Date: Wed Aug 17 1994 21:34:00 Subj: In Defense of Humanism Free Inquiry Issue: Spring 199

Date:   Wed Aug 17 1994  21:34:00
From:   Jeff Welch
Subj:   In Defense of Humanism 

Free Inquiry
Issue: Spring 1994 (Vol. 14 No. 2)
Title: A Statement: In Defense of Secularism

A Statement: In Defense of Secularism

     American democracy draws its special vitality from the First
Amendment, which incorporates the principle of a separation of church
and state.  In essence, the United States is a secular republic; this
means that the  government cannot establish a religion.  It cannot favor
religion over non-religion.  The unique character of the American
experiment is the existence of awide diversity of creeds, sects, and
voluntary organizations, each free to flourish on its own terms without
any special encouragement by the state, with tolerance for a wide range
of beliefs and values.
      We therefore deplore the growing hostility toward secularism that
has emerged across the political spectrum.  Leaders from the center and
left, including President Bill Clinton, have recently joined the
familiar voices on the right in scapegoating secular ideals.  It is
naive to indict secularism for the alleged decline of society.  It is
divisive to imagine that the moral prescriptions of any single religious
faith alone can serve to raise our diverse nation out of a real or
imagined malaise.  We urge leaders of the American mainstream to resist
being co-opted to the polarizing agenda of the religious right.
     Secular humanists are committed to the use of reason, compassion,
and science to enhance the human condition in this life.  Through the
use of human faculties we derive ethical values fromm the world around
us. Secular humanism has enabled millions of Americans who are not
religious to find meaning and a moral anchor in their lives.  A broader
secularism has helped a wide spectrum of believers to accept religious
diversity and to work cooperatively with adherents of other faiths, or
of none, to pursue human betterment.
     It is difficult to recognize secularism as we know it in the straw
man figure Bill Clinton targeted when he recently decried the alleged
"crisis  of the spirit that is gripping America today."  Clinton cited
crime statistics and suggested the answer lay in an "honest
reaffirmation of faith" by which Americans might "seek to heal this
troubled land."  He perpetuates the myth that "the family . . . has been
under assault for thirty years," making common cause with ideologues who
trace the decline of our nation to the removal of prayer from the public
schools in the early 1960s.  "Hurray for Bill Clinton," former Vice
President Dan Quayle has said of Clinton's apparent conversion to
afamily values agenda whose true meaning is unclear.
     We regret Clinton's repeated statements that "freedom of religion
doesn't mean freedom from religion," which seem to defend the propriety
of treating the non-religious as second-class citizens.  We question his
stated preference for spiritual leap-taking in place of "some purely
rational solution of a problem."  On the contrary, we submit that if
America discards rationality we are truly rudderless, helpless against
sectarian strife when differing groups may seek to impose their peculiar
spiritual visions on American life.
     We lament what amounts to intellectual abdication by many leading
opinion makers on America's center and left.  We reject pat formulas and
call for free inquiry into the causes and cures of America's problems.
Answers are not to be found in preemptive renewals of spiritual
language, nor by re-imposing the Judeo-Christian faith on a public
sphere that has become the joint domain of many faiths--and of none.
     We reiterate the convictions of a large number of American
citizens, who are committed to the application of reason and science to
the understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems.
We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that democracy is the
best guarantee of protecting human rights from authoritarian elites and
repressive majorities.

Secular humanism is a distinguished perspective.  It is committed to the
cultivation of ethical excellence.  Far from being discredited, it has
much to contribute to the contemporary debate.  To dismiss secularism,
to threaten it in a "pincers" movement between left and right, can only
worsen, rather than lessen, the nation's problems.

Steve Allen, author and TV personality
Bonnie Bullough, Prof. of Nursing, University of Southern California
Vern Bullough, Prof. of History, California State University, Northridge
Thomas Flynn, Senior Editor, FREE INQUIRY
Marilyn French, author
Martin Gardner, author, former columnist for Scientific American
Adolf Grunbaum, Prof. of Philosophy, Univ. of Pittsburgh
Herbert Hauptman, Nobel Laureate, Prof. of Biophysical Sciences, SUNY at
        Buffalo
Alfie Kohn, author
Paul Krassner, editor, The Realist
Lisa Kuhmerker, editor, Moral Education Forum
Paul Kurtz, editor, FREE INQUIRY, Prof. Emeritus of Philosophy, SUNY at
        Buffalo
Gerald Larue, Prof. Emeritus of Biblical Archaeology, University of
Southern
        California
Timothy J. Madigan, Executive Editor, FREE INQUIRY
Michael Martin, Prof. of Philosophy, Boston University