ALL ARTICLES

There are no inherent limits to growth In the late twentieth century, it once again became popular to claim that the world is “overpopulated” and that we were headed for demographic disaster. Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb predicted massive starvation well before the end of the century. It didn’t happen. World population did indeed roughly …

What Problem? A year or so ago, economic analysts were frantic about Europe’s “baby bust,” an idea that appears to have travelled across the Atlantic from the United States. They advised that we must “breed for Europe” or import millions of immigrants to forestall economic collapse due to rising pension obligations and a shrinking workforce. …

We are living in the midst of an unprecedented transition, sometimes called the “agequake.” By 2050, the number of older persons in the world will exceed the number of young for the first time in history. As the twenty-first century began, the world’s population included approximately 600 million older people, triple the number recorded fifty …

Restrict annual immigration to the U.S. The godless, naturalistic worldview of secular humanism does not logically compel us to adopt a left-of-center viewpoint on every political issue. Aside from the nonnegotiables—church-state separation and protecting the freedoms that many religious people do not want us to enjoy—nonbelievers may differ on many social and political questions. Notwithstanding …

What are they and Why? Near Elberton, Georgia, the self-described “Granite Capital of the World,” stands a weird arrangement of granite that has to be seen to be believed. Five giant stone slabs—four tablets and a central “gnomon stone,” each nineteen feet high—support a huge capstone. The tablets are inscribed front and back in English, …

And Theirs In the course of reporting a book on the scientific canon and pestering hundreds of researchers at the nation’s great universities about what they see as the essential vitamins and minerals of literacy in their particular disciplines, I have been hammered into a kind of twinkle-eyed cartoon coma by one recurring message. Whether …

Evolving Principles for a New Century In 1976, Lester Kirkendall drew up what he called “A New Bill of Sexual Rights and Responsibilities.” It was signed by many distinguished sexologists as well as other scholars and therapists. The original document was commissioned by Paul Kurtz, then editor of The Humanist and later published as a …

¸Newdow Loses on Technicality. The U.S. Supreme Court voted 8–0 to reject California atheist Michael Newdow’s challenge to “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, on grounds that Newdow lacked custodial rights over his school-age child and hence standing to sue. No decision was made on the legality of “under God,” and it is interesting …

Congress Win in India In what must be the most unexpected election victory of the decade, the Congress Party in India, led by Sonia Gandhi, fifty-seven, swept to power in May. And then, to circumvent the ongoing criticism of her foreign birth, Gandhi very magnanimously withdrew from contention as prime minister. With the return of …

Oh threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise! One thing is certain—This Life flies; One thing is certain and the rest is Lies; The Flower that once has blown for ever dies. — The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayam of Naishapur My father and mother had been married for over fifty years, and when her life …

Most believers and nonbelievers are familiar with Pascal’s Wager, the argument designed to persuade us that the only rational thing to do is believe that God exists. If you do believe, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose. If you don’t believe, you’ve got nothing to gain and everything to lose. This is …

Spring has sprung, summer is beginning to sing—and weddings are bursting out all over. But what happens if Joseph falls for Jack and Janet dotes on Joan? Is there a wedding on the horizon for them? Do they have a means of celebrating their love and commitment with friends and family? All over Europe, politicians …

We would like to thank Edward Tabash and Margaret Downey for their thoughtful comments on our article “Atheism Is Not a Civil Rights Issue.”1 We are gratified that our article has stimulated such interest. Tabash objects to our characterization of atheism as a matter of public awareness and education rather than of civil rights, and …

Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, by Susan Jacoby (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2004, ISBN 0805074422) 417 pp. Cloth $27.50. Susan Jacoby’s Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism is the freethought book of the year. Make that the decade. OK, the century. The twenty-first century may be young, but it’s hard to believe anyone is …

What Is Good? The Search for the Best Way to Live, by A.C. Grayling (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003, ISBN 0-297–84132-7) 241 pp. Cloth $34. It is a good rule to try and read stuff you disagree with as often as you read stuff you agree with. It’s a good discipline. There are few better …

Terror and Civilization: Christianity, Politics, and the Western Psyche, by Shadia B. Drury (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, ISBN 1-4039-6404-1) 211 pp. incl. notes, references, index. Cloth $55.00. Imagine a religious zealot who triggers the collapse of a monumental public structure, snuffing out roughly three thousand innocent lives. Were you thinking of Mohammed Atta and …

The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Second Edition, Emmett Fields, ed. (Louisville, Kentucky: Bank of Wisdom, 2004, ISBN 1-929–4708-13-0) CD-ROM $24.95 + $3.00 S/H. Available at www.bank-of-wisdom.com. In its wholly revamped second edition, Emmett Fields’s CD-ROM The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll fulfills its potential as a powerful research tool and a digital compendium of …