Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life
Presented by Austin Dacey, PhD, Representative to the United Nations, Center for Inquiry
About the Speaker
Austin Dacey is a philosopher who writes on the intersection of science, religion, and ethics. He serves as a representative to the United Nations for the Center for Inquiry, a think tank concerned with the secular, scientific outlook. He is also on the editorial staff of Skeptical Inquirer and Free Inquiry magazines. His writings have appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times. In 2002 Austin earned a doctorate in philosophy. Austin has authored two books: The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life (Prometheus Books, 2008) and The Case for Humanism: An Introduction (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003). Austin lives in New York City.
About the Event
Summary for the April 23, 2008 meeting of CFI Michigan.
Announcements provided information about upcoming events including:
•May 10: Amy Goodman
•May 18: Knitting for all at City Knitting
•May 14: Jeremy Beahan speaking on Darwin and the Art Critic
•May 24: Spring Fling at the Seaver Farm
Members were reminded that Jennifer Beahan has now been employed for a year, and her contributions were commended.
CFI hopes to expand into SE Michigan and will be holding its first public meeting in the Detroit area this month. Student groups are continuing to grow at Michigan State University, Aquinas College, Grand Rapids Community College and Grand Valley State University.
Donations have reached $135,000 with a goal of $156,000. Members and friends are urged to consider making three year pledges to reach the goal. Forms are available online, at the CFI office or at meetings.
The speaker for the evening was Austin Dacey, philosopher and representative to the United Nations for the Center for Inquiry in New York City, where he works on issues of science and secular values. He is the author of articles in numerous publications including the New York Times. He holds a doctorate in applied ethics and social philosophy. He is the author of The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life, published in 2008 by Prometheus Books.
Dacey began with a reading from the Bible, noting that it was perhaps a surprising choice. From Genesis, he read the story of Abraham and Isaac, recounting God’s demand that Abraham sacrifice his son, Isaac, a demand which Abraham is prepared to obey. Dacey’s contention is that Abraham is free to obey or disobey. His actions must stem from his own judgment about what he has the most reason to do. This Dacey says is what constitutes the conscience, described in his book as “capacities of reason and empathy—the ability to feel and understand what it would be like to be in another person’s situation—and with these faculties we can form judgments about what makes the most sense to believe or do, taking into consideration all the relevant interests and reasons.”
For Dacey, the conscience must come before God or gods. He sees the story of Abraham as a story of conscience rather than one of faith with Abraham choosing to obey God not because it is commanded but because he (Abraham) thinks it is right. But Dacey contends that there is a secular conscience with as much power as the religious conscience. This prompting of the heart is available to those who stand outside religious belief.
Dacey asks, with Christopher Hitchens, “Is there any moral action that could not be made by the non-religious?”
In fact, Dacey says, “The secular conscience stands prior to and independent of all religions and points toward a shared vocabulary for public debate in a pluralistic society.”
American’s current political and social climate seem to imply (or state as fact) that all moral actions stem from religious belief. But Dacey says that it is time for the secular left to occupy the moral high ground for, indeed, secularists are moral not through fear and obedience but through reason and measured thought.
Dacey says that throughout the world, people are afraid to questions religion or actions arising from religious in fear of being seen as judgmental or “inconsiderate” of religious belief. He gives as a prime example the publication of the Danish cartoons in which Muslims were depicted in ways to which they objected, often violently. Rather than champion the values of free speech, politicians and religious leaders throughout the world began a parade of apologies, decrying not the violent response to the cartoons but to the cartoons themselves. In fact, when the cartoons were reprinted in Free Inquiry, the magazine was banned by Borders and Waldon Books. The Vatican said, “Freedom of speech does not include insulting the religion sensibilities of believers.” And Western liberals were afraid to demur.
While some modern secular writers like Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and others are denounced by some liberals as “atheist fundamentalists” for their pointed criticisms of religion, Dacey says that it is essential to apply intellectual and moral standards to religion even if we may disobey what seems to be the taboo of liberals: Thou shalt respect others’ religions.”
Dacey recently attended a Secular Isam Summit sponsored by secular Muslims. With them, he believes that the current global struggle is not between East and West, Muslim and Christian but rather between the free and the unfree. The struggle for universal human rights needs to become both compassionate and rational. World citizens must have the liberty to question and dissent.
Curiously, the Summit was denounced by the American Muslim Committee and not attended by invited reporters from the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe.
Dacey states that there is one deadly sin for liberals, and that is to stop talking. And he finds that liberals are strangely silent. “Liberals are,” he says, “undone by their own ideas.” He asks that secular liberals be willing to discuss matters of conscience in public and not cede ground to religion. Conscience is the soul of secularly and of an open society. We must rededicate ourselves to an open, objective and rational approach to a conscience in public and private life alike that listens and responds to our own critical faculties. Recorded by JW for Center for Inquiry Michigan.
