The Mathematicians Have Made a Covenant With the Devil
https://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/articles/9775
Review by Ed Buckner
An Atheist Stranger in a Strange Religious Land: Selected Writings from the Bible Belt
Can anyone write an objective, reasonable review of an essentially autobiographical book about someone he knows well and admires? Perhaps not, but An Atheist Stranger in a Strange Religious Land: Selected Writings from the Bible Belt makes it seem easy. Dr. Herb Silverman takes great pride in giving appealing talks, always laced with well-polished jokes and anecdotes, with crucial matters of timing developed and carried out with care. His wife, Sharon Fratepietro, gets credit for coaching and editing with a fine sense of what works. A superficial listener to one of his talks, like a superficial reader of this book, might incorrectly conclude that the entertainment is the point, because the entertainment is well crafted and successful. (I don’t know what the equivalent of “timing” is in written anecdotes, but Silverman assuredly does.)
As much fun as Stranger is to read, fun is ultimately not really the point: the point is a description, and by implication a prescription, of how a man (or in this case, more precisely, a couple) should live. Atheism, or at least a lack of theism, is certainly part of this, because Silverman’s humanism has always emphatically been of the secular sort. But justice, compassion, decency, respect, and perspective (including, of course, a sense of humor and the ability to avoid taking oneself too seriously) matter more. Silverman, more than any other atheist or humanist leader in the nation today (and that includes many of my favorite people on Earth), has shaped modern humanism and atheism in the direction of being cooperative as well as competitive. The Secular Coalition for America was developed by many people, but Silverman was the founder. His dogged, cheerful persistence made that happen when others—including me—were not sure it ever would. (Chapter 6 of Stranger, though way too modest in presentation, provides more detail.)
The Mathematicians Have Made a Covenant With the Devil
https://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/articles/9775
Review by Ed Buckner
An Atheist Stranger in a Strange Religious Land: Selected Writings from the Bible Belt
Can anyone write an objective, reasonable review of an essentially autobiographical book about someone he knows well and admires? Perhaps not, but An Atheist Stranger in a Strange Religious Land: Selected Writings from the Bible Belt makes it seem easy. Dr. Herb Silverman takes great pride in giving appealing talks, always laced with well-polished jokes and anecdotes, with crucial matters of timing developed and carried out with care. His wife, Sharon Fratepietro, gets credit for coaching and editing with a fine sense of what works. A superficial listener to one of his talks, like a superficial reader of this book, might incorrectly conclude that the entertainment is the point, because the entertainment is well crafted and successful. (I don’t know what the equivalent of “timing” is in written anecdotes, but Silverman assuredly does.)
As much fun as Stranger is to read, fun is ultimately not really the point: the point is a description, and by implication a prescription, of how a man (or in this case, more precisely, a couple) should live. Atheism, or at least a lack of theism, is certainly part of this, because Silverman’s humanism has always emphatically been of the secular sort. But justice, compassion, decency, respect, and perspective (including, of course, a sense of humor and the ability to avoid taking oneself too seriously) matter more. Silverman, more than any other atheist or humanist leader in the nation today (and that includes many of my favorite people on Earth), has shaped modern humanism and atheism in the direction of being cooperative as well as competitive. The Secular Coalition for America was developed by many people, but Silverman was the founder. His dogged, cheerful persistence made that happen when others—including me—were not sure it ever would. (Chapter 6 of Stranger, though way too modest in presentation, provides more detail.)
I’ve read many of Silverman’s essays posted on the internet and published elsewhere, and, as I started reading this, I expected merely to be going over old—good but old—ground. But this is far more and better than that, since Silverman has here used selected writings to make a coherent, witty, wise case for his own life as one well lived and for atheism and, especially, for thoughtful secular humanism.
As would certainly be expected from a math professor, Silverman builds logical case after airtight logical case within his analysis of his own life and of religion in America, especially in the South. As might not be expected from a math man, his stories are rich with wit and warmth, with great compassion for his fellow humans, and even with some good bad jokes.
Ever wondered whether you—or one of your friends—is a “Koufax Jew”? For the definitive—and enlightening—answer, read this book. For information on how Silverman could have used ten-foot-tall billionaire gods to—easily!—defeat Christopher Hitchens in a debate? Same answer: “… the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of hell.” Find out more about this massive intellectual conspiracy in this book (by, please remember, prominent Charleston mathematician Herb Silverman). But hurry, before it’s too late. (You should also know that, right in this book, atheist Silverman openly admits, “As an atheist, I rape and murder as many people as I want.”)
The jokes and fun are there but only to entice us to read. With Sharon Fratepietro, Herb Silverman has built a life working effectively for justice and decency. (When Silverman told an aunt that former Catholic Fratepietro is an atheist like him, the aunt asked, “Couldn’t you marry a Jewish atheist?”) My best guess is that my fellow secular humanists and atheists in America won’t understand how crucial Silverman’s (and Fratepietro’s) community building for us has been without the perspective of a hundred years or more. Reading this book in 2118 CE will secure that legacy, but luckily we don’t have to wait—read it now, for wisdom and with pleasure.
Intellectual history is the history of people who think and, usually, of people who think big and who think clearly outside the conventional mainstream. This book is an example of just that, because Silverman writes and thinks with great clarity and wit. He knows American (especially Southern—and it pains me, as a Southerner, to admit that a damned Yankee from Pennsylvania can understand us) culture in depth, and he treats it with respect but without automatic deference. The result is full of insight, and, to use his own line, it’s inciteful as well.
Silverman made his goals regarding this book clear in his preface: “I’ve tried to make my condensed writings in this book…short, relevant, aesthetically pleasing, informative and entertaining.” Since he succeeded brilliantly on all five counts, it’s worth your time and money to get and read a copy.
***
Ed Buckner served as executive director for the Council for Secular Humanism from 2001-2003, as president of American Atheists 2008-2010, and as of this writing, is the interim executive director of American Atheists. He and his wife live in Atlanta; their son lives in Decatur, GA. All three are proud life members of the Council.
As would certainly be expected from a math professor, Silverman builds logical case after airtight logical case within his analysis of his own life and of religion in America, especially in the South. As might not be expected from a math man, his stories are rich with wit and warmth, with great compassion for his fellow humans, and even with some good bad jokes.
Ever wondered whether you—or one of your friends—is a “Koufax Jew”? For the definitive—and enlightening—answer, read this book. For information on how Silverman could have used ten-foot-tall billionaire gods to—easily!—defeat Christopher Hitchens in a debate? Same answer: “… the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of hell.” Find out more about this massive intellectual conspiracy in this book (by, please remember, prominent Charleston mathematician Herb Silverman). But hurry, before it’s too late. (You should also know that, right in this book, atheist Silverman openly admits, “As an atheist, I rape and murder as many people as I want.”)
The jokes and fun are there but only to entice us to read. With Sharon Fratepietro, Herb Silverman has built a life working effectively for justice and decency. (When Silverman told an aunt that former Catholic Fratepietro is an atheist like him, the aunt asked, “Couldn’t you marry a Jewish atheist?”) My best guess is that my fellow secular humanists and atheists in America won’t understand how crucial Silverman’s (and Fratepietro’s) community building for us has been without the perspective of a hundred years or more. Reading this book in 2118 CE will secure that legacy, but luckily we don’t have to wait—read it now, for wisdom and with pleasure.
Intellectual history is the history of people who think and, usually, of people who think big and who think clearly outside the conventional mainstream. This book is an example of just that, because Silverman writes and thinks with great clarity and wit. He knows American (especially Southern—and it pains me, as a Southerner, to admit that a damned Yankee from Pennsylvania can understand us) culture in depth, and he treats it with respect but without automatic deference. The result is full of insight, and, to use his own line, it’s inciteful as well.
Silverman made his goals regarding this book clear in his preface: “I’ve tried to make my condensed writings in this book…short, relevant, aesthetically pleasing, informative and entertaining.” Since he succeeded brilliantly on all five counts, it’s worth your time and money to get and read a copy.
***
Ed Buckner served as executive director for the Council for Secular Humanism from 2001-2003, as president of American Atheists 2008-2010, and as of this writing, is the interim executive director of American Atheists. He and his wife live in Atlanta; their son lives in Decatur, GA. All three are proud life members of the Council.
