Forbidden Fruit: The Ethics of Secularism - Softcover

Kurtz, Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1591026660 ISBN 13: 9781591026662

Publisher: Prometheus, 2008

Synopsis

Paul Kurtz, America's leading secular humanist philosopher, affirms that it is possible to live the good life and be morally responsible, without belief in religion. In this original and penetrating book, Kurtz delineates the means by which humanity can transcend the limitations of traditional religious loyalties and achieve a higher stage of ethics.Fundamentalists deny the possibility ofethics without belief in God. Conservatives rail against secularists. Yet belief in God is no guarantee of moral virtue - as the evils committed in the name of religion have vividly shown. Are there secularethical principles and values that are vital for a world in crisis?In this new edition ofForbidden Fruit, Kurtz defends the ethics of secularism and humanism. In order to progress to a maximum level of creative development, he maintains that we must be nourished by the "forbidden fruit" of the knowledge of good and evil, grounding principles and values in autonomous reason. This is the path that leads to the discovery of significant ethical truths that can guide both self-reliant conduct and consideration for the rights of others. By breaking the bonds of theistic illusion, we can summon the courage and wisdom to develop a rational ethic based on a realistic appraisal of nature and an awareness of the centrality of the moral decencies common to all peoples.The ultimate key to the good life, Kurtz writes, is to eat of the fruit of the second tree in the Garden of Eden - the tree of life - discovering for ourselves the manifold potentialities for a bountiful existance.Forbidden Fruitcontains important chapters on ethical excellences for individuals, moral education for children, and thoughts on privacy and human rights,in addition to presenting concrete ethical recommendations as alternatives to the reigning orthodoxies.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Kurtz (1925-2012), professor emeritus of philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, was the author or editor of more than fifty books, including The Transcendental Temptation, The Courage to Become, and Embracing the Power of Humanism, plus nine hundred articles and reviews. He was the founder and chairman of Prometheus Books, the Institute for Science and Human Values, the Center for Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He appeared on many major television and radio talk shows and has lectured at universities worldwide.

From Library Journal

The ethics of humanism is "forbidden fruit" because it is knowledge of good and evil without God as a grounding principle. If "God is dead," does this mean that "anything goes"? By no means, argues Kurtz; an even more adequate ethics can be postulated when one recognizes fully that "human beings are autonomous, that we are responsible for our own destinies and those of our fellow human beings." In this wide-ranging survey and critique of theistic morality and of ethics in general, Kurtz discusses such contemporary issues as the right to life and health care, animal rights, sexual/reproductive freedom, and "being in the universe without God." For public and academic libraries. Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Management Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Prometheus
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1591026660
• ISBN 13: 9781591026662
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 326