Two Words, One Answer.
secular
 Secular Sabotage: How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America $21.99 A spanking good read from an informed and eloquent theologian. Send this modest servant of god $$$  Free Inquiry $35.00 "Free Inquiry" is published bi-monthly by the Council for Secular Humanism, a nonprofit group dedicated to ushering in a "new enlightenment," which is a worldview that's based on rationality, science and good old fashioned learning. They contend that one can live a good, "moral" life without religion or other superstitions, so if you're a regular churchgoin' person, this is definitely not the magazine for you. Then again, maybe this is precisely the magazine for you if you're the type of regular churchgoin' person who wants the laws of the country to conform to whatever you think your god of choice is telling you they should be this week. If the concept of seperation of church and state is highly problematic for you, then you definitely need to be reading "Free Inquiry" from cover to cover--one might even say religiously! For those of us who are already hellbound heathens, FI is that friend that comes in your mailbox to tell you that no, you are not alone. Unlike an actual church, one doesn't need to agree with all its teachings, and in fact a variety of opinions are welcome. The mastermind behind the council is Paul Kurtz, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Buffalo, and his vision informs the magazine as a whole. While you can tell he's no fan of Dubya, it would be a mistake to dismiss him, or FI, as hopelessly liberal. One of FI's regular, and most popular contributors, is Chrisopher Hitchens, the firebrand journalist who has taken on a far more libertarian bent of late. There's also longtime Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff, whose political views are often frustratingly hard to decipher (he's strictly libertarian on free-speech issues, but he's also anti-choice and anti-euthanasia). Kurtz himself, while decrying the war in Iraq, can be described as somewhat conservative in his take on American culture. One recent FI editorial had him condemning current American pop culture as shallow, vulgar and wasteful (yes, Paul, and your point is...?). He even namechecked two films as evidence: "The Devil's Rejects" and "The Aristocrats" (two of my fave films of '05!) the latter being produced by Penn Jillette, one of the only true skeptics working in show business. Many regular FI readers of course strongly disagree with his tsk-tsking, and are not shy about telling him. So much for secular humanism being a "religion." Of course, religion, or the merciless examination and debunking thereof, are the main focus of the magazine. Pretty much every December, readers can expect to find an article or two that focus a critical eye on the myths of Christmas and the contradictions contained in the Gospels. The continuing efforts of the Christian right to force creationism, or "intelligent design," into the nation's public schools has been covered quite thoroughly, with the anti-ID ruling in Dover receiving a cover story. Not wanting Muslim apostates to feel left out, FI also has Ibn Warraq (author of "Why I Am Not A Muslim") as a regular contributor. FI, it should be noted, was one of the few Ameerican publications to print any of the controversial cartoons of Mohammed that caused riots across the Muslim world. FI published just four of them, and even that was a source of disagreement among the magazine's staffers, some of whom felt it was disrepectful and unecessary to actually show the images. Compare this with the magazine published by American Atheists, which not only published all 12 of the cartoons, but also tacked on four REALLY offensive cartoons that even the Danish paper that commissioned them refused to run--heck, American Atheists even put one of the cartoons on it's flippin' cover! So while "Free Inquiry" is definitely no supporter of religious belief, they're also careful not to endorse ad hominem attacks, either. In fact, the only real flaws I can find with FI is that it sometimes seems too academic for its own good. If they want to extend humanist thought and philosophy to the general public, they have to make greater effort to be more, well, populist. A greater sense of humor would help, too. Though regulars such as Hitchens, Wendy Kaminer and Natalie Angier are on the right track, many articles have the dry feel of a college symposium. If religion doesn't require you to have a degree in order to join in, then maybe the antidote shouldn't come across as a commandments from the top of an ivory tower. Oh, yeah, and subscribers can expect to regularly find donation requests in their mailbox, so keep that in mind. As long as the American theocracy lets you have a mind to keep.  A Secular Age $42.00 Good book specially because I do not share final conclusions or even some approach but it helps me to rethink some ideas... that is what I am looking for when I have a book in my hands. |
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