
I I Spring 1992 Vol. 12, No. 2 Communicating with the Dead by Martin Gardner The Vatican's Opposition The Jehovah's Witnesses to Family Planning and the Tom Flynn Watchtower Society Roland Van Liew Hector Avalos Stephen D. Mumford N Mar In N n Interview with Sir Hermann Bondi •exual Archetypes in Transition, Robert SPRING 1992, VOL. 12, NO. 2 ISSN 0272-0701 an international Contents secular humanist magazine Editor: Paul Kurtz Senior Editors: Vern Bullough, Gerald Larne Executive Editor: Timothy J. Madigan 3 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Managing Editor: Andrea Szalanski Contributing Editors: 4 EDITORIALS Robert S. Alley, Joe E. Barnhart, H. James Birx, Jo Ann Boydston, Bonnie Bullough, Paul Edwards, Beyond Multiculturalism: Toward a Humanist Universalism, Paul Albert Ellis, Roy P. Fairfield, Joseph Fletcher, Antony Flew, Levi Fragell, Adolf Grünbaum, R. Kurtz / Do We Have a Judeo-Christian Heritage? Vern L. Joseph Hoffmann, Marvin Kohl, Jean Kotkin, Bullough / The Vatican's Alliance with Reagan, Tom Flynn I Ronald A. Lindsay, Delos B. McKown, Howard Radest, Robert Rimmer, Svetozar Stojanovic, Pronatalist Zealotry and Reproductive Rights: How Catholic Thomas Szasz, V. M. Tarkunde, Richard Taylor, Militants Seized Control of U.S. Family Planning Programs, Rob Tielman, Sherwin Wine Roland Van Liew / Concerning the Right to Persecute Heretics, Associate Editors: Stephen D. Mumford I On Religiosity, Isaac Asimov / Christian Doris Doyle, Thomas Flynn, Steven L. Mitchell, Lee Coalition Update, Skipp Porteous Nisbet, Gordon Stein Editorial Associates: 18 ON THE BARRICADES Robert Basil, James Christopher, Thomas Franczyk, James Martin-Diaz, Molleen Matsumura ARTICLES Chairman, CODESH, Inc.: Paul Kurtz 20 Communicating with the Dead: William James Director of Public Relations, Steve Karr and Mrs. Piper (Part 1) Martin Gardner Executive Director, African-Americans for 28 The Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watchtower Humanism: Norm Allen Jr. Society Hector Avalos Chief Data Officer: Richard Seymour 35 An Interview with Sir Hermann Bondi Typesetting: Paul E. Loynes 38 The Jesus Phenomenon in Korea Sang J. Kim Audio Technician: Vance Vigrass 39 Humanism in Nigeria Tai Solarin Staff. 40 Sexual Archetypes in Transition Robert T Francoeur Georgeia Locurcio, Anthony Nigro, Ranjit Sandhu 45 Mary Wollstonecraft and Women's Rights Elizabeth Larson FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published quarterly by the Council for Democratic and Secular 49 Caring Love and Liberty: Humanism (CODESH, Inc.), a nonprofit corpora- Some Questions Marvin Kohl tion, 3965 Rensch Road, Buffalo, NY 14228-2713. Phone (716) 636-7571. Copyright ©1992 by CODESH, Inc. Second-class postage paid at Buffalo, 52 VIEWPOINTS N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. National distribution by International Periodicals Distribu- 'No Virginia, There Is No Santa Claus. Someone's Been Lying tors, Solana Beach, California. FREE INQUIRY is available from University Microfilms and is indexed to You.' Judith Boss / God's Influence and the Super Bowl, James in Philosophers' Index. Gill Subscription rates: $25.00 for one year, $43.00 for two years, $59.00 for three years, $6.25 for single issues. Address subscription orders, changes of 55 BOOKS address, and advertising to: FREE INQUIRY, Box 664, Buffalo, NY 14226-0664. The Varieties of Humanism, Konstantin Kolenda I `Religious' Manuscripts, letters, and editorial inquiries should Humanism as Christian Humanism, Paul Kurtz / Books in Brief be addressed to: The Editor, FREE INQUIRY, Box 664, Buffalo, NY 14226-0664. All manuscripts must be typed double-spaced and should be accompanied by 61 IN THE NAME OF GOD 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, Box 664, Buffalo, NY 14226-0664. Death" (FI, Fall 1991), and also for sharing with readers the two thoughtful letters from Fred Condo and Ira Pilgrim Letters to the Editor (FI, Winter 1991/ 92) regarding Dr. Kevorkian's efforts to make the choice of suicide more acceptable in our nation as an alternative to becoming a mere guinea pig in organized medicine's Santa Claus a Villain? In most of North America, arguments extremely lucrative high-tech business of against a "real Santa" are more taboo, extending nonfunctional and meaning- Judith Boss's article "Is Santa Claus and more intimately involving for every less life far beyond reasonable limits. Corrupting Our Children's Morals?"(FI, family member and neighbor than Do not those who seek to spare others Winter 1991/92) does a disservice to arguments against God. Because chil- the burden of extremely expensive and humanist thinking. While I concur dren may be the ones most confused and often fruitless high-tech medical and wholeheartedly that religion is a com- caught in the middle, it seems right to surgical measures have as much funda- pletely inappropriate term to describe ask whether we must consider balancing mental right to do so as do those who secular humanism, and that we— several moral values. seek to spend the last ten or twenty years through vehicles such as the Committee Alice Miller, in the opening chapter of their lives dependent upon such for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of Banished Knowledge, shows how devices as respirators, feeding tubes, and of the Paranormal—should make every subtly and doggedly parents in Western artificial organs? effort to combat psychic and supernat- cultures have manipulated children. ural claims, I think it is simply silly (there Almost a century before, Italian educa- Cyrus J. Stow, D.D.S. really is no other word) that, by exten- tor Maria Montessori would have Conyers, Ga. sion, we include all elements of fantasy, agreed. We should respect children's own imagination, wonder, romance, reverie, fantasies (which Santa is not), as their Euthanasia, passive or active, should be and childhood magic. Fairy characters— way of working through worries and my decision alone. I will not accept any of which Santa Claus is one—connote practicing for life. Our job should be to ethicist, religious guru, lawyer, or doctor and denote all that is marvelous, respect the child's integrity within a in a position to dictate the decision. Of imaginative, and creative; they do not, realm of inexperience and extreme course, I do believe in legal safeguards: in any normal sense, refer to unques- vulnerability, by helping her/ him to a process of legal oversight to assure that tioned and unquestionable belief. The become oriented in the real world. it is my wishes that are being carried claim that fairyland is an ogre hindering In Sweden, at Jul (Yule), Jultomtar out, and not the machinations of some the development of "rational" human (several Santas) can be seen side by side overzealous heir or enemy. It is cruel to beings borders on paranoia. in many places, as decor or as real limit euthanasia by law to those who If parents want to lie and victimize persons very unconvincingly dressed experience unbearable pain and have no their kids, they will do it in ways far with a thin cotton beard and sometimes more than X months to live. more malevolently ingenious, far more a red cap only. Like all jolly trolls, traumatic than with the nontoxic Santa children can see that their purpose is fun W. Rae Young myth (all one has to do is read the daily and glädje. As young as three, children Middleton, N.J. paper to get the gory details). Ought we may dress as a Tomte themselves and not concentrate, as humanists, on the help pass out gifts. education of parents who routinely listen In Sweden, it is easier to see and Sexual Harassment to holistic herbalists, who invoke biblical celebrate the goodness and joy all around canons to whip their children, who, in their real world, where no child is Regarding Vern and Bonnie Bullough's indeed, are only children themselves at poor, and everyone has equal time off. editorial "Sexual Harassment," (FI, sixteen or seventeen? Worldwide over Might more choices and hopes tell why Winter 1991/92): First, operating room eighty million female children are Scandinavians generally have little need gowns are (or were) open at the back surgically traumatized through infibula- for either God or Santa Claus or other and tied at the neck and waist. Thus, tion and we're to be worried about macho dudes and big daddies? the surgeon's hand would have to enter Santa? from the rear and move under the arm Daylene Lumis to the front. Why didn't the nurse's arm Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Walt Michalsky, President come down tight against the thoracic Humanist Association of cage to block the advancing hand? Hamilton-Burlington On Beneficent Death Second, if the surgeon did not back off, Canada why didn't the nurse take her sterile hand I would like to praise you for publishing and slap the surgeon's masked face? See Judith Boss's comments on page 52 Dr. Jack Kevorkian's comments in on the furor caused by her article.—EDs. "Medicide: The Goodness of Planned (Letters, continued on p. 58) Spring 1992 3 national origin, race, gender, or creed. All human beings are equal in dignity and value. All possess the same rights, including the right to exist. Editorials There are diverse national heritages in the family of humankind, each of which is entitled to some place in the Beyond Multiculturalism: sun. These represent a wide range of cultural expressions, in language and Toward A Humanist Universalism literature, music and the arts, culinary and social customs. No one group is entitled to dominate or deny cultural freedom to others. Many people find their own ethnic Paul Kurtz networks gratifying—they live in a Polish neighborhood, frequent an Irish wo powerful, often contradictory recent immigrants and demands that pub, or visit a Jewish synagogue.
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