The Fight for Rationality in 1970s America: The American Skeptics Movement and the Problem of Counter-Culture

 

Dr.Stephen Weldon, 

Professor of the History of Science,

University of Oklahoma

Many people who lived through the 1970s see it as a weird transition from the earnest activism of the 1960s to the rapacious conservatism of the 1980s. The disco ball, Donny Osmond, the fall of Nixon, the US bicentennial, the debut of Star Wars  all happened in that weird decade.  

In a presentation at a history of science conference, Stephen Weldon reminded me that the 70s were even weirder than I remembered.  His presentation titled "The American Skeptics Movement and the Problem of Counter-Knowledge" began with Weldon showing us that NBC TV aired nationally televised programs with speculation about alien encounters and whether Bigfoot really existed.  

In those days broadcasting still had the Fairness Doctrine. Leading scientists got together and demanded that the network air the opposing view--the scientific consensus.  Carl Sagan, B.F. Skinner and Isaac Asimov were the public face of the protest. 

Weldon then took us back to the founding of the American Humanist Movement at the turn of the century. He presented its history up to the 60s when there was a split between scientific-oriented and protest-oriented parts of the movement.  Parts of the counter culture became targets of the rationalists.  

Weldon showed us the cover of "The Humanist" magazine in September/October 1974.  The issue was a critique of the cults that had risen to prominence in the previous decade.  These cults had many adherents among the people who were part of the counter-culture and on the political left.  The issue attacked those who were political allies as part of a dangerous rise of irrationalism.  

[In another irony of the time, the 800-page Christian fundamentalist handbook of false religions titled "The Kingdom of the Cults" by Walter R. Martin, published in 1965, had chapters on many of the same groups that were the targets of "The Humanist."  The Martin book sold half a million copies by 1989 and is still in print. I mentioned the Martin book to Weldon in the lively Q&A that followed his talk.]

Of course, Christian fundamentalists and scientific humanists were in no way allies, even if they both rejected the same alternative religions.

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In the late 80s, when Arkansas tried to force Young Earth Creationist ideas into school curricula, prominent scientists led the effort to stop the the teaching of religion in science classes.  

Christian B. Afinson, Francisco Ayala and Stephen Jay Gould submitted an amicus curaie brief with the backing of 77 Nobel laureate scientists opposing the teaching of creationism. (They won!) 

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Weldon also talked about the magazine "The Skeptical Inquirer."  The cover art surprised the audience with its very 70s strangeness and led to several comments in the Q&A.  

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Weldon published the book The Scientific Spirit of American Humanism  in 2020.  He has a huge database connected to the website for the book. It is here.

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We met at the conference outside the coffee shop. Weldon told me about the huge collection of rare scientific books at the University of Oklahoma that was once a private collection. I told him about the Neville Library at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia whereI used to work, also a collection amassed over a lifetime.

Then I mentioned that I spent two months in Oklahoma more than a decade ago and on my last day there went to a Rattlesnake Rodeo.  Weldon said he had never been to a Rattlesnake Rodeo, but would look into it when he returned to Oklahoma.

In-person conferences are the best.