Volume 23 Number 5 January 2010

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1 Perhaps David's most interesting news concerned growth of the AHA, which has been enormous, spurred on, he believes, by disgust with the overt religiosity of the Bush/Cheney regime, and a powerful dislike on the part of many Americans of the affiliation of the Republican party with evangelicals. He had initially expected that with the departure of Bush, this impetus to the Humanist alternative would eventu- Volume 23 Number 5 January 2010 AHA President Visit ally dissipate; however, to date this has not proved to be the case at all. Rather, the Bush years seem to have served to consolidate an awareness of the profoundly December was a busy month for the HOC, with destructive impact of all things Conservative, double our usual number of events in a month. The including fundamentalism, in America's largest highlight in many ways was the visit of the current majority: non-believers! Indeed, the Bush years seem President of our parent organization, David Niose of to have created a more powerful sense of identity the American Humanist Association. among those for whom fundamentalist conviction is no touchstone for either values or politics. Unable to schedule his talk for our regular monthly meeting because of prior commitments, a group of us met with David on a Thursday evening at a local restaurant. Deeply impressed, we hope to schedule a return visit, complete with presentation to our full meeting, sometime in the next year. -Editor by Ken Roberts The American Humanist Association had, for many years, been presided over by Fred Edwards. Fred has now gone on to other things, and has been succeeded by David Niose, who took some time out recently to visit Colorado, and stopped by for dinner with our chapter in December. The event was well attended, and, I think, greatly enjoyed by all of the participants. Conversation was lively and far ranging, touching upon topics such as chapter building, the power of institutions, and our most recent chestnut, the question of the relationship between Humanism and religion. David's stance with respect to this issue was diplomatic, his most consistent point being that Humanism is whatever it is, and whether we choose to apply the label "religion" to it or not is largely immaterial. David also noted that the most apparent and consistent trends in American religious perspective are two-fold: steady growth in the percentage of non-believers, and abandonment of strict adherence to the doctrines of specific Christian sects. This is particularly true among young Americans, suggesting a demographic trend which is almost certainly irreversible. Yet, as was discussed over the course of dinner, Humanism is not simply an absence of belief in the supernatural. Over and above this, it is also informed by a millennia-long tradition of Humanist thought concerning values. In all, David's most consistent point is that the prospects for Humanism have never been better. Newsletter Editor: Richard A. Berg Contributors: Ken Roberts Greg Reeder Barbara Sannwald Thanks to: David Niose Vic Stenger Jeanette Norman Letters to the Editor: HOC Newsletter Editor P.O. Box Glendale, CO

2 Last Month At The HOC In December, our regular meeting was given over to one of our favorite local authors, Vic Stenger of Boulder. The putluck assortment was terrific, the turnout was very good, and the question-and-answer period, recorded below by the HOC Secretary, was excellent. by Greg Reeder Can science have something to say about religion? Can God and spirituality be found in quantum mechanics? Should non-believers criticize religion? These are three big questions that Victor J. Stenger, PhD has addressed in his recent books. In December, the Boulder-based physicist and author brought this discussion to the HOC monthly meeting. Dr. Stenger had two books published in First came Quantum Gods: Creation, Chaos, and the Search for Cosmic Consciousness, followed later in the year by The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason. He began by talking about an earlier book, though, his New York Times best-seller God: The Failed Hypothesis. In that earlier book, Dr. Stenger examines the scientific evidence against the existence of God. Nonbelievers often hear the argument, from non-believers, that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. But, Stenger argues that absence of evidence can be considered evidence of absence if the evidence should be there. He illustrated his position using the Biblical exodus as an example. Stenger pointed out that Sinai has been thoroughly investigated by archeologists and they have found nothing indicating an exodus from Egypt on the scale of the one claimed in the Old Testament. Since evidence of such an event should have been found by now, we can say beyond a reasonable doubt that the Hebrew exodus from Egypt did not happen. Science can similarly be used to examine the question of God s existence. Dr. Stenger noted as an example that if knowledge gained through revelation could be independently verified, that could be considered evidence for God s existence. The evidence for the god described by the Abrahamic religions just isn t there. In his more recent book Quantum Gods, Stenger discusses two other types of supernatural belief that have become popular in recent years. These are popular with people who generally no longer attend church, but believe that something must be out there. The first of these beliefs is quantum spirituality, similar to New Age spirituality but with proponents trying to relate it to quantum mechanics. People with little understanding of modern physics have interpreted seeming paradoxes in quantum mechanics, such as wave-particle duality, to mean that our collective consciousness can control reality. There has been no shortage of people ready to make money off of this movement, from Deepak Chopra s quantum healing to the movies The Secret and What the Bleep Do We Know? In Quantum Gods, Dr. Stenger uses his decades of experience in quantum mechanics to examine these claims, and determines that these people don t know what the bleep they re talking about. The second type of belief addressed in Quantum Gods comprises recent attempts by theologians to reconcile God with science using quantum mechanics. A recent Vatican-sponsored conference attempted to solve the problem of how God can act in the universe. The only kind of god that these theologians could reconcile, however, was the deistic god; that is, a god who created the universe and its laws and has not interfered since. This is clearly not the God of Christianity. In hist most recent book, The New Atheism, Dr. Stenger examines the movement by that name, whose basic idea is that atheists can and should criticize religion. Stenger, along with Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett, helped start the movement with a series of hard-hitting books that took a very critical view of religion. Stenger used the example of the policies of George W. Bush to show the negative consequences of faithbased decisions. Stenger and the others have also challenged claims that people need religion to be moral or to be happy. 2

3 After his presentation, Dr. Stenger fielded a number of questions from the audience. One audience member asked Are religious people irrational? His answer was that faith is irrational, but we should be willing to have a rational discussion with the faithful. Another audience member asked how Stenger felt about Francis Collins leading a national science institute. Stenger answered that Collins is pretty mild in his beliefs, and will probably do a good job, but is worried that he might let his faith cloud his decisions. Another question concerned the nature of his next book. Stenger replied that he was planning on writing one that will look at claims made by Dinesh D Souza about scientific evidence for life after death. When asked what he felt about an argument made by D Souza that mankind had progressed from barbarism to a civilized state about 2,000 years ago, and that such sudden progress could be attributed to Christianity. Stenger remarked that humankind had been doing okay until Christianity set us back during the Dark Ages. Another audience member reiterated a question that was posed to Christopher Hitchens by D Souza at a recent debate: If a miracle could be verified, would he change his mind about the existence of God? Stenger answered that he would tentatively believe it, subject to further research. An audience member with an axe to grind asked whether Stenger himself had done any experiments on psychic phenomena. Stenger said he had not carried out any such experiments himself, but he had examined the claims of those who had. He made the point that such experiments are not complex and do not require any special equipment, so it was easy for even someone not in the field to understand their methods. And, after a century and a half of investigation, the evidence for psychic phenomena just isn t there. Finally, an audience member asked whether it would be better for the religious and spiritual communities to avoid debating the scientific community. Stenger replied, Then they would have nothing at all to say. by Richard Berg Around The HOC 3

4 Humanlight Celebration by Richard Berg The fourth annual HOC HumanLight Celebration took place on December 20 th in the same comfortable home where our book discussions are held. Turnout was good, despite this being the fourth HOC event of the month, a recent record for sure. We in the HOC like the concept of a HumanLight Celebration at the winter solstice because it is a recognition that celebrations at this time of year, when the daylight in each day stops shortening and starts lengthening again, are an ancient and probably ubiquitous human tradition. Such celebrations long predate not only the Christian religion, which did its level best to take over the time of year with its Christmas a few days later, but very probably every organized religion. There is just something to be celebrated in knowing that the next day will bring a little more daylight than the one before. It must be admitted that we did not, at this particular HumanLight Celebration, engage in much of the deep philosophical discussion that characterizes our book discussions, or even the political remarks that sometimes pop up during the question-and-answer sessions at our monthly general meetings. We mostly chatted and got to know each other, as should be the case at a holiday party. We did of course hold the annual Humanist paperback book exchange. For the second year in a row, the last book chosen was Jimmy Carter's Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Last year I donated the book, and this year I took it back. Gladly in fact. I don't understand everyone else's lack of interest in the book, what with Carter being our best ever ex-president, and the book (or at least the title) being so inflammatory it led to 15 resignations from the Board of the Carter Center. We topped off the evening, as usual, with readings of our favorite Humanist quotes. Here we share some of the thoughts we were thinking when the days were at their shortest last year: Conscience is what unites thinking persons and free peoples across ethnic, national, and creedal lines, and in its unfolding through public conversation, our moral lives are measured out. Conscience cannot be found in duty to God, for it is conscience that must judge where one's duty lies, and so the faithful cannot hold a monopoly on morality. Before any of us is a member of the Body of Christ, the Umma, or the Chosen People, we are all members of the community of conscience, the people who must choose for themselves. - Austin Dacey: Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition. - Isaac Asimov: For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love. - Carl Sagan: The ancient wisdoms are modern nonsenses. Live in your own time, use what we know, and as you grow up, perhaps the human race will finally grow up with you and put aside childish things. - Salman Rushdie I do not believe that a man should be restrained in his daily actions by being afraid of punishment after death or that he should do things only because in this way he will be rewarded after he dies. This does not make sense. The proper guidance during the life of a man should be the weight that he puts upon ethics and the amount of consideration that he has for others. - Albert Einstein: 4

5 Humanist Discussions by Barbara Sannwald The Humanist Book Group, a joint collaboration of the (HOC) and the Denver Atheists and Freethinkers (DAFT), had a year of good reading and interesting conversation. In December we read and discussed Victor J. Stenger's latest offering, The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason. This book provides an excellent summarization of and expansion on the ideas of the New Atheists, in which the author includes himself along with the usuallycited authors Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, and Hitchens. Stenger has researched and referenced many sources in this book, providing our discussion group members with endless interesting possibilities for future reading. Stenger starts the book with an analysis of the state of religion in the United States and the world. Then he reviews the books published by the New Atheists, starting in 2004 with The End of Faith by Sam Harris. Next he surveys the various arguments put forward by defenders of or apologists for organized religion, along with his own take on these arguments. Of particular interest was Stenger's take on the question of Intelligent Design and its relation to science. I agree that Intelligent Design is science. However, in its current form it is wrong science. it should not be taught in school because it is wrong, not because it isn't science. (p. 102) Stenger discusses consciousness as a large gap in current scientific knowledge where theists will try to insert God. He then asks an interesting rhetorical question. "If consciousness is spiritual, how does anesthesia render one unconscious?" (p. 180) During part of the meeting, the group reviewed the list of arguments NOT to use to support atheism, according to an appendix of David Ramsay Steele's book, Atheism Explained. The group decided that Stenger generally did not fall into any of those traps. Several members of the group thought that, in recommending a book on atheism for their religious friends, they would choose Stenger's book over any other. And, these people have read a few! Book Discussion News In order to improve coordination and communication for the group, we've created a new Meetup site specifically for the book group. The new site can be found here: Book-Group/ Participants are expected to be dues-paying members of the HOC or DAFT, though a limited number of trial memberships are available for people who want to try attending the book group before committing to join as a member. Details can be found on the group's About page and message board. Both HOC and DAFT plan to post information about the upcoming book group events; however, it will only be possible to RSVP on the Denver Humanist Book Group site. Upcoming events for the book group: January 17: This month we complete our reading of The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings For The Nonbeliever, selected and with introductions by Christopher Hitchens. This time we will discuss chapters 40 through 47, which include writings by Salman Rushdie, Sam Harris, Ibn Warraq, and A. C. Grayling, among others. February 21: Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. This is the author's gripping memoir of her strict Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya and her intellectual awakening that provoked her activism and eventual abandonment of her religion. March 21: Quantum Gods: Creation, Chaos, and the Search for Cosmic Consciousness by Victor J. Stenger. This will be a special event because Dr. Stenger plans to join us and lead the discussion. April 18: AD30 by Sean Curley. Local author and HOC member Sean Curley is writing a new novel on the historical founding of Christianity and our book group will review it and provide feedback. 5

6 Volume 23 Number 5 Editor: Richard Berg January 2010 Sunday, January 10: Humanism in World Traditions: Buddhism This month we begin an occasional series on "Humanism in World Traditions". Two presenters will speak on the topic of Buddhism, one of the world religions often characterized as humanistic in nature. Thay Tinh Man is Abbot of the Compassionate Dharma Cloud Monastery in Morrison, and will speak from the standpoint of one whose life has revolved around Buddhist traditions. Barry Albright has been interested in Buddhism since his teens, and spent several years leading a local Buddhism Study Group. He will speak from the standpoint of one who is knowledgeable about Buddhism, but has not devoted his life to the practice. As always, we will meet in Colvin Commons, behind the First Universalist Church at Colorado and Hampden. Potluck Supper at 6:00 PM, followed by the program at 7:00 PM. Sunday, January 17: Humanist Discussion: Hitchens Anthology (Final Sections) This month we complete our reading of The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings For The Nonbeliever, selected and with introductions by Christopher Hitchens. This time we'll be reading chapters 40 through 47. These chapters include writings by Salman Rushdie, Sam Harris, Ibn Warraq, and A. C. Grayling, among others. This event will take place at 7:00 at a private home in east-central Denver, near Colorado Blvd. and Alameda Ave. To join this discussion, send to barbara@frii.com, or visit our page on the Meetup.com website. Join the! Annual Dues Single Member Sustaining Member To join or renew, please write a check made out to and send to the address at right. From: P.O. Box Glendale, CO To: 6