On the Barricades

by Robert Basil

From its founding in 1980, Free Inquiry magazine has been "on the barricades" in America's great civil struggle between the forces of tolerance, reason, and humanism, and those of religious dogmatism. This ethical and political struggle helped define the decade as much as any government policy or social movement.

Led by Paul Kurtz, America's forthright, unapologetic defender of secular humanism, Free Inquiry enlisted a powerful and eloquent band of contributors to affirm freedoms of thought and self-determination. On the Barricades collects Free Inquiry's very best articles under one cover.

385 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1989

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A COLLECTION OF ARTICLES REPRINTED FROM "FREE INQUIRY" MAGAZINE

The Introduction to this 1989 publication states, "With the founding of Free Inquiry, secular humanists and other 'unchurched' citizens finally had an intelligent, even combative voice... It is not surprising, then, that the magazine quickly developed a large, singularly devoted readership. The 1980s frequently saw Free Inquiry set off sparks in the public forum: taking a number of church/state cases to court; launching wide-ranging investigations into the faith-healing rackets; and subjecting the claims of traditional religions, as well as some New Age ones, to the methods of free, scientific inquiry... perhaps the magazine's boldest ambition is this: to argue persuasively that science, reason, tolerance, and a flexible ethics can replace humankind's age-old reliance on religious dogma and revelation."

Authors represented include Sidney Hook, Isaac Asimov, Gordon Stein, Paul Kurtz, Albert Ellis, George D. Smith, Thomas Szasz, James Randi, Gerald Larue, L. Sprague de Camp, Martin Gardner, Karl Popper, Daniel Boorstin, etc. The articles are grouped into categories such as Humanism; Critiquing the Religious Mind; Faith-Healing and Televangelism; Biblical Criticism; Battles in Science, etc.

Sidney Hook argues in one essay, "The validity of democracy as a moral and political ideal does not rest upon religious doctrines. Despite the resurgence of religion during the past decade, the world is not noticeably a better place to live in. In many respects it is worse... Religion has had thousands of years to unify the world into a semblance of a just and cooperative world order. It has failed. Democratic humanism may fail, too." (Pg. 24)

Paul Kurtz concedes in an essay, "Certainly humanist ideas and values have had a powerful and continuing impact on the modern world. Yet those of us who have been involved in the organized humanist movement are dismayed to hear of the influence our critics attribute to us. We are perplexed by our FAILURE to build viable humanist organizations, despite our alleged 'success.' Indeed, some believe that this is a time for deep soul-searching and hard decisions. The truth is as we all know that humanist associations are very weak institutions." (Pg. 66)

Albert Ellis states, "I don't wish to deny that for some people---some of the time---religious notions... have some benefits. Of course they do. Devout adherence to a theistic or secular form of religion can at times motivate people to help others who are needy, to give up unhealthy addictions... to strive for world peace... and to work for many other kinds of valuable goals... But I would still contend that on the whole the beneficent behaviors that religious piety sometimes abets would most likely be more frequent and profound without its influence." (Pg. 111-112)

Isaac Asimov admits in an interview with Paul Kurtz, "I am an atheist. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn't have. Somehow it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I'm a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time." (Pg. 329)

Although some of the topics addressed are rather "dated" (the book is nearly 25 years old, after all, and many of the articles 30 years or older), others are still fresh and relevant, and will be of considerable interest to secular humanists, atheists, skeptics, freethinkers, and all others who enjoy Free Inquiry magazine.

[Frrobins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a trip through time. Most of the article were written five years before my birth to five years afterwords, and it was fascinating to see where Secular Humanism was then and compare it to where it is now. One thing that was obvious in the writings of Paul Kurtz and others at the beginning of the book as they lamented how fragmented the movement was is that none of them saw the internet coming and how that would unite and breath new life into it.

In high school I tried to be active in Secular Humanism and was invited to a meeting that was comprised of extremely old white men, debating philosophical issues that seemed of little relevance or pertinence to me as a high schooler and I never went back. Interestingly Kurtz listed this as one of the problems of the movement, and the book did suffer from that, especially the first section on Humanism and the last on Ethics. Yet the sections in the middle were interesting, fresh, and still very relevant today.

Unfortunately as this was published in 1989, there's no real feel for how the internet transformed and revitalized the movement. But it stands as an important collection of works that documents where Secular Humanism was at the dawn of the internet age.