From ai815@freenet.carleton.caMon Aug 21 11:11:23 1995 Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 05:46:11 -0400 From: Greg Erwin To: ry94ad@badger.ac.brocku.ca, apabel@prairienet.org, perfecto@pcnet.com Subject: May 1995 Nullifidian ############################################################ ############################################################ ______ / / / / / /__ __ / / ) (__ / / (__(__ __ |\ ( ) ) / / | \ | / / . _/_ . __ / . __ __ | \ | / / / / ) / ) / / ) __ ) / ) ) \| (__(__(___(__(__(___(__(__(__(__(__(__/ (__ =========================================================== *The*E-Zine*of*Atheistic*Secular*Humanism*and*Freethought** =========================================================== !!First Anniversay Issue!! ############################################################ ###### Volume II, Number 5 ***A Collector's Item!***##### ################### ISSN 1201-0111 ####################### ####################### MAY 1995 ########################### ############################################################ nullifidian, n. & a. (Person) having no religious faith or belief. [f. med. L _nullifidius_ f. L _nullus_ none + _fides_ faith; see -IAN] Concise Oxford Dictionary The purpose of this magazine is to provide a source of articles dealing with many aspects of humanism. We are ATHEISTIC as we do not believe in the actual existence of any supernatural beings or any transcendental reality. We are SECULAR because the evidence of history and the daily horrors in the news show the pernicious and destructive consequences of allowing religions to be involved with politics or government. We are HUMANISTS and we focus on what is good for humanity, in the real world. We will not be put off with offers of pie in the sky, bye and bye. Re: navigation. Search for BEG to find the beginning of the next article. Search for the first few words of the title as given in the table of contents to find a specific article. I try to remember to copy the title from the text and then paste it into the ToC, so it should be exact. Search for "crass commercialism:" to see what's for sale. Subscription information, etc is at the end of the magazine, search for END OF TEXTS. ############################################################ ############################################################ ============================================================ /=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\ TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. CAN THE BIBLE (OR ANY) GOD SUPPORT AN ABSOLUTE MORALITY? by Timotheus <72724.3223@compuserve.com> 2. HUMANISM WITH A CAPITAL H, by Harvey Lebrun 3. THE POWER OF PREJUDICE, book review by Ron Patterson 4. DIDEROT, Robert G. Ingersoll 5. ABC of Humanism, (a farewell poem) by Wim Ruyten 6. GIORDANO BRUNO THE FORGOTTEN PHILOSOPHER, from the Bank of Wisdom =========================================================== || BEGINNING OF ARTICLE || =========================================================== CAN THE BIBLE (OR ANY) GOD SUPPORT AN ABSOLUTE MORALITY? by Timotheus <72724.3223@compuserve.com> The world is in moral decay, say the theists, because of "moral relativism." Only a divine power makes possible an absolute standard of right and wrong, they say. And yet, entirely aside from the evil that men (and women) do, there is much that is terrible and unjust in the world. So that if there be a God, we realize, He cannot be both all-good and all-powerful. Because if He were, He would put an end to such things. But I'm afraid the situation is much much worse even than that. Four hundred years before Jesus Christ is supposed to have been born, Socrates asked: "whether the pious or holy is beloved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is beloved of the gods." Socrates also observed that the gods - plural - argued and disagreed about right and wrong as much as human beings. He got around this by supposing that that which all the gods approved was the good, and that which they all objected to was the evil, and that all else was neither good nor evil. He might just as well have considered the problem of a single God - like that of the Christian Bible - who's inconsistent about what is beloved. But, as we know only too well, there simply is no honest way out of contradictions like that. So let's just consider a strictly theoretical situation. Just for the sake of argument, let's suppose there's a God, and that He, She, or It is the absolute standard of morality. Is right and wrong then simply no more than this God's say-so? Or is what is right loved by this God and what is wrong hated by this God because of what right and wrong are in themselves? In the first instance, if good and evil are no more than the product of the will of a divine power, and if that will is truly free, then such a God could, with a thought, cause what we consider to be the most repugnant and heinous criminal act to become the highest virtue. Now the further question would arise, of course, as to whether if this happened we would know it. Why? Because of "the moral law within us," as the philosopher Immanuel Kant put it, or "the work of the law written in our hearts," as "Saint Paul" acknowledged (Romans 2:15). If morality is the say-so of a God, then presumably, like the gravitational effects of a massive body, any change in His (or Her or Its) will would cause our own consciences to be instantaneously altered. I've never heard of this happening, though. At any rate, if there is a God, and if this God's will determines what is right and wrong, then this supposed God's being all-good is no more than His (or Her or Its) being all-powerful. Is that an absolute morality? I don't think so. Rather, it's a morality that's completely relative to His (or Her or Its) desire. In a word - well, three actually - it's might makes right. It's another version of the law of the jungle. How's that for an admirable system of morality? The only thing I'm not sure of is whether it isn't more or less pathetic than the alternative situation of a God who is Himself (or Herself or Itself) subject to a logically anterior or prior standard of morality. That would be the case in the second instance of things that are good being beloved by God because they're good. Because, of course, that puts God on the same level with human beings. It makes Him (or Her or It) irrelevant. Well, we know He - or She or It - is irrelevant. That's why we're revolted by such Biblical stories as that of Yahweh asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering - as if an all-good God could be pleased by a criminal act. Abraham certainly did know how to flatter Yahweh, didn't he? It's curious that this same God is also supposed to have issued orders of mass extermination, orders that "The Good Book" tells us were actually carried out with less hesitation than Abraham had in preparing to kill his own son. Well, so much for theistic "absolute morality." It's anything but. ========================================================= || END OF ARTICLE || ========================================================= "Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable." [H. L. Mencken] =========================================================== || BEGINNING OF ARTICLE || =========================================================== HUMANISM WITH A CAPITAL H by Harvey Lebrun The indiscriminate use of the term "humanist" for anyone considered to be working for the good of humanity once led Paul Kurtz to ask in The Humanist magazine: "Has 'humanism,' like 'motherhood,' peace,' 'brotherhood,' and 'democracy,' become so honorific a term that it is avowed even by those who do not believe in it? And, in being co-opted, will it then be undermined?" One way to avoid the possible degeneration of the term Humanist into meaninglessness is to insist upon the distinction between Humanism (capital H), as developed by the organized Humanist movement, and humanism (small h), as professed by individuals and organizations outside of that movement, which include (in Paul Kurtz's words) "even those who officially downgrade the importance of the welfare of individuals in their earthly existence." (For example, Pope Paul VI referred to himself as a "humanist.") The distinction has practical implications: Who is the sort of Humanist, or potential Humanist, sought by the organized Humanist movement to help promote its philosophy, ethics, social concerns, and way of life? Of definitions of Humanism, there is no lack. They vary from the overly simplistic, such as "Humanism is the belief that, together, humans have what it takes to build a satisfying life on earth," to the overly detailed definitions in the Humanist Manifestos. A good place to look for what constitutes a valid criterion by which to measure different definitions of Humanism is the Statement of Purpose preamble to the Bylaws of the American Humanist Association, which declares the philosophy of Humanism to be -- a nontheistic world view that rejects all forms of supernaturalism and is in accord with the spirit and discoveries of science. In promoting confidence in the ability of humans to solve their problems through the use of free inquiry, reason, and imagination, the asso- ciation provides its members with opportunities to advance human welfare through fellowship, study, and service. Activities of the association are undertaken with respect for, and a desire to secure the survival of, all forms of life which inhabit planet Earth. The operation of the association is democratic, nonpartisan, and free of all authoritarian doctrines. Implicit here are four basic principles, the raison d'etre of the American Humanist Association: (1) A positive, secular, scientific, evolutionary, naturalistic philosophy and concept of humanity and the universe. (2) The negative aspect of that philosophy and concept: No belief in, reliance upon, or subservience to supposedly supernatural powers or their effluvia, such as a god or gods, a soul separate from the body, immortality, sin, answered prayer, or divine revelation. (3) Commitment to individual and social ethics that are based on changing human experience, compassion for other human beings, and concern for the related world of humankind and Earth -- rather than on supposedly divine injunctions, church pronouncements, divine rewards and punishments in this or a future life, and so forth. (4) The solution of individual and social problems by the methods of science, democracy, reason, and freedom, rather than by dependence on visions (divinely inspired or drug-induced), pseudoscience, or political, religious, or economic power-dictates. A feature of modern Humanism that differentiates it sharply from authoritarian religions, such as the Roman Catholic Church or Protestant bodies holding the Bible inviolate, is that Humanism supports unending questioning of assumptions in every field of thought and action -- including those of Humanism itself. Humanism affirms free inquiry, in the light of evidence and reason, into all aspects of the human condition and the cosmos, without any external limitations imposed by religious, political, economic, or other authorities. And this includes the freedom to apply the principles of Humanism according to one's own lights. These four principles may be expressed in more concise form as a two-sided statement with which few, if any, Humanists (capital H) would disagree -- Humanism is: (1) A naturalistic, scientific, secular philosophy or concept of humanity and the universe that precludes any belief in or reliance upon supposedly supernatural powers. (2) An ethics or way of life based on human experience and imbued with compassion for other human beings that calls for commitment to betterment of humanity through the methods of science, democracy, and reason, without any limitations by political, ecclesiastical, or other dictates. Individuals and organizations that subscribe to one but not the other of these two basic principles, or to a part but not all of either one, may be said to be humanistically inclined -- but they are not advocates of Humanism in the modern sense of the term. Those called Humanists (with a capital H) proclaim both items as intrinsic elements in their philosophy, way of life, religion, or whatever they choose to call their deepest affirmations. ----------------------------------------------------------- This is an updated text of the late Harvey Lebrun's essay, "Humanism With A Capital H," which first appeared as a longer paper in the August 1973 issue of Progressive World, and then, in 1977, was published in this shorter form as a brochure of the American Humanist Association. Mr. Lebrun was the founder of the Chapter Assembly of the American Humanist Association and the Fund for Chapter Expansion. He also chaired the AHA's Committee on Democratization, revising the association's bylaws. (C) Copyright 1994 and 1977 by the American Humanist Association (C) Copyright 1973 by Harvey Lebrun So long as profit is not your motive and you always include this copyright notice, please feel free to reproduce and distribute this material in electronic form as widely as you please. Nonprofit Humanist and Freethought publications have additional permission to republish this in print form. All other permission must be sought from the American Humanist Association, which can be contacted at the following address: AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSOCIATION PO BOX 1188 AMHERST NY 14226-7188 Phone: (800) 743-6646 ========================================================= || END OF ARTICLE || ========================================================= The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do. --Eric Hoffer =========================================================== || BEGINNING OF ARTICLE || =========================================================== THE POWER OF PREJUDICE, book review by Ron Patterson [from Free Thoughts, distributed by LaHumanist@aol.com ] *********************************************************** Free Thoughts is published by and for Freethought Forum (AOL) participants. It is an exchange of essays, ideas, meeting notes, minutes, book reviews and other information of interest to the freethought community. Address correspondence to Freethought Forum, Box 319, Meridianville, AL 35759. Our phone number is (205) 828-9135. *********************************************************** The famous trial lawyer, Gerry Spence (he is the one with the buckskin coat that has been on TV a lot lately), has written a book called "How to Argue and Win Every Time." Being a person who dearly loves to argue and win, I had to have the book. It is a jewel. I am only half way through the book, but so far my favorite chapter is called "The Power of Prejudice." I will list a few gems from that chapter here. "Religion as prejudice: Are not all religions prejudices? Or are we too prejudiced to acknowledge this? Indeed, should one wish to, what chance would one have in convincing a Baptist that Christ was not the son of God, or a devout Mormon that Brigham Young was a pariah with a penchant for the ladies? If you close this book at this point, it will have something to do with your prejudice. Try to convince a business tycoon that hoarding more than his share of the common wealth is driven by greed and evil. Instead, he will point to his freshly audited financial statement as evidence of his success, an accounting that makes mention of his struggling workers only as 'cost of Labor.' The notions that children ought not to starve, that the sick should be cared for, that our young should be educated, that every man, woman, and child should have a roof over their heads are seen not as notions of humanity, but as evil tenets of socialism. That we have more concern for starving puppies in the street than starving children under the bridge can only be attributed to a blinding prejudice." "The Preacher: Take the preacher as another example--here's one that may surprise you. Many, perhaps most, support the death penalty. Many preachers, although they profess that to follow Christian doctrine, suffer from 'dislocated love,' that is to say, they love God but hate man, although God has played more dirty tricks on them than any single person they can point to. It wouldn't surprise me, considering the wide support the clergy has given to our various wars, to see bumper stickers popping up on the cars of preachers that read KILL FOR CHRIST. In short, preachers are becoming politically more and more aligned with the far right, which paradoxically means they harbor less and less love for the human race. When preachers want money they tell us to give of ourselves, as Christ gave. But when some poor twisted soul whose psyche was mercilessly traumatized as an innocent child commits a crime, the preacher is likely to refer to the law of Moses -- 'An eye for an eye...' Or are we dealing once more with my prejudices?" In another place, he quotes Lord Acton's immortal law, but leaves in the part that most books of quotations drop: "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That unalterable rule applies both to God and man." A couple of other jewels from the book are: "I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief." I felt like he was talking to me when he wrote: "Rejection is the bed the iconoclast has prepared for himself." This book is published by St. Martin's press, originally at $22.95. It can be ordered from Bookstar or the Barnes & Noble catalog for $16.95. ========================================================= || END OF ARTICLE || ========================================================= "In every country and in every age the priest has been hostile to liberty; he is always in allegiance to the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection of his own." [Thomas Jefferson] =========================================================== || BEGINNING OF ARTICLE || =========================================================== Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. **** **** [From the archives of Bank of Wisdom] This file, its printout, or copies of either are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold. Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 **** **** [from] The Works of ROBERT G. INGERSOLL **** **** DIDEROT. DOUBT IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARD TRUTH. Diderot was born in 1713. His parents were in what may be called the humbler walks of life. Like Voltaire he was educated by the Jesuits. He had in him something of the vagabond, and was for several years almost a beggar in Paris. He was endeavoring to live by his pen. In that day and generation, a man without a patron, endeavoring to live by literature, was necessarily almost a beggar. He nearly starved -- frequently going for days without food. Afterward, when he had something himself, he was as generous as the air. No man ever was more willing to give, and no man less willing to receive, than Diderot. He wrote upon all conceivable subjects, that he might have bread. He even wrote sermons, and regretted it all his life. He and D'Alembert were the life and soul of the Encyclopedia. With infinite enthusiasm he helped to gather the knowledge of the world for the use of each and all. He harvested the fields of thought, separated the grain from the straw and chaff, and endeavored to throw away the seeds and fruit of superstition. His motto was, "Incredulity is the first step towards philosophy." He had the vices of most Christians -- was nearly as immoral as the majority of priests. His vices he shared in common, his virtues were his own. All who knew him united in saying that he had the pity of a woman, the generosity of a prince, the self-denial of an anchorite, the courage of Caesar, and the enthusiasm of a poet. He attacked with every power of his mind the superstition of his day. He said what he thought. The priests hated him. He was in favor of universal education -- the church despised it. He wished to put the knowledge of the whole world within reach of the poorest. He wished to drive from the gate of the Garden of Eden the cherubim of superstition, so that the child of Adam might return to eat once more the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Every Catholic was his enemy. His poor little desk was ransacked by the police searching for manuscripts in which something might be found that would justify the imprisonment of such a dangerous man. Whoever, in 1750, wished to increase the knowledge of mankind was regarded as the enemy of social order. The intellectual superstructure of France rests upon the Encyclopedia. The knowledge. given to the people was the impulse, the commencement, of the revolution that left the church without an altar and the king without a throne. Diderot thought for himself, and bravely gave his thoughts to others. For this reason he was regarded as a criminal. He did not expect his reward in another world. He did not do what he did to please some imaginary God. He labored for mankind. He wished to lighten the burdens of those who should live after him. Hear these noble words: "The more man ascends through the past, and the more he launches into the future, the greater he will be, and all these philosophers and ministers and truth-telling men who have fallen victims to the stupidity of nations, the atrocities of priests, the fury of tyrants, what consolation was left for them in death? This: That prejudice would pass, and that posterity would pour out the vial of ignominy upon their enemies. O Posterity! Holy and sacred stay of the unhappy and the oppressed; thou who art just, thou who art incorruptible, thou who findest the good man, who unmaskest the hypocrite, who breakest down the tyrant, may thy sure faith, thy consoling faith never, never abandon me!" Posterity is for the philosopher what the other world is for the devotee. Diderot took the ground that, if orthodox religion be true Christ was guilty of suicide. Having the power to defend himself he should have used it. Of course it would not do for the church to allow a man to die in peace who had added to the intellectual wealth of the world. The moment Diderot was dead, Catholic priests began painting and recounting the horrors of his expiring moments. They described him as overcome with remorse, as insane with fear; and these falsehoods have been repeated by the Protestant world, and will probably be repeated by thousands of ministers after we are dead. The truth is, he had passed his three-score years and ten. He had lived for seventy-one years. He had eaten his supper. He had been conversing with his wife. He was reclining in his easy chair. His mind was at perfect rest. He had entered, without knowing it, the twilight of his last day. Above the horizon was the evening star, telling of sleep. The room grew still and the stillness was lulled by the murmur of the street. There were a few moments of perfect peace. The wife said, "He is asleep." She enjoyed his repose, and breathed softly that he might not be disturbed. The moments wore on, and still he slept. Lovingly, softly, at last she touched him. Yes, he was asleep. He had become a part of the eternal silence. [Next month: Hume] ========================================================= || END OF ARTICLE || ========================================================= "While we are under the tyranny of Priests [...] it will ever be in their interest, to invalidate the law of nature and reason, in order to establish systems incompatible therewith." [Ethan Allen, _Reason the Only Oracle of Man_] =========================================================== || BEGINNING OF ARTICLE || =========================================================== This was written when Wim had to temporarily sign of the secular humanist email discussion list. ABC of Humanism, by Wim Ruyten Agnostic or atheist, it doesn't matter Both can compete for the best way to be Certainly beating out mindless religion Daring to fathom that mankind is free Even when granting that life can be difficult Fear is superfluous for we are sure God is a shadow of sheer superstition Hell a concoction no man shall endure Isn't it telling that we can accept them: Jews, Muslims, Christians, whoever else Keeping no record of petty transgressions Looking instead for broad parallels? Morals, some say, are likely our downfall Never there's been a more common mistake Other than reason there isn't an answer Prayers, by contrast, our brothers forsake Questions are welcome, no subject off limits Reaching no verdict which scripture affirms Sin as a judgment on our mere existence This we deny in the strongest of terms Use then your passion, your pleasure in living Venture forth with us, join in our quest Wanting to spread the great find of the humanist XX or XY, no chromosome's best Yes there are those who long to discover Zero on in, we will tell them the truth! -- Wim Ruyten ------------------------------ [He had to say farewell as he was compelled to leave the secular humanist email discussion mailing list.] you can receive the discussion list by sending a one line message as follows, if your name were, say, pat robertson: subscribe sechum-l pat roberston to: listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu ========================================================= || END OF ARTICLE || ========================================================= '...the Bible as we have it contains elements that are scientifically incorrect or even morally repugnant. No amount of "explaining away" can convince us that such passages are the product of Divine Wisdom.' -- Bernard J. Bamberger, _The Story of Judaism_ =========================================================== || BEGINNING OF ARTICLE || =========================================================== GIORDANO BRUNO THE FORGOTTEN PHILOSOPHER 6 page printout Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. This disk, its printout, or copies of either are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold. Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 **** **** In the year 1548 an Italian boy was born in the little town of Nola, not far from Vesuvius. Although, he spent the greater part of his life in hostile and foreign countries he was drawn back to his home at the end of his travels and after he had written nearly twenty books. When he was thirteen years old he began to go to school at the Monastery of Saint Domenico. It was a famous place. Thomas Aquinas, himself a Dominican, had lived there and taught. Within a few years Bruno had become a Dominican priest. It was not long before the monks of Saint Dominico began to learn something about the extraordinary enthusiasm of their young colleague. He was frank, outspoken and lacking in reticence. It was not long before he got himself into trouble. It was evident that this boy could not be made to fit into Dominican grooves. One of the first things that a student has to learn is to give the teacher the answers that the teacher wants. The average teacher is the preserver of the ancient land marks. The students are his audience. They applaud but they must not innovate. They must learn to labor and to wait. It was not Bruno's behavior but his opinions that got him into trouble. He ran away from school, from his home town, from his own country and tried to find among strangers and foreigners a congenial atmosphere for his intellectual integrity that he could not find at home. It is difficult not to get sentimental about Bruno. He was a man without a country and, finally, without a church. Bruno was interested in the nature of ideas. Although the name was not yet invented it will be perfectly proper to dub Bruno as an epistemologist, or as a pioneer Semanticist. He takes fresh stock of the human mind. It is an interesting fact that here, at the close of the 16th Century, a man, closed in on all sides by the authority of priestly tradition, makes what might be termed a philosophical survey of the world which the science of the time was disclosing. It is particularly interesting because it is only in the 20th Century that the habit of this sort of speculation is again popular. Bruno lived in a period when philosophy became divorced from science. Perhaps it might be better to say that science became divorced from philosophy. Scientists became too intrigued with their new toys to bother about philosophy. They began to busy themselves with telescopes and microscopes and chemical glassware. In 1581 Bruno went to Paris and began to give lectures on philosophy. It was not an uncommon thing for scholars to wander from place to place. He made contacts easily and was able to interest any group with whom he came in contact with the fire of his ideas. His reputation reached King Henry III who became curious to look over this new philosophical attraction. Henry Ill was curious to find out if Bruno's art was that of the magician or the sorcerer. Bruno had made a reputation for himself as a magician who could inspire greater memory retention. Bruno satisfied the king that his system was based upon organized knowledge. Bruno found a real patron in Henry Ill and it had much to do with the success of his short career in Paris. It was about this time that one of Bruno's earliest works was published, De Umbras Idearum, The Shadows of Ideas, which was shortly followed by Ars Memoriae, Art of Memory. In these books he held that ideas are only the shadows of truth. The idea was extremely novel in his time. In the same year a third book followed: Brief Architecture of the Art of Lully with its Completion. Lully had tried to prove the dogmas of the church by human reason. Bruno denies the value of such mental effort. He points out that Christianity is entirely irrational, that it is contrary to philosophy and that it disagrees with other religions. He points out that we accept it through faith, that revelation, so called, has no scientific basis. In his fourth work he selects the Homeric sorcerer Circi who changed men into beasts and makes Circi discuss with her handmaiden a type of error which each beast represents. The book 'Cantus Circaeus,' The Incantation of Circe, shows Bruno working with the principle of the association of ideas, and continually questioning the value of traditional knowledge methods. In the year 1582, at the age of 34 he wrote a play Il Candelajo, The Chandler. He thinks as a candle-maker who works with tallow and grease and then has to go out and vend his wares with shouting and ballyhoo: "Behold in the candle borne by this Chandler, to whom I give birth, that which shall clarify certain shadows of ideas ... I need not instruct you of my belief. Time gives all and takes all away; everything changes but nothing perishes. One only is immutable, eternal and ever endures, one and the same with itself. With this philosophy my spirit grows, my mind expands. Whereof, however obscure the night may be, I await the daybreak, and they who dwell in day look for night ... Rejoice therefore, and keep whole, if you can, and return love for love." There came a time when the novelty of Bruno had worn off in France and he felt that it was time to move on. He went to England to begin over again and to find a fresh audience. He failed to make scholastic contact with Oxford. Oxford, like other European universities of this time, paid scholastic reverence to the authority of Aristotle. A great deal has been written about the Middle Ages being throttled by the dead hand of Aristotle. It was not the methods of Aristotle nor the fine mind of Aristotle which were so much in question as it was the authority of Aristotle. A thing must be believed because Aristotle said it. It was part of the method of Bruno to object in his own strenuous fashion to the cramming down one's throat of statements of fact because Aristotle had made such statements when they were plainly at variance with the fresh sense experience which science was producing. In his work The Ash Wednesday Supper, a story of a private dinner, being entertained by English guests, Bruno spreads the Copernican doctrine. A new astronomy had been offered the world at which people were laughing heartily, because it was at variance with the teachings of Aristotle. Bruno was carrying on a spirited propaganda in a fighting mood. Between the year 1582 and 1592 there was hardly a teacher in Europe who was persistently, openly and actively spreading the news about the "universe which Copernicus had charted, except Giordano Bruno. A little later on another and still more famous character was to take up the work: Galileo. Galileo never met Bruno in person and makes no mention of him in his works, although he must have read some of them. We may not blame Galileo for being diplomat enough to withhold mention of a recognized heretic. Galileo has often been criticized because he played for personal safety in the matter of his own difficulties. We demand a great deal of our heroes. While in England Bruno had a personal audience with Queen Elizabeth. He wrote of her in the superlative fashion of the time calling her diva, Protestant Ruler, sacred, divine, the very words he used for His Most Christian Majesty and Head of The Holy Roman Empire. This was treasured against him when he was later brought to trial as an atheist, an infidel and a heretic. Queen Elizabeth did not think highly of Bruno. She thought him as wild, radical, subversive and dangerous. Bruno found Englishmen rather crude. Bruno had no secure place in either Protestant or Roman Catholic religious communities. He carried out his long fight against terrible odds. He had lived in Switzerland and France and was now in England and left there for Germany. He translated books, read proofs, and got together groups and lectured for whatever he could get out of it. It requires no great stretch of the imagination to picture him as a man who mended his own clothes, who was often cold, hungry and shabby. There are only a few things that we know about Bruno with great certainty and these facts are the ideas which he left behind in his practically forgotten books, the bootleg literature of their day. After twenty years in exile we picture him as homesick, craving the sound of his own native tongue and the companionship of his own countrymen. But he continued to write books. In his book De la Causa, principio et uno, On Cause, Principle, and Unity we find prophetic phrases: "This entire globe, this star, not being subject to death, and dissolution and annihilation being impossible anywhere in Nature, from time to time renews itself by changing and altering all its parts. There is no absolute up or down, as Aristotle taught; no absolute position in space; but the position of a body is relative to that of other bodies. Everywhere there is incessant relative change in position throughout the universe, and the observer is always at the center of things." His other works were The Infinity, the Universe and Its Worlds, The Transport of Intrepid Souls, and Cabala of the Steed like unto Pegasus with the Addition of the Ass of Cyllene, an ironical discussion of the pretensions of superstition. This "ass," says Bruno, is to be found everywhere, not only in the church but in courts of law and even in colleges. In his book The Expulsion of the 'Triumphant Beast' he flays the pedantries he finds in Catholic and Protestant cultures. In yet another book The Threefold Leas and Measure of the Three Speculative Sciences and the Principle of Many Practical Arts, we find a discussion on a theme which was to be handled in a later century by the French philosopher Descartes. The book was written five years before Descartes was born and in it he says: "Who so itcheth to Philosophy must set to work by putting all things to the doubt." He also wrote Of the Unit, Quantity and Shape and another work On Images, Signs and Ideas, as well as On What is Immense and Innumerable; Exposition of the Thirty Seals and List of Metaphysical Terms for Taking the Study of Logic and Philosophy in Hand. His most interesting title is One Hundred Sixty Articles Directed Against the Mathematics and Philosophers of the Day. One of his last works, The Fastenings of Kind, was unfinished. It is easy to get an impression of the reputation which Bruno had created by the year 1582 in the minds of the clerical authorities of southern Europe. He had written of an infinite universe which had left no room for that greater infinite conception which is called God. He could not conceive that God and nature could be separate and distinct entities as taught by Genesis, as taught by the Church and as even taught by Aristotle. He preached a philosophy which made the mysteries of the virginity of Mary, of the crucifixion and the mass, meaningless. He was so naive that he could not think of his own mental pictures as being really heresies. He thought of the Bible as a book which only the ignorant could take literally. The Church's methods were, to say the least, unfortunate, and it encouraged ignorance from the instinct of self-preservation. Bruno wrote: "Everything, however men may deem it assured and evident, proves, when it is brought under discussion to be no less doubtful than are extravagant and absurd beliefs." He coined the phrase "Libertes philosophica." The right to think, to dream, if you like, to make philosophy. After 14 years of wandering about Europe Bruno turned his steps toward home. Perhaps he was homesick. Some writers have it that he was framed. For Bruno to go back to Italy is as strange a paradox as that of the rest of his life. He was invited to Venice by a young man whose name was Mocenigo, who offered him a home and who then brought charges against him before the Inquisition. The case dragged on. He was a prisoner in the Republic of Venice but a greater power wanted him and he was surrendered to Rome. For six years, between 1593 and 1600 he lay in a Papal prison. Was he forgotten, tortured? Whatever historical records there are never have been published by those authorities who have them. In the year 1600 a German scholar Schoppius happened to be in Rome and wrote about Bruno, who was interrogated several times by the Holy Office and convicted by the chief theologians. At one time he obtained forty days to consider his position; by and by he promised to recant, then renewed his "follies." Then he got another forty days for deliberation but did nothing but baffle the pope and the Inquisition. After two years in the custody of the Inquisitor he was taken on February ninth to the palace of the Grand Inquisitor to hear his sentence on bended knee, before the expert assessors and the Governor of the City. Bruno answered the sentence of death by fire with the threatening: "Perhaps you, my judges, pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear than I receive it." He was given eight more days to see whether he would repent. But it was no use. He was taken to the stake and as he was dying a crucifix was presented to him, but he pushed it away with fierce scorn. They were wise in getting rid of him for he wrote no more books, but they should have strangled him when he was born. As it turned out, they did not get rid of him at all. His fate was not an unusual one for heretics; this strange madcap genius was quickly forgotten. His works were honored by being placed on the Index expurgatorius on August 7, 1603, and his books became rare. They never obtained any great popularity. In the early part of the 18th Century English deists rediscovered Bruno and tried to excite the imagination of the public with the retelling of the story of his life, but this aroused no particular enthusiasm. The enthusiasm of German philosophy reached the subject of Bruno when Jacobi (1743-1819) drew attention to the genius of Bruno and German thinkers generally recognized his genius but they did not read his books. In the latter part of the 19th Century Italian scholars began to be intrigued with Bruno and for a while "Bruno Mania" was part of the intellectual enthusiasm of cultured Italians. Bruno began to be a symbol to represent the forward-looking free-thinking type of philosopher and scientist, and has become a symbol of scientific martyrdom. Bruno was a truant, a philosophical tramp, a poetic vagrant, but has no claims to the name of scientist. His works are not found in American libraries. In this age of biographical writing it is surprising that no modern author has attempted to reconstruct his life, important because it is in the direct line of modern progress. Bruno was a pioneer who roused Europe from its long intellectual sleep. He was martyred for his enthusiasm. Bruno was born five years after Copernicus died. He had bequeathed an intoxicating idea to the generation that was to follow him. We hear a lot in our own day about the expanding universe. We have learned to accept it as something big. The thought of the Infinity of the Universe was one of the great stimulating ideas of the Renaissance. It was no longer a 15th Century God's backyard. And it suddenly became too vast to be ruled over by a 15th Century God. Bruno tried to imagine a god whose majesty should dignify the majesty of the stars. He devised no new metaphysical quibble nor sectarian schism. He was not playing politics. He was fond of feeling deep thrills over high visions and he liked to talk about his experiences. And all of this refinement went through the refiners' fire -- that the world might be made safe from the despotism of the ecclesiastic 16th Century Savage. He suffered a cruel death and achieved a unique martyr's fame. He has become the Church's most difficult alibi. She can explain away the case of Galileo with suave condescension. Bruno sticks in her throat. He is one martyr whose name should lead all the rest. He was not a mere religious sectarian who was caught up in the psychology of some mob hysteria. He was a sensitive, imaginative poet, fired with the enthusiasm of a larger vision of a larger universe ... and he fell into the error of heretical belief. For this poets vision he was kept in a dark dungeon for eight years and then taken out to a blazing market place and roasted to death by fire. It is an incredible story. The "Church" will never outlive him. 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