Category: Letters
Letters June/July 2022
Free Inquiry Pronoun Future S. T. Joshi (“Pronoun Follies,” FI, February/March 2022) is in a state about the campaign to replace the third person singular him/her with the plural they—even for singular references to appease the transgender community. He would have been in a real tizzy a few centuries earlier when the singular ye was …
Letters April/May 2022
Abortion Arguments Shadia Drury (“A Pagan Approach to the Abortion Debacle,” FI, December 2021/January 2022) seems to think that the U.S. Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade based on some abstract “right to choose” and that Ruth Bader Ginsburg objected to Roe v. Wade “because no one can claim a right to choose what so …
Letters February/March 2022
Libertarianism Ophelia Benson is confused about Libertarianism in her article “What We Owe Each Other” (FI, October/November 2021). First, she includes three people and one organization in the Libertarian camp that don’t belong there: Sarah Palin, Lauren Boebert, and the John Birch Society are in no manner Libertarian; they are conservative. And although Ayn Rand …
Letters to the Editor – December 2021/January 2022
World Population Re: “Will World Population Drop Far Enough, Fast Enough?,” FI, August/September 2021. Tom Flynn’s essay arguing that the earth is already overpopulated with us was spot on. In the mid-1960s, I had occasion to ask M. King Hubbert, he of Hubbert’s Peak fame and then the greatest living geologist, if he thought we …
Letters to the Editor – October/November 2021
Race Relations In the October/November 2020 issue of Free Inquiry is the article “Farewell to the Pink Race!” by S. T. Joshi. The article celebrates the death of the European race, claiming that “no one need lament their obliteration from the earth.” I want us to live in a society where there is no hate …
Stephen P. Weldon Responds to Tom Flynn’s Review:
I appreciate Tom Flynn’s close attention to my book The Scientific Spirit of American Humanism. To have such a long review by the editor himself is satisfying, even when he and I disagree. I’m also flattered to have the book characterized with a reference to the venerable Walt Whitman. Flynn recognizes that my book breaks …
Letters to the Editor
Scientology Robyn E. Blumner’s editorial “Scientology’s Tale of Disgrace,” (FI, April/May 2021) reminded me of my one and only encounter with Scientology. In 1992, I spent a summer doing mathematical research with colleagues at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. While walking downtown one day, my wife, Sharon, and I saw a Scientology storefront mission. …
Letters to the Editor
General As a subscriber to Free Inquiry for some years now, I have been bothered by the lexicon and what I consider overly academic and professional English in which most articles are written. In many issues of FI, I read exhortations for secular organizations and publishers to form a stronger, more united front against religious …
Letters to the Editor
General The question “Do you believe in God?” is absurd, because it presupposes an existence. The correct question is “Do you believe there is a god?” In addition, ask these “pro-life” women with children how many admissions they paid, when pregnant, every time they went to a movie, concert, sporting event, or museum. Only one? …
Letters – Vol. 41, No. 2
Created Equal As should be well known to avid readers of FI, I am a secular humanist who holds the opinion that the philosophy of secular humanism is not equivalent to that of modern political Leftism. I take umbrage at supporters of modern political Leftism who hijack the enlightening philosophy of secular humanism and automatically …
Letters — Vol. 41 No. 1
The Christian Right and the Courts Re: “The Christian Right’s Destructive Courthouse Moment Has Arrived,” by Robyn E. Blumner (FI, August/September 2020). As Robyn Blumner wrote, Republicans’ packing of federal courts is undoubtedly bad news for secularists. But instead of clenching our teeth and “keeping the faith,” secularists must remember that a progressive Congress and …
Letters – Vol. 40 No. 6
Personhood Re: “The Real Reason for the Anti-abortion Movement,” by Gregory S. Paul, and “The Human Soul and Life after Death,” by Jeremiah Bartlett, FI, June/July 2020. With belief, and in particular dogmatic belief, there does not have to be a basis in fact for the belief. Personhood at conception is one of these beliefs …
Letters — Vol. 40, No. 5
Overall Instead of and contrary to some of the Principles of Humanism on the inside back cover of each issue of FI, hypocrisy and hate flow from the pages of the latest (April/May 2020) and the previous (February/March 2020) issues of FI like blood from a cut major artery. (As an aside: Before discarding, I …
Letters – Vol. 40, No. 4
Overall I’ve read every issue of Free Inquiry from Vol. 1, No. 1 right through to the present. I write today because I find the February/March 2020 issue (Vol. 40, No. 2) to be a particularly strong one, perhaps the strongest ever. Thank you for that. James A. Haught’s “Nobody Dares Say It” op-ed was …
Letters — Vol. 40, No. 3
Overall I am amused by the fact that the writers published in your magazine seem to think that expressing themselves in a “professorial manner” ratifies their intellectual abilities, i.e., never say in a short sentence what can be said with “big words” in long paragraphs. As an agnostic who suspends judgment concerning the existence of …
Letters — Vol. 40 No. 2
Attention Biologists Real occurrence: While out in my backyard one day reading FI (and somewhat smugly contemplating my None status), I noticed this insect (see photo) commonly called a “walking leaf.” As I looked closely at it, my astonishment increased exponentially. Yes, of course, Darwinian camouflage—mimicry driven by survivalist evolution—but this particular example gave me chills. …
Letters — Vol. 40 No. 1
Back at the Chasm Tom Flynn’s August/September 2019 op-ed, “Meanwhile, Back at the Chasm … ,” noted that some young activist Nones are “relatively uninterested” in church-state separation. Really? If so, don’t they realize that without church-state separation women’s reproductive and other rights could be flushed down the drain, our public schools will be replaced …
Letters – Vol. 39 No. 6
Author Response to Letters I wish Arthur Jackson of San Jose, California (FI, June/July 2019), would learn how to read and think before he accuses me of “missing the mark” and suggest that because I did not define science and religion it is “difficult to take my comments seriously.” I thought that by now the …
Letters
Good News Misunderstood I just read Tom Flynn’s Op-Ed in the April/May 2019 issue of Free Inquiry. As usual, I agree with much of what Flynn writes. However, as he predicted, he may be courting controversy in the second part of the essay, the part about immigration. I agree that the uncontrolled population growth in …
Letters – Vol. 39, No. 4
Humanism’s Chasm Re: “Humanism’s Chasm,” FI, February/March 2019. Based on my own experience, many of the liberated view the “Organized Humanists” as yet another cult, albeit one somewhat less demanding and noxious than its more ancient and benighted competitors. In short, who needs such help in these times? This is not, contrary to appearance, a condemnation. …
Letters – Volume 39, No. 3
Matilda Joslyn Gage I am a faithful reader (and subscriber) to Free Inquiry and was delighted to see Robyn Blumner’s article about Matilda Gage (“Resurrecting Matilda Joslyn Gage,” FI, December 2018/January 2019). I, too, had never heard of Ms. Gage even after reading lots about woman’s suffrage over the years. My question is not about …
Letters – Volume 39 No. 2
“The Signature of Freedom,” by Tom Flynn After reading Tom Flynn’s editorial, I wanted to respond because although it could be argued that the right to suicide might indeed be the ultimate right and “signature of freedom” as Tom Flynn describes it, it still may be an enormous mistake and loss for the individual and for …
Letters — Vol. 39 No. 1
Opinions I have been a subscriber to your magazine for going on thirty years, and I have to say I do not care for the tone taken by some of your contributors. The worst in the most recent issue is Ed Doerr. While I agree with his position of not using tax money to support …
Letters
Giant Birds Gregory S. Paul’s op-ed “How Giant Birds Help Disprove the Existence of a Good God” (FI, June/July 2018) was a great counter to would-be intellectual William Lane Craig’s comments about predation in the wild. However, I would add to Mr. Paul’s arsenal. Craig wrongly thinks that predation is the only way to keep …
Letters
In Response After reading Whaley’s interview with God (FI , December 2017/January 2018), I bit my tongue while deciding not to comment, but after reading Imre Toth’s letter (FI April/May 2018), I felt an obligation to comment. I always had difficulty with people, especially Christians and supposed intellectuals as well as educators, not giving credit to the …
Letters
Greta Christina (“Rationalist Dogma,” FI, February/March 2018) would have us believe that open debate is an overrated vehicle for free speech and, worse, an exercise that often subverts social justice while masquerading as the free exchange of ideas in the civic square. When we bring “bad ideas” under debate, we harm society by rendering them …
Letters
Tom Flynn, in his Op-Ed “A Modest Proposal: Get Religion Out of the Charity Sector” in the December 2017/January 2018 issue, says he can’t see how denominational charities can maintain their identities if they steer their fundraising activities far outside of their own communities. Does that mean religious charitable organizations will refuse money from heathens? …
Letters
Re: “A Modest Proposal: Get Religion Out of the Charity Sector,” Tom Flynn, Free Inquiry, December 2017/January 2018. This memo is to assert that this proposal is not a good idea and that beyond being more unattainable than The Nine Demands, it is unlikely to energize the secular humanist movement. Furthermore, it is likely to …
Letters
I agree with Shadia Drury’s main points about monotheism (“The Blight of Monotheism, FI, October/November 2017); however, I’m a bit perplexed by her assertions about Socrates’s beliefs concerning God (or the gods) and moral behavior. She states that Socrates “believed that the alliance of religion with morality would provide the latter with invaluable support.” If …
Letters
Re: “Religion Is an Empirical Question—Finally,” by Robyn E. Blumner (FI, August/September 2017). Religion has been studied in the social sciences for over a century. The problem that we face, however, is not religion as such as an aspect of world culture but rather the ontological content of religious doctrine.
Letters
I read with interest Tom Flynn’s editorial “Smearing Humanism” (FI,June/July 2017). I have read Yuval Noah Harari’s book Sapiens. Flynn’s last sentence of his piece, “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” is so very true.