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"UB's Ghostbuster"
Source: Generation
(State University of New York)
Date: October 26, 2004
Author: Kat Caruana
Editor: Morgan
Grant
Paul Kurtz takes on ghosts, God, and
other ‘superstitions’
Paul Kurtz does not believe in God. He does not believe in alternative medicine, extraterrestrial beings, or organized religion.
That puts him in a distinct minority of Americans, according to polls. But that doesn’t bother Kurtz a bit. Over the last decades, the University at Buffalo professor emeritus of philosophy has become a leader in the worldwide secular humanist movement, which holds that human spirit, not some deity, ought to be the center of the moral universe.
“You can be an exuberant, creative, happy person achieving goals and living and working with others in cooperation without a clergy,” he said.
Kurtz has made it his life’s work to discourage people from accepting what he considers superstitions—a resurrected Jesus Christ, haunted houses, homeopathic cures—on faith alone.
In 1969, he joined the UB faculty as a philosophy professor. In 1976, Kurtz founded the Center for Inquiry, an umbrella organization for groups like the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), which investigates paranormal and fringe science claims; and the Council for Secular Humanism, which promotes the human-centered belief system.
He also started Prometheus Books, which prints about 100 books a year, making it the largest publisher in Western New York, Kurtz said. Its catalog is heavy with many secular humanist and skeptical manuscripts, but also includes less intellectual offerings, like an explanation and dissection of the Harry Potter novels, books on “growing-up” for children, as well as books on human sexuality, and even pornography.
In a time when the president of the United States says that God wanted him elected, New Age medicine is a billion-dollar industry, and a graphic cinematic version of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ grossed $370 million in the United States alone, Paul Kurtz and his associates seem to be swimming against the tide.
Sure, billions of people find comfort in religion, Kurtz said. But, “a lot of people believe in a religion as a supernaturalism… they argue that the main goal is salvation, the afterlife, and I am very skeptical about any evidence that there is an afterlife and that we can be saved.”
These days, Dr. Kurtz spends most of his time at the Center for Inquiry on Sweet Home Road. Created by Kurtz’s efforts, the Center for Inquiry is an organization dedicated to “reason, science, free inquiry in all areas of human interest, and developing ethical alternatives for a meaningful life.”
He began the organization, which today has satellite centers world-wide, because he felt that people were accepting beliefs without any proof, and that it was necessary for people to raise questions about the things they believe in, and consequently base their lives around. People need to be “committed to the quest for the truth,” he said.
Having been a professor of philosophy, he was forced to raise basic questions in an open arena, he said. These are questions about religion, spirituality, the presence of extraterrestrial beings, and stories like the Loch-Ness monster.
There was a need to address the importance of asking questions in society because, as he said, “people have a right to believe what they want, but… there are alternative beliefs in philosophy, science, and ethics in the secular world.” Thus, the Center for Inquiry was born.
From the outside, the building is hardly noticeable to passersby on Sweet Home Road, but a careful observer will notice the large parking lot, and what appears to be a small gray building set far back from the traffic.
The Center is anything but small, however, and they plan to expand even further come spring. Inside the main foyer is a library filled with books, with a conference room to the right. A long hallway connects the foyer to the rest of the building, leading to a multi-level building filled with offices of people working for different aspects of the Center’s functions, like CSICOP, or arranging events.
Kurtz, a noble-looking man who knows just where every important document can be found in his office, searches his briefcase and his cupboards for the book he is currently writing. He has written and edited 44 books on the philosophy of humanism, including The Humanist Manifestos I and II, and The Courage to Become, all published by Prometheus Books, which Kurtz founded in 1969 after joining the University at Buffalo faculty.
Kurtz was born in Irvington, New Jersey in 1925, and raised by his parents, whom he says were “free-thinkers.” His parents did not instill a religious upbringing in him, instead, “they thought they could live an independent life without religious observances,” he said. They were living in the era when America was thought to be the land of opportunity and they wanted to make the most out of the life they were living.
Their philosophy impacted Kurtz in a lasting way, but moreover, Kurtz’s convictions regarding humanism developed into something more serious after he returned from World War II. Fighting for the United States, Kurtz was part of the forces that liberated the prisoners at Dachau, a Nazi concentration camp.
“The war was very illuminating to me… to see the tremendous damage of the structure of the countries and the great battle against Fascism… I was so interested in the meaning of life and trying to make sense of the universe and the place of the individual within it,” said Kurtz.
Fighting in the war, he became disillusioned by the horrific things he experienced while in occupied Germany for 18 months, and went back to school to study philosophy at New York University, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in 1948. He loved the learning environment of the university setting, and went on to pursue his master’s and Ph.D. in philosophy at Columbia University in 1949 and 1952, respectively.
Throughout his education, Kurtz was influenced and inspired by his mentors and teachers. After teaching at a variety of smaller liberal arts colleges and a French university, Kurtz accepted a position in the philosophy department here at UB. Today he holds the position of professor emeritus in the philosophy department.
When he still taught classes, one of his favorite methods was hypnotizing students to see if they could recall anything about their previous lives. He was testing the probability of reincarnation, and recalls an incident when a student reported being dressed in clothes from the B.C. era, and another when a student thought he was a soldier in the ancient Roman army.
Kurtz, however, does not believe in the afterlife.
“When you’re dead, you’re dead,” he said.
Virtually all of the books Kurtz has written have been on the topic of his ethical beliefs. The beliefs are rules that are considered common human decency by most cultures.
He has split his beliefs up into sections. The first segment is called Common Moral Decencies, followed by the Ethical Excellences, which state that to live an excellent life of nobility, one should realize his potential, express a creative interest in something that creates pleasure and satisfaction, and lead a productive life.
Kurtz believes that if all of these are followed, there will be a “fullness of life” that will be exciting and “bursting at the seams” with overwhelming possibilities of what life may hold in store for all members of the “planetary community,” which includes every single person on the earth.
Kurtz has tried to live his own life by the rules in the humanist beliefs. His colleague, D. J. Grothe, the program director of the Center for Inquiry, said of Kurtz: “He’s not religious, but he’s downright moral… he has a deep-seated conviction that all of this is really important.”
Lately, the humanist philosophy has a different take on America today. With the upcoming presidential election, a secular view of the world makes for an interesting political stand.
When asked how he felt that President George W. Bush exclaimed that God wanted him elected, Kurtz replied, “[I am] very disturbed that Mr. Bush thinks he has a mandate from Heaven. I consider that to be dangerous… the divine right of kings has been long-since forgotten. Are we going to substitute that with the ‘divine right of the presidency?’”
Other current issues have also taken on a religious tone that Kurtz disagrees with. Stem cell research, for example, has been halted in the United States due to religious values. “Bush has limited, heavily, federal funding [for stem cell research], and that is deplorable,” said Kurtz. He believes that once “we’re able to cure these diseases then people here are going to demand it.”
These are issues that would be challenged by Tim Lahaye, a Christian activist, on the opposite end of the spectrum, and one of Kurtz’s biggest opponents. Lahaye has challenged the ideas of humanism, stating in his book, Mind Siege: The Battle for Truth in the New Millenium,“It is no overstatement to declare that most of today’s evils can be traced to Secular Humanism... [which] is driven by a flaming hatred for Jesus Christ that seeks to eradicate the Christian worldview from the media, the government, and especially public education.”
Also in opposition to traditional Christian beliefs, Humanists celebrate Humanist Day and Charles Darwin’s birthday, along with traditional ceremonies like birthdays, weddings, and graduations. Kurtz also added that he loves parades, and always attends the St. Patrick’s Day parade downtown each year.
On a typical morning, he gets up at five or six o’clock, and walks vigorously for an hour, moving his arms and hands along with his feet and legs, he said as he demonstrated this walk which he thinks makes him look foolish. After his walk, he reads The New York Times, which he considers the “sacred newspaper.” Then he moves on to The Wall Street Journal where he reads the editorials, and examines the stock market. He also likes to write every morning when his ideas are fresh in his head. Sometimes he even gets up in the middle of the night to write, because ideas often come to him in his sleep.
Life is what we make of it, Kurtz said. He has heard so many students at UB complain about living in Buffalo, and how the weather is bad, and there is nothing to do. But, “it’s not where you live, it’s what you do,” he said.
Students have also asked him what the meaning of life is. “The meaning of life is what you make of it,” Kurtz said. “Life is an opportunity. There is no secret to life, it’s up to you to seize the moment, to create your own plans and goals. That is what differs humans from other species.”
So if America is experiencing a religious rebirth, then why has Kurtz spent his life trying to disprove the theories of religion? Is he trying to save the world from organized religion?
No, he said. “Saving the world surely is an overstatement… an exaggeration. We’re trying to provide secular alternatives, and I think that’s useful.”
“You know, I think America is far less religious than all the propaganda suggests,” Kurtz said. In Europe, the people are not very religious at all, but here in the United States “it’s true that religiosity is stronger than other democratic societies.”
Kurtz also feels that religion in America has taken on a “supermarket” effect, meaning that there is a religion to suit everyone’s needs. In America today, there are a variety of religions to choose from, each of which cater to a different type of need for the person, or group of people, looking to follow it.
“Actually there are 1,350 different sects in the United States,” he said.
Kurtz does not believe that a spiritual life is necessary to be a good, moral person or to live a fulfilling life, however, he does not call himself an atheist.
“Who is God?” he asked. Kurtz claims he can find no evidence of a supreme being, and yet he is confronted by what he believes to be evil in the world. “If she is supreme, then she is responsible for [evil] (assuming God is a woman, why not?). If I met her after I died, I’d say to her, ‘well, you didn’t give me sufficient evidence [that you existed],’” said Kurtz.
It’s not just religion; Kurtz does not believe that anything is predetermined by any higher powers. According to him, there is no fate, no destiny; we are free to make our own choices and our own destiny.
Dr. Kurtz urges everyone in the planetary community to examine their own lives, and follow the path to create their own happiness.
“The universe I hold has some room for chance as well as determinism, and some room for human freedom and choice—that’s why it’s so exciting. It’s not fixed. What will be will not be, but what will be depends on the factors, causes, and choices at that time.”
This article was retrieved from Generation Magazine
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