Free Inquiry Magazine is published by the Council For Secular Humanism, whose stated goal is to educate and support "people who find meaning and value in life without looking to a god".Given this, it is not surprising to say that the main focus of the magazine is on secular humanism issues and ideas. However, every issue has articles that really do apply to a much wider audience. They cover such general topics such as church-state separation, ethics and issues faced by any religious minority. I'm not surprised to find people referring to back issues for articles on various Supreme Court decisions or discrimination issues.
The magazine's editor is Paul Kurtz, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo and founder of Prometheus Books. With this kind of influence, I have always found the articles to be well written and logical. They also run the gambit from complex philosophical treaties to humorous op-ed essays.
Common topics include secular humanism, atheism, church-state issues, and the rights of religious minorities. A sampling of articles from their most recent issue (February/March 2005) is illustrative of their objective; stories include "Fundamentalist Power in America" (by James A. Haught), "Crime and Causality: Do Killers Deserve to Die?" (Thomas W. Clark), "Law Reform, or DIY Suicide" (Peter Singer); and Jihad in the Netherlands (courtesy of the brilliant and ballsy Christopher Hitchens). They post some of each issue's offerings on their web site, so be sure to check it out.
However, it's well worth the price to spring for a subscription, freebies or not. The articles are consistently well-written and thought-provoking, the topical selection varied yet absorbing. I usually read each new issue cover-to-cover within a week of arrival in my mailbox. Nor do old issues grow stale; it's the kind of magazine you can return to time and again. Hubby and I still have copies from the early `90s that we peruse on occasion!
If you want scholarly yet understandable discourse, sound logic, and in-depth research, Free Inquiry is the magazine for you! It's an excellent change of pace from some of the fluff that passes for news nowadays. Another outstanding option is Skeptical Inquirer, from the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). Skeptical Inquirer is quite similar to Free Inquiry (indeed, it's published by the same company and many of the contributors pull double duty), but with a narrower focus (it tends to focus on aliens, faith healers, miracles, and other "supernatural" nonsense).
Also, if you enjoy the magazine, you might also like their "Web Columns"; go to their web site for more details!FREE INQUIRY is published bimonthly by the Council for Secular Humanism. Sample article titles in the current issue (June/July 2004) are "The Religiosity of George W. Bush" and "From Regenerative Medicine to Human Design." Contributors include Christopher Hitchens, author and columnist, and Robert Price, a member of the Jesus Seminar. Other familiar names of secular humanists mentioned in the magazine are Edward O. Wilson, the late Sir Peter Ustinov, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and Gore Vidal.
The tone of a few of the articles can occasionally be quite strident in the style of a fundamentalist preacher. In these rare instances FREE INQUIRY reads like a journal for a rigid nontheistic religion. Fortunately this does not happen too often.On the inside of the front cover is a list of twenty-one humanistic principles endorsed by the Council for Secular Humanism. I am definitely not a secular humanist but I do believe in reading alternative viewpoints especially when they address several of the most important issues of the day.
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"Free Inquiry" is published bi-monthly by the Council for Secular Humanism, a nonprofit group dedicated to ushering in a "new enlightenment," which is a worldview that's based on rationality, science and good old fashioned learning. They contend that one can live a good, "moral" life without religion or other superstitions, so if you're a regular churchgoin' person, this is definitely not the magazine for you. Then again, maybe this is precisely the magazine for you if you're the type of regular churchgoin' person who wants the laws of the country to conform to whatever you think your god of choice is telling you they should be this week. If the concept of seperation of church and state is highly problematic for you, then you definitely need to be reading "Free Inquiry" from cover to cover--one might even say religiously! For those of us who are already hellbound heathens, FI is that friend that comes in your mailbox to tell you that no, you are not alone. Unlike an actual church, one doesn't need to agree with all its teachings, and in fact a variety of opinions are welcome.The mastermind behind the council is Paul Kurtz, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Buffalo, and his vision informs the magazine as a whole. While you can tell he's no fan of Dubya, it would be a mistake to dismiss him, or FI, as hopelessly liberal. One of FI's regular, and most popular contributors, is Chrisopher Hitchens, the firebrand journalist who has taken on a far more libertarian bent of late. There's also longtime Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff, whose political views are often frustratingly hard to decipher (he's strictly libertarian on free-speech issues, but he's also anti-choice and anti-euthanasia). Kurtz himself, while decrying the war in Iraq, can be described as somewhat conservative in his take on American culture. One recent FI editorial had him condemning current American pop culture as shallow, vulgar and wasteful (yes, Paul, and your point is...?). He even namechecked two films as evidence: "The Devil's Rejects" and "The Aristocrats" (two of my fave films of '05!) the latter being produced by Penn Jillette, one of the only true skeptics working in show business. Many regular FI readers of course strongly disagree with his tsk-tsking, and are not shy about telling him. So much for secular humanism being a "religion."
Of course, religion, or the merciless examination and debunking thereof, are the main focus of the magazine. Pretty much every December, readers can expect to find an article or two that focus a critical eye on the myths of Christmas and the contradictions contained in the Gospels. The continuing efforts of the Christian right to force creationism, or "intelligent design," into the nation's public schools has been covered quite thoroughly, with the anti-ID ruling in Dover receiving a cover story. Not wanting Muslim apostates to feel left out, FI also has Ibn Warraq (author of "Why I Am Not A Muslim") as a regular contributor. FI, it should be noted, was one of the few Ameerican publications to print any of the controversial cartoons of Mohammed that caused riots across the Muslim world. FI published just four of them, and even that was a source of disagreement among the magazine's staffers, some of whom felt it was disrepectful and unecessary to actually show the images. Compare this with the magazine published by American Atheists, which not only published all 12 of the cartoons, but also tacked on four REALLY offensive cartoons that even the Danish paper that commissioned them refused to run--heck, American Atheists even put one of the cartoons on it's flippin' cover! So while "Free Inquiry" is definitely no supporter of religious belief, they're also careful not to endorse ad hominem attacks, either.
In fact, the only real flaws I can find with FI is that it sometimes seems too academic for its own good. If they want to extend humanist thought and philosophy to the general public, they have to make greater effort to be more, well, populist. A greater sense of humor would help, too. Though regulars such as Hitchens, Wendy Kaminer and Natalie Angier are on the right track, many articles have the dry feel of a college symposium. If religion doesn't require you to have a degree in order to join in, then maybe the antidote shouldn't come across as a commandments from the top of an ivory tower. Oh, yeah, and subscribers can expect to regularly find donation requests in their mailbox, so keep that in mind. As long as the American theocracy lets you have a mind to keep.With religious fundamentalism on the rise, Free Inquiry is a breath of fresh air. Free Inquiry offers a secular viewpoint on the social issues of our time. Creation science, prayer in schools, euthanasia, abortion and reigious studies--all these issues and more are covered in this wonderful little mag.
Subscribe to Free Inquiry. I subscribe to several magazines and always look forward to getting this one the most.
Also recommended: How to Lose Your Faith in Divinity School
