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Volume 6, Issue 1
September 2002
Campus Inquirer is the leading news source for the student humanist
and skeptic movement, comprising announcements, news stories, editorials,
and features. Campus Inquirer is published monthly by the Campus
Freethought Alliance, a campus outreach program of the Center for Inquiry,
promoting reason, science, free inquiry, and church-state separation in
education.
Announcements:
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Campus Freethought Alliance Launches New Website Citing a need for enhanced online resources, the CFA has launched a new website, adding scores of new features to help you be a more effective campus freethinker or supporter of campus freethought. Help CFA advance reason, science and freedom of inquiry at your high school, college or university by checking out the new Online Discussion Forum, the new Guide to Successful CFA lectures and debates, the new CFA Speakers and Debaters Listing, the new downloadable freethought posters and flyers, the downloadable CFA Affiliate Group Organizing Guide, teaching guides and syllabi for supporting faculty and staff, and many other off-site resources on evolution and science education. You'll also find video clips from select lectures and debates, a new listing of the 100+ CFA Affiliate Groups, the Campus Inquirer sign-up box, the new Free Promotional Materials order form, and much more! Click here to visit the new website. CFA Staff to visit numerous campuses during Fall 2002 October 11-14 CFA representatives visit campuses throughout Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh, Lancaster and Philadelphia with a presentation entitled New Religious Threats to Academic Freedom. October 24-28 CFA representatives visit the New York City region, including campuses such as Columbia, Fordham, NYU, and CUNY, with a presentation entitled New Religious Threats to Academic Freedom. November 1-5 CFA representatives visit the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore region with a presentation entitled Voltaire and the Challenge of the New Enlightenment. November 14-19 CFA representatives visit North Carolina, including campuses such as UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke and others, with a presentation entitled New Religious Threats to Academic Freedom. Representatives of the Campus Freethought Alliance are meeting with activists and supporters on and off campus in the above locations. If you would like to arrange or attend a meeting in Pennsylvania, the New York City region, the Washington D.C. area, or in North Carolina, e-mail a CFA Coordinator. To schedule a talk or debate in your area, click here. Nineteen New Campus Groups Join CFA The Campus Freethought Alliance is pleased to announce that nineteen campus groups have recently been founded by or have affiliated with CFA. These include CFA affiliate groups at Florida State University, University of West Florida, James Madison University, University of Ibadan (Nigeria), La Salle Green Hills Prep School (Philippines), University of Texas at Arlington, University of Missouri at St. Louis, University of Missouri at Kansas City, Truman State University, Michigan State University, Washington State University, University of Maryland in Baltimore County, Colby College in Maine, Montgomery County Community College in PA, University of Pittsburgh, Miami University of Ohio, University of South Florida, Case Western Reserve University and Wabash College. Other campuses are in the process of forming CFA affiliate groups. This is in addition to the members-at-large who join CFA without a group yet on their campus. In the last year, CFA coordinators have lectured and debated at, or met with group leaders, faculty or students from, the following campuses: Metro State College in Denver, Colorado State University, University of Colorado, University of Missouri at St. Louis, Washington University, University of Missouri at Kansas City, University of Kansas at Lawrence, Kansas State University, New York University, University of California at Berkeley, Baker University, Middle Tennessee State University, University of Nebraska, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Vanderbilt University, Columbia University, Tulane University, University of Texas at Dallas, University of Texas at Austin, University of North Texas at Denton, University of California Berkeley, Harvard University, University of Maryland, and Louisiana State University. To coordinate a campus-wide event at your school, email the Director of CFA lectures and debates, or read The Guide to Successful CFA Lectures and Debates. To see if there is a CFA affiliate group on your campus, click here. Godless Americans March on Washington. Washington, D.C. Campus Freethought Alliance has endorsed the Godless Americans March on Washington scheduled for November 2, 2002. The march is being organized by American Atheists, who have called for the participation of all secular humanists, rationalists, atheists, agnostics and freethinkers. CFA is dedicated to the March on Washington, networking with its 100+ Affiliate Groups to generate the largest turnout of secular humanist, atheist, agnostic and freethinking students and supporters as possible. CFA encourages its members and supporters to march together in D.C. behind the banner of the Council for Secular Humanism, one of the supporting organizations of CFA. CFA commends to its nonreligious members this opportunity to stand together and defend the rights of nonbelievers in America. We hope to see you in D.C. on November 2nd! Click here to join CFA at the march on Washington. Events Calendar 9/11 - Secular September 11th Memorials Since public memorial services that honor the victims of the unconscionable acts of September 11 have inevitably been dominated by religiosity, the CFA commends to its nonreligious members the opportunity to memorialize the September 11, 2002 anniversary in a nonreligious way. Secular memorials include anything from silent observances to participation in other public events. For assistance in planning a service, click here. 9/13 - Superstition Bash. CFI West, Los Angeles, CA Once again, the Center for Inquiry-West tempts fate with its popular Superstition Bash, a family-friendly festival that amuses while informing about common superstitions. If you dare, you may run the gauntlet of the 13 Stations of Bad Luck where you can eat a misfortune cookie, walk under a ladder, break a mirror, get your (mis)fortune told by a beautiful gypsy, and more. Admission is free. For more information, click here. 9/21 - Alternative Medicine: Genuine, Questionable or Fraudulent? New York, NY. The Metro NY branch of the Center for Inquiry hosts a program on Alternative Medicine. Light refreshments will follow the panel. Seating is limited. Admission is $10. 1:00-3:30 p.m. at the National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South (20th St. between Park Ave. S. and Irving Place), New York City. For reservations or for more information, email Barry Seidman at CFI-MetroNY, or call 973.655.9556. For schedules of other Center for Inquiry branches, click here. 9/22 - Is the God of the Bible Intolerant? A Debate. Norwich, CT. The First Assembly of God and the Campus Freethought Alliance present John Rankin and DJ Grothe in a debate entitled Is the God of the Bible Intolerant? John Rankin was raised a secular humanist and an agnostic Unitarian, prior to his conversion to a biblical faith in 1967. He holds graduate degrees in theology from Gordon-Conwell and Harvard, is author of the three-volume series First the Gospel, Then Politics, and is the host of the popular Mars Hill Forum series on university campuses and other venues. DJ Grothe was an Evangelical Christian before becoming a secular humanist at Bible college. He studied theology and Biblical history at college, as well as psychology and English, in which he holds degrees. He did his graduate studies in intellectual history at Washington University at St. Louis. DJ serves as a coordinator for Campus Freethought Alliance, a campus outreach program of the Center for Inquiry. 6:00-8:00 p.m. First Assembly of God, 340 New London Turnpike, Norwich, CT. Contact: 860-887-4678. 9/22-9/28 - Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read Created by the American Library Association in 1981 in response to the growing number of attempts to ban books in public libraries across the country by religious extremists, this week-long event is promoted as a way to remind Americans not to take for granted their freedom to read all forms of the written word. For more information, click here. 10/13 - "One Nation, Indivisible" presentation by Michael Newdow. Los Angeles, CA. Physician Michael Newdow will recount his efforts to challenge the constitutionality of requiring students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance as it stands with the words "under god" included. 11 a.m. at the CFI-West, Los Angeles, CA. This talk will be repeated in Costa Mesa at 4:30 p.m. Cost is $5. Call 323.666.9797. For more information, click here. 10/25-10/26 - Sidney Hook Reconsidered: A Centennial Celebration. New York, NY. Sidney Hook (1902-1989) stands as one of America's most controversial public philosophers. Beginning his career as the first American scholar of Marxism, a leading disciple of John Dewey, and an early supporter of Communism, Hook eventually renounced Marxism and came to be one of the leading critics of Leninism-Marxism during the Cold War. During his long and unquiet life, Hook was revered as the heir to Dewey's philosophy of pragmatic naturalism. A strong defender of secular humanism, he has been criticized from all districts of the political spectrum. He consistently defended the centrality of democracy, the method of intelligence, and the importance of social justice. The Council for Secular Humanism is a co-sponsor of the conference October 25-26 celebrating Sidney Hook's life. Sidney Hook was a Fellow of CSICOP, a frequent contributor to Free Inquiry and a Humanist Laureate of the Academy of Humanism. The conference has already engendered considerable controversy with stories about it in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Nation, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Free Inquiry. To reserve a ticket be sure to register early. Participants include: Alan Ryan (Oxford), Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (City University), Cornell West (Princeton), Paul Kurtz (Editor-in Chief, Free Inquiry), Timothy Madigan (University of Rochester Press), Robert Westbrook (Cornell), Bruce Wilshire (Rutgers), and others. All sessions will be held at the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave., New York City, Friday, October 25th (3PM-9PM) and Saturday, October 26th (8AM-6PM), 2002. Fee: $25 for both days, $15 for Saturday only. $15 for seniors and students for both days. Contact 212-817-2005. To register, call 212-817-8215. 11/2 - CFA in Godless Americans March. Washington D.C. Campus Freethought Alliance has endorsed the Godless Americans March on Washington scheduled for November 2, 2002. The march is being organized by American Atheists, who have called for the participation of all secular humanists, rationalists, atheists, agnostics and freethinkers. CFA is dedicated to the March on Washington, networking with its 100+ Affiliate Groups to generate the largest turnout of secular humanist, atheist, agnostic and freethinking students and supporters as possible. CFA urges its members and supporters to march together in D.C. behind the banner of the Campus Freethought Alliance. A large turnout will ensure that the voice of secular America is not drowned out by the wave of religiosity currently crashing over the country. We hope to see you in D.C. on November 2nd! Click here to join CFA at the march on Washington. 11/24-11/30 - Church and State Separation Week Celebrated during the week of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, this annual commemoration provides activists with an opportunity to celebrate one of Thomas Jefferson's highest ideals, the separation of religion from government. For more information, click here. Freethought News Center for Inquiry Summer Session 2002 a Success! AMHERST, NY - Summer 2002 saw the greatest expansion of the Center for Inquiry's education and campus outreach efforts since the inception of the CFI Institute in 1989. It was comprised of 14 days, 46 hours of lectures, 16 hours of fieldtrips, 8 evening programs, 198 CFI credits, 27 State University of New York (SUNY) credits, and 9 scholarships and assistantships. With 56 total participants, the first summer school at CFI was a resounding success! The event was an auspicious debut of an extended annual session that consolidates preexisting summer educational and internship activities and the traditional CFA conference, and encourages students to pursue the Center for Inquiry Institute's 30-credit hour Certificate of Proficiency, with the option to earn transferable college credit. The students who came for the entire July 14-28 session arrived as strangers and left as a community of inquirers with a very strong sense of solidarity (goodbyes on the last night were long and tearful). The student body was diverse in age, background, and life experience, ranging from community college students studying philosophy to an eminent neurologist from Rice University whose contributions to class included comments like "Well, when I spoke with Stephen Hawking about his views over dinner..." Other students hailed from Russia, Malaysia, Australia, and Gambia. Feedback received from the students was overwhelmingly positive. One student, a professor at the Adler School of Professional Psychiatry in Chicago, called it "a peak experience" in his life. "An outstanding program!" commented an emeritus professor of classics at University of Minnesota and a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Many students are already planning to return next year to continue pursuing the Certificate, and some of them went on to the Institute's Skeptic's Toolbox at the University of Oregon in August. Over the two weeks of the Institute, various assets of the Center for Inquiry came together in an exciting new way: professors-in-residence taught in its classrooms; staff technicians videotaped the lectures to produce correspondence courses for the Institute; staff librarians assisted students in researching our libraries; others maintained a computer lab complete with a professor's PowerPoint slides from each class; resident experts and volunteers led tours to nearby historic sites to Lily Dale Spiritualist Assembly, the Women's Rights National Historic Park and the Robert G. Ingersoll Birthplace Museum; students completed internship research projects; and SUNY-Buffalo provided room, board, dorm Internet services, athletic facilities, and a campus environment to students. This was CFI running on six cylinders, and the results were plain to everyone involved. It is sometime asked of the Center for Inquiry, "Why are you located in Amherst, New York?" or "Why have you built a large research library?" Here is one answer, obvious to those attending the session this July: in cooperation with SUNY, the Center runs a unique new summer school in critical inquiry and the scientific outlook. For information on the CFI Summer Session 2003, which will feature college-credit courses in the Psychology of Belief and Reason & Ethics, contact the Director of Educational Programs at the Center for Inquiry. For information on future CFI Institute offerings, click here. Conservative Christian Group Challenges Summer Reading on Qur'an CHAPEL HILL, NC - A summer reading assignment at the University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill caused controversy when a conservative Christian group objected to the book selected, reported the Associated Press. The Family Policy Network, a Virginia-based Christian group, sued to stop discussion sessions of the book Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations, by Michael A. Sells. The book includes sections of the Qur'an with commentary and history of Islam. The Family Policy Network charged that the assignment was "forced Islamic indoctrination," and amounted to state-sponsored promotion of religion. A legislative committee in Raleigh considered denying financing to the university if it did not give equal classroom time to "all known religions." Lawyers for the school said the ban on the assignment would mean a loss of free-speech rights for students and threaten academic freedom. Despite the controversy, a federal appeals court ruled refusing to halt the program, saying that "the appellants have failed to satisfy the requirements for such relief." For the complete New York Times story, click here. School District Debates Teaching of Evolution ATLANTA, GA - The teaching of evolution has again created a storm in Cobb County, GA, the second-largest school district in the state. Earlier this year, parents gathered over 2300 signatures to protest new science textbooks for their emphasis on evolution. The petition resulted in the school board inserting disclaimers in the textbooks describing evolution as "just one of several theories" explaining the diversity of life on earth, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In August, the school board voted unanimously to consider establishing guidelines for a "balanced education," giving equal weight to evolution and biblical interpretations when discussing the origins of humans in the science classroom. "It is unconstitutional to teach only evolution," said one county resident. "The school board must allow the teaching of both theories of origin." Others say that creationism doesn't belong in a science classroom. University of Georgia-Atlanta professor Norman Thompson tells his science students: "We're dealing with science, and we don't talk about issues that aren't scientific." Read the whole story here. Richard Dawkins Presents First Atheist "Thought for the Day" on BBC LONDON, ENGLAND - Richard Dawkins, Oxford University's Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and columnist for Free Inquiry, became the first atheist to give an experimental "Thought for the Day" on the British Broadcasting Corporation's flagship Today news program, according to the Guardian. "Thought for the Day" is a two-and-a-half minute radio slot for religious and ethical reflections of current matters, and has been aired for over thirty years. The segment has included reflections from a diverse group of religious contributors, including rabbis, imams, bishops and others, but has not been open to the non-religious. Dawkins' historic opportunity came as the result of a letter prepared by the National Secular Society (UK) and signed by over 100 prominent people. "By resolutely retaining the ban, the BBC is discriminating against the nonreligious, and thus giving the impression of promoting religion as the one source of ethics," said the letter. Click here for the full story from The Guardian. Former CFA Student President Makes National News Micah White, junior at Swarthmore College and former student president of the CFA, was recently featured in the LA Times regarding his current anti-war activist efforts. The article investigates activism in the contemporary peace movement and compares current activism trends with more traditional methods. Micah, with several other students at Swarthmore, created www.why-war.com, an online organization that serves to educate the public about the war on terror and serves as a hub for communication between peace-oriented groups on campuses across America. Micah has been a key figure in attracting high school students to the CFA and played a major role in the growth of the CFA over the last two years while serving as student president. Click here for the full article from L.A. Times. |
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Campus Inquirer is published by the
Campus Freethought Alliance, a non-profit educational and advocacy organization that
unites students, student groups, supporters and faculty on college and high
school campuses in the United States and abroad to promote reason, science,
free inquiry, and church-state separation in education.
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@2002 Campus Freethought Alliance. All rights reserved.
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