The meaning of life is not to be discovered only after death in some hidden, mysterious realm; on the contrary, it can be found by eating the succulent fruit of the Tree of Life and by living in the here and now as fully and creatively as we can.

R. He also evaluates the antics of the most famous modern psychics and what he believes are the fruitless researches of parapsychologists. In The Transcendental Temptation Kurtz analyzes how provable are the claims of Jesus Moses Muhammad as well as the founders of religions on American soil such as Joseph Smith and Ellen White.

He was editor in chief of Free Inquiry magazine a publication of the Council for Secular Humanism. He was co-chair of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) from 1986-94. As a member of the American Humanist Association he contributed to the writing of Humanist Manifesto II.