ittuusx Fall 1990 Vol. 10, No. 4 $4.00 Fulfilling Feminist Ideals: A New Agenda Joan Kennedy Taylor Lois Frankel Elizabeth Johnson Victoria Branden Lois Porter Molleen Matsumura Also: Freedom and Censorship Today Catholic Politicians Facing Excommunication? Fundamentalism and Secularization in the Middle East Why I Am Not a Presbyterian FALL 1990, VOL. 10, NO. 4 ISSN 0272-0701 Contents 3 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 39 ON THE BARRICADES 57 IN THE NAME OF GOD 4 EDITORIALS Humanism and Liberty, Paul Kurtz / Confidentiality and the Press, Vern L. Bullough / On Rational Suicide, Tim Madigan 8 INTERVIEW Freedom and Censorship Today David Friedman FULFILLING FEMINIST IDEALS: A NEW AGENDA 21 Feminism and Humanism Joan Kennedy Taylor 25 New Hope for Women Elizabeth Johnson 29 Fanny Wright: "Free Enquirer" Lois Porter 31 Feminist Spirituality as a Path to Humanism Lois Frankel 36 Spiritual Values and "The Goddess" Victoria Branden 38 Women in Humanism Molleen Matsumura ARTICLES 11 Obscenity as Destiny Frank Johnson 12 Christian Activism Intensifies as 2001 Approaches Skipp Porteous 13 What is "Political Extremism?" Laird Wilcox 17 Neutrality Between Religion and Irreligion Ronald A. Lindsay 43 Why 1 Am Not a Presbyterian Hilliard Bennett 48 The Fundamentalist Absolute and Secularization in the Middle East Mourad Wahba 41 VIEWPOINTS Catholic Politicians and the Threat of Excommunication, Tom Flynn Religion in Public Education, Robert M. Hermann 51 BOOKS Apocalypse Soon, Robert Gorham Davis I Iris Murdoch's Cognitive and Social Networks, Lyle Glazier / Atheism Defended, Timothy William Grogan I Books in Brief 58 READERS' FORUM Growing Toward Unbelief Editor: Paul Kurtz Senior Editors: Vern Bullough, Gerald Larue Executive Editor: Tim Madigan Managing Editor: Mary Beth Gehrman Special Projects Editor: Brent Bailey Contributing Editors: Robert S. Alley, professor of humanities, University of Richmond; H. James Birx, professor of anthropology, Canisius College; Jo-Ann Boydston, director, Dewey Center; Paul Edwards, professor of philosophy, Brooklyn College; Albert Ellis, director, Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy; Roy P. Fairfield, social scientist, Union Graduate School; Joseph Fletcher, theologian, University of Virginia Medical School; Antony Flew, philosopher, Reading University, England; Levi Fragell, executive director Human-Etisk Forbund, Norway; Adolf Grünbaum, professor of philosophy, University of Pittsburgh; R. Joseph Hoffmann, professor of humanities, California State University at Sacramento; Marvin Kohl, philosopher, State University of New York College at Fredonia; Jean Kotkin, executive director, American Ethical Union; Ronald A. Lindsay, attorney, Washington, D.C.; Delos B. McKown, professor of philosophy, Auburn University; Howard Raciest, director, Ethical Culture Schools; Robert Rimmer, author; Svetozar Stojanovic, professor of philosophy, University of Belgrade; Thomas Szasz, psychiatrist, Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse; V. M. Tarkunde, Supreme Court Judge, India; Richard Taylor, professor of philosophy, Union College; Rob Tielman, professor, University of Utrecht; Sherwin Wine, North American Committee for Humanism Associate Editors: Doris Doyle, Steven L. Mitchell, Lee Nisbet, Gordon Stein, Andrea Szalanski Editorial Associates: Robert Basil, Jim Christopher, Fred Condo Jr., Thomas Flynn, Thomas Franczyk, James Martin-Diaz, Philip Mass, Molleen Matsumura Executive Director, CODESH, Inc.: Jean Millholland Executive Director, African-Americans for Humanism: Norm Allen Jr. Chief Data Officer: Richard Seymour Typesetting: Paul E. Loynes Audio Technician: Vance Vigrass Staff: Kim Gallo, Steve Karr, Anthony Nigro, Alfreda Pidgeon, Ranjit Sandhu FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published quarterly by the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH, Inc.), a nonprofit corporation, 3159 Bailey Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14215. Phone (716) 834-2921. Copyright ©1990 by CODESH, Inc. Second-class postage paid at Buffalo, New York, and at additional mailing offices. National distribution by International Periodicals Distributors, San Diego, California. Subscription rates: $22.50 for one year, $39.00 for two years, $54.00 for three years, $4.00 for current issue; $5.00 for back issues. Address subscription orders, changes of address, and advertising to: FREE INQUIRY, Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215-0005. Manuscripts, letters, and editorial inquiries should be addressed to: The Editor, FREE INQUIRY, Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215-0005. All manuscripts must be double-spaced and should be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or publisher. Postmaster: Send address changes to FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 5, Buffalo, NY 14215-0005. earth loses its source of energy—unless of course humanity finds a way to destroy all life on the earth before the sun burns out. Letters to the Editor In light of the above I see no significance of or need for dead body rituals. I feel that I've had a good life and that when I die I will really be gone. No entity, earthly or divine, knows when. Oa death and dying the very existence of evolved life on this planet. Being human is nonetheless a Larry Kelbley The "Dying Without Religion" articles in the marvelous experience, even if it is but a Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. Summer 1990 issue provide a valuable transitory supporting role in an eternal eupraxophic context for death, but I think chemical experiment. FREE INQUIRY'S Summer issue could not one can also benefit by examining the life/ have come at a more opportune time. death cycle from a straightforward evolu- John R. Doner Two months ago, as a Unitarian minister tionary point of view. As creations of nature, Palm Beach, Fla. friend and I sat in his study, talking about we must place our existence in a natural possible ways of helping a critically ill mutual context in order to seek the ultimate purpose Last winter my father, a die-hard secular friend, word of his death came, suddenly, and cause of our mortality. humorist, took his life. In my grief and shock if not unexpectedly. The essence of life in all its forms is simply I stood by as others arranged a memorial For a moment, the blow was crushing the capability of some very complex chem- service for him in a Lutheran church. Only and numbing. Then, the awful reality set in; ical processes to attract raw materials from a last-minute angry exchange with the well- my beloved friend of ten years was irretriev- the environment and then to create more meaning pastor spared us the indignity of ably gone. He and I had been Unitarian of the chemical compounds essential to those a religion-drenched service. humanists for most of our adult lives. I processes. This provides a physical way for Recently, an acquaintance of mine who turned to my minister friend and asked, information (embodied in molecules) to self- was also a secular humanist (and humorist) "What consolation is there for a Unitarian replicate, and what life is all about is just died under circumstances very similar to my at a time like this?" I knew it was a rhetorical the transmission of such information from father's. His farewell was secular and appro- question. What consolation, indeed? each creature to its offspring. We are not priate both to him and, at last, to my father. Yet, I fully agree with the various authors immortal, but in some sense, our genetic His memorial festival provided me with a writing on death and dying the nonreligious information has the potential to be immor- much-needed opportunity to say goodbye to way. It isn't harder or easier for humanists, tal, and the true driving force of evolution my father in ways that had been denied to but in the place of meaningless ritual and is quite literally an eternal competition me by his actual funeral. an illusory promise of an afterlife, we can between "libraries" of genetic information Thank you for your summer issue. I wish find purpose and solace. to create successful but temporary somatic my father and I had had a chance to read As the days passed, I realized that I homes on their journey through the aeons. it together before his death. I know I will needed something positive to replace the self- The chemical processes of life are read and reread it as mortality creeps up destructive grief and anger that had engulfed astounding, but why is it that these processes, on me and those I love. me after my friend's death. Because he had although able to create new somata, cannot always been such a positive, upbeat person, perpetuate any given soma indefinitely? Karl W. Schmiedeskamp I knew he would not have wanted me to Quite simply, any species that obtained Billings, Mont. mourn him as I was doing. "What's the immortality in this way would quickly point? What good will it do?" he had always saturate its ecological niche, and the resulting Your many fine articles on death led me to said, with his unfailing (and sometimes shortage of resources would promote heavy focus on my beliefs. exasperating) logic, whenever I lamented intraspecies strife and physical debilitation. I am a nonreligious person. I do not something over which I had no control. Even Reproduction would effectively cease, and believe in reincarnation or an afterlife as is when his five-year battle with cancer had no further evolution of that species could often promoted. Only in a couple of nearly drained his last ounce of strength, he occur, while competing (mortal) species nonreligious ways do I believe that I will did not complain or show bitterness. "What would continue to evolve. Eventually, the live on after my death. will be, will be," he told me just weeks before immortal species would be destroyed by its For a few decades those who know me he died. The lessons he taught me about own genetic obsolescence. It follows that may think of me occasionally. Then that will living and dying will invest my life with new somatic mortality is an inescapable necessary end.