Letter from the President

Mathew Pauley, Marquette University

Greetings Campus Inquirers! We are a couple months into the new year and there’s a lot happening at CFA.

CFA, as you may have heard, is beginning the process of re-branding, changing its name and broadening its focus. CFA is becoming CFI – On Campus. CFA began years ago as a project of the Council for Secular Humanism, but has been expanding its scope over the last couple of years to support the pro-science aims of the Committee for the Scientific Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) and the other public education organizations headquartered at the Center for Inquiry. So, henceforth, I shall be referring to this organization, the one that was affectionately known to many as CFA, as CFI – On Campus.

Other issues: Michael Newdow’s case. Skimming recent editions of the Campus Inquirer, one may learn that the case will be heard on March 24. So we now have slightly less than a month until the “under God” decision is THE topic. So be responsible, read up on the issue. Regardless the outcome of the high court’s decision, there might be fundamentalist backlash. Yes, CFI supports the separation of church and state, and yes, Dr. Newdow has been supportive of this organization (speaking to various of our groups at various times). Americans United for Separation of Church and State have informative resources on this issue at http://www.au.org/legal/cases.htm, as do the Council’s websites and CFA’s.

You may remember that last month, the director of our New York Center for Inquiry, Susan Jacoby, had an op-ed in the New York Times about religion in politics. And many columnists at BeliefNet.com treat the subject. Politicians and their need to include religious symbolism is an important topic for public discussion. Personally, it saddens me that there is a need. A nonreligious, yet qualified, politician should not feel the need to use a religious spin in their campaign (this is coming from a person who is hoping Jimmy Carter would run again). I would commend two books to you on the subject, with which most secularists would disagree: Richard Neuhaus’s The Naked Public Square and Stephen Carter’s Culture of Disbelief. In those books the authors argue that citizens’ and especially politicians’ religious beliefs are hidden or trivialized. In fact, it seems that the some people in our society are trying to clothe the public square in religious belief, or at least the language of it.

I would like to reiterate Susan Jacoby’s point about how “secularism” has become a dirty word. Recent airings of the O’Reilly Factor on Fox News show the disdain some in America have for “secularism.” Secularism is an important principle of American freedom. It provides more for religious liberty more then has ever hurt it. Why people would be against it is beyond me.

Before I leave the issue of politics, I would just like to remind CFI On Campus members that as a public education and advocacy organization, we’re nonpartisan. We do speak out on certain political issues when it comes to church-state separation, the role of religion (or science) in our society, and the like. But supporters of the Center for Inquiry are Democrats, Republicans, social democrats, democratic socialists, Marxists, anarchists, libertarians, classical liberals (economic conservatives) and on and on. CFI – On Campus is not a wing of the College Democrats; we are all not Students for Kerry (or Nader). We stand for reasoned inquiry, science (not the “fringe” type), skepticism, and the idea that humanism is ethical; our stance does not necessarily preclude what one may call a “Neo-Con.” Please consider this as you promote our ideals on your campus.

I’d like to end by highlighting some upcoming events. The Science and Ethics conference the Center for Inquiry is holding in Toronto looks especially exciting (details are below). In addition, make sure you make plans to attend CFI – On Campus’summer conference, if not also the Summer Session of college classes the Center for Inquiry is putting on in conjunction with the State University of New York. Look forward to seeing you there!

Mat Pauley
Student president
CFI – On Campus


Three New CFA Affiliate Groups
The Campus Freethought Alliance is pleased to announce that three new campus groups have recently been founded by or have affiliated with CFA since January 2004. These include CFA affiliate groups at Tufts University (MA), James Madison University (VA) and the University of California at Davis.

To see if there is a CFA affiliate group on your campus, visit http://www.campusfreethought.org/affiliates.htm


Four New CFA Groups in the Process of Forming
Since January 2004, CFA has been contacted by students or faculty at the following campuses expressing interest in starting or revitalizing a CFA affiliate group: Regis University (CO), Southeastern Louisiana University, Case Western Reserve University (OH), Indiana Purdue University Fort Wayne (IN).

To get involved in supporting these newly forming groups, visit http://www.campusfreethought.org/affiliates.htm


CFA Staff to visit numerous campuses during Spring 2004

February
CFA representatives visit campuses in Charleston, SC; Akron, Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio; and Pittsburgh, Lancaster and York, Pennsylvania.

March
CFA representatives visit campuses in Kalamazoo and Ypsilanti, Michigan; and Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska.

April
CFA representatives visit campuses in Knoxville, Nashville, Memphis and Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

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 any of the above locations, e-mail a CFA Coordinator.

To work with CFA to schedule a talk or debate in your area, click here.


Center for Inquiry is Traveling in Spring 2004
Throughout 2004, the Center for Inquiry will be offering "frontline briefings" from
leading intellectuals and organizers who are defending reason in an irrational world.
You'll hear about the latest issues confronting science and reason, and what the
Center for Inquiry and its organizations are doing about it - and how you can get
involved. In addition, Campus Freethought Alliance staff will meet with students in
each area to help them organize rationalist efforts on their campuses. Low
registration costs include Saturday luncheon, Sunday continental breakfast and free
parking at the venue. For more information about the sessions in your area, see
http://www.centerforinquiry.net


CFI Announces Offerings for Summer Session 2004
Applications are now being accepted for CFI's summer offerings, available to audit
or for State University of New York undergraduate credit through Empire State
College. This year's offerings are as follows:

Revelation and Interpretation: A Critical Analysis.
How should one interpret the claims of traditional religious scriptures? What would it mean to say that those claims are true or false? Are there general principles of historical and rational analysis that can be brought to bear? What lessons from the history of Christian
biblical hermeneutics can be applied to the interpretation of Islam's sacred texts? This course provides an introduction to biblical criticism and Islamic studies, with a special focus on concepts of progressive revelation. Instructor: Lüdemann & Warraq. 3 credits.

Punishment, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation: Religious and Secular Perspectives.
As individuals and as communities, how are we to respond to wrong-doing and great
evil? How are we to relate to the guilty and the aggrieved? Are any acts unforgivable? Can we make sense of horrible evil, and genuine forgiveness, outside of religious traditions? This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to the ethics of responsibility, punishment, and forgiveness and the politics of reconciliation. Instructor: Govier. 3 credits.

Faculty
Gerd Lüdemann is Professor of History and Literature of Early Christianity at
Georg-August-University Göttingen, Germany, where he is Director of the Institute
of Early Christian Studies. He is also a visiting scholar at Vanderbilt University and a
research fellow at the Center for Inquiry. The author of hundreds of scholarly
articles and reviews, his books (in English) include Primitive Christianity: A Survey
of Recent Studies and Some New Proposals (Continuum International Publishing,
2003); Paul: The Founder of Christianity (Prometheus Books, 2002); Suppressed
Prayers: Gnostic Spirituality in Early Christianity (Trinity, 1998); Heretics: The Other
Side of Early Christianity (Westminster John Knox Press, 1996); and Jesus After
2000 Years: What he Really Said and Did (Prometheus, 2001).

Trudy Govier is former Associate Professor at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. She has taught philosophy at Simon Fraser University and the Universities of Amsterdam,
Calgary, and Lethbridge. She is the author of A Delicate Balance: What Philosophy Can Tell Us About Terrorism (Westview Press, 2002); Forgiveness and Revenge (Routledge, 2002); Dilemmas of Trust (McGill-Queen's University Press 1998); Social Trust and Human Communities (McGill-Queen's University Press, 1997); Socrates' Children: Thinking and Knowing in the Western Tradition (Broadview Press, 1997); God, The Devil And The Perfect Pizza (Broadview Press, 1989); and the internationally popular A Practical Study of Argument (Wadsworth, 2001), now in its fifth edition.

Ibn Warraq is a senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry and a noted scholar of the origins and intellectual foundations of Islam. His authored and edited books include Why I am not a Muslim, What the Koran Really Says, The Historical Muhammed, and Leaving Islam (all from Prometheus Books). Warraq's work and commentary on Islam and public affairs have recently been featured in Times Literary Supplement, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Boston Globe, and on C-SPAN.

Tuition and fees Courses available to audit or for transferable SUNY undergraduate credit. Basic registration fee: $850 (14 days room and board at SUNY Buffalo residence halls; course instruction, course materials, special presentations and lectures, recreational excursions). Additional cost of in-state tuition: $475 per course; out-of-state tuition: $1,350 per course. A limited number of scholarships are available.  See www.centerforinquiry.net/education for further information.


Center for Inquiry to Offer Master's Degree through SUNY-Buffalo
The Center for Inquiry is partnering with the State University of New York at Buffalo to develop an innovative Master's degree entitled "Science and the Public," which may be available as soon at Fall 2005. The first degree of its kind, CFI's interdisciplinary M.S. in social science will explore the history and philosophy of the scientific outlook and methods as they intersect with public perceptions and attitudes. Drawing on sociological research and philosophical analysis, the program will prepare students for further specialized graduate study in sociology, history and philosophy of science, psychology, religious studies, science communication, public policy, and science education, as well as careers in research, education, public administration, publishing, and science journalism. Questions about the Master's degree program, or the new annual CFI/SUNY visiting research fellowships, may be sent to the director of research and education for CFI, Dr. Austin Dacey, at adacey@centerforinquiry.net.


Book of the Month
Creationism's Trojan Horse, by Barbara Carroll Forrest and Paul R. Gross
Oxford University Press, 2003

In Creationism's Trojan Horse, Forrest and Gross examine in full detail the claims and operations of the “Intelligent Design” movement, the most recent manifestation of American creationism. Explaining and analyzing what “design theorists” call their “Wedge Strategy,” they document the Wedge’s aggressive political and public relations campaigning. The most notable feature of the movement’s purportedly new scientific paradigm is an abject failure to produce scientific data in support of its claims or even a coherent research program. Instead, the Wedge maintains a crowded nationwide schedule of lectures, popular publications for its mostly conservative Christian constituency, and media appearances, all sustained by generous funding from religious benefactors. The Wedge has intruded itself efficiently into educational politics at local, state, and national levels. Forrest and Gross detail efforts of intelligent design proponents to influence science standards in Kansas and Ohio, and to influence federal education legislation through the so-called “Santorum amendment” of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. They demonstrate the continuity of intelligent design with traditional creationism, including all the scientific claims, exposing its religious core and purposes. By displaying the movement’s alliance with Religious Right extremism, the book reveals the significance of William Dembski’s statement that the intelligent design movement’s challenge to the “evolutionary naturalism of Darwin” is “ground zero of the culture war.”

CFA group leaders interested in purchasing multiple copies at a significant discount for a book club or discussion group, contact DJ Grothe at djgrothe@centerforinquiry.net.


Events Calendar

2/19 - What's the Proper Role of Religion in American Public Education? DJ Grothe. College of Charleston. Charleston, SC.
Highlighting current controversies such as the intelligent design movement, school prayer, religious movements that seek to replace the classical liberal arts curriculum, and controversies surrounding student activities fees, secularist activist DJ Grothe will lecture to the students of College of Charleston's political science department about the practical strategies for engaging in the current debate over the role of religion in public education. Mr. Grothe serves as the Director of Campus and Community Programs for the Center for Inquiry, a secular, pro-science public education organization. He has traveled and lectured widely throughout North America, speaking on ethics, religious-political extremism, church-state separation and science advocacy. His writings have been published in newspapers throughout the United States, and he has spoken on numerous radio and television programs. The lecture will take place at 4PM in Physicians Auditorium. Contact the College of Charleston's political science dept at deej@cofc.edu for more information.

2/20-2/22 - Skepticism and Secular Humanism: An Affirming Life Stance. The second annual CFI Florida conference. Tampa, FL.
This year's conference, "Skepticism and Secular Humanism: An Affirming Life Stance," will be held at the Radisson Riverwalk Hotel, 200 North Ashley Drive, Tampa, Florida. Speakers will include Dr. Paul Kurtz, professor emeritus of philosophy at SUNY-Buffalo and the founder and chairman of the Center for Inquiry, Susan Jacoby, author of the forthcoming "Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism" and Executive Director of Center for Inquiry-New York-Metro, Robert Solomon, Quincy Lee Centennial Professor of Philosophy and Business at the University of Texas at Austin Texas, and Helen Thomas, Dean of the White House Press Corps. For more information, and a full list of speakers, please visit http://www.centerforinquiry.net/florida-events.htm. Please note: The cut-off for the hotel rooms being held for CFI is January 20th. On that day all of the remaining space will be released for general sale. The hotel is already sold out, so it is urgent that you make your reservations ASAP. Call the Radisson in Tampa at 813-223-2222 if you plan to attend. Be sure to say you are with the CFI or the Center for Inquiry group.

3/25 - Wanted: A New Enlightenment for America. Paul Kurtz. New York, NY.
CFI-Metro New York is proud to present Dr. Paul Kurtz, founder and chairman of the Center for Inquiry, in a lecture and public forum on the urgent need for a 21st Century American Enlightenment. Kurtz notes that Americans today “are rightly concerned about the political crisis facing this country.” However, he stresses that the nation is facing a broader and more basic cultural challenge. “We are confronted by irrational forces that threaten to overwhelm society,” he notes. “Although we are a technological superpower, ancient pre-Enlightenment mythologies still dominate our intellectual outlook and moral values. We critically need public re-education: first, about the methods of scientific inquiry; second, about what science tells us today concerning the place of the human species in the universe; and third, about the importance of reconstructing our ethical values in light of this knowledge. We need re-enchantment with a new Enlightenment.” 6:30PM. The New York Academy of Sciences, 2 East 63rd Street, New York, NY 10021. Suggested admission $10 at the door. No reservations required. For more info, 212-265-2877 or info@cfimetrony.org.

3/29 - Does God Exist? A debate between William Lane Craig and Austin Dacey Purdue University. West Lafayette, IN.
Sponsored by the Campus Crusade for Christ and the Campus Freethought Alliance. William Lane Craig is Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife Jan and their two teenage children Charity and John. At the age of sixteen as a junior in high school, he first heard the message of the Christian gospel and yielded his life to Christ. Dr. Craig pursued his undergraduate studies at Wheaton College (B.A. 1971) and graduate studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (M.A. 1974; M.A. 1975), the University of Birmingham (England) (Ph.D. 1977), and the University of Munich (Germany) (D.Theol. 1984). From 1980-86 he taught Philosophy of Religion at Trinity, during which time he and Jan started their family. In 1987 they moved to Brussels, Belgium, where Dr. Craig pursued research at the University of Louvain until 1994. Austin Dacey is a philosopher at the Center for Inquiry, a think tank affiliated with the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he is a visiting assistant research professor of philosophy. He serves as director of research and education; executive editor of Philo, an academic journal specializing in philosophical naturalism; and a contributor to the Center's popular magazines Skeptical Inquirer and Free Inquiry. He has lectured and published widely on issues at the intersection of science, religion, ethics, and society. He is co-author of The Case for Humanism: An Introduction (Rowman & Littlefield 2003) and co-editor with Quentin Smith of a forthcoming collection on Richard Gale's philosophy of religion. In 2002 he earned a doctorate in philosophy. He lives in New York City.

3/31 - Panel on Religion and Politics in America. Susan Jacoby, Barry Lynn, et. al. New York, NY.
Panel members include: Susan Jacoby, executive director of CFI Metro-NY; the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State; and scholar, author, and Director of Tibet House in New York City, Robert A.F. Thurman. 7 PM. New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 W. 64th Street at Central Park West. Admission free, no reservations.

4/22 – New Religious Threats to Academic Freedom. DJ Grothe. College Station, TX.
Texas A&M University’s Secular Humanist Network presents DJ Grothe on academic freedom. This multimedia presentation details the advancement of religious and fringe-science extremism on high school and college campuses across America and what it portends for academic freedom and standards. For more information, email zminer@centerforinquiry.net.

5/13-5/16 - Science and Ethics: How Scientific Inquiry Helps Frame Value Judgments. Toronto, Canada.
For many centuries scientists and philosophers believed that with the advance of scientific knowledge, literacy, and education, humankind could become liberated from ancient fears and superstitions so that a wiser and more humane ethical outlook could develop. It was believed that scientific inquiry could be applied to moral values and modify them in the light of their causes, rational consistency, and a regard for empirical consequences. This viewpoint is sympathetic to the classical attempt to apply reason to conduct, and it is consonant with the Enlightenment goal of achieving human progress. Many people were thus committed to using science to reconstruct the traditional sources of morality and to form entrenched socio-political-economic institutions. First, many religionists hold that without belief in God and in absolute religious commandments, no moral standards are possible (a premodern view). Second, postmodernists, while skeptical of religious metaphysics, are likewise skeptical of science, believing that it offers its own mythology and that consequently no progressive emancipation agenda is possible for humanity. Third, many scientists and philosophers have in the past held that science deals with facts and that moral values are based on passions and feelings. Hence, it was held that science cannot help frame rational moral judgment. This conference will challenge these assumptions and bring to the fore a renewed challenge to integrate the sciences and ethics as disciplines. Confirmed speakers include: Vern Bullough, I. Louis Horowitz, John Novak, Owen Flanagan, Paul Kurtz, Richard Hull, Barry Beyerstein, Bernard Patten, David B. Resnik, Christopher W. DiCarlo, Bill Rottschaefer, Sanal Edamaruku, Donald B. Calne, Wallace Sampson, Oliver Curry, Jillian Scott McIntosh, James Alcock, and Ronald Bailey. For more information, see www.centerforinquiry.net.


Freethought News

Georgia Evolution Flap Prompts Proposal
After the recent uproar over a plan to remove the word “evolution” from Georgia’s science curriculum, some legislators are trying to ensure that, in the future, the state will be required to conform to national standards rather than set their own standards locally.

For the full story, click here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040210/ap_on_re_us/teaching_evolution_1

Click here to sign an online petition requesting that the Georgia department of education include in its curriculum all benchmarks from Project 2061, developed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). http://www.petitiononline.com/gasci04/

Experts Debate Existence of UFOs
“Two experts went head to head Wednesday in a debate over one of the most controversial issues of modern times: UFOs. Stan Friedman, a nuclear physicist, and James McGaha, a retired U.S. Air Force officer, answered questions and posed some of their own about extraterrestrial visitors to Earth.”

For the full story, click here:
http://www.mtsusidelines.com/news/2004/02/02/News/Experts.Debate.Existence.Of.Ufos-593971.shtml

For pictures from the event, courtesy of the Campus Freethought Alliance at MTSU, click here: http://www.mtsu.edu/~freethnk/photos.html

It Just Takes One
“Run and edited entirely by students, the Harvard Law Review may be the most prestigious legal journal in the country. According to the Harvard Gazette, its circulation--roughly 8,000--is the largest of "any law journal in the world." And the Review's influence extends far beyond the number of copies lying around. Partly thanks to the Harvard name, publication in this journal automatically elevates an academic's legal scholarship above the rest of the pack. Given all this, it was more than a tad shocking to find a highly promotional article about the latest pseudoscientific rival to Darwin's theory of evolution--so-called "Intelligent Design" theory (ID)--in the January, 2004 Harvard Law Review.”

To read the full article, click here: http://www.csicop.org/list/listarchive/msg00447.html

Pilot’s Religious Remarks Make Passengers Nervous
An American Airlines pilot who came over the intercom before a flight to ask Christians to raise their hands caused many passengers to become distinctly uneasy. With many people still on edge about flying in a post-9/11 world, the remarks caused many to worry about the pilot’s motivation for the statements.

Click here to read the entire story: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001858372_pilot15.html

Campaign to Make Darwin Day Official
Leading humanist and atheist groups are launching an international five-year campaign to get Charles Darwin’s birthday, February 12th, officially recognized as “Darwin Day,” and founded by the Center for Inquiry’s Amanda Chesworth.  By doing so, they hope to counter the growing tide of religious extremism, including the young-Earth creationists and the proponents of the “intelligent design” movement.

To read the full article, click here:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=ourWorldNews&storyID=4345546