#16 Secularists and Other Free Thinkers:
Relativism vs. Absolutism, Human Rights vs. Divine Right

Wednesday – 1:00 p.m.                                                    Winter Term 2009 (14 weeks)
Coordinator:  Ellen Lubic                                                            Co-coordinator:  Vera Hogan

Course Description
What is the moral, and the political, importance of keeping our American government secular?  What happens if America becomes a Christian nation?  Is Christianity a force for good or evil?  Who is the arbiter of truth?  Is faith, intellectual, spiritual, or myth?  Are science and religion locked in a battle to the death?  Is atheism rationale?

These are some questions “we, the people” will try to answer in this S/DG.

There is a 300 year tradition in America of struggle for freedom of conscience and keeping our government secular.  The Founders, mainly Deists, formed our Constitution by adhering to protected, private and diverse, beliefs, essentially guaranteeing liberty through a Constitution that does not mention God.  Is mention of our Creator considered God, or does it mean a woman and a man, a sperm and an egg, and mitosis?  Historically, religious fundamentalists have fought to make us a Christian nation "under God" with Church and State unified into one voice, denying evolution.  Although Free Thinkers had substantial influence on our society, they were challenged in periods of the extreme stresses of wars and/or a faltering economy.  Where are we headed today?

Topics
1.   From earlier times, a historic investigation of the rancor between philosophers of
religious relativism and fundamental absolutism, from Hume, Spinoza ("the AtheistJew"),
and Leibniz, those who set the stage.

2.  The Founders debated God's place, or not, in the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution,
and the Bill of Rights.  Discuss views from Tom Paine and his Free Thought tradition.

3.  Thomas Jefferson, his arguments with Paine and Adams, and how he viewed Colonial times
yet planned for the future of America.

4.  James Madison, his influence on the writing of the Constitution, and the Amendments
to the Bill of Rights, particularly as to the separation of Church and State.

5.  Separation of Church and State in the 21st Century, focusing on Barry Lynn's book
Piety and Politics, and American United for Separation of Church and State;
reviewing Supreme Court decisions thereon.

6.  The Transcendentalists and Unitarian tradition, focusing on the works of Louisa May Alcott,
Henry David Thoreau (particularly Civil Disobedience), Ralph Waldo   Emerson, and others.

7.   Emma Goldman, "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free.
"  The Jewish experience, from anarchists to Supreme Court justices.

8.   Rise of the Feminists, from Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony,
to Gloria Steinem and Camille Paglia.  Women who changed America.

9.   Slavery and Abe Lincoln, from the Emancipation Proclamation, Civil War,
to Abolitionists, Posse Comitatus, shutting down the presses.

10. "The Great Agnostic," Robert Ingersoll and the culture wars.

11.   Evolution and Darwin, from the Scopes Trial and monkeys, onward to McCarthy,
HUAC, and now, Reverends Hagee and Dobson, and Sarah Palin.

12.       Debs and Darrow, the great debaters discuss their views.  What came next?

13.       Political Theory and Religious Determinism, how the Supreme Court has evolved
and shaped American law.  Questions about the Constitution as a living document
or absolute fixed principles, from Cardoza to Scalia.and others.

14.       America today, onward Christian soldiers, the religious army, candidates, the future.
What would Bertrand Russell and Aldous Huxley say?

Bibliography :
Core book:  Jacoby, Susan.  FreeThinkers, A History of American Secularism,

Other highly suggested reading :
Taylor, Charles.  A Secular Age.
Lynn, Rev. Barry.  Piety and Politics.
Hitchens, Christopher.  God is Not Great.

All below are worth reading :
Russell, Bertrand.  Why I Cannot be a Christian.
Stein, Stephen J.  Communities of Dissent.
Hume, David.  Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.
Wolf, Gregory.  The New Religious Humanists.
Dawkins, Richard.  The God Delusion.
McGrath, A.H. and H.C. McGrath.  The Dawkins Delusion.
Smith, George H.  Atheism, Ayn Rand, and other Heresies.
Stewart, Matthew.  The Courtier and the Heretic.
Thoreau, Henry David.  On Civil Disobedience.

 Pre-Meeting:  Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 1:00 p.m.