Author: Paul Kurtz

What do I mean distinctively by education? The learning process, the process of expanding the dimensions of experience and intelligence, the increase in imagination and understanding, the ability to adapt and adjust. Now let me make it clear that although schools are essential to this educative process, they are not the only institutions that should …

In my brief editorial, “The ‘True Unbeliever,’” I pointed out that fundamentalist theists have their “atheist counterparts.” Are there such persons, or is this a figment of my imagination? The term unbeliever refers to those who reject the claims of theistic religion;but these may include atheists, agnostics, skeptics, nontheists, igtheists, or those who are simply …

May I reaffirm the convictions that have guided the editorial policies ofFree Inquiry and the Council for Secular Humanism in the first thirty years of our existence? Religious dissent is a noble tradition in democratic societies that needs to be respected and honored. Critics of religious claims have every right to be heard. In fact, …

A Neo-Humanist Statement Irecently drafted, with the help of many secular humanists and scientists, a “Neo-Humanist Statement of Secular Principles and Values.” At latest count, some one hundred distinguished public intellectuals worldwide have endorsed it. Since we do not have space to run the entire statement in this issue, I am running a brief excerpt …

It is with profound sorrow that I wish to comment on the passing of Antony Flew, one of the leading British philosophers of our time, who died at the age of eighty-seven. For more than a half century, he was considered one of the most important atheist philosophers in the world, a position that he …

The 150th anniversary of John Dewey’s birth is an auspicious opportunity to celebrate the life and work of one of America’s leading, perhaps foremost, philosophers. His influence on public affairs beyond the academy surely qualifies him for that distinction. In addition, he was the most influential intellectual voice of liberalism, broadly construed, for a good …

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, permitting unlimited corporate spending on election campaigns, cast a devastating blow against democracy. By a 5 – 4 vote, the high court’s conservative majority abandoned longstanding legal precedents dating back over a century, to 1907, and culminating in the McCain-Feingold Act of 2002. It …

Does humanist eupraxsophy* offer any hope for humankind? For many people this is the ultimate test of the secular outlook. For theists, the single most important hope is theism’s promise of eternal salvation. The term religion in its original etymological sense meant religäre or “to bind.” This referred to a state of life bound by …

Do fundamentalist theists have their atheist counterparts? Alistair McGrath, a Christian theologian, used the word fundamentalist to describe certain kinds of atheists. A fundamentalist is a person who is committed to a set of basic beliefs or doctrines with dogmatic and inflexible loyalty. The word originally applied to Protestant fundamentalists who interpreted the Bible literally …

Economics and Humanism Does secular humanism have anything significant to say about economic issues or about the controversy that continues to rage between economic libertarians and social democrats? Libertarians advocate unfettered capitalism; they believe fervently in governmental deregulation and lower tax rates. Social democrats, on the contrary, wish to use the government to ensure social …

Next year will be the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the Council for Secular Humanism and the launching of Free Inquiry magazine. At that time, secular humanism was the bête-noire of the Religious Right. We were accused of dominating American life—the courts, public education, the universities, foundations, and the media. Our accusers claimed that …

The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a transnational organization committed to scientific rationalism and secular humanism. More specifically, the principles to which CFI is devoted are: the use of the scientific method wherever possible in testing truth claims, including the cultivation of critical thinking and reason a cosmic perspective derived primarily from the sciences—a nonreductive, …

The following article was developed as a position paper by the Center for Inquiry’s Office of Public Policy in Washington, D.C., and released on February 6, 2009. The reviewers were Paul Kurtz, Derek Araujo, Ronald A. Lindsay, and Toni Van Pelt.—Eds. Government-funded social-service programs conducted by religious organizations are becoming increasingly sectarian. The Center for …

The planetary community today faces a grave economic crisis. Companies are faltering; unemployment, poverty, and deprivation are rising. Foreclosures are escalating, and the ranks of the jobless keep growing. People who have lost their homes or jobs are sleeping in their cars and spending their days at libraries. Librarians have reported an increase in the …

Little did I imagine two decades ago, when I first proposed plans for new Centers for Inquiry, that developing them would be such an arduous, even treacherous task. In my book Eupraxsophy: Living without Religion (Prometheus Books, 1989), I said that it is important to provide secular alternatives to religious institutions, especially for nonbelievers. These …

Increasingly, world civilization is becoming secular; that is, it emphasizes worldly rather than religious values. This is especially true of Europe, which is widely considered post-religious and post-Christian (though with a small Islamic minority). Secularist winds are also blowing strong in Asia, notably in Japan and China. The United States has been an anomaly in …

The planetary community faces a breathtaking economic crisis. It comes as a rude shock to many, particularly Baby Boomers who have little knowledge of the Great Depression of the 1930s, which I lived through and remember very well. Although I was only four when the 1929 crash occurred, I vividly recall its aftermath in the …

Nauvoo Polygamy: “. . . but we called it celestial marriage,” by George D. Smith (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 2008, ISBN 1-56085-201-10) 728 pp. Cloth $39.95. Many men are womanizers, addicted to ladies young and old, and some have pursued them with consummate skill. To propose to women in “the name of God” …

At long last, a protracted and often fierce election campaign is over. America has selected its new president. We congratulate Barack Obama, and we pledge our support for his efforts! President-elect Obama will face awesome problems left over from the Bush administration. But let us focus on the positive. Obama is the first person of …

The secular humanist movement has often been characterized, by friends and foes alike, primarily in terms of its unbelief: its atheism or agnosticism. Unfortunately, this tends to accentuate the negative aspects of secular humanism, giving short shrift to its affirmative ethical outlook. In fact, secular humanists strongly affirm a new planetary ethic. Secularists are making …

September 2008 marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of the issuance of Humanist Manifesto II, which was published in 1973. Since I am the author of that document, it is perhaps useful for the historical record to say something about its origin. I was at that time editor of The Humanist. Ed Wilson, editor emeritus of that …

The next century can be and should be the humanistic century. Dramatic scientific, technological, and ever-accelerating social and political changes crowd our awareness. We have virtually conquered the planet, explored the Moon, overcome the natural limits of travel and communication; we stand at the dawn of a new age, ready to move farther into space …

The secular humanist is often challenged thusly: “If you do not base your ethics on religious foundations, then in what sense can you be good?” The ethics of secularism has a long history in human culture. In the fol lowing, I wish to present four contemporary aspects of the ethics of secular humanism: liberation, enlightened …

The recent grand tour of the eastern United States by Pope Benedict XVI was a carefully choreographed propaganda event. Its purpose was, apparently, to rescue America’s Roman Catholic Church and perhaps restore it to its former power—which has been hemorrhaging with church closings and the long decline in recruitment of priests and nuns. The obscene …

A recent survey indicates that Americans have been changing their religions at a rapid rate. Remarkably, some 44 percent have moved from their religions of birth into other denominations, other religions, or none at all. This Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey, released in February of 2008 and based on 35,000 responses, also …

The culture wars of the past two decades continue to be waged, most overtly in a presidential election campaign of extraordinary duration and ferocity. Much has been said about domestic policies and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet in all the heated campaign rhetoric, another issue is almost totally ignored. A vital foreign policy …

Perhaps the most significant global developments of the past two decades have been the rise of China (and Asia), the relative decline of Europe and Russia, and the weakening of America’s power and influence in the world. These realities were vividly demonstrated during the Eleventh World Congress of Centers for Inquiry in Beijing, China, hosted …

The battle for secularism has leaped to center stage worldwide; we find it being contested or defended everywhere. Of the world’s fifty-seven Islamic countries, virtually all except Turkey and Tunisia attempt to safeguard or enact Islamic law (sharia) as embodied in the Qur’an. Radical Islamists wage jihad against the secular society. Pope Benedict XVI rails …

As I read Tibor Machan’s assault on fairness, I rubbed my eyes in disbelief. Surely he must be jesting; surely his tongue is in his cheek. He caricatures the moral principle of fairness, considering it a “minor virt ue,” while at the same time appealing to it in order to justify his opposition to the …

Naturalism has been the dominant voice in American philosophy for most of the twentieth century. Beginning with pragmatism in the early part of the century and cresting with John Dewey in the latter half, it has included philosophers such as W.V. Quine, Sidney Hook, Ernest Nagel, Hilary Putnam, Richard Rorty, Donald Davidson, and Adolf Grünbaum, …

In the current discussion of the “new atheism,” one point is often totally overlooked by most commentators: the positive dimensions of unbelief. Conservative religious critics have deplored the denigration of religion as an assault on the moral order and social fabric. They ask, “What does secular humanism have to offer?” I respond with neo-humanism, a …

I believe deeply and passionately in acknowledging and celebrating the seasons of life—births, graduations, marriages, civil unions, anniversaries, retirements, and deaths—and, on special occasions, participating in rites of passage to commemorate them. I enjoy welcoming celebrations for a new baby and its happy parents and marriage ceremonies, at which I often choke up because they …