How to Raise Cult-Bait

REBECCA GOLDSTEIN Reconciles Science and Philosophy

CELEBRATING REASON AND HUMANITY December 2017/January 2018 Vol. 38 No .1

HEAVEN'S GATE

HOW TO RAISE CULT-BAIT A quirky how-to by JOANNE HANKS and STEVE CUNO Is Philosophical Naturalism for Sale? The Fight for Our Philosophy, Part 3 Maarten Boudry | Candice Shelby | Tom Flynn and Judy Walker D/J 18 $5.95 CDN O $/N5 1.975 US Templeton Grantmaking Exposed $5.95 CDN $5.95 US 1011 Robyn E. Blumner | Faisal Saeed Al Mutar | Sarah Haider Russell Blackford | Ophelia Benson | James A. Haught

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29 Wicked Problems Candice Shelby

EDITORIAL STAFF ANNOUNCEMENT 57 HUMANISM AT LARGE ree nquiry An Atheist Interviews God 4 Free Speech and Identity Politics F I Welcomes New Douglas Whaley Robyn E. Blumner Managing Editor 17 OP-EDS LOOKING BACK IN APPRECIATION Diana Brown, Recipient of Distinguished 6 A Modest Proposal: Get Religion 18 Out of the Charity Sector Humanist Award, Dies at Seventy-Seven 58 Tom Flynn LETTERS To order, see form on page 51. 8 Violence and Freethought 19 REVIEWS Personal check/AmEx/Discover/MasterCard/Visa accepted. Sarah Haider DEPARTMENTS 59 Fantasyland: How America Went 11 The Problems of Philosophy Haywire: A 500 Year History, 50 DOERR'S WAY Russell Blackford by Kurt Andersen Al Gore’s Good but Reviewed by Marc Schaus 13 Unplanned Obsolescence Incomplete Sequel

Ophelia Benson Edd Doerr 61 The Christian Fallacy: The Real Truth 14 The Silver Lining in Fake News 52 FAITH AND REASON about Jesus and the Early History Shadia B. Drury Evidence for ‘Miracles’: Does a of Christianity, ‘Cold-Case’ Approach Redeem by Paul McGrane 15 I Question the Gospel Accounts? Reviewed by Robert M. Price James A. Haught Joe Nickell POEM 16 Enlightenment in the Arab World 2.0 55 THE FAITH I LEFT BEHIND Faisal Saeed Al Mutar Through My Own Looking Glass 66 Scoundrel Nicholas S. Molinari Ted Richer

CFI Mission: The Center for Inquiry strives to foster a secular society based on reason, science, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. Our Vision: A world where people value evidence and critical thinking, where superstition and prejudice subside, and where science and compassion guide public policy. Our Values: Integrity, Courage, Innovation, Empathy, Learning, and Wonder. 2 F REE I NQUIRY D ECEMBER 16 / J ANUARY 17 secularhumanism.org Still, essential Enlightenment val- ROBYN E. BLUMNER ues were abandoned by KPFA’s EDITORIAL de-platforming decision, such as Editor Thomas W. Flynn supporting an open exchange of Managing Editor Nicole Scott ideas, not caving into misguided Columnists Ophelia Benson, Russell political correctness, and standing Blackford, Greta Christina, Edd Doerr, Shadia B. Drury, up for a renowned promoter of rea- Sarah Haider, Faisal Saeed son and science. Al Mutar, Gregory Paul Free Speech and As to the second question, Daw- Senior Editors Bill Cooke, Richard Dawkins, kins is a responsible critic of all reli- Edd Doerr, James A. Haught, Identity Politics gions. To conflate that with bigotry Jim Herrick, Ronald A. Lindsay, Taslima Nasrin or hate is to fall into the trap set by extremists who want to insulate Contributing Editors Levi Fragell, Adolf Grünbaum, their virulent form of intolerance by Marvin Kohl, Lee Nisbet cloaking it in a religious wrapper. Julia Lavarnway Assistant Editor Dawkins’s attacks on Islam are hen Richard Dawkins directed toward its tenets and the Literary Editor Ted Richer was de-platformed violent actions people take in its Permissions Editor Julia Lavarnway from an event planned name. He is careful to say that Mus- Art Director Christopher S. Fix in August by a radio stationW (KPFA) in Berkeley, California, lims should enjoy religious-freedom rights and not suffer collective guilt. Center for Inquiry Inc. a now well-worn debate was For instance, Dawkins came out Chair Edward Tabash sparked. It had a couple of key com- Board of Directors David Cowan forcefully against the Muslim travel Richard Dawkins ponents that these dustups always Brian Engler do. The first centered on whether ban instigated by President Donald Kendrick Frazier J. Trump. Barry A. Kosmin free speech rights were violated, Y. Sherry Sheng and the second on whether the crit- But he will not be cowed by the J. Anderson Thomson Jr. cultural shield religions’ adherents Leonard Tramiel icism Dawkins had expressed about Honorary: the Islamic faith constituted a form have erected in order to escape Rebecca Newberger scrutiny and reasoned critique. Daw- Goldstein of bigotry or hate speech. Susan Jacoby In short, no one’s free speech kins validly points out the absurdity Lawrence Krauss rights were violated, and Dawkins of Islamic beliefs and the mortal ho- Chief Executive Officer is not a bigot. And, having known mophobia and repression of women Robyn E. Blumner and President Richard Dawkins personally for three found in its precepts and in the Senior Research Fellow Ronald A. Lindsay years, I know him to be a com- actions of so many of its radical fol- Director, Campus and passionate humanist and feminist, lowers. Dawkins also condemns the Community Programs Debbie Goddard abidingly fair-minded, caring about backwardness of Catholics’ limits Stephanie Guttormson Director of Public Engagement others’ feelings, and an egalitarian on birth control and abortion and Vice President for Philanthropy Martina Fern who is polite even to those who the hypocrisy and money-grubbi- Director, African Americans would try one’s patience. The only ness of America’s Prosperity Gospel for Humanism Debbie Goddard people he judges unfairly are peo- preachers. Director of Libraries Timothy Binga ple who chew gum, whom he thinks Dawkins doesn’t like religion— Paul Fidalgo Communications Director should be executed. (Kidding, but any religion. Read The God Delu- Database Manager Jacalyn Mohr only just.) sion, in which Dawkins makes his System Administrator Cody Hashman As to the free-speech claim, case with sober eloquence. Why Director of Digital only the government and govern- this came as news to KPFA is the Product and Strategy Marc Kriedler ment institutions can violate the only surprise in the entire incident. Director, Teacher Institute for First Amendment. The founders Oddly, as justification, KPFA pointed Bertha Vazquez Evolutionairy Science were guarding the nation against to one of Dawkins’s tweets from Staff Pat Beauchamp, the dangerous power of the state to 2013 that called Islam “the greatest Melissa Braun, Lauren Foster, censor speech, ideas, and the press. force for evil in the world today.” I Roe Giambrone, A community-supported radio sta- say “oddly” because the radio sta- Stef McGraw, Alexander Nicaise, tion is not the government and is tion sponsored a large public event Paul Paulin, not constrained by the First Amend- with Dawkins in 2015. Apparently Vance Vigrass ment. It can choose its program- they were fine with the tweet then. Council for Secular Humanism ming and whether to sponsor or As to the tweet’s substance, Executive Director Thomas W. Flynn de-sponsor events without implicat- KPFA disregarded its full context ing the Bill of Rights. that Dawkins expounded on at the

4 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org Cheltenham Literary Festival earlier Especially women and gays, but this year. As reported by the Tele- Muslims in general. And of course graph on June 11, 2017, this is what apostates who are literally threatened with death simply because Free Inquiry (ISSN 0272-0701) is published bimonthly by the Cen- he had to say: they have chosen to leave the ter for Inquiry in association with the Council for Secular Humanism, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Phone (716) 636-7571. If you look at the actual impact religion of their parents. I don’t Fax (716) 636-1733. Copyright ©2018 by the Center for Inquiry and that different religions have on the abuse Muslims, I abuse the Islamic the Council for Secular Humanism. All rights reserved. No part of this world it’s quite apparent that at tyranny that abuses Muslims. periodical may be reproduced without permission of the publisher. Periodicals postage paid at Buffalo, N.Y., and at additional mailing present the most evil religion in the Beyond an automated “out of of- offices. National distribution by Disticor.Free Inquiry is indexed in world has to be Islam. Philosophers’ Index. Printed in the United States. Postmaster: Send It’s terribly important to modify fice” response, Dawkins received no address changes to Free Inquiry, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226- 0664. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the that because of course that doesn’t reply to this overture. editors or publisher. No one speaks on behalf of the Center for Inquiry mean all Muslims are evil, very far I admit that my heart broke a little or the Council for Secular Humanism unless expressly stated. from it. Individual Muslims suffer when I saw the results of the recent TO SUBSCRIBE OR RENEW more from Islam than anyone else. Brookings poll of college students Call toll-free 800-458-1366 (have credit card handy). 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But these young people have been Call Customer Service: 716-636-7571, ext. 200. set identity politics above Enlighten- E-mail: [email protected]. ment values, as do all these types of told it’s their right to live in a world in BACK ISSUES debates that largely occur these days Back issues through Vol. 23, No. 3 are $6.95 each. Back on college campuses. This splintering issues Vol. 23, No. 4 and later are $5.95 each. 20% discount on orders of ten or more. Call 800-458-1366 to order or to of progressives has us tearing each ask for a complete listing of back issues. other down while those who truly rep- REPRINTS/PERMISSIONS resent a danger to our values—people “A community- To request permission to use any part of Free Inquiry, write such as Jerry Falwell Jr., Pat Robert- to Free Inquiry, ATTN: Julia Lavarnway, Permissions Editor, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664, or e-mail jlavarn son, Betsy DeVos, and Jeff Sessions— supported radio [email protected] whistle on by. station is not the WHERE TO BUY FREE INQUIRY Dawkins attempted to make that government and is not Free Inquiry is available from selected book and magazine very point in a postscript to the KPFA sellers nationwide. event, when he reached out to the constrained by the ARTICLE AND POETRY SUBMISSIONS station’s general manager, Quincy Complete submission guidelines can be found on the web at First Amendment.” www.secularhumanism.org/fi/details.html. Requests McCoy, with this olive branch: for mailed guidelines and article submissions should be addressed to: Article Submissions, ATTN: Tom Flynn, Free Inquiry, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Poetry I am in the Bay Area today with submissions: Ted Richer, Literary Editor, Free Inquiry, P.O. some free time, and I just won- which no one ever has to feel insulted, Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664; or e-mail to nscott@ dered whether you and I (and some marginalized, or micro-annoyed. It is centerforinquiry.net. of your close colleagues if you an infantilization of citizenry when LETTERS TO THE EDITOR wish) might meet to have a civilised we want the government to enforce Send submissions to Letters Editor, Free Inquiry, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664 or e-mail [email protected]. conversation. Not on the radio, a bubble of protection for sensitive which completely changes the at- For letters intended for publication, please include name, mosphere, but in private. ears and psyches. And it is a danger- address (including city and state), and daytime telephone number (for verification purposes only). 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secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 5 The same poll had 51 percent have to move beyond identity pol- of college students agreeing that itics, where we speak through the TOM FLYNN it’s okay for a group to shout down lens of historical grievances, and start OP-ED a speaker it disagrees with so the embracing shared civic values as the speaker can no longer be heard. cornerstone of liberalism. There was a yawning gap between I recommend The Once and Fu- the percentage of Democrats who ture Liberal by Mark Lilla, a professor of humanities at Columbia University. agreed with this statement, at 62 His thesis is that for decades now, percent, versus the percentage of identity politics has been shutting Republicans who did, at 38 percent. A Modest liberals out of political power. To win elections again across a wide swath of the country, liberals must appeal to Proposal: Get a sense of shared purpose and end this refrain of blame on white males Religion Out of that pits us against one another. Lilla writes: the Charity Sector “Essential enlightenment The paradox of identity liberalism is that it paralyzes the capacity to values were abandoned think and act in a way that would actually accomplish the things it by KPFA’s de-platforming mbitious goals can energize professes to want. It is mesmer- decision, such as sup- ized by symbols: achieving super- a movement. Sometimes, porting an open exchange ficial diversity in organizations, re- even overly ambitious goals of ideas, not caving into telling history to focus on marginal can do the trick. The Nine and often minuscule groups, con- ADemands of Liberalism, promulgated misguided political cor- cocting inoffensive euphemisms in 1873, galvanized successive gener- to describe social reality, protect- rectness, and standing up ing young ears and eyes already ations of freethinkers and their organi- for a renowned promoter accustomed to slasher films from zations over some seventy years, even any disturbing encounter with although most of that document’s lofty of reason and science.” ternative viewpoints. … goals—among them, an end to tax- [Liberals] must offer a vision funded military chaplaincy and a ban of our common destiny based on one thing that all Americans, of on appropriations of public funds for every background, actually share. religious organizations—were never And that is citizenship. achieved. I looked back on the Nine I’m guessing this differential rep- This identity liberalism that Lilla Demands and their legacy in a 2014 1 resents the real-life examples of describes is the same that has a editorial. right-wing speakers such as Milo Berkeley radio station cancelling an With that in mind, I’d like to pro- Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter who event with Richard Dawkins because pose a new goal for the secular human- have had appearances cancelled he has the audacity to worry aloud ist movement. This goal may prove as after violent student protests. If the about Islam’s legitimately repressive unattainable as most of the Nine De- situation were reversed and Bernie tenets. Any liberal who looks at Daw- mands, but I think it’s the right choice Sanders’s speeches unleashed stu- kins as his or her enemy has no idea nonetheless. I think that regardless of dent outrage, those identifying as what a true enemy is. And in our bat- whether it is eventually achieved, the Democrats might have had second tle for power—electoral power—you movement will benefit by making this thoughts about whether it’s okay to are dooming us to defeat, divided goal a part of its discourse. It’s a goal shout down a speaker. and angry, with liberalism’s humane I’ve touched on before, one that I think Giving your ideological adversary ideas for society’s advancement not flows naturally from the “secular” in space to make his or her (flawed) case even in the game. secular humanism. demonstrates maturity, not weakness I think it’s time for secular hu- or assent. 1. Of the nine demands, I reported that “just For my fellow liberals—and I re- Robyn E. Blumner is the CEO of the Center for Inquiry two demands have arguably been met. Two alize not everyone reading this is in and the executive director of the Richard Dawkins have been partially met. On two more the that category; all, of every political Foundation for Reason & Science. She was a nation- situation is ambiguous. One demand un- questionably has not been met, while in two stripe, are welcome in the world of ally syndicated columnist and editorial writer for the cases the contemporary situation is actively atheism, secularism, and humanism, Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times) deteriorating.” (Tom Flynn, “How Small Our but this is to my fellow liberals: We for sixteen years. Wants,” FI, February/March 2014)

6 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org manists to demand that organized ing. Where does Catholic Charities activists should be to discourage that religion get out of the charity sector. do most of its fundraising? In Catho- practice whenever possible. I think it’s time to insist that in a truly lic churches, of course. Where does But let’s loop back to goal number secular society, the job of mobilizing Lutheran Social Services raise most two: nondiscrimination among donors. private-sector relief and social-service of its money? In Lutheran churches, Frankly, I can’t see how most denom- work is too important to be left to of course. Sense a pattern? Ending inational charities can long maintain institutions as (relatively) small and denominational charities’ religious dis- their identities if they steer fundraising (profoundly) parochial as religious de- crimination among donors may be our far outside of their own communities. nominations. Moreover, we should be greatest challenge. What would be the point of having the first to point out that since increas- Yet even here, there is hope. In a Catholic soup kitchen, a Lutheran ing numbers of Americans claim no many metro areas, organizations such soup kitchen, a Baptist soup kitchen, denominational affiliation whatever—a as Catholic Charities earn substantial and a Muslim soup kitchen all serving phenomenon that seems poised to income over and above the donations the poor of the same metro area and accelerate in future years—the de- they raise in church. This income de- not discriminating among the bene- nominational model for funding and rives from government contracts to ficiaries they feed, if their respective organizing charity work will grow in- administer various social-service pro- identities are no longer buttressed by creasingly irrelevant over time. grams. When a religious charity admin- denomination-specific fundraising? What might society look like if all isters a publicly funded program, that There’d be no point to perpetuat- charitable effort were organized along funding—derived from tax dollars—is secular lines? For a start, charities obviously nondiscriminatory as to the generally recognized as following best religious affiliation of its “donors.” practices would avoid any discrimina- Moreover, there are often require- tion on the basis of religious affiliation. ments that such programs be operated That is, well-run charities would not in spaces free from sectarian religious discriminate on the basis of religion symbols, that no proselytizing take in their choice of beneficiaries; in their place, and that the charity refrain from donors they solicit; or in hiring and religious discrimination in hiring and “Since increasing num- volunteer recruitment. perhaps even in volunteer recruitment bers of Americans claim The first of those three goals, non- in connection with that program. (Such no denominational affil- discrimination by religion as regards strictures are not always followed, but beneficiaries, won’t be a long stretch. it’s actually surprising how often the iation … the denomina- Few denominational charities today big denominational agencies follow tional model for funding serve only members of their own sect. the rules to the letter.) and organizing charity Established agencies such as Catholic We’ve arrived at goal number three, Charities and Lutheran Social Services nondiscrimination in hiring and volun- work will grow increas- make a point of stressing that their teer recruitment. As noted, many larger ingly irrelevant.” work reaches beneficiaries of every denominational agencies already work religious background. While they may this way in their government-contract not put as much effort in emphasizing divisions. Still, some religious charities that their largesse also extends to ben- consider it vital to their missions to hire eficiaries of no religious background, and draw volunteers only from within in fact it generally does. As the num- their own ranks. Our goal as secular ber of nonreligious Americans continues to grow, the best-run denominational charities will likely recognize the benefit of articulating more clearly that they serve believers and unbelievers on an equal footing. The second and third goals—nondiscrimination among donors and nondiscrimination in hiring and volunteer recruitment—are the areas where the most change will be needed. The second goal will be the hardest, because most denominational charities remain profoundly reliant on members of their own denominations for fund-

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 7 ing all those agencies. Oh, wait—that the Skeptics and Humanists Aid and is the point. Relief Network (SHARE). I’ve written SARAH HAIDER In a future where well-run charities previously of my personal reservations OP-ED renounce all religious discrimination, I about this model.2 Here I’ll just suggest would expect that in one metro area that if the secular humanist movement after another, former denominational adopts the goal of seeking the end of charities will collapse into far fewer, denominational charities, then the last larger, truly community-based agen- thing we ought to be doing is operat- cies with no religious identity. (Wheth- ing “denominational charities” of our er such agencies will continue to stand own. Is it really an improvement that Violence and apart, or whether most will subse- our denominational charities are sec- quently be absorbed into existing tarian with regard to life stance rather Freethought community-wide institutions such as than with regard to religion? They’re the United Way, remains to be seen.) still sectarian, and it seems to me that At the other extreme, some smaller sectarianism of any sort is out of keep- denominational charities might opt to ing with the secularist ideal. narrow their focus and become purely If we want religions out of the denominational. Imagine an Assem- charity sector, and if we are at all con- reethought requires a free so- blies of God charity that fundraises sistent, I think we must want all life ciety—one in which a clear line only in Assemblies of God churches, stance–specific institutions, religious Fseparates speech and actions, mobilizes an all–Assemblies of God or otherwise—humanist institutions in- one in which violence can never be employee and volunteer force, and cluded—out of the charity sector. Yes, a justified response to speech. In- aids only Assemblies of God mem- I understand the attraction of having a creasingly, it appears that this may bers. From the secular viewpoint, such “humanist charity” or a “freethought no longer be the society we inhabit. an agency would drop off the radar of charity.” It feels great to finally have a Endorsements of violence ring from public life. There’s nothing to prevent comeback to that perennial question, the office of the president to the “Where are the humanist soup kitch- it from doing so and becoming a factor halls of academia. Op-eds wonder ens?” But I think the price we pay in only in the life of a single sect. whether it can ever be right to “punch self-contradiction is too great. It should be obvious why I think get- a Nazi.” The possibility of bloodshed What do you think? Please write or ting religion out of the charity sector is at protests and rallies is beginning to e-mail. Should secular humanism em- such an attractive goal for the secular resemble an inevitability. brace an aspirational goal of ejecting humanist movement. Imagine a future The public display of guns and religion from the charity sector? If so, where denominational relief agencies their promise of violence also appears does that demand a wall of separation slowly vanish, whether by shedding to be on the rise, exemplified by the between all life stance organizations their parochial identities, merging into reprehensible “Unite the Right” rally and formal charity work? If not, why secular community agencies, or by in Charlottesville, where gun enthusi- not? Why isn’t what’s good for the reli- asts wore, according to The Atlantic’s voluntarily withdrawing from public gious goose also good for the secular David Frum, “pseudo-military outfits, life. What a victory for secularism that humanist gander? including body armor.” As their wear- would be! More speculatively, I wonder Readers, sound off. how much additional capacity for com- ers seem well aware, the mere pres- munity self-help might be unleashed ence of facemasks and weaponry has when major charitable institutions no a chilling effect on free speech. While longer hobble themselves by restrict- not an open threat, it sends a mes- ing their fundraising to members of sage of intimidation. their own denominations—especially Agitators on the far Left tell us in a probable future where fewer and that occasionally violence is permis- fewer identify with any denomination, sible, even necessary, to prevent the or even with religion generally. 2. See my “Who’s Afraid of Faith-based Char- rise of fascism. Many of their liberal ities?” (FI, December 2005/January 2006); Here, of course, we encounter the “Secularism … Plus” (February/March 2006); counterparts disagree, arguing that fly in the ointment. In recent years and “Are Secularists Less Generous?” (Au- it is neither permissible nor neces- humanist, atheist, and freethought gust/September 2010). sary. Liberals such as myself would organizations have been busy launch- go farther: normalized violence spells ing “denominational” charitable and Tom Flynn is editor of Free Inquiry, the executive direc- catastrophe. social-service agencies of their own. tor of the Council for Secular Humanism, the director You can “kill” a Nazi in two ways: The Foundation Beyond Belief is one of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum, and by murder or by persuading the per- of the better-known examples. For its the editor of The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief son to abandon that ideology. When part, CFI until very recently operated (Prometheus Books, 2007). we introduce violence into the fray,

8 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org we must ask ourselves: How far are we Right. Scottish historian Norman Stone speaking, we have the power to win willing to go, and what are we willing noted in his introduction to the book over that love. to lose to get there? Diary of a Man in Despair, “It often This simple idea has been perhaps A punch may hurt a Nazi, but it happened that people who had been the most instrumental for liberal de- won’t change his or her mind. Perhaps in Fascist jails went back into the same mocracy, with far-reaching, transforma- a black eye will cow some into staying jails, now Communist, and guarded, tive effects. With it, human rights cam- quiet. But what if in others it has the often enough, by the same wardens paigners had some assurance of safety opposite effect? What if this fuels the who had turned coats. This ignored an while proposing ideas considered by Nazi’s sense of victimhood, allowing important element in modern German many in their times to be subversive. him or her to better frame his or her history: that anti-Fascists had quite Women and religious and sexual mi- actions as self-defense? often been men of the Right.” norities, once powerless and vilified, They may have been “men of the Let’s make one thing clear: We were able to argue for the betterment Right” before they were men of the didn’t defeat the Nazis by a few well- of their status and live to tell the tale. Left, but their real affiliation was to placed punches. In fact, not only did As Adam Gopnik noted in the New the “anti-fascist” streetfighters of the a strong boot. When violence is in- Yorker, “The whole end of liberal civi- 1930s fail to prevent Hitler’s rise, ac- troduced into society, the relevant lization is to substitute the criticism of cording to historian Laurie Marhoefer, dichotomy isn’t Right or Left, nor is ideas for assaults on people.” they may have even aided the Nazi it conservative or liberal. Violence is What happens when we lose sight propaganda machine. “… Historians most useful to those who are the most of this end? believe events like the rally in Wed- willing to use it, and with its normaliza- ding helped the Nazis build a dicta- tion, societal hierarchy rearranges to Public dialogue deteriorates as dis- torship,” Marhoefer wrote in an article place the vicious towering above all. agreements are increasingly handled for TheConversation.com. “Yes, the The miracle of modern, liberal soci- by mobs. Fear of retribution turns us brawl got them media attention. But ety has been to decouple power from what was far, far more important was violence. Our tolerance of violence is how it fed an escalating spiral of street limited to that which exists because violence. That violence helped the the people consent to its existence fascists enormously. Violent confron- (the police and military). If we voted to tations with antifascists gave the Nazis dismantle the police force, it would be a chance to paint themselves as the dismantled. Further, we recognize that victims of a pugnacious, lawless left. speech is a fundamental liberty; the “Liberals such as myself They seized it.” idea that any speech could ever justify would go farther: nor- It would be wise to remember what a violent response is appropriately re- did stop the Nazis: a global coalition jected. This separation of society into malized violence spells prepared to enact an unimaginable a realm of ideas and a realm of action catastrophe.” magnitude of violence. We didn’t just frees us to be intellectual explorers. punch them; we gunned them down. Our liberties are guaranteed; we do We rained fire and death onto their not need the love of the people to country. We looked the other way as speak what we feel to be true, and in our troops raped their women and as our allies killed untold numbers in labor camps. The cost for such a measure was not being maced by an annoyed officer and spending a few days in a jail. It was the lives of millions—soldier and civilian alike. Not only are the fantasies of the modern-day fascism-fighters rooted in an infantile view of history, the willing- ness to revel in the glory of violence is in itself indicative of a disturbed mind. It is one thing to grimly resort to violent action (as we had to in World War II); it is quite another to gleefully declare violent intentions. Op-ed writers are not the only ones to notice a similarity between the violent Left and the violent

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 9 Imagine a future where science and reason serve as the foundation for our lives.

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

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

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

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

Then speak to your trusted financial advisor or attorney. It’s as simple as that. IT’S EASY Call Martina Fern today at1-800-818-7071 x426 for your copy of this valuable information, or e-mail her at [email protected]. There’s no obligation. all into self-censors (already the case In a less-free society, religious groups RUSSELL BLACKFORD when it comes to the “religion of whose ideas offend sensibilities have peace”). Our public personas serve as much more to fear than the writings of OP-ED masks under which we hide our true an angry atheist. fears and concerns. In such a climate, When progressives work to dis- sincerity (the first step toward con- mantle the idea that everyone—re- structive dialogue) disappears entirely. gardless of how repellent their ideas— We’ve been headed this way for has the right to practice and preach, a long time—a “violence creep” of they are left in a difficult predicament sorts. When the 2015 bloodshed when their favored groups hold less- The Problems of at Charlie Hebdo led the Catholic than-savory ideas. It is in this context League’s Bill Donohue to argue that that Muslims (far too many of whom Philosophy the victims “provoked” their own mur- espouse values antithetical to Western ders, Americans should have been liberalism) must rely on the ignorance united in outrage. Instead, when the of the public and the falsehoods of PEN American Center chose to grant their supporters for safety. The harmful the cartoonists the Toni and James aspects of their beliefs and practices ne of the more esoteric prob- C. Goodale Freedom of Expression are ignored or, worse, christened as lems of philosophy is that no Imagine a future where science and reason Courage Award, hundreds of writers progressive. It will get more difficult Oone knows what it is. I exag- protested the choice. to tell the truth in the years to come. gerate, of course, but philosophy as serve as the foundation for our lives. Worst of all, the insidious idea that If holding ugly ideas means surrender- an academic discipline is notoriously some words are a form of violence is ing your right to safety, we will have difficult to define. Translated from the spreading (almost exclusively thanks to to choose between honesty about Greek, philosophy indicates love of A future where free expression is guaranteed the efforts of the Left). This rhetorical Muslim practice or watching a minority wisdom. In practice, however, philos- everywhere around the world. subterfuge may help shore up argu- group suffer injustice. ophers engage in a variety of pursuits ments for censorship of hurtful speech So long as we continue to foster a and approaches that defy summary— and de-platforming of controversial culture where violence is a justified re- so much so that we might despair as A future where old sectarian divisions have been speakers, but any benefits this equiv- sponse to hateful ideas, we should get to what they have in common. That alence provides will not be worth the used to lying about ugly realities. And said, much of what we see in philos- overcome by the common bond of secular ideals. cost. If words can be a form of violence, when we can’t acknowledge a prob- ophy’s traditions and pursuits can be then violence can be a proportional lem, we cannot get near solving it. It summed up, a bit untidily, as follows: and legitimate response to words. may feel good to “bash the fash” now, philosophy is a reason-based attempt This is the future CFI is working toward. Together, we can achieve it. Beginning with “violent” speech, an but before we hurl ourselves into a to answer deep, persistent questions escalation of assaults and destruction batting frenzy, we should look to see that have long caused puzzlement It’s never too early to consider a planned gift—a legacy of reason. can begin, with each offense providing where we are going. and anxiety. justification for another violent epi- Which questions? Every philos- sode by the opposition. Further Reading opher has a preferred list, but here Call today to reserve your copy of our As Gopnik continues, “the real so- Frum, David. 2017. “The Chilling Effects of are just a few. Is there a god or an Openly Displayed Firearms.” The Atlantic afterlife? Do we possess free will? new gift-planning brochure—a helpful guide cial contract at the heart of liberal civ- (August 16). Available online at https://www. ilization is simple: in exchange for the theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/ How can we know about the external through the many options available to you. freedom to be as insulting as you want open-carry-laws-mean-charlottesville-could- world? Are moral rules objectively have-been-graver/537087/. binding on us? What is a good life for about other people’s ideas, you have Gopnik, Adam. 2015. “PEN Has Every Right to to give up the possibility of assaulting Honor Charlie Hebdo.” The New Yorker a human being? What is the nature of Then speak to your trusted financial advisor other people’s persons.” (April 30). Available online at https://www. newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/pen- Without this contract, how could or attorney. It’s as simple as that. has-every-right-to-honor-charlie-hebdo. we prevent violence against ourselves Marhoefer, Laurie. 2017. “How Should We Pro- and groups for whom we wish to advo- test Neo-Nazis? Lessons from German His- cate? The freedom to offend doesn’t tory.” The Conversation (August 21). Avail- able online at https://theconversation.com/ just protect cartoonists; it protects re- how-should-we-protest-neo-nazis-lessons- IT’S EASY ligious groups when they espouse val- from-german-history-82645. ues offensive to our sensibilities. As a Call Martina Fern today women’s rights activist, I am disgusted by the Muslim idea of modesty and Sarah Haider is a writer, speaker, and activist. at1-800-818-7071 x426 its manifestation in the hijab. In a free Born in Pakistan and raised in Texas, she was a for your copy of this valuable information, society, I may openly voice my disgust; practicing Shia Muslim until she left the faith in I may hope to persuade the public her teenage years. In 2013, she cofounded or e-mail her at [email protected]. (including Muslims) to share my view. Ex-Muslims of North America.

There’s no obligation. secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 11 a just society? At a more esoteric level not be able to force someone to aban- consequential declarations of heresy, of discussion, what sort of evidence don whatever beliefs she or he started can be frustrating, but in a way it is might be needed to answer questions with, but it might show that retaining also admirable. such as these? Can we even explain a particular belief carries a high price. To be clear, and honest, I think what we’re talking about when we em- If I cling, desperately, to a cherished some of philosophy’s perennial ques- ploy terminology such as free will? To belief, the price might be accepting tions do have answers. In some cases, deal with all this, philosophy extends other beliefs that seem absurd—to so it seems to me, decisive arguments into examining the foundations, and others, if not to me—or employing have already been given. Some phil- perhaps the limits, of inquiry itself. standards of logic and evidence that I osophical views may come to prevail Thus, its subdisciplines include logic would not use in other contexts. over time, though nowhere near as and epistemology (or theory of knowl- Admittedly, the price for resisting a rapidly as well-supported hypotheses edge). philosophical conclusion—about, for in the physical and biological sciences. We should note that the world’s example, the existence of God, free For all that, the ongoing, and socially religions offer answers to many of will, or objective morality—is unlikely accepted, dissensus within philoso- these questions, but their answers to be anything as drastic as that for phy often plays out positively. It can notoriously conflict with each other. resisting well-evidenced scientific find- encourage respect for principled dis- Furthermore, they must be taken on ings. For that reason, seemingly de- agreement, patience in studying and faith; at the least, they require trust in feated beliefs about philosophical is- understanding the views of others nonrational “ways of knowing” such sues can survive indefinitely, and their (and in explaining our own views), as messages from angels or God. It adherents can continue to make some charity in attribution of motives to op- seems worth the effort of examining sort of case. Worse, as the resulting ar- ponents, rigorous independent think- how far evidence and human reason guments become increasingly sophis- ing, and openness to argument. can take us in addressing philosophy’s ticated, with relatively little correction Philosophers and students of phi- big questions. from empirical observations, the result losophy can also bring their charac- can seem more like an increasingly teristic skills and values to some of complex game than like intellectual the great practical questions of our progress. For many people, including age, not least those relating to so- many potential philosophy students, cial and global injustices and to the philosophy can appear inaccessible, emerging risks to humanity’s future. “Philosophers engage in hyper-specialized, and irrelevant. All too often, the debates that sur- a variety of pursuits and Philosophy is encountering other round these topics are dominated problems. Political arguments about by tribalism, partisan bitterness, and approaches that defy higher-education funding are increas- emotional manipulation. With its em- summary—so much so ingly dominated by narrowly framed is- phasis on reason and clarity, the study that we might despair sues of graduate employability. There of philosophy can provide something are relentless pressures to devalue the of a counterweight. as to what they have in concept of a liberal education and to Philosophy, then, is not exactly a common.” transform universities into something discipline in crisis, but it is being at- more like vocational colleges. This tacked from many sides and (as Tom bodes ill for a discipline such as phi- Flynn suggests elsewhere in this issue losophy, whatever its inherent social of Free Inquiry) to some extent cor- and cultural importance, or even its rupted. Nothing I have stated in this In theory, at least—and often in ability to teach generic skills that em- column is meant to deny philosophy’s practice—philosophy proceeds by ployers are seeking. Meanwhile, other distinct identity and importance. way of rational inquiry and argument, social forces—not least the availability Rather, it is to state that these cry out so why hasn’t it yet answered its of Templeton Foundation money for for reexamination and reassertion. For deep, persistent questions? This is, I religion-friendly research—blunt phi- philosophy as an organized discipline, think, a genuine concern. Even profes- losophy’s skeptical cutting edge. this might involve some painful sional philosophers often worry about There’s still much to say in philoso- self-questioning. their discipline’s lack of consensus and phy’s favor. Even its persistent state of progress, and I don’t know of any sin- ferment and dissensus (that is, wide- gle decisive response. However, there spread dissent) has benefits. Allow is some merit in a notion that I owe me to whisper that philosophy should Russell Blackford is a regular columnist for Free Inquiry. to the British philosopher Jonathan not be too quick to declare its large With Damien Broderick, he is the coeditor of Glover: progress in philosophy relates and existentially fraught questions set- Philosophy’s Future: The Problem of Philosophical to understanding the logical relation- tled—more or less officially—and thus Progress (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017). He holds a conjoint ships between beliefs. On Glover’s declare an academic orthodoxy. Phi- appointment in the School of Humanities and Social account, philosophical inquiry might losophy’s wariness of orthodoxies, and Science, University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia.

12 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org pay and improve working conditions is buzzwords prefixed with self- (es- OPHELIA BENSON a hard slog and tends to require phys- teem, -realization, -fulfillment, -ac- ical participation, while changing atti- tualization, -discovery), or for that OP-ED matter, that used the prefix so tudes is a matter of talk—a point made often its reproaches, as words like succinctly by the epithet “keyboard self-absorbed and self-involved, be- warriors.” A less obvious one is that came dramatically more frequent. eventually—if global warming doesn’t Whether or not the self was the only make “eventually” meaningless—we’ll thing on people’s minds, it was un- deniably a major focus of interest. Unplanned run out of new groups to “center” in our activism. The quest for the new I lived through the Me Decade, and Obsolescence Most Marginalized Group will come even then, in my starry-eyed gormless up empty; there will be no new team youth, I was repulsed by it. I was inter- ou know how utopia keeps never entering the Oppression Olympics. ested in too many things outside my arriving? How we keep thinking This may be the depressing logic self to waste time obsessing over the it’s going to, or at least that it’s of the consumerist demand for the inside of it. One’s own self is just too Y Latest Best Most Perfect Cause, along small, too finite, too enclosed to be getting closer, and then we suddenly get shoved backward a few miles and with the contemptuous or even hostile of much interest, and self-obsession is have to start all over again? dismissal of all the preceding “waves.” certainly no basis for politics. We need basic self-respect and It’s because people get bored so Feminism is on its fourth or fifth wave self-concern so as not to be run over easily. That new movement for social now, even while the third wave is still by the rest of the world, as Martha change that seemed so fresh and explaining to the second wave how Nussbaum explains in her lecture “The exciting when it started—to the next wrong it got everything. Feminist Critique of Liberalism”: generation it just seems like Mom’s It’s as if there is no politics really; social movement, and everyone knows there’s only an endless family drama, What does it really mean, then, to how boring and out of it Mom is … let with the woke kids rejecting the com- make the individual the basic unit for alone Granny. promised parents over and over and political thought? It means, first of over, like Sisyphus climbing up and all, that liberalism responds sharply Social movements go stale and to the basic fact that each person age out rapidly because humans have tumbling down and never turning off has a course from birth to death that such pathetically short attention spans. sideways to find a better path. is not precisely the same as that of Politics is subject to fashion like just But then what will happen when any other person; that each person about everything else we do or have— they run out of marginalized groups? is one and not more than one, that each feels pain in his or her own clothes, cooking, music, child-rearing; Will they have to make the criteria stricter so that people have to check body, that the food given to A does we like a style of thing for a while and not arrive in the stomach of B. … then it goes flat on us and we want a more and more boxes to qualify? Or [Liberalism] says that the fundamen- change, dammit. Churn or die. will they make marginalization the only tal entity for politics is a living body That sounds very frivolous, but what criterion, with the result that the new that goes from here to there, from birth to death, never fused with any can I say? We seem to be that frivolous. Most Oppressed will be people who are marginalized for good reasons: nar- other—that we are hungry and joyful We chase novelty as if it were a meal and loving and needy one by one, and we hadn’t eaten in a week. Thus cissists, bullies, and assorted assholes? however closely we may embrace the better world keeps receding over It seems unpleasantly likely that the Left one another. the horizon as our attention wanders will drift ever further into navel-gazing and explorations of the self, with all the Food for the family or the commu- to a new candidate for Wretched of nity thus has to be shared with every the Earth. attendant concerns over authenticity and validation and proliferating new individual; it’s no good just giving it to The ur-candidate, the working class, the biggest or the loudest. But once went out of fashion long ago. Well it identities that must be respected and included and centered, to the neglect we’re clear on that basic fact and what would, wouldn’t it—how can the work- it entails about human rights—that I of people battling more material forms ing class ever be fashionable? It hasn’t have them just as you do, and you of oppression. got the money. There’s nothing sexy have them just as I do—it’s time to It’s notorious that this happened about factories and mines, much less look past the self to a larger world. union dues and collective bargaining in the 1970s, in the wake of the Civil agreements. Hence the shift to identity Rights movement and the war in Viet- politics, where we get to talk about atti- nam. The linguist Geoffrey Nunberg, Ophelia Benson edits the Butterflies and Wheels tudes and language rather than wages in his book Ascent of the A-Word: website. She was formerly associate editor of and benefits. Assholism, The First Sixty Years, said of Philosopher’s Magazine and has coauthored several One obvious aspect of this shift this move: books, including The Dictionary of Fashionable (2004), (2006), and is that it makes things a lot easier for It’s safe to say that there has never Nonsense Why Truth Matters activists. Getting the bosses to raise been an age that had so many Does God Hate Women? (2009).

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 13 namely that ordinary people (at least timate connection between facts and SHADIA B. DRURY in a literate and secular society where values. OP-ED education means more than religious Philosophers have often denied indoctrination) have sufficient intelli- that there is such a connection. They gence and good will to make democ- insist that we cannot arrive at any racy a viable form of government. moral or evaluative conclusions from The election of 2016 was a case any given set of facts. Nevertheless, in point. Purveyors of fake news who acknowledging this falls short of say- The Silver Lining wanted people to prefer Donald Trump ing that there is no connection. As over Hillary Clinton for president had philosopher Philippa Foot has argued in Fake News to paint Clinton with the darkest brush- (in “Goodness and Choice,” Anthony strokes. They invented a story, among Flew [ed.], The Is/Ought Question), others, linking Clinton and her global the connection between facts and liberal elite with a worldwide racket values has everything to do with the of child pornography, child trafficking, nature of human choice. People are he pervasiveness of “fake news,” pedophilia, and satanic rituals. Refer- naturally inclined to choose the good or purposely fabricated stories, ences to “cheese pizza” in her hacked or the lesser evil. If the presidential Tmay lead us to despair of de- e-mails were deemed to be references election of 2016 is understood as a mocracy. After all, democracy assumes to child porn, since both start with the choice between vulgarity and criminal- that ordinary people have enough same letters. This fabricated story had ity, then there is no contest. Give us decency and common sense to make a tragic ending at the Comet Ping vulgarity—please! ethical and intelligent choices about Pong restaurant in Washington, D.C., The fact is that people are inclined how to govern their society when they named as one of the locations where to avoid evil, even if it means sacri- are informed of the relevant facts. the nefarious activities took place. On ficing their own interests to do so. Fake news obscures and perverts the December 4, 2016, a man armed with This explains why working-class and relevant facts. In this way, it cripples an assault rifle terrorized the owners middle-class people vote for the Re- people’s ability to make informed de- and clients at the Comet Ping Pong in publican Party—a party that makes no cisions. It would be a tragic irony if an effort to liberate the children. secret of serving the interests of the the Information Age turned out to be Purveyors of fake news know that wealthiest in society. Ordinary people the death knell of democracy—but it inventing and disseminating ugly vote Republican to affirm their reli- need not be. There is a silver lining “facts” about political opponents can gious values even when doing so is in the way that fabricated “informa- make people reluctant to vote for contrary to their economic interests, tion” functions. Far from supporting them, even if they agree with their as Thomas Frank argued in What’s the the naysayers who claim that ordinary policies and even if the policies are ad- Matter with Kansas? Even when Don- people are too ignorant and selfish for vantageous to them and their families. ald Trump—a crude, twice-divorced democracy, it underscores the most In other words, fake news is premised libertine—became the flag-bearer idealistic argument for democracy— on the recognition that there is an in- of the Republican Party, his running

“If the presidential election of 2016 is understood as a choice between vulgarity and criminality, then there is no contest. Give us vulgarity—please!”

14 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org mate, Mike Pence, convinced evan- they were addicted to fake news gelicals that God works in mysterious long before Trump ascended to the JAMES A. HAUGHT ways. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for Don- presidency. It is hard to sell a view of OP-ED ald Trump! government as the docile captive of In other words, people generally corporate power; it is hard to defend act in the way that J. J. Rousseau, the endless claims of the rich and one of the idealistic advocates of powerful; it is hard to rob the poor democracy, thought they should act. of health benefits so that the rich In voting, they do not simply ask: can have bigger tax cuts; it is hard I Question What is good for me? What serves my to defend foreign wars as a lucrative interests? Instead, they ask, What is business endeavor. In light of their good for our society? If people were agenda, it is easier for Republicans as fallen and as depraved as Chris- to manipulate the people than to ithout evidence, just as a tianity would have us believe, then persuade them. So, it is no wonder that they enthusiastically embraced hunch, many of us suspect they would not be fit for democracy that religious doubters are at all, whatever Christian apologists Fox News. W more intelligent than religious believ- may say. There is no reason to lament the loss of the “free media.” On the con- ers. Now, actual proof supports that So, if people are operating in assumption. a democracy the way they should, trary, we should embrace the post- truth world as a wake-up call. After Some sixty-three different psycho- then it is reasonable to wonder why logical research reports were analyzed American democracy is so dysfunc- all, the iconic freedom of speech en- shrined in the American Constitution in the scientific journal Personality and tional. There are many reasons for the Social Psychology Review. Authors dysfunction of American politics; the protects citizens only against govern- mental censorship, not against the concluded that the studies “showed success and prevalence of fake news a significant negative association be- is only one of them. Fake news ob- censorship of powerful groups, individuals, or corporations. Witness the tween intelligence and religiosity.” scures the important distinction be- “free press” in the run-up to the inva- In other words, supernatural believ- tween facts and perspectives. There sion of Iraq. They spoke in one voice, ers have lower IQs. Perhaps it means are no alternative facts, but there beating the drums of war. So, it is no that a higher IQ can stand for “I Ques- are alternative perspectives—indeed, wonder that they have been delegit- tion.” Doubters who question super- there is a plurality of legitimate per- imized as the “corporate media.” If natural claims are smarter. spectives. This is not to say that all the mainstream media is so free, why The researchers contend that av- perspectives are equal—this is why must we watch Russian or British news erage minds, operating mostly on debate is necessary. channels to hear the dissident voices thoughtless instinct, accept the in- Fake news is as averse to debate as of Americans such as Noam Chomsky visible gods proclaimed by their sur- it is to persuasion. It prefers to manip- and Chris Hedges? Not that they are rounding culture—but brighter minds, ulate people instead of persuading right, but their perspective is worthy impelled by scientific curiosity, have or informing them. To manipulate of debate. doubts. Perhaps the skeptics who people, it must rely on the tactics If the Information Age is to avoid called themselves “brights” were onto that liars have used immemorially— being the death knell of democracy, something. namely, to provide a false account of then disseminators of fake news must Similar findings were reported in the facts that would lead people to be prosecuted, money must be sepa- make decisions that they would not rated from the political process, the have made otherwise. Like liars of media must reassert its independence all stripes, the disseminators of fake from corporate interests, and Fox news realize that it is easier to manip- News must defend genuine conserva- ulate the facts on which human choice tive values instead of being the syco- relies than it is to argue for alternative phantic megaphone of Republican perspectives. It is easier to turn pol- administrations. itics into a struggle between good and evil than a competition between alternative conceptions of the good, because the latter requires argument and persuasion. There is, especially among Re- Shadia B. Drury is professor emerita at the University publicans, an unwillingness to de- of Regina in Canada. Her most recent book is The fend their perspective on the ends Bleak Political Implications of Socratic Religion of government, which explains why (Palgrave, 2017).

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 15 another journal, Evolutionary Psycho- “anti-religious.” logical Science, by Edward Dutton Psychology Today published a re- FAISAL SAEED of the Ulster Institute for Social Re- port titled “Why Atheists Are More AL MUTAR search and Dimitri Van der Linden of Intelligent than the Religious.” It said: Rotterdam University. They pointed Analyses of large representative OP-ED out that in Ancient Greece, skeptics samples from both the United often were called “wise” and reli- States and the United Kingdom gious believers called “fools.” Their support this prediction … that more intelligent individuals are study was cited in the May 18 News- more likely to be atheistic than Enlightenment in week, which said: “Atheists tend to less-intelligent individuals. For be more intelligent than religious example, among the American the Arab World 2.0 people because they are able to sample, those who identify themselves as “not at all religious” rise above the natural instinct to be- in early adulthood have a mean lieve in a god or gods. ... Having a childhood I.Q. of 103, whereas higher intelligence, [the researchers] those who identify themselves as n ninth-century Arabia, caliph Harron say, allows people to override these “very religious” in early adult- Al Rashid of the Abbasid caliphate instincts and engage in more ratio- hood have a mean childhood I.Q. of 97. established a private venue called nal, and therefore enhanced, prob- I Bayt Al Hikma (the House of Wisdom). Well, six points of intelligence lem-solving behavior.” A few years later his son formalized it isn’t huge, but it’s a gap. and started bringing scientists from all Stop and think: What kind of over the world of different religions and people would believe that an in- ethnicities to come to Baghdad (which visible Shiva wants people to pray also happens to be my hometown). over models of his erect penis, or “I think most people There they studied science, logic, and that mass-murdering “martyrs” will the humanities, as well as translated think it is rational to be be rewarded by dark-eyed virgins in and preserved important works from an atheist.” heaven, or that the “Rapture” soon different languages. will pit armies of Satan against armies —researcher Dr. Edward Dutton Bayt Al Hikma represents a major of Jesus, or that an angel named Mo- center of scholarship as well as a sym- roni revealed golden plates to Mor- bol of the Islamic Golden Age and the mon church founder Joseph Smith in Newsweek quotes Dr. Dutton: “I scientific revolution that unfolded there New York and then took them back think most people think it is rational at the time. to heaven? to be an atheist.” The Abbasid caliphate also had its Supernatural claims of religion Controversial British-Irish psy- “what happened?” situation that led hardly suit intelligent people. chologist Richard Lynn wrote in the to its fall, but we cannot deny that the journal Intelligence that skeptics are Further Reading Golden Age it helped to engender is an smarter. He noted that university Attwood, R. 2008. “High I.Q. Turns Academ- era worth reviving. professors and top figures in scien- ics into Atheists.” Times Higher Education Let’s look at what is happening in the tific societies generally doubt the (June 12). Dutton, E., and D. Van der Linden. 2017. “Why Arab world today. supernatural. He told Times Higher is Intelligence Negatively Associated with As of 2002, the total number of Education magazine: “Why should Religiousness?” Evolutionary Psychological books translated into Arabic in the last Science (May 16): 1–12. one thousand years is fewer than those fewer academics believe in God than Kanazawa, S. 2010. “Why Atheists Are More In- the general population? I believe it is telligent Than the Religious.” Psychology translated into Spanish in one year. simply a matter of the I.Q. Academics Today (April 12). There is little reason to suppose this Lynn, R. 2008. “The decline of the world’s IQ.” has changed.1 It is the result of many have higher I.Q.s than the general Intelligence 36: 112–120. population. Several Gallup poll stud- Osborne, H. 2017. “Atheists More Intelligent factors, but one major factor is that au- ies of the general population have Because They Can Override ‘Instinctive’ thoritarian dictators in the region want Religious Beliefs—But it Will Be Their shown that those with higher I.Q.s to keep the people over whom they Downfall.” Newsweek (May 18). rule as ignorant of facts as possible, so tend not to believe in God.” Zuckerman, M., J. Silberman, and J. Hall. 2013. it will be easier to control them. He said most primary school chil- “The Relation Between Intelligence and Religiosity.” Personality and Social Psychol- But things are changing because of dren believe in God—but he said ogy Review 17, no 4 (August 6): 325–354. the Internet. The Internet has the pos- their intelligence increases in adoles- cence and many develop religious doubts. James A. Haught is editor emeritus of West Virginia’s 1. From the Arab Human Development Report 2002, issued by the United Nations Develop- Some fellow scholars branded largest newspaper, the Charleston Gazette-Mail, and ment Programme (UNDP). http://www.econo- Lynn’s report as “simplistic” and is a senior editor of Free Inquiry. mist.com/node/1213392.

16 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org sibility of bringing the Enlightenment years compared to a global average of teach people the importance of liter- to the Arab world in the same way 28,” notes YouthPolicy.org.4 acy and reading books;6 and to other the printing press did for the West. Many of these young people are amazing projects that are translating This view is affirmed by secular activist looking online for answers to satisfy English and French books, articles, Maryam Namazie: “The Internet is their curious minds, disillusioned by and videos into Arabic.7 doing to Islam what the printing press the “knowledge” they are fed by their For those of you who view the did in the past to Christianity. Social rulers and their fundamentalist allies. Muslim world purely from a security media has not only given countless And their search is bearing encourag- perspective, and if you view the War young people access to ‘forbidden’ ing fruit. on Terror as first and foremost an ideo- ideas and allowed them a space to logical conflict between extremist or- express themselves where none ex- thodoxy and Enlightenment, then sup- isted—but it has also helped them porting Bayt Al Hikma 2.0 will be the find each other, share their stories and best way to achieve that goal. Even see that they are not alone.”2 better, if its goals are reached, the Up to 175 million Arab-speakers “Bayt Al Hikma Arab people will benefit greatly from it use the Internet, many of whom are represents … a symbol for their own sake. fairly active users and connected on social media.3 While the Internet still of the Islamic Golden Age reaches less than 50 percent of the and the scientific total Arab population, many of the revolution that unfolded users are young and perhaps more 6. https://www.facebook.com/aqraanaaqra/ open than their elders to new ideas. there at the time.” 7. Terry Firma, “The Arabic Translation of The “In the Arab countries’ populations, God Delusion Has Reportedly Been Down- young people are the fastest-growing loaded 10 Million Times.” Patheos.com, May 11, 2106. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/ segment, some 60 percent of the pop- For example, online projects have friendlyatheist/2016/05/11/the-arabic-trans- ulation is under 25 years old, making been launched by Arab youth to teach lation-of-the-god-delusion-has-reportedly- this one of the most youthful regions people about the theory of evolu- been-downloaded-10-million-times/. in the world, with a median age of 22 tion;5 to link local groups in Iraq that

Faisal Saeed Al Mutar is an Iraqi-born human 2. Maryam Namazie, “Islam’s Non-believers.” 4. YouthPolicy.org, “Middle East and North rights activist and president of the newly launched October 17, 2016. http://maryamnamazie Africa: Youth Facts.” http://www.youthpol organization Ideas Beyond Borders (IBB). The com/islams-non-believers/. icy.org/mappings/regionalyouthscenes/ mission of IBB is to promote the free exchange of 3. “Internet World Stats.com, Arabic Speaking mena/facts/. ideas and defend human rights to counter Internet Users Statistics.” http://www.internet- 5. https://www.facebook.com/TheTheory- worldstats.com/stats19.htm. OfEvolution/ extremist narratives and authoritarian institutions.

Free Inquiry Welcomes New Managing Editor

of Free Inquiry and Skeptical Inquirer readers in Free Inquiry. She has al- magazines. When Andrea Szalanski ways had an interest in religion and stepped down after thirty-four years alternative life stance perspectives. as managing editor of Free Inquiry, Scott even left a well-paying job to Scott was the natural choice for suc- pursue her career in editing, as it has cessor, despite the large shoes she been her passion for over fifteen would be filling. Scott, who holds a years. When she’s not wrestling with BA in Journalism from Buffalo State run-on sentences and dangling College, hopes to bring her three-Cs modifiers or chasing her “divali- Nicole Scott has been named the philosophy of editing (clear, concise, cious” one-year-old around the and consistent) to the managerial house, Scott enjoys cooking, danc- new managing editor of Free Inquiry helm of Free Inquiry. While new to ing, and cheering on the Buffalo magazine. For the past three years, the secular humanist community, Bills. Nicole Scott resides in Buffalo Nicole Scott has been managing Scott looks forward to bringing a with her wife and their one-year-old editor of CFI’s newsletter The Amer- fresh—and dare we say young—per- daughter. This is the inaugural issue ican Rationalist and assistant editor spective to the content delivered to in her new role.

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 17 LOOKING BACK

35 Years Ago in Free Inquiry

“Incredible as it may seem, 1983 has been proclaimed the ‘Year of the Bible.’ Both the Senate and the House passed such a resolution and Presi- dent Reagan signed the proclamation on October 4. “The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States declares that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion.’ Yet this resolution declares that the Bible is ‘the Word of God,’ and it was approved ‘in recognition of both the formative influence the Bible has been for our Nation and our national need to study and apply the teachings of the Holy Scriptures.’ Is the Congress qualified to declare the Bible the ‘Word of God’ when biblical scholars find this claim debatable? In what sense should the government of the United States recommend the national study and application of the ‘Holy Scriptures’? Does this not tend to establish a state religion (a Judeo-Christian one) in violation of the Constitution?”

—Paul Kurtz, “1983—The Year of the Bible,” Free Inquiry, Volume 3, No. 1 (Winter 1982–1983)

Editor’s Note: Paul Kurtz (1925–2012) was founding editor of Free Inquiry and founder of the Council for Secular Humanism and the Center for In- quiry. Yes, he slightly misquoted the First Amendment.

25 Years Ago in Free Inquiry

“The irony of A Common Faith is that Dewey’s passion for unity caused him to create his own dualisms. The difference between ‘religious’ and ‘religion’ is not as distinct as he would have it. How does one separate religious impulses from the practice of religions? Are such impulses universal, or do they pertain solely to the institutions through which they are expressed? This is by no means clear. And isn’t it rather presumptuous of Dewey to call for the world’s great religions to give up their supernatural outlooks, when such outlooks are often their raison d’être? Is Dewey’s call for a natural religious movement itself a futile hope—an unrealizable ideal? Certainly the religious humanist movement, as expressed by The Humanist Manifesto I, which he both signed and supported, has not exactly set the world on fire. It has most definitely not become a common faith.”

—Timothy J. Madigan, “John Dewey and A Common Faith,” Free Inquiry, Volume 13, No. 1 (Winter 1992–1993)

Editor’s Note: Timothy J. Madigan was the second editor of Free Inquiry, succeeding Paul Kurtz as editor while Kurtz became Editor-in-Chief. Madi- gan continued as editor for many years, being succeeded by Lewis Vaughn with the Spring 1999 issue. Madigan was looking back on humanist philosopher John Dewey’s book A Common Faith (1934), which sought to legiti- mize a social role for religion independent of supernaturalism, a project that religious Humanists have often considered a signal success, while secular humanists have tended to view it as Dewey’s most puzzling failure.

18 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org LETTERS

of the carefree, exuberant, innocent naturalism. I fully agree with his OPHELIA BENSON Populism and Its Discontents Art, Blasphemy, and Humanism life experience of being a child. seven points, which I hold have CELEBRATING REASON AND HUMANITY October/November 2017 Vol. 37 No .6 How so? It was the visceral mo- arisen from a “natural” human un- As always, I really enjoyed the ment in my life when the ultimate derstanding of one’s place in the October/November 2017 issue of question arose (which I remember existence that we find ourselves in. the magazine. Its devotional con- as clearly today as when it hap- Mr. Law’s conclusions as well tent (to blasphemy) puzzled me. In pened): “If I’m going to die one day as The Affirmations of Humanism: a sense, it was similar to seeing an then why am I here to begin with?” A Statement of Principles by Paul issue of Chemistry Today devoted That, my friends, is the ques- Kurtz, which appear inside the cover to phlogiston. tion that has launched religions of each edition of Free Inquiry, are as ART, BLASPHEMY, AND HUMANISM Pat Oleszko | Bruce Adams | Sara Ali | John Roberts I have long thought that “blas- and philosophies since we humans much a philosophy of humanism as The Fight for Our Philosophy, Part 2 were our most primal ancestors. Susan Haack | Stephen Law | John W. Loftus phemy” is impossible in a secular there ever can be. There is no men-

O/N 17 $5.95 CDN O $/N5 .1975 US $5.95 CDN $5.95 US For me, it began a four-decade Russell Blackford | Shadia B. Drury 111 country, in a country where there is, Greta Christina | Joe Nickell | James A. Haught tion of the supernatural thus mak-

0 74470 74957 8 quest for “truth.” And in those forty 0 74470 74957 8 Published by the Center for Inquiry in association with the Council for Secular Humanism or should be, or used to be, a solid ing them a “natural” philosophy, wall between church and state. years I have studied Christianity yet not in the sense of the articles. (my birth religion), Judaism, Ca- While I believe the United Does one automatically fol- tholicism, Mormonism, Atheism, Monotheism States should be open to eager low the other considering that immigrants of all races, creeds, eth- Humanism, Buddhism, Zen Bud- I agree with Shadia Drury’s main The Affirmations of Humanism: nicities, and colors, I also believe dhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Dzog- points about monotheism (“The A Statement of Principles omits it needs to be explicitly expressed chen, Meher Baba, Hare Krishna, Blight of Monotheism, FI, October/ reference to the supernatural and to all who come here that, while Advaita Vedanta, philosophies, November 2017); however, I’m a bit thus is a “natural” philosophy, yet they are free, within broad limits, and maybe some more “isms” that perplexed by her assertions about one that originally arises such as to practice the religion of their I am forgetting (and be mindful Socrates’s beliefs concerning God my experience at age eleven and choosing, they will encounter, vir- that there was no Internet in those (or the gods) and moral behavior. not in any way as an opposite of tually daily, some idea, image, or early years so I actually went to li- She states that Socrates “believed something else, some other idea? words, that they would consider braries and bookstores!). I tried that the alliance of religion with I think that one point Mr. Law blasphemous within their faith. some on along the way, as well. morality would provide the latter What I am getting at is the makes is critical to the humanist Tough and too bad—that’s the cause: “There are plenty of people with invaluable support.” If I’m not price of admission to this nation. “philosophy of naturalism” as I mistaken, she is saying that Socrates have experienced it in my sojourn whom we should be welcoming to Fred Glienna secular humanism who will be point- believes that we need religion to tell Pasadena, California upon this planet thus far. I lean us right from wrong. toward rewriting it a bit as it’s pre- lessly excluded by the requirement Plato’s Euthyphro, thought to be sented in the two issues mentioned that they sign up to naturalism.” one of his earlier dialogues, shows at the beginning of this piece. I hold that Mr. Kurtz’s Affirma- that Socrates believes morality is For me, that “ultimate” question of Humanism and Mr. Law’s arrived at through reason. The Eut- Fight for Our Philosophy tion of “If I’m going to die one Very Short Introduction to Human- hyphro presents two alternatives to day, then why am I here?” was ism are both sufficient in themselves the determination of morality: A) Do I have read with great interest and the very birth of philosophy in my to welcoming the curious into the enjoyment the August/Septem- the gods approve because it is mor- young mind and was a “natural” humanist family. We might do well ber 2017 and October/November ally right? Or B) is it morally right be- arising of the inquiry. In this man- to be careful that desires to pontif- 2017 issues regarding The Fight cause the gods approve? If A, then ner it was the birth of a “natural icate on points of minutiae don’t for Our Philosophy, Parts 1 and 2. philosophy”; a pure philosophy. we have determined, through rea- confuse what is really a basic and I wish to begin my comments In the articles of the August/ son, right from wrong. If B, then one very natural manner in which to view regarding these articles with a per- September and October/Novem- must ask: On what basis do the gods the human condition and existence. sonal story. ber issues, the term naturalists is approve? Are the gods arbitrarily We Homo sapiens are humanists When I was eleven years old used in opposition to supernatu- deciding, making us mortals totally by default as well as atheists. We (fifty-one years ago), I was riding in ralists. They speak of methodolog- dependent on the gods to deter- are the basic operating system as the family station wagon on the way ical naturalism and philosophical mine right from wrong? Or are the we are born before outside forces to grandma’s house for Sunday din- naturalism. The former is charac- begin adding accessories and apps. gods using reason—in which case, ner when it suddenly struck me that terized that “science should work of course, we don’t need the gods We must continue to strive to I was going to die one day. Some- on the assumption that there is welcome with open arms all who to make those determinations for us. how it had never occurred to me up only the natural,” and the latter inquire and gently offer what- Is it possible that Plato’s views until this point that I would cease to states that “there is only the nat- ever guidance we can not to in- changed in his later dialogues? be. Now, I understood that people ural (whatever that is, exactly).” fluence but to allow exploration That Socrates the man was not died and merely wrote it off to bad In the October/November 2017 by seekers who dare look under the monotheist that Prof. Drury luck: accidents, sickness, or suicide. issue, Stephen Law, in the article the rug of indoctrinations into the describes? One can only surmise, Yet when I came to the realization “Must Humanists Be Naturalists?,” world of their true and real selves. since it is unlikely we will ever dis- of my own eventual demise it was presents his characterization of Ricky Ferdon entangle Socrates the man from the most impactful moment in my humanism from his Very Short In- Plato’s character in the dialogues. young life to date. As well, it was troduction to Humanism (Oxford South Carolina Frank Strada the death of my childhood. When I University Press, 2011) in seven Overland Park, Kansas state that, I mean that it was the end issues that have no mention of (Continued on p. 65)

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 19 How to Raise Cult-Bait

Joanne Hanks with Steve Cuno

here’s an art to knowing when “tell me about your- if not most stick around willingly, firm in the belief that theirs self” means “tell me about yourself.” Sometimes it is the right path. Tmeans, “Since we’re both standing here raiding the What may be a tad harder to understand is someone crackers and brie at a boring party where no one knows who grows up outside a polygamist cult and, upon hearing anyone, perhaps we could try filling the awkward silence that God wants her husband to add a bunch more wives, with awkward chitchat.” So, I try to keep things light. “I’m says, “Sign me up.”5 an interior designer,” I reply. “I have two daughters, two Seventeen years have passed since we ended our cats, one dog. And I paint. Acrylics.” Only if pressed for seven-year stint as members of The True and Living Church more do I add, “When I was thirty-two, my now ex-husband of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days, which the Lord in and I joined a Mormon-based polygamist cult. I believe you his infinite mercy allowed us to abbreviate as “the TLC.” dropped your cracker.”1 That’s seventeen years I’ve had to regret the effect that liv- It’s not hard to understand why people raised in reli- ing in the cult surely had on my then nine- and ten-year-old gious cults remain in them. Practices and beliefs that are daughters; seventeen years to rue lost opportunities in per- weird to you are normal, even virtuous, to them. Many have sonal growth, career, and friendships with non-delusional no choice but to remain: The FLDS,2 Scientologists, and people; and seventeen years that the woman staring back others have been known to pursue and bring back defec- at me from the mirror has continually chided, What the hell tors by any means, legal or not.3 Others remain for fear of were you thinking? damnation, curses, or other supernatural threats.4 But many I tell her I knew exactly what I was thinking. I was thinking how cool it was that, out of Earth’s billions of inhabi- 1. “Mormon” is a nickname for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- tants, our little group of some two hundred souls living in day Saints and its members. The church publicly renounced polyga- tiny Manti, Utah,6 had The Truth; that in the hereafter, my my in 1890 under pressure from the U.S. Government while allowing husband could become a god and I one of his priestesses; the practice to ebb away under the radar over several decades. To that our odds of attaining that exalted state improved with the modern church’s chagrin, polygamist splinter groups persist, and the media tend to refer to all of them as “Mormon.” When the 2002 Winter Olympics focused media attention on Utah, the church tried to that we would be “cursed with black skin” and become the “seed of distance itself from splinter groups by asking journalists to avoid “Mor- Cain,” whom until June of 1978 Mormon doctrine regarded as the mon” in favor of the church’s full name. You can imagine how well that ancestor of “the Negro race.” I admit with regret that growing up Mor- worked. Facing the reality that there was no shaking the nickname, the mon and later in the TLC I had bought into that odious dogma. I also church next tried to trademark “Mormon,” as if adding the ® symbol admit that for a few weeks after leaving the flock I checked daily to see would make anyone take heed. The United States Patent and Trade- if my skin had begun darkening. I no longer believe in curses, unless mark Office declined the church’s application. you count how easily my pasty white shoulders burn at the slightest 2. Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. hint of sun. 3. That is, female defectors are pursued. Boys and men who leave 5. It’s only sort-of true to say I grew up outside a polygamist cult. The the FLDS are condemned but not pursued, for the practical reason mainstream Mormon Church, in which I grew up, discontinued po- that their departure leaves more women for the men who remain. Law lygamy in the early twentieth century but remains a polygamist cult enforcement is obliged to cooperate with parents, including polyga- in spirit: It defends its early polygamy as divinely mandated, reserves mists, in returning underage children to them. the right to reinstate polygamy should God so command, and teaches 4. The True and Living Church (TLC) members were neither violent nor that men have multiple wives in the hereafter. Moreover, even without threatening. When my husband and I left, our prophet confined him- polygamy, other practices of the Mormon Church qualify it as a cult. self to pronouncing a curse upon us. He told his horror-stricken flock 6. About dead-center in the state, 124 miles south of Salt Lake City.

20 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org every wife we brought to the party (so to speak); that Jesus than one legitimate use. You can call any small group a was going to kick off the apocalypse by coming to Manti “cult,” refer to an offbeat movie as a “cult film,” or say that on March 25, 2000; that on that day, all non-TLC members Katy Perry has a “cult following.” These are all valid uses, would be burned as stubble; and that, having worked up an and, with the possible exception of what Katy Perry fandom appetite with all that stubble-burning, Jesus and his angels reveals about one’s musical taste, such “cults” are arguably would stay for dinner. For the occasion, I baked cookies. harmless.9 Hundreds of them. The last thing you want is to come up The kind of cult I’m talking about is in no way harmless. empty-handed when, dabbing their lips with their napkins, I’m talking about the kind that dictates your identity, what Jesus and all those angels ask, “So, what’s for dessert?” you will think, and how you will act, all to an absurd level of When I had taken all the chiding I could stand, I sug- intrusion. Psychiatrist Robert J. Lifton characterized cults as gested to the woman in the mirror that instead of asking having “… a charismatic leader who increasingly becomes what I was thinking, it might be more useful to ask how I an object of worship … coercive persuasion or thought came to think it. She conceded the point, and together we reform … [and] economic, sexual, and other exploitation set out to uncover how I grew up to become cult-bait. I knew that environment, including my upbringing, couldn’t be solely responsible. Most people with a similar background don’t just up and join polygamist cults. Nor could I lay all the blame on any innate wimpiness I may have brought with me from the womb, for not every wimp ups and joins a polygamist cult either.7 I suspected the answer lay in a chaotic system of innateness and environment duk- “What may be a tad harder to under- ing it out. But without access to my cerebral software code, stand is someone who grows up outside I had no choice but to limit my inquiry to environment. In my post-cult years, I had stumbled upon books and a polygamist cult and, upon hearing that articles by scientific and skeptical authors, so I was able to God wants her husband to add a bunch embark on my research a little better informed than in my more wives, says, ‘Sign me up.’” younger days.8 In particular I studied magazines such as Free Inquiry, Skeptical Inquirer, and Skeptic; and books such as Michael Shermer’s Why People Believe Weird Things and Festinger, Riecken, and Schachter’s When Prophecy Fails. If you can imagine, I found those resources a good deal more illuminating than the Bible, the Book of Mormon, of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.”10 and even the TLC’s prophet. Neurologist Steven Novella, president of the New England Skeptical Society, points out that it is not beliefs but behav- There Are Cults, and There Are Cults iors that identify cults and lists five: totalitarian control, se- The deeper I dug, the more I realized that neither polyg- crecy, separation, mind control, and a self-contained belief amists nor religion in general has a monopoly on cultish system where leaders have “… perfect authority and exclu- thinking and behaviors. For a taste of nonreligious cultish sive knowledge …” and “… are never to be questioned.”11 organizations or movements, you need only say “tell me The above is a recipe for getting people to do the ludi- more” to someone deep into the likes of Amway, Mary crous—such as the time my husband rented an airplane to Kay Cosmetics, The Secret, the Paleo Diet, neuro-linguis- sprinkle consecrated olive oil over our little town to protect tic programming, conspiracy theories, Suzanne Somers, it from the coming apocalypse—or the heinous, such as Deepak Chopra, or any political extreme. Moreover, not the time Jim Jones persuaded 909 people to commit mur- every religion is a cult. Many are eminently non-cultish in der-suicide.12 that they allow personal freedom of thought and behavior, Some groups or movements are more cultish than oth- Unitarian Universalism being a prime example. (What do ers, so it’s helpful to think in terms of degrees of cultishness you get when you cross a Mormon with a Unitarian Univer- rather than cult or not-cult. As Novella put it, “… if we salist? Someone who knocks on your door for no particular choose our list of cult characteristics, then we can assess reason.) any group or institution and check off which ones they pos- One of the more insidious aspects of cults is that cult is not so easily defined. Nor does it help that cult has more 9. Some people confuse cult with occult. They’re not helping. 10. http://www.csj.org/studyindex/studycult/study_lifton2.htm. 7. My daughters dubbed me a “lawn chair” because I “fold so easily.” 11. Steven Novella, “The Cult Demarcation Problem.” http://theness. 8. My ex-husband, not so much. He showed more of a fondness for com/neurologicablog/index.php/the-cult-demarcation-problem/. pseudoscience and multilevel marketing. But then, he’s a chiropractor. 12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown.

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 21 sess. The more they have, the more of a cult they are.”13 and others along a little at a time. Just how far you succeed My desire to unravel my upbringing gave way to a sense in nudging will vary with your skill and persistence; the in- of mission. Maybe if I shared my story I could help one or fluence of peers, media, and relatives; other environmental two cult followers wake up and leave, coax a prospective factors; and individual nudgeability.15 victim back from the precipice, offer outsiders a little insight, and suggest ways we can avoid unwittingly instilling 1. Accept that you’re not smart enough to make your own or reinforcing cultish thinking. Trouble is, people get testy decisions. Cults can lift quite the burden if you’re looking at the slightest suggestion of reexamining their thinking for someone to tell you what to believe, how to act, what and actions. If you don’t believe me, here’s an experiment to wear, whom to befriend, how to vote, what to eat, and you can try. Walk up to a stranger with kids and say, “I’d like more. to tell you a few things you might be doing wrong as a par- As a Mormon female born in the 1960s, I grew up un- ent.” Note: The aforementioned experiment is not recom- derstanding that my top priority was to snag, bag, and tag mended. If you proceed, do not send me the hospital bill.14 a man and then to obey, obey, obey him.16 I was on the Which is why I’m not going to presume to warn you brink of old-maid status when I lucked into a husband, so no way was I going let go of him. When polygamy looked his way and called out “yoo-hoo,” I convinced myself I needed to support him. He was the man. He held the Mor- mon priesthood. He knew best. Not that you need to be Mormon to abdicate decision-making. Just make a habit of saying to yourself or your “The deeper I dug, the more I realized kids things such as, “Who are you to ask why?” or “What that neither polygamists nor religion makes you think you know better than your parent/teacher/ in general has a monopoly on cultish older sibling/church leader?” And always let others step in and solve your problems rather than risk personal growth thinking and behaviors.” from facing them on your own.

2. There’s nothing quite so humbling as superiority. Mor- mons grow up believing they’re special. They were chosen about how to avoid unwittingly instilling cultish thinking and before the foundation of the world to be members of the behaviors. Instead, I’m going to share a few tips on how to only true church.17 They are called to be missionaries and instill cultish thinking and behaviors on purpose. If your life’s an example to the world. People admire them for their dream is to become or to raise prime cult-bait, the next “standards,” such as the daily grueling effort they put into section is for you. not drinking coffee. Mormon or not, understanding that you’re more Ten Tips for Creating Cult-Bait “sighted” than other mere mortals prepares you to dis- Prepare to be unimpressed at first blush. Cultish thinking is qualify their warnings about going off the deep end. It’s not in many ways no more than normal, everyday thinking on your fault they lack the sense to see that Neil Armstrong steroids. The distance between a parent’s at-times reason- didn’t walk on the moon, that the latest awful-tasting an- able “do as I say” and a cult’s unreasonable “never ques- tioxidant cures everything from ingrown toenails to bad tion the leader” is vast, but between them lies a continuum, sitcoms, or that you’re only doing what Jesus would do. not a gulf. I didn’t wake up one morning and say, “I think You have the inside scoop. You have vision. Anyone who I’ll throw in with a bunch of loonies and round up additional disagrees is uninformed, duped, or a tool of the devil. wives for my husband to bed.” I baby-stepped from a socially acceptable absurdity (Jesus will return) to the next, 3. Can’t turn back now. Demanding undue commitments only slightly more arcane one (his first stop will be Manti, of time, effort, and cash enriches cult leaders, but it also Utah), and so forth, until in time I stood comfortably atop a mountain of absurdities (Why, yes, I am all for sharing my 15. Nudgeability really is a word. As of now. husband with that unjustly endowed woman half my age) 16. In 1995, the Mormon Church issued and still stands by the rath- and thought the view from up there was nothing short of er presumptuously titled, “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.” splendid (Am I a model stalwart or what?). Among others, the proclamation contains this gem: “By divine So don’t be put off by the seeming simplicity of the fol- design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righ- teousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and lowing tips. Creating cult-bait is all about nudging yourself protection for their families.” https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng&old=true. 13. Novella, op. cit. 17. The Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of 14. Don’t send it to Free Inquiry, either. Latter-day Saints 1:30.

22 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org cements loyalty. That’s because the deeper people invest 6. The cult is all you need. You need never look outside the in folly, the more loath they are to consider they might have cult for advice, answers, or fulfillment. Should you ever feel been taken. For a demonstration, ask the proud owner of a question hasn’t been adequately answered or your needs a new pair of $400 name-brand sunglasses why an identi- haven’t been met, the problem isn’t the cult; it’s you. Your cal $25 knock-off pair isn’t as good. Chances are you’ll be question is inappropriate or irrelevant, your need is selfish, treated to a lively round of post-purchase rationalization.18 or you’re not truly living the cult’s principles. So, go ahead. Hand over an obscene amount of money You might begin conditioning yourself by eschewing to Gwyneth Paltrow,19 steam what she tells you to steam,20 expertise. Expert is shorthand for someone who doesn’t and insert what she tells you to insert.21 When friends and know what anyone with common sense knows, which is doctors call you nuts, do not back down. It will be great not at all circular, and which explains why so-called experts practice for someday defending mortgaging your home so continually challenge What You Know to Be True. Also, you can to afford to rehabilitate your thetan.22

4. Don’t be such an ingrate. With the exception of lobbyists, no one does gifts of obligation better than cult members. In a practice critics call “love-bombing,” cultists shower prospects with time, attention, gifts, favors, assistance, and beguiling praise. To be fair, their motivation may be more “Some people confuse cult with altruistic than devious—most cultists, after all, believe what they preach—but the effect is the same: abandon or disap- occult. They’re not helping.” point them, and you’ll feel like scum. To prepare for a wonderful cult experience, begin now by embracing concepts like “calling in a favor,” “you owe me,” “after all I’ve done for you,” and “I mustn’t disappoint tune out the news media, which will only depress you and anyone, even if it means doing what I’d rather not.” make you doubt. You can’t trust reporters anyway. They all work for Big Pharma, Big Climate Change, Big Atheism, Big 5. Trust US not THEM. Having mastered humble superior- Medicine, or Monsanto. ity, refusing to turn back, and not being an ingrate, you’re ready to hunker down with your tribe and see outsiders for 7. Cultivate a persecution complex. There is nothing more who they really are: the enemy. Well-intended or not, they validating than persecution. After all, “… so persecuted will try to pry you away. Family and friends on the outside they the prophets which were before you.”24 Never mind are a negative influence best kept at several arms’ length. that “you must be right” follows from “you’re persecuted” To prepare, understand that it will always be them in much the same way that “people will love your haircut” against us. To better avoid people who don’t see things follows from “cars have tires.” your way, develop ways to pick us out of a crowd of them. Real persecution exists, but I caution against seeking it. Want to know who else in the room is a Chopra fan? Casu- There’s no point getting your head lopped off when simply ally mention “cosmic consciousness” and watch for some- getting someone to tell you to shut the hell up will suffice. one to shoot you a nod. If you’re Mormon, look for the It’s not that hard to arrange. You might meet friends at a outline of sacred underwear.23 To pick out fellow Christian steakhouse, order a salad, and rhapsodize about vegan- Scientists, mention not believing in medicine. Soon you’ll ism. Or, visit a vegan restaurant and rhapsodize about filet have enough peeps that you can rest safe from the influ- mignon. You might lecture coffee-dependent coworkers ence of real friends with their damnable broad horizons. on the evils of caffeine25 as they quaff their umpteenth mug, pick on bottle-feeding or breastfeeding moms (your choice), or take an opposing view in a conversation about guns. You’ll soon be wailing “I’m soooo persecuted!” with 18. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choice-supportive_bias. the best of the martyrs. 19. No way am I going to provide a link to her page. 20. Hint: It’s between the legs, and if you’re male, chances are you don’t have one. 8. Keep secrets. Those necktie-bedecked, doorbell-ringing 21. On second thought, don’t. Mormon proselytizers never open with “We’d like to tell 22. Thetans bear a strong resemblance to nothing at all. Scientology you about special underwear and take 10 percent of your founder L. Ron Hubbard defined thetans as: “… having no mass, no gross earnings.” Nor do Jehovah’s Witnesses lead with “No wave-length, no energy, no measurable qualities and no time or loca- tion in space except by consideration or postulate. The spirit is not a more birthday parties for the kids.” thing. It is the creator of things.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thetan. 23. I advise discretion when checking for a physical sign setting apart 24. KJV, Matthew 5:12. Jewish men. 25. Good luck finding any.

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 23 Follow their lead. It is not—repeat, not—that your beliefs invented by priests for the purpose of defending doctrines and practices are weird enough to scare off anyone with half not able to take care of themselves.”30 Exactly! Your cult’s the reasoning skills of a bell pepper. It is that newbies must nutty beliefs and behaviors need your help. Allowing peo- learn to crawl before they can walk. And by that, I most em- ple to speak ill will only hamper it in its glorious mission. No phatically do not mean waiting until they’re ensconced before wonder Mormon Apostle Dallin H. Oaks quite reasonably showing your cards. Don’t be so cynical. pointed out in a 2007 PBS interview, “It’s wrong to criticize Learn to evade. Try answers like “It’s hard to say” or leaders of the church, even if the criticism is true.”31 “That’s not important right now.” You might even add a touch Until you’re ready to throw in with a cult, practice by of shaming: “That’s too personal,” “How dare you ask me summoning righteous indignation at the least amount of that?” or “Don’t you have anything better to think about?” criticism of a teacher, parent, Elvis, iPhones, Vani Hari, any U.S. president, Oprah, or lululemon. For a real challenge, 9. Learn to live with cognitive dissonance. Sometimes a try defending George Lucas for having come up with Jar cult’s claims may appear not to add up. Lucky for the cult, Jar Binks. adherents bear the responsibility of denying cognitive dissonance. From Here Mormons, for instance, have no trouble with the fact These days the woman in the mirror shows me a bit more that when the Book of Mormon says Native Americans are empathy. The continuum between normal and cultish think- Israelites, it no longer means that Native Americans are Is- ing can shrink and blur. Taking what might be otherwise raelites, and the reinterpretation merely coincided with but harmless thinking to the extreme can sneak up on the best was in no way caused by DNA discoveries.26 Mormons are of us. fine with knowing that in 1843 you couldn’t get to heaven For whatever convergence of reasons, I was prime cult- unless you were a polygamist27 and now you can’t get to bait. Had I taken a moment to breathe and think, perhaps heaven if you are a polygamist.28 By the time I was an adult, I’d have found the wherewithal to scream, “Stop everything! nothing had to make sense for me to believe it. This is crazy!” But then, did I even have the wherewithal to With a little work, you too can believe things that make breathe and think? Beats me. All I know is that I’m grateful no sense. You might begin by aspiring to mathematically that my daughters and I are out. impossible success in a multilevel marketing scheme,29 I hope I have provided a glimpse into how someone insisting that Jenny McCarthy knows better than immunol- might become cult-bait. The more of the above-listed be- ogists, or arguing that carbon doesn’t retain heat. haviors you embrace, and the more fiercely you defend them, the better prepared you’ll be to sign up when some- 10. Tolerate no criticism of the cult or its leaders. “This one offers you salvation, the happiness secret du jour, or the crime called blasphemy,” Robert Green Ingersoll said, “was financial opportunity of a lifetime. If you ignore everything I’ve advised and never awake to 26. Until 2007, the Book of Mormon introduction claimed that a rem- find yourself standing comfortably atop a mountain of absur- nant of Israelites who had sailed to the Americas in 600 BCE were “… dities, don’t come whining to me. I have done my best. the principal ancestors of the American Indians.” Now it says that they were “… among the ancestors of the American Indians” (emphasis added). http://archive.sltrib.com/story.php?ref=/lds/ci_7403990. 27. Doctrine and Covenants, Section 132. 28. In April 1904, Mormon prophet Joseph F. Smith “… issued a forceful statement, known as the Second Manifesto, making new 30. Ingersoll, Robert G. The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll (in 12 vol- plural marriages punishable by excommunication.” https://www.lds. umes): Vol. VII, Discussions. New York: The Dresden Publishing Co., org/topics/plural-marriage-in-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day- 1902. saints?lang=eng&old=true. 31. https://youtu.be/JxyiHLg59ks. 29. “But here is the problem that these whiteboard presentations always manage to omit. Of all the thousands of network marketing plans available now or in the past, if only one of them had ever had even a Joanne Hanks is the author of the sardonic memoir “It’s Not About the Sex” My Ass: single line active to only fourteen levels deep, that alone would have Confessions of an Ex-Mormon, Ex-Polygamist, Ex-Wife. She has been featured by required the participation of more human beings than exist. That math “20/20,” “Paula Zahn Now on CNN,” and Vogue magazine, and shared the stage with is black and white, too. Level fourteen is populated by 514, or about David Silverman during an event of the 2014 American Atheists Convention in Salt Lake 6.1 billion people, the entire population of the planet, in addition to level thirteen with 1.2 billion, all the way up to you and your original City. Joanne lives in the Salt Lake City area with her two daughters and works as an art- five. You can answer ‘Oh sure, but a lot of the people don’t get all ist, interior designer, and entrepreneur. Steve Cuno somehow lucked into being the five or they flake somehow,’ but you forget that the entire premise as-told-to author of Joanne Hanks’s memoir, “It’s Not About the Sex” My Ass: has already eliminated those who flake or who don’t get all five. The Confessions of an Ex-Mormon, Ex-Polygamist, Ex-Wife. A veteran marketing writer, he unfortunate conclusion is that a fully invested network, upon which has authored two other books and written articles for , , the whiteboard presentations are dependent, has never actually hap- Skeptical Inquirer BookBusiness pened” (emphasis in original). —Brian Dunning, Skeptoid Podcast Deliver, and other periodicals. In his spare time, Steve enjoys playing his piano and forc- #176; https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4176. ing people to look at photos of his grandchildren.

24 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org The Fight for Our Philosophy, Part 3 A Symposium in Print Daniel C. Dennett, Honorary Chair Introduction

Judy Walker and Tom Flynn

n this issue, we conclude our three-part series surveying philosophers who found value in religion—or were at least the prospects for naturalism in academic philosophy—and prepared to speak kindly of it. An accompanying article Ifor philosophy as an intellectual bulwark of secular human- describes eighteen major Templeton grants made in this deism. We also cast a critical spotlight on the role of the John cade, nine in philosophy and, for comparison, nine in other Templeton Foundation in distorting the handling of religious fields. It is sobering to realize how much wealth Templeton matters in science (which is well known) but also shaping has been willing to invest—and to contemplate the often discourse within philosophy in a more religion-friendly way. arcane, occasionally disturbing goals of some of the funded In “A Most Unnatural Alliance,” Flemish philosopher projects. ($1,582,636 spent to try rehabilitating the Roman Maarten Boudry evaluates the threats to academic natural- Catholic Church’s traditional claim of authority over all schol- ism. They’re real enough, he acknowledges, as he dissects arly and scientific disciplines, anyone?) the attacks on naturalism embodied in the work of theolo- This feature closes with a wide-ranging and delightful gian—and current Templeton Prize winner—Alvin Plantinga. essay by polymath Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, “The Even so, Boudry hopes that anti-naturalism will ultimately Scientists and the Philosophers Should Be Friends.” With prove “a rearguard fight in philosophy, and will eventually engaging mastery, she rebuts currently fashionable variet- run out of steam”—though he prefaces that prediction with ies of “philosophy-jeering,” many built around critiques of “I may be overly optimistic.” For Boudry, the “unnatural alli- naturalism. Goldstein emphasizes analytic philosophy, which ance” of science and philosophy benefits both, while it gives for her captures the core of the philosophical enterprise—in little real comfort to frustrated supernaturalists. its Anglo-American branch, at least. She contends that such In “Wicked Problems,” philosopher Candice Shelby spot- philosophy, inflected as it is by naturalism, plays an invaluable lights the challenges of facing “wicked” (that is, complexly complementary, if not corrective, role with regard to science. intractable) problems in the real world. Far from being irrel- For Goldstein, “science self-corrects,” and its way of evant, she suggests, an approach to philosophy informed doing so “implicates reality in the self-correction. Science by science may be indispensable for addressing problems is the enterprise that prods reality to answer us back when of such intricacy. Shelby focuses particularly on the “wicked we’re getting it wrong.” Yet some errors in thinking are not problem” of addiction. Attempts to address addiction and clearly revealed by pondering anomalies in the outside other wicked problems must draw upon many philosophical world. This is where sound philosophy comes in, for it above subspecialties, though those closest to science seem at pres- all reveals inconsistencies in thinking. “Compartmentalized ent to have the greatest importance. As she concludes, “if creatures that we are, we cohabit happily with our contra- philosophy is to remain relevant in the ways that she claims dictions,” she writes. “It’s philosophy’s goal to destroy that to be, then philosophers are going to have to get up from happiness.” A balanced approach toward the problems we their armchairs and become responsible to the world ... by face will demand the best of science and philosophy. “With engaging with the sciences, learning what our best empirical so much to lose, we need to marshal the full resources of scientists have to say, and using those results to push the human reason,” Goldstein concludes. frontier of human experience forward.” Following all this, we return with closing thoughts. Free Inquiry Editor Tom Flynn delves into the John Tem- pleton Foundation phenomenon in “The Corruption of Phi- Tom Flynn is the editor of Free Inquiry, the executive director of the Council for Secular losophy?” For Flynn, close examination of the Foundation’s Humanism, the director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Museum, and the editor of the recent activity suggests it may pose a threat to naturalism in New Encyclopedia of Unbelief (2007). Judy Walker has degrees in sociology, anthro- philosophy greater than many individual academics might pology, and law. She has served as an Assistant Colorado Attorney General represent- be in a position to discern. High-dollar grants were all but ing Colorado state institutions of higher education and in key positions in development unknown in academic philosophy before Templeton swag- for the University of Colorado. She is currently a CFI Institute fellow specializing in philo- gered into the discipline, offering unprecedentedly large sophical naturalism and a former CFI board member. Her work has been published in grants and, critics say, tilting the playing field in favor of Free Inquiry magazine and other philosophical and freethought publications.

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 25 A Most Unnatural Alliance

Maarten Boudry

s naturalism on the wane in philosophy? Even more so science, for instance to provide its epistemological foun- than with other -isms in our field, the precise meaning of dations (Quine 1969; Haack 2007). Instead, naturalists see Inaturalism is widely disputed. By and large, it stands for philosophy and the sciences (in the plural) as cut from the two substantially different positions, each of which, natu- same cloth and as mutually dependent. Both are enmeshed rally, lends itself to further conceptual hair-splitting (Stroud in the same web of knowledge. Disciplinary boundaries 1996; Papineau 2010). Perhaps the best way to understand reflect accidents of history and may have some pragmatic the broad difference is to compare their respective counter- justification (division of cognitive labor), but they carry little parts. What does it mean to oppose naturalism? epistemic import. Let’s call this “holistic naturalism.” On the face of it, these respective forms of anti-naturalism seem to have little to do with each other. Many proponents of aprioristic “pure” philosophy are staunch atheists, and of “God has reared his head again in the most course most believers in the paranormal and supernatural have no truck with highfalutin abstruse and rarefied quarters of academic academic philosophy. Still, both forms of nat- philosophy—analytic metaphysics—even uralism have come under fire in philosophy, though the majority of philosophers in that and the attacks are not completely unrelated. In some cases, we even see a most “unnatu- field remain as godless as ever.” ral” alliance emerging. Opponents of holistic naturalism, by carving out a special niche for Pure Philosophy insulated from the empirical sciences, have provided a perfect refuge for To be an anti-naturalist in the first sense is to posit the speculation about the supernatural largely unconstrained existence of supernatural beings or entities beyond the by empirical facts. Such a safe haven from science has been natural realm: gods, demons, ghosts, spiritual realms, the welcomed by opponents of worldview naturalism (mostly afterlife. Naturalism, then, is simply the thesis that none of theists) who are worried about encroachments of science these things exist. The natural universe, consisting of matter upon their territory. It is not a coincidence, therefore, that and energy or whatever the latest entities postulated by God has reared his head again in the most abstruse and modern physics (snares, waves, fields, and the like), is all rarefied quarters of academic philosophy—analytic meta- there is. Let’s call this “worldview naturalism.” physics—even though the majority of philosophers in that The second brand of anti-naturalism, by contrast, is a field remain as godless as ever. normative thesis about the proper role of philosophy, about One of the worst offenders on both anti-naturalist fronts what philosophy ought to be. It claims that philosophy has is Notre Dame philosopher Alvin Plantinga (1993; 2011), certain proprietary methods and ways of knowing, which renowned for his contributions to “modal logic”—a family should be distinguished from those of science. To be a of logical systems that contain operators for what is “pos- naturalist, in this sense, is to reject this alleged special role sible” and “necessary”—and in particular to the so-called for philosophy. Naturalists do not believe that there is any possible-world semantics of such logical systems. In terms such thing as a philosophical “way of knowing” or that of metaphysical extravagance, this branch of anti-naturalist philosophers are charged with a special task in regard to philosophy has fulfilled the worst nightmares of philoso-

26 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org THE FIGHT FOR OUR PHILOSOPHY, PART 3—IS PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM FOR SALE? pher W. V. O. Quine, the godfather of holistic naturalism attention precisely because, by and large, both academia who was suspicious of modal logic right from its inception. and society at large are becoming less religious. The media Although arguably modal logic by itself is a legitimate love stories of philosophers-cum-Christian apologists such topic and has some useful applications, its possible-world as William Lane Craig, Richard Swinburne, and Alvin Plant- semantics has quickly spawned a proliferation of unactu- inga. Philosophers themselves have always put a premium alized possibilities, necessary and accidental properties, on bold and radical ideas that challenge what is seemingly (un)exemplified essences, and all other sorts of abstract obvious, and for a long time atheism was indeed the de- entities, if not wholesale invisible universes (Schwartz 2012). fault position in Anglo-Saxon philosophy. Moreover, like In principle, Plantinga’s own approach to possible worlds, many other academic researchers, philosophers feel the called “actualism,” has no bearing on the existence of temptations of the Templeton Foundation, with its explicitly supernatural entities, though it is metaphysically extrava- religious and spiritual goals. (Consider that Plantinga won gant in its own right (with an infinite number of invisible 2017’s Templeton Prize.) If you are willing to say something unexemplified essences squeezed into the actual world). nice about religion and faith, or at least challenge natural- But Plantinga, a Reformed Protestant, has wielded the ism and “scientism,” you are more likely to get Templeton tools of modal logic and necessary/contingent properties money. Plausibly, the Templeton Foundation alone has to resurrect and refurbish that old darling of metaphysics, the Ontological Argu- ment for the existence of God, and has also applied possible-world semantics to “study” the problem of evil and theologi- “Possible-world semantics has quickly spawned cal determinism. In any sensible universe, a proliferation of unactualized possibilities, nec- such antics would’ve been regarded as essary and accidental properties, (un)exemplified a reductio ad absurdum of the whole enterprise, but Plantinga is hailed by essences, and all other sorts of abstract entities.” some as one of the greatest philosophers of his generation. There is also a stream of publications on his argument against evolutionary naturalism (that is, evolution without supernatural guidance), including a collection of artificially inflated the apparent appeal of religiosity and essays by distinguished philosophers (Beilby 2002). In his anti-naturalism in the academic world. It remains an open attack on evolutionary naturalism and elsewhere, Plantinga question whether those philosophers (and other academ- combines a pseudo-rigorous brand of analytic formalism, ics) working on Templeton grants really harbor any sympa- largely detached from empirical reality, with an unflinching thy for the “big questions of human purpose and ultimate defense of Christian dogmas, including Biblical infallibility, reality,” as Templeton’s mission statement puts it. Perhaps the doctrine of Original Sin, the Resurrection of Jesus, and they are just bending over backward to please their cred- of course intelligent design creationism (Boudry 2013; Den- itors, and their enthusiasm for religion and spirituality will nett and Plantinga 2010). not outlive their grant terms. As for the pushback against holistic naturalism, we Is Naturalism Really on the Wane? should keep in mind that naturalist philosophers are by It is hard to dispel the impression that we are witnessing a definition less visible, precisely because they ally them- reemergence of both supernaturalism and aprioristic meta- selves more closely to the sciences and tend to downplay physics in philosophy. But I still think that the overall trend their credentials as philosophers. Many card-carrying phi- among philosophers is toward naturalism in both senses losophers out there are just constructively working on var- (and certainly worldview naturalism). I may be overly opti- ious issues such as self-deception, animal cognition, trans- mistic, but I think anti-naturalism is actually a rearguard fight humanism, or cultural evolution—using all the intellectual in philosophy that will eventually run out of steam. So what tools and resources at their disposal while caring little about reasons are there to suspect that the rumors of the demise whether or not they are doing “proper” philosophy. Many of naturalism have been somewhat exaggerated? are collaborating closely with scientists and publishing in As for the apparent rise of supernaturalism, we should interdisciplinary journals where the boundaries between keep in mind that God-loving philosophers make for a science and philosophy are increasingly blurred and where good story. In an era of secularization, and especially in a few care about labels. traditional bulwark of atheism such as Anglo-Saxon philos- Finally, I think the resurgence of both forms of anti-nat- ophy, displays of religious devotion strike many people as uralism should be regarded as a backlash against, and unusual and noteworthy. Religious philosophers command further demonstration of, existing naturalist trends. Just as,

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 27 on a larger and more dramatic scale, religious fundamen- ing.” Both forms of anti-naturalism can be seen as rear- talism is a reaction against the threats posed to religion by guard fights against the rising tide of scientific naturalism. Enlightenment and modernity, anti-naturalists are (rightly) And if I am wrong on that last count and philosophy is worried about the encroachments of science on every increasingly dominated by the forces of anti-naturalism, domain of reality. It is true that science is unraveling many then it will indeed render itself obsolete, becoming little traditional doctrines that used to hold sway over people’s more than an “idle tea-table amusement,” as Bertrand minds and that its overwhelming success is endangering Russell put it. But until that day arrives, I still call myself a other ways of knowing. With every advance made by proud philosopher, joining the ranks of the naturalists (in science, people have expressed worries about science both senses) in their midst. References Beilby, J. K. 2002. Naturalism Defeated? Essays on Plantinga’s Evolutionary Argument against Naturalism. New York: Cornell University Press. Boudry, Maarten. 2013. “Alvin Plantinga: Where the Conflict Really “Plantinga combines a pseudo-rigor- Lies. Science, Religion and Naturalism.” Science & Education 22(5):1219–1227. ous brand of analytic formalism, largely Boudry, Maarten, and Massimo Pigliucci, eds. 2017. Science Unlim- detached from empirical reality, with an ited? On the Challenges of Scientism. University of Chicago Press. unflinching defense of Christian dogmas.” Carroll, S. 2016. The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself. Penguin Publishing Group. Dennett, D. C., and A. Plantinga. 2010. Science and Religion: Are They Compatible? Oxford University Press. Haack, S. 2007. Defending Science—Within Reason: Between Sci- overstepping its proper limits and encroaching on foreign entism and Cynicism. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. territory (Boudry and Pigliucci 2017). Ladyman, James, and Don Ross. 2007. Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Most of these worries are actually well-founded. Sci- Naturalized. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Papineau, D. 2010. “Naturalism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ence beats all other approaches hollow, and the worldview Plantinga, A. 1993. Warrant and Proper Function. New York: Oxford Uni- emerging in its wake is devoid of anything supernatural. versity Press. As physicist Sean Carroll explains in his latest book The Big ———. 2011. Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Natu- ralism. Oxford University Press, USA. Picture, many people underestimate the extent to which Quine, W. V. O. 1969. Ontological Relativity and Other Essays. Columbia the framework of modern physics—quantum field theory— University Press. has tightened around a small number of forces and parti- Schwartz, S. P. 2012. A Brief History of Analytic Philosophy: From Russell to Rawls. Wiley. cles, leaving no wiggle room at all for anything spooky or Stroud, B. 1996. “The Charm of Naturalism.” Proceedings and Addresses supernatural (Carroll 2016). Science also presents a world of the American Philosophical Association 70(2): 43–55. view that renders much of a priori analytic metaphysics completely obsolete (Ladyman and Ross 2007). Everything in nature is composed of inanimate matter and energy; Maarten Boudry is a FWO (Research Foundation—Flanders) Research Fellow at nature is all there is, and there are no “other ways of know- Ghent University, Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences.

28 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org THE FIGHT FOR OUR PHILOSOPHY, PART 3—IS PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM FOR SALE?

Wicked Problems

Candice Shelby

hese are the days of “wicked” problems. Wicked ital historians share few interests or methods with seven- problems are real-world problems that are difficult or teenth-century Russian historians. In philosophy, the middle Timpossible to solve, either because we lack essential of the twentieth century gave rise to similar stark divisions. knowledge to solve them, or because many people with The division between two main approaches to doing phi- different areas of expertise have irreconcilable opinions losophy cut so deeply that each side held the other in con- about the methods and presuppositions requisite to getting tempt, holding that those who practiced philosophy based started, or because they are interwoven with other problems on assumptions and methods other than their own weren’t in complex ways, or because any theoretically plausible doing philosophy at all. The questions asked seemed to solution is economically (or otherwise practically) prohibited. be the same for the two camps, but what the questions Poverty, homelessness, education, sustainability, and addic- meant—and the methods that were considered acceptable tion are all such problems.1 for answering them—were so disparate that the two con- Philosophers have a particularly good skill set for work- versations were incommunicable (one side would call this ing on these problems, since they are big-picture thinkers “radically untranslatable”). Naturalistic, analytic-style phi- who study the sciences (for example) with an eye not just toward practicing them but toward understanding what their underlying values and assumptions are and how they in- terconnect. What is more, philosophers think “Working on wicked problems means that about the methods and limits of the sciences, philosophers will have to drag themselves from what makes an explanation a good one, and their offices, just as scientists will have to drag to what kinds of errors in thinking scientists might be vulnerable. But working on wicked themselves from their labs, and work together problems means that philosophers will have in interdisciplinary settings.” to drag themselves from their offices, just as scientists will have to drag themselves from their labs, and work together in interdisciplinary settings. This will be no mean feat, as even within their disciplines scientists have difficulty work- losophy is the kind that is best suited to addressing wicked ing with one another (as do researchers in the humanities). real-world problems. Biochemical psychologists are as far from neuroscientific In philosophy, both questions and methods change as psychologists in assumptions and methods as both are circumstances outside of philosophy change. Gone are the from clinical psychologists and as psychologists are from days when disputes about the number of angels that can chemists. A downside to the focus and precision that the sit on the head of a pin occupy the discipline’s best think- sciences have managed in answering specific questions ers. With global communications and economic relations is that they have become so siloed that the relevance of becoming the norm, social and political philosophers are one subdiscipline to another has become all but obscured. being sought in university hiring ads more than any other The same is true of many workers in the humanities: dig- areas of specialization, although because technology continues to outrun thought about whether and how it ought to be used, ethics remains an area of significant activity. 1. I addressed some of these issues, as well as other complexities re- The history of philosophy, aesthetics, and epistemology are garding addiction, in my 2016 book Addiction: A Philosophical Ap- proach. less active.

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 29 Methods change in philosophy as they do in the sci- of the discipline’s time), philosophers are increasingly more ences; when one set no longer seems to offer promise and engaged with other disciplines in, for example, social and others might, at least some philosophers will take up the political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of science, as well as new ones, and to the extent that they are influential writ- in scientific metaphysics. For some questions, the armchair ers, the new methods take over. “Armchair” philosophy, approach simply won’t work, and wicked problems are the once the paradigm of truth-seeking, bases its arguments paradigm of this kind of question. on logical, or “modal,” relations, those that distinguish Consider addiction, one example of a wicked problem. between the possible and impossible or the contingent Like other wicked problems, the first difficulty we encounter and the necessary. These arguments feel secure because in attempting to ameliorate it is that there is no definitive when they are formally correct they are valid—the truth formulation of what addiction even is. The National Institute of the conclusion follows absolutely from the truth of the for Drug Addiction is very clear in its biologically based ac- premises. But because the truth of those premises also has count that addiction is a “chronically relapsing disease” ex- to be established, unless one is willing to put one’s faith in plainable in terms of the functioning of the chemistry of the philosophical castles built in the air, at some point there brain’s reward system. This definition comes out of many must be contact with the world. For this reason, armchair years of neurochemistry and scanning studies. For others, philosophy found itself stymied by the end of the twentieth however, such as Gene Heyman, a Harvard psychologist, century. Although there are still plenty of philosophers who addiction is a matter of consistently made choices to use espouse the method of a priori reasoning, it has largely a drug2—essentially, a kind of utility analysis. In support of given way in many areas of research to more empirically this definition, four large and well-known epidemiological informed methods. Even if there is no empirical side to the studies provide evidence that the choices of populations philosophy itself (and there is such a thing as experimental labeled “addicted” change as their circumstances change. philosophy, or “x-phi,” but it commands no significant part Most drug addicts stop using by the time that they reach their mid-thirties, these studies show—not because they get medical treatment for a disease but rather because of ordinary adult responsibil- ities, incentives, cultural expectations, and the “Armchair philosophy found itself stymied penalties associated with use.3 Yet others agree by the end of the twentieth century.” with Johann Hari, who argues both in his recent book Chasing the Scream and in his popular TED Talk that social isolation is the culprit; while still another group of researchers counts it as a type of learning disorder. And let us not forget the eighty-year-old, most popular of all definitions, the one provided by the religion-derived, God-based AA program and its descendants, which says that addiction is a spiritual disease (whatever on earth that can possibly mean). All these simple, singular definitions illustrate vividly by their own declarations what is wrong with them: they assume that addiction is the kind of thing that has a single assignable cause and that understanding what it is will provide us with the key to how to address it. I do not mean to say here that each of these definitions is wrong or that I advocate another that I think is right. Instead, the point is that by the very nature of wicked problems, none of these definitions alone will do, although each has something important to offer (with the exception of the spiritual-disease account, which seems to have no way

2. Let us artificially simplify this problem even in this discussion of its wickedness by limiting our focus to drug addictions, even though the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), the standard diagnostic tool used by psychiatrists and psychologists, currently includes gambling disorder among the addictive ones. 3. Gene Heyman, Addiction: A Disorder of Choice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009).

30 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org THE FIGHT FOR OUR PHILOSOPHY, PART 3—IS PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM FOR SALE?

of being rendered coherent).4 Addiction certainly involves tic, environmental, and resulting psychological effects on learning, particularly if we’re talking about Hebbian learn- persons who fall into addictive behavior, as well as larger ing, the strengthening of synaptic connections between social circumstances such as poverty, education, and crime, neurons, and other sources of brain plasticity; it is clearly which correlate with larger percentages of addiction in associated with larger than usual amounts of dopamine certain populations. These empirical data will need to be in areas of the mesocorticolimbic system associated with employed dynamically with conceptual issues if philoso- seeking and reward and the changes in structure that follow phers are to assist in the development of a consistent set from that. What is more, it is absolutely true that addiction of definitions of addiction that will make it possible to take is often very sensitive to social environment—one series action to address it. I say a “set of definitions” because as of well-known studies showed that happy rats raised with a wicked problem heed must be paid, even within the dis- their little rat friends in little rat playgrounds had virtually cipline of philosophy, to distinctions between addiction to no taste for readily available morphine compared to rats opiates, which may well differ from addiction to cigarettes, raised in isolation in confining cages. Another large longitu- as well as from addiction to gambling, food, and the like. dinal study established that a huge contingent of returning This is in addition to addiction that arises in connection with Vietnam vets who had been addicted to heroin while in other psychological disorders and/or social inequities and/ the war setting had no problem staying free of the drug once they returned from the jungle to their families and friends. The spiritual-disease definition, “In order to begin to attack the wicked problem in contrast to these other definitions—since it is neither verifi- that addiction is, it will be necessary for biochemists, able nor falsifiable by any con- neuroscientists of several types, developmental ceivable evidence—remains a psychologists, sociologists, epidemiologists, mere unscientific assertion. But even with the testable hypothe- philosophers, and others to work together.” ses, we can see that the claims made address only one aspect of the phenomenon of addiction; they make sense, but only within the framework of the assumptions and methods from or trauma. The addiction of a white, male Wall Street bro- within which they are derived do their respective declara- ker to cocaine may well have little in common with a poor tions regarding the nature and causes of addiction make uneducated Southern black woman’s addiction to meth. sense. That said, there are still things to do and ways to ad- In order to begin to attack the wicked problem that dress the issue. Clearly, an adequate analysis of addiction, addiction is, it will be necessary for biochemists, neuro- however complex, would presumably provide ideas regard- scientists of several types, developmental psychologists, ing promising approaches to improving the lives of those sociologists, epidemiologists, philosophers, and others to harmed by it. The prevailing conceptions, however, so far work together. Philosophers are no longer free to constrain don’t. With respect to the most popular notion of what ad- the discussions concerning addiction to armchair analyses diction is, that derived from AA-based programs, we fail to of compulsion, akrasia (weakness of will, more or less), see any such result. Although data from AA itself are virtu- decision theory, or unjustified beliefs. To be relevant to the ally impossible to come by due to the feature of anonymity discussion, we must take seriously the genetic, epigene- among its membership, AA-based treatment centers seem to have no more than a 5 to 10 percent success rate,5 which 4. If one says that disease is a malfunction of something, for instance, is about the same as the rate of “spontaneous remission” or as in kidney disease, then the spiritual disease seems to be without no treatment at all. This shouldn’t surprise us, since history referent, because what is a spirit’s function, since it is not part of a larger system from which the very concept of function arises? If, on the has pretty well demonstrated that appeal to God and/or other hand, we think of disease as corruption, that is rotting or falling religious structures to manage our medical and social prob- into parts, how could that make sense for spirits, which are assumed lems generally has no positive impact and, in fact, has most philosophically to be essentially simple and incapable of natural disin- tegration, which is supposed to account for their immortality? If, finally, disease is thought to be infection by something external, as bodies are infected by bacteria and viruses, how could that happen for spirits, 5. Lance Dodes, The Sober Truth: Dubunking the Bad Science Behind which are assumed to be nonphysical, so that the distinction of inside/ 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, outside is incoherent? 2014).

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 31 often exacerbated them.6 The conception of addiction un- providing counseling, education, employment preparation, derlying as many as 95 percent of the residential treatment and the like—in short, addressing the general social isolation programs currently operating in the United States, that it is that accompanies incarceration—reduced both recidivism a spiritual disease, not only suggests no specific modes of and violence. Portugal may be the paragon of using social treatment, but it also offers no answer to the question of change to mitigate addiction issues. Perhaps here we see whether the “spiritual treatment” has worked. The current some attention to the choice element involved in addiction, strategy is to say that if a program of treatment is followed because what Portugal has done is to change the circum- by an individual’s return to addictive behavior, it is because stances, including the incentives and penalties associated the individual in question didn’t follow the program. The with drug use. By decriminalizing drug use, and conceiving patient/client is perfectly welcome to return to the residen- of it instead as a public-health issue, associated problems tial facility for another round of “treatment” and to pay, have been dramatically reduced. Overdoses from drugs or have his or her insurance pay, the usually considerable have been reduced by 80 percent since 2001; HIV cases fee again. Far from providing reliable help for addiction, among drug users are down; and, contrary to expectations, one might reasonably say that the unproven (untestable) both adult and adolescent past-month and past-year drug practices employed by these facilities, together with their use has been lowered. Because resources formerly directed business model, and the tight bonds that the treatment in- toward law enforcement have been redirected toward drug dustry has to the insurance industry, in fact contribute to the treatment, drug prevention, and harm reduction services—as increasing size of the socially defined epidemic of addiction well as toward social support services—Portugal has been in the United States. able to effectively mitigate a number of a certain kind of Focusing on the National Institute for Drug Abuse’s brain addictive problems. The point is that with addiction, as well as with many other wicked problems—the most pressing problems for our social world—the way forward for philosophy, as “The way forward for philosophy, as for for many other disciplines, is to resist the many other disciplines, is to resist the urge to urge to train our students to believe that one way of thinking, one set of assump- train our students to believe that one way tions and methodologies, is sufficient. of thinking, one set of assumptions and Philosophy has long believed herself to methodologies, is sufficient.” be the queen of the sciences (this is a long-established gender assignment, and one to which the author is in this particular case not averse), subject to no other and chemistry–based analysis of addiction promises more but qualified to dictate to others the nature and limits of their still fails to offer a satisfactory means of mitigating problems own enterprises. In one way, this is right: there is no doubt associated with addiction. Treating individuals with certain that philosophers are correct that their discipline overlooks chemical addictions with drugs such as Naltrexone, Sobox- and considers the questions essential to both the arts and one, or Campril (to name a few) can be extremely helpful. the sciences. But if philosophy is to remain relevant in the Even more promising is the latest research on treating ad- ways that she claims to be, then philosophers are going to diction issues with psychedelics of various sorts (LSD has in have to get up from their armchairs and become responsi- several studies been extremely successful in the treatment ble to the world that they claim to lead by engaging with of tobacco addiction, while psilocybin has been studied for the sciences, learning what our best empirical scientists use on depression and MDMA in the treatment of trauma, have to say, and using those results to push the frontier of both underlying factors in the lives of many individuals who human experience forward. seek treatment for addiction). But even these don’t address the social dimensions of addiction. One study, however, Candice Shelby, PhD, is currently a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, of the most violent inmates at the Richmond, Virginia, jail, Denver. Shelby received a BA in philosophy from the Unversity of Houston and her MA showed that treatment of addiction symptoms, including and PhD from Rice University. She has served as both department chair and executive director for the Center for Ethics and Community during her tenure at the University of 6. For instance, think of the 30 Years’ War, Europe’s deadliest religious Colorado, Denver. Dr. Shelby enjoys interdisciplinary affiliations in the sciences, social conflict: whether actually fought over the welfare of humanity or for justice, and women and gender studies. Her professional specialties include epistemol- economic reasons, it compounded the natural miseries of the seven- ogy, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of psychology. Her most recent teenth century many times over, creating a medical catastrophe un- surpassed in modern European history as well as famine and other work has been in the philosophy of addiction. In 2016, she published the book interrelated sources of human suffering. Addiction: A Philosophical Perspective.

32 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org THE FIGHT FOR OUR PHILOSOPHY, PART 3—IS PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM FOR SALE?

The Corruption of Philosophy?

Tom Flynn

s philosophical naturalism up for sale? If so, the John Tem- In 1987, fifteen years after creating his prize, John pleton Foundation is the leading buyer. This free-spend- Templeton took the next step, launching his eponymous Iing institution has cut a mighty swath across fields from Foundation as a grant-making institution. (In the same science to psychology, ethics to religion. Its impact on phi- year, he received a low order of British knighthood.) The losophy may be among the greatest of all, if only because Templeton Foundation immediately established itself as there was so little high-dollar grantmaking in academic phi- an unusual—and unusually generous—grantor. It tends to losophy before Templeton entered the field. support projects that “center on bringing science and reli- If the Templeton name is new to you, here’s a thumbnail gion closer together—usually, with religion in the dominant history. role,” as historian Alexander Saxton wrote in a 2007 Free Mutual-fund magnate (and devout Christian) John Tem- Inquiry exposé.4 “During its life,” Saxton continued, “the pleton entered high-profile religious philanthropy in 1972, Foundation has moved steadily from the lowbrow fringes when he instituted the Templeton Prize for Progress in of our intellectual establishment to its respectable, highly Religion. (Secularists might be forgiven for wondering whether “progress in religion” is oxymoronic.) The first winner was Mother Teresa (1973). Later win- ners ranged from scientists (Paul Davies, “This free-spending institution has cut a mighty 1995; Freeman Dyson, 2000; John Polk- inghorne, 2002; Martin Rees, 2011) to swath across fields from science to psychology, social activists (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ethics to religion. Its impact on philosophy may be 1983; the Dalai Lama, 2012; Desmond among the greatest of all.” Tutu, 2013), philosophers (Charles Taylor, 2007; Michael Heller, 2008), and religious innovators (Thomas Torrance, 1978; Billy Graham, 1982; Bill Bright, 1996).1 The current Templeton privileged center. The methods by which this transforma- Prize winner is American theologian Alvin Plantinga, who tion was carried out have been crude but effective: the developed newly subtle (some would say, devious) argu- Foundation has simply bought up scientists, teachers, and ments for belief in God.2 educators.” Since its inception, the Templeton Prize carried a cash The Templeton Foundation can afford to think big. With award larger than the Nobel Prize. In 2001, the “progress an endowment reported at $3.2 billion, in 2016 it made in religion” terminology was retired; the Templeton Prize 104 grants totaling $77.4 million.5 Sir John Templeton died henceforth honored “Research or Discoveries about Spir- in 2008; he was succeeded by his son, John Templeton Jr., itual Realities” (a further oxymoron, perhaps). Today, the whose Christianity was markedly more evangelical than his Prize’s website says that it “honors a living person who has father’s. Upon John Jr.’s death in 2015, he was succeeded made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual as president of the Foundation by his own daughter, dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical Heather Templeton Dill. works.”3 By its sheer scale, Templeton’s giving has a potentially pernicious effect in every field it penetrates. Whether in the physical sciences, psychology, philosophy, or elsewhere, 1. http://www.templetonprize.org/previouswinner.html, accessed Au- gust 10, 2017. 2. http://www.templetonprize.org/currentwinner.html, accessed Au- 4. Alexander Saxton, “‘Sir John’ Templeton’s Foundation and the New gust 10, 2017. Trinitarianism,” FI, June/July 2007. 3. http://www.templetonprize.org/abouttheprize.html 5. https://www.templeton.org/about/vision-mission-impact

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 33 academics who hold naturalistic, humanistic, or atheistic More recently, philosopher Daniel C. Dennett, the hon- worldviews—by all accounts, most of them—may be pow- orary chair of this feature, withdrew from the 2015 World erfully incentivized not to publicize those views lest that put Science Festival because the event and the session to them out of contention for a Templeton grant someday. which he had been invited were cosponsored by Temple- Only the brashest or the most secure will feel comfortable ton. “I don’t do Templeton-funded events,” Dennett noted, openly taking stands unfriendly toward religion. This alone later telling Religion News Service’s Kimberly Winston: may weaken the influence of even a near-consensus world view (as naturalism is among academic philosophers in I would be very happy to have the Templeton Foundation the United States) while imparting a false sense of vigor sponsor research on religion and science. But what they to competing religious or “spiritual” worldviews though are doing now is sponsoring some very fine science with they have weak academic constituencies. As philosopher no strings attached and then using their sponsorship of Maarten Boudry observes in this issue, “If you are willing that to try and win prestige for other projects that are not to say something nice about religion and faith, or at least in the same league. ... I compare it to an art collector who challenge naturalism and ‘scientism,’ you are more likely to spends a lot of money on excellent art and then has a get Templeton money. Plausibly, the Templeton Foundation show with a few pieces by his brother. It’s trying to elevate alone has artificially inflated the apparent appeal of religios- the prestige of his brother by having them in the same ity and anti-naturalism in the academic world.” room with a Cezanne and a Monet.

Biologist Jerry Coyne applauded Dennett’s decision, writing: “I don’t think for a minute that the Foundation is interested in advancing science that “The Templeton Foundation can afford has no spiritual overtones. They are coopting sci- to think big. . . . [I]n 2016 it made entists into their stable and ... they refuse to separate the pure-science projects from the spiritual 104 grants totaling $77.4 million.” projects.”8 Biologist and best-selling author Richard Daw- Templeton largesse has especially favored projects kins, now a member of the Center for Inquiry Board of promising to establish that science and religion are com- Directors, holds the Foundation in no higher esteem. He patible, as well as studies in so-called positive psychology recently told Free Inquiry: that spotlight the relation between mind and body in ways that suggest “spirit” may have a mediating role, perhaps The Templeton Foundation tries, intermittently, to be enhancing resilience. Sometimes Templeton-funded proj- respectable, but the cloven hoof keeps surfacing. Funda- ects yield disappointing results. Notable in this vein was mentally, what they are about is undercover deployment of the ten-year, $2.4 million Study of the Therapeutic Effects vast wealth to subvert science. Decent scientists are, in ef- of Intercessory Prayer (STEP), led by no lesser New Age fect, bribed to betray their principles and lend the prestige luminary than the cardiologist and mind-body guru Herbert of their name to promoting superstitious nonsense which, Benson. In 2006, STEP revealed that seriously ill patients but for the money, they wouldn’t touch with a bargepole. for whom strangers prayed had worse clinical outcomes Nobel laureates and Presidents of the Royal Society are than those who went unprayed-for—hardly the outcome not immune. The world would be a better place if the Templeton funders must have anticipated.6 Templeton Foundation didn’t exist.9 In the physical sciences, at least, Templeton largesse has attracted high-profile pushback, albeit principally from Accompanying this article is a listing of eighteen recent the “brashest or most secure” among academics. In 2005, Templeton Foundation grants in fields from science to psy- physicist Sean M. Carroll spurned an invitation to address chology to philosophy, presenting the breadth of the Foun- a Templeton-sponsored conference. He explained his decision on his blog, charging that “the entire purpose of the Templeton Foundation is to blur the line between Chronicle of Higher Education, April 7, 2006. straightforward science and explicitly religious activity, 8. Dennett and Coyne quoted in Hemant Mehta, “Daniel Dennett Withdraws from World Science Festival Due to Templeton Foun- making it seem like the two enterprises are part of one big dation Sponsorship.” Friendly Atheist blog, May 9, 2015. http:// undertaking.”7 www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/05/09/daniel-dennett-withdraws-from-world-science-festival-due-to-templeton-foundation-sponsorship/, accessed August 10, 2015. 6. Gregory Fung and Christopher Fung, “What Do Prayer Studies 9. Personal correspondence. A portion of this statement appeared Prove?” Christianity Today, May 15, 2009. also in the Introduction to part one of this feature in the August/ 7. John Horgan, “The Templeton Foundation: A Skeptic’s Take.” September 2017 issue.

34 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org THE FIGHT FOR OUR PHILOSOPHY, PART 3—IS PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM FOR SALE?

dation’s interests and the varying subtlety of its agenda. Of are de rigeur in a volume of this sort; there’s simply no place those eighteen grants, nine are in the funding area of “Phi- for an ideologue grinding an axe. losophy and Theology.” They range in size from $4,655,995 Philosopher and Free Inquiry columnist Russell Blackford (the largest grant in the series) to $33,051 (the smallest). (who also contributed an article to part one of this feature)12 But in this three-part feature the focus is on philosophy, reviewed the Blackwell Companion to Naturalism in these especially naturalism in U.S. academic philosophy. There, pages in 2016.13 While finding the volume in some ways Templeton’s grantmaking has had an outsized impact. impressive, Blackford found much to object to. In his open- Why? As journalist Nathan Schneider noted in a 2012 ing paragraph, for example, Blackford quoted from the Chronicle of High Education exposé: Companion’s back-cover blurb, which promised “that the Companion ‘offers a systematic introduction’ to the topics, Grants of a few million dollars are a drop in the bucket for one ‘that defines, discusses, and defends philosophical the sciences, awash as they are with tax dollars and cor- naturalism.’ For better or worse, though, this turns out not porate contracts; but in philosophy, where such sums are to be true.” Blackford found “surprising,” even “alarming,” unheard of, they have the potential to transform the whole “the book’s overall appearance of hostility to philosophical field [emphasis added]. The only question is whether naturalism.” He called the book “well stocked with contrib- philosophy is a worthwhile prize anymore—whether the utors—including, it appears, its editor—who are inclined to discipline can still change how we think about science, support methodological naturalism [a form of naturalism what we think it means, and how we do it. The foundation that does not entail outright rejection of the supernatural] is putting its money on yes.10 while doubting or rejecting philosophical naturalism.”14

Templeton’s betting continues, much of it aimed to counter the naturalistic near-consensus among American philosophers. That consensus regards religion with hostility at worst, “By its sheer scale, Templeton’s giving disinterest at best—a stance the Foundation has a potentially pernicious effect will apparently go to substantial lengths to change. in every field it penetrates.” Which brings us back to the smallest grant on our list. Also present were “numerous contributors who take an That grant—to the Kaufman Interfaith Institute at Grand accommodationist approach to the relationship between Valley State University (Grand Rapids, Michigan) in the religion and science.” Missing, however, is even one chap- relatively modest amount of $33,051—has a remarkable ter that provides a full-scale defense of philosophical natu- backstory, suggesting that the Templeton Foundation was ralism. “… [T]he Companion contains little in philosophical so eager to undermine philosophical naturalism that it was naturalism’s defense and nothing in the way of a sustained willing to fund a proposal that raised worrisome ethical defense. It does, however, contain sustained attacks on questions. philosophical naturalism,” Blackford concluded. “There’s The grant assisted a Kaufman Institute senior research an appearance, therefore, of imbalance, or even of editorial fellow, the prolific author Kelly James Clark, to complete bias, but we should hesitate before drawing sinister infer- editing of a manuscript between January 2013 and Decem- ences about this.” ber 2014. Clark ably completed his work; it was published Yet the descriptive text on the Templeton Foundation’s in 2016 as the 534-page Blackwell Companion to Natural- own website about its grant for this project—apparently ism (Wiley-Blackwell, 2016). drawn from James Kelly Clark’s funding proposal—sug- Like the better-known Oxford and Cambridge Compan- gests that Clark approached his work with a specific goal ions series, Blackwell Companion books are thick antholo- in mind: gies meant to provide students with “a comprehensive and authoritative survey” of a given field, “the ideal basis for Naturalism, in its various guises, has become academic or- course use, representing an unparalleled work of reference thodoxy. ... Given its influence, it needs critique. I propose for students and specialists alike.”11 Balance and objectivity 12. Russell Blackford, “The Future of Philosophical Naturalism.” FI, August/September 2017. 10. Nathan Schneider, “The Templeton Effect.” Chronicle of Higher 13. Blackford, “Natural and Supernatural (Whatever They Are!)” FI, Education, September 3, 2012. August/September 2016. 11. From a description by the publisher of the Blackwell Companions 14. Blackford and Barbara Forrest both examined the distinction to Philosophy Series. http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id- between methodological naturalism and philosophical naturalism in 405214.html, accessed August 11, 2017. their August/September 2017 articles.

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 35 This language provides a disturbing possible explanation for the defects in the Blackwell Companion to Nat- uralism that Blackford called out in his review. Clark had proposed to edit, in effect, a stealth assault upon philosophical naturalism that would be published as a presumably objective reference work. The Templeton Foun- dation funded it. One feels for Wiley-Blackwell, which may unknowingly have published a major reference title that is less a survey of its topic than a drive-by assas- sination attempt—though it’s hard to see how a world-class Screen grab of the page in which James Kelly Clark describes his plan for the Blackwell Companion to Naturalism. trade publisher could fail to Accessed August 11, 2017. detect the work’s agenda if a philosophically savvy editor had simply read through the manuscript. No less remarkable is that “In the physical sciences … Templeton largesse has the Templeton Foundation attracted high-profile pushback.” openly posted this apparent declaration of Clark’s intent on its website (see screen a book, attractively written and published in an important grab at left), in the same way it posts excerpts from many series, on naturalism and its shortcomings. The book, other grant requests it has funded—and that this material already under contract for the prestigious and influential seems not to have come to light until now. Blackwell Companion to Philosophy series, will offer a This episode seems to show that the Templeton Founda- systematic definition, defense and then critique of natu- tion is so harshly opposed to philosophical naturalism that it ralism. ... Each section of this edited collection will also is willing to fund an ethically problematic grant proposal— include substantive criticisms of philosophical naturalism and is no less willing to see a major publisher risk damage by both non-theists and theists. This offers a unique op- to the integrity of a lucrative series of reference works. portunity to be able to influence and critique naturalism in As for James Kelly Clark, clearly the Templeton Foun- an important and widely read reference book. This project dation has no regrets. In 2017, it made another grant to is NOT aimed at defending naturalism [capitalization in the Kaufman Interfaith Institute—a larger grant this time, in original]: the book might better be called, “naturalism and the amount of $214,079—to fund a Clark-led project to en- its discontents,” with theists / non-naturalists getting the courage “analytical, faith-based inquiry” bringing together last word in every section. ... [T]he volume ... will instantly Muslim and Christian philosophers and theologians.16 become the standard reference work on naturalism. It will The John Templeton Foundation may be making prog- also be used as a textbook on naturalism for both ad- ress toward the corruption of philosophy. But its Christian vanced undergraduate and graduate courses. ... Because admirers may one day conclude that in its quest to do so, it it contains powerful criticisms, it will influence the next has (pardon the expression) sold its soul. generation’s understanding of naturalism and its discontents.15 the grants list [see accompanying article]. 16. https://www.templeton.org/grant/building-an-abrahamic- scholarly-community, accessed August 11, 2017. 15. https://www.templeton.org/grant/naturalism-and-its-discontents, accessed August 11, 2017. While slightly condensed, this is a more complete version of the grant’s explanatory text than was provided in Tom Flynn is editor of Free Inquiry.

36 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org THE FIGHT FOR OUR PHILOSOPHY, PART 3—IS PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM FOR SALE?

Eighteen Templeton Foundation Grants

Tom Flynn

This article summarizes eighteen grants made by the John Templeton Founda- January 2017–September 2019 tion between 2011 and the present, arranged in order of declining grant size. This project seeks to construct more Nine of them were in the funding area of Philosophy and Theology, one of nine scientifically rigorous methods and funding areas listed. These are highlighted. The other nine were in areas such categories for describing and under- as Natural Sciences, Human Sciences, and Public Engagement. Quotations standing the fast-growing phenome- appear to come from each grant’s proposal document, helpfully reproduced non of unbelief from a believing per- on the Foundation website. Together, the selected grants illustrate the range spective. “We do not currently know of Templeton-funded projects that promote the notion of congruence between how best to characterize the various science and religion, buttress spiritualistic interpretations of scientific findings, forms of unbelief as psychological and protect traditional religious ideas against being overturned by the findings of sociological phenomena, the extent to science, or seek to reimpose outmoded religious formulations onto the modern which other beliefs—about religion, or academy. the existential—underpin these forms, how diverse they are, and how they ➊ Grant Amount $4,655,995 ➋ Grant Amount $2,884,457 vary across demographic groups and cultures. Yet understanding the nature Funding Area: Philosophy and Theology Funding Area: Human Sciences and variety of unbelief is necessary if https://www.templeton.org/grant/ https://www.templeton.org/grant/ we are, in future, to answer big ques- aspects-of-religious-experiences- spiritual-curiosity-and-the-experience-of- tions about the causes of ‘unbelief.’” investigations-from-science-philosophy- god Another view: Nearly three million dol- theology-and-religious-studies “Spiritual Curiosity and the Experience lars for sharper tools to help believers “Aspects of Religious Experiences: of God” explain, clinically, what’s wrong with Investigations from Science, Philosophy, Project Leader(s): Tanya Luhrmann nonbelievers. Theology, and Religious Studies” Grantee(s): Stanford University Project Leader(s): Michael Rea, L. A. Paul September 2016–August 2019 Grantee(s): University of Notre Dame ➍ Grant Amount $2,600,000 Writing as T. M. Luhrmann, proj- June 2014–May 2017 Funding Area: Human Sciences ect leader Tanya Luhrmann penned https://www.templeton.org/grant/ This multi-million–dollar project re- pro-spirituality New York Times op- pew-templeton-global-religious-futures- searched transformative experiences, eds during the middle years of this phase-3 specifically religious conversions, and decade. In this project, she proposes “Pew-Templeton Global Religious “what they reveal about connecting to study “how cultural variation in Futures Phase 3” to the divine.” “The nature and power ideas about the mind shapes the way Project Leader(s): Alan Cooperman of … transformative religious and people seek and experience the su- Grantee(s): Pew Charitable Trusts spiritual experiences (RSEs) is the sub- pernatural.” The proposal treats “the January 2014–December 2016 ject of a multiyear, multidisciplinary supernatural” inconsistently, some- This project offers continuing funding effort … to examine whether—and times describing it as reality and at for a long-running joint project be- how—RSEs have a transformative im- others just as something people infer tween the Templeton Foundation and pact.” From the secular perspective, or “deem.” the Pew Charitable Trusts “to delve this study implicitly co-opts philos- deeper into the demographic factors ophy and undercuts naturalism just Grant Amount $2,877,526 ➌ reshaping religion around the world, by treating “transformative religious Funding Area: Human Sciences analyze trends in religious beliefs and and spiritual experiences” and “con- https://www.templeton.org/grant/ practices across new regions, and necting to the divine” as genuine understanding-unbelief track the extent to which govern- phenomena and appropriate objects “Understanding Unbelief” ments and societies restrict religion.” for research. Project Leader(s): Lois Lee, Stephen Of the grants on this list, this one may Bullivant Grantee(s): University of Kent best represent money well spent.

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 37 Integrating Religion, Science, and the sitions and by making aware of the Grant Amount $2,325,735 ➎ Academic Disciplines” whole range of possible human and Funding Area: Public Engagement Project Leader(s): Brad Gregory, divine actions in order to encourage https://www.templeton.org/grant/ Donald Stelluto and enable people to investigate the engaging-scientists-in-the-science-and- Grantee(s): Notre Dame Institute for evidence about which kinds of human religion-dialogue Advanced Study and divine actions exist.” From the “Engaging Scientists in the Science and July 2013–June 2016 clear assumption that divine actions Religion Dialogue” can exist, it seems clear where this is This project claims to be “[i]nspired Project Leader(s): Jennifer Wiseman, Se Kim heading. by the universalism of the Catholic Grantee(s): American Association for the intellectual tradition”—that is, the an- Advancement of Science (AAAS) cient doctrine under which the church ➑ Grant Amount $1,045,663 June 2016–June 2019 claimed authority over all scholarly Funding Area: Public Engagement Templeton teams with the AAAS to and scientific disciplines. Behind the https://www.templeton.org/grant/ teach scientists better ways “to dis- elevated rhetoric, this is essentially biologos-public-engagement- cuss science with a largely religious a frontal attack on naturalism in phi- inviting-the-church-and-the-world-to- public. … This project will provide losophy and science, an effort to see-the-harmony-between-science- vital engagement tools and profes- yoke secular inquiry once more under and-biblical-faith sionally facilitated workshops for sci- the authority of faith. “We hope the “BioLogos Public Engagement: entists.” How much of this project, world’s most advanced scholars will Inviting the Church and the World to one wonders, will focus on teaching rethink basic assumptions underlying See the Harmony between Science young scientists that science and re- their academic disciplines and be- and Biblical Faith” ligion are not in conflict and that sci- come catalysts for new thinking and Project Leader(s): Deborah Haarsma entists should pursue—and commu- ideas,” the applicants write, “with Grantee(s): The BioLogos nicate about—their work in ways that theology and philosophy serving Foundation, Inc. accommodate rather than challenge as integrative discourses [emphasis June 2016–May 2019 religious believers? added].” Yes, really. This project offers continuing support for the BioLogos Foundation, ➐ Grant Amount $1,338,553 an evangelical enterprise that seeks Funding Area: Philosophy and Theology to persuade general audiences not https://www.templeton.org/grant/ only that science and religion are in the-openness-of-the-universe-for- harmony but that religious beliefs free-will-and-special-divine-action can shape scientific discovery. “The “The Openness of the Universe for prevailing story in our culture is that “Nearly three million Free Will and Special Divine Action” science and religion cannot be rec- dollars for sharper Project Leader(s): Daniel von onciled,” declares BioLogos Program tools to help believ- Wachter, Alexander Batthyany Director Kathryn Applegate. “From Grantee(s): International Academy of the beginning, BioLogos has been ers explain, clinically, Philosophy (IAP) a place to push back against that what’s wrong with January 2017–September 2019 narrative.” A typical effort seeks to rebuff such “misleading narratives” nonbelievers.” Laypersons embrace many beliefs— as that of Charles Darwin losing his conspicuously, about God and free faith as he developed his theory of will—that philosophers generally do evolution. One bright spot: BioLo- not. This project aims “to foster and gos spends much of its time (and inspire the debate about the pos- the Foundation’s money) preaching sibility and nature of free will and to the choir rather than reaching Grant Amount $1,582,636 of various kinds of divine action in ➏ out to the general public. Apple- philosophy and theology in the Ger- Funding Area: Philosophy and Theology gate actually enthuses about center- man-speaking world” for both schol- https://www.templeton.org/grant/ ing her outreach work “at churches, arly and lay audiences. “The aim of pursuing-the-unity-of-knowledge- Christian colleges, and conferences.” the project is to change minds by integrating-religion-science-and-the- drawing attention to and challenging academic-disciplines uncritical or uninformed presuppo- “Pursuing the Unity of Knowledge:

38 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org THE FIGHT FOR OUR PHILOSOPHY, PART 3—IS PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM FOR SALE?

debate—“Can resistance to free and Grant Amount $848,253 Grant Amount $295,880 ➒ ⓫ open dialogue between science and Funding Area: Philosophy and Theology Funding Area: Human Sciences religion be reduced?”—yet the em- https://www.templeton.org/grant/ https://www.templeton.org/grant/ phasis seems to be on seeking ways knowledge-beyond-natural-science motivated-cognitions-of-god-a- to make scientific critics of religion “Knowledge beyond Natural theoretical-and-empirical-framework- more accommodating toward faith: Science” and-computational-model “The ultimate vision is to cultivate Project Leader(s): Crispin Wright, “Motivated Cognitions of God: A humility and openness to competing Peter Sullivan Theoretical and Empirical Framework ideas.” One gathers that most of this Grantee(s): University of Stirling and Computational Model” humility is to be cultivated by parti- March 2017–November 2019 Project Leader(s): Jennifer Talevich, sans of science. Stephen Read “‘How is it possible to know of my Grantee(s): University of Southern own psychological states for the most ⓭ Grant Amount $217,400 California part effortlessly and authoritatively?’ September 2014–February 2017 Funding Area: Natural Sciences ‘How is it possible to know substan- https://www.templeton.org/grant/ tive facts of logic and mathematics, “There is as yet no comprehensive the-meaning-of-life-project applicable to the natural world, just theory for understanding people’s re- “The Meaning of Life Project” by thinking?’” The applicants pro- lationships with God,” the applicants Project Leader(s): Stewart Goetz, Tim pose “a sustained, coordinated col- write. This project seeks to fill that Mawson laboration on these two great and alleged gap, initially by constructing Grantee(s): Ursinus College intransigent philosophical problems” “three neural network models of how December 2016–November 2018 that just happen to be the principal humans and gods are represented in objections nonnaturalists raise to the terms of each of two behavioral sys- During 2017, this Oxford project will idea of human cognition as a wholly tems (attachment and power).” Does “research historical Christian thought natural, physical process. that sound scientific? Unfortunately, about life’s meaning and what, if any, the applicants then plan experiments bearing the thought of contemporary in the course of which “we will gen- naturalistic evolutionary biology has ➓ Grant Amount $300,907 erate a Taxonomy of Prayers and two on it.” In summer 2018, it will hold a Funding Area: Human Sciences implicit measures including an im- conference “consisting of daily meet- https://www.templeton.org/grant/ plicit measure of Attachment to God, ings for Christian seminary profes- everything-happens-for-a-reason- an implicit measure of the Power of sors, clergy, para-church workers, and seeing-gods-handiwork-behind-life- God, a Power of God Scale and Pres- leaders of high-school church groups events ence of God Measure.” about the meaning of life, based in “‘Everything Happens for a Reason’: part on what we learned from our Seeing God’s Handiwork Behind Life work” during 2017. The larger ob- Grant Amount $292,917 Events” ⓬ jective is, apparently, to arm Chris- Project Leader(s): Paul Bloom Funding Area: Natural Sciences tian apologists with new arguments Grantee(s): Yale University https://www.templeton.org/grant/ against evolutionary thought. August 2014–January 2017 humility-versus-hostility-in-public- discourse-bridging-the-divide- Given that “many people believe ⓮ Grant Amount $217,399 between-science-and-religion that life events happen for a rea- “Humility versus Hostility in Public Funding Area: Philosophy and Theology son,” which naturalists might study Discourse: Bridging the Divide https://www.templeton.org/grant/ as a common error, applicant Paul between Science and Religion” putting-the-buddhismscience- Bloom—yes, the prominent psychol- Project Leader(s): Albert Gunther dialogue-on-a-new-footing ogist and author of books including Grantee(s): University of Wisconsin- “Putting the Buddhism/Science Against Empathy: The Case for Ra- Madison Dialogue on a New Footing” tional Compassion—seeks to explore September 2011–July 2014 Project Leader(s): William Waldron, “the cognitive and cultural under- Clifford Saron pinnings of people’s belief in life’s This proposal dismisses the idea that Grantee(s): Mangalam Research purpose and explores the relationship science and religion may be in con- Center for Buddhist Languages between this belief and belief in God.” flict as “polarized, partisan and intol- March 2017–February 2018 erant of other viewpoints.” It seeks to increase civility in the science-religion This “transdisciplinary” project asks:

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 39 “1) Can the encounter of scientists valid facets of these empirical studies from this, some naturalists conclude with Buddhist contemplative tradi- of morality” and thereby “model a that mind is monistic and physical, tions—which emphasize close ob- form of science-engaged theology inseparable from brain function. Since servation of first-person experi- that is appreciative without being un- this position contradicts traditional ence—expand the scope, design, critical.” Lawyers have a phrase—Res religious beliefs, the applicant pro- and explanatory power of scientific ipsa loquitur—that means “The thing poses to examine related issues more investigation, which typically focuses speaks for itself.” deeply in light of recent physics, hop- on third-person measures? 2) Can ing to “help various audiences to see foundational Buddhist ideas such as the value of seeking the new spiritual ⓰ Grant Amount $198,536 dependent arising, emptiness, and information available empirically from the constructed self enrich emerging Funding Area: Philosophy and Theology places such as neuroscience.” Once theoretical and methodological ap- https://www.templeton.org/grant/ again: Res ipsa loquitur. proaches in the mind sciences that how-can-we-discover-the-properties- seek to move beyond subject-object of-god ⓲ Grant Amount $33,051 dualism?” What makes me think the “How Can We Discover the answer will never be no? Properties of God?” Funding Area: Philosophy and Theology Project Leader(s): Jeff Speaks https://www.templeton.org/grant/ Grantee(s): University of Notre Dame naturalism-and-its-discontents December 2014–August 2017 “Naturalism and Its Discontents” Project Leader(s): Kelly James Clark The applicant seeks funding for an Grantee(s): Kaufman Interfaith extended sabbatical to research the Institute most important “question in the phi- January 2013–December 2014 losophy of religion … the question “The larger objective of what God is like—of what the In this proposal, Kelly James Clark properties of God are.” Conventional seeks support for an effort already is, apparently, to arm characterizations of God describing underway to edit a book critical of Christian apologists the deity as the most perfect being naturalism in the guise of a presum- with new arguments “need to be re-thought from the ably objective reference work (see beginning,” and so he must “explore Tom Flynn, “The Corruption of Philos- against evolutionary alternative methodologies for phil- ophy?” in this issue). “I propose a book,” thought.” osophical theology.” The applicant Clark wrote, “attractively written and expects to complete this task by com- published in an important series, on pleting “two semesters of leave from naturalism and its shortcomings … teaching, two summers of funding with theists/non-naturalists getting for research,” attending three confer- the last word in every section. … This ⓯ Grant Amount $217,332 ences, and running a small workshop. will instantly become the standard One wonders that no one else ever reference work on naturalism.” It is Funding Area: Philosophy and Theology thought of that. worthwhile to visit the website (above) https://www.templeton.org/grant/ and read this revealing passage in its science-engaged-theological-ethics- entirety, or just examine the screen and-moral-psychology ⓱ Grant Amount $192,282 grab on p. 36. “Science-Engaged Theological Funding Area: Philosophy and Theology Ethics and Moral Psychology” https://www.templeton.org/grant/ Project Leader(s): Neil Arner the-mind-body-problem-and- Grantees: University of Notre Dame conservation-laws-from-a-priori-to-a- June 2017–May 2020 posteriori “The Mind-Body Problem and This project seeks to “implement a Conservation Laws: From A Priori to jointly scientific, philosophical, and A Posteriori” theological critique” of “recent bio- Project Leader(s): James Pitts logical accounts of morality … that Grantee(s): University of Cambridge purport to refute or render irrelevant December 2016–September 2018 theological accounts of ethics.” It hopes to “illustrate how theological Physical conservation laws appear to ethics can positively appropriate the be violated by mind-body dualism; Tom Flynn is editor of Free Inquiry.

40 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org THE FIGHT FOR OUR PHILOSOPHY, PART 3—IS PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM FOR SALE?

The Scientists and the Philosophers Should Be Friends

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

I’d like to teach you all a little saying of what philosophy is about; And learn the words by heart the way you should 2. Incoherent, because in order to make their case, philoso- I don’t say I am better than anybody else phy-jeerers must engage in philosophy; and But I’ll be danged if I ain’t just as good! 3. Irresponsible, because this does happen to be a moment in our species’ history when we’re faced with alarming “The Farmers and the Cowboys Should Be extremes of irrationality, and we need all the resources Friends,” Oklahoma! Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein of reason that we can muster.

here’s been a recent outbreak of philosophy-jeering I’m going to concentrate on the first point: the claim on the part of some prominent scientists in both that the pro-reason philosophy-jeerer doesn’t know what Tthe United States and United Kingdom. Whether in the point of philosophy is, which will force me to say what books, interviews, or tweets, some of our most high-profile its point actually is. scientists have gone out of their way to opine on the mortal state of philosophy, either declaring its death a thing most devoutly to be wished for or already dancing on its grave. These gratuitous slams are at odds with the “Analytic philosophy … is the philosophical respectful attitudes of such former scientific lu- approach that dominates in both minaries as Albert Einstein,1 and they call out for the United States and United Kingdom.” explanation, especially since, almost to a man, the philosophy-jeerers in question are active in the pro-reason secularist movement. The fact that philosophy is, together with science, so essential a resource of reason adds an element of irony to these displays of contempt. Here a slight complication presents itself. Because there But the recent outbreak of philosophy-jeering is more are divergent approaches to philosophy, no one philosoph- than ironic. It is: ical mission statement will draw the assent of all philosophers, no more than one scientific mission statement will 1. Ill-informed, because it is based on a misunderstanding draw the assent of all scientists.2 I’m going to confine myself to discussing analytic philosophy (an approach that values clarity and precision, à la David Hume and Bertrand Russell, 1. “I fully agree with you about the significance and educational value of methodology as well as history and philosophy of science. So many people today—and even professional scientists—seem to me 2. Consider the raucous debates among scientists regarding interpre- like somebody who has seen thousands of trees but has never seen tations of quantum mechanics, exposing the differences between the a forest. A knowledge of the historic and philosophical background “instrumentalists” who see the point of science in churning out pre- gives that kind of independence from prejudices of his generation dictions and “realists” who see the point of science in extending our from which most scientists are suffering. This independence created knowledge of reality beyond what can be attained through sensory by philosophical insight is—in my opinion—the mark of distinction be- experiences. And these differences don’t confine themselves to the tween a mere artisan or specialist and a real seeker after truth.” Albert mission-statement level but yield differences of opinion regarding sci- Einstein to Robert A. Thornton, December 7, 1944, EA 61-574. entific practice as well.

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 41 and shares with science an antipathy for self-enclosed and justice to the creatively freewheeling character of science, obscure thought-systems, à la Hegel, Sartre, and Derrida), the ways in which it utilizes intuitions and even aesthetic and my reasons for doing so are several. judgments; nor to the widely differing types of cognitive First, it is the philosophical approach that dominates activities, and thus talents, that are required by the scien- in both the United States and United Kingdom. So when tific enterprise, with variations depending on the kind of American and British scientists opine regarding philosophy, problem being pursued. Science is less a method and more this is the kind of philosophy they ought to be discussing. a grab-bag utilizing a variety of cognitive capacities: data Don’t indict the field by quoting some provocation by gathering and analysis, theorizing, modeling, mathematical Slavoj Žižek. To an analytic philosopher, that is as compel- deduction, and experimentation. ling as indicting modern medicine by citing the failure of A geologist taking samples in order to determine the homeopathy. physical characteristics of soil and rocks to test for thermal Second, analytic philosophy is the approach that is itself resistance is engaging in quite different mental work from a so receptive to science that its scientific orientation can cognitive scientist building a computer simulation of long- well serve as its defining characteristic. So if the philoso- term memory, or a computational biologist sifting through phy-jeerer wants to dismiss the entire field, he or she must Big Data in order to locate genomic polymorphisms, or produce an argument sufficiently strong to undermine the a theoretical physicist developing the implications of the philosophical approach that defines itself in its sympathetic eleven dimensions of M theory, or an even more theoretical relationship toward science. One undermines a position physicist developing the idea of a multiverse as a solution only by undermining its strongest formulation. to the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. And yet, amid the plurality of scientific activities there is a distinguishing aspect of the scientific enterprise, which has to do with the way in which science self-corrects and the way in which science implicates reality in the self-correction. Science is the enterprise that prods reality to answer us back when we’re getting it wrong. “Some of what goes by the name One might disagree on how the scientific enterprise reacts in the face of reality’s push- of philosophy degrades into nothing back—whether science revises itself gleefully, as more than ideology.” in Karl Popper’s depiction, in which all that scientists are really trying to do is falsify their own theories; or if rather the reaction is more in line with Thomas Kuhn’s account in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, with scientists cling- Third, analytic philosophy is the only kind of philosophy ing desperately to their cherished paradigms, willfully not I’m prepared to defend. Some of what goes by the name of seeing the contravening evidence. (Max Planck: “Science philosophy degrades into nothing more than ideology, by advances one funeral at a time.”) But that science does which I mean a rigid system of ideas that so vehemently re- actively provoke reality itself into telling us whether we’re jects any possibility of challenge as to transform conformity getting it wrong is its sine qua non. to itself into a veritable moral standard. Ideology, claiming Oh, so you think that simultaneity is absolute, do you? for itself the last word, is always fatal to the progress of rea- It seems intuitively obvious to you that two events are ei- son and thus to the progress of philosophy. For the remain- ther simultaneous or not, irrespective of which coordinate der of this essay, when I say “philosophy” I shall therefore systems, moving relative to each other, they happen to be mean analytic philosophy. And now to its point. measured in. We’ll just see about that! Relativity theory First, let me say what its point is not: Whatever it is prodded reality to answer us back and thereby challenge that philosophy is attempting to do with its distinctive set our deep intuition of time flowing at an absolute rate. of techniques, it is not attempting to compete with what It’s a real triumph for our species that we worked out science accomplishes with its own distinctive set of tech- such a grab-bag of techniques—observation, experimen- niques. tation, theorizing, mathematical description, modeling—in A few words about those scientific techniques, the so- order to modify and even discard some of our most pro- called “scientific method”—although that term is, I think, found intuitions about the nature of reality, about space rather misleading, suggesting that there is a numbered and time and causality and teleology and individuation, sequence of steps that a scientist goes through, methodi- by ingeniously provoking reality to answer us back. This cally, in order to achieve scientific results. That hardly does grab-bag has proved powerful, allowing us progressively

42 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org THE FIGHT FOR OUR PHILOSOPHY, PART 3—IS PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM FOR SALE?

more insight into the laws of nature, though, of course, ultimately futile philosophy is. Philosophy lives only to be every progressive step is provisional; no result stands im- made obsolete by science. Philosophy’s role in the business mune from a revision forced on us by further rebukes from of knowledge is to send up a signal reading Science des- reality that are elicited by those prods we deliberately inflict perately needed here. And when it makes any noises be- by way of controlled experiments. yond sending up such a signal, then it’s embarrassing itself, We could even say that there is something ethically as the advancing frontier of science will soon make clear. virtuous about this enterprise, a “collective virtue” that for- However, preparing the way for science is not the tunately doesn’t require any virtue on the part of individual point of philosophy. Philosophers don’t set out to opine scientific practitioners. Science expresses a humility that is prematurely regarding questions that will ultimately be highly appropriate for a pack of evolved apes to cultivate in transformed by the empirical sciences. Rather this historical the face of a reality that wasn’t designed with our cognitive fact is an artifact of what the real point of philosophy is: to faculties and capacities in mind. maximize our coherence by discovering and resolving the If philosophy set itself up as a competitor to science—if inconsistencies we accrue as we go about trying to get our it fancied that its specific techniques could offer a challenge bearings in the world, which is our distinctively human proj- to the grab-bag of techniques that science brings to bear ect. We are the species concerned with getting, in a very on describing what reality is like—then philosophy would broad sense, our bearings. We are concerned with getting be just as pathetically deluded as the scientific philosophy-jeerer thinks it is. His or her belief that philosophy must view itself as a rival to science is partly based on his or her not being able to conceive what useful intellectual work there can possibly be other than figuring out what exists. What else is human intelligence good “Whatever it is that philosophy is attempting for other than describing the nature of what is? Therefore, the philosophy-jeerer concludes, to do with its distinctive set of techniques, that must be what philosophy is up to—leading it is not attempting to compete with what to the charge that it is a delusional enterprise. science accomplishes with its And then there is a historical fact that also encourages this misinterpretation of what phi- own distinctive set of techniques.” losophy is up to, namely that philosophers have quite often posed questions that would turn out to be proto-scientific questions. They have speculated regarding questions that would eventually a handle on where we are: the nature of the world in which be taken up by scientists who would, using their grab-bag we find ourselves; what we are and how it fits into the rest of techniques, make cumulative progress toward answers of the world; and what we are supposed to be about, if in which reality itself collaborates, rendering the previous anything. philosophical speculations obsolete. And in the course of this attempt to get our bearings, So it was that all of physics and cosmology and biology we ask, broadly speaking, two fundamental questions: used to be contained within the province of philosophers, What is? and What matters? Posing these questions in until the scientific enterprise matured sufficiently to be able pursuit of our getting our bearings is, if not necessary for to transform them into sciences. Then it was the turn of psy- being human—after all, some are so deprived in their lives chology, and then linguistics, to remove themselves from as to be concerned almost exclusively with the sustaining of philosophy’s domain and reinvent themselves as sciences. them—at least sufficient. If and when computers start pon- And so it has gone: the scientific enterprise transforming dering these questions of what is and what matters, and es- philosophy’s airy-fairy speculations into a form that allows pecially if and when they start agonizing over whether they reality to tell us when we’re wrong—right down to our themselves matter, then what we’ll have in our world are own scientifically explosive period, when the advancement non–carbon-based humans, and we’ll be morally obliged of cognitive and affective neuroscience and evolutionary to regard them as such.3 psychology have moved human nature itself firmly into the orbit of science. 3. Then again, it might very well be that these questions come to us This is an old story, oft told, sometimes in order to so naturally because of our particular evolutionary history, and per- show how scientifically important philosophy is—after all, haps this is most particularly true in regard to our concerns with what it poses those science-generating questions—but, in the matters and, even more particularly, in regard to our concerns with whether we ourselves matter. If that’s the case, we may not ever find hands of the contemporary philosophy-jeerer, to show how computers becoming philosophical, no matter how computationally

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 43 By distinguishing between these two general questions Are there any kind of similarly effective techniques that I don’t mean to suggest that they can be neatly separated philosophy brings to bear on our human project of trying to from one another. They are, on the contrary, intimately get our bearings? What are its techniques good for eliciting entwined in complicated ways, the sorting out of which and discovering? typically falls within the sphere of philosophy. So, for exam- Inconsistencies: that’s what philosophy’s techniques are ple, what are the kinds of reasons that matter when we are good for eliciting and discovering, and so it has been ever making claims of what is? Epistemology is made from such since Socrates wandered the agora making such a supreme entanglements. Other ways in which the questions of what nuisance of himself that he was finally put to death by the is and what matters are entangled with one another should good citizens of Athens. The point of philosophy is to max- emerge in what I have to say below. imize the coherence among the multiplicity of propositions Let’s grant that we’ve got science to best answer what and propositional attitudes that we generate in the course is. To grant this is to grant the truth of naturalism. A strong of trying to get our bearings, which is why thought-exper- argument for naturalism falls out from the characterization iments, counterexamples, conceptual analysis, and formal of science given above. Science is, by definition, the meth- arguments trying to force all suppressed premises out into odology that enlists reality itself as collaborator, and what the open are such essential techniques of the discipline. methodology could possibly compete with so successful a These are all techniques designed not to prod reality into answering us back but rather to probe our own internal inconsistencies. Compartmental- ized creatures that we are, we cohabit happily with our contradictions. It’s philosophy’s goal to destroy that happiness. Philosophy shares with science an acknowledgment of human limitations. Like science, “Science is the enterprise that prods reality to there is a collective humility displayed in the answer us back when we’re getting it wrong.” enterprise, again, quite fortunately, requiring no humility on the part of individual practitioners. As science humbly recognizes that reality was not designed with our cognitive equipment in mind, so philosophy recognizes that we, who had the audacity to long ago de- collaboration? And we are, demonstrably, in need of some fine ourselves as the rational animal, display a remarkable such collaboration. Just because we have a distinctively facility for tolerating internal contradictions. For although human urge to get our bearings doesn’t mean that we’ve it may be in our nature to seek to get our bearings, it evolved brains designed for success in the project. There isn’t in our nature to be coherent in our seeking. For that is ample evidence that we are riddled with innate tenden- we require a discipline, a discipline that—just as science cies to, as David Hume had wonderfully put it, “spread does—goes against some of our most natural inclinations ourselves onto the world.” If we’re to reach justified true and patiently works to undo the fallacies toward which we beliefs about what is, we’re seriously in need of reality to are so forcefully driven. step in and give us a shove in the right direction—to sepa- Interestingly, there is one recent advance in science that rate what’s coming from the psychology within from what’s helps to explain why a discipline devoted to rigorously and coming from the reality without.4 systematically maximizing coherence is so necessary. I’m referring to evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary psychology extends the explanatory ap- superior to us they become. Perhaps our being philosophical is due to a distinctive bug in our system implanted by the contingencies of paratus of the “selfish gene” to explain many features of evolution. As the philosopher Luciano Floridi recently put it, “... I sus- human nature, including our being predisposed toward pect that AI will help us identify the irreproducible, strictly human el- certain propositional attitudes, with which our more delib- ements of our existence, and make us realize that we are exceptional erating selves might find themselves in conflict. As living only insofar as we are successfully dysfunctional.” (“Charting Our AI organisms we are primed, unthinkingly, to do all we can to Future,” Project Syndicate. https://www.project-syndicate.org/com- mentary/human-implications-of-artificial-intelligence-by-luciano-floridi-2017-01.) and scientific realism, there are, for example, the problems presented 4. Notice that this argument for naturalism, though it designates sci- to us by mathematics, a discipline fundamental to science. Does math- ence as ontological arbiter, is itself philosophical. And naturalism intro- ematics commit us to an expansion of ontology—a realm of objec- duces a multitude of further philosophical questions regarding which tively existing numbers and sets, as mathematical realists assert? Or is specific claims regarding what is are actually entailed by science. Be- mathematics ontologically empty, as formalists assert? The argument sides the philosophical differences between scientific instrumentalism for naturalism by no means ends the philosophical discussion.

44 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org THE FIGHT FOR OUR PHILOSOPHY, PART 3—IS PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM FOR SALE?

thrive; to be more precise, we are primed, unthinkingly, to the same order of complexity, each of which purports to be do all we can to increase the probability that copies of our a complete picture of man-in-the-world, and which, after genes will be perpetuated into future generations. separate scrutiny, he must fuse into one vision.” But we have also evolved to be reason-giving creatures. The scientific image is the ever-expanding objective We offer reasons for our beliefs, and we offer reasons for description of us that we derive from our self-correcting our actions, and the reasons we are prepared to give to our- scientific theories. Updating to now, this would include a selves and to one another in accounting for our beliefs and description of us in terms of cognitive and affective neuro- behavior make no mention of the machinations of the self- science and evolutionary psychology. Sellars explains the ish gene. No wonder we evolved into compartmentalized manifest image as the framework of concepts and assump- creatures able to withstand incoherence, including moral tions and standards “in terms of which man came to be incoherence, for such compartmentalization serves the pur- aware of himself as man-in-the-world. It is the framework poses of those strategizing genes, which certainly have no in terms of which, to use an existentialist turn of phrase, stake in our being either rational or moral. But we do, and man first encountered himself—which is, of course, when hence the necessity of a discipline devoted to making us he came to be man. For it is no merely incidental feature so, which is precisely what philosophy is. of man that he has a conception of himself as man-in-the- There is some irony in the fact that the very advances world, just as it is obvious, on reflection, that if man had in our scientific knowledge of human nature explaining our a radically different conception of himself, he would be a wondrously elastic facility for faulty reasoning and self-deceptions—yes, even of the smartest among us—should coincide with the dismissal of the discipline devoted to maximizing our coherence. The new sciences of human nature offer enlightening explanations for why our brain, built to protect the self, produces beliefs that “Preparing the way for science preserve our sense of self. I’ve often wondered, when hearing otherwise intelligent people em- is not the point of philosophy.” barrassing themselves while opining on philosophy, whether their own sense of self demands the delegitimizing of a discipline in which they suspect they may not excel. radically different kind of man.” When I was a graduate student, I was much disposed We come to our project of trying to get our bearings toward tormenting myself over why I was in a philosophy equipped with a framework, some core of which is so es- department rather than a physics department. One mo- sential that it is necessary for us to possess in order to pur- ment I was in a class in quantum mechanics, asking ques- sue recognizably human lives. Essential to this framework is tions of my professor to which his answer was usually some our holding ourselves accountable, both to others and to variation on Richard Feynman’s “shut up and calculate,” ourselves, for our beliefs and actions. When challenged for and then the next, or so it sometimes seemed to me, I was why we’ve done A or believe P, we come up with some rea- a graduate student specializing in philosophy of science. son to offer in response—not necessarily a good reason but Perhaps I’d been a bit too impetuous in swapping my areas some reason. And if our reasons are themselves challenged, of concentration. In the midst of my crisis, I came across then we’ll offer reasons for our reasons, acknowledging that Wilfrid Sellars’s article “Philosophy and the Scientific Image all of these aspects of ourselves—our actions, our beliefs, of Man.” The vision of philosophy Sellars proposed dulled and our reasons for our actions and our beliefs—are subject my torment, and I’ve carried it with me ever since—not to evaluation. This view of ourselves as reason-giving crea- entirely in the same form in which I’d first encountered it tures, who are thus subject to evaluations, is so constitutive but close enough. of our self-conception that, without it, we would be differ- Sellars agrees that the proper agenda of philosophy ent kinds of creatures, “a radically different kind of man.” lies in mediating among simultaneously held points of view Our having an ever-expanding scientific image of our- with the aim of integrating them into a coherent whole. selves is itself an extension of this aspect of our image of For Sellars, the philosophical focus is trained on the border ourselves as reason-giving creatures, applying evaluative between what he calls the “scientific image of man-in-the- standards to the reasons we give. We can’t give up on world” and the “manifest image of man-in-the-world”: “For either of the two images of us-in-the-world without destroy- the philosopher is confronted not by one complex many- ing the other, which again demonstrates how the questions dimensional picture, the unity of which, such as it is, he of what is and what matters are thoroughly enmeshed with must come to appreciate; but by two pictures of essentially each other.

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 45 But sometimes there is a clash between these two im- for the first time, made consciousness—that internal world ages of us-in-the-world, the scientific and the manifest, and of our experiences—emerge as a philosophical problem then which is to prevail? This depends, must necessarily de- so prominent that Arthur Schopenhauer dubbed it “the pend, on the particular case at hand, since both images are world-knot.” Nowadays we refer to it as “the hard problem so intimately involved in our being the bearings-seeking, of consciousness.” It is the quintessential problem of trying sense-making, reason-giving creatures that we are. to reconcile the scientific and manifest images of us: What Resolving these tensions, with the goal of fusing them is the scientific description of our brains, whether in terms into a maximally coherent vision, cannot be accomplished of its neurological hardware or computational software, that through science. That is Sellars’s essential point. We cannot will be able to capture the internal world of conscious life get reality to answer us back in regard to the issues that awash with the qualitative details that constitute our most arise in reconciling the scientific and the manifest images of immediate sense of both the world and of ourselves? us. It’s in these clashes that the signal sent up doesn’t read, And speaking of ourselves, does our most updated can’t possibly read, “Science desperately needed here,” neuro-scientific image leave any room for such a thing as but rather “Philosophy desperately needed here.”5 the self? There is of course that thing, the brain, consisting A whole class of such problems emerged in the seven- of a hundred billion neurons, connected by a hundred teenth century, at precisely the time that both modern sci- trillion synapses. But that brain hasn’t a clue as to what is ence and, not coincidentally, modern philosophy emerged. going on in those trillions of neurons and synapses. The The new mathematical conception of matter forced a reck- unifying diachronic perspective that we demand of the self, maintaining its identity over the course of a lifetime, seems excluded from the scientific image. Must we then rid ourselves of the notion of a unified self? Or is this commitment to a self so fundamental an “In the course of this attempt to get our aspect of the manifest image that excising bearings we ask, broadly speaking, it would render incoherent the entire idea two fundamental questions: of pursuing a human life? Whose life, after all, is one pursuing? What is? and What matters?” Does the neuro-scientific image of us likewise corrode the manifest sense we have that we are agents, deliberating oning with our manifest intuition that “the external world” among options and, for better or for worse, choosing? is exactly as it is presented to us in sensory experience. In Does it leave any room for accountability, for not only our fact, the very concept of “the external world,” as opposed actions but also our beliefs? And if it doesn’t, well then to the internal world of our experiences, was of a piece doesn’t that in itself undermine the scientific image along with this philosophical reckoning, along with many other with the manifest image? If there’s no accountability for our concepts and distinctions that became so accepted as to beliefs, no way of evaluating which are justified and, ratio- be considered part of the scientific image itself.6 nally, choosing to believe on this basis, then how can we And this new mathematical conception of matter also, even endorse the scientific image? Reason itself unravels at that point. 5. One need not be a professional philosopher to tackle these prob- Such questions emerge from the tensions between the lems. Philosophically gifted scientists are in an ideal position to wrestle scientific and manifest image of us, and they demand that with philosophy. The first sign of having such gifts is to recognize the true nature of the problem and the kind of extra-scientific reasoning we try to reconcile these two images in such a way as to called for. maximize our overall coherence. Science, with its nifty trick 6. For example, the mathematical reconceptualization of matter of enlisting reality as a collaborator, can’t help us out here, prompted the distinction drawn between properties, such as position, since there’s no way for reality to answer us back regarding motion, shape and size, which, being mathematically expressible, truly how to reconcile these two images. These are prototypical inherent in matter, and other properties, such as colors, smells, and odors, which, eluding mathematical expression, exist only in our expe- philosophical problems, of just the kind Sellars identified, riences of matter, caused by the interactions between matter’s proper- pressed upon us because of advances in the scientific ties and our own sensory organs. So our experience of, for example, image of us-in-the-world but not answerable by means of red, is the result of the interactions between the physiology of our that image. eyes and the light waves reflected off of objects that are absorbing Sellars’s way of demonstrating the need for philosophy all but the longest light waves that our eyes can detect. It was such seventeenth-century thinkers as Boyle, Galileo, Descartes, and Locke is particularly appealing to those among us who deem who first drew the distinction between the so-called primary and sec- science the ontological arbiter. It satisfied me as a grad ondary qualities. student. But I’ve come, over the years, to think of the class

46 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org THE FIGHT FOR OUR PHILOSOPHY, PART 3—IS PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM FOR SALE?

of philosophical problems that Sellars had identified as only It was, of course, the Enlightenment that promoted reason a sub-class, not exhaustive of all the kinds of clashes that as the only reliable means we have to pursue our distinctively lay within philosophy’s domain. Philosophy isn’t confined to human project of trying to get our bearings. The progress trying to reconcile the scientific and manifest images. There that the Enlightenment unleashed regarding the questions are tensions deriving from inconsistencies within the mani- both of what is and what matters has carried us forward to fest image itself, some of them leading to our moral incon- this moment, when we can discourse knowledgably not only sistencies, which, precisely because they’re so self-serving, about the universal stochastic laws of quantum mechanics but are particularly fugitive. also about universal human rights. Moral philosophy has had a long history of chasing From its very beginning, the Enlightenment attracted down such inconsistencies, which typically consist in our vicious attacks—from religion, of course, whose authority endorsing moral principles while simultaneously engaging over claims both of what is and what matters was being chal- in practices that violate them, most especially when those lenged, but also from various political thinkers on both the practices harm only those quite unlike ourselves, with Right and the Left. These attacks continue into our own day. whom we don’t identify sufficiently to release our empa- A common claim against the Enlightenment has always thetic response. (This suppression of empathy can also be been, and continues to be, that reason can provide no explained by way of evolution.) From the sixteenth century’s basis for morality. To anyone familiar with the long history Jean Bodin, a philosopher and jurist who formulated the of moral philosophy, this claim sounds as astoundingly un- first arguments against slavery,7 to the contemporary phi- informed as the assertion that science has provided us no losopher Peter Singer, whose “argument of the drowning basis for believing there are laws of nature. Unfortunately, child” spawned the effective altruism movement,8 philoso- the pro-Enlightenment philosophy-jeerer, with an impover- phy’s techniques for detecting inconsistencies has nudged ished grasp of the full resources of reason, is in no position us in the direction of moral progress. to defend the Enlightenment against such absurdities. And It is an aspect of our manifest image that our inconsis- when he or she climbs a soapbox as a celebrity scientist to tencies, once clearly seen, disturb us, and this is the aspect demean philosophy, he or she weakens the very cause of to which philosophy addresses itself. We may well hide reason the philosophy-jeerer seeks to defend. from our contradictions when they serve our desires and in- We are, at this moment, facing newly invigorated forces terests. But if the arguments exposing these contradictions of irrationality. Tribalism and authoritarianism are reassert- become sufficiently compelling—most especially if they ing themselves across the globe. These, too, are means for gain traction with others in our community—the discomfort trying to gain our bearings, which, being primitive, come grows. Eventually a change in moral sensibilities emerges to us far more naturally and forcefully than do scientific and and will be viewed as “what all decent folks feel.” We look philosophical reason. Tribalism and authoritarianism are back on our slave-owning, wife-beating, witch-and-here- where our species began, and, over the course of our long tic–burning, gay-stoning ancestors and wonder how they history, almost every variation of them has been tried. The could have lived with themselves. As with the philosophical outcomes, even when not disastrous, are never as condu- conclusions that gradually become incorporated into the cive to human flourishing as the states of affairs to which scientific image, these changes too obscure philosophy’s reason has brought us. With so much to lose, we need to role in reason’s progress. And out of this obscurity arises the marshal the full resources of human reason. contemporary philosophy-jeerer’s charge that philosophy, The philosophy-jeerer’s denial of philosophy’s role, unlike science, never makes any progress at all. merely embarrassing in the recent past, now becomes something far more dangerous, allied with the most omi- 7. See his Six Books of the Commonwealth, Book I, Chapter 5, pub- nous recent developments threatening to reverse all the lished in 1576. Bodin sought to undermine the universally accepted progress we have made. The scientists and the philoso- claim that some are born with traits rendering them suitable to be phers should be friends. slaves, while others’ traits render them suitable to be free. Bodin bold- ly argued that “We must not measure the laws of nature by men’s actions, be they ever so old and inveterate.” 8. Suppose you are wearing your very best suit and shoes and pass a pond in which a child is drowning. You don’t know this child and are very fond of your snazzy duds. Would you nevertheless wade into the pond and save the child? Nobody has to think twice to say yes. Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is a philosopher and novelist. She has written ten The argument then challenges you to formulate how this imagined books, including Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away situation is different from the real situation those of us who are well off (Pantheon, 2014). She has won numerous awards for her fiction and scholarship, enough to spend money on all kinds of luxuries find ourselves in, with including a MacArthur fellowship. In 2015, she received the National Humanities impoverished children whom we might save from death and disease Medal from President Barack Obama. Goldstein is a laureate of the International by forking over the money we spend on ourselves. Can the fact that we just don’t happen to see them dying before our eyes make any Academy of Humanism, a project of the Council for Secular Humanism, and an moral difference? And if not, then what does? Honorary Director of the Center for Inquiry.

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 47 The Fight for Our Philosophy, Part 3 A Symposium in Print Daniel C. Dennett, Honorary Chair In Closing

Judy Walker and Tom Flynn

e would like to thank all of our contributors to this Secular humanism is not a religion. It is in part a world feature for their assistance, most especially our view, in part a methodology. Yet in terms of the human WHonorary Chair, Daniel C. Dennett. needs it can meet, secular humanism does many of the This three-part feature has examined the links between things worth doing that historical religions have done in secular humanism and philosophy, along with the future of times past. But it avoids many of the things not worth academic philosophy in the United States, from a rich vari- doing into which, all too often, historical religions have ety of viewpoints. Actually, “rich variety” is an understate- leapt headlong. Dogmatism, superstition, the fantasy that ment; some contributors to this feature have argued that individual conviction or even certainty can trump reality as secular humanism is not necessarily connected with natu- regarded by multiple observers—these are the landmarks ralism or that we must guard against embracing naturalism of religion’s “dark side.” The intellectual toolkit that secular too tightly lest we tumble into the abyss of scientism. Yet humanists rely on to avoid that odious terrain has its roots others probed the distinction between methodological nat- in philosophical naturalism. uralism and its more ambitious sibling, philosophical nat- Philosophical naturalism informs, guides, and strength- ens secular humanism. To us, that is a connection to be celebrated. So, by way of review, are secular humanists naturalists? Yes! Secular human- “Philosophers and scientists can work together, ists seek to construct the good life in an each discipline exploiting its distinctive strengths undirected universe in which no higher to enhance the growth of knowledge while equip- mind observes, much less directs, the blind play of physical forces—a universe ping us to guard against all-too-human error.” in which “spiritual” entities or energies have no place. Moreover, we recognize that this view of life is, at least for now, in- herently a minority worldview, inevitably embattled. Too many know they would uralism, contending that naturalism’s more muscular form feel more comfortable if naturalism were untrue; too many best suits the secular humanist agenda. Still others shed others just don’t know any better. light on ways in which philosophers and scientists can work We should never forget that we stand continually before together, each discipline exploiting its distinctive strengths adversaries who will try to overturn our viewpoint if they to enhance the growth of knowledge while equipping us to can. That’s why we believe that when secular humanists guard against all-too-human error. present themselves with any hints of nonnaturalism or With the discussions at an end (in this feature, at least), anti-naturalism, negative consequences result. Those who we two coeditors continue to uphold philosophical natural- interact with us can be misled into thinking that we accept ism as an indispensable component of secular humanism. the supernatural after all, and that therefore our arguments To us, secular humanism buttressed by a naturalistic philos- for a naturalistic worldview need not be taken seriously. ophy underwrites a fully satisfying alternative to worldviews Of greater concern in today’s climate, portraying hu- based upon any form of theology, religion, or “religious” manism in a less-than-fully naturalistic way can play straight experience. into the hands of the John Templeton Foundation. Since

48 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org THE FIGHT FOR OUR PHILOSOPHY, PART 3—IS PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM FOR SALE?

1987, that organization has spent hundreds of millions of philosophy with a thoroughgoing naturalism at its heart. dollars trying to sell such doubtful narratives as that science We secular humanists are advocates. We defend and and religion can be deeply compatible, or that certain psy- promote an outlook, a method, a way of viewing the world chological phenomena are best understood by presuming that is (as the saying goes) utterly without invisible means of that an otherworldly or “spiritual” spark undergirds them. support. We need to “come out” as atheists and humanists In that pursuit, the Foundation has striven to change the and naturalists. (The Center for Inquiry’s Openly Secular way disciplines from science to philosophy view religion. It campaign has done some excellent organizing work along provides immense financial incentives to academics willing these lines.) to speak or write fondly of faith and woo. In academic phi- Armed with our naturalistic philosophy, we gratefully losophy, where big-ticket foundation grants were previously enlist the support of academic philosophers and other rare, those financial incentives may be not merely immense educators who can help us. We are also proud of our intel- but overwhelming. lectually curious readers, ready and willing to take action to Make no mistake; mostly under the radar, the Temple- defend their positions and civil rights. It’s great to discuss ton Foundation is striving to overturn the naturalistic con- all of these issues among ourselves, but that’s only the sensus in philosophy and—if it can—at least to bend the beginning. We also have a responsibility to communicate consensus away from naturalism, even in the sciences. The in every area of our daily lives that naturalism—not super- hope is to build a deceptively soothing, “open-minded,” naturalism—provides a philosophical framework (a sense of ostensibly philosophical amalgamation of science and reli- coherence, as Rebecca Goldstein would say) for everything gion, subtly redefining even the word naturalism to include religious language and concepts. This is nothing less than an attempt to turn the clock back “Secular humanism buttressed by a naturalistic toward mysticism and ultimately philosophy underwrites a fully satisfying supernaturalism. Along the way, Templeton plays a clever, ob- alternative to worldviews based upon any form o fuscating game that sometimes f theology, religion, or ‘religious’ experience.” veers into ethically questionable territory.1 What might be Templeton’s long-term strategy? We think it is girding to compete hard for one of our own markets, the “Nones.” As demographer Ryan T. that we could (or should) ever need or want from a compre- Cragun revealed, the “spiritual but not religious” popula- hensive, fully satisfying worldview. tion appears to be growing much faster than the number of That worldview is secular humanism. We care about secular humanists who take their naturalism straight.2 Else- reason and science, without in any way undermining our where, Cragun and CFI Board Member Barry Kosmin wrote: understanding and appreciation of other disciplines and “The religious are claiming territory that should belong to endeavors so long as they don’t contradict the best of what the humanists.”3 Templeton strategists may hope that they reason and science can teach us. We won’t sit back and let can exploit the division between secular humanists on the another theological Great Awakening define our age. one hand and congregational humanists and religious Hu- In spite of inevitable threats and controversies, we know manists on the other, pulling the latter back in toward faith where we stand. Immodest as it might sound, we are build- by portraying religion’s ideas as falsely equivalent to those ing a good and beautiful lifestance with the truth. of science. We should see it as part of our secular humanist agenda to guide Nones and less-secular humanists toward full secularism and naturalism. As we said in our introduction to Part 1 of this series: Tom Flynn is the editor of Free Inquiry, the executive director of the Council for Secular yes, we care about philosophy, and we have one. It is a Humanism, the director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Museum, and the editor of the New Encyclopedia of Unbelief (2007). Judy Walker has degrees in sociology, anthro- 1. See Tom Flynn, “The Corruption of Philosophy?” in this issue. pology, and law. She has served as an Assistant Colorado Attorney General represent- 2. Ryan T. Cragun, “Finding Humanists in Survey Data,” FI, August/ ing Colorado state institutions of higher education and in key positions in development September 2017. for the University of Colorado. She is currently a CFI Institute fellow specializing in philo- 3. Ryan T. Cragun and Barry Kosmin, “Repackaging Humanism as sophical naturalism and a former CFI board member. Her work has been published in ‘Spirituality’: Religion’s New Wedge Strategy for Higher Education,” FI, June/July 2011. Free Inquiry magazine and other philosophical and freethought publications.

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 49 DOERR’S WAY

Al Gore’s Good but Incomplete Sequel Edd Doerr

rammed with charts, graphics, Reason (Penguin Press, 306 pp.) in the radation; biodiversity loss; worsening maps, and photos, Al Gore’s October/November 2007 issue of Free hurricane strength (as in the recent C2006 book and film An Inconve- Inquiry. It strongly defended church- Harvey, Irma, and Maria events) fol- nient Truth (Rodale, 327 pp.) made it state separation and appropriately lowed by increasing insurance rates and abundantly clear that climate change slammed both the “Theocratic Right” rebuilding costs; more tornadoes; more is all too real, that it seriously threatens and the misadventures of the George invasive species increases; more and our whole planet, and that climate and W. Bush administration. more damaging wildfires (as in the west- other scientists almost unanimously But no matter how good and use- ern United States); red tides and algae agree that it is caused mainly by human ful the “Inconvenient” books are, blooms; shrinking supplies of sea foods, activity. Only an arrogant ignoramus they have a serious flaw, as I noted on which many millions of people de- could fail to agree. The book and in reviewing the newer one on Ama- pend; more infectious disease vectors, film featured the famous hockey-stick zon. While the earlier one displayed affecting both humans and food ani- graphic showing that world population the hockey-stick graphic showing the mals; increasing precipitation and dam- has grown from 2.3 billion in 1945 to tripling of world population from the aging floods; food and drinking water 6.5 billion in 2006 and will reach 9.1 end of World War II to 2006, it did not shortages; pandemic diseases; greatly billion by 2050. The book and film won suggest what might be done about it, increased flows of refugees from Africa, Gore the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. and the later one does not deal with the Middle East, and so on; rising sea Gore’s 2017 book and film, An In- the population problem at all. Also, the levels, with 40 percent of world popula- convenient Sequel: Truth to Power earlier one estimated the 2050 world tion living in coastal areas (think of New (Rodale, 319 pp.) updates his earlier population at 9.1 billion, but the lat- York, Florida, the Chesapeake Bay area, book and adds new documentation— est estimate by experts puts the 2050 Shanghai, Hong Kong, London, Lagos, again with an abundance of charts, population at 9.8 billion, according to a Buenos Aires, Mumbai, Kolkata, and graphics, maps, and photos. What is September 2 article in the international others). All of this is related to global particularly new is its demonstration news journal The Economist. warming. that utilization of solar and wind power Who cannot see that human over- Now let’s look at the list of causes of to replace fossil fuels has increased population has been fueling climate climate change: atmospheric carbon di- well beyond the expectations of 2006. change? Surely not Al Gore. oxide and methane buildup, with conse- What is also new is that nearly half of But before exploring this further, quent global warming; overuse of both the book is devoted to detailed rec- let’s briefly review all or most of the renewable and nonrenewable resources ommendations as to how everyone can concomitants of climate change, (coal, oil, natural gas, forest timber, fish, get involved in activity to “hasten the something we seldom see in popular cattle); deforestation (noting that tropi- solution to the climate crisis … espe- media reports on various aspects of cal forest soils are far more lacking in nu- cially on the part of the many millions the problem. This is a long, complex trients than, say, Iowa); soil erosion and of Americans who strongly oppose the list of causes and effects, all linked by nutrient loss; toxic waste accumulation; policies and proposals of the Trump intricate feedback loops. We’ll start arable land reduction; and increasing administration.” with the effects: melting Antarctic and sociopolitical instability and violence, Both books show clearly how cli- Greenland ice; retreating glaciers in as in Africa, the Middle East, South mate change actually affects the lives Asia, Europe, and North and South Asia, etc. But the main cause of climate of real people, here in America and America; melting permafrost and tun- change, of course, is human activity. throughout the world. dra ice; ocean acidification and tem- Not only is world population expected Before continuing, let me call atten- perature increases; coral reef deterio- to quadruple from 2.3 billion in 1945 to tion to my favorable review of Gore’s ration; soil moisture loss; soil erosion 9.8 billion by 2050, in the meantime we excellent 2007 book The Assault on and nutrient loss; environmental deg- humans will have been expanding our

50 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org per capita use of limited and dwindling to women due to lack of contraception ops (who are of course out of sync with natural resources. and adequate medical care. the majority of Catholics). But the rest of Scientists have researched and writ- So here we are in 2017 with a us need to stand up and resist. ten about this for decades. In 1975, the buffoon in the White House who has It goes without saying that the ma- Nixon/Ford administration produced pulled the United States out of the jority of Americans who understand the the National Security Study Memoran- 2015 Paris climate accord, stopped climate change crisis and who support dum 200 (NSSM 200) report, which ac- federal support for the UN Population women’s rights should take advantage knowledged the overpopulation prob- Fund, and reinstated the damaging of Gore’s worthwhile suggestions in lem and concluded that universal access Global Gag Rule issued by presidents both books for making our individual to contraception and abortion are indis- Reagan and the two Bushes but can- contributions to fighting climate change pensable. Mysteriously “classified” until celed by both Clinton and Obama. (conserve, reuse, recycle, consume less, 1989, it did not see the light of day until Trump, the thrice-married braggart drive better cars, eat less beef, etc.) and published by population scientist Ste- about grabbing women’s genitals, has engaging in the political process but phen Mumford in 1996 in his book The also indicated his hostility toward wom- also throwing our weight behind Life and Death of NSSM 200. en’s health, rights of conscience, and Planned Parenthood, NARAL, Popula- “No country has reduced its pop- religious liberty with regard to contra- tion Connection, and all the other ulation growth without resorting to ception and safe legal abortion. groups fighting for women’s rights. The abortion,” NSSM 200 noted. When And now Al Gore’s otherwise very clock is ticking ever faster. the report was completed, there were good new book ignores the overpopu- an estimated thirty million abortions lation and access to contraception and worldwide annually. That figure now tops abortion rights issues altogether. Gore Edd Doerr is a writer, former public school fifty-five million, and far too many of the surely knows better. Why, Al? Why? teacher of history and Spanish, president of procedures are illegal and dangerous Of course Trump and conservative Americans for Religious Liberty, former president to women. And this says nothing about politicians are afraid of the power of the of the American Humanist Association, and author the vast numbers of deaths and injuries Theocratic Right and the Catholic bish- of sixty books and sections of books.

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secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 51 FAITH AND REASON

Evidence for ‘Miracles’: Does a ‘Cold-Case’ Approach

Joe Nickell Ambrose Bierce Redeem the Gospel Accounts?

he New Testament gospels con- tant past for which there is often of nature, and so it is necessarily based tinue to offer—although absent little or no forensic evidence. These on the logical fallacy known as arguing definitive other evidence—the kinds of evidence are sometimes from ignorance—that is, from a lack of T solved on the basis of eyewitness major claims for the historicity and su- testimony, even though many years knowledge. Anglican writer C. S. Lewis pernatural powers of Jesus, regarded have passed between the point defined a miracle as “an interference by Christians as the risen Christ. Secu- of the crime and the point of the with Nature by supernatural power,” lar scholars, however, have attempted investigation (19). but that begs the obvious question, to understand him as essentially a We will return to the matter of eye- what “supernatural power”? One can- historical figure, although some have witnesses presently, but comparing the not explain one mystery by invoking seen him as largely or even completely gospel narratives to cold-case murders another. fictitious, the creation of an evolving is virtually a study in absurdity. An un- Still, Wallace insists, “we ought to mythology (Nickell 2007, 1–12). solved homicide that might be success- presume that witnesses are telling us Now J. Warner Wallace—a po- fully investigated and presented to a the truth until we discover otherwise, lice detective and adjunct professor jury (“National” 2017) stands in sharp and the presence of the miraculous of Christian apologetics at a private contrast to questionable ancient texts alone should not cause us to believe evangelical university—invites us to about a supposedly supernatural figure that the gospel eyewitnesses were consider a new investigation. The title who worked miracles, rose from the lying” (175). He seems unaware of the of his 2013 book, Cold-Case Christian- dead, appeared to disciples, and then maxim among critical thinkers and in- ity: A Homicide Detective Investigates (no corpus delicti here!) was allegedly vestigators that “extraordinary claims the Claims of the Gospels, describes transported bodily into heaven. his approach, which, let me say at the require extraordinary evidence.” This Wallace thus offers a rather outra- outset, is fundamentally flawed. simply means that evidence should be geous bait-and-switch: promising that commensurate with a given claim, that Faulty Premise we’re going to examine the gospel a huge assertion requires a proportion- claims as a cold case like any other, Half of Wallace’s book is a treatise, ally huge amount of proof. except that we must have a special “Learn to Be a Detective,” advancing Robert M. Price (2003, 21) gives a courtroom where science and reason ten detectivist principles, including re- true perspective to the matter: have no more standing than their op- sisting presuppositions, learning to posites. There, we will not worry about Those who claim that only a natu- make inferences, evaluating witness such things as supernaturalism turning ralistic bias prevents critics from ac- reliability, and so on. Mostly, so far so cepting the biblical miracle stories science on its head, questionable eye- good. as factual have to explain why they witness testimony further reported as Wallace then attempts to apply themselves are by no means willing hearsay, or claims touted as miracles such principles to the Christian gospel to accept all the wonders of non- that have better, simpler, explanations. biblical scriptures and legends. It is stories. As an investigator of “cold-case obvious that they are simply trying murders,” he states: Supernaturalism to substitute for historical method Unlike other lesser crimes, an un- Early on, Wallace tries to get around the old doctrine of the inerrancy of solved homicide is never closed; the scientific rejection of supernatural the Bible. Their real gripe is not that critics hold a theoretical bias, that time doesn’t run out on a murder claims by treating science’s naturalistic investigation. ... There are many of naturalism, but rather that they similarities between investigating (real-world) perspective as unfair. But a fail to hold one, namely the belief the claims of Christianity. Cold-case miracle is typically defined as an occur- in the historical infallibility of the homicides are events from the dis- rence inexplicable by the known laws Christian Bible.

52 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org Eyewitnesses to Miracles? alleged eyewitnesses to gospel mira- the context of other such events by Wallace expends much of his effort cles became, by virtue of their proxim- healers throughout history. In modern trying to “confirm that the gospel ity to holiness, imbued with infallibility. times, these have indeed been inves- writers were actually present to see tigated, and they appear to depend The ‘Miracles’ of Jesus—Solved? what they said they saw” (180). This is on a variety of factors: misdiagnosis despite his acknowledgment that all Wallace’s approach simply cannot be (including mistaking psychological four authors are anonymous (172)! Their defended. Having seriously investi- states for demon possession), spon- writings therefore are not admissible gated such claims for nearly half a taneous remission (which can occur testimony, and what they relate cannot century, I have never had to invoke with some illnesses), prior medical be distinguished from hearsay—likely a miracle to explain some phenome- treatment (though unlikely to apply in even hearsay several times removed. non (Nickell 2013). In fact, science has Jesus’s time) or the body’s own natural Besides, Mark is the earliest-written never authenticated a single miracle. healing ability, the effects of sugges- gospel, from which Matthew and Luke So how would a science-based ap- tion, and others including selective copied vast amounts (Koester 2000, proach fare in explaining the miracles reporting, exaggeration, and folklore. 44–46). And all of the narratives have attributed to Jesus in the four canonical surely been corrupted in transmission, gospels? We come to see that there are as is well known (e.g., Price 2003, 9–23). four groups, each with its own simple Still, as if these factors did not apply, explanation. as if the accounts had been promptly The first group represents prophe- written down in modern English by the cies of Jesus. As Wallace notes, “Over “Eyewitness testimony eyewitnesses, Wallace offers some- and over again we see the fulfillment thing called “Forensic Statement Anal- of Old Testament messianic prophe- is often the least ysis.” This is a method of analyzing a cies that are attributed to Jesus in one reliable evidence.” suspect’s choice of wording (much as manner or another. In addition to this, some study body language) to sup- on several occasions Jesus predicted posedly “determine truthfulness or His own resurrection” (172). (For exam- deception on the part of the person ple, he is quoted in Matthew 26:2, “Ye Factors may be unidentified, but what making the statement” (89–98). While know that after two days is the feast of remains is only negative evidence (as Wallace does concede the technique the Passover, and the Son of man is be- mentioned earlier) offered with the il- “is more an interpretive art than a hard trayed to be crucified.”) logic of an argument from ignorance science” (92), studies suggest it is re- Wallace wants such prophetic ut- (Nickell 2013, 175–222). ally a form of pseudoscience (Shearer terances to be treated as potentially The third category of miracles 1999). Richard A. Leo (2008, 103) in his supernatural, as evidence that Jesus comprises those ascribed to Jesus as Police Interrogation and American Jus- could see the future, and not just as if he were an occult magician. They tice states that “... statement analysis is possible corroborative evidence for include those in the earliest gospel, just another form of junk science.” the gospel authors engaging in retro- Mark: Calming the Sea, two miracles In any event, deliberate deception fitting—that is in after-the-fact writing. of the Loaves and Fishes (Feeding aside, eyewitness testimony is often However, in science (if not in Christian the Five Thousand, Feeding the Four the least reliable evidence. In fact, apologetics), the principle of Occam’s Thousand), Walking on Water, and the there have been many criminal cases razor is routinely applied. It holds that Cursing of the Fig Tree. Matthew, Luke, in which technological advances such the hypothesis with the fewest, least and John variously add to, and subtract as DNA profiling have exonerated complex assumptions is to be preferred. from, these narratives. those wrongly accused, convicted, (For example, the prophecy hypothesis For this group, consider the hypoth- and sometimes long incarcerated due requires invoking the supernatural— esis that each originated as a parable to eyewitness testimony. According to which is unknown to science—whereas (a simple story to teach a lesson or il- former U.S. Attorney General Janet the possibility of late writing needs no lustrate some moral principle). An ex- Reno (1999), “Even the most honest special pleading and is simple on the cellent example is the Coin in the Fish and objective people can make mis- face of it.) “miracle” (Matthew 17:24–27), which takes in recalling and interpreting a wit- The second group of Jesus’s al- consists of a fish being selected and nessed event; it is the nature of human leged miracles consists of the healings a coin discovered therein. It is paral- memory.” Indeed, as a miracle investi- and exorcisms. Reported in a prescien- leled by the parable of Caesar’s coin gator today, I am well aware of people tific time when superstition prevailed, (Matthew 22:17–21). Mark and Luke giving their honest account of what these were never investigated in the also give the parable, but they do not they saw—or rather, what they think first place, and they are presented with include the “miracle,” apparently hav- they saw—that they then mistakenly such scant detail as to challenge seri- ing recognized both as what folklorists interpret as a miraculous event (Nickell ous investigation now. call “variants” (different versions of the 2013). Surely we are not to believe that Nevertheless, we can see them in same tale that provide evidence of oral

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 53 transmission). an approach amounts to beginning STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, For another example, the Mira- with the desired answer and working MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION cle at Cana—that of Jesus changing backward to the evidence, represent- (Required by 39 U.S.C. 3685) water into wine (John 2:1–14)—is sim- ing a blatant example of what is called ply a dramatization of the “water” of “confirmation bias.” Date of filing: September 15, 2017. Title: Free Inquiry. Frequency of issue: Bimonthly. Complete Judaism being transformed into the In contrast, the scientific approach mailing address of known office of publication: new and good wine of Christianity. urges us to seek the best evidence and 3965 Rensch Rd., Amherst, Erie County, NY 14228- 2713; P.O. Box 664, Amherst, Erie County, NY The other gospels (Matthew 9:17, Mark to let it lead to the most likely solu- 14226-0664. Publisher: CFI (Center for Inquiry), 2:22, and Luke 5:37–38) provide what tion—or what I call the preferred hy- Inc., 3965 Rensch Rd., Amherst, Erie County, NY pothesis (based on Occam’s razor). We 14228-2713; P.O. Box 664, Amherst, Erie County, appears to be the original, the Parable of NY 14226-0664. Editor: Tom Flynn, P.O. Box 664, the New Wine. John has simply followed may argue over just which hypothesis Amherst, Erie County, NY 14226-0664. Managing that is in a given case, but we will not Editor: Andrea Szalanski, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, the tradition of comparing a jar of wine Erie County, NY 14226-0664. Owner: CFI (Center with holy teaching and has presented a be arguing for a miracle based on an for Inquiry), Inc., 3965 Rensch Rd., Amherst, Erie parable as a miracle. (For much more on argument from ignorance. Finding our County, NY 14228-2713; P.O. Box 664, Amherst, Erie County, NY 14226-0664. Known bondholders, the parable-to-miracle hypothesis, see preferred hypothesis, we then choose mortgagees, and other security holders: None. Nickell 2013, 297–305.) provisionally (until better evidence may Average number of copies of each issue during come along) to believe that, whether the preceding 12 months: (a) Total number of The fourth and final group of miracles copies (net press run) 16,996. (b) Paid and/or consists of the resurrection apparitions. we like it or not. The scientific method requested circulation: (1) Paid/requested outside- is thus the superior one for investigat- county mail subscriptions stated on form 3541: These seem to have first been recorded 11,576. (2) Paid in-county subscriptions stated in the last portion of the earliest gospel ing mysteries, and the progress of sci- on form 3541: 0. (3) Sales through dealers and (Mark 16:9–20), but it is believed to be a ence can be seen as an endless series carriers, street vendors, counter sales, and other of solved cases. Collectively, they non-USPS paid distribution: 1,262. (4) Other spurious addition (Price 2003, 22). There, classes mailed through the USPS: 15. (c) Total Jesus “appeared first to Mary Magda- demonstrate that we do live in a real, paid and/or requested circulation (sum of b[1], natural world. [2], [3], [4]): 12,853. (d) Free distribution by lene, out of whom he had cast seven mail (samples, complimentary, and other free): devils” (an indication she may have had (1) Outside-county as stated on form 3541: 321. References (2) In-county as stated on form 3541: 0. (3) “visionary” or fantasy-prone tendencies) Koester, Helmut. 2000. Introduction to the New Other classes mailed through the USPS: 491. (4) and later “in another form” to two oth- Testament, 2nd ed. New York: Walter de Free distribution outside the mail (by carriers ers. He often seems to be a spirit, for Gruyter. or other means): 211. (e) Total free distribution Leo, Richard A. 2008. Police Interrogation and (sum of d) 1,023. (f) Total distribution (sum of c example materializing inside a building American Justice. Cambridge, Mass.: Har- and e) 13,876. (g) Copies not distributed: 3,120. (John 20:19). In another instance, the vard University Press, 98–103. (h) Total (sum of f and g): 16,996. Percent paid and/or requested circulation (c divided by f times disciples “supposed that they saw a National Institute of Justice. 2017. What Is a Cold Case? Available online at https://nij.gov/ 100): 92.63%. Number of copies of the single issue published nearest to filing date: (a) Total spirit” (Luke 24:37–39). journals/260/pages/what-is-cold-case.aspx; number of copies (net press run) 16,850. (b) Paid Applying my nearly half-century accessed May 3, 2017. and/or requested circulation: (1) Paid/requested of experience as a paranormal inves- Nickell, Joe. 2007. Relics of the Christ. Lexington: outside-county mail subscriptions stated on form UP of Kentucky. 3541: 10,982. (2) Paid in-county subscriptions tigator, I suggest the resurrection nar- ———. 2012. The Science of Ghosts: Searching stated on form 3541: 0. (3) Sales through dealers ratives are really ghost stories of their for Spirits of the Dead. Amherst, N.Y.: Pro- and carriers, street vendors, counter sales, and day. They are made into what folklor- metheus Books. other non-USPS paid distribution: 1,328. (4) Other ———. 2013. The Science of Miracles: Investi- classes mailed through the USPS: 7. (c) Total paid ists term belief tales (those intended gating the Incredible. Amherst, N.Y.: Pro- and/or requested circulation (sum of b[1], [2], to add credence to beliefs), a special metheus Books. (See this text for additional [3], [4]): 12,317. (d) Free distribution by mail sources.) (samples, complimentary, and other free): (1) example being the apparition story of Price, Robert. 2003. The Incredible Shrinking Son Outside-county as stated on form 3541: 290. (2) doubting Thomas (John 20: 24–29) with of Man: How Reliable Is the Gospel Tradi- In-county as stated on form 3541: 0. (3) Other its convention of the skeptic trumped. tion? Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. classes mailed through the USPS: 490. (4) Free Reno, Janet. 1999. Introductory message, Eye- distribution outside the mail (by carriers or other Finally, I suggest that at least two other witness Evidence: A Guide for Law Enforce- means): 211. (e) Total free distribution (sum of d) 991. (f) Total distribution (sum of c and e) 13,308. ment. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department miracles—the nighttime figure of Jesus (g) Copies not distributed: 3,542. (b) Total (sum of Justice. walking upon the water (his disciples of f and g): 16,850. Percent paid and/or requested Shearer, Robert A. 1999. “Statement Analysis: having “thought it was a ghost” [Mark circulation (c divided by f times 100): 92.55%. SCAN or Scam?” Skeptical Inquirer 23:3 Average number of electronic copies of each 6:49]) and the transfiguration “vision” (May/June), 40–43. issue during the preceding 12 months: (a) Paid (Matthew 17:1–9; Luke 9:28–36)—are Wallace, J. Warner. 2013. Cold-Case Christian electronic copies: 193. (b) Total paid print copies ity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the (line 15C) + paid electronic copies: 13,046. (c) resurrection-appearance tales that have Claims of the Gospels. Colorado Springs, Total print distribution (line 15F) + paid electronic been misplaced in the Jesus chronol- Colo.: David C. Cook. copies: 14,069. (d) Percent paid (both print and electronic copies): 92.73%. Number of electronic ogy. (For more, see Nickell 2012, 109– copies of the single issue published nearest to 110; 2013, 225–231.) filing date: (a) Paid electronic copies: 217. (b) Joe Nickell, PhD, is a former investigator with a Total paid print copies (line 15C) + paid electronic Conclusions copies: 12,534. (c) Total print distribution (line world-famous detective agency who has been con- 15F) + paid electronic copies: 13,525. (d) Percent We see then that special pleadings sulted in homicide and questioned-document cases. paid (both print and electronic copies): 92.67%. like those of J. Warner Wallace are un- Among his numerous books are Relics of the Christ necessary and seriously flawed. Such and The Science of Miracles.

54 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org THE FAITH I LEFT BEHIND

Through My Own Looking Glass

Nicholas S. Molinari

s Julius Caesar described his and doubt/unbelief.” This mind of mine lievers among us still cannot figure out conquests in De Bello Gallico wanders along countless degrees/hash with their alleged absolute certitude A(Gallia est omnis divisa in par- marks/percentages with flickering con- origins, purposes, or destinations, nei- tes tres), my life too is divided into victions and renunciations, like a Gei- ther for our own bodies nor for the vast three parts. These parts are: ger counter spinning amid a circle of world surrounding us, upon which we randomly placed radioactive and non- rely for our very survival. A familiar and • during belief in divine providence; radioactive objects. Remember playing frequent intellectual dilemma, is it not? • after belief in divine providence; spin the bottle as we entered puberty? On the other hand, nonbelievers, • a state of universal doubt. Admittedly, it would be preferable whether born so or later convinced, In the “during” period, I sought to enjoy total certitude one way or the stick with what is scientifically and per- meaning and theological logic in ap- other; but really, who among us can be sistently observable. For these peo- parent absurdities of human conduct absolutely certain about metaphysics ple, the largely intuited hypotheticals and supposed divine supervision. or quantum theorems? Who is totally In the “after” period, I simply ac- sure about even the origin of a partic- cepted the vagaries and indifference ular thought? Innovative and creative of natural law. The four forces of na- ideas seem to spark into life out of ture (gravity, electromagnetism, strong nothing and from nowhere—destruc- “There are many times nuclear and weak nuclear); cause and tive thoughts as well. when I’d like to get back effect; randomness; free will, impaired Our brain resembles a supercom- though it be; choosing good, evil, and puter in many ways. Ironically, human to that simpler, neutral; evolution and perhaps devolu- brains created these sophisticated “cal- all-questions-answered tion; a tip of the hat to Murphy’s Law. culators,” so often only to be left in the era of belief.” The “during” period encompassed dust by their own creation. How many roughly three quarters of my terrestrial neurons, synapses, dendrites, etc., lifespan. I currently consider myself to make up a human brain? We might as be in the “universal doubt” (UD) seg- well try counting the physical objects or of ancient propositions simply do not ment for the moment. the particles within the cosmos. Even if satisfy and therefore remain unaccept- Honestly, there are many times we could calculate and quantify their able. What’s the evidence? Where’s the when I’d like to get back to that sim- multiplicity, we’d still have to contend beef? Show me! pler, all-questions-answered era of be- with dark matter and dark energy, And now for my current dilemma, lief. I reserve the right to “flip-flop” in and who knows what else. So it is—or shared perhaps by some reading this this matter; to observe multifaceted seems to be—with the human brain. essay. I must admit here with hesitance reality with a detective’s eye; to remain This human brain instinctively at- and regret that I have one foot in each cautiously open to evidence of some tempts to impose order out of chaos camp. If there were other camps, I’d semblance of deism, something more and randomness. Our ancestors, long need more feet. That wandering nee- than deism, or something much less gone and recently gone, with evolving dle on my “spectrum of belief and than deism. brains tried valiantly—and most often doubt/unbelief” oscillates all the time This mind-set is not really “set” at simplistically—to explain and to orga- and races all over the spectrum’s ex- all. It’s in constant flux, gyrating along a nize what their senses brought to the panse between the opposing end- wide spectrum. My personal spectrum table for mental digestion. points. Should this undecided “stance” might be called “the spectrum of belief The believers and would-be be- be described as bipolar, multipolar, po-

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 55 ly-polar, or by another moniker? Mean- utilized his methodology of so-called subjected to a priori presentation of su- ing, I seem to believe and to disbelieve universal doubt to argue for and to pernatural truths as we diligently mem- virtually simultaneously. I might believe “prove” God’s existence and the exis- orized our catechisms! this or that now and then promptly tence of the individual immortal soul. Even if honest and dispassionate re- doubt its reality or veracity. There is Had he begun with pure universal search and persistent observation were even overlap from time to time. doubt without this bias, he’d be not to result in an occasional vindication of As a boy, an adolescent, and a only a great hero of modern philoso- “dogmatized” truth, that unlikely out- young seminarian and well into adult- phy, ethics, and scientific methodol- come would ultimately be proven to be hood, my educators, mentors, and ogy but among the very greatest! purely coincidental. counselors continually impressed upon But we can empathize with Des- So why this story of self-examina- me the deadly danger of doubt. With a cartes’s living in a world controlled by tion and philosophical struggle? Who significant dose of life-experience and rigid Christianity, including a cruel and should care? some maturation of thought, it gradu- unforgiving Catholicism governed by As a partial and imperfect answer to ally became clear that genuine life with- “king” and “princes.” Nevertheless, he both questions, in my opinion all peo- out doubt was/is impossible. Actually, pried open the door of secular thought, ple of thought and empathy experienc- doubt is a good thing. It’s beneficial to guiltless questioning, and investiga- ing conflicts in their lives should care. human progress serving humanity as a tion, spurring his and our contempo- This essay is merely an invitation to un- major impetus to the betterment of our raries to seek answers to the questions dertake a similar exploration; for those species and of our environment. There that reality scoops up and plops down who have done so already, this is an had been inklings of this insight long onto our plates with abundance. exhortation to repeat the process. before my having been introduced to Ready-made dogmatic answers no Rene Descartes. longer satisfy intellectually, although they often have soothing effects emo- his is part three of my life, a state tionally. Truth and truths “revealed of UD. Doubt everything was from on high” deluged the earth from TDescartes’s starting point. At- the earliest days of humanity’s evolu- taining reliable knowledge was for him tion. The dogmatic answers were pri- Nicholas S. Molinari had a brief career as a Roman an incremental process commencing oritized and solidly in place before we Catholic priest before he turned to a longer one in the with his Cogito, ergo sum. However, got to formulate the proper questions. automobile industry. He now works to promote human- he was very much a believer who Similarly, as children, many of us were ist values through writing letters and articles.

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56 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org HUMANISM AT LARGE

An Atheist Interviews God Douglas Whaley

Atheist: I know you rarely do inter- Atheist: So you didn’t dictate those as “God works in mysterious ways”— views, so thanks for sitting down for ancient books? as if that helps. Look, the people who this one. Let me start by asking: Is God: (Laughs) They contradict each promote religion have an idea of God there really such a thing as a hell where other! And, really, have you read that is incapable of “falsification”— sinners writhe in eternal damnation? them? Take the Christian Bible, which there’s no way to prove it wrong. That God: (Laughs) Oh, my heavens, no! clearly was written by many hands, should make them suspicious, but it It’s been pointed out that no fair each with different styles and ranging doesn’t. If good things happen, they deity would send Gandhi to hell just from typical myth stories (which can thank God. If they pray and their because he wasn’t a Christian, and be entertaining, though improbable) wish comes true, they truly believe that’s clearly right. What sort of cre- to lists of kings or begats that can put ator would condemn human beings the most attentive reader right into a God answered their prayer. But if the to eternal torment because they hap- coma. The New Testament can’t even opposite occurs and a tsunami wipes pened to belong to the wrong faith agree on the details of the opening of or made some misstep in life? Who Jesus’s tomb! If I’d authored the Bible, on Earth hasn’t done something that, the whole work would be tiny and in the eyes of one religion or another, have a consistent message. would have them flaming forever? The idea of hell is something earthlings Atheist: What would your Bible say? “Sometimes I do amuse thought up all by themselves. They God: I’d shorten it down to: “Do unto myself by watching the think it helps keep people in line. others as you would have them do unto you.” complicated mess down Atheist: Do you pay a lot of attention there, but then centuries to what is going on in human civiliza- Atheist: That’s it? will pass and I don’t tion? God: That’s plenty! If people concen- God: Hmm. Well, only from time to trated on the Golden Rule, the Earth visit at all.”—God time. Sometimes I do amuse myself by would be a much better place. Men watching the complicated mess down wouldn’t subject women to rape or there, but then centuries will pass and mutilation or hide their identities in I don’t visit at all. What humans do massive clothing, nor would young can be fascinating, but it also can be children be sexually assaulted by men out half a million people or if a prayer downright boring or too sad to watch. of the cloth, or thousands of other doesn’t work, do they ever condemn Often, of course, it’s funny. There’s an atrocities—from war to unthinking big- me? No, that would be “blasphemy.” I amusing period going on right now. otry—hidden or even promoted by get the credit but never the blame—a religions. It sickens me. cushy reputation! So bad things hap- Atheist: Many people believe God al- pen to good people, and good things ways monitors their activities or sends Atheist: Why don’t you stop these angels or such to check on them. things? Why is there such misery in happen to bad ones, but either way, I come out on top. It’s both quite silly God: They get that notion from the the world? That’s always been the big and wonderful at the same time. They various ancient books they wrote, but question people ask about God. don’t seem to notice that the world it’s used for the same purpose as hell. God: I don’t micromanage, though Omnipresent surveillance makes peo- many humans think I do. When people goes on exactly as it would if all their ple behave better, or at least that’s the are disappointed, others try to console religions were completely wrong and I theory. (Scoffs) Angels! them with meaningless slogans such had nothing to do with it.

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 57 Atheist: Yes, that’s how it seems to me. the only creatures with a clear idea astounding hatred of others that has Why don’t they notice? they’re going to die someday (which is been done in my name should shame God: Humans are so afraid of dying— what leads to religion and all these af- everyone on Earth. It’s mindless. of their existence being snuffed out terlife speculations), but from the ant’s Atheist: So you don’t interfere. The and having no more significance than point of view, no. universe just is what it is. that of an ant—that they’ll believe im- Atheist: Atheists have no expectation possible things and especially about God: Yes. some sort of hazy afterlife. They spend of an afterlife. What do you think of Atheist: Then do you exist at all? a lot of time thinking about something them? that won’t occur: a destination that God: Well, at least they’re thinking. God: [No answer] doesn’t exist. In the meantime, they don’t concentrate on the journey they Atheist: Why don’t you just appear and take along the way, wasting precious make us all believers? time. The ants are better at putting God: Believers in what? The universe meaningful effort into life. clearly exists. It’s quite wonderful. That Douglas Whaley is an emeritus professor of law at should be enough. Beyond that, you’re The Ohio State University, a prolific blogger, and the Atheist: But aren’t we somehow differ- strictly on your own. Someday you’ll all author of the atheist thriller Imaginary Friend (2008). ent from the ants? Better in an import- wake up and stop concentrating on This article is reprinted with permission from the ant way? needless ritual and religious books author’s 2010 blog post, the most popular single God: It’s true that Homo sapiens are that frequently give bad advice. The essay of his blogging history.

IN APPRECIATION

Diana Brown, Recipient of Distinguished Humanist Award, Dies at Seventy-Seven Julia Lavarnway

iana “Danny” Brown passed Free Inquiry. In the Winter 1999/2000 “summed up her philosophy, cover- away in Oxford, England, on issue, she had an op-ed titled “A Wiser ing not only the question itself, but a DMay 20, 2017, after a long battle View of Abortion,” in which her exper- model of the kind of thinking we should with the autoimmune disease Sjögren’s tise on women’s reproductive rights bring to bear when debating such is- Syndrome. She was seventy-seven. was at the fore. In 1999, Brown was sues,” that he included it in a book of Brown was a lifelong champion of a recipient, along with her husband, tributes to Diana that was published in secular causes. In 1987, she cofounded of one of the Council for Secular Hu- July 2017. the World Population Foundation—now manism’s most prestigious awards, the A memorial was held for Diana known as Rutgers WPF—along with her Distinguished Humanist Award. It was Brown on July 9, 2017, at her alma husband, Roy W. Brown. Rutgers WPF, in recognition of their work combating mater, Somerville College, Oxford, based in the Netherlands, is an orga- overpopulation. The award was given from which she graduated in 1957. The nization that was created to draw at- at Free Inquiry’s “Why Does Religion Center for Inquiry, the Council for Sec- tention to the effects of high birthrates Persist?” conference held May 13–16, ular Humanism, and the entire Free In- and rapid population growth on the 1999, in Des Plaines, Illinois (see FI, quiry family extend our most heart-felt world—on everything from infant and Summer 1999, p. 66). condolences to Danny’s family and maternal mortality to the environment. Brown was a passionate lecturer friends throughout the world. It also works to improve sexual health on women’s rights at conferences and and reproductive rights worldwide, es- other events throughout the world. In pecially in developing countries where 2014, she gave a speech in Ireland ti- birthrates are skyrocketing. tled “Who Owns Women’s Bodies?” Julia Lavarnway is the managing editor of Skeptical Brown was a past contributor to Her husband thought that speech so Inquirer and assistant editor of Free Inquiry magazine.

58 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org REVIEWS

Fantasyland: A Five Hundred Year History of the American Dream(s) Marc Schaus

ou know what I love about mod- Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500 Year ern history books? The re-telling of old stories from a newer van- History, by Kurt Andersen (New York: Random House, Y 2017, ISBN 9781400067213) 480 pp. Hardcover, tage point instantly creates an entirely new kind of story. When something $30.00. great happens and we immediately rush off to tell stories about it, we sometimes miss a level of context that after-the-fact information can often provide. Only after we’ve had some time away and find ourselves just a little more removed from the moment, after we’ve had that decompression tory through a lens of collective delu- dream of discovering gold and easy time to mature a bit more and gain a sion in his new work Fantasyland: How riches. For others, such as the early certain degree of increased self-aware- America Went Haywire is a powerful Puritans, the classic Protestant dream ness—can we, I believe, ultimately re-imagining of the nation’s past. With of freedom from a tyrannical top-down craft a far more nuanced narrative of just a little more context for a national clerical authority in Catholic Europe our past. history so full of surprisingly crucial and the passion of self-determined Like the story my nephew once details, what Anderson also offers us spiritual values. Sure, the grow- told me about my brother’s house is a glaring pinhole into the American ing Enlightenment value of distrust- almost burning down. The first time I psyche of today: founded upon, fueled ing arbitrary authority was alive and heard that tale, my nephew was five. by, and ultimately subsisting on a myr- growing in Europe even before they’d His account featured—and let me just iad shared illusions on many levels. left. But early America thrived on the quote him here—about a thousand Most folks today know that America passionate pursuit of religious liberty emergency responders on the scene was founded by a group of strong- from the very beginning: distrusting by the end of it. Which made for an willed, self-reliant dreamers. We’ve all established authority, cultish devotion exciting story, and it certainly gave heard history’s tales about those gutsy, to charismatic new purists, and pas- me the gist, but I always got the feel- pioneering do-it-yourselfers who sionately pursuing one’s dreams, no ing he wasn’t being entirely accurate. placed incredible value upon inde- matter how incredible they may seem The next time I heard him tell me the pendence and personal freedom. That to others. same story, my nephew was eight and part never changes, no matter how For the earliest populations living his new account mainly featured the you look at it. But when we explore the the American recipe out, budding new fact that my brother had actually run collective illusions those individuals Christianities spread very quickly as panicking from the building in a sprint, shared at the time—which is to say, the a result. Even though sectarian dif- shrill-voiced and clamoring for clothes dreams they’d been sold by European ferences have historically been qual- before a dozen officers had arrived to promoters and investors—we gain a itatively minor among Christian off- take in the spectacle of a malfunction- much more insightful understanding shoots, they’ve always been divisive ing smoke alarm. Instantly a better of their history. And the subsequent enough for individuals to branch out story with more context, right? dreams of generations of Americans and form new churches. Just a brief The details we focus on tend to thereafter. snapshot of this timeline would show- tell the story in question. And Kurt Many early settlers (the Virginians, case the settlements of early Puritans, Andersen’s re-telling of American his- at least) had usually been sold a the Baptists, the Presbyterians—from

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 59 the Quakers and the Shakers to the own personal truth has always tended negatives. For example, a thesis of Methodists and the Mormons; readers to encourage them. America’s development according to will find a rundown of every branch of For the nonreligious readers out a timeline of collective fantasy some- American faith we’ve come to know there, mapping the spiritual cartogra- times means downplaying the signif- and love. phy of American history also means icance of historical events not cater- Over time, the promotion of per- getting a scaled-back view of key sec- ing to that thesis. Hence as a strictly sonal liberties has been doubly influen- ular developments. Because early set- historical guide to America’s past, the tial for the development of American tlers could well have favored a reli- work is a bit less complete. Folks read- Christianity at large. Every fractured gious jurisprudence, but the Founding ing specifically for historical knowl- Fathers certainly did not. Andersen edge may feel short-changed when offers a fascinating look at just how Andersen pretty much glosses over different America’s Founding Fathers WWI and WWII but then dedicates ten “We see the powerful were from the passionate Christians of straight pages to the development of their day. Indeed, they often looked hippie culture in the 1960s immedi- development of what rather derisively upon the more pas- ately thereafter. Andersen refers to as sionate believers of 1700s America Perhaps the largest shortcoming in the ‘fantasy-industrial channeling invisible spirits in convulsive Fantasyland, I believe, is the sheer vol- complex’—a self-perpet- throes. Moreover, the creeping instep ume of information gifted to readers of religiosity into America’s formal legal that is sadly source-free. Each chapter uating system of dreams code and national documents had to will include a few piecemeal foot- building on dreams.” progress over time. For example, most notes, but usually only for clarification of America’s early thirteen colonies or exposition. For folks like me who did have a state church prior to the want—no, need—to cross-reference Revolution, but the Constitution effec- bits of information they plan on really new band of spiritual rebels has thrived tively outlawed them as such. Moreover, taking to the bank, the subsequent at the expense of more conservative it was only later in the mid-1950s that need to Google-search quotes can groups needing to tolerate them. the phrase “under God” was added to be taxing after a while. Given that Which means that even with a rise in the Pledge of Allegiance, almost 170 Andersen so expertly traces the his- social liberty producing fringe behaviors years after the Constitution was rati- tory of American illusions leading us some churches have found to be dis- fied. Or, for example, how the “In God into the post-truth, “alternative facts,” tasteful, all churches have increasingly We Trust” moniker was only added to golden age of #fakenews in which we found themselves that much freer to American currency during that same currently find ourselves, the lack of splinter off with their own version of period in the ’50s. sourcing is curious. fringe. Compound that process over a Now, no history of communal devo- The tour offered here is scenic few hundred years, and you’ve got an tion to delusions would be complete and detailed, however. Even just a arc of spiritual freedom leading straight without also delving into America’s rich brief glance at recent American his- from early Puritan piety all the way to history of pseudoscientific fads. Water- tory within a lens of fantasy would Joseph Smith’s Mormons and modern cures and hydropathy, weather-chang- include the overhyped Red Scare Scientology. Although, of course, you ing devices, mesmerism, phrenology, of McCarthyism, the counterculture also get freedoms to believe in many miracle cure-all tonics prior to the fever dreams of the 1960s, science other things: like denying scientific evi- FDA and, well, the only one of these fiction booms and the rampant gov- dence about anything you like. fads to survive into the modern day: ernment-concealing-UFOs conspiracy Many people now find themselves homeopathy. Or the shared fantasies theories throughout the ’70s. We see wondering how, in a country of such folks seemed to long for outside of the “Disneyfication” of American cit- unimaginable wealth and access to science and faith, evident in the con- ies and towns and suburban sprawls, information, spiritual memes such as tent of pop culture from year to year. the meteoric rise of gambling and speaking in tongues, faith-healing, mir- By analyzing pop culture throughout porn, war re-enactments and con- acles, and personal conversations with the years in music, popular books, and ventions of all kinds; coast to coast Jesus Christ can actually still spread and later in movies, we see the powerful youth obsession, pro wrestling, and multiply. Or climate denial and mas- development of what Andersen refers syndicated sports and fantasy leagues; sive conspiracy theories, for that matter. to as the “fantasy-industrial com- “reality” television; digital double-lives Andersen certainly covers a granular plex”—a self-perpetuating system of a mouse-click away and celebrity pres- analysis of how ideas like these origi- dreams building on dreams, anchored idents selling old-time nostalgia (in nated. But in short: a cultural environ- only by America’s tethering by the fact, both celebrity presidents I can ment that has always promoted indi- rationalist lobby. immediately recall have campaigned vidualized, decentralized, passionate, With all the above graces in mind, on the MAGA platform). authority-opposed devotion to one’s however, Fantasyland does have its America’s religious liberty impulse

60 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org and its Enlightenment impulse have we’re all prone to, at one point or ranging all the way from Plymouth been magnified over time and now another, in accepting narratives we are Rock to Trump Tower. tilt overwhelmingly toward the former. very aware in advance are false but just This process of giving folks the liberty don’t feel we have the pull to resist. to believe anything they want and Historical amnesia and promoting assuming reason will win out in the less factual narratives over reality Marc Schaus is a debut Canadian author who has end has simply taken on higher stakes become far less possible when facts recently published his first book on the rise of secu- in the present. But ultimately, what are readily at hand. And Americans will larism and religious nonbelief around the world. makes works such as Fantasyland so find themselves well-armed with such Marc has previously completed research in neurosci- crucial, to me, for popular print and in facts here to combat the seemingly ence labs mapping out neural networks in the commercial media, is that works such never-ending series of attempts at brain—and has also appeared in digital print on as these combat the rampant historical forging new American mythologies. Patheos and The Huffington Post. His primary amnesia we’re all very prone to from Indeed, for anyone who would like an research focus, now, is how the transition from time to time. They combat the temp- ideological roadmap for how American belief to nonbelief “works” in the human brain and tation to forget (or be ignorant of) the history could possibly have arced from why twenty-first century life is creating a cognitive way things actually happened in favor its inception toward the realm of com- advantage for secular, so-called superstitionless of a narrative being presented to us by peting fantasies presented today, Kurt belief systems. His latest book, Post Secular: individuals with an agenda to live up Andersen has weaved a compelling Science, Humanism and the Future of Faith was to. To say nothing of the complacency compendium of all-American illusions published this year.

Did Jesus Live in the Sixth Century Before Christ?

Robert M. Price

his book is filled with arrest- ing and fascinating observations about Jesus and Christian ori- The Christian Fallacy: The Real Truth about Jesus and the Early T History of Christianity, by Paul McGrane (N.p.: RedDoor, 2017, gins, yet I cannot accept its thesis. Paul McGrane proposes a new paradigm ISBN 978-1-910453-39-1) 281 pp. Hardcover, £25.00. for interpreting many data and seeming anomalies in Josephus’s histories as well as the New Testament. He is doing just what Thomas Kuhn described in his great book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: focusing on oddities that have long stuck out like sore thumbs in conventional theories these hypotheticals are true. He thus such figure, though McGrane insists purporting to explain these or those proposes a very different historical he rejects Jesus Mythicism. He pro- data, and asking whether we might chronology that entails the events in vides, he thinks, a third alternative find a more comprehensive model if the Gospels and Acts (at least the very to Mythicism and traditional histor- we started with that “leftover” data few possessing historical credibility) ical Jesus theories. On the basis of and reinterpreted everything in light getting pushed back a decade or passages in the Book of Zechariah, of it, rather than the other way around. so earlier than scholars (and theolo- McGrane posits that the early Jesus The principal data providing the gians) commonly assume. I’m a bit Movement believed in a messiah jumping-off point for McGrane’s spec- surprised he doesn’t discuss a simi- named Jesus who had died and risen ulations is a set of chronological incon- lar sort of argument, albeit one that from the dead in the early sixth century sistencies in Josephus and between points in the opposite historical direc- BCE. This would have been the High Josephus and the New Testament. tion, by Lena Einhorn (A Shift in Time: Priest Joshua ben Jehozedek, who What if Pontius Pilate arrived in Judea How Historical Documents Reveal the worked with Zerubbabel to rebuild in 19 CE? What if John the Baptist was Surprising Truth about Jesus, 2016). the Jerusalem Temple after the return executed as late as 36 CE? McGrane Where does Jesus Christ fit into from the Exile. It was his apocalyptic offers fascinating reasons to suppose this scenario? Nowhere. There was no return that they expected. And who

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 61 MEDITATED HATE IS IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT FREE WILL YET REVERED ATHEISTS HELP IT ALONG

What makes possible, and actually legitimates, the malignant hatred that poisons our country — women hating men; blacks hating whites and vice versa; everyone hating the politicians and advocates of views to their distaste; and now, haters in entertainment and sports holding nothing back? Hate is especially virulent and mindless in our universities where the inmates and their teachers have no tolerance for views they do not like. New tender sensibilities arise daily and are promptly indulged. Some hate our history and are promptly indulged. All as if there could be no sufficient causes. What is the reason?

Is it not our certainty that those we most detest are The Catholic Encyclopedia explains that everyone some combination of selfish, depraved, immoral, racist, (except children and mental incompetents) make delib- elitist, chauvinistic, unprincipled and incorrigibly erated moral choices entirely free of any decisive influ- wicked? Even worse, they choose to be so when if only ence of their biological inheritance and all experiences. they were decent they could and would do otherwise. It allows no cause other than uninfluenced and willful This is surely the Christian view. contumaciousness, when the goats get their desserts. Unfortunately, this attitude is often reflected in the Unfortunately, free will is easy to believe because pages of Free Inquiry and in the gratuitous snide re- we all know we choose freely every day. We consider, marks about Trump and his millions of supporters in the decide and do. It is further confirmed by its being uni- talks of heroes like Dawkins, Harris, Coyne, Krauss. I versally accepted as the basis for our relations with oth- am sure they do not intend it. No doubt their hatred ers, customs and laws — and with needed stipulations of the sins, as they see them, has blinded them to the — justifiably so. fact they are abetting hatred of the sinners — and might- Surely it must be aided too, by our lifelong love affair ily contributing to social clash. with ourselves. We cannot relish seeing our intellect, How ironic that they should, at the same time, be abilities, talents and just plain goodness, as mere luck. facilitating the devastating fiction of free will, which But what if free will is wrong? What if, as determin- Jesus and his churches introduced, nourished and culti- ists insist, our choices are based on all antecedents back vated, for nearly 2000 years to justify hell. to the Big Bang and before, if there was a before; and “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the random events too, if there are such? eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Does not a decent respect for the many geniuses — Jesus speaking in Matthew. of the past and present who, after a lifetime of study, The Prince of Peace, the very realization on earth of see free will is an illusion, compel all thoughtful people love, justice, mercy and forgiveness, provides divine to at least pause and consider what led them there? sanction for this malignancy. He legitimated hatred so Among these from all fields are Baruch Spinoza; sovereign that his wrath cannot be assuaged with even Voltaire; (Baron) Paul Henri Thiry d’Holbach; Pierre an eternity of human suffering. Simon De Laplace; Arthur Schopenhauer; Charles Dar- How is it possible? The damned deserve this fate be- win; Albert Einstein; Max Planck; Karl Raimund Popper; cause God endowed them and all men equally — his Marvin Minsky; Bertrand Russell; Robert Ingersoll; only equal gift to all — with the most fraught gift imag- Clarence Darrow; John Galsworthy; Herman Melville; inable, free will. Mark Twain and, according to Dr. Michael Gazziniga, certain situations which would last for the duration of the great majority of his fellow neuroscientists. those situations. But it would be impossible to sustain. Our intellect would in due time compel us to see the There are mountains of evidence that show, far from truth, “there but for luck go I.” being free of our biology and environment, those are the forces which determine who we are. As Sam Harris said in a talk on free will, “Aren’t you lucky you didn’t get the brain of a psychopathic killer?” This evidence comes from social science showing the life-shaping effects of experience, the exact sciences This would force us to give more attention to finding based on causes for effects as revealed by careful testing ways to subject miscreants to experiences — education, and retesting, and on the findings in psychology and praise, admonishment, reproof, embarrassment, punish- neuroscience which are almost daily revealing amazing ment, whatever seems most likely to work to cause insights made possible by entirely new scientific tools them to see the light. There is no foolproof way to and techniques. know the right dose. A moment’s honest introspection makes determinism But, win or lose in this effort, society must protect obvious to our common sense. What control did you itself from unacceptable behavior. The reality of have over — Becoming? Your parents? Your life in the determinism cannot be permitted as a license! womb, shaping your genetic self? Your time and place Surely the best chance we have to end this debilitat- of birth? The mutations in your brain and body ing hatred, legitimized by Jesus/God, is to line up with throughout life? Your nurture and experiences in infancy science, hate the sin and of the sinner, recite: “there but and childhood? Your relatives and race; your physical for luck go I.” stature, looks, smile and voice; your intelligence, sexual drive and proclivities; your wit, personality; your nat- If we truly understood this, it would force an honest ural ability in sports, music and dance? Your early life; and perhaps agonizing reassessment of our always-un- your religious indoctrination; economic circumstances; derstanding regard for ourselves, our motives, intelli- cultural influences; political and civil rights; the prevail- gence, accomplishments, and just overall goodness. ing customs of your times? The torrent of experiences Who would not benefit? throughout life not chosen by you but which happened There is reason to be hopeful that science will, maybe to you — and changed you? soon, produce incontrovertible evidence of determinism. Where is your free will? Dr. Robert Sapolsky in his new book, BEHAVE, which But if your will is free, not influenced by all that has E. O. Wilson says “is about the most important story that made you who you are, in what sense are your deci- can ever be told,” reports that the number of scientific sions yours? On what basis does “free will” decide? papers on specific topics about human behavior have Are decisions not willy-nilly if not based on all you are gone from three in the decade after JFK became able to bring up for your conscious and unconscious President to a projected 55,313 in 2010-2020 — almost consideration? doubling since 2000-2010. You can be free from external compulsion but you That might someday persuade some of the old and cannot be free of what made you, you. many more of the young, to tame our hate for the simple reason all human beings have been made the same If we truly understood this, what would our world be like? way. Is there not an obligation on those who believe this Would anything be permissible? No. It is ridiculous to think it. Everything would stand as is except there to try to act accordingly? would be no excuse for regarding anyone as responsibly And for those who don’t, to at least rethink the reprobate. matter? If we truly understood this, we would continue in our If there is another moral question of greater human nature to have the normal surges of hate in import, please tell me.

This is a paid ad. As usual, I invite comments to: [email protected] propounded such a doctrine (which John of Gamala (Judas the Galilean’s the Temple twice, at the beginning and would soon be distorted into con- son) being the historical counterpart at the conclusion of his public ministry. ventional Christian belief)? Why, none to the Christian Jesus. I don’t see how Whence this claim? McGrane is thinking other than John the Baptist and Judas this wouldn’t amount to Mythicism: of the harmonization offered by apolo- the Galilean, he who fomented a tax “Jesus didn’t exist, but somebody gists trying to reconcile John’s gospel— revolt in 6 CE, eventually giving rise else did!” in which Jesus cleanses the Temple to the revolutionary Zealot party that Second, where does any historical once, at the beginning—and the other would spark the Jewish War against (or even legendary) source say that gospels, which place the single Temple Rome (66–73 CE). anybody expected an eschatologi- cleansing at the end. None of the gos- cal return of the sixth-century priest pels has two cleansings. (“anointed”) Joshua as a resurrected He tells us that Old Testament sacri- messiah? Well, nowhere. McGrane fices were not supposed to have expia- explains, quite correctly, how ancient tory value but were merely symbolic, the scribes felt entitled to find new, eso- way Baptists understand Communion. teric meanings in ancient scriptures, That seems to me a gross misrepre- “McGrane posits that the well beyond the original contexts. sentation. McGrane likes it, though, early Jesus Movement It would be one thing if some text because he wants to blame Paul for the from the Midrashim or the Dead Sea idea of a sacrificial atonement much believed in a messiah Scrolls made the sort of connections later in history. named Jesus who had McGrane makes, but none does. In Our author congratulates Hugh fact, McGrane himself is playing mid- J. Schonfield for his ingenuity in his died and risen from the controversial book The Passover Plot, dead in the early sixth rashist here. Suppose some ancient scribe took Zechariah 3:1–7 to mean despite his disadvantage of not having century BCE.” that Joshua the priest had died and access to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Then gone to hell, then been raised from who wrote Schonfield’s book Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls—Judas of Galilee? the dead and assigned a second com- In a hurry to blame orthodox ing. Well, if one did, one would have Christian beliefs on Paul, McGrane pegs needed one heck of an imagination to him as a “passivist” like a member of the The “Jesus Christ” character was see such a thing in the text! But just Dead Sea Scrolls sect, content to wait based on Judas of Galilee. Incidents because McGrane imagines it possible for God to make the first move to ignite in Judas’s career, McGrane thinks, for some ancient text-twister to come the apocalypse. From this he derives appear heavily garbled and attached up with these ideas hardly means that the (Lutheran) doctrine of salvation by to Jesus in the gospels. I see three any of them did. grace through faith, not works. Similarly, methodological difficulties in all this. Third, The Christian Fallacy cher- from Paul’s claim that, like Jeremiah, he The first is the seeming assumption ry-picks intriguing but highly dubi- had been singled out for his mission as that early Christianity is like a murder ous hypotheses (like Josephine early as the womb, McGrane derives mystery novel in which there is a small Massyngberde Ford’s theory that John full-blown Calvinist predestinarianism, set of characters, one of which will turn the Baptist wrote chapters 4–11 of though Paul obviously views himself as out to be the culprit. We must restrict the Book of Revelation) and cob- a special case, and election unto salva- ourselves to “the usual suspects”: bles together from them a chain of tion is not in view at all. characters mentioned in Josephus or weak links. Each of these specula- Finally, I am puzzled at the title, The the New Testament. The result is a tions seems somewhat doubtful, but Christian Fallacy, which seems to me game of “musical chairs” in which when linked together their improb- to denote some kind of polemical characters with different names and ability increases exponentially. As F. debunking. By contrast, McGrane is set- historical or narrative settings, but who C. Baur said, anything is possible, but ting forth a new, constructive scholarly are analogous in some respects, are the historian wants to know what is approach to an academic question—that considered fungible, even though no probable. McGrane suggests (correctly, of Christian origins. And anyone with a source ever identifies them. Josephus I think) that the gospel Jesus character genuine interest in that question will find mentions Judas the Galilean and his is a composite of various disparate this book well worth the time, my qualms priestly partner Sadduc as founding ancient historical and mythical char- notwithstanding. “the Fourth Philosophy,” the Zealot acters. But isn’t he doing pretty much Movement as it was later called. the same thing when he synthesizes Why not (gratuitously) posit that they bits and pieces of numerous modern Robert M. Price is the author of Beyond Born Again: appear in the gospels as Jesus and Jesus theories? The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, The Case John the Baptist? Luigi Cascioli (The There are also a few simple goofs Against ‘The Case for Christ,’ and other books. He is Fable of Christ: Book of Accusation, in the book, as when we read that the also the host of the podcasts The Bible Geek and 2006) made a similar argument for Gospel of John depicts Jesus cleansing The Human Bible.

64 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org LETTERS continued from p.19

Susan Haack’s insightful and Why did he not point out that theory, and the like constitute an adapted from earlier publications. refreshing look on the state of current scientific consensus holds internally consistent and rigorously Similar criticism could be lev- academic philosophy (FI October/ that our universe is composed only logical system. But math is used to eled at FI’s editorial fixation on blas- November 2017) has impressed of the following: “matter” (atoms), measure many natural entities, and phemy. Is it truly a major issue for me, especially since I am a philos- “electromagnetic particles and it’s greatest importance is its abil- nonreligious people living in North ophy graduate myself. But let’s be forces” (including light and gravity), ity to predict natural events, up to America? Both articles in the June/ clear: Haack uses philosophy in and “empty space” (which could the cosmological, a consequence July 2017 special feature were also the sense it is (also) taught at uni- contain dark matter and/or dark of its being embedded in nature. adapted from a previously pub- versity, a sense in which languages energy). Physicist Max Tegmark suggests lished book (2016). Then another such as Chinese and Dutch are so Also, “matter” can be divided that the universe is mathematics. feature on blasphemy was pub- lucky to have distinctive words for it into “non-living matter” and “liv- Moral values represent consen- lished in the October/November, (哲学, zhéxué, and wijsbegeerte ing matter.” Also, consciousness, sus opinions about human behavior 2017 FI. respectively). It is definitely not thoughts, emotions, and other simi- toward others. Humanists hold that Lastly, there is the seemingly philosophy in the sense of a world- lar phenomena are only characteris- they must derive from the con- endless quibbling over the history view or life stance, which, if it tics of higher forms of animals (one sequences of such behavior. The of humanism, exemplified by the is not ambiguous on purpose, of the two branches of living matter). opinions are the product of psycho- author’s response to the editor’s must be its meaning in the title I think that most humanists logical activity, and thus “natural.” lengthy review of his book on the of your series “The Fight for Our equate “naturalism” with “physical- The advocacy of this consequential evolution of atheism that may not Philosophy,” because of the use of ity,” so dictionaries should not only ethics is to me the second pillar of have accurately recounted the the possessive. provide the traditional positions of secular humanism. Center for Inquiry’s historical role, If you allow me to use the word humanists but also point out that The mind constitutes a portion followed by the editor’s rebuttal ideology in a neutral sense, any humanists normally believe in a uni- of the so far poorly understood (October/November 2017 Fl). Does religion and any nonreligious world- verse that is only physical (only con- physiology of the brain, activities of this hair-splitting contribute to a bet- view is (based on) an ideology, but, taining naturally occurring things). staggering complexity. ter understanding of current political conversely, an ideology need not Bear in mind that most human- Finally, all this understanding and social problems? be comprehensive; it may also be ists are agnostics or atheists. Those has been brought about without The condescending comment politico-economic, for instance. who are religious normally only any necessary contribution by the about AHA’s re-direction might What counts is that the function adopt the moralistic aspects of one supernatural. That to me is the third have exposed an unwillingness by of an ideology (Christianity/Islam, or more religions. They rarely accept pillar of secular humanism. CSH’s board of directors to engage communism/capitalism, etc.) is to the supernatural claims of any reli- Clement H. Kreider Jr. MD in similar critical self-examination. change the world and/or to keep gion. Yes, a few of them are deists. Wall, New Jersey Maybe they could learn something it as it is on the basis of the norms The title of Law’s article should from AHA’s action and consider the and values and/or the authority it have been, “Do Humanists Believe possibility that FI’s narrow range of recognizes. The function of science That the Universe Is Only Physical?” The October/November 2017 “philosophical” topics may not be is not to change anything, nor to And the answer is “Yes.” Free Inquiry includes a gratu- appreciated by the typical nonspe- keep anything as it is, but to study Stephen R. Clark itous remark about the American cialist reader. the changes in nature and culture Salt Lake City, Utah Humanist Association’s (AHA) new Brian Bolton and to clarify how changes can(not) focus on political activism, while Georgetown, Texas be brought about and how things emphasizing that the Council for can(not) be maintained. Philosophy Stephen Law’s disappointing essay Secular Humanism (CSH) remains should contribute to the quality deserves a response. Naturalism committed to vital philosophical Tom Flynn replies: and effectiveness of reasoning in means that everything we know investigation. Reader Brian Bolton has many science and ideology, not the other about ourselves and the universe Is it just a coincidence that the complaints; I will address the ones I way around. stems from nature. Starting with our CSH claims to be “North America’s consider most salient. I find it ironic Hence, in itself, it is perfectly al- five senses, then technologically leading organization for nonreli- that while Mr. Bolton claims to find right to fight for one’s ideology and enhanced, we develop a compre- gious people,” whereas the AHA discussions of movement history to use science and philosophy in this hension magnified by subjecting our describes itself as the “largest non- digressive, two of his questions struggle, but it is “equally perfectly” various conclusions to the scientific theist organization in the country”? directly involve movement history. wrong to abuse philosophy for one’s method. All of knowledge stemmed Is there a territorial squabble going As regards to the Council for Secular religious or irreligious purposes. from our senses and brains, and to on here? In fact, the Freedom from Humanism’s relationship with the Once philosophy is not a forum for my mind this fact constitutes the first Religion Foundation probably has American Humanist Association, nonideological, nonscientific disci- pillar of secular humanism. the largest membership. those answers lie in history. Paul plinary debate anymore, its role will He asserts that the “mathe- Concerning the CSH’s promo- Kurtz was editor of AHA’s maga- be finished. matical realm … is nonnatural.” On tional assertion that its brand of zine The Humanist in the 1970s. Vincent van Mechelen the contrary, mathematics is firmly secular humanism incorporates a During his editorship he drafted Amsterdam, Netherlands embedded in nature. Historically, naturalistic philosophy, two contrib- Humanist Manifesto II (1973), it probably began in some primi- utors to Part 2 of FI’s symposium which formally abandoned the Re: “Must Humanists Be Naturalists?,” tive society by the need of some expressed reservations about the contention of Humanist Manifesto by Stephen Law (FI, October/ farmer or merchant to count. The claim that naturalism is “our phi- I (1933) that humanism was a new November 2017). Mr. Law doesn’t consequent simple arithmetic could losophy.” Also, Part 1 adapted an religion. Manifesto II charted a far give us a concise definition of the easily be verified empirically, if so article originally published in 2000, more secular course. In the late term naturalism, so the title of his arti- desired. The later mathematical suggesting that this is not really a ’70s Kurtz was forced out of the cle asks a question that is not specific developments of algebra, geome- contemporary “fight” at all. Two ar- AHA partly because some AHA enough. try, trigonometry, calculus, number ticles in Part 2 were also reprinted or board members thought he was too

secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 65 hard on religion. He founded the the symposium that was reprinted ultimate causes of our thoughts Council and Free Inquiry in 1980. or adapted. trace back to various subsets Poem Ever since, the Council has served Mr. Bolton is puzzled that in of the trillions of sensory inputs secular humanists (in practice, Part 2 we published two articles impinging on us over our life- CENTERS FOR INQUIRY | www.centerforinquiry.net/about/branches including more naturalistic human- (by Susan Haack and Stephen Law) times, in practice, abstract think- ists, atheists, and agnostics) while challenging aspects of the sympo- ing can almost never be traced the AHA has catered to a broader sium’s view on the threat to natu- back to its ultimate, external, dis- CFI SAN FRANCISCO CFI IN PAKISTAN ralism. Why does he find this sur- Scoundrel spectrum of humanists, including parate-in-time-and-space causes. United States Coordinator: Leonard Tramiel Ex. Dir.: Emanuel Enoch prising in a magazine named Free the religious and congregational In other words, there is no way to CFI EXECUTIVE OFFICES Tel.: (415) 335-4618 [email protected] humanists who may consider sec- Inquiry? It can be—and in my view, Ted Richer pass the buck; it must stop here, 1020 19th St. NW, Suite 425 Email: [email protected] CFI IN POLAND (WARSAW) ular humanism too arid. To take a probably is—true both that philo- within our subconscious, unknow- Washington, DC 20036 CFI TALLAHASSEE Ex. Dir.: Andrzej Dominiczak Dr. Johnson marketing perspective, I sometimes sophical naturalism is threatened able, unpredictable selves. Tel.: (202) 629-2403 Coordinator: Gary Whittenberger 01-867 Warszawa say that the Council and AHA are and that individual philosophers Our traceability gaps ought to Email: execoffi[email protected] Email: [email protected] ul. Broniewskieg 99/47 We know might reject that interpretation or like Volkswagen and Subaru—both generate deep feelings of discon- CFI TRANSNATIONAL CFI TAMPA BAY Poland deny naturalism’s centrality to secu- President and CEO: Robyn E. Blumner Coordinator: Rick O’Keefe make all-wheel-drive SUVs, but tinuity and lack of control. Yet we CFI IN ROMANIA (BUCHAREST) Patriotism is the last refuge of a beyond that area of overlap their lar humanism. Should we have cen- PO Box 741 Tel.: (813) 443-2729 Ex. Dir.: Gabriel Andreescu blithely carry on as if no such gaps Amherst, NY 14226 Email: [email protected] scoundrel respective product lines differ mark- sored these dissenting viewpoints? CFI IN RUSSIA (MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY) exist, acting as if we are the prime Tel.: (716) 636-4869 edly. That said, both AHA and the I think not. CFI WASHINGTON, DC Ex. Dir.: Dr. Valerii A. Kuvakin causes of our own effects. More- Email: [email protected] … Council’s parent organization, the Mr. Bolton asks whether blas- Ex. Dir.: Ed Beck Moscow, Russia over, our non-understanding of our- CFI AUSTIN 1020 19th St. NW Center for Inquiry, belong to the phemy is “truly a major issue for CFI IN SPAIN (BILBOA) selves would not change one iota if Coordinator: Steve Bratteng Washington, DC 20036 If we Secular Coalition for America and nonreligious people living in North Ex. Dir.: Luis Alfonso Gámez we really did cause our own effects. Email: [email protected] Tel.: (202) 629-2403 frequently cooperate, particularly America.” I answer unhesitatingly CFI IN UGANDA (KAMPALA) What better way to define this black CFI FORT LAUDERDALE Email: [email protected] Know on legal matters. that it is, because it is a life-and- Ex. Dir.: Deogratiasi Ssekitooleko hole source of de facto autonomy Coordinator: Jeanette Madea As for Free Inquiry’s focus on death issue for nonreligious peo- CFI IN ZAMBIA (LUSAKA) Patriotism is the last refuge of a than to call it free will? Tel.: (954) 345-1181 philosophy, that too touches on his- ple—to say nothing of religious Email: cfifl[email protected] Transnational Ex. Dir.: Wilfred Makayi PO Box 310383 scoundrel tory. Paul Kurtz was a philosopher, dissenters—elsewhere in the world. CFI HARLEM CFI IN BEIJING (CHINA) Chelston, Lusaka after all, as have been many of the (Secular Rescue, a current proj- Tel.: (646) 820-2344 Ex. Dir.: Ren Fujun Zambia Dr. Johnson magazine’s coeditors. I don’t think ect of the Center for Inquiry, has Email: [email protected] China Research Inst. for Science Popularization CFI IN CANADA helped to relocate more than thirty WRITE TO FREE INQUIRY Beijing, China it’s going too far to say that an ap- CFI INDIANA Ex. Dir.: Eric Adriaans We know CFI IN BUENOS AIRES (ARGENTINA) preciation for philosophical issues bloggers and activists from Bangla- Ex. Dir.: Reba Boyd Wooden 55 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 307 Ex. Dir.: Alejandro Borgo is baked into the magazine’s—and desh and other countries who had 350 Canal Walk, Suite A Toronto, Ontario M4P 1G8 How patriotism is the last refuge Send submissions to Buenos Aires, Argentina the Council’s—DNA. (It’s also worth been targeted for death because Indianapolis, IN 46202 Canada Nicole Scott, of a scoundrel noting that for many years and de- they spoke out.) Tel.: (317) 423-0710 CFI IN CAIRO (EGYPT) Email: info@cficanada.ca Email: [email protected] Chairs: Prof. Mona Abousenna spite sometimes-significant financial Finally, I’ll acknowledge that Letters Editor, FREE INQUIRY, CFI CALGARY (CANADA) CFI LONG ISLAND and Prof. Mourad Wahba … losses, the Council and later CFI historical “hair-splitting” may not P.O. Box 664, Amherst, Email: calgary@cficanada.ca Coordinator: Amy Frushour Kelly 44 Gol Gamal St., Agouza, Giza, Egypt published Philo, secularism’s only “contribute to a better understand- CFI EDMONTON (CANADA) NY 14226-0664. Tel.: (631) 793-9382 CFI IN FRANCE (NICE) If we ing of current political and social Email: edmonton@cficanada.ca scholarly philosophical journal.) Fax: (716) 636-1733. Email: [email protected] Ex. Dir.: Dr. Henri Broch CFI HALIFAX (CANADA) As for the timeliness of FI’s problems.” But it often contrib- CFI LOS ANGELES Universite of Nice, Faculté des Sciences Know three-part series on threats to nat- utes to a clearer understanding of Email: novascotia@cficanada.ca E-mail: [email protected]. Ex. Dir.: James Underdown Nice, France history. I find puzzling Mr. Bolton’s CFI KELOWNA (CANADA) How patriotism is the last refuge uralism in philosophy, there’s no 4773 Hollywood Blvd. CFI IN GERMANY (ROSSDORF) question that philosophy is a disci- apparent belief that “current politi- In letters intended for publication, Hollywood, CA 90027 Ex. Dir.: Amardeo Sarma Email: kelowna@cficanada.ca of a scoundrel pline with a keen sense of its own cal and social problems,” important please include name, address, Tel.: (323) 666-9797 Kirchgasse 4, 64380 CFI MONTREAL (CANADA) history—there’s that word again— as they are, constitute the subject city and state, ZIP code, Email: info@cfiwest.org Rossdorf, Germany Email: montreal@cficanada.ca Dr. Johnson in which events sometimes unfold most worth everyone’s time and CFI MICHIGAN CFI IN INDIA (HYDERABAD) CFI OKANAGAN (CANADA) and daytime phone number Email: okanagan@cficanada.ca at a leisurely pace. The article from attention; nonetheless, I suspect Ex. Dir.: Jeff Seaver Ex. Dir.: Dr. Jugal Kishore We know (for verification purposes only). CFI OTTAWA (CANADA) 2000 that drew Mr. Bolton’s ire was that even many who share his view 3777 44th Street SE 46 Masih Garh, New Friends Colony Letters should be 300 words or fewer Grand Rapids, MI 49512 New Delhi, India 110025 Email: ottawa@cficanada.ca Barbara Forrest’s August/Septem- would acknowledge that some- Why patriotism is the last refuge and pertain to previous Free Inquiry articles. Tel.: (616) 698-2342 CFI IN JAPAN (TOKYO) CFI SASKATOON and REGINA (CANADA) ber essay explicating the differ- times, having the history right helps Email: info@cfimichigan.org Ex. Dir.: Erick Eck Email: saskatchewan@cficanada.ca of a scoundrel ences between philosophical and us approach political and social CFI NEW YORK CITY CFI IN KENYA (NAIROBI) CFI TORONTO (CANADA) methodological naturalism. Within problems more intelligently. … Email: [email protected] Ex. 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Forrest’s 2000 I thank Martin Stubbs and Bob CFI ORANGE COUNTY Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Email: vancouver@cficanada.ca Why patriotism is the last refuge article (which appeared, by the way, Masta for their thoughts about 4773 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90027 London WC1R 4RL, England CFI WEST KOOTENAYS (CANADA) in Philo) is widely viewed as a defini- Tel.: (323) 666-9797 CFI IN THE LOW COUNTRIES Email: westkootenays@cficanada.ca of a scoundrel free will. It’s a topic of endless tive explication of this topic. debate, partly because peo- Email: info@cfiwest.org Ex. Dir.: Bert Gasenbeek CFI PITTSBURGH Universitiet, voor Humanistiek We know Mr. Bolton further criticized the ple unknowingly differ on what timeliness of two reprinted articles that phrase means. What seems PO Box 19003, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Postbus 797 3500 AT Email: [email protected] Utrecht, The Netherlands in Part 2 of the symposium (Octo- indisputable is this: (1) Our brains Our tweeting President CFI PORTLAND (OREGON) CFI IN PERÚ (LIMA) ber/November); I find that charge process massive amounts of data Ex. Dir.: Ryan Harvey Ex. Dir.: Manuel A. Paz y Miño Inside our White House. baffling. Robert Frodeman and in parallel, virtually all of it sub- Tel.: (503) 877-2347 Lima, Peru Adam Briggle’s “When Philosophy rosa. (2) Our thoughts and actions Email: [email protected] Lost Its Way” appeared on a New somehow emerge from all this York Times blog on January 11, processing, the usually unpredict- Ted Richer is the literary editor of Free 2016, which hardly makes it antique able results of a huge, tangled The mission of the Center for Inquiry is to foster a secular society Inquiry. in the context of philosophy. I’m not mess of intertwined and back- aware of a second article in Part 2 of fed neural networks. While the based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. The Center for Inquiry is a supporting organization of the Council for Secular Humanism, publisher of FREE INQUIRY. 66 Free Inquiry December 2017 / January 2018 secularhumanism.org CENTERS FOR INQUIRY | www.centerforinquiry.net/about/branches

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The mission of the Center for Inquiry is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. The Center for Inquiry is a supporting organization of the Council for Secular Humanism, publisher of FREE INQUIRY. secularhumanism.org December 2017 / January 2018 Free Inquiry 67