Newsletter Blogs

September 2023

Posted on | by Wayne Wilson

Chaplain’s Corner

Train to Live

For the past seven years, I’ve had the honor of helping people die. I’ve sat in homes as children and grandchildren have shared memories. I have sung childhood songs in Emergency Rooms. I have spent a great deal of time in the ICU with patients of all ages. I attend most meetings where doctors tell family members that their loved ones have no chance of recovery. I do my best to fulfill last requests.

I have also sat with dozens of people during the last years and months of their life. I have validated children and grandchildren whose loved ones no longer recognize them. Recently a wife said, “This person is very nice, but he isn’t my husband.” The term Ambiguous Grief applies well to the challenge of dementia, which is probably the hardest condition to deal with.

I am struck by the power of these final moments. Cliches are annoying because they are easy to say and hard to live, yet it remains a common experience that we are most aware of our life and its value when we are closest to death. I playfully but seriously call my end of life work “death at a discount,” because I have that most precious experience of gaining end of life perspective while I am still relatively young, while I can do something about that perspective I have gained.

I am excited that I get to pivot my work from helping with death to helping with life. I already do that to a large extent, but I can’t think of a more urgent responsibility than the one that I will begin next week, that of the Suicide Prevention Coordinator for the Army National Guard.

I look forward to serving those whose service has cost them so much. However, you feel about the military, and there is plenty to discuss on that topic, the cost of military service is real and urgent. I feel called to serve people at the extremes of human experience for several reasons. It is the best use for my intense brain and intense life experience, and I enjoy both the challenge and fulfillment of being able to do good when the stakes are so high. I also value the clarity that these extreme situations bring. What is true in the extremes is usually true in our day to day lives as well, we just have a harder time feeling them.

One of the greatest challenges of being alive is that we are evolved for survival, not necessarily for thriving. In order to feel motivated when we don’t fear for our lives, we have to functionally trick ourselves, or at least impose a structure and discipline that sustains and elevates us. That’s a key point of civilization.

For this job, I want to shift the focus from Suicide Prevention to Life Training, because I believe that’s the best way to address the challenges and pain that are so intense that people would rather tap out than face it (not to oversimplify the complex dynamics around suicide.)

Here are a few “Train to Live” principles that I would like to share.

Name your reality. First, we have to be aware of our contexts and their impact on us. Our current reality really is a global dumpster fire in many ways. The individually focused wellness industry is unethical in part because it fails to take adequate account of the countless ways our environment challenges our efforts to be well. Once we can name those, we get a sense of our challenges and opportunities.

Craft your life. Once we have a sense of what we are dealing with, we can design the best life possible within those constraints. I love the principle of letting our dreams have their own lives, to not limit our dreams, because our dreams tell us what we value. What makes your life worth living? What is your purpose? These are the big questions, the life quest. When we work towards routine and practice and goals that align with our values, we can feel a plugged connection and meaning that helps us feel.

Find your comforts. The term “Self-care” is thrown around all the time, and there are both gentle and rigorous forms of self-care, and we need both. I like the framework of clarity, comfort, and challenge. Sometimes we need to understand what is going on. Sometimes we are ready to work hard. And other times we just need to rest. When we figure out a list of things that help us feel better quickly, we can push into discomfort more consistently. I personally love good food, clean sheets, journaling, and mobile games, among other things.

Develop your skills. We are evolved to want to avoid pain, and understandably, since pain is an alarm system to tell us to stop doing things that harm us, but the discomfort that relates to growth is different. Leaning into discomfort is one of the most powerful paradigm shifts we can experience. When I am working with extreme challenges as a Chaplain, I have functional limitless emotional endurance, because I recover as quickly as I expend energy. I am aligned with my purpose, and I have developed the skills and practices I need to feel good day to day, even when working with the extremes of human experience. I invite you to figure out what skills and routines you need sufficient to metabolize your feelings and experiences. For example, the practice of gratitude has been shown to decrease our stress levels by about 25%.

Foster your fortitude. This principle belongs at the beginning, end, and every step of the path to wellness. Fortitude is the mother of all virtues because if we cannot endure discomfort, including emotional discomfort, we can’t engage reality productively. I am convinced that the root of all evil (I love grand, sweeping statements) is pain and effort avoidance. We don’t want to hurt. We don’t want to work. We don’t want to face the hard truth about ourselves. Perhaps my most important practice has been the simple but brutally challenging experience of simply sitting with my pain and discomfort, without resistance. Learning to companion my pain gently has strengthened me so that I know I can make it through pretty much anything, and that I’m ok even when I wonder whether I can.

The extremes illuminate the ordinary. You don’t need to be military or a first responder to benefit from these practices. Even lives considered ordinary contain extraordinary challenges. This is the cost of being human, of being alive. The purpose of life is to live it. So might as well train to live well.

—Chaplain Jared Anderson

President’ Message

Happy Fall Y’all!

What a summer this has been! 2023 has not disappointed with the hot weather, the beautiful sunrises and sunsets, life after pandemic becoming more recognizable and our beautiful organization coming back to life in person.

Our annual BBQ was last month and was a blast. It was so nice to see so many friendly faces both familiar and new. Even though we got a big rainstorm, which was awesome, it added to the adventure of the evening. In the upcoming months, we have wonderful speakers and our end of the year Humanlight Celebration. Topics like Death with Dignity, Incomparable Good with Inexcusable Costs, and many more.

I have been thinking very heavily about humanism and humanitarianism. Interestingly, conversations about this topic have organically presented themselves recently more than usual…enough to notice the pattern. For me it is important to pay attention and to notice things like this. As you all know, there is still much disconnection and struggle in our society and the world as a whole. The aftermath of the pandemic isolation and its effects is more clearly visible as we take a look at how we are all going to move forward in our individual lives, our communities, our nation, and our world. Our perceptions are our realities and those can be affected by learning, participation in life, and constantly striving to be better. Ask yourself, often, questions of reflection, of action, of curiosity and of wonder. This will help guide you and empower you to live your life on your terms and in your way.

With our humanistic views of ethics and our beliefs in the principles of affirming human worth, dignity, compassion, morality, reason, critical thinking, scientific inquiry, naturalism, and democracy, it is imperative to work these principles into our daily lives and walk the humanist walk. We are a sound people. We are an empowered people. We are looking for ways to assist in creating a world of compassionate accountability, solid moral ethics and humanitarian assistance in small and large ways. Ask yourself, how does this resonate with you? How are you helping (even in small ways)? What do you believe?

Utah is a beautiful place. One of the best, in my opinion. It is environmentally beautiful, still rather unknown in the larger scale of the planet, so it hasn’t been overrun. The people here are friendly, kind, and helpful, for the most part. But most of all, there is a yearning for growth, connection, and an authentic experience to life. Humanitarian efforts are in need and are literally everywhere if you look. Our active belief in the value of human life enables us to practice benevolent treatment of others and aid help reduce suffering.

I am beyond excited to see you all in the upcoming months. Our community is growing, and all are welcome here. Bring your friends to hear the speakers. Their messages are important for everyone. Knowledge is power and there will be cookies!

Friends, we think about you often. We understand the plight of our world and discuss how we can show up, help, and empower others. You are valued, you are appreciated, and we hope to see you very soon.

—Melanie White-Curtis
President, HoU

The Philosophy Bar

Long time HoU member Granger Peck has published a new novel:

Philosophy Professor Dimitri Solomon, in his  middle years, decides to go into the ‘bar’ business in Salt Lake City Utah. Not a bar that serves alcohol and caters to boisterous social intercourse, but a bar that presents eminent philosophers who are invited to speak to the patrons. While soft drinks, and simple food are enjoyed, the speaker engages the patrons in classroom-like circumstance—they are invited to ask questions and after the lecture and discussion, they gather at tables or at the bar to continue conversations about philosophical issues.

Dimitri is assisted by his elderly mentor, Professor Alexander Von Williams, and his loving friend, the beautiful Anna Carreras. Anna becomes the “bartender in chief.” The three of them surprisingly make a mild success of the Bar and continue to offer philosophy and food four nights a week in the context of Mormon culture and a very perplexing crime and punishment landscape.

A plethora of characters, police, lawyers, authorities of the church, and a variety of sagacious professors,  mix into the drama, which reveals some startling confrontations between what ought to be and what is  the case in the crucible of human life.

For readers who want to be enlightened while they are pulled into some intense drama, The Philosophy Bar will enhance your understanding of many things you may have left behind, and it will surely supplement your understanding of how philosophy will always be the mother of all disciplines and the method that leads to the explanation of all phenomena.

The book is available on Amazon.com in Kindle Edition format.

–Granger Peck, author

Bill of Obligations: Ten Habits of Good Citizens

~Book Review~

This book, written by Richard Haass, begins by delineating how Rights enshrined in the US Constitution have some limits and are affected by democratic deteriorations over time. They are presented as a primer of American democracy. He documents how they came to occupy a central place in our history. The bulk of the book details a list of obligations that citizens are subject to in order to preserve our American way of life. A full chapter in the book is dedicated to each of these obligations.

· Be informed

· Get involved

· Stay open to compromise

· Remain civil

· Reject violence

· Value norms

· Promote the common good

· Respect government service

· Support the teaching of civics

· Put country first

Richard Haass is a long-time public servant who has been president of the Council ono Foreign Relations, policy director for the US Department of State, close advisor to Colin Powell, and has received a State Department Distinguished Service Award. He says that he is neither a Republican nor Democrat now but has spent much of his life as an active Republican. Many of his quotes come Presidents Bush, and Reagan. He makes persuasive arguments for his belief that virtually everyone in the USA should be informed about who we are as a country, be civilized, be involved, reject violence, and put the needs of our country first over political groups. He also advocates for teaching history and civics in all schools. I highly recommend this book.

—Wayne Wilson
HoU Board Member

August 2023

Posted on | by Wayne Wilson

Chaplain’s Corner

Hell on Earth

Ok, perhaps not hell, but just the hottest summer ever. So far.

Temperatures over 100℉ (53.3℃ ) have swept multiple continents for much of July. Temperatures over 110℉ (43.3℃ ) have baked Phoenix, Arizona for 25 days straight. China hit 52.2℃ (126℉), and Death Valley 128℉ (53.3℃ ). So yes, even this heat feels pretty hellish. In addition to the pervasive heat, floods and fires have hit with unusual frequency and ferocity. Unfortunately, such disruptions are becoming the new normal.

Over the past several decades, humans have been experiencing steadily increasing discomfort and disasters, with already suffering populations suffering disproportionately. The bad news is that we not only will continue to suffer more of the same, but we are approaching a tipping point where any number of cataclysms could shift us into an entirely new way of existing (or struggling to) on the planet as a whole.It seems cliche to say that this moment of history is the most important ever, but in our case, it is precisely true. We are on the cusp of compromising the possibilities of life on earth, and for the first time, we have the technology and access to resources to do something about it. Even if we were to immediately stop the use of fossil fuels, the earth will continue to warm, remaining hot and hellish for centuries. And we all know that is not going to happen, so the next few decades will determine the level of discomfort our descendants (and all of life on earth) will need to endure for the rest of human history. Most troubling of all is the possibility of cataclysmic tipping points such the collapse of the Gulf Stream or the collapse of the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet, which alone could raise sea levels as much as ten feet (important to remember as we contemplate this that about 40% of humanity lives on the coasts). Ironically and perhaps poetically, this hell on earth actually is punishment for our sins, a natural consequence of unsustainable pillaging of earth’s resources that have destabilized ecosystems countless millions of years in the making. Our environment can be hellish, but what really characterizes hell on earth is the way we humans treat each other. In this exploration of hell on earth, I haven’t even touched on how we humans treat each other, with war and abuse so common, exploitation and conflict the norm. I’ve darkly joked that humans are capable of extraordinary good… after exhausting all other options. So, what can we do as humans as humanists when our existence on the planet is literally at stake, and we are living during what is probably the most pivotal time in earth’s history? I want to share some Chaplain skills, which is one of the key purposes of this column. The first thing we can do is remain aware. When people ask me how I cope with being a Chaplain, helping people with death and tragedy and trauma every day, I respond, “It’s true whether or not I’m looking.” The religious beliefs that God is going to fix everything or that everything is going to be better after we die function as avoidance mechanisms that decrease motivation and effectiveness to actually address our increasingly urgent problems. No matter how hard reality gets, facing it remains our only hope of improving or dealing with that reality.Before I taught World Religions, I was familiar with the paraphrase “religion is the opiate of the masses,” but I remember being inspired when I read the whole quote from Karl Marx: “Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sign of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusion.” Remaining aware helps us take responsibility to act and improve the world. Remaining aware hurts, so the second thing we can do is to practice pivoting our relationship to pain. Not coincidentally, increasing fortitude in the presence of emotional pain and distress is a key aspect of Chaplain training. We literally calibrate our nervous systems to remain present and gentle, calm, and curious in crisis. We train ourselves to engage both compassionately and decisively. Instead of resisting pain, as understandable as that is, we can bring curiosity to our pain. Pain is information, an alarm system telling us that something is wrong. I use the metaphor of clean pain versus infected pain. Resistance and avoidance make our pain infected, while facing our pain calmly keeps our pain clean, paradoxically minimizing it. I am not in any way dismissing, discounting, or glorifying pain, just acknowledging that we all need to deal with it. Allowing pain to flow through us without resistance will increase our capacity to bear it, and that fortitude provides our best chance to face challenges in a healthy and constructive way. As Gandalf tells Frodo when he said he wished he didn’t live in such times of hardship, “‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’”

Finally, we can show up with imagination and determination, key human and humanist ideals. One of the fundamental challenges of being human is that our evolution motivates us for survival rather than thriving. We are often at our best when things get quite bad. Again, I am not romanticizing or glorifying any of this, just pointing out that we humans are staggeringly resilient and creative, and our potential is often not met until we meet extreme challenges head on. We are radically adaptable and imaginative. We are the only animals that can cooperate flexibly in large groups and most significantly, we seem to be the only animals who can imagine what does not yet exist. This is the key to both our destruction and hopefully our redemption—we can imagine solutions to even cataclysmic problems. Yes, hell exists on earth, but so does heaven, and that remains something that we can create together.

—Chaplain Jared Anderson

President’s Message

I hope this newsletter finds you happy, healthy and enjoying the summer so far. Summer for me is filled with lively adventures, growing gardens, kids playing in the water, time with family/friends and oh so many BBQs. It feels like the opposite of winter, where springing forward into activity seems natural as opposed to cuddling into a cozy routine while the season sleeps.

Interestingly enough, with the world changing in so many ways, the seasons changing do not derail the chaos we face as human beings. It has become increasingly difficult to quiet the political, socioeconomic, and even personal struggles that are part of our lives now. Technology is wonderful, but it is noisy and constant. This is hard to navigate and is especially treacherous if one is trying to quiet themselves to focus on themselves, their priorities and their mental health. It can make life hard or feel very difficult. This is very real.

There is considerable talk nowadays about mental health and self-care. Both terms feel almost overused and dulled down, but they are a critical part of our lives and help us navigate our world, each other and ourselves. There are so many atrocities and hardships that we endure that the good sometimes feels lost or nonexistent. I see you. I hear you. I feel what you go through. I am also here to help, and so is our group.

The time has come for our group to come back to life, fully and then some. We are starting with our annual BBQ next month and will then have speakers each month following. We will be incorporating activities, community service, visits to the Capital, all things that will be supportive of our messages, our place in this world and most importantly – our support of the human beings on this planet…and you!

My message is that even though the world is hard and we are facing tough things all of the time, there is SO much beauty and good out there. The good is often not as loud as the chaos, but it is firmly there. I will ask: Do you seek the good? Do you participate in trying to promote goodness wherever you are in your life? Are you in need of more good in your world? What do you feel compelled to do about it? Would you like to come and help us change things for good? Even coming to the monthly speaking engagements is a force for good. Empowerment through knowledge and information is invaluable to you and your lives (and we have cookies!!). Standing with a group of like-minded folks is a positive connection that will leave you feeling good. Fighting the good fight adds strength in numbers and personally. You are welcome to all of this and more.

My dear humanists, we are so excited to see you in person. We are working to establish a community again that is full of options for you all and we would love for you to tell all you know about us. Everyone is welcome here.

Remember, you are the master of your life. You are the captain of your soul and the creator of your world. Come as you are and participate as you can.

I send my vision of hope and kindness to you all and am so excited to see you in a few weeks at the BBQ.

—Melanie White-Curtis
President, HoU

Women’s Equality

Alice Paul (1885-1977) was born to a New Jersey family of Quakers. She received her educational degrees from the United States and United Kingdom, earning Masters and Doctorate in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania and a Law degree from Washington College of Law and Law Masters and Doctoral degrees from the American University. In 1913 she, along with Lucy Burns, formed the Congressional Union for Women’s Suffrage, which later reconstituted as the National Women’s Party. Their goal, along with many women including Black Women working at the time on the Mott Amendment, named after Lucretia Mott, “Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction.” There is no amendment that included women’s rights in the United States Constitution. Naysayers at the time claimed that the14th amendment, approved on July 9, 1868, also known as one of the “Reconstruction Amendments,” included the rights for women. At this time women were not allowed to vote, but it gave Black men the right to vote, but many Southern States had requirements that restricted their ability to vote. On April 2, 1917, Montana elected the first woman to congress: Jeannette Rankin. She worked tirelessly to secure women the right to voted and improve working conditions. Ergo, becoming the only women to vote for Mott amendment on August 18, 1920. The 19th Amendment passed, allowing some women to vote. Black Women were still not allowed to vote until passing the Voting Rights Bill of 1964.

By 1943 the amendment’s wording changed and became known as the Paul amendment, named after Alice Paul, who at the time was Vice President of the National Women’s Party. She used wording similar to the verbiage used in the Fourteenth Amendment. “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Later this came to be known as the “Equality Rights Amendment” or the “Equal Rights Amendment.” In 1972 President Nixon issued a proclamation designing August 26 as “Women’s Right Day,” since then it has been declared as “Women’s Equality Day.”

Congress originally passed 1972, with a ratification deadline by March 1979, a seven- year passage requirement, the only amendment to date that had deadline for ratification. In 1977, 35 States passed the Equal Right Amendment out of 38 States required. As the deadline approached arch-opponents, like Phyllis Schlafly, claimed the passage of the Equal Right Amendment would force women to go to war, would lose their right to child support and alimony, and society would fall apart. “The women’s libbers are radicals who are waging a total assault on the family, on marriage, and on children.” Phyllis Schlafly single handedly turned the Equal Rights Amendment from a widely accepted concept into culture war with an uncanny knack for bringing together women of diverse religions.

 1977 was also known as the “International Women Year.” The United Nations was holding conferences across the United States to address wage inequality of women, women’s right to body autonomy, child care, to name a few, and to select delegates to their International Conference. Approximately 14,000 Mormon women and men took over the conference in Salt Lake City. United State Senator from Utah, Jake Garn, inserted an anti-Equal Rights Amendment speech of Apostle Boyd K. Packer into the Congressional Record. Mormons tried to take over the Washington State, Honolulu, Hawaii, Houston, Texas, and the Sterling Park, Virginia conferences.

President Trump’s administration, in a memo, instructed the Justice Department, the National Archives and Records Administration to decline the publish the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, despite it achieving the necessary steps. On January 31, 2023, Congress passed a Joint resolution that states: “This joint resolution provides that the Equal Right Amendment which prohibits discrimination on the basis sex, was ratified by three-fourth of the States and is therefore a valid Constitutional Amendment, regardless of any time limit that was in the original proposal.” Congress extended the deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and three more States ratified: Nevada 2017, Illinois 2018, and Virginia 2022.

Addendum: Remember to Celebrate August 26, International Women Equality Day. Vote in your municipal races. The 27th Amendment took 202 years to pass, making it the longest period for an amendment to be passed. I recommend reading for the summer dog days Pedestals and Podiums: Utah Women, Religion Authority and Equal Rights by Martha Sonntag Bradley a local author.

—Cindy King

Summer Picnic

August 19

Sugar House Park

1330 E 2100 S

Salt Lake City, UT 84106

Sego Lily Pavilion

6:00 PM

BBQ style food provided

July 2023

Posted on | by Wayne Wilson

Darwin’s Religious Views

Although it can be done, it is difficult to discover Charles Darwin’s religious viewpoints for three reasons. 1. It changed with time. 2. He was loathe to offend religious people. 3. He was not above appearing religious if it would advance his theory of life’s evolution by natural selection.

Darwin’s family religious heritage was Unitarian. Unitarians, as a group, were the liberal free thinkers of nineteenth century England. Darwin’s great grandfather Erasmus Darwin was the consummate enlightenment skeptic who bordered on atheism. Erasmus, in his evolutionary treatise Zoonomia, did add a whiff of theism. Charles’ father, Dr. Robert Darwin, was also a skeptic and an evolutionist (transmutationist, as it was called) and was agnostic regarding religion.

Darwin’s boyhood interests included horseback riding, hunting, fishing, and shooting. He developed a passion for collecting shells, minerals, and insects. At one point his father told him, “You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat catching, and you will be a disgrace to yourself and your family.” His father was persistent in finding a career for his son. At his father’s request, Darwin tried medical school in Edinburgh, Scotland but dropped out after observing the horror of performing surgery without anesthesia. At this point his disappointed father laid down the law. No more misspent money, no more wasted time: if Charles reckoned that he could fall back on his father’s wealth, he had better think again. In the meantime, Dr. Robert Darwin did not have to be a believer to notice that a salaried gentlemen country parson’s life would fit his aimless son with a penchant for field sports.

In his autobiography, Charles claims that when his father set before him the prospect of becoming an Anglican priest, Charles asked for time to think it over, being somewhat worried about having to declare his allegiance to “all the dogmas of the Church of England, especially since, following upon two generations of freethinkers, he wasn’t all that familiar with them.” So, he read a few theology books, and “as I did not then in the least doubt the strict and literal truth of every word in the Bible, I soon persuaded myself that our Creed must be fully accepted.”

It is hard to take Darwin at his word here. The Darwins were Unitarians and liberal Whigs with three generations of religious skeptics, heirs to the Enlightenment and critics of scriptural literalism and dogmatic belief. Instead of believing Charles had a sudden conversion to biblical literalism and dogmatic Anglican beliefs, it seems more likely that this was just a practical response to his situation. After dropping out of medical school Charles felt that this might be his last chance for a respectable career, as demanded by his father, and was willing to say and do what he thought was necessary. This becomes clear when you concentrate on two italicized words in the phrase, “I persuaded myself that our Creed must be accepted.”

Charles indeed did have a brush with theism during his theological education at Cambridge, given his friendship with Anglican parson-scientists John Henslow and Adam Sedgewick. Required reading for a theology degree included William Paley’s “Natural Theology.” This book which was warmly approved by Henslow and Sedgewick had a basic theme, “nature declared the glory of God in every detail.” But if Darwin was briefly attracted to theism, it did not last long. By the time he was about to marry his cousin Emma Wedgewood at the beginning of 1839 he had to confess to her that, like his own father and her father, he was an agnostic.

After graduation from Cambridge theology college, but before he could accept a parish of his own, Charles was offered a position as the ship’s naturalist on a voyage of the HMS Beagle which was planned by the British Admiralty to map the coastline of South America. At the beginning of this voyage and trying to be true to his recent education he quoted the Bible on authority and looked for “centers of creation” to explain distributions of species that he was observing. Through the five years of the Beagle’s voyage his views on religion changed. Ironically, it was one of his observations about the distribution of varied species of finches on the Galapagos Islands that started to change his mind. Instead of “looking for centers of creation” he began looking for natural phenomenon or a natural law underlying this distribution of bird species. He noted the differing bird beak sizes which seemed associated with the seed size and toughness found on each individual isle. The tougher the seeds the larger the beak. Darwin spent a lot of time on the mainland of South America while Captain Fitzroy completed his coastline mapping survey on the HMS Beagle. He collected many specimens of plants and animals and sent them back to England on merchant vessels that were visiting ports on the South American east and west coasts. He discovered fossils of extinct animals. One, the megatherium was a giant-sized ground sloth. Darwin wondered why a perfect God would create an animal just to see it go extinct. He noted two species of Rhea one in northern South America and one in southern South America differing mostly in size and wondered what purpose God had in creating two species when one would have sufficed. He had many other insights into the laws of nature, but one that repeatedly stood out was the stark randomness and cruelty of nature, underlying its benign façade. For an example, he discovered a parasitic wasp which stung a caterpillar just enough to paralyze it, but not kill it, then lay its eggs inside the poor caterpillar which would then remain alive until the growing larvae could eat it alive from inside out. What is a beneficent God’s purpose here? One needs only to observe a lioness bringing down a baby zebra on the Serengeti plain and then proceed to eat it alive to understand the ubiquitous cruelty in nature that Darwin was noticing and recording over his five years as a dedicated naturalist. At the completion of the HMS Beagle’s voyage most of Charles Darwin’s biographers now agree that he was a confirmed evolutionist and religiously agnostic.

After returning home and marrying Emma he began his studying and writing career. He wrote The Voyage of the Beagle. He gave talks about geology and the natural world that he had observed on his voyage. He began studying what he called artificial selection by corresponding with many animal and plant breeders around the world. He read Malthus’ book on overpopulation, which discussed the disastrous end of unchecked worldwide human population growth. Darwin knew that plants and animals produced more progeny than could possibly survive. He had observed for years the small variations in the immediate descendants of the plants and animals he studied. This led directly to his theory of natural selection. Those offspring that were better adapted to their environment would survive and live to reproduce. Survival of the fittest. Over twenty years he developed this theory more fully and performed many experiments to confirm it. He bred pigeons, studied earthworms, chronicled the life cycles of barnacles, and authored a book about carnivorous plants to name a few. He made friends with eminent scientists like the botanist from Kew Gardens, Joseph Hooker, and the anatomist Thomas Huxley. Both were supportive of his theory and encouraged him to publish. But Darwin was reticent to publish a theory which he knew would be extremely controversial and likely cause a lot of angst among the general public. As Huxley had once told him, “Darwin, don’t you realize that you have killed God and I say good riddance to that vindictive old bastard.” Charles was not sure he wanted to kill God in one fell swoop. For one thing, his loving and caregiving wife Emma remained a true believer.

Another critical event in Darwin’s life that influenced his religious views was the death of his 10-year-old daughter Annie from what is thought now to have been disseminated tuberculosis on 23 April 1851. He said, “I could no longer believe in any loving, beneficent God after Annies death.” Although his wife and family continued intermittent attendance at religious services, Charles never set foot inside an Anglican Church again.

A letter from Alfred Wallace in 1858, another naturalist who noted similar principles of evolution in plant and animals he was studying in Indonesia, surprised and upset Charles because he realized he might be scooped if he did not publish immediately. After a joint paper with Wallace on evolution presented to the Linnaean Society in 1858, Darwin went on to finish and publish “Origin of Species by Natural Selection” in 1859. The first printing sold out immediately and it went into a second printing within weeks. It was a widely discussed book of the times. Darwin’s friends and associates, among them Hooker, Huxley and Robert Grant spread the idea of evolution by natural selection. They used newspaper articles, scientific journals, and speeches. One of note was the well-known debate between bishop Samuel Wilberforce and Thomas Huxley. “Darwinism” became a hot topic discussed in school, at home and in proper social circles. Despite Darwin’s reticence to stir up a nasty controversy and upset a lot of people he had started an avalanche and now he could only stand back and watch.

Some apologists have said Darwin had a deathbed conversion. Nothing could be further from the truth. Darwin had been working assiduously on his entirely materialistic account of evolution for years, methodically squeezing out every place where the divine might enter. That was the account he stuck to and defended all his life. There were several of his friends, notably Charles Lyell, Alfred Russel Wallace and Asa Gray that supported the idea of evolution for most lifeforms but argued that man’s moral and intellectual abilities could not be explained by natural selection. This annoyed Darwin and in response he wrote the Descent of Man. In this book, Darwin argued that not only man’s moral and intellectual capacities are brought about by natural selection, but even religion itself. This was his last word on God.

—Craig Wilkinson, MD
HoU Treasurer

Turning 75

It has been a few months since my last submission to the newsletter, so I thought I would check in and write about a few things that have been on my mind. Having made it to three quarters of a century in June, I’ve spent some time reflecting on several things that have happened in the last few years. I don’t think that thirty years ago I would have ever imagined that we would have a pandemic kill so many people or a person like Donald Trump do so much harm to the United States, or to the whole world for that matter. Nor would I have guessed that a religious group could be so easily fooled by someone like Trump. But a recent poll shows that 80% of Evangelicals would still vote for an immoral, unethical, uncaring man.

So, I was thinking about a scenario for these so-called Evangelical Christians to contemplate. What if Jesus Christ were to come back to earth and it happened to be at a Trump rally. Do you people really think he would put his arm around Trump and say, “I want you to be just like this man. I want you to lie nearly every time you open your mouth. I want you to cheat on your wife, have sex with a porn star and grab women by their privates. I want you to cause more people to die from a pandemic by willfully giving the public bad information and bullshit about this disease. (And the list goes on and on.) Now obviously I’m not a believer, but I was in my youth, and I have read the bible. Nothing I learned or understood about Christ would make me believe that he would have anything to do with Trump. And the support they continue to give to Trump leads me to see Evangelicals (as Trump would put it) as “fake Christians.”

I also would never have thought that fascism could subvert the Republican party the way it has. In the past I would have been hesitant to call a group of people fascists, but I think they are becoming just that, fascists. If you look at the various definitions of fascism you will find some small differences but there are a few key attributes; 1. Rejection of (or weak commitment to) democracy or democratic rules of the game. 2. Denial of the legitimacy of political opponents. 3. Tolerating and or encouraging violence. 4. A readiness to curtail liberties of opponents and the media. I believe that we can ascribe these attributes to the conservative party and not be too far off. Plus, in an expanded discussion we can be more specific about these four key attributes. For example, we can show how the racist things they say in speeches and in print encourages violence. The threat to our democracy is apparent now and has been for a while and it needs to be called out and confronted.

There are other things I’ve been reflecting on, like the environment but I’ll leave that for another time. Our annual BBQ is coming up before too long, so in closing I’ll say I hope to see you there, where we can enjoy good food and good conversation.

—Robert Lane
HoU Board Member