Freethought and Compassion (pdf)

- Daniel T. Strain

According to the Houston Church of Freethought's website, a freethinker is "a person who forms opinions about religion independently of tradition, authority, or established belief." I might quibble a bit that this is somewhat narrow, because I would suspect that we try to form all of our opinions in this manner—not just those pertaining to religion. The site goes on to say that "freethinkers attach more importance to the why of belief than to the what."...

Condorcet's Legacy Among the Philosophes and the Value of His Feminism for Today's Man (pdf)

- Jeff Nall

Key Enlightenment minds are often juxtaposed with their iconic foes, religious conservatives. When discussing the subject of women's rights, however, this comparison creates a false impression that Enlightenment male thinkers held ideas very much opposed to a dogmatic institution such as the Catholic Church. Ironically, and damaging to their legacy of prejudice-free rationalism, nearly all of the philosophes, many of whom were "freethinking" atheists, viewed woman's intellectual nature and societal purpose through a prejudice-tainted glass, not unlike the most conservative establishments of their time. ...

An American Humanist Political Party?

- Hugh Giblin

Anyone who has been in humanist circles for sometime knows we are never, ever, short on opinions. We think therefore we talk . . . and talk and talk some more. Our endless conversations usually revolve around the BIG questions, that is to say, the metaphysical ones: the existence or rather the non-existence of God, evolution versus Intelligent Design, meaning and purpose in life, and so forth; and the major political issues: the dangers of the Religious Right, the Separation of Church and State, the Iraq war and others. ...

Responding to the Call: Philosophy as Human Wonderment

- Brian Lightbody

I ran into an old high school friend of mine recently. After exchanging pleasantries, the conversation eventually turned to what each of us was doing, that is, what sort of job each of us had. After explaining to my old friend that I was still in school pursuing my Ph.D., he was noticeably impressed. However, when I told him that I was studying for my Ph.D. in philosophy, he seemed to become rather perplexed and almost immediately fired off the following series of questions: "What's the point in studying that? Where is that going to get you? What can you do with that? Why study philosophy at all?" ...

Truth, Faith, and Reason: Pope Benedict XVI's Speech at the University of Regensburg

- Gerald Marsh

Pope Benedict XVI interleaved two themes in his lecture at the University of Regensburg on September 12, 2006. These will be discussed here in two separate parts: Truth, Faith, and Reason and The Dialogue of Cultures. The first addresses the Pope's proposal to expand scientific reasoning to include the "rationality of faith"; and the second with the threat of radical Islam, and whether a "dialogue of cultures" is possible if the West persists in its belief in what the Pope calls a "reason which is deaf to the divine." ...