Point of Inquiry

Intuitively, it can feel as though the essence of our thoughts and feelings exists separate from the body and brain, and that essence is what is normally referred to as the soul. Empirical evidence, however, forces us to reconcile our intuitions with reality. As the science of the brain and consciousness advances, the case for the existence of a soul deteriorates. This week on Point of Inquiry, Josh Zepps talks to Julien Musolino, psychology professor and author of The Soul Fallacy: What Science shows We Gain From Letting Go of Our Soul Beliefs. Musolino discusses why there isn’t room for belief in the soul in modern science, and how moving past that belief might make the world a better place.

Measles are the newest attraction at Disneyland this season, and unfortunately the only thing magical about them is how quickly they’ve begun to spread throughout California and Arizona. Although measles were eliminated in the U.S. by 2000, the misinformation of the anti-vaccine movement has caused a return of a full-fledged outbreak. Here to discuss the severity of the problem is Paul Offit. He is a Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children Hospital of Philadelphia. Offit is the author of the bookDo You Believe in Magic?: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine, for which he won the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry’s 2013 Balles Prize in Critical Thinking.

This week on Point of inquiry, New York Times bestselling author Karen Abbott talks to Lindsay Beyerstein about her newest book, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, which tells the true story of four women who served as spies during the U.S. Civil War.

In a time when women had few of the rights they would later win for themselves, the need for espionage turned out to be an early and important step in the fight for women’s suffrage. These bold women went to extraordinary lengths to fight for their respective sides, taking on various roles to gain information, even posing as men. The risk of being discovered was as much a concern during a military medical exam as it was when they were simply attempting to wear men’s pants properly.

The terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo was a human atrocity, as well as an assault on free expression. Yet numerous prominent news publications are still refusing to show the very Hebdo cartoons at the center of the story. Last year, in the midst of nebulous threats, Sony had removed their satirical film from theaters. How can we avoid yielding control to terrorism with censorship without putting ourselves in danger and subjecting groups to ethnic or religious discrimination? Our guest this week is Jytte Klausen, a political scholar and professor at Brandeis University. In 2009 she published The Cartoons that Shook the World, a book about the publication of the 2005 "Danish cartoons" cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammed, and the outcry of anger and protest they sparked in some corners of the Muslim world. Much to Klausen’s surprise, Yale University Press refused to include the very cartoons she was discussing. Klausen joins us to talk about the precariousness of the struggle for free expression, and the balance we strike between security and freedom.

The effort to overturn Roe v. Wade and criminalize abortion has spiraled into challenging not only women’s right to abortion, but a women’s right to carry her baby to term. Across the country, women who seek medical help for pregnancy complications are being met with incarceration and outrageous sentences, all without proper representation. According to this week’s guest, if a woman would like to give birth in America, she needs to be prepared to surrender her basic liberties.

Here to discuss the fight for women’s pregnancy rights is, Lynn M. Paltrow, founder of National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), a nonprofit civil rights group that advocates for pregnant and parenting women. Paltrow has also served as a senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, as Director of Special Litigation at the Center of Reproductive Law and Policy and as Vice President for Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood of New York City. Paltrow has not only done extensive work in challenging the restrictions placed on the right to choose abortion, but also fights the prosecution and punishment of pregnant women seeking to continue their pregnancies to term.

Tom Flynn is Executive Director of The Council for Secular Humanism, Editor of Free Inquiry magazine, as well as professional anti-Christmas advocate and author of “The Trouble with Christmas.”

Tom is on his 30th year of being completely Yule free and he’s here to talk about why the rest of us should join him in protesting the holidays.

Our Guest this week is Greta Christina, popular atheist blogger, speaker and author of several books on atheism including her newest, “Comforting Thoughts About Death That Have Nothing to Do With God.” Christina discusses with Lindsay Beyerstein the tendencies we have to avoid and deny death and how it affects our abilities to cope. Christina explains how the concept of an afterlife may actually be failing to prepare people for the end of their lives, and how we can use our humanism and skepticism to find comfort in the midst of mortality and grief.

Fox News’ "War on Christmas" is already in full swing, as Bill O’Reilly wasted no time jumping into battle this year to defend the holiday from the great secular menace. However, it looks like Bill might be able to leave the trenches a little early this year; according to a new Pew survey, just over 70 percent of Americans believe that Jesus was literally birthed from the womb of a virgin (a staggering percentage considering that only one third of Americans report interpreting the Bible as the literal word of god). The question is why are conservative Christians so afraid of losing a fight that in so many ways they’ve already won? This week on Point of Inquiry, former Evangelical fundamentalist Frank Schaeffer joins us to bring first-hand insight into the irrational fear within fundamentalism, and what it says about their belief system. Schaeffer grew up in a strict Evangelical household in which he was expected to follow in the footsteps of his father, Francis August Schaeffer, a founder of what we know today as the Religious Right. Instead, he came to reject the beliefs of his father, but still maintains a place for “the divine.” He has sense spent his life talking about his journey away from the church and has written extensively about belief and religion as a New York Times bestselling author.

Despite the fact that the United States was founded as a secular state, government neutrality toward religion remains a tumultuous and controversial issue -- a conversation-stopper in most public policy discussions. This week on the show, Lindsay Beyerstein welcomes Ronald A. Lindsay, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry, the organization responsible for Point of Inquiry. Ron joins us to discuss his just-released book, The Necessity of Secularism: Why God Can’t Tell Us What to Do, in which he explains how the language of secularism is the most ethical and productive language for believers and nonbelievers alike, the missing puzzle piece to fair public policy. Ron Lindsay is both a lawyer and philosopher, as well as a veteran freethought activist, with several books and articles on ethics, philosophy, and secularism to his name. His particular background provides him with a unique understanding of how crucial the separation of church and state is for equality and stability, as well as how people can be persuaded that a society built on secularism is in everyone’s best interests.

Alan Turing was a true visionary. Founding what we understand today as computer science, he was also a mathematician, a philosopher, and an early trailblazer for gay equality. Without his genius for codebreaking, the Second World War might have gone in a much darker direction. He saved millions of lives and potentially the world as we know it, yet his efforts for humanity were not enough to spare him the inhuman treatment he received for his sexual orientation.

Andrew Hodges was one of the first people to realize the multifaceted brilliance of Alan Turing, which eventually led him to write the renowned biography, Alan Turing: The Enigma, which was recently adapted into the film The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Like Turing, Hodges is a mathematician and gay rights activist, and understands first hand the impact Turing’s life has had on our world today.

This week on Point of Inquiry, Hodges explains how Turing became so influential in so many different fields, and how his genius was so far ahead of his time.