Report from Center For Inquiry 12th World Congress 2009: Science, Public Policy, and the Planetary Community

By Bill Creasy

These are some of the highlights of the 2009 CFI Congress from Friday and Saturday, April 10-11, 2009, in the Hyatt Regency Bethesda, MD. The summaries represent paraphrases of the speakers (and they may be inaccurate, disorganized, or oversimplifed summaries of the speakers' remarks).

Patricia Schroeder is former U.S. Representative from Colorado. She now represents textbook publishers. She was picketed as a secular humanist and thought it was a compliment. She said local boards selecting textbooks are "insideous." People making local and state decisions are almost anonymous and unaccountable, but still select books with disclaimers about evolution. U.S. can't be competitive without education. Too many students are dropping out or not getting advanced degrees. On politicizing science, she said NIH studies are done on males, even using male rats, to avoid reproductive and abortion issues. Males are defined as "normal". Schroeder sponsored a review, and she was accused of politicizing science. The Bush Admin. appointed advisers who were ideological on science panels; "Know nothings were in charge." Climate change and stem cell research was ignored. Politics is "messy and terrible." Educated people aren't voting, even ones getting federal research funding; they are too busy to get involved. The country can't afford this. No child left behind is teaching to tests. Math education has too many unproven teaching methods that don't work and can't be used for real problems. Students just give up. But we should "have fun"with incumbents who won't address these issues.

Susan Jacoby said Obama is a man of reason, but also a man of faith. He may not have won if not for the economic crisis. Americans don't value knowledge, she said. They have been anti-intellectual and anti-rational for 4 decades. Politicians use word "folks" too much as a sign of anti-intellectualism. Mindless anti-reason is behind the comparison of Obama's bailout to Leninism and Stalinism. "Society is drowning in junk thought," often couched in scientific-sounding language (like Scientology for example). People look for technical solutions to social problems, like parental controls. Computers don't make us smarter. A large number of adults can't understand important issues due to the failure of public education. Junk thought comes from both left and right politics. Video games can be challenging, but they are displacing reading, which is the basis of intellect. There may be differences between the brains of boys and girls, but segregated education is junk thought, because the differences are smaller than common need for good education.

Paul Kurtz received the NCAS Philip Klass Award. He showed a video of a CSICOP visit to China. He talked about CFI theory of knowledge as a comprehensive approach. CFI is not primarily an atheist organization; it is skeptical about religion and nontheist. He prefers "New Planetary Humanism." "CFI must deal with personal morality." He discussed two sets of descriptors of morality: Eupraxophy, Exuberance, and Empathy; and Courage, Cognition, and Caring. Planetary Ethics is about dignity and value of every person on the planet; and the goal is to mitigate human suffering and increase the sum of human good, providing it is possible to do so.

Philip Kitcher said science is the pinnacle of human accomplishment. There is resistance to science for philosophical, social, religious, and political reasons. Science disproportionately benefits a few people. Science should become more democratic so decisions, priority, and certification are clearer. Knowledge should be transmitted better to provide scientific literacy and concepts. The public should have a stake in the research. Diseases of poor countries should be studied. Many are underfunded compared to the suffering they cause. It won't be possible to accomplish the ideal of democracy, but it can be approached more than is done now.

The Science and Public Policy Session was chaired by Stuart Jordan, former WASH president.

John Mather, the NASA astronomer who won the Nobel Prize in Physics for work on the cosmic background radiation, said we are "made of exploded stars." He gave a history of the universe, and talked about the new James Webb telescope. GPS, weather forecasts, phones, and TV all depend on satellites.

Drew Shindell spoke on Climate Change. He said that climate models are accurate. People distort some results and take them out of context to discredit the science, and gave some examples. Results have been consistent since work in the 1970's. The rate of warming is likely to increase. There is progress in communicating about the problem. Some solutions make economic sense, but need leadership to implement.

Roger Bonnet asked, Can we survive the next 1,000 centuries? He discussed the major threats to life and civilization, and resource limitations. We must stop growth.

Ren Fujun spoke on science communication in China, which seemed to happen when the government decided it was important to do.

James "The Amazing" Randi is looking older and more frail, but he seems as active as ever, and he gave an entertaining and energetic talk. He invited the audience to "steal these quotes" for discussions with the less skeptical:

- You can be fooled and deceived. You should know that you can be fooled.

- "The metric system was invented by French atheists," which is why the U.S. hasn't adopted it.

- If you hear hoofbeats, think horses not unicorns.

- "When I say halleluia, I don't mean it."

- The U.S. Patent Office will patent any damn thing.

- Magicians have an ethical responsibility to protect people from making fools of themselves or loosing their lives to the fakers or charlatans out there. Everyone should be grossly insulted by these people.

- The media are very naive. Not only that, they don't correct themselves. Not only that, some are media whores.

- I can't prove a negative. I can only test whether some raindeer can fly, under some conditions. But we can ask people who make claims to prove they are right.

Skepticism and Science session was chaired by Kendrick Frazier.

Elizabeth Loftus spoke on repressed memories of sexual abuse.

Joe Nickell talked about his background and how he investigates paranormal events. He follows the evidence wherever it leads, to go on site, investigate, find the solution. At first, he expected that "people will love me for it. Boy, was I wrong." People can be fooled and sincerely see something they can't explain. Don't assume they are imagining things. Three otters swimming in a line can look like a sea monster. On the other hand, some people are charlatans, and he is glad to "kick another medium in the teeth" in the pages of Skeptical Inquirer.

Richard Wiseman made a transition from magic to psychology. He showed a video of firewalkers on TV trying to go 60 feet on hot coals, but not making it. He showed examples of the human ability to see faces in random photos. He made the "Colour Changing Card Trick" on youtube.com (hint: more than the card changes color).

Amardeo Sarma said there is a move to change the rules of science. The reason is that controlled experiments make the effects of parapsychology go away. So they say "evasiveness of results" is a property of the effect. Homeopathy and alternate medicine are getting exemptions from normal rules in Europe. Parapsychologists call for the Science of the Subjective to removes double blind rules. Quantum Physics explains everything. "There s a growing indifference toward colleagues who practice pseudoscience, particularly in medicine."

Planetary Ethics session was chaired by Ron Lindsay. He opened saying lot of morality is commonly accepted, but there are cultural differences. The cultural-specific norms can be discussed and revised. He said that moral reforms are often due to changing economic conditions.

Tom Beauchamp was one of the pioneers of bioethics. There are common moral principles, but the principles can come into conflict in different situations. Rights are correlated to obligations from others. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights aren't really rights, but ideals about how society should be organized. There are no obligations associated with them. People have different ideas about what is a right, especially in general. "Eastern" vs. "Western" values are nonsense. There are no unifying "Eastern" values, and human rights aren't "Western."

Stephen Law is author of The War for Children's Minds. Before the 1960's, children were expected to accept morality and religion uncritically. Then there was a shift to questioning authority and individual autonomy. Have things gone too far? Conservatives argue for a return to authority, esp. from religion. He argues for a liberal approach. Individuals should question and think for themselves, for freedom of thought and expression.

But for freedom of action, they shouldn't be as liberal and should have discipline in actions. The religious can be liberal, and atheists can be authoritarian.

Eleanor Smeal is president of Feminist Majority Foundation. Culture has been an excuse for mistreatment of women in Afghanistan. "Women's rights are human rights, and human rights are women's rights." She launched a campaign to end gender apartheid by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 1987. The treatment of women was terrible, and treatment of men was bad too. U.S. supported Taliban to get an oil pipeline deal for Unocal that fell through in 1998. Clinton Admin. changed policy because of the protest. Abuse of women can't be excused because of culture. Feminists (mostly women) need to combine with humanists (mostly male).

Secularism and Islam session was chaired by Derek Araujo.

Ibn Warraq said Muslim history has had de facto separation of church and state. There are outspoken Muslims who argue for secularism.

Tariq Fata said we owe Muslims gratitude for John Adams's statement in Treaty of Tripoli that U.S. is not a Christian country. Islam is different from radical Islamist ideology. We need to help moderates and pro-democracy factions, Muslim or not. Islam needs a change of the attitude of people toward religion.

Pervez Hoodboy, Pakistan prof. of physics, said there was progress toward a secular Muslim world until 40 years ago, but now "it's all gone." Pakistan is suffering from violence. There is war within Islam. He showed photos of destruction and social problems: refugees, bombed buildings, destroyed schools. 1979 was turning point, when USSR invaded Afghanistan. U.S. CIA funded jihadists to fight the Soviets. Those fighters are now fighting Americans. U.S. even produced radical textbooks for them. Pakistan is now faced with an existential threat. The military is demoralized. U.S. must reverse "Israel First" policy while Israel turns Palestine into a prison camp; stop supporting dictators in Muslim countries; and use soft power. Muslims must stop dreaming of the Islamic State, stop believing in conspiracies, accept personal freedom, accept equality of men and women, and adopt critical thinking. Iranians are surprisingly progressive, even if the leadership is theocratic. Turkey is a secular Muslim state.

Mourad Wahba spoke about a new definition of secularization for the Muslim world to avoid fundamentalism in government.

Mona Abousenna, former director of CFI Egypt, said secularism is synonymous with atheism and is considered the enemy of Islam. Church/state separation is not secularism, but it is loss of power by the religious establishment.

There were also several other sessions. The Influence of Darwin, chaired by Derek Araujo, included talks by Michael Ruse, Barbara Forrest, David Contosta, and Edward Tabash. Humanism in India, moderated by Paul Kurtz, included Sam Ilangovan, Santi Sri Pandit, and Innaiah Narisetti. Separation of Church and State featured Tom Flynn and Edward Tabash. The Future of Skepticism, moderated by D.J. Grothe, included Kendrick Frasier and Benjamin Radford. The Awards Banquet panel featured Lawrence Krauss, James Randi, and Paul Kurtz. Finally, a panel on Secularism Around the World was moderated by Norm Allen, Jr.

This article was originally published in the May 2009 issue of WASHline, the newsletter of the Washington Area Secular Humanists.