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Scientists Form New Committee to Study Religion

The Academy of Humanism, an interna-tional group of thirty-five scholars and sci-entists, used the "Jesus in History and Myth" symposium sponsored by FREE INQUIRY at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor on April 19 and 20, 1985, to announce the formation of the "Committee for the Scien-tific Examination of Religion" (CSER). The purpose of CSER is to submit religious claims to careful scientific and scholarly investigation and analysis. "Religious doc-trines have become highly controversial in recent years, and many religious leaders seek, on the basis of their reading of the Bible, to pass moral, social, or political judgments that affect the broader public," said CSER chairman Gerald A. Larue, professor emeri-tus of biblical history and archaeology at the University of Southern California. "They even attempt to gain political support for their own interpretations of the Bible. This is the first effective body of scientific scholars

to evaluate these claims in the light of scien-tific inquiry."

CSER will examine the claims of Eastern and Western religions and of well-established and newer sects and denomina-tions. The Committee will be interdiscipli-nary, including specialists in biblical scholar-ship, archaeology, linguistics, anthropology, the social sciences, and philosophy. CSER's members will also represent different reli-gious traditions: The only criterion for mem-bership in CSER is a commitment to impar-tial scholarship and the use of objective methods of inquiry.

CSER's members include Morton Smith, professor of history at Columbia University; Robert Alley, professor of humanities at the University of Richmond; Sidney Hook, senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University; Vern Bul-lough, dean of natural sciences at the State University of New York College at Buffalo; Antony Flew, professor of philosophy at Reading University in England; Paul Kurtz;

G. A. Wells, professor at Birkbeck College, University of London; and John Allegro, author of The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth.

CSER is an outgrowth of FREE INQUIRY's Religion and Biblical Criticism Research Project. The Project will continue as a subcommittee of CSER and will be chaired by R. Joseph Hoffmann, associate professor of biblical studies at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Among its members are John Priest, professor and chairman, Department of Religion, Florida State University; Randel Helms, professor of English, Arizona State University; James Robinson, director, Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont College; Joseph Fletcher, theologian and Visiting Scholar for Medical Studies at the University of Vir-ginia; Carol Meyers, professor of religion, Duke University; Robert Joly, professor of philosophy, Centre Interdisciplinaire d'Etudes Philosophiques de l'Universite de Mons (Belgium); David Noel Freedman, professor of Old Testament, University of Michigan; and Joseph Barnhart, professor of philosophy, North Texas State University.

Protesters Disrupt FREE INQUIRY Conference

More evidence of the current trend to blame humanists for all society's ills was seen at the "Jesus in History and Myth" symposium at Ann Arbor in April. Members of the

ON THE BARRICADES

News & Views

8 FREE INQUIRY

General Revolutionary Union, a group affiliated with Lyndon LaRouche, picketed the conference site and distributed leaflets that accused humanists of promoting geno-cide, white supremacy, bestiality, and legalized narcotics, among other things. (See the photograph on page 8 for a sampling of their criticisms.)

Liberal Theologian Denied Ministry

John Hick, liberal theologian and chairman of the Department of Religion at Claremont Graduate School in California, has been barred from membership in the San Gabriel Presbytery.

Hick's application to transfer his ministerial status from Great Britain to Cali-fornia was approved in September 1984. But members of the Presbytery who objected to Hick's philosophy of an interfaith global theology challenged the voting procedure and approval of Hick's application was rescinded.

Hick, the author of the book The Myth of God Incarnate, defended belief in a trans-cendent God at FREE INQUIRY'S recent "Jesus in History and Myth" symposium at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. The Presbytery's decision to bar Hick may yet be appealed at the denominational level.

CODESH Joins Coalition for Religious Liberty

The Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH), publisher of FREE INQUIRY magazine, has joined the National Coalition for Public Education and Reli-gious Liberty (PEARL). The organizations in PEARL, which is based in Washington, D.C., are committed to the defense of public education and maintaining the separation of church and state. Its members include the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church.

Piety or Politics

An ultraconservative lobbying group called Christian Voice recently issued a "report card" pn how members of Congress voted on "key moral/family issues" during 1984. The group rated Paul Simon zero and Dan Crane 100 percent.

For a high-scoring report card from

Christian Voice, members of Congress had to vote for guns for Central America but against federal funds for scientific research, and they had to oppose legal services for the poor and support Senator Jesse Helms's unsuccessful attempt to restrict political activism by labor unions.

These ratings appear to more accurately reflect the politics rather than the piety of members of Congress. Eighty-one senators and representatives got "100-percent Chris-tian" ratings for the 1984 session, of which 80 were Republicans and only one a Demo-crat. This explains why Christian Voice flunked Paul Simon, an exemplary family man, and gave the highest possible score to Dan Crane, who was censured by the House for his involvement with a teenaged page.

Mormonism or Magic

A letter donated to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints suggests that magic was a factor in Joseph Smith's founding of the Mormon Church.

The letter, now made available to the public by church officials, is attributed to Martin Harris, a "special witness" to the heavenly origins of Mormonism. Written in 1830 to the editor of the Kirtland, Ohio, Morning and Evening Star, the letter claimed that Smith at first was kept from obtaining the golden plates by a "spirit" that had appeared as a "white salamander."

The letter is considered by some to cast doubt on the official version of the founding of the church. Others say the authorship of the letter can never be identified with cer-tainty. Still others suggest that the letter merely reflects the folk magic of the time.

Another letter, supposedly written by Joseph Smith himself, and dated June 18, 1925, has apparently disappeared. Addressed to Josiah Stowell, who had commissioned Joseph to dig for treasure on his land in Harmony, Pa., the letter advises Stowell on the use of magical techniques to prevent evil spirits from disturbing the treasure before Smith himself arrived. Research historian Brian Metcalfe claims he has "very reliable, first-hand" information that the letter is in the possession of the Mormon Church.

Texts Give Short Shrift to Evolution

Half of the new high-school biology text-books do not adequately cover evolution and one-sixth do not even mention evolution, according to a recent study conducted by Wayne Moyer, former executive director of

the National Association of Biology Teachers, and William V. Mayer, professor emeritus of biology at the University of Colorado. The study, "A Consumer's Guide to Biology Textbooks, 1985," published by People for the American Way, evaluated 18 texts being distributed nationally this year by major publishers.

"The quality of biology textbooks has declined drastically since the late 1960s," said Mr. Moyer. "In recent years publishers have given in to pressure from the ultrafunda-mentalists and watered down references to evolution and other scientific theories."

Mr. Moyers said the books reflect the long-term influence on textbook publishers of a Texas rule, repealed last year, that restricted the teaching of evolution in biology texts.

Strange Evidence

Defense attorneys for the four young people recently convicted in the bombing of three Pensacola, Florida, abortion clinics last December attempted to introduce unusual evidence in order to obtain an acquittal on grounds of insanity. Federal District Judge Roger Vinson refused to allow some of the items.

One was a comic book entitled "Rex Morgan, M.D., Talks About Your Unborn Child." Another, a comic book called "Dune" (based on the Dino de Laurentis motion picture and the Frank Herbert science-fiction novel), includes a scene in which a fetus in the womb abruptly acquires full adult consciousness after its mother con-sumes a potent psychogenic drug. Judge Vinson rejected both, apparently to keep the case focused on the crimes, not the abortion issue. Judge Vinson also refused to allow testimony by St. Louis University social psychologist William Brennan. Brennan had told the court he would testify that con-flicting societal attitudes toward abortion could have clouded the defendants' judg-ment. Vinson held that the insanity defense requires proof of severe mental defects and that a social psychologist lacks the creden-tials to address that issue.

The defenders did score one point during testimony from a United States Treasury agent who had played a central role in identifying the suspects. During cross-examination of this witness, one defense attorney accused God of being an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the case. Attorney Patrick Monaghan told the jury that though he did not expect them to con-done what happened, he would ask them to "understand" it.

Summer 1985 9