Review by Booklist Review
Arguing primarily against the fundamentalist, right-wing religious movement, secular humanist Kurtz asserts that ``it is only by breaking the bonds of theistic illusion-eating the `forbidden fruit' from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life'' that we can begin to ``recognize fully that human beings. . . are responsible for our own destinies and those of our fellow human beings.'' While many theists would agree with Kurtz' demand for recognition of human responsibility and autonomy in moral decision making, many would disagree with his translation of this claim into the denial of the possibility of morality without belief in God. Arguments against reducing Christianity to a set of moral beliefs abound, mostly from the pens of Christian theologians, yet Kurtz seems to (wrongfully) think he is making a grand tour de force by separating the two. Nevertheless, his book raises an appropriate challenge to current trends in religion and politics; it deserves attention in philosophy and ethics collections. SEM. 171.2 Humanism / Humanistic ethics
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
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. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Library Journal Review
