What is the Center for Inquiry? The Challenge of the New Enlightenment
Presented by D.J. Grothe, President of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF), Center for Inquiry
About the Speaker
D.J. Grothe is President of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). He hosts the nationally popular radio show and podcast, Point of Inquiry, discussing fundamental questions with the world’s thought-leaders, exploring the implications of the scientific outlook for society’s most cherished convictions. An Associate Editor of Free Inquiry Magazine, D.J. lectures and debates frequently on topics surrounding science and central beliefs at colleges and universities throughout the United States. As a “mind-reader” and magician, Grothe studies the processes of deception and self-deception. His award-winning performances focus on the powers of the mind, parapsychology, and the challenge that skeptics bring to paranormal claims.
About the Event
Announcements
Congratulations and best wishes are extended to members Jason and Sarah who were recently wed. Member, Steve Anderson officiated in the ceremony.
Josh and Amanda are having their Grand Opening of Mainline Coffee this week. They continue to bring in wonderful samplings from this venue to our meetings.
The next two Freethought Movie Nights (always on the Sunday prior to the Wednesday FAoWM meetings) are March 21 and April 11, starting at 7PM. Hosted by Jason Pittman. For more information contact Jason at (616) 634-2471 or e-mail: .
Our next meeting will be on March 24, with the topic: “Why Traditional Values May Not be Beneficial to the West Michigan Economy.” This will be presented by Bennett L. Rudolph, Professor of Marketing, Seidman School of Business, GVSU.
New to our calendar is Dr. Michael Fossel’s April 28 topic: “If we reverse human aging, what happens?” This will be Fossel’s second presentation to our group. The author of Reversing Human Aging, Dr. Fossel is a dynamic and captivating presenter.
Our Annual Board Meeting will be on May 2nd from 9AM-1PM at the Seaver’s house in Allendale.
For a complete listing of our calendar of meeting topics and events, including other new additions, go to http://www.cfimichigan.org
Presentation
Our topic for this meeting was “What is the Center for Inquiry? The Challenge of the New Enlightenment.” D.J. Grothe of the Council for Secular Humanism (CSH) was our special guest speaker, coming to us from the New York- based CSH where he is the National Field Director. He is also the Director of CSH’s Campus Freethought Alliance.
Addressing the topic question, Grothe explained that the Center for Inquiry exists to promote science, reason and freedom of inquiry, extending the rationalist approach into every aspect of human endeavor. The Center for Inquiry has locations in Amherst, New York (the International office; http://www.centerforinquiry.net
The Center For Inquiry (CFI) recognizes no aspect of human interest in society that is impervious to rational and scientific scrutiny. No institutions nor cherished beliefs and claims emanating from them are exempt from inquiry. The CFI focuses on three broad areas of interest in its public education programs. One is through its affiliate, The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) that employs a scientific approach in evaluating claims ranging from UFOs, psychics and ghosts to fringe and borderland science in its attempt to separate promising research from irresponsible pseudosciences. Its research fellows are sought by journalists and producers worldwide.
The second area of inquiry is into matters of religion, ethics and society, where the CSH promotes naturalism and secular values and critically examines the foundations of religion and ethics. It publishes the peer- reviewed journal of academic philosophy, Philo as well as Free Inquiry Magazine, which promotes a credible, cogent and fearless defense of a dissenting point of view regarding reigning orthodoxies. As the leading organization for ethical non-religious people, CSH also promotes grassroots programs addressing groups ranging from African Americans for Humanism to ones on Islamic studies that critically examine the Qur’ran.
The third thrust is in medicine and health, which recognizes and promotes the naturalistic progress made in these endeavors and critically scrutinizes threats to this progress made by untested alternative medicines and claims. The Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health (CSMMH) publishes two journals that review Alternative Medicine and Mental Health Practice respectively. The Council also supports naturalistic addiction recovery programs, such as Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS), that do not look to turning over one’s life to a “higher power” in battling substance addiction.
In addition to journals and magazines already mentioned, the CFI publishes Skeptical Inquirer, the Magazine for Science and Reason; the American Rationalist, for straight talk and freethought and The Skeptic (UK)- Great Britain’s magazine for science and reason. Newsletters include Skeptical Briefs, the Secular Humanist Bulletin, the Campus Inquirer, the CFI Report, and Family Matters, etc. Its First Amendment Task Force deals with threats to this Constitutional Amendment, defending the rights of non-believers and fighting against discrimination based on religious orientation. The Council for Media Integrity is concerned with providing a balance to the glut of pseudoscience and misinformation in the media. The International Academy of Humanism recognizes distinguished humanists, promoting its ideals in higher learning.
The CFI has the largest holding of literature pertaining to freethought, religion and science, humanism, paranormal investigations, etc. in the world. Its Los Angeles branch hosts the National Media Center. Through its Institute for Science and Society, the CFI offers undergraduate summer school, seminars and workshops in critical thinking and the scientific outlook. There is also a new publication, Pensar, a Spanish language magazine for science and reason and the opening of CFI West’s new Steve Allen Theatre. Those who follow Joe Nickell’s skeptical investigation of miracle claims, etc. will want to check out the Skeptiseum at http://www.skeptiseum.org
The CFI has for its cognitive thrust, a naturalistic world view, and for its emotional thrust- a positive ethical outlook, stemming from its secular humanistic stance. Secular humanism eschews all forms of transcendentalism and maintains a rigorous philosophically naturalistic approach that sees no scientific evidence for spiritual interpretations of reality and the postulation of occult causes. The critical examination of cherished belief systems would likely be overturned, Grothe posited, if this approach were consistently applied. Besides the supernaturalist and paranormalist threats to critical thinking and the scientific examination of natural phenomena, there is now the postmodernist paradigm that postulates that it is impossible to develop reliable knowledge and any “way of knowing” is equally valid and culturally dependent.
D.J. Grothe also made the distinction between basic atheism and secular humanism. Atheism states what one does not believe in, and while secular humanism holds to no supernatural entities, it extends further to affirm an ethical system rooted in the world of experience that is objective and equally accessible to anyone willing to inquire into value issues. Secular humanism proposes no tenets of absolute moral certainty or the dogmatic application of beliefs based on authority sources without a critical examination of their innate qualities and fruitful content. Instead, it is consequentialist: ethical choices should be rationally based and judged by their results. Common moral decencies have arisen by millennia of human experience (and probably not carved by divine fiat into stone tablets).
The term “secular” was added to humanism to separate it from confusing entanglements with faith systems and in particular, the movement known as religious humanism, which was regarded by its adherents as the religion of the future. Secular humanism, having no reliance on, or acceptance of, transcendent beliefs of any kind, let alone one worshiping a divine supernatural creator entity, has no ties with religious systems.
Humanism has been termed a religion by the Religious Right, in fact the religion of the public school system. Called a religion, they see it vulnerable to Church- State separation in the same way as promotion of actual religion is, much as creationists have called their Bible-based non-theory “creation science” to give an alternative to “evolution science.” If they cannot get naturalism out of the scholastic setting (their ultimate goal), then their secondary goal is to promote their religious views as an alternative in the classroom, all in a spirit of “fairness”, of course. Pat Robertson went so far as to declare that the Bible God was replaced in the public schools by “...the false gods of secular humanism.” The most recent avatar of this line of thinking is found in books like Mind Siege by fundamentalists Tim LaHaye and David Noebel, where they see the very minds of our youth under attack and vulnerable to capture by the “religion of secular humanism.” While many insufficient definitions have been posited to encapsulate what religion is, at the very least, it must have some supernatural aspect. Zen Buddhism, being virtually free of such trappings, is often therefore, referred to as an Eastern philosophy rather than a religion.
While evolution, the foundation of biological sciences, is a constant target for Christian Fundamentalists, their aim extends to the evisceration of all fields of study not based on their own narrow interpretation of one theological belief system. Such an approach would completely gut not only science, but history, law, psychology, social studies, etc. and replace it with a single faceted view as seen through the lens of Christianity.
Grothe showed us some of a film by LaHaye (of the Left Behind series of books) and Noebel. It was noted that there is no biblical foundation for the belief in a Rapture which is at the core of the immensely popular Left Behind books. The film launched into the threat allegedly posed by secular humanism and its godless hordes. There was an enormous amount of warfare rhetoric as they sought to mobilize Christian foot soldiers to fight in the battlefield of public education to defeat the enemy of the Good and godly for ultimate victory over Satan. The first battlefield, they asserted, was in the Garden of Eden. Our continued turning away from God by kicking Yahweh out of the classroom, denying coerced prayer and Bible recitation in the schools and other such folly, they say, has led us down a dark path with dire consequences. They feel disadvantaged because it is hard to compete with a five day curriculum that promulgates secular humanism with their once a week Sunday School.
They also proclaimed that moral relativism ran rampant in the decadent public schools. And they were upset that history was not taught to show that the pilgrims came here to glorify God or about how our nation was founded as a Christian one and exposing the “fiction” of Church- State separation. The secular humanism now “taught” in the schools fostered selfishness and godlessness, they insisted. According to this film, there was certainly a lot that needed to be taken back from the heretic secularists who are dominating society! It’s always amusing to take a clear-eyed look at how religion-saturated we are in the US compared to other nations, and set this against the dire pronouncement of the fundamentalists who rail against our abandonment of God. Grothe noted that only in America is secular humanism seen as a threat rather than an ally to progress and societal betterment. LaHaye and Noebel took aim at how the UN, UNESCO, Congress, the media, etc. have gone in league with the heathen humanists to tear Americans away from their prayerful, God- fearing heritage.
The End-Time speakers on the film attacked Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins and Paul Kurtz by name. They supported having “balanced” literature; the creationist “Of Pandas & People”, for instance, to counter “evil-utionist” teachings, or having Christian films presented when a secular one has been shown, or revisionist historical tracts to combat the godless one presented in the public schools. It was interesting to see how the percentage of unbelievers was inflated when they decried the masses spiraling down to the abyss in our nation, but when they wanted to show how paltry we benighted non-theists were, our numbers were suddenly decimated. At more than a few parts in the film, there were glaring examples of self contradiction.
Grothe, who had endured a Christian education, saw that the world view he was exposed to was a coherent but inconsistent one. He explained that by saying that everything fit neatly within the edifice into one seamless whole. But if one pulled out a single brick, the entire structure began to collapse. Perhaps that is why those who dwell within such enclosures fight so hard to keep everything changeless and secure… ignoring any doubt-wrought cracks that might appear. He also quipped that there is nothing like a religious education to make one an atheist, if one examines the doctrines objectively, with an inquiring mind.
One attendee of our meeting asked how the more fundamentalist Christians view the liberal religionists. Grothe said they perceive them as polluting the word of God under the influence of—you guessed it—secular humanists. The word humanist itself became a negative epithet only in the last twenty years, whereas it used to denote a more progressive connotation while still not being seen as so utterly atheistic.
Our presenter talked about the benefits of taking the higher ground in discussions with religionists. The more effective strategy is one of dialog rather than attack. One cannot open minds when one’s arguments cause the defensive walls to come up. He spoke too of how rabble- rousers will often break things loose and shake things up, but what is called for in the aftermath is a cooler approach. Someone who could be be one’s neighbor is more endearing and approachable than the full out flaming atheist, telling the believers how absurd they are.
Grothe talked about organizing campus groups of a humanist nature, speaking from experience in his work with the Campus Freethought Alliance. He talked, in this capacity, about other controversial organizations and their level of success, including gay groups. As a gay man himself, he has been nonplussed by other gays trying so hard to get the churches to accept them, comparing it to blacks trying to get the KKK to embrace them. But he also noted that liberal religious churches have been more supportive of gay rights. He, like our last presenters who were gay, stated that “coming out” as an atheist was far more troubling for others than in admitting his homosexual orientation. He said that the best approach for getting a controversial group started is not to be seen as a supplanting force to the established institutions but rather be seen as an attractive, viable new one. He noted too that humanist organizations do not have to be partisan, calling upon examples from CFIs staff who come from various political ideologies. Just getting speakers to come on campuses to present ideas that are new and potentially mind expanding to students is a good way to expose them to different ways of looking at things. Cherished beliefs can be challenged without a confrontational setting or format, mitigating the natural defense mechanisms.
Regarding fringe science and alternative medicine, he spoke of how, sadly, one can get accreditation in Therapeutic Touch (waving hands over people to smooth out their auras) and how the journals from CFI are the only ones addressing these issues head on, consistently, and challenging claims that are presented without scientific review having ever been done on them.
The fundamentalist approach to ideas that run counter to their beliefs is avoidance and shielding their young people from alternate ways of thinking about the world. Grothe encourages people to actually critically examine their sacred texts and compare them to other religious texts. Even if it does not cause the individual to become an apostate, he might have a more tolerant view of other religions or at least have better reasons for believing as he does—not just a mindless automatic perpetuation of the religious views of the authority figures around him. He said that Mormonism is a fascinating study since it is so relatively new. One can more readily see how it developed than with the ancient mythologies. With regards to Islam, Grothe noted that it never went through a Reformation or a period where it was pitted against Enlightenment ideas, so it has only been in recent years that critical Qur’ranic examination has been done by courageous individuals who could bring a fatwa upon themselves if found out.
“Perhaps more than any other movement, humanism expresses the outlook and values of the modern world.” Paul Kurtz.
Secretary: Charles LaRue
