The History and Philosophy of Humanism

(SEC 200)

March 1st — May 30th, 2010

Instructor John Shook, PhD, 
Vice President for Education at the Center for Inquiry

This three-month course contains six lectures by Shook from his next book on Humanism.  The six main topics are: Humanism Defined, Humanism and Naturalism, Humanism and Ethics, Humanist Ethics and God, Principles of Humanist Ethics, and Humanism’s Destiny.  Visiting Lecturers Nica Lalli (during March) and Dale McGowan (during April) will participate in the discussion areas of the course.   

Course Fees: $60.00 for registration,
$50.00 for Friends of the Center,
and $20.00 for students.

Online registration begins February 1st.

Click here to register .

John Shook is Vice President and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Inquiry Transnational in Amherst, N.Y., and Research Associate in Philosophy at the University at Buffalo.  He has authored and edited more than a dozen books about philosophy and naturalism.  He has debated the existence of God with notable theologians including William Lane Craig, and his book The God Debates will soon be published by Blackwell.

Nica Lalli is a writer, educator, and former PTA president.  She is the author of Nothing: Something to Believe In (Prometheus Books, 2007), a memoir which tells the story of her life outside of organized religion and traces her many mishaps and misadventures she has had with religion.

Dale McGowan edited and co-authored Parenting Beyond Belief and Raising Freethinkers, the first comprehensive resources for nonreligious parents.  He writes the secular parenting blog The Meming of Life, teaches nonreligious parenting seminars across the United States, and serves as executive director of Foundation Beyond Belief, a humanist charitable and educational foundation.

The CFI Institute Online offers CFI courses entirely online — everything about the course is provided on a CFI Web site.  You will read the course lectures, follow links to other Web pages, ask questions, and participate in class discussions with the instructor and other students.  There are no specific times that you must be online.  There is no "live" aspect to these courses, and you cannot miss anything even if you can only get online at 6 a.m. or 11 p.m. — you can log in and participate anytime day or night.

Visit the CFI Institute Online to see more available courses.

For more information about online courses,
contact John Shook, jshook@centerforinquiry.net .

For questions about registration and technical support,
contact Institute Staff channy@centerforinquiry.net .

Center for Inquiry Announces Three New Hosts for its Popular Podcast, ‘Point of Inquiry’

The Center for Inquiry has announced that there will be three new hosts for its popular podcast, Point of Inquiry . Joining the podcast are Chris Mooney, Karen Stollznow, and Robert Price.

“We are tremendously excited about having Chris Mooney, Karen Stollznow and Robert Price as hosts for our podcast,” said Ronald A. Lindsay, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry. “All three are smart, articulate, witty individuals, with a depth of knowledge in their respective areas of expertise. We expect the podcasts to be thought-provoking and engaging—an entertaining intellectual feast. Moreover, given the scope of topics to be covered, we anticipate we will be able to broaden the audience for our podcast.”

Mooney is expected to host about half of the approximately 50 new shows per year, with the balance evenly split between Price and Stollznow. The first episode to feature this new format is scheduled tentatively for February 12.

The Center for Inquiry launched the weekly podcast in 2005, and it was hosted by CFI Vice President for Outreach D.J. Grothe until his recent departure from CFI to become president of the James Randi Educational Foundation.

About the hosts:

Chris Mooney is a 2009-2010 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT and the author of three books, The Republican War on Science , Storm World , and Unscientific America . Mooney maintains a blog hosted by Discover magazine titled “The Intersection” with Sheril Kirshenbaum and serves as a contributing editor for Skeptical Inquirer magazine.

Robert M. Price is professor of theology and scriptural studies at Coleman Theological Seminary and professor of biblical criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute. He is a fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion and the Jesus Seminar. Dr. Price is the author of a number of books, including The Reason Driven Life , Deconstructing Jesus , The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man , and The Da Vinci Fraud . He has appeared widely in the media, and was featured prominently in the movie The God Who Wasn’t There . His latest book is Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today’s Pop Mysticisms .

Karen Stollznow is an author and skeptical investigator with a doctorate in linguistics and a background in history and anthropology.  She is an associate researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and a director of the San Francisco Bay Area Skeptics. A prolific skeptical writer for many sites and publications, she is the “Naked Skeptic” Web columnist for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the “Bad Language” columnist for Skeptic magazine, a frequent contributor to Skeptical Inquirer , and managing editor of CSI’s Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice . Dr. Stollznow is a host of the Monster Talk podcast and writer for the Skepbitch and Skepchick blogs, as well as for the James Randi Educational Foundation’s Swift .

Point of Inquiry is the premier podcast of the Center for Inquiry, drawing on CFI’s relationship with the leading minds of the day, including Nobel Prize-winning scientists, public intellectuals, prominent authors, and social critics and thinkers. Each episode combines incisive interviews, features, and commentary focusing on issues of science and public policy, pseudoscience and the paranormal, and religion and secularism.

Susan Jacoby discusses the state of American intelligence on “Stand Up! with Pete Dominick,” from the POTUS satellite radio channel, Sirius 110/XM 130, Feb. 1, 2010. Audio file length: 35:23.

The Center for Inquiry is accepting disaster-relief donations through its S.H.A.R.E. program to support those providing care to the survivors of the 7.0 earthquake that struck Jan. 12 near the capital city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

All donations—100 percent with no operating costs retained—will be sent directly to the secular aid group Doctors Without Borders , which suffered the loss of all three of its medical facilities and is working against difficulties to provide the basics of first-aid care and stabilization.

The needs of those who’ve lost their family members, their homes, and their livelihoods will be very great. Your assistance will make a huge difference for the victims of this tragic disaster. Please join us and other humanists and skeptics as we help those in need in this time of crisis.

 

A contribution of any amount would be greatly appreciated by everyone at the Center for Inquiry. Thank you for your continued support of our work, and please consider a donation to S.H.A.R.E. in honor of those in Haiti who need help.

Please make your contribution to S.H.A.R.E. directly by clicking here or on the button above. All funds sent to S.H.A.R.E. are tax exempt in the United States. 

You may also donate by sending a check to:

S.H.A.R.E.
c/o Center for Inquiry
PO Box 741
Amherst, NY 14226

S.H.A.R.E. has been recently renamed the Skeptics and Humanists Aid and Relief Effort and has now become a program of the wider-reaching Center for Inquiry, responding to the need to continue providing an alternative for those who wish to contribute to charitable efforts without the intermediary of a religious organization in this time of great need.

Click here to see the full press release.

The Campaign for Free Expression is a CFI initiative to focus efforts and attention on one of the most crucial components of freethought: the right of individuals to express their viewpoints, opinions, and beliefs about all subjects—especially religion.  To encourage free expression and to emphasize the importance of this fundamental right, CFI and its sister organization, The Council for Secular Humanism , are sponsoring a Free Expression Essay Contest .

Students enrolled in an accredited college or university are invited to submit an essay about "The Importance of Free Expression and Its Limits (If Any)."  Each entry must address the question of what limits national governments or recognized international bodies, such as the United Nations, may justifiably place on free expression.  First prize is $2,000 (USD); Second prize is $500.

• Download Free Expression Essay Contest Rules.
• Submit entries to essaycontest@centerforinquiry.net .
• Contest is open to undergraduate and graduate students worldwide.
• DEADLINE: January 31, 2010.

Express yourself!

If art's more your thing, don't forget to check out the Free Expression Cartoon Contest !   Amateur prizes range from $75-300; professional cartoonists can compete for $750-2,500.  Deadline is January 15th.  Click here for more information.

For more information about the Campaign for Free Expression , please email info@centerforinquiry.net .

Although CFI is thrilled at the prospect of Lauren Becker assuming oversight of the Outreach Department, we are also deeply saddened by D.J. Grothe’s departure. D.J. has been with CFI for almost a decade and he has made significant contributions to the success of our organization. He is the uncommon individual who is equally conversant with both skepticism and humanism, as evidenced by his skilled hosting of the podcast and radio show Point of Inquiry.  

But perhaps there is a silver lining. CFI and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) have occasionally worked together with the JREF on various initiatives. We firmly believe both organizations would benefit from closer collaboration and we have high hopes that with a CFI alum at the helm, JREF will be open to joint projects in the future.

In the meantime, congratulations are in order to both D.J. and Lauren, and we sincerely hope that D.J. has much success in his new position.

Join CFI Indiana for three new full-day
Intensive Sessions of the CFI Institute!

January 16  ·  February 20  ·  April 17
 
Center for Inquiry Indiana, 350 Canal Walk, Suite A
Indianapolis, IN 46202

After the resounding success of CFI-Indiana's September conference on comparing and critiquing the traditional views of both religious and nonreligious people, many attendees expressed an interest in learning more from each of the three experts who spoke.  In response, we have scheduled three intensive full-day sessions to give those who want more in-depth knowledge on the subjects a chance to spend generous time with each of these learned scholars.  Join us as we begin a fresh exploration of religion with Ibn Warraq, a scholar of the Koran and Islam; Robert Price, a biblical scholar; and John Shook, a philosopher of religion and naturalism. 

Speakers:

Ibn Warraq, Ph.D., Islamic scholar and a leading figure in Koranic criticism, is a senior fellow at the Center for Inquiry-Transnational.  He is the author of five important and distinguished books on Islam and Koranic criticism, including the classic Why I am Not a Muslim , The Origins of the Koran , What the Koran Really Says , and the forthcoming Which Koran?

Full-Day Session: Jan. 16, 2010

Robert Price, Ph.D., Professor of Theology and Scriptural Studies, Johnnie Coleman Theological Seminary; founder, editor, and fellow, The Jesus Seminar; executive board member, The Jesus Project; The Bible Geek.  His books include Beyond Born Again , The Reason-Driven Life , The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man , and Inerrant the Wind .

Full-Day Session: Feb. 20, 2010

John Shook, Ph.D., is vice president and senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry—Transnational in Amherst, N.Y., and research associate in philosophy at the University at Buffalo since 2006.  He has authored and edited more than a dozen books, is a co-editor of three philosophy journals, and travels for lectures and debates across the United States and around the world.

Full-Day Session: April 17, 2010

Conference Fees

General:  $60 per session, $150 for all three sessions
Friends of the Center :  $50 per session, $125 for all three sessions
Students:  $25 per session, $60 for all three sessions

To Register:

Register Online & pay with a credit card

or

Download a mail-in Registration Form

 For more information, please visit the CFI-Indiana Institute Web page , e-mail indy@centerforinquiry.net , or call 317-423-0710.        

The Center for Inquiry-Indiana
promoting science, reason and freedom of inquiry in all areas of human endeavor
is located at 350 Canal Walk, Suite A, Indianapolis, IN 46202.

In addition to the Grand Prize winner, there were four other winners.

• “There’s no religion like no religion,” submitted by Daniel Boles of Thailand;
• “I wouldn’t even follow your god on Twitter,” submitted by Michael Hein of South Carolina;
• “The reason religious beliefs need protection from ridicule is that they are ridiculous,” submitted by Michael Nugent of Ireland; and
• “I survived the God virus,” submitted by Perry Bulwer of British Columbia, Canada.

All top five winners will receive a CFI T-shirt with their submission imprinted on the shirt.  Ken Peters, the Grand Prize winner, will also receive a coffee mug with his slogan and he will be officially recognized in a forthcoming issue of Free Inquiry , the magazine published by CFI’s affiliate, the Council for Secular Humanism .  Also, as indicated in the contest rules, Ken Peters will likely be able to look forward to eternal damnation, although that prize is not entirely within CFI’s control.

The T-shirts featuring the individual winning phrases can be viewed and ordered for purchase in the CFI On-line Store .

Many will recall that when CFI decided in September to hold a contest in conjunction with its commemoration of International Blasphemy Day , it generated a firestorm of controversy.  Some observers claimed that CFI was soliciting hate speech, and they likened CFI to Nazis publishing anti-Semitic attacks.

CFI rejected those mischaracterizations then and continues to reject them now.  “In holding a blasphemy contest, we wished to underscore our position that religious beliefs are subject to examination and criticism, just like other beliefs,” said Lindsay.  “Sometimes that criticism may take the form of a scholarly essay; sometimes the criticism may take the form of a pithy, pointed remark.  Both are appropriate forms of free expression.”

In its contest, CFI emphasized it wanted clever, concise statements that might capture some of the flaws of religious beliefs.  CFI was not interested in crude attacks on believers.  Overall, CFI was not disappointed in quality of the entries.

Nor was CFI disappointed in the quantity of entries.  About 650 individuals submitted well over 1,000 entries (contestants could submit two entries).  In fact, deciding which entries deserved to make it into the top five was difficult.  Accordingly, the judges have decided that the following entries deserved honorable mention.

HONORABLE MENTION:

"Think outside the pew."
Gerry Stearns

"GodLess is more."
Harout Markarian

"Minds harbor incongruous memes:
Religion and fairytale dreams.
Relentlessly nutty,
They turn brains to putty,
Inculcating scurrilous schemes."
Kate Jones

"A fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'
A wise man shouts it from the rooftops."
Mark Palmer

"Jesus has all the answers...to your vague, non-specific questions to which you already know the answer."
aaoe98 (no name accompanied the email)

"God is incredible."
J. Laudig and George Tipton (submitted separately)

"A perplexing entity, God
Exhibited properties odd
A generous savior
With wrathful behavior
Both Barney and Marquis de Sade."
Tim Harrod

:–)  <-- Muhammad
Nicholas Rinard

"Religion is the blasphemy of reality."
Joe

"Our Father, Heavenly King
Stop watching me sleep.
It's creepy.
Amen"
Jacky Chow

Finally, the judges decided that a blasphemous joke uttered by CFI Founder Paul Kurtz at a CFI event in early November merited special mention—even though the joke is longer than twenty words, it was made after the contest ended, Dr. Kurtz is disqualified from making an entry, and Dr. Kurtz never formally submitted the joke as an entry.  But, hey, it’s our contest.  Anyway, here’s the joke:

A priest and a nun went golfing. On the priest's first swing, the ball went wide of the green.

"Shit," said the priest. "I missed!"

"Oh Father, please don't speak like that," said the nun. "God wouldn't like it."

On the priest's second swing, the ball went into the rough.

"Shit," said the priest. "I missed!"

"Oh Father, you mustn't curse," said the nun. "God will strike you dead if you use such language."

On the priest's third swing, the ball went right into the water hazard.

"Shit," said the priest. "I missed!"

Suddenly it got very dark.  Black clouds boiled up.  There was a flash of lightning, an ear-splitting crack of thunder.

And the nun was gone.

"Shit," said a great voice from above. "I missed!"

Note that when Dr. Kurtz told this joke, he decorously substituted “merde” for “shit” about halfway through.  But we don’t want to imply that God is French.  Not even the French deserve that.

CFI thanks everyone who took the time to submit an entry.  Your participation helped make the contest a success.

To receive email notices about future contests, CFI news, and special events, please sign up here!

By Ibn Warraq 

In the wake of the murder of 13 and the wounding of 38 soldiers at Fort Hood on November 5, media analysts, politicians, and other sundry experts scrambled to present the accused perpetrator of the acts, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, as a victim. In so doing they served, knowingly or otherwise, as apologists for radical Islam. From CNN to the New York Times, NPR to the Washington Post, the killings were presented as a result of racism. They were attributed to fear of deployment in Afghanistan and harassment from other soldiers. Cited were Major Hasan’s supposed maladjustment to his life and his sense of not belonging, pre-traumatic stress disorder, and various personal and mental problems. All these explanations are variations on what I have called “the Root Cause Fallacy,” which has been committed time and again since the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001. The Root Cause Fallacy was designed to deflect attention away from Islam, in effect to exonerate Islam, which, we are told, is never to blame for acts of violence. On this view we must not hold a great world religion of peace responsible when individuals of that faith resort to force. We must dig deeper: the real cause is poverty, U.S. foreign policy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Western colonialism and exploitation, marital problems of individuals, and so on. The present “psychological” interpretations in the case of Major Hasan are just the latest example of the Root Cause Fallacy at work.

The Australian tells us that the mindset of Major Hasan remains a “mystery,” yet his Jihadist intentions are there on the surface for everyone not paralyzed by political correctness to see. According to CNN (Nov. 7), on the morning of the shootings Hasan gave copies of the Koran to his neighbors. According to the Associated Press (Nov. 6), soldiers reported that Hasan shouted out “ Allahu Akbar ” [God is Great] – the war cry of all Jihadis – before firing off over a hundred rounds with two pistols in a center where some 300 unarmed soldiers had lined up for vaccines and eye tests. NPR informs us that Hasan was put on probation early in his postgraduate work at the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., for proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues. The Associated Press (Nov. 11) adds that classmates who studied with Hasan from in that postgraduate program reported Hasan making a presentation during their studies "that justified suicide bombing" and spewed "anti-American propaganda," denouncing the war on terror as "a war against Islam." Classmate Val Finnell and another student complained about Hasan, shocked that someone with "this type of vile ideology" would be allowed to wear an officer’s uniform. But, importantly, no one filed a formal complaint about Hasan’s views and comments for fear of appearing discriminatory -- in other words, out of political correctness. According to The Telegraph (Nov. 6), Army colleagues reported that Major Hasan had condemned U.S. foreign policy, that he clearly declared that Muslims had the right to rise up and attack Americans, that he expressed happiness when a U.S. soldier was killed in an attack on a military recruitment center in Arkansas in June, and that he said people should strap bombs on themselves and go to Times Square. It has been widely reported that Major Hasan attended the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Virginia Falls during the time that Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemen-based al-Qaeda preacher with extensive terrorist connections, was its main preacher. Awlaki even praised Major Hasan as a hero on November 9, four days after the Fort Hood attacks. The Times of London revealed (Nov. 10) that Major Hasan had been in direct correspondence with Awlaki, in connection with which Hasan had already been under investigation by the F.B.I. Almost every news source has reported that Major Hasan was also under investigation by federal law enforcement officials for his postings to an internet site speaking favorably of suicide bombing.

Fortunately, not all in the media were hamstrung by political correctness. Here is Ralph Peters in the New York Post (Nov. 6): “On Thursday afternoon, a radicalized Muslim U.S. Army officer shouting ‘Allahu Akbar!’ committed the worst act of terror on American soil since 9/11. And no one wants to call it an act of terror or associate it with Islam. What cowards we are. Political correctness killed those patriotic Americans at Ft. Hood as surely as the Islamist gunman did. And the media treat it like a case of non-denominational shoplifting. This was a terrorist act . When an extremist plans and executes a murderous plot against our unarmed soldiers to protest our efforts to counter Islamist fanatics, it’s an act of terror. Period.”

There was a laudable concern among Americans about a possible “backlash” against all American Muslims. What backlash? Even following the September 11 attacks with their 2,976 victims, Americans behaved with exemplary restraint. They behaved in a civilized manner in the face of barbarism.

It is time to abandon apologetics, and political correctness. Not all Muslims are terrorists. Not all Muslims are implicated in the horrendous events of September 11, 2001 -- or of November 5, 2009. However, to pretend that Islam has nothing to do with 9/11 or the Fort Hood massacre is willfully to ignore the obvious. To leave Islam out of the equation means to forever misinterpret events. Without Islam, the long-term strategy and individual acts of violence by Osama bin Laden and his followers make little sense. Without Islam, the West will go on being incapable of understanding our terrorist enemies, and hence will be incapable to deal with them. Without Islam, neither is it possible to comprehend the barbarism of the Taliban, the position of women and non-Muslims in Islamic countries, or -- now-- the murders attributed to Major Hasan.

We are confronted, after all, with Islamic terrorists; and we must take the Islamic component seriously. Westerners in general and Americans in particular no longer seem able to grasp the passionate religious convictions of Islamic terrorists. It is this passionate conviction, directed against the West and against non-Muslims in general, that drives them. They are truly, and literally, God-intoxicated fanatics. If we refuse to understand that, we cannot understand them.

Jihad is “a religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission of Muhammad. It is an incumbent religious duty, established in the Koran and in the Traditions as a divine institution, and enjoined specially for the purpose of advancing Islam and repelling evil from Muslims.” That is how it is described in no lesser source than the Dictionary of Islam , so we should not pretend surprise if Islamic terrorists see their mission in such terms.

In the wake of the Fort Hood Massacre, America’s armed forces, the F.B.I., C.I.A., Department of Homeland Security and other counter-terrorist bodies face some difficult decisions about Muslims employed in their services. After all, the view Major Hasan expressed – that Muslims in the U.S. Armed Forces should not serve in Iraq or Afghanistan, or anyplace where they might have to kill fellow Muslims – is precisely in keeping with fatwas issued by such Muslim leaders as Ali Gum’a, the mufti of Egypt, which forbade Muslim soldiers to take part in the so-called War on Terror.

When Muslim soldiers or agents or operatives feel that their primary allegiance is to Islam and not the United States, can we safely allow their service to continue? It is an agonizing question, but one we must confront; however, we cannot properly confront this question while we struggle to pretend that Islam itself is not part of the dispute.

Ibn Warraq is a senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry and author of five books, including Why I Am Not a Muslim and Defending the West (both published by Prometheus Books).