No. 6 | Free Inquiry (original) (raw)
Why Apostasy Laws Won’t Stop the Rise of Ex-Muslim Women Peter Clarke, Zara Kay
It didn’t stop me from leaving Islam because I wanted my freedom to work and live independently. I’ve been disowned, but I’ve never felt so at peace. —Fay If Islam wants to remain viable in the modern world, it can’t keep making life hell for women. That should be obvious; certainly, it is obvious in …
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A Troubling Case: The International Trial of a Ugandan Soldier Trudy Govier
As I write, Dominic Ongwen is on trial before the International Court in The Hague. Ongwen was a child soldier, then an adult soldier, and eventually a brigade commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army (L.R.A.). That brutal force operated primarily in northern Uganda but also in the Central African Republic (C.A.R.), South Sudan, and …
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Humanism Behind Bars: An Insider’s Perspective Jon Guy
“[A] right is a non-negotiable claim. If you have a right to something, then you must not be prevented from having or doing that thing; in addition, others are duty-bound to allow or even enable you to exercise that right.” —Stephen Law The Council for Secular Humanism (hereafter the Council) has taken a divisive stance, …
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Humanism and Prisoners’ Rights: A Reply to Jon Guy Ronald A. Lindsay, Nicholas J. Little, Tom Flynn
Jon Guy has written an impassioned essay taking strong exception to a 2015 editorial in which we maintained, among other things, that the American Humanist Association (AHA) had employed an inadvisable legal strategy in its representation of an Oregon inmate, James Holden. AHA filed a lawsuit on Holden’s behalf when his federal correctional institution denied …
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If I Were Black, I Wouldn’t Believe Me Either: Reflections of a White Overpopulation Activist Karen Shragg
Yep. If I were African American, Latino, or Native American, I wouldn’t believe my own rhetoric. Why should I? White people have been in charge for so long and oppressed so much that libraries cannot contain all the atrocities that have occurred just in the United States. From slavery to genocide, from Jim Crow laws …
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Who or What Was the First Cause? Joseph Priddy
“Who or what was the first cause?” Inquiries of this nature go back to a time when people wore hides and wondered why the large bright object in the night sky was always changing shape. Those who asked such questions were curious. Those who finally answered such questions were scientists. Those of us who now …
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A Refutation of John Gray’s Rejection of Humanism Ed Buckner, Jeff T. Haley
In his 2018 book Seven Types of Atheism, John Gray gives his understanding and opinions on seven ways that Western thinkers have fashioned worldviews free of Western monotheism. Gray rejects secular humanism as an attractive worldview, additionally rejecting four other manifestations of atheism. We believe Gray’s rejection of secular humanism is poorly founded and merits …
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Editorial
Cosmocracy, We Hardly Knew Ye Tom Flynn
For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see Saw a Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be … Till the war-drum throbb’d no longer and the battle-flags were furled In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world. —Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Locksley Hall” (1842) The secular …
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Op-Ed
Not His Call Ophelia Benson
It’s hard to believe we’re back to “Love It or Leave It” again—it seems so very embedded in the years of the Vietnam War, Johnson-Nixon, Jane Fonda, George Wallace. Where does Donald Trump fit into that? He wasn’t an anti-war protester, but he wasn’t an angry homecoming veteran either. He was Mister Medical Deferment because …
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Op-Ed
Where to Draw Lines on Assisted Dying Russell Blackford
Voluntary assisted dying, also known as voluntary euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide (though all these terms have their own nuances), is a perennial issue dividing religious conservatives from secular liberals. In Australia, several legal jurisdictions have been engaging with the issue since the 1990s, and it is currently under consideration by the parliaments of two states. …
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Op-Ed
What the Anti-Abortionists Want S. T. Joshi
Readers of this magazine have no doubt observed that certain state legislatures have recently fallen all over themselves in passing the most severe and uncompromising anti-abortion legislation in decades—and that’s saying something, because hundreds of laws making abortion difficult (and in some instances nearly impossible) for those women who have the misfortune to be poor …
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Op-Ed
Believers Kill Skeptics James A. Haught
Throughout history, a clear pattern is visible: Religious believers sometimes kill doubters or throw them in prison as criminals. It began in ancient Greece, the first known place where scientific-minded thinkers questioned supernatural claims. Socrates was sentenced to death for “refusing to recognize the gods” of Athens. Aspasia, beloved mistress of Pericles, was tried for …
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Op-Ed
‘The Burning of Notre-Dame’ Shadia B. Drury
(From the Diary of Joseph) April 15, 2019: Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, the Cathedral in honor of my girl Mary, has been ravaged by fire. Early reports suggested that it would burn to the ground. There was a suspicion that Islamic terrorists were behind the devastation, but French police attributed the fire to an electrical …
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Op-Ed
‘Miracles’ in the Fire: The Burning of Notre-Dame Joe Nickell
When the treasured Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris suffered a devastating fire in 2019—beginning on the evening of Monday, April 15, and burning for over twelve hours—few could ignore the irony. Occurring during Holy Week (Easter Day was April 21), the horrific event may have seemed to supernaturalists to represent the wrath of God unleashed, or …
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Looking Back
Looking Back – 25 Years Ago in Free Inquiry
“Humanists know something must be done. We know that it is only by coming together and figuring out what kind of world we want to live in, only by giving our attention to why ‘values’ have been eschewed and why so many people seem to have given up, that we can pursue our vision, the …
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Looking Back
Looking Back – 35 Years Ago in Free Inquiry
“Tribalism ultimately, however, is a distortion of the values of religion, a perversion that poses serious dangers not only to world peace but to the American ideal. The danger is not so much religion as tribalism; and, when one group insists that its morals, teachings, view of life, and cultural values are the only correct …
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Letters
Letters – Vol. 39 No. 6
Author Response to Letters I wish Arthur Jackson of San Jose, California (FI, June/July 2019), would learn how to read and think before he accuses me of “missing the mark” and suggest that because I did not define science and religion it is “difficult to take my comments seriously.” I thought that by now the …
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Doerr's Way
Population Control Needs a Backup Plan Edd Doerr
Climate change is real and threatens our whole planet. It is anthropogenic, caused by humans. Media coverage of it is spotty and inadequate. And the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has advised that we have only a dozen or so years left to get serious about dealing with it. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald J. Trump …
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Cuno's Corner
Godawful Communication and Divine Boners Steve Cuno
God, if you’re reading this, a word of advice: Hire an editor. By now even you must be aware that most of the time your followers haven’t a clue what you’re talking about. I wish I had a full collection plate for every time I have heard the likes of “… and then I realized …
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Thinking Out Loud
The War on Military Religious Freedom John Compere
There is a wicked, wanton war going on. It disrespects, disparages, and denies the American constitutional right to religious freedom for the military men and women serving our country. The U.S. Constitution prohibits our secular government (which includes the military) from promoting or endorsing a religion. The U.S. Supreme Court has continuously confirmed this constitutional …
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Humanist Soapbox
Sixty-Six out of Seventy Nicholas S. Molinari
Sixteen years ago, Free Inquiry published a remarkable and prescient article by Laurence W. Britt about the encroachment of fascism in various nations throughout the world, including the United States (“Fascism, Anyone?,” Spring 2003). This writer wishes to revisit the essence of that article—or perhaps, oracle—with the intention of alerting, and even alarming, all readers …
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Humanism and the Arts
Nineteen Questions with T. C. Boyle Brandon M. Stickney
Cover Image: T.C. Boyle, Wikipedia Santa Barbara, California—It’s like he’s saying, “I’ll take you there.” When it comes to freethinkers, American author T. C. Boyle (Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Southern California) is the Daliesque prince, a commentator for the tragicomedy that is our mutual existence. When the subtle meets the …
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Humanism at Large
THERAPISTS! Part One Wil Kirk
People who reply “Happy holidays” to a “Merry Christmas” cheer have been caught in their own trap. When secular therapists boycotted any hint of religion because it was not evidence-based, they left themselves wide open to reproof by scientific study. And by a two-to-one margin, these studies report better outcomes when religion is indeed integrated …
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Review
The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American Rob Boston
The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American, by Andrew L. Seidel (New York: Sterling, 2019, ISBN 978-1454933274). 343 pp. Hardcover, $24.95. The term game changer is tossed around too often in publishing these days. That’s a shame, because every now and then, a book comes along that really does change the game. However, …
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Review
The Tyranny of Opinion: Conformity and the Future of Liberalism Ronald A. Lindsay
The Tyranny of Opinion: Conformity and the Future of Liberalism, by Russell Blackford (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019, ISBN 978-1-3500-5600-8). 244 pp. Paperback, $26.95. A liberal Muslim who opposes Islamists, is critical of Islamic fundamentalism, and calls for Muslims to accept secular government is labeled an anti-Muslim extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center. An …
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Review
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life after Warming Tom Flynn
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life after Warming, by David Wallace-Wells (New York: Tim Duggan Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2019, ISBN 9780525576709). 320 pp. Hardcover, $27.00. So, how bad do you think climate change is going to be? Take a minute. Nah. It’ll be way …
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Review
The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money Edd Doerr
The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money, by Bryan Caplan (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018, ISBN 978-0-17465-5). 395 pp. Hardcover, $29.95. This truly awful screed is reviewed here only because it has received peculiarly favorable ratings on Amazon and because it was extruded by, and therefore …
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I found a maple branch on the ground after a windstorm, bearing growths of lichens varying in appearance: one coating the length of the branch like a skin treatment, another like moss with gray berries, and a third like lettuce unfurling its leaves. Apparently, they live off the air and their growth is a sign …
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Poem
The Day after the Day Lady Di … Paul Genega
I wish I could say I was seated at my desk behind a stack of papers so preternaturally smart my red pen hadn’t moved or I was lost in a poem by Kenneth Patchen, …
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