Humanism and the Culture War

‘The Emerging Transhumanist Culture’ at Transvision 2004

Jende Huang, field organizer, American Humanist Association

–Patrick Buchanan at the 1992 Republican National Convention

“There is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of

nation we will one day be as the Cold War itself.”

Progress in Society…

Society envisioned as:

• Democratic

• Cosmopolitan

• Open

•Progressive

•Pluralistic

•Secular

Where Orthodoxy Reigns…

Society envisioned as:

•Traditional

•Monocultural

•Religious

•Autocratic

•Closed

The Culture War battles that the Humanist movement takes part in will not guarantee a

transhumanist future…

…but Humanists can create a culture where transhumanism has

the opportunity to thrive.

Dominion Theology

Based on Genesis 1:26

“Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'” (NIV)

Followers of dominion theology, more commonly known as Christian Reconstructionists, view the government, law, education, science, religion and the family as a few of the areas where God’s “dominion” must be reestablished.

Postmillennialism

“Postmillennialism is that view of the last things which holds that the Kingdom of God is now being extended in the world through the preaching of the Gospel and the saving work of the Holy Spirit, that the world eventually will be Christianized, and that the return of Christ will occur at the close of a long period of righteousness and peace called the Millennium.”

–Loraine Boettner, The Millennium (1966)

Philo Evolution

The Culture War Goes On…

Political Aspects:

• Marriage rights for gays

• Faith based initiatives • Abortion as a litmus

test for judges

Cultural Aspects:

• The Passion of the Christ and Fahrenheit 9/11

• Influence of Christian entertainment, especially the Left Behind series

The Culture War isn’t about what people think…

…it’s about how people think.

These are banned in Alabama

This is because of Hollywood

The Politicization of Science Policy in the United States

Rep. Brian Baird

• Limits on questions asked

• Limits on methods used

• Limits or elimination of funding provided

• Biased people in government agencies

• Active suppression of information – Raising unjustified

claims about research or scientists

– Punishment for asking the wrong questions

– Retribution

Rep. Brian Baird Continued…

• Disregard for science • Placement of ideological scientists to international

panels

These Factors Result In:A scientific community which has created an

atmosphere of self-censorship.

Rep. Henry Waxman

• Appoints people with scant scientific credentials but strong industry ties

• Stacks advisory committees with numerous pro-industry or ideological appointees

• Appoints nonexperts with right-wing ideological agendas

• Opposes the appointment or reappointment of qualified experts, including some of the most respected scientists in their fields, on the basis of political litmus tests

HHS

“…the current practice in which the WHO invites specific HHS officials by name to serve in these capacities has not always resulted in the most appropriate suggestions.”

–William R. Steiger, Ph.D., Special Assistant to the Secretary for International Affairs

Science becomes the first victim of ideology run amok.

The door is starting to closing on honest, critical scientific debate.

The Bush Administration Takes Steps Backwards on the Global Stage

• Reinstating the Mexico City Policy

• Refusing to sign onto the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

• Deciding against ratifying the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court

• Withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty

The Culture War isn’t about what people think, it’s about how people think.

Our fight is against an absolutist mindset that claims to already know

the answers.

"...the responsibility for our lives and the kind of world in which we live is ours and

ours alone." -- Humanist Manifesto III