their own displayed it. somebody named John. For example, In Live from Golgotha, unperturbed he writes, "There are no referents to is more plausible than by any of this, Vidal is as gleeful in esus: A Life which appeal might be made which could any of the conventional Jesus stories, baiting Jews as Christians, and does not J link the birth of Christ to `actual' mind taking on powerful media like especially those proffered by orthodox history." But the same could be said for NBC. In the novel one of his characters, religionists. A. N. Wilson displays some the Baptism, the Sermon On The Mount, temporarily converted to Judaism, of the imagination of Robert Graves the Passion, the Resurrection, and any joined B'nai Brith and learned to "read without the esoteric complexity. of the details of Jesus' life. the New York Times—between the Like all Jesus stories, Wilson's book Jesus the book has Jesus the bride- lines," where, presumably its true pro- should be read more as fiction than groom at Cana, which is probable but Jewish message is hidden. biography. The author admits as much not necessarily true. It has Paul as a Though Vidal dismisses all religion in the Preface: "Anything we say about Roman soldier at Gethsemane when as pointless, he seems to have a particular the historical Jesus must be prefaced by Jesus is arrested, which is not probable. animus toward Christianity, perhaps the word `perhaps' ...." A. N. Wilson correctly attributes because both its Testaments are so When reading Jesus: A Life it must Gentile Christianity's foundation to Saul dominantly Jewish in provenance. In be kept in mind that, although there is of Tarsus and repeatedly emphasizes merging modern-day Israel with the a possibility that there once lived a man Jesus' Hebrew roots, discounting, as any Christian record in Acts, Vidal does not upon whose life these stories are based, reasonable person would, his divinity. even attempt space-travel plausibility. there is no doubt that that person He points out that "In Acts, a book Paul and Jesus are both former agents which is meant to describe how Chris- of Mossad, the Israeli secret service. Paul Thomas Franczyk writes the Biblical tians taught a new religion to the Gentile himself tells how he was a Mossad hit Scorecard for the Secular Humanist world, we discover a community of man, assigned to ensuring the death of Bulletin. believers who have never heard Jesus' St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr. name." And, "For the Corinthian Spring 1993 57 Christians, clearly, Paul, Apollos, Jesus, All of these statements, of course, one you or I could make up by picking and Cephas were all interchangeable assume other parts of the Jesus legend and choosing the parts of the story we names, none more or less divine than to be true. Wilson's book, in some ways, like from the source material available. the rest." And later, "Why should a is like Bible exegesis, which is, at best, I highly recommend Wilson's Jesus divine being, who is quite confident that educated guessing. to anyone who wants to add a well- he is going to come back to life again A. N. Wilson gives Jesus a life even written, imaginative, "sensible" book after three days, show the slightest terror nonbelievers can accept, but one that is to their collection and likes good of death?" no more likely to have occurred than fiction. •

The Making of the Messiah, by Robert Books in Brief Sheaffer (Buffalo: Prometheus, 1991) 192 pp., cloth $10.95. Robert Sheaffer argues that Christianity arose from the envy, anger, and resentment of the lower classes against the powerful of Rome. Artificial Morality: Virtuous Robots for behavior in humans. This book presents He examines the evolution of Christian- Virtual Games, by Peter Danielson a fascinating snapshot of the scientific ity and concludes that early Christian (London and New York: Routledge, dialogue that may one day overtake writers revised history to popularize the 1992) 240 + xiv pages, includes index, philosophy in resolving long-standing faith. The author examines dubious $16.95 paper. Are secular humanists questions about the grounds of moral claims surrounding the "Immaculate justified in seeking to depend on reason, behavior. Conception," Christ's alleged miracles, not revelation, to develop their moral and the death of and alleged resurrection codes? Peter Danielson, a philosopher —Tom Flynn of Jesus. Sheaffer's views on envy are at the University of British Columbia, especially compelling and insightful. He is one of a growing coterie of philos- The Diversity of Life, by Edward O. argues that envy entails more than mere ophers, political scientists, game theor- Wilson (Cambridge: Belknap Press, covetousness—it includes vandalism and ists, and computer hackers who examine Harvard University Press) 424 pp. illus. the infliction of harm upon those who such moral questions experimentally. and index, cloth $29.95. Harvard ento- are successful. When the envious cannot They equip software entities with simu- mologist Edward O. Wilson has written inflict harm, they vicariously enjoy the lated moral codes and study the ways a clear, detailed, and fascinating but imagined harm being inflicted upon their that various "virtual moralities" interact disturbing critical survey of global successful enemies by a vengeful god. in computer simulations. biodiversity. Organic history is exam- Indeed, it is not love that motivates In this book Danielson calls for a new ined in terms of reproductive isolation, religious fanatics, but the desire to harm discipline, which he calls Artificial nucleotide variation (microevolution), those they envy. Sheaffer's courageous, Morality, which will specialize in "vir- and adaptive radiation (macro- hard-hitting writing style makes for tual" studies of situations where moral evolution). Wilson focuses on the fascinating and enjoyable reading. actions and rationally advantageous abundance of life-forms within tropical actions sharply diverge. He probes the rain forests, especially pointing out —Norm Allen philosophical and computational aspects that both vanishing species and their of well-known games like Prisoner's threatened natural habitats (hot spots) Dilemma and Chicken. Some of the must be saved if we are to maintain Invitation to join the discussion is quite technical; he presents the Earth's rich and needed genetic Society of Humanist the actual code for dozens of "software reservoir in light of the alarming agents" in ProLog, a computer language growth of human populations and its Philosophers used in artificial intelligence work. But consequences on this finite planet. FREE INQUIRY has founded the computer illiterate readers should have Concerning mass extinctions, Wilson Society of Humanist Philos- no trouble following the philosophical maintains that the present sixth great ophers. Members include Kurt threads of Danielson's moral inquiries. extinction is being caused by human Baier, Mario Bunge, Antony If John Rawls had used tools like neglect and ignorance. Other topics Flew, and Adolf Grünbaum. If these, how might our contemporary treated include keystone species, hybrid- notions of justice differ? Danielson ization, species, taxonomy, and those you would like to become concludes that the present state of the unexplored frontiers in the biosphere involved in this organization, art is better suited to modeling moral that probably hold enormous benefits write to: Timothy J. Madigan, behavior by corporations and govern- for medical science. P.O. Box 664, Buffalo, NY ments (yes, such a thing is possible) than 14226-0664. probing the underpinnings of ethical —H. James Birx 58 FREE INQUIRY CATCH UP ON WHAT YOU'VE MISSED!

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Winter 1992/93, Vol. 13, no. 1—Does the Big Bang Prove the Existence in the 1990s, E. R. Allgeier and M. W. Wiederman; The Creationist Revival. of God? Big Bangs, Plural: A Heretical View, J. C. Pecker; What Went Pandas Attack Science Education, S. Brande; Then a Miracle 0ccurs, Before? M. Rothman; The Face of Chaos, V. J. Stenger; Pseudo-Creation V. Bernard; The Creationist Theory of Abrupt Appearances: A Critique, of the Big Bang; A. Grünbaum. Remembering John Dewey: America's A. N. Strahler; The Case for a New American Pragmatism, T Z. Lavine; Leading Humanist Philosopher, P. Kurtz; The Dewey Center and The Freedom of Thought and Religion in Bangladesh, A. B. M. Patwari. Collected Works of John Dewey, J. A. Boydston; John Dewey and A Spring 1991, Vol. 11, no. 2 — The Unitarian Universalist Association, Common Faith, T. J. Madigan; For All Its Children, N. Noddings; Dewey's P. Kurtz and V. Bullough; Upholding the Wall of Separation, A. Dershowitz; Commitment to Science and Democracy, P. D. Hutcheon; Dewey's Scientific Humanism and Religion, E. O. Wilson; Christianity: The Cultural Contribution to the Theory of Valuation; B. Dziemidok; Dewey and the Chameleon, W. Wafters; From Sin to Science: Tolerance of Homosexuality, Feminist Successor Pragmatism Project, J. M. Giarelli. Toward a New J. Money; Was Karl Marx a Social Scientist? A. Flew; Why I Am Not Enlightenment: A Response to Postmodernist Critiques of Humanism, a Mormon, K. Fillible. P. Kurtz. Humanism's Thorn: The Case of the Bright Believers, Winter 1990/91, Vol. 11, no. 1 — Christmas: The Birthday of the Sun, T. Pasquarello. Three Humanist Heroines, L. FragelL The Satanic Scare: G. Seabrook; The Bertrand Russell Case, T. Weidlich; Funding the Threats to Civil Liberties, J. S. Victor; Satanism as a Social Movement, Barbarians, E. Cardoni; Europe '92: Secularization and Religion in Conflict, C. S. Kisser; The Myth of Satanism, R. Hicks. P. Kurtz; Humanity, Morality, and Liberty, A. Dubcek; A Church-State Fall 1992, Vol. 12, no. 4 — Secular Humanism and 'Traditional Family Case Study: The Irish Republic, D. Spicer; The Vatican's Pact with Italy, Values': Is the Family in Crisis? V. and B. Bullough; The Family in Transition, R. La Ferla; Religion and Secularization Under Perestroika in the USSR, A. Picchioni; Shocking New Testament Views of the Family, J. Barnhart; L. W. Mitrokhin; Levi Fragell on Humanism in Norway (interview); Why The Black Family, C. W. Faulkner; Coping with the Methuselah Syndrome, I Am Not a Fundamentalist, S. Porteous; The Natural History of Altruism, M. A. Barnhart; In Defense of Secular Humanism, A. Grünbaum; The M. Hunt. Candidate Without a Prayer, A. Silverman; Why I Am Not a Muslim, Fall 1990, Vol. 10, no. 4 — Fulfilling Feminist Ideals: A New Agenda. I. Warraq; 'Star Trek': Humanism of the Future, K. Marsalek. Feminism and Humanism, J. K Taylor; New Hope for Women, E. Johnson; Summer 1992, Vol. 12, no. 3 — Will Secularism Survive? A. Ellis, C. W. Fanny Wright: "Free Enquirer," L. Porter; Feminist Spirituality as a Path Faulkner, K. A. Fournier, M. French, T. M. Hesburg, A. Kohn, T Machan, to Humanism, L. Frankel; Spiritual Values and "The Goddess," V. Branden; M. Martin, R. J. Neuhaus, K Nielsen, D. L. Norton, R. Sheaffer, G. Stein, Women in Humanism, M. Matsumura. Freedom and Censorship Today, J. Sullum, J. K Taylor, R. Taylor; The Israeli Law of Return, U. Huppert, D. Friedman; Obscenity as Destiny, F. Johnson, Christian Activism J. Marra, L. MacMonagle; Mormon Plural Marriage, G. D. Smith; Intensifies as 2001 Approaches, S. Porteous; What Is "Political Extremism"? Communicating with the Dead: William James and Mrs. Piper (Part 2), L. Wilcox; Neutrality Between Religion and Irreligion, R. A. Lindsay; Why M. Gardner; Was Immanuel Kant a Humanist? F. Hiorth. I Am Not a Presbyterian, H. Bennett; The Fundamentalist Absolute and Spring 1992, Vol. 12, no. 2 — Communicating with the Dead: William Secularization in the Middle East, M. Wahba. James and Mrs. Piper (Part I), M. Gardner; The Jehovah's Witnesses and Summer 1990, Vol. 10, no. 3—Special Issue: Dying Without Religion. A the Watchtower Society, H. Avalos; An Interview with Sir Hermann Bondi; Eupraxophic Declaration on Death and Dying, V. Muhrer; Saying Farewell The Jesus Phenomenon in Korea, S. J. Kim; Humanism in Nigeria, T. Honestly, D. O'Hara; Let Thy Will Be Done, E. Daly; Making the Best Solaria; Sexual Archetypes in Transition, R. T. Francoeur; Mary of the Worst, J. Buchanan; Theological Mythologies and Naturalistic Wollstonecraft and Women's Rights, E. Larson; Caring Love and Liberty: Certitude, D. McKown; Why I Am Not a Methodist, D. Bronkema; Giving Some Questions, M. Kohl. the Devil Much More Than His Due, S. Carlson and G. Larue; The Winter 1991/92, Vol. 12, no. 1 — The Hospice Way of Dying, G. A. Larue; Dangerous Folklore of Satanism, P. Stevens, Jr.; Thomas Aquinas's The Evolution of Hospices, D. C. Saunders; Hospice Volunteers: A Priceless Complete Guide to Heaven and Hell, R. Lindsay; Moral Repression in Commodity, J. K. Ballo; Reflections of a Hospice Volunteer, C. Fleischman; the United States, P. Kurtz. Criticisms of Hospice, H. Fleischman; Hospice Founder Saunders on Spring 1990, Vol. 10, no. 2—Rethinking the War on Drugs, S. Wisotsky, Voluntary Euthanasia, D. C. Saunders; Hemlock Founder Humphry on T. Szasz; An African-American Humanist Declaration; How Much Influence Hospice, D. Humphry; The World Federation of Right-to-Die Societies, Can Humanism Have on Blacks? N. Allen; The Quest for Humanist Values, J. Davies; Crisis in the Southern Baptist Convention, J. Barnhart; How I. Jaffree; Black Athena: An Interview with Martin G. Bernal; The American We Got the Bible Belt, J. Hill; Unbuckling the Southern Baptist Bible- Judiciary as a Secular Priesthood, R. Taylor; Are Humanists 0ptimists? Belt, W. A. Brinkley; FI Interview: Church and State in Poland and Hungary; T. Madigan; Reflections on the Democratic Revolutions of 0ur Time, Reopening the American Mind: Alternatives to Relativism and Positivism, P. Kurtz. M. Chiariello. Winter 1989/90, Vol. 10, no. 1—Interviews with Steve Allen and Paul Fall 1991, Vol. 11, no. 4 — Medicide: The Goodness of Planned Death MacCready; Moral Education: Homo Sapiens or Homo Religiosus? (An Interview with Dr. Jack Kevorkian); The Critical Need for 0rgan W. Wafters; How to Raise an Entrepreneur, R. Hiser; Eupraxophy: The Donations, R. L. Lawton; The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War, Need to Build Secular Humanist Centers, P. Kurtz; Neglected Reasons for M. Yant; Is Santa Claus Corrupting 0ur Children's Morals? J. A. Boss; Eschewing Public-School Prayers, R. J. Hoffmann; Religion in the Public The Continuing Abortion Battle in Canada; H. Morgentaler; What Does Schools? D. McKown. the Bible Say About Abortion? D. B. McKown; New Directions in Sex Fail 1989, Vol. 9, no. 4 — New Gods for 0ld: In Defense of Libertarianism, Therapy, E. Coleman; Cyrano de Bergerac: The Man Who Thumbed His R. W. Bradford; The End of the Secular Century, M. N. Rothbard; Building Nose at God, G. Gordon; Secular Humanism in Turkey, K. Uzunoglu. Bridges to the Right: Libertarians, Conservatives, and Humanists, E. Summer 1991, Vol. 11, no. 3 — Saint Paul's Conversion on the Road to Hudgins; Making a Case for Socialism, K. Nielsen; Liberty and Damascus: An Epileptic Hallucination? N. Rulon-Miller; Lest We Forget: Democracy, or Socialism? A. Flew; Humanism and Socialism, R. Schmitt; Bruno, Galileo, and the Power to Define, R. Giammanco; The Biological Socialism is Incompatible with Humanism, R. Sheaffer; Militant Atheism Relationship Between Love and Sex, A. Walsh; Should Sex Have A Different Versus Freedom of Conscience, P. Kurtz; The Pseudo-Problem of Creation Meaning for Humanists? V. and B. Bullough; Love and Mate Selection in Physical Cosmology, A. Grünbaum. Summer 1989, Vol. 9, no. 3 - Interview with Sidney Hook on the Future Protestantism, Catholicism, and Unbelief in Present-Day France, J. Bous- of Marxism, T. Machan; The Case of "Ivan the Terrible," J. Nickell and sinesq; More on Faith-Healing, G. Larue, J. Randi, D. Alexander; Richard J. F. Fischer; Don't Call Me Brother, A. Miles with E. D. Cohen; Humanism Roberts's Healing Crusade, H. Gordon. in the Black Community, N. Allen; The Marriage of Church and State Summer 1986, Vol. 6, no. 3 - Special Issue: The Shocking Truth About in Ireland, W. M. Grossman; Separation of Church and State in Western Faith-Healing. Deceit in the Name of God, P. Kurtz; Peter Popoff's Ministry, Europe, O. Andrysek; Abortion or Adoption? The Moral Case Examined, J. Randi, S. Schafersman, R. Steiner; W. V. Grant's Faith-Healing Act P. Kurtz. Revisited, P. Kurtz; Further Reflections on Ernest Angley, W. McMahon, Spring 1989, Vol. 9, no. 2 - Can We Achieve Immortality? C. Kahn; A J. Griffis; Salvation for Sale: An Insider's View of Pat Robertson's Organiza- Humanist Looks at Cryonics, S. B. Harris; Eating the Forbidden Fruit, tion, G. Straub; Belief and Unbelief Worldwide: Religious Skepticism in P. Kurtz; Scientific Knowledge, Moral Knowledge: Is There Any Need for Latin America, J. Gracia; Science, Technology, and Ideology in the Hispanic Faith? B. Davis; The Inseparability of Logic and Ethics, J. Corcoran; A World, M. Bunge. Theory of Cooperation, L. Felkins; Humanism and Morality, T. Flynn, Spring 1986, Vol. 6, no. 2 - Special Issue: Faith-Healing-Miracle or Fraud? T. Franczyk, T Madigan; Glossolalia, M. Gardner; Abortion in Historical The Need for Investigation, P. Kurtz; "Be Healed in the Name of God!" Perspective, V. and B. Bullough. J. Randi; A Medical Anthropologist's View of American Shamans, P. Singer; Winter 1988/89, Vol. 9, no. 1-The Time Is Now, G. Larue; Active Voluntary 0n the Relative Sincerity of Faith-Healers, J. E. Barnhart; Does Faith- Euthanasia, D. Humphry; The California Humane and Dignified Death Healing Work? P. Kurtz; God Helps Those Who Help Themselves, T. Flynn; Act, R. L. Risley; Euthanasia and the Doctor, H. Kuhse; Euthanasia in The Effect of Intelligence on U.S. Religious Faith, B. Beckwith. The Netherlands, P. Admiraal; The Struggle for Abortion Rights in Canada, Winter 1985/86, Vol. 6, no. 1 - Symposium: Is Secular Humanism a H. Morgentaler; AIDS and the Twenty-First Century, M. Krim; Tim Religion? The Religion of Secular Humanism, P. Beattie; Residual Reli- Madigan Interviews Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows. gion, J. Fletcher; Pluralistic Humanism, S. Hook; 0n the Misuse of Fall 1988, Vol. 8 no. 4 - A Declaration of Interdependence: A New Global Language, P. Kurtz; The Habit of Reason, B. Blanshard; An Interview Ethics; Belief and Unbelief Worldwide: Faith Without Frontiers, J. M. with Adolf Grünbaum; Homer Duncan's Crusade Against Secular Human- Allegro; Perestroika and Humanism in China, P. Kurtz; Japanese Secu- ism, P. Kurtz; Should a Humanist Celebrate Christmas? T. Flynn. larism: A Reexamination, K. K. Inada; Unity and Dissension in Islam, Fall 1985, Vol. 5, no. 4 - Two Forms of Humanistic Psychology, A. Ellis; A. H. Raoof; Christian Soldiers March on Latin America, M. Collett; Grünbaum on Freud, F. Sulloway; Philosophy of Science and Psycho- Misconceptions About Secular Humanism, T. Madigan; Woody Allen analysis, M. Ruse; The Death Knell of Psychoanalysis, H. J. Eysenck; Interviews the Reverend Billy Graham. Looking Backward, L. Nisbet; New Testament Scholarship and Christian Summer 1988, Vol. 8, no. 3 - Symposium: Entering Our New World- Belief, V. Harvey; The Winter Solstice and the 0rigins of Christmas, Humanism in the Twenty-First Century, G. Allen, B. Bullough, L. Carter. V. Bullough, M. Bunge, J. Delgado, A. Ellis, R. Fairfield, A. Flew, Summer 1985, Vol. 5, no. 3 - Finding Common Ground Between Believers L Fragell, Y. Galifret, H. Hauptman, L. Kirkendall, M. Kohl, P. Kurtz, and Unbelievers, P. Kurtz; Render Unto Jesus the Things That Are Jesus', L. Kuhmerker, R. Lindsay, D. McKown, L. Mondale, J. Money, H. Morgen- R Alley; Jesus in Time and Space, G. Larue; Interview with Sidney Hook taler, J. C. Pecker, H. Radest, R. Rimmer, S. Stojanovic, H. Stopes-Roe, on China, Marxism, and Human Freedom; Evangelical Agnosticism, R. Taylor, E. O. Wilson. W. H. Young; To Refuse to Be a God, K. Arisian; The Legacy of Voltaire Spring 1988, Vol. 8, no. 2 - The First Easter, J. K. Naland; Is Religiosity (Part 2), P. Edwards. Pathological? A. Ellis; Is Belief in the Supernatural Inevitable? W. S. Spring 1985, Vol. 5, no. 2 - Update on the Shroud of Turin, J. Nickell; Bainbridge; The Narcissistic Guru, R. O. Clarke; Israel's 0rthodox Jews: The Vatican's View of Sex, R. Francoeur; An Interview with E. 0. Wilson, The New Holy War, U. Huppert; An Interview with Sherwin Wine; The J. Saver; Parapsychology: The "Spiritual" Science, J. Alcock; Science, Threat of Israel's Religious Right, T. Flynn; A Tale of Two Secular Religion and the Paranormal, J. Beloff; The Legacy of Voltaire (Part 1), Humanisms: The Alabama Textbook Case, R. D. Eliason; The Resurrection P. Edwards; The 0rigins of Christianity, R. J. Hoffmann. Debate, F T. Miosi. Winter 1984/85, Vol. 5, no. 1 Are American Educational Reforms Winter 1987/88, Vol. 8, no. 1-Voices of Dissent within the Catholic Church, Doomed? D. McKown; The Apocalypticism of the Jehovah's Witnesses, F. X. Winters; Humanism, Religion, and Authority, D. C. Maguire; The L. Randle; The Watchtower, L. Lage; Sentiment, Guilt, and Reason in Vatican and the Catholic Couple, R. Francoeur; Catholicism and Change, the Management of Wild Herds, G. Hardin; Animal Rights Re-evaluated, R. Basil; Eupraxophy: Breaking with the 0ld Humanism, P. Kurtz; The J. Simpson; Elmina Slenker: Infidel and Atheist, E. Jervey; Humanism Is Humanist Identity, L. Fragell God and the Holocaust, A. Grünbaum; a Religion, A. Bahm; Humanism Is a Philosophy, T. Vernon; Humanism: Psychic Astronomy, M. Gardner. An Affirmation of Life, A. Bacard. Fall 1987, Vol. 7, no. 4 - Special Issue: Fundamentalist Christian Schools- Fall 1984, Vol. 4, no. 4 - Point/ Counterpoint, P. Schlafly and S. Gordon; A National Scandal. The Truth and Consequences of Fundamentalist Humanists vs. Christians in Milledgeville, K. Saladin; Suppression and Cen- Christian Schooling, A. Peshkin; Reading, Writing, and Religion, M. B. sorship in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, D. Hackleman; Who Profits Gehrman; Children Are Not Chattel, K. Collins; Selections from from the Prophet? W. Rea; Keeping the Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Fundamentalist School Textbooks; Is the Sexual Revolution 0ver? P. Kurtz, J. Allegro; Health Superstition, R. P. Doyle; Humanism in Africa: Paradox R. Tielman, and S. Gordon; Peter Popoff's Broken Window, D. Alexander; and Illusion, P. Kurtz; Humanism in South Africa, D. Sergeant. Human and World Care, B. Spock; Argument Without End, M. Ruse. Summer 1984, Vol. 4, no. 3 - Special Issue: School Prayer, P. Kurtz, Summer 1987, Vol. 7, no. 3 - Japan and Biblical Religion, R. Ruben- R. Lindsay, P. Buchanan, M. Twain; Science vs. Religion in Future stein; Was the Universe Created? V. Stenger; Science-Fantasy Religious Cults, Constitutional Conflicts, D. McKown; God and the Professors, S. Hook; M. Gardner; The Relativity of Biblical Ethics, J. E. Barnhart; The Case Armageddon and Biblical Apocalypic, P. Kurtz, J. E. Barnhart, V. Bullough, Against Reincarnation (Part 4), P. Edwards; Personal Paths to Humanism: R. Helms, G. Larue, J. Priest, J. Robinson, R. Alley; Is the U.S. Humanist A Secular Humanist Confession, J. Fletcher; Free from Religion, A. N. Movement in a State of Collapse? J. Dart. Gaylor; Growing Up Agnostic in Argentina, M. Bunge; Tyranny of the Spring 1984, Vol. 4, no. 2 - Christian Science Practitioners and Legal Creed, J. Allegro. Protection for Children, R. Swan; Child Abuse and Neglect in Ultrafunda- Spring 1987, Vol. 7 no. 2 - Personal Paths to Humanism: What Religion mentalist Cults and Sects, L. Streiker; The Foundations of Religious Liberty Means to Me, B. F. Skinner; Biology's Spiritual Products, E. O. Wilson; and Democracy, C. Henry, P. Kurtz, E. Fortin, L. Nisbet, J. Fletcher, Meeting Human Minds, S. Allen; An Evolutionary Perspective, R. Taylor; Biblical Views of Sex: Blessing or Handicap? J. J. W. Baker; P. MacCready; Testament of a Humanist, A. Ellis; Psychology of the Bible- Moral Absolutes and Foreign Policy, N. Capaldi; The Vatican Ambassador, Believer, E. Cohen; Biblical Arguments for Slavery, M. Smith; The Case E. Doerr, A Naturalistic Basis for Morality, J. Kekes; Humanist Self- Against Reincarnation (Part 3), P. Edwards. Portraits, M. I. Spetter, F. Matson, R. Kostelanetz. Winter 1986/87, Vol. 7, no. 1 - The New Inquisition in the Schools, Winter 1983/84, Vol. 4, no. 1 - Interview with B. F. Skinner; Was George P. Kurtz; Naturalistic Humanism, C. Lamont; God and Morality, S. Hook; 0rwell a Humanist? A. Flew; Population Control vs. Freedom in China, Anti-Abortion and Religion, B. McCollister; A Positive Humanist Statement V. and B. Bullough; Academic Freedom at Liberty Baptist College, on Sexual Morality, R. Francoeur; Unbelief in The Netherlands, R. Tielman; L. Ridenhour Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, G. Smith; Dutch Humanism, G. C. Soeters; Belief and Unbelief in Mexico, M. Mendez- The History of Mormonism and Church Authorities: Interview with Sterling Acosta; The Case Against Reincarnation (Part 2), P. Edwards. M. McMurrin; Anti-Science: The Irrationalist Vogue of the 1970s, Fall 1986, Vol. 6, no. 4 - New Secular Humanist Centers, P. Kurtz; The L. Feuer; The End of the Gallean Cease-Fire? J. Hansen; Who Really Need for Friendship Centers, V. Bullough; Toward New Humanist Killed Goliath? G. Larue; Humanism in Norway: Strategies for Growth, Organizations, B. Wisne; Are Past-Life Regressions Evidence for Rein- L. Fragell. carnation? M. Harris; The Case Against Reincarnation (Part 1), P. Edwards; Fall 1983, Vol. 3, no. 4 - The Future of Humanism, P. Kurtz; Humanist (Continued on next page.)

(Back Issues, Continued) Spring 1982, Vol. 2, no. 2 — A Call for the Critical Examination of the Self-Portraits, B. Blanshard, B. Wootton, J. Fletcher, R. Firth, J. C. Pecker; Bible and Religion; Interview with Isaac Asimov on Science and the Bible; Interview with Paul MacCready; A Personal Humanist Manifesto, V. Bul- The Continuing Monkey War, L. Sprague de Camp; The Erosion of Evolu- lough; The Enduring Humanist Legacy of Greece, M. Perry; The Age of tion, A. Flew; The Religion of Secular Humanism: A Judicial Myth, L. Unreason, T Vernon; Apocalypse Soon, D. Cohen; 0n the Sesquicentennial Pfeffer; Humanism as an American Heritage, N. Gier; The Nativity Legends, of Robert Ingersoll, F. Smith; The Historicity of Jesus, J. Priest, R. Helms; Norman Podhoretz§ Neo-Puritanism, L. Nisbet. D. R. Oppenheimer, G. A. Wells. Winter 1981/82, Vol. 2, no. 1 — The Importance of Critical Discussion, Summer 1983, Vol. 3, no. 3 — Special Issue: Religion in American Politics K. Popper; Freedom and Civilization, E. Nagel; Humanism: The Conscience Symposium. Is America a Judeo-Christian Republic? P. Kurtz; The First of Humanity, K. Koknda; Secularism in Islam, N. N. M. Ayubi; Humanism Amendment and Religious Liberty, L. Weicker, S. Ervin, L. Pfeffer; Secular in the 1980s, P. Beattie; The Effect of Education on Religious Faith, Roots of the American Political System, H. S. Commager, D. Boorstin, B. Beckwith. R. Rutland, R. Morris, M. Novak; The Bible in Politics, G. Larne, Fall 1981, Vol. 1, no. 4 — The Thunder of Doom, E. Morgan; Secular R. Alley, J. Robinson; Bibliography for Biblical Study. Humanists—Threat or Menace? A. Buchwald; Financing of the Repres- Spring 1983, Vol. 3, no. 2 — The Founding Fathers and Religious Liberty, sive Right, E. Roeder; Communism and American Intellectuals, S. Hook; R. Alley; Madison's Legacy Endangered, E. Doerr; James Madison's Dream: A Symposium on the Future of Religion, D. Bell, J. Fletcher, W. S. A Secular Republic, R. Rutland; The Murder of Hypatia of Alexandria, Bainbridge, P. Kurtz; Resurrection Fictions, R. Helms. R. Mohar; Hannah Arendt: The Modern Seer, R. Kostelanetz; Was Karl Summer 1981, Vol. 1, no. 3 — Sex Education, P. Scales, T. Szasz; Moral Marx a Humanist? S. Hook, J. Narveson, P. Kurtz. Education, H. Radest; Teenage Pregnancy, V. Bullough; The New Book- Winter 1982/83, Vol. 3, no. 1 — Academic Freedom Under Assault in Burners, W. Ryan; The Moral Majority, G. Larue; Liberalism, E. Ericson; California, B. Singer, N. Hardeman, V. Bullough; The Play Ethic, R. Rimmer; Scientific Creationism, D. McKown; New Evidence on the Shroud of Turin, Interview with Corliss Lamont; Was Jesus a Magician? M. Smith; Astronomy J. Nickell; Agnosticism, H. J. Blackham; Science and Religion, and the "Star of Bethlehem," G. Larue; Living with Deep Truths in a Divided G. Tomashevich; Secular Humanism in Israel, L Hasson. World, S. Hook; The Strange Case of Paul Feyerabend, M. Gardner. Spring 1981, Vol. 1, no. 2 — The Secular Humanist Declaration: Pro and Fall 1982, Vol. 2, no. 4 — An Interview with Sidney Hook at Eighty, Sidney Con, J. Roche, S. Hook, P. Schley, G. Allen, R. Drummond, L. Nisbet, Hook—A Personal Portrait, N. Capaldi; The Religion and Biblical Criticism P. Buchanan, P. Kurtz; New England Puritans and the Moral Majority, Research Project, G. Larue; Biblical Criticism and Its Discontents, G. Marshall; The Pope on Sex, V. Bullough; 0n the Way to Mecca, R. J. Hoffmann; Boswell Confronts Hume: An Encounter with the Great T. Szasz; The Blasphemy Laws, G. Stein; The Meaning of Life, M. Kohl; Infidel, J. Frieman; Humanism and Politics, J. Simpson, L. Briskman; Does God Exist? K. Nielsen; Prophets of the Procrustean Collective, Humanism and the Politics of Nostalgia, P. Kurtz; Abortion and Morality, A. Flew; The Madrid Conference, S. Fenichell; Natural Aristocracy,L. Nisbet. R. Taylor. Winter 1980/81, Vol. 1, no. 1 — Secular Humanist Declaration; Demo- Summer 1982 Vol. 2, no. 3 — Special Issue: A Symposium on Science, cratic Humanism, S. Hook; Humanism: Secular or Religious? P. Beattie; the Bible, and Darwin. The Bible Re-examined, R. Alley, G. Larue, J. Priest, Free Thought, G. Stein; The Fundamentalist Right, W. Ryan; The Moral R. Helms; Darwin, Evolution, and Creationism, P. Appleman, W. Mayer, Majority, S. Gordon; The Creation/ Evolution Controversy, H. J. Birx; C. Cazeau, H. J. Birx, G. Hardin, S. Tax, A. Flew; Ethics and Religion, Moral Education, R. Hall; Morality Without Religion, M. Kohl, J. Fletcher, R. Taylor, K. Nielsen, P. Beattie; Science and Religion, M. J. Fletcher; Freedom Is Frightening, R. Fairfield; The Road to Freedom, Novak, J. Blau. M. Mihajlov. FREE INQUIRY Six-Year Index (Volumes 1-6, 1980-1986) 39 pp. $10.00 (includes postage).

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Return to: FREE INQUIRY, Box 664, Buffalo, NY 14226-0664 or call toll-free 800-458-1366. FAX charges to: 716-636-1733. believe. The solution to the author's problems Readers' Forum is found in the answer to his question, "How do extremely intelligent persons We received an unusual number of comments in reaction to Tony come to believe arrant nonsense... ?" Pasquarello's "Humanism's Thorn: The Case of the Bright Believers" The answer is that they do not come (FI, Winter 1992/93). Read on for a sampling of the responses. to believe anything—they are raised from the cradle to believe their parents' arrant nonsense. And to abandon that arrant nonsense is—from an emotional One would be foolish to pose an easy It must be stunning to observe people point of view, in this case the only or inclusive answer to Tony Pasquarel- who, after all, have biographies much point of view that matters—akin to lo's quandry. I do, however, have one like one's own, off on an entirely different leaving an airplane with an untrusty suggestion as to why the answer seems tack. I have the same feeling about parachute. elusive. Pasquarello has posed the people who will talk about educational question as well and as comprehensively issues and outcomes while ignoring or Thomas F. Kelley as could be expected, using the dialectic discounting intelligence differences in the Canton, Mass. in which he is schooled. It does not student body. In both instances, there follow that the answer will emerge in seems to be an elephant in the parlor— the same frame. It is precisely because in the one case, we don't see him, and Some theists readily admit that the "bright believers" do not use their in the other, we can't describe him. theism is irrational or badly founded, brilliance in a logical manner regarding but not all theists take this position. their own faith that we humanists be- James A. McGrory Richard Swinburne, whom Tony Pas- come puzzled over their stance. Many Cincinnati, Ohio quarello perhaps would consider to be bright believers will continue to profess a "bright believer," in his The Existence a faith in the god of their choice because of God defends the view that theism is of their emotional human needs and The question of why some "bright" more likely than atheism. Alvin Plan- wishes, their brightness and rational people are religious should be general- tinga, presumably also a "bright methods in other disciplines notwith- ized—why are some of them elitist, believer," in a number of books de- standing. socialists, communists, Nazis, fascists, fends theism in another way. Both Walter S. Boone theocrats, or members of other fringe- Swinburne and Plantinga have been Terrell, N.C. groups? Heidegger and Marx are prime more or less sharply criticized by authors examples of bright people who became like John L. Mackie (The Miracle of Pasquarello is puzzled as to why some enveloped in an irrational fog. Theism). I guess that Swinburne and "bright" people believe as they do. As Plantinga still are theists. Is it be- an atheist and a humanist, he very likely Charles M. Selby cause they are irrational, whereas seeks out and follows the truth— Christmas Valley, Ore. Mackie is not? Perhaps, but perhaps whatever the truth may be and where also not. Has Tony Pasquarello ever met ever the truth may lead—and considers a person who is through and through his quest as being more important than Re the first of Pasquarello's proposi- rational? Are not many secular human- any resulting social friction. However, tions, "There are bright believers": he ists at times quite irrational? Is not the "bright" people he worries about do and I have different criteria for bright Tony Pasquarello himself sometimes, not share his dedication to truth. They people. I have, in thirty-three years of or perhaps even often, quite irra- willingly accept nonsense as fact if working with many, many clever people tional? required to do so by society. They barter met maybe a dozen or so genuinely away their intellectual honesty, inde- bright people, none of them "believers." Finngeir Hiorth pendence, and strength of character for Even if one slackens up on the definition Oslo, Norway the comfort of social acceptance. They of bright people, the author's second may be the "brightest" in the herd, but proposition, "Bright people don't believe they have the herd mentality nonetheless. nonsense," comes up hard against the The word bright might stand some They are comfortable in a world of past thirty years of studies of so-called scrutiny. For example, what do we make imagination and illusion. It is their paranormal phenomena. It is my impres- of a world-renowned chess player who choice. Let them be. sion that James Randi, and others, in maintains that the Nazi concentration debunking so much of that mythology camps and gas ovens are the figments James S. McCombs believed for the most part he was dealing of some people's imaginations? But he Moorpark, Calif. with bright people who wanted to is bright! One is reminded of Korzybski's 62 FREE INQUIRY logic-tight compartments, which enable (Yugoslavia, cont d. from p. 51) people to maintain mutually exclusive Herzegovina, and Croatia would be states (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, convictions. willing to renounce their own security and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) When fact contradicts belief, it's and their own rights in order that the are expected to make self-sacrifices for often the fact that goes out the window. West drop sanctions. the sake of general interests, and are I am reminded of an old joke: The Foreign analysts of the Yugoslav being satanized and punished so severely. family of a brilliant physiologist brings tragedy are not paying enough attention Does not a people with such a history him to a mental hospital because he to the fact that the moment the armed deserve, instead, special care and special insists that he is a walking dead man. conflict broke out in former Yugoslavia guarantees from the international com- The psychiatrist says to the patient, "You in 1991, a war for control over the YPA munity? Due to ignorance, confusion, must agree that a dead man, if he's really (Yugoslav People's Army) was also being rashness, and selfishness (Yugoslavia dead, won't bleed. Wouldn't you say waged. What is taken into consideration was not admitted as an associate member that's a fact?" even less is that the YPA was also waging of the European Economic Community "Sure," the patient says, "as a physi- a war for its own survival: that is to say, until several years ago) as well as to ologist I can attest to that. Of course a war for defining and securing the unprincipled stances in forcing a new a dead man can't bleed." territory, to which its members and their Balkan order as part of the new world "O.K.," the doctor says, "I want you families could withdraw. The leadership order, the West shoulders some respon- to go back to your room and say 'Dead of the Slovenes, Croats, and Slav sibility for the Yugoslav tragedy. Why men don't bleed' a hundred times a day Muslims attempted to prevent them not treat the Serbs with more under- until you come again next week." The from doing this by force, in order to seize standing, support, and positive measures patient agrees. as many arms, installations, and arms and less threats and punishments? It is When he comes for his next appoint- factories as possible and make the a great mistake to think that the ment, he nods vigorously when the remainder of the expelled YPA as small Yugoslav, and thereby a potentially doctor asks if he has done what he was and as weak as possible. In Macedonia, general Balkan, crisis may be resolved told to do. "You agree that dead men there was no war because her authorities unless the Serb national question is don't bleed, right?" allowed the YPA to withdraw peacefully. resolved fairly and justly. "Of course," the patient says. "Any- Why was the West showing full The same applies to the Slav Muslims one knows that." understanding for the gradual with- and Croats. If Bosnia and Herzegovina "Very well," says the doctor, who then drawal (five years) of the Soviet army has any future as an independent state takes the patient's hand and swiftly from East Germany and demanding at it is then only on the basis of the makes a gash across the patient's forearm the same time that YPA be withdrawn consensus and cantonization of the three with a razor blade. The blood spurts from Bosnia-Herzegovina overnight? constituent peoples. However, the Slav high. The patient regards this with (Of course, the excessive use of the YPA Muslim leadership feels that they have consternation. "Well," says the doctor, firepower must be condemned.) Further- lost the inter-national, inter-religious, "what do you say to that?" more, on what grounds were Serb and civil war to the Serbs and the Croats "By God!" shouts the patient, staring officers and soldiers who were born and and thus has been trying to internation- at his arm. "Who would believe it! Dead who live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and alize (Westernize and Islamize) at any men do bleed!" even have Bosnia and Herzegovina price. If that happens the consequences citizenship, expected to withdraw from could be of almost apocalyptic Frieda Arkin their own homeland to Serbia and proportions. • Essex, Mass. Montenegro? Why was not the same requested from the Slovenes, Croats, The opinions expressed in the Viewpoint Slav Muslims, and Macedonians in the section do not necessarily reflect the Pasquarello hopes to tap Martin YPA, instead of considering it quite views of the editors or publisher. We Gardner as one of the humanist leaders normal for them to remain at the welcome reader response to this arti- who will help to resolve the dilemma of doorsteps of their homes and to even cle.—EDS. the bright believers. Gardner's comments become the backbone of the armies of would be most welcome, but they might their respective, newly founded sovereign not be what Pasquarello bargained for. national states? Does the West know that JOB OPPORTUNITY Gardner's The Whys of a Philosophical many of them even had Serbian or WANTED: A dedicated secular Scrivener reveals that he distances Montenegrin citizenship, since all Yugo- humanist to join the staff of FREE himself from secular humanism and is, slays had federal citizenship through in fact, a (non-Christian) theist. He fully republican citizenship? INQUIRY. Salary and position embraces the fideism spurned by I cannot understand why the very negotiable. Applicant must relo- Pasquarello. people, the Serbs, who were exposed to cate to Buffalo, New York. Please a horrendous genocide in World War send resumes to: Editor, P.O. Box Al Clarke II, and who are now being forced to 664, Buffalo, NY 14226-06M. Thousand Oaks, Calif. separate and live in the three different Spring 1993 63 (Letters, cont it. from p. 3) To find out if the redshift astronomers period-luminosity law? So far, to my observe in distant galaxies is caused by knowledge, no one has ever mentioned Jean-Claude Pecker raised the interest- Doppler shift or by tired light, it is only such a discovery. ing question of whether light loses energy necessary to find a periodic phenomenon (and frequency) naturally over long common to all the universe. If the period distances. It is known that light is red- of the phenomenon is longer in distant Society and Morality shifted as it leaves massive stars (grav- galaxies than it is in nearby ones (i.e., itational redshift) and that it is redshifted if what we see appears to be in slow I am alarmed at Gary McGrath's letter from objects moving away from us (the motion), that would suggest the effect (FI, Summer 1992). Mr. McGrath Doppler effect). But it is not known if is caused by the Doppler redshift. That, advanced that "pro-choice" is a moral light loses energy ("tires out") as it travels in turn, would indicate that the universe position on abortion and then extended through space. Based on the pheno- probably really is expanding. If, how- "pro-choice" to education. I assume he menon we're sure about (i.e. the Doppler ever, the period of the phenomenon is was expressing the view that parents effect) it appears that the universe is the same in distant galaxies as it is have the right to choose where their expanding and that the Big Bang did nearby, then it would appear that light children attend school and that govern- occur. loses frequency naturally as it travels ment should pay for it. In order to obtain definitive evidence through space and that evidence for an McGrath seems to misunderstand that the redshift astronomers observe is expanding universe is lacking. what morality is in a social setting. He due to the Doppler effect it will be It is just possible that this could be says that choice is a "broad moral necessary to find an experiment that will done by looking at the periods of principle." Choice and freedom may test the hypothesis that light loses energy Cepheid variable stars—the same stars sound like the same thing, but they are as it travels through space. The problem astronomers already use to gauge the not. If it were so, then I would choose is difficult but I believe it is solvable. distances to galaxies. to be a millionaire or perhaps choose Both gravitational and Doppler to be someone else, both of which I effects produce changes in light frequen- Brian Stedjee cannot do. I am, however free to try to cies and changes in the observed rates Modesto, Calif. be a millionaire or help myself become of the occurrences of events. That is, we someone that I am not now. Choice in see all events occurring on (or in) the abortion debate is about the right receding objects and massive stars in Jean-Claude Pecker responds: (freedom) to conduct one's own personal slow motion. Conversely, events occur- affairs in safety and privacy. It is about ring on (or in) objects approaching us Brian Stedjee is quite right in stating that, the real broad moral principle of appear in fast motion. It was the observ- whenever we know that Doppler effect personal freedom. Choice in an educa- ance that Jupiter's moons appeared to can interpret the redshift of the spectrum tional context is wholly different. Choice orbit Jupiter more slowly when the Earth of distant galaxies, we have no known in education is not about personal was moving away from Jupiter in its mechanism that could explain it in terms affairs, but about imparting sectarian orbit that when the Earth was moving of "tired light." values. It is about changing society into toward it that allowed Roemer to Actually, the defenders of the "tired the vision of a sectarian minority, is estimate the speed of light in 1666. light" mechanism base their suggestion about violation of an individual's safety Now if light loses frequency as it on the remark that a non-zero rest mass and privacy. It is divisive in the extreme. travels through space, would the fre- of the photon (which implies a loss of Choice in education is immoral. quencies of observed events be corre- energy of the photons when travelling McGrath seems to believe that some- spondingly reduced as they are in the even in vacuum) is a much less constrain- where there is a "right to educate children case of the Doppler effect? I suspect ing hypothesis than to assume this mass anyway you please," an idea that smacks probably not. Light loses energy (and to be zero. of the notion that parents "own" their frequency) in natural ways through the On the other hand, the observation children. I sincerely hope that he is not Compton effect (interaction with parti- suggested by Brian Stedjee is quite advocating such an ignorant position. cles) and through absorption and re- conceivable. Could we detect a change Parents have no rights to children, they emission (when energy is lost to particle of period from Cepheids of distant only have obligations. In this case it is motion). When light shines on a piece galaxies compared with those in close- the obligation to educate their children of paper, infrared waves emerging from by galaxies, we would have a good for the purpose of functioning in society. the back side of the paper are lower in argument for Doppler effect as the origin (Would there be any sense educating frequency than those arriving at the front of redshift. Unfortunately, this is quite children not to function in society?) side. This has been an apparent "red- difficult. The relation between absolute There is a natural parental desire to pass shift." But if the light is flashing on the luminosity and period of Cepheids is on what they believe to be important paper, the period of infrared waves indeed used to determine luminosity of cultural identities. However, carrying on coming out the back side will not be Cepheids in distant galaxies, hence their sectarian traditions that conflict with the longer than the period of the light flashes. distance; how could we then detect a functioning of society is not a "right." It will be the same. change from galaxy to galaxy in the Such is the goal of choice in education.

64 FREE INQUIRY I am frightened by McGrath's posi- Golden Rule that covers all cases for Humanist Heroines tion because my right to conduct my anyone anytime, anywhere is the one that personal affairs in safety and privacy will emphasizes the negative approach by I noticed with great interest the headline be violated by sectarian armies requiring Confucius, the Chinese philosopher in "Mother Teresa—A Disaster for India" me to do things their way or else. The around 500 B.C.E.: "Do not do unto in the article "Three Humanist Heroines" phrase "Never Again" comes easily to others as you would not have others do (FI, Winter 1992/93). I started and then mind. Sectarian education, I believe, is unto you." This Golden Rule never fails kept reading and reading, more and the greatest "evil" in America today. in promoting respect for each other, more mystified, thinking, "Well, where harmony, cooperation, and peace. is Mother Teresa of the headlines? Is she Wesley Martin Johnson so humble she will demurely not appear Oakland Park, Fla. Charles Tung in this article at all?" It wasn't until the Greendale, Wis. last paragraph that there was any I am often dismayed at the lack of mention of her, when the interviewer got balance shown by your editors on the Star Trek the "disaster" quote through prying and issue of abortion. the eager-to-speak-when-not-spoken-to Not all of your readers share your Re Kenneth Marsalek's article on guide, Abe Solomon. No evidence was blind faith in the position of the extreme "Humanism in Star Trek" (FI, Fall cited other than Mother Teresa's pre- left on this issue. Many of us feel that 1992), I am informing you of the sumed agreement with previously men- there should be restrictions on abortion. existence of the French nonprofit Vulcan tioned church policies on `contracep- This conviction comes not from fanatical Academy, whose aim is to study, tion, information about sexual matters, religious beliefs but from our concern develop, foster, and put into practice the abortion." for human rights. The fetus is, after all, philosophy attributed to Mr. Spock and a genetically distinct human being, as the Vulcans on "Star Trek." Don Stevens genetically distinct from his/ her mother The academy is devoted to such ideals San Francisco, Calif. as you and I are from ours and as human as (1) logic, the scientific method and as anyone whose parents are human. scientific knowledge, critical thinking, The Editors respond: Yes, every woman and man has a intellectual excellence, and the defense "right to choose" many things. But why of a naturalistic, realistic, atheistic world- Several readers have complained about assume that anyone has the right to view: (2) A non-authoritarian, rational the title of this article. The unstated choose to kill an innocent human being? system of ethics, with an emphasis on premise of both Abe Solomon and No one is championing a mother's "right non-violence, health habits, the respect Indumati Parikh is that Mother Teresa to choose to kill" after birth. So why for privacy, honesty, and tolerance; (3) is a disaster for India in that she is one assume it exists before birth? the control of the emotions, based on of the most vocal exponents of the I am amazed that people who show the works of Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Catholic church's total ban on artificial so much concern for human rights and and Epictetus on the one hand and methods of birth control, which they feel even animal rights can show a total lack modern scientific theories of the emo- exacerbates the overpopulation problem of concern for the unborn human child's tions on the other hand. in India. Both Solomon and Parikh have right to remain alive. This is an impor- We do not regard as absolute any devoted much of their lives to dissem- tant moral issue and deserves a more statement from the Star Trek "canon" inating birth control information evenhanded treatment in your magazine and our aim is not to find justifications throughout India. We regret any con- and bulletin. for a set of a priori attitudes and conducts fusion this may have caused. John Bessette accepted as a whole, but to approach Roanoke, Va. human problems from a different and heuristic point of view. What Did You Do Marshaii E. Deutsch is correct when he Second, we have been producing, Last Christmas? says that the biblical "Golden rule puts since September 1992, a radio show those who practice it in the position of called "La Tache Aveugle" ("The Blind Author of forthcoming book on others only if the `others' share their Spot"). This show devotes one hour humanism and Christmas is eager special circumstances and viewpoint." every week to science, history, and to correspond with secular human- (FI, Winter 1992/ 93). But his proposal, philosophy. ists who celebrate the holiday in "Do unto others as they would have done Third, we are launching an interna- untraditional ways or not at all. unto them," is by no means flawless. tional correspondence group devoted to Especially interested in nontheistic When the needs of others become sole Vulcan philosophy and culture. As the families raising children "Yule free." consideration, the doer will face a variety Vulcans say: Live long and prosper. Confidentiality guaranteed if of situations. The doer would not go all- requested. Please write to Tom out to help others on matters seemingly Jean-François Virey Flynn c/o FREE INQUIRY, Box 664, against his interest or directly opposed President, Vulcan Academy Buffalo, NY 14226-0664. to his personal convictions. A workable Lille Cedex, France Spring 1993 65

of Ruffles, saying: "It's not exactly the Last Supper but.... " At the end of the ad, a ray of light shines through a window behind the set and the words In the Name of God "Count your blessings" appear. (Sydney, [Australia] Courier-Mail)

Turn Out the Light, Warning: Holy Water May Be Cast Your Rolls the Vision's Over Dangerous to Your Health Upon the Waters After being visited by 8,600 people, an Administering holy water to the seriously Visitors to England's Salisbury Cathe- image many believe was the Virgin Mary ill can sometimes threaten life rather than dral may not be any closer to heaven disappeared from the fabric blinds at a speed recovery. Two doctors writing in for their tourism efforts, but they do Las Cruces home when a light bulb in the British Medical Journal said they receive an earthly reward: a coupon the room burned out. (Albuquerque discovered the risks while fighting to save entitling them to two Big Macs for the Journal) a teenager who had jumped from an price of one. The Times of London says upper floor apartment. The patient was that some city officials see the promotion making a good recovery from multiple as a cheap stunt, but Christopher Owen, Death Penalties Upheld Despite injuries when he developed an unusual who is in charge of cathedral finances, Prosecutor's Bible References bacterial infection that led to pneu- defends it. "If we have to indulge from monia. The source of the infection came time to time a little honest commercial- It's wrong for a prosecutor to suggest to light when hospital staff saw the ism, so be it," Owen says. The local to jurors that the Bible condones capital patient's aunt liberally sprinkling him McDonald's donates a portion of its punishment because it might make jurors with holy water, the doctors said. proceeds to the cathedral, which has feel less responsible for their verdict, the Microbiologists tested the water and daily operating expenses of about $4,500. California State Supreme Court says. found it contained the bacteria that "There is, mercifully," the Times com- But it's apparently not wrong enough caused the infection. Although this was ments, "no suggestion that communion to prompt the court to overturn a death an isolated case, the doctors warned that wafer should give way to a quarter- sentence. Three times in recent months, holy water could endanger the health of pounder nor wine to strawberry milk- the court has upheld death sentences in other patients already weakened by shake."(World Press Review) which a prosecutor suggested to jurors serious illness or injuries. (Chicago that the Bible supported capital punish- Tribune) ment. (Associated Press) No One, Including Jesus, Can Eat Just One E.T., Phone Pope Church Float Denied A television advertisement for potato Entry in Parade The Catholic church could have a new chips that depicts the biblical Last missionary frontier on its hands. That's Supper could be banned after viewers Members of a Palmdale, California, assuming the new telescope in southeast- complained it was sacrilegious. The church were angry after Chamber of ern Arizona that is run by the church's thirty-second ad, called "The Twelfth Commerce officials banned their Christ- Vatican Observatory locates planets Man, "shows eleven men sitting at a table mas parade float, which featured a orbiting other stars—and that those waiting for another man to join them. blood-spattered Jesus and depictions of planets have intelligent inhabitants. "The After the men start complaining they are prostitutes and "slothful" housewives. church would be obliged to address the starving, one man brings out a package (Antelope Valley Press) question of whether extraterrestrials might be brought within the fold and baptized, " the Reverend George Coyne, director of the Vatican Observatory, said in a story published recently in London's Daily Telegraph. "One would need to put some questions to him (an alien), such as, 'Have you ever experienced something similar to Adam and Eve, in SCIENTIFIC CREATIONISTS other words, original sin? Do you people EXPLAIN NOW 14614T BEGAN also know a Jesus who has redeemed

you?' "(Arizona Republic) Reprinted from the comic strip "Mother Goose and Grimm" by Mike Peters

66 FREE INQUIRY Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH, Inc.) Paul Kurtz, Chairman The Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH) is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt educational organization dedicated to fostering the growth of the traditions of democracy and secular humanism, and the principles of free inquiry in contemporary society. In addition to publishing FREE INQUIRY magazine, CODESH sponsors many organizations and activities, and is also open to Associate Membership. Members receive the Secular Humanist Bulletin. African-Americans for Humanism James Madison Memorial Committee Norm Allen Jr., Executive Director Robert Alley, Chairman Brings the ideals of humanism to the African-American com- Keeps alive James Madison's commitment to the First munity. Amendment and to liberty of thought and conscience. Inquiry Media Productions Thomas Flynn, Executive Director Society of Humanist Philosophers Timothy J. Madigan, Executive Director Produces radio and television programs presenting skeptical and secular humanist viewpoints on a variety of topics. Promotes and defends the study of humanist philosophy. Institute for Inquiry Secular Organization for Sobriety (SOS) Vern Bullough, Dean James Christopher, Executive Director Offers courses in humanism and skepticism; sponsors an A secular alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous with more annual summer session and periodic workshops. than 1,000 local groups throughout North America. Pub- lishes a newsletter available by subscription. Robert G. Ingersoll Memorial Committee Roger Greeley, Honorary Chairman Secular Humanist Aid and Relief Dedicated to restoring the Robert G. Ingersoll birthplace Effort (SHARE) in Dresden, New York, and to keeping his memory alive. Assists victims of natural disasters through secular efforts. Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER) Gerald A. Larne, President Examines the claims of Eastern and Western religions and of well-established and newer sects and denominations in the light of scientific inquiry. The committee is interdisciplinary, including specialists in biblical scholarship, archaeology, linguistics, anthropology, the social sciences, and philosophy who represent differing secular and religious traditions. Alliance of Secular Humanist Societies (ASHS) The Alliance of Secular Humanist Societies is a network created for mutual support among local and/or regional societies of secular humanists. If you are interested in starting or joining a group in your area, please contact Box 664, Buffalo, NY 14226-0664, (716) 636- 7571, FAX (716) 636-1733. The Academy of Humanism The Academy of Humanism was established to recognize distinguished humanists and to disseminate humanistic ideals and beliefs. The members of the academy, listed below, (1) are devoted to free inquiry in all fields of human endeavor, (2) are committed to a scientific outlook and the use of the scientific method in acquiring knowledge, and (3) uphold humanist ethical values and principles. The academy's goals include furthering respect for human rights, freedom, and the dignity of the individual; tolerance of various viewpoints and willingness to compromise; commitment to social justice; a universalistic perspective that transcends national, ethnic, religious, sexual, and racial barriers; and belief in a free and open pluralistic and democratic society. Humanist Laureates: Pieter Admiraal, medical doctor, The Netherlands; Steve Allen, author, humorist; Ruben Ardila, professor of psychology, Universidad de Colombia; Kurt Baier, professor of philosophy, University of Pittsburgh; R. Nita Barrow, ambassador to the United Nations from Barbados; Sir Isaiah Berlin, professor of philosophy, 0xford University; Sir Hermann Bondi, Fellow of the Royal Society, Past Master of Churchill College, London; Bonnie Bullough, professor of nursing, SUNY at Buffalo; Mario Bunge, professor of philosophy of science, McGill Univ.; Jean- Pierre Changeux, Collège de France and Institute Pasteur; Patricia Smith Churchland, professor of philosophy, Univ. of California at San Diego; Bernard Crick, professor of politics, Univ. of London; Francis Crick, Nobel Laureate in Physiology, Salk Inst.; José Delgado, chairperson of the Dept. of Neuropsychiatry, Univ. of Madrid; Milovan Djilas, author, former vice-president of Yugoslavia; Jean Dommanget, astronomer, Belgium; Paul Edwards, professor of philosophy, Brooklyn College; Sir Raymond Firth, professor emeritus of anthropology, Univ. of London; Betty Friedan, author and founder of the National 0rganization for Women (N0W); Yves Galifret, professor emeritus of physiology at the Sorbonne and General Secretary of l'Union Rationaliste; John Galtung, professor of sociology, Univ. of Oslo; Stephen Jay Gould, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard; Adolf Grünbaum, professor of philosophy, Univ. of Pittsburgh; Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel Laureate in physics, California Institute of Technology; Herbert Hauptman, Nobel Laureate and professor of biophysical science, SUNY at Buffalo; Donald Johanson, Inst. of Human 0rigins; Gyorgy Konrad, novelist, Hungary; Jolé Lombardi, organizer of the New Univ. for the Third Age; Jose Leite Lopes, director, Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas; André Lwoff, Nobel Laureate in Medicine and professor of microbiology, Institute Pasteur; Paul MacCready, president, AeroVironment, Inc.; Mihailo Markovié, professor of philosophy, Univ. of Belgrade; Indumati Parikh, president, Radical Humanist Association of India; John Passmore, professor of philosophy, Australian National Univ.; Octavio Paz, Nobel Laureate in Literature, Mexico; Wardell Baxter Pomeroy, psychotherapist and author; Sir Karl Popper, professor emeritus of logic and scientific method, Univ. of London; W. V. Quine, professor of philosophy, Harvard; Marcel Roche, emeritus researcher, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicaa (IVIC), Venezuela; Max Rood, professor of law and former Minister of Justice in Holland; Richard Rorty, professor of philosophy, University of Virginia; Carl Sagan, astronomer, Cornell; Leopold Sedar Senghor, former president, Senegal; Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate in Literature, Nigeria; Svetozar Stojanovic, professor of philosophy, Univ. of Belgrade; Thomas Szasz, professor of psychiatry, SUNY Medical School; V. M. Tarkunde, chairman, Indian Radical Humanist Association; Richard Taylor, professor of philosophy, Union College; Rob Tielman, copresident, International Humanist and Ethical Union; Alberto Hidalgo Tufión, president of the Sociedad Asturiana de Filosofía, 0viedo, Spain; Simone Veil, Deputy to European Parliament, France; Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., novelist; Mourad Wahba, professor of education, University of Ain Shams, Cairo; G. A. Wells, professor of German, Univ. of London; Edward O. Wilson, professor of sociobiology, Harvard. Deceased: George O. Abell, Isaac Asimov, Sir Alfred J. Ayer, Brand Blanshard, Joseph Fletcher, Sidney Hook, Lawrence Kohlberg, Franco Lombardi, Ernest Nagel, George Olincy, Chaim Perelman, Andrei Sakharov, Lady Barbara Wooton. Secretariat: Vern Bullough, distinguished professor, SUNY College at Buffalo; Antony Flew, professor emeritus of philosophy, Reading Univ.; Paul Kurtz, professor emeritus of philosophy, SUNY at Buffalo, editor of FREE INQUIRY; Gerald Larne, professor emeritus of archaeology and biblical studies, Univ. of Southern California at Los Angeles; Jean-Claude Pecker, professor of astrophysics, Collège de France, Académie des Sciences. Executive Director: Timothy J. Madigan. The Affirmations of Humanism: A Statement of Principles

• We are committed to the application of reason and science to the understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems. • We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation. • We believe that scientific discoVery and technology can contribute to the betterment of human life. • We belieVe in an open and pluralistic society and that democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities. • We are committed to the principle of the separation of church and state. • We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolVing differences and achieving mutual understanding. • We are concerned with securing justice and fairness in society and with eliminating discrimination and intolerance. • We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the handicapped so that they will be able to help themselves. • We attempt to transcend divisiVe parochial loyalties based on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, and striVe to work together for the common good of humanity. • We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserVe it for future generations, and to aVoid inflicting needless suffering on other species. • We believe in enjoying life here and now and in developing our creative talents to their fullest. • We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence. • We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual preferences, to exercise reproductiVe freedom, to have access to comprehensive and informed health-care, and to die with dignity. • We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normatiVe standards that we discoVer together. Moral principles are tested by their consequences. • We are deeply concerned with the moral education of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion. • We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences. • We are citizens of the universe and are excited by discoVeries still to be made in the cosmos. • We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, and we are open to novel ideas and seek new departures in our thinking. • We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich personal significance and genuine satisfaction in the service to others. • We belieVe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion oVer selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind faith or irrationality. • We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest that we are capable of as human beings.

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