No. 5 | Free Inquiry (original) (raw)
Jesus: What’s the Evidence?
Is There Independent Confirmation of What the Gospels Say of Jesus? George A. Wells
In this article, I shall focus on the contribution made to this oft-discussed question by the eminent New Testament scholar Bart D. Ehrman, professor of rel igious studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Ehrman’s many books make him prominent among scholars in the field who, as Jacques Berlinerblau observes in The Secular …
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Jesus: What’s the Evidence?
Intellectual Black Holes and Bullshit Stephen Law
Even among the world’s best-educated and most scientifically literate populations, ridiculous belief systems abound. Huge numbers of people believe in such things as astrology, television psychics, crystal divination, the healing powers of magnets, and the prophecies of Nostradamus. Many suppose that the pyramids were built by aliens, that the Holocaust never happened, or that the …
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Jesus: What’s the Evidence?
On Ethics and Morality David Tribe
Who would have thought in 1972 that “ethics” would ever become fashionable? That was when my Nucleoethics: Ethics in Modern Society was published in the same sociological series as Ger maine Greer’s The Female Eunuch (1970). Today, ethics is everywhere. The hitherto-obsolescent Hippocratic Oath for doctors has been joined by codes of ethics for advertisers, …
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Editorial
Secularism and Human Dignity Ronald A. Lindsay
Secularism is a scary word for some, especially those on the religious Right. Moreover, as we are now officially into the 2012 presidential election campaign, you can expect to hear a lot more about the alleged evils of secularism. Before his recent political implosion, self-appointed intellectual Newt Gingrich was busy inveighing against secularism in articles, …
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Leading Questions
Accommodationism: The Debate Continues, Part 1
Recently, in a special two-part episode of Point of Inquiry, the Center for Inquiry’s podcast, cohost Chris Mooney changed places and became the interviewee. In the first part, an edited version of which is presented below, CFI President and CEO Ronald A. Lindsay asks Mooney about his stance of accommodationism regarding science and religion. In …
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Science and Religion: Accommodationism or Confrontation? Re “Science and Religion: Accommodation or Confrontation?” FI, June/July 2011: Both P Z Myers (“The Need for Confrontation”) and Victor Stenger (“Why Religion Must Be Confronted”) present cogent arguments for a principled response to creationists. Eugenie C. Scott (“The Need for Accommodation”) and Chris Mooney (“Toward Common Cause”), on …
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Op-Ed
Are Unbelievers More Resilient? Tom Flynn
As sociologist and author Phil Zuckerman notes in this issue, the study of unbelievers as a demographic group in its own right is finally gathering steam. Until recently, everything social scientists and pollsters could tell us about nonreligious Americans was “by-catch”—tangential information acquired in the course of studying religious Americans.* This state of affairs could …
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Op-Ed
Religion Is the Problem in the Balkans Christopher Hitchens
Reporting on the capture of the mass-murdering General Ratko Mladic by the Serbian government on Memorial Day, the New York Times summarized the newly created political situation like this: “Critical questions remain about precisely who protected Mr. Mladic. The pro-Western government of President Boris Tadic says it will investigate, a politically delicate examination that could …
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Op-Ed
Is Sluttishness a Feminist Statement? Wendy Kaminer
Fifty years after the onset of the modern feminist movement, sexual violence remains a primary issue, especially for young women asserting their right to dress or undress as they choose. The “slut walk” is the latest protest gimmick, inspired by the stupidity of a Toronto police officer who advised women (rather unoriginally) to “avoid dressing …
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Op-Ed
The Stem of the Conflict Arthur Caplan
Why has there been so much hype in the ongoing debate about public funding for stem cell research in the United States? The answer is simple and can be summarized in one word: abortion. Some forms of stem cell research involving the use of embryos require embryo destruction to extract a stem cell. Others, involving …
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Op-Ed
The Presence of Justice Ophelia Benson
One of the pleasanter changes in morals and manners over the last few decades has been the marginalization of ugly talk about “the Xs”—the Jews, the Mexicans, the Chinese, the queers. Thoughtful people don’t talk like that anymore, and what a relief that is, grumbles about political correctness notwithstanding. The old style now reeks of …
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Op-Ed
Do We Get the Constitution Back in 2012? Nat Hentoff
On May 4, Bob Barr, a conservative Republican constitutionalist, wrote a blog post whose headline should define a fundamental issue in the 2012 elections: “With Bin Laden Dead, It’s Time to Restore the Bill of Rights” (The Barr Code, May 4, 2011). I was not surprised at the source of this call. When President Bill …
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Op-Ed
Progress Elusive for Egypt’s Women Mona Abousenna
Although this article was written prior to the political unrest in Egypt and the fall of the government of Hosni Mubarak, we are assured by the author that the situation described here has not materially changed. —Eds. Many middle-class women in Egypt, who entered the work force after being granted the right to equal employment …
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Op-Ed
Secular Studies Arrives at Last Phil Zuckerman
Students can now study secularity. They can even get a degree in it. Pitzer College, one of the Claremont Colleges in Southern California, has formally approved the formation of a secular studies department – the first such department in the United States, and I think, the world. I’m very proud to be a part of …
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Church-State Update
Florida Showdown Looms Edd Doerr
On May 11, Education Week published this letter of mine: The four states discussed in the article “GOP Lawmakers Press Voucher Expansion in States” (April 27, 2011) are among the 39 states whose constitutions prohibit tax aid to religious institutions, but, tellingly, are not among the 14 states (including the District of Columbia) where voters …
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God on Trial
The Philosophical Significance of Psychopaths: Postmodernism, Morality, and God David N. Stamos
Psychopaths are fascinating, in a repugnant sort of way. Whether we read about Ted Bundy or Paul Bernardo or see psychopaths depicted in fictional characters s uch as Hannibal Lecter, we are forced to wonder how a human being could ever do such horrible things. We are also forced to wonder whether we ourselves could …
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Faith and Reason
Atheism and Religious Pluralism: Navigating Between Freedom of and Freedom from Religion Kile Jones
What happens to atheism in a liberal democracy when religious beliefs are respected? And more important, how can atheism show its respect for the right to believe as one wishes while considering such beliefs contemptible? Much work done on religious pluralism elevates religion to a place of sanctity and often confuses the right to believe …
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Reviews
Evangelist Unmasked Richard Hall
The Prince of War: Billy Graham’s Crusade for a Wholly Christian Empire, by Cecil Bothwell, second edition (Asheville, N.C.: Brave Ulysses Books, 2010, ISBN 9781456325909) 215 pp. Paper, $16. Billy Graham has had public and private facilities named after him and been called the “preacher to presidents” and “God’s ambassador.” He is an icon of …
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Reviews
The Prosecutor’s Case Against Christanity Robert M. Price
Divinity of Doubt: The God Question, by Vincent Bugliosi (New York: Vanguard Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1-59315-629-9) 352 pp. Cloth, $26.99. Vincent Bugliosi has been a personal hero of mine since I saw the CBS television movie Helter Skelter in 1976. He successfully prosecuted the self-styled Antichrist Charles Manson in the face of police incompetence and …
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Reviews
The Story of the Smallpox Vaccines and Its Lessons for Today Stuart Whatley
Pox: An American History, by Michael Willrich (New York: Penguin Press, 2011, ISBN 9781594202865) 400 pp. Cloth, $27.95. During the first years of the twentieth century, smallpox, that most feared of scourges, became known as the “fool killer.” One simply had no excuse for catching it anymore. Any physician worth his salt knew the clinical …
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Reviews
Voltaire’s Study of Religion Nathan Curland
God and Human Beings, by Voltaire; first English translation by Michael Shreve, Introduction by S.T. Joshi (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2010, ISBN 978-1-61614-178-3) 183 pp. Paper, $18. God and Human Beings is a little-known work by Voltaire (1694–1778). It was published late in his life, when he was seventy-five years old, and just recently translated …
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Poem
In The Rambles of the Alhambra, Coming upon a Bronze of a Naked Man Subjugating a Goat, Pipe Dreams Scott Hightower
In The Rambles of the Alhambra, Coming upon a Bronze of a Naked Man Subjugating a Goat Angel Ganivet Monument, Granada Simply holding fast to his position, a man— naked and dappled with afternoon sunlight (oddly reminiscent of the Medici Fountain in Paris)— here, oddly intimates the swan dominating Leda. It is possible that we …
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