I've just started reading the following book: The Transcendental Temptation: A Critique of Religion and the Paranormal by Paul Kurtz, Prometheus Books: Buffalo, 1991 ISBN: 0-87975-362-5.
I want to share a couple passages I read this morning, but first, this link http://www.skeptic.de/b/0020.htm provides the following description of the book, followed by the table of contents so anyone considering reading it can get an idea of the subject matters it covers:
"In this highly acclaimed and controversial book, Paul Kurtz critically analyses the bases of religion: How provable are the claims of the famous prophets who founded religions in their names: Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Joseph Smith, Ellen G. White and others? Do their claims justify religious belief? Finally, is there any evidence that God exists, or that there is a life after death?
"In The Transcendental Temptation: A Critique of Religion and the Paranormal, Kurtz attempts to demonstrate that the major monotheistic religions - Christianity, Judaism and Islam - all rest on myths of revelation. Yet each succeeding generation appears to be impervious to the victories of skepticism over theology in the past or creates new and even more irrational religions. Why is this so? Why are the ancient messages of the prophets as well as the notions of extraterrestrial divinities and demons of the occult still persuasive?
"Drawing upon extensive research in the paranormal fields - parapsychology, spiritualism, UFOlogy - Kurtz points out the striking similiarities between the popular paranormal belief-systems of today and the classical religions of the past. He finds similar processes at work: on the one hand, fraudulent conjurers posing as prophets or psychics deceiving a gullible public and, on the other, self-deluded individuals acting out their revelatory fantasies. Kurtz attributes the willingness of large sectors of humanity to accept these claims to the proclivity in human nature for "magical thinking" - which undermines the power of critical judgment and allows many people to accept occult claims (e.g. belief in ghosts, psychics, horoscopes, UFOs), even though there is insufficient evidence in their behalf or strong evidence to the contrary.
"Given the deep-seated temptation that persists in human culture to accept supernormal phenomena, Kurtz asks, what are the prospects for developing a genuinely humanistic society based upon scientific and humane foundations? The Transcendental Temptation is an original and absorbing work that has stirred heated debate."
The following passages are from chapter four, entitled Critical Intelligence:
"What is critical intelligence?
"It incorporates the use of both reason and experience in developing knowledge; and it applies not only to scientific and technical fields of inquiry but also to ordinary life and to normative areas, such as ethics and politics. It also can incorporate under its rubric common sense and practical wisdom. Moreover, skepticism is an intrinsic aspect of critical intelligence.
"Fortunately, the capacity for critical intelligence is deeply rooted in human nature. It is the chief instrument that has enabled the human species to adapt and survive throughout the course of evolution. Its development should be the primary aim of education and its presence the chief mark of the educated person. Unfortunately, if often lies dormant in some individuals, who seek to smother their consciousness or deaden their critical sensibilities. Human beings are more than intelligent beings, with emotion and passion contending for control of the human soul and often gaining mastery. Some individuals are so weighed down by habit and custom that they are unable to use critical thought in vital areas of their lives and societies. Critical thought is often more potentiality than actuality. Nevertheless, it must be used by everyone to some extent, if a person is to live and function in the world.
"The doctrinaire Christian considers the quest for knowledge the cause of man's downfall. Eve tempted Adam to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and for that God cast man from the Garden of Eden. For the humanist, on the contrary, the two cardinal sins are (1) gullibility and ignorance and (2) cowardice and fear. These are the original defects of human nature. Gullibility and ignorance are the source of much nonsense in religion, ideology, morality, and politics. Gullibility tempts humans with the lure of wondrous things. The only therapy for childlike faith is the cultivation of a critical intelligence that can reexamine and evaluate claims to truth and thereby achieve knowledge."
I read and applied those paragraphs not only to my own experience, but to the children and teens who were and are raised and educated in TF. As I read, I recalled some of the Articles in The International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which I've included below. The balancing of parents' rights and childrens' rights can be difficult. However, TF does not provide the opportunity for children to develop their critical intelligence, and imo, that is a violation of their internationally recognized rights.
The International Convention on the Rights of the Child
Article 13.1
The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice.
Article 14.1
States Parties shall respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
Article 17
States Parties recognize the important function performed by the mass media and shall ensure that the child has access to information and material from a diversity of national and international sources, especially those aimed at the promotion of his or her social, spiritual and moral well-being and physical and mental health.