ALL ARTICLES

Debating the War Left and Right I’ve been detecting Free InquIry’s tilt toward political side-taking for a while, but I tried to ignore it. Your Spring 2003 issue, however, was so much politicized as to greatly offend. The editorial statement condemning the Iraqi war, followed by Nat Hentoff and Laurence Britt’s exhortations against U.S. self-protection …

In the last issue of Free Inquiry, we published an editorial criticizing the morality of the pre-emptive war against Iraq. It was written before the war began and published after its start. Several readers objected strongly to this. This raises the basic question: Should secular humanism as a movement ever take political positions? Surely individual …

WAR IN IRAQ OP-ED On the Eve of War I write this on March 18, 2003, on the eve of war, haunted by my countryman W.H. Auden’s lines in “September 1, 1939.” I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire . . . I know …

Edward Tabash Paul Kurtz and other Free Inquiry editors apparently disapprove of war with Iraq under all circumstances (see his editorial in the Spring 2003 issue and the slightly different version online). I disagree with his absolute rejection of military force when faced with a dictator as dangerous as Saddam Hussein. But I write under …

Concerning Iraq, most mainstream American media now stand guilty of failing to raise the issue of aggressive war. On September 20, 2002, George W. Bush told Congress that under his presidency the United States can and will attack nations of his selection even though they are not about to attack us. Since that day the …

It is fortunate that the world’s timeline worked out such that Attila the Hun and his rapacious hordes were long dead prior to the dawning of an age in which they might have gained access to nuclear weapons. It is also fortunate that Albert Speer thought nuclear weapons so longterm and speculative a project that …

Some secular humanists do not consider the war on Iraq a “core issue” for the humanist movement to address. To them the foundation of secular humanism is atheism, with no political convictions implied. True, a healthy humanist movement should never become so politically partisan as to ignore or denounce conflicting points of view. Ethical nonbelievers …

What’s the difference between self-proclaimed psychics who write books predicting future events and self-proclaimed psychics who read palms, tarot cards, or crystal balls? The book-writing psychics are endowed with virtually undisputed First Amendment rights, nationwide. The storefront psychics may or may not enjoy constitutional protection, or any right to prophesy for profit, depending on where …

On February 7, there appeared on the Web site of the Center for Public Integrity an eighty-six-page draft of the Justice Department’s proposed sequel to the USA PATRIOT Act. It so radically subverts the constitutional rights of Americans—far more than even the original USA PATRIOT Act—and so appalled a member of John Ashcroft’s staff that …

I have just published a book about my maternal grandfather, David Oppenheim. A Viennese of Jewish descent, he was a member first of Sigmund Freud’s circle and later of that of Alfred Adler. But despite his abiding interest in exploring human psychology, he underestimated the Nazi threat and did not leave quickly enough after the …

I found myself profoundly depressed by the decision of American atheists and nonbelievers to hold a demonstration and rally, the Godless Americans March on Washington, last November, and, although I live in the nation’s capital, I made no effort to add myself or my family to the turnout. This refusal was for two reasons. First, …

There is a tendency in our society to put people in little boxes. If one is a female, we put that person in a box marked “female,” which makes her different from a male. But how different? Obviously, there is a difference in genitalia and in reproductive capacity, but even with these distinctions there is …

SIDE/LINES We Don’t Think So— In early May, New Hampshire lost its state symbol, and main tourist attraction, when the rock formation known as the Old Man of the Mountain crumbled and fell. Experts had predicted such a fate would befall the 700-ton, 40-foot-high stone profile as part of the natural cycle of freezing and …

When Richard Dawkins urged unbelievers to come out of the closet (“A Challenge to Atheists,” FI, Summer 2002), he knowingly echoed the gay movement’s historic rallying cry. As secular humanists, atheists, and other unbelievers work to improve our standing in American life, we face challenges remarkably like those that faced gay and lesbian activists fifty …

Inherit More Wind: Darwin Discord Deepens After Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, religious conservatives never altogether relaxed their opposition. From the conclusion of the 1925 Scopes trial until the late 1970s, the drums of reaction were muffled. But with the Religious Right’s rise to prominence, attacks on evolutionary theory quickly …

The Twin Dangers of Religious and Scientific Fundamentalism Throughout the twentieth century there has been an ongoing battle for the minds of Americans. This battle, which doesn’t seem to be nearing an end at the dawn of the twenty-first century, sees Christian religious fundamentalism pitted against modern evolutionary biology.1 I see four causes of the …

What Makes ID so Intuitively Appealing? As our tools of exploration become more sophisticated, a correspondingly sophisticated level of complexity emerges in the objects being explored. The Hubble Space Telescope shows us a universe far more active than originally suspected, populated with phenomena that rival the best of science fiction. The recent mapping of the …

Faith in Science and God A huge body of literature now exists in which authors with strong theological and scientific credentials argue that traditional religion, particularly Christianity, can be made consistent with all scientific knowledge. This new breed of scientist-theologians seeks to retain the fundamental Christian premise of a personal, loving, participating creator within a scientific …

The Dark Side Of Susan B. Anthony The “triumvirate” of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage were considered the intellectual and charismatic leaders of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). These three friends worked tirelessly against religiously inspired sexism throughout the last half of the nineteenth century. A woman’s right to vote, …