Discussion Group Report

In facing your own mortality, what final message would you leave to posterity? Steve Allen, one of the world's most outstanding humanists of the 20th century, asked that question in a speech at the Denver Performing Arts Center on October 22, 1994.

Noel Coward has described Allen as the most talented man in America. Described often as a "true Renaissance man, Allen created and hosted the Tonight show, authored 43 books and created and hosted the Emmy award winning show, the Meeting of the Minds. One of his best books is one called Reflection.

In his speech Allen said that his experience had led him to the conclusion that there is no natural justice in the Universe. People have suffered terrible natural disasters from time immemorial that showed no sign of any just force, natural or supernatural, having influenced the outcome, if one looks at the facts about what caused these occurrences.

Yet now the time of danger has not passed. We face the possibility of a man-made world-wide holocaust, a nuclear one. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there has arisen the danger that nuclear weapons might fall into the hands of terrorists. The list of worries the human race faces is greater than ever. Formerly, serious social problems were confined to certain geographical areas. With the improvements in communications technology and the ability to travel long distances very rapidly, problems that formerly would have been local have become global. The bell of tragedy is now heard everywhere. In earlier times moral atrocities were over and done before news of them arrived in other areas.

For almost all of history, he says, the reaction to saying the kinds of things he was saying in this speech would have been his execution. We do not face such a danger now. Yet all humans face enormous moral questions everywhere. There are dark areas where moral monsters terrorize helpless people, as in Serbia and Haiti. The perpetrators of such monstrous injustices are usually the rich and the military and police forces that support them.

Allen proposes that all humans are entitled to protection from murder, rape, robbery and terrorizing actions. Yet our philosophical advisors about the moral dimension of human activity have been those who are formally religious. But it does not require a professional theologian to clarify simple questions of right and wrong.

Social bias and economic self-interest confers on us the moral judgments of those to whom we turn for instruction. Every culture is affected by such judgments. Ibsen in An Enemy of the People tells of a medical doctor who works in a local resort. He discovers a germ in the water that feeds into the resort that threatens the lives of everyone there. He tells the local officials about it, and they tell him to keep his mouth shut. The doctor's advice is "bad for business." Precisely the same trauma is now acted out everywhere (consider environmental warnings). Many die from inhaling tobacco smoke. Reformers are warned against because they disrupt business and might bring on big government intrusion. Manufacturers take your place as the judges of what will be allowed to take place. Again there is no natural justice in the universe; life is unfair. All around us are thousands who do not enjoy good health; they are not free of suffering inflicted by nature and humans.

One of the most foolish assertions we can make is that a vengeful, violent God inflicts such suffering. Ancient scriptures say that God is bent on bloody revenge and violence on us. It is an obligation of every human to oppose this idea, to develop as much justice as possible and never to hurt another human being. Some of us consider such ideals as worthless, seldom or never achieved. But there is never a direction that can be called true north. We sometimes make mistakes about morality, but we should continue to strive for virtue, to set the scale of justice as perfectly as possible. A greatly mistaken notion is that the only virtuous people are those who believe in religion, while unbelievers are unvirtuous.

Is there an all-knowing, all-loving and all-powerful God? This question has never been resolved satisfactorily to the world jury. Almost all of the world's crimes, says Allen, are committed by those who accept the existence of God. Some assume that if there is no God, there is no reason to be virtuous. "Anything is permitted." In two of the largest societies in history, both atheistic, the Soviet Union and China, not only is not everything permitted but much less is permitted than in free societies. If there is no God, the entire task is up to human beings. God is content to leave the work of improvement to humans.

Allen spoke of the experience of one of his sons, who converted to a religious cult. After 12 years his son left the cult. Allen says that, if one is converted to a religious belief system, the power of reason to change his mind is ineffective, even if the factual record is inconsistent with his religion. However, in general, whenever science and religion are pitted against each other, science has presented a more reasonable explanation.

Allen expressed a very serious concern about the American family. He says schools should teach people to love one another, but religion has taught love in the abstract rather than how to love in practical everyday relationships. Hitler's Germany was overwhelmingly Christian and was the best educated populace in Europe. But they displayed blind strong hatred labeled as patriotism.

What is needed is for philosophy and religion to reinforce each other with the emphasis on practice, that is, on morality. Almost all religions teach that love is a supreme virtue. However, we all are gifted in loving what pleases us. The highest and most edifying form of love, and the one which may save the world, Allen suggests, involves loving those who are the most difficult to love.

He says the American family is now largely a failed institution. In our schools we train for almost every skill except marriage and parenthood. We don't seem to learn anything from our philosophical opponents.