Author: Floris van den Berg
Floris van den Berg studied philosophy and works at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, as a program maker for the Department of General Studies. He is completing a thesis on the incompatility of religion and morality. The author thanks Annemarieke Otten for her many useful comments in preparing this article.
The Best of the Best: Paul Kurtz’s Philosophy of Humanism
Multi-Secularism: A New Agenda, by Paul Kurtz (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2010, ISBN 9781412814195) 263 pp. Cloth $39.95. Humanism, like religion, is a human-made concept, and humanists are aware of and appreciate this fact. Books on humanism can be separated into three categories: (1) a descriptive (historical or systematic) outline of humanism (e.g., Richard …
Thinking Secularism Through: The Open Society and Its Enemies–Part 3
The Secular Outlook: In Defense of Moral and Political Secularism, by Paul Cliteur (London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4443-3521-7) 328 pp. Paper $29.95. Secularism is one of those concepts that is widely used without a clear notion of what it is. Dutch humanist philosopher Paul Cliteur’s The Secular Outlook: In Defense of Moral and Political Secularism …
Children Should Be Free from Religion
Forced into Faith: How Religion Abuses Children’s Rights, by Innaiah Narisetti (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2009, ISBN 9778-1-59102-606-8) 126 pp. Paper $9.98. “Children should be brought up without allowing religion to influence them. . . . Children should not inherit religion. . . . Superstitions should not be taught under any circumstances.” These quotations summarize …
Plea for Irreligion
Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don’t Add Up, by John Allen Paulos (New York: Hill and Wang, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8090-5919-5) 158 pp. Cloth $20.00. I have certainly never learned how to fruitfully discuss religion with people who have beatific grins on their faces, strangely gleaming eyes, and an air of …