Creating Secular and Humanist Alternatives

The question that has intrigued me for the lion’s share of mylife is whether it is possible to develop secular and human-istic alternatives to theistic religion. I have been puzzledby the persistence of ancient narratives of revelations

from God and promises of salvation. They are “news fromnowhere,” for they are uncorroborated by reliable empirical evi-dence. Supernatural tales about Moses, Abraham, Jesus,Muhammad, and other prophets endure, despite the advances ofmodern science, the increase of literacy, and the availability of high-er criticisms of biblical and Qur’anic claims. Fictionalized parablesof miraculous wonderment still captivate countless human beings,virtually everywhere—astonishingly, even in the United States withits highly educated public.

Still, not everyone on the planet is fixated on a transcendentalrealm or tempted by its false lures. Religion has declined dramati-cally in secular Europe, Japan, China, and other countries of theworld. Why is it still so prominent in other areas, and why does itaffect some credulous individuals and not others?

Two questions are often posed. The first is, why does religionpersist? The second is, can we create secular and humanist

alternatives?There are several explanations that have been suggested in

answer to the question: Why does religion persist? One reason isthat vast numbers of human beings have been exposed to pro-reli-gious propaganda through the ages by the proponents of the Bible,Qur’an, and other so-called sacred books. Too often, they havelacked access to skeptical critiques of the highly questionable claimsof revelation from On High. It is now abundantly clear that theancient documents on which the great historic religions are founded

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FI Editorial StaffEditor in Chief

Paul KurtzEditor

Thomas W. FlynnAssociate Editors

Nathan Bupp, Austin Dacey, DJ Grothe, David Koepsell, John R. ShookManaging Editor Deputy EditorAndrea Szalanski Norm R. Allen Jr.

ColumnistsArthur Caplan, Richard Dawkins, Shadia B. Drury, Sam Harris, Nat Hentoff,

Christopher Hitchens, Wendy Kaminer,Tibor R. Machan, Peter Singer

Senior EditorsBill Cooke, Richard Dawkins, Martin Gardner, James A. Haught, Jim Herrick, Gerald A. Larue,

Ronald A. Lindsay, Taslima NasrinContributing Editors

Jo Ann Boydston, Albert Ellis, Roy P. Fairfield, Charles Faulkner, Antony Flew, Levi Fragell, Adolf Grünbaum,

Marvin Kohl, Thelma Lavine, Lee Nisbet, J.J.C. Smart, Svetozar Stojanovic, Thomas Szasz

Ethics EditorElliot D. Cohen

Literary Editor and Assistant Editor David Park Musella

Art DirectorLisa A. HutterProduction

Christopher Fix, Paul E. Loynes Sr.Cartoonist WebmasterDon Addis Jay Wollin

Contributing Illustrator Brad Marshall

Cover Illustration Bob Schuchman

Council for Secular HumanismChair

Paul Kurtz

Board of DirectorsVern Bullough, Thomas Casten, Jan Loeb Eisler, Kendrick Frazier,David Henehan, Jonathan Kurtz,

Edward Tabash

Executive DirectorDavid Koepsell

Director, Educational Programs (CFI)Austin Dacey

Director, Campus and Community Programs (CFI)

DJ Grothe

Director, African Americans for Humanism

Norm R. Allen Jr.

Vice President of Planning and Development (CFI)Sherry Rook

Director of Communications (CFI)Nathan Bupp

Assistant Communications Director (CFI)Lauren Becker

Director of Libraries (CFI)Timothy Binga

Fulfillment (CFI)Michael Cione, Darlene Banks

StaffPat Beauchamp, Cheryl Catania, Eric Chinchón, Deborah Goddard,

Lihann Jones, Sarah Jordan, Sandy Lesniak, Georgeia Locurcio, Jackie Mohr,Lisa Nolan, Paul Paulin, Sarah Pierce, Denise Riley, Sara Rosten,

Anthony Santa Lucia, John Sullivan, Vance Vigrass

Executive Director EmeritusJean Millholland

Paul Kurtz is editor in chief of FREE INQUIRY, a professor emeri-tus of philosophy at the State University of New York atBuffalo, and chair of the Center for Inquiry.

E D I T O R I A L

P A U L K U R T Z

Creating Secular andHumanist Alternatives

to Religion

FI Aug-Sept 2006 Pages 6/30/06 8:54 AM Page 4

contain gross exaggerations and untruths, were written by evangel-ical propagandists for specific faiths, and are products of an unso-phisticated, prescientific age. Monotheistic religions are among theoldest institutions in human history. Rational critiques of revealedreligions were usually forbidden in most societies. It was generally acrime to question the Word of God or blaspheme his name, howevermuch the orthodox religions of the day might have disputed amongthemselves over which religion was authoritative. Just in recenttimes, Catholics and Protestants, Christians and Jews, Hindus andMuslims have vehemently disagreed and persecuted one another.Today, Shiites and Sunnis slaughter each other with abandon. Pastand present, all this violence is carried out “in the name of God.”

Nonbelief is still punishable by death in many Islamic countries.Although Western countries no longer torture or burn heretics, allsorts of sanctions are applied to nonbelievers; at the very least, it isstill considered in bad taste to doubt the sacred icons of society, nomatter how bizarre or preposterous they may seem. U.S. polls con-sistently identify atheists as the nation’s most unwelcome minority.In most cultural milieus today, it is very difficult for iconoclasts ofany type to make themselves heard, given the fact that the youngare indoctrinated into the creeds of their parents from the very ear-liest, and powerful institutions have been erected to propagate anddefend the faith.

Richard Dawkins has introduced the concept of the “meme” toaccount for, among other things, religion’s persistence (The SelfishGene, 1976; see also Susan Blackmore, The Meme Makers, 1998).Memetics refers to the imitative process whereby humans transmitideas, values, beliefs, and practices to each other. The memes thatcatch on are conditioned by repetition and imbibed by subsequentgenerations. Memes are the conveyors of customs and traditions. Theconcept of the meme is highly suggestive; it would apply to all kindsof cultural information that can be passed down through repetitionand imitation. Critics maintain that memetics lacks a precise scien-tific definition. Nevertheless, I find the arguments rather persuasivethat memes function in ways analogous to genes, which, as we know,are transmitted biologically by natural selection. Memes supportedby religious or ideological sanctions may function as “viruses of themind.” Some invasive biological viruses can be cured by antibiotics,and some cannot; invasive memes are often very difficult to root out.There are vaccines that can inoculate us against infectious diseases.Is there something analogous to a vaccine that can protect us fromnoxious memes? Yes, I think that there is: the use of critical thinkingand skeptical inquiry are the best therapies for nonsense!

Daniel C. Dennett has also drawn upon the meme concept toexplain the “spell” that supernatural religion often casts on peopleinfected by it and the difficulty they experience in breaking its grip

August/September 20065 ht tp ://www.secu la r humanism.or g

FREE INQUIRY (ISSN 0272-0701) is published bimonthly bythe Council for Secular Humanism, a nonprofit educationalcorporation, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Phone(716) 636-7571. Fax (716) 636-1733. Copyright ©2006 bythe Council for Secular Humanism. All rights reserved. No partof this periodical may be reproduced without permission ofthe publisher. Periodicals postage paid at Buffalo, N.Y., andat additional mailing offices. National distribution byInternational Periodicals Distributors, Solana Beach,California. FREE INQUIRY is indexed in Philosophers’ Index.Printed in the United States. Postmaster: Send addresschanges to FREE INQUIRY, P.O. Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the viewsof the editors or publisher. No one speaks on behalf of theCouncil for Secular Humanism unless expressly stated.

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“It is now abundantly clear that the ancient documents on which the great historic religions

are founded contain gross exaggerations anduntruths, were written by evangelical propagandists

for specific faiths, and are products of an unsophisticated, prescientific age.”


(Consciousness Explained, 1991;Breaking the Spell, 2006). He arguesthat we need to pursue the scientificinvestigation of the causes of religiousbeliefs in order to weaken their hold onhuman culture. If humans better under-stood the origins of religious myths, per-haps they could be released from theirnoxious influence.

The origin of any given meme is usu-ally forgotten, especially if it wasimplanted in the deep historical past. Iwas graphically reminded of this recent-ly when my three-year-old grandson,Cameron, began to sing the Englishnursery rhyme, “Ring around a Rosy.” Ichimed in and we both laughed and felldown when we were supposed to:

Ring around a rosyA pocket full of posiesAshes, ashesWe all fall down!

I had sung the nursery rhyme to mychildren and had been taught it by myparents. Yet the original source of thestory was largely unknown to us. Therhyme is believed to refer to the bubonicplague (or Black Death) that struckEurope in the fourteenth century. “Ringaround a rosy” refers to the pink circlesthat would appear on a sick person’sbody; later the circles would turn blackand the person would die. Posies refersto flowers that people thought wouldpurify the air if breathed through. Ashesapparently refers to the fact that theyburned the dead and the houses theylived in. And “all fall down” means fallingdead. How ghastly this innocent rhyme,its real source buried by the sands oftime; yet it has been repeated for cen-turies. If parents really understood thetrue meaning of the rhyme, no doubt theywould be hesitant to pass it on.

Apply this memes principle to reli-gious beliefs and rituals that are deeplyingrained in the young: witness themadrassas, schools in Islamic countrieswhere young boys are taught to memo-rize Qur’anic verses by rote; or the fiveprayers a day required of Muslims inwhich phrases are intoned by repetition.No wonder these ancient memes contin-ue to possess devout believers, who arewilling to die for Allah. This process ofindoctrination is similar amongOrthodox Jews, who put on tefillin andprayer shawls daily and repeat phrasesfrom the Torah; devout Catholics, whorub their rosary beads and recite HailMarys; or Protestants, who avow theNicene Creed at Sunday services.Religious memes whose origins arelargely unknown have driven their rootsso deep into the psyches of devout believ-ers that they are difficult to erase. Ofcourse, there are fairy tales—such asSanta Claus—that everyone knows arepure fiction. But when Gospels are takenas absolute truth and never questioned,this may become destructive of othergenuine human values. For example,ardent faith may incline believersagainst accepting the findings of the sci-ences, as in the case of those true believ-ers today who refuse to accept evolution.

There is still another possible explana-tion for the persistence of religious memesand the difficulty believers encounter inshedding them. In my book The Trans-cendental Temptation: A Critique ofReligion and the Paranormal (Prome-theus Books, 1986), I postulate a “tran-scendental temptation,” that is, a quest foran unseen spiritual reality behind thisworld. That temptation explains in part therecurrent persistence of religiosity. It hasdeep roots in cultural history and geneticdisposition. The transcendental tempta-tion is expressed by human beings over-come by the fragility of life and yearning fora deeper purpose to the universe. A com-mon fear of death and nonbeing gnaws atthe innards, goading humans to seek balmfor the aching heart and to find solace inthe promise of deliverance. The “quest forcertainty,” as John Dewey called it, seemsto offer a secure anchor in a contingentuniverse for those seeking such security.Thus the belief in God and immortalityexpresses our imaginative flight toward anultimate sanctuary beyond death. If this isthe case, then perhaps another reason reli-gious memes continue to be propagatedand to flourish is that they satisfy some

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VERN L. BULLOUGH(1929 – 2006)

The editors of FREE INQUIRY are saddened to announce that Vern L. Bulloughdied on the evening of June 21, 2006, after a brief illness. A Senior Editor ofFREE INQUIRY, Vern was a stalwart humanist and a dedicated supporter of theCouncil for Secular Humanism, the Center for Inquiry, and the Committee forthe Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). He haddevoted himself to humane causes all during his life, and he was considered tobe one of the leading authorities in the world on the history of sex and thenature of gender. He was a tireless advocate of civil liberties and the rights ofminorities, including gays, lesbians, and transgendered persons.

The author or editor of more than fifty books—including Sexual Attitudes:Myths and Realities, with his first wife, Bonnie Bullough—and hundreds ofarticles, Vern was renowned in several areas of human interest, including his-tory, sexology, nursing, and liberal religion. Indeed a true Renaissance man,Vern was a Distinguished Professor emeritus at the State University of NewYork at Buffalo, an Outstanding Professor at the California State University, apast president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex, past Dean ofNatural and Social Sciences at the State University of New York College atBuffalo, and one of the founders of the American Association for the History ofNursing. In addition, he was a recipient of the Distinguished Humanist Awardand a past Co-President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union.

Vern served on the Board of Directors of the Council, the Center, and CSICOPand was personally involved in their outreach activities. He accompanied CFI’sExplorers Club on a cruise to Alaska in early June. He read a paper on boardship and managed to write up his remarks in the form of an article, which willbe published in the next issue of FREE INQUIRY.

He will be sorely missed as one of the leading secular humanists in NorthAmerica and the world and a liberal voice for the right of self-determination,tolerance, and dignity. He leaves his wife, Gwen Brewer (Professor Emeritus,University of California) and four children.

—Paul Kurtz


need (real or apparent) for their holders.These spiritual responses are no doubtspurious, exacerbated by false prophetsselling their wares and services.Nevertheless, the transcendental messagestill resonates with individuals who hungerfor existential comfort.

This deep-seated temptation is notpresent in all human beings, nor in all cul-tures, to the same extent; at the least, ittakes on different forms, particularly insecular societies that encourage a natu-ralistic worldview. Thus, magical tales ofa transcendental realm do not entrap allhuman beings in an ancient “fixology.”

This leads to the second question,which is especially intriguing: Is it

possible to create naturalistic-exis-tential-moral poetries, narratives ofsufficient power and intensity toattract and supplant the ancientmemetic systems of religion? Thequestion of truth is an enduring problemfor human civilization, and it is espe-cially central to secular humanists. It isapparent that inerrant fundamentalistreligions are not only false but dysfunc-tional, insofar as they have blocked sci-entific research, denigrated individualautonomy, repressed sexual freedom,and denied the possibility of humanbeings solving their own problems with-out reliance on God. Still, religiouscreeds have provided important supportsystems, and they have cultivated char-itable efforts and the bonds of moralcohesion. I readily grant that, wheremainline religious denominations havebuilt what were in fact secular commu-nities of friends, they have satisfiedimportant psychological-sociologicalneeds, often without imposing authori-tarian overlays. Secular humanists canlearn much from the denominationsabout the need to build communities.But secular humanists differ from thereligious in that they are unable to makethe leap of faith required to believe inthe messianic message of the ancientprophets, even if reinterpreted inmetaphorical or symbolic language.These original rituals for salvation werecontrived by our nomadic-agriculturalforbears, and, however liberalized, theyare difficult for highly educated andsophisticated moderns to swallow.Secular humanists, skeptics, and ratio-nalists affirm that they believe in theunvarnished truth, not mythologicalpoetry. They prefer new truths and val-

ues, based on conceptions of realitydrawn from scientific understanding,not from the ancient religious classics.Modern humans need new, secularprophets of liberation.

The secular humanist outlook reliesheavily on cognition and reason. It iscommitted to the following principles:• The consistent use of objective meth-ods of inquiry for testing truth claims,based on science and critical thinking;• Conceptions of “reality” derived large-ly from empirical research; its cosmicview is naturalistic and evolutionary,and the human species is viewed as partof nature, not separate from it;• Sharp skepticism of a theistic God orimmortality of the soul, for it finds insuf-ficient evidence for these claims;• The belief that human values are rela-tive to human experience, interests, andneeds, and that objective principles canbe developed for realizing human happi-ness and improving the human condi-tion; this includes the belief in maximiz-ing individual freedom and in express-ing altruistic concerns for the needs ofothers;• Commitment to the democratic soci-ety, predicated on freedom and equality,tolerance, the right of dissent, respectfor the open society and the rule of law,majority rule and minority rights, andthe separation of church and state;• Recognition of our global interdepen-dence; it believes that we need to devel-op new planetary ethics that are devot-ed to the preservation of the planetEarth, biodiversity, and the creation of agenuine planetary civilization in whichall members of the human species areconsidered equal in dignity and value.This new Planetary Humanism seeks totranscend the ancient racial, religious,ethnic, national, and gender differencesof the past in order to develop a peace-ful and prosperous world community.

If secular humanists are to be effec-tive in creating institutions that providealternatives to traditional, theistic reli-gions, then, I submit, we need to satisfythe following conditions:• First, we need to confront directly theroot existential questions about the“meaning of life” and respond cogentlyto the quandaries that trouble so manyhuman beings. We need to help peoplewithstand the blows of outrageous for-tune: illness, grief, suffering, conflict,failure, and death—weltschmertz, asthe Germans call it. It is vital that we

bolster the courage to go on in spite ofthe sometimes tragic dimensions ofhuman existence. We need to marshal astoic attitude, which resolves us to per-severe in spite of adversity while it rec-ognizes the bountiful satisfactions stillavailable in human life.• Second, we need to develop an appre-ciation for ethical values and principlesthat are firmly grounded in humanexperience and reason, rigorously test-ed by their consequences in practice,yet sufficiently attractive to inspire ded-ication, a sense that life is really worthliving, and a respect for the obligationsthat we owe to others. This includes amoral recognition that we ought to helpbuild a better world for ourselves andour fellow human beings.• Third, we need to appeal to the heartas well as the mind, the passionate andemotional dimensions of life as well asthe cognitive and intellectual. For secu-lar humanists, life is discovered to beintrinsically satisfying, rich with vari-ous potentialities for joyful exuberance:sexual fulfillment, creative expression,and genuine humanitarian concerns.The arts illustrate the power of aesthet-ic experiences. Literature, novels, poet-ry, and drama open us to new forms ofthe flowering creative imagination. Thevisual arts, such as painting, sculpture,and architecture, expose us to objects ofbeauty. Photography and cinematogra-phy offer vivid insights, while music,singing, and dance carry the promise ofenthralling rapture (in a secular sense,of course).• Fourth, we need to use the arts to cre-ate new narratives that celebrate life(not deny or denigrate it) and that alsodramatize the rites of passage: birth,graduation, love and friendship, mar-riage or civic unions, career-building,retirement, and death. Humanist cere-monies are necessary ingredients to alife well lived, intrinsically good for theirown sake. The message of the humanistis emphasis on the potential goodness oflife, the power of reason, and the deter-mination to resolve human problems. Inshort, we need to arouse emotional com-mitment to inspiring humanistic values,the beauty of life and shared experi-ences, the joys of discovery, the satisfac-tion in reaching accords.

We also need to arouse a sense of thesplendor and majesty of the naturalworld by viewing the expanding galax-ies in full color and light as seen through



the telescopes of astronomy or in study-ing the rich diversity of life as we dis-cover it in the biosphere.

We especially need to celebrate thepower of science and reason to unlockthe secrets of the universe and inventnew technologies for the betterment oflife. It is not blind faith but the objectivemethods of inquiry that best help us tosolve the problems that beset us andoffer us the means to ameliorate life onour planet. The march of reasonthrough history, in spite of setbacks anddefeats: the sheer joy of achievingprogress in conquering disease, improv-ing health and nutrition, reducing painand suffering, overcoming ignoranceand poverty, and expanding the opportu-nities for education and cooperation—these are the great discoveries andbreakthroughs that the human speciesshould herald, rather than supplicatingin fear and trembling before theunknown forces of the universe. It is thePromethean person who is able to enterinto the world and change it for the bet-ter, not the masochistic mystic who peti-tions unknown forces, unable to sum-mon the resources to overcome chal-lenges by creating new tomorrows.• Fifth, in building naturalistic alterna-tives to religion, we need to focus onexemplary role models in history:humanist heroes and heroines, scien-tists and thinkers, poets and artists,authors and composers, explorers andadventurers, statesmen and states-women, humanitarian and progressivebattlers for beloved causes and animproved world, people who have madelife better. Among these are Solon andPericles, Socrates and Hypatia, Galileoand Darwin, Shakespeare and Bee-thoven, Einstein and Salk, Sartre and deBeauvoir, Dewey and Russell, MargaretSanger and Carl Sagan, E.O. Wilson andRichard Dawkins. These are the greatfree thinkers, independent persons, andiconoclasts who have exemplified excel-lence and nobility in their lives, forthemselves and others, and who haveillustrated the fullness of humanity thatis both creative and caring.• Sixth, we need especially to developcommunities of sympathetic persons,committed to science, reason, and freeinquiry in every area of human interest,yet able to cultivate goodwill and amoral regard for others. I cannot over-estimate the importance of the need toestablish alternative secular communi-

ties for humanists and naturalists.These institutions must demonstrate byexample that it is possible to be a cre-ative individual, a loving person andfriend, a loyal member of the society inwhich he or she lives, rational and affec-tionate, intelligent and empathetic tothose within one’s communities of inter-action.

The great challenge that humankindfaces in the twenty-first century is theneed for a New Renaissance. This is thespecial challenge that the Center forInquiry movement has taken upon itself(however modestly) as it focuses onbuilding Centers and Communities ded-icated to both inquiry and humanenrichment. Our efforts are directed atdeveloping new communities as moral-aesthetic-intellectual substitutes for theancient religious dogmas and ritualsspawned in the infancy of the race andencrusted by memes and customs thatare no longer fully functional.

We should respond with optimismand dedication to the proposition that itis possible to transcend the transcen-dental temptation and to infuse anysuch temptation with humanistic ratio-nal, poetic, and existential alternatives.This would focus on both the individualand his or her quest for creative exu-berance and the communities in whichwe live—and preeminently to the Plan-etary Civilization of which we are all apart.

Melting Glaciers andGlobal WarmingI recently returned from a glorious edu-cational cruise to Alaska aboard theHolland American liner, the Westerdam. Iwas accompanied by the skeptics andhumanists of the Center for InquiryExplorers Club. We sailed from Seattle,Washington, and Victoria, British Colum-bia, to Juneau and Sitka, Alaska; and wevisited Glacier Bay. Perhaps I shouldqualify the term glorious by saying thatthe spectacle that we viewed was tingedwith sadness, for though we had a splen-did opportunity to behold the wondroussnow-covered mountain peaks and pris-tine temperate rainforests, we also wit-nessed the great glaciers of Alaska rapid-ly disappearing. We visited the impres-sive Mendenhall Glacier, which receded250 feet the year before last (when it wasvery warm) and 170 feet just last year,and which continues to melt year in andyear out. We observed with great remorsethe rapid calving of icebergs, the falling oflarge chunks into Glacier Bay and float-ing out to the Pacific Ocean. We learnedfrom Mark Bowen (author of Thin Ice:Unlocking the Secrets of Climate in theWorld’s Highest Mountains, John Mac-Rae Books, 2005), one of the speakersaboard this educational cruise, that theglaciers are melting all over the worldand that, in time, they may very well dis-appear; this is also true of the snow-

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CFI aboard the Westerdam in Glacier Bay.


capped mountain peaks in Peru, thesnows of Kilimanjaro in Africa, and of thegreat Mount Everest in Nepal. If thisprocess of global warming continues,then water levels will rise everywhere.This would be a worldwide disaster, notonly for human populations in low-lyingcoastal areas such as Florida andBangladesh, but also for the biosphere ingeneral. In his new book, The Creation(Norton, 2006), E.O. Wilson warns that weface an unimaginable crisis in the ecosys-tem of the planet with the acceleratingpace of the death of species.

It is difficult to deny the reality ofglobal warming, though some scientistsand politicians, financed by powerful oilcompanies, have attempted to do justthat. How much of global warming maybe attributed to the pollution caused byhuman civilization or to natural forces isopen to debate. The preponderance ofscientific judgment is that the release ofcarbon dioxide into the atmosphere—known as the “greenhouse effect”—is amajor contributing cause. Al Gore is per-haps the leading American politician toshout this warning, especially in his newfilm, An Inconvenient Truth. Thesefacts have been denied by religious con-

servatives, who believe that the Earth ismade for humans, to be used as theywish for their own purposes. Those wholove our blue-green dot, as it appearswhen seen from afar, need to worktogether with all members of the plane-tary community in order to take whatev-

er measures we can to prevent this, ifthere is still time. This is incumbent notonly on the United States, the major userof fossil fuels, but also on the underde-veloped world as it rapidly industrializes.

While aboard ship, we read aloud thefollowing pledge of allegiance, whichsets forth our ethical obligations to ourplanetary abode:

PLANETARY ALLEGIANCE

We pledge allegiance to the planetarycommunity of which we’re all a part:one planet, indivisible, with libertyand justice for all. We recognize thatall persons are equal in dignity andvalue. We defend human rights andcherish human freedom. We vow tohonor and protect the global ecologyand biodiversity, not only for ourselvesbut for generations yet unborn.

One lesson to be learned from thisdiscussion of global warming is that itis a mistake to think that secularhumanism begins and ends with skepti-cal critiques of religion (the false “idolsof the tribe,” according to FrancisBacon). The question that is oftenraised is, if you reject the discreditedbeliefs of the religious systems of thepast, what do you offer in their place?To which I respond: clearly, there arehumanist values and principles, whichare tested by human experience thatare relevant. Implicit in the question ofglobal warming is the basic humanimperative to strive today to preservethe natural ecology of the planet. Thisis so apparent that only a foolhardyperson would deny its moral authority.


Dawkins, Dennett, and Haack Win Forkosch Awards

The editors of FREE INQUIRY arepleased to announce the latest recip-ients of the Morris D. and Selma V.Forkosch Awards, which the Councilfor Secular Humanism has bestowedon a recurring, but not always regu-lar, schedule since the mid-1980s.

The most recent best-book awar-dee was Taner Edis for his The Ghostin the Universe: God in Light ofModern Science (2002). Now, the edi-tors have chosen to recognize twodistinguished authors with theMorris D. Forkosch Award forOutstanding Humanist Book.

One Morris D. Forkosch Awardwill be presented to Richard Dawkinsfor his book, The Ancestor’s Tale: APilgrimage to the Dawn of Evo-lution (Houghton Mifflin, 2004).Dawkins brings evolutionary theory

alive as he traces the common her-itage of all living things back throughthe ages to a hypothetical primordialancestor. This award includes a cashhonorarium of $1,000.

A second Morris D. ForkoschAward will be presented to DanielC. Dennett for his book, Breakingthe Spell: Religion as a NaturalPhenomenon (Viking Adult, 2006).Dennett argues for the necessity oftreating religion as a natural phe-nomenon whose psychological andcultural dimensions should beevaluated using the same tools ofscientific scrutiny we would applyin any other area of human en-deavor.

The Selma V. Forkosch Awardfor the Year’s Best Article Pub-lished by FREE INQUIRY will be pre-

sented to Susan Haack for her arti-cle “Mystery-mongering, Prejudice,and the Search for Truth: Replies toSome Reservations,” which appear-ed in the June/July 2005 issue ofthe magazine. In this article, Haackdefended a modified Enlightenmentview of scientific inquiry againstcritics who “on the one hand . . .fear that the scientific worldviewblinds us to the marvelous myster-ies of the world” and “on the other. . . are convinced that the scientificenterprise is complicit with theracist evils of Western imperialismor with sexism.” The award in-cludes a cash honorarium of $250.

The Morris D. and Selma V.Forkosch Awards are bestowed bythe editors of Free Inquiry and fund-ed by a gift from Morris D. Forkosch.

“. . . though we had a splendid opportunity to

behold the wondrous snow-covered mountain peaks andpristine temperate rainforests,

we also witnessed the greatglaciers of Alaska rapidly

disappearing.”


Documents

Creating Secular and Humanist Alternatives