Freethinkers United! Conference 1997
Orlando, Florida
Gerald Larue was introduced by Mitch Modisett who said: He is professor emeritus of Biblical History and Archaeology at the University of Southern California, Adjunct Professor of Gerontology at U.S.C., Chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, and faculty member of the Institute for Inquiry. Larue is the Humanist Laureate of the Academy of Humanism. He was designated Humanist of the Year in 1989 by the American Humanist Association and is President Emeritus of the National Hemlock Society. Larue is the author of 17 books, 69 articles (at the time this was written) and numerous pamphlets and lectures. His recent book, Freethought Across the Centuries, is creating a sensation. Larue is also the author of Sex and the Bible, Ancient Myth and Modern Life, The Way of Positive Humanism and The Way of Ethical Humanism. The title of his talk tonight is Freethought: Preparing for the New Enlightenment. We welcome now Gerald Larue.
First of all I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to be part of this evening, to see some of my friends, Roy and Jack here being recognized for their contributions of which I am very much aware. I wasn't aware of the others as I am now. And, I think it is important at this moment to perhaps extend my introduction of who I am beyond that of which Mitch gave. Igtheist, atheist, non-theist, secularist, naturalist, rationalist, humanist, freethinker. And, if I have omitted any of your favorite skeptical labels, well I am one of those, too. This means that each one of you is truly a part of my family, just as I am part of yours. There is, of course, only one human family history. It began millennia ago in the heart of Africa when the progenitors of all humanity began the arduous survival journey that has led us to where we are today. And our family, therefore, includes all of human kind, no matter where they live on planet earth or in the Mir space station above the earth. And our family history includes all of our human ancestors in their search for meaning, for life, for existence on planet earth. Now, of course, not all of us will enjoy (the experience) the unique experience of Adrien Target of Cheddar England. I don't know if you have read about this. They found that his mitochondrial DNA matched that of a 9,000 year-old skeleton found in a cave near where he lived. What this demonstrated (was) is the oneness of the human family. A rich, rich heritage--a heritage that is often ignored. Our heritage that we're concerned with in freethought--that concerns us today, and it's a heritage that must be recognized, must be honored, and must be transmitted to the future, because the well being--I am convinced--and the hope of the future lies in freethought in no small measure.
Let me begin with last December, when I was a keynote speaker at a meeting sponsored by the International Institute of Aging, United Nations, Malta. While we were there, Emily, my wife, and I journeyed to the nearby Maltese island of Gozo. There we went to the site of a megalithic temple built somewhere between five and six thousand years ago. And, as we entered what had been, for one group of our human family, sacred ground and penetrated what was believed to be the innermost sanctum, the holy of holies, if you will, I thought of the architect who designed this particular structure. What did the plans signify, the concentric circles, the co-joined circles. What did this mean. Then I thought of the engineer who figured out ways to move the many ton slabs of limestone, tilt them up on end, finally elevate another piece to form a lintel to a doorway. And I thought of all the people, the workers, who contributed to this and who attended this for whatever reasons. What rituals were performed here? What did the Shaman who recited the myths and perhaps enacted the myths, tell the people? What were the ceremonies? Once, long ago, men and women like ourselves tried to make sense out of the universe--their universe--as they worshipped there. They happened to live at a time when it was believed that the world was flat, that the heavens were a solid arch above us, when the powers of nature, the wind, the sun, the sea, the rain, drought, storms, all had to be contended with for survival. These were my ancient ancestors who were stuck in time, so to speak, as we all are, struggling to exist and harmonize their life with nature and with the world. And in so doing, they attributed to the powers that they found beyond their control supernatural qualities that took on human form. That is to say, they did what humans have done ever since: they created the gods in their own images. No figurines were found in this Gozo shrine, but anthropologists pointed out that in similar shrines female figurines have been found and that quite possibly the mother goddess, the one who gave life, the one who sustains life, was worshipped there. Remember, no weather forecast then. No satellites telling us what to expect in terms of coming clouds and rain and so on. No way of knowing that the heavens were not solid. That the stars were simply suns--other suns--and that they were living on a very small piece of cosmic space debris that circled a very small star in an immense universe.
A mile or so away from this place was Ta' Pinu a 19th century Roman Catholic church which Pope John Paul had visited in 1990. And here in this Roman Catholic sanctuary, the deity is addressed as "Alla" because Maltese is a Semitic Language. If you can think of the Roman Catholic Church worshipping Alla, it is interesting. At Ta' Pinu there was little for me to ponder. I was familiar with the structure. The name of the architect, Andre Vassallo, is well documented. The familiar pattern was there with the flying buttessses, the nave, the apse, the central altar and so on. And here, as in the megalithic temple, the mother goddess is recognized: Mary, theotokis, Mary, Mother of God. According to local legend in 1883, a peasant woman passing near the church heard Mary speaking to her. Now worshippers pray to Mary to intercede for them in all matters of health and life. There is a side chapel and there were letters displayed from all over the world. Here was a young couple thanking Mary. They had attempted to produce a child, but after they went to this shrine and prayed to Mary the child was born. On one wall there are a whole series of casts that had one time surrounded broken limbs. Believers said that without Mary's intervention they didn't think that the broken limb would have healed.
These devout worshippers, members of our human family, are also stuck in time. They live with their feet planted in the end years of the 20th century with all its technology, and all its scientific analysis, but with their heads--at least part of their heads--anchored in a two-thousand-year-old mythology. And in this latter respect, they have not progressed very far from the megalithic worshippers who worshipped the mother goddess a mile or so away.
When we return to America we learned of the death of Carl Sagan. This was the second powerful freethinker who had died in recent months. The first was Bonnie Bullough. Bonnie was raised as a mormon and very early in her life, due to the influence of Ed Wilson, she abandoned that faith system and became a freethinker. As a nurse and as an educator, she brought about significant change in our society. She was a pioneer in the nurse-practitioner movement. She wrote about discrimination in health and delivery-care systems. About women's health, as well as volumes about poverty, ethnicity and community health. Among those who attended her memorial service were men and women of different races, different ages, different professions, and different social status. There were the African-American and Korean children that she and her husband Vern had adopted. There were transvestites, gays, lesbians, prostitutes, and other social outcasts who had found understanding and acceptance for who they were and what they were in this amazing woman. Bonnie too was stuck in time. But she was anchored in the last years of the twentieth century, and her life was geared to making life better for men and women who would live in the twenty-first century. She represented the humanistic, caring outreach of our freethinking groups. Compassion is not limited to Mother Teresa with all the restrictions placed on her by the outmoded theology that governs her outreach. The world of humans is in need and any member of our human family merited Bonnie's concern and she didn't ask that they convert to her faith before she reached out to them. They were in need. She was the humanistic response.
The second death was Carl Sagan. I met Carl and his wife Ann [Druyan] in San Diego in 1981 when he was named Humanist of the Year. Sagan had presented brilliantly his talk on cosmic evolution vs. the creationist myth [which is] still going on. My part in the program was a dialog with fundamentalist/minister/preacher Tim LaHaye, the cofounder of the so-called moral majority. Consequently Carl and I hit it off. But now, Carl, a gifted freethinker, the researcher, the scholar, the educator, the author, the man who contributed to the Mariner, the Viking, the Voyager, the Galileo space missions had died. His outreach was immense as he sought to interpret cosmic research to the masses. His Cosmos series attracted, we are told, half a billion viewers in 60 countries. His book from the series was on the New York Times Best Seller List for 70 weeks, and for fifteen of those weeks was number one. This scientist who contemplated the vastness of space and the immensity of the universe with awe and with wonder was in harmony with the awe and the wonder of the megalithic temple builders who also looked out into their universe and wondered about their place in it. As a freethinker, as a man of this century, Carl Sagan could not accept the supernaturalism of so many, but like our early relatives he wrestled with survival, with life, with meaning and what is most important for us he was one of our voices, moving men and women closer and closer to our cosmic awareness and objective scientific views. I remember when he was invited to become a Humanist Laureate and join the International Academy of Humanism. He hesitated because as a scientist he felt that he must keep an open mind. He thought that perhaps the atheist label could be interpreted as not being completely objective, symbolizing non-objectivity. This was a legitimate mental posture, and I appreciated his concerns. But I am a realist and I pointed out to him that he lived like an atheist; he thought like an atheist; he never in his life went through the behavior patterns of a believer; and, he could leave his mind open to the potential of some supernatural power or energy if he wished, but actually in reality he was an atheist. Now, Sagan, too was stuck in time, physically but not mentally. He reached out to the new tomorrows ahead to instruct and to inspire. And, he joined, of course, the International Academy. the thing about him is he is still teaching. Read the latest issue of Newsweek [in which there is a] fantastic statement on prayer. Sagan is there still reaching out.
We have a vision of the future--of the new enlightenment, and we must take the necessary steps to bring that vision into reality. The religious right are waging a desperate battle that must become a losing battle. Their voices are heard on television, on entertainment programs, dealing with UFOs, invading aliens, poltergeists, ghosts, and with angels in human disguise, that terrible series on CBS. Last Sunday morning I scanned a dozen or so television programs in our area. Seven featured church services with ministers proclaiming whatever they were proclaiming. The religious right are buying up television time. They are purchasing small radio and television stations and in these closing days of this century they are moving into second-coming theology as well into magical healing which is associated with that kind of thinking. Their efforts must ultimately fail, or we will descend into a new dark age. Listen to Hal Linsey as he tries to prove that the physical resurrection of Jesus as an historical fact. Then there is that Presbyterian Minister who comes in his full robes, trying to deal with creationism and rock #84001, the 4.5 billion year old meteorite from Mars found in 1984. These people are living in our twentieth century, and they are trying to make us accept the imagery and mythology of 2,000 years ago.
We, too, are stuck in time, but we represent the new tomorrows, the new enlightenment that must come into being if we are to fend off the potential dark ages of the Christian and Muslim and other faith systems which would be imposed if we let them happen. The secular state must be maintained, not controlled or unduly influenced by religion. Otherwise, the freedoms that we now cherish will fade into the past. Our preparation and our outreach for those new tomorrows must have certain basic ingredients. Right now we are facing a generation without a culture. We don't have an American culture anymore; it's too cluttered. The old faith systems, despite the best pleadings of the religious right are no longer making sense. Youth are being wooed by the neo-supernaturalism of psychics, mental regressionists where you go back and find out who you were in another age, spacemen, spacewomen, fantasies and so on. Look at the nonsense involved in the thinking of the so-called higher source group in Delmar, California. An argument that the body is a shell for the soul or for the self (which) is an ancient gnostic notion. Now it's tied into UFO nonsense and the reality of the Hale-Bopp Comet, and 39 people are dead because of this crazy way of thinking.
There is a need we must fill and we can do it if we commit ourselves to the task. And, my question is what are the steps? And, as Moses gave Ten Commandments, I thought I'd do the same. How's that for a tradition? Actually, I did not set out to do this, but tonight when I was up in my room I looked at this and said "by gum there are ten there so OK." Or at least I made them into ten. First of all there is an ethical principle known as authenticity, and I think this is a very important idea. That which is authentic is true to itself. Our challenge is to be true to our freethinker, secular humanistic, atheistic, agnostic and so on labels. This means that we must recognize one another. We've been talking about this a lot in this Alliance meeting here. And stop all the bickering over minor differences! [applause] Can a person be a humanistic atheist? Or a secular humanist? Or a freethinking agnostic, or whatever? Or must one be only a pure secularist? A pure humanist? A pure atheist or whatever those terms in purity might mean. I read with a certain boredom the arguments over these labels, and I've wondered what might happen if the energy expended in the debate was turned into challenging the real human problems and concerns of our time. The second point is that we must always be open minded and open to challenge. We cannot go the way of fixed religions that operate on the basis of revealed truth and I am going to come to that in another context in a moment. We must operate on the basis of this: this is what we think we know today in the light of the evidence. Tomorrow new information may cause us to alter our position--to abandon a concept or to enlarge our horizons. This is what made Carl Sagan an authentic freethinker. He was true to his vision that there was always something more to learn. New horizons to explore, and he was open to change; he was open to challenge. He didn't have all the answers; nor do we.
Third, we must continue to employ the best tools we possess to substantiate our claims and by tools I refer to the scientific method, to critical thinking, and to the employment of logic and rational thought and to the need for in-depth research before we make proclamations. One criticism I have with freethought publications in the field of religion is that so often they are wrong; they are inaccurate. Let me give you two examples: Tim Leedon has produced an important book entitled The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You To Read. So far so good, but he included in that an item that was first published in 1875 titled "The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors." This is nonsense. It's completely wrong. It's not only more than a hundred years out of date, it has nothing to do with the facts. Unfortunate. It should never have gone in. The second example is related to the oldest freethought magazine in America, The Truthseeker, which has recently been publishing articles on astro-theology that are so out of touch with scholarship that my students, when they picked this up and started to read it, threw it aside and said: "this magazine has nothing to say to us." The best critical research in the field of religion is being done by scholars who are trained in the languages, the history, the archaeology, and the comparative dimensions associated with this field. [balloon floats too close--Christos retrieves it and says "The spirit of Moses, maybe."] I've been afraid that I'd get too many of those [Moses again]. If freethinkers are going to write about the Caananite god, Baal, they had better know the Rasa shamra [spelling?] texts that give the mythology and the rites associated with this deity. He was a god of fertility and of rain, not the child of the sun as this article in the Truthseeker implies. And if you wonder how Caananite research by top notch scholarship impacts on traditional belief systems, read the shocked--no the horror-stricken--reviews of the anchor bible commentaries on the psalms prepared by a Roman Catholic Scholar, Mitchell ______ [sounds like Bahud]. Bible believers felt betrayed. He told them for example that the first seven verses of Psalm 19 are probably an adaption of a Caananite hymn to the sun-- ... [sounds like was it revealed?] But Psalm 29 is an adaption of a hymn to the storm god Baal, and he goes on and on and on showing that these hymns used in the temple were borrowed from the temples of the Caananites. What he demonstrated was that the religion of Caanan had penetrated or given basis to the developing theology in Israel. The point I am trying to make is that to be authentic freethinkers, to be authentic truth seekers, we must draw on the best information available to substantiate our claims. I constantly meet students who are embryo freethinkers and I ask as I meet them: "What do we have to give them; how can we arm them?"
The fourth point: We must not descend to the level of denigration of those who hold different viewpoints than we do. [applause] Freethinkers recognize the right of others to differ. The freedom to base their thinking on concepts or dogmas that differ from what we accept; we recognize that. Actually, so far as what the believers think--we really don't give a damn, you know? They can think what they want. It's only when they begin to move into the schools with their fundamentalist ideas or into classes, into the literature classes, into history and psychology or into the right to get a notary republic standing. Only then, do we mass our battle formation. Our school teachers are for the most part, ready to accept the teachings of science and logic. They've been taught this in college. Even when they have to compartmentalize for a time their own religious belief systems--and by the way this goes on all the time. You have your belief over here and then you teach what the textbooks say because you know that's what you are supposed to do. We must be aware though of the political tactics that expose the closet fundamentalists who pose as open-minded citizens to get on school boards and into positions of influence. We must be open-minded, but we can't be so open-minded that we don't recognize what's taking place.
Fifth, we must embrace humanist ethical principles. This is a real concern of mine. Our concern and our interests and our purposes are ultimately directed toward maximizing the potential of human beings. We're seeking to bring forth from ourselves and from others that which embraces the noblest and the highest ethic and the most promising way of life. That's what we're about. This is what made the contributions of freethinker Bonnie Bullough so important. She was true to herself. She was an authentic freethinker whose humanistic outreach was an expression of her concern for the worth of other human beings whose way of life might not be that which she accepted for herself or even approved of, but which had meaning and validity for someone else. Recently I participated in a session at Westminster College, Oxford where I was able to discuss the differences between Christian revealed values and humanist ethics. We know and most scholars will admit this--that ethics are not handed down from heaven. They grow out of society. We know that our humanistic vision of society leaves behind the outmoded and inhuman values embraced by those who wrote the Bible and who embraced slavery, denial of women's rights, child abuse and so on and on. And, we must therefore, embrace the ethical principle and make it known.
Sixth, we must project positive images of ourselves. We are not a group of people who are against everything. (We) [Why] spend our time finding ways to put down and negate the thinking and belief of others? That's not what (we're) [we should be] doing. We must produce material that tells about our affirmations, what we are committed to, what we believe in and why we believe in it. We must learn to cooperate with one another to become allies, bound together in a battle for the mind, and there I am quoting the Reverend LaHaye. We need to support one another and join in mutual efforts.
Seventh, we must produce reading material, radio programs, television programs that embody the best research possible. More and more liberal scholars are so close to our thinking that their positions are virtually indistinguishable from what we stand for. Professor Joe Hoffman of Westminster College believes that his colleagues who teach religion are virtually atheists. I am not quite convinced of this, but they are very close and I think they have compartmentalized their religion much of the time. Hal Linsey last week complained that the majority of men and women teaching religion courses in colleges and universities are really agnostics or atheists. I suspect he is overstating the issue a bit. But, it is clear that more and more young men and women coming out of religious backgrounds, pursuing careers in the critical inquiry and analysis of the history of religions are no longer accepting that which they once did and are moving into an agnostic/atheist position. This fact has been true for a long time. I've run across professors in religious schools who no longer believe what their school stands for but they have no way of leaving that school because they are labelled by where they are teaching; their investment in the future is there; their kids are going to college and so they continue there. One man at the Fuller Theological Seminary--I challenged him. I said: "How can you accept every year a statement that the Bible is the infallible word of God when you know that that's not so?" He said: "I do so under protest." That is he protests, but he signs it. Why? His kids were in college; his future was associated there. He was trapped.
Number Eight. What are the positive rewards of freethought? Religion offers comfort, the promise of cosmic support from an invisible deity and his angels. There can be no question that many persons, [at] the death of a loved one, are encouraged by the hope and belief that they will meet again in an afterlife. For us, this life is all that we have, and therefore what we do with it and for it becomes all important. Can we transmit the excitement of being on the cutting edge of freedom that truly recognizes the potential of human beings once they are set free of insupportable superstition? Can we help men and women understand the importance of being personally responsible for what develops through their lifetime? So they can't blame it on the devil or on God? Can we enable human beings to recognize the fact that help in the time of need doesn't come from some supernatural source, but from human sources and from one another? (and) It's our responsibility as members of the human family, the one human family, to reach out to our brothers and sisters not because some ancient document tells us that we should do this and we will get rewards in heaven, but simply because our compassion springs from the well spring of caring that is within each of us. Can we teach our children to be responsible beings? Responsible for making decisions and acting on them without blaming failure on others. Now, whether you know it or not, Josh MacDowell has come out with a new book called Right From Wrong and in this he is giving the infallible, unalterable truths and there is going to be a meeting over here at a forum called the UCF Arena on April the 19th where they figure they are going to have 1500 young people gathering and affirming these ultimate truths that he is giving them--the rules for right decisions. You and I know that this is a very fallible argument.
Number nine: the twenty-first century is almost upon us and as you know already the hotels and banquet rooms are being booked up, not by the true believers, but by those who want to celebrate the transition and the fact that in this our common era the earth has made 2,000 trips around the sun. That's all that it means. But among fundamentalists, there are uneasy predictions of the end of the age and the return of Jesus. Even Pope John Paul II appears to have taken to heart the comments in Matthew, Mark and Luke that the Gospel had to be preached to all nations before Jesus would return. And this explains this Pope's international mobility. And for its part, Trinity broadcasting is buying up these radio and television stations all over the world so the word will go out to all the world and this will compel Jesus to return. All we can say is that they have been wrong for about 1967 years and they are going to be wrong again. This is truly a time of opportunity for the new enlightenment.
And now commandment number ten: There is only one way in which the hope of a new enlightenment can come into being and that's through each of us and all of us working toward that end. And I would like to call upon this gathering to be the beginning of the formation of a freethought coalition, with the focus on the potential that lies ahead as the new century dawns. We share so much! We are each of us concerned about church state issues; we are each of us concerned about women's rights. we are each of us concerned about abortion freedom and the right to die with dignity issues; we are each of us concerned about objectivity and accuracy in teaching about religion in the public schools. In fact, this is where Jack Massen comes in with the formation of OBITAR which is objectivity and accuracy in the teaching about religion in the public schools. And what we have done is produce a book that some of you know about called Freethought across the Centuries here we are looking at Freethought where it has cropped up over and over and over again in our human history, and these are our heroes that need to be set before our young people as models. And we are trying to get this kind of thinking into the public schools but we can't do it alone. We need to work together to these ends, otherwise our efforts are fragmented and they disappear. A coalition --a freethought coalition--meeting regularly, perhaps on an executive level to exchange information, to share programs, and to work out ways to cooperate and to support one another. And meetings like this that can only strengthen our intent and our purpose.
Again I say we must rise above our petty differences; we must work together to bring in the new enlightenment which can lie ahead--and it can lie ahead with all the benefits and potentials for human growth. And as this century ends and the new millennium begins, and Jesus doesn't come back, the opportunity for freethought to reach out will be maximized. And therefore I challenge you to respond to this potential with a freethought coalition. And to let you know that I am also committed, I will be pleased to give time and energy to look at items in the field of religion that any of you propose to publish; to make sure that what you write is in touch with the best scholarship that I know. And where that area might lie beyond my area of specialization, I will see that your writings get into the hands of those who can give guidance. [applause] This is my first step. What's yours?
Christos: Thank you Dr. Larue, and I guess you realize that you became the new chosen people. You got the ten commandments from the new Moses, so now that you have the ten commandments you had better follow them. Anyway, I would like to announce that a reporter was here earlier and tomorrow all the newspapers will have a ...