AMERICAN ATHEISTS

"Aims and Purposes"

1. To stimulate and promote freedom of thought and inquiry concerning religious
beliefs, creeds, dogmas, tenets, rituals and practices.
2. To collect and disseminate information, data and literature on all religions and
promote a more thorough understanding of them, their origins and histories.
3. To advocate, labor for, and promote in all lawful ways, the complete and absolute
separation of state and church; and the establishment and maintenance of a
thoroughly secular system of education available to all.
4. To encourage the development and public acceptance of a humane ethical system,
stressing the mutual sympathy, understanding and interdependence of all people
and the corresponding responsibility of each, individually, in relation to society.
5. To develop and propagate a social philosophy in which man is the central figure who
alone must be the source of strength, progress and ideals for the well-being and
happiness of humanity.
6. To promote the study of the arts and sciences and of all problems affecting the
maintenance, perpetuation and enrichment of human (and other) life.
7. To engage in such social, educational, legal and cultural activity as will be useful
and beneficial to members of American Atheists and to society as a whole.

"Definitions"
1. Atheism is the life philosophy (Weltanschauung) of persons who are free from
theism. It is predicated on the ancient Greek philosophy of Materialism.
2. American Atheism may be defined as the mental attitude which unreservedly
accepts the supremacy of reason and aims at establishing a system of philosophy
and ethics verifiable by experience, independent of all arbitrary assumptions of
authority or creeds.
3. The Materialist philosophy declares that the cosmos is devoid of immanent conscious purpose; that it is governed by its own inherent, immutable and impersonal
law; that there is no supernatural interference in human life; that man-finding his
resources within himself---can and must create his own destiny; and that his potential for good and higher development is for all practical purposes unlimited.

Vol. 20, No.5

May, 1978

ON THE COVER

EDITORIAL
COMMENT CORNER
NEWS
U.S. Bound For "Peanut Heaven"
Dopes Dupe Carter
Anita Declares War On Madalyn
FEATURE ARTICLES

3
5
7
9

Has Religion A Future?

From Christian To Atheist
A Good Knight For Atheism
Whose Sister Is Science?, G. 'R ichard Bozarth
The Facts On Matter
Women Still Down Under
Atheism In France
AMERICAN

ATHEIST

RADIO

10
13
16
19
21
25
26

SERIES

God's Chosen People

ATHEIST

28

BOOK REVIEW

The Psycho-Neurosis Called Christianity

31

Editor-In-Chief: Madalyn Murray O'Hair Managing Editor: Jon Garth Murray

Layout: Frank Duffy
Circulation: John Mays
Production: Ralph Shirley
Non-Residential Staff: Ignatz Sahula-Dycke, G. Richard Bozarth, James Ericson,
Warren Shibles, Voltaire E. Heywood.
The American Atheist magazine is published monthly by American Atheists, 2210 Hancock
Drive, Austin, Texas 78756, a non-profit, non-political, tax-exempt, educational organization.
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 2117, Austin, TX, 78768; copyright 1978 by Society of Separationists, Inc.; Subscription rates: $15.00 per year; $25.00 for two years. Manuscripts submitted
must be typed, double-spaced and accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The
editors assume no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts.

THE AMERICAN ATHEIST MAGAZINE

Post Office Box 2117
Austin, Texas 78768
Enter my subscription for one year at $15.00 (two years at $25.00).
NEW
Total Enclosed $,

RENEWAL

Name

North
Carolina
Chapter
Director
Patricia Voswinkel has long since realized that as Atheists we must always be
vigilant in assuring freedom of thought
and inquiry for our children and those
who come after us as well as for ourselves. As the mother of three growing
boys, she is fervently interested
in the
establishment
and maintenance
of a
thoroughly
secular system of education available to all.
Pat was born and raised in New
York City and Yonkers, N.Y., respectively, and has resided in Charlotte,
North Carolina for the past 12 years.
She is the daughter
of a prominent
physician and credits her scientifically
inclined father for instilling in her a
strong respect for the supremacy
of
reason and for an ethical code which is
independent
of all arbitrary
assumptions of authority or creeds.
Pat's husband
is a German citizen
who resides in the U.S. as the owner
and operator of a dental laboratory in
Charlotte, while their oldest son plans
to become a physician like his maternal grandfather
and at the age of 15 he
is already a member of MENSA.
Like many other confirmed
Atheists, Pat Voswinkel was introduced
to
religion (Episcopal
church) at a very
early age and, ironically,
she won
many awards for her regular attendance
and partici pation in Sunday school activities although she clearly recalls judging the religious aspect of those social
gatherings to be patently ridiculous.
It is from those early memories of
her social involvement
with her environment
and her peers that Pat has
come to recognize the need for Atheists to establish their own system for
the secular education
of their children
from kindergarten
through high school
with emphasis placed on the teaching
of the sciences and a humane ethical
system.
North Carolina Chapter
American Atheists
3221 Dunaire Dr.
Charlotte, N.C. 28205

Address
City, State, & Zip

Austin,

Texas

May, 1978

Page 1

( I

l.;;"j.

As a chapter
director,
my
name and address have been
given to other chapters and to
new members of the organization for the past year. Recently,
I have been receiving
some
unsolicited
mail from
persons
into whose hands th is information has fallen.
I have been shocked at the
hate mail which has been directed to me. The thrust of this has
been critical of the national office of the Society of Separationists, Inc. However, upon examination of the contents of these
letters I find that more heat [and
often fury] is given than facts.
As far as I can decipher, about
eight persons lthe number from
whom I have received mailings]
are quite desirous of taking over
the American Atheist Center and
running it for some unspecified
reason not clearly defined.
Many Enemies
Atheism has been under attack
for a great number of years by
every conceivable enemy. Often
we have found religionists in our
own ranks. There have been
many successful attempts to fragment prior Atheist attempts at
organ ization.
I have had personal meetings
with both Dr. O'Hair and her
son, Jon Garth Murray. They are
in a vicious fight, for religion is
of that nature. If they were to
exhibit
the traits of the effete
scholar, we would not survive as
an organization. What we need in
the national office are persons
who can take the rough fight.
I would not be in the place of
the Murrav-O'Hairs
for anything
in this world. When they receive
a punch in the solar plexus, they
need to punch back. We need
hard
[or
hardened]
fighters.
When these two stalwarts are accused of being rough, I think we
need to ask "What has made

Page 2

them so?" They have been in

the fight for over 20 years and
I am certain that they must originally have been timid, genteel,
nonoffensive
people. But, with
constant encounters
with religion, this has taken
its toll.
I support Dr. O'Hair and Jon
because I do not know of any
other persons with their experience and background,
or the
knowledge
concerned with the
infighting of religion.
It is nice to dream of cultured,
intellectual
exchange
between
those of us who are Atheists and
those who are religious. The history of religion shows clearly
how horrible the battle is. Until
just recent times, anyone who
questioned the prevailing religion
was simply murdered. What is
the rough and tumble fight Dr.
O'Hair put up with Bob Harrington lwhich I witnessed] compared to murder? Shall we continue
to give up our human rights as
Atheists or should we support
the leaders we have, who have
a past record of overcom ing
many d ifficu Ities?
I'll
vote with
the MurrayO'Hairs,
because I would
not
want to be in the front lines myself. It is hard enough to be a
chapter director.
My message to you this month
is clear: let's get behind national
and help as much as we can, both
as chapters
uniting
people in
strength and as individuals who
recognize that the fight is against
religion, not against our own.
It appears to me that there are

BC.:.ho.:~_a~_~_~c_r~_~.~_~_~_~_I~_~_~e

several things that the chapter

directors can do.
We can assist in fund raising.
We can increase membership in
our geographical
areas. We can
raise the level of consciousness
of persons in our states that [1]
Atheism is a valid philosophy of
life in which the average American could take pride; that [2J
the principle
of separation
of
state and church is really in our
charge since we are the single
group most concerned therewith;
that l3] we are a proud and honorable group who are probably
America's
finest
citizens;
and
that [4] if we can order ou r lives
through reason alone, we can be
instrumental
in teaching this object lesson to all the citizens of
our United States.

Damaging Rivalries
We are in our infancy yet.
Many leaders are needed - in
Cities, counties, states and even
nationally. We should learn from
national - not attempt to rival
it.
Currently we have the largest,
best financed, most stable American Atheist
organization
which
has ever come into being - and
survived in our United States. We
need to get behind it and accept
the favorable fall out from its
initial fight.
Don't write me to attack our
national officers.
They are farand-away the best I can see, on
the horizon and I plan to stick
with them.

Patricia J. Voswinkel
GUEST EDITOR

May, 1978

~J -

American

Atheist

COeMeMENT
O
R
N
E
R

Dear Editor:
I am an American Atheist, although
my youthful
years were spent as a
member
of the Episcopal Church.
I
was confirmed
into that faith, and of
course, am a statistic on their membership list. Ugh!
I am only 26 but I have watched in
my lifetime the horrors of Christianity,
and indeed the horrors of other religions, each on its own ego trip, determined to wipe out opposition and any
conflicting thoughts, reasons, and purposes.
I have watched faith-blinded
bigots
interfering
with human progress and
it turns my stomach.
These feverish
fanatics
demand
obedience
and unquestioning
compliance
to their antihuman, anti-nature
rules and regulattions at the expense of poverty-stricken populations in Catholic South America {where many infants are born into
the world simply because their ignorant Catholic Church controlled parents
are afra id to offend the mighty chu rch
and its miserable ruler, the pope, only
to suffer starvation, disease and deprivation}.
These heathens
single out groups
for persecution
in America and other
parts of the world, examples
being
Anita
Bryant's
campaign
against
homosexuals,
the phoney
campaigns
for decency and strict censorship
in
Cincinnati,
Philadelphia,
Lexington,
Ky. {where the cast of "Oh! Calcutta"
was arrested recently} and other areas.
These groups and individuals seek to
deny freedom of expression,
lifestyle,
pursuits of happiness
and basic freedoms to vast multitudes
of American
people.
Of course,
the greatest
desire of
many American
Christians
is to gain
control
of the government.
I have
heard
religionist
friends
talk about
a "Christian
Congress
by 1984,"
"death to homosexuals,"
"destruction
of the Equal Rights Amendment
because it offends god's law,"
and of
course
President
Carter's
call for
50,000
new Baptist
missionaries
to
spread their anti-human
smut across
the globe. Christian fascism is rising.
Then the killing of fellow humans
in the name of god and Jesus goes on
and on, in Northern Ireland, Lebanon,
Uganda,
Rhodesia,
Ethiopia
and
Somalia and other places.

Austin, Texas

Killing and torturing

in the name of
Jesus, Mohammed, Allah, god and who
knows who else.
Let's dump religion and get mankind
on its natural, evolutionary
path toward its greatest potential.
Let's get
rid of the maniacal,
self-destructive,
defeatest
philosophies
of religion.
Let's pu II th is term inal thorn
out
of the side of human itv. because
it is killing us.
H.R. Smith
Louisville, KY
P.S. The "I found it" campaign
has
just hit our city, I'm glad I didn't
step in it.
Dear Mr. Smith,
You state the case against religion
extremely
well. We are in complete agreement with your views as our Voltarian
motto
"Ecresez l.Tnteme!"
(Crush the infamous thinql] indicates,
and if we could only bring out of the
closet the every fourth American who
is deep down in his heart an Atheist,
the battle would be half won. This is
why our "Each One Bring One" campaign during 1978 is so important.
The Editor

Dear Editor:
Are Atheists born that way or do
our life experiences make us into
Atheists? 1 think some of us are inherent Atheists. As a child 1 was forced to
go to church and each Sunday 1 sat
and cringed in fear as the Methodist
preacher droned on about god and his
love one minute and his evil revenge
the next.
1 had been told that if 1 did not believe in god that he could strike me
down dead as lightning does. 1 would

May, 1978

sit there trying to force myself to believe with a terrible fear that 1 would
be struck dead. Now no one at home
had explained religion to me but had
preached about the golden rule. This
was fine and 1 grew up believing in it. 1
had heard many times through the
years that most people who think they
do not believe in a supreme being do
finally pray to one on their death bed.
1 often wondered if 1 would succumb
too. 1 had the misfortune to find out
when 1 was near death from heart
spasms caused by a thyroid condition.
1 rolled in bed in agony and moaned
over and over, "Oh if only 1 could believe there was someone up there that
would hear me." Then 1 knew 1 was an
inherent Atheist.
It is my opinion that if everyone
practiced the golden rule there would
be no need for any kind of religion.
The fact that religious people can sin
and be forgiven by a non-existent god
tends to cause habitual sinning ..
Kay Holly
Vashon, WA
Dear Kay,
Thank you for your thoughts on
the on-going discussion as to whether
Atheists are born with this love of
reason or if it is their varied life experiences which lead them to discard the
inhibiting delusions and neuroses religion would force on us all - were we
to allow it.
Along this line of thought, you
might be interested in reading former
Franciscan priest Emmett McLoughlin's Crime and Immorality
in the
Catholic Church (reviewed in The
American Atheist, Feb. 78), in which
he presented in detail proof that religionists' "option" to sin and be forgiven by a non-existent god does tend
to cause habitual sinning.
The Editor

Dear Editor:
You are doing a job which our
whole family enjoys. It is the only
magazine we care about enough to
see that it is quickly passed on so that
the next can read it.
Our youngest boy (19) said, "I am
taking this to our college librarian to
see if they will buy a subscription;
after all they do need different points
of view."
I'd like to make a suggestion for
an article that 1 think could be a lot
of help to some people. Take the
plight of the young mother who has
to protect her child's tender person-

Page 3

ality.
Most children will really be vicious with another little child
once they know it doesn't go along with the whole Sunday
school routine. It is easy for us as adults, but it is very difficult
for a young child to handle the teasing and the ridicule, which
is endless.
I've raised three men and they are super fellows each and
every one of them. They frequently say, "Thanks, Mom for
not cluttering up our minds as everything has been a lot easier
for us as adults," but as children it was otherwise.
All five of us appreciate your efforts and most especially do
we appreciate the fine faces on your covers that give the
"right-in-the-eye look."
You are reaching more people than you think!
Miriam Hollen
Fresno, CA
Dear Mrs. Hollen,
Thank you for your kind words about the magazine. We are
always grateful for such words and for constructive criticism
which will help make the magazine greater as it grows larger.
Your idea for an article on the problems of childhood
Atheism is a good one. Some suggestions for handling this matter may be found in the Alfonso John Cruz editorial (p.5) of
our November, 1977 issue.
The Editor
[Editor's Note: The following two letters (original plus followup) are from an Atheist who had sent us a donation earmarked
for state-church separation work. Unfortunately, the magazine
subscription we sent to her following this donation caused her
discomfort as she lives in a conservative neighborhood among
people who would begrudge her her (dislbeliefs.]
Dear friends:
I did not order the magazine. I gave a donation for statechurch separation work.
I may be the "village Atheist," but that role is not as comfortable as it once was and I would rather not be labeled at
this time.
Barbara Gold
Edmonds, Wash.
Dear Sirs: {follow-up letter]
I sent you a donation earmarked for your state-church separation work. I am sorry I did. I won't do it again.
... I have enough trouble as a left- winger in a conservative
neighborhood. Your publication does not help. I want my religious convictions to remain my business.
Barbara Gold
Edmonds, Wash.
Dear Barbara,
We will respect your wishes not to receive our magazine. We
can understand the pressure that a neighborhood can bring
down. It is an unfortunate, sad reality that even in America
people are made to feel uncomfortable because of their beliefs.
We hope that you will not let your conservative neighbors
stop your support of our organization.

Dear Friends:
Please remove my name from your lists. I have married a
very dear man who is a believer, and I can do more good if he
is not frightened by mail from the American Atheists.
Also, it could jeopardize my marriage.
Ida Norman
Las Vegas, Nev.
Dear Ms. Norman,
We are sorry to hear that your Atheism and your communication with fellow Atheists must be abandoned because your
spouse's beliefs would be threatened by your own. It is even
more of a shame to see that it is most always the Atheist who
recants his/her knowledge when such facts conflict with their
marriage partner's faith.
Disappointments such as your departure from our ranks are
somewhat softened by the enlistment of a long-time freethinker the likes of Irma Shilleman, whose heart-warming letter follows her son's, next.
The Editor
Fellow Atheists:
Please find enclosed my personal check for $15 for membership for my mother. She wants to join us. She has been
reading my American Atheist magazine and has been an Agnostic all her life, but now realizes that the outrageous takeover by organized religion must be opposed.
Ken Schilleman
Antigo, Wisc.
I would like to join your organization. I have lots of gripes
against what the churches are doing, and the way they are
pushing the clergy into government positions, which is not
right. They have built up huge businesses and do not pay taxes.
I am also against the teachings of the Bible which shows the
Christians don't even believe in their own religion. The preachers shout loud and clear on Sunday, but it's all a sham.
My mother insisted that my brother, sister and I had to go
to church with her, come rain, snowdrifts or high water as if it
were life itself. I often had a very bad fever or pneumonia after those trips because we had to walk 10 blocks to the church.
I got a beating for not believing in hell and not wanting to
go to German church school. I lost four years education, but I
did learn German reading and writing, also lots of long verses
and church songs which were all forgotten as I grew older.
After Mother died (when I was 14), I had to live with my
older sister who was a devout Lutheran (Ha!) and promised
Mother she would carry on with my education.
Mother worked as a ladies aide with every event going on in
the church. But when she took ill with cancer not one of her
church friends came to see her. All were very afraid of catching her illness - is that ever a showing of faith! I still remember telling our preacher I didn't believe that Lot's wife had
been turned into a pillar of salt; I was six at the time. Dad told
me that salt melts, and it was raining at the time!
I am now an 82-year-old lady. I am healthy, do my own
housework and have a large garden in Kenneth's backyard. He
helps me and enjoys it also. I don't go to church unless it is for
a funeral or a wedding. I want no preacher at my funeral nor
do I want to be kept alive in a hospital when I am ready to die.
And I hope my sons will take my wishes seriously.
Irma Schilleman
Antigo, Wisc.
Dear Lady Irma,
It is indeed our pleasure to welcome you as an American
Atheist and to thank you for sharing some of your rich ex
periences with us. It is particularly encouraging to us that you
were able to recognize your own Atheism through reading
your son's copies of The American Atheist. We sincerely hope
that with increased circulation of our journal we shall be able
to reach other "freethinkers" such as yourself. We know they
are out there (23% to 27% of the American population) and
we believe that with added circulation of our message they will
recognize and join us.
The Editor

Page 4

May, 1978

American

Atheist

II NEWS 111IflltI1111~1J.lflltl'!tlllllll
Jimmy Leading U.S.
To "Peanut Heaven"
What goes on in the government and in the mind of our
president, Jimmy Carter, can be best evaluated by actions and
stated objectives. If you think the nation is not in trouble with
a born-again Christian at its head, you should have been at the
"National Prayer Breakfast" in Washington in February - a
ceremony which is becoming an institution. Never matter that
it is a breach of separation of state and church, the politicians
[there is not one statesman in the lot of them] are there to
make points with possible religious votes.
The good Baptist reporter who covered it for a publication
of that group was happy that it was not a routine prayer orgy
as in past years which "glorified" civil religion in that "the
nation was exalted almost as much as God." This year, he noted,the gathering of "highly placed" governmental officials of
all branches of government "sounded a note of humility, service to God and humanity and of religion as a motivating force
toward world peace"! [Yes, with Ireland, the Philipines, IndiaPakistan, South Africa, Israel against the Arabs, he actually
said that!] Some observers attributed the new attitude to the
open commitment of President Carter to his religious faith.
"To me God is real. To me the relationship with God is a
very personal thing. God is ever-present in my life, sustains me
when I am weak, gives me guidance when I turn to him, and
provides for me as a Christian through the life of Christ a perfect example to emulate in my experiences with other human
beings," declared Carter at the breakfast.
The president explained that he and his wife worship together every night. He said that, "often during the day I turn
to God in a quiet and personal way."
He then emphasized again his concept of being "born
again." He said that many people do not know the meaning of
these words. "For those of us who share the Christian faith,
the words 'being born again' have a simple meaning," he said,
"that through personal experience we recommit our lives as
humble children of God which makes us in the realest possible
sense brothers and sisters of one another."
The president went on to say that for government officials,
who have a concern for the needs of people, [surely he was
talking of Califano who would deprive poor women of abortions] "the word 'family' has a broader meaning, the family of
all human beings, and how we might alleviate world tension,
misunderstandings, death, suffering, loneliness and alienation
through a common understanding, a common purpose and
sometimes even a common belief."
Subserviant Before Allah
As illustrations Carter cited the spiritual fervor of Mahatma
Gandhi of India [the president has not read enough to discover
that Gandhi was an Atheist], the religious commitment of
Crown Prince Fahd of Saudi Arabia [Feb. American Atheist,
pages 13, 14], Prime Minister Menahem Begin of Israel [a
religious fanatic] and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt as

Presiden t Carter plans to really get cookin'

on his missionary career after he leaves the
White House ....
points for optimism in the solution of the problems of the
Mideast. I have a sense of confidence that if we emphasize
and reinforce those ties of mutual faith and our subservience
and humility before God and an acquiescence in his deeply
sought guidance that we can prevail," he asserted.
"In a rapidly changing world we need to cling to things that
don't change," the president continued, "to truth and justice
and fairness and brotherhood arid love and to faith. Through
prayer I believe we can find those things."
As an unusual highlight for the program, Rep. Barbar Jordan, (D-Texas) recited a "Prayer for National Leaders." At
the conclusion of this choice bit of insanity, the audience
burst out in applause.
Judge John J. Sirica of the U.S. District Court of Washington, who has been notably unkind to Atheist petitions in
his court, read from the. Old Testament and General Louis H.
Wilson of the U. S. Marine Corps read from the New Testament.

The news which fills one half of the magazine is chosen to demonstrate, month after month, the dead reactionary hand of religion. It dictates
good habits, sexual conduct, family size, it censures cinema, theater, television, even education. It dictates life values and lifestyle. Religion is
politics and, always, the most authoritarian and reactionary politics. We editorialize our news to emphasize this thesis. Unlike any other maga~ine or newspaper in the United States, we are honest enough to admit it.
~

The Honorable Max Cleland, Administrator of Veterans

Affairs, gave his personal testimony of faith and former U. S.
Senator Harold E. Hughes led the closing prayer. Rep. Berkeley Bedell (D-Iowa) brought greetings from the House of Representatives extolling the practice of House "prayer breakfasts." Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind) brought greetings from the
United States Senate.
Special music for the occasion was provided and included
an opening of the event with the hymn "How Great Thou
Art" and a concluding vocal recitatiori of "The Lord's Prayer."
It is no wonder that the powerful Baptist organizations
"The Baptist Joint Committe on Public Affairs" almost immediately issued an editorial opinion by its Executive Director
that the intervention of the church into the body pelitic of
the United States was not only "a legal right so far as the U.S.
Constitution is concerned, but a divine mandate. The mission
of the church is to the world, a fact which cannot be overlooked whenever the prayer of Jesus, 'Thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven,' is taken seriously ....
Therefore the

Nixon'S
Prayers
Unanswered
H.R. Haldeman in his book,
The Ends of Power, reports the
following touching scene which
occurred as the Nixon regime
came to a conclusion. It all happened, we are told, on April 29,
1973. Of course, we Atheists
knew it all along: Nixon thought
he was on the hot line to god.
We quote:
"We were standing on the terrace [Nixon and Haldeman] when
. . . Nixon said with a hushed
voice, 'You know, Bob, there's
someth ing I've never told anybody before, not even you. Every
night since I've been president,
every night since I've taken this
office, every single night before
I've gone to bed, I've knelt down
on my knees beside my bed and
prayed to God for guidance and
help in this job.'
"I
[Haldeman]
was deeply
touched by this. He went on:
'Last night before I went to bed, I
knelt down and prayed, and this
time I prayed that I wouldn't
wake up in the morning. I just
couldn't face going on.' r r

"Atheist of the Year" Michael Dean Hagen is not one to rest on his laurels. In November of last year Hagen got his employer, the United States Navy, to officially recognize him as an "American Atheist" in his service record book where he had been
previously listed under the catch-all denomination of "no preference. "
Now the 21-year-old sailor has formally petitioned (letter reproduced below) the
U.S. Navy to "remove particular religious references from various pledges that I must
abide by as a member of the Armed Forces. " The young seamen from Oakland California, is asking that references to a god be eliminated from the Navy Credo, th~ U.S.
Fighting Man ~ Code and from the Pledge of Allegiance.
Hagen has been conducting a well organized and articulate correspondence campaign with ~he Department of the Navy in Washington, D. C. "to see some progress
made on this matter soon, or I'll have to consider the possibility of opening up legal
channels for a problem as complicated as this seems. "
We here at the national American Atheist Center salute Seaman Hagen and are delighted to recognize him as our ''Atheist of the Year" for 1978. He represents a new
generation of Atheists whom we wholeheartedly support in their and our efforts to
advocate, labor for, and promote in all lawful ways the complete and absolute separation of state and church.
2 February

Hagen

1978

Department of Navy
Chief of Naval Personnel
Washington
25, D. C.

Dear Sir:

Seeks
To

I am presently
in the Navy and have recently
been given
recogni t.Lon as an American Atheist.
I truely
had anticipated
no problem in receiving
this classification.
Now. as an atheist
and a member of the Armed Forces,
I must register
this
complaint.
I see vast
differences
be tween religious
principles
and
fundamental
principles
of our free institutions.
The fact
that
Amer-Lc an s are largely
religious
has no relevance
in an affair
of
state.
I shall
not yield
allegiance
to 'God' as I eou Ld for my
country.
Specifically,
my complaint
applies
to:
1)

Scuttle
God

From
Navy

The Navy Cr-edo , under 'We Serve With Honor',

whcr-e it
states,
"Service
to God is our special
privilege.
':ie serve
with honor".

2) The 'U.S.
Fighting
Fan's
Code',
\.,111 t r-ue t in my God '",

where

3) The Pledge
of Allegiance,
nat.Lcn , under God,

it

where

it s t e t ee , "I

states,

II...

one

It.

T!:J.8First
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
states
in part,
"Congress
shall
II1Me no law respecting
an e s t ab'Ld shmen t of religion "
In the cases
noted,
I feel
this
clause
has been violated.
'Ihe s e references
to 'God' definitely
make a religious
aa suep t Lon ,
It suggests
monotheism,
to say the least,
and constitutes
a coercion
of belief
that requires
tt e
to recite
a pledge
which,
to De, is profane.
I suggest
LmmedLat;e action
be taken to amend these
pledges
so as to exclude
all references
to r-e Lf.gLon ,
I wouLd appreciate
a proopt
reply,
in writing,
from your of rice.

Respectfully

~I.<U)

yours,

D.QAv\ ~

Hichael
Dean Hagen) HN
N.R.N.C.
Ward H
Bremerton t WA 98314

Oh well - so much for prayer!

Page 6

church has an obligation to be involved in public affairs and

the political process and, indeed, to develop an 'incarnational
politics, that the word may become flesh. ... Impotence in
the social and political 'domain on the part of the church and
those who profess to be Christ's followers can only mean that
either the gospel is not worth much or we have not really
taken it seriously."
His words are the ingress to political power which the
Baptist church wields with more political acumen than does
the Roman Catholic Church. Whereas the latter is blatant and
loud, the former is quiet and insidious. Both are a menace to
the welfare of humankind.
We probably will not have another good president until we
again elect an Atheist one.
It should not take an Einstein to understand that the continuation of religious prayers and ceremonies in our government can only lead us deeper and deeper into an establishment of religion, from which there will be no hope of escape
when the exercise is aided and abetted by our modern technology. It must be stopped now.

May, 1978

~/

American Atheist

Dopes Dupe Carter

Th' last time
God he put me
'cause he was on
line with Prime
Begin again.

I called
on hold
another
Minister

January 31st was a big day in the

White House - for it was then that
President Carter called in 75 religious
leaders for a special briefing on the
Panama Canal issue. The meeting,
scheduled to last 15 minutes, went on
to 45 minutes as Carter showed how
"at home" he was with religion.
In the meeting Carter told the religious leaders that he wanted them to
vouch for the fairness of the treaties.
He particularly asked that the congregations be convinced by them that the
treaties were fair.
After the meeting, Laurie Lugey, a
White House aide said: "Certainly the
support of the churches has been crucial because they were out front early
on the issue. . .. The churches have
been very early in recognizing the need
for new treaties and very early expressed their support for these particular
treaties. "
Good or bad - for or against - we
feel it is the height of irresponsibility
for the government to call upon the
churches to convince their congregations on any political issue.

Austin, Texas

Here, the Roman Catholic Church

brags of its involvement in reporting
the 31st of January White House meeting.
The Chicago Catholic newspaper,
on February 24, 1978, on page 9 reports:
"Cardinal Krol [of Philadelphia]
and spokesmen for the National Council of Churches and the Synagogue
Council of America supported the
treaties in Senate Foreign Relations
Committee hearings last October."
Our query, of course, is why in the
hell these religious leaders were permitted to testify at all. We are unaware
that the kingdom of heaven or man's
relationship to god is demonstrated by
the activities of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee.
However, the Chicago Catholic goes
on:
"Church leaders have not stopped
at Senate testimony in their campaign
to build support for the treaties. The
Catholic Church and the National
Council of Churches jointly sponsored
a speaking tour for Archbishop Marcos
McGrath of Panama City, a Roman
Catholic supporter of the new treaties.
Also, the former president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops
and its current general secretary signed
public statements and joined in a citizens' group organizing support for the
treaties.
"Father J. Bryan Hehir, associate
secretary for international justice and

peace of the U.S. Catholic Conference,

talked on the treaties before the annual meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Charities and at a
regional meeting of the Catholic Press
Association in Nashville, Tenn.
"Catholic
newspapers supported
the treaties editorially in Philadelphia,
New York, Houston, Davenport, Iowa,
Oklahoma City, Portland, Maine, Milwaukee, Rochester, New York, La
Crosse, Wisconsin and elsewhere.
"There was.. . . a great deal of
activity at the diocesan level also."
Here again, we have a picture of the
church sophistication
which makes
Atheist organizations look like Babes
in the Wood.
They know what they want and
what will most favor their organizations. They go out and fight the good
political fight
advance this favored
position. Their plans are made a thousand years in advance, a hundred years
in advance, decades in advance, -leaving the rest of the world in a defensive
posture before them.
If we can do nothing else from the
study of the church - we can learn
what is and what is not effective.
From the reporting in the Roman
Catholic press comes the clear impression that the passage of the Panama
Canal treaties is a victory for their
church as it interferes with the politics
and foreign relations of our government.
And, meanwhile, of course, President Carter plays the dupe.

to

Anita Declares
War On Atheists
As if she hasn't already made enought enemies in America with her religious crusade against gay rights, Anita Bryant has now declared war on A theists in general
and Atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Heir in particular.
Bryant fired the first salvo in her war on secular education in February with a
plug for the reinstatement of voluntary prayer in public schools. Referring to Dr.
O'Heir, Bryant proclaimed, "Whereas one woman took prayer out of schools, the
day has come when it may take one woman to put it back. "
The well-paid agent for orange juice, heterosexuality and forced religious indoctrination made her comments before a crowd of about 3,000 in the EI Paso, Texas
Civic Center as part of her "Revive America Campaign" which earlier had received
an angry reception from 75 placard-bearing demonstrators in San Antonio. No one
was injured during Bryant's San Antonio appearance although at least one confrontation took place between police and angry demonstrators.
Bryant's appearance was in tandem with another evangelist, Cecil Todd, who
asked for contributions for a planned crusade special he said would be aired on
national network television. Bryant said the point of her campaign is to "hate the
sin and love the sinner. "
The former Miss Florida did not comment on whether or not she would be
willing to meet Dr. O'Heir in debate of the issues which separate these two prayer
and anti-prayer warriors.

May, 1978

Page 7

Religi0D Ousted Fr0m

N. Dak0ta Sch001s
One would almost NOT believe that
it could come about in a town such as
Grand Forks, North Dakota. After all
- what is this town of 40,060 population - which is not to be found in any
lists of distinction, anywhere?
And yet, it. did happen. And, it
happened because two families complained. Two [2] families decided to
do something about the unconstitutional practices of state/church admixture in the public schools.
The Grand Forks Herald newspaper
bannered the story across the front
page - a story written by two women
reporters,
Mary Miller and Anne
Valentine. The headline proclaimed:
The Ban
on
Religion in Schools
Is Reaffirmed Locally
"Grand Forks' principals have been
instructed
to make sure religious
material which could be offensive to
some students or teachers is not
distributed or posted in the schools.
"In a memo to all schools, (the)
Superintendant ... said that while the
administration does not oppose religious groups or activities, 'we feel
strongly the public schools cannot
promote or endorse in any manner
organizations which clearly have a
religious purpose.'
"Specifically banned is promotion
of religious groups through posters,
intercom announcements, items published in teacher or student bulletins
or literature distributions."
It was a clear sweep!
The superintendant of schools felt
called upon to say that the separation
of state and church in Grand Forks
was particularly difficult because of
the city's strong Christian orientation.
"In a community like this one, it's
easy to let church slop over into
school and school into church. We
have to guard against that.
"Because Christian practices are
taken for granted by most area residents, 'there is a lack of sensitivity to
persons of minority persuasions who
see these issues in a different light,' he
said.
His memo to all of the schools'
principals was partly a response to two
families who protested that they were
offended by Central High School
posters promoting the Fellowship of
Christian Athletes, a group which

Page 8

tries to develop together both sport

skills and Christian attitudes among
young people.
"Questions were also raised by the
families about public address announcements concerning church-related events."
The Superintendent
of Schools,
who should receive an award for bravery, is Burton Nygren. He quite calmly
announced that the offensive posters
had been taken down and the intercom
announcements
had
been
stopped.
Concerned with the Christian Athletes group he opined, "Even without
a Christian bias, these groups are
strong and do a lot of good for the
kids. We sure don't believe that
they shouldn't exist. It's just that they
have their job and we have ours .... If
they became too involved with us,
we'd secularize them." he noted,
adding that the groups should have an
interest in staying separate from the
schools.
"One of the delicate areas in
religion-school separation," the paper

pointed out, "is prayer, particularly bYI

athletic teams before the games.
" 'If a coach says a prayer before a
game, it's probably going to be Protestant, and it's going to mention something about Jesus,' Nygren said. 'In
most cases that's going to offend a
student. Why get involved in that?'
Concerned
with
the
religious
themes of Christmas concerts, decorations or parties - perhaps because the
holiday has become so commercialized
and the celebration is so all-encompassing, not much administrative concern
has been shown.
"There are many elements of
Christmas that really have nothing to
do with Christianity," said Nygren. "It
is, after all, a national festival."
"Still" he added "we have to be
very car~ful not to' be insensitive to
the feelings of minority religions."
We doff our hats to Superintendent
Nygren who, in a small Christian-dominated town, had enough conviction
and principle to support the Constitution of the United States, clearly,
quickly and without equivocation.
.

Dead issue letters

WASHINGTON(AP) - The Federal Communications
Commission is getting 13,000 letters a day about an issue
that it decided more than two years ago.
The letters ask the commission to deny a request supposedly filed by athiest Madelyn Murray O'Hair - to
ban religious broadcasting.
Many of the letter-writers are church members from
around the country who are asked to write in Sunday
School classes or other services. For example, the
members of First Baptist Church in Palestine, Texas,
were recently asked to help stop Mrs. O'Hair in mimeographed sheets that told them where to write and what
to say.
But the facts, according to besieged FCC staffers, are
that Madelyn Murray O'Hairnever filed a petition to ban
religious broadcasting and the FCC is not considering
such a step, according to Belle O'Brien of the agency's
consumer affairs division.
Ms. O'Brien said that in 1974, two California residents
filed a petition asking the commission to stop issued new
television or FM radio licenses to religious organizations.
The FCC denied that petition in August 1975, but the
issue has refused to die, Ms. O'Brien said. To date, the
commission has received 6,500,000 letters about it.

May, 1978

~I

American

Atheist

Scholar Canned
For Humanizing
Jesus Christ
Christians are particularly thin-skinned and intolerant of deviation from
dogma around their Christmas and Easter holidays. Witness the fate of Dr.
Robert S. Alley, chairman of the department of religion at the University
of Richmond in Virginia.
Dr. Alley was asked to speak to a
group of Atheist members of the First
Unitarian Church in Richmond on the
topic of how Atheists might resist the
at times fanatical attempts of religionists to convert them to acknowledging
the Christian deity. He spoke to the
group for two-and-one-half hours the
night of December 6 and the next day
some of his remarks were reported in
The Richmond News Leader under a
four-column headline:
"Jesus 'Never Claimed To Be God.' "
In his talk to the Atheist group
known as "Atheists' Corner," Dr. Alley
said that Jesus never really claimed to
be god or even remotely related to god,
adding: "For the last 1,800 years the
,Christian church has been preaching

something about Jesus that he probably didn't say abou t himself."

That statement alone would have
been sufficient to have Dr. Alley disciplined by those Christians who would
rearrange the truth so as to make it
fit their beliefs. Alley wasn't finished
yet though.
Deified After Death
He said he saw Jesus as a Jewish
leader of an ethical movement who
lived his life consistent with his teachings. "I think the (Bible) passages where
he talks about being the Son of God
are later additions - what the church
said about him," Alley opined. He
characterized Christianity as a religion
gone astray and placed much of the
blame on Paul and the Gospel evangelists. Paul turned Jesus "into something
other than a man," Alley said.
He called biblical literalists and fundamentalists "stupid," said the effort
to keep god in the public schools is
a "dangerous thing" and said the por-

trayal of the United States as a godfearing nation "boils my blood."

Such freethought
could not be
allowed by the clergy, so four days
later about 65 Richmond area Southerri
Baptist clergymen and university President E. Bruce Heilman assembled in a
meeting called by Charles B. Nunn,
executive secretary of the Richmond
Baptist Association, at the request of
the pastors. Subsequently the university board announced that Dr. Alley
was leaving the religion department for
another area of university work.
Dr. Alley has been working at the
university since 1963 and has tenure,
which means he cannot be "released"
from his job without the university
having to show cause.
In a ridiculous attempt at screening
their heavy-handed actions, the university board added insult to injury
with this post-mortem: "The Board reiterates the university's dedication to
freedom of thought, the open and unencumbered search for truth and free
expression by responsible individuals
in their educational endeavors and as
free citizens."
In this as in all other instances,
however, the actions of godists belie
their words. Those whose authority
is founded on a centuries-old tradition of keeping their subjects ignorant and in fear cannot allow freedom
of thought and inquiry concerning
religious beliefs, creeds, dogmas, rituals
and practices. To do so would mean
an en d to their reign over their "flock,"
and it is that fear which inspires the
"men of god" to still worse crimes
against humanity.

Abortion Foes Bonab Clinics

In February, a Roman Catholic priest was arrested at a St.
Louis abortion clinic and later convicted of disorderly conduct
for blocking the clinic's doorway. Rev. Edwin Arentsen admitted planning his "civil disobedience tactics" at the clinic as his
way of celebrating his joining the anti-abortion forces.
On Feb. 18, just one day after Arentsen's conviction, an
abortion clinic in Cleveleand was firebombed, injuring one employee while causing $30,000 in property damage. A few days
earlier, vandals threw iodine around that same clinic and cut the
building's telephone wires.
Earlier in February a clinic in Cincinnati was damaged when
a chemical bomb and packets of literature were thrown
through a window. The substance in the bomb was reportedly
listed by the government for use in warfare.
Religious warfare against women's right to con trol their own
bodies would be a more accurate way of phrasing it.
In St. Paul, Minnesota, someone broke into the Planned
Parenthood offices last year, soaked the floor with a flammable liquid and ignited it. Water and smoke damage was
estimated at $250,000.
A group calling itself People Expressing A Concern for
Everyone (PEACE) [sic] has claimed credit for six coordinated
clinic incidents which occurred on Jan. 6. The group disrupted
clinic activities around the nation, with members being arrested in New York, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Anchorage, Omaha
and Fairfax.

Austin,

Texas

"These are serious, horrible crimes being committed by

those who oppose women's right to choose," said Karen
Mulhauser, National Abortion Rights Action League executive director. Abortion Freedom League founder Bill Baird
was more specific when he charged that the attacks are part of
a national campaign of violent opposition to abortion encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church.
The violence "will turn into another Northern Ireland unless the Roman Catholics stop feeding the winds of hatred,"
Baird said in an interview with a Cleveland newspaper.
Carolyn Buell, executive director of Pre term Clinic in Cleveland, agreed with Baird that the Catholic Church is responsible
for escalating violent opposition. "From the pulpit we're being
called murderers," sho said, "though we are carrying out a lawfull activity."
Two representatives of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese denied their church has ever encouraged such violent action and,
after a meeting with Bill Baird [at Baird's insistence], they
asked abortion foes to keep calm and avoid inflammatory
rhetoric.
Were the clergy to threaten excommunication and eternal
damnation - Catholics' primary motivation for keeping their
collective noses clean - for those of their flock involved in
these attacks, they would cease quicker than one could say
"Et cum spiritu tuo. " To date, however, the Catholic Church
lends its considerable support to this violence with its benign
silence.

May 1978

Page 9

Has Religion

A Future?
By Robert Edson Russell
We live in a period of history, at
least here in the United States, where
the actual and felt belief in some kind
of all-knowing and supreme "god" ruling over the entire universe and all
human life is - the fact must be faced
- on the decline. A new generation
has grown up out of the ashes and
ruins and concentration
camps of
World War II no longer so susceptible
to other-worldly religious beliefs and
yearnings. The new beliefs and the
new spiritual yearnings have descended
from the heavens and now depend
upon worldly and demonstratable exercises and rituals for inspiration.
What are these new beliefs and
yearnings? Transcendental meditation,
for one, or TM as it is now commonly
called. Yoga, Arica training, Marxism,
gestalt therapy, encounter groups, est,
sexual exploration, drug cults, and
communal communitities are other examples.
For many people, "god" is no
longer the stern and moralistic deity
depicted in the Bible. It is realized by
more and more people that the Red
Sea did not actually part in two for
Moses when he and his followers were
fleeing the ancient Egyptians. We
know now that oceans and lakes do
not part in two for anybody or anything.
Similarly, it is no longer accepted as
"fact" by many people that Jesus
walked on water or was resurrected
from death to live eternally at "god's"
side. Both the Moses story and the
Jesus story are now regarded increasingly as poetic explanations of important myths and legends.
Why has this belief in an actual
"god" ruling over us declined and lost
ground to its once common and accepted place in human consciousness?
Largely, one imagines, because of the
scientific discoveries and developments
of the last 200 years.
Science, however, is not necessarily
the "enemy"
of religion; it may
merely be its successor. Science and
scientific theory are slowly and gradually replacing religious and theological
theory as explanations for organic and
inorganic existence and as inspirations
for the future. Man did not land on
the moon because "god" wanted him
to. Man landed on the moon because
human technicians and scientists figured out a way to get him there and

Page 10

back.
It is possible that July 20, 1969 will
be remembered in the future as the
day the traditional and ancient religious beliefs of humankind took a step
forward toward virtual extinction. Because on that day two human beings
from this planet Earth stepped and
walked for the first time upon the surface of "another world." Not only did
the moonwalk of July 20, 1969 open
up the way for future space exploration, but it also inevitably marked the
last stages of supernatural religious belief by the inhabitants of this planet.
Religion, however, will not simply
die out. The need for theological or
scientific explanation will always exist
within the human mind, as will the
yearning for some kind of spiritual
comfort. Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism are not
simply going to fade away just because
it is realized and agreed that a "god"
does not exist.
These ancient religious systems will
either adapt to the new findings of the
world scientific community (the theories of evolution, relativity, planetary
origin, genetic coding, etc.) or else
they will gradually lose their vigor and
force in the contemporary world and
will come to be looked upon merely as
vast systems of folklore and superstition and myth.

Bottled Superstition
How can religion adapt to the incontrovertible consequences of modern
scientific theory and knowledge? This
is a question one leaves to the theologians and philosophers of religion
themselves, for it is a question they
must grapple with. New wine (to borrow a phrase from the Bible) will have
to be made to put into the old bottles,
or the old bottles will lie in the cellars
of history, empty and dusty, and full
of cobwebs.
It seems fairly evident that we
moderns have reached a new stage in
religious thought and custom. We
know far too much today about physics and biology and psychology to
stick with the out-dated religious doctrines of our ancestors. Jesus no more
rose to heaven than some "god" presented Moses with a finely-chiselled
marble tablet containing the Ten Commandments. Allah no more dwells in

May, 1978

~/

Mecca than Siddhartha

discovered
truth. Some people might consider
such thinking and writing blasphemous,
but it is not: it is plain-speaking. No
hocus pocus, no rigamarole, no abracadabra.
In the near future, our major religious systems will undoubtedly undergo major upheavals and transmutations
until they reach a level of sophistication (ritualistic, theological) that equals
or even rises above modern scientific
knowledge. They will have to find
some way of capturing the modern
imagination and of giving comfort to
the modern spiritual conciousness that
is now evolving.
What lies ahead in the far distant future? One can imagine that in the distant future of 2500 A.D. or 7000 A.D.
the major religious doctrines of today
will possibly no longer even exist.
Without a central belief in a supreme "god" to sustain them, without
supernatural explanations of life and
death that "guarantee" eternal life or
personal salvation, these old religious
doctrines that have served so well for
so long will no longer serve so well or
so long. The new needs and anxieties
of future human beings on this planet
and in space colonies on the moon and
perhaps other planets will determine
and direct the new methods of spiritual
seeking and worship.
Religious beliefs change in time and
as new needs arise. In America today,
anyone who reads the papers and popular journals, who goes to the movies
and watches television, who reads
books and thinks, can see that new
needs and beliefs are arising at this
very moment. What the future holds
exactly, we don't know. But we do
know that it holds something new.

American Atheist

Limited 4th Issue

AMERICAN ATHEIST
Membership Medallions
This Official Issue is certain to rapidly sell
out, so order yours today.
The medallion comes in a velvet-like lined
gift box, with a handsome chain if you desire.
These would make great gifts. Please order
early. American Atheist members have first
chance at this price, but we will soon offer to
the public.
Be proud of your freedom from religion
and other superstitious beliefs.
Show your friends, and the world, you are
not one of the brainwashed. Wearing this
beautiful medallion will say, "I am a freethinking AMERICAN ATHEIST."
. This is the same medallion worn by Dr.
Madalyn Murray O'Hair when she appears on
television and in public. Join the unique ones!

(Shown
actual
sizes)

Sterling Silver
or
14K Gold

***********************************************************************************
Mail this order form to:
I enclose

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ATHEISTS,

P.O. Box, 2117, Austin, Texas, 78768

. Please send me

sterling silver large size medallion at $16.00

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Enclosed [

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_
_

POLEMIC SYNOPSIS
ralph h. shirley
Something Happened
Atheists are often asked by Christians and others of a similar superstitious bent, what it was that made
them Atheists. The inference, of
course, is that there must have been
some great tragedy in the person's life
which shattered their belief in god.
Since they simply "believe" in religion
without any logic or reasoning on their
part, they assume that the shedding of
religion must also result from a mere
emotional experience.
One person put the question to me
this way, "Something
happened,
didn't it?" I replied, "Yes. It all happened the day I was born with the ability to reason logically."
Obviously, tragedies and hardships
occur to almost everyone regardless of
whether or not they believe in religion
or a god. The reason that some people
become Atheists even though they
were indoctrinated in religious superstition cannot be because they suffered a tragedy, since many believers
have suffered similar tragedies and yet
they remain steeped in religious superstition. In fact, most religious testimonials are given as a result of some misfortune.
For example, a man will be involved in a grim automobile wreck
which demolishes his car and seriously
injures him. He then gives thanks and
praise to "god" for saving his life.
Such is a typical religious testimonial.
These people obviously do not have
enough intelligence or reasoning ability to ask why their god did not prevent the accident in the first place if
he is watching over them and cares
more for them than he cares for the
many thousands of people (mostly
Christians) who are killed in auto accidents each year. These non-thinkers
say they "love god" for saving their
lives, even though he permitted or
caused them to suffer a terrible misfortune.
When a reason for this contradiction is offered by a witch doctor
(preacher), it is usually that god loved
them but thought that they were wandering from the flock. He wanted to
make them realize that they should be
more concerned with worshiping god
and be more serious about living a
Christian life, etc.
This explanation is a contradiction
of another Judeo-Christian
concept
which has it that man possesses free
will and may choose to live as he
wishes without interference from god.
The explanation is analogous to the

suggestion that in order to get a jackass to do what you want, you should
first hit it in the head with a 2 x 4 to
get its attention.

Neo-Tragedians
Since non-thinking believers - like
the biblical Job - thrive on misfortune, we will have to look for another
reason why some religiously indoctrinated people become Atheists.
The difference between an Atheist
and a believer is not indoctrination,
because most Atheists received just as
much religious indoctrination in childhood as the staunchest believer. The
difference, as we have seen, is not misfortune, either.
The main difference is in the innate
ability of the Atheist to reason logically, to think in scientific terms and
to reach conclusions independently.
The Atheist also has the courage to
face reality, which is lacking in the believer.
There are certainly some young believers with reasoning ability who will
eventually become Atheists. There are
some who take a rather long time
reaching the conclusion that religion is
spurious. For example, some men have
worked as a practicing minister, priest
or rabbi for up to 20 years before eventually turning Atheist.
Since it is not possible to determine
who might be a potential Atheist, literature debunking religion should be
provided to as many people as possible,
especially to the young. We shouldn't
feel that there is no use trying to educate believers because, although the
non-thinking sheep will pass it up and
spurn the greatest of wisdom, those few
who have good reasoning ability will
seize upon the information like a
young tiger having its first taste of
meat.
A few people have criticized the
providing of information concerning
the falsity of primitive, superstitious
religions to the young, claiming that
one should wait until the child is old
enough to understand all of the pros
and cons and mature enough to form
an intelligent opinion of his/her own.
These high-minded people are the same
ones, of course, who have been stuffing their children's minds with religious rubbish.
To borrow a phrase from Radio
Free Europe, by the time the child is
old enough to think he is no longer
able to think. Because it is much less

Page 12

May, 1978

~J

likely that an adult would believe in

primitive religious myths and absurdities, the religious propagandists know
they must teach these myths to children to have them accepted.
It is, therefore, important that we
provide factual information to young
people before their minds have been
warped by propagandists of mythology and superstition. Some might say
that we should only be concerned with
freedom from religion for ourselves
and that our only effort should be that
of working for complete separation of
church and state in compliance with
the Constitution of the United States.
But not only would that be selfish and
an abandonment of innocent children
to the false and fraudulent teachings
of mental savages, it also may turn out
to be much more difficult or even impossible, if it is not supplemented with
re-educating the young victims of such
indoctrination.
If we do not assist the primitiveminded general population to enter the
20th century and gain some knowlledge of the vast amount of scientific
information that is available so as to
give them some inkling of scientific
methodology and logic, then Atheists
will always have trouble with the ignorant, emotional, credulous, illogical,
semiliterate masses. If we can teach
these creatures something, at least
when they are still young enough to be
receptive to new ideas, then religious
superstition will crumble without any
outside help, because it will be laughed
out of existence by educated men and
women.

Up To Atheists
Once a person has been thoroughly
indoctrinated with religion, it then requires a higher degree of reasoning ability on his part to overcome it - an ability which most do not have. But if the
indoctrination
can be prevented or
blunted, then even those of lesser reasoning ability may not fall prey to it.
Atheist and freethought literature
can be distributed in various ways without revealing the identity of the person who is physically making the distribution. Nothing would be gained by
revealing this anyway as it adds nothing to the facts or the argument, and
might cause resentment. On the other
hand, careful reading and reflection on
the material can be persuasive. Whatever method you choose by all means
get the Atheist message to the public.

American

Atheist

from

Christian

By
John
Henderson

People are often surprised to hear

me describe myself as a Christian Atheist, but the designation is not as paradoxical as it sounds at first glance. It
merely means that I am Christian by
birth, tradition, upbringing, indoctrination, and geography, but that I am an
Atheist by belief, philosophy, and conviction.
That is to say that I was born into
and reared by a Christian family, christened and confirmed into a Christian
church (Episcopal), educated at a
Christian
university
(Presbyterian),
and have lived the major part of my
life in a Christian community. I do not,
however, accept or believe in the traditional Christian teachings. I consider
such Christian doctrines as the virgin
birth, the resurrection, the transfiguration, and the divinity of Jesus as nothing more than primitive myths which
have only some historical value.
I reject not only the teachings of
Christianity, but those of all other major and minor religions such as Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism.
Neither do I believe in satanism, voodoo, witchcraft, or animism. I believe
that all things, no matter how mysterious or incomprehensible, are due to
natural causes. So-called "miracles"
are nothing more than unexplained
natural phenomena. When the answer
is discovered, the miraculous aspect
disappears.

Mythological Creatures
When incredulous Christian friends
ask why I doubt the existence of god,
I reply by explaining that I do not
doubt the existence of god - only the
reality. God most certainly does exist
- but how and where? The answer to
this is fairly simple. God exists in exactly the same way that all other mythological creatures exist - in the minds
and imaginations of frightened men
and women.
One of the most exasperating (and
in my opinion, stupid) questions that I
am frequently asked is: "How do you
explain the existence of the universe?"
My response to this is that I do not attempt to explain the existence of-the
universe - I simply admit, quite honestly that I do not know how or when
the universe came into existence. And
I usually add that if one is to accept
"god" as the answer to the existence
of the universe, who, or what, created
god?
As an Atheist, I am frequently subjected to idiotic questions such as one
put to me by one of my students who
wanted to know if I were not afraid

Austin,

Texas

to

Atheist
that god would be angry with me for
not believing in him. I replied that I
was not afraid of god's anger any more
than I was afraid that Jupiter, Woden,
Brahma, or any other gods would be
angry because of my disbelief.
One of the pet contentions of
Christian ministers (especially the uneducated, "jackleg" types) is that
Christianity is the only religion with
an "empty tomb." This is mean t to imply that Christianity is the only religion in which the resurrection myth is
a basic part of the formal doctrine.
Nothing, however, could be further
from the truth. Resurrection is merely
a bit of pagan mythology which has
been incorporated into Christianity.
The Hindu religion teaches that its
chief god, Brahma was murdered and
arose from the dead, and the ancient
Egyptians had a similar myth.
The Egyptian version has it that
Osiris was murdered by his evil brother,
Seth. His body was cut up into millions of pieces and scattered all over
the earth. His wife, Isis, gathered all
the fragments together, piled them
into a heap, and Osiris was magically
resurrected, after which he, Isis, and
their son, Horus, ruled the heavens as a
triad.
This - threesome, Osiris, Isis, and
Horus, was probably the forerunner of
the trinitarian doctrine to which most
Christians subscribe today. The Trinity
is not mentioned anywhere in the
Bible. As Christian doctrine, it was officially adopted by the Council of
Nicea in A.D. 325. It is interesting to
note that the Hindu religion, which
originated long before Christianity had
(and still has) a "trinity" also consisting
of the three principal Hindu gods,
Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva.
Another pagan element that found
its way into Christian dogma is the
doctrine of the virgin birth. Most religions attribute some form of miraculous birth to their gods. Zoroaster was
believed to have been born of a virgin,
and Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess,
was called the "Holy Virgin." Minerva,
the Roman goddess of wisdom, was
believed to have been born not of a
mother, but from the head of her father, Jupiter. The same legend was

May, 1978

part and parcel of the ancient Greek

religion with only the names being
changed to Athena (Minerva), and
Zeus (Jupiter).
On the matter of morality, I am frequently asked whether I do not consider that being a Christian makes a person more honest, more .loving, and
more compassionate toward his fellow
men. The fact is, however, that I have
never seen any evidence of this. White
Christians have never been averse to
murdering black Christians. In Ireland
today Catholic and Protestant Christians are slaughtering each other by
the hundreds. This has been going on
for nearly ten years now. In the 11th
century, Christian crusaders saw nothing wrong with invading Moslem lands
and killing men, women, and children
by the score. Since the Christians got
the worst of it in the end, it would
seem that the Moslem god was more
powerful than the Christian god.
In 16th century Spain, the Inquisition (Catholic Christian) did not think
it "un-Christian" to gouge out the eyes
and tear out the tongues of Jews, Protestants, and other "heretics."
The
Christian Church in the 15th century
taught that there was nothing wrong
with killing Indians or enslaving blacks
because these creatures had no "souls"
and consequently were not fully human. Members of the Ku Klux Klan
(predominantly Baptist Christians) saw
no inconsistency in hanging a few
blacks and Jews on Saturday night and
attending church on Sunday morning.

Cruelty Sanctified
Instead of enhancing love, kindness,
and compassion, it would seem that religion does the exact opposite. It promotes cruelty, intolerance, and bigotry.
It not only promotes these things; it
makes them respectable and acceptable. Thus it is that in Ireland today a
Catholic can, with a clear conscience,
toss a grenade into a Protestant kindergarten; a Protestant can, without a
twinge of guilt, set fire to a Catholic
orphanage. Here in the United States,
as recently as the early 18th century,
men, women, children, and animals
were burned to death for witchcraft in
accordance with the injunction found
in Exodus 22: 18.
In addition to the needless fear and
suffering that it causes, religion is decidedly harmful in another way. It limits
man's intelligence. Every bit of progress that has ever been made in any
field of human endeavor has been
made over the strong opposition of religion.

Page 13

Medical science, for example, has

been held back for a thousand years because the early church forbade the dissection of human cadavers for experimental purposes. Consequently, the
best medical schools of the 16th century were teaching human anatomy by
examining the insides of pigs! Two
courageous
doctors,
Vesalius and
Servetus, were the first to teach true
human anatomy because they secretly
examined dead human bodies. Servetus
was captured by the Holy Inquisition
and burned at the stake for heresy.
Vesalius escaped to France only to be
arrested by the Protestants (Calvinists)
and put to death in the same horrible
manner. Both groups, Catholic and
Protestant, felt that they were doing
the will of god by consigning fellow
humans to the flames.
Other sciences have been similarly
retarded by religious opposition. When
Galileo made the astounding assertion
that the earth revolves around the sun
in contradiction to church dictum that
the sun revolved around the earth, he
was forced by the Inquisition to recant
his
teaching.
The
writings
of
Copernicus, which taught the same scientific truth, were confiscated and
burned.
As recently as the early 1900s,
America was subjected to the ridiculous spectacle of an American schoolteacher, John Scopes, being tried in
court for the "crime" of teaching evolution in the public schools of Dayton,
Tennessee. In North Carolina, the president of Wake Forest University was
fired for allowing evolution to be
taught in the university's medical
school. In most public schools of the
South (the Bible Belt), sex education
cannot be taught because of the furious opposition
of fundamentalist
groups such as Baptists and Pentecostals. As a result, our youngsters must
learn about sex on street corners and
by reading dirty books.
Venereal disease and unwanted
pregnancies abound because religious
groups feel that sex is so inherently
evil, filthy, and immoral that it should
not even be mentioned. Many young
married couples find sexual adjustment difficult, if not impossible, because of religious taboos implanted in
their minds from childhood. Even as
medical science teaches us that sex is a
normal,
healthy
relationship,
the
churches maintain that it is lewd, filthy,
degrading, and shameful.
Such attitudes stem straight from
the writings of Paul, the self-styled
"apostle" of Jesus Christ, who never
even met the man. Paul felt sex to be
so reprehensible that he even exhorted
men to marry virgins and keep them
that way (I Cor. 7:37). He also said
that it would be better if all men remained unmarried like himself, but for
those who could not resist temptation,
marriage would be the better alterna-

tive (I Cor. 7:9). He seems to consider

marriage the lesser of two evils.
These are but a few examples of the
ways in which religion hinders, rather
than enhances learning. Christianity is
more guilty of this evil than some
other religions, however. Islam does
not place quite the restrictions on education that Christianity does. Consequently, in many Moslem countries
doctors were performing delicate brain
surgery of a type that Christian physicians in Europe never heard of until
two centuries later.
Some Christian groups, such as the
Amish, consider education to be downright sinful. These people deny their
children education beyond the sixth
grade on the theory that a person
needs only enough learning to enable
him to read scripture. Consequently,
Amish children are forced to grow up
in pathetic ignorance.

Foundation

Of Fear

As I mentioned earlier, I object to

religion on grounds that it causes needless anguish. I can give one example of
this from personal experience. I taught
for four years in the children's unit of
a psychiatric hospital in the state of
New York. One of my pupils was a
Jewish boy of 15 who belonged to a
fundamentalist sect of Judaism known
as Hasidim.
'. The Hasidim are an ultra-conservative sect of Judaism who attempt to
live today just as their ancestors did in
the time of Moses. They have countless taboos, dietary laws, and rites to
which they must conform.
My pupil, whom we will call
Solomon (not his real name) was so
terrified of doing something wrong
that he would do nothing at all. When
I gave little treats to my class, such as
cookies or candy, Solomon would always refuse them for fear of violating
some taboo that might condemn him
to an eternity of torment in a fiery hell.
Each ward of the children's unit was
provided with a television set for the
use and enjoyment of the patients, but
Soloman could. not watch TV. This
would be a violation of the Second
Commandment. When I took my class
to the library to watch educational
movies, Solomon had to be left alone
in the classroom. He could not watch
movies for the same reason. Although
I could not prove it, I am certain that
Solomon's religious upbringing was
partly responsible for his having been
committed to a mental hospital.
Another example of the needless
suffering that religion can cause may
be found in the esse of a young Catholic woman. During her courtship her
fiance never made any sexual overtures
toward her, but she felt that this was a
manifestation
of his being a good
Catholic. After three months of marriage with no consumation, she learned

Page 14

May, 1978

that the husband was homosexual and

had married her merely for social respectability. Since the Catholic Church
does not permit divorce, she had to
make the agonizing choice of remaining chained to a meaningless marriage
or being excommunicated
from the
church. Although most priests would
deny it, excommunication carries with
it, by implication at least, an automatic
sentence of eternal damnation. For an
individual brainwashed
from early
childhood with the notion that the
pope has the power to damn or absolve at his pleasure, this could be a
terrifying prospect.
Nor is Christianity the only religion
which causes physical and emotional
agony. The prevailing religion of India
is Hinduism, which teaches that no living thing may be killed. The land is
plagued by famine while thousands of
cows wander aimlessly around the
countryside. The cow is sacred and
cannot be eaten for food. Rats spread
filth and disease in addition to destroying tons of grain each year, but no ratcontrol program can be implemented
because it is forbidden to kill any animal. In consequence of Hindu teachings, people die of hunger and malnutrition while beef cattle roam around
and fish die in the streams.
My final objection to religion is
that it lends itself too readily to oppression and exploitation. Charlatans,
quacks and fakes grow rich by preying
on the fears and superstitions of the
poor and ignorant. And they commit
this atrocity with complete impunity.
No law can touch them nor can a cent
in taxes be collected from their enormous haul.
I am frequently called upon by
Christians to "prove" my contention
that there is no god. I respond to this
ridiculous demand by pointing out
that neither can I disprove the existence of Zeus, Osiris, Ishtar, or for that
matter, Santa Claus. Proof is a positive,
not a negative approach. The scientific
means of establishing a fact is to prove
that something is rather than that
something is not. Seemingly, it would
be incumbent upon the believers to
prove their position instead of demanding that someone disprove it. But
even if positive proof of religion's
fraudulence were to be presented,
what good would it do? Has superstition ever yielded to logic?
"... one nation,
.undor

(;0(/

"

American

Atheist

All Things Considered

Jon
Dl.urray
Jndividual
We recently received a wave of distressing news: birth
control clinics across the country had been fire-bombed; our
president has said that he bases his support of Israel on the
"fact" that Israel's existence fulfills biblical prophecy; the
Kentucky legislature has a bill before it to make the display of
the Ten Commandments mandatory in all public school classrooms; the State of Texas is a functioning theocracy due to a
provision in its constitution requiring all elected or appointed
officials to have a belief in a "supreme being"; and countless
city council meetings across the nation open with invocations,
as do both houses of Congress.
Each of these is a flagrant violation of the constitutional
principle of separation of state and church. The list is almost
endless, it could go on for pages. Why? Because the Constitution of the United States has suffered a grave transition in our
recent history, it has now become just an advisory document.
Our rights to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and other
freedoms have now been left up to the discretion of powerful
political forces.
The only line of defense left is the individual citizen. Think
about it: in the years since WWII the U.S. Supreme Court has
handed down a number of decisions which served to enhance
human rights, but all of which resulted from litigation brought
by individuals who felt they had to force their government to
deliver freedoms already promised and guaranteed them by the
Constitution. All of the so-called "civil rights" decisions of the
60s were rights that the government had already granted in its
founding document, but generations later the descendants of
those founders needed to petition the government for those
very same rights all over again.
Why? Simply put, the people of the United States have by
and large not cared for the protection of their rights for many
years now. As long as they had two cars in every garage and a
chicken in every pot all was OK. Meanwhile, in the halls of
Congress the legislators were taking away one freedom after
another under the guise of caring for the people.
The great silent majority slept through the conversion of
our national symbolism and ideals from those of "freedom
for all" to those of "love it as it is or get out." The idea that to
love your country is to fight to make it better is but a recent
notion. If you loved it before, you simply kept your mouth
closed tight and went along so as not to rock the boat, thereby
qualifying as a "good citizen."
All of those "good citizens" have now almost cost us the
very right to exist as Atheists in the United States. While they
remained "in line," the administration of President Eisenhower began to convert our nation into a Christian democracy
and none knew what was going on. Now organizations such as
American Atheists are being urged to do something about it.
Well, it's too late now for ordinary effort. It is only with extraordinary effort and boldness that we can hope to have a
chance at reaquiring our constitutional liberties. The fighting
should have been done during the 50s to save those symbols
and ideals are forefathers held so dear.
In three short years -1954,1955
and 1956 - our nation
was symbolically delivered over to the Christian scheme of salvation. Actions that guarenteed our descent into a new Dark
Age went unopposed. In 1954, the words "under God" were
inserted into the Pledge of Allegiance. From that moment on
no Atheist could swear allegiance to this nation. In 1955, the
words "In God We Trust" were made mandatory for the currency of this nation. From that point on, no Atheist could
exist without being forced to acknowledge a supreme being
with every monetary transaction. In 1956, our national motto

Austin, Texas

Action
was changed to "In God We Trust." From that time on, no
Atheist could consider the United States a safe home.
As early as 1908, the Congress of the United States made
clear what its position was with respect to a destiny for our
nation. In a committee report on the restoration of the slogan
"In God We Trust" to certain coins under consideration at
that time, they said, "Your subcommittee is unanimous in the
belief that as a Christian nation we should restore this motto
to the coinage of the United States upon which it was formerly inscribed ... as an outward and visible form of the inward
and spiritual grace, which should possess and inspire American citizenship, and as an evidence to all the nations of the
world that the best and only reliance for the perpetuation of
the republican institution is upon a Christian patriotism,
which, recognizing the universal fatherhood of God, appeals to
the universal brotherhood of man as the source of the authority and power of all government."
The power of government was thus given over to a fable.
No viable organization existed at that time nor was to exist for
many years to come to counteract that kind of sickness in leadership. For that reason we are now caught up within a flow
of history that we cannot reverse short of tremendous social
upheaval.
Where were the lovers of freedom when our nation was
given over to the god idea and sold out to the most disreputable of all existing systems of thought - organized theism?
On November 13, 1861, a minister from Ridleyville, Pennsylvania wrote a letter to the Hon. S.P. Chase, then Secretary
of the Treasury. It said in part: "One fact touching our currency has hitherto been seriously overlooked. I mean that recognition of the Almighty God in some form on our coins.
...This would make a beautiful coin, to which no possible citizen could object. This would relieve us from the ignominy of
heathenism. This would place us openly under the divine protection we have personally claimed."
That letter initiated the placement of "In God We Trust"
on certain coins, an initial defeat for the free mind, a signal of
many more to come.
We now have a "born again" president and the pledge of
"god's word" has made its way into every nook and cranny of
our lifestyles. It is almost too late now to eliminate a concept
so entrenched in the inner fabric of our culture. It should have
been stopped 100 years ago. We are now faced with a cancerous growth, a growth which will perhaps die out - but only by
killing its host. All we can do is to slow its progress and relieve
the pain because the opportunity for cure through early diagnosis has passed. We will do the best we can, as any good physician might.
Due to the silence of the many, the few have suffered. Now
the few who knew that suffering perhaps cannot save the
many. If only those who cried wolf had been heard.
Only the hope of individual action remains, action against
the government asking it to restore the United States to the
noble experiment of our founding, a complete separation of
state and church. No other nation had ever thought of such a
separation, but a few brave men dared. Let us not forsake
them now. Each of us owes it to ourselves to strike out in
whatever way we can for the restoration of collective reason as
a guide for our nation and its affairs. Americans must get back
to thinking together - not praying together. The solution is
only as far away as the space between our ears.
The harm one minister can set in motion seeking a return to
serfdom surely many organized Atheists can remedy for a return to liberty.

May, 1978

Page 15

Late last year there was a lively exchange between Atheists

and Christians in the Daily Aztec, the student newspaper at
San Diego State University. The major contributor on the side
of the Atheists was Joseph M. Straczynski, whose work had
earlier been reprinted in the American Atheist after he had
been introduced by his psychology professor, Dr. Christopher
E. Parker, who even bought the young man a subscription to
this journal as a reward for his jousts against the dragon of reIigionism on the campus.
Joe took his degree in psychology and is a graduate student
in Mass Communications. He earns his way by free-lance writing with an enviable bite and wit, making an excellent champion in the lists for Atheism.
In a letter to the editor concerning denial of on-campus
status to a Christian Science organization he wrote:
....it seems to me that while it is a definite step in the right
direction, this is not as complete a move as it could be.
The question is discrimination. If an organization is discriminatory, or is based on a discriminatory ideology, it should be
denied on-campus status. This is, I presume, a fair statement of
the situation. In light of this scenario then, I would like to
bring up the following points:
1) Christianity as a whole is incredibly discriminatory. While
other religions adopt a tolerant attitude toward theologies that
differ with their own, and have no precise stipulation about
crossover membership, Christianity makes no pretenses about
toleration; it is single-minded in its approach and adamant in
its slander of all other religions. Further, in order to be a
"Christian, " at least by biblical and theological definitions,
one must not have affiliations in other religions.
2) Since its earliest inception, Christianity has dedicated itself
fully to the destruction of all religions which disagree with its
principles. Its theology maintains that it is the only correct religion; that any and all other religions are heretical and sinful;
and that in order to preserve Christianity against the "forces
of evil" they must be stopped and driven into nonexistence, a
goal which Christianity has pursued at every opportunity.
Hence we have had the Crusades, the bumings and executions
of heretics, the wholesale slaughter of heathens by missionaries
and missionary-led troops in China, the Salem murders, and so
on.
The sole reason that Christianity is not pursuing this same
path of public action is that it is constrained by the laws of
civilization. A t no time in history has any furtherance in hu-

"Actually, I'm an Atheist but I like stabbing people."

Page 16

May, 1978

~J

A Good
Knight
For
Atheism
.

~~~~~~~

man rights ever come directly from the tenets of Christianity;

they were bought with the blood of the anti-establishment
"heretics" of the time in question, usually in direct contradiction to the wishes of the spirit of Christianity. Every Christian church in the early American colonies was opposed to the
War of Independence - until the popular sympathy was won
over, defended the precepts of slavery as part of god's plan until decency and international pressure triumphed; declared
good the burning of witches - until the wave of outraged citizens ripped the torch from the bloodied hands of Christianity
and screamed "No more!"
There can be no doubt that if Christianity ever came to a
level of substantial power, it would mean the destruction of
everything of value that has been gained over the past 200
years. Science, which posits the heresy of evolution and the
antithesis of willful creation, would be squashed in the interest of the "common good. " There would be wholesale persecution of the members of all other religions. Free speech
would become a thing of the past, and a new Dark Age would
rise once more.
Mark Twain, upon looking the situation over, once remarked, "Let us be grateful that Satan is not a Christian - he
is plenty tough enough, just as he is. Two or three centuries
from now, it will be recognized that all the competent killers
are Christians. "
Therefore, I propose that if discrimination is used as a criteria for the removal or denial of on-campus status, that all
Christian organizations be denied on-campus status, or at
least have their activities moved off campus. Such organizations should no more be officially condoned by the unioersity than the KKK. At no time should an institution of higher
learning condone a theology that will produce the narrowminded, bigoted, fascistic and destructive Anita Bryants and
Jed Smocks of the future. The criminal mentality of such an
ideology must always be watched with the closest of care and
scrutiny, or we shall all be very much the worse for our neglect.

American

Atheist

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~,

sed to the publication of books and pamphlets contradieting its mythology, and that if given the opportunity,
would prefer to stop such publications? YES NO
7) Is not Tanksley's statement "As a. C~ristian, I can thir;k
of no greater disservice to a non-Christian than to tell him
he can find favor with God without Jesus Christ" exactly
the same as saying that all religions other than Christianity
are a disservice to mankind? Is this not an accurate reflection of the tenets of Christianity? And does not this sil11:Ply
reflect a discriminatory, prejucicial attitude that reaffirms
my entire statement? YES NO
Count one point for each YES answer. Score as follows:
1 to 2 - There is still hope for your humanity.
3 to 4 - You are a member of the Anita Bryant Fan Club.
5 to 6 - I suggest reading Mein Kampf.
7 - Congratulations! You are a complete fulfillment of that
treasured doctrine, Christianity. Welcome to the wonderful
world of fascism. Praise the Lord and pass the ammo!
During the spring semester of 1977 Straczynski ~ad p~,blished two short introductory samples of a column entitled A
Modern Cynic's Dictionary" in the Daily Azt~c which .had
such good reaction from the student body that It was decided
by the paper to run the column in the fall semester as well. A
couple of gems from the column follow:
THE DRI!. Y RlTEC-

Tuesdo'll. October

18,

:J(

~~~~~~~~~

",

Three students responded to Straczynski's challenge with

insipid letters objecting to his intolerance of bigotry as fascistic, discriminatory, and hypocritical, to which he answered
with a quiz which is worthy of reprinting here in toto:
....1 must assume that Mr. Tanksley has either fully misunderstood my statements, or is deliberately skirting the issue.
He states that I "failed to distinguish Christianity from the
acts of people claiming to be Christians. " Frankly, I fail to perceive the difference.
To clarify the situation, I propose the following list of questions. Circle all the answers in a manner consistent with your
theology:
1) Is it not a fact that Christianity maintains that all other
religions are not only misleading, but inherently evil, and
that the world would be a far better place without them?
YES NO
2) Is it not the case that your doctrine is diametrically opposed to the cause of furthering human rights against oppression? (I refer specifically here to such New Testament
stipulations as "Slaves, obey your masters. ") YES NO
3) Does or does not your religion posit that the pursuit
of science is essentially wrong in that it brings the belief
of willful creation and other aspects of Chrisiianiy into
doubt? YES NO
4) Is it not true that Christianity - based on its writings is opposed to equality between the sexes? (Again, I specifically refer to such mandates as Paul's forbidding of women to teach or even SPEAK in church, among other
ihings.) YES NO
5) According to the basic tenets of Christianity, is it proper
and acceptable to cooperate with other religions, to have
dual membership in any other religion, or for a Christian to
even discuss the philosophy of different religions? YES NO
6) Is it not the case that Christianity is ideologically oppo-

Austin, Texas

Abbey -n- The main office of a gambling e~tablishment.

Abbreviate -vt- To shorten or make less. This word came
into vogue soon after the French Revolution wherein Marie
Antoinette was abbreviated.
Ablution -n- As in the Catholic rite of baptism, the process of applying polluted water to an innocent child to cleanse
him of sins he has not yet had the enterprise to commit. By
way of continuing this vital ceremony into later life, God in
His wisdom has seen fit to give us both dirt and Ivory Soap,
thereby clearly demonstrating the dualistic nature of the
universe, according to most modern theologians.
Abomination -n- Sex to religion, religion to society, and
society to itself.
Abscess -n- Any hole in the body. This term comes from
the mythical god Abscessa, who was known to provide his immortality by puncturing his body with any number of available spears. In worshipping this deity, the followers and priests
were wont to perform the same act as part of their ritual ceremony. It should be noted that this belief ended directly after
its first meeting, and is known to be the shortest-lived religion
in history.
Absolution -nA form of After-Life Insurance, whose
principle it is to let the client do whatsoever he wishes during
the weekdays, as long as he pays his premiums on Sunday.
In his next column Mr. Straczynski outdid himself with a satirical piece entitled "Being God Is Rough," which read:
Hello, this is GOD. Not god, or God. GOD. Right. That
one. Joe really wasn't feeling up to writing a column this
week, so he said it was okay if I did it for him.

May, 1978

Page 17

"Give me liberty, or giue me Master Charge!" "Tippecanoe and

A-Bombs, too!" "54/40 or talk to my lawyer!" I'm sure you
could find something a little more appropriate.
Funny people. Once, just for the fun of it, I came down
there and tried to apply for a job. There were problems. I
didn't have any identification, no permanent address, and
didn't have any references. My prospective employer wanted
to know if I had any job experience: I told him I created the
universe in seven days, and have been known to turn water
into wine. He called me an inefficient reformed bootlegger.
That place is going to reek of Big Macs for years!
This is a rough job. If it isn't one thing, like trying to figure
out how McDonalds got a franchise on the dark side of the
moon, it's dodging all those double-damned Voyagers you
keep shooting at Me. This is definitely not the greatest job
around. I'm just looking forward to the day I can retire with
a pension in Miami Beach. If I can put up with you people.
You're so strange. A long, long time ago, I gave you minds,
with which to build a better world, and you dirty them with
stagnating bigotry. I gave you the power of speech, so you
could understand one another, and instead you spread dissension, untruths, and hide behind words. I gave you hands,
so that you might hold one another, and instead you use them
to kill with. 1What? .. Oh.
I've just been reminded by the editor that this is supposed
to be a humourous column. Sorry. But what can I say?
Nobody's perfect, you know. Not even me. If I was ... you
wouldn't be here, in the shape you're in.
Think about it. Meanwhile, did you ever hear the one about
this drunk, see, who came across a talking dog ...
It's been a long time since anyone's let Me write anything.
In fact, the last book I did was over 2,000 years ago, but the
copyright fell into some really bad hands, and they won't
let Me make any changes. They call themselves Christians,
although Me knows, I wouldn't have anything to do with them
for an autographed picture of Billy Graham. .
While I'm on the topic, if I can get personal for a moment,
those people definitely get me p.o. 'd. Take this morning, for
instance: I've got two of them on the Hot Line at the same
time, each asking for prosperity for himself and poverty for
the other, because he was not a true you-know-what, and did
not deserve it. But no matter how I'd answer them, somebody
would get hacked off at Me. So I did the only intelligent thing:
I sent them both the clap.
You know, no one really stops to consider how difficult
this job is. I mean, in My first book, do you know how hard it
was, keeping track of all those "begatsl " "Shem beget Isaac,
Isaac begat Julius, Julius begat a pair of sheep and was arrested
for indecently exposing his myrrh and frankincense. " For My
sake! I tell the little Me-damn buggers to be fruitful and multiply, but I never said anything about geometric progression!
Besides which ... what the hell is myrrh?
See? All those ridiculous words. Just look at what I have to
put up with. I even have to talk funny to get any attention. As
if I don't have enough problems, already; I've got to stick
rocks in my mouth and say "I giveth unto you this day a
double-breasted suit with two paireth pants. " One idiot had
the temerity to laugh at the way I talk. I turned him into a pillar of Big Macs.
It's all Moses' fault. He tells Me I've got to be more dignified; I've got to talk in Olde English.
"But Olde English doesn't exist yet!" I says.
"Just take my word for it, " he said. "Don't give me a hard
time. "
Dignified. He:S standing there, talking to a load of burning
tumbleweed, up to his knees in dreck, his nose hairs frying to
a crisp, telling Me I should be more dignified. To him I sent a
monstrous hickey and two new plagues I'd been saving for just
such an occasion.
Frankly, I just don't understand you people. You have such
silly ideas about me. You put on your money "In God We
Trust, " when there are far more suitable things. Things like

Page 18

May, 1978

Evidently this last thrust of Straczynski's satirical lance put

the knights of Christianity to flight from the jousting because
the last word from San Diego State University is that the campus is now graced with an Atheist Center headed by Dr. Chris
Parker. Would that there were more such productive coalitions
on campuses around the country, and that more young knights
of reason such as Joseph Straczynski would come forth to take
on the dinosaur of religion.

American

Atheist

A JOYOUS ATHEIST
g. riehard bozarth
Whose Sister is Science?
A Christian I used to correspond
with had one particular opinion that
he often expressed. This opinion was
that religion and science are sisters. He
endeavored to convince me of this by
making examples of scientists who
were also religionists. For instance, he
quoted Werhner von Braun as having
said, "I just can't envision this whole
universe coming into being without
something like a divine will."
Are religion and science sisters?
This is a necessary question for an
Atheist to answer, and at first glance,
the answer seems to be yes. After all,
in the ranks of religion there have been
and now are many, many scientists,
some of them the great geniuses who
have revolutionized human concepts
of the nature of the universe. Surely, if
scientists can also be religionists, then
religion and science must be sisters.
Look again, look deeper. Almost
everything can be reconciled in the individual human mind when reconciliation is necessary. Religion invests
most of its time, money, and energy in
the never ending labor of creating in
each new generation the need for god
that keeps religion going strong. We
may as well admit it, religion is very
successful in this essential labor.
This is a material world. Humans
also grow up learning that they need a
profession or job or occupation in order to feed, house, and clothe themselves and their families. Ideally, what
one does to earn one's wages is also
something that brings one satisfaction
and fulfillment
in the doing. I
wouldn't be- too optimistic about how
many of us attain this ideal, but I can
state with reasonable certainty that a
human who needs religion is going to
be a religionist regardless of his or her
means of earning a living.
Are there any humans who would
give up their enjoyable (or lucrative)
professions for their religious beliefs?
A few, yes, but upon examination I
think it will be consistently found
such religionists enjoy their labors for
religion more than they enjoyed their
former profession. (I am only thinking
of the reasonably sane, for insanity
acts without normal motivations.)
What of a person who has a profession he or she enjoys and who needs
religion, but does not want to make a
profession of religious service? Do
such persons feel constrained
to
choose their professions over their religions, or their religions over their pro-

Austin,

fessions? For the vast majority, the answer is no.

Some people enjoy discovering the
secrets of nature, and these people become scientists if they can. A scientist
like Von Braun, who would design
rockets for any nation that would finance his work, is certainly not going
to give up his profession for the religion he needs. What does he or she do?
The scientist who is also a religionist does not say, "Science has been and
is religion's worst enemy, so I cannot
be a scientist and help science in its
victory over religion." Such a scientist
normally won't surrender his or her
enjoyable profession. He or she will reconcile religion and science in his or
her own mind, and call them sisters.
This is necessary for the religious scientist.
Copernicus is a notable example of
an individual who reconciled religion
and science within himself in the pursuit of happiness. As a Roman Catholic clergyman, he was so admirably devout in his duties that in 1537 he was
recommended for a bishopric. Yet, as
a scien tist he so successfully pursued
the truth that he "gave theology the
strongest challenge in the history of religion." (The Reformation
by Will
Durant, p. 863)
For the rest of the world there was
no reconciliation between the science
of Copernicus and the religion of
Copernicus until religion had fought
and lost every possible battle against
the once immoral, blasphemous, foolish heresy that the earth orbits the
sun.

Mortal Enemies
We must not allow ourselves to be
deceived by the pious words of religious scientists into believing science
and religion are sisters. To grasp what
science means to religion, we must go
beyond the individual reconciliations
of religionists who are also scientists.
To a great many religionists who are
not scientists, science is the tool and
breeding ground of Atheism. The most
persistent stereotype characteristic of
the scientist, after sloppy absentmindedness, is Atheism. Father Shipman,
one of the local priests in Vacaville,
Calif., once declared that Atheism is
"chiefly found" in moral degenerates
and "among students of physical science." (The Reporter, 17 April 77)
Now, is that any way to talk about

May, 1978

Texas

~I

your sister?
Why, considering the numbers of
scientists who were and are devout religionists, has this stereotype of the
scientist being Atheist become so
widely accepted?
Religion requires mystery. "The
Christian rather rejoices in mystery,
reveling in the triumphant paradoxes
of revelation," George Brantl writes in
Catholicism (p. 80). A mystery, according to Webster's Third New International Dictionary, is "something that
has not been or cannot be explained."
In other words, where there is mystery there is ignorance; where there is
mystery, there you can find god offered as an explanation to fill the void
of ignorance. Prehistorical humans invented gods to answer the mysteries of
nature, and invented religions as a
means to influence divine will.
What is mystery's mortal enemy?
Science! Every time science clears up a
mystery, explains the heretofore unexplainable, a little of religion's realm is
taken from it. Each time science
pushes the boundaries of our ignorance back a little, god has less territory
in the human mind to roam in.
Religion resents this because science slowly, steadily is reducing the
mystery that nurtures religion. Consequently, despite individual reconciliation, religion's greatest foe is science.
This is why, in Rousseau and Revolution, Will and Ariel Durant wrote that
Christianity suffers severely from "the
victorious audacities of science that invade the very heavens that once
housed deities and saints." (p. 881)
Religion is not science's sibling,
Atheism is! Atheism is the only philosophy that has nothing to fear from
science
because
Atheism
grows
stronger with each new advance of science.
Perhaps it is better to describe
Atheism as the child of science, because nowhere in all history will one
find Atheism 'so diffused throughout a
society that a movement and organization like the American Atheists was
possible, except in 20th century America - except in the most scientific
country of this most scientific century
of human existence. Atheism abhors
ignorance. So does science. It is natural that they should flourish together.
In the 1978 Yearbook of Science
and the Future, put out by Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., Charles M.
Cegielski, one of the associate editors,

Page 19

writes, "Man's demands on science for the necessities and conveniences of daily existence increase with each passing year."
As our civilization becomes increasingly scientific, where
will we find a moral and ethical system that is compatible with
science and helps us to progress as human beings capable of
dealing with science's progress? Will that system continue to
be the one offered by religion? No. Religion's constant battle
against science is the major reason so many people feel distrustful of science and are unable to adapt to this age of
science we live in. Religion can only sruvive by degenerating
our confidence in science, and religion has succeeded in this
with far too many.
In a scientific civilization, only Atheism can provide a philosophical system that is happily compatible with science. Only
Atheism can offer moral and intellectual development that
makes us fit to be fully responsible, participating, happy members of a scientific civilization. Only Atheism can give us the
confidence and mental outlook necessary to deal with and
overcome the dangers that also are part of a scientific civil-

The time for action has long since been upon us. Can you
really afford to delay?
The news item to the right was forwarded to us by a concerned member in Houston, Texas. It exemplifies the unrelenting efforts of religionists to force their delusions onto the
backs of all Americans - whether they like or not. Should the
Christian psychoneurotics in Kentucky get this measure passed,
it would mean a "regression" into ignorance from which it
would take years to recover (if at all lIf this attempt at reinstituting ignorance becomes law in
Kentucky, will it be long before religionists in other states become impressed enough to attempt to do likewise - inevitably in your own state?
Such is an example of religionists' attempts to circumvent
the Constitution which must be opposed on both the local and
national levels. It is for this purpose that your American
Atheist legal Fund was established and it continues to survive
only through your on-going support.
The special pink envelope enclosed with this issue of The
American A theist is for your convenience in assisting the legal
Fund with the continuance of these vital issues. Please send
your contributions to:
"Legal Fund"
American Atheists
P.O. Box 2117
Austin, TX 78768

Page 20

May, 1978

ization. To best meet the challenges of civilization, humans

needed science. To best meet the challenges of science, humans need Atheism. I have no doubts that the noble labor of
American Atheists today is what will give humanity the freedom and mental health of Atheism tomorrow!

*************
Author's Correction: In mv article entitled "The SoulJust a Case of Bad Breath" (March, 78), I made a silly mistake
I caught too late to prevent it from being printed. In it I called
RNA a polypeptide. It is not a polypeptide. RNA is a polynucleotide, and contains the code for the assembly of polynucleotide sequences of protein. The ribosome is the molecular
machine that effects the translation of the polynucleotide
code into the polypeptide chemical. I can only explain the
error as sloppiness. My concern with building the general argument of the article made me sloppy in this particular detail.
G.R. Bozarth

Ten Commandments display

may be required in Kentucky
FRANKFORT,
Ky. (UP!) - Copies of the Ten
Commandments may soon be hanging in every public
classroom and courtroom in Kentucky.
A measure requiring that has passed the State
House despite objections by some legislators that it is
unconstitutional and "regressive." The bill is in committee in the State Senate.
Supporters of the bill, which collected 53 co-sponsors in the 100-member lower chamber, claim they
don't care if it is unconstitutional.
"I see nothing
wrong with passing this teqisletian," Republican Rep.
Louie Guenthner said.
.
It would require the posting of 16-by-20-inch
copies of the commandments on the wall of every
public classroom and courtroom. A move to permit
the posting of moral or ethical precepts from sources
other than the Bible was defeated by voice vote.

American

Atheist

Problems
Of

Origin:

The
Facts

On
Matter
The public's indifference
to scientific explanations
for natural phenomena
presents opportunities
to religious charlatans.

Austin,

Texas

[Editor's Note: The following article

is a transcript of a lecture regularly
given at a state university (in the
South, no less!) by an Atheist professor of astronomy. For this particular
state university it is a shocking and radicalone.
The author believes that one of the
reasons religion appeals to many is
that it gives them answers - however
irrational - to fundamental questions
concerning the origin of natural phenomena and humanity's niche in the
vast universe. In this lecture is presented in non-technical terms a scientific
explanation for the origin of matter.]
Those desiring to reconcile science
and religion stress that science is basically concerned with finding natural
explanations for phenomena, whereas
religion deals with questions which
have supernatural explanations. They
reason that science and religion are not
in conflict because they deal with
different subject matter. Furthermore,
they apparently believe that the most
important questions are unanswerable
by the scientific method and are,
therefore, exclusively theological.
Many religions attribute to the supernatural such awe-inspiring events as
the origin of matter as we know it and
the organization of this matter into
stars, sun, planets, comets, the earth's
solid sphere, its oceans, its atmosphere,
its life, and its human population. Yet,
in this cen tury, scientists have provided
one or more rational explanations for
each of these problems of origin. This
article will attempt to present in nontechnical terms the reasoning of scientists about the first in this list - the
origin of matter as we know it.
Matter may be defined as anything
that occupies space. The earth occupies space, therefore it is composed of
matter. The smallest units of matter
that normally concern earth scientists
are the elements, substances that cannot be broken down into other substances by chemical means. There are
88 such elements known to occur naturally. Sixteen others have been produced artificially by physicists using
atomic reactors and particle accelerators.
These 104 elements are the basic
building blocks of all matter, living
and non-living, both on earth and
throughout the universe. These building blocks of which the earth is made
are much older than the earth (exceptions are those due to man's efforts
and atomic fission) and they were not
all created simultaneously. The hydrogen (H) in H20 is much older than the
iron (Fe) in a nail or in the core of the
earth.
Spectroscopic analysis of electromagnetic waves (light) emitted by stars,
light emitted from gases moving at relativistic speeds in powerful magnetic

May, 1978

fields, and light reflected from interstellar clouds prove that the elements
found on earth are present throughout
the universe. Thus, the origin of earth's
matter must be considered along with
the origin of matter elsewhere in the
universe.
The spectroscope attached to a
modern telescope is a versatile tool.
Not only can it "fingerprint" elements
millions of light years (A light year is
the distance light travels in a year at
the rate of 186,000 miles per second)
from the earth, but it has a number of
other uses including the ability to determine the rate at which a light
source such as a galaxy filled with stars
is moving away or toward the observer.
Unlike elements, galaxies (There are
billions of stars in only one galaxy as
well as clouds of matter from which
stars are born) are the largest units in
the universe. We are inside the one
called the Milky Way. Galaxies are visible by the billions with modern telescopes. All galaxies,. except a few in
our local clusterr, are moving away
from our galaxy, and thus away from
an earthbound
astronomer with a
spectroscope.

"Big Bang" Eternal

The faintest galaxies are, as a rule,
the most remote and it is these that
the spectroscope reveals to be retreating at the fastest clip. If today's galaxies are spreading apart, then the universe was apparently much smaller in
the distant past. It must have exploded
and must have been spreading apart
ever since. According to foremost
authorities (Scientific American, Mar.
1976), the noted "big bang" occurred
between 12 and 22 billion years B.P.
(before present) and the universe will
continue to expand forever.
Physical conditions prior to the big
bang were too extreme for elements to
form or to exist. With the pressures
and temperatures prevailing when all
the matter in the universe was compressed - not even protons, neutrons,
and electrons of elemerits could exist.
As expansion occurred, astrophysicists
have computed that the physical conditions were proper for a short time for
the creation of one and possibly two
elements - certainly hydrogen and
possibly some helium.
The initial expansion is believed to
have been too rapid for the creation of
elements more complex than the simplest and lightest of all elements. Thus,
the primordial galaxies, or the large
units of matter which then began to
separate, must have contained only hydrogen and helium. This hypothesis is
supported by spectroscopic observations which reveal that over 99% of all
matter in galaxies is still in the form of
hydrogen and helium. Other elements
originated later in certain stars within
galaxies.

Page 21

As turbulent gases within galaxies

become locally concentrated,
local
gravitational centers are produced
which attract surrounding gases. These
nuclei act as vacuum cleaners. Gravity
creates pressures in the center and
forces hydrogen atoms into close proximity. Gravitational energy during collapse is converted to heat energy. Thus,
conditions are created which promote
the fusion of hydrogen into helium.
When fusion occurs, a star is born.
Energy of fusion may counter-balance
gravity and a star may be stabilized for
billions of years. This process is going
on in our sun and in stars with the
same or less mass than our sun.
In stars two or more times as massive as the sun, the stable state may
last for only millions rather than billions of years. Core pressures and temperatures are much higher in these
large stars, forcing rapid fusion of hydrogen into helium. When the hydrogen is almost used up, the fusion rate
is reduced and the resulting outward
pressures from the core are likewise reduced.
Gravitational collapse begins again

until sufficient pressures are created to

fuse helium into heavier elements.
These heavier elements in turn may
fuse into even heavier elements and so
on up to the atomic number of iron.
Computations
indicate that beyond
the atomic number of iron the energy
absorbed in the fusion process exceeds
the energy released. Therefore, elements above iron in the periodic table
are believed to be created by neutron
or proton capture rather than by fusion. Thus, most elements are created
in stars larger than our sun.

Elements Scattered
The heavy elements cannot all remain in large. stars if they are to form
planetary bodies such as the earth.
Fortunately, large stars tend to be unstable. Some lose matter during novae
and supernovae explosions and the
heavy elements are scattered through
space. There they mingle with primordial hydrogen gas so that following
generations of stars contain a small

percentage of heavy elements. Our sun

is such a second or third generation
star and our solar system contains
about 1% heavy elements.
How these scattered heavy elements
became concentrated in our solar system's inner planets is beyond the
scope of this article. It should be included in any discussion of the second
fundamental question listed - how the
earth originated.
The information summarized above
may be found in college textbooks
dealing with astronomy, physics, geology, and earth science. Many of the
current articles in Science, Scientific
American, Science News; as well as
many other scientific publications,
pertain to the subject matter summarized above, as well as to the other fundamental questions listed. Unfortunately, these publications are seldom
on newsstands and the percentage of
students being exposed to these fundamental explanations is quite small. Can
public indifference to scientific explanations of these fundeametal questions be attributed to widespread religious indoctrination? I think so.

.sPOEMS_
My Trial

Page 22

The Autumn winds are blowing now

And time for me to pause
To stand in judgment of my life
Was it a noble cause

The judging seems so simple now

With her to balance pleas
And evidence both pro and con
Will come with greatest ease

Was I too hard on those I loved

Unfair with those opposed
Can I see clearly with my eyes
Before they're finally closed

And I can say with peace of mind

In every year we've had
And everything we've ever done
The good outweighs the bad

And will my life have mattered much

To anyone at all
Will it have helped the world to change
Or heard a pleading call

And when my life is finally done

I know that she'll recall
With loving kindness in her heart
My trial we held this fall

Yet is it right for me to judge

Will I be fair and true
Will conscience bind me to the task
That others cannot do

And as she hears upon the wind

A thousand geese go by
And when she sees a thousand wings
Across a moonlight sky

For I alone have known my thoughts

The purpose that I've had
And I alone can judge me now
And find me good or bad

And if she'll tightly close her eyes

And listen to the wings
She'll plainly see a passing view
Of all our cherished things

But I must have a valid gauge

For judgments that I make
A balanced scale of fairness
So there'll be no sad mistake

And there she'll find among her thoughts

This tiny glimpse of me
And with her eyes still tightly closed
My final judge - she'll be

And in that scale must surely be

A closeness to my life
And only one such scale exists
That scale must be my wife

Gerald Tholen - To Gloria

May, 1978

American

Atheist

GADFLY
frankduffy
Outrunning Jesus
Running breeds realism. That was
what I had assumed prior to reading recently in Sports Illustrated that Jeff
Wells, first-place finisher in a field of
3,050 in the December running of the
Honolulu 26-mile Marathon, had proclaimed, "My main objective was to
glorify god, but I wanted to win the
race, too."
If this is the brand of "realism" I
have to look forward to should I continue my own five-year running career,
then I suspect I'll abandon the daily
roadwork and return to the delusions
of sedentary life.
I had assumed that all marathoners,
whose training requires anywhere from
nine to 20 miles of daily roadwork,
would eventually shed their delusions
along with their sweat. Both are personal treasures which the human animal is reluctant to give up without a
struggle and both can be replenished
with ease if one is given sufficient time
to recuperate.

Psychological Ploys
A person doesn't put in that much
humbling physical effort and still manage to retain many delusions about his
or her abilities and limitations. Within
the first five miles of a marathon, simple psychological motivation is enough
to overcome the discomfort. Up to
about 18-20 miles a trained runner is
making do on reserves of strength and
stamina stored in the muscles in the
form of glycogen. After the twentieth
mile all psychological ploys - religious
or otherwise - used to whip the
aching body onward are useless.
It is at this point that physical reality shows its sovereignty as nothing
short of a glimpse of the finish line
dead ahead is sufficient to rouse the
numbed psyche.
- Why bother? As an Atheist who
accepts the Materialist philosophy I
look to myself to create my own destiny. No one is going to solve my problems for me. Marathoning is an at-tempt to act on my environment
rather than reacting to it. Therefore I
accept all the failures and any glory
resulting from my actions.
Jeff Wells is a "divinity student" at
Dallas Theological Seminary, so I
would guess it is there at that factory
of the irrational that he gets his daily
dose of religious delusionswhich some
people need to help soften the immutable realities of the universe. It would

Austin,

Texas

take some such process of intellectual

crippling as seminary training to offset
the enlightening lessons of extending
one's personal physical limitations all
serious runners must learn.
You see, successful running - be it
in the 100-yard dash or in the 100-mile
"ultramarathon" - cannot be achieved
through reliance on gimmicks, gadgets,
or divine intervention. There are no
shortcuts or cop-outs in marathoning:
no teammates to blame or to rely on,
no technique to be improved through
lessons or equipment innovations, no
opponent to vanquish or score to keep,
and most certainly no eager-to-please
god to give one an almighty advantage
over the course.
, The reality of running is to go from
point A to point B, and the technique
involves learning to run with "discomfort" which prior to training was referred to as "pain." Such could also
be said for one's life. You go from birth
to death and you'd best train for pain
because it can't be wished or prayed
away - all religious claims to the contrary.
The rose-colored blinders religion
offers to participants in the marathon
of life do not alter reality so much as
they distort it so as to make it more
palatable to those who fear the cosmos'
being devoid of immanent conscious
purpose.
For Christians, the inescapable reality that the universe is (practically)
infinite while man is (assuredly) infinitesimal is just too much to bear.
They have created an omnipotent personal god in their own likeness and he
is used primarily to fulfill certain psychological needs.
At the mouthing of a prayer he will
suspend natural laws so as to appease
his benefactors. They look to their personal god as a selfish child looks to its
parent for reward, and he is on 24-hour
call subject to the whims of evangelical
need and greed.
Their god is, like the parochials
who willed him into existence, totally
earth-oriented
and involved in the
affairs of the Christian monkeys who
ride his back. The host-parasite relationship between a Christian and his god is
so intertwined and self-generating that
we Atheists need not waste our time
trying to separate them so as to enlighten them. There are enough of us
to go it alone and we're better off without the Christian sickies.
Praying to a myth doesn't shorten

May, 1978

the 26 miles any, nor does it make the

universe any less indifferent to the insatiable whinings of the human animal. It does, however, mislead the supplicant into believing that (s)he can
somehow detour around reality merely
by wishing it done.
Worse yet, the religious person who
achieves his/her goal through the sweat
of their own efforts will turn around
and lay their hard-earned self-esteem
before the altar of their neurosis. Jeff
Wells' god was nowhere to be seen on
race day. It is Wells himself who deserves full credit for his outstanding
2-hour, l8-minute performance and,
whether he realizes it or not, his and
all other gods are but creations of
mortals who would be immortal.

On March 12, Jeff Wells won still

another one for his god. He took first
place in the 1st annual Capitol 10,000
(meter) roadrace held in Austin, Texas
and in his post-race remarks he said,
"I tried to glorify god today; I think I
did."
His habit of blaming his victories on
a god of his creation brings to mind
the following Japanese poem:
The finish line;
As an excuse for being last,
He limps.
Wells' excuse for being first is equally as lame as the last-place finisher's
limp. Both are cop-outs from realities
we would change were we able to reorder the universe to suit our needs.
Fortunately
for Atheists we're
trained to go the full distance with no
delusions about what we'll find at the
finish line: -no trophies, no final reward; The fun is in the run itself,
and it is a race well worth entering.

"YOU CAN'T !~~~

/If 7b THEp.4OKf;S - _JIV, AN ATHEIST!

II

Page 23

Bigotry
and
Godism:
The Sexual
Connection
*********************

IWY Confab

A Testimoniet
To Reason's
Rebirth

By Gerald Tholen

The most interesting and educational experience that I personally witnessed in the past decade transpired
the weekend of Nov. 19-20, 1977 -the
weekend included in the IWY (International Women's Year) Convention held
in Houston, Texas. To anyone who attended that meet must come the realization of the underlying existence of
religiously induced bigotry that contaminates this nation. However, along
with this realization comes another.
The second realization, and possibly the first time it has been demonstrated so clearly, is that bigotry IS in
the minority! Due to the fact that fanatical religionists are so powerful in
the matters of wealth and influence,
many are led to believe that they represent the vast majority of the citizenry,
but this is not so - they simply "blow
big horns."
This was plainly evidenced only
two days after the convention by the
two to one vote loss suffered by Frank
Briscoe in his bid for the office of
mayor of Houston. While the IWY
Convention was in session Mr. Briscoe,
being a staunch conservative, made an
appearance at an anti-ERA (Equal
Rights Amendment) meeting also held
in Houston and made public his position opposing the ERA. Ironically,
two days later he suffered the most
one-sided defeat that a Houston mayoral candidate has faced for quite
some time. This can only indicate that
even the milder mannered religionists
are becoming fed up with those who
continually try to dominate the minds
of an entire nation of people.

Action Plan OKd

Out of 26 points encompassed in
the national plan of action sponsored
by the convention, 24 passed by large
majority votes and one (concerning minority women) was replaced with an

Page 24

May, 1978

even more liberal floor motion. The

only point failing passage (by a close
vote) was a recommendation that a
cabinet-level office relating to women's'
rights be installed in the executive
branch of the federal government.
The most sensational demonstrations and clearly the most emotional
displays followed the passage of three
IWY plan proposals: ratification of the
Equal Rights Amendment, reproductive freedom, and sexual preference.
Of course, these are the three points
which the more fanatical religionists
detest most emphatically - and all
three passed by large majority vote even in the presence of a voting body
containing many, many religionists.
It may be hard for organized Atheists to realize, but bigotry IS dying! It's
dying because its errors are consistently
being pointed out to people and it is
becoming identified for what it really
is. This was typically demonstrated by
the delegation from the state of Mississippi. Mississippi, as everyone knows,
has a large population percentage of
Blacks. Their delegation (some 15 to 20
people) contained no Black representatives. To the contrary - it contained
three or four representatives who were
allegedly mem bers of the Ku Klux Klan.
I wonder how such a group of representatives originated in a state that is
almost 50% Black in population?
The Mississippi delegation blockvoted against every point in the national plan including those aimed at
aiding disabled and aged women, and
victims of rape. This to me represents
a deep-rooted hatred of human rights
that borders on insanity. How can normal persons oppose aid to cripples, old
people, and those exposed to the violence and humiliation of rape?
As for myself, my wife Gloria, and
my sister Beverly, we were all elated to
witness the complete defeat of the irrational actions of those dissenting to
such proposals. We found ourselves
completely engulfed in the noisy, emotional atmosphere of the convention
which seemed to rival even the larger
political conventions which precede
presidential elections. The banner waving, victory marching, and crowd cheering seemed to free the deep emotions
that were present in those who were
tolerant of human rights and dignity.
It seems to me that people are beginning to understand what our country
and Constitution are all about. Can it
also be that the vast majority of people
are beginning to realize the direct connection between bigotry and fanatical
religionism? Here then is the most
powerful weapon the Atheist possesses
- we have always claimed the fundamental humanistic principle of tolerance of individual rights. This is our
strength and it seems to coincide with
the wish of the so-called "silent majority" of American citizens.
I have always attempted to follow a

American

Atheist

strict rule of impartial self-judgment in my day-to-day

existence, and in situations occasioned by the IWY meet I
try to look into my own mind and determine whether I
possess any underlying discrimination. One particular vote
session of the convention supplied me with an excellent
test for self-anyaysis. The national plan topic of sexual
preference was outlined to guarantee the rights of millions
of lesbian women who wish to attain the same legal rights
as other citizens, i.e., the rights of chosen employment,
acquiring adequate housing, holding legal custody of their
children, etc.
Here I was, a strictly heterosexual white male sitting in
pretended judgment of, possibly, a black lesbian woman
who only wants the rights that are freely extended to me.
Could I, with honesty, say certainly - she is entitled to
the same rights that I or anyone else is?
I found the answer in a rather unexpected way - not
by any superficial thought that I would make a mental
pledge to uphold her rights or that I would make empty
statements upholding her rights simply to make me appear
fair-minded. The answer came during the tremendously
emotional demonstration of that crowd of thousands of
people from all walks of life who were applauding the
passage of the sexual preference proposal - I found myself truly happy for them.
With that feeling people can accept themselves as unbiased and tolerant of others. I honestly believe that in
time this ideal will be the defeating mechanism of religious domination because true tolerance is certainly not
included in the framework of religion.
I can only offer the highest praise for the women (and
men) who brought about this organization and convention
and urge every Atheist to support the actions of the National Commission on the Observance of International
Women's Year - mailing address: D/IWY, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C. 20520.
We should express to them that we are all members of
the human race and that no one should be made to kneel
mentally of physically for any reason. An individual's life
is his/her only real possession and when freedoms are denied happiness is denied. When happiness is denied one's
entire existence is destroyed.

Gender

Justice:

Womenm
Still
Down Under
The Rationalist News, journal of the Rationalist
Association
of New South
Wales, Australia
reprinted in its January/February,
1976 issue the
following item "from a recent Women's Liberation
leaflet. "
********************

THE

WOMEN'S

MOVEMENT

AND

YOU

because .....
our work is never done and underpaid or unpaid or repetitious and we're the first to
get the sack and what we look like is more important than what we do and if we get raped it's our
fault and if we get bashed we must have provoked
it and if we raise our voices we're nagging bitches
and if we enjoy sex we're nymphos and if we don't
we're frigid and if we love women it's because we
can't get a "real" man and if we ask our doctor too
many questions we're neurotic and/or pushy and if
we expect community
care for children we're
selfish and if we stand up for our rights we're
aggressive and "unfeminine"
and if we don't we're
typical weak females and if we want to get married
we're out to trap a man and if we don't we're
unnatural
and because we still can't get an
adequate safe contraceptive but men can walk on
the moon and if we can't cope or don't want a
pregnancy we're made to feel guilty about abortion
and .....
for lots and lots of other reasons .....
we are part of the women's liberation movement
.....
if you're a woman there's room for you too.
-

Austin,

Texas

May, 1978

from a recent Women's Liberation

leaflet.

Page 25

United

World

Atheism
In
France
[EDITOR'S NOTE: For the benefit of our readers curious
about the development of Atheism in other parts of the world,
we have had translated from the French the gist of a single issue of The Atheists' Tribunal. Published quarterly by the Society of Atheists at Bellenaves, The Atheists' Tribunal is edited
by Albert Beaughon of Clermont-Ferrand.
In order to make features like this one available in the future, The American Atheist is interested in hearing from readers capable of translating into English from any other language.
At this time we have three Finnish and five French documents
waiting the ministrations of an Atheist translator.]
Because of many difficulties - retirement, moving, etc. - I
was forced to delay the publication of the Tribunal. But this
was preceded by an improvement in working conditions:
namely, we acquired a postage machine and an addressing
machine. Also, the number of members has increased and now
approaches the 500 mark. Our principal objective which, a few
years ago appeared to be almost impossible, has been achieved
- Atheists no longer feel isolated.
There remains, however, a great deal for us to do - thousands of interested people do not know of us, and we are
badly informed about the methods of those who are still
largely against us. Our adversaries on the other hand benefit
from the greatest benevolence, notably from the state where
the responsible people are often unable to maintain objectivity.
Our work retains an invaluable worth and I ask each one of
you to keep this in mind in order to assure our difficult, yet so
worthwhile, advancement.
Open Tribunal on Television - On April 14th, television
station FR 3 presented an "Open Tribunal" of the Society of
Atheists. President Francis Perrin explained the reasons for the
existence of the society, then A. Beaughon talked about the
activities, and finally Louis Gabriel provided precise details
about membership and the meeting of May 18th.
Two sequences were interpolated - one, humorous on the
theme that it isn't necessary for Atheists to prove the nonexistence of god, but for believers to prove his existence - the
other, the humane testimony of our friend, Perrodo, former
priest.
This broadcast has had an undeniable success. The society
received about 200 letters, the majority of which were enthusiastic and this was followed by about 60 new members. Unfa-

Page 26

May, 1978

Atheists

vorable letters were less than 10, not one of them from responsible religious authorities, but coming from religious private individuals, iricluding two clerics. There was no violent opposition, and they sometimes agreed with us that television has
failed to give us proper recognition.
The Society of, Atheists warmly thanks those responsible
for presenting this Open Tribunal on FR 3 and can't urge
strongly enough that its members write them in this vein,
underlining how the increase of such programs is called for in
the face of the regular monopolizing of TV by the various religions.
International Congress of the Society of Atheists - As previously stated, this congress took place on May 18th at the
Hotel Moderne, Place de la Republique, Paris. It was presided
over by M. Francis Perrin, assisted by A. Beaughon, E. Becker,
treasurer and Mil. Gaumat, secretary.
The presence of about 100 permanent members from various regions in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy was
noted. Delegates from far-away countries such as Japan and
Australia sent friendly letters of encouragement and sympathy.
Dinner reservations for 30 had been made, but actually 60
were there. Our friend, the magician known as Mystag, gave a
show.

SRO Crowd
The crowd reached its peak during the debate when the
audience can well be said to have been more than 200 people,
part of whom had to follow what was going on from outside
the hall because of lack of space. There were some opposing
people who were allowed to speak during the freest of discussions.
The congress was welcomed by President Francis Perrin,
who recalled the aims of our society, among other things: the
getting-together of unbelievers who until now had been isolated, in an association that was sympathetic, just as believers
find in their religious groups but where, unfortunately, an atmosphere of mysticism and irrationality is dangerously present.
For Atheists, only human nature counts and has always had
great worth and grandeur. The president emphasized the specific character, of .our movement, which doesn't exist in any
other and which does not put us in accord with Free Thought
or the Society. of Rationalists.
Beaughon then spoke about the activities and the membership, during the course of which many questions were debated
of which it is impossible to give a full account. Many members
aired their thoughts on subjects close to them such as: politics,
social problems, morals (naturalism, esperanto, pacifism ... ).
Beaughon pointed out that members who entertained the
same position on any of these subjects could form their own
groups without excluding opposing groups. The agreement on
Atheism by the Society of Atheists did not in any way imply
an agreement on other matters, particularly not on politics. We
might mention that remarks in favor of "left-wing" politics
were loudly applauded. Eventually, interested groups formed
their own sections - those having to do with esperantists,
naturalists, etc.
The afternoon ended with the showing of the April 14th
television broadcast which had been video-taped by Becker.
The public address by Beaughon was made in front of a
considerable audience and was followed by many remarks
made by friends and adversaries. Religious people and representatives of various sects (Jehovah's Witnesses, Baptists)
spoke freely, but their irrational talks very plainly made no impression whatever on the greater part of the audience which
only saw a confirmation of the worth in any action against
such ravings. In reply, the celebrated author, Cavanna, achieved

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a huge success in affirming that Atheism was the only reasonable, common-sense position.
Maurice Clavel - (This is a criticism of the French author
Clavel who has just written a book called What I Believe. TV
gave him a lot of publicity but the person writing says he has a
wild imagination and makes such absurd statements as "Jesus
Christ is God because everything in him is man and nothing in
him is divine." This critic says he is extremely naive and has
nonsensical ideas.)
Resolution Taken at the Congress
1. The Society of Atheists deplores the fact that the press,
which was invited, very clearly avoided the congress to a
large degree. Only Radio-France (International) and Europe
No. 1 responded to the invitation and the society must
thank them warmly for this. On the other hand, TV, which
was told well in advance, completely ignored the meeting
and took not even the slightest notice of it but instead gave
over the afternoon to various religious broadcasts and also
in the evening broadcast a religious discussion about "Pentecost 75." However, for this "Pentecost 75" broadcast,
thousands of unbelievers whom the Society of Atheists
represents were passed over in silence with very obvious
partiali ty .
This religious TV discussion, "Pentecost 75" was naturally
concerned with unbelief. It is noteworthy to state that this
question was discussed without one single unbeliever present, without the slightest reference to the Society of
Atheists (the only association of unbelievers) and clearly
without mention of the congress when the occasion was so
tailor-made for such a discussion.

not but take issue with the absence of accountable clergy

from all public discussions. Also, the Catholic religion has
instituted a secretariat for non-believers in place of open
discussions. We ask them to tell us with what kind of unbelievers they are having these discussions, since in spite of
our repeated offers, we have never been able to bring about
honest discussions.
4. TV often presents discussions where religious sects meet
with representatives of qualified non-believers or Atheists.
Since the Society of Atheists is the only association of this
kind, it would be logical and honest of them to ask for one
of our members, but this has never been the case: the selfstyled unbelievers or Atheists have always appeared as
single individuals and the discussion has clearly shown that
they are Agnostics who call themselves Atheists. There have
never been any true Atheists. The Society of Atheists therefore denounces this fallacious, untrue, deceitful representation and demands discussions with the society itself.
The Press Reaction - We would like to mention the warm
report about our congress which appeared in Charlie-Hebdo
and was written by Cavanna. Le Monde also had an article
about us. Very likely other publications also wrote about our
efforts.
Finally, there is this quote attributed to that great inventor
(and Atheist) Thomas A. Edison which appeared in the January of 1911 edition of Columbian Magazine:
God? A supreme being seated on a throne and handing
out to individual human beings eternal bliss or eternal
punishment for what they have done or not done while
on earth? Such a thought doesn't appear as fallacious as
it does repugnant. ... not one of the gods of the various
theologies has ever been proven ....
I have never seen,
not even the slightest scientific proof, about heaven or
hell, or future life, or the existence of god."

2. If TV FR 3 has been warmly thanked for the Tribune

Libre program on the 14th of April, the success of which
was remarkable, this occasional broadcast couldn't have
touched more than just a fraction of the TV audience or in
the same manner that religious broadcasts do which are
transmitted every Sunday morning by the network and
cover the whole country at prime time for the majority of
the population. The Society of Atheists demands that the
TV network give them at least comparable time.
3. The Society of Atheists deplores the lack of response
from high church authorities to its offers of straightforward
discussions. While it has friendly feelings for the appearances of individual believers and even of the clergy, it can-

Austin,

Texas

May, 1978

..eLAVBlflGO

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Page 27

Ihe Amtritan Athtist Radio Stri es

God's Chosen People
Program 366
KTBC Radio

31 Oct. 75

Austin, Texas

Hello there,
This is Madalyn Mays O'Hair, American Atheist, back to
talk with you again.
Back in 1879 when Kersey Graves was writing Atheist books
some material was published which staggers the imagination. It
is valid in the argument between religious sects, but today it
would come under savage attack. Let me give you a sample of
it, anyhow, and - believe me - I have diluted this so that it is
only half as onerous as what Kersey Graves wrote.
In his book, The Bible of Bibles, he discusses the "character" of Moses, and Abraham and David, all of which I will
bring to you later in this series. But, he also speaks to the character of the Jews. In Chapter XXVII which he titles "Character of God's 'Holy People', the Jews" he has this to say:
"As the Jews are reputedly 'the Chosen People of God' chosen by him out of all the nations of the earth to be the special recipients of his favors - the chosen instruments through
which to communicate his will and his laws to the whole human race, and chosen to be a moral example for all mankind,
for that age, and for all future generations - it becomes a
matter of great importance to know their real character for
morality, for intelligence, for honesty, for reliability. And so
thatwe may, in the effort to present a brief sketch of their
character, that we furnish no ground for suspecting any misrepresentation, we will present it in the language of Jewish ...
writers of established reputation.
"It may reasonably be presumed that their own writers
would be more likely to overrate than underrate their virtues.
Hear, then, what one of their leading prophets says of them.
Isaiah thus describes them (lsa. 1. ix): 'Their hands are defiled with blood, and their fingers with inequity; and their lips
speak lies; their tongues mutter perverseness. None of them
call for justice; none of them plead for truth. They trust in
vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth
inequity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.' Such is a
description of god's holy people by one of their number. And
David completes the picture by declaring, 'There is none righteous; no, not one.'
"And Christ calls them 'a generation of vipers.' Rather a
shocking picture of god's peculiar people! 'Peculiar' they were,
if Isaiah's description of them was true ... It is rather strange
that Jehovah should have selected such moral outlaws as lawgivers and moral.examples for the whole human race. There

were, at the time, several nations superior to the Jews in morals and intelligence, and much further advanced in civilization.
The Greeks, Egyptians, Chaldeans, and a portion of the Hindus
were in advance of the Jews.
"Josephus, being a Jew, was their friend and defender; and
yet he says, 'They were .so illiterate, that they never wrote anything, or held intercourse with the learned' ... One writer says,
'They hated all nations, and were hated by all nations,' and
they seemed determined to exterminate all nations but
their own.
"Some of the laws which Moses adopted for the government
of the Jews corroborates still further the statement that they
occupied a very low position in the scale of morals as well as
intellect; for the laws of a nation are a true standard of their
character. Hence the law of Moses prohibiting uncleanness
(Lev. xv), and the law against incest (Lev. xviii).
"Laws against bestiality, to prohibit both sexes from carnal
familiarity with beasts, and various other laws of a similar
character, furnish a clear implication that they were addicted
to all these vile habits; and a law to comple them to wash their
hands leads to the conclusion that they were inclined to be filthy in their habits. And the following law shows that they
were not very particular about their food: 'Ye may eat the locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind.' (Lev. xi. 22)
"This portraiture of the Jewish character is not here presented in any caviling spirit, or to show that they are justly objects of either censure or ridicule. Far from it. They most probably acted up to the highest light they were in possession of.
The primary motive of this exhibition of their character is to
show that they possessed no qualifications and no traits of
character calculated to fit them for moral lawgivers and moral
exemplars for us, and for the whole human race; and we cannot assume, without really dishonoring ourselves, that such a
morally and intellectually inferior nation of people were the
chosen instruments in the hands of god to communicate the
revelation of his will to the human family.
"We are under no moral obligation to believe it. A revelation
from a pure, perfect, and holy god must (if we assume a revelation necessary) come through a pure and holy channel: otherwise it would be contaminated and corrupted before it reached
us. If god could consent to communicate a revelation to the
human race through such a channel as the Jewish nation furnished, we don't see how he could escape a stigma upon his
character for stooping to such ignoble means. And would not
the act of familiarizing himself with such a people show that
he kept bad company, and furnish a bad example to us who
are enjoined to be 'perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect?'

by Bob Thoves

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Page 28

May, 1978

American

Atheist

Another writer (Dr. Burnet in his Archaeologia Philosophie) says of the Jews, 'They were of a gross and sluggish
nature, not qualified for the contemplation of natural things,
nor the perception of divine ones.' And consequently, Moses
provided nothing for them of an intellectual nature, and promised them nothing beyond this life - did not teach a future
state of existence.
Lactantius says, "They were never visited by the learned
men of other countries, because they were never famous for
literature." St. Cyril says, "Moses never attempted to philosophize with the Jews, because they were grossly ignorant, and
addicted to idolatry." Dr. Burnet further states, "They were
depraved in their manners and discipline, and almost bereaved
of humanity. If I may speak the truth, ... they were a vile
company of men - an assembly of slaves brought out of Egyptian prisons .... "
The Old Testament is principally a history of the Jews and
their god Jehovah, - a narrative of their trials, troubles, treachery, quarrels, and faithless dealings toward each other. No
other god ever had so much trouble with his people; and no
other nation ever showed so little respect for their god, or so
little disposition to obey him, or live up to his commands.
There appears to have been almost a natural antipathy between them; so that they were constantly repelling each other.
The relationship appears to have been a forced one, possessing
but a few of the adhesive ties of friendship.
Both parties were apparently happier when separated, as
they were several times, (during which) ... according to the
biblical history of the case, they got along as well, .. as when
their god was with them. Another circumstance which implies
that Jehovah cherished but little respect for his people, and
cared but little about them, is that they were literally broken
up while he was apparently with them. One portion of them
fell into the hands of Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, and the
other portion into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon; and they were never able to regain their political power
as a nation afterwards.
And, to cap the climax, 10 out of the 12 tribes were lost
entirely, thus leaving Jehovah almost childless, and destitute
of worshippers. And a search for them for several thousand
years has failed to bring them to light. This circumstance is entirely irreconcilable with the idea that the Jews were the special favorites of god. It proves, also, that Jehovah's promise
never to leave or forsake them was not adhered to (1 Sam. xii.
22).

Jehovah Vexed
And the language and conduct of the god of the Jews on
several occasions imply that, if he ever did make choice of
them as his pets, he was disappointed in them, and reperited of
the act. When he exclaimed, "I have nourished and brought up
children, and they have rebelled against me," (Isa. i.2) he virtually confesses he had been short-sighted, or that he had erred
in judgment in selecting the Jews as special favorites. Certainly
this is the language of vexation and disappointment, and want
of judgment or foresight.
We are told "he hated his own heritage" (Jer. xii. 8). Here
is evinced again a feeling of hatred, vexation and disappointment, that no sensible being should manifest, much less a god.
"He gathered unto him the children of Ammon andAmalek, and went and smote Israel" (Judg. iii. 13). Think of such a
being (an all-wise and benevolant god) getting into a squabble
with his own children, and having to invoke the aid of heathen
tribes to subdue them, and get him out of the difficulty. One
day he heads an army composed of his "peculiar people" to
fight the heathen, with the avowed determination to exterminate them, and "leave nothing alive that breathes." The
next day he gets out of patience with their stubbornness and
inequity; his fury gets up to fever heat; and he traitorously
abandons them, and joins those same enemies to fight them,
and reduce them to slavery.
Jehovah is represented as selling his people several times to
the neighboring heathen tribes, which again leads to the con-

Austin,

elusion that he was disappointed in them, tired of them, and

wished to get rid of them. He sold them once to Jaban, King
of Canaan (Judg. iv.2) and twice to the Philistines. The first
time he sold them to the Philistines, he told them he never
would deliver them again: but he seems either to have forgotten his promise, or forgot there is a moral obligation to stick
to the truth; for he delivered them again after that, if his own
biographer and his inspired writers tell the truth.
If we could assume there is any truth in the biblical history
of Jehovah, we should not wonder that the Jews preferred
worshipping a golden calf to paying their devotions to such a
god, and, on the other hand, it is not surprising that he should
manifest his displeasure toward them, and frequently steal
from them, and often confess grief, vexation, and regret for
having made choice of such an ignorant, rebellious sect of rambling nomads, who subsisted by war and plunder.
The character of the Jewish prophets, Kersey Graves finds,
was no better than the Jewish people generally, or the Jewish
god particularly. "The leading prophet Isaiah says, 'The priest
and the prophet have erred through strong drink. They are
swallowed up of wind. They are out of the way through strong
drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment' " (Isa.
xxiv.7).
Here is a sweeping charge against all the prophets - not one
of them excepted. If they err in vision (of course he means
spiritual vision), then what reliance can be placed in their prophecies, especially if it is true as he declares in Chap. ix., that
"the prophets teach lies?" This portraiture of their characters
is confirmed by Hosea, who says, in Chap. ix., that "the Lord
will punish the prophets for their sins and their inequities."
Micha says that they divined for money, and made the people
err.
What confidence, we ask, can be placed in men, either for
truthfulness or as moral teachers, who are thus represented by
their own historians and their own friends to be almost destitute of moral principle? Each one denounces all the others.
Zechariah, who was one of them, declared the Lord would
drive them all out of the land with the unclean spirits (Zech.
xiii. 2). We should not, however, be surprised to find them
possessing such a character when their god, Jehovah, is represented as being no better, and is on the same moral plane.
They, in fact make him responsible for all their moral derelictions and sinful acts by representing him as being the author or instigator. "If a prophet be deceived ... I the Lord
have deceived that prophet" (Ezek. xiv. 9). Jeremiah takes god
at his word when he exclaims, "Oh Lord, thou has deceived
me" (Jer.xx.7).
" ... Isaiah traveled through Egypt and Ethiopia three years
stark naked." (Isa. xx.3)
"Hosea claimed that god commanded him twice to go and
marry a whore." (Hos. i.2)
And, this morality infects not alone the prophets, and the
mass of the people, but even the heroes. Lot, for example,
"delivered up his two daughters to the Sodomites, to do to
them as is good in your eyes" (Gen. xix. 8), when the only interpretation of the act can be that the men involved were to
use the daughters sexually in any way, must excite ... the
highest degree revolting to the mind of every father who has
daughters.
.
In discouragement, Kersey Graves then asks, "How many of
these stories should we credit?" - and I am with Kersey
Graves. Rather thatn give this kind of character to the Jewish
people - best we dump the Bible. And, in later programs I will
go further into Kersey Graves' analysis of the characters of
Moses, Abraham and David.
This informational broadcast is brought to you as a public
service by the Society of Separationtsts, Inc., a non-profit,
non-political, tax exempt, educational organization dedicated
to the complete separation of state and church. This series of
American Atheist Radio programs is continued through listener generosity. The Society of Separationists, Inc. predicates
its philosophy on American Atheism. For more information,
or for a free copy of the script of this program, write to P.O.
Box 2117, Austin, Texas. That zip is 78768.

May, 1978

Texas

Page 29

ONOUK WAY
Ignatz sahula-dyeke
What Praying Won't Solve -- 2
All it takes is a bit of thinking about, and you'll perceive
that the life of every one of us would be immensely improved
and a lot more enjoyable if we could only answer how it all.
began. Nearly everything that is known and believed about the
beginnings of mankind's long history stands on statements of
two kinds. First, on inferences resulting from painstaking
scientific investigations substantiated by material evidence of
man's early life on our globe, and second, on specious allegations of which is woven the fabric of all the religions.
Although the evidence in the hands of science is very sparse
in view of the eras, periods, and epochs to whose immensity
it pertains, it nevertheless serves most importantly by enabling its dedicated and honest experts rationally to infer
that this or that more than probably had taken place, or indeed did, in bygone times.
And religion? Although the Christian believes the story
of man's creation as his god's truth, the lone incontrovertible
fact about it is one which the believer rarely if ever notes:
namely, that Genesis is a compound of theistically dogmatic
allegations forcing anyone searching for material evidence to
deem that biblical account as - at best - a thesis which sufficed in its time the mass intelligence, but presently is of no
consequence in the quest for answers to mankind's beginnings.
Which, now, of the above two agencies is best fit to help us
know what happened that enabled man and his race to populate the earth? For given reasons it is sufficiently evident that
science (geology, archeology, paleontology, biology, physiology and its other disciplines) has contributed immensely
more than has religion (Christianity or any other) by way of
attempts at clearing up for us this mind-boggling mystery.
We are avid here for understanding, the while impeded in it
by a more immediate puzzle: by our unknowing how much of
the puzzle's partial solution by science our fellow-creatures are
sufficiently open-minded enough to think about and to appreciate.

Paying For Promises

They certainly aren't much concerned over it, if their behavior is any indication. For example: Why is it that one and
the same man who wouldn't pay for a pig in a sack until he
saw it, readily pays religion for merely promising a heaven
which it can't describe, let alone produce?
We can't lightly dismiss the man's inconsistent behavior by
saying that he's a fool or is victimized by schizophrenia. It's
inescapable that self-preservation is nature's first law; therefore it must be that he thoughtlessly believes religion's tales
because they promise him what that first law prompts him to
crave, namely, continuing life: a status which religion dramatized by 'a combination of the words immortality and heaven.
So, what our man does is pay for religion's rigged-up promise
of a heaven of whose existence there's not a shred of evidence.
Were we humans not superstitious but rational and more
thoughtful than we pretend, we'd all accept birth and death
as perfectly natural phases of existence - as extremes between
which there exists for every one of us his span of life: a period
measurable in time during which we human creatures could
make our lives both pleasant and enjoyable; if, that is, we
faced its inescapable demands upon our complex entity and
were taught and learned to handle ourselves with a modicum
of common sense.
The handling calls for a bit of circumspection, for it is
during this time, between birth and demise that some of us

Page 30

May, 1978

are impelled by circumstances to go about our lives in one

way, and others in another. But, inasmuch as we are to at
least some extent free to handle ourselves as we desire, we are
to that same degree responsible for the consequences.
Here is where so many stumble, get disabled, and thenceforth slowly proceed on their way; and others, quickly recovering and richer for the experience, go forward more rapidly
and confidently on their journey to nirvana.
Only a century or two ago and in the times before, only the
cloistered and the rich had in their youth the opportunity
and the leisure to learn reading and writing, to study mankind's past, and elicit from the sages the lessons for guiding their ensuing life. Today, when the way to learning is open
to even the humblest of the people, it is no longer reasonable
for anyone to plead that he was denied the chance to rise
above the level upon which existed most of the people who
lived two, three, and more centuries ago.
In those days, when most of the people were enslaved, hungry and ragged, living and dying much like beasts of burden,
they comforted themselves with fantasies about the regal
splendors of the everlasting afterlife promised them by religion.
It was this that established religion in the minds of the poor
masses as a power that sympathized with their miseries,
though only nominally, for it only kept them from rebellion,
and as responsive to the whip as ever. All this, now almost
everywhere, belongs to the past. Certainly in the world's civilized lands of today the life of the humblest of men exceeds
the comforts that for the ancient slave existed only in dreams.
In short, all religions together with man's beliefs in their
promises and dogmas have outgrown their original purpose.
Those who believe and still relish the flavor of the mishmash
that religion dishes up today, as anciently, do so because they
thoughtlessly indulge the habits handed down to them when
children by their elders. In this particular way they behave as
of old did the serf and the slave.
Hence, nearly all of the indecision attendant upon the problem of freedom from religion, and about the controversy between theism and atheism, actual stems from our lack of the
answer to the conundrum of man's origins and appearance on
this old globe which is our home. As mentioned in the opening paragraph, there exists two ways of looking at it.
This old puzzle - constantly less and less mysterious due to
scientific diligence - will continue taunting us until science
finally solves it; religion never will. Judeo-Christianism, in its
bumptious way, offers to the unthinking a substitute answer:
one which starts out pretty much as do the answers of all the
other religions that had a try at it, most of them long before
Saul of Tarsus launched Christianism on the Mediterranean.
The human mind is a well-nigh miraculous mechanism,
serving an owner who is perverse and impatient when faced by
anything puzzling for which he can't easily find a solution or
the correct answer. He then devises one making him feel that
he is wise, accomplished, and the master of everything in
sight.
He feels extraordinarily superior and self-righteous once
persuaded that he holds the precious ticket of admission to
heaven. Now enthralled and suffused in fantasy, he imagines
the ticket will open the pearly gates for him. And the more he
thinks about it, the more he believes how absolutely correct
religion's answer is. Listen! "Of course it's right," he'll tell
you, "here it is, in the Bible, just like I said." And then follows
it up with a coup de grace about the millions of Christianists

American Atheist

who believe the same as he.

It is sad, because none of them perceive that they're victims of reo
ligious brainwashing, and that their beliefs only delay the benefits of
our finding out how it all really began. Considering the many millions
of religiously bigoted people now complicating the search, its successful ending could be more distant than here anticipated. But end it will;
didn't it - after all - have a beginning?
Our life is no mere dream, but real, and happy or sad depending on
how we conduct it. As passengers of the earth, we have through adaptation survived, and as a species presently flourish on it in temperate
climes as well as in polar cold and equatorial heat.
We are essentially good creatures as attests our perennial striving
for self-improvement, and this despite Christianity's allegations that
we are "sinfully evil" but "redeemable" by worshipping a god dubbed
perfect. Hence it is obvious that either the god bungled in creating us
evil, or religion's story of his perfection is a lie.
Just as obvious is that a bungling god and a lying religion deserve
nobody's trust. Those who worship such a god and believe such a religion fail to differentiate between theological lying and self-evident
factuality. Fear of religious threats outweighs the dictates of their
reason and common sense.
We respond to the stimuli of our environment, thus enjoying our
life to the extent of our capacity of understanding it. This understanding grows with every step taking us nearer to the revelation of our origin. Aware that a full revelation will end religion as now constituted,
the clergy has persuaded man to accept its garbled version of his creation by a god. He no longer accepts this, so for all we know he could
well find his own answer tomorrow or the next day, this initiating a
linkage of our earth with some unknown planet of yet another star
such as our sun.

m[k m@WD@W
The Psycho-Neurosis
Called Christianity
By JohnA. Gerber

John Gerber begins his book about the institutionalized

neurosis known as Christianity with an unnecessary apology:
he says "This work is meant to offend no one."
He need not have apologized for being factual. Christians
need to be offended about their absurd beliefs if that is what it
requires to have them get their heads out of the sands of time
and bring them into the 20th century.
Gerber attempts to explain in short, not-too-technical terms
that present-day Christians are products of the social, psychological and emotional conditioning of a 2,OOO-year-old superstition. Rather than the mighty Yahweh who was omnipotent
and omnipresent throughout the universe and the natural world
in the earlier days of Christianity, he persuasively reminds
Christians that their god is decidedly "omni-absent" in our own
day and age.
Still eager to treat the wounds he is about to inflict on his
Christian readers, Gerber goes on to describe the neurosis as resulting from man's egotistical need to possess certain significance which in turn completely distorts his image of himself an d
his universe. Man's defense against a cold, indifferent cosmos is
to create a decidedly earth-oriented god in his own image who
rules the universe yet is ever-ready to lend a divine ear to Christians whose insecurity requires personal service from a supreme
being.
The force that created the Creator is man's ultimate concern
for self: his ego will not permit him to be an infinitesimal part
of this universe, of nature or even of mankind. It requires an
almighty God who dwarfs the universe yet can fit neatly into
the vest pockets of the Elmer Gantrys who peddle deities to
satiate the paranoiac fears of the godists.
The Christian Bible, long used by adherents to defend the

Austin,

Texas

indefensible, is dismissed by the author as being a dogmatic,

rationalized collection of superstitious doctrine, ludicrously
quoted as an authoritative document. The roots of author
Gerber's philosophy are based on his extensive involvement
with the sciences, so as an aeronautical, computer, and nuclear
engineer his disdain for rationalizing to reinforce preconceived
notions surfaces as he calls this Christian hallmark "mental
masturbation. "
The supposed "humility" of Christians who accept the
god-superior, human inferior relationship of their religion is a
sham which Gerber likens to the degenerating nature of a
welfare society. If the superior (god, the state) fails to help the
inferior (welfare recipients, Christians) he will incur moral
blame for his failure. This leads to "emotional blackmail in
which the superior in reality becomes a bond slave to the inferior."
Worse yet, the priesthood becomes superior to god because
they, as his earthly representatives, define the will and word of
god to his two-legged sheep who are ever eager to have somone else to do their thinking for them.
Gerber's The Psycho-Neurosis Called Christianity is a closely argued work which reflects the neat mind of a scientist and
his devotion to detail that of an engineer. Of particular enjoyment is Chapter VII ("Passing Thoughts") in which the author
presents concise, 2-page essays which decipher the mystical
fallacies of topics ranging from "The Mind," to "Value System,"
to "God," and "Christ."
Despite its thorough debunking of Christianity, this book is
definitely an up-tempo work which has much to offer to
Atheists who seek clarification of the morass of absurdities religion would force on us all. (Reviewed by F. Duffy)

May, 1978

Page 31

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