Can a new enlightenment dawn in a Buffalo
suburb?

Open a newspaper or turn on a news broadcast: everywhere, it
seems that religious fundamentalism is gaining ground. In several US
school districts, fundamentalist Christians on school boards are insisting that
science teachers discuss “Intelligent Design” when they teach evolution. Across
the world, Islamic fundamentalists are using tactics like suicide bombings to
gain power and impose their religious ideas on entire populations.

It’s been more than 200 years since the Enlightenment in Europe,
when rational ideas were supposed to have gained prominence in the civilized
world. Are we moving backwards?

This question and many more will be addressed in “Toward a
New Enlightenment,” a World Congress celebrating the 25th anniversary of the
Council for Secular Humanism in Amherst.

The CSH, the International Academy of Humanism, and the
Center for Inquiry Transnational will participate in the three-day event,
October 27-30.

And the biggest names in Secular Humanism will be there.
Richard Dawkins, Antony Flew, Lionel Tiger, Nat Hentoff, and other leading
writers from around the world will be among the dozens of speakers in numerous
addresses and panel discussions.

Dawkins, a professor at OxfordUniversity, author of The Selfish Gene and other books and
perhaps the world’s leading evolutionary biologist,
will be the keynote speaker Thursday evening.

For Flew, professor emeritus in the philosophy department at
the University of Reading, England and one of among the world’s most respected
philosophers, the topic will be “A Syllabus for Moral Education.”

Tiger, Charles Darwin professor of anthropology at Rutgers
University and a leading figure in the merging of natural science with the
social sciences, will deliver a lecture titled “Is Religion the Default Mode?”

Hentoff, a tireless civil libertarian and the author of
numerous books, writes columns for the Village
Voice, The Washington Post and
other publications.

Speakers also include two winners of the Nobel Prize for
Chemistry: Sir H.W. Kroto (1996) and Herbert Hauptman (1985); Margaret Downey,
a board member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and Ann Druyan,
co-writer with Carl Sagan of the Cosmos TV series.

Many of the panel discussions promise to be fascinating.
“The New Enlightenment in the Islamic World” will bring together panelists from
Egypt, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, and
Iran. Other
discussions include “The Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion,”
“The Republican War on Science,” and “The God Delusion.”

It won’t all be deadly serious. Frieda and Steve Mannes will
perform Mozart’s Sonata in D-major for
Two Pianos on Thursday afternoon. On Friday world-renowned mind-reader Max
Maven will present “Thinking in Person: An Evening of Knowing and Not Knowing.”

Toward a New
Enlightenment takes place at the State University of New York at Buffalo,
the Center for Inquiry, and the Marriott Hotel in Amherst.
Cost: $195 for general registration, including all conference sessions; $39 for
Friday evening’s dinner and awards banquet; $100 for Saturday’s grand opening celebration;
$29 for Friday lunch and $29 for Saturday lunch. Registration by phone:
1-800-634-1610. For information, hotel rates, and to make reservations on line,
by fax, or by mail, go to the web site: http://www.centerforinquiry.net/events/csh-2005.html#reg

This article appears in Oct 12-18, 2005.