“We are deeply disappointed in this ruling by the 9th Circuit, especially as several years ago the 9th Circuit had decided the Pledge was unconstitutional in its current form,” stated Ronald A. Lindsay, president and CEO for the Center for Inquiry.

In his 123-page dissenting opinion, Judge Stephen Reinhardt expressed his strong conviction that the phrase was clearly unconstitutional. “Under no sound legal analysis adhering to binding Supreme Court precedent could this court uphold state-directed, teacher-led, daily recitation of the ‘under God’ version of the Pledge of Allegiance by children in public schools,” wrote Reinhardt

Lindsay concurred. “As Judge Reinhardt recognized in his dissenting opinion, it is undeniable the words ‘under God’ were inserted into the Pledge in 1954 for religious purposes, and today these words continue to advance religion as millions of students each school day are compelled to affirm belief in God—or risk being ostracized as un-American.” 

The court also voted 3-0 to uphold an earlier 9th Circuit panel decision sanctioning the inclusion of “In God We Trust” on U.S. coins and currency, agreeing with the earlier opinion that the motto is foremost ceremonial and patriotic, and “has nothing whatsoever to do with the establishment of religion.”

The president of the Center for Inquiry/India, Innaiah Narisetti, has reportedly been released on bail after being detained for 5 days on a charge related to the distribution of a book deemed offensive to Muslims.

Narisetti was reportedly taken into custody at his home Feb. 26 after Muslim legislators raised questions in the Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh State and Chief Minister Konijeti Rosaiah promised to take action. Local Muslims of Khammam had demonstrated and violently protested against the book. In addition to Narisetti, the police arrested Macha Laxmaiah (alias Krantikar), the compiler of the book, as well as another rationalist individual, Mr. M. Subbarao.

The book, Crescent over the World, is a two-volume compilation of articles critical of Islam, including submissions by Ibn Warraq, Salman Rushdie, Aayan Hirsi Ali, and Taslima Nasreen, along with one of the “blasphemous” cartoons published in the Danish press in 2005 (some of which were republished in Free Inquiry magazine).

Narisetti became embroiled in the arrests because Laxmaiah had reportedly published in the book’s opening pages that copies would be available through Narisetti at the Center for Inquiry/India. Police reportedly found no copies of the book at Narisetti’s home after a search, but took him into custody anyway.

After his release on bail, Narisetti addressed a press conference and stated that he did not give any consent to the editor and compiler of the book to list his name as distributor, the editor never approached him to seek permission, nor was he sent any copies of the printed book.

Narisetti reportedly obtained bail on March 3 and returned to Hyderabad on March 4, 2010. The charges against the three defendants will be formally issued on March 11 in Khammam. As of this report, Laxmaiah remains jailed.

The Center for Inquiry’s New Delhi, India contacts have reported that CFI/India President Innaiah Narisetti , as well as two other individuals—rationalist M. Subbarao and editor Macha Laxmaiah (alias Krantikar)—have been arrested for distributing a book “that reportedly hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims.”

The book, Crescent over the World , is a compilation of articles including submissions by Ibn Warraq, Salman Rushdie, and Taslima Nasreen, along with one of the “blasphemous” cartoons published in the Danish press in 2005 (some of which were republished in Free Inquiry magazine).

From a Feb. 26 Thaindian News report:

“The arrests followed massive protests by Muslims in Khammam, around 250 km from Hyderabad. They took out a rally, demanding action against the author and those who helped him.

“Police said they seized 380 books of the first volume and 410 books of the second volume of the publication in different parts of Khammam district.”

According to the Press Trust of India , all three of the arrested have been jailed on “judicial remand.” CFI/India sources report that they will remain jailed until at least a judge’s hearing of their bail applications Tuesday, March 2.

The Center for Inquiry is distressed by the arrest of these individuals and condemns this blatant suppression of free speech and critical examination of religion.

The Council’s delegation included Tom Flynn (Buffalo, N.Y.), executive director of the Council and editor of its flagship magazine Free Inquiry , and three Washington-based activists: Toni van Pelt, executive director of the Center for Inquiry/Office of Public Policy ; Melody Hensley, executive director of the Center for Inquiry/D.C., and Stuart Jordan, a retired NASA scientist and a science advisor for the Center for Inquiry/Office of Public Policy. The Center for Inquiry, a supporting organization of the Council for Secular Humanism, conducts lobbying and public education in the national capital area.

Speakers on behalf of SCA included:

• SCA executive director Sean Faircloth, addressing the faith-based initiative and policy concerning religious child-care facilities;
• Jason Torpy of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers and Kathleen Johnson, Military Director for American Atheists, addressing religious discrimination in the military; and
• Liz Heywood, a survivor of a childhood bone disease left untreated by her Christian Science parents, was unable to attend due to weather-related travel difficulties. Her statement was read by Sasha Bartolf, Legislative Director for SCA.

This briefing represents the first time a U.S. administration has engaged in a formal exchange of views with representatives of America’s fast-growing nonreligious community. President Obama was the first U. S. president to acknowledge nonbelievers in an inaugural address. In a press release issued prior to the briefing, the SCA described the briefing as “the latest indication that the secular movement is gaining significant momentum, and that secular Americans, numbering in the tens of millions, are a constituency that must be included.”

February 12, 2010

Paul Offit — The Costs of Vaccine Denialism

On February 2, there was a   major   upset for vaccine skeptics.  The British medical journal The Lancet took the dramatic step of retracting a 1998 paper that lies at the root of modern vaccine denialism.  Authored by a doctor named Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues, it was heavily touted as having uncovered a new cause of autism — the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Twelve years later, there are more problems with the paper than you can count — and yet somehow it managed to spawn a movement.

In this conversation with host Chris Mooney, Dr. Paul Offit discusses the state of the vaccine-skeptic movement in light of this latest news.  In particular, Offit explores why the tides may be turning on the movement — as well as the grave public-health consequences of ongoing vaccine avoidance.

Aside from his positions at Children’s Hospital, Dr. Offit is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.  He has published more than 130 papers in medical and scientific journals in the areas of rotavirus-specific immune responses and vaccine safety.  He is also the co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, RotaTeq , recommended for universal use in infants by the Centers for Disease Control.  Offit was a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a founding advisory board member of the Autism Science Foundation, and is the author of five books, the latest of which is Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure .

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 .  He is expected to host about half of the approximately 50 new shows per year, with the balance evenly split between Price and Stollznow.  Read expanded bios of the hosts online.

Point of Inquiry  has been the premier podcast of the Center for Inquiry since 2005, 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.

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 at jshook@centerforinquiry.net .

For questions about registration and technical support,
contact Institute Staff at 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.