Reviews

Review of “Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism” by Susan Jacoby.

Until I read this book, I had little interest in history, finding most of it dry and boring. This however, is not the history you were taught in school. Rather it is about the long, continuing struggle between the minority conservative religious factions in our country and those of us who believe in a scientific worldview, social justice and the right of people to think for themselves and determine the course of their own lives thru the acquisition of knowledge and use of reason.

As I worked on ideas for this presentation for over a month, it became clear to me that I had badly underestimated the time it would take to adequately cover even the most essential elements in this book necessary to give you a complete picture of the influences, people, events and ideological differences which have shaped the course of this country and led us to where we are today. I came to the conclusion that it would, in fact, require several short segments to do so.

Therefore, I have decided for today, to give a brief overview and encourage you to read this book for yourself for an in-depth leisurely understanding if you so choose.

For me, one of the most startling things in the book was the fact that Southern dissident protestants were the ones who joined with the secularist founding fathers to ratify our constitution and establish a government with a clear separation of church and state.
They did not do so because they wanted such a government,

they did so because they did not want a state religion which they feared would marginalize their own religions and prohibit them from freely practicing them.

In addition, they did not want the issue of slavery to be addressed by the constitution’s framers, and they were willing to compromise by leaving all references to Jesus Christ and God out of the constitution to ensure that this subject did not become an issue.

Finally, they did not want government interference in how they practiced religion as they wished to be free to proselytize as they chose. While they believed the constitution would protect them from this interference, they also believed that God was the Supreme Ruler of the Universe and therefore no constitution could ever impinge on the right of religion to guide and inform public policy.

The religious fundamentalists believe that to this day.

A large portion of the book is devoted to the various social reform movements that have swept the country and given us the privileges and freedoms we enjoy today.

Secular Humanist values and ideals have been at the forefront of every social reform movement in this country to date.
It is very important to understand that the advancement and assimilation of these movements into society at large have only been achieved by the cooperation of liberal religious groups and freethinkers who have always faced vigorous, stiff and unrelenting opposition from orthodox religious leaders accompanied by a rise in conservative religious sentiment and renewed attempts to pass laws based on a narrow, conservative and primitive set of religious views.

This was true of the early feminist, labor and abolitionist movements of the 1800s, it was true during the second wave of feminism, the anti-war movement and the Civil Rights movements of the 60s and it is true today.

Jacoby is exceeding concerned with the financial power of today’s Christian right and its stranglehold on the Republican party. She feels that equally important is the American public’s assumption that religion per se is and always has been a benign influence on society. The extreme right has been able to exploit this unexamined notion by referring to opponents of their faith-based agenda as communists, fascists, socialists, relativists, or the worst of all, Godless atheists.

In addition, religious fundamentalists care more about religious issues than the rest of the public does and they do more to see that their voices are heard. They vote together as a block and are willing to vote strictly on issues of faith, while the public at large is concerned with a variety of issues and will choose the candidates and the issues they support based on what they deem most relevant and important for the good of the country, not on their particular religious affiliations and points of view.

She aptly points out that in order for secularists to make an effective case to the American public at large about the danger posed by these fanatics and the importance of science, reason and humanist values, they must speak with the passion and emotion of early freethinkers such as Thomas Paine, Robert Ingersoll, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B Anthony and the Quaker Grimke sisters, as well as countless others. All of these people filled the meeting houses wherever they spoke and influenced tens of thousands of citizens. Evangelical leaders and preachers of today are masters at manipulating the deepest fears and emotions of their flocks Our challenge is much harder; Religion is easy to understand, science is hard. Religion can offer comfort and the promise of ever lasting life, while secularism rooted in a scientific understanding of the world cannot. However, scientists such as Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman and E.O. Wilson have in recent times spoken eloquently and with a deep reverence for their ideals grounded in rational, reasoned scientific evidence and today we have spokesman in Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens as well as many others. There are over 600 atheist internet blogs, many of which are written by “de-converted” evangelicals with a deep understanding of the fundamentalist mindset. These people are a great asset to our freethinking community. Most of these writers are extremely intelligence, articulate advocates for science and enlightenment values.

There has been much recent criticism and discussion about whether our vehement and pointed criticisms of religion are doing more harm then good to our cause by alienating the liberal Christians in our society and whether we should even call ourselves atheists. Any doubt I may have had was erased after I read this book.

No rights were every won by failing to challenge the status quo, fearing to offend anyone, keeping quiet or hoping for the best. They required the courageous action of the few who were willing to sacrifice their personal well-being for the rights of society at large. These rights can only be maintained and further progress made if the freethought community continues to speak out with eloquence to defend science, a broad based secular education and all other rights and freedoms we hold dear. We have many serious issues confronting us today, not only in the United States but in the world at large. We cannot sit back and allow a fanatical, extremely vocal, but fairly small minority of religious extremists to gain further influence, eliminate many of our civil rights, control the curriculum in our schools, marginalize science, stop research and free inquiry and return us to the dark ages in which they apparently would like all of us to dwell.

After reading this book, I became aware of just how much we have accomplished in a relatively short time period of history and realized that people in general do have altruistic instincts and that in spite of the continued onslaught and attacks by the religious fundamentalists, the majority of people are progressive in their outlook, are in favor of a secular government and value freedom and democracy as much as all of us in the secular community do.

Progress in human affairs can, perhaps, be likened to the gyrations of stock market: there are periods of great advances, there are times of steep decline, but the progress over time has been generally upward. Our hope and aim should be to do as much as possible to eliminate the downturns in social progress, accelerate the upward momentum and most of all to never, ever give up hope or quit speaking often, loudly and determinedly about our conviction that men are capable of living lives rich with meaning without religious oversight or interference in our civic affairs or our secular public educational institutions.