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To mark those transition points in life like weddings, baby welcomings, and funerals, ritual ceremonies are customary and expected. Here in secular Scotland, increasing numbers of people are demanding ceremonies without a religious element. Humanist celebrants facilitate such ceremonies, which are exceedingly popular—especially funerals. Secular ceremonies demonstrate humanism in action and provide a valuable service for …

On July 11, 1987, I found our only child, Geoffrey, dead in his bed. He was home after his freshman year at Ober-lin College. Dyslexic and not a distinguished student, he had nonetheless graduated from Buffalo’s first-rate Calasanctius prep school and scored well enough on the S.A.T. to have his choice of colleges. Anthropology was …

In July 2004, my husband Chuck and I celebrated our fiftieth wedding anniversary. Our four daughters and their families joined us at the Glacier National Park hotel, where Chuck and I first met. It was one of the happiest times of our lives. Four months later, we experienced one of the saddest when Chuck died. …

My mother died in 1995. She was Catholic; though she had suicided, there still followed the whole conventional round of open-casket viewing, a memorial service at the funeral home, the funeral Mass, and a graveside service. At Mass, the priest endlessly conjured images of my mother in heaven. The mourners, mostly Catholic, seemed to draw …

Between 1993 and 2001, death claimed much of my immediate family: my only child, my brother, my brother-in-law, my father, and my recently widowed sister’s thirty-five-year-old son. My mother died in 2006. That’s a lot of dead folks—nontheists and skeptics all—for whom to make the ultimate arrangements in a place that’s none too skeptic-friendly. Perched …

If you’re reading this article, there’s a good chance you are not dead. Secular humanists accept the inevitability of death and also accept the fact that the world will continue without their presence. Some are indifferent to what happens to their remains and property after they die; for others, it is a matter of some …

A plant marks the spot where ashes have been buried. “I wanna be buried in Brad’s backyard!” When this announcement rose in a woman’s voice above the cheery conversation at Richard’s memorial “party,” the rest of us mentally reviewed our plans, if any, for our earthly remains. For me, occupying a box in side a …

Aerial burial is the “final jump” for sport skydivers. A former Marine and recreational skydiver with over 744 jumps under his belt, our friend John (D-1266*) died a few years ago of heart disease. His partner contacted a skydiving buddy, Bear, to arrange a fitting ritual at the local drop zone at Perris, California. She …

Walter Hoops—longtime rationalist activist and stalwart supporter of The American Rationalist (AR)—left instructions that he did not want a memorial service of any kind after his death. But, after all, services are really for us, the living. His service was held during Labor Day weekend 1999, a few months after his death, at the end of …

No illusion is authentically comforting. —Verle Muhrer “Funerals and memorials aren’t for the dead, they’re for the living.” That’s a maxim often heard from believers and humanists alike, including several writers in this section. Curmudgeon that I am, I’m unconvinced. I look at this whole business of secular memorial services and ask, “Why bother?” First …

You and I have something in common. We are both careening headlong toward aging and death. That’s the gorilla in the room that we try to ignore—the impetus behind countless brands of superstition. But this is 2007, and there may be a more scientific and rational way for us to look at these issues. If control …

Monumental energies, skills, and resources are devoted to keeping people alive indefinitely. Very little is put into letting us die by choice and with dignity. I have a wonderful wife whom I love, along with the “ideal” life we share here in Hawaii. Nonetheless, I intend, at the proper time, to kill myself. Our lives are …

When my children were very young, I stayed away from discussing the subject of death with them. Nothing ever happened to make the topic inevitable: no pet died, no grandparent passed away, no president was shot. The word dead was used for speaking about nothing more alarming than dead batteries and dead leaves. Soon after our …

A noted constitutional scholar, historian, and lawyer, Peter Irons is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of California, San Diego. Among his many award-winning books is the best-selling May It Please the Court and A People’s History of the Supreme Court. He recently discussed his new critically acclaimed book, God On Trial: …

Taking Exception I would like to take issue with Norm Allen’s review of my book, African American Atheists and Political Liberation (FI, June/July 2007). According to Allen, I condemn human-ism (“the first book to defend African-American atheists while condemning humanism”) and claim that “atheism accompanied by humanism inevitably leads to human oppression.” Just to get …

A pressing issue for many people in the United States today is whether Americans will vote for a Caucasian woman or an African-Ameri-can man for president. The answer is “Yes.” Ninety percent of adult Ameri cans say that, in principle, they are willing to vote for such candidates. When it comes to another category—unbelievers—the results are …

Washington What do you know, it is possible to get in trouble by blending church and state. The U. S. Department of Defense’s Inspector General has charged that six Army and Air Force officers (including four generals) crossed the line when they appeared in uniform and at recognizable locations at the Pentagon in an evangelical …

In Part 1, which appeared in the June/July 2007 issue of Free Inquiry, Ibn Warraq explored the history of Islamic anti-Semitism. In part 2, which ap peared in the August/September 2007 issue, he examined its underpinnings in religious texts and culture. Here, that analysis is concluded.—Eds. By way of review, I distinguish three Islams. “Islam …

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, by Christopher Hitchens (New York: Twelve Books, Hatchette Book Group, 2007, ISBN 13:978-0-44-657980-3) 307 pp. Cloth $24.99. Given that you have already read reviews of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything and are likely read the book, too, I am here to offer an unusually personal …

Jesus of Nazareth, by Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI (New York: Doubleday, 2006, ISBN 13: 978-0-38-552341-7) 374 pp. Cloth $24.95. In universities, future clerics, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, receive an introduction to historical criticism of the Bible. They learn the two languages in which it was composed—He brew and Greek—in order to read the …

The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore (New York: The Penguin Press, 2007, ISBN 13: 978-1-59420-22-6) 308 pp. Cloth $25.95. In the wake of his successful book and Oscar-winning documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth, former U.S. representative, senator, vice president, and winner of the 2000 presidential popular vote Al Gore has given us The Assault …