THE AFFIRMATIONS OF HUMANISM: A STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES* We are committed to the application of reason and science to the understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems. We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation. We believe that scientific discovery and technology can contribute to the betterment of human life. We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities. We are committed to the principle of the separation of church and state. We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual understanding. We are concerned with securing justice and fairness in society and with eliminating discrimination and intolerance. We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the handicapped so that they will be able to help themselves. We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, and strive to work together for the common good of humanity. We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other species. We believe in enjoying life here and now and in developing our creative talents to their fullest. We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence. We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have access to comprehensive and informed health-care, and to die with dignity. We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative standards that we discover together. Moral principles are tested by their consequences. We are deeply concerned with the moral education of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion. We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences. We are citizens of the universe and are excited by discoveries still to be made in the cosmos. We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, and we are open to novel ideas and seek new departures in our thinking. We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich per sonal significance and genuine satisfaction in the service to others. We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind faith or irrationality. We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest that we are capable of as human beings. *by Paul Kurtz For a parchment copy of this page, suitable for framing, please send $4.95 to FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, New York 14226-0664 free inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org 2 Editorial Features 5 Affirming Life 29 Reason Embattled Paul Kurtz Susan Jacoby 35 Dewey’s Defense of Democracy October/November 2004 Vol. 24, No. 6 Op-Ed Robert B. Talisse ISSN 0272-0701 11 Who Owns the 38 Thy Will Be Done, on Argument from Earth as It Is in Texas Improbability? Joe Bageant Richard Dawkins Response 13 No President Is Above the 40 Science Is Not Constitution Philosophy Nat Hentoff Patrick Frank and 15 Which Side Thomas H. Ray for Seculars? Response Christopher Hitchens 43 Of Course, Science Is 16 Prohibition Not Philosophy Creeps Back Massimo Pigliucci Wendy Kaminer 18 Are Some People Natural Humanists? Vern L. Bullough 19 Taking Humanism Departments beyond Speciesism 9 Letters Peter Singer 27 Frontlines/ 21 What’s Wrong With Sidelines Modernity? Andrea Szalanski Tibor R. Machan 22 Reason and 45 Church-State Update Superstition in Tom Flynn Uganda Bill Cooke 45 World Report 24 Humanism in Africa Bill Cooke Marches Forward 46 Great Minds Norm R. Allen Jr. The Humanism of 25 Science, Civility, and L. Frank Baum Value Judgments Irving Louis Horowitz Katharine M. Rogers Reviews 48 Applied Ethics Ethics for a Meaningful Life 54 Mother Teresa: 56 Who’s Looking Out Richard Neavel The Final Verdict for You? By Aroup Chatterjee By Bill O’Reilly 49 God on Trial Bill Cooke Hector Avalos The Strange Universe of the Homosexual Christian 55 Gandhi: Behind the Mask 57 Early Mormon David Rand of Divinity Documents By G.B. Singh Edited by Dan Vogel 52 Humanist Living Innaiah Narisetti Paul Kurtz Creeping Humanism Pat Inniss FI Editorial Staff Editor in Chief FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published bimonthly by the Editorial Board Paul Kurtz Council for Secular Humanism, a nonprofit educational corporation, Editor P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Phone (716) 636-7571. Robert Alley Thomas W. Flynn Fax (716) 636-1733. Copyright ©2004 by the Council for Secular Professor of Humanities Emeritus, Managing Editor Deputy Editor Humanism. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be University of Richmond, Virginia Andrea Szalanski Norm R. Allen Jr. reproduced without permission of the publisher. 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